Believe it or not, Hunger was the second ability and being that I managed to connect with. I found the trigger after spending hours messing around with Loss’s power. Loss’s ability “Depletion” manifested a problematic effect when it was used too often before the surrounding matter of this dimension could regenerate.
To limit the amount of time I used up testing out how to get Focus or Willpower to work, I used my swarm version of my Prime Speed Control key to freeze the world around me. This allowed me to see just how fast I could force Loss’s depletion aura into the surroundings and how often I could cause it to pulse, draining everything within its radius.
I quickly found the limit and a mountain of agony as my ability turned its ugly head against me when it couldn’t find anything to consume. This agony turned my world into a living hell and caused me to understand what Hunger truly was. As the depletion aura cored me out, it left me feeling hollow and ravenous for anything and everything! This inspiration and suffering caused Hunger’s ability to balloon into the pit that Loss left, creating an ability that felt like a ravenous stomach. Hunger it seemed, wasn’t about consuming something, no, rather the ability caused something to expand exponentially. In this case, the depletion aura expanded, causing it to kill off the entire section of the tunnel around the relic, rather than just several hundred feet around it.
It was horrible. I had become death and everything around me was now a massive graveyard. Even the tree no longer held even a shred of life, having turned into a shriveled statue of a tree. Its bark was now porous and resembled sandstone, having repeatedly been depleted nearly to death several times before finally meeting its end.
“Kevin, what a joyous discovery. Loss said that you were trying to reach us.” came a faint voice from beyond the boundaries of my mental space, making me realize that I had managed to connect with the neverending biomass that was known as Hunger.
“Hunger!” I said as I invited the odd being inside. Again, just like last time, what manifested in front of me was nothing like the form that Hunger had managed to grow into. Before me was a tiny set of spiky teeth barely jutting from a shallow bit of gelatin that resembled a wad of used chewing gum.
“Huh…” I said as I looked at the tiny being. “Your designers really didn’t do you all any favors starting out, did they?”
“They gifted myself and eighty-seven of my fellow brethren with a tool of a body that they hoped would thrive. It was all for my benefit in the end. My fellow brothers nourished me and allowed me to mature enough to be the one implanted with the prized concept orb.”
“You ate the other versions of yourself that the designers created?”
“Yes, there is only one orb to be gained per creature design.”
“Ok… so… what was that about concept orbs?” I asked, no longer surprised at their true nature. If anything, the savage nature of the Hive Mother should have clued me into this dog-eat-dog world a long time ago.
“Each of us, when we grow large enough to be implanted and when all of our brethren have either died or been absorbed, become bearers of our concept. These orbs house the knowledge of an ability that is tailored to our designed bodies. We are intrinsically linked to it. My concept is “Expansion” and I achieve that through my cells and continually growing.”
“You know your names all seem a little messed up, right? Loss and Hunger are backward to how I think they would work. Loss feasts where Hunger grows… hmm never mind,” I commented, getting lost in thought.
“By the way, would the concept orbs happen to be this size and invisible?” I said, holding up my hand to shape my fingers into a golf ball-sized circle.
“Indeed they would.”
“And why are they invisible?”
“Originally they weren't. From my memories of a Designer speaking about them, they contain all manner of lights and waves. Since they don’t originate from this dimension there are no means to see the energy that they emit.”
“So, what happens to the concept orb when one of you dies?”
“They are lost forever unless one of us finds them. I personally have several being held within my body though I am unable to attune to the concepts within them. They belonged to other creations that were killed by the denizens of this world.”
“Not by you?”
“No, we creations are only allowed to kill our own kind. Denizens and others are fair game.”
“Do you know how I can turn off an ability that I attune to?”
“No, not really. It is what makes us what we are.”
I felt like I was playing twenty questions with Hunger. Some answers were giving me priceless troves of information while others were leading me nowhere. I decided to continue at it regardless, just in case I would stumble on something invaluable like Loss’s revelation that I might kill everyone around me when I got back. I had figured out a workaround for that problem, simply by turning off any sad emotional response. It wasn't an ideal solution, but one that would keep people safe until I could get a grip on things.
“You aren’t going to die instantly if I keep you here longer are you?” I asked, just wanting to make sure.
“Not at all likely. I haven’t encountered a lifeform yet that knows my weakness.”
“And that is?”
“An environmental effect, charged particles that lead to a burst of energy. I stay away from realms that generate that phenomenon.”
“Your weakness is electricity?” I asked, bringing up an image of lightning. The little toothy blob quivered in abject fear.
“Indeed, but it looks more like this.” Hunger said before showing me red and purple bolts that only vaguely resembled the lightning that I grew up seeing on Earth. From what Hunger showed me, they seemed to build up and move considerably slower than the near-instantaneous bolts I knew, obliterating everything they touched.
I coughed into my hand, hoping that my advice might help. I couldn’t afford for someone like The Last Engineer to figure this out and to wipe this creature from existence.
“Well, here is a little advice then, you need to create grounding rods.”
“Please explain.”
“A grounding rod is something that will conduct the charge into something else, in your case, the ground underneath you. In my dimension, we use metal, though I am unsure what material is similar in this dimension. It needs to penetrate into the ground, giving the energy something to travel through and disperse into rather than through your body.”
“Easier than my body?” It said as it quivered in thought. “I will test this, I have an extension near a hazardous zone like this that I can try different materials out on. Thank you for your assistance.”
“No problem,” I said before broaching a topic that had suddenly become very valuable to me now that I understood that the male drone swarm were in fact all holding concept orbs of dead creations. “So, how did the Designers attune you to your concept?”
“As I said, once the prerequisites of size and being the sole survivor we simply would come here, interface with the hub, and it would be given to us.”
“This thing?” I asked, showing the simple yet ever-increasing in value relic that I was currently inside.
“Indeed.”
It was too good to be true. I just had to get my hands on all of the orbs that were just laying around out there. A little voice in the back of my head drew my attention to the fact that I already had to neuter my emotional depth all because of Loss’s ability and it worried that I would become an emotionless zombie if I absorbed too many abilities.
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I realized this and totally agreed with the warning. I also understood that I couldn’t under any circumstance just leave powerful tools like this out where someone could find it. They each held concepts from a higher dimension and held powers on a cataclysmic level of destruction if wielded incorrectly. The best I could do would be to safeguard them, even if I couldn’t use them myself.
“Could you show me on a map where your body mass extends?” I asked as I set my perfect memory to studying the image that it displayed for me. “Also, please start shuffling every concept orb that you have to the closest point here,” I said as I found the closest tail end of Hunger. It was still a great distance from the relic but at least it could be reached.
“As you wish. It will take a little time, I have several and they are spread out over great distances.”
“That is fine. Just stay safe.” I said before another question popped into my mind. Unless I was mistaken, the relic that I resided inside of currently was relatively close to the odd bone spike that I had seen hear the barrier to where the Void creatures lived. The relics didn’t resemble each other at all but after talking to Hunger about its Designers for a while I began to suspect that everything left behind was connected and held a purpose.
“Hunger?”
“Yes?”
“Let me take a wild guess here and ask you a question. Do the concept orbs have something to do with powering the barriers?”
“Indeed. This is the crux of everything. Back when there were many of us, we could keep the shields full regardless of how often the Void tested the barrier. They used to test it bodily like the creature that imprisoned you. They wouldn’t self-sacrifice as yours did, but they would still put as much pressure on the shield as possible before resting. These days they all release a constant stream of spores to continually keep pressure on the shields. Our Designers didn’t know if that was a sign of intelligence or just a clever way to keep tabs on something that was keeping it from domination.”
“But how exactly does it power the shields?”
Hunger was quiet for a few moments, causing me to wonder if it was going to answer. It sat there quivering and rotating its mouth in a circular motion. It almost looked like it was experiencing a computer loading screen.
“You possess an organ that pumps continually throughout your life, yes?”
“Do you mean a heart? I used to have one, yes. Now, I don’t know what I have.”
“Well… the concept orb can be likened to a human’s heart and the power that it uses is us, the blood. The heart only takes a little portion to function, nothing that the body would notice, and the body gives everything that the blood needs and continually makes more.”
“It takes… what? Your thoughts?”
“Unknown.”
“Your soul?”
“Unknown.”
“Your spirit?”
“Unknown.”
“Ok… good talk, I guess,” I said just about ready to let it return to its body before an idea flashed into my mind.
“Hunger! I need you to ask the other four to describe the basis of their abilities. You and Loss describe your abilities as “expansion” and “depletion” so surely the rest might have similar concepts that might guide me.”
"I will do as you command."
---
“Captain, we have lost all of our scout pods and one of our forward research vessels. It seems that there are undetectable monsters hidden within the supernova near the anomaly.” One of the deck officers announced from their place on the VR deck of their ship.
“Monsters?”
“Indeed, captain. They consumed the pods and the ship before they could escape. Even using maximum power.”
“Mark the location on the screen and let's test the waters before we head in.” the captain commanded before making a call to several mercenary U’lennea vessels under contract following their fleet.
“Your orders?” Came a slow and low voice into the captain’s headset.
“You are clear to engage and kill anything you wish within this sector. Just clear a way for us.”
“May we use all of our weapons?” the disturbing voice replied after a brief moment.
“No, keep it only to non-permanent munitions, we want to pass through this area of space, not make it into a skism sector or a fragment grave.” The captain replied.
“As you wish. We will use long-range munitions then; our scans showed the lethality of the creatures that attacked your vessel.” the U’lennea said before chuckling to itself as though it knew something that the captain did not. They always seemed to be doing that for some reason.
The captain disconnected the line and sat back to watch the dozens of strange U’lennea ships as they began bombarding the dense cloud that remained of the star system that was destroyed in the supernova. They still had quite a distance to go yet before they reached the anomaly. A buzz notification of classified information popped up in the captain’s vision, causing the aged Tela’s armor plates to clench in frustration as he read the message. The captain knew better than to curse the secretive ancient Tela who were monitoring his progress aloud. It seemed that they already knew about the invisible monsters and even knew where they came from and what drew them to the Tela vessels.
“Chief mate, instruct navigation on all vessels to not, under any circumstance, use Tela propulsion technology. That is an explicit order. Any violation will result in death and seizure of all property of those who do so.” The captain ordered.
“Yes, captain. Going in only using standard propulsion drives.” The chief mate said before instructing each vessel to reconfigure to the basic technology that lesser races other than the Tela were forced to rely upon.
“This is going to be a long operation.” The chief mate thought to herself as she oversaw the rapid conversion being conducted by their engineers.
---
“We need to send more ships.” a voice said in the empty appearing meeting hall. The only indication that members were present was the occasional reflection of movement through transparent apparitions scattered around the massive space. Ages passing had led the more ancient of Tela controlling families to obfuscate the meeting location, allowing only members who proved themselves worthy to know their true house name. Members spoke without identifying themselves, knowing full well the weight behind their words and that their wishes would be acted upon by the collective. They had been in power so long that they almost resembled a hive mind.
Such was the result of ascending beyond mortal flesh and existing within an endless digital space.
“We need to do more, I think. Maybe even prepare for war. I believe that this event ties to other anomalies. They reek of the Last Engineer returning. Several of us believe that he is showing us his power.”
“You still believe that he went rogue? Do you have any proof?”
“Besides the fact that he hasn’t held up his agreement to communicate? He destroyed an entire Core!”
“Allegedly. Stupidity and greed might have been other factors. We don’t promote research into alternative harvesting techniques because of the danger that it entails.”
“Artifacts, the exact same ones that he was studying before he vanished have begun to disappear from museums and private collections.” A different voice called out from the emptiness. It seemed that several of the houses were in communication with each other regarding this manner and had been putting their collective theories together.
“What artifacts? Skism weapons?”
“These,” the voice answered before an image of a male drone swarm clutching an invisible orb appeared in the air above the collective.
“We believe that his research has concluded, wherever he is, and he is returning to assume power.”
“It has been a long time. We almost had begun to suspect that he had died, as implausible as that seems considering his penchant for surviving while conducting dangerous research. He always said that whoever could master the power that stars contained would rule all of the cosmos.”
“Does this have anything to do with the leaked information about a covert lab complex set up around a remote star?” Another voice spoke up.
“Unknown. We were unable to capture the one responsible. It is either the Last Engineer, a possible accomplice, or a new third party. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the future, we discovered more hidden labs in remote locations.”
“Is it true that the star, specifically the sunspots, showed signs of damage?”
“Indeed. Scans have shown that a weapon capable of penetrating cr and the material inside the sunspots that we have never been able to harvest has been used.”
“We have also detected something moving towards the most recent supernova event. It might hold organic life, judging by how it is protecting its cargo by keeping its acceleration within certain limits.”
“Indeed we as well have detected more anomalies that are heading towards the supernova. Some objects have been moving at speeds unheard of previously. The only way we discovered them was because they broke through consecutive relay paths between inhabited systems, thereby allowing us to determine that their path was straight and to predict where they were heading.”
A brooding silence overtook the meeting hall as each ancient Tela family processed the shared information.
“Regardless of who is behind this, they have proven that the supernova event holds something of great value. Enough for them to show their hand. It doesn’t matter if it is the Last Engineer or a new third party, we can’t allow it to fall into their hands. We risk losing a potential bargaining chip that could be the beginning of the end for us all. We Tela have made countless enemies by enforcing our Arbiter law and trade domains. We can not afford to lose control, the stakes are too high.”
“Agreed” came from a unanimous chorus of voices around the hall.
“Secure whatever lies at the heart of the event. Send everything, even our armament of skism weapons. If it looks like we will not be able to maintain control, use the scorched-space policy. If we can’t have it, no one can.”
The air practically shimmered with the dark mood that fell over those gathered as they each considered the implications of what doing so would bring. They each owned an armament of relic weapons, obtained by force from various places and races after the Tela had risen to power, and they fully understood the gravity of using such weapons. The skism weapons were from an ancient alien race whose technology far surpassed anything created by anyone even until this day. They were the ultimate weapon, resulting in the complete death of all life wherever they were used.
“Agreed.” Each of them said before they quickly began to vanish, leaving the hall empty save for one member who remained.
"Well, hopefully, that bit of meddling will remove some troublesome players from the board." The shadowy figure muttered before they vanished as well.