Phil looked back and forth between the blonde woman that had dropped him and the man that had helped him down the road before he asked, “Do you two know each other?”

“We’ve never met,” Adam said.

“You are correct,” Erika said addressing Adam as she directed her gaze toward the three bandits before saying, “You three, consider this your lucky day, now out of here,” she said as she lifted her bow slightly to indicate her willingness to use it.

Adam looked at the bow. It was obviously magical and very well made. He stood there and waited as the two moved over and helped their friend as they made their way down the road toward the city. When they were far enough away Adam asked, “Did you know he would survive the fall?”

“I didn’t know, but I strongly suspected,” Erika said.

“May I ask your name?” Adam asked politely.

“You may, my name is Erika.”

“I would say it’s nice to meet you Erika, but it looks like you know me from somewhere, and as there is only one place that anyone even vaguely human could know me from, I’m going to guess you’re with the Pelza Empire?” Adam said.

“Where did you hear that name?” Erika asked as she thought back to the footage she’d seen. The Empire’s name had not been mentioned, she was absolutely sure.

“I ran across it,” he said. “How did you find me, I know for a fact I’m not even in the same Universe anymore.”

“Well, you created quite a stir when you took on the Eternal Empire. When the description of the man that took on their army made it to our scouts, I was sent to investigate. Now that I’ve found you, you will be coming with me,”

“And if I don’t want to,” Adam asked.

There was a pause, as if time stood still. Adam forced himself not to move so he could see what she’d do. Erika teleported behind him, pulled a collar from nowhere, probably a dimensional space, and clamped it around his neck, all within a second. He easily forecasted her movement and knew that physically he could have countered or dodged the attack if he’d wished. As time returned to normal, two messages popped up.

WARNING! A Suppression Collar has been equipped.

NOTE: The Ability Astral Link negates the effects of the Suppression collar

Adam finished reading the messages as Erika whispered, “Then I will have to insist.”

“Well, if you must insist?” Adam said pleasantly.

Erika dismissed the bow to her inventory and grabbed Adam’s right elbow with her left hand as she opened a portal. Through the portal, Adam could see a small room with a viewing window. Behind the window, a single technician sat at a desk looking into the room with a terminal sitting off to his right so it wouldn’t obstruct his view into the room. Adam didn’t resist as Erika led him through the portal. The Portal closed and Erika removed a ring on her left hand which disappeared into her storage. Immediately her form changed to that of a balding gaunt skeletal-looking woman with black streaks running down her cheeks in a straight line. She still had the piercing blue eyes he’d noticed though.

Adam’s first thought was that he really wished that Analyze ability had been integrated instead of Flight. Whatever had been done to her had fundamentally changed her. Damn, he wished he had an analyze ability.

Adam looked around the room, noticed the technician and terminal beside him, and said, “Damn Erika, what did you do to yourself,” as he activated Technomancy. Within his 700-foot range, he noted a whole bunch of technological devices but the only devices he was concerned with were the terminal he saw and any kind of energy array like the one that destroyed his body before.

“Stay silent!” Erika ordered in a tone that garnered no argument. Adam was busy with Technomancy so didn’t bother answering.

“Commander Johansson, who is with you? The technician asked through a speaker in the wall above the window.

“I have the prisoner from Nostrom, collared and ready for interrogation,” Erika said.

Adam was only half listening as he took over the security terminal controlling the eradication array that was in the room he was standing in, the scanners, and all doors within 700 feet. He was also able to infiltrate a terminal on the other side of the wall and download a schematic of the area. Within moments he knew exactly where he was. Adam accomplished all of those actions before he heard the technician say, “Hold on, we are scanning him now. That’s weird, the scanners aren’t working,”

While Erika looked at the window where the technician was trying to get the scanner working, Adam casually reached up with his left hand and removed the collar by snapping it with his thumb and finger. The sound drew Erika’s attention to him as he slowly held out the collar to her which she accepted with her right hand.

Maintaining eye contact Adam said gently, “The only warning you’ll get from me is now, evacuate this facility,” Adam said as he vanished from sight as the door to the room opened. Erika felt his movement as the air shifted and then he was gone.

“Where did he go?” One of the technicians asked.

Erika understood what should have happened and turned her deadly gaze on the technician through the glass, “Why wasn’t the eradication array activated?” she asked vehemently.

“It was Commander. As soon as the collar snapped both the semi-intelligent A.I. and I tried to activate the array. The A.I. could not activate it and the manual override failed. Also, when he vanished from sight we lost track of him on all sensors both technological and magical.

“That’s not possible. Nothing is immune to both magical and technological detection methods,” she said as she quickly made her way out into the hallway and opened the door to the observation room to stand over the technician while he worked. The technician hit a command key. Immediately, the security station was filled with a klaxon and red beacons began flashing as “INTRUDER ALERT!” began repeating throughout the facility.

“He won’t get far, the entire base just shut down. All locks will be engaged momentarily,” The Technician said.

“Show me,” Erika said.

As the technician looked at his terminal he realized that none of the locks were engaging and the semi-intelligent A.I. that normally monitored things had been locked out already. He started scrambling to stop whatever was trying to take over the facility’s electronic network.

***

Adam watched the technician through the door Erika had left open while he hovered against the opposite wall up near the ceiling. He could understand the technician’s frustration but he was never going to win. The Technician was skilled though, he’d already realized the A.I. had been cut out of the equation. Hacking and counter hacking. How he missed doing something so simple.

Truth be told, Adam was actually having fun. The Universe destroying monster of an Empire and their programming skills were absolute crap. All that power and none of it spent on decent malware and hacking protection, with the only exception he could see being this technician. It could be that his Technomancy ability was overcoming some of the technician’s skills but he doubted it. Adam was easily able to counter all the automatic subroutines that were activating as well as the code the technician was trying to add in. He’d even found the firewalls and embedded control routines the A.I. was trying to utilize and shut them down.

When he gave the warning to Erika he’d activated his abilities; Obscure and Flight while he maintained Technomancy. Then he’d floated out room and stopped to float near the ceiling while he opened and closed doors within 700 feet of himself to send security on a wild goose chase. While he was doing that he was searching the files in the terminal and looking for the location of the giant room with the Universe killing machines.

The maps were hidden behind four firewalls but within moments he’d broken through. As he downloaded the maps of the facility he was in he noticed that there were no doors to the outside. He did notice maintenance hatches that opened into an airlock configuration scattered around the facility. The facility was also the size of a planet. Was he on a space station? He started looking over the schematics and noticed another structure around the facility he was in. He couldn’t help but think of what he was looking at as anything other than a Borg Cube inside a Stardock facility from Star Trek. The facility was a cube and around the cube was another cube-shaped lattice structure. When he looked up the schematics on that lattice structure he found a file titled “Facility Eradication Procedures” attacked to that lattice structure. It was an array, much like the one for the room he teleported into, except for the whole facility. Wow, this empire really didn’t like anyone visiting this facility without permission, did they?

Another thing he discovered was that except for the airlocks, It looked like the only way to leave the facility was through portals or teleportation. That might prove to be a problem. Adam continued to go through the data he’d found while he hovered right outside the room Erika was in as he waited patiently.

A half-hour later Adam wasn’t too worried about leaving the facility. Their security was crap. Oh, it was good, it was just crap compared to his skill and knowledge concerning computer-based operating systems. Also, he had a handle on the layout of the facility and had found some interesting areas he should probably visit. As for the magical detection, fortifications, and security personnel. There was nothing here he was worried about. Erika seemed to be one of the higher-ranking Cultivators and her security file said she was only a Step 1 Class U cultivator. Powerful, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

Adam continued to read the information when a thought crossed his mind. The Technomancy ability stated that he could download and upload information into himself and anything he touched. Adam attempted to download all the files of the terminal into his mind. He hadn’t tried something like this since he became real but he felt that he should be able to. It wasn’t like a typical download he was used to. Instinctively he understood that anything within the radius of his ability was 100% within his power. That meant that an identical copy could be created within his mind. He’d used that trick quite a bit with nanites and now it looked like he could do it without the nanites. He also realized he could have finished all the searching he’d just done a whole lot quicker.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Of course, if an item was outside of the area of effect of his ability and he was downloading the information from that source through a device within his area of effect the download speed would be limited to the input/output speed sending data into the device he was connected to but right now he just wanted everything on the Terminal below him. Adam focused on the image of the device his ability gave him, the microcircuitry layout, the operating system, and the files loaded onto the terminal and it became part of his mind in less than a second. He would have expected to be able to do something like that if he had his full nanite capabilities and the information would have been stored within his expanded nanite mentality but this time the information went directly into his brain. He had thought his mental faculties were less than in the Holographic Universe but it seemed like his mind was working exactly as well as it used to be able to. He would need to dig into this conundrum and figure out why but right now he had other things to focus on.

From the data, he devised a route that would get him to the control room of The Universal Energy Extraction site, as it was referred to in the documents he was looking at. He also found a route to the closest airlock, in case he needed to leave in a hurry. Next, he double-checked the terminal’s data and looked through the hidden files that detailed all of the magical traps and scanners in the area. There was only one trap that could be a problem. The airlock into the Extractor Chamber where he’d first emerged into this Universe. He couldn’t open the airlock without someone that was watching knowing, though he could circumvent all the electronic alarms. That was a bridge he’d have to cross when he got to it.

***

Erika watched as the Technician worked furiously. It had been thirty minutes since Adam disappeared, and she needed answers. “Where did he go?” Erika asked the Technician again

“I have no idea, Commander. Doors have been opening and closing randomly all over the base. Also, the semi-autonomous A.I. has been locked out of all systems, which should be impossible,” The technician said worriedly.

Erika swore. This facility was the lifeblood of the Pelza empire. The fleets depended on the power cores here and rumor had it that some of the higher Step Cultivators could even utilize the energy cells they created to further their Cultivation. There was nothing else she could do. As the Intruder could hide from all detection there was only one thing she could do, The base fail-safe would have to be activated

Erika placed her hand on a part of the desk that held a powered-down hand scanner that was activated when she pulsed her aura and activated it

“Identity,” an emotionless voice said from the panel.

“Erika Johansson Alpha Bravo one nine zero repeat one nine zero,”

“Bio scan and voice print match. Acknowledge one nine zero, repeat, one nine zero,” the voice said.

“Execute!” Erika declared.

A new alarm started with a sense of urgency, as a feminine voice began to declare throughout the facility, “EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! AN EMERGENCY HAS BEEN DECLARED. PROCEED TO THE NEAREST TELEPORTER. EVACUATION IS REQUIRED FROM THE ENTIRE FACILITY. BIOLOGICAL STERILIZATION WILL COMMENCE IN FIVE MINUTES,” Then the message repeated.

Erika looked at the technician, “Get up and Get Out! You heard the announcement. I can stay until the last possible moment because I can teleport out, now go!”

The technician stood and bowed slightly as they ran out the door. Erika hear him say, “Thank You, Commander,” as he disappeared.

Erika began looking through the security files as she watched everyone start to evacuate. She watched the counter for personnel present within the facility start to drop rapidly. Some would teleport out that could but most would need to make it to a teleporter. A few maintenance personnel were in hard-to-reach areas but there were hidden teleporter chambers there that opened up for them. Everyone should make it off the facility before the Eradicator Array in The Cradle activated. Since it was between the outer walls and the membrane that made up the Universes barrier there should be no way for Adam to circumvent that energy

Erika watched the timer and the security consoles and at thirty seconds from the array activating she saw a maintenance hatch to the outside of the base open, though she couldn’t see what had opened it. The airlock outside that hatch cycled. Well, that was stupid, she thought. There was no way he could survive outside of the facility, it was a vacuum. Also, The Cradle was at least 186,000 miles away from any point on the facility. Unless he could travel at the speed of light he would not reach the array. If he could get to it he could pass through it easily and get on the outside of the array and wait for the Eradication field to dissipate. He’d have to be traveling faster than the speed of light and able to survive in a vacuum with hard radiation washing over him. Because even if he wasn’t going to be in the Eradicator Energy field she knew that it put off a lot of secondary radiation. The Cradle had to be specially shielded after all.

Erika switched the view on the security terminal to a camera that looked at the airlock from the cage hoping to catch a glimpse of Adam. It was incredibly far away but she adjusted the magnification until she could see the door and the surrounding wall. There was still no sign of Adam.

Erika sent a request to show any anomalies that might have appeared within the last five minutes. Only one showed up. The time stamp said it occurred exactly one second before she’d transferred the terminal to the view from The Cradle. She pulled up the view and noted a streak of light that went from the door under the view of the camera. Erika paused for a moment. One second before she brought up that camera which would have been immediately after the outer airlock door opened.

“Shit!” Erika exclaimed as she looked at a “1” on the countdown timer and teleported to the collection point for emergency evacuation at the Company Headquarters.

***

Adam had been surprised when that alarm and message had gone off then spent the next couple of seconds hacking into the security files to learn that there was no way to stop the biological cleansing array that was about to sweep the entire facility. Instead, he looked up exactly what was going to happen and discovered that while this facility was in a different Universe, it was a very small Universe. The Cradle was about to activate an array that was about to activate would destroy all biological matter within the facility. The good news was that the array wasn’t solid so all he had to do was make it to the outside of the Array to survive the process. Figuring all that out had wasted thirty seconds.

The next four minutes were used getting to the maintenance hatch to the outside of the facility while people were rushing below him to the teleporters. During the last minute, there had been a lot fewer people. He’d made really good progress to the maintenance hatch after that and had thirty seconds to spare. Through Technomancy he knew one of the security personnel was physically monitoring the camera and watching the door. It had to be Erika, she was definitely tenacious.

He opened the airlock with Technomancy, waited for it to cycle, and as soon as the outer door was opened he used the ability Flight to float outside then went to warp 1 for one second before slowing down to a complete stop. He’d aimed at one of the gaps in the structure surrounding the facility and like he’d expected he did not stop on a dime. The flight brought him to a complete stop but he was outside of The Cradle. He opened his Personal Map, zoomed out, and measured where he was to the edge closest to us on the facility. He was 18,600 miles past the structure, so about 10% of a light second. That wasn’t too bad but would suck if he tried to come to a stop or drop out of warp to slow down with an object directly in front of him.

Adam turned around and watched as an all too familiar red energy field enveloped the entire facility. Now that he was sure the field didn’t encompass the structure outside the facility he flew back towards one of the emitters and downloaded its pattern into his memory then he started tracing the energy lines and control cables until he found the controller node on this side of the structure which had “Cradle Control Station 4” printed on the control panel. With Technomancy he quickly analyzed the programming, found the control circuit that was using quantum entanglement to stay connected to whatever it was connected to, and destroyed it with a chaos bolt, then issued the shutdown command. The red energy field flickered but remained active.

Adam remained on the outside of “The Cradle” until he’d found and disabled five more control panels. There had been one on each side of the facility. Adam reviewed the commands he pulled from the arrays. The eradication field was supposed to stay up for a full hour before it shut down. With the loss of signal, there was no way for them to determine if it was safe to come here. For what he had planned he wouldn’t need an hour.

Adam returned to the airlock and moving near his top speed he made his way through the facility. To speed things up he had all automatic inner doors open. Then he headed off toward Administration where he downloaded all data in every terminal he came across. Next, he moved to the maintenance area and did the same thing with any terminals, robots, security devices, weapons, and the like. He needed to learn as much as he could about physical universes. He’d review the information later when he had a chance. His mind was fast, but not fast enough to go through the amount of data he was acquiring.

After he finished in Maintenance, he moved to the vault and weapons area. Unfortunately, there weren’t very many magic items but he was able to find a few specific quintessence. One for Teleport and one for Planar Travel. He absorbed each and integrated them without reading the descriptions. If he needed to use the abilities he’d review their requirements later. He also found money of various kinds which went into his Shadow Vault. At least $10,000 in various currencies that he didn’t recognize. A few small electronic cubes seemed to hold 100 credits each and 1,000 each of Platinum, Gold, Silver, and, Copper.

Then he went looking for the exploration and science departments. He downloaded everything he could though he already knew that the information he was downloading was specific to this facility. They didn’t have a whole bunch of educational files here. Though the snapshots he was getting from the data he was downloading showed that the technology of the Empire far surpassed the Earth he grew up on. They might be a little more advanced than the Vrax, though they didn’t use nanites nearly as much. That was probably because magic was more available here.

Adam also found and looked over their coordinate system for the teleporters. It looked like the coordinate system was for use with technological teleporters. Short-range ones used a coordinate system based on distance and vector from the teleportation pad. Long-range teleporters utilized a different coordinate system and forget about dimensional teleporting, that coordinate system was extremely complicated if someone didn’t have a frame of reference. Sure, he could memorize specific coordinates but he wouldn’t be able to set a teleporter to a place he wanted to visit without knowing what reference point was being used.

Adam checked his watch again. He had 15 minutes to put his plan into action. He beelined for the Battery Factory, which was ironically what the facility he was sucked into was called. The Battery Factory was easy to find, it was at the center of this facility. A large chamber more than a thousand miles cubed. That was done in case there was an accident or an explosion happened, though how they thought a 1,000-mile perimeter would be able to withstand the energy release of a Universe was possible. Then again, they had magic and force fields so they might be able to catch that energy and redirect it safely without losing everything.

As he made his way through one of the facilities’ fast transit tunnels at his top speed he followed a line that led out into the open space between the outer cube and the Battery Factory. He reviewed the schematics and found what he knew had to be there. Yes, there were energy dampeners and magical absorption fields as well as empty Batteries that energy could be directed to if there was an accident. It was an ingenious setup.

With five minutes to spare, Adam walked into the Control room of the Battery Factory. The part of the chamber he had seen before had been but a small portion of the facility. The facility had the capacity to create 600 batteries at a time. Currently, there were only 215 Universal Energy Extractors in use. Adam issued a facility-wide command to shut down all production, seal the current batteries and store them, which wouldn’t matter. He just wanted to stop the facility from robbing other universes of their resources.

Next, he activated the other 485 Universal Energy Extractors and set their target to the Universe he was in. Academically he wondered what was going to happen, but he wasn’t too worried about himself. He had a teleport ability, a planar shift ability and if worse came to worse and he died again, he could try to find the Mother Tree to be reincarnated there again. It was the whole reason he’d asked for extra robes after all.

Of course, he knew this idea was reckless, not well thought out, and was probably going to go bad faster than he could say “Oops” but there was a real possibility that his family and friends were in danger from these assholes. He had no way of knowing if they were dead or alive. Hopefully what he was about to do next would keep them safe if they hadn’t already been destroyed.

The timer hit zero as Adam looked up into a camera that he knew was transmitting again because he was allowing it and yelled gleefully, “LEROY JENKINS!” as he hit the button that would start each of the 485 Universal Energy Extractors. All of which were targeting the Universe each of those devices and he was currently in.

Adam saw a bright flash and started to say, “Oo…”