Star dust
The air felt like fire around them. The heat had come soon after the first tremors and was worsening at an alarming rate. Now even the ground was getting burning hot. How could it be? They were running as fast as they could to escape this hell, when Tchô suddenly changed direction. Kjinn stumbled as she followed his lead, looking around in a renewed panic. < Come. Shelter. >, Tchô reassured her. She then saw the cavern entrance he had spotted. They rushed inside this refuge, went down a short distance and stopped in the middle of a large cavern, panting and holding on to each other.
They slowly caught their breath in the almost bearable heat, looking around for a better shelter. They weren't yet out of danger. < No safe. >, confirmed Tchô. The tremors hadn't ceased and seemed even more violent. The cavern could fall down on them at any time. Some dust and gravel was already raining on them. Kjinn stared up and thought she could see a fissure making its way along the ceiling. She hold even tighter on to Tchô, repeating < No safe. > over and over. She only stopped when she saw the entrance on fire. The rock was red hot and a torrent of flames swept across it. < Fire. >, she said, entranced. She had never seen anything like that, couldn't stop watching the impossible fiery display.
The invading heat took her out of her stupor. She then noticed how tightly her mate was holding her. Tchô was staring at the fire, still as a stone. < Move. Move. No safe. >, she said, shaking him. He turned to her, saw her imploring look and made up his mind to do something. < Go. >, he said. They started to look for an escape at the back of the cavern. As the fire outside lighted up their search, they quickly found a narrow passage entry that showed as a dark hole on the cavern wall. < Shelter. >, they both exclaimed. Tchô stepped in, Kjinn just behind him, more than happy to leave this burning cavern where stone was still raining down.
They followed each other along a slanting tunnel, going deeper into the entrails of the mountain. Kjinn couldn't see a thing, except phantom lights that seemed to dance in front of her. She knew it was the flames far behind that had dazzled her, but had the disturbing feeling they were ahead, ready to consume her if she got too close. Now and again she cast a fearful glance back, only to see the same reassuring darkness, devoid of flames. Even so, she walked on right behind Tchô, matching his quickening pace the best she could. For fear of losing him in the dark, she was almost running, but the tremors and the darkness unbalanced her and she stumbled a few times. < Fast. >, urged Tchô, with barely a look back, whenever she faltered. She had no strength left and would have collapsed on the floor if fear wasn't pushing her on.
She glanced behind once more, and saw a distant red glow piercing the darkness. No dancing lights this time, the fire was gaining on them. < Fire. >, she cried, losing her balance. Tchô turned and caught hold of her as she fell. He too saw the approaching menace, urged Kjinn in front of him and they both dashed ahead in renewed fear, down the steepening tunnel.
They were still running when Kjinn stopped in her tracks and Tchô almost bumped into her. They had reached the end of the tunnel. Breathless, they fumbled anxiously over the rocky surface for a way out, tried to dislodge some rock to make one, but to no avail. Horrified, they watched the red glow growing brighter and nearer. With nowhere to go, they gave in to despair and huddled together, tightening against the rough wall.
Kjinn was shivering in spite of the unbearable heat. They were going to die. Nothing had been able to stop the fire eating their world, and even deep into the rock they weren't safe anymore. There wasn't much time left before the end. Just a few agonizing moments, suffocating and shaken by the tremors, blinded by the flames and waiting for the instant these would start to lick them and set them afire.
Just one last time, Kjinn looked up to her mate, shuddering at the multi-colored reflection of the fire on his compound eyes, when all of a sudden a violent impact hurled them against the wall, then nothing.
In an icy wilderness, two wrapped up figures trudged forward, stopping from time to time to study the ground. Their snowshoes crunched on the hardened snow, disturbing the majestic silence of this isolated place. Their clothes the only two spots of color against the pure white of the ice field.
Raising his head, Henry spotted a bird flying high above their head, probably a skua this far over the ice. What would it be like, experiencing the vast expanse of the Antarctic in an effortless glide? He snapped out of his reverie when his colleague stopped. Gregory squatted to investigate a hole in the ice, a hole no bigger than his fist. Maybe he had finally spotted something interesting. Henry stood over him, trying to see something while Greg enlarged the hole.
"What is it?" he asked, growing frustrated by the wait.
But Greg just ignored him, intent on digging out whatever it was he had found. Certainly no big meteorite by the look of the hole, if it was one at all.
"Can't you just grab it?" he insisted.
Greg shot him an irritated look. "Not with these." he said, showing his gloved hands. "Should I take them off?"
Of course he couldn't take his gloves off, not in this freezing cold. Henry had to wait for him to finish his careful digging, until he could reach whatever was lying at the bottom of this small hole.
"Got it!" Greg finally said. He took out his hand holding something and raised a triumphant smile to Henry. "Catch." he added, and tossed his find to him.
Startled, Henry barely caught the stone. He shot a black look at his young colleague, whose smile only broadened unashamedly.
"Instead of making fun, scan the area for some more, before I regret bringing you along."
"Yessir!" Greg jumped on his feet in a mocking salute and turned to march away.
Such a joker, always trying Henry's patience, but the young man had an eye for picking out these tiny holes left by meteorites piercing through the ice. Henry looked at the black rock in his hand, its surface nearly polished by its plunge through Earth's atmosphere. It was a good find.
He cautiously put the small meteorite in his bag, before planting a marker flag in the hole. He allowed Greg to scan the surrounding area for a while longer, then called him back. "Time to go!" he insisted, as Greg just dawdled back, his eyes on the ground.
They retraced their steps to the camp that had been their working place and home for nearly three weeks. While Greg was joining the others in the main building, Henry headed for the lab. He was impatient to get to work. Inside, he took off his gloves and his parka. Even if the lab wasn't heated, it was well insulated and the temperature felt almost warm compared to the outside.
He started preparing the equipment he would need, switched on the microscope, then put on thin gloves to handle the meteorite. He didn't want the cold rock to burn his fingers.
A deathly quiet surrounded them. Kjinn watched in stupor at the eerie landscape barely revealed by a wan light, neither day nor night. The fire had eaten everything. Eaten their world, left it disfigured, dead. They should be dead too. Maybe they were and this was the Overworld. She looked at Tchô, touched him to reassure herself he was really here with her, wherever here was. He hold her closer and they stayed silent for a while longer. < Come. > he finally said, getting up. She slowly stood and, still clinging to her mate for support, walked a few tentative steps on a ground that wasn't shaking anymore. Strange how both tremors and flames had died, as quickly as they had appeared. They climbed out of the shallow hole that had been their last refuge and looked around. So unfamiliar. Where to now?
This odd stillness was short-lived. The first survivor they encountered just attacked them like a demon. Tchô fought him back and had to knock him unconscious to stop his madness. Soon they met others, either running in a craze, or cowering on the ground, all driven mad by fear. None were from their tribe, so they stayed away from these, trying to find a refuge. But this new landscape, levelled by the cataclysm, offered none. What hope did they have of surviving in such a barren world? Still they half walked, half ran, searching for any hope of life.
Kjinn would have dropped on the ground in despair if Tchô wasn't pushing her on. The gods had sent fire to destroy their world, but she couldn't understand why they had stopped and spared them to live this nightmare. Their tribe had been devoted worshippers, sacrificing their best crop and captured enemies. Now the tribe was no more. All for nothing.
They took a short rest. She looked at Tchô while he scanned the horizon. He hid it well but she could see his hesitation and fear by the nervous twitch in his eyes. When both eyes focused in the same direction, she turned around to follow his fixed gaze. An intense light was falling from the sky and seemed to come nearer. A message sent by the gods? Or a new curse.
Terrified, Kjinn pulled Tchô in the opposite direction. They ran to a rock and forced their way under the poor shelter it offered, fighting off those trying to claim their space. And then the light was on them.
It was like a new sun, even brighter than the one they had lost, and it flooded the skies above with its blinding brightness. Curled up against the rock, all were fighting to stay in what shadow it offered, fearing to be consumed by this eerie light.
Tchô was holding Kjinn close to him. She was shaking. Under the scrutiny of the gods, they were powerless. What did they want of them? What had they done to deserve such a punishment? She felt Tchô stir and saw the fierce look on his face. < No. > she cried, guessing his intent. She tried to stop him, but, enraged, he rose to face them.
He was standing in the light, both defying and imploring, but still unable to understand the message of the gods.
Stupefied, Henry slowly raised his eyes, his hands settled on each side of the microscope. For an instant, he stayed still, transfixed by the surreal image of gesticulating creatures that couldn't possibly exist, before he cried out:
"They... They're fighting over a speck of dust!"
... dust...
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