Helvlad, known by all Tela as The Last Engineer, glanced across his status update with annoyance. The Last Engineer was a title that he despised. It was a constant reminder of just how bad things had gotten during the Tela's harrowing flight for survival after they lost the war. They had been in such dire times that the escaping colony had assigned quadrants of space to master engineers in charge of staggering and slowing the ever-pursuing enemies. In those days when most of the Tela fighting force had been wiped out, sans but a small elite defensive force, things had been dark and he had only just, in the nick of time, managed to find a flaw in their enemy’s tracking ability.
Thus, he had gained the title “The Last Engineer” after his brother engineers had sacrificed themselves in their attempts to lead the enemy armadas astray. Only Helvlad had succeeded and managed to follow in the wake of the fleeing colonies.
“And it was all because of that cursed AI that we stole.” He said as he remembered how everyone had thought that acquiring it would be a boon for their expansion in the stars. A boon it had been, but always whenever you let something intelligent and aware do the thinking for you, it will always have its own goals. These hidden goals led to the stagnation of his people, their children, and subsequently their futures.
He had seen this firsthand as the ages had passed but had been unable to change the minds of the governments and masses. They finally had control of the cosmos like they had dreamed and nothing he could say would change their minds. AI was the backbone of their control, and they would never see how it was making them lame in their ability to create and imagine.
Thus, he had left, in search of more purpose and stimulation.
Left and found this place.
A dimension that made his own seem pale and weak in terms of energy and potential.
How had he found this place? Simply by following the clues left behind by nearly forgotten ancient aliens. Whoever they were, they used weapons that were impossible to understand and replicate. They had stood on an entirely different level of power and advancement, a level that Helvlad had become obsessed with obtaining as well.
“One day their knowledge and abilities will all be mine. It is just a matter of time.” He said as he glanced out through one of his massive windows overlooking the continual tunnel dimension.
“The view never gets old. It reminds me of what it would be like to live inside of a brain at the microscopic level.” came Q’tell’s voice from the side. Helvlad bobbed his eyestalks in agreement without looking over at the little shared viewing screen. Q’tell had become so integral to his plans that they both worked nearly in lockstep with each other, each pursuing the same goal of dominion over this dimension. Where Helvlad focused on the technology and surface defense side of things, Q’tell focused on biology and defending against what lay under the ground. Together they had mastered more than they ever could have apart.
The natural denizens of this dimension, known as spread, were rather difficult to clear out of an area. They seemed to have a limitless variety of possible traits and mutations, making any area that they had managed exterminate completely to become priceless real estate. Clearing was the hard part, maintaining and keeping an area defended, that was considerably easier to handle.
Helvlad glanced over at several pictures hanging off to the side, his eyestalks vibrating as he took in the captured images. The more difficult, yet not impossible tasks, were the troublesome mega beasts that roamed, ever in the way and on the horizon, that were natural roadblocks to his destiny. Too often those mega creatures had managed to reset his progress simply by passing through one of his territories. Their destructive capabilities were on another level. Their time was limited though. He was slowly developing weapons and armies to get rid of their influence. Once he claimed ownership of this dimension, he could begin to usher the elite Tela, still loyal to him, to become citizens in his personal domain.
As for the black creatures beyond the strange wall? Unknown. They seemed to be caged in an impenetrable barrier set up by the aliens whose legends and mysteries had led him to this dimension. Perhaps they were a case study or a cancer in this dimension? Helvlad didn’t know. They displayed alien traits, even stranger than the myriad that the natural denizens already had. It was almost as though they didn’t belong here. His eye stalks retracted a little as he brooded.
One thing, a vital bit of information that he had collected, was that they hated to be observed by living beings. The key term here was living. Any living creature with ocular organs capable of seeing far enough to observe them simply lost their minds and became empty husks. This power did not transfer to his digital eyes and sensor pods that he had patrolling the sectors of interest. He had been able to study them from a distance through the wall, even going so far as to attempt to count and label them. They never seemed to move, just hovered off in the vast distance with their attention directed down the many pathways that their cut-off space had access to.
They were an anomaly and only recently had he noticed that one of them, relatively smaller than its solar-sized brethren, was missing.
“Helvlad. I have just received an update that one of our pods observing one of the relics just ceased to function.” Q’tell said in an excited tone.
“Oh? Which relic?”
“This one,” Q’tell said as a comprehensive data set flowed into Helvlad’s view before vanishing. It contained all the specifications and observed interactions with the local denizens.
“Ah, the one that the pod had requested an increase in importance and surveillance.”
“Indeed. I am shifting the nearest pod into observational range and checking the logs. Hmm… Nothing of interest was happening… nothing was anywhere near at the time. The pod just seemed to… die.” Q’tell muttered as she scanned through the logs, going further and further back through time to see if anything significant had happened or if something had snuck up on it.
“Inconclusive.” she finished as they both waited for the closest pod to fly up the sector.
“Wait! Slow it down! What is that?” Helvlad commanded as the curving tunnel’s path revealed the area in question. A dark patch of land, something never seen in this dimension spread forth around the tiny relic.
“Get the pod back! Set it to observe at its maximum distance! It looks like one of those alien creatures, the one we labeled as “The Death Waif” has come to visit this sector.” Helvlad said as Q’tell took control of the pod.
“But how? That creature is still slowly wandering off in its sector.” Q’tell said as she verified with the tracking pod set to follow it at a distance.
They both sat in silence as they observed the area around the relic. Nothing moved as the color and light rapidly returned to the resilient matter that made up this dimension.
Nothing happened for a while and they were just beginning to lose interest as the native spread had slowly begun to work its way back into the cleared area around the relic. Then all hell broke loose. With a maddening surge, the field of death around the relic exploded outwards, visually looking like a black hole was ripping the energy from the ground around it.
Helvlad and Q’tell were speechless as they watched the field surge and expand outwards at a crazy speed. Every alien creature, plant, and even the very earth lost their energy and lives as the field grew to fill the vast tunnel around the little relic.
“Back! Back! It is exploding!” Helvlad managed to shout as Q’tell was already whipping the pod backward, away from the field and downside passageways in an attempt to escape the wave that was instant death. When the field didn’t catch up to the pod Q’tell cautiously edged it back towards the relic to further observe what was happening.
“What is going on?” They both said at the same time as they observed the area around the relic as it seemed to ripple with power. The land, made of material that seemed to contain an infinite regenerative supply of energy, was pulsing rapidly as though the field was repeatedly stripping its energy away time and time again. They could see its effects now, invisible waves radiating out in a globe around the relic.
They both watched as the massive tree near the relic crumbled and turned to dust, unable to survive what was happening. Everything organic had already fallen apart within the massive radius of the sphere of negative energy that was being created by the alien device.
“I think something is happening. We need to check on our home dimension and to get a comprehensive update of the news. Something or someone might be causing this, either more meddling from that thief or another event that we are not aware of and we need to step in before it can ruin our plans.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Agreed. I will push a connection probe through to our dimension. Just be aware that it has been ages since we left and some of our tech might have been hacked and be very outdated.” Q’tell said as she set the operation into play. When they both had arrived in this dimension, they had both been so weak, only barely surviving by using their Prime Speed Control keys all the time. Now though, things were different. They had since upgraded their capabilities and harvested new cr with amazing properties. Nothing in their home dimension could stand up to their might when they decided to return and rule.
If they ever desired to rule such a weak and unimpressive dimension that is. Maybe one of their loyal Tela subjects would want the job.
---
The Tela Daily Shell headlines.
Is this Supernova Event the return to war? Fleets of Tela, U’lennea, and other alien species are racing to be the first to lay claim to the anomaly at the center of the Event. Multiple sightings of unidentified vessels and objects have been detected making their way towards the epicenter.
The Solar Citadel is missing and the whereabouts of General Magus is unknown at this time. Please contact Tela Daily with any relevant information for big CR IO payouts!
After a summer off due to Events and software issues, the newly revised Haoolla Defender 2 is scheduled to go live. New limited edition game avatars and playable species are available. See inside for details.
---
Stephany Longford leaned against the back door screen of her parent's farmhouse and gazed up at the distant blue and red-tinged sky. More than two months ago she had been one of the girls trapped down in Mexico, sold as a sex slave to the highest bidder.
She was home now, and she still couldn’t believe it. She still had nightmares and was fearful around men who held predatory looks in their eyes. Stephany was tall and perpetually thin with slight elegant curves that were mostly only seen on Olympic swimmers. This, as well as her bubbly attitude and trusting nature, was one of the reasons why the mob had captured her and a couple of her friends while they were on their senior getaway down in Mexico more than half a year ago.
Her friends hadn’t made it through the ordeal, being split up into other groups and ending up overdosing while in confinement. Stephany survived the longest because she was considered pristine goods and had been marketed to the rich and those in power.
She was home now and felt like she had already died to this life. The world felt dirty and unsafe, nothing like the image she had had of life as a bubbly graduate hoping to take on her next adventure in life.
A ping from her cr bracelet caught her attention and made her glance away from the slowly moving clouds in the distance and to the text that hovered above her hand.
All drugs, foreign organisms, and physical resulting trauma have been removed and erased from your body.
Only the mind remains.
You can get through this Stephany.
Out of habit, she reached down to pull at the elastic of her pants to check her hip, sure enough, the scars from the rope that had kept her tied up in the back of the kidnap van were finally gone. She had struggled hard in the first few hours of being captured and had managed to damage her delicate skin on the rope as she had tried to free herself and her friends. The scars on her wrist had been the first things to go and she had been keeping track of the rest just to prove to herself that what the strange black thing on her wrist said was true.
She was whole again. No scars, no STDs, and no chemical longings remained inside her body.
Yet, she still felt lost.
She went back to leaning against the door frame, her mind empty and her emotions dull to this life and the slowly swaying tree branches outside.
Her eyes refused to focus on anything, not even the stunningly beautiful blue bird that came to land on one of the branches in search of nest material. Stephany just stayed still like she had been since she was rescued, hoping that no one would take notice of her again in this life and use her.
The sound of thunder rolled off in the distance, nearly drawing her attention as the strangeness of the sound contrasted with the perfectly calm and beautiful sky. What did surprise her and cause the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end was the sudden soft inhale of breath behind her.
She was supposed to be home alone today, her mother and father had gone out together to buy groceries at the local farmer's market. They weren’t due to be back for at least another hour.
With eyes wide, fearful and expectant at seeing her captors again she turned slowly, still trained not to run away when caught. Her ability to run away had been one of the first things that they had made sure to break from her mind during the first couple of months of getting ready for her to be sold.
Instead of Marco, one of her handlers that she still had nightmares of, there stood a rather pretty-looking girl. The girl looked slightly middle eastern with delicate yet prominent features and long brown hair. She was almost as tall as Stephany yet seemed to carry herself as though height didn’t matter to her, as though no one could look down on her.
The most stunning thing about her, what caught and drew Stephanie’s attention like a firefly sparkling in the darkness, was the girl’s eyes.
They shone in the shaded darkness like glistening opals that her mother sometimes wore when her father would take her out on dates.
“Hi Stephany, my name is Nurse, and I am here to fast-track your mind.” She said as she moved her arm, lifting and extending her hand up to Stephany as though she was offering something, or waiting to take Stephany’s hand in her own.
The movement was so fluid and smooth yet somehow alien, causing Stephany’s eyes to track and focus on the shadows that made up this person in front of her instead of the highlights.
She remembered the darkness. It had crept through the walls and had saved her.
Had saved her and brought her home.
---
When Don and Margaret Longford arrived home an hour and a half later, they stepped into a house that felt different. The shadow, the dark brooding presence that had come home with their beloved daughter seemed to have fled and in its place was a single bright light.
“Honey…” Margaret whispered as they both heard something coming from the living room. It was something that they had cried for and longed to hear again. Something that they had thought had died when their daughter had been abducted.
It was the sound of Stephany’s sweet hopeful laugh. Sure, it wasn’t her carefree bubbly laughter, but this one had a lightness and presence to it. As though, regardless of everything that had happened, the person laughing still had hope and had rediscovered a piece of what she had lost.
The pair quietly set their sacks of produce on the counter before inching their way toward the wide doorway that would lead into the living room. The backdoor was wide open, and the screen door had a stone propping it open as well. Stephany sat cross-legged in the doorway, leaning back against another girl who sat close to her with her arms wrapped around their daughter’s waist and holding her exactly like Stephany's mother did when she was a child. The resemblance in posture and seeming affection was uncanny, almost making it seem as though the girl holding their daughter was considerably older than she appeared and cared more for their daughter than could be possible, seeing as they had never seen her before.
It was a surreal scene, not something that they expected to see today after all of the trauma that their little girl had been through.
The laughter, the sweetest sound in the world, coming from their daughter was directed at the little blue bird that she had perched on her thumb as it ate from her open palm.
Don and Margaret stood utterly still as they watched their daughter feed the little bird, giggling as it hopped fearlessly from finger to finger while looking for a perfect morsel for its next meal. The bird even seemed to be showing off, trying to sing to Stephany and show off its lovely plumage in between bites.
The girl whom Stephany was leaning against slowly turned her head to look over at Don and Margaret, strangely as though she had known they were there the whole time.
Things got even more strange in the next moment when the girl simply fell apart, turning into dust that dispersed without leaving a trace on the floor. The bird chirped and flew off to a nearby tree in the backyard, its job done for the moment as their daughter realized that her parents were home.
“Mom! Dad!”