Alexandra Tenoh stared out at the seemingly endless Martian desert. Red. The blasted color was the only one present in the landscape that she could see. Granted, there were different shades, but seeing the same color day after day tended to make matters monotonous.
The sand was littered with
what had always appeared to be the Martian rocks. It was a familiar scene. She’d seen similar
pictures in her science textbooks during her high school years.
But what the textbooks didn’t
show or tell was that those jagged rocks fit loosely together, forming
everything from walls to floors.
A wind came up, ruffling Alexandra’s dirty blond
hair. She fought the urge to shiver
slightly. The wind was her element. It had been a part of her for her entire
life, as well as her vaguely remembered past life.
But ever since she’d arrived on
Mars six months ago, Alexandra had discovered that the winds were different
here than on Earth. Here, the winds held
something that was almost alien to her.
Almost, but not completely.
Alexandra turned away from the desert scene. Michelle and Venessa had felt the same as she
did.
The expedition for the Mars Project had arrived on
the red planet and found something quite unexpected: the ruins of the Martian
capital from the Silver Millennium,
Venessa, eager to be able to begin major research on
something that dated back to before the Fall, had requested that she and her
team of fellow archeologists be allowed to make their camp inside the remains
of the once great city.
In the end, the entire expedition took up residence
in
And for the past six months,
the archeologists practically squealed like schoolchildren over every discovery
they made, the scientists had maintained the shield generator and worked to
make it permanent. They’d
contacted Serenity and Raye on Earth and informed them of the discovery of the
ruins. Both had agreed that the new
colony should be placed a small distance away from the
city, allowing the ruins to remain in silence as a tribute to those who had
died there.
What Alexandra hadn’t told
Serenity and Raye about were the feelings that she, Venessa, and Michelle had
been having. Alexandra had felt it in
the wind, Michelle could feel it through her precognitive abilities, and
Venessa through her own powers over death.
“Death had resided here,” she’d whispered one evening when the three had gone deeper
into the city in Scout form. “Spirits
long gone have guarded this city for millennia.
They tolerate us because…”
Venessa trailed off, her violet eyes glazing over as she stared deeper into the city, towards where the Pyramid of Piros had once stood, proudly, towering over the rest of the city that had surrounded it.
Alexandra turned to her
comrade and surrogate daughter. “What do
you mean, Saturn? Why do they tolerate
us?”
Venessa did not answer. She merely continued to gaze off into the
distance. Alexandra
was about to repeat herself when Michelle’s calming hand appeared on her
shoulder, restraining her.
She turned to her lover and
was surprised to discover two small tears slipping down her pale, smooth
cheeks.
“Leave her be, Uranus,”
Michelle had murmured, her blue-green eyes swimming with unshed tears. Tears she’d been
holding back ever since her own spotted memories of the Silver Millennium had
grown clearer. Tears she refused to let
out.
Alexandra looked down at
her, concern peeking out from behind her granite mask of professionalism. “Why?
I don’t understand.”
“Saturn is Death’s
avatar. It makes her almost the
equivalent of someone who is precognitive, like Sailor Mars or myself. We can both
feel the lingering horror and sorrow at what happened here so long ago. The deaths of the saPiros’
left a deep mark, especially here in the capital city where they resided most
often.”
Alexandra blinked, her mind
processing Michelle’s words. “But what
did she mean about them ‘tolerating’ us?”
If anything, Michelle’s eyes
grew brighter and her voice softer.
“Think about it. For over
twenty-five thousand years, no one amongst the realm of the living has stepped
foot inside these ruins. Only those that
are from the realm of Hades have walked this place. They put up with our intrusion only because
we know what it means to lose something of this magnitude.
We understand, as they do…”
Alexandra closed her eyes. She’d been having
her doubts about this entire mission.
Perhaps it was a mistake to re-colonize the other planets. Serenity certainly felt that way about the
Moon. She’d
been on the dead satellite only twice since the small colony had been set up.
And both times, she’d had
violent nightmares that had left her partially hysterical.
Point in fact, none of those who were from the
Silver Millennium went to the Moon if they could possibly avoid it.
Besides, it wasn’t like
anyone had time to go there lately,
anyway. With everything going on, such
as the big meeting with the United States Congress about the joint Martian
Colony Project, and the already scant contact with the people of Nemesis being
suspiciously scarce, no one was even thinking
about a ‘vacation’ to the Earth’s satellite.
She didn’t trust the
Nemisans. Didn’t
trust them as far as she could throw her favorite car, to be perfectly
blunt. And she
had a feeling that they had something to do with the Inner Guard’s point blank
refusal to leave Crystal Tokyo since the birth of Small Lady. Perhaps they even had to do with the
increasing sadness that was being exuded from Endymion
and Serenity. Especially Serenity.
Cassandra knew something as well, but neither she,
nor any of the others, were talking.
So, Alex had waited. Something was brewing in the distance. She could feel it, even in this alien
wind. It echoed with the words of the
desperate and the dying…
