The Demon’s Core

Hikyaku sprinted around the facility, as fast as her legs could carry her. The cracks in the tungsten ground expand at a rapid rate. The crevices engulf various industrial robots littered around the land, emitting a blinding blue light from deep underground.

“The researchers probably thought core was inactive when portions closed up, not knowing of the terrible fate that befell them for staying.” Ako relays.

A fissure opens up under Hikyaku as she steps forward. Before she succumbs to the abyss, Ako catches her with his shovel hand.

“AKO!”

“I’M HERE.”

Gauging the distance, they had less than a minute to cross 500 meters to their ship.

“Come on old friend, work!” Ako pushes the robot to its limit.

He kicks off the ground like a frog, using his empty hand to keep traction on the ground.

“One foot after another, that’s it!” Hikyaku cheered him on for the first time.

They see a kilometer wide ravine expanding in the direction of the ship. This made Ako ramp up the speed. His legs get caught in a crack, restricting any further movement.

“I got an idea! Tie your tendril on my hand, then chuck me to the ship. It’ll pull you off the robot too.” Hikyaku proposed.

“Very well. Initiating plan in 3… 2… 1-” Just then the robot’s legs sank deeper in the crevice, misaligning his throw.

Hikyaku was now in the air, yanking Ako along with her straight to their death at the hands of the abyss once more. Ako shot out his tendrils to the ship. They were so close, practically at the home stretch. One pull at a time, they tried to get in the back door of the ship.

“PLEASE!” Desperation was filling her voice.

The back hatch opened. Their chance at escape depended on seconds of action with no room for error. Unfortunately, reality is often the least ideal outcome for scenarios. Hikyaku started the engines, but by that point the floor underneath the ship gave way. Her and Ako spin inside the cockpit like a washing machine. Their ship flipped around before it wedged in between mineral rock and tungsten slabs that jutted underneath them. The fall knocked Hikyaku unconscious, shattering her helmet.

As she sunk deeper into her dreams, a thought popped up in her mind.

‘Why does this feel nostalgic. Coming face-to-face with death itself. It feels… unusually comforting.’

She flips through all her memories like a camera roll. It didn’t sit right with her, not knowing the full context of who she was. The memory where her armistice delivery went south ended with a flash that briefly blinded her.

Another recollection was that of a conversation between her and Omne. Although she couldn’t fully make out what both of them were saying, some parts poured through the obscurity:

“Just like us, the universe is alive and breathing. It makes its own decisions, removing anything it deems as inefficient in its grand vision. Your brain acts the same way.” Omne seemed to be arguing with Hikyaku on something, as they both were agitated.

“And how does that explain these thoughts that I’ve had? Are they false memories? It hurts my brain everytime I think about them!” Hikyaku slammed her desk.

“...” Omne couldn’t come up with a response.

“I feel like I’m incomplete. A dead person walking is all I am!” She points to herself.

‘“It isn’t like that.”

“Really?”

“Look, please finish this last job for us. You’re free to do whatever you want after. You can pursue those thoughts that plague your mind.”

“...”

“The job is to hand in an armistice to-”

Just then, Ako’s siren wakes Hikyaku up from her sleep. The two were upside down in the ruined cockpit. Bruises covered her body from the fall-something that even the bio-suit had trouble protecting her from. Her helmet had been shattered, the glass shards had cut through parts of her face.

“You’re awake, wonderful.” Ako says.

His football form was covered in dents and open electrical cuts.

“How long was I out.” She asks, sobering up from the fall.

“Only for 20 minutes. I had also powered down when we hit the ground.”

“Excellent, seems we’re in a heaping mess now.”

The two saw the state of their ship, it was a miracle they were even alive.

“Cockpit glass cracked, landing gears destroyed, wings partially fractured, and booster engine control is mostly broken.” Ako reports the damages.

“We’re also upside down, we gotta push the ship back into place before anything else happens.”

“Our engine will be either turned on or off, there’s no in-between due to the damaged controls.”

Hikyaku crawled over to the front of the cockpit window, she could see a tiny sliver of the sky through the ravine. It was located directly above them.

“Well then, we just have to position the ship to get out of here then. Hey, can you grab the spare helmet from the locker?”

“There’s none.” Ako pointed to the empty locker.

“What!?”

Realizing she was without a helmet, and that the cockpit window is close to fracturing, they realized this was going to be much harder than they thought.

‘I swear it was there when we were doing routine check-ups. How did it go missing!?’ She thought.

“The only way we can get out is strictly moving up, we can’t take off at an angle. But I can’t go outside or I’ll die.” Hikyaku mentions.

“And if I were to open the back door there’s the risk that the pressure change will shatter the glass.”

Hikyaku looked down, pessimism getting the best of her.

“Y’know, you could always leave me.” She said.

“No.”

“You’re a robot, you’ll survive. You can finish the mission by yourself. Miss Omne doesn’t seem to care about me anymore.”

“No, we are making it out together.”

“All this work is just useless… I’m useless. Maybe it’s for the best that we let them stay in their delusions till the day of reckoning.”

“Think about the people we’ve helped, the people we’ve saved. Entire families were spared from total annihilation on the planet Ferriguard.”

“SEEMS TO ME WE JUST MADE THEIR LIVES WORSE, NO?!”

“How would you have saved them?”

“I… uh…” She stumbled over her words.

“Do you wish to live your life in distractions, or face reality head on!”

The two remained silent for about a minute before Hikyaku spoke out.

“How thin are your tendrils?” She asked.

“They go between micrometers to nanometers.”

“I think we might have a plan.”

The two get set on their plan.

“Ako, use your tendrils to slip through the back hatch. Make sure not to open the hatch too much as to risk depressurizing. Using nearby rocks, tether the hind of the ship to the ravine’s wall. I’ll use the ship's ground anchor on its undercarriage to balance the ship upright.

“Well then, we place the ship on its exhaust. That way it’ll take off like a rocket.”

Their plan came out successfully.

“This reminds me of the ancient times, back when we needed launch pads with support structures for every orbital trip.” Hikyaku commented as she readied herself in the cockpit.

The walls in the ravine begin to shake, the blue hue below them grows brighter and brighter.

“And it’s time for our departure. At my command we lift off.”

“Roger.”

“3… 2… 1… NOW!” Hitting ignition, the engines roar as they are flung upward.

Ako’s tendrils let go just in time, and part of them got burned. Their ground anchor rips from its base, leaving them with no tethering system. All they could do was push up. Hikyaku holds onto the controls tightly, making sure not to let it move even a micrometer away from their path.

The ravine shrinks with each passing second. Just as the crevice collapses within itself, the duo manage to blast out of its clutches. As they were nearing orbit, they looked back to see the planet crumbling down. Nuclear reactions sparked around the globe, it was beautifully terrifying of nature’s power. It was truly the death of a planet.

As the two finally had a chance to rest, Hikyaku let out a tired laugh. She turned to Ako.

“That was the first time in a while… that I felt truly alive. Thank you, Ako.”

“We still have more deliveries to make. Our journey is not yet over.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“But I’m glad, deep down you still have a will to live. Despite what you make of it.”

“Well, before anything else we have to take this ship to the repair shop. Can’t make it to Ira system like this.”

“There’s Trivium Space Station, the interstellar concord. Let’s head there then.”

“Roger.”