Once things had settled, we were discussing the failure of retrieving the Scepter of Jubilation from Josephine.
“Okay, so that didn’t work out,” I noted, “we need a new course of action. Emily, any ideas?”
“I’ve been reviewing the journal again and as it stands; the tide is certainly in our favor. Any action we take at all at this point would be preemptive against the remaining Devils. Just to recap…Eric defeated Washington in Bristol, causing this stone to turn green,” she held the stones of each respective world as she spoke, “these three were turned green by your father and Higgins. My world is still red, but Alabaster Creole isn’t going anywhere anytime soon so it’s safe to say we don’t need to worry about Murk for a while. Callist is a dangerous place but according to Arduwan, the Demon King there is nowhere near able to take over the world at this time. The only remaining red stone is this one.”
She held up the stone labeled ‘Synthetica’. When Higgins first brought me into the fold on everything, he told me that my father had made great strides there before he died but said that that world was of little concern to me at the time. I never got an elaboration on that.
“Umm, that’s quite alright Miss Emily,” Higgins interjected, “the time is not right for Eric to worry himself with that particular world.”
“Huh?” I questioned, “what do you mean the time isn’t right? And am I just imagining it or is that stone flickering red at an even lower rate than it was before?”
“Eh, I’m sure you’re just misremembering. Might I suggest you return to Callist and look for young Master Wraith?” he diverted.
“Wait a second. What’s going on here? There’s something you’re not telling me isn’t there. All the journal says is that Synthetica is a space age science fiction world where a hivemind race of being called Synths were slowly taking over the galaxy. You told me that father did something before he died that slowed their spread tremendously and bought that world a lot of time. Why does it look like this stone is slowly turning green on its own, despite me not going in to do anything about it?”
Higgins let out a big sigh and said, “alright. It’s time you knew the truth then. When your father was moving into the final stages of his illness, he told me he wanted to use the time he had left to attack the central computer in Synthetica. He said he had a plan to stop the Synths once and for all but knew it would cost him his life. He didn’t care since he was terminally ill anyway. He told me before he left to make sure you didn’t try to visit Synthetica unless the stone started turning bright red again. I thought about hiding the stone from you entirely, but I didn’t think that would be right.”
I was shocked. All this time I thought my old man died a peaceful death here in the mansion and had a quiet funeral before Higgins came to me. But it turns out, he went into one of the worlds by himself, knowing that he wouldn’t come back alive. But why is the stone still changing its flashing speed?
“Are you trying to say that there’s a chance my father is still alive, and you never told me?”
“Eric, that’s not true. Your father was far into the late stages of his illness. He couldn’t possibly still be alive. I was just following his instructions he wanted for you.”
“You never thought that maybe once I learned that my father hadn’t abandoned me for no good reason like I thought my entire life, that I would want to confront him? And if he’s dead then why is the stone still changing?”
“Eric, please, just listen,” Higgins pleaded.
“No! I’m through listening to you,” I shouted, “it was you that told me I needed to make my own way in fighting the Devils. Well, that’s what I’m going to do. Arduwan, come on, we’re going.”
I took the stone from Emily and started heading towards the basement.
“I’m going too,” Emily said.
“No! You’re not! It’s far too dangerous,” I scolded. “Eric, wait!” Higgins attempted in vain to stop me.
Arduwan, sword in hand, followed me downstairs and we both went straight to the well. I didn’t even bother with any goodbyes. Stephanie and Anabel just looked on in fear as Higgins and Emily attempted to come after us.
“Don’t follow us down this well, you two! You’ll only be creating more liability for me,” I said as me and Arduwan gripped the rock and disappeared.
When we came out on the other side, we were in a well similar to the one on my side of the portal. The difference was, instead of the basement of a mansion, it appeared as though we were in some kind of mine. There was no one else around, but it looked like it had been in use recently. There were mining carts with raw materials loaded into them, but they weren’t on rails. Must be some kind of hover carts.
“Come on, Arduwan. Let’s see if we can find out where we are,” I said.
We crept along the tunnel of the mind that was thankfully lit by battery powered fluorescents sticking out of the wall every twenty feet or so. I remembered from my father’s notes that the entrance to this world was located in friendly territory that was normally safe, but we didn’t want to take any chances.
Up ahead, we heard some voices. We couldn’t make out what they were saying but they seemed distressed. We decided to go ahead and move along to try and see if they were friendly. When we got to the exit of the tunnel, we saw what must have been the two voices we heard. It was two men, they looked like they were soldiers in space age combat suits. They started firing their laser guns at something just outside the cave.
Suddenly, we heard additional voices. It was three separate voices, but they all sounded the same and they kept saying, “We must synthesize! We must synthesize!”
The two men were then swarmed despite their blaster fire at the attackers. All three of the enemy combatants were orange, textureless forms of people. You could see blue veins running through their entire bodies, with no clothing to speak of. They had no faces, no hair, and no discernable features. They must have been Synths!
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The two men were forced to the ground and dropped their weapons. The Synths kept saying the same thing over and over again, “We must synthesize!”
Arduwan and I couldn’t let this go on any longer. We dashed towards the scene and Arduwan started swiping violently at the faceless fiends. I dove for one of the rifles the men were using and fortunately it was simple to use. Arduwan kept battering at the Synths until they fell over. I would then open fire on the downed foes. The two men were now free to get up. One man grabbed his rifle and started helping me. After a minute of fighting, the attackers were destroyed.
“Thank you,” the out of breath man, who’s rifle I had, said to me.
I gave him his rifle back and said, “what’s going on here?” Noting that off in the distance, there was some kind of military base with sirens going off and flashes of combat taking place. It was night out, so the flashes were extra noticeable.
The man said to me, “it’s the synths. They’re making some kind of final assault on the inner worlds. I thought we were finally beating them, but it looks like they’ve got a little more left in them.”
Up until now, the man hadn’t questioned who we were. But there I was, a 21st century looking man and a woman in blue spandex with a sword. “Who are you?” he finally asked.
“I’m Eric Noble and this is Arduwan.”
“Noble?! Are you the son of Noble?” he asked, before looking back in towards the mine,
“You must be! You came from the well, didn’t you?!”
Wow, it was almost like they were expecting me.
“That’s right,” I said, “but there’s no time to chat. We’re here to help. Let’s go join the fight over there at your base before it's too late.”
The two men agreed, and we took off running across the plains to try and help. When we got there, we found some dead soldiers and could hear fighting taking place around the corner.
“Here, take this plasma rifle,” the soldier said, as he retrieved one from a fallen ally.
Arduwan was already ahead of me. She was a walking war machine. When I turned around from accepting the rifle, she had made her way around the corner and started slicing away at synths that were engaged in combat with the other soldiers. I came in and started providing cover for her. I shot at every synth that got near her when her back was turned. A door slid open from a battle just a short distance from us and five more soldiers came out to join the fight. After some intense entanglements, the coast was finally clear. There were no standing synths to speak of.
The soldiers I had helped before came back up to us and said, “we appreciate your help. Please, allow us to take you to our superiors. I’m sure they can tell you everything you need to know about the current situation.”
They took us inside the base just as the alarms stopped ringing. We went into the command room where we were introduced to the commanding officer.
“Sir,” the soldier saluted, “the son of Noble and a comrade of his have arrived, sir. They aided us in the fight with the synths and here to speak with you.”
“At ease, soldier,” the white-haired man said, “greeting, Eric. I thought you’d might come soon.”
“You did?”
“Yes. I’m General Nova. I’m in command of this installation. Welcome to Terra Colony HB 10-1. And who is your ally?”
“This is Arduwan. She’s my bodyguard. But how is it that you knew I would come? I was told my father didn’t want me here?”
“Your father assumed that at some point you’d come here looking for answers about his real cause of death. He asked that I fill you in,” Nova said.
“His real cause of death? So, he wasn't terminally ill?” I asked.
“No, he was. We had our finest doctors look him over. It was far too late. But on his last visit here, he told us he had a plan that would almost certainly take out the synths. He asked for a single shuttle craft and set course for the synth's central nervous computer.”
“Central nervous computer?”
“It’s a space station in the far reaches of wild space. It was constructed almost a century ago by scientists of a formerly warring faction between our people. Their experiments got out of hand and the synths were born. Over the next several decades, they began to branch out, world by world, and synthesize all organic life into their hive mind. The galaxy was on the brink of destruction before your father came to help us.”
“What was his plan?”
“He wouldn’t tell us the details. Said it was too risky to chance the synths finding out. But he said he had a feeling you might come to find out. A short while after he left for the central nervous computer, the synths started acting strangely. Our sieges into their territory became exceedingly easy to complete. Up until a few weeks ago, it looked like we were finally about to wrap things up with them. But now they are conducting what appears to be one final strike on our inner worlds. The synths that have been conducting the operation, like the ones you fought today, aren’t like the synths we’ve been battling for the past few months. These synths are relentless, much like the synths at large were before your father went to stop them.”
“What did my father say for you to do if I came here?”
“He told me to tell you to go back home. That there’s no reason for you to be here. That you’d only be endangering yourself if you came in at this point. But…”
“But what?” I asked.
“That’s not what I am going to ask of you?” Nova replied with a little smirk.
“Go on.”
“With the recent victories we’ve had and the sudden death throes coming at us from the synths, we want to capitalize on your father’s success. I’d like to ask you to lead the charge against the central nervous computer and knock it out. Perhaps there you can get some of the answers you seek as well.”
“I appreciate the confidence. But I should probably warn you that I’m not half the warrior my father was.”
“You don’t need to be. The synths around the central nervous computer and nearby are still acting strangely. Our forces have been stretched thin as of late trying to defend our territory, but we’ve been assembling a strike team to go. This was happening whether you showed up or not. But since you’re here, even if you’re…a quarter of the warrior your father was,” he joked, “maybe you could lend a hand.”
“Of course! Arduwan and I would be happy to join the team,” I assured him.
General Nova smiled and said, “glad to hear it. Allow me to put the two of you up for the night and I’ll introduce you to the team tomorrow. Oh, umm, one bunk, or two?”
I looked at Arduwan smiling widely and said, “Two.”
We had dinner and got ready to bed down for the night. Our room was a small dorm style room with a set of bunk beds. Arduwan climbed up to the top bunk and I sat down on the bottom.
“Aww, Eric. You know I have trouble sleeping on a bed,” she complained.
“It’s just for one night. I’m sure if you end up having to sleep on a starship, you’ll be able to sleep on the floor. But I don’t want to risk tripping over you if I get up in the middle of the night.”
“Okay,” she groaned, before hanging off the side of the bunk upside down, and said to me, “so what do you think you’re gonna find out when we go to the centralated neverending thing or whatever?”
“Central nervous computer,” I corrected while laughing, “I’m not really sure. Maybe something will be obvious there that shows me what he did to slow the synths down.”
“Well, I hope you get the answers you’re looking for. I know you were sure mad at Higgins when we left,” she noted.
“I wasn’t so much mad at him. I was more mad at how rigid he can be. I get that he’s more disciplined than I am, but I just wish he would take circumstances and nuances into consideration more.”
“Well, either way, I’m gonna stay right by your side until you’re satisfied with what we find out. Goodnight!”
“Goodnight, Arduwan,” I said, as she pulled herself back up all the way onto the bunk.