Elijah was bored and the Oridians had nothing in entertainment here. The encampment, however, was in a constant state of activity, given its proximity to the siege. During his time here he saw several large caravans depart, hauling various goods: weapons, food, and raw materials
There were also some aircraft that flew overhead with a variety of designs, some seemed to be made out of plants and wood, some metal, and Elijah believed he saw one made out of bone.
It had been a full day since he ‘decided’ to stay in the encampment. Magic couldn’t entirely replace natural rest since he felt tired an hour after waking up.
Currently, he was washing his face at a magic sink. But for some odd reason, the Oridians did not have showers or baths available, leaving Elijah feeling quite icky.
Today, Elijah along with Dimo, Turom, and a mercenary team would travel back to the Rodona to get it back online. From what he heard from Turom, their superiors wanted Elijah off the planet as soon as possible.
He walked outside his temporary home where Turom was waiting. Yesterday, he found out that Turom was a she. Elijah couldn’t yet tell the difference between a male and female Oridian, so it didn’t come as a big surprise.
Turom looked up from their book, “Ready, Scholar?”
“Ready”
Turom walked toward one of the 2 gates and Elijah followed closely behind. Although Elijah still felt uncomfortable being surrounded by so many Oridians, they didn’t seem to care about his presence. He expected to be hounded by questions, yet that didn’t happen. Aside from Dimo’s initial curiosity about himself, every Oridian in the encampment seemed used to seeing other species. Plus there were the soulless.
Eventually, they reached the gate. At the top of the walls were multiple Oridians armed with bows and javelins, there were also ballistae at certain intervals.
At the foot of the gate were Dimo and the mercenary team. Dimo was off to the side staring into the forest while the mercenaries were speaking among themselves.
It was the same team that Elijah saw a couple of days ago. The green dwarf, about half of Elijah’s height, had large, pointy, droopy ears and daggers on their hip. It wore leather armor and a backpack and spoke loudly to its teammates despite its small stature. It reminded him somewhat of a goblin from fantasy.
Right next to the goblin-esque alien was their completely armored-encased brethren. Not a sliver of skin was exposed to the outside. The armored dwarf carried a spear and shield and held their head up high with confidence. They had a thicker build than their compatriot and seemed content to stand unmoving.
The last member had vague feminine features, with sickly pale skin, and jet-black hair. Her ears were pointy, reminiscent of an elf, and a scar was on her forehead as if something was ripped out. She wore leather armor and had a bow and quiver strapped across her back. Her gaze was unfocused as her green teammate spoke.
Three new intelligent species that humanity had never seen before, and on top of that they were humanoid. Just one humanoid species was an exciting discovery, let alone three at the same time. And Elijah was, presumably, the first human to meet them.
Once they walked close enough, the mercenaries stopped talking and turned to them. Dimo noticed and directed his attention as well.
“Mercenaries,” Turom addressed. “Simple job today. We are to escort Elijah back to his ship and get it into the sky with the methods you prepared.”
The goblin spoke and gestured to Elijah. Turom nodded and quickly used the translation spell.
“I hate this spell, you need more practice Oridian,” It said while holding its head.
“Anyways, you understand me… Xalari? No, not Xalari, I’ll call you creature for now. Creature, what does your ship run on?”
“Uh Electricity,” Elijah replied. It was strange being called a creature by something shorter than him, but he didn’t mind it. As long as they could power his ship, he would be fine with anything.
“Electricity, very simple, we can do that,” The goblin took something out of its backpack and started to discuss it with its teammates.
“Let us start this journey then,” Turom commanded. “Try to keep quiet during this, the soulless are not the only danger in the forest.”
Everyone started walking to the forest. Dimo and the armored dwarf were leading at the front, Elijah and Dimo were in the middle, and the last two mercenary members were at the back.
Despite the sun hanging high overhead, the thick foliage of the trees darkened the forest. To Elijah’s eyes, it was just like a regular forest on Earth. A bunch of green leaves, some distinct bright plants, and a cacophony of sounds.
Although he was in a novel situation, he was nervous more than anything. Would his ship still be there in one piece? Perhaps the Oridians stationed there had already fallen to a soulless assault. He remembered Turom’s urgency when she found his ship wasn’t mana-based.
He’ll know in several hours.
***
The trip through the forest was utterly uneventful. Although Elijah was thankful for that, it didn’t help that he maintained a hyper-intense focus for the majority of it.
Exiting the forest, Elijah was greeted with a familiar sight. The Rodona was in the same spot and undamaged from what he could see. Behind it was the glittering purple sea, and up above was the vibrant Ortuvia.
There was a group of 4 Oridians seated around the ship and a small pile of soulless bodies was off to the side. Small dug-up patches of grass were the only indication of yesterday’s battle. Turom and the others walked to the waiting Oridians.
Elijah looked at the spot where he almost died, a pool of dried blood under a broken rock dome. Smart glass shards were scattered across the ground. His heart sped up as he walked closer. It seemed that the soulless had almost finished the job when he passed out.
//Go through his thoughts?
He knelt and reattached the salvageable shards to his suit. The shards morphed and reshaped themselves, building upon each other in the shape of his bubble-like helmet. Once it finished there was only a fist-sized gap left. As for the unusable shards, he would keep them as well. They could be recycled and Elijah didn’t want to leave the soulless anything.
“That’s some advanced technology.”
Elijah tensed and quickly spun around, his hand moved towards his hip.
“Woah, didn’t think you’d jump like that.”
The armored dwarf held their hands in a placating gesture and took a step back, Elijah found it oddly human-like.
“Sorry, I was too focused on the ground,” he turned back to his search and tried to loosen up.
“Heard you got stabbed… You should wear a full-body suit of armor next time,” Elijah heard a metallic thud behind him. “Although it can get a bit hot sometimes. Safety first. And what is that glass?”
Elijah picked up a shard off the ground and faced the dwarf. He was sure this was the last one.
“Smart glass,” he showed it to the dwarf, ignoring its previous suggestion, “Really useful and convenient. Although it’s not really made of glass, it has the appearance of it. It can show me useful data I need to be aware of, depending on the system. Also, it’s pretty durable and most importantly reusable, to an extent.”
The armored dwarf was unmoving and examined the shard for a few seconds, “Interesting. You must live near the fringe since you haven’t awakened yet”
“Yeah, never heard of or seen mana before.”
Elijah heard shouting and looked toward it. It was Turom, she was by one of the ship doors waving her hands.
“Let’s go see if we can get you and your ship out of here.”
Elijah nodded and pocketed the shard. After a short walk, he was once again near his ship.
“Scholar, where should we try our methods?” Turom asked.
“What have you prepared?”
Turom glanced at the goblin. It then took a contraption out of its backpack. The contraption was about the size of a tissue box and a thick cord dangled in the air. The cord seemed to be the right thickness to fit into the ship's charging port, as for the end of it… maybe they had something extra to ensure it connects correctly. No pain in trying.
“No need to go inside, we can charge it from out here. At least I think so,” Elijah said. “Follow me.”
One of the charging ports was on the side of the ramp, so they didn’t have to walk very far. A few moments later they were in front of the cap that covered it. Quickly undoing some latches, the cap opened up revealing a large socket.
“Here it is.”
The goblin silently stepped up to inspect the socket and Elijah gave it room. He was interested to see how the box worked, really he would be interested in any alien technology.
The goblin immediately started, it tapped a screen on the side of the contraption, and then it held the plug of the cord in front of the socket. It didn’t take long for the plug to morph into the correct shape. Once it was done, the goblin simply pushed it into the socket seamlessly.
Elijah found this particular alien tech underwhelming as humans already invented this a couple of centuries ago. He expected something a bit different, something more advanced. However, on second thought maybe they held out on more advanced technology because of the soulless threat.
He looked at the contraption held by the goblin and its connection to his ship. He also should’ve checked the contraption before they plugged it in. Hopefully, Edgar can identify any abnormalities, if there were any.
“Scholar, can you check if this is working,” Turom asked.
“Of course. Be right back,” Elijah replied.
He quickly entered his ship and headed straight for the cockpit. He hoped that the alien battery would be enough for him to start his ship so that he could quickly head back home. Jax was probably wondering why he was running late, best to send a message to Earth as soon as he could.
Entering the cockpit, Elijah ignored the beautiful view and stared at the 1% on the power display which quickly changed to a 2%. He smiled, at the rate that it was charging he could probably leave within the next ten minutes.
He leisurely walked back to aft, now that he confirmed that the battery could transfer power. Exiting his ship, Elijah saw that the mercenaries were seated in a circle, relaxing.
“Does it work, scholar?”
Elijah turned to Turom who was currently examining his ship, “It does, I should be able to start my ship in a couple of minutes.”
“That is good news,” Turom said then added, “I wish that we met under better circumstances,”
“Me too. Again, thank you for saving my life. I don’t think I can say it enough,” he said with a smile.
“You are once again, welcome,” Turom said with a grunt, turning towards him. “Heading home I assume? Once you are able.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Yeah, I got a brother waiting for me”
“Do you know where to go?”
“I’m sure my ship will know,” Elijah thought about it more, if Edgar landed here instead of Earth then maybe not.
“I hope it does. And if it does not, here.” Turom rummaged through her bags and pulled out a piece of paper and a thin book.
“What’s this?” he asked while taking it from her. An unknown string of characters was on the paper and a quick glance at the book’s cover showed the same.
“The paper contains spatial coordinates to a planet called Gudrun. The book will teach you Adontian and how to interpret the spatial coordinates,” she gestured to the mercenaries. “Gudrun is where we hired them, a planet of various species. I am sure you will find help there if you can not find your way home.”
“Thank you, Turom” he pocketed the paper and book in his available hip slot. Gudrun, another unknown planet, if it wasn’t as dangerous as Rotia he would visit it. “Will you join the siege at Donia once I leave?”
“As much as I want to. My place is not on the battlefield.”
“You fought really well from what I remember,” Though he also had no idea how to fight.
“All Oridians know how to fight and although I find it thrilling, I am far below the average warrior.”
“If you are worse than the average warrior then it’s no surprise to me that you are about to win against the soulless.”
Turom laughed, in that same oddly terrifying way. “Thank you, scholar Elijah, for your confidence in us. Although we are about to win this battle with some help, the war is far from over. Once we drive them from Rotia, we will attack them at their source.”
“They aren’t from here?” Elijah asked. He had assumed that the soulless were made here.
“No, they are from another solar system, teleported here using the network we had with the civilization there,” Turom said. “That civilization is gone, destroyed by the soulless from what we heard.”
Interstellar teleportation, how many light years away was this solar system? Was teleportation costly in any way? Elijah wished that humans could have this as well, one second you’re home, the next you’re at the grocery store.
“Then you’ll do the same? Attack through the teleportation network?” he asked.
Turom shook their head, “No, we have been destroying the nodes as we pushed the soulless back, to prevent further reinforcements.”
“Ah right, that makes sense.”
Before Turom could speak, the goblin walked towards them holding the contraption above its head.
“Oridian and creature! The batteries are empty, we have no more!”
The Oridian turned to the mercenary and spoke a few words that the spell didn’t translate. A moment later the goblin was walking back towards its teammates, a grin plastered on its face.
“I suppose that’s my cue to leave,” Elijah said, not sure what to make of the goblin’s… antics?
“It appears so, scholar. I wish you safe travels and may we meet again,” Turom said with a half bow.
Although Elijah felt inclined to say something about bowing, he was probably never going to see Turom ever again so he let the Oridian have its bow.
“Ah but before I leave, two quick questions,”
Turom straightened her back and stared at him, waiting.
He debated inwardly on if he should even ask this, but with their magic, it could provide a unique perspective on what he was experiencing.
“Uh well, every time before I head to sleep, I see this ‘screen’ that I can only assume describes myself, any thoughts on what it could be? And I can still take the soulless bodies right?” he asked.
“Of course, we have a lot to spare,” she replied. “As for your first question, have you never experienced this before?”
“Never.”
“Peculiar… You do not need to worry, however, I have that as well as every other being. It is your ‘reflection’ and as you change and experience life it will reflect those changes.”
“So it’s not harmful in any way? Is this similar to your translation spell by any chance?” Elijah asked, wanting a bit more explanation.
“It is not and my spell, though impressive, does not compare to a law of nature. I suppose those on the fringe have never had this in addition to mana. But again, I assure you it is completely harmless,” Turom replied.
“Alright,” he replied uncertainly, he would definitely hop into the medical capsule once the ship was back online though. This ‘reflection’ that was in his head was not natural.
A few uncomfortable seconds of silence passed.
“Uh, could you help me with moving the soulless bodies onto my ship?” Elijah asked.
Turom nodded, “Of course.”
***
“Anything?” Elijah asked. Once more stepping out of the medical capsule.
He was in the medbay, it was about the same size as the cryo room with the main centerpiece being the capsule he just stepped out of. There were medical supplies and kits in nearby cabinets meant for either resupplying the capsule or to be used elsewhere.
“You are a perfectly healthy 25 year old, sir,” Edgar replied, his voice coming from the intercom.
Before Elijah first received Edgar there were many ideas that he had on how to customize his own AI assistant. From how it spoke to humans to what it would specialize in. He hadn’t messed with every setting yet, only changing Edgar's speech pattern and appearance to that of an old English butler.
“Nothing again,” he said resignedly. It seemed that his ‘reflection’ was operating in a way that current human technology couldn’t detect, not the first time that had happened.
“Have you found out where we are Edgar?” Elijah continued. He walked towards the door that led to the hallway, if the medical capsule couldn’t find the cause then he couldn’t either.
“I have not sir. The surrounding solar systems and planets do not match any in the star map of the Federation.”
Elijah’s brows furrowed. They left Rotia a bit over an hour ago and had been drifting in space ever since. During this time he also ran through all systems with Edgar making sure everything worked correctly. One hour should have been more than enough to gather some light and then determine where they were in the Federation.
Unless they weren’t in the Federation.
“Try the star maps of Potheryte, Ostois, Vok, and… Stulot I think was the last one.”
Now in the hallway, Elijah made his way to the living room intending to go to the cockpit to check the ship logs and find the cause of this accident.
“I only have one star map in my database, sir”
That was a problem. He rubbed his forehead, why didn’t he have Edgar download those star maps? Well, he didn’t have a reason to since he had no plans to leave the Federation, but still why didn’t he.
If he was in the Potheryte’s territory then he would eventually be able to return home through a long and grueling process, but if he were in the other aliens’ territory then he couldn’t be so sure.
“Ok uh, let’s go over the ship logs and see if we can figure out how we got here.”
“Of course sir, please head to the cockpit.”
Elijah quickly passed through the living room, entered the connecting hallway, and ended at the cockpit. Through the tempered glass, he could see the black canvas of space, and as he stared for a moment longer specks of light spontaneously appeared. He removed his gaze and sat on the pilot’s seat, making himself comfortable.
“Let’s start at the beginning, when we left Torus University,” Elijah said.
In response, a holographic panel was displayed in front of Elijah, partially blocking his view of the outside. It showed a video of him in the cryo room, making sure that everything was prepared for the long nap while his two housekeeping bots were cleaning the floor. He completely forgot about those two, he would have to bring them back online once he was done here.
The hologram flickered and changed to a view outside of the Rodona. They were still in the TU (Torus University) spaceport, in their respective docking bay waiting for their turn for departure. He could also see George, his potheryte friend. A floating blue ball of flesh with multiple eyes allowing for full 360 vision, there were also several tentacles on its underside almost reaching the ground.
Elijah didn’t know that George saw him off, he thought that the alien had already left for home much like the rest of the group, or else he would have waved goodbye.
The hologram changed again, showing the receding planet of Torus Prime. By this time he was already in the cryopod, not that he couldn’t endure the 3-month journey but the jump into hyperspace was… disorienting.
The hologram changed once more to when they were in hyperspace. In hyperspace, things were strange. Streaks of starlight zoomed past the camera as distant stars and planets turned into themselves. They even ran straight through a blazing sun yet felt no impact or heat. What was even stranger were these occasional ‘shadows’, even amongst the blackness of space the human eye could discern these shapes.
With research and time, the most probable theory was that these were higher dimensional beings. However, it was still a theory since there has been no documented communication with these beings despite numerous attempts.
The hologram continued to flicker displaying various scenes in hyperspace. Eventually, after several minutes with nothing strange, for hyperspace, happening, Elijah had to rest his eyes. Making sense of hyperspace took a large mental toll even through video.
“Edgar, is there anything abnormal that occurred while in hyperspace,” he asked while rubbing his eyes.
A moment passed. “There is not, sir. Shall I directly play the presumed abnormality?” Edgar replied.
“Yes please.”
Elijah opened his eyes and blinked away the stars in his vision. The hologram changed once more, a blue planet in the center that Elijah easily recognized as Earth. In Earth’s orbit, he could see numerous space stations and defense platforms at set intervals. Starships lined up like ants either docking to space stations or leaving for other worlds.
Despite seeing Earth, Elijah was confused more than ever. How did they end up on Rotia?
Seconds passed and just as Elijah was about to speak, the hologram flashed and disappeared.
“This was the most recent footage before the abnormality, sir,” Edgar said.
Elijah leaned back into the chair, folded his arms across his chest, and began to think. He had no idea how they went from Earth to Rotia. There was, however, teleportation but last he checked, ignoring the Oridians, no species had been able to do that yet… Which still left him stranded in unknown territory without knowing the direction back home.
He sighed, how far even was he from the Federation? And how long would it take him to get back?
He needed more information on where he was in the galaxy. Heading back to Rotia and asking for a star map was an option, but it would be slightly awkward since he left not too long ago. He’ll decide once he translated the book, which might contain a star map and the spatial coordinates that Turom gave him.
“Let me know if you find anything of interest Edgar, we’ll be staying here until we can make sense of the spatial coordinates,” Elijah said while standing up.
“Of course, sir.”
Elijah exited the cockpit, passed by the fabricator room, and entered the circular living room. He had several short tasks that could all be completed within the ‘day’: Taking inventory of the remaining food, turning on his 2 housekeepers, and starting the translation for the book.
Might as well start with the easiest of tasks. Grabbing a snack.
***
Elijah rinsed his face with water and then looked at the mirror. A reflection of him stared back, short curly brown hair at the top of his head, brown eyes, and his tanned skin a shade lighter than what it usually was.
He had about 2 months of food left if he were to ration it properly and also if he did his math correctly. His 2 housekeeping bots were already cleaning the entirety of the ship. As for the translation, the program estimated that it would take about a week.
Although scanning a book took an obnoxious amount of time, there was still some time left in the ‘day’. And Elijah knew just how he wanted to spend it.
After drying his face, he exited the bathroom and made his way to the cargo bay. Inside, he saw damaged soulless bodies neatly lined up and secured. These soulless weren’t the first non-human made robots that he had seen, but they did seem like the worst, at least from a quick inspection.
There was some hesitation as he walked closer after all these things had been attacking him not too long ago. But he quickly powered through it, the soulless in his ship were dead and they could do nothing to harm him.
Elijah took out his DW-Pad and pointed the scanner to the still soulless. Light blue lasers scanned the robot up and down then left and right multiple times until a partial virtual recreation was displayed on his pad. He would have to do this several more times to have a complete image without dismantling the soulless.
Luckily Elijah replaced the default DW-Pad scanner with something more powerful or else this wouldn’t be possible. He would have used this in the previous days to take pictures if it wasn’t sapped of all power.
A couple of minutes later there was a perfect replica of the soulless displayed on the DW-Pad, including the damage that it already had. But by scanning the remaining one, two… five soulless, and replacing the damaged areas with the less damaged areas, he should end up with a near perfect 3D model.
After scanning the remaining soulless, he was left with a 3D model that he could work with. And although some parts were irrecoverable, he would be able to fill in the blanks with time, maybe.
Elijah planned on donating the soulless bodies to the Federation now that he had scanned them, though he would dismantle them if there was a part of the model he couldn’t understand. Hopefully, he would be rewarded in some way, since currently, he had no other ideas on what to do with these soulless.
Maybe he could get them working and reprogram their logic to work for him? However, that would have to wait until he deciphered the inner workings of it.
Done with what he wanted to do in the cargo bay, Elijah’s next destination was his room. Specifically, his workstation which he still had to unpack and then set up. Thinking of his computer, he forgot to check the most obvious solution to his current predicament.
“Edgar, do we have a connection to the Hypernet?”
But then he remembered that they were most likely outside of Federation space.
“On second thought, we probably do—”
“There is a signal, sir,” Edgar replied.
“Huh? Really?” Elijah muttered, not expecting a positive response.
“Yes, but this signal we are receiving is not the Hypernet. Additionally, the data that is transmitted is not human.”
Elijah’s hopes were quickly snuffed out with that, but he was curious about which species was broadcasting it. He could, presumably, quickly figure out which alien territory he was in once he connected to this signal.
“Alright, don’t do anything with the received data. Let me set up my workstation and quickly configure a virtual machine.”
“Of course, sir.”
Sadly, playing around with alien technology would have to be put on hold.