| Rayn: Episode Fourteen - Until the Day She Dies
By L.C. Cruell
posted: 07:59 am ET
29 September 2000
|
"Quite a lifetime."
"Yes, it was."
One hundred years and
one month later. . . .
Lile kicks her sky-bike into
high gear, revs, and races it over, under, around and through the hearts
of the small hills of ruins. Late as usual. And as usual, late on purpose,
just to have an excuse to fly as recklessly fast as she can. One of the
best pilots on Teran just like her great-grandfather Hitt. But, unlike
him, she enjoys it.
She lands, jumps off, and
slides into the home, her frizzy orange curls bouncing, a gift for her
favorite resident in her hand.
The halls purr quiet with
their warm internal light. Fewer residents all the time now, thanks to
the Vita. Lile finds her favorite old girl in the garden. Long gray braids
blow around her stooped shoulders as her still sharp black eyes scan the
remnants of the old world, no longer towering mountains of ruins just hills
and mounds, and the new world coming through underneath, agrarian, fresh,
green, a world of future not past, of possibility, at least for the young.
Lile smiles and joins her.
They play their favorite strategy game, Cross.
Lile moves one of her swordsman
across the diamond-shaped board. "I brought you something." She pulls out
the book and shows it to the old woman.
A computer book, bound in
leather with a title The Chronicles of Rayn sewn in, Rayn slowly
caresses her name on its cover with her withered hand. She had been incognito
so long no one used, even knew, her real name. Except for Lile, the great-granddaughter
of their fellow soldier Hitt, whose descendants both she and Meena had
sworn to take care of when he died on the last day of the war, and who
now took care of her.
Rayn smiles at her and in
a weak, scratchy voice, "A little grandiose for the story of one little
girl don’t you think?"
"What, for the most famous
girl in history? Not to mention the bravest! It’s all the stories you’ve
told me about all the things you’ve done over the past hundred years. Except
the one that begins your Time of Travel, the one you haven’t finished telling
me."
Rayn coughs hard, shaking,
blood on her lips. Lile shakes her head, all those tests, all those scars,
all those years of pain that never stopped, but never stopped her.
"It’s not an easy story to
tell."
One hundred years earlier.
. . .
The prison shuttle drops
her and others down onto the surface of Howarth, the giant boiling rock
two planets in from their own.
They tumble out and down.
Even in their environmental suits they crawl desperately to try to get
to the hatch to the underground before they are sautéed alive by
the heat and poison acid atmosphere. The ultimate prison without bars.
Underneath the world of Howarth
exists only primitive survival and those who learn to excel at it. Its
only law: the strong survive.
Rayn was very weak from the
months of testing but she hid it well. She finds the place a lot like her
old club the Din and gambles and skill-bets her way into enough money,
power and reputation to keep safe.
She helps some, so others
start to come to her. Soon she is the godfather to the underdogs. Telling
the young gangs how to unite against the overlords and not each other.
Telling the weak and feeble how to find and market something they can do
that everyone needs. Being needed equals being safe. In the process she
makes her share of powerful friends and even more powerful enemies. She
wouldn’t have long before one of their attempts on her life finally succeeded.
Some favors she trades for
information, like that the prison shuttle only comes once a month. No one
goes up, only down. No escape. Except . . . once a year, one guarded maintenance
team does come down. Her one chance.
They’re coming now. Only
she had figured out when, only she had found out where. Six months she
had waited. She goes to a high crevasse just below the surface where she
has rigged and hidden a scanning scope strong enough to detect movement
above. She watches. But below her, is one who has been watching her all
along.
The shuttle tethers down
the team. Two minutes and they’ll be inside.
Suddenly, a sharp rock buzzes
past Rayn’s head. She looks down. Kindra.
Kindra yells up. "All right.
Let’s finish this."
Rayn jumps down. "Didn’t
know you were here. Nice reward. Worth it?"
Kindra smiles. "By the sky,
I’ve grown to hate you!"
"I don’t have time for this."
"I know. Motivation. Two
minutes. Get through me or you don’t get out alive."
Kindra flies at her. They
fight, kicking, jabbing, pulling hair. Both are fast. Rayn is better but
Kindra is healthier.
The fight goes on, Kindra
getting the better. The hatch starts to open. No time. With a last effort,
a flying kick to the chest knocks Kindra off and away. But not before the
first of the squad enters and sees them.
She had planned to jump the
last one quietly, slip into his suit, and sneak up. But now she has no
choice but to try and take them all. She flies at one, aiming for his head,
reaching for his weapon.
"Stop it’s me!" He takes
off his helmet. Rozar! She jumps into his arms. Kindra has disappeared.
"I thought you were dead!"
"Me, never."
They kiss, melting into each
other.
They spend a month together
traveling back on the stolen shuttle. The best month of her life. It had
taken all of them together, Noma, Meena, Myles, all her friends, to plan
this, all of their resources.
By the time they return to
Teran, Roz and Rayn know what must be done. He must make sure everyone
benefits from her forced gift of immortality. She must hide from the thousand
prices still on her head.
Rozar asks Myles to "take
care of her."
Myles, hating him, jealous,
but realizing they share the same love, "I don’t take orders from you.
But I will always take care of her."
And then Rayn and Rozar part.
Their last words:
Rayn, "You’ll be with me
till the day I die."
Roz, "You’ll be with me till
the end of time."
One hundred years later.
. . .
While Rayn was talking, the
coughing and trembling had gotten so bad that Lile had taken her back to
her bed in the convalescent home. But she continued talking, though each
word a strain.
"Myles and I left. We spent
some time together, roaming the planet and moons. Friends, companions,
but I could never open up to him or settle down in the way he wanted and
I never stopped thinking of Rozar. I saw him and the others from time to
time. Spent the rest trying to help people and frustrate any of Shi and
the Council’s ever-growing control."
"Please, that part I know,
they didn’t know you as Rayn but as the Defender, the Hawk, the Dove, Vengeance,
a dozen other names, a dozen other legends. You helped, defended, and protected
so many people in so many places. It’s a great story."
Rayn strokes the book. "A
hundred years. I guess I did have an adventure or two."
"Or a thousand." Lile smiles.
Rayn lies back, wheezing
out the words, trying to finish.
"And I saw everything change.
The TriSenate grown strong, though the old council, Tyran, and Shi still
pull their strings. The rebuilding, farming, bartering, starting over from
scratch. The re-migration from the colonies back home. Some lingering resentments
but one race -- no levels, just servicers and facilitators."
Her breath catches.
"Meena became a wealthy healer
and mentalist, no more gypsy life for her. Noma’s Dins for refugees spun
off that spiritual sect the Ultim. Didn’t see that coming, well . . . maybe.
She was always more heart and soul than brass. Krachi passed without us
ever. . . Kindra still a criminal, used my plan to later escape Howarth.
Came across her a couple more times, neither were pleasant. Myles’s still
an artist, his stuff still takes my breath away."
A hacking cough. Lile takes
her hand.
"And Rozar?"
"There wasn’t one day when
he wasn’t with me, even today. But we were both so busy, so incognito.
I heard rumors -- the Veripacs, undergrounders fighting to assure peace,
progress, and stability, sounded like him."
"Do you think he took the
Vita?"
"The drug? Everyone else
is."
"Myles wants you to."
"I know, just because he
did. That’s why I came here."
"Hiding out? To die naturally
and in peace? To take the easy way out and give up?!"
Lile is crying. Rayn is ebbing,
her voice fading.
"Giving up is never easy.
I’m not even sure if it would work on me since I’m its mother so to speak.
Besides I’m tired. I’ve got a lot of regrets, things I should’ve finished,
fought harder for. I don’t want any more regrets."
A figure walks in but Rayn
doesn’t see.
"Tomorrow there’ll be a new
day, a new world full of virtual immortals. It won’t be pretty like everyone
thinks, in fact."
Her glazing eyes turn to
the grassy fields outside. "It might destroy everything. And I don’t want
to see that. No more struggles, no more battles."
Lile, crying, "I’ll learn,
carry on, be just like you! This shouldn’t be the end of your story!"
"Don’t all stories end? .
. . Roz--" His name is on her lips as Arayna Zeeyél draws what she
believes will be her last breath.
Next Week - Episode 15: New
Day, New World
Could the Chronicle of Rayn
be winding down? Where do we go from here? Any suggestions?
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