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The Last Days
Part One: The Calling
Chapter 1
Ashuli
My name is Ash-moosesayananaeemp-uli, one of the last surviving Memorians.
As I rode The Rift, it's dazzling array of colors illuminating the interior of my ship, I thought of The Slaughter, still so fresh in my mind after all these centuries.
Centuries? Had it been centuries ago? I had been in The Rift too long. But if I returned to normal space, the Amnesian Trackers might find me, even if I was galaxies away.
Safety was in The Rift, where they could never find me. Yet, if I remained there, I could never fulfill my destiny as a Memorian. I could not carry out what my people had died for. And all would be wasted.
Sstzz! Sstzz! Sstzz!
One of the warning orbs flashed pink.
"Deactivate ship hull transparency." I commanded.
The Rift was instantly blocked out, leaving only the pink glow of the warning orb to light the inside of my ship. Which was all right, I could work in complete darkness if necessary.
Sstzz! Sstzz! Sstzz!
"What is the emergency?" I asked the ship, stroking the soothing textures of my Qwiipa hanging from a metallic chain around my neck.
~Life-flux detected in The Rift.~ it communicated in its genetic language, sending strings of artificial DNA codes up through my legs and into my mind, allowing me to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and a number of other sensation of exactly what it was the ship told me.
A life-flux was rare. It only happens when there is sufficient life energy to be partially transmitted into The Rift. Too much, though, and it would all collapse into z-space.
"Location?"
~Galaxy Eeemiichl-fi, Quadrant Chii, Sector Chii-chii-fa-miichl, System Zych-thric-fi, Planet Fa.~
"What is the power of life-flux?"
~Eeemiichl-toc.~
"Engage to source of life-flux."
Eeemiichl-toc? That was the most powerful of life-flux I had ever seen. My, the life it must contain!
~Engaging in Fi...Chii...Fa!~
The ship's teardrop shape stretched and elongated, so it could successfully pass back into normal space. By riding the border between normal space and z-space, called The Rift by my people, it is possible for instantaneous space travel. There, distance does not exist.
Instantly I was there, in orbit around the planet that was the source of the life-flux.
"Activate ship hull transparency." I commanded, again.
The sight outside was breathtaking: a beautiful blue globe, with spots of green land peeking out from swirls of white clouds. It possessed a single dead moon and, upon closer examination, hundreds of artificial satellites.
I flew around the planet, scanning the surface for both a topographical map and DNA approximate.
So much life was there, so many different species of creatures. There were at least a billion different DNA strands! Perhaps it would be here that I could finally complete my destiny, and start a new Pool of Memory.
Sstzz! Sstzz! Sstzz!
The warning orb pulsed blue this time.
"Nature of emergency?" I asked.
~Concealed spacecraft nearby.~ it answered.
"Visual."
The holographic displayer hummed and showed a three-dimensional picture of the craft.
I cringed back, grasping my Qwiipa for what little comfort it could provide me. The ship appeared to be an enlarged version of an Amnesian Tracker.
The center was a single, bloated sphere. The sphere was flatter on the bottom, and from the bottom hung a strange, mismatched series of tendrils. Around the sphere were three legs, bent up, then back down.
SSTZZ! SSTZZ! SSTZZ!
The warning orb now violently flashed red and purple. The ship did not need to explain that one. I had seen it too many times during The Slaughter.
A ship approached out from the dark side of the planet's moon. It was shaped like a battle-ax, with a triangular bridge area at the end of the "handle."
The ship began to charge its weapons.
(Based on the Scholastic book series by KA Applegate, Animorphs)
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