Some Things Just Can't Be Understood

"Someone corrupted kid beyond all hope, or perhaps some corrupted being in the guise of a kid. It's hard to tell with this kind of thing," Maple admitted, the door hissing behind him. "Either way, if there's one there's probably more. I need to scan to see how far the corruption's spread."

He went up to the keyboard of his ship and typed in commands. A circle of red light erupted from the sides of the ship, sailing to beyond the horizon. A few moments later, a reading came back showing 83%. He realized, angrily, that he should have done this before they had even gotten of the ship. How careless could he get?

"Crap, it's jumped 20-some percent since I took the reading in the store," Maple muttered. He noticed the number rise up 84%. "And it's not done yet. At this point..."

Maple nearly jumped out of his skin as the cat suddenly jumped on his shoulder. It stared outside with great intensity.

"Ah good, furball's aboard. I guess you had to common sense of never going outside in the first place," Maple commented, a slight but bitter grin on his face.

"What do we do?" Pheobie asked. "You said before that fixing this kind of stuff was your job right? Well I want to help. What do we do?"

"Frankly dear, there's not much you can do at the moment," Maple answered, typing out commands to unleash stabilizing pulses that would hopefully neutralize some of the corruption. "Quite frankly, there's not much I can do at the moment. It looks normal outside, but most of it is corruption underneath. The fact that there are no normal people around proves that the place is pretty much unlivable. I'm trying to see if I can stabilize it so it doesn't spread, then see if I can call in some reinforcements."

He groaned and rubbed his head.

"Sorry, this had turned out to be a lousy vacation spot."

"That's okay. This is still exciting." Pheobie smiled a little bit. "I Like this better, even if its dangerous"

Maple sent out an alert signal, then debated on how long he should stay here. He could tell this was beyond his abilities, and he didn't really look forward to his colleagues questioning him about Pheobie. Then again, he didn't want to look like a coward either.

He noticed a random tree floating past on of the windows, roots bare and disintegrating. Puddles of silver were seeping up from the ground. Things were getting less stable, not more.

The cat flattened its ears and growled at the outside.

Pheobie stepped over to the window and looked out. "Um... Maple? Is the ground supposed to be disappearing?" She asked nervously

"Eh?" said Maple, looking out. Indeed the ground was melting away, revealing a black-silver void underneath. From that void strange things were coming: some human-like figures with glassy expressions, some humanoid but with horse's heads or lion tails, some chimera-ish creatures with the bodies of birds but the heads and tails of snakes, some pixel-like figures with no organic shape at all but with some spark of life all the same. They all made strange, unearthly noises as they emerged and floated about.

"That..." began Maple. "...Is our signal to leave. Now."

He threw the thrusters into overdrive.

Pheobie stumbled a little at the sudden start. She clutched at the window frame to try and keep her balance. "What's wrong? What's happening??"

"Oh, it's only the end of a world," Maple replied flatly, gray-green gaze kept straight ahead. He did not want to mention how common an occurrence this was. "This place was fine a couple of months ago, not a wisp of corruption or anything. I soon have checked back sooner...or more carefully."

The ship had rocketed out of the world and back into the non-dimension. A couple of the shapeless fiends had followed, but they were unable to penetrate the ship's corruption-resistant surface and soon drifted away in disinterest.

Maple let out a sigh, realizing how much worse it could have been. If the boy fiend had gone after Pheobie instead of him...if the ship had been swallowed by the melting ground before they could reach it...

He walked over to Pheobie, looked at her for a few moments, and then hugged her tightly.

Pheobie was taken off guard. Before Maple had said that he didn't like to be touched much, so she was trying hard to stay out of his personal bubble. The way he hugged her made her think that the end of this world had really upset him.

She hugged him back timidly. "Maple? Are you okay?" She asked. "Do you need to lay down? Or I could make you some tea..."

"I...well, maybe some tea would help," Maple answered, letting go and now looking embarrassed. "Sorry, it's just...this is a depressing business, and stupidity will get you worse than killed."

"Its okay. You're upset. I can help you feel better." She smiled softly, standing on her tip toes to pat his head. "Go sit down and I'll be right back."

Maple decided to willfully take orders for once and sank into his pilot's seat. He had yet to set a new destination, but didn't feel like picking one out just yet. The cat hopped into his lap and curled up there. He stroked it absentmindedly.

"I need to teach you how to use a GS machine later," he said, looking outside to the silvery non-space outside. "...And, uh, it's Skye. Skye Maple."

Pheobie smiled. "Okay." She turned back to the door and started to the kitchen. She paused in the doorway and turned back. "My last name is Isis by the way. If you were wondering. But I still like your name better, Skye..." She continued out and to the kitchen.

She came back momentarily with a steaming cup of tea. "Here. Its a little strong, but it'll help you feel better."

Maple took a sip, and had to agree. It was a little strong. More than a little strong, really. But strong was what he needed right now. He certainly wasn't feeling strong himself.

"Pheobie Isis, that's nice," he mused, watching the steam rise from his drink. "I honestly wonder what my parents were thinking when they named me. I mean Skye is okay by itself, but Skye Maple? I named after some tree floating around in an atmosphere somewhere?"

"... When I was little, my parents used to tell me stories to help me sleep." Pheobie began, sitting on the floor at Maple's feet. "There was one that I remember really well. It was about trees that were so tall, that the people would call them sky trees. There were oaks, birch, pine and even maple.

They were so tall and magnificent that people grew jealous of their closeness to heaven. The people wanted to cut all the trees down so that they would be the tallest. The proud pine trew out his seeds to make more trees but it was ultimately cut down. The other three, seeing what had happened to their stubborn companion, called out to the people to reason with them.

I don't remember exactly what happened but I do remember that it ended with the people cutting just the top of the trees off and that that is why the trees are flat on top. Maybe that's why your parents named you that, after the sky trees." She patted his knee comfortingly.

Maple laughed. "Maybe they did. It would explain a lot."

In truth he remembered almost nothing about his parents. Most of what he remembered about his home world was the war, the war that harnessed the power of the non-dimension to eradicate and damn the other side. He had been on the winning side, only there wasn't much won after the ruinous effects of dimension manipulation and abnormality. Soon what little remained disintegrated and infected the healthy space, until...well, yet the end of another world.

"Your parents sound like good people," he remarked absently.

Pheobie smiled sadly. "Yeah. Far as I can tell, they had the same problem as me. Well, My mom did anyway. My dad came from a popular crowd. They had me out of wedlock. Then they died in an accident when I was six. All I can remember are their stories. I wouldn't even be able to remember their faces if I didn't still have their wedding picture."

"Ah, leave it to me to bring up painful memories," Maple answered, restlessly staring at his tea before taking another gulp. "Say, that little talent of yours, perhaps you could use it to spruce up the ship a little? It's all plain and white and boring."

"Sure. Just tell me what color you want things and I'll make it happen." Pheobie smiled reassuringly. "And you didn't bring up any bad memories. I can't remember enough for any of them to be bad."

"Well, I'm not that picky with the colors, just use lots of color and make them bright," Maple suggested, wishing that he had a drink holder for his cup of tea. Of all the sophisticated gadgetry he had here, why didn't he bother to put in a simple cup-holder?

"Okay. What's your favorite color?" Pheobie asked after a short pause. "I'll make your room that color."

Maple thought about it. He knew what was his least favorite color - silver spanned all the non-dimension and showed itself wherever serious corruption was. But his favorite color...?

"Let's go with gold. Yellow and gold," he finally answered. "The hallways can be red, and the kitchen green. Oh, and the lounge room will be all those colors, with a shiny black floor. Anything extra you can decorate as you want. It's your ship too, you know."

Pheobie smiled. "Okay." She chirped as she stood. "I'm not sure I can get it all in one go but I can try. And I'll try not to fall asleep in the hallway." She stated before turning and walking out the door.

"There's no hurry. When you want to sleep, go and sleep where you want," Maple replied, before he heard the typical telephone ringing coming from his GS machine. He depended on this thing for too many things.

Probably my co-workers wondering about the last world, he thought. Joy...