FFA Part 4 - An Awakening.

[silentWitness]

Cutting the strings... An Awakening.

The past is full of hope as well as tremendous sadness, to be a part of something like that had changed me even for a moment, it was profound, why would I have chosen to show him such a thing? How was it my journey? As my sight returned I looked at his expression, it was as if he was full of compassion, of knowledge, maybe even of love. Part of me felt manipulated, as I become more aware of the strings that surrounded me... In order to ensure Earths survival the government had worked its people into an early death... such devotion is admirable but essentially meant giving up much of the freedom of the past... Its like the all labour saving technology we invent only serves to move us in the opposite direction...

My mind drifted back into the room, his whimsical smile seemed not to match the kindly look in his eyes... I knew he was reading my thoughts, was I like a book to him? Would he leave when he'd finished with me??? The pinch was unexpected... "You're more than just a book to me!" Well that confirmed it! "So can you read me like a book?" his expression changes "Or is it like peering through a dirty window... I must seem so Prim..." His hand covered my lips "No! Oh how do I describe this... Your species... You. Are... young... There's something about you that's just so... Genuine... And I have to admit some would call it a dangerous quality in... such as you". He'd tried so hard not to offend me... Perhaps I was an experiment, "STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" his anger took me by surprise, he tried to hold me close but I pushed him away... "Look I need to know why?" he looked at me "why what" he knew exactly what I meant. I grabbed the green vase from the table and threw it at the floor, it stopped before it hit the floor seemingly hovering like in a vacuum or mag-lev.

As plucked the vase from the air and placed it back on the table I could see his mind attempting to express the over complex thought process that H... that IT'S species goes through. As I stood there listening my mind went back to that first time I saw him... I remember feeling that something was wrong... since that moment that feeling had never gone away it had simply faded into the background noise of a mind in turmoil... I'd gone places and done things I'd never dreamed, others were more mundane, but one thing puzzled me. Before the operation my dreams were varied... They would show me places I had never been, people I had never met. But since that day in the office I had been so... limited in expression. It was then that it dawned upon me. I left my apartment and into the elevator and out towards the station, passing the small open air cafe where I had met 'him' twice... past the IntreVid posters of a new feature, 'Survivors of Space Station Gunne'... and finally into the station, beside the door the guardsman... He had been my soldier. It had all been one big lie.

Suddenly the location shifted around and I was back in my apartment, It's hand was tapping against the table. "So" the very word grated against it's expression but said nothing. "My playful thief..." It's contempt was obvious to me now, as I turned to walk out it finally it spoke, the door melted into the wall "Disgusting Gaian!!! How dare you walk from your betters a second time. How dare your species think for itself! Someone should have wiped you out long long ago, yet such a blight on the universe continues to exist into today! Can such injustice truly exist???" I felt a smirk come to my face "Oh?" "If not for the instructions left to us this... Issue would have been settled long before your conscious state became so heightened!!! The very fact that a viral and barbaric creature could attain such a state is an insult to all intelligent life..." as he continued to speak it became more an more obvious that none of this was important... I had been somewhere before him... The Field... I had kept going back there... without reason... At first I thought it was for relaxation but now I as I thought... It had been more real to me than anywhere else throughout the past few days. As the room around me faded to black I realised that this Sohnen had no comprehension of what I felt, it's sentience was limited by it's form, by what it chose, outside of this it saw a chaotic and frightening landscape... it felt strange as my skin dissolved to a pure energy state... I knew full well that this was not of my own doing, nor that of the Sohnen...

The evening light brought a dreamlike golden tan to everything about me, the corn rustled softly in the wind... The deep shadows seemed dark and meaningful... There was something in this darkness but it held no malice towards me... far from it in fact. I was really here and where ever here was it had meaning and that meaning was important to me... As I looked more closely around me I noticed signs of habitation... the lines of corn were planted perfectly strait and were spread symmetrically for miles around, in the darkness a dim light flickered softly. There was a small gateway that lead into a brightly light tunnel, a sign above the door said " Station 416" around the tunnel was several paths leading to parking bays. As I reached the platform a train pulled into the station, but it was not the similarity of the train that caught my attention but the commuters that poured out... They looked human... granted their body shapes were different but otherwise there was little to distinguish me from them. A soft computerised voice came over the tannoy "This train is bound for... Cortex Station... Doors Closing... Please mind the doors" and with that we were away. My fellow passengers did not seem to take much notice of me... assuming that I was supposed to be here... or perhaps that I was simply one of them. The Scenery slowly became more Urban, we wormed our way through the giant habitation and commercial blows and with every stop the passengers were slowly replaced by the fresh workers, just going into work... their hustle and bustle was in a way very reminiscent of the journey I take... Did take.

As I stepped out on Cortex Station it became obvious that I was in some kind of space port, the huge concourse stretched for miles in every direction, to my delight I noticed an information desk. The assistant smiled and before I could utter a single work she began to sing "Hello, Welcome to Argon Space Port Alpha, Argon Prime how may we help you today." I smiled back "Hi, Where am I?" her reply was in the same singy tone "You are in Space Port Alpha, Part of the historic Cortex Development here in Capital City" Ok so I'm in the capital there's a start... "I know this is going to sound strange but what planet am I on?" she sniffed the air around me "A-R-G-O-N P-R-I-M-E" Ok... So I'm in the Capital City of Argon Prime neither of which means anything to me!!! "Right... Um... Ok this is going to sound strange but would you by any chance know where... Um... I could get a ticket to Earth" the attendant rolled her eyes "Look I don't know how much weed you've smoked but you should go back to where ever you Goner Types live" "Goner?" "Security!"

The Enforcer looked at me puzzled... he scanned my palm, retina and has yet to find me on record... This he informed me was impossible. Came next was a blood and gene test which showed more impossible information... finally the full body scan... which revealed some "Unknown Material" in my wrist... my Identchip implanted at birth in all humans... but then I wasn't on Earth or anywhere near it. A bearded man approached me "Hello, my name is Ban Danna..." I tried my best not to laugh "... And I hear that you are... Lost." his voice was kindly, yet he was obviously in a position of power, "Yes! I was standing in my apartment in Urban Tower 72 in Tokyo... South and then I was here on... Agron Prime" "That's a very strange story... I'll just bring my assistant in and we can write it all down in detail" As the woman walked in her face was unmistakable "Eleanor Kho! Oh my god!!! You're like stranded in a whole different universe with Brennan... How did you get here!" then I remembered I was there rather than the other way around. She looked at me strangely "How do you know me?" "I realise this may seem strange but you're a national hero! You and Brennan share a national holiday 'Lost Heroes Day'... Although I hadn't put much faith in either of you actually being alive!!!" Eleanor puts her hand on my shoulder "Ok, slow down and tell me exactly how you got here" I bit my lip "Well that might be difficult to explain" "don't worry we have the time".

I explained everything to them... The whole thing... About the Sohnen, operation, about space station Gunne and the terraformers, everything... and as much as they wanted to brand me a lunatic and throw me into an asylum there was one thing that stopped them... I was here and that was something they could not understand. I was being watched... Someone in the darkness was my friend but for what reason? I guess when past, present and future mean so little you don't need one...

[Captain Chris sTc]

oooh sweet another twist in the story i like.

[Raptordraco]

oooh very nice so far, what will happen to her next I wonder....?

[silentWitness]

How is it the twice as many people have read the Sohnen reports??? I mean it's jibberish without reading the main story!!!

[Mastermue]

I've read both. Bloody brilliant.
Perhaps you could add the Sohnen report to the bottom of each chapter of the main story as you go as not everybody can spend much time on the internet and only have time to read one or two chapters from the forum before having to do other stuff and therefore don't get chance to make the link.
Again, fantastic story, well written. More, More, MORE........please....

[silentWitness]

If you guys really aren't interested then now would be the time to say... Before I start writing again...

[Thalass]

I would need to read the ones before this...

I should pay more attention around here

[Mastermue]

Well, this chapter alone has had over a hundred views.....and I like your stories.....my view is, if you guys and girls have given the time and effort to write these stories, then the least I can do is read 'em and leave comments!

Please SW, continue writing, you obviously have a talent for it!

Glad to see you back!



Mue

[KiwiNZ]

Thanks for bumping that one up, oh naughty Mastermue

This is indeed a brilliant read! I wondered where it would lead and it did give me shivers when it resolved. Well written!

[Mastermue]

Actually SW did it this time.....not guilty!

Although I was gonna give it a tap, but was beaten to it!

[silentWitness]

Flames From Ashes is my favourite out of the stories I've written... The next one will connect with the X3 backstory and then connect to Earth... Plus Sohnen reports are going to get a bit more time... People seemed to enjoy reading them...

[Thalass]

The Sohen reports are kinda cool. They have a newspaper reportishness about them which seems good.



This is good. Having not read the previous ones I'm a bit lost, but it is quite good. (I think you missed a letter or misspelt something somewhere, but I can't remember where.)

[Captain Chris sTc]

sweet your gonna do more.