Rifter: Part One
by Float Overblow
(t8n-depart:"dissolve")+(t8n-arrive:"flicker")[[New Game->Earth as we know it]]//The world is dying.//
That is the only way to describe a mass extinction, for what is the world without life? Dozens of lifeless worlds dance through Sol. Only one supports complex life.
//Only one supports us. We failed it.//
Too little, too late, people are beginning to wake up to the sentence we've given ourselves. Greed, war, hate, and fear have dug our grave.
//We're not quite in it yet. Like so many, I became a scientist because I wanted to find some way out of the impossible task we've made of survival. But lately, my dogs are the only thing that keeps me sane and working, because I don't think it's coming.//
[[Dogs?->Dogs.]]//I have two of them. One named Sarah, the other named Tau. Both were strays.
There are a lot of strays. With the coast uninhabitable, a lot of people just didn't have the resources to take care of their pets. I help as many as I can.
Some days, I can stomach the impending loss of humanity. But we don't deserve dogs, and they don't deserve to lose with us.//
You tap away at your keyboard, journaling the beginning of your daily report - you submit these to the Savannah River National Laboratory. It's rare that anything important happens, perhaps once a month when the accelerator is activated. Today is one such day.
As far as you know, you are the world's foremost expert on high-energy metamaterials, possibly the last that will have a firm grasp on the subject. Five years ago you were given the task to explore the properties of a specific subset of osmium-based microlenses. You have faith in your work, you know it could pan out if some assumptions about the fine energy constant prove correct, but it is slow going.
[[Finish your report.->Warming up Colossus]](set: $StartDelay to false)You sigh and sign your name to the email, Dr. Fred Barr, click send, and open up the interface to Colossus. It's your pet name for the equipment you've designed and ordered from the prototyping division of Savannah River. You push the 'Initialize' button and lean back, staring at the thing.
It isn't even particularly large for an accelerator, a bit of a joke really. About the size of a chest freezer, though the military-grade cryogenics were highly optimized to cool only the necessary apparatus, so unfortunately useless to store your beer. Seating and calibrating the target had been yesterday's task, so all there was to do was wait.
You look over at Sarah, who is struggling with Tau to retain hold of the chew toy they brought from home at some point. They're bumping around on the floor - you laugh and give Tau some encouragement. The smaller dog usually loses these tussles.
[[Get up and make coffee.->Coffee!]]
[[Try to calm the dogs down.->Outside.]]You let them play while you set the kettle, dumping the last bit of instant coffee into your mug after rinsing it in the lab's sink. Sarah, the australian shepherd, is making frustrated grunts while Tau nips at her face trying to get her to flinch and drop the section of rope. She springs up suddenly, full of energy, and dashes away.
Her body bumps the collimeter for Collosus. The edge of your vision warps a little, and you feel a sudden surge of vertigo. Your mug nearly drops from your hand as you collapse to a seated position leaning against the counter.
"Woah. What the hell?"
Sarah and Tau both look shaken, sitting too, whining their heads off in a way you've never heard before. After a moment, the vertigo subsides, and you hear the kettle start to screech. Clamboring to your feet you pour the hot water into the mug, and set it on the counter wary of another episode.
[[Look at the computer->The readout]]
[[Pull the plug->Just to be safe]](set: $StartDelay to true)You go over to rub both their tummies - they're getting a little rambunctious, though the equipment is secure enough. Tau grabs your arm instead to play, her mouth loose around your wrist, and you laugh. You walk with them up the rug-covered metal steps and throw one of the tennis balls you keep there for a while.
They chase it relentlessly down the driveway, overjoyed at this new competition. Sarah is larger than Tau, an australian shepherd and hound mix respectively. Tau proudly returns the ball first, angling his head away from Sarah and jauntily strutting up to you to take it back to throw again.
This goes on longer than you realize - you check your phone and half an hour has passed. Colossus should be fully initialized at this point. You call the dogs back in, both clearly disappointed but faithful to your commands.
They trot downstairs ahead of you, Sarah panting more heavily than Tau - she was older by several years and beginning to flag in energy, though she'd recover soon enough.
[[Take a seat.->Inside.]]You poke through the data trying to figure out what caused the distortion. You notice something bizarre - the power output graph for the collimeter wavered upwards just before Sarah bumped it, and plateaued at 100% before settling back down. This is technically physically possible, but it's in some ways a measure of power loss, so it should never reach it, never mind flatline there.
"Are we over unity?" you ask no one in particular. Sarah whines, pushing her face under your arm for reassurance. You glance back and Tau seems to have completely recovered now that the other dog has forgotten the rope.
This was, after all, the goal - and yet the accelerator has not activated. You struggle to understand why it could be having any such effect. Your mind is firing in near panic - this is unexplored territory.
Perhaps you really should shut down to document these findings?
[[Turn it off.->Just to be safe]]
[[Enable logging and press 'fire mode'->The rift]](set: $StartDelay to true)You power down the collimeter. There's just no way this should have happened. You don't even know what happened - the vertigo, the warping, felt by you and the dogs, is like nothing you've experienced.
It had to be the target. "But I didn't start the thing!" You stare at where you slid the wafer into Collosus, hidden underneath radiation shielding.
Flickers of a memory, in your Intro EE class, of a discussion of circuits firing without power due to electromagnetic interference. Shielding. There is no shielding that exists in physics for what you're attempting.
The hair on the back of your neck rises as you consider what might be happening. You're attempting to strengthen the gravitational force using other dimensions. What if...
[[Restart the machine.->Warming up again.]]
[[Take a walk.->Walk time.]]Your finger does not reach the screen before the shudders start. The tip twitches as if you've been zapped, and you recoil through rippling waves of nausea, watching your hand retreat in slow motion and feeling a peculiar resistence there. You turn your head, and your head keeps turning - you're slammed with an overpowering wave of vertigo, falling to your knees.
You hear Sarah and Tau yelping, but like you're underwater. Your vision is blurred, either from squinting or tears. You empty your breakfast on the tiles.
The air, the very space around you is... groaning. Or grinding against something. The sound is horrible, visceral, and it won't stop. Your skin crinkles under the force of its sound.
You feel a sharp pain inside of your chest as the air there expands and contracts. You collapse, coughing, eyes watering, narrowly avoiding your own vomit. And you simply wait for it to stop, if it ever will.
[[Wait.->Relief]]You decide your caution was for nothing and start the process up again. You note the deviation in your experiment in the log. You consider tapping on the collimeter chassis when it's done to see if the ripple happens again, but decide the idea is silly.
Tau waddles over and bumps his head against your ankle. You scratch him behind the collar like he enjoys.
[[Enable logging and turn on 'fire mode'.->The rift]]You bring Tau and Sarah out, climbing up the metal stairs to their eager panting, worn out tennis ball in hand. Exiting through the empty guard station, you flinch as your eyes adjust to the harsh sunlight. It is unbearably humid and warm, as usual for North Carolina.
You throw the ball down the gravel path, towards home. You wonder, not for the first time, why you don't just move here - it's less crowded than the shelters, and with a cart, you could as easily walk to town for food and supplies as you do to work. The quiet here is the best thing about the job.
Well, next to probing the boundaries of known physics. And bringing your pets to work. And not having to deal with the bureaucracy of Savannah River every day.
It's actually a pretty good job.
You think about what could have caused the ripple. It had obviously been felt by the two bounding away down the path, though they seem fully recovered. //Maybe there's a short somewhere...//
You dismiss the idea. Shorts were not a problem for the densely-sealed graphene circuits of the national laboratory's finest. An arc, perhaps, but if so, it hinted that your experiment was about to see success.
[[Go inside->Back to work.]]The sensation slowly fades, but you do not rise for several minutes after, fear paralyzing you. For a moment you were convinced you were going to die, and the constant of the cold tile was all that grounded you from mindless panic. Gradually, you regain your curiosity and lift your head.
You feel cold air. A tree fills your vision, and fragments of concrete spill around you.
Tau and Sarah are sniffing at a stump. You rise to your feet and look around - where you were is filled with forest, as if a diorama had replaced a neat orb of a sylvan scene with your workplace like a melon ball. //This is impossible.//
Overhead you see the roof beginning to sag, dangerously. A massive, chest-rumbling groan of twisting metal pushes you forward, stumbling in panic, and then there is blinding daylight. You throw your arm over your face, startled. Sarah and Tau are barking like mad.
[[Your eyes adjust.->In the forest]]After playing for about a half hour longer with the two, you call them over and trudge downstairs. The rugs on the steps need cleaning, something you've been putting off because it meant keeping the dogs home. The metal grating was great to avoid slipping and to keep clean easily but it caught at their toenails and made for painful injuries.
You look at the data again while Sarah settles down at your feet. Slumping down into your office chair you decide there's nothing for it but to reinitialize. No other oddities apparent, you enable logging and hit 'fire'.
[[The world shifts.->The rift]](set: $ForestDelay to false)Behind you lies the wreckage of your workspace, some eighteen feet of it sliced neatly into a sphere, a bizarre mound of brick capping it all, sliced so cleanly it had the mirror sheen of polished stone. The only thing holding it up was a metal doorway that had led to your bathroom - you shudder, thinking about what would have happened if it hadn't been there to momentarily lend support to the roof.
You approach, and poke through the wreckage - the whole upper portion of the sphere has slumped away from your workspace. You find what you're looking for, a USB drive half ripped away from the port it was in. You snap it off at the connector knowing it can be repaired - it contains the readings just prior to the event.
The event. //What the hell happened? Where am I?//
[[Get the lay of the land.->Looking around]]
[[Keep looking through the wreck.->The sample]]You sit at your computer and examine the metrics from Colossus. Everything looks normal, until Sarah rolls to her other side and bumps the collimeter. You see the power output spike, suddenly, and your peripheral vision //warps//. You feel a sudden surge of vertigo.
You'd chalk it up to blood pressure but Sarah and Tau are both whining. At you? you're unsure. Maybe you should see a doctor.
That power reading is worrisome, but it appears to have settled back down to normal levels, so you set the collimeter to fire mode, enable logging, and reach for the button to fire.
[[Fire.->The rift]](set: $ForestDelay to false)The area is gorgeous, much chillier than NC. You rub your arms, your short sleeve t-shirt not doing much to warm you in the breeze. Clearly you aren't in Kansas, either - there are massive conifers, and little undergrowth in the shade they make.
On closer inspection, they aren't redwoods, but their size could have fooled you. You wonder where in the world trees like this still exist - climate change has affected nearly every biome and last you heard there were mudslides in BC. You call your dogs to your side and consider your options.
You know the best way to find civilization, of any kind, was to find a river and follow it downstream. Some kind of construction was inevitable, even along little creeks, and creeks fed rivers. You could also try climbing one of the trees to get a better vantage, but that seemed risky.
[[Climb a tree.->Climbing]]
[[Try to find water.->Walking]](set: $ForestDelay to true)You want one more thing, the metamaterial sample you put in the instrument's target slot. Ideally the folks at Savannah River could replicate it from your logs, but maybe there was some fluke that caused this they couldn't know about. It seems to sit at the epicenter, and you put your body into clearing enough of the wreckage to reach it.
You sigh in frustration, realizing after several minutes of work there's just too much mass between you and it to manage. You'd need a jackhammer to blow through all the mortar and brick, and then you wonder if it would be too flattened in the instrument to recognize. You set the idea aside for now, and look around.
[[Look around you.->Looking around]](set: $ForestDelay to true)It takes several attempts and scratched palms, but after clearing away the dead lower branches, you pull yourself up the trunk of a promising specimen and hoist yourself over its first sturdy branch, ungracefully dragging your legs up with the branch painfully digging into your stomach. Tau and Sarah watch you, laughing silently in a doggy way. "Stay," you say, unnecessarily - how could they miss this entertainment?
You move so that one foot is lodged into the crook of the branch, and begin the slow process of testing and manuevering to higher branches. They all seem healthy this high up but you don't want to risk finding one with some unexpected rot. You are so focused on moving higher that you almost fail to notice that you've gotten to where you wanted to be.
You look up and, through the V of the trees nearby, you see the distant landscape. Smooth hills, lower than you, indicate a valley of some kind, and where there are valleys, there's water. You notice a speck in the distance, flying through the air - its outline is strange.
//A drone.// You feel an odd sense of relief seeing your first artifact of civilization. You begin to climb back down.
[[Towards the Valley.->Walking to the Valley]]You follow the rolls and folds of the forest downhill, pushing your way at times through brush where a creek has sapped away soil from the roots of encroaching trees. Your dogs follow happily, bounding ahead occasionally, sniffing at everything and nothing. You do not feel so enthusiastic, the enormity of your situation weighing on you more and more.
Nothing like this should be possible, the amount of energy required was astronomical, and yet here you are. You wrack your brain for an explanation, some rationale for why toying with the constant of gravity in a normal mode should do anything besides some raw release of mass or energy, the fusion you were after. That you should have widened a wormhole seemed like too convenient of an explanation, the chances of it were so low as far as you knew and the energy involved in your experiment too little, but it's the closest to an answer you can come up with.
You near a river, heard before you see it through the branches, and your train of thought is broken by frantic barking. You stumble your way down to the rocky shore, where Sarah is perched as close to the water as she'll brave. Normally terrified of the stuff, her attention is fixed to a person on the other side of the swift-moving water.
You squint, your eyes adjusting to the bright flashes of light off the foaming waves, and then stare, open-mouthed. Covered in fur, her head like a dog's, with a crest of bright orange, red, and white feathers like a cockatiel's streaming from her forehead back - you swear you see it rise as she stares back at you.
Suddenly, her feet leave the ground as if she's being lifted up by her shoulders.
[[Watch.->She approaches.]]You dismount the tree in an ungraceful slump, wanting to avoid spraining your ankle and knowing the thick pine needles will cushion your fall. Tau and Sarah both run up and start licking your face - you push them away, squinting your eyes to protect them from the onslaught. They wag their tails, happy you're ok.
You stand up and orient yourself towards the valley, and start walking. You take your time, knowing you aren't used to hikes this long and that you lack any kind of provisions - there was a small coffee bar with the sink buried somewhere in the rubble, useless now. You suddenly feel infinitely more fragile in the vast forest, having seen no other sign of civilization but the drone.
It takes you around half an hour to reach the valley - you hear the sound of water before you reach the river, around 20 feet wide with quick rapids. You are looking for a path down to the rocky beach when Sarah begins barking like crazy, charging her way down a dirt slope with an ungraceful, face-first landing, and sprinting towards the water. Tau yaps after her but is unwilling to follow.
You look up and on the near shore see something you cannot fully process. It's a person, for sure, but covered in fur. Bright streaks of feathers like a cockatiel's crest streak up from their forehead in a spiked array you watch rise, organically. Goosebumps flood your limbs as you stare at them, rising from the ground as Sarah nears.
[[Yell at Sarah to get back.->Bad dog.]]
[[Study the figure.->Alien.]]
[[Hide.->Hiding.]]"Sarah! Get back here!"
The figure hovers, some five feet in the air, and stares down at Sarah jumping and nipping at their toes. She lifts up her arm and curls her hand closed, and Sarah yelps as she, too, is pulled impossibly upwards, gravity forgotten.
"What the hell. What the hell?!" you say, not believing, refusing to believe this violation of principles dearly held from the moment you began to play with blocks. There is some hallucination here, you're certain. You're dreaming, or...
You feel a jolt in your stomach as she lifts her other arm towards you, and despite yourself, you turn to run from the
very
obviously
not-possible
wizard-alien-thing
and find your feet churning air, kicking momentarily at sand, legs straining and flailing. You tear up, certain you've been thrown in some explosion, that your head will crack against a tree any moment, raw panic making every nerve in your body scream fire and doom and death.
She holds you there for a while until you calm down.
You still feel your breathing juddering as you do, your throat raw from screams you did not consciously have any part in making.
[[Say hi.->Greetings.]]Your eyes aren't working right, she's wearing some kind of costume, the light from the water is screwing with you, because her head is like a dog's, with feathers in odd places. The figure hovers, some five feet in the air, and stares down at Sarah jumping and nipping at their toes. She lifts up her arm and curls her hand closed, and Sarah yelps as she, too, is pulled impossibly upwards, gravity forgotten.
"What the hell. What the hell?!" you say, not believing, refusing to believe this violation of principles dearly held from the moment you began to play with blocks. There is some trick here, you're certain. You're dreaming, or...
You feel a jolt in your stomach as she lifts her other arm towards you, and despite yourself, you turn to run from the
very
obviously
not-possible
wizard-alien-thing
and find your feet churning air, kicking momentarily at sand, legs straining and flailing. You tear up, certain you've been thrown in some explosion, that your head will crack against a tree any moment, raw panic making every nerve in your body scream fire and doom and death.
She holds you there for a while until you calm down.
You still feel your breathing juddering as you do, your throat raw from screams you did not consciously have any part in making.
[[Say hi.->Greetings.]]You duck down, terror filling your lungs but mouth clamped shut around the scream you would make. Both of your dogs are more bold than you - you hear Sarah barking furiously at the alien... thing, Tau yapping close to your ear. You try to calm him down, lest he give your location away.
You hear yelping and peek out, then stand up, stomach frozen.
The figure hovers, some five feet in the air, her arm extended towards your dog. Sarah is hovering there too, shocked yelps escaping her.
"What the hell. What the hell?!" you say, not believing, refusing to believe this violation of principles dearly held from the moment you began to play with blocks. There is some hallucination here, you're certain. You're dreaming, or...
You feel a jolt in your stomach as she lifts her other arm towards you, and despite yourself, you turn to run from the
very
obviously
not-possible
wizard-alien-thing
and find your feet churning air, kicking momentarily at sand, legs straining and flailing. You tear up, certain you've been thrown in some explosion, that your head will crack against a tree any moment, raw panic making every nerve in your body scream fire and doom and death.
She holds you there for a while until you calm down.
You still feel your breathing juddering as you do, your throat raw from screams you did not consciously have any part in making.
[[Say hi.->Greetings.]]"Uh... hello?" you say. Tau whining from the forest. You hope he does not bolt.
She stares at you. Her eyes are violet - contacts? You glance down at her shoulders. This is not a costume - you see her traps move under her fur as she moves her arms.
"Hello, uh..." you say again. You are speechless, otherwise, uncertainty paralyzing you.
"Hell. Oh. Uh." she says, slowly. Her teeth are as sharp as any dog's you've seen. She looks over at Sarah, still yapping.
"Sarah, stop!" you command. Sarah's barks cease, replaced by worried growling.
"It's ok," you reassure Sarah. "Friend." You hope your tone is more convincing to her than it is to yourself.
Tau, surprisingly, walks closer, curiosity overriding fear. His tail wiggles, low, apprehensive. "Friend, Tau."
"Hriend," the alien repeats to the dog, her canine muzzle having trouble with the F sound. Tau appears to understand, however, and his tail is a blur as he trots closer, the little dog delighted by the novelty which Sarah is still convinced is a threat.
She kneels down, and her own tail sways above her very human posterior. You watch her give Tau very human pets, finding his spot behind the collar immediately. Her hands (paws?) are clawed, but dextrous.
She is as enthralled by the creature in front of her as you are by her. "Tau," you say, pointing at your dog.
"Tau $dog." she says to him. "Stria $friend."
Her words have no emphasis, are spaced evenly, but you catch his name first and something clicks in your head.
[[Take a guess at using her language]]"What the hell. What the hell?!" you say, not believing, refusing to believe this violation of principles dearly held from the moment you began to play with blocks. There is some hallucination here, you're certain. You're dreaming, or...
The figure hovers, some five feet in the air, and stares at your dogs. She lifts up her arm and curls her hand closed, and Sarah yelps as she, too, is pulled impossibly upwards, gravity forgotten. You hear Tau give out a strained, pitched whine from the forest. Your jaw hangs open, and you turn to run.
Your feet kick at nothing. Your stomach turns, you retch as gravity's hold is overridden, but there is nothing there to purge. You utter a choked scream, your spine feels like it's moving under your skin as adrenaline surges through your body like you have never felt before.
Your body writhes, trying to flee. The alien holds you there for several minutes until you calm down enough to stop moving, and your higher faculties begin to return. You watch her float into view, your body turning with some unseen force, and the fear returns anew - your skin crawls with it.
Sarah is still barking when your feet touch the ground again. You have never heard her so upset. The alien says something incomprehensible to you - she does not seem hostile, but it takes everything in you not to try to bolt again.
[[Say hi ->Greetings.]]"Stria," you say, pointing at her. She looks up at you, and gives a very human nod. "Tau," you say, pointing at the dog. "Sarah," you say, pointing at the growling ball of fur.
You point at yourself, and hesitate. "Fred."
"Stria $friend," you say, lowering it.
"$friend," she says, staring at you, studying you the way you are her. "Hred $friend."
Friend. You just said friend, or maybe hello, to an alien, in an alien language. You think she just said hello back.
Sarah's growls have stopped, as the two of you look each other up and down. "$fur $need $robe." she says, miming pulling at a shirt. You pull at your own, wondering what she means by this.
She hesitates, and then walks closer. Your skin is still flush head to toe with goosebumps as she reaches out - you don't flinch back but your eyes water with apprehension as she touches the skin of your throat. Her fingertips are oddly firm, but warm.
"$fur $is $where." she says quietly, her eyes wide. She is close enough that you can smell her, and it is disconcertingly similar to the smell of your dogs. She pulls at your shirt and you suddenly understand.
She is wondering where your fur is.
[["Roan Ago Ahn."]]
[["Roan Te Gueha."]]She nods, and touches the fabric a moment more before pulling back. Roan is fur. You think she must have said "Fur is shirt" or something like it. You can't quite guess at what "Te Gueha" meant but you're just happy she isn't violating any more laws of physics.
That feeling of contentment only lasts a moment longer before she curls her fingers tightly and rises from the ground. You gasp, amazed at this feat, but she ignores you, flitting off across the river at an impossible speed. Sarah resumes barking.
She is gone for some time, and in that time, you manage to calm the aussie down again. Tau for his part waits quietly for his friend to return, already accepting this new reality you continue to struggle with. //An alien just said hi to me, touched my neck, and flew away like some kind of sorcerer.//
You recite the words you've learned, wanting desperately to retain them. $friend. $fure. $is $robe? Stria. Subject first.
She comes back with a large sheet of cloth waving in the wind, slower on approach than she could manage leaving. It's dyed a dark green, like the redwoods above. She lands, gracefully, her furred feet curling into the gravel and sand as she strides over to you with the cloth.
"$fur $warm," she says, offering it to you. You take it, study its weave. It's sturdy, looking machine-made.
You realize she thinks you're cold. She's absolutely right - the chill in this place was beginning to be oppressive. You wrap the blanket around your shoulders and hesitate.
"Thank you," you say, nodding, knowing you lack the words. You already feel warmer. The kindness is more reassuring than anything you've seen of this place.
Sarah is no longer growling. "$camp $there," she says, pointing in the way she came. You stare at the river, and look back at her.
She wants you to follow. You realize she would expect you to fly. You shake your head, pointing upwards. "Not Kryptonian," you say, whimsically.
You give a little jump to show you obey strictly newtonian physics.
She laughs and pulls you and your dogs into the air. She does not use any hand movements for this that you can see, like before. Your stomach complains, again, but you hold back the bile as you float across the river, over the trees, your very confused dogs in tow.
[[To Stria's camp]]She laughs, eyes creasing in a startlingly human expression of mirth. "$fur $here." She pulls at the fur on her forearm, showing you.
Of course, you just asked her where her fur is. You struggle to remember the other phrase, but give up. You simply mutter "$fur," pulling the side of your t-shirt out.
She nods, and touches the fabric a moment more before pulling back. You allow her this, just happy she isn't violating any more laws of physics.
That feeling of contentment only lasts a moment longer before she curls her fingers tightly and rises from the ground. You gasp, amazed at this feat, but she ignores you, flitting off across the river at an impossible speed. Sarah resumes barking.
She is gone for some time, and in that time, you manage to calm the aussie down again. Tau for his part waits quietly for his friend to return, already accepting this new reality you continue to struggle with. //An alien just said hi to me, touched my neck, and flew away like some kind of sorcerer.//
You recite the words you've learned, wanting desperately to retain them. $friend. $fur. $here? Stria. Subject first.
She comes back with a large sheet of cloth waving in the wind, slower on approach than she could manage leaving. It's dyed a dark green, like the redwoods above. She lands, gracefully, her furred feet curling into the gravel and sand as she strides over to you with the cloth.
"$fur $warm," she says, offering it to you. You take it, study its weave. It's sturdy, looking machine-made.
You realize she thinks you're cold. She's absolutely right - the chill in this place was beginning to be oppressive. You wrap the blanket around your shoulders and hesitate.
"Thank you," you say, nodding, knowing you lack the words. You already feel warmer. The kindness is more reassuring than anything you've seen of this place.
Sarah is no longer growling. "$camp $there," she says, pointing in the way she came. You stare at the river, and look back at her.
She wants you to follow. You realize she would expect you to fly. You shake your head, pointing upwards. "Not Kryptonian," you say, whimsically.
You give a little jump to show you obey strictly newtonian physics.
She laughs and pulls you and your dogs into the air. She does not use any hand movements for this that you can see, like before. Your stomach complains, again, but you hold back the bile as you float across the river, over the trees, your very confused dogs in tow.
[[To Stria's camp]]The dogs have given up understanding their situation, waiting patiently as the landscape flies past below. You curl the blanket tightly over your body, stressed out and trying not to think about how far off the ground you are. Stria is facing forward, the three of you bobbing behind her like apples in water.
You try to guess at her age but realize there is no way you could know - this was a completely different species, she could be four hundred years old or two. And yet...
Her body was so clearly hominid that it was simple to assign human characteristics. She showed human gestures, like nodding, laughing. Laughing. No other species laughed like that.
Could she be human? Some far distant ancestor of humanity, maybe gene-altered? You knew it was unreasonable for the wormhole you widened to have also lasted long enough to move you through time, there were so many zeros behind that probability that it was incomprehensible.
All of this was incomprehensible. This was alien territory, literally - the creature in front of you was using //magic// for gods sake. //Not magic,// your mind insisted.
//Not magic.//
Technology of some kind, but where? What gave enough force to be buried under skin and fur that you could sweep two people and dogs through the air like balloons? Some hidden installation projecting magnetic fields, perhaps, controlled by her will?
The cold against your face forced such musings to retreat to a terrified little place where your linear algebra and field theory sat waiting to attempt an explanation. You simply curled tighter and tried to weather the trip she was making. She must have travelled much faster, alone, because it was around half an hour before you felt yourself bump ungracefully to the earth, shivering.
"$fur $warm $not $very," she says quickly, approaching you.
[[Sit up]]You sit up. "I'll be alright. Just give me..." you say, then stop. She is closing her eyes, but is so obviously still //perceiving// you that you shudder.
Slowly, you begin to feel the air around you warm, as if you were sitting in full sun, the months having passed to summer. Your mouth hangs open in wonder. This warmth came from her, clearly.
You do not want to break her concentration. //Magic.// The thought pushed its way out of that tired place where things still made sense, //Radiation.//
You try to ignore it. There was nothing to do about it. It didn't make sense, anyway, and it felt //good//, like you were sunbathing in the nude on both sides at the same time. Your skin crawls with goosebumps again.
She opens her eyes again, and seems relieved that you've stopped shivering. The warming stops - you look at her outstretched hand, and take it. You're pulled to your feet.
Your dogs have already begun poking through the camp you've landed near. Tau is urinating on what are clearly some of her belongings. "No!" you yell, dismayed.
She just laughs, walking over, and stands for a moment over the pile of cloth before returning to you. "$dog $is $dog." She gestures to her site - you realize she must be out hunting, seeing Sarah snuffling around what's left of the field dressing of some kind of large deer.
It's the first animal besides your new friend that you've seen. You approach closer and realize it is, in fact, an elk. //So this is Earth,// you confirm mentally.
"Hred $is $hungry," Stria says. You think for a moment.
[["Fred Te Sa."]]
[["Stria Te Sa."]]She nods abruptly, and digs under the cloth that Tau peed on. You wince, wondering how she can be so nonchalant about it. You go over to look at what she's doing and notice no smell.
She pulls a tightly wrapped and tied paper parcel out. Paper. More technology.
Walking over to a flat stone nearby, she outstretches her hand, and you watch grit blast away from its surface with a dull thud - she keeps it there for several seconds more. It begins to shine in the afternoon light, like polished marble.
//She just did that with, what? How?//
Her hand curls and you see the air around the stone begin to shimmer with heat. She unwraps the parcel to reveal a slab of meat from the elk, and puts it on the stone. It begins to sizzle, charring on the outside.
She flips it over daintily with her fingers and lets it sear on the other side, her hand still hovering over the meat. Sarah and Tau approach at the smell of freshly cooked food. She laughs and says something to them, and they sit, recognizing the tone if not her words.
After what could only be a couple minutes, she uncurls her fingers and the stone cracks in two, loudly. She ignores this and turns to you. You blink - the steak could not possibly be done this quickly.
"$dinner $is $ready."
An alien just cooked you a steak, very rare. You shrug and approach, kneeling, poking it with a finger. It's firm, well done in fact.
More not-magic, the mundanity of it somehow startling beyond the more fantastic act of levitation. Your stomach growls, interrupting your apprehension that Stria appeared to be able to cook flesh with her mind. You pick it up with your hands after brushing them off on your thighs, and bite into the venison.
You almost wolf it down, unexpectedly hungry after purging earlier. She watches you eat, and you could swear you pick up a smile on her canine face as you look back. You sit back after finishing the last bite, and she gets up to cook more, for her self and for your dogs.
The two of you sit in companionable silence as she works, having had enough of the language games for now. (if:$forestdelay is true)[The air grows chilly as the afternoon closes in on dusk. She takes just a few moments to clean up the campsite before sitting next to you.](else:)[Afterwards, she sets about cleaning up the campsite, and you simply watch her work. She is unashamed of her nudity but you are increasingly aware of it and how human her body is, despite the fur - you shift uncomfortably under the blanket and try to quell such thoughts. After some time she sits next to you.]
"$me $warm $more $you." You have no idea what she's saying but could take a shot at putting together a phrase.
[["Fred Te Het"]]
[["Fred Het Dach"]]
[["Roan Dach"]]
[["Stria Gang Roan"]]
[[Nod]]
[[Shake your head]]
[["What?"]]She shakes her head, and points at you, insistently. "Hred... Chred..." she is having clear trouble with your name, but you know that's not where the confusion is.
"Hred," you say, reassuring her that you understand despite her trouble with the word.
"Hred Te Sa," she says again. You nod, confirming, wanting to see what this meant.
She nods abruptly, and digs under the cloth that Tau peed on. You wince, wondering how she can be so nonchalant about it. You go over to look at what she's doing and notice no smell.
She pulls a tightly wrapped and tied paper parcel out. Paper. More technology.
Walking over to a flat stone nearby, she outstretches her hand, and you watch grit blast away from its surface with a dull thud - she keeps it there for several seconds more. It begins to shine in the afternoon light, like polished marble.
//She just did that with, what? How?//
Her hand curls and you see the air around the stone begin to shimmer with heat. She unwraps the parcel to reveal a slab of meat from the elk, and puts it on the stone. It begins to sizzle, charring on the outside.
She flips it over daintily with her fingers and lets it sear on the other side, her hand still hovering over the meat. Sarah and Tau approach at the smell of freshly cooked food. She laughs and says something to them, and they sit, recognizing the tone if not her words.
After what could only be a couple minutes, she uncurls her fingers and the stone cracks in two, loudly. She ignores this and turns to you. You blink - the steak could not possibly be done this quickly.
"$dinner $is $ready."
An alien just cooked you a steak, very rare. You shrug and approach, kneeling, poking it with a finger. It's firm, well done in fact.
More not-magic, the mundanity of it somehow startling beyond the more fantastic act of levitation. Your stomach growls, interrupting your apprehension that Stria appeared to be able to cook flesh with her mind. You pick it up with your hands after brushing them off on your thighs, and bite into the venison.
You almost wolf it down, unexpectedly hungry after purging earlier. She watches you eat, and you could swear you pick up a smile on her canine face as you look back. You sit back after finishing the last bite, and she gets up to cook more, for her self and for your dogs.
The two of you sit in companionable silence as she works, having had enough of the language games for now. (if:$forestdelay is true)[The air grows chilly as the afternoon closes in on dusk. She takes just a few moments to clean up the campsite before sitting next to you.](else:)[Afterwards, she sets about cleaning up the campsite, and you simply watch her work. After some time she sits next to you.]
"$me $warm $more $you." You have no idea what she's saying but could take a shot at putting together a phrase.
[["Fred Te Het"]]
[["Fred Het Dach"]]
[["Roan Dach"]]
[["Stria Gang Roan"]]
[[Nod]]
[[Shake your head]]
[["What?"]](set: $animal to "Hic")(set:$me to "Gang")(set:$dog to $animal + "'" + $me)(set: $friend to "Dach")(set:$fur to "Roan")(set:$need to "Ago")(set:$robe to "Ahn")(set:$is to "Te")(set:$where to "Gueha")(set:$here to "Sharr")(set:$warm to "Het")(set:$there to "Darr")(set:$camp to "Chechh")(set:$not to "Hara")(set:$very to "Kesa")(set:$hungry to "Sa")(set:$dinner to "Ase")(set:$ready to "Reraga")(set:$you to "A")(set:$yes to "Na")(set:$no to "Do")(set:$more to $very + "'" + $yes)(set:$love to "Ela")(set:$happy to "Nagtot")(set:$pervert to "Sesese")(set:$but to "Eg")(set:$cute to "Dera")(set:$certain to $is + "'" + $yes)(set:$what to "Yag")(set:$through to "Okere")(set:$night to "Geden")(set:$travel to "Kal")(set:$early to "Denne")(set:$attack to "Oaht")(set:$closed to "Ya")(set:$eyes to "Oak")(set:$now to "De")It's too much for you. You've had a day's worth of lessons in an alien language, and just can't keep up with it on top of the strangeness of it all. "What?" you say, slipping back into English.
She seems suddenly more alert, startled almost. "$attack~?" she says, her voice pitching up dramatically at the end, far exceeding your inflection. You can't help but laugh. She stares at you, and seems to concentrate. "$attack?"
You shake your head. "What," you say. You shrug your shoulders in an exaggerated way, pitching your hands up helplessly. "What?" you say, with the question tone - her language seems to lack this convention, or it means something else.
With difficulty, she reaches the 'W' sound eventually, repeating the word over and over, contorting her long muzzle as best she can until she manages a "What" that you give approval to. "$what," she says. She pauses for a moment, and then repeats "$what?" shrugging her shoulders at the same time.
"$what," you repeat, limiting your inflection to a statement. It feels odd, but she nods curtly. "$what."
She glances around for a moment and grabs a nearby stick. She gives you an appraising look before raising it above her head. "$attack~!" she says, her voice rising several semitones at the end, swinging it down next to you violently. You shiver, not expecting anything like this from her.
Not lacking it, then, but rather a rising pitch meant aggression? She seems extremely agitated by this misstep, as if you've made a grave mistake. You make a mental note to use '$what' no matter how frustrated you become, but you don't know if you can avoid using the question tone.
She puts the stick down and you sit and watch her work on cooking her own food. It's amazing to you, still, how without a fire and within a few seconds she has another piece of meat ready. You wonder about where the energy is coming from, how it's directed and controlled by her will.
After a few more hours, during which Stria scrapes the hide of the deer she hunted, it's dark. Stria puts her tools away and curls up with her own sheet to sleep. You can feel the cold creep in under the thin fabric - it was not some thick quilt. You call Sarah and Tau over, and they curl up next to you, but it's hardly enough to ward off the cold from the ground.
"Hred $no $is $warm," Stria says quietly, after a moment watching you shudder. "Stria $no $warm $certain." You feel sure this is a question, despite her strange lack of inflection.
You nod, hoping she'd help again. She sighs and gets up, pulling her own sheet with. Instead of closing her eyes, as before, she sits down behind you, and you're startled by her arms closing around you with her sheet pulled over you both. "Stria $warm $friend. $no. $friend," she says, insistently.
"$friend," you repeat, smiling. She cuddles close to you and after a moment, you relax. Not so alien.
[[Try to sleep]]She shrugs and sits there for a moment longer, and then gets up. You shiver more under the blanket. What did you say?
$warm meant warm, you were sure. Was she offering to warm you up again? That would be nice, although thinking about her cooking the meat in what you assume is the same way, you aren't sure you should trust her to it.
After a few more hours, it's dark, and Stria appears to be curling up to sleep. You can feel the cold creep in under the thin fabric - it was not some thick quilt. You call Sarah and Tau over, and they curl up next to you, but it's hardly enough to ward off the cold from the ground.
"Hred $no $is $warm," Stria says quietly, after a moment watching you shudder. "Stria $no $warm $certain." You feel sure this is a question, despite her strange lack of inflection.
You nod, hoping she'd help again. She sighs and gets up, pulling her own sheet with. Instead of closing her eyes, as before, she sits down behind you, and you're startled by her arms closing around you with her sheet pulled over you both. "Stria $warm $friend. $no. $friend," she says, insistently.
"$friend," you repeat, smiling. She cuddles close to you and after a moment, you relax. Not so alien.
[[Try to sleep]]She stares at you for a second or two, and then barks a laugh. You're startled by the reaction. "Hred $friend. Hred $no $love."
She touches your lower back, and you know for sure that you see a smile. You smile back, confused. She closes her eyes, and the air begins to warm around you again.
"$me $warm $more $you," she says, once more. You gasp at the feeling, again like being plunged into the tropics, your whole body exposed to the midday sun.
You remember the meat cooking on the stone. You hope she has the control not to cook you - she seems confident enough. You stare at her, her eyes still shut.
You wonder what you said. $warm $friend. Friend. What did $warm mean again? Warm?
Fred warm friend.
You chuckle, knowing it's still helpless to communicate some things. She seems to understand, though.
She maintains the warming field for a while, but eventually has to stop to get food for herself. You're disappointed, it was like nothing you've ever felt, but say nothing as the cold creeps back in under the thin fabric. After a few more hours, it's dark, and Stria curls up with her own sheet to sleep.
Your blanket was not some thick quilt and you can't really imagine sleeping through the coming night. You call Sarah and Tau over, and they curl up next to you, but it's hardly enough to ward off the cold from the ground. "Hred $no $is $warm," Stria says quietly, after a moment watching you shudder.
"Stria $warm." You feel sure this is a question, despite her strange lack of inflection.
You nod, hoping she'd help again. She sighs and gets up, pulling her own sheet with. Instead of closing her eyes, as before, she sits down behind you, and you're startled by her arms closing around you with her sheet pulled over you both. "Stria $warm $friend. $no $love. $friend," she says, insistently.
"$friend," you repeat, smiling. She cuddles close to you and after a moment, you relax. Not so alien.
[[Try to sleep]]She stares at you for a moment, and then looks over at Sarah, who is quietly licking her paws. "$fur $friend. $dog."
She looks back to you. "$dog $love." Despite the lack of inflection on any of her words, you are sure this is a question.
You shake your head, unsure what you want to say. She sighs, and nods, seemingly relieved. She closes her eyes, and the air begins to warm around you again.
"$me $warm $more $you," she says, once more. You gasp at the feeling, again like being plunged into the tropics, your whole body exposed to the midday sun.
You remember the meat cooking on the stone. You hope she has the control not to cook you - she seems confident enough. You stare at her, her eyes still shut.
You wonder what you said. Roan Dach. Fur friend.
You hope she didn't think... //No,// you recoil internally. You would have to be very careful from now on, you didn't want to offend her.
She maintains this for a while, but eventually has to stop to get food for herself. You're disappointed, it was like nothing you've ever felt, but say nothing as the cold creeps back in under the thin fabric.
After a few more hours, it's dark, and Stria curls up with her own sheet to sleep. For your part, your blanket was not some thick quilt. You call Sarah and Tau over, and they curl up next to you, but it's hardly enough to ward off the cold from the ground.
"Hred $no $is $warm," Stria says quietly, after a moment watching you shudder. "Stria $warm." You feel sure this is a question, despite her strange lack of inflection.
You nod, hoping she'd help again. She sighs and gets up, pulling her own sheet with. Instead of closing her eyes, as before, she sits down behind you, and you're startled by her arms closing around you with her sheet pulled over you both. "Stria $warm $friend. $no $love. $friend," she says, insistently.
"$friend," you repeat, smiling. She cuddles close to you and after a moment, you relax. Not so alien.
[[Try to sleep]]She stares at you, wordlessly, for several moments. You're not quite sure what 'Gang' meant but she kept saying it and your curiosity is getting the better of you. You hope you didn't offend her.
"Gang?" you say. She laughs, realizing you have no idea what you're doing, and pats your leg.
"Stria $no $you $fur. Stria $warm $more $you. $no $fur. $you $cute. $but $me $happy $very $no $pervert $you."
You are bewildered by the stream of words. You realize you almost said something terrible, but are unsure what specific meaning it had. She closes her eyes, and the air begins to warm around you again.
"$me $warm $more $you," she says, once more. You gasp at the feeling, again like being plunged into the tropics, your whole body exposed to the midday sun.
You remember the meat cooking on the stone. You hope she has the control not to cook you - she seems confident enough. You stare at her, her eyes still shut.
She maintains this for a while, but eventually has to stop to get food for herself. You're disappointed, it was like nothing you've ever felt, but say nothing as the cold creeps back in under the thin fabric.
After a few more hours, it's dark, and Stria curls up with her own sheet to sleep. For your part, your blanket was not some thick quilt. You call Sarah and Tau over, and they curl up next to you, but it's hardly enough to ward off the cold from the ground.
"Hred $no $is $warm," Stria says quietly, after a moment watching you shudder. "Stria $warm." You feel sure this is a question, despite her strange lack of inflection.
You nod, hoping she'd help again. She sighs and gets up, pulling her own sheet with. Instead of closing her eyes, as before, she sits down behind you, and you're startled by her arms closing around you with her sheet pulled over you both. "Stria $warm $friend. $no $love. $friend," she says, insistently.
"$friend," you repeat, smiling. She cuddles close to you and after a moment, you relax. Not so alien.
[[Try to sleep]]She closes her eyes, and the air begins to warm around you again.
"$me $warm $more $you," she says, once more. You gasp at the feeling, again like being plunged into the tropics, your whole body exposed to the midday sun.
You remember the meat cooking on the stone. You hope she has the control not to cook you - she seems confident enough. You stare at her, her eyes still shut.
She maintains the warming field for a while, but eventually has to stop to get some food herself. You're disappointed, it was like nothing you've ever felt, but say nothing as the cold creeps back in under the thin fabric. After a few more hours, it's dark, and Stria finally appears to be ready to sleep.
Your blanket was not some thick quilt and you can't really imagine sleeping through the coming night. You call Sarah and Tau over, and they curl up next to you, but it's hardly enough to ward off the cold from the ground. "Hred $no $is $warm," Stria says quietly, after a moment watching you shudder.
"Stria $warm." You feel sure this is a question, despite her strange lack of inflection.
You nod, hoping she'd help again. She sighs and gets up, pulling her own sheet with. Instead of closing her eyes, as before, she sits down behind you, and you're startled by her arms closing around you with her sheet pulled over you both. "Stria $friend $warm. $no $love. $friend," she says, insistently.
"$friend," you repeat, smiling. She cuddles close to you and after a moment, you relax. Not so alien.
[[Try to sleep]]She shrugs and sits there for a moment longer, and then gets up. You shiver more under the blanket.
$warm meant warm, you were sure. Was she offering to warm you up again? That would be nice, although thinking about her cooking the meat in what you assume is the same way, you aren't sure you should trust her to it.
After a few more hours, it's dark, and Stria appears to be curling up to sleep. You can feel the cold creep in under the thin fabric - it was not some thick quilt. You call Sarah and Tau over, and they curl up next to you, but it's hardly enough to ward off the cold from the ground.
"Hred $no $is $warm," Stria says quietly, after a moment watching you shudder. "Stria $no $warm $certain." You feel sure this is a question, despite her strange lack of inflection.
You nod, hoping she'd help again. She sighs and gets up, pulling her own sheet with. Instead of closing her eyes, as before, she sits down behind you, and you're startled by her arms closing around you with her sheet pulled over you both. "Stria $warm $friend. $no. $friend," she says, insistently.
"$friend," you repeat, smiling. She cuddles close to you and after a moment, you relax. Not so alien.
[[Try to sleep]]You haven't been this close to another person for many months, and in other circumstances you might be distracted for other reasons, but you have begun to shudder from the cold, and you're just grateful when she spoons closer. How did this happen? Where the hell are you?
You drift in and out of sleep, but eventually are shaking so badly that Stria sits up and sighs. After a couple of moments, you feel the warmth from before return. Your body is shocked by it, it's like you've plunged into a hot-spring without knowing, and you gasp.
"$warm $through $night. $travel $early $now."
You sit up and nod, helplessly confused and tired. You're starting to become a little worried you might freeze to death without her help - you hope the goodwill lasts here. She stands up, the warmth still flooding from her, and you gasp once more as light suffuses the area as well.
You look around - it's a strange sort of foggy, diffuse glow. You have trouble even recognizing why it's so bizarre, but then realize she must be inducing it in a field. Another clue as to how this all works. There are no shadows, just this bright fog - you have a hard time differentiating objects, like the world has turned into a bad 3d render.
Tau gives out a high whine, as disoriented as you at the sudden alien light. Stria closes her hands purposefully, and the four of you lift into the air once more. "$travel $now."
Your stomach lurches at a sudden burst of acceleration that does not match what you'd expect from the g-forces involved. The trees swoop past you in less than a second, and you see only faint shadows from Stria's light of the landscape below - they are moving far, far faster than you're comfortable with. Sarah and Tau are both barking, but you can't reassure them, only try to keep your dinner from rudely ejecting itself mid-flight.
Stria turns to you mid-flight, and you see her point at her eyes. She closes them, pointedly, then opens them again and points at you. "$eyes $closed $now. $eyes $closed $now!" she yells, her voice rising at the end.
[[Close your eyes]]
[["What?" -> Blinded]]Double-click this passage to edit it.She shakes her head, closes her eyes again, opens them. She's pointing at them and then you. "$closed $eyes!"
You shrug and mimic her but doubt your understanding enough that you open them, accidentally, as her flare escapes her outstretched hand. The brightest light you've ever seen, brighter than the sun. Nowhere to duck and cover here.
I flashes upwards and out of view in a tenth of a second, but just that time is enough to give you afterimages of it for minutes after. You don't notice that you're moving until your feet are almost touching ground. Your dogs are quiet, but fear pounds in your temples.