The Aciin watches the being known as 'Terrine' walk through the structure with another, older being with silver hair. It wants to reach out to the being. But it knows it will be met with hostile force if it does.
The Aciin does not have injuries in this moment. It has never been shot. It still has both the features at the top of its head that the beings would call 'antlers.' It waits quietly in the vent as a white armoured being made of metal and carbon-based polymers follows them.
The Aciin is worried.
It wants desperately to find out what will cause the moment of death. But it does not want to hurt any more beings. It hates hurting beings. The Aciin does not wish for them to feel pain. But it knows its investigation must not be stopped.
Every time it looks for answers, it is met with force.
Every time it appears in front of the beings, it causes them to feel fear.
It does not understand why it stays in the same period of moments. The Aciin has visited what the beings would consider to be eons of moments. It has been to the moment where the planet was formed. It has witnessed the horrible things the beings do to the planet hundreds of solar rotations after the being known as 'Terrine' dies. But in its personal duration of existence, the moments it visited most recently have all fell within the same stage of the planet's rotation about the star.
The journey of all the other Aciin through moments in time seems random, but not for this one. For this Aciin, it seems like its journey through the moments has meaning and reason behind it.
The Aciin continues to watch the one known as 'Terrine.' This being seems different from the other planet-chokers. This one also senses that something is not right in these moments and is actively investigating it.
The Aciin wants to reach out to Terrine, to interact in person and to investigate the moment of death together. But it knows how the being would react to meeting the Aciin.
The Aciin turns away from the vent in disappointment,and the moment changes. The metal in the vent is younger, and the iron oxidecoating on its surface is gone. The air lacks the unfavourable scent it had inthe previous moment. It looks out the vent again. Terrine and the silver-hairedplanet-choker are gone.
YOU ARE READING
The Ring of Acies
Science FictionThousands of years into the future, humanity reaches for the stars. Hundred of worlds in the milky way galaxy have been colonized and are now inhabited by humans. Massive atmosphere processors are built on the surface changing the composition of the...
