《Vamp》 vamp 01 Vamp 01 ¡°Did you connect the cables?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°The connection is stable ?¡± ¡°It is for now.¡± ¡°John..¡± ¡°What, you know it crashes every time.¡± ¡°I¡¯m serious John..¡± ¡°Jesus man, i know. The frequency is stable, power is on and stable, I double no I triple checked everything, the readings are fine.¡± ¡°¡­fine, but let me take a look too, just in case.¡± ¡°Jesus Christ Adam, fine¡­ just don¡¯t touch it with your gre¡­¡± Eric sighed and tried to ignore the banter between John and Adam, his coworkers. It was kind of entertaining to listen to them for the first few months, but lately it was starting to become tedious, what with the project going nowhere and the tensions rising. Eric was an engineer, fairly young one at that, as was the rest of the team. Though to tell the truth, Eric barely considered himself an engineer let alone a scientist when compared to the rest of his colleagues. Not that he was dumb or anything, but sometimes you could just tell when people were smarter than you. And with him working where he did it was no wonder everyone was smarter than him. Honestly, there were times where he really wondered what the hell was he doing here. But it beat being in the army. Eric checked the parameters on his end, just pressure and temperature, things simple enough to be left in his charge. He heard Adam say. ¡°All right, pressure and temperature are good.¡± Adam, being the control freak he was, off course he had the same readings opened on his screen. Not that Eric minded his paranoia. If the army thought him anything, it was that it was always better to double check everything. Yea.. the army. Eric paced around the reactor and checked the cables and coolant pipes. That was why he was here in the first place. To be a glorified plumber. Well, that was a bit of an oversimplification but whatever. To make things a little clearer. He was currently working in the E.A.D. (energy and development) facility near Detroit. It was a government funded office for establishing new power sources, or at least it used to be that, but now it mainly centered its research on making new, more efficient power transferring technologies like better batteries and so. The reason why Eric was currently working here was a bit weird. Basically, Eric was born in Detroit to a single mother that died when he was 17. Being somewhat intelligent Eric got into a college as a sort of thermodynamics engineer, he studied there for two years, fucked himself over with bad decisions, joined the army to get enough money to finish college, went to war, killed some people and developed ¡°minor¡± PTSD, in combat he saved his teammate whose daddy was a politician and finally got out of the army thanks to the political connections he made. Knowing the right people helped him get enough money, get a diploma, and score himself a cozy governmental job here at the E.A.D. And yes, he was aware of the nepotism in all of that, but well, fuck it, was educated enough to be here. And it¡¯s not like he was stupid, he knew what he was doing, but the people working with him were a notch above him. Not that it really mattered, his position here was basically custom tailored for him so he could get a job and not fuck anything up. He was here more for the manual labor, like setting up pipes, cables and so, or moving shit from one room to another. The job was sometimes boring but Eric liked it. ¡°All right, everything seems to be in order. Everyone back to your places.¡± Turning to Adam, Eric stood from where he was checking a pressure gauge and stepped away from the coolant tank. ¡°Aren¡¯t we forgetting someone ?¡± Adam didn¡¯t even look from where he was checking a screen, simply answering. ¡°No, Pam is on her way, she will be here in a minute.¡± ¡°All right then.¡± Eric sat next to Adam and checked the readings one more time. There was no need for repeated checkups of course. They were actually working on new, well old energy transfer technology. The small reactor in the back of the room was by far the most stable piece of equipment in the building. Building C, to be exact, located on the far north end of the compound. Not buried deep underground, not safely tucked away in a military base, no. Building C was repurposed storage are, now isolated and freshened up but still, a storage area. This wasn¡¯t some secret top project after all. The energy production was revolutionized couple of years ago by creation of deep fusion reactors, safe, easily maintained and surprisingly simple technology. No, today they were working on energy transfer. It was an old concept and a lot of it went above Erics head when technicalities were involved but it basically involved turning energy into a sort of electromagnetic wave, messing with the wavelength and turning photons into something between particle and a wave, making energy behave as unobtrusive ¡°light wave¡± that could be transferred and transformed into energy elsewhere. The concept was considered a dead end, various companies over the world tried and are still trying to develop the same procedure or something similar but as of yet, no one really succeeded. Adam however, believed he could make it work. And Adam was a genius, of sorts. He was a dour young man, tall, pale, constantly depressed, but highly intelligent and completely focused on work. From what Eric found out while working together Adam was a brilliant scientist, top of his class and all that, but as Eric suspected, he was also miserable, and he found escape from reality by drowning himself in work. A reason why he chose energy transfer, a seemingly impossible problem as his project. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Doors to the lab clicked open and in came Pam. A supervisor of sorts, 45 years old, mother of three, slightly overweight, with that ¡°history professor before retirement¡± look. She was a kind woman, but tired of the job and just waiting for the pension. ¡°Allright boys, ready for another try?¡± ¡°Yea.¡± Yep and Yes¡± echoed across the room. Without much fanfare everyone took their places. Adam clicked a few buttons and huge Computer behind him spun up, thrumming with power. ¡°Booting M.O.L.L.Y.¡± he spoke. Molly being a sort of an A.I. whose code Adam wrote himself. Supposedly it would help isolate the right frequency to melt the energy into transferable soup, so to say. Eric was honestly slightly wary of said A.I. He knew on an intellectual level that the program was safe and not sentient but he swore the readings it gave him were written in a snarky way. They were valid readings, but he couldn¡¯t explain it. It was like they were just written¡­ it was like a college professor giving a university student an alphabet letters and making him read it in a dumb childish voice¡­ Something like that. Pam turned to them and in a just slightly sarcastic voice asked. ¡°All right people, ready to make history?¡± ¡°Yea, Yea.¡± John muttered while Adam kept checking the readings. John was an okay guy, red haired, temperamental, just married. Cherry kind of guy, always ready to crack jokes and crazy smart. Which sometimes led to him and Adam butting heads over scientific matters, what with Adam being an know it all. It drove John crazy, but Eric suspected that Adam enjoyed their discussions. John was also in charge of the ¡°Antennas¡±, and Eric had no other way to describe them. It was an already existing and functioning piece of technology, a set of satellite dishes, slash, EMP devices, capable of transferring vast amounts of data. A heavily modified communication array mixed with some additional army supplied equipment that Eric was not privy to knowing what it was. Supposedly, it was all perfectly safe communication equipment. The end result was something like two satellite dishes turned one to another, sealed in a glass vacuum tube surrounded by a set of coolers and power cables connected to the generator in the back of the room. ¡°Allright everyone, glasses on.¡± Heeding Pams warning, everyone pulled their protective glasses from their lab coats and put them on. ¡°Readings are stable, Molly online and watching¡­¡± said Adam ¡­ ¡°And beginning in three, two, one¡­¡± He slid his finger across the SmartScreen and the generator thrummed with power. The monitoring equipment they were using was situated a couple of feet away from the energy array, behind the thick plexiglass barrier in case the vacuum tube broke. The amount of power they used in the experiment was pretty small anyway and the generator was hard capped by fuel intake so it couldn¡¯t go out of control anyway. As the energy poured in into the array, the thrum of generator and the slight vibrations from the antennas got louder. Everyone was silently monitoring the procedure, they did it over a hundred times already so there was no need for comments or banter. If anything, it was all rather boring by this point. Until that is, there was a ping from Adams screen and the arrays stabilized with a loud click. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Eric was the first to speak. ¡°...is¡­ is that it?¡± Underwhelmingly, the power array kept quietly thrumming. Adam slowly removed his glasses, lowered his head and rubbed his eyes tiredly. Looking up at the array he covered his mouth, still holding the glasses in his hand and mumbled. ¡°Yes.¡± The room exploded into cheers, with loud ¡°FUCK YES!¡± and ¡°FUCK YEA¡± from John and Eric to energetic ¡°whoops¡± of appreciation form Pam and a slight chuckle from Adam. Eric stood up and high fived John after which they both approached Adam saying: ¡°I knew you could make it.¡± ¡°Never doubted you for a second.¡± slapping him on the back while Adam just laughed tiredly. After a minute they all calmed down and approached the plexiglass barrier looking at the power array. Adam pressed his hand onto the thick glass and just gazed at it, somber, while Pam and John chattered about the ways this would revolutionize everything. Eric approached Adam and looked at the underwhelming sight of two antenna dishes pointing at one another, with nothing seemingly passing between them, and spoke. ¡°Man, that thing looks incredible.¡± To his credit Adam just laughed, knowing what Eric was saying. ¡°Yea it sure is something.¡± ¡°Mhmmm.¡± Eric mumbled, ¡°It really is amazing.¡± ¡°Yea. It was.¡± Hearing Pam and John approach them, they both turned as Pam cheerily spoke. ¡°So, guys, who wants to be the one to tell the management?¡± ¡°I vote for Adam!¡± said John laughing merrily with his hand on Pams shoulder. ¡°Yea!¡± Eric jumped in, ¡°It was largely by his¡­¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.BOOOOOMMMMMM¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ The world went white. Eric didn¡¯t see, turned as he was away from the array, as the vacuum tube imploded. It all happened so fast it wouldn¡¯t have mattered anyway. There was no warning. No energy fluctuation. No blinking lights or any indication something was going wrong. One moment everything was fine and the next, there was chaos. Bright while flash blinded Eric, the sound wave slammed into him, not pushing him but pulling him towards the center of the room. The plexiglass wall half melted, half shattered when thick strand of electricity fired off from the array, slamming into it. Not one second had passed when Eric came too. He heard screaming. All was chaos, lights were out, the reactor turned itself off but the power array was somehow self-sustaining. Visible arcs of electricity were lashing out from the antennas across the room, and where arcs met vacuum formed, causing constant explosions as thick blinding strands of power slithered across the room. Eric rose from the floor to his knees. Pam was screaming, frozen, looking at the array. John was next to her, still dazed. The wind and the sound of explosions rocked into them, shaking the room. Eric couldn¡¯t think from the noise. He turned towards the array and saw the reaction intensifying, growing larger, the arcs of power thrashing around and moving towards them. Adam was beside him, blood streaming from his nose and ears. ¡°ADAAM!!!¡± Eric yelled across the drowning noise. ¡°ADAM WE HAVE TO STOP IT, THE POWER IS LOOPING, WE NEED TO STOP IT!¡± But Adam was barely hanging on, Eric could see him turn towards the array in confusion and mutter through the chaotic noise: ¡°¡­it accumulated¡­ looping, I nev¡­. thought it could¡­it¡­should wear itself out¡­¡± BOOOOOM! Another explosion rocked the room and Eric was thrown to the floor. When he pushed himself up the reaction was even more violent, sucking itself and everything else into the primary vortex of energies in the array. There was no time. It was going to explode; Eric just knew it. He rose and immediately fell on the floor, pain cutting through his leg where, he finally noticed, several pieces of plastic embedded itself across the back of his leg. Looking around himself he saw Adam, lost, frightened, he just stared at the vortex of energies. John was bleeding, struggling to get up, and Pam vas just getting up from the floor where she was thrown by the implosion. There was no time¡­. Eric could get to the door, even injured as he was. Adam was behind him. John was closest to the exit, but bleeding, completely out of it. Pam was in front of him, still getting up. He could still get to the door. John had a wife. He could run. The vision of battlefield and overturned Humvee came to mind, soldier crying for help as bullets flew above him. The door was right there. Pam looked up and into his face, blood dripping from her brow, her hair swept in the whirlwind, fear frozen on her face. Three children, Eric coming home to empty apartment, alone, visiting graveyard, alone. She had three children. ¡°Fuck it.¡± Eric rose, his knee cracking in protest but he couldn¡¯t feel the pain. He rushed towards Pam, grabbed her under the armpit and helped her get up. ¡°UP! Come on, up, up!¡± Together they wobbled towards the exit, Pam coughed, dazed and blindly following the path Eric chose. BOOOOM! Another explosion threw them down, so close to the exit. Adam tried to get up but failed. His knees giving out, pain burning in his lungs. He touched the floor and his hand came up wet, he slowly sagged down looking at his chest where a piece of shrapnel pierced him through. Pam tried to get up but stumbled to her side so Eric gathered what little strength he had and pushed her up and towards the exit. He stumbled when they reached the door and fell down again. Pam grabbed him by the arm and tried to pull him back up. She was crying, screaming something. He couldn¡¯t hear. ¡°You have to run.¡± She was crying, shaking her head. Standing next to the exit door, even injured as she was, she could still make it out of the building, when the roof caved in the reaction would drown itself out. She tried to pull him up again. ¡°My artery is shot, I¡¯m not going up. Pam.¡± She weakly tried to pull him up again but Eric just slumped down, his strength failing him, blood pouring out of him. ¡°You need to run¡­¡± He felt her squeeze his hand once. And then she was gone. Eric lay on the floor, watching the chaotic energy envelop the room, sweeping towards him. Strangely it was eating itself out, the reaction was getting more intense but he could see it getting more unstable. It would end itself soon, but not before reaching him. And speaking of the devil. One of the energy arcs slammed into the other, the explosion shook the room and strands of power spread everywhere all at once. The last thing Eric saw was blinding light approaching him, swallowing the room and everyone in it. Well, gods fucking damn it. 02 02 Eric was barely conscious when the wave of energy, electricity and light finally reached him. Even in such a state he was still conscious enough to feel the pain. Getting burned alive by hot plasma and electricity wasn¡¯t how he thought he would die, but there it was. Luckily, he didn¡¯t have enough strength to scream when arcs of energy swept over him. It was agony, brief, but painful. But as far as death went, there were worse way to die. For those few moments before he faded away Eric felt as if someone pierced him with a thousand little hooks. Pulling him forward and spinning him in a mad roller-coaster of pain. Something burned his chest, pierced him and whipped him around. Blind and dying, Eric was lost in the sudden vertigo, still feeling the strands of force pulling him, spinning him, forward, upwards and down. With a final flash of pain, Eric felt himself break out from something, he couldn¡¯t see what, but it felt like glass, or was it surface of water, or was it¡­. He didn¡¯t know. Suddenly there was nothing but silence around him, and a barely noticeable feeling of falling. Huh¡­ Eric thought, being dead wasn¡¯t as horrible as he thought it would be. Or maybe he was in a coma, lying somewhere in the rubble, half burned and whatnot, or maybe years have passed and he was rotting in a hospital like a potato¡­ Well, he thought to himself as time passed and he lazily spun in the darkness, this wasn¡¯t so baaaaaAAAAADDDDD¡­!!!!¡± Eric screamed, or tried to, when he suddenly plummeted down, doooown into the portal of light far below him. He broke the shimmering surface of light and spun madly, like swimming in a colorful, glowing liquid. Erics senses were overwhelmed. He couldn¡¯t feel his body but he felt everything around him, heard everything, experienced flashes of things he couldn¡¯t even conceive off as the liquid around him carried him forward. Pulses of emotions and something deeper saturating his very being. In time he slowed, and almost stopped completely, quietly mowing in the flow of enormous power that carried him. Trying to sense anything around him he suddenly became aware of three wisps of energy around him, all of them being carried by the flow of power around them. Hey. He tried to say but nothing came forward. Huh, being dead was weird, Eric was beyond the basic feelings like fear or panic, there was nothing but consciousness. As he tried to expand his senses again, there was a sudden feeling of being observed. Or being held, like a tiny ant in the hands of a giant. Enormous sense of pressure settled on his mind, flashes of meaning and intent flashing over him, filling him, dissolving inside his being. The current of energy suddenly quickened and he was carried further away. Struggling against the current and the images flashing in his mind he desperately tried to float closer to the three wisps near him. As he stretched his senses forward, he barely felt a connection to the nearest wisp, there was a weird feeling of something¡­ almost alien but also strangely familiar. With a final push he stretched his will further and connected with one of the wisps. A set of words burned in the forefront of his mind, drowning out other images for a few precious moments. ¡­..iii.. initii¡­initiating¡­. A bunch of symbols and meanings slammed into his mind, his connection to the wisp straining as information was transferred from one to another, thoughts and understandings were shared across the connection, not imprinted but felt by both. ¡­.lan¡­language¡­mat¡­matrix¡­detec¡­detected¡­ As soon as Eric tried to communicate further with the wisp he was suddenly whipped around in a swirl. Still connected to one of the balls of energy he felt himself melt and drain down into another, fast approaching portal bellow him. The other two wisps, that Eric suspected where souls, followed him down but spun around like leaves on the river and floated away from Eric. Eric struggled against the current, trying to hold on to one of the wisps. However, despite his efforts he slowly but surely started to lose strength and what passed for darkness in this strange reality took him away into unconsciousness. Eric blinked. Some time had passed, he was sure of it. Wait¡­. He blinked? Opening his eyes for what felt like the first time he turned to look around and took a breath of fresh air, and promptly started to drown as water filled his lungs and he realized he was underwater. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. In panic he held on to what little air he had and started to swing his arms around, desperately trying to swim up. His hands grazed hard rocky bottom as he flailed around, so he gathered what little sanity he had left, gripped the stones around him and hauled himself up towards the surface. ¡°Guahhhh!¡± After what felt like eternity his head broke the smooth surface of water. Eric immediately vomited a lungful of water and still half drowning, crawled forward onto the rocky beach where he laid down, gasping for air. Some time passed before he regained consciousness and was able to think again. Gahh¡­ damn¡­.That was fucking horrible¡­.. Eric turned himself over, butt naked and with his eyes closed he just lay there, struggling to breathe. ¡°Ohhh god, oh my god.¡± He gasped. ¡°Am I dead?¡± Suddenly, something poked him in the ribs and he heard a voice saying. ¡°Interesting, it¡¯s not dead hmmmm, not truly at least, hmm...¡§ Twitching in panic, Eric jumped up like a flopping fish and half crawled half rolled away from the voice, he then stopped and turned towards the man before him. ¡°Stop twitching, you thing, you are ruining everything.¡± A man, if it could be called that, approached him with a predatory grace and poked him couple of more times with a long metal rod. ¡°Auuch!¡± ¡°Yes, yes, iiinteeeeresting¡­.¡± Poke, poke. ¡°Stop poking me you maniac!¡± Finally being able to think Eric pushed the rod away and studied his tormentor. From the very first glance, it was obvious to Eric that the person was not a human. Slightly metallic, almost golden skin, and glowing runes embedded in his forearms were a dead giveaway. Aside from some abnormal features, the man appeared to be a tall human with short blonde hair. He was also clean shaven and exceptionally handsome, not that Eric could appreciate his good looks, what with him being terrified out of his mind and all that. One of the first things that Eric tried to rationalize to himself was that he somehow ended up on another planet, and that he was currently looking at an alien. He dismissed that theory as soon as he thought of it. He wasn¡¯t stupid. He might be crazy, but he wasn¡¯t stupid. None of this made sense on any rational level. Absurdly, the only rational explanation was that he was currently in an entirely different reality. Or that was what he told himself, he could be hallucinating. Or dreaming for that matter. But his intuition, fueled by the afterimages and abstract concepts that he remembered from his recent dreamlike state were all telling him to treat his new situation as something completely real, at least until he was safe enough to go through a complete mental breakdown. Uncaring for his terrified prey, the man continued to wave the inscribed rod around Eric, sometimes poking him in the leg or belly, followed by a fascinated: ¡°hmmm, yes, I see¡± or ¡°yes, yes, very curious¡­hmmm.¡± Confused beyond measure, Eric dragged himself up and pressed his back into a nearby rock. Looking around him he saw the place where he crawled out of water, it was a fairly small but incredibly deep natural well, filled with azure blue water that shone unnaturally in the setting sun. All around him he noticed many other surrounding ponds and wells, filled with bright water and rising steam, as well as distant erupting geyser. The earth was a mineral rock, almost orange in color and it shimmered in rainbow hues when hit by rays of sunlight. He was currently standing in a depression of sorts, so he couldn¡¯t see far but he still managed to notice a mountain chain in the distance, seemingly stretching forever across the horizon. No vegetation covered the land, at least in his near vicinity. Still dazed he managed to stammer. ¡°Who are you? What the hell is going on, what is this place?¡± ¡°Hmmm?¡± The man paused, after a moment he took a step back and swished the runed baton in his hand, making it retract and disappear somewhere. Probably in one of the pouches in the many layered robes that the man wore. It was an interesting attire, clearly well made, dark blue with sleaves up to the man¡¯s elbows, the torso looked almost like a vest, filled with various pockets and the rest of the robes stretched down to the man¡¯s knees, not unlike a duster coat. He also wore a nice pair of worn but comfortable looking leather boots. The man gave him a measured look, inspecting him from head to toe, and Eric just noticed; he had the most astounding eyes. Almost yellow, with glimmering lights occasionally shining in the depths of his irises. ¡°I¡­¡± the man said with great importance. ¡°¡­am Vitary, the god of curiosity in this realm. And you stranger, are really and truly interesting. Do tell me, how did you arrive here, through the mana vent, and how are you still moving about?¡± Edward couldn¡¯t help himself. Did he just say he was a god, and a mana went¡­ Oh no¡­ no, no, no. Eric froze in horror, staring into air past the stranger¡¯s face. Vitary pulled back and frowned, then he bent towards Eric and stared at him again, noticing Erics gaze he turned around and with confusion evident on his face looked towards the point of air where Eric was staring into nothing. Clearly frustrated Vitary looked at Eric again just to turn back and bent closer to the air, staring intently into nothingness. ¡°What is he¡­.hmmmm.¡± Eric meanwhile, was struggling with himself. Did¡­ did he just got Isekaied. No, No way. He just lost his god damn mind, that¡¯s it. There is nooo way¡­ Just then, a ray of setting sun hit him in the face and he turned his gaze up, where in sky he saw two suns. One big, normal looking one, and the other much smaller, blood red sun, half hiding behind the first one. ¡°You have got to be fucking kidding me¡­.¡± ¡°Huh¡­¡± Vitary responded and turned to Eric, just to follow his stare up to the sky. He then raised his hand to his brow to protect himself from the glare and stared at the suns too, occasionally turning towards Eric to make sure he was still looking at the sky. ¡°What is he looking at¡­¡± he mumbled to himself. Eric was processing everything as fast as he could, chanting in his mind the mantra that stuck with him through his army days. Just roll with it, just fucking roll with it man. Take it in stride and keep fucking moving. Eric was no stranger to fantasy literature, his mother, bless her soul, was a huge fantasy fan, and he still had her Tolkien books as a memento back home. She even used to read him books when he was younger, so it was no wonder that he too developed a love towards the genre. Unfortunately, the pleasure of reading withered and died with the loss of his mother, just to be replaced with harsh realities of life and some other, more carnal desires, during his college years. He did eventually get back to reading some books, but it was never the same as before, when he was a child and an innocent wide-eyed dreamer. He was knowledgeable of the concept of alternate realities however. At least to some degree, both as a fantasy and as a scientific term. He just had to roll with it. Provided he hadn¡¯t gone insane. ¡°All right, ok. So, I¡¯m not on earth anymore, I guess.¡± Vitary crossed his arms and stared him with mild contempt, his eyes passing over Eric from his head to where his feet were planted in dirty, slightly muddy, orange earth. ¡°I would beg to differ.¡± He said in a dry tone. ¡°But you didn¡¯t really answer my question, so, how are you here, where are you from, how did you end up crawling out of the mana vent?¡± Eric composed himself as much as he could, and made a calming motion. ¡°Ok, ok, just bear with me for a minute mister¡­ Vitary, right. I jut went through a lot of crazy things and I really need a minute to compose myself, a few answers too if you can give them. You said you are a curious kind of guy didn¡¯t you, so you know what¡¯s it like, not knowing what¡¯s going on, so please give me a little help over here¡­ please.¡± Vitary visibly brightened at that. ¡°Ahhh, a traditionalist, very well then a question for a question, that is fair enough, you can go first stranger.¡± Eric sighed in relief, he still had no idea where he was but, hopefully, he was finally going to get some answers.