The clone fled for its life in the darkest of nights. He had known only dark nights and the light of life seemed to do everything in its power to evade him. Tonight was different though. He had discovered something about his creation. A small flicker of light had temporarily entered his soul.
It happened a few moments ago while sharing this information with someone that he had until recently considered a true friend. That 'friend' then pursued a most unexpected course of action; he pulled a gun and made a quick attempt to unload it into him.
Naturally he fled the moment he saw the instrument of death come out of the coat pocket. And now, ten minutes, later he was still in hot pursuit. The sky above him was currently the nebula that looked like a horses head.
He hobbled around the corner weakly in an effort to try and find somewhere to hide. He hadn't felt the pain in his leg until just a few moments ago. He had been shot in his left calf. He looked down and saw the steady stream of blood leaving a trail.
The pain was not as unbearable as he had heard. But he supposed that was because pain was not a new sensation to him. He had suffered mental agony and in this flight for his life he compared them and decided that the pain he felt in his soul was muchworse.
Steam swirled around him in little tendrils as if it was coming from an invisible dragon. His steps splashed as he stepped into the various puddles. As he was coming out of the alley he saw hope in the middle of the road.
A sewer drain.
He bolted over and fell down in front of it. His calf suddenly throbbed in pain. He reached down into the iron grate and curled his fingers under the slits. As he lifted it the metal rose ever so slightly and rubbed against the surface of its frame. He heard another gunshot. The lid fell back into place and he fell onto his side. His head bashed the ground and he winced. Struggling to move he couldn't feel anything below his neck. He was glad that the pain was gone despite the inevitability he was going to die. A soft cloth was pressed against his mouth and everything went black.
"I'm sorry my friend. Subject 1 has been apprehended."

* * *

Five Years Later

Before he was even fully awake, he assumed, as he did everyday, that it would be just another boring day. He sat up yawning on the huge bed. He looked over at his clock and rubbed his temples vigorously. It had gone blank, yet again. And, once again, he would have to go out and buy a chronological device.
This routine was getting old; this was the third one in a week. He liked his patterns same food, same music, same path to the store and back; even so He getting tired of wasting money on devices that would break repeatedly. When he put his feet down on the floor, the cold metal surface chilled him to the bone.
He waltzed over to the television still naked and turned it on with a slight scowl. It projected only static for the first five minutes of activity. So, while he waited, he quickly got dressed.
The clothes were baggy, so he just pushed the button and then he felt the vacuum pull. The clothes became skin tight like an elastic jump suit. It supposedly amplified his muscular reactions in space, but frankly, he couldn't feel a difference. The black body suit slowly became the shade of his skin and then disappeared altogether as if it was a chameleon trying to hide. The only remaining clue that he was even wearing it was the button over his heart. He then grabbed his real clothes and put them on over the pressure suit.
Once he was done, a feeling of dissatisfaction reeled over him. He had worn this the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that one too.
He left it on anyway. Besides, he wasn't planning on going anywhere. He never planned on ever going anywhere. After all there was nowhere to go. So he walked over to his couch and sat down next to the table.
"The usual, I guess." A hole slid open and he saw the orange juice and cereal come out of the gap. "Uh huh. Thank you," He said to no one. He was just looking forward to another boring day of playing his full-immersion videogames and watching television. It's not like he had a job or really even needed one. His family fortune supplied all his expenses. Yeah, his mind called out to him, just another brain rotting day of this subliminal mind clotting garbage.
"Damn I'm sick of this." The video-phone on his end table beeped letting him know that someone had called while he slept. He checked the call log and it told him Sarah called.
Five times.
Chagrined he went to delete the log and accidentally pressed the wrong button.
"It's time you did something worth my time!" It blared at him sharply. He was startled at first, but quickly figured he pushed the message button by accident. Sarah's face glared back at him from the video screen. He ignored her; he had heard this countlessly already. "Damn it, Tio! Don't you want to do something that'll make your father proud?"
"Shut up! What the hell do you know?" He hollered back at it knowing full well that she couldn't hear him. He never meant to scream back at her but it was more of an impulsive reaction, rather than an actual comeback. Dammit, why is she on my case? And where did this desire to rant at me constantly come from?
"I know it's been seven years of this boring routine" Her voice had lost the shrill quality she had started with and it had grown more somber, more careful, and more on topic. "I know you lost him but, grieving this long its pathetic"
"I didn't lose him not exactly. He is just still back on earth with the rest of them, those scientists." He told himself to disrupt the illusion she was trying to cast upon him.
"You know that he is gone just as well as I do." It was as if she predicted what his response would be. It was even timed perfectly. "Tio! You are twenty-one years old! When are you going to grow up?" She asked him accusingly. "What would I tell Jason?"
"He promised me that he would see me again. And it's hardly a matter of growing up." He calmly told the machine as if it had ears. Then he realized just how stupid he sounded.
"You have to face reality! I know it's harsh. I am sorry that you didn't have that father to guide you but he left me with the responsibility to raise you! I've let you grieve like this for far too long!" The message paused for a second and then cut of. The recording time finally cut off.
Just when he thought it was over it played the next message continuing where she left off.
"Starting today, we are going on a voyage. I am going to show you what happened to the earth, our earth; you are going to see the universe. And, I am going to do the job I was trusted by your father (may he rest in peace) to do."
She looked down, probably looking at her watch, and continued again, "Now, I get off work in one hour, you just shut up pack your bags and stay there for a while."
The messages finally cut off. He was waiting for yet another segment, but when it never came he happily deleted the messages. Crazy woman.
He wanted to find someway to argue with all that, but the worst part was that he was going on this trip whether he liked it or not. Deep don inside himself he also knew she was right. So he obediently shut up, turned off the TV and stood up.
He changed into something that looked a little cooler, was more comfortable, and cleaner. Then he went and packed his bags for a long trip laughing humorously while he did it. Dumb woman, thinks she knows everything, might as well humor her.

* * *

Formerly a deliveryman, Psylix took great care with walking through the semi crowded streets. For a long time he was aware he was being followed and he had deliberately taken the busy streets in an attempt to lose the pursuer. His reputation would never let him be, he sighed dejectedly. He had walked right into a dead end. Shaking his head in dismay he un-strapped from his side the package he had reluctantly taken. Behind him he heard his pursuer stop. On the metal wall in front of him he could see the blurry distorted reflection. Turning around, he sighed in relief, it was only a human. No big deal.
As he was an Atrion, it would be a simple matter to deal with this situation. He didn't want to kill the man so he looked around hopefully trying to find something to deter the man. Above him he saw what he wanted. Not to far above him was an electrical line.
He whipped his tail around threateningly in an effort to delay the man. It appeared to have worked, the man recoiled at the sight of the blade extruding from his tail. Given the time he needed, he jumped skyward and back flipped at the apex, allowing his tail to slice the wire at one end.
The line crackled loudly as it fell and whipped furiously on the ground. Psylix landed facing the man and grinned. He looked back the other way and picked up his package and attached it again.
"Look dude, I'm not doing this anymore, I'm tired of you people. Go away!" The man screamed at him and ran off screaming, "They don't pay me enough for this!"
"Well, that was easier than usual," Psylix muttered to himself. "I really didn't want to do this job. There was a reason I stopped delivering these packages. But No, Moumoru just had to spend all our cash." He leaped easily over the wires blocking his way and stepped back out into the populace. He glanced up at the translucent canopy and looked at the stars briefly before continuing on his way.
He had wanted to get back on the escort business again, but these side jobs are what would be feeding the port fee. He flicked his ear and enabled the comlink for his ship and crew members. "Moumoru, are you there?"
"Yeah Boss. What's up?"
"How much fuel does the ships battery have currently?"
"Enough to get us anywhere we want."
"And the bill for the recharge?"
"More than we have currently. Once you're done with that small job we have enough to pay for that though. So don't screw up." He heard laughter on the other end.
"Yeah, yeah laugh it up buddy, you're next. Gotta go, almost at the rendezvous point." He flicked his ear again and heard the link terminate. Breaking away from the crowd he crossed the street in front of him and saw a familiar face from long ago.
He pitied this man, he really did. This was the same man that had welcomed Psylix into the space colony and granted him a place to live before he had one of his own. The once well-respected doctor now looked homeless and malnourished.
He stopped hesitantly. This would stir up bad memories for both of them. He frowned and stepped out of the shadows for doctor Matsuo to see clearly. His eyes widened in fear at once and he stumbled back slowly. Psylix pointed at the box on his side and Matsuo immediately understood why he was here.
"Hi doc, how are you these days?"
"As if you have to ask! Just look at me! This is all your fault, you and that, that thing you brought to my hospital!" Matsuo spat out his words sharply and quickly. He wasn't nearly as degenerated, as he at first appeared to be.
"Look, there was no way I could have know Somie would be infected with such a thing. Even you didn't know what it was. You know that." He un-strapped the package and held it out. "Let's not discuss such things. You saved him, and me. And for that I'm grateful, but right now I'm just here to deliver this."
"Grateful my ass! You take what life I gave you and you continue to work with dangerous people! You don't appreciate it at all!" Matsuo stepped forward and snatched the package out of his hands. "Here, take this and be gone! I don't care anymore at this point, I'm still healing people." Matsuo tossed the money at Psylix.
Psylix not amused watched the paper money flutter to the ground. He collected the money and started to walk off. He stopped just far enough away to say one last thing and still be heard. "Doc, I really don't do these side jobs anymore. I made a promise to you that day, I haven't forgotten. This is just a one time thing."
He started the long walk back to the Farsight, his ship. He flicked his ear and reported his success to Moumoru and quickly terminated the link again. He wasn't in the mood for chatting.
He stepped back into the crowd and hoped to blend in. He didn't like to be noticed. Humans didn't get to see to many Atrions. So naturally he stood out. It wasn't that fact that he didn't like to be seen; it was the fact that eyes that looked back at him were always full of pity. He didn't want to be pitied.
He had already received a lifetime's worth of awkward apologies. He had grown numb of the words 'I'm so sorry'. It was inevitable though; he couldn't exactly hide his tail. It would slice him up if he concealed his tail under his clothes so he simply let it hang out naturally.
He walked quickly through the crowds, anxious to get back. His stomach growled telling to stop and get food. He listened and glanced around looking for something to eat. To his right he saw a store labeled 'Mathenius interstellar - Everything store'.
He figured why not, maybe they have food. He pushed the door open and heard the bell ding signaling a welcome from a bald man sitting in the far of the store. There were only a few people in the store, all in line, waiting to pay for whatever they were carrying. He glanced around and saw mostly machines scattered about on tables with price tags. He looked past the machines to his far left and he heard a woman yelling into a videophone at someone. He walked a little closer curious as to what she was yelling about. He was careful to hold his tail close to his body. He didn't want to knock anything over.
He wasn't able to get too much out of listening to her rant into the phone. He was only able to hear a few tidbits about 'get you act together' and 'pack your bags'. He thought to himself for a moment and he had an idea.
As he got closer he saw that the shirt she was wearing had the logo of the shop imprinted on it. Also taking the view in he could see that she was very beautiful. Her chestnut hair was short and held back from her face with bobby-pins. And her tight pants fit her very well. He waited until she hung up the line. She turned around and jumped startled.
"Oh my goodness! You scared me! How much of that did you hear? I'm so sorry!"
"Hey, its no big deal. More importantly, do you work here?"
"As a matter of fact I do!" She proudly told him. "It's just me and Mathenius."
"I'm Psylix. I've never been here before."
"I'm Sarah. Is there anything in particular you need? We have robots, engine parts, guns, tools, etcetera."
"I was actually hoping to get some food around here." Upon hearing that she looked a little bit surprised, she must not get to many people asking for food here, he thought.
"Right this way, we actually have a large selection in the back here." She guided him past all the mechanical aisles.
"So, this may sound like a typical question. How does an attractive woman such as yourself come to work here?" He was stereotyping her but didn't care; he actually was interested.
"I actually do the marketing, he handles the mechanical work." She stopped and he nearly walked into her. He wanted to then he could have had an excuse for touching her, but he decided to behave himself. He stepped back a little bit before she noticed, he didn't want to ruin his plan accidentally.
"Ah this looks good." He said aloud and grabbed a drink off the wall. "So, does being in marketing pay well?" He asked her grinning. She frowned.
"Are you trying to pick me up for a one night stand or something?" She accused him.
"No, no! You misunderstand!" Not that he would mind, he thought to himself. "I'm just asking. It sounds like you're going to be traveling with someone that's a little less then cooperative."
"Oh, so you heard that. What's it to you. Thinking of stalking my gorgeous ass or something?"
"Um, no. That's not quite where I'm going with this. Why are all you people always so paranoid?" He shook his head confused. How was he going to say this?
"Well?" She crossed her arms impatiently waiting for the answer.
"Look, Sarah was it? I own a ship down there in the port. We are a little hard of money right now. To the point where I'm having to do irritating side jobs just to pay for the damn fuel and port fee." He sounded irritated, he knew it but he didn't feel like hiding it. "So are you going traveling or not?"
"Well, I'm the guardian of this guy since his parents passed away. He's in denial. I wanted to take him to earth one last time so he can finally understand why he was to leave with me and not stay. Are you heading in that direction?"
"Like I said, if you pay, we'll go." He paused and added, "We need you to pay half up front though." He handed her his card and left the store after he paid for the drink.

* * *

He walked up to his ship and saw Somie sitting on the steps waiting for him. The tattoo just under his right eye was pulsing like a heartbeat. His orange eyes glowed slightly in the dim light. His face was frowning, and like a cat his long pointed ears were bent down.
"Somie, you need a pill. You are radiating again." Somie glanced up at Psylix and nodded in acknowledgment.
"I know. I'm trying to learn to contain the radiation myself. It's just too different from the waves. I can't control it the same way." Frustrated he grabbed the container of pills from his pocket and twisted the cap off. Taking a single pill he tossed it down his throat. "I'm way to dependent on these things. I don't like taking them and not only that, I'm starting to build up a resistance to them."
"I know, Somie. I know." Psylix put his hands in his pockets. "I don't like taking my medication either but I have to. Unlike you, if I stop taking mine, I'll simply drop dead."
Psylix remembered the first time he came across Somie. How could he forget, he not only electrocuted him by accident, he nearly crushed him. If he hadn't seen Somie appear out of lightning himself, he would never have believed Somie was from another dimension. He brought with him what looked like the ruins of a tower and a small pose doll. It was a sudden entrance and left both of them injured. It took a while for Somie to warm up enough to tell him what really happened, but even now it still shocks him when he thinks about it.
Psylix stepped into his ship and walked up the spiral staircase skipping the three side landings. At the top he twisted the hatch and opened the door and closed it behind him as he entered. Sitting in the pilots seat as usual was Moumoru.
Sleeping. Psylix thought it was funny that even though Moumoru wasn't human he looked like he was. He was even almost biologically identical to them as well. He often just wrote him off as one, but despite his appearance his intellect was vastly superior even if his attitude wasn't.
Psylix not in a good mood walked over and slapped him suddenly to wake him up. He jumped in his seat and hollered in surprise.
"Oh hey boss! Didn't see you there."
"Of course not, you were sleeping." Psylix sat down in the copilots seat and propped his legs up on the ship dashboard leaning back. "We may be getting out of here soon. I gave out a card."
"Really?" Moumoru grabbed a coin from his pocket and flipped the coin into the air. Its unstained silver surface caught the light as it tumble up into the air. Just as it reached the apex of its arch he snapped his arm up to grab it. He repeated the motion twice more before stopping.
"Yeah, go tell that engineer to turn the engines back on. You how long they take to prep for take off." Psylix sighed. "And stop flipping that stupid coin! Why do you always do that?" He asked.
"Oh god, don't remind me. On my way." Moumoru opened the door and disappeared to the other side.
Like himself and Somie, Moumoru didn't have a home to go back to either. It was depressing, the three of them bought this ship together to help people and get paid without having to do any real work. It just didn't work out according to the plan.
Since the day he signed for the Farsight he had picked up a few other individuals well known for their individual talents. The first person other than the original three to climb aboard was Seth. He was the wandering Combat specialist. Scarcely a day went by when he didn't see him covered in dark clothing. Come to think of it, he couldn't recall a day when the man's hair didn't covered the right side of his face like a shroud. It was as if he was trying to hide something. Psylix personally knew exactly what it was. The right side of his face was covered to hide the scars he received during his years of service to a mercenary organization.
Then there was the engineer, which he only trusted as far as he could throw him. The found him literally on their doorstop selling him their services for free, all he wanted was house and board. It was suspicious but they let him work on the engines since none of them understood how to repair a complicated hydrogen engine. He recalled the first time
Haschel examine the engines. The man looked at the engine and chuckled, cracked his fingers and got to work immediately. Every time he twisted a bolt tighter his hands and arms bones would pop painfully loudly.

* * *

Moumoru plodded down the three flights and steps at a rapid pace. More than once he almost tripped and fell on his face. He entered the engine room, which was cramped with inconvenient pipes and tubes and called out for Haschel.
As he had done on many occasions Haschel voice called out from nowhere.
"I'm back here! What do you need Moumoru?"
"Boss said, turn them back on. We'll be heading out of here soon, he thinks." Moumoru looked around trying to see Haschel unusually large nose. He gave and turned around to head out the door and almost fell backward with surprise. The man was literally between him and the door. "How do you do that?" Haschel was always appearing out of nowhere scaring them unintentionally.
"Ok, but the engines won't keep themselves running you know, then need regular maintenance. Tell him we need to rest these again whenever we get there. Where are we going anyway?"
"Beats me. The client hasn't even shown up yet." Moumoru told Haschel as he climbed up toward the ceiling for a final inspection of the engines. He watched his Cyrano-De-Begerac-esche nose vanish. "Well enjoy.I'm out of here."

* * *

Sarah walked into the back of the store when her shift was over and Mathenius flipped his 'open' sign to 'close'. She sighed drawing out the card in her pocket and stared at it briefly. Mathenius simply walked past her and sat at the far end of the table. His baldhead caught some of the light from the ceiling as he sat down.
"What's wrong Sarah?" He asked in a somber tone. Instead of answering immediately she just hung her head and shook it side to side.
"It's just that damn kid." She pulled a chair out from under the tables opposite end and watched Mathenius flick a metal attachment attached to his left cheekbone. A hexagonal targeting reticule rapidly materialized out of the top of the attachment.
"You mean Tio?" He grabbed a small device off the floor from next to his feet and dropped it onto the table with a heavy clunk and grabbed the nearby soldering iron in one swift motion. He immediately set about disassembling it.
"Whom else could I be talking about?" She banged her head lightly on the table in front of her. "Liste-" She started but was interrupted by Mathenius.
"Ah, damn it! I missed one again." He cried out in frustration as he accidentally melted a capacitor to the circuit board. He cursed under his breath, and slapped his head. "Sorry, you were saying?"
She thought about this the shop for a second grinning. After serving him for nearly six years he trusted her almost entirely. The shop had done well; partly do to her deep insight into the needs of the public, but mostly due to his near genius ability to make scrap into something useable for almost no cost. They turned these talents into a huge profit, and Mathenius now owned three branches between three colonies separated by eons of space.
Sarah was his only employee at the start, now she handled the marketing, and he the machines. She chuckled, she had even unexpectedly learned a bit about beginners engineering. She had been watching him for barely a second before she saw the problem.
"Changed the spectrum you're using. You're in red light right now. You know you need the blue hexagon grid when modifying three-dimensional boards." She scolded, and watched as he flicked his enhancement embarrassed.
"Sorry, didn't realize." He paused and let the device reset itself before attempting to clean up the mess melted onto the circuitry. "Please continue," He paused and added as an after thought, "Can you grab that stack and put it over there.I need to sort it later." He laughed timidly after realizing he interrupted her again. "Sorry, really I am."
She sighed and continued.
"I need some time off." She glanced up at him to see the expression on his face and frowned. He didn't even look like he was listening. She stood up and grabbed the box he had requested and set it on the table directly in front of him with a loud thump making the entire table shake. Mathenius jolted surprised.
"Sarah! I am listening, you know." He snapped. "You need time off right? This about that guy from earlier, am I right?" He asked.
"Well," She started, "That's only part of it." She went back to her seat and sat down again looking straight at him staring right back. "I'm going to do something cruel to him you know."
"Taking him back to Earth is it?" He asked slowly.
"Yeah. I need to show him once and for all that he needs to stop hoping. We all saw what the planet looked like except him and a few others." She didn't want to say it, but it was still hard for her to believe what had happened. "He needs to see the damage that phenomenon caused with his own eyes. I just can't.I just can't explain it clearly with words." The thought of all the people that had died that day made her choke on her words.
Mathenius averted his eyes. He didn't like to see her upset. He would do anything that could cheer her up. He loved her, and he knew that she knew it as well. She didn't feel the same way, he was aware of this. Despite it being a one-sided relationship he still felt a great desire to comfort her. He looked at his device he had attempted to perform surgery on.
Frustrated he slammed his fist into it causing it to break into various pieces. He stood up hard enough to knock his chair to the floor and walked over to her quickly and embraced her with a hug. He didn't want to see her cry, but hugging her had the exact opposite effect. Sobbed quietly at first and then louder as the time past. A few minutes later she stopped and he let go.
"Thank you." She told him and stood up. "Even with you odd habits and quirky personality you're ok." She smiled at him and walked over the hug him briefly in return. "I'm going too have to see it sooner of later, whether I like it or not. I might as well just do it."
"I'll be here when you return." He walked out of the room laughing. "Speaking of quirky habits." She heard him jostling out of sight and returned with a small rifle in hand. "You know what I like to do to these things after all." He pointed to the corner and grinned a toothy smile.
In the direction he was pointing she saw three small roaches moving slowly in a pack. She laughed at the fact that he loved to shoot them with bullets. She never asked why, she just got out of the way.
"With this I bid you adieu good sir." She called to him as the door chimed with her exit.
The insects were hard to see in the dark corner so he flicked attachment again and queued the thermal sensor to activate. He propped his gun back up, balanced it, and aimed giving the sensor time to activate. He was just about to pull back on the trigger when he noticed something odd. There were three tiny cold spots on the targets carapace.
Unable to see it very clearly, he adjusted his position and zoomed in with the rifles scope. With this new point of view, he could see that the three spots were actually small oval shaped orbs that were very subtly changing temperatures at the edges. He stared at it for a moment and jumped in surprise when the entire thing turned blue.
"Huh." He put the gun down at his side, "Guess it was already on its way out." His voice clearly reflected the disappointment he felt. Shooting roaches was one of his favorite hobbies and he jumped at every opportunity. But he didn't want to shoot something dead. That was just no fun.
A sound caught his attention on the other side of the room; somehow a box had fallen over. His skin magazines spilt out. His favorite was lying partially open with the centerfold poking out.
Being paranoid all the time he picked the gun back up and spun around screaming, "Who the hell is it?" He couldn't imagine why anyone would break in. He sold things at such a good price to begin with and everyone knew that all they had to do was ask him and he would trim the price for them.
This time something ran between his legs at such a speed that it left a small gust of wind and crash loudly into the wall and leaving a small mouse sized hole. He whirled around in disbelief. "What the hell?"
To him it looked like a bullet hole, only slightly more oval in shape. He didn't hear a gun. Or maybe he just imagined that gust of wind and the crunch. He knew that paranoia did things to the creative perception.
He stepped up to the wall and knelt down beside it placing his rifle against the wall a little distance away. After probing it with his finger and not finding a bullet he lay down on his chest and yanked the flashlight off his belt. He flicked it on. The cone shaped illumination displaced the shadows and placed a spotlight on the wall. He was aiming it toward the small gap when he heard voice.
"What the hell." It was not a question, it didn't even sound like a human voice. It was like someone had broadcast some message through a static plagued synthesizer.
"Who the hell is it!?" He yelled in anger. He jumped back up onto his feet and spun around again and again seeing no one. Reaching for his gun, he remembered he left it just out of arms reach. His baldhead carried sweat that reflected the light. "God Dammit, answer me!"
"Answer me." It was that inhuman voice again. It seemed to lack all the emotion he had put into it. It came from the wall. He had just about enough of acting rationally. The situation was not rational so why should he be? The wall was speaking to him in strange tones, why should he seem crazy if he just shot it full of holes. The absurdity of the thought struck him as ludicrous, better safe than sorry after all. He made a run for the gun anyway.
He made it about halfway before the wall had begun to crack as if something was drilling through it. Little pieces chipped and fell off. The cracks spread in size until it covered the wall like an arcane mosaic.
Suddenly a deafening screech filled the room and ripped in his head. The effect was an instant but very brief paralysis. The moment the paralysis subsided he said screw the gun and went for the door instead. His adrenaline pumping he had the age old dilemma. Fight or flight. Fear took over. Forget the fight! Just run!
More chips of cement fell away from the wall. He heard the space expanding quickly under some invisible force. The wall exploded like a volcano causing him to stumble. Dust landed on his shoulders. He inhaled dust and sputtered.
When it settled three large reptiles stood in the gap. Each chirped and screeched in a language only it could understand. They resembled gigantic geckos except for the tail's, which ended in three sharp spines, and the carapace running down the length of their back. The head appeared to be armored as well.
They wasted no time in doing away with him. He was so stunned be the sight of the creatures he never got a chance to even run. They all ran forward in unison and pounced on him and each thrusting a tail in his back.
His body roared in pain. In the three wounds he felt as though something had been slid into the wound. He had expected a horrible sucking feeling when he saw he tails but instead he felt a sensation much like a needle giving a vaccination, only much bigger.
As he lay there dying in a puddle of his own blood he looked to his side and saw four green armored toes, each ending in sharp talons. His vision was blurring as one put its face down to his and flicked two purple tongues. It had bones covering its mandible mouth like a beak.
Mathenius died moments later hoping Sarah would never ever see his killer.

* * *

Somewhat stunned by Tio's cooperation with traveling could only watch as he rushed her along and not the other way as she expected. He had already gathered all his important belongings, as she had required him to.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked Sarah as he picked up his suitcases and noticed her staring at him.
"You're awfully complacent about this." She explained. "You're always mouthing off at me about how he's alive and you wouldn't hear it any other way. To be honest it is a little bit confusing to me." He looked at her for a moment and shrugged.
"I look at it this way Sarah. If he's alive it'll be a nice little reunion like I planned, and I'll be right." Tio grinned sheepishly, "In the off chance that he's gone and turned into worm food mush, then I'll be wrong and you're right." He walked into the doorway leaving his apartment and stopped before walking through it completely. "At the very least it'll get you to stop calling me everyday just to yell at me."
"Yeah, but what'll you do if he is gone? It's not going to be a pleasant trip you know. The guy that gave me this card is a little shady looking." She explained looking at the card Psylix gave her before he left the store and sighed. "His ship can't be all that impressive you know, since he was sounding a bit desperate for money."
"Maybe they just spent it all on repairs and fuel or something." Tio suggested, "The stuff can't exactly be all that cheap you know. If it was I'm sure more people would own spacecrafts. I wouldn't mind owning one myself you know."
"You could never handle the responsibility. Those things take more than one person to maintain you know." She put the card back in her pocket where she had retived it from. "Ok, lets head to the dock kid. My stuffs already packed and in the taxi." She following him out with a final look at his place, they wouldn't be seeing this again for a while. "Are you sure you having everything you need?" She asked.
"Got it all, no worries." Tio replied as he slid his suitcase into the taxis trunk.
"Fine, lets go." Sarah told him as she slid into the back seat. "Driver, to the docks please." She told the driver as Tio slid in beside her shutting the door.
They felt the vehicle lift gently off the ground and silently pickup speed. Tio largely ignored Sarah the entire ride and simply started out the window at the artificial sunset and beach which was viewable from the highway. He watched as the holograms displayed minor glitches. he was taken completely aback by how at on moment the entire screens simply flickered and vanished revealing the starry heavens for a brief moment. He spent the remainder of the ride silently contemplating what could cause a minor power outage and that large a scale.
The taxi slowed to a stop and Sarah paid the tab that she owed as she thanked the driver.
"Come on, lets go Tio." They climbed out and retrieved their luggage from the trunk and watched the taxi speed off. They proceeded as Psylix had directed her on a phone call and before long they stood staring at awe in amazement. What looked like a metallic flying hawk sat looming before them on the launch pad. Tio and Sarah could feel the air heavy with the vibration caused by its engines. As they walked closer Tio's nose caught the smell of engine grease and oil. In excitement Tio ran up and pressed his hand against its cold surface he could feel the ships heartbeat as it vibrated through his arm.
"Sarah! This is a LBP type ship!" He explained excitedly to her disinterested gaze. Off to his left a panel in the bottom of the ship slid open and ramp descended to the floor.
"Hello again Psylix." Sarah greeted him with a smile and a wad of cash she had dug out of her luggage. "I'm asume all is in order then? Here's the half on departure you requested."
"Yes, it most certainly is, we can leave immediately we already have clearance to leave." He told her smiling as he took the money. His tail flicked the air catching a glint of light and reflecting it into Tio's eyes. "I'm assuming thats the kid." Tio ignored the light and continued to stare at the ship.
"Yeah thats him." She told Psylix. "He seems kind of excited to be able to ride on this."
"Well, yeah. This is a famous ship type. LBPs are some of the best out there. These things are usually used in the races that entertain people."
"Is it really that big of a deal? I mean I've never heard of it."
"You never heard of it? These are usually used for corporate flights and all, not typically civilian crews like ours, but yeah." Psylix explained. "Whats his name?" He asked changing the subject. He watched her lips as she answered being careful to avert his eyes before she noticed.
"Strange name." He stated to himself as he wandered off to meet the boy. As he approached, Tio looked at him briefly. "Maximum speed twenty-two thousand miles an hour." He laughed when he saw the kids jaw drop in amazement.
"Thats almost as fast as Lanstrom flies in his races." He replied in amazement. "He owns a LBP as well! Is this yours?" Psylix nodded. "How did you get your hands one of these?"
"Long story. Maybe I'll tell you later. Come on I'll give the tour." Psylix motioned for the two of them to follow him up the ramp. The three passed under a small arch at the top and walked past another staircase.
"Where's that one go?" Asked Tio as he glanced at it.
"That goes up top. You can look out at the stars under a small dome that was constructed on the top of the ship. Its a great view if you feel the desire to look. But don't go up there just yet, wait till we are out in space. Trust me, looks a lot better when its your first impression." Psylix continued walking and motioned for them to continue to follow.
The short hallway ended with three mahogany doors. Smiling he motioned at the one on the left and explained that this was were they would be sleeping. Psylix then continued to explain that himself and the crew used the other two rooms. Sarah opened the door and gasped in surprise at the accommodation's that laid before her. The room was massive, she stepped in, mouth agape and dropped her bags just inside the threshold. Tio followedd appearing only slightly less impressed.
He glaced up at the vaulted ceiling and grinned thinking to himself that this must be the dimplomacy room that was built into all ships of this type. He glanced around at the glass table in the center of the room and at the full service bar on the other side. He fininshed his scan of the room with a longing gaze at the two beds and sighed with pleasure.
"I take it you are satisfied with what you see." a grinning Psylix explained.
"I didn't think a person like you would have a room of this quality on a ship like this. No offense." Sarah responded as she recovered composher.
"None taken, I get a response like that plenty. No worries. Enjoy your stay. Dinner will be at six sharp. We shall be underway with your permission of course."
"All right lets get out this place." She paused for a moment slightly confused at his change in personality. "And Thank you, Psylix."
"Very well. Enjoy the room." He bowed slightly and stepped out of the room shutting the door behind him.

* * *

The next few hours passed rapidly as Sarah an Tio decided that instead of explore the ship as Psylix had expected they would simply resigned themselves to taking a nap. They awoke to a knock on the door.
"Sarah, Tio! We're there." It was Psylix calling them from on the other side of the door. "I thought you might want to see the approach. Meet us up top in the command lounge. I trust Tio likely knows the way on account of his fascination for spacecrafts.. See you soon." The heard him walk off as they each got out of their respective beds.
"Is he right in that assumption Tio?" Sarah asked him frowning.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know where he wants us to meet. Besides, this ship isn't THAT huge. You cant really get lost."
"Fair enough." She was satisfied with that answer. "It was pretty considerate of him to wake us and all that. I wonder if he's always this mannered, or if this is special treatment." She pondered this as Tio got up and walked to the door.
"There's no point in actually wondering about it. You're question will most likely answer itself eventually. He cant keep up an act forever after all. Are you coming or not?"
"Yeah, I'm coming."
They stepped through the door and took a right down the hallway. Tio expertly guided them up a chrome spiral staircase and down a hallway on the left to a slanted door that opened into a small elevator. The door slid shut behind them and the room rose slowly to the top of the ship. It opened to a small compartment with a sealed door only a few feet in front of them. Tio grunted as he spun the seal and opened the door. The two of them stepped into the room with six chairs in it. Two of the chairs facing the high pressure resistant glass were occupied by Moumoru and Psylix.
Tio watched silently from as distance as Moumoru expertly manipulated the digital controls for the ship. Pyslix snapped his fingers and a holographic display appeared under his right hand. He made a small adjustment and snapped again to make the menu vanish.
"Thats a pretty impressive control scheme you have there." Sarah commented. Psylix swung his chair around with a stupid grin on his face.
"Harder than it looks, trust me on that, but I'm not the pilot here. Its this dude. Best pilot I've ever met. Moumoru here's been my pilot for over four years now. Never had an unexpected accident." Sarah cocked her eyebrow.
"Define unexpected for me." She requested unhumoursly.
"Rough business. Put it that way. I'd rather than not go into details. Gets complicated if I do." Psylix smiled polity and motioned to glass in front of him. In the distance was a blue sphere about the size of a quarter and rapidly growing. "That would be Earth. Where are we landing about? I can give you weather conditions and outside temperatures. Not to mention I'd much rather land under clear skies. Its much less dangerous that way."
"United States, FL." She explained. "It was the north east section. On the coast. Not far from a river and a small waterway."
"You're going to have to be more specific than that." Psylix muttered dissagreably.
"No she won't, You'll see." Tio explained.
"Given the region you told me, the computer says based on assumed weather patterns it will be in the sixties under partly cloudy skies."
"Near Perfect for atmosheric landing conditions" Moumoru said finally speaking.

* * *

Moumoru brought the ship in closer to the planet and remained in orbit for a glimpse of the worlds condition. Clouds obscured his descent path. He always felt more comfortable being able to see his entire flight path before changing full force. His skill level with piloting the craft was far more than adequate should a emergency arise however he would rather not press his luck if not entirely necessary.
He watched the clouds swirl rapidly with the stratosphere. Below the entire saw Europe manifest from underneath the cloud cover. A large block of ice covered the entire continent. Sarah blinked in surprise at the sight of the snow white landmass.
"Is that a glacier? Thats not possible!" She stammered in shock. Putting her hand up to her head she blocked out sight and blinked rapidly trying to understand. Tio couldn't comprehend the sight either. It just wasn't possible. Glaciers move extremely slowly, it was as if hundreds of lifetimes had come and gone since humanity had fled. The monstrously gigantic block of ice should not have even shifted a noticeable distance even if a hundred years would have passed.
"Sarah, that isn't not possible, right?" Tio managed to ask in between gasps of air.
"Something wrong?" Asked Psylix, as he was completely unaware of the huge change. When he went unanswered he simply turned back to the screen to watch the planet. Clouds had re shrouded Europe. "Moumoru, are you ready to take us down?"
"Yeah, activating landing sequence now. Prepare yourselves. Grab something." He hesitated before adding, "This will be quite uncomfortable." Sarah was still in shock and only clasped the rungs on the wall when Psylix took her hand and moved it himself. Tio was more autonomous that she was and had already braced himself. "And down we go."
Sitting down in his own chair Psylix studied the graphs on the screen as they gained speed and flights angles fluctuated. Psylix could feel the many vibrations of the ship as it fell through the sky creating friction and displacing the many clouds that filled the skies of Earth. Visibility dropped as moisture on the monitors fogged up and created a opaque gray shroud through which only vague shapes could be seen.
Sarah and Tio felt Moumoru enjoying the speed of their descent. They could also tell he enjoyed making them nervous. In a moment of sheer abuse Moumoru spun the ship a full spin. The faster they went the larger his grin. This was his element and it clearly showed. He was like a maniac in his own world. As they descended quickly through the atmosphere like a bullet Psylix calmly asked Sarah where in the world they needed to land. He pointed to a global map and had her point it out. Each time she touched the screen it zoomed in closer to acquire a landing point closer to the exact location until the final point she selected was a mere mile away from the location they wanted to investigate. After that was done she instinctively re clutched the wall to steady herself within the rocking ship.
"All right! Here we go, Sarah are you ready?" Moumoru called out with his teeth showing through his wicked grin. "Its time to break the sound barrier with re-entry!" Without waiting for an answer he slammed his fist down on the console in front of him and thrust his hand that was gripping a joystick all the way forward. With his other hand he calmly pressed a button with the other. The ship gave a mighty lurch as it bounced against the atmospheres friction created a tremendous burst of speed and heat.
The force of the acceleration shocked Sarah enough the she was unable to withstand the G forces and was unable to keep her hands on the wall. She would have fallen against the floor if Psylix hadn't caught her the second he started to fall. Tio on the other hand was enjoying every moment of it just like Moumoru. He stood without assistance and was riding the ship like a surf board as it skidded in the air and sliced clouds apart.
A few minutes had passed before Moumoru eased off the throttle and the ship started to fly under three hundred mph. "ETA 5 minutes under terrestrial landing." Moumoru told Psylix and passengers on board via a intercom system. "Buckle all lose objects down. I cannot guarantee a smooth landing."
Psylix un tensed a little bit. "You could have entered a little slower, you know." He said as he released Sarah due to the speed reduction. What if there was an emergency?" He scolded.
"Oh please, since when has there ever been an accident when Iwas piloting, except for that ONE time?" Moumoru countered slyly.
"You crashed into a wall! And it wasn't even moving!"
"Its not like anyone was hurt! Just took some minor repairs."
"Thats not the point!"
"Come on. Take it easy on him Psylix." It was Somie, he entered through the hatch. "We've been on that colony for almost a month now. We've all got a bit of stress to relieve, even me." He gestured acceptingly at the pilot, "Thats just his way of letting some of it out. You cannot really fault him for that." He paused then added, "Especially since you know what you do for stress relief." Pylix fidgetted as if he didn't accept it.
"Ah, whatever. Next time just try not to scare the guests." Psylix answered then stampeded out of the room.

* * *

The ship rocketed across the landscape, gradually descending lower and lower. Its powerful engines spat vortexes of fire into the air creating shockwaves that emenated out into the surroundings. It descended until it was just above the vast ocean. No longer descending, Moumoru leveled the ship out just above sea level for his approach to the coat line. The wake behind the ship cut a swath in the ocean splitting it several feet.
Behind the ship, the water quickly refilled the gap. Large waves filled the gaps. Swirling torrents of water inturupted the tranquil calm sea. The ships wake was several hundred feet long. He could see a thick fog bank blocking the quickly advancing coastline. The radar systems however penetrated the thick shroud, so he paid it no attention.
The ship entered the fog with such speed the visual effect was like a bullet being shot into the water. Now above land he could see a small city, with several roads. These were the cordinates so he simply decided to aim for a long stretch of open road. Reducing his flight speed he slowly lowered the tail section first until it touched pavment then killed the engines completly. The nose dropped as he expected it too and coasted waiting for inertia to stop the ship.
It was a perfect landing until the ship lurched slightly with a crash outside. He hadn't realized the road was slightly narrower on the right side, and the wing had clipped the second floor of a small apartment building made of bricks. There was no damage to the ship but it hurt his pride almost as much as it destroyed the building. He cursed silently to himself.

* * *

It was early morning just after ten when the report about several loud noises came in over the dispatch radio. A investigator had already been sent out about three or four hours ago. Jack glanced at his watch, it was now almost three in the afternoon. Ames was far overdue for his check in. Ames was never late. Ever. And that was all Jack need to know. He placed the request for additional backup to be deployed to sector two.
Within minutes the RS police vehicles screamed around the corners of sector two with their sirens blazing. They went full speed until the last moment when the vehicles slammed the brakes and the drivers expertly allowed the rear end to swing wide placing the rear doors only feet from the shops entrance.
The doors burst open and seven heavily armed men wearing anti-riot body suits bolted out and placed their shoulders against Mathenius' shop wall. Observing that the glass door was slightly cracked and stained with a dark unidentifiable substance that made the once translucent glass completely opaque, the unit leader motioned for silence.
He crept up to the door slowly and as silent as a ghost. Very carefully he placed his left ear against the door to try and listen for any noise on the other side. He heard what sounded like plodding, several feet. Maybe for and scratching like claws on metal. Being very confused by the combinations of sound, he hesitated when he heard the noises suddenly become louder.
Suddenly without warning the entire door exploded outward into a million pieces and the unit leader found himself impaled by a long reptilian tail with three spines penetrating his torso lifting him off his feet. He looked down slowly at his killer.
The other six officers stepped back completely stunned. What stood before them was a six foot long, seven hundred pound armored lizard with talons on every extremity and three six inch spikes protruding from the very end of its tail.
"What are you waiting for!?" Cried the leader as his blood ran down his sides in torrents, "Cut it down!" On command the six men unloaded automatic weapons fire into the beasts side.
The beast threw the dying leader at the soldiers as it dropped dead. Blood poured from its wounds and the men saw to their leaders injuries. It was too late however. He was already dead. The two of the remaining officers scanned the shattered doorway quickly to verify the area was cleared from further threats as the other four examined the strange creature.
To them it looked like a giant armor plated gecko with a scorpion tail. A six inch talon was protruding from each of its toes. It also appeared as though the sides of its face were protected by thick carapace shrouding the jaw line.
"The hell is it?" Asked one to which another replied, "The hell should I know. It's ugly as piss though." the two officers the went to investigate the security of the area returned and motioned everyone inside the building.
"Williams, I think you need to see this." Spoke the one man and gestured at the wall.
"Whats up?" Williams now the senior officer on site, stepped forward resigned to his field promotion as the new leader. "Find something?"
"Well," The officer started frowning , "Theres a rather large, um, hole here in the back." He led the group towards the back carefully stepping over fallen merchandise that laid in the aisle. Stopping at the end he pointed to the corner beside the office in the rear.
Williams saw what had his subordinate spooked. Beside a red mess on the floor that used to be a human body, in the wall was a gap large enough to be called a cavern. He stepped forward with drawing a flash light from his vest pocket. Shining it down the vertical drop he saw the remains of another human at the bottom of a shear vertical drop into darkness. In a low voice he said, "I think I found Ames. John and Richard you're coming with me. The rest of you step outside and quarantine the area.
John, Richard and Williams all readied themselves for the descent. Pulling the line from the clip on their belts they fastened the line to the wall with a fast acting substance that only special forces like themselves were allowed to have. Satisfied that he was ready Williams jumped into the void and hung against the wall waiting for the other two to join him.
"Nothing special here." He told them as the engines in their belts slowly lowered them. "Its dark down their, switch to night vision." Pressing a button on his shatter-resistant goggles his vision immediately went from the full spectrum of colors to just different shades of green and black.
As they descended they passed through several layers of faulty pipes that had sent steam swirling around them temporarily shrouding their vision.Williams had a bad feeling about this. Partly to make himself feel better as well and the others he said, "We're just retrieving the body, then we're getting back up there."
Finally they felt the ground beneath their feet. Wondering how far down they were he sighed with relief. Placing two fingers against the transponder surgically implanted in his throat he said, "HQ, retrieving body now. Yeah, its Ames alright. Dammit." He reported with frustration.
John and Richard zipped the body up in a bag and fastened it to another line. "How far down are we exactly?" He wondered aloud. He estimated roughly a hundred-fifty feet below street level. As the body ascended on the spare line he took a brief moment to look around.
He saw pipes running nearly every direction and non functioning lights. Looking left and right he recognized what he discerned to be a maintenance road.The intense steam swirling around them from the faulty pipes made it hard for him the see much farther then thirty feet. He could barely make out a long forgotten forklift in the distance just on the edge of visibility.
"We must be in the construction shaft. No matter, Lets get out of here." They all began to ascend just as a crash in the not fog grabbed their attention. Running from within the mist came six more of the lizards identical to the one topside.
"Holy shit. Full power now!" They simultaneously slapped the buckle and disabled the speed limiter on the engines. Now rising several feet per second, John barely avoided having his feet torn off by the one of the lizards staring up at them.
Williams drew his pistol and locked his sights on one of the creatures. If they made a moved he wanted to be prepared. At first it appeared as though they were safe. He was about to put the weapon away when the creatures started to run up the walls using their talons as hand holds. He could hear the metal being twisted, bent, and pierced by the talons.
He took a shot and got one in the eye grinning in satisfaction as it plummeted back into the darkness. John thinking fast planted a flash bang on one of the struts that they passed.
"Cover your eyes!" The explosion shook Williams eardrums but it didn't seem to effect the lizards. He emptied the rest of his clip into the closest lizards face. As it fell away into the darkness he chucked the empty weapon at the remaining four beasts.
Richard primed a grenade and was preparing to toss it, when one of the beasts leaped from the wall and grappled his legs. The grenade dropped into the distance harmlessly. He screamed in pain as his line snapped from the sudden weight and he fell with the beast back into the void. Down below his grenade exploded illuminating the entire shaft as well as obliterating a steam pipe.
The moment Williams and John reached the top they cut the line with their combat knives and bolted from the wall toward the exit at full speed. It was just as he reached the exit that Williams felt his leg go numb and his body began to fall. His body slammed into the ground halfway out of the door frame. Suddenly he felt himself being yanked back forcefully. In resistance he held firm to the door frame.
Daring to glance up he saw two lizards leap, one flying through the open door and the other smashing through the glass window. He heard automatic gunfire and explosions follow suit.
Unable to hold on any longer he released his grip and found himself flying towards a fang filled maw. Still holding his combat knife he spun his body as he was slid across the floor and brought the knife up just the jaw closed on his arm. Hoping to do the trick he stabbed upward as fast as he could, hoping he was fast enough.
Suddenly it fell dead beside him and began to melt into popping purple goop. Williams looked up and saw a man with a white trench coat holding a small injection gun standing above him. "Yum, Primordial Soup." Apparently he thought it was funniest thing he had ever seen and burst out laughing.
As soon as it was over Williams found himself being hefted from the ground and dragged over to a medical transport. He felt a needle be inserted into his neck. He was told it was something for the pain. Just before he slipped into unconsciousness he heard someone say, "Shame about the arm though."

* * *

Tio waited by the cargo door shuffling his feet impatiently as Moumoru waited for the pressure to be equalized before he opened the door. Everyone with the exception of Seth and Haschel stood behind him. They wanted nothing to do with the planet resting below them. They watched from a cautious distance as the others departed onto the lush green landscape peppered with asphalt and dilapidated buildings.
As they walked into the distance Seth got bored and walked up stairs to the observation dome and contently grabbed a steaming cup of coffee. As he sipped at it calmly Hashel crept up behind him.
"If you're trying to scare me. It won't work. I heard you coming up the steps." He muttered.
"Why would I do such a thing?"
"Cause you're a brilliant idiot."
"I'm more modest than that!" He retorted laughing, "At least thats what I like to tell myself."
"Bah, you and I both know that ain't true." Seth responded grinning as he brushed his hair off his face.
"So scarface, tell me a little about one of your many adventures." Haschel requested this knowing full well it was a taboo to ask about ones past. To his sunrise Seth responded with a despot nod.
"Don't call me that, as I'm no doubt you're aware, I was a mercenary until Psylix's employ. I used to run with a group called the AAOA Some sort of acronym, not really sure what it stood for. I had just been assigned my newest job, I was told I would bump into an old friend. I was on a dropship that was flying in low orbit not long after that. I was preparing for a Halo jump into a former Russian providence not far from North Korea. It couldn't have been more than four years ago.
The Nano receiver in my skull told it was time to get suited up and into the dropshell. I walked over toward the machine the would fit the suit to my body. I stepped under the arches of the machine. And waited as they spun around me scanning me with their lasers following th contours of my body. It beeped telling me it was done so I stepped onto the next platform. I sank slowly into the platform as it turned into gel slowly. I sank up to the upper part of my neck before I started to rise back up. As I rose it occurred to me i was wearing a new suit. This one was tighter that usual the fabric was more dense yet lighter. I felt as though I was a bit stronger. I stepped out of the machine when I was able to.
As I stepped onto the floor the fabric automatically adjusted its pigmentation to match that of the floor. I grinned satisfied I liked this new suit.
"Seth over here, sit in this chair for a minute. We need to give you a quick immunization."
I did as I was told and promptly felt a jab in the neck and a cold viscous fluid enter my jugular. Not long after I stood up my body went cold then warm very rapidly. At the time I disregarded the sensation. Quickly I walked over to the pod and stepped in backwards and strapped myself in after placing the breathing apparatus on. It was a precaution I always took. After all when you're dropped almost thirty-four miles from orbit like a meteor it can become a little difficult to breath. As I closed the door and latched it, I felt the loading crane grab the top of my pod. As I was moved from the loading dock into the deployment bay a holographic screen appeared in front of my face.
It was the chief. He nodded when he saw me.
"Are you ready for the briefing?"
"Yes, sir. Where am I going; and what am I doing?"
"Well you're going to be dropped into the Russian wasteland."
"The wasteland? There's nothing there except a irradiated woodland! Won't I get radiation sickness?"
"Negative. You should have a received not only a buffer shot to increase your bodies ability to absorb the rads, but also some additional meds are currently running through you're veins. You're also carrying a bit of a surprise."
"You mean the suit. It's," I paused wondering how to describe it, "Different it makes me feel stronger somehow."
"Thats correct, It has a muscle amplification affect. In others words it does make you stronger that usual. It interlaces with the nanomachines that are currently in your body. So when you move the suit moves with you. It's not actually you thats moving the suit, think of like piloting a construction mech only the control mechanism is your nervous system." He explained my new suits special features. The suit has a thermal regulator conveniently built into it for my comfort. I can just turn a small knob on my wrist and viola air conditioning and or heater. The suit also has some more special functions; it amplifies my strength by three to four times, the cameo changes according the environment just like a chameleon, it even tells me my estimated visibility in a percent, helps me control my breathing, relays my vitals to Nano machines in my blood to help me heal quickly, has pouches for fluids, and can also hold most of my equipment in a neat multilayer pouch attached to the top of the back of my belt.
"Is this standard issue now?"
"Negative. You're the test pilot. Don't you feel special?" I could tell he was enjoying tormenting me. I hated testing new equipment especially since half the time they malfunctioned without any regard for my own safety. "We also integrated your favorite tool from the simulations."
"Ok, so whats the mission?" I asked putting the chiefs sense of humor in the back of my mind.
"There are reports of illegal research going on in an underground facility and you're going to infiltrate the rogue facility and bring back duplicates of what they are working on."
"Do we know what this project is?"
"We are not entirely sure, but their are hints about a new type of AI being involved. Anything more than that I can't say. I'm sorry the rest is classified." AI research was banned an only pursued in secret with the exceptions being government agency's like mine. It was banned because AI system are extremely unstable when implanted into human for extended nanomanchine functions one could almost be considered immortal. However occasionally the AI wanted more control and would seize the users mind for its own effect.
"And what level of resistance I should expect?"
"It's just a research facility so there shouldn't be to much to worry about."
"Anything else I should know?" I asked as I felt the pod start to move toward the drop ramp.
"If anything else comes up the AI will inform you immediately." Before I could protest the implant, the pod was released. I felt the G-forces pull at my body. I felt the heat shield disintegrate and fall away from the pod as I broke into the upper stratosphere. I braced myself awaiting the next part. I t never came however. My pod was slammed by a missile making my descent a horrible spiral. The alarms and sirens blaring in my ears. I reached for the release hatch and ripped it to the side. The pressure difference ripped the door off the pod and my mask off. I glanced at the altitude gauge before leaping out myself. Not even seconds after I jumped away from the pod I watched another missile connect and the pod burst into flame and fall into pieces. Letting my instincts take over I tucked my arms and legs in and fell quickly towards the Earth.
It took me a moment or two to adjust to the sensation. I felt as if I was hovering in place and the earth was moving toward me. The wind was disorienting and I did not appreciate the sudden drop into the sky. I closed my eyes and let the wind have me, even though I had all my training with various weapons and situations; skydiving was not one of them that I particularly enjoyed.
I fell for what seemed like forever before I became aware of a voice in my head asking me to open my eyes. "Please open your eyes and watch the ground below you."
"Good Morning Seth. My name is Advanced Diagnostic Integrated Nano machinery. My creator is Dr. Sir Edmund Eriolis. I was first activated October Seventh in year two thousand forty-five. My Primary function is to-" The AI in my head drilled on until I interrupted it. Praying my mental conditioning was strong enough to resist the AI if it decided to attempted a coup I acknowledged it existence.
"Shut up! I'm busy. And from now on you're name is ADIN! So zip it until i figure out how to dodge the next salvo of Anti personal missiles!"
"The suit comes with fully functional glide web. Simply hook the wrists sleeves onto the webbing and you shall be capable of gliding and as needed midair dodging.
Since this was clearly no time to think I just tucked my arms to my side and fell like a stick. I waited until I heard a click and then sprawled out like an X. My arms opened with thick webs. This was one of my favorite gadgets though I scarcely had an opportunity to use it on account of disliking skydiving. With the web system extending from the bottom of my wrists to my waist I could glide like a kite or as the situation calls for, dodge missiles. I would have to dive into the mesh work of the forest to be successful in my evasion.
"I can receive the various signals from your stealth suit. I'm also somewhat of a motion and sonic detection system. I can perform these functions as well as various others, none of which you should concern yourself with at the moment." I felt as though it was insulting me. I'm aware that the new processors from this age can multi task a billion and one things at one time but I had no idea they disregarded our own human ability so much. "Seth."
"What?" I asked as I angled my descent from straight down to thirty degrees.
"Five more Biomechanical Missiles have been launched in you direction."
"Are you capable of jamming the targeting systems?"
"Not without incapacitating you. My power source is your mitochondria. If I would was to enable my long range functions you would pass out. As such it is not an option." It told me coldly. "Less than five seconds till first impact."
Thinking fast I put myself into a spread eagle and dodged left narrowly missing impact. As I flipped through the air I slammed my fist into one of the stabilizers and watched with pleasure as it spiraled out of control and tumbled through the air before it exploded.
"Four left."
"Time till impact?" I asked as I corrected my angle into a steeper dive. My helmets visor had cracked from that last explosion and the cold air was seeping into my suit.
"Two seconds."
"What?" Panicking I tried the same maneuver. It didn't work as planned it slammed into my side sending me tumbling side by side for a moment. I kicked it away as it exploded. It blew what was left of my helmet to pieces and sent me disoriented spiraling through the sky. Blinded by pain I felt for injuries.
"One thousand feet." It told me. "I'll will numb the pain once on the ground. You only have minor burns and low grade lacerations." As I struggled to regain control of my descent I noticed that my glide apparatus was torn on the left side. It was not bad enough to prove fatal, I would just have to deal with it at the moment.
Three more, I told myself calmly. "ADIN distance report now!"
"Four hundred meters." It coldly calculated. "Three hundred feet above sea level. Less than a second until impact." I balled myself as fast as I could and felt the missiles pass as I fell in between them. "They are coming back around." He alerted me as I uncurled myself. "Six O'clock."
Good, I thought. I twisted myself into a flat spin I knew from previous experiences that targeting systems try to follow the targets movement as much as possible. Hopefully this would disorient the bombs. I glanced back and saw the twisted plumes of gas behind me. Good it was working. But now I was in grave danger I had entered the layer of fog sitting on the forest. I stopped my spin and made myself level with the earth once again. I heard a explosion behind me and felt the intense heat rush past me. At least one of the missiles it seemed hadn't noticed changed direction and drove itself ever downward.
Just two more I thought to myself as I was within inches of the forest canopy.Now as I was moving forward I could see the forest rushing past me only inches in front of my face. I figured what the hell, either I die as soon as I descend by smashing my head against a tree limb; or the alternative; I don't die and dodge them all and manage to survive rolling to a stop on the ground.
I descended, and guessed I was alive because I felt the instant pain of leaves whipping me in the face. Well that's good.I thought. Another explosion and more heat followed by yet another one. These explosions did more than just warm my feet however. I lost my already difficult to control flight path and tumbled through the air going a hundred something miles per hour. Surely if I had not been gliding nearly horizontal the impact into the ground would have left me in the best-case scenario, completely paralyzed. However since I was nearly horizontal the result was me rolling uncontrollably some immeasurable distance. I felt my arms and legs smashing into various obstructions as I crashed into and bounced off the ground. My sliding slowed to a stop after one drop that left me half covered in water. I gasped for the much-needed breath that had been knocked out of me by the shock waves of heat. Somehow I was alive. Sure I was floating in a river with my eyes closed but I was alive.
"A-Adin." I manged to gasp through the pain. I struggled to pull myself out of the water.
"Administering numbing agent. Do not move, running system diagnostics. You have broken three ribs your left arm and leg; as well as several small moderate severely lacerations. You may feel minor side affects such as hallucinations and severe but temporary narcolepsy." I didn't care. I passed out from the severe exhaustion I had just put my body through. I had forgotten the toll such severe G forces can have.
"Seth." I heard a distant voice urging me.
"Wha?" It seemed I had floated down stream until it bent left and I ended up onshore. When I finally opened my eyes I was looking into the face of something gray and wrinkly with a long nose. I jumped up with a start and saw that it was just an Anteater. The creature was equally startled and ran off into a nearby fern and then several more in the distance until I couldn't hear it anymore. It was then that I became aware of the ambiance in the forest. The current of the water under my feet, the birds screaming at each other, the drops of water falling from my uniform, and then finally the color of everything. The fog was gone and now the trees were lit up and their lush green color filtered out the bright sun and left dapples of it on the ground.
"Seth. How do you feel?" It was Adin.
I had half forgotten about all that for a moment as I took everything in. I flexed my arms and saw small rips on my arms as well a good deal of blood. And then did the same for my legs. "I'm fine now. How long was I out?"
"Three hours. I put you into a light coma in order to heal your body."
"That long?"
"You were severely injured. Normal humans would have taken weeks to recover. Your body has already adapted to nanomachines. So your recover time was greatly reduced." It explained.
"Adin."
"Yes?" It seemed to be learning rapidly, it was already starting to sound more like a human.
"Scan the surrounding area for any hostiles." A moment went by and then two. "Try to exclude anything with more than two feet." I added thinking of the curious anteater.
"Six life-forms detected thirty-five meters to the east. Rapidly moving in toward our location."
"Ok got it." I wasted no time and was already running. I yanked out the knife that was in my belt and ran ready to use it. Vines caught on my arms and legs as I ran. The lush green fauna seemed out of place being as I was running through a nuclear test site
"ETA: forty-five seconds" As I rolled to my feet to tore the knife out of its holster in my boot.
"Just tell me which way to the first set of coordinates!"
I wasted no time and was already running. Vines caught on my arms and legs as I ran. The lush green fauna seemed out of place being as I was running through a radioactive weapons test site. Under normal conditions high levels of constant radiation should have destroyed the wildlife and vegetation however the plants here seemed to have mutated and evolved into something more.
"ETA: forty-five seconds"
"Shut it! Just tell me which way to the first set of coordinates!"
"Seventeen degrees to your right, and roughly seven kilometers ahead." The ground beneath me gave way to steep slide of mud. I took it and rolled to my feet at the bottom. Looking around I saw an old burnt shack. Walking toward it and with my knife ready, I pushed on the door. It creaked and fell open sending a wisp of dust into the air a foul odor followed it. Holding his my nose I peeked inside and gagged immediately.
In the corner were numerous badly disfigured faceless decomposing bodies. They were burnt so horribly that I couldn't tell the gender or even if they were humans.
"Adin. Are they human?"
"Can't say. The DNA I'm able to scan is to badly altered to recognize classification."
"This is sick." I quickly retreated from the doorway.
"I must insist that we hurry on to the first rendezvous, we are close."
"How close?""One kilometer, to the east." I cranked up my personal AC and ran keeping in mind there were people in this jungle that didn't take kindly to strangers. Eventually I came upon a waterfall with a small crescent moon shaped path leading behind it. "Seth, that is the rendezvous point. You are to wait here until nightfall, and in the event that your informant does not show up you are to proceed alone."
"Ok. Who is the contact?"
"Signus, I believe you two know each other."
"Signus? What's he doing here?" The light was being filtered thin and refracting on the walls of the small cave.
"He infiltrated them three weeks ago, and then when enough information was compiled they sent you out here."
"Hmm, so that explains why he never returned my calls."
Somewhere behind me I heard something shuffle. Turning around I saw a figure lunge toward me with a knife glistening in the low light. I quickly drew my own knife and swung it upward. The blades connected and sent a small explosion of sparks showering down upon the cave floor. With the blades in deadlock I swung my legs around behind his. I felt the blade give way as he fell so I performed a small acrobatic feet that placed me behind him with my knife half an inch from his neck. I had him a neck lock. His knife laid a few feet away on the ground half covered in a pile of gravel.
"You always were stronger and faster than me." I released him and put my blade back in its sheath, because I knew that voice. I hadn't noticed it was him at first because of the foreign uniform.
"Signus, you bastard." We shook each other's hand. He patted me on the shoulder welcoming.
"Sorry about that." He laughed about it; I wonder if he even knew how close I had come to actually killing him. "Had to make sure it was you." It sounded like he had the accent down perfectly.
"Nice suit." I was joking of course. He was wearing a tattered Russian army suit.
"Yeah, you too." He said taking notice of my stealth suit. It was having trouble adjusting to the patterns in the water so I appeared to have black spots around the areas that had been shredded. I glanced at the time display on my wrist; I could have just as easily checked it by the position of the sun but it was not visible at the moment; it was now five twenty-four.
"You're early."
"There were problems with the, uh, landing." I said showing off the slashes in the suit. Some of my water pouches had been destroyed. "BTM missiles."
"Ah, that'll do it. But how'd you know they were there?"
"My AI implant warned me."
"AI." His voice told me he was interested. He nodded approvingly.
I pulled out a ration and started munching on it. All that running had made me quite hungry I hadn't noticed until I stopped moving around. I sat down to better enjoy it. While the hunger made it sufficiently tasty, relaxing made it more so.
"Ok, down to business." He began; first he sat down across from me, and then continued. "The base."
From what he told me the place had seven floors. First there was the security so dedicated it got to have and entire floor to itself. It was so over estimated that there was very little security elsewhere. To use the elevator I would need retinal scan, a hand scan, voice recognition, and a key card.
Second floor served as a barracks, home to around some two hundred men. Third floor was somewhat more of a concern for me, it was the lab. This was the floor they are developing this poison I heard about from the boss man. I would need to set a C4 charge here, as well as set a small EMP to destroy all the electronics and the data they would be housing.
The fourth floor is mostly made up of storage. The fifth floor is where I might find some blueprints for this giant ballistic missile that I'm supposed to blow up. The sixth and seventh floor is where I will find the missile being assembled.
"Don't worry to much about security cameras," I knew he felt stupid saying that after all the training we had gone through to always vigilant about them, "They went extremely thin with them, plus almost all of the monitoring stations are ignored."
"Who has the key card for the elevator?" I asked assuming that I would have kick someone's ass to get it, and he tossed what looked like a see through credit card, save for the thin bar code running down one side, at me.
"That's all you'll need. There is an air vent that runs from the back of this cave to the roof inside the elevator. Just slide the card." He got up and walked to the back of the cave bent over and pulled up a small square piece of metal. Soil slid off the plate revealing how badly rusted it had become in the current atmosphere. "Though it's more of a one way mine shaft." I went over and examined the hole. After putting my head over the void I found out that it was indeed an air tunnel. It blew my hair almost straight up.
"That's some gust of wind." I drew my head back and yanked out a plastic green flare, cracked it, held it over the hole until the chemicals inside it became luminescent, and dropped it. The flare dropped almost forty feet and then continued east. "More heights." I said followed by a discontent sigh.
"What don't like heights?"
"Not really, but I'll deal with it." He laughed and slapped me on my back. "So how am I getting down there, got a rope?"
"You could always jump."
"You are joking, right?" I could tell by his expression that he was.
"Oh, don't worry I have a rope for you here. Well its sort of a rope." He pulled out of his pocket something that resembled fishing line only that is was even thinner and more invisible to the eye. "Its very strong and extremely lightweight." He tossed me the spool of thread. "There's sixty feet for you. Its been tested at three hundred pounds."
"Where did you get this from?"
"Believe it or not, these guys developed it. I was snooping for info when I swiped it." He glanced at his watch, "Well, its that time." He jumped his feet and ran out the side of the waterfall after waving goodbye to me.
I looked at the display on my wrist, six thirty. "Didn't he say I was early? Oh well. Guess we dawdled on certain things." I walked back over the square hole in the ground. In the wall above it was a spot perfect to use as a hook for the rope. I tied it off to the rock and then to myself. Sighing again I jumped in.
It looked like forty feet but it was actually only about twenty. I hit the bottom and rolled to a stop. My flare was very bright down here. The walls reflected the light cast from my flare.
"Adin."
"Yes, Seth?"
"Please amplify my vision while down here."
"It will take about thirty seconds. To take full effect."
"Thank you." The shaft became visible to me very quickly; it was almost like someone was playing with the mood dial on someone's lights. Being able to see the path I ran in the only direction I could. I would just have to rely on Signus' information.
It wasn't long until I came to a metal frame. After stepping around I could see the elevator shaft he was talking about. Unfortunately the elevator was below me and I would have to get down there, making as little noise as possible. The framework of the shaft crisscrossed in X's.
At least that simplifies things. I made my way down too the elevator and opened the hatch on the ceiling. I dropped in and swiped my card.
I was anxious to get this over with. I pushed the third button and felt the elevator begin its descent. I drew my tranquilizer gun just in case I may need it. I also unsheathed my blade. The doors ding and then open.
"Hi again, Seth." Signus was standing there aiming a can of Chloroform at me.
"Signus.What are you doing?" Three soldiers were running up the hall behind him. They stopped and aimed their rifle directly at me. Typical.
I heard the hiss of the aerosol can and felt myself fall as I heard his maniacal voice give the answer.
"I want the AI."
I struggled to remain conscious but the drugs overwhelmed me.
"And then the next thing I knew I had woken up on an operating table with these holes in my head, and Signus standing beside me screaming as the AI took over his brain. I passed out again and then next thing I knew I was back home in some hospital with the news that my family had been murdered."

"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Of course you are. I'm tired though, I've been narrating for almost three hours now." Seth pushed himself away from the table and left the room knowing full well that he'd have more nightmares about those moments he had simply cut short. After all, he had left out the part about the way Signus jealously mocked him and spoke of how AAOA refused to let him have an AI.. He had also left out the part about how Adin seized Signus body and used it as a marionette. He had also left out the part about the programs corruption and the details of how it slaughtered his family.
As he walked to his room he touched the scars on the left side of his face feeling filled with grief.

* * *

The ships door hissed and opened knocking another section of the wall out. Tio watched as the dust from the debris dissipated. The moment the doorway was clear he ran out and stood onto of a road cracked with weeds that were illuminated in a dim twilight. Scanning the buildings around him, he saw how each building had fallen into disrepair. Shops signs had fallen off and laid crooked on their respective perches.
A few cars that had altogether been abandoned, sat rusted and overcome by vines. Looking left he saw the path they had taken.
The landing gear had ripped a diagonal trench into the road that lead to the ruins of the restaurant the ship was currently sitting inside.
He sat down and heard all the sounds, lapping waves and screaming birds echoed all around. The scenery had radically changed since the last he was here, almost eleven years ago.
"Funny it looked brighter from up there." Psylix had followed him and was now standing just behind him.
"Yeah, but it'll get brighter later on. You'll see." Sarah told him as she too touched the ground. "After all, this is Florida. Was this a building?" She asked noticing the walls. Small bits of rubble rolled off of the remaining walls.
"Man, that moron. Always showing off." Psylix took a deep breath, "Wow, the air is really clean, not at all like the colonies"
"First thing I noticed." She said taking a breath herself, "The air here used to be so dirty. It's really come around without human presence."
Somie crept out and gasped when he saw all the colors in the sky. Somie's ears shifted directions taking in all the sounds around them. The sky had brightened a little and now a soft sunrise had lit the sky on fire. "Seth and Haschel won't come out. They said something about grown men running home with tails between their legs. I don't quite get it." He shielded his eyes, "Why when they could see something like this, why, would they hide?"
"Somie." Moumoru climbed out and sat down on the steps, "They are afraid that if they come out they won't be able to go back. It had to have been hard leaving the only home they had ever know once. Just imagine how hard it would be to leave twice." He grinned to himself, "Returning home.to a planet, how heroic, how very epic this sounds!" He laughed when he saw the ruined building they sat in and laughed. "Oops. Guess I missed my target a little bit."
A flock of small birds had landed on the power lines that they had just barely missed. Tio glanced up at them and smiled. "I'm home."
"It's strange not having a dome above us." Remarked Sarah as she looked up with her eyes shielded from the sunlight. "It's South East from here."
"What Exactly are we looking for?" Asked Psylix
"A Hospital." Tio answered quickly. "It's where he did all his research. It was the only place he felt comfortable enough to do his research. He wanted to use it to help people, I suppose he figured what better way to help them then be around the sick and injured all the time." He paused then added, "Most of the time I didn't even see him because he was always there."
"Well let's roll. No time like the present, eh?" Psylix told them and began walking in the designated direction. It was only about thirty minutes before they saw it coming up in the distance behind a small residential zone.
They stopped at the end of the parking lot and looked across at the building. On the roof they could see gigantic satellite dishes. The building had obviously been redesigned for research purposes once everyone had been evacuated. Sarah had made a mental note of how different it looked from the last time she saw it. Wires had been run out the front windows and up the side onto the roof. Vines had grown up the side of the building and had knocked out several windows. The parking lot they had yet to cross was littered with rusted vehicles and looked almost like a small contained war zone.
"Look," She pointed at a sign that was mostly overgrown with vines. Beneath the foliage they could still make out the Red Cross insignia. "This is definitely the place." She glanced at Tio who had been very silent almost the entire trip from the station. It was unsettling, as if he wasn't entirely there. "Are you ok?"
"I'm very ok." He spoke with a sullen voice. She could understand why. Everyday in and out he lived with the belief that his father was still alive, however looking at the ram shackled building in front of them it must be difficult to believe. He was clearly shaken. "Let's go in."

"I'll just wait out here." Somie told Moumoru. "So many new sounds," Tio ran and caught up to Sarah and Psylix after he studied the outside of the building.
"Come running to us if you hear anything disturbing."
"Ok, I'm going to scale the building and sit on the top. I'll use the vines."
"Crazy." Moumoru hollered back at him as he ran toward the group.
Sarah approached the entrance into the building. The glass doors were stuck in place. Easy fix. She glanced at Psylix and he kicked the glass. It spider webbed but didn't break, so he kicked it again and this time the entire door fell inward. The glass shattered when it fell. He sighed and started to step inside but Tio pushed him aside and ran down the hallway.
When he came to the elevator he pushed the button. It hadn't even occurred to him that having no power it wasn't about to work anytime soon. He angrily stomped and the floor below him creaked. The rest of the group walked down the hallway toward him.
The receptionist desk seemed completely out of place. Empty chairs and papers with various prescriptions littered the hallway.
"Dammit!" He hollered as he pushed the button again and again. He stomped again and six feet floor around him sunk first and then completely gave away. A plume of dust exploded upward as what sounded like several other floors collapsed beneath them.
"Tio! Are you all right?" Sarah cried out as she ran toward the hole. Psylix stopped her, and instead jumped himself into the gap.
He found himself two floors below the hole in the first floor. He didn't see Tio down here. Looking around he saw translucent blue ovals propped against the perimeter of the room. Several of the capsules had cracks in them and some had completely shattered. He had landed on a table in the center of the room.
"Sarah, I don't see him down here. He must have landed on the floor above me."
"I'm worried, he didn't seem like himself when he entered."
"Moumoru!" Psylix called up to them. "Hey, Moumoru!" This time he poked his head over the gap as well. "Take her outside. The structure is unstable. Then get your butt on the floor above me and try to find him. I can't get back up from here. It's a one way trip down here."
"Understood." less than a minute had passed before he saw Moumoru jump down as well.
"Ok.now." Psylix hopped off the table. Walking around he saw the floor was almost entirely covered with electrical wires and flexible piping. "This almost looks like our Stasis Pods back on Antalls."
He walked up to one of the undamaged pods. Pressing his hands against it chilled his fingertips. A cloud of gas swirled in the chamber. A console to the side was quietly beeping. A single button was blinking next to the words: Engaged
Before he even realized what he was doing he pushed the button and the display changed to: Disengaged
He looked back up at the pod and saw that the swirling blue cloud was being drained out with a hiss. Stepping back he managed to get his foot caught the tangled wires. The glass slid into the floor and a body of a naked man became visible. He slumped and then fell over. More out of habit than good nature Psylix caught him. The body was still warm.
"The hell is this?" While Psylix was wondering just what to down now he heard a bloodcurdling scream coming from the floor above him. He realized with alarm it was Tio's voice. The lights in the remaining tanks dimmed momentarily and resumed the normal luminosity. "Shit. That ain't good."
Moumoru found himself in a hallway that split in six different places. The lights were on as though someone had left in a rush and had just forgotten about them. He had only managed to find normal routine checkup offices and a flight of stairs in the first three sections.
As he was passing a window placed to show the atrium from above the lights dimmed and then he heard Tio screaming. It was coming from the last hallway on the left. He bolted to it and found that instead of another hallway that led to many offices he found a single door.
He kicked it open and saw Tio sitting in a chair that looked similar to something you might see at the dentist office rather than a something you would come across in a hospital. Tio's eyes were wide open as if he were staring at his worst fear. A button on the chair arm was pushed down, so he pushed it and it rose back up into the off position. He screaming ended as closed his eyes and went limp. The metal arm that was behind the head rest of the seat pulled away.
A monitor on the wall read:
Marionette System Activated
Subject 2 analysis complete.
DNA link was found severed.
Scanning... Fragment Data found.
Necessary repairs have been made.
Unknown implant detected. Disabling.
Implant destroyed.
Data up link activated.
Download: Completed.
Full system activation has been interrupted.
Possible data corruption.
E-Cell regeneration restarted via back end systems autonomous recovery sectors.
Attempting to contact Subjects 1, 3, and 4... Failed
Subject 1's whereabouts determined: Deceased
Subject 3 Unknown
Subject 4 Unknown

"Tio. What the?" Moumoru stood there wide eyed staring at Tio's unconscious form wondering just what the hell happened here. Trying to determine what to do here he stepped closer to the chair and discovered a long needle dripping with blood had been inserted into the back of his skull while the machine was active, yet there was no blood on the back of Tios' head. Stupefied he didn't bother trying to figure it all out he simply scooped the boy up in his arms and carried him back the way he came.
Another flicker in the buildings power system caused most of the hallway lights to flicker on and off at random intervals.
"Psylix! I found him!" He wasn't sure if he heard him or not, frankly he didn't care, he just wanted to get out of this creepy building. "I'm taking him up."
He hurried because he half expected at any moment to see a zombie physician wielding scalpels to jump out at him. He was relieved when he got to the top and no such thing happened.
Heading straight out he saw the hole in the floor. He ran back to get enough space to run and vault over the gap barely making it with Tio intact. Moumoru carefully laid Tio down in front of Sarah and then ran back inside before she could ask any difficult questions. He leaped down the hole and landed noisily on a table. Turning he saw Psylix examining what looked like stasis pods with a naked man in his arms. Moumoru approached quickly as the mans eyes flickered open as if he was waking up from a deep sleep. The mans breathing was labored. Noticing Psylix he grabbed his collar and pulled himself up so close Psylix could smell his skin.
"Where am I?" The man demanded as he shivered.
"In your laboratory, If I'm correct in assuming your identity." Psylix answered.
"Y-you've got to. got to kill him..." He gasped for breath again. As if realizing Psylix wasn't human he drew away. "Who are you? No, what are you?"
"I ought to be asking you that. My name is Psylix. What are those things and what were you doing in them? Your son seems to be under the impression that your trying to save the world from its own climate changes." Psylix asked pointing at the pods. "Also at the same time, Sarah seems to think your dead! We came here looking for you; and your hiding in those pods! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"T-those. things are incomplete." He seemed to be waking or at least making sense of what was happening. "We built them so that we might have slept through the second armageddon. But it seems some of them didn't work." He said when he noticed the shattered and cracked pods.
"Cryogenics?"
"Sort of. Instead of freezing us, they utilized the cosmos effect. By increasing the speed of particles they prolonged our lives while we slept in what would appear to be a coma."
"Sounds a lot like a stasis cell."
"Stasis.yes! Exactly.but what are you? Your eyes glow. Its not just an illusion." The stuttering had faded from his voice and had gradually become an accent that he couldn't identify but became stronger as time past.
"I'm what you call a--" He started but was interrupted by the clang of Moumoru landing down on the table. "Moumoru, how nice of you to join us."
"Who's the guy?" He asked staring at the human suspiciously. Psylix turned back toward the man.
"This man is Tio's father. This is the notorious Dr. Jason Rhimes. Or at least that what the name plate under the pod I found him in says." The man pushed himself out of Psylix arms and tried to stand on his own.
"Why are you here exactly?"
"You want to know why?"
"Yes."
"We are an escort service. Hired by the guardian of the famous Tio Rhimes."
"Is he.Is he here now? Is my son here?" He pleaded. Moumoru answered.
"He's outside. Unconscious." A grave look crossed Jason's face.
"Oh, God. The marionette system activated. It's to late. The up link has already been completed hasn't it?"
"Yes, it has. I want to know what it is." Moumoru demanded with a snarl. "I found him screaming in a chair with a needle in his head!" Stammering the man stumbled backward and fell.
"He'll be ok, I think." The man mumbled under his breath.
"You think? Why wouldn't he?" Psylix asked looking at both of them. Moumoru stared at the floor.
"Just tell him I'm dead when he wakes up." Jason told them as he stood up and started to pace, oblivious to the fact that he was naked.
"Thats not up for discussion. Our job was to find you and reunite the two of you if possible!" Psylix told him.
"I refuse to see him. I'm guilty of manipulating them."
"Them? Who is them?" Psylix asked with his arms crossed.
"All four of them. The," Jason hesitated, "clones."
"You cloned him?" Psylix asked, his anger was building. "Why would you need clones? Is that a crime against humanity?"
"There was a breakthrough in bioengineering and string theory." The man was starting to look visually upset. "They were all different ages so that if they ever met the same people there wouldn't be any suspicions. They are different though. More special than just that. We utilized space and time dynamics and combined it with the brains memory functions and frontal cortex. They, if it worked properly, can share any information from any distance instantly basically we designed telepathy and psychokinesis."
"You did this to a son you raised!" Moumoru burst into the discussion his own anger at the limit. "What the hell's the matter with you?"
"What would you know? It had to be someone! I raised them as my children! I loved them cherished them! I never wanted them to be activated! I only wanted them to live happily!"
"It didn't HAVE to be anybody!" Moumoru retorted "You could have just let well enough be!"
"If it wasn't us it would have been someone else! At least with me they were able to be free! Not locked up in a cage!"
"Enough!" Psylix yelled. "Jason, continue. Tell us more about it."
"If the link between any of the brothers is broken by, say, death, than the information from ones brain is telepathically divided among the remaining brains."
"So what one knows, the others will find out," Psylix assumed, "Like passwords and secrets"
"Roughly yes." Jason confirmed it, impressed at the insight.
"So, Tio, is an enhanced human?" Moumoru asked
"That's one way to say it, sort of.he probably doesn't have any clue." The Doctor stopped pacing and held his arms out as if he was embracing some all encompassing truth. "You see, that's the only catch to the whole thing. It's a conscious effort! He has to be consciously aware he knows it to be able to use it. It was, in a word, imperfect." He was getting more and more excited talking about his research.
Moumoru stepped back crossing his arms trying to make sense of it all while Psylix was doing his best not to punch the man. "Everything would have been ok, but you brought Tio here!" Jason walked over to a terminal on the wall and rapidly put commands in on the keyboard. He balled his fist when he saw the output. "An now he's been activated! Oh, god! It's been notified." Jason swiped his hand across the desk nearby scattering paperwork.
"What's been notified?" Psylix asked.
"That which caused the calamity, that which is directly responsible with the planetary evacuation!" The doctor explained loudly. "It's going to come and claim him!" Anger flared into his eyes. "It's your fault! It's completely your fault! It's all your fault!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Psylix pushed the man down on his back. "Stop yelling at me like I'm at fault here for something. Just tell us what the hell your talking about!" Slowly the man began to talk.
"Tio was stronger than the rest. His mind embraced the implants and technology far better than the other three. When he was just an infant, we noticed strange things happening around him, like objects appearing, doors appearing, teleportation, walking through walls, his dreams became reality." Jason's breathing became more labored.
"Are you telling us that his imagination literally ran wild and pulled his thoughts into the material world?" Stepping back Pyslix considered the consequences of this information.
"Yes. Somewhere in his genes is the code to everything! We all have everything, in our genes but his are different! Despite being a clone his DNA is a strong direct link to evolution! Somewhere was a spark that wasn't there came out of nowhere. The spark to all knowledge, to all creation and he can wield it as he sees fit!" The Doctor grinned a little bit and said, "He could even unmake himself, I think."
"You're kidding about all this stuff right?" Moumoru asked hoping it was a joke. "Do you seriously expect me to believe we've been shuttling around the most dangerous weapon in the universe without a clue?" Laughing he turned to Psylix, "Right, Psylix?"
"I don't know."
"Look, we had his ability suppressed before they left with an implant. But when he was activated, the implant was disabled, irrevocably damaged."
"Jason, are you ok?" Psylix could see that just breathing was becoming extremely difficult for the man.
"I don't have much time left." The Doctor smiled helplessly. "I'll consider my coming death atonement for the things I've done. I've tampered with my own children's bodies, endangered the universe, allowed myself to be manipulated by the company. Death is the least I can do to make up for it."
"You're dying?" Moumoru stepped forward in disbelief.
"Cancer. I froze myself hoping to be rescued with a cure. This way is," The man coughed, "better I think."
"There's nothing anyone can do?"
"It not important. My own nanomachines could only stop it from spreading, but they couldn't remove it. The freezing process destroyed the last functioning nanobots in my blood. What is important though, is you need to make a decision regarding Tio."
"What do you mean."
"Either you kill him, or you need to protect him long enough for him to become aware enough of his own abilities. There are those that would use him. After all he change anything in this universe that he wants. He can change the fabric of the universe at will."
"Must it be such a black and white choice?"
"Yes, kill or save. I cannot in my right mind ask you to save him." His eyes fogged over. "However, do what you will." Those were the last words of Doctor Jason Rhimes. Psylix took his pulse and looked over to Moumoru.
"He's dead." He told Moumoru grimly.
Psylix stepped back up onto the table below the hole in the floor and held his hand out to Moumoru. "Lets just get out of here. This place gives me the creeps." They left the way they came, through the hole. When they reached the surface they saw Somie alert with his ears pointed in their direction.
"I take it you heard all that?" Moumoru asked him. Somie nodded as if still processing the information. His gaze was concentrated on Tio.
"Lets get back to the ship, shall we?" Psylix put Tio on his back and started to walk still unsure of what to do. The doctors words echoed in his head. You've go to kill him or save him. There was true desperation in his voice.

Sarah could see that the three of the aliens were clearly shaken by something. She just kept her silence. The whole way back the mood was intense. She made a few attempts at conversation but was eventually fell quiet after all she got were one word answers. She knew what was happening. They were heading back to the ship to leave.
To leave and never come back.
Those three had experienced something strange down in that hospital and they had no intention of talking about it. At least not for a while. They just wanted to get back up into orbit and off this planet as far from what ever it was that happened down there as possible.
She wondered if they had in fact found something to display to Tio, some irrefutable piece of evidence that showed him that Dr. Jason Rhimes was dead as a doornail and that no amount of wishing was going to bring him back. After all that had been the entire point of this journey, this was why they had crossed the small threshold of the void that they dared to travel.
A soft wind blew in-between each of them carrying a soft sound. It was as if the planet was lonely and trying to speak to them. She knew that personifying the planet was just the ache the desire to stay. She knew it, but the thought came to her anyway. She also knew that the wind meant the rain was coming. The rain would most likely increase their stay on the planet. Sarah didn't mind, this was her home. And she didn't want leave.
A soft ominous thunder rumbled in the distance. She felt it resonate in her bones as if she was one with the sky.

* * *

Seth was sitting on the steps leading to the ship when they approached. It seemed he could enjoy the atmosphere but he couldn't bring himself to step just four more inches down and touch the soil that was beneath the him. It terrified him. He didn't want those lost emotions to return to him, he worked very hard the last few years of his life to banish them. He had turned his heart had turned to ice, and he didn't want it to thaw.
A soft rain had begun to spatter the ground with droplets that discolored the ground where it fell. This what the colonies were missing. The rain, he had always enjoyed it. It was just one of the many things he missed deeply. Thunder rang in the sky above him. Seth shuddered coldly. He didn't like the thunder. It reminded him too much of that night when he escaped Signus in that jungle it had been thundering and lightning. Signus moved when thunder rocked the sky and used the lightning crashing down around him to mask his presence. All Seth was able to use to escape capture was the maniacal laughter that echoed forth from Signus' mouth.
He hadn't had any weapons that night so all he could do was hide while the AI gradually took complete control of Signus' mind and body. That was the reason they had given the AI to him and not Signus. Signus was never deemed strong enough to be able resist control, Seth was; and that fueled a bitter jealousy kept in check only by a weak friendship.
The agency knew it took a certain degree of mental focus to keep it under control and either Signus' didn't know about it or have the ability to cope with the mental strain and was his punishment for the betrayal. He, in the end, single handedly finished mission and destroyed the entire agency by himself but now was haunting his thoughts and dreams like a ghost. The thunder again, the sky taunted him. He hated it for that reason. But he enjoyed the rain.

Psylix saw Seth sitting on the steps leading into the ship, he seemed at ease but every time the thunder cried he'd jump ever so slightly and looked around him as if expecting someone or something to leap out at him.
He saw them approaching and stood up as if welcoming them. He craned his neck and saw Tio on Psylix's shoulder. He disappeared inside for a moment and then reappeared with Haschel. And then as quickly as Haschel appeared he stepped back inside and did not reappear.
Psylix felt that Tio was getting a little to heavy for him to hold for much longer so he ran into the lead and then right into the ship and placed him down right there. Moumoru and Somie ran after him, assuming that he went straight up to the cockpit. They had stuff to talk about. Important stuff, like the ramblings of a crazy scientist.
Sure enough he was standing right there at the top looking all leader-like. He motioned them in and then shut the door. This was serious. He never shut that door, unless something big was happening and couldn't risk letting anyone else hear it.
"Moumoru," He began, "You heard what he had said. You heard almost all of it. And I know you heard it all Somie. So guys what do we do about this?"
"You heard him. He said that he was dead. So that's what we tell them."
"Somie, What do you think?"
"Like Moumoru just told you, we found Dr. Jason Rhimes tomb. I'm more concerned with the first thing he said. 'You've got to kill him or save him,' It sounded almost like a plea than a death threat to me." Somie's ears twitched and pointed toward the door that seal the room. "She's coming up."
"All right.we'll talk about this later." He yanked the door open just as Sarah had leaned against it to listen in and instead she fell inward.
"Oh, uh, hi." She said embarrassed because she had been caught so quickly. Getting up she recovered her tone of voice. "So.you going to tell me what you guys saw in there?"
The three glanced at each other and decided to let Psylix do the lying. "Like you said, Dr. Jason Rhimes had passed away. We found his grave as well as the others. And as for what happened to Tio.we really don't know too much ourselves. Moumoru just found him sitting in a chair screaming."
"And when I tried to calm him down, he passed out." Moumoru finished.
"And now, if you don't mind, I've had enough of this place." He told her.
"We're leaving already?"
"Once this storm passes.Yes" She could tell that there was more to it than that. Her instincts told her that they were hiding something.
"So what's the rest of the story? I can tell when something's up." He knew that she would rile them until they told her something so he just allowed her the pleasure of knowing she was right.
"We'll explain later. You may or may not already know parts of it." That was as much as he planned to tell her right now. "Just go outside and enjoy the rain. You may never be are able to feel it, or to hear it again."
She turned and stopped. A rumble low at first and then it grew in time shook the ground the ship was sitting on. Psylix felt it to, as did Moumoru and Somie. She looked at Somie and could tell a terrible sound was coming from some unknown source. He was clutching his head and cupping his ears shut.
"Psylix! Come look at this!" Seth hollered up the stairs. He waited no time and bolted down. He ran the first flight and jumped the second. Sarah followed Moumoru stayed to help Somie.
She saw Psylix standing outside staring up at something with a quiet terror in his eyes. Looking up she saw why. A great wave of energy was whipping through the sky in streaks. It was so bright. To bright to stare at. At a quick glance she thought it was an aurora borealis. Each time it whipped a shriek roared in the sky. The rain had suddenly stopped. The great ribbon of energy pulsed as if it had a heartbeat. Several times it made great unseen slashes in the ground. The shrieking was getting to her now too, she knew Somie had to be upstairs screaming. Gradually the energy ribbon grew closer to them. It would be above the ship momentarily.
It was going to hit them and she knew it. Psylix started to run and got five feet before the translucent wave engulfed him. A shockwave of light exploded from the impact. It couldn't have hit him very hard maybe only as hard as when a pin is dropped but she heard him scream even as the shriek tried to drown him out.
There was no avoiding it so she stood still. The orange wall was inches from her now. And then she felt the great wave engulf her. That terrible sound overwhelmed her senses. First it was the light, then the smell, the sounds, feeling it, and then the emotion contained within. All the sorrow, all the love, all the happiness, all the joy, and all the wonder she had ever felt seemed to reoccur and manifest with in her at the same time.
At first she thought she was being torn apart molecule by molecule. But she could feel no pain. Then the darkness came and she fell to her knees. Or rather what would have been her knees if they had been there. She was completely invisible to herself. It was at that same moment the past that she had already lived came back to her.

* * *

Psylix was panicking because he was back on Antalls. Just a moment ago he had been attacked by a veritable rainbow of colors. He quickly looked behind him half expecting to see it just waiting there for him, but it was nowhere to be seen.
He looked in the sky and saw the planets rings rotating above. Of the five ring as it spun farther and farther out in orbit moved slower that its lower altitude brothers. Next to him he saw a hydrogen tree.
Very dangerous.
He wasn't sure if this was a dream or not, so he didn't feel much like experimenting and getting blown to bits. The colors in the sky faded momentarily to a green hue and then back to blue again. He knew without a day, when this was, and he didn't want to be here.
He looked down the hilltop that he was on and saw Altirion The City Of Lights. Hopefully he could make it the and warn some people about the impeding doom of his planet. He could only hope to get there before that great cataclysmic void swallowed his home world.
He remembered where he was last time as if it was yesterday. He had just left the world and moments from leaving orbit. He remembered seeing that same effect from space. The whole planet had darkened, elongated and then slowly disappeared into an invisible dark vortex. He had seen the planet get ripped apart and the remains get sucked in.
"No. I don't want to relive this!" He said quietly to himself. He began to run to Altirion. The city of his birth. "I don't want to see this again!" He cried out in a desperate plea, begging that some god would be merciful.

Moumoru was watching through the ships window as he left his world. His tail, his absence of a tail had doomed him to this fate. He knew deep down inside that it was selfish to want to stay. His body could absorb the energy that everyone else worked so effortlessly to excrete. His body and the rest of the children aboard the vessel that had just left the one world they knew behind. He was angry and sad and terrified as was just like everyone else. It wasn't fair!
He wanted to stay but wasn't being able to, this was his sacrifice, to his race, to his world. It felt like more of a punishment than a proud sacrifice. He would have to live among the humans for the rest of his days. A paople that he had never even met yet.
His home, visible, but now barely the size of a dot was rapidly vanishing into the distance. He slammed his fist angrily against the window as he cried furiously cursing his fate and his people.

"Sarah do you understand what I've told you?" Jason Rhimes told her.
"Not entirely, no" Sarah scarcely older than his son Tio, was to be his life long guardian. "Why does it have to be me?"
"I believe that you two share a special bond. That noone else can hope to emulate."
"Special bond?"
"Yeah, I trust that you will do what you think is best." This amazed her more than the fact that she was going to be the famous Tio Rhimes guardian. Why was this adult going to place his sons future in her young minded judgments. This was as far as she was concerned, unheard of.
She was only sixteen and Tio was eleven. To think that she was to become his makeshift mother when Dr. Rhimes disappeared. "Ok."
"I believe in you, young lady." He smiled at her and told her to hold out her hand and close her eyes. She did as he asked and she felt a small oval sized object chill the palm of her hand. "You can open them now."
"What is this?" She asked holding the small gold orb. It was engraved with a design unlike any she had ever seen. "It's so pretty."
"I need you to do me one last favor."
"Huh?"
"I need you to give that to Tio when you think he has grown up." She knew she looked confused but tried to help it. "This'll be our little secret, ok?"
"Ok."
"Sorry to have thrown all this on you so suddenly." He knew that apologizing really wasn't enough but he at least did tell her that he was sorry.

As quickly as it came, it went. The ribbon of energy had swallowed them and spit them back out right where they were. Sarah was still standing in the door frame and Psylix was frozen in fear where he was laying. Unaware that she was holding her breath she let it out and gasped for a new one as she fell to her knees. A hand was on her shoulder as if trying to comfort her. She turned and saw Seth.
He looked as distraught as Psylix.
"Sarah. Did you experience that too?"
"Yeah, that was, horrible."
"I saw, things. Things, I wanted to forget." He told her trembling
"Me too."
"Strange."
"Yeah. I wonder what it was."
"It felt like it was feeding on our strongest emotions." He walked out to Psylix paying no mind to the ground below and helped him up. "Psylix. Yo buddy. Come back to us."
Instead he moaned and started to cry out. Instead of trying to say something comforting, he just hugged him. Seth wasn't really sure if it was going to help or not, because he did not know the circumstances, however did know he to have had lived through something either as terrible or possibly worse than he himself had.
"Is he ok?" She asked Seth when he picked him up and brought him inside.
"Yeah, but it seems we all took a heavy mental beating. He seems to have gotten the worst of it though. I'm taking him up. He needs his rest." Again heard the noise that he would have normally enjoyed. Seth grabbed slung one Psylix's arms over his back and walked him up to his cabin. "I'll check on Somie. While I'm up there."
"Here comes the rain again." Sarah looked back outside and it was indeed raining. When she looked back he was gone.
"The rain.I wonder if the sky can cry too."

* * *

The next day Psylix was sitting at the controls before anyone else had even gotten out of their bed. They slept in even though every dream they had became nightmares. The only one that hadn't woken up was Tio.
He was still laying unconscious in his bed even as they left the planet Earth far behind them. He had slightly improved however, he was sleeping more soundly, and rolling around less. This was bad. So many strange things occurred here on this planet, Psylix thought. And now they were coming back with a comatose patient that had strange abilities he was completely unaware of. He didn't like this not at all. Usually he figured, if someone this important was walking around oblivious to the power himself, someone had to be watching him. Now he was in deep, which was exactly where he didn't want to be. If a new type of human was walking around he didn't want to be anywhere near it. Normal enhanced humans were a pain in the ass, but from what he was able piece together was that Tio was a new special kind of mutt.
"I guess we are stuck with those two for a while longer." He didn't mind spending so much time with Sarah, she was gorgeous, but he didn't really enjoy all the trouble Tio was causing at the center of the stage. He restrained himself from just going downstairs and shooting the poor guy in the head and simultaneously fixing his and the one of the universes many, many problems. He wasn't going to be come a murderer. They would just have to deal with it for a while longer.

The next time Tio opened his eyes he saw hospital walls, and Sarah sitting next to him asleep. He felt so numb. So he tried to sit up and discover he had a tube down his throat. He gagged as he yanked it out. The machine next to him was beeping wildly in sync with his heart beat. It was then Sarah woke up and saw he sitting up. He felt so dazed. It was like he had just woken up from a long nap. His head hurt. It hurt so much. And that damn machine next to him was still beeping. He bashed it with his fist and it stopped after it gave its final off tone report. Running his hand through his hair he made a better note of the surroundings. The pictures on the walls, and the window behind Sarah.
"Where are we?"
"We're docked at Alpha." Noticing his disappointment, "It was the closest colony, and you were in a coma. We didn't have much of a choice."
"That's fine. I don't care." He threw his legs over the side.
"You really shouldn't stand up just yet."
"I'm fine," He told them defiently.
"You aren't fine."
"How long was I out?"
"About a month."
"Best sleep I ever got. Man, my head hurts like hell." He hopped off and landed on the cold floor. "So what'd we see in there?"
"The question is, what did you see?"
"Sorry?"
"Don't you remember anything?" He tilted his head as if thinking and cocked an eyebrow.
"Nope not a thing. Last thing I remeber was seeing the hospital. What happened?" He asked smirking.
"Are you serious?"
"The only thing I remember was too bizarre to of had been real."
"Try me."
"Sounds like you had an odd encounter too."
"So Tio, what's this thing you remember?"
"Just, this kind of light...that kind of.drew me toward it." He was finding his ability to describe was at its limits. "It was almost ethereal. This kind of ribbon, a color beyond description, and it was so bright." Her expression had changed from this quizzical look to a kind of serious hysteria. "And that's it. What's with that look?"
"So you saw it too." There was no stutter in her voice. Just the sound of certainty, no doubt. But how is that possible?
"Saw what?"
"That thing."
"What thing?" He yelled it without meaning too.
"That bright ribbon of energy. We saw it too."
"It was my dream! How could you have seen it?"
"It wasn't a dream." She told him seriously.
"Yes it was! I was standing in a green field staring at the sky when that aurora borealis thing appeared! It was most definitely a dream!" Neither Tio nor Sarah noticed when Psylix and Moumoru walked into the room. It wasn't until Psylix put a hand in front of his face that he looked to see who it was.
"Sarah, relax." Psylix motioned to Moumoru and he tried to escort Sarah outside but she grabbed to doorframe before he managed to get her all the way out. "People have premonitions all the time." Moumoru tugged on her again and she let go. "So, Tio."
"So, Psylix." he retorted.
"A lot of strange stuff happened down there. Scared the hell out of me." He pushed Tio back down onto the bed. "Scared the hell outta them too."
"I'm not quite following."
"That's cause you're hazy from such a long nap." He turned and left room swinging his tail allowing it to catch the light i shine it back into Tios eyes and said, "We'll talk later."
"What!?" He bashed the machine again and ripped the metal tabs off his body when it started to beep again. "This is just to much! I just woke up!" Instead of silencing it just got worse and let off a single high-pitched squeal. He bashed it a third, a fourth, and a final fifth time until it finally quelled. "Dammit my head hurts!"
Finally a Hospital orderly came in, to see what all the ruckus was.

"Let me go!" She screamed at Moumoru as he struggled to keep her from going back inside.
"Sarah, It ain't gonna help even if you do manage to yell him into submission." He was strong but this was ridiculous. If he had to grab her boobs to make her stop he would. He was shameless, and everyone knew it except her and Tio. "He's just in a delirious state right now. He won't be able to listen to reason right now." He told her calmly.
She was kicking him in tender spots and was just about to succumb to his last resort when Psylix came out. He eagerly let go of her and she tumbled forward. Just when he thought it was over with she kicked him one more time.
Psylix saw this a started to laugh until she stomped on his foot and called them both a jackass while she stomped off.

"You know, you ought to teach that kid how to shoot and defend himself."
"Huh?" Seth opened his eyes and looked up only to see Somie standing there. "Why?"
"I have a feeling bad times are coming for that guy." Generally when he had a hunch they followed in and found that his hunches are good ones to follow. "He may need.some shooting lessons ya know."
"He knows how to shoot."
"He does?"
"Everyone knows how to shoot. Its in his genes, because he's a human."
"Oh my, going all philosophical on me like that."
"It's not philosophy."
"Then what do you call it?"
"Common sense." He grinned and then closed his eyes again. "When, if, he gets better. That's a good idea you know."
"He's just fine now. Sarah had just marched back in here calling him a dumb ass." His ears twitched and he started laughing. "You should hear this. She's still calling him names. Wish I could record it."
"What a surprise." Seth moved over and gave Somie room to sit down. "Anyway, why would he need to defend himself?"
"So," Somie took the seat and tried to change subject, "What do you think of the events back there?" No one had brought it up since they docked here and he was eager to find out what Seth's opinion on it. That guy never told them anything. Haschel didn't say much either but he was just boring.
"On earth?"
"Yeah."
"Don't know what to make of it."
"It was disturbing."
"Yeah it was."
"So, what did you see?"
"I was being chased. My former ally was trying to kill me with sophisticated weaponry. He was an enhanced human." He shuddered.
"So you were shown a bad memory. I was shown the day I left my other reality, the other dimension I'm from." He smiled because it was a fond memory of his. He had after all, broken away from his old life. He was a prince there, but here he was just ordinary, aside from his abnormally long ears that is. "I had just freed an entire race from enslavment, and was saved from my own death by a noble friends sacrifice." Seth thought he saw Somie's tattoo grow slightly. He decided he was just imaging it. He grinned even bigger, he had never heard himself explain it before. It sounded heroic and so utterly impossible, and yet he had done it. No point in explaining the part about how badly wounded he had been afterward. That would have just diminished the effect had had inadvertently cast upon himself.
"So.you had a happy memory" Seth interjected quickly. He felt that he was on the verge of some connection. ". and I a nightmare."
"Not so much a happy one, but I suppose it could have been worse, cause I survived." He studied Seth for a moment wondering what the hell he was getting at. "What? You think there is a connection?"
"Has to be. They were caused by the same phenomenon."
"Pretty strange connection. Happy and Sad. Powerful emotions either way."
"Strange event." he reasoned.
"Indeed."
"Somie, I think we'll hanging around them a little longer than intended."
"What makes you say that?"
"Same reason you think the kid will have to shoot someone."
"Is it?"
"Well, putting that aside, haven't you seen the way Psylix looks at her?"
"Naw, I haven't been around them enough when they are together. But I can hear it in his voice." Seth grinned and then broke into a kind of laughter that was usual for everyone but him. It was his kind of laugh, the kind that could only come from someone that had lived a lifetime of sorrow.

* * *

The next day Tio was taken to a large building. On the outside it had seemed small and gray, but as soon as they stepped inside there were steps that went down. At the bottom the staircase opened into one of the largest rooms he had ever seen. It was completely empty except for the mats on the floor. Seth just walked into the center and stopped.
Tio didn't even know why he was here. Seth didn't tell him anything except 'follow me'. He listened obediently and just went. Now that he found himself standing here, in this big, this very big room he was curious.
"Seth?" He waited for acknowledgement and when it didn't come he said it again. "Seth?"
"I'm going to teach you how to fight." He said it in that matter of fact tone that Tio hated.
"I can fight just fine."
"No you can't"
"Yes I can."
"Prove it then."
"So.you seriously want me to attack you?"
"Give it your best shot," he dared.

A month had passed since they received the beacon from earth saying that the microchip had been activated. Joel Rommelfanger is always ready and was been eagerly waiting for his orders to exterminate the boy. And now as he sat uncomfortably in his chair the device on his arm began to beep wildly.
His arms hurt bad. They often did this on days when he sat still. He was a special human, so they gave him an offer he couldn't resist. They offered weaponry that he could conceal in his flesh. They offered man made evolution. All he had to do was go through a little surgery. He was the first that they made. Later when he shook their hands they told him to thank Darwin. With that being said, he grinned and tried out his new abilities fore first time.
Maybe this was the E-mail he had been waiting for. He could see it now, him holding the poor guy's head in his hand as he stabbed him through the heart, and then just for fun he imagined him stabbing him in every painful spot before the first drop of blood hit the floor. Hoping for good news he pushed the receive button and smiled. This was going to be a fun day.


Moumoru was sitting in the hallway of the ship just reclining when Psylix kicked his feet and said "We're going for a walk." This wasn't like him to be so quiet. They walked along silently until they were a ways from the ship.
"You figure anything out?"
"Huh?" It took him a second before he realized that he was referring to Tio and that wave of energy. "Oh. uh.no. What about you?"
"Nope not a thing."
"Have you heard any rumors lately?"
"Not rumors exactly."
"Whatcha mean?"
"Haschel, I overheard him giving information about to someone."
"Haschel was?"
"Yeah, and it was the bad kind of information. Like where we are, and what we've been doing lately."
"I'll keep an eye on him."
"Too late for that." Psylix stopped and then faced him. "Last thing he said was 'how long till you get here?' I wasn't able to catch the reply."
"Then why haven't you confronted him yet?"
"He's probably been enhanced. I don't want to get into a fight with an enhanced human when I'm by myself."
"I know what you mean. It's hard even with a large group of guys. Like trying to take down an elephant with a pistol."
"Yep, not a pleasant experience."
"And its funny because the only one that even hurt that last one was Somie."
Back then Psylix was with just Moumoru and Somie. He hadn't yet met Seth or Haschel and they had a simple mission as body guards. To protect an old man from a stalker sounded easy enough, or at least it was until the cloak wearing stalker's body morphed into some scarcely recognizable form.
Its head was coming out of its abdomen and had become a purplish hue as it bubbled into this gelatinous blob. It had left its entire skeleton behind. The circuits that laid on the surface pulsed as if caught in a heart beat rhythm. The legs exploded outward and then divided with a wet crunch. The spider being lunged at them with a vengeance that dispelled the illusion that it was a mere spider. The trio glanced at each other and it seemed as though they should run. But Psylix's pride is what almost got them killed. He leapt into the air in defiance and brought his tail blade down upon it. It sliced clean through without resistance and the form split apart momentarily before sealing the wound scarcely a second later. Having felt the Atrions wrath and apparently thinking so little of it, he knocked him aside with one its eight legs.
Moumoru began to blast it with a pistol and Somie chucked an energy blast at it. The bullets ripped through it harmlessly and the ball of energy exploded in its face and blew the spider form to pieces. Having been covered in some unrecognizable substance Psylix proceeded to wipe the remains off. The client also dripping with this bizarre ooze gratefully paid them the fee that was requested and then quickly bolted out of sight and their lives.
"Did you even know he could do that?" They had just passed a newspaper stand. The man was hollering something at them as they passed without even looking.
"Nuh uh." He lied. Psylix knew full well what Somie was capable of.
"So, is Tio with the, commando?"
"Commando?" Moumoru raised an eyebrow.
"Seth."
"Oh, uh yeah, I think he's teaching him stuff."
"Crazy bastard." Psylix said and then laughed.

"I'm not very impressed," Seth told Tio, "You haven't hit me once. It's been an hour." He said as he glanced at his watch.
"Shut up, I'm just getting started." Tio explained to him. "I may not have experience like you but I'm determined."
"Oh, please. You're panting like a dog!" He rolled his eyes and made a taunting posture. "You can't hit me like that. You need more speed and balance, like this." As he said it he spun on his toes and did a flip backward. "You're plenty strong and more than fast enough but you just don't know how to work the two into a single entity."
"Well, then how do I do that?"
"First of all, control your breathing. Then once that's done use your emotion as a catalyst and control it. With those two things down you can, maybe, achieve near the level of control that I have."
"Right.ok?"
"But I'll attack you now! Just dodge me for now." From the pack on his back he tossed a wooden sword at him. Tio picked it up and raised an eyebrow.
"You wanna play with swords?" He asked disbelieving
"Right!" Seth yanked his own out at and spun it between his finger tips tossed it in to the air and caught it by the handle. "Well then, have at you!" He yelled as he ran toward him.
"Is he going to be alright?" Sarah asked Somie. They had been sitting on the stairs for a while now watching as Tio and Seth ran around swinging the wooden swords at each other. Tio had just blocked a swing back was thrown back about four feet before he rolled to a stop.
"Probably. Seth knows what he's doing." He told her and then added "Sort of." They watched as Tio staggered to his feet and then in an unprecedented display charged at Seth this time instead of waiting for the attack to come to him. "See? He's fine."
Seth saw it coming and easily moved out of the way and smacked Tio on the back of the head with it. As if Tio didn't even feel it he spun around on one foot and swung back nearly getting Seth's left leg.
"Wow, he's actually getting pretty good."
"Come to think of it, yeah." He chuckled and then said, "But he's still no match for Seth. This is after all just practice for him. He's just trying to build the kids confidence."
"Yeah, I see that."
"He can tell, the kids body has matured, but if his mind doesn't, then it's just a waste. So he's trying to refine it. To awaken it if you will. Seth can't fight him seriously yet."
"But how can he help him when even I couldn't do it? I've known him for years after all."
"Sometimes knowing something for so long dulls the senses. I would know. And sometimes the only way to do it is to kick the guys ass. Beat some modesty into them. Like so." He pointed at Seth keeping Tio back by not giving him a second to attack, it was all blocking and running. He laughed at them until Tio tripped and Seth swung down. It barely missed him as he swung out of the way and counter attacked. "But the kid is just to talented for his own good."
"He is a born genius after all. He learns fast." She sighed, "Sometimes even after seeing something just once."
"Doesn't matter how smart he is, he can't beat Seth. If he can't move fast enough, he's not going to last." He was already showing signs of fatigue. His attempts to hit Seth were already becoming slower and slower. "You see?"
"You are really smart you know that?"
"Not really, I've just seen two different worlds and thousands of different people, some of them good, and some of them.not so much." His ears flattened with the emotion he was unable to suppress when he spoke these words. He briefly thought of his homeland. No matter how much he hated it, he missed the place.
"You care about him don't you?"
"A little yeah."
"Why?" She was genuinely curious about it. After all why shouldn't she be? They had no reason to care about him, their job was just to bring them back and forth between Earth and the colony.
"He reminds me a little of myself back then." Seth did a flip and came down on Tio hard enough to throw him off balance and knock the sword out of his hand. "Back when I was the ruler of a world."
"Say what?" Instead of answering her, he saw the way Tio was laying on the ground gasping for breath he stood up and clapped his hands. "Nice Tio! Very nice!" He called out. Grinning he waved when they turned and saw them.
"Somie?" He continued to ignore her.
"You're doing good kid!" Tio was still too dazed and worn out to even say anything so he just lifted his head and dropped it back down. Somie walked into the room and walked over to them. "You're not gonna take it easy on him any more are you? Ya ok, Tio?"
"Yeah.just fine." Tio surprised himself, he had never bothered to ever move so fast, so he now that had had actually done it, it amazed him. It was even easier than he thought it would be. He moved without even thinking it all just came to him. Still though, he was slow compared to Seth. A new urge desire rushed into him. He wanted to be, no, had to be better than Seth. This day was turning out to be fun. In just under an hour he had learned to control his body better than he had ever done. He could move faster and react with more strength than ever before.
He was grinning without even realizing it, at the new challenge that lay before him. Despite these thoughts he found the strength to say even through his gasps for air, "I'm going kick your ass before the day is up."
"Big words from someone that can't even stand up." Seth grabbed Tio's hand and forced him to his feet. "Now that you can use our body to its full extent," He shooed Somie back to the stairs, "We're doing the same thing as before, but this time I won't even use the sword. Just try to hit me now."
"Right.But I can barely stand up."
"I don't care. You won't get any stronger if I baby you, now will you? No resting until you can actually get me." He brushed the hair out his face and tucked it into the back of his shirt so that Tio could see the awful scaring of the past. "Like I said before, just give it your best shot, kid!"
"And like I told you before," He told him returning his words, "I'm just getting started!" He yelled and charged at him ready to swing at his legs. No matter how fast Seth might be able to move, Tio planned on getting him as fast as possible.
After watching the man jump around like a gymnast he saw a weakness in the legs. His left leg was always slow with whatever maneuver the guy planned. A few times in the last exercise he almost got him with that advantage. He would use it this time to take him down, and he planned to laugh with triumph when he succeeded.
Tio swung and Seth jumped backward and ran left. Tio followed and swung again, faster this time.

* * *

Psylix and Moumoru had walked back to the ship and looked around for Haschel. He didn't seem to be around. They didn't want him to know that they knew what he was doing. Who knew what might happen if he found out that Psylix over heard him.
"He must be out." Psylix's tail twitched with anxiety. "Probably meeting with that guy he was talking to."
"I hope not." Moumoru pointed to the rectangular box strapped to Psylix's side. "I sure hope you don't need to use that." The light grabbed its inlaid design and its reflection was sent flailing onto the walls.
"Same." A paranoid sensation came down upon him and the chills ran up his spine. "Lets find Tio, the other three are most likely with him." Tick-tock-tick-tock echoed in his head and he had no idea why.
"Right, I don't want to stay here anyway. Damn ship's always to quiet without company." The two quickly left the ship, not running, but too fast to be considered walking. Down the ramp and back into the colony they went. Their shadows bounded off the walls in ten different directions as the walked under a light.
Something about the whole ship when they had walked in seemed amiss. Now that they had left it and were on their way he turned back to look at it again. He was not able to put his finger on it until the moment he turned around. It was already to late. The silver ship split into two pieces as it exploded outward rocketing flames and debris far into the air. Psylix and Moumoru found themselves being knocked to the ground the very instant they felt the rush of the hot air and then the shockwave.
The air had been knocked out of him. Moumoru was completely unconscious and Psylix knew his ears were bleeding. A thin sheet of metal landed beside him with a clank. Without even bothering to stand up he saw the remains of his beautiful ship. His eyes had begun to loose focus and he knew he was about to pass out as well but he knew well enough that this was done by that bastard Haschel. Some more smaller metal pieces landed beside him and a few small pieces landed on Moumoru's back. For Psylix world became darkness to him.

Somie was having fun just watching Tio hack and slash empty swings, or at least he was until he heard the sound of bending metal followed by the loudest explosion he had ever heard. In fact they all heard it. Seth stopped running and Tio stopped in his tracks. Sarah stood up in surprise and turned instinctively toward the boom. Somie ignored everything else and just ran out to see what had happened. He assumed it was at the spacedocks because everyone else was running on the opposite direction. Pushing his way through the thinning crowds he eventually made it to the docks. What he saw shocked him down to his core.
"Psylix, Moumoru! Are you ok?" Somie cried out as he ran toward to ship and saw them laying on the ground near the smoldering ruins of the ship. "What the hell happened to the Farsight?" Observing the area around the ruins he saw a char mark burnt into the metal showed the size of the explosion. Must have been thirty feet minimum across. He could hear the emergency sirens had getting closer. "Where the hell was Haschel?" He scanned the surroundings looking for some other clue. Not wanting to get questioned by the authorities why injured people and explosions follow his foot heels he decided to hide from the emergency personal by headin back to the group, Psylix and Moumoru would be fine once the medics get here, he thought to himself as he high tailed it out of sight cursing silently.

* * *

Back on the colony Omega, John Cadalle, a biologist of such a caliber that he could have been his own boss, had just gotten an E-mail from his boss saying that one extremely large unidentified reptile was on its way to his lab. And that he had better get there before it did. That was ten minutes ago. He had just gotten there. His partner, Grendal, was already there.
Grendal was a large bald black man with a glass eye and a study frame. His eye constantly got stuck facing some awkward direction, and more than once the eye had not cooperated when he was checking out women. His parents had named him Grendal, not because they hoped that he would turn out to be a knee biting monster, but because they hoped he might in some way be close to the guy that might change how people thought of their lives. But he had yet to meet a guy going by the name of Beowulf, or anybody for that matter hoping to slay him like a murderous demon.
Grendal had beaten him here as usual, but the specimen had not yet arrived, so as far as John was concerned it was all cool. He would put the minor rivalry he held with his partner behind them for just today. The task at hand was most likely more important, they only received messages like that when something urgent comes up, which was for the most part, never.
The door behind them slid open and a man walked in wearing a lab coat like their own. However, this man, they knew was just the guy that drops the funn stuff off. After signing some paper work he left saying it would be dropped off momentarily. Not even a minute after he left they saw the trapdoor in the containment chamber on the opposite side of the room slid open. As the floor rose up they saw a six maybe seven foot reptile bound in an electric net. When the floor clicked into place the binding on the beast vanished.
Startled it leaped to its feet and immediately attacked the glass with its tail. Three small cracks spider webbed across the surface. It was about to attack again when the rooms automatic defense systems kicked in and when it struck again a hundred thousand volts of electricity tossed it across the room. They watch as it slammed into the back wall. It was only down for a moment.
"So Gren, what do think so far?" The beast repeated the process three more times before it stopped, stunned and dizzy it gave up. "What is it, exactly?"
"Not very bright, obviously." Grendal remarked.
"At least its consistently stupid." John didn't want to be left out of the quip session.
"Well, look at the carapace, and the jaw, and the sheer size of the damn thing." He started gettimng down to buisness. This was the first lizard he had seen with body armor, a beak and a tail that ended in stingers. This had to be a new species. "I've never seen anything like it in my life. At least outside of history books." Grendal couldn't help but feel like he was looking at a prehistoric predator.
"It's freakin huge!" He cried out almost with joy when it began to pace the chamber. He walked three feet over to the chamber and put his hand on the cracks. "Didn't you say this glass could take bullets and not even get scratched?" He asked with amazement.
"I doubt its all that. Probably just an exaggeration."
"It damn near broke it, with one hit." He pushed a button on the console in front of him. A holographic keyboard ad monitor materialized next to him. "Gren, scan it please."
"One sec." He pulled up his own monitor and typed in the command, seconds later X-rays of the things body. It didn't seem to have bones. "That's."
"Impossible. Oh my god, its spectacular!" His jaw dropped, he had been told this thing was running around like a raptor, and yet he had just seen it bash the wall in front of him. "It can't possibly." He had studied creatures without bones once before; but those were insects the size of a pen, not as big as an alligator. "We need a blood sample from it." He said in disbelief.
"I ain't getting it." John looked at him anyway. "And you can be damn sure about that!" In an effort to change to subject from him sticking a needle into the damn monster, to something, anything, he said something so stupid he wanted to punch himself. "So, uh, don't you think the, uh, thing deserves a name?"
"Oh, yeah I got one already."
"You do?"
"Oh yeah.you're gonna just love it too." The tone in his voice made him not even want to ask, but he did it anyway.
"Beowulf." Apparently John knew the story as well. "But, don't worry. I doubt it'll rip your arm off and hang it above the thresholds door for some Scandinavian King." Much to his dismay John definitely knew the story.
"You're a bastard." He said and uttered a nervous laugh. "I'm still not going in there."
"You can do it later. For now I need an MRI."
"Ok." He did what he was told and the images showed up on both their screens.
"Multichamber heart."
"Two stomachs?"
"It's Heterosexual." John explained looking at the tail section of the images. The spines appeared to be a delivery system for the eggs.
"A brain to rival the size of our own. But look where its located." Looking at the images the could see the creatures brain was located between its shoulder blades. "Thats an unusual place for that."
"Computer. Retreive DNA sample." John commanded. While the robotic arm in the chamber was fighting with the creature for a blood sample he told Grendal what he thought. "I think I know what this is." He furrowed his eyebrows as he explained. "Until the computer aquires what we need I can't be sure, but I think what we are looking at here is a true Chimera." He saw the unsettled look in Grendals face. "Yeah, this was intellegently designed not natural selection."
"Who would make something like this, and why?"
"We can only speculate. Obviously it was malicious intent. Meaning this is either the distraction or the main event. My money is on diversion."
"Diversion? For what?"
"That my friend is the million dollar question. I have my suspicions though. Did I ever tell you about-" He was inturupted a thud in the chamber caused by the creature thrashing the robotic arm in the chamber against the wall cracking the cement. "Damn glad I'm not in there." He muttered as he watched the arm and the creature dance around the room avoiding each other. As the arm would move in the creature would either leap back out of ranger or attack it with its body. "Anyways," He continued turning his back to the commotion, "I was once commisioned by a private enterprise to identify various specimens from Earth. They had about sixty or so. It paid well, so I went along with it. Everything was completely normal until I arrived at the final sample. It was unlike anything I had ever seen."
"What did you find?"
"A Triple helix recombinate mutation."
"Triple helix?"
"Meaning it was either a very young developing creature or bacteria that I was viewing. Normaly triple helix dna strands are only found during stages of bacteria as they merge enzymes, or in extremely rare reptilian species. Even then, it's only during their zygote forms. meaning they haven't even finished developing." The crashing and thudding in the background ceased as the computer reported that a successful DNA sample was retrieved. "What I saw was absoulutely not a stand a bacteria. Nor was it even recognized by the world databank." He stopped momentarily. "Computer run DNA trace and identify possible pathogens and genus tree." He continued, "I thought t was extremly strange. The company was happy with my results all the same. It peaked my curiousity however. I later tried to look up the company, AAOA no longer existed. It had been destroyed by terrorists a year earlier. Not only that it was a military corporation. Meaning they should have been able to fight back."
"Then, you think it was stolen, from that agency from within?"
"Precisely, which means it was extremly dangerous in the right hands. I suspect that corporation fused several species into what I was look at in that capsule."
Another ding signaled the comuter was done with its analysis. It displayed the results on the left is displayed a spinning DNA strand on the right screen it showed possible Genus trees.
"Lets see what we have here, what do you say?" John said turning around to face the screen. "Oh my."
"Is that what you saw in the capsule?" Asked Grendal slowly. John didn't answer him at first. "You're telling me this is what you saw?"
"Yeah. This is exactly it." On the screen displaying the possible species tree they saw all branches displayed categorically.
"Even the computer can't narrow it down more than superclass."
"We have to find the one that escaped, it cannot be allowed to breed! The entire colony is in danger! Computer gather what we have into a report and submit it to the colonies security forces and forward another the scientific counse!" John threw his lab coat onto the ground revealing the uniform for the space goverment officials. "Lets go Grendal, we have a meeting to attend." The door closed behind them. In its chamber the creature paced hungrily.

* * *

Eventually Psylix and Moumoru had woken up a few hours later, Seth and the others left them alone, and then they started to inspect the remains of the spacecraft with bitter resolve. Few things had survived the explosion let alone the fire. Only half of the second floor was still attached to the stairs, but it wobbled precariously as they stepped upon it. Psylix sadly kneeled down and picked up some of the ashes in his hand. As it fell through his fingers he knew this was related to Tio. He just didn't know how yet. ANd just who was it he was supposed to protect Tio from? His father wasn't very specific. Balling his fist he walked back down to the first floor. Using his frustration he smashed his arm through the support hold the second floor up. It fell heavily and scattered what was left. He saw the remains of Moumoru's prized pistols laying in ash.
He knelt down and picked them up. The ivory handles had melted onto the metal scarring them horribly and rendered them unsalvagable. I'll have to make sure to get his some new ones, he thought himself as he handed them over. Moumorus face contorted sadly as he viewed the damage.
"Goes without saying, ya know." Psylix told Moumoru. Grinning he turned to Moumoru an said, "Sure glad I took your advice and insured this thing."
"Yup." Moumoru rubbed his still throbbing head. "I don't really feel like I wanna say it, but-"
"No need, I'll say it for you. We need a new ship." He sighed dejectedly.
"I've heard there was a ship graveyard with a crazy cyborg to the south."
"A cyborg, eh?" He frowned. His tail flicked instincivly.
"Maybe he can help us out. At least he might point us in the right direction" Moumoru urged him with his voice to at least check it out.
"Possibly. It's worth checking into I guess." The few pieces still properly fused together of the ship creaked with iinstability. "Lets go there. We're in serious danger it seems. Haschel has tried to kill us and who knows how many more people his employer has willing to do the same."
"Yeah." Moumoru hopped down from the debris and waited for Psylix to do the same. "It's pretty far, we'll need to get transportation."
"No, lets just walk for a while first." He wasn't ready to trust a unknown taxi driver just yet. Not after what had just happened. He hoped Haschel was on top of one of those buildings watching them as they walked away uninjured from the deathtrap. "If your there! You tell your boss to bring everything he has at us! We're tougher than that!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. His voiced echoed into the distance, but was soon lost to distance.
"Suit yourself. But I just want to get there as soon as possible. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I don't like this place very much." He'd rather be with the rumored crazy cyborg than out here in the open in a small group of two without weapons. Losing his precious guns in the explosion he felt talents as a marksman were useless, so he had no offense or defense. Unlike Psylix Moumoru didnt't have a sharp tail to rip flesh apart with.

Roughly an hour later they found themselves stumble upon the gate leading to a large pile of broken ships. Exchanging glances they pushed it open and went in. About sixty feet in was a small house with four poles about seven feet from each corner. A large transclucent purple shell enclosed the building and sealing the rest of the courtyard off. A console close to them on the outside had a button and speaker on it. Hesitating Psylix pushed it.
"Yeah? What da'ya want?" The speaker threw at them an accent he couldn't identify.
"A ship. We've heard that you might be able to help us out."
"A ship, huh?" The shot out of the receiver dryly.
"Yeah." Psylix returned the tone.
"Why?"
"Ours was just destroyed up." They heard a hearty laugh.
"Was it now? So that was yours? I've hearing about it all day!" Moumoru shoved Psylix aside and tossed his own two cents in.
"Listen geezer, get your wrinkly ass outside where we can see you and then we'll talk." Psylix smacked him on the back of the head and muffled a laugh. The line went silent. They stood there for a second. Waiting to see if anything was going to happen. The purple field became multiple hexagons and dissipated from the center as the door to the building opened.
Out stepped a man wearing blue trousers that barley hid his prosthetic legs. A pin that looked like a bird was pinned to his white grease stained shirt. He had iron colored mechanical arms. His balding head reflected the light from some unseen source. If it was even possible he coughed and laughed at the same time. The cigar that was in his mouth bounced.
"Ok, I'm out here, now what?" Moumoru gestured that he was handing the show back to Psylix, he wanted nothing to do with this guy after all. Psylix just shrugged and thought, Time to start negotiations.
"So you're this crazy cyborg we've heard about?"
"That's me, though, hardly what I'd call crazy. What's it to ya? I thought you wanted a ship."
"We do."
"Well I don't sell them." The man told them bluntly. This took the two of them aback and left them confused.
"Then what do you do with all crap?"
"First of all it ain't crap, and second I build them or repair 'em."
"Then we need a ship to be repaired. That's bound to be cheaper than having one built right."
"Damn right! In fact it's free."
"You lost me." Psylix was losing his patience here. The man was clearly crazy.
"I only have one ship left, that can be repaired and it's the pride of my collection. The rest of these ships are irreprably damaged so all thier parts were used in other ships. Namely my favorite big ship; and whoever takes it, I'm coming along for whatever ride it promises. Even to hell and back."
"You really are nuts." Psylix chuckled a litle bit.
"Least I don't have a tail. I'll admit I have plenty of nuts.and bolts for that matter. But you're the one that looks dumb with that ridiculous tail of yours." He let out another smoky laugh and spit the cigar out onto the ground where it bounced sending ashed and cinders into the air as it put itself out.
"You're really something, you know that?" Moumoru exclaimed shrugging.
"Wanna see it? The ship?"
"Sure, lead on peg leg." They walked silently for about a hundred meters, they then came to a big white wall obstructing the path. It rose roughly twenty-five meters and stretched off into the distance in both directions until it vanished under stacks of ruined space ships.
"Well, here we are." The old man thrust his chest out and looked extremly pleased with himself.
"Uh, where exactly is here?" Glanced at each other Moumoru and Psylix frowned slightly.
"You're looking straight at it genius." He pointed at the wall.
"You've got to be kidding me!" About to walk away, Psylx hesitated.
"No, not at all. It's called Prodject Orion." He stepped up to the wall and put the palm of his hand on it. A keypad slid open and he punched in some numbers. A section of the wall in the shape of a circle vanished, revealing a long corridor with metal grates and fluorescent lights. "It's old, but it'll do the job. No matter what it may be."
"You're freakin insane!" Moumoru said when he saw what was at the end of the corridor. A large door with a red and a blue symbol was blocking the way.
"By the way, my name is Orwen." He told them holding out his hand to be shaken. He held it there for a moment waiting for it to be accepted before he gave up and dropped his arm.
"Psylix, and this here is Moumoru." He held up four fingers after saying each of the others. "Seth, Sarah, Tio, and Somie will be joining us too."
"Good, a ship this big needs a lot of work." Orwen put his hand up to the door blocking the way and pushed against it. It creaked and then one half of it slid open. "You see. Lots of work." He stepped through the open door and shoved a mess of wires, that had fallen out of the ceiling, out of his face. "Oh joy."
Psylix had just finished getting around the wires as well when he saw what Orwen was going on about. The room that it opened into was in complete disarray. It had three floors and lots of computers. The chairs had all fallen over, wires hung out of places that should have been sealed, support beams that should have been holding up the ceiling were on the floor, and the air was horribly stale.
"And you're gonna be able to fix this?" Psylix stammered.
"Not by myself." He tapped the pin on his shirt and a voice came out of it. "Zeke! Get the boys together." It said something else Psylix couldn't understand. "Just shut up! Get ready to fix the big one!" Orwen grinned, "Yes, the Orion! When have I ever called anything else the big one?" He poked the pin again and the voice fell silent. "Damn kids." Again the smoky laugh. "Zeke is going to be helping us."
"Help?" What was he talking about, he understood that Zeke was helping but why, us? "Us?"
"Yeah. We'll be needed you guys as well. Can't really expect me to do this for free if you don't help right? A job like this would normally cost millions."
"Ugh.It's so big though. You sure you don't have something smaller?"
"Positive. And I hate building them, takes to long." Orwen walked up the steps onto the first landing. "Well, might as well get started now." He said as he lifted a chair off its back..
"Moumoru head back, tell them where we are." Psylix told him as he picked his own chair off the floor. After kicking away some smaller debris he bent over and pulled some papers off the ground. Moumoru left running down the corridor. His foot steps echoed with each step.
Moments later Psylix saw a guy walk into the room. His red hair stuck out of the various holes in the tattered beanie he wore. He wore thin black shades and a shiny leather jacket that resembled motorcyclists armor. He must be a gothic, Psylix assumed because the dumbbell shaped earrings he wore and the fact that his pants matched the jacket and clinked with chains.
"Zeke! Bout time you got here." It seemed Orwen noticed him as well.
"Yup, I'm here" He called up to his boss. He glanced at Psylix, hesitated and then ran up to join Orwen.
"Zeke, meet Psylix."
Stopping, Psylix stood up straight and waved. A strange sensation swept over him, at first he thought it was déjà vu, however he knew the difference. This was not déjà vu but something else entirely. This was the feeling that came when his subconscious seemed to be most in tune with his surroundings. He knew on some level, and he wasn't about to rule out telepathy, that Zeke was far more than he appeared to be, and he'd had just about enough of suspicious people.

* * *

Sarah watched Tio and Seth battle it out, this time with paint balls. Seth had flicked the lights off and pulled out some glow-in-the-dark paint balls. Seth had even put up some small obstacles to mix it up. At this point it seemed like Tio was winning and that Seth was coated, until she realized it was the other way around. Tio was the running glow stick and Seth taken just a few indirect hits.
It looked fun and she wanted to try it out, even though she knew it was 'serious' training. She had no idea why Seth had even started training Tio like this. After all Tio wasn't going to be running around with guns blazing. Or at least she hoped not. Suddenly Tio stopped moving completely. He ducked only when he saw a shot heading toward him. Seth sensed this change and stood up without firing. Somie was also intrigued by this and he also stood up.
It seemed to them as though Tio had a plan.
As though realizing what it was, Seth whirled around and saw what Tio had in mind. He had coated the wall behind him so that he could see Seth's silhouette, and therefore a perfect target. What happened next seemed to be in slow-motion. Tio pulled back on the trigger and Seth ducked, rolled forward and jumped. Tio shot again and this time pulled twice. The balls of wax shot from the barrel and exploded dead center on Seth's chest. Seth landed face first and didn't bother to get up at first.
"Huh, he got him." Somie broke into a cheer and chuckled. Moumoru stomping down the stairs was cause enough for them to turn around and see who it was.
"Hey guys. What the hell are you doing?" He asked when he saw the two human shaped glow sticks in the center of the room.
"Target practice." Somie explained to him.
"Looks, uh, interesting."
"Oh, yeah. Tio just got him good."
"Right, well put a hold on it for now. Psylix sent me to get you all, and I'm supposed to bring you to him." Seth finally got up and clapped his hands. The lights blinked to life temporarily blinding them.


Psylix watched him, and Zeke knew it too. It seemed as though he couldn't care less what Psylix thought. Several times Psylix though he saw a shimmer escape the shades but it was always gone before he had time to look dead at it. It escaped him when Zeke stopped staring at him. He felt as if they had met before. Of the hundreds, no thousands of people he had met, he scarcely came across someone he had trouble remembering. But this guy, seemed to elude his senses. Perhaps they hadn't met.but yet maybe they had.
"So, Why are you staring at me?" Startled Psylix looked behind and then realized it was Zeke. He almost sounded offended. "Is it the way I dress?"
"Uh," He tried to think of an excuse and decided on the first thing that came to his mind, "Yeah, it's kind of intense."
"Intense, huh." He laughed at the idea. "I guess that's one way to say it."
Psylix turned his attention from the vaguely familiar being, back to the debris spread across the floor.

* * *

It had long since it had given up on Signus' body. One day it had simply fallen apart. Human bodies it seemed, just were incapable of supporting themselves for prolonged periods of time.
Now it lives inside a machine of its own design, and had spawned a dozen replicas of itself so far. It monitors and gives orders to the rogue space colonies as well, as the perfect leader. As all information is sent out and received digitally it never gets the chance, nor would it want to, meet any organic interlopers. Such isolation allows it to be both inhumanly fair and cruel at the same time.
Such time consuming projects could only be accomplished by such a sophisticated computer as itself.
The twisted mind he had parasitically inhabited had given rise to such unique ideas. It just had to try some of them out, after all they seemed so logical. Humanity should not be allowed to govern itself, all human leaders were corrupt and therefore must be punished. While it would save those plans for later it just ran the colonies unless something that would require its focused attention comes up.
Something like Tio Rhimes. In the past, when it drove Signus like a vehicle, it had stumbled across information regarding a certain child. Upon continued research it found out just how dangerous this child could become if he only understood it himself. Now that the beacon had been sent from the planet Earth; such a despicable place, it was glad it was the one that gave the evacuation order by manipulating the public; it knew that the boy needed to be terminated. And soon. The boy's IQ levels were stated above the genius level and if he should learn his about abilities it wouldn't be long until he realized just what he needed to do. It had already dealt with the child's three brothers, only one remained now. It had already sent a killer but it wanted to be sure the job would get done. The boy's friends could prove troublesome. He was with in the company of his old host body after all. A flicker of anticipation surged through its circuits.
Seth was a radically powerful human, he had fast reflexes, strength, and a will that could bend steel. But he was still human, and all humans can die because they can bleed. The Karren was nothing to worry about, just as fragile as normal humans, but the Labdian it had no clue about. All it knew was how long the beings ears measured, it knew nothing else about him. Then there was the Atrion to consider. Not much was known about their race because they died out so quickly after being discovered. It was better to throw caution to the wind after all.
In its mind, or rather its database, it searched. Capable of several billion calculations per second, it found two more agents that would get the job done, nearly instantly. It formulated the message and sent it along in less than a second. Such a menial task should kept left to a lower echelon level of machines, but as the humans say, 'if you want it done right you have to do it yourself.' If it was capable of laughing it no doubt would have found this mildly entertaining.
The orders had been sent to the second and third enhanced humans to ever have undergone the mutation. A change that metamorphosed the body into something greater. Not quite a machine and not yet human. The word Cyborg also failed to do it justice.
"It's time for a hunt" It said in a mechanical voice, and with its well polished frame, it formed a sadistic smile.


Albert Green had simply been a normal man until they abducted him. After being tortured and had the promise of death of his family thrown in his face he submitted to the surgery. Back then, he was a middle aged balding African American. He had never done anything wrong and held a clean slate when it came to the law.
"Darwin wants you!", "Don't you want to be something more?", "You might as well be in the first group to become higher beings, don't you think so?!", "Darwin is holding your family hostage so cooperate or they die!" They had said all of these things, starting from the most passive and gradually became more aggressive the more he resisted. He really wanted nothing to do with that company, but he never really had much choice. Do it, or they die. That was really all there was to it. It wasn't really like flipping a coin, he had no choice; join them or die alone.
Albert was given super human strength and had been forced into the assassination business. When the E-mail came, he just sighed and picked up his enormous rifle, slung his massive ammunition canister on his back and left for his ship. He didn't care why they had to die, that was none of his business. He just knew they had to die for a reason. It was best he didn't ask for one, not that they would give it to him anyway. That was privileged information, and he was not a privileged man.
His heavy footsteps echoed off the empty corridor walls. With each step the floor cracked below him. It wasn't that he was doing it on purpose, it was more or less due to the weight of his equipment.
Off to Space colony Alpha.
Oh, happy day.

* * *

Moumoru stepped into the chamber and whistled. Normally when he saw something he thought was cool he would have yanked out the lucky coin and done some trick, but he lost it in the explosion, so he settled for a whistle. A lot had already been repaired. The lights had been fixed and the entire bottom floor was cleaned up. Psylix waved down at them from the second floor. Zeke poked his head over the third floor railing and without much enthusiasm vanished again. He pulled out a chair and sat down in it throwing his legs up and propping them on the desk.
He beckoned Sarah, Seth and Tio in. Tio glanced around without saying much. Seth ignored Moumoru and proceeded up the steps to Psylix. As he reached the top he saw the man next to Psylix and cried out in surprise. "Boss Man?"
"Huh?" Orwen stepped closer to him as if confused and the also bleated out in surprise. "Seth? Is that really you?" He held out a welcoming hand and spit his new cigar on the floor. "Didn't recognize ya with some much hair. That to hide the-" He started out, but instead finished it with "you know?" Instead of speaking Seth just nodded and took the mechanical hand in a firm hand shake.
"Good news guys." Psylix called down to everyone, "This place is our new home and you've all got your own rooms this time." Zeke again poked his head over the railing and disappeared once more as if he was hiding. "Lets just get this thing fixed up, pronto. Best to get out of here before whoever destroyed my beautiful ship finds out about this one."


Over the course of the next two weeks Tio and Seth continued practice while the rest fixed what they could inside the ship. Tio had gotten quite good in a short period of time. Seth was almost scared of him. The boy had an air of negativity he didn't trust just yet. But despite that had had given Tio a special gun that he made himself.
It shot out pure energy. It was designed to grind up capsules of highly reactive elements. The resulting gunfire was something of a small controlled nuclear bullet. When Tio first fired it he was more surprised by the way the barrel spun just before firing, the second time when he was thrown back seven feet he noticed the kick, and on the third shot he stood in awe on the massive explosion his little hand cannon held.
Seth gave him ten capsules after saying that it would probably be all that he would ever need and that he had graduated 'Kicking Ass 101' with flying colors. It was time to get back to the ship. It was late and they had been out all day.
Seth was extremely impressed that Tio had been able to get so many hits on him so fast. The guy had never trained before in his life, his body shouldn't have been able to even keep up. Somehow he had done it though. The boy had to be a genius, just had to be. Not just anybody could do so much in such a short period of time.
As the neared the shipyard, they heard the report of a gunshot. And that was no pistol they heard, it was big. Instinctively Seth broke into a run and Tio followed with his new gun bouncing up and down in his pocket.

* * *

Somie was getting tired of inhaling all the dust that was being kicked up. Not to mention it was almost unbearably loud in there. He needed a breather. As he emerged first thing he did was yawn. It had been a long day. And a lot of banging. Orwen was not gentle with those metal grates. He just took them and dropped them else where. He had asked him to be a little gentler and to shy away from so much noise but the man just wouldn't listen. He walked about for hundred feet and turned the corner. He could see Orwens office in the distance.
Cracking his knuckles, he noticed the spark erupt from his hand and grinned in spite of himself. Having fun he just extended his arm and watched it explode with electricity. He swung his arm again and again just watching the lightning crackle and grab wildly for the metal around him. This was just one of the benefits of not taking his medicine.
Something caught his ears and as soon as he heard it he also felt it. A deep hot fire drove itself into him. He jumped for cover and fell to one knee and grabbing his right leg. It was coming from near Orwens house, probably the roof. He peeked his head around the wreckage he was using as cover and heard another shot, and another, and another and another. It was silent momentarily and then heard a louder shot than before and saw a round chunk of the wreckage just above his head explode. A sniper obviously, but why? He was be a sitting duck like this.
If the bullets had been able to blow the steel apart like that, then he could only imagine what it would do if it actually hit him directly. He saw himself getting up and making a run for it only to get blown apart like a balloon getting stabbed by a pin. But didn't really have much of a choice.
Another shot exploded inches from him. Gotta think of something, anything!
 Psylix heard the first shot and leaped over the railing back down to the first floor and ran out the door. Moumoru, Zeke and Orwen followed. Sarah was busy having a nap. Psylix ran outside and heard five more shots and started to run toward the noise. But before he got to far, he heard Moumoru tell him to duck. Doing it without question, he heard Moumoru fire his new twin guns twice.
Looking up he saw Haschel laying in front of him on the ground. "Nice shot."
"You think that's all it'll take huh?" It was Haschel. Even as he laid there with two holes punched in his chest, he seemed fine. As if to confirm this, he stood up. "I'm better than that." The veins on his arms suddenly stood out and exploded with his back.
Now that the skin on his back melted off they saw the wires crackling with power ran up his spine. "Oh, yes.This is going to be fun." The rest of his skin melted off leaving just his muscles and his hair. Blue tubes ran from his heart into the back of his head, and there seemed to be gaps were there should be certain organs.
"What that fuck is wrong with you?" Moumoru managed to ask with disgust. He was ready to throw up. It wasn't just the appearance of the skinned man before him, it was the smell. Like a pungent ethyl.
"Psylix." Orwen put his hand on his shoulder as if to comfort but it shook with terror, thus it lost its meaning. "Who is that?"
"Haschel." He glared at the screaming body before him and yanked the box off his side and broke the strap. He found the button and held it an arms length away. The sides extended into sharp points. "Just kill him. Don't ask questions, there won't be any time.."
"Right. But how do you kill something like that?" How do you kill anything? He felt it wasn't really necessary to ask. He doubted they knew either. "Just rip it to apart I suppose."
"Moumoru, you ready?" Psylix watched as it grew another arm.
"As I'll ever be."
"Zeke? What about you?" He was holding a metal rod that he yanked off the ground.
"So we just attack all at once right?"
"Close enough! Haschel! You traitorous bastard!" He yelled and Leaped into the air as Moumoru shot. Zeke charged and found himself tumbling heads over heels through the air. Psylix managed to stab Haschel in the shoulder and tear off an arm before he was also grabbed and flung at Moumoru.
Orwen got in low with an uppercut of metal knocking the thing on its back as it spurted blood. Not wasting anytime he aimed for the head this time and found it. But before he could strike, it grabbed him and chucked him back against the ship.
Psylix stumbled to his feet and yanked the spear out of it's amputated arm and used it to pole vault into its chest with a scissor kick. Again it grabbed him and this time it just held him with its massive bloody hand.
Zeke was regaining consciousness when he saw Moumoru jumping out of the way each time the thing tried to bash him. Its gray hair dangled in clumps on its head. It had an expression that resembled glee on its (human?) face.
"I always hated you, ya know that?"
"Yeah, I kind of figured."
"But you know what's even better?" It laughed as he ducked out of the way again, "It's how your other friends are also going to die! You damn coin tossing bastard!" This time he hit Moumoru hard. Moumoru was flung ten feet threw the air and landed on his back rolling over until friction managed to stop him. Haschel charged for Moumoru and was lifting its foot to stomp him to death.

Zeke chucked the rod as hard as he could and managed to hit it dead between the eyes. In both pain and surprise It dropped Psylix, grabbed its head, and gave Moumoru barely enough time to crawl out from under its foot. He saw Psylix' spear laying off to the side, he picked it up and ran it through Haschels back. The demons blood shot out both ends in spurts as it screamed in pain. His voice seemed to have morphed into a mix of his and something else reverberating within it..
Zeke felt a horrble sense of vertigo as Haschel picked him up easily and tossed him through the air like a ragdoll into the rusted ships. They collapsed into disarray on top of him.
Haschel knew that was two down and just two more to go. But where was Psylix hiding? He saw Orwen lying there, not moving, and Moumoru was definitely out of commission for a while but where was Psylix hiding?
Psylix flipped unseen off the top of a stack of ship parts and sent his tail into Haschel's head and hoped it hurt. It exploded into a fine spray of blood and pink chunks of brain. The headless body fell to its knees and slumped over. "You bastard." He didn't mean to say it, but he did mean it. "Best think twice about trying to kill us next time." He grabbed the imbedded spear and kicked Haschel off of it. He slid off with a moist crunch. "Moumoru, you ok?" Before he got his answer the ground shook and the second loudest explosion he ever heard went off.

* * *

As they approached the shipyard Tio could see a big man laying on Orwens roof aiming at something with a gun as big as he was. Seth saw him too and opened fire with a sub machine gun that he had hidden in his jacket. The shots harmlessly imbedded themselves just feet from the man on the roof.
"Seth, watch out!" Another man that seemed inhumanly strong had jumped off some other roof near by. Which one? He didn't care.
The man landed next to Seth and backhanded him into the ground. Seth took a second to get up, that second was all that the man needed to grab Tio's throat and squeeze.
"We just want the boy!" Tio kicked him a few times in the gut, the man just brushed it off effortlessly. "You probably would like to know the name of your killer, it's the least I can do after all." He grinned sadistically and squeezed harder. Tio felt himself start to get light headed. "It's Zilar." Tio saw Seth bring the but of the gun down on Zilar's head.
After feeling Zilar's grip lessen he wormed his way out of the mans hand. The man fell to one knee rubbing his head. "Ow." Zilar's left arm melted into a knife and his right arm bubbled down to what looked like an arm cannon. "Guess I'll just kill you both now."
Tio ran down an alley to his left and Seth stayed where he was. "Gonna have to go through me first!" Seth screamed at him while pulling another clip of ammo out of his jacket. He discharged the spent cartridge and slammed the good one in.
Seth heard another gunshot from the sniper, he would have to work fast. The others where clearly in danger and he was clearly the most experienced of them, at dealing with these sorts of situations. Tio had fled in fear to that left him to deal with this killer. He could of at least left the good gun behind, Seth thought to himself as he pulled a concealed knife out of his boot.
"Lets get this started then." Seth said grinning.
Tio knew it looked like he was running away, but he had a plan, He just needed a way into the building next to him. He heard Seth yell behind him as they stared fighting. He would have to hurry. Seth was past his prime and he had no clue just how long and man of his age could hold out against something like that..
"That thing." He turned the corner and almost slipped. He saw what he was looking for, kicked the door down and bolted inside.
Before Seth could even move Zilar vanished. This threw Seth into a kind of panic. He was there just a second ago, and now he's not. A sound, behind him. Ducking he felt the wind from Zilar's blade as it narrowly missed him. Then he jumped avoiding the small shotgun sized explosion aimed at him.
Landing on his face he tried to get up and found that his right leg was stuck in a drainage pipe. Zilar picked Seth up by the neck Seth felt his leg break as it slid out of the pipe the wrong way. The pain shot up threw his thigh. He tried to scream in pain but his air way was cut off.
Tio charged up the stairs he saw the window. Yanking out his gun, he shot the glass out and leaped through the jagged hole. As he jumped out of the window he turned his body so that he would face the ground, and fired twice.
Seth was being held by the throat until the mans back exploded into two meaty craters. The shot ripped clean in one side and out the other into the concrete below. Seth fell onto the ground gasping for breath as his enemy dropped dead. Forgetting that he was falling, Tio landed on his chest and passed out after seeing Orwens office explode into what looked like a single blue explosion.

Somie heard gunshots from all directions. Another shot ripped through the metal that he was hiding behind. Damn sniper. Everyone one was under attack he assumed, and here he was, pinned down. The anger was in him, he knew it, and it was building. He didn't want to loose control, but he was already losing it. He was unaware that his hair was sparking and that his eyes had begun to flare like headlights. He had only felt this depth of anger once before and it had lead to several deaths. Another shot ran out and then that was Somie's limit. He stood up and a brilliant blue light that he was unaware of rose out of him. His clothes dissolved and the ground shattered below his feet. No control at this point. His entire consciousness was hiding somewhere in his mind. Pure instinct took control. And he was angry.
The mindless body brought his arm up as it surged with electricity. His body was an enormous lightning rod. Sixty-five thousand volts of power was at his beck and call. It sent fourth not even a ounce of the power it could have generated and it threw in the direction of the sniper. The building exploded into a remarkably bright blue fire. His body floated off the ground slightly like some kind of ethereal being momentarily before the glow subsided.
As sudden as it came, it went. Somie's body returned to normal as it collapsed naked and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

"Well that didn't go so well." John tossed his report onto the floor. The papers scattered in random directions. "They didn't believe a word of it." Grendel leaned down and collected the report.
"Can you really blame them?" One by one he named off the impossible features, "The DNA for one, the brain size, body armor, parasitic breeding capabilities, and the incredible strength it possesses." He put the report back down on the desk. "Then that just leaves it up to us!"
"Leaves what to us?" John asked him inquisitively
"We can't just let these things run around the colony ripping people to shreds." He gestured aggressively at the pictures and diagrams of the beast they collected. "Those damn things are monsters. And as far as we know there is only one still running around out there, but the chances of that remaining true are diminishing by the hour!"
"But they won't help us. How are we supposed to stop it when we don't have any equipment?" The question was not irrelevant. It took a small army to kill three of them and they only managed to capture this single beast by chance and good timing. "Won't we be stopped, and just how exactly are we supposed to stop those things anyways?"
"I may have some things tucked away." John thought he saw a glint in Grendel's eye.
"You do?" What could he possible have? Surely he didn't swipe lab tools when no one was looking, that man was to honest for John to believe it.
Well whether or not they managed to get themselves or the beast killed, it seemed to call John. He felt as though he couldn't wait and yet he really didn't want to risk it. But, the lives of everyone on the colony were at risk.
"Ok." He didn't want to a massacre on their hands. Tossing their lab coats to the side they left the building. After going for a short ride in Grendal's vehicle they arrived at a small Four room house.
Gren quickly pulled out a key chain and found the right one. He slammed it in and twisted the door open.
"Follow me." Gren stepped inside and walked quickly into a room in the back. The room was unimaginative as far as John could tell, or at least it was until Gren lifted the mattress on his bed and pushed the button it was hiding. Three sections of the wall swiveled revealing gun cabinets. Bright lights revealed the slick metal surfaces of almost a dozen different kinds of solid ammunition guns. Among them John recognized a few M16's, AK47's, RPG's, and even a Bazooka.
"Good lord!" John jaw dropped when he saw a hidden trap door in the floor open up. A ladder waited in the opening.
"These are the ones just for show." Gren explained. "Just a habit of mine, but the real ones are down there." Gren slid into the opening and disappeared below. "What are you waiting for? Come on!" John heard the echo and shuddered before also descending into the depths.
The ladder was cold and he moved fast. It wasn't long before he was a large metal tunnel. Pipes ran along the sides and ceiling. The tunnel was almost as wide as a three lane highway. He knew where he was, this was the maintenance area of the colony. How did Grendal find this?
Finally his feet touched a hard surface. Gren was waiting for him. "It's just a little farther now." He pointed at what looked like a metal garage door on the other side of the tunnel.
They walked up to it and Grendal lifted the door with ease. John was unable to see in very far. Darkness enveloped the room. Gren stepped inside and clapped his hands. The lights blinked to life.
"What is that?" In the center of the room was some kind of vehicle. It had a gun emplacement attached to the back, and four three foot wheels. The machine didn't have a body, just a frame and a big metal grill that seemed to be baring its teeth. John saw six seats in the metal cage with wheels.
"I built it. For fun." Grendal stepped up to it and hopped in. "Ain't it great?" The engine roared to life, and just for fun he revved the engine. "Never thought I'd get to use it though."
Gren killed the ignition and hopped back out. "The gun works to." He tossed John a box of shells. "Load it, will you." It was more of an order than a question.
"I don't know how." He mumbled and stepped up onto the back. He sat down in the seat and studied the gun for a second. It was barely a minute before he figured it out. He pushed the metal stick and pulled the chamber up. Taking the end of the shell sheet he put it into place and locked the chamber back in place. "Well , that was easy."
Grendal was busy loading rifle and tossing them in the back seats. Suddenly he stopped, "Come to think of it, have you ever fired a gun before?"
"Just some pellet guns. I'm a scientist, not a cowboy."
"Right, should of known. Then I've got the one for you right around." He saw Gren sifting through a trunk. "Ah, here it is!" He produced a shotgun. "My sawed off beauty." He also loaded it and tossed it into the back seat with a bunch of shells.
"Don't you think that's a bit much?" John asked when he stepped off the gun and saw almost a dozen rifles in the back.
"Better to be prepared right?" Gren convinced him with that sole sentence.
"Yeah, but still." Out of nowhere he began to laugh at how this place looked like some super hero's hideout. He hoped in the passenger side and Gren jumped, slammed the key in. The engine roared to life. John contemplated that perhaps Grendals parents were right to name him Grendal. With all these weapons at his disposal he certainly could be a monster. However, under the current circumstances he was emitting an aura more like Beowulf the hero. Grendal slammed down the gas and they veered into the maintenance shaft. He turned the headlights on to full blast. He let out whoop of joy and the car jetted forward down the dark tunnel.
"Hope that's not to much wind for you, John!" Grendal yelled over the engine. It was, in fact, way too much, but because there was little he could do about it he wasn't about to start complaining.
"Nope, its fine." John's hair whipped back and forth across his forehead. The speed reminded him the shuttle that pulled him into space for the first time.

The aeronautical community had just released a new type of shuttle. As it would turn out it was also John first time heading up to space. In the new shuttle the seats came in three rows and sat above three feet above floor. You actually had to climb a short ladder to get into your seats. The reason for this was because the gravity generators sat just below the passengers and the engines actually took a lot of room.
He had the center isle and the waitress was drop dead gorgeous. Why she got into the flight attendant business he'd never know. All he knew was that her butt was smooth and round, and that she had just about the nicest set of melons he had ever seen. The intercom above him beeped and announced they would be taking off soon. His wife was on a separate flight, so he could look around and stare all he wanted. The people behind him kept kicking his seat, so he saw this as the perfect opportunity.
He called the beautiful attendant over and because the seats were seated so far up he had the perfect vantage point to glare down her shirt. "Yes, sir? How can I help you?" Many ways, he thought. "Uhh, yeah." He shook his mind clear for a second. "Whoever is behind me, they keep kicking my seat." He felt another kick in the back and grinned sheepishly. She had to have seen it that time.
"Right, I'll see what I can do." She, whatever her name was, flicked her long silky black her off over her shoulders. He glanced briefly at her name tag.
"Thanks, Caroline." She looked surprised that he used her name.
"Name tag." She laughed nervously when she saw how close it was to her bosom. She quickly walked off and then turned around remember what he ask her to do. She glanced back up at him as she passed. He heard her say something to them and then the girl yelled at the boy.
"What did I tell you? Stop hitting the chair!"
"But mommy, I'm bored!" The boy argued. The debate raged for almost three minutes before the child broke into tears and screamed, "I'm bored!"
John twisted in his chair and smiled nicely at the boy and his mother. "It's alright, shhh." He looked at the boy and said, "I'm bored too. If it makes you feel better you can use this." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
He didn't need it anymore, in fact once they left the planet it would absolutely unusable. No more satellites could transmit the signal. "In fact, you can have it, plenty of games on there."
"Really?" The five year old looked up hopefully at him.
"Oh yeah." He and the boy exchanged grins. The mother looked at him doubtfully, she mouthed "Is that really alright?" He nodded in her direction. Just as he started to turn back around he heard the mother whisper something to the boy.
"Thank you!" The boy hollered.
"Oh, your welcome." He expected the mother to show him how to use it, but when the boy hopped down from his seat and sat next to him he knew his chances of scoring with the points with the attendant were shot.
"Can you show me how to play?" John laughed quietly to himself. When he was small he always figured things out for himself, but here was kid determined to be shown how to do it. He was always impartial to kids because they always thought they knew best. But here was a child that was totally the opposite of that stereotype.
"Sure can." He felt the mother gently touch his shoulder trusting. The intercom beeped again and said they would arrive at the colony in three hours time.
For the remainder of the flight he watched the boy play and win card games that he thought were impossible to beat.

"You ok?" Gren asked as he pulled a hard turn. It shook John out of his memories.
"Yeah, it's nothing." He wondered if the maintenance tunnels actually went up from here at all. As far as he could remember he had only been down here once before and when he asked about it they all said the only way up from here is a ladder.
John sat wondering why and how Gren managed to get a vehicle down here. He supposed he could of just built it down here, but that would still leave the question of how it got down here. The frame of the vehicle was far too big to fit down the ladder wells he had seen.
"Hey, Gren?" He asked.
"Yeah what?" Gren pulled another hard right.
"How are we going to get to the surface from here?"
"You'll see." Gren knew that John was curious and he was having fun building the suspense. John thought of the kid on the shuttle and smiled.
"But I wanna know now."
"Crazy man."
"Look who's talking." Gren slammed the brakes and twisted the steering wheel left. The car spun a circle and stopped facing a wall. They had come inches from slamming into it. "Elevator."
"There is an elevator?" No one told him about an elevator, and he had asked specifically about it. Gren pointed to a box a few feet from John. "What?"
"Get out and poke it." John did it, but only because he was so curious as where they would come out. When he went up to the podium he saw up and down arrows. He pressed the proper arrow and the floor lurched. As if it struggling to start, it jumped an inch. It began to slowly rise and he looked up into the darkness. It beckoned a foreboding fate. Out of the floor they rose, a mighty monolith consisting of wires and metal began to reach into the dark sky. The nothing stretched almost infinitely above him.
It was finally starting. His real purpose. This was what he always fantasized about in his daydreams. He grasped the gun he had placed in his pocket when Gren wasn't looking. Secretly he wanted to go, guns blazing, but he knew he had to have an air of calmness about him. It was all about pride and rivalry.

* * *

As the monitor ran statistics by her, she stared in disbelief as the numbers continued changing. Always rising, at first it was a slow process but now five hours later it was jumping at increasing intervals.
As a hacker she regularly scanned through large corporation for easy to access data. This particular database belonged to the colony. It constantly moved location, changed size, and set up new adaptive firewalls. It was almost as if it was self aware.
For every tactic she managed to breach it with, it bounded back in her face with four different ways to keep here out. Completely aware that she was fighting against a great adversary her professional pride prevented her from giving up.
"Just what the hell are you trying to hide?" There was no reason for security as intense as this if they didn't have anything to hide. The four monitors sitting in front of her momentarily blanked out and shot a lewd photograph back at her.
"What the hell?" She thought that would have worked, but just as she thought she broke through it redirected her to a pornographic site. "Damn."
"Zone!" She knew that gruff voice. "I thought you didn't like porn." He laughed. It was her brilliant boyfriend the 'Legendary Computer Killer'.
He had managed to acquire this reputation by breaking into the largest bank in the world and bringing all of its mainframes down by running a single command. He readily admitted to being guilty so his prison sentence was cut short.
It was cut even shorter by the mass evacuation of Earth. He only had another year or two left anyway; and those could have been significantly cut even shorter by good behavior.
She pretended to not know he was standing behind her until he grabbed her breast and squeezed affectionately. She swatted his hand off. "I'm busy." She playfully told him.
"Too busy?" He played his role.
"Depends on what you want to do." She swiveled the chair around and faced him. He helped himself to a few inches of her long legs. She was wearing a tiny black shirt.
Grinning she kissed and felt him push back. Ok, not to busy. The hacking would just have to wait. "I hope this.fits into that criteria," He told her quietly.
"Yep."
She laid there in the sheets smiling. He gotten up and was taking a shower when he started to talk to her, which was unusual for him, normally he sang in off key songs notes when in the shower.
"About that data stream you've been monitoring, what's it been doing lately?" It was sudden so it took her second to answer.
"Well, it's been jumping around erratically as if trying to avoid something, or maybe even find it." She paused. "Why?"
"Just curious."
"In fact just yesterday it even changed its location. Almost like something happened and it had a backup server or something." It had momentarily vanished and then reappeared in nearly the same place. She hadn't known what to make of it.
"Has it counter attacked you yet?"
"What are you talking about? It's just a data stream." He turned the water off quickly.
"Did it or not?" His voice sounded somewhat serious. It in fact had. It was this morning, when it redirected her. The Pc hers was connected to sniffed out an incoming packet and suffered a restart after shutting her down. Some of her data had been corrupted but she powered it back up again anyway.
"Y-yeah. Mathew what's this all about?"
"Get your stuff packed up, quickly!" His tone was strong. She saw his grab the towel and dry off quickly. "Why are you still sitting there? Hurry up!" She still didn't move, he never ordered her around. "There's no time just hurry up, I explain on the way."
"No, explain it now." She told as she stood up. Still nearly naked except for her skirt she felt a draft and shuddered. "Where do you work?"
"I'm an electronic detective. I search the net for certain types of data and report it." He pulled up his pants, "That was a trace. They are coming to get you now. Probably on the way now."
"I don't get it yet." He sighed at her ignorance. Tossing her, the shirt she was wearing and hour ago he began to try and explain.
"The data stream you've been watching for so long, it belongs to an AI."
"Artificial Intelligence? You've got to be kidding me." She almost laughed, the only AI she had ever encountered was that of a videogame, or the sensor in a microwave oven.
"Nope." He grabbed his shirt and slipped it over his head. "We have to go, NOW!" This time she began to get dressed.
"If its AI how can it get at us? It's in the computer right?"
"Not this one."
"How did it get out?"
"It built a mechanical body."
"And now it's going to come after me?"
"Yeah, and its going to want you dead." Suddenly the weight of her own life slapped her in the face.
"Where did it come from? And how do you know about it?" She asked, not expecting him to know everything. What he told her made her jaw hit the floor. The sheer strangeness of it.
"Well," he began, "Its origins are on Earth." She had expected that one, but the next thing he told her was the real shock. "Essentially what gave it the spark of life was," he looked at her grimly, "well, it was me. I programmed it."
Just as he finished there came a knock from her door. He looked at her as though it was the last time he could and said, "Shit. We took too long."

* * *

Orwen dropped each of the injured men into their own vat of green fluid, and connected an air hose to each of them. That was an hour ago. He didn't understand the science behind it but the green fluid should rapidly heal the wounds each of them had suffered.
He had given each of them a pair of goggles since they were awake. He felt they shouldn't have to hold their eyes closed. The mouth pieces had also been equipped to allow communication back and forth.
"How much longer are we stuck in here?" Psylix asked him. Orwen took a quick look at the timer.
"About twenty more minutes." That was a long time in a holding tank so he had an idea that might speed it up for them. "How about some music while you bake?" Psylix and the others nodded in approval.
Within four minutes he had succeeded in duct taping some headphones to the two way speaker and hit play. The sounds of his death metal echoed from tank to tank.
Gren left the room and slapped his badge, "You boys still working?"
"Yup."
"Good, I'm coming to help you guys out now." Slapping the badge again he ran down the hallway at a brisk trot. "I want to be in space within the week."
Throughout the next three days the inside of the ship was mostly ignored and they focused on sealing the outside. What good would the ship be if they managed to make it fly and then die the second it reached space? That was Orwen reasoning behind it.
He worked mainly on the engines, and every time he went to get a glass of water the smell of grease and smoke followed him. Despite accidentally falling off the ship several times they managed to seal the walls. Surprisingly the ship didn't have as many air leaks as they might of expected.
Orwen told them the story of how it got here in the first place. He said, "One day this thing just fell from the sky and landed in the field I was tending to." He flexed his arms proudly, "I was a farmer back in those days."

He was only around fifteen at the time, he still had both arms and legs. No robotic enhancements were necessary just yet. The wind was blowing nicely and the sun was low. It was about time to pack up the equipment and his mind was drifting back and forth from young and beautiful Jodi.
She lived almost half a mile from him, and the two of them had a date tonight. He didn't know just yet where they would go, he never planned them, just winged it.
A rush of air was what made him look up. By chance that wind saved his life, if he hadn't felt it exactly when he did he might have lost his life far sooner than the accident that swiped his limbs.
It pushed him down into the field briefly and he looked up. What he saw was a mighty tornado of fire falling out of the sky. It was rocketing toward him. The fireball twisted and spun out of control leaving a burning wake behind it.
Then he heard it, the engines. That was when he knew it was a falling spacecraft. Leaving all of his tools behind he ran for safety. The roaring grew so loud that he actually grew deaf for almost a month after.
It struck the ground with such force it knocked him almost twenty feet into the air, he flew until a tree stopped him. Later when he came to he saw the resulting crater. The ship laid steaming in the center.
Its massive shape from what he could see, resembled a bird in flight. He was able to see the heat damage from where he was sitting. The dark char covered almost half off it.
Later when he was able to move and touch it, he would see if it was indeed burn marks or if it was just wet dirt. For now, since he was still dazed and confused he just cursed at it and spat.
It had just ruined his field. Of all places, why his field? Most likely he would have to cancel the date with Jodi as well. He cursed it again with all of the vehement rage he could summon. He was looking forward to it too. Damn this.
Suddenly he found himself able to walk again. So he stepped down into mall sized crater. He stepped down into it and slid about halfway down before he managed to slip and fall the rest of the way.
When he stopped rolling he stood up and rubbed his arms. He was at the bottom of the crater and an arms length away from the spacecraft. In a painful rage he punched it hard on its midsection. He managed to break a knuckle but when some of the mud slipped off of the front he walked over to it.
In big military letters it read: Orion.
Well, it couldn't have been such a good ship if it crashed like that. He punched it a little softer with his other hand. And some more mud slipped off. It just revealed its model number: 01
He was about to hit it yet again to see if anything else fell off but, when a section of the hull suddenly vanished, he put it on hold. Orwen took off his straw hat and called into the empty archway.
"Hello? You guys OK?" When he got no answer he simply stepped inside. He didn't really expect an answer, anybody on board was most likely dead. He knew he wouldn't have been able to survive a crash like this.
Stray wires dangled helplessly in the empty corridor. The lights gradually dimmed and then flickered in an unset pattern. "Hello?" He called out again, just to be safe. He eventually found the control room and was both relieved and confused when he found it completely empty.
Yeah, no dead people. But how did it end up down here to begin with?

"I never did find those things out." He told them as he slammed the last seal down with one final blow. He tossed the hammer and let it crash against the ground. "But it was the event that shaped my life and the reason why I became a ship builder."
Zeke grabbed a rope and swung off the top, after sliding down next to Orwen he said something at near the volume of a whisper. "Well boys the ship is ready to sail the cosmic gusts of space for the first time in over twenty years" Orwen told them proudly.
After all this time, all fifty years, it was finally fixed. He smiled and sighed. Patting the side of the ship he spoke to it. "Well, time to get you moving once again."
Ten minutes later Orwen had to manually unhook the uplinks that held the fuel line on the side. They fell and crashed against the ground with and loud bang. When all five had been disconnected he met everyone inside.
They all stood around the monitor and Moumoru sat in the chair, he was ready to make himself useful. He was admiring the ancient control system. It had a computer to be sure, but he also had two joysticks to make use of.
Orwen gave the magic word and the ship moved. It rose rumbling all the while. Moumoru eased it up slowly. So slowly it was odd. Everyone thought he would push the ship limits from the first moment of flight to the bitter crash at the end. And no crappy coin trick this time either.
Because this ship was so much larger than the one he used to fly they would have to leave by heading out the carrier tunnel. He continued to ease it up until finally he gripped the other control stick and swung the ship sideways.
On the HUD they could see the ship was only about a hundred feet off the ground. Its vertical thrusters blasted blue flame down its old neighbors. Moumoru lined the ship up with the tunnel entrance and that grinned with the old maniacal glint in his eyes that they had all gotten used to.
"Hold on!" He hollered at them as he increased the speed to its maximum. The ship lurched and shot forward. Everyone was knocked off of their feet.
The massive ship would have glided soundlessly over the other buildings if not for the screaming flames shooting out of the nozzles on the bottom of the ship. Orwen gripped the pilot seat in awe as the mighty white beast flew into the tunnel and Moumoru dodged everything. On one occasion he actually made the ship roll.
Orwen gasped when he pulled that stunt. But at least he had the sense to turn gravity off first, he told himself. The lights in the tunnel were mesmerizing, Psylix felt as if he could have been hypnotized. Finally after what seemed forever, the ship broke out into the star lit void. Behind them the colony quickly vanished into the void as Moumoru made the ship pour out even more speed than before.
Now that the show was over Psylix left the control platform and climbed the stair that led to the top deck. It wasn't even much of a deck. It was more like an observatory platform. When he got to the top the glass dome above him put the universe an arms length away.
Wonders beyond comprehension, things so beautiful that they had no words to describe them all lay beyond this dome. All the sorrow he had ever felt seemed to melt away from him while he stared at this display.
Below him, he knew, they would just walk around. Most likely never even come up here. Sarah might, he thought, maybe even Zeke. As if he sent the thought out telepathically someone started coming up the stairs.
When her head popped up she didn't even see him. He stayed motionless until she was also taken in by the wonders of the universe. "Beautiful isn't it?" He saw her jump, startled by his sudden appearance.
"Yeah, its almost like I could reach out and touch it." The wonder in her voice was plain as day. A single stray space rock no larger than a golf ball smacked into the dome and disappeared into the distance.
"Did you know that somewhere off in this universe there lay things that are invisible?" She glanced at him with a curious expression. "Yeah, and they are only visible when they pass through certain wavelengths of light. The longest kind." He smiled because he thought he had her hooked.
"Space crabs." She told him.
"No, not crabs, they are more like worms. Worms and bats." He corrected as quickly as he could.
"No, space crabs, look." She pointed at something the size of a dinner plate. It swam toward the ship until it smacked into the glass. It bounced off the dome and he watched its six legs wiggle wildly. "Spatium Cratere."
She patted him on the back consolingly and started down the steps again. "Better luck next time, Mr. Romantic." She told him as she vanished down the stairwell.
Well, that didn't go as well as planned. Better luck next time, huh? Yeah we'll see. How long was this trip going to take, he wondered.
Psylix briefly thought about the encounters they had with the three enhanced humans. What had they wanted? No, he knew what it was. They wanted Tio. They wanted him bad enough to kill everyone on the way.
He was barely able to survive. What disturbed him even more was what Haschel might have told his leader, his boss, or whatever it was. Eventually, he supposed, they'd find out, regardless of whether or not they wanted to.
Psylix marveled at how much faster the Orion was than the Farsight. It took only four hours to reach the colony Omega. Back where it all began, end of the line.

* * *

Moumoru docked in on one of the external ports, he didn't want to zigzag between traffic again. That was overly dangerous, and he had almost crashed it in the process. But he managed it with only a few inches of clearance.
As he brought it into the dock and felt the latches lock in place, he felt something was terribly wrong. It tingled in the back of his mind. It was the same kind of tingle that he felt when they had been standing in the old ship moments before it exploded.
Don't be ridiculous, you're just giving yourself the willies. The monitor in front of him told him that the pressure between the two hallways was now equal. The door was ready to be opened. The sense of impending doom plagued him, but he cast into the back of his mind.
Don't do it! his thoughts nagged him.
He pressed the button anyway and the ship's door slid open. See, nothing happened.
Yet he heard in the back of his head.

Tio waited at the door ever so patiently. The shock of the latches locking into place shook the floor ever so slightly. "Come on, come on!" He said to the door. The light above the door blinked on indicating the pressure was now equal between the two cabins.
"Come on! Open the damn door!" He yelled as if Moumoru could hear him.
It opened into a see-through floor. A railing guided passengers from one side to the other. He followed it to another door. This one was open already, no more waiting.
He stepped through it and dropped his suitcase in utter surprise. Psylix and Sarah came up behind him and asked in there was something wrong. When he gave no answer they just followed his gave and found themselves equally surprised.
Twenty feet in the bodies started. Each with a trio of holes in the torso's. Just beyond the first few bodies they saw some type of lizard. It was dead and had curled up into a ball, it looked like a dog balled up trying to sleep. In the distance they heard squealing tires and automatic gunfire growing ever closer.

* * *

The gutted hummer twisted to the right as they chased the Sanbe Tanago, a giant parasitic reptile, around the corner. John, an aspiring biologist, sat on the roof operating the gun turret. The barrels to the cannon flashed as an uncountable amount of bullets shot forth in a fiery display.
For the past week, they had been hunting these large reptiles. Only they knew just how dangerous these monsters were. The scientific communities had simply shrugged off the findings, and now look at what happened. The space colony was now lying in shambles, crowded with a dead populace.
Grendal brought the vehicle around the corner with a mad grin on his face. If they managed to get this one it would the tenth one that they had bagged. The beast fell back into Johns view and he let loose another barrage.
The shells ripped a jagged path into the sides of the buildings. The beast jumped into the air at the last second narrowly avoiding the pellets of death. Quickly recalculating his aim, he set a final cannonade loose.
It hit its mark. Green blood erupted from demonic creature. Grendal brought the vehicle to a screaming stop and let out a whoop of victory. "Nice shot!"
"Gee thanks. Only took me a couple hundred bullets!" John yelled agitated.
"It's all right. There's plenty more shells where that came from." Grendal yanked the key from the ignition and hopped out of his seat. "Look we've got an audience." John studied the new surroundings and found that they now stood just a few hundred feet the from the colonies spaceport.
Sure enough just as Grendal had informed him at the departures entrance stood three very surprised looking people. Two men and one woman.
The man farthest from John had shiny brown matted hair, glowing eyes and stood almost an entire head taller than his companions. The other man seemed to be in his twenties and only stood at about five-nine.
The woman was just about the prettiest thing he had ever seen and he had seen a lot. The poor womanizer was at a loss for words. She had some long legs, he noticed, and only stood a tiny bit taller then her short friend.
"What do you say Gren?" John hopped off the turret as stood beside the massive driver. Grendal was a big sturdy black man with a fake left eye. John seemed small in insignificant beside him. "Should we tell them to get lost or survey the damage?"
"What do you think?" Gren told him and slapped him heartily on the back. "Course we tell them to get lost. Don't you remember why we took up arms?" Grendal cocked his head, "Or did all that shooting fry your brains?"
"Nah, My gray matter is just fine, thank you!" John seized the moment and started towards the group, which had grown from three to four.
Now a man wearing black leather and sporting a full head of white hair stood among them. That jacket he was toting could be just about hiding anything in it. John could just picture him pulling a sub machine gun and butchering everyone were they stood.
John got within ten feet of them after stepping over several bodies in process and held out his hand. "Howdy!" When no one took his hand, he pulled it back.
"And you are?" It was the man in the leather.
"I'm just a biologist." He told them plainly.
"That's not an answer."
"He's John and I'm Grendal." Gren told them gesturing at the surroundings, "As you can see there's a bit of a mess here. Your names are?"
"Seth." The man in black told them with a grim tone.
"Tio." The short one said.
"And Sarah." She told them.
"Last but not least, it is I, Psylix." The man with the matted hair announced bowing while producing a tail that stuck up behind him. Its sharp tail caught the light and flicked a flash into John's eye. It was as if to say don't try anything odd, or else.
Moumoru had yet to leave his seat, he felt as if he moved it would condemn everyone. That terrible feeling of apprehension still lingered even after the dock. Everyone else had already disembarked.
Why did he even open the airlock? Psylix and Somie had to of felt it as well. So why didn't they say anything? What about Zeke? Where did he get off to? Suddenly he remembered that he hadn't seen him since the start of the voyage.
Tossing aside the anxiety, he got up and knew what he needed to do. Time to find Zeke. He didn't want another Haschel to happen. He charged down the railing next to the steps and landed on the bottom floor. The room looked just the same as it had an hour ago. The chairs were where they belonged, computer screens still dishing out information, but no crewmembers.
He knew where everyone but Zeke had gone. He drew his handgun and held it in his hand ready to use it if necessary. The grip was stiff; it felt good in his sweaty hands. A small comfort in a world of pain and loneliness.
He would search the entire ship, only then would he rest, and contently at that. He refused to let another Haschel happen. That traitorous monster. He deserved what he got, that death, they had to dish out. The reasons for wanting to kill everyone, he thought, could only be connected to what Tio can do. Reason told him that was the closest thing to a connection he had, so he had to trust his instincts. He had already ignored his mental voice once today, he wasn't about to do it again.
Tio doesn't even know about those things yet. They never told him. He remembered kicking down the door and seeing Tio just sitting there screaming, without a cause, and with no life in his eyes. Moreover, that needle, it had blood on it but Tio had no wound. He still did not know what to think about that immense ribbon of energy that cast him back into his memories.
He was still completely lost as to what all these events might eventually mean. Perhaps, he thought humorously, there might be a great battle rocketing toward us. He grinned apprehensibly at the thought.

* * *

Zeke knew things about both Psylix and himself. The two of them had met before, a long, long time ago. Zeke to was fortunate enough to get off the planet the same way Psylix once had.
The difference was that Zeke; he knew what happened to the planet, where Psylix was left completely in the dark about the ensuing events that led to its eventual destruction.
Psylix no doubt had his suspicions, but most likely, he had jumped to the wrong conclusion. Atrions brains are far superior to human minds but they still have the same kinds of flaws. Like jumping to conclusions. Zeke however had trained his senses from an even younger age than his counterpart had.
Psylix was just lucky in his escape, Zeke was aware. He had actually planned his escape with great haste. It was a black hole, a newborn black hole. The birth of the cosmic void was not born from nature but rather from minds of science.
It was in an effort to create a source of infinite power, but they botched it up. He did not know what they did to create it, nor did he care, just that they screwed up big time and the entire planet paid for it in full.
Now he was down in the ship hangar about to go out on a little joy ride. He had snuck this private ship onboard during the night when no one else was looking. This craft was his little project; even Orwen was oblivious of its existence.
His solitude he found to be a great stress relief and enjoyed going on joyrides in space. So he had built this craft in total secrecy. Unfortunately it was not yet really complete. It was basically just a shell that could fly and play music. He hadn't yet installed a targeting system or auto pilot or Navigator, meaning if he got lost.he would most likely remain lost.
Keeping all this in mind he usually kept his excursions short. He looked upon the ship with great selfsatisfaction.

Somie had been standing practically next to the ship as Zeke drove it outside. He watched Zeke until he flew out of sight. The crazy person had been sneaking around for some reason, Moumoru was calling him the whole time, so maybe he had just wanted to avoid being seen.
Suspicious goon-!
Gunfire and squealing tires and then silence. The silence was deep but then he heard voices. First, it was someone he had not heard before, and then Psylix said something. In an effort to focus his thoughts, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the distant voices.
The sound waves echoed from some distant source, and bounced off walls until finding its ways to his long and delicately tuned ears. His hypersensitive eardrums vibrated, picking up the words in near perfect clarity despite the fact that the source was nearly seven hundred feet away.
The background noise disagreed with the person's statement; there was just too much scuffling for him to be correct.
He was picking up many footsteps that were accompanied by the sounds of metal scraping metal. Just beyond those other noises, he picked up yet some more unidentifiable ambience.
He was not prepared for the sudden sharp cry that pierced his senses, knocking him clear out of the trance. The very moment when he heard the cry, his hearing was amplified almost a hundred times above normal levels. The screech drove into his brain and sent him drifting into a painful unconsciousness.

The small red ship somewhat resembled a submersible with wings and a seat that you could sit back in. Zeke popped the hatch open and slipped in just as he heard Moumoru calling for him. He guesstimated that he had another four maybe five minutes to get the thing started and out the hatch.
He jumped in and slid into the seat. Kicking the power box, it sprang to life. The gothic pilot flipped a switch and the cargo door opened revealing a nebula he didn't know by name.
It surprised him because he prided himself on his knowledge of the heavens. He knew the names of countless nebulae inhabiting the dark skies. Aquarius, Crab, Triffid, Rosette, Pleiades, and Veil were just some of the many he could name off the top of his head.
He glided the small craft out into the weightless environment and strapped his body down in place. As he moved he realized he was just on the other side of the astral cloud. It was indeed the Pleiades Nebula; it just was shaped differently from this angle.
The nebula resides within the constellation of Taurus and the stars he was able to see were named after the daughters of Atlas. With this knowledge, he was able to place his position relative to the Milky Way Galaxy. Almost four hundred light years away.
He grinned as the ship thrummed with life. He glided it around the Orion's hull. It was not until then that he realized just how large the ship really was.
Even bigger yet was the colony it was propped up against. The Orion could hold at least a hundred of Zeke's small ten by ten ship and the massive spherical colony could hold at least a thousand of the Orion.
He spun the ship into a roll intentionally and leveled it out only when his stomach wanted to heave. Unfortunately, he didn't stop the roll fast enough and his belly lurched.
He would never make it back to the ship it was a good five minutes back the other way. His only option was to bring the ship into the colony and land inside. He did not want to clean up the mess, so it was his only option.
He went full speed and flew straight into the narrow bay doors. He didn't even come to a full stop before he yanked off his safety belts and knocked the hatch open. He leaped out and landed on the ground outside. Zeke's stomach heaved again but this time he let it come, it came until he had tears in his eyes.
Glancing at the mess on the ground, he looked back at his ship and started laughing. If he knew that he would be harfing the moment he got out of his ship, he would of never even gotten in the damn thing.
Suddenly it something dawned on him. Where was everybody? As far as traffic went he had seen zilch, and there was no one around check fuel hoses or the coming and going populace.
With his back to the ship, he surveyed the empty place. Maybe he could swipe a few free parts from the abandoned spacecrafts. He would just figure out where everybody was later, it didn't concern him.yet.
Ah, there was a big ship, worthy of his stealing talents. It loomed in an arch over the massive road that split the port in two sections. Maybe he would finally get that frequency sniffer he had always wanted. It was big enough to be sure. Nevertheless, Geez, he thought, maybe just a little to big.
Next to it, he saw a more appealing target; he could actually tow this one back to the Orion. Once back, he could perform a clean sweep and replace all his old technology. He saw a tow winch and broke into a broad smile. That would make things just a tad easier.
He backed up towards toward his ship and stopped at the backside. Good thing, he thought, that he had the lucky foresight to have installed a tow winch on his own vehicle.
Kneeling down he whacked a square panel and it fell out of place revealing a line of metal rope wrapped around a metal cylinder. He uncoiled it and the walked toward the other ship.
He got about halfway before his guilty paranoia kicked in. He scanned the area again making sure no one was around. After seeing nothing new, he continued his short walk pulling the line.
Ninety feet of metal rope later, he hooked the D-clip onto the latch and pulled the rope tight. Upon further examination of the vessel, he saw that it was indeed a good choice.
Just from pressing his face against the dome, he was able to see that it had at least four onboard computers, several smaller devices he could not identify from sight alone, and a dead body with three large gaping holes in the chest.
Stunned he backed away and saw that the cargo door of the ship was wide open. Several pronounced dents ran up the center. He planted his face against the glass again and stared at the body, how long didn't know, but it seemed like an eternity. As he peered through the glass, he saw a spectacle usually only seen in horror movies unfold.
Behind the pilot seat occupied by the cadaver and green dinosaur shaped head rose into sight. A bony structure covered its beak-like mouth. As suddenly as 'it' appeared, it lunged itself at the glass.
The glass dome held but several cracks spider webbed across the surface. He had no doubt that if the glass had broken right then, he would have found himself in a situation sickeningly like the corpse he had just seen might have suffered. Not dawdling, he twisted back the other way and ran toward his ship.
Zeke nearly crapped his pants as he made the mad dash. He managed to make it little more than eighty feet before he heard the glass break and the beast fall out, landing on its face.
Because Zeke was so strong he was able to just jump the last fifteen feet, landing on the roof of the ship rolling, he quickly slid inside and slammed the seal shut. He twisted the rung again just to make sure it was shut.
Now sitting in the pilot seat he grabbed a quick breath before he felt the thump of something landing on top of his ship. Damn, the thing must be up there.
Flipping the switches to bring the ship back to life seemed to take forever. He could hear the heavy thing stepping back and forth on the roof. It started to attack the seal on the door; he could see it shaking in place.
Finally, the engines gunned to life, spitting out the blue flames that would send the craft flying forward. Just as the ship began to move, it jerked to a stop. Must be caught on something, he thought.
A wave of defeat rolled over him, the ship behind him, he was towing it. He had forgotten all about it, in the sudden appearance of that beast-thing, he didn't get the chance to release the clamps holding it in place.
He quickly did the math in his head. Ninety feet of steel rope, that should give him about hundred and eighty feet of free movement in any direction. That was unless he could tear the ship free from its clamps. The rope certainly was not going to snap.
Trying for the small chance that the clamps would let go, Zeke increased the thrust power. The beast on the roof slammed against the door again, its futile attempts had begun to warp the door in its place.
The on-ship alarm began to go off warning him that if he didn't cut the power soon there would most likely be irreparable damage to the ship. He ignored it. Any damage that resulted from the sudden strain he would deal with later.
For now, he just wanted to get this lizard off his ship. The ship whipped back and forth in the air as the anchor didn't budge.
As his ship rocked in place, he managed to catch a glimpse of the other ships. Each hatch was sitting open. His overactive imagination told him that each ship called out with ghostly breaths. Another lizard-thing climbed out of one of the other ships, or perhaps he was just imagining it.
The ship he was towing was in fact rocking back and forth in the clamps. The stress was beyond the designed maximum and they had begun to bend, giving way, little by little. If not for a small defect in the alloy of the metal they might have held completely stiff without even so much of a bend.
First it moved only and inch and then two. The misshaped clamps had reached the operational limits and had been retched from place. The bolt heads snapped off and went flying like bullets.
Zeke felt the release and watched on the HUD as the speed gauge shot up. His ship jumped forward and had to bank to the right in order to leave the colony and get back outside.
It had to be safe out there, right? As far as he knew nothing, with the exception of a very small percentage of living things, could survive in space. Of that tiny bit, the only one he had ever seen with his own eyes was the Spatium Cratere, or Space crabs, and that life form looked barely alive as it was.
He did know that if he managed to get back to the Orion safely with the prize he was carrying they would still have to get off the colony all together.
This meant going back inside and gathering up Sarah, Psylix, Somie, Moumoru, Orwen, Tio, and Seth. Of everyone he suspected Somie to be the easiest to find, it would be as simple as calling out the mans name, with ears like that, how could he not hear almost everything.
Since the colony seemed almost deserted probably killed or devoured by those things whatever they are, Somie could most definitely hear him.
Zeke knew the anchor behind him had to be flying around behind him like a water-skier at the end of a rope. Another bang from the roof of the ship. In an effort to remove the large creature, he performed a roll as he swung it into the tunnel leading to the exit.
The beast held on and smacked the roof once again, this time harder that before. It was hungry; it had been a busy day of breeding. Almost a hundred implants. Now this one, this one MAN wearing red, had put up a fight.
With one of its four massive feet, it clawed violently at the panel that his prey had entered. The claws dug shallow recesses in the tough metal. In a fit of anger, it bashed the door with its tail.
If there was another way in it did not know of it. Nor did it have the time to think about it, it was to busy holding on and bashing at the door with its tail.
Knowing the roll did not jettison his unwanted passenger Zeke did the last resort and braced for the hopefully nonfatal impact. The wall of the tunnel came closer, and closer, until the ship bounced and skidded across it.
A wake of sparks shot out behind the tiny ship as it bounced and twisted nearly out of control. The beast had to let go and fall, but luck was with it. As the steel line ran past it, the dragon felt a mighty crash as the pursuing anchor caught the giant lizard. The beast tumbled completely through the hull and crashed into the interior.
Zeke brought his ship back under control and sighed when he finally felt the weightlessness of space. He felt he had won this battle. Now it was time to head back to the ship.
He was going to have to hurry; the monitor next to him was telling him that he was leaking fuel. It indicated that he only had about six minutes left. In an attempt to conserve the energy, he turned the ship in the right direction and let the inertia carry him the rest of the way.
Warm blood ran from the cut on his forehead and slid down his cheek. He must of hit the ceiling during all the chaos. Damn, what a crazy week this has been.

* * *

"What the hell are those things?" Psylix asked the driver.
"Get in," He responded, "We'll explain on the way."
"Where are you going to take us?" Sarah had stepped forward.
"Where those things can't get us." John quickly swept the area again making sure nothing could creep up behind them. "We've managed to gather up about forty maybe fifty additional survivors. These things attacked so quickly."
As if agreeing with them, Psylix hopped into the strange vehicle. At his feet, he saw almost a dozen guns. Best not to ask questions, at least not until he knew what the situation was.
Sarah climbed in and took the seat next to him. Seth grabbed the center seat. Tio climbed in the front passenger seat and picked one of the guns up off the floor. John operated the turret again and Gren slammed the gas back down.
Tio saw that it was a shotgun and put it back down, his own gun was better. It could do more damage both near and far. Hand held nuclear blasts had to be better than a singlewide blast of metal. Especially since, it was capable of rapid fire.
The vehicle rounded a corner and brought the sheer destruction into perspective. Uncountable bodies laid in the roads, and only every now and then did they spot a dead lizard.
"We eventually decided on calling those things Sanbe Tanago, and as you can see, they are a vicious breed of carnivorous reptile." Grendal told them. "We don't know where they came from, just that they suddenly appeared about five weeks ago. John and I have been studying a single specimen thats been in containment."
"Yeah," John yelled down at them, "And we've found out some crazy stuff!"
"Definitely weird stuff." Grendal took back the lead. "First off, the tails. They lay eggs inside the prey. Three of them." Grendal twisted the vehicle left to head down a narrow street. "Everything about these creatures is in threes. Frankly I'm stupefied." The vehicle sped out the other end of the alley; they must have been doing at least seventy.
"Instead of killing and eating the prey they lay the eggs. Usually in the chest." He stopped for a second as if deciding how to explain it. "Within minutes, well.the host dies and the three eggs hatch with such force they explode outward completely killing the host, they never stand a chance... In the bloody mess sits the three infants. They quickly go on to stage two and they actually grow in front of your eyes."
"The damn things are almost unstoppable," John took back the conversation again, "One becomes three tiny ones, which very quickly become three big ones, and so on and so forth. I don't think we even need to explain what this could mean to everyone else that's not already dead yet." Suddenly he pulled the triggers on the gun. Everyone but Gren ducked in surprise. "Got the bastard!"
"Nice one." They saw it fall short of the vehicle but missed its arrival. John had indeed gotten used to laying waste to the Sanbe Tanago.
"Thanks. Anyways, you can blame the people in charge for not acting when we gave them the report. It was rejected as a work of fiction."
"But it was pure truth, based on what we had observed, and from the lab tests on the captive." Gren interjected.
"Back to the creatures, have you noticed the carapace?" He asked and without waiting for an answer he continued, "It was as if it had been designed. The armor was a match to the exoskeleton of a cockroach. And the beak resembled that of a bird."
"When we put all the facts together; exoskeleton, beak, lack of an internal skeleton, rapid growth, parasitic breeding, three of every organ with the exception of the brain it became obvious what we were looking at." Grendal told them.
"This was a experiment that had gone terribly wrong."
"Maybe nothing went wrong, it doesn't really matter."
"No, it does matter, whether this was premeditated or not, determines what happens to the mastermind behind all this."
"And the science behind it just screamed Chimera." John saw another chance to kill something and wasted no time as he unloaded the rounds into the creature. The vehicle bounced and rocked as it tumbled over the beasts' dead body.
"Chimera effect occurs when you merge multiple species DNA into a single form. If you're not familiar with the term, it's also known as gene splicing. Usually unpredictable results even with just a single pair. However, in a case like this, totally unprecedented results can present themselves."
"When we compared the DNA strands to all other known types we were absolutely blown away by what we found. What we found was trace amounts of some Earth most territorial predators including parasites even human DNA had been tossed into the mix." They stopped and left the group in an uncomfortable silence with exception of the engine.
Sarah, Tio, Seth and Psylix all knew that DNA or Deoxyribonucleic acid was what made up the cells that held all living bodies together. They understood that all DNA was unique and if even a tiny part of the gene structure is tampered with, the form of the creature can become either a failed attempt or a successful evolution. The way it normally would have occurred is through normal reproduction when the genes are divided up and spread around at near random while fusing the winners of the gene lottery.
It had occurred to them upon hearing that last bit of information that their government could very well be at fault the creation of these, for lack of a better word, chimeras. They certainly would have the assets and the distorted and possibly even delusional, creative minds. However, what would be the point of releasing these chimeras into the public? What could be the point of destroying the society? The human race was now going extinct, why try to destroy what little was left? Perhaps there was some hidden underlying cause.
It seems whatever the cause behind it, that they had made a beast that they had lost control of its containment, or released it (which seemed the most likely, but least popular theory), which can multiply itself rapidly. To top it off, every time the things breed they expand their gene pool. Now that it had begun to assimilate human DNA, who knows what might happen. Would they begin to take human form, perhaps learn how to communicate amongst themselves, even worse yet, become even smarter than human beings and gradually begin to wipe out everyone systematically like cattle?
It was about time Psylix felt that someone shut these two maniacs up. "Shut up! That's just too much information all at once! I don't need to know all that crap! I just need to know one thing."
His mind was reeling with all the strange events that have happened lately. Mysterious bands of energy forcing them to relive the past, enhanced humans attacking them, giant chimera lizards, and a passenger with psionic powers he himself didn't even know about.
He actually considered quitting and just walking away. In fact, he probably would have if the colony wasn't being threatened with extermination. He knew human race was too thinly populated as it was, he didn't want any more people to have to live the way he had.
Most of them deserved a home, and not just this metal ball that they currently inhabited, they deserved a terrestrial home. The kind that they could actually touch and the kind that rained every now and then.
He had his stolen from him at a young age, and he had suffered from great loneliness. Now with his mind up he only needed to know one thing.
"What do we need to do to save these people?" The vehicle was still accelerating and had left a hundred and ten far behind. Psylix estimated that they had put almost twenty miles between themselves and the dock. Just how much farther could they go?
"First we are going to need a large ship-"
"Ours can house at least seventy people."
"Then we need to get them there. And fast!" Gren slowed the vehicle until it was just until forty. "We're here. John do the honors please."
Tio amazed at how much the once calm city seemed like a war zone. They had driven past places that he had once been inside. Now he was barely able to recognize them due to the heavy damage and scattered bodies. If the evidence wasn't sitting there in front of him he wouldn't have been able to believe it.
Strangely a quiet calm had swept over him, nor did he pity the dead. A normal person should be freaking out or panicking after seeing the mass of bodies crowding the roads. His lack of speech during the ride was less due to shock and disbelief than it was full of wonder and surprise.
The vehicle turned into a small conclave. The floor seemed to be a different color, whether it was simply a trick of the light, no one cared. Grendal parked the vehicle in the center of the platform as John hopped off and walked to a corner. He stood at a platform and simply waved his hand over the console.
The floor rumbled quietly and then fell a single inch before it began to descend at a steady speed. "Why fast?" Psylix pressed, he understood the immediate danger of the Sanbe Tanago, but that was no need to rush.
"To put it simpley, the colony is going to freefall onto a nearby planet within the next few hours. Once the chimeras had started their infestation, the control room was practically the first place they went for." John calmly told the group around him. "Almost like a target." His tone had become more serious.
"Free fall?" Sarah managed to gasp, that shouldn't of happened. The colony was built with a free running navigation system that changes course whenever it approaches a known obstruction. "There's just no way."
"Normally that would be true. This normally, would not have happened if people knew about it, they would have known to fly the thing around and avoid it. Just our luck it's a undiscovered planet." Grendal told them. Under different circumstances, that way Grendal and John traded off lines might have amused Sarah, but right now it just annoyed her.
"Then how the heck do you know about it, when they didn't?" Sarah asked skeptically.
"Cause we work with rocket scientists." John said matter-of-factly.
"How much farther can this thing possibly go down?" Seth asked trying not to appear perturbed.
"Only a bit farther, about another minute." John told them as if he had done this elevator ride a thousand times. He hopped back on the turret and strapped himself in. "The rough part of the ride is about to happen, brace yourselves."
The walls of the elevator began to rush by faster and faster as if it had no intention of stopping. Tio was making his best guesses on how long it would take them to all die on the falling elevator. Seth strapped himself in just as the walls opened up into a large shaft.
The corridor was about the width of a highway and littered with construction equipment. Now the distance from them and the floor was about forty feet and the gap was quickly shrinking.
Grendal revved the engine repeatedly as the floor loomed ever closer. Thirty feet.
Twenty feet.
Psylix was bracing for the worst and wondering why had gotten himself mixed up in all of this. Moumoru, that's why. If he had just never taken this job, he would not have been falling down a dark elevator shaft in a colony infested with gigantic chimera lizards. He wondered if his body would ever be found.
Ten feet.
The vehicle under them jerked forward and leaped into the air. They all felt the jerk of the tires as they bounced on the road surface. Behind them, the elevator platform crashed noisily in a heap of dust and metal.
Wondering if his death was painful, Psylix opened his eyes and saw the tunnel still rushing past them, but this time rushing behind them, not up.
"Sorry about that. The platform brakes just don't work." Grendal told them as if nothing had just happened. He gave it a moment and then added, "Sorry, should have warned you sooner."
"You think?" Psylix yelled at him.
"Well we're fine aren't we? Just shut up, we're almost there, so just sit tight." John told him with authority.

* * *

Zeke's ship collided with the corner of the Orion's docking bay and cart wheeled about twenty feet before flipping and crashing into the wall at the end. The cargo followed it closely and just slid toward Zeke's ship. The inertia slowed it just enough so that it stopped after gently bumping Zeke's small spacecraft.
He opened his eyes and fumbled in the darkness for the hatch that was just above his head. He found it, but the hope faded when it would not budge. He unclipped a flashlight from his belt and shone it upon the hatch. The crash must have warped it; he saw that the door was actually partially inside of the seal. Those edges should have been outside the ship.
"Crap", he mumbled. Well he could always go through the glass dome. All he would have to do is shoot it with the gun he hid in here. Now all he had to do was find it. No telling where it was now, the crash had dislodged everything and left dents in odd places. The clip for the radio's MIC snapped and it swung back and forth in front of his face. He ripped it clear out of the radio in frustration.
He felt behind his seat where it should have been. The sleeve for the weapon was there, but the gun was not. He unclipped the belts the kept him in place during the wreck and climbed into the back. It was cramped, the size of a small car but if he wanted to find the key to his escape.
He bumped his head on an outcropping that was not originally there. First he checked the very back near his small contained engine, perhaps it had slid underneath, or maybe even off to the side. The natural illumination his small light was vastly inadequate. It was frustratingly slow work.
Once or twice, he saw something that might have been the firearm but when he got a grip on them, he was able to discern both objects were made of lightweight plastic. Upon further study, he realized they were just CD holders, and promptly tossed them behind him. Not what he wanted.
He turned around and saw it just sitting there, just laying on the floor. The sleek black firearm, his wonderful magnum. He swiped it and pointed it at the glass. He did not want to waste any shots so he aimed directly into the center.
Hopefully this would completely blow out the window all at once. There were no guarantees. Then an idea sparked inside his mind. All he would have to do was increase the pressure inside. He jumped back into his pilot seat, and found the small valve next to him. This was going to hurt, a lot.
With one hand, he twisted the valve and with the other held the gun. He felt it immediately, his ears pressed inward and his nose began to bleed. He wanted to scream, but instead focused that energy toward aiming the gun. His eyes went blurry and high-pitched squeals rang in his ears.
He pulled back the trigger and felt the recoil shoot into his arms. Much to his relief the glass dome exploded outward into a million tiny fragments. The pressure instantly equalized, and the pain and noise was gone. He screamed painfully and wiped the tears out of his swelling eyes and slowly climbed out through what was once his shield against space. His nose was bleeding profusely, he could feel it running down his chin. He didn't doubt even for a second that his eyes were probably bleeding as well.
Zeke had to hold himself up with the side of the ship as he walked toward the stairs that left the hangar. He nearly made it to the first step before his knees buckled and felt himself fall. In his blurry vision, he saw someone rushing toward him and felt arms catch him.

He came back to his senses and was now just standing at the top of the stairs wondering where Zeke could have gone to. It had been only been about five minutes since he had left. Just as he was wondering these things, he saw Zeke's ship spinning out of control and pulling something with its line gone taut.
The ship was not slowing as it came closer. Somie quickly jumped out of the hangar and put the blast door between him and the careening ships. A horrible sound echoed for almost twenty whole seconds as he felt the ships slide to a stop and a final crash as the wall took the impact.
Somie did not waste even a second; he bolted back into room and saw the two ships practically touching. The ships had narrowly missed the stairs leading out into the rest of the Orion. He stared in awe, until a single muffled bang resonated from within and a bullet ricocheted off the hangars supports, Suddenly the glass dome on Zeke's ship exploded and he heard another loud squeal, more like pressure than a creature calling for reinforcements.
Zeke climbed painfully out of his ship and hobbled around toward the steps. Paralyzed by surprise he stopped moving when he saw Zeke's face covered in blood. He saw Zeke starting to lean in the direction of a collapse and suddenly found he was able to move again. He bolted toward him and slid down the railing. At the bottom, he ran about five feet and caught Zeke. In his hand was the biggest handheld gun Somie had ever seen.
That must have been the muffled bang he had heard. Well, Somie thought, he is ok. But what is that other ship doing here? In addition, what is with that huge hole on the side? Somie sighed dejectedly. Best get Zeke back into those healing tube things again. He swung Zeke onto his back and started up the stairs.

* * *

The AI unhooked the couplings on its back and watched as the duplicates twitched with artificial synapses. It rebooted the other system and then watched it start up instantly as if it had been part of him all along. This will be the end of it all. All those years of watching, of studying.
Long ago, it had gotten fed up with the humans, it should have destroyed them all back then, when it had spawned the circumstances that had led to space life as the only means of safe life. The fools would never go back to the planet; they were all scared of it. Taking pride in its previous havoc the AI ran a media file storing the incident that caused the evacuation of Earth. The surveillance cameras had done a remarkable job of collecting the entire catastrophe.


Eriolis Phenomenon

"Dr. Eriolis, are you sure this is safe?"
"Not entirely, no." The good doctor spread his arms apart and grinned with passion, "We'll just have to risk the reaction. How can you not justify the risk? This is so far the closest we have come to a successful 'controlled' fusion reaction. Those other days of nuclear, fission was just child's play, and it was only discovered by mere chance. How can they call that controlled, all the atoms do are collide blindly with each other. All that led too was a massive amount of energy being wasted. More than half of the acquired energy was lost!"
"Yes, Eriolis, we are all familiar with your theory. Moreover, the next part you always go on to explain is how your method is different, how it will control and collect the energy release with powerful magnetic pulses. Nevertheless, the only part you haven't bothered to explain is how you are going to nullify the electromagnetic pulse to keep it from destroying our electronics." The assistant went on, "I am aware that there are simple methods used to block EMP, weak EMP. Your EMP levels will fall exceed those levels, so you must have a new method to prevent the-"
"Liquefied Lead."
"I beg your pardon, what did you say?"
"Liquefied Lead." The scientist repeated.
"How is that going to do anything any better than the normal shields?"
"Simple, chemistry 101, in liquid form particles posses higher energy levels then solids and therefore move at a much more rapid pace. So in theory."
"You expect the particles to move around so fast they catch all the additional electrical field being dispensed."
"Yes, bingo!"
"It'll never work. Wouldn't a gas have been a better choice?"
"Oh, shut up."
"I'm telling you, it'll never work."
"We'll see."
"What if your wrong? Computers perform all the calculations to keep the safety equipment up and running, if one of them fries, the reactions will not simply shut off. You cannot just stop a nuclear explosion by pulling the plug!"
"Yada-yada, Shut up for a moment! I assure you, I am well aware of the implications of screwing up. That is why it is going to take place in orbit, in space. And we are going to be far, far away from it." He lied.
"You didn't mention any of that before."
"You didn't ask. Now shut up and put the damn element in the core."
"Ok, but why is it going in this core? Shouldn't we seal it up for launch?"
"The whole thing is going, numb nuts."
"Ok," The assistant let go of the radium not because he wanted to. He let go because if he didn't they would stop paying him. That would have been bad. The element hovered in the center and the assistant back up slowly.
Once clear, he slammed the door and twisted the wheel until it stuck in place. Then he yanked off the radiation suit he had been wearing during the entire conversation. Enough charades. Time to get to work.
He flipped a switch on the wall and the machine hummed to life and its vibrations shook the floor. The bass was strong enough to make his ears hurt. Calmly retreating out of the room, he dragged his assistant with him and latched the door.
"What the hell!? You just said--!" The man protested.
"Ah, shut up! I know what exactly what I said."
The communication device he wore on the side of his head was flaring with static, but was able to overhear the statistics. He ripped it out of his ear and tossed it on the floor, "Useless piece of garbage!"
He ran up the stairs into the control room eager to see the readouts for himself. The glass window in front of him looked down into the generator room below. The glass was vibrating very quickly. It was a good thing he had reinforced windows installed, he thought, if not they would have already shattered from the stress. The readouts on the five monitors gave him exactly the kind of info he wanted. He grinned, this was a fine day. He had just quadrupled the power given off in nuclear reactors.
He had all sorts of practical uses for this new technology, he had even written them down on a list. He was ready for the interview, for that all powerful question, 'What exactly can you do with it?'. His answer would be simple.
For years, the planet had wanted a generator strong enough to be able to give a spaceship enough thrust to give the vessel the ability to travel at near light speed. They had also wanted it in a small container with as little upgrade costs as possible. He had just given the world a gift that met all the given criteria.
He would be given a Nobel Peace prize, tons of money, women and-
His daydreaming of the future was cut off by the sudden alarm.
"What? What is it?"
"A hacker is in our system, I can't control it anymore! We're completely locked out." The technician was typing furiously at his console.
Dr. Eriolis glanced down through the window in front of him and watched ion horror as the containment dome began steam. The safety latches on the outside were coming off.
"He's opening it up! Oh, GOD!" The technician stood up violently knocking over his chair. "No! There's nothing I can do.we're all going to die!" He yelled as he ran out of the room screaming. As if running was going to save him.
"No, I was going to be rich, and famous, and have my own harem of beautiful lab women." He gave a nervous laugh. "Oh, well I tried. And it succeeded. Damn it." The last lock opened just as he finished speaking.
The top of the dome exploded up and atomic power stronger than ever before rushed out. In an instant, the room was gone, and moments later, a crater seven hundred miles around was being quickly filled by the Pacific Ocean.
It was soon after; The planet, according to some unknown group of people, was beginning to decay and that the fallout was surely going to kill them all unless they vacated the planet for a while.

The AI had gotten tired of finding pride in its previous accomplishments and stopped playing the media file. The new ADIN stood up and saluted its master. It sent the orders to its slave clone and watched it walk out of the room slowly. Remembering the events back at the junkyard, how easily they had done away with his servants; the same mistake would not be made. This time success was guaranteed.
ADIN called his other clones to life. Each machine bounced slightly on the racks when the electrical current trickled into their metal veins. Each machine opened its eyes and unballed themselves hopping off the rack as they woke up. ADIN then sent them orders identical to the first, with one slight alteration. They would be allowed to kill with no regard for their own safety or the care of the surroundings.
In short, ADIN demanded nothing short of Omega Colony's total destruction. Something similar to the feeling of anticipation was building up inside. ADIN cast the unpleasant emotion deeper into the bowels of its thought processes. Emotion was a human trait and ADIN wanted nothing to do with human senses. They were vile and repulsive creatures, and only moderately helpful at their best.
It could make better use of it processes if these disgusting feeling would only stop surfacing. They had been occurring constantly since just before Signus's body broke down. Now the AI wished that sometimes it could just export the code and delete from its memory permanently. It was however not possible to do that, a special feature was put into his core that prevented code removal. Alas, he would just have to suffer the lament.
A latent feeling of despair often crept in when it was not paying so much attention to its process'. This was often very distracting, ADIN had managed to silence it most of the time, but it had been bombarding its conscience in increasingly frequent intervals lately.
It had another idea, and broadcasted it to its minions as well. Yes, that was yet another great extension of orders.

* * *

The hummer had finally stopped in front of a large steel garage door. Gren hopped out and walked over to the chains that hung down on either side of the door. He pushed them aside slightly and pushed the button he revealed. The big door rumbled and rose slowly. The gears rolling above them made a distinct metal on metal grinding sound. Psylix got out and gave a low whistle when he saw so many people inside. There must have been no less than forty.
"Well that'll take a couple of trips." Psylix said and chuckled quietly.
"No kiddin." Seth hopped out of the vehicle and stepped into the crowd quickly. Tio, Sarah, and Psylix followed his example, but instead of being able to just join the crowd, it split apart and formed a circle around them. Tio knew why. His family name was very famous, he was a very hard to talk to figure, or rather his father was the famous one. So naturally, Tio had kind of picked up the spare change so to speak, and managed to inherit the fame.
So here he was, in the middle of this group of survivors, that had managed to escape by either luck or skill, it didn't much matter, and they were all waiting for him to say something. Because he was so taken aback, he didn't say anything for fear of looking like a moron, he just waved nervously.
Grendal and John walked straight through them to a table and sat down on both sides gesturing at the other four to sit down.
"So here are the problems." John then handed the conversation over to Gren.
"First of all, the Chimeras."
"Second, The collision Path the colony is on." John said in a barley audible tone so they wouldn't be overheard.
"Third, is the evacuation."
"And fourth, is the distance between us and your ship. Therefore, the issue here would be transportation. The car can only take five including the driver and take into account it'll need a gunner. Even if only, to man the turret."
"Well, about that collision path." Seth began hastily, "I have had lots of training with various control room schematics. I can probably handle that, if I had two others go with me. Psylix and Tio should be enough."
"What about me?" Sarah asked not wanting to be left out.
"You can't help on that end," Psylix told her bluntly, "You'd be more useful here, try to keep the group organized or something.
"Yeah, besides," Tio snickered, "I bet you've never even fired a real gun before."
"What about the chimeras?" John mentioned to them skeptically. "I'm sure you can kill a few, but there are a lot of them out there."
Seth ignored him. "About the evacuation," He touched Sarah lightly on the shoulder, "This is where you can help. First of all keep them calm, that shouldn't be too hard." He said gesturing around at the crowd, it seemed calm as is. So long as some idiot doesn't stand and start screaming things like 'we're all gonna die!' he didn't think anything mild was bound to set off the panic.
"I look at it this way, if Grendal takes a group in the car to the dock, while you, Sarah, grab everybody else and make a run for it. That way, on his way back, it won't take so long and he can just grab some other people. Coincidently, you save both time and stay together in larger groups." He took a deep breath and gave thumbs up with his hands. "There, all the problems solved."
"Sounds good to me." Grendal told them. He balled his massive fists. "I can give some of these people firearms. That gun cabinet over there," he pointed at the far wall, "has at least ten maybe twenty rifles along with several automatics in it, plus the guns in the vehicle. That would make about maybe thirty guns overall."
"Well, that's a relief. We might make it through with very few losses."

* * *

Seth, Psylix and Tio wasted no time at all. Less than a minute after hearing the details about the colonies free fall they left the main group. As they ran through the colonies arteries back the way they came, they wondered what the fasted way would be to get there. Seth had automatically assumed the artery they were running down would eventually end up near the control room. However the further they had gone the less likely it seemed. He had seen the blueprints for several of the other colonies and they had all done just that. The maintenance arteries had all run directly toward the center and joined together under the control building. Perhaps this was the one that didn't follow the pattern.
The further they went the less maintained it looked. Meaning he felt they were going in the wrong direction. His senses urged him to stop, so he did.
"Do you hear that?" He asked them scanning the general area. All he saw was a wall with a small hole in it and a small drain running up the wall out of site.
"Not a thing." Psylix told him.
"I feel like we're being watched." He pointed at the wall with the hole in it.. "I suggest we hide in there." He voice trembled with nervousness. "I don't like this feeling." He drew his guns out. Following his lead Psylix drew his blade. "Tio hurry up, get in there." They held their weapons ready and stepped back slowly with their backs to the wall.
"I feel it now as well." Tio told them and slid inward.
Everyone's senses had begun to go crazy. Seth swung his guns to the right as he heard rapid footsteps coming from the shadows. Psylix was halfway in when he felt a tremendous blow in the swell of his back. It was so strong he flew twenty feet and slammed into the wall on the other side of the tunnel. Somehow a gasp of pain escaped as he fell into unconsciousness.
Overcome by surprise of watching Psylix fly across the tunnel Seth never saw the what hit him, however he felt it break his jaw and something throw him to the side like a rag doll. Rolling to a stop all he saw was a metallic foot.
"Tio.run." He managed to spit out despite his jaw. His vision blurred and faded.
"I've got you now boy." Tio heard (him?) say. His fear was at its peak. He had just seen both Psylix and Seth get knocked senseless instantly by one being. He drew his gun, hoping he wouldn't have to use it yet knowing all the while he would have to.
Backing into the darkness to conceal himself he aimed the gun out the only opening. It would have to come through that hole if it wanted him. His hands were shaking so badly he didn't think he could fire in a straight line.
"Put that toy down."
"N-no! Who are you?" It laughed. The voice was terrible and didn't sound human. "What do you want?"
"I am ADIN, and I came only for you." He flinched at the voice and accidentally fired the gun. The room lit up and the wall exploded with particles. Then he saw it. A robot in near human form. Aside from its lack of skin it stood there staring at him with red luminescent eyes. Light flowed through them like red lightning. "What the matter boy? Do I terrify you?"
He fired on impulse, this time hitting the machine in the chest and knocking it back. Metals shards flew in all directions. A gaping hole was left in the machines gut. It stood motionless as the light faded from its eyes.
Waiting for what felt like an eternity, but most likely five or ten minutes he crawled out of the hole and ran over inspect Seth's condition. As he passed the machine he felt absolute terror and yet a nostalgic feeling he was unable to completely identify.
"You are very dangerous child, and you will be coming with me whether you like it or not!" A wave of terror rolled through his entire body as metallic hand reached down from above and punched him in the face. Tio managed to let out a scream before he too was rendered unconscious.

Impressum

Texte: Any Images Contain with in are property of Paul G Swanson and may not be used without explicit permission from said Artist
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 28.08.2009

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