Aberrant: Infinite Earth - Fiction - Kaleidoscope

[The Traveler]

スペースキャスタウェイ - 教授

Space Castaway - The Professor

Episode 1: The Professor and the Schoolgirl

...Morning

Sarah wakes up from her sleep, she was having such an odd dream while she was deep in her slumber. One of travelling, across a sea of stars like an ancient mariner. Looking about in her dream she saw the strangest creatures and even stranger lands strewn like islands. Then a storm came and she was thrown overboard. Tossed and turned in the churning waters of the deep of the universe she could barely tread water. Just as she was about to go under for the last time, a hand reached out and said... "Wanna come with me?" And just as she grabbed on, there was a light... and she awoke.

"Sarah dear! Breakfast is ready! You'll be late for class!"

"Oh crap!"

Sarah was never one to be on time... not recently. She's been sleeping more and her dreams have been becoming stranger and stranger. This latest one wasn't as odd, but the ending was... resonating... with her subconscious.

She quickly runs down and grabs her breakfast off the table. "Eating at the train terminal again?" Her mother says as she sees Sarah dash down, barely getting into her school uniform. "Yeah. Was sort of sleeping deep I think we need a new alarm clock for me."

"You should just get to sleep when you should." Her mother chides as she gets a fried egg and ham sandwich quickly put together and handed off. "Have a good day and don't be late this time. I need you back here when you should. The detentions are making it hard for me to take care of your little brother!"

Sarah is out the door, and hauling for the train station.

"I got 10 minutes... if I can get to the station in time I can get in a little early for once!"

...1 hour ago

A phone rings in a small bedroom. Barely a glint of light hits some scattered books, illustrating the dusty nature of the accommodations. Poking up through some bedsheets is a hand, looking for the receiver.

"Huh... Hello..."

"Miss Hino. This is Principal Alanson. I look foreward to hearing good reviews on your first day here at the academy!"

"Oh I look foreward to that as well, sir!"

"We start classes in two hours, don't be late!"

The other side hangs up and the hand hangs up the reciever. A form rises within the bed sheets and a pink-haired head pokes out, as if she was wearing a cloak. Her glasses are on her face, misalligned. "I must have dozed off doing my research... time to keep up appearances!"

She gets up, still wearing her clothes from last night. A brown vest, white blouse with red tie, and a black skirt with brown mary-jane like shoes she slips on when she gets out of bed. She grabs a dark reddish brown coat froma hangar as she steps outside. It's definately morning... in a different Tokyo... This Tokyo is part of a Globe-Spanning British Empire... All won peacefully, and running more like a democracy... at least that's what she's seen. She takes a deep breath, taking in the clean air.

"Okay... time for my day job."

Sakurako is indeed playing a masquerade. As she walks by, she steps into a shed, smiling. "Time to get a couple more things." Inside is the insides of a space craft. Built by hands long gone and her own. She grabs what looks like an ID holder, a odd pen, and a couple extra books.

There. She says, adjusting her hair in a darkened view screen's reflection. "Now let's see how today will go..."

She heads over to a large hangar bay inside her ship and sits down on a scooter. It looks like a baby blue Vespa, with all the accompanying trim. She opens a bay door, seemingly to nothing but a blue field. When she starts the engine of her scooter, it hovers. With a grin she says "Alright... time to... EDUCATE..." She says with a hearty laugh as she zooms out of the cargo bay. The doors closing behind her as she pops out in reality inside an alleyway. The wheels land and she zips along to her new job.

...Current time

"Dammit... construction delay? Delayed 30 minutes minimum? What sort of half-rate company is this?" Sarah curses. She has a cortesy note to present, but with the demerits she already has and the vice principal warning her that if she's late for any reason, either don't bother showing up that day or take an automatic detention.

She walks out of Jinbocho station, about ready to punch one of the station attendants, but decides just to leave. So either skip school or face the music for no fault of my own... what sort of messed up gig is this?

A light, almost comical honk snaps her attention. "Miss? Need a lift?" Sakurako recognises the navy blue jumper and sailor collar of her school she's teaching. She pulls up to the curb and pulls a spare helmet from the seat. "Made sure I was prepared."

"Do I know you?"

"Yes, well... you will. I'm Sakurako Hino, the new Science Teacher at your academy."

"Ah. So I get you first hour."

"Right."

"Would you... mind letting me off easy if we're late?"

"I'm trying not to be late myself, so let's not dally."

After Sarah gets her helmet on, Sakurako hits the gas... for what it's worth, and weaves through traffic like she was more on a racing motorcycle than a scooter.

"What in the world are you doing?!?"

"I'm following the speed limit!"

"Perhaps for the Indy 500!"

Sarah holds on, her arms wrapped around Sakurako's waist as they skid into the School Parking Lot.

"You okay?"

"Y... Yes, Miss Hino."

"Good. Now, yes get to class."

After parking, Sakurako gets up and helps Sarah get her books out of the seat storage. Just as they are about to get their helmets off, Sakurako hears a light, unaudible to other ears, a beep and a light on her hud glasses.

She pulls out a orange packet from her purse. "Sarah... duck and cover!" She says, tossing the orange packet down. Moments later an explosion rocks the science lab. When Sarah dares look up, she sees Sakurako supporting an orange... ceiling?

"A microbe produced foam shelter... it produces oxygen for 1 hour and can withstand a railgun blast... Theoretically." She says. Then she pulls out a couple of bags with what look like small gas cartridges attached from her purse.

"Wa... what are those?"

"Rebreather hoods. They'll extend the air supply we got to 8 hours."

"Are you with the ministry? Sent to protect me?"

"What? No? I'm just an inventor."

"How did you get this equipment then?"

"I... borrowed it... it's from another universe... most of this I didn't borrow I was given it as a thank you... you think I'd borrow something that'd get used up?"

Sarah starts pounding on the wall. "You'll only use up the air faster. The shield wall is showing signs of stress... we're buried here." She says, pointing to random areas of white on the wall, where supports or bits of wall are contacting the dome. Sakurako then puts on her rebreather hood and tightens it.

"If I was goign to harm you... you think I would have all this equipment meant to save both our skins?"

"You know who I am, right?"

"Yes, you're crown princess Sarah Hideyoshi. Second in line to the Chrysanthemum throne and 4th to the throne of Brittania."

"How do you know all that?"

Sakurako points to the data feed on her glasses. "Now get your hood on, Your Majesty. Your rescue is on it's way."

"Section S no doubt." Sarah says putting her hood on.

"And Section T. I will be under arrest soon, I wager. Illegal alien... literally."

"I can put a good word in... you did save my life." Sarah says, her voice slightly changed by the hood's respirator.

Sakurako sits back. "I don't know... I wouldn't want to impose."

...Meanwhile

A woman overlooks the smoke rising from the explosion at the Academy, and reaches up to adjust her glasses.

"Casualties?" She says with a direct, almost emotionless tone. Her solid British accent suggests she is a transplant from London proper.

"5 students dead. The Princess is unaccounted for as well as the substitute." Her assistant says, a worm of a man, barely 5 and a half feet tall and a sniveling voice like a toad.

"Damn imprecise matter this work. I wouldn't want undue casualties, but it seems my hand being forced."

"Section S has sent it's Nippon Disaster Response Team 4 to the location. Strangely enough Section T has been sent..."

"WHAT?" The woman says slamming a folder to the table so hard that it would have broke if it was anything heavier. "I don't want those damn meddlers in my affairs. I will personally see to it that the substitute is in MY hands! She OWES me."

"Yes, Headmistress, as always." He says, stepping into the light, revealing his skinny frame bespoke with soda-bottle glasses and a japanese school uniform. "What should we do?"

"I cannot have Emperor Hideyoshi getting wind of this, or all my plans in this universe are hooped. This universe is right for the taking, and I NEED the ESS!"

"As you wish." He says, bowing before he leaves.

She sits in her chair and observes from the windows of a office she stole with stolen data, stolen money. Everything about her is a lie. A lie she is about to tell... when she sits on the throne. "The Emperor will learn to rue the name Mary Masters..." She says, her hand on the window, seeing the EMT helicopters on a fast vector to the site.

"...and The Professor will learn her place as well..."

[Mech]

John Fontenot was a busy nova. Still, he made the time for his pet project, the Explorer Corps. Six years separated the present from the evacuation of most of Earth’s nova population. Unlike one of the larger group, the Group founded by the Daedalus league, and largely supported and shepherded by his father Connor and Uncle Ayato, their group found a different star, with a nearly perfect planet for colonization. Baselines had been selected carefully over a decade to become a part of the mission, and many had expertise essential to the survival of a human colony.

He remembered that last day, as nukes rained down, the deadline having passed, watching his Father, one of the last first generation novas affiliated with the team, transform himself into a giant mecha, and defend the mission with his life. He vowed to be worthy of that sacrifice, and to that end had pushed hard to keep advancing. In six years the colony, named Acadia, could have easily rivaled many nations of Earth, due mostly to the foresight of the League, and the knowledge and skill of the Nova Engineering team, including Rianna Connelly, Ayato’s mother, who built the housing complexes, the massive farms, and the factories.

Everything was self sustaining, and the culture leaving a fairly minimal footprint upon the world. New Earth itself was rich in mineral wealth, and was nearly identical to Terra. The native flora and fauna was somewhat alien, but introduction of some terran species made it more like home. In six years the initial populations had exploded, the animals thriving in the new world. Disease was scant, and when it arose, nova innovation met it and threw it down mercilessly.

Today’s project for the corps was the Infinite Warp system. Designed by Sakura Hideyoshi, Ayato’s daughter, It was meant to be able to open a gateway to anywhere that existed. She’d worked hard on it, doing research on Her father’s powers, as well as those of her grandmother. He’d done his best to take care of her, being a year younger than him, and like him, she’d lost a parent in the Escape.

Somewhere along the line what had been an almost brother-sister relationship became something much more, and the two of them had been beside each other ever since. Aurora only smiled, remembering fondly how she and John’s father had met, and Ayato had seen fit to have “The Talk” with John almost as soon as he and Sakura had become a couple.

She didn’t want him to test the device, but his argument was sound. Everything he did every function he could serve was duplicated somewhere in the colony’s nova population, and he was easily among the most adaptable and capable of surviving wherever he landed if it malfunctioned.

The Pink haired young nova looked at him as he suited up. “I still wish it wasn’t you John…”

He kissed her nose and smiled. “I know, but we have to show everyone we’re willing to take risks the same as them.” “Still…”

“I trust the designer, I trust the tech. It will all go fine Sakura, trust me. Just a short hop and I’ll be back home.”

She pulled his head down and kissed him. “Hurry home John.”

He smiled as she backed away, and the final countdown began. As it reached Zero the gate opened, far different than any other anyone had seen, rippling, an almost liquid look to it. John reached out and found he couldn’t extricate himself. Then he was being sucked into it, and the lab was fading into the background. He could hear Sakura calling to him, then there was an explosion, then only white light.

Stars moved by, some like snails, other like brilliant streaks, the whole world color inverted. He fought with all he could, and then it felt like he hit a wall, moving beyond any speed he’d ever managed. The pain was unbearable, and worse he could feel the barricade tearing, then an instant of mind-scarring agony as reality shattered, allowing him to pass through, Emerging into a strange lunar orbit, his identity scoured from him, his mind a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces.

[The Traveler]

スペースキャスタウェイ - 教授

Space Castaway - The Professor

Episode 2: Jealous Eyes

...1 hour later

"Alright just move those beams over there! Get that off of that dome! IT's weakening it's integrity... Where's our teleporter?!?"

The Search and Rescue teams work frantically around the orange colored dome, starting to fracture before their eyes. underneath The Professor and Sarah look on knowing their options are limited.

"So... we're stuck aren't we?" Sarah says, looking at the ever brightening white cracks on the underside of the dome. "Well... it would seem that way. Thought I'd have bought us time, but I didn't know that the bacterial culture was near expiration."

"Wha... near expiration?" Sarah says, about to throttle The Professor, but just before it comes to blows, someone somehow jumps into the dome grabbing the two by the backs of their respective collars and in a flash they're outside in the fresh air. Sakurako quickly takes her rebreather hood off and starts puking. Sarah just looks on, astonished.

"What just happened?"

"We just fished both your butts from the fire, and not a moment too soon." A woman's voice is heard before the dome collapses under the weight of 20 tons of debris.

When Sakurako turns around she sees a woman in what looks like a long, blue, military coat with a antique sidarm on her hip. "Captain Jane Arrowway, Section T." She says with her hand outstretched. A brown leather bracer around her left wrist. "Didn't think you'd be so proactive."

Sakurako reads the strange woman before taking her hand. "Sakurako Hino. And I'm not from around here." Sarah just nods to the Captain after taking her rebreather off.

"I know. But quite frankly you're who I need."

"Explain."

"This... might not be a good place to discuss..."

A explosion once again rips the disaster area, as a group of teenage boys in school uniforms start tossing grenades into the disaster area.

"Get behind me, Sarah..." Sakurako says as the boys approach, creating casualties with every maneuver.

One steps foreward, as the mysterious woman who greeted Sakurako pulls out her pistol and levels it at the boy's head. "You're under arrest."

"No... you're dead." The boy says, firing off what looks like laser beams from his eyes though the woman's forehead.

"You don't want any more casualties, Sakurako... come with me. And take the Princess with you."

Sakurako thinks for a moment. A moment for someone like her is measured in a few scant nanoseconds. "No. Because I'm sure whoever is left here..." She says as she hears the click of the supposedly dead captain's pistol cocked behind the schoolboy's head. "...probably can hit at this range." The captain says completing Sakurako's sentence.

The boy holds his hands up in a universal signal of I'm not messing with this. Sakurako being a erudite individual, wagered that whatever happened to all of a sudden have the good captain back on her feet was something of Nova origin. She turns to the wayward boy...

"So, who sent you?"

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out."

"I would love to."

"What? Surely you can't be..." The captain interjects, only to be interrupted by Sakurako's hand.

"How about if I came to see your... handler."

"Only if the princess comes along."

"No."

Just then a canister lands in front of Sakurako and Sarah. In moments there is a flash of light and a sickly sweet smell. Followed by blackness...

...to be continued