rekindledtitan | Excerpt 004: Frontier Trail

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Excerpt 004: Frontier Trail

TYPE: Personal log

LOCATION: Orbit, Earth

PARTIES: Three [3]. One [1] Ghost-type, One [1] Guardian-type, designate Blaze-37, Class Titan [

rekindledtitan], One [1] Unconfirmed, designate Jesse [

notalldead]

ASSOCIATIONS: Multiversal Nexus; Jesse; the Rotten; Earth; Multiversal Phenomena; Blaze-37; Revivification; Demeter Effect

It’s funny, Blaze never expected her ship to be a place for more than herself and her Ghost. A sanctuary of sorts, and a fine sturdy little vessel, but a place for little more than work and storage in the end. And yet now she’s showing it to the fourth friend in just a few months. Not even a Guardian… or at least not the kind she’d expected to befriend.

It’s enough to make her a little conscious of how bare and rough it looks; even the padded pilot’s chair is sort of squashed and worn from bearing the metal weight of an armored Exo several years in a row. Nonetheless, it’s the only comfortable place to sit in the small cabin space, and Blaze steers Jesse that way once he’s defrosted enough to stand.

“So everything’s built into the walls,” she explains, gesturing at one apparently-solid surface after another. “Weapon and armor storage on that side, material supplies over there, workbenches and stuff on the port side. I’ll pull down the wash unit if you want to let your coat dry off.”

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"Coat and all the rest, prolly." He'd done as she suggested regarding soggy clothing, though with a self-conscious glance over towards Ghost. Ghost is male, right? He sounds male. So maybe he knows how weird it could be construed for him to be pulling clothing off in Blaze's presence. Coat, shirt, bandanna, boots and socks were eventually stripped off, though the shirt done with a good deal of hesitation. He's pretty battered underneath it. Pock marks and dark spots speckle his green skin, as well as a ring of sturdy stitches around his left arm, circling the shoulder and looping under his armpit. Blaze might recall him getting that limb yanked off during the demon incursion. Guess that was the fix for it.

The only other outstanding scar on him looks distinctly like a bite mark. Two U-shaped discoloured dents in his skin just above his right hip.

Jesse does his best to not look as awkward as he feels, and feels a bit more secure in that once his hat is plucked up and plopped back onto his head. There. Feeling more like himself already.

"You live here? Or just work? It's real cozy. Not bad at all." The zed looks around with wonder once he's taken the seat as directed, gazing at all the different panels and buttons. He is very, very careful to keep his arms close to himself; last thing they need is his elbow bumping into a button that fires rockets or activates the ejection seat or something.

Blaze gives Jesse a curious glance-over (or maybe she's still checking he's not hurt, who knows with that expression). She takes note of those scars, even if she doesn't ask about them just yet. For a couple of minutes she's pulling down the wash tent from the ceiling, locking the base into the floor and hanging Jesse's stuff inside to dry.

"We do everything here, if we're not on patrol or back in the Tower." Already cheerful at her friend's recovery, her tone warms at his compliment to her ship. "Sort of a second home. Good place to keep most of our stuff, too. Had to dig her out of a crash site and get her fixed up, but she's held up well."

Unfortunately for Jesse's nerves, Ghost is floating nearby and watching them both thoughtfully, awkward zed and oblivious Exo. At least when he speaks to Jesse it's just to comment, "I'm glad you like it. We rarely have visitors in here."

"You sleep at all? Either of y'all?" He's just curious now since living makes him think about where to put the bed. Then realizing she might not need one! That'd be kind of handy, but sleep's nice too. Jesse's kind of glad he didn't lose that little shred of human necessity. Even if it's not as necessary as it used to be.

Once he's taken in all of the panels and their many lights, the zed turns his full attention to that expanse of space out there. It doesn't matter how sparse or unremarkable it might seem to the average spacefarer; his expression is one of absolute wonder.

"Dang..."

"I run a maintenance cycle once in a while. Amounts to the same thing. Ghost's lucky: he never has to sleep. Good to have a safe place to shut down a while." She doesn't have any enthusiasm for that subject, by the sound of it. It wouldn't stick out if she weren't so cheery about everything else.

She stuffs a dry blanket around Jesse's shoulders when she comes back, figuring he'll want a little more padding. Her optics are bright at how delighted he is by the view. Sure, she sees it a lot. But she loves her world and her job, and not enough humans get to see the universe outside their City walls these days.

"So, I'm thinking we take a couple turns around the planet and then cruise out to Luna." She taps at the controls, making the view tilt as the ship noses toward Earth and accelerates out of geostationary orbit. She's not even aware of just how eager she is to show all this to Jesse. "How's that sound to you?"

"The planet?" When the nose of the ship dips towards it, Jesse gasps as it comes properly into view. He can't help himself from standing to better see it, leaning closer to the glass with his mouth agape. The blanket slides from his shoulders, forgotten in his amazement.

"Izzat-..." He looks swiftly between the view and Blaze, not wanting to take his eyes from it for to long. "Izzat Earth? It is, isn't it?"

She nods affectionately, just watching his reaction for a minute. "Yeah. Home sweet home."

With some tapping at the controls, she brings them lower. It's hard to see much besides ocean and cloud right now, especially as they're on the night side. But is that the west African coast slipping away beneath them? And the sun casting a brilliant glow along the horizon?

"We'll be coming up on the North American continent in a couple of minutes. Anywhere special you'd like to swing by?"

It takes him a long time to register that he's even being asked a question. The view, the sliver of land, that sunlight on the horizon, it has Jesse completely transfixed. His jaw hangs slack still and he leans further still until he's nearly got his non-nose pressed to the glass. He doesn't even blink. He doesn't remember to with a view this spectacular.

But the Jesse recalls that Blaze was saying something! "Wh-...North 'Merica? I-...Shoot." The first place he thinks of is Spokane, of course. His home turf for the time being. Seeing it from above would be kinda neat, wouldn't it? What it's like in this world. But then another place pops into his head, from a strange encounter in the Nexus all those months back.

"Y'think y'all can get this here ride to swoop over Alberta? Canada? Calgary, if that's, uh, if that's doable. Or even a place in yer world."

She's never seen anyone react with so much awe. Granted, how many people has she shown this to for the first time? She was dead on her feet and arguing with Hughes when he came. And she... well. Everything and nothing is wholly new to her.

It's nice, in an unfamiliar way. How often does someone like her get to share something like this?

"Just got to locate it," she says easily. She moves back as Ghost dips in over the controls, trying not to block Jesse's view.

"I'm cross-referencing our geographical database now. Do you know roughly where it... is?" The little bot's brought up a map in one corner display. It is, at least, limited to Canada so apparently they know that one for sure. "...I'm getting quite a few literary and religious references- no, those can't be right..."

Jesse finally pulls his eyes away from the view of the planet to look over the map that Ghost has kindly provided on the screen. "Uhh, think it's about there?" He taps a green finger against the left side of the country. Hopefully, it's not a touch pad that does something from his contact. Jesse seems to realize that too late and crooks his finger back, pulling a face and glancing at Ghost apologetically. Whoops?

The display ripples around his finger and makes a 'bloop!' sound, but nothing bad happens aside from leaving a glowing green dot on that spot. Ghost doesn't seem worried, perhaps because he's still in control of the ship's systems. Blaze leans over to take a look.

"I don't think we've been that way before," she comments, transferring the co-ordinates to the navigational controls and setting a course. "Let's fly by and take a look!"

"Right- oh! I think I've found it. We have records of a city in that area... refining the co-ordinates."

"Thanks." Blaze stays near the controls as they bank right and northward. Until they hit atmosphere she only needs some of her attention on the controls, so she glances at Jesse. "You know this city from your Earth?"

"Yeah. Well...Kinda." He rubs the back of his neck self-consciously, which reminds him he let the blanket fall off of him. He bends down to pick it up and put back around his shoulders as he talks.

"I talked to this slick-lookin' fella in the Nexus once, right? Had all these masks fer some kinda Japanese festival. I tried one out and it gave me this weird-...Made me remember some stuff from when I was livin'. I always just kinda assumed I was from Seattle, y'know? I woke up there. But somethin' made me remember livin' in Calgary once upon a time. Back when I still had a pulse and everythin'. And I just wonder...I dunno, will seein' it mean anything?"

Jesse shrugs and rubs his neck again. "Kinda weird, heh. Sorry."

Blaze seems to go a little quieter as he explains; perhaps it’s a trick of the eye, from the way those mechanical hands still at the controls, her motor circuits redirected to the task of piloting instead of mimicking organic motions. She shoots a look at Jesse - surprised, frowning – but he might miss it while he’s grabbing his blanket.

“Actually, that sounds interesting,” the Ghost says, first to chip in. Its gaze flicks up to Blaze for just a moment, then back to Jesse, bright and blue. “And we’re happy to help.”

Blaze nods at that. She has to. And she’s not objecting as she lets the ship descend into atmosphere (a jolt and rattle through the hull, quickly damped to a soft rumble). “Well, yeah. Just a heads-up, though, it might look very different from your Earth. It’s been centuries since anyone inhabited this region- anyone human, that is.”

"Heck, maybe it'll give me an idea of what our earth is gonna be iffen humans go outta style and things get back to nature, y'know?" Assuming that this is a post-societal situation where wildlife still exists and greenery is left to reclaim what it will.

Jesse looks a little startled at the rattle of descent, but settles down when it's clear that's standard by the way neither Ghost or Blaze react to it. The zed eases back down into the pilot's seat, tugging the blanket into place here and there. He's back to watching the view, the look of wonder soon back on his withered features. "I don't even remember what it was like to be in a plane, so this is-...Wow. It's amazin'."

It’s easier to push unwanted thoughts aside, with Jesse getting so excited right there. Easy to just be glad that he’s happy and let him see what he wants to see. No need to think any further than that. What’re the odds it’ll spark a memory anyhow?

“Only planes I know are on the scrap pile.” Blaze shoots him another look, and this time her gaze seems to soften a bit. So does her voice when she adds, “Glad you’ll get something worth remembering out of this day. Seems fair.”

She swoops them in on a steep arc, to minimize the time spent in low atmosphere. For a while all is dark below, without any city lights or traffic to break the shadow. The ship's somewhere over Ontario and high enough to see Hudson Bay on their right when the sun brightens sharply above them. They’re crossing the day-night line now, chasing the setting sun and gaining every moment. By the time they reach Old Alberta they’re low enough to have a clear view of prairies and tree stands and the odd hint of regular structures flashing by. Blaze slows their flight steadily, compensating for winds at this altitude and bringing up a second feed so they can see the view from under the ship’s nose.

“See, you tap and hold here, it'll change the magnification,” she explains with a quick demonstration. “Zoom right in and out. We can bank round for another pass if you want a second look at anything.” If Jesse’s this happy about a simple fly-by, then she’s –they’re – going to do it right.

And happily, this does look to be a future where nature survives. The small clumps of buildings they can see right now are overgrown with grass and sometimes trees; Blaze has to redirect their path around a flight of geese, and there’s more than a few groups of deer and bison visible down there. Perhaps not as many as one might expect in man’s prolonged absence, but this is definitely their land now.

He nods at the explanation, already trying it out and smiling without realizing when it does as advertised. A patch of trees is now closer, in higher detail. Another tap and it's zoomed back out again. Neat.

Once they're flying over the requested region, Jesse's gone quiet again, just watching intensely. When there's a glimpse of a deer, though, he points. "Did y'all see that!" They get a zoom in, of course, before they're out of view. And when there's bison? Well, that gets an honest-to-goodness gasp from Jesse, eyes only going wider and leaning closer to the secondary view, looking back and forth between the actual windscreen and it.

"Those're-...! Like in goldarn Dances With Wolves down there! Holy-...!"

Blaze looks surprised when he gasps, taking another look at the secondary view and the big shaggy mammals roaming around down there. Good time to do a little loop round: they're high enough that the animals don't seem bothered.

"Bison? Don't have those in your time?" she asks, unaware why they might be so remarkable to Jesse. Even if she hasn't run across a lot of big wildlife since she awoke. Apparently Golden Age conservation (and a long period of noninterference) was good enough that they don't remember it was ever necessary. "They're native to this continent, right? Haven't seen 'em elsewhere."

She might love this planet, but there's so much she doesn't know about it ~~any more~~.

"Dunno if they're still out there. Might all be gone like the horses are. Ain't never seen one either way. Heck, but they're big. Lookit how big they are! Y'all could ride one if y'all could tame one." Jesse watches the herd animals with downright childlike wonder, his smile big and bright, eyes wide and shining.

"Ain't seen an animal 'scept for cats 'n dogs 'n pigeons for a long time. Not since the sickness came."

“So it didn’t just hit humans?” That’s saddening. Can’t be good for the ecosystems. Blaze leans against the seat for a couple of minutes while they sweep around, optics flicking between the view and the way Jesse’s face just lit up. “Or is it just the zed that kill them? I don’t know if our enemies bother to hunt animals.”

She checks the sensors, adds offhand: “Better keep moving.” It’s a shame, but the city ruins aren’t far and she wants to fulfill Jesse’s request before the other locals come nosing after them. Can’t fight in the air, short of gaining the height and dropping out of a hatch onto the enemy…

Which might be worth trying, one of these days. She toys with the calculations, makes some rough mental notes.

"Zed. Zed and overhuntin', prolly. They go nuts and kill anythin' with a pulse. Animals what're slow enough or trust somethin' humanshaped enough didn't do so good." He sits back again, twisting his mouth to one side wistfully. "Main reason I figgur there ain't no more horses out there. Which is somethin' I get bummed out over every now and again. Ain't never gonna get to see one unless I do it in the Nexus or in another goldarn world. Let alone ride one. Animals don't react so good to undead sort, I've found."

“Huh. Sorry to hear that.” She doesn’t quite share that gut sadness at the loss – she knows horses feature pretty significantly in Old Earth cultures but that’s an intellectual knowledge, and just leaves it as one more thing missing among so many others. Jesse obviously loves them, though. She can feel sorry about that. “Maybe there’re some still running wild? Horses are fast.”

She checks their height as the broken spires of the city become visible ahead, adds, “Kinda hard to think of what it’d be like. Riding another being. We’ve got smart guns, but that’s different.”

"Bet it's great. Somethin' just neat about it, y'know? It'd be a little like y'all and Ghost, I think. Not that yer ridin' around on him, though that'd be a hoot to see y'try. I mean just havin' this partnership with another livin' thing. Y'all dependin' on one another, havin' this understandin' between y'all, seein' the world together..." He smiles a little at the thought. "It'd be swell. Real swell."

Jesse straightens up some when he spots the same as Blaze; those incoming ruined towers. "That it? Calgary? Or what's left of it anyhow."

Blaze grunts in sudden understanding. “Put that way, I see what you mean. A companion like that is a fine thing to have.”

“If these co-ordinates are correct, that must be it. Old Calgary.” The Ghost, too, is watching the viewscreens with fascination. Post-Golden Age the city’s towers are taller and sleeker and much more numerous. On the outskirts, they fly past some sort of ancient aerospace port, a couple of chunky transport ships lying abandoned around the main terminal. The stretches of visible highways are lined with dark blots of rusted-out vehicles.

Blaze doesn’t think to comment on that: it’s what she expects to see around a city, and her attention is on getting them safely in to wherever this city kept its heart. To the old old city, where Jesse might recognize some of the weathered buildings and shifted park outlines and overgrown monuments.

“All right, I’m taking us right in. Give me the heads-up if any landmarks look familiar.”

Jesse is suddenly attentive again, sitting forward in his seat again, craning his neck to see all he can and looking from one catch of the eye to another.

Seeing this place overgrown and abandoned, destroyed in some spots, is...not sad, but it's something along those lines. Haunting? That might be it. Sobering? Though he does take some comfort in seeing that plant life continues to thrive and is hard at work taking back the land.

Everything that looks like a distinctive building, a landmark, an important street, he stares hard at it. Hoping something like a memory or at least a stirring of one will take place in his head. Even if it's not HIS Calgary, it's still Calgary, right? Maybe even just the lay of the land, a particular route, something, will conjure some kind of recognition.

But the further they go and the longer he goes without anything resembling an epiphany or recollection, the more Jesse starts to realize that's just not how these things work. Because that is what he hoped for, wasn't it? Something would spark inside him and he'd suddenly remember who he was and what he did before he died. In whole, not just the vague patches that feel more like he's remembering facts about another person entirely. But nothing. There's nothing. Just a city as dead as he is.

"What happened here anyhow?" he finally asks, determined not to dwell on his disappointment. It was irrational, what he was hoping for.

Even a slow cruise means they’re sweeping through the city fast, but Blaze cuts their speed as much as she can. Once in a while she glances back at Jesse, optics searching his expression for any sign of recognition. Instead there’s just the dawning of disappointment; she looks back to the viewscreen with mixed feelings. Regret, for her friend. But perhaps also relief.

“Can’t give you a good answer on that. We don’t know much about what happened during the Collapse. Might have been taken by Fallen armies – I know they tore into Earth hard back then. Maybe people had the chance to evacuate first – try to get offworld if they could.”

It’s not a story with much chance for a happy ending, at least not for any one group. She knows what they’d find in there if they landed. Cracked open a shelter or checked the wrong pit. There’s a milder climate here, and plenty of scavengers, but she’s seen how deep the bones are piled in places with less of either.

"Who're the Fallen? They got somethin' against humans in particular?" The name makes him think of the zed and he sort of hopes that wasn't the case. He hates to think of other worlds facing the same tides of undead he deals with on a daily basis.

"I'm guessin' there ain't no hope of resettlin' this city or any other like it, huh. Somethin' nasty's moved in or left it in such a state that it's a bad idea."

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