Final Sci-Fi
Sean Duchek
Pr. 2
Extinction
I felt cold… wet… The jelly that enveloped me holding me, suspended. Darkness enveloped me. I could hear sounds far away, mechanical in nature, whirring; devices long left dormant began to turn once more. My eyes burst open but I could see nothing but darkness. I felt the dank fluids on my eyes. I blinked feeling the restorative juices flowing into my body. I soon began to remember things, fleetingly at first. I was placed in a stasis chamber long ago. The purpose I can’t seem to remember but I was sure I had been here for a very long time. Slowly the lid of the sarcophagus was raised. Light flooded into my world and my eyes riveted shut, not used to the glare. Extremely large cold metal hands gripped me and raised me from the goo. My throat tightened instantly and my body began to shake violently. I tried to gasp for air but nothing seemed to happen. I weakly attempted to open my eyes but a burning sensation met them as they made contact with the air. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my back and every muscle in my body went limp. I slumped forward and hit, hard against a slab of metal. My bodies’ functions began to return to me. I slowly drew breadth for the first time in over 10,000 years.
I opened my eyes and the sight I saw scared me nearly to death. Standing before me was some large angel of death. It was a large metal man, massive in height, covered in strange symbols and etchings. In his hand he held a needle of sorts dripping with blood and some brackish fluid. I chocked on a scream, my throat dry and cracked. Had I died and gone to hell. Suddenly the monster lifted a finger to its face. Was it shushing me? Slowly the daemon placed its hands around its head and began to pull upward. Whatever it was it was wearing a helmet. Underneath this visage of death lay the face of a man. He began to speak to me though his words were fuzzy, my ears not yet fully functioning.
“My name is Mathias”, “You are being raised from your slumber, for we have need of your skills once more”
My mind began to reel. What did this iron clad behemoth need from me? I still couldn’t remember a thing. The large brute before me could sense my confusion and began to speak once more.
“Do not worry my friend”, “The feeling of amnesia will pace with time”, “Come, if you are feeling fit to walk follow me.”
Nodding slowly I swung my feet to the floor. Carefully I rose myself up. Though I felt feeble I began to walk, gingerly at first but with more confidence after each step. The warrior next to me towered above me and strode with the discipline of a well trained soldier. Each stride he took echoed throughout the metal passage and tingled beneath my feet. As we walked we passed scores of tapestries hung on the wall. They were covered in depictions of battle wear more of these warrior were shown fighting all manner of creatures and aliens. I repulsed at a few of them as I saw the creatures that populated the world I was suddenly thrust into.
“What in God’s name are these things, I breathed slowly”
Mathias turned and looked at the tapestry I had stopped in front of.
“Tyranids” He spat, “They are the reason you have been awoken”, “They have taken earth and we have lost our beacon for warp travel. We have no way of reinforcing our battle brothers upon holy terra as they make the last stand of humanity.
“Earth?”, I said in disbelief, what has happened to it.
“Utterly swallowed up by the scourge” He replied.
These Tyranids, as Mathias had called them, looked like mutated alien creatures. They came in all shapes and sizes, covered in talons and claws with various glands that appeared to be able to secret venom at range.
“You say there are a lot of these things?”
“Roughly a million per hive fleet, and we are currently dealing with the incursion of 5 fleets. The only problem is as the damn things kill and feed upon every living thing on the planet they use it to make more of those monstrosities. The true number of them cannot be known. The larger ones always seem to be spewing out packs of the smaller creatures.”
So, I was brought to life to help stop an unceasing horde of Alien creatures intent on swallowing up all life in the galaxy… wasn’t that just peachy.
As we walked Mathias explained to me how humanity was on the brink of extinction. These creatures had already swallowed up countless worlds on their way to earth and now that earth was taken they had no way of traveling through the warp to reach Terra, one of the last bastions of human resistance left. This warp thing he kept mentioning confused me. Slowly I began to remember my work. I remember I had been working on the science of space travel. I had discovered a 4th dimension, a rift in the galaxy that could be used to travel quickly across vast distances in space. I had remembered my preliminary tests. It was lucky if 50% of his test crafts ever made it back. I remembered that you needed a source of guidance. You needed a beacon in our world of immense energies to use as a point within the warp that would let you know where you were in the 4th dimension by comparison. Without it you were flying blind. An energy source that large was not feasible. However this warrior of the future seems to be explaining that very principle and that that energy source had existed on earth. They had done it? They had achieved space travel through the 4th dimension? My mind was racing as the implications hit me like a ton of bricks. I must have missed so much… but why wake me up? I hadn’t the slightest idea of how to recreate what was built on earth using my preliminary research. All I knew was that it needed to be a source of immense energy, so powerful that it bled through the fabrics of reality and caused ripples in this so called “Warp”. I didn’t know if I could do it but I had to try. What could cause such a major reaction to occur?
Mathias and I kept walking until we reached a room filled with monitors and blinking lights. I looked around to see many forms slouched over screens. I looked on with horror as the people’s eyes were closed but flickered behind their lids. I saw long cables plugged into the backs of their necks that ran down into the floor. They were plugged into all these systems into some kind of human/cybernetic/computer network. The window at the far end of the hall brought another realization to me. I looked out and saw the vast expanse of space stretching out before me. Billions of points of light stared back at me as the full expanse of space flooded me. It was all so beautiful.
We were in a solar system, an entirely different one then I had ever seen. There was a star surrounded by a number of smaller planets. Much like our solar system the planets looked as if they were set in an orbital loop around this sun as well.
“Ultra” Mathias breathed, waving his hand before him. “This is my home…” “Me and my battle brothers come from the planet Mcragge. It’s the blue one over there.”
I followed his finger to the small blue world. It was covered in continents and leafy vegetation as well as oceans and clouds. It looked strangely like earth, only not quite.
“The reason we brought you back is because we have a plan…”
Mathias’ voice sounded dull and hollow
“We believe that the destruction of a star may provide enough initial energy to make a single warp jump to Terra.
“Do not worry, the citizens of our home world and surrounding planets have been evacuated west ward away from the advancing tyrannid fleets. However if we destroy that star we will never be able to inhabit this system again… all plant and animal life will die and these rocks will return to the lifeless husks they were before this solar system formed. However with Humanity at stake we have few options remaining… we just want to know if it will work.”
The full weight of the decision I was being forced to make dawned on me. This man before me was willing to send his home world to oblivion in order to race off and join the fight with the rest of his warrior brethren. If it failed and it was not enough they would be lost in the 4th dimension until they eventually slammed into a planet they could have no idea was there. If it did work they could join the fight and help to try and turn the tide of this desperate war. I thought for a long time, staring blankly into space.
“Well… I began… hypothetically… it should work”
To be continued
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