Avilh and Jæih

[Nijil tr'Korjata 0]

Avilh (Earth)

 

Sunlight. Bright sunlight. Nijil stood, shielding his eyes. It must be close to noon given the position of the sun. As he brought his gaze down, he spied a tall spire a short walk away. Buildings of various sizes surrounded it. Something about all this was quite familiar. He walked toward the structures.

The wind blew softly against his face as the dirt squished beneath his feet. Pollen filled the air with the smells of early spring. The weather, all told, was perfect, save for a lonely cloud in the distance. Down the worn path he walked, feeling years younger.

The place appeared bereft of people, but why could he not remember anything? The path declined to a round patch surrounding the spire that towered over the rest of the buildings for a purpose he could not determine. Looking up from its base did not help.

“Jolan tru Daddy,” a tiny feminine voice spoke. Nijil stepped back in surprise.

 

“Jolan,” he stuttered. “Annisha, What are you doing here?”

 

“Daddy, you brought me here. This is your family farm, don’t you remember? Just like you last saw it.” She gave her signature innocent smile.

 

“It is, but this can’t be. The farm is destroyed along with most of Romulus.”

 

“Yet we are here. You never really left, did you?”

 

Nijil was puzzled.

 

“You try to leave this place, but you can’t.”

 

“Why, why can’t I leave?” He asked in earnest.

 

“It holds many good memories for you. You needed to leave here, but were sad you did so.” She placed her hands behind her back.

 

“If I hadn’t I would have likely died. I could not have warned my parents.”

 

Annisha squinted. “You could not have known.”

 

They stood silently as Nijil tried to understand.

 

“Daddy?”

 

“Yes Annisha?”

 

“Do you love me?”

 

“Why of course. You know that."

 

“But part of you is here, holding you back. Your family was here, but they are somewhere else. You need to be somewhere else too.”

 

A dark force of wind and dust crept up from the horizon and blew in circles around them.

 

“What’s happening? It’s getting windy.”

 

Annisha’s expression turned somber as she pointed behind him. “The Great Fire is coming. Look.”

 

Nijil turned to face the oncoming wind. Dust filled the horizon. He squinted to see the dust billowing to a growing orange mass of destruction.

 

“Can we stop the Great Fire?” He asked, stunned at its approach.

 

“Daddy, you know we can’t. Just as it will wipe out this place so you must leave its memory behind.” The noise became a screaming force of unnatural nature. The blowing dust swirled around the buildings. The fire itself must be kilometers behind. Both stared into oncoming death.

 

“Annisha...”

 

“I love you daddy,” she said in a calm acceptance of what lay beyond this life. He reached out to her.

 

“Annisha!” He yelled, sprinting to shield her.

 

“ANNISHA!”

 

*BANG! CRACK!*

________________

 

Jæih (Air)

 

Nijil hit a railing...hard. He expected to throw Annisha to the ground, but met up with a cold, solid bar. The dust disappeared, or rather, never seemed to be here. Metal plating replaced the soft ground of Romulus beneath his feet. Wide-open spaces were now a much narrower conduit stretching vertically into the distance. A constant wind blew from above and out some presumed vent below.

 

Nijil did not recognize this place either, but spied the words: “Level 38, Plasma Ventilation Access Shaft” above a hatch. The walls were a dark duranium. Slowly the where became clear, as if he just left this place. The why he was here remained uncertain.

 

“SubCommander,” a voice chirped over Nijil’s comm badge. The other SubCommander: Chief Jorahl.

 

Nijil tapped in acknowledgement. “Yes Chief?”

 

“Anytime Mister tr’Korjata, the valve won’t shut off manually by itself.” Odd for his boss to display a sense of humor at a time like this. They all have been working hard for hours.

 

A fleet-issue engineering kit lay as his feet. “Yes sir, right away,” he said as he bent down to grab it and climb to the next level.

 

“You know,” Jorahl spoke once more. “I’m not even sure you were the right engineer for this job. I guess the others were doing more important tasks, saving lives, that short of thing.”

 

“Sir?”

 

“Oh don’t mind me SubCommander, I’m just rattling about, about one of my less skilled engineers.”

 

Nijil could not believe what he was hearing. Jorahl, at least to his face, had not felt the need to complain. Perhaps some opinions fail to make it in official reports. Strange his Chief chose this moment to express his views. A hatch two levels above and just visible to Nijil closed shut.

 

Nijil tapped his badge. “Chief, a hatch two levels above me just closed. I presume there’s damage to the control mechanism, can you override?”

 

“No and no, subordinate tr’Korjata. I offer you a challenge. To prove your worth, shut off that valve in time and I may open the hatch to let you escape the heat that must be building up due to the plasma. Heck, I may even not blast that section of the pylon away to save the station.”

 

Now he was worried. What had come over the Chief? Nijil scanned his memories for what had ticked him off so. He just couldn’t figure it. One thing appeared certain, the temperature was rising. This forced the air flow to drastically increase to keep the power plant below critical.

 

“Ah Nijil, how about a cold glass of water.” Jorahl sarcastically offered over the comm. “How silly of me, would you like ice with that? No?”

 

Nijil found it hard to contain his anger. “I don’t know what kind sick game you are playing here, but I’m moving as fast as I am able.” He coughed from the combination of heat and upward air. “Did Jylliene put you up to this? I played pranks on others in the war college. Very funny SubCommander. Your team gets a good laugh.”

 

Jorahl himself gave a good laugh. “Oh this is not intended to be a laughing matter, but I’m sure the vastly more qualified engineers would approve. Tick tock Mister tr’Korjata, get to turning those valves and redirecting the searing heat from the plasma. Otherwise I’ll have to draw straws to see who cleans you up, if by some miracle there’s even a molecule of you left.”

 

He was serious. The elements must have rid his boss of any sense of decency. The heat seemed to rise at each interruption. He did this. He had to be responsible, but how? Nijil tossed the how aside as he reached the manual access panel.

 

“Oh Nijil,” not leaving him to his work. “If my sensors are correct you only have a few minutes. Better get those valves open.”

 

“This is madness!”

 

“Madness of the best kind. Chop chop,” Jorahl quipped. Nijl worked furiously, overriding the locks manually before turning the master valve. The locks stretched across the diameter of the valve, meaning any manual override took a bit of time for one man. After what seemed like eternity the locks were opened. Only the large wheel to turn the valve remained. The sweat dripped from his forehead at a rapid pace. His eyes stung. The engineer grabbed the wheel and turned as much as his fatigue allowed. He made a final tap on his communication badge to plea for his life.

 

“SubCommander Jorahl, please vent some of this heat, the plasma pressure is reaching critical. I beg of you.” Nijil did not want to die.

 

“Oh now you work to your potential. Too bad you chose to do so on your last engineering feat. Wait, I mean failure.” The comm remained quiet as Nijil spun the wheel. Less than twenty-five percent remained to complete the manual redirect.

 

“Jorahl! Do something! No one will die now given how much I’ve turned this valve. Beam me out!”

 

Laughing, “No, but I’ll give you something you asked for earlier. Consider this an early birthday present.” The hatch above him opened. Air from the heat ventilation had built up sizeable pressure in the chamber above him. The combination of heat and air blew Nijil clean off the platform he was working on. SubCommander Nijil tr’Korjata plummeted head over heels into the abyss below, and certain death.