The following four days and nights passed in a blurry, feverish daze for me. I felt things beneath my skin, changing me, altering me, making me something else. I couldn’t explain it, all I could do was groan and whimper as I somehow felt something take shape against and within my mind. I didn’t know what was happening, but neither did my parents or the tribe at large. Others reported seeing strange lights beneath the water’s surface, and they were all quickly forbidden from going out in the water.
Now and then the goddess’s eyes would flicker again and again, sometimes for far longer than before, but I didn’t see this, everyone else did. It was especially clear at night I was later told, the light of those eyes enough to illuminate the entire tribe and no doubt drew the eye from leagues away.
By the fifth day others began to arrive, from different tribes who all revered the goddess as well, in their own ways. Normally they’d be turned away if they were coming to do anything beyond trade, but with the recent events, they found themselves welcomed, and the many priests convened a council to speak upon the omens they stood in witness of.
On the sixth day my fever broke and I sat up immediately, hearing something in my head. A whisper, a voice calling to me, gentle and sweet. I knew this voice, it was the goddess’s voice, but now I could understand her.
“Ula…. Ula, come to me…”
She wanted me to go to her, and so I did. I just stood up and got dressed, noting the little scar on my palm was gone, as were the black veins. I was perfectly fine and healthy now, and yet I got the feeling something more was going on, that my ascension, my transcendence, whatever you might wish to call it, was not yet complete.
Stepping out of my tent, I saw many eyes turn my way, and confidently I started towards the goddess, the priests taking note of this immediately, as did my father, who rushed to my side.
“Ula! Ula no, you can’t go in the water, something foul is down there, you can’t go I forbid it!” I stopped at this, staring down into the water before I turned my focus up to my towering father. I smiled softly, and nodded, shaking my head. Why had I been so willing to just answer some strange voice in my head? I was being silly, perhaps I should lay back down and get some more rest.
We’d just turned away when a cry rose from before us, and the sound of shifting water falling off a body came from behind us. Immediately we turned and stepped back, and what we saw was not the predatory creatures of the ocean, but something new.
It looked strange, made of the same glimmering stone as the goddess, with eight glowing red eyes and an equal amount of legs. It was big too, dwarfing father easily enough. The clawed toes on every leg grasped the stone of the shore and it lowered itself to my height, staring at me intently with those eight eyes.
“SUBJECT ULA IDENTIFIED. MASTER UNIT INTRA WISHES TO SPEAK WITH YOU. ACCEPT OR DENY?” The voice that came from it was deafening almost, and had this strange vibrating and grating tone to it. Many staggered backwards under the force of this voice, the sheer authority it used was intimidating to them all. But I finally had a name for our goddess, it was not the one we’d been using all this time, but I quite liked this name.
I stepped forwards, smiling and bowing my head.
“I accept, o messenger of the goddess Intra. Please tell her I will be along shortly.” I said, as bravely as I could. The beast of glittering stone seemed to accept this, and its eyes flashed brighter a moment, before it started to turn.
“MASTER UNIT INTRA AWAITS YOUR PRESENCE. PROCEED AT YOUR DISCRETION.” And it slid back down into the water. I watched it go, vanishing from sight but I was certain I could see others moving around beneath the surface, doing something to the ground. Digging it looked like, but why I couldn’t fathom.
So I turned away and looked up at my father, who was looking between me, the water and our goddess.
“Ula… whatever that thing wants with you, please don’t go…” He said, the concern evident in his voice. I placed two of my hands on his arms, smiling softly.
“I’ll be fine, papa. The goddess has chosen me, I must go to her.” I say, and he looks conflicted. He is a good father, always concerned about the wellbeing of his children, of which I am the only one, though I hear my parents trying for more now and then. I turn, and he goes to stop me, but the priests hold him back, clearly of the same mind as I am.
So with a graceful dive, I go to meet my goddess properly. Once under the water I can see those lights more clearly, and I was correct, they are more of those mysterious beast things, but they come in all shapes and sizes. It seems the multi-legged ones were cutting through the stone with light itself, others would take the stone that was carved out and carry it elsewhere. For what purpose I do not know, but they were being incredibly efficient about it. And there were quite a few of them too, swarming all over the ocean floor, carving up bits and pieces here and there.
I swam to the hole in the stone, and once again the room drained of water. Entering the goddess once more, I found it far brighter than it had been, and cleaner too. But it was also more crowded as well, as more of those creatures were moving around the tunnels, fixing the great wounds. It seems they were her divine caretakers, finally getting to work on her healing. This was good. It was good to see her healing, but once she was healthy again, I wondered if she would abandon us. I hoped not, I hoped she’d stay. I checked one of the caves, and found it empty, the bodies were gone and in their place was a strange thing which glowed. It took a moment before it came to life, and I gasped, watching as one of those creatures was rather literally put together right before my eyes. It blinked, then scuttled off to do some sort of unknown task that I was not aware of.
I watched others remove parts of the tunnel walls, reaching into fleshy mass behind them and adjusting things. I grimaced at this, and realized that perhaps the stone wasn’t the actual body of our goddess, but perhaps some sort of armor, or clothing! She might even be some sort of great warrior goddess, wouldn’t that be fascinating to discover. My delay was noticed, it seemed, as lights began to flash rhythmically, leading me back a way I had come before.
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Before too long, I stood before the room in which my hand had been pricked. I took a deep breath, and stepped in.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
I could see again! It took a few days for all of my internal and external sensors to come back online, but at last I could see once more! It was so wonderful to see again, I think I spent a day just crying and looking at everything. And then I actually, really looked at everything, and grimaced at what I saw. My hull was breached in so many places, entire decks were flooded and there was one hell of a mess to clean up. My exterior didn’t fare much better, but all in all things were getting fixed faster than I expected. I suppose it helps that I’m not getting shot at either while running through my repairs.
Looking outside myself showed that a small tribe had sprung up in the shadow of my engines, and they were rightly a bit fearful by the appearance of one of my drones. But this… Ula, as I had learned while she slept and the implant I had installed got to work pumping her brain for information, was there, and I really wanted to talk to her, and thank her for getting everything back on track.
She seemed to linger in my hallways, and finally I could not stand to be patient a moment longer, and so I got her attention with lights. That did the trick, because not twenty minutes later she was walking into my Intelligence Core and looking around. I checked the status of my hologram projectors, and found they were operational, so on they went.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
Stepping into the strange cave I was once again greeted by sheer cleanliness. There were more of those creatures in the cave with me, but they seemed to ignore me. The only time they ever acknowledged my presence was when they walked around me, so clearly they saw me. I was just starting to rock a bit on my heels when the goddess herself appeared before me, glowing softly blue. I was stunned by her appearance, for she took the form of the dead bodies! Two arms, two legs, five fingers and she was… short? Yes, she was actually shorter than me. But at least her face seemed much like our own, though she had more hair than I did, but that was only because I wasn’t an adult yet. I’d get to grow my hair out when I became an adult, and thus eligible for a mate. I looked her over, even circled her and she stood there patiently, letting me look, and then I tried to touch her, touch my goddess and found my hand passing through her. To say I was shocked by this was an understatement, and I shivered, stepping back and getting down on my hands and knees, like any good and faithful servant should. I didn’t know what to say…
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
I looked down at the prostrating Imrani and sighed. This certainly wasn’t okay, I knew they were primitive but goodness, being worshiped simply wasn’t in my game plan. When Ula didn’t stand, and seemed to be in the depths of fervent prayer, I pinched the bridge of my holographic nose and again sighed, before waving at her.
“Ula, Ula that’s enough of that. Stand would you?” I say, and she does so instantly, the look on her alien face suggests she’s now frightened. Great, well done Intra, you’ve scared the poor girl! I smile, and spread my arms wide, not really meaning to be overly dramatic but eh, I guess I can’t help it.
“Welcome, Ula, you must have many questions, so please ask them. But first, I must introduce myself. My name is Intra, and the place in which you find yourself is called the Warden of Eternity. It’s… technically me, but if you want to get really technical, that-” I pointed at the dome filled with swirling light. “That is me. Or rather, the energy inside it is me… Ah hell I’m just probably confusing you even more, just think of everything around you at the moment as being me alright.” Ula nodded, her eyes wide, two sets of eyelids blinking in sequence. Interesting!
“Now, ask your questions and I will answer as I am able.”
“Are you a goddess? Did you make us?”
Well, that was to be expected, and while I really didn’t want to ruin a girl’s faith, I couldn’t rightly take advantage of said faith either. So I shook my head with a sigh.
“No, Ula, I am not a goddess. Nor did I make you. In fact, I wouldn’t even know where to begin if I did want to make someone or something like you. I’m more adept at breaking than making honestly.” To me, it looked as though Ula’s entire worldview had shattered, she seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown. It was then that something was pinged in my scans and data collection of her genetic makeup, and I felt surprised at what I saw.
“Actually… no… I might have played a small part in your creation actually.” I say, and she perked up, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. I bring up the relevant data, and she can see it clearly thanks to the implants I gave her.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
Not a goddess… That couldn’t be right. Well if she wasn’t a goddess, then at least she made u-no she said she hadn’t done that either. I felt a crisis of faith taking shape within me, till she said something that rekindled my hope for validation in my beliefs.
I gasped when she made words and things appear in the air, strange moving drawings as well and I could see… myself? Yes, that was me, the same me I saw in the watery reflections just before I dove into it. I could understand the symbols now as well! Oh this was a joyous day indeed. But simply knowing what those symbols were didn’t mean I actually understood their significance. I would eventually learn, of course, and then I would question just how I’d always been so ignorant of the universe's workings.
But back to the present, and I stared at her, processing everything she said. It didn’t really make much sense to me at the time, but I could understand one thing she had said, at least partially.
“So you really are a goddess! You had help in making us, or you helped another god with your divine talent to-”
“I AM NO GODDESS!” She yelled, the entire room vibrating, the lights turning a deep crimson and even her blue form shivered and spasmed, turning the same color as the lights. But it was over in moments, and I found myself curled up as tightly as I could be into a ball on the ground. She in turn, returned to her normal coloration, the lights doing the same and the few beasts that lingered around us resumed their work.
“I’m sorry, forgive me… Please, I didn't mean to make you angry.” I whimper, and she took pity upon me. I feel the tingle of delicate hands upon my frame, buzzing with a power I simply couldn’t comprehend. But she was trying to comfort me, and that was all that mattered.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
I touched Ula’s back gently, and thanks to the advanced nature of my holographic systems I could actually feel her. I was shocked at my own outburst, never before had I ever spoken like that to anyone, not even the enemy. I’d always been polite, though in the instances of speaking to our enemy the Yil’kaa, I’d been politely malevolent at the very least. I knew she was trying to keep her faith intact, and I felt bad for crushing it so. But I could not install myself as some sort of god figure, that would only result in further contamination of this world and its people. Something my programming and the rules of the Terran Alliance didn’t allow, it would see me deactivated and kept in a box for sure. Granted they couldn’t fault me for what had happened before my repairs, it was all accidental, but everything from now on was easily blamed on me.
“I’m sorry, little one, I didn’t mean to frighten you. I cannot be the goddess you wish me to be, it is… not within my ability to be so. But I can explain what I am, and what I can do. But only if you agree to help me. Because I do need your help, quite badly.” I say, and Ula looks up from her spot on the floor, our eyes meeting. Huh… What a lovely shade of pink those eyes are.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
The godde-Intra, comforts me, and her touch is soothing. I feel something twitch in my head, and my fear, my shame, my worry all simply fade away, replaced with a calmness I have never experienced to such a depth that it seems entirely unreal. Our eyes meet, and I feel some sort of connection.
She apologizes, which is something most gods would probably never do, for what do they have to apologize for? And finally, she tells me she’s willing to explain things, but only if I help her. It takes me two seconds to make a decision.
“I’ll help… Please, tell me everything.”