“Vidia, I thought I told you I wasn’t up for anything today - Oh, Brielle, I’m sorry. I thought you were…”
“Vidia? No, sorry.” Brielle fiddles nervously with a few strands of her shiny, metallic hair and seems to be actually regretful of her unannounced presence.
“No, don’t worry about it, I just meant that…” Luna stops herself from trying to explain away the human tendencies that she had picked up during her time on Earth. It has become abundantly clear that not only to Upperworld beings lack the capacity to understand or relate, but trying to explain it only makes things even more awkward. “Just come on in.”
Brielle nods apologetically and follows Luna back into her pod. Her pillows and bedsheets are strewn everywhere, as it’s clear that Luna has been feeling ill at ease.
“Are you doing okay? I came by to check on you. I just figured… you could use a friend.” Brielle smiles sweetly and gestures to a small canister that she brought with her. “I just brewed some of my special passionfruit tea, maybe it’ll relax you a bit?”
Luna smiles, and even though she knows it won’t really make much of a difference, accepts the canister gratefully and takes a sip. “Well, this is really good anyway, Brielle. Thank you very much.”
“My pleasure, Luna. Me and a lot of the others… we’re all worried about you. I wish we could help somehow.”
“You are helping. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, I really do appreciate you.” Luna pats her on the shoulder and then settles on one of the chairs at her small pod dining table. Brielle follows and sits across from her.
“He’ll make it out of this, you know. I just know it.”
Luna sighs. “I sure hope so. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but hope is so very tempting, especially when I have very little else to go on.”
A potentially awkward silence threatens to make the visit awkward, but Brielle manages to think of something to say. “So, you and Onyx are… something, right? I know you have some sort of connection that I can’t quite understand, but I knew something was up with you two.”
Luna sighs and looks out the pod window. “Yes, it’s a very long and twisted story - a story that goes back a lot further than I have any capability of remembering…”
Brielle’s bright eyes widen in anticipation and intrigue. “Well, I have time, and I do love a good story…”
Luna takes a deep breath, and then recounts everything that Onyx had explained to her. She tries (and fails) to hide the way her cheeks warm and her pulse quickens at the remembrance of that morning in their Earthly home when all was explained to her.
✷✷✷
“Ronald will be right through this door. Follow my lead, and don’t arouse suspicions to anyone around us.” Griffin nods, and follows Evander through the door.
“Hello, we’re here to look into the electrical wiring issue.” Recognition floods Ronald’s face, as he pushes his black-rimmed glasses further onto his nose and leads the two men over to a controlled-access door.
“Glad you could make it as soon as you did. We’ve been having a lot of trouble with our automatic docking system lately. Glad it’s going to be all fixed now.”
Evander nods, satisfied that the code words were received smoothly. Then he walks past Ronald through the door he opened, with Griffin in tow. The two walk calmly down a labyrinth of hallways and various other doors, until they reach a room deep in the sterile atmosphere of the lab that appears to be under heavy surveillance and limited clearance.
“Griffin, I need you to disable the security cameras. I’m going to hack into this digital keypad system so we can get into the door. Per my limited research, there may be some laser detection as well, so disable those also unless you want to have to jump through literal hoops to get what we need.”
Griffin nods and walks a few paces down the hall to the first visible surveillance camera. With a few flicks of his wrist and some amateur fiddling, he manages to disable the camera, and then remotely disable the others monitoring the room with the uranium in it. As soon as he finishes with the last camera, he turns to walk back toward Evander, but sirens begin to blare, and he freezes.
“We’ve been detected! Hurry, get in NOW!”
Griffin follows suit without protest, but he starts to shake a little under the extreme panic he feels himself descending into. “What do we do know?”
“We have no choice but to grab it and go. Find it, quickly!!!” The two hear invisible footsteps rapidly following them from the other end of the hallway, and dive right into the task at hand. Across the room, both their eyes land on a plethora of yellow caution signs surrounding a separated area of the back of the room. The signs read “Caution: radioactive uranium ore” and seems to be suggesting the reader to put on a nearby safety suit before entering the vicinity of the uranium. Evander notices Griffin’s hesitation but quickly negates the cautionary tale.
“We don’t have time, just let me get in there!” Evander removes the sample collector out of his own suit and opens the tank holding the uranium when they are stopped by some loud voices behind them.
“STOP RIGHT THERE AND KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!”
CHAPTER 8
“Wow, that’s really… interesting.” Brielle seems thoroughly captivated by Luna’s storytelling, but is of course, rendered unable to react emotionally. Luna, on the other hand, is left teary-eyed after recollecting in detail all that has occurred between her and Onyx. Of course, she left out plenty of the more intimate details of their relationship, but even the basic overview left her wildly emotional and wistful.
“That’s one way to put it, for sure.” Luna sighs for likely the hundredth time that day. “So that’s the story, and now you know.”
Brielle nods. “Well, I hope I didn’t seem nosy. But it helps to understand a bit more about what happened. Have you gotten to talk to Onyx at all lately?”
Luna smiles as sadly as possible while still smiling. “Only just about every chance I get. That is, when I’m not working my shift or crying myself to sleep in here.”
Brielle tilts her head in confusion. “‘Crying’? what is ‘crying’?”
“It’s…” Luna begins to try to explain it but then catches herself before wasting her breath. “… not anything you need to worry about it. Just an outpouring of emotion that humanoids experience sometimes.”
She nods but still seems curious. “Part of me wishes that I could relate to what you’re describing more deeply, but at the same time, feelings seem like a lot more trouble than they’re worth.”
“Well said, my friend. Well said. And you are absolutely right.”
✷✷✷
Evander and Griffin exchange troubled glances, but they quickly realize that one of them has to act fast before they are overtaken by the security guards.
“Stay very still, and very calm, and no one gets hurt.” The words fall slowly out of the guard’s mouth, oozing through the dry air of the lab and clawing its way into their ears. The potential of what “getting hurt” means in this context could spell disaster for this brave duo.
Evander manages to signal Griffin just slightly, with their previously agreed-upon signal: a double wink. That means that Griffin will create a diversion while Evander would be expected to collect the sample.
After a strategic and silent count to five, Griffin smoothly sweeps the legs out from under the nearest security guard.
“Restrain him immediately!” The attention of the other guards quickly moves to both Griffin and the guard he has upended while Evander runs straight into the toxic surroundings of the uranium. He quickly reaches in with the protective gloves he hid in his jumpsuit pocket, and then places a large enough chunk of it into his sample collector.
“HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
The guards swiftly walk toward Griffin from across the room, but Evander manages to free himself long enough to grab Griffin’s arm and head back to the hallway. The guards try to catch up to them, but they can’t due to the bun
ch of chairs Griffin threw in their way from an adjacent alcove housing a rolling cart full of folding chairs. Having dumped them all on the floor, they made a reasonably good deterrent, giving both Evander and Griffin just long enough to get back through the main door and into the main lobby of the lab.
“Thanks again, Ronald, for your help. We’ve gotta transport back up now.”
He nods silently before pointing a small hand-held device at them and pressing a small button on the side just as the door bursts open. But the guards are too late - Evander and Griffin are already gone, back up to the Upperworld where they belong.
CHAPTER 9
Both Evander and Griffin’s cells reassemble in the Upperworld, just after narrowly escaping arrest in McGill labs. Both of their chests are heaving on the transport tables they reanimated on, as the subtle buzzing and winding of the transport room machines powers down.
“You got it?” Griffin looks over to Evander hopefully.
“Oh, I got it all right.” Evander removes the sample collector from out of his zippered pocket. The uranium has an eerie greenish glow in its container, which lights up the dim lighting around it and bounces off of their excited faces.
“It certainly looks… powerful”, Griffin observes. Evander nods, as he places the sample back in his pocket.
“And one sample that size is enough?”
“Should be - according to my calculations, anyway. This stuff is so full of raw inter-dimensional energy that just a measly crumb of it is probably enough. We should have more than enough.”
The two have trouble hiding the smiles on their faces as they recover and regroup from their brief trip to Earth.
“I don’t know why people live on Earth. The air scrapes your throat as it goes down, and it’s a lot harder to move.” Griffin rubs the back of his neck while remembering his first-time experience in a heavier gravitational pull.
“Well, it’s not like humanoids really have a choice… it’s just kind of where they end up.”
“I suppose, but I am extremely grateful I’m not one of them. And then there’s all the hustle and bustle and responsibilities… I wouldn’t want any of that.”
“We do have responsibilities here too, of course.” Evander smirks as he eases himself off the table.
Griffin nods, but seems to relate to that fact differently than Evander does. He shrugs, and opens his mouth much wider than necessary to speak, as if he was caught mid-thought. “True, but it doesn’t feel the same. Not that I got a full sense of things on Earth during our very brief escapade, but from what I heard and what little I did see, humanoids seem utterly obsessed with the daily hustle. No wonder they age so fast and die so young.”
Evander sighs. “Immortals are very much like that - they have a very real trouble staying focused in the here-and-now, rather, they like to plan ahead all the time. Like I always like to say - there’s no time like the present. Literally. Because the past is long gone and the future never really exists, if you think about it.”
Griffin nods slowly, in awe of the wisdom of his more experienced counterpart. “I never really thought of it that way - that is, quite insightful indeed.”
Evander nods and then clears his throat. “So, are you ready to build this thing? How are your blueprints coming?”
“Well, I’m still working out the kinks and collecting materials. I’ve made a preliminary list. Perhaps I should send it over to you?”
“Certainly. That way I can start to collect things as well - thank you for your attention to detail and diligence, Griffin. It wouldn’t be possible without you - and I am sure that both Luna and Onyx will be forever in your debt if we can pull this off.”
“What happens if we can’t?”
Both men pause momentarily, clearly at a loss for words, until Evander breaks the silence. “Well, truth be told, I really don’t know what would happen. This is uncharted territory, so I don’t have any records to refer to. But perhaps it might be worth me looking into a sort of ‘plan B’ should this not go as planned.”
“It might be worth doing some digging, maybe to see if there’s anything we’re overlooking in this process. It would be a disaster if something bad started happening right under our noses.”
Evander nods. “Okay, I’ll take that upon myself to look into - you should just keep on working with the blueprints and supply lists so we can build it sooner versus later.”
Griffin nods. “And the uranium - you’ll keep it safe?”
Evander nods. “Absolutely.”
✷✷✷
After yet another long shift spent in the Sorting Room, Luna makes her customary visit to see Onyx. She’s gotten it down to a pretty regimented routine at this point - the organized scheduling gives her something to hold onto. The one who always kept her safe and secure up until this point is unable to do so, which means that Luna has slowly but steadily learned how to care for and soothe herself. That is, with a little help from some of her friends whenever they come around.
“Hello, my love.” His weary voice echoes with a newfound strength across the sublime acoustics of the Grand Hall. Luna approaches him the same way she always does - with a smile plastered across her face and her long, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail as she’s been working hard as of late.
“Hello, Onyx.” She makes herself comfortable on the much smaller chair that has been placed for her at the foot of Onyx’s throne. Her chair also ensures that she doesn’t accidentally forget the danger Onyx possesses and she get too close to him.
“I hear that Griffin and Evander are hard at work trying to help me get off this thing.”
Luna nods. “Indeed! They actually went to Earth to get some sort of materials for the machine. They’re doing everything they possibly can for you… for us.” She forces herself to smile in the midst of the agony she feels, but something about it feels fake. Luna then tilts her head up to meet Onyx’s gaze, and she notices that his eyes and hair are now glowing, and very brightly.
“You’re… really glowing now, Onyx. Are you sure that’s okay and not dangerous for you?”
Onyx shrugs, the subtle flames of his bleach-blonde hair waving in response. “I mean, I just assumed everything was under control. I’d like to believe that, since I don’t really have a choice, regardless.”
“That may be so, but I might ask around just to make sure. I don’t know what I’d do if -”
Luna stops herself from completing that thought, as she knows that nothing good would happen from worrying him too much.
“Okay, well that’s up to you. Please don’t concern yourself with me. I’m holding up all right, really. In fact, I’ve almost… come to like it.”
Luna rolls her eyes. She can detect what humanoids call “BS” from a mile away. “Onyx, I don’t want you to pretend for me. I know that you’re suffering and in dire need of relief.”
His shoulders slump at the realization of her words, and the smile he plastered on is rapidly washed away by his tears. Even his flaming hair seems to dim a little.
“You’re absolutely right, Luna. Okay, I’ll be honest with you.” He sighs and hesitates before continuing. “Not only is this mentally daunting and difficult to be without you, but it’s hurting my body as well. It hurts to sit here as long as I have, and I can’t even physically move to shift my weight. My eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be, probably something about the light behind them making it harder for my corneas to absorb and detect light. And my scalp is literally on fire but I can’t do anything about it. I can’t touch it - heck, I can’t even scream. Something about this chair has made my pulse rate lower considerably so I feel very, very weak. That’s the ugly truth, Luna. Is that what you wanted?”
Luna’s face turns bright red and she starts shaking uncontrollably. She sobs loudly into her palms, and Onyx immediately regrets being so harsh with her.
“Luna, I’m… so sorry. I just… had to tell someone. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. I’m sorry…”
&nbs
p; She turns to leave, running out of the Grand Hall in a pile of tears and panic. “No, Luna, please don’t leave. Luna. LUNA!”
But his cries fall on deaf ears.
CHAPTER 10
Griffin heads back to his office to mark uranium off of the supply list. Over the past few shift changes, he has been able to collect just about everything else on the list, like the external materials and some more rudimentary things like nuts, bolts, and screws.
He looks outside the window of his office at the Upperworld outside it, with its sprawling idyllic landscape with the typical lavender fog hovering above it all. He sighs, thinking about how tough and dangerous this endeavor truly is. His hands are quite gifted, as they have such a clear connection to his brain. He’s easily one of the best techs and mechanics that the Upperworld currently has in its arsenal - and yet he still doubts himself almost every moment of every day.
Griffin gets up from his desk and moves to pick through the large box of supplies he has collected. After selecting a few pieces of what he has deemed usable scrap metal, he picks up his welding mask and gets to work. The fiery brightness of his torch creates a stark contrast to the otherwise sterile and calm aesthetic of the record-keeping office, with its quiet pulsing lights and state-of-the-art technology. As the first piece of metal welds together with the piece he held up to it at just the right angle, a small smile of hope slides across his mouth, as he realizes that maybe there’s a chance that their borderline crazy, time-warping plan may just work after all.
He works diligently for a long time after that, building at least the outer frame of the time machine to his liking - that’s the easy part. The inner workings of the machine, including the mechanization of the uranium, would have to be left for his wiser mentor, Evander. As skilled as Griffin is, he doesn’t waste time or energy denying the indubitable truth that Evander is the one to handle the more intricately sensitive elements of the machine. Also, Griffin knows that although they have collected a good amount of uranium, it is not unlimited, and wasting it during frivolous experimentation is not an option.
The Rise of Onyx Page 3