"Returned to Life" Part One
Apr. 25th, 2006 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalThis is incomplete, but here's the first section of another sequel to "Opening Shots."
Note: Terinu fanfiction, PG for angst.
NOte: Terinu and related cahracters, images, and stories are copyright Peta Hewitt, used here without permission.
When she was thirteen, she’d almost drowned while surfing. She’d taken a spill while skimming along inside a wicked pipe, and her board had banged her in the face edge on, leaving her with a concussion, a bloody nose, and a liter of water in her lungs before the lifeguard had pulled her out. She remembered the sensation vividly, mouth open as she tumbled through the green swirling surf, trying to gulp in air that wasn’t there. She’d had nightmares for months afterward, imagining the Djanggawul were dragging her under the waves to take her to Beralku, the Isle of the Dead, and had refused to enter water deeper than a bathtub for years.
She had the same sensation now. The familiar nightmare gripped her as the viscous fluid flowed around her. Her eyes were open, but she was blinded by green gel. She tried to reach out, to find the surface, but her hand brushed hard Plexiglas, and she was soon banging against it, her muscles too weak to make a dent. A shadowy figure moved in front of the plexi, and she banged against it again, screaming into the plastic mask that covered her face.
There was a deafening BOOM and the plexi suddenly shattered around her. Then she was sliding out of someone’s hasty grip, falling to the wet floor as she clawed the mask off, gasping for air. The light was blinding her, someone was screaming, and every nerve ending in her body was shouting PAIN as she smelled smoke and burning plastic.
There was a foot in front of her field of vision, where she lay on the plastic floor. It was barefoot, and strangely deformed, with only three clawed toes and grey skin. She managed to turn and look up, where a grey face with green eyes looked down on her. It had horns on its head, and she thought she saw a grey tail with a spade on the end swishing behind it.
Oh, I’m in Hell, she thought, and then blacked out.
* * *
Waking up the second time was slightly less traumatic. She opened her eyes, to find herself in a dimly lit room, lying on a hospital bed. It was some kind of infirmary, judging from the neatly organized cabinets, with rows of medicines and equipment behind glass doors. Someone had clipped an oxygen tube to her nose, and there was an IV drip in her arm. She seemed to be sore all over, but didn’t feel drugged or in serious pain.
I was in an accident, she thought. Some kind of accident and they had to drug me and that’s why I hallucinated about the Devil rescuing me from drowning. Yes, that was it. She was in hospital, on Earth. Mum, Dad, and Gran were probably nearby, waiting to hear that she woke up. She just wished she could remember what had happened.
There was a call button set in the bed’s railing. She pressed it and waited. A moment later a woman with short, auburn hair walked in. The woman didn’t look much like a nurse or a medical tech, unless the standard uniform had changed from hospital scrubs to a uniform that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Farscape Galactic.
“Hello, I’m Leeza,” the woman greeted. “How are nee?”
“I’m sorry? Um, All right, I guess,” she answered. “Am I in hospital?” Nee? she thought.
“No, shava ship’s infirmary,” Leeza answered. “Everything’s copa. You all copasec?”
Shava? Copa? She shook her head, trying to clear it. Maybe she had been drugged. “Ship? I’m at sea?”
The woman smiled. “No, in space. We’re about--“ Leeza made a noise that sounded almost like a dog’s woof. “--from the nearest--“ she made a another woofing noise, pitched higher than the first.
Space. Space didn’t make any sense. How could she be in space when she felt gravity holding her down to the bed? The only spaceships with rotational gravity were the big Mars and Saturn expedition ships, and she certainly couldn’t be on one of those!
She pressed her hands to her temples. “Look, could you get a doctor please? Something’s wrong, I’m only understanding two words in three when you’re talking. You are Australian, right?” She could have sworn Leeza’s accent was pure South Australian, but she wasn’t willing to swear to anything right now.
“Oh?” Leeza frowned, then slapped herself on the forehead. “Sorry. One ziva!” Leeza left the room, then came back a moment later with a small earpiece, which she pressed into her patient’s ear. “Can you understand what I’m saying now?”
Actually she’d said, “You sav what I’m (minor growl) now?” but the earpiece provided a running translation in Leeza’s voice.
“Yes. What’s with the babble? Did I get hit in the head or something?”
“No, no. Just linguistic drift,” Leeza answered. “Should have thought of it earlier, especially when I kept hearing you speak what sounded like Middle English.” She tapped her own ear, where a similar earpiece rested.
She gripped the bed sheets, feeling her heart begin to race. “What are you talking about? What happened? Why I am in an infirmary? How can I be in space when there’s gravity? Where’s my mum and dad?”
“Calm down, everything is okay,” Leeza said, taking hold of her wrists. “You’re safe.”
“I want. To see. My mum, and dad,” she said, trying to stop the panic that was running through her.
“Can you tell me your name then?”
She took a deep breath. “Rachael Namatjira, 256 Kirby’s Koala Lane, Perth, WA, Citizen Ident 234-873-0044. Now may I please speak to my mum and dad?”
Leeza looked, if not surprised, then pained. “Rachael Namatjira. I… thought that might be it. Look, Rachael, can you tell me the last thing you remember?”
“Uh,” she tried to dredge up memories. It was like swimming through treacle. “I was on… on Unity Station, watching the Secretary General’s speech… No, that’s not right. We had to abandon the station…” She felt her heart began to race again, as she climbed out of the treacle and the memories began to pour in. “Mark, Ari and I were in the escape module. We landed. Ari was hurt. Then the alien crashed near us. Then we caught him. Then we buried his wife. Then there was this roar overhead and Mark went to check it out and then he came running back and then I popped out with the rifle and then, and then…” She gulped. “I got shot. I got shot. I got shot and I fell over and I head Mark yell my name… and that was it.” She started shaking. “I died. I died, didn’t I?”
“Rachael, you’re fine. You’re alive,” Leeza reassured her. “You are alive.”
“But I did get shot?”
“Yes, and… you were hurt, very badly, but you’re alive.”
She swallowed, trying to will herself calm again. “Are you sure? I swear I saw the Devil when I was lying on the floor.”
“Devil..?” Leeza asked, then suddenly she laughed. “Oh, I have to tell Teri that one. He’ll hate it!”
“It’s not funny,” Rachael insisted. “What are you talking about? Look, have we met more aliens or something that’ll help us with the Varn, or what? Unity got shot out of the sky! Could you just please call my mum and dad and let them know I’m all right?”
Leeza closed her eyes and drew in a breath. “Look, Rachael, this isn’t going to be easy to explain.”
She felt her stomach suddenly twist into a knot. “Mum and Dad and Gran are all right, aren’t they? The Varn didn’t start… bombing… or anything?”
Leeza began to speak very slowly and carefully. “Rachael. Your mum and dad, they’re gone. Everyone you knew is gone. It’s about four hundred and fifty years from what you know as the present. You’ve been in stasis that whole time.”
“What?” she shook her head in denial. “Can’t be. You’re lying. This is some sort of trick!”
The door to the infirmary opened, and a furry alien poked his head in. “I say, Leeza, is everything all right?” the alien asked.
“Rufus, not now!” Leeza snapped.
“It’s one of them!” Rachael shouted. “It’s one of the aliens! They blew up Unity!” She tried to push herself up out of the bed, but she fell back as her arms gave out from under her.
“Oh, bad timing, sorry,” the alien muttered apologetically.
“Rachael, it’s all right, Rufus is a friend,” Leeza said, turning back towards her. “Now please calm down.”
“Calm down! How can he be a friend, he’s working for the Varn!”
The alien cleared his throat, and stepped into the room. He looked like nothing much as an anthropomorphized fox, particularly with the spiffy green uniform he was wearing. For the life of her, Rachael could only be reminded of Swifty Firefox from the old Tail Chasers cartoon. “Ah, there’s been a misunderstanding,” the alien, Rufus, said. “The Vulpine did indeed serve the Varn Dominion in the bad old days prior to the Rebellion. No longer. We’re all proud members of the Galactic Sapiens Alliance now, along with Humanity and the other former client races.” He gave her a little bow and smiled. “Viscount Ru-Ofanius Brushtail at your service, milady. But my friends call me Rufus.”
“Rebellion? Galactic Sapiens Alliance?” Rachael weakly.
“Yes,” Leeza said gently. “Look, I know it’s a horrid amount of stuff to absorb right now, but you’re going to have to trust me on this. It’s about four hundred and fifty years since the Varn came to the Solar System and attacked Earth. It took us nearly a hundred years to drive them away, but we did, and in doing so we freed not just ourselves, but the Vulpine, the Creo, the Galen, and a few other races besides. Everything is all right now.”
“Where am I?” Rachael asked.
“Aboard a starship that my family generously provided for us,” Rufus said. “We were taking care of some… well, difficult business, when we happened across you in the Gene Mage’s lab.”
“Gene Mage? The Varn? But I thought you said you drove off the Varn?”
Leeza and Rufus glanced at each other, and then by unspoken mutual agreement dragged a pair of chairs next to Rachael’s bed. “Well, that’s a very complicated story,” Leeza began.
* * *
The Varn were gone, and now they’re back. They had servants called Ferin, who died and then came back. Now I’ve died and come back. Rachael’s head was starting to hurt, but she kept listening as Leeza and the alien, Rufus rather, finished their story.
“…and so frankly we’re all happier if Terinu stays clear of my dad for as long as we can manage it,” Leeza concluded. “That’s why we’re flying around in Rufus’ family yacht.”
“And you weren’t even looking for me when you busted into that lab?”
“Sorry, no. We were trying to find out more about what he intended for Terinu. The Gene Mage tried to use him once before as a power source for a nasty weapon. We’ve been chasing some rumors that he’s rebuilt the Crust Breaker, which can only mean he thinks he’s going to nab Terinu again. Either that or he’s managed to create new Ferin, which we be about as bad. It was just dumb luck that we ran across you.”
“Dumb luck,” Rachael repeated. She shook her head. “I can’t believe Mum and Dad are dead. I just talked them two days ago. I swear I did.” Leeza took hold of her hand, while Rufus nodded in sympathy. After a moment she regained control, and asked, “They really think we’re heroes?”
“All three of you,” Rufus confirmed. “‘The Three’ you’re called on Earth. They’ve got statues of you in all the regional capitols of your planet.”
“And movies, and long papers about your place in history, and irregular continuity fictions,” Leeza added.
Rachael blinked. “’Irregular continuity,’ wait, wait, people write fanfiction about us?”
“Most of it is quite awful,” Rufus said. “Of course 99% of anything is garbage, really.”
She covered her face with her hands. “This is just too strange. Two days ago I was repairing monitor bots on the station, and now I’m living in Star Wars.”
“Star Wars?” Leeza asked.
“Well yeah, I mean you’ve got spaceships, and aliens, and an evil Empire, and a kid with Force powers…” Rachael trailed off as Leeza and Rufus’ expressions became increasingly blank. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
“Uh, this was a book, right?” Leeza guessed.
“Movies, nine big, big movies,” Rachael said. “I mean you’ve never even heard of it?”
“A great deal of human culture was lost when the Dominion invaded, my dear,” Rufus said sympathetically.
“But… but… it’s Star Wars!”
“I’m sure I can find out something about it if I do an info search,” Leeza said. “It sounds really interesting.”
“Yeah,” Rachael said dully. She lay back in bed, and pulled the blanket over herself. “Could I be alone for a little while? I’m awfully tired.”
“I’m not certain that’s a good idea…” Rufus began to say, but she rolled over onto her side, facing away from them both.
“Are you sure…” Leeza also began.
“I just want to be alone for a little while, okay? I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
“Okay, dear.” Leeza squeezed her shoulder, and she heard them both exit the room, dimming the lights behind them
Mum and Dad are dead. Gran is dead. Mark and Ari are dead. It’s five hundred years in the future and nobody knows what Star Wars is.
In the darkness, she began to weep.
Note: Terinu fanfiction, PG for angst.
NOte: Terinu and related cahracters, images, and stories are copyright Peta Hewitt, used here without permission.
When she was thirteen, she’d almost drowned while surfing. She’d taken a spill while skimming along inside a wicked pipe, and her board had banged her in the face edge on, leaving her with a concussion, a bloody nose, and a liter of water in her lungs before the lifeguard had pulled her out. She remembered the sensation vividly, mouth open as she tumbled through the green swirling surf, trying to gulp in air that wasn’t there. She’d had nightmares for months afterward, imagining the Djanggawul were dragging her under the waves to take her to Beralku, the Isle of the Dead, and had refused to enter water deeper than a bathtub for years.
She had the same sensation now. The familiar nightmare gripped her as the viscous fluid flowed around her. Her eyes were open, but she was blinded by green gel. She tried to reach out, to find the surface, but her hand brushed hard Plexiglas, and she was soon banging against it, her muscles too weak to make a dent. A shadowy figure moved in front of the plexi, and she banged against it again, screaming into the plastic mask that covered her face.
There was a deafening BOOM and the plexi suddenly shattered around her. Then she was sliding out of someone’s hasty grip, falling to the wet floor as she clawed the mask off, gasping for air. The light was blinding her, someone was screaming, and every nerve ending in her body was shouting PAIN as she smelled smoke and burning plastic.
There was a foot in front of her field of vision, where she lay on the plastic floor. It was barefoot, and strangely deformed, with only three clawed toes and grey skin. She managed to turn and look up, where a grey face with green eyes looked down on her. It had horns on its head, and she thought she saw a grey tail with a spade on the end swishing behind it.
Oh, I’m in Hell, she thought, and then blacked out.
* * *
Waking up the second time was slightly less traumatic. She opened her eyes, to find herself in a dimly lit room, lying on a hospital bed. It was some kind of infirmary, judging from the neatly organized cabinets, with rows of medicines and equipment behind glass doors. Someone had clipped an oxygen tube to her nose, and there was an IV drip in her arm. She seemed to be sore all over, but didn’t feel drugged or in serious pain.
I was in an accident, she thought. Some kind of accident and they had to drug me and that’s why I hallucinated about the Devil rescuing me from drowning. Yes, that was it. She was in hospital, on Earth. Mum, Dad, and Gran were probably nearby, waiting to hear that she woke up. She just wished she could remember what had happened.
There was a call button set in the bed’s railing. She pressed it and waited. A moment later a woman with short, auburn hair walked in. The woman didn’t look much like a nurse or a medical tech, unless the standard uniform had changed from hospital scrubs to a uniform that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Farscape Galactic.
“Hello, I’m Leeza,” the woman greeted. “How are nee?”
“I’m sorry? Um, All right, I guess,” she answered. “Am I in hospital?” Nee? she thought.
“No, shava ship’s infirmary,” Leeza answered. “Everything’s copa. You all copasec?”
Shava? Copa? She shook her head, trying to clear it. Maybe she had been drugged. “Ship? I’m at sea?”
The woman smiled. “No, in space. We’re about--“ Leeza made a noise that sounded almost like a dog’s woof. “--from the nearest--“ she made a another woofing noise, pitched higher than the first.
Space. Space didn’t make any sense. How could she be in space when she felt gravity holding her down to the bed? The only spaceships with rotational gravity were the big Mars and Saturn expedition ships, and she certainly couldn’t be on one of those!
She pressed her hands to her temples. “Look, could you get a doctor please? Something’s wrong, I’m only understanding two words in three when you’re talking. You are Australian, right?” She could have sworn Leeza’s accent was pure South Australian, but she wasn’t willing to swear to anything right now.
“Oh?” Leeza frowned, then slapped herself on the forehead. “Sorry. One ziva!” Leeza left the room, then came back a moment later with a small earpiece, which she pressed into her patient’s ear. “Can you understand what I’m saying now?”
Actually she’d said, “You sav what I’m (minor growl) now?” but the earpiece provided a running translation in Leeza’s voice.
“Yes. What’s with the babble? Did I get hit in the head or something?”
“No, no. Just linguistic drift,” Leeza answered. “Should have thought of it earlier, especially when I kept hearing you speak what sounded like Middle English.” She tapped her own ear, where a similar earpiece rested.
She gripped the bed sheets, feeling her heart begin to race. “What are you talking about? What happened? Why I am in an infirmary? How can I be in space when there’s gravity? Where’s my mum and dad?”
“Calm down, everything is okay,” Leeza said, taking hold of her wrists. “You’re safe.”
“I want. To see. My mum, and dad,” she said, trying to stop the panic that was running through her.
“Can you tell me your name then?”
She took a deep breath. “Rachael Namatjira, 256 Kirby’s Koala Lane, Perth, WA, Citizen Ident 234-873-0044. Now may I please speak to my mum and dad?”
Leeza looked, if not surprised, then pained. “Rachael Namatjira. I… thought that might be it. Look, Rachael, can you tell me the last thing you remember?”
“Uh,” she tried to dredge up memories. It was like swimming through treacle. “I was on… on Unity Station, watching the Secretary General’s speech… No, that’s not right. We had to abandon the station…” She felt her heart began to race again, as she climbed out of the treacle and the memories began to pour in. “Mark, Ari and I were in the escape module. We landed. Ari was hurt. Then the alien crashed near us. Then we caught him. Then we buried his wife. Then there was this roar overhead and Mark went to check it out and then he came running back and then I popped out with the rifle and then, and then…” She gulped. “I got shot. I got shot. I got shot and I fell over and I head Mark yell my name… and that was it.” She started shaking. “I died. I died, didn’t I?”
“Rachael, you’re fine. You’re alive,” Leeza reassured her. “You are alive.”
“But I did get shot?”
“Yes, and… you were hurt, very badly, but you’re alive.”
She swallowed, trying to will herself calm again. “Are you sure? I swear I saw the Devil when I was lying on the floor.”
“Devil..?” Leeza asked, then suddenly she laughed. “Oh, I have to tell Teri that one. He’ll hate it!”
“It’s not funny,” Rachael insisted. “What are you talking about? Look, have we met more aliens or something that’ll help us with the Varn, or what? Unity got shot out of the sky! Could you just please call my mum and dad and let them know I’m all right?”
Leeza closed her eyes and drew in a breath. “Look, Rachael, this isn’t going to be easy to explain.”
She felt her stomach suddenly twist into a knot. “Mum and Dad and Gran are all right, aren’t they? The Varn didn’t start… bombing… or anything?”
Leeza began to speak very slowly and carefully. “Rachael. Your mum and dad, they’re gone. Everyone you knew is gone. It’s about four hundred and fifty years from what you know as the present. You’ve been in stasis that whole time.”
“What?” she shook her head in denial. “Can’t be. You’re lying. This is some sort of trick!”
The door to the infirmary opened, and a furry alien poked his head in. “I say, Leeza, is everything all right?” the alien asked.
“Rufus, not now!” Leeza snapped.
“It’s one of them!” Rachael shouted. “It’s one of the aliens! They blew up Unity!” She tried to push herself up out of the bed, but she fell back as her arms gave out from under her.
“Oh, bad timing, sorry,” the alien muttered apologetically.
“Rachael, it’s all right, Rufus is a friend,” Leeza said, turning back towards her. “Now please calm down.”
“Calm down! How can he be a friend, he’s working for the Varn!”
The alien cleared his throat, and stepped into the room. He looked like nothing much as an anthropomorphized fox, particularly with the spiffy green uniform he was wearing. For the life of her, Rachael could only be reminded of Swifty Firefox from the old Tail Chasers cartoon. “Ah, there’s been a misunderstanding,” the alien, Rufus, said. “The Vulpine did indeed serve the Varn Dominion in the bad old days prior to the Rebellion. No longer. We’re all proud members of the Galactic Sapiens Alliance now, along with Humanity and the other former client races.” He gave her a little bow and smiled. “Viscount Ru-Ofanius Brushtail at your service, milady. But my friends call me Rufus.”
“Rebellion? Galactic Sapiens Alliance?” Rachael weakly.
“Yes,” Leeza said gently. “Look, I know it’s a horrid amount of stuff to absorb right now, but you’re going to have to trust me on this. It’s about four hundred and fifty years since the Varn came to the Solar System and attacked Earth. It took us nearly a hundred years to drive them away, but we did, and in doing so we freed not just ourselves, but the Vulpine, the Creo, the Galen, and a few other races besides. Everything is all right now.”
“Where am I?” Rachael asked.
“Aboard a starship that my family generously provided for us,” Rufus said. “We were taking care of some… well, difficult business, when we happened across you in the Gene Mage’s lab.”
“Gene Mage? The Varn? But I thought you said you drove off the Varn?”
Leeza and Rufus glanced at each other, and then by unspoken mutual agreement dragged a pair of chairs next to Rachael’s bed. “Well, that’s a very complicated story,” Leeza began.
* * *
The Varn were gone, and now they’re back. They had servants called Ferin, who died and then came back. Now I’ve died and come back. Rachael’s head was starting to hurt, but she kept listening as Leeza and the alien, Rufus rather, finished their story.
“…and so frankly we’re all happier if Terinu stays clear of my dad for as long as we can manage it,” Leeza concluded. “That’s why we’re flying around in Rufus’ family yacht.”
“And you weren’t even looking for me when you busted into that lab?”
“Sorry, no. We were trying to find out more about what he intended for Terinu. The Gene Mage tried to use him once before as a power source for a nasty weapon. We’ve been chasing some rumors that he’s rebuilt the Crust Breaker, which can only mean he thinks he’s going to nab Terinu again. Either that or he’s managed to create new Ferin, which we be about as bad. It was just dumb luck that we ran across you.”
“Dumb luck,” Rachael repeated. She shook her head. “I can’t believe Mum and Dad are dead. I just talked them two days ago. I swear I did.” Leeza took hold of her hand, while Rufus nodded in sympathy. After a moment she regained control, and asked, “They really think we’re heroes?”
“All three of you,” Rufus confirmed. “‘The Three’ you’re called on Earth. They’ve got statues of you in all the regional capitols of your planet.”
“And movies, and long papers about your place in history, and irregular continuity fictions,” Leeza added.
Rachael blinked. “’Irregular continuity,’ wait, wait, people write fanfiction about us?”
“Most of it is quite awful,” Rufus said. “Of course 99% of anything is garbage, really.”
She covered her face with her hands. “This is just too strange. Two days ago I was repairing monitor bots on the station, and now I’m living in Star Wars.”
“Star Wars?” Leeza asked.
“Well yeah, I mean you’ve got spaceships, and aliens, and an evil Empire, and a kid with Force powers…” Rachael trailed off as Leeza and Rufus’ expressions became increasingly blank. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
“Uh, this was a book, right?” Leeza guessed.
“Movies, nine big, big movies,” Rachael said. “I mean you’ve never even heard of it?”
“A great deal of human culture was lost when the Dominion invaded, my dear,” Rufus said sympathetically.
“But… but… it’s Star Wars!”
“I’m sure I can find out something about it if I do an info search,” Leeza said. “It sounds really interesting.”
“Yeah,” Rachael said dully. She lay back in bed, and pulled the blanket over herself. “Could I be alone for a little while? I’m awfully tired.”
“I’m not certain that’s a good idea…” Rufus began to say, but she rolled over onto her side, facing away from them both.
“Are you sure…” Leeza also began.
“I just want to be alone for a little while, okay? I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
“Okay, dear.” Leeza squeezed her shoulder, and she heard them both exit the room, dimming the lights behind them
Mum and Dad are dead. Gran is dead. Mark and Ari are dead. It’s five hundred years in the future and nobody knows what Star Wars is.
In the darkness, she began to weep.
