XXI
The Flower Road
The Attican Traverse was once regarded as the true frontier of Citadel-controlled space, a wildland for adventurers looking to make a name for themselves in the unclaimed territories. Now, most of the planets were destroyed from the Air Raids. What was left was sparse and desolate. Space debris from those old dead planets bounced off the hull of the Great Fox. The ship cruised to the Mass Relay, which was old and decaying from decades of neglect. Its eezo core flickered like a light bulb ready to go out. Unfortunately for Mario and team, it was the closest Relay to Shiveria.
The Great Fox entered the gyroscopic core. The three massive metal rings rotated around each other slowly at first and then quickened until they were little more than a phantom blur. The eezo brightened and before the Great Fox, a corridor of light stretched out and beyond the 9-mile long metal arms that formed the runway. The corridor was a mass-free volume of space-time that allowed for objects to move at speeds faster than lightspeed. It was the foundational technology of the galaxy that allowed for intergalactic travel.
The Great Fox shot like a bullet as it traveled within the mass effect field. Outside the windows, all was blue and white light, the blackness of space lost completely. They exited the jump in a matter of seconds. A Relay was programmed to send ships to the next Relay but it wasn't an exact science. Due to the positional drift phenomenon, ships could exit the corridor hundreds of kilometers away from the next Relay. Pinna was the gravitational anchor for the Relay in the Unwatched Territories. Slippy crossed his fingers as the light faded and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the giant Relay in front of the ship. They would reach Pinna in no time!
"And thar' she blows," said Peppy as the planet came into view. Pinna was a vibrant green little jewel with swirling white clouds that came from the steam gardens on the surface. It had no moons or rings and was altogether quite ordinary, which was, of course, extraordinary in the Unwatched Territories. Most of the planets in the area were either on fire and blackened out by smog or flanked with satellites of pirate bases. Pinna, on the other hand, was calm and quiet.
The Great Fox landed in the forest of Pinna. Fox and Falco were the first off the ship, followed by Mario and Luigi. Daisy and Peach hurried after. And Toad dragged his feet. They made their way up the hill. A gate of wrought iron, the red paint peeling at the edges, stood at the top. Above it, a sign read "Pinna Park." It used to light up a long time ago. Beyond was the amusement, dilapidated by decades. The attractions were still there in various states of disrepair. Air ships once repurposed as water slides were now home to thick sheets of moss. Vines and brambles wound through porous metal that had rusted away. Nature had made her claim and took back what once belonged to her.
Daisy looked around in despair. She took a step and her foot landed in a pool of thick black oil, around which nothing grew. There were more scattered around, a reminder of the industry that once stood. "What happened here?" she asked, wiping her boot on the cobblestones.
Luigi pulled up the Archives on his omnitool. "It says here that Pinna used to be a vacation spot before the pirates. Beyond the park, there's supposed to be a steam garden where guests could relax."
"And that's where we're headed," said Mario, leading the way. They made their way through the park. A broken carousel to their right offered strange sights. A blue racing machine from the old Grand Prix in the shape of a bird of prey, Yoshis of a variety of colors, and an Arwing formed the seats of the ride.
In the back of the park, there stood a giant red cylinder with an opening across a metal walkway. The opening was dark and the structure, strange, but there was no turning back. They entered and as their eyes acclimated to the little light, they could see the steam gardens below. They made their way to the bottom along the staircase that spiralled around the perimeter of the cylinder until they reached the bottom. The gardens had flowers that emitted an aromatic steam that was released through the top vents of the cylinder like a smokestack. A crack in the metal allowed a small shaft of light through. Tending the fields were robotic gardeners, although, tending might be too generous a word. They spun in place on a pivot, their glowing eyes wild. They chattered in a soft digitized voice, all at the same time in a strange echo. They were all saying the same thing.
"Recent events have initiated panic and spin routines! Panic and spin!" they said over and over.
"Creepy," said Peach. They hustled along and left the rear exit, which led to an outcropping of metal off the main structure that dead ended over a drop, nothing but darkness below.
"Great, now what?" asked Toad, kicking a stone from the bridge. He listened but it never hit the ground. Suddenly, there came a rush of wind. Petals from the garden were strewn along the bridge and were picked up by the wind. They swirled and coalesced into a walkway of flowers in midair.
"Follow the flowers," said Mario with a shrug. He put a tentative foot on the flowers and pressed. It seemed sturdy so he followed with his second foot. A panic struck him and he squeezed his eyes shut and braced for a fall. A moment passed and he opened his eyes. He wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled that the flowers held him. He marched ahead as his friends watched dumbfounded.
"You heard the man," said Fox. He and Falco followed.
"This is officially the dumbest thing I've ever done," said Toad, shaking his head. He and Peach went next. Luigi went to take a step but stopped short and farted. Toad heard it and laughed. "I'm glad I went first."
Daisy puffed out her cheeks at Toad's comment. It was like he couldn't help but be rude. "Hold my hand, honey. We'll go together." Daisy extended her hand and Luigi took it. They crossed the Flower Road together. The path circled around a large platform and then went down. The farther down it went, the harsher the angle became.
"Path's getting kinda steep, Mario,' Fox called out but their commander just kept trudging ahead. The slope was hard on his old knees. They all struggled for balance as the path kept them on a downward trajectory. Finally, the slope became so sharp that they lost their balance entirely and tumbled down into the dark below.
Mario pushed himself up and spat a mouthful of dirt. The woods were dense and above them, there was no sky, just a blanket of black. But Mario was in an oddly cheery mood. It seemed that his plan had panned out. "Hey, we made it!" he said with a smile.
Toad dusted himself off and said, "That's one way to put it."