Post by Morgana Le Fay on Jul 28, 2006 8:49:33 GMT -5
Metafic entry. Comments are very welcome. I'd prefer if you posted them right in here, because I don't want to dig put my review thread. Lazy. Enjoy.
Save Yourself
1
We were on a bluff, twenty klicks outside the compound on Zondor 3. Do you remember how hard the wind was blowing? We had to wear those pinching goggles to keep the sand out of our eyes, and hide our hair under hoods. Mine kept trying to blow off. I never figured out how you kept yours on for so long. We had those macro binocs glued to our eyes, trying to look for our contact in all that dust. Hard to tell what was dust and what was sand, wasn't it? I still don't get how you saw him first. You just pointed, no use talking in all that wind, and he appeared, kicking up more dust in that speeder. I'll admit, the storm was a pain, but it made a great cover.
Scaling down the bluff wasn't easy in that whipping wind, but the durasteel lines helped alot. I was so glad we'd put the lines up before the storm came. We reached the bottom, our contact pulled up in his speeder, and we all went into the cave that you and I had called home for the last few months. It wasn't much, a pair of cots, some storage units, the latest high tech equiptment strewn about. I sat down on a box and shook sand off, you settled on a cot to do the same, and our contact "friend" remained by the 'door', as was his usual preference.
"Any new developments?" I asked, dumping sand out of my boot.
He was a tall, dark stanger, dressed in rust colored clothes that blended with the surroundings. That wasn't unusual - here, everything became rust colored if you waited long enough. When he popped off his helmet, sand and blonde hair spilled out. He had blue eyes and a wide grin, a pleasant face, more likely to be a model or a receptionist than an undercover operative. But either way, he was nice to look at, and very reliable. If I thought I could have, I'd have said you fancied him. "Project's almost ready to go. They've got double the guards on it now, the scientists are getting edgy. " As a rule, we didn't know our informant's name, nor him ours.
"Nervous? Do they suspect?" You gave him one of those looks - the 'I mean business' type - as you shrugged off the outer protective jacket we all wore. This was serious business - any little slip on any of our parts meant our mission was completely compromised.
He shrugged. "I doubt it. We've been very careful, and- " He tapped a gloved finger on his forehead "-they're none too bright, even if they are genius class scientists. "
"Typical scientists," I added, prompting a grin from him and a mild snort from you. "Have you found the weak spot yet?"
Frowning, he looked about, pulled out a display unit from a stray pack, and began jotting stuff down. "There's a grate system under the facility - sewage and drainage, that sort of thing. Wide enough for the two of you ladies to fit in. Leads right under the lab. Idiot designers." He punched a button and a display of the compound floated in the dusty air, causing green sparks where the dust and the light collided. The hand drawn schematics clearly showed the drainage system he was talking about - our ticket in. "Makes our job so much easier. "
I set to work on the other boot. "What sort of stuff are you finding in the drainage system? Substances, fluids, material?"
"Usual. Yesterday's supper, sewage, chemicals - nothing really hazardous, but with what they're doing, can never be too sure, I'll run a check." He punched the display out, and handed you the 'pad.
"What about defense? Security around the grate, other openings, cameras in the tubes? Guard positions?" You asked, shoving the pad in our "top priority/most useful" box. Your face looked a bit chapped from the wind, and your hair really looked wild, so I tossed you the balm and brush. I was expecting a glare or something, but didn't say anything when you caught them. I guess none of us expected to be beautiful at the moment. Clean, but not beautiful.
"Guards on the upper terraces, main gate, and outside the lab, four four eight." I whistled. Eight squads around the lab - they were nervous. Or were they? Could they be a threat to the scientists? The Empire was never kind when it wanted something done. I noticed your eyes narrowing - you'd thought the same. "Patrols of two monitor the halls, circuits of three hours."
We grilled him the rest of the night, gleaning all the info we could to help our assault, working out tactics and detailed plans, until all was ready. In three nights, all would be prepared on our contact's part, and hopefully, on ours. All would be ready to complete our main objective: take down the citadel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
2
Remember how nervous we were the next few days? Running through plans four, five, six times, probably more? We'd only have one shot at this, we were both well aware. What happened there that night would decide the fate of the galaxy.
The mission.... I'd thought they were psycho when they first told me what was going on on this dustball of a world. The Empire built a lab and stuffed it with brilliant scientists, chemists, geneticists, xenobiologists to make a toxin that would turn all the galaxy's inhabitants into what? Uncreative, mindless, stereotypes of their species?
"Frightening. Really. Now, what's the mission?" you had asked.
"Save the galaxy."
Sounded simple enough at the time, didn't it? They had no idea what they were getting into when they set two complete strangers down on a dustball with food and water, enough explosives to destroy a small moon, and "Save the galaxy." Oh, we hit it off easily enough, remember? You were Cy, I was Dragon, no questions asked, aside from "What should we do first?" Everything went from there. From the top of the bluff into a sewage pipe, the only unguarded entrance into that festering pit.
Everything went from there, indeed.
Crawling thru the disgusting tubes, loaded down with high grade explosives, pausing nervously when a guard walked across a grate overhead, waiting to be discovered. That was it... Certainly "the life". But, the storm was done and our contact did well - got us in unnoticed, everything was clear. Until we got below the lab.
It was quiet, but for the hum of machinery incubating life threatening toxins. Too quiet.
"Something's not right," you hissed from behind me. It echoed down the tube and up into the lab.
" We've only got one shot, Cy."
"One shot tonight. Not one shot total."
"It's almost ready- one shot total."
You paused. I could hear my heartbeat in the stillness. Blue moonlight streamed down thru the gate from a skylight. You were right, something didn't feel...good. Why didn't I listen to you, stop the arguement there, back away and live to try again another time?
"Fine. Any alarms, we run. Deal?"
"Deal," I hissed, and unlatched the large grate above us.
It was cold, empty, echoing there. It felt more like a dungeon
than a labratory. We moved silently between the rows of machinery, bottles and tubes, quickly placing our time bombs, making sure the doors were sealed, so they couldn't get in to defuse our handiwork.
The last bomb was placed, the counter set for sixty seconds. I'd flashed you a grin as we were turning to go - See? Nothing went wrong.
Glass shattered.
Lasers streamed in from the top windows, the skylight, singeing the air.
"Run!" you'd yelled, light bursting from your hand, somehow deflecting the deadly lasers. "Save yourself!"
I still don't know how I made it out of the compound in time.
~~~
3
I tried, Cy. I tried to save myself. Followed your every word. I tried so hard to survive. But now, I'm out here in the middle of the desert, talking to the wind as it strips the skin from my bones. Am I dying of thirst? No. I'm dying of madness. But I'm alive, I've escaped the plague. I've saved myself from that, although I'm dying, lost and alone, with only by the wind to witness my passing and mourn me when I'm gone. Did I really save myself? Is that really the price I must pay.... I save myself, but die? A good death is better than a painful life. I can feel it slipping away, like a wet bar of soap.... How I long to be rid of all this sand... How I long to be clean...
The mission.... Did we succeed, Cy? Did we die so others can live, true heroes? Will others suffer because we failed? I don't know... I didn't see the explosion, the storm had arose suddenly. I don't know if you're alive or in a fate worse than death. I pray you're dead, if it means we were successful. I pray for all the galaxy we've sacrificed to save us all. I pray we'll die well, so that the rest of the universe can go on, oblivious that this threat ever existed....
.... I pray you've saved yourself.
FIN
Save Yourself
1
We were on a bluff, twenty klicks outside the compound on Zondor 3. Do you remember how hard the wind was blowing? We had to wear those pinching goggles to keep the sand out of our eyes, and hide our hair under hoods. Mine kept trying to blow off. I never figured out how you kept yours on for so long. We had those macro binocs glued to our eyes, trying to look for our contact in all that dust. Hard to tell what was dust and what was sand, wasn't it? I still don't get how you saw him first. You just pointed, no use talking in all that wind, and he appeared, kicking up more dust in that speeder. I'll admit, the storm was a pain, but it made a great cover.
Scaling down the bluff wasn't easy in that whipping wind, but the durasteel lines helped alot. I was so glad we'd put the lines up before the storm came. We reached the bottom, our contact pulled up in his speeder, and we all went into the cave that you and I had called home for the last few months. It wasn't much, a pair of cots, some storage units, the latest high tech equiptment strewn about. I sat down on a box and shook sand off, you settled on a cot to do the same, and our contact "friend" remained by the 'door', as was his usual preference.
"Any new developments?" I asked, dumping sand out of my boot.
He was a tall, dark stanger, dressed in rust colored clothes that blended with the surroundings. That wasn't unusual - here, everything became rust colored if you waited long enough. When he popped off his helmet, sand and blonde hair spilled out. He had blue eyes and a wide grin, a pleasant face, more likely to be a model or a receptionist than an undercover operative. But either way, he was nice to look at, and very reliable. If I thought I could have, I'd have said you fancied him. "Project's almost ready to go. They've got double the guards on it now, the scientists are getting edgy. " As a rule, we didn't know our informant's name, nor him ours.
"Nervous? Do they suspect?" You gave him one of those looks - the 'I mean business' type - as you shrugged off the outer protective jacket we all wore. This was serious business - any little slip on any of our parts meant our mission was completely compromised.
He shrugged. "I doubt it. We've been very careful, and- " He tapped a gloved finger on his forehead "-they're none too bright, even if they are genius class scientists. "
"Typical scientists," I added, prompting a grin from him and a mild snort from you. "Have you found the weak spot yet?"
Frowning, he looked about, pulled out a display unit from a stray pack, and began jotting stuff down. "There's a grate system under the facility - sewage and drainage, that sort of thing. Wide enough for the two of you ladies to fit in. Leads right under the lab. Idiot designers." He punched a button and a display of the compound floated in the dusty air, causing green sparks where the dust and the light collided. The hand drawn schematics clearly showed the drainage system he was talking about - our ticket in. "Makes our job so much easier. "
I set to work on the other boot. "What sort of stuff are you finding in the drainage system? Substances, fluids, material?"
"Usual. Yesterday's supper, sewage, chemicals - nothing really hazardous, but with what they're doing, can never be too sure, I'll run a check." He punched the display out, and handed you the 'pad.
"What about defense? Security around the grate, other openings, cameras in the tubes? Guard positions?" You asked, shoving the pad in our "top priority/most useful" box. Your face looked a bit chapped from the wind, and your hair really looked wild, so I tossed you the balm and brush. I was expecting a glare or something, but didn't say anything when you caught them. I guess none of us expected to be beautiful at the moment. Clean, but not beautiful.
"Guards on the upper terraces, main gate, and outside the lab, four four eight." I whistled. Eight squads around the lab - they were nervous. Or were they? Could they be a threat to the scientists? The Empire was never kind when it wanted something done. I noticed your eyes narrowing - you'd thought the same. "Patrols of two monitor the halls, circuits of three hours."
We grilled him the rest of the night, gleaning all the info we could to help our assault, working out tactics and detailed plans, until all was ready. In three nights, all would be prepared on our contact's part, and hopefully, on ours. All would be ready to complete our main objective: take down the citadel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
2
Remember how nervous we were the next few days? Running through plans four, five, six times, probably more? We'd only have one shot at this, we were both well aware. What happened there that night would decide the fate of the galaxy.
The mission.... I'd thought they were psycho when they first told me what was going on on this dustball of a world. The Empire built a lab and stuffed it with brilliant scientists, chemists, geneticists, xenobiologists to make a toxin that would turn all the galaxy's inhabitants into what? Uncreative, mindless, stereotypes of their species?
"Frightening. Really. Now, what's the mission?" you had asked.
"Save the galaxy."
Sounded simple enough at the time, didn't it? They had no idea what they were getting into when they set two complete strangers down on a dustball with food and water, enough explosives to destroy a small moon, and "Save the galaxy." Oh, we hit it off easily enough, remember? You were Cy, I was Dragon, no questions asked, aside from "What should we do first?" Everything went from there. From the top of the bluff into a sewage pipe, the only unguarded entrance into that festering pit.
Everything went from there, indeed.
Crawling thru the disgusting tubes, loaded down with high grade explosives, pausing nervously when a guard walked across a grate overhead, waiting to be discovered. That was it... Certainly "the life". But, the storm was done and our contact did well - got us in unnoticed, everything was clear. Until we got below the lab.
It was quiet, but for the hum of machinery incubating life threatening toxins. Too quiet.
"Something's not right," you hissed from behind me. It echoed down the tube and up into the lab.
" We've only got one shot, Cy."
"One shot tonight. Not one shot total."
"It's almost ready- one shot total."
You paused. I could hear my heartbeat in the stillness. Blue moonlight streamed down thru the gate from a skylight. You were right, something didn't feel...good. Why didn't I listen to you, stop the arguement there, back away and live to try again another time?
"Fine. Any alarms, we run. Deal?"
"Deal," I hissed, and unlatched the large grate above us.
It was cold, empty, echoing there. It felt more like a dungeon
than a labratory. We moved silently between the rows of machinery, bottles and tubes, quickly placing our time bombs, making sure the doors were sealed, so they couldn't get in to defuse our handiwork.
The last bomb was placed, the counter set for sixty seconds. I'd flashed you a grin as we were turning to go - See? Nothing went wrong.
Glass shattered.
Lasers streamed in from the top windows, the skylight, singeing the air.
"Run!" you'd yelled, light bursting from your hand, somehow deflecting the deadly lasers. "Save yourself!"
I still don't know how I made it out of the compound in time.
~~~
3
I tried, Cy. I tried to save myself. Followed your every word. I tried so hard to survive. But now, I'm out here in the middle of the desert, talking to the wind as it strips the skin from my bones. Am I dying of thirst? No. I'm dying of madness. But I'm alive, I've escaped the plague. I've saved myself from that, although I'm dying, lost and alone, with only by the wind to witness my passing and mourn me when I'm gone. Did I really save myself? Is that really the price I must pay.... I save myself, but die? A good death is better than a painful life. I can feel it slipping away, like a wet bar of soap.... How I long to be rid of all this sand... How I long to be clean...
The mission.... Did we succeed, Cy? Did we die so others can live, true heroes? Will others suffer because we failed? I don't know... I didn't see the explosion, the storm had arose suddenly. I don't know if you're alive or in a fate worse than death. I pray you're dead, if it means we were successful. I pray for all the galaxy we've sacrificed to save us all. I pray we'll die well, so that the rest of the universe can go on, oblivious that this threat ever existed....
.... I pray you've saved yourself.
FIN