Titans
[33] MERC

The Stelliferous Era [312:51]

Location: Aion Universe

We’re explorers, titans of some unclaimed universe, treading across a strange planet, extra-terrestrial rock under our boots, alien stars in the dark sky above our heads. If you look up, you can see distant stars exploding to life like blue and red flowers blooming for the first time. They blossom all across the sky, far enough away that we don’t feel the dangerous cosmic aftermath, but close enough to witness the beauty.

Cal’s been at it for two days now. He’s found stockpiles of usable information. No one asks him what he’s read, what he’s learnt. No one wants to know.

Atara says, “What are you expecting to replace out here?”

We’ve walked a fair distance from the ship – far enough that it’s barely a glowing point on the horizon. Atara swings her flashlight horizontally, scanning the way ahead. Just to my right, Lilith points her torch at the sky, flicking it on and off.

Four quick flashes. Pause. One quick flash. Pause. Quick flash, long flash, quick, quick.

It goes on. I realise it’s Morse code. But I’m not entirely sure who she’s trying to signal.

“I don’t know,” I reply. “Something.”

We walk on. At one point we reach a long crevice in the ground, too wide to jump across, and have to veer right. It doesn’t really matter. Our destination is somewhere. And there’s an infinite amount of routes to get there.

For the most part we walk in silence. There’s a tenseness to the air, although I doubt Atara feels it. It’s there every time I’m in a room with the two of them. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever go away.

I know the truth of it, even if I won’t admit it: I still haven’t forgiven Lilith. Not completely. And I still feel guilty for the secret I share with her. What would Atara do if she knew her shooter was also her friend?

And then another thought occurs to me, even more unsettling: Who does Atara think shot her? And why isn’t she asking us about it?

“Stop,” Lilith says. She throws an arm out in front of us.

She aims her flashlight down. Barely a metre from out feet the ground drops out. Beyond there’s just a deep, black pit.

Atara shivers. “I didn’t see it.”

And it’s no wonder why. Everything is so dark out here, it’s hard to tell the difference between rocky earth and black abyss, even with a flashlight. Aim it in the wrong direction for too long and it’s game over.

Atara sends her beam out across the the rift. The light seems to get lost in the night.

“We should go back,” I say. “There’s nothing out here.”

“No, wait,” Atara says. She peers into the gloom. “Is that–”

Suddenly there’s a jolt. The ground bucks as though trying to fling us into space. I trip but manage to catch myself before flying over the edge of the abyss. Atara falls forward, landing on her hands, head poking over into the dark. Her flashlight rolls out of her grip and over the lip of the rift, a falling star, fading, fading.

The ground is still shaking.

“What are you doing?” Lilith yells. “Get up, get up!”

Atara fumbles back from the edge and I help her to her feet, both of us stumbling as we try to keep steady. The sky cracks thunderously overhead, light splitting up the darkness. Lilith grabs Atara’s other arm and starts running.

It’s an earthquake. No, it’s more. It’s the planet turned animate, thrashing and shuddering. It’s the three of us, sprinting through the newly-minted day. It’s a roaring, the voice of an angry god permeating the universe. It’s the ground splitting open and us having to jump, to claw, to grip onto life with white knuckles and desperate hands.

The sky splits again, louder, closer. We’re hit by a force – the wind? – that knocks us onto our backs. The air rushes out of my lungs and I gasp. Then someone is dragging me to my feet, hands gripping my wrists tightly.

“Come on,” Lilith is shouting. “We have to keep moving!”

And we do, even as the quaking intensifies, the ground starting to crumble beneath our feet. I take a step only to replace that my foot has punched straight through and is buried up to the ankle in dirt. Another few paces later and it happens again. The rock cuts through my pants, scrapes up against my calf. It feels like I’m tearing off skin when I have to pull my foot out a third time. The pain is awful.

“Nearly there,” Lilith says, and she’s right. The ship has come into full view, a glowing saviour amongst the destruction. The universe screams.

The ramp is still down where we left it. Cal stands at the top, a silhouette against the light, shouting our names. Lilith pushes Atara in front of us. “You get on first,” she shouts. “Get on and get straight to the control room! Don’t wait for us, just go!” Atara nods, although I can’t be sure; everything is shaking.

Just as we near the ramp, the earth splits before us. Atara, being in front, manages to jump across to the other side. She bounds up the ramp, blonde hair flying as she whirls to look back at us.

“Go!” Lilith yells. Atara goes.

Meanwhile, the ground has drawn open further. The divide is at least a three metres wide now and impossibly deep. I leap. My feet hit the edge of the other side but the landing is unstable. I feel the rock giving way beneath my feet and for a terrifying moment, I lose my balance, arms pin-wheeling. Then the planet jolts again and it knocks me forward onto my hands and knees.

I get up. That’s when I realise Lilith hasn’t jumped with me.

Spinning around, I replace her still on the other side. Her foot is caught in wedge between two sides of shifting rock and it won’t budge. She looks up at me, eyes wide and frightened. Her voice, on the other hand, is still angry. “Get on the ship!” she shouts.

For the briefest of instants, I consider doing just that. Boarding the ship. Leaving her here. Calling it karma for shooting Atara.

But I can’t do it. Even after everything, I can’t leave her behind. Goddammit Lilith.

I give myself a running start before I jump back across. The earth has pulled apart even further and I land on my side, skidding to a stop. I’ve probably ripped my arm to shreds against the course ground but I don’t care.

“What are you doing?” Lilith says, as angry at me as she is relieved. I can see it: behind all the rage and barked commands and selflessness, she’s just a girl in desperate want of rescuing.

I look her in the eye and say firmly, “Saving your life.”

She’s well-trapped. I push away the surrounding rocks and reach down into the wedge. There’s a pressure against the shifting earth, like it wants slam shut. “Your foot is the only thing holding these two rock faces apart,” I tell her. “When I pull out your foot, I’ll need you to push against this wall of rock here.”

She nods silently.

I wrap one hand around her ankle and another under the base of her boot. “On three,” I say. “One. Two. Three.”

Lilith pushes and I pull, and in one smooth movement her foot is free. The wedge slams shut immediately after.

I help her to her feet and turn back to the fissure between us and the ship. By this point it’s at least six metres across – too wide to jump. We can’t make it. The ground beneath us begins cracking and toppling into the crevice. We back-peddle but have to stop when the earth bucks up behind us as well, forming a raised lip over a deep drop. I realise we’re stranded on an island with no way off it.

“What now?” Lilith shouts.

Just then, the ship’s engines start roaring. Slowly it picks up of the ground, lifting towards us. “We jump,” I shout back.

The ship rises faster than it travels toward us. By the time it’s in reaching distance, it’s already above our heads. We get one shot.

“Now!”

We jump at the same time, hands clamping onto the end of the ramp. The ship rises further, pulls over to the left. I tell myself not to look down but my curiosity wins out. We’re directly above a massive black pit. I swear I see a glow at the bottom, but it couldn’t be. No rift could be so deep that it goes all the way to the centre of the planet, could it?

My hands are sweaty. The fingers of my left hand slip off and my heart thuds out a fast-paced rhythm. I’m dangling by one hand over a drop to certain-death.

“Here,” someone says above me. I look up. It’s Lilith, her face backlit by the stars exploding above. She reaches down, hand open.

I stare at her, lost for a second in the strangeness of it all – this girl, this bad-tempered danger who once punched me in the face, now offering up a hand. I take it.

She yanks me up onto the platform. “I guess we’re even then,” she says as I get to my feet.

“I wasn’t keeping score,” I reply, not looking. Her eyes burn my cheek as we head up the ramp.

Once we’re inside, Cal gets the ramp back up. It closes against the side of the ship with a soft hiss and click. He exhales. “Close one.”

Lilith leans back against the wall as her breathing calms. She’s bloodied and clearly in pain and despite everything, she smiles. “We should do that again sometime.”