Past, Present, and In Between (fanfic)

[DukeElrond]

Written by Duke Elrond:


Warning: There is no use of weapons, no use of ill-mannered language, nor any physical fighting in this fanfic. Please be aware that if you are expecting such material to occur in this fanfic as entertainment, you run the risk of being terribly bored, falling asleep, and falling over from where you are sitting, which may result in head injury or other serious injuries, including, but not limited to, death. Do not continue reading if you feel you might react in such a way.

I take no responsibility for any damages this fanfic may cause to you personally or any of your property, including the growth of new eyeballs on your forehead, or spontaneous combustion, respectively.

If and only if you have acknowledged this warning to its fullest extent and wish to continue reading, I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to send me any comments you may or may not have.



A man sat quietly on the spacious white leather couch in the lengthy living room, where the sun was shining in brightly. His hair was just beginning to gray, short and straight. He wore a navy blue shirt with beige pants, everyday casual wear. A shiny silver watch decorated his left wrist. In the room where he sat, an angled bay of windows, which took up most of the wall space, allowed the sunlight to beam directly onto the plants situated beside them, behind the couch. A multitude of different species flourished in the ideal conditions that were provided for them. Outside the windows, palm trees and plants with colorful flowers were arranged in a row so that they could be seen from the inside as well as outside of the house.

As the man was reading an eNovel in the warmth of the sun, he was interrupted by a gentle grab and tugging on his arm. It was a small child dressed in pink pajamas. She looked up at him with sleepy brown eyes.

"Goo' morning grandpa." she said in a whisper as she stretched out her arms and smiled.

"Good morning!" he smiled, reaching over the armrest of the couch to pick her up and place her on his lap. "You woke up early today." He said as he kissed the top of her head.

"Where's grandma?"

"She woke up with me just a little while ago, she should be out soon."

She yawned a little and rubbed her eyes, while clinging onto her stuffed toy rappy, which was being partly sheltered by her long dark hair.

"Are your parents or brother and sister awake yet?"

"Notchet." She answered as she looked at the eNovel that he had placed on the glass coffee table. She reached out to grab it, but wasn't able to reach far enough - so, her grandfather leaned over to grasp it and gave it to her. "Whatcha reading?"

"This is the book your grandmother wrote when we still worked at the hunter's guild," he answered, continuing with emphasis, "waaay back before you were born."

She scanned the page for a word she could read aloud, and stopped at the title written on the top of the thin eNovel display: "...s...sk...ski...? sky?"

"That's right!" he said smiling. "Try the first, the one right next to it? U-n-f-o-r?"

She stared at it for a few seconds, muttering a syllable, until a noise outside the windows caught both of their attention. A wild rappy had come up to the bird feeder that was situated between the palm trees and the house. It was taking one of the monomates that were left there.

"Look!" he said to her, pointing out the window.

She got off her grandfathers lap to turn around and face the window. She smiled and yelled out, "An Al Rappy!"

The rappy heard her yell out, and popped up its head, holding a monomate in its beak. It walked over to the window, peeking in, and let out a meep. She smiled and laughed, reaching out for the bird, and it watched her curiously. Patting its wings a few times, it then started off back for the woods. Her eyes sparkled with excitement at what she had seen as it traveled off. For a few moments, even though the unusual sight had come and gone, they both stared out the window watching the trees sway in the gentle breeze, and a shuttle pod glide over the horizon, heading Northwest.

"Granpa?"

"Yes sweetie?"

"What was Ragol like when you were my age?"

He paused for a moment. Smiling, he put his arm around her. "Nobody knew there was a Ragol when I was your age."

"They didn't?"

"No." he replied. "Everybody still lived on the Homeworld."

The little girl was quiet for a moment, and then focused her big brown eyes on her grandfather. "Granpa, what's the Homeworld?"


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DukeElrond on 2003-05-22 14:05 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DukeElrond on 2003-05-26 11:21 ]</font>

[RubyEclipse]

Nice fic, but whatever program you are using to type it is using turning your ' into ?. I had this problem too at first, but you can change it by typing with WordPad or a few others, but I prefer WordPad. As far as the story goes, however, Keep it up!

Looking forward to the next installment,

--Ruby Eclipse

[DukeElrond]

* * *





A young boy, no more than the age of eight, burst through the oak front door of his home into the bright and shining glory of the outdoors. The sun was shining on this spring day: only a few small white puffy clouds decorated the sky. His mother stood by the door watching him fly into his bliss.

"Come back inside before it gets dark later!" she called out to him as he went off.

"I will." He called back.

Jogging down the sidewalk to the park, he kept thinking to himself that this day was as good as he imagined it would be. Summer had come and school was out. No more did he have to read through boring calculus textbooks, or study computational complexity. Now was the time for bright blue skies, water gun fights, playing at the park, listening to the birds, taking in the fresh air, and consuming his sheer freedom. It was going to be great!

But something changed abruptly, and quite unexpectedly at that very instant. As he was running, he noticed his right foot couldn’t lift off the sidewalk to take the next step. He began to topple. Looking downward, he noticed the toe of his shoe was tripping in a crack on the sidewalk. It was inevitable – he was completely powerless... WHAM! Wearing nothing but shorts, the child's weight burdened his knees with the initial impact. His knees burned as if the skin was being worn away. Next, his hands took the final impact to protect his face.

The fluffy clouds in the sky had slowly shifted, and cast a shadow down on the neighborhood street. He quickly repositioned himself in a squatting position to be able to lift his hands and knees off the ground. They were starched and bloody, aching and burning. His eyes began to tear, not so much for the pain, but how this seemingly perfect day had to come to a sudden stop because he wasn’t careful enough. Now he would have to limp all the way back home to get some help.

Still shocked, however, he stayed there for a moment and continued to inspect his wounds. Without having seen anyone nearby at first, he unexpectedly heard a voice call out, "Are you ok?" The voice wasn’t familiar, but not much in this neighbor was since he had just moved here with his parents a few days ago.

He looked up and saw a young girl who seemed to be no older than he. She had bright brown eyes and dark hair, and was walking over to him.



* * *



"Granma!" the little child jumped off her grandfather’s lap and ran to embrace her grandmother who just stepped into the living room.

"Good morning, sweetie!" She answered, as she lifted her grandchild in her arms. "You're up a little early, aren't you?"

"Granpa and I saw an Al Rappy!" she told her grandmother, with a wide smile on her face.

"Gasp! You did? Did it take one of your grandpa’s monomates?"

"Yep!"

"Well, that’s wonderful! Now that Al Rappy has had its food, what do you want grandpa and I to make you for breakfast this morning?" She asked the little girl, as she put her down on a chair in their kitchen table, which was open to the living room.

"I want a monomate, too!"

The little girl’s grandfather let out a chuckle from where he was sitting in the living room, and bent his head into his hands to hide it.

"Well... um... ok, you can have that I guess..." the little girl’s grandmother replied, laughing. "Isn’t there anything else you want to have, though?" She asked her as she rubbed her back.

"I dunno..."

"Let grandpa make you waffles."

He heard his cue, and got off the couch, still smiling.

"Ok." the little girl replied as her grandmother patted her back, and started taking dishes out of the cabinets.

A moment of silence continued, in which the child's grandfather walked into the kitchen and kissed her grandmother. The child had her toy rappy on the top of the table, playing with it as if it were searching for monomates, when she began to converse with her grandmother:

"Granma?"

"Yes dear?"

"What’s the Homeworld?"

Her grandmother put a plate down, and looked at her husband, he looking back at her.

[Sharkyland]

Nice story you got so far. A different approach, I must say.

[DukeElrond]

Thanks for the feedback... here's the next part:

* * *



Having looked up so fast, he caught direct eye contact with her, and saw that she seemed concerned. His shyness took the best of him, and not wanting anyone he didn't know to see him in this weakened state, he hid his face and tried to stop crying. "Yeah," he responded quickly. "I'm fine, it doesn't hurt."

"But you got all scratched up." She countered, having walked up to him more closely to be able to see his wounds in better detail.

"It's ok. I'm fine."

She tried to step closer to touch his knee, but he flinched backwards. "Don't touch, it hurts!"

She pulled back quickly, then tried to look at his hidden face get eye contact. "But, I thought you said it doesn't hurt."

"...it... it hurts a little."

"It's ok, I won't hurt you. My mommy showed me how to do this to my scratches. Watch." She replied cheerfully.

Reaching her hand out again to him, he pulled back a little, but not enough to get out of reach. She touched his knee, and upon doing so, a bright light emitted from her hand and his scratch. A soothing feeling came over him, and before he could blink, his scratches and the pain associated with them were gone.

He blinked, dumbfounded and relieved at the same time. "How? How did you do that?" he asked her.

"I told you, my mommy showed me how to do it. It's called Resta."

"A technique?"

"Yes."

"You're parents let you have TP?"

"Only a little for healing if I get hurt."

They both got back onto their feet. "Th... Thank you." The boy said as he lowered his head, still trying to clear the remaining tears from his eyes.

"You're welcome."

"Where did you come from? I didn't see you anywhere before I fell."

She pointed to a house that was right beside them, only a few doors from Duke's house. "I live here, and I saw you fall through my window. Do you live here, too?"

"Yeah... further down the street. We just moved here."

"Oh, you're the new people?"

"Yeah."

"Cool, what's your name?"

"I'm Duke... Duke Elrond, but my mom calls me Duke."

"Hi Duke, my name is Krayana, my parents call me Kray."

The cloud that had covered the sun suddenly passed, revealing the clear day again. Duke looked up for a moment, then looked at Kray.

"I was just going to the park, wanna come with me?" he offered with a smile.

"Ok, cool, lemme just ask my mom first."

She went back into her house for a few moments as Duke stood outside. Soon she came back out smiling, "Ok, my mom said I could go."

"Cool, ok, let's go."





* * *





"So, you see, it was just like it is now when you're grandfather and I were little kids." Krayana explained.

The child was silent for a moment as she looked at her grandmother, and then at her grandfather. Then she commented, "Grandpa, you must have been happy that grandma was there after you fell."

Duke smiled, "Yes, I was. I was also happy she was there when I fell off the swing set at the park a few hours later."

Krayana laughed.

"Grandma," the child began, "if the homeworld was the same as this one is now, how come you left?"



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DukeElrond on 2003-05-26 11:46 ]</font>

[DukeElrond]

* * *


"Personnel A-12-B075, report to boarding dock 2300!" a voice over the loud speaker called. "Personel A-12-B075, report to boarding dock 2300!" The terminal was terribly crowded, which demonstrated how efficient it was to board a month in advance to the departure. The crowds make it seem as though it would take as much as 2 months for all the civilians to board. With so many people flooded in one area, the walls constantly echoed the mess of human voices, mixing into incomprehension.
Duke and Kray sat together on a leather seat in a lounge area as they watched their parents check their tickets one more time. The day was hot, as usual, so they were both dressed lightly: Kray had denim shorts on with a blue t-shirt, and Duke was wearing beige shorts with an orange shirt. Duke's blue hair was kept back in a ponytail, and Kray's reddish brown hair was down straight.
"Uh? hmm? that's us?" Duke's father confirmed.
"This is odd..." Kray's father added, looking at his family's boarding passes. "We live on the same street, but we were assigned a different boarding dock..."
"Yes, especially since we're assigned the same community on the ship, you'd think we would be on the same dock..." Duke's mother added.
"Come on, Duke." Duke's father motioned his hand for his son to follow.
Duke looked at Kray, who looked back at him, and then he looked back to his father. "Dad, can I stay here with Kray?"
"Uh..." Duke's father answered looking at his wife.
Duke's mom looked at Kray's parents. "It's fine with us." Kray's parents answered.
"Ok..." Duke's father reached into his pocket, pulling out Duke's boarding pass and handing it to Kray's father. "I hope it doesn't take you guys much longer to get on."
"I don't think it will."
"Well, we'll see you soon." Duke's parents picked up their things, kissed their son, and walked off for the boarding dock.
"Duke, Kray, are you guys thirsty or want a snack?" Kray's mother asked.
"I could use a drink." Kray answered.
"Ok." Duke agreed.
"Here..." Kray's mom handed her some meseta. "Go with Duke to the eatery and get some drinks."
"Thanks."
Duke and Kray got up from their chair and walked off. Beyond the lounge, much of the terminal was constructed of glass walls with pillars and a framework holding it together. It was a remnant of older days when being able to look outside at the sky was an enjoyable feature of the building. Duke looked up through the glass as he walked along with Kray, their hands together so they wouldn't lose each other in the commotion. It was noontime, but the sky was brownish dark gray, and the sun was completely invisible. He stared up at the sky, remembering nicer days, when suddenly he felt Kray tug on his arm.
"What would you like to drink?" she asked.
Duke brought his attention back to ground level and looked through the glass of a drink dispenser. Not many choices left: Photon filtered water, there was practically no other kind of drinking water available since all the water supplies had been polluted; Monofluid pop, a sweet treat and supposed to help young people grow strong in their TP abilities; and a Monomate smoothie, somewhat bitter, but an enjoyable taste.
"I think I'm going to get a Monofluid pop." Kray said as she inserted a meseta into the machine, retrieving her drink. She opened it and began to drink it. "Wanna try it before you make a decision?"
"Ok, thanks." Duke responded. He took a sip of Kray's drink, and then decided to get the same thing.
"These things are still my favorite."
"Yeah," Duke replied, "I like them, too."
Kray grabbed his hand again, and they started to walk back towards where they were sitting. Midway there, however, Duke stopped, looking up through the glass windows.
"Kray, look!" he shouted as he pointed up. The thick clouds up above had broken in one small area, where a sunbeam was able to peak through.
"Oh, cool, the sun..." she replied, looking up to where he was pointing.
Having stopped in the middle of a busy area, it wasn't long until an accident happened. A man in a business suit walking rather quickly bumped into Duke from behind, knocking him forward. His hand still in Kray's, she got pulled forward with him. Their drinks shook but didn't spill because they were contained in anti-spill bottles.
"Hey, kid!" the main shouted. "I'm sorry, but you can't just be standing here like a plant! Get moving to where you were going before someone else knocks the both of you over!"
"I'm sorry, sir." They both answered. Duke glanced at him, then looked down at the floor as the man walked off. Kray tugged his hand, "Come on, let's go."
"Ok." He replied as they both continued to walk back over to their seat in the lounge where Kray's parents were. However, before they got there, Duke again became distracted: he lead Kray over to one of the window walls on the side of the room, where there was a clear view of the outside.
"There's a good view over here, wanna stay for a minute?"
"Ok."
They both stood there silent for a while, just looking out and down onto the city as they drank their drinks, and occasionally looking behind themselves, watching people come and go in a frenzy, being aware for when the announcer would call their number up to board and they'd have to run back to Kray's parents. Within a few moments, however, Duke broke the silence: "Kray, are you nervous?"
She looked at him for a second, then replied, "Yeah, I guess so. More homesick than anything else."
"It's weird," Duke continued, "It's like somehow before today, I was able to tell myself that this wouldn't be a big deal, and that everything would be ok and go smoothly, but somehow it feels a lot different being here. A lot more intense..."
"We're never going to see this planet again, except through the eyes of telescopes, probes, and carrier signals emitters left on the planet."
"Doesn't it feel like yesterday that the sky was blue, and we could go to the park and swim, and do other cool stuff like that?"
"It was yesterday." Krayana replied sarcastically, referring to the only few years that had gone by since the planet was healthier.
"I dunno... I think I'm kinda scared... a little intimidated at least."
"Me too..." Kray replied, as they tightened each other's grip.
Suddenly they were interrupted by a man in green flowing robes, long white hair, and a bright blue hat, who just seemed to appear beside them as if he was standing there all along. He had a strange smell about him that was cool and refreshing, almost like fresh air on a spring day. He began: "Do not think that it is unnatural to be afraid, or natural to not be afraid. We are leaving the cradle before we've learned how to walk, my children."
Duke and Kray stared at him, completely silent.
"But always remember, it is not achieving a lack of fear that you must seek - fear will always be a part of your life in one way or another - you must learn that you are capable of facing those fears and working through the problems that cause them."
Duke and Kray continued to remain silent, still staring at him.
"You have no reason to miss this home, because we are never really leaving it. Our bodies are made from its soil, our experiences and knowledge attained from studying it - we are this home. Therefore, wherever we go, it follows. Why, even our spacecraft, the lifeboat of our salvation! - It, too, is made from this planet we call home. Whether all this will prove to be for our benefit or not, we shall see - But our souls continue, therefore, so do we, and so must we, for we have the obligation to just by our definition of who and what we are." Then he smiled at the two and continued, "Children, my name is Sarenth. I am old, but an experienced and gentle Fomar. I can sense the courage in the two of you. The more people like you there are in this existence of ours, the better. Here, take these..." He handed them each a golden star-shaped locket, with pictures of strange people in them. The pictures were painted on the gold so that they could not be replaced. "I leave you know, for I must be going. May good fortune and guidance be with you." And with saying that, he left them.
They looked at the lockets in bewilderment, wondering why the old man would just leave them with these objects.
"Maybe he's just over-stressed?" Duke suggested.
"I dunno... what he said kinda seemed to make sense..."
"Yeah..."
"I guess we might see him again on the ship." Kray said as she pocketed the item. Duke did the same.
"Wanna go back now?"
"Ok."

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DukeElrond on 2003-06-10 22:57 ]</font>

[DukeElrond]

* * *


"Ick, it sounded pretty yucky." The child commented.
"Yes? unfortunately, it was." Krayana replied.
"I bet you were looking forward to coming here, though, where you had nice days so you could go out and play."
"Yes, we were." Duke answered his grandchild.
"How long was the spaceship ride to come?"
"A very long time, longer than you've been alive!" Krayana said, kissing her grandchild.
"What was it like being on a spaceship for so long?"



* * *


Kray, sitting on a reading couch in the university library, picked up her eyes from her book to see Duke had returned and sat back down next to her. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Duke held out the book labeled "Chris Co. - Advanced Photon Capacitance"
"Oh, good! You found it finally."
"Yeah, a lot of people are looking for this book lately? I think they're ordering more."
"You would think they would've tried to order more sooner."
"Yeah... oh well, at least I found it now."
"You're sure that has the information you needed?"
"I'm pretty sure... I'll flip through it now."
"Ok." Kray focused her eyes back on her book and continued reading as Duke opened the one he just returned with.

"Hey, guys, how are you doing?" a voice asked the couple. Duke and Kray picked up their heads and looked behind the couch to see a blue-haired girl walking around their couch to sit in front of them.
"Marian, hey, long time no see." Duke promptly replied.
"What have you been up to lately?" Kray asked.
"I've been working out in the gym mostly, preparing for the upcoming tournament. Cyrene and I are going to be teaming up."
"Awesome."
"What have you guys been up to?" Marian asked the two.
"Studying for yummy finals." Kray answered.
"Trying to read up on some of Chris Co. technology for a project." Duke replied.
"Yeah, I've been studying a lot, too... I dunno, though, I kinda find it hard to concentrate lately..."
"Well, there's been so much going on Pioneer 2 lately..."
"It's not just that..." Marian replied. "I've been having strange dreams lately..."
"About what?"

"Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"The tests came back positive. The patient's heart must be transplanted... The parasite has caused extensive damage."

Marian felt a touch on her arm wake her up. "Marian?" a voice called. "Marian? We're going to begin the procedure now."

"Doctor, come quickly. The patient's in cardiac arrest, her body is fiercely rejecting the implant."
"What?? Has the medication been administered?" the doctor replied with astonishment as he ran with the nurse into the patient's ICU room.
"Yes."

"Get me contact information for her next of kin"

"Whoa... that's weird. Transplants haven't even been performed for so long..." Krayana commented.
"Yeah, I know, I don't know why I'm having weird dreams like that lately..."
"Hmm..." Duke said silently.
"Anyway, I'll let you two get back to your studying. I just wanted to say hi. I've got to head back to the stacks to look for a strategy guide." Marian concluded.
"Ok, yeah, it was great seeing you."
"Keep in touch," Kray added.
Marian got up from the couch. "Don't worry, I'll see you guys again soon."
"See ya."
"Bye."
Marian left and continued further down the library as Duke and Kray continued reading their books. Duke sporadically flipped from page to page.
"Is it in there?" Krayana inquired.
"Hmm... I... yes! Here it is." Duke opened the book to a chapter entitled, "Channeling photon power through material objects."
"This is the technology used to make the Agito, and other hard-weapons." Duke continued.
"That's supposed to be just as effective as pure photon weapons, right?"
"I think so..." Duke shifted the book closer to Kray so that the both of them could study it together.


* * *

"All you did was homework??"
Krayana and Duke both laughed at the same time. "Well, we did more than that of course, but given our situation, we wanted to acquire as much knowledge as we could so that we could help rebuild our home!"
"Yeah, I guess that's true... but what else did you do? What sort of stuff would happen on the spaceship while you stayed on it for so long?"

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DukeElrond on 2003-06-11 16:17 ]</font>

[Vantamiath]

Sounds good so far, I have to read the last 2 chapters still.

Little behind

[DukeElrond]

PLEASE NOTE:

The characters in my fanfic are not overly curious people who like to ask questions that don't even make any sense. If you see a question mark "?" that looks as if it was meant to be an ellipsis "...", it WAS meant to be an ellipsis. I'm writing this fic in Microsoft Word, which has a special character for the ellipsis "..." which isn't being translated properly in the forum. Sorry about that, I'm going through trying to correct the mistakes.

[Hikosaka]

Try using a simple text editor like Notepad for future chapters. They won't cause the ?? problem, due to the lack of "smart" quotes.