Screeching Signal

The signal crept through the darkness, scratching its way through various frequencies, before suddenly screeching to life, nearly deafening its not-entirely-intended recipient. Teekay fell back from his chair in shock, only just managing to catch himself by grabbing on to the desk to his side.

“What happened? What was that?” Relkir was immediately on hand to make sure that Teekay was alright. He helped Teekay up and neatly tucked the smaller Guardian back into his seat. Clearly, everyone else had heard the screeching sound as well, but nowhere near as loudly as Teekay had.

With a shake of his head, Teekay turned to the rest of the room, where several other Guardians were waiting patiently for an answer. Lissandra had been absent-mindedly flicking through various maps and Tahvra had been monitoring the vacuum storms outside, while both Kayenus and Vulkunaax had their weapons drawn, on high alert. Screeching wasn’t that common on board the Kiniseon One, and even then, screeching normally came from the ship’s owner, a grumpy Life Goddess.

“Someone screaming for help, I think…” Teekay took a deep breath, trying to clear his head, taking out the pair of earphones he’d been wearing. The sound was still rattling around his brain. “Maybe a Life Goddess. I don’t know. Kinda… My head really hurts…”

“Do I need to-”

“No, I’m fine…” Teekay straightened himself out, then turned to Tahvra, who was already tapping away at his tiny keyboard. “I assume you’re trying to work out what that was?”

Tahvra nodded, still tapping wildly, but not directly answering. After a few moments, Tahvra pulled up a screen and pointed to it. “Life Goddess distress signal. Somewhat nearby. Not a standard one though. Like, a super ancient signal and frequency that no one actually uses any more.”

Everyone in the room eyed Tahvra suspiciously.

“You mean, like that Voidborn distress signal that was super ancient and we followed it and found nothing?” Lissandra hissed. “Because it totally sounds like that.”

“It basically is that…” Vulkunaax muttered. “But the question is, what if it IS genuine? After all, Life Goddesses are… kinda ancient.”

Tahvra typed some more, doing some quick research. “You’d be right but this signal isn’t as old as the Voidborn one. I mean, think about it, a universe lives for what, a trillion years? Lots of things change in a trillion years! And because of how space and time are odds with each other, it’s possible that we’re only just now seeing this! The biggest question though is whether we go and help or not!”

“Our job IS to help Life Goddesses,” Lissandra shrugged, with Vulkunaax reluctantly agreeing behind her. “After all, that’s the duty of a Divine Guardian.”

“Plus, it does fall under our rescue precepts…” Relkir added. “It is not just our job, we are programmed to help.”

“Assuming there’s actually something there!” Teekay tutted, rubbing his head. “Might just be another false alarm…” Teekay trailed off, finding himself staring blankly at the floor. “I think I need to lie down or something.”

Before Teekay could complain further, he found himself being scooped by by Relkir.

“I am taking Teekay to the med-bay. In the mean time, do the rest of you want me to call everyone else in here, so we can discuss this?”

Tahvra nodded, a little too excitedly. “Yes! Get the other Guardians in here! We need to work out a plan!”