Blind Faith on Broken Clocks

12 MONTHS TILL TOTAL COLLAPSE

On a distant planet plagued with a mint green sky, their starship laid on the rocky landscape. Its wings and boosters had been torn hitting a few stone pillars on their descent.

“Overshot the landing, damn…” Hikyaku scrambled to find a solution.

A particular button was glaring at her face with the label: AKO. As her brain began to fog up with uncertainties, she took the plunge and pressed the button.

“Hello, I am the Autonomous-Kinesthetic-Orchestrater, you can call me AKO for short-” The voice spoke out through the communication speakers.

“WELCOME TO PLANET FERRIGUARD OF THE REPULSA SYSTEM.”

“Yeah yeah I remember from the briefing. Can you please help me-”

“SCANNING STARSHIP RICTHER-Main systems for aerial flight deemed unsafe. LANDING ATTEMPT FAILED, NO CASUALTIES DETECTED. Landing wheels are intact, they can be used for vehicular transportation. I will override the controls to get to our destination. Is that ok, Hikyaku?”

“... Fine by me, thank you.”

Trudging along the way they noticed the rocks beneath them were hexagonally shaped, sprouting from the dry planetary dirt.

“I’ve detected abundant oxygen in the atmosphere, temperatures range from -5 to 25 degrees celsius.” Ako mentioned.

Travelling further north they came across a large crater, a couple kilometers wide and at least a kilometer deep. Despite its size, it was anything but empty. Various chronometers, timepieces, and clocks of all sizes were dumped there.

“It’s like their very own landfill. And here I thought garbage was disposed of through legal means, y’know like a designated pocket on a remote moon or something.”

“Hikyaku, our job is to deliver our message to them-not to play as the judicial system.” Ako shut down her comments.

“That’s why I kept you in hibernation mode.” She scowled at him.

They finally reached the city, the megalopolis of the planet. The entrance was a wall that could even make enemy warships terrified.

“HALT, WHO GOES THERE?!” One soldier shouted out, his spotlight aimed at them.

“I’m a Hikya-kukan! I’ve come to deliver a message! A message from Omne!” She says through the speaker system, opening her top window to wave at the soldiers above.

At first the soldier looked confused, but hearing ‘Omne’ made him and his squadron back down. As the gates opened, a gust of wind from inside was enough to almost push her off her ship. Despite the news the two were going to bring to these people, they were anything but sad. It was a densely populated region, with unique bismuth-panels dressed around each building. The sun’s beam reflected brilliant iridescent rainbow colors that pair well with the mint green atmosphere. Parades echoed through the tightly woven streets and poured into the outskirts where Hikyaku and Ako were.

Next thing she knew she was in the city’s local bar, having left Ako and her ship in the trustworthy hands of the local ship-smith.

“How much for a glass of Nebula Cola with a shot of Rum aged for 1,000 years in a Titanium flask?” Hikyaku asked the bartender.

“So you want the top of the line? It’ll be 10 Vonze please.”

Hikyaku pulled out 10 Vonze; a nickel plated coin with small gold engravings around it, ending off with a thin emerald placed in the center. She proceeded to roll the coins across the table like it was a game of air hockey. She kept eyeing the watch on her hand, counting down each second… Still, there was a little under a year left before the end. Hikyaku also noticed the lack of timepieces around the city and its interiors.

“Quite the connoisseur we have here then. First person we had visited in months.”

“Not quite, I’m just here to see what you guys have before…” She stopped herself halfway realizing her mistake.

“You don’t need to stop yourself, we know what’s to come.” The bartender’s response raised Hikyaku’s eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“We all are at the mercy of the coming judgement day.”

“A day where the universe will be engulfed in a false vacuum, and-”

“And our world will be saved!”

“..saved?”

“Duncan Stropha, our leader, will save us. He has put us on the right path: we must first remove any and all contact from the outside world.”

The two looked at each other. The bartender backtracked her statement,

“Now that doesn’t mean physically removing you, after all you have some important business with Stropha don’t you?”

“Yep. Do you really believe he’ll save you?”

“Of course he will. Back during the Laniakean Wars, there was a rogue bullet fired from a planetary defense system. It was the size of a warship and was faster than one, having missed its target by a couple degrees. The bullet was on track to hit the south side of our dear planet in a matter of days. Stropha had the brilliant idea of fortifying the walls of the city with metal scraps found along their orbit. Using that and a combination of magnetic redirection, our people were saved. He says this ‘universal collapse’ or whatever you call it is just a test by weavers of fate.”

Hikyaku nodded in response, while her mind raced, ‘They’re putting their faith in something beyond them? Isn't this a grand old-fashioned cult.’

“I hope you’ll be enlightened once you meet him, dear… oh would you look at that, your drink’s ready!” The bartender served her in a fine iron chalice.

Just as she was about to drink, Ako’s voice can be heard through the entrance.

“DRINKING ON THE JOB? THIS IS OUT OF ORDER!”

She couldn’t see anyone there, neither did any of the customers. That was until a football-shaped object punted the drink out of her hands. Turns out, that weirdly shaped metal contraption was Ako: at least in its lesser form. His body had wheels on either side to move, complete with tendrils to push or pull objects when needed. Complete with a singular eye at the centre.

“I thought they said you were directly connected to the ship?!” She claimed.

“My functions allow me to be mobile as well, though this form is rather limiting.” Ako replied.

“I’m sorry for the drink miss…” Hikyaku apologized to the bartender.

“No worries, you got a meeting to go to.”

Walking out to the streets, the two were surprised to see the parade around the block. Many wore iron jewelry around their body, almost like a status symbol.

“What a beautiful city. Don’t you agree?” Ako stated.

“No, it’s just a gaudy town. Way too prideful for their own good.” Hikyaku’s expression quickly turned into an apathetic yawn.

Soldiers routinely patrolled each corner of the metropolis, though no-one paid any mind to it. As Hikyaku marched along the sidewalk, Ako rolled along beside her.

“So how’s progress on the ship?” She asked Ako.

“It is going well, they are 85% completed with the repairs.”

“Good.” The pair had an awkward tension between them. Ako was the first to break the ice.

“Why did you shut me off during our trip to this planet?”

“I didn’t need you.”

“It seemed like you needed me for the landing.”

“You’re an annoying little robot, anyone tell you that during your routine testing?

“Yes, but being annoying allows me to get the answers I want out of people.”

“Who gave you a sass-talking feature!?”

“A scientist that was too bored.”

“Fair enough. Sooner we get this done the sooner I can have the last sliver of vacation. I don’t wanna die with unfinished business.”

The duo reached the centre of the metropolis, a spiral ramp into a quarter-mile high plateau. Laying there was Duncan Stropha’s city hall: plated to the brim with bismuth. Men, women, and families were in line to ask questions to their leader. With each passing step, they were nearer to the front door. Eventually the guards let them in, revealing dozens of tubes filled with millions of gallons of mercury. These tubes acted like pillars along the sides of the foyer. Suits of armor that were primarily donned during the war were hung up along the interior walls. At the end of the hall was Duncan Stropha himself, dressed top to bottom in iron extravagant jewelry. He was almost done talking with his latest visitor, a woman holding her young baby. Hikyaku’s face went from relaxed to serious in mere moments.

“Are you sure, sir Stropha? I want my child to live a fulfilling life, I… I worked my soul away to give my bundle of joy a future.”

“I know. We’ll make it through, this universe isn’t so merciless that it would cut a young life short. Now please, get some rest.” Duncan Stropha gestured to let one of the guards escort her out.

“Who is this you brought to me on my doorstep?” Stropha said, raising an eyebrow to this peculiar couple.

“It's a Hikya-kukan, come to deliver a message from Omne.” The guard replied.

As she and Ako moved further in, the two had an ominous suspicion of what was going on.

“Minister Duncan Stropha II, old military general of planet Ferriguard: an old trading outpost during war now turned into a metropolis paradise. Using pressurized magnets from mercury pipes to direct the incoming bullet and an improvised wall saved the planet from extinction. Well done.” Ako stated.

“Looks like you’ve done your homework, I’m impressed. I know what’s to come of our fair universe. It’s the universe imploding in itself we’re dealing with, aren’t we?”

“...” the two had no response to Stropha.

“I mean c’mon, look at the sky! Every person and their mother can see that piercing black dot in the air!” He pointed through his ceiling window, a small circle darker than vantablack looked down upon the land.

“And how do you intend to stop it?” She asked.

“By sticking together!” He pouted his muscles like some Greek statue. He had quite the chuckle, but Ako and Hikyaku had none of it.

“Hmm? Tough crowd. Listen here, I intend to stop it by creating a true vacuum myself!”

“That’s just plain stupid.” She called him out.

“Oh but miss, we directed planet-shattering objects… It's only the natural order of things that we scale up the competition.”

Ako shoots out a small crystal scroll from his eye like a cannon.

“This is everything we know of the vacuum. That is all we came here to do, to give you the message of the end. We’ll leave as soon as our starship is ready.” Ako rolled out, Hikyaku looked at Stropha who was self contained in his delirium.

As the two left back to the repair shop, Stropha secluded himself in his basement. Dozens of meters below city-hall and deep in the plateau was his prized creation: a magnet capable of attracting or repelling anything in its wake. The mercury tubes were raised or lowered to contain the pressurized lodestone.

“This has to work, this has to work, this has to work…” He paced around the device, reading the inscriptions on the crystal scroll. As he reached the end of the message, his smile faded. He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, his heart sank into his stomach.

“...no… please god… no…”