Edited by Kt~Kat at 2017-4-13 19:49
The few lone stars shine through the window. Still, quiet and dull the stars are. They have been dying slowly, and with all of the artificial light surrounding us, their shine is erased from the sky. Only a few of them remain. The only stars that shine brightly are Altair, Deneb and Peacock. These are the brightest stars of the constellations long forgotten. I've memorized them all, in their glory. The constellations are never to move again. This world, never to move again. The moon stuck in its smile, as the Cheshire Cat himself wakes with me. The dimmed lights outside of my window indicate that the official day has not started. The clock stationed inside of my room states the time 5:23 AM. Our work starts at 7:00 AM. It would be more worth it to return to sleep, but now, seeing that I am awake and curious, I kick my feet from the bed. The warmth immediately left my legs. I had forgotten the consequences of leaving the bed early, no matter how many times I did so. Never minding that the world's imitation heat would not be created until the 'sun' rose.... I touch the silver-like steel floor and retract my foot almost as soon as it touched down. The floor felt like ice, as I should have expected. But I didn't, so there. I call out to the computer awaiting its first command in a string of many for today.
"Vitae."
"Yes, Sidera?"
"Initiate the morning sequence number 32." The ever so familiar hum of machines wiring to complete the request buzzes to life once more. I bring my feet back to the bed and wait for the sequence to be complete. The lights slowly turn on, creating a blue tint on the room. It looked like the houses of old, even though it was still the same quarters I had been in. The room cannot physically change to this room, it can only make the quarters feel like a room of old.
With the room downloaded and active, I take a moment. To breathe in the smell of linens hanging on a wire outside the window. I've been told this is a farmhouse, old fashioned and rustic. A fan runs above, with a light hanging down to light the room. There is a mirror on the wall in front of the bed, hanging on the darkly painted blue plaster wall behind it. Nicks and dents border the frame of the gentle mirror, able to shatter at any moment. The character I was playing was a young child, no older than 13. His features differ from that of the characters I play most. He was strong, hearty and just a little... dusty? Or caked in dirt... The boy must have been playing outside before coming in to wash up for supper or lunch.
The curtains had been shut, but the window open. The suns light passes through the layers of the faint white cotton curtains. I creak on the floor which seems to be as close to wood as I could have gotten. The smell of the linens grows ever stronger as I reach for the cord to draw the curtains. Drawing back, I feel a sensation of the 'sun' radiating heat onto me. Thats when the program ends. It knows I'm not in the place I wanted to be. The program always ends before I can see the sun, look outside or even just feel a breeze.
The program starts to try and run another morning sequence. I just stare at the lights. The stars as they glow, noting that Aser is visible. I miss that constellation. I miss them all to be quite frank. I miss the Pavo and Delphinus constellations the most. The constellations of the peacock and dolphin. Many of the stars of Pava died out or are hidden by the light pollution. The sky, covered in a blanket of light. The only thing that could never burn out is the moon, waiting in the sky, hoping to fly once more.
The window fades to black, then a faint red light appears. I shut my eyes immediately and turn to face the entrance. Until the red light is replaced with the calming noise of the ocean and light, I keep my eyes clamped shut. False alarm. The next sequence almost fully boots up before I stop the sequence.
"Vitae."
"Yes, Sidera?"
"What just happened?" There is no response from the computer. The only noise came from a pounding at the door.
"Sidera Occisus. Exit these quarters for inspection." No reason not to comply. I march to the door on the freezing floor. Unlocking the door was unnecessary, as the door had been unlocked by the custos. The handle was warm to the touch. They had heated the handle for me. Clicking the door open, I note that only one custos standing there, gun in hand.
"Miss. Occisus." I nod and entered attention. The custos sighs.
"...Why are you awake so early once again?" I almost laugh, but don't.
"My job is to take care of machinery in developmental areas of progress in this glorious city. Whilst that job is my largest priority, I have been in the stages of marking the star-map, noting all changes to the star systems. I cannot complete this during my work, so I complete it during the time of which it will bother no one." He scoffed.
"Miss, this is the sixth occurrence of this event."
"What is the error here, custos?" Shaking his head, he paused.
"I don't know. To me, it is but simple human curiosity. Perhaps it may be affecting your sleep schedule?" I started to stretch and yawn, but stopped.
"I'd rather see you return to sleep, but I will not count this as a strike against you. I wouldn't want to see you travel into an area you can't keep up."
"Is that all, muneris?"
"Yes. Good night, miss." He ducked his head and bowed away. I watched as he left, leaving the iconic red laser. It dissipated after a few seconds, but it still was a curious thing. We, the workers have blue lasers that are non-harmful. Para-medicorum had green lasers, and the custos had red. Any other colour indicated that they were not from this area. The odd thing about it is that the laser the custos leave behind hurt the people around it, yet none of the other do.
My hand was still on the handle of the door, and it almost stuck to it as the heat had been draining very rapidly. I let out a quick feeling of pain before releasing the door handle. Grumbling, I kick the door closed. "Vitae, play Mechanical Heart by Jon D."
It complies swiftly, and the intro of the song plays its familiar tune. A quiet guitar strums along with the songs of the piano and the vibrations of a violin. The song then allows the main singer to play his part. Piece by piece, I need to be rebuilt... In music, we assume that only by itself that music is quiet, but still. We can create a harmony still soft enough to twing at the heartstrings. The guitar alone wouldn't be enough, with its solo that plays. Its better to work to create anew.
"Vitae. New command. Raise dark blue light."
Once again, it completes the action with haste. The darkness is then replaced with dark blue light. It calms the nerves, as intended. I pace along with the beat until the music ends.
"Sidera. The music has ended. Would you like another song?"
"Fireflies, Owl City." I bring my hand to my mouth and start to bite off the little hangnails I had on my fingers. I rip one away to far, and taste blood.
"...Ow." I tear my hand away to look at it. They were covered in scabs, scars and bruises. The nails as short as I could bite them. I had ripped away the skin on my right thumb, so I returned my hand to my mouth to suck away the blood.
The tune was more recent to be found in the Sun and shared with us in the Shadow. Its melody flows, but is different in every way. It seems to change as the song wants. I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly. I scoff at it, then hiss at the writing.
"It hasn't been spinning at all for 423 years. You can make yourself believe a lie for all I care..."
No wonder this song has not been shared with us in the Shadow for so long... It'd cause revolts and panic.
I look towards the clock. 5:49 AM was the number it blinked out. I wander over to my bed and crawl in. My feet had had enough of the frozen steel floor. The heat takes over my body, and I shiver away to more a melting feeling. From this view, I can see the moon. The colony that never moves. I truly don't understand what is the difference from here and the moon. Only thing I can think of is the fact that the perfect humans get to stay there. Then the people with tons of money can live in the Sun. Everyone else overpopulates in the Shadow.
I'm a resident of the Shadow if you didn't notice. Technically, my job is to monitor the machines from the safety of my quarters. I haven't left this room for about three years. Sad, huh? Not really. Its safer in here, although its lonely. I am not permitted to talk to anyone other than the para-medicorum, custos and Vitae, the computer.
Other weird rules are things like 'no real mirrors' or 'must take one tablet of Selerone weekly to adapt to physical enhancements.' The whole point of why I'm here is because I'm an experiment. A test on a part of the body they said needed to be fixed, changed. They meant destroyed. Why else would I be stuck here... I don't exactly remember what they did to me, but they always said 'for the best of the Shadows.'
I understand why they said to not have real mirrors. I could shatter the glass and harm myself, meaning that one of their test experimentals would be lost. And the medicine helps with pain, so that was a given. I just want to look at a mirror, just to know what I look like after all of this time. Three years without a real reflection can leave scars on ones imagination.
After a while of thinking, a lot of heat and the calm music put on by Vitae, I fall asleep once more. ~ The lights of the world outside illuminate the entire room, awakening me from my short slumber. It glows with a vibrancy I've grown to accept as the sunrise. I've never seen the sun, and most, if not all of the people here in Shadow have seen it. Only scientists that have traveled from the Sun to Shadow have, but they aren't here for long. They only want to fix one problem of the many that have come to be in the Shadow.
They can fix human life, they can fix the feeling of heat that has been lost in the Shadow, but they can't restart the earths rotation. Tch, they can do whatever they want... Not like we have a choice in the matter. The alarm on the clock bleeps as the 'sun' reaches its peak light for the day.
"Good morning, Sidera. Morning preparations are being completed. Please ready yourself for your work day."
I grumble and move my feet over to the edge of the bed. Touching down, the floor had been heated, and the air in the quarters had been warmed. The heaters got up early today apparently. I move over to the small desk that had been stationed to the right of the bed. The top most drawer on it dinged, telling me that the mornings breakfast had been completed and was ready for consumption.
"Vitae. Turn on work playlist 7."
The music starts playing quietly, and I turn on the main computer for the work. Opening the drawer, I grab the bowl of.... something, and eat. I open another drawer to release one of the pills, as the last pill has worn off by now.
"Vitae?" The music quiets down,
"Yes, Sidera?"
"Is there a water bottle with today's breakfast?" With that, the drawer that was holding the bowl shuts and opens hastily. It has a small water cup in it.
"Thank you, Vitae."
"Sorry it was forgotten to begin with, Sidera." The music returned to the proper volume and the computer booted fully. The water cup was freezing at the top, and the water in it had been starting to thaw. I drop the bowl for the cup to warm it so I could take the pill. As I have noticed, it stings to forget to take the pill, so I'd rather take it as fast as I can rather than forget.
It chills my hand to the point that I can't feel the inside of my palm. I drop it to pick up the warm bowl, and note that it the cup froze more instead of melting. This is probably why water is kept in bottles instead of cups. They freeze even when its warm enough for a human life...
I pop the pill into my mouth and take a spoonful of the substance. After swallowing, I note the flavour was like oatmeal, but a lot darker in colour. Must be a substitute for oatmeal to 'broaden the pallet.'
As the pill switches chemicals and flows through my bloodstream, I feel the sting fade away. I put down the bowl and return to the computer to work, even if that means just opening a program to monitor things for me. I created that program a while ago so that I could play through the sequences instead of working. The only thing is if I'm playing a sequence, and the program finds something, it will stop the program and flash a red light. It just gets really unsettling after a while, because the quarters lights remain a calming blue colour, as that is the sign that all things are working. The red is not a colour we see very often anymore.
We really only see black, blue and white. They are the colours that make the Shadow what it is. Darkness fills the sky, and our blue light shines as more and more technology is created, as blue is the blood flow of the technology. The white is the light of the world.
"Vitae. Find and run new sequence."
"Parameters set. Searching..." As it looks for a new program, I eat the oatmeal attempt and watch the cup of water. Its water crystallizes on the glass. The light shines through the ice, creating a source of small light. The thing is, I haven't ever watched ice form before. Its never really been in a way I could see it. Always in a black bottle, warmed to prevent it from freezing.
The lights dim to black, the music stops playing as the new sequence plays, creating the setting, with its unique noises and familiarity. I note the area as a kitchen of old, with iron cast pots and pans hanging from a rack on the ceiling. Above was also a heat release fan that was running, as what seemed to be vegetables sizzled. The sound of rushing water behind be drew my attention as I note an odd machine. It was silver, hot to the touch and was vibrating quite heavily. Another wave of the sound passes by...
"Must be a cleaning device of some form." On the counter sitting on top of it was a stack of dishes to be cleaned. Then, on a counter rising higher above this one was a collection of small oddities. Pieces of cloth there, a young plant grows somewhere else and stacks of paper lace the entire countertop. I turn back to the vegetables, and get 'thwacked' in the face with one that cooked to much, even though it passed right through me.
Noise resounds through the house as an old telephone rings. The noise halts and a voice comes through the other rooms of the house. The machine behind me clicks, leaving the water rushing out and away. It finished its routine. I pop it open and is sprayed with a hot mist. I wave it away to see what was inside.
All it had was two racks of dishes on the inside, still wet and steaming. It must have been a dishwasher so we wouldn't have to wash them. I stare to the outer area of the kitchen, where a little garden of house plants littered the floor around a table in the centre. All of the plants faced a large window to a yard outside. The yard was surrounded by large trees of all kinds, and the sky was dark and cloudy. There was no sun.
As I stare out the window, two dogs run past with vigor, and I see a man playing with them. It seems like they were playing catch. They continue to do this for a few minutes before both the man and the dogs grow tired, and retreat to the inner area of the house. Pounding of feet and panting from the dogs follow as they run in, hyper for their supper I presume. The man walks towards the dogs to feed them, but turns to me.
"Oh, hey. Hows your day been?" I almost start to respond, but the program soon ends with the words of the character I was playing as. All she said before I left was something like, 'Tiring... how about yours?"
The room returns to the normal brightness as a tone sounds on the computer. An error had been found in one of the machines apparently. I walk over to the computer to see what had gone wrong.
It states that the machinery in area 312 had been malfunctioning, creating wrong products for about .12 seconds. Any immediate positive action to prevent any more faulty products must be taken.
"Vitae. Call the moderatorum in the area 312 and tell him the machinery is out of whack. I don't know what is wrong, but just tell him to stop running the machine until the problem is identified and under manageable control."
"Understood." The music returns at a light volume. The program has no other malfunctions to notify me of.
"The current moderatorum is unreachable. Suggestion, halt the machinery from the main computer. Access to do so has been granted if you so wish, Sidera." The computer then notifies me of the access to the power grid to shutdown the machine.
"Vitae, attempt to recall with the same message."
"Understood." The computer comes up with another result, and another, and another... I keep calling out the machine's location to Vitae, but all of the moderatorum are 'unreachable'. Eventually, we get a hit, and Vitae puts the call through my quarters.
"Hello?"
"Hello, this is Vitae."
"A bot? Leave me alone. We are busy, and we don't need a bot to-"
"I am a recon bot. I am calling to tell you that your areas machinery is-"
"Its been destroyed. Some kids came in and blew it up." I check the computers response signal to all of the machinery. The machines were all becoming unresponsive one by one, every time it happens, another goes down, and the time in between gets shorter and shorter. There are enough running, but if any of the machines under the area number ten, we are as good as dead.
"Sir, might I suggest a-"
"We are already fixing it. Monitor one of the other areas, we have things here."
"We have attempted to monitor many other areas, their moderatorum is unreachable."
"Try it again. Just leave me alone." He hangs up the phone forcefully. The room turns red as the door is knocked upon.
"Vitae, who is at the door?"
"Unknown." ...It's not a custos? Who else could it be?
"Vitae, more detailed search about the person at the door." The knocking becomes more rapid and loud.
"Faster, if you can?"
"As fast as possible, Sidera. Still unknown." Who is it then? Who even knows I'm here other than the custos and the scientists...? Maybe a resident that mistook their quarters for mine.
"Sidera Occisus. You are to report out here in less than one minute, or else invasive actions will be used to obtain your personage." Sounds like a higher rank of custos. I obey his order and step towards the door.
"Sidera, this action is ill-advised. Proposal-" I grab the door handle and swing it open. Within seconds, my body is thrown to the ground as I am held by two custos. One of the custos grips my head and throws it up to face the head muneris. I scowl as much as I can, and try to fight off the two on top of me. But my struggle deems to be worthless as the two men knee my back, leaving me temporarily paralysed.
"You are under arrest for acts of terrorism that occurred on today, the 150363 sols since the the day the world stopped. Any words you say will be used against you."
~
Authors note ~ Thank you so much for reading~! Please, tell me any way I can make this better~! :3
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Post time 2017-4-13 21:45:18
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Gosh, I love the names and the concept of your story. Can't wait to read more!