Nano Writing Month, 2017.15

[mc776]

Every day, write some bit of fiction. Preferably over 50 words, but there will be no standard beyond "something". Posting is entirely optional.

She stepped out onto the desert plain and beheld the shimmering torus. Not another soul for miles. Shounen-Ai beepbooped consternedly behind her.

"Hello again, Ayumi." The torus spoke in clear, soothing tones, in a voice that immediately reminded her of Morgan Freeman.

"You... you're back?"

There was an awkward pause. "You expected differently?" The torus asked nothing else.

"No, no I'm not insinuating you're not welcome or anything! I'm just... surprised to find anyone, really."

"What about the baby kangaroo and the zombie spider?"

"I remember seeing them earlier today, but they don't count..."

The torus' voice grew a bit more stern. "That's because they don't exist."

She stepped back and made a face at the torus. "What are you talking about!? Isn't it a little presumptuous of you to tell me what I have or haven't seen? What kind of crazy shit are you on, Pluto-boy?"

The torus' voice softened again. "Bear with me here. You remember seeing them earlier today, yes?"

"Yeah, just this morning, out in broad daylight."

"Look to the east."

It was barely dawn. The sun did not rise significantly during the awkward pause. "Okay, maybe it was yesterday then."

"Yesterday." The torus blinked - and this time she got the feeling it was deliberate. "You do remember what happened yesterday, right?"

"We were talking and then you got cut off by that surveillance drone."

"Yes. And what were you doing before then?"

"I had just woken up, scanned for threats and stepped out of my ship."

"And it was dawn."

"Well, come to think of it..." Her eyes narrowed. The ship's shield bits activated in perfect sync with her eyes. "Wait, how would you know that!?"

"If it's dawn now, then it must have been dawn this time yesterday."

It was a perfectly rational, common-sense explanation. So when she heard herself immediately blurt out, "I don't believe you!", she gasped and held her mouth shut. The torus blinked.

The torus' shimmer was a bit brighter now. The sun had not moved at all. "And you shouldn't."

"Wait... what? What are you getting at now!?"

The torus held its new shimmer silently for a moment. "I am sorry. I have been... less than direct... until now. I will tell you exactly what I mean. But to understand, I must ask you a few questions, and you must answer them honestly and carefully."

She was fine with this until the "you must answer". "And what if I don't, Mr. Mysterious Plutonian Bossypants?"

"Then you will not understand what I mean."

She considered the risk for a moment. He had no power over her... yet. But she had the sense he knew far more than either he was letting on or she was comfortable with, and being told to be honest when he was admittedly not was an ugly feeling.

Nonetheless, there was no one else to talk to. That fact seemed important somehow.

"Fine, shoot."

The torus blinked in acquiescence. "First: what did you do yesterday after our conversation ended?"

"I went back into the ship and set it on a new course to somewhere safer."

"What happened then?"

"Then I went to bed, I think. And then this morning I stepped out and here you were."

"Good, we're on the same page on that at least. Now think back to when we first met. Where were you, what were you doing when you first stepped out and saw this breach--that is to say, this, let's call it the 'thing' we are talking through?"

"I had just gotten up and started my day."

"Did you not see the spider and the kangaroo?"

"I did, but that was before that."

"Did you see it that morning?"

"I... no, there was no time during which I could have seen it."

"Now think back to the night before that morning. What was the last thing that you did?"

She thought for a long time. "I... I went to bed?"

"And what was the last thing you did? before that?"

"I set... the ship... to... here?"

"Which you did after..."

This could have gone on for a very long time. However, as soon as she was about to respond, the sky blinked dark and the torus disappeared. A Nudibranch surveillance drone was flying by, glittering orange in the rosy dawn. It turned directly towards her.

Shounen-Ai killed it.

...

Meanwhile, in a different universe...

...

"I am sorry, Ayumi."

"You did what you could. You did more than I could have hoped. I know I have said this before, but what you have done for me bringing my dear Michel out of occupied Vancouver, you owe me nothing."

She sighed. "Thank you. It means... you really mean a lot to me, you know? But I still feel so bad about this."

"Cris, darling, we both knew it was a long shot to begin with. I'm amazed you even managed to find him with the stale leads I had. That he would pull some unknown magitek and bail at the very moment of victory, when he had home turf advantage over his pursuers, was not unexpected."

"But your ship..."

Ayumi looked away from the camera for a moment. "It's got its failsafes. If we are to find it then we will find it - or it will find us, insha Allah. Let's not give up hope, they've got to be out there somewhere."

Cris poured herself another glass of rum. "I've got Dan and Jae taking shifts checking the battlecasts for any of his trademark moves, right after we're finished figuring out just what happened with those things last night."

Ayumi drew from her cigarette and nodded without looking at her. "Dan's a smart boy. He has a good nose for this sort of thing."

Pause. "And?"

Ayumi looked into the camera and smirked. "Jae knows a lot of things." Her brow furrowed. "And don't drink that, you know it's not healthy!"

"She says as she smokes her second cigarette since we connected 20 minutes ago!"

They both laughed a lot harder at that than would have been reasonable to any observer. Ayumi had, of course, also been drinking.

"Don't worry, Ayu. We'll find that bastard. And he's gonna fuckin' pay."