Helios: Welcome.......to the Unknown

[Liz'alike]

Woot woot! *dreams about Flabby*

I'd really like to know if this main girl is somewhat based on Emily? Because her significant others name is "Buck." Any connection?

[Helios]

*dies laughing at 'Con's dreams* Okay, okay, *snicker*, I'll stop teasing you noowww...... *breaks into uncontrollable guffaws*

NO WAY!!! You even suggest such sacrilege again, and I will personally put you through the shredder! (hint: Monster's Inc)

Buck is...um...based on THE Buck, but only because I happened to dream of him and thought the dream would make a great story. (the actual dream hasn't been posted yet, but we'll get to it)

So in answer to your question, Elf Girl is NOTHING like Emily. Got it? She's more like...well...I'm not really sure. She lives and breathes of her own accord in my mind, so I'm not certain who she takes after. Hopefully me...

[Liz'alike]

I'm just saying Punzy... Elf seem to be a bit more opinionated, likes to know what she's doing and takes charge.... She is also immersed in a mystery and in love with a guy named Buck... Can you blame me for wondering if this Emily clone was actually based of of the beloved one and only, Emily Jones?

[Helios]

Oh, now you're going to say that I'M like Emily because I'm opinionated! Connie is quite opinionated, you know.

I might add that Elf is not taking charge and does not know what she's doing. Oh, it may SOUND that way, but in her heart of hearts, she knows.

And she cannot forget what she knows.

Unlike Emily, who needs a new lesson every weekend. But that's getting off topic here (oh, where is Ben to direct traffic?)

SHE

IS

NOT

A

CLONE

For that, I just might kill your character off...if she doesn't marry Sasquatch first!

[Helios]

I really hate to do this, but I need to post the next part. So here goes...

Landing

Date: February 1, 4092
Location: Entering Hecate Arrow
Time: 17:00 PM by Apollo's Chrono (21:02 by Hecate's Chrono)

Hecate Arrow's shimmering surface comes into view. I lean forward in my seat to see the silver planet more clearly. At first glance, one might only see the tall spires of the cathedrals and sky-scrapers. At either end of the planet, the two space-elevators are visible. Domed roofs indicate mansions of rich merchants and nobles. A closer glance reveals the blue and green threads of rivers and valleys intertwined with the brilliance of the silver that has been mined from the mountains on the other side of the planet.

Hecate Arrow, second in population in the Hecate Sliver of the galaxy, started as a mining colony due to the large amounts of silver found beneath its crust. It's transformed into part-factory, part-paradise of untold luxury because of the wealth it brings. Many high-ranking officials and families with royal blood are part of its teeming populace.

“Requesting permission to land in the Huntress Public Landing Facility,” Buck is saying over the radio. I tune him out. My bones are aching after the two escapes I've made today. I just want to land, go to the safe-house, and sleep the day away. No matter the beauty of Hecate Arrow.

“We're almost there,” I murmur to myself. Yet why do I feel as if I'm farther away than ever from real safety?

The questions remains in my mind, persistently nibbling away at my false sense of relief.

The emirl ship enters the atmosphere with little trouble. Buck guides it into the Huntress Facility. I catch a brief glimpse of silver walls and gleaming silver floors before we dock in a private hangar bay.

“They'll track the ship,” I say suddenly as the thought enters my mind. “They'll know an emirl ship came here.”

“But they won't find it.” He smiles and indicates the camouflage sequence that had been enacted the moment we emerged from hyper-flight.

“Docking phase complete,” an automated voice announces. “You are free to exit the craft.”

We step down into the bay where every sound is echoed back from the metal walls.

“To the safe-house?” I ask, and it sounds almost harsh in the stillness.

He shakes his head. “You go ahead. I have something I need to do first.”

I feel insecure at the thought of being alone, but I nod anyway. Just as I reach the door, his voice calls to me from across the room.

“Elf Girl?”

I turn slowly to look at him. He's worried; it's in his eyes. I'm sure mine are still green with my worries.

“I don't mean that any of this is your fault,” he says. “It would have happened sooner or later.”

I nod and turn back. But his last words still ring in my ears.

It would have happened sooner or later.

Date: February 1, 4092
Location: Safe-house, Hecate Arrow
Time: 17:46 PM by Apollo's Chrono (21:48 by Hecate's Chrono)

Standing in front of the mirror, I examine my naked back. A dark bruise, the width of my spinal cord, stretches from the waistline almost to my shoulder blades. Thin tendrils of purplish-green splice my ribs on either side.

What have I done to hurt myself so badly?

My mind flashes back to the day before, January 31. I remember working late out in the ship hangar. There was a mild technical issue with one of the military short-range moon-cruisers, and my expertise in the area was required. I worked with two other people, a boy younger than me, and an older woman until after midnight...

And it was 2 am before I returned to my room...

That fact strikes me as odd. Something happened in the hour and a half that passed between us finishing work and my going to bed.

But what?

I plumb my memory for any hint of what might have happened. Reaching into the furthest recesses of my mind, thinking, listening, the way they taught me to...

Nothing.

Yet something.

A sweet, sickly, cloying smell. It reminds me of...of...

Chloroform?

I thump the heals of my hands against my hip-bones, a nervous habit I have when I'm thinking. Why do I remember chloroform? Was I knocked out? Yet why don't I remember the struggle that surely took place?
Maybe there wasn't one. I just don't remember.

A dread fear claws at my throat, the fear that perhaps, somehow, someone did know who I was. Why I was there. What I was hoping to accomplish.

And that someone drugged me because....

Because what?

They wanted information? Hardly. If they knew who I am, that would be information enough.

So it was something else...

I bang my fists into the cold steel walls of the room. The chill spreads up my arms. How can I possibly figure anything out when I don't even remember what happened?

I need Buck. I need him to figure this out.

I need him to protect me from whatever it is that's happening.

That is, after all, his job.

He's my protector.

Much thanks for Blitz for editing. I have not seen mines.

[Liz'alike]

Punzy, if you lay one more ever deepening plot line, I swear I'll cry! Emil-uh, I mean Elf just seems to get a tad more suspicious in every entry!
Can't wait for the next installment!

[Helios]

Oooooo, am so making you cry!

Dude, suspicious doesn't even describe what I've got in store...

[Ameraka]

Dude, suspicious doesn't even describe what I've got in store...

Yay! Looking forward to it. The deeper the plot the better. I'm really curious about Elf's past and what's going to happen in her future.
Question that may or may not have been answered at some point: What is Hecate's Chrono and Apollo's Chrono? I assume they are ways of telling time but are they based on anything from our present?

[Helios]

Yay! Looking forward to it. The deeper the plot the better. I'm really curious about Elf's past and what's going to happen in her future.
Question that may or may not have been answered at some point: What is Hecate's Chrono and Apollo's Chrono? I assume they are ways of telling time but are they based on anything from our present?

Lol, I'm actually pretty curious myself, because I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this. Hence the suspense part!

Hecate and Apollo's Chrono refer to the time in the Apollo and Hecate systems. Hecate has maybe three, four planets, Apollo five or six. It's a little complicated...does that answer your question?

[GratiaDei]

I think she's asking whether it corresponds somehow to our time. For instance, there's a gap in the middle of the story that's 45 minutes by the little time you put at the top. Does that mean 45 minutes as we know it, or is it different?

[Samantha14]

Fear, I'm so sorry I've not been around to comment on this. I did the other day, as I said, but I lost everything I wrote. Sigh.

I just want to tell you how incredible an author you are. Words are beautiful. But you make them majestic.
I'm not saying this as a biased friend, either. I'm saying this as a fellow writer. (And grammar nazi/plot snob. =p [JK...ish *hides*]) The way you bring forth such vivid imagery through just a few sentences... I could never do it. Never. It's amazing, and I adore it. (I'm also super jealous ;])
You're one of, if not the most talented writer I have ever read the work of. And I have read a lot of works ;] I cannot wait to read more.
I could go on and on about this all day long, but I have school to do. *Hugs* Love ya, Fear.
Oh, and,
KEEP. WRITING. !!.

[Helios]

I think she's asking whether it corresponds somehow to our time. For instance, there's a gap in the middle of the story that's 45 minutes by the little time you put at the top. Does that mean 45 minutes as we know it, or is it different?

Oh, in that case, it doesn't really correspond to our time. It's in a completely different dimension, so it's hard to compare. As for the 45-min thing, that would be 45 minutes as we count 45 minutes. The titles "Apollo's Chrono" and "Hecate's Chrono" are just titles (for instance, if this were in our world, it would be Earth's Chrono or Mars' Chrono or whichever planet you were on).

Does that make sense?

@ Samantha: Thanks, Sheya. Your words mean a lot to me. To know that I've "found favor in your sight"....wow. I'm blown away. I will definitely write more, and I know you'll be waiting, even if I can't see you.

Thanks, sister.

P.S. I might be posting some of Pack soon...it has you in it!!!!

[Shtakji]

Terrific writing, as always! Keep up the amazing work, sister.
Cannot wait to read more.

[Helios]

Telling

Date: February 1, 4092
Location: Safe-house, Hecate Arrow
Time: 18:44 PM by Apollo's Chrono (22:46 PM by Hecate's Chrono)

Buck returns an hour later.

I'm lying on the bed, half-dozing, when I hear the dinging of the elevator as it comes up to our floor. Startled, I leap to my feet and fling on the clothes scattered across the sheets.

Buck opens the door as I'm buttoning my blouse up the front.

“Oh, sorry,” he stammers, backing out. He waits a few seconds before entering. By now I'm standing in front of the mirror, pulling my hair back into a ponytail.

“You're later than I expected,” I say crisply. In truth, I'm still upset over my earlier discovery of my missing memory, but I don't let it on to that.

Yet.

“It's more crowded here than I remember.” He replies evenly. “The authorities are looking for you.”

“How much do they know?”

He sighs and sits down on a nearby chair. “Enough. They know that your real name is not Ashley Quinn, that you are not a mechanic registered with the intergalactic database, and that you were up to no good at Hendricks. Beyond that, I don't know what they know.” He sighs again, and it's a heavy, sad sound.

The sadness I brought.

“They don't know my real name.” I detect a hint of triumph in my voice. “They don't know what I was doing there.”

“They won't care,” Buck reminds me. “All they want is to kill you.”

“Yeah, and tell me again why it's my fault.” My lips curl with bitterness over the words. “Tell me again why I'm the one who lived when everyone else died.” I whirl on him, my anger now full-blown. “Tell me, Buck! Or is that something else that no one can know?”

He doesn't look phased. Just weary. Almost hopeless.

“I know even less than you, Elf. I only know what Nishi told me.”

“Yeah, Nishi.” Again it hurts to think about him. “The wonderful Nishi who dumped me here.”

Suddenly Buck is angry. “Look, you don't understand what Nishi was going through. You were a child! You weren't even twelve years old at the time! It's been six years, sure, but even you couldn't have forgotten the way he looked. His eyes.” Buck's voice drops. He sounds...haunted.

I drop onto the bed and bury my face in my hands. I don't want to remember Nishi...I don't want to think about him ever again. I just want to fall into a deep sleep and awaken with my memory swiped of any references to Nishi.

Deep sleep.

The words sound like a warning.

Is that what I did? I slept so deeply I don't remember anything anymore?

It's an absurd thought. Of course I remember things. More things than I want to, but still, I remember.

Never forget. That was one of the mottoes of the maidens. Be pure, be courageous, never forget.

The only one I've kept is never forgetting, but I'd give anything to forget now.

“Soooo...” Buck says, drawing the word out. I snap back into focus and look at him.

“So what?”

“Why did you go there?”

“To Hendricks?” I snort, “Do we really need to play this game, Buck? You know why. To find a way home.”

“And doing research on meteors is going to help you find the portals?”

I can hear the skepticism in his voice. It irks me.

“No, it wasn't that. I was there to hack into their database. Hoping that somehow, I could find a reference to the portals; somewhere—anywhere—would help.”

Buck sighs again. He does that often when we talk. “You won't find them. You know that.”
“I know you believe that,” I reply stiffly. “But I have hope.”

“Hope is different from blind stupidity,” he mumbles. “You don't have hope. You have insanity.”

I stalk to the window and look out over the gleaming silver spires of the city below. “Isn't anything better than remaining here?” I whisper. “In this luxury planet that only reminds me of...”
I can't go on. My voice will break, and I can't cry in front of Buck.

His footsteps come up behind me. Then a warm hand grips my shoulder. His eyes are deep and sorrowful as he says, “I understand. But what you need to know, Elf, is that you'll never leave until it's time. Until your destiny is fulfilled.”

I swallow hard, for once too sad inside to come back with a sarcastic retort. Even as my mind bristles at the words, my soul weeps for the memories I will never forget.

PS: Thanks, Tay!
PPS: Thanks to Blitz for editing! You were right, she is really whiny.

[Ameraka]

Sad, haunting, but wonderful chapter! Looking forward to the next one!

Thanks for answering my question about the chromos, btw. I was probably thinking it was more complicated than it was.

[Liz'alike]

I agree with Ameraka, wonderful chapter! I am truly mesmerized by Elf... Her mysteries are truly exasperating! I must know the answers!

Can't wait for the next installment!

[GratiaDei]

With all of the awesome writers on here, I'm running out of varied compliments. Stunning, as always, Helios.
*applauds*

[Helios]

Aw, you guys are too kind! You're welcome, Ameraka. Thanks, 'Con and Gratia! It is my delight to tease your imaginations. *bows*

Crowd Fighting

Date: February 2, 4092
Location: Safe-house, Hecate Arrow
Time: 03:15 AM by Apollo's Chrono (07:17 AM by Hecate's Chrono)

Boom!

The noise jerks me from a deep sleep. I sit up quickly, the sheets sliding off my body. Clutching them up to my neck, I listen intently.

Boom!

“Elf?”

Buck's voice sounds from his cot across the room. It's pitch black, but I hear him moving over to the window.

Boom!

“What is that?” I ask, slipping out of bed. The cold immediately seeps up under my nightgown, but I ignore it as I join Buck at the window.

“Some kind of artillery,” he muses. “No, not the right sound. Fireworks?”

I give no comment. The spires of the city are still gleaming, but not with the silver sheen from earlier. Now they are blue and green and red and purple, reflecting the light of the fireworks bursting above our heads.

Boom!

“Are they always that loud?” I ask. I haven't been on Hecate Arrow in over nine months, but I sure don't remember this.

“No, I've never seen this before.” Buck frowns. “I don't like it. It's not just a celebration. There's something strange happening here.”

Before I can ask further, he's closed the window blinds, activated the overhead light, and begun rummaging through the stuff below his wall-cot. I sit back down on my bed, cross my arms, and watch him.

He pulls out a small black chest made of metal. When he opens it, I catch glimpses of weapons: hand-held laser-spotters, rifles, pistols, magazines, plasma grenades, and a satchel of knives. He tosses the satchel to me.
“You carry these. I'll be loaded down.”

I take the satchel slowly. “We're leaving again.” It's a statement, not a question.

He swivels on his knees and faces me. “Yeah, we are. Is that a problem?”

I shrug. “Not really. I mean, I'm tired and don't know why we're leaving. But you're the boss.”

He turns back without a word, and I feel a pang of guilt for being snippy with him. He's only doing his best, after all.

“Don't turn,” I say to the back of his head. “I'm changing.”

I pull my nightgown over my head, the thin cotton crumpling into a heap on the floor. My regular clothes consist of a thin gray thermal shirt underneath a collared blouse, and a knee-length denim skirt worn over a threadbare brown petticoat. While this style is old-fashioned, it's also fairly common throughout the galaxy, and will turn few heads, no matter where we go.

Buck has virtuously kept his back turned the entire time. I toss him his clothes before turning my own back. While he's dressing, I strap the knife satchel snugly around my waist. It fits like a glove. And speaking of gloves, I pull mine out of my skirt pocket and slide them on. They're made out of a thin material that allows me the same sensitivity my bare fingers would have, while keeping my hands safe from harm.

My bare feet are cold on the steel floor, and I hurriedly shove on flexible leather boots without any socks. The socks make running difficult because I keep slipping and sliding inside the boots.

When I look back, Buck has finished dressing and is piling supplies back into the chest. He tugs the chest into the center of the floor, pulls up a loose metal plate, and types a rapid sequence of numbers into the code-board. A small hollow opens up, and he dumps the chest into it. The hole closes around it, leaving no sign that it even exists.

“You don't think we'll be coming back soon?” I ask, knowing that he only hides his weapons when he's leaving for a while.

“I think we have to leave Hecate Arrow for a while,” he tells me. “I thought we'd be safe here.”

He leaves it at that, but I can sense the meaning behind the unspoken words.

We turn off the room lights and step out into the hallway. Our room is one of many in an apartment complex that towers a four hundred stories above the streets. For people who have a room fifty floors or up, taking the stairs is overkill from a physical work-out point of view. Buck and I hop into an elevator instead, since we're at least three hundred stories up.

Reaching the ground floor in about three minutes, we stroll through the front lobby and out the doors. I'm afraid the knife satchel might set off the metal detector, but Buck has apparently lined the satchel with special reflective plating that redirects the signals sent off by the detector.

Out in the street, it's complete chaos.

“What in earth is going on out here?” I half-scream into Buck's ear. We're mashed up against the wall of a building, unable to move through the pressing crowds. The roar of a chant swirls in our ears, but the words are impossible to make out amid the screaming and hollering and yelling going on all around us.

“Some kind of celebration,” he mouths back. I read his lips perfectly. He looks around desperately, trying to find a way out of the mess. Then he points off to an alleyway, barely visible through an opening in the crowd. Tugging my hand, Buck hauls me behind him. We cross the street in a mad dash. My skirt is yanked halfway down by the press, and Buck almost loses his jacket.

Once in the safety of the alley, we adjust our rumpled clothes. Overhead, the fireworks are still going off, lighting the blackness of the sky with their swirling blues, greens, reds, purples, and golds. For some odd reason, I keep smelling something familiar, but I can't identify it.

“It's a madhouse out here,” I say to Buck, “What's going on?”

“I'm not sure.” He looks troubled and pushes us further back into the darkness of the alley. “It seems to be some kind of festival, but the wildness of it...did you see how those people acted? More like revolutionaries or rebels than anything else.”

I nod. I can't speak, because in my mind I'm playing back scenes from when I was just a child—scenes of wild mobs and burning buildings and the screams of rioting citizens. It's all too real for me.

“Hey, Elf,” Buck grasps my arm, “Don't fade on me, okay? We may need to make a run for it, and I need you conscious for that.”

I pull my arm out and glare at him. “I've got it under control. No worries.”

Buck merely turns back to study the crowd. He's trying to find the quickest route back to the hangar. I'm still not sure why we're leaving Hecate. How is a festival a danger to us? Still, I do trust Buck to know what he's doing.

“Okay, I have a plan,” Buck says. He motions for me to follow him out of the alley and into the crowd. Carefully ducking and dodging around people, all I have to do is keep Buck's wavy dark brown hair in sight, since about one second into our walk, we get separated.

And that proves to be a good thing.

He's ten paces in the lead when I see two policemen, recognizable in black and silver uniforms. The police are moving determinedly through the crowd, pushing everyone aside. I follow their line of sight straight to Buck.
I shout a warning, but the crowd drowns out my voice, and before I can get close enough to try again, the police reach him.

He sees them a split second before they grab him. His mouth opens in a shout of surprise, his hands flying to the pistol hidden beneath his jacket as they latch onto his upper arms and drag him onto the sidewalk. He fights for a second, trying to bring the pistol around to fire, but one of them stuns him with a Taser and he falls limp, the pistol dropping from nerveless fingers. I can only watch in useless anger as they pat him down, pulling out several more guns from his clothing, before handcuffing his hands behind him and hauling him further into the crowd.

Then he's gone.

And I'm alone again.

With a gulp of terror clinging in my throat, I push my way out of the crowd and into another alley. This one is empty like the first. But now, cold fear ices over my mind, flooding it as swiftly as the questions I can't ignore.

Why does Buck want me to leave? Where was he going to take me? What is he did that they arrested him for? And most importantly, what do I do now?

The questions are almost comforting in their familiarity. They're the same ones I've been asking myself for over six years. Yet the confusion they bring makes me angry.

What doesn't these day, I wonder.

Blitz is a wonderful editor! I tried to tone down the excessive descriptions.

[Ameraka]

Oh no Buck is gone!!! Why was he arrested? Why is she running in the first place? so many questions.

I love the action and level of detail in this.

[Liz'alike]

NOOOOO! Not Buck! Vixey, what are you doing?? *growls in total disgust*

Okay, so I'm ready for the next installment! Haha