Vanya's Journals, Entry 49: A DisasterMuch of the previous entry seemed unimportant to you, which is in opposition to what you know of Vanya's writing style. With a curious eye, you continue reading, wondering why her manner should suddenly change. The "switchpoint" turned out to be a massive, steel building. My first glimpse inside almost took my breath away, I remember... there only seemed to be one room, and from floor to ceiling stretched miles and miles of track, curving, looping, and meeting at conjunctions, all as dimly lit as the rest of what I'd seen of Parasol.
"It's where the cars switch from one track to the next, so that people can go in different directions if they want to," Katie explained, pointing at the different cars flashing past along the tracks above and below, filled with people.
"Aren't we going to slow down?" I asked worriedly.
She laughed. "We don't need to."
I gave a slight nod, swallowing my fears. "It's amazing," I whispered softly. "Where will it take us?"
Katie pondered my question before she responded. "Straight ahead, if I'm remembering right... I don't think we need to turn. The mainland should be just ahead of us. There'll be a little bump as we go over the central point, but it won't be anything to worry about. It should happen right about..." She raised a finger in the air and paused for a moment. "Now."
Nothing happened. I glanced over at the girl skeptically, raising an eyebrow.
Katie gave a sheepish laugh and scratched the back of her neck. "It's been a while," she explained in embarrassment.
A few seconds later, Katie got her bump... followed by an explosion that ripped our shuttlecar from its tracks with a screaming roar of twisting metal. It happened so fast, we were hardly able to comprehend what was going on... I thought we were going to die.
The vehicle shook violently, throwing us to the floor, screaming in terror. Fires danced upwards from underneath as the shuttlecar skidded sideways along the rails with a metallic screech, throwing sparks behind us. The vehicle's shield flickered for a moment, the escaping air sucking Katie along with it towards the side until she slipped, her legs dangling over the edge. Though I threw myself towards her, grabbing for her hand to keep from falling, it was pointless: the entire vehicle careened in the opposite direction as it tilted, sliding off its tracks, sending me falling down its slanted surface towards the edge.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" I screamed, grabbing wildly for a handhold as I slid.
"VANYA, HERE!" Katie yelled in return. Frantically, I caught hold of her outstretched hand; she swung me upwards towards her just as our car slid from its tracks, plummeting downwards into the depths.
It was chaos incarnate. Smoke began filling our little bubble, their fires rapidly depleting our oxygen as they burned. The control panel smoked and shuddered as electricity flicked across its surface, and we ourselves were weightless as we tumbled through the void. Heat pricked our skin, and the roaring of the flames was unnerving.
I watched as Katie made a desperate lunge for the control panel and placed her hand upon its surface, screaming with pain as the arcing electricity burned into her skin.
"Katie,
DON'T!!" I shouted, horrified, climbing towards her along the tilted edge of the car. Her efforts weren't in vain: she managed to restore gravity, and the car righted, slowing its fall.
With a reverberating crash, a set of rails halted our ruined vehicle's descent, knocking us back to the floor, though Katie split her lip as she fell. The shuttlecar’s metal frame shuddered violently from the impact, and the control panel exploded, throwing sparks as tiny flames spouted from its surface. Then, the shield flickered again, sucking away more of our precious oxygen... I knew it wouldn’t be long before it became difficult to breathe.
The car screeched forwards, and sparks flew upwards behind us as the ruined vehicle slid rapidly along the tracks, spinning as it went.
I glimpsed an empty shuttlecar approaching us from afar, and I screamed in terror as it flew towards us, threatening to knock us from our tracks. Without thinking, I threw myself towards Katie and grabbed her, and not a moment too soon. The offending vehicle clipped ours as it passed, sending it spinning towards the other side. Finally, it seemed to catch onto something that abruptly halted its rapid spin, but my heart never had a chance to slow its rapid pace; the back of the vehicle, torn open with a jagged gash, began to spew sparks and fires that crackled powerfully. Without hesitation, we scrambled towards the front to avoid the heat and flames.
Katie was crying, clutching her damaged hand close to her in agony as she tugged in vain at the storage compartment's sliding panel. "Vanya!" she shouted over the roar, "Help me get the trunk open!"
Together, we shoved at the door until we’d forced it open, even as we continued sliding down the rail we had chanced to land on. I foolishly looked behind us, and the back edge of the shuttlecar exploded, spraying sparks and twisted bits of metal into my face.
I was terrified out of my wits and in agonizing pain, my forehead throbbing to oblivion, but my friend continued unrelentingly. She grabbed me with her good hand and pulled me through the little gap we'd made, into the compartment. I climbed through after her and helped force the door shut again, curled up in the darkness, the violent sounds outside muffled by our little prison’s walls. Moments later, we felt a jar, and our padded chamber tilted us to one side, Katie falling on top of me as the car slid from the rails and fell a few final feet to the ground, flattening out with a series of uproarious clangs. When they stopped, we could hear the control panel above our head sputtering for several seconds before it died with a whining hum. All was silent but for the sound of Katie crying, and my own rapid breaths.
My old fear of small, dark spaces was returning. An image flashed before my mind: two puppies in a tiny shoebox. There was room enough to move, but not enough to sit, and it felt for all the world like the walls were closing in on me, trying to crush me to death. "I don't like small spaces, Katie," I moaned loudly, hearing the fear in my own voice.
"We only have a small amount of air!" she warned in a whining tone. I felt her moving beside my legs, trying to turn around. "You need to slow your breathing."
"It's quiet outside now!" I scrambled frantically for the door handle at my feet. "We can go!" I felt for it, and finally found it – but Katie's hand was already there.
"There's no air out there, Vanya! The air shield is gone!"
"There's hardly any air in
here!" I tried to jerk her hand away from the door, but she held firm. A hand brushed my cheek; I yelped in pain, pulling my hands back quickly to shield myself.
Katie was moving, trying to position herself upright. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! What happened?"
I cautiously felt at my face. I was bleeding; blood was trickling down from a painful gash on my forehead, and smaller cuts burned everywhere else. "My face is bleeding..." I whispered, and then I remembered: "Oh, Katie... your hand!"
I heard the rustle of clothing. "I'll be okay," she whispered back. "It just hurts."
Uselessly, I nodded, and tried to get back to the handle. "We need to get out of here."
"We can't!"
"We
can!" I hissed back at her. "We'll last at least a minute without air, and we can get the air shield back up."
She caught my hand and pushed me back. "It's ruined! We'll
die if we go out there!"
"I'd rather die there than here! This place might as well be a coffin!!" I shouted. My words rung in the still air, and I regretted what I'd said.
Finally, Katie whispered, "At least we have a chance in here. If you open that door, you'll kill both of us." A whimper entered her voice, and she paused. "I don't want to die, Vanya..."
It was the final nail. I stopped struggling against her and lay still in wide-eyed terror, my breathing fast and shallow.
"Calm down. Deep breaths," she whispered soothingly. "We're safe now." She felt about for my hand, and found it, taking it in hers. "Take slow, deep breaths. We need to stay calm and quiet to preserve our air."
I nodded again, the thought that she couldn't see me never entering my mind. Tears swam in my eyes as I slowly calmed my breathing, thinking of wide-open fields, Salaia, a warm bed, and Spearbreakers... anything but puppies.
"Thank you, Katie," I whispered, giving her hand a squeeze. "What happened?"
"I don't know," she answered simply. "Shuttlecars never explode like this."
"Can you think of anyone who would try to do this to kill you?" I asked.
Her response was quick. "No, no one..."
After a brief hesitation, I ventured, "Will anyone come save us?"
There was a long pause, and the silence was almost unbearable. Finally, she whispered so faintly I could hardly hear her: "I don't know. I doubt anyone would think we could've survived."
And for an eternity, Katie and I lay there facing each other, praying silently to our gods for rescue.
~~~
A loud clang echoed through the walls, startling us both.
"What was that?!" Katie gasped.
Before I had a chance to reply, another clang rung out, followed by a scraping, dragging noise as the ruined vehicle seemed to shift outside the confines of our little cage.
"They're saving us!" I cried out, pounding at the door.
The walls shrieked as some unseen instrument sliced into the shuttlecar floor. Two more sharp clangs rang out, a crash, and with a metallic scream, a jagged tear appeared above our heads, air rushing through the gap as light spilled in to take its place.
"Let us out!" my friend yelled frantically, pounding at the door. Towards me, she cried, "Help!" as she tried to force open the compartment door.
I crawled forwards, the air exploding urgently from my lungs as it rushed into the vacuum. With an effort, we managed to get the sliding panel to move... but only a few inches. I looked at Katie's terrified face in the dim light; watched her speak words that never reached my ears, and together, we realized there was no way we could get it open.
The floor vibrated; something sliced silently through the panel wall, just above our heads. Katie and I scooted backwards in fright as it sliced through a second time; again, and again – the entire wall fell to the ground and a hand reached through the gap, menacing with the hope of rescue. Without questioning, Katie and I scrambled for it in desperation; one by one, it drew us out of our claustrophobic prison and back into the light.
It was Reudh. Like a conquering hero, he stood with a firm stance atop the shuttlecar's ruined exterior, his adamantine pike stuck upright into the silver metal at his side as he pulled us to our feet, thrusting us towards a shuttlecar that waited only feet away.
As I stumbled through the cyan barrier, that first breath of fresh air hitting my lungs, I felt I had never tasted anything sweeter.
Katie lay on her back, gasping for breath. I turned and looked at Reudh in time to see him pull his weapon from our ruined vehicle and leap back onto his own, his cloak billowing back as he breached the airshield and got down on one knee beside us.
"Vanya? Katie?" he asked quickly. "Are you all right? I was following behind you and saw what happened! By all the gods, I am truly glad to see both of you still alive!"
I started crying with relief. "Reudh..." I began, but threw my arms around his neck instead. "Thank you so much." I'd never been so happy to see him before.
"Reudh... you're awesome," Katie whispered, smiling up at us from the floor as she brushed the hair from her face.
"I thank you," he responded politely, returning my embrace. Then, holding me at arm’s length, he examined my face, frowning sharply. "Vanya, you are badly hurt... We must get you to the Parasol hospital at once!"
Katie was getting to her feet. "Reudh, Parasol has lots of hospitals," she pointed out.
"Then we shall travel to the nearest," he said, undeterred, and turned away from me towards the console panel, confidently placing his hands upon its surface.
"Where did you learn to pilot a shuttlecar?" I asked him.
"I watched Katie teach you, of course," he replied smoothly. Then, he paused, and a minute later, he turned haltingly to Katie, a confused expression on his face. "It refuses to move. It says we must remain where we are."
Katie nodded. "It's the SCCS," she said as she got to her feet. "The Shuttlecar Control Service."
She didn't get a chance to explain – a second car quickly pulled up on the track alongside us, coming from the opposite direction. Four full-suited Parasol soldiers, as tall as humans, stood at attention on its floor, none of them even touching the controls as the vehicle slowed to a halt. Before we could react, two of them turned and leapt across the gap, landing softly beside us.
Reudh didn't spare a moment. "These women are injured! They need medical assistance," he told them, putting a hand on one's shoulder before drawing it back, startled.
The soldier in question turned towards him smoothly. "I am here to serve," an artificial, dwarf-like voice intoned. The other soldier withdrew a device from a pouch on its leg and began to scan me from head to toe.
I glanced at Katie, and she seemed to know what I was asking. "They're androids," she explained. "It's their job to keep the shuttlecar transit system safe." Even as she spoke, the other one had already started to scan her, too.
"This is astonishing!" Reudh said, awed. "Machines that act like people... it is marvelous!"
Mine finished scanning me, and one of its fingers flipped open, revealing a tiny nozzle. "Hold still," it intoned, placing a hand gently on the back of my head as its open finger sprayed something onto my face. I winced: it stung and made my face go numb. "Your wounds are contaminated with an iapetous compound," the being said. Its finger flipped shut, and a second flipped open, revealing a tweezers-like device. "Do not move," it intoned again. With fast, quick motions, it began picking at my face, removing and discarding little specks of metal.
I didn't dare to move. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the other one brushing something onto Katie's hand. Reudh was watching in fascination.
The SCCS officer working on my face began to smear some sort of silver material onto my face. "Do not touch the affected area for two hours," it ordered. "Wash your face carefully tonight. Your forehead will scar, but will be treatable." Its fingers flicked shut and it stepped backwards to stand beside its twin. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I later learned it had stitched shut my wound.
Somehow, I found the notion of humanoid robots very disturbing... I wanted them gone. "You can go now," I suggested cautiously, glancing back and forth between them and Katie, who was examining her hand as she flexed her fingers.
"Thank you for choosing Shuttlecar Transit," they said together, their voices indistinguishable. As one, they leapt back to the other car and assumed their previous positions, and their vehicle moved away, accelerating into the distance. I followed them with my eyes as they left. Then, feeling the weight of Katie's stare, I turned towards her in askance.
She was gazing at me curiously, idly brushing her lips with a finger. "You don't like them?" she queried.
"I don't know," I began uncomfortably. "Something about them makes me uneasy."
Fortunately, Reudh saved me from further commentary. "All right," he said decidedly, stepping forwards between us and placing his hands on the control panel. "Let us be off! Where shall we go, Katie?"
Katie responded, and the car began to move, but I wasn't listening to their conversation. My mind was elsewhere.
I
knew why I didn't like them... I didn't know when, or where, or how, but I'd encountered them before. The memories were just beyond my grasp, slipping past my fingertips... and though I tried my best to focus my thoughts, nothing solved my problem.
A tiny bump shook me from my quiet place and back to the fast-paced world of Parasol as we sped down the tracks, and this time, there was no explosion.
"I can still hardly believe you survived that fall," Reudh was saying, glancing back at me.
"It was Katie," I admitted, and then a curious thought struck me. "Katie, you said you almost never ride on shuttlecars, but when it derailed... you knew exactly what to do..." I watched her face, puzzled.
She frowned nervously, her gaze falling to the floor. "It's my dad," she said with a quiet sigh. "Before I was born, my older half-brother died in a freak shuttlecar accident. It was my dad's fault, and he's never forgiven himself for it. He's afraid of shuttlecars now, and he thinks he'll lose me the same way." She sighed again, and lifted her head, shaking the hair out of her face. "When I was little, he would run drills with me in our living room on what I should do if anything bad happened, teaching me override codes and stuff... but later on, he decided it would be safer to ban me from shuttlecars completely."
"He sounds like he loves you very much," Reudh said, as I tried to imagine how it felt.
She offered a sardonic smirk. "You'd be surprised," she muttered. "Dad hardly lets me do anything. He's a weapons instructor, but he never even let me watch him work – 'too dangerous', he says." She sighed again, folding her arms and staring ahead of us. "He probably already knows we're coming."
And silence fell on our little group as we continued towards our destination, at a total loss as to why anyone would want to kill my friend.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2281704 times)