Memorize (Book One)

Sulphur Bay

A thousand needles prickled his feet, and his eyes opened at once. His legs were almost impossible to move. He felt buried under a thick heavy blanket of warmth and darkness. Fighting hard against the numbness, he strove to focus on the scene around him and did his best to recall the passed events. The Galaxy Games... Starling's near death... The seismic event... The Stardust storm... The box... Epos... The Utility Pod... The escape...

Deeper down in his mind, yet, images tumbled and whirled incessantly, spinning from waves of heavy sleep, and triggering electric shivers throughout his body.

Hera...

The little hand... The cascading laugh... The warmth nestled deep in his body... It was all hers. He could see her, although still vaguely: the delicate features of her face, the little snub nose, the wide emerald eyes... Freckles... The will to live. The need to go back. He had finally treasured her from the depths of his shattered memory.

"Never forget me. Never forget Hera!"  Words were echoing from his confused, hazy consciousness.

Her name's Hera. Hera...

Every time the past tried to grab hold of him, a great surge of pain snatched each and every limb of his, and made him recoil in silent horror. With Hera's face and voice, recognition had a price much higher than anything felt before. Jay curled himself into a ball. Behind his closed eyes, he could still see the beloved face. The only thing he could cling to, the one and only cue in the mess of his life.

Flickering lights. A haze of blue and red. I'm crawling on the floor. The wind's howling. I hear her cascading laugh... Swirls of airy dust. The crumbling Arch. The ground comes alive and claims for flesh. The sweetest laugh. Surges of rage. The fine face of a cruel-looking blond man. The sound of bones breaking. Retrievers. Pain. Silence. A polished box... A little hand radiating warmth. The Memory Chamber crumbling to pieces. Boxes falling everywhere. So...many...boxes... I can't take it anymore. Every box is a blow I receive. My head's going to explode. The Swimming Grounds' stunning beauty. Crystal Willows glimmering in the dark. I hear the wind howling. I'm losing her. I'm losing her again...Hera!

"Are you okay? Hey! Answer me, please!"

Suddenly pulled from his vision, Jay opened his eyes, drenched in sweat and breathing fast, to see Kizuna bent over him. The girl's timid voice brought him instant relief. He stopped quivering, and the sounds dwindled in his head.

"Are you okay?" she repeated, looking worried. "I heard you cry. Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm sorry... I'm... it's too long to explain."

Without asking permission, Kizuna brushed Jay's face with her sleeve, and a dark purple light shone through her suit's material.

"Oh... This isn't right..."

"Forget it!"

"Never seen such a high blood pressure rate..."

"I said, forget it!"

"Oh... Retrieving code has been emitted... I'm sorry, didn't mean to be intrusive."

"Good for me we're on the run!"

"I heard that the Head of the High Intelligence wanted you dead... Are you... a criminal?"

In the silence of the pod, Kizuna could hear Jay taking a deep breath.

"I didn't abide by GloCo's laws. I'm a second-born, and I remember parts of my past life. That's my crime."

"Oh, but we have treatments for that. We can help you for sure!"

"Yes... I've been re-conditioned already. Looks like it didn't work."

"I'm so sorry... But may... maybe there's something to do about it?"

"That's the thing: I don't want to get better."

"But..."

"I don't... I'd rather die."

"Surely this can wait... We have more pressing issues to deal with I'm afraid!" cut Arende, who had heard the end of the conversation. Saying this, he pointed at the screendows which were not vacant anymore. At that moment, a warning tone informed them about the urgency of landing. In the tepid darkness, Jay clumsily got to his feet, and the three fugitives stared at the magnificent view below and around them.

Thousands of bright yellow acres stretched before them. Xanthous fringes of crests repeated themselves as far as the eye could see, shaping intricate and amazingly delicate patterns on the ground. Fumes fluttered in a dazzling dance, and to their left, an immense blue expanse made them blink. A turquoise gigantic lake was poised in a vastness of amber and saffron, occasionally cut by mounds of salt-like embankments.

"The Sulphur Lands!" exclaimed Arende. "I can't believe we've come that far!"

"And we have to land now..." added Jay. "We couldn't possibly pick a worse place!"

"But it's so beautiful!" chimed in Kizuna.

"What the hell's going on?" asked Ananda, who had been awakened by the alarm.

"We've reached the Sulphur Lands, and we need to make an emergency landing."

"Can't we just fly a little more?"

"Looks like we have a couple of minutes left before crashing. The pod must have been damaged during the storm... At least the seism's over."

"You sure have a way of picking the positive out of a situation, Star" said Ananda as she affectionately helped Starling get to his feet.

"We can't have survived so far to crash into an acid bath!" exclaimed Kizuna.

"Jay, get us safely on the ground!" said Starling in one breath.

Jay lay both hands flat on the control panel, then quickly moved his right hands on the commands, while his left hand remained firmly pressed on the panel. The pod started purring and gained a little height, while the dazzling landscape below shot flashes of blue and yellow. Piloting a pod was a delicate exercise in critical situations. There was no automatic control from the Composium anymore, and every pod had their own way of reacting and abiding by orders. The instants that followed were a silent dialogue between Jay and the utility shuttle pod. Suddenly, the vehicle took a deep dive and sped towards a precise spot.

"Oh God... are we crashing now?" cried Kizuna.

"No... We won't crash on a mountain, and there's enough surface to land beside the lake. The pod has found a hidden bay... But she's been damaged by the lethal fumes. You need to curl up, it's gonna be..."

Jay didn't finish his sentence. A glaring flash of white light had blinded the screendows, followed by a deafening bang. As he fell, he caught sight of his companions pinned to the ground, except for Epos who was lying unconscious, arms spread open, his body rolling on one side.

The shock that followed brought their world to an end.