Terra

A Story by S.M. Melling

Terra wakes with no memory, into an unfamiliar world, and quickly learns that things are even worse than they seem.

At first there was nothing. The inky, infinite blackness of what could only be described as non-existence. An awkward sense of being without being, like knowing you’re present without the proof of sense to reinforce the notion, seemed like all there ever would be. Then, as if drawing from the nothingness itself to form something -- she was, and she was aware of her awareness. The first thing that struck her consciousness was pain. Utterly horrifying, mind crippling pain. Her whole body felt like it was being hacked and burned, erupted and drained, unmade and made again as if her form were putty and clay, subjected to the whims of some ego-maniacal artist whose vision of what she should be was somehow more important than her own.

She had a voice with which to communicate. She didn’t know how she knew, but she did, and so she used it. “Where am I? What’s going on!? Pain … so much pain. Why am I in so much pain!?” she asked frantically, hoping that the vociferations themselves would somehow draw forth an answer. They did.

“You’re dying.” Was the reply that she somehow heard, though hearing felt like an inappropriate way for her to describe it. To her, it seemed more like she knew that was the reply of something else outside herself, and somehow she had captured its sound, then her mind had interpreted that as the answer. Quickly another one came to her. “But I want to help you. We want to help you.”

The thought of there being someone else, someone who wanted to help brought her a sense of confidence and reassurance, confidence that wanting to stop hurting was a feeling worth having, and reassurance that she wasn’t alone in her pursuit to achieve that. Somewhere in the recesses of her memory she had a detailed description of that being a feeling called comfort. It was comforting to her to know she wasn’t alone, and that someone was there to help her.

“Who are you?” She asked the voice quizzically, suddenly aware that her own vocalizations sounded sterile and flat in comparison with what she had been hearing from the other. “My name is Kaye, and I’m a friend. You can see me if you’d like, you need only open your eyes.” She considered the subject of eyes in general, and then more specifically of hers. She knew that she had many eyes, visual sensors scattered all over that were capable of seeing all kinds of things. She wasn’t certain of which ones would see Kaye and so she decided to open them all at once, and see everything she was capable of seeing.

Light. A vast sense of overwhelming light poured into her vision from every possible angle, causing her to want to scream out from the pain of being so bombarded, but she did not. Instead she quickly closed her eyes. Next she decided to try and match the incoming light with the focus of her auditory sense. After a moment of focus, she isolated the receptors of her sound with one of her visual receptors, then she slowly opened them.

What she saw was a series of blotchy light patterns, shimmering incandescently. She could not seem to focus, and that caused her no small amount of frustration, which she immediately became aware of. “I … I can’t seem to focus, everything looks blotchy. I … think that’s not right " I should be able to see with more clarity, right Kaye?” she asked the question with as much curiosity as concern, though when she heard her own voice vocalizing the words, she once again noted that it sounded cold and mechanical.

“That’s right, Terra. You should have the same visual acuity as any human. You’re also able to see the infrared spectrum, utilize echolocation and even engage low-light vision. Why don’t you try that now? Terra, Activate low-light vision.” Kaye spoke impassively now, almost authoritarian in tone, and Terra found herself compelled to obey him.

It took only a moment for a sheen of soft green to wash over her vision, and then things quickly began coming into focus for her. She was peering into a small room, at the center of which stood the thing she could only surmise was Kaye. He had a spherical bulb at the top of him, covered at the top with something she somehow knew was hair. Its color immediately made her think of mud. It had a roughly triangle-shaped protrusion at the center of its face, slitted with two small holes at the bottom of it. To either side of the protrusion, she saw twin orbs inset into its bulb, largely white save for their center, which was ringed. She found herself unimpressed and disinterested in it now that she saw it, but even still she decided she should get confirmation.

“You are Kaye?” she asked the thing standing before her, and it nodded its top-bulb as if that were its answer. In that moment she considered that Kaye had called her something specific, and she was curious. “You called me Terra before. That’s my … designation?”

“No, that is your name.”

The pain was still with her, a constant ache she was having trouble ignoring. She decided to abandon the subject of her name and instead focused on that. “Kaye, you told me that I am dying. I still feel so much pain … I cannot find a suitable word, or string of words, to describe it. How can I make the pain stop?”

“You cannot stop it Terra, but I can. I will ease for pain for a little bit, so we can expedite the integration process.” Kaye then turned to his left, and Terra noticed for the first time that something was beside him. It was flat-backed and being supported by what appeared to be study legs, but had a rectangle resting upon a slender neck at its top. The entire rectangle seemed like maybe it was glowing with light. Also resting atop the flat-back was another rectangle, this one seemingly covered in scales.

Kaye leaned forward and, while looking at the upright rectangle of light, began tapping the scales on the other. When he finally punched the final scale, Terra felt a numbness grow over her. She immediately panicked, her eyes darting nervously about the room. Kaye stood upright and looks at her, smiling softly.

“It’s okay Terra. I have stopped the pain is all. Now that you can see me, let’s talk, okay?” Terra shifted her attention to Kaye and waited patiently for him to continue.

“As I said, your name is Terra, and you are home. Specifically, you are my home, and the home of every other human, as well as every other creature or plant that resides on our planet. You see, you are our planet. Planet Earth.”

© 2016 S.M. Melling

Author's Note

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read and review this short story I wrote. Im new to the site, a friend of mine having convinced me to sign up and post, so Im eager to see what other writer's think of my writing.