Pompods

24

An uneasy calmness washed over the village in the ensuing days. The Memees spent the vast majority of their time checking and rechecking the ship's systems and would reconfirm with the Elders to ensure it had not overlooked anything in its preparations.

Elder Ino did his best to reassure the ship's central control intelligence but it had become increasingly concerned about the frequency of the tremors or at least the current lack of them over the previous days. It calculated the approximate window in which they should depart to safeguard the inhabitants before the inevitable chain reaction would prevent them from successfully departing.

They calculated the best scenario would offer them more than half a lunar cycle before they crossed the threshold and would fail to leave the world's surface. The ship's systems considered this too narrow a margin for comfort and doubled its efforts to make sure all would be ready for departure. Their final and most unavoidable concern had been Oku. He would be their best option for successful departure but he had yet to give them an answer to their request. If he refused, there was still the possibility that they could leave in time but it would require time to prepare the ship for this alternative. Time was becoming a luxury that slowly faded away with each passing revolution of the suns.

Almost as if the world had felt its concern, a tremor was felt underfoot. Quick calculations were made as numbers and variables were adjusted and a final analysis confirmed their final deadline for departure. It reassured them in some capacity that they still had half a lunar cycle, it would be all the time they could allot to safely remove their creators' progeny. It still considered the time frame too short for its liking. It relayed the information to Elder Ino and then resumed the ship's preparations.

Once again, it made its rounds of the ship as it catalogued inventory and inspected the ship's systems for the third time that day. It was satisfied to know that all the gemstones had been securely set into place throughout the ship.

As it made its way into the ship's control room it encountered the twins as they inspected and polished each gemstone they encountered as they thoroughly explored the ship.

"Tenma, have you done these ones?" said Amnet as he pointed to a cluster of gemstone on the navigational wall.

"Yes, those ones I have done, Amnet," said Tenma with a proud smile as he made one final pass on a gemstone with his trusted cloth in hand.

"What about those ones over there?"

"Those ones over there, where?"

"In the console," said Amnet as he pointed behind himself.

"Ah, in the console," replied Tenma as he looked over his shoulder.

"Have you?"

"Umm, no."

"Shall I?"

"Yes, you should."

"Very well, what is left after this?"

"After this, this is a good question."

"Perhaps we should ask the ship's Memee."

"Yes, ask the ship's Memee, we should."

"Ah, there it is!" exclaimed Amnet when he noticed the ship's Memee as it observed them from the doorway.

"There it is, ah!"

It watched as the twins excitedly ran up to it.

"Hello."

"Yes, hello."

"Bomf," it replied as it stared down into the identical faces pressed closely together with a look of determined eagerness across their mirrored features.