[Stay/EWD] About the story

The Stay

The humanity thrives, colonization of habitable planets beyond the solar system has just began. After so many futile attempts to contact the alien life, the mankind has finally accepted that it's only quiet solitude surrounding them, therefore expeditions to unknown parts of the universe flourished. An exploratory one-man crew ship is sent on a mission to inspect a certain sector for more habitable planets. Evalotte Dam is an experienced pilot and has been credited for discovering a fair amount of planets with good conditions for life. One day, however, when scouting in a faraway zone, her ship is suddenly struck down by an unknown source of force and urgently escapes through a survival vessel, landing onto an unfamiliar planet. Its conditions seem unsuitable at first but after the weather changes, it starts to resemble the pleasant environment of Earth, but lifeless. Nevertheless, the signal with the HQ is barely lost and as if that wasn't bad enough, she's soon welcomed by an unwanted visitor. An extraterrestrial lifeform, the one responsible for crashing and nearly killing her. An aggressive alien species that conquers and destroys other species in order to exterminate errors of life and preserve their pure race while they slowly expand and take over the universe. Ambushed by the creature whilst exploring the planet's region, Evalotte has to defend herself in the unfair fight and manages to flee back the way her crashed pod was. She attempts to contact the command one more time in sheer panic, luckily, they pick up, but only static is heard. Evalotte is desperate and lost, perhaps it would be for the best for her to just die but because of her fiery nature, she decides it's about time she stops whining and gives surviving a try. Thus she purposely comes up with a plan to hunt that filthy alien down, afterall, living on a distant planet all by herself isn't that bad. Once they encounter each other again, our human heroine is fully armed and does not hesitate in shooting the unsuspecting creature down. Normally, someone as high tech wouldn't even get a scratch but somehow, shield didn't serve its purpose and Evalotte claims her victory! Or so she thought, the alien didn't die, of course. She merely knocked the thing out. She hasn't realized that though and proceeds to drag the body with her for further examination and as a proof that alien life truly exists if she ever gets back on Earth. That quickly changes as the body wakes up and Evalotte knocks the alien out one more time as it scared her. She decides to lock the alien up in one of the rooms and monitors it. When it wakes up again after some time being comatosed, the two make contact through the camera. The alien is obviously frustrated upon noticing that all the equipment is gone and being imprisoned by such primitive species that humans are. Evalotte is worried at first but she quickly finds it humorous and starts teasing it. Days go by and the angered prisoner calms down as its human companion tries to interact not only through a monitor but they meet eyes to eyes. It's hard to understand each other, but the alien is a quick learner and soon they're able to communicate in english, she also finds out that it's a He. His appearance is quite unnerving the entire time ever since they've met for the first time, so Atronth (that's his name) puts on a human form. Blonde, pristine aquatic eyes- something definitely much more pleasant to look at. They become closer and closer, they get to know each other more and Atronth apologizes for having the intent to kill her. He's actually a high ranked officer of his race, hunting down low life is his job. They spend a good time together on the planet, but, they both know that it's not going to last forever. Atronth's subordinates are coming to pick him up from the planet as he's crashed as well, they'll kill Evalotte together with Atronth if he doesn't do the killing first. He gives her a chance to escape after he helps her build a new tiny ship, but he keeps one secret he hasn't told her yet. At the end of the story, there's just not enough time for Evalotte to save herself and the aliens are coming to get her. When they arrive, Atronth is forced to execute her, but before he can do that- he tells her the secret. Planet Earth has been completely destroyed ever since she's crashed and couldn't contact the HQ. That's the reason for them not picking up, there simply wasn't any planet Earth anymore, she's the last of all. After a long moment of silence and something Evalotte muttered under her breath, Atronth ends her life and so the entire human race is eradicated.

The Stay: Ends with Departure

At the end of the first part, Evalotte was supposed to be executed by Atronth himself as his fleet of subordinates arrived to pick him up after he and Evalotte crashed onto an uninhabited planet. Atronth couldn't bring himself to do so because he developed a strong bond towards her and felt genuinely bemused by such emotion, being a captain of such prestigious class, he decided he would spare Evalotte and in fact, play the reason of why by saying that he wants to examine and analyze this weakly lowlife as she was the only human left (or so they thought). His alien comrades didn't agree with him at frist, but they had to obey the command, thus Atronth successfully saved Evalotte, took her aboard the ship and put her into a cryosleep. She was already narcotized when he promised he wouldn't let anyone hurt her, no matter what, he swore to protect her with his own life. Doubts started to form around the great captain of the fleet, this was an unusual behaviour for him, known for his rich history of dominations and eradications of many life forms. Atronth slaughtered his way through with a blood trail that marked his pristine devotion and sense for duty towards his superiors and his glorious race. He still would mercilessly slay anything and anyone in his way, except for Evalotte. She became so precious to him, but his pride came in the second. So much to sacrifice for a mere human. His actions were rash and unpremeditated. When his fleet arrived back to their home planet to report the success of destroying the Earth, he also had to explain why he brought a filthy human species with him. He humbly asked the leader above him to let him keep Evalotte as a subject, as something his wishes to inspect out of curiousity "because we're just so predominant, I wonder what it has to offer", Atronth plead. However, speculations and distrust led his subordinates to inform Atronth's master first about his possible falsehood and shift. Such insolent behaviour and treason against the empire wouldn't be tolerated. Atronth had to break the truth in a self defence over army of his own kind. Being quite a skilled specimen, he holded the attack down until he managed to escape together with Evalotte. Wandering the mess, experiencing close and dangerous encounters with the garda of his hierarchical world, scenes and certain events that influenced Evalotte's hair. She had to cut it at some point of the story. Atronth also gave her the same space suit uniform so she could mask easily with its useful conveniences. Fighting side by side in order to leave the planet and break free to live somewhere alone, hunted down like animals, powered by an information Evalotte obtained throughout the long journey with her alien companion. She wasn't the last human. There is more to her kind, some people were still alive-- colonies on the other planets. Her goal was to find them before it was too late, with the help of Atronth's acquaintances who joined in, there was still a chance to fight back.