The eleventh cart of the train has lights that line the ceiling occasionally peering through the semi clear gooey like substance of the Krutsummus slime. There’s puddles of liquid that had begun to build in different parts of the floor from the blood of the horde, to the slime, to the acid of the recently deceased Acarine. It’s cold in the cart but not from the temperature but from the near escape from death that those that are still standing had just survived. Everyone stares at the captain as he continues to march confidently to the group with every step he takes.
Kyro breaks the silence as he arrives: “What can I say, you’re either with me, or you’re not breathing, or something like that.”
A few of the creatures scoff at what the captain says, others look around for any Krutsummus that need to be finished off. Only Razzo is left in awe of what the captain did.
“How did you manage to do that?” - Razzo asks in shock.
“Easy, these electrical cables span almost 5000 meters, which might actually be longer than the train” - says the captain nonchalantly.
“If it’s so easy what took your ass so long to get here, or to throw your cables down the train earlier…” - grumbles Jata without looking at the captain while examining a dead body
“Well you see the thing is I can’t see five kilometers ahead of me, and if I just randomly threw it down the train and hit one of you guys you would have been pissed. Plus it’s important to make a good entrance…” Kyro looks around at the group where half of them are still in shock: “Clearly it happened to be a good entrance!”
Razzo still confused: “How did you know when to come?”
“By listening to what the train told me and the vibrations in the ground. I had a sort of sixth sense tell me that I am needed” - says Kyro with an air of mystery about it.
Everyone is sort of skeptical of Kyro’s heightened sense of intuition, meanwhile Kyro is waiting to see how many of them bite on the story. Not too long after this Dre comes running over from the front of the train. The robot doesn’t waste a moment evaluating the situation of the group and doing a quick head count in its head. Dre turns its head to Kyro.
Dre smiles: “Great you made it in time to help them out!”
“What do you mean, the train told him to come” - says Razzo dumbfoundedly.
“Unless my new name is train there’s no way the train told him to come. I told him to go help you guys after Razzo brought Dengrad over to me with the other Froklin survivor”.
Kyro rolls his eyes: “Well you ruined my whole bit, they were buying it for a moment there”.
Screep telepaths to everyone: “Nobody was buying your joke except for Razzo, but honestly he might not be all there…”
The rest of the creatures take a break or look around. Kreeg waddles over and rests near her deceased sister not able to bring herself to terms with what just happened. Through the body language of the being one could tell that a sad melancholy had swept over her. Jata roots herself next to the Acarine to console her in her despondent state.
Kyro claps his hands together: “How about a little less depression and a lot more positivity? I still haven’t heard anyone say thank you!”
“Wait, there's other survivors on the train?” - Fauwk asks Dre while ignoring Kyro.
Dre nods its head: “Yeah we found a Froklin in one of the containers, she barely survived with the last group they sent, I’m not sure if there are any more survivors though”.
Fauwk telepaths to Dre: “Someone needs to be with her, I’ll go”.
Dre stops Fauwk before he leaves: “It’s okay, Dengrad is with her right now, and I’ll go back soon. Just wanted to make sure that everyone’s okay”.
Razzo gives Dre two thumbs up with a pile of Krutsummus bodies around him, nobody else says anything still processing the situation they were in. Dre turns back towards the front of the train and leaves the group to rejoin Dengrad in the earlier section.
Razzo asks Kyro: “What’s going on with the train, I see we got the lights on and that part of the train is working but it doesn’t quite feel like we’re going anywhere or is that like part of the whole experience?”
“So you’re absolutely right we're stuck right here until we can get a large enough energy source to jump start the starter cell which should allow the rest of the engine to function”.
This leaves everyone to think about ideas and ways to get the train up and running and get started before another unfortunate battle could start up. Most of the beings don’t really know how the gravity train functions and what the first step to starting up a train like this would even be. After itching his head for a bit Chorion has a solution dawn upon him and eagerly lets everyone know.
Chorion bellows with a smile: “That sounds like something I can do with this cannon!”
Kyro shakes his head: “Yeah that’s a sure way to not leave here and have more Krutsummus come here and finish us off, especially if this traitor over here tries to find a way to break free. What’s its name by the way?”
Kreeg says in a sad tone: “No one knows but what are you proposing captain?”
Kyro shrugs: “I don’t know, I can’t imagine where we can find a large enough power source to get this engine going… We would probably need my ship”.
Ostikous says in his native tongue: “Do you have contact with the ship?”
Kyro confusedly states: “Huh was that directed to me?”
Razzo translates quickly: “Do you have any way to contact any of the Automatons working on the ship?”
Kyro shakes his head slowly and stares at the wall of roots from the Zenvas, trying to come up with a quick way to get them moving and get the train going. Most of the creatures take the time to sit down and relax while they can before another surprising battle can begin.
Feefee walks over to Razzo and nudges him: “Hey I know that what you were doing during the battle required a lot of energy. Simply put I don’t think even the most trained humans could hold those energy rings and battle for so long without passing out from exhaustion”.
Razzo shrugs: “What are you getting at Feefee?”
He casually says: “Well maybe you could get the train started, because whatever you are is not human, at least not fully human”.
The Wokwok starts to trot away thinking he was simply shooting the shit with the human and teasing him a bit to lighten up the mood. While he’s still within ear shot he gets a surprising response.
“I guess it’s worth a shot, aren’t you smart though? Maybe there’s another way to do it without me using my energy”.
The Wokwok quickly does a 180 and comes back to the human looking up at him.
The Wokwok shoots him a confused look: “Don’t you want to get out of here alive? Because if you have some death wish, figure that out on your own time, not with everyone else’s lives in the balance. I’m not explaining to Kreeg that her sister died for naught because she will try to eat me”.
“Okay okay I get what you mean I’ll do it. I’ll explain to you afterwards why I’m so hesitant to try something like this”.
The Wokwok gives a gritty smile: “Okay that’s more like it! I’ll go with you to help you out with where to put your energy! Buuuuuut also if you die someone should probably be there to come back to tell the others. You know the courteous thing to do.”
“Thanks for the reassurance what a class act you are”. - grumbles Razzo
The two of them begin to leave the group together towards the beginning of the train.
Kyro calls out after them: “Hey where you guys going!?”
Feefee squeals: “To do something you couldn’t!”
Kyro adds: “Well what makes you think you two can do it if Chorion's cannon won’t be enough?”
Razzo yells: “Don’t worry about that, we’re just going to try!”
Kyro says frustratedly: “Fine whatever, just tie up the Krutsummus before you leave, who knows if I’ll need both of my electric coils or not”.
Razzo quickly goes over and ties the Krutsummus in tight energy binds so the being doesn’t escape. The Krutsummus in response lets out a toxic belch in Razzo’s face that makes him lose his sense of smell for a brief moment from how powerful it is.
The being whispers in a hiss: “You filth will never win…”
Razzo finishes binding the being and replies: “Speak for yourself nasty coward”.
The Krutsummus snarls hissingly: “We shall see!”
After that brief exchange Razzo and Feefee begin to head back to the front of the train. The two of them continue along and Razzo begins to wonder how he’s going to be able to power the train just by himself and the toll that it can take on the star that’s keeping him alive in him. They walk together in silence wondering about different things. Feefee looks over at him occasionally trying to comprehend what kind of being he is to be able to contain so much energy.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Feefee breaks the silence: “Hey I wanted to say sorry about hitting you before that was a little bit rude of me”.
Razzo laughs: “Just a little bit? For someone so smart we have different ideas of a little bit”.
“Well you deserved it at the time, you were making fun of my stature!” - replies Feefee.
The human chuckles: “Yeah you’re right about that I did deserve it at the time. Let’s call it even and from here on out no going at each other?”
Feefee smiles: “Sounds good to me!”
Razzo bends down and shakes the little gnome's hand as they continue to slowly make their way down the train.
Razzo asks Feefee: “How did you know about the whole energy thing, because only Dre really knows about that. If Dre told you I’m going to take that Automatons arm away!”
Feefee grins awkwardly: “Umm it’s okay you don’t have to take Dre’s arm away the robot didn’t tell me about your energy, I sort of figured it out on my own when I saw you a few times during the battle”.
Razzo stops for a moment to think about whether or not he saw Feefee at any point throughout the battle and when he would have had the opportunity to pay attention to him in battle with everything going on. Feefee in turn looks back at Razzo and stares at him as the human tries to put the puzzle together in his head.
“Don’t worry Razzo I wasn’t paying that much attention to you and I was in the battle helping out as well. I’m also not stupid and having those rings constantly working and taking damage would of drained ten people let alone one!” - says Feefee convincingly
Razzo doubles down: “But what makes you think that, like how do you know?”
“Well I’m not really all that smart but Wokwoks together are smart”.
“What does that even mean?”
“Well you see, each Wokwok possesses two brains, there’s the individual brain that contains all of my thoughts, emotions, and my personal experiences throughout life. Then there’s a second brain of my species that’s called our collective brain. This brain connects all the Wokwok’s together through an archive-like system of knowledge throughout the whole species. It allows me to access the knowledge to any living or dead Wokwok that has ever existed and contributed to the knowledge connection. Even if I right now can transfer knowledge over to the second brain, it would simply take me a long time. That’s why we Wokwok’s typically do it at the end of our lives or in the middle of our lives, or when we have made a profound discovery”. - elaborates Feefee.
Razzo takes a moment to process the new information that Feefee told him, wondering how a species of beings is able to hold so much knowledge and information without being overwhelmed by it. As well as what other information they may have and maybe they would be able to help with so many different things, like stopping the Minerau back on Earth or stopping the Krutsummus, or even helping Izabela. Razzo’s mind then goes on to think about Izabela and how she’s doing whether she’s better or worse. A moment in time passes while this is happening with the two of them standing around and not moving and Feefee beginning to worry about Razzo trying to process the information. Especially given that he might not be all there mentally.
Feefee asks: “Are you okay?”
Razzo shakes off his head from being in a state of daydreaming and asks: “How come it takes a while for you to add information, and is the information not overwhelming when you have access to so much?”
Feefee answers: “Well it takes a while because I have to pass it on to every single Wokwok that exists and the process can take a while for 20 billion or so beings. As for the overwhelming part this is true it can be overwhelming especially when you are young. So for much of our childhoods we spend time mastering the art of interchanging between the individual brain and the species brain to not be overwhelmed but to be effective and use it as a tool and a weapon”.
Razzo mutters: “That’s interesting, I wish humans could have that.”
The Wokwok laughs: “No you don’t, from the knowledge we have on humans is that if you had these capabilities it would bring far too much chaos into the universe and it could end poorly or greatly. It is simply too much of a variable that can swing the balance of the universe either way”.
“Yeah but it still would have been cool to have”.
Feefee reassures Razzo: “For sure for sure it would have, by the way can you put me on your shoulders I’m getting tired and you’ll walk faster when you don’t have to wait for me”.
Razzo nods and picks up the Wokwok and puts him upon his shoulders with one leg on each one, like a dad carrying his little kid that’s gotten tired of walking. They walk together a few more sections until they get to the sixth section where Dre is hiding inside the supplies container with the two injured Froklins. Razzo and Feefee peek their heads into the container to see how it’s going.
Dengrad telepaths to Razzo: “I am so glad to see you my friend, since you’re here I’m guessing we won and secured the train?”
Razzo raises a finger: “Well actually no that is not the case, we cleared about a fifth of the train and we don’t know what’s the condition of the rest of the train…”
Dengrad asks telepathically: “So then why are you here?”
Razzo smiles: “To make sure you’re okay!”
Dre waves off Razzo: “You can come back and see your friend when we’ve gotten back to the Forklins, for now just get the train out of here”.
Feefee bops the top of Razzo’s head a bit: “Come on Dre’s right we have to get this train out of here the more time we spend stuck here the greater our chances of survival dwindle”.
They end up quickly leaving the container and continuing forward to the beginning of the train. By the fourth section Feefee brings up a question that has been on his mind ever since the end of the battle.
Feefee asks: “So how do you have all this energy inside you?”
Razzo begins explaining the story of how he worked at a star factory that was extracting energy from a star to power the various things, and how the star wanted to be freed and became part of him. How he woke up in an apocalyptic landscape of the Earth in the middle of a Minerau invasion.
Feefee frowns after hearing the story: “I don’t think any star has a consciousness to want to be freed. I’m surprised you were able to survive that and inherit its energy. Is that why you were so hesitant when it came to powering the train?”
“Well it did talk to me and I felt bad that it was trapped so I freed it. What can I say? And yeah I’m worried about it, I don’t know how much energy it will require. Once I run out of the star's energy I will die with it”. - continues explaining Razzo.
Feefee thinks about it: “Well not to worry, you won’t be powering the whole train, you will simply be providing it with a boost to get it going. After that the train can run on its own without needing any more energy from you”.
“I have also never pulled a lot of energy out just like that so I don’t know what will happen when I do. This is something that could kill me”.
Feefee rubs Razzo's head: “Not to worry that’s why I’m here with you, I’ll let you know how much, plus you have to remember this is the only way that we’ll be able to leave. As well as it is a small fraction of your energy but way more than anyone else’s on the team”.
Razzo sighs: “I guess you’re right, let's keep going”.
They continue forward along the train with all the sections well lit and all the goo and dust much more visible now than previous before when Razzo was inspecting the sections with Dre, Ostikous, and Dengrad. Razzo and Feefee continue along, speaking towards their respective lives before the adventure on Valentina’s Voyage. Feefee explains to Razzo how he was simply a regular Wokwok trying to survive on a planet that was facing issues from the three dominant species each battling for control of resources. How his species had to adapt to living below the surface of the planet or in remote areas where the other two dominant species roamed and would hunt them given the opportunity. Razzo explained how on the contrary life on Earth was very stagnant and simple without much worries for life. Everyone simply does their part and life goes on like one massive hive where everyone stays in their lane and doesn’t question what they do or for what purpose. It was quite a boring way to live in Razzo’s opinion, but he would have never asked for an alien invasion to make life more interesting. The conversation goes on and continues for a while, but eventually dies out as they clear the second and first section of the train arriving at the beginning of the train. Razzo starts to ready his fists with energy ready to bash through the wall that’s separating the engine room and the first sector of the train. As he’s about to hit the wall Feefee yanks the hair that’s on top of Razzo’s head causing him to fall back along with Feefee who gets part of his body crushed by Razzo’s head.
Razzo gets up and yells: “Why did you do that, we were about to get in?!?”
Feefee grimaces as he walks by the human to the wall of the engine room.
“Well that’s because we don’t have to punch through everything to get where we want to go. Sometimes just thinking things through a little bit can go a long way, for example this in front of us is a door, you know what a door is right? I think you should have those on earth”.
Razzo looks confused and asks: “Yes we have doors on earth, how was I supposed to know that it’s a door and not a wall?”
“Well you just should and probably not break each one you find like the one over there” - Feefee points to the shattered nano particle door on the ground.
Razzo disagrees: “Sometimes it is what it is and you have to break a door to get in. Not like the train doesn’t work because of this right?”
“Yes the train works but we can’t be breaking everything, if you damage this wall the wrong way you may end up getting the engine stuck or even worse broken…”
“Okay so how do you want to do this?” - asks Razzo
Feefee goes up to the wall and feels around the bottom of the wall. Then slowly works his way up until he can no longer reach any further.
Feefee then turns back to Razzo and tells him: “I need you to lift me up again so that I can find the handle and open the door”.
Razzo goes over and lifts Feefee up little by little giving him time to feel the entire wall in the hopes of finding a handle that will open up the engine room. After a while of feeling around just above Razzo’s head on the left of the wall Feefee finds a slight indent in the wall. He takes his hand and applies pressure, sliding his hand across and at the same time retracting all the nanoparticles in the way sort of like opening a sliding door. Except one that requires zero effort. Razzo then puts Feefee on the ground as the two of them step through into the engine room.
“See you don’t have to go and break everything that comes in your pathway, sometimes it’s more worthwhile to think it through”.
“Yeah yeah I get, work smarter not harder, that’s like the oldest line in the book, now how do we get this thing started it’s bigger than me!” - mumbles Razzo.
They both take a look at the engine standing at the center with wires dangling from it to the walls, which was about ten feet tall with a variety of technological apparatuses connected to it.
Feefee tells Razzo: “This is a hyperspeed series engine, possibly a XERALE 7 or 8 built by the Sumans”.
Razzo asks: “This means nothing to me, absolutely nothing”.
Feefee itches his head while walking up closer to the engine and inspecting it thoroughly: “To put it briefly, as you can see this type of engine had 5 rows of cylinders arranged around a centrally located crankcase which was a large and thick rounded top cylindrical beam in the middle of the room. The crankcase was mostly transparent and within it there were too many rotating pistons to count which are tasked with continuously churning energy. Each row had an odd number of cylinders to produce smooth operation, but each of these cylinders had a pointed edge for better conduction. Because the cylinder arrangement exposes a large amount of the engine's heat-radiating surfaces to the air and tends to cancel reciprocating forces, XERALE engines tend to cool evenly and run smoothly. Unfortunately when the engine is completely stopped and no longer producing heat for optimal temperatures it becomes very difficult to start again”.
Razzo asks: “So how do you expect us to start it?”
Feefee looks back at Razzo and smiles: “Well that’s where you come in to play actually, we’ll need your energy to get it fired up. But for now you can just take some time to relax while I climb around and figure out where the external intake for energy is”.
Razzo mumbles: “Finally a real moment to rest”.
Razzo goes back to the wall that he tried to knock down not remembering the previous time he slept and closes his eyes, beginning to snooze shortly after.