The Foundry | Part Three | Chapter Twenty-Five
the next chapter of my forthcoming novel
The Foundry
by Daphne Garrido
Part Two | Rebuilt; Refound; Reclaimed
Part Three | Dominion
Part Three | Dominion
Chapter Twenty-Five
The Foundry had always been a chrysalis, and it was now mid transformation — inner-structures being reborn in whole. Need had fostered reconsiderations regarding the true focus of its purpose. An enemy had revealed itself through action, if not by means of individuation. Every soul in Boreál would be remade by the destruction leveled upon Atreya.
Broken-hearted, were all throughout the hallways and chambers of this institution of learning as it rebuilt itself; reclaimed its soul.
The Foundry and its mechanism, everything it brought to being, was built for dominance in warfare beyond any conceptions which had come to be propagated throughout its hallways in peacetime. Even these students-made-soldiers, who’d not known or thought of their current state-of-war as even a remotely possible notion, were finding themselves thriving within the flow of this change.
Everyone here would soon come to see why they’d found means to exist in this universe altogether. The path towards a better future for Boreál, and those many scattered sister-systems about this great sprawl of Elaria, would be carved out by the will of these chosen companions of aspired excellence.
The Great Generator was always more than a power source. It was made portals. The knowledge had been kept guarded, held as a greatest secret of the administration. Now, it was known throughout the entire body of humanity at The Foundry. There was no doubt the people of Boreál had been catching wind, and all would know in time. There wouldn’t be a single attempt to safeguard the information from making it past the walls of The Foundry. Trust would be placed in every initiate, pilot, and faculty member to make the right choice in that regard.
Citizens of Boreál needed to know. Many preparations would have to be made — power generation and distribution solutions prioritized — all the ways in which The Foundry had embedded itself as support within this system would need to be accounted for, and every individual was to make a choice on where there place would be.
It’s only then The Foundry could jump.
Alan was taking Echo out — way out.
He ‘borrowed’ Priscilla’s personal shuttle and hadn’t told Echo where they were going. She discovered on the way that he’d no idea himself. They were searching for a place; some ship they might dock with in close orbit of Atreya.
“We’ll find a spot,” was all Alan kept saying.
It had been Echo that spotted it out the viewing portal; a wideset carrier-craft which spoke to her heart by sight.
“That’s it.” She’d told most plainly as he almost blew right past. He’d hit the reverse thrusters and brought the shuttle to a stop.
Peering through the portal himself, he’d questioned rhetorically, “I don’t know.”
“That’s the one,” Echo re-affirmed, the surety in her birthing a knowing smile, just waiting for him to accept that she was right.
Something in her was certain, even before Echo made the call to that kindest Captain they’d ever meet, who was so pleased at the prospect of hosting folks from The Foundry, feeling their own people in need of lifted spirits.
“Please do,” Cindra Morrow had said, “We need to see the faces of hope right now.”
Everyone in this system was held stricken by grief, and would be for much time. There simply wasn’t a way to process what had befallen Atreya. This level of evil was unheard of, and previously unseen by any in an era of peaceful civilization.
Aboard Orca; Cindra’s boat of newly become refugees, the energy had clearly been dour. It was only apparent to Echo by the way their beaming faces were lit so brightly, only to fade into briefest beacons of sorrow. There would be gaps in their shared joy, moments when they’d look away from these two who were seen as heroes, and the remembrance would clearly come back to them.
Not only of what happened, but the anxiety all were carrying in Boreál, thoughts regarding what may come to pass in its wake, and that threat of further violence from the still-faceless force of wrongness which had confronted them most violently.
After time spent with the people — that true purpose of the visit was achieved. A gift for both Alan and Echo alike. They’d found a place in Orca’s observation theater, having been given it all to themselves.
Much time was spent just watching Atreya’s fiercely whirling storms near the sun-facing horizon line. The ocean itself was of such enormous swells and waves their forms could be witnessed from space. Atreya was a beautiful sight to this woman who’d once wished nothing more than to stand on her shores.
They’d found the perfect spot.
Echo was watching her, breathing, connecting to the energy of that place — feeling the wounded soul inside from such wrought devastation upon her surface, and the grace she’d still to offer for all. There was a beauty in that planet unlike any consciousness she’d connected with before. It was unique, something most powerfully compassionate and fierce. A mother and warrior. A queen and king. Something beyond the conceptions of gender or personhood, yet, a fundamental part of them all the same.
Alan had been on and off his terminal. His mind would run too fast for slowing down the way Echo’s could, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t benefit from the energy of this place all the same. It was even more needed for him. She’d seen him smiling with far more frequency than when aboard The Foundry. There was something in the nature of that planet which called him the same way she felt it speaking to her.
Even if people couldn’t walk on those shores for a thousand years. No matter if Echo would have the luck — through the miracles of science, spirit, or The Foundry — to have that chance herself. Nor if anyone she knew, or their children may have the opportunity. One day, this planet would feel human feet upon it again, and in peace; there was nothing either of these two, or any member of the purpose-bound family for which they found themselves a part, would find of higher importance to their hearts. And it would be done.
People would stand on the shores of Atreya once more.
