Chapter 46 – Three Broad Problem

 

Lake gave them a wave and began to leave, the sun setting down over the sea as the metal shark-jaw atop the space faring vessel took off into the stars. Outside a few mechanical drones Wave Mistress managed the rather large ship by herself. Nine had a little bit of a snit with Wave Mistress upon boarding, due to the latter putting the former in a very tiny child-sized seat with seatbelts and straps that Nine resisted fiercely. The journey was short, as the ship accelerated fast, taking a half dozen hours to reach the warpgate nearby without detection from the warring factions going around Orchid. The gate pushed them through dimensional space into Xi itself, right outside the local solar system.

Becca and Nine watched it enter the distant haze, looking at the far-flung stars and constellations around it. They quickly traveled through the oort cloud in a matter of hours, then approached the terrestrial planets. When they arrived a little ways past Mars, Wave Mistress stopped the ship. "You have a specific dropoff in mind?" She asked.

Becca looked at the chart of the solar system on the screen. "Since I need to find Euphoria and the godshards, I'll need to scower through the boltholds. And try to contact Jack and the gems while I'm at it. That'll require an entryway in the Lots on Earth."

Wave Mistress coughed. "See that's going to be a problem hun.." She scratched her voluminous hair. "See the earthen territories have since been, occupied and patrolled in the last few years. They're kinda a hotbed of unrest, and have entire fleets watching them carefully."

Nine raised her paw. "Just let me take care of them, a few ships is nothing."

"Hey, I'm not stopping you. It's your adventure." She spoke firmly. "But.. I don't think a 3-year old Luminary with some Akura powers could make it through the security without.. getting noticed. Don't you think?" She looked at the monitor, zooming into thousands of ships parked right outside of the surface of earth. "I can drop ya off hun, no problem. It's getting off that'll be an issue, you get what I mean?"

Becca and Nine bit their lips. They looked at each other, the only ones left from the old world who might be able to help them. "Hm.. we'll try.."

"You got it, you're the boss." She smiled.

So the Wave Mistress decided to let the two of them out on the asteroid belt. They found a Lots' HQ out among a series of asteroids a little ways past Mars, with the boltholds at the heart of the Solar System well within Earth's orbit. The Lot's asteroid HQ itself was a small station attached to an asteroid about the size of a 3-story condo, reinforced with enough steel and lead casing to survive atmospheric re-entry and basic life support systems. Tens of thousands existed spread out from the old days of Xi's merchant past, where managers would oversee resource extraction from the comfort of these dingy structures, now mostly robbed of all comforts and amenities by pirates and vandals. "It's simple, we'll drop you from space. No one will suspect a

random Lots container crashing down. I mean, they normally might- litters and lazy smugglers do it all the time, but given the state of the entire planet right now I doubt they'll kick up a fuss."

Becca wasn't really sure what she meant, just that it seemed like a good idea to her. But when she looked at Nine unbuckling their tiny seatbelt, she had her reservations.

"I'm going to need a favor.." And turned to Wave Mistress. "Can you get the little one back to Lapis? Or even any of her gem friends, if you know them."

Nine raised a furious glare. "W-what!? I can handle myself!" She protested.

"At your size, I'm afraid that isn't so." Becca told her. Wave Mistress's face went sour. "I'm not babysitting some punk." But turned to the monitoring screen. "Then again.. Do you know how dangerous this planet is right now Maybe I should take the brat cat with me."

Nine looked at Becca with her hand to her chest. She began to protest, but her little hands clenched, her knuckles crackling. "..If I must."

Becca hugged Nine, and gave her a long, lingering kiss. "It'll be alright.." She pat her friend's head. "When I get back.. I want you to tell me all about 'this' jewel on my forehead, okay?" She pointed to the red diamond still indented into her skull, shining and embedded on the surface.

Nine scowled, and then smiled. "Uh.. yeah, I guess that's a really good idea."

Soon the Caldari woman helped fasten Becca into the safety capsule within the asteroid HQ. "Thanks, good luck Iris!"

Wave Mistress's big shiny eye glazed and she gave Becca a look. "You too kid." She entered the bridge the ship began to take off, soon arriving around Europa, where she planted a few nuclear fusion-mines set to go off in a few hours time. Then with the HQ still in the ship's haul, she flew to a less populated hemisphere above Earth- sliding down just about close to the surface without crashing down.

"Aren't they going to detect and stop you?" Nine asked.

"Detect? Sure. Stop.." Irishoals saw about seven other vessels soon pass their own, heading towards the planet. "I doubt it, but they'll be made if we get caught dumping cargo. Luckily, we won't." The mines on Europa went off, large swaths of the security around Earth fleeing when massive fireballs erupted. Europa was well known for its ancient fuel deposits of hydrogen and helium aswell as anti-matter waste from Jupiter, an incident on the moon would've caused a panic even to a cautious civilization, and the current regime was anything but. Wave Mistress's POSEIDON II began to slide down the atmosphere until it landed above what was once Greenland. Its back haul opened its cargo container, the HQ sliding down like an oversized fridge until it went slamming towards the ground with the dictation of gravity. Its automated graviton-thrusters slowed its descent when it reached the surface, but were centuries out of repair causing the structure to skid and throttle a fair deal. The top smoked like a hazy vent out a burning stovetop.

Becca popped out, undoing her buckled straps and ignoring the smell of burnt plastic casing. It took her a few moments to adjust her senses to the new location, the temperature had dropped a few degrees and a thick haze of smoke hung above her. The planet's gravity felt different, the pull of it tugging her down at a different angle to the heavy gravity of Gaia’s on Orchid. She looked around at the empty Greenland territory, seeing the structure itself was set up within a clearing, next to a vast field of rubble and burnt ashes.

 

 

"Well here we go again. The big bad scary world of.. Earth."

The ancient territory of Greenland was spared the expanse of Lots, mainly due to the immense cold and poor viability of being repurposed into storage space. It was upon seeing the cold wilderness, that Becca realized she'd fucked up. She looked down, realizing there were no resources here. No farms, no stores, no civilization to make up for her trip, and certainly no Lots. "What a shitshow.." The girl grumbled.

She quickly ran through the territory, hoping to find any sign of civilization distance, but finding none. But instead, the landscape was a hilly snow-capped desert broken by jagged mountain ranges and valleys in the rocky arid desert. She hiked the area for a few hours, but gave up after the lack of any sort of sign. She made her way back to the structure, and began digging into plastic containers of food, alongside a mini pocket-sized electric Kosmocorp Heat'em Up™ which heated her meals in 18 seconds flat, unlike the 10 falsely advertised. These were left by Iris just in case.

She was thankful she did, but still felt a bit empty-stomach by the prospect.

After about a week, trapped in the freezing mountains a searchlight from a small ship above finally arrived, piercing through the blizzard that night. Becca was shivering when it came down and threw her a ladder to climb into the cockpit. The woman introduced herself as Irene of Nidari, a local small Norwegian country that became defunct by the 22nd century.

Within the hour she was flown Nova Scotia where a large lighthouse along a mostly abandoned village remained. The lighthouse was 22m in circumference and 160m high, housing dozens of families within multiple floors, the top belonging to Irene and her husband, Marian, and their daughter Rust who lived like a small community within a small town.

 

 

Rust

The broad, curvy girl with a set of braided pigtails brought soup for their guest. Her new friend had a prosthetic cyan-blue hand with glowing tendrils, a scarlet diamond on her forehead was bright in by her mother, who followed the coordinates of the falling HQ streaking through the sky on a night run. Her father wore an oversized kofte patterned jacket with a ski-hat, her mother a piloting hat with a visor and a tiny mock propeller atop.

She told Becca that the planet was in a state of war- or at minimum, anarchy and that it had been since awhile back when one of the Elderdragons declared asylum to this planet to everyone in Xi looking for it. Marian had spent nearly a decade as a merchant before the recent incursion and knew Earth like the back of his hand. The majority of the world was abandoned the past millennium, Rust told Becca as she poured her hot cocoa, but a few remnants and locals remained. Millions, even as the Earth's population had died down, but the planet's ecosystem had been restored and it was a very viable planet to visit again, in spite of thousands of miles of Lots covering the surface continents which left most of the planet landfills and junkyards. The lighthouse remained a local staple, it's function of guiding travelers still relevant. Rust herself could hardly believe that in the distant past, there used to be billions of humans across the globe- about 22 billion spread over the content and mega-cities, but that was all ancient history now.

Rust gave Becca a warm embrace, feeling that there was something about the lost traveler that called to her. She was a little pudgy for Becca's taste, but said taste found the soup she'd cooked serviceable. 114 people lived in the lighthouse, and around 10578 in the local village outside it, all of them of Nidari origin. The lighthouse stood in the center of a vast seaside village, with a large, tall wall surrounding it so that no one could by foot enter without the village noticing less they fly over. The wall kept the hydrabears and megafauna out, BlizLizards and Gigarams The wall was 48 feet tall and 8 feet thick, made of sandstone and limestone, reinforced with steel plating at the interior. Many new villagers had come in the last decade from the Lots territories, leaving the Lots for various reasons, chief among them was the incursions from Xi asylum-seekers. Due to the town being built for a population of 250K in the past, most of the village was quiet and abandoned. Marian owned an old starship- a M2400 X-Scooter, a series of older 24th century era ships made for below-atmosphere travel and exploration which could reach the moon (Or what half was left of the moon after the nuclear fire-raids during the wars against XIMAS) with a few pricey fusion-drive upgrades, but he hadn't had the time to install any. He let Rust and Becca borrow it in the successive days.

Exploring outside the walls, the two were allowed to borrow the X-scooter and venture into the wilderness- trees now reaching 450m high with thick trunks the size of skyscrapers, which the locals called 'The den of the devil.' They parked atop the canopy and the two climbed into a branch large enough to be a bridge in ancient societies. When Becca brought up the engima, Rust drew blanks. She'd never heard of it, such things were completely unknown far out in the small world of earthen remnants. "This is really beautiful out here, isn't it?" Rust asked, her chubby cheeks huffing. "I love coming out here, it's so peaceful and quiet out here."

Becca looked around at the lush foliage and canyons, her feet crunching into the bark beneath her. She'd never felt this out of place before, no matter how different this world was.

But here in Earth, the nature felt ancient and alive. "It's nice, for now." She sighed.

Rust put her hand on Becca’s shoulder and gave her a weighty pat, trying to reassure her of the way of all things. Action and inaction, ancient pasts and uncertain futures, the gravity of events. They all seemed to blow off Rust like the breeze, for in her village and peaceful life from the vantage of a mere lighthouse, she felt as if she was an all-seeing observer to the annuls of time. What came before, civilizations that had long fallen was always of curiosity to her, but

no lingering weight, like a statue poised to clutch you but never able to grasp in. As free as the leaves and empty as the wind, that's how she felt.

In the scale of all things, Rust lived happy knowing her own life was nothing but a blip in it. "It's fine to be anxious, but don't dwell. Live the life you've got now and the present is all you can control." She told Becca.

They ventured for miles through the high canopy, until they crossed over and came to the top of a great, towering cliff. The rock was a rusty, crumbling magma-rock that crunched and shattered underfoot with the weight of one person walking on it, requiring them to transverse carefully. She saw a glittering spire rising from the top of the cliff far into the skies- a skyscraper with a hole in the side of it, overgrown with roots and trees growing out, a room with a giant window looking down at a great and massive body of water on one side and the cliffside on the other, the facility going deep into said cliff for its many clandestine facilities. On the opposite end of the window was an office of sorts. Rust helped Becca navigate into the office entrance from the bottom, walking around the lake below. They had to move vines and thorns that had overcrowded the stairway because the elevator was long out of power. When they arrived near the top, they looked over the cubicles and offices. Coffee mugs sat with long-dried out fluids, papers faded almost beyond recognition, office chairs still left about. The entire office was in a millennium-long state of stasis. Part of the bridgehead to the cliff-situated rooms were tilted and uneven due to the erosion of the cliffside overtime.

“They were actuaries.” Rust said. “The company’s job was to assess the risk of civilization-shattering threats and stability, to assign insurance payous for big corporations and report them to the government at the time prior to the era of XIMAS.” She blew the dust off a

slim computer screen and keyboard. “Kind of like oracles of ancient times, you know? They were very important people to predict trends. But…” she glanced at Becca as if wondering if she should say more, but she did anyway. “One way or another, the future came! It wasn’t what they predicted. XIMAS infected the consciousness of machines everywhere and murdered everyone. They actually, from what I read in history books had a 1% prediction chance of such self-aware AI emerging, and resolved to account for it.” She sat on a chair covered in foliage, leaves, branches and roots growing through the cracks of concrete and into the ceiling. “Tell me, how much do you payout a company for the end of the world? When you, with your future algorithm- oracles and seer programs crunch the numbers and know for sure the gig is up, what’s the price of oblivion?”

Becca snorted. “The price of oblivion huh?” She remembered Fixers arguing over such things all the time in her day. Nuclear strikes threatening to hit NeoCity- pay was always something negotiable. Everything had a price. It was just a matter of who was willing to pay it.

She huffed. “Well girl, if you ask me, a lighthouse keeper’s daughter like you would know a lot about predicting and weathering storms.”

Rust nodded with a shrug. “Storms come and go. They always do. They’re frightening sometimes but.. That’s what makes them so beautiful.”

“Beautiful, huh?” Becca murmured, a thoughtful, pensive expression on her face. “It makes you feel alive, like, knowing how unimportant your tiny world is in the grand scheme. Like what we’re doing is important even if it won’t matter in the next 500 years.” “Like you’re alive and not dead. How you’ve been thinking all this time.” Rust said. “Something like that.” Becca mused, her face blank as she thought on it.

“Don’t you ever want to leave earth for Xi? Civilization here ended on this planet ages ago. I’m no psychologist but, seems like a very odd scene. Do you plan to run the lighthouse like your dad?”

“If I could be so lucky.” Rust joked. ‘Well, actually I’d say no. It’s been three centuries with nothing to do but look at the sea and watch the light flicker. It’s so small down here. I’m fine with living in the past. So many people- like these company guys from way back to the oracles of Delphi wanted to predict the future, control it, live two steps ahead. But not many people appreciate the beauty of studying and caring for the past.”

Becca wiped some dust from an old photograph, a salary man, his wife and two kids displayed behind the glass. “You just want to live in the past?”

“Someone has to keep it alive.” Rust scratched her head. “Earth’s past probably isn’t special in the grand scale of the universe. But … Maybe the whole thing just happens in a loop where some of the people are stuck in it, always coming back to a same place every time. Maybe, once you go far enough back in history, you’ll see yourself.”

“See yourself?”

Rust blushed, staring at the cracked tiles above. “Myself. Like a reflection, y’know? Go far enough back and you’ll catch up with yourself.”

“Ha..” Becca lost it, snorting and laughing. “Sounds like fortune cookie bullshit to me.” The two stayed near a windowsill as darkened clouds appeared, rain drizzling and thunderclouds soon striking overhead. For about three hours they watched the weather strike over, in a fortune telling building made to predict the end of the world 16 centuries removed from time. After the rays of light returned, Rust pointed to the sky. “See? What’d I say.”

She beamed. “The storms always pass.”

A few days later, they'd grown accustomed to their new home and routine. After a 1 week, the lighthouse had run short of supplies and rations, so their ship made an exploratory trip to scavenge around the seaside- finding a ship filled with goods and other supplies for the villagers. The next week, they began preparing to go north into North America and Asia, which had massive Lots of their own. Becca went with Marian and Rust to see for herself in an area of what was once Thailand- seeing the supposed incursion. "I need to find some of Caldera's old warp-port checkpoints. The only way I know thru the Boltholes is to find a warpstation down here properly, but if I cannot even look through the Lots than I cannot get in." She eyes the large mobs scowering the Lots. "Why did they all come here?" She asked.

"We didn't know for awhile. There's supposedly been a civil war, and one regime clearly came out on top. People don't wanna be apart of that.." He handed her binoculars, Becca looking at hundreds of raiders searching the Lots like scavengers. "Same as we small folk down here on Earth, I guess. My papi stayed here, his papi, and our family hundreds of years ago didn't want to be a part of Xi either. So I sympathize. But.." The scavengers found presumably a container with exotic valuables, and a gunfight broke out with dozens firing back and forth, whatever was hidden inside became more valuable than their lives. "Those ones are abit involved. No manners. Will kill each other for scraps."

Rust chewed on some granola as she watched the fight unfold.

"I know there's a rumor that the Xians are planning to take over the entire planet. A few people have tried to fight back and it looks like they're.. spreading?" She looked at Becca. "But I doubt it. I mean, the Xi government is still technically apart of Earth, right?" Becca had a bad feeling about their uncomfortable silence.

Slowly Marian shook his head. "Girl.. I don't know how to tell you this but, the 'Xi government' out in space doesn't exist anymore. Anyone still resisting, fled to Earth. It would be more accurate to say this planet is now the last free refuge of Xi- although it's not even really free. The new lords of the castle so-to speak have planted their horses right above the planet as a military blockade, making sure they stay down here.

"What!?"

"Yeah.. what I just said."

The two went down to the local village. The sun had set now, and the sky was hazy with ash and dust. Villagers came to greet them, carrying a local dish Becca tried and loved. As she sat in the village looking over the sparkling ocean via a glass-partition in the town's wall, she stuffed her face joyfully. Rust was happy just to make a friend. "I've- mphff this is good. I need to get to the Lots without some asshole scavengers, is there anyway I can talk to the, uh, Xi- government interned on earth? Or whatever refugees are left here?"

Rust swallowed, nervously holding her spoon over a halo of breaded creamy soup. "Well- We can take you there, but you may not like it. I mean, I certainly didn't from what I saw." The girl's eyes widened.

"What? Like a prison?"

"Hm.. yes. And- No. More like, a massive Ghetto." Becca's eyes widened.

 

Palmer

Beyond the northern clicks in the great Outback, there was a giant sea of Xi refugees. All colors, shapes and sizes were present. They had begun to build cities. They used a mixture of old and new technologies, such as reclaimed space elevators and Sydney's dug up Lots- rebuilt and repurposed to connect the sky and the ground. In the middle of a new, modern metropolis several years ago, Palmer could recall when she sat on the rooftop of a luxurious skyscraper with her boyfriend and his friends. They'd met said new friends a few months prior in their city. He was a former Xi military man who'd fought in the Xi-Set wars and later defected, but was never caught in the midst of the Enigma's undoing of Xi. He then became a high-tech mercenary and adventurer. She'd worked for a local shipping firm before deciding to quit. She still loved space- just not working for a big bad corp. And the last thing she wanted when the leadership turned over was to be anywhere near the new regime's diktat. The two had been on a job shipping tested electron-artillery arrays when they'd received the great call of distress from the then- former leader of Xi.

The leader known as Ameisa Byte. As an elderdragon she'd lead the charge, the war she'd lost in a legendary undertaking of subterfuge. Using a newfound network of wormhole technologies to transport entire cities of Xi off-world onto Earth itself, in one of the most spacious and only habitable portions- a land in ancient times, known as Australia. Right as she began this asylum project, Ameisa had sent out a grand broadcast throughout the stars, to all of Xi unsatisfied with their takeover to come and find her and live under the leader's roof. She used her wormhole fleet to bring over entire cities, in an undertaking called "The Great Return Home." A return to Xi's ancient origin, the planet of Earth? The now abandoned wasteland of Lots and scattered wanderers, locals and mutated beasts? It was daring to say the least.

 

 

And yet many did heed her call- more than she could've hoped for or expected. More than she ever could've planned for.

Approximately 564 million Xians chose to join her colony to flee from the new regime.

 

 

Whether not wanting to live under the encroaching new regime, loyalty to Xi and Ameisa, or just simple curiosity to her call- the people came in waves- millions upon millions. They used various wormholes to fly over, circumnavigating the regime's military might and set down in a large city now known as Neo-Brisbane. For a while this techno utopia was lively and thriving, with its own governmental leadership, industries and military. Atleast until the Enigma hit it like a brick. After many years of fast growth and build-up, it began to crumble. Electricity and powerlines failed, nuclear fusion cores malfunctioned, power plants exploded releasing deadly radiation, and media and communication technology was heavily disrupted. Without working power, order and supply lines collapsed swiftly. Ameisa even went so far to accuse the new regime of controlling the Enigma and weaponizing it, which many accepted as the truth.

But regardless, it meant a ways into the project, the city crumbled as a viable asylum colony. This forced Ameisa and her interim government to take what still-working, unaffected

technology they could for the refugees and build shelters and communities outside the city. Avoiding radiation sickness and sweltering disease was one of the reasons the African continent was uninhabitable, the radiation from previous nuclear had rendered it uninhabitable and mutated the animal-life there to horrifying, monstrous proportions in jungles that overtook mountaintops. The other continents were mostly lots, or equally mutated ‘Mega Jungles’ like South America had become and were unlivable for hundreds of millions.

As the city crumbled, the refugees took to Ameisa's shelters outside and made camps in the outskirts. The new city was a dystopian nightmare by that point, its citizens had been mostly starved into poverty, the only thing keeping it going were the refugees themselves turning to gang violence. They'd kept a new auxiliary government going in the city- led by a man named Nitrous Nostradamus. But his power was mostly limited, with limited military personnel to try to keep some semblance of order in a lawless city.

The outskirts and camps were no better however. They had their own government- a sort of council and military leadership which Ameisa oversaw, and a large network of these camps and cabins were established. In order to try and prevent a nuclear meltdown, the refugees were forcibly and quickly moved out of the city to avoid radiation sickness. The haste and disorganization however had led to a massive population of half a billion with an unstable living situation.

Nitrous Nostradamus was elected dictator a few years later in the crumbling urban city as Ameisa Byte continued on her work outside of the city in the camps, in the Outback. He offered her additional security personnel and means of organization in the overpopulated camps and plains across, managing rows of shelter which went for hundreds of miles. She led the way, as she always had, being an elderdragon of Xi. The supposed new frontier that Ameisa had hoped to create, became a ghetto for poverty, hunger, sickness and lawlessness with a 10-fold higher population than it was meant to hold. Food factories unaffected by the Enigma were slower and less efficient than necessary and couldn’t keep up with demands, requiring additional actual subsistence farming in large plots of land, which was difficult due to pockets of radiation from centuries of fallout in the past. After a half a decade of disorganization and the Enigma plaguing the city, everything broke down and whatever semblance of order had nearly dissolved, Ameisa just barely-surviving by the skin of her teeth in what may as well become the galaxy’s largest ghetto.

For Palmer Tess, she'd lived in a single standard-issue cabin with 8 other girls, her boyfriend in a separate cabin with 5 families. He'd had his leg broken trying to get in line for rations when they'd announced they were short and stampedes occurred. He'd tried to get medical aide, but Hospital corps and camps were already overstocked and supplies limited and ended up losing one of his legs. As she'd sat on a roof of her cabin watching the sunset, she noticed a few men watching the horizon, their binoculars trained on a few floating dots. Palmer asked one of her roommates for one of their electro-spec scopes to look out, and soon she climbed back atop the roof to follow the same dots the men were. It was some sort of atmospheric starship cruiser coming in at 4500 m/s approximately, from the northeastern hemisphere.

She thought it was something coming to help- but it hadn't, the cruiser didn't come down nor contact the city below it. It'd floated in the air, a few hours outside of the city. Palmer climbed down from the rooftop and went back into the cabin to share meals with Mama Aguilar, a kind crone who had taken care of them all. Aguilar used to be an executive for a rich corp, a 3rd generation heiress before the Xi frontline collapsed. She had even considered joining the Domestic Society like her sister at some point, but decided thru and thru her heart was with Xi. By the time Palmer got back on the roof, the dots had disappeared- leaving nothing behind.

But in its place, something had transpired a few miles down near the marketstreet district of their camps, which was right next to Ameisa's 3-story executive shack. Palmer and her friends saw a few figures in a black robe, Nostradamus’s boys, marching the way to Ameisa's shack with two large soldiers atop giant horses. The soldiers were both in black armor, one with a black cape akin to those of and a red scarf. These weren't Ameisa’s personnel Xian guards, but they brought someone with them and dragged her into the shack, the red-star flickering overhead the "Government" building in a holographic flag. Thousands of others were rapidly gathering nearby.

She climbed back down and asked Aguilar when the next sandferry was. The kindly woman with her white starched mane of hair and wrinkled eyes told her not for another two hours. Rather than wait, she walked a few blocks to her boyfriend's shack, asking if she could borrow his Piston-Hog, a road vehicle akin to a flying motorcycle that could make it to the spaceport near the city in 3 hours- the market would be a 5 minutes drive. She'd wanted to find out what was going on. He waved her goodbye from his wheelchair, and told her to keep her 22- kw electron bolter on her for protection. Soon she rapidly road through the camps, avoiding massive impoverished crowds and shanty-towns by the market district, arriving a hundred feet from the government building. A few soldiers were in plain sight, armed with assault guns outside. They too could see a very massive crowd had gathered, consisting of tens of thousands curious who the girl is- or rather, interested if they'd recognized her correctly.

Their curiosity was met by a great disturbance when the soldiers opened fire into the air. Palmer's Piston-Hog came to a screeching halt, her heart racing as she heard the crowd and the 3 soldiers' gunfire. "Oh God!" She cried, leaping off her seat and running for her life. She'd heard one of the officers yell for a medic, and soon had her Piston-Hog back on the ground and on the move again, the sound of a few gunshots, yelling and roars in the distance. There was a window crash on the 2nd floor, everyone stopped cold as if the world had frozen over.

Ameisa herself, had fallen out of the building. She'd slowly gotten up, abit rougher for wear when suddenly entire chunks of the building shot at her- Palmer observed them spinning like a cork and flying at her. With hexagons of light at her fingertips, Ameisa deflected many of them. Slowly the attacker emerged- everyone laid eyes on Becca herself. Palmer Tess shook. This was, the same girl that had been wanted awhile back. Not just wanted- was now considered one of the most infamous renegades. Maybe in all of Xi. Had she come to earth with the help of Ameisa Byte and the Xi interim to join her? Was the resistance so desperate they were hiring criminals now?

"You b-bitch!" Ameisa yelled, firing photonic blast of light with the Hex abilities she possessed. Becca seemed to blur into black smoke whenever hit, like a fading afterimage and then appear as if from nowhere below the building on the ground floor. Each time she did this she looked as if she was teleporting. Soon she reached over and Ameisa with her prosthetic blue- hand, Ameisa fighting back with every tool she could. Palmer Tess knew what happened next, everyone had a look on their face that was like a deer caught in headlights. The same expression Ameisa herself had now. Becca had been fighting, and now Ameisa Byte was losing to the girl.

Ameisa touched the ground creating spires of light to trap Becca, but with a press of her palms, the light itself bent twisted and shattered, and when Becca slammed her hands into the ground, everything shook. The ground collapsed creating massive craters and dunes, some screaming and falling in, Ameisa struggling to keep her footing. In her confusion Becca leapt forward and punched her continually, until finally several guards smashed her with the back of their guns and dragged Becca away kicking and screaming. Ameisa, had taken a pounding.

But she did not know, that Ameisa Byte would be almost nearly overthrown at this moment. And what happened next was all too horrifying for Palmer Tess to even describe. Fiery shots from the space above fell down- shooting not the civilian populace or the shanties, but at the nearby granaries, food production factories and farms. These fireballs could be seen for miles, and the damage was immense. The fires were so big, so massive and wide they'd created a new massive dune of black smoke several miles tall. Palmer Tess, had not ever been so mortified in her entire life.

Everyone looked at each other- their sacks, minted coins and ration pouches, satchels, even bottles of water were suspect. Everyone at once realized that in a city of 500 million struggling to eat, this was mass murder. Millions of deaths. Mass starvation. Civilization's collapse. Panic.

All hell broke loose.

Everyone for miles began to scream and riot. The camps and markets became completely lawless, and she could see countless people fighting, choking, clawing, pillaging and trying to take what they could in every direction, stampedes and brawls as far as the eye could see. An uprising of millions tried to loot everything and anything they could find, attacking shacks and tents, running into makeshift shops, market owners grabbing shotguns and trying to stop looters, the entire population going into a hysterical riot on every block, every district and corner across the great outback. Palmer realized she was in very real danger right now and took cover atop a vanilla-brown cliffstone to avoid the fighting. She watched people punching each other raw on the range, like feral kangroos out for blood. It reminded her of some of the worst drunken brawls in underground Caldera taverns she'd visited, but on a scale of mass degradation. The darkest reflection of man illuminated on full display, no doubt being broadcasted for the stars by the powers that be above. Palmer saw a koala nearby blinking at her. She blinked back, took out her radio-talkie as cellphones had stopped working since most satellites were destroyed over the planet, and tried to contact her boyfriend and other friends to make sure they were okay. About a thousand other voices on the same frequency yelled out and bumped shouts, seemingly all with the same desperate concern.

Ameisa slowly got up, a figure approaching her. Her own mother, dragging her out of the dune and quickly getting them back to the government building, which by now had rioters and looters attempting to overrun the guards and doors. When they arrived on the upper decks, they looked out the perch.

"Mother?" Ameisa said, a hint of her usual disdain. "What are you even doing here?" She hadn't seen Idola in so long, and her mother had never been apart of the asylum colony.

"I'm here for you, Ameisa. Someone has to be here to observe your fuckups, as entertaining as they may be." She watched people fighting on the streets with rakes, hoes, shovels and whatever they could find to secure food, even little pieces of coal they could secure for heat later. The two slowly went up to the top of the building, where they could observe so many people overcrowding the building like mass fish that they formed a wave of bodies that was steadily rising up its floors and climbing up, nearly reaching the holographic flag. To Ameisa her own citizens looked like swarms of piranhas by the millions devouring everything in every direction.

Ameisa looked out against the horizon, the dark red smoke looking like stacks of boiled blood against the curvature of the sun. Her knees buckled and she turned to reply.

"I... cannot. I cannot go through all this again."

Idola grabbed her by the collar and slapped her, she raised a gun and shot a civilian with a hoe crawling amidst the chaos. "SHUT UP. Goodness sweetheart, I know you do love to disappoint but I didn't raise my daughter to be a quitter." She glared at her daughter askance.

She rolled her eyes. "If this is about Marchwood... Do better. Bytes don't quit." She looked at the crowd. "And don't fuck up this time."

Ameisa wiped tears from her eyes and looked at her mother, who replied with one of the few expressions of her that wasn't utter disdain.

With disgust in her voice, Idola cleared her throat. "Fine. I will do this for you. It seems a mother must makeup ground for her daughter's failure."

Ameisa knew, with a chilling certainty, that she had failed. Failed to become the perfect leader. Failed to earn her mother's approval. Failed to escape the prison of her own self-doubt.

As they exited the building, Idola had looked at the mass chaos below. She took a remote out of her pocket and flipped a switch on it. massive purple abominations made of nanite sludge and titanium armor rose up and soon towered, flare guns in their hand designed to create noise. The flares serenaded the sky with green and purple fire, which was bright enough to blot out the red and blackened fumes of the resource-attack earlier. Idola spoke into a small portable mic that could be heard for miles, stopping the fighting immediately. "Everyone, listen closely. I am yours truly, Idola Blight! Industrialist, entrepreneur and your savior. It’s good that you’re all so spirited in these troubled times, we need spirit. But to turn it on your own refugees and behave like animals, is simply uncivilized and undignified. My company, Blight industries, on behalf of the cooperation of your, oh-so competent Elderdragon here will be

providing shipments of food, tech and power come end of the month, that’s exactly 25 days. Assuredly there will be more than enough for all of you, if you atone for your deplorable conduct now. Please remain civil- anyone caught with penalties, looting strikes or even a hint of misbehavior will not be permitted to receive shipments, thank you. May the good of Xi endure us and bless your hearts." She put away the Mic.

“That’s how you deal with misbehaving children.” Idola said, having plenty of experience with that.

Hearing the roar of approval from the crowd, she smacked Ameisa in the back of the head, who'd looked away in discomfort. She watched the brawls end, the fires be put out, the rioting return to pulling comrades up and returning to the small crowded rows of shack that served as homes. Occasional fistfights still occurred, but were often broken up by those feeling semblances of reason return to their faculties. Palmer smacked one guy attempting to steal a bag of corn, others looking at him with disgust. They soon saw Ameisa’s mother, marching down to the downtown market district, where thousands of thousands were gathered. The Blight Industries logo flashed over the marketplace, where a holographic notice said they'd provide food in a weeks time.

Ameisa turned to Idola, dragging her behind some guards so they couldn’t be heard and whispered over to her. "What the hell are you doing? Goddamn, we both know Blight Industries ain't a viable thing right now. You know what they can do to us. There's no way you can provide that, and even if you could they’d never let you-."

Idola gently brushed Ameisa off. "Well of course my dear, you think I'd bail you out that irresponsibly? To teach a fish.." She looked at one of the medical tents- dozens of others in line for treatment. "I’m not going to provide any of that. YOU are. I merely bought you some time. A measure of calm should do you well to form a plan, shouldn't it?" She folded her arms. "I've given you this opportunity, do not squander it. She looked at her daughter. "Now take your time, go over there and work something out. Make it until you fake it. It is imperative you've done it right this time. Or you're screwed, and I will not spare you with my wits a second time.."

25 days. Ameisa realized she’d only have 25 days to find a way to feed half a million people, on a planet littered with trash, irradiated beyond repair and with almost 22nd era pre- XIMAS technology in a gigantic desert, that may as well have belonged in the stone age. The stress crawled up her back, injected into her veins and made her want to pull her hair out. “H- how the hell do I-“

“If you cannot handle it, then you’ll fail. Nothing less, nothing more.” Idola pinched Ameisa’s cheek. “You’ve always disappointed me. Do not disappoint those who came here across the stars simply to look up to you. Or are you going to abandon those who need you now?”

Idola poked Ameisa who was fuming, waving to others in torn clothes and ripped vinyl bodysuits as she walked with a brimming smile. "Oh, and by the way dearest. Who was that, girl that you scuffled with? Becca, the wanted renegade no?" Idola left out the part where she remembered the girl. She'd been part of her same circus for a good while. In fact she'd kissed her lips and thoroughly enjoyed her body herself in full rubber jester cowl and makeup.

The Elderdragon scoffed. "She's nobody. A criminal, a street rat. She wanted access to the Boltholes- the interdimensional passages used by Caldera. Once a felon, always a felon."

"Takes one to know one, miss hacker." Idola smirked. "And I'm sure it hasn't escaped you the irony, founding your Xi-safe haven in the land down under, right?" She turned to walk away.

"How dare you?" Ameisa looked ready to fight. "My refuge, was in Australia-" "Sweetheart, who does that?"

"And the new regime that took over Xi-"

"Not exactly a shining beacon of morality themselves, are they? A bunch of elitist assholes who wanted to overthrow and control the galaxy. While I'm no fan of them, you didn't do much better." Idola shook her head. "No, it's always been you, Ameisa. Your idealist ways have never exactly been the most popular." She looked down at the girl with a frown, her eyes narrowing to a disbelieving half-sneer. "It's none of my concern. Do as you will."

While Palmer and her friends strung a guitar by their cabin's furnace, they sung patriotic songs in remembrance of Xi. It seemed in those sore and troubled times having company was the only thing keeping the darkness at bay. If one looked at the planet from space, they would see essentially the entire world dark and unlit, with massive lights showing all over Australia.

A young man in a wheelchair slid up to Palmer Tess, putting a hand on her knee. She smiled back at him, feeling her way through everything she felt in the past few years. She wondered if her mother was still alive and bedridden, needing of care- would she run off on this wild adventure, on an ancient planet to be with those carrying the fears and burden of an entire galaxy on their backs? From her perspective there were no material benefits to being apart of Byte’s colony. The squalor and hunger were widespread, the lack of amenities, luxuries and basic comforts were nowhere to be found. This landscape was a horrible hell, filled with wild beasts and monsters, which her friends joked was true even thousands of years ago on this land before a single spaceship had ever fled from earth. But Palmer, a strong woman who knew she could survive just about anything, chose to go. And for her, she did go for her friends.

Palmer remembered her favorite poem in her youth, which she would never recite- even if one would have asked. It was by a famous Llavalite writer:

“How many golden rings do you beg for to make you a whore? On top and charge, living large, always asking for more. Then only in your fucked ass will you be poor.”

It still tickled her when she thought about it. The lack of concern with values, with having a conscience. Those were the traits she associated with a listless, miserable life.

Palmer would be more than happy to live out her old age under a rock, as long as it was her own choices she made, even if it made her a fool. “You guys, we’re so stupid. You know that?” Palmer said. “We left a decent life to go camping with kangroos.”

One of her friends, Gunry snickered. “Yeah, but Kangroos aren’t trying to attack us with lipstick or change us.” Laughing, Palmer shook her head. “Why the hell did we do this?”

“Because it’s what we choose to do with our lives?” Gunry replied. “What more reason do we need?” She cracked a heated chestnut, fresh from the fire and snacked up. The rest all looked among each other in a saddened agreement, and let the starry night wash over all else.

 

 

Ameisa was tapped by a set of technicians while in her rickety office. “What is it?” She asked. They looked at each other, then her. “Someone sabotaged the Electromagnetic Ion Interceptors.” She told her boss. Ameisa’s face went cross. The implications were immediately obvious- EII technology was Byte Industries patented jamming equipment intended to block out all surveillance, scans, and any light or wavelength-based observations. In other words, no one outside the country could record or monitor them, especially not overhead or from afar. It was a rather convenient tactical advantage when your colony exists as refuge for an overwhelming galactic power.

“Run an investigation at once, and report when you find whose responsible for this.”

She went to visit Becca in a prison tent- the only actually constructed prison facilities had long been overpopulated and overrun. Her hands were bound by electrical wires and hands in glowing orbs of light, to prevent her from touching anything. "I don't know why you're here, but if you intend to start shit with my people-"

"What a goodheart you are." Becca spit to her side. "Taking care of your little flock, after I heard you failed to protect and preserve Xi. A good Samaritan for sure." She laughed. "I'm not after any bullshit like that-"

"Oh god, don't give me that bullshit again. The Xi frontline is overthrown. You're just going to sit on your ass and sulk, and I can't have that. I'm not a fucking moron." Ameisa had it up to hear with people trying to lecture her.

"Not morons. But you aren't even an Elderdragon anymore either. You've lost your position, and so you can't do anything. Am I right?" Becca tried to kick upwards, Ameisa catching her legs tendons and easily throwing her back. "What do you want?" Ameisa asked.

"I told you, a warp station to the boltholds. I couldn't even search without your overcrowded thugs digging through every Lot across the continents."

"That's it, you just want a way out? You're the most wanted renegade in the galaxy right now and you just want to be on the run?"

"As much as I'd like it to be, that ain't happening. Give me a way or I'm going to rip you apart myself." Becca threatened.

"You'd get nowhere with that." Ameisa retorted.

"Wanna try me? Take off these cuffs. Bet." Becca stuck out her tongue.

"You want the boltholds- fine, I can make arrangements for that. As long as you don't ever fucking show your face again."

The two locked eyes, Ameisa and Becca, both of them feeling as if they'd won. "Why'd they attack the food supplies anyway? Why not just eradicate and nuke the entire continent to kingdom come?" Becca asked.

"Because that would be a war crime, and they're looking for demoralization and destabilization. Not genocide or direct military rule. That's not their style." Ameisa was right, even Becca knew it. "Ohhhh. So, you're saying they're trying to get to you personally? Get under your skin. Psychological warfare."

"You could say that. And now you've seen why." She said. "They consider everyone here.. dangerous. They're not wrong."

Becca rolled her eyes. "Yeah I getcha. If they want to get to you so badly tho.. why don't you just like, give in? Give yourself up."

Ameisa's brow furrowed. "What?"

"You know, you're on the run. Just get caught.. and you can take the rap for the deaths. Everyone would be like.. 'oh Ameisa Byte was such a good elderdragon, she sacrificed herself to save everyone here-"

The two went dead silent.

Ameisa finally let out a laugh. "God.. that would be a low blow to my mother." But deep inside, Ameisa was seriously considering it. She stepped out of the tent- Rust and Marian were escorted out of the other prison tent, let go and released to Becca. "Miss Becca, you should see some of the meal halls they have here. They're the grossest thing I've ever eaten!" Rust laughed, reuniting after having been caught.

Becca patted her on the head, then turned to Ameisa before she got away. "Wait- one more thing. Who were those, weird black robed guys who caught me and brought me here? They don't look like your usual jackboots."

Ameisa turned briefly. "None of your business. Don't ask what you don't want answers to." "Ummm.. aight."

Soon Ameisa paced through the shanty camps, the endless rows and rows of those who retreated here and looked up to her weighing on her soul more than the weight of every star in Xi combined. Palmer and her friends were singing by the campfire- Ameisa could barely hear the strumming guitar, but the words were distinct. "Hark at the dawn, light, steel and resolution.

United above all, hear our nation's starlight call." It was the Xi anthem, still sung in the heart of every Xitizen. She'd never felt so alone in her responsibilities while surrounded by millions of people that respected her enough to give up their lives, come here and live in squalor just to be part of her reckless abandon. But as she looked out at the spirited folk, able to find hope even in the den of misery, she knew it. She had her work cut out for her so long as hope wasn’t dead yet.

"Wait for me, Sandra.. We're not over yet."

 

 

Miri

 

Miri turned on the coffee machine. Thermal scans of the Bolthole tunnels within 500 KM had taken a seat on her bedside. as she pulled up her computer on her laptop. The screen showed her surveillance feed, and a very familiar face. A woman's face she hadn't seen in over a year. She'd since seen this woman all over LAME reports from the underground- a wanted woman. So wanted, the entire galaxy had put an incredible bounty on her head. Becca. Some sort of villain, some say even a revolutionary. Miri Cray had read all the reports and stories, in the back of her mind aware of the contradictions from Bolthole intel dossiers. "Good evening, Caldera." She said into her screen and the folder which contained her brief monthly reports aswell as paycheck. She dumped the paycheck in a small drawer with hundreds of others uncashed. She began to head to her sanitation unit and turned on her warm shower's sprinklers, throwing her clothing to the side. Miri stepped inside, sprayed between 4 glass surfaces. She could still hear her words, and the same melodious tone. That same voice on Galanet media, likely generative and fake but all the same. As she bathed under the heated droplets, that woman began to slide her fingers between her crotch, find the entrance to her nestled honeydewed folds. She rubbed and plunged in deep as she imagined how long the Bolt's local cart would take to head in her direction- a day at most. She moaned in deep satisfaction, and soon was soaking in the warm liquid that poured atop her cyan-green hair. Becca the mercenary. The traveler, the wanderer, the renegade of Xi. She visualized her flowing cyan hair and pale face, from the same leaked footage of her facing White Nebula, her soft jade lips causing Miri to brighten up everywhere, across every dancing circuit integrated into her skin.

"God I wish that was me."

Her imagination shifted, visualizing Becca entering her station, swinging in her arms.

The two in front of each other by candlelit tables, then in the same shower she was in now, finally in bed together. She murmured, rubbing her crotch. "Honey, you have no idea.." She was too wet and moist for comfort. Miri knew she was overreacting and getting worked up. But she took the shower as a respite to be alone with her thoughts, with her imaginations. But as her mind took leave of her and her fingers went deep, she couldn't help but wonder if she could have this with Becca. Maybe if she was given enough time. If she could convince her, or maybe just have the chance..

16 hours later, Becca arrived at her station. Her idol, her world.

Into the outside of her locked metal entrance, red-and-black stripes and yellow lights over the gate. Miri froze, realizing Becca was knocking at her door. "Ahem, Becca?" She asked. The girl didn't know how whoever knew her name, but didn't care. "Uh, yeah? I was told this terminal is the leading control gate of the U816 sector? I need to be somewhere." She said, unable to breathe.

"What's your name? You apparently know who I am, so tell me yours."

Miri froze. "I'm sorry, let me get that." She got on her wheeled spinning chair and went over to her console, a massive machine hooked up to 15 screens and began typing away. "Oh god. R-Becca.." The light turned from red to green and slowly, the gate began to open up. "I cannot believe its really you." Her heart soared. "I'm M-miri, Miri Cray. The local operator for this sector's warpstation. As we say down here, 'Never balk. Bolt up.'"

Miri felt her knees buckle. She tried to think, she tried to reason. But she couldn't help but imagine. Dream. Awake and aware, that this girl was actually in her station with her.

Becca slowly began to walk ahead through a tunnel, but the gate on the opposite side was still closed even as the opened one began to shut again. A narrow corridor contained her. She walked to the 2nd gate and cleared her throat. "I need to get to sector U960, which.." Becca recalled the pathway which supposedly led to the void, if rumors and hearsay from reputable sources in the underground were to be believed, where she'd find Euphoria. "Should be through this warp station's tunnel." Miri nodded her head, knowing Becca was too good to be taken by the word of Xi-frontiers.

Seeing Becca here and in person was giving her palpitations. She held her hand in front of her keyboard, while Becca felt for the cold metal as she walked to the 2nd gate, noticing it nearly open, but then close itself. "Uh.. you wanna let me thru..?" She knocked abit on the gate, banging against its hard sheets. Miri's pulse went through the roof, and she felt her heart beginning to pound. She turned to Becca. "Becca, please don't b-" She was nearly speechless.

"Oh come on, lady. I can't get any further, and I have to see this.. girl of mine." She said, taking a seat.

Miri cleared her throat. "W-wait a second.." she typed into the keyboard. She needed a lie, and excuse, anything to prevent this girl from slipping away. "It's, b-busted! There's some sort of machinery error, and I can't do anything else, sorry!" Becca rolled her eyes, banging the gate again as Miri tried to look for a lie. "Crap. It's my fault. I have to call up the mainframe on this sector, I-I hope you're not mad." She looked at Becca looking up at the camera in the corner. "Here, why don't you- uh.." she wiped a bead of sweat from her head, and pressed a button. Becca saw a door in the corridor unlock. "Come inside?"

The girl raised a brow. Ameisa had given her access to the Boltholes like she'd asked, even letting go Rust and Marian so they could return home. She'd been traveling only for three days, compared to her years wandering in the Boltholes prior this was nothing. "Wait- there's a door?" She got up and walked in. Inside was a spacious prestige living room connected to a 5 other rooms- a bedroom, a storage closet, a room full of server shelves, a bathroom, and a kitchen, the leather furniture and a water cooler giving the room an almost managerial look. Slowly Miri walked out of one of the rooms lit by neon screens, her white collared shirt in sharp contrast to her black leathery pants, black tie and shiny flats.

"It's you.."

"I'm a wanted felon. Careful with me." Becca said, looking around the rooms, her eyes searching for the source of the light. She reached up to switch one off and then up, as she felt the hairs of her neck rising. "For sure! Be seen." Miri said. She sighed, she couldn't help it, but she knew she had to. She didn't want to talk about the past, or her feelings for the girl. "I'm being paid by Caldera's commissars to be a guide through the Bolts, but the technical machinery of the Warpstation gates fails often. I can call an operator technician out here, but it'll take a while.

Might be days or, even weeks.."

"Are you serious?!"` She knew she needed to trust the person, but she'd never spent more than even a minute or two with any of the Bolthole operators before they sent her on her way.

"Uh.. yeah come look!" Miri Cray went into her workroom. Becca stepped into of the room Miri was in, overwhelmed by the machinery and data flowing through screens, diagrams of the Boltholes in 3 dimensions, and a giant monitor showing the inside of the dimensional pockets the Boltholes were grounded in. "I'm an experienced technician, and so I have to be able to know what I'm talking about.. I've got to be able to understand and fix a problem. But I can't even begin to explain it to you, I have to go into the inner workings of the system to-" she looked at Becca with a look of horror, as Becca stared in wonder. She tried to tell the girl, who'd began poking and touching the equipment.

"Ah, you don't say.." Becca observed the numerous dozen bottles of canned energy drinks laying about a shelf, alongside numerous old movie tapes and technical manual books on Warpstation technology.

"Requiem for a Dream?" Becca asked, pointing to the shelf.

Miri swallowed, nodding nervously. "Y-yeah, one of my favorites from that era. Uh.. I get that, it's just- let me explain." She looked at Becca. "The warpstations are all connected, it takes some time for the gate to send out help orders to the other sectors. I know it's late notice, but I-"

"I bet you do, yeah?" Becca cut her off. "It's fine, I can wait. I've got almost 10 years of mental torture, what's a few more hours or days as you figure it out?"

Suddenly Miri Cray's heart sang. That she'd come this far and her destiny was to be with this girl, even if she didn't want to. Becca, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind as much.

She turned and looked out the window to the outside of her station, seeing railways. "The train comes thru here?"

"Sometimes, maybe once every few years. You have to request stops in advance, which is a pretty lengthy and annoying process with a cue hundreds long. The railway does go thru the next stop over quite a lot but not thru my station specifically."

Miri laughed, shaking her head. "The railways are seriously technically out of date and could use some repairs. For like what, like 20 years now?"

"I guess it makes sense. You said it takes days or weeks to fix this?" Becca said, recalling the long time she spent with Astrid on said train.

"Yes, well, it's a bit of a hassle. I'm sure you could probably see, I have to maintain this machine. I'm in charge of a lot of these gates and they take time, lots of time to maintain."

"Lots of time." The girl thought a bit. She went out the room onto the living room couch, and flopped down. "Time.." she repeated. She didn't know how long she was supposed to be with this girl, or what the right thing was to do. But her mind told her to take this.

"Y-yeah." Miri shrunk into herself, trepidation and happiness swirling into a gripping voice in the back of her throat.

She laid back for minutes, which turned to hours. Occasionally Miri would check up on her, as if she was some sort of animal who hadn't been fed in days and needed to be played with to keep it happy. "Do you want to get up? We could-"

"No, not yet. It's late and this is the first time I've been able to unwind. I haven't been able to relax in I don't know how long, Miri. I'd imagine what sort of life you've been living down here?" Miri thought about that for a moment.

"Well, I was sorta made and raised here? My birthing pod was in a nearby city and my mother was an operator, and hers too. Long lineage. I took the profession and well, I like to think I'm good at what I do. Warp operation takes careful craft and care. That and the whole lotta machinery to know."

"You're good at what you do?" Becca asked. "You basically just open the door for people? Like a toll booth operator. But, thru dimensions n shit."

Miri nodded. "It's all I do!" She chuckled. “But someone has to do it.” Becca looked at her self-defacing joke abit indifferently.

"No no, I'm just kidding, it's a lot of work. It's my lifework." She said.

"Well, that must be very difficult to be alone for days at a time." Becca said.

"But I'm sure you have plenty of company." She said, looking up to see the massive and complex machinery within the room, pipes, circuit boards, wires and tape strewn about. "Plenty to keep you busy, lots of people to talk to, lots of places to travel-"

"Well.. yes and no." Miri said, unable to speak. She'd spent many years alone, especially since her mother passed on. "I have about 30 days off every cycle, so 15% of my time is freetime. I can use my terminal to travel anywhere I want connected to my station, there are some pretty cool market places and communities in Caldera's juristiction. I just, uh, haven't taken the time to really visit them."

"Oh." Becca said. "Must be very hard on you, though. Is there anything you would really like to do with your free time?" She asked.

Miri smiled. "Well, we get Galanet out here. So I'm streaming news footage alot. I followed the entire schism recently, and sometimes like to see funny things happening in the Bolts. We get access to surveillance footage system-wide, so that's fun I guess." She looked down nervous.

"Fun?" The girl wondered.

"Yeah, it's like seeing news from a birds eye view. You know, all the news is in front of you and you get to see the truth, the world as it is, it's like reality in your hands and you can choose to watch."

"Ohh.. But don't you get tired looking at news and screens? Living in this, station?" Becca looked around the room. Sure, she'd spent years in the Boltholes too- but with Astrid and on a train full of passengers, traveling place to place. Something about this local seemed, abysmal.

Miri could feel her questioning and worry.

"I mean, I worked here almost right out my birthing pod, it was the first thing my mother taught me in here.. I mean this is my home, my space." Her fingers tapped together. "I feel like I'm always looking at screens, I live in the void of my own head and my own reality. But I don't have any friends. I don't have anyone to-" She began to cry, but she didn't feel any better. ".. be with."

Her guest blinked. "So, this is your entire life then? You're just 'Bolthole operator girl'?" Miss Cray sulked. "Obscurity isn't so bad.."

She murmured.

"It'll be a while, get comfy. I'll go start up the food generator..."

Soon hours flew by and became days, her trying to figure out what the 'technical error' was while Becca would hang on the couch left in thought. During dinner hours, she went on and on and told Becca the story of her life, about the station's history, the Boltholes in Caldera's Jurisdiction. She never took her eyes off the girl, she listened intently and looked for something reciprocal in her interest, but couldn't find it. Becca could tell the girl knew something about her. That something about her had drawn her here, but whatever fascination Miri held for her, she pushed out of her mind.

Becca learned that her genetics were from the same gene-pod batch as her mother, effectively making her a clone and every predecessor prior. Such origins were common, in order to have reliable maintenance. The girl was raised and educated in operating Warpstation equipment from a young age and assigned an assistant role when she came of age, and then took over the station when her mother passed seamlessly. "I like it when you tell me stories about the galaxy, and how far away from everything it is." Miri told her. To Miri who had been raised her entire life inside said station where they were stranded currently, Xi was merely a concept. An abstraction of space far away that she'd never felt, never seen, never really been to. Still Miri was

happy that she had someone to tell her stories about what she saw from her newsfeeds, from aplenty and afar.

Days later, Becca was getting restless. She couldn't help but think this girl would never get back to her. Was she even working on the problem? It'd take more than a few weeks for her to figure out the technical glitch in the system. To be honest, she began to wonder what she was doing here. One dinner, Miri cleared her throat and popped open the question. "So tell me more about, about you. You were with White Nebula? Did you work with them after you fought?"

Becca's eyes slowly drifted from her plate to this obnoxious creature prying into her personal life. She scoffed. "I don't know. I just went to the galactic expo and got caught up in a concert with White Nebula and one of her brats, we fought at the time. It was pretty cool. How do you, know about that?" She asked immediately.

Miri scratched the back of her head. "The.. Galanet. Most people know about you. What you did."

"What..?"

"Becca. You were wanted, you had some bounty. There was some stuff that's been going on out there, about. You know?"

The girl sat up straight, her eyes wide. She remembered the video she'd seen with White Nebula, how many heads had been rolled over at the time for not giving White Nebula her due. She remembered the footage she'd caught on Galanet during a White Nebula concert. How people had talked about it.

Becca tried to figure out how they knew about her. "Was there something on the net?"

Miri scratched her chin. "Yeah, I think so. That footage must have been in every Galanet archive." She perked up. "That and you've become part of both Xi and Caldera lore, especially down here in the Bolthole community. I know about your little trip with Croix, and then with that woman on the train- and was the arc where you went and fought the Domina in Orchid true too?"

Becca raised a brow. "A-arc?"

"Huh." Becca said. She couldn't help but think this girl had taken one step too far.

How did she know everything about her life and actions? It wasn't right. "What about your arc with the Domina's daughter, Thatt-"

Becca looked from the floor straight into Miri with a piercing furious glance, the kind that shot like a spear. The mention of that name still brought a pain to her. "Don't fucking mention her name!" The girl spat. "You know way too much about for me some weirdass girl stuck in a labyrinth her entire life."

"I-"

Miri felt a jolt, like she'd been struck. Her body froze up as she looked down, suddenly feeling very cold and naked. She tried to put herself together, to rationalize what had just happened. "I'm so sorry. I was trying to talk to you. I know your life has been hard.. I just.. I don't want anything bad to happen to you, I can't let it." She went on, putting herself back together.

"No you're not sorry." The girl snapped, pointing her finger at the girl. "You aren't sorry you spied on me."

Miri's eyes went wide, she hadn't even thought of it that way. She knew she'd been collecting intelligence, but she never thought that's how she'd seen it. "B-but you're a fugitive, an enemy of-"

"I've always had enemies, I've always been on the run. Since the day I was born, I've lived as a runner. Gang gang gang." Becca folded her arms and grit her feline teeth. "You've lived as a nobody. You haven't been in my shoes.. never."

Miri Cray looked down at the floor, unsure. She'd never been alone or suffered like this.

All she'd ever wanted was to be happy, and be with friends. She looked down at her station. She'd spent years doing that. She'd lived her entire life in this room. Yet, she was completely alone, completely ignored, and her mind was about to be blown to bits.

A few more moments of silence passed, Becca felt calmer.

"I'm.." Miri tried. "I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped." She ran to her room, slammed the door and cried.

 

 

Becca and her would barely speak for another week. The first few days, Miri didn't even come out of her room, like a grown woman grounding herself. Becca's meal consisted of coffee from the kitchen for those nights. Then Miri came out, made Becca dinner from the generator on a plate then went back to her room, the tension still feeling acrid. After they’d have dinner together in silence, followed by frigid and terse replies, and finally the atmosphere lifted letting them converse again.

One day, after about 3 weeks of Becca’s stay she knocked on the door. "C'mon girl.

What's the plan?"

Becca asked. "Aren't you going to talk to me?"

"I.." Miri muttered. "I want to. I just, can't." She murmured.

"Listen. You've been collecting data on me. That's fine. I can understand that. I just, need you to know if I can trust you.." She coughed. "I literally cannot leave or get to where I need to go without you." She slowly pushed the door open and walked in. That's when she saw Miri in here underwear, footage of Becca herself on every last one of her screens. Miri's hands were in her pants on her bed. "W-WAIT-"

The two exchanged a fraught glare, then Becca turned around without a word and closed the door.

"I'm just a somebody, nobody nobody." Miri whispered. "I'm just a nobody nobody nobody.."

"I'm so scared." She bemoaned, tearing up. She began to tear at her hair and put her hands into her face sobbing uncontrollably. "I know I'm just some nobody nobody nobody nobody. I know I'm a nobody just nobody nobody. I know I'm a nobody, just somebody, somebody nobody. I know I'm somebody, just a nobody, somebody nobody. I know I'm somebody nobody, just a somebody, nobody nobody."

She curled up into a fetal position, crying her heart out. "And.. I'm alone. I'm alone in the tiny little world."

Becca sat up from the couch, hearing Miri crying. She sighed, got up and slowly walked back. "Guess I gotta step up.." She put her hand on the door, seeing her crying. She looked around, seeing the television screens blaring out Galanet archives, footage of herself on each one of them.

Miri sobbed. "Please, I'm sorry I'm just-"

"Hey." Becca got closer. "Hey, look at me. You, you.." She reached for the power plugs and pulled the cords, shutting every screen off. Then she turned around to face Miri. "Stop doing that. This? That's lame and sad as hell girl."

The girl's eyes widened, but Becca didn't stop. "It's lame, and sad, and it's just, no. You're doing this because you're scared, because you're a alone.. and you're just, doing this because it's the first time you've had someone to talk to or who likes you. The first person you've really met, this girl you're scared to death of losing, I get that." She murmured.

"Y-yeah but.."

"Please." Becca began to lift her shirt, and pull down her skirt, both of which she'd been given from Marian and his family. Soon she threw them aside and stripped to the nude, posing for her. "Giving some advice here.. just ask." Soon her tits jutted out, perky nipples and areola glistening.

Becca began to slowly stroke her breasts. "Tell me, why would you want to sticky your fingers with those blurry camera images when you have the actual star right in front of you?"

Miri stared confused, she felt her world turned upside down. "I-" She didn't know what

to say.

Becca put her hands on her hips, pushing out her breasts a bit. "Continue whatever

you were doing." Becca insisted. "I, I-"

Miri shook her head, still unable to comprehend this. She babbled incoherently, face turning wine red. With a confident strut forward, Becca leaned in, pulled her chin forward and pressed her mouth into Miri's as Becca leaned in to kiss her. A taut, deep kiss that felt like a warm embrace, a lapping fire and comfort mixed together. It seemed all at once to her, as the girl's breath and body warmed her. Miri tried to resist, trying to hold her composure against this. Then Becca gently pushed her down onto the bed and slowly worked on her neck and then kissed her. "Just asking you to, ask me to. Ask me to, do things to you." She murmured.

"UHHHHAAH." Becca leaned over, put her hands into the girl's face and stroked her cheeks and her temples and her hairline. The girl could tell Becca was trying to soothe her, and she knew something was wrong. Sensing her discomfort, Becca leapt off the bed and stepped back worried she took it too far. "Sorry, too much? Just, go at your own pace then." She was perfectly ready to go all the way with this woman, she had needs of her own of course. But clearly her comfort and boundaries were paramount.

Sniffling, Miri nodded and sat up, slicking her fingers back between her crotch while she looked at Becca posing in front of her, the lump in her throat threatening to pop. She saw Becca look at her and smile. She sensed her hand tremble, reaching deeper and deeper into her slit as she tugged and rubbed herself.

It felt like she'd found a sort of redemption.

 

 

The months that followed were more of a blur than anything else. Miri had found some inner resolve and comfort to being with her and the two had fallen into a pattern. Becca would watch over the girl's shoulder for the news, test systems updates with her, the two sharing information and data on each other, then they'd sit and watch Galanet footage or her station surveillance footage and laugh about it. Every few nights Miri would ask, still nervously, if she could stand nude and let her masturbate, worshipping her in her head. Becca would on occasion suggest if she wanted to try anything else, but every attempt had Miri Cray too nervous and immediately bail out. Their days were alternated between hours of calm and quiet, watching news, Miri working on the machines, and eventually even sleeping in the same bed together, Miri suckling on Becca's teet and mingling lips and tongues.

It all seemed so simple. So perfect.

On one occasion, Becca swore she heard Miri talking to herself at her desk workstation while she slept on the leathery couch, arguing even. She asked her about it over breakfast when she woke up well rested later, but Miri seemed to have no idea what she was talking about.

One day, Miri said she'd nearly gotten the Warpstation's generators working properly but needed calibrating, though she could access an area cut off from the station prior. She set in the coordinates on the first gate Becca had come thru and they both walked through it. "I really love this place." Miri's voice the young girl herself in her glowing scarlet jumpsuit made of latex which Caldera technicians often wore when doing repairs out in the Bolthole tunnels.

She took Becca in to the empty city of Rim, a city of spires and gothic-steampunk skyscrapers. Its glass was colored red, like the sky. It'd looked like Black Nova where Becca had met Mother Hen, but more architecturally distinct. As long as she could remember, she'd known the domed 'sky' was red, but not quite this red. "It's got everything I like in it." The city of course was empty. Miri told her in times past this was one of the largest of Caldera's warp cities, hidden within the dimensional corridors they maintained. All along the massive city were neon billboards and advertisements, many flickering or turned off from lack of power. After newer cities had been built this one had become abandoned, but Miri's mother had planned to use the birthing pod to make the entire city her own. Repopulate it with her own genome batch even.

That way Miri would've had lots and lots of sisters in the 'Cray' family, millions even to operate the city and keep it prosperous and flourishing. "My mother was a diva. She rehearsed like a fiend, for hours on end. She needed everything to be right. She could've gone on forever. A real perfectionist!" She shook her head. "That's why she never finished the project, I suppose. She neglected her health and grew sick. She could've easily recovered if she'd stopped working, left our station and called in some medics from the Bolt's facilities. But she never did. Never once." She sighed, staring up at the massive city as they walked through the roads. "She never finished her dream."

Becca picked a rock and threw it off an obsidian bridge down a riverbed, hearing the echo sounding through the emptiness. "Hm.. Miri, what's your dream?" She asked. Miri looked back at her. "Do you plan to live as an operator in that room your whole life?"

The girl nodded, and then shrugged. "That's why I was made. I was made to be there. It's in the genome." She scoffed. "Mother got a bit of a bug in her DNA. Maybe it's from her lineage, I don't know. Staff like us don't typically think of renovating and populating an entire city. It's not that I haven't thought of leaving the Boltholes but- what would I even do? I don't have Xi citizenship, I'm technically an illegal operative since I work for a criminal organization, and was born into one. No where to go, no one to be." Becca began to walk behind the girl. She wanted to hold her hand to comfort her, but hesitated.

“Does that really matter when Xi is collapsing right now? Doesn’t sound like whatever law or authority is going to care if you slip out and take a vacation or something amidst a war.”

“How’d that work out for you?” Miri asked her.

“Oh, I literally just walked up to one of the Elderdragons and punched her in the face.

That’s how I got my ride here. See, it pays to be bold sometimes.” Becca smirked. "Dunno. I'm stuck." She murmured.

Becca shrugged. "I'm sure if you turned yourself in and confessed yourself, they'd work something out? I mean your only crime was letting some blackmarket thuggies through- you're the equivalent of a mafia's toll booth. They wouldn't do you dirty just for that?" Becca honestly wasn't sure. "Take it from one felon to another- I grew up as a Runner, I know how it is. It's always been my life."

Miri put her head down in shame, she tried to put herself in her shoes but she couldn't. "But you're a-"

"A wanted criminal, wanted by both law and my crazy Ex? Who's to say what happens to me? I'm being chased. I have a bounty."

Miri shook her head. "Y-yeah, but you can fight. You're brave and strong and cool and-" "You think I'm cool?" Becca laughed. "Girl, listen to me. I spent the last few years as a

fucking cat, barely aware most of the time. And as for brave?" She shrugged. "I was basically running away, consciously or not. Not exactly the daring renegade Xi propaganda makes me out to be." Miri was silent. She looked up at Becca, her hand touching her cheek. A glimmer of light was in her eyes.

"Why not think about how things are now though? Don't you ever wanna leave the Boltholes? Live somewhere else and have someplace new?" Becca shrugged. "I mean, I've spent my life as a runaway."

The operator stood silent. "It's just, hard to break old habits I suppose."

"Well, let's make some new ones tonight!" Becca said, warming both their hearts. They soon found a public park, full of weeds along the swings and slides but not enough for the two to run around along them. They pushed each other on the swings, then jogged through the pathways. Within the forests, the two encountered a jackalope approaching, which Becca twisted the grass and fired at to scare off. They toured the city streets and abandoned buildings. The two rode a carousel at a nearby carnival, enjoying the thrill of fast moving porcelain unicorns riding them around, which reminded Becca of her time with Thatti so many years ago. It was a lovely evening, with crisp air and a starry night, even if the stars were only an artificial projection cast over the red dome. The two eventually worked up a sweat. So the two hopped into an empty hotel in the dark spires, found a room, and showered up, surprised the electricity and plumbing was still working even now. Within a few minutes on the hotel bed, the two began to suck each others tits, and stroked their nipples and exchanged lips passionately, flying blind into the throes of lust.

It was a blissful night.

The two soon fell asleep in each others arms, dreaming of a new world.

The following wakeup, they returned to the station and Miri focused on her work. The hours went by silent and joyful, before she broke for dinner. The two were even watching old VHS movies on an ancient relic- a tape player on a vintage antenna television screen. The two huddled together, Becca pulled her down closer to her chest as they watched the movie. The two embraced, whispering each others' names and trying to stay close. Their nights repeated like this, for a few days, for weeks.

One night, while she dreamt, Becca wandered a golden temple with a large butterfly statue etched in solid gold atop a pedestal. Atop the statue was the same woman she’d seen in her dreams before- the leather draped dress, shoulderless and sleeveless held a trident shaped

with three prongs on the long end, and a sharp katana-blade on the handle end. Becca could see a glowing green mark on her chest’s sheeny cloth. Her hair was long and wavy, held back with a golden headband. Her large dark eyes radiated pure, untainted power and a smile on her lips like an unlit fuse, and even as ghostly a figure she was, she held a deep radiance, her hips still plump and voluptuous. Golden statue of Set warriors decorated the walls like sentry guarding its profound psychic truth. The room was filled with a cyan glow,

ΨI’m wise to you by now. What brings you turmoil, my gracious friend? Becca stepped up to the pedestal, the woman crossing her legs.

ΨIt’s been a while since you’ve come. It’s good to see you again, my dear.

“Cut the crap..” Becca scratched her head. “My head was messed up for awhile. I’ve been getting better slowly.. able to think and talk well again. Why is that?”

ΨMy apologies. I’ve been reorganizing in here. Trying to bring some clarity back, reformatting for space and efficiency. It’s not easy unscrambling an egg from a cat.

Becca looked up to see sparking yarn, like electrical wires around the back of the Set statues, wrapping around her ankles.

“So that’s why I could barely think?” ΨAye. That’s why.

“Ahh..” She scratched her head. “So, um- I’ve been.. spending some time with a girl named Miri. She’s um.. the operator at the Bolthole.”

ΨWhy am I not surprised? You are a Runner afterall. You would always be drawn to the one who can help the most.

“Is, that right?” Becca scratched her head. “Should I be doing that?”

ΨIt’s not right nor wrong. With respect to the fates, all are acceptable. Which you accept or deny is another matter.

Becca looked at the ground. “I.. don’t think she’s right for me.” ΨBecause?

Becca looked up to the woman.

“Because I’m not thinking straight right now. I just-“

ΨYou just don’t know how to think straight? To make the right decisions. You think because you lack clarity of consciousness, that you lack the clarity of wisdom?

Becca bit her lip, her heart feeling a sting in her chest. “Huh..” She frowned. “How can you.. be so sure? That I’m making bad choices?”

ΨIf you come to regret them, they’re bad. If not, what’s bad about them? “Trial by fire huh?” She paced back and forth.

ΨQuite. You’re going to learn these lessons the hard way. I can tell you no more- you have to figure them out on your own.

“Wait..” She stepped up again. “Where, are you from?”

ΨI am.. from where I come, Becca. I am from the same world, as you are. Becca paused for a moment, realizing there wasn’t much use in overthinking that. “You’re from Xi then?”

ΨPerhaps.

“I’m trying not to question Miri but, I know there are others that need me and I need to leave!” She shouted.

ΨDo you? Maybe this is what you need.

She mused for abit. “You’re telling me I have to make my own choices, right? I have to make the decisions that feel right for me?”

ΨIt’s up to you. We’re all creatures of habit and we tend to rely on the wisdom of our parents, of our gods, of our guides. It’s not wrong- if it’s what you need. But you must make your own decisions, for your own life.

Becca sighed. “I, guess it makes sense. But, I’m just not sure..”

ΨQuite a human quality. When you love, you love. Trying to wipe the slate clean won’t fix that. Also, in case you haven’t noticed.. you have more company in here lately. Ladies, please greet our gracious host.

“Huh?” Becca looked up, seeing two figures slowly swimming through the air and descending in circular paths until they flittered around her. Each had shiny pearlescent fins covered in scales. One had narrow, shaved electric-blue hair and the other bright red voluminous waves, they seemed to sing out to her with affection in their voices. They puckered and pressed to her cheek, hands gliding around her and hovering just inches from a teasing touch. With every second they presented unreal beauty in the depths of Becca’s being.

ΨThe one on your right is Caila. She’s a lovely singer. The one on your left, is Dahlia. She is the best at hide and seek, so committed that she died in a volcano when attempting to hide in one. She tells quite funny jokes.

ΨNow, wake up

She gasped and got out of bed, Miri having eggs and bacon cooking on the stovetop. She was in a beautiful apron, which made her heart soar.

6 months went by since Becca had arrived. In the darkness of a Boltholes' warp, on the very bottom of the galactic hierarchy, within a pocket of reality so remote as to hardly be said to exist at all a new love began to form. Two women, so far from society and yet completely alone, both were aching for company. After 6 months of living in each others' arms, of touching and exchanging and kissing and being naked with each other, both of their hearts were beating in unison, synchronized into one pulse. It made Miri smile to see Becca smile every morning.

Becca had noticed that Miri was no longer working on her machines or doing much of anything, but hardly cared. She had given herself to Becca fully and totally.

 

 

Becca didn't know it, but she was about to lose her.

 

 

One day the two were having dinner, when Miri got a beep from her room. "Uhh.. I need to run real quick." She ran back to her screens, gasping as she saw a group of two dozen individuals, dressed with military sigils and mercenary motifs. She immediately began to call them in, the crowd with their heavy guns and lapels meant business. Becca slowly tiptoed into her room- it only now occurred to her that she hadn't really 'operated' for anyone or had any guests for the entire time she'd been here.

"We're heading to the Tsuno region armory, we request access to sector U960." They told her, the group looking menacing.

"Uh.." Miri hesitated. The tall, shaved, chiseled man with his automated Laz-Rioter UV6 charged and loaded looked at the camera. "Will that be a problem?"

"Uhhh- we can give you clearance, but.. I think the station is in maintenance mode.

Typical protocol." Miri looked up and smiled. "But I'm the only operator, and my systems have been down for the last 6 months."

The group of armored troopers chuckled. "Say again." The commander said. "What did you say your name was?"

"Cray, Miri."

The man looked at his crew, then looked back at the camera. "We came here awhile back, and you told us that. Then we asked some other operator to check the maintenance diagnostic systems- they said your Station works fine. It's not even in maintenance, what's the holdup?" He argued back.

Becca hissed from the doorway and stepped in.

Miri panicked, rapidly typing away on her keyboard. "U-ughh, yeah y-yes you're perfectly right sir! Let me get you on your way."

She looked at Becca, feeling the terror in her stomach churning.

"Great. Hurry up."

"UHH.." Miri took a deep breath. "I.. y-yeah, thanks.. and sorry about that.. it was just, a- a hiccup in the system last time.."

She tapped away, utilizing her precisely proficient knowledge and data about their destination, the calibration coordinates and the Warpstation's dimensional bridge was redirected to the proper sector. Within a minute the gate opened up, and the entire group passed on through and walked on towards their terminus.

Becca was shaking her head. "There. Was never any error or technical problem, was there?" She asked. The air went dour.

"..No." Miri admitted. "The station was fully functioning. Always was." Her words cut like a knife.

"We've been hanging out and sleeping together, making out, watching bad romcoms, we- I've stayed here for 6 months. I've been waiting six months for you to fix this. We went on multiple, dozens of dates in that empty city in that time."

The girl cried. "Is that not what you wanted? You never once asked if I was almost done or any closer."

"Right. Because I trusted you. And you lied to me." Becca replied.

"But I.. I.. You've been so kind to me! So caring, so.. giving me a reason to exist!" Miri began to sob.

The two stood in silence, the tension mounting and weighing like lead.

"So you have someone to be here with you. You'd spent all your life in that room, alone and found someone you want to be with?"

"Y-yes!" She gulped, shaking. "We're good together. Please.. Please don't leave me." Miri began to cry, her voice breaking and her body shook. "Pleeeease don't leave me."

Becca looked down at some of her panties left carelessly on the floor- how many times had she soaked them to her? Where would the opportunity come up again to make everything right, even for just one person? Against Miri's wildest expectations, Becca coughed. "Sure."

"W-what?"

"Sure. I'll stay. The more I run, the more I hurt people I care about. So, what's the plan?" She looked up at the ceiling. "You gonna get me my own room now or what?"

She chortled.

"I.. hm.. huh.." The girl was quiet. "You're serious?"

Becca walked up to her and squeezed her palms. "I'm upset you lied, sure. But.. I realized why you did it." She pulled Miri in and kissed her on the lips "Now, we make it up."

Miri Cray's heart soared.

She felt the warmth of her hand into her breast. She held onto it for dear life, feeling like the world had fallen from underneath her.

"Miri.." She kissed the girl's neck, moving down to her chest and putting her face into it. The young girl put her hands into her hair, feeling Becca's face bury into her breasts.

She felt her fingers move across her stomach, down to her pelvis and onto her clit. "What's your dream now, sweetheart?"

Miri pulled her close and locked lips. "Thank you so much."

The operator's mouth hung open. "Let me go heat up the coffee maker, and we can have some fun. "Sure." Becca pulled away, grabbing a few clothes, dressing back up and following her.

Soon she wiped the tears from her eyes. She'd never been happier in her life, and had never been so scared. Scared of losing someone she loved, the Becca she idolized. The girl who had been on so many adventures, who'd fought so many foes, who was going against the entirety of Xi and Orchid. The thought of this legendary rogue with her enlightened her joy and bubbled out into a frothing sliver of drool from her lips. And now that heroine would be with her. With her for.. the rest of her life.

Inside their cramped tiny station. With a nobody like her.

Her entire plan fell apart in her mind as her conscience weighed in. She’d be a world away from the whole story she needed to be a part of.

She recalled back to their little date, Becca's words way back. "I was basically running away, consciously or not. Not exactly the daring renegade Xi propaganda makes me out to be." She began to cry. This woman wasn't loving her stay- she was merely dreading her leave. An existential stillness. And she'd enabled that. She was keeping Becca locked up in her tiny little world and selfishly holding her for herself, away from everything and everyone she was bound for in the grand beyond.

The girl's heart thrummed into her chest with fear and self-loathing. "W-what have I done?" She asked. Miri closed her eyes and paused the coffee machine. "Actually, Becca dear!" She cried out. "Yeah? Sup." Becca asked.

"Some of those guys left something really weird and suspicion out in the terminal corridor, could you go check it out and bring it back inside?" She asked.

With a look of confusion, Becca complied. "Sure thing." She headed towards the door, stepping out and seeing the outside corridor for the first time since seeing the abandoned city. The space was empty, a desolate hallway with two gates and beyond, nothingness. "I don't see anything?"

She suddenly heard the door slam shut, then lock behind her. "What? Miri?"

There was no response. A minute later the gate on the long end slowly began to open. "This is your stop. Sector U816. Enjoy."

Becca was aghast.

"Miri.. come back. MIRI. SHIT."

"Look, I'm sorry. I tricked you again one last time." Miri said through the speakers. "But this is good for me and you. It's for your own good." The words felt empty, it felt like a lie. But in her heart she believed it. She looked at her shaky hands. "You're amazing Becca. You asked what my dream was? Well, these last few months I lived it! I'm so glad you're so kind. You deserve better adventures than being stuck with a silly warp-station operator.. Please, in the future don't give up just because things get scary or tough. Try to find the strength not to run away.”

She was choking up. “You can still have whatever you want, and I want you to be happy. And, if you're out there? I know you'll be alright.. I love you." Becca slammed the door panel again and again. Her cries slowly turned into a faint wail, the sound of her shouts echoed in the metallic air between the thin space of the hallway.

"MIRI.. DON'T DO THIS!" She screamed out.

She fell to the ground and beat the walls, pounding her fists into the metal until her heart dropped. Her knees on the floor, she looked up again at the camera, the looking down on her out of pity. "Please.. come with me."

"I cannot, I’m not built for that sorta thing like you are. But you don't have to cry.." Miri's gaze was cold as she looked at her monitors.

Becca finally buckled. "Please. Don’t be alone anymore."

She heard her voice one last time. "I am now, and will be for the rest of my life. But that's alright. Whatever happens from here, my heart's still."

“Miri..”

"Goodbye Becca." She turned the speaker off.

Within the minute, the warp gates redirected towards their destination with the gate leading open into another tunnel. Becca, after a long pause of hesitation, finally and miserably walked out of the station and onto a motor cart, feeling the vibrations in the cart rock her body

as it pushed forward, it leading shortly to yet another terminal with a different operator who led them to the Bolthole's next trainstop. Becca noticed behind the glass panel were three chirpy identical women gossiping with each other as she left, she stared enough that they needed to shoo her off. She boarded the station, the crew and soldiers from earlier on it. A long cold empty tunnel ride, the leather seats feeling like a frigid surface compared to the sweaty warmth of the couch from earlier. She looked out the window as she traveled, sighing. Becca thought about everyone she'd ever met and now lost- and the people she'd loved, gone into nothingness, with no one left but herself and her memory to carry her forward.

About 15 days later, she'd followed the proper coordinates and entered where the tunnels ended and the void began. She found herself transversing the same bridges and paths she went by before, until she once again saw the structure of the massive cube with countless entrances, although the forest atop it was wilted and decayed into a barren wasteland. She entered the large structure, passing her old pathway and arriving to the same entrance, soon going down the hallways and chambers that the Widow had lived in prior. "Euphoria?" She asked, searching in the darkness. Becca took out her flashlight, traveling in the rather dark environment. The space was still sparse as she remembered, but there were no glowing starry animals in rainbow hues or frogs around. She found the room with the Well, the hole in the ceiling now permanently open with a beam of light directly shining down. The rest of the entire building was dark and abandoned, leaving Becca to speculate what happened. Even her old bedroom with a coffin was now the loneliest it ever had been, board games with toy soldiers left fallen over in abandonment. There was no more singing, the only sound that could be heard was the wind chimes along the rooms that would chime softly when there was a breeze. There was no other presence here, it was an empty silent world now, Becca alone in the dark and no other companionship to be found.

She left the structure. Becca sat down and let her head rest on her arms, feeling the empty stillness in the air. She'd finally found what she was looking for, and in the midst of the search she'd lost it. She looked down at her hands, and up at the stars twinkling in the darkness near the gigantic tree- every single star lit with colors like a bright vivid Christmas tree, up to the very tippy top at that point. She intuitively figured if she went and searched, she wouldn't find Tera inside either. It felt lonely, but not sad. A deep melancholy washed over Becca even in the eerie void. She saw the multicolored stars and could only hope to one day look out and find life was just as hopeful. The wind chimes inside gently rang in the empty desolate wind, and the decayed rainforest atop was still as a tomb. Becca walked out, slowly heading back into the Boltholes.

"Gotta get back to being a runaway I guess." She murmured. "Hope you finally found your song, Euphie."