Chương 54: Chapter 16: Frozen Tomb

The interior was dark, unbelievably cold and felt like a ghost of what it once was. It was similar to lifeboat eight, but I noticed a few differences immediately. The first section of the ship had a conical shape to it, getting larger toward the windows unlike eight where it was at the same level all the way through the first and second rings. Instead it was like the cone shape of the third ring extended all the way through the ship, starting flat at the windows and curving upward as it got to the back.

The central ring appeared to be about the same size. Without gravity and with only the omnidirectional light coming from the balloon outside it gave lifeboat seven an entirely different feeling, it felt as though I shouldn't be there, like I was a stranger invading an alien world where only the dead belonged. A strange feeling, considering I was the only person on the ship that had actually come from it.

It was eerily quiet, the only sounds I could hear were from my little propellant pack along with a very faint welding sound coming from the distance, likely from one of the other crews. The team we were in split into two groups, one going out toward one of the city streets and the other moving up toward the center of the ship while Flint and I stayed behind.

Interestingly, each group left behind a small trail of orange lights as they went, each one leaving one of their backpacks and remaining in the place they'd been. As I looked around I noticed there were a few similar trails of lights going to each team, each one with a different color.

"What are those?" I asked Flint.

"Small drones. You can't get lost here since you can always follow the trail back to the entrance. We all have them, they'll go back inside as you return" he said softly. He sounded serious, his playful, silly demeanor completely gone from his voice. Even for someone like him, he knew the dead lifeboat wasn't a place for jokes or games.

"Do you remember any of this?" he asked as we both looked out at the lifeboat.

"I don't remember much, no. But I don't think I ever came to this part of the ship anyway" I said. We were both whispering even though nobody was around us. It felt disrespectful to speak at a regular volume.

"Well, let's get going then. Stay close okay?" he said as he started moving forward. I followed close behind as we gained a bit of speed, then went into a gentle glide. Only pushing forward occasionally when we'd lose speed from the friction with the air. It felt wrong to look down at the completely empty, dark streets below us.

Although we were flying over them, we were close enough where we would've seen people in the streets, vendors selling things at the shops, people zig zagging their way through crowds and making conversations with old friends. Instead there was nothing but darkness, silence, yet everything was still in place. It was a living, breathing city full of people that was silenced so quickly that everything just stayed in place as if they'd all be back the next day.

"Hey Flint?" I whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

"Hm?" he asked, turning around to face me yet still floating in the same direction we'd been traveling.

"Where is… You know…" I started to say, afraid to finish the sentence. Thankfully he knew what I was asking "The ones on the surface have mostly been moved to the back. The surface should be empty."

"Oh. Good. Okay that's good" I said softly. As we got closer toward the central ring I noticed the city streets converging toward a single spot where several tall buildings had stood. Most of them had toppled over onto their sides, crumbling into the buildings below, but the place where the streets converged went to a large town square of sorts, a massive flat area where I imagined they'd have all sorts of city wide gatherings. Directly at the center was a massive statue that was still mostly intact.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Artemis and Pyra" Flint said. The statue was of a melodian and a mechara running together. The mechara was holding a toy airplane, the melodian holding what looked like an instrument similar to a guitar.

"Who… Was Pyra?" I asked. Flint looked at me for a moment, then gestured for us to go down for a landing in the town square. We moved down together until we touched our toes to the surface. There still wasn't any gravity of course, but I at least got a view of what it would have looked like from the people living on lifeboat seven. The two figures towering over us had giant infectious smiles on their faces as they looked like they were playing together.

"I thought the mechara and the melodians didn't get along," I said, remembering what Nori had told me.

"They didn't. That's what made Artemis and Pyra so special. They were best friends, they did everything together. When they launched the lifeboats though, Pyra went on lifeboat four and Artemis stayed here on seven," he said.

"Why did they separate if they were such close friends?" I asked.

"Pyra was like a leader for the mechara, they wanted him to stay on the mechara only lifeboats where Artemis led the mixed boats," he said, "After Artemis's death, they created this statue to represent the unity our two species could have if we worked together. That was the idea anyway. Obviously, things didn't work out so great for our kind in the long run."

"Is that what the listeners are trying to do? Bring that unity back?" I asked. Flint looked up at the statues again.

"Not exactly… No. I don't think anyone could do that at this point. Not after everything that's happened" he said.

"Then what are you trying to do?" I asked.

"I'm uh… Really not supposed to say. Besides we should keep going" he said as he pushed off the ground, moving forward once again. I felt a bit uneasy with his answer. I couldn't help but feel like he didn't want to answer my question because if I knew, I wouldn't want to help him anymore. I started following behind him once more, trying to think through what I knew about the listeners. They had quite a grudge against Nori, but Nori seemed oblivious as to why.

They didn't seem to have a high opinion of any of the mechara, or the way the melodians were treated on the ship. They seemed to recognize that the assembler was bad, but aside from Flint, they all used it, like it was a crutch they couldn't get away from. As we flew further toward the central ring something caught my eye. A large glass cylinder, the one I'd remembered during the gravity games.

It had crashed into the side of the lifeboat, but it was covered on the inside with the familiar yellow and black fluid I'd remembered. Without thinking about it, I started to glide toward it as I started to be able to make out the shapes on the inside. I froze up, unable to think as I saw what was inside. Arms, heads, legs, body parts of all kinds strewn about along the inside of the glass structure. I kept gliding toward it, forgetting how to maneuver as I was brought closer and closer to it.

I remembered standing in the back of the ship, watching as a figure went up into the glass structure and causing the stains to fill the inside almost immediately. It was blood, from mechara and melodians. A memory came back to me from what felt like a lifetime ago, back on earth, the way the police officer described the inside of the night club. Bodies. Torn apart like a wild animal had gotten to it. It was exactly how he described it.

Every person inside, melodian and mechara alike, had been torn limb from limb, their body parts stuck against the glass, frozen against it and looking as though it had happened just yesterday. Evidence of the raw efficiency of the one killing was apparent, each body broken apart in a way that made it look like they didn't stay too long on each target, doing just enough damage to ensure their death before moving onto another.

The most terrifying part being a mechara head who's beak was used to impale a melodian through the chest. Their cold, dead eyes staring blankly off into space. I felt a hand grab at my shoulder, causing me to let out a scream as I was suddenly brought back to the present. A hand grabbed my arm, holding me still as I was slowly brought away from the wreckage. Flint pulled me up to himself, holding my mouth closed as he held me with my back to his chest.

"Tess, quiet" he said in a firm yet hushed tone. I closed my eyes as I tried to breathe, the oxygen from the machine barely giving me enough to breath as I tried to not hyperventilate.

"I told you to stay close, why did you leave?" he asked. I curled up, putting my hands over my eyes as I tried to control myself. Flint sighed as I felt the wind pick up a bit, bringing us further away from the corpses.

"I… I thought they were cleaned up on the surface…" I said between breaths.

"I said 'mostly,' the observation platform is… Tricky…" he said. I slowly opened my eyes, seeing we were far enough away from the glass structure to not make out any specific details. He slowly let me go as I was getting my breathing under control.

"Now stay close, okay?" he said a little more firmly than before.

"Are there other places like that I need to look out for?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No. In fact, we're already here" he said, pointing down at a building close to the divide between the first and central ring.

"What's that?" I asked.

"The gravity games archives. That's where we're going" he said. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Wait, that's why we're here? What would the listeners need that for?" I asked.

"I'm sorry I'm really not supposed to say" he said quietly as we started making our way down toward the building.

"Okay… Well… If you're not gonna tell me then why should I help you?" I asked. He sighed as we got closer to the entrance.

"Tess just… Hmm… Why do you think we'd want the old archives?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking" I said.

"Tess. Listen to me. Why do you think we'd want it" he asked again, a little more firmly.

"I…" I started to say as I realized he was trying to get me to guess the answer. He wasn't allowed to tell me, but nothing was stopping him from letting me try to figure it out on my own.

"Oh…" I said, "Uh, so you guys don't like the mechara. I picked up on that…" I said. Flint nodded but didn't say a word.

"And… You don't like the assembler. But… Hmmm…" I said out loud, trying to get a hint.

"Right… And what do we do?" he asked.

"You… Listen. You listen to the music and… You understand that the less you use the assembler, the better you can listen. You don't like the assembler, so if you… Could get rid of the assembler…" I said, taking a shot in the dark. His eyes went a bit wide as I mentioned getting rid of the assembler, but he didn't say anything.

"And… Whoever's in charge of the listeners probably wants to get rid of the assembler too?" I asked.

"Hmm… That would make sense" he said in a faux tone of curiosity.

"And… Oh…" I said as it started to make sense.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Nori told me about another melodian who acted like me. Rosa. Nori said she doesn't use the assembler either" I said.

"Go on" he said.

"Let me guess. The gravity games didn't become what it is until after Rosa arrived on lifeboat eight" I said. He nodded "That's right. It was something that was only done on lifeboat seven, but it didn't become a sport on lifeboat eight until she arrived. Interesting coincidence isn't it?"

"So, you think Rosa is in charge of the listeners. But if she was, she wouldn't be able to talk to you directly. If she's using the gravity games as a way of finding the people who are under less of the influence of the assembler, she could potentially use that team to gain control over it, maybe turn it off entirely?" I said, feeling more confident in what I was saying as I was going along.

"But how would you know for sure?" he asked.

"Ah, right, if you went to her without knowing for sure, you could potentially expose yourselves. So to confirm it, rather than asking her, you wanted to see if she was in the gravity games here on lifeboat seven" I said.

"Wow. Amazing how you figured that out entirely on your own without any input from me" he said firmly. I nodded, understanding that I couldn't let the others know he'd led me to the right answer.

"Now, would you mind?" he asked as he gestured to the doorway with a hand panel on the side of it.

"Oh, right" I said. We both moved toward the doorway. After what had happened on lifeboat eight I half expected the panel to do nothing, but to my surprise, as soon as I pressed my hand to it, the sides lit up green and the door next to us opened.

"Wow! It really is true!" Flint exclaimed.

"What?" I asked.

"Sorry, sorry. It's not that I didn't believe you, it's just… Wow, you really are from here aren't you?" he asked.

"I uh… Don't know what you expected…" I said, a bit confused.

"Nevermind it's dumb. I guess I just had this thought that maybe this whole thing was a ruse or something or you were just some crazy person that made up a story. I know it's silly but it felt so unreal that I had this feeling that it might all just be made up. Anyway, I'm gonna go inside, you stay here okay?" he told me.

"Uh, well, I needed to get something for Nori" I said. He scowled a little as I said her name.

"Yeah? And what's that?" he said. Ignoring his tone I answered "A processing core from Artemis. That area… Is cleared out, right?" I asked. He sighed "Yeah, that's all cleared out. Are you sure you'd want to go alone though?" he asked.

"I mean. If it's cleared out I can do it. I just needed to try to find one that works. She gave me a little tool to check them" I said, reaching over my shoulder and tapping the small bag on my back.

"Okay. I shouldn't be long. If you're not back by the time I'm done I'll find you" he said. I turned around, remembering the lights and sure enough there was a line of orange lights along the path we'd taken.

"That sounds like a plan," I said. He nodded "It should be in that direction" he said, pointing up about ninety degrees away from us along the central ring. Before I could answer he moved inside the building, the light on top of his head automatically turning on as he went into the pitch black room. I looked up at the place he pointed to and started to make my way out toward it.

Taking a straight line path to where Flint had pointed meant I was moving up over the city a bit, giving me a better view of everything below. The thing that caught my eye were the large buildings that had toppled over, mostly staying intact but crumbled quite a bit at the points they'd landed. They had a similar mushroom-like shape as the buildings on lifeboat eight.

One of them had a distinct black burn mark running across its windows, down the stem of the building, which was odd since none of the other buildings had that feature. As I went along I felt like I recognized one of the buildings. An old memory that seemed to have been locked away up until that moment, next to it was another building that gave me the same feeling. I looked back, seeing the little orange light drones were staying behind me, giving me a good idea of where I had come from.

Knowing I wouldn't get lost, I decided to move down toward the buildings. I couldn't tell what I remembered them from, but it was so distinct that I couldn't help but be curious about it. Upon approaching I saw something much more familiar. A large longboard was stuck into the side of the building, half of it sticking out, the other half lodged deep inside the wall it had impaled. Next to it was a bright orange wheel with a wedge cut out from the side of it.

I blinked, looking at the scene in front of me as I remembered what happened in my father's memory.

"It can't be…" I said to myself as I landed my feet on the ground, With the new perspective I recognized it perfectly. There was even a small melodian shaped indent on the wall above the board. It was me. I made that dent as we crashed into the side of the building from where we'd barreled through the central ring. I turned to see a familiar hallway between the buildings, remembering exactly where we'd gone. The sounds of the ship came back to me.

The screeching of the rings, the screams from the terrified melodians and mechara. I remembered the smell of smoke, the inability to breathe in the dense smoke and ash that filled the air around us. As if on autopilot, I guided myself along the path I remembered. Where there were once bodies, dead mechara lining the streets of the city, in every doorway, along every path, it was now cleared out. But I remembered it. I remembered where they were.

I didn't remember many melodians, it was likely the time for the mechara to be on the surface at the time it all happened. I turned a corner, following the path my dad had taken. I remembered him dodging through the street, holding onto me, running for his life as we watched the lives of everyone around us get snuffed out. Suddenly I was in front of a massive doorway. I recognized it. There had been a pile of dead mechara against it at the time he arrived, but they didn't seem to be able to get in.

He had to pull the door open himself to get inside. I frowned as I saw the remnants of the mechara bodies that had been against the doorway. Yellow blood covering the floor and walls around it. The doorway was still slightly ajar, just enough to let a determined melodian get through if they pushed. I looked at it for a few minutes, my eyes remaining on the door as I remembered what had happened, how he forced his way inside, taking me with him. I wanted to turn around, but I couldn't stop myself.

I had to see inside. Thankfully I was able to push the door open a little wider, allowing me to get inside more easily. My flashlight turned on automatically as I entered. The feeling of the inside of the building was entirely different from everything I'd seen before. It was so… Normal on the inside. There wasn't any blood, no destruction, it looked like whoever worked inside the building had just left and were ready to come back the next day.

There was furniture along the walls, papers stacked on the little end tables with a thin layer of ice across their surface, which had to be the thing holding them down in the zero gravity environment. It was as if I was the only person to enter the area since the disaster which meant… I looked down the hallway, remembering my dad running down it toward the large room at the end.

Once again, I couldn't help myself as I moved down along the ghostly hallway, a deafening silence filling my ears as I slowly approached the room. As I turned the corner my hearts sank. The bank of escape pods lined a long hallway, each pod still in its place, aside from three down toward the end. As I approached, my memories kept coming back to me. The fear, the screaming, the terror I felt, not knowing what was going to happen to me as my dad carried me over to one of the pods.

I approached the empty spot, placing my hand on the little control pad he'd used to dial in the coordinates, a sinking feeling coming over me as I realized I was the second person to ever touch it after my dad had used it. I looked out the large window, seeing the central ring on the right, the massive windows on the left. It was a viewing area for looking out over the lifeboat, the exact spot my dad stood as he watched the rings break apart.

I stopped breathing for a moment, freezing in place as I realized once again that it seemed like I was the only person to ever enter the area since the disaster which meant… I looked down, searching around the room for a moment before my eyes settled on a dark figure in the corner of the room, lying on his back, his cold dead eyes looking up at the ceiling as his body lay flat on the floor, a layer of ice holding him in place.

"Dad…" I said so softly I could barely hear myself speak. I could barely see him, my eyes filling with tears as the shock started to wear off, turning into a deep overwhelming sadness. I moved over to him, barely holding myself together as I reached out, placing my hand on his chest as I blinked, trying to push the tears away as they froze against the side of my eyes. He'd been sitting in that spot for the entirety of the life I could remember.

While I grew up, learned to play instruments, made friends, through all my birthdays, all my memories with Emily, with John, with growing up on earth, after I discovered the lifeboats and reached out to them. For my entire life he'd been in this spot, frozen in time right after saving his daughter's life.

"I… I love you dad…" I said to him, "I hope… If you'd known me, you would've been proud of me. I'm… Sorry you couldn't be there with me… I wish… I wish…" I tried to say, but the words stopped coming out. I don't know how long I spent with him, everything became a blur as I felt like everything was crumbling around me. I wished he could have been there with me, I wished he could have met my friends, I wished he could see the person I was today.

Eventually I reached up, wiping the tears from my eyes, trying to get a hold of myself. As I looked up I was startled to see a melodian floating just outside the window, their eyes glowing white as they looked inside, watching me. I pulled away from my dad, looking out at him as I pushed off the control panel, his eyes were locked onto me.

"Why?" I asked softly. I was sure it was too quiet to hear, but the melodian turned his head as if to hear more.

"Why me?" I asked him. Artemis knew I was speaking to him, but I knew if he tried to respond the melodian he was controlling would likely get brought out of the assembler. Instead of answering directly, a group of purple light drones came out of the melodian's bag, at least a few hundred of them, forming a ball.

A moment later, the melodian moved upward, moving out of view of the window, but the ball of light drones stayed in place for a few seconds before it started to move, leaving one behind every few feet, the ball of drones behaved as if there was a melodian moving along its path, but they seemed to be moving entirely autonomously. I sighed, taking a deep breath and turning around, taking another long view of the room I was in, not knowing if I'd ever return. Before leaving, I turned to my dad.

"I love you. Thank you. For everything. I wish… You could see me today. I think you'd be proud" I said as I gave him a gentle smile before turning and making my way back down the hallway I'd arrived in.