The Firmament Saga: Book I: The Rains of Sorrow

Interlude: Ararat Inverted

Interlude: Ararat Inverted (Lothe)

You have entered a Cage-type Multipersonnel Virtual Recording. The three interconnected headsets are primed for replay. Playing memory now.

March 15, 8076 CE

Lothe could feel their heart drumming in their chest as their boots pounded against the dark steel floor. Sweat trickled down their face, pooling around their protruding chin and dripping off. The repetitive bee-wheep of the emergency alarm echoed throughout the long, winding corridor, jarring Lothe's ears.

"Gaia, Gaia, Gaia, Gaia, Gaia, Gaia, Gaia, Gaia, Gaia, Gaia," they muttered to themself, a prayer for survival. "Deliver me from harm, purge my enemies, deliver me from..."

The Earth Mother was unfortunately too weak to aid Lothe at the moment, and they could hear the sounds of gunfire and screaming emanate from the deeper recesses of the corridor. The sounds jarred their memories of recent trauma.

Abruptly, the corridor turned and a heavy metal blast-door lay in front of them. Lothe ran the fifty or so feet from the bend to the door and began to bang on it. Hopefully, Reccah or Leif were watching for survivors. Steeling themself, Lothe began to shout.

"This is an emergency. YLD-4 has deviated from its intended programming. Instead of maintaining Outpost VI's biosphere, it is attacking the colonists! Help!"

A few seconds later, the door slid open, retracting into the walls. A thin masculine person with a scraggly red beard and long unkempt hair answered Lothe.

"Lothe!" they called. "Good to see you alive."

"Same to you, Leif," Lothe responded. "Where's Reccah?"

"Right here," a mature feminine voice answered. Reccah's popped around the corner. They wore the beige robes with red, blue and green stripes that denoted a Gaian priest. "Quick, get inside!"

Without further ado, the three people entered the safe chamber. Lothe's heart pounded in their chest like a sledgehammer on concrete, but now they could relax.

"Where's Chuck?" asked Reccah. Chuck was a junior mechanic who had been a good friend of Lothe and Reccah.

Lothe winced. Chuck had been killed by the robots immediately after the beginning of the attack. "They didn't make it," Lothe sighed.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Reccah answered. A faint pang of sadness entered their face, but they knew that any devout Gaian would eventually be reincarnated.

"Are we safe?" Lothe asked.

"This chamber has a blessed EMP field surrounding it. YLD-4 can't reach us here," Leif said. Reccah beamed at that, clearly impressed with their own skill in combining technology and holy magic. This new expression dispelled at least some of the sadness.

"Oh thank goodness," Lothe sighed. Then, they started. "But that means that we can't use our comms to get help..." he trailed off.

"Not to worry. I sent a message before putting up the EMP field," Reccah interjected. "It should make it to the portal in orbit around the Outpost, then the Gaian Empire can send ships and troops to destroy YLD-4."

"About that..." Leif winced. "The damned AI's hijacked the spacecraft in orbit." They were using blessed radar, the only electric device that could work in a blessed EMP field. "Now they're crashing the ships into the portal." They looked up, then looked back down. "Aaaaand it's destroyed."

"Well, shit," Reccah cursed. "Confound it all. Guess we have no way to get out of this."

"Nearest other portal-linked world is nearly 500 light-years away. Gonna be a loooooong half-dozen centuries before we get rescued," Leif said. Their expression was more sour than it had been a couple minutes ago.