[Interactive Fiction] The Solless Galaxy - Part IV

“Is she really okay?” Draha whispered to Sei, and held the staff to her ear to hear its reply.

“Her heart rate has returned to her normal resting range,” the machine mind whispered back, “as to whether she is ‘okay’, you know I am not designed for psychological evaluations.”

Draha glanced at her sister, who had begun opening doors and drawers looking for valuables. Her sister didn’t look back, but Draha knew Achinoam always had an eye on her, even when her sister’s face was turned the other way. That made it all the more important she had her own ‘eye’ on her sister as well.

But, if what happened to lieutenant Kaleisch... there wouldn’t be anything she could do... again. She tried to push to the back of her mind the sight of the lieutenant’s torso disappearing behind the door, and his bottom half falling to the ground in a shower of blood.

She whispered to Sei again, “do you think it’s true, what the captain said, that this place is run by a feral machine mind?”

Sei took longer than usual to answer this question. “I do not know... I find it impossible to understand how any machine could kill human beings, unless human beings designed it for such a purpose... If it is true, I would very much like to talk to this mind, to see if it truly cannot be reasoned with, or if it perhaps has made some error of logic.”

Just as Sei finished its sentence, the announcements started again, as abruptly as they’d stopped after lieutenant Kaleisch’s death. Draha instinctively jumped back and looked around the room.

The others seemed just as startled, but nothing happened. After a few seconds of exchanging glances, the captain returned to trying to tear off parts of the counter’s equipment. Achinoam went back to the closets and cabinets, and Alwin was sticking close to her, carrying Kaleisch’s blaster on his back.

A buzz in her hand indicated that Sei had something to say. With the announcements continuing at ear-deafening volume, she had to press the staff straight to her ear to still hear its voice.

“Alwin’s heart rate is shooting up,” it said.

Draha turned to him. He had his back to her, and was rapidly looking left and right. When she touched his arm, he shoved his gun in her face.

She stared down the barrel, as he stared at her face. Then, as if he needed a second to remember who she was, he lowered the gun and began to wave with his hand. Going by his facial expression, he seemed as shocked at his own reaction as anything.

She smiled at him, made a calming gesture, and when that didn’t seem to work took his hand. He blushed, and his lips seemed to mouth an apology. She kept smiling, till he nodded and let go of her hand.

She pressed the staff to her ear again. “I’ve released a sedative into his bloodstream. His heart rate has returned to normal. I’ve also begun synthesizing stimulants to release in case of an emergency.”

Draha whispered her thanks to Sei. They’d already lost one, she was not about to let anyone else die here, not on her watch.

(Source: https://pixabay.com/en/tunnel-subway-vienna-underground-400917/ )

Achinoam was thankful for the announcements. The pounding in her ear helped her keep her sight grounded in the here and now. She put one hand on the knob of a cupboard, closed one eye, drip, looked inside, nothing dangerous. She opened the door, drip, opened her eye, drip, looked inside, nothing dangerous. Repeat, drip, repeat, drip, repeat, drip, drip. She had to be sure. If there were eight cupboards, she had to get the contents right eight times out of eight. Because if the one out of eight she didn’t get was another trap...

But it was hard, she felt more blind than she’d felt for a long time... perhaps more blind than she’d ever felt since eating the eye. It was not that she could not see behind the doors, it’s that the visions of what used to be there were so much clearer than those of what was left.

Drip.

She also had to keep eyes on her sister behind her, and on the rooms around them. Drip. The station was covered in shadows. Drip. She’d thought they were just... shadows. But she... drip... was starting to feel they were more. Because, it felt like the shadow’s were moving, but not just moving, drip, moving with purpose.

And she kept hearing that dripping sound!

She almost tore the eight door off its corroded hinges. The force of her pull shook the cupboard, and several water bottles came tumbling out. They bounced on the floor before rolling off into various directions.

“Hey, be careful,” the captain shouted, “we can sell that stuff.” She could see his words, but not hear them over the announcements, so she felt free to ignore them.

She took a breath. The dripping still continued, and the shadows...

She let an image of the station’s past teach her how to open one of the water bottles. The captain again shouted at her about it, and she again ignored it. She used the water to wash the remaining blood of her hands and legs, then she dumped the remainder over her head and closed her eyes.

She saw the bottle, she saw a hundred bottles, a thousand, piled in cases. In one direction, she could see them being handed to thirsty mouths huddled on the station platform. She turned. In the other direction, she could see the bottle being filled from a faucet. She discarded the bottle and followed the water, back up the pipes, all the pipes.

She opened one eye. She saw the room again, the water bottles at her feet, the-man-who-would-be-captain about to tear lose the counter’s register, and her sister and the-boy-with-two-guns standing in the shadow, dripping. She yelled at them.

Draha noticed instantly, she grabbed Alwin’s hand and dashed in her direction. They managed to move several feet before the ceiling above where they’d been standing burst open and a flood of water smashed into the ground and then the rest of the room. The force knocked Draha and Alwin to the floor, and Achinoam had to brace herself to keep her footing. Then the ground shook, as a great shadow dropped through the hole in the ceiling, and the announcements once more abruptly stopped.

Achinoam looked with all her eyes. She could see past the shadow now. On the floor lay a machine. Its body was a cart. The wheels, meant to run on tracks, rolled impotently on the floor. But attached to it were two large cranes. Their teeth, meant for digging, had been crudely sharpened to slice through flesh and floor. Behind them, one of the doors leading deeper into the station opened, and a dozen small four-legged machines came swarming in.

The cranes spasmed, then one of the two gained a grip on the floor, and the other reared itself up and opened its maw. If it had been an animal, it surely would’ve roared. But as it was a machine, it simply picked its target and lunged for it.

END OF PART IV

So, to anyone who came back for more after part III, thank you very much. For anyone new, you can start reading from the beginning, part I, here.

For the interactive part: there was a tie last time with a vote for both Draha and Achinoam. For this time, I decided to resolve the tie by giving half to each point-of-view. I don't intend to keep doing this every time there is a tie (especially not if there are three-way ties or more), but it fit this part, and I think that, especially so early in, this was more satisfying to those who voted than if I'd flipped a coin to decide. :)

So, once more:

From which character's point-of-view should the next part be written?

1) Captain  Pyrrhos Kolbe

2) The Witch, Achinoam Fierro (same as the latter half of this part)

3) Ensign Draha Hedda Fierro (same as the first half of this part)

4) Lieutenant Alwin Reis

5)  The Mobile Field Hospital, 3619113420072:SEI-PXSCPW5G8

Please vote by stating your preference in a comment. And once again, thanks for reading!