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]

The take a slightly uneven step towards the edge of the cliff. The wire is heavy and their strength isn’t what it used to be, but they know they can make this flight. It’s far, but they’d gone further and with less sophisticated equipment.

Feldspar takes a deep breath and pauses to adjust the weight of the cable on their shoulder. Lapis is counting on this. Kent is counting on this.

With a casual little whistle they jump off the edge of the cliff and press on the fuel, shooting back up and then falling forward only to crank up the fuel again and repeat the process. The cable yanks and pauses their momentum, but they’re able to do a controlled fall while they unfurl it and then shoot back up. They make the rest of the trip across the river without any incident, passing the wire to Reibeck who quickly unfurls the wire across the length of the middle canyon and hangs it on Gabbro’s arm.

Gabbro sets off and Feldspar exhales. They helped train Gabbro themselves, and then there’s Gossan - they’ve got this. They can do this.

[videointhenoise]

Lapis watches with wide eyes, trying not to cry out or say anything as the wires are moved. In that moment, they are very much a hatchling and they know, they know that Feldspar is doing this for them. For he community, yes, but because their hatchling is in love with someone and this is something they can do.

Kent joins them after a while, covered in dirt and grease, but successful, and Slate leaves the two of them alone.

"How's it going?" Kent asks them and they describe it, in shaky breaths. It's grounding enough to get them through the harrowing moments, even if they grip their Dad's hand a little too tightly.

[getfeldsparred]

During the last leg Gossan begins to struggle with the wire. Feldspar can see it from where they’ve remained perched with Riebeck on the top of the canyon - their friend has the last length of wire on their shoulder but it’s snagged on something.

Feldspar signals to Gabbro from across the canyon - maybe they can intercept, except that Gabbro is working on securing their own piece to the top of the canyon. They huff quietly and take a running leap off and towards the river, darting around the canyon and over Gabbro’s head until they’ve caught up with Gossan.

“Felds!”

They really are struggling, the wire slipping from their shoulder and dragging them back towards the cliff face.

“Hey, hold on! You’re tangled.”

“Do you have enough fuel?” Gossan asks, not exactly panicked yet but definitely not calm.

“I’ve got enough, just worry about keeping yourself upright.”

[videointhenoise]

Kent can tell something's wrong because Lapis stops narrating and there's no chatter around them.

And then suddenly Gossan's voice rings out and Kent's grip gets tighter, more worried.

"Lapis, tell me," he says firmly and Lapis relays it to him. "They're - they're low on fuel, but they can manage." They think. They hope.

[getfeldsparred]

If they do fall it’ll be right into the water below. Survivable, but not if the wire falls in after them or they hit the rapids up ahead. Still, it wouldn’t be the first time Feldspar’s thrown themselves into some imminent danger, and their strategy has always been to just not think about it and keep doing, which is exactly what they do now. It doesn’t take long until they find the problem either - the wire’s gotten caught on an old branch jutting out from the cliff.

“Hang on, Goss! I’ll get you out!”

Their jetpack starts to spurt and choke, but they’re still able to keep themselves up in the air as they finally pull the wire free.

“Go! Go!” they yell at Gossan, who doesn’t waste a moment and pushes forward with the remaining length of the cable across the river. Feldspar grabs the branch to keep themselves from plummeting when the fuel finally gives out, but thankfully Gabbro is right there to pull them up.