His eyes looked heavy, as if they had sunk to the back of his skull. His skin was paler than usual; a little sickly. In the dim crimson light of a long forgotten vessel that used to claim its home in the stars, Ryanti was indeed alive. Taxed, but alive. Those tired eyes were focused on her, and while his body seemed to lack energy for the moment, there was a strength of concern in those eyes as he observed Sounsyy try to help herself up.
He had one knee lowered to the ground. The curls of a weak smile emerged from a corner of his lips in response to her little joke. Was it true? Had that almost died three times so far? He knew there would be many more times that would happen in this place. Many more. Assuming that they would survive, of course. When one was to think in perspective, the odds were against their favor. It looked to be a very realistic scenario, dying here… entombed within the bowels of a vessel already long dead itself. Was this to be it, then? Was this place simply destined to become their coffin? Were they to be buried together here? Would they be forgotten too?
Ryanti’s face seemed like a ghost. It was very still as his eyes glanced upon her injured hand when she brought it up to her chest. One half of his face was illuminated by the dim flickering red light, while the other half was covered in darkness. He could tell that she was in pain. Was it because of him? Probably. She had saved his life, and hurt herself in the process. Nearly every time Sounsyy herself thought about how poor of a choice she was, Ryanti was almost always thinking about how poor of a decision he made. It was his only option though. He knew that she was supposed to come here, as he was.
They… had called to them both.
"The ship came to life, and I felt it surgin' through meh fingers. Felt meh whole body clench and go limp, then I lost the pearl. I can't say if it's dead fer sure, all I can 'ear is white noise. Yers okay?"
Her dialogue snapped him out of his little trance. Ryanti’s eyes moved again, this time meeting her own. The idle red lights were flickering off of her face too. The contrast stole the color away from those hazel eyes. He wondered if the concerned look on her eyes was because of him. It was then that he gently placed a hand over his left eye, lightly rubbing his eyelid with his fingertips. He did not remember the time between the ship surging in power and himself banging against the wall of the elevator. There was a gap there. He assumed it was because of the surge…
But something… something made the left side of his upper body tingle. He could almost hear it. The sound of the florescent lighting flickering on in full capacity. But there was no piercing white light to illuminate this hallway. The bulbs had long since shattered; the panels hanging by the thread in the hallway, tilted and dented. He could almost feel it. Like it had been sleeping… and had been awoken. Like it had one eye open now, before going back to sleep.
When Sounsyy whispered “Right, movin’.†Ryanti whispered to himself “Right, the pearls.â€
He reached his fingertip into his ear as he saw the form of the Roehmerl’s Captain get up upon her feet and make her way past him. He clicked it once, twice. Nothing. Not even white noise. He could feel a warm but unwelcome feeling sinking into his stomach. He switched it on and off again. Nothing. He removed the linkpearl from his ear and shined the emergency light upon it. There was an obvious crack on it that had nearly split it in two. Were the insides broken, or simply the outside layer? Was it not working because it was broken, or because it was sapped of power? Sapped of power…
He unzipped a small pocket in the chest area of his suit and placed the linkpearl inside. No use in worrying about it now. As he placed the pearl inside, he realized that he had been feeling uneasy all of this time, ever since he had stripped Sounsyy of the rope. The fascination of where he was and his passion for exploring such areas had diminished. There was a feeling in his stomach not his own, a suspenseful alarm that left his neck hairs on end. He had a bad feeling about this. Something was wrong.
He grabbed his bag and rifle on the way back, following the woman ahead, and increasing his pace to catch up with her.
At least there wasn’t a chance of falling and dying now, Ryanti thought as he sat himself down upon the ledge of the broken window, watching Sounsyy take her first few steps upon the surface of the elevator. This place was more heavily lighted due to the origin of the red flashes being there. Red bulbs that were positioned around the outside rim of the elevator were flickering in idle, waiting for them to make their input.
He rested his back against the wall of the window in his tiny little period of rest, watching Sounsyy glance back at him with her little smile.
"Deeper into the briny depths I guess?"
“Heheh… heheh.†She could hear Ryanti make little chuckles, little laughs. Smile. Even show his teeth. One of his legs dangled back and forth upon the ledge. He looked a little better now. A little more recovered. “Into the very mouth of hell… a very bad place for a first date.â€
He anchored his hand upon the window ledge and hopped off it with rifle in hand, slinging it over his shoulder after he landed. He rotated and tweaked his left shoulder, trying to get the blood pumping again and be a little bit of his old self. He spoked again when he flanked her on his way to the control box. “Thank you for saving me. I know it’s an obligation to, but… still.â€
His gaze lowered a little bit to eye her injured hand again. He met that gaze with a concerned frown, and a silent sigh. That had to be his doing. “Rest that arm of yours. I’ll do all the work for now.â€
The hand that was placed upon the strap of his rifle squeezed it tighter as a way to vent his anxiety of their impending future as he was making his way over to the control box. He could not shake off that feeling of perplexing dread, and it was beginning to worry him.
“What you felt was electricity.†He stated, turning his body a bit to point his finger at several of the lights flickering on and off around them as he made his way to the box. “It is a force of energy, much like fire or… cereleum. These lights here, what most would call fireless, are powered by this force. That is what you felt. What we both felt. The Allagans mastered this force eons before our peoples even worked with stone tools, though the Garleans are learning from them, much as a toddler learns from its mother.â€
He did not want to say what he was about to say. But as he made his way to the box itself and first placed his hands on top of the device’s shape to scope it out, he knew he had to confirm to her the worst case scenario. “Our linkpearls are fried. It’s no use keeping it in your ear – we’re on our own.†He let that sink in for a moment before turning his head back to her. “But don’t lose it.â€
Heavy breaths irritated the dust particles upon the control box when Ryanti got himself a good look at it. “Now let me see… heh, finally there’s a role within this ship that I would have done personally if I had my four man crew…ironic.â€
His fingertips traced along the shape of it. It was a rectangular shape, short size vertical. A tug or two didn’t budge the thing; there was no way he was going to be able to access the internal components of it. Even after all these years, the cerment did not rust, did not crumble within his hands. Upon wiping the front of it a few times with his arm, he realized that this had once been operated by a touch screen, maybe even a hologram of some sort. He kept this information to himself. He would just overwhelm Sounsyy with it, so he juveniled his comments.
“Well it looks like it used to have a screen of some sort here. Long powered down of course.†He murmured, placing his grip upon the handle that he had pulled down from earlier. He gave it a tug, and then another, making two loud noises ring across the hallway as he tried to move it from its resting place, but it did not appear to budge. “Looks like it’s… kind of… stuck!†He said, his voice under stress as he put exertion upon the handle to try to get it to move. With one more shove, he managed to move it a little bit.
A shocking gasp came from his throat as another source of light appeared in the room. It was an incredibly weak source of light coming from …. The monitor! It was still working! After all these years, it was still working!
“Twelve’s graces...†Ryanti murmured, his eyes focused firmly upon the monitor. Any sound that would originate from this operating system was broken, and the operating system itself seemed to be in emergency mode. The only functioning screen was mostly black, with two pale white squares. One was located below the other. One had a very dim red arrow pointing up, and the other had an arrow pointing down. “Look!.... Look it’s still working! I can’t believe it! It’s been set on emergency power though… it looks like the Allagans knew their fate before this ship crashed.†That very statement sent chills up his spine. What was the story behind this ship?
Ryanti knew that they needed to go up. “Okay… let’s see.†Ryanti whispered to himself, though it was audible elsewhere. He looked up at where he wanted to go; up up up. When he pushed the square on the screen though, nothing happened. Another tap. Another tap. Nothing. Damn it, what was going on? Why wasn’t it moving? The young soldier looked back at the screen, tapping it a few more times.
Suddenly, he felt the elevator shift. The ground vibrated a little bit, and the gears began to turn as it attempted to get to where they wanted to go. But Ryanti’s ears tightened behind him as they both heard a huge squeaking noise like fingernails upon a chalkboard before the sound of the auxiliary engine failing. “Shite! ... I don’t think it has enough power to take us up!â€
Ryanti swore underneath his breath, clenching his teeth and shaking his head as he observed a red X cross over the up arrow. It wasn’t going to work. “We’re going to have to go down.†Ryanti reported to her, closing his eyes tightly and hoping and praying that this was not going to be an inconvenience to them.
He bit his lip and held his breath, reaching his hand out to touch the bottom arrow. There was that feeling again. As if someone was behind him, whispering in his ear to not do it, to not push that arrow, to not go down there and see that part of the ship. But the cerment would not let him grapple, and the shaft was simply too large to climb up. He had no choice. There was never a choice. “Nyemia… please.â€
He pressed the arrow, and momentarily after, the spires on the four corners of the elevator lifted upwards, and Ryanti walked back to the center of the elevator as the floor began to vibrate. Gears turned as the machina sprung to life, and the elevator began to descend downwards.
So the downward journey began. The elevator itself was enormous, the width of it spanning nearly a third of Sounsyy’s Roehmerl and it was merely an elevator albeit not any type meant for personnel. It was meant for cargo. Ryanti knew this, but… what kind of cargo?
The chamber itself did not disappoint in terms of scale either. Each couple of seconds they passed another floor, another stabilizer ring. There were little pieces of the wall panels that had come off, showing off the immense depth of Allagan ingenuity with brief glimpses of the wiring and inner workings of the components. The stabilizer rings each had a row of dim red lights blinking on and off. Ryanti found himself taking it all in, turning around, two and fro to glance about. It was unbelievable, the size of this ship. The sheer breathtaking scale.
“How is your arm?†Ryanti asked Sounsyy in a sudden, but concerned manner. He looked back at her. His expression was a mix of suspense, awe, and disciplined determination. He took a few steps towards her as the elevator began to descend. “I need to make sure you’re alright. We need to be… ready. For anything.â€
He had one knee lowered to the ground. The curls of a weak smile emerged from a corner of his lips in response to her little joke. Was it true? Had that almost died three times so far? He knew there would be many more times that would happen in this place. Many more. Assuming that they would survive, of course. When one was to think in perspective, the odds were against their favor. It looked to be a very realistic scenario, dying here… entombed within the bowels of a vessel already long dead itself. Was this to be it, then? Was this place simply destined to become their coffin? Were they to be buried together here? Would they be forgotten too?
Ryanti’s face seemed like a ghost. It was very still as his eyes glanced upon her injured hand when she brought it up to her chest. One half of his face was illuminated by the dim flickering red light, while the other half was covered in darkness. He could tell that she was in pain. Was it because of him? Probably. She had saved his life, and hurt herself in the process. Nearly every time Sounsyy herself thought about how poor of a choice she was, Ryanti was almost always thinking about how poor of a decision he made. It was his only option though. He knew that she was supposed to come here, as he was.
They… had called to them both.
"The ship came to life, and I felt it surgin' through meh fingers. Felt meh whole body clench and go limp, then I lost the pearl. I can't say if it's dead fer sure, all I can 'ear is white noise. Yers okay?"
Her dialogue snapped him out of his little trance. Ryanti’s eyes moved again, this time meeting her own. The idle red lights were flickering off of her face too. The contrast stole the color away from those hazel eyes. He wondered if the concerned look on her eyes was because of him. It was then that he gently placed a hand over his left eye, lightly rubbing his eyelid with his fingertips. He did not remember the time between the ship surging in power and himself banging against the wall of the elevator. There was a gap there. He assumed it was because of the surge…
But something… something made the left side of his upper body tingle. He could almost hear it. The sound of the florescent lighting flickering on in full capacity. But there was no piercing white light to illuminate this hallway. The bulbs had long since shattered; the panels hanging by the thread in the hallway, tilted and dented. He could almost feel it. Like it had been sleeping… and had been awoken. Like it had one eye open now, before going back to sleep.
When Sounsyy whispered “Right, movin’.†Ryanti whispered to himself “Right, the pearls.â€
He reached his fingertip into his ear as he saw the form of the Roehmerl’s Captain get up upon her feet and make her way past him. He clicked it once, twice. Nothing. Not even white noise. He could feel a warm but unwelcome feeling sinking into his stomach. He switched it on and off again. Nothing. He removed the linkpearl from his ear and shined the emergency light upon it. There was an obvious crack on it that had nearly split it in two. Were the insides broken, or simply the outside layer? Was it not working because it was broken, or because it was sapped of power? Sapped of power…
He unzipped a small pocket in the chest area of his suit and placed the linkpearl inside. No use in worrying about it now. As he placed the pearl inside, he realized that he had been feeling uneasy all of this time, ever since he had stripped Sounsyy of the rope. The fascination of where he was and his passion for exploring such areas had diminished. There was a feeling in his stomach not his own, a suspenseful alarm that left his neck hairs on end. He had a bad feeling about this. Something was wrong.
He grabbed his bag and rifle on the way back, following the woman ahead, and increasing his pace to catch up with her.
At least there wasn’t a chance of falling and dying now, Ryanti thought as he sat himself down upon the ledge of the broken window, watching Sounsyy take her first few steps upon the surface of the elevator. This place was more heavily lighted due to the origin of the red flashes being there. Red bulbs that were positioned around the outside rim of the elevator were flickering in idle, waiting for them to make their input.
He rested his back against the wall of the window in his tiny little period of rest, watching Sounsyy glance back at him with her little smile.
"Deeper into the briny depths I guess?"
“Heheh… heheh.†She could hear Ryanti make little chuckles, little laughs. Smile. Even show his teeth. One of his legs dangled back and forth upon the ledge. He looked a little better now. A little more recovered. “Into the very mouth of hell… a very bad place for a first date.â€
He anchored his hand upon the window ledge and hopped off it with rifle in hand, slinging it over his shoulder after he landed. He rotated and tweaked his left shoulder, trying to get the blood pumping again and be a little bit of his old self. He spoked again when he flanked her on his way to the control box. “Thank you for saving me. I know it’s an obligation to, but… still.â€
His gaze lowered a little bit to eye her injured hand again. He met that gaze with a concerned frown, and a silent sigh. That had to be his doing. “Rest that arm of yours. I’ll do all the work for now.â€
The hand that was placed upon the strap of his rifle squeezed it tighter as a way to vent his anxiety of their impending future as he was making his way over to the control box. He could not shake off that feeling of perplexing dread, and it was beginning to worry him.
“What you felt was electricity.†He stated, turning his body a bit to point his finger at several of the lights flickering on and off around them as he made his way to the box. “It is a force of energy, much like fire or… cereleum. These lights here, what most would call fireless, are powered by this force. That is what you felt. What we both felt. The Allagans mastered this force eons before our peoples even worked with stone tools, though the Garleans are learning from them, much as a toddler learns from its mother.â€
He did not want to say what he was about to say. But as he made his way to the box itself and first placed his hands on top of the device’s shape to scope it out, he knew he had to confirm to her the worst case scenario. “Our linkpearls are fried. It’s no use keeping it in your ear – we’re on our own.†He let that sink in for a moment before turning his head back to her. “But don’t lose it.â€
Heavy breaths irritated the dust particles upon the control box when Ryanti got himself a good look at it. “Now let me see… heh, finally there’s a role within this ship that I would have done personally if I had my four man crew…ironic.â€
His fingertips traced along the shape of it. It was a rectangular shape, short size vertical. A tug or two didn’t budge the thing; there was no way he was going to be able to access the internal components of it. Even after all these years, the cerment did not rust, did not crumble within his hands. Upon wiping the front of it a few times with his arm, he realized that this had once been operated by a touch screen, maybe even a hologram of some sort. He kept this information to himself. He would just overwhelm Sounsyy with it, so he juveniled his comments.
“Well it looks like it used to have a screen of some sort here. Long powered down of course.†He murmured, placing his grip upon the handle that he had pulled down from earlier. He gave it a tug, and then another, making two loud noises ring across the hallway as he tried to move it from its resting place, but it did not appear to budge. “Looks like it’s… kind of… stuck!†He said, his voice under stress as he put exertion upon the handle to try to get it to move. With one more shove, he managed to move it a little bit.
A shocking gasp came from his throat as another source of light appeared in the room. It was an incredibly weak source of light coming from …. The monitor! It was still working! After all these years, it was still working!
“Twelve’s graces...†Ryanti murmured, his eyes focused firmly upon the monitor. Any sound that would originate from this operating system was broken, and the operating system itself seemed to be in emergency mode. The only functioning screen was mostly black, with two pale white squares. One was located below the other. One had a very dim red arrow pointing up, and the other had an arrow pointing down. “Look!.... Look it’s still working! I can’t believe it! It’s been set on emergency power though… it looks like the Allagans knew their fate before this ship crashed.†That very statement sent chills up his spine. What was the story behind this ship?
Ryanti knew that they needed to go up. “Okay… let’s see.†Ryanti whispered to himself, though it was audible elsewhere. He looked up at where he wanted to go; up up up. When he pushed the square on the screen though, nothing happened. Another tap. Another tap. Nothing. Damn it, what was going on? Why wasn’t it moving? The young soldier looked back at the screen, tapping it a few more times.
Suddenly, he felt the elevator shift. The ground vibrated a little bit, and the gears began to turn as it attempted to get to where they wanted to go. But Ryanti’s ears tightened behind him as they both heard a huge squeaking noise like fingernails upon a chalkboard before the sound of the auxiliary engine failing. “Shite! ... I don’t think it has enough power to take us up!â€
Ryanti swore underneath his breath, clenching his teeth and shaking his head as he observed a red X cross over the up arrow. It wasn’t going to work. “We’re going to have to go down.†Ryanti reported to her, closing his eyes tightly and hoping and praying that this was not going to be an inconvenience to them.
He bit his lip and held his breath, reaching his hand out to touch the bottom arrow. There was that feeling again. As if someone was behind him, whispering in his ear to not do it, to not push that arrow, to not go down there and see that part of the ship. But the cerment would not let him grapple, and the shaft was simply too large to climb up. He had no choice. There was never a choice. “Nyemia… please.â€
He pressed the arrow, and momentarily after, the spires on the four corners of the elevator lifted upwards, and Ryanti walked back to the center of the elevator as the floor began to vibrate. Gears turned as the machina sprung to life, and the elevator began to descend downwards.
So the downward journey began. The elevator itself was enormous, the width of it spanning nearly a third of Sounsyy’s Roehmerl and it was merely an elevator albeit not any type meant for personnel. It was meant for cargo. Ryanti knew this, but… what kind of cargo?
The chamber itself did not disappoint in terms of scale either. Each couple of seconds they passed another floor, another stabilizer ring. There were little pieces of the wall panels that had come off, showing off the immense depth of Allagan ingenuity with brief glimpses of the wiring and inner workings of the components. The stabilizer rings each had a row of dim red lights blinking on and off. Ryanti found himself taking it all in, turning around, two and fro to glance about. It was unbelievable, the size of this ship. The sheer breathtaking scale.
“How is your arm?†Ryanti asked Sounsyy in a sudden, but concerned manner. He looked back at her. His expression was a mix of suspense, awe, and disciplined determination. He took a few steps towards her as the elevator began to descend. “I need to make sure you’re alright. We need to be… ready. For anything.â€