The Ghost of Time - Chapter 6

Chapter six:
Sylvana


And there was he, Mr. Wrong, pointing a gun towards my face. I didn’t know how he got so close to me, and to be honest, it didn’t matter too much either. My shield should protect me from the shot, and that gave me a fighting chance. Even with an arrow in my leg, I was willing to take my chances.

”Tired of life?” I asked, gripping my gun with both of my hands.

”Just you,” Mr. Wrong answered. I thought he was going to shoot, but he turned away instead, giving me the moment I needed.

I took the shot. As the plasma rocketed into the energy shield, an arrow went right through it. Mr. Wrong grabbed it in the air with his hand, stopping it millimeters from his chest.

Even Sylvana failed to take him down.

”Patheti...” Mr. Wrong said, but then the arrow exploded in his hand.

I covered my face with my hands; the shield protected me from the blast, but my ears started to ring regardless. It took a few seconds until I regained my senses. The explosion ripped Mr. Wrong into a dozen pieces, scattering them along the burnt floor.

I was glad about his death, although I couldn’t get my head around how it happened. The attacker didn’t use ordinary arrows, these were shield-piercing projectiles; the explosive kind. Even the Coalition would have a hard time making these bastards. If this was indeed shot by Sylvana, getting that sample could prove to be quite a challenge.

I would be a tough fight, and having an arrow in my leg would certainly be a disadvantage. I leant down to my leg, and started to examine the wound. It went only a few centimeters deep, but pulling it out would still mean serious bleeding.

Leaving it in my leg wasn’t an option either, thus only one possibility remained.

I turned my gun towards the floor, and shot a dozen plasma bolts down there in a row. Once I was done, the barrel of my gun was as hot as fire itself. Feeling the radiating heat from the iron, I decided to pull the arrow out.

It hurt like hell, yet I didn’t scream; I knew the hard part was still ahead of me. I took a deep breath, and a second later, I pushed the barrel of the gun into the bleeding wound... Now that did make me scream.

It took a few seconds until I could get my head straight. The wound was sealed; it wasn’t the best surgery I could hope for, but it would do until my fight with Sylvana.

I took another look at Mr. Wrong’s remains, and decided to venture forward. The floor seemed empty, although I could still find her downstairs.

As I started to look for the stairs, something broke the heavy silence. I turned around as fast as possible, and then I saw her. Sylvana stood right in front of me, aiming an arrow to my head.

She looked different then she did in our previous encounters. I knew that of course, but seeing the blue, raven-haired woman served quite a shock.

Sylvana was her old self, I have seen it in her yellow eyes: a proud Deylonian warrior, fighting for her people, defying the wrath of the invaders at every possible occasion.

Too bad I was among them.

”You are quite resilient,” Sylvana said, giving me quite a surprise. I thought she would put an arrow in me as soon as she got a chance. And why wouldn’t she do that? She didn’t know me, and she thought I was a threat to her people.

”And you haven’t seen half of it,” I answered, trying to sound threatening.

”Not yet,” she nodded. ”You had a strange foe; the one who I killed. Never seen such things before. Humans don’t shoot each other. Only we do.” So that’s why I lived. Sylvana was curious about our disagreement.

She spoke strangely, but it was understandable. I was glad that we could understand each other, even though I had no idea how she learned our language.

”You didn’t kill him,” I answered, shaking my head. I had to keep the conversation interesting; my life depended on it. Besides, it would be difficult to get that sample with an arrow in my head. ”He has many bodies, and many ways to kill.”

”Then I shall shoot him again,” she snapped. “So your disagreement. What was it about?”

”I like cats, he likes puppies,” I shrugged my shoulder.

”Funny,” Sylvana smiled for a bit, showing her sharp and deadly teeth. ”You humans. You make war too? That’s the reason?”

”We have our own disagreements,” I nodded. There was no point in denying it anymore, and the truth could still serve my case. ”He is with the Takedans, they want to kill everyone on Deylon. I am with the Coalition, I serve for the protection of all life in this galaxy, including your homeworld.”

She seemed surprised by my words, and I was determined to continue.

”I’m your friend, not your enemy.”

”Tsaka,” she said, and spat on the floor afterwards. I knew this word, it was in her language, and it didn’t mean much good.

”What? You don’t want any friends?” I asked, raising my hands.

”The Coalition is not my friend if it’s against the war,” Sylvana snapped. She almost fired the arrow, but then she took a deep breath, and lowered her bow. ”But the Coalition is the enemy of my enemy. This means respect. Respect means not to shoot.”

Finally, a day when I wouldn’t die in vain. I didn’t understand much from her reasoning, but at least I could have my chance with that sample.

”Come,” she nodded. ”I want to show you something.”

”Lead the way,” I answered.

I followed her, trying to remember the old times. Sylvana never told me too much about the past, but this was a whole new category. Her future self lied to me, I was sure of that.

While I was thinking, Sylvana lead me to the nearest staircase. It was old, yet the burned metal was strong as ever. The Daylonian walked down the stairs, slowly fading in the darkness. I went after her, and a few steps later, there became light.

I found myself in a corridor filled with apartments. Hundreds could have lived in this floor, even thousands. The light appeared from the corners and the front of the apartment doors. Almost all of them were open, only the circular frames represented their existence.

”There is still electricity in here?” I asked with a surprised grin on my face.
Sylvana stopped, and turned back towards me.

”This building was made to last. Generators too,” she nodded.

”I thought nukes kill those things.”

”We thought about destroying them. But some wanted to live like they did before. We honored their wish,” she answered.

”What wish?” I thought they nuked themselves, which hardly contained asking questions and honoring any kind of wishes. You wake up in the morning, they blow you up, and that’s it – this is what we mean by getting nuked.

”Come,” she nodded towards the end of the corridor.

I followed her, determined to get some answers. Why did she lie to me before? What did she gain with it?

Sylvana led the way in silence, and then stopped in front of an open door.
”Look inside,” she pointed towards the inner room.

I was shocked from the sight of the apartment. Not because of the missing anteroom, but from the living room that stood on the other side of the circular door. I saw a strange computer with a skeleton sitting in front of it. Fourteen ribs, small feet, strange, yet humanlike skull; definitely the remains of a Deylonian.

”He died in front of the computer?”

”Liked video games. Went up here to play, liked the view up here. No one harmed him, servers didn’t stop for a hundred years, but his heart did,” Sylvana answered.

”So you were playing games after the Armageddon?” I asked, trying to figure out what happened. The more I knew the more difficult my task became.

”The Change. It wasn’t for all of us, but for most of us. That’s why I shown you this,” she explained, taking a sad look at the skeleton. ”It was voluntary.”

”Voluntary? You just woke up one day and decided to bomb your planet to dust? No way,” I snapped. How could a civilization be so stupid?

”You are too young to understand. Humanity is,” Sylvana said. ”Deylonian are old, old as your sun.”

”I don’t know. You see, I’m an open-minded person; maybe you could enlighten me,” I crossed my hands above my chest. I was angry at her for lying to me – even though she was another Sylvana living in a different time-frame. Love was unbeatable in this respect.

”Can try,” she shrugged. ”Humans make war right? Wondered what is life without war?” she asked.

“Nice and peaceful,” I nodded.

“We thought it too. We stopped killing one another, and did stop for countless years. As time passed, peace went darker, life got less and less joyful. We tried solutions, games, internet, movies, the Network. Nothing worked. We invented, but life just got worse,” she explained with her strange English.

“You are kidding me, right?” I asked with serious antipathy.

“Technology cursed us. We invented and used instead of being with others. We advanced, built new things, but spent less time with people. Didn’t want, didn’t tolerate others, only hated. Yet lust remained, and new generations came. Towns became cities, cities grew, and with time, Deylon became a city itself. Population rocketed into the skies, yet people got lonelier and lonelier. Marriage became rare, and then a legend. Friendships became talks, talks became messages, messages became seen, but never answered. Loneliness became depression, depression got just as common as a cold. Deylon was the center of civilization, yet life consisted nothing but loneliness, pain and self-inflicted death.”

”So what? You decided to kill yourselves?”

”We tried to live in peace, but peace became worse than war. Yet we tried. Millennia passed after millennia, nothing improved, but got worse. Then we voted. Those who wanted to live like this, descended into the depths of Deylon; those who wanted to die, rose to the skies, and met with the glorious fire of the so-called Armageddon. Most died, some survived, and fought as tribes. Who went down, stayed there for time, and then some went up to fight,” she continued. Her English was strange, but understandable.

Maybe that’s why she lied to me. She grew up with this strange ideology, and later on, she realized the stupidity of her beliefs. She was ashamed of her past, so she kept silent about it.

Although she could still have mentioned the others.

”Wait, there are people down there? And they are living their everyday lives as it was before this Change of yours?” I asked.

”They kept the Network, a place where everything happens that you imagine. Some try to live in it, others get tired of it,” she nodded.

”And how do you know all this?”

”I am Sherath, born on the depths, came to the surface for a life worth living,” Sylvana explained. ”Used the Network as a child, could fight, could make love, could do anything I want. Sounded great, became tiring. Most tiring thing you can imagine. No challenge, no risk, no true love, no excitement. Life up here is different. You are at risk every minute of every day, you make bonds for life, and you fight for survival and glory instead of beating some level in a program.”

”And what about death? You will live for twenty, maybe twenty-five years instead of a hundred. Why would you throw all those years away?” I asked, trying to make sense of it all. This would have freaked me out in the past as well.

”Death comes for everyone. Life is different, everyone lives, yet it varies for each. Some sad, some happy; I was sad before, so I choose to be happy. I want to make real love, true friendships, fight for what is right and live the way it is worth doing. Strange I have to explain to you. You fight too, why would you do that if it doesn’t make life worth more?” she asked, surprising me with the question.

Why did I fight? I risked my life for her, for the others, for my friends, and for everything I believed to be just. I had to admit, it did add to my life; although I had my doubts about the part where this would serve as the inevitable future. We could avoid it with careful planning. If we look at technology with a different eye, if we recognize that it is secondary to others, then we can treasure our society before it would get ripped apart, dooming our whole civilization.

I didn’t answer to her question, but Sylvana continued regardless.

”These Takedans might know too. That’s why they came here,” she added after some consideration.

”They came here for resources and your technology. They couldn’t beat us without them.”

”And yet they come by themselves, keeping our lives more valuable than ever. They are our enemies, yet they are our blessing. They remind us what it feels like to live every minute of every single day. We don’t just fight ourselves now, we fight for freedom, for survival, waging large battles all over Deylon. Taking place of one of the fights is better than living a thousand lifetimes in front of a computer.”

”So you say,” I told her. I might have lacked her almighty intellect, but it didn’t have good feelings about the destruction of her planet.

”One day you shall see. I will show you the way once I’m on board.”

”What?” I raised an eyebrow. How did she know about the plan?

”I’m Sharath, not tribe. We have technology. Power that could remove Takeda from Deylon. We don’t want to end the war that makes our lives whole, but we do keep an eye on things around our home. I know about the time-ship, and the other one who is waiting for us. I want to come with you, I want to be part of your war. Waging it would make my life more than a thousand lives in Deylon,” she explained.

I tried to answer, but I was too shocked to do that. It became clear to me why her other self didn’t tell me the truth. She didn’t fight Takeda for revenge, she fought because she strived for the war. It gave her everything she wanted: the risk, the heat, the glory and the love that she missed in the Network.

”So you take me in?” Sylvana asked. ”I know about that sample. I could give now, if necessary.”

This time I was determined to answer, but I couldn’t do that for one simple reason:

The corridor exploded in the next moment.

Pain, blood and smoke filled the room after the sudden terror. I thought I managed to stay in one piece, but my torn-off-leg spoiled the moment, lying in front of my face. I was shocked, yet I managed to turn my head to the other side.

Sylvana was in one piece, but she was injured as well. She looked towards the Invisible Judgement, where Rush was ready to take her down for good. He acted as I ordered him to do, but stepped too soon, ruining the mission.

The Judgement shot deadly plasma bolts on Sylvana. She jumped away from them, getting above my fractured body. She took the syringe out of my pocked, and took the sample herself.

Plasma bolts struck her in the next moment, ripping through her chest. She dropped on the floor, and died locking eyes with me.

I knew she wasn’t the Sylvana I fell in love with, yet I was angrier than ever. I really hoped the plan would work as it was, otherwise I would have an amazing conversation with Rush – right after Synthia puts me back together on the Demetreus.