Short Story: Recalling the Light

 Recalling the Light

Have you ever felt the coldness of failure? I bet you haven’t really because failing, again and again, is like being jabbed many times, but you have to stay awake. I was standing like meek prey before falling into the predator’s jaws. A huge building shaped like whipped cream was in front of me, and there was an hourglass emblem at the centre of it. 

"Cronus," I murmured. My body trembled slightly at this name.

Cronus… The beginning of our nightmares, the whisperer of our doom. Everything began when he deceived my nation in his campaigns. Just like many other politicians, he swore to bring a brighter future to our country. He looked very sincere at first; however, this changed once he won the elections. My country had enough problems already, and he made us regretful about our choice.

In the 25th century, oil and gas reserves were considered nothing you know? We use better, cheaper energy. Our minds. Yes, our thought powers. We surf on imagi-net rather than your boring Internet. Imagi-net lets us construct everything, communicate and control our dreams with mental powers. But, we paid for this too. Cronus altered this beautiful world of dreams and memories into a piece of hell. Little by little, he prohibited anything about it, and no one could stop him.

How could they? He arrested people who opposed him, sent them to either cyberization camps or deleted their memories progressively. They turned into half-robots that forget their humanity or mindless puppets of him. Many of the population are in the same condition; however, our hopes haven’t faded out yet. There are warriors still fighting against him. The Hyacinths and my group Rosebuds.

A flash from a laser gun swept my shivering away. I threw some of my rose seeds at them. These metallic roses immediately grew and captured many of Cronus’s minions. The human slaves were inside a chamber that was created by the flowers. They gave enormous electricity waves to the robots. Their pieces sprawled everywhere.

I smirked and said an almost audible ‘Yes.’ the first stage of the plan was going successfully. Just a few left to go.

* * *

I was on the second floor. There were more slave guardians than on the first floor. I checked my little armoury to get a weapon. This time I chose my classic leaf arrows. My mechanic arm made a squeaking noise without my realisation. I was surrounded by the guards.

I threw my arrows, but they were attacking me with more powerful guns. I also opened my shield; their laser bullets were almost piercing it. I ran from one place to another, trying to save myself. However, my efforts could have been more useful. They broke my shield, and a laser wounded my mechanic arm. I could only shout out my pain quietly.

Then, I fell to my knees, waiting to be caught. The freezing breath of failure was on my neck. I was lying almost pathetically; I blinked slowly and began to think about what clenched my heart the most.

* * *

A tear flowed to my now metallic cheek and hurt me more. I cleaned it away and straightened it up. It wasn’t the moment of whining about my past. I had to save him.

I took a seed from my bag and tossed it to the biggest robot. It boomed with a thunderbolt. I used my arrows, but this time they hit the bull’s eye. I didn’t expect any second and ran. They were already chasing me, and I sensed their sounds. I was getting closer so were they.

My left mechanic leg was pulled by something strong. Moving was impossible and it seemed my end was nearer than the moon to the Earth. I proceeded to struggle to save myself. However, it was in vain, so, I gave up.

All of a sudden, I saw a laser ray. I wouldn’t forget that pink colour even though I was dead! It was Ozlem. Oh, my dear robot friend… She had arrived. I thanked God and exhaled a sigh of relief. Ozlem succeeded in rescuing me from this magnet; I instantly hugged her tiny body, rubbing my face against hers.

“Thank God you’re here Ozlem!”

“You should have been more careful! We have no chance to fail.”

“I know. Sorry,” I said, scratching my jawline.

“It’s fine. Now, let’s move!” She replied.

We inactivated the rest of the guardians individually and headed to the third floor. Milena and Asha’s forces came after us. Asha and Milena were behind them. They only did our special salutation.

I got their sign. Ozlem and I met with another band of guardians. But, our team began to fight instead of us. As a goodbye gift, I left another seed for them. While we were going to the fourth floor, some other guardians encircled us. The rest of our support took care of them.

On the fourth floor, there was a secret door according to our intelligence services. Ozlem scanned the area to get any results. She found a tunnel that went upwards and directed us there. Again our path was enclosed by the guardians. They alerted the ones on the fifth floor about our possible entrance.

Ozlem shut on her thorn laser and cut the robot who alerted into two. She battled with the rest. 

“Minna, you have to go there alone.”

“B-but why? I can’t leave you!”

“You must. Please, just go!”

“How am I supposed to complete this mission?”

“You are capable of that Minna! Everyone believes in you.”

I didn’t argue with my little mentor and went into the tunnel. It was so narrow that only a mouse could live there. The walls of it were made of a crystal or sort. I was spoiling its flawless surface with my metallic parts.

* * *

There I was. The database of memories was standing right in front of me. It was orb-shaped and was glimmering as the northern star. I could see the particles of each person’s memory; they were stuck inside bubbles and changing every second.

The guardians were waiting around the corner. I inhaled a deep breath, prepared my weapon and attacked. A robot freed an unfamiliar, nasty scent. It was something I’d never smelled. I closed my nostrils as soon as I could; the smell burnt my lungs like wildfire. My system changed it with a fresh, intense odour. It tasted like ginger mint.

I activated my barrier and rushed to them rapidly. There were only two or three robots in this new group of guardians. The brainwashed human slaves were more. They were crowded and made a flesh wall against mine. I aimed for two rose shurikens, and the seeds combined with one other. The chamber they did was the biggest one I ever saw.

Some of the humans got rid of my seeds. While I was arranging for another attack, I recognised a familiar face. Here was. The person I’d been searching for a long time, the person tearing up my satin soul by his images. Dallan, my precious Dallan… He gave me a shallow gaze, almost like a dead fish.

He shot laser balls at me with his gun, but they bounced from my defence. Although I seemed like there was nothing on me, I was using my secret, invisible barrier.

“Dallan! I called him. Dallan, it’s me, Minna!”

He didn’t respond and stared at me lifelessly.

I grabbed my supersonic bombs and dropped them to the ground. They created a cuddy (silent inside loud outside one). Nearly every single slave was under my control now, but Dallan was still shooting.

I frowned and got closer to him. His laser balls leapt from me and flashed as small fireworks. In the blink of an eye, I took his gun and held his arm. Then, I guided him beside the orb; we sat gingerly.

I studied him in more detail; his eyes had no spark of life in them. His skin was really dry and pale as chalk. There were stupid slavery machines of Cronus on his ears. His hair wasn’t as soft and silky as it used to be.

I clasped our left hands and begged.

“Please, Dallan, please say something!”

“Hail before Cronus, the ruler of Sentimentia!” he answered in a toneless voice.

“Oh, Dallan,” I slowly shook my head. “I hope this works.”

I put my right hand into the jelly-like orb and entered the database. Our organisation knew that any organic being could use this machine; however, you had to know the codes to go further. I searched my and Dallan’s names in the imagi-net. I was able to find our memory bubbles.

After that, I tried to decipher the codes with my code cracker. I continued this for a few minutes and broke them. Gently, I got our bubbles and snuggled to Dallan, adducted our bubbles. Gradually I closed my eyes and popped them.

I inhaled a mesmerising scent. The particles were starting to go into our brains. All of my memories passed right before my eyes like a movie. Step by step, I remembered everything. My childhood, dead parents, Asha, Milena, my first moments with Dallan… All of them were crystal clear.

I heard something shatter next to me. I saw that Dallan’s slavery machines broke apart. Oh life, spectacular life! It was returning to both of us now. I felt the warmth of my blood flowing through my body. My arms and legs weren’t icebergs anymore. Dallan’s body was glowing too. His cheeks got their sweet rosy tint, and his eyes gleamed as the stars.

“Minna!” he yelled, embracing me tightly. “My dearest Minna…”

He couldn’t proceed to speak. Before we knew it, tears were embroidering motifs on our cheeks. We caressed each other’s hair, and I buried myself in his chest. We tightened our grips more and more. I showered him with sweet kisses.

“Dallan, I-I missed you so much.”

“Me too Minna, me too,” he sighed. “Your non-existence was like a bottomless abyss.”

“I dreamed of this moment every single day,” I replied. “You were my ray of hope.”

We didn’t talk so much and stayed like this for a long time. There were many things to say or explain, but now words were insufficient.

Suddenly, Ozlem, Milena and Asha entered the room. They had big grins on their faces.

“It seems lovebirds are finally united again,” said Milena.

We both immediately separated and blushed intensely.

“Well, congratulations Minna and girls. Mission ‘Recalling the Light’ is achieved!” cheered Ozlem; and we all hugged each other.

Milena, Asha and I placed our cypher crackers inside the orb. It became overtaxed and began to make weird noises. A heavy eruption scattered around. Millions and millions of bubbles floated in a prismatic dance.