Dorothy

Chapter 3

     Dorothy stared out at the gleaming city in awe, but mostly in terror. She knew almost intuitively where she was; there were so many stories. Only one thing differed from what she had heard. As Dorothy peered out at Artemisia, she could not see a single other being, Lunar or otherwise.

     Dorothy's first thought was to get back into the podship and hide for as long as possible, but as soon as she thought it she dismissed the idea. She knew it could never work.

     Rosie's sensors whirred behind her and she jumped, having almost forgotten that the android was there. "This is great, just great! If you had just let me take the controls, this never would have happened!" Rosie yelled. Or yelled as loudly as she dared in the quiet city.

     "You're blaming me! How can you? This is all your fault. I knew what I was doing. I had it under control. That is, until you came along!" Dorothy retorted forcefully. She started to turn away from the android, but Rosie wasn't finished yet.

    "You humans are never willing to take responsibility for your own actions. If it weren't for you we wouldn't be here. If it weren't for you I wouldn't be in danger right now."

     "Danger? You? You're nothing but a hunk of metal! I'm the one in danger here. Maybe if you weren't broken you wouldn't be so useless!"

      Rosie seemed to gasp. She deflated almost visibly. She said nothing. The words hung in the air between the two. Broken. Useless.

     "Well now, what is this?" Dorothy and Rosie whipped around at the sound of a voice. Rounding the podship was a women. A stunning women, perfect in every way. A woman wearing a long black coat down to her knees with flared sleeves and runes embroidered along it. Almost as soon as the woman came into sight Dorothy could feel her anger slipping away. Here was a sensible person. Another human. Here was someone that she could trust. Thaumaturges weren't half as scary in reality as in the stories. This women was good. Very good. Dorothy wanted to please this woman.

     No, a thaumaturge. They were horrible and cruel.

     So why wasn't she afraid?

     "Tell me what you're doing here," the woman said.

     "Our podship was pulled off course by a space storm and thrown here. Please believe me, it's the truth. Please, we just want to go back home," Dorothy offered, knowing she must sound pathetic to this powerful woman.

     "I believe you," the woman said. That was all, and then Dorothy felt her mind being returned to her. Fear filled her until she was almost trembling. A thaumaturge. Dorothy backed away from her.

     "Don't be afraid," the thaumaturge continued, though not in a particularly soothing tone. "If I wanted to kill you I already would have," the woman paused and observed Dorothy still stepping away from her. "Or hurt you, or have you hurt yourself, or any other horrible thing you've heard."

    Dorothy paused. Hesitated. Took one step forward. The woman sighed. "Look, I'm Thaumaturge Elwyn, and we don't have much time. I would help you if I could, but you'll have to let me."

     "I-I"m Dorothy," she stuttered. "And this is R-Rosie."

      Dorothy could tell that Thaumaturge Elwyn was not at all pleased with Rosie. She examined the android suspiciously. "Is this thing yours?" Thaumaturge Elwyn asked.

     Dorothy looked at Rosie, and Rosie seemed to stare back at her. "Well, she is with me, yes." Thaumaturge Elwyn sighed.

     "Alright. You two need to get into that building over there. See it? That big gray one. No not that one! The one that I'm pointing to. That's it. Yes. I have to go now, but get there, and do try not to get caught."                                              

     Dorothy hastily thanked the women. Every cell told her not to trust this Thaumaturge, but she really couldn't think of any other options. She turned and started walking hurriedly away. Rosie rolled after her on her treads.

    They reached the building and got inside- it was unlocked, which set Dorothy's nerves on end. Dorothy was almost in a panic now, there were just too many oddities. Dorothy became aware that Rosie had stopped moving. "What is it?" she hissed to the android.

     "Someone's coming."

     Dorothy listened, and then she could hear it too. Footsteps coming toward them. Her eyes widened in panic. Rosie's sensor started whirring. She whirled around, looking for a door. She saw only three in the corridor.

     She raced toward the one closest to her, with Rosie on her heels. She reached the door and jostled the knob. Locked.

     Dorothy turned and raced for the door across the hall. Locked. She spun and saw the last door. The footsteps were growing louder; soon they would turn the corner.  The last door would lead her toward whomever was coming, but what choice did she have? She glanced at Rosie, and they both took off toward the final door.

     Rosie reached the door first, lifted her pronged hand, and turned the knob.  Open. Dorothy barreled into the door and shoved Rosie inside. She shut the door and turned to look for something to put in front of it. The lights flickered on at their movements, revealing a chair with a wrench on it.

     Dorothy swung the chair, sending the wrench flying, and stuck it in front of the door. Just as the wrench slammed into something, Ccrraacckk. Dorothy sighed and turned to see where they were and what she had just broken, not to mention what Rosie was whirring about.

     "Dorothy, you need to come see this."

     Dorothy walked to where Rosie was and looked to where she motioned. She saw what she could only describe as a sort of elongated glass dome filled with blue gel. She could see that the wrench had cracked the glass, and the gel was oozing out. There were lots of tubes carrying a variety of substances in and out of the dome.

     "What is it?" Dorothy asked.

     "Never mind what it is. What's in it?" Rosie sounded almost panicky.

     Dorothy stared closer. Now she could see the form of-something. Humanoid certainly, but what was it doing in this thing? It almost appeared to sleep. An adult. A man, though with long hair...

     Just then, the thing's eye opened.