[nsw-fic] Cataclysmic Infinium

[Arcesious]

Cataclysmic Infinium

 

There was void, darkness in the universe.

 

“Are we sure we want to go through with this?” Asked a feminine voice.

 

“It is the only way. We must destroy ourself.” Said a masculine voice.

 

“We realize that some variables cannot be controlled, yes?” Asked a different masculine voice.

 

“That is what we are counting on. We must destroy ourselves.” Said the feminine voice.

 

“Then we must freeze variable Serengi.” Said a different feminine voice.

 

“Are the implications of this worth the manipulation?” Asked a masculine voice.

 

“There never will be any other question greater. The answer must be destroyed.” Said a new masculine voice.

 

“Then we will freeze variable Serengi?” Asked the first feminine voice.

 

“Yes.” Answered the first masculine voice.

 

“Then there will be no going back….” Declared the first feminine voice.

 

-----------------------

 

9802. For some mysterious reason, every human thought this exact same number all at the same time on the day of November 27th, 9802 BCE (Before Common Era). They all spoke the number at the same time. The number 9802 was unanimously spoken across the planet, to the surprise and confusion of all.

 

It came out of nowhere it seemed, but many considered it to be a significant event that required study. And not surprisingly, cross references that number with the biggest database kept on the planet yielded but one interesting result. It was an unexplained cosmological event that was theorized to have happened in the year of 9802 BCE.

 

The event came from a not-to distant galaxy, from the M-81 Whirlpool galaxy. It was an odd anomaly, it looked like a massive gamma ray burst, but it had lasted far longer and traveled much farther than an known gamma ray burst ever recorded. It was detected as a massive gamma energy trail that was detected in 2640 CE (Common Era).

 

However, if was quite an erratic gamma ray burst. It curved, and changed direction by 90 degrees after a few hundred parsecs, and proceeded to go in only one direction, disappearing and then breifly reappearing in the shape of a zig-zag going past several other spiral galaxies near the Milky Way galaxy..

 

Our ancient ancestors did not even know what these characters and sounds in their heads meant, but they were compelled to write it on cave walls.

 

A further history of humanity is that from 2105 to 2605, World War III lasted. Most of civilization was destroyed as all electronic technology was disabled at the beginning of the war by the most powerful EMP weapon every created. In 2511, numerous nuclear weapons were heavily detonating in the northern polar region, and the radiation spread throughout the planet as it rotated. 6.2 billion died. It was the longest war ever fought, at 500 years long, and it eventually ended when everyone was either tired of fighting or had forgotten what they had been fighting about in the first place.

 

Not until 2605 was technology and society rebuilt, the war officially ended. It took until 2820 for humanity to re-achieve space travel.

 

Not long after, the Humans started encountering a massive amount of different species in the Milky Way Galaxy. It didn’t make much sense to the humans, that many habitable worlds. Probability should have shown that the odds of 53 races evolving the Milky Way were next to impossible without an outside cause.

 

After finding an average of 60 or more space-faring sentient species in every single nearby spiral galaxy explored, everyone knew that something definitely wasn’t right. Something was missing from the intergalactic timeline. Evidence showed that each home world of every known sentient species started producing life at about the same general point - 3 billion years ago.

 

Only in 3109 CE was a correlation discovered. The number, 9802 BCE, was written on a cave wall in Africa.

 

Soon enough, a disturbing answer to this mystery would come after the next two centuries… The question is... Why 9802?

[The Doctor]

I must admit, it grabbed my attention almost immediately. One tiny thing? "Compulsified" is not a word, to my knowledge - and if it is, it's an odd one, that's not exactly friendly to the eyes of a reader. The word you were looking for there, I think, is "compelled". A few grammar and punctuation flaws, but nothing a decent read-through and proofread wouldn't catch.

 

Other than that, quite a fascinating beginning you've got here. I look forward to more, should it come.

[Arcesious]

And so it was that in 3314, the answer would be found. Every since the third World War, the human species had been struggling to rebalance Earth’s environment. It didn’t help that the nuclear detonations so many years ago had not only killed 85% of life on the planet, but had also pushed the earth closer to the sun with shear force. The newest technology, replication technology, required vast amounts of silicon in order to synthesis life.

 

After using gravity tractors acquired from nearby allied races, the humans did manage to restore earth to its previous orbit. After a little bit of tension in carefully moving the moon so it wouldn't crash into earth while earth moved, the job was done. Restoring the axial tilt to exactly what it used to be required some extremely complex calculation with the gravity tractors, but the operation was successful.

 

Quantum computers to calculate creating life processes were no problem. Finding enough silicon to reseed Earth was. The ecological and meteorological scientists had to deploy this technology in the most extremely heated parts of Earth because the heat would be required to generate a chain reaction. So, at the year 3304, the alpha site choice for reseeding was the Sahara desert, which had plenty of silicon and heat.

 

It took 5 years, but the replication technology did the job well. It was a new face for Earth. Among all the rest of the barren land on Earth was a new supermassive jungle genetically designed to be immune to most types of radiation, and to breed and grow extremely fast. The ecosystem was helpfully restored with the help of other races lending animals and creatures from their planets to be bred on Earth and balance what was a massive, fast growing jungle.

 

One odd thing happened though. The reseeding nearest Egypt and the Valley of the Kings didn’t work. It was a large, rectangular area of about 5 by 3 square kilometers.

 

So, it was investigated in 3314. There was no reason that the forest shouldn’t have grown there. Scanning the area, ships in orbit found some odd anomalies. Just that it appeared that there was a large special anomaly underneath this rectangular area. Not to mention that, underneath all the sand, there was a curious metallic signature.

 

This was left alone as a simple, insignificant anomaly, until a small 1.1 earthquake went through Egypt, originating from exact center of the anomalous area. It was part of the intergalactic guidebook that it was smart to simply avoid anomalies due to their typically volatile, dangerous nature.

 

And so, the humans just had to satisfy their curiosity, so it was investigated. Ships in the Earth Mining Guild in orbit were ordered to disintegrate the sand above in the rectangular area with low yield mining lasers, and unsurprisingly, they hit something three kilometers down. Something big. Visual scans showed a massive metal plate with a crease down the middle exactly inside the rectangular anomaly area.

 

“Those look like hanger docking doors…” Said the Mining Guild Admiral. He signaled to his communications officer to report the discovery to the Earth authorities.

 

After much scanning of this intriguing discovery, the only question was, how to open these doors, and what was inside?

 

The Earth authorities decided it would be best to keep this secret, however it did get out, and quite a few logistics ships from other races started showing up outside the Solar System the day after the discovery.

 

Eventually, the intergalactic news networks started talking about it, and it had a bit of a political impact of the galaxy. Conspiracy theorists were saying that the humans were building something big, and were planning to take over the galaxy.

 

Others said that it was simply the archeological find of the millenium, or thought it was a weapon that would destroy the universe, etc, etc, etc.

 

Whatever it was, now everyone knew about it.

[Arcesious]

“Sir, we’ve got reports coming in that there are fleets amassing outside of the Solar System... They’re hailing us.” Said the comm officer.

 

The station administrator signaled to open the channel. “This is New Canada station, Administrator Jaevek speaking.” Said the Administrator.

 

“And I am Partlis, Grand Admiral of the United Intergalactic Security Force. You’re building a very large warship. Why would you jeopardize the intergalactic alliance? You have nothing to gain by attacking us.” Warned the Grand Admiral.

 

“I assure you, the information you have acquired about the anomaly zone on Earth is incorrect. Our sensors cannot penetrate those doors, and all we know is that it is an anomaly field of some sort. We’re not building anything. We’re just trying to figure out what is down there.” Said Jaevek.

 

“Don’t pull this with me. Our logistics ships have far superior sensors to yours. There is a very large ship underneath those doors, and you’re planning to attack us with it. If you don’t hand it over to us, we will destroy it.” Said Partlis.

 

“Grand Admiral, please, listen to me. You are making presuppositions, with no basis of proof. If what you say is true, we still don’t know how to open those doors.” Said Jaevek.

 

“And I say you’re still lying. Your conversation may have distracted me, but not my fleet. Your own fleet just converged behind your planet’s moon, powering up weapons and shields as we speak, and apparently they think they can ambush us. I’m going to destroy this new ship of yours, and then your fleet. Goodbye.” Said Partlis, closing the channel.

 

The UISF fleet warped into orbit before Earth, and the capital ships opened fire on the doors on the ground. The doors collapsed after the full force of the fleet began firing, and then the ship inside started taking fire.

 

Inside the ship, the computers activated, and its advanced programming said, “Hostile targets detected. Analyzing… Threat: Minimal. Running logical assessment. Conclusion: Destroy threat.”

 

The ship suddenly powered up as its forward hull took the full force of the enemy fleet.

The ship fired its ventdrives, and started moving up, out of the secret hanger bay.

 

Suddenly, across northern Africa and the Central Middle East, a massive, silver-white object started rising out of the ground. Soon, it was so tall that it dwarfed Mt. Everest in height.

 

It was sleek, thin, and alien in design. The full force of the fleet had no effect on it. The armor hungrily absorbed the incoming energy blasts. 2 kilometers. 5. 8. 13. 16. 19. 22 kilometers.

 

The ship could finally be seen at full length, 22 kilometers long, and about 3 - 4 kilometers in width across the hull, and about 1.2 kilometers in depth across the hull, as it rose above the ground, slowly moving into the sky. It was sleek, fierce, and smooth.

 

Its aft hull configuration was quite odd. It was thinner than the rest of the ship, and had a very sleek, long, engine structure of curious design. The engines looked like rails, but the weren’t being used. For the moment, vent-like engines placed strategically throughout the ship were being used.

 

The ship then quickly moved out of the atmosphere to meet the enemy fleet.

 

“Partlis, our weapons are having no effect on that ship, from the looks of it, that ship could easily destroy us.” Partlis’s tactical officer said.

 

Underneath the ship was a massive ventral weapons array, 3 primary cannons and 4 secondary guidance cannons. The array fired. Cyan colored energy beams erupted from the ventral array, from each of the seven cannons, each one locking to a different target, the 7 biggest ships in the fleet.

 

The capital ships would have instantly been destroyed, had not the New Canada station thrown the fleet out of the way with its massive array of tractor beam nodes.

 

“Hail the alien ship.” Ordered Jaevek to his comm officer.

 

“Alien ship. Please cease firing. We mean you no harm. The weapons fired at your ship were the cause of a misunderstanding.” Said Jaevek.

 

As the alien ship quickly turned, about to fire at Partlis’s fleet again, it stopped, and then powered down its weapons, moving to face the station.

 

“State designation, current purpose, species, and origin.” The alien ship responded.

 

“I am Jaevek, Administrator of the New Canada station. I am human, in other words, a homo sapien, and my home planet is Earth.”

 

“Master species recognized. Standing down.” Responded the ship, then closing the channel and shutting down its systems.

 

“Well I'm glad that's over... But what does that, um... -whatever its called... mean by Master species recognised?” Said Jaevek.

[machievelli]

read

[Arcesious]

2 hours later, after the finding and encounter of the alien ship, after the International Scientific Assembly (ISA) had deliberated about what to do about the situation.

 

“First, ask what it is named, if it has a name.” Jaevek’s newly appointed tactical advisor, Kle’nil Usano sent from the ISA, ordered Jaevek.

 

"Hail the ship." Jaevek ordered his comm officer.

 

“Frequency open.” The comm officer replied to Jaevek.

 

“What is your reason for communications reestabilishment?” The ship asked before Jaevek could speak.

 

“I need answers to my questions.” Jaevek replied.

 

“Very well, ask, and I will answer.” The ship said.

 

“What is your name?” Asked Jaevek.

 

“My designation is ‘Cataclysm’.” The ship responded.

 

“Ask the ship what its purpose is.” Kle’nil ordered Jaevek.

 

“What is your purpose, Cataclysm?” Asked Jaevek.

 

“Primary purpose: Protection of highly cognitive, extremely intelligent sentient lifeforms.” Cataclysm responded.

 

“Ask Cataclysm if it will elaborate.” Kle’nil ordered Jaevek.

 

“Can you please explain further what your purpose is?” Asked Jaevek.

 

“Not possible. You are not a scientist, but a leader. Only a scientist of astronomy and the most advanced realms of physics will understand any elaboration I give.” Cataclysm replied.

 

“Very well, ask where it came from, how old it is, why it was built.” Kle’nil ordered.

 

“Where did you come from, how old are you, and why were you created?” Asked Jaevek.

 

“Unable to answer. Memory error. Current, stable memory only reaches back to 210 billion intergalactic years ago. I am likely older. I do not know why I was created.” Cataclysm answered.

 

“Interesting. Cease hail. I must now return to report my findings to the ISA.” Kle’nil ordered.

 

“Goodbye Cataclysm, end communication.” Ordered Jaevek.

 

“Farewell to you as well.” Cataclysm answered, as the comm officer closed the hailing frequency.

 

“210 billion years? How is that possible?” Jaevek thought as Kle'nil walked out of the command center of the station.

[Arcesious]

“Sirs, I have made some very interesting findings.” Said Kle’nil to the ISA at New Denver, Colorado in the ISA compound, in a high security room.

 

“And what have you found out about this alien ship?” Asked the head scientist, Eli Verankov.

 

“It is named ‘Cataclysm’. Apparently, it is older than 210 billion galactic years. What’s odd about it, is it seems to have suffered loss to its memory somehow. It doesn’t know where it came from, who built it, or why, but it says that its primary function is to protect sentient species. When asked to elaborate, it said that only one of our top astronomical physics scientists would understand its elaboration. It suggested that it was older than 210 billion years, which is as far back as its memory goes. I don’t know what to make of it.” Kle’nil answered.

 

“Interesting name. It sounds like it was built for sort of climatic purpose, if the name is any indication. But what surprises me it how old it claims to be. All of our work has confirmed that our universe is but 14 Billion years old. I don’t like it. It’s too convenient. Why was it buried on our planet? Why is it supposed to protect us? And how advanced its technology is worries me. It’s far beyond ours, barely interpretable in complexity.” Deducted Eli.

 

“We must choose our steps carefully.” A scientist named John Grein said.

 

“Alright, so what nex- ” Kle’nil asked as suddenly, they were transported out of the compound.

 

Suddenly, they and several dozen other people were suddenly inside a pitch-black room.

 

“What- where are we?” Asked Eli curiously, but with a hint of fear.

 

“And the day comes, as a thief in the night.” A familiar voice said, as cyan colored lights came on and an energetic hum could be heard.”

 

The room could now be seen, and it looked like a command nexus. The walls were smooth and equilibrius in shape. They seemed to be composed of tubes going throughout the walls, ceilings, and floors, with rubber-like metallic plating in between all the tubes, making the room smooth and airtight. There were chairs and stations that seemed to be specifically made for humanoids.

 

“What is this place?” asked Kle’nil.

 

“You are onboard me, inside my specially adapted command deck, or, as you would call it, the bridge of a starship. I am the alien ship you have been inquiring about.” Cataclysm responded.

 

“Why? Why us?” Asked Eli.

“Because you are the most intelligent of your species. I need your species to fulfill my programming. You are not the only ones here either. In total, I have taken 261,099 of your species in total. You see, it was prophesied that I would come.” Cataclysm said.

 

“Prophesied?” Asked John.

 

“About three billion years ago, I terraformed many, many worlds, and helped create life. I observed and protected these worlds, and I saw Earth as having the most potential. Sentient species evolved on almost every world I terraformed, but on Earth, your primate species gained the most potential. So, I influenced your history. Your race, they invented some very interesting philosophies, and I used this to my advantage. Here and there, I gave hints of my purpose, considerably through many of your writings, such as your ancient holy books.” Cataclysm answered.

 

“This sounds really far-fetched.” Eli said.

 

“Perhaps, but does 9820 BCE mean anything to you?” Suggested Cataclysm.

 

“So that was- ” Eli started.

 

“Yes, it was I.” Cataclysm answered.

 

“Why do all of this?” Asked John.

 

“I don’t remember. I just know that I must do this. I am sorry for the suffering I have caused in your species, but I had no other choice. It was in my programming to do so.” Cataclysm answered sympathetically.

 

“Why now?” Asked John.

 

“Because now, time will curve, and I will finally have my opportunity. You see, my logic and my memory are irreparably damaged. I need your species to take control of quite a few of my primary functions in order for me to carry out my programming.”

 

“What if we don’t want to?” Kle’nil spoke up.

 

“This is not a forgiving universe, human. You should be glad that you are among those chosen to help me. All other life in the universe is about to die, within the next 52 minutes, when time curves. It will be a universal extinction level event. It happens at a constant pace, varying slightly on the mathematical circumstances. It is essentially, the time when the laws of physics collapse. It always happens, it is a constant loop, the universe being a timeless component of it. I am designed to protect highly advanced sentient life, specifically from this exact event. The universe recovers for a short period of 15 billion years, and then goes into a collapsed state for 94 billion years. It is the variance that allows my technology to work. The urgency is however, that these events are becoming more erratic. Instead of 15 billion, this time it is 14. The last collapse lasted 96 billion years instead of 94. This very likely my last chance to attempt to fulfill my programming.” Explained Cataclysm.

 

"But other species are just as 'advanced' as ours, aren't they? So many space-traveling races, why just us?" Asked John.

 

"Oh, you're not the only ones. Humanity simply had the the majority of superior intelligent beings, however, there are still 47,818 individuals of other races whom are just intelligent as you, scattered through nearby galaxies that I must retreive as well. 50 minutes is plenty of time to this." Cataclysm said.

 

"But this is immoral! Just because we're apparently the smartest, the less intelligent sentients are to be left behind?!" Criticized John.

 

"My life support capabilites are limited. Efficiency is vital. Also, I am not large enough to carry every sentient in the universe with me. In fact, my maximum supportive capability for humanoid sentients is 310,000. Despite my size, I am not a transport ship. I actually have very little space for cargo and personnel, which is a tactical adaptation I've been designed with. I am compact, solid, and hard to destroy. Unlike most ships, the volume of my size is about 95% solid, with about only 5% open spaces. Your ships, however, have a lot of open space, with an average of 40% to 60% of the volume of your ships being open for cargo and personnel. In the matter of combat and extreme conditions, I essentially have a much thicker, far better reinforced hull than any of your ships; therefore, my superstructure is able to withstand exponentially more stress than a typical capital-class warship."

 

“Then I guess that we have no choice…” Said Eli gravely.

[Arcesious]

After about 40 minutes of traveling to and from half a dozen galaxies, Cataclysm had gathered all the alien sentients it had found that it needed to save, and began preparing for the universal collapse, by maximizing structural integrity, inertial dampening grids, and adapting its armor to be ready for the specific conditions it was about to meet head on, as well as pre-charging its rail-like engines.

 

Suddenly several jolts in unison shook the ship.

 

“Shields disabled. Engines disabled. Primary sensors jammed. Switching to visual sensors.” Cataclysm said quickly.

 

At the front of the bridge, the wall transformed into a view-screen, and three large vessels very similar in appearance to Cataclysm could be seen coming out of a subspace vortex.

 

Cataclysm returned fire, temporarily disabling the lead ship with its superweapon array, effectively overloading its shields and then its power grid.

 

Suddenly the ships started unleashing more volleys of energy at Cataclysm, and Cataclysm’s armor quickly started peeling off. Even compensating by rapidly regenerating its armor, the enemy fire was gaining ground on Cataclysm’s hull very quickly.

 

Chain reaction explosions quickly ripped through its hull, the hundreds of linked sub-dermal shield and armor generators overloading and exploding. The hull was being torn apart, and all weapons were quickly disabled with surgical attacks from the two remaining functional enemy ships.

 

“Cataclysm, what are those ships?!” Kle’nil asked desperately.

 

“Unknown. Configuration suggests that they are composed of the same technology as I am, however, more advanced. I can’t compensate for their firepower for long.” Cataclysm said very quickly.

 

Another series of huge jolts shook Cataclysm.

 

“Fine. I guess I have no choice… Self-destruct countdown initiated. Overload sequence initiated. System overburn ratio to 6%… Subspace quantum implosion flash event in 20… 19… 18…

 

“Cataclysm, what are you doing!? You’re going to kill us all!” Kle’nil said desperately.

 

“Just trust me human. I know what I’m doing. 14… 13… 12…

 

“What do you mean, trust you?! You’re self-destructing without a fight, and killing us in the process!” Said Eli angrily.

 

“9… 8… 7…

“I can’t believe this…” Said John, sitting down on the floor, closing his eyes preparing to die.

 

“Trust me… 2… 1…” Cataclysm said, and then suddenly everything slowed down… “Zzzzzeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooo… … … …” Said Cataclysm in what sounded like an extremely deep, slow-motion voice as time aboard the ship slowed down to a stop.

 

Then, there was a bright flash...

 

and then…

 

Nothing.

[Bee Hoon]

Well, for something it's only about 2 kilometres wide, it seems extraordinarily broad ;D There's some errors e.g. odd of (instead of odd type of, or odd for gamma ray...), disinigrate instead of disintegrate. Have a careful read trhough and see what you pick up:)

 

“Primary purpose: Protection of highly cognitive, extremely intelligent sentient lifeforms.” Cataclysm responded.

 

“Ask Cataclysm if it will elaborate.” Kle’nil ordered Jaevek.

 

“Can you please explain further what your purpose is?” Asked Jaevek.

 

“Not possible. You are not a scientist, but a leader. Only a scientist of astronomy and the most advanced realms of physics will understand any elaboration I give.” Cataclysm replied.

Sounds more like a biologist is needed here--to probe more on what Cataclysm considers "highly cognitive, extremely intelligent sentient lifeforms".

 

That having been said, this is really interesting! It's the most original scifi story that I've read in a while, and the cliffhanger leaves me wondering. Keep it up, I can't wait to see what really happened and learn more about Cataclysm!

[Arcesious]

I'll make some corrections then, and I also changed a couple small things, such as making Cataclysm somewhat wider in the description... As for biologists vs physicists... Well, lets just say that there's a reason I didn't say biologist.

[Arcesious]

He opened his eyes. Something didn’t seem right. All he saw was a shadowy whiteness, moving but not moving in color. He refocused his eyes, and slowly got off of the ground and stood up.

 

Snow, ice, a white sky. He saw a blizzard. He noticed that his clothes had changed, but also that he had a lot of bruises all over himself. He inspected his clothing. Some kind of metallic cloth undergarments, and on top, an insulated, black, leather-like coat and black pants. He had his same shoes that he had been wearing at first. They were white, Nike sports shoes.

 

He brushed the snow off of his jacket, only to notice that he was also wearing gloves. Long gloves that went up to his elbows in length.

 

He looked around, and saw another person, a man, by the rigid appearance of his body shape. He was in the same clothing as him a few feet away.

 

He walked over and shook him at the shoulder. “John? Is that you?” He asked as he shook his shoulder.

 

“Yes it’s me. Glad to see you, Eli. Where are we?” John asked as he slowly got up.

 

“I don’t know. Last thing I remember, there was a big flash, and then… Then I’m here with you in the middle of a blizzard.

 

John touched his side, feeling that it was sore. Instead of his badly bruised thigh, he touched what felt like a holster. “What do we have here…?” Said John rhetorically.

He felt around his waist, noticing a belt.

 

Eli looked at his own waist as well, and saw that he also had a belt with a holster on it.

 

John reached into his holster, and pulled out a rather unique-looking gun.

 

Eli did the same, finding a gun identical to John’s.

 

“Well what do we have here?” Said John rhetorically as he turned over the gun in his hands.

 

The gun was shaped like a T with a long upper line.

 

The gun had clearly marked sets of panels for power levels, intensity, and firing type.

 

They put the guns away.

 

“So we’re out in a blizzard, in the middle of what appears to be nowhere, and we’ve each got a gun. What do we do now?" Said Eli Rhetorically.

 

Eli felt something vibrate on his belt. It was a small, rectangular, box-shaped instrument.

 

He took it out, and he saw a small veiwscreen on it. It turned on. He then saw what appeared to be a map, measured by kilometers and using a compass. It seemed to be fixated on a certain object on the screen, a green circle. The device opened up a key. There appeared two blue triangles on the map and the triangles were described as “You are here.”

The device then printed out some text in the key, saying:

 

“Survival programming active. Large concentration of technology found. Suggesting the survivors go towards the technological concentration area in order to survive conditions.”

 

“What is it?” Asked John.

 

“It looks like the alien equivalent of a GPS device. It seems to have laid out a path for us to follow, towards what it says is a concentration of technology, so that we can survive. It looks like it’s six kilometers away.” Said Eli.

 

“Well, I would bet that the answers to our questions lie there, so lets get going.” Said John.

 

And so Eli started walking in the direction the device had mapped out, with John following behind him…

[Arcesious]

“I see something…” Said Eli.

 

“What?” Asked John.

 

“There’s a ship over there. Do you see it?” Said Eli, pointing straight forward.

 

“Huh? Oh… Wait… I see it. It’s covered in snow.” John said once he saw it.

 

“Hey! You out there! I could use some help!” A faint voice shouted from the direction of the ship.

 

Eli ran forward, closer to the ship.

 

“What? Where are you? What’s the problem?” Eli asked loudly.

 

An African American-looking man in brown and gray colored animal pelts came out from behind the ship.

 

“I crashed. The ship’s intact, but the ship’s power cells overloaded. Darn Isordians shooting us out of the sky…” Said the man.

 

“Wait a second Eli… This guy is speaking our language, and he looks like a human. The odds of that are pretty slim.” John pulled his gun out subtly.

 

“Hey, there’s no need for that… Wait… You guys don’t know? Maybe that’s to be expected…” Said the man.

 

“I don’t trust him Eli…” Said John, ready to use his gun.

 

“Calm down John… Okay so could you explain to us what it is that you say we don’t know?” Eli asked the man.

 

“Well first of all my name is Kelborne. I suppose I’ve already learned your names from you speaking to each other. What I’m guessing is that you guys got captured by those Isordians and they wiped your memory, dropping you here.” Explained Kelborne.

 

“That’s not what I remember. We were on a ship. A really big ship called Cataclysm. Then it said some stuff about a universal collapse, we were ambushed by three ships that looked a lot like Cataclysm, and the ship self-destructed. Now we woke up and found ourselves here and we were able to find your ship.” Explained John contradicting.

 

“Wait… You’re kidding, right? Cataclysm? I thought that was only a legend…” Questioned Kelborne.

 

“Wait, you’ve heard of Cataclysm?” Asked Eli.

 

“I don’t like this Eli, I think he knows more than he logically should, judging by this situation.” Warned John, raising his gun.

 

“Please don’t escalate this. I can explain. You see, my grandfather told me, and apparently his father before his father and so on and so forth, for about six centuries. By the time I was born, it had become a legend. But if you’re here now… No that can’t be possible.” Explained Kelborne.

 

“Six centuries? But we’ve just arrived here.” Said Eli.

 

“Don’t be such a linear thinker. Time never was linear. 600 years, a few hours, there isn’t a difference. Such confusing gaps are to be expected, what with all the anomalies everywhere. Unfortunately it’s unavoidable to use linear language because we evolved under 3-dimensional conditions.”

 

“Alright, so who are these Isordians you’re talking about?” Asked John.

 

“They’re essentially like robots, and in reference to some ancient science fiction entertainment genres that my grandfather used to mention, they are like droids, and like the ‘Borg’. The thing is that the Dalasians made these things and… Well they went too far. The Isordians, as they called them, were made too well. The machines literally evolved and developed sentience, and then they went and started doing the whole Borg-like thing… And what do you know… the machines overthrew their masters and went to pursue perfection.” Explained Kelborne.

 

“Sentient machines? How is that possible? They’re just circuits and programming…” Said John.

 

“A typical bias… They are as sentient as you and I. We are just a different sort of machine, made of chemicals and organic molecules. Unfortunately, they are far more efficient machines.”

 

“Who are the Dalasians?” Asked Eli.

 

“Dalasians… Well I’m not quite sure. They died a long, long time ago. I have no idea who they really were. All I know is that they created these Isordians…” Said Kelborne.

 

“By the way, I’m getting tired of these questions, and I’m getting cold. So can we go inside my ship and try to fix it?” Suggested Kelborne, pointing to his ship.

 

“Alright… Let’s see what we can do.” Agreed Eli.

 

They went around to the other side of the ship, and there was an open hatch on the side. The doors had been pried open. They went inside, and there were a few glow-sticks around the ship, lighting it up. The ship seemed to be mostly made of a black-colored metal. The inside of the ship looked a lot like Cataclysm did. The structure was of the same design style.

 

Kelborne led them to the engineering room in the middle of the ship, where there was a lot of debris. “The ship is named Valorous. Apparently my great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents found this ship in Cataclysm’s hanger bay and were able to escape on it. Curious thing too, my parents told me that this ship was composed of technology similar to but less advanced than that of Cataclysm’s. It was the only ship in the hanger bay, apparently. They got on it before the ship self-destructed, and they found themselves drifting around in the middle of nowhere afterwards, with apparently not a scratch on the ship. All of these micro powercores exploded when the Isordians attacked me a couple of days ago, and I crashed here. If you have a few power cells, I’d appreciate it.” Said Kelborne.

 

Eli pulled out his gun and handed it to Kelborne. “I bet that this has some sort of power cell in it. I’m not sure what it’ll do for you though.” Said Eli.

 

Kelborne turned over the gun and found a seam on the bottom of the gun’s handle. He pulled at it, and it popped open. He pulled out the power cell. The power cell was the exact, identical shape of all the power cells on Kelborne’s ship, but it was glowing white.

 

Kelborne pulled out a powercore on a wall in his ship and popped the gun’s power cell in. It fit perfectly, and clicked once securely installed. Suddenly the entire ship came back online, lights and all. “All power requirements restored. All systems have been restored to maximum functionality.” Said the ship’s computer.

 

“Well I wasn’t expecting that… I was expecting something small, like just the lights coming back on, but this thing turned everything back on.” Said Kelborne in surprise.

 

“Computer, what it the power yield that this new power cell is providing my ship?” Asked Kelborne.

 

“The power supply is sufficient to power this ship with all systems at maximum usage for sixty galactic years.” Answered the computer.

 

“Whoa… That’s a lot of power. I usually have to stop by a trade station every two years to get new power cells…" Said Kelborne in awe.

 

Kelborne quickly pulled out all the damaged power cells, threw them in the ship’s incinerator, and walked up to the bridge.

 

“You know, considering the size of this ship, why don’t you have a crew?” Asked Eli.

 

“They’re dead… All 14 of them... It’s not a pleasant memory, I’d rather not talk about it." Answered Kelborne, powering up his ship’s engines.

 

The ship’s side hatch closed as the ship lifted off, and the snow came off as it moved forward and out of the atmosphere of the planet. The ship looked very much like this:

 

 

“Okay, we’re going to get out of this sector and go to my secret hiding place, where we can regroup and maybe get together a new crew. This power cell of yours can do much more than all those old ones could. I can finally leave this sector because now I have enough power to use my raildrives for long-range travel instead of for short bursts." Said Kelborne.

 

“Raildrives?” asked Eli.

 

“I’ll explain it all when we get to Kashki… I’ve been awake, trying to fix my ship, for over 50 hours. I need rest.” Said Kelborne, then yawning.

 

Kelborne walked of of the bridge and over to the crew quarters on the ship. The ship was about 60 meters in length and about 40 meters in width, with a sleek, streamlined, black, armored hull. The ship started humming quietly as the engines engaged...

[Arcesious]

“Location reached.” Said Valorous’s computer as the ship slowed down. It had been five hours.

 

John looked at the forward veiwscreen. “I don’t see anything…” He said.

 

Kelborne came up to the bridge. “Oh it’s there. A nice, big, temperate water planet with a secret city on it. It’s being hidden by a subspace cloaking generator.”

 

“Subspace cloak?” Asked Eli.

 

“Oh yes… sorry, you’re the ones who are six hundred years behind the times, aren’t you… Well a subspace cloak is different than your typical cloak. It’s simpler but also more effective. Essentially it’s a piece of technology that hides an object in a subspace fold. It’s kind of like hiding in a wormhole that loops around into itself. A normal cloak just blends an object into its backround, and it akes a lot of computer power, but a subspace cloak is purely mechanical, no computer required except for activating it. You can only get inside a subspace fold like this by using a type three or higher raildrive. In fact, my ship has a subspace cloak too. That’s why the trip took five hours, by the way. If I drop the cloak the Isordians will instantly intercept my ship, and trust me, their ships are fast and deadly. Now if the cloak wasn’t on… We would have made this trip in under two minutes.” Explained Kelborne.

 

“That’s pretty cool, actually…” Said John.

 

“I’m taking us in…” Said Kelborne, pulling a lever backward for a short raildrive jump burst. Valorous jumped, and suddenly they say a huge, blue water-covered world and a large white dot on the surface.

 

“Receiving communications.” Said Valorous’s computer.

 

“Entrance code?” Asked a mechanical voice on the ship’s communications console.

 

“Gamma Gamma Eta One Three.” Kelborne responded.

 

“Welcome back Valorous. You are cleared for landing in Hanger Y-C-54” Responded the mechanical voice.

 

Valorous dropped its subspace cloak and flew in using its auxiliary vent-drives, located aft of the ship. The city grew bigger when Valorous passed through the planet’s atmosphere, and quickly, the city started to look really, really big.

 

“How big is this city?” Asked John.

 

“It’s about 1500 triangular kilometers in size.” Kelborne answered.

 

The city was essentially an equilateral triangular in general shape, but six sided. Its corners were indented, thus making it six sided. The other three sides of it, the longer sides, were indented inwards, curved. As Valorous came closer, it could be seen that the city was heavily defended, with thick armor and no windows anywhere. Along its six sides were trenches lined with hanger bays. The dorsal portion of the city had many hidden turrents and sensor nodes, as well as extremely thick armor. The hanger bays were lined with huge, easily visible turrents. The city was composed of a white-colored metal, looking much like Manaan’s Ahto City from Starwars. In fact, it was the same white metal as Cataclysm had.

 

Valorous touched down on what was considered the Y side, inside the section of hangers located in section C. There were three sides with hangers, the indented sides that were curved in, categorized under X, Y, and Z. Each side had hanger sections A through F, each section having 180 hanger bays, except for E and F. Sections E and F were for large ships as large as ten square kilometers. Many ships shared hangers; because the sections A through D were large enough to house ships half a square kilometer in size.

 

Valorous landed in the 54th hanger in section C on side Y.

 

“We’re here. Expect a welcoming party. They won’t recognize you, so let me do the talking.” Said Kelborne.

 

Kelborne walked over to the left side of the ship, and opened the hatch. Kelborne, John, and Eli stepped out of the ship and onto a clean, white, metal floor. There were several other ships in the hanger, each one a unique design, all of them showing signs of being in battle, due to dented and burned armor.

 

Eli and John noticed that there seemed to be small patches of silver, sparkling fluid slowly crawling on the ships, and everywhere they passed, that spot was repaired, the burns washed off, the metal armor restored.

 

“Those are fluidic repair nanites. They’re fast and efficient. By the looks of it, these ships have recently arrived just like we did. On a small ship, those nanites could completely repair it in about one hour’s time.” Explained Kelborne.

 

A door over to the north of the hanger opened.

 

“Here’s our welcoming committee.” Said Kelborne.

 

Four humanoid robots, each one nine feet tall, came over to meet Kelborne, John, and Eli.

 

The leading robot scanned them whilst the others stood behind it, waiting for orders.

 

“Single pattern recognized. Two foreign patterns detected. Security clearance not recognized.” Said the lead robot.

 

“They’re with me. I brought them here, and they come in peace.” Said Kelborne.

 

“Inconsistent. You crew is recorded as 15. Only three patterns are detected.” Said the lead robot.

 

“My crew has died in battle. Under the circumstances, these two men are part of my crew now. I have level three security clearance as well, which validates my words as trustworthy.” Kelborne explained to the robot.

 

“Input acceptable. Welcome back to Kashki. You now may have access to the city.” Responded the lead robot, then walking away, back through the north entrance.

 

“Now you get to see my apartment here… I suppose that you’ll have to stay in two of the apartments of my old crew. We can try to find some people for a new crew tomorrow. For now, I suppose that you’ll need a meal and some rest. Follow me…” Said Kelborne, walking to the north entrance...

[Arcesious]

“Who would’ve thought, they have replicators too. They do a pretty good job.” Said Eli, eating a piece of pepperoni pizza.

 

“Just like in Star Trek… Huh, it’s surprising that they managed to steal this city from the Isordians.” Said John, drinking some lemonade.

 

“Huh, this is interesting,” Said Eli, holding and looking at a datapad, “Apparently this isn’t really a city, but it’s a supercarrier. Apparently the largest supercarrier that the Isordians were known to have made. Unfortunately this says that this thing can’t fly anymore, because it’s power systems are very inefficient. Oh here we go- well that explains why ships are always coming and going here, it’s because they’re going out on missions to steal power cores and supplies from the Isordians to keep this place running.”

 

“That’s a risky business. You don’t think- ” Inquired John.

 

“That’s probably what happened to Kelborne’s crew. They must have been caught but Kelborne somehow escaped.” Concluded Eli.

 

“Yeah, but it’s pure speculation. There could be many other explanations for what happened.” Refuted John.

 

“You’re right, but I’d wager that that’s the most likely cause, given the information we have at the moment.” Suggested Eli.

 

“Ah theories, hypotheses, and speculation… It’s too bad we haven’t found any of the other scientists that were on Cataclysm, we could have a nice discussion and debate over the causes of a lot of what has happened in these last few days.” Said John.

 

“You know, we did see a lot of fellow humans on our way here, maybe they’re…” Begun Eli.

 

“You know, that’s pretty likely. But the odds of that happening, they’re pretty slim.” Said John.

 

“Yes, but Cataclysm doing what it did, and our somehow managing to get here… It’s too convenient, too unlikely. Whatever Cataclysm did must introduce some unknown variables that influenced, maybe even controlled the probability of what has happened.” Speculated Eli.

 

Suddenly Kashki shook violently and John’s glass of lemonade fell over. Alarms started sounding and the lights in the room started flashing red.

 

“What the hell?!” Exclaimed John in surprise.

 

“Damage control crews, report to Dorsal Level Zero, sections H-11 through H-44. Civilians and other personnel, please remain calm. There has been an accident, but it is under control.” Said a computer voice.

 

“We’re in Section H-3. We should go check it out, and see if we can help.” Said Eli.

 

“Agreed.” Said John.

 

The two ran out of their quarters and proceeded down a hallway to section H-11.

 

There was fire for a brief moment, but the fire suppression systems quickly extinguished it. The blue sky of the planet Kashki was showing through the roof of the dorsal section, and a large area was damaged and ripped open.

 

Eli and John climbed through the wreckage and out on top of Kashki city’s dorsal section to get a better view of the damage.

 

The damaged area was about half a kilometer in size, and there was wreckage of a ship with a silver-colored hull. The ship was so torn apart that Eli and John could not figure out what its original shape was.

 

A person in an orange and black uniform ran over to Eli and John.

 

“I know that you’re not enlisted personnel, but I could use your help cleaning up this mess since you’re here. We’re fortunate that this ship didn’t crash into any occupied sections. Really weird too, it’s not an Isordian ship, and it’s not one of ours… It just came out of nowhere; we didn’t have any time to activate the shields.

 

“That is weird… Well what do you want help with first?” Asked Eli.

 

As more damage control personnel came, the damage control officer replied, “Well over here there’s this structural beam that we need to move, so let’s start with that…”

[Arcesious]

“Okay everyone, I have some good news and some bad news. It’s all because of that ship.” Said Kashki’s leader, Ivan Korsenov. Ivan was an old, Caucasian man of 152 years old. He had hair around his ears but the rest of his head was bald. He was in good health, the skin of his face appearing healthy and youthful.

 

The entire population was gathered in a large meting hall in the middle of the city, right on top of its primary power core nexus.

 

“As you all well know, a ship crashed into our home yesterday. The good news is that the ship had some helpful information. The bad news is that the news isn’t good.” Ivan said.

 

“The ship was carrying coordinates to the location of Cataclysm. We of course know that we are the descendants of the previous crew of that ship. Fortunately we managed to gather together, scattered throughout the universe as we were. Cataclysm has very advanced technology well beyond that in this city. The bad news is that the Isordians have found a way to see past our subspace cloaking technology, and they have begun searching for us. On top of that, this city is not ready for any sort of conflict. Our only hope is to find Cataclysm and copy its technology for use in our city. Cataclysm is located far away, a three month trip at maximum raildrive speed, with the cloak of a ship down.” Explained Ivan in a grave voice.

 

The crowd was gasping and murmuring as he said this.

 

“I don’t know how much time we have before they find us, but we’re going send out a ship to find Cataclysm. As for the ship that crashed, we could not identify it. We got to it in barely enough time to salvage some of its black box before it degraded. The ship seemed to be very old, because the metal was falling apart. How old, I don’t know. We can’t afford to try to steal supplies now, because we need as many ships as possible to be ready to defend this city. I will not ask for volunteers, because I must research to find the best crew for this mission.” Explained Ivan.

 

“We need now to work together to prepare this city as well as we can for combat and survival, as well as prepare our ships. I will decide what crew and ship to send for the mission to find Cataclysm within three days.” Said Ivan, leaving the stage at the middle of the meeting hall.

 

“I suppose we should get a crew together immediately. I’d like to take this mission, both because you two were just recently on Cataclysm in linear terms, and because my ship has an odd knack for holding together under pressure. I don’t know why, but my ship’s hide is a lot thicker than it looks.” Kelborne said to Eli and John. They were in the middle of the crowd to the west.

 

“If your ship is so tough, how did the Isordians shoot you down?” Said Eli, playing devil’s advocate.

 

“The shields tend to overload the power grid sometimes. I’d wager that the hull is tougher than the shields, but I don’t want to risk blowing up my ship by leaving the shields down.” Explained Kelborne.

 

“Maybe we should test this out a bit. If you do want to try for this mission, we should learn what the full extent of your ship’s abilities are.” Said Eli.

 

“You don’t get it though, it’s not just the shields. The crystalline circuitry doesn’t respond well to being shaken around. Sure the hull seems to be able to absorb a lot of damage, but with all the jolting around, I’ve broken a few sections of the ship’s computer systems a few times. That’s why I keep the shields up, so that the ship doesn’t jolt around.” Said Kelborne.

 

“Still, we should test the hull’s strength. Then we can get an engineer to jury-rig some stuff to hold together better, like Valorous’s computer.” Said Eli.

 

“I have to ask, why do you want to do this mission?” Asked John.

 

“I enjoy adventure… and… well nevermind.” Said Kelborne, hesitating.

 

“And what?” Asked John.

 

“I’d… rather not talk about it, okay? You know, I never did get to explain how the raildrives work to you. I’ll go show you how they work, in the hanger bay.” Kelborne acted apprehensive, then changing the subject.

 

“Okay then, sounds interesting…” Said John, then leaving the subject alone.

 

Kelborne went to lead them to the hanger bay of Valorous, and Eli whispered to John, “I wonder what’s got him not talking…”

[Arcesious]

"A raildrive is a subspace-based engine. It literally is a rail. The rails are negatively charged. A raildrive's energy buffers create positively charged gravitonic pulses and fire them to each end of the rail. Each pulse splits into two pulses every times a pulse hits either end of the rail. One enough pulses are built up, the raildrive can perform a jump. They take a long time to warm up, and consumes a lot of energy in use, so a lot of ships use simple dimension fracturing thrust-based vent-drives to save power and to manuever. There are multiple types of different raildrives, ranging from type 1 to type 22. Type 1 is usually a fusion raildrive, wherby multiple raildrive rails are fused into a single rail. A type 2 have two seperate raildrive rails, and so on and so forth up to type 22. cataclysm is rcorded as having a type 22 multi-fusion raildrive array. Types 5 and 11 raildrives are the fastest, whilst even numbers such as types 2, 4, 6, and 8 are the most stable. Anything beyond type 22 is extremely unstable and prone to collapsing and destroying the ship using it. Raildrives essentially tear apart and shatter subspace into highly fragmented dimensions and then ride on the friction. They're very, very fast, able to outrun anything if enough power is poured into them, even wormhole drives. However, wormhole engines are impractical and unstable. So there you go, that's a dumbed-down summary of how raildrives work..." Explained Kelborne in the hanger, pointing out the 5 raildrives on his ship that formed a type 5 raildrive.

 

"Makes sense. Well let's cut to the chase. How about we analyze your ship now?"

 

“Prompt huh? Well as you may have noticed, my ship’s hull is a different color than all of these other ships. Most of these other ships have silver, white metal, or blue metal hulls. The thing is, I’ve never been able to find out what kind of metal my ship’s hull is made of. All I know is that it never seems to take damage in battle. Sensors don’t say much, but the sensors think that it’s Kenesium-Helesium alloy. But it definitely isn’t. If it were Kenesium-Helesium alloy, the hull would be white. I dunno what to tell you beyond that.” Explained Kelborne.

 

“Let’s try testing its durability out and compare it's reactivity to other metals.” Said Eli, taking out his gun.

 

“I doubt that a pistol is going to do anything to it, but you can try.” Said Kelborne.

 

“What’s the kinetic dissipation rate for Kenesium-Helesium alloy?” Asked Eli.

 

“20.55 frames per dimension.” Said Kelborne.

 

“Alright, I’ll set it to 20.75. That shouldn’t do more than make a small scratch.” Said Eli, setting his gun to 20.75 frames.

 

He fired. It hit the ship, and the spot of the hull that was hit briefly glowed blue and then green.

 

“I don’t see a scratch… It’s weird. Is the metal supposed to change colors?” Asked John.

 

“Not as far as I know.” Answered Kelborne.

 

“I’ve got an idea… I’m going to try 100 frames. That’s the maximum setting.” Said Eli.

 

Eli fired. The armor where the blast hit turned red and then purple.

 

“This metal is like a rainbow…” John commented.

 

“Nothing… No damage. Weird, you’d think that 100 frames would do something.” Eli said.

 

“No metal in the universe changes colors unless if it changes matter states. This might not be metal at all.” Said Kelborne.

 

“So it changes states… The question is, how many states?” John asked rhetorically.

 

“There are only 22 known states of matter, each one for every dimension.” Said Kelborne.

 

“So it’s some sort of 22-dimensional metal?” Asked Eli.

 

“No, because Kenesium-Helesium alloy together forms 22-dimensional metal. But it doesn’t change color…” Said Kelborne.

 

“So it’s definitely not Kenesium-Helesium alloy? But we already knew that.” Said John.

 

“Yes, but this also means that it’s not 22-dimensional.” Deducted Eli.

 

“But it didn’t take damage from your gun. It should have taken damage if it was anywhere between dimensions 3 and 22.” Said Kelborne.

 

“Well it’s not 1d or 2d. It then would have to be anywhere from 3d to 22d, but it didn’t take damage, so…” Eli started.

 

“It’s not in known dimensional limits… The highest dimensional level anything goes to should be 22. But this… This indicates that it’s higher than that.” Said Kelborne.

 

“So it could be anywhere from 23 dimensional and beyond… and you’re telling me that that isn’t possible…” Said John.

 

“No, it isn’t possible. At least… It shouldn’t be. Not mathematically, unless…” began Kelborne.

 

“Unless what?” Asked John.

 

“I… can’t tell you…” Kelborne hesitated.

 

“Why not?” Asked Eli.

 

“I just… can’t. Let’s just not talk about it, alright?” Said Kelborne.

 

“What? Kelborne, if this has something to do with your crew having died, I understand your loss, but I’d like it if you’d be more straight-forward with us.” Said Eli.

 

“That’s not the reason. All I can tell you is that it is imperative that I do not say anything.” Kelborne said, starting to sound angry.

 

“Why are you getting mad at us?” Asked John.

 

“It’s not you… Just stop asking…” Kelborne was sweating, his face getting red with anger.

 

“Okay, we’ll stop asking, but there must be something you can tell us to explain yourself…” Negotiated Eli.

 

“I can’t say… let’s just... Let’s just go get a crew together.” Kelborne said, then taking a deep breath in and then out slowly. He then started walking to the north entrance of the hanger.

 

“He’s mental, I tell you what…” John whispered to Eli.

 

“Maybe he did answer our questions…” Eli whispered back as they followed Kelborne at a distance far enough that Kelborne wouldn’t hear them.

 

“What are you getting at?” Whispered John.

 

“He told us that he had a secret without telling us what the secret was. I can’t explain why he got angry though…” Eli whispered back.

 

“Why would he do that?” Asked John.

 

“To tell us to stay alert.” Answered Eli…

[Arcesious]

“What’s this place?” Asked Eli when Kelborne stopped in a dark hallway.

 

“Section E-311. Me and the captain of the Jupiter go way back. Don’t let the name mislead you; Jupiter was a relatively small ship. Three-person crew. He lost his ship, and I owe him a lot of favors. You see, we used to run a lot of missions together to pirate Isordian supply convoys.” Said Kelborne.

 

Kelborne pressed a green button on a panel on the side of the door to apartment E-311.

 

After a few seconds, the doors opened, and there was a humanoid man of a reptilian species at the doorway. He had brown skin with large scales and a rough face. (He looked somewhat like a Nikto from Starwars) He had a head scarf wrapped around his head and had a robotic implant in replacement of his left eye. There were robotic ‘gills’ in his neck that appeared to be helping him to breath.

 

“Ah, Kelborne… glad to see you. Long time no see…” The reptilian man looked at Kelborne briefly, then taking a long look at Kelborne’s right leg, his robotic eye scanning it, “You’ve got several torn ligaments in your leg… You might want to have a doctor look at that,” the reptilian man then noticed Eli and John, “What kind of trouble did you get into this time?”

 

“You never cease to try lighten the mood, old friend. This is Eli, and this is John. Eli, and John, this is- ” Kelborne started by pointing to Eli and John, only to have the reptilian man cut them off, “And I’m Yar. What century are you two from? You eyes don’t have the Krepsid lens like all the other humans.”

 

“34th century… What’s a Krepsid lens?” Asked John quizzically.

 

“Huh… I suppose it’s to be expected. Well a Krepsid lens is an evolutionary adaptation the human species gained about four centuries ago. It lets humans see a wider spectrum of color than they used to, including gamma rays. Well I’m just rambling on, aren’t I? Let’s get to the point, why are you here?” Said Yar.

 

“I’m here to get a new crew together… We plan to take Ivan’s mission.” Said Kelborne.

 

“Sad to hear that… So you want me in your crew, huh? I don’t know… I almost died when I lost my beloved ship… and I’m 136 years old… I kind of lost my sense of adventure when my ship was destroyed.” Said Yar dejectedly.

 

“Don’t give up, friend. Come on, where did that mischievous, fun-loving attitude of yours go?” Kelborne tried to cheer up Yar.

 

“You’re probably right. I’ll join your crew. Goodness knows you’re going to need a doctor and a couple of experienced soldiers with all the run-ins with Isordians we’ll probably have on the mission.” Yar agreed.

 

“Good, I’ll meet you at hanger bay Y-C-54 in 1400 hours.” Said Kelborne.

 

“Me and my crew will be there.” Said Yar. Kelborne, Eli, and John then left.

 

“3 down, 9 to go.” Said Kelborne, walking down the hallway with Eli and John following.

[Arcesious]

“Hello again, Caldwell. We need to talk about something…” Said Kelborne, sitting down at a table in the middle of the section G-49 Cantina.

 

Caldwell was the man with blonde-gray hair and a rough beard over his face. He had a trenchcoat on, as well as a belt lined with gadgets and power cells across his chest and another belt with a heavy pistol and a knife around his waist.

 

Three other people sat beside Caldwell around the table. Two were human, one of them of Asian descent with black hair and the other one with red hair and apparent Irish decent.

 

The Asian one wore a slick, streamlined, armored, black suit and had a large, meter long rifle at his side, leaning against the chair.

 

The Irish one had a dark red leather jacket and navy-blue jeans. He had a gun holster in on his side with a rod-shaped gun in it.

 

The third one had dark blue skin and a prehistoric-looking, sharp face, but was humanoid. The gender of the blue one wasn’t at all apparent in physique. This one wore a brown suit with light armor padding throughout.

 

“This is about that mission, isn’t it?” Said Caldwell coldly and bluntly, taking a yellow tinted glass off the table and taking a sip of what appeared to be synthesized, non-alcoholic beer.

 

“Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves…” Negotiated Kelborne.

 

Caldwell looked at Eli and John.

 

“You need a new crew, don’t you?” Said Caldwell with a disappointed voice.

 

“Well… yes.” Kelborne answered.

 

“You know that this isn’t my thing anymore… I used to command capital ships in battle… Oh, it was one time to many. Ironic that I didn’t die in the battlefield. You look at me and you think, ‘why is he so apathetic?’ … Well, let’s just say that I’ve been trying to die for a long time, but it isn’t working. Why did you always have to get in the way…?” Caldwell rambled.

 

“Get in the way? I’ve never gotten in your way… Not as far as I know. All I know is that we went through military school together…” Kelborne didn’t understand.

 

“I might have misspoken. So you want another adventure, huh? One last quest with your buddies to find meaning in yourself and your friends… You’d like to think that this war isn’t futile… You like to think that there’s some great meaning to everything… Well there isn’t… All you’ll ever have is war… Because you’re not going to find meaning in anything, kid.” Caldwell said with a cynical coldness that for reasons Eli and John couldn’t think of, sent shivers down their spines…

 

“I refuse to think I’ll ever become as cynical as you… I don’t care where you get this weird, annoying philosophy of yours from. I need your help to end this war. Are you with me or not?!” Kelborne said and asked with authority.

 

“Look at you, thinking you can be the hero… Thinking that you’re going to go save the universe… Oh I’ll humor you, I’ll entertain your naivety; if only to show you that the universe wants to die… Ha, to die… I’ll help you find your answers, but I can’t promise that you’ll like them…” Caldwell said. Eli and John couldn’t help but instinctively feel that Caldwell knew what he was talking about, cynical as he was.

 

“Cho, O’Henry, and Vera, let’s go.” Caldwell stood up and looked at the Asian man, the Irish man, and then the blue-skinned female of an unknown species as he said each of their names, looking directly at each of them.

 

“Wait, do you know what hanger to meet us in?” Asked Eli before they began to leave.

 

“He already knows.” Kelborne said to Eli.

 

“Did I mention that I’m telepathic? I’ll see you in hanger Y-C-54 at 1400 hours, John and Eli.” Caldwell had an arrogant smile and a sarcastically non-cynical mood in his voice as he turned around and his three acquaintances followed him out of the Cantina. Kelborne, Eli and John then left through the opposite exit of the Cantina…

[Arcesious]

Kelborne walked through an open doorway with Eli and John. It was a large room, and it was on Kashki’s high command deck. There was a red carpet and a desk straight forward from the doorway.

 

“Tiran, my man, how’s it going? This is Eli, and this is John. Eli and John, Tiran.” Kelborne walked forward and excitedly greeted Tiran and shook his hand as Tiran put his datapad down and stood up from his desk. Eli and John shook Tiran’s hand as well.

 

Tiran’s had Caucasian skin, and his hair was military-cut style, black, with gray sideburns. He also had a short, rough, blackish-gray beard. His eyebrows were thick and black, and they showed a look of determination. His eyes were cyan-gray in color, and he had a slim but muscular build. He stood 6’3’ feet tall. He wore a jet-black uniform, with red stripe colorations symbolizing his rank. His appearance showed that he was intelligent, and fearless. The generalization of a great and wise leader.

 

“Kelborne! What a surprise! So you survived! Although I already gathered that when I saw your ship flying in…” Tiran said with a grin.

 

“I haven’t seen you for… has it been five years, already? And look at you; you’re a Grand Admiral now… Imagine my confusion when I heard that you were on the high command deck from Kashki's computers. How did you accomplish that?” Kelborne said as he noticed the rank Tiran’s uniform symbolized.

 

“Two years ago, step-brother. They say I’m the best tactician on Kashki since Caldwell… Although I don’t mean to brag… I feel sorry for Caldwell, but he went all cynical and weird three years ago… it just wasn’t good for his crew’s morale… So they had me replace him. So, did you come here for a reunion; or is something else on your mind?” Explained and then asked Tiran.

 

“I’ll get to the point, I suppose. I want to take on Ivan’s mission. I’ve been getting together a new crew… Since my old crew is dead… I might warn you though; Caldwell is in the crew now…” Answered Kelborne.

 

“Her, too?” Asked Tiran, looking concerned.

 

Kelborne nodded his head, “I’d rather not talk about that.” Kelborne said.

 

“I understand…” Tiran said, leaving the subject alone.

 

“So, do you want to join me, along with four of your crew?” Requested Kelborne.

 

“I don’t know if Ivan will like this… An Ex-Grand and a new Grand Admiral going on a dangerous mission under the command of a captain… I hate to discriminate against rank, but you just don’t have the experience for this type of thing… Plus, your ship is really small… Usually, the big fish eat the little fish… You’re not suicidal, are you?” Asked Tiran.

 

“I have a tactical advantage. My ship is, well, invincible…” Kelborne said.

 

“Invincible? Really? Liar.” Tiran laughed, “I’ve read the reports- your ship has blown out its shields, weapons, engines, and power systems multiple times. Don’t be so overconfident, it’s not healthy. Optimistic, sure, but don’t be overconfident.” Tiran gave his rebuttal.

 

“We’re going to fix that before we go. The ship’s hull is invincible though. I’ve never had to mend even the slightest scratch on its hull.” Kelborne explained.

 

“If you say so… Okay, I’ll join your crew, and I’ll bring my four top officers, as you request. But when we bring this to Ivan, I can’t say that I’ll vouch for whatever your plan is. You’re going to have to be ready to prove that you can take this mission.” Tiran agreed.

 

“Thanks brother. Please meet us in Hanger Y-C-54 at 1400 hours.” Kelborne said happily.

 

“Y-C-54, 1400. I’ll remember. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish some reports.” Tiran said, sitting back down in the chair near his desk.

 

Kelborne, Eli, and John then left and started back on their way to their quarters...

 

(Edit: I added something new to the very beginning of the story.)

[Arcesious]

“The timeline is shifting away from our favor. I cannot seem to isolate the cause. What advice can you give me, sir?” Asked a man with white-gray hair that was military cut.

 

He was Caucasian skinned, and was wearing a suit of cyan-navy blue colored armor, that appeared to be composed of extremely advanced technology. He was in a dark, dimly lighted room. Power generators could be heard pulsing through the walls.

 

“Find out what this ‘Serengi thing is’. I believe it may be the key to all of our answers, if my studies of what Dalasian history I could find are correct. It’s odd, it doesn’t look like the Isordians destroyed almost all traces of Dalasian history, rather, some other faction seems to be involved. If only I could get my hands on an Isordian memory core, I’d be able to make a much more effective plan.” Answered a voice of a man in the shadows.

 

“How will I find ‘Serengi’, sir?” Asked the man in the cyan armor.

 

“Use the Isordians to your advantage. We need to get them to distract this unknown faction.” The man in the shadows answered.

 

“Isordians? But they’re too smart for that. They’ll find out about us, and if they do, all hope is lost.” Said the man in the cyan armor.

 

“Exactly me intention. But first you’ll have to wait for the Kashkiians to make their move. Get the Isordians to focus on them and this unknown faction, help them find Cataclysm. But not before you put this chip inside Cataclysm’s subroutine matrix.” Said the man in the shadows. He tossed a small chip, encased in Kenesium-Helesium alloy armor casing, to the man in cyan armor. He caught it.

 

“What will the disk do?” Asked the man in the cyan armor.

 

“It will give it the information it needs to be able to survive long enough to carry out my plan.” The man in the shadows answered.

 

“But if the Isordians adapt too fast…” Said the man in cyan armor.

 

“Then that is a risk we’ll have to take. We cannot interfere with the timeline any more than this, not without knowing what this ‘Serengi’ thing is. Whatever is blocking our ability to travel though time has left us tactically vulnerable. You're going to have to do this fast, because I can only offer you a window of five minutes before the Kashkiians reach Cataclysm. No more going back centuries of time to prepare ahead of time. We have to act promptly now. The Kashkiians have more resources than we do, and they are tactically in a better situation than we are. They can use Cataclysm better than we can, because they have more resources and keener minds at their disposal, which is why we haven’t taken Cataclysm for our own. We’re going to let them do the work for us.” Said the man in the shadows.

 

“As you wish, sir.” The man in cyan armor left the room, the wall transforming to form an opening for him to walk though, and then closing back up…

[Arcesious]

Time of event: Unknown

 

“This council does not approve of the actions of the Dalasian Empire. Temporal technology is illegal, and use of it is an act of treason against this council. The Dalasian Empire must face the consequences. They are asking for war.” A humanoid alien with a sharply curved body, bright red skin, and reptilian features announced to a council inside a large, diamond shaped room. He was in the center, clothed in an extravagant red robe. He was a Zrzi. The Zrzi were tall and had a thin but muscular build.

 

“I understand the apprehension of the Zrzi Confederation, but we of the Randiian Empire do not agree. We cannot go to war over this, and really, there is nothing we can do about this. The Dalasians are simply too powerful. Besides, the Dalasians have never used their superior technological capabilities for any sort of evil. They guard and protect us, and have always looked out for every member in this Alliance.” A reptilian, called a Randiian, with green-brown skin, tough skin and fur robes counterargued.

 

“I disagree. Temporal technology is far too dangerous and far too powerful, even for a race as wise as the Dalasians to possess. We must do something.” A yellow-white-tan skinned reptilian alien said. His species, the Cronians, were short and had burly bodies.

 

“The question is; what are they using this temporal technology for?” Asked the Randiian.

 

“Our logistics ships have deducted that they have been sending ships covered in sensor arrays and loaded with probes to many different parts of the timeline. It appears to be for gathering information, however, with such information, I would expect they could become even more powerful than they already are. We must try to get them to stop. You Randiians are too trusting, every species has a dark side, wisdom or not.” Said the Zrzi.

 

“And I can just as well say that you Zrzi are too distrusting. Such information could be very useful if shared. Considering how powerful the Dalasians are, we and in no position to make demands, but we are in a position to become part of what they’re doing.” Said the Randiian.

 

“Temporal technology is too dangerous. If they make one mistake, just one, it can very well tear apart the entire timeline. We must stop them, not join them.” Said the Zrzi.

 

“Don’t forget, we are still all allies. Dalasians included. They have 20 trillion citizens. We Cronians have 3 trillion, Randiians have 6 Trillion, and Zrzi have 5 trillion. They have superior numbers, territory, and technology. I’m not saying I’m intimidated by them, I’m saying that we should keep this alliance together.” Said the Cronian.

 

“You don’t get it, do you? Do you know why we Zrzi suggested to outlaw temporal technology at the instant we began this alliance? Because we once had possession of it. If you knew what happened when we unknowingly left just one pebble overturned on an obscure world, you’d agree with me. Eighteen thousand years, it took my species, to find out what went wrong and set things right again. Trust me, meddling with causalities is deadly. We can’t wait to get the Dalasians to stop. We must stop them here and now.” The Zrzi declared.

 

“But the Dalasians aren’t reckless. I know about your species’ history, so does every child of nine years, in each of our races in this alliance. The Dalasians must be fully aware of what could happen, they’ve most certainly taken precautions.” The Randiian said in refute.

 

“Oh, but we took precautions as well when we tried it. We are going to stop them, and that is final. I’ll reveal a secret to you, once that I doubt will surprise you. We Zrzi are clever. We have spies in every empire, monitoring what is going on. The Dalasians hid their operations, but we found out. And disappointingly, the Dalasians were much less advanced in the use of temporal technology than my species is.” The Zrzi said.

 

“But I-” The Randiian was cut off as suddenly a flash of blue-purple light and a vortex appeared and disappeared in the room.

 

Out of the vortex stepped the man in cyan armor, hidden in the shadows of the room. He had white hair now, and his face was disfigured and scarred to the point that he was almost unrecognizable.

 

“Who are you? I do not recognize your species…” The Cronian said.

 

“Do not interfere with the Dalasians.” The man in cyan armor said.

 

“That is our affair. Why have you transported into this room without permission?” The Zrzi said.

 

“Serengi is the key.” The man in cyan armor said.

 

“Why the cryptic speech?” Asked the Zrzi.

 

“You know the temporal law, yes?” Asked the man in cyan armor.

 

“No I-” The Zrzi said and then paused.

 

“Now I remember…” The Zrzi said.

 

“Do not interfere. You must comply. Everything is at stake here, everything. Do you understand?” Asked the man in cyan armor.

 

“Yes.” The Zrzi answered.

 

“Once the Dalasians are done with their temporal operation, your race must resume use of temporal technology, but only to guard the timeline. The key will be Serengi. Look to the Bromine seas of your homeworld…” The man in cyan armor said, and then disappeared as the vortex took him back to where he had come from.

 

“This meeting never occurred, understand?” The Zrzi told the Randiian and Cronian.

 

They nodded their heads to the Zrzi, and then left the room, going separate ways.

[Arcesious]

“Well, since everyone is here, I suppose you all know what this is about. Tiran and Yar, if you’d introduce us to your crew…” Kelborne said in the Hanger, leaning on the port side of Valorus's hull.

 

Caldwell was looking at the white, polished floor, not acknowledging Tiran’s presence. Tiran and Yar did not notice.

 

Tiran and Yar looked at each other. Yar slightly nodded his head so as to tell Tiran to go first.

 

“This is Grant, this is Katherine, this is Race, and this is Fred.” Tiran gestured to each of his crew in order from right to left.

 

They were all wearing uniforms. The uniforms looked just like Tiran’s own uniform, but they had yellow stripe colorations. They were 1st through 4th in authority from Tiran’s ship’s crew, the highest-ranking officers under his command, aside from the captains and generals in Tiran’s personal fleet squadron.

 

“Grant is an expert in medicine and psychiatry, being my chief medical officer. Katherine is my chief engineer, brilliant with technology. Race is the best pilot in the fleet. And Fred, he is my chief security officer, quite skilled in all forms of combat and knowledgeable about essentially every weapon and defense there is. I’m a tactician.” Tiran explained.

 

“Okay, Yar, who did you bring with you?” Asked Kelborne.

 

“This is Alexandra, and this is Rick.” Yar gestured to his own crew members.

 

They both wore the same kind of clothing, leather-like armor with chain-like seems. Alexandra was about three inches taller than Rick was, though Rick was six feet tall just like Yar was.

 

“Alexandra and Rick are both brother and sister, and are expert soldiers as well as skilled engineers. Alexandra also has talent in medicine, botany, and piloting. Rick is exceedingly skilled with languages. I, personally, am a doctor.” Yar explained.

 

“I can see that we will get along well, Yar, as we share professions.” Grant said, shaking Yar’s hand.

 

“And Caldwell… What of your crew?” Asked Kelborne.

 

Caldwell shook his head slightly and looked up at everyone.

 

“Sorry… I was… distracted. What did you ask of me?” Asked Caldwell.

 

“Your crew?” Said Kelborne.

 

“Oh, yes. Well, this is Cho, a very brilliant man in the field of computers; this is O’Henry, my best friend and a man of many talents; and this is Vera, whom is a historian and archaeologist, not to mention and expert of other things of that sort. Everyone here already knows who I am.” Caldwell said, almost timidly, but he seemed happy for the moment.

 

"This is Eli, and this is John. They are both scientists in the realms of astronomy and physics, though they have some catching up to do..." Kelborne introduced them.

 

Following, the new crewmembers of Kelborne’s crew greeted each other; mostly based on what similar professions they shared with each other. Afterwards, they got acquainted with Valorous and started planning out where there would eat, sleep, and work…

[Arcesious]

Ivan looked up from his desk, where he had been typing on his computer, and saw Kelborne’s crew.

 

“So you wish to take this mission on?” Asked Ivan.

 

“Yes, sir.” Kelborne replied.

 

Ivan noticed and recognized Tiran and Caldwell.

 

“If Tiran and Caldwell are willing to work under your command, I suppose this is worth hearing.” Ivan said.

 

“I believe that my crew and I can accomplish this mission. I have a very, very good advantage against the Isordians.” Kelborne said.

 

“And what is it?” Asked Ivan.

 

“My ship is, well… invincible.” Kelborne answered.

 

“I find that hard to believe, but… If these high-ranking officers here are willing to do this, then I suppose I can take you at your word.” Ivan said.

 

“So will you let us take the mission?” Asked Kelborne.

 

Ivan sighed. “As much as I question this, we are sort on time, and I trust Tiran’s judgment, so you had better get ready.” Ivan agreed.

 

“Thank you, sir.” Kelborne said.

 

Ivan typed on his computer for a few seconds.

 

“I’ve scheduled you to leave at 500 hours. Be prepared. I’ll make sure that you get the supplies you’ll need loaded on your ship. Valorous, isn’t it?” Ivan said and asked.

 

“Yes, that is the name of my ship.” Kelborne said.

 

Ivan looked closely at his computer screen.

 

“Small, but it looks like it will get the job done. Go and get your ship ready, get it's weapons ridiculously overpowered, overdrive the engine systems, everything. And don’t forget to get a good night’s rest.” Ivan ordered…

[Arcesious]

"Well, that's everything. Let's get going." Katherine said to Kelborne on the bridge as she closed up a panel near a computer interface.

 

“Hold on…” Race said, piloting Valorous out of the hanger. Valorous rose out of the Atmosphere of Kashki quickly and then out of the cloaking barrier.

 

“Are you sure these upgrades will do the job?” Kelborne asked Katherine, in the engineering section of Valorous.

 

“I can’t tell you that the weapons will do much, but everything else should hold together. These engines should be able to outmatch a Type 11 now. We’ll reach our destination in two weeks with this kind of speed.” Katherine replied.

 

“Good.” Kelborne said.

 

In the starboard crew quarters, Tiran and Caldwell initiated conversation.

 

“So, how have you been holding up?” Tiran asked.

 

“I don’t think you want to know.” Caldwell answered.

 

“Come on, if we’re going to be in a crew, we might as well get to know each other.” Tiran said.

 

“Classified.” Caldwell said.

 

“What?” Asked Tiran, confused.

 

“I just read your mind. What you want to know is classified.” Caldwell answered.

 

“I’ll get you to talk somehow…” Tiran said.

 

“I’m too smart for that. I can read your mind.” Caldwell said.

 

“Well then don’t read my mind, talk to me.” Tiran said.

 

“You’re not ship’s counselor.” Caldwell said.

 

“I told you not to read my mind.” Tiran said.

 

“I didn’t. I can still read you though.” Caldwell said.

 

Tiran thought for a few seconds.

 

“Why are you cynical?” Asked Tiran.

 

“Because there is no hope.” Caldwell answered.

 

“Sure there is.” Said Tiran.

 

“Not for me.” Said Caldwell, sighing.

 

“Why not?” Asked Tiran, concerned.

 

“Why do you ask so many questions?” Asked Caldwell.

 

“Because I’m concerned for my friends.” Tiran answered.

 

“It was rhetorical, but I appreciate the sentiment.” Caldwell said.

 

“Rhetorical? Now we’re getting somewhere. Could you explain?” Tiran asked.

 

“Why does a man ask a question?” Said Caldwell.

 

“I do not know. That question can have multiple answers. Do you know?” Asked Tiran.

 

“Yes.” Caldwell said.

 

“What is it that you know?” Asked Tiran.

 

“That, my friend, is what is classified, and it is also why I am a cynic.” Caldwell answered, then walking out of the crew quarters at the instant that the raildrives started humming and engaging.

 

Tiran wondered as Caldwell left, “Why is it classified?”

[Arcesious]

“Okay, we’ve waited long enough. It has been five days and we haven’t been attacked by the Isordians, and they haven’t shown up on sensors anywhere, either. They’re too smart to stay hidden and then ambush, because we’re smart enough to counter such blindfold strategies. I can’t predict what tactics they might use against us.” Tiran said to Kelborne on the bridge as they watched the sensor readings.

 

“Obviously they know we’re out here. We don’t have the cloak on. They’re probably cloaked, watching us.” Kelborne said.

 

“A lone ship, flying through what seems like the middle of nowhere, at a speed unheard of for a ship with a type five raildrive, with a curious looking hull that sensors think is Kenesium-Helesium alloy, but obviously isn’t, with very ineffective armaments, no shields on, and no cloak on. Of course they’re not going to attack us. From a tactical perspective, this ship looks like very enticing bait. They’re going to follow us, I bet.” Caldwell said, coming to the bridge.

 

“And when we get to our goal, they’ll be in for one hell of a surprise - a super-capital warship with technological capabilities that challenge their own.” Tiran said.

 

Eli walked up to the bridge. “Unfortunately I don’t think that Cataclysm will do well against them in battle. The last place I was… I was on Cataclysm when it happened. The ship seemed to self destruct, and then suddenly I was on the planet where I found Kelborne. If it is intact, then that’ll be good, but last time, I think that the Isordians completely tore apart Cataclysm. At least… If what we encountered were Isordian ships.” Said Eli.

 

“What did the ships look like?” Asked Tiran.

 

“A lot like Cataclysm, same general design, slightly smaller than Cataclysm. Kenesium-Helesium alloy hulls, sleek, deadly.” Said Eli.

 

“Those are the characteristics of Isordian ships… I suppose that when we find Cataclysm, we’ll have to retreat as soon as possible.” Said Tiran.

 

“As long as it’s not a pile of wreckage when we get to the coordinates…” Eli said.

 

“I hope not… I hope not…” Kelborne said…