The craggy surface of the planet was scorching the bottom of Iph's boots as she leaped from rock to rock. It was hard, keeping her balance, especially with the difference in gravity and oxygen levels. She should have kept the respirator on.
It was too late for that, though. The temple was in front of her. It was tall and built into the smooth carved red rocks jutting out of the side of a cliff; the windows were made of green stained glass. Who had worshipped here, she wondered? Whose temple was this?
Now, it belonged to the dry-skinned, wrinkly people of Natronia. Before they conquered the planet, it belonged to someone else. Soon, it would change hands again. Iph hated to admit it, but she was going to play a key part in that. Her mind turned to the tracker in her shoe. The Galactic Federation had its eyes on her.
The inside of the temple was cool, a much-needed refuge from the hot desert sun. Natronia was mostly desert. Its few lakes and rivers had far too many settlements on their shores. There used to be a lake here, too, but it had long since dried up. Iph could still see the waterlines and erosion patterns.
Iph marked the walls with a small piece of white chalk as she walked through, trying to find the central chamber and its collection of emeralds. In the end, she found it behind a wall; one of her two stomachs was climbing up her throat, threatening to spill her lunch of ripe Matrox fruit and bagged water onto the glazed tiles below her. It was the guilt that was getting to her.
It was too late to turn back. Iph took the small black tracker out of her shoe and set it on the floor by the doorway. It blinked red, then green, then red. The Galactic Federation would be on its way shortly.
Or would it? What if she just...
Iph lifted one slightly-melted shoe and brought it down on the tracker. Its wires crackled for a moment before the thing lost power.
This old temple could stay preserved, for now. Iph didn't want to be responsible for its destruction.
YOU ARE READING
Snow On The Tombstones: A Collection of Flash Fiction and Vignettes
KurzgeschichtenA young man makes a serious mistake; an extraterrestrial explorer makes contact with an old temple; a group of friends sneak into an amusement park after hours; we are all tombstones; we are all here and gone.
