Fly Away - TheFatRat
Takes place after everything will change
WC: 2,407



The stories wondered, ebbed and flowed. Enoch asked questions at times to better clarify its data and recording of what she was relaying. Eventually, Kyrie got off the ground, found a chair to drag over and lean into. Broke out her supplies to nibble some food and have some water. Her stories paused so she could hold the items up to the camera, allow the AI to scan them, process the new data. So much English.

The stories skipped around quite a bit, from Solaris, to Earth, to back, to centuries ago, a few months ago, years ago, centuries….

The AI kept up, and now and then Kyrie could see on one of the flickering hologram screens an actual timeline was being created by the program, where nodes were opened and closed as new information was added or relocations necessary for the next parts of the story. Recording. She'd nearly cried at that. Something beyond her scattered memories and tattered notebooks. Something else beyond herself. She was no longer the sole source of information about what had transpired on this planet. The AI was forming a cohesive database of her recollections.

There was finally another point of storage for the information.

Even if she was still the current source of the initial input, she could still add to it maybe. Locate other data sources, maybe? Enoch's calculations could probably work out summaries of events and the passage of time better than her memory could grasp any of it. Sure, she'd given some stuff to Almadel in their trade, but she could probably find a way to scan the copies of Aelith's journals into Enoch's system, for a start…

And all her tic mark books.

And so many books of notes and drawings and….

The endless project didn't seem as daunting to her as it probably should have in that moment. It gave her a goal.

Hearing the sound of even a digital recreation of a Solarian tongue made the prospect feel… more logical. Less painful.

She discussed the fall, the wars. Briefly, aware she'd need to go back and give a lot more detail later. Better sense of where things went in the timeline. But the rough span of a thousand years or so stretched out in tiny dots across the screen, and something about it caused strange tingles to spiral down her spine and cross her shoulders.

" < You do not currently possess data concerning the source of Chaos that had infected the planet, correct? > " The common question Enoch repeated a few times were already answered on the negative. Only an awareness of the energy she'd felt now and then through the years. It was here…. she just needed to find it.

From where she sat with her foot on the edge of the chair, chin resting on her knee, Kyrie hummed. " < We'll need to locate it and remove it. > "

We.

Plural.

She'd already felt that surreal sensation of us on numerous occasions when speaking with Devyn and Michael, Ekstrom, Encke, Grieve… quite the number of Order on Earth, really. It was the first time she'd voiced it in her own tongue in so long. There was something precious about that. Her gaze lingered on the holographic screens and the rolling digital eye interchangeably. Could she feed Enoch all the research she'd done, see if it could come up with a better estimation of where the source might be..? She hadn't even brought up the time when the magic that teleported her to Solaris from Earth had taken her and the Commodore to the upper lands despite all of her visits before and since never sparking the same result…. In the glassy, hazy reflection of the blue-silver metal of the console, she stared at the ship parked silently behind her. Broken. Ancient.

Wouldn't hurt to check Enoch's systems if it had anything for the ship, though she wasn't betting everything on it. She still wasn't quite clear when Enoch had gone silent, and the AI itself wasn't yet able to determine that, either, with its limited grasp of time. All they both had was the date according to Earth's modern calendar, and her extremely rough estimations from her books. Already, Enoch had made a private note about formulating a new calendar, or multiple, due to the extreme passage of time and new eras that had come and gone… but that was a particular project she was tempted to just leave to the AI's computations to determine. Or…. did it really even matter, if it was just them..?

The small wisp roamed around the room and hangar, Enoch's camera frequently following it and yet another window was opened at some point to start cataloging its observations on the golden orb. The whirl of mechanics, the soft hum of energy, and the soft hush and whistled songs of the wind and rains outside…

Kyrie felt her eyes grow heavy in her seat, a sort of companionable silence settling over the group that she'd not expected to encounter on the planet again. A sense of peace. Not safety, per say, because no threats existed on the planet except the Chaos that plagued it, and weather impacts she certainly had no control over. Ah… she should probably see if Realta could help her formulate a kind of weather radar system for Enoch to keep a general track of things--oh. No, wait. That would require a larger sample of weather data, and she didn't have that for modern conditions, or historic or anything…

Her mind wandered, rolling like waves against a quiet shore, new concepts she'd not considered in decades or more rising from the depths to caress the forefront of her awareness briefly before tucking themselves away once more. Things she didn't need to focus on right now, problems she could address and focus on later.

There was a comfort to that.


A crackle disrupted the sound of lulling weather and electronics, a light that burst before her closed eyelids but when she opened them slightly… nothing. Small trails of golden glimmering energy, and the camera eye focused on something beyond her, but no alerts or warnings were on the screen. She allowed the weight to carry her down again when no repeat of whatever had happened. Probably just the wisp wandering around.



It was the sensation of warmth and weight that pulled her back up again, something soft rubbing against her check and neck. Gentle chitters and squeaks disrupted purring, more of the soft warmth coiling around her upper arm. The amount of time it took her to register it was not Realta who decided to join her for a nap in her van, she would later decide, was simply because of the fact Enoch had not raised any alarms, or any suggestion anything was different in that moment.

Her eyes slid open slowly, groggy, taking in the shapes distorted by blue-white lights of the holographic screens and how it shimmered against her skin and caught on iridescent feathers----

Her brain did a long pause on that.

She could only stare, one eye really open and looking directly into the wide, dark pupil round in the dim lighting, crystalline blue and white sparking around it in a barely visible iris. Another chirp came from the fuzzy maw, lights catching on the array of tiny needle fangs and flat grinding molars further back. A dream, surely. Nothing else made sense. Nothing else lived on this planet.

The tiny head tilted, long neck arching to better stare back at her while the rest of its body lay perched on her shoulders. She could feel the small talons digging into her shirt, the brush of more fur and wings along its length and to the tail wound around her upper arm to help keep itself anchored. Nothing else lived here. She could see how the furry tufts that far outgrew its ears flick about between her and the soft whirling of the console as Enoch's camera eye moved between them.

Nothing else lived here.

Brown feathers covered the top of its body, other browns and black forming bands and markings meant to disrupt its figure and make it harder to see from above when hiding… provided the iridescent white feathers and scales along its undersides were tucked away properly. Because those... those were hard to miss. Those shown like a beacon, glimmering and shimmering, proclaiming what the tiny creature could someday become if predators didn't take it out sooner. Before it outshone them entirely in all regard, moving beyond their reach of claw and fang and gullet.

No, this was a juvenile. A baby. Tiny. Harmless. Prey.

Tears dripped, scalding her skin as she opened her second eye fully, beholding the illusion and wondering what gripped her in such a dream to be perceiving this creature. Nothing lived here. Nothing lived here. Least of all them. How long had it been?

Kyrie had only ever seen one once in person, and even then she wasn't convinced she'd actually glimpsed it. The babies hadn't been seen in centuries even by that point. Like all other species, they were dying out.

Even in the prime of her world, when her people stood hale and tall, she'd never seen them. Only murals, statues, illustrations, embossed or engraved on coins or jewelry.

" < You're not real. > " Her voice croaked and cracked when it whispered out, scarcely above an exhale.

Beside her, the computer clicked. " < I have no record of a ball of cosmic energy producing a Caelisyr, so I cannot confirm the authenticity of this example. It is a corporeal form, that I can confirm. > "

Her eyes burned and her nerves frayed. Corporeal. Real? Did the AI just confirm this thing wasn't some illusion? Her brain wasn't processing that very well, till at last a thread snagged and tried to tie her tattered senses together. Ball of… ? Slowly, Kyrie moved, jerky and shaky, but she forced her head up, blurry gaze racing about the room then the hangar beyond looking for her constant companion for the last few years. Her little ball of energy. The little wisp.

No golden light greeted her, and her heart seized in a sudden panic. Confusion. " < E-explain. > " The tiny creature tilted its head again, whistling softly as it pushed itself higher up to touch its front paws of sorts against her cheek. She flinched back, the warmth singing her system, and the creature gave a tiny whine as it lowered itself back onto her shoulder.

Again the AI's voice remained calm. " < The ball of cosmic energy that was with you burst open approximately twenty minutes ago. This animal came out of it, and appears to be a very young Caelisyr, however I do not have any data to corroborate if the spontaneous birth of a Caelisyr is possible. It may only be the appearance is being utilized due to familiarity -- > "

" < Familiarity how? > " Her voice rose, a harsh crack that made the creature on her shoulder hiss and flatten itself to her, tail tightening around her arm. " < They've all been dead for hundreds of ******** years. There's no icons to them anywhere near here. People destroyed them ages ago. What ******** familiarity could even be… > " The words cracked and fractured, falling to pieces as her breaths came in harsh, frantic gasps. Rapid pulse thundered in her ears, Kyrie didn't even notice her nails digging into her arms and clawing at her flesh till the tiny creature bit her and forced her hands away by shoving itself down against her chest. Its wings fanned and flapped, pushing her limbs to separate from clinging to herself, tail moving to coil firmly around her shoulders as its body took up space that allowed her lungs to finally inflate more than a mere, useless fraction.

If Enoch gave any explanations or reasonings or denials or whatever… she didn't hear it over her wheezing, broken sobs and keening. The sharp sounds fought with her pulse for overwhelming presence, even as she knew she needed to calm the ******** down and breathe, think, focus. But the energy that swarmed her system sent everything into too much of a buzz, and she couldn't expel it. Attempts to move, to stand up, to do anything, were met by trembling weak limbs and a hissing creature that refused to be removed from her arms or for her to relocate herself. So she could only cry. Wail. Cling anew to this tiny thing, because when she tried to claw at herself again, it once more bit her hands till she relented and clung to it instead.

Warmth that burned her senses, softness that grated her nerves. Solid, real, it weighed the world and she crumpled beneath it, curling around it and half screaming, half blabbering, crying into its soon damp fur. Gentle coos and whistles slid against the roar in her ears, the small face rubbing against hers, wings tucked and folded neatly and accepting her crushing need for this buoy because nothing in her had the strength to withstand the storm that was unfurling.

Nothing lived here.

Nothing lived here.

Kyrie hasn't even lived here in centuries. She occupied space. Moved. Functioned. Since pulled to Earth, she'd awakened bit by bit, pushing herself out of a shell and in awe at the presence of life and people and she wasn't alone and wasn't abandoned or loathed or wished dead or--

The sound of gentle Solarian tones mixed with the soft whistles and clicks in her arms, and Kyrie couldn't comprehend them. These sounds of life. Of presence. Of something beyond her on this barren rock of a world. Things that were meant to be here. Things that once thrived here, lived here.

She didn't have it in her to even attempt to delve into potential implications or considerations of the wisp now looking like a young Caelisyr. Likely wouldn't for a long, long while. That was fine. Those could be processed later, after the screams tore her throat and her vision burned from tears and her breathing finally could even out. That time was a drop in the bucket against how long she'd roamed this planet in silence and without anything that belonged here.

Not even herself.