Chapter Two: A Teardrop
.:Summer:.
Before the attack…
"Climb down the tunnel, talk to the water, and report back to Master Elicity at the HQ center" she says to herself. Summer peers down into the tunnel. Through the shadows, she can see a large cylindrical protruding from the side of the dirt tunnel. Thick ropey vines hang from the bottom of the cylinder. Summer closes her eyes and concentrates. Using the force, she reaches towards the cylinder and examines the object through her mind. She senses gears and belts inside the cylinder's metal shell. It's some type of primitive pulley mechanism. The vines act as ropes that can carry people up and down the tunnel. 'I wonder if Elicity built this?' she thinks as she lets herself down into the hole. She lowers her body in until she's hanging on to the edge only by her fingertips. She dangles over a seemingly bottomless pit. The pulley and vines are about four meters under her. Summer let's go of the edge while simultaneously pushing off of the dirt walls with her feet. She reaches out and grabs the vines, stopping her fall. Summer's momentum kicks the pulley mechanism into operation causing loud creaks and groans to sound from the cylinder. The pulley is moving, but at a sluggish pace. Creeeak! Gears inside the cylinder complain. Skriiiiitch! The gears are starting to warm up to the new movement. Summer is moving faster now, dropping deeper and deeper into the tunnel. Skreee! Whoosh! With one last sound of protest, the gears give in and the pulley accelerates. The vine drops Summer just short of a total free fall. Summer's stomach drops with her and she's glad she hasn't had breakfast. That wouldn't have ended well.
As she continues to fall, she looks up to where the tunnel entrance used to be. The large hole is only a pin-prick of light, fading farther and farther into the distance. Soon afterwards, the light is gone. The ride down the tunnel is completely dark. Summer only has to hope that the pulley doesn't give away. Elicity would be devastated to find her splattered at the bottom of some underground cave.
The only sound is the moist air, rushing over Summer as she descends. More than once, Summer wonders if the cave even has an end. How long has she been falling? About three full minutes? If only she could remember the equation for free-fall, maybe she can estimate her distance. Summer tries to work the numbers but can't concentrate. She gives up. She was never very good at arithmetic stuff anyway.
She continues to descend for another minute or two before the vine begins to slow. It continues to lower smoothly until it ends in an abrupt stop. A warm breeze indicates that Summer dropped into a large open space. She looks down to see where she is. Nothing to see except more darkness. Is the ride over? She lets her feet down and searches for a ledge or something to step onto. Once again, nothing. Did the vine stop midway? For several silent seconds, Summer hangs motionless in the dark and waits for something to happen. She yanks on the vine. It sways a little but doesn't budge. Another yank. Still doesn't move. She sighs. It's time to see what's the problem. Holding on to the vine with one arm, Summer uses her other to draw out one of her lightsabers. She pulls it up out her sheath and thumbs the activation switch. A sunset orange blade flares to life. The lightsaber's glow casts Summer's surroundings in a dim light. Somewhere along the trip the tunnel has changed from a two and half meter dirt hole to a massive square shaft over ten meters across. Summer raises her saber up like a torch. She's facing one of the shaft's walls. The wall is made of mammoth slabs of cracked, brown, stone. Giant pictures of strange symbols and ancient signs, half covered by centuries old dust, have been engraved into the stone work. Summer leans out, making the vine spin her in a circle. She looks over each of the shaft's four walls. They're all the same. Cracked stones covered in artwork. She can't possibly climb the walls; the groves from the drawings are too shallow to use as handholds. Nothing that Summer sees offers her a way down. 'Down' Summer thinks. 'Maybe down is where I should be looking.' She aims her lightsaber beneath her. Below, the tunnel extends farther into inky blackness. No help there. Wait. Something glints in Summer's eyes. About eight meters down a stone troth juts out from one of the walls. A dark liquid reflects the orange lightsaber. 'What is that?' She waves her sword back and forth, trying to make it reflect at different angles. Is it…oil? An idea immediately pops up. Maybe she can light a fire atop the oil. The extra light could help her find a way to get the pulley moving again. It's always like Elicity to send Summer into someplace with broken equipment. Elicity is always trying to give Summer new challenges to "use her mind" and "perfect her skills". It wouldn't come as of a surprise if she has to cross a lake of lava before she reaches the water.
Using her mind, Summer blasts the wall across from her with the Force. The energy slams into the wall, rebounds and hits Summer. Riding off the energy's knockback, Summer swings up towards the opposite wall. The vine brings her within inches of a large picture of the sun. Summer twists around and drives her sword deep into the stone, anchoring herself to the wall and keeping the vine from swinging back out like a pendulum. Sparks, from where the lightsaber bored into the wall, rain down into the oil filled troth. Summer is greeted by instant success as the oil ignites, turning the troth into a flaming torch. But it doesn't end there. The fire races through tiny trenches that line the sides of the shaft. One by one torches far below begin to flare up. The formally impenetrable darkness is now being pushed back. In its place, a warm, bright light fills the air. In the distance, at the bottom of the tunnel, the last torch lights. The flickering light reveals sharp rock formations that stick up like daggers. Summer grins. "This is awesome" she whispers to herself. Farther down, past the first troth, a small open doorway has been cut into one of the rock walls. Over the doorway is a slight outcropping of rock. Summer observes the scenario and outlines a mental route to get through the opening. She can jump down from the vine, grab the ledge and swing down through the doorway. Sounds easy. Summer deactivates her sword. No longer anchored, the vine sway back towards the center of the shaft. Summer lets go and plummets. Her hair whips back behind her as she falls. Down she goes. Eleven meters down, she reaches out for the stone ledge. Not missing a beat she swings herself forward, sails through the doorway, hits the ground, rolls once, and comes up on both feet. She checks herself out. Not even a scratch. Perfect. In her mind she sees people applauding her acrobatic jump. 'Outstanding!' is what they'd be saying. Clapping all around. Maybe a few cheers. She gets none of that. Nobody is around. Only Summer. Crap, all that jumping and no one is there to see it. Wasted effort.
She ventures forward. She's now in a dark, stone passage leading to a set of uneven steps that go up and out of sight. Somewhere distance, there's a low rumble, like a waterfall. Summer jogs though the passage and up the steps. The steps curl and wind as they ascend. She feels like she's running through some old, haunted castle. Up the stairs Summer goes until she reaches an arched entryway half covered in vines. The rumbling has grown louder. It has risen to a powerful roar coming from somewhere beyond the foliage covered entry. Parting vines, Summer step through the arch—and gasps.
She finds herself standing on a rocky ledge overlooking a giant underground biome. It's breathtaking, from the white minerals studding the high ceiling, shining down like stars, to the enormous waterfalls plunging off the rocky cliffs. Except for the water from the waterfall and the blackish, subterranean rock walls, everything glows. Tall tree-like plants shed dark blue from their oversized leaves, countless vines glow a thousand hues of green; even the grass glows, or it looks like grass. Covering almost every centimeter of the entire underground world are tiny leafy plants, glowing purple in the overhead crystals' twilight shine.
Summer doesn't know how long she spends staring at the glowing land. She just wants to just stand there and take it all in at one time. To memorize it and never forget. How long has her master known about this? What other surprises await? There's only one way to find out. Time to explore!
The ledge Summer stands on is about fifty yards up – about one third of the way from the ground to the ceiling above – and she needs to find a way to get down. After a little searching she spots a rope ladder leading down to a dirt trail. The trail disappears into a forest of giant mushroom plants. Animal calls and screeches, barely audible over the waterfall, come from the glowing forest. Summer climbs down from the ladder and rushes off down the trail…
The journey down the trail is short and uneventful. The dirt path brings Summer deeper into the forest until it opens up to a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing is a deep pool of water, hardly ten meters from one shore to the next, bordered by tightly packed, bushy trees with a slight red hue. Two of the trees are bent to either side, making room for a tiny stream flowing into the pool. The pool is glowing with light.
As soon as Summer spots the glowing water she feels a powerful draw to it. She goes over to the pool's edge and peers down. The water is clear and deep. At the bottom she can see white lights twinkling in the water. She looks closer. Embedded in the lake bed below are white crystals, just like the ones in the ceiling above. The crystals' powerful light shine up to the water's surface in wide shafts, setting the pool aglow with their moonlight color. Beautiful, just beautiful. Suddenly a small shape pokes up from the water. Summer jerks back in surprise and nearly falls. She quickly regains her composure and takes a look. It's only a fish sticking it's head out the water. The fish is glowing bright orange. It stares at Summer , unblinking. Something about the fish, other than that it's glowing, intrigues Summer. Behind the fish's wide eyes she sees an intelligent creature.
"Can you talk?" Summer asks. As soon as she asks the question, she feels like an idiot. Of course fish can't talk! What am I, stupid? Summer is about to get up when the fish responds. It wriggles in the water, clearly shaking it's head as if to say "No." Either I'm crazy, or this fish, really trying to say something. Summer kneels down at the water's edge. Forget the glowing water, she's interested in the fish now. Her next question is as straightforward as the first. "What do you want?" The fish ducks down into the water. It darts through the water with lightning speed, leaving a fading trail of orange bubbles in its wake, before returning to Summer. It pokes back out the water and motions with its head. Summer looks. For a second time she gasps. Glowing bubbles float underwater spelling out a short message.
"We have a message for you."
"We?"
The fish nods and disappears below the surface. Moments later it returns with a large school of fish following close behind. The school is a rainbow of colors. Blues, greens, yellows, reds, and everything in between. The orange fish is obviously the leader. It shoots through the water before resurfacing. "Sit and watch."
Summer laughs to herself. "I can't believe I'm obeying a fish, but, okay." Summer finds a natural indentation in the ground at the lakes edge and sits down. It's surprisingly comfortable. The lead fish nods and goes back down to his school. The other fish swirl around their leader, creating a multi-colored globe of light. Suddenly they split into groups and race off towards the center of the pool. Each group is divided by color and lays down its own distinctive trail of bubbles. Faster and faster the groups go until they reach the center of the pool. Then, with grace and agility, the fish leap out the water, flip, and dive back down. Their jumps are perfect, without a single splash. Where the fish had just been airborne a multi colored band of light is left behind, slowly fading into the air. Seconds later the fish have already regained speed and pull off another acrobatic jump. This time some of their paths cross and create intersecting beams of light. Others leap lower. Some higher. As they all return into the water they leave a complex geometric shape shimmering over the pool. Summer feels a rising urge to clap and doesn't resist. That last jump was pretty cool. 'It wouldn't hurt to stay a few minutes and watch' she thinks. 'What harm could it do?'
Summer watches the show of flying fish. The lights curve through the air with each leap and dive. Sometimes the fish create simple arcs. Other times they leave behind elaborate symbols, a mix of complex polygons and sweeping curves. Each shape is more fascinating than the next. Time passes. The shapes grow bigger. More complicated. Some of the shapes can even move. Something about the changing symbols of the lights begin to take effect on Summer. She begins to feel drowsy and sluggish. She's tired. It's hard to stay focused. Symbol after symbol. The effect becomes more and more powerful. She's so tired that she doesn't even notice her own name take shape in bright multi-colored lights over the lake. 'I've been here too long. I need to go…go and find the talking water.' With some effort Summer stands up. She staggers, regains her balance, takes several wobbly steps and collapses back to the ground. She tries to stand again but is too weak. A sick feeling comes over her. All she wants to do is stay on the ground. To sleep. The nausea quickly subsides and sleepiness returns. "Just a little rest" she slurs. She can hardly talk. Her vision is growing darker. She doesn't fight it. She succumbs and falls into a deep sleep…and that's when the dream begins.
It is a small, one room house made of wood. The windows are drawn closed. Except for several simple pieces of furniture and an unlit fireplace, the room is void of decoration. Next to the fire place is a little table. Resting on the table is a single candle that burns steadily, creating a bronze halo of light in the shadowy room. In that halo is a chair with two figures…
The girl, four, almost five years old, lies in the young lady's arms and cries softly. The tears fall freely onto the ladies rich garments. She holds the girl close, not minding the increasing tears. "It's okay" the lady says soothingly. They're not going to take you. You're safe here." The girl, as young as she is, can hear the fear in her mother's trembling voice.
'They are going to take us and kill us.' is what the girl thinks. That's all she thinks. It's all she can think about. About how the dark people will kill her. The lady's tears mix with her daughter's. Mother wonders if the rumors are true about what the man said in the book. The rumors say her daughter will kill him. Is that true? Most people say no, but could they be wrong? The girl shivers. She's not cold; she's uncertain and scared. What could happen next? What WILL happen next? "Mommy?" the girl says. She looks up at her mother. Tears are still falling from her glowing eyes. "What if they find us, Mommy?" Just thinking about being found makes her tremble deep inside. She leans back into her mother's shoulder and begins to cry harder. The tears come and come. Her mother hugs her tighter.
"Don't cry, no one is going to hurt you." As the young mother talks, she strokes her daughter's hair. Her fingers are shaking. She isn't sure if her own words are for her daughter or herself. Both of them are in tears. Both of them are afraid. Her and her daughter are both too young to be dodging death like this, hiding in dark rooms while people search for them. Being hunted. "They won't find us" she says to her daughter. "I promise, they will never find us." Though Daughter continues to cry, it's to those words that she finally goes to sleep.
The girl's sleep is restless and plagued by nightmares. It's horrible. More than once she wakes up crying out for her mother. Each time, her mother is right there to hold and comfort her. She goes back to sleep, wakes up crying, goes to sleep, and wakes up. It becomes a cycle. Soon she begins to notice slight changes each time she wakes up. Like how the candle grows dimmer; or how pale light begins to peek between the shades covering the windows. One time she awakes and can hear freezing wind whipping outside against the cabin walls. The sun is rising and giving birth to a cold day. When the girl falls back asleep she doesn't wake up again until she is roused by a harsh banging.
Bam! Bam! Bam! The girl is conscious and fully awake after the first hit. Someone is at the door. They've been found. The daughter looks around for her mother. She's next to her. Mother is up in a flash. "What's happening?" the girl asks. Her mother holds a finger to her lips, signaling for silence. The girl obeys. More banging at the door. It's a loud heavy noise that reverberates through the room. Someone outside begins to shout.
"Come out! The house is surrounded!" The mother acts quickly. She rushes over to the fireplace. There's a rug there. She throws back the rug and whispers a code. Part of the floor slides opens up to reveal a set of steps descending into a poorly lit tunnel. The mother returns to her daughter , picks her up and carries her over to the escape tunnel. The girl begins to cry again. The people at the door are still yelling. "We're coming in!" someone shouts. The sound of large vehicles pulling up to the house can be heard over the howling wind. What happens next comes in a blur. The mother and her daughter are just starting down into the tunnel. Crash! Something rams the door. The door bursts into splintered chunks of wood. The girl is being held close to her mother's chest as they begin their descent. Someone rushes into the doorway. "Stop right there!" The mother doesn't listen. She continues down. Pow! Pow! Two staccato blaster shots ring loud and clear. The girl's mother grunts. Blood sprays the little girl's clothes. Her mother tries to continue but wobbles and falls forward into the tunnel. She and her daughter tumble down the steps before hitting a cold stone floor. They both lie at the bottom of the steps. Crying and sobbing, the girl climbs out of her mother's limp arms. Her head is bruised from where she hit the steps on the way down. Heavy footfalls creak on the wood floor above as people enter the house. Booted feet can be heard rushing down into the tunnel. Suddenly, people are all around the girl. They are saying things to each other. "We got her, sir!" "The mother is dead." "Bring her up!" Someone grabs her roughly by the arm. The girl screams and tries to twist out their grip. It's too tight. She looks up at her captor. The person is dressed in a fancy blue military uniform with high black boots. Two long swords are sheathed on either side of his waist. His face is covered by a light helmet with a tinted visor covering his eyes. One hand is holding the girl, in his other is a pistol.
"Geston and Kavol!" the man calls. "Get the girl outside. Leave the mother." Two people rush to the girl's side and take both of her arms. She protests and gets no response. Geston and Kavol drag her backwards up the steps. She struggles in vain to escape their grasp.
"Noo!" she cries. They can't take her. 'She said they'd never find us!' the girl thinks. "Mommy!" She can see her mother slumped on the ground in a heap; blood is gushing down her face from two neat blaster shots. Her mother's eyes are empty. The girl's frantic screams cause her mother to stir. Not dead yet. She lifts her head. She tries to reach out for her daughter but fails.
"I love you…" she whispers. It is all she can say before falling limp. Death has come. The girl's screams and cries grow louder but the soldiers don't listen. Still dragging her, they take her through the door and outside into the cold…
When the dream ends, the screams continue echo. Another dream begins. This time Summer is conscience. She's floating through an infinite black world where there's nothing but darkness. She can't talk, be she can hear her own thoughts like a distant voice on the wind.
"That other dream was almost real." Summer thinks. Somewhere far off, the distant voice repeats her thoughts back to her audibly. "I actually felt like I was the girl hiding with her mother! It's like we were the same person!" Summer lingers on this last thought. In her mind she replays what she saw. The former dream appears ahead of her like it's on a giant screen. She sees the mother being killed; the girl screaming and crying. It's heartbreaking to see the girl dragged away again. She remembers the mother's last words. A simple "I love you" was all she could say before dying. Summer feels the emotion of the dream weighing down on her like an anvil. She can really feel the girl's doubts and fears. There is a definite connection between the two of them. 'Who am I, really?' she questions herself. Summer half expects the answer to just pop up in her mind. It doesn't. All she hears is the voice, repeating her question over and over. 'Who am I really?' it repeats. No one answers. Another mystery. Another problem to solve. The second dream slowly fades away and dissolves.
Summer wakes up. Her eyes open and draw in her surroundings. She's lying face up in a patch of glowing grass. The grass' purple glow drowns out her view of the ceiling. Several glow bugs buzz lazily around her face. One of them lands on her nose. Summer snorts and waves them away with her hand. She remembers how she fell asleep watching the glowing lights arc across the water. How long has she been out? She stands up on wobbly feet. She feels woozy and has a killer head-ache. Other than that, she's fine. No injuries from stumbling around like a drunken idiot before passing out on the ground. Summer brushes herself off. She wonders if she's the only person to ever be hypnotized by flying fish. The idea alone sounds stupid enough. That was something that'd NEVER been on her Things To Do list. Not only has she been hypnotized though, she's also dreamed about, what could be, her forgotten past. She has unlocked a new mystery. A mystery that leads back to her first mystery. Her first dream lingers in her memory. Getting to the bottom of this will require Elicity's help—as always. 'I should be getting back to Almega.' Summer thinks. 'Ten minutes? Half hour? It's hard to tell.' However long it's been, it's time to go and report back to her Master. She's probably waiting for her.
Summer begins to leave. As she goes, she looks back and takes one last look at the small pool in the forest. She visually takes in the way the trees curve around the water, the pale glow, the telepathic, glowing fish; she locks all of these into her memory. She tells herself that she'll return to the underground forest in another day. Hopefully that day is soon. Though she isn't sure, Summer thinks she can see a small fin poking up from the water, waving good bye. She smiles and waves back. Then she turns and runs off through the glowing underworld.
Summer easily makes her back through the forest. She relocates the rope ladder and climbs back up to the stairs that lead down into the stone passage. She follows it until she's back at the passage's entryway. It lies adjacent to the vertical tunnel with the pulley made of vines. The passage entrance is full of grey smoke drifting out from the burning oil torches she'd ignited with her lightsaber. Breathing without erupting into fits of coughing is impossible. She pushes forward. Through the low hanging haze she spots a glowing orb by the doorway leading out into the stone shaft. She hadn't seen the orb earlier when she'd first dove inside. Still coughing from all the smoke, she makes her way over to the glow. As she gets closer she can see that it's a large crystal, like the ones from the underground world. The crystal is imbedded into a slim metal box lying flat against the wall. There's no lock. Summer creaks open the lid. Inside she finds a military-grade jet pack. A small paper note is attached. Summer peels off the note. She squints to read the tiny writing. Summer reads it out-loud.
"'I thought you might find a jet-pack is faster than using a vine.' –Elicity-" Summer laughs humorously to herself. "I could have used a jet pack on the way down too" she mutters. Summer straps on the jetpack and walks over to the doorway. She leaves the note in the box. She looks out through the doorway. There is too much smoke to see clearly. She'll be flying half blind. Gladly, the force is just as good as a guide as sight. Summer leaps out into the dark. She drops for a second before activating the jets and rocketing back up towards the planet's surface. As she flies, a small detail begins to nag her. The note. It was old and crinkled. The writing was faded. How long ago had Elicity planted the box? Had she anticipated Summer's question long before she'd asked? How much did her master actually know? Once again Summer doesn't know the answer. The questions just keep piling up…