“Remember us... Please.” 

The sickness had found us at last. Me and the last surviving Zull had tried our best to quarantine everything, but I guess I must have contaminated something somehow. The sickness that had ravaged their people had no effect on me after all, but it’s undeniably deadly. 

Yung lied on their bed with a content yet accepting frown on their face. They nodded at me, just as their watch let out a beep. The very same we had rigged to ring as the sickness would have reached its lethal point. 

I watched as the alien’s veins began bulging under its skin. The parasite had now begun excreting pure methane gas, inflating every piece of tissue it had infected. 

Yung had long since passed out from the expanding arteries in his brain, but I could see only peace on their face. In his last moments, if nothing else, he was content. 

The alien’s veins then burst. A shower of water splashed all over the bunker, followed by a wave of odorless methane gas which flowed over me like a tidal wave. I sighed, knowing I was now the only sentient being left on this planet. And I was starting to like it here... 

I looked over all my material belongings. I knew full well that the next time I passed on, it would be the last time I saw the majority of these things. A gun? I don’t need weapons. The archive that the Zullians had entrusted me with, the ones Gary has me gather? 

Ok, fine. I’ll bring it with me. 

I grabbed ahold of my forearm and twisted it loose. The robotic ligament yielded, and it hissed as it released from my body. I pressed two keys inside the exposed part of the limb, causing the arm to roll out and reveal the only thing in this world capable of storing materials when I do my planar shift. A small bag, about the size of a fist. 

I took the small bag in my hand, untying the knot. The bag opened to reveal a space about 10x the size you’d expect it could hold, equating to about a meter of space. I waded through the different spoils I had accumulated over the years, trying to find a spot I could fit the archive into. I sighed in realization as the bag was completely full, and I looked inside to assess if I could part with anything in favor of the Zull archive. 

Most of the space inside my bag was occupied by the fusion reactor that powers the robotic parts of my body, so that needs to stay. Next to the generator was the collection of archives just like this one I'd gotten from similar alien races, and I let out a sigh. Some of them will need to go... 

I picked up one of the many unique tablets but luckily recoiled when I realized that it was from Ashir. That planet makes all their electronics out of lithium, and I was still slightly wet from the exploding Zullian. 

After quickly wiping my hand dry, I tossed the archive aside. The civilization that lives there should still be around, so keeping a record of them is less important than preserving this now extinct species. I slotted the Zullian archive into the now empty spot, and tied the small bag shut. I quickly put the closed bag inside my arm again before closing my arm up and clicked the same two buttons I had earlier. 

As I was holding my dismembered hand, I looked across the metallic, chrome-coated metal. I still don’t know what it is really made of, but I do know it’s damn near unbreakable. I brought my arm back up to its original spot, lightly pushing it toward the grooves in my mid-bicep area and let it slot itself back into place. I then twist my arm to the right, locking the hydraulics into place. My arm hissed, and I experimentally moved my fingers to test everything was working as it should. 

With that done, I let both my arms drop to my sides and I sat down onto the stone ground before looking up at the night sky with a sigh. I wonder where I'll end up next... 

One of the first days I had arrived on this planet, one of the locals had shown me this mountain their people cherished greatly. The mountain was rumored to be the prison of a long-dead prince, and according to their legends, this prince would one day return to the realm of the living and wreak havoc on what remained of their civilization. 

Turns out the prophecies were true. The prince’s corpse was incubating the very parasite that had wiped out the species I was now about to leave behind – for good. 

I sat on the very peak of this mountain, looking out over the horizon of the planet. I could see the numerous buildings the Zull had built to house their people, all of them nothing more than graves of their former civilization. Another speck of dust, added to the infinite vault that is the dustbin of the void. 

I sighed one final time before I brought my right arm, the prosthetic, up to my face. I took a look at the metal, vaguely spotting my own reflection in the chrome. 

“Goodbye then, Zullians. May you find peace.” 

I stretched all my fingers out before holding my hand in front of my forehead. I shivered slightly, before I pulled my hand back slightly. I knew what I had to do, but that didn’t make it any easier. 

I thrust my hand toward my head, piercing my fingers straight into my head. It didn’t take long for the shock of the foreign intrusion to overwhelm my brain, and I quickly lost consciousness. 

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Welcome back, Jack.” 

I jolted awake with my hand still embedded in my head. I yanked it out, causing blood to roll over my eyes as the wound started healing. 

“Shame about the Zullans. Their civilization might even have reached intergalactic scale at the rate they were going.” 

I wiped the blood away from my eyes, getting a look at who was talking to me. Unsuprisingly, it was Gary. I sighed slightly and got off the floor. 

“I guess you want something since you brought me here.” 

Gary opened his palm before telekinetically removing my robot prosthetic. “First off, your archives.” 

He performed a flurry of hand movements, and the different archives I had accumulated since I was here last fell from seemingly thin air and slot themselves into his vault. I don’t see myself ever trying to open an archive myself, so helping to add to Gary’s weird collection isn’t really the end of the world. The knowledge of one race isn’t all too impressive when you’ve seen all the tens of thousands I have. 

“You know what, I’ll give you a boon. Since you’ve been so diligent and obedient, I’ll let you choose an artefact to add to your robotics. No strings attached.” 

The chains keeping my legs in place disappeared, allowing me to walk freely again. I slowly walked to Gary’s display of valuable artefacts, thinking of the one I would like to adopt into my own body. 

Three of the cubes on the table were all just simple elemental control. Versatile, sure, but not powerful enough to warrant if there were more interesting stuff there. 

Next on the table was what looked like a human-made flintlock pistol with some modifications to better fit Ashin hands. It glowed faintly, as if there was more to it than met the eye. 

“Gary, what does this thing do?” 

Gary took a moment to look up from the new archives in his collection and looked to me. “Hmm yes… that one has no need of ammunition. Might be useful on a hostile planet, I suppose.” 

I shrugged. If I landed on another hostile planet, there probably wouldn’t be that many useful things there and I doubt they would willingly give me their archive anyway.  

I looked to the next item, and it was just a simple non-linear shape. Well, as simple as a non-linear shape can be. I guessed it would make me able to walk through the above dimensions displayed in the shape. While it was cool, it was still pretty useless because I could only perceive the first 3. 

The final item on the table was a tiny, cracker-looking food. I asked Gary what was so special about it, and he told me it could regenerate from mere crumbs. I then asked him what would happen if you snapped it in two, and he stated you’d have two cookies. 

“How exactly would having an infinitely replicating cookie help me?” 

Gary shrugged. “I dunno. It would be interesting to see what would happen if someone ate one though.” 

“Thanks, but no thanks.” 

I put aside the multiplicative cookie and snatched one of the elemental control cubes. The one I grabbed seemed to represent flames. Sure, it might come in handy. 

I opened my robotic arm and slotted the dice-sized cube into place and closed it again. A ding of orange flashed on the screen. My robotics sent a brief picture of the die on my retina before it shut off again.  

I looked at Gary one more time. “Where are you sending me next?” 

Gary smiled before returning his attention to the archives. “If I said that, there wouldn’t be much fun would there? Besides, I may know where you are going but I’m not the one who chooses.” 

I instantly perked up as he finished his sentence. “Wait. What do you mean you’re not-” 

Gary quickly rubbed the back of his head and laughed. “Have fun now!” 

He waved his hand and just like that I felt my vision go blank once more. 

Of course he’d kill me psychically. Damn coward. 

As I awoke a clear sense of wetness made itself known, almost entirely covering my back. As I tried to take a breath I was stopped when I realized that wherever I had ended up either had an atmosphere made of something non-breathable or lacked one entirely. My cybernetics were even faster than me at reacting and nanobots began enveloping my mouth and nostrils, quickly forming an airtight seal. A tube shot out of my right shoulder before attaching itself to the gasmask, letting me breathe fresh air once more. 

I took a deep breath before pushing myself off whatever I was lying in. I was standing in the middle of some kind of brine pool, clearly colored pale-yellow. I figured it must have been a sulfuric solution of some kind, non-acidic to my relief. I stepped out of the geyser-like formation and took a better look at my surroundings. 

My deal with Gary details that the only planets I can be sent to are ones inhabited by sentient beings, so my usual first steps involve trying to find civilization. It’s also possible, I suppose, that the sentient beings resided in the brine pool I arrived in, and I'd just singlehandedly brought them to extinction by entering their habitat. 

Oh well. 

I noticed that the ground on the planet was seemingly made of a brittle, coal-like substance. This was most unusual as the only locations I've visited where coal is readily available have been planets where sentient life has been long-lasting, and the corpses of prior beings have had time to be processed into coal by the planet. With that said, magic has vague boundaries and casters aren’t exactly uncommon. I hypothesized there must be some civilization around here, or at least one lone wizard living on this planet. 

I bent down to the ground and ripped a chunk of the black material from the earth, analyzing it with my gauntlet. My hypothesis was confirmed, and I dropped the coal slate back toward the ground whence it came. 

I looked around at my surroundings, trying to see any landmarks worth noting. Aside from the geyser I woke up in, there seemed to be nothing but endless stretches of coal in every direction.  

I thought about how this could be for a while. The entire surface is covered in coal, so there must have been a catastrophic, extinction-level event which wiped out most if not all of the beings living here. It must have been quite a while ago too, considering the fossils had time to be buried by sediment, processed into coal and then resurface once more. 

I need to investigate this further. I’ll start by going toward the horizon, seeing if I can find an end to this coal-ocean. I’ll build a small tower of coal here by the geyser so I know where my starting point is. 

I quickly assembled the waymark and began walking toward the horizon.