A Universe for Aizia

Phase 2?

Author's Note:

Well.

That last chapter, man.

Yeah. This one will be better. Promise!

Ok ok ok. Going in a completely different direction than I had planned with this story. I'm just gonna roll with it. It'll be ok guys.

Phase 2? here we go.

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What?

What?

I had so many questions. And no time to get answers.

As soon as my brain had processed the fact that Markus was no where to be found, every door leading in and out of the control room closed swiftly. A second later, five pneumatic locks clicked shut in succession.

I was now alone and utterly stuck.

My mind was reeling. I was trapped. Trapped, trapped, trapped. And where was Markus? Did the Pigs get him already? Were they coming for me?

I had to sit down.

The control room was actually quite empty; the ship required very little human assistance to function. Nearly everything ran automatically. Of course, even the pigs knew that nothing is ever perfect. The front wall of the room was entirely glass; an emergency control panel ran the entire length of the wall. The captain's job was to sit and watch the read outs from the panel and make sure everything was staying on track. But there was no one occupying the main chair at the moment.

My legs wobbled as I lowered myself into the chair. I was locked in Pig territory. This was very bad. Very, very bad. I'd been set up.

I wanted to cry. But there's no crying in war. So I sat and stared at the landscape below and waited for my heart rate to come down.

From this far above, in the soft glow of the airship's guide lights, the world didn't look so bad. The natural landscape ran wildly across my vision; there were forests, rivers, meadows, hills, and small lakes scattered randomly. Life on the airship was structured and organized; life on the ground was wild and beautiful. And free.

Even the human settlements looked beautiful. Makeshift huts, no more than shadowy squares from this height, were clustered around water sources and on the outskirts of the forests. Everyone had gone to sleep with the sun a few hours ago. In the darkness, you could almost pretend that the world on the ground was peaceful.

Almost.

No one was ever truly happy on the ground. They knew they didn't have enough food to eat; they knew that they were all condemned to die terrible deaths; they knew that they were getting screwed over by the Pigs. They cried in their sleep and grit their teeth during the day. They fought amongst themselves for control, power, happiness. The world itself was poison. And no one ever won.

That's why we were up in the air. Our little rebel group was fighting for a better life for our people. Nothing could be accomplished on the ground. We had to take our issues to the source of all our troubles. No one ever accomplished anything sitting comatose in the dirt. No, you had to fight and force your way to the top, where the real war is fought. The Pigs had to be brought down, and we were the only ones with the guts to force them out.

But I might have completely blown everything to bits by getting trapped in the freaking control room. I was so stupid, stupid, stupid.

I knew better than to try the doors; they had locked from the outside. After all my years spent on the ship, I could easily identify the sound of outer locks versus inner locks. I could identify a thousand and one other useless details about the ship too, but none of them would help me in this situation. The control room was impossible to escape; the only openings in the entire room were the doors. All of the other rooms had vents or secret hatches or something that you could get out through, but the control room was specifically designed without those kind of holes. The Pigs didn't want prying eyes to have any kind of access to the control room; they feared that if a spy could discreetly study the control room, he could, in theory, take control of the ship. That was the idea behind stationing Markus in the control room. Unfortunately, he didn't pass on any of that knowledge to me.