Wordmongers' Masque
The Sky Is Falling.
Waking up, I was happy to find myself holding you in my arms. I could tell you were still asleep by the faintly patterned breathing. We were curled up in each other's bodies and the blanket had been pushed down, exposing us to the mild chill of the room. Feeling you shiver, I pulled it back up to your neck.
Gently, you stirred.
"Wake up! Michael! Wake!"
"Please, Michael... There's a problem."
I snap out of the dream and feel someone shaking me.
"What is it? What's wrong?" I rub my eyes to get help wake up, but am already running through what could be wrong. Too many possibilities. Nothing goes right anymore. And if they're coming to me with it, means nobody else had any answers. Damnit, Liz, why couldn't you have left me to my perfect little dreams.
"The sky... it's," she pauses and closes her eyes, "it's on fire?" Her voice cuts out towards the end and it takes a moment to register. The sky is on fire. That'd be a new version of chicken little.
I hop out of bed and toss on some clothes. Liz stares for a second and then looks away. It's hard not to smile at something that cute. Reminds me of-
I shake my head. Thoughts like that will hardly be helpful. I grab the pistol off my table and strap the ammo pouch to my belt.
"Alright. Show me."
The path outside isn't terribly far. I sleep closest to the surface. In the event someone gets in, I'm the first one they come across. Not because I'm invincible or anything, but I'll buy the time needed for everyone else to get to the backdoor.
Morbid thoughts. When did I change from hopeful to grim?
Liz grabs the door handle, but doesn't open it yet. So there's more to say.
"Listen, Michael. This... I don't know how to describe it. But it's scary." Her voice matches her words. Scared.
"Just show it to me, Liz. We'll check it out together. Okay?" I smile and look into her eyes. She matches my smile and pulls the door open.
Brightness envelopes me. Infinite brightness. Light that comes into from every direction.
And suddenly, it fades. My eyes adjust and I take a deep breath. Liz reaches for my hand and together we take a few steps outward.
In the distance the sky flickers. As if the air itself was made solid and began to melt. And the flames. A Krag ship floats with the clouds. Giant... guns or cannons. Guns, I suppose, are shooting fire towards the ground. It doesn't make it and is instead wrecking havoc on the air around it.
"This... fire. It isn't an attack." I sigh as I say it. I suppose I'm thankful.
"You mean this isn't at us?" she's puzzled. Then again, so am I.
"No. Well... At least I don't think so. Not directly, anyway." It's just an idea. Who knows if I'm right. "The Krags... they can't really survive here."
She nods her head. It was a fact we learned early on. Some scientists claimed that their bodies couldn't process the nitrogen in the air. Or something. I didn't pay attention at the time and it doesn't help me now.
Liz is looking at me. She seems confused and rightfully so.
"Well, we guessed that they came here because they needed our planet. Maybe the oxygen level was just right. Maybe something in the soil. Honestly, I don't have a clue. But... we think they needed Earth." As I'm speaking I recall long conversations with Calvin. We bantered back and forth while trying to find a solution to the Krags. But we were two men with nothing but battlefield knowledge of these enemies. The only thing to come of it was a cure for the constant silence. A silence that has been all too
noticeable since he died.
"So... Why is the sky burning?" She's almost whispering. Something many people have taken to doing around me. They elevate my status no matter how hard I try to avoid it. They think I'm their last hope. Not a man. Not even a messiah. But a holy cherub, acting for God.
"Maybe they are terraforming. Maybe it's to cleanse the air." I watch as the sky actually flickers. It truly does appear to burn. How long until it reaches us? How long until our skies are alight with their terraforming?
"So, Michael. How will you stop it?" Her voice is so trusting. So much that I forget to sigh. How in the world does she expect me to stop a Krag spaceship?
"Liz... I want you to go back inside. Find James. Tell him to start an evac." I can't help but stare at the flickers of light off in the distance. "And to send someone to the Beta site and make sure it's still intact."
"And who do I tell to get ready for the fight?"
I sigh. "There is no fight anymore. This is the only option we have left."
"At what? At beating the Krags?" She is angry. They always are when I say that. I shake my head.
"No, Liz. At surviving..."
Pride is the mask of one's own faults.
Jewish Proverb