literature

Turning the Tide

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This was it. Today was the clincher. Today was the day sixty-five million years of nurturing Mother Earth would unravel. The truth – the impossible, fantastical, irrational truth – would be revealed, one step at a time. And it all fell on the shoulders of one man to give it to them straight. There was no way to ignore the billions of souls screaming for an explanation, a definition, a reason. At least his nut-job reputation was there to fall back on if they thought he was bluffing.

Tides. This was all his fault.

Can’t turn back the tide, in whatever sense of the word.

“It’s time, Mr. Hawkins, sir,” chirped a flustered secretary; the small swarm of make-up artists, correspondents and corporate employees around him buzzed and scattered like disturbed insects. The man nodded, collected his thoughts, and stood up. His tall frame, immaculate grey suit, and daunting, blank confidence granted him the rightful air of a trillionare bossman – at least, that’s what he liked to think.

The open-air conference hall seated ten-thousand people. He suspected it was all funded with his personal money. The skies above were blue-grey; tainted, washed with centuries of pollution emissions. Outer-space was so much cleaner, and his company was doing a good job at mining the junk out of it; junk, which – he had been quite horrified to learn some weeks ago – was all that remained of his former home planet. In effect, he was a grave-robber, and he had gargantuan sums of money to show for it. Granted, that was all the reason why he was here, walking out to the polished front podium, figuratively sweating under the collar, ready to start explaining to everyone on Earth the existence and origin of the beautiful, lifeless, [death-less woman discovered by one of his mining expeditions. Tides, Cayal had the easy job of going to fetch her. Declan Hawkes envied him, just a little.

Once the audience had settled, he began. “Good afternoon, everyone – ladies and gentlemen, young and old, respected viewers and listeners.” He looked at nobody, not even at any of the countless cameras leering in his direction. Instead, he squinted up at the dirty sky. Somewhere beyond the bounds of Earth’s atmosphere, Arkady was out there, in the asteroid belt. One day, she would come home. Ah, it was ironic. She would be his – and his brethren’s – ultimate undoing. “I’m Deke Hawkins, founder of AEVITAS Incorporated. I am here to report officially on a video which was broadcast across the Internet, to all corners of the globe, some weeks ago. It depicted a female of human appearance, floating, ah... naked in space. Some have dubbed her ‘Asteroid Girl’, others claim she is the Virgin Mary.” As he spoke, the original footage of her discovery projected mid-air behind the podium, visible to all. The footage was enough to turn spines to ice. His plain description didn’t quite do it justice. “She is very much alive; at this point, we theorise she may be an alien life-form that does not require an atmosphere in which to respirate, nor any sustenance, nor any protection from the elements. All in all, this suggests some kind of immortality—”

As predicted, a squalling disturbance, a precursor to the storm, rumbled through the audience. He imagined it coursed all across the globe, a rippling wave.

“—but she appears, otherwise, to be mortal. She breathes, she speaks,—” and in his thoughts, he dearly hoped Cayal remembered to teach Arkady English in the five or so years it would take them to return to Earth “—she is warm blooded, and appears human. Just like each and every one of us. Updates will be released in the future, but for now, I must also disclose an additional important factor, which—”

The laser bullet struck him between the eyes, lightning-quick, silent as it burned through skin, bone and brain. Declan Hawkes dropped like a stone, crashing against the speaker’s podium and sliding to the ground. He didn’t get up again. The holographic footage of the woman floating in asteroid-dotted blackness, still playing in the background, only added to the ominousness. And... that was when the screams started.

---

When he awoke, his head felt like it had been drilled. Shifting around a bit, he found he was still in his suit, and had been placed  makeshift bunk – what seemed to be some sort of couch designed with no consideration for comfort. The whole crowd had gathered around him: dusky and sweet Coryna, Lukys with unfathomable emotion twisting his face, grouchy old Maralyce, blonde and compassionate Arryl, and even crazy-eyed Kentravyon. Only Cayal was missing, of course. This made him realise they must have all been in the audience. Oh, how touching.

“At least he didn’t start healing right on the stage, stand up, and continue as if nothing had happened,” grouched Maralyce, great-grandmother extraordinaire as Declan sat up.

“What, no hospital ward?” he winced, pressing a hand to his forehead. Brain still hurts.

“Don’t need it,” snapped Lukys. “You should be grateful we were there to take care of you. Do you have any idea what you were doing up there? I’ll admit, it was necessary to calm the public, but after all these years of secrecy? All we need to do is wait a little longer, get Arkady, find the Crystal, and leave this planet.”

“So... do you have any idea who shot me?” Declan dodged.

“I did,” Lukys replied, abruptly cheerful.

“Tides. Thanks, Dad.” Declan knew he wasn’t kidding. “Talk about secrecy.”

“Oh, and Declan? Do you happen to have any idea where the Chaos Crystal is? We can’t find it.” Deceptively cheery, now.

“No idea.” Somehow, he wondered, Lukys probably knew – knew he’d tossed it into the Marianas Trench. “But, you know, considering all the money and power I have, I could easily have thrown it out into deep space, and you wouldn’t be any the wiser.” And that wasn’t far off the mark.
I dug up this piece and realised I wrote it nearly two years ago (on Feb 24th, 2011). It was a writing challenge entry on RPG-Directory, where we were tasked with writing any fanfiction of our choice. I was on a Tide Lords kick at the time, so... here it is.

Characters and concepts are credited entirely to the wonderful Jennifer Fallon, the author of The Tide Lords series.
© 2013 - 2024 TheDaemonic
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DominiqueDuong's avatar
Nice going shooting our son in the head, Lukys <<