Unbound Destiny 0.03.81
(Part 3)
Something major has just happened.
Her mind races as she strains to sit up. Every nerve in her body is vibrating, filled with electric energy from that … thing… that… invisible force that nearly killed her.
Her will is stronger than the weakness that fills her body.
After allowing her system to come to terms with reality once more, she decides she must go on. If not for her original purpose, then for the questions she must answer.
What the hell just happened here? What was that flash?
Fighting the tingling numbness, she forces her arms to lift herself up into a sitting position. As her swirling head comes to balance, she looks once more toward the sky.
No vortex. The clouds have returned to their previous state, as if nothing had happened.
With a groan and determined effort, she stands, then stumbles as her feet refuse to support the weight of her legs and body. Her determination forces the tendons in her ankles to obey. She closes her eyes to focus on balance.
After a while, she raises her face to the city and opens her eyes once more.
She needs to seek out the source of this sudden light and draining wave of pressure. She knows this city very well from her youth. Some part of her senses that the power surge came from one of the only remaining structures, off to her right. Nothing but rubble and stone piles can be seen on the left.
She looks over the rooftops to her right and notices some form of distorting effects — like heat rapidly dissipating. A peaked roof stands tall at the center of that radiance.
Yes, that would be the place. She knows exactly where to go and sets the course in her mind.
Carefully, she reaches down and grabs the strap of her pack. With great effort, she manages to raise it to her shoulder. It hangs awkwardly, with the other strap dragging on the ground. No matter. That will do.
She tries to take a step and staggers forward. Gritting her teeth, she forces control over her sensory-deprived extremities. Placing one wobbling step after another carefully before her, the numbness begins to dissipate as she forces her legs to work.
Her nostrils flare as she smells the odor of burnt ozone and warm blood. The blood is her own, so she wipes it again with a small piece of fabric she has drawn from her pack.
This day of exploration and memory has become something more. Now she has to investigate the source of this power wave.
On wobbling legs, and with a firmly controlled will, she starts walking toward the heat distortion.
“Come on Amber,” she says to herself, “let’s get going.”
“Elric Foerd.”
The words suddenly escape his lips. He gasps as his breath comes easily again. Memories flood back into him. He knows his name and who he is.
He is Elric Foerd, Commander of Scientific and Quantum Research at Bakula University on Mars.
“I was… hmm… well… I was…” I was doing what?
He struggles to remember what he was doing before he blacked out, finding himself… where?
So many conflicting ideas run through his mind, so much confusion. He closes his eyes, calming his raging thoughts and thinking only of Sarah.
Sarah! How can he have forgotten the love of his life?
He recalls her chocolate locks, so curly and soft as they brushed against his face after they had… well… those are not the thoughts he needs right now.
Again, he tries to think of what he was doing before… but something is blocking him from remembering.
“Well, if I can’t remember that, then I guess it’s time to find out where the hell I am.”
A memory hits him of Stan, his lab tech, gossiping on the phone just within ear-shot about how Elric always talked to himself, sometimes even beginning a conversation and ending it in a cold-faced argument with no one else in the room.
Well, that’s just because no one could ever keep up with me in a conversation, and sometimes it’s just better to work things out aloud.
Elric looks around the room, surveying the old stonework of a dilapidated building. For the first time, he notices that part of the ceiling is gone, sliced off like a sharp edge, peculiarly circular.
The sky above is clear and oddly tinted purple. It must be near sunset. Or the atmospherics are gone haywire again. Have to talk to Doctor King about that — we can’t let the boron shield get so dirty…
But, then, where in the colony would they have built structures like this one? And to leave a hole in the ceiling like that? Just odd.
Elric steps forward, opens the door, which crunches on its wooden hinges, so cracked and dry that the top one breaks apart into splinters and the door falls awkwardly to hang from the bottom hinge.
Why would they use wood for this?
As he exits the doorway, his eyes adjust to the light… no, lights!
His heart skips a beat as his mind races to come to terms with what his eyes are telling him…
There are TWO SUNS!
Only one out-of place, but perfectly appropriate though has come to the forefront of his thoughts…
“Elric, you’re not in Kansas anymore…”
Meanwhile, his mouth lets out, “Oh, shit. We did it!”