Shades Of Forever

Wires and I waste no time making our way down the far side of Watching Hill. The track here isn't used as much, since the only thing on this side is the reserve of old growth forest we keep in case of emergencies. We haven't had an emergency in centuries, though, so the towering trunks soon blot out the stars, and we have to pull out our glow lights to keep from twisting an ankle.

I give mine a quick shake to activate it, then clip it to the strap on my pack placed there solely for that purpose. Glow lights are another benefit some long-deceased Idiot came up with - instead of eating the highly toxic bioluminescent moss, she figured out how to cultivate it nearly in perpetuity. As long as I water my glow light every week and throw in the occasional food scrap, I don't have to worry about being unable to see.

My glow light begins emitting a soft, steady aura of bluish light, not so harsh as to ruin my nightvision, but enough to see by. I look over at Wires in confusion when I realize his isn't activated yet. He's tapping at the container and frowning.

"Forget to water it?"

"Nah," he replies, still fiddling with the transparent rectangle. "Tried feeding it some unprocessed Glowbeast meat."

"...and why in the name of all the Saints would you do that?"

"I'm an Idiot, remember? I figured, Glowbeasts glow, glow lights glow, why not see if one makes the other work even better?"

"That... is definitely Idiot reasoning. You're lucky I'm here, otherwise you'd trip and break your neck. Is it even safe? Being close to unprocessed Glowbeast flesh is a nasty way to die."

He nods.

"Gave it a day in a nothing box, then checked it at Saint Curie's cistern. Came out clean. Just haven't had a chance to use it before now." He taps at it again, this time with more frustration, and the device suddenly flickers into life. "Aha! See, told you-"

The glow continues brightening, far past what a glow light should be capable of, and then the rectangle bursts into flames. Wires yelps and throws it on the ground, quickly stomping the smoldering mess out with his sturdy boots.

I sigh, then start snorting with laughter.

"Well that certainly went as well as could be expected. I bet you don't even have a backup, do you?"

He flashes me a rude gesture, then rummages through his pack for a second glow light.

"I told you, I'm an Idiot, but I'm not dumb. Of course I have a backup."

Thankfully, this one doesn't explode, instead assuming the same gentle illumination as my own, and we continue on through the trees. Their interlocking canopies block out any traces of starlight, making it feel like we're walking through a vaulting cave, but the gentle swish of air through their leaves is as comforting as it's always been. I scan my surroundings vigilantly, though - it's rare for one of the outside creatures to come into the valley, but that doesn't mean it never happens, and the last thing I want to do is let a crabroach or juvenile Glowbeast get the drop on us. Next to me, Wires is doing the same thing, each of us keeping a hand close to our holsters.

Pretty soon the path vanishes completely, taken over by forest undergrowth, and I make sure to check my compass regularly. While it's impossible to really get lost in the valley, I want to get to the starfly as soon as possible. Some perverse curiosity is driving me onward, the culmination of a lifetime spent staring up and wondering.

"Hey, Sky," Wires says quietly.

"Yeah?"

"...do you think we're doing the right thing?"

The unexpected question nearly causes me to trip over a tree root.

"What? Of course we are. Whatever that starfly is, it's too close to the valley to ignore." I stop for a moment to give Wires my full attention. "What's this about? Back on the hill you were all ready to go off by yourself."

His eyes dart side to side, and he clears his throat.

"Yeah, I know I talked a good game, but that was because everyone else was watching. It's an Idiot's job to go investigate, but I keep thinking back to what I saw in the flames."

"Did you see it too?" I ask eagerly. "The triangle? It looked like it was falling apart, but even still... if that's a starfly's body, it's still gorgeous."

"Sky... I don't think that was a creature. I think it was something made."

"What? But who could possibly make something like that? We're the last humans left."

"Sky..."

He trails off, then starts walking forward again, as if he's hoping his feet will lead him to the words he wants to say. I follow behind, mulling over what he's already said. If the starfly was made, then that means someone out there is making them. If someone out there is making them, then that means someone is in space, amongst the stars.

I thought I knew what it meant to want something with my whole being. I was wrong.

I want to go see the stars so badly it hurts. It's in my very name, one of the earliest desires I can remember. It's why I became a Memoriam, searching through all the histories we have of the Old World, of their fantastic flying "airplanes" and "missiles" and "satellites." I want to be a part of the sky, and a part of the sky beyond that.

"...Sky. Sky!"

Wires hisses at me in warning and I pull myself out of my thoughts. The forest is thinning around us, revealing the unnamed hill that marks this part of the valley's boundary, along with an ominous red glow rising behind it. Scattered fires smolder on the sparse hillside, a path of destruction leading up and over to the other side.

Unexpected movement amongst the flames freezes both of us in our tracks. There shouldn't be anyone out here yet, not unless one of the Glowbeast hunters happened to be wandering through this exact area. I reach down and unholster my pistol, taking it into a two-handed firing grip, though I don't raise it yet. There's still a chance it might be someone from the village. Next to me, Wires does the same, leaning in close, putting us nearly cheek to cheek.

"We can still head back, get one of the older Idiots. They'll know what to do."

"...no. I want to see that starfly. Besides, it's probably just one of the hunters."

"...okay then. I'll head over there," he flicks his head at a clear area about twenty feet away, "and hail them, see if it's one of the hunting crew. You be ready to shoot if it isn't."

"Got it."

Wires sucks in a deep breath, then squares his shoulders. My mouth suddenly feels dry, my tongue scratchy and too big, and a surge of doubt assails me. What if Wires is right? What if this is too much for us to handle? We're both fairly new to our clan positions, after all.

"Hey! Who's there?"

Wires calls out, and now it's too late to go back. I try to steady my breathing, looking for the shadowy figure we saw earlier, and then impossibly fast motion skitters into life.

I'm too stunned to react in those first precious seconds, caught off-guard by the sheer wrongness emanating from the sinuous thing flowing like hot oil down the hillside. Its limbs are shifting their lengths as it moves, dragging it forward in lurching bursts of motion that should be jerky and awkward, but somehow manages to convey an impression of overwhelming grace, and the number of limbs themselves seem to change in between each stop-motion sprint. It passes near a fire and the sensation of wrongness increases, a sudden headache stabbing into my brain. The creature has no visible mouth or eyes, the wet-slick surface of its body in constant roiling motion, but I could swear it just looked at me and grinned.

The first crack from Wires' pistol breaks my paralysis, and I raise my own weapon in shaking hands. My first shot goes wide, joined by another two cracks from Wires, and I force myself to focus. It's no different than hunting a crabroach, I try to convince my brain. My sights steady, and the second shot lands true, sinking into the thing's oily flank with a splatter of ruined flesh and dark ichor. It lets loose an eerie screech, then shifts direction to charge straight at me. I squeeze off another round, striking it center mass, and it screeches again. Another shot from Wires rings out, and this one must have hit something important because the creature goes down in a thrashing tangle of limbs. I suck in a shuddering breath, keeping my pistol trained on the weakly twitching mound, but it doesn't seem to be moving towards us anymore. I look over at Wires, and he's gasping for air just like me. I totter over to stand beside him, still wary of the thing now lying still on the ground.

"What... what was that?"

His voice is shaky, and I don't blame him. There's nothing in any of the Memory Shrine records about a creature like what just attacked us.

"It felt... like it didn't belong," I say slowly, trying to work through the short term memories screaming for attention in my head. "Like, my mind couldn't make sense of it."

Yeah," Wires shudders, "I know what you mean. All those teeth all over it, and the eyes..." He shudders again, and I look at him, confused.

"What do you mean, 'teeth and eyes?' I didn't see anything like that at all. Just gross, wet skin, like someone dropped it in tar and it never dried."

"We're looking at the same thing, right?" Wires points at the unmoving form. "That pile of stuff from faces that doesn't belong as skin?"

I squint, but no matter how much I try to see what Wires is describing, all I see is the same grotesque puddle of oleaginous rubbery limbs.

"Look," I tell him reproachfully, "it clearly doesn't have any teeth, or eyes, or stuff from people's faces. It's like some horrible slug."

"I'm telling you," Wires insists, walking towards the corpse, "it's absolutely covered in teeth, and eyes, and teeth with eyes, and-"

I don't know what instinct tells me to throw myself at him, but it's the only thing that saves his life. I tackle his lower legs, dragging him to the ground, barely in time before a stabbing tendril of inky darkness lances through the spot Wires' head just occupied, there and gone in a flash, retracting back into the body with a snapping hiss. We look at each other with panic-wide eyes, then both of us scramble back to our feet.

This time, we empty the rest of our clips into the treacherous abomination, not stopping until the dry clicks of empty triggers rattles the air. The thing's body hisses slightly, then deflates while staying the same size, growing thinner and thinner around its edges until it melts into nothing at all, leaving behind a small gray orb. I rub my eyes in disbelief, but they still insist that there's no longer anything in the flickering firelight except for what looks like a polished stone.

"What the fuck?!" Wires shouts, hands trembling around his pistol grip. It takes him three tries to successfully reload the weapon and get it into his holster, eyes flashing around feverishly the entire time. "Am I going crazy?"

"You..." I pause to swallow, trying to get some moisture back in my mouth, "you saw it disappear too, right? Because if you didn't, then I'm also going crazy."

I manage to reload and holster my own pistol in two tries.

"Okay. Okay okay." Wires tries to calm himself down. "If you also saw it, then it actually happened. That... thing, it melted away. Gone. Like- like the world was eating it."

"It felt wrong," I agree, rubbing my shoulders. Even though the air's still slightly warm from the crashed starfly, a chill runs through me. "And what did it leave behind?"

Wires cautiously picks his way over the hillside's churned up earth, making his way towards the object. I'm about to yell at him to stop when he does so, three steps away from the gray sphere. It's about as big as my clenched fist, and just like the creature it came from, something about it feels off. I stare at it, trying to figure out what's making my instincts gibber.

"It doesn't reflect the light," Wires says hoarsely. He motions for me to join him. As I get closer, I see he's right. The gray sphere should be painted in shades of red and orange and blue, but it remains the same polished slate hue, like it was painted onto my vision without bothering to interact with anything else around it.

I shiver again. As much as I want to get to the starfly and examine it, there's too much going on that doesn't make sense. I'm starting to think Wires is right, that we should go back to the village and get someone older, someone with more experience.

"Hey," Wires says suddenly, "do you have anything non-reactive on you? Insulation?" He's digging through his pack for something, and I blink at the sudden non-sequitur.

"Uhm," I pat my pockets, then feel something wrinkle, "oh, wait, yeah. I do." I pull out the wax paper from my earlier meal and unfold it. "Why?"

"Mind if I borrow it?"

"Uhm, sure?"

He deftly snags it from my hand, his other already holding a small container, then steps over to the sphere.

"Wait-"

Using the wax paper as a sort of glove, Wires quickly snatches up the orb and drops it neatly into the container, then quickly screws a lid on. I feel my mouth fall open.

"You... Idiot! That is the most Idiot idea any Idiot has every Idioted! What were you thinking?"

"Didn't die, right?" Wires responds proudly, offering me back the wax paper. I smack it out of his hand without touching it, watching the scrap flutter into one of the fires and flare into ash.

"What if it's like an adult Glowbeast? You'll be dead before we can get back to Saint Curie's cistern!"

He shrugs.

"I'm an Idiot. It's what we do. Besides, look at this thing. Isn't it amazing?"

He hands me the container and I reluctantly take it, holding it in front of my face for a better view. Wires is right - even through the imperfect glass, the sphere captures my eye with its impossible nature, minute whorls and curlicues threatening to resolve into meaningful shapes, then disappearing like early morning summer fog. The pale orb resists definition, but the word "potential" keeps slipping into the forefront of my mind.

"You're right, Wires. It's amaz-"

A shrieking whistle from overhead culminates with a ground-shaking impact, albeit one not quite as severe as the starfly coming down. It still causes Wires and I to stumble against each other, and when I regain my balance, there's a new artifact lodged at the base of the hillside, standing tall between us and the forest. It's a cylinder that looks like it's made out of some kind of metal, steaming in the middle of the muddy crater it must have just created.

Before we can even think to question this new development, four large panels pop off the sides of the cylinder in an explosion of sound, one of the heavy plates barely missing us. It scatters one of the flaming bits of wreckage with a crashing clang, and I flinch. When I look back up, four humanoid figures are climbing out of the cylinder, but they don't look like any humans I've ever seen. They're fully covered in bulky metal plates, almost chitinous in nature, and each one carries a thin boxy rectangular device in both hands, the front of each one pointed halfway between us and the ground.

"Skrnx flsk bfutf grnl graaan loark!"

One of the figures yells something at us, but it's not a language either Wires or I recognize. We glance at each other, then back up warily, hands reaching for the grips of our pistols.

"Naert! Naert! Skmlar tkn vinxla!"

"Run, Sky!" Wires shouts, drawing his pistol and firing a warning shot in the air. As I turn to flee up the hillside, I see one of the figures fully raise the device it's holding, pointing it at Wires.

fssswhp

Wires falls apart like someone disassembling a doll, limbs and head separating from his torso almost comically slow, my eyes widening in a second that feels like it lasts forever. Bright red sprays lose their coherency in the molten starfly glow still radiating from behind the hill, hitting the ground with a pattering hiss indistinguishable from spring rain.

I want to scream. I want to vomit. I want to wake up from this horrible nightmare.

I finally break free from that endless moment, scrambling up the hill in a sobbing tangle of limbs. Indecipherable shouting rises from behind me, and with the hand not holding Wires' container, I flail for my pistol.

fssswhp

Freezing cold whips across my right shoulder, a burning tendril of ice. I try to raise my pistol to fire back, but nothing happens. Momentarily unbalanced, I stagger to the side.

fssswhp

A massive divot appears on the hillside to my left, chunks of turf gouting into the air. I reach for my pistol again, not understanding why it's not in my hand. The first flashes of pain start seeping through the shock and adrenaline.

Oh. That's why it's not in my hand. I don't have a right arm anymore.

fssswhp

More ice blossoms along my left hip, altering my headlong scramble into a lurching almost-fall. Something warm and wet trickles into my boot, causing it to squelch as I desperately claw my way to the crest of the hill. A furnace of flames opens up before me, the shattered mass of the starfly's behemoth shape covering the hollow beyond in ruined splendor, silvery skin blackened and warped by its tumbling impact with the earth. My breath catches in my lungs, and I turn my head to see if the beetle-like figures are still pursuing me.

fssswhp

The right side of my vision goes black, bits of something spraying out into the fires below, and I feel a curious lassitude settle over whatever's left of my body.

Oh. I guess that's it, then. I wish I could have been buried beneath a tree.

Beyond numb, I topple over the crest, my body picking up speed as it rolls down the steeper downslope on the other side. I bounce off something hard, then something hot, but it all feels like a dream, a whirling kaleidoscope of withered grass and burning mud and squelching metal and always always always up above the stars staring down and what little I have staring back until my eye slips shut and blackness takes it all.

I bang to a halt against something curiously unyielding, simultaneously impossibly hard and impossibly welcoming, a pillow of molten steel that keeps its fires banked beneath a gentle shield of pillowy soft air. It feels like lifting a mountain, but I force my remaining eye open.

A tableau of madness gazes back, inches away from my face. Colors I recognize swirl into those I have no names for, crystalline facets of an edgeless whole gently rotating within themselves in endless spirals. I don't have words to describe what lies within their depths.

"Grfnkts shlkarn! Shlkarn!"

fssswhp

Freezing fire lashes my legs, and if I could laugh I would, beholding the neatly severed stumps of my thighs. What's another body part lost at this point? Summoning all my strength, I force myself into a seated position, shoving whatever it is I'm holding into the ground to push myself upright, letting go of it and weakly scrabbling for my somehow still-holstered pistol with my off-hand. It takes more than two tries to get it free, but finally the worn grip is in my hand.

"Take-"

crack

"-that-"

crack

"-you assholes-"

click

I wheeze with graveyard laughter. Of course it jammed. I've been rolling around in mud.

"AHHHHHHH! FUCK YOU!"

I throw the worthless weapon at the bug-like figures cautiously advancing down the hill, knowing it won't reach them, then slump back against the impossible surface still cushioning my back. A hundred thousand nerve signals finally make their presence felt, a tidal wave of pain rolling in on foaming breakers of despair, and my eye slips shut.

"...I just wanted to see the stars..."

Initializing... Execute Bootstrap.exe... Sufficient biomass in range... Searching...

Sufficient reality in range... Searching... Neural map complete... Searching...

Quantum variables resolved... Searching... reality updated... Optimizing responses...

Optimizing... Optimizing... reality optimized... Updating parameters...

Parameters established... Execute Bridge.exe... Resolving reality paradoxes... Imaginary values resolved...

Calculating local variables... Resolving... Resolving... Local variables resolved...

Finalizing reality... Local reality established... Calculating subroutines... Resolving...

Optimal subroutines established

Wake up, Sky.