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We have been sailing for more than a month. Food and fuel were running out, and there was no strength left. Due to the lack of staff, one person had to serve 4-5 posts. Fortunately, Sha Zumm and May-e-oka did not need the same amount of rest as other team members. But it didn't save much. I was in charge of the steering control station and navigation instruments. I had to sleep for 4 hours a day and this regime turned me into a neurotic just in a month. I became short-tempered and careless. I made mistakes with navigation, in which I didn't understand much anyway, but I still remembered the lessons of Master Thiel, who beat us on the hands with a pointer if we built the route incorrectly. Orientation took place mainly by the luminaries, and for this it was necessary to surface. And yes, once I’ve dropped the sextant into the sea, which made me wish it back.
We passed the Strait of Hope somewhere in the middle of the month, and now we were moving along the small island ridge of Rumala Kitala. These rocks sticking out of the ocean were a refuge only for sea birds circling in black clouds over the sea, but allowed me to better navigate the maps.
Unexpected changes have occurred with Sha Zoom. The cold and calculating Cyborg in the hands of Richitina turned into a melancholic and thoughtful one. She was constantly upgrading him so he changed not only his character but also form. That enabled him to float in the sea and be able to fix the boat form the outside but still we didn’t have time to properly fix the damage he himself imposed on the ship.
“Yes, he did not hope, to be honest, that we would find something,” he said once when I remembered Master Eleanor.
“What do you mean?” I tore my sleepy gaze from the map.
“Our whole expedition is a dummy,” said Sha Zumm and moved to check the pressure in the pipes.
To say that it did not inspire faith in success is to say nothing. After these words of his, I completely lost sleep, and while plotting the route, my head now became heavy, my chest was squeezed and I wanted to cry. But I didn't dare to show my feelings. Something in my head switched, and now all my irritation began to pour out into a determination to finish the job. Even if it was just a show-off, but deep down I understood that if I did not maintain this attitude, our ship would finally fall apart in the literal sense of the word.
"You're doing great," May-e-oka told me when we were sitting on the edge of the ship during the next surfacing.
I mumbled sleepily in response.
“That you don't give up.”
“Yes?”
“You've grown up somehow this month. It's not as easy to fool you as it was the first time we met.”
“Thank you, probably...”
“You began to remind me of something that my original felt.”
“Maybe stop comparing yourself with your original, you are what you are. And that's the beauty of it.”
“I have no other option, because there is no person.”
"But you had your life. Your experience.”
“I was edited and recreated. They attached horns and let out to hunt you. My whole life in a nutshell.”
“Why couldn't you just leave?”
“For the same reason that I can't leave now. My program. I serve the one who called me.”
"If I could snatch my freedom, so can you.”
The girl gave me a long, attentive look.
“Land!” shouted the sailor Figs deck above.
We looked back to where his hand was pointing, and indeed on the horizon, on the opposite side from the ridge of Rumala Kitala, the outlines of the island appeared. Taking out the telescope I found in Captain Flute's cabin, I held my breath and stared at a piece of land. Only it wasn't a piece of land. The island was metal.
“Looks like we found what we were looking for.”
At full speed, we headed for the sparkling dream of rest. I felt how the mood of all the participants of the expedition immediately changed. And only Sha Zumm reacted indifferently to the news, while the caring Richitina sorted out the bearings in his back. By that time, she had sorted him out entirely, building him a large rounded body that resembled herself.
"She fixed something in his head also," muttered Baraman, who was passing by with a bucket, slipped on the water spilled from it and hissed, "they'll spill their oil, and Baraman has to clean.”
Richitina glared at the furry creature and growled. But I didn't deal with them, and went to my cabin to change.
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The island turned out to be as described by Master Eleanor. Most likely, the remains of the ship of the Outs, which fell from the sky into the ocean, on aground or a rock sticking out of it, and then one of the islands of the Ops archipelago was erected by the survivors. Since they inherited the military structure of our distant ancestors, the orders on the islands even now had to remain strict and archaic. But when we got closer, no one met us. Moreover, the piers seemed abandoned. There was garbage everywhere, and the wind blew it into the ocean, onto huge garbage shallows that blocked access to the pier.
“What are we going to do?” Lieutenant Lipovaska asked.
“I don't know, Shae” I replied, “do we have an inflatable boat?”
“There was a whole rescue kit, but it remained in the compartment, which was flooded by the actions of Commander Zumm.”
I grimaced in a bitter smile.
“Swim?” May-e-oka asked.
“In this?” the lieutenant asked in a trembling voice, looking overboard at the even layer of debris in the water.
“In this,” I nodded, “Maybe there are at least life jackets?”
"I'll go look for it," Lipovaska nodded.
"I don't like all this," the girl frowned.
“Just now?” I was surprised.
“What?”
“Are you just now beginning to dislike all this?”
“No, it’s just something similar to what my original remembered. That's why I said it.”
"You have your life," I muttered and followed the lieutenant.
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They’ve found a life jacket, but only one, and they gave it to me. Baraman refused to swim, but after he saw that I was going to jump into the water, he agreed to be transported on my back. May-e-oka sailed first, clearing the blockage. And pretty soon I got to my feet in front of the pier, which turned out to be filled with junk almost to the surface of the water. Lieutenant Lipovaska and sailor Fig went with us. The rest either refused, or could not quit servicing the ship, including Sha Zumm who’d finally had a chance to fix the ship’s side.
The rusty ladder barely withstood our ascent and we found ourselves on the pier. In front of us towered a huge metal structure, as rusty and unkempt as the ladder. The windows in it gaped with emptiness, and it rose up several floors, like a multi-layered pie. The structure surrounded the island with an impregnable wall and the same berths as ours stretched in both directions. Opposite our pier, a wide staircase went into the depths, and we moved forward.
Behind the wall were narrow streets and dirty houses built of anything. It was obvious that they had been on their last legs for a very long time, but now their final breath was coming. It wasn’t clear where their residents were. The further we went into the city, the more decent and taller the buildings became. But they weren’t also experiencing their best days.
Heart-rending screams could be heard in the distance.
"I'd better go," the lieutenant shook his head and started back. But Baraman jumped and blocked his way.
“You will go with the Savior.”
Looking into the empty eye sockets of the creature, the lieutenant shook his head again and turned forward.
Eventually, some noise was heard behind the houses ahead, and it even became possible to distinguish voices in the standard dialect of Outs. We came out from behind the house and saw people crowding on the covered square. A formidable woman was standing on the dais.
“Who's for quartering? In the left corridor," she shouted and waved for some reason to the right of herself, "Get on the stakes faster, don't be shy!” she turned behind her back.
With horror, I saw people climbing on metal pins behind her back. Screams of terror rang out.
“Do not focus on the rescued!” The woman tried to shout over the dying, “Don't crowd into the torture chamber, disperse, make way for the cleansed!”
A group of people with black bandages on their arms began to pull dead bodies through the square to a big stockpile on the right.
“Oh, moons, what a horror," the lieutenant stammered.
"There's something like collective insanity going on here," May-e-oka shook her head.
“Hey you!” the woman shouted, “I say you!” and her finger stared right at us, “Don't stand in the middle of the square, you are interfering with the removal of the saved, also more rain coming soon.”
“Have you heard?” the sailor Figs gave his voice and gave Baraman a slap on the back of the head, “Here salvation is put on stream. And the Savior is with us. Some kind of bullshit.”
Baraman growled and tried to bite the sailor.
"Let's get out of here before we're really invited," I said.
We moved along the square to the next street, which also ended with a similar square and the same platform, where there was also a queue of emaciated people.
“Mom, don't!” A furry girl shouted, holding the hand of an equally furry woman who was heading towards the dais. Both were terribly thin and dirty. The woman fell exhausted to the ground, the girl ran up and hugged her.
"Don't, daughter, look, there are caretakers nearby," the woman said, looking up at us, "I'm sorry, we're all ready, forgive my daughter. Savaya, go, get out of here quickly.”
The girl looked fearfully at us, at her mother, and hugged her even tighter.
“Excuse me, madam, but we are visitors, and we would like to understand what is going on here?” Shae said.
With disbelief, the woman looked into the lieutenant's eyes. Two dirty people with black bandages on their hands moved towards us from the crowd.
“Mom!” Savaya shouted.
The woman was picked up by the arms, the girl was pulled away and thrown into the dust.
“I'm sorry for the hitch.” one of the men nodded, and they dragged the screaming mother into the house with the inscription “Purgatory”. I started to follow them, but Fig stopped me, pointing to a good dozen of the same strong people standing around the platform.
“If you, Master Bike, do not want us all to be cleansed, I advise you to wait with rash actions.”
“Daughter! Take Savaya away!” The woman shouted and disappeared into the darkness of the house.
But I already wished the woman and the girl to be behind our backs, and put the people who dragged her in line to the platform.
"Take us to a secluded place," I said without turning around.
The woman didn't understand much about what had happened, but her daughter quickly figured it out and moved into the alley to our left. We turned around and followed them. Several times during the journey, the worm absorbed the deceased from one or another type of torture. Their energy bodies were as weak as their physical bodies. I felt my wishing powers, almost exhausted during the rescue of the ship, being replenished, but with each absorption, my soul darkened. And with each absorption, I felt someone else's presence, as if I’ve been watched.
Our guides led us for a long time through the dirty streets, and then turned into a dark large barrack. Savaya dragged her mother to the back of the room, which turned out to be filled with... children. Someone was ordinary, and someone was as furry as Savaya. There were at least a hundred of them, and when we appeared, they huddled in the far corner of the barracks.
“These are not caretakers,” said the woman, addressing the children, and then turned to us, “My name is Colitar. Who are you?”
"You could have thanked us for saving your skin," Fig snapped, but I stepped on his foot with my heel, and he grimaced in pain.
“We're from the Trade Federation," Lieutenant Lipovaska said.
“From where?” the woman's exhausted eyes looked at us with incomprehension.
“Are you the only adult here?” I asked.
"Yes," Kolitar nodded, "the others are gone…”
“For cleansing?” Fig grinned and looked at me warily.
The woman nodded.
“And what kind of purification is this, and why is everyone so willing to go for it?”
“We have been guilty before the gods. The God of the sea has stopped giving fish, the God of the sky has stopped giving pure rain. The God of the earth..." the woman burst into tears, "But most importantly, the God of water has stopped purifying sea water.”
“Of course it stopped giving fish, did you see how you fucked up everything around the island ...” Fig began, but stopped when he caught my eye.
“Do you have drinking water?” Savaya asked and swallowed.
I reached for the flask on my belt, but then I saw the eyes of the other children. Their frightened white eyes on grimy faces looked at me with such hope that I was unable to refuse. Turning to the worm, I remembered the taste of water and filled imaginary flasks with it. And they immediately appeared in large numbers in the opposite corner of the barracks.
“What kind of technology do you have, Master Bike,” the sailor sounded frightened and surprised, “since you can move people in space and create objects out of thin air?”
I said nothing and nodded to the children. A couple of the bravest of them crawled to the flasks.
"It doesn't look like technology,” Fig frowned.
“Chatter!" the lieutenant said in a trembling voice.
At this time, all the children, and even Kolitar and Savaya rushed to drink.
“What chatter… It's all demonic abilities. I only know about one creature that can subdue the minds of others," the sailor almost shouted and ran away from the barracks.
“Well, what have you done?” May-e-oka turned to me.
“I…”
“Do you want to be a savior? Save." she said and rushed after the Fig.
“Food ...” children's voices rang out, “create food…”
I looked with horror at the exhausted children.
“I... I don't know how,” I shook my head, “it turns out badly...”
“We'll eat, we'll eat everything,” children's voices begged.
I painfully tried to remember a dish that I easily cooked at school, but nothing except overcooked scrambled eggs came to mind. And then I remembered how I once kneaded kropnya porridge on duty at the shelter and imagined just such a vat, and in it large hard flakes mixed with a healthy spoon in hot water. A steaming cauldron appeared in front of me, the children rushed to it and began to eat, burning their hands while scooping porridge.
“Miracles,” said the lieutenant, “who are you, Master Bike?”
“Savior,” Baraman said proudly.
I turned to the shaggy creature.
“Are you from here?”
Baraman nodded and smiled.
"The Savior has come to do what was promised," smiled my blind companion.
“Why didn't you say anything?”
“The Savior himself should have wanted to help us. It was impossible to force the Savior.”
“What happened here?”
“Baraman doesn't know. Baraman lost his sight and saw the way of the Savior a long time ago. Baraman only knew where to meet him. Baraman doesn't know what happened to Saint Sophtia. He lived here decades ago. And everything was fine. All the factories were working, the purified water flowed in rivers. Grief came without Baraman.”
"At least we know the name of this place," Lipovaska smiled uncertainly.
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Many children had overeaten and were now lying around with sick stomachs, but still well-fed and satisfied throughout the barracks.
“The scoundrel left,” said May-e-oka, who returned, “I warned Sha Zumm, but I think he didn't care, only Richitina heeded my speeches and occupied Fig’s friends on maintenance duty on the ship, so he won’t slip by her.”
"Did you come here by ship?" Kolitar was surprised, “Take us away from here! At least take the children.”
“The ship won't be able to take everyone on board,” the lieutenant interjected, “especially since there won't be enough food...” he continued, but stopped.
“You can create more, right?” The woman looked at me pleadingly.
“I...”
“The Savior will return the island to us,” Baraman said confidently, “there is no need to save anyone.”
"Tell me how your Gods stopped giving you food," I asked.
“One day the black moon rose from the ocean. It was going up into the sky for a long time, along with it came a black rain," Kolitar began, "from it the fish in the vicinity of the island became inedible. The fishermen went further and further into the sea, but we continued to poison ourselves. The soil that we’ve been buying from merchants stopped yielding crops after the rains. And our equipment stopped working, broke down and so we found ourselves without food and water. The caretakers locked themselves in the citadel, and the Cult of Purity began to rule life on the island. The cult accused people of disobeying the gods, which is why they turned away from us. And they declared that only through torment, we will be able to earn salvation and return prosperity to St. Sophtia. Since that time… Well, where, where to go when food and water run out?!” she asked us with tears in her eyes.
I looked at May-e-oka, who was looking at me either with expectation or with condemnation. Turning to Kolitar, I asked:
"Can you take us to the citadel?”
She thought for a while and then nodded.
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