A/N:
Thank you to Myshu, GreatFarki, Shade40, Frog-kun and Asura for leaving those developed reviews and for anyone who has followed me through the literal years it takes me to post updates.
Please note that the name of the story has changed to "Chrono Trigger: Fighting Fate" because "Chrono Trigger Retold" was lame.
…
A Reason to Hope - Circa 2300 A.D.Mai pulled the pretty lady by the hand through the red hallway. Of all the halls and corridors in the dome, the red hallway was the most treacherous – with few ladders or islands of safety from the swirling flows of hot magma that resided below. Mai confidently guided the pretty lady through making sure to avoid the fire demons' lairs by a good margin.
Then they arrived at the green hallway. The green was Mai's favorite! It was inhabited by sparkling fairies and forest sprites that often delighted in telling Mai fanciful stories that made her laugh, but she didn't have time for that just now. Today she was a guide to a pretty princess and that meant she had to be responsible and lead the lady through. The only danger in the green hallway was that if you did not follow the exact right swirling and twisting path the fairies would send you back to the beginning so it was easy to get lost. But Mai knew the ways through better than anyone! No one else would explore with her so they did not know it – not as well as she did!
When they reached the people room, Mai felt the lady suddenly stop. Mai turned around. The lady's mouth was half open staring at the huddles of people in the corners barely whispering to one another. She seemed upset. Mai did not understand the problem. They were just people. Boring people too. Never wanted to move much, let alone explore.
The lady spoke softly to a nearby man. He merely blinked at her in surprise. And the pretty lady asked him another question. Mai worried that the man might eventually find his tongue and delay them even longer, so she tugged on the pretty lady's hand once more and she followed.
Mai carefully picked her way through the people room to the blue hallway. The blue hallway was underwater and so you had to hold your breath and run across it, otherwise she might collapse in the middle and not reach the other side.
Mai knew the hallways didn't really have different colors or lava or water, but she imagined that they did. They were more exciting that way. The creatures though – they really did exist. She knew because Papa had told her about them. They were in his giant computer. He had even shown her the pictures.
Finally she came to a door. She pushed the button on the wall and the door opened with a whoosh causing the lady to jump. Mai released the lady's hand and ran into the darkened room to the bedridden woman in the corner.
"Momma! Momma! Look at the pretty this nice lady gave me!" Mai exclaimed excitedly holding out her new heart-shaped necklace.
…
"Moda! Moda! Loke ate thee praty thys nyce leuedy geve may!" the little girl shouted running into a darkened room and Marle followed her. Crono and Lucca seemed to have fallen behind. The princess gasped. The dark room was occupied by a woman lying on a raised platform. She might even have been young, but her skin stretched out like rubber and clung unnaturally close to her bones. Her whole face, especially her eyes, seemed hollow and empty. But her belly swelled with child.
Mai leapt up onto the edge of the platform and held out the necklace Marle had given her. Marle noticed she was very careful to sit next to her fragile mother and not on her. The woman gave a small smile to the girl and closed her eyes again.
The young mother was going to die. Marle had no doubt. She should be dead already. She was starving. If it was ever born, the child would probably be stillborn. But maybe it didn't have to be that way. The princess came forward immediately, channeling golden warmth from her core into her hand. She pooled all the healing energy she could manage and released it over the starving woman trying to concentrate on the woman's belly.
The woman's eyes fluttered open, both of them wide with surprise.
"Wha- " she started to ask. But Marle heard no more. Her vision was spinning. She had used too much of herself.
…
"Can you tell me what year it is?" Crono asked for about the third time. The woman stared at him blankly. She clearly did not understand a word he said. Just like the other half dozen he and Lucca had tried to talk to, she seemed shocked by their presence. The people murmured to one another nervously and shot curious glances at them, but Crono could not understand them anymore than they understood him.
"How do they…" Lucca's voice trembled in emotion. Crono knew she was close to tears. He understood. He felt it too. They were trying to talk to walking corpses. The people were still talking and breathing, but they were not living. And it wasn't just that they were obviously starving, though that made it worse. It was that the people didn't seem remotely interested two teenage strangers in their midst. It was like they just couldn't bring themselves to care enough to move. He felt it as anger. To make things worse there was no one to blame – no obvious source of this travesty that he could direct his anger towards.
"What… could have happened?" Lucca managed to finish. Crono could only shake his head.
"Cro! Cro!" Mai came running up urgently. She grabbed his hand and pulled him through the open room and down the corridor she had disappeared down earlier – Lucca followed close behind.
The room was dark, but not dark enough to prevent him from seeing Marle collapsed on the floor. He ran to her side.
"What happened?" he demanded, fully aware they probably wouldn't be able to understand him. A woman – a very pregnant woman he had somehow failed to notice – started speaking very rapidly, but it was useless. He looked up at Lucca who shook her head to indicate she did not understand either. Lucca kneeled down next to him. And the woman turned and began speaking rapidly to Mai instead.
"She's breathing Crono. I don't think there's anything wrong with her." Lucca said. She was trying to reassure him, he knew. But if nothing was wrong, why was she unconscious?
Lucca stood up and moved towards the corner of the dim room.
"Crono, you gotta see this! This is amazing!"
"What is?" he asked, not sparing her even a glance.
"I think it's a computer. There's a full graphic interface and an input panel, but there's no visible storage unit," she spoke rather quickly, but increasingly to herself. The only way Lucca could work through anything was if she thought out loud. Usually he was her sounding board, but right now it just pissed him off.
"Lucca! I don't care! This is not the time for you to be gawking at fascinating technology!" He exclaimed.
"Geez, sorry," Lucca mumbled. "You don't have to shout. You're scaring Mai." The little girl had indeed shrunk up against her mother. Crono shot the girl an apologetic look he hoped she understood. It seemed she did, as Mai immediately moved away from the protective shelter of her swollen mother and approached Marle. She picked up the princess's hand, put it over her shoulder, and began to pull on it with all her might. She was trying to move Marle's body, Crono realized.
So he scooped the princess into his arms. Mai then lead him to the far wall where she pushed a button. He jumped back startled as the wall split open to reveal a human sized cavity. Mai patted the wall, indicating he should place Marle inside. He did so hesitantly. And then the walls closed back up on her.
"Marle!" Crono leapt forward trying to pry the doors back open, but Mai just grabbed his hand and pulled him back. He looked at her and she just grinned. And suddenly the doors opened again and Marle was alert and awake.
"Crono?" Marle asked confused, "What happened?"
"You were unconscious. Mai had us put you into this machine," he explained. "How do you feel?"
"I feel great! More rested than I have felt in weeks! I am a little hungry though."
"Wow! That's amazing!" Lucca exclaimed, "A machine that can give you a full night's rest in seconds! You know what I could accomplish if I had one of these?" Crono rolled his eyes turning his attention back to Marle.
"What happened?" Crono asked her, pulling her out of the strange contraption. "Why were you unconscious?" Marle blushed in response.
"I… uh… I overextended myself trying to heal this woman and her baby. One would think I would have learned by now…"
"Heal?" Lucca asked, "Like you did with my ankle? How?"
"It's an ability that goes in and out of the royal family. Neither of my parents could do it, but my grandmother could. And an uncle, though it's a trait that is more common in females."
"But how do you do it?" Lucca asked again.
"I don't really know. You just concentrate on your aura and channel it through your hands – it feels warm. And people get healed. It takes energy to do it though. I tried to do too much too fast. And it probably didn't help that I had healed your broken ankle this morning. So I collapsed. I will be fine. This has happened before. Just need to rest."
"Well, if you're not too tired, I'd love it if you came and took a look at this." Lucca pointed to the computer display.
"Yes, of course," Marle said as she slowly came to her feet. Crono followed to see what was on the display.
Arris Knowleche Stalle
Nome: Gian Ralot
Secreworde:
"Arris? Well, Knowleche is probably knowledge. Gian Ralot?" Crono read aloud.
"Gayan!" Mai repeated excitedly.
"Gayan?" Marle repeated.
"May papa!" Mai said excitedly, ducking underneath Lucca and Marle. She looked at the display and confidently entered a short sequence into the board. The screen changed to three icons that were labeled with more foreign words. Crono sighed. This was going to get old rather quickly. Lucca and Marle, on the other hand, both seemed fascinated. Marle with the language, and Lucca, with the interactive system itself. Mai pointed at icons and babbled excitedly at the two girls. Crono smiled at her antics.
He turned back to the pregnant woman and his smile instantly faded. Somehow her obvious pregnancy made her starvation more apparent. Crono looked at her and knew that this woman suffered from something that could not be healed no matter how much energy Marle expended. The woman simply needed food.
Without thought, Crono grabbed up Marle's bag that she had left where she had collapsed. The jerky was right on top, easy to find. He pulled out a strip, took a bite to show her what it was, and offered the rest to the woman. She grabbed it quickly as if afraid he might change his mind. She made short work of the dried meat, eyeing him suspiciously all the while. He just smiled encouragement at her.
"Theenk yo," she said softly.
"Your welcome," he replied sincerely. "What's your name?" Crono asked. She raised her eyebrows in confusion.
"Crono," Crono pointed to himself. "Mai," he pointed to the girl who was excitedly chattering at the bright screen. "You?"
"Sura," she replied.
"Pleased to meet you Sura," Crono said holding out his hand. She grasped it and her smile broadened.
"Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?" Crono asked. She gave him a puzzled look.
"Boy?" he pointed to himself. "Or a girl?" He gestured to her and then pointed to her belly. She didn't seem to understand so he tried to think of another way to mime the question. He soon learned that she wanted a boy. And the two of them started miming questions and answers back and forth while the girls chattered away about whatever was on that screen. It was not an efficient way to communicate, but they eventually understood each other. And Crono could tell that Sura was enjoying having someone to 'talk' to.
Apparently her husband, Gian, was gone. Crono presumed that he was dead, but he wasn't sure. Gian seemed to have been some kind mechanic that worked with machines. The machines were supposed to keep them safe, but something had gone wrong. And the machines were dangerous now, though why was unclear. For some reason, this meant they couldn't get food. So they were living off rats and something else, but Crono could not figure out what Sura meant when she raised and wiggled her fingers.
"I know this one!" Marle exclaimed suddenly. Crono jumped.
"Big deal!" Lucca replied. Crono could hear Lucca rolling her eyes and suppressed a chuckle. "It's just a fairy tale! How is it going to help us? We should go back to the log."
"Lucca! The language has changed too much. You and I can't read this very well. But I know how this story goes and perhaps with the help of the illustrations, I can learn the shift and help you translate the 'important' logs."
"That will take you weeks! We don't have that much time. And plus, how much language of that fairy tale is going to overlap with technical diaries?"
"You might be surprised!" Marle began heatedly.
"So!" Crono interrupted, "What have you guys figured out so far?"
The girls turned to him startled, having evidently forgotten he was there.
"This device seems to store information about this facility," Lucca explained. "It has some kind of log or record that are dated 2299 A.D., maps of the facility, and of all things fairy tales." Lucca rolled her eyes at this last addition.
"It makes sense!" Marle insisted, "He needed this information for his work, but he had those stories in there for Mai. To tell her bedtime stories and what not."
"Whose he?" Crono asked.
"Presumably, whoever wrote this log. This Gayan that Mai was so excited about."
Crono glanced back at Sura. "I think he might be dead."
"Anyway," Lucca interrupted, "the maps indicate there is a storage facility and a large computer below. There seems to be some kind of security protecting these systems, but the details are not clear."
"Let's go check it out then," Crono said getting to his feet.
"What?" Marle asked obviously startled by the suggestion. Lucca didn't even bat an eyelash at the suggestion. She knew him too well. "But we don't know what's down there. It could be dangerous," Marle continued.
"Best way to find out what is down there is to go down there and find out," Crono argued, handing the princess her crossbow. Then he walked out, turning back only to wave farewell to Sura and Mai.
"Yeah," Lucca called after him sarcastically, "and your willingness to just dive in has never gotten us into any trouble before." But she got to her feet as well and followed him. Marle was not far behind.
…
Doan slumped down to the ground. The jarring of his already aching bones made him regret this action immediately. It didn't matter anymore though. It was only a matter of time before everyone in the settlement withered away and starved. He knew this should upset him. That he should be angry or he should at least feel responsible for it all. He was the elder – he was supposed to be their leader. But he didn't feel any of this. He was just tired. Tired of struggling, tired of fighting. Life had always been hard, but it had also once been accompanied by smiles and laughter. Somehow that seemed to make struggling worth it. Since Gian had passed away and the security bots had become enemies, life had become more than hard. It now seemed impossible.
His people were living off of rats and whatever edible grass they could find. It wasn't enough. The rats were learning to avoid the dome. The good grasses that didn't make you sick were getting harder to find. The Enertron was not restoring anyone fully anymore – it simply could not replace food.
His daughter was going to die in a matter of days – as soon as she went into labor. He had no hope for the baby either. A living baby hadn't been born in six years. Mai was the last. Her days were just as numbered as her mother's. She would probably be the last to go. She would die alone. The Powers that Be had long since forsaken them. So why did they struggle so hard? This harsh life wasn't worth it. He could not even find the energy to cry.
Doan heard the laughter but he didn't believe it. No one had any reason to laugh anymore. But the sound persisted and grew in volume. He must be losing what sanity he had left. He looked up to see three young people striding forward purposefully. Each proffered bright smiles with eyebrows arched in friendly greeting. Doan simply stared, dumbfounded. Sudden panic brought him back to himself again. They were headed below!
"No!" Doan leapt to his feet screaming. "You can't go down there! You won't come back."
All three of the strangers turned back to regard him inquisitively. They didn't understand his words he realized. He grabbed the blond girl's hand and pulled her back towards himself. The redheaded youth came forward, open palms outward indicating he meant no harm. He put a hand on Doan's shoulder and squeezed gently as if to reassure a small child. This act only confused Doan. They understood that he feared for them, but they did not share his trepidation.
He searched all three of their faces intently. There was no trace of fear. The youth with the helmet stood with shoulders squared casually readjusting her lenses. The blond girl just smiled at him making no attempt to reclaim her hand. She too, stood tall and confident. And the red headed youth seemed to only want to comfort him. They were so strange, so different.
Doan released the young lady's hand. The young man patted his shoulder once more before turning back to descend the ladder. And they were all gone leaving Doan alone in the cold room. Doan sat back down right by the hatch, keeping vigil. He would wait until all three came back unharmed. He knew it was foolish to believe, it was foolish to hope, but it was all he had left.
…
"What do you think the old man was so frightened of?" Marle called down to them. She was walking a floor above them on a raised platform.
"I don't know," Crono called back. "There doesn't seem to be anything down here." The place was empty. Dark and empty. "Why? Are you nervous?"
"He had to have some reason. He seemed truly terrified for us."
"I think Gian died down here," Crono said. "Or he never came back anyway."
"Maybe he fell off one of those catwalks." Lucca chimed in teasingly.
Marle laughed. But then her laughter transformed and she screamed. Crono glanced up just to see her fall to the ground. He immediately started forward to run up the staircase.
"Don't move!" Lucca shouted to him. Crono stopped immediately without thought. Marle needed help, but Lucca knew that. She would never have told him to stop without good reason.
He turned slightly towards her. She wasn't moving either. She slipped her hand into her pocket, pulled out a small object, and threw it upward toward the catwalk.
A yellow laser beam struck whatever it was Lucca had thrown mid-air. It fell to the ground smoking.
"Did you see where it came from?" she whispered to him.
"No, we're too far away." Crono stared intently at Marle. She still hadn't moved. He quickly made up his mind.
"I'll distract it. You get up on that other catwalk," he pointed to the raised walkway on the other side of the corridor, "and see if you can get a clear shot."
"Crono!" Lucca yelled after him as he ran, "Damn it!"
Crono leapt up the stairs toward Marle. He saw the robot patrolling the far end of the walkway as he reached the top. Saw the golden mechanical eye swivel toward him. He dove forward feeling the heat of the laser just miss his shoulder. He rolled sideways and leapt to his feet. He drew his katana as he charged the metallic creature.
He swung the blade in an arc neatly decapitating the robot. Sparks flew in all directions. Two more sets of glowing eyes on the far side of the catwalk immediately turned toward him. He dropped straight to the floor to dodge the anticipated laser strikes.
"Lucca! There's more of them!"
"Already on it!" And with her words she shot four explosive shots in quick succession. Only one found its target. The robot on the left exploded.
The second didn't even seem to notice the disruption. It fired frighteningly accurate lasers as it approached. Crono barely stayed ahead of the thing as he dodged to the left and then right. He ducked down underneath the third shot and rolled forward bringing the metallic creature into range.
He swung his blade hard only to find it blocked by a metal arm.
"Crono! You're blocking my shot!" Lucca shouted.
Crono couldn't respond. He had other things to worry about. The robot blocked everything Crono threw at him. He feinted right only to strike left. He attacked high and low. And the creature always anticipated him. He wanted to keep the robot on the defensive because he didn't think he could dodge a laser this close. But he was growing nervous. Crono brought the katana down hard and his blade locked between two armor plates. His blade was stuck firmly in place. Crono desperately pushed forward knowing that pulling back would be fatal.
Suddenly, the resistance vanished and Crono stumbled forward. A crossbow bolt protruded from the robot's yellow eye sensor.
"Marle?" Crono asked as he turned toward her. And there she was leaning awkwardly against the railing.
"Nice shot!" Lucca called.
"Marle, you're alright!" Crono shouted rushing back to her.
"Mostly," Marle said. "Sorry for the scare."
"It's okay. I'm just glad you're all right," Crono said leaping to her aid. He helped her back to the ground. And she placed her hands on her injured thigh and closed her eyes. Her hands started faintly glowing.
"You can even heal yourself? But I thought the energy was coming from you." Crono asked. Marle opened her eyes again and turned back to him.
"It is. But it's a different kind of energy. It makes me tired so I'm more likely to fall asleep. But it knits the muscles and bones back together. It doesn't completely heal everything. It will be stiff and sore for a few days and I will be prone to falling asleep. But I will be able to walk in the mean time. Seems like a fair exchange to me. Help me back up."
"Your ability seems similar to Frog's," Crono said as he offered her a hand, "Way more appealing th-"
"Crono, your recklessness is going to going to get you killed someday," Lucca interrupted as she ran up the stairs to her companions.
"Naw," Crono waved away the admonishment dismissively, "Not as long as I have you to watch my back."
"You'll probably get me killed right along with you because I'm too stupid to have learned by now not to follow you around!" She said hotly. He just grinned innocently. Lucca couldn't keep a straight face and was soon laughing.
"Damn it Crono! Why is it so impossible to stay mad at you?"
"It's the hair! Don't deny it." he bantered back playfully.
"I guess we know how Gian died," Marle broke in solemnly. The other two instantly sobered.
"Yeah, let's go see if we can figure out what he died for?" Crono said softly gesturing for the other two to follow him.
The three progressed forward through the corridors much more cautiously – trying to stay underneath the shadows of the catwalks. Crono noticed two more patrolling robots, but they managed to avoid them fairly easily.
Lucca tapped his shoulder to get his attention. She gestured excitedly to a door on the far side of the storage room they were in. That must be where the computer was. Lucca would not be excited about the storage facility.
Without thinking, Crono eagerly stepped forward. He jumped back immediately as a yellow laser struck across his path. Crono immediately clutched at his sword, but a hand - Lucca's hand, restrained him from drawing the blade. He followed her gaze and discovered a smoking and charred rat. The robot had not responded to his motion. It had charbroiled a rat scurrying across the path.
So he proceeded with more caution, keeping an eye on the artificially intelligent adversary. But they made it across the room. Really, the things weren't that difficult to avoid if you knew that they were there. Crono shoved the heavy door open, held it open for his companions, and quickly followed them inside.
"Look at the size of this thing! This database must be huge!" Lucca exclaimed running over to a console.
"Do you think you could shut down the security system?" Marle asked.
"Good idea! I don't know. Come give me a hand."
And once again the two girls were chattering excitedly over the text that poured forth from the glass display.
"It's no good," Lucca declared, "I can only see the current conditions. I don't seem to be able to change anything. Whenever I try, it prompts me for some kind of entry. I don't have access."
"You need a password," Marle said, "The same thing happened on the console above. Remember? Mai entered something in before we could use it."
"Well Lucca, how about you continue to do battle with the computer or at least find out what you can. Marle and I are going to check out the storage facility."
"Wouldn't it make more sense for you to wait until after I've shut down the security system?"
"Probably," He said impudently. She sighed.
"Come on Marle!" Crono said gesturing for her to follow.
Marle and Crono made it through the multiple corridors without incident. The robots were becoming easier and easier to avoid. By observing the sentries attacking moving objects they learned what was within the androids' line of site and what was not.
Crono pushed the door open and a rush of stale and rancid air came rushing out.
"Whew! It reeks!" Marle complained. Crono walked forward looking for a light switch or something. But he need not have bothered. The lights blinked on themselves. Crates were stacked haphazardly. Most were damaged and their contents spilled across the floor.
"This can't be good." Crono groaned. It wasn't cold enough either.
"Crono! Look!" Marle ran over to a crumpled body.
"That must be Gian. He's holding something." Crono said joining her at the corpses' side. Crono forced the stiff fingers to open found a worn piece of paper. He handed it to Marle.
"Can you make any sense of this?"
She shakes her head. "No, these are just random words. Not even words! They have letters and numbers. And they definitely don't form a coherent thought or idea."
"I guess he was already too far gone."
"Maybe," she agreed, but continued to study the writing.
"You doubt it?"
"It just seems too organized. See, each 'word' is labeled S1, S2, and S3. Seems like it has to mean something."
"Alright, we'll give it to Lucca. Maybe she can make some sense of it."
"Before we head back let's see if there's anything that can be salvaged."
They did a quick inventory. The results were not encouraging. The food had all rotted to uselessness. There was an entire wall of crates that seemed to be perfectly intact, but they were only filled with various types of seeds. All the other supplies had been discovered by the rats. They found some medical kits that might come in handy and exactly half of one crate of dried rations. Crono suspected that the only reason even that much food had survived was because it had fallen against the wall, sealing the damaged portion of the crate against unwanted scavengers.
"Do you think seeds could grow in a world like this?" Marle asked softly. Crono shook his head in uncertainty.
"I don't know. I suppose it will have to. What other hope do these people have?"
Marle didn't respond. She looked introspective.
"We should get these supplies back up above," Crono said trying to interrupt what were probably depressing thoughts. "Sura especially, needs the extra sustenance. This stuff will be easier to carry if we consolidate it a little. Why don't we put a few samples of each kind of seed and add a few of those kits. The people above may need them! We'll put them in this one crate so it'll be easier to transport."
"Crono, sneaking past those robots is one thing. Getting this huge supply box through their patrol patterns without detection is probably not possible," Marle objected.
"Do you have a better idea?" Crono asked. Marle cocked her head in thought. Crono found himself grinning at her expression. She was really cute when she did that. Suddenly her face lit up.
"Crono that's it!" she exclaimed, excitedly waving the piece of paper in his face, "These are the passwords! We get this back to Lucca and she probably can disable the sentries!"
…
"Blasted useless hunk of scrap metal!" Lucca kicked the console in frustration.
"Damn it!" she cursed herself as she hopped around in a little circle on her uninjured foot. Then she started laughing. Once she had calmed down she forced her attention back to the less than helpful console.
"Come on Lucca, stay focused!" she said to herself. But she was tired of going through the same three security reports. There actually seemed to be twenty-eight security files in total, but she could not open twenty-five of them without some kind of entry or pass code. And the three she could see, but not edit, were less than easy to read. She was able to determine the sentries were currently programmed to destroy anything that moved. Which was less that useless! She already knew that! The only new piece of information Lucca had been able to decipher was that this program had been actively running for four months, eleven days, and six hours. And she didn't think this piece of information was particularly helpful either.
The program did not make sense! Why would humans program robots that would kill humans? When designing robotic intelligence would it not be practical to put a line of code in there that said, 'Thou shall not harm humans!' It's what Lucca would have done. Even Gato, whose whole purpose was combat, had a line of code that would not allow him to cause lethal damage.
She sighed. She was going in circles. It was time to change her approach. So she returned to the original screen. There seemed to be two main options: derectore and cerche. Lucca had no idea what either word meant. The derectore had lead to lists of folders and files. She had used it to find the security files. That meant it was time to try cerche. She clicked on the display and an empty field rose up once again, prompting her to enter something. She sighed again. She had no clue what the machine wanted from her.
She hit a bunch of random keys in frustration. The display instantly changed:
0 maches founden.
"Zero matches founden," Lucca read aloud gleefully. She understood! Cerche meant search! Well, of course it did. She realized that she would probably understand a lot more of what she was reading if she read it out load. While the written spellings often made little to no sense, the phonemes formed words that audibly made sense to her. This era's residents obviously pronounced most of these phonemes differently. Alright Lucca, she thought to herself, time to do some searching!
Her first inclination was to enter something like 'overiding security protocol', but she knew this would not work. First, she had no idea how future denizens would spell it, but more importantly security would hardly be secure if you could just instantly look up how to override it. She tried multiple variations of the idea anyway. Most of her entries turned back no results just as the first had. But on a few occasions the computer seemed to be able to guess what she was trying to say! Incredible! Unfortunately, what she found was either indecipherable or not specific enough to help her solve her problems.
She needed a simpler problem to work on. Something that was less technical. She typed in 'time gate' crossing her fingers.
Lucca was thrilled when the computer automatically corrected her entry to 'tyme'. The search results were numerous, but she could not make sense of most of it. So much for less technical. The most frustrating thing was Lucca was certain she would have been able to understand it had it been in her own version of the language.
She tried a different search: tyme anomalies. And another huge list of results came up. Lucca felt overwhelmed by all the information. This computer was amazing! She could rifle through security or personnel files! She could bring up maps of various locations with complete environmental condition readouts. She could apparently also look up conditions at any location, during specific times, for the last 50 years!
That gave her an idea. Maybe, if she could figure out where they gated in…
"Lucca!" Marle exclaimed strolling in with Crono in tow, "I think we found what you need!" She was waving a soiled piece of paper. Lucca took it from her and her grinned. Going back to the security files she entered in the three passwords.
"Bingo!" Lucca shouted. And then it was simple to switch the droids' program from "cerche and dysstrye" to "idel". Lucca really wanted to create an interactive interface if she ever got back home.
"I think I can find the information we need to find another gate. If there is one anyway," Lucca informed her companions.
"There has to be another one," Crono said. "There's at least two just in Truce in our time. There has to be more here as well."
"Crono, that's not a valid assumption. We know nothing about how time travel works or how gates form. For all we know, there might be something in Truce that makes it easier for the gates to be stable."
"There has to be another gate," Crono insisted.
"Well, like I said, if it's there, I think we can find it. I want you to start looking through these maps. Try to figure out where we gated in. If we can figure that out we can compare the conditions with other locations on the planet and see if we can find similar conditions."
"Wait a minute," Marle interrupted, "This is going to take awhile right?"
Lucca nodded, "Probably."
"Well, now that the security robots have been shut down we should head back up with that box of supplies. See if we can't get these people to start planting those seeds while there's still daylight."
"What?" Lucca asked.
"We found a huge store of seeds," Crono explained. "You're right Marle. Let's do that first. Then, we'll come back here and find a time gate!"
…
Doan sat slumped against the wall staring at the ladder that led to the facility below. It felt like an eternity had passed. He knew the teenagers had been gone too long. He knew what that meant. But he couldn't bring himself to move. What was the point?
He heard a thud. He jumped to his feet and peered down the shaft. Doan felt his stomach drop at the sight. All members of the strange trio were perfectly fine. They had a supply case with them and seemed to be discussing how to get it up the ladder. Doan barked a short laugh and all three immediately looked up and smiled. He was smiling too, he realized in shock. It felt good.
He shook himself into motion to the platform elevator adjacent to the ladder and threw the switch. The platform immediately descended. Before any time had passed the three adventurers and a supply case were back up on ground level.
Without thought, he surged forward and grabbed the closer girl - the purple haired one - in a tight embrace. She squeaked in surprise.
"We're saved," he breathed with tears of relief.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder. And he released his prisoner to face the red headed youth who held out his hand in greeting. Doan grasped it immediately.
"Nome?" the youth asked him. Doan blinked in surprise.
"Pardon?"
"Eem Crono," the youth pointed to himself with his free hand. "Marle, Lucca," he said indicating each companion in turn. "Yo?"
"Me? I'm Doan."
"Doan," Crono repeated.
"Thank you," Doan said sincerely indicating the box and moved toward the supplies. All three of the youths blocked his path. He jumped in surprise. They couldn't possibly want to keep the food for just themselves could they? The three of them seemed too open and friendly for that. The blond, the girl named Marle, handed him a small clear package. He looked at it in confusion then read the label. Seeds?
Doan looked back up to the three with wide eyes. He understood. This was it. Nothing else had survived. That couldn't be. There was supposed to be at least another three years worth of food for a fully populated dome. And the current population was nowhere near what the dome was designed to support. The inventory manifest said three years. He moved forward again and this time they moved out of his way immediately. He dove into the supply case to discover what was there.
Seeds! And more seeds, some rations, enough to supplement the scavenging they had been doing, dehydrated fluids that might come in handy for his daughter's new baby, first aid kits, and endless amounts of seeds. Doan shook his head in disbelief. What needed to be done to plant seeds? He thought back to lessons learned from the crazy old man. Lessons he never thought he would ever have use for.
The plants would have to be grown outside the dome. The glass greenhouses had long ago been buried in ash and black dust. Maybe they should try to clean them. It would be better if they could be growing the fruits and vegetables year round. The saplings would probably not survive the coming frost. And they would need to set up a guard to keep the rats and other pests away from the growing harvest.
Doan set off to make the arrangements. They might have the first fresh vegetables in just under twelve weeks!
…
Crono tapped a button to bring up yet another map. He had started simply by looking for a dome – specifically the dome where they had gated in, but had soon discovered that this era had more than a few dome structures. And there didn't seem to be anything particularly unique about any of them. So now he sought a dome that was near some laboratory and then hopefully another larger dome.
Staring at the green representations of the world from three hundred plus years ago, Crono wondered – not for the first time – what had caused the current desolation. It just seemed that these people had so many devices and contraptions – they should have been able to handle just about anything.
"That is ridiculous!" Lucca shouted from a different console.
"I'm telling you, that's what it says," Marle insisted.
"Maybe you guys should take a break," Crono suggested mildly to the two girls. Their constant bickering was started to wear on him. And staring at these maps was burning holes into his eyes, he was certain. To his relief, they both agreed without argument.
"That's probably a good idea. I want to check on Sura anyway," Marle said. And she started back up the tunnel. Lucca approached him and his screen of endless data instead.
"Find anything?" Lucca asked.
"I would have told you the minute I had," Crono told her trying really hard to keep the irritation from his voice as he continued to scroll down the visual sensor readings. "It's hard to use maps that are three hundred years old. All the landmarks have changed. You sure finding this location will help us?"
"Yes!" Lucca snapped back. "I am sure! You can't just type in "Gates" or "Time Warp" into the search box! When I ran a search for anomalies in general, I got so much I would never be able to sift through it all! I have no idea how time rifts might be detected. We need the data from our point of entry to see if we can anything strange so we can find similar readings elsewhere. But there is no guarantee. I have told you both that there may not be another gate! Or maybe-
"Lucca," he tried to interrupt.
"-Because a second gate has never been opened, or not recently opened anyway, that the anomalies just aren't enough to register on this things' sensors and we will never find it! But you, Crono, insisted there must be another gate! Just because there was more than one in our own time period."
"Lucca!"
"There must be another way to look for it! And I, in a moment of brilliance, figured out exactly how to do just that. And now you-"
"LUCCA!" Crono shouted finally turning away from his screen to catch her full attention.
"What?"
"Will you calm down? I'm sorry, okay? I'm hungry and tired and I just want to go home. I didn't mean to take it out on you," Crono said. Lucca let out a huge sigh and was silent. Crono knew this meant she was trying to form some words that were reasoned instead of angry so he just waited.
"Crono, I didn't mean to snap at you. I guess I'm cranky too. Marle has been pushing my buttons all day. I can't read all the information by myself. She's better at figuring out what it says than I am. But she dislikes the technical stuff and she doesn't always stop and explain it to me. She'll just read it herself and then start pushing buttons. She keeps trying to figure out what happened to create this future."
"Is that a bad thing?" Crono asked.
"Yes! First off, we have a very immediate problem to solve and that's getting home! We don't have enough food and resources to stay here indefinitely to do research. We need to find a new gate or go back to the old one to go to a time where we can survive. But more importantly, knowledge of our future is probably not a good thing. We could really mess up our time line, or possibly our entire universe, if we created a time paradox."
"Well, you don't have to convince me. You're the closest thing we have to an expert on time travel," Crono grinned as he stood up. "Come on, let's see if there's any food left." They needed a break.
…
The door swooshed open automatically as Marle approached Sura's domicile.
"Marlie!" Mai shouted and immediately latched onto the princess's legs as she entered the small room.
"Hi there!" Marle exclaimed laughing. Mai babbled excitedly at her in response. Sura sat up and smiled at her daughter's behavior. Marle approached the pregnant woman with Mai in tow. And placed her hand on the Sura's forehead. The woman actually looked a lot better and seemed much more alert. Marle started channeling additional energy into her anyway. Being careful to go slowly so she didn't collapse in exhaustion again.
"Marlie," Mai whined as she attempted to drag the princess to the console. "Spell tyme!"
"Mai, I can't read this very well," Marle protested when the girl booted the system up. The girl pulled up a story that Marle knew, about a princess and a frog. She smiled at the subject matter. And suddenly Mai was reading the story to her. She either knew how to read or she had this one memorized. Marle smiled fondly. She had done the same as a child.
Mai was very animated in her storytelling. Gian must have liked to add embellishments because the girl was acting out most of the characters' actions. It also made it much easier for Marle to understand the girl. She forced herself to play closer attention. She was determined to master this language shift. The vowels seemed to have shifted more to the back of the mouth. Soon Marle forgot her linguistic meanderings as she got caught up in Mai's storytelling because as soon as Mai had finished "The Princess and the Frog" she moved onto another story that Marle quickly recognized as "Cinderella".
"Having fun?"
Marle jumped at Crono's question. She had not heard her friends come in at all.
"Cro! Luka!" Mai greeted, her story forgotten. Lucca gave the girl a hug and Crono began immediately having a conversation with Sura using their own personal sign language.
"You hungry?" Marle asked Lucca, hoping to make peace with her new friend.
"Sure," Lucca said without making eye contact. Marle sighed and then proceeded to pull out their diminishing food supply.
"We have enough for tomorrow, but after that…" Marle shrugged.
"We'll have to ration it. Only one strip each per meal," Crono suggested over his shoulder. Lucca nodded in agreement. Marle sighed again. That meant she was never really going to stop being hungry.
"All right, but next time we decide to go through a gate let's be sure to pack more in the way of foodstuffs!" Marle handed a strip to each of her friends.
"You'll get no argument from me," Crono chimed in taking a huge bite out of his piece. Marle then handed one to Sura.
"Theenk yo," she said softly. Marle nodded in acknowledgement.
"Mai, come here and sit down," Marle patted the seat next to the girl's mother. Mai immediately jumped onto the bench and sat down.
"Don't give her as much," Lucca warned.
"Why not? She seems like she needs some nourishment. There's no need to be stingy," Marle said trying to keep her voice neutral as she gave Mai only half of a piece.
"I am not being stingy," Lucca objected angrily. "It's not a good thing to give a starving system too much food. It doesn't remember how to process things! Maybe you would know that if you didn't have such a pampered existence."
"Lucca, that's hardly fair," Crono scolded.
"Yeah sure. Take her side," Lucca said angrily.
"I'm sorry," Marle managed, her throat suddenly constricted.
"Let's just calm down" Crono said tightly.
They continued to eat in strained silence. Mai soon fallen asleep in her mother's arms. Marle tried to take as small of bites as possible to make the food last longer. Lucca seemed to be doing the same. Crono had long since finished and was talking to Sura again. But the conversation was not as animated as before. Sura seemed to be nodding off as well.
"Marle look," Lucca said softly as she finished her last bit of jerky, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap and I didn't mean to seem unappreciative of your help earlier. It's just so much of this is beyond me. I'm just not used to that and I took out my frustrations on you. I'm sorry."
"It's okay Lucca. I was tired and impatient as well. I think we just needed to take a break a little sooner," Marle said calmly, forcing herself to smile.
"Well then, it sounds like it is time for some sleep," Crono said obviously setting himself up a little fort in the corner. Marle grinned watching him get comfortable.
"Sleep is such as waste of valuable time," Lucca sighed.
"You always say that," Crono grinned, tossing her a pillow, "but I have learned from experience that even genius brains like yours, need sleep to function."
"Well, if time is what you're worried about, why don't we just use the magic sleeping machine?" Marle suggested pointing back to the wall. Her two companions stared at her.
"What?" She asked, embarrassed at the rapt attention.
"That's brilliant!" Lucca said, "But magic sleeping machine? That's a terribly inaccurate name. It must have something better. I wonder how it actually works," Lucca quickly deteriorated into mumbling as she approached the device on the far wall. Crono continued to stare at her.
"Do you think it's safe?" Crono finally asked, obviously nervous. Marle grinned.
"So, let me get this straight. You have no problem at all jumping into blue portals, facing mechanical dragons or the unknown dangers below, but you're afraid of stepping into this machine whose purpose seems to be rejuvenation?" She asked him in mock astonishment.
"Yeah, that's pretty much it," he admitted.
"You were willing to test drive Lucca's telepod," she countered.
"Lucca made it," he said, as if that explained everything. "It looks like a coffin," he added softly.
"Well, it worked wonders on me," Marle said offering him a hand to aid him to his feet. "Come on! It'll be fine."
"All right. I trust you," Crono said, walking towards Lucca. Marle stopped.
"Do you?" She asked him seriously. He turned back to her.
"Do I what?" he asked.
"Trust me?"
"Well, sure. Why wouldn't I?"
"Its just, we've really only known each other for a few days," Marle said in disbelief.
"Eight."
"Eight what?"
"We've known each other for eight days," he was smiling and looking straight into her eyes.
She broke the eye contact, suddenly self-conscious. Her hands had never seemed to be so fascinating.
"Is that all? How can you trust someone that you've only known for a week?" Marle argued. She hoped he saw no merit in her statement.
"I don't know. With everything that's happened it feels longer. Don't you trust me?" he asked. And she looked up at his bright blue eyes again. His forehead crinkled in worry. He cared what she thought!
"Of course," she smiled shyly. Crono grinned back.
"If you two are finished whispering secrets back and forth, I would really like to get some work done," Lucca said sharply indicating the open cavity.
"Did you already use it?" Crono asked startled.
"Yup! And I feel like I could tackle a rhino!" She exclaimed brightly.
"Lucca! Shh!" Marle whispered urgently pointing to their sleeping hosts.
"Sorry," Lucca said much more softly. "Crono! Stop being a scaredy cat and get in the damn magic sleeping machine!" she hissed.
"I thought you didn't like that name," Marle said.
"I don't, but I haven't come up with anything better yet," She replied absently. "Crono!" She pointed to the cavity, "In! Now!"
"Fine. Fine. I'm going. Calm down," Crono hesitantly moved into the open space in the wall and the door immediately swooshed closed. It was kind of creepy Marle admitted. But before any time had passed, it opened back up. Crono leapt out immediately eying the device suspiciously.
"How do you feel?" Marle asked him.
"Great!" he replied smiling. Then he frowned. "Still hungry though."
"Well, it is a sleeping device – not a feeding machine," Lucca said in exasperation, "It's your turn princess."
"Right," and she stepped into the machine voluntarily, trying not to think about the last time she had volunteered herself to test unknown technology. The doors closed over her and she held her breadth and shut her eyes. In mere seconds it was over. She stepped out in a daze. Her eye-strain and mild headache were gone. She felt completely energized. But Crono was right, she suddenly felt very aware that she was still hungry. It was the same as the first time.
"Everyone refreshed?" Lucca asked. Marle nodded.
"Okay then," Crono said "Let's go figure out how to get home," He lead the way.
…
Lucca tapped the button to bring up the next screen of data. The numbers were endless. She was looking for anything abnormal that stood out. She was in over her head. How could she find anomalies if she didn't even understand what all these godforsaken endless numbers even represented. What was a meson? Or a neutryno?
She had tried to look up these unfamiliar terms, but without Marle's help deciphering the explanations became unbearably slow. And the princess was now completely absorbed in her own research project. She had stopped offering help hours ago and Lucca was definitely not going to admit that she needed the aid.
So Lucca tried to use more of the pictures as an explanation. Some of them seemed familiar at times and others completely alien. But in any case, the pictures were no substitute for a long detailed explanation. It was so frustrating not to understand something. She always understood pretty much everything. Intellectually, she understood that thirteen hundred years had gone by and it only made sense that the world's understanding of the universe would progress beyond her own. But feeling completely lost was not a familiar feeling for Lucca. It was definitely not a feeling she enjoyed.
Meanwhile, Marle seemed to have no trouble at all in figuring out whatever it was that she was reading. Lucca knew this all too well because Marle kept summarizing her findings to them. No matter how many times Lucca told the girl she just did not care!
"It seems the people during this time were facing some kind of energy crisis. They were running out of oil," Marle explained.
"How in hell is that possible?" Lucca said in spite of her internal vow to ignore the girl's pronouncements. It wasn't good to know the future. It just wasn't. "Do you know how much oil there is on this planet? How much we'd have to use before it would start to become scarce?"
Marle just shrugged in response. When the princess made no more comments, Lucca turned back to her own terminal. And her stomach started growling. Just great. And the next meal, if one could call it that, would not be forthcoming for another few hours. Agreeing to ration everything meant Lucca would be hungry a lot over the next few days. She turned back to the incomprehensible data. If she could focus, perhaps she would forget that she was hungry. Happened at home all the time when she was working on a project without even trying!
"They found another energy source in the center of the earth and they tried to drill down into it," Marle explained.
"Will you stop trying to decipher all that history?" Lucca exclaimed in frustration. "It's not a good thing to know the future! If we know too much about the future and we use that knowledge in the present we might really mess up our timeline."
"Mess up the timeline? Take a look around? Is this a future you want to preserve? How can knowledge of the future mess it up more than it already is?" Marle demanded.
Lucca froze. She hadn't really thought of it that way. This future was a pretty horrible one. But then, for all she knew about time travel they might try to make things better and create the very future they were trying to avoid. Or worse, destroy space-time fabric and all times would cease to exist.
And yet, they had already changed the past… when they saved Queen Leene, and by extension, Marle. The universe was still here. True, the alterations had been minor. But maybe this was evidence that time was in fact fluid. That there didn't have to be one outcome. That you didn't have to worry about creating a time paradox. Maybe they could create whatever future they dared dream up. They might make it worse. But they could try. And hey, maybe if they did make it worse they could go back and try again. That is, if they didn't get themselves killed in the process.
"Maybe you're right Marle." Lucca said seriously, "Maybe things can't get any worse than they already are."
"I am?" Marle said, clearly taken aback. "You agree with me?"
"Lucca! I think I found something!" Crono shouted. Lucca leaped to her feet and over to his console. Crono pointed to the map, "See, this is a laboratory. It was called Lab 16 and over to the west of it was a structure called Bangor Dome. I think that's where we gated in."
"What are the coordinates?"
"Latitude fourteen point six North. Longitude fifty six point eight nine West."
Lucca ran back to her terminal and typed in the coordinates. The current conditions of Bangor Dome came up immediately, but what she really needed was the conditions of the dome at the point of time they had arrived. It was late morning, two days ago? Only two? Felt like a week! She entered in the date and started glancing through the data looking for any sudden, short changes in any of the variables. She wondered if the computer had any kind of algorithm to detect statistically significant variances. It probably did – she just didn't know how to prompt it. She sighed and kept looking through the data manually.
After what seemed liked hours, there was no evidence that Lucca had ever been excited about a breakthrough. In fact, she was certain she had that glazed over look she had seen in many of her classes when students were pretending to pay attention. Then to make matters worse her abdomen rumbled indignantly.
"Quiet you," she mumbled softly to her stomach. She hit a key to scroll down to the next data set. She glossed through most of it. The temperature was slightly increasing while humidity was constant. That was to be expected as the day progressed. Radiation and neutrino levels didn't change either. Tachyonic feld emyssions? What was that even referring to? And what was baryonic matter? She pressed these questions aside. It didn't matter. She was just looking for changes.
She hit the key again to only find more of the same. And even more of the same. Wait! At 1:12:37 pm there was a sudden presence of a small number of exotic particles and those mysterious tachyonic feld emyssions doubled! Not that either of these numbers was extremely large. Doubling nothing was still nothing. It could be a fluke. But it was worth a shot.
So she ran a search for the same conditions in the Bangor Dome. She had to wait a few moments. Apparently there was a lot of data to comb through even for a computer. The results brought up a dozen instances over the last fifty years of the exact same conditions. That was interesting. She had never thought they could be exact. So she expanded the search to any location. Now this search was going to take forever! So she leaned back in her chair to wait. She never had been very patient.
Her stomach rumbled again. Lucca sighed. She glanced over to Crono and Marle who had their heads together at another console. She thought about joining them for a second, but then thought better of it. She really did not particularly want to interact with the princess at the moment. So she settled for pacing back and forth instead, trying to ignore how hungry she was. The screen flashed – its search complete, finally!
The results displayed two locations: Proto Dome and a place called Death Peak. She was starting to get excited again. She opened both files side by side with Bangor Dome so she could compare them. Death Peak wasn't the same – it had constant high levels of fluctuating tachyonic fields with a word next to it – "temporel wrengdhes". Well, that was a word Lucca needed to look up.
wrengdhe – n. chaunges or schifts
Lucca almost leaped out of her seat in excitement. Tachyonic fields were an indication of temporal changes or distortions!
"Guys! I think I found something!" She didn't wait for them to respond. She pulled her attention to the other file. Proto Dome was a perfect match! The numbers were almost exactly the same as Bangor Dome's. She was certain there had to be another gate there.
"Crono! Marle! Come here! I found it. I found another gate!" She started pulling up the maps they would need to plan their journey. Hopefully it would be short. Neither of her companions responded.
"Crono?" Lucca called suddenly concerned. She turned towards her companions. Crono was standing behind Marle. His hands on her shoulder as if he was trying to reassure her. "Crono? Marle? What's wrong?" she asked as she approached.
Crono didn't speak. He merely moved away to make room for Lucca. Marle looked as if she had been crying.
"Show her," he said softly. Lucca turned toward the screen not knowing what to expect.
She watched as the beautiful green world, filled with amazing technological wonders, tore open to reveal a colossal creature covered in terrifying spikes. She watched as this monster sent out waves and waves of destruction that destroyed cities and broke apart continents. The visual record then just ended in buzzing static.
The static continued. No one moved. No one spoke. The whole world had just ended in a matter of minutes!
"I refuse to believe it," Marle said softly, "This can't be the way the world ends."
"Marle, we've already seen the aftermath," Crono responded.
"We will have to change it then," Marle countered.
"You're serious aren't you?" Lucca asked. Marle nodded. "You want to take on that!" Lucca pointed to the creature on screen. It was the size of a small continent. Marle nodded again never taking her eyes of the creature. Lucca wanted to object, but she had nothing to object to. She had already conceded this argument.
"You know what? You're just as insane as he is," Lucca smiled as she jerked her thumb toward Crono.
"You're in?" Marle asked in surprise. Lucca nodded.
"Let's get to it then!" Crono said, "Lucca, you said you had found another gate?" She nodded confirmation again. "Great! Figure out where it is and how to get there."
"Way ahead of you as usual!" Lucca said moving back to the other side of the room to her display. "It's east of here. In the Proto Dome I believe," She looked at the map and groaned. "It's going to take us days to get there on foot."
"Marle, see if you can find some references to what that monster was. We'll look it up in our own time and see if we can't figure out when this problem started," Crono directed.
"You're assuming the gate will take us to our own time!" Lucca chided.
"Any time period with food is better than this one!" Crono argued.
"Even ones where you're wanted for execution?" Marle teased.
"You have to get caught to be executed," Crono insisted.
"I think I have something. The monster was called Lavos," Marle said.
"All right. Let's go back upstairs and see if anyone knows any shortcuts to this Proto Dome," Crono lead the way from the information consoles.
Lucca followed with a new spring in her step. Maybe the world didn't have to end.
…
Marle hugged Sura carefully. She used the physical contact to continue channeling extra aural energy to the pregnant woman, figuring Sura needed it more than Marle, herself did. It seemed to be making a difference. Sura was on her feet! She moved around the domicile with energy, though her great girth did make for an awkward gait. Marle then pulled away to begin to gather her things. Sura started chattering, but she spoke too quickly for Marle to make out a single word. But she sounded happy, even excited. Marle was careful to keep her back to her hostess, less the woman catch her tearing up.
Marle suddenly didn't want to leave. She felt it almost as a betrayal. She knew it was unwise to linger. If they stayed too long they would just become part of the problem - extra mouths to feed. Extra burdens that couldn't really offer any new help or support. If they left, maybe they could change things. Maybe if they left and survived, the future wouldn't be so bleak. And yet, Sura and Mai, they needed someone now. How was it possible that she could care so much for a woman and child she had just met?
Sura continued to babble. Marle turned back to her – Sura had to know that she could not understand, so why did she speak? Looking her in the eyes, Marle understood. Sura was trying to keep back her own tears by keeping the atmosphere light. Marle managed to smile back.
Mai came running into the room with an excited smile and latched onto her mother's leg. Sura ran her hand over her daughter's hair affectionately. The girl jumped back from her mother as if burned.
"Moda!" she scolded in such disgust that Marle laughed. Her smile faded however, as she saw the reason for Mai's violent reaction. There was a puddle of water on the floor surrounding Sura's feet.
Marle dropped her bag. Her shock only lasted for an instant. She pushed Sura back down to the bed and tried to make the woman comfortable. She then ran to the corridor screaming for help. She hoped that these people had a midwife. She had only witnessed one pregnancy and she had not actually participated in the delivery herself.
Crono arrived almost immediately, followed quickly by the old man, Doan. Doan came quickly to his daughter's side and started saying encouraging things that Marle couldn't really make out.
"Crono, I need water, and clean cloths – bandages if you can find them, and a knife – the sharper the better." Marle said trying to keep her voice even. He nodded and ran right back out.
And then a crowd started gathering. That would not do at all. Marle turned to the crowd and gently pushed and shooed the curious onlookers out of the room. No one came forward to help her – guess that meant there was no midwife. Marle sighed. It was going to be a long night.
Mai whimpered. Marle turned to her – startled. The princess had forgotten the child was there. She touched Doan gently on the shoulder. When he turned to her, she pointed with her chin toward the girl. The old man nodded grimly, then escorted the girl out of the room.
Just then Sura's body writhed in a contraction. She screamed. Marle wished there was something she could do to relieve the young mother's agony. But even healing would not take away the pain. Sura had a long battle ahead.
…
Hours later, and multiple contractions, the baby still had not come. Marle did not know how abnormal this was. She wringed her own hands. She hated just waiting. Crono had come back with the necessary supplies and was currently holding Sura's hand through each painful contraction.
"Sura! You can do this!" Marle encouraged as another muscle spasm ran through Sura's thin body. "You're almost there! I can see the baby!" But there was a problem. The baby was not turned correctly. Instead of a baby's head, Marle saw a baby's rear, which meant the baby was folded. Marle's stomach dropped painfully. She didn't know how to ease the delivery of a breech.
"Sura, you need to push," Marle directed, not completely certain the girl understood her. But if nothing else, the sound of her own voice helped Marle remain calm. Sura's scrunched up face turned bright red with the effort. She screamed in agony.
"Yes, that's it! Keep going," Marle encouraged. Sooner than she expected, Marle was supporting the baby's frighteningly purple posterior. She tried to gently pull the infant to ease it out. Sura's screams jumped an octave and Marle immediately stopped.
"Sorry," Marle said, "Keep pushing. We're almost there." The legs were coming. As soon as they were free, Marle pulled the legs back to more easily support the blood-streaked infant. Sura's body tensed again and again with effort, but the baby stopped making progress. Marle could not reach the arms and she was getting concerned at how long the baby was going without air. She had one more idea, but she wasn't sure if it was a good one.
"I'm sorry, this is probably going to hurt," Marle warned. And just as another muscles contraction took place Marle pushed down on Sura's abdomen. Sura screams intensified again. But it worked. The baby seemed to break lose from wherever it was caught and lurched forward. And after another contraction, Marle was holding the screaming newborn infant in her hands.
"It's a girl!" Marle exclaimed in amazement. She placed the baby on a clean towel, pinched the umbilical chord tight as she remembered, before using the knife to cut through it.
She washed the blood off the newborn and wrapped her in clean swaddling and handed the screaming creature to its mother. Marle could not spare the infant another thought because the battle was not over. Sura was bleeding. The baby had probably blocked most of the blood before, but now the blood could flow freely. And the deep red tide showed no sign of ebbing.
She tried to block the oncoming flow with bandages, but Marle was dismayed at how quickly the white cloth turned red. She fought constantly to replace the red-soaked bandages. She used her ability to urge the torn tissue to knit back together while the new bandages were still adequate. But the tear was large and mostly internal where Marle could not get to it directly with her ability.
Deep inside, Marle knew Sura had no chance – she had lost too much blood. And Marle could not replace the lost life-blood no matter how much she healed the woman. The blood provided nutrients to the body's limbs and organs that her healing could not replace. But she would not let herself think about it. She had to keep going. She could not give up.
"Marle, stop," Crono gripped her shoulders firmly and pulled her away from the bloody futile battle, "Look," and he urged her to Sura's side.
The young mother was holding her pink and bruised baby daughter to her breast. She turned peaceful eyes to Marle.
"Theenk yo," Sura said almost inaudibly with a small child. Marle whose throat constricted painfully, only managed a nod. Sura turned back to the tiny child smiled again more brightly and then her eyes fell closed. The baby continued to nurse.
Marle could not hold the tears any longer. The water poured unrestrained as silent wracking sobs overtook her body. Crono turned her around and pulled her into his shoulder despite the blood she was smearing all over his tunic and she cried even harder as he held her. The baby's cries then joined her own and she had to turn back to the tragic scene. The baby had given up her latch on her mother. Marle just stood frozen in place staring at the wailing infant.
It was Crono who finally gently picked her up and held her out to Marle. She waved him away as she washed her hands. Only then did she take the baby hesitantly and hold her close rocking her a little. The infant immediately stopped crying and stared up at Marle with clear and alert brown eyes. Marle started crying again.
"I'm sorry little one," she managed, "I'm sorry I couldn't save her."
"What will you name her?" Crono asked.
"Me? You think I should name her?" Marle asked, startled by the question.
"Well, who else? She probably wouldn't be alive without all that healing you've been doing. Unless Sura said something?" Crono asked. Marle shook her head and began studying the little girl. Marle brushed away tears as she thought about it.
"I think we should name her Asha. It means hope," Marle said, looking back at Crono for approval. He smiled and nodded.
"Asha is perfect."
…
Author's Note:
This chapter was a huge struggle for me to write, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I have actually been writing more in the last two years than in the previous five, but I was so completely stuck in this chapter that I mostly wrote future chapters instead. So hopefully at some point later in the story maybe it won't take me as long to update because part of it is already written! Yeah… right. I know you don't believe me. And… you probably shouldn't.
This chapter also required a lot of research. I have learned so much about so many random things that I probably would never have learned about. It's one of the reasons that I like working on this project.
The future words were created using a condensed Middle English Dictionary. I figured that 800 AD to the present is pretty close to 1400 hundred years and would contain the right amount of shift. I just reversed the direction. Almost every "future" word comes from the Middle Dictionary and they do have real meaning that would make sense in context. (There are exactly four exceptions). Most of the ones that make it to this story are easy to figure out. There were other (many many more) words that came up that were completely indecipherable to someone living in the present. And that's when I usually wrote, 'but Crono did not understand a word'. Because he wouldn't. We wouldn't either Not at all. For example, wrengdhe really does mean distortion. And the word for clock is horlege, which I figure is something like hour log. But looking at it I would never think "Oh! That means clock! Duh!"
If you're wondering, tachyons are a theoretical particle that travels backwards through time (because they are moving faster than the speed of light). There is absolutely no evidence that they exist. It's a completely theoretical construct. I just figured that if something crazy was going on with time that tachyons would be a good indicator. Baryons, mesons, and neutrinos are also elementary particles. There's a little more evidence to support their existence, but they're not as fun because they have nothing to do with time travel, which according to one famous theoretical physicist by the name of Kip Thorne is actually theoretically possible, but you'd have to leave the planet, go hang out by a black hole for awhile, and then come back. That's how you would get to the future. Getting into the past is a lot trickier. You need two black holes relatively close together so you can create a wormhole. Science really is better than science fiction!
Delivering a regular birth doesn't seem like it would be terribly awful because things happen more or less by themselves. (For the record, I still wouldn't want to do it). Delivering breeches are no fun, but apparently a frank breech (where the butt comes out first as in the story) isn't too bad. Marle should not have pulled on the baby until everything except the head had been delivered. And only on the head if she has tilted it the right way first. Pulling on the infant at the wrong time can cause injury to both mother and baby. But the push on the abdomen is an actual technique in difficult births – again it is safer to use toward the end of delivery.
Asha really does mean hope. It's a Sanskrit name. So does Nadia apparently, which is a Russian name. I would have liked to use Nadia, but given the scene that particular choice would make our princess seem kind of egotistical. And that's not what we were going for at all. Esperanza was a runner up, but I didn't feel it fit at all with the other names in the story.
Really long Author's Note that you should only read if you're interested in linguistics and/or the history of language: The inspiration for this era's language issues originates from a U.S. History course I took in high school. In this course, I had to read a lot of primary source documents that had not been "translated" into modern English. Which was incredibly frustrating. I had to figure it out as I as read that y's were really u's and v's were really f's. I made myself a little key on the side so I could keep track of it all. Once all the rules were down I could then go back and read the whole thing with relative ease – at least for that one document, because the rules would be different for the next document because English wasn't completely standardized yet.
While doing my research on the shifts in the English language I learned that it wasn't so simple as replacing a few letters with different ones because English spelling wasn't really standardized until the invention of the printing press. Before that time people could spell anything any way they wanted to.
The biggest shift in the English language is called The Great Vowel Shift, which took place mostly from about 1200 – 1800, though the most dramatic shifts were made by 1400. Basically, all the vowels became higher vowels (higher up in the mouth in how you construct the sound) and high vowels turned into dipthongs (two vowels together). Unfortunately for us, the spelling of English words was standardized in the 1500 and 1600s. The vowels continued to shift after this spelling standardization, which is why English has some crazy spellings with exceptions to every rule. For example, "i" before "e" except after "c" or when rhyming with "a" as in neighbor or weigh. This also applies to words like either and neither, which really did used to be pronounced ayther and nayther. Go figure!
This vowel shift only occurred in English – it did not occur elsewhere in Europe in German, Spanish, Italian, or French. There are various theories as to why this occurred, the two main ones being: (1) the black death caused a lot of immigration and adjustment in social classes so the language shifted to accommodate various accents from various places and (2) The ruling class in England originally spoke French and when they went to war with France they might have moved away from "French" by over-exaggerating English vowels.
Our consonants have remained relatively unchanged. The vernacular vocabulary though has changed dramatically as has our written language. If you pick up texts that are a thousand years old you will not be able to understand it even though you would recognize most of the letters. Languages also tend to simplify with time – we get rid of extra verb conjugations that are rarely used and filler words that make a language flowery, but do not add function. (This is really the major flaw in my reversing the direction of the language shift).
And thus concludes our history lesson! Hope you found it interesting and maybe learned something at the same time! (Can you tell that I'm a teacher?)
