Chapter 108: Chapter 24: The Unescapable Fate
When Elmyra woke up all of a sudden, she is in a state of immediate alert again, as her brain lost all senses of time after all of the usage of the artifacts to get away from the ship. She felt the soft cushioning underneath her body and a soft blanket over her, everything is entirely physical and contrasts greatly to the Aquarian beds that most places now equip. However, seeing this is old Venus where the human civilization began its cosmic influence, it makes sense that a lot of the human ways were kept around.
Gripping the rough fabrics with her fingers, she can feel every single digit in her right hand inflamed and sore, though she still retained the movements in all of them. It seemed like something that will go away with a few days rest. She fought through the sore shoulders and looked down at her right hand to see the little mark remaining there.
She is now a so-called artifact user. That reality haven't quite settled in, as she has been in a constant state of fight or flight before, but now that she is thinking about it, it was actually incredibly weird that she were someone moved right next to the artifact as one of its energy pulses is wrecking havoc on the ship? It almost appeared that the artifact has a mind of its own, and have chosen Elmyra, though that would probably too eccentric of her to think about it that way.
Now that she is finally safe, or at least she hope since no one has kicked the door down and point a gun at her had for a few minutes.
She is actually loving the bit of down time right now, and she started doing some long and steady breathing drills that she has been using to calm down and relax as everything is still way too painful for her to actually be moving around. The room is dark, though she could clearly tell from the interior architecture that it is a normal concrete built building, most likely one built for civilian use. Perhaps she has stumbled into someone's back garden when she...
When she.....pulled the planet towards her? Was that even possible?
What a silly question to ask, after she basically cheated death multiple times. However, Elmyra know that infinite power simply doesn't come from nowhere, and whatever the artifact's actual powers are, it must have limits. Then, she realized what those limits are.
The limits are her. Her own physical and mental capabilities are what are limiting the artifact's output, and perhaps these aches and pains are the price of using the artifact, or at least they are subtle adaptations the body is creating for her to better use it next time. So what exactly are her powers?
Though she wanted to fall asleep again, the very act of thinking has her mind racing. So far, it appeared that she can manipulate objects's trajectory in space-time, meaning she can alter their positions at specific time points, and the difficulty of each manipulation is actually scaled and reflected in the amount of exertion that she had to put in. Like all artifacts, the inputs is scaled to one's physical capabilities to allow for easier control.
However, what she did at the end is nothing like manipulating simple objects. She also realized that she could move her body through the same sets of spacetime similarly to moving objects. All of the manipulations existed in that weird mind space, the Space of Uncertainty, where possibilities are displayed, and she is to choose whichever outcome to be the actual one that's going to happen.
There is a time limit in the Space of Uncertainty too, as she knew with repeated usage, but that could be tied to her fatigue too. However, what she could do is more than manipulations, in a way, she could control fate.
She looked down onto her fingers and the dagger shaped marking that she has now. In hindsight, that's of the same make as Zero's markings, and did look like tattoos.
'The dagger of fate it is...' Elmyra named it as such dramatically. That's cool?
Thinking of all these got Elmyra really excited to explore what her artifact can do, and if she treats just like any other machine she has ever got her hands on, she will be able to understand it in no time. Reaching out to the table side switch and turning on the lights, Elmyra sat up on her bed and lets out a long breath. She felt a twinge of pain coming from her sides, and the freshly bandaged wound reminded her of the consequences of staying to long in the Space of Uncertainty.
Someone definitely saw her and fixed her up, Elmyra thought as she gently rubbed her hand on the bandage, she had to thank them properly. Standing up gingerly, she looked all around. The room is scarcely decorated, with some childish paintings being hung on the wall, and a few boxes are placed in the corner. There is nothing else in the room, and the door is the extreme old school physical type with hinges. These kind of things are really antics in this age, and most people went there whole lives never using one.
'Damn, do you push or pull here...' Elmyra walked right up to the door and had her hands on it, the thing didn't budge no matter which way she applied the force. She tried rattling it a little bit in case something is jammed up, but still there is nothing.
Just as she thought she is safe for now, she is locked in. She cursed underneath her breath at her underestimation of the level of danger she is in and how quickly she has relaxed just because there is a nicely heated room and some soft cushions. Taking half a step back, Elmyra reaches her right hand forwards and planned to use her artifact to get herself out of there.
That's when the entire door handle shifted to the side, and the door opens without a single hint of resistence. She looked behind the door and quickly put her glowing right hand behind her. A boy that looked her age but is much taller stood on the other side of the door, and he is hunched over due to the height of door frame.
'You are awake! Thank godness!' He gave her a big smile before turning away towards the end of the corridor and yelled, 'Ma! Pa! She is awake now!'
'Oh is she?' Ma's grizzly voice came through before the sound someone pacing in flip flops came through and a human female that is much shorter than the boy appeared from behind the door frame, 'Ah, you are good lookin', come over!' She gestured as she spun in her flip flops and flops her way out. The boy followed suit, finally able to straighten a little bit in the corridor.
Elmyra tried to keep everything together and held back the questions. She turned around to see a pair of flip flops by the bed, puts it on and followed them into what must have been the living room.
Then, a familiar odor rushed into her nostrils as she walked into the cosy little living room with lots of sofas, a fire place and some hologram projectors already set up playing relaxing music. Despite the atmosphere that reminded her of sets for old dramas, the smell is unmistakably the smells of a mixture of mined materials. She has been accustomed with this smell since the very first time she has her hands on mining equipment.
The tiniest of the particles in mines also gets attached to absolutely everything and is extremely hard to get rid of once it is stuck to somebody or something, and it gradually become associated with miners as a result. There are some harmful effects of it in regards to respiratory systems though a sort of medicinal cleansing every once in a while will get rid of it in human systems. If outside the body, the particles are harmless.
But still, what are the chances that she has fallen near a mining house hold.
'Sorry about the smell, lassie.' The dad turned around from the stove and gave her a big grin, 'but the mining business is the biggest business around.'
'No, I am thankful for all you have done, patching me up together.' Elmyra gave the entire family a bow of her head, 'I am lucky to have ended up here, plus I am actually quite versed in mining.'
'Really?' The boy asked curiously, 'why is that?'
'I was...I worked for a mining company for a long time, on the equipment and technology side.' Elmyra almost told them the entire truth, but decided to hold back in the last second, not because she thinks they might be employers of Infinity, but just to be safe. If she isn't technically dead, then she is technically still a prisoner of Infinity until she paid her dues for trespassing, which realistically shouldn't be a lot to begin with but things are different now that she has an artifact and also destroyed an entire ship.
Though no judge will believe that she could destroy a whole ship full of security personnel all by herself, and the very fact of her having something so powerful hidden away in her finger is simply way too ridiculous even in this cosmic age. That doesn't mean she is in the clear in the slightest however, and she is almost certain that she will have to deal with other artifact users from now on.
'Ah, then it must be fate that brought you to our farm. Did you remember what happened?' Pa said with a loud and earnest chuckle as he swiftly turns down the dial to the cooker without even looking at the dish, the boy immediatley covers the lid up for the dish to simmer without him asking.
'No.' Elmyra lied again, though that's something she doesn't really need to practice to be good at.
'We found you out in the fields all of a sudden with wounds all over your body, 'there had been a shuttle or cruiser accident in the orbit a bit earlier in the day and we thought you were from that, but you didn't have a parachute or a pod near by, so perhaps you were in some other disaster.'
Elmyra simply nodded blankly to the conclusion and thanked them once more for taking her in.
'I hope not to trouble you for too long, and I will be on my way promptly.'
'Oh no you could totally stay around!' The boy quickly said before anyone else could reply, and his mother continued, 'we don't get guests here, ever, so unless you are in a rush to get anywhere, please feel free to stay around and heal up!'
To be fair, Elmyra isn't exactly in a rush to get under the radar of Infinity and get captured again, so she gladly took up the offer. She just happened to awake during the dinner times, and the family have decided to share a meal under the setting Venus sun. With the press of a button, a hologram projection of a starry night on earth with a warm camp fire filled the entire room and completely changes the vibe. Then, the scenery changes to a beach with endless waves crashing ashore. The boy was toggling the settings and getting told off by Ma, but he ignored it.
'Here! Check this out!' He finally settled on one and lifted a finger triumphantly from the controller. They are now sitting on top of a skyscraper overlooking the single biggest city in old Earth, New York prime. It merges the previous few editions of the city and envelops both many kilometers in land and into the ocean. They are about two hundred meters in the air with the city lights and ships flying all around the buildings in preprogrammed sequences.
'Have you been to the capital before?' Elmyra asked the boy, 'it is like that but instead for the entire planet.'
The boy shook his head, and Pa opened his mouth to explain why the family is living on Venus. This family have moved away from a planet from nearer the galactic capital when the boy was small due to the living conditions, cost and the general lifestyle, and now they simply work as miners and farmers for the local settlers. It is a simple and rather relaxed life, and the boy is actually an adult who goes to the local Venus university. Despite the total digitization of education, the social aspect of university is still something many deemed valuable.
'I like the lights.' The boy, now Elmyra know as Dan, explained as he gestured towards the scenery all around him, 'like I am in a city of stars.'
Elmyra nodded understandably. Space is unreasonably empty once you are actually floating within it, and being aronud lights at least make people feel less alone than they actually are. The meal Pa cooked were an authentic mixed stew of locally grown vegetables, and it tastes distinctively handmade. Printed foods tended to have a uniform and blend texture where everything is almost too perfect, though most people's pallet nowadays has adapted to printed food. Elmyra demolished the meal and only realized how much she has been eating when Pa returned to the counter and brought over another pot.
'So.....Sorry!' Elmyra apologized as Ma and Dan laughed when she demolished her second bowl of stew with cooked whole grains, 'these are just too delicious!'
The meal ended for the family half an hour later, and Elmyra were the one that cleaned the pots and plates both in a eating sense and a washing sense. As she helped Pa bring everything towards the washing machines and looking out the windows onto their little farm and mines not too far away from the farm.
'There are always something crazy going on out there.' Pa said with a sentimental tone, 'that's what it takes to live in cities like that. But I do not miss it, you know? It would be nice to just settle down and relax for a while. Not worry about much, apart from the silly machines.'
'There is a malfunction going on in the farm?'
'Yeah, something's been acting up in the mines.' Pa said as the signs of annoyance crept up his face and manefested in his forehead wrinkles, 'we have been halting that for a week now and called for tech support. However, there has been no response yet.'
Elmyra froze. She would not have been in her very own position right now if not for something going on in the mines. She tried not to think about all of the pain and suffering that those things has caused her up to this point, but there is no hiding her true feelings. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath in and out, forcing her hands to stop shaking and started thinking of anything that will distract her from those thoughts. She thought she will be done with it here, but the mines appeared to be her inescapable fate.
'Are...are you okay?' Pa asked, noticing her strange reaction.
'Ah, yeah. I will be fine.' Elmyra bit into her lips and pulled herself out of the spiral of thoughts, 'I can take a look at it tomorrow! I am actually a student at the Galactic IST specializing in this.'
'And you are working for a company on the side?' Pa asked with an impressed smile on his face, 'that's good work there.'
The next day, Elmyra and the family went down into the mines and started examining the kind of malfunctioning that Pa was talking about. It was an extremely shallow mine with only a simple mining system in there, though the drill has been strangely losing power constantly for some reason or operating intermittently for some reason.
'So this is the mining system that we have been working with. We ordered it with the thought that it would be great, but...' As they walked into the small shed that is to be the control room of the mining system, Pa revealed the system they have been working with, and everything had a dark blue symbol of Infinity on it.
Is this a joke? Elmyra thought, though it would be incredibly silly to assume that there is anything suspicious beyond the obvious coincidence. Thankfully, nothing on her could be traced back to Infinity so the kind farmers didn't contact the company for her. Despite the obvious coincidence and dislike, Elmyra still forced herself to sit down on the seat and started working through the systems.
Strangely so, it appeared that everything has only been really crudely set up and optimized, though to Elmyra's pleasant surprise the systems is more than capable in managing this small mine in most of its history, and as she fluently worked through the history of the systems, she started spotting when the problems arose and began her adjustments.
There is an unchecked notification in the message center, and Elmyra took a look at it.
'The reparation team has been dispatched and will arrive in five days.'
And the message was received five days ago.
Elmyra swallowed hard and looked back to see if anyone else saw this message, Pa was outside talking to Dan, and Ma was working on the farms.
It's time to leave. Elmyra thought to herself, and stood up from her seat.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone