Joint Interplanetary Link Layer (J.I.L.L)
Submission for Day 6 of The Halls of Pandemonium- A story about preparing for a journey. The journey must stop before it begins.
Sydney looked out of the low window of her hut at the horizon. A seemingly endless expanse of greens and purples dominated the view. Strange creatures flew among the trees, which grew thick on this planet.
She stared a little longer toward the sky. When seemingly satisfied, she turned back and grabbed a knapsack from under her hammock.
“Jill, activate,” she called out into the air as she unzipped the bag.
From the far corner, a low chime played and the sound of metallic joints came to life. A figure stepped forward from the shadows and descended from a metallic plate encircled by soft blue lights.
It’s slightly taller than Sydney, with all the same limbs and proportions as her. However, it was metallic with joints and panels, and its eyes glowed with the same blue light as its stand.
“J.I.L.L active. Good morning, Sydney,” it stated in a monotone voice.
“Hey Jill, we’re going out,” Sydney responded. “Can you give me a reading from the weather station?”
“Analyzing...” Jill paused.
“The atmospheric pressure is within the acceptable range. No planetary storms expected for the next three local hours.”
“Good, we’re going to make the jump,” Sydney replied.
“Shall I retrieve the diodes?” J.I.L.L asked, looking in Sydney’s direction.
“Yes,” she responded.
While J.I.L.L walked to the safe next to her recharging disk, Sydney’s bag was twice as large as when she first started.
She first grabbed three notebooks, each filled with notes about this planet.
She spent more time than usual on this jump. It would be three Earth months as of today.
It was the first jump with the correct atmosphere and oxygen composition for her to explore without the constraints of her suit. It reminded her most of home.
With the notebooks, she packed a handful of clothes, hygiene essentials, and some scientific instruments.
In a second bag she stuffed a camera with three lenses that were a mix of short and long range with different colored filters at the end of each, a few hard drives, and a pouch of food.
J.I.L.L now had the safe open and pulled out a tray of glass diodes. There were three, each a different color.
While holding the tray in one hand, it opened a compartment in its chest with three slots.
It first slotted the red diode into the red slot, then the green diode into the green slot, and finally the blue diode into the blue slot.
With a hiss and a clack the chest cavity closed.
“The diodes are primed,” J.I.L.L called to Sydney.
“Perfect, just grabbing a few more items,” Sydney called back.
Finally, she grabbed a small piece of leather folded in half, tied with twine. She held it to her chest for a moment with her eyes closed, then placed it into the second bag and zipped it shut.
Sydney placed the two bags near the door with a thud. J.I.L.L was waiting nearby, gazing blankly as if reading something.
“What’s wrong, Jill?” Sydney asked as she put her first leg into her space suit.
“An alert from the southern weather station. An atmospheric mass is coming quickly. We have thirty seconds.”
“Damn it,” Jill said. “It must be a flash storm. I guess we’ll have to make the jump later. We won’t make it to the rift in time.”
She looked at J.I.L.L with a frown. J.I.L.L copied her expression as two dome halves rose from the earth around them and closed over their hut.
Sydney let out a sigh as she watched the oncoming storm approach.
This story was for Day 6 of Bradley Ramsey ‘s The Halls of Pandemonium.
Here’s the prompt:
Thank you for reading borrowed worlds! If you enjoyed what you read, consider jumping into this universe!
