A Message for the King

“Again.”

Daesr ordered the anti-gravity chamber operators. Rae was instantly launched into the air and while she swooped around within the chamber’s glass walls, Daesr ordered for the gravity to be returned. Nimbly, she somersaulted before landing right on her feet. She flipped her curly bob and grinned triumphantly. Meanwhile, Daesr looked unsatisfied.

He turned to the operators. “Again.”

Rae’s mood fell. Clicking a button on her golden wristband, she seethed into its microphone, “What do you mean “again”? I was brilliant this time. I was-”

“No, you weren't.” he said sagely, “Again.”

“I’ve prepared for the trip all my life; I’m ready, lieutenant!” Rae pleaded.

Daesr adjusted his white suede coat. “That’s enough, Rae-”

“No!” Rae banged her tan fists against a wall. Nearby operators, in their gold suede jackets and thickly kohled eyes, were alarmed. “I’m ready! Why don’t you believe me? You’ve never believed in me like the captain did-”

“And look what happened to her!” Daesr snapped. “You remember, don’t you? God knows everyone in this Resistance still talks about it. She went on the trip before she was ready and ended up erased from existence. I told her she couldn’t do it yet; the cause is urgent but she was...important to me. But she didn’t listen, she was always fearless and...” Grief overcame him.

Rae regretted bringing her up. She always suspected he had feelings for the captain (it was hinted by him refusing being called captain even when he took her position after her passing).

He recollected himself. “Look, you were chosen to be the Traveller as you’re in the top ten most skilled members of this Resistance. But time travel is no joke; I couldn’t bear a repeat of what happened. When the time comes for you to wear that locket and save us all by stopping the incident that started this whole wintery nightmare in the first place, you need to be more than ready for the trip,”

The ‘wintery nightmare’ he was referring to was The Blizzard; a man-made never-ending winter ordered by the mad Emperor of Earth. It was already the year 2181 and numerous generations had yet to feel the warmth of a sunny blue sky. And it was all due to the long-ruling Emperor’s selfish decree to keep the Earth cold all year round while his people helplessly froze to death. It was why the secret Resistance was formed in the first place. They were dedicated to giving the silent a voice and now they finally knew what happened to the Emperor that made him the way he was, they planned to pull off their greatest feat yet (with the help of the time traveling locket specially designed by the captain herself); to stop it from happening.

“So until then…” Daesr turned to an operator with a pink mohawk. “Again!”

Sighing, Rae let unassailable weightlessness overcome her limbs as she levitated right off the floor of the chamber.

Later that night, sleepless, she lay on her bunk bed. Sometimes she felt so alone and pointless.

“Why can’t he believe in me? I’m ready, I know I am-” she muttered to herself.

Someone snickered. She already knew the culprit; her unbearable cyborg roommate.

“What’s so funny, Fau?”

Fau snickered again. “Oh nothing...just you thinking you can actually do it,”

Heating up, Rae hopped down from her bed with a flourish. She found Fau with a smirk on her scarred face and itched to smack it right off. “Well I can, Fau. So shut up and chill with the jealousy, okay?”

“Me? Jealous of you?” she laughed aloofly, “You kill me!”

“Yeah, you are. Cause they chose me out of us ten most skilled members to be the Traveller and not you,”

Fau glowered. “Listen bitch, I don’t give a flying fuck that they chose you. They can train you forever like the lab rat you are, but I know you’ll still fail. Everyone at the Resistance does,”

Rae’s chest tightened. “You’re lying; they don’t. You don’t know that I’ll fail-”

Fau arched a brow, twirling her green dreads, “You’re really that dumb, huh? Literally everyone else but you at the Resistance knows that using that locket is a suicide. We celebrated when they chose you instead of one of us...you get to die like the captain did and we get to keep our lives,” Fau sighed sweetly. “And that, is how we know you’ll fail; you’ll get erased from existence before you even reach the destination,”

Rae was speechless; familiar self doubt crept in like a parasite.

And suddenly, it happened; there was a loud bang. It was so colossal, it knocked Rae off her feet. Fau jolted in shock as a shrieking siren followed soon after.

“What the fuck-”

“Is happening?” Rae regained her voice.

They got their answer as a hologram of Daesr appeared in their room to make a mass announcement. “My dear brethren of the Resistance, both our hideout and our plan have been compromised. The mad Emperor’s ‘Justice’ Bureau have penetrated our defenses and are fast approaching to end everything we’ve worked for. I will not force you to risk your lives fighting them off, so you may go to the Escape Shuttle below at Base Zero immediately, so some other Resistance heads may take you all to safety. But if you will defend the cause to the last breath, your sacrifice is highly treasured as you stay behind. This may be the last time you see me; so farewell and know the fight lives on.”

Rae could already hear a stampede of frantic Resistance members outside her door. She scowled. “They’re not even going to stay to help fight the Bureau off? Some people are weak charlatans,’

At the corner of her eye, she caught Fau getting off her bed and storming to their closet. “What? Wanna pack your things and run off too?”

“Actually, genius,” Fau emerged in a gold suede jacket with a laser gun, “I’m staying.”

Rae ogled as Fau walked to the door. “Don’t ever fucking doubt my dedication to the cause.”

With that, she slammed the door behind her.

Rae grimaced in disbelief. “All that waiting...I trained my whole life, and for what? The Emperor to take away our hope once again,”

Then something came over her; she refused to backdown. There on her knees, Rae realized what she had to do. She had to fulfill her only purpose. Screw what the lieutenant said about her not being ready and screw the Resistance for not believing in her. It was now or never.

Armed with a laser gun and rushing out, she was caught in the stampede. Urgent cries were louder out in the hallway and Rae struggled to get past the sea of charlatans. Knowing the hover lift would have heavy traffic and recalling the locket’s storage in the training base near the laundry quarters, she jumped into a nearby laundry chute.

Plummeting into a laundry basin, she resurfaced a bit disoriented but still determined. Running down an abandoned hall, the red alarm light above her flickered and the siren was still deafening. Halting, her eyes widened as she spotted familiar purple-cloaked figures.

“The Justice Bureau,” Her heart stopped.

Spotting her in return, they greeted her with blasts from their laser guns. Expertly dodging each attack, she flawlessly reciprocated with her own. Her blast shot through one’s skull in a perfect line and he slumped. The other two kept shooting. Rae retreated from their advances, racing around a corner to the training base.

“Shit, shit, shit!” she panted.

She arrived at her destination and let the base’s security scan her eye before letting her in. Just before one laser hit her, the door slid shut. However, she was alarmed to find Daesr already in there. In his fist, he was grasping the locket; a golden heart-shaped contraption.

“Lieutenant, what are you-”

“Like I said; I won’t force any of you to risk your lives. I still don’t think you’re ready and I can’t risk you dying for nothing. So if anyone should do this, as the captain, it should-”

Rae shook her head adamantly. “No; it’s my only purpose, okay? I trained my entire life for this! Why do you all make me feel so alone and pointless? Why can’t any of you believe in me?”

Daesr was shocked. He spoke softly, “Rae...I didn’t realize you felt that way. I just trained you so hard cause I wanted you to be ready. I didn’t know-”

Rae glared. “Well, whatever! Cause you all trained me, and now I am ready. So give me that stupid locket,”

Daesr regained his sternness. “No, I will do it. Go to the Escape Shuttle while you still can-”

He was interrupted by the sound of a laser gun outside shooting repeatedly. “They’re here already? I have to-”

Rae skillfully snatched the locket from him and backed away.

“Rae, no-” he whipped around to her.

She flicked open the locket and set its clock’s time as she’d been taught to repeatedly. “Goodbye, lieutenant.” She clapped it shut.

And everything went blank.

Before the mad Emperor earned his title by unleashing The Blizzard, before he crowned himself Emperor, before he elongated his rule by loading his consciousness into a computer, before he won the people over to be inaugurated as the President of Earth, before he became a Politics major at a lowly college, before he decided to give himself a purpose since no one else would, he was but a homeless preadolescent. Abandoned by his unloving parents, he was, to every pedestrian, yet another filthy vagrant to pay no mind.

In the summer of 2096, he’d discreetly stolen a popsicle at a park. Pleased with himself, he tucked it into his pocket and sat on a bench. Eyeing some gleeful families all walking around or picnicking together, once again, he felt pointless. Alone.

“Can I sit here?”

He turned to the voice and nodded, so Rae sat. “Nice weather today. It’s got everyone so happy.” she grinned, tucking her heart shaped locket away. “That looks fun, huh?”

“What looks fun?”

“Belonging.”

He nodded. Then he scowled, “I don’t care if they’re happy. They have fun in “nice weather” to ignore people like me. They don’t care; I’m not important enough.” he looked at the bright blue sky and glared. “I wonder what’ll happen if someone finally took it all away? That person won’t be so easy to ignore, would they?”

Rae touched his shoulder and he flinched. “Believe it or not, I get you.”

“No you don’t, you’re one of them,” he shrugged her off.

“I never felt like it though.”

He turned to her curiously. She sighed and smiled sadly at him, “You want to feel less pointless and alone, right?”

He nodded earnestly. Rae shrugged. “Finding a purpose by making others miserable will only make you even more alone. And when you feel alone, it gets even worse from there. Trust me.”

He scrunched up his eyebrows in thought, absorbing her words. Finally, he gave a small smile. “You may be one of the few people I don’t totally hate.”

“Wow, what an honor!” she chuckled, then she glanced at his pocket. “Also, you might wanna eat that popsicle before it melts. It’s hot and it can’t be winter all year round, you know?”

His eyes widened in shock.