Kyle Reese - Turning Around

[Reese]

He was violently woken by something that felt like an earthquake. Kyle jumped up from his chair, hitting the ceiling with his head on the exact same spot as before, resulting in an even louder curse. The entire ship was shaking like the asteroid was going to fall apart. When he looked out the window, his heart skipped a beat. He was being shot at! Blue projectiles barraged right past his ship. One hit, and it would be over. The gunfire came from a patrol, circling around his asteroid in attack formation… Only now did Kyle notice the incoming hails on the radio.

“Royal Navy Patrol Vert-deux to unknown miner, respond or you will be destroyed. This is your 3rd and final warning”

The voice was a soft and gentle woman’s voice with a heavy accent Kyle never heard before. The usual sharp tones of human speech sounded round and warm instead. It made her sound determined yet mild, but there was no doubt she meant what she said. Her voice strongly reminded him of someone…. Of her….

“Time’s up, light him up guys!”

Distracted by memories, he completely forgot the voice on the radio just threatened to kill him. He instantly activated the radio and responded to the hails.

“No, wait! I’m here! Don’t kill me! I’m… I was… I…”

The fighters were mere seconds away from opening fire, but they broke off their attack maneuver and got back into formation on what seemed to be the patrol leader.

“Took you long enough. Identify yourself!”

She said noticeably annoyed, but still with the same soft and gentle voice.

“Kyle Reese, IMG Miner, ID number 1026713 Sir… eh… Ma’am!”

A short silence followed… Kyle’s heart was still racing, he wasn’t sure if these were his last few seconds alive or if he just escaped from a shortcut to the afterlife. His life flashed past, mostly memories of her, painful memories of her.

“Miner, get out of here right now. Don’t try to hide next time and certainly don’t ignore our hails. Au revoir monsieur.”

Kyle immediately powered up his systems and entered the nav point for Java station in his navigation computer and took off.