Chapter Three – Walk between dark and dark
This was all Seth's fault, Tellis thought running past the empty decrepit buildings in the Istaro Sector. The forbidden Istaro sector. She glanced at one of the buildings that probably served as barracks, a legacy from when Morpheus Station was a military installation. The buildings were of uniform design the High Guard never had much imagination, even then. Concrete slabs of gray with square cutouts for windows, which in the simulated dark of the station, was very creepy.
She shivered, remembering despite herself all the ghost stories associated with this sector. Tellis increased her pace, darting glances around the area, afraid. The loafers and wannabe rebels were long gone, whatever rebellious attitude they projected dissipates with the mere mention of High Guard. Not that she blamed them.
She really shouldn't be here.
She cursed Seth again if it weren't for him she would still be in the club partying safe from the curfew. Kai was right about Seth, that two-timing insect. She'd really been looking forward to the Himalia trip. Worm faced bastard.
Then again, she shouldn't have left in the first place, or she could have hitched a ride but that was n unlikely scenario. It was edging towards curfew when she stormed out of Dystopia and as a general rule it was better locked inside than caught outside.
But she'd gotten so angry she'd dumped the ice cold mug of beer on his head and marched to the streets and by the time she realized what she'd done she was walking halfway through the Istaro Sector. Tellis thought of her hotel and despaired, Arado Sector was five miles travel on foot, she'd be lucky if she even got out of this section of the Istaro Sector.
An unexpected noise, like a creak of metal and something else quickened her heartbeat. She wrapped her jacket closer to her and ran. She really should have waited in the club she wasn't native to Morpheus she'd only visited it during the summers the business trips she accompanied her foster father. Foster.
She pushed aside her bitter anger, this was neither the time nor the place. She had to get away from this sector before the police or the High Guards start sweeping in. She checked her watch and almost froze, only a few minutes to curfew.
Tellis braved a glance at the buildings and wondered if she could hide in one of the buildings.
It was then, over the hum of gravitation generators, Tellis heard the patrol vehicles round the corner. Her heart leapt, Tellis glanced around and chose to brave fate and ran to one of the buildings pushing open a rusted door.
The smell of urine and decay hit Tellis and she would have wretched but she didn't have time, instead she ran up the steps stumbling over a boot, some fatigues and almost fell when the rotted wood gave and her right foot plunged in the hole. The splinters bit through her pants and into skin, she pulled at her leg and fell sideways towards the wall her pants were torn and bloodied and when she placed some weight on her foot pain snaked up, Tellis winced and persevered. Limping and bleeding, she miraculously managed to reach the second floor she ran full tilt into a room, slammed the door shut and slid down. She brought a hand to her face and realized she was shaking all over.
How did she get herself into this?
The sound of her blood rushing in her ears was oddly louder than the klaxon of the alarm. Tellis offered a prayer to the goddess, futile as it was. She looked up and stopped breathing.
A red beam played along the ceiling of the room, she turned her head. The High Guards were thorough. She could see just from the corner, the levitating patrols scanning each floor.
There was no escape. She was going to prison, or maybe they'd just kill her. A sense of the inevitable came over her. She was going to die.
"…here."
Tellis jumped and almost hit the red beam a woman was standing on the threshold of a door she hadn't seen earlier.
"In here." The woman repeated. "Unless you wish to be caught?"
Tellis scrambled over to the woman and was glad she did at that exact moment the red beam descended on the spot she was sitting on. "Oh, goddess!" She exclaimed in a rush of breath.
The woman caught her hand and pulled her over the threshold, the door closed behind them. She gasped in pain she took a moment to orient herself and saw the woman lean on a tall staff Tellis didn't register before then she moved past Tellis, the woman's long hair swished behind her like a cape. She paused and said as an after thought, without looking back. "Follow me."
Tellis caught up to the woman, they were a limping sorry pair. "Won't the scans detect us?" She whispered.
"The scan won't penetrate the door, we're safe." The woman didn't even bother to whisper, or look at her. Tellis suddenly had an uneasy feeling about this woman, remembering in a flash all the ghost stories her aya used to tell her about the Istaro sector.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere safe."
Not a conversationalist, her savior, or ghost her mind provided. Tellis leaned on the walls when her ankles started protesting. The hallway was very military and very boring, she judged, seeing only an endless path of unrelieved gray. This might be one of the secret rooms the High Guard neglected to destroy during the rebellion 50 years ago.
Adrenaline in her blood and past the crisis, inside the safety of the walls Tellis felt the tentative steering of joy. She was alive. She had eluded the High Guard. She grinned and very nearly bumped into her savior, who had stopped and looked at her with narrow ruby colored eyes. "Don't make a habit of this."
"It's not my idea of Sabbath fun." She assured and frowned, noting the pallor of her companion. "You don't look so good."
The woman aimed a pointed look at Tellis's leg but didn't comment instead she entered a door to the left, Tellis shrugged and followed, feeling oddly unsettled.
"We'll be safe here." The woman said.
The room suffered the same lack of imagination as the hallway, even the lights were gray toned. It wasn't completely bare, though, there were some furniture scattered around Tellis limped to the nearest chair and was astonished to find that not only was the chair in good condition, they were also antique.
"These are all made of wood!"
"Yes."
"This is real wood!"
"Yes."
Tellis frowned, the woman didn't seem to get the point and decided to clarify. "No one's used real wood for over a hundred years!"
"Oh?"
Was she not conveying it right? "It's banned, ever since the forests in Mars were destroyed." Off the woman's blank look. "During the, I don't know, one of many rebellions in Mars?"
"I see." The woman said, Tellis wondered why she even bothered. "We don't have much time."
"Time? For what, grow trees?"
"Your very sarcastic, Miss Ara." That wasn't the first time someone called her that, but the woman looked positively befuddled, it was almost comical…
Tellis felt herself go pale, her heart pounded and she scrambled off her seat, pulling the injured muscle in her leg. "How did you know my name?"
"It doesn't matter." The woman said, "We have to—"
"It matters a whole damn lot!" Tellis looked at the woman noting the woman's sallow skin. "Are you a ghost?"
"No. Not yet."
"Yet? What does that--"
"Cease speaking!" The woman ordered and Tellis did. "We don't have time. I don't want any interruptions, Tellis Ara." She glared when Tellis opened her mouth. "Take that watch by that table, beside you."
Tellis did as she was told under the threat of the woman's glare. She frowned at the object on the table it didn't look like any watch she's ever seen. It was a circular, flat object mounted on a silver chain, the edges were intricately etched with designs that brought to mind the glories of the fabled Ancient Silver Millenium. Inside the glass covering were two tiny black bars pointing at numbers.
"It's ancient!"
"Imagine that." The dry tone made her look up at the woman. She was swaying and leaned on the staff in a way that indicated that it was the only thing that was keeping her upright.
"You really don't look good."
"I don't feel well." The woman smiled weakly and as sudden the smile bled away. "You have to go."
"What?"
The woman's head was cocked to the side, listening. Tellis copied her and heard, to her horror, footsteps echoing in the hallway.
"You must leave!" The woman looked frantic, "Take the watch with you."
"What about you?" The woman hobbled next to her and took a surprisingly strong grip on her arm. "I said what about you!"
"I have my ways." The reply was enigmatic but the movements were not, she was guiding Tellis further into the room. "Go!"
"Where? There's no where to go, the curfew is still in effect!"
The woman didn't answer instead she shoved Tellis through a door. A door that Tellis was sure was not there a moment ago. A sliver of fear went through her but before she could react she was past the door. A hand clamped on her shoulder she shrieked and batted the hand away.
"Tellis?"
She stopped struggling, looked around and blinked. The room entered she was a far cry from the gray room she was in, this room was alive with color and furnished in the latest fashion and by all the rules of logic shouldn't be here.
Wide-eyed she whipped her gaze from one end of the room to the other fell briefly on Kai. Dependable, all around guy, Kai who shouldn't be here, like this room. Tellis crossed the room, ignored Kai and threw open the curtains and gaped at the impossible view of the Arado Sector sparkling in the simulated night of the Morpheus station and just at the edge, miles away punctuated with abandoned buildings was the Istaro Sector.
In a room that did not belong to any sector, space station or time the woman watches the door close. She is tired and will die soon. Are you a ghost?
The room shifts, returns to what it is and she falls to her knees drained of strength.
"There you are." A voice says. "Have you been naughty?"
The woman, who is the Guardian of Time does not turn she knows who speaks. "Why are you doing this?"
"You of all people should know, Pluto." The voice is mild then shifts, to a brittle tone. "But then you might have forgotten."
It is then Pluto turns, sees her princess.
"I've captured the others, I was disappointed, hardly a challenge."
"You're mad."
"I am." Amused.
"I'm sorry."
There is a moment, Pluto sees, of something, grief perhaps, but the moment passes. "I'm not."
"And now, I think it's time, my dear Pluto, for you to die." The princess raises her hand and Pluto is covered with living white flames. Before the last gasp the fading of her being. Pluto remembers the girl and how different she turned out. Pluto fancies, amidst the pain, the dissolution of a planned dream, a voice: Return to me, daughter of Cronus and be reborn.
And she is dead.