Gods, those creatures of incomprehensible wisdom, both young and ancient, the farseeing twisters of destiny whose humor it pleases to, on occasion, reach out and tease a thread in one of the many tangled knots of the universe had done so again. Or so it would seem, if these thoughts, these stories, and memories were pure. Whose were they? What parts were the truths of times gone and which were tales told on sleepless nights? Of the whole where were the fabricated facts of wild imaginings mixed in?
'I was one—am one' she thought. 'Have I called out, touched a string and changed everything.'
Goddesses, the Ingrids had been labeled so by men; the machinery joined seamlessly with an untainted power, though perhaps only thought of as lesser deities. Yet they were separate entities, Teela and her sisters, beings able to draw upon emotions and memories to create a place, capable of taking a solid form there. Alive within the visions of summer days, among the ever-changing growing things, the five girls were more substantial in that plane of reality than in any other.
"There is a way," her sisters had said. When they had gathered, the most recent conversation had been more serious and more one-sided than many of the others held between the sisters; but it was decided—almost. The plaintive tone, the patient explanation, the faint hints of hope mingling in a long and multipart discussion that had led to a shaky resolve; and Teela had acted on that decision—calling softly.
Teela reached out, pulling a long lock of hair over the other girl's shoulder. Raking her slender fingers through the slightly coarse, thick strands to the ends, she let them fall in a slow cascade. Perhaps this recollection of gods who played purposefully with the intertwining threads was hers. In some distant time maybe this girl had pulled the string and not the spirit of Ernn Laties.
Was it really a chance turn of fate or a seen opportunity used to its fullest? Should it be so hard to believe that when Teela reached out there was something tangible there; an answer to at least one question she could touch?
"A little longer, there is a way." Kuro had responded to the temporary solution, accepting that little hope in the many battles since they had started testing boys to find his replacement.
This was what everyone was waiting for what all those people wanted; the strands of one knot braiding together. And still, somewhere, someone, something hesitated. Teela breathed slowly in, everything appeared to have frozen; holding perfectly still in the indefinite moment.
They wanted the same thing, Teela and the girl standing in front of her; more time and a chance to protect the last precious planet. This girl had quietly accepted Teela's presence, acknowledged the voices and opinions of the spirits' sisters, with long thought and a full understanding she had conceded to the terms given. Knowing that the created realm of rolling hills and dancing winds where the goddesses gathered would not be hers, nor perhaps Teela's again, they had agreed. It seemed Zion too wanted this, leaving a part of the planet with her, the slight salty smell of the ocean, faint but filled with a briefly intoxicating remembrance of crashing waves, and the feeling of a sea breeze.
Teela laced her fingers with the other girl's, lifting their hands, bringing them to shoulder level, silently asking again if this was what needed to happen.
Turning to look and curving her own fingers to match the spirit of Ernn Laties the girl timorously answered, "I will fight."
"I will not show our fear," Teela responded, taking the girl's other hand in a similar manner, leaning forward and closing her eyes. As she rested her forehead against the cool forehead of the girl, Teela felt her sisters' support, saw them vividly under the same shade tree they gathered around so frequently.
-
Though no alarm had sounded, nor had an announcement to engage victim blared over the speakers, the tumult of shipmates in the hall had been enough to wake Kuro from his fitful slumber. Rubbing the remnants of partially remembered, disconcerting dreams from his eyes the pilot dressed and left his room. At times, sleep was an ill afforded commodity aboard GIS and Kuro felt like he hardly missed it: even though he looked like he could use a little more. Something still played in the recesses of his mind. A minor inconspicuous thought that he had been unable to smooth away as easily as his dreams. This small inkling, a nearly certain belief, telling Kuro he knew why people were speeding down the hallways.
Ernn Laties' pilot drifted toward the hub of the commotion. Reigha along with Arden and Kieran were there talking softly just past the door to the infirmary. The anteroom was surprisingly void of people; other than the pilots and repairer there was only the doctor and a rather twig-like older woman. In the other areas a few of the shuttle survivors, still confined to beds, had propped themselves up or were craning their necks to look through doorways and see what was happening. The other medical staff came and went at increasingly long intervals. Kuro watched the thin woman pace. Behind him the door opened and Kuro stepped aside.
The woman stopped her cycle of ward-door, opposite wall, desk, and asked, "Have you found Zenenet yet?"
Hearing the worry in her shaky voice, the newcomer glanced at the others and sadly shook his head then waited for someone else to say something.
Again the anxious woman started on the same path, door, wall, desk, repeating it methodically. The eyes always seek confirmation, and Kuro was in no way surprised that when he did look the bed nearest the ward-door was empty. The bed easiest to observe from almost anywhere in the infirmary, where the girl had been lying, unmoving, unresponsive, for over two weeks, was vacant. Things resumed their quiet static state, hushed whispers, watching expectant faces, the door, far wall, desk, pacing, for a few more measured minutes.
"How long has Zenenet been gone?" Kuro questioned Arden in the same barely audible tone the others were using.
"I don't know we were on the observation deck when Kieran noticed them searching." the younger boy answered. "But this is impossible. She couldn't have moved."
Impossible, Zenenet leaving the infirmary on her own was anything but possible. The teen had not moved more than a twitch or shown any signs of cognitive skills since Kuro had carried her to GIS in the massive hands of the White Goddess. Arden understood this all. He had visited the infirmary regularly, perhaps to appease a sense of guilt, and the pilot of the orange Ingrid was aware of every change. Kuro knew this because he too had frequented the medical rooms. The two pilots had been there when they removed the pipes and tubes that had been breathing for her, and one of them was there as the doctors slowly detached all the other devices from Zenenet's body.
Every time any of the pilots or repairers came it was the same, the girl lie still and pale, seemingly frozen; her eyes closed, her arms at her side, the slight movement of her chest rhythmically rising and falling. When they entered, the old woman would slowly stand and retreat to another room in the infirmary, she never spoke to them nor on their side had they tried to talk to her. After several such visits, when all the equipment had been taken away, the elderly lady approached each visitor in turn, simply stating, "Her name is Zenenet Asyri."
Shortly after that the doctor had informed Kuro that while her heart beat and she could breathe without assistance the girl would never wake. Theoretically every muscle should function normally, he had continued to say, but she had lost the ability to connect a thought to a movement, her conscious thoughts were in essence trapped, even their machines barely managed to detect their existence. Kuro had chosen not to share this knowledge, assuming that the Doctor had also told at least one of the others who had continued to check on the girl. The pilot knew nothing more. Reigha had tried to get the elderly lady to share more information about Zenenet, hoping that her long silence might be over. Through all the repairer's cajoling she gained nothing; though Kuro was privileged to hear everything she didn't learn from Reigha herself.
"She was the last." The women broke the silence that had grown sharper after Arden answered Kuro's question.
A little dumbstruck, the small group could only stare. Her words, 'the last,' poked at the vividly volatile visions that Kuro woke from a fraction of an hour earlier. They stirred up startling images from the frothing mixture of current events; the most unsettling he couldn't be sure weren't just dreamt. Still more disquieting, were the whispered assurances that he knew somehow it was okay and the sad voice echoing, 'I found the way.'
"I stayed because Zenenet wouldn't leave," the elderly woman was saying as Kuro turned to leave.
Reigha grabbed his arm. "Where are you going?"
"To find Zenenet."
"You'll only get in the way," Reigha scolded, as if speaking to a child who was always underfoot.
Ignored by the pilot and repairer, the shuttle survivor continued, "I was too old it didn't matter, but she. Everyone we knew had already left for the colonies, but…"
"They'll find her," Arden comforted the older women gently.
Walking out the door the last words Kuro heard her say were, "She wanted to stay on Zion, I'm old what difference did it make."
When Ravi had interviewed the people from the shuttle, much to his disappointment, he had found out that most of them had believed their age should exempt them from the evacuation of Zion. They had all waited as countless ships flew off with friends, neighbors, and family. Zenenet, Ravi had shared with the others, a slight whine in his voice, was one of only three people aboard the shuttle under the age of thirty.
Arden caught up with Kuro and Reigha, who was continuing to ask questions of the older pilot. The dark-haired man didn't seem to have a specific place he intended to search for the missing girl and most of the repairer's questions focused on this. Before they had made any decision, and before Reigha's tone had reach completely belligerent, the speakers buzzed to life.
"Kuro and Reigha report to the hanger."
Exasperated, she mumbled, "What now?"
"Reigha and Kuro report immediately to the hanger," it repeated more urgently.
The three ran all the way, doing their best not to knock anyone down in the hallways. They were met by Mr. Latzki, the head of GIS, at the end of the catwalk. He led them toward Ernn Laties without speaking, looking rather stern and grim, especially for the usually friendly face he always wore. There, a young teen was typing rapidly at the consol where the white goddess' repairer usually monitored what was happening inside the Ingrid. She looked up, her eyes watery, almost as if she was about to cry, and reported, "Sir, the Ingrid isn't responding."
"What's happening?" Kuro asked, not fully understanding what was going on.
"Someone's in the cockpit," Micha Latzki replied in a brusque tone.
"I haven't seen anyone come in since I've been here," the youngest of the repairers explained, again. She had told what she saw, first to her pilot partner, and retold the story to several others.
Reigha moved the girl aside before Kuro had questioned Micha, a change so gradual that it had gone unnoticed. Ernn Laties' repairer tries her entire repertoire of commands, even attempted four times to open the communication link, all without the desired result.
None other than Kuro had successfully linked within the White Goddess' cockpit. They were all afraid of the consequences if the Ingrid tried to synchronize with the person inside; whoever it was could suffer serious injuries. So far the only thing showing on the monitors was a steady heart rate.
"Come on Ernn Laties please," Reigha begged; she had picked up Kuro's attitude toward the goddess, calling her by name and not saying 'it' or 'the machine.'
"What's going on inside?"
"Nothing—yet," the repairer answered Micha Latzki.
Micha ordered Kuro to see what he could do. The pilot pulled at the hatch and asked quietly so no one could hear, "What are you doing Ernn Laties? Is this your answer?"
Reigha checked the screen and double checked, typed in a command and looked again, before anxiously shouting to the GIS head, "Mr. Latzki, quick."
Her tone spurred the aged man to join her quickly, without question.
"There are two distinct thought patterns," Reigha traced the lines on the screen with her finger for Micha's benefit, "where there wasn't even one before."
"There can't be two people in there," Kuro stated.
"Not with only one heart rate," Arden observe, looking over the repairer's shoulder he could read the monitor. "Unless it's…"
"She can't do that," the older pilot didn't need the other to finish his sentence to know what he meant.
"There's only one now," Reigha frowned. "What's going on?"
Her question was never answered. Kuro stepped back as the seal on the hatch slowly unlocked. Now that the door was fully opened a teenage girl walked out, looking neither alarmed nor pleased at what she saw and a little, almost drunkenly, unstable on her bare feet. Her long teal hair spread out on either side of her body and she gave a weak smile as she reached out to steady herself, resting her hand on the pilot's arm, "Kuro."
"Who is she?"
Taking in a quick view of the infirmary dress and her face, Arden answered Mr. Latzki, "Zenenet Asyri," tempted to add, 'at least I think she used to be.'
The girl shook her head and offered, "I am called Teela."
After instructing Arden and the unlucky repairer who had first noticed anything strange in Ernn Laties not to tell anyone what had happened until everything was certain, Mr. Latzki escorted Kuro, Reigha, and Teela to his office. He asked and questioned and theorized, trying to make sense of the situation, only managing to discover that she was willing to take Kuro's place as Ernn Laties' pilot. Teela assured him that this was what she wanted and that she was quite capable of doing it. The GIS head gave Teela some more suitable clothes and had her enter the cockpit again, where she easily moved the Ingrid within the hanger. Then he asked that they all rest until he could give them his decision.
Teela asked Kuro to direct her to the infirmary, having nothing else to do, Reigha followed. The teenage girl then led the old women who had stayed by Zenenet and had been pacing her pattern of ward-door, far wall, desk, for many hours to a corner of the room where they talked. The pilot and repairer couldn't hear what they said but could see the elderly lady relax and then smile; after a time the doctor shoed them from the infirmary.
All topics previously exhausted, the three had nothing more to talk about when they were left alone in the hall, leaving only a strained silence. Kuro led the way to a lounge where they could finally relax. Undisturbed the pilot soon drifted into a light sleep.
"All pilots please report to your Ingrids," the speaker blared.
On learned instinct Kuro and Reigha responded, leaving the lounge without noticing Teela behind them. Just as he was about to enter the cockpit a hand on the pilots shoulder stopped him. Wordlessly Teela stepped into the gelatinous substance taking Kuro's place and joining the battle.
Victim horde defeated, the other pilots, Ravi being the loudest, Kieren sincere, Whit graciously, and Arden with a big grin, congratulated Teela on her skill; accepting without caring to know everything, though not without unspoken curiosity.