Page 53 of My Big Scaly Alien Naga
“It’s empty,” I said.“Because I was empty.I built this persona – the cold hacker naga who didn’t care who got hurt, as long as the credits came in.That’s what they needed.That’s who they feared.And so, that’s who I became.”
She walked over to the desk, picked up a small chip between her fingers.“Did it work?”
“Yes,” I said quietly.“But I lost pieces of myself in the process.Or I thought I did.Until I met you.”
She looked at me and her expression softened.“You never were this person with me.You can let go of him now.Those days are over.”
“I don’t want this place to be what it was,” I told her.“I want to transform it.With you.Turn these corridors into homes.These surveillance rooms into gardens.Make it a place of healing.The IA have offered us to take control of the station.Turn it into a sanctuary for everyone hurt by the Trials.”
Her voice was soft.“You think we can?”
“I think,” I said, stepping toward her, “that we have already started.One room at a time.”
Clare looked around again – the sterile corners, the blinking consoles, the dusty silence.
Then she smiled.
“Let’s do it.Let’s make this place ours.”
Her smile was infectious.With her, I could do this.I didn’t want to live in this cabin ever again, but I could imagine making a home somewhere else on the station.Somewhere with a bigger bed.
Clare wandered to the far side of the room and brushed her fingers over one of the dark panels.“Did you ever think you’d come back here?That you’d survive?”
“No,” I admitted.“There were many cycles when I didn’t expect to make it to the next.But I always had something to hold on to.”
She turned to me, curiosity flickering in her eyes.“Your mission?”
“Not just that.”I hesitated.Then crossed to the desk and reached for a small, recessed panel near the base of the terminal.
A flick of my tail tip revealed a hidden port.My tail was the key to it.Nobody else could access it.The screen hummed to life with a soft blue glow.
Clare stepped beside me as lines of code scrolled across the screen, then dissolved, revealing an image I hadn’t looked at in far too long.
It was a photograph: grainy, natural light, taken in the lush valleys of Serpenthyra.
My family.
My father coiled proudly at the centre, scales a deep obsidian blue.My mother beside him, her hood flared in laughter, silver-green patterns swirling across her skin.Behind them, my twin brothers – taller than me, broader, competitive as hell – and my sister, youngest of us all, her tail looped protectively around a nest of glowing moss.
Clare leaned in.“They’re beautiful.”
“They’re my clan,” I said softly.“My family.And now… you are too.”
She looked at me, her expression unreadable for a beat.Then she smiled – small, fierce, and utterly sincere.
“Thank you for showing me,” she said.“I want to know everything about them.About you.About the naga you were before this mission.”
I rested my forehead lightly against hers, breathing her in.
“I will tell you everything,” I whispered.“And one day, once we have erased all the sadness of Kalumbu and replaced it with something better, I will take you to Serpenthyra to meet them.”
Our communicator bands flashed and vibrated at the same time.
>>Meet in the command centre.V.<<
“He needs to start writing his full name,” Clare laughed.“Vruhag and Venom, it’s going to get confusing.”
I grinned at her.“I was here first.And I am the only V for you.”
