Chapter 3

That which will happen

PLANET HARIAN

Oscar had been feeling uneasy all day, it wasn’t a typical feeling for him at all. While he was hesitant to blame it on anyone or anything he couldn’t help but feel his recent interactions with the people of earth might have something to do with how he was feeling now. Although it had been months since he’d seen Tyler and his crew, he found himself at odd times thinking of them. They occupied an inordinate amount of his thinking these days.

Never in his already long life, in comparison to humans, had he encountered a race so apt to cause chaos in their general vicinity. But something told him today was different from most days. He couldn’t place what it was that he was feeling, only that it felt vaguely as if he was late, or was falling behind something he needed to keep up with. Looking around his work area he couldn’t see anything out of place, no hazards or misplaced objects. Glancing at the board he noticed there were no impending or suspected activation events, nothing even remotely close. It was as quiet as it could be. So why did he still feel this way. He was just looking at the board again when he felt a change in the air around him. Like something large and heavy entering the room suddenly taking up all the space. Something told him it was coming from behind him, he turned around not seeing anything at first.

Then he saw the air in front of him twenty feet away start to shimmer, like a wave in the ocean, it was blue-green in colour. It stopped...then seeming to sense Oscar’s presence it slightly adjusted its angle and charged right towards him suddenly, striking him and then seeming to pass through his whole body and then dissipate behind him. It all happened so quickly Oscar didn’t have time to even yell out an alarm. He was almost about to scream before he stopped himself, realizing he wasn’t hurt or affected in any way by what had just happened. He looked around and behind him looking for the shimmer but it was gone like it had never been there in the first place. He was alone so no one else had seen it either. He was confused by what it had been that struck him, perplexed by the infective nature of it, unnerved by its strangeness, but oddly enough he wasn’t unsure about what he should do now….

ABOARD THE MARK-2, ORBITING A GAS GIANT NEAR ROSS-154

Tyler had been in the hangar all day examining some of the basic equipment they used for expeditions to the surface of various moons and exoplanets. It was great that it was available, but not knowing how it worked didn’t jive with Tyler. There were plenty of teaching devices available on the ship, which were excellent aids to learning. He was using one particularly useful device right now.

Perched securely on his head was a basic virtual reality device. It ran programs that helped do things like disassemble and properly reassemble anything. It could walk anyone through the step by step processes. It was probably why he didn't notice a shimmering wall of flowing waves like heat coming off a hot road, but pure white and almost impossible to look at, materializing behind him. He never saw it coming. Once it seemed to correctly track his position the wall of bright light shot toward an unsuspecting Tyler. Sitting on a bench with his back turned he didn’t notice a thing. When it hit him, it knocked him clear off the bench sending him awkwardly somersaulting across the deck of the hanger ending in a ten foot slide on his back.

Ripping the VR helmet off and staggering to his feet he raised his hands in defence against his unseen attacker. But he was alone in the hangar, there was nothing and no one there. He stood confused for a moment replaying the moment in his head, when he was struck, just for a second, he could swear he heard someone say his name…….

Quadrant L-C244 Arbor Sector, planet Keth

Kahrzan had returned to a place where, for him, it had all begun. Planet Keth had been his first assignment as a young Raylian. He’d spent years here among its people, at a time where they were clashing between technology and theology. His mission was a mission of non interference, only science.

In the end theology had won out here. Of course they were now part of the presidium, but that had taken place 50,000 years after he had been here. Their clinging to deity worship had cost them 25,000 years. An immense amount of time had passed, but even now as advanced as they were, there were still traditions being followed that he remembered from his time here. To him, it was a curious thing.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

It was also here that the very first action had occurred. He called them actions because honestly, he had no idea what else he should call them. Once, just over 50,000 years ago on this planet the seemingly impossible happened, and Kahrzan had been here to witness it.

Kahrzan hadn’t arrived on the planet at the time he had by accident. His arrival coincided with the arrival of a meteor to the system. Scheduled to pass through within the next few months. The inhabitants were unaware of it. Kahrzn knew about it and knew it would come close, but miss the planet. What he was here to study was the reaction of the people of Keth to its near miss.

They had calculated a 93% probability the miss would cause a surge in science. It would cause the people of Keth to act in defence of their own future. They would cast off theology and embrace science.

However, that didn’t happen. Instead the unthinkable happened, the Raylians had been wrong. The meteor didn’t miss. It hit south of the largest city on the Keth, killing half the population of the planet immediately. It caused the entire society planet wide to regress, to reject technology and pass over their will to a third party.

Kahrzan had survived the impact, left the planet, convinced that something had gone terribly wrong. Sentient error was rare, but not unheard of. On this scale though. Recently he had time and an inkling to look at the data from that particular expedition and he noticed one important thing, they hadn’t been wrong at all.

He had studied every data slide from the files concerning this sector. Delving into the mapping beacons and pouring over their data meticulously. It was there that he found his proof. Proof that something had been done. The meteor and its trajectory had been calculated correctly. For some unexplained reason at the crucial time when it passed by Keth it changed course, on its own, as if pushed.

There had been over a dozen such instances that mimicked this type of coincidence in his life thus far he was sure of, culminating in the episode he ended up having at the presidium. He had initially gone there to suspend earth from the presidium and ended up giving them an ill advised chance to make it right. There had been nothing for it, he had tried several times standing there in front of Oscar and Tyler to say what he wanted but each time something gripped his throat stopping him. Eventually he blurted out what he blurted out because that was the only thing he could say.

Something told him Keth, being the first time, was important. So he had returned out of some unknown instinct. Unfortunately, standing here by himself in the crater of the meteor strike, he was starting to feel foolish. He didn’t even know what he was looking for or why he was looking for it. He had just decided to leave when he saw it, about forty feet from him. It really wasn’t what he had expected to find here. It was a wall of shimmering light blue, about twenty feet by twenty feet sitting just above the ground. It started moving towards him, instead of trying to run and avoid it Kahrzan did something unthinkable, he stood still and raised his arms in acceptance of its approach. It flew fast and fluid straight for him, passing through him easily making a singing noise as it dissipated. Kahrzan opened his eyes, which he hadn’t been aware were shut tight. He felt different, as if he had taken something on. Without knowing why he knew where he had to go now...home

SOMEWHERE SOUTH OF CHARLESTON, SC

Phillip sat astride his prized jet black Arabian, Midnight. He had stopped a brief gallop to take a moment to enjoy the view from his saddle. He was spending time on his family's 50 acre “ranch” more and more these days. Which afforded him access to an almost endless amount of riding trails. The property had been in the hands of the Canaughts for over a hundred years.

The horse had been a gift from his Bedouin friends. They prized horse flesh very much, so it was a significant gift. Phillip enjoyed the challenge of riding her too, she was spirited and aggressive, but conquering a horse like her meant your riding credentials were assured. He was about to finish the little gallop he had planned, to stretch her legs a bit, when something caught his eye.

Running along the trail was a stand of tall palmetto trees grown thick and branchy. He could see something glowing through the thick brush just off the trail. He knew it wasn’t the sun because that was shining brightly a quarter ways up the sky behind him. Whatever it was it was nearly as bright as the sun though. Phillip didn’t like uninvited guests.

Dismounting he walked his horse over to the closest tree and tied her rein onto a low branch. Given her a reassuring pat on the side and a quiet word of comfort in her ear he left her there to investigate. It was relatively easy to see which direction it was coming from even through the thickness of the trees. Now that he was closer he could see that it wasn’t just bright it was tinged blue too. He pushed past a particularly stubborn set of branches and found himself in a small clearing facing what he had been hunting. It was really bizarre, it was a flowing wall of light and shadows.

He was trying to make sense of all the swirling patterns when they started to coalesce on their own, forming a still image of two people facing each other. More images began sliding in on top of the original image until eventually a short clip of some event was playing out over and over. It became even more strange when Phillip realized he recognized one of the people being shown on the clip. He watched closely for a second more before the strange thing reacted, it moved slowly and purposely towards Phillip. Looking around and realizing there was nowhere to dive out of the way Phillip froze, deciding to let whatever was about to happen, happen. It came right up to him and then passed through his whole body like he wasn’t there...it felt strange but not harmful…..