They rode on, pressing the charaks hard, crossing over dozens of dunes. More than once Daria commented on how long it was, and was amazed Melissa covered all that distance on her own in such a short span of time.
Melissa herself was amazed at how long it took, but instead of reveling in her strength, she was impressed by the dedication of Richard and his scientists. No matter how cold or tired they get, they still press on. And they do it not for more power or wealth, but simply to learn more, to understand more. I can see why they prefer to live alone, and why they would never ally themselves with Toby. Daria can’t be the only one who has dreams of the life on the Levitating Cities.
Finally they arrived at the spot Melissa knew to be the resting place of the first vessel she explored. Only a small hump of metal could be seen, as the snow had once again smothered its form. Melissa offered to move it with her sussa, but Richard smiled wryly, and said; “I think science can do it just as well.”
As Richard rifled through the supplies, Melissa couldn’t help but scan the skies for her mother’s platform. Daria came beside her.
“I heard you have your own platform. Can you see it?”
“No,” said Melissa wistfully, “and I’m kind of glad I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because it would make it all the harder to leave it again. Richard isn’t going to let me go. He’s going to squeeze every last bit of worth out of me, then throw me in a cell and lose the key.”
Daria squeezed Melissa’s hand. “I’ll see what I can do. Sometimes I can change his mind.”
Richard came back with a bright-copper metal tool. He fiddled with some buttons on the top, and aimed it at the buried vessel.
“Witness my latest invention!”
“Oh great,” said Vincent snidely, coming beside Daria, “another wonderful invention from the glorious mind of my brother. Oh, please show us your intellectual magnificence.”
“Why’d you even come along?” demanded Richard, lowering the tool. “I mean, you have no interest in these planes -- no interest in science at all!”
“Maybe I want to be around to see you finally look the fool.”
“The fool?” demanded Richard.
“This cute Archsussa showing you something you’ve never seen. I think it’s hilarious.”
Melissa blushed, as all she heard was that Vincent thought she was cute.
“Can we get on with it?” yelled Daria. “It’s too cold and we’re too far from base for this kind of bickering.”
“Fine,” spat Richard. “Now stand back!”
A beam of cloudy yellow light fanned out from his tool, almost to the exact width of the vessel. The snow melted quickly where it touched, becoming white vapor. After a few minutes, most of the vessel was revealed, and Richard turned it off.
“That’s amazing,” said Daria, as she came to his side to examine the device. “How did you come up with something like this?”
“I knew at some point we would need to quickly excavate one of these vessels, and wouldn’t have the manpower to do it.” He walked to the side of the ship, where in large black letters was written: Arial. “At least we know the name of this ship. Let’s go inside, and see what our heathen has led us to. Guards; establish a perimeter, and radio me if anyone comes near.”
“Yes sir!”
“Come on, Daria. Let’s take a look.”
“Oh I’ll just wait out here,” yelled Vincent with scorn.
“Come on,” said Melissa, grabbing his hand. “No need to be the outcast.”
The four of them went inside the ship, and Melissa remembered it well. In her mind, she could see the hlenna spinning in the chairs, laughing uncontrollably. And she remembered sitting at the terminal with Asil at her side.
“Do you think we can turn them on?” asked Daria.
Richard pressed a few switches. “No, looks like there’s no power-flow.” He hooked a wire from the large metal box into a port under one of the screens. “This should do the trick though.”
The screens came to life, and Melissa cooed with delight. “You made it work! What can it do?”
“It can teach us. Arial; state your name.”
“A . . .” said a voice faintly from somewhere around them. “Ari . . . Arial.”
Melissa suddenly became scared, but Daria calmed her down. “It’s like our radios, except this is a machine mimicking a human’s voice.”
“And each ship had its own name for its system,” said Richard. “Now, Arial; where are you from?”
“This ship was built in the Curungghal shipyards, orbiting the moon Mankla.”
Richard nodded, impressed. “None of the other systems I’ve come across have been able to say this much. Their mechanisms had deteriorated too greatly.”
“What will you ask it?” asked Daria coming closer to him.
Richard thought. “Why are you here?”
“The Arial was damaged, and crashed.”
“Why were you near this planet? State your mission objectives.”
In an instant, the screen changed, as several images flashed as the Arial spoke.
“Mission objectives: travel back in time to destroy Novan. This is to be accomplished with the three Buiron Devices. Detonation of only one will merely cause global devastation and knock Novan off-axis. Detonation of all three will obliterate Novan entirely. Target coordinates should place reentry at one-thousand years before any significant technological development, to minimize risk.”
“In the event of Overman interference, a failsafe can be activated that will shift the devices back further in time to a random point, to minimize the possibility of discovery. Once shifted, they will immediately detonate. There is a risk that the temporal field generated will encompass nearby ships and maroon their crews in the distant past of Novan, possibly even to a point where the world was called ‘Iqui.’ The failsafe should only be used as a last resort, when all other options have failed.”
Melissa stewed in her chair, confused, watching as Richard leaned back, digesting what he heard.
“What did that all mean?” she asked. “‘Novan?’ ‘Overlord?’ It all seems like some fairy tale.”
“We’ve seen those words before,” said Richard excitedly, “but never had the proper context to put them in! Now, so much makes sense. The First Apocalypse, ‘sussa,’ even the climate that now controls this world.”
“Then tell me,” begged Melissa.
“Tell us,” said Daria with a wide smile, “I’d love to know too!”
Richard sat back, taking obvious pleasure in being the purveyor of knowledge, while Vincent, despite his disgust with his brother, leaned forward with the rest, intrigued. “These ships are warships, built to fight a foe that must have, or will be, terrible and beyond our conception of powerful. The Centric Spheres were constructed to explode in some way, and destroy this world. But before it could be accomplished, they were attacked, and the Spheres were sent back further in time. Something must have happened, because only one of them exploded, and that explosion was the First Apocalypse.”
“And sussa?” asked Vincent. “How does this explain sussa?”
Richard shrugged. “I don’t know. The Sphere is a unique thing, and whatever is inside must have contaminated our ancestors when it exploded.”
“Contaminated?” asked Melissa, feeling a little stupid, as she didn’t understand any of the words Richard said, and hated to ask more, but she could feel this was vitally important.
“It’s as if what was inside the sphere rained on people around where it exploded, like a storm. Those droplets of whatever was inside changed the people it fell on, hence your ancestors being different than mine.”
Then what is the Centric Sphere? thought Melissa. Is it an unexploded ‘Buiron Device’? And where is the third? Melissa sighed, and felt depressed. “I feel so . . . useless. I feel so stupid. There’s so much here you two know, but I just don’t understand.”
“Don’t be sad,” said Daria. �
�I’m sure if you explained to us the many things you’ve learned to be an Archsussa, we’d feel stupid too.”
“Then set me free,” begged Melissa, turning to Richard. “Trust me, I won’t hurt you, but I need to feel whole.”
Richard sneered. “How will that help us? It’ll only help you, and they would think less of me if you escaped.”
Melissa sighed. “But I need to understand -- I can help you, but I need to know.”
“And your sussa will help you do this?” asked Daria.
“Yes. I’ve read many things, and I believe so.”
“Come on, big brother -- give her a chance,” said Vincent.
Daria grasped Richard’s hands and squeezed. “Trust her a little. You can keep your hand on the device, but she led us here, and this ship has a great deal to give us.”
Richard sighed. “I never could say ‘no’ to you. Very well.” He held up the box. “If this is a trick, you’ll pay for it.”
“Trust me,” pressed Melissa. “Take a chance on me.”
“Alright. You’ve given us much information by leading us here.” He pressed a button. “Can you feel it?”
In an instant, she ignited a firesphere. “Yes, I can.” She focused on his mind, and felt she could do more than ever before. “Hold still, Richard.”
She held up her hand, and extended tendrils of sussa to his head. She worked them inside his dense, complicated mind, reading his thoughts. In an instant, she understood about science, and what the voice in the machine was speaking of.
“What did you just do?” he asked, as Daria sat in awe. “What just happened?”
Melissa leaned back, aghast. “You . . . liar . . .”
Richard leaned back, crestfallen. “Somehow, you have seen inside my mind. You have seen all I have hidden.”
“What could you have hidden?” asked Daria.
“You haven’t learned all you claim to have,” said Melissa. “You discovered something in wreckage, when you were twelve, and it was nearly perfect?”
“I knew it!” screamed Vincent. “All these years, lording over us little people and you were a liar!”
“Shut up, Vincent. Let him speak.”
Richard flashed a hateful glance at his brother, but quickly cooled. “Yes, I discovered something. It apparently was the toy of a being who lived on one of those ships. It was a learning tool, and the concepts that were meant for someone around fifteen years of age advanced our scientific understand immensely. Year after year, I would introduce them to my people, by understanding a new piece of equipment found or explaining the concepts behind a device. This box,” he said, holding up the device that nulled her sussa, “wouldn’t have existed if not for what I found.”
“Why did you do it, rather than share it with us?” asked Daria, beginning to cry. “I believed in you!”
“I wanted power,” pleaded Richard. “I was tired of living in the cramped underbelly of that damaged ship -- I wanted to taste the food and the sweet air of the upper decks! I wanted to have girls like you look up to me, instead of down at me cleaning the lower decks.”
“You little shit,” spat Vincent. “All this time, feeling like nothing next to you, all this time having people look at me like I was the stupid one, like Holis skipped over me, and here you were lying to everyone?” Melissa looked on in amazement, and Vincent began to cry. “What happened to us, brother? What happened to our friendship?”
“I wanted this more.”
Vincent stormed out, without responding.
They all sat in silence for a while, then Daria said; “what you did to Richard, do you think you could also do to that machine?”
Melissa looked at the screen with images on it. “I don’t know -- I might damage it. But, it also might save a great deal of time.”
“Sussa again,” spat Richard. “It only gets us into trouble!” He pulled up the box. “I should just shut you down and leave it on.”
“No!” yelled Daria, as she slapped the box out of his hand. “Don’t punish her just ‘cause she caught you in a lie. Try and access this ship, Melissa. I have faith you’ll share everything with both of us.”
She nodded. “I will.” She extended the tendrils again, and worked them into the fabric of the machine. Slowly, the lights inside the ship turned on, and faint whirring sound could be heard. Melissa began to absorb the information contained in the machine, learning it was called a ‘computer,’ and that she was reading it’s ‘databanks.’
So much . . . so many things . . .
It was badly corrupted, for it had been lying damaged and dormant since the First Apocalypse. But she could see the foe they fought, the race of gods called ‘Overmen.’ She could see this ship flying through what they called the ‘void,’ could see from whence it came.
She absorbed all she could, and pulled out. For several moments she sat and contemplated all she had learned, as Richard and Daria looked on.
“Something tells me we’re gonna feel stupid,” said Daria.
She laughed, suddenly in awe of all they had learned. “So much of what you have deduced is correct, my scientists. You and your friends are truly remarkable people.”
Richard bowed. “Thank you. So . . . tell us what you know.”
“I will do better than that. Let’s go outside.”
“What is it?” asked Richard, as his finger went to the metal box.
“Have faith in something other than your science. Come on.”
Chapter 13
Melissa felt a surge of pride, in knowing more than Richard or Daria. It was the first time in her life that she was able to take pride in her knowledge and share it with others. While she learned much with Asil, he never gave her the adulation she needed. In Richard’s eyes, she could see the seeds of that adulation, and in light of his confession she knew she would be able to bend him to her will.
As they walked out, the three guards on duty trained their weapons on her, sensing in an instant that she had full use of her sussa. Richard waved them down, and said;
“I’m giving you a great deal of trust, heretic. I hope you know that.”
“I do, Richard. Hopefully when this is done, you will call me by my name. Now hold my hand.”
She extended her open hand, and Richard looked at it, for a moment, before grasping it. She squeezed tightly, and cried; “hold on!”
As if caught in a tornado, they flew up into the air in a shot. Daria laughed for a moment, before realizing she was being left behind.
“What about me?!” cried Daria, as she waved her hands and ran in circles.
“I have only the strength to bring one along!” shouted Melissa. As they ascended higher into the sky, she could still see Daria’s pouting face, and it gave her some pleasure to see her jealous.
“Where are we going?” asked Richard nervously.
“To where and when this all began.”
Upwards they ascended, eventually leaving the confines of Iqui. Through thick banks of clouds they flew, feeling the cool mist brush against their faces and bodies. The air grew thin, and Melissa refreshed it, keeping a pocket of air around them as they ascended out of the atmosphere.
“This is . . . magnificent,” said Richard, looking down on his planet for the first time. Iqui was a white world with pockets of blue surrounded in thick, swirling clouds. “I never imagined!”
“Now aren’t you glad you didn’t dissect me?”
“You know we never would have done that,” answered Richard anxiously.
“What I do know is how I was treated, when I was vulnerable and weak. Remember that now, up here, as the tables are turned.”
As she flew up, her body felt different. No longer did she feel clumsy or heavy, for in the freedom afforded by the clouds she only felt nimble and graceful. She could spin and twist in the air, confident and secure in her movements, while Richard looked the stumbling fool.
“Are you just playing with me,” he shouted, over the rush of air, “or are we going somewhere?�
�
She had pity on him and flew up an onwards, though in her heart she doubted he would return the favor in a similar situation.
Onwards and outwards she flew, into space, coming to the coordinates of where the Arial suffered its mortal blow. As she was about to open a ribbon, Richard stayed her hand.
“Is this where the battle occurred?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps we should watch from a discreet distance.”
Melissa nodded, impressed. “Good idea.”
She moved almost a full planet-length away and paused in space, reconsidering what she was about to do. Opening a ribbon through time killed my mother, though she was sick and weak. What will happen if I lose my strength up here? We’ll both die, and what we might learn will be for nothing.
“What are you thinking about, Melissa?” asked Richard. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
It warmed her to finally hear her name from his lips, though she wasn’t sure if it was concern for her or greed for knowledge that lay behind his words. “I’ll be fine.”
She concentrated, focusing on the ribbon of white that lay beneath the fabric of creation. Carefully, she spoke the words she heard her mother use, focusing all her power with each syllable. From the farthest corners of their eyes, a thin line appeared, slowly opening to reveal the past. As it opened like a great eyelid, they passed through, and bore witness to what appeared to be gods fighting each other.
Three figures hung in space, as Melissa did. Ten ships darted around them, hurling great plumes of energy Melissa never imagined could have existed. Even from their faraway vantage point, the space around them burned and Melissa had to create a shield.
“Those must be . . . Overmen.”
The ships put up a valiant fight, struggling to keep the Overmen off-balance. They launched not only great bursts of energy, but brilliant rods of metal that flew faster than the eye could see. The bolts struck the Overmen through their bodies, and it was the only thing that seemed to bring them pain. But the Overmen eventually brushed them off, and together they fatally damaged the ships, sending them listing in space, venting plasma. In a wink the vessels vanished, racing back through time as a result of their failsafe devices.
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