The Fourth Law

Chapter 1, part 1

Lily paused in her walk to survey the sky again. No change: cloudless, with a color that went from washed-out ochre to gray. She returned her eyes to the ground and resumed walking. The smaller, shale-like rocks crunched under her shoes, but there were too many that were just the right size for twisting – if not outright breaking – an ankle.

"Nothing, not a thing growing," she muttered. "I'd think that someone kidnapped me and left me in Big Bend National Park, but there aren't any mountains, and even Big Bend has some scrub growth in it!... whoa!"

She steadied herself against what felt like a slight tremor. Looking about again, she noticed something to her left that hadn't been there a moment ago.

"Power line poles? No, too thick for that. May as well go see." She changed direction, trying to keep an eye both on the odd poles in the distance and the rocks before her.

Something's wrong with the perspective, she thought. Why do they just, well... feel big?

Getting nearer, they seemed to be emitting a hum of some kind. Just as she drew close enough to start doubting her sanity, she also encountered the first break in the seemingly endless, boring terrain: a drop of some distance. One hundred feet was too small, but a hundred yards seemed too large. Perspective, again. She stared at the "poles," but the longer she looked, the more perplexed she became.

"No... they're... how can something like this even exist?"

Seemingly made of a dark metal, she saw that the poles were spinning and that each pole was made up of layers of gears, themselves all spinning at different rates.

"Don't get it..." she murmured. "They must be hundreds of yards high... but they are at least several city blocks in diameter..."

There was another shudder, and, to her horror, the poles started weaving slowly.

"They're going to fall! On me!" The humming became louder and mixed in with it were what sounded like cries of pain and terror. Not knowing why, she started crawling on her hands and knees toward the cliff edge.

"Scared... I'm scared!" she cried.

"...lily..."

As close to the edge as she could take, she sat up and peered over. The odd perspective made her eyes water, but around the base of some of the poles are... sticks, trees? Wait... what's on those trees...?   A wave of nausea built as she remembered the events of the last few years that she'd tried so hard to forget.

"...lily...wake...!"

"Daddy! Nooo!!!" With tears in her eyes and bile at the back of her throat, she recalled the forests of crucified men and women along the borders of the new Republic. Crucifixions ordered by her father.

"Stop! Make it stop...!"

"Lily! Wake up!"

Her head came up off her desk too quickly and the wave of nausea broke. She almost made it to the trashcan in time. Almost. Coughing slightly, she wiped her mouth on her right sleeve.

"Hey! Lily! Are you okay? You were yelling and crying."

Lily Barrett looked at the right most of the three screens on her desk. The head of her friend, Ai, very large and a field of concern. She must be close to her camera, Lily thought. But, looking at the CG-rendered face of her friend, her aquamarine hair in an ostentatious ponytail and short, white dress which was more a part of her than on her, Lily wondered for the nth time, why do you do that? Why won't you show me the real you?  Arguments on that line had almost cost their friendship, and it was Lily that backed down, but it never not hurt her to know that Ai thought she had to deceive her for some reason.

"Yeah, I'll be okay. Ugh." She glanced at her desk. "But this keyboard is toast. Coffee is one thing, but I don't think it's going to survive getting puked on."

Ai's image pulled back as she did a spin about in her chair. Lily surmised some months ago that Ai might be a student of some kind, as the room behind her looked like an efficiency apartment.

"Yeayifications! I'm glad you're going to be fine!" Ai cried happily. Then her face fell. "Was it... that dream again? The one with the cylinders?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah. But this was worse. At the end..." Her eyes started to get wet again.

In a panic, Ai waved across the screen. "No, no! Forget I asked! Please don't cry!"

Lily blinked the tears away. She glanced at the time displayed in the corner of the screen. Crap.

"Well, it's about five in the morning; may as well get up and get myself cleaned off. See you, Ai," Lily said, standing. She paused a moment.

"Hey, Ai. I don't recall leaving any of my messengers on last night. How'd you...?"

Ai scrunched her eyes shut with a Cheshire Cat grin. "You're my best friend, Lily! Of course I'll be there for you! Bye-eee!"

-connection lost-

Well, that's nice, Lily thought, walking toward the bathroom. But she didn't answer my question. She paused in the doorway. How did my life get like this?