SYMBYTHU led his seven warriors through the halls of his ancient ship which seemingly never ended. The dark halls lit up with motion sensor lights as they rounded a corner and passed into a new corridor, sending the shadows on their way.
Mars and Ella held hands as they walked and whispered memories and sweet nothings to each other. In front of them walked Jax and behind, Mads, intent to forever and always keep Mars and Ella safe. In front of Jax walked Luanna and Atticus side by side, with Zavyr walking in front of them and next to SYMBYTHU.
As they walked, Zavyr said to SYMBYTHU, “From what I understand, I am now a clone, the very thing I tried my hardest to destroy—that to which I devoted my life to defeating. That’s fine. I’ll come to terms with that eventually. But why did I wake up with such a blistering headache? From talking to some of the others, they didn’t experience this.”
“You are not a clone, Commander. You are a Deus ex Hominum, as the others should’ve explained to you. You are the future of humanity. I assume your headache was from the combination of Susurrus and Ixard I spliced into your genes. You, unlike the others, had never experienced the Susurrus Sleep and I saw a new opportunity. Lo and behold! You were able to induce yourself into the Great Sleep without any Susurrus pills, and from what I understand, you went further back than anyone before because of it.”
“Susurrus, Ixard, Deus ex Hominum…your words are strange yet oddly familiar. If the Susurrus let’s me travel through the memories of my progenitors, what does Ixard do?”
“The Ixard will allow you to change into whatever creature you desire and to communicate telepathically with another user of the Ixard once you learn how to control it. You will also learn how to teleport once we return to Earth.”
“Shape-shift, telepathy, and teleport? It seems a dream. When do we return to Earth and what will we do there?”
They rounded another corner and SYMBYTHU stopped in front of a large door. “We will depart for Earth in one week, and we will go to war with them. And this—” SYMBYTHU walked through the door and waved his arm across the room— “will be your conquering army.”
The Seven walked into the room and looked before them in amazement. It wasn’t a room, but an immense factory floor and they were standing upon a balcony overlooking it all. Large, robotic arms were lifting coffin-sized glass containers and placing them on large hooks from the ceiling where hundreds of other coffin-sized glass containers hung. When one looked closely, they could see the inside was covered with ice and a sleeping, human face was showing through. In the center of the factory floor were other robotic mechanisms at work in various tasks—from cleaning to manipulating sperm and eggs; every single task vital to the creation of a Deus ex Hominum in SYMBYTHU’s separate Ortus Partus.
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“My Magnus Invicta, I give you Parabellum Scramasax V and the Centuria Berserkrs…your army.”
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They walked the floor of the ‘factory’, all of them spread out and looking at different things. Mars and Ella were inspecting a just-frozen Berserkr about to be hung from the ceiling hook. SYMBYTHU walked up and said, “In all my excitement from your awakenings, I failed to stop the cryo-process. There is no need for it anymore as we are going to Earth soon.” He walked to a nearby computer, pressed some buttons, and the large robotic arms stopped. After a minute, they resumed, but began taking the Berserkr’s cryo-pods from the ceiling and bringing them to the thermal-reconditioning center. “I gave them Susurrus just before they were frozen,” SYMBYTHU told Mars and Ella. “As soon as they fell into the Sleep, I froze them in hopes that their Susurrus Sleep would take them on endless journeys, perhaps even farther back than Commander Paxt went. If you will meet me in that area over there in five minutes—” SYMBYTHU pointed to a large area to his left— “I have some of your old friends I would like you to meet.” SYMBYTHU walked off to gather the others and inform them of the same.
“Mars,” said Ella joyfully, “this is incredible. Everything SYMBYTHU has done. I’m unsure of the ethics of it all, but right now I don’t care…I’m back with you again.”
Mars smiled at her. “I remember my last thoughts Ella…and they were of you, of the life we were so close to having. I don’t know how it’s possible that I can remember that, but I swear to you it’s true. You are all that I want in this world.”
They hugged and kissed as the others walked up behind them. Jax came up and smacked Mars on the ass and said, “Hey, hey now, that’s enough of that, guy. Save it for somewhere else on this behemoth of a ship.” Jax smiled and winked at Mars and Ella as he said it. Mars was simply happy that they were all becoming more like themselves again.
Zavyr walked up with an astonished look on his face. “The technology I’ve seen on this ship is unlike anything I could’ve ever imagined. My wildest dreams didn’t contain such wonders. And even more wondrous…as I walk around these corridors, I see them also through the eyes of Zare and his brethren. This room we are in now was where they stored their human creations to colonize Earth with. I find it very fitting that we were created in the same room. It gives me immense hope for our mission.”
They were pondering his words when SYMBYTHU presented himself and bade them to follow him to the area he had told Mars and Ella of before. They all did as ask and when SYMBYTHU walked through yet another sliding door, they found many of their old PSXV and Centuria Berserkr friends sitting around a mess hall waiting for them.
Words are unable to justify the joy shared between these compatriots—between those who had fought and lived together, guarded each other’s backs, and who had defended each other from enemies and from the wiles of nature in a past life. After embracing each other, they immediately slipped back into old routines of camaraderie and joking as if no time had passed—a luxury known most notably amongst humanity’s soldiers who constantly moved between units and went through the same hardships.
For the moment, time stood still. SYMBYTHU slipped out and tended to other matters so as not to disturb them.
They might be rejoicing, but he knew what troubles lay ahead for them.