Kent/Feldspar

[videointhenoise]

"Just once more," they had said when Ellie's team petitioned for it. She was busy with Palmer, falling in love with science while he fell in love with God, and Kent was left to pick up the pieces. He wanted another damn go at it. The Machine had a pricetag in the billions; it was begging to be used again.

But they wouldn't let Ellie go. They wouldn't let just anyone go. They wanted someone who knew how it worked, who had been there from the beginning, but someone who isn't completely taken in by Ellie's words.

That leads them to a dozen people and they end up with Kent. He's blind, but that's not what decides it. They claim that he wouldn't hallucinate the way Ellie did. That he has a unique perspective.

And, he's already proven himself steady and loyal.

He experiences it all the way that Ellie does, but something goes wrong on the other end. Maybe another terrorist attack. Maybe not. All he knows is that he's in the sphere and then, suddenly, he's floating, unable to find his footing until a great crash and he slams into the bottom of the machine.

He groans, pulling his helmet on with a grunt and a wince.

"Fuck this," he mutters, finding the edge of the sphere with his hands. There was a door there somewhere. He just - has to find it.

Comments

[getfeldsparred]

Normally when someone says “go” Feldspar is the first one to run out to the front, but they hesitate this time. They’re a solo traveler, they’d rather be up in the sky than on Timber Hearth -

So why do they hear it in the back of their mind a whisper that they don’t want to go without him?

They’re quick to shake it off though and salutes Kent even if they can’t see it. “Yep, heading down!”

Because they can’t resist the call of the unknown, and they know it. They walk down confidently, pausing the first time when the radius of the first crystal’s pull ended and where the next one began but only that once. The path curves and twists and ends at a…a depot, of sorts. The convergence of some kind of road system. They whistle low.

“Kent, this is amazing. There’s a whole underground city down here.”

[videointhenoise]

Kent sites down at the base of the trail, draping his hands on his knees. He can hear their breathing, each step in their breath, and wishes them the safest trip.

He smiles, imagining what he might find -

"A city?! I - okay. What did you find? What's there?"

[getfeldsparred]

They wish Kent was down here with them. They can describe it, but it feels wrong that Kent isn’t standing down there with them.

“We didn’t realize there was a whole city…we only ever saw a few buildings here and there. There’s a place on the Attleboro, and one up north on Timber Hearth.”

Feldspar talks and talks as they explore the area, snapping a picture of the mural on the wall. They grab a few artifacts, pausing when they realize that one of them looks like a toy a hatchling might play with. They had little ones here.

They laugh quietly to themselves, almost sadly, and then head back to the path.

“Coming back up, Kent.”

[videointhenoise]

Kent doesn't mind waiting; he's had a lot of adventure and now he wants to go home.

Home. Timber Hearth. How strangely it starts to feel familiar enough for Kent to miss it. "I didn't move," he promises them and stands up, brushing off the bottoms of his suit.

[getfeldsparred]

Feldspar half expects to find Kent on the ceiling or on top of another building when they emerge from the stairwell, but Kent is exactly where they left him. They snag one of the gravity crystals, feeling like the trek back to the ship is going to be interesting albeit a little weird.

"You didn't move!"

They check their tank with a hum. Less than half. Better get going.

"I think this was a successful trip, don't you think?"

[videointhenoise]

"You're not bringing the crystal, are you?" he laughs because he knows what the answer is. He reaches for their arm. "Did you bring any other artifacts? I can hold a few."

[getfeldsparred]

Of course Kent knows the answer! "I have a few things. Hold still and I'll redistribute the weight."

They keep the crystal for themselves though and take Kent's arm back. They can't exactly bounce along with the crystal in their pack, but it does mean they can walk along some of the steeper cliffs without incident.

[videointhenoise]

He takes the little artifacts, but truthfully, he's waiting to return to the ship so that he can touch and hold them properly. He wants to feel what they're like without the gloves on his hands.

By the time they reach the ship, after taking the strange cliffs and crossing around the line in the middle of the equator, his oxygen meter is beeping a warning in his ear.

"Maybe we stayed out too far," he laughs.

[getfeldsparred]

Kent's not wrong, they're really cutting it close. "I see the ship, just hold your breath," they chuckle, moving a little faster to get to the hatch. It's not a simple process to get into the ship while they're in the vacuum of space - there's an airlock involved and clambering up a ladder, but they should have just enough oxygen to make it.

Once they're back in the cockpit and the hatch is secured behind them they pull off their helmet and hand the bag to Kent. "Have a look. I'm going to check on the fuel."

They might have to make a stop at the lunar outpost.

[videointhenoise]

Kent takes the bag and sits in his chair, making sure he has the briefcase and the pack with him as he does. "Maybe you should turn it off next time after you get out," he teases. "Might save you on fuel."

[getfeldsparred]

"Oh, so you're the expert now, huh?" Feldspar calls back over their shoulder, still grinning like an idiot. They start up the twin engines and feel the familiar rumble underneath their fingertips.

"We'll stop by the Attlerock and see Esker. They'll like that."

[videointhenoise]

Kent's stomach grumbles.

"And can we get something to eat? You don't even have astronaut food in here. And don't tell me your canned marshmallows are food."

[getfeldsparred]

"I have food! Some tinned veggies and fish." In case they crashed and were stranded. As rudimentary as anything else they have, but Feldspar is still kind of new at this.

"But yeah, Esker will have the good stuff. Gossan just shuttled some supplies to them last week."

[videointhenoise]

"I'll spare you the olfactory offense at canned fish inside a different can," he smiles. "And I can wait until we aren't moving." He wraps his hands around the straps again as he feels the ship rumbling to life.

[getfeldsparred]

Feldspar waits until they hear the telltale clicking of the belt being secured into place before they even try to move the ship. They lift off without any incident, careful to swerve around Hollow's Lantern and aim for the Attlerock.

"I don't mind the smell if you're really that hungry. Are you sure you don't want a mallow? I mean, no one likes 'em raw, but they hit the spot."

[videointhenoise]

He takes off his helmet and breathes in deeply, working on his gloves next. "No one eats them raw?" He snorts. "Feldspar, plenty of people eat them raw. At least my people."

[getfeldsparred]

"No one sane eats them raw," they snort. "They're best toasted, duh."

Though focused on steering the ship, they can't help but sneak a quick look over their shoulder at Kent as he removes his helmet. His hair's all askew and his face is a little red. It's cute.

[videointhenoise]

Kent runs his fingers through his hair, pushing it back from his face.

He really should cut it. And shave his face.

He works on his gloves next, taking them off and setting them to the side so he can reach out and dig into the pack and feel what Feldspar brought.

[getfeldsparred]

Inside his pack will be all sorts of little artifacts and samples of the rocks and soil, and of course that crystal. “There’s a weird little toy in there - well, I think it’s a toy. What do you think? Hatchlings would love to see something like that.”

[videointhenoise]

He takes out each piece, feeling the edges and ridges, bringing it to smell, even sneaking a small flick of his tongue against the grains of sand when he's pretty sure Feldspar is busy flying.

He comes across the toy and tilts his head, playing with it. "I think you're right. But that means there were children there," he sighs. "Those bones...some of them had to be kids. Hatchlings," he amends.

[getfeldsparred]

“Kids,” Feldspar repeats under their breath. What an odd term, but they kind of like it.

“From what it looks like the Nomai just sort of dropped dead right where they were,” they tell him. “Like something got to them. There are bones everywhere, like the ones we found sitting at the table. That doesn’t seem like they just went extinct gradually, you know what I mean?”

[videointhenoise]

"No." Though there's a chilling thought behind it. "I wonder if they knew it was coming. Whatever it was."

He sighs. "I don't know if that makes it better or worse."

[getfeldsparred]

Feldspar doesn’t know much about the Nomai, but if they were living out their last moments of life it wouldn’t make sense not to spend it together, not scattered like they were. But it’s been so many years, who knows what evidence of any of that has been turned to dust?

“Better,” they decide. “I wouldn’t want to know it was coming, would you?”

[videointhenoise]

"I don't know. I'd want to be with the people I love, I think. Friends and family. But - I wouldn't want those moments filled with terror."

He brings the little toy close, against the soft skin of his cheek. "I think they were happy, though. I want to think that."

[getfeldsparred]

They quiet a long moment, thinking first of how lonely Kent must feel, not being with his friends and family right now. If the world did end, who would he spend it with? Would he be terrified and alone? Would they be enough?

Their mind drifts to their own end. They always assumed they’d get blown up or stranded or crash into something - a lonely death. Maybe quick, maybe not, but alone. Just them and the stars to keep them company.

“I want to think that too,” they admit quietly.