Hearts of Darkness - Plague of the Void Seeds / 9

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Post 9

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Present

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Joshua awoke with a jolt. He was back in the optimization pouch. Oh dear. What happened? He looked around. Was it him or was the pouch smaller this time? What was that on his hand? His hands and arms were covered in a network of thick black veins….what the fuck? No wait. They were his veins, but they seemed to have turned black. It was the same all over his body. Shit! When did this all happen? And then he remembered the Deepsee and the viewing. He’d become uncontrollably angry as Click had told him about the origins of the Void Seed. Anger such as he’d never felt before. He’d felt like pure rage was pumping through his body. His body began to respond to the memory and he could feel himself getting angry again. No! I can’t let that happen again. I need to focus. I have to find out what has happened to me. He began to calm down again. That’s better. I’m no good to anyone in that state, least of all me.

He thought back to the glade. He had only a vague memory of killing the Void Seed and eating it’s heart. He’d done it on impulse. It was an instinctive reaction to all the hurt he’d sustained in his life. The abuse of his Father that he’d never had a chance to challenge, the love for his Mother who tried to protect him and then was taken away, the horror of the glade and the death of his friends. His supressed emotions had come flooding out, manifested by that one act of savage defiance. Oh no, his heart was racing again and he could feel the anger beginning to rise. Then unimaginable pain seared through his head! Ahhhhhhh!

He was in a very strange place. Everything was indistinct and it was cold, so cold. The cold had no effect on him, but he could feel it like a great, painful emptiness. His body was permanently reaching out, searching, grasping for any minute fragment of energy. He had no eyes and there was no light so he couldn’t see. Nevertheless, other senses were trying to build a picture of the world around him. There were thunderous vibrations periodically washing over him, though where they were coming from or what they mean’t, he didn’t know. There were others all around, all gasping. The noise. The gasping. He was coming apart. Ahhhhhh!

“Joshua. Joshua. It’s ok. You’re ok.”

It was Click’s voice in his head.

“It’s ok. I’m back….er….I mean I’m awake. Um perhaps you could tell me what the hell is going on? Please?”

“Of course. It seems that a physiological change has been triggered by your ingestion of the Void Seed’s heart. Your body mass has grown by approximately thirty percent, you have a new, more powerful heart and vascular system and your eyes have turned red. These are the most obvious and perhaps the most superficial changes. Naturally, our fear was that you were undergoing a metamorphosis culminating in one resurrected Void Seed.”

“Wow.”

“Indeed. "

"So i'm in deep shit then."

"Yes and no. Fortunately, the changes appear to have reached equilibrium and I can find no alterations to your personality or memories. In other words, you are still you, for now.”

“That’s good to know. Thanks Click. I’m sorry I got so angry with you. I know you feel a terrible sorrow and responsibility for the gateway. It wasn’t even your fault….you tried to stop them.”

“Thank you Joshua. Now let’s get you out of there. You need to adjust to your new body and capabilities if you are going to be of any use to us.”

“Ok then. Come get me out.”

Joshua had fallen down the Rabbit hole so far he was never getting out. His only chance was to keep moving forward, stay positive and to focus on how he could help in this desperate situation.

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Present

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The Alliance counsel was to gather on a Valhalconin space station in the Hivneerbjorn system. Sill had decided to accompany her friend Bulvodin on the Daxiste-agorian flagship. After losing her brother Furl, Bulvodin’s calm, steady and caring nature helped to soothe her grief. It was very especially painful for a Ziffnindel to lose one that was shell-joined. Sill didn’t know if she would ever get over it. He had been so brave, attacking the Void Seed with nothing but a knife. In the beginning, the Ziff had destroyed many Void Seeds with their speed, taking their head or heads, then spearing the heart. But they had learned an effective countermeasure in taking all the energy out of their immediate vicinity, slowing the Ziff down.

The navigator moved, creating the momentary feeling of weightlessness (that was over before it began) and the blue-suffused flash of light that was only visible during a move. Sill looked out of the observation panel at the Valhalconin space station. It was a great, grey monolith that hung in space like a giant, forbidding rock. An array of different alien craft from the Alliance fleet began appearing silently around it. She knew the internal appearance wasn’t much better, though one could hardly blame the Valhalconin. They were not a race that put much store in appearances. The richness and vibrancy of their inner world was such that they spent most of their time in a trancelike state. They produced their energy internally via a kind of fusion reaction and many would remain still for centuries. When you could build your own dreams or share and participate in the dreams of others, what would be the point of being conscious? In the mind, anything was possible and the Valhalconin were absolute masters of exploiting that fact. Due to time distortions in dream state, it had been speculated that some of the eldest Valhalconin might now be older than the universe itself, in a manner of speaking.

“Here.” Said Sill in the typically stunted sibilant manner of the Ziff.

Bulvodin was like a statue, standing as he was, a few feet from Sill. All his injuries from the battle on Earth had repaired. One yellow eye peeped open.

“Are you going to come along?” He asked.

“This one could be very interesting.”

Sill recalled that light on the space station was provided by multi-coloured, softly glowing spherical lamps which sat in nooks throughout the corridors and hung in clusters on the ceilings. They went some way to cheering the place up a bit.

“Beautiful Lights.” She replied.

“Of course. You liked the Amblevir. Let’s move then.”

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Present

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Crispin Marshall had never been happier. He’d spent his entire life looking up, wondering about space, if there was anyone else out there and desperately yearning to explore it. He had huge respect for those men and women pushing the boundaries of space exploration for humanity, but he could never have been an astronaut. Besides, as remarkable as the moon was, he’d always wanted to explore much further afield than that.

As of this month, he’d been living in space for twenty years, part of an alien Alliance. Every time he thought about that, he smiled and shook his head in disbelief. He’d been genetically enhanced, received telepathic tuition from the smartest aliens in the universe, had been experimented upon and was presently on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines, gathering intelligence. If only such terrible circumstances hadn’t been the cause of it all. It didn’t sit well with him that so much devastation and loss had led to his personal fulfillment.

It was a strange time. The Void Seed had ceased their advance, most likely due to the devastating white bone plasma canons. No more stars and star systems had been attacked. Apparently it was the first major victory in a long time. However, they were running low on white bone and apparently the gravitational field disturbances, centered within Void Seed space, were escalating. The combined effect of so many dead stars in such a relatively small area of space was likely to start causing mayhem and could easily spiral out of control. Thankfully the Void Seed did not seem to be able to feed directly from black holes which were still exerting a stabilizing effect with their massive gravitational influence.

He’d been tasked with a planetary survey of Chix in the Braxis system, home of the now extinct Xandaxi. They had not made the transition into space and when the Void Seed had destroyed their sun, the entire race had been wiped out as sudden gravitational disturbances caused their planet to collide with one of it’s moons. It had happened too quickly for the Alliance to save anyone. The planet had sustained massive damage but two thirds of it remained intact. How long that would last was anyone's guess as it was presently on the move. He had been tasked to locate and recover any intact Xandaxian DNA in the hope that their genetic heritage might be preserved. Looking at the devastation, Crispin felt it was unlikely, but the deep cold apparently made it a possibility.

Deepsee viewing analysis had shown that there were no visible Void Seeds in the system. However, although the Void Seed could not “move,” by folding space-time or teleportation, in their sphere state, they were apparently able to phase into an energy form and travel at faster than light speeds. Bottom line, they could turn up almost anywhere at any time.

The scanners on the Ziff scout ship, one of the easiest of the smaller alien craft for humans to learn to pilot, had detected something promising in what was now, the frozen remains of a great city. Given the lack of light, the ships forward viewing panel and monitors rendered grey images based on some kind of radioactive decay measurement he really didn’t understand. Crispin landed the scout ship, donned his exosuit, initiated his recently issued AI Companion, Float, and ventured outside.

He could feel the crisp crunch of frigid matter beneath his feet. It immediately brought forth a memory of home….walking in the countryside on a crisp autumnal morning, stepping on frosted grass blades under a clear blue sky. Boy was that a long way away. He suppressed the homesickness that suddenly welled up.

“Come on. Head in the game asshole.”

“Excuse me Sir. I have no head. But I can assure you that my processors are most definitely in the game.” Replied Float.

“I’m sorry Float, I was talking to myself.”

“Oh.”

“And please, I’ve asked you to call me Crispy.”

“Yes Sir Crispy.”

Crispin shook his head.

“Are you reading that?” He asked.

“Yes Crispy. Did you enjoy my little joke?”

“Yes I did. Float, you are a marvel. Let’s go.”

They had no weapons that would be of any use against the Void Seed. There was a standing order for all humans to avoid engagement with the enemy. That was fine by him. His mobile scanner was indicating that he needed to progress further into the ghost city…..

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Notice - I have attempted a different style of dialogue in this post. I'd be very interested to know if you think it's an improvement. It did take longer to write, but if it is generally preferred, i'll stick with it.

I've posted everything I have written to date as it's my birthday this weekend. Although i intend to continue working for some of it, i really wouldn't want to trouble you with some terribly ill-advise post, resulting from mild to moderate inebriation. I'm having enough difficulty keeping the story straight in my head as it is! :) Have a great weekend. I really hope you enjoy the post. Happy Steeming.

I almost forgot....there's a pretty obvious reference to one of my favourite films in here.....10 SD to the person who gets it right first....(as decided by the steemit time stamp!) Just a bit of fun :)

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The Film has been correctly deduced by steempuns - Star Wars....A New Hope

The correct reference has been deduced by vi1son, the conversation between C3PO & Luke Skywalker

C3PO - "I see , Sir."
Luke - "Uh, you can call me Luke."
C3PO - "I see, Sir Luke"
Luke - "Just Luke."

Thank you for taking part!