“Then, we have a deal,” said the overweight administrator.
“Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Lazarre,” Leandra responded.
Leandra had just closed a deal with a major provider of raw materials, and Joshua had watched the proceedings through one of his drones. He’d been hard at work, expanding his repertoire and stock of bots for any situation. His Tech Savvy, Technomancy, and Energy skills had skyrocketed in level, as had his Dexterity and Intelligence. Wisdom had also been improved, while the rest had been put on the back burner. He didn’t have enough free time to work on those, but the time for that was fast approaching.
They had made the acquisitions they had planned, and things were running smoothly. Darthenu had faced some trouble when a large number of gangs had banded together against him, but Joshua had shown up for support, and the Seekers had significantly expanded their operations as a result. Now was the time to reward their officers.
Joshua had figured out something that changed things drastically. His polymorph skill allowed him to hide his identity as a Connected. It was something they hadn’t even considered testing, and now that they’d figured that out, it was time to reward their most loyal and vital employees. That involved bringing them to the hidden research base and providing them with a Connection of their own.
They had held off on it for a while since they needed to build a strong enough foundation and infrastructure to survive them being gone for a few months.
The reason for this was the Thro’lacet Empire. Darthenu had gotten word from one of his old contacts that they’d been asking around Onerak for a Connected Earthling, after which they resumed their operation against the Terran Coalition. It made it clear that there was a chance Joshua was the one they were looking for, and with the Empire shouldering their way onto Earth, they needed more manpower, more people who could back them up. With Claire, they could ensure everyone gets the Polymorph skill or some version of it that allows them to conceal their Connections. Unfortunately, Darthenu and Joshua had gotten everything they could from the nanites at that base. Worst case, they wouldn’t get anything from any nanites, which meant they were stuck with what they had, or there were some other means of empowerment. They would cross that bridge when they got to it, but for now, they’d deal with their closest lieutenants.
There had been some changes and terminations, but things had stabilized. The ones now in charge had figured out the benefits of loyalty, and neither Joshua nor Darthenu worried about them overly much. There would always be that tiny voice of doubt, but every bit of evidence pointed toward them being loyal.
It took almost two months to make it back to the hidden base since they had to evade some patrols and take a circuitous route to avoid being tracked.
The base was precisely as they left it, though Joshua and Darthenu didn’t feel the pull from the portal anymore. The others did, though, and one of them failed the test.
Percival was sucked into the portal before he got down the steps, while Leandra, Lorgas, Dener, and Ma’thari all passed the test, and Claire made the effort to influence their abilities. They had learned quite a bit since last time, and while she couldn’t influence the entire process on the first pass, she could ensure they got the Nanite Link and an alteration skill. They didn’t get Polymorph, but a lesser version that still allowed them to hide the fact that they were Connected. That took a weight off Joshua’s shoulders as he’d been worried. Adding several new Connected to their force was risky, even without the ability to hide it, so this was almost the best-case scenario. They only had enough nanites for a couple more doses for everyone, but they couldn’t afford to hang around long enough to make use of it, so Joshua took a chance and approached the tank with the least remaining.
He spent a few hours inspecting the tank and eventually managed to detach it without breaking it. The next step would be transporting it back to the ship and ensuring it didn’t lose any of its effects when it was taken away from the portal.
“Joshua, look out!” Darthenu shouted, but it was too late.
He had gotten two of the three tanks to the ship and had just detached the last one when something latched onto him. A black and purple tendril wound its way around him and pulled. He flew backward at the portal, and everyone else was too far away to reach him. Darthenu got close but missed by centimeters.
He was pulled into the portal, which seemed to expand behind him, and he was swallowed up. He saw the light coming through the portal as he was pulled away.
Joshua didn’t know how long he’d been in the void or whatever this realm was, but the portal's light was long gone. At first, he’d tried to fight off the tentacle, but it was futile; it didn’t budge.
Time passed, or maybe it didn’t; Joshua didn’t know, but he felt his mind fraying at the edges, similarly to the time he’d heard the whispers of the Great One, though this time without said whispers. The darkness was all-encompassing, so much that he couldn’t see his own hands, even if he put them right up to his face. Then there was the silence that seemed to swallow all sound, and all he could hear was the blood rushing through his veins, the beating of his heart.
He could breathe but didn’t know how or why, as there was no air resistance or flow in this place. Was there air here? Or did he breathe something else? Was he even breathing? Maybe he’d died, and this was the afterlife.
His thoughts spiraled to ever darker places until he was suddenly face to face with the Great One’s eye again. It had happened so suddenly he barely registered it. Had he been there for hours? Days? Had he made the Great One wait, or had he been waiting for it? He couldn’t make heads or tails about the situation, and Joshua found he didn’t care. All his attention and all his remaining mental faculties were focused on the being before him.
He could see it so clearly now as if it was standing in a bright street and not in the dark void. Tentacles reached from an amorphous mass of eyes and mouths. The singular eye looking at him was the largest among them, or was it simply that much closer? Perspective was a difficult concept to grasp in this realm, and he soon saw the being shift, and warp, as if coming closer and disappearing in the distance simultaneously. A deep, rumbling voice sounded in his head before he could lose himself completely.
“STRONG… GOOD!” it said. “GO. SEARCH. FIND. STOP!”
Images flooded his mind along with the words, providing meaning where there was none, showing him a large, metallic sphere pulsing with eldritch power. The heart of the uncharted regions held the truth, the power to consume the galaxy, and he had to stop it. He couldn’t waste any more time. He had to act immediately, and the Great One let him go.
Joshua slammed into the floor of the research base, shocking Darthenu and the others. Darthenu rushed up to him and pulled him to his feet.
“What the hell was that? How did you escape?”
“Urgh! The Great One had a task. It needed to communicate,” Joshua managed to gasp out. “How long was I gone?”
“Gone?” Darthenu looked confused and glanced at the others. “You were pulled into the portal and immediately fell to the floor. The portal’s gone now, by the way.”
Joshua looked around and saw that Darthenu had told the truth. The portal was gone, leaving no trace of it ever being there.
“Immediately?” Joshua asked as he sat on the steps. “Are you sure? I… I could’ve sworn I was gone for a very long time.”
“Nah, man. You were gone for a second at most.”
“Fucking hell, that sucked.”
“So, what was the task?”
“I-we have to go to the heart of the uncharted regions. We need to go now. I don’t entirely know what to do there, but it was urgent.”
“So, we’re not heading back yet?” Dener asked. Rather than look disappointed, he looked excited at the prospect of testing his new skills. Joshua smirked at him.
“No, not yet, but don’t get ahead of yourself. You just got the Connection, and you’re not that much stronger yet. Should have brought another ship… Nothing to it now, though, since I doubt we have time to return to Earth and back here.”
“What about the disturbance? Will we be able to travel through?”
“We should be able to. I’ve been working on a few enhancements to our scanners and hyperdrive. They’ll be enough, hopefully.”
They shared a glance before Joshua stood.
“Alright, let’s go. No time like the present,” he turned to leave before stopping. “Oh, let’s not forget the nanite tank, though.”
They brought the tank to the ship in record time and breached the atmosphere shortly after. The planet was right at the border of the disturbed space, the uncharted, or lost, regions of the sector, so it didn’t take them long to reach the first hurdle.
The galaxy had long since made scanners capable of dipping into hyperspace and scouting out the environment, and Joshua had managed to improve upon them somewhat. Tech Savvy granted him knowledge or helped him figure stuff out far easier than he should have, allowing him to make several improvements to existing technology. So far, he’d had no luck creating something new, but he figured it was only a matter of practice and inspiration.
The hyperlanes going into the region's heart were still disrupted, but with his improved scanner, he was starting to plot a safe route. It would take some time, and Claire could monitor the process, so Joshua focused on his gains over the last few months.
Joshua Reed
Class-1
Strength: 24
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Dexterity: 32
Endurance: 20
Intelligence: 38
Wisdom: 26
Accuracy: 27
Speed: 16
Toughness: 29
Nanite Link: 14
Temporal Edge: 1
Telekinesis: 31
Technomancy: 35
Force Barrier: 22
Energy Storage: 21
Energy Transferrence: 19
Energy Extraction: 19
Tech Savvy: 34
Polymorph: 13
Regeneration: 9
He’d made significant improvements but had noticed how much more effort was required to improve recently. According to Claire, he was reaching the limits and would have to advance his Connection somehow.
The scans finished, and he saw a few possible paths, though none were direct. Joshua sighed, as it meant the journey would likely take a long time.
“Prepare yourselves for a long trip; we likely won’t find a direct path before we reach further in. It’ll also be very turbulent,” Joshua said as he plotted the course. “You might as well start training a bit whenever you can. Who knows what we’ll face in there? We might need your strength.”
The turbulence got worse the closer to the region’s center they got, and it took longer and longer to plot a safe course, but they refused to give up now, or rather Joshua refused. The others had tried to talk him out of it, but something in the back of his mind told him that would be a terrible mistake.
He couldn’t place why, only that it had something to do with the images the Great One showed him. Something terrible was brewing, and he had to stop it.
“Alright, this should be the last jump if our calculations are correct. That’s the good news,” Joshua said as he rubbed his shoulders. He looked at his exhausted crew, knowing they had all been pushed hard in the last two weeks. “The bad news is that there doesn’t seem to be a particularly safe route. We can take another few weeks, or more, to search for a better path, but I don’t think we or the ship will hold much longer.”
The last week had been rough. The scans revealed safer paths, but something changed once they reached the halfway point. The distortion grew worse and suddenly shifted, so safe routes turned hellish in moments, leaving them little time to adapt. They had all taken a beating, and they’d been forced to stop and make emergency repairs several times.
“Well, it’s not like we can turn back. No way are we gonna survive that, as we are. I don’t really feel like risking everything on the off chance we find a better path. We’ve seen how things change mid-jump,” Darthenu voiced his opinion.
“Agreed. We’ve made it this far and made the repairs we can. There’s only one way, and that’s forward,” Leandra agreed.
“Right! This is it! Let’s figure out what the hell is hiding in the center or die trying. We’re living representatives of the adventurous spirit here. We’ve done all we can, and the route is plotted; initiate hyperjump!”
The ship launched into hyperspace, but rather than the normal, flashing stars, everything spun. The lines representing stars flying past were spinning, jerking, and reversing randomly, and the systems couldn’t keep up. Everyone took a station and worked furiously to react to every subtle change, but they couldn’t handle everything either.
The ship lurched and shook. They kept it up for hours, but some systems started failing. Gravity was the first one to go, but they were already secured to their seats. The second was life-support, but they had anticipated that, and all wore their vacuum suits. The third and worst system to fail was navigation, but they were extremely fortunate in that they’d reached their destination just in time.
They were spat out of hyperspace in a less than pleasant, controlled manner and thrown around as the seats themselves were torn from the floor. Sparks flew around them, and several fires started all throughout the ship. Joshua groaned as he looked around but breathed in relief when he saw the others moving to free themselves.
“Everyone in one piece?” He managed to say.
Everyone made various sounds of affirmation, but none of them could rest easy. They had to save the ship, or they’d be stranded and subjected to the vacuum of space soon enough. Their suits wouldn’t keep them alive indefinitely.
“Darthenu, Leandra, you deal with the fires. Lorgas, and Dener, you try to patch any damage to the hull. Ma’Thari, check the life-support and gravity cores. I’ll see about patching up our systems on this end and fixing the navigation system,” Joshua barked out orders as he pushed himself toward the central console. The others didn’t argue and set to work.
Joshua got a glimpse of the view outside and almost forgot everything, but he forced himself to focus on the task at hand. No matter how wondrous it was, it wouldn’t help if they died now.
It took several days to get the lif-support system back online and a full day for the gravity to be restored. The navigation took another day after that. Most supportive systems were completely fried, so they had to work most of the ship manually, which would be a problem if they couldn’t fix it before starting their return journey.
Returning was the last thing on their minds, though, as they looked at the view of their destination.
“That can’t be real, right? No planet can be that large,” Leandra uttered. “I mean… How huge is that?”
“According to Claire’s calculations, based on the distance and curvature… It’s bigger than Earth’s Sun. By a decent margin,” Joshua said. “And some strange energy readings are coming from it.”
“And those satellites?” Darthenu asked, pointing at many strange, spiky stations evenly spaced around the system. “I suppose those are the source of the distortion?”
“Yes, I think so. I have no idea how they work, but destroying or disrupting them might be the only way we can leave. We should hold off on that for now, though, as we don’t know what’ll happen if we do.”
“So, where to next?” Darthenu asked. “I doubt we’re lucky enough that getting here was the only thing you needed to do?”
“You’re right… We need to land on the planet. I’m unsure how, but we must reach the planet’s core and do something about it. It’s all kinds of fuzzy, but I think I’ll get a better idea when we get there. We should take some more time and work on the scanners first to get a better picture of what to expect on the surface. It’s obviously inhabited, or at least it was, based on the cities we can see, but who knows what kind of life we’ll encounter. No way to know if it’ll be hostile or not.”
“I think I have some more bad news, “ Claire interjected. “There’s significant damage to the scanners, and we’ll need some parts to repair them. Parts we don’t have at hand.”
“Fuck!. Alright, so we’ll have to go in blind,” Joshua grumbled. “Let’s move so we can head down into that mountain range. We can, hopefully, avoid too much attention.”
With something akin to plan, Joshua piloted the ship until they were aligned with the mountains and avoided crossing above any of the cities. Nobody would know if they did this right, but Joshua didn’t hold out hope for that. He figured the best-case scenario was that they thought it was a meteor or something.
Entry into the atmosphere was rough, as many systems had been damaged, including inertial dampeners, but they eventually landed in a valley. Mountains towered over them in all directions, and they expected it would take several days to reach the closest settlement.
“Alright, we should try to cover the ship before we leave. The mountains cover us, but the ship will stand out if someone gets close enough.”
They set to it, and three hours later, the sun was setting, and the ship was blended into the environment.
“Let’s head out and find a place to camp,” Joshua said and started walking.
“Wouldn’t it be better to rest in the ship?” Ma’Thari asked.
“Perhaps, but it’s where anyone would look if they spotted the ship. If they did, we’d be stuck in there and have to potentially fight our way out. If we camp nearby, then we might be able to catch anyone off-guard. Now, let’s go. We’re wasting sunlight.
They found a small crevice in the mountainside overlooking the valley and settled for a rest.
“You guys get some rest,” Joshua said and sat near the entrance to the small cave. “I’m better off than you, guy, and I can handle one night. Tomorrow, we start a guard rotation.”
The night was peaceful but strange to Joshua. Light, forming waves through the atmosphere, like the Aurora Borealis, constantly appeared and faded away. The air was fresh, fresher than any air he’d breathed, but there was a strange taste to it that he couldn’t explain, and all through it, he felt the urgency of their mission. Would they reach the core fast enough? How would they get there? Maybe there was a cave system leading down, but a cave reaching to the planet’s core was impossible, right? Although, the size of the planet seemed impossible on its own.
Thoughts swirled through his mind until he saw the sun hit the mountain peaks, and he roused his companions. They stuffed some ration bars into their faces and set off.
The mountains were steep, with few easy paths, but they were all far stronger than normal humans. Where they would have needed climbing gear and a lot of time, Joshua could leap and drop a rope. They made good progress through the day, and Joshua expected them to leave the mountain range in two more days.
They encountered a few strange animals, but they fled before the group got close, though they saw signs of larger beasts having passed through. They slowed their progress a bit, as they didn’t want to run headfirst into a predator since they knew nothing of the local fauna. Joshua regretted not bringing his bots, having expected to return directly to Earth, but Darthenu and Dener were decent scouts and ran ahead of the group.
Thanks to their efforts, they managed to escape the mountain range without too much trouble, though they had to fight a flying lizard of some sort.
Joshua's mind went straight to some old fantasy stories he’d read when he spotted it, but it was no dragon or wyvern. It shared some passing resemblance to a wyvern, with two legs and wings, with a long tail. The reptilian snout was filled with sharp teeth, but it fell quickly to their barrage of blaster bolts, proving it lacked defense.
They crossed the last mountain pass, and a beautiful vista spread before their eyes—a large, grassy plain dotted with little hills and thickets of trees. Meandering rivers cut through the landscape, forming an idyllic scene that took their breaths away.
They had all visited some paradise planets, but this view was by far the most beautiful piece of nature they’d seen. They stood still, taking in the sight for several long minutes, before Joshua broke the silence.
“Wow… That’s something else. Does anyone else feel like something strange is going on?”
“What do you mean? It’s just beautiful,” Darthenu said in a strange, breathless voice like he was barely there.
“I mean, the view. It’s beautiful and all, but it’s still just a beautiful view. It should be this mesmerizing, right?”
“Joshua! Thank tech, you’re alright. You need to snap them out of it,” Claire shouted in his mind.
“What do you mean, I’m alright? What’s going on?” he asked, giving Darthenu a solid slap across the cheek.
“Something’s messing with your heads. It almost sealed my conscience away and kept me from communicating with you. This place has some strange effects on your psyche.”
“Oh shit! Alright. Wake up!” he started shaking his allies free, and one by one, they snapped out of it, though they looked troubled. It almost looked like they’d lost something precious. Leandra and Ma’Thari had tears in their eyes and looked at Joshua reproachfully. “Snap out of it. Something’s messing with our heads.”
“As far as I can tell, it covers the entire area, so we either have to brave it and cut through or circle around,” Claire elaborated. “I recommend circling around and trying to find another path, but that might take a while or be useless. I have no idea if it is a purely localized phenomenon.”
“Alright, what do you think, guys?” Joshua asked his team. “Go around, or go through?”
“As much as I hate the idea of someone messing with my mind, I don’t think going around is worth it,” Dener said. “If it’s not a localized phenomenon, as Claire said, we’ll just be wasting time and increasing the time we spend exposed to whatever this is. I vote to push through.”
Ultimately, only Ma’Thari voted for going around, so they steeled themselves and started walking. It was early in the day, and they hoped to get through the affected area before they had to rest, so they set a high pace.
It was a constant struggle, as Joshua felt like stopping to take in the sights all day, and they had to snap each other out of the trance several times. Eventually, the sun set, and they saw no end to the plains or the mental effect. None dared to rest, so they chose to march through the night.
They’d been walking in darkness for a few hours when they heard a grunt from behind them.
They spun and raised their weapons but saw nothing. Sounds of shuffling, snapping branches, grunts, and growls simultaneously sounded around them from all directions. Still, they didn’t see anything until Darthenu was sent flying by a blue blast of energy.