《The Best Laid Plans of Death》 Chapter 1 ~~~Jason Grant My name is Jason. I¡¯m what you might call a mega-genius, or an intellectual anomaly as I later came to be known. I have made some pretty cool stuff at a young age. It was very impressive, I got my name in the news a couple of times, but it never really had the potential to change the world, or even change my life. That was until I started to pursue wormholes, shortcuts through time and space, possibly even to parallel universes. I of course kept it all secret, I would be laughing stock, trying to recreate a very beautiful theory commonly used in science fiction. I would¡¯ve thought the same until I detected traces of negative matter, also the works of theory, which should be able to open wormholes and keep them open long enough for something to go through. It took me five years, but eventually I got it right. It¡¯s actually startlingly easy to open a wormhole, and slightly harder but also easy to keep it open. The hard part is projecting it in the correct direction. The math behind that is staggering. Now that I have tested the wormhole generator five hundred times, I am about to use it on myself for the first time. I rub my face nervously. Despite not experiencing a single failure in my five hundred test trials, I am nervous that I will experience one now. One slip-up and I might end up in the vacuum of space, or even have each piece of me sent to different locations. But sending a scanner back and forth can only achieve so much. I have to do this someday, and today is as good as any. I pick up the calculator-like device and type the coordinates for a place I had previously deemed hospitable. Before I even knew what was going on, I fell face-first into blue sand. I looked around to see the same sand in every direction toward the horizon. There were some sort of flying creatures in the distance that looked like pterodactyls. Whatever this place was, it seemed to be in twilight. When I finally came to my senses, I scolded myself for not bringing a camera. Finally, I pressed the return button on the wormhole generator only to hit my forehead on my desk. ¡°Oh, fucking hell!¡± I yell to no one in particular. ¡°I¡¯ll have to fix that¡­¡± I start typing into my laptop only to hear a whirring noise behind me. I turn around to see a skeleton in a torn black robe, levitating in the middle of my room. I just froze in terror, until I started to get a severe headache. I grabbed my head for the third time that evening. It passed moments later, and I looked up to see nothing out of the ordinary. Turning back to my desk, I notice my pencil cup has fallen off. I am used to this sort of thing, objects out of my reach moving when I''m angry or panicked. The Grim Reaper was new though. ¡°Must¡¯ve overworked myself¡­¡± I mutter. ¡°I should probably go out to clear my mind. How much money do I- fuuuck." I spent the next few months perfecting the wormhole generator. I started by making it more gentle with what it¡¯s transporting. Then I made the interface easier to use. If negative matter was easier to come by, it would save me a lot of time and money. Of course, when I was finally satisfied with it, I would be able to sell my design, and then I would be set for life, so I wasn¡¯t too unhappy. I also had other projects in mind, such as plasma-based weaponry. As I was testing the prototype for that, something happened that would change my life forever... I set down the fire extinguisher in the secluded alley. I took one more look at the pistol. It was mostly held together by duct tape and was made of all sorts of junk, but it would revolutionize modern warfare if it worked. Careful not to point it anywhere near me, I aimed at the ground and pulled the trigger. There was a relatively quiet noise and a bright flash of orange light, and then a massive burning hole in the ground. ¡°Shit!¡± I yell, reaching for the fire extinguisher. As I tried to put the fire out, I heard another noise behind me. I turned around to find myself face to face with... myself. ¡°What the hell?!¡± both of us shouted in unison. We both reached out to touch each other as if to check if we were real. To tell you the truth, I don¡¯t even know what I was expecting at that point. But my copy was real alright. I had played around with the concept. The chances of him existing were 10 to the 612 to one. Basically, you could divide one by the number of atoms in the universe and not even come close to how minuscule the chances of this were. ¡°Well, maybe we got lucky...¡± he said to me. ¡°Excuse me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just replying to what you¡¯re saying.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say anything.¡± ¡°Like hell you didn¡¯t! You were rambling about how impossible I am.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say that out loud! You saying you can read my thoughts?¡± ¡°Do you even realize how crazy that sounds?¡± ¡°Well, you shouldn¡¯t exist, so I¡¯m keeping an open mind. First time I used the wormhole generator, where did I go?¡± ¡°Blue sand... Twilight... Pterodactyls...¡± ¡°Holy shit...¡± So either I was completely losing my mind, or I didn¡¯t even have to speak in order to communicate with other... versions of me. It was weird, hearing foreign voices in your head, so we agreed to just talk. Me and the other guy would regularly meet to discuss our projects. It felt like we were best friends. It was not long, however, before we found more of us. The five of us were sitting around a campfire in the alien forest. One has only recently found us. ¡°So let me get this straight... there¡¯s a one in ten to the 612 chance even one of us exists... and there¡¯s five of us?¡± the new guy said. ¡°Yeah, pretty much,¡± another responded. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare say there¡¯s a higher power at work here,¡± a third chimed in as he drank his beer. ¡°Well, either that or we just won the lottery a couple billion times over.¡± There was a slight pause until the new one started talking again¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s the Grim Reaper.¡± ¡°What did you say?¡± ¡°It was just a joke.¡± ¡°So, you saw it too?¡± ¡°Yeah, right after I used the wormhole generator for the first time.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. There was another pause, this time with everyone staring in awe. ¡°The same thing happened to all of us... Maybe it wants us to meet each other?¡± ¡°How many more is there to meet? Ten? Fifty? Is there even a limit?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know man, I don¡¯t know.¡± The telltale sound of the wormhole generator attracted everyone¡¯s attention to two more individuals appearing. ¡°Hey guys, sorry I¡¯m late,¡± one of the arrivals said, ¡°I found another one.¡± ¡°Oh, you gotta be fuckin¡¯ kidding me!¡± one of the guys at the campfire yelled, throwing the almost empty beer can to the ground in frustration. Soon after, we found an alien civilization. We were overjoyed when we realized they were far more advanced than humans, and started stealing everything we could get our hands on. Eventually, we were able to translate their language, or rather, languages. We then found out that the galaxy is just like the Earth, it is split into many different countries. The most powerful by far was the Galactic Imperial State, or the Empire, as everyone called it. The Empire occupied roughly half of the territory in the galaxy. It was the most powerful nation in, well, practically every regard. For one reason or another, intelligent life only appeared on Earth several thousand years after most other planets, which is why humans are so far behind in their technology. This held true for most of the twenty million universes we had encountered. What all those universes had in common, without fail, was a person named Jason who was intelligent enough to create a wormhole generator. We began referring to those universes as the Cluster. Beyond the Cluster, there was... something, but we could not figure out what, because we were unable to travel there. We began numbering the universes with a letter, followed by a number, and finally one of four Greek letters. Initially, universes that contained a version of us would start their serial number with ¡°A,¡± but by the time we realized that was all of them, the damage had already been done. We also started to work on a base of operations because of how many of us there were. We stole a few construction drones from the Empire and designed a space station. We were astonished by the speed of their construction, as they built a habitation three times the size of New York in just a year. Thankfully, we did not need to expand it any further. From then on, we were our own faction. Both us and our base were called the Monolith. Each of us was then referred to by the serial number of our universe. Unfortunately after that, however, the Empire declared itself to be our enemy. Just as we wanted to study them, they wanted to study us. We had the technology that turned one person into an army, and likewise, they wanted the technology to turn an army into an unstoppable force. ~~~Unit A4254492-Gamma, Monolith Agent ¡°Unit is in target building. Attempting to locate artifact,¡± I say into the communicator on my arm. My voice is deep and distorted because of the mask I¡¯m wearing to conceal my identity. ¡°Confirm. Target is on 325th floor. Please confirm your altitude,¡± A0-Alpha replies. I look around the room. It is somewhat similar to an office complex. There is some text on the wall next to a door. Hopefully, the floor number. I point my phone at it with the translator program already loaded. ¡°Floor is-¡± I am interrupted by a squad of alien soldiers breaking down the door. Who I presume to be the leader shouts something to the others as I run for cover in one of the metallic desks. ¡°Hostiles in the area! Unit requires assistance!¡± I yell as I shoot the soldiers. The two that I hit scream and collapse into a pile of ashes. ¡°Abort mission! Return to base!¡± A0-Alpha shouts. I stop shooting and begin typing the coordinates into the wormhole generator. A round object lands in front of me, likely a grenade. Cussing, I try to kick it away, but there is a dull thud, and everything goes black. ~~~Unit A0-Alpha, Monolith Overseer Unit A4254492-Gamma was still alive, his mask was monitoring his vital signs. But he was unconscious or paralyzed because the mask video feed showed a pair of Imperial soldiers walk up to him and carry him away. ¡°Damnit!¡± I yell, banging my fist on the table. I start to frantically type into my computer. A4254492-Gamma had to be recovered. Five other units were selected at random. What we lack in any combat training we make up for in our equipment and organization. ~~~A1814043-Gamma, one of the units selected for the squad We arrived in an Imperial military base where A4254492-Gamma was tracked to. It was right in the middle of nowhere, there was nothing but desert for kilometers in every direction. The base itself was shaped like a massive ring with four tall buildings connected to it. Each of the buildings had the Imperial army¡¯s symbol painted on the top: a vertical line progressively getting more jagged as it progresses downward and three curves intersecting it at the top, the bottom-most of which ending in sharp angles on both sides. Inside it all was a courtyard with a plentitude of what seemed to be armored vehicles parked on the gravel surface. The most prominent colors were gold and sometimes blue, the signature colors of the Empire. All the guards were too busy guarding the entrances to notice us, so we hid behind one of the vehicles and formulated a plan. As soon as we deemed it to be safe, we rushed to the nearest building. It was locked with a keypad, but I was able to get it open with a program the Monolith have designed to bypass Imperial security. We didn¡¯t make it far before running into an unarmored alien. The creature was almost entirely sand-colored, save for the wide, dark red stripe running through the middle of its face and neck. The alien reached for the weapon strapped to its chest, but A564504-Beta rushed at it and knocked it to the ground. He then pressed a knife to the alien¡¯s throat. I load up the translator on my phone as A1931164-Alpha takes the alien¡¯s weapon away and interrogates it: ¡°Where do you take your hostages?¡± The translator tells me how to pronounce the statement in the widely accepted Imperial language. The alien says something, and once again, the translator comes to my aid. ¡°They take them to a facility two floors below. He can take us there,¡± I say. A564504-Beta gets off the alien to allow it to lead the squad where we needed to go. In fear of its life, the alien complied. But it was not long before we ran into more soldiers, these ones were armored. Our weapons made short work of them, but an alarm went off. The whole base knew we were here. We once again communicated telepathically to save time. We agreed that A564504-Beta and A2641389-Gamma would stay behind and keep any reinforcements from catching up with us. They took cover behind two stacks of crates on either side of the hall as the rest of us kept going and reached an elevator without problems. ¡°You two, get over here now!¡± A1931164-Alpha says through his communicator. ¡°Affirmative,¡± A564504-Beta replies. Almost immediately, we hear one of the Empire¡¯s weapons firing and one of us screaming. ¡°Unit in critical condition! I must return him to base immediately! Keep going without us!¡± one of the two said. Thankfully, the Imperial weapons were also plasma-based but nowhere near as powerful as ours, meaning that with a little bit of luck, we could survive being hit by them. ¡°Damnit! Alright, work your magic, Houdini!¡± A1931164-Alpha tells the alien, who typed the code into the elevator without even waiting for a translation. We got into the elevator just in time before the soldiers caught up to us, but not before they opened fire and hit me in my left arm. I couldn¡¯t help but scream in pain. ¡°Are you alright? Do you need to return to base?¡± A1931164-Alpha asked me. ¡°No, I¡¯ll be fine once this is over. The mission is more important,¡± I answered as I examined the burn area. There was a massive third-degree burn. I used one of my painkillers on it, sending huge relief through my arm. With that, the elevator door opened to more soldiers waiting for us. We ran for cover behind the walls in the elevator, but A4387669-Alpha gets hit in the leg before he can make it. He falls over and screams in pain as me and A1931164-Alpha return fire at the soldiers. ¡°Goddamn it, don¡¯t you people ever give up?!¡± A1931164-Alpha yells as he kills the last of them. I examine A4387669-Alpha¡¯s leg. ¡°His burns are worse than mine, he won¡¯t be able to keep moving even with a painkiller,¡± I tell A1931164-Alpha. ¡°Do you need help getting back to base?¡± I ask A4387669-Alpha. ¡°No, I¡¯ll be fine. Just keep going...¡± he responds, as he reaches for his wormhole generator. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go then,¡± I say. Our hostage continues leading us through the underground tunnel past multiple doors until he stops at one and speaks in its language. ¡°This is the place, according to him anyway,¡± I say. A1931164-Alpha nods and prepares to break the door down as I stand to the slightly to the side, pointing my pistol at it. Before he could do anything, the alien grabs A1931164-Alpha¡¯s head and slams it against the wall. ¡°Oh, you son of a bitch!¡± I say as I point my pistol at it. The alien knocked the pistol out of my hand and pinned me to the ground. It tried to grab the gun on the ground, but I pushed it away as hitting either of us would likely disintegrate both right now. The alien then started trying to choke me, its sharp claws tearing into my neck and sending a small stream of blood onto the floor. Struggling to stay conscious, I take out my switchblade, unfold it, and stab the alien in its side. Immediately its grip on my throat loosens. Coughing, I push its dead body off of me and stand up. Just as I catch my breath, another soldier exits the door and prepares to shoot me. Time seems to slow down to a crawl as I realize that I can¡¯t do anything. This is how I die. Suddenly, the soldier¡¯s head is slammed against the door frame and he falls over. I run over and realize its neck is twisted at an unnatural angle. If their anatomy is anything like that of humans, it¡¯s dead for sure. Looking into the room, I see A4254492-Gamma tied to a chair. ¡°What the hell just happened?¡± I ask him. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I really wanted that to happen,¡± he responds. ¡°Telekinesis?¡± I ask as I untie him. ¡°Believe me, I would love to discuss how strange all of this is, but after we return. My wormhole generator is somewhere on that guy who hit the door.¡± ¡°Good point. I¡¯ll take A1931164-Alpha, you take the dead alien.¡± Chapter 2 ~~~Unit A1631039-Alpha, Monolith Strategist It was early morning. At least it was on Earth. The Monolith obviously doesn¡¯t have a day-night cycle, but I still woke up very recently, so I was drinking coffee while my partner A2268124-Delta was going through our archives at the computer in front of me. ¡°Well, what can I say?¡± he says. ¡°There¡¯s no lighter way to put it. We¡¯ve seriously fucked up. Every version of the Empire we¡¯ve angered ¨C which is, to say, all of them ¨C is actively monitoring their version of Earth. They¡¯re also combing the galaxy for us, but the signal jammer seems to be doing the trick, they can¡¯t see us. I still suggest we start sabotaging their scouting parties, you know, make it seem that they¡¯re doing their best to find us when in reality, we are forcing them to cover us up.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a great idea,¡± I respond. ¡°But the question remains: how? Our squads are organized, but our strategic prowess is almost nonexistent ¨C the fact that we are the best of the best strategists is proof of that. And even if that wasn¡¯t the case, our face is on the first page of every top secret file out there; they¡¯ll recognize us before we could hold up our fake IDs.¡± ¡°The neuroscience division is working hard on memory replacement. They hope we could get one of their leaders mind controlled on our side, to put it simply. Even then, it is only a matter of time until someone stumbles into us purely on accident. Everyone out there from a regular billionaire to some truck driver goes to space regularly. At this point, our last hope is to move the Monolith to a universe where the Empire simply doesn¡¯t exist.¡± ¡°Are you insane? We barely have enough negative matter for personal use, and you want to move over three New York Cities?¡± ¡°Well, then we need to start looking for a more reliable source of the stuff. And build a very big wormhole generator while we¡¯re doing that.¡± ¡°Maybe we could steal from the Empire again? Judging by their absolute defiance of gravity, they must have no shortage of the stuff.¡± ¡°Unlike wormholes, negative matter doesn¡¯t fly off into the void when you use it for anti-gravity, so they don¡¯t need much either. But I¡¯ll look anyway,¡± my partner says as he begins typing on the keyboard. After a long pause, he continues: ¡°Universe A4812856-Alpha has something here. The majority of that universe¡¯s Empire¡¯s negative matter comes from a gas giant practically on the opposite side of the galaxy from Earth. Fascinating planet. Clumps of negative matter form in the asteroids there, and as a result, floating islands appear. It is even inhabited by some unintelligent life. Shame that it¡¯s right in the middle of Empire territory, the ecology team would kill to get their hands on that¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but can we remain focused here?¡± I tell him. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sorry. Well, if we raid some of their mining bases, we could get a few tons of negative matter. Should be easy enough, they¡¯ve got more important things to guard than negative matter mines. Wait a minute¡­¡± ¡°What?¡± I ask as I hand my empty cup to a small flying robot and lean in to get a closer look at the screen. ¡°Apparently a bunch of unknown aliens are attacking the mining bases. No one knows where they came from, it¡¯s just another workday, and all of a sudden, these robots or armored soldiers or whatever just appear and open fire. They¡¯ve put up quite a fight, but they seem to be losing now.¡± There is an image of what looks like a soldier in an aggressive stance. The low quality makes it hard to tell, but it seems robotic in nature. ¡°The enemy of my enemy is my friend¡­¡± I say. ¡°Send squads to raid the facilities. Make it clear that the Empire is our enemy too.¡± ~~~A4153624-Beta, Monolith Soldier The planet was unlike anything I had ever seen. There were massive floating islands everywhere. According to our previous scans, some of these islands can be the size of Australia. All of them had their tops covered with yellow-green grass. Other plantlife was completely alien. Although I didn¡¯t see any animals, I knew there were all sorts of them, big and small. Perhaps the miners scared them all off. The sky was blue ¨C almost the same as Earth ¨C but the sun was white and several times brighter. We were right next to the edge of the island to our left. In front of us was a small hill. Orbital command claimed the Empire¡¯s base of operations on this planet was behind it. We all run to the top of the hill and see the base, with two armed guards. Two of our soldiers aim at the guards and fire. One of them hits and disintegrates a guard. The other guard runs for cover. An alarm is set off. ¡°Stay back, they got a minefield over there,¡± says A4812856-Alpha. Another of our squads appears much closer to the facility and quickly kills the remaining guard. ~~~ A2406667-Gamma, Monolith Soldier (Second Squad) ¡°Orbital command reports no more hostiles outside the facility,¡± A0-Alpha tells us. ¡°Move in.¡± As we approach the entrance, an Imperial soldier peeks out of a hidden trapdoor and shoots A4271553-Gamma in the leg and drops back inside. Fortunately, the new material we¡¯ve developed seemed to be doing the trick, as A4271553-Gamma was mostly unharmed. ¡°I¡¯m alright,¡± he tells us. ¡°Don¡¯t let your guard down for surprises like that.¡± ¡°Cover me,¡± says another squad member, A3791890-Gamma, while preparing to open the door into the facility. Another group of Imperial soldiers run in from the other side of the facility. We were ready and killed two of them. All of them retreated except for a massive apelike creature. The beast punched one of our squad with its fist in his chest, sending him to the ground. The brute then fired at another Monolithian, hitting him in the face and killing him. A3791890-Gamma, who was closest to the dying Monolithian, started panicking and killed the Brute. ¡°Unit down, another in need of medical attention!¡± A4336569-Delta says as he throws a grenade at the remaining Imperials, killing them. A800321-Alpha begins examining the Monolithian that the Brute punched. ¡°Several broken ribs¡­ he needs to return to base,¡± he says as he uses a painkiller on the injured Monolithian. I examined the dead one. His face was completely burnt off, sometimes even his skull was showing. I felt sick. ¡°This one¡¯s dead¡­ there¡¯s nothing we can do.¡± ¡°Orbital command reports movement of large objects,¡± says A0-Alpha. ¡°What direction?¡± A4812856-Alpha questions. ¡°Below, moving towards the edge of the island.¡± ¡°Get inside now!¡± A4812856-Alpha commands. We finally got the airlock open and ran inside. Or so I thought. Turning around, I saw A3791890-Gamma kneeling in front of the dead Monolithian. ¡°Come on!¡± I yell at him. He then catches up with us in response, and we close the airlock door. ~~~A4153624-Beta, Monolith Soldier (First Squad) Still on the hill, we waited for whatever ships were below the island. A2528608-Delta held a massive antimatter cannon, ready to blow something out of the sky. Finally, a grey ship rises from below the island. ¡°That¡¯s no Imperial ship¡­¡± A4153624-Beta points out. The ship hovers over the edge of the island as a platform extends from it. A group of what looked like robots walked out of it. ¡°Hold your fire!¡± A0-Alpha said. As we put down our weapons and raise our hands, one of the ¡°robots¡± starts walking toward us. Before it could reach us, more Imperial soldiers came from the other side of the facility and started shooting at the ¡°robots.¡± Immediately, we picked up our weapons and began to shoot at the Empire. Hours later¡­ The fighting was finally over. Our new allies were dragging dead bodies of their kind and Imperial soldiers back on their dropships. We stood aside to stay out of the way. Another dropship came to the island. Just like the others, it extended a platform. Unlike the others, it only carried three soldiers. All of them started walking toward us. Every time the one in the lead passed one of the soldiers that didn¡¯t arrive on its dropship, they would grab their left arm just below the shoulder. Probably a salute. Finally, the soldier reached us and started speaking to me telepathically. it says. ¡°We¡­we are the Monolith,¡± I say. ¡°We are¡­ a new faction in the galaxy.¡± ¡°We are looking for allies. You seem to dislike the Galactic Imperial State.¡± The being responds by speaking out loud in its language and falling silent for a moment. No doubt communicating with some sort of authority. ¡°Yes. We are severely outnumbered by the Empire and need all the help we can get.¡± The alien once again speaks in its language, translating to whoever it takes orders from. < The council shows great interest in your weapons. They are very effective against the armor of our enemy.> ¡°Of course. You help us, we¡¯ll help you.¡± ~~~A3791890-Gamma, Monolith Soldier (Second Squad) My squad returned with our hands full of negative matter. All of them went¡­ wherever. I stayed behind at the cargo bay, holding the dead Monolithian¡¯s dog tag. A22631562-Delta. There was a voice in my head. It was like him, but¡­ wrong. It was trying to tell me something, but I could not understand it. ¡°Shut up!¡± I yelled, throwing the dog tag to the ground. I stood there, panting for almost a minute. Then I took out my pistol and pointed it to my head with a shaking arm. ~~~A4153624-Beta, Monolith Soldier (First Squad) ¡°Well, that¡¯s our story. Now you. Where are you from?¡± I ask the alien. < This world is called Aleria. We live in the lower islands, where no starlight ever reaches us. We only learned of other worlds recently. Our enemy has been taking negative matter from the upper islands, causing them to fall, endangering us,> it responded. ¡°And here we thought you were fighting for resources¡­ you were fighting for your very lives¡­¡± < I have just received a message from the council. They approve of our diplomatic negotiations.> ¡°They approve. We¡¯ve got ourselves some allies!¡± I say through my communicator. ¡°Finally, some good news. Ask them about telepathy,¡± A0-Alpha responded. ¡°We are also interested in the method you are using to communicate with us. We understand our and your scientists will be exchanging information? Does that include whoever understands this thing?¡± < No one does. Psionics have been studied for most of history, and we understand very little.> ¡°Hmm. Well, can you let us speak to any scientists who understand a little bit?¡± < There is not much to know. Rarely, an individual is born with the ability to exhibit force with thought and to communicate with other individuals without any evidence of speech. Some have a stronger psionic potential than others, and they can exhibit stronger force, and communicate with minds that are more¡­ different from them. I am one of the most psionically capable of my kind. Differences in brain structure between normal and psionic individuals have been noted, but we are not certain how these differences cause our abilities. Mental development also seems to play a role, as cloned psionic individuals display no such skills.> ¡°Very interesting. Can you tell us about these differences in brain structure?¡± < I do not understand this information, but it is stored in our archives. I can have one of our neuroscientists read it to you, and I will attempt to translate.> ¡°Ok. Do that, please.¡± ~~~A2646122-Beta, Monolith individual Today was a good day. Not only did we finally get enough negative matter to escape from the Empire, we also made contact with aliens that were actually willing to cooperate. The death of one of ours was tragic, but it was bound to happen eventually. Honestly, I was surprised it didn¡¯t happen sooner. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. My thoughts were interrupted by another Monolithian approaching me. I read his dog tag. A3791890-Gamma. He was carrying another dog tag. ¡°Hey, why are you carrying that?¡± I ask. ¡°One of us fucking died,¡± he responds. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s his¡­? Yes, that¡¯s very tragic, but I am honestly surprised we took so long with our first casualty. As much as I can hardly believe it myself, we ARE at war. And thanks to his sacrifice, we just might stand a chance.¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t even give him a funeral or anything! We just let those¡­ things carry him off for god knows what just like they did the dead Imperials! This!¡± he yells, as he held up the dog tag, ¡°is all we have left of him!¡± ¡°Oh, so now we start burying people? Why? So he could feel better? He is gone. That dead body the aliens carried away is just an object now, an object we have no use for, but our allies want! If it makes you feel any better, he is being honored right now by being a diplomatic gift.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t understand¡­ I didn¡¯t just watch him die¡­ I felt his pain¡­ his fear¡­ I felt like I was the one who died¡­ and now, I feel like his mind is still clinging to my own¡­¡± ¡°They¡¯re testing memory manipulation in a few minutes, and are very confident that it could be available by tomorrow. We can remove that experience from your mind. Until then, try not to kill yourself, ok?¡± For a moment, the traumatized Monolithian seemed reassured by this statement. Then, he clenched his teeth and closed his eyes. ¡°But that won¡¯t stop anything, will it? As long as we are at war, Monolithians will keep dying.¡± ¡°We¡¯re also looking into advanced AI. War robots are expected to be available soon.¡± ¡°And when they come knocking at our doorstep, what then? No amount of memory erasure or warbots will change the fact that we would stand no chance if they found this base!¡± ¡°So what do you suggest? Hand them over the wormhole generator?¡± ¡°Exactly. Make peace with them before it¡¯s too late.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah, I¡¯ve heard this before. Today we hand over what they want, tomorrow we are at peace with 20 million Empires, and the day after that we are sent to space court for war crimes or ¡®unethical experiments.¡¯¡± At this point, we had attracted the attention of a pair of guards. ¡°I¡¯ve heard enough,¡± one of them said. ¡°Come with us.¡± The rogue Monolithian responded by taking an EMP grenade out of his pocket and detonating it in his hand. The guards¡¯ weapons were instantly disabled. He then takes out his wormhole generator and begins typing coordinates. a Monolithian tells me telepathically. I then catch a syringe filled with a silver liquid, like Mercury. I manage to inject it into A3791890-Gamma¡¯s neck just before he disappeared. The Monolithian who gave me the syringe then dials a number on his phone. ¡°Come on, come on, come on, pick up damn it!¡± he yells. He continues after a slight pause: ¡°Erase all memories of the wormhole generation equations!¡± another pause. ¡°There¡¯s no time just do it!¡± he then promptly hangs up. ¡°Can I ask what that stuff was?¡± I say. ¡°I was supposed to bring those nanites down to the Neuroscience Division for tests on memory manipulation, and instead, I witnessed this spectacle,¡± he explains. ¡°All we can do is hope it works, and that the Empire can¡¯t reverse engineer his wormhole generator.¡± ¡°God, what a mess! And to think, all because he was using telepathy on a dying person¡­¡± A few months later¡­ ~~~ A4113729-Gamma, volunteer test subject I was in a small room with A4215644-Beta, the Director of the Neuroscience Division himself. Behind him, there is a computer, and in front of him are me and a chair. Attached to the chair is a mess of wires and a pair of robotic arms ending with long, sharp needles. ¡°So, remind me again what I¡¯m volunteering for?¡± I ask nervously as I examine the needles. ¡°Your mind will be downloaded into the body of an Alerian in an attempt to enhance your psionic abilities,¡± the director responds. Until this moment, I was looking forward to this. But right now, I was having second thoughts for reasons I could not explain. ¡°And why couldn¡¯t you do this with one of your clones?¡± I ask. ¡°My previous experiments have confirmed our allies¡¯ claims: psionic abilities require both the appropriate brain structure and a properly developed mind,¡± the director explains. ¡°The clones, of course, do not have a properly developed mind, they¡¯re conscious for hours before experimentation, and it doesn¡¯t help that we engineer them to be dumb and obedient either. The procedure has been proven to be perfectly safe, you¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°What about the Alerians being unable to survive outside their lower islands?¡± ¡°Obviously, we keep the containment room at a nice 16 thousand psi and filled with the proper gasses. If you don¡¯t want to do this, just go, and I¡¯ll find another volunteer.¡± I considered this option for a second. I did not like the idea of simply leaving my body. But then I realized that anything I liked, every other Monolithian liked. If I deny, so will many others. It had to start with someone. ¡°Alright fine, let¡¯s do this,¡± I say as I sit in the chair and start attaching the wires to my head. The director nods and says: ¡°Fair warning, this will hurt like hell, and a painkiller isn¡¯t going to do anything about it.¡± ¡°Great. Let¡¯s just get this over with.¡± The director nods again and turns around to press a button on the computer. The robotic arms insert their needles into the sides of my neck. Just as expected, it hurt like hell. Then there was a stinging sensation, and I fell unconscious. I woke up in a different room. Everything felt wrong. I opened my eyes to see¡­ heat. Alerian eyes pick up infra-red radiation rather than visible light. My sense of smell also seemed stronger, as I could detect the supposedly odorless disinfectants used all over the Monolith. I detached the wires from my head and stood up to examine this body. Firstly I noticed a strange weight on my back. I reached to feel it and discovered a pair of wings protruding from my shoulders, neatly folded onto my back. I accidentally scratched the membrane with my clawed hands. I decided to examine those next. For the most part, they were similar to human hands, save for having six fingers instead of five, and the razor-sharp claws. I started feeling my face and discovered that my mouth was surrounded by a mess of tentacles. I was also a lot taller. One of the walls had a window in it, which I could see through. The infra-red in my vision spectrum had a wavelength short enough to behave a lot like visible light. The Neuroscience Director was behind that window. ¡°You¡¯re awake,¡± he says. ¡°How long have I been out?¡± I ask. ¡°About an hour. Tell me, do you have any unusual sensations? Lapses in your memory?¡± ¡°I am suddenly two meters tall and have wings. What the hell do you think? As for lapses in my memory, not that I¡¯m aware of. Why do you ask? I thought you said this was perfectly safe.¡± ¡°Just checking. Now ¨C to do the thing we started all this for ¨C there¡¯s some blocks to your right. Try to pick them up with your mind.¡± ¡°And how the hell do I do that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, how do you move your arm?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve had arms all my life.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re anything like me, you also knocked over lamps from across the room all your life, too.¡± ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll try,¡± I say as I turn my head to the blocks. I concentrate on lifting one of them. Almost immediately, it flies up and hits the ceiling. ¡°Good. Do you feel anything? Mental fatigue?¡± the director asks. ¡°No. Well¡­ yes, but the mental fatigue equivalent of carrying a piece of paper.¡± ¡°Ok¡­ can you try-¡± the director is interrupted by the Grim Reaper appearing. I then feel the worst headache I had ever felt in my life. I grabbed my head with both hands and screamed. And then, just like that, it was over. I looked up to see the director pressing various buttons repeatedly. Finally, he stops in frustration. ¡°What happened?¡± I ask him as I fold my wings back into place. They were completely unfamiliar, yet I was able to move them perfectly. ¡°You scared off the Reaper with some sort of shockwave that also busted all of my equipment,¡± he answers ¡°Except the microphones and speakers, apparently.¡± ¡°So, I¡¯m stuck like this?¡± ¡°Until we build another mind downloading device, yes.¡± ¡°And if I leave this room, I die?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°And there¡¯s a limited air supply?¡± ¡°Yes. That is why I¡¯ll get someone to fix the oxygen filter now. Don¡¯t go anywhere.¡± One week later¡­ ~~~ A4215644-Beta, Director of the Neuroscience Division A4113729-Gamma walked out of the door into the presentation room. ¡°Speak of the devil. How are you feeling?¡± I ask him. ¡°One week,¡± he said ¡°That¡¯s all it took to get used to that body. Now I¡¯m going to have to get used to this one all over again.¡± ¡°Look I¡¯m sorry, we worked as fast as we could-¡± ¡°Ugh,¡± A4113729-Gamma groans and walks out the other door. One of A0-Alpha¡¯s advisors, to whom we were giving this presentation, returned us to our previous topic: ¡°When you called us over, you said this could revolutionize what it means to be human. How so?¡± ¡°We believe that if we could improve our computers and somehow connect them to our brains, we could download the mind post mortem and input it into a new body,¡± I say. ¡°That way, we will achieve immortality.¡± A4253157-Delta, the Director of the Biology Division, adds his own ideas to my response: ¡°My team believes that switching into different bodies will make it possible to achieve genetic engineering. Whereas before we would have to alter a copied DNA sample and grow clones from it, now we could become that clone. Any body modification we could want would be available.¡± The Director of the Engineering Division, A1214499-Beta, also has a few things to say: ¡°And my team believes that if the genetics team is successful, they could create bodies engineered to not reject new organs, making cybernetic enhancements possible. With all due respect to the biology division, we simply do not believe that they could achieve as much as we could if they would let us build from their work.¡± A0-Alpha responds: ¡°I find these possibilities very tempting. Does this council have any objections to the usage of the technology described in the presentation?¡± No one says anything. ¡°Then, you have my authorization to study these paths.¡± Later¡­ A0-Alpha is standing on a small balcony high above a large crowd of Monolithians. He is giving a speech: ¡°The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So it is said in the bible. I learned of this by accident, and just as anything else originating from religion, I dismissed it as a fairy tale, a simple superstition. Today, I stand corrected. Our spirit is willing to do anything to survive, but our flesh is too weak to provide any protection. But today, that is also no longer true. Today we have removed the need for flesh. Today we have conquered death. And all this thanks to inspiration from a tiny civilization just now reaching for the stars to our three science divisions! Some may think our purely rational ways of thinking are barbaric. Truly, we have done little to honor our dead. We have practically used our allies the Alerians to achieve godhood, while giving them nothing. But is it barbaric to do what we must to survive? To do what we must to crush our enemies?! We are gods. We are immortal. We are eternal.¡± He pauses to do the Alerian salute, and concludes: ¡°Long live the Monolith!¡± His audience responds in unison with the same salute and phrase: ¡°Long live the Monolith!¡± Chapter 3 ~~~Unit A2228183-Alpha, recently upgraded individual I woke up on the operating table and sat up. I felt oddly refreshed, possibly because this new body was never used before. I stared at my hands. Though I knew they were artificial, they looked completely real. Those engineers even managed to create a synthetic nervous system so I could still feel. ¡°I know, it¡¯s amazing,¡± said the physician who had been watching me the whole time. ¡°Now, we¡¯ve had a few defects - don¡¯t worry, nothing too serious - but it seems you¡¯re fine.¡± ¡°Wait, wait, wait... Shouldn¡¯t you actually check them or something?¡± I ask. ¡°No, don¡¯t worry, if something wasn¡¯t working, you¡¯d know.¡± ¡°So, I¡¯m free to go?¡± ¡°Yep. You should get an assignment through the neural interface soon.¡± The neural interface was quite possibly our greatest achievement to date. It was a tiny chip implanted into an individual¡¯s brain, allowing an interface directly from the mind to any computer within our network, hence the name. It also granted communication between individuals, similar to telepathy, but without regard toward distance. Its main purpose, however, was to be a portable version of the mind downloading device. Bodies would be interchangeable like clothes. Death would be irrelevant. It took the three science divisions months to simply agree on a design. First, the Neuroscience Division had to explain to the Engineering Division why their design wouldn¡¯t work, then they had to propose an idea on how to change human brain structure to make it accept the interface. Then the Biology Division had to explain why such a genetic manipulation is impossible, and then they proposed their idea. And then the Engineering Division explained why applying the interface to that brain wouldn¡¯t work, forcing them to redesign their concept, and so on. I then heard a voice in my head. It felt similar to telepathy, but different, artificial. Immediately my mind was flooded with information regarding what I was meant to do. The Monolith had intercepted Imperial communications in universe A2852541-Delta regarding a large amount of Negative Matter all stored in a small area on a moon orbiting a gas giant. We were to recover it before the Empire arrives, and investigate the area if possible. One hour later... Two Monolithians came to the moon before the rest in order to assemble a Gateway, which would increase the efficiency of traveling to this moon and back. As soon as it was open, the rest of us came through as well. The gravity on the moon was significantly lower than on Earth. As such, there was incredibly tall plantlife everywhere. Taller yet were the mountains on either side of the valley we arrived in. We could see the gas giant this moon was orbiting. It occupied a massive portion of the sky and had a small set of rings. Information from Orbital Command seeped directly into my brain and formed a mental map. Ahead of us and to the right there would be a city. We were to locate our target there. After a 500 meter walk, we found that the mountain range to our right simply... ended unnaturally and was replaced by a large flat area with multiple massive buildings constructed from a jet black material. There were also a pair of statues almost as big as the buildings themselves dedicated to lizardlike creatures. Their front legs and necks were disproportionately long, and they sat similarly to a cat, with their long tails wrapped around them. Everything was overgrown and looked abandoned. ¡°So where¡¯s the Negative Matter we came for?¡± one of my squadmates said. ¡°I want to grab it quick so we have time to take a good look at all this.¡± ¡°Somewhere in this city,¡± another answered. ¡°Maybe one of these structures is a storage unit?¡± ¡°Maybe. Alright, split up into teams of two and search these buildings.¡± With that, all of us went our separate ways in search of the precious substance. Me and my partner A4291747-Delta began walking toward one of the smaller buildings. A4291747-Delta started a conversation with me: ¡°So who do you think built all this?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know,¡± I respond. ¡°They were probably big, though. Now that I think about it, this looks less like a city and more like a small town with giant buildings.¡± ¡°Do you think those statues are supposed to be of them?¡± ¡°Doubt it. Those paws don¡¯t look like they would be very good at moving rocks and building shelters.¡± ¡°Hmph. Wonder why this place is abandoned? Do you think the inhabitants are still alive somewhere?¡± ¡°Well, this is the only signs of civilization on this rock or this system, so I guess it¡¯s plausible that whoever built this place is still out there somewhere, though the architecture doesn¡¯t match that of any culture in our archives, be it existing or long gone.¡± I paused to think after I said all that. Had I really browsed the entire history of all cultures in the galaxy while having a conversation with my comrade? The Neural Interface was simply incredible. And apparently, the engineers had plans to improve it even further. Undoubtedly, someone on Earth would be able to find some weird reason it was unethical. Because there is apparently something wrong with upgrading the human body. Suddenly, the ground beneath my foot began to move. I quickly lost my balance and fell over. Looking back to where I was standing, I saw a small, black robot rising from the sand. It was about the size of a cat and stood on many thin legs. It also held a long appendage above its chassis in an aggressive manner. Overall it looked very similar to a scorpion. The robot then proceeded to shoot A4291747-Delta with its tail-like limb. He was dead before he hit the ground, with a massive burning hole in his chest. The robot then aimed the weapon at me, but I pressed the tail to the ground, pointing it away from me. It was incredibly strong, and I was losing my grip, so I picked it up from the ground, still ensuring that it can¡¯t shoot me. Immediately, the scorpion impaled my arm with its sharp legs, causing a malfunction in the prosthetic and forcing me to let go. The robot, however, held on, once again pointing its tail at me. I frantically shook it off, and it fell to the ground, where I kicked it away and started to run until I met the rest of my squad. One of the squad members threw his knife at the robot still pursuing me. He hit his target perfectly, sending sparks from it and ending its attempts to kill us. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that worked,¡± he said as he walked over to the robot. ¡°It went all the way into the hull... Who knew Alerian alloys would make such good knives?¡± ¡°It killed A4291747-Delta,¡± I said. ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t worry; his mind is safe and sound in the archives. He should be getting a new body any second now,¡± another Monolithian responded. ¡°Man, no one told us there¡¯s killer robo-insects here!¡± the Monolithian examining the robot yelled. ¡°Calm down, we¡¯ve dealt with worse already,¡± another replied as he also walked up to the robot to examine it. Yet another Monolithian walked up to me. ¡°Let me see your arm,¡± he said. I did as he said and noticed that my fingers were moving erratically without my input. ¡°They¡¯re easily replaceable. We need a supply drop anyway, now that we know there¡¯s hostiles here. Might as well bring an arm in as well.¡± A few minutes later... Just as my squadmate had said, it was very easy to replace an arm. All I had to do was command my old one to detach and pull it out. In my curiosity, I examined both the defective arm and the socket it was attached to. The arm had a long plug extending from where it would attach to my body. Fused to my shoulder was a round metallic socket, connecting the prosthetics to my nervous system. Attaching the replacement arm was just as easy, it was simply a matter of sliding it into the socket until it connected itself.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. As I was clenching a fist to see if the arm was fully functional, A4291747-Delta came up to me in his new body. ¡°Hey,¡± I said. ¡°Hey,¡± he replied. ¡°So you died, huh?¡± ¡°Yup. But I lived.¡± That made me chuckle a bit. ¡°What was it like?¡± ¡°It was bizarre... The moment that thing hit me with that laser, or whatever it was, it was like I was sleeping, yet conscious at the same time.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well, the state of my mind, I wouldn¡¯t really call it consciousness, but I still remember it... I was still processing information through the Neural Interface. I saw you fighting that thing, as well as the Ecology Team nearly getting eaten by a giant bird on Aleria.¡± ¡°Well, I guess I¡¯ll experience that for myself some time as well. We should keep searching, though, time is of the essence.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± he said, standing up with me. ¡°Same building?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Nearing the building, we encountered two more of those robots. We both shot them as they were crawling out of the ground, but they kept moving. Shooting them again yielded better results. ¡°Must be pretty advanced, to just shrug of two and a half million watts,¡± I said. ¡°And yet they can¡¯t survive a knife?¡± my partner asked. ¡°Hey, we¡¯re pretty advanced too. Those knives were sharpened ¡®till the blade tip was only a few atoms thick.¡± ¡°Are you sure we should destroy these robots though? If they take two shots from our guns, imagine what they could do to the Imperials!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure they could be blown up. Get a bomb powerful enough, and anything will go bye-bye.¡± ¡°Yeah, this city included.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like anyone is living here, the Empire would totally level the city if they want that Negative Matter.¡± Several more robots resurfaced. I decided to try something new, and handed over control from my arm to the Neural Interface and booted up an aim assist program. Not only did that give me the accuracy I needed, but it also blew the scorpion¡¯s weapon off. I then fell to the ground in order to dodge fire from the remaining robots and used the same trick on two more, making all of the robots either destroyed or disarmed. A4291747-Delta finished off two of them as I got up, but the last one jumped at my face. I knock it away and it exploded as soon as it hits the ground, raising even more robots from the ground. ¡°Okay, don¡¯t disarm them,¡± I say. Later... ¡°Goddamn, are the others fighting these things too? I¡¯m thinking we might need more guns for this,¡± A4291747-Delta says, replacing his damaged leg. I checked. ¡°As a matter of fact, they¡¯re not. Wherever we¡¯re headed, it must be important.¡± ¡°Alright, let¡¯s wait here. I¡¯m calling reinforcements.¡± ¡°Sounds good to me.¡± Three more Monolithians came to our aid after a few minutes. ¡°Everyone got your weapons ready?¡± I ask. ¡°Good, let¡¯s go. We¡¯re almost there.¡± Apart from destroying a few more robots, the remaining trip was uneventful. When we finally reached the building, we didn¡¯t find any entrances, except a small hole in a wall. That is, small compared to the building. Compared to us, it was gigantic. The inside was dark, but we had anticipated this and brought a light stick. I activated the device and threw it into the air, where it would levitate and produce enough light to discern the details of the room we found ourselves in. On the far side, there was a cylinder roughly the size of a person. Murals were carved into the walls and ceiling. Some of them depicted the plants seen outside, others showed the same creatures as the statues, still others showed concentric circles that we recognized as maps of both this system and the local gas giant¡¯s series of moons. One mural, however, attracted our attention more than any other. It showed a skeleton of one of the statue creatures dressed in a torn robe and holding a scythe. ¡°You don¡¯t think...¡± I mutter. ¡°These people knew something,¡± one of my squadmates said. ¡°I¡¯ll go check out that cylinder thing,¡± says another Monolithian. ¡°Everyone else, try to see if you can find anything else of interest in the murals.¡± ¡°Picture¡¯s worth a thousand words my ass,¡± I complain. ¡°The only meaning I see is that these things knew what planets are.¡± A few hours later... ~~~A311484-Beta, individual examining the cylinder By sending a nanite swarm into the object before me, I was finally able to figure out what it was. There are far easier ways to have done this, but we were in a hurry and needed results. To put it simply, the cylinder was a hard drive, and still functional. Using the data the nanites collected, we were able to make a crude device that would allow us to download the data from the alien hard drive to our computers for research purposes. ¡°Hey, are you done yet? We just got a report that an Imperial fleet will be here in less than an hour,¡± a Monolithian said behind me. ¡°Don¡¯t rush me,¡± I yell back. ¡°It¡¯s a miracle this thing works with how quickly we made it.¡± In response, the Monolithian left the building again. I connected the last of the now exposed cables to our device and turned it on. A hologram appeared above the hard drive depicting completely unrecognizable alien text. I tried to load a translator program in my Neural Interface, but the language was completely unlike any other, leaving the network hopelessly confused. Looking down at the Alien-Monolith interface, I saw that it had barely made any progress. This will take a while. With a sigh, I decided to instead take a closer look at the murals on the walls. When I was in the middle of the room, an area of the floor began to descend, with me on top. The platform came to a halt several meters underground and I found myself in an enormous room filled with rows of massive cylindrical containers. Two of them opened and the giants we saw depicted by statues struggled out sluggishly as if they were reluctantly waking up. Just like the statues, the creatures were lizardlike with disproportionately long front legs and necks. Their skin was a dark shade of brown, with one of them having faint red stripes under its eyes. As soon as it saw me, I was raised into the air by an unseen force, and the creature with red stripes examined me. It then turned to the other being. They faced each other but made no sound. The stripeless creature then slowly moved on its seemingly deformed legs to the other containers. The striped creature then faced me, and without warning, I was thrown against the floor, and all went black. ~~~Unit A2228183-Alpha, Monolith Soldier ¡°You two, move in and investigate! We¡¯ll keep watch!¡± a Monolithian shouted to two individuals. They ran into the building where A311484-Beta was last seen. There were a few seconds of silence, and then the Monolithians were practically thrown out the front door by an invisible force. An enormous lizardlike creature then crawled out. ¡°Open fire!¡± a Monolithian yelled. Everyone still on their feet acted accordingly. Despite our best efforts, however, our plasma pistols did very little to the beast. Some of the shots didn¡¯t even reach the skin, being deflected by some sort of invisible barrier. All of us were then lifted off our feet and sent away from the creature. Getting up, I noticed that one of my squad members was levitating, arms and legs flailing in a panic. Then he was rammed against a wall and died. His arm let out a few sparks. The creature then rose into the air, once again by an unknown means, and began to emit bolts of lightning. Just before we could land any more hits on it, it sent out a shockwave that disabled most of our augments, killing the majority of my squad. I woke up dazed and confused. Why was I lying on gravel? Why did I hear weapons firing? Opening my eyes, I saw five or six of the creatures fighting Imperial transports in midair, defying all known laws of physics. So I survived by some miracle. Wonder how long that¡¯ll last? The diagnostic check revealed that I was mostly unfazed by the EMP blast, just about everything was working except my left arm and eye. That would explain why my field of view was so much smaller than usual. The creatures were distracted, I could still complete the mission. Not wasting my only chance, I ran back inside the building and nearly fell down a large hole in the floor. I then went to retrieve the data we downloaded and got ready to return to the Monolith, but another one of the creatures climbed out of the hole and roared at me. Well shit. A loud crash attracted both of our attention to the ceiling. An Imperial Transport had crashed into it and sent debris falling onto the creature¡¯s head and killing it. So these things can be killed after all. I then transported myself back to safety and was given a warm welcome: ¡°Didn¡¯t think you¡¯d survive. Congratulations.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± I answered. ¡°Here¡¯s the data. Hope it was worth it.¡± ~~~Months later... Unit A0-Alpha, Monolith Overseer the Director of the Engineering Division told me through the Neural Interface. I asked. Exploration Log A605634-Beta 17 Exploration Log A605634-Beta 17 Day 1 04/11/2024 A932211-Beta: This is unit A932211-Beta aboard the Monolith exploration vessel ninety-seven. On-board date: eleventh of April, 2024. With me are units A2751600-Beta, A4962394-Delta, A701967-Alpha, and A3259664-Gamma. Our mission is to explore the anomaly known as the Bo?tes Void in universe A605634-Beta. Right now we are within 165 million light years from the center of the anomaly, or just about the edge. Every twenty-four hours we are to use a wormhole to travel five and a half million light years toward the center. This should allow us to reach it within a month. My duties include recording anything of interest every time we do this. Like a captain¡¯s log! A701967-Alpha: (distant) It¡¯s not a captain¡¯s log and you¡¯re not a captain! Day 2 04/12/2024 A932211-Beta: So a bit of background on this mission: the Bo?tes Void is a mostly spherical region of space almost completely devoid of galaxies. The anomaly is 165 million light years in radius. Back on Earth, it wasn¡¯t considered anomalous because it seemed consistent with the Lambda-CDM model of cosmological evolution. Alien scientists, however, have proven the Lambda-CDM model to be slightly incorrect. The new and improved model does not suggest the existence of anything like this. Other anomalies such as this one have been observed in other universes, but the location is always different. Universe A605634-Beta was chosen for exploration because a larger amount of anomalies have been observed in it than any other universe. Day 3 04/13/2024 A932211-Beta: After two wormholes, we¡¯ve noticed something interesting¡­ At the edge of the anomaly there are galaxies. They, however, do not belong to any galactic clusters. They are also irregularly shaped, and are rather big, one of them contains an estimated 500 billion stars. The working theory is that these are the result of a large amount of galaxies colliding with each other. Though why this would happen remains a mystery. In other news, the guys back home have finally finished constructing that Dark Energy Reactor. That should solve the little energy crisis we¡¯ve been having. It¡¯s amazing really, three years ago we didn¡¯t even know what Dark Energy was, or if it even existed, and now we¡¯re exploiting it! Day 4 04/14/2024 A932211-Beta: We are now over sixteen million light years into the anomaly. Galaxies are much scarcer now. There¡¯s one in the distance that is much smaller, about 25 billion stars. This one is also irregularly shaped. Nothing else of interest. Though I have heard some news about our reactor: its generating much more power than we have any use for. And what can we use all that excess power for? Weapons, of course! They¡¯re designing a planet killer now, so everyone knows not to mess with us. I just hope we never actually have to use it. A3259664-Gamma: Hey, enough about the reactor already, we¡¯re supposed to record our surroundings! A932211-Beta: Right! Nothing else of interest. Day 5 04/15/2024 A932211-Beta: We¡¯ve started detecting an unusual amount of space dust. I guess that would explain why we can¡¯t see anything behind the anomaly. We also drew straws to choose who gets to go outside and clean the cameras one by one. And it looks like A2751600-Beta is the lucky guy. Hey 600! You ready to go out yet? A2751600-Beta: (distant) Shut up and help me get this damn thing on! A932211-Beta: Alright I¡¯m coming! Receding footsteps can be heard, followed by distant, unintelligible commotion for five minutes and twenty-seven seconds. This is then followed by thirty-four minutes of silence. After this, approaching footsteps are audible. A932211-Beta: Shit, I left this thing on? Day 6 04/16/2024 A932211-Beta: Tried playing cards today. Don¡¯t know what we were expecting but it¡¯s no fun when everyone is a mind reader. Day 7 04/17/2024 A932211-Beta: Am I really supposed to make one of these reports every day? Nothing has changed since we discovered the dust. Day 11 04/21/2024 A932211-Beta: Made a bit of a detour today. After the jump we noticed a rogue planet. It¡¯s about one and a quarter times the size of Earth. We¡¯ll send in three people to explore it today and tomorrow. Probably nothing of interest, but you never know. Unfortunately, I will be staying on the ship. Guess it¡¯s just you and me, ninety-four. Day 12 04/22/2024 A2751600-Beta: As one of the crew members sent to investigate the rogue planet, I¡¯ll be making the daily report instead of unit A932211-Beta. This planet is really something else. Despite being bigger than Earth, the gravity is rather low. The mountains are very high, even higher than the low gravity would permit. We¡¯ve seen several going an estimated twenty kilometers, comparable to Olympus Mons on Mars. Some of them are practically vertical. There¡¯s also gigantic canyons everywhere. We can¡¯t even tell how deep those go. The only source of light other than the dozens of light sticks we brought is that tiny galaxy we noticed earlier, and that¡¯s almost forty million light years away. We really had to focus to see it. The fact that it¡¯s even noticeable is just amazing. A3259664-Gamma: Actually, it¡¯s downright impossible. A galaxy that small, that far away, through that much space dust should not be visible. A2751600-Beta: Maybe there¡¯s another one we didn¡¯t notice. Speaking of dust, that seems to be what we¡¯re walking on. The consistency of the ground beneath us is reminiscent to that of sand. We¡¯ve already collected samples. (pause) This place is beyond eerie. The strange and lifeless landscape, the starless sky, it feels like we¡¯re walking on the last planet in the universe. I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t go alo- A3259664-Gamma: I got you! A2751600-Beta: (panting) Thanks. Nearly fell into a hole. I can¡¯t see the bottom. I¡¯ll try throwing a light stick in there. (pause) Gravitational constant seems to be 7.448 meters per second squared¡­ and it¡¯s been falling for fifty four seconds¡­ eleven kilometers, or just about the depth of the Mariana Trench. A701967-Alpha: I hate to say this, but we¡¯re running low on oxygen. We should go. Day 13 04/23/2024 A932211-Beta: We¡¯ve examined the samples brought by the exploring crew. They¡¯re made of a seemingly random jumble of minerals, way more than have any business being in one place. This planet must be very old. Could this be what happens to planets as they age? I can¡¯t really see any reason they would end up like that. The Monolith decided to send a crew to set up a permanent research outpost there, they should be there tomorrow. Day 14 04/24/2024 A932211-Beta: The crew that was supposed to set up on that planet came where we saw it, and found nothing. A701967-Alpha checked the navigator, and it seems to be in working order. Though considering we can¡¯t even see that galaxy anymore, there¡¯s no way of knowing if it¡¯s properly calibrated. Worst case scenario we get lost and manually download our minds to new bodies back on the Monolith. The research team is looking for the planet, but if they don¡¯t find it tomorrow, they¡¯re giving up.Stolen story; please report. Day 15 04/25/2024 A932211-Beta: Space-time is starting to get unstable. We can still use wormholes, but the problem is that we don¡¯t see any reason for instability. I mean, each wormhole is five million light years apart, so they would not add up to make any noticeable difference. And the planet is still missing. A real shame. Day 16 04/26/2024 A932211-Beta: Space-time is getting even more unstable. If it continues at this rate wormholes won¡¯t be able to stay open once we go another 70 million light years. Day 17 04/27/2024 A932211-Beta: Scratch that. It doesn¡¯t continue at that rate, instead it goes exponentially. The new estimate is 18 million light years, or three jumps and an additional 1.5 million light years. Why is this happening? The wormholes are too far apart to add to the instability, and there¡¯s nothing out here that would cause gravitational anomalies. Day 18 04/28/2024 A932211-Beta: We have a new theory. The space-time could be destabilized because of Dark Energy. That would also explain why galaxies aren¡¯t in clusters, they were forced apart by Dark Energy. Unfortunately, the study of Dark Energy is relatively new and this vessel does not contain any instruments to measure Dark Energy. If this theory is true, then what we are witnessing is the Big Rip theory in action. A horrifying thought. Day 21 05/01/2024 A932211-Beta: So much for estimates. Wormholes are unusable a day earlier than we thought. We can still use the Warp Drive, however. It¡¯s much faster than the ones the Empire uses, but its top speed only lets us go two million light years per day. Meaning this mission just got twenty days longer, and that¡¯s if you don¡¯t count the return trip. Well, we should have enough food to at least get there, and then we can let the autopilot return the ship for us. Day 22 05/02/2024 A932211-Beta: Usually the Warp Drive reminds me of Star Wars, but now I can barely tell we¡¯re using it. With no stars, there are only occasional, dim streaks of light rather than a bunch of bright lines. Right now we are deciding if we should make each stop two million light years apart, or keep doing them five and a half, which would be a stop every three days almost. Day 23 05/03/2024 A932211-Beta: We¡¯ve decided to make a stop every six million light years, or every three days. Meaning my reports will be less frequent. And the first stop is today. Other than increased space-time instability and space dust becoming even more dense, there is nothing of note. Looks like the cameras need cleaning again, though. Day 35 05/15/2024 A932211-Beta: At the rate space-time is destabilizing, it is entirely plausible the ship will get ripped apart before we reach the center of the anomaly. The samples collected on the rogue planet don¡¯t seem too interesting, but it is unlikely we¡¯ll see that planet again anytime soon. As such we request orders from the Science Divisions whether we should continue. Day 36 05/16/2024 A932211-Beta: We¡¯ve received orders to keep going. Day 39 05/19/2024 A932211-Beta: We are now more sure than ever that the ship won¡¯t survive in the center of the anomaly. In fact, we doubt we can get any closer, as we can hear occasional creaking. (a metallic creaking can be heard) Well speak of the devil. We see some sort of lights in the distance, though. We can¡¯t be sure if they really are in the center, so we¡¯ll move perpendicularly to our previous course to try and deduce their distance with parallax. Day 40 05/20/2024 A932211-Beta: It¡¯s official. There is something in the center of the Bo?tes Void, in a place where anything bigger than a speck of dust can¡¯t exist. That¡¯s probably where all the dust came from, too. There used to be galaxies here, weren¡¯t there? Now they¡¯re all dust. And that planet? It was probably being ripped apart and put back together. And what did we build a month ago? A machine that uses Dark Energy for power. This is probably what happened here, another interdimensional empire finally understood how to use Dark Energy for power and then their reactor went critical, and boom! Space Chernobyl. We¡¯re turning this ship around and we are turning off that- Unit A932211-Beta is interrupted by a loud crash. The recording ends. All attempts to contact exploration vessel ninety-seven for the next seven days failed and none of the crew members were able to return their minds to the Monolith. After seven days, the Monolith received another recorded report. Day 47 05/27/2024 A932211-Beta: An asteroid crashed into the ship. It broke the communicator and the navigator, and nothing else. Not even the hull. Like it phased into existence inside the ship. We were able to repair the communicator, but not the navigator. At the very least we can try returning by memory. Now that the communicator is out of the way though, we can try examining the rock, maybe see if we can figure out how it got here. Another attempt to contact the vessel was made and met with success. A0-Alpha: Unit A932211-Beta? Can you hear me? A932211-Beta: Yes sir. Is there something you need? A0-Alpha: Why didn¡¯t you make contact with us? A932211-Beta: The communicator was not functioning, sir. A0-Alpha: But why didn¡¯t you use your Neural Interface? A932211-Beta: We tried. We couldn¡¯t contact you. A0-Alpha: Strange. You also claimed the Dark Energy Reactor was dangerous? A932211-Beta: I do not remember saying such a thing. A0-Alpha: Right before we lost contact. Your last report before then claimed the Bo?tes Void was created by a Dark Energy Reactor going critical. A932211-Beta: My report did not contain such claims. A0-Alpha: I can show it to you. A932211-Beta: Please do, sir. Unit A932211-Beta is shown his previous report. A932211-Beta: I do not remember making this report. A0-Alpha: Then what did your report contain? A932211-Beta: The report contained my plans to use parallax to deduce the distance of the lights in the center of the Bo?tes Void. A0-Alpha: No, the one after that. A932211-Beta: My explanation of why we lost contact. A0-Alpha: There were no reports between those two? A932211-Beta: No sir. I planned to make a report on the day after we used parallax, but the asteroid attracted all of my attention. A0-Alpha: And this report, did you plan to make it contain the same claims as what I have shown you? A932211-Beta: No sir. I have no objections to the use of the Dark Energy Reactor. A0-Alpha: Very well. That will be all. A council meeting was staged later that day regarding the continued use of the Dark Energy Reactor. The vote was 11 to 10 in favor. Exploration vessel ninety-seven sent a new report on the next day: Day 48 05/28/2024 A932211-Beta: We¡¯ve done a thorough examination of the asteroid, and as far as we can tell, it¡¯s a perfectly normal rock. In that case, we¡¯ve decided no harm can come out of cracking it open. And there¡¯s the catch: it¡¯s completely indestructible. No matter what we do, the thing remains whole. It doesn¡¯t even get damaged at the molecular level. We¡¯re bringing this thing back, maybe we can learn something about it if we had access to better instruments. Day 57 06/06/2024 A932211-Beta: We¡¯ve finally reached that sweet spot where space-time is stable enough to use wormholes. Hopefully, we remember where we are and can get to the Monolith by guessing. Day 58 06/07/2024 A2751600-Beta: We crashed into a planet. Unit A932211-Beta died in the crash, and unit A701967-Alpha choked to death in the toxic atmosphere. The rest of us were tinkering with the navigator before we went into the wormhole, and thankfully the bridge remained airtight long enough for us to get our gasmasks on. The ship is a total wreck, the sample from the rogue planet is nowhere to be found, but the asteroid survived. Of course it did. We¡¯ll wait until night to try and tell our position with the stars. Day 59 06/08/2024 A2751600-Beta: The sun still hasn¡¯t gone down and the heat is blistering. The gravity is also a bit high for my liking. Despite the atmosphere, there is clearly a lot of life here. So suck it Earth biologists. Day 60 06/09/2024 A2751600-Beta: The sun is still up. Hope this thing isn¡¯t tidally locked. Day 64 06/13/2024 A2751600-Beta: Finally, the sun moved. With any luck, we¡¯ll see stars tomorrow. Something interesting we¡¯ve noticed: we have yet to see any animals, just grass and these weird trees. Starting a few hours ago, we¡¯ve started hearing these¡­ howls. So maybe we are about to see some fauna. Day 65 06/14/2024 A2751600-Beta: Fuck, fuck, fuck! These beasts came as soon as it got dark and they ate the other two. I am the only one left. I¡¯ve got the rock and a picture of the sky, but it does not match any place we¡¯ve seen, meaning I need a couple minutes to estimate my location. This wouldn¡¯t be a problem if I had a gun, but this was just a boring expedition to the emptiest place in the universe. Why would we be packing heat? (the report continues thirteen minutes later) I¡¯ve finished guessing my position, and apparently I¡¯m not even in the same universe anymore. I don¡¯t see how that¡¯s possible, but-(he is interrupted by a roar) Unit A2751600-Beta then returned to the Monolith carrying a rock of unknown composition and completely impervious to damage. The remaining crew of exploration vessel ninety-seven were able to download their minds to the Monolith and returned to their duties. Another expedition was later mounted into the outer parts of the Bo?tes Void and confirmed a high presence of Dark Energy, though the origin remains unknown. The erratic behavior of space-time inside the anomaly provides explanation to its presence in other universes, as wormholes can open unpredictably.