Awaken-Mission of Struggle

Over the next few days I do, as I planned. I attach the tube every sleep cycle, and slowly most of the recalls stop. I concentrate on my tasks, and I am once again part of the efficient machine.
Only here and there I catch a glimpse of a recall. A sound, a scent, a face or a creature… A sort of a glitch here and there. I try my hardest not to dwell on it. But it’s as if I cannot help it. I seem to forget to not pay attention to the recalls and it gets me every time.

After another sleep cycle I hear the sound of drums and Patch and I walk down the hall passing others without looking at them. We never see any similar savages down here. Before my wonderings and noticing of things I’ve never seen a sane similar. My mind starts to wander. I enter a platform lift. It starts moving upwards and we take turns to have our clear body covering sprayed on by tiny spouts in the panel on the wall. The protective material is very strong yet flexible. It seals our bodies and protects them from damage and extreme temperatures amongst other things.

It’s completed just as the lift comes to a halt and the door hiss open into a massive cave like space, with the top part of the mountain forming the roof and the now calm ocean waters licking the docks inside. The place is extremely busy every one of us has a task to do. There are some that do aircraft maintenance. Others clean. Some take care of loading and unloading. There are usually no less than twenty aircraft at any given time. Some of them are quite small, the size of a small human airplane. Others could easily transport hundreds of those.

There are many different types of craft which functions and capabilities I do not know. I only know the Pacific, my regular cargo ship and the Olympian, a giant craft docked on the ocean floor. We haven’t flown that one yet. So far we test it and make sure it is working.

We pass the other crafts, and head straight to the Pacific. Patch touches the warm slate like surface and it parts. We enter and crawl up the wall with ease all the way up to the flight deck. Patch and I sit in our back to back command posts. We take turns checking the systems and prepare for take off. Five minutes later we are ready to go. Patch waves his hand and the ship comes alive. It hovers and I make it glide gently towards the cave opening. Masses of blue come to view and we take her up. Almost immediately our base island shrinks into a tiny dot as we climb the altitude.

It pleases me to be out of the base and see the outside. I take in the glistening masses of water and the little islands dotted around, then the large chunks of land sticking out of the water appear before my eyes. I definitely prefer these missions to lab work. Sometimes we fly to other bases on deliveries, and sometimes we just circle the earth. I do not know the purpose of this. We usually go stealth near populated areas. But sometimes, like right now, we receive a command to show the craft to the similar savages below. We monitor and record their reactions.

The ship glides silently towards the shore covered with fine yellow dust. I cannot see much vegetation. Then a large citadel comes to view. It’s heaving. Pulsating. It is fascinating. It is as though the whole citadel is a creature. When the similars spot our craft we hover for a little while. Thousands of similars stop in their track and stare up at the Pacific. They point. Some run. We watch and record for a while then Patch makes a swift motion with his hand and we zip out of there.

Next we fly over very tall mountains. Once safely out of the view we go lower again. I see all shades of green in the deep forests and large cool lakes, then I spot a dozen of large four legged creatures near the water edge. They are dipping their heads in the water, but then they spot us and stretch their long necks upwards. They stare, bodies tense. We fly so low I can see that a few of them have chunks of green vegetation sticking from their mouth openings. I will never understand why creatures do what they do.

I observe how different they appear in their natural environment, the light around their bodies is vibrant, as if they are glowing. The dimmed creatures from the base flash through my mind, and my insides churn. And suddenly I have an overwhelming urge to go down there and join them. Patch jerks his head and pierces me with his hard eyes. “Why go down?” he sounds in my head. I see an opportunity.
“Land?” I enquire.
He stills for a split second. “No, no command to land. You commanded to land?”
His cold penetrating stare unnerves me and I reply. “No. No command.”
He swiftly reaches up and produces a pen like object.
“No need.” I put my hand up.
“Need,” he insists and injects me in the neck immediately. Haze and darkness. Images. All jumbled. I drift.

To be continued…

 

Writing and Artwork © Gia Joseph 2016