Watching Yute

by Joseph Picard

  The nearest quiet spot turned out to be a stall in a bathroom. She pulled out the terminal. Sure enough, the little display read that it was a message from Brandy. Just when she was starting to convince herself it might not be. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  She felt as if she sent an order to her hand to tap the icon, and hoped that her hand wouldn’t obey. “Sorry Brandy, but I lost the ability to press buttons.” That would be a good excuse. Sure.

  Cruelly, her hand obeyed. She opened her eyes to see Brandy sitting with her arms folded, elbows resting on her knees. She was looking down in silence. Not good.

  A pained, fragile sigh escaped Brandy. The sigh reached out of the terminal speaker and grabbed Cassidy’s lungs, making her unable to breathe. Brandy reluctantly started. “Cass….” This wasn’t going to be good. This wasn’t going to be good at all.

  “It’s…” Brandy swallowed hard. “It’s obviously not working out.” She sighed, her voice beginning to tremble a bit. “I guess we’re over. Goodbye.”

  The message ended, and Cassidy was left staring at the screen, but seeing nothing. She was still waiting for the message to say more. It didn’t seem long enough. Not long enough for a breakup from a year and a half relationship. It hadn’t sunk in. She was alone, silent, but safe behind the levies of shock, safe from the flood that had just assaulted her.

  Outwardly she did her best to be calm, but her tightly shallow breathing, clenched jaw, and eyes staring into nothingness betrayed the surge of screaming panic inside.

  Eventually recovering a little focus, Cassidy called Brandy back. In the short eternity while the terminal made the connection, that reluctant part of Cassidy inside was screaming at the other half to hang up. She didn’t have anything planned to say. Apologize? Should she maybe say something about-

  ‘BLOCKED’

  Blocked?! Brandy’s not taking her calls? What? She can’t just block her without a chance to say something for herself! She didn’t even have a chance to…

  But she did have a chance. She had plenty of chances. Plenty of chances over the last.. month? Oh god, was it more? Chances to call back, even if it was just to leave a message, or wake her up.

  But it was too late now. The terminal slipped out of her hand and clattered on the floor. She stared down at it resentfully. It wasn’t kind enough to break on impact. After a time, and a long sigh, she picked it up.

  Well… maybe Brandy would lift the block after a while. Maybe. Aw geez, what to do? Well, she could always snail-mail her or something. Call her mom maybe. Geez, no, that’s creepy.

  With another deep sigh, she stowed the terminal. She started to head out of the washroom, and caught her reflection in a mirror.

  Well, son of a bitch. She was crying.

  ~~~

  “What do you mean there’s no available manpower?!” Kirison squawked at his terminal.

  “It means there’s no available manpower, maybe? What part of the department being shut down isn’t clear?” Kirison’s former supervisor, the joyless Mr. Book was pretty clear.

  “Well, that’s the whole thing!” Kirison wound up his rebuttal. “We can’t just leave projects sitting out there, we have to shut down properly!”

  Mr. Book leaned in closer, a hint of a smile cracking though. Maybe it was a sneer. “Kirison…. All projects have been shut down quite nicely already. All. Official. Projects.”

  Kirison’s face became a bit joyless as well. “Well... Well... I still have things I need to close.”

  Mr. Book relaxed a little and took on a bit more of an official air. “If you’ve been doing something illegal, after all the anti-Erebus legislation-”

  Kirison jumped, “No! Shit no! Nothing like that! It’s perfectly harmless!”

  “And legal?” Mr. Book was getting closer and closer to smiling. Kirison was entertaining when he squirmed.

  Kirison did his best to display a proper posture and expression. “Well. No.”

  “Kirisonnnnn……”

  “Oh come on now! You know as well as I do that the new laws are ignorant knee-jerk reactions. Surely endeavors to non-weaponized applications-“

  “Come on Kirison. I had as much riding on this department as you,” Kirison knew that was bull, but he didn’t interrupt. “but given all that’s happened in recent years, this knee-jerk could have been a lot stronger.”

  “Well fine, whatever. But the point is, I still have a project running out there and I don’t have the kind of expertise to extract it quietly. And if it gets found out, and they trace it back to me and you, and everyone up the chain…”

  “Ah!” the joyless man outright grinned for a moment. “You’re wrong! This project of yours is unofficial, and has nothing to do with me. Everything I had my hands in was one hundred percent legitimate and on the books! And when the law came and said stop, I did! We all did! And now you want a team from me for something you did behind our backs?”

  “It’s not like the project wasn’t going to go towards the company anyway! I just-“

  Mr. Book’s face returned to its normal joyless state. “Look, just clean it up.”

  “I can’t, I need a team.”

  “It’s not like I don’t sympathize. You’re a smart man, and a hard worker. But I don’t have anyone to give you.” Mr. Book cocked his head slightly. “I do know someone who might, however. People we dealt with in the early days. Do you have a pen?”

  ~~~~~

  :::C /04

  ~~~~~

  Cassidy awoke, and the memory of Brandy breaking up with her came slowly, but firmly. It was enough to make her pause as she was getting out of bed. She couldn’t pause for long; she had duty to get to. The irony of that wasn’t lost on her. She didn’t seem to have time for her when they were a couple, so why should she let crying over her get in the way of work now? She certainly did enough of that yesterday.

  That realization had come to her the night before, and it still managed to make her feel like a selfish bitch for taking Brandy for granted. She reached for her terminal and called Brandy again. Still blocked. It was worth a shot. Focus. Put yourself together, and get to work.

  “Feeling better?” McKinney asked Cassidy wen she got to the station.

  “What?” Cassidy forgot the manner in which she’d left him yesterday. “Uh, yeah, I don’t know what it was, I’m sorry I didn’t even contact you later.”

  “It’s cool. Sick is sick.”

  She considered coming clean. He was an okay guy, he wouldn’t spaz. But at the same time, she didn’t want his pity, or any such garbage. “Yeah, I’m still not a hundred percent, but good enough.”

  During patrol, her terminal wiggled with another message. Brandy? She had to find a private spot again. “McKinney? Can I split for a sec?”

  “Uh? Er, yeah, take your time.”

  She made haste to the nearest washroom, and checked her messages.

  “Hello, Leftenent Cassidy!” What the heck, the message wasn’t Brandy, it was the weird older guy from the other night, when she threw the gun at the drunk. He was in a cheerful mood.

  “Last night I was talking to your C.O., Colonel Calvert, and I asked if I might maybe have you transferred to my unit. I don’t think I properly introduced myself last night. Major Marcus Douglas. I run the Yute temple honour guard. Anyway, I had come to the Yute Central base to finally meet Calvert and request a replacement troop, and then I ran into you. You seemed like a good choice, so I asked Calvert if I could ask you to come over to my unit. It’s your call, but it’s a nice post, and it comes with a bit of a pay raise. I’ve attached the basic infodump briefing on the installation. Let me know, and if you have any questions, just ask.”

  The message ended, and Cassidy noticed that same look in his eyes that she saw that night. It was a calm look that seemed to just stare right out of the screen, through her head, the ceiling, and up into the sky, into space.

  Cassidy huffed, absorbing the information. She opened the attached infodump. It popped
up onscreen.

  INFODUMP: YUTE TEMPLE HONOUR GUARD

  In accordance with treaties with the aboriginal Aguei nation, the Aguola military maintains an outpost for an honour guard to protect the Yute temple.

  This vigil consists of six soldiers at any one time, generally separated into 3 standard 8 hour shifts per day. These soldiers carry weapons inspired by the traditional Aguei people.

  “Wow, informative.” Cassidy shrugged. The underlined phrases led to other infodumps. The Aguola infodump was doubtlessly a sprawling documentary, from the first European settlers, to the forming of the world’s second largest island nation (after Australia), then through the involvement in the world wars, blah blah blah.

  She certainly didn’t need to hear any more about the Aguei, being the largest minority on the continent nation of Aguola. It was common knowledge. When settlers first arrived, relations were less than smooth, but a few hundred years had found a balance much as it had in Aguola's 'sister-nation' Australia, or the Americas.

  Cassidy had heard of the Yute temple, but wasn’t as familiar with it. Of course everyone at the Yute Central base was aware of it, but on the whole, it was ignored. She tapped the link just to see. It took on a more documentary tone, and less military.

  INFODUMP: YUTE TEMPLE

  Deep within the Yute Desert, lies a ruined city, assumed to have been built by the ancestors of the Aguei. The Aguei knowledge base however, holds little to illuminate the details behind the grand temple that sits in the middle of the ruins. Lacking its original name, it has become known only as the Yute Temple. The temple exhibits construction of similar technique, but of better quality than the surrounding ruins, While the ruins are nearly entirely destroyed, the temple has withstood centuries of sandstorms much better.

  The temple’s outward appearance would make it remarkable enough, but this becomes secondary in consideration of the grand statue in the middle of the temple. It bears no resemblance to anything in Aguei lore, but its fierce appearance has garnered it the nickname of “The Yute Demon”.

  While the Aguei consider the temple and statue sacred, there has never been a direct link to known Aguei lore to explicitly explain this.

  [Images: No images. Photography and tourism is not permitted on the Yute temple ruins, by treaty.]

  The dump seemed to inform just enough to let you know how much you don’t know. It almost seemed worth taking the post just to see it all. Cassidy stowed the terminal, and caught up with McKinney. He welcomed her back to patrol with a small wave. “Hey Stanton. You okay?”

  “Er, yeah, it was nothing. But I got an odd call while I was in there.” She pulled out her terminal and played Major Marcus Douglas’ message for McKinney.

  “Hm!” McKinney seemed surprised, but gave no indication on his opinion otherwise.

  “Hm? Seems like an odd post, don’t you think? They’re guarding the temple? From what? Dust?”

  “Seems like a pointless post, if you ask me.” McKinney said, with his eyebrows up in apathy. Most who knew about the Yute Honour Guard generally thought of the whole post as a waste of money and resources.

  “Well, someone doesn’t think so; it exists, after all.” Cassidy passively skimmed over the infodumps again as they walked. “The Aguei, namely...”

  McKinney gave a little huff. “Sure. So we have people there picking their noses so that Aguei nation activists have one less thing to whine about? If it’s so important to them, you’d think they’d guard it themselves.”

  Well, that was a decent point. Cassidy chalked it up to some gesture of good faith in part of some bigger treaty. “Maybe… maybe the Aguei just don’t have the resources to maintain a post there. I don’t know. Sounds like easy work either way.”

  McKinney glanced over to Cassidy, weighing the tone of her voice “You considering it? You’d be one more step away from civilization, you know.”

  Civilization. Where Brandy was, in other words. Cassidy called her one more time, only to see the word “blocked” pop up once more. “Well, like I have any fucking use for civilization anymore.”

  ~~~

  At the end of the shift, and a lot more brewing of the notion, Cassidy called Major Marcus Douglas on her terminal.

  “Yello-, Oh! Leftenent Cassidy! Got my message, I take it?”

  “Y-yes Sir. Cassidy’s my first name by the way, Sir.”

  “Yup, It is- Oh, I see what I did. Sorry, it’s a habit of mine. Should I be calling you ‘Stanton’ instead?”

  Cassidy blinked. Major Douglas managed to speak with a cheerful tone and still maintain a sense of calm. The thought flashed though her mind that it was a little creepy for an older superior officer to be calling her by her first name so casually, but it really did just seem to be his way. “Er… Cassidy is fine, Sir.”

  “Good good, in that case, you can tone down the ‘Sir’ stuff. The men and women in my troupe just usually call me Marcus. Which brings me to ask-“ he stopped, and cocked his head, waiting for Cassidy to pick up the slack.

  “To ask if I’d be joining up.” Cassidy sighed. “I gotta admit, I have my reservations…”

  “Well, give it a try, and if you don’t feel at home after a month or so, I can have you transferred right back if ya want.”

  That was unusually accommodating. “Well…. Well okay then, I’m onboard..! What do I do?”

  “Great! I’ll deal with the paperwork. How soon can you get your stuff together, and say your goodbyes?”

  Her goodbyes would be short, she only really knew McKinney, and they weren’t that close. Her oversized duffel would probably be more than enough to cram her stuff into. “Geez.. A couple hours?”

  Marcus looked at his watch. Alright then, be at the helipads in three hours.”

  ~~~

  Cassidy wandered onto the helipad deck of the base ten minutes or so early. Her duffel was packed a bit tighter than she’d expected, and her stride betrayed its weight.

  The deck had a dozen helipads to accommodate choppers and the more advanced VTOL ‘flying outpost’ airlimbs. One of the airlimbs was being loaded with elite Storm unit personnel. Another, that wasn’t showing any outward activity, was the AZU-1 airlimb.

  Cassidy took a moment to try and spot any members of AZU-1, but none made themselves visible. That unit had become famous after their role in the Erebus incident.

  It was just as well that she didn’t spot any members; the two most famous members had retired anyway.

  Cassidy found the supervising Captain of the deck, and asked where and when Major Douglas was expected. The Captain paused before answering, as if to say “Oh… so you have something to do with it.” Or “Oh, Major Douglas. From the temple base.. those guys.”

  But when he opened his mouth, he simply hollered “Deck three!” He pointed, since it was hard to hear over the various engines running on the decks. “Any minute now!”

  Cassidy saluted, and hauled her duffel in front of deck three. Soon enough, a big, older chopper came in and rested its weary self on the pad. She waved at the pilot, who waved her over.

  “You Stanton?” the pilot yelled over the engine noise.

  “Yup!”

  “Get on then! Let’s go!”

  Cassidy heaved her duffel in, and got in the co-pilot chair. There was no one in the back to talk to. The pilot conversed with the control tower, and along with the onboard computer, the needed confirmations were made to get underway. Once airborne, Cassidy decided to start conversation.

  “So! This bird belong to the temple base?”

  “Nope, I’m just playing shuttle today!”

  “So you’re not in the unit.”

  “Nope. You?”

  “Yeah, as of today.”

  “Eh… Congrats, I guess.”

  Cassidy tried to distill some meaning from the pilot’s attitude, unsuccessfully. “You guess? Why? Something wrong with it?”

  He shrugged, “I guess not. Not really.”

  The time in the air passed, and the ter
rain below changed from parched, cracked soil, to pure, soft sand. It was one thing to see these sands in pictures, but to be above them with their light gold hue spreading as far as the eye could see, was a very different thing altogether. It was almost striking enough to make her forget the sound of the engine.

  She took a deep breath, and held the warm air inside for a bit before releasing it. She felt tears build behind her eyes, and turned her head away from the pilot while she tamed them. While the view was moving enough, she couldn’t blame that for the urge to cry.

  She pulled out her terminal and called Brandy once more, with the screen out of view of the pilot. “Blocked” popped up again. She closed her eyes and sighed. Whatever.

  “There it is.” the pilot hollered over the noise. Cassidy opened her eyes and saw he was pointing at the horizon. All around were the shattered stone remains of an ancient city. The tallest pieces were only fragments of a wall here and there, worn down by time and windstorms.

  The exception was the temple. It sat in the middle of the ruins, with a hundred or so metres of flat terrain all around it, as if the other ruins sat back in awe of it.

  The temple bore similarities to a pyramid, or ziggurat. The sides sloped up about a third of the way, then became a huge boxy structure. The south side had stairs up the slope, and some kind of openings into the boxy part. The temple was doing amazingly well compared to the other ruins. From the air, it looked to be entirely intact.

  The south stairs ran down into a pathway, which stretched through the ruins, uninterrupted. Following it for a while, one found a helipad on a hill, and a unique little building. (Little compared to the temple, that is.)