“Well, it looks content,” I said, for the sake of saying something.
Indeed, the white jellyfish lethargically floated in the ten meter wide ball of glass, which also floated between two massive spikes.
“It seems so,” Absoli absently nodded, distracted by something. I think he’s scanning the animal or something along those lines.
I took one more look at the jellyfish – the thing glowed a soft white, it tendrils lazily dangling without rhyme or reason. The only thing that distinguished it from others of its kind, which I’ve seen on the internet, were strange, ever shifting patterns on its skin. Blink, and straight lines turned into circles; blink, and squiggly lines appeared instead.
Kind of trippy.
“Why is it so… strange? I mean – patterns on it.”
“It is how it conveys it emotions and thoughts to others of its kind,” they turned to me. “Only other hyperdrives know what it means.”
“…The name of its species is ‘hyperdrive’?”
“That is how Titans called them,” Absoli shrugged. “The hyperdrives are artificially created creatures, those patterns on its skin – is an unintended quirk. They weren’t supposed to be able to communicate with one another on such complex level.”
Wow. That’s cold.
“Is jellyfish… sentient?” that would be incredibly awkward if it is.
“No, of course not!” Absoli scoffed. “It not much smarter than an average animal. Think of it as a horse, which pulls a carriage – Hyperion – forward.”
“I guess…” still… fells somewhat… off.
I shook my head. As much as I love animal, I love my family even more – I have to return to them. If that means using this… hyperdrive as a draft horse – so be it.
“Okay. Are we ready for a takeoff now?” I am rather frustrated by this point.
“…”
“Absoli. You’re silent. I do not like it.”
“…”
“Absoli.”
“Look, master, I am sorry!” they turned towards me, the lens barely reflecting two sparks of red and blue. “But I was able to restore external sensors in this sector of the megastructure, and there is something obstructing the hangar from the outside!”
I blinked.
“You repaired something?”
“I wasn’t sitting idle while you were risking your life, Alex!” robot answered incredulously. “Surely, you didn’t think I was just waiting for you indolently?”
“No, I suppose not…” I need to put more faith in them. They deserve it.
“Fine,” I suppressed my sigh. “What’s the problem exactly?”
+++
“That doesn’t look like a random piece of space rubbish.”
“No, it does not,” Absoli was obviously concerned.
The hologram projected from the throne on the bridge – I insisted that we discuss problem here (aesthetic) – showed a rough image of the giant wall (the outer shell of a megastructure), a hatch built in the wall, and a equilateral triangle blocking it.
If one was to consider the scale, triangle was at least as big as Hyperion.
“Absoli, are we going to acknowledge that someone desperately didn’t want anyone leaving the station?”
It’s fricking obvious at this point! The reavers, the wiped logs, that… thing blocking the exit!
“Alex, let us ruminate on it once we leave the station, alright?” they turned to me. “I know that the newly acquired data suggests that our situation is much direr than we initially believed, but it hardly changes anything in the moment, does it?” Absoli said a little stern.
I closed my eyes and breathed through my nose. They are right, despite how much it grinds me, but they are right.
Now’ not the time.
“Fine. I suppose you already have a plan?”
“Oh, yes!” they said, positively thrilled. “I do!”
Absoli’s happy tone alerted me just a tad.
“Uh-huh…” I suspiciously regarded them. “And what is it?”
“Well, I took heavy inspiration from humanity, and so we will do what the humanity loves to do the most, when they are faced with the problem!”
“That…” I cleared my throat. “Is not reassuring…”
“We will blow stuff up!” they ecstatically proclaimed.
…
Why did you corrupt this poor, innocent soul, humanity? Haven’t you done enough?!
“I love this plan already!”
Hey, my previous statement doesn’t mean, that I do not agree with humanity’s methods.
+++
The “plan” was a long thin black rectangle, with a handle on top of it as if for a briefcase. And that was the extent of its details – no ominous red buttons, no flashing lights, not even a measly timer.
“I suppose it is thought control?”
“Yes, and worry not – it will not detonate if you are in the blast radius.” they reassured me.
“Your technology spoils me, Absoli,” I slowly shook my head. “I haven’t mentioned it before – but this whole place is like magic to me.”
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” they quoted.
“I suppose,” I picked up the rectangular bomb, and weighed it; light, maybe half a kilogram.
“How does it work?” I am curious.
“It is more of a teleport, really – it shoves everything in the ‘blast’ radius into the core of a nearby star.”
“Huh. Nice,” Elegant, really.
“Will it be enough to clear the path?”
“It should be,” they said, and projected a hologram of a same scene as five minutes before. The triangle had a glowing blue area in the center of it. “If you detonate the bomb anywhere within this area, our problems will be solved!... Err, this particular problem.”
“Seems too easy.”
A beat of silence.
“The procurement of the hyperdrive wasn’t difficult either,” they quietly reasoned.
“Yeah,” my hand with a bomb in it fell to my side. “That’s precisely why I’m worried. We’ve had no problems for far too long.”
“It has been barely a day!” they incredulously said.
“I know,” I tapped my suit. “Is it capable of functioning in space?”
“…No,” they answered, disquieted. “I actually made a spacesuit for you,” the door to the bridge opened, half a dozen spider-bots carrying a large, bulky suit.
It was such a contrast - from the armor I wore, to the minimalism of the rest of the Titans’ technology!
The spacesuit was a bit taller than me, had a ski-like boots, a large golden visor covering the face, and had much more steel padding on the arms, legs and torso, creating an impression of an insect-like carapace. Its back was opened, and you had to slide – not step – into it, climbing on it, and then sliding down to the boots.
Again, I had to do a double take, to comprehend such a glaring contradiction to the style of titan-tech.
“It’s rather… different.”
“It is,” Absoli understood what I meant. “I am as surprised as you. I do not have an explanation to this.” they, ultimately, shrugged. “I do not think it matters.”
The robot turned to me.
“Despite its different design – the hardware makes it worth it,” their voice took an almost ceremonial tone. “The spacesuits’ energy shield is much sturdier than the regular one, its armor also superior to the old one,” they were clearly enamored with their new work. “Also, it allows the user to survive in the outer space indefinitely,” they paused, as if to remember something. “Also, it has anti-gravity thrusters on it, so use thought commands wisely – it would greatly inconvenience us, if you were to sail too far from the megastructure on accident.”
“Got it,” I respectfully nodded, eyeing the suit with much more interest. “Is it multi-tool compatible?”
“Of course!” Absoli indignantly replied.
“Then I’ll make it work,” I ordered my armor to open.
The armor deflated, dropping the bomb to the floor (which gave me a momentary heart-attack), and allowing me to step outside of it.
A few steps, a pull on the spacesuit shoulders, my body sliding into its depths. Then, a moment of darkness and silence, as armor’s back closed behind me. Then, the world was again.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I tried moving in it – surprisingly, it felt just as natural as a thin armor I wore before, if only made me feel a bit taller.
“Okay,” I picked up the bomb again. “Ready.”
+++
“Your bots can’t survive space?” we stood before an especially big door – this one was twice the size of me, and Absoli told me that there would be an airlock after this one, as to make the exit to space as safe as possible. Well, for those who will stay behind.
“No, unfortunately,” they saddened. “If I could, I would’ve sent them instead. But as of right now, master – you are our main hope.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” I kept speaking mostly distract myself from the fact that I will be going into the outer space. “I said it before and I will say it again – without you, I would have never got as far as I did.”
Outer space. Holy shit.
“Thank you, Alex,” they sincerely answered. “I am glad that I could help you!”
I gulped and nodded. There is no point to dragging this on.
“Let get this over with,” I took a step forward. Despite how much fear I felt, I couldn’t – and never would – deny the blazing fire of excitement burning inside of me.
Holy shit – outer space!
While the door slid hissing behind me, I tried my best to compose myself, and to steady my beating heart. A drop of hot sweat rolled down my cheek, leaving an annoying feeling as it fell.
Alright, relax, I mean – you fought for your life! Three times already! What do you have to be scared of now? You have a titan-tech spacesuit (will have to give it a name), and it is much more durable than the last one! Calm do---
The door before me opened.
My breath died in my throat. My brain short-circuited . My muscles fell limp.
Just a few steps ahead of me, lay the Great Unknown. The infinity personified.
My childhood dream, calling to me.
I walked forward, legs feeling as logs of wood, inflexible and heavy.
The gravity, however, betrayed me; a little-too-powerful step sent me flying forward, into the expanse of infinite stars.
I should have been afraid, terrified, kicking and screaming at my possible fate.
The only thing I felt was pure, incredible, primal wonder and elation.
My body left the steel maws of the megastation.
+++
“-lex! Alex!” I winced.
“I-…” I coughed, my throat burning, and I had to blink, to bring moisture to my eyes. How can cosmonauts deal with space so… flippantly? It’s so beautiful! “I am okay, just… just marveling.”
“Oh. Well, could you please get you marveling in some other time? I am sure we would have many more opportunities to… ‘marvel’ in the future,” they said, somewhat sternly.
“Aren’t you amazed by this?!” I threw up my hands. “Not even a little?!” how can one not be amazed by space?!? My mind failed to compute such a concept.
“Master, I seen those very same stars, with much the same patterns for about five thousand years,” they calmly replied. “I do not think that cosmos will amaze me anymore… At least, not in that sense.”
“That… is so sad…” I couldn’t even express my emotions over this unfairness.
“Maybe…” Absoli hummed. “But please, Alex, focus on the task at hand, alright?”
“I… yeah, sure,” I turned around, willing the anti-gravity thrusters to work.
And immediately was stunned again.
Imagine a black wall. Now, imagine that wall extending up and down as far as the eye could see, up and down; innumerable scratches from space debris and random asteroids covering it, the metal ripped and missing in places, opening the way inside, husks of reavers, deactivated and dead floating mindlessly around the rips and tears in the hull, red in their eyes faded and extinguished.
I could barely think, human brain is not made to handle such enormous scale.
But something inside was made to handle such scales, and it revitalized my mind with a gentle prodding at it.
I shook my head, breaking out of the fugue. I took in a few lungfuls of air, gathering my thoughts.
“Okay…” I craned my head, trying to see my objective. “Where am I supposed to go…” I didn’t finish my sentence. It was painfully obvious.
The triangle was bloody-red, random parts of it lighting up and fading with light, sparks of red zipped around it, flying out of the thing then swiftly disintegrating once far enough. The… ship (?) was huge, sensors didn’t do it justice – while not as tall as Hyperion, it certainly bested it in width.
Actually, it was rather nondescript… err, apart from the other stuff. Just a building-sized red, partly glowing triangle, which sparkles.
It did stand out like a sore thumb against the background of blackness and distant stars.
“Yep, I see it,” a thought command, and with an almost inaudible hum the suit carries me forward, gliding through vacuum.
Oh, right, I’m in space, did I mention that?
“Indeed, me too,” Absoli agreed. “It is… odd…” their silence was intense. “I can’t find the recors of anything like it in the database…”
I frowned.
“Titans didn’t know what that thing is?”
“It would appear so, yes…” AI considered it for a moment. “Of course, it is also possible, that data about the object was deleted…”
“Either way – ominous,” I decided. “Or it could be reavers…”
“Concerning,” the Hyper Intelligence agreed. “I advise extreme caution, Alex. While the spacesuit is much more durable than the armor, the vacuum would kill all the same, if the shell is breached,” they nervously warned.
“Will do,” I easily replied.
The carelessness of my words surprised me for the moment, but then again – how many times did I face death in the last forty-eight hours?
Huh. Should I be worried about that?... Don’t want to think about that, like, at all, so – no, I shouldn’t.
Yeah, that’s what I’ll tell myself.
Satisfied with my assessment, I nodded to myself, as I neared the USO.
Y’know… Unidentified Sticky Object?...
Nevermind.
The red mass was a meter-or-so away from me, when I slowed down, and hesitated. IS it really safe to get close to that thing?
Oh, whatever – I am already less than human height away from it, if it wanted to do something to me, it would’ve done so already.
I tentatively touched the very edge of the triangle, as that part of the ship glowed bright red.
Nothing happened.
I released a sigh of relief, and made my way forward, toward the highlighted part of the thing, to plant the bomb.
“Absoli, will this thing do the job?” I weighed the rectangle in my hands again, though I immediately remembered that in space, everything felt weightless.
“According to my calculations – it will,” they confidently said. “At the very least – the resulting hole will allow Hyperion to pass through. We would be fine.”
“Okay, good,” I drew closer to the target area. “Just tell me when to get the hell out of dodge.”
They sighed.
“The bomb will not detonate while you are in the blast radius, master,” Absoli consoled me. “My technology is not sticks and stones of Earth civilization; it is not run on electricity and copper wires!”
“Alright, alright,” I raised my hands in surrender. “I get it – monkeys should stay on trees, where they belong, and not doubt the superior technology of their betters.”
The AI paused.
“Is this sarcasm or irony?”
“A little bit of both,” Absoli is not very familiar with the concept of humor yet.
“Hum… Humor is complicated…” they murmured.
“Indeed,” I nodded.
I was just above the green-highlighted area, the big white X just under my feet.
I slowly moved myself to the USO – yes, I’m sticking with it – and gently touched my feet to its surface. Blessedly, nothing happened.
The sense of uneasy slowly started to bloom in my stomach.
“Absoli, is everything clear on you end?” I surveyed the space around me, narrowing my eyes, trying to pick out anything suspicious or, really, anything at all, apart from the stars and the randomly glowing red beneath my feet.
It’s too easy…
“Master – the reavers are nowhere to be seen, you have decimated their population in our sector; even if they were her, there is no way they could have breached the Hyperion; scanners in your spacesuit indicate the absence of the unidentified or hostile objects in your immediate vicinity,” they reported in length. “There is nothing to fear, everything is okay,” their voice took a soft turn.
I would’ve loved to listen to them, but for the growing anticipation in my gut.
“Okay,” I gulped, and got down to one knee. “The sooner we get this over with, the better,” I reasoned with myself.
“Simply put the bomb down – it will stick to the surface of the blockage, and then you can will it to prepare for detonation.”
I slowly, gently, placed the black rectangle on the surface of the red triangle, trying to stifle the excited tautness of my muscles.
Then, my instincts screamed at me to duck.
I threw myself to the floor, willing the anti-gravity thrusters to help, and just when my body hit the metal beneath me, I saw – not heard – two silvery tentacles, with spikes on the ends of them plunge themselves into the surface before my face.
My body rolled to the side, my mind throwing myself on my legs, while my left arm formed the golden O of a shield.
I turned just in time to raise my armament, and another two tentacles to stab into it, throwing me a meter or so back.
The Absoli was silent in my ears, with very familiar silence of a jammed comms.
I gritted my teeth, and raised my eyes, to greet my new opponent.
Just another day in the office.
+++
It was very human looking. The correct body proportions of man, two slim legs, two slim arms – though, the claws somewhat spoiled its apparent humanoid features – a head with just two red glowing eyes. And six silvery tentacles with claws on their ends, jutting out of its head, swerving with clearly malicious intent.
Its whole body was silvery and corrugated, the light of unimaginably far-away stars reflecting of its surface.
My enemy was standing on its fours, its lipless mouth soundlessly opening and closing, revealing the insides, flaming with scarlet.
I didn’t waste my breath on pre-fight banter.
The hardlight round missed, singing the red metal, its target jumping up and throwing itself at me, all six tentacles dashing at my face with eager malice.
I stood my ground, and instead of dodging, simply threw the golden sphere at the monster.
It immediately turned in the air, the tentacles scratching the surface of the USO, and throwing it to the side, the sphere flaunting into the open space.
The lack of sound is odd… - a quick thought appeared, before I was focused on the fight at hand again.
The humanoid landed on the surface, and instantly launched itself at me, clawed hands and spiked tentacles reaching for my head.
Two hardlight rounds left my right and left hands, respectively.
The creature's eyes widened – in a very human way – and it shielded itself with its arms and tendrils.
Two silvery tentacles flashed and disappeared, their upper halves violently swerving in random directions into space, while other four received scorched marks and melted in certain parts; unfortunately, its arms received no damage.
It backed away in a very specific direction, and I realized, that it was blocking the bomb with its body.
No matter. I can always come back with another.
I leaped forward, forming a short blade in my hand, with my shield before; it saw my advance, and swung at me with its remining tendrils.
I sliced one off and skidded on my knees, avoiding the other three; I was almost face to face to it, when it cut at me with the clawed hand. I wasn’t quite prepared for such an assault, and only just raised my blade to meet its claws.
A few fingers were sheared of with yellow flashes of hardlight meeting metal, and my blade dug deeper into its palm before its other claws crashed into my side.
I was flung to the side, the visor flashing with the warning of low energy shield energy, I had to make significant effort to stabilize myself, and face my opponent.
It was regenerating. The fucking bastard was regenerating!
Its damaged tendrils were as good as new, while the missing ones slowly reformed themselves. Silvery claws were melting back together, the palm now whole again.
I didn’t miss the spite in its eyes.
Adorable. Go for the head.
I dashed forward, as in – video-game-like dashed, crossing the distance of half a dozen meters in a second, anti-gravity propelling me, holding my hands together, willing the hardlight to become a spear.
The liquid gold eagerly spilled from the bracelets, forming a minimalistic rod with a blade on the tip in my palms.
I was second away from piercing the thing’s head when it moved, and instead I cleaved ofF half of its torso.
The insides of the creatures were bloody red, like the metal on which we fought, blazing scarlet like freshly spilt blood...
Like blood...
Not now, focus!
I swung the spear and caught its second hand before it moved away, the limb losing its silvery shine, and the scarlet shine dying.
It opened and closed its mouth again, the tendrils slashing in vacuum, desperately trying to rend me.
With an uncharacteristic swiftness I spinned the golden spear in my hands, cutting the tentacles in the middle, leaving the severed appendages helplessly drift through space.
Without missing a beat, I leaped in the vacuum, holding my spear in my hands over my head, descending on a barely standing monster, when it looked me directly in the eyes, opened its mouth, and spoke:
“Abomination...” came the raspy, bubbling voice in my ear.
The spear ran through its head a moment later.
+++
I stood over the slowly disintegrating corpse of silvery creature, and felt the boiling storm inside my chest, and the sweet-sweet haze in my head recede.
I coughed, now conscious of a sandpaper-dry throat, and wildly beating heart in my chest.
The spear faded, and I let myself relax, regaining my breath and coherency of thought.
Wow... was that... without a scratch?...
I coughed again, blinking.
And... I lost control... that’s a second time...
I wasn’t very optimistic, about it being the last.
“Absoli?” I twitched, at hearing my voice – it was as if an old man spoke.
“ALEX!” then, I twitched again – Absoli was very loud indeed. “YOU ARE ALIVE!!!”
“Yeah,” I stepped back on the platform, that I accidently floated away from. And move to (thankfully) still intact bomb. Then I stopped, remembering that you only had to order it to blow up mentally. “I am surprised myself... You're certain this thing will only work when I'm far away enough?”
“Yes!... Err, though, perhaps, you should walk away from it anyway... just in case...” they said, sorry clear in their voice.
“’Kay.”
It wasn’t even an explosion – just a great flash of white light, then the middle of the triangle was missing.
Then, we were back on schedule.