Fast footage of the crew running, the world around them falling apart as the wave takes the land, then silence in black.
"How long do we have ?"
"We have six hours."
The
spider drones work their repairs around the inert motorcycle engine
with headlights flickering sad, while Carson's mechanical life separates
from the ship's. They walk the land, amid Kashikoi's walking homes and
dinosaurs.
~ Caldera ~
Carson a tall monstrosity of limbs and mechanism crawling along dangling him, arms still bound to his side and grinning like a gallows joke, on a leash of wires Auto holds with a rifle in the other.
Timepiece
preps her pistols, Zelda drags the massive blade Carson once stalked
her with. The Thunderbird soars overhead, taking a beast from the herd
ahead.
The
marketplace beyond this sight, the woods to the left and right stalking
their walk until far ahead where the woods grow bent and scorched from
an asteroid strike we already know.
____________
Shaw - Waiting at the gate with guard, "Great ! More newcomers. That is definitely and without a doubt, exactly what the fuck we need right now."
Looks to Carson grinning back, just excited to be here really ...
Shaw - "What the hell is that ?"
Carson
- Leaning forward into his eyes so much as he can in his contraption,
"I am the one who sucks tiny layers of flesh from your fingers and toes
while you sleep, dreaming of sugary pixie sticks. Robert Carson."
A bow as the leg-works comply.
...
Shaw
- "Nice." Looking to each, "Cyborg lady, robot with an abomination on a
leash and thank you very much for that, crazy lady with oversized
sword."
Zelda - "Hey !"
Shaw - "So then tell me what the fuck, is that ?" Points to the aberration in the sky.
Timepiece - Worst actor ever, "Why would we know anything about that ?"
Shaw - "Came in on your precise trajectory."
Zelda - "Crazy."
Carson - "Cra ... zee."
Auto - "I was once an autopilot."
Timepiece
- A sigh. "It's the destruction of all space and time working it's way
backwards in a wave. What you see in the sky is the burning away of
the anti-time particles the process sheds.
Shaw - "For the record I understood that."
Timepiece - "Of course you did. You were their navigator."
"We only have the
time we do because of the combined relativity of the planet, solar
system and galaxy nears the speed of light, making it the last to go."
...
Shaw - Looks at the sky, "I don't like the sense you kids are making. That would mean we only have until the orbit's arc away from that overall relative velocity."
Timepiece
- "Around four and a half hours before the planet runs into it.
Again. Simultaneously with all iterations in time on a similar
relativistic trajectory."
Shaw - "Swell. So what do you propose we do ?"
Timepiece - A broken laugh. "What can we ? We've been running ... we just came to town for supplies while our ship repairs itself."
Carson - "Dreaming ... of pixie sticks."
The guards take their weapons, they enter the marketplace together.
It sprawls it's action before them, a sullen mood as all seem to know nothing good can come of the approaching cloud. Vendors vend hopelessly, discounting while their ships are prepped.
Even as they are, mechanics look up in fear.
Shaw
- "I was that navigator. Finding this world for my people was a blessing, and a
blessing we were welcomed by those already here. But how did you know ?"
Timepiece - "Because we need one. There's a pattern to this. No family ?"
Shaw - Reserved ... "No."
Timepiece - "Of course not, because we wouldn't have room."
...
Shaw - "I will not join you unless your plan is to fight."
Zelda - "Fight how !?"
Shaw - "If what you say is true, I will show you how to outrun time. How to buy time. Until we figure out how, and maybe even got some help. Maybe."
Music continues over their walk as shadows depart the alleyway.
________________
Lady Styx - Entering the circle around thrones with the Hecate behind, "A temple ship, but heavily modified. Its keepers apparent are certainly not of the temple."
Lord
Charon looks over to Selene as she tinkers in the ashes with her new
robot, broken from the husk of a mine, he looks closer as she works the
inner guidance system.
He looks up and watches the Thunderbird
fly over, its massive prey in claw with a proud call for all potential
mates to see, three follow to feed. Before the wave in the sky hovering
over his love, to whom he smiles that feeling.
Charon - "So bandits and thieves arrive, from this aberration in the sky which comes for us all and all things you and I, my darkest love and only lover." He leans forward with a grin, "What ever shall we do ?"
She smile her evils right back before they look to their daughter.
Selene - Looks up as a spring pops out of the works, "What ?"
