Broken Promises

The star was dead, and it was the Lendari who killed it. Keeping that blame a secret gave no peace to the people cast adrift in the dark void upon their planet’s corpse, floating further and further from their home galaxy with every cycle. No ghosts lingered on the surface anymore. All the air, forests, and seas had burned away long ago, reduced to dust and data that now wasted in the cold. Few held any memory of the time before. In their colossal underground cities they toiled away to maintain their existence, slumbering for millennia when resources ran thin. All the while desperately clinging to the dream that one day, they would birth a new star and revive their world. This was the planet Tzera called home. Each day awake filled with stagnant air, stale food, unfulfilling work, and strangers. With the only hope lingering on the other side of sleep.

This looming doom had always been oppressive, hanging over everyone’s head as surely as the cavern ceilings, yet for Tzera the eagerness to see what lay beyond grew all the more potent each time that stasis drew near. She would tell herself to not get her hopes up. That it would be the same next time around, just as it was this time and the time before. Continuing on ever backward to that first time she took that eternal plunge. On its way to seven years real time so far. Unlike many of the lucky ones who surrounded her now, she was never given an option. But, despite the continuous disappointment and her growing cynicism, her heart still raced as she daydreamed through her work. Imagining maybe this time…

“Dispensing ration.” Came ringing out from the speaker in the all too familiar monotone, male voice. She had almost tuned P.A.R.E.A out but the sound of the black, hard ration hitting its metal catch shook her awake. She could already tell the texture was borderline unpalatable just from the tone. Still, she grabbed it between her two fingers and thumb, pulling it close for a thorough inspection. The hard biscuit had no give between the three digits and possessed an unpleasant, glassy smoothness that floated on her green and charcoal-speckled scales.

Hope this doesn’t break my teeth, she thought gnawing into it. The crack of a hard textured shell became chewy, like thick tapioca set out to dry, and then a slimy, sicky sweet and bitter hit her all at once like black coffee flavored raisin. Without the benefit of caffeine and with the flavors hitting backwards. Quickly she spat the excess into a jar and exhaled to keep any aroma from reaching her sinuses, so the taste didn’t linger.

Not as bad as the last lot though. She thought, spitting the last of it out.  Probably someone out there would eat it. It wasn’t proper to spit in company. One couldn’t eat on the job, but one couldn’t very well have a machine conduct a palatability test either. Spitting was a part of the work. In essence she was both winemaker and sommelier in her own carved out corner of the district, keep well hydrated because she made food rather than beverage. Though they wouldn’t tell her where the excess went after the jar was emptied.  

“Algae cultures within 18.239 percent of depletion. Oxygen levels within 23.558 percent of depletion.” Several curses came to mind as Tzera looked over the warnings on the screen. She was reeling from the disgusting taste and yet it had still taken too many resources to produce. It wasn’t unusual to have such a large drop, but still. If there was one thing that she could notice, it’s that these rations were getting worse, and they were costing more to make.

That… or she was much worse at this job than she had assumed.

“Recommended repair scenario?” she replied to the computer, hoping to avoid forcing the hungry masses to stomach the previous batch. That one still had her stomach hopping. These were the standard rations. They were communal, fed to vending machines through some hidden tube or conveyor system into every district and the lobbies of every hovel. They weren’t as bad as the prisoner population rations and thank the divines she didn’t have to make those. But these ones were rarely good, regardless of which distributor was producing them. Varying in quality from bad, to very bad, to something like casseroles made from the remnants of random leftovers. But even if you had no P.A.R.E.A, you could still get a biscuit and water from any vendor for no charge or consequence. It was her responsibility to make sure they were at least edible. Not that even the most valued in this neck of society had much better food, but some people did get creative with the mushrooms and very talented biologists could spin some tasty batters for noodles, stocks and breads. There was decent food to be found if you knew where o look and were willing to pay but the largest bounties were reserved for the times when people would be out of the lockstep cycles the longest, like the living centuries. Or so she had been told.  And whatever stockpile that had been set aside for that use was completely off limits to her. That was by choice, she was saving up for a long trip.

“Replacement or repair of batteries 236 through 248 in junction 55 H and district-wide increase of lockstep population stasis time by 9.433 percent is needed to return resources to acceptable projected levels.” The computer said back to her, projecting an image of the district in question on a mesh of dancing lasers.

Tzera didn’t know if this was doable but better safe than starving.

Or barfing.

The blue hologram display of the city vanished into the red globe at the center of her mirror-shined workspace as Tzera rose from her chair at day's end. Four metal legs emerged from the orb and pulled it out of place and liquid steel flowed from cracks in the sides like a mirror shined, viscera papercut. Enveloping it. Then a ruby red eye blinked open and directed its attention toward her, still being somewhat disturbing with how lifelike it was when it winked.

“Come on Parea,” Tzera said, directing her hand towards the clip on her waist, fastened to a yellow sash that held together her black and gold, sleeveless outfit. The small robot crawled over and nestled on the belt as one of Tzera’s coworkers approached her, another woman in a matching outfit but blue scaled with orange highlights, brilliant green eyes, and two bold horns extending from just above her brow. Growing backward and over her scalp.

What’s her name? Tzera thought, pulling a memory chip from her P.A.R.E.A.

“Have atmosphere double check these.” She instructed, handing the chip to the soft sapphire-scaled girl.

“Thank you for your work. It was nice to meet you.” her co-worker replied with a bow, accepting the plastic part and thrusting her unused arm to her chest, her horns pointed to the ceiling.

Tzera responded in kind, then politely parted for the lift. Secretly wishing she could grow horns like that.

The thought often crossed the bald girl’s mind, like a non-corporeal phantom of self-consciousness that haunted her from time to time. She was fair. Hornless. And naturally too. Not that she minded being a fair, it often gave her a sense of beauty with the hornless temple providing a more youthful and clean appearance without any additional effort. At this age however she desired to be seen more maturely, and her girlish portrait often obstructed that. Before the heavy door rotated shut, she turned to face the white room for one last glance at the people who populated her workplace this time, safely tucking her flowing green tail behind her. Etching a photograph in her memory. The color of their scales, the length of their tails, the shape of their horns, their matching garb; all a fleeting familiar pattern she would never see again.

Maybe I should have for asked her name.

The city seemed lively on the hyperloop ride home. Pilotless machines from microscopic to gargantuan hustled about with the dangerous and heavy work. They were all autonomous, machines made to look like animals, or rather the idea or memory of animals. Some swam through the air on magnetic tendrils that grasped large crates, others crawled and repaired, or mined. And there were a lot of fluttering surveillance drones. Everything was built up into its own little, cavernous ecosystem that was manufactured, not bred and leaving almost every citizen with thinking jobs rather than physical labor. It was evening now. Purple glow from the atmosphere generators lit the massive cavern to the ceiling and orange dots littered the pillars, rising from the cubic stone buildings that sprouted from them like drops of dew on the thorns of a stem. Jade light joined in the radiance closer to the floor, shining from giant bioluminescent mushrooms, useful relics that inhaled carbon dioxide and generated nitrogen that were altered and evolved from species long extinct. Announcements poured out of holo-screens and signs, every address from the voices of the Divine and status update resonated through the solid streets, masking their emptiness with the noise and light. Annoying, ever-pressing reminders of the grand mission to keep the working masses on task and advertise for where positions needed filling.

Attendance on the train painted a more honest picture. Besides her were only a handful of people in the large sphere-shaped cabin, moving ever so smoothly through a magnetic field tube. Indigo glow fed the bright white of the car. Two workers were sitting on the opposite bench, their dress matched hers in style with the same sleeveless one-piece with forking sash around the tail and front. But the ribbon was green rather than Tzera’s yellow and the main outfit was white with some silver inlay patterned like a honeycomb. Some sort of medical scientists. She assumed. Such a color combination was rare in her experience, especially during these scarcer times.

Two unruly, red children; barely old enough to grow in their cheek thorns were running about the car. Chased and chastised by a nanny, pale white as the cabin in scale and suit but with the most colorful language Tzera had heard in a while. This was a sight much closer. These children were not supposed to be here as this was a workers only time period. They had enough differences for her to recognize they weren’t related. They were too close in age and the accents on the scales were different with one a mated yellow, almost brown and the other more of a blueish tint. Different eyes, bones, horn designs and frames. Fortunately if their caretaker was keeping them both, one wouldn’t have to wait too long alone after the other reached stasis age. But those caretakers, they all looked the same as her own. Avranan. She half suspected every one of the albino’s to be clones. She was probably wrong about that, but conspiracies grow in the absence of information. Or sometimes, in the presence of inconvenient information.

 Near the center of the car stood an armored-up truancy officer at the ready. A larger lendari male with curved, ram-like horns, encased in an armor of matte black metal and nano-weave without an inch of scale or tail exposed. Armed with a long shock-blade and transporting some misstep he had muzzled and chained to one of the standing poles. The wrestling children were far too rambunctious and carefree to be this poor fellow’s offspring.

There are a lot more officers around and fewer civilians. She pondered, suddenly remembering the same train last time she took that final ride home for stasis. It was even more crowded the time before that.

She kept her thoughts to herself.

A short walk from the station to the residence brought time enough for doubt to manifest. Fear that the same place filled with different people would surface again. That next time would be no closer to the new world, or that maybe some catastrophe would occur, finally finishing all of them off. A biscuit and some water from the machine in the lobby did little to quelch that anxiety. She could have stopped into a café on the way back, but why waste end of journey credits towards something that tasted about the same. That stress grew more potent when she claimed her candy-sized marble from the dispenser in the lobby and cusp in her hand the small, rough-cut stone.

Amber. Its butterscotch shade the same as her eyes. This was the key to everything. The hope, the fear, the possibility of finding something, anything new rested solely on this jewel.

She held the pebble, and the pebble held her fate.

“Madam. My records indicate that this is your one-thousandth completed system adjustment.” P.A.R.E.A said, his voice echoing through the empty, polished stone halls leading to Tzera’s cabin. She had wanted to avoid tripping the psychological subroutines, but apparently the suspense of the approaching nap had raised her heart rate too much.

“Meaning?” Tzera inquired, still twiddling the course amber between her three lime green fingers anxiously. Slowing her steps with the suspense.

“Your apprenticeship is complete; you should be receiving a new assignment soon.”

She hadn’t noticed. Not that it really changed anything. P.A.R.E.A knew what Tzera wanted. It was the thing that any lendari wanted.

End of journey papers, and a place to go to on the other side.

“Maybe I’ll finally get to see something beyond this district.” Tzera half conceded. P.A.R.E.A units rarely understood sarcasm and she hoped at least the feigned optimism would keep the robot from attempting too much small talk. She wasn’t in the mood and the chattering groin kept reminding her that no real people stuck around long enough to care.

A barren cabin greeted her when she returned. It was a white, cubicle room, holding only a holographic screen above her cradle and P.A.R.E.A’s workstation nestled beneath the stairs leading up to it. There were shelves lining the walls, but they were empty. Nothing was missing, nothing could go missing. There were times when she had tried to keep some personal effects but, whether by robbers or the ticking decay between, sooner or later it would all disappear as she slept. It was a price she was willing to pay to have as long a rest as possible.

The green-scaled girl pulled P.A.R.E.A from her belt clip and inserted the amber cell in the slot the palm-sized droid had opened in anticipation.

“Omnomnom,” the robot said, flapping the iris open and shut. The soundbite was one of the few pieces of individuality Tzera allowed herself. An idea of her feeding some small creature often calmed her nerves and occasionally brought a chuckle. It did so this time.

“Your stasis time has been increased by 44.3 cycles,” P.A.R.E.A explained as the pale scaled girl slipped the red eyed orb into his workstation.

“Will I miss anything important?” she questioned, suddenly serious and climbing the shallow stairs to the cradle.

“No madam.”

“Go ahead,” she confirmed.

P.A.R.E.A went silent preparing for the long sleep, but Tzera remained restless. Every sense rushed with her pulsing heartbeat from her fingers gliding across the plush cream-colored fabric lining the cradle, to her two bare toes lifting off the pleasurably heated stone floor, to her tail slithering across the cooler frame as she pulled it into the bed all resonated with increased clarity. Little comfort came when she laid her head back on the soft pillow; nestling it under her neck and resting her crown over as she watched the cylinder-shaped lights on the ceiling start to dim and recede.

Her yellow eyes shut with the door. She took a deep breath and held it in.

“Begin Petrification Sequence,” P.A.R.E.A’s voice said through the speakers inside the bed.

Tzera’s heart skipped a beat as she felt the amber grab her tail, tucked so neatly in a groove under her legs. It was a feeling she could never get used to, even after hundreds of times. Every atom stung; freezing in place as the yellow ooze climbed around her slender figure and began to harden. Within moments she was immobilized.

Maybe the food will be better, she thought, trying to calm herself with her own, personal mantra as her back and tail went numb. Three lines every eternaut writes for themselves to help prevent panicking. Those instances could get ugly.  Even if she didn’t believe it herself at the moment, the positivity did help distract from cold foam slowly enveloping her.

Maybe next time I will find a reason to stay awake, she chanted a second verse to herself as the lights faded to dark. The frost crept over her chest kissing her two sharp cheek thorns and bare chin. She exhaled as the amber rushed over her face, consuming her; and every thought and sense melted away once it went solid.

Maybe things will be different. Thousands of cycles from now.

Was that the last thought or the first? Tzera could never figure it out but the vapor she could now feel wafting around her body was familiar. It was always the first sensation, the herald of a new time. She lifted her sleeping arm through the cloud toward the ceiling in her first exercise to check for atrophy.

I can move. Good.

Her eyes opened and then the sting hit them, the freezing atmosphere struck her arm at the same time and the shock of the cold forced her to gasp. Vacuum nearly sucked her lungs dry and darkness greeted her gaze with the compelled opening of her eyes.

I can’t breathe. Am I blind? No. It’s dark. SOMETHINGS WRONG!

As Tzera tried to pull herself up, panic slipped her hand over the bed's edge. Her body followed over the side and her shoulder struck the solid ground. Already starved lungs emptied when her back hit, shuddering her even further out of focus.

The trauma was now debilitating, every scale throbbed with her panicked heart rate. Subconsciously, the idea of P.A.R.E.A took over as the driving command to take action. Through the haze she oriented herself, finding direction by feeling for the foot of the bed. When she met the edge; she pulled herself to it and slumped over to reach for the workstation.

Her unseen hands darted around the panel in the dark, pressing any button she could feel, looking for P.A.R.E.A’s mechanical eject. The shake of the desk drew her fading attention with vibrations traveling up through the panel, following the sphere as it popped out of the desk slot and rolled off onto the floor.

Hastily, in one last panicked feat of strength Tzera pulled her legs over the edge in pursuit; trying to cushion the fall with her tail. Were it not for the numbing adrenaline she would have felt her legs still slap the floor hard. Then, splaying her limbs across the freezing floor she scrambled and swept the area all around, combing for the round robot until her hand, at last, rested upon the orb.

The small droid came to life as Tzera lifted it towards her mouth. Radiant, pleasant heat began to cut the cold and soft light pooled around and through her fingers to return her sight. P.A.R.E.A extended his limbs and morphed his body, conforming to Tzera’s face. Stretching, metal legs hooked over her forehead and under her cheeks like an octopus ensnaring a curious fish, morphing into two speakers over her tympanums.

A hiss rumbled through the droid’s body, the taste of plastic and metal hit her nostrils as the first wafts of air kissed her lips. Like a blind wanderer who had stumbled upon an oasis she drank in the thick, cool atmosphere and overflowing lungs pressed against her bruised ribs, forcing a few coughs to escape. Within seconds the pain in her back and legs began to creep. Battered and dazed she sat herself up against the workstation, grasping her shoulder still bruised from the fall. Trying to give herself one instant of respite to slow her breathing and think.

What now?

“REPORT!” She yelled, forcing the word between her last few coughs.

P.A.R.E.A’s voice came through the headphones with a feedback screech.

“Apologies Madam. I’m experiencing errors in running multiple routines and subroutines including chronometer synching, network diagnostics, defibrillator, blood pressure monitor, quantum...”

“PAREA!!!” Tzera shouted, cutting short what was likely an exceedingly long list. “Please prioritize.”

“Sorry Madam,” P.A.R.E.A replied with the soft light strobing slightly with every syllable. “The most immediate concern is the thin atmosphere. You only have twenty minutes of breathable air remaining.” 

Well…shit. She cursed with a thought laying her head back, thrusting her eyes towards the barely visible ceiling. Her door was wide open, and though she felt far from lucky, there was some relief to be found in not being entombed alive. But that meant that the whole building was also vacuum sealed, if not the whole sector outside as well. This was not something she could fix herself, even if she knew the exact problem.

“Is anyone else awake? What happened? “She asked as she inspected her arm that was really starting to act up. The spotlight softly shimmered against her green-charcoal speckled scales and brightened the pale round her three fingers and palm. Nothing looked or felt broken, just bruised and strained. Hopefully, her legs felt the same once she stood up.

“Unknown. My link to the central computer appears to have been severed.”

Not good. Did P.A.R.E.A malfunction and wake me up too early? She thought.

“Considering the data I have, I believe our best course of action is to return to stasis immediately.” The robot included. The gravity of that order nearly knocked the wind out of her again. P.A.R.E.A units were not infallible, but glitching or not that meant there was nobody close enough to help, and nobody was coming for a while.

Not a Truancy Officer...not Caretaker. Not even a Grimman, No One.

“Reclamation of the amber cell vapor has failed. We need to obtain another cell from the dispenser in the lobby. Quickly!” P.A.R.E.A instructed, briefly freeing one of his tendrils to point towards the door. Tzera shook her uncertainty about the robot fastened to her face. If she did have only twenty minutes, then this was no time for hesitation. She pushed her back up the workstation with her legs, the right felt fine enough but the left hurt as she lifted. Her hands reached up, pulling her the rest of the way up and she checked her tail as she sat down on the desktop. Having landed on it before, she knew what a broken tail felt like. It was sore, but fine. The left leg buckled a little when she tried to put weight on it but soon stood strong. She was mobile. Good.

Time to move.

Every footstep towards the lobby fought against her with the pace slowed all the more by the icy floor grabbing hold of the scales on her bare feet, the pain in her joints, and the waning oxygen. Nothing was on, nothing was working. The only thing illuminating the grey stone halls was the small spotlight from the robot fixed to her maw.

Upon rounding one of the stairwells leading downward, the light stuck on a rock formation that seemed to be growing in a corner, with a reflective liquid covering the smooth pillar that was forming from ceiling to floor. Billowing steam was wafting off and quickly fading into the empty air. Her unease grew. This wasn’t supposed to be here. An impulse to touch the liquid rose but she stopped herself. It could be acidic or worse; it could be water.

Questions brought even more anxiety as the pillars vanished a few decks further down with the last small spikes of icy rock feeding each other the fluid on the bottom level. Decorative crowns of ice formed around them on the floor, like the mold covering a piece of long tainted bread. A construction like that would take a long time to grow, and she was several sectors down from any water storage. A lot would have to go wrong for that to form here. She thought. The theory that P.A.R.E.A had malfunctioned was cracking.

 Any lingering doubts about the robot vanished once Tzera stepped through the doorway into the lobby and grasped the true horror of her situation.

“It appears others had a similar plan,” P.A.R.E.A said as he widened the spotlight, shifting its focus between the several cadavers peppering the foyer. Vomit snuck its way into her throat from the sight but the sneaking, stinking taste of the now ancient ration encouraged her to hold it in.

Shivers and cramps began to grip her body, both from the cold that started to overpower her garb’s internal heater and the terror of entering such a crowded tomb. There were around two dozen bodies slouched over in different positions throughout the room. Two sat in the corner, a girl nestled up to a larger man; her straight horn interlocked in his ram-like curved in a frozen display of affection, their cheek thorns barely touching. Many more were sprawled over the floor and up against the walls. All mummified, their scales whitewashed, and skin peeled tight around icy, solid eyes. Forms forever posed in dread, agony, and defeat. Male and female, all with P.A.R.E.A units attached to their heads, the robots as lifeless as their masters. It didn’t take long for Tzera to figure out what killed them.

“Still worth checking the dispenser,” Tzera said aloud through a shiver as she slinked her way through the carcasses toward the vending machine on the wall. For a moment her foot caught in a partially opened pillory slot on the floor, but it failed to stagger her. Against the wall sat three bodies, partially obstructing her access to the vendor. So Tzera threw her arms over, holding her weight against the machine, and then frantically started pressing buttons.

…

“Damn...No Power.”

Tzera slammed her hand against the machine, at a loss. The waveless silence that followed caused her heart to race again and she struck the machine once more. What decisions were left? The answer lay all around her. “NO POWER.” She screamed over and over again, striking the dispenser with frenzied force each time. Fury and desperation cracking her voice with each cry, praying P.A.R.E.A would interrupt the desperate wailing with another solution.

Exhausted and bruised, she stopped. Hands shaking in pain and cold, with a scale or two bloodied and peeling off.

She held herself there for a minute. No response came.

Tears began to cloud her sight as she stared at her brethren curled up at her feet. There were no answers to be found within P.A.R.E.A’s systems. Returning to stasis immediately after waking was a last-ditch effort. She knew that before. She felt it now. Nobody had programmed him to have any other options, if any existed. What else can I do? She lamented, and her tears bonded together into droplets with a faint rainbow spread from the refracted light as they danced across the small, darker sales of her lids.

Wait a minute. Is that right?

“PAREA!” She cried again, pushing her body from the cabinet till she stood upright. “What spectrum of light are you using?”

“I’m using pure white light in full visual spectra between .4 and .7 microns,” P.A.R.E.A replied with the small flash of the light bringing some relief as Tzera tried to remember the right setting.

“Could you shift to between .45 and .55 microns?”

A piercing white beam softened to a blue hue. With tears whipped away, once more she canvased the room, though the dimmer light made moving around more difficult. Each corpse she looked over filled her with a strange regret from the hope that someone’s misfortune would lead to her salvation. If it was there, she couldn’t save them anyways. The same was true for her if it wasn’t. Then, from a bench near the entrance came a blooming, pulsing turquoise glow.

“There!” she yelled, directing P.A.R.E.A’s spotlight towards the slim male sitting atop a grated stool. Tripping twice over the frostbitten bodies she fumbled over to the wall, catching herself each time before falling to the ground. That guilty relief grew stronger as the glow brightened with every step, radiating through the holder’s dead fingers. Stealing her breath away as she finally came upon the cadaver and slowly pried open the frozen claw.

And there it was.

Beautiful.

Never before had she been so thankful to see that pebble. Its faint glow held in thin air between them as she looked over the stone as if the body were giving its soul to her. Features faded from the man’s face as she brought it closer, cradling it in her palms like the precious treasure it was. With his likeness vanishing as she clasped her hand shut.

Thank you.

 “We should hurry back,” P.A.R.E.A said, raising the light and yanking Tzera’s focus back to the task at hand. Once more she glared at her savior slumped on the bench. Did she know him once? Even though her half-frozen tears, she noticed his identical black garb and yellow sash. Was he older than her? Was he one of the newer generations born after?  No memories of this man could be found. The guilt returned.

She left the room with it.

 Tzera’s jaw began to spaz as she made her climb back to her chamber, causing her teeth to chatter so violently that P.A.R.E.A deployed soft rubber mouthguard to protect them. With the number of people in the lobby chances were good that a closer cradle was open, but there was no time to search for a separate one, assuming that would even work. Amber was never her strongest science. She did remember the basics, but If anything went wrong with it, she wouldn’t even know where to start working on a fix. Better not to take the risk. She thought, and her focus on getting back drove her upward through the numbing feet and freezing muscles that plagued her every step.

“I won’t be able to set a wake-up call,” P.A.R.E.A informed as Tzera approached her cabin doorway.

“No choice.” she consented with a lisp, making her way back to the small desk at the foot of the cradle. Tzera pulled the amber cell from the pocket near her belly and held it for a moment. Just, looking at it. P.A.R.E.A was using pure white light again and the yellow refraction lit up the room in a soft bust of pixelated orange fire. Blazing like her questions over what came next. Would this be the last time? Was there anything left? What fate awaited on the other side?  Were these questions any different from the others she asked herself every single time she did this? And then the fire was swallowed along with her questions as she fed it to P.A.R.E.A still resting on her jaw.

This was it; there were no more options. It was out of her hands.

“BUUUUURRRRRPPPP,” P.A.R.E.A belched, bathing the room briefly in the perfect white of his spotlight. Tzera laughed sincerely. Whether by glitches or programing. P.A.R.E.A did have his moments when he knew exactly what she needed. And right now, what she needed was to calm down and gain a little courage.

“Take a deep breath.” He instructed and the fair lizard inhaled one last time before reaching to pull the robot mask off. The insulating warmth on her face began to die out with the retraction of his arms. Silence returned. Struggling to steady her arms in the cold dark, the spotlight guided her hand to the slot and vanished once she slipped P.A.R.E.A into the work desk. Blind and frostbitten, the last breath leaked with every shiver as her body began to shudder violently. Keeping her hands to the stairs, she followed them through the darkness up and into her cradle, tucked her tail in the groove, then settled in on her back and steadied her cramping muscles as best she could.

Itching came from the speaker's vibration through the bed, but she heard no sound and nearly lost the full lungful as the amber started to encroach. Old myths and legends began to cross her mind. Rumors of entire districts being buried or blasted into space when a sputtering operation went wrong. Their whole populations lost; trapped forever in this sleep between life and death.

Maybe next time...

You will never wake up. She trembled, trying to steady herself with her mantra only to have her fears scream interruption.

Maybe next time I will find a reason to stay. She chanted to herself heatedly in revolt, all but saying it out loud and spewing her final breaths too soon. Panic and terror were only held at bay by the amber devouring her.

No one will ever find you crossed her mind again, a demon eager to kill her courage and steal her hope in her last moments.

Her hands ceased shaking; the last few puffs of air seeped out. Striving to save her final thoughts, she fought back the mist and smoke long enough to free one last conscious whisper before the cocoon crept over her, turning to stone.

Things will be different. Please wake me up.