Grazing The Sky

Lance stepped out of the examination room and into the wide hallway, heading towards the library when Yittek's voice stopped him.

"Perhaps he is in the Equilix."

Lance spun on his heel, facing the Razalek with one brow raised. "The Equilix?"

Yittek nodded. "It's the outcome of many years work. My attempt to blend all three species, if you will."

After a quiet agreement, a portal swirled into existence in front of Lance. With a quiet thanks, Lance stepped through, finding himself in front of a large, transparent globelike structure. Strips of light circled it, each one holding hundreds of keys. Acting on instinct, Lance took one, suddenly feeling himself become weightless. It was like he was being teleported, but his surroundings didn't change. He got the urge to step forward, and did so, suddenly finding himself in a dark landscape. Blue, transparent tiles shaped in a circle spread out before him, and dozens of images floated about.

So this is the Equilix.

He stepped forward, looking at the floating images as they passed by. Spiro anatomy, Razalek ears with a few piercings, the beasts Spiros were born as.

Lance picked up this last image; a repeating, moving image of the Spiro snapping its jaws at the camera.

"It's actually downloaded from memory."

Lance looked up, seeing Zidane sitting against the dome's invisible wall, rubbing a knuckle into a closed eye.

Lance turned back, watching the jaws snap again, just out of the recorder's reach. "So this is someone's memory?"

"Yeah."

He nodded, hand slipping back into the pocket of his hoodie. Curiosity began to creep up.

"So how do you search for something?"

"Just think 'search' and whatever you wanna search." Zidane grinned. "If that makes sense."

"Perfectly." Lance nodded.

He waited for a few moments, a thought coming to him. An image of an acoustic guitar rose out of the floor, and just the sight moved Lance into a state of pain.

I was supposed to go back and pick it up, the morning I was kidnapped...

He swallowed down the longing to go back, reaching out and holding the image, swiping a finger across the screen.

"Surprised it got something so human."

Zidane nodded, taking an image from up high and bringing it in front of himself. Some running photo of Spiro evolution, from the beast to the tailed-man.

"I've hooked up parts of the Internet, so you can search for a lot of human stuff, too."

Lance stood, staring and hesitating before searching his band, Carry the Creation. A YouTube channel appeared, with it all their old videos.

"They... Kept everything?"

Lance quickly scrolled down, noting how the channel hadn't been active in over two-and-a-half months.

Zidane stared at the image, inverted from his angle. "Whoever erased their memory might have erased the memory of the band, too," he said quietly.

Lance nodded, hand dropping. Raising up to push the image back into the floor. He walked forward, searching Spiro cells how to get out as he sat against the wall and waited.

No results came.

Zidane gave a light grin. "First thing I searched for."

"Damn." Lance laughed a little bit. "I thought that would actually work, too."

"Nah, it's never that easy."

"Definitely..."

Lance looked over, seeing a video of a smiling Spiro man, and gave a reverse-nod to it. "What're you researching?"

"Different medicines for you," Zidane replied. He gently pushed down one image, drawing forth an article written in a different language.

"Anything I can help with?"

Zidane nodded, and once again, Lance felt an entire language become downloaded into his brain. Fourth one so far.

He blinked, one hand rising to his head and trying to rid the light throb that had started up. After a few moments, the pain subsided, leaving Lance to stare at the emptiness around him. Spaces that should be filled with images and writing.

He searched Spiro cells how to deactivate. Nothing.

He searched How to get my life back. Articles on depression.

He searched Why is this thing so stupid. Random clips and articles greeted him.

Zidane grinned, bowing forward as light laughter came from him. Lance grinned as well.

"What? These are legitimate questions."

"You kill me sometimes, Lance," Zidane said.

Lance laughed as well. He turned his focus back to the results, continuing to search.