Echoes of flames and metal grinding. Distant shouts and sirens blaring. The cries for help become muted by a deafening clang as blast doors bolted shut in front of Echo’s face. The young human reels in surprise at the sound as he falls back into a thick leather chair that is bolted to the floor. A gloved human hand presses its palm up against the other side of a smoky glass viewport set into the upper portion of the blast door. The hand slowly drops away from the thick plexiglass as if reluctant to leave, but eventually fades into the smoke filling the interior hallway of the space cruiser.

Sitting alone in an escape pod built to hold only one survivor, sits a young man in a full-body survival suit. His face is obscured by a black metal helmet that encases his entire head. The helmet is hermetically secured to the neck portion of the suit to provide a seal against the harsh elements of outer space. The mask portion covering Echo’s face is solid black metal plating with inner ceramic layers that wrap around the head and can protect against high-speed projectiles in space, such as comet debris and microscopic asteroids. Its functionality was designed for mining metal in harsh asteroid fields, but now it was no longer used for that purpose. Beaten and scratched, the survival suit looked brand new compared to the rustic black helmet. A deep silvery scratch was inlaid along the right side of the helmet, notably different from the surrounding wear and tear.

The black survival suit that Echo is wearing is simple in design, comfortable, and effectively functions as a vitality monitor. The survival suit resembles a scuba diver wet-suit. However, the interior is internally compressed with oxygen so that the user isn’t harmed when transitioning from a vacuum, such as outer space, to an interior that is pressurized or vice versa.

Echo’s dulled voice calls out from inside the black helmet, “Ari, there’s no more time! We must leave them behind... Like right fucking now! Split yourself into shards and let’s get the fuck out of here!”

Deep blue light hesitantly flickers on inside the helmet, growing steadily brighter as the flickers become faster in pace and finally stop. Bright beams of light cut through the darkness inside the escape pod and emanate from the two plexiglass viewports on the front mask, casting a dull blue hue on the inner walls of the pod wherever Echo looked.

Continuing with his desperate escape, Echo takes a few deep breaths before his gloved hands swiftly move to pull down the safety bars above his head. He yanks down hard on the bar that is attached to the seat behind him with large metal hinges. After a few awkward tugs, the safety bar loosens and starts moving downwards with a few metallic clicks as it locks into place against his chest.

As the safety bar comes down, its curvature comes up over his shoulders and across his chest to secure him tightly to the seat. Once the bars were secured, a pressurized hiss emanates from all around him as the pod fills with oxygen through small holes inlaid into the ceiling. Several clicks resound from outside as locking clamps disengage from the escape pod, and it freely drifts away from its former dock. The escape pod had officially begun its automatic escape routine the moment that Echo was safely locked into his seat.

While the escape pod floats away from the space cruiser, Echo tightly clenches onto the safety bars and his shoulders tense as he lifts his head to stare at the viewport. The pod was still close enough to the ship for him to see into the viewport on the blast door of the space cruiser. The hallway where the pod had been, glows orange with flames as the fire consumes the interior of the ship. He couldn’t see very well with his limited view, but he could certainly tell there was no one sticking around in that blazing inferno. Everyone else had either already escaped or were about to get out of there fast, just like him. This cruiser was going to go down in a massive fireball soon enough.

Echo continually tenses and relaxes his shoulders before firmly pressing his back into the chair. His hands still clenched tightly onto the safety bars as a high-pitched whining reverberates beneath his feet. The engine is beginning to warm up in preparation for takeoff. As the screech of the engine grows louder, a bright flash from the hallway of the cruiser bathes the interior of the pod in a golden light.

Massive shock waves from an unseen explosion slams into the small escape pod, sending it careening away from the dock. Violently spinning out of control, status lights and buttons begin to frantically flicker on and off inside of the pod. A robotic voice starts speaking in a neutral tone within Echo’s helmet, “WARNING: Trajection vector has been altered. Attempting course correction. Attempting stabilization. ERROR: Primary engines offline. WARNING: Secondary systems engaged.”

The inside of the pod goes dark as the pod’s backup systems are activated, and all non-essential systems are cut off. The unemotional, robotic voice returns, “WARNING: Gravitational anomaly detected. CLASSIFICATION: Class-M planetoid. COLLISION ALERT: Impact with planetoid is imminent. ALERT: Pod integrity compromised. Automatic rescue sequence initiated. AI activation protocol complete. Welcome to the Automatic Rescue Initiative. Hello, my name is Ari…”

Ari’s behavior changed from a neutral tone to one filled full of personality and worry, “Okay, I’ve split myself into several shards and sent the main shard to you. The ship is completely gone. Once the fire reached the reactor core, it detonated as I was getting out of there. I had barely enough time to escape, sir.”

Echo began screaming into his helmet, “Stabilize the pod already, Ari! I can’t... Hold on! Aggghhh!”

As the escape pod hurtled and tumbled in a fiery ball towards the planet’s surface, the g-forces yank Echo’s body back and forth in the safety harness. The helmet lets out a shriek as his vitals begin to spike. His arms flail wildly around the cabin in motion with the plummeting escape pod. Echo desperately tries to bring his arms back in to hold onto the safety bars, but he’s not strong enough to fight against the direction of gravity continually changing. The spinning pod only added to the difficulty as the blood rushed from his head. Echo’s vision began closing in and narrowing as the darkness crept in at the corners of his vision.

Ari returns with a grim tone, the worry in its voice increasing exponentially as it talked quickly, “Hang tight, Echo… I’m detecting an anomalous and hazardous environment on the planet’s surface and I must begin the emergency evacuation procedures, or we’ll burn up in the upper thermosphere. The outer heat shielding and the parachute took a hit from the cruiser detonating. We’ll have to ditch the pod, Echo. There’s no chance that we’ll make it otherwise. Give me a few moments while I recalculate the trajection for an atmospheric rebound subroutine. We’ll be firing the retro-boosters on full blast. I’m gonna give it all she’s got!”

Echo screamed even louder this time in desperation as his vision turned black, “Fucking hell! I don’t care what it is! Just do it already, dammit!”

Ari chimed in quickly, relaying information to Echo as the artificial intelligence worked on a solution, “The primary engines are back online! Since the parachute is damaged, I'm setting the retro-boosters to full power and slowing our descent now.”

The teardrop-shaped hunk of metal continued to violently whip around as a roar filled the interior of the pod. The pod began to aggressively shake under the force of the retro-boosters igniting. Slowing its rotation until it was upright and no longer spinning, the bottom of the pod was directed down towards the planet and began firing the boosters on full blast. Echo began to feel the blood return to his head. As his vision came back to him, the roar of the engine grew louder until it drowned out everything. It sounded as if Ari was still trying to speak to him, but Echo couldn’t hear Ari over the deafening sound of the escape pod engines.

The retro-boosters cut off without warning and Ari yelled out, “Echo, we have to ditch the pod immediately. We’re still in the upper thermosphere with over 100 kilometers of atmosphere to fall through, and we’re out of concentrated rocket fuel. Evacuation in 3… 2… 1…”

The blast door in front of Echo slams open with excessive force and the wind rushes in. Echo cried out in confusion, “Wait, what!? I wasn’t paying any attention! OH FUCK!!” The safety chair then rocketed out the escape pod door with a blast of pressurized air, pinning him to the seat.

Smashing into the thick current of air rushing past the pod, Echo slammed his eyes shut, expecting the worst to come next. Moments later, he felt motionless and the wind stopped. It was as if he was no longer falling. He no longer felt the snug comfort of his survival suit anymore. Opening his eyes, he was now looking into pure and empty darkness. Reaching up to his head, Echo attempted to pull off the helmet, expecting the viewports to be blocked or shaded. But when he reached for his helmet, he felt nothing there. He felt as if he was moving his hand, but he couldn’t actually feel his arm moving. He couldn’t even feel his own fingertips brush across his cheek. It was as if he had been cut off from all sensations, but he instinctively knew where all his limbs were in the dark space.

Echo muttered to himself, “Wh-Where am I? Why can’t I see?”

A disembodied omnipresent voice of a woman surrounds Echo, “You cannot see because you are blind to the future. Where you are is irrelevant as in your current state of mind, you could never comprehend this existence.”

Echo yelled out as he imagined himself turning in circles to berate whoever brought him here, “No... Where I am is extremely relevant! What the hell did you do to me!? Who are you!!?”

The voice returns, “I didn’t do this to hurt you. Please relax and listen for a moment. What I have just shown you is your future. You are bound to this destiny. The chains of fate bind you to this future. It can never be changed. What happens next must be done by you alone. Her crystal soul will soon pass on to you. Her crystal soul cannot fall into the wrong hands or our portion of the universe will be wrought with never-ending war.”

Echo called out in confusion, “What the hell is a crystal soul?”

The omnipresent voice did not return with an answer, but a prophetic spell,

“You can try to run from destiny.

Fate will always find you.

Have faith in your path.

Let your dreams guide you.

Take what you desire.

Tear them asunder with ire.

Break the chains of fate that bind you

and shape your future with ice and fire.”

Echo’s vision filled with a devastating bright light that blinded him. The deep black space became pure white and painful, and Echo felt as if his head was going to split open from the pain. A searing headache soared across his brain as the light slowly faded back into darkness.

---------------

Echo abruptly wakes in his desk chair and immediately recoils in surprise as he smacked the back of his head on a desk lamp. The lamp clatters over the edge of the desk, onto the floor, and the fluorescent bulb shatters. With moonlight streaming in through a window on one wall, there was still enough light to see in the dim bedroom, even without a lamp. Rubbing the short black hair on the back of his head, the young man groaned as he looked down at the book he was using as his pillow. A smudge of ink and drool covered the center of one page.

“Ah, dammit. Dad’s going to be pissed that I ruined his physics book.”

Rubbing his drooping eyelids with the back of his hands, Echo stands up from the comfortable chair. Walking over to a corner of the small bedroom, being cautious to not step on the fragmented glass, he grabs a broom that was sitting neatly inside of his closet. Grabbing a small garbage bin and placing it on its side, he sweeps the shattered bulb into the trash.

As Echo is cleaning up the mess, the bedroom door behind him opens. A woman’s voice carries through the crack of the open doorway, “Is everything alright in there, Echo? I heard glass breaking”. The heavy wooden door opens fully to reveal Andrea. A tall woman with raven black hair. Her soft hand nervously gripped the door tightly, and her eyes shone through the dark room with a piercing icy blue hue.

Echo turned to meet his mother’s glare with his own purple gaze. Echo’s deep purple eyes met his mother’s, and he sleepily smiled at her. Rubbing his fingers through the top of his short black hair, he tried giving a good excuse but gave in almost instantly. “I was up late studying the old physics book that dad had given me. I had a really messed up dream and I managed to smack my head on the lamp when I woke up.”

Andrea peers over Echo’s shoulder to find the broken lamp on the floor, but no glass. Looking at the broom in Echo's hands she asks him, “Did you already clean it up?”

“Of course,” answers Echo.

“Alright,” replies Andrea, “You really should go lie down. It’s still the middle of the night, and the two of you are going into town first thing in the morning. Apparently, Uncle Felix is expected to meet with you and Vikta bright and early for the next shipment. Goodnight, sweetie.”

“Goodnight, mom,” Echo smiles at her as he lays the broom against his desk and picks up the trashcan, placing it next to the desk as well.

Andrea turns to step away from the bedroom door but is faced by the broad shoulders of a shadowed man she had not noticed there before. The woman gives a small yelp and chuckles, “You really need to stop sneaking up on me like that Vikta.”

A deep hearty laugh emanates from the chest of the large man. The man holds up a device in his left hand and presses a button on it with his right. The glow of an electric lantern fills the hallway and the bedroom. The light reveals a man with an athletic build. His thick dark brown beard covers his grin almost entirely. His hair is spiked up into an utterly unkempt mess. A severe case of bedhead. The white light from the electric lantern shines brightly upon Vikta’s amber eyes. “I hope everything’s alright Andrea. I heard the commotion and scrambled out of bed”.

Andrea answers, “Yeah, Echo just knocked over a lamp. He's already cleaned it up. I’ll be in bed, dear”. Andrea places a hand on Vikta’s shoulder as she politely pushes past him, kisses him on the cheek, and quietly walks down the hallway towards their bedroom.

Vikta watches Andrea walk down the hallway before turning his head to talk to Echo, “You had best get some rest, son. Uncle Felix is expecting…”

“Mom just told me. What’s going on dad?” Echo eyes Vikta inquisitively.

Vikta sighs in response, “We apparently have more work to do with the storm sensors giving us bad news. Just before I went to bed last night, the sensors were reading a mass of clouds heading right for us. It’ll be here by tomorrow night and last well past the end of the harvest. It’s a bad idea to prep a shipment launch on the eve of such a shit storm, but we must make our quota, son. We need to wake up early if we’re going to make it into town to meet Felix and be back in time to get everything prepped for the storm.”

Vikta grabs the door handle and slowly begins to shut the door. Just before the door closes, Vikta softly utters, “Goodnight, kiddo.”

Footsteps reverberate across the floor of the hallway as Vikta returns to bed. With tired eyes, Echo finally picks up the desk lamp from the wooden floor and places it neatly on his desk. Once again looking down at the pages of the physics book, he finds the page wholly untouched and void of any ink stains. With a confused expression, Echo dismisses the disappearing ink smudge, closes the book, and clambers up into his bed. Becoming comfortably at ease between the covers of his bedsheets, Echo once again drifts off to sleep.