Quentin

“That’s a big capsule,” I noted as I walked into the airlock. The doors on both sides were shut as Scarlet and I prepared to exit. Harry and Gruma quickly ran inside after pushing it in, the latter shivering uncontrollably while the former said he needed to overclock his processors to keep awake. They weren’t out there that long, which concerned me. I was going to be out in the freezing cold for significantly longer if I wanted to attain psionic powers. If it was that easy to get hypothermia, I could die.

“Indeed. I wonder if we could distribute it into smaller capsules so we don’t use all of it at once. It’ll be nice if we could use it again to get even closer to Earth,” Scarlet pondered as she slipped her scarf over her muzzle.

“Perhaps, but that would require technology we don’t have access to. Perhaps the Tellos Republic would be willing to lend us something,” I said as I pulled a scarf over my mouth and nose. We were both bundled head to toe in heavy winter gear. It felt safe, but Gruma’s condition was concerning. Humans originated from the savannahs of Africa, so I was probably less cold tolerant than her.

Once we were completely bundled up, we grabbed our motorcycles and rode towards the mountains. The trip was quick, only taking ten minutes. We kicked our bikes up before entering the cavern. We had hands on our guns and our armor ready to activate. It was dark, but our SADs fortunately came with flashlight features.

Something people often don’t tell you about caves is how humid and warm they are. The temperature was a lot higher than the outside one. As in, it was still below freezing, but the winter gear did its job of insulating me. The humidity was uncomfortable, but that was something I would have to deal with.

We walked for a while, listening as water dripped from stalactites. Overall, the place was eerie. Unlike caves back on Earth, there wasn’t any animal life or fungi around. It was as if the entire planet was completely dead. I knew that the intelligent lifeforms on the planet went extinct, but it was worse than I imagined.

After several minutes of walking, I asked, “Scarlet, if you were to die, how would you like to be commemorated? I would like to have my corpse carried back to Earth and buried back in my hometown.”

She looked at me a bit hesitant. She sighed and answered, “I would like to be turned human again. Once that’s done, I would have my body shown to my family so they would know what happened to me. I would then be buried on my family’s plot.” She paused for a while before adding, “I hope you aren’t planning anything.”

“I was just trying to make plans if everything goes south. The complete lack of animal, plant, and fungi life is very creepy,” I replied as we continued our trek. Our footsteps echoed, loud enough that they matched the source in volume.

After thirty minutes of walking, the path forked two ways. In most stories, the characters would split up to tackle them. Also in most stories, this ended badly. Real-life was not comparable to a television show or book, but I still felt that it would be better to stick together. Besides, it would get boring without someone to talk to. So, after a few seconds of pondering, Scarlet chose the left path and I followed.

Things got interesting when I noticed carvings on the walls of the cavern. They were obviously made by something of considerable intelligence since they had specific geometric patterns. Most consisted of swirls encased by a circle. Whatever it was, it must’ve been important to the carvers. Perhaps it was an ancient religious symbol. Or someone tagged the place to say they were there. Who knew? I certainly didn’t.

After a few more minutes of walking, with several segments of climbing down ledges, we exited the tunnel and reached a massive cavern. Only this one didn’t seem natural at all. It would be a bold claim, if it wasn’t for the large building in the center of it. It seemed that the cavern was widened to fit the building, with the ceiling of it reinforced by wooden beams.

The building was made of some kind of red stone with a gold trim. Gems lined the trim, ornately cut to maximize their luminosity. Overall, the expense of the design seemed to indicate that whoever built it did so for religious or political reasons. Considering the state of the outside world, the former seemed more likely. However, there was only one way to find out. I grabbed the doorknob and turned it. It was locked. I was able to say something when Scarlet cut in.

“The natives couldn’t have built this,” she said as she walked up to the doors. We were slightly taller than them. She scratched her chin. “The natives of this planet are only a few inches tall. In comparison, this structure was built for those who are at least waist-height.”

“Good point,” I concurred as it was a mystery. “Why would someone build something too big for them to use? Unless, of course, it was built by the creators of the Dyson sphere. Who else would be here anyways?”

“That’s what I was thinking,” she replied as she took off a glove. With her ungloved hand, she inserted a claw into one of the locks and moved it around. It took a while, but eventually the door opened. We walked in and stood amazed at what we saw.

We stood in a large hallway that stretched on for several yards. Along the walls were stained glass windows that I couldn’t identify. Limestone columns lined the walls with intricate designs on them. Unlike the exterior, the interior was painted white. Despite being clean, the building had no lighting. Someone had to be nearby to clean the area up, but they apparently didn’t need light.

As we walked towards the other end of the hallway, I looked at the stained-glass windows. I could get a good idea of what the aliens that built this building looked like. They were some sort of furred flying creature with membrane wings. They had a single eye and six limbs. Those limbs were two arms, two legs, and a set of wings. Their ears were massive, possibly to help with echolocation. The aliens were shown bowing before a multi-colored cloud. In fact, all the windows showed the same cloud.

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When we reached the door at the other end, I said, “Scarlet, if we don’t survive this, I’d like to let you know that you’re the best friend I ever had.”

“Same here,” she said with some disappointment. I shook my head as I opened the door.

Before us was a carpet pathway. The pathway led into darkness, only for a faint blue glow to be seen at the end. Dread filled me as I felt a powerful presence in the room. I guess I know how those ghost hunters feel whenever they enter any building. Unlike them, I actually felt something here.

“There’s some kind of strange presence here. It doesn’t feel divine or evil, but rather something else entirely. Something otherworldly,” Scarlet said as she walked beside me. “Anyways, let’s see what it wants. I hope it doesn’t demand us to worship it or anything similar.” I don’t know what you meant by ‘divine or evil,’ but I guess it makes sense.

As we got closer, the sensation got stronger. It became overpowering, as if the entity in front of us could end us in a second if it felt like it. I also got what Scarlet was saying. It was a strange sensation, but I could feel that it was something from another plane of existence.

We stopped when we reached a kneeling mat. We nodded at each other before kneeling on it. A loud booming voice filled the room. It was of ambiguous gender, mostly since it seemed that such a concept was alien to it. It would make sense considering that it didn’t seem like a biological lifeform. “Who approaches me?” it asked.

“Quentin Alexander Smith,” I shouted back. Despite my efforts, it sounded too quiet to be heard by the being.

“Scarlet Rose Campbell,” my vulpine friend whispered in fear. Despite her efforts to downplay herself, her voice was as loud as mine.

“Fascinating. The two of you have the spirits of humans, though one of you is physically different. Humans don’t tend to leave their planet. What brings you here?” the voice boomed.

“Abduction. We were abducted by extraterrestrials and dropped off in this corner of the galaxy. Scarlet over here was experimented on, changing her appearance to the one you see before you,” I explained as I pointed to her. I pointed at myself and said, “I was dropped into an alien gameshow where we had to fight to the death to survive. I rescued another contestant, causing me to have to find my own way back home. It’s depressing that I can’t return home, but I at least managed to find Scarlet and save her from a horrible fate.”

“I see,” the voice boomed. The room fell entirely silent. One could hear a pin drop as the room got completely dark. Then, out of nowhere, I felt a searing pain in my chest. The fiery pain spread out, eventually enveloping my entire body. It lasted for what seemed like an eternity. My vision was filled with red as my body stiffened.

Then the pain suddenly stopped. My vision returned to normal as I fell to the floor. I panted heavily. I could hear Scarlet doing the same. Sensation started flowing back into my body, allowing me to pick myself up. Once I was back in my kneeling position, I felt everything return to normal. I asked, “What was that all about?”

“I gave the two of you a miniscule fraction of my power. Consider this a gift. The two of you are under no contract with me unlike the others who desired it. However, it also means that your powers won’t activate outside of combat. No immortality for you,” the voice boomed.

Scarlet stood up and said, “I’m fine with my mortality. I just want to ability to get back home and live a full life.”

“Smart girl. I hope you find peace with what you’ve become,” the voice replied as it faded away. I wanted to ask it something, but it seemed that it said all it intended to say. I should’ve been glad. It gave me psionic powers without demanding anything from me. However, I wanted to ask more about how the powers worked.

We walked out of the cavern in silence. It felt like the entire place was empowered by that entity. Neither of us wanted to upset it in any way.

Once we were outside, we got on our motorcycles and rode back to the spaceship. It was a silent trip as we traversed the frozen wasteland. The cold started to permeate my winter gear, but I wasn’t too concerned. We were going to be out of here soon.

We reached the spaceship and boarded it. Once everything was secured, Scarlet and I ditched our winter gear and sat down in the cockpit. We strapped in as the ship took off. It was at that point that I decided to break the silence. “Do you feel any different?”

“Not really,” she replied as she pulled out her SAD. “My SAD says I have a psionic stat of one, but I still don’t feel heightened awareness.”

“What if the entity lied? I mean, we were told that we needed to make contracts with psionic entities in order to gain some of their power. Perhaps it thought it would be a funny trick to pull on us,” I suggested. That can be it. I mean, who gives away powers for free?

“Perhaps, but we should wait and see. The entity said it would only be active in combat. Perhaps we need to wait until we get in a fight,” she said as she unstrapped her seatbelt. She yawned, holding her hand in front of her muzzle. “Anyways, we should go to bed. There’s a big day ahead of us.” She walked into the hallway, leaving me alone.

I looked at the galactic map and noticed that the political one changed right before my eyes. The borders of the Qarri disappeared from the sector. “What happened?” I asked as it was so sudden.

“According to the data I received, there was a massive slave revolt throughout the Qarri bases in this sector. Unfortunately, the tyrannical empire is still alive since these were outposts and not their fortresses,” the ship said.

“So we’re safe from that threat?” I asked as I felt at ease. As long as we kept our path, we would be able to leave without incident.

“No. I will not put this lightly. The Qarri will return to reestablish control. And if you read up on this sector’s history, you’ll know that the Qarri hate losing. They will blaze a path through the Tellos Republic to get to their goals.”

I frowned as the new development seemed to hurt rather than help me. I looked at the Tellos Republic and asked, “I know we discussed the country’s ideology earlier, but how is it like to live in the country?”

“There’s difficulty discerning the truth since published spy reports and official documents seem to contradict each other. It’s made even worse when some of the spies were from countries that are indisputably worse than any interpretation of the Republic. However, something to keep in mind is that the current ruling council has never lost an election. All reports agree on that,” the ship explained as it bombarded the screen with dozens of reports. It was then that my hopes were shattered. I looked at the official reports and noticed how it matched what the ship said about the country before. However, now I noticed that they were written similar to documents I noticed from certain Earth countries.

Is it propaganda that they wrote about themselves? Now that I think about it, we weren’t allowed on Republic planets and were just given our gear and refuel to send us our way. And now that I think about it, that Dyson sphere must’ve been built by them. Unless a precursor built it, they had to be the ones who did. Now the question was if the current government built it or a former regime. Alas, I hope I won’t find the answers. We just need to leave this sector as fast as possible. I don’t know about the others, but I don’t care to be ashes floating in space.