Five Minutes To Departure
“Have you finished with the healing coin, Wendi?”
“Oh!—Yes, he’s waking up.”
The breeze cooled his sweat. His dream of pain receded, and his eyes opened. Daniel saw Wendi’s smiling face and gave an unmanly shriek. Wendi shrank back, ashamed and confused.
Oh, I hurt her feelings… His heart sank. Wait, I hurt her? He blinked. How could he mistake the evil blue one for the friendly red one? They were two different people.
He shouted to be heard over the wind. “Sorry, we got off on the wrong foot. Let me reintroduce myself.” He tried to lift a hand to shake hers, except, he couldn’t.
Then he truly woke up. Daniel found himself in Wendi’s firm but kindhearted grip. Nearby, Kenta’s burnt tresses coiled around the pulsing aura of the healing coin. The Kaminoke also rode, but in a bestial claw. Wendi hung above Daniel by the other claw, a carpet of fur substituting for the sky. His heart rate rocketed when he saw the distant ground below.
What’s carrying us? Where are we going?
“Hm?” Wendi cocked her head to the side, waiting on him.
“Right, I’m Daniel and… I’m guessing we escaped?”
“Yeah—I dug us out!” She was downright chipper.
He shrugged. “If we’re free, it’s a new start. We’ll fly to a far-off country with bugs big as your head where they don’t know we exist. Since we’re going to be companions for some time, let’s be friends.”
Wendi didn’t seem to mind his fumbling attempt at reconciliation. She smiled and said, “I’d like that!”
Daniel then realized something that filled him with both anxiety and excitement, “You’re touching me!” The warmth inside him swelled. Casual contact was comforting and enjoyable, especially with an attractive girl. “How’re you not hurting yourself?”
“I’m a little tougher than most. You’re like holding a mug of coffee that’s too hot to drink. It huts a little… but it’s okay, I like you. You came to save me, right?”
He blushed, anxious and confused. Like, or like-like?
The explosion, not close enough to harm them, served as a welcome distraction. The familiar chime of a sending preceded Cassie’s voice in his head, :I can hear them coming and jam the missiles’ targeting, but this last bit will be bumpy.: It dawned on Daniel who owned the huge claws and furry belly.
“Where’s the Portal Ring?” Kenta called over the wind.
:Almost there; the Gate is opening.:
Gate? Daniel twisted his head for a better look, and what he saw almost shattered his brain.
A hole, an incongruous disk, opened in the air. Some other sky lay through this window, with different clouds and another time of day. This was no mere foreign country. Another dimension? Another world?
Another explosion slapped his eardrums. Behind pursuant jets and helicopters—screaming metal!—sprawled the Facility’s remains. Three quarters collapsed, with Dr. Adelaide in the fourth left standing. Daniel intuitively understood the destruction at a glance. It seemed he had a connoisseur’s eye for devastation. The detonation that should’ve killed them had been designed to spare UE 000.
The Facility, which contained within its walls the totality of his life’s memories, occupied a modest corner of an immense crater. Miles wide, on the order of a prehistoric pockmark on the planet’s face. Perfectly hemispheric. No human tools or meteoric impact could have excavated that.
As if a chunk of the world had disappeared. He almost asked himself, ‘What could have done this,’ when he stopped and promptly forgot the thought.
The incoming wave of heart sickness felt much more important. This was goodbye. This portal crushed the hope he’d cherished in the deep recesses of his heart. Crossing this threshold would separate him and Mary by unfathomable miles, perhaps thousands of lightyears, beyond the tiniest hope of ever seeing her again.
Daniel cried at that and would cry again before sleep found him. He hid his face as best he could. No one spoke as Cassandra tucked her wings and dove through the portal.
Five Minutes To Departure
“Have you finished with the healing coin, Wendi?”
“Oh!—Yes, he’s waking up.”
The breeze cooled his sweat. His dream of pain receded, and his eyes opened. Daniel saw Wendi’s smiling face and gave an unmanly shriek. Wendi shrank back, ashamed and confused.
Oh, I hurt her feelings… His heart sank. Wait, I hurt her? He blinked. How could he mistake the evil blue one for the friendly red one? They were two different people.
He shouted to be heard over the wind. “Sorry, we got off on the wrong foot. Let me reintroduce myself.” He tried to lift a hand to shake hers, except, he couldn’t.
Then he truly woke up. Daniel found himself in Wendi’s firm but kindhearted grip. Nearby, Kenta’s burnt tresses coiled around the pulsing aura of the healing coin. The Kaminoke also rode, but in a bestial claw. Wendi hung above Daniel by the other claw, a carpet of fur substituting for the sky. His heart rate rocketed when he saw the distant ground below.
What’s carrying us? Where are we going?
“Hm?” Wendi cocked her head to the side, waiting on him.
“Right, I’m Daniel and… I’m guessing we escaped?”
“Yeah—I dug us out!” She was downright chipper.
He shrugged. “If we’re free, it’s a new start. We’ll fly to a far-off country with bugs big as your head where they don’t know we exist. Since we’re going to be companions for some time, let’s be friends.”
Wendi didn’t seem to mind his fumbling attempt at reconciliation. She smiled and said, “I’d like that!”
Daniel then realized something that filled him with both anxiety and excitement, “You’re touching me!” The warmth inside him swelled. Casual contact was comforting and enjoyable, especially with an attractive girl. “How’re you not hurting yourself?”
“I’m a little tougher than most. You’re like holding a mug of coffee that’s too hot to drink. It huts a little… but it’s okay, I like you. You came to save me, right?”
He blushed, anxious and confused. Like, or like-like?
The explosion, not close enough to harm them, served as a welcome distraction. The familiar chime of a sending preceded Cassie’s voice in his head, :I can hear them coming and jam the missiles’ targeting, but this last bit will be bumpy.: It dawned on Daniel who owned the huge claws and furry belly.
“Where’s the Portal Ring?” Kenta called over the wind.
:Almost there; the Gate is opening.:
Gate? Daniel twisted his head for a better look, and what he saw almost shattered his brain.
A hole, an incongruous disk, opened in the air. Some other sky lay through this window, with different clouds and another time of day. This was no mere foreign country. Another dimension? Another world?
Another explosion slapped his eardrums. Behind pursuant jets and helicopters—screaming metal!—sprawled the Facility’s remains. Three quarters collapsed, with Dr. Adelaide in the fourth left standing. Daniel intuitively understood the destruction at a glance. It seemed he had a connoisseur’s eye for devastation. The detonation that should’ve killed them had been designed to spare UE 000.
The Facility, which contained within its walls the totality of his life’s memories, occupied a modest corner of an immense crater. Miles wide, on the order of a prehistoric pockmark on the planet’s face. Perfectly hemispheric. No human tools or meteoric impact could have excavated that.
As if a chunk of the world had disappeared. He almost asked himself, ‘What could have done this,’ when he stopped and promptly forgot the thought.
The incoming wave of heart sickness felt much more important. This was goodbye. This portal crushed the hope he’d cherished in the deep recesses of his heart. Crossing this threshold would separate him and Mary by unfathomable miles, perhaps thousands of lightyears, beyond the tiniest hope of ever seeing her again.
Daniel cried at that and would cry again before sleep found him. He hid his face as best he could. No one spoke as Cassandra tucked her wings and dove through the portal.
