Garth had tried everything but could not avoid it. His navigation systems had detected an anomaly in space, and they were set to move straight through it at a blinding speed. The entire cockpit lit up with red and yellow lights indicating alarms everywhere; panic came over him. Though the technology to skip through space had advanced profoundly, it still had its flaws; it still needed to plot a course through space to get the ship safely to its destination. The course plotted was based on the real-time conditions of the route and could change dramatically in-flight. Moving at a staggering nine-hundred and twenty-five astronomical units per hour, there was no room for error.
Thanatos heard the alarms sound in the cockpit and was making his way through the tight spaces of the ship from his private room. Traveling long routes meant Thanatos, four of his guard, and a pilot was all alone. The privacy on board the vessel was calming. He longed for trips such as these, allowing him a break from all the politics and backstabbing plaguing the galaxy. When he finally reached the cockpit, Thanatos was met with a room filled with red and yellow signal lights flashing in chaos.
“There is something in our flight path, my lord.”
“Has it been listed?” Garth quickly checked the route information board, but there was nothing reported.
Even though Thanatos himself tried to intervene, neither of the two men managed to stop the space skip and prepared to brace themselves for impact.
Garth closed his eyes; this was the end. Thanatos decided to keep his eyes open; if this was the end, he wanted to know the exact moment it came. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Sudden pain in his head brought the tall, aging man to his knees, voices screamed in his head, and visions of a world covered in a jungle filled his sight. However, as soon as it started, it ended. The end to the shuttle alarms never came; slowly, he opened his eyes and saw half the instruments in the cockpit were dead or shorting out, with most of the warnings still sounding.
“We need to recalculate our course for the nearest inhabited system; everything is damaged, we won’t survive long if we continue like this.”
Garth was speaking out loud, not directly to Thanatos but hoped that he would agree. Thanatos said nothing. He turned around and made his way back to his room, never saying a word.
They emerged from the skip in orbit of an unknown world, deep within space that has not yet been charted or loaded onto the atlas with precise calculation. From his observation window, Thanatos realized that this world was habitable and would give them a chance to land and make the necessary repairs required to get back on the eleven-day journey to the outer colonies.
“Scan the planet for any settlements.” Something felt strange; there was a presence in this world that intrigued him. Some secret lies on its surface, yearning for discovery. The scans returned positive results on human settlements, but it indicated they were no longer in contact with the outer space-faring civilizations. It was perfect.
“I am picking up an energy signal very remote, far away from any settlement; it almost seems like the locals are too scared to travel there. However, it is very much accessible for our ship.”
“Take me there.”
Thanatos did not need to give any other instruction; Garth understood and, without hesitation, guided the ship as best he could towards a crater on the surface. The feeling of deep desire increased within his heart. A wanting that needed fulfilling seemed to flood his emotions.
The ship had not even entered the upper atmosphere of this unknown world yet when everything stopped working. All the emergency alarms, navigation systems, life support systems, everything on the ship shut down, entering orbit violently. Garth tried to steer the craft manually, but the force entering the atmosphere made the ship tilt and spiral out of control.
“Brace yourself, my lord!”
Garth strapped himself in his seat, and Thanatos held on to his window frame in his room. He had confidence that the ship would go down without killing anyone. The entire vessel inside heated up like an oven, the fires from entering the atmosphere engulfed the transporter in a fiery ball of heat. Luckily the ship was built durable enough to survive reentry no matter the density of the planet’s atmosphere.
The ship spun out of control, Thanatos could not hold on any longer as the craft shook excessively. The shaking force threw him to the floor and then against the wall; a final nock on the head rendered him unconscious. The ship entered the atmosphere far from its intended target; Garth tried very hard to regain control. Pulling on the steering stick, extending forward flaps, and turning the craft slightly, he finally got the ship to level out and stop spinning. Though they still had no power in the engines, they were already far off course, and there was no way to turn the ship any further lest he loses control again.
A purple light on the horizon was shining bright; it almost seemed to Thanatos as if it was calling to him; it was offering him a way out. There was a great temple in the distance; it was very high and was of a familiar design, though the temple stood empty. Only one man dwelled within it. Thanatos could see this one man was in pain; he was seeking something but could not find it, his eyes were glowing red, and his skin was peeling. Between the cracks of his skin was a deep purple darkness that he had never seen in his life ever before.
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The man was rushing outside, groaning from pain or frustration; it was unclear to Thanatos. He tried to stretch his hand out to him, but it was not possible to help him. Outside he was on the balcony of the temple looking over the forests of this unknown planet; he was screaming a name, he could not understand the words; it was foreign to him. The man lifted a stone high in the air as bright purple light escaped from the cracks in his skin, destroying the man, then the temple followed, and finally, everything in the landscape, including the landscape itself, was destroyed.
Thanatos woke to breathe deeply; the sweat was pouring down his face, even his clothes were wet. The four guards traveling with him were not too far from him; the captain of the four rushed towards Thanatos to help him sit up. It was nighttime around him, and he was inside a shelter built from the forest’s natural resources. It was cold and damp; he could feel the cold creep up his arms and legs.
“What happened?” Thanatos looked around for answers, the guards were not allowed to speak to him, but he saw this situation as an exception and asked once again, assuring the captain he could talk to him.
“Captain Garth Oleg crash-landed the ship and has been working on the repairs for the last three days.”
The captain hoped that it was the extent of their conversation, but Thanatos had more questions, he tried to get up, but a pain in his head going down his back wrestled him back into his bed.
“We were successful in communicating with the Morningstar; they are en route to our location. It should take another two days before they reach this planet,”
“Where is my DG6 Unit?” Thanatos ignored what the captain had said.
“The robot unit is currently assisting Garth on repairs on his ship.” Thanatos showed a hint of annoyance. “Do you know how to pilot that craft if it was operational?” Thanatos asked carefully; he knew that his personal guard was not trained in much more than protection.
“No, my lord, I am afraid we do not know anything about piloting a ship.”
Thanatos tried to stand once more and succeeded; he brushed his Guard Captain’s hand off his arm and straightened his suit. He proceeded outside, where he studied his surroundings. There were trees and plants everywhere, the density of which he had never seen before on any other planet. Above him was a break in the tree line where the ship had crashed through; though, it seemed like it was starting to heal and grow back. The moonless sky beyond was more apparent than most planets he visited. The ground was wet with a thick layer of dead leaves and small plants resembling clovers breaking through it.
The ship under repair was not far from his shelter. He saw his little robot hard at work reinstalling shield plates to the base of the black matte transporter. Not far away was Garth, busy scrolling through a tablet, hurriedly searching for something.
“How long until this ship is repaired.” Garth was startled at the old man’s sudden appearance; he had been going through manual after manual of the ship to ensure he was repairing every part that needed fixing.
“My lord!” Garth turned around. He was unsure what he was going to say. “A week at best.” He continued.
Garth had not been part of the Order for very long, seven months, two weeks, and three days. He was down on his luck; he lost everything he had back home and was in desperate need to find his family, who fled from him due to his debts. This was also the first time he was transporting Thanatos. Garth was a good pilot for the most part, though his secret drinking problem hindered it more times than not. He had a few drinks on the journey and fell asleep, waking too late to have noticed the alarms had gone off in the cockpit. He felt it to be his fault they were stranded on this strange world.
“The Morningstar will be here in two days; why waste your time on repairs? Why haven’t you tried to track down the energy signal we detected in orbit?”
He had no answers. Thanatos’s eyes grew dark, his breathing heavier, and he clenched his fists. Then, quickly he drew his concealed sword, and it swung past Garth with excessive force. A second later, His lifeless body fell to one side and his head to another. There might have been some life left in him for a minute after, but it had passed, and he was no more.
“DG6!” Thanatos shouted, the little robot quickly rushed to his side.
DG6 was a make of robot Thanatos used in his employ excessively. They were durable, semi-intelligent, and extremely loyal.
“There was a signal detected by the ship in orbit before entry; scan the records and find that source.”
The robot did not hesitate; he connected with the ship’s main computer and quickly found the signal. Next, the robot displayed a holographic outline of the terrain around them; on the map, the small unit was able to show Thanatos where the signal could be found. Thanatos was pleased with the results.
“Captain, gather our things. We are heading out straight away.”
The journey had taken them a little more than a day before arriving at the location of the signal. Although the trip taught Thanatos that the planet had endless jungles and the days and nights were very short, he wished to learn more about this mysterious place. Very far from the area they were heading towards were human settlements, but the planet was remote for the most part, and traveling on it was almost impossible. If not for his DG6 unit, they would have been lost in the jungles until help arrived.
Nonetheless, with the help of the little robot, they arrived at their destination. Thanatos and his guards found themselves inside a vast crater carved into the landscape many years ago. The signal was coming from the very center of it too.
The forest was not too dense within the epicenter of the crater. Thanatos had not walked two steps into a large opening when his gaze locked onto a strange artifact nestled on a mound not too far from them. It seemed to call to him. Thanatos approached with great caution; he had too much to lose to be reckless.
The stone on the mound was in front of him; it glowed purple, it had words engraved on it, but he couldn’t understand the foreign language it was written in. He moved to touch the artifact; it pulled him into a vision. A man approached him from a bright light within a very dark void. His hand stretched out for Thanatos to take; he took the hand…