The Cries From Dead Worlds
Chapter One: Don't You Mess Around
The sun blanketed the desert sands and rocky mountains of the New Mexico desert that stretched out before her. It looked a sight better before the bombs. No raiders, mutants, or vicious tribals roamed the land. No radiation. The sky was a perfect cloudless blue. It really was beautiful. At least to the Courier it was, and she told Katran so when she asked.
Six turned away from the view to face her friend with a smile. The woman returned it whole heartedly, and even Yeesha joined in with a happy giggle from her spot in her mother's arms. She waved at Six and she walked over at the baby's beckoning.
"Hello, missy. That's a pretty bow," Six complimented. Yeesha had been wearing a nice sunny outfit with little flowers on it when she had gone with her mother to pick up Six, but an accident involving some milk had forced her mommy to change her daughter's clothes shortly after the small luncheon that Katran had prepared. She was now sporting a simple white dress that contrasted with Katran's dark jacket.
The little girl reached up and tugged the Courier's sunglasses off of her face to stick a small part of one the lenses into her mouth. Her mother was set to admonish her, but Six just laughed and let Yeesha have them.
"You know, I am so glad to see you again. I told Atrus our paths would cross again," Katran said. Her eyes were bright as she crouched down to give Reilly a quick pet. She might not have been too crazy about some of Atrus' other security measures, but she already adored the dog. "He was just going to grab something for your trip to Releeshahn, so he shouldn't be terribly long," Katran told Six. She sighed and looked at her daughter as though speaking to her, "Unless he decided to check over the whole house first, which means he could be hours resetting all the padlocks. But I know he was looking forward to introducing you to the D'ni, so he shouldn't be long. Why don't you wait in his study?" She suggested as she moved to sit on the only bench in the Sun Room of Tomahna. It sat between two ivy adorned columns holding up the stained glass ceiling. The room was beautifully down in blues and greens. Six could see why Katran had picked it to have their lunch in.
"I actually wanted to test the strength of his locks," Six said and eyed one of the two stained glass doors. The locks wouldn't matter if someone just decided to break them down.
"Oh no, not you too. It is all in his head, I am sure of it," Katran replied, bouncing Yeesha on her knee. The baby giggled, clearly enjoying the attention. Reilly stopped her quest of categorizing all the scents in the room long enough to approach the pair. Yeesha reached for the dog with the hand not holding onto the sunglasses and patted her nose in a clumsy imitation of what her mother had done only a moment earlier. Reilly licked her hand. The baby giggled again and Katran smiled at the sight.
ED-E beeped beside Six. Katran looked up briefly, but her curiosity with the robot had already been exhausted long before.
"&%# %"
"Book? What book?"
"%^!"
"Oh, yeah! That book," Six said and reached into her bag. "Kat, I have a present for Yeesha. Though, I don't think she'll appreciate it until she's a bit older."
The Courier pulled out a small book made of thick cardboard and painted in cheery colors. She had lovingly restored an old copy when she had heard the good news of Katran's pregnancy.
The woman accepted the gift and looked at the cover. "You're Special?" she asked.
"Uh huh. I had one when I was little, loved the thing. It's the book dad used to teach me to read. It's got some Vault-Tec stuff in it, the same thing my pip-boy's got that allows it to show me how healthy I am. The big selling point of it before the War had been that it supposedly predicts what small children's strengths will be when they get older. I don't remember what numbers mine showed, so I can't tell you if it's true or not. But I wanted Yeesha to have one."
"S is for strength, and that means I am strong! I can carry lots of toys and swing stuff all day long!" Katran read when she opened it. "This is delightful," she said as she turned to another page. "Oh, I see. SPECIAL is an acronym. Very clever. Thank you."
"Thank ED-E for reminding me. I never would have remembered without him," Six gave the robots chassis a fond pat on the side. ED-E beeped cheerfully.
Six removed her lockpicks from her jean's pocket and went over to the locked door. She got down on her knees and examined the lock. ED-E hovered over her head on standby.
"They are made of Nara. It's stronger than steel. I very much doubt that anyone is going to break them," Katran informed her.
"I'm afraid that it doesn't really matter what it's made out of if it's poorly designed inside. I judge tumbler locks by how many picks I break trying to get it open...actually..." Six trailed off. She removed her screwdriver before shining her pip-boy light into the keyhole. "It's not bad. I've seen better, but this isn't something just anybody would be able to crack."
"You did not even break any of your lockpicks," Katran observed. She set Yeesha on the ground beside where Reilly was lounging. She let her daughter crawl around a bit, but kept a close eye on her. Yeesha immediately went for Reilly and she dropped the sunglasses to place her small hands on the dog's side before resting her head there. Reilly put her own head down on her paws. Both were looking content to nap like that for the rest of the afternoon.
"Didn't have to. The resistance on the first try spoke volumes," Six said. It was about as well designed as most of Randall Clark's locks had been. "Speaking of resistance. In the Linking Chambers on the Prison Ages, did you guys install a way to open them on one side like I advised?"
"Yes, why?" Katran asked, she tilted her head and searched Six's blank face.
"Because ten years is a long time to go between doctors visits. I'm afraid it's not in me to deny them treatment just because they've been terrible people. Don't tell Atrus though. I'd rather be the one to tell him what I'm planning on doing."
Katran's eyes misted just a little and she smiled as she said, "I know that it is a dangerous thing you are planning—as Atrus is fond of telling me that visiting them is—but it cannot be worse than fighting the Wahrk. I would like to think that you know what you are doing. I would like to think that neither would harm you and that there is no danger, but I know that to be untrue. I thank you for putting yourself at risk for their own benefit. Their health is something I worry over constantly."
"If it makes you feel any better, I've got a stun gun." Six removed the Compliance Regulator from the holster on her left hip and showed it to her while being careful not to draw attention to the holorifle slung across her back and not mentioning the Hyperbreeder in her bag at all. Six had come prepared for anything this time around. "On this setting it's guaranteed to knock anyone out cold. They'll have a nasty headache when they wake up, but they'll be no worse for wear." She was also wearing her Kevlar vest for that little bit of added protection.
"I hope you do not have to use that," she said.
"Hey, me too," Six agreed. "It's been ten years, a lot can change in that time. Er, have they?"
Katran reached over and touched one of the large leaves on the ivy beside her.
"I do not know. It is hard to tell anything with bars separating us. I'm just glad that Achenar is finally coming to meet with us. It's so good to see him again after so long, and he is so calm now. With him, it is almost like before everything went wrong. Almost," she sighed.
It had taken Atrus and Katran two years to build the Linking Chambers after the debacle on Myst and Riven. From the sounds of it from their letters, Sirrus had been swinging predictably between crocodile tears and indignant rage since they started visiting him. As for Achenar, he had stopped meeting with his parents once he learned they were planning on leaving him there, but Katran had still tried visiting him. She tried once a month for six years of nothing until one day he just showed up to see her. He had been coming to the Linking Chamber faithfully ever since and the meetings had increased to a lot more than once in a month.
Before Six could think of a reply, the previously locked door opened. Atrus walked in carrying a book in his hand and wearing a truly atrocious long coat. Yellow? What was he thinking?
"My friend, it is good to see you again," Atrus said. He smiled at her and Six returned it, the coat forgotten. The last ten years had aged the man more then the previous twenty had. His hair had grayed some and his face was worn and lined with his constant worrying. Maybe Achenar and Sirrus weren't the only ones who needed a checkup.
"Your friend who you kept waiting for a very long time," his wife said dryly. She bent down and picked up her daughter, waking both her and the dog. Yeesha murmured and fidgeted in discontentment in her mommy's arms. Katran beckoned for Reilly to follow and they left the room. The dog paused only long enough to catalogue Atrus' scent. The man stooped down to give her a quick pat on the neck, avoiding her braincase. She licked his fingers before bounding off after Kat and Yeesha. Six had made it clear to the dog before they arrived that she needed to stick close to the baby and keep her safe while they investigated the break-ins. When the door shut again, Atrus turned back to his guest.
"#%! ) }_*!="
"Can ED-E explore your house?" Six asked for him.
"Eddie?" Atrus asked and looked around. He spotted the him and nearly dropped his book. He adjusted his glasses and walked up to examine the robot. "Oh, what is it?"
"An Eyebot. He was intended for combat, but his creator, a guy named Whitley, put a lot more than that into him. He doesn't miss a thing," Six said and couldn't help the pride in her voice. ED-E had been a constant for her since she had fixed him in Primm all those years ago.
"He?"
"Sure."
"And he's intelligent," Atrus asked, getting more interested by the second. Six hid a grin behind her hand. Hopefully, he wouldn't try to take ED-E apart.
"*#?"
"Yes, he is."
"Fascinating. Those beeps, are they a sort of language?"
"Can he explore your house while we talk?" Six repeated ED-E request. "He likes to know where things are."
He blinked at her and nodded. "Yes, of course."
ED-E escaped Atrus' scrutinizing before he was even done giving permission. Poor robot hadn't really liked attention since the Brotherhood of Steel tried to kidnap him. That hadn't gone well. For the Brotherhood, anyway.
"He says, thank you," Six said, answering Atrus' question without answering it. "What took you so long to get here in the first place?"
"I'm sorry if I kept you waiting. But since we might be gone a few days I needed to secure some of my things. And I also wanted to bring you this." He held up the book he was carrying to show her. It was thin and made of light brown leather with a pattern around the border.
Six reached to take it, but stopped when the sound of somebody Linking came from Atrus' office. The Courier took one look at the confused alarm on Atrus' face before rushing into the room with him right behind her just as they heard glass shattering.
A man in pale rags was holding an ornate dark red book in his hands. When he saw them, he grabbed one of the fire orbs on a metal railing surrounding a pedestal. What he was going to do with that, Six never found out because she shot him with her Compliance Regulator. He went down hard, books clattering to the floor. The fire orb rolled away from his slack hand, harmless.
"Releeshahn!" Atrus pushed passed Six and ran to the large book the man had been trying to steal.
"Is it alright?" The Courier asked, holstering the stun gun. ED-E came zooming into the room, beeping in agitation. Six soothed him by smoothing out his new bumper sticker with a picture of a hand of playing cards. A royal flush.
"Yes, yes. Thank Yahvo." He turned to the nearby unconscious man. "Who?" Atrus gasped, "Saavedro?"
"Know him?" She asked as she came to kneel beside him. Six pulled out a roll of duck tape from her bag and maneuvered the man's hands behind his back so she could restrain him.
Atrus was doing his very best to at least pretend he was calm, but the illusion was a frayed one. He held Releeshahn in a white knuckled grip as if he were afraid someone would reach out and try to yank it away. Six couldn't blame him, he had been working so hard for so long towards reestablishing D'ni society that the idea of losing his connection to it must be a truly terrifying thought.
"Yes. Yes I do. What happened to him? Why is he-"
"One thing at a time," Six said. She put the roll back. "There's a book here. I guess he was planning on using it." She picked it up and examined the cover.
"Which is it?" Atrus asked.
"Jah-naan-nin?"
"J'nanin?" he corrected.
"That's it," Six said, handing it to him.
He took it and looked at it like it held the answers to all of his questions.
"Why? It's uninhabited." Atrus opened the cover and looked at the Linking Panel. Six leaned over to take a look over his shoulder. Another island. This one had gigantic tusks sticking up from the ground. Interesting.
"What do you use it for?"
"It was the beginning of a series of lesson Ages I prepared for my sons when they were younger." He sighed sadly, "Before I stopped teaching them the Art. They never got much further in their lessons beyond what's in those Ages." Atrus shook his head and said, "Narayan, where Saavedro is from, was the only inhabited one."
Six pulled her green bandanna out of her bag and tied it around her head to keep her hair pushed back.
"I'll investigate what's in J'nanin, but is there a safe place to put him until I get the facts in?" she asked.
Atrus thought, staring at the Releeshahn book. He got up and placed it back on the pedestal with care one would normally give to fine china.
"I could put him in Spire. All of Sirrus' things were moved when we transferred him to Veil. He even destroyed his research and projects, just to spite me, no doubt. So the Age is almost as clean as it was before Sirrus Linked there"
"Wasn't the reason your wife talked you into moving Sirrus elsewhere was that the Age was bad for his mental health or something?" Six reminded him. It had been a big argument between the two for months. They had both written her separate letters to get her on their perspective sides. Atrus thought that moving him to nicer Age would send the wrong message. Katran had been convinced the Age was only making things worse. Unfortunately for Atrus, Six sided with his Katran.
"It should be alright temporarily," Atrus said. "Sirrus survived there just fine for seven years."
"I guess beggars can't be choosers. Take him there, and I'll go see what's so special about J'nanin." Six took the Linking Book back. "ED-E. We got work to do."
"&!^ (,$# ["
"That's the spirit," Six replied. "Atrus, stay away from Saavedro until I get back. I want to know more about his plans—if he even had any—before we talk to him."
"Alright," he agreed gravely. "Wait a moment before you go." Atrus went over to one of his cabinets and unlocked it to take out a book colored in natural tones. "Take this. It's a Linking Book that leads back here. I don't want you to be trapped there in case something bad happens." He watched her put it into her bag before saying, "Be careful, my friend."
"I always am." She wrapped her arm around ED-E. Six touched the Linking Panel and disappeared into its pages.
Chapter One End
Up Next: Investigating J'nanin
Author's Note:
Why did I have Six stun Saavedro? I did it because Six would be armed, that's just in her character. Had she not had the Compliance Regulator she would have shot him with something more deadly, and I didn't want to kill him. So, he got knocked out. But don't worry, Six is still going to every Age in the game. The only difference is that the sense of urgency is her desire not to leave Saavedro alone for too long, and not to get the Releeshahn Book back. There's also still danger lurking in those Lesson Ages...
In the Myst games, Atrus and Catherine hadn't started visiting their sons until some years after the events in Exile. But thanks to Six's intervention and advice, they've been visiting since about two years after Riven. That's change number one in Exile so far.
And Sirrus has been moved to another Age! That's another big difference from the games. Perhaps even the biggest one so far. I'm going to elaborate on the reasoning behind it more later on. For now just go with it.
The title for this fic is based on the song Cries of a Dead World by Gavin Dunne (Miracle of Sound). It's a song he made for Wasteland 2 on Youtube, but I thought with a slight word change that it would be relevant to what this is about. It's a great song and worth a listen. The title for this chapter is lyrics taken from TNT by AC/DC, in case you wanted to know. Fun fact: every chapter in my series but one has been named after either titles or lyrics from various songs.
Thank you for coming back,
Home On the Wastes
Disclaimer: I own nothing that can be recognized in this fanfiction.
