“I’ll check it.â€
The young man shifted his eyes to her with an immediate look of concern upon his face as his gaze grew still and his posture shifted in a more tense fashion than before. The air was so still in that room. Ryanti could trace his breath in the midst of the dust particles among his torchlight, which now momentarily shined on Sounsyy’s form.
He continued to hold his rifle up pointed towards the door. The cold steel of the gun’s make was beginning to feel more moist and damp because of the sweat coming from Ryanti’s palms. “Are you sure?†He murmured to her, but already knew the answer to that question. It was best that they leave no stone unturned in this ship, and Ryanti knew that his fear was playing with him by trying to make it okay for his conscious to prefer ignorance to anything that could be in there.
Ryanti’s tail and ears tensed up and he clenched his teeth and shut his eyes tightly when he heard the loud screeches of the table moving. The sound permeated throughout the room in the all too silent ship, bouncing off of the walls in the hallway and echoing down the corridor. At least out of the most mysterious noises they have heard so far, this noise had an explanation to it, but Ryanti couldn’t help but think that now that they were making their own noise, the rest of the entire ship knew they had… intruders.
With a few steps, he aligned himself with Sounsyy’s position, briefly looking up at her dark form on top of the eons-old piece of furniture. He flinched retroactively at all of the loose screws that broke free from the grating, tiny Allagan pieces of work sprinkling over his form and causing him to wipe his shoulder and a few other spots to clear himself of the rubble and dust.
“Looks like it’s enough space to crawl up into.†She said.
Ryanti’s grip on his rifle tightened. Checking out the inside of paneling like that with the enormous chance of electric shock was a terrifying risk to take. But it would but one of many crazy risks they would have to take on this trial by fire inside of the derelict ship. He returned her glance with one of his own, with concern forefronting to the surface, whether it be because of him sensing her fear or projecting his own.
“I’ll let an ankle dangle.â€
“Please be careful.â€
Ryanti had a little taste of Sounsyy’s prior loneliness after she had grabbed onto the grating and kicked away to pull herself up. There was a primal fear deep inside of him that she would suddenly be whisked away from him, never to return and leaving him by himself in this place. A heated feeling of guilt coursed through the young man’s body. He would not leave her again. Even for a moment. The young man timidly placed his rifle down on its side next to hers, letting out a few breaths of exertion as he slowly climbed himself upon the ancient table, the legs wobbling a little bit when he tried to stand. Ryanti weighed more than Sounsyy, so he was afraid the slightest movement could send the table crumbling to dust.
“Seventy-seven…?â€
“Yeah?.. What is it?†Ryanti said back to her. Despite him being below her and not in the duct with her, his voice sounded just as loud as if he was right next to her. He had already placed both of his hands right outside of her dangling right leg, as if he was ready at any moment to grab onto her leg and pull with all of his might if one of the thousands of ways this could go wrong came true.
He remembered she said something about trading places, about something literally being there with her in the vent. But that was all that he could recall. His eyes were wandering around outside of Sounsyy’s vision in places he could afford to see from the vantage point of where he was. When the clamor happened deep within the ship’s bowels, Ryanti was not exposed to the true nature of the sound like she was. It allowed him to pick up on a subtle noise. It sounded like a tiny buzz, almost like the sound of white noise that quickly increased in volume. It was actually the sound of electrical current bouncing off of two ends of exposed wire that threatened to get too close.
It was then that it all clicked together in Ryanti’s mind. The very deep bowels of this ship… even after all this time… still retained power. The power was coming to life, and within moments Sounsyy would be exposed to the voltage! Oh no! He had to get her out of there NOW!
“SHITE!â€
The young man snapped into action with amazing speed that could only come out of anyone in a life or death situation. He snatched one hand upon her ankle and warped his other arm around the woman’s thigh. Immediately after, he pulled as hard as he could, ignoring her cries as her life was more valuable to him than her nerves and always would be. The force of his pull caused the metallic surface underneath Sounsyy to break off, the rectangular metallic piece crumbling down along with her body. Ryanti looked up just in time to be overtaken with the weight of her, knocking his face to the side.
He groaned out in pain after taking her weight, the table immediately collapsing into a bunch of pieces. Ryanti was able to catch her, warping his arms tightly around her collarbone area as they fell to keep her from flailing out of his grip and injuring herself further until they hit the floor. His back smashed into the ground of broken glass with all of her weight on top of him. “AHK-!†He cried out with the last of his breath as he hit the floor, his lips parted in pain but unable to breath.
It was a horrid amount of pain, and if it were not for his suit protecting him, Ryanti would probably have mean gashes all across his back now for falling upon the broken glass. He coughed and wheezed, his arms limp when Sounsyy flailed out of his grip not a moment after the accident. An acute puncture wound had formed near his left temple. Bright crimson blood began to bubble to the surface, crawling down the side of his face after bubbling up too much.
Immense sparks of electricity shot between all space of the air duct right afterwords. If Sounsyy had still been there, her heart would have easily ruptured and her brain fried from the immense electric shock. Ryanti took a deep, painful breath with a bit of a hoarse voice, opening his eyes in a daze on the floor and squirming a bit, the tiny pieces of broken glass crackling under him.
Something was flickering, something in the distance… a buzzing sound rang in his ears. It was a familiar sound from far away from here… an echo of Ryanti’s recent past.
For but a moment, the cell they were in came to life under a five thousand year old florescent light. His pupils dilated and he gasped with marvel at what he saw before him. There were… pieces of writing. Writing all over the walls. The Allagan writing was so sophisticated and the various shapes and puzzling formulas written on the wall were far beyond the comprehension of anyone in the Seventh Era. These incredibly complex mathematical formulas were everywhere on the walls of this room.
This was when Ryanti felt that connection again. That pull. Those numbers… those equations… those diagrams that were buried in dust… the incomprehensible nonsense formed themselves into shapes in Ryanti’s head. It was as if he was being forced to remember, forced to understand, and forced to recall only what he had just seen moments prior as if he had studied those shapes for weeks. The writing on the wall was burning into his mind, much like the Allagan alphabet had during Ryanti’s initiations. But this was not promoted or provoked by tomestones or other advanced methods of acquiring knowledge. No, this was burned into him because of something else. Because both him and Sounsyy were connected to the fate of this ship. Ryanti had allowed the back door of his mind to be open to the Allagan influences, and this was why.
“Ahhhh! Hnnnn!†Ryanti groaned out, sinking his forehead onto the floor with only his knees supporting him, his arms sprawled out among him as he suffered with this information. It hurt. It hurt so bad. It was like he was being forced to think so hard that his brain felt like exploding. Murmurs, whispers, words… hands writing the formulas upon the wall… florescent lights, beakers, hope, heart, struggle, desperation… all invading his mind.
When Sounsyy tugged at his suit, Ryanti looked over at her with an expression of immense pain. In his eyes were mirrored the writing of the Allagans upon the wall, which had burned into his aquamarine irises and gave out a soft white glow as if those memories were being stamped upon his very eyes. He was out of it. He wasn’t completely there. He remained crumpled for a moment longer after Sounsyy left, his weak eyes being exposed to the writing again with one last flicker… ancient memories that were not his own fogging his mind.
So… why did you decide to become a scientist?
To help people…
It seems so strange, that… the more that we seem to understand about this world, the… more that we realize how much we truly don’t know…
So close! ... I’m so close! No one will have to die like they do anymore if I just… if I just…
When the lights flickered that one last time, the hallway that Sounsyy was in very briefly exposed the entirety of itself with that light. The brilliant white light that had functioned as such five thousand years prior had grown into a pale tan color with age and covered with dust, therefore much weaker than it used to be. The light flickered upon the hallway… once… twice… three times.
On the third flicker, out of the corner of Sounsyy’s eye, there was a figure. A figure that was standing in the hallway. It was impossible to make her out completely because she was only around for one flicker. What could be seen was that she had a coat of white. A pair of glasses. An ethereal silver earring that dangled from her ear lobe and sparkled beautifully, even in the rusted light. Long blonde hair of some sort… of some length.
And skin that was deathly blue. Unmistakably deathly.
The Allagan specter appeared in a blink of an eye, and was gone in the blink of an eye. The lights flickered two more times, exposing the hallway for it truly was: empty and silent, before one of the light bulbs shattered into old and rotten pieces. The wiring in the vent shorted out and fried with age and wear, sending the ship back into utter darkness once more as the ship died again.
The ship had died again, but had never felt more alive.
“A-are you okay?!?â€
Sounsyy could hear little sounds and quiet groans from the room that she had left. It was similar noises one would make if they were sick to their stomach or just completed a sprint and needed air. The stale air of this ship did Ryanti no favors in recovering. His brain felt like it was dancing on ice after receiving a burn.
Those memories of what the Allagans were doing in this ship during its heyday finally quieted down in his mind, and Sounsyy could see the light of his suit’s torch emerge from the doorway, along with a right hand holding onto the side of the broken door. Ryanti emerged from the entranceway with his head wound still fresh.
He looked to his right slowly, then to his left, eyeing Sounsyy who had slammed her back against the wall. Ryanti still had a little bit of a glazed look in eye, and when he swallowed there was nothing but air, but he was able to get some words out. “I… think I am, yeah. Heh… that… that kind of hurt…â€
Humor. He felt like he had to. To try to calm both of their fears. “I just… I just need a second.†He sounded winded, as if he was tired. He rested himself against her side of the wall, shoulder to shoulder with her. Both of their torchlights illuminated their section of the hallway, at least. He placed a hand upon his head rubbing it gently to try to box out the cobwebs.
“There was… there was writing on the wall. Writing that burned into my mind. They… they were so complex, so delicate and sophisticated but… unfinished. The Allagans, I… saw one working on the formulas in that room. I remember it like it’s my own memory. They were… they were trying to solve something. To end a certain kind of suffering. Testing, re-writing, testing re-writing… it was as if they were studying the very core of what made those liquids… down to the tiniest level of detail.â€
A sudden little realization coursed through Ryanti’s mind, and he turned to her with a bit of a dizzy look that was slowly, yet surely, wearing off. A bit more energy was in his next words. “Are you okay too?â€
The young man shifted his eyes to her with an immediate look of concern upon his face as his gaze grew still and his posture shifted in a more tense fashion than before. The air was so still in that room. Ryanti could trace his breath in the midst of the dust particles among his torchlight, which now momentarily shined on Sounsyy’s form.
He continued to hold his rifle up pointed towards the door. The cold steel of the gun’s make was beginning to feel more moist and damp because of the sweat coming from Ryanti’s palms. “Are you sure?†He murmured to her, but already knew the answer to that question. It was best that they leave no stone unturned in this ship, and Ryanti knew that his fear was playing with him by trying to make it okay for his conscious to prefer ignorance to anything that could be in there.
Ryanti’s tail and ears tensed up and he clenched his teeth and shut his eyes tightly when he heard the loud screeches of the table moving. The sound permeated throughout the room in the all too silent ship, bouncing off of the walls in the hallway and echoing down the corridor. At least out of the most mysterious noises they have heard so far, this noise had an explanation to it, but Ryanti couldn’t help but think that now that they were making their own noise, the rest of the entire ship knew they had… intruders.
With a few steps, he aligned himself with Sounsyy’s position, briefly looking up at her dark form on top of the eons-old piece of furniture. He flinched retroactively at all of the loose screws that broke free from the grating, tiny Allagan pieces of work sprinkling over his form and causing him to wipe his shoulder and a few other spots to clear himself of the rubble and dust.
“Looks like it’s enough space to crawl up into.†She said.
Ryanti’s grip on his rifle tightened. Checking out the inside of paneling like that with the enormous chance of electric shock was a terrifying risk to take. But it would but one of many crazy risks they would have to take on this trial by fire inside of the derelict ship. He returned her glance with one of his own, with concern forefronting to the surface, whether it be because of him sensing her fear or projecting his own.
“I’ll let an ankle dangle.â€
“Please be careful.â€
Ryanti had a little taste of Sounsyy’s prior loneliness after she had grabbed onto the grating and kicked away to pull herself up. There was a primal fear deep inside of him that she would suddenly be whisked away from him, never to return and leaving him by himself in this place. A heated feeling of guilt coursed through the young man’s body. He would not leave her again. Even for a moment. The young man timidly placed his rifle down on its side next to hers, letting out a few breaths of exertion as he slowly climbed himself upon the ancient table, the legs wobbling a little bit when he tried to stand. Ryanti weighed more than Sounsyy, so he was afraid the slightest movement could send the table crumbling to dust.
“Seventy-seven…?â€
“Yeah?.. What is it?†Ryanti said back to her. Despite him being below her and not in the duct with her, his voice sounded just as loud as if he was right next to her. He had already placed both of his hands right outside of her dangling right leg, as if he was ready at any moment to grab onto her leg and pull with all of his might if one of the thousands of ways this could go wrong came true.
He remembered she said something about trading places, about something literally being there with her in the vent. But that was all that he could recall. His eyes were wandering around outside of Sounsyy’s vision in places he could afford to see from the vantage point of where he was. When the clamor happened deep within the ship’s bowels, Ryanti was not exposed to the true nature of the sound like she was. It allowed him to pick up on a subtle noise. It sounded like a tiny buzz, almost like the sound of white noise that quickly increased in volume. It was actually the sound of electrical current bouncing off of two ends of exposed wire that threatened to get too close.
It was then that it all clicked together in Ryanti’s mind. The very deep bowels of this ship… even after all this time… still retained power. The power was coming to life, and within moments Sounsyy would be exposed to the voltage! Oh no! He had to get her out of there NOW!
“SHITE!â€
The young man snapped into action with amazing speed that could only come out of anyone in a life or death situation. He snatched one hand upon her ankle and warped his other arm around the woman’s thigh. Immediately after, he pulled as hard as he could, ignoring her cries as her life was more valuable to him than her nerves and always would be. The force of his pull caused the metallic surface underneath Sounsyy to break off, the rectangular metallic piece crumbling down along with her body. Ryanti looked up just in time to be overtaken with the weight of her, knocking his face to the side.
He groaned out in pain after taking her weight, the table immediately collapsing into a bunch of pieces. Ryanti was able to catch her, warping his arms tightly around her collarbone area as they fell to keep her from flailing out of his grip and injuring herself further until they hit the floor. His back smashed into the ground of broken glass with all of her weight on top of him. “AHK-!†He cried out with the last of his breath as he hit the floor, his lips parted in pain but unable to breath.
It was a horrid amount of pain, and if it were not for his suit protecting him, Ryanti would probably have mean gashes all across his back now for falling upon the broken glass. He coughed and wheezed, his arms limp when Sounsyy flailed out of his grip not a moment after the accident. An acute puncture wound had formed near his left temple. Bright crimson blood began to bubble to the surface, crawling down the side of his face after bubbling up too much.
Immense sparks of electricity shot between all space of the air duct right afterwords. If Sounsyy had still been there, her heart would have easily ruptured and her brain fried from the immense electric shock. Ryanti took a deep, painful breath with a bit of a hoarse voice, opening his eyes in a daze on the floor and squirming a bit, the tiny pieces of broken glass crackling under him.
Something was flickering, something in the distance… a buzzing sound rang in his ears. It was a familiar sound from far away from here… an echo of Ryanti’s recent past.
For but a moment, the cell they were in came to life under a five thousand year old florescent light. His pupils dilated and he gasped with marvel at what he saw before him. There were… pieces of writing. Writing all over the walls. The Allagan writing was so sophisticated and the various shapes and puzzling formulas written on the wall were far beyond the comprehension of anyone in the Seventh Era. These incredibly complex mathematical formulas were everywhere on the walls of this room.
This was when Ryanti felt that connection again. That pull. Those numbers… those equations… those diagrams that were buried in dust… the incomprehensible nonsense formed themselves into shapes in Ryanti’s head. It was as if he was being forced to remember, forced to understand, and forced to recall only what he had just seen moments prior as if he had studied those shapes for weeks. The writing on the wall was burning into his mind, much like the Allagan alphabet had during Ryanti’s initiations. But this was not promoted or provoked by tomestones or other advanced methods of acquiring knowledge. No, this was burned into him because of something else. Because both him and Sounsyy were connected to the fate of this ship. Ryanti had allowed the back door of his mind to be open to the Allagan influences, and this was why.
“Ahhhh! Hnnnn!†Ryanti groaned out, sinking his forehead onto the floor with only his knees supporting him, his arms sprawled out among him as he suffered with this information. It hurt. It hurt so bad. It was like he was being forced to think so hard that his brain felt like exploding. Murmurs, whispers, words… hands writing the formulas upon the wall… florescent lights, beakers, hope, heart, struggle, desperation… all invading his mind.
When Sounsyy tugged at his suit, Ryanti looked over at her with an expression of immense pain. In his eyes were mirrored the writing of the Allagans upon the wall, which had burned into his aquamarine irises and gave out a soft white glow as if those memories were being stamped upon his very eyes. He was out of it. He wasn’t completely there. He remained crumpled for a moment longer after Sounsyy left, his weak eyes being exposed to the writing again with one last flicker… ancient memories that were not his own fogging his mind.
So… why did you decide to become a scientist?
To help people…
It seems so strange, that… the more that we seem to understand about this world, the… more that we realize how much we truly don’t know…
So close! ... I’m so close! No one will have to die like they do anymore if I just… if I just…
When the lights flickered that one last time, the hallway that Sounsyy was in very briefly exposed the entirety of itself with that light. The brilliant white light that had functioned as such five thousand years prior had grown into a pale tan color with age and covered with dust, therefore much weaker than it used to be. The light flickered upon the hallway… once… twice… three times.
On the third flicker, out of the corner of Sounsyy’s eye, there was a figure. A figure that was standing in the hallway. It was impossible to make her out completely because she was only around for one flicker. What could be seen was that she had a coat of white. A pair of glasses. An ethereal silver earring that dangled from her ear lobe and sparkled beautifully, even in the rusted light. Long blonde hair of some sort… of some length.
And skin that was deathly blue. Unmistakably deathly.
The Allagan specter appeared in a blink of an eye, and was gone in the blink of an eye. The lights flickered two more times, exposing the hallway for it truly was: empty and silent, before one of the light bulbs shattered into old and rotten pieces. The wiring in the vent shorted out and fried with age and wear, sending the ship back into utter darkness once more as the ship died again.
The ship had died again, but had never felt more alive.
“A-are you okay?!?â€
Sounsyy could hear little sounds and quiet groans from the room that she had left. It was similar noises one would make if they were sick to their stomach or just completed a sprint and needed air. The stale air of this ship did Ryanti no favors in recovering. His brain felt like it was dancing on ice after receiving a burn.
Those memories of what the Allagans were doing in this ship during its heyday finally quieted down in his mind, and Sounsyy could see the light of his suit’s torch emerge from the doorway, along with a right hand holding onto the side of the broken door. Ryanti emerged from the entranceway with his head wound still fresh.
He looked to his right slowly, then to his left, eyeing Sounsyy who had slammed her back against the wall. Ryanti still had a little bit of a glazed look in eye, and when he swallowed there was nothing but air, but he was able to get some words out. “I… think I am, yeah. Heh… that… that kind of hurt…â€
Humor. He felt like he had to. To try to calm both of their fears. “I just… I just need a second.†He sounded winded, as if he was tired. He rested himself against her side of the wall, shoulder to shoulder with her. Both of their torchlights illuminated their section of the hallway, at least. He placed a hand upon his head rubbing it gently to try to box out the cobwebs.
“There was… there was writing on the wall. Writing that burned into my mind. They… they were so complex, so delicate and sophisticated but… unfinished. The Allagans, I… saw one working on the formulas in that room. I remember it like it’s my own memory. They were… they were trying to solve something. To end a certain kind of suffering. Testing, re-writing, testing re-writing… it was as if they were studying the very core of what made those liquids… down to the tiniest level of detail.â€
A sudden little realization coursed through Ryanti’s mind, and he turned to her with a bit of a dizzy look that was slowly, yet surely, wearing off. A bit more energy was in his next words. “Are you okay too?â€