"What's the problem?" I demanded as Carrie and I came to a stop in front of Jinks and her second-in-command.

"You said that we were to send for you if anyone tried to get close to the object," she said. "You didn't tell me what to do when the object started glowing."

"It's glowing?" Carrie asked. "How bright? What color?"

"Are there any other reactions?" I asked.

"None that I've noticed," Jinks said. "And the light is white, and the glow is barely visible."

"It started to do it just after I took over for the Principality while she went to get some food and sleep," the Wing beside her said. "I contacted her immediately and from there she contacted you."

"Let's go," I said. "Carrie I want you to stay back and be ready to enact breach protocols. If this is dangerous then I don't want it being let out to do whatever it wants to do."

"Will do," she answered. "I think you should wear some sort of protective gear, if this is giving off some sort of radiation, then we can't have you getting sick because of it."

"I have a spare set of armor that can fit you Demigod, sir," the Wing said. "Please follow me and I'll take you to it."

While the Wing led me to the spare armor set, Jinks and Carrie left to enter the observatory area that I had built around the obelisk to make guarding it easier and allow us to observe it without coming into contact with it with protection. The armor the Wing had available for me was the standard white with an emerald trim so it was probably his. Once I was dressed in it, I followed the Wing to the airlock that doubled as a decontamination zone and waited for the pressurized air and chemical to finish cleaning any contagions from me before entering into the obelisk's containment zone.

The obelisk hadn't changed in the ten months that I'd been working to clear the planet of Scourge; ten feet high, words carved into it in English, and more questions than answers all around. Now, like Jinks and her Wing said, it was glowing softly, giving off a white light in a two foot radius around it. The words hadn't changed and the whole thing was still embedded in the ground like someone had planted it there.

I approached the obelisk and opened a communication line with Carrie.

"This is definitely glowing," I said. "Any ideas for why?"

"Not a one," Carrie said. "Touka says that the instruments and sensors aren't finding anything unusual about it, so whatever's happening is just visual or we don't have the ability to detect it."

"All of the sensors are reading that everything is normal? That's weird," I said. "Has anyone reported being sick or noticed anything on Jinks' end?"

"She says that everything's been fine," Carrie answered. "No one reported being sick and no one's had any sort of hallucination or other issue."

"I'm thinking of doing something dumb," I told her.

"Of course you are," she said. "Don't do it."

"I'm already here," I pointed out. "If something goes wrong I'd rather it be me that takes the brunt of it than someone else."

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Rickshaw, you are the Demigod," Carrie said firmly. "You are the one that makes the plans and sends people to enact them. You don't need to be the one to find out every little thing that's wrong with stuff."

"Fine," I said. I didn't like sending other people to figure out was wrong with something that could cause more problems for them than I could understand. I turned to look at the Wing that had alerted us all and escorted me here.

"You want to do something stupid for me?" I asked him. "Carrie's telling me that I can't do this so I need someone else to volunteer."

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"I want you to approach the obelisk and allow us to observe any reactions that might come up," I told him. "Don't touch it. Just get closer, into the light, I feel like that's the biggest issue."

With a nod the Wing walked closer to the obelisk and Cai and the other Cybers began to work overtime to examine everything with the instruments and sensors that were available. Just before he entered the light the Wing paused and looked back at me hesitantly. I nodded to encourage him and he took one more step forward.

Only to have absolutely nothing happen. I motioned for him to continue and he shuffled closer to the obelisk and raised his hand as if to touch it before stopping and looking back at me.

"Carrie, you finding anything up there?" I asked her.

"Nothing," she said. "Wing, I'm in contact with your Cyber. If anything happens we'll know. Touch the obelisk."

"Yes, ma'am," the Wing said before extending his gloved hand the rest of the way and laying it on the obelisk.

Again nothing happened and the Wing removed his hand. I waved him back to me and every step he took was scrutinized by more sensors and instruments with nothing having changed about any of it.

"Thank you," I told him sincerely. "Now stay here and keep an eye out. Carrie and I touched it before it had English on it and we both saw different things, so, I'm going to touch it now. Keep those instruments rolling everyone."

"Rickshaw, don't you dare," Carrie said as I stepped into the light and the color changed to a soft blue color. I froze and looked around.

"Cai, what's up?" I asked.

"The obelisk appears to be gathering energy for some purpose," he told me.

"We're reading energy spikes," Carrie said.

I stepped back and the light remained blue.

"The energy is still spiking," Carrie said. "Get out of there, Rickshaw. We don't know what's going on."

"Let's go," I said to the Wing and turning around to make my way to the airlock. We made it back to the doors and had entered the decontamination unit when the light went out.

"What's happening now?" I asked Carrie.

"That energy is collected and not decaying," she told me. "All readings say that it's stable. I think it's safe to reapproach."

"You want to stay here or come with me?" I asked the Wing.

"I'll come with you sir," he said. "It's not everyday you get to interact with an alien artifact that no one knows about."

We approached the obelisk again and I noticed a change right away.

"The words are different," I told Carrie.

"What do they say?" she asked.

"'Touch,'" I read out. "That's it. Just 'touch,' nothing else.

"Weird," she said.

"Do you want me to touch it, sir?" the Wing asked.

"Are you volunteering?" I asked in return.

He nodded and reached out to touch the obelisk.

"Got nothing," he said. "No jolt, visions, or voices."

"His Cyber also says that there was no reaction," Carrie added.

"You don't think this thing wants me to touch it do you?" I asked skeptically.

"It reacted when you walked into the light and it shifted the letters after you touched it the first time," Carrie said. "Maybe it likes you?"

"The inanimate object that we don't understand likes me?" I said. "That sounds ridiculous."

"I know, but it's the best explanation I've got right now," she said. "Go on, you wanted to touch it from the start anyways. Wing keep an eye on the Demigod for me, we'd all be a little lost without him."

"Yes, ma'am," the Wing said.

"Here goes nothing," I muttered and reached my hand out to the obelisk.

There was a reaction. My vision faded and I blinked to clear my eyes before seeing a room. The room was maybe fifteen feet by fifteen feet and the was a table with a pair of chairs place across from one another. Seated in one of the chairs was an alien; one of the ones I'd seen in the last vision, a Rif'nay'fex.

"Greetings, Second Strain," it spoke. "Please sit, we have much to discuss."