Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda series of games, which are copyright Nintendo. All characters and descriptions not copyrighted belong to me.
I – Strange Goings On
It had been another day of wandering, nearly lost in the expanses of Termina. Link estimated that he was somewhere south and east of Ikana Valley, and had yet to find any civilization beyond a farming village or two. He suspected that he would find a trade town nearby where he could buy a nap and sleep in a decent bed, for once.
A flash caught his eye. However, it was just another of those blasted monkeys, the kind that you might see being used as entertainment in Clock Town. But something else caught his eye through the dense canopy of trees. Could it be a clearing? Link urged Epona on with a little more force, breaking her into a canter.
Coming upon the massive clearing, Link held his breath. In the clearing clearly lied the remains of large town, perhaps half again as large as the capital of Termina. In the center of the town was an enormous gouge, leading up to a large, metal shape. This would be the trade town he was looking for, except there was no trace of people among the ruins. The Hero of Time decided to look and see if he could find any supplies, and also to see what had hit the town.
Guiding Epona through the debris-strewn streets, Link spotted what seemed to be the exit point of an aqueduct. Knowing that this was potentially a source of clean water, he headed over to ascertain if it was as he suspected.
The aqueduct's main distribution point, it seemed, was hit by the metal thing. There would be no water for him and Epona unless he found it somewhere else, but at this point a question lurked into his mind. Perhaps the angled, charred chunk of metal would hold his answers?
Link had to leave Epona's back and walk on his own. To calm the great beast that was now his closest confidant, he whispered: "I will return Epona, wait here for me, alright?" The horse affirmed his order, and relaxed her bearing.
Climbing through the trail of the "Object," as Link had begun to refer to it in his mind, was no easy task. Occasionally the entire gouge would be blocked off by a fallen structure, and he would have to entirely bypass it. Soon, he was within sight of the large metal object. It completely dwarfed his view, seeming to be about half a half a kilometer long, and completely made of a light gray metal, and scorch marks through out the superstructure. Link searched for some kind of opening where he could enter the blasted thing, but found none. He did find script running across the thing lengthwise, although it was unintelligible.
The Savior of Termina decided to turn and find some kind of clean bed for him to sleep in, but was stopped by a strange and garbled sound coming from the general direction of the Object. "You…Turn…Stay…Questions…You…" This confused Link, but he turned around anyway.
A device Link now identified as a hatch opened on the Object, and a crippled figure pulled itself out of it.
The figure pulled out a blunt, curved stick, and balanced his self on the edge of the hatch. Perhaps the stick was like the funny hand cannon things he had seen in Clock Town. "Sorry…, but I…Orders…detain..."
Link quickly thought, "What is the meaning of 'detain?' Oh… I – I need to move." And with that, Link dove out of the way seconds before the rounds pierced the ground before him. The stick hurled some sort of strange, tiny arrows! Quickly continuing to run, Link knew that his attacker would decide to aim ahead of his path sooner or later. Taking action, Link reached into his bag and pulled out his slingshot – the Hero's bow would take too much time to reload. He cursed himself for only keeping his sword out, as he did not think he would be fighting an opponent with that kind of weapon.
Link had to throw the boomerang, or get shot in the process. Carefully aiming, he hurled his pointy stick at the man, who had pointy ears. "Hold on," Link thought, "He has pointy ears? Could it be that he is a Hylian?" Link decided to take precious time necessary to shout a question.
"Are you a Hylian?"
His opponent replied in a partly incomprehensible language. "No, I…A…"
Link gave up the effort, and resumed trying to dodge the incredibly fast arrows. Unbeknownst to the aggressor, a sharp bladed boomerang was on its way, and impacted him in the chest. The man fell, but the wound was not mortal, and Link now had time to inspect the opened hatch and the depths of the Object.
Using the boomerang and his sword (sadly, not the gilded sword; he had grown too tall for that), he inched up the surface of the metal. His makeshift climbing tools did not penetrate the metal, so Link had to find existing gaps and force them open. After about six meters, he reached the hatch. He pulled himself in, silently hoping that he would not find any more people, especially hostile ones.
Inside, Link found a fairly spacious and well lit corridor. He marveled at the lights, wondering where the gas piping was; even the Terminians didn't have artificial lights that small! He walked through the hallway until he reached a door. To his surprise, it slid open with a soft hiss. He walked through the cramped room, and saw a place to sit down. He was tired, after all, and exploring the object could wait a moment.
"System activated… Shakedown…" A light female voice spoke in that funny, altered hylian again, Link noticed to his amazement. Where did it come from?
Link tried to communicate with the funny, but oddly soothing voice. "Where are you? What is a shaking down?"
The voice responded. "Ancient Hylian language recognized… Processing utilizing known quantities of the language… Good day, sir. I am the voice operating system of this Hyrulian Navy ship. The shakedown procedure is currently warming up the reactors. The wormhole generator will warm up in five seconds.
He struggled to comprehend this information. Firstly, the language he spoke was ancient to these people? A bevy of questions soon followed. Where were they from? How was this metal block thing a ship? Hyrule has a navy? What is a reactor? Link put all of his questions into speech, and the machine responded smartly to each.
"It has been over two thousand years since common use of Ancient Hylian. This ship is registered to Orbital Shipyard Eight of the planet Hyrule. Hyrule currently boasts of the largest naval presence in the Hasta Arm. A reactor provides electricity for use in all applications throughout the ship."
It seemed like he was living in the past, and this "ship" was from the future. Could the people of Hyrule have reached the stars in so long of a time? Before he could ask his final question, he felt a lurch. The Object was moving.
From an outside perspective, the ship slowly drifted up, lifting great gobs of dirt along with it. The man outside slowly awoke from his state of unconsciousness, and cursed when he saw the ship rising. There would be no return for him. The ship rose until it reached the atmosphere, and opened a wormhole to the last save location. The mission was complete, whether the ship's commander knew it or not.
Author's Note: This is intended to be a somewhat short story. I have used a random Indian name for the Arm, based on the use of Rupees as currency in Zelda. There will be no crossover; tell me if you find anything that could be infringement, please! Don't hesitate to criticize as much as you want, especially on the brief fight.