Was it the heat or the unusual abundance of sunlight coming through the window that awoke Ayane? Maybe it was the chirping of birds by the window, the waves crashing at the nearby beach, cars, and movement in a disorganized manner bustling around the small village, the smell of fresh bread and food invading from somewhere close by, and the laughter echoing from the hallway… whatever it was, none of those were familiar things to her.
Neither was the fabric of the linen nor the scents in the air of… flowers? She couldn’t recognize it well. The bedroom was large, full of yellow colors, with a small mirror on top of a cupboard. Nearby was a box, one of the few that didn’t fall on the water last night. She looked through it to find something to wear, but the only clothes in there were her usual white dress with blue ribbon.
Opening the box was a tall order, her body hurt from last night’s events.
Why have I brought this? She thought to herself. It’ll be great for the weather at least...
She dressed up, taking longer than usual as nothing was in the place it used to… in reality, nothing was anywhere, everything was missing. She passed her finger along her hair, wondering.
Should I… she thought before her train of thought was destroyed by laughs coming from outside her door followed by three knocks.
Ayane took a small satchel and wrapped it around the blue lace surrounding her waist. At least the seeds are alright, but how will I continue my studies without the flower? What will I do at the Tower?
When she opened the door, Kaidan and Dylan stood behind it surrounded by a bunch of kids filling the hallway, a beautiful place, full of open windows covered by white curtains blowing in the wind. They were both wearing different sets of clothes that made them seem like locals, Polynesians. The clothing was still similar to more modern clothing and less than what she read in files about the local culture, but they were still lightweight, with bright colors, and open at the chest and arms. All over Dylan’s body were the bruises from when he was sent across the window. The barrier can protect one only so much. Those bruises reminded her of her own, from when she grabbed the little boy and ducked under the boat ceiling as it was ripped apart...
“We almost died last night, and you guys are playing with kids?” Ayane protested.
“I mean," Kaidan started, “ they are the ones following us, and I’m not complaining, look at the little things!” The kids started to talk in an unrecognizable language, the sounds were no more than noise to her.
“Alright team, time for retreat, we have to locate a missing soldier," Dylan said pointing away before leaving, the kids followed him suit even though they probably didn’t understand a single word.
“Thomas?” She asked. “He seemed bummed out last night.”
“He didn’t even come to eat,” Kaidan told her. “But he’ll come around when he starts to feel hungry. Speaking of which, are you hungry? Uroa's wife made a great breakfast!”
“You've all been awake for hours, haven’t you?” She mentioned in shame.
“We are all soldiers, It’s due for the course.”
“I see. I was the one with all the time in the world,” resentment spilled through her sentence.
“Don’t be stupid, everyone had a role to play, and you played your through to the end,” Kaidan said cheerfully. “Now, go do your braids, and let’s eat something. Uroa is preparing the car to take us to the Tower.”
She passed the fingers through her hair. It didn’t last more than a second, but she saw him, her husband, Lance, standing on the farms, gathering seeds.
He spoke to her, “It’s ok, I understand. Those seeds you see, they can be our children then,” and suddenly she was back in the hallway.
“Let’s go now," she followed. “It takes quite some time to make them, and I don’t want to keep you guys waiting.”
–—-
Scorching, burning, heating, melting. She never felt that way before, ill, almost falling, and the air was hard to breathe. But it was also so beautiful and unique. Outside the orphanage, she found an overwhelming amount of green, yellow, white, and red. From the beaches on the horizon with pure white sand washed by almost green waters, to the houses, cars, the green mountains towering over the island, or people's clothing filled with floral patterns made of a fabric so light they waved with the ocean’s breeze, the world was vibrant.
Everything was abundant, she thought.
The sky during the day was blue, but the dust settled on orbit or the upper layers of the atmosphere added a constant, brown stain to it, not enough to darken it in any way, it just looked slightly dirty at certain points. She understood that, during the day, the dust particles would be ionized by the sun, and during the night, this would create an electrical current as they try to readjust themselves.
“Hey, miss, how are y’ doing?'' Uroa popped from inside a yellow jeep. “Did you have a good night?'' He was carrying a toolbox. “You passed out last night, I got worried, miss," he followed while opening the car’s cover.
“I’m well rested now, thank you," she said. “Your wife’s food was great. I hope I can meet her soon.”
“Oh, y’all had breakfast already?” Uroa mentioned as he tinkered with the car’s engine. “I’m almost done here, so we can get to the Tower as soon as possible.” He removed a bunch of filters and started to clean it, removing the dust with care, from inside a little canister made of steel.
“Thank you Uroa but…” Ayane turned towards Kaidan. “Listen, Kay, without the flower there is no point going there.”
“I figured," he replied. “We can go today just to see it at least. I called Rutgers early this morning and requested a new one… after explaining what happened last night. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy about losing all the armament and the flower, but he’ll send us another one tomorrow after we confirm the status of that creature.”
“Oh, we can ask Unalu about that,” intervened Uroa. After collecting the dust from the filters and the canister, he put both back inside the car’s engine. “The cap helped Anton move it around.”
“Oh yeah, the captain boy!" Kaidan exclaimed.
“Yeah, he is in the garage with the older kids,” Uroa said, pointing at a big warehouse inside the car in front of the driver’s seat. He then turned the keys and the engines started to run. “Maururu!”, he said looking at the sky.Uroa leaped out of the car, “Common, let’s go in the warehouse so we can get moving.” And so, they followed.
–—-
It was the first time Ayane saw an Exocore in front of her. The machine was in pieces, parts of it hanging on holds, cables all around, tables full of screws and tools, the floor… was something to behold. Still, she could make out the silhouette of a man, the base form for most Exocores. Some of it was rusted and a lot of pieces had dust, not the fluorescent one, but normal dust, always as intrusive as its new counterpart. Not to mention the feeling of salt from the ocean proximity, clinging to each joint of the giant robot.
The older kids, ranging from 8 to 12 years old were all around it, most of them taller and bigger than what the age would suggest. They were moving parts and pieces all around, tools were being thrown around in a messy, gloomy atmosphere that contrasted with the energy of the workers. Kaidan was entranced by the thing, he looked like a little boy getting a toy. She approached the object, which was 3 times her size. The cockpit was open, and she could see the driver’s seat, completely torn apart and full of tears.
“Cool, is it?” Unalu said, picking up metal sheets from the floor, “Kids putting effort to fix it.” He struggled to formulate the sentences. He waved to Uroa and proceeded to talk in their language.
I wish I could understand them.
“Ho, the big snake from nighttime?” Unalu spoke, turning to face Kaidan and Ayane. “Huh, Mr. Anton had a- little ball thing–with light, and the snake followed to his big black boat thing.”
“I’m sorry. Followed him where? Through the town?” Kaidan asked, skeptical.
“Nah, the boat thing he uses is-- in the port,” Unalu elaborated.
“Well, he was doing something to it under the water last night…” Kaidan said, with a faint voice, talking to himself.
“Got be going all,” Unalu interrupted. “I need to fix my boat,” he said, picking up more metal sheets from the floor. “See you another-- time.”
As he walked out, Dylan walked in. “So, I found my brother and- What in the world IS THIS!?” He screamed as he noticed the Exocore standing there, incomplete yet, menacing. He ran towards the cockpit and started to analyze everything, his hands teasing the shapes and textures. “Digital displays... so it has to be aM-790 to M-820…” he told himself out loud.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“It’s an M-810," Uroa quickly added, “yo’ see the open arms over there on the floor? Yo’ can see the whole grip infrastructure.”
“Wow, I didn’t know you knew so much about mechs," said Dylan.“No offense, it’s just that the town and place are so, you know, rustic.”
“Don’ worry about it," Uroa laughed away. “We aren't experts on robots, but we found this one lying around, and we are all fans of Eric Monroe.”
“Eric who?” Dylan questioned. “I don’t recall the name.”
“Really? He protected our island during the war for the Tower blue...prints? Yeah, that’s the word. He is like a farmer turned hero, the kids love it when I read his books.”
“Hero huh?” Kaidan replied. “Would you mind if I read it later? My son loves this kind of stuff.”
“Uroa?” A sweet voice coming from the workshop entrance entered the room. A woman stood at the door, the light of the sun outside intensified her silhouettes and Ayane couldn’t help but notice she was pregnant… very pregnant.
“Oh, our visitors!” She said with excitement as she entered the room. “Hope y’all enjoyed the breakfast. I–” She abruptly began to hold her belly, and for an instant, she seemed to lose some balance. Uroa rushed to her side. They started to talk to one another, still in a different language, but somehow, Ayane thought she could understand it just by the look in their eyes, his hands holding her, and their voices, flowing at a slow tempo.
She was dragged back in time, she had a man by her side as she looked outside the window towards a metallic city surrounded by a glass dome. Everything happening outside the window was rhythmic, precise, and mechanical. Well, except for the trees growing on the distant farms. The way each branch grew was unique, and unlike the daily movements of the people, she couldn’t foresee how the trees would look in a couple of days or months. The man was talking to her, his voice was gentle, and she felt warmth towards him, but somehow, she couldn’t quite remember what he told her, except for one thing “I don’t want you to believe it’s your fault.” And as fast as she remembered it, the faster she was back in the present.
“This might be a problem," Uroa said. “The doctor might not return in time," he said, looking at the group.
“Sorry," said the woman, “my fault for not wanting to leave the kids behind. Our doctors left the town to tend to another island, we don’t have many of them around.”
“Doc for the baby?” Kaidan queried. “Ayane is a Minsho Priestess, so, you know, she can deliver babies and stuff. She helped my wife deliver my baby boy!” He proudly followed.
“A Minsho priestess?” Said the woman with shining eyes. “Where are your usual clothes? The dress has flowers but where is the ribbon? The braided hair?”
“But Kay…” said Ayane, imposingly.
“I think it all got wet yesterday,” Kaidan spoke to the woman, ignoring Ayane’s imposition. “If the doc doesn’t arrive, she might do the trick.”
How can he be so insensitive? Yeah, I delivered the boy, but Elaine, she… she died there, in front of me, under my care…
Thomas stormed into the room. “Can we depart to the freakin’ Tower already?” He said, controlling every inch of a rage that was ready to burst.
“But brother, you haven’t eaten a single thing yet,” Dylan commented. Food wasn’t the only thing he was neglecting, Ayane noticed his clothes were still dirty from last night. Unlike the other two, he was still wearing the uniform.
“Oh, wasn’t it for your liking?” Uroa’s wife pondered. “I can ask the kids to visit the farms–”
“I want this to be done and to leave this place–” but before he could finish the sentence, Kaidan approached him. His presence was different, he towered over Thomas even though the height difference was marginal.
“I’ll not allow you to disrespect our hosts. No matter how fast we do things here, our next destination is another Tower in another country, not Elysium-3. You won’t go back until the mission is done.”
“Why bring me when–Argh! I–I–I’ll go make a proper inventory of what we have left. You all can get to the Tower.” Thomas stormed out just as fast as he came in, vanishing into the blinding sunlight.
“I’m sorry for that,” Kaidan apologized to Uroa's wife.
“It’s alright,” she replied as the kids Ayane met in the morning, the ones with Dylan, stormed into the place.
“Well, I think we wasted far too much time here,” Uroa mentioned. “Let’s jump in the car and do… the stuff y’ came here to do.”
Ayane approached Uroa’s wife. “I think it would be better if you rest… huh…”
“Lina. Humm mm–Sorry, I forgot my manners”
“No, you didn’t, giving us food and a place to stay in such conditions, I can’t blame you. If you feel anything, let Uroa know and I’ll help you as we wait for the doctor, alright?”
“Thank you! You’re just like in the stories of the priestesses,” Lina said with a smile, her eyes shining as if she was seeing a saint in front of her.
All embellished then, Ayne thought, her mind drifting to the past and her days inside Elysium-3 and her position, a curse upon all who lived through it.
–—
The bumpy road towards the Tower revealed a reality hidden from the coast. The greenery of the trees soon intertwined with husks of pale, leafless trees, while the remains of what once was a larger town, now a mess of rusted structures and roads leading to nowhere, completely corroded from the extensive contact with the dust and the lack of steel to protect it.
Craters and the extensive amount of destroyed Exocores lying around told a story of the many battles the place had witnessed.
Still, Ayane was in awe of the view. The paintings for most buildings were still intact, most ranged from bright yellow to pure, flammable red. Vines and flowers grew over them, puddles of water formed inside the craters, shining with a pure blue hue, some were so large one could swim in them. And the orange rust, entangled around the plants and colors, creating a palette of visuals she never thought it could exist.
Around the place, some teenagers with a couple of adults scraped pieces out of the Exocores or from the building's structures. "This was the place where the hero guy you mentioned fought?” Kaidan asked.
“Yes,” Uroa replied proudly. “Everyone wanted the Tower’s blueprints, so many nations fought here. He came to protect our people.”
“Being the first in something isn’t easy,” Kaidan followed.
The first Tower is here… and we're trying something new too.
The jeep then came to a sudden stop. “Sorry everyone, I just need to take care of something,” said Uroa. He grabbed a spray bottle, and a flashlight and left the car, walking towards two wooden structures, poles waiting near a bombed house. Ayane decided to follow him outside, curious to know what they were.
As she approached, she noticed each totem was different. While the one to the right had the usual features she once read in files, faces painted from bottom to top, the other totem had multiple names written on it. While different colors seemed to separate different names as none would go over the line created by the color change, each name was written in multiple directions, trying to fit it all into a single section. At the top, three colored sections remained untouched.
“What is this?” She asked, watching Uroa spraying water all over the totem.
“A countdown,” he answered, taking out of his pocket a small metal sheet, most likely made out of iron.
“I’m sorry?” She replied in confusion, noticing how he carefully used the metal sheet to clean the surface of the wood. Uroa turned the flashlight on, and as most flashlights used nowadays, they emanated a hue of cyan. Instead of replying, he carefully used the light over the pole, finding the sections where a dark blue to magenta stain would show up, spraying it with some water, and then removing it with the metal sheet.
He moved back inside the car, and changed the spray bottle for a different one, while also replacing the metal sheet with a simple cloth before returning to them. "How can I explain this? This name over here,” he said, pointing at a name close to the top section of the pole, “it's my father’s.” He sprayed the second spray bottle, wiping the surface right after with the cloth. “I’ve never met him, but the people that did told me the orphanage was built by our family for people like me, would-be orphans at a younger age, so we can have a place to grow and learn.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” mentioned Dylan, “but where are all the adults? I mean, you know…”.
“You mean, people over 25 or something? You see, here, the Threshold age is 20.”
Suddenly, Ayane realized what he meant, after all, she knew why they chose this Tower in the first place. Her mind spiraled into some notes:
> As the genetic material is changed, the body becomes weak, and eventually, it reaches a Threshold on how much it can handle the particle, killing the host. The altered DNA is passed to the offspring, creating a weaker structure, reducing the Threshold, and therefore, reducing the lifespan of the following generation.
She recalled the notations from her husband, he had such nice handwriting.
“I hope whatever you’re all doing can help us,” Uroa sighed. “The amount of dust here is too dense for the Tower to clean, we were the one hit by the second largest chunk of that meteor’s debris. Thankfully, unlike Australia, we managed to survive but…” He let a second sigh escape as his hands teased the place where his father’s name was sculpted on the wood. “I won’t see my son’s first birthday, you know. Lina will see his second… and then the older kids will have to teach him everything else. These… names written here, it's a method to record us, say that we were here, and show others the people that lived even if they never met.” He took a deep breath. “At least the orphanage became a means to keep people learning how to live, talk, and all that kind o' stuff.”
“My husband was the one that chose this island as the test location for our project,” Ayane said with a soothing tone. “For one thing, it allows us to test for extreme conditions where, unlike Australia, life can still prosper, the same reason why in the past they decided to build the first Tower here.” She approached him, laying her hand on his shoulder. “The countdown you speak of, it's of your people’s culture isn’t it? Soon, as this totem grows and more names are added, no one’ll be left to pass what you all did onwards.”
“Yes,” replied Uroa, “this totem is a reminder that the only thing we truly have in abundance here is little time.”
As the jeep continued its way up the hills of the place, the farms became more visible. As expected, they were enclosed inside steel buildings, with some type of open lid structure for the sunlight to reach during the day, and close during the night, not different from the glass dome from Elysium-3. The people around the place were spraying water on the steel section of the structure, aiming to remove the dust that clung to it during the nighttime.
We had nothing but little time… the water creature, this place…
His words cut Ayane’s heart deeply. She understood the notion of not having enough time. Her husband died by reaching his Threshold, and now, she and Kaidan were in the last year of their lives. Time was against them. “Kay,” Ayane began, “we need to figure out a way to learn about that creature from yesterday. The dust can’t go underwater, but if it’s doing it now, this place isn’t the only place lacking time.”