Into the future - Anna's adventure (for Renton)

[justmedk]

Anna nodded eagerly, having taken the goggles, but not quite known what to do with them. The more time she spent here, the more the child's natural curiosity and sense of adventure came out in her - traits that she had been forced to restrain when she had had to grow up too much too fast before she arrived here.

"I'd love to watch those", she said with a grin. "Are they, like....like that old "North and South"-series that my mom and dad sometimes watched?", she asked, using the only point of reference she had, when Angel explained that it was about people on opposite sides of a civil war.

"Was that civil war, like.....real?", she asked "I mean the one in those movies we're gonna watch? What happened?", she continued. She had 300 years of history to catch up on, and a trip to the Moon seemed like a good chance to do just that.

Anna looked at Angel, and blushed a little. When pressed about what was the matter, she first fidgeted a bit and tried to shrug it off with a "nothing", but then she looked at her and said

"I just....you know....I'm....thank you", she said, in a voice that was older than any 13-year old's voice had any right to be. "I mean...I don't know how long I'll be here, but....I...I'm grateful for...for what you're doing for me", she said, not able to meet Angel's eyes, "and....and I'll try not to...not to be in your way too much...I...I don't wanna be a burden to you, is what I mean", she finished, her voice only barely more than a whisper at that point.

[Renton]

Angel was caught off guard by Anna's sudden downturn in mood.

"Anna, what ever do you mean? You're not a burden."

This was a difficult turn of events, one Angel wasn't sure she had the know-how to deal with. She wished she could call her own mother right now for help, but that would be a misstep. She would have to improvise.

"I'll tell you what. I know a thing or two about history. I was a good student in school and everything. So if you want to know about a topic, ask away, and I will tell you all I know about it. We've got plenty of time, and I'm happy to pass it however you'd like."

Angel knew that Anna was going through a lot emotionally, and redirecting her morale was the only thing she knew to do. She smiled earnestly, not betraying the nervousness she felt inside; this trip was supposed to be a happy distraction, and Angel would do whatever it took to keep it that way for Anna.

[justmedk]

Anna nodded calmly when Angel told her she wasn't a burden. She did feel a bit better. She had a good idea that it wasn't entirely true, but she also clearly felt that Angel believed what she said, and right now that's what mattered to her.

"Deal", Anna said with a smile when Angel offered to act as her own personal encyclopedia. Or Wikipedia. Or whatever version of Wikipedia now existed.

They clearly still use the internet. We just had intercontinental pizza delivery yesterday!

"I wanna see those movies you talked about", Anna said with a slight giggle and put the goggles on.

The next hours passed with exitement. Anna could derfinitely understand why they had won Oscars. She realized that she was probably even more impressed because of the VR-surroundings, than others would be, but her jaw was almost constantly on her chest.
There were plenty of references she didn't get, but she didn't want to disturb Angel's enjoyment of the movies. She had an idea that these played about the same role to Angel that Twilight did to her.

When they were done, Anna was mentally exhausted. So much new information, so many new impressions, even if it was only in a movie. And she knew that the next day was going to be even more insane.
Because the next day, she'd be on the moon!

She took off the goggles, blinked a few times to get her bearings again, not being used to VR-technology that had still been in its very early childhood at her time.

"That was....wow", she said in an awestruck voice.

[Renton]

Angel felt some relief that she was able to talk Anna out of her doldrums. She wasn't sure she had that skill, and it was reassuring to see Anna shift her mood, even if it was clear the girl wasn't entirely convinced that she wasn't a burden. Angel made a mental note to make it clear whenever it came up that Angel did not even begin to see Anna as something she had to endure.

When she put on the headset, Angel breathed a sigh of relief and put hers on too. To her delight, Anna enjoyed the movies, and they served to pass a few hours of their 31 hour trip. "There's a sleep setting if you want to get some rest," Angel said, pulling up a climate control panel. "Let's see... we can dim the view of the moon ahead of us, as it is quite bright. We can also create any ambient noise we want in the cabin. I'm partial to the 'pirate ship ambiance' myself. Reminds me of being in the Navy."

Once the cabin was good and cozy, Angel found herself feeling quite drowsy. "If you need me for anything, I'm right here," Angel said. "Don't hesitate to wake me." She was soon fast asleep.

[justmedk]

Anna's mental exhaustion didn't translate to being tired on a 1:1-basis. She had been filled to the brink with new experiences and impressions, and it was to a point where she had reached an overload.
She did pick up on Angel's cues about sleeping, though, and she nodded, playing along with it.

"Oh..okay, yeah", she said and stretched. "Yeah, sure I will", she went on, and lay down herself. But when she was satisfied that Angel was asleep, she got back up and put her goggles back on.
She had managed to pick up the very basics on how to operate this system, and she managed to pick up some more, allowing her to sift through the topics of the videos available in the system.

Well, she thought, I might as well learn a bit of the history of this place. Let's see...., she thought as she rifled through the historical programs. There was a lot, everything from the Incas, to something called the "Great Post-WW3 Market Crash". That sounded like it had to do with economics, though, and that subject had always bored Anna. Maybe because her father had spoken of little else during the infrequent times where they had had dinner as a family: The economy, how stupid the government was, etc. So not only did Anna find the subject of economy boring, she found it borderline offensive.

Oh, hello, she thought as she came across something that looked interesting. "A complete history of Denmark from 2000-2300" That sounds useful

She started the program, and for the first 15-20 minutes, she felt the extatic feeling of recognition as she was treated to events that she had both heard of, learned about in school and from TV, and remembered herself.

But things got quite a bit darker when the dramatization carried on into the war, and when she witnessed the dramatization of the battle of Tønder, marking the beginning of the end of the European theatre of the war, Anna paled. This was worse than any movie she had ever seen. It was as if she was standing right where it happened, so much so that she ducked and had to cover her mouth to keep her from screaming when a stray fragment from a grenade flew past her head.

In the next moment, however, she was caught by surprise as she turned around and looked directly into the part of a Danish private's head where his face - blown off by a grenade - had once been. She couldn't help but scream in terror and pulled the goggles off of her face so fast and panicky that she didn't sense anything else - not even the fact that she was hyperventilating.

[Renton]

When Angel's very pleasant dream about being on a date with the lead actor of Mist and Storm was interrupted by the sound of Anna hyperventilating, it took only a few milliseconds for Angel to snap out of her sleep and look around frantically before realizing that Anna was, of course, right there.

Angel unbuckled and actually climbed out of her seat. "Shhhhh... it's all right," she said, kneeling in front of Anna and rubbing her shoulder. "What did you..."

Angel looked down and saw the goggles and the tiny images of warfare within. "Ah, I understand," she said, turning the video off. She unbuckled Anna's seatbelt to give the girl an easier time breathing. "I'm sorry you saw all that," Angel said. "Truly sorry. It's bad enough knowing what happened, but I've never liked those documentaries. As someone who has lived through combat, it's something I can live without seeing again."

Angel pulled out a bottle of water and offered it to Anna. "Drink," she said, with a sort of calm authority that she'd needed many a time as a soldier. "It will help."

Then she stood next to Anna and wrapped an arm around her. "Whatever you need to say, you can say it to me. You can always be honest with me. I promise, I won't get upset."

[justmedk]

Anna stared at Angel for a few seconds before the gentle rubbing of her shoulders caused her to relax enough to take the bottle of water after having gotten her breathing a little bit more under control - subconsciously responding to Angel's reassurances. When she'd had a drink of water, she threw herself in Angel's arms, wrapping her arms around her. She hadn't planned on it. In a few hours she would likely find it a bit embarassing. But right now she couldn't NOT do it.

"I....I'm sorry I woke you", she said quietly, even as she still clung tightly to Angel.
It was a bit embarassing to say the least. It had been years since she had dealt with something similar - waking up from a nightmare - and that had already happened more than once in the past few days. Often, her parents hadn't even come back from work yet when she woke up from a nightmare, and the few times they had, she was terrified of waking them.
So the way Anna had dealt with it so far, was to simply curl up in a fetal position and try to sleep again.

RIght now, though, she NEEDED to feel close to someone to relax a bit again. And all of her insticts sought out Angel. One might think that this was because Angel was the only other person present. One would be mistaken.

Anna sobbed a bit but started to calm down.

"I...I couldn't sleep", she explained. "So...I thought that I'd...you know...try to learn a bit about....about what happened between...between my time and now", she said. "I....I didn't think that.....", she began but didn't finish.

[Renton]

Angel was a bit surprised when Anna threw her arms around her, but only in the sense that she wasn't used to such outward emotional displays. But she understood completely and returned the gesture. As Anna explained why she'd watched the videos, Angel felt her heart open up. It was such an understandable thing for Anna to do, and Angel felt terrible that she'd seen such awful images.

"You needn't apologize, sweetheart," Angel said. "You were curious, and then you saw something terrifying. You did nothing wrong." She rubbed Anna between her shoulders, the way her own mother did when Angel needed comfort as a girl. "I only wish I'd have thought to warn you before you saw those films. I shouldn't take these things for granted. If anything, this is on me, not you."

Angel reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the vacuum-sealed washcloths she had taken with her, the sort astronauts used for all-purpose cleaning. She opened it and gave it to Anna to use as a handkerchief. "You needn't worry about me sleeping if you want me awake. I've pulled plenty of all-day shifts in my time, I can handle it."

Then she remembered something. She opened a container between their seats, and within were a number of comfort items, including a pillow and blankets (packed into playing-card sized vacuum bags that would expand to full-size when opened) and some sleep aids. The pills could give a restful sleep of up to 18 hours. They couldn't guarantee good dreams, but they were better than nothing. "If you have trouble sleeping, they come prepared on these pods," Angel said. "But if you don't want to sleep now, I understand. Regardless, I won't sleep until you do, OK? And I won't take a sleeping pill either, in case you need to wake me up easily."

[justmedk]

Anna clung to Angel for dear life, but shook her head, always thinking about others instead of herself.

"N..no", she said. "You...you can just..go back to sleep...if I take one of those pills I'll be fine", she said, and then blushed a little and looked up at Angel.

"Besides", she said, "I wanna be fresh for our moon trip", she grinned a little, feeling safe enough to smile now that Angel was there. "No way am I going to have THAT kind of trip spoiled from not sleeping", she said.
She obviously looked a bit embarrassed that she had been so "childish", but she didn't object when Angel handed her the hankerchief, and discreetly dried her eyes.

When she'd taken the pill and laid down to sleep, she did wind up losing consciousness.

And she dreamt again.

But this time it wasn't a nightmare. Well, not all the way through.

She was back in her own house with her parents, that were talking about her as if she wasn't there, about how difficult she was, and how they wished they hadn't had her. She started to get upset again, but suddenly the door opened and Angel walked through.

"How dare you?!", she heard Angel call out to her parents, and then headed over to Anna, looked at her and knelt down in front of her the same way she'd just done a few minutes ago in "real time".

"Come with me", she said softly. "I'll keep you safe". Anna looked at her parents, who had gone right back to their conversation, and then nodded, taking Angel's hand as they headed out the door of her old home. In her sleep, Anna was smiling now.

[Renton]

Angel was relieved when Anna took the sleeping pill. She waited until Anna had drifted off to go back to sleep herself. Angel didn't like to use sleep aids. She was a light sleeper. She'd become one in her military service. She had enlisted as both her parents did, at age 18. She joined the Navy with great pride; her father was in the Army, and her mother was in the Air Force, so she felt like adding another notch to the family tradition. Little did she know that a career that started out as primarily sailing from port to port would result in her ending up in the middle of some of the most ferocious fighting to take place since World War III.

The Filipinos for True Independence movement had started out as an extremist movement with few members, but had gained traction in recent years as many in that region felt ignored by the USE government, especially as China was once again in everyone's good graces. But everything changed in the race for governor of the Big Island, Luzon, when an extremist named Victor Garcia was elected on a platform of violent law enforcement and, eventually, independence from the USE. Tensions turned to violence when when Garcia began permitting anyone with a boat and weapons to patrol the island, cutting it off from the USE while taking USE sympathizers hostage. Essentially, a huge chunk of her home country was now being run by pirates.

Angel was in the first boat sent in to combat the presence of rebellious pirates. Their ship hit a mine and was crippled, and it was swarmed by pirates. In 24th century, she was caught in the middle of a 17th century-style pirate battle, only these pirates had modern weapons and outnumbered them. It was in this battle that Angel made her name for herself. She quickly configured the ship's locks to close off everything below the main deck from pirate access, buying the crew precious time for reinforcements to arrive, although many above deck were captured and taken hostage.

It was hardly over, and eventually reinforcements arrived, a hostage situation took place, and those below deck found themselves fighting their way out of the ship to be rescued as the Garcia government converged forces on this point in a show of power. Angel killed several men in the fight. She saw two of her closest friends die in front of her. It was a night she tried very hard to forget. She knew she never, ever would. It haunted her dreams for years, and so she learned to sleep so light she barely dreamed. It was better that way.

As she slipped off to sleep this time, she did dream. She was on the ship again, her pulse racing as her commanding officer held his hand up, brandishing a rifle as he prepared to give the order to burst out onto the main deck.

No she thought. Not this time

Then suddenly, she was in her base in the Sahara desert. She was going over some recent findings in her research. There was some instability in the device they were working on, but nothing alarming.

"You should be worried about that," a voice said. She looked around, and a chubby blonde girl was looking up at her. Anna. "I'm going to be taken from my family because of this flaw," Anna said. "It's your fault."

"I... no... it can't be..."

"IT CAN'T BE!" Angel shouted, this time waking up.

"You are approaching Luna," the voice over the intercom said. "Please make sure your seatbelt is fastened. Enjoy your stay on the moon!"