The Medicean
'Are you sure this is the right place?'
'I've never been more sure'.
'It doesn't look right, there's just rocks, dirt, black space and more rocks.'
'Keep looking, all signs point to this planet. Make sure your compass hasn't faulted, look toward the north of the planet's moon it looks like an ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic tablet, but the material should be grey stone.'
'Dammit Archi, there's nothing.'
'It's there. Just have faith.'
Hours passed, the faint ruminants of clouds coated over head, Aphelion passed through ruins of shops, homes, and museums. All desolate.
As hope was lost, frail soil loosened up over the earth below Aphelion's feet, her footing failing, pushing her body several feet below the ground. Gaining her balance, she could see it. An enormous iron door, with a mass iron wheel.
'Archi, by God, I think we might have found it.'
The rust waded with each turn of the wheel, old ghosts were felt as it hinged opened. Through the darkness it could be seen. An old grey stone that looked no different to an Egyptian tablet. Printed on the stone, there was no Ra, no Horus, no Osiris. No familiar gods at all. Only lines that passed through lines, complicated messages that weren't meant for a human mind.
Archimedes touched the symbols, his fingers digging into the crevasses as if to pull out its mysteries.
'I've never seen anything like this.'
'So you know what it is?' Aphelion watched as Archimedes blew the dust, revealing more unknown symbols to light.
'No idea. Like my women. The less I know about them, the better.'
'And it'll reach a good price?'
'An item this rare, sure. We should make haste. It's the problem with these damn terra-formed planets. Weather's unpredictable as sin and when it rains it's hell on earth.'
'Don't you mean.... wait, what is this planet called?'
'It's called. Dodge. And we need to get out of it.'
'Funny. I'll have to put that in the book of gags.'
'Put it where you want but we still need to get out of here.'
The thinning clouds gathered together quickly. The sky purpled, blued and yellowed, the storm cultivated soft and temporary life on its barren planes.
'Think this planet will ever have life on it again?'
'Depends what you call life. Do I think grass might grow, maybe. Will weeds still sprout? Probably. Will there be intellectual life forms walking around where those ruins are? We both know it's too late for that.' Aphelion lowered her voice on her last words. For a moment she felt she was being disrespectful to the people who lived here long ago.
'It's funny Aph, you think with so much abandoned land about someone back on Earth might want to utilize some of this land, make some use of it y'know? But instead they pile up on all the shit, complain there's not enough space, people all cramp up on the popular cities and no one gives two shits about the places they neglect. Then there's suffering, carnage, terrorism because people are too pig headed to articulate themselves properly. It really grinds me up.'
'Maybe, Archi, just maybe you're less upset about people abandoning planets than you are about the planet you already live on? Whole lot of points you made there, buddy.'
'I don't fucking care anymore.
'There, you see it. That abandoned encampment 400 feet west of us. We can camp there for the night. Ain't no way we're surviving this storm tonight. Not in the open.'
'It's pretty beautiful though don't you reckon? It's flares and it flickers and dances like that. Like it's trying to communicate with us in dance or something.'
'Yeah it's telling us to go to fucking sleep.'
'Alright, alright. Let's get some shut eye. I might stay up for a while, not often you get to look at something like this. You got that sacred tablet safe?'
'Damn right I do. Right here.' Archimedes pulls out a satchel, the initials A M are engraved, there was always something about Archimedes Aphelion could never but her finger on. She was convinced his family came from royalty. You don't get to survive this long in deep space without some money connections, Aphelion of all people knew that too well.
The fire in the centre of their camp burned its last embers and Archimedes woke up. It was the sudden chill. Looking at Aphelion's empty bedding he got out of bed. If he let her stay up all night looking at that storm she would die a death.
In listening distance she stood within the storm, tablet in hand. She was muttering something as bolts of lightning surrounded her body.
'Fuck damn Aph, what in God's name?'
Aphelion stood, her eyes connecting with Archimedes blankly. Possessed.
Archimedes ran to drag her in but was blown back by a force of wind. He looked on as Aphelion's features changed. Her mousey brown hair becoming an italic blonde, her figure more slender, her face went from rosy to porcelain. Her brown eyes shifted and became emerald blue right before him.
Archimedes was speechless. Like a hand of God he could feel himself lose control of his own body, subconsciously he strolled back to the camp, tucking himself in. The last of the fire burning into black.
The morning came through the silence of the dying storm. Archimedes looked over and she was there; the same old mousy brown haired girl he'd left by the storm. Archimedes, locked in his routine, gathered the bedding, put away the crockery, and stored in all within an air tight bag. Traces of parasitic bugs had been here last night, the black slime trails of the fire were sure giveaways. Bastards likely bit him, fucking hallucinations, he thought.
'Hey Archi, who's gonna be our seller for this thing anyway? You got a buyer in mind yet?'
'Well you're the one who wanted to go for this thing so I guess you can be the one to find a buyer for it. I don't care either which way.'
'You ok? You don't seem your usually cranky self today? What's bitten ya?'
'Look, I wasn't going to say anything, but last night, I saw something weird. I saw you in the storm with that sacred tablet, and the storm shooting lightning around you and you were muttering, then I saw you change Aph, and I mean really change. You were someone different. I saw some bugs by the fire, I think they bit me but god damn, it felt real. I'm just shaken is all. Don't worry about it.'
'Hey, let's just keep moving and not worry about nightmares.'
Aphelion stared, she could see that Archimedes had aged dramatically. His eyes bloodshot, wrinkles had appeared by his eyes, more pronounced than they had ever been, grey hairs shot from his straggly beard, and the side of his head. She was sure he looked so much younger yesterday.
'Archi, what's the deal with you anyway? I know we've done a few of these pillages together now, but what gives? Where's the money from?'
'I come from a long line of douche bags and people so rich they swim in money. Let's just say they pay to keep my out of their hair. Where's yours from?'
'Doesn't exist. Money is just a thing we've created really. You can conjure it out of air if you really know how. Can work for something's, but for bigger things, well, that's why I'm here. Legitimate money buys legitimate things.'
Like all relics the planet had left clues of its people, of the life of the people and the history it had. The life it wanted to pass on to others. Hand carved sculptures from marble showed gods or men and women that looked like gods. There were paintings worn, that showed battles won, and victories that mighty generals were rewarded greatly for. A reoccurring side portrait of a face was plastered everywhere much like the pictures of the royal family in Thailand, or the government heads in North Korea, or a man on a cross or crucifix.
'Think any of this land is sacred?' Aphelion asked as she smashed a plate with her heel, the portrait snapping in two.
'Nah'.
'What are your Earth Plans?'
'The hell you talking about Aph?'
'Earth plans, plans for Earth. When we get back. You decided what you going to do yet?'
'Why should I think about that when I'm out in the reaches of space having the time of my life? Only plans I've got is to get my next pay check, be it Earth or relic land.'
'Think I'm going to buy a house. I've always wanted something to call my own.'
'Don't you own that that big whole ship that we rode on?'
'Rental.'
'Ah.
We should probably try scavenge whatever else we can while we're here. Who knows what will sell.'
'I think this broken plate could be worth something?'
'The one you broke with your foot just now?'
'Maybe.
'Let's look around here. Some of this could be made by a famous artist. You can never tell.'
'You can't Aph, you can't. I've got a better eye for it than you do.'
'I believe that correct term is called 'being a snob'.'
'Cultured, thanks. Now let's get some of this fucking shit loaded up before I freak the hell out again, agreed?'
Aphelion was unaware she had been carrying the satchel that had the embroidered A M, she had already forgotten what was inside. Her fingers touched the edges of the tablet, dust free with a touch of electricity. Before she could speak her neck had already snapped and realigned again, her breasts became smaller, yet they felt more youthful, perkier, and she could feel her fingers dislocate and crush. Blacking out from agony she could feel herself letting go.
'Why do you stay?'
'What in the fucking hell..... if I'm still dreaming I swear to Christ I'm never sleeping in a dodgy camp like that again.'
The blonde lady hovered over the ground, clenching Archimedes throat, tightening in, and through closed teeth ushered the words:
'Why do you stay?'
'Look lady, I was just leaving, if you just loosen your grip...'
The woman let her fingers loosen, revealing the bruises across Archimedes neck.
'I thought you would want to stay for me my king?'
'I think you've got the wrong man, I'm not royalty and that sure ain't your body.'
Winds blew from the ground, knocking dead sand from the earth, wild trees sprouted bringing with them vegetation, grass, life. In the blonde lady's eyes was a mousy haired woman suffocating in the presence of a deity. Archimedes looked on. Helpless.
'This land of my ancestors can be brought back to life again with thanks to your friend, I give you my thanks.'
'You can shove your thanks up your ass and give me back my friend if that's all the same lady.' Archimedes walked towards the lady only to be drawn back.
'I'm ever sorry. Your friend is now lost to the essence of time like this land once was, if you are lucky your friend may also be given a new lease of life like this land.
'You look hurt, I feel an explanation may be needed. I am, Margusa Medicean, an air to a once powerful and rich family here. As we settled in this land we saw how we aged much less rapidly than other planets, how skin stayed tight and our bodies did little to fail us. My father obsessed as he was with power sought to cultivate the planets essence and sell it back to its people. He succeeded in so much that he did cultivate the power, but in doing so he caused outrage, and with a riot of our people forming he contained the planets essence in a single vial. As the mob rushed through the palace my father forced me to drink the vial. Sour in taste, but immense in its power I became close to a god, for when the mob entered our home they not only lynched my father but I as well. It was when I crawled from my grave that the people began to listen to my word and allow me to rule over them. Alas, the planet was already perishing with thanks to my father. And it is with your friends sacrifice that I can now release this on to our world once more.'
'But my friend is dead. Don't you care!?'
'I am first and foremost queen of this land. Your friend is as good as gone.'
Archimedes looked in the eyes of the woman, they clouded over as he tried to stare. The emerald blue was slowly becoming a milky white.
'Then you're no better than your father. A murdered of one. You have no idea if you're scheme will even work. You're crazy. That's all you are. A crazy mass murdering nut job.'
Archimedes was thrown to the floor by gusts of wind. His back popping like the insides of a banana squeezed tightly.
'I beg you think twice before you make accusations of genocide.'
'I'll stay then. God damn, I'll stay, just give her back.'
'You care for her I see.'
'She has a future. I don't. Take me instead. Just leave her body and come in to mine. Just let her have her house, let her have her dreams.'
'It's too late for that I'm afraid. Your friend is gone. I will offer out of thanks for bringing my home back to me, you can stay, even be my king if you wish, or you can go and be whatever it is before you came here.'
Archimedes laid, back broken and defeated amongst the new grass. His grey hairs fading back to brown, his eyes losing wrinkle after wrinkle. Till eventually his body healed, his thirst quenched, and last his back mended.
'Come now my king.' Spoke the lady, Aphelion's features vanished into an Aryan blonde. The last traces of Aphelion gone completely.
Archimedes slowly walked backwards, away from the lady. Away from Aphelion. As he walked every miracle to cure his fatigue quickly came back to him, his grey hairs in bloom once more. In the near distance was Aphelion's ship that was beginning to be buried in vines of weeds and thorns. Jumping inside the ship Archimedes clenched a satchel with the initials A M. He looked inside.
Putting the satchel on Aphelion's chair Archimedes set a course for earth.
'Your own house eh, kid? Not a bad idea, not a bad idea at all.'
'It doesn't look right, there's just rocks, dirt, black space and more rocks.'
'Keep looking, all signs point to this planet. Make sure your compass hasn't faulted, look toward the north of the planet's moon it looks like an ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic tablet, but the material should be grey stone.'
'Dammit Archi, there's nothing.'
'It's there. Just have faith.'
Hours passed, the faint ruminants of clouds coated over head, Aphelion passed through ruins of shops, homes, and museums. All desolate.
As hope was lost, frail soil loosened up over the earth below Aphelion's feet, her footing failing, pushing her body several feet below the ground. Gaining her balance, she could see it. An enormous iron door, with a mass iron wheel.
'Archi, by God, I think we might have found it.'
The rust waded with each turn of the wheel, old ghosts were felt as it hinged opened. Through the darkness it could be seen. An old grey stone that looked no different to an Egyptian tablet. Printed on the stone, there was no Ra, no Horus, no Osiris. No familiar gods at all. Only lines that passed through lines, complicated messages that weren't meant for a human mind.
Archimedes touched the symbols, his fingers digging into the crevasses as if to pull out its mysteries.
'I've never seen anything like this.'
'So you know what it is?' Aphelion watched as Archimedes blew the dust, revealing more unknown symbols to light.
'No idea. Like my women. The less I know about them, the better.'
'And it'll reach a good price?'
'An item this rare, sure. We should make haste. It's the problem with these damn terra-formed planets. Weather's unpredictable as sin and when it rains it's hell on earth.'
'Don't you mean.... wait, what is this planet called?'
'It's called. Dodge. And we need to get out of it.'
'Funny. I'll have to put that in the book of gags.'
'Put it where you want but we still need to get out of here.'
The thinning clouds gathered together quickly. The sky purpled, blued and yellowed, the storm cultivated soft and temporary life on its barren planes.
'Think this planet will ever have life on it again?'
'Depends what you call life. Do I think grass might grow, maybe. Will weeds still sprout? Probably. Will there be intellectual life forms walking around where those ruins are? We both know it's too late for that.' Aphelion lowered her voice on her last words. For a moment she felt she was being disrespectful to the people who lived here long ago.
'It's funny Aph, you think with so much abandoned land about someone back on Earth might want to utilize some of this land, make some use of it y'know? But instead they pile up on all the shit, complain there's not enough space, people all cramp up on the popular cities and no one gives two shits about the places they neglect. Then there's suffering, carnage, terrorism because people are too pig headed to articulate themselves properly. It really grinds me up.'
'Maybe, Archi, just maybe you're less upset about people abandoning planets than you are about the planet you already live on? Whole lot of points you made there, buddy.'
'I don't fucking care anymore.
'There, you see it. That abandoned encampment 400 feet west of us. We can camp there for the night. Ain't no way we're surviving this storm tonight. Not in the open.'
'It's pretty beautiful though don't you reckon? It's flares and it flickers and dances like that. Like it's trying to communicate with us in dance or something.'
'Yeah it's telling us to go to fucking sleep.'
'Alright, alright. Let's get some shut eye. I might stay up for a while, not often you get to look at something like this. You got that sacred tablet safe?'
'Damn right I do. Right here.' Archimedes pulls out a satchel, the initials A M are engraved, there was always something about Archimedes Aphelion could never but her finger on. She was convinced his family came from royalty. You don't get to survive this long in deep space without some money connections, Aphelion of all people knew that too well.
The fire in the centre of their camp burned its last embers and Archimedes woke up. It was the sudden chill. Looking at Aphelion's empty bedding he got out of bed. If he let her stay up all night looking at that storm she would die a death.
In listening distance she stood within the storm, tablet in hand. She was muttering something as bolts of lightning surrounded her body.
'Fuck damn Aph, what in God's name?'
Aphelion stood, her eyes connecting with Archimedes blankly. Possessed.
Archimedes ran to drag her in but was blown back by a force of wind. He looked on as Aphelion's features changed. Her mousey brown hair becoming an italic blonde, her figure more slender, her face went from rosy to porcelain. Her brown eyes shifted and became emerald blue right before him.
Archimedes was speechless. Like a hand of God he could feel himself lose control of his own body, subconsciously he strolled back to the camp, tucking himself in. The last of the fire burning into black.
The morning came through the silence of the dying storm. Archimedes looked over and she was there; the same old mousy brown haired girl he'd left by the storm. Archimedes, locked in his routine, gathered the bedding, put away the crockery, and stored in all within an air tight bag. Traces of parasitic bugs had been here last night, the black slime trails of the fire were sure giveaways. Bastards likely bit him, fucking hallucinations, he thought.
'Hey Archi, who's gonna be our seller for this thing anyway? You got a buyer in mind yet?'
'Well you're the one who wanted to go for this thing so I guess you can be the one to find a buyer for it. I don't care either which way.'
'You ok? You don't seem your usually cranky self today? What's bitten ya?'
'Look, I wasn't going to say anything, but last night, I saw something weird. I saw you in the storm with that sacred tablet, and the storm shooting lightning around you and you were muttering, then I saw you change Aph, and I mean really change. You were someone different. I saw some bugs by the fire, I think they bit me but god damn, it felt real. I'm just shaken is all. Don't worry about it.'
'Hey, let's just keep moving and not worry about nightmares.'
Aphelion stared, she could see that Archimedes had aged dramatically. His eyes bloodshot, wrinkles had appeared by his eyes, more pronounced than they had ever been, grey hairs shot from his straggly beard, and the side of his head. She was sure he looked so much younger yesterday.
'Archi, what's the deal with you anyway? I know we've done a few of these pillages together now, but what gives? Where's the money from?'
'I come from a long line of douche bags and people so rich they swim in money. Let's just say they pay to keep my out of their hair. Where's yours from?'
'Doesn't exist. Money is just a thing we've created really. You can conjure it out of air if you really know how. Can work for something's, but for bigger things, well, that's why I'm here. Legitimate money buys legitimate things.'
Like all relics the planet had left clues of its people, of the life of the people and the history it had. The life it wanted to pass on to others. Hand carved sculptures from marble showed gods or men and women that looked like gods. There were paintings worn, that showed battles won, and victories that mighty generals were rewarded greatly for. A reoccurring side portrait of a face was plastered everywhere much like the pictures of the royal family in Thailand, or the government heads in North Korea, or a man on a cross or crucifix.
'Think any of this land is sacred?' Aphelion asked as she smashed a plate with her heel, the portrait snapping in two.
'Nah'.
'What are your Earth Plans?'
'The hell you talking about Aph?'
'Earth plans, plans for Earth. When we get back. You decided what you going to do yet?'
'Why should I think about that when I'm out in the reaches of space having the time of my life? Only plans I've got is to get my next pay check, be it Earth or relic land.'
'Think I'm going to buy a house. I've always wanted something to call my own.'
'Don't you own that that big whole ship that we rode on?'
'Rental.'
'Ah.
We should probably try scavenge whatever else we can while we're here. Who knows what will sell.'
'I think this broken plate could be worth something?'
'The one you broke with your foot just now?'
'Maybe.
'Let's look around here. Some of this could be made by a famous artist. You can never tell.'
'You can't Aph, you can't. I've got a better eye for it than you do.'
'I believe that correct term is called 'being a snob'.'
'Cultured, thanks. Now let's get some of this fucking shit loaded up before I freak the hell out again, agreed?'
Aphelion was unaware she had been carrying the satchel that had the embroidered A M, she had already forgotten what was inside. Her fingers touched the edges of the tablet, dust free with a touch of electricity. Before she could speak her neck had already snapped and realigned again, her breasts became smaller, yet they felt more youthful, perkier, and she could feel her fingers dislocate and crush. Blacking out from agony she could feel herself letting go.
'Why do you stay?'
'What in the fucking hell..... if I'm still dreaming I swear to Christ I'm never sleeping in a dodgy camp like that again.'
The blonde lady hovered over the ground, clenching Archimedes throat, tightening in, and through closed teeth ushered the words:
'Why do you stay?'
'Look lady, I was just leaving, if you just loosen your grip...'
The woman let her fingers loosen, revealing the bruises across Archimedes neck.
'I thought you would want to stay for me my king?'
'I think you've got the wrong man, I'm not royalty and that sure ain't your body.'
Winds blew from the ground, knocking dead sand from the earth, wild trees sprouted bringing with them vegetation, grass, life. In the blonde lady's eyes was a mousy haired woman suffocating in the presence of a deity. Archimedes looked on. Helpless.
'This land of my ancestors can be brought back to life again with thanks to your friend, I give you my thanks.'
'You can shove your thanks up your ass and give me back my friend if that's all the same lady.' Archimedes walked towards the lady only to be drawn back.
'I'm ever sorry. Your friend is now lost to the essence of time like this land once was, if you are lucky your friend may also be given a new lease of life like this land.
'You look hurt, I feel an explanation may be needed. I am, Margusa Medicean, an air to a once powerful and rich family here. As we settled in this land we saw how we aged much less rapidly than other planets, how skin stayed tight and our bodies did little to fail us. My father obsessed as he was with power sought to cultivate the planets essence and sell it back to its people. He succeeded in so much that he did cultivate the power, but in doing so he caused outrage, and with a riot of our people forming he contained the planets essence in a single vial. As the mob rushed through the palace my father forced me to drink the vial. Sour in taste, but immense in its power I became close to a god, for when the mob entered our home they not only lynched my father but I as well. It was when I crawled from my grave that the people began to listen to my word and allow me to rule over them. Alas, the planet was already perishing with thanks to my father. And it is with your friends sacrifice that I can now release this on to our world once more.'
'But my friend is dead. Don't you care!?'
'I am first and foremost queen of this land. Your friend is as good as gone.'
Archimedes looked in the eyes of the woman, they clouded over as he tried to stare. The emerald blue was slowly becoming a milky white.
'Then you're no better than your father. A murdered of one. You have no idea if you're scheme will even work. You're crazy. That's all you are. A crazy mass murdering nut job.'
Archimedes was thrown to the floor by gusts of wind. His back popping like the insides of a banana squeezed tightly.
'I beg you think twice before you make accusations of genocide.'
'I'll stay then. God damn, I'll stay, just give her back.'
'You care for her I see.'
'She has a future. I don't. Take me instead. Just leave her body and come in to mine. Just let her have her house, let her have her dreams.'
'It's too late for that I'm afraid. Your friend is gone. I will offer out of thanks for bringing my home back to me, you can stay, even be my king if you wish, or you can go and be whatever it is before you came here.'
Archimedes laid, back broken and defeated amongst the new grass. His grey hairs fading back to brown, his eyes losing wrinkle after wrinkle. Till eventually his body healed, his thirst quenched, and last his back mended.
'Come now my king.' Spoke the lady, Aphelion's features vanished into an Aryan blonde. The last traces of Aphelion gone completely.
Archimedes slowly walked backwards, away from the lady. Away from Aphelion. As he walked every miracle to cure his fatigue quickly came back to him, his grey hairs in bloom once more. In the near distance was Aphelion's ship that was beginning to be buried in vines of weeds and thorns. Jumping inside the ship Archimedes clenched a satchel with the initials A M. He looked inside.
Putting the satchel on Aphelion's chair Archimedes set a course for earth.
'Your own house eh, kid? Not a bad idea, not a bad idea at all.'
Comments
Post a Comment