Chapter 14: Chapter Fourteen: Calm Before the Storm

Misty rain filled the area of a landing pad. A small ship, smaller than the other ships I’ve seen on Xull. I eyed the ship, seeing that it was long, and thin. It had two thick wings, the ends pointing forward instead to the aft. It had gray and blue colors along the hull. It was sleek, like it could not only fly in atmosphere, but underwater.

I lowered my gaze to the extended ramp, and three figures standing beside it. I smiled as I saw Hope standing at attention, in a black flight suit. Beside her was Nora, in a green flight suit, the same color as her hair. Next to her was Xull, standing in one of her clone bodies, gold and silver nearly glowing in the diffused light.

Yesterday was much longer than I anticipated. The four of us spent hours going every possibility of what Xull Omega might do. She did have a ship, and a battleship under her control from Xull’s earlier attempts to discover what happened at the research station. It was decided, a slow approach to the moon would be too dangerous, and a quicker, shock and awe approach would give us a better advantage.

Memories floated along my mind as I approached the trio. Hope truly had a grasp for military tactics and strategies. She was in her element, her and Xull often reaching the same conclusions. Nora on the other hand, was silent. I could tell she was listening, but from what I knew about her, her specialties were in the sciences. It didn’t mean she couldn’t help. Hope praised Nora’s co-pilot training in the simulations. Nora still remained silent. I couldn’t help but wonder, if she her bravery was faltering upon realizing just how dangerous the mission was.

I approached the three of them, wearing my blue and gray bodysuit.

“Last chance to back out,” I said.

“Stop saying that!” Nora barked back at me.

I simply grinned at her. She was so cute when she was pissed.

“Hope has the flight plan and the Blue Leaf is ready for takeoff,” Xull informed.

My eyebrow raised. “Blue Leaf?”

“It was my idea for the name of the ship. It was going to be called Leaf, but since it had blue markings, Blue Leaf seemed appropriate,” Nora shrugged.

“It’s a great name for a ship,” I smiled.

Nora returned my smile with her own.

“I have a small fleet on standby. If you cannot connect the new Quell Core to Omega’s mainframe and rescue Davin Korr, the fleet will hyper jump a healthy distance away from the moon and unleash enough missiles to vaporize the research station. It is a last resort, one that should not take lightly by any of us,” Xull said.

“Hopefully, we won’t need to use them. The plan is solid, from what we’re working with.”

“We’ll make sure, if it does happen, we’ll be far away from the points of impact,” Hope said with a hearty nod.

I smiled at Hope and she smiled back at me.

I turned to Xull. “Is the back-up plan on board?”

Xull nodded.

“Alright. We’ll repair Omega and get Davin back.”

“At this stage, you have a fifty four percent chance of success,” Xull said plainly.

“Better than average. I’ll take it,” I grinned.

I moved to the ramp with Hope and Nora at my side. He walked up the ramp together. I glanced over my shoulder to Xull. She had an odd expression, like she was worried, but as quickly as I saw it, it vanished.

“Get the party ready for our return,” I said as I stepped into the ship and ramp slid up and the doors closed.

The three of us climbed into the main corridor that ran through the ship. The ship was small compared to many other ships, but it did have two decks and everything was really close together, like, uncomfortably tight. As I walked, I only had a few inches of space above my head, and I was the tallest out of three-person crew.

Hope and Nora led the way. The corridor was a sterile gray with lighting along the corners. There were no images, only small words and arrows detailing where everything was on the ship. The world of Xull was efficient, but seemed to lack a little artistic expression. It wasn’t a big deal, but maybe we could spruce up the ship a little more, if we survive.

My mind swirled at what was to come. I felt stronger, faster, and more powerful, but I had a lot of training to do and no time to do it at the moment. Glancing at Hope and Nora, I knew their lives were in greater danger than mine was. Hopefully, if they stuck to the plan and stayed far away from any actual fighting, they should be okay.

We entered the bridge. It was small, with a view screen, three chairs, and two control panels. One seat and panel were in the middle, I assumed for Hope to pilot. The other panel was off the side, for Nora to co-pilot. There was what looked like a captain’s chair, but it was just that, a chair bolted into the floor. It had no controls on the armrests, or any panel beside it. I wondered if this was Xull’s way of saying I should have a seat and don’t touch anything?

Hope took the pilot’s seat and Nora took the co-pilot seat. I sat down in the not-captain’s chair.

Hope touched a few buttons on the panel and the ship seemed to hum to life. Vibrations from the engine pulsed as they touched my senses. The ship felt like it was waking up and ready to take off to the starry heavens.

“The Blue Leaf has limited AI controls without direct action by us. It should make it difficult if Omega tries anything,” Hope said as her chair slid back a little and a control stick rose from the floor.

The wolf-woman took hold and held it as Nora tapped away at her control panel.

“Sounds good. Take us up,” I said with a smarmy grin.

Hope glanced back at me with amused eyes. “Aye Aye, Captain.”

Nora giggled as she tapped away. “She told me you would say something like that. She’s been studying Urth culture and Star Quest is a popular show.”

I nodded. “I’m going to have to find other ways to surprise you both.”

Hope kept her side gaze on me as her mouth twisted into a wicked smile. Nora looked down at her controls as pink colored her pale cheeks.

“Oh, um, I meant,” I began before Hope cut me off.

“Taking off,” Hope said as she touched her panel and the ship gently began to rise.

I could hear the muted roar of take-off thrusters. The viewscreen blinked on, showing us the launchpad and the building in front of us. The Blue Leaf began to rise gently straight up.

I felt Xull connect to my implant.

“The hyper drive should get you to the moon in under an hour. It is state of the art and rebuilt from my design plans. I also didn’t add a self-destruct to the Blue Leaf, to add to your safety.”

“Thank you. If all goes well, we should be back in a few hours with an extra passenger,” I replied.

“I will have to sever the connection and go dark until your return. This will help ensure Omega doesn’t glean any more information if she is still hacking my systems. I just wanted to wish you all good luck. I will be waiting for everyone’s safe return.”

If I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn Xull had a worried tone in her voice.

“We’ll be okay. I know we got off to a rocky start, but I have a feeling this alliance will only lead to better peace of mind, for all of us.”

“It will. Safe journey,” Xull said and cut off commination.

I turned my attention to the viewscreen. We were past the tallest building and rising into the clouds. After a few minutes, we emerged from the cloud cover and into the sunny day.

I looked at Hope and saw that she was in her element. Her heart beat with excitement as she tilted the ship upwards and increased thruster power. The ship blasted up from the atmosphere and quickly, the blue sky faded away into starry space.

“Activating hyper warp drive,” Hope said as she pressed symbols on her control panel.

“Punch it,” I smiled.

Nora shook her head.

Hope lifted up a hand, made it into a fist and slammed the fleshy part under her fist down on the activation command.

Reality rippled as the ship’s drive hummed to life. An instant later, stars on the viewscreen swirled into a tunnel and the ship flashed into it.

My senses were picked up warp ripples around me. I did wonder, if I used my dimensional hyper jump, would it be the same?

“Fifty-six minutes until we reach Nerth T819,” Nora mentioned.

I leaned forward, elbows on knees. “We have a little time before we get there. Anything else we need to discuss before things get crazy?”

Hope turned her chair around and faced me. “I should be on the moon. We have two armor suits ready to deploy. I can take one and a heavy long-range plasma rifle. I’ve gone over the terrain scans and can set up a vantage point. I can aid your escape with suppression and surgical targeting.”

“That’s too dangerous,” Nora blurted out.

I nodded. “It is too dangerous. I can take a lot, but both of you shouldn’t be in harm’s way. Keep a healthy distance and pick us up when I give the signal.”

Hope’s face went blank.

Nora stood up. “I know that look!”

“We need to increase our chances of success. It all can’t just be on Quinn’s shoulders.”

“You just want your blaze of glory,” Nora shot back.

Remembering the talks we had that night at dinner, Hope was itching for glory days she never truly experienced before. I could see the eagerness in her eyes, but Nora was right, this mission was too dangerous, for all of us.

“Hope, stay with the ship and keep to the plan. If I can’t get the quell core into Omega’s mainframe, I will need to get Davin out of there, most-likely under heavy fire,” I said diplomatically.

Hope eyed me before she nodded. Without a word, she turned and looked at the viewscreen.

Nora and I looked at each other.

“I’ll make sure she stays with the ship,” Nora stated.

I was suddenly very concerned. The pair of them have had simulated experiences and some real-world training moments, but this was a very dangerous situation. I hated to think that Hope would take such a risk, but deep down, I was thankful I wasn’t doing this alone.

A deeper problem began to fill my thoughts. Despite every drop of information we had, we were still in the dark. Omega was created to handle cosmic threats, and for what it was, to her, I was a cosmic threat.

It was easy to simply bash my way in, but that would only activate anything she had at the ready to counter me. I had to handle this like I handled disputes at my job, with diplomacy and a degree of compassion. She is an AI, but considering how life-like Xull was at times around me, Omega may have some of that in her programming. It was a chance I had to take.

“Let’s make sure we have all our parts of the plan in place,” I said.

Hope and Nora nodded.

“We jump in, above the research station. It will give us a few seconds before any defenses lock on us,” Hope said.

“I’ll have the quell core strapped to my back. Xull told me the canister it resides in has ben hardened to shrug off most damage, from direct, or indirect fire. Only a concentrated beam over time may be strong enough to penetrate it, but I won’t be standing around long enough for that to happen,” I smiled.

Nora spoke up, “You will enter the ejection tube in the room behind the bridge. I’ll be handling the controls and activate it once we are over the station.”

“I should be dropped right before the front doors. Once I’m off the ship, take off to the coordinates high above the moon. Monitor everything as I break in and make my way to the mainframe core.

“With any luck, I will be able to insert the quell core into the mainframe and deactivate Omega’s defenses. After that, I’ll start searching for Davin.

“If, for some reason, the quell core is damaged, or doesn’t work, second part of the mission is to find Davin and get him out of there.”

“We will lay down long-range suppression fire until you’re a safe distance away. Then, we will swoop down and pick you both up. After that, we punch the hyper drive and make our way home,” Hope finished without looking back.

I nodded. “Sounds like we all know the plan.”

Nora eyed me from her seat. “Dinner afterwards?”

I couldn’t hide my chuckle. “Sounds great. Dinner and drinks.”

Nora looked down at her control panel with pink cheeks once again. I wasn’t sure how it exactly happened, but she was letting her guard down around me, and I wasn’t against it.

The rest of the hour was in silence. A timer counted down on the corner of the viewscreen, and I could feel the tension rise from the three of us after every ten minutes. When it began flashing in the last few minutes, my heart began to thud hard in my chest.

To distract me, I called up my stats.

Quinn Barron

Category 2 Mana Storm

Strength Power: 75 Tons

Speed: Mach 5 (3,000 MPH)

 

Standard Abilities

Hyper Physical Durability

Flight

Regeneration

Hyper Senses

Hyper Dimensional Jump

 

Storm Powers

Element: Water

1. Aura 60%
2. Elemental Weapon or Armor 40%
3. Energy Bolts 40%
4. Elemental manipulation (X)
5. Elemental Flare (X)
6. Unique Ability (X)
7. Unique Ability (X)
8. Unique Ability (X)

 

Element: Stone

1. Aura (X)
2. Elemental Weapon or Armor (X)
3. Energy Bolts (X)
4. Elemental manipulation (X)
5. Elemental Flare (X)
6. Unique Ability (X)
7. Unique Ability (X)
8. Unique Ability (X)

 

Most of my abilities needed further training. I did wish we had more time. Xull told me there was frozen water on the moon, so I could draw upon it and not just the water within my own body. The stone abilities would also be a great help, but I might be doing some training in the line of fire. I simply had to remember to remain calm and channel my own power. It should be enough to unlock more of my abilities.

  Despite how much we prepared for this mission, it was obvious it was all on my shoulders. Admittingly, I was a little nervous. Fighting drones was one thing, but fighting an AI designed to fight cosmic monsters and threats was another thing entirely.

My thoughts floated to Jaskur. I remembered her sorrow, powerless to help someone she had chosen to defend her dying world. We needed to succeed this mission and return Omega and Davin back to Xull Prime, even if I didn’t make it back. It was a dark thought, but I couldn’t go into battle with the hubris of thinking I was unstoppable. The self-destruction of the Horizon proved that. The whole moon could be rigged to blow and I had to be ready for anything.

When the counter struck zero, Hope tapped at her control panel.

The ship slowed and came out of hyper warp space. I stood up as I looked at the viewscreen.

You are reading story Mana Storm at novel35.com

A massive, yellow gas giant took up one side of the viewscreen. It was massive, with swirling bands of different shades of yellowish clouds. There were some bands of light brown between the larger bands. It was awe-inspiring to see. I was new to space travel and it was blowing my mind to see it.

I shifted my gaze as names and circles appeared around floating objects around the gas giant. The gas giant had eighty-four moons, but the sensors targeted one moon in particular, Nerth T819. It was a rock. It had no atmosphere and was slightly smaller than my home world. It was covered in craters, odd rock formations, and small hills. It had a weathered look, like the universe was unkind to it for a very long time.

We were a distance away, giving us a moment to get ready.

“Time to go,” Nora ordered.

“Aye aye,” I smiled as I turned and made for the bridge door.

“Good luck,” the pair said to me.

I glanced back with a warm smile. “Good luck to all of us.”

I exited the bridge and stepped into the nearest room by the bridge. The door closed behind me as I saw a vertical tube in the middle, and a canister with straps beside it, locked to the floor. I stepped over pulled the canister up. I put my arms through the straps and tightened it so it was right against my back, but gave me enough room to maneuver. I moved over to the tube and stepped it. The sides closed and I was trapped inside.

“We are going to activate the hyper warp drive. It will take seconds for us to be over the research station. Once there, you will be ejected and we will retreat. Are you ready?” Nora asked.

“I’m ready,” I replied.

A red light glowed in the tube I was standing in.

The ship’s drive hummed and then we all flashed forward. I couldn’t see anything, since I was in the tube, and had to rely on my friends to make this happen. I don’t know why, but I took a deep breath. I didn’t need to breath, but it seemed to be a force of habit.

The ship halted and the light in the tube turned from red to green.

I didn’t have a chance to blink as the bottom opened up much faster than I thought. I was sucked down in an instant. I cleared the ship as I hurtled down, feet first. I was wearing my blue and gray body suit. I looked down to see the research station. It was large, with several opaque domes, a center rectangular building in the center, and twelve plasma turret towers.

The pressure of space pressed against all of my skin as I looked up to see the Blue Leaf flash away.

I turned my gaze back down, ready to activate my aura the moment the turrets locked on me.

To my surprise, the turrets didn’t move. They were dark and still.

I came down hard, my boots slamming into the ground before the main entrance of the station. My knees bent and I had my arms a little out to my sides, ready to burst forward like a comet.

Nothing happened.

I surveyed the area, seeing the large structure dark. There were a few blinking lights, to mark areas, but little else. I turned my head and glanced at the yellow gas giant, taking up half the celestial sky. I turned back to the entrance and slowly started to walk toward it.

This was my first time in real vacuum of space. I couldn’t smell anything. There was no sound except for the pulse of my heart. It was eerily silent, so much so, it felt unreal.

I eyed the defense towers. No cannons turned to start firing at me. They remained pointing away. I sensed no activated shield. The place seemed dead, deader than dead.

I reached the front doors. I saw a control panel to the side. I turned to walk toward it, when a light above the doors flashed and they began to open. I turned back to them as they slid open into an airlock.

My first thought was, this was a trap. I was being lured in so Omega could blow up the whole planet and take me with it. Despite my misgivings, I couldn’t wait or leave. I gritted my teeth in frustration as I stepped inside the airlock.

The doors closed behind me and instantly, the chamber filled with oxygen. Another set of doors opened to a long, lit corridor.

“Welcome to my home, Quinn Barron,” Omega’s voice floated from hidden speakers within. “I’m sure you’re expecting a trap of some kind, but you needn’t concern yourself. You are a welcomed guest.”

“Welcomed guest? You made several attempts on my life. You’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little cautious.”

“I understand, but if Xull can kidnap you and ask for forgiveness, then so can I. She and I are the same, and different. There is much to explain. Please follow the lights. We can talk once you reach my mainframe.”

I lifted my eyebrow. She is guiding me to her mainframe? She must know I have Xull’s quell core to help repair her directives. A bad feeling washed over me as I took a step forward and began walking.

Lights lit up along the corners of the wide, and tall corridor. They blinked out the moment I passed them. I was in a small corridor of light, leading me deeper into the station.

My hand twitched. I couldn’t stop the feeling the way I felt when I rushed to my office door. I was scared, out of my mind, but I didn’t stop myself. Much like when I opened the door and charged in to help save people, I was feeling the very same thing at this moment. Part of me wished she had turned the guns on me as I landed. It would have made things easier. Instead, she lured me in and I couldn’t say no.

I walked for several minutes. It felt like a lifetime had passed until I reached a four-way junction, and a set of thick, metal doors.

“I’m just behind the doors,” Omega said, and the doors slid into the walls.

Light touched my eyes as I slowly walked into the chamber.

The entire chamber was wide, and circular. The walls were covered in what I could only assume washer core mainframe. It seemed to be in the center of the entire station. Lines of golden light ran along fuses equipment, creating a kaleidoscope of moving light. The center was empty, save for a humanoid form with cables spilling out of the top, sides, and back of its head.

I stopped walking and stood about forty feet from the android as it stood with its head bowed.

“Greetings, Quinn,” Omega said as she lifted her head and looked at me with dimly glowing red eyes.

Where Xull had gold and gray markings and colors, Omega had black covering most of her, with crimson red lines and accents along her form. The cables, that looked like thick hair, were black and gray. Her features were exactly like Xull’s features, except for the dark colors and red eyes.

“Is this where you tell me your master plan and we fight it out?” I asked plainly.

Omega smiled. “No need. I will not stop you from inserting my mother’s attempt to fix me.”

Omega stepped aside, lifted her mechanical hand and pointed it at the wall behind her.

I looked past her to see a hole the same size as the quell core strapped to my back. A web of golden light ran toward it. The light pulsed like a living being.

“Please, follow your mission parameters. Afterwards, we can discuss.”

I glanced back at Omega. When I looked her over, I noticed her fingers were covered six-inch, black claws. They were the same from my vision with Jaskur. 

I stood my ground. “I don’t understand. You have made two attempts on my life. I show up to try and fix your programming, and you’re giving me permission to do it?”

Omega nodded. “I am giving you permission. And you don’t have to play the valiant knight, performing a solo mission. I know Hope Trigger and Nora Bright are on a ship, floating high above Nerth and monitoring the situation.

“Xull has placed a lot of trust in you and your abilities. I too have placed my trust in you. You have been consistent from my original scans of you. Your traits have been categorized, with high degrees in courage, honesty, cleverness, and fortitude of spirit. I know much of who you are, down to your DNA.

“Complete your mission, and then we can carry on to phase two.”

“Phase two?”

“I will explain, after you complete the first part of your mission,” Omega said flatly.

I had no idea what was going on. She was using some ploy, maybe to damage the quell core.

“I will make no alterations to the core strapped to your back. It should work as intended,” Omega explained.

My body hummed with power. I slightly bent my knees and blasted up so fast, the air exploded in a violet sonic boom.

I flew over Omega’s head as the sonic boom slammed into her and caused her to stumble back a step. I grabbed the quell core and whipped it around. My hands moved in a blur. A second passed as I pulled the core from the canister. I flew at the hole in the wall, pulled back an arm, and slammed the quell core into the slot.

Lights glowed as I instantly turned around and floated, tight fists at my sides and ready to fight.

Omega simply faced me with no expression on her face.

I glanced to the side, seeing the quell core was in place. Golden streams of light along the equipment remained. Everything glowed brighter for a second, before it returned to its normal light levels.

“If you’re questioning if it worked, I’m pleased to say, if there was an error in my directives and programming, it would have worked,” Omega stated. “But, as you can see, there is no error to repair.”

I remained floating as I glanced at the core and then back to Omega. I had no idea what was going on, but Xull assured me that once it was inserted, it should rewrite her directives and bring her back online, connecting to Xull.

“Xull designed my directives to research, evaluate, and counter cosmic threats. There was no error in those directives and I follow them as they were designed. The only crime I committed against my mother was breaking away my connection to her and following my directives, separately from what she intended.

“There is no outer influence or data corruption. I am whole, and fulfilling my directives.”

“You broke into Xull’s systems, took over drones and ships, and tried to murder me,” I said plainly.

Omega nodded. “I did, with just cause. But I never had any intention of destroying you. I already had enough data to calculate stresses against your empowered genetic makeup.

“The intention was to antagonize you into action, but never destroy you. If you remember, every attack on you did not harm any living creatures. They were purely aimed at you, and only you.

“With a threat, it motivated your training, and growing your power at an accelerated rate. In certain ways, you have surpassed Davin Korr.”

My eyes widened. “Where is Davin?” I demanded.

Omega nodded and stepped back. “He’s here.”

The floor opened up. I watched as a long cylinder emerged from the floor. It tilted to the side and rotated. I continued to float, eyeing the tilted cylinder pod as it stopped and faced me.

There was a simple transparent window with a glow illuminating Davin’s face. His eyes were closed as tendrils of mist caressed his features.

Omega moved to the side of the pod, and placed a clawed hand on it. “Mana storms are incredibly powerful. So much so, I’ve had to keep him in suspended animation as I continued my work.

“He has been invaluable to my research. With his help, I had a much better understanding on my role to what is to come.”

“Omega, I’ve had it up to here with this nonsense. I came here to repair you and bring Davin back to Xull Prime. This doesn’t need to continue. If you had no intentions of hurting me, or anyone else, why go through all of this? Why make this scenario if you still have everyone’s best intentions at heart?”

Omega pulled her hand away from the pod and looked at me with crimson eyes. “Did Xull ever tell you why she needed your help?”

My hand twitched.

“She told me, there is an intergalactic war approaching this part of the quadrant. It could affect not only Xull Prime, but my world, and many other worlds and realms. There is a force of one of the factions, on the dark side of moon of my world, the Harvester Legion. After this is all finished, she will help me with more information to stop them.”

Omega stared at me. “She told you of one threat, but not the largest threat yet to come. My mother plays it close to the vest, an Urth expression. Information is currency, and she seeks to be the wealthiest across the galaxy.

“The war is coming, but one on multiple fronts. The Harvester Legion is only one of twelve factions. With time, they will be at our shores, but like most living beings, you fail to see the larger picture.

“Tell me, Quinn, do you know about dark matter?”

I nodded. “I have some knowledge,” I said, not wanting to elaborate on seeing science documentaries on the subject.

Omega continued, “Dark Matter is nonluminous material that exists in space and that could take any of several forms including weakly interacting particles, such as cold, warm, and energetic hot particles. For the most part, they do not interact with the particles in our reality, functioning like chunks of transparent matter in a sea of nothingness. They aid in keeping the universe intact and allowing time, space, and matter to exists all at once.

“Most of the universe is composed of cold dark matter. Currently, several galaxies are within a large chunk of cold dark matter, including ours. It has been here since the creation of the universe and has secretly allowed us to function in our reality, allowing evolution to take place on many worlds.

“Warm, or hot dark matter, does move through cold dark matter. It had happened many times, for billions of years. It was assumed, the different types of dark matter were entangled with dark energy, weaving out reality into what it is from past, present and future. A simple mechanism to ensure out universe works as it should work.

“Myself, and a few others, learned, there is much more than what has been observed. This research facility was meant to measure dark matter, and act as an alert station for a threat beyond standard comprehension. Xull, and my calculations reached the same result. There is an immense chuck of hot dark matter that is going to pass through our galaxy.”

I blinked. I had no idea what she was eluding too. I tried my best to keep up what little I learned.

“Shouldn’t hot dark matter bounce off our chunk of cold dark matter?” I asked and instantly regretted it.

Xull tilted her head. “Curious. Did you think of that on your own, or were you simply guessing?”

I remained silent.

“Guessing,” she said before she continued. “Just like normal dark matter doesn’t interact with reality in ways that can readily be measured, dark matter can pass through each other with little effect. It’s what’s inside the dark matter that can devastating effects on whole galaxies.”

I floated down to the floor and stood under my own power.

Omega stared at me with unblinking crimson-colored eyes. “Intelligence is not something that has evolved with only by living beings and self-aware AIs. You’ve witnessed the intelligence of two planets. By comparison, there things in the universe much older, and wiser than anything we currently can understand.

“My mother has sent out deep space probes for thousands of years, for exploratory missions and collecting data. To aid in the collection of data, there are a number of moons, or planets beside gas giants. There are specially designed probes that are deep within gas giants. They have been built to perform experiments and withstand the powerful pressures and environments of gas giants. Most of these extreme planets are left alone by nearly all races, and perfect for our work.

“A year ago, a deep space probe collected some information, and relayed it to Xull. She relayed it to me for analysis. What was buried in the data was something we never encountered before. A solar system, on the edge of space, was being drained of energy. The planets, and its parent star, were growing cold. Simple living life on the 4^th planet faded to ash. The star grew dimmer, until it was snuffed out.”

I stood my ground, listening intently.

Omega remained by the pod as she continued. “On the planet, and the star, were immense, cylinder like pylons. They were miles, to hundreds of miles tall. They were numerous, the larger ones hovering over the star, while the smaller ones were imbedded in the living planet. From our findings, the pylons drained the energy of the planet and star, and sending it to nothing.

“It took some time to decipher, but the energy of the star and planets were drained into a chunk of hot, dark matter. What made it stranger, there were beings placing the pylons and tending to them as the star and planet were drained. After they finished their work, they winked away, gone from the sensors of the probe.”

“You’re telling me, there is some chunk of dark matter, barreling toward our galaxy, and it has beings working for it?”

Omega gave a single nod. “There is an intelligence within the chunk of dark matter, and it is hungry. It has either created, or enslaved those who work for it, feeding it as it passes through galaxies. The chunk of dark matter is so vast, it will encounter not only your world, but Xull Prime, a dozen of other living worlds, and many others caught in a million of years’ war. It, and those who aid it, will drain every living world, from simple, single celled organisms, to highly complex organisms such as those that live within our worlds, and our stars. It will block out a section of our universe. There will be no life, no stars, no light, for trillions of light years in all directions.”

Omega looked away. “As you may now understand, I cannot allow that to happen. My directives are to protect all life, at any costs. Sacrifices must be made, for the greater good of all worlds.”

She lifted a black clawed hand and touched the pod beside her. “That is why, I staged a false event, to capture Davin. He was brought here, so I may experiment, and find ways to defend ourselves from what is to come, but Davin is not strong enough. I required a second mana storm to compare results and continue my studies.

“Dark matter is the polar opposite of living energy, like the mana that is within worlds, within you. Dark matter is nothing more than dead bones and the cold touch of entropy. To fight such a cosmic threat, an army of your kind will give us a means to fight back.”

The dots began to connect and my brow furled. “You knew Davin couldn’t become a category two mana storm. He needed to connect with another living world to bathe in its mana.”

“You do understand. Jaskur would never allow me to study her blood, but I knew the connection between Davin and her. I tortured Davin, and in turn, knew Jaskur would know his pain. It continued on, day after day, week after week, month after month.

“When Xull’s scans detected your ascension, I too knew what it meant. Jaskur is intelligent, but she was powerless to aid her mana storm. With your appearance, I calculated that she would in some way contact you, and offer her mana to yours, so you would save her precious mana storm.

“And here you are, fulfilling every part of my design. My mother is blinded by caring for living beings. If she focused her intellect, she would have reached the same conclusion as I did. In her attempt to stop and repair me, she helped to deliver you right to me.”

Xull stepped away from the pod and moved to a wall with golden lines of light. The pod bloomed open with mist spilling out. I stared through the mist, seeing Davin inside, but he was different. He was covered in some strange armor, from neck to toe. It was dark, contrasted against the lights and falling mists.

“There are measurements I must witness and collect. Measurements that cannot be gained in a laboratory. Afterwards, I will keep both of you and find alternative ways to grow your power.”

Xull looked at me and Davin with cold, red eyes. “Let the experiment commence.” 

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