"What in God's name is that?"

Brooks had been looking under the consoles, seeing if he could find a hatch to view the inside workings - without success.

When he heard Fergus's question, he came out.

At first he did not see it. The field of stars outside of their view all looked the same.

But then he saw the faint ripple.

"It looks like the surface of a pond," Nadian said.

"I've never seen anything like that," Kat added, leaning in close to the screen. "Is it just a distortion on the cameras? I don't know how empty space could be having that effect.

"It is real," Kell said, from across the room. He leaned calmly against the wall, staring out unblinkingly.

Brooks also peered out, trying to gauge the size of the ripples.

It was growing larger.

"We're moving towards it," he said. "We're going to hit it."

"Ambassador, what the hell is it?" Nadian asked, turning to look at the being.

"It is a veil," Kell said. "To you, perhaps a lens."

"Will it kill us though, that's the question," Fergus said. He also turned towards Kell. "Now would be a really nice time for yeh to share what yeh know, Ambassador!"

Kell ignored him.

Brooks came closer to him. "What will happen to this ship - to us - when we go through it?"

"It will be unpleasant," Kell told him.

"Will we survive?"

"In what sense?"

Fergus let out a curse, and Brooks almost echoed the sentiment. Now was not the time for cryptic nonsense-

"You had best step back, Captain," Kell said.

A shiver went down Brooks's spine. Was Kell turning hostile?

He stepped back carefully.

"We're about to hit it," Kat said.

"We will pass through," Kell said. "Mind your mind."

The distortion was more extreme closer up, the stars behind it turning to strange lines that moved erratically.

It swept over them. Whatever Brooks had expected to feel, it was not what he felt.

The floor, the entire room, seemed to fall away, to shrink and disappear into nothingness. He felt his sense of self grow in directions he could not name or understand, encompassing more space than was possible.

But something was there, engulfing him - constraining him. He felt it in all possible directions he could feel - visions in his eyes that he could not possibly understand, flashes of lights and movement and shape that made no sense, that his mind could not make sense of.

But all encompassed in that strange presence that horrified him. It congealed slowly into something that almost made sense.

He saw bulging eyes, screaming mouths lined with thousands of needle-sharp teeth, flesh that seethed and glistened, slick with corruption and its own barely-restrained hate.

And then he felt the presence.

"Kell?" he whispered.

The eyes, which had henceforth been peering in all directions, moved to look at him. He felt the attention as a physical, stifling presence.

The complexity of the structure of flesh that surrounded him staggered him, a single being - yet so vastly complex and faceted that he could not map it, not even take it all in. Yet there was something unmistakably familiar that he could see was the being he knew as Kell; some aspect of this madness of flesh and eyes and impossible layerings, distilled down into a familiar shape.

"How could you ever grasp it?" a thousand voices whispered, all of them speaking as one.

He suddenly collapsed back in on himself, finding that he was standing just where he had been.

His feet felt planted so strongly that he could not move, and it took him several moments to reassert control over his body and relax slightly.

Staggering against the wall, he looked for the others, noting absently that the entire shape of the room had changed. Nadian, Kat, and Fergus were all still standing where they had been, and all seemed to be running through the same feelings he had just experienced.

But had they seen Kell for what he was? Did they understand what it meant? And that he was the reason they had even survived passing through the lens?

Because Brooks could understand now, that without something to constrain them, their minds would have spread until they became a diffuse nothingness that could never reassert itself . . .

A scream tore his thoughts, causing him to stagger.

Tobias Fromm thrashed, falling, his hands clutching his head.

"Stay out of my mind!" he screamed, his legs kicking desperately, like a man trying to evade a predator.

Away from Kell.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Kell looked at the man, regarding him like a worm. "Pathetic," he said.

"Kell," Brooks said, finding that he was short on breath. "What are you doing?"

"I looked in him," Kell said calmly. "He is no Apollonia."

Nadian staggered towards Kell. "What did you do to him?"

"He is unhurt. He simply did not enjoy my looking," Kell said, with a shrug.

"Fromm, you all right?" Nadian asked, trying to take the man's arm. Fromm shook him off.

"No, I'm not fine!" the man yelled. "You brought me here, Nadian! You brought me to this hell hole!"

"Quiet," Brooks said. "There's something new outside."

His voice was calm, but gathered all attention. All eyes followed his to look out the windows.

"What is that?" Fergus asked.

"It looks like a collapsing ball of gas," Kat said.

Which, Brooks thought, was probably right.

There was a huge cloud of gas; they were in the more diffuse edge, and though it obscured their vision somewhat, they could not miss what lay in the center.

The gas was rotating, faster and faster, falling together under the power of gravity. Collecting - and heating up.

"There was no nebula near us," Nadian breathed. "Where are we?"

There was no answer forthcoming for him, and they could only continue to stare as the gas collapsed inwards, heating up until it glowed.

Time seemed impossible to keep track of, even Brooks's system was no help, having stopped working. It was as if eons of time were flashing before their eyes.

The pressure grew greater, greater, until jets of gas blasted from the poles of the dawning star. So much energy unleashed that even the mundane matter was accelerated until it was just streaks of energy.

More gas than seemed possible condensed into the star, until - with a flash that was nearly blinding - the critical threshold was hit and fusion began.

A star was born.

It was dwarfed by the cloud around it, despite its size that would have to be huge, he thought. A massive body, hundreds of times the mass of the sun.

A shockwave radiated from it, the first massive burst of cosmic wind, rippling through the gas. The whole room shuddered as it passed.

The remaining gas, Brooks knew, should be blown away by that explosive birth. But while it was pushed back, it soon stopped and then continued to fall into the star.

It grew larger and larger, feeding on ever more dust. It was only a sphere, but Brooks could tell in some way that this was no ordinary star, it was now swollen far beyond any star that existed. It began to dwarf even the cloud that birthed it, but more continued to fall inwards towards it, until it was larger than any star that could even exist in the universe as it was.

As it was . . . but not as it had been.

"A primordial dark star is birthed," Kell said, his voice a toneless chant. "A gateway to a higher reality."

Fergus moved forward, reaching out to touch the screen.

"This can't be real," he said. "There was no nebula near us, like Nade said. No star would collapse this quickly and form. This is . . . this is a simulation. Some kind of bloody amusement park ride!"

He punched the wall, his knuckles bloody. "I dinnae believe any of this!"

"The whole room is different," Nadian said, looking around.

Whereas before it had been taller than wide, now it was different; the ceiling was low, close to their heads. But the room was wider.

And there was a new, open door.

Fergus staggered towards it and peered through.

Brooks came closer to look in as well, but it was only the size of a large closet.

Or an airlock, he realized. On the other side was another door.

Fergus looked at him, grinning. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I don't think it's a good idea," Brooks replied.

"What?" Kat demanded, coming over as well. "Oh Christ, Fergus, you want to go out there?"

"I don't even believe there is an 'out there'," Fergus said. "I think this is all some kind of illusion. For all we know this bloody temple is a theme park and we just turned on one of the rides."

"You don't really believe that," Nadian said.

"No," Fergus admitted. "But I don't believe this is real, either. It may be some kind of simulation."

"So why is there an airlock then?" Kat asked.

"Because we may be in space, but it's only projecting the rest," Fergus replied, gesturing. "I'm not totally daft. We'll test my idea first. Do we have any sensors?"

Brooks cursed as he realized that he'd left his bags out in the hall before he'd come into this room. At the time it had seemed wise in case he needed to move quickly without its weight and bulk. But all of his gear was in it.

"I've got a camera, but it won't go through this stone," Nadian said with a shrug.

Mumbling to himself in annoyance, Fergus dug into his bag and pulled out a small figurine.

It looked suspiciously like himself, but with an enlarged head on a spring. He gave it a playful poke, grinning at the others.

"I'll be the first out there," he said in amusement, putting the bobblehead down in the airlock.

Stepping back, he looked for controls. "Kell, me chap, could you help me with this?"

Kell did not even look over.

"Brooks, can you get him to help?"

"I won't," Brooks said. "I am against this idea of yours, Fergus. Even just testing it. We don't know what any of this does."

"All the more reason for his help! He understands it."

Which did seem true, but looking at Kell, Brooks had the unnerving thought that Kell simply saw more, but did not really know anything more about this technology than they did.

He went over.

"What do you think of his plan?" Brooks asked Kell quietly.

"I think if he kills himself, my mood will be improved," Kell replied.

"You really hate him," Brooks said in surprise.

"He meddles in things he does not comprehend, and has no understanding of caution. He thinks these are merely puzzles to be solved for his entertainment. But I know it is far more than that."

"How?" Brooks asked. "You knew that that was a . . . a dark star, you called it? One formed from dark matter?"

Kell looked to him with utmost solemness. "Such knowledge is encoded in my very being."

Fergus called out. "I think I've got it!" he said.

Brooks looked over and saw that Fergus had gotten the airlock door closed. In the middle was a floor-to-ceiling window view into the room.

"This one will open it," he said. "It's a mighty clever gadget, to be sure. Ya see, it doesn't react to touch, but to intent when you touch. I bet I could get this to give us some strawberry ice cream once I prove myself right!"

Brooks came over. The man could end up venting them all. "Are you certain?" He was looking to Nadian.

Nadian hesitated, and Fergus saw that Brooks was appealing to his hated competitor, and spat at the floor.

"I figure out their machines, and this is how you treat me?" he raged. "I'll show you ungrateful cunts."

He smashed his hand down onto the controls.

Through the thin window, Brooks saw the far door open - simply disappearing, not even moving - and there was a slight thump that he could feel.

The bobblehead flew out on the blast of escaping air.

"Hah!" Fergus said. "As I called it, ye doubting ninnies. It's an airlock!"

He stepped away, while Brooks continued to peer out. In the darkness beyond the airlock, he could see stars. They were still, so that meant the ship was not spinning, at least.

He heard sounds behind himself, and looked back.

Fergus had his bag, and was pulling out a roll of something large.

"What is that?" Brooks asked.

"My spacesuit," Fergus said, still grinning.

"You can't really be thinking of going out there!" Kat said.

"Oh, but I am," Fergus said. "And I'll be the first!"