Exodus chapter 2 - Call me Sky
Sky, Chronos and Skipper have a few introductions...
“ey…” A voice, muffled through the air flowed into his ears.
“…Hello?” He felt like he was floating through the space between.
“… if you… hear…” Several voices in the background. As he drifted on the edge of consciousness. “Can you… show us…”
His body felt like it was in the water. His hands could feel thousands of small sensations, but he couldn’t move. He tried to move but he couldn’t move.
“response…” The voice again, he felt something grab his hand and squeeze it.
Who could that be? Had he crashed while in physiotherapy? Was that Pipit?
“p…” he forced air out, he had to figure out where he was. He couldn’t remember how… how…
“Shut up all of you!” That voice. A man's voice. He was near.
“P…” he forced air again. Trying to get their attention. It could only be pipit, he must have taken a fall or the connection to FI’s internal network must have been impacted somehow.
He tried to move, tried to feel the currents around him. But his nerves were subdued. His body was… floating… in something. He tried to open his eyes. His vision was consumed with a gentle shade of green.
“Hey… Hey take it easy, I’m a friend.” A voice, not familiar but. Kind. Warm. Though his eyes didn’t see the man he turned his head Towards it. “You're safe here. You’re going to be okay.”
He felt so tired. So… Tired…. But the voice was clearer now. It rumbled across his hearing gently.
“Don’t try to move, the crash was pretty nasty.”
Crash? So he had fallen. Then why was… why didn’t he…
“C…” He tried in vain to speak. Mind spinning. Must have been quite the crash.
“Don’t try to move, or talk.” A new voice spoke, this one held an aura of authority he was unfamiliar with. Could have been… Crimson wave. He sometimes came to observe his rehabilitation…. “We are here to help.”
“Can we get the filter off his eyes, he seems more coherent.”
“Not until he can show us he’s not paralysed.” Paralysed?! How bad was the crash? He never flew that fast, he couldn’t fly that fast anymore! “Once we have that we can move him from suspension to one of the beds.” Suspension? Is that what this was?
Is that why everything felt weird? Was he being put into Cryo again? This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening! He had to get out! I won't be frozen again!
“Heart rates are spiking!”
“Kid I need you to calm down! If you can still hear me!” The voice, the one that gripped his hand. Tightened around his. He tried to grip back. Forcing all of his energy into that hand. “Yes. I know I know. You're going to be okay. But you need to relax!”
Something Pierced his skin, he could feel something warm flood his arm and spread throughout his body. It crawled and spread until it reached his eyes. Forcing them down.
“Hey. Can you open your eyes again for me?” He felt a hand on his cheek, cradling it as it raised his head.
These were not his friends…
“Fi? What does Fi mean?” The voice sounded the same one from before as his vision flickered in shades of green and blue. “Don’t close your eyes! Stay with me!”
An eruption of energy surged through his mind as she flew into conscious thought. “Master.” Her voice filtered through his mind as awareness filtered back into him. “You were severely injured. You crash landed on a terrestrial planet in the Farore cluster.” She paused. “I detect no ill intentions from those caring for you.”
“Are the reason you are alive, I estimate a 3% probability that they will turn on you at this time. I don’t have enough data to make any further assessment as of now.” Her presence echoed through him as she continued to investigate. “I can attain that you’ve been in a fading state for almost seven solar cycles. Green appears to be a primary colour of your current caregivers. I will search my databases to find more information on these men.”
Thanks, Fi. Do you think its safe for me to wake up?
“I believe so Master Celestial sphere.”
He bit back the mention of his given name, now wasn’t the time. He needed to figure out where he was. Forcing his eyes open revealed a blue ceiling with cyan lights adorning it. And a group of men. The closest, a tall man with gentle blue eyes was clad in a sleeveless green shirt of some kind. Dark lines adorned the fabric in a checkerboard pattern as he moved. He was speaking to a taller man, clad in armour from head to toe, blue lights littered its surface as he held his hands behind his back.
The closer of the two, a farmer if he had to guess. Spotted him from across the room and walked over with relative speed. “He’s awake again.”
“Is he coherent?” The armoured man turned. His eyes scanned the skyloftian.
“Im going to find out, if you give me a second.” He turned. “Hi. I’m Chronos, can you hear me, friend?”
The skyloftian felt himself blink slowly, trying to articulate thoughts into words was more difficult than it had sounded. The man turned back. “Do skyloftians understand galactic common?” The man paused and turned, there wasn’t an audible response but he turned back. “We are gonna take care of you, alright?”
Chronos, he’d said his name was Chronos. Like a clock? He radiated calm, tall ears flicking behind him as he turned to the other man. Something about him screamed Skyloftian but. He couldn’t be. He didn’t have wings. Maybe he too was wingless?
The other man was tall. Almost twice his height tall. He held an air about him which seemed so intimidating. His ears were pinned to his head and stuck backwards. “Hey.” The tall man turned away. Before pulling a small container out from his belt and pulling out a small tube from it. Handing it to Chronos. “I know you must feel confused right now. But we don’t want to hurt you.”
“That’s Skipper, he’s harmless.” Chronos smiled. “We found you in your ship. Closer to death's door than I've seen someone in a long while.” He looked down at the tube that had been handed to him. “You must be thirsty, its been a while since you’ve had something to drink.” He placed the tube near the foot of the bed before standing.
“I’m going to help you sit up okay?” Tapping away at some controls near the foot of the bed he felt it shift beneath him. Gripping slightly as he felt it shift. “Don’t be scared, its just going to raise you into a sitting position.”
“Chronos, I’m going to make sure we are on track, I’m going to send a message to Athena, and see if she can get us an audience with the council.” Skipper smiled as he gave a small wave. “She’s definitely going to want to hear about this development in this little excursion.”
“You got it. I'll stay here.” The sound of footsteps fading echoed through the metal hallways. Chronos sat beside him again, now in a more upright position in the bed. He took the tube again and offered it to him, still sealed. “Here, its nutrient water. Help get your strength up.” Chronos handed him the small vial, as a shimmering liquid shone inside. He looked at it for a moment before lifting it up to the light.
“Analysing…” She spoke with a small pause before continuing. “Yes master, this won't hurt you.”
“It appears to be a mixture of dihydrogen monoxide as well as…”
Its water. It's mineral water. With no hidden poisons.
“I understand if you don’t trust me yet.” Chronos looked away. “And it's alright if you can't speak. I wanted to let you know how we found you.”
He lifted the water to his lips, hesitantly drinking just a sip before lowering the tube. He didn’t really know what to make of this man. It was unusual for him to come across someone who he didn’t know. Skyloft was a tight-knit community. He knew everyone on his side of Bolt.
Chronos, to his credit shuffled his chair backward. Before standing, he moved across the room and grabbed a box from the opposing wall. “From what Skipper tells me, they were tracking your ship from the exit of your charge jump. Your ship sustained damage to one of the engines which is how you ended up here.” He moved towards him, sitting back in his chair before opening the box. “We got to your ship as soon as we could. Theres a bunch of damage to it but Skipper seems to know a guy. Skipper always knows a guy….” He pulled a piece of fabric from inside the box. A white cloth decorated with a blue bird. “We found you under some rubble. Your wings…”
He sat upright as he placed a hand to his back. Fear he turned around trying to get a better look at them but he couldn’t see them.
“Your wings were detached. But they seem mostly fine. We’ve got them in another room. Please try to relax. You’ve gone through a lot.”
Sky looked down at his hands. His eyes glanced across his torso as he traced the bandages with his hands.
“We found these in another room, they were badly burnt, especially this. but… we didn’t want to throw it without knowing what it was first.” He pulled a fabric from the box, the sailcloth that he’d been given…
Burn scars littered its surface turning its once white surface to charred remains. The coloured surfaces across the fabric remained mostly intact.
Maybe he could save those…
He felt his body deflate as he carded the fabric through his fingers. The older man remained silent. Allowing him to hold the fabric close to his chest for a moment.
“I’m sorry. It looks like it meant a lot to you.” Sky glanced over to Chronos, his eyes tracing the man's face, trying to find any sort of malice in his features. He couldn’t find any, apart from the symbol that encased one of his eyes and the paint across his face—marks like that, those that seemed embedded into the skin.
“Skipper will be back soon I’m sure.” Chronos looked to the door. “Then if you're feeling up to it. I can introduce you to my family. They’ve been quite eager to meet you. Hopefully, you’ll be feeling well enough to help us understand why you are on this side of the expanse. It’s been too long since we’ve seen Skyloftians here.”
What was that meant to mean?
He raised a hand to object. But Chronos placed a hand to his mouth. “Apologies, You might be a little young to know of the wars fought here.” He thought to himself, seemingly lost in thought for just a moment.
“Chronos, I got in contact with Athena… Ahh…” The door slid open and the Admiral entered the room, armour whirring as he looked down to the skyloftian. “It's good to see you lucid.” He smiled kindly towards him, before giving a little bow.
“Admiral Link of the 10th crystal core.” He walked over and extended a hand. A gesture of friendship extended… When it wasn’t taken, he pulled it back. Looked towards the skyloftian for a moment before turning to Chronos. “Has he spoken at all yet?”
“No,” Chronos said looking towards Skipper. “I’m not entirely sure if he understands me.”
“Skyloftians were able to adapt relatively quickly to our dialect when we first made contact with them in the war. According to Athena. But we are to give him some space. She wants to speak to you.”
“Yes. I’ll keep an eye on our friend here.”
Sky could feel the man’s gaze as he leant on the wall across the room.
“Master celestial sphere. The man ahead of you has a reputation across this side of the expanse. He will do what his superiors tell him too.”
Yes, but he might be one to befriend. He may be our means to aiding Bolt.
“I know the difference between one who doesn’t speak because they can't and one who doesn’t speak because they won't.” The admiral leant against the wall, pulling a piece of his scarf into his fingers. “I don’t know what to think of you skyloftian.”
“You turn up in a blaze of fire, crash land. We find out you're wingless, so might not actually be skyloftian or they’ve advanced so much further than we had first thought.” The man stood from the wall and approached. “So If you want me to trust you, I need to know some things.”
“I am hesitant to allow sensitive information to slip at this stage, master.”
“Now I know you’ve not spoken yet. And I’d be the first to say I wouldn’t trust two strangers who just started asking me questions off the bat.” He paused. Stopping at the foot of the bed to look at him. His eyes pierced into him as he could see through him. The longer he looked, the more uncomfortable he became. As he crouched back into the bed.
“You're not scaring him, are you Skipper?” Chronos smiled as he entered the room again. “Oh come on, you're more intimidating than you think you are, take a step back.”
“Did Athena want anything specific?”
“Yes, but it's for me to know.” Chronos looked towards the skyloftian before his eyes turned to the door. “She did say that, according to her expert, skyloftians don’t have names as such. More Titles. They apparently shortened the titles in the war to make it easier for us?”
“You’re a skyloftian there’s no doupt about that.” The admiral looked to the window of the ship with a smile. “But we’ve detected something different about you.”
“He might be aware of my presence, master. Take caution.”
Then the whole, these guys saved my life thing should be there.
“Hey? You with us?” Chronos looked to him sadly. He nodded his head, placing a hand to his other, cradling them in his lap.
“We wanted to know if you had something we could call you?”
“Do you have a Title?” Skipper asked, his eyes a little more gentle as he looked to Chronos to continue the conversation. He looked on intently, rubbing a forefinger across his thumb in a small circle.
“I would refrain from giving them your full title at this time.”
“How did you want us to address you? I don’t think calling you Kid the whole time is good for either of us.”
He got to choose how he was addressed.
After a long silence, he looked down, cradling the water in his hands.
“Sky…” He looked up. Eyes locked with Chronos.
