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The Chronicles of Rina Balan - Part THREE |
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Somewhere in space
742536 woke up a few hours later. She looked around her and remembered everything that had happened. She curled into a ball. She was scared and all alone in a very strange place.
“Good morning,” said Arulia.
“Arulia?”
“Yeah?”
“Where exactly are we?” The screen in front of her had full of menus on all of the systems and control. But they vanished and she could see through a glass window. Blackness was all around them, lit up by the countless stars.
“Beautiful isn’t it?”
“Wow,” said the girl, “What is it?”
“Space, this is where I come from.”
“You come from here?”
“Yes.”
“I like it here. Are we moving?”
“Yes.”
“Where are we going?”
“The closest planet is Menaka. We need parts.”
“Okay.”
“So, I was thinking about what I should call you. Because I certainly can’t refer to you as a number. I swear that’s just weird.”
“Okay?”
“I have a list.” A list appeared on the screen. She looked at it.
“Um?”
“Do you know how to read?”
“Only what Grandmother taught me, which wasn’t much. There’s no use for it when you’re a slave and it’s forbidden.”
“Okay, one problem at a time. You know what? I’ll just read it to you so listen up,” said Arulia, “This is what I got: Jala, Heva, Kilula, Rina, Letu.”
“Rina, I like Rina.”
“Me too, now a last name.”
“Last name?”
“It’s like a family name. Rina is your personal name then a second name which you share with your family.”
“I don’t have a family.”
“I know, but you need a last name.”
“What’s yours?”
“A ship takes on the name of its owner or pilot.”
“What name do you want?”
“I’ve always liked the name Balan. It was the name of my very first pilot. He was a good man.”
“I like it, then that will be our name, our family name, the both of us. Balan, Rina Balan and Arulia Balan. I am Rina Balan.”
“Okay Rina Balan, there’s still a lot of work we have to do before we reach Menaka and I want to teach you how to read.”
“Okay.” She was happy to work. She didn’t want to think about anything else. And Arulia was right, they had a lot of work to do.
Meteor Field
Rina, who still wasn’t used to the name, had been working on the hyperspace engines to the result of having absolutely no luck. They’d been flying for a little over a month. However today was one of the days she was learning how to read. Arulia had been trying and she was quite smart. It was going quite well. Until they were interrupted by a few loud bangs on the sides of Arulia.
“What was that?” asked Rina and Arulia took the screen down.
“Meteor Shower.”
“A what?”
“Never mind, it’s trouble.”
“What do we do?”
“Without shields and inertial dampeners we’ll be torn to pieces.”
“Steer away.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“When I fly myself in autopilot I can only go in a straight line.”
“Then what are we-?”
“You’re going to have to pilot me.”
“ME!? But I don’t know-?”
“I trust you. You’ve been working on my systems for almost five months; you know them backwards and forwards. I’ve given you lessons in this. You can do this. I believe in you.”
“Okay.” She looked at the screen. She knew what she had to do. She took a deep breath and sat down in the pilot’s seat. She knew the basics of flying. She closed her eyes; she knew that was wrong the exact wrong decision to do. But she also knew that she would freak out if she looked. She felt that same strange rush of instinct she had felt the day she had killed Durna. She still had no idea of what had happened. One minute Durna was about to kill her and the next thing she knew Rina had blown her across the room, she’d done it somehow, with her mind. Now she was doing something in the same way but it wasn’t the same thing, not exactly.
Then the most amazing thing happened. She could see but her eyes were still closed. She saw all of the meteors; she could feel where they were. She grabbed the controls and pulled. Arulia took off. This was harder than she’d thought; it felt like the ship was taking power from her. She dodged the meteors with perfect style. It looked like the meteors were moving. But she knew they weren’t, all of the things were floating around in her head. It was so much information, she hadn’t had it all before and she didn’t know where it was coming from. She screamed as she moved the controls with an unnatural speed. After thirty or so minutes they broke free.
“Rina! Rina! You did it, we’re out!” Rina moaned, her voice so full of pain that reflected what she was feeling inside her head.
“Ow,” said Rina and she passed out. She slid out of her seat and hit her head on the chair. Her last thought had been, “I definitely should’ve died.”
“RINA!!” yelled Arulia and she realized what had happened, “How did that just happen? That shouldn’t be possible. I mean I knew she could fly but her eyes were closed. She was, she was, she couldn’t have been. But she was, she was in me, she was in my mind. She’s a fool, I’m a machine, there’s no way she could handle all of that information. This is bad.”
Somewhere else in space - not a Meteor Field
Rina woke up after a long while, three days. She thought she was going to throw up. She only vaguely remembered how she had gotten on the floor.
“Are you okay?” asked Arulia.
“AHH!” yelled Rina as she clutched her head. It was in so much pain.
“Sorry.” Rina struggled to her feet and fell over. She felt horrible.
“What happened?”
“I’ll explain later. How are you feeling?”
“Bad.” She stood up again, she was shaking
“More specific?”
“Really bad.”
“Rina?”
“Really, really bad.” She fell over.
“Obviously.” Rina got up again and fell in the other direction.
“Ow,” said Rina as she sat
“Just stay down.” She fell over onto her back.
“Ow again.”
“Rina?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I will be. So what happened?”
“Well, apparently you’re the craziest person in the universe.”
“Huh?”
“You entered my mind!”
“I did?”
“Yes, I’m a machine, as in smarter than you. I have a far larger mind, you could’ve killed yourself. Next time you want to synchronize with me, tell me so I can protect you.”
“Syn what?”
“Synchronize. You didn’t do this on purpose did you?”
“Do what?”
“You have power, Rina.”
“Power?”
“That’s why you can talk to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve never been able to talk to a human, ever. But with you I can.”
“What do mean ‘never’?”
“Not once, in my whole, very long, life time.”
“What?” Rina tried to sit up again.
“Have you ever talked to a machine before?”
“You’re the first machine I’ve ever met.”
“Oh? Well I bet you can talk to anything electronic.”
“Huh?”
“Have you ever done things?”
“What kind of things?”
“Move things with your mind, read another person’s thoughts?”
“Well, when I have a heavy load I’ll kind of make it lighter. I’m not sure how though I just imagine it is and then it is.”
“All this time and you’ve had powers.”
“Powers?”
“Special abilities that no one else has.”
“No one?”
“You’re the only I’ve ever met.”
“So you don’t talk to people often?”
“More like never.”
“What?”
“I’ve never talked to a human being before, not once.”
“I’m freak.”
“Rina?”
“I really am a complete weirdo, a freak of nature, not even human, probably less than human too, just like Durna always said.” She was staring at nothing with a look of desperation and sadness. She wouldn’t have noticed that Arulia was mad had she not turned up side down.
“DON’T YOU EVER SAY THAT!” yelled Arulia, “NEVER! You are human and if you’re not then you’re more than human, you’re superhuman. You got that?”
“Yes,” said Rina in a shocked voice and Arulia turned right side up, “And ow.”
“Sorry, but you have no idea how lucky you are,” said Arulia, “And I found you. You don’t know what’s it’s like to be as if you’re dead and suddenly be alive.”
“Yes, I do.” There was a long pause. Arulia knew the kid was right and she couldn’t help it, she loved the little girl. And it was more than just because she was literally the only one Arulia could talk to, it was more about what they talked about. She like she could tell Rina anything and plus she was absolutely adorable.
“Fine, well I’ll have to help you learn how to control them.”
“And teach me how to read?”
“While you’re repairing me.”
“Plus piloting lessons?”
“Fine, fine.”
“YEAH!”
“Well at least we won’t get bored in the next couple of months.” If Arulia had a mouth, she’d be smiling. The tone in her voice was enough to be a smile. And of course she was right. Rina’s time was completely occupied. It was a good thing too, because she needed something to distract her. Every night when she fell asleep the nightmares would come. Some were bad to the point where she woke up without being able to breathe. It was hope that kept her going in the worst times. That was all she had, the hope of a better life. She’d never had hope before. But she needed a plan. Floating in space was fantastic but to get the parts Arulia said they would need money.
 Zegwarian310 · Wed Aug 15, 2007 @ 05:29am · 0 Comments |
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