Neo Chronicles: Black Void
Episode 10: The Sound of Drumming
Table of Contents
It stands there looking down at me. I don't know if it's agitated or not. She could be charging some giant super laser from her white glowing eyes. She could be scanning my mind for the off switch to put me to sleep. She could be secretly laughing at it up. I don't know. I can't tell anything from her. There's nothing on her face. No eyebrows that furl, no mouth that pokes out or smiles, no nose that gets all crinkly or relaxed. I can't get a read off this giant, 80 foot tall, alien lady at all, and it's drivin' me crazy. So I just stare back, trying to be just as cold, just as stoic, and just as stern as her.
“What are you waiting for?” Ran asks. I've never seen someone so scared stiff and shaky all at once. Then again, I've got no room to talk. I'm holding onto this sword like it's a bible, so tight, just to make me feel better—like I own somethin' important. “I think you actually got her to listen.”
“Oh really? Cool.” I guess that works then. Now I feel good about myself. I start to feel good about everything. It sorta catches me off guard, 'cuz I was expecting some big, crazy action or fighting to happen, but this changes everything. If the giant is willing to listen, then it's willing to reason. We might be able to work things out.
I loosen up a bit and take a deep breath.
“Okay, um. Yeah, well first off, thirty-eight minutes is not enough time for everyone to get off the planet. That's way too short a notice. You'd be lucky if like a dozen people made it. I may be new to this whole space thing, but I can at least figure that one out. Change that to a day or two and maybe you'll see sum'm sum'm happen. Yeah, now with that outta the way, I gotta ask—help me understand this whole thing—why here? Why did you choose this planet—probably the most populated planet in this whole solar system—to do...whatever you came here to do. And that's another thing. What did you come here to do? I think we got a right to know, right? That cool wit'chu?”
Then there's just a silence—a dead silence. Except for the falling calamity all around. The fires, the buildings collapsing, the rescue vehicles, people screaming—that's all still there, but it's like I don't even hear it. It's just me, the colossal titan standing over me, and Ran standing behind me. This is like standoff at high noon. All that's missin' is the noon, the tumbleweed, and the cowboy hats.
Then there's the sound of drums. They start off soft, but then they come pounding in hard. I turn to look for them, but they're nowhere to be found. It feels like they're right next to me, the rhythmic noise. It kinda makes a nice beat, but then it gets wrapped up in dissonance. Some other sound—like white noise—quickly overtakes it. The drumming's still there, but it's more like rumbling than pounding, and then over it all, I hear her voice again—speaking to me in my own tongue, my own language, on my own level.
“You have fifteen minutes to evacuate the planet. This is not a threat but a warning. Take heed.”
She sounds so cold, almost computerized—not from a lack of emotion or anything, though. Trust me, the emotion was there, but for her to just stand there, act like she's paying attention, and then completely write off everything I had to say—it's just cold, and then she turns her back and looks away.
Naturally, I'm upset. Oh, you bet I'm upset. I tense up again, get all riled up. I can feel Ran try to hold me back—and where's she get off sayin' “not a threat but a warning”—what the crud is that? I really wanna jump her. I'm about to jump her. I don't even hear what Ran's tryna say. That lady just declared war!
“Darius, no. You tried, and that's great, but you really don't wanna get involved in this. For the last time, let's go!”
“Sorry Ran, but that ain't good enough!”
I brush her hand off my shoulder and pull back my sword again. This stupid alien lady wanna play like that, I'mma play too. So then I do something I never even thought I could do. Today, I've seen a lotta things I thought I'd see, so might as well throw this on the list too.
I jump—leap—in the air. It's a big jump. I'm talkin' like 20 feet from where I stood. It feels like I'm flying, I jump so high. I jump towards the Visigen and pull my sword back and swing as hard as I can at her. The Visigen's a big target, so there's not a whole lot I can do to miss. I strike her at the back of her neck.
It doesn't feel like I make a dent of any kind, but I know she felt it. I know because it causes her to move, to stumble. I hit her so hard that the 80 foot giantess loses her balance—and get this—topples over. It's like she falls in slow motion with me along for the ride.
When her body hits the ground, I swear to you, the whole planet reacts. The ground quakes, the few remaining buildings in the area that were still standing crumble. The people stop, the cars stop—everyone and everything stops for a moment and takes a collective gasp, including me.
I land right after she does, my body aching from the huge drop, but my mind is racing so fast, I immediately jump to my feet scared and prepared for whatever's gonna happen next.
I don't know how she fell—especially from that. I mean, yeah, I wanted her to feel it, but not topple over like she did. I just wanted her attention and that's it. I wanted to talk. In spite of all the nerves and anxiety that's puttin' me on edge, the last thing I wanted to actually happen was to get into a fight. But that's what I did. I figuratively fired the first shot, and I know she's gonna be mad about that.
Man, I'm shaking—I'm literally shaking. This is just too much. Oh crud, oh crud. She's gonna murder me. What did I do? What did I do?
Wait a minute.
What did I do? I mean, let's back up for a moment. I know my own strength. Yeah, I'm a lil' bit stronger than most. It's kinda my thing—my special trait, my ST—but come on now. Even on my best day, I wouldn't be able to do a thing like that, and let me tell you, today is not my best day. I shouldn't have been able to jump that high, I shouldn't've been able to swing that hard, this planet should be makin' it impossible for me to even walk.
So how in the world was I able to do alla that, an' still have energy to spare for round two?
Oh snaps, did I level up? I musta leveled up. Ha ha! Man, this space travel's doin' me wonders. Man, when I get back home—oh crud, she's gettin' up.
I feel the world quake again as the Visigen rises to her feet, and I feel that mad, staticky, bass driven noise invade my mind again. I brace myself for the worst. All tensed up again, holding tightly to my sword again, gritting my teeth, trying my best not to scream and run away like the lil' kid that I am. Man, oh man.
And now I'm flying. I'm flying? What the crud, I'm slowly rising up off the ground. Almost like something's pullin' me up with puppet strings—up to her level. All the way up to her level.
I look down below to see the people still frozen in amazement—or is that fear? Probably fear. I know I'm scared. I'm scared for my life about now, so they probably are too. Why'd they stop running? They should be running, doin' their best to get off world. Sure, not many of 'em'll make it, if any at all, but still. They should be running.
I see the building Ran is still standing on. I don't even know what that look on her face means. No, that's a lie. I can even see her mouth the words, “You really messed up big time.” Yeah, Ran. I know. Believe me, I know. She's worried for me. She must be really worried because she's not running either.
And then I stop rising. I'm sorta just floating there, two feet from her face, staring her in her giant, glowing, white-litted eyes. The staticky sound in my head gets louder, so I assume she's about to go all TP an' speak again. I try to tune the noise out and listen for her voice, but it doesn't come. The noise is there, but not her. It's just getting louder and louder and louder. My God it's loud. Can't even hear what's goin' on around me. I can't hear myself think, can't hear myself breathe. I don't even know if I'm screaming—I must be though—this pain is unbearable. Like a thousand sharp nails to a chalkboard mixed with a thousand nonrhythmic drum beats mixed with a thousand loud shrieking computers putting out a thousand loud, high pitched noises.
I know I'm screaming. I know I'm shouting out, “Make it stop!” I know she's listening. Everyone's probably listening. My eyes are closed, hoping that if I can't see anything, it'll all go away, but it's like doing that almost makes it worse. So I open my eyes back, for a brief second, and the first thing I see—the first thing...
The giant rock lady is pullin' back her arm—man, why's this in slow motion—pullin' back her arm, curling her long, stone-covered fingers into a fist, gettin' ready t'punch me. I can't bear to look, so I close my eyes again, and the next thing I know—the next thing I feel...
BOOM
And I'm flyin' again. I'm flyin' so fast, so far, so high up in the sky. The pain from the headache mixed with the pain from punch—my whole body's achin' all over, inside and out. I reach the peak of the jump and then come plummeting down. I don't know where I'm landing at, I don't know how far I was punched, all I know is it hurts like a mug an'—crud, crud, crud, ouch, gosh-darnit, ouch, crud, crud, and ouch again.
Feel's like I just went through like forty-seven an' a half brick walls head first. How I'm still conscious—how I'm still alive is beyond me. I open my eyes to see like three large buildings with man-sized holes the size a' me right through 'em. I'm sittin' in a crater on my butt in the middle a' the street, the lights are out, people, creatures, aliens—whatever—all starin' at me like I'm crazy. Ha, through all that, I still managed to keep hold of my sword in one hand. I'm sore in places I didn't even know I had. And to add insult to injury, I hear that ol' lady speak straight into my mind again, this time there's no static or background noise or nothin'—like she wanna make sure I get the message,
“You have two minutes to evacuate the planet. This is not a threat but a warning. Leave now or you will perish.”
Bull. I know she took some time away without tellin'. It has not been no thirteen minutes since last time. Maybe ten, but not thirteen. She trippin'. She know she trippin'. An' I ain't gonna let her get away with it, either.
As much as it hurts, as much as my legs feel like they ain't got no feelin', as much as it feels like my arms got no strength, as much as my head feels like it's got no dang idea where it is, I fight through it. It feels like I'm tryna fight my way through fire, but I fight through it. I stand to my feet, usin' the sword like some makeshift old-people cane now to prop myself up, an' I'm ready to go again.
One step...one step...two steps...three steps...on my forth, I'm just about ready to run off, but I'm stopped. Someone comes up behind me and grabs my shoulder, stopping me. Now my first thought is Ran, but then my next thought is that not makin' no sense. Ran wouldn't a' made it here that fast, unless she was punched this way, too. Then I turn around, and imagine my surprise when I see that ever lovin', big ol', whale lookin' Ri'lar.
“We're leaving, now.”
I'm taken by surprise. And the next thing I know, the two of us aren't on the streets anymore. I look around, and we're back on the ship. There's my junk in the back that I use to sleep on. There's the two seats up front to drive the thing. Whale-face takes his place up there real quick. An' when I look out the window, I notice that the ship ain't even on the planet anymore. No, I see the planet outside with the rest of the outside space stuff.
Then it hits me like a bullet train.
Everyone's still down there. Ran's still down there. And so's that Visigen. I rush to the driver's seat beggin' Ri'lar,
“We gotta go back!”
“No, we don't.”
“But she'll kill, everyone!”
“That's not our problem.”
“But we can help!”
“No, we can't. We don't have the resources. We don't have the firepower. And above all that, we don't have the time. Miraivus is gone, and so are we. You're beyond lucky I found you when I did.”
“This isn't fair! This isn't right!”
“I'm sorry, but there's nothing—sit down, and hang on!”
The ship's engines start to rev up. We start to pick up speed as we move further and further away from the planet. I look out the back window at it all. It's still there. I see a few other ships managed to make it off-world. That's good. The planet is still there. Maybe Ran's talkin' some sense into the Visigen. Maybe it'll end up leavin' the place alone, just lettin' it be. I know two minutes have passed, and the planet is still there.
Ri'lar musta activated the warp drive because I'm startin' to get that woosy feelin' in my belly. The planet is still there, still floating, still goin' on. We're definitely in the warp state, because I'm startin' to see all the fancy colors of the rainbow cover up everything. It's lookin' like everything's workin' out okay. I can't tell you how relieved that makes me.
The final phase of the warp is the actual jump. Just stay there. Stay there and don't leave. Please God, don't let that evil lady kill all those people. Please let it all work out. I still see the planet. I still see it floating there in space. Everything else is startin' to fade away from the warp, but it's still there. I know it's still there.
Then my heart stops.
It's the last thing I see before we leave. I try to convince myself that I imaged it, but there's no denying.
The last thing I see before we warp away...
Is the planet of Miraivus going up in a flash of white light.
It's not there anymore.
It's not there.
Episode 10: The Sound of Drumming
Table of Contents
It stands there looking down at me. I don't know if it's agitated or not. She could be charging some giant super laser from her white glowing eyes. She could be scanning my mind for the off switch to put me to sleep. She could be secretly laughing at it up. I don't know. I can't tell anything from her. There's nothing on her face. No eyebrows that furl, no mouth that pokes out or smiles, no nose that gets all crinkly or relaxed. I can't get a read off this giant, 80 foot tall, alien lady at all, and it's drivin' me crazy. So I just stare back, trying to be just as cold, just as stoic, and just as stern as her.
“What are you waiting for?” Ran asks. I've never seen someone so scared stiff and shaky all at once. Then again, I've got no room to talk. I'm holding onto this sword like it's a bible, so tight, just to make me feel better—like I own somethin' important. “I think you actually got her to listen.”
“Oh really? Cool.” I guess that works then. Now I feel good about myself. I start to feel good about everything. It sorta catches me off guard, 'cuz I was expecting some big, crazy action or fighting to happen, but this changes everything. If the giant is willing to listen, then it's willing to reason. We might be able to work things out.
I loosen up a bit and take a deep breath.
“Okay, um. Yeah, well first off, thirty-eight minutes is not enough time for everyone to get off the planet. That's way too short a notice. You'd be lucky if like a dozen people made it. I may be new to this whole space thing, but I can at least figure that one out. Change that to a day or two and maybe you'll see sum'm sum'm happen. Yeah, now with that outta the way, I gotta ask—help me understand this whole thing—why here? Why did you choose this planet—probably the most populated planet in this whole solar system—to do...whatever you came here to do. And that's another thing. What did you come here to do? I think we got a right to know, right? That cool wit'chu?”
Then there's just a silence—a dead silence. Except for the falling calamity all around. The fires, the buildings collapsing, the rescue vehicles, people screaming—that's all still there, but it's like I don't even hear it. It's just me, the colossal titan standing over me, and Ran standing behind me. This is like standoff at high noon. All that's missin' is the noon, the tumbleweed, and the cowboy hats.
Then there's the sound of drums. They start off soft, but then they come pounding in hard. I turn to look for them, but they're nowhere to be found. It feels like they're right next to me, the rhythmic noise. It kinda makes a nice beat, but then it gets wrapped up in dissonance. Some other sound—like white noise—quickly overtakes it. The drumming's still there, but it's more like rumbling than pounding, and then over it all, I hear her voice again—speaking to me in my own tongue, my own language, on my own level.
“You have fifteen minutes to evacuate the planet. This is not a threat but a warning. Take heed.”
She sounds so cold, almost computerized—not from a lack of emotion or anything, though. Trust me, the emotion was there, but for her to just stand there, act like she's paying attention, and then completely write off everything I had to say—it's just cold, and then she turns her back and looks away.
Naturally, I'm upset. Oh, you bet I'm upset. I tense up again, get all riled up. I can feel Ran try to hold me back—and where's she get off sayin' “not a threat but a warning”—what the crud is that? I really wanna jump her. I'm about to jump her. I don't even hear what Ran's tryna say. That lady just declared war!
“Darius, no. You tried, and that's great, but you really don't wanna get involved in this. For the last time, let's go!”
“Sorry Ran, but that ain't good enough!”
I brush her hand off my shoulder and pull back my sword again. This stupid alien lady wanna play like that, I'mma play too. So then I do something I never even thought I could do. Today, I've seen a lotta things I thought I'd see, so might as well throw this on the list too.
I jump—leap—in the air. It's a big jump. I'm talkin' like 20 feet from where I stood. It feels like I'm flying, I jump so high. I jump towards the Visigen and pull my sword back and swing as hard as I can at her. The Visigen's a big target, so there's not a whole lot I can do to miss. I strike her at the back of her neck.
It doesn't feel like I make a dent of any kind, but I know she felt it. I know because it causes her to move, to stumble. I hit her so hard that the 80 foot giantess loses her balance—and get this—topples over. It's like she falls in slow motion with me along for the ride.
When her body hits the ground, I swear to you, the whole planet reacts. The ground quakes, the few remaining buildings in the area that were still standing crumble. The people stop, the cars stop—everyone and everything stops for a moment and takes a collective gasp, including me.
I land right after she does, my body aching from the huge drop, but my mind is racing so fast, I immediately jump to my feet scared and prepared for whatever's gonna happen next.
I don't know how she fell—especially from that. I mean, yeah, I wanted her to feel it, but not topple over like she did. I just wanted her attention and that's it. I wanted to talk. In spite of all the nerves and anxiety that's puttin' me on edge, the last thing I wanted to actually happen was to get into a fight. But that's what I did. I figuratively fired the first shot, and I know she's gonna be mad about that.
Man, I'm shaking—I'm literally shaking. This is just too much. Oh crud, oh crud. She's gonna murder me. What did I do? What did I do?
Wait a minute.
What did I do? I mean, let's back up for a moment. I know my own strength. Yeah, I'm a lil' bit stronger than most. It's kinda my thing—my special trait, my ST—but come on now. Even on my best day, I wouldn't be able to do a thing like that, and let me tell you, today is not my best day. I shouldn't have been able to jump that high, I shouldn't've been able to swing that hard, this planet should be makin' it impossible for me to even walk.
So how in the world was I able to do alla that, an' still have energy to spare for round two?
Oh snaps, did I level up? I musta leveled up. Ha ha! Man, this space travel's doin' me wonders. Man, when I get back home—oh crud, she's gettin' up.
I feel the world quake again as the Visigen rises to her feet, and I feel that mad, staticky, bass driven noise invade my mind again. I brace myself for the worst. All tensed up again, holding tightly to my sword again, gritting my teeth, trying my best not to scream and run away like the lil' kid that I am. Man, oh man.
And now I'm flying. I'm flying? What the crud, I'm slowly rising up off the ground. Almost like something's pullin' me up with puppet strings—up to her level. All the way up to her level.
I look down below to see the people still frozen in amazement—or is that fear? Probably fear. I know I'm scared. I'm scared for my life about now, so they probably are too. Why'd they stop running? They should be running, doin' their best to get off world. Sure, not many of 'em'll make it, if any at all, but still. They should be running.
I see the building Ran is still standing on. I don't even know what that look on her face means. No, that's a lie. I can even see her mouth the words, “You really messed up big time.” Yeah, Ran. I know. Believe me, I know. She's worried for me. She must be really worried because she's not running either.
And then I stop rising. I'm sorta just floating there, two feet from her face, staring her in her giant, glowing, white-litted eyes. The staticky sound in my head gets louder, so I assume she's about to go all TP an' speak again. I try to tune the noise out and listen for her voice, but it doesn't come. The noise is there, but not her. It's just getting louder and louder and louder. My God it's loud. Can't even hear what's goin' on around me. I can't hear myself think, can't hear myself breathe. I don't even know if I'm screaming—I must be though—this pain is unbearable. Like a thousand sharp nails to a chalkboard mixed with a thousand nonrhythmic drum beats mixed with a thousand loud shrieking computers putting out a thousand loud, high pitched noises.
I know I'm screaming. I know I'm shouting out, “Make it stop!” I know she's listening. Everyone's probably listening. My eyes are closed, hoping that if I can't see anything, it'll all go away, but it's like doing that almost makes it worse. So I open my eyes back, for a brief second, and the first thing I see—the first thing...
The giant rock lady is pullin' back her arm—man, why's this in slow motion—pullin' back her arm, curling her long, stone-covered fingers into a fist, gettin' ready t'punch me. I can't bear to look, so I close my eyes again, and the next thing I know—the next thing I feel...
BOOM
And I'm flyin' again. I'm flyin' so fast, so far, so high up in the sky. The pain from the headache mixed with the pain from punch—my whole body's achin' all over, inside and out. I reach the peak of the jump and then come plummeting down. I don't know where I'm landing at, I don't know how far I was punched, all I know is it hurts like a mug an'—crud, crud, crud, ouch, gosh-darnit, ouch, crud, crud, and ouch again.
Feel's like I just went through like forty-seven an' a half brick walls head first. How I'm still conscious—how I'm still alive is beyond me. I open my eyes to see like three large buildings with man-sized holes the size a' me right through 'em. I'm sittin' in a crater on my butt in the middle a' the street, the lights are out, people, creatures, aliens—whatever—all starin' at me like I'm crazy. Ha, through all that, I still managed to keep hold of my sword in one hand. I'm sore in places I didn't even know I had. And to add insult to injury, I hear that ol' lady speak straight into my mind again, this time there's no static or background noise or nothin'—like she wanna make sure I get the message,
“You have two minutes to evacuate the planet. This is not a threat but a warning. Leave now or you will perish.”
Bull. I know she took some time away without tellin'. It has not been no thirteen minutes since last time. Maybe ten, but not thirteen. She trippin'. She know she trippin'. An' I ain't gonna let her get away with it, either.
As much as it hurts, as much as my legs feel like they ain't got no feelin', as much as it feels like my arms got no strength, as much as my head feels like it's got no dang idea where it is, I fight through it. It feels like I'm tryna fight my way through fire, but I fight through it. I stand to my feet, usin' the sword like some makeshift old-people cane now to prop myself up, an' I'm ready to go again.
One step...one step...two steps...three steps...on my forth, I'm just about ready to run off, but I'm stopped. Someone comes up behind me and grabs my shoulder, stopping me. Now my first thought is Ran, but then my next thought is that not makin' no sense. Ran wouldn't a' made it here that fast, unless she was punched this way, too. Then I turn around, and imagine my surprise when I see that ever lovin', big ol', whale lookin' Ri'lar.
“We're leaving, now.”
I'm taken by surprise. And the next thing I know, the two of us aren't on the streets anymore. I look around, and we're back on the ship. There's my junk in the back that I use to sleep on. There's the two seats up front to drive the thing. Whale-face takes his place up there real quick. An' when I look out the window, I notice that the ship ain't even on the planet anymore. No, I see the planet outside with the rest of the outside space stuff.
Then it hits me like a bullet train.
Everyone's still down there. Ran's still down there. And so's that Visigen. I rush to the driver's seat beggin' Ri'lar,
“We gotta go back!”
“No, we don't.”
“But she'll kill, everyone!”
“That's not our problem.”
“But we can help!”
“No, we can't. We don't have the resources. We don't have the firepower. And above all that, we don't have the time. Miraivus is gone, and so are we. You're beyond lucky I found you when I did.”
“This isn't fair! This isn't right!”
“I'm sorry, but there's nothing—sit down, and hang on!”
The ship's engines start to rev up. We start to pick up speed as we move further and further away from the planet. I look out the back window at it all. It's still there. I see a few other ships managed to make it off-world. That's good. The planet is still there. Maybe Ran's talkin' some sense into the Visigen. Maybe it'll end up leavin' the place alone, just lettin' it be. I know two minutes have passed, and the planet is still there.
Ri'lar musta activated the warp drive because I'm startin' to get that woosy feelin' in my belly. The planet is still there, still floating, still goin' on. We're definitely in the warp state, because I'm startin' to see all the fancy colors of the rainbow cover up everything. It's lookin' like everything's workin' out okay. I can't tell you how relieved that makes me.
The final phase of the warp is the actual jump. Just stay there. Stay there and don't leave. Please God, don't let that evil lady kill all those people. Please let it all work out. I still see the planet. I still see it floating there in space. Everything else is startin' to fade away from the warp, but it's still there. I know it's still there.
Then my heart stops.
It's the last thing I see before we leave. I try to convince myself that I imaged it, but there's no denying.
The last thing I see before we warp away...
Is the planet of Miraivus going up in a flash of white light.
It's not there anymore.
It's not there.
