Reflections of past, shadows of the future

Posted on 20 Aug 2013 @ 2:16am by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim
Edited on on 20 Aug 2013 @ 11:04am

1,437 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2 - Allyndra's quarters
Timeline: MD02 - 1200

ON:


Allyndra finished showering. She felt fresh and alive though hungry. The events of handling the Triage and the Venture survivors was catching up to her. She needed a little time after the shower to again let the long translucent wings dry and so she first ordered up a glass of synthetic blood. The personal synthesizer had the permission of Fleet for her odd needs.

She took a sip and made a face. No matter how well the synthesizer's were programmed there was always something, some quality missing from the fluid. She would have to make do and decided to read a little while she sipped and let her newly washed wings completely dry. Allyndra went to a small cabinet and opened it pulling out a real honest book. It was old, the binding loose on the pages and the cover faded and cracked. Allyndra knew she should not have this book it was from the some of the very oldest archives of Warraquim.

She had picked it up exploring the old archives which were off limits to all but a very handful. She had always been a bit willful and had been punished once for being caught trying to sneak into them. At least that is what the GuildMistress had assumed, but Allyndra had been successful and all through the time the GuildMistress had berated her the small book she had taken had seemed to burn in her pocket.

She took her drink and put in on the table stand and then laid abdomen down with the book on the bed. She loved to reread it whenever she remembered it and wondered what others might think if they knew what was in it. Though Allyndra was willful enough to take from old archive she would not reveal it to others.

The book had turned out to be a sort of diary. She opened the cover of the journal and began to re-read the old script.

"I NabKisri Ylindra here set down the my experiences on the expedition to a far world being the only survivor to tell the what happened."

Allyndra had puzzled out that NabKisri out was a title or rather a rank. The script was in old Akkadian and many of the words and symbols used arcane. She put that aside and continued to read.

"Of course we are not alone in this vast place. There are many worlds since we left ours and we have discovered others or they have discovered us. A few are even capable as we of reaching far beyound their home stars to others far away. Many plod through a slowness that I would find unbearable taking many months to achieve what in mere moments of time we can achieve.

We are cautious but curious race about these others and on one trip to one of these worlds our ship encountered a problem and went further then expected. That is the story I relate here."

The crackling and popping still continued but in further and further spaced apart. It indicated that the hull was cooling from the ferocious heat that it had endured in its precipitous plunge through the atmosphere of this planet.

They had hit hard, very hard and Ylindra had only survived the crash into the surface by sheer chance that the back of pilots seat was relatively soft compared to what had befallen her comrades. She had been thrown from her seat and impacted the back of the pilots seat.

Even in the dim light she knew they were dead they odd angles of their necks and limbs and the fact that it was silent except for the occasional crackle, punctuated by a the popping sound. How fared the crystals which allowed the ship to leap far Ylindra hurt too much from the impact to even find out but she feared that whatever calamity had befallen had struck at them as well.

The atmosphere was stifling, hot and steamy. She could only wait, pant and hope that the air held long enough to escape this dead ship. Of course, how the inhabitants of this world if any might make of her was altogether another proposition. Hopefully, Ylinda thought, the ship would have fallen to one of the more uninhabited regions of the planet.

----
The countryside around Working was still shrouded in fog as Herbert pedaled the stony dirt lanes early in the morning. He did this often lately, strolling or walking along the far countryside. Many matters weighed on his mind but chief amoung them was the sudden lack of interest in his studies. He had left university having failed to obtain his degree and second was that his writing which had helped to support him had run into a wall. The proverbial writer's block. He had struggled the past months thinking of some new subject to catch his attention and though he had scribbled much down nothing had compelled him to write. He feared that his imagination had fled and he had written his last book. He felt sad at that for though an interesting tale, it had not had the feel of something powerful. In fact, his last several stories since the first one felt dwindling to him.

He was wrapped in his thoughts as he peddled along the early morning lane he did not take note of the turn in weather. The English country was known for its fickleness and he should have prepared more but only when the mist in the fog began to turn to more then mist did it penetrate his perception that a light rain had begun turning the lane to mud and bogging down his bicycle.

He struggled to push along, standing on the pedals until with a pop and hiss, his progress came to a halt. Herbert dismounted from the bicycle and with a muttered curse pulled the machine off the lane to soft wet grass. At least he would not have to contend with any more mud then he had to as he tried to ascertain which tire had let out its last breath.

Laying the machine down on its side he was surprised to still hear a hissing sound. Surely, he thought the tire should have long given out. He stopped and listened, then realized the hiss was not from the bicycle but from somewhere nearby. It was like a hiss of steam he realized and though he tried to peer through the gloom he could not fathom any discernable machinery.

The sound was further from the road and to his right and he slowly trudged through the wet grass toward the sound, now completely curious about what it was. As he walked his foot turned upon a rock and he stumbled falling to one knee. The ground was fresh turned and the soil already mud in the rain. There was something wrong though with the furrow, for one it was too wide for any farmer's plow and only in one spot as he could ascertain.

Looking up he perceived a object covered with dirt, and yet where bits of its coating had fallen off a metallic sheen appeared even in the dim light could be seen. The rain hitting the object sputtered and hissed and Herbert suddenly realized that the object must be hot. Some object had been tossed with violent force. Or, his brain made a connection and he looked up into the dark grey sky, something had fallen with great force.

"Hullo?" he called. No response. "Hullo!?" he called out louder and meet still with no response.

"Herbert old chap, most likely a meteor or perhaps Her Majesty's artillerymen are testing some new shell."

That is when a groan issued from the object and as he watched a section of hot muddy dirt fell away and a section of metallic object moved to reveal a dark passageway and then the appearance of a form that he noted was human shaped. "Hullo?" he called again tentatively. "I say are you well?"

---
Suddenly the book slipped away from Allyndra's hands. She had fallen asleep reading the book and she awoke. She marked where she had left off in her mind and closed the old worn covers and placed it on the stand.

It was time for some shuteye before she needed to get to work again.

"Computer lights off" she said.

The lights went to almost complete darkness and Allyndra closed her eyes and in moments was asleep and it seemed her dreams were of odd old ships and far away times and places.

OFF:

Lt. Allyndra illm Warraquim
CMO
USS Galileo

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