WRITING SURVIVAL!!!

[legomaestro]

Day 3

Space-Ocean

There are entire oceans in the stars. I’ve seen them before, wide spans of galaxy-wise spanning water, and there’s gigantic fish in them. Wales are the smallest fish in the sea, over here.

I’ve been here in Adromeda VI for the last 100 years. I’ve been taking a Leave from my wife of the last millenium, and I’m starting to miss her again enough to maybe get back to her. From the last I heard she was still on the Earth Terraforming project, and they were making good progress, but I’m still sceptical about a Matrioshka brain being completed soon enough to save the planet from the suns’ next step in its life-cycle, but there was a good amount of lives, money and time that’d be saved from her efforts. Thinking about her fondly, I know I definitely want to get back to that.

Some of the life in this space ocean are showing promising signs of sentiency, and I’m not naive about these things, for all I know they could be communicating in a different language, a different wavelength that I had no idea of. It had definitely happened before, all those centuries ago when Commander Cormack made contact with the Cannibal planets. That had been some nasty business. I wish I’d lived in those times. Malevolent plant-life hell bent on assimilating the universe had always been an aon-age dream of mine. I wish there were more combat in the universe in general. I liked my life as an intellectual, but I felt it was such a wasted opportunity, not being able to used my enhanced body and the ships Reverse-Mass Cannons to blaze my way through an epic battle. My wife called me a hopeless romantic, I just think there’s something in my genetic code that came from an age of warriors.

I truly wish that time travel wasn’t restricted from whatever Presence prevented it. If I had the chance I’d go back to Earth and be the greatest historian that ever lived. With my life-span and patience I’d visit absolutely every moment in time, maybe dedicate my entire being to the endeavour and record History as I saw it, but everyone knew in the Universe: you were either someone destined for time travel, or you were vaporized where you stood. Seeing as I was still alive, Time travel was clearly not in my future.

“Carols’ calling.” Said my on board computer. I blinked from my dialy log and answered the call. She looked as beautiful as ever, with her cerulean skin and brown, lustrous hair.  She was clipping a pad and paper, something she’d insisted on holding onto for the last two centuries. I smiled,

“Carol, I was just thinking about you. I think I feel like getting married again.”

“Mm.” She nodded, “How is Andromida VI?”

“Well new species keep on popping up every couple of years so it’s a really virile place. Never seen anything like it. I’m thinking some of the species may be thinking and feeling, but I’m not quite sure. You should visit it, when Command gives you a chance. How goes the terraforming?”

Carol gestured, and the viewfinder looked out upon a beautiful sad sunset. It was snowing, and a wide vast ocean stretched out before me. I am always moved by sights of the Earth, whether in older recordings, whether in its polluted and dead state or especially now, in its vibrant hopeful look, it always tugged at something deep within me.

“She’s become beautiful.” I exhaled, “I had no idea you’d gotten so far with the project.”

“We had some luck. A lot of the radiation damage from the sun is no longer an issue. The protomolecules are adapting, and we’ve even been able to push their development along.”

“Is the air still-”

Carol smiled, “2 seconds without proper insulation leads to immediate death. Even for beings like us. It’s fascinating in of itself.”

Indeed. I thought to myself. With our bodies we could survive on Mars for 4 minutes without the need of a suit or special enhancements. The famous saying of Professor Paladiski was still the rule of thumb: Earth is cursed.  Laughable, but understandeable. It was a tough nut to crack, and one of the unanswered mysteries of science along with Time-Travel, Black Holes and the Colour Shift.

“I want to see you soon, if you have time.”

“Make sure you have a substitute. I am interested in your resaearch on Andromeda, and I still have some things to wrap up, but I’ll send you my coordinates and time. Jump as soon as you can, dear. I really do miss you.”

“Shall we have our fourth honeymoon on Earth, perhaps?”

Carol smiled, “That would be illigal. Five years in prison, at the very least.”

“Hows the sun doing?”

Carol shook her head, “Honestly, I doubt they’ll be done in time. They were simply too late with creating the sphere, and Command is more interested in maintaining the other Spheres and planets to be concerned about little old Earth.”

“Hm.” I chuckled, “Well, maybe they’ll be more interested when you finally make Earth liveable again.”

“That, you can definitely count on.” Carol said. A monitor beeped behind her. She wrote something down,

“I’ve got to go.”

She typed something in the console, and my on-board Ship AI acknowledged the coordinates with a chirp of its own.

I winked at her, “Till soon.”

The connection cut off, and I walked to the bridge, staring out at a planet sized behemoth with two blue glowing eyes. They had a gravitational pull of their own, and it was sucking in a myriad of its prey. It made a sound like a deep trumpet that I allowed to get past the ships’ dampeners. It felt like music in my chest, filling me up, and carrying me away.

Come hell come sunshine, I’d never get tired of this job. I smiled to myself as I went to the shuttle-bay. I wanted to study the creature up-close.

[legomaestro]

Day 4

The Amber Flask

There were still 200 kilometres to go, and Marvin McGuffins’ car Ghost finally died on the road. Best off-road vehicle ever. It’d gone through many gunfights against maurauders, driven through swamps, over mountains and in the earlier days when the function was still available it forded a river. That’d saved Marvins’ hide: He’d pissed off a particularly hungry pack of Lionwolves, and without that quick get away he’d be a steaming pile of poop in a quiant little forest. A poor end for a combat priest like him.

He still wondered if he was headed in the right direction. He hadn’t found a single set of survivors who weren’t mutants or simply murderers. It was a brave new world indeed after the nuclear apocalypse, which made his mission all the more important.

“Father Marvin, we’ve confirmed our fears” Father Michael began, clasping his hands as he always did with all four fingers but the pinky touching and gazing into Marvins’ eyes with a stoic but empathetic  gaze, “The settlement we’re in contact with has run out of water. Any time now the entire community will collapse, and that’ll leave only us as the last humans alive. We cannot let it happen, in Gods’ name. You are to take this Water-multiplier, cross the land and replenish their water supply. We have no other combat priests to spare but you, Marvin, and we are fully confident that you will not fail, and ther est will be in Gods’ hands.”

Marvin nodded and accepted the amber flask from Father Michael. . It glowed with an ethereal light, holding a vortex of energy.

“Careful, when you open it the force will push you back, and it will not stop pouring water until 4 hours have passed. Do not flood the very people you’re trying to protect.”

Marvin nodded, wondering if the flask had anything to do with technology at this point. It would’ve been easier to call it a miracle, but he knew that the scientists of the Vatican had not been messing around for the last couple of decades, especially as they sensed that war was coming across the horizon.

Marvin looked at the gilded golden halls, the white LED squares, a bona fide gigantic structure that showed the might and riches of the Catholic church. This city wide bunker was one of a kind, housing 4 million souls and capable of taking care of all of them. When the war started the church called up a select few to live within its shielded interior, and between their super advanced technology and finincial support they withnessed the end of the world as everyone knew it without so much as a shiver.

He wondered sometimes if they could have done more, shared the technology maybe, saved a lot more souls before the end came, but all the kidness and grace in the world simply couldn’t account for how many fools and egotistical leaders were utterly interested in destroying themselves in war. And his pessimism only grew during his ardous journey to the desert settlement. Every single soul, without exception saw his multi-terrain car and his clothes and his supplies and not even charity had prevented them from attempting to steal from him. He’d been tempted to double down on his efforts to save survivors and find some good people amongst the wreckage of the world, but he was in a race against time, and he had to be as cunning as a snake and as quick as an eagle to save a lot more souls that were confirmed to be interested in surviving and holding up the simplest of humanitarian values, so he gunned his engines, loaded his rifles, pistols and throwing knives and he cut down any in his path that threatened his life.

When the car finally died he was disheartened, but hopeful. 200 kilometers was not too terrible of a treck, and at a good pace he could do 100 kilometers easy within 36 hours. After a short break he’d bite the bullet and take the special combat steroids to get him past the last stretch of the journey. Even if it caused damage to his body or ultimately death, he was confident he could at least pass the Amber flask to the right authorities in the human settlement he was visiting, and with that his msission would be done. Marvin would be content with just that alone.

At the 100 kiloemeter mark he found a city that’d gone completely dark, which was perfect for him, donning night vision goggles and carefully surveying the area for life signs, he only found some straggling dogs and one or two mutants. He set up camp in an abandoned shop, setting up trip wires and falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pocket. It had been a long day-and-a-half, and his legs were on fire from all the running. He took a ration to give his body something to process as he slept, and then dreamed a dreamless night.

When he woke up, the amber flask was gone. He searched his travel sack, carefully quietly panicking as he unpacked every single bit of his gear, but he knew as well as anything that he’d clipped it onto his belt, and that belt and the flask were completely gone.

“No… No… No….”

Marvin ran out of the house, almost hitting one of his own trip wires before remembering and vaulting over it. It was daylight, the sun shone on the husk of what used to be a city, and it looked  beautifully sad, being covered up in greenery that encroached upon it. He looked up the street and saw a dog sniff the ground. It looked at him, growled, but Marvin dispatched it without so much as a thought as he threw a knife and hit it.

He looked at the ground for any signs of footsteps or the like, but found nothing. He looked at his watch. He had 3 days according to Father Michael to get to his destination. The last 100 Kilometers required a day. That plus whoever had stolen the amber flask.

He went back to his tent, loaded up all his gear and cocked his shotgun.

The time for mercy was done. When he found the thief, he’d kill them

[Suuper-san]

@Lego if you don't finish that Amber Flask story I swear I will be nervous for the rest of my life. really nicely done, epic cliffhanger. please finish.
I'll try and give a little review for your other ones as well if I get time, it's good for me to get into a little bit of analytical learning with my writing.