Planet Ignis | Ch. 9 (Patreon)

PART 2

... several cards have their origin in that Settlement.

Frey, the Orange, hailed from the Anaxis Settlement in the South, and he carved his name in Ignian history as the pioneer of orange-level bursts. It wasn't that others lacked the potential; rather, Frey stood alone among his peers, unwavering in his determination to push his body beyond its limits. His Terminal blaze ignited the very core of their Throne Room, leaving an unforgettable mark on the collective memory of his people. In recognition of his unmatched achievement, a Longevity Chess Card bearing his name was posthumously granted, forever immortalizing his legacy. Some strategies where this card may prove useful are...

In “The History of Longevity Chess” by Eli, the Flarewalker

Even though it was winter and snow filled the landscape, it was still a beautiful sunny day. The water fountain slowly filled the bamboo piece, in the middle of the pond, under the rays of morning light. Little pieces of glass-like ice tried to encase the fountain, but the water flow fought the cold to keep the water from freezing.

Hitori sat facing the fountain while flipping pages in a book. Even though he had read this book hundreds of times, Hitori still found comfort and enjoyment in it. He liked it a bit more every time he went through it. Sometimes it seemed a distant dream, the time when he had written this novel, right here, in this garden. There was something comforting about reading your work. It was like taking a glimpse into who you once were and, in doing so, who you were then.

Once the bamboo was filled with enough cool water, it turned with the added weight, letting it flow into the pond. As soon as enough water fell off the bamboo piece, it reset to its original position. The momentum caused it to hit a frost-covered stone, letting a comforting wooden sound ring in the garden. How peaceful. He had always loved the shishi odoshi, the bamboo water fountain his grandfather had built in his house. That is why he also chose to make one just like it here.

Hitori stood up and put the book in the pocket of his samue. He started walking through the garden toward the house. Here had been where Hitori had kept his childhood memories. A painting hung off each of the leafless trees. Each painting pictured scenes of his life. His mother sitting and playing with him. His father teaching him how to fish. Summer days on the beach with his sister. Visits to his grandparents.

After walking memory after memory, Hitori slid the door, took off his shoes, and entered the replica of his grandfather’s house. Before going to take a shower, he went to his personal library, where he kept recreational reading. He found the books with authors starting with an H and put the book he had been reading close to several others with his name.

After a relaxing hot shower, as he shaved, on the mirror of the bathroom that had been fogged up by steam, Hitori wrote with his finger his plans for the day. Today was a Tuesday. He had already done his usual memory walk. He would travel first to his high school. He would review the contingency plans he had stored in the shogi club room and practice in the music room for the rest of the morning.

In the afternoon, he would go to the university lab and work on Tardus-Celer conciliation. Once he had made plans for the day, he changed his clothes and put on his lab suit. In the kitchen, he packed his lunch and left home to go to work. Like his father, he drove a red Mitsubishi Pajero.

Hitori turned on the radio and started singing along to the catchy tunes. These were famous songs, but they had their lyrics altered so that they now spoke not of love but of genetics, physics, and mathematics. Hitori sang along as he started driving. As the chained tires rolled down the icy road he had traveled many times as a child, giant ice sculptures could occasionally be seen on the side of the road. All the frozen statues depicted important moments of his life. His graduation. His first award. Scenes from his astronaut training.

Hitori realized, with sadness, that he hadn’t seen Spring in a long time. He had always enjoyed seeing how cherry blossoms painted the mountains in orange, red, pink, and white hues. Nevertheless, there was a lot of beauty in the white of winter, and Hitori was grateful for such a scenic commute.

Once he arrived in town, Hitori drove down the main road, turned left, and parked in front of his high school. It was time to get to work.

Inside, Hitori found the shogi club room. Shogi was a board game that resembled chess and was popular in Japan. Hitori had played it often when he was younger, and he found that it helped him organize his thoughts. He took a board of shogi out, sat on the ground, and started moving pieces around. There was no such thing as too much preparation.

After an hour of this, he went upstairs to the music room. As he found the musical sheets for the Seventh Thaw Symphony, he started practicing the piano. Hitori knew he could go faster, so he practiced again and again and again.

After lunch at his high school’s canteen, Hitori left and drove to the university. Hitori had enjoyed studying at the University of Tokyo and built a replica of it here. He made his way through the empty corridors of one of the buildings of the Science Faculty and, finding his lab, turned the lights on and went in.

As he entered, he first visited the bird cage. Colorful hummingbirds buzzed around, drinking from the nectar in their feeder. Their wings moved so fast that they looked invisible. He admired how such tiny creatures had so much energy. They could put any seasoned pilot to shame. Hummingbirds could effortlessly fly upside down, stop mid-air, and perform other amusing aerial acrobatics. He poured some more nectar for them and watched them delightfully, occasionally whistling playfully to the little birds.

Next, he went to the tank, where an electric eel stared at him blankly with a dead gaze. He grabbed a net and, with it, scooped a fish from a smaller adjacent aquarium. Knowing it was about to get its meal, the eel immediately started moving. The doctor dropped the struggling fish in the eel’s tank and followed with interest as the eel electrocuted the fish, tasing it. Once the fish was stunned, the eel bit it and feasted on its prey.

Moving to the refrigerated cage, Hitori beheld an arctic ground squirrel that slept peacefully. It had been hibernating for many months, and its body temperature was below zero degrees. Dr. Hitori took some notes and then adjusted the temperature. Satisfied, Hitori went on to look at the iguana habitat and watched as it placidly fed on the light of the red lamp, basking in its warmth. Once again, Hitori took some notes and adjusted the temperature.

Once he was happy with how all his pets were doing, he reached the blackboard. It was filled with scribbles and equations from top to bottom.

He wanted to tackle the metabolism mutations once again. He knew how successful his experiments with the Tardus mutagen had been. He was living proof of that. If everything had gone well with the long-term effects of the Celer mutagen, the problem was to find out a way to conciliate them somehow. The way Hitori saw it, having the Celer mutation to digest ignium harbored many dangers. It was like driving a car with no breaks. The Tardus mutation, on the other hand, was like going down a slope in a vehicle that only had breaks but no accelerator. You could stop the car but were at the mercy of the road’s inclination to start moving again.

For centuries, Hitori had been working on his new project, Statera. The secret to it lay in the last two cages he had in the lab. One was the ambystoma maculatum, or the spotted salamander. It happily grazed on the intense light from the powerful lamp hanging over its cage, letting the algae in its skin feed it. The other was the vespa orientalis, or the Oriental wasp. A colony of them buzzed happily beneath an equally powerful light bulb. The pigments in its cuticle were converting the light into electricity, which the wasp used in turn.

These two remarkable animals and their ability to convert light into power were the keys to Statera. Hopefully, this would enable him to balance out the downsides of Tardus and Celer without compromising genetic stability. Too bad that he didn’t have access to the Celer mutagen right now. To make it, he needed celeria, and he had used it all up. Thinking about the Celer mutation, thoughts of his crew came to Hitori and, with them, frustration. He had only had time to give them the Celer mutation and send them off, wishing for the best. How sad that things hadn’t worked out. Why had Schneider been so selfish and put everyone else at risk? If only he had helped them instead of sabotaging the whole project…

A clap of thunder rumbled in the distance. Hitori stopped and frowned. He immediately rolled up his sleeve and felt his arm. It was warmer than usual. He also put his hands to his throat. It was also hot. This was too soon. A dark storm grew on the horizon. No! He was not supposed to wake up for another sixty years at least.

Hitori ran to the calendar and started to make calculations. He had been asleep for fifty-four years and six months. Given the progression of how short the time between freezes was, he would have this time around… fifteen minutes? The thunder grew louder, and Hitori looked out the window. The storm was growing stronger. He only had a few hours to prepare. His Mind Palace had already started to crumble. He was waking up.

Hitori closed his eyes and teleported to the Space Agency building. Here had been where he had prepared for the biggest expedition of his life. Appropriately, he had chosen this as the place where he prepared for his trips back to the real world. As he put on his spacesuit and entered his replica of the Phoenix, he waited and focused, allowing his connection to his subconsciousness to fade while warming up for his trip to reality.

The storm reached him and shook the spaceship. He should have had more time before thawing but was always ready for any contingency. He lived every day under the assumption that there could be an early thaw. He had devised plan upon plan for any imaginable scenario, and this was one of them. After all, time was a friend of preparation.

Ch. 10