A Broken Machine (Part Five)

Silver Wisp awoke to a strange hangover. He looked around and seemed to be lying in a solid puddle of metal. He vaguely remembered looking for something, he remembered that there had been stairs and he remembered that someone had been unhappy. He groaned as he sat up and then he saw his hands. Grey. He waved them in front of his face but they seemed to be his. Weird. Now either he was a zombie or his eyesight was shot. Or both.

Then his brain reconnected somewhat to reality and it came back as a series of broken alerts. Fire, death and blood. None of the good things… He turned and found a patch of ash at his feet and some sort of weapon thrown on the floor. Where the hell had that come from? He didn’t bother to continue the thought, the memory of fire filling his mind. He needed to get back to the Wisp and call Earth. This…whatever the fuck was going on…needed a fleet and he wasn’t important right now. Maybe he’d find out why he was alive and down here later but right now that wasn’t going to save the colony.

He stumbled through the piled boxes and slabs of metal, somehow aware of the contents. He would send somebody down here to collect some of the more useful things, such as the surprisingly advanced medical system. A thing he knew was banned in this world. No doubt kept for the chosen few. He pushed on.

----------

The room was crowded, the open roof showing the sky dark with smoke. The smell of death newly arrived on the world, a brutal and unwelcome addition. The acrid stench mixed strangely with the ozone tang of overworked med implants. The benches were filled with the injured and exhausted all seeking help, seeking water and seeking hope.

Rowan flinched as her burns were treated, the peeling bark and obscene smell gently masked by the bandages. Such primitive techniques but still effective. Her medical implant was pumping pain-relief and replacement cells into her system. Her nurse was silent and effective but she was but one of many hurt and she could see the strain on her tired face, the tracks of tears spilt hidden in washrooms and closets, the grief of watching younglings slip out of her hands. Too young to survive such trauma.

She looked away, not wanting to embarrass the nurse and tried to focus. Her memories of what had happened were still blurred and shattered, only flashes of pain and despair as she had fought the fire. Someone, she wasn’t sure who had told her that she had saved many. Many, but not all, not enough.

She pushed herself off the bench and bowed to the healer, “My thanks, but I must return to the fires. We are too few as it is.” The nurse nodded, “Try and keep your bandages clean and dry.” She didn’t waste any more words, already moving towards the next patient.

She stood outside and felt nothing but hopelessness as she saw fire running across the horizon. Where to even begin? What little equipment they maintained for firefighting was for much more minor events, not an apocalypse or a war. She was about to make her way back to her charges when, out of the gloom, came a figure. It wasn’t one of her people so it was either a visitor or the enemy finally revealing its face. She felt her rage return.

------------

Silver decided to go and find whatever was left of the council but no one was conveniently nearby. He assumed they were fighting the fires or dealing with the injured. He was a bit uncertain about which of their funny buildings dealt with what, they all seemed to be the same circle of walls with nothing to keep the rain off. He aimed for the largest one he remembered and walked into the smoke.

It took less time than he thought it would but he spotted it and it was unburned and occupied. As he drew closer he pushed past the trees and headed towards the entrance when he suddenly received a strong blow to the back of the head. This time he didn’t fall, he simply turned around. The Arboreal that had been caring for the young now was obviously hurt, the bandages telling a story. He held up his hand, “Would you please not do that every time we meet? People are going to talk.”

Rowan stopped even as she raised her fist again, surprised by the voice of the creature. She hesitated, “Envoy?...what happened to you?”

Silver put down his hand slowly, “Honestly? No idea. I was on my ship, then I was pretty much dead and then I was underneath the Council chamber with a new look. Or at least a new colour, I haven’t seen a mirror recently.”

Rowan stepped closer, “You don’t look human anymore, your face is…steel and it's moving like water. I thought you were the enemy!”

Silver touched his face and it felt normal. He had other things to worry about. "Then it might be better if I don't go in and disturb things. Find someone to go to the council chambers and recover all the med gear hidden there, we will need it. Then find whatever council members are around and tell them I have declared a system-wide emergency. I'm going back to whatever is left of my ship to call Earth."

Rowan faltered as she tried to match the words with this stranger, but none was nonsense…"You truly are the Envoy? What hidden medical supplies? What... What does a system-wide emergency mean? I can fetch someone else, someone that …"

Silver interrupted, "It means war. Do as I ask before I cause panic." He raised a smile, still unaware that it just created a ripple across his face, "We have no time for your council to debate if I am still the Envoy, not if I look like a threat and I imagine the medical supplies were for them, at least some of them anyway. You just need to send people down there."

He watched the confusion build and added, "There are weapons stored down there too. You might want them, instead of hitting people around the head." Old habits sent his hand to check he wasn't bleeding.

That silenced her. She remembered crying out for a weapon, even a knife, as the saplings burned. She wanted one. Badly. She nodded, "I will go, I will bring back enough to convince the people.

Silver could hear the pain, the humanity that still beats in the heart of someone that could be repeatedly mistaken for foliage, a mistake he wasn’t willing to make again. He reached up and held her arm. “You are not alone, humanity is vast and it will come to your aid. We have those treaties for a reason. I will bring help and fight beside you while we wait. There is hope.” He released her and smiled, or at least hoped he did, “Go and fetch what you need. I’ll come and find you when I have news. Perhaps you could help me deal with the council? Get me data on the injured and dead. Anything you think Earth needs to hear?”

Rowan accepted that it might be better if whatever the Envoy had become stayed out of the public eye. She nodded, “I am called Rowan of the Grove. Seek me out when you return.”

Silver pulled out his comms and, despite it now looking rather odd, flashed her name and ID to his data. Hopefully, he wouldn’t need to waste any more time with civilians, “Very well. I’ll call you. Best of luck.” He turned and headed back into the gloom and the smoke, back to summoning the help so desperately needed.

Rowan watched the Envoy leave with a measure of relief and turned back in the hospital. She spotted the nurse that had helped her, now sagging with fatigue. She needed something. Perhaps hope and medical equipment would do, for now.

-------------

Silver ‘knew’ where his ship was. He didn’t know how and he was beyond questions at this point. He could tell that he should be coughing and spluttering with the smoke but he remained unaffected. Embers had dropped harmlessly onto his face and the glimmers passed overhead, small swarms of light heading in the same direction he was. None stopped to attack him.

The Wisp had lain half-buried in the dirt, surrounded by the shattered trees from her final desperate descent and so she remained, but now she wasn’t a broken wreck. Now she shined like she wanted to rival the sun.

Silver stood astonished as swarms of glimmers flew to the ship and joined, the ship visibly growing. He 'knew' they weren't hostile, in the same way, that he 'knew' that the ship was waiting patiently for him to arrive.

He needed to call Earth. His boss was going to be pissed.