“Cearo! Cearo I see you! Run! You can make it.” The vines are ripping at her heels. She is just in front of me. Running to the nonexistent door way reaching out to me. I stretch forward. Her fingertips brush mine. I smile and try to grasp her hand. I know I have her! The vines around her legs yank her down. They drag her backwards. I lunge forward. “No Cearo! No no no no. I- I can’t lose you. Cearo!...” my voice breaks. I can hear her crashing through the leaves that cover the ground. A force slams me back as I try to follow her. I smack into the wall I wake up to the door slamming shut behind me. I struggle to my feet. I can tell I have been out a while and immediately know that something in the Masch is broken. The thick smell of burnt semi-organic technology wafts through the air.
I check out the control board, all of the lights that are normally on it are out and none of the buttons work. I can help but think that I am screwed – Cearo says that means in trobal on earth - I smack the control board “No no I have to get back there.” I kick the side of the machine. “Take me back there! Cearo… I almost had her” I blink away the threatning tears. I need cold logic right now but I cant focous. It is my fault I should have taken her home earlier.I scramble to my tool box. I grab the screwdriver and hammer. “Ok ok I can fix this. I don’t know what went wrong and how we ended up there. That was not the Celadon Hanging gardens orbiting Cinquefoil 5b….” I unscrew the polarized subdermatoglyphic generator. It is broken. I broke it. Broken. Ok. Everything will be fine the Masch goes into automatic cruse when things like this happen.
Something smacks into the Masch, and slams into the ground. I stumble out while smoke billows around me. I look around as I hack out my lungs. All of my hearts seem to be working and all of my limbs are still intact. I hear a teratogen pistol go off near me. I fall to the ground as fast as Kalspinly possible. I nearly panic. The only society in the universe – in the time period I am in –that has those weapons Sesquipedalian. Another pistol goes off near me. I scramble back as the beam sizzles on the ground just in front of my feet. I try to get back to the Masch. Then it phases out of existence because it is in auto protection mode… of course. I hear someone yelling in Sesquipean so I duck and hope they don’t see me. In general the Sesquipedalian are not friendly but they hate the Kalspinions. They blame us for the great famine that spread through their empire, just because we would not allow them to harvest our planets endangered species. Anyway this was clearly a high scale invasion force. They would ether kill me or enslave me if I was caught. “Ok ok what do I have with me…. A small hammer… a screwdriver, some matches, a piece of candy…. sand from Seyvillete so absolutely nothing useful. I guess I could throw sand at them and hit them with a hammer but that would do nothing with all the armor they wear…” One spots me. “Or I could run” I sprint off.
The sesquipedalian starts firing. I am going to get away, ok plan from there. After I get away I need to signal the Masch then fly away. I start to notice that wherever I am looks super familiar. Suddenly the world around me explodes. I must have triggered a pytrodeposition mine. I slam into the ground and go still. I have no idea if I broke anything but breathing is getting difficult. I try to move but pain through my body. I strangle a scream in my throat and collapse back down. I close my eyes the Masch has a homing device installed in case of detrimental injury to the pilot. I just have to concentrate on calling the Masch to phase in around me. The ground shakes as the Sesquipedalian regiment stomping toward me killing everything in sight. I silently called out to the Masch begging it to come. The world begin to fade. I saw a friendly face just as I passed out.
“shh… go back to sleep you are really hurt. You need rest”
I flutter in and out of consciousness. I dream of my child hood home. The blue and silver grass lands. The black and gold of the forestis. I dream of the endless summer nights spent on the coast of the forestis watching the suns rise turning the golden leaves into fire rippling across the horizon. When I wake up everything hurts so much. It feels like I am dying. I am dying. One of my hearts has stopped and another is close behind. I open my eyes anyway.
“You sure are lucky that we are so xenodochial here.” A woman bustles around a tiny room. I manage to groan. “It’s a good thing I found you or you would be dead. As it is you are in pretty rough condition don’t try to move.” She snaps as I struggle to get up.
“I need to get to the Masch” I choke out.
She looks at me like I am crazy. “A Masch? You did not have one when I found you.” I blink in surprise. She knows what a Masch is. I can understand her. The communication chips only work when the Masch is in full working order. I gasp. I manage to climb to my feet and see out the low window. There it is the Capitol glimmering in the distance. Silver and blue grass blowing in the harsh wind. The singing tower is silent, smoke billows from the council buildings.
“I know it was so beautiful. Now it is in ruins. Everyone is fugitives. The elder council members are gathering the military. We are going to war. Aliedinii is going to war. Of course you already had that figured out didn’t you…” I choke out a sob and slide down the wall. My third heart flutters. I had to get out of here. I swore I would never come back. The memories surface.
I was 16 when the civil war broke out. Everyone over 15 was enlisted to fight. I was forced to drop put pf my formal training in temprospacial dynamics analytics, basically how time travel works, I was placed near his child hood home. When the uprising hired Mydar mercenaries the fighting got ugly, shortly after the front lines reached my home town. My mother was home. I couldn’t save her. Reilia my best friend. I failed her. My little brother. The twins. Everyone.
My third heart sputters. It feels like my heart is being stomped on. It stops. I know that I can survive roughly seventy three minutes with only two hearts function. Less than an hour. I have to get out of here.
The woman is still talking. “….This is the biggest war in Aliedinii’s history and we haven’t even begin to fight it yet. The ….” I block her out. I call the Masch. I can feel it getting closer this time. I am so dizzy. My second heart is weakening. I concentrate harder. The Masch has a stasis zone you actually can’t die inside of it, the infirmary is the only place in the ship where death is possible… and that’s exactly where I need to go.
I feel a slight shift in the air around me. I open my eyes. When had I shut them? The air shift is getting stronger. The smell of ozone wafts in on an invisible breeze. Walls materialize around me. “Activate critical injury protocol, also get out of sector 32.482b don’t care where just leave.”
Aliedinii has been invaded, and I am running away…...
ns 15.158.61.48da2
