When you wake up, usually you expect to find yourself opening eyes to familiar surroundings: a bedroom, a living room, or even a cell or a small space of your own on a spaceship. Whenever you wake up and find yourself in a place unfamiliar, usually the common response is panicking, getting up, looking around to see if you can identify anything in the room, the housing or spaceship you find yourself awake in.
Or you find yourself awake, on your back, and facing the muzzle of a gun or the tip of a blade. A shadowed figure, barely illuminated by the sunlight dipping on the edge of the horizon behind them, holding the weapon in your face, staring down at you as if you're a threat, but not a big enough threat to deem worth shooting.
They linger there, wondering as if they can't decide whether to take you dead, or trouble themselves in capturing you alive. Sometimes, they'll poke you, making sure you didn't die with your eyes awake, or maybe just to see how you'll react. If you don't move, this brings upon a scowl and words that you may, or more than likely will not, understand. The words will probably sound something like this, if you do understand them: "Who are you? Why are you playing dead?" Or maybe they are more compassionate and thank their gods that you weren't dead, since you were on their property.
No one likes to deal with a foreigner's dead body on their property. It just simply kills the morning, really.
By now, you're fully awake, maybe even sitting upright. The one who found you might take a cautious step back and hold tighter to their little weapon, frightened by your movement, or even feeling threatened that you dared to sit up instead of lying down and continuing to fake death.
Being fully awake, you look around with curious, maybe even frightened--maybe disturbed, angry, or frustrated--eyes. Then, not having found a single familiar item, you return your gaze back to the being who had poked you awake and disturbed your slumber.
"Where am I?" you will inquire, hoping to get an answer.
Perhaps you will. Perhaps you won't....
Or perhaps, there's no one at all....
Or you find yourself awake, on your back, and facing the muzzle of a gun or the tip of a blade. A shadowed figure, barely illuminated by the sunlight dipping on the edge of the horizon behind them, holding the weapon in your face, staring down at you as if you're a threat, but not a big enough threat to deem worth shooting.
They linger there, wondering as if they can't decide whether to take you dead, or trouble themselves in capturing you alive. Sometimes, they'll poke you, making sure you didn't die with your eyes awake, or maybe just to see how you'll react. If you don't move, this brings upon a scowl and words that you may, or more than likely will not, understand. The words will probably sound something like this, if you do understand them: "Who are you? Why are you playing dead?" Or maybe they are more compassionate and thank their gods that you weren't dead, since you were on their property.
No one likes to deal with a foreigner's dead body on their property. It just simply kills the morning, really.
By now, you're fully awake, maybe even sitting upright. The one who found you might take a cautious step back and hold tighter to their little weapon, frightened by your movement, or even feeling threatened that you dared to sit up instead of lying down and continuing to fake death.
Being fully awake, you look around with curious, maybe even frightened--maybe disturbed, angry, or frustrated--eyes. Then, not having found a single familiar item, you return your gaze back to the being who had poked you awake and disturbed your slumber.
"Where am I?" you will inquire, hoping to get an answer.
Perhaps you will. Perhaps you won't....
Or perhaps it isn't a friend, or a neutral man whose territory you somehow awakened on. Perhaps it's no one quite as nice, quite as gentle.
Or perhaps, there's no one at all....
* * * * *
My name is Callie Mosk, and right now, I don't want to open my eyes. I'm on my back, in a situation I'm afraid to make real. It's that ridiculous part of you that says it won't be real if you just keep your eyes closed, if you don't say a thing, if you just will it away by trying to go back to the black unconscious slumber you had just stirred out of.
I feel the wet chill of the morning dew around me, feeling a few drops on my skin as well as the tall grass I had made a bed without realizing it. A warm breeze rustles about, and I hear an unhappy creature caw-ing. It's a creature I was unfamiliar with, its call foreign to me as I was to this planet I happened to wake to. The atmosphere was fine, almost pure but with an aftertaste of something burnt. I was afraid still to open my eyes and see just why the pure of the planet had such a charcoal flavor afterwards.
I remained motionlessly lying on the dew-covered grass, eyes shut a bit tighter than they had been, as if nightmares surrounded me and the only way to keep them at bay was to remain blind to this new world.
The creature from before let off a disturbed, sad cawwwaaaa caaahhhwaaaaa noise. I almost felt sorry for this creature, as if I had known it and had cared for it, and now it was suffering and I could do nothing about it.
I could open my eyes. Maybe it's trapped, and is trying to wake me, beckon me for help.... The idea wasn't too far fetched. Some planets had intelligent creatures that were more like birds, or reptiles than humans. They walked on all four---six, eight, ten... whichever the number may be---legs, like any animal from a Human-ruled planet. There were Bipedal entities as well, of course; even a species that had three legs and a long tail to keep them balanced. There were so many creatures that it made the idea of the painfully crying one nearby to be the planet's highest member of the food chain.
Or it could just be another animal crying for help, caught in the real highest member of the food chain's trap. A trap to hunt and capture food. In that case, there would be little for me to do--more like a mockery, actually. One must learn from earlier mistakes: do not mess with other beings' trapped food, whether it be alive or dead.
"You aren't really dead, are you?" Another unfamiliar voice said from an equally close distance as the creature. At least this one spoke in a language I knew.
But it was a voice I wasn't familiar with. Dare I acknowledge their words to be true, or ignore and risk the possibility of angering them?
I wasn't fond of getting hurt, pain didn't strike me as fun. So, I surrendered to the hopes of the whole nightmare going away by faking sleep, and opened my eyes.
I expected a brighter atmosphere, something like a forest maybe. The dew covered grass seemed to strike such a thought; the lack of sunlight blaring on my body had made me believe there were plenty of trees, rows upon uneven rows of them....
Perhaps at one point there had been trees; perhaps at one point there was a forest. Perhaps.
The smell of something burnt soon had a face. My whole surroundings, in fact, was the aftermath of a city that had probably stood wonderfully during its time as a whole. Now it was reduced to rubble; smoke billowing in thin whisps here and there, heading up towards the dark sky of clouds. The patch of grass I was lying upon proved to be one of rare happening as I looked around and discovered I was on what could have been a park of sorts. There was an archway off to the left, serving as an entrance maybe to this possible park. The archway itself was chipped on the top, parts of its left side was bent out of shape, causing it to be twisted and unlike its former self.
"What happened here?" I found myself gasping, taking in my surroundings. I felt sad, of course. Debris of any ruins made me feel that way. I knew at one point someone had to have lived in such a place, that it hadn't always been rubble and ruins. The same was for this once magnificent city: perhaps hundreds, maybe thousands, had once lived here.... Now, there was little to nothing left of it.
The voice that had directed me awake spoke once more: "So you were playing dead." This time I located it to be behind me. The soft cawwwaaaaa caahhhwaaaaa sound screeching with a rasp of pain sounded even softer. I turned to look at it as it had intruded upon the voice behind me before it had chance to say more.
The creature looked like it had run out of a fire. Exhausted, it limped pathetically on its better but still weak left leg. The right one was so popped out of place that it made me cringe. It looked like a bird with fur instead of feathers. It had no arms, its face was oblongish, set on a very short neck positioned on a body that was no bigger than my hands put together. Its pale eyes looked at me then behind me as it again let out its pitiful cry, hobbling towards us with hope of relief.
The blast of a gun startled me. I jumped a bit, then turned at where it had come. The figure was behind me, probably the one who had known I wasn't dead. From one outstretched arm ended a small pistol: rather old fashioned, the type one rarely saw nowadays. Its end was pointed at the creature, now dead.
"You killed it," I said, as if it needed to be stated.
The figure looked at me, and I finally realized it was a female. Eyes were a swirl of different shades of blue; skin almost pale as Earth IV's moon, Topia. She wore an uncommon arrangement of clothing that suggested outlaw. A space renegade, perhaps a pirate; maybe a mercenary from the looks of the belt holding other small, light and not light weapons. The trench coat she wore covered most of what she carried as weapons. Her hair was long, straight, and black.... and wet.
"It wanted to die," she said in a sober tone.
I stared at her for a while before a soft rumble above us made me look away and back at the sky. "Where am I...?" I finally asked softly. I really wasn't sure if the woman by me would give me an answer or not. I couldn't figure her out, really. She seemed somewhat intimidating, yet, she had the compassion to kill the creature instead of torture it or even try to help it---which would have probably just prolonged a painful death.
"It does not really matter any more, because where you are no longer exists as anything but ruins.... something of the past, something likely to be forgotten in many other cities destined for the same fate."
"What planet, then?"
"A planet of ruins... a planet of death..." came the rather depressing answer.
I turned my head back to the woman. She hadn't really moved much, except to put away the gun. "Does it have a name? Or just a reputation?"
"It has a name," the woman answered.
"What is its name?"
"Ta'rahnma."
I shivered. That was uncomfortably far, far away from where I last remembered being. It wasn't really on my places to go visit either, as Ta'rahnma was known for its unsettled population: Humans and the original 'top members of the food chain', the Ta'rahnmians. "I shouldn't be here....." I muttered, suddenly afraid.
"Where do you plan to go?" the woman asked, as if truly curious.
"Away from here."
"How? You clearly have no transport. And likely no money, as well." She nodded at me, or more actually my wallet, I assumed.
I checked and was unhappy to find she was right. My wallet had been emptied and stolen from. All that remained inside was a few useless notes about things I didn't want to forget about. I frowned, looking around. "Maybe...."
"You can find a job? Not likely."
"I can venture to the nearest city."
The woman shook her head, "Not likely. The Ta'rahnmians will likely find you and cut you where you stand. You have no weapon on you, either."
I looked. Again, she was right.
I grew visibly frustrated now. I was sure I heard a laugh from her, if but brief. I looked at her curiously.
"Would you... help me?"
"I do nothing for free," she said, almost warning.
"I have no money."
"I can find something for you to give as payment."
"I don't sell my body," I protested.
She made a face of disgust, to which I was grateful. "Such an inhuman proposition does not interest me." She eyed me up and down then said: "What is your name?"
"Callie. Callie Mosk."
"Mosk, huh? I don't seem to recall that name."
"I'm from Palais 5."
The woman shrugged. "Neither bounty nor important is that name."
"So you will leave me here?" My expression fell. I had to find something to use as payment. I did a quick pocket and jewelry search, only to find nothing worth anything had been left on me. I sighed, defeated.
"Can you cook?"
I thought for a moment, dwelling on what had been my first--and last--cooking endeavor. Unhappily and truthfully, I shook my head no.
The woman thought again, her compassion oddly placed. Apparently she would help me only if she knew I wasn't some homeless bum trying to find my way back home. Palais 5 wasn't exactly a hop, skip and a jump from here. It was more like a five thousand twenty lightyear jump.
"Do you know much about engines?" She finally asked.
I helplessly stared at her. Engines and I never really mixed well. I wasn't very good with such things.
The woman stared at me, unbelieving that I had gotten through life without those two in my cache of things I was experienced with. I suppose that made sense, but then again, to me, they weren't really things I needed.
"What can you do, then?"
"Aboard a spaceship?" I asked, then knew it was obvious. She had asked about engines, after all. Where else would we go on? A boat? Sail the seas, sure; but forget going back to Palais 5 that way.
Oddly, a wisecrack did not come. The woman remained silent, though she did look at me funny for a moment before returning to that chilly yet normal expression once more. She looked somewhat familiar, now that I had stared at her for a good while now, seen the details of her face and such. Yet, I wasn't sure why she was familiar to me.
A low rumbling echoed above us again. I naturally looked up at the sky, noticing how it had grown darker than before.
"I can clean...." I suddenly blurted, finding the first thing that came to mind. I did not want to be left in this storm. Especially not on a planet that had been inhabited and then taken over, leaving the Ta'rahnmians hateful towards humanity for doing so. Considering I was a human, this would be not the best of places to be at night by myself. Especially because of the lack of weapons on me.
The woman thought for a moment. Though it was obviously not what she was looking for, she nodded anyway. "Very well then. Come." She motioned me closer, but did not head off in any direction after she did so. I curiously came over, looking at the sky when I felt a cool wet spot on my exposed shoulder.
The woman looked up as well, as if she, too, had felt a droplet. "The sky grows darker still.... Not the type of storm I would want to be caught up in. We best hurry." She put a hand on my arm and coolly said: "Hold on tight."
I did so, reaching out and taking hold of the sleeve of her trench coat. It was smooth, but easy to grip and hold onto. Which was good, because once I had a hold on her, and her hand was clamped on my left arm, I suddenly felt the world around me ripple and then a light-headed sensation came to me.
It wasn't until our surroundings slipped into fragments of utter blackness, like an abyss had suddenly grown teeth from its hiding place and was about to eat us--that I realized what was going on: She was teleporting us.
My name is Callie Mosk, and right now, I don't want to open my eyes. I'm on my back, in a situation I'm afraid to make real. It's that ridiculous part of you that says it won't be real if you just keep your eyes closed, if you don't say a thing, if you just will it away by trying to go back to the black unconscious slumber you had just stirred out of.
I feel the wet chill of the morning dew around me, feeling a few drops on my skin as well as the tall grass I had made a bed without realizing it. A warm breeze rustles about, and I hear an unhappy creature caw-ing. It's a creature I was unfamiliar with, its call foreign to me as I was to this planet I happened to wake to. The atmosphere was fine, almost pure but with an aftertaste of something burnt. I was afraid still to open my eyes and see just why the pure of the planet had such a charcoal flavor afterwards.
I remained motionlessly lying on the dew-covered grass, eyes shut a bit tighter than they had been, as if nightmares surrounded me and the only way to keep them at bay was to remain blind to this new world.
The creature from before let off a disturbed, sad cawwwaaaa caaahhhwaaaaa noise. I almost felt sorry for this creature, as if I had known it and had cared for it, and now it was suffering and I could do nothing about it.
I could open my eyes. Maybe it's trapped, and is trying to wake me, beckon me for help.... The idea wasn't too far fetched. Some planets had intelligent creatures that were more like birds, or reptiles than humans. They walked on all four---six, eight, ten... whichever the number may be---legs, like any animal from a Human-ruled planet. There were Bipedal entities as well, of course; even a species that had three legs and a long tail to keep them balanced. There were so many creatures that it made the idea of the painfully crying one nearby to be the planet's highest member of the food chain.
Or it could just be another animal crying for help, caught in the real highest member of the food chain's trap. A trap to hunt and capture food. In that case, there would be little for me to do--more like a mockery, actually. One must learn from earlier mistakes: do not mess with other beings' trapped food, whether it be alive or dead.
"You aren't really dead, are you?" Another unfamiliar voice said from an equally close distance as the creature. At least this one spoke in a language I knew.
But it was a voice I wasn't familiar with. Dare I acknowledge their words to be true, or ignore and risk the possibility of angering them?
I wasn't fond of getting hurt, pain didn't strike me as fun. So, I surrendered to the hopes of the whole nightmare going away by faking sleep, and opened my eyes.
I expected a brighter atmosphere, something like a forest maybe. The dew covered grass seemed to strike such a thought; the lack of sunlight blaring on my body had made me believe there were plenty of trees, rows upon uneven rows of them....
Perhaps at one point there had been trees; perhaps at one point there was a forest. Perhaps.
The smell of something burnt soon had a face. My whole surroundings, in fact, was the aftermath of a city that had probably stood wonderfully during its time as a whole. Now it was reduced to rubble; smoke billowing in thin whisps here and there, heading up towards the dark sky of clouds. The patch of grass I was lying upon proved to be one of rare happening as I looked around and discovered I was on what could have been a park of sorts. There was an archway off to the left, serving as an entrance maybe to this possible park. The archway itself was chipped on the top, parts of its left side was bent out of shape, causing it to be twisted and unlike its former self.
"What happened here?" I found myself gasping, taking in my surroundings. I felt sad, of course. Debris of any ruins made me feel that way. I knew at one point someone had to have lived in such a place, that it hadn't always been rubble and ruins. The same was for this once magnificent city: perhaps hundreds, maybe thousands, had once lived here.... Now, there was little to nothing left of it.
The voice that had directed me awake spoke once more: "So you were playing dead." This time I located it to be behind me. The soft cawwwaaaaa caahhhwaaaaa sound screeching with a rasp of pain sounded even softer. I turned to look at it as it had intruded upon the voice behind me before it had chance to say more.
The creature looked like it had run out of a fire. Exhausted, it limped pathetically on its better but still weak left leg. The right one was so popped out of place that it made me cringe. It looked like a bird with fur instead of feathers. It had no arms, its face was oblongish, set on a very short neck positioned on a body that was no bigger than my hands put together. Its pale eyes looked at me then behind me as it again let out its pitiful cry, hobbling towards us with hope of relief.
The blast of a gun startled me. I jumped a bit, then turned at where it had come. The figure was behind me, probably the one who had known I wasn't dead. From one outstretched arm ended a small pistol: rather old fashioned, the type one rarely saw nowadays. Its end was pointed at the creature, now dead.
"You killed it," I said, as if it needed to be stated.
The figure looked at me, and I finally realized it was a female. Eyes were a swirl of different shades of blue; skin almost pale as Earth IV's moon, Topia. She wore an uncommon arrangement of clothing that suggested outlaw. A space renegade, perhaps a pirate; maybe a mercenary from the looks of the belt holding other small, light and not light weapons. The trench coat she wore covered most of what she carried as weapons. Her hair was long, straight, and black.... and wet.
"It wanted to die," she said in a sober tone.
I stared at her for a while before a soft rumble above us made me look away and back at the sky. "Where am I...?" I finally asked softly. I really wasn't sure if the woman by me would give me an answer or not. I couldn't figure her out, really. She seemed somewhat intimidating, yet, she had the compassion to kill the creature instead of torture it or even try to help it---which would have probably just prolonged a painful death.
"It does not really matter any more, because where you are no longer exists as anything but ruins.... something of the past, something likely to be forgotten in many other cities destined for the same fate."
"What planet, then?"
"A planet of ruins... a planet of death..." came the rather depressing answer.
I turned my head back to the woman. She hadn't really moved much, except to put away the gun. "Does it have a name? Or just a reputation?"
"It has a name," the woman answered.
"What is its name?"
"Ta'rahnma."
I shivered. That was uncomfortably far, far away from where I last remembered being. It wasn't really on my places to go visit either, as Ta'rahnma was known for its unsettled population: Humans and the original 'top members of the food chain', the Ta'rahnmians. "I shouldn't be here....." I muttered, suddenly afraid.
"Where do you plan to go?" the woman asked, as if truly curious.
"Away from here."
"How? You clearly have no transport. And likely no money, as well." She nodded at me, or more actually my wallet, I assumed.
I checked and was unhappy to find she was right. My wallet had been emptied and stolen from. All that remained inside was a few useless notes about things I didn't want to forget about. I frowned, looking around. "Maybe...."
"You can find a job? Not likely."
"I can venture to the nearest city."
The woman shook her head, "Not likely. The Ta'rahnmians will likely find you and cut you where you stand. You have no weapon on you, either."
I looked. Again, she was right.
I grew visibly frustrated now. I was sure I heard a laugh from her, if but brief. I looked at her curiously.
"Would you... help me?"
"I do nothing for free," she said, almost warning.
"I have no money."
"I can find something for you to give as payment."
"I don't sell my body," I protested.
She made a face of disgust, to which I was grateful. "Such an inhuman proposition does not interest me." She eyed me up and down then said: "What is your name?"
"Callie. Callie Mosk."
"Mosk, huh? I don't seem to recall that name."
"I'm from Palais 5."
The woman shrugged. "Neither bounty nor important is that name."
"So you will leave me here?" My expression fell. I had to find something to use as payment. I did a quick pocket and jewelry search, only to find nothing worth anything had been left on me. I sighed, defeated.
"Can you cook?"
I thought for a moment, dwelling on what had been my first--and last--cooking endeavor. Unhappily and truthfully, I shook my head no.
The woman thought again, her compassion oddly placed. Apparently she would help me only if she knew I wasn't some homeless bum trying to find my way back home. Palais 5 wasn't exactly a hop, skip and a jump from here. It was more like a five thousand twenty lightyear jump.
"Do you know much about engines?" She finally asked.
I helplessly stared at her. Engines and I never really mixed well. I wasn't very good with such things.
The woman stared at me, unbelieving that I had gotten through life without those two in my cache of things I was experienced with. I suppose that made sense, but then again, to me, they weren't really things I needed.
"What can you do, then?"
"Aboard a spaceship?" I asked, then knew it was obvious. She had asked about engines, after all. Where else would we go on? A boat? Sail the seas, sure; but forget going back to Palais 5 that way.
Oddly, a wisecrack did not come. The woman remained silent, though she did look at me funny for a moment before returning to that chilly yet normal expression once more. She looked somewhat familiar, now that I had stared at her for a good while now, seen the details of her face and such. Yet, I wasn't sure why she was familiar to me.
A low rumbling echoed above us again. I naturally looked up at the sky, noticing how it had grown darker than before.
"I can clean...." I suddenly blurted, finding the first thing that came to mind. I did not want to be left in this storm. Especially not on a planet that had been inhabited and then taken over, leaving the Ta'rahnmians hateful towards humanity for doing so. Considering I was a human, this would be not the best of places to be at night by myself. Especially because of the lack of weapons on me.
The woman thought for a moment. Though it was obviously not what she was looking for, she nodded anyway. "Very well then. Come." She motioned me closer, but did not head off in any direction after she did so. I curiously came over, looking at the sky when I felt a cool wet spot on my exposed shoulder.
The woman looked up as well, as if she, too, had felt a droplet. "The sky grows darker still.... Not the type of storm I would want to be caught up in. We best hurry." She put a hand on my arm and coolly said: "Hold on tight."
I did so, reaching out and taking hold of the sleeve of her trench coat. It was smooth, but easy to grip and hold onto. Which was good, because once I had a hold on her, and her hand was clamped on my left arm, I suddenly felt the world around me ripple and then a light-headed sensation came to me.
It wasn't until our surroundings slipped into fragments of utter blackness, like an abyss had suddenly grown teeth from its hiding place and was about to eat us--that I realized what was going on: She was teleporting us.
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