Awoken

by Alex South

  “Give it a try, Kai,” Oa said excitedly. “It’s the strangest feeling. I still don’t really know how to describe it.”

  “Looks weird. Alright, I will give it a shot,” Kai said. She rushed over to the control board and began randomly spinning the knobs. Oa flipped the switch back up, and the canister snapped shut. After a fraction of the time Oa had spent making his atter, Kai slapped the button, sending a new stream of energy down from the crane. She rushed back over to the canister. Oa opened it, revealing a muddy brown glob of energy. Kai grabbed it and pulled it out. She squeezed it like Oa had; and, as expected it burst into light and sparks but with the unexpected addition of some foul looking smoke.

  “Bleah!” Kai exclaimed as she rolled around on the deck. “That’s the most disgusting thing ever.” Oa laughed, and Susan perked up from her spot by the railing. She surveyed the antics for a moment then, deeming them unworthy of her attention, the lightning varl laid her head back down, returning to the quiet serenity she had been enjoying.

  Oa tried the machine again, this time his efforts produced a deep green atter. He gave the atter to Kai, who enjoyed it much more than her previous attempt. The two friends spent the majority of that cycle creating different types of atter. It was quickly discovered that Oa better understood how to use the equipment, although Kai had several successful attempts that did not leave them both rolling around the deck in disgust.

  They were so involved in their newfound hobby that they did not notice the mutterings of Ohm in his sleep. “You’re here … glowing red, shrouded in shadow, but it saved you? … No, I saved us … We are safe … Soon everyone will be as well.” His words were anxious and erratic.

  When Ohm finally woke up, neither Kai nor Oa noticed as he rolled off of the sling and walked over to the railing next to Susan. Ohm looked back at Oa and Kai who were engaged in their next great masterpiece at the control board.

  “They are enjoying this so much. Let us give them one more gift of the past,” Ohm suggested wistfully to Fred the pack.

  He dropped off of the railing; and as always, Fred’s sharp reflexes activated the aqua jet before they could fall far. The pair flew out to the middle of the valley hovering far above the sand.

  “Fred, let’s run a full-capacity fusion,” Ohm called over the noise of the aqua jet.

  “Understood. Activating full fusion now,” Fred replied.

  Fred lit up brightly, shining like a blue star over the valley of dust. Water thundered down from Fred’s jet, increasing in volume exponentially. The liquid pooled below, spreading rapidly to fill the wide trough. Back on the ARI, Oa and Kai heard the roar and rushed to the railing to see what was going on. They stared in wonder at the brilliant blue light glowing from atop a column of water that coursed into the dunes. Before long, the whole valley was filled to its brim with crystal-clear liquid. The maroon light of the forest danced across the water’s surface.

  In the center of the lake, Fred ceased the full fusion. Ohm rocketed back to the ARI, deactivating the aqua jet just shy of the deck so as not to splash water everywhere. The momentum of Ohm’s flight sent him sailing over the railing and onto the deck. As before, he rolled spryly to his feet, completing the well practiced maneuver.

  “These dunes are the dust of everything beautiful the Great Planes used to hold, but they can still be a sight worth seeing,” Ohm said, pleased with his work.

  Oa and Kai nodded silently as they stared in wonder at the lake. After a moment of silence Oa turned and held out his hand. “Here, try this.” He offered up the latest atter he and Kai had made.

  Ohm took the atter from Oa and crushed it in his hand, absorbing the flavors of energy. His faceplates lit up in surprise. “Either you cheated somehow, or I must have been sleeping quite some time for you two to get this good.” Despite the good natured jest, the old Awoken was quite proud of his pupil’s efforts.

  They all laughed as they climbed up to sit on the deck rail. Their legs dangled down, lightly swinging in the breeze. The group watched the glimmering water below as the wind painted strokes of foamy white crests across the lake

  “This is one of those rivers from the stories Cale and Jess used to tell me, isn’t it?” Kai asked.

  “Sure, why not? It’s our very own river,” Ohm said amused at Kai’s innocence.

  Susan peered over the top of the railing. Upon seeing the lake, she soared out into the air. The lighting varl threw back her head and howled to the sky in primal joy. A violet bolt sprang from her mouth, striking upwards in a blinding flash that sent a ripple of her energy coursing through the sky. Susan sped across the water, her body ablaze with amethyst light as she danced about wildly. Her glow mingled with the mirrored image of the forest that flickered out across the waves. Reflections of the past, beauty that had long since faded, played out for the three friends as they sat on the deck of their ship.

  Episode 08 - A Hat for all Occasions

  The three friends sat on the deck’s railing, watching Susan play as the lake drained away into the dry and parched dunes.

  “That was spectacular. Too bad the water won’t stay longer,” Oa said, hopping back off of the railing he was perched on.

  “Where did all that water go?” Kai asked, gazing longingly at the rapidly dwindling pool far below.

  “It runs straight through these dunes. There is no life to hold it so the water just keeps flowing down through the cracked foundation and into the Void below. This world is too close to death to hold any new beauty for long,” Ohm responded, a moody undertone creeping into his voice.

  “That’s a terrible way of looking at things, Ohm. Did Fred calculate that?” Oa asked jokingly as he leaned against the railing

  “Actually, Fred and I did spend many weebles recording the decay we were witnessing; and our meticulously crafted projections confirmed its inevitability. We named it the Law of the Void, or Eol’s Law as other Awoken now call it. All things unto disorder,” Ohm replied evenly.

  Oa stood silently, weighing his friend’s words. Ohm did not offer any more explanation as he sat silently looking out at the forest. Oa knew he did not have the knowledge to debate Ohm’s theories or Fred’s computing skills. He knew that his friend had reason to be disheartened; Ohm’s research and warnings had been ignored by past Awoken. Deep down, he has lost the hope that things can change, Oa realized. That is why he comes to such dire conclusions.

  “If that Eol’s Law stuff is true, then you did a ton of work for an incredibly useless discovery. Your time would have been better spent making that atter machine easier to operate,” Kai teased, shattering the self-importance of Ohm’s discovery. “Why didn’t you add an alternate setting fo—” she was interrupted as Susan came hurtling back from the dry lake bed, bowling Kai backwards off her perch on the railing. She landed on the deck with a thud.

  Kai laughed. “Hold off on the speedy landings, Susan! I am happy to see you, too.” She hugged the giant lightning storm of a friend. Susan licked Kai’s face then floated over toward Oa in pursuit of more attention.

  Oa decided to drop the topic of Eol’s Law. He snatched the ornate bag of soul embers from the satchel at his side. “So what is our next move? Are we ready to fly to the Enlightened City?” he asked. Susan had reached him; and she nudged his hand until he patted her head, ruffling her thick, puffy ears.

  Ohm swung his legs back over the railing and hopped down. He walked over to Oa and grabbed the bag. He tossed it in the air. “Not quite yet, there are still some interesting places to visit. Places that have Awoken. Awoken who possess information. We need information,” Ohm outlined as he looked over at Oa.

  Oa nodded remembering their discussion about the possible existence of more ember-fission labs and Eol’s creation.

  “Information about what?” Kai asked.

  Oa had not wanted to talk about the ember-fission bomb with Kai until he knew exactly what was going on. He didn’t want to imply that her friends had a part in creating Eol and the Legion, but ther
e was no avoiding the topic now.

  “We think that the experiment Cale and Jess were working on might have something to do with Eol. Other labs with the same research might have existed,” he summarized.

  Kai’s face plate dimmed slightly. “I see …” she paused then perked up. “I guess I’m stuck with you losers, so let’s go get whatever information we need to stop the Legion.” She reached out and petted Susan’s sparking tail as it wound past her. Oa was glad that he met Kai. Even though she was saddened at the reminder of her dead friends, he knew she would fight to be a bigger legacy than any of the dangerous experiments Cale and Jess had been a part of.

  “So where are we going?” Kai asked, moving past the topic. “I have only been to Istaar and Bolleworth; and other than that Enlightened place Oa mentioned, I don’t know of any other cites.”

  “Well, seeing as you turned my old hat closet into a storm simulator for Susan, I think we should start at the Careening City of Artisans. I can begin rebuilding my collection there,” Ohm said jovially as he tossed the bag of soul embers back to Oa.

  “That’s a weird name. Cities don’t usually move, do they?” Oa asked, curious about the strange title.

  “This is a flying city. It has a very literal name. The residents are not known for their nomenclature or their piloting abilities,” Fred informed Oa dryly.

  “Though they are fantastically artistic. It is a great place really,” Ohm noted.

  “Sounds mildly interesting, but I don’t think it’s going to be cooler than our river,” Kai said dubiously as she headed back to the cockpit. Susan perked up at Kai’s exit. She whizzed around in a tight circle and bolted after Kai. Oa heard Kai’s exclamations of protest as the speeding lighting varl crashed into her somewhere inside the ARI. Oa took one last look at the maroon forest then he followed Ohm, who was also heading to the power hub. Back at the helm, Oa saw that Kai had already taken the pilot seat, so he plopped down into the copilot’s chair. He looked at the scanner, but there wasn’t anything helpful on the screen.

  “How are we going to find this runaway city, Ohm?” he asked.

  “I installed a transceiver on Fred a while back when ray-com was a big hit among the Awoken. Everyone used to broadcast all sorts of things through the air on rays of light. Most of that technology has died out and become obsolete, but an old acquaintance of mine lives in the Careening City. He never lost the habit of broadcasting the city’s coordinates whenever it moves. According to his last transmission, the city is located at (64.34,-39.8); I will relay the coordinates to your screen. We don’t have time for me to teach you the grid system that the maps run off of, so don’t ask, Oa,” Ohm explained, pretending that he didn’t want to teach the skill of map reading.

  Oa laughed. “That’s fine, Ohm. Your lectures are a bit lengthy. We should get going, since the world is ending and all.” He watched the coordinates pop up as a red dot on the screen in front of him. They needed to get beyond the forest and head off to the left side of the great peak on the horizon.

  “Kai, let’s swing around this forest and head toward the mountain. I will correct our vector as we get clos—” Oa’s directions where cut off by Ohm’s harsh command.

  “Don’t move the ship. Fred, shut down all power, even the hover-anchor. Legion vessels have been detected.”

  Kai flipped switches all across the control board, and the lights in the cockpit went dark. The engines halted completely. Lifeless, the ARI plummeted from its shallow hover above the dunes.

  “I’m glad I didn’t repaint this thing,” Kai muttered as they dropped. The distance was far enough for the old metal structure to strike the ground heavily. Sand sprayed in all directions from the impact. Inside the bridge, Oa and Kai were flung from their seats. Susan’s cushioning tail enlarged and coiled around them both, holding them back before they could smash through the cockpit’s forward window pane. Through the hallway, they could hear Ohm crash into the front of the power-hub chamber. The ARI slid forward down the steep dune for a short distance before it halted at a skewed angle, the front of the ship partway buried in the dune. Susan’s tail unwound, dumping Oa and Kai back into their seats. The lightning varl whooshed back up the hallway to the power-hub chamber, returning moments later with a slightly battered-looking Ohm in her paws.

  “I’m fine Susan, you can let go of me,” Ohm said. Susan set the old Awoken down, and he propped himself up in the doorway. “I think we cut the primary power in time. The Legion should fly by overhead and think we are just ruins of some old junker,” he assured the crew.

  Ohm carefully edged himself down to where Oa and Kai sat. They all peered up out of the forward window. Overhead, squadrons of Legion fighters glided toward the mountain. Oa tracked their vector carefully, noting that the fighters would end up on the opposite side of the mountain they had planned on going to.

  “That’s a lot of ships. More than I have ever seen,” Kai said in awe.

  “The Legion is Eol’s will or the Void manifested in physical form, depending on who you ask. Their strength grows as the Great Planes fade away. Few are left who care to oppose them,” Ohm said quietly.

  “Susan can take ‘em,” Kai scoffed. Behind them Susan growled in agreement.

  “What about the Enlightened?” Oa asked.

  “They may try, but who knows how true the rumors are? Perhaps it’s all fiction to keep the Sleepers and Marauders from venturing too far inland,” Ohm replied, shrugging.

  They watched the remainder of the Legion fighters pass overhead. Kai spoke up, her voice serious and concerned. “Let’s get back in the air. We should warn the Careening City of Artisans, if it’s still around. That army is going to be trouble for whatever gets in its way.”

  “I agree,” Ohm said, bounding back up the hallway past Susan. He reattached to the power hub, and Fred reactivated the ARI. The metal groaned slightly as the ship pulled up out of the dune. The fine sand cascaded off the hull as the ARI returned to a hover above the dunes. The engines burned hot and ready. Kai glanced at the navigation chart in front of Oa before sitting back into the pilot’s chair. Fred activated the crew’s restraint harnesses as Kai navigated around the maroon lightning forest.

  Oa looked at the beautiful pillar of nature spanning the distance between the Great Planes. He wondered if he would see such beauty again. Kai aimed the ARI along the navigation vectors that Oa gave her, then she pushed the throttle to near full speed. They flew fast and low, reaching the end of the dunes quickly. The ground became rocky and desolate. Gradually, the terrain became more treacherous and erratic. Sharp spears of stone and jagged mounds of rubble made the landscape chaotic. Kai dodged through the rock formations, causing a few moments of terror for the rest of the crew. Oa continued to inspect the screen, trying to gauge the distance they had left to travel. Eventually, he understood the readings well enough to guess that they were drawing near their destination.

  “Kai, slow down. Let’s get some elevation and see if we can spot the city. It should be close now. Look for a giant hole in the ground,” Oa instructed.

  Kai set the ARI on an ascending course. She pulled the throttle back to half speed. Out in front of them lay the rocky hills they had been flying through. Off in the distance, a ring of ridges appeared to slope down into a deep valley. As they flew closer, Oa realized the valley did not have a floor, the ground merely dropped off into a gaping, black abyss. Hovering over the center above the pit rested what appeared to be a metallic disc.

  “Good, the city is still here,” Ohm said in relief. He paused for a moment as if expecting the rest of the crew to appreciate the good fortune that had befallen them. “This may come as a shock to you both, but it is so much easier to find this place with the ARI. Fred and I used to trek halfway across the world to just barely miss the city as it skidded off to some other forsaken corner,” he complained.

  “Well, you shouldn’t have crashed this ship,” Kai retorted. “Now where do I land us?” she asked, looking at the mess of
metal they were flying toward.

  “Get in close, and you should see several landing structures scattered about,” Ohm replied.

  As they neared the Careening City of Artisans, Oa began to make sense of the strange place. The city was circular in shape; a sharp tower pointed toward the sky from its center. Some sort of broad energy collection plate sat atop the needle. Thick conduits ran down the spire, splitting off into three groups to run along sturdy metal rails. The rails connected from the central tower out to three clusters of engines that were built into the edge of the city at equal intervals. A collage of metal filled the space between the three spokes of the wheel-shaped city. Oa slowly realized that the mishmash was actually an intricate pattern of machine pieces grafted together in a complex and artistic architecture. The three engine clusters rotated downwards. The thrusters glowed white-hot as they fired down into the chasm to keep the city aloft in the air. As Kai slowed the ARI down to hover just outside the city, Oa was able to differentiate some of the puzzle pieces that made up the hodgepodge. He could make out dwellings, walkways, bridges, and platforms with other vehicles on them.

  He pointed to an empty platform, saying, “Land there, Kai. That looks like it will fit us.” Kai glanced at where Oa was pointing, then nodded in agreement. She flew in low and set the ARI down, landing with a slight bump.

  Kai leaned back in her seat and looked over at Oa. “You and Ohm should go get that hat. I want to see this place too, but I need to make sure the ARI wasn’t damaged in that fall we took back at the forest.” Concern for the ship had curbed her curiosity about the exotic location. “Come back when you have the hat and the information we need. Then we can all go do some exploring together and Ohm can ramble about the architecture.”

  Oa nodded. “Alright, we will be back soon.” He climbed out of the seat and walked back to the power hub chamber, where he met up with Ohm.

  “You should enjoy this city more. It will be more active than the last two. Many Awoken who have an interest in leading a normal life end up here. Most decide to stay. It’s one of the few communities left,” Ohm explained, excited to show Oa around.