“Who are you?” Sarah asked.
“Better Question, who are both of you, though I already know, I was here the last time you two responded to an energy spike, I just stayed hidden until you left then left. Tanya and Sarah correct?” Adam asked.
“Yes, that is us,” Tanya said thoughtfully then pulled out something that looked suspiciously like an iPad. Tanya used her fingers to scroll through something she was looking at and then showed it to Sarah, “That look like him?”, she asked.
“Does to me,” Sarah said.
Tanya turned the screen so Adam could see it, and showed him a picture of himself grinning at the camera in the Facility just before he hit the execute button that destroyed it. “Is that you?” Tanya asked.
“As you know, the individual that pushed the button under his finger was scrambled beyond recognition when that facility was destroyed. Would you believe me if I said yes?” Adam asked.
“Seeing as the individual that pushed that button was seen to be eradicated in a holding cell with two facility personnel and showed up to push that button a month later, the claim if made, would be given serious weight,” Tanya said.
“Then yes, that was me,” Adam said.
“Why are you here?” Sarah asked.
“Simple answer is to go have a talk with the emperor about creating devices that destroy Universes, especially Universes I happen to be in at the time.”
“That won’t stop it,” Tanya said.
“What do you mean that won’t stop it?” Adam asked.
“There are three other facilities still in use and a fourth is being built as we speak. The fourth should be operational within a year if everything goes right.
“And how do you know all this,” Adam said.
“Didn’t you know where you were? This is one of our bases that we Rebels use to coordinate against the Pelza Empire,” Tanya said.
“Nice!” Adam exclaimed. “You’re just the group I’m looking for. So let’s get whatever examination you need to do out of the way so we can sit down, and you can point me at those four facilities. The talk with the emperor will have to wait.”
“Are you so sure, we’ll accept you into our midst?” Sarah asked.
“Not at all. I just need to prove that I’m not a danger to you, get pointed in the right direction, then I’ll go knock out those three bases, the fourth that’s being built, and go have a talk with the Emperor.”
“Well, there’s one way to see if you’re just talking out of your ass or you can do what you say,” Tanya said as she holstered her weapon and pulled out a hand-sized crystal.
“What is that?” Adam asked.
“That is a crystal that measures your highest Quintessence level. We tried it after the Update and it still seems to work,” she said as she held it in her hand and it began to glow a very light blue. Depending on your equivalent power it starts at purple and works through Red which is equivalent to about Step 7 or Quintessence Level 42 in this new system.”
“Is it measuring Quintessence level or is it also checking experience levels?” Adam asked.
“Both.”
“Do you have more than one at this location?” Adam asked.
“Of course, why would that matter?”
“Because I’m pretty sure I’m going to shatter it. Or it’s going to explode or something equally fun,” Adam said.
“Just hold the crystal, it’ll do the rest.
“I am being serious. After you hand me this crystal you really should back up?”
“I think we’ll be fine,” Tanya said as she handed him the crystal, “Just concentrate on activating the crystal and push a little mana into it. It’ll do the rest.”
Adam activated Stutter Step on himself to give him five extra combat rounds. He activated Flight and floated to the center of the room and used Mold Chaos to create a one-foot-thick cube of Transparent aluminum and nanites inside the cube. The cube had no support so he reached up with his right hand and held the cube in place. Next, he had the nanites analyze the crystal, copy its structure, and save it so he could make it if that were possible. As his fourth personal combat round came into play Sarah finally reacted and shot her weapon which hit the cube and stopped. It was an energy weapon of some kind because Adam felt the energy enter his hand but it was set to stun and his attributes were so far above any possible weapon they could devise to hurt him that it tingled just a little bit.
Adam looked at Tanya, held the Crystal out before him, and let just a small bit of his mana flow into the crystal. The Crystal Started to glow in the deep purple part of the spectrum, then shifted to dark blue, light blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and then a really angry red before it went infrared at which point the crystal exploded in his hand.
He’d been correct to put the wall up because the damage to his hand was not insignificant. If he’d been a normal person he figured it would have been equivalent to a stick of dynamite going off in their hand. His hand only received minor cuts which sealed immediately. He had the nanites convert the aluminum cube and then pulled them into his Shadow Vault
“Stand Down Sarah if he wanted us dead we’d be dead. What Quintessence level are you?”
“Above 70,” Adam said.
“70 would have been bright red, Tanya said. “To make the crystal explode you’d have to be at least four to five times that,” Tanya said.
“Sounds accurate, but low.”
“Okay, Adam, do you mind telling me what you just did, has my base been compromised?”
“Your base is fine. I conjured a cube of transparent aluminum to surround myself while I floated here, that’s what Sarah’s energy weapon hit, tingled a little. Anyway, once the crystal exploded I had it broken down and then stored all of it in my Shadow Vault, an extradimensional storage space I have through a Quintessence Ability. I’m sure you’ve heard of abilities like that.”
“We have,” Tanya said before she was interrupted by Sarah.
“Are you saying this weapon will not affect you,” Sarah said.
“On its stun setting, nope not a chance, if you want to test it, fire away,” Adam said.
Before Tanya could stop her, Sarah pulled the trigger. Adam’s perception and speed were so quick he could have reacted to try to dodge the weapon but chose to sit there. The energy slammed into his chest, washed over him, and did absolutely nothing.
“You could probably put the weapon on its highest setting, and it wouldn’t do anything to me,” Adam said
“We will NOT be testing that Sarah, now put your weapon away,” Tanya said quickly.
Adam landed lightly in front of both women, “Now if you don’t mind, can we go somewhere to sit down and talk?”
“Please follow me,” Tonya said.
Adam was led out of the room he was in which he learned was a cave in the center of an underground base. An airlock opened and suddenly he was in a very modern area reminiscent of technologies he had seen in use by the Vrax in the SYSTEM Matrix. Everything seemed well-kept or new. As soon as he stepped out his CC group contacted him
CC: Adam, nanite infiltration was attempted, we activated Technomancy and put a stop to it. We’re also using it to get a read on the base and get the information we need.
Adam: CC, Understood, Do not initiate a hostile takeover. In fact, take no action whatsoever against their nanites. We already know that there are others with abilities similar to Technomancy.
CC: Understood
Tonya led Adam to a holding cell with the eradicator technology in it. He disabled it. “Just so we are clear, I do not sit in rooms with eradicator technology that is functional,” he said as he stepped into the room.
“What? How could you know that, and also, you followed me into the room?”
“Is the technology functional?” Adam asked as a message appeared on her knock-off iPad.
“Tonya, we’re wasting time, I need to go stop those bases from destroying other universes, you need me to. When I get done, I am absolutely not going to talk to the Emperor, I am most likely going to eradicate him, his council, and any of his family members that helped run the family business.”
“You’re just going to walk in and kill them?” Sarah said disbelievingly.
“I am just going to walk in and kill everyone that needs killing. They are responsible for the deaths of countless sentient creatures. Fortunately for the Pelza Empire, I’m not a monster like they are or I might have turned their devices on their Universe. No, I’m going to end them, then I’m going to do my damndest to ensure that technology is never used again, anywhere.”
“Good luck with that. The technology is already out there, how are you going to stop it from becoming known to others?” Tonya asked.
“I have a few ideas,” Adam said. “Now while this conversation has been delightful,” Adam said then trailed off as he received a notification from his CC.
CC: Adam, we have the information you need. The other three bases are located in different Universes only accessible at their security station on a moon near the Capital planet.
Adam: CC, how far away are we from it?
CC: Adam, you are on a moon around a gas giant in a nebula within the Signa Star Cluster. It is roughly 35 light years from the Pelza Homeworld. The access point is on their largest moon.
“So, the Signa Star Cluster is 35 Light years from the Homeworld. Nice,” Adam said.
Tonya looked at him with shock, “How could you know that? You reincarnated inside the base?” Tonya said.
“Magical powers, I have a few. Anyway, as I was saying this has been delightful but I must go,” Adam said activating Stutter Step so he could take 20 actions in a single second, then he activated Obscure and Teleported to a junction he’d passed. No one was around and he followed the corridor to an access point to the surface. It was really easy to figure out which way to go now that he had all of the information available on his Personal Map.
Once he was outside, he activate Freedom of Flight reducing his mass to effectively zero, and activated Flight to make his way out of the base and up into the night sky. It was a Moon with Earth-like conditions. Adam dropped his focus into his Mindspace and watched as he flew for 10 seconds away from the Rebel base’s location then shifted direction and began making a large parabolic path around the Pelza Empire’s home world until he was on the opposite side of the Pelza Empire from the Rebel base.
Adam could have worked with Tonya and Sarah, but it was obvious they didn’t trust him, and he couldn’t really blame them so he’d do what he could to protect their location and then move to do what he needed to do. He wondered when killing had become so easy for him but realized that life and death were part of this existence. Somehow he’d circumvented the death part, without becoming undead, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t die, he didn’t think so anyway. Of course, he had an ability titled Immortal so maybe someone, or something, wanted him to live forever.
Adam put those thoughts out of his mind as he watched the various aspects of himself treat his body like some sort of starship. They even had a bridge of sorts in his Mindspace. Some people dream of sexy women, or men, his mind was filled with aspects of himself helping him control all of his abilities like he was some kind of Voltron robot or a starship, depending on what he was doing. It was kind of funny as he thought about it.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Adam focused on the mana usage to see the new costs of all of his abilities in action. Even with everything he was doing his mana generation was more than able to replace the mana he used. Adam moved his focus to his Soul Core and then moved passed the shell, to his Soul Core’s nucleus and found the node for his Astral Link. He tried to push a question or request for Bri to respond to him through the link, but nothing happened.
He hadn’t expected anything, but he had one more ace up his sleeve. He moved to the greyed-out node of his Interface ability, pushed his focus into it, and sent a message.
Bri, can you see this, Please respond.
Adam waited a few moments for a response. When none came he figured she either couldn’t see the message, couldn’t respond, or hadn’t received it yet. If she was accessing as much information as he figured she might be, the message could have been lost in the background. He’d wait for a bit then try again. She could be busy right now.
Adam pulled his focus out of his Soul Core and noted that he was now entering Pelza Empire’s Capital Solar System. He watched as his body zeroed in on a border satellite and he came to stop 2,000 feet out from it, well within his Technomancy range. He dropped his focus completely out of his Mindspace and took direct control of the satellite with his Technomancy ability as he used it to infiltrate the defense network around the Solar System.
***
Private Dornal couldn’t believe he’d been able to escape from that prison on that backwater Planet. Earth he thought they called it. Whatever. It wouldn’t matter soon anyway. After that Universal Update, he’d realized that he might have a window and had used his Teleport ability to get back to the ship instantly. He’d been very careful not to let anyone on the ship or in that god-forsaken prison know that he had the ability. His second ability had also proved useful as well. Something had tried to infiltrate his body but his affinity with electricity through an ability called Lightning Control had stopped the infiltration. He’d also noticed that the ship was infiltrated when he’d arrived, but machines were just circuits and he bypassed the coding by forcing electrical impulses where he needed them which was in the dimensional drive to go home. Once he’d appeared in the designated arrival location for his ship the lockouts that had prevented him from doing anything without his ability had disappeared and he had full control of the ship.
Dornal had contacted Alliance Control, informed them of his situation and the probable contamination of the ship, and waited. Two hours later he was teleported into a quarantined area of the Battleship Azar. He’d been scanned prodded and examined over the next six hours thoroughly. When the Captain had been satisfied he’d been escorted to a secure room where a meal and drink had been waiting for him while the ships returned to the system.
He’d been waiting for four hours when one of the Witches walked in and motioned for him to take a seat. Once he was seated she sat down across the table from him
“I am Commander Johansson. I recently returned from a scouting mission to the planet you just returned from, Earth correct?”
“Yes Ma’am, I was on Earth at a location they called Groom Lake,” Dornal said.
“Groom Lake, Area 51. How did you end up there?”
“I don’t really know Ma’am, one second we were flying in toward the planet, the next the ship had been taken over, and soon after we were teleported to the surface where their military put us into a holding facility.” He said.
“What happened to the rest of your crew?”
“They’re still there. I thought it was more important to get word back than try to save everyone.”
“Is that what your Captain thought?” she asked.
“No Ma’am, the Captain was dead before we ever arrived on the planet. A man killed him, someone, more powerful than I have ever encountered.”
“Describe him.”
“Not much to say, White, Male, short brown hair, hazel blue eyes, about five foot 9 inches tall. Muscular but not thin.
Commander Johansson pulled out her information tablet and pulled up an image of Adam and showed it to Dornal, “Is that him?”
“Yes Ma’am, that’s him,” Dornal said quickly.
“How long ago was the last time you saw him?”
“Not long, maybe ten days, a few less. I lost track of time in the cell they had me in. The new interface ability was no help either. The units of time it’s using do not match the units of time from home, though they seem similar, just not exactly so.”
“I’m well aware of the discrepancies. I simply asked because if it had been longer than one of our months then it could have happened before the incident.”
“If you’re talking about the accident at the Facility, definitely after. We didn’t even arrive in that god-forsaken universe until after the event. It’s why were sent there. Our mission was to recover information a previous scout had left behind and re-establish a semi-permanent scout in the system.”
“Sounds about right then.”
“I have another question; did you know that another of your crew was on the ship.”
“No, who was it? Wait, was it Engineer Kress’er? We didn’t see him on the planet. We all thought the human killed him.
“No, we found him hiding in the engine room,” The Commander said.
“That makes sense, they have a natural camouflage ability.”
“That was our thinking as well. We also found where the captain was killed which lends weight to the hiding and waiting claim he‘s making.”
“No need to worry about Kress’er Ma’am, he’s always been loyal to the Empire. Not a single disparaging remark and pretty much kept to himself down in engineering. A workaholic that one.”
“I will pass your observations on. Last question, what was this possible contamination?”
“When I was able to Teleport onto the ship it wasn’t responding to any of my commands. Then I used one of my Air Affinity Quintessence abilities and I was able to get the ship back to our Universe. Once here the interference disappeared.
Commander Johansson eyed Dornal Suspiciously, “There are no notations of Quintessence abilities in your file Private?”
“No Ma’am, my father recognized both abilities as non-combat abilities and thought it best to keep them hidden so they might come of use for the Empire, or myself when there was a need. In fact, I have not used either ability until today since I joined for that reason. Only to protect the empire or save me from certain death,” he said. The information I had was vital to the Pelza Empire, so I used my abilities and returned immediately.”
“Yes you did Dornal, yes you did. I’m going to go brief the captain. You are under his command until this ship returns to the spaceport. After which you are to report to me in the Security division for reassignment. Individuals such as yourself are highly sought after.”
“Yes, Ma’am! Dornal said excitedly as he stood and saluted.
Commander Johansson stood, returned the salute, and said “As you were,” before she walked to the door and made her way to the Captain. Once there she made her report, recommended Dornal be allowed to rest until they finished their trip back, and then released to the Security Division.
Next Commander Johansson sent a priority message to her boss to inform him that she would be teleporting to the office 10 minutes after the time stamp of the message.
She waited the ten minutes and then teleported directly in front of his Desk.
“What was so urgent that you had to teleport directly into my officer?”, Erika’s direct supervisor Nef’lar Pelza asked.
“We have a problem. It would seem that Adam did not die in the Facility explosion,” she said.
“Excuse me, what?”
“One of the scout ships we sent to continue my research on Earth returned with only two crew members on board.”
“Where is the rest of the crew?” Nef’lar asked.
“They’re still on Earth in one of their Military Facilities. That’s not why I wanted to meet with you. The reason I wanted to meet with you was because Captain Mech’Lar was killed by Adam.”
“Adam survived?” Nef’lar asked with alarm evident in his voice.
“It would seem so. I thought you should know so that precautions can be taken.”
“What precautions can be taken against someone that can survive an eradicator in a room or being in a Universe that is destroyed around him?”
“Do we not have friends in high places?”
“We do, as you well know, that’s how we increased our society from what it was by two full steps, 14 Quintessence levels by this new blasted Interface.”
“Speaking of that, Sir does anyone know what caused the changes that are taking place? As you know I was on Earth. A lot of the changes mentioned in Update 2.0 seem very similar to the game Universe the Company there had created.”
“Very similar?”
“Yes Sir. There were Dungeons that could connect to a Labyrinth that connected to all the Dungeons. It was a virtual game after all. The system used to do that in no way resembles the reality we have in the real world.”
“Have you entered one of these dungeons yet?”
“No sir. No one in the Empire has. Everyone is waiting for the Government to decide what to do and your Father has a committee working on the issue as you know.
“Committees. What a waste of time. Let’s get back on topic. Where is Adam now?” Nef’lar Pelza asked.
“No idea.”
“Does he have a way to us?
“As far as I know, no. The one way would have been to somehow take over and use the ship, but we have the ship back so we seem safe enough from that.”
“Put out some feelers and if you have to return to Earth. In fact, at the very least return to Earth and find out what is going on with our personnel. We need to get them back before the Earthlings get more information out of them than we wish.”
“Yes sir, I’ll have to change my identity but that is no issue. I’ll get to it,” she said, and then teleported to her office and started the process of going on assignment again.
***
Adam thought about warning Commander Johansson off traveling to Earth as he listened in on her conversation but that hadn’t seemed like a good idea. So, he let her continue her preparation as he continued his.
After, he’d arrived near the Pelza Homeworld he’d had a thought, and teleported to the bridge of the ship he’d captured. If it had returned home, it should be around. He was pleasantly surprised when he appeared on the bridge just as another ship had pulled up and teleported the prisoner who’d escaped away. The ship had been taken over remotely and crew members had teleported onto the ship to search it while they flew in toward the system at sublight velocities. Well within his 4,200-foot limit, Adam had reached out with Technomancy and kept track of everything happening on both ships. When a scanning crew had teleported over he’d teleported outside the ship and stayed at the midpoint between both as they flew toward the nearby solar system. He’d also removed all nanites from the ship. He didn’t want them to have anything of his to study.
When Erika had arrived he’d recognized her immediately and noted the Information Tablet then released nanites with the specific purpose of providing a quantum link between the tablet and himself. Once that was done he used Technomancy to program it to allow all sensory data it picked up to be transmitted through the link directly to him.
Adam had listened to her talk to Dornal and then her supervisor though he didn’t know where the Supervisor was. Adam wasn’t worried about where he was, he’d find him later. He downloaded the navigational data for this solar system. It had 12 planets, three of which were gas giants. The innermost planet was a molten mess, actually worse than Mercury, then he had an idea.
Adam sped away from the ships toward the stars and figured out exactly where the center of gravity was between both Stars and headed there. His first thought had been to put a teleportation point on one of the moons but the odds that something would detect any structure he made were very high. If they hadn’t placed anything between the two stars though, it would be an ideal location because who in their right mind would try to build that close to a star, let in between two stars?
Adam sent his request to his CC and pretty soon his trajectory was altered just a little bit. Both Stars were about equal in mass, so the Center of Mass was outside both of the stars and almost centered between them. Even so, the Starts were relatively close to each other at only 70 million miles apart. Just over the distance from the Sun to Venus back home. That meant that the center point was going to be getting hit with solar radiation from two sides and any object at the center would be treated a little worse than if it was the planet Mercury as it would be 35 million miles from either sun and Mercury was 42 million miles from the Sun.
What he was making didn’t have to be big, it just needed to be able to stand up to the gravity and heat. Also, it didn’t have to last long. It was going to be his target location for Planar Travel after all, he should be able to use it at least a few times before he had to find a new place to travel to.
Adam slowed down and scanned the area. As he’d suspected nothing was here. He was worried that they’d have placed something here that could absorb the radiant energy and transmit it to the Empire. It looked like they hadn’t considered it, or if they had, they’d removed it some time ago.
Adam received the plans from his CC group and activated Mold Chaos. Not a large structure but as it came into being Adam could understand why they’d made it the way they did. Inside it had 6 portal generators and a very small fusion reactor. Outside it was layered with stealth technology paints and composites as well as heat absorption tiles that concerted 100% of the energy absorbed. It also had a teleportation pad, courtesy of the technology stolen from the Pelza Empire, and an artificial gravity suite set to Earth norm. As well as environmental control. It was of course infested with his nanites, and everything was recycled. He’d added enough mass that he could comfortably fit four people in the facility for a very long time.
Adam reached out with Technomancy and had the teleportation padlock lock onto his coordinates and beam the 10-foot cube of space inside because he didn’t want to drop Obscure. Once he was inside, six portals were activated. The basic idea behind the design was that each side of the cube had a portal that exited on the opposite side of the cube. Any heat from the Stars bypassed the habitat altogether.
Adam activated Planar Travel Mode 1 and locked the location into his memory then teleported away. He had what he needed. Now it was time to get to work. Beelined for the moon around the 6th planet, looked for a crater, found an overhang, and activated Planar Travel Mode 1 to lock that location in as well, just in case. Now that he had a Primary and Secondary location locked and loaded he headed back to the Moon surrounding the 4th planet that had been named Pelza, after the Emperor.
As he drew close to the base he noted all the weapons and ships in the area. He detected no reaction from any of the sensors as he came close so was pretty sure his Obscure ability was working as advertised. Either that or the amount he’d leveled the ability made a big difference in how well the ability worked. Just to be sure, Adam stayed one thousand feet above the surface and used Technomancy to scan the moon.
When he hadn’t detected nanites on the moon he started creating blocks of nanites with Mold Chaos and releasing them. Within an hour, he had the surface coated. Within two hours the entire moon down to about 4,000 feet had been infested with his nanite swarm.
It was true that some abilities seemed to prevent nanites from entering people, but it also seemed true that the Pelza Empire had grown to count on abilities a little too much and hadn’t continued their research into Nanite technology. Dornal’s ability was pretty easy to understand once he’d heard him talk to Erika. He wasn’t controlling the nanites or the technology so much as he was just forcing energy into microchips and forcing them to work. If Adam had been around he could have used the nanites to redirect the flow of energy no matter what Dornal had tried but since he hadn’t been there the nanites hadn’t responded in time and the ship had made the dimensional shift home.
It took a little while to go around the whole moon as many times as he needed to but he allowed his Personal Map to guide him and his Technomancy and Nanites to do the rest. He was able to finish so quickly because he only slowed down when Technomancy or his nanites encountered something. He was able to discover a lot of hidden locations and even a hidden emergency facility for the royal family, which he took the time to add to his Planar Travel Target Locations list.
After 3 hours Adam returned to the main moon base. He teleported into an empty closet. Adam created the appropriate uniforms and badges with Mold Chaos. He also created 10 identities within the base security files with a security clearance equal to Commander Johansson. That way anyone looking up who he was would be barred due to security clearance. He only needed this to work a couple of times. Then he had a thought. Adam focused on a “Mission impossible” type face mask that would change him to look like various famous people from his era. Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Tom Hiddleston, and many others. He then put the masks in his inventory and equipped the Tom Cruise mask. When Adam looked at himself with his nanites, he appeared to be Tom Cruise. He stored the mask and it disappeared.
Adam didn’t care about whom he looked like; it was more of a snub at Commander Johansson. When they did their research, and he was sure they would, she’d see these famous faces in her files. He even went so far as to give the Loki-looking identity the name “Loki Wahtchatink” just to mess with her. No one said he couldn’t have a little fun. Adam used Mold Chaos to make 10 copies of each mask and put all of them in his Shadow Vault.
For this first foray, his name was Mark Berg and he appeared with the face of Mark Wahlberg. He was wearing the uniform of a Commander and a Security division Badge as he emerged from the closet and made his way to the teleporters to the secured facility.
Adam walked with purpose, entered the security checkpoint, and stepped onto a teleporter. He stepped out of the teleporter into a similar room and reached out with Technomancy, quickly adding his security information to the computers here. He stepped forward, cleared the security checkpoint, and headed toward the facility control room. Now to see if he was as smart as he thought he was and lucky. There would be a little bit of luck involved for sure.