User:Jetfire/Kernel Hacking
 | [[:Category:IDIC|IDIC]] story universe |
[[Setting::IDIC| ]]
{{#if:Nuvola apps bookcase.png|}} | Works by Jetfire on Shifti |
 | This story is a work in progress. |
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This story was inspired by a few books I've been reading recently. Not sure where I'll go with it, or how complete it will ever be. Aspects were borrowed from Stirling's Ember series, and Duane's Wizardry series. (Along with characters from Metamor Keep and others
{{#ifeq: User |User| Kernel Hacking | Kernel Hacking}}[[Title::{{#ifeq: User |User| Kernel Hacking | Kernel Hacking}}| ]]
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IDIC: Kernel Processing
[[Character List:
- Joseph "Snapshot" Amadio: From a Heroes world. Powers of Teleportation (self only short range), Phasing (all but fools gold), Linguistics
- Richard McMaster. Wizard from a Magi-tech world. Kernel and Inanimates specialist wizardries. Keeps manual as a Smartphone. From Ontario
- Surah: Feline wizard, just past kittenhood. Also kernel and gate expert. Lives with Richard.
- Saroth: Draconic weather wizard, telepathic speech only. Can shift from humanoid dragon to large scale dragon
- Sean: Eagle-morph Magic amplifier. Can 'see' magics of his natural world, and strengthen/weaken them at will
- Holly: Horse morph fighter (female), no magic but skilled with the blade.
]]
The red planet spun slowly about its orbit, carrying with it its pair of rocky moons, uncountably more smaller rocks, and a half dozen metallic objects that did not come from it. Above the north pole of the planet, the blackness of space began to pucker, to pull inwards, then finally tore, unleashing a maelstrom of energy. Through the storm, a bubble floated out, lit by the energies reflecting off of its skin tight shielding. Once clear, the tear closed back up, but the ship continued to flicker, dissipating the energies of its transition.
"We're through. Initial readings confirm we're in the right universe," Joseph announced through the cabin of the ship.
"We're here, but the readings are off," Richard corrected him. A window opened up on the screen at the front of the ship. "This is Mars, or what I know of as Mars. Much like my world too, complete with probes from Earth. But the probes are barely active. They're only sending out 'standby' signals." He said, as the screen circled and lit up points where it detected signals.
Joseph nodded. "I see it. We've got other signals too, from Venus, Jupiter, and the rest of the outer planets. And a mess of signals around Earth and the Moon. But none from Earth itself."
On the storage compartment between them, a furry orange lump expanded and leisurely stretched. The cat turned around slowly, then sat down on her haunches and pawed at the air. Richard cast a glance down to her while Joseph continued examining the readings. The cat flicked her paws as if shaking water off of them and laid back down, hissing and meowing softly.
"Surah says there's a problem with the frame in this system. That Earth had been expanding it's frame of control out over the rest of the system, but a short while ago, the frame suddenly contracted. Everything out of Earth's atmosphere is currently unFramed."
"Good senses, my dear," Joseph replied, nodding to the cat who was apparently dozing again. "The sensors are confirming the rest of it. A low mystic, moderate tech Field had reached out to just beyond Pluto's orbit, but abruptly collapsed. The probes out here match the tech levels we expected, chemical rocketry, nanoscale electronics, primitive atomic control, primitive automation. Earth itself is a black hole as far as the sensors can tell. We need to go in closer, we can't tell enough from out here.
"I'm going to move us over to the Moon, and see what that tells us. Unless someone can think of a reason to stay out here?" Joseph looked at Richard, then behind, to the rest of the ship where the three Keepers relaxed. "This frame, even before whatever happened to it, is a lot more primitive than the Tangle's Frame. But it's closer to Richard and my worlds than to yours. Still, if you guys sense something especially strange or just have any questions, speak up."
The golden eagle morph shook his head after checking with his companions. "We're fine. Overwhelmed but fine. And no, I don't think any of us have seen anything to draw attention to."
Joseph swung back around and started tapping on the controls. Richard took out an earpiece and clipped it over his ear, listening carefully. "They're sad you know? And scared."
"Who are?"
"The machines down there, on Mars, and around Venus and Jupiter and Saturn.... They were sent out with a purpose, to learn all they could, and they have been, learning more than their creators thought they ever could. But for years now, they've had to sit on all they learned, no signals from home, no one to tell all they learned. No one to tell them where to look next."
Joseph shook his head. "You could pick up all that from their radio signals? Never mind, we're off."
Pods on the sides of the ship glowed brighter, pulling at the fabric of space around it, and releasing it before it tore. The red planet disappeared behind it, and the blue light ahead quickly grew into a disk, and then a sphere. A quarter of an hour later, the glow faded, and the ship orbited the Moon near the blue planet.
"A lot more around here, but the same dismay at the silence from home. At least some of them have been able to talk among themselves but they still want home to call in. Looks like this Universe's Earth had a larger scale space program than my world," Richard said, listening again, and looking at the screens in front of him. "No settlements on Luna, but a lot more probes and landing sites, not all soft landings. Some of the GPS satellites are there, they say the local date is April 14, 2031. But by the looks of it, nothing new has been up here in years."
"It's more clues... which is more than I can get from scans of Earth. Nothing is being emitted from it on the normal bands. No unnatural EM at all. But the ship's sensors can't get a closer view of what's down there.
The orange feline rolled onto her back and began to bat playfully in the air, though the expression on her face was anything but playful. She hissed suddenly and rolled away back onto her feet, quick stepping from foot to foot. [There is a discontinuity, right at the edge of the atmosphere. I can't sense through it, but it definitely feels like a corrupted kernel,] she hissed out in annoyance. Richard quickly translated her speech for the Keepers.
"A discontinuity. That would explain a lot, but it's annoying. It limits our ability to tell what's going on down there."
"But it does tell us what to do. Jetfire's information was right; we do have a bad kernel down there that needs to be fixed. We just need to figure out where it is. And only the entire Earth to search to find it in." Richard sighed and looked at the display of the planet now on the screen. "Let's move in closer, see if Surah and I can get a better sense of where it is. Maybe we can narrow it down to the right continent at least."
"In a moment, I'm looking for something. Given the tech level, there should have been something..." Joseph trailed away as he tapped on the controls, scanning the space around the planet. "I want to see if we can get a glimpse of what the locals saw when this happened."
"What the locals saw? It's been years since anything came up from the surface. And most of the satellites don't have any memory, or have long overwritten it. I could try talking to some, but I doubt it would work. Any space craft would have long lost its supplies... Oh, I see what you're looking for."
The view of the planet tilted, and zoomed in on a large item in space. It looked like a series of cylinders joined together, with occasional spars with black solar panels on them. Some of the panels were cracked, bent or otherwise stuck in non-sun facing positions, but there didn't seem to be any damage to the cylinders.
"The ISS. It's bigger than in my world, but that doesn't mean much. Looks like there was more cooperation in the space race here than in my home. That's a Chinese module there, and an Indian module there," Richard said, pointing to the screen.
"Nothing docked to it though. No Soyuz, shuttles or any other craft that could reach the ground. And no compatible docking rings for us. We'll have to be makeshift."
Richard took out a smart phone and pushed a button to light up the screen. He glanced at the display in a corner of the screen. "Three bars here. Pretty standard for universe's outside the normal wizardry worlds. Surah and I can make a docking tunnel that should last. And suits for anyone who wants to go in."
The feline cast him a dirty look and sighed. [If I must,] she said, twitching her tail. [You could have asked me first.]
"My apologies Surah. If you do not want to help, I can handle it myself."
[No, I will help. Start preparing the spell, and I'll fill in my parts]
Joseph chuckled and focused on the controls. "I'll bring us in closer to the empty docking ports. How close do you want? Ten metres?"
Richard got up and walked back into the main compartment of the shuttle with Surah padding along behind him. He nodded to the three Keepers sitting there. "Ten metres will be fine," he called out, reaching the cleared spot at the rear of the shuttle. He held his phone in one hand and began cycling the pages on the screen, occasionally flicking his fingers on the screen and pulling the icon off of the phone and into the air in front of him. Sean got up from his seat and stood against the wall, wings twitching as he watched Richard pull out the parts of the spell he needed. On the floor, Surah paced slow, steady circles, leaving a glowing trail of her own. She stopped after three circles, sat down and dug her claws into the glowing strands, slowly weaving them together.
The golden eagle shook his head and clicked his beak. "It's so different from what I am used to. I can feel that it is magic, but it's in a language I barely understand."
"If you study it more, you will understand it I'm sure. The Speech, what we use for the wizardry, is the basis of all languages in my sheath of universes, so everyone understands it at some level. Just don't interfere or touch any of it. We are building an opaque bridge between two structures in an area with almost nothing to build it from. It has to be air tight and almost pure energy, but if we don't control it just right, you could space us all."
Sean lifted his hands and took a careful step back. "I won't touch a thing, I promise."
Richard nodded and tapped his phone a couple more times, then pulled out one final icon, with his own face on it. He glanced down at the woven rings near his feet, and the array of icons floating in front of him. "You ready Surah?"
The cat tugged in the air one final time then dropped back down to all fours. [All done. You can hook your parts to it now.]
"Good good." Richard went silent, focusing on combining the icons together and lowering them down to attach them to the woven circles where they melted and formed glowing strings of words too tiny to see clearly. Surah watched him carefully, occasionally reaching out with a claw to adjust the spell as it formed. "Do any of you want to come along?" he asked.
The dragonmorph seemed lost in thought but his telepathic response was quick. {No, I'm fine here. That looks even smaller than this shuttle. I wouldn't want to hit something by mistake.}
Holly, the equine morph was dozing in her seat, the sheathed broadsword on the seat next to her. She snorted and woke long enough to decline.
"I'll come," Sean said after a glance at the small station looming next to the shuttle.
"I expected as much." Richard held up the phone and pressed a button. The eagle's face appeared on the phone before it shrunk down into an icon. Richard pulled it into the air, away from the main spell laying on the floor, and paged through until he found a wardrobe icon. He pulled it out as well, and linked the two together, creating a shining necklace. "When we're ready, put this on, and I'll activate it. Do NOT do any of your own magic within it, I'm not sure how it will react. But it will keep you warm and breathing over there."
"Good to hear, Richard. We're in position now. I'll go over first and check things out. If there aren't any surprises, you can activate your spell and come over as well." Joseph said, coming out of the cockpit and clipping rings around his neck and wrists. On his head, he wore a set of goggles that shielded his eyes. He pushed a button and was surrounded by a field that lifted him a few centimeters above the ground. "Where can't I go?" he asked, his voice echoed by the radio signal.
"Stay close to the wall anywhere past me, and you should be fine."
Joseph looked at the clear space and shook his head. "I'll just walk outside then. Mask camera on." On the screen at the front, a new window opened up, showing the cabin from Joseph's point of view. It steadied automatically as he turned his head. "Wait for my signal. I'll be right back." With that, he took a few steps, walking through Sean's empty chair like it wasn't there, and then through the wall of the ship. The camera view blacked out a moment, then reappeared, showing the white covered hull of the space station and the blackness of space around it.
"Still no damage that I can see," Joseph reported over the radio, his view turning to take in the station. He was clinging to a hand hold of their own shuttle while he studied the station. "Making my jump over Now."
The camera view went staticy for a second, and the docking door of the station was suddenly front and center. A hand reached out and grabbed the handle to steady himself, and then the camera moved in closer to look through the porthole window. "Dark inside, no sign of any bodies. I'm going in."
The camera moved closer and closer to the porthole until it looked like it would bump into it. But it didn't; instead the view went fuzzy for a long moment, and then cleared up, no sign of the port hole. A darkened chamber was visible, panels opened in all directions, some garbage floating in the space. A bright light lit up above the camera and followed Joey's head movements. "Still no bodies... Very cold but not completely cold, seems like the heaters are still somewhat active, but they're probably on their last legs. Atmosphere is very thin, unbreathable, which probably isn't helping the heaters any." The view continued shifting as Joey moved in deeper. "Seems safe enough, if you think your spells are stable. Do your casting Richard, Surah, and come on over."
Richard double checked the spell and carefully lifted it up, stretching it around the shuttle's airlock under Surah's watchful eye. Once it was in place, he began speaking the spell, feeling the world go silent as it took effect, and hearing the underlying purring as Surah added her part to the spell. On the far side of the airlock, the side of the shuttle glowed and extended out touching and sticking to the station's airlock tentatively at first, but quickly feeling out the edges and adhering to it. The glow swelled and hardened, linking the shuttle and the station in a solid tube of glowing light.
The wizards went silent as the spell finished and waited, as if daring it to fail. The tube held strong, the only indicator of it a glowing arch of text around the inside airlock door. The cat walked over to it and studied the writing. [It's solid. It'll hold till we release it.] she announced.
"Good good, The inside of the field will keep the air inside the shuttle. Airlock's already been overridden, so it's just a matter of walking over now." Richard said, pulling an icon off his phone and stretching it out into a sheet which he wrapped around himself. He mumbled quickly to himself and the sheet glowed briefly before fading, leaving him shielded as well.
"You ready to come Sean?"
The eagle looked startled, tilting his head from side to side as he studied the wizardry. He shook his head and nodded. "Incredible. Yes, let's go."
[I'll stay at this end and keep an eye on things, just in case.] Surah said, hoping up onto Holly's furry lap and turning around. The horse looked down, startled, but she scratched the feline who purred wordlessly in pleasure.
The human wizard touched some controls and the airlock hissed open, revealing a glowing field. "Just step through and follow me. Watch your wings and where you touch, there's no gravity over there so we'll be floating which should be fine for you," Richard explained, giving the suit wizardries and the bridge spell one final examination before stepping through. He felt the spell harden a little as it encountered vacuum, but it was still easy to move. He pushed himself down along the glowing corridor he had created, to the hatch at the far end, on the other side of another force field. Behind him the eagle-morph followed, his wings twitching a bit as they left the shuttle's gravity field. Richard cast a quick look back to make sure Sean was doing fine, then focused on the air lock. He put his hand on the controls and listened, feeling the station dozing in a depressed slumber.
"I know you guard against the airless void, but we have put a second guard up. Could you wake up and let us through?" he said in the Speech, willing it as much as saying it. Under his hand, he felt the hatch 'wake up' and listen. "The air will not escape, but we seek entry. Please let us through," he added, willing a bit of power from him to the door to help it out. The hatch hissed and finally let him push through. He and Sean crowded into the compartment inside the station, closed the outer hatch and opened the inner one. They found Joseph waiting for them.
"I found the logs they left. And it looks like the stations computers were mostly put in standby, turned down to the bare essentials to try and keep the orbit stable. I think we'll need your touch to wake them up and see if they have any more to tell us, Richard," he explained, holding up a notebook.
"I'll see what I can do. Anything useful in the logs?"
The pair pushed off to head deeper into the station. Sean watched them uncertainly then pushed with his own talon, feeling his body float nearly effortlessly after them. It wasn't quite like flying, it was easier in someways, harder in others, but his aerial instincts held true enough to help him get used to it. He caught up with the pair in a central module, seeing Richard facing a faintly glowing panel, talking to it.
"So how do you like null gravity?" Joseph asked, floating upside down with respect to Richard, alternating between flipping through the notebook and looking out the window.
"It is strange. I could get used to it, if this station wasn't so cramped."
Joey nodded. "It's a limitation of the chemical rockets they used. It severely limits how much you can easily get off the surface, and what shapes they have to be. Though had this world gone like normal, they probably would have had many more options available to them. Instead, we've got an empty station and a silent world. Anyway, if you want before we drop you back off at the Keep I'll take you to some of the Null-G zones in the Tangle. Lots of fun out there."
"Hey Joey, do the logs have any information about what happened? The computers are sluggish but slowly waking up. Last dates seem to be back in 2007," Richard interrupted them.
"Yeah, that jibes with the logs. Just a sec, I'll try to summarize a bit." Joey pushed himself away from the window to let Sean look out at the planet. He hooked a leg around a bracket and flipped through the book.
"The first entry is June 14th, 2007. It's the Station commander's personal logs, and he's been here a year already. Supposed to cycle back down to Earth at the end of the month. Let's see.... Not much happening the first few days. Reading between the lines, it seems the Challenger left at the end of May, and the Columbia was already in orbit on its way to the station."
Richard hm'ed to himself. "Fast turn around. This world's NASA must have been less risk adverse than mine. Then again if Challenger and Columbia were still flying, they may not have had the hard lessons yet."
Joseph skipped ahead a few pages. "Could be. Looks like the first strange things happened when Columbia was docking. All eyes were on it to watch out for any trouble, when Jagar, he's a mission specialist, saw something happen on Earth. A flash of light that spread across the entire planet in a couple of minutes. It spread from the Earth too, and engulfed the station for a moment. He wasn't sure what happened, but all systems died for a moment just after Columbia docked. It took a few hours for them to come back, the first hour or so especially confusing since things that should have worked did not."
"I'd say they witnessed the Kernel corruption from above. Could come in handy, does it say where it was centered? Whatever happened down there probably affected here until the Field collapsed back down to the atmospheric level."
"He didn't write down exactly what they witnessed, but it seems like they were over Asia during the docking, and the flash seemed to come from the north pole and around the edges. So the centre was probably in North America somewhere.
"They managed to get the systems restarted and stabilized after a few hours, and got the crew in from the Columbia. But they were still having trouble. They couldn't contact Earth. None of the Control centres responded, nor were there any other signals coming from Earth. They could contact some of the other satelites around, but nothing on Earth."
Joey skimmed over the next few pages. "Survivor stuff here, attempts to reach Earth or to see what's going on down there. Hmm, are we on the night side?"
"You mean is it dark down there? Yes it is," Sean called out, looking at the world below the station, still amazed by it.
Joseph flickered and disappeared for a moment, and reappeared just outside the window Sean was viewing through. "Wow, we should have noticed that before. Looks like it's evening over North America down there. And there's not a light on down there."
"Not a light?" Richard patted the monitor a moment and pushed off to the window next to Sean. He found the terminator and saw it sweeping across the North American plains. "I see what you mean. The north east coast of that land mass below us, Sean. On most Earth's it is a heavily populated megalopolis, stretching from the peninsula to the south all the way up to the big river there. Millions upon millions of people living along that stretch of land. And with that many people, it should be lit up bright enough to be seen from up here. But there's nothing... Nothing down there at all." He looked down at his phone and flipped through a few screens before stretching the screen out to show a night view of the planet, similar to the one below them, but with bright points of lights along the coasts and major rivers.
"This is my world, a composite image taken of the dark side. Here's where the east coast is, what you can see down there. They should be as brightly lit as this, if all was right. But they aren't."
"Richard, the logs say they saved some pictures from the satellites. See if you can draw them up." Joseph radioed in, still outside, perched next to the window. "Sean, you've probably got the best eyes out there until we go back to the shuttle. Let us know if you see any lights down there."
"Sure, sure. it's not easy, there's a lot of stuff in the air down there, but I'll keep an eye on the world."
The three continued working in silence for a while longer, each absorbed in their own tasks. Finally, Joseph phased through the side, back into the compartment. "I found it. What happened up here," he announced, holding up the book.
"There were thirteen people stuck up here after the communications black out. They stayed up here for a few weeks, but they knew they couldn't stay up here forever. The station's only designed for six semi-permanent residents at once, and even then they need regular resupply from Earth. With Columbia's crew, they knew they'd have to go back down eventually.
"So they studied the Earth with everything they had available. The logs note a few curiosities. Like the number of large scale fires all around, the lack of air craft in the skies and the lack of movement on the ground. The satellites they could tap into couldn't resolve close enough to detect people, but they could pick up vehicles, and for the most part, they weren't moving. Not under their own power.
"They were somewhat reassured by what they did NOT see though. No mushroom clouds, or any other signs of large scale war. So they were reasonably certain that whatever happened down there, the planet was still alive, one way or another. It was a small consolation prize.
"Finally, they knew the day had come. They had to prepare to abandon the station. The last week of notes is full of details about how they split up the records and experiments between the two Soyuz modules and the shuttle, and a copy of the records to leave up here, as best they could. They had no idea what was waiting for them, but they couldn't stay up here. The Columbia left first and took another day or so to reach the atmosphere. The crews stayed in touch as long as they could, but the radio link died soon after Columbia hit the atmosphere. They don't know what happened to that crew.
"A day or so after the Columbia went silent, it was time to leave themselves. The first Soyuz left July 21st, 2007, and all contact was lost once they hit the atmosphere, never recovered. The last entry is on the 24th. They've finished shutting everything down but the minimum to do basic station keeping. They programmed the computers it to lift the station to a higher orbit as well, to try and make it endure longer, just in case. And then they left."
Joseph closed the log and looked around the station. "Twenty five years, floating here in space...," he shuddered a moment. "You guys have anything?"
"My manual's downloaded the images in the computer. I'll look at them closer when we're back in the shuttle," Richard said, unplugging the device from the panel. "There's been some losses, some of the solid state memory failed and stuff, but I managed to coax most of it out."
The eagle pushed away from the window and shook his head, stretching his wings out and bumping the sides of the room. "The world is dark down there. I saw a few lights that may be fires, but with the distances you say we're at, they can't be campfires or anything like that. They'd be too big."
"Probably just forest fires sparked by lightning. Lets go back to the shuttle and figure out what we've got. You think any of the spy sats are still up and awake enough to look down for us?" Joseph asked, floating along behind the other two as the trio started back towards the airlock.
Richard shook his head. "Most of them would be low orbits. Twenty five years is long enough that they probably came down long ago, and what's left probably doesn't have any power left. I'll have the shuttle scan around, see if anything's awake enough to answer us, but it'll just be the stuff a quarter century out of date and what we can pick up on our own."
Joseph teleported himself back into the shuttle, while the other two floated through the magic bridge. "Well we have some clues at least. We know when the event happened, and some clues as to where. We'll go through the images and data you salvaged, but my gut feel is we're going to North America."
The wizard double checked the air locks were fully closed, then tugged on a strand of power over the airlock door. The barest hint of a shudder went through the shuttle as it detached from the station and the wizardry collapsed down to a hula hoop sized ring of weakly glowing words. "This might come in handy. You want to keep it or shall I?" he asked, looking at the sleeping cat. Surah opened one eye and twitched her tail dismissively, not even answering him. "Fine, I'll keep it." he said, grinning and folding the spell up and pushing it onto his phone where it disappeared. He pulled the space suit wizardry's off of himself and Sean as well and stored them on his phone as well.
Over the following two days, the group studied the data from the station and the planet below them. The results were unnerving. Pictures recovered from the station showed cities in flames, no vehicles running, and general chaos. More current pictures both from the shuttle and from a couple of satellites Richard managed to wake up enough to look down, showed cities slowly being reclaimed by nature, and smaller towns and villages scattered far away from the old cities, most of them walled.
"Any luck finding the Kernel?" Joseph asked, studying three pictures of Detroit. One taken soon after the fall, one from Richard's world which was similar to this one at the time of the fall, and one gotten recently. He shook his head in wonder at the amount of death and destruction implied by the pictures,
"No. I'm fairly confident it's in the Northern Hemisphere, and probably somewhere in North America, but more precise than that...," he shook his head and sighed. "The same interference that's blocking our more advanced sensors is also disrupting any mystical attempts to search too. We're going to have to go down."
It didn't take long to prepare the shuttle for landing. Loose gear was packed away, and Richard double checked the Keepers were strapped in properly, and Surah was in her own locked down cage. He joined Joseph at the front and took his own seat, strapping in. "We're all set."
"Good. We'll loop around the planet a few times, loosing altitude. We'll hit the atmosphere over the Urals roughly and glide westward. The shuttle's big enough that we should be able to get a good week or so of flying time out of it, even with the no-tech frame that seems to be down there."
"It shouldn't take that long. Once we're lower, I should be able to get a fix," Richard replied, taking out his phone and pulling off a few icons, draping them over his lap before putting his phone back. "I'll scan on the way down in any case. No point in wasting an opportunity."
The engines in the little shuttle pulsed with power and the station fell away from them. Joseph kept a close eye on the controls and the readings on the planet below as he sent the shuttle slowly spiraling down. Beside him, Richard expanded an icon into a wave of magic, letting it swell into a holographic view of the world below them, a line marking their progress. They circled the planet three times, losing altitude each time, before the shields began to glow with the heat of reentry. The Korean peninsula raced towards them from the horizon, unnaturally dark to Joseph and Richard's eyes.
"We don't have exact timing, but best guesses say that we are about to pass into the transition zone," Joseph announced as the Mongolian plateau passed beneath them.
Everyone tensed and looked around expectantly, but nothing happened other than the steadily increasing hissing sound of air rushing past the shields. A few minutes later, Richard began to relax, "Maybe-" he started to say, but was drowned out by a blaring alarm.
Both he and Joseph leaned forward and checked the controls, silencing the alarm and trying to figure out what was going on.
{What was that?} the dragon's telepathic voice called from the back.
"Trouble! That's what. We're getting cascading failures across the board. It's the Frame. It's damn near hostile to technology. The shuttle's loosing its own frame faster than I expected. How's your magic?" Joseph called back, tapping controls and trying to keep the shuttle flying even as it began to shake.
"One bar. Enough to do stuff with, but new stuff will be tricky. What do you need?"
"A heat shield. The force field already flickered out once before backups kicked in. If that goes down, we'll burn out before we get to the ground. Then we need something to keep us in the air."
Richard unbuckled his restraints and got up, his phone still glowing steadily. "Surah, a little help please?" he called out, bracing himself against the back of his seat and pulling out glowing strings of characters.
The feline wizard pawed at the catch inside the door of her cage and leaped out, landing briefly on the back of Holly's chair before leaping to the front, barely phased by the increasing turbulence. She began to grab the character strings and weave them together.
[It's a lot of mass and velocity. We're going to need a lot of energy for this.] she commented.
"I know, I know, Joey, couldn't you jump us down to the ground or something?" he shouted, sweating as the cabin warmed up.
"Too much speed, too many people and too damn far. We gotta get this slowed down and landed- DAMN IT!" As he spoke, the screens and controls went dark. The roar of the engines sputtered out, replaced by the roar of wind blowing along the shuttle's skin. The only light left in the shuttle was the glowing holographic sphere, and the glow from the wizardries Surah and Richard were weaving.
"Where'd the windows go?" Holly shouted from the back.
"Gone with the rest of the technology. They weren't real windows, just holographic projections from cameras on the skin." Joseph looked around and disappeared from his seat, reappearing next to a storage panel at the back of the shuttle. He gripped the handle of the airlock and yanked the door open. After a quick search, he pulled out a package of plastic tubes filled with liquids. He snapped and shook them one at a time, adding a green glow to the wizard light.
Up front, Richard and Surah carried out a silent argument while they weaved their emergency spell. Finally, Richard threw up his hands in frustration and caught a strand from the weave they were making. "Sean! Can you still understand me?" he called out.
The eagle looked up, his claws gripping the arm rests of his chair tightly, his wings half extended. He recognized his name, but the rest of the words were a jumble of unrecognizable sounds.
"Damn it! Joe! The Translator's down. Translate for me! Tell him to focus on this strand I have in my hand. When I give the signal, tell him to dump as much power into this as he can. And lets prey to the One that it'll work. Mixing magics is dangerous enough as is."
Joseph flickered and reappeared back in the cockpit, dropping a couple more glowsticks on the blank table that used to be the controls. He thought for the moment, wiping his forehead and translated for Richard.
"I can't just dump power into it. My magic doesn't work that way. I can only amplify what exists," Sean, through Joseph, answered.
"Then do that. This is the main power line for the entire spell. Amp it's power and it should flow to the rest. Now wait for my signal," Richard barely gave Joseph time to start the translation before he and Surah started speaking the spell. As they spoke, the woven words glowed brighter and the noise of the wind quieted down. The spell itself began to expand, stretching through the cabin and then beyond the walls, out of sight, but not out of mind. Richard finished the last word of the spell and slumped down against the back of his seat, looking more drained than the hot cabin would natural cause. "Now," he croaked out.
Outside the wind noise died a bit, but not completely. The spell power sentence Richard held onto glowed and twitched as the spell tried to handle what was needed. Sean focused on it, and expanded his own vision, seeing the lines of power that fed into the spell, not just the words, but the underlying strings tying the spell to Richard and Surah and spreading over the shuttle, reinforcing it. His eyes darted around, taking in the magical streams and sorting them out before he reached out with his own abilities, tapping into the power phrase and expanding it while being careful not to draw any more from the two wizards. Gradually, the turbulence died down, and then the cabin temperature began to lower. The stuffiness of stale air also began to fade out.
Joseph sniffed the air curiously and looked down at the groggy wizard. Richard smiled up at him. "I tied in some life support elements too into the spell. We're gliding, still on the track we were on, but I don't know how long the three of us can keep this up. We've gotta get down."
"Right, down." Joseph looked at the empty table where the controls used to be. "Any tips?"
Richard pulled himself back up and into his seat, glancing back at Surah. The cat was resting, tense but alert and showing no sign of fatigue. He turned back and motioned for Joseph to sit down, while he lifted the map sphere up.
"Looks like we're over the Atlantic, rapidly approaching the Eastern Seaboard," he said, squishing down the Asian and Pacific portions of the map, flattening it out so it showed their arc approaching land. He looked at the spell lines, and looked up at the eagle who was helping to power it. "Don't have time to search for the kernel, but we know it's down here somewhere. Once we're down, we aren't getting up again, so we should pick somewhere near the middle."
"Can you get any population readings? I wouldn't want to drop down in the middle of a village. We want to keep this as low key as possible."
"Not really, we're flying blind literally. I didn't have time to weave in any sort of sensors into the spell shield. When we get close to landing, I'll see if we can get something in. In the mean time, my world's maps seem pretty close." Richard waved his hand over the flattened map, and the ghost of words and lines, showing the road network of his world appeared on the land. Another mumbled command and a tear shaped glow appeared around the point representing the shuttle. "That's the limit of where we can reach with this spell. But it's only a very rough estimate. We have no idea what Sean's magics are doing to the wizardry yet. We might go longer, or it may collapse completely on us without warning."
Joseph leaned over the map now laying on the table. "Pleasant thought." He shifted mental gears and called out to Sean in the Keeper's language. "We're trying to find a safe space to land. Let us know if it becomes too much for you so we can take over and find a closer area to land."
Sean twitched a bit, but his eyes never left the spot where the wizardry's power line was. "I can hold it. Just try to be quick."
"Will do...." he studied the map again and pointed. "Kansas, how about there? Flat, low populations, and fairly central overall. Though if it's on either coast we'll either bump into the Mississippi or the Rockies to get it."
"Sounds good to me. Setting the directions," Richard said, picking up the control strands and tying in a few more commands. The shuttle tilted under their feet as it adjusted its heading and continued gliding down, only the barest hint of wind to be heard.
For half an hour they glided through the air in their sealed, windowless box. Richard managed to tweak the map spell to show their current speed and altitude, but actual outside views were impossible. When Joseph stuck his head through to look out himself, the view wasn't any better; the active wizardry surrounding the shuttle still glowed with the reentry heat too hot to see through. As they passed over the Appalachians on the East Coast, both Richard and Joseph kept an eye on the guessed altitude, and the height of the ground around them, but the shuttle managed to avoid any collisions.
When the map showed them crossing the Mississippi, Richard called for everyone to brace themselves, and strapped himself back in. He'd recovered a little during the long blind glide, but the spells he pulled out and prepared for their landing still looked weak. Sean and Surah similarly looked uneasy.
"One hundred meters," Joseph called out, reading it off the map. He forced himself to try and relax as the altitude counter steadily decreased. In Richard's world, this area wasn't very populated, but they had no idea what they were landing into. "Fifty meters."
"Twenty five met-" The spell flared brightly, and Sean screeched in pain, only to be drowned out by the horrible screech of metal on metal. The shuttle bucked hard as it crashed into something, seemed to find an open space, then landed hard, sliding forward. Richard tried to recover and get the spells replaced, but there was another horrible rending metal sound and something caught the shuttle, spinning it sideways before letting go. They slid for another few heart stopping seconds, before the shuttle finally came to a stop, rocking slightly, the cabin tilted so the cockpit looked up towards the sky.
Joseph groaned and tried to regain his senses. The cabin was dusty and the scent of hot metal filled the air, but no smoke that he could sense. The green glows were scattered randomly, most at the back of the cabin, where the glow was enhanced by a whiter light. "Everyone okay? Sound off," he coughed out.
Beside him, a figure groaned and stirred. "Anyone get the number of that truck?" he groaned before making a quick gesture. The phone lifted itself out from under a fallen panel, and glowed brighter as it approached. "I'm okay. Nothing feels broken, " Richard said at last.
[I'm fine, no thanks to you,] an annoyed voice called from the back. Surah hopped out of her cage and perched there, beginning to wash herself.
"I think I over extended my wing, but I am fine. This glowing stuff isn't dangerous, is it?"
Richard looked back and saw the bronze dragon wincing and holding one wing very still, but his attention was on his chest. Somehow one of the glow sticks had cracked open and splashed on the dragonmorph's chest.
"Yeah, it's non toxic. We'll find some water to rinse you off once we get out. Sean, Holly, you two all right?"
"I'm fine, just shaken up," Holly called out, unbuckling her straps and carefully stretching.
Sean groaned and flickered, shifting down to full eagle form and stumbling to his feet. Saroth carefully reached down and let his friend climb up his arm.
"Sean's fine, but weak. Says the feedback knocked him for a loop and he needs a few minutes to settle down." Saroth reported after a moment.
"Good. You guys, make sure you all really aren't hurt and seeing what you can salvage. Richard, see if you can talk the airlock into opening. We've got a breach but I can't tell how big it is yet. If we can take the air lock it'll be easier for everyone. I'm going to check the situation outside."
He waited another few moments to make doubly sure no one was injured worst than a strained muscle Saroth reported, then he picked a direction and walked out of the shuttle.
It took him a few minutes to orient himself once he was on solid ground again. In front of him stretched a grassy plain with rusted hulks lined up in even rows. At the far end of the plain, the metal frame of a ruined building still stood. He turned around and saw the trench the shuttle had plowed in its landing, knocking more rusted hulks out of the way, and leading to the shattered wall in a mostly intact building. The paint had long flaked off, as had the plastic lighted sign coverings, but enough letters remained for him to figure out it was a Wal*Mart. He shook his head as the scene clicked into place. They had landed in the middle of one of the big box store complexes. The parking lot and roads were almost completely overgrown now, but the number of cars made it obvious not many had done much there since the collapse. He looked at the shuttle, and shook his head again at the scratches along the side, and the torn off engine pod left somewhere in the building. At least the air lock hatch was above the ground. As he watched it creaked and protested before a bronze claw got through and yanked it open further. The claw disappeared and then Richard appeared with Surah's cage.
"Thank's Saroth," the wizard called out, stepping down carefully and putting down Surah's cage before looking around. The Keepers climbed out after him, Holly with her sword ready.
"Any problems with the hatch?" Joseph called out, not moving from his own vantage point.
"Tonnes. I've never seen anything like it. Most worlds are indifferent to out of context stuff. You can use foreign tech or magics or whatever as long as you have the power to use it, and they won't stop you. This world though... This world is downright hostile to any sort of advanced tech beyond maybe the waterwheel or something."
"Hostile?"
"Yeah, hostile. It reached out and disabled the shuttle and everything else on it within minutes. I managed to wake up the airlock, but even with Surah's and Sean's help, we only just managed to get enough power in its system to crack the seals. All the rest was just siphoned away into the ether."
Joseph frowned and looked around again. "That's not good. The real ether or just a figure of speech?"
"You're guess is as good as mine." Richard climbed up the edge of the trench the shuttle had carved and looked around. "So where are we?"
"Somewhere outside Wichita I'd guess. In a suburb that isn't in either of our worlds. Looks like we crashed through what's left of its Wal*Mart."
Holly climbed up next to Richard and followed the trench. "What's a Wal*Mart?" she asked.
Richard caught Joseph's inquisitive look and smiled. "We did the Universal Translator spell before we left the shuttle. It's an easy spell to do, and may come in handy with the natives." He looked back at the equine warrior. "As for what a Wal*Mart is, it's a large market, where you can get clothes, food, gadgets, and other things at, all under one roof, all owned by one group."
She studied the building and looked around. "All owned by one person? How could they make so much to fill that place?"
Richard chuckled. "They didn't. They would buy things others make and resell them here. Looks like a small store too. There are... or rather were bigger ones out there."
"Come on guys, lets see what useful stuff we can get off the shuttle while we have light," Joey interrupted them, flickering over to the airlock, then jumping down inside. "We can explore the ruins later," he shouted.
Richard and Joseph did most of the searching in the shuttle, passing out the equipment they figured would be useful out to Holly and Saroth. As the day wore on, the pile grew until both humans agreed there was little more of use in the shuttle.
"I can keep most of this in my pup tent," Richard said, surveying the pile they had created on the ground. "But we'll have to carry some of it, just in case we're separated, or we need something right away. Maybe a few bags of the gold coin blanks, a few days of food and the basic armor and weapons and stuff? What do you guys think? Your world is probably closer to what it's like down here than our experiences."
Holly nodded and started to sort the pile. "Yeah, you've got way too much to carry here. But what good would filling a tent with the extra stuff be?" she asked, grunting and shoving a case of unmarked gold bars out of the way.
"It's not a normal tent," Richard explained, shaking his phone to light up its screen, the only artificial light around them in the increasing dusk. He paged through it quickly and pulled out a glowing stick. He hung it in the air and pulled downward, creating a doorway in mid air. "Don't mind the mess, but I can get to here almost anywhere. So put what we don't need but want to keep here, and we'll carry the rest."
From the side, the pup tent entrance was all but invisible, a thin line barely visible. From behind, it was invisible. But from the front, it showed a cubical space, about ten feet in each dimension. A futon was against the 'wall' opposite the entrance, and a small desk with a laptop on it against a second wall. The third wall had a pile of clothes, filled water bottles and boxes of travel foods stacked haphazardly. The walls themselves were translucent, letting whoever was inside the 'tent' see out, but not be seen from the outside. A portable closet at the foot of the bed was open, with cold and wet weather gear hanging in it. Richard climbed in, followed by Surah. Surah hopped up onto the futon and turned around once before dozing off.
"Start passing me stuff and I'll find room for it. Be careful of the edges of the door," he called out, kicking a pile of clothes under the futon.
Joseph pulled out the dragon harness from the pile and passed it in. They had decided to give Saroth a day or two to rest his strained wing before asking him to carry much, so the harness was dead weight for now. "What is this?"
"It's a pinched off pocket of space time basically. My space time at that, though the entrance can be made anywhere that my wizardry works," Richard started to explain, tossing the harness in one corner and returning for a crate of gold bricks Holly carried over. "It's *ugh* It's completely separate from the universe we're in, including any local fields. Good news is, it means that anything my world would allow should work in here, the no tech field in effect here won't do anything inside the tent. Bad news is, nothing inside the tent can affect anything outside, unless it can get through the door. Theoretically I guess I could fire a gun from in here and the bullet's momentum would carry through the door. But practically, lets rely on our own skills."
"Good idea. Sean, how are you feeling? Could you take to the skies and do a quick look around, make sure no groups of locals are approaching? Should've done that sooner I guess but now's as good a time as any."
The eagle shook himself a bit on Saroth's shoulder, then spread his wings and took off, spiraling up into the sky.
{You want me to go up as well?} the dragon asked hopefully.
Joseph shook his head and helped with a box of blank gold coins. "Not yet. Dragons are not native to this world, at least not real dragons. If there are any natives close you'd draw too much attention. If there are any natives REALLY close, you'll probably need to hide quickly. Though I don't know how we'll explain the shuttle...."
"Surah and I can cook something up once we're ready and rested a bit. An illusion should suffice, make it look like a couple transports crashed during the crash and got grown over or something."
"How long would that last?"
"Depends on the weather. If it stays clear, probably a week or two. If it rains, a few days."
Joseph nodded. "That should do. Just long enough for us to get away and not be associated with it when its found."
{I'm still getting used to the feel of the air around here. I'll be able to tell more when I fly, but I'm not sensing any clouds in the area that will wash away the magic.}
"Thanks Saroth."
Sean returned after the group had finished sorting the gear and started a campfire. The eagle swelled larger as he glided down towards the fire, legs growing longer, chest and hips becoming more distinct, stubby claws growing from under the wings and swelling into full sized arms. He landed at a light jog and joined the group.
"I don't think anyone noticed us. Or at least noticed us enough to come our way." He pointed to the overgrown highway embankment past the stores. "There are signs of a recent camp over there, but I'd say the left at least a week ago. And there was a lot of movement in the...." He paused a moment and looked towards the darkened skyline of the city, trying to come up with the right word for it.
"City?" Richard provided helpfully.
"Is that what that is? In the city then. It's strange, it looks like it used to be well maintained long ago, but now, nothing. Just the signs of a few bands of people who can't be surviving well from what I saw. I didn't go near the towers just in case."
Joseph shook his head sadly and shuddered, looking at the city as well. "In my world, that city has almost half a million people in it, and a few hundred Heroes to protect it. And now, you can't even tell it is inhabited. Let alone who is inhabiting it."
The Keepers seemed to have a hard time grasping the concept of that many people in one place, but Richard understood it well. "I know what you mean, Joey. I think we should avoid the cities as much as possible while we're here. Just think of what happened to this world. Without warning, everything stopped working. Worldwide chaos barely describes what it must have been like. Even here, in the heart of the breadbasket, the trucks didn't work to bring in the food."
He paused and tossed another piece of wood on the fire. "I heard a saying once somewhere... that civilization is three square meals away from anarchy. Well, once everything stopped working, that three square meal countdown started. And with no one able to bring food into the cities, the thousands, even millions of people in them would strip the cities bare in no time. Then Darwin takes over, and those that stayed...."
Joseph gulped again and nodded. "Who's Darwin?" Holly asked.
"Not a who exactly, more of a what. He's a scientist from worlds like mine and Joey's. Came up with theories about animal behavior and such. Most famously, he's known for a theory describing 'Survival of the fittest'; those best adapted to the situation at hand will survive to have children. Those less adapted will be killed off. In the case of the cities, with no other food around, I think you can imagine that a hundred pounds of fresh killed meat, regardless of what it was before, would be looking mighty tasty when you're starving and just put a lot of effort in killing it."
Holly grimaced and looked away. Saroth and Sean also looked a little sickened at the thought.
"Right, I'm sure the entire world hasn't gone cannibal. If it had gone zombie, I'm sure they would have warned us in the Tangle. For now, lets just avoid the cities and approach any natives cautiously. In the mean time, we have a lot of planning to do. Richard, can you and Surah find the kernel?" Joseph said, trying to raise the mood and get them refocused.
Richard nodded. "I'm getting a twitch of a direction. East and a bit north. Now that we're here, I think we can make a spell tomorrow to guide us more directly."
"Sounds good. In the mean time, we need to figure out how you Keepers are going to travel among the natives."
{separator | f } TODO: Introduce native group?
{separator | f }
Joseph, still half asleep, sniffed the air once, then again, inhaling the scent of sweetened oatmeal cooking. He yawned and opened his eyes, blinking against the dawn light until his eyes adjusted. Reflexively, he glanced at his wrist to check the time, only to see the blank screen of the non-functioning wristcomp. "Ugh, what time is it?" he called out, concentrating a moment and sitting up through his sleeping bag.
"Just after six I'd guess," Holly called from the fire, tending the oatmeal pot with an expert hand. Behind her, Sean was helping Saroth stretch his wings. The dragon morph visibly winced when his wing extended past a point.
"How yah doing, Saroth?" Joseph called out, bending down to fish his own blades out of his bag and buckling them over his shoulders.
{I'm fine. Just slept on it wrong. Give me a bit to stretch and I'll be fine,} the dragon sent, an undercurrent of pain clear in his mental voice.
Sean lightly punched the dragon between the wings. "Don't think you're fooling us, Sar. You banged that wing up more than you let on, and now you're paying for it. Just take it easy and no flying for a day or two at least, until you can get a full extension without wincing."
The dragon growled wordlessly and tried to stretch the wing again, only to gasp and pull it back in.
"Don't worry about it, big guy. We weren't counting on you to fly us to the kernel or anything like that. Sean can be our aerial scout until you can join him." Joseph looked around and frowned. "Speaking of which, where are our wizards?"
Holly sampled the oatmeal, and ladled spoonfuls out into plastic bowls. She pointed to the wrecked Wal*Mart with her spoon. "They said they were going shopping and wouldn't be long. That was maybe ten minutes ago."
"They left before breakfast?"
"Richard had a few of those bars he had and said that was all he wanted. Surah said she'd already eaten her fill."
"I suppose she would. OK, eat up guys. If they aren't back by the time we're done, we'll head in to look for them. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea for you guys to get used to what the wrecks around here are like."
The four ate up and cleaned up without the wizards returning. Holly carefully put out the fire and stacked their gear up next to the crashed shuttle.
"I'm going to stretch my hooves a bit. Don't worry, I'll stay close by," Holly announced shifting to her full Arabian form.
"Watch your step out there. Any glass should be well ground to dust by now, but the manhole covers and sewer grates are probably just starting to fail," Joseph warned her.
The horse tilted her head inquisitively. Joseph looked around the overgrown parking lot and walked closer to the curb, leading the Keepers. He pulled at a brush growing on the old curb, revealing a metal grate. "To help with drainage, when it rained or when the snows melted, there'd be grates like these scattered around parking lots and along roads, leading to tunnels that lead to the rivers. So the ground may not be as stable as it looks if any of those grates failed or the tunnels collapsed."
Holly nodded her head and took off towards a faded Staples building, quickly reaching a gallop. Joseph motioned towards the Wal*Mart. "Shall we go find our wizards?" he asked of the remaining Keepers.
They walked towards the building, paralleling the trench their landing had carved. Joseph recognized that the number of cars in the lot indicated the Crash here had happened during the day, or early evening. Most of the cars were in parking slots, tires rotted away, windows long smashed, all showing signs of having been looted long ago. Only a few cars were in between rows, or crashed into parked cars, showing vehicles that had been going when the Crash happened.
At one car, Joseph paused, noticing a flash of something under the rusting car body. He crouched down and reached through the car body and felt carefully before pulling it out. He barely stopped himself from dropping it once it became clearly visible.
Sean stepped closer and looked at it, nodding his head. "A bone, definitely human. Long dead," he said after a moment, taking it from Joseph and turning it over.
Joseph shuddered and tried to resettle himself. "Not unexpected I guess. The death toll after the Crash was probably staggering. And survival probably trumped proper burial. Let's keep going."
The shuttle's crash had cut a trench through the old big box store to the left of the old entrances, through the pharmacy section. Joseph ignored it and lead the way carefully through the twisted doors and into the darkened store. The only light came from the shuttle's holes and the entrance, showing knocked over shelves, an empty cart coral, and knocked over registers, all of the drawers pried open and emptied. The store had been stripped by scavengers, with very little left. The clothing department's racks were bare, where there were racks left. The jewelry department similarly was down to empty rusty cases. What little hadn't been scavenged was mostly on the floor and trampled or lost in the layer of dirt that had blown in over the decades since it was abandoned.
"This way," Sean said, pointing towards the back of the store. "I can sense their magic."
Joseph lead the way deeper into the old building, following the original corridors, stepping around abandoned racks, shelves and islands. As they reached the old Electronics department, obvious only by the sign barely readable on the wall, he debated cracking another chemical light to see better with. He canceled that thought when he spied a spark of bright light through the doorway leading to the back.
Saroth helped pull the door open further, the sound of screeching metal filling the air as it dragged across the concrete. Inside, they saw a wide alley, mostly clear, leading to the still closed loading bay doors. A forklift that looked like it could still drive if internal combustion was allowed, was parked against one wall. Most of the light came from Richard's smart phone, that was propped up on the forklift seat. Random items were scattered on the floor, with scuffed lines linking them together. On a pallet nearby, the orange cat was focused on cleaning herself. Slumped on the floor beside the forklift, Richard rested, looking like he had run a marathon. Beside him, three plastic halloween masks, an old GPS receiver and a can of paint rested. He was working steadily through a box of energy bars.
Sean paused just inside the doorway and blinked. "Whoa. Lots of magic happening in here," he commented, squinting and looking around.
"It's safe guys. The spells are all cast now and unknotted," Richard called, waving a half eaten bar towards them.
Joseph lead the way in, stepping cautiously around the scuffed markings on the floor despite Richard's assurances. "What have you two been up to? You look exhausted."
"I am. Five major wizardries at once takes a lot out of you, even with Surah's help," he held up a hand to silence the eagle before Sean could speak up. "And I wanted to do it with my magics. You were a huge help in landing the shuttle Sean, but until we can study more how our magics interact, I want to keep them as separate as possible."
He pulled himself to his feet and gripped the forklift for a long moment to make sure he was steady. "Anyway, Surah and I got up early, and decided to go scavenging ourselves for components to make our spells easier. We didn't know how picked over this spot was, but we hoped what we needed would have been left, and it was. The hardest thing to find was a can of paint that wasn't dried up."
Joseph nodded and looked around. "So what did you accomplish?"
"Three disguise masks for the Keepers, an illusion paint for the shuttle, and a kernel detector. Be careful back there guys!"
While he had been talking, Saroth and Sean had curiously moved to the rows of racks and started looking down the darkened aisles. The dragon was holding a ball of fire in his claws to light their way.
{There's something down here.... Some people had kept a fire down here or something,} the dragon called out.
"Yeah, I was going to get to that," Richard said, crouching to pick up the supplies, making sure the paint can was covered. He grabbed the phone and used its light as a flashlight to guide them to the Keepers.
{Looks like it was a cooking fire... still some bones around here, well chewed but... are these human bones?} Saroth's mental voice sounded disgusted as he and Sean inspected the campsite.
The humans joined them, looking down the aisle. Richard nodded. "Human bones, and human teeth marks. I couldn't question the bones directly... I don't think I'd want to, and the shelves are not very talkative. I've got an inanimate affinity, but it runs more towards electronics than the real inanimate like some wizards. Let's get out of here."
Richard backed away and lead the way back out of the building. "Your costumes are basically very simple illusions. Anyone looking at you will see humans. But if they touch you beyond the barest contact, they'll probably feel something different. To activate it, just put it on over your face and it'll take effect. To deactivate it, pull it off. To be safe, make sure you take it off before you shift your forms," he explained once they were back in the light.
"Saroth, there's nothing I can do about your voice, so if we're among other people, please try to stay quiet or at worst, whisper to us. We don't want others noticing you're any different than you are. Where's Holly?"
"She went for a run. She'll be back soon I'm sure," Sean explained, taking the mask Richard offered him.
"Put these on and we'll tune your human appearances. Don't worry about snapping the cord or anything; it's all magically reenforced."
Joseph eyed the masks as the eagle and dragon tried to put them on, and smirked. He leaned closer to Richard and whispered. "Power Ranger masks?"
Richard shrugged and grinned back. "It was the only thing I could find that was still usable.... Okay, I admit it, it was VERY tempting to attach an 'It's Morphing Time' activation key to them."
The teleporter snorted and walked through a couple of cars to put some distance between himself and the rest of the group before he lost it. Richard grinned and approached the Keepers, the masks beginning to activate as they got them in place. A few moments later, instead of the eagle and dragon morphs, two middle aged men stood there, dressed in hand made clothes. "Hold still guys, just need to make a few tweaks so you aren't twins."
Joseph wandered back to the group's camp and looked around, debating whether they should try to leave now, or to wait another day. He ported to the top of the shuttle and turned around slowly. In one direction, the dead city hunkered, silent and threateningly. He shuddered and put his back to it, eyes following the embankment of an old Interstate highway where it curved around the city and came towards them. Just visible on the other side, would have been suburbia, but over the decades since the city died, fires and weather had ravaged the suburbs, leaving a plain of grassland with the rare wreckage of a building still standing, a mound of bricks here, a basement or pool's depression there. In the distance he noticed a plume of dust.
"Man, she can really run when she wants to," Joseph mused to himself, shading his eyes and trying to verify it was Holly raising the dust. He jumped down to the supply packs and pulled out a pair of binoculars, then returned to his vantage point. He focused on the dust plume, adjusting the glasses until the Arabian mare came into view. She was galloping at full speed down an overgrown street in the old suburbs, returning to the shuttle. Behind her, he spotted a second dust plume, which resolved into two mounted cowboys. "Ah shit!" Joey cursed, porting directly back to Richard and the Keepers.
He barely recognized the two Keepers in their illusions. Both were still human, but Sean had darkened his hair a bit, while Saroth had lightened his. That was the first impression he had. "Guys, we gotta move. Holly's hot hoofing it back and she's got company."
"What? Which way?" Sean shouted, already crouching to take off.
"Mask!" Richard shouted, reminding the bird. He pulled at his nose and the stretched out mask reappeared on the eagle's beak. Sean tossed the mask to Richard and shrunk down to his eagle form in mid leap.
"How do we hide the shuttle? We don't have much time. They were on the other side of the highway." Joseph explained quickly, pointing where he saw the horse and riders.
Richard grabbed the can of paint and shoved it in Joey's hands. "Splash this over the shuttle, and Surah can do the rest. We'll be there ASAP. Now go!"
The teleporter balanced the can, and the bundle of fur that leaped into his arms. He flickered out, reappearing back at the shuttle. Following the instructions, he pried the top of the paint can off and jumped to the top of the shuttle and started pouring it out. The paint glowed as it flowed out and spread further than he thought would have been possible. Surah jumped away and landed literally on thin air, watching the paint begin to spread. When the last drops left the can, she hissed and began to claw at the air. Joseph jumped away as the glow flared brighter, too bright to watch directly. After a few heart beats the flare disappeared, leaving spots in his eyes. When he could see again, a torn up crater was visible, but no sign of the shuttle. The cat walked down invisible air steps, circling around where the shuttle was and giving off an air of pleasure about how it turned out.
{"That should do. It should keep as long as no one shoots at it, until we're well away."} she said, walking over to the embers of the fire and sitting down to wash her paws.
"Thanks Surah." Joseph turned to face Saroth and Richard as they ran up. "What about Holly's disguise? Can we give it to her in time?"
Richard shook his head and gasped for breath. "No I can't.... Need to personalize it.... or else it'll fail," he gasped out.
"Fine, warn Holly to not change then, we'll bluff them a bit. Let me do the talking. I wish we had a bow and arrows... we're looking out of place enough as it is," Joseph ordered, mumbling the last half.
An avian shriek split the air, drawing their attention upwards. Sean dove from the sky towards the embankment, just as Holly crested the hill. He expertly landed on her back, talons tugging at her mane for balance, wings fluttering for balance. Her step faltered a moment at the sudden weight, but she recovered and continued sprinting towards the group. A few lengths behind her, the two riders crested and reared back suddenly, quickly taking in the appearance of the three humans ahead of them. One dropped the rope they were carrying and scrambled for their bow and an arrow.
Joseph raised his hands and faced the two cowboys. He realized one was a cowgirl. "Saroth, tell Holly and Sean not to change back. Then keep quiet. We'll play it with just the three of us for now. May be easier to explain than five with no horses."
Saroth nodded, and Joseph got the feeling of barely hearing a conversation as the dragon warned the Keepers. Holly tossed her head and slowed down, trotting up to the group and nuzzling Saroth's hand. The riders approached slowly, stopping just in bow range, and in shouting range.
"Ahoy there! We are peaceful," Joseph shouted, holding his hands up. He took a few steps to the side to make sure any shots that might go through him wouldn't hit anyone behind him.
The riders studied him, and the rest of the group carefully. The woman kept them covered with the bow while the man approached closer. "Good day, folks. Who are you and what brings you around here?"
Joseph waited a moment, thinking over the language snippet a moment before deciding it really was just an English dialect. "My name is Joseph. That's Sean and Saroth. We're scavengers who fell upon hard times." He thought quickly and mentally crossed his fingers. "We were exploring around here for salvage when bandits surprised us. Scared off most of our horses and took a lot of our gear. Don't mind Saroth, I'm afraid he's mute. Bad accident when he was younger."
"Bandits? We haven't seen any sign of bandits lately," the man said cautiously, eyes looking around the camp.
"Yeah, they got us on the other side of the city. We took what we could and moved on to here, following the tracks of Holly here, hoping we could catch up to her at least. Thanks for chasing her back."
Holly snorted and looked away. The riders looked at her then refocused on Joseph, relaxing slightly but hands still near his weapons. "She's a fine mare. Fast like the wind too. No wonder you had so much trouble catching her. Name's Ryan, and that's my sister Angela. From the Twisting Snake tribe." The man dropped off his mount and handed the reigns to his sister. He held out a gloved hand to Joseph.
"Good to meet you. Good to meet anyone frankly. This area's dangerous to be in without your transportation." Joseph sighed. "A shame we couldn't find the rest of our mounts. Holly was the pride of the pack, but the rest weren't slouches either."
"A shame. We'll keep an eye out for them if you want. But if bandits scared them off, they probably got the rest of them. Where did you say you were from? Or where you were attacked?" Angela asked, still in her saddle. She had uncocked the arrow but both were still in her hand.
Joseph took a moment to gather his thoughts, studying the craftsmanship of the bow from afar. "I didn't say where we're from. Really we aren't from anywhere. We're a wandering band of scavengers, going into the ruins to find what's been lost and stuff. We've been working through the south east, and cut north to here. The bandits caught us by surprise south of the city, just after we were going through an old store," he explained, trying to be general enough to not be caught in any lies. He was suddenly very selfconscious about his own and Richard's dress compared to the riders and Saroth's illusion. "So what brings you out this way?" he asked, trying to fish for more information from them.
"Just our patrols around Twisting Snake territory, making sure there aren't any bandits around, making sure the Eater's are staying in the Witch, and helping out where we're needed," Ryan explained.
"So this is your territory now?" Richard spoke up. Joseph cast him a quick dirty look but didn't take his eyes off the natives for too long.
Ryan smiled proudly. "Up to the old interstate there and most points east and north of it. No one claims the Witch, then they might have to clean it up." He pointed to the interstate behind them and Joseph relaxed a little, relieved that his bluff hadn't fallen apart completely. "So what do you folk plan to do now?"
"Not sure, we should probably look at getting fresh rides. Holly won't be able to carry all of us after all. Beyond that, we'll just go where the winds take us,"
"Best place to get some new horses is probably Grand Bend. But it's a good 4 days ride from here by itself. We're currently based in the Circle Square Ranch, a day away by horse. They don't have any horses to sell, but they were getting ready to take a load in to the town for market. You guys want a guide and some help?"
Joseph hesitated and glanced at Sean and Saroth. Saroth had a hand on Holly's back and Sean was perched on his shoulder. "Give us just a minute," he called back to Ryan, and took a few steps closer to the others, motioning for them to get in close.
"What do you guys think? On the one hand, we could use the guides, and we're going to need transportation.... On the other hand, it means Sean and Holly are going to need to stay in animal forms for a few days, and... well I've never ridden a horse in my life and that's going to be blatantly obvious once we get more horses."
Richard frowned and thought it over. "A tough call definitely. But we can't avoid that forever. I haven't tried to triangulate the location yet, but it looks like it's to the north east, and quite a ways away."
{Sean and Holly both say they don't mind staying hidden for a few days. And if you're worried about riding, Holly says you can ride her,} Saroth said, his mental voice hushed. Joseph cast a quick glance towards the strangers, but they didn't seem to have picked up on his speech method. He refocused on the horse.
"You sure about that Holly? We'll have to keep you with their horses at night, at least until Richard can finish your disguise."
Saroth nodded after a moment. {She says she's done it before, and sometimes it's more pleasant to sleep this way than in bed rolls.} He tilted his head, listening again, then patted Holly's flank. {She also said she can often hear more when they think she's just a simple beast and not a real person. Especially in places like this.}
"Fine, fine. It's as good a time as any I guess." He turned away from the group and approached Ryan and his sister again. "Okay, we talked it over, and it does seem like a good idea. We'll gladly take your guidance to the ranch, and on to the town if you want."
Ryan grinned and nodded, then looked up to judge the sun's position. "Great, though it looks like you haven't broken camp yet. By the time you're done, we'll barely have time to get anywhere. Plus Moonlight and Starbright here could use a rest after the chase your Holly gave them. Why don't we stay here for the night and push on fresh in the morning?"