Pink Friday on Gaia: 4. Road Trip
Aug. 24th, 2012 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primum_mobileI fly with the stars in the sky:
I am no longer tryin’ to survive.
It had been evening when they landed and unloaded the truck. The dock crew had been forceful imploring them to get a room for the night, but “the girls” had taken off through the mountains anyway. The further they traveled, the more wreckage they had seen: landforms split, forests leveled, homes destroyed--life itself was hurting. How could they take a bed and rest in a time like this?
They had agreed to take turns sleeping in the back of the truck, but only Marlene followed through. She snoozed curled up on their bags as Shelke and Shera worked on the life support unit that would help them bring Lucrecia back to their plane.
I believe that life is a prize.
But to live doesn’t mean you’re alive.
“As you can see, her research is thorough--but that makes her idea of an external meta-atomic structure even more perplexing. I understand she might be talking about subatomic particles, but they do not behave like that, do they?” Shelke gestured to the file Shera was reading. She handed the older woman her tablet. “This is the best model we could render for protomateria--I’m still not convinced it’s accurate.”
Shera nodded, taking a few moments to take in the wonder of the zippy new hardware. She poked the screen and smiled when the hologram came up--to think she could remember the prehistoric predecessors to these things. “Oh.” She turned the structure over a few times. Chemistry wasn’t her strong suit, but her particle physics was good enough to suggest a few ideas. “I think it’s just a lattice structure formed by the properties of the elements themselves--here.”
In a flash, her fingers had torn the digital model apart and reformed it. Shelke did her almost-smile, impressed with her friend’s speed at learning technology. “Ah. That does look correct. And much more reasonable. I wonder why Dr. Crescent did not think of that?”
“Well,” Shera shrugged. “You have to remember, that sort of quaternary structure hadn’t been discovered yet. She didn’t know any atom could do that--let alone pretermatter.”
“Ha! Of course.” The two women laughed.
Damn, this one for the books, man
I swear this shit is as fun as it looks.
Elfe glanced over her shoulder from the front seat, then looked at Tifa. “Quaternary crystals: you have any idea what they’re talking about?”
Tifa cut the wheel to avoid some debris. “Um, no. But if you give me a minute, I can invent a cocktail to name after it.”
“We all have our talents.” Elfe chuckled. Despite the tension of their mission, all of them seemed to be more relaxed than usual--Tifa most of all. While she never dropped her maternal nature or her sense of responsibility, she had been making subtle quips and beaming an excited smile the whole way. Elfe wondered for a moment how many people really knew this side of the bartender--how often did the woman even get to show it?
I’m really tryin’ make it more than what it is--
Because everybody dies, but not everybody lives.
Maybe when Tifa had said this was important, she meant for more than Lucrecia or even the world. Maybe it was important for them as individuals. The air was easy to breathe, open starry sky above them and unhindered camaraderie between them. There was something powerful that Elfe was afraid to put into words--and something she hoped they wouldn’t have lost when this was over.
I wish I could have this moment 4 life.
Drifting into a reverie, she nearly did sleep when she heard Marlene scream and felt the truck fishtail and skid.
“IT’S ALL RIGHT!” Tifa yelled. Though it clearly wasn’t. An enormous pack of shadow creepers was running at them....
And then around them. As if the truck was part of the landscape. “They didn’t attack us.” Elfe mused.
“I know.” Tifa was looking past her, Shera’s hand on her shoulder. They were both staring at a looming cloud.
“What’s that?” The engineer asked.
“I don’t.... know.”
I am no longer tryin’ to survive.
It had been evening when they landed and unloaded the truck. The dock crew had been forceful imploring them to get a room for the night, but “the girls” had taken off through the mountains anyway. The further they traveled, the more wreckage they had seen: landforms split, forests leveled, homes destroyed--life itself was hurting. How could they take a bed and rest in a time like this?
They had agreed to take turns sleeping in the back of the truck, but only Marlene followed through. She snoozed curled up on their bags as Shelke and Shera worked on the life support unit that would help them bring Lucrecia back to their plane.
I believe that life is a prize.
But to live doesn’t mean you’re alive.
“As you can see, her research is thorough--but that makes her idea of an external meta-atomic structure even more perplexing. I understand she might be talking about subatomic particles, but they do not behave like that, do they?” Shelke gestured to the file Shera was reading. She handed the older woman her tablet. “This is the best model we could render for protomateria--I’m still not convinced it’s accurate.”
Shera nodded, taking a few moments to take in the wonder of the zippy new hardware. She poked the screen and smiled when the hologram came up--to think she could remember the prehistoric predecessors to these things. “Oh.” She turned the structure over a few times. Chemistry wasn’t her strong suit, but her particle physics was good enough to suggest a few ideas. “I think it’s just a lattice structure formed by the properties of the elements themselves--here.”
In a flash, her fingers had torn the digital model apart and reformed it. Shelke did her almost-smile, impressed with her friend’s speed at learning technology. “Ah. That does look correct. And much more reasonable. I wonder why Dr. Crescent did not think of that?”
“Well,” Shera shrugged. “You have to remember, that sort of quaternary structure hadn’t been discovered yet. She didn’t know any atom could do that--let alone pretermatter.”
“Ha! Of course.” The two women laughed.
Damn, this one for the books, man
I swear this shit is as fun as it looks.
Elfe glanced over her shoulder from the front seat, then looked at Tifa. “Quaternary crystals: you have any idea what they’re talking about?”
Tifa cut the wheel to avoid some debris. “Um, no. But if you give me a minute, I can invent a cocktail to name after it.”
“We all have our talents.” Elfe chuckled. Despite the tension of their mission, all of them seemed to be more relaxed than usual--Tifa most of all. While she never dropped her maternal nature or her sense of responsibility, she had been making subtle quips and beaming an excited smile the whole way. Elfe wondered for a moment how many people really knew this side of the bartender--how often did the woman even get to show it?
I’m really tryin’ make it more than what it is--
Because everybody dies, but not everybody lives.
Maybe when Tifa had said this was important, she meant for more than Lucrecia or even the world. Maybe it was important for them as individuals. The air was easy to breathe, open starry sky above them and unhindered camaraderie between them. There was something powerful that Elfe was afraid to put into words--and something she hoped they wouldn’t have lost when this was over.
I wish I could have this moment 4 life.
Drifting into a reverie, she nearly did sleep when she heard Marlene scream and felt the truck fishtail and skid.
“IT’S ALL RIGHT!” Tifa yelled. Though it clearly wasn’t. An enormous pack of shadow creepers was running at them....
And then around them. As if the truck was part of the landscape. “They didn’t attack us.” Elfe mused.
“I know.” Tifa was looking past her, Shera’s hand on her shoulder. They were both staring at a looming cloud.
“What’s that?” The engineer asked.
“I don’t.... know.”
