I was plagued by the same nightmare as I had been for a year now. Each time I went to sleep my consciousness brought it back to torment me.
It wasn’t as big a deal as it was before – I learned to forget about it during the day each time, as soon as I was out of bed – but the experience was painful and disheartening nonetheless, made all the more worse, by the realization that it wasn’t real (not anymore… in a sense) and I couldn’t wake up from it on my own volition.
Finally, I felt myself back in the waking world.
I stretched my limbs without opening my eyes and smiled content with life for once.
Things are going great! Mom is getting better; dad is coming back from his work trip, and uni---
My smiled vanished without a trace.
I heaved myself into an upright position, and cracked my eyes open.
The broken glass capsules and black metallic walls darkly met me.
Right… I wasn’t on Earth anymore…
And to think I was confused, as to why my left arm wasn’t moving…
“Master!” a sphere jumped up in front of my face. “Good morning!”
“Is it morning?” I stood up and scratched my neck. “On Earth, I mean?”
“One moment,” they were silent for a moment. “According to you memories, and to the time measuring method used by human civilization, it is about 13:00… or 1 pm.”
Wow, I slept in…
“Eh, morning is when you wake up,” I shrugged. The left arm was discomforted, but not pained. “Can you please keep track of time? We’ll say it is 13:00 right now.”
“Sure!”
“Is there a shower here somewhere?”
There was.
Or rather, Absoli quickly made it in the adjacent room, while I was sleeping. Actually they set up a whole apartment for me – no makeshift bunk: a true two-person bed, a few chairs, a table, and a…
“Computer?” I asked, eying the screen floating above a table, as well as a thin holographic keyboard, and a mouse.
“Yes. I found that you prefer the… futuristic style in electronics,” they admitted. “So I decided to make something nice for you. Do you like it?”
“Yeah,” I smiled. “It is very nice. Not very decorated,” at least the room and bathroom were of different color – Earth beige and brown – I assume Absoli wanted to imitate wood. “But we will make do.”
“Great!” their lens pulsed with light. “However…”
“We have a problem?” I casually asked, opening the wardrobe. Huh, the armor stood in it completely repaired, and the bracelets hung on the rack to the side of it. Looks very homely. Especially if you consider, that the wardrobe was as if made out of wood.
“I hope to Titans that it won’t become our catchphrase,” Absoli wailed. “But, yes. We do.”
“Naturally,” I sighed, stepping into the armor. The back slid on itself, sealing me perfectly inside. I calmly took the bracelets and put them on, armaments clicking into place.
And the morning shower promised such a calm day.
+++
“I assume there must be something in there?” I gestured at the empty space before me.
Well, not quite empty – there was a ten meter wide glass ball floating in the air, with two spikes that almost touched it, coming from the ceiling and the floor. There was nothing more in the room.
A trend, really – the only exception to the minimalism that Titans displayed was the bridge (and even then it is arguable) and my room, that Absoli furnished. Being from a planet which machines were far bulkier in comparison to this place, I found it a little strange. I suppose when you have access to a hyper-advanced technology you can afford that.
“Yes. A hyper-drive.”
“FTL?” that is certainly a problem.
“Yes, a device that will allow us faster-than-light travel.” they said. “It is not here, and the logs of the ship are nonexistent. I do not know where it went.”
“Can you make one?” unlikely, but…
“No, Alex, I cannot.”
“Damn…” I crossed my arms on my chest – I discarded a cast on the way here, my arm was perfectly healthy, demi-titan regeneration helps (huh, feels really great to have superpowers).
So, the FTL drive is missing. It doesn’t seem like it was stolen – mostly it looks like it was never installed in the first place. Though…
“Is there any obvious signs it has been taken? You know – after, they made it?”
“No, Alex.” Absoli moved closer, circling the empty glass ball. “It is more like it was never here in the first place. I see the place for it…”
“Is it the glass sphere?” never hurt to ask.
“Yes. But I do not see the signs of it being installed in the first place.” The stopped right before me, looking at the sphere. “It’s ridiculous! You make the protective screen around the engine! It is there to prevent… that!” they pointed a claw at the sphere. “It is there as to protect the engine and to serve as the connection circuit to the rest of the ship!” the sounded absolutely baffled. “I have no idea how you would take out the engine, without damaging the screen first!”
“Wait, can you make a screen in the first place?” I mean, if you need it for the engine…
“The screen is not the problem!” agitated shuffling. “The absence of engine is!”
“Right.” I tapped my foot, thinking. “So… I’m blanking here. If we can’t make it…” I frowned. “Can we find it?”
“More walking, master.” Absoli stated solemnly. “But yes, we can. Or, you, really,” they fidgeted. “I would be useless there… Except for the ‘locating it’ part…”
“That is already useful,” I shook my head. “Without you, I would have been searching this whole complex my whole life. I mean – it is the size of the moon, after all!”
“Right, yes.” they straightened themselves. “Well… It is actually a day’s walk away.”
“Hm!” that’s… far. “Is there any way to shorten it?”
Absoli intently stared at me.
“Maybe…”
+++
Hoverboard.
Holy. Mother. Of. God.
“It’s…” my lips barely moved.
“Your memories suggested that it was a popular concept in human civilization,” the laxity of Absoli’s tone was mindboggling. “And the design was rather interesting and effective… I did have to iron out a few quirks, but I do believe that this vehicle is the most efficient iteration of the fictional design of your people.” They paused. “Do you like it?”
“I love it.” I shakily picked up the ‘board. The thing was long and wide, I could easily put my feet on it. It actually had skids for them. Despite its bulky appearance it was very light. On the underside it had a glowing cube, that was an anti-gravity generator, as Absoli explained, allowing the thing to fly.
It had other bells and whistles – energy shield, which not only protected me, but also kept me in place, so I wouldn’t get thrown off from the hoverboard. The hardlight gun built in the front of the thing, capable of shooting rounds much more powerful than the ones from the multi-tool. Also – a trailer behind it, with a large glass box, which is containing water, with a lid on top of it. Well, the latter was more of an addition to the hoverboard, than coming with it.
“Is it for the engine?” the crystal clear water gently swayed in the box, which floated a few decimeters above the ground.
“Yes.” Absoli explained. “Once you find the engine, it is imperative that you put it in the water as quickly as possible. It would die otherwise.”
“Right, okay. Like, from overheating?” I mean… it is the engine for a hyper-advanced spaceship, right?
“Not only, but that too.” They nodded.
“How I would recognize the thing? You will highlight it on my visor?”
“And on your radar,” Absoli began walking towards the door out of the workshop. “You will not miss it. After all – I will always stay in touch on comms.”
The workshop was very cool – today was the very first time I saw it, but it awakened all the necessary sci-fi nerd neurons in my brain; the sterile glowing machinery, taller than man 3-d printers, scanners of some sort or another and much more stuff that I do not know the purpose of.
So very cool!
I hesitated for a moment.
“Absoli, it is not urgent, is it?” I hopefully asked. The sphere turned at me with slight confusion.
“The drive? No, it is not urgent.” they regarded me. “Why?”
I took a deep breath. I deserved some leisure activity after all I’ve been through. Mom and dad noticed my disappearance by now anyway, so an hour or two won’t make a huge difference.
“Absoli,” I was embarrassed to admit a tiny quiver in my voice. “Can you tell me how all of this works? And what it does?” I gestured towards the workshop.
They could.
+++
Some two hours later, after an extensive tour of the workshop, and no less extensive explanation of functions of its machinery – of which I understood less than ten percent (yeah, I am more of a humanitarian than technician) – we stood in the square room of a descending elevator.
“So…” the elevator was surprisingly slow. Though is suppose I should be thankful for the fact that elevator was here at all – walking up and down a starship the size of a skyscraper would have killed me more surely than any reaver. “Since you mentioned the ships databanks being wiped, I don’t suppose there is any new information about the Titans?”
“No, there isn’t.” they sounded as frustrated as I felt about the whole thing. “I was certain that the ship would clear the picture somewhat but…” a beat. “At least the absence of the information tells us something.” they murmured.
“Really? What?”
“Well, Alex.” They turned to look at me. “Titans clearly didn’t want anyone knowing about them. At least, they didn’t want people to know anything else, except for the fact that they existed.”
“Or someone else didn’t want…”
“Someone else?!” they were baffled. “Master, who would dare oppose Titans?! Considering the might they had! That,” they gestured their claw vaguely around. “is but a shadow of their strength! No one could oppose such beings!...” a suddenly eerie silence. “Right?...”
Scarier and scarier.
“How did I get here?” this has been eating at me for some time.
“I… Well, it is a rather sad story, actually,” they quickly recovered from my abrupt change of topic.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“It started – and, well, in a sense ended – a hundred years ago.” They paused, as if to collect themselves. “I was growing desperate - reavers were pushing my bots back (I still have no idea who the reavers are and what are their motives), I felt very lonely, and my fabricator just decayed enough to stop producing new bots.”
“So, I made an almost arbitrary gamble – I sent half of my bots to the other side of the station, so they could make the local fabricators work, and produce as much recon-probes as possible,” they paused.
“I suppose you sent them out in… uhm, space?”
“Yes – to be more specific – I sent them out in all directions.”
“Why? What did you hope to accomplish?” I was perplexed.
“I was hoping to find someone like you, master,” I heard a smile in their voice. “My authority and possibilities were limited without a Titans descendant (I am made to serve Titans, after all) – but with you here, I was finally able to do something!” they grew agitated. “With you here, I can finally do something! Something useful! I am finally fulfilling my purpose!”
They sounded so relieved and happy, that it almost brought a tear to my face.
Almost. Not sure if I am capable of crying because of my emotions anymore.
“I am happy that I could help you, Absoli,” I said, genuinely.
+++
The elevator doors slid open without a sound. I barely realized we were moving in an elevator at all – so smooth was the motion.
The antechamber of the ship--- Okay, no.
“Absoli, does this ship have a name?” I can’t keep calling it ‘starship’.
“No, master,” robot strolled ahead. “Would you like to give it one?”
Hm. How would you call a starship?...
Well, kind of cliché, but fits my MO.
“Yes – Hyperion.”
Also – it’s a cool name.
Absoli’s lens pulsed blue.
“Logs updated.”
+++
The antechamber of the ship was as bare as the rest of it – well, at least unlike the majority of the Hyperion it was clean: dozens of spider-bots climbed the walls with sponges, leaving behind a clen trail, where there was some strange dirt.
The only thing differing the antechamber from the rest of the ship, was its huge size – even by the standards of Titans – and its many hatches and doors; as Absoli explained, those are for aircrafts and other smaller (comparatively) vehicles. Only a few small doors and one huge gateway for ground-based… things.
I stepped on the hoverboard and marveled at how easy it is to keep balance on the thing – I tried skateboarding a few time before this, and it wasn’t nearly as easy. Titan-tech rocks!
“How much will the ‘board shorten the road?” I tried swaying on the thing, and it did lean into my swings, but my legs were determinedly glued to its surface.
“To four or five hours,” they explained. “That is – in one direction. The whole journey will probably take you twelve hours.”
“…How far away am I going?” I quietly asked.
“Very far… and, uhh, very away,” they shuffled. “Or is just ‘very far’ enough?”
“Just ‘very far’ would’ve been enough,” I softly smiled.
“Right, well,” the gateway started to open, gigantic metal sheets swinging outward. “You better start now – the earlier you start, the earlier you will finish. You did learn how to control the hoverboard, yes?” the black metal sheets on our side, and white on the outside stopped.
“Eh,” I shrugged, sending a thought command to my vehicle. “I’ll manage.”
“Wait---“ the space around me lost its definition and turned into a blur, wind swishing in my ear.
I shot out of the Hyperion’s gateway on a breakneck speed, which is surely illegal in all countries on Earth.
I hit the floor surprisingly soft, hoverboard floating a meter or so above the ground, and the glass box following behind it.
I flew farther, hearing (unfortunately not feeling – I am in the armor) the whipping of wind, and the sound of the vehicle’s engine below me.
“WOOOHOOO!” a thought struck me. “WAIT! WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GO?!”
Absoli tiredly sighed, and highlighted the path on my radar and visor.
“SWEET!”
The constant creeping darkness in my mind took a few steps back at this moment, and allowed my chest to contract and expand just a little easier. But, perhaps, even this is enough.
+++
“So,” I abandoned yelling, since even if the wind was screaming really loudly in my ears, Absoli would hear me through the helmet anyway. “How much of the station you know?”
“All of it and almost nothing.”
“…Elaborate?”
A sigh.
“I have several millennia old map of the whole megastructure. But the areas which my bots actually been to suggest that the map is not particularly accurate.”
“Ah,” I swished past another intersection, a glimpse of the reaver’s husk beneath the hoverboard. “So, am I still in the ‘known’ area?”
“On the very edge of it, actually,” they said. “In a minute you will be in the unknown territory.” Absoli paused. “So I recommend caution.”
“Understood,” the hoverboard took a smooth turn around a corner, and slowed down, as to avoid crashing the glass box behind me, the water in it splashing against the lid.
Actually, that reminds me.
“Absoli, when I went to sleep you said we were ready for a take off in a few hours, remember?”
“Y-yes,” they awkwardly stuttered. “I haven’t checked the hyperdrive, though – the systems said that the protective screen was intact, so I didn’t bother to see it with my own eyes!” they sighed. “Well, until you went to sleep, and I did all the pre-flight checks…” a strange silence. “I am still confused as to why the screen was there in the first place… or where the engine has gone…” a muttering in my ear.
I hummed, while balancing with my arms – completely unnecessary, I am glued to the ‘board by the force field; I just think it looks cool.
“Aaand you’re officially out of the explored area, master,” Absoli declared, with no small amount of fear and excitement. “From here on out, you cannot rely on the map…” they said. “…Do not hesitate to fire at anything that moves, Alex,” the sudden coldness in their voice almost threw me for the loop. “Your survival – is paramount.”
“Right, okay,” I slowed down the hoverboard to a more manageable speed, that would not force the box behind me to terribly sway. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Problem or no problem? – I thought, before dismissing such foolish notion. Of course there are going to be problems!
I barely remember a time when it was any other way.
+++
“Hm.”
I stood on my vehicle before a closed metal hatch, that wouldn’t budge. It refused commands from the Absoli, and my proximity did nothing to force it to open.
But I had an idea.
I raised my hand, and pointed it at the door. Then thought: ‘Open’.
The door immediately slid open.
“Convenient,” I nodded, picking up speed again.
“Indeed! The level of advancement of human civilization is remarkable in its primitiveness!”
…
“Absoli,” I sighed.
“Yes, Alex?” they innocently asked.
“I know you mean nothing by it… and I know you have a legitimate reason to call human civilization such… But please don’t.”
“Very well, master!” they no less innocently replied. “I will remember it, when I intend to insult your planet next time!”
“Good, and---”
I stopped short. I blinked. I suspiciously narrowed my eyes.
“Are you making a joke?” I calmly asked.
“Did I succeed?” they curiously answered.
I stood silent for a moment, and then I burst into childish cackling.
My Artificial Intelligence friend just made a joke. Not an exceptionally good one, but still!
“Not bad, not bad,” I kept cackling as I made my way forward. “But you can do better.”
“I will keep improving! Humor is so much fun!”
Precious.
+++
I willed the next door to open and flew through it.
The last four hours have been some of the dullest times in my life – and I am on a hoverboard, flying through the megastructure of race of god-like beings in space!
Truly, Life is a bitch sometimes!
The conversation with Absoli was going strong the first hour or so, but eventually even they ran out of jokes to say, and things to clarify about Earth. Well, at least Absoli is now familiar with puns, and knows what a yandere is…
Not sure those two were the most important bits, but they certainly were the most colorful. Especially the explanation of what yandere is… ‘Can humans be sick with love?’ – How do you answer something like that?
Well, after that mine of questions ran out, I was left alone with my own thoughts; as of late – my least favorite companions.
And the darkness in my mind began encroaching on my sanity again, trying to suffocate it with a thick and tight blackness.
Your parent would have surely noticed you absence by now. Mom will be worried sick… Very sick.
I sucked in an unexpectedly goopy air.
Don’t listen to it, you have a good brain, but sometimes it just likes to beat itself, it is fine, it is okay, you have much more pressing matters to think about than home---
Oh? So you don’t care about them now?
You have to think about your objective, you have to make sure you survive, that Absoli survives, and that both of you get back to Earth – hell, can you imagine how famous you will be? The first person to leave Solar system? There will be a wikipedia page about you! They will make a movie about you!
Oh, yes~! The action scenes – especially the first one – will be amazing!
“SHUT UP!!!”
My shout hit the ceiling, then bounced to the floor and spread out to the rest of the corridor.
I stood with my fists balled as tight as I could, knuckles audibly cracking, and my breathing coming out in short gasps. My head felt as if it was squeezed with an industrial press, the brain compacting, bones crushing into powder, meat turning into mince. The suit became a narrow prison in an instant.
And demons… my own demons have risen from the graves with hungry shout of war, clawing, biting, and tearing into my soul, bringing back the poisonous fragments of the past with them.
My whole body hurt. Not any physical pain, but that hateful kind that has no rhyme or reason to it, that kind that you cannot get rid of.
My whole body…
…except, for my right leg, just a little beneath my ankle.
“Please…” I hate to beg. Even my own brain.
But the darkness took a look at my crushed will to fight, contently burped, and recessed into the corners of my mind, eagerly waiting for its next opening.
I felt the clump in my throat clearing up, the coherency returning to my thoughts. I heartily breathed in with my nose.
“Absoli,” poor robot was frantically calling out my name, and asking if I was alright.
“Master, are you---“
“Am I far away from the engine?” I leaned on a nearby wall, letting my body relax. Shit, I need to get it together – I can’t let my mind betray me like this in my situation.
“I---“ Absoli clearly wasn’t happy with me dodging the subject, but they reluctantly answered my question anyway. “Just ten more minutes… The map has been surprisingly accurate thus far,” they remarked.
“Really?” I raised my head, and looked around a corner.
Ah. A problem. I have not been missing those.
“Yes, it is a refreshing expe---…” they stopped. And then sighed. “Alex, do you enjoy mining? That blocky game you spent a lot of time in suggests that you do?”
“Not when I have to do it with my own hands,” I grumbled, stepping down from the hoverboard, my boots clicking on the floor.
The path ahead has been blocked with debris – chunks of black metal saturated the hallway, jagged shards lay on the floor.
And when I mean saturated – I mean I couldn’t see a rent in the blockage. Just a wall of broken black iron.
Well, if Hollywood films taught me anything…
“Say, Absoli,” I began, while planting my feet firmly on the skids of the hoverboard. “How strong is the gun on this thing?”
They hummed.
“Well, if I understand you train of thought correctly, Alex,” the vehicle beneath my feet began to whine, the sound increasing in volume with every second. “we will soon find out.”
I smiled.
“You learn too well.”
The ‘board beneath me violently lurched, and a ball of light bigger than my head flew forwards.
Crush, sizzling of metal, a flash of light.
I blinked the after-image from my eyes, and took a second look at the blockage.
The large hole in it was wider than I tall, its edges red and orange from the heat of the round, smoke lazily snaking to the ceiling.
Unfortunately, the hole was quickly filled with the debris from the rest of the wreckage, but the wall looked severely less daunting now.
The whining of a charging gun started again.
“How would I even recognize the engine?” a shot, sizzling of metal, rumbling of falling debris. “I mean is it, like, super obvious?” a lurch of the hoverboard. “Is it glowing or something?”
“Glowing, master,” Absoli replied. The vehicle spit out a ball of hardlight. “It should also be submerged in the water. I doubt you will miss it,” another lightball crashed into the obstacle before me.
“Oookay,” I cast a look at smoldering wreck of wreckage. The metal wall was absent, only promptly cooling melted iron remained. The path ahead was more-or-less clear. “Warn me when we will get close to it, please.”
“I shall.”
I passed by the grey smoke on the ceiling.
It is somewhat sad, that I’m growing jaded to the astounding clark-tech Titans possessed. Oh, well – you can’t marvel at sunrise every time, right?
Even though I wish I could…
+++
“This is the place!” Absoli happily reported.
“Huh,” I was a tiny bit disappointed. After all the grandeur - the skyscraper-high starship, the throne, reaching all the way to the ceiling, the moon-sized megastructure that I find myself in – this room was… a little dull.
Eight identical square aquariums, each one wider than I am tall and also reach up to the ceiling. The aquariums had glass walls, and were lit from the inside – that is, seven were glowing red, and only one, on the far side of the room was shining green.
Weird. Aquariums?
“Absoli? This is the place, you say?” I stepped down from the hoverboard and walked up to one of the containers, and doubtfully stared in it. It was empty, except for water.
“Yes!” they answered, excitedly. “Quickly, go to the green one! Oh, also take the box with you!”
I gestured my arm towards the glass box trailing behind the ‘board, and willed it to follow me, feeling a mounting suspicion, as to what form will the ‘hyperdrive’ take. The glass container gently floated towards me, detaching itself from the hoverboard.
And sure enough – just as I walked up to the green cube, a saw it – a giant, at least two meters tall, jellyfish. A goddamn jellyfish, gently floating in the green-lit water of the tank.
“Absoli? Explain?” my voice had no tone to it.
“What do you mean?” they were sincerely confused.
“That…” I pointed towards the animal, which swam towards the glass wall of the tank in my direction, and leaned into it. “is a jellyfish. It does not look like a hyperdrive.”
“Maybe in the mind of earthlings it doesn’t…” they grumbled, then spoke up. “While I understand your… technology-oriented mindset, Alex, I can assure you – this is what we were looking for.”
I stood silent for a moment, and then simply shrugged. Who am I to argue with an ancient hyper-advanced AI?
“Okay… how is it going to work, though?
“Oh, a very good question!” Absoli said, enthused. “You see – this species is very peculiar! It does not consume nutrition in the same way that most of the animals on your planet do! Instead – it feeds on ether!”
“Ether?”
“Essentially a realm of infinite energy, that is superimposed on our reality – but anyway; this jellyfish feeds on ether, but as the rest of the life forms – it excretes the excess of energy!”
“Uh-huh…” I paused. “So Hyperion is powered by space-jellyfish poop?”
…
“Alex, I beg you – please do not phrase it that way ever again!”
“I make no promises,” I viciously smiled.
“But anyway – how do I put it in the box?” I compared the two. “Is it even going to fit in there?”
“It is very flexible, worry not,” they reassured me. “And you just have to will it to open, like doors. Just pick it up and plop it in the box then, it will be fine.”
“Understood,” I carefully undid the lid on the glass box, which I brought with myself, put the lid gently to the floor; turned to the aquarium – I had an insistent feeling, that jellyfish was watching me – took a deep breath, and willed the aquarium to open.
The water crashed on the floor in a massive wave, forcing me to take a few steps back, and the box to float just a little higher. However, I still managed to catch the slippery tendril of the jelly fish, before it flex with the rest of the water, and put it in the box, sternly closing the top with a lid.
If an animal had any problems with the treatment of it, it didn’t show it; just compressed to almost two times smaller its original size, and stilled. Now that it was out of the glowing aquarium, I noticed that it shone a gentle white.
“Okay… I suppose that’s it?” I timidly asked, looking around.
“Yes, just get back to the Hyperion, master!” Absoli was beyond euphoric. “And we can finally get away from this chunk of metal!”
“…”
“Alex?”
“Huh,” I shook my head. “I just… you know – expected something to go wrong…”
“Please come back to the starship before you could be proven right.”
“Y-yes!” I stomped onwards toward the hoverboard, linked the box to it, and turned towards the way I came.
“…”
“Alex, please!”
“Okay, yes, you’re right!”
I flew through the door towards Hyperion.
The trip back was much more light-hearted and entertaining than the road to here.
However, despite being sincerely invested into explaining the intricacies of the Earth’s pop-culture, and a very long lecture on memes, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something wasn’t right.
Where were the other seven jellyfish if not in their containers?