Beyond Light

Reality Warping.

John didn’t wait to ask Valva what they knew about the mysterious structures located on Vita Nova, as well as the floating station they were in. The Soku didn’t know much, except that they didn't create them; they were left by an unknown alien race.

Could that mysterious race be Goliath or its creators? Something didn’t fit; the robots on Vita Nova shined in red and attacked every intruder. They even attacked the Soku, months before the Eternity of Return entered the system. However, the ones on Hawking-616f, or Sema —Shelter, in the Soku language— shined lilac and didn’t attack visitors.

The Soku also didn’t know anything about the Insectoids that boarded the Eternity of Return. They had fought them before, but could never retrieve a body and much less capture one alive. They just guessed they were one of the races Anuk had absorbed in the past.

“I bet Goliath’s somehow manipulating the robots on Vita Nova,” said Heinrich. “Something must be going here that the ones here are free from it if that's the case.”

“Well, by the way,” continued John. “As I said, we found a strange device inside this station. The robots led us to it as if they were expecting us to come and pick it up.”

Doctor Weiber passed to him the rounded platinized disk of shining lilac center. He put it on Valva’s enormous, four-fingered hand. “Interesting. Matches the design of the structures and the Koe,” said the Soku leader. Koe was the word they used for those robotic units. It meant ‘sentinels'.

“Any idea what could it be?” asked John. “Must be something important, but it’s as useful as a rock for us if we don’t know what it does.”

“...I think I got it,” Valva nodded at it, then turning his head to his son. “Manak, retrieve the artifact we found on Suvi, Vita Nova for the humans.”

“Father, are you going to trust the humans with a Koe artifact that—”

Valva didn’t respond with words, he only left a growl out that halted the subordinate Soku’s words.

“Alright…” Manak lowered his simian head. “We’ll return soon,” he nodded to the four alien soldiers around him, and they sauntered to the bottom, where the airlock and the ramp were located.

“Koe artifact?” inquired John to Valva.

“We found it in one of our explorations to the snowy south of Suvi. It’s a device with a groove on its center. We don’t know what it does, but this chip seems to fit well into it,” he extended the object back to John. He gave it back to Doctor Weiber, who meticulously checked if the alien didn’t break it.

Less than half an hour passed, and Manak and the rest of the Soku returned with a rectangular, platinized device with a lilac groove on its middle. It reminded John of some primitive videogame console or video player. They put it in the middle of the metallic table.

“Alright, let’s see what it can do,” Doctor Weiber put the small device on the groove, and softly pushed it inside. The disk matched perfectly, making a click sound. It slowly spun on itself as it lowered. The lilac light intensified and shot scanning webs around everyone.

“W-what’s happening?” exclaimed Yuri.

“Put that off, grumps,” Heinrich Winslow covered his eyes.

“No,” said Doctor Weiber. “Must be something else,” the scanning webs disappeared, and a disk-hologram —similar to a portal— hovered above it.

Everyone traded concerned looks, but the Soku didn’t seem impressed in the least. “A hologram,” said John. “Any ideas what this means?”

“Must be a reality warper,” responded Valva. “they are a common device among us.”

“A reality warper?” asked Yui. “Like a virtual simulator… Commander, I think you need to touch it!”

“Touch it?” John frowned, looking at the bold lilac oval.

“Yes. Must be a cerebral-resounding one. It hypnotizes your mind and plays with your brain in order to create real-time images.”

“Like a drug,” said Heinrich Winslow. “I think I like where this is going… Good observation, kid.”

“I’m not a kid,” Yui complained.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, puppy,” he put his hand on her black hair and rubbed it. She pouted harder and pushed him away.

John raised his hand. “Well, let’s see if this works. Want to touch it with me?”

“Commander,” Supervisor Diaz growled, making him roll his eyes. “Are you really going to commit the stupidity of touching an alien device you have no clue about?! What if it fries your brain and you die?”

“Then you’ll have to command everyone,” John sarcastically responded. “I’m sure you’ll do a better job than I will. And if I don’t die, well, we count with a good doctor around, right, Hein?”

“I’m always glad to help a wounded wolf, Cap, but I’m trying that with you,” said Heinrich. “Can’t let this pass away.”

“Commander,” spoke Katiya. “you don’t know if touching that could be lethal, but if you’re confident, do it. I have to stay away as per my working directive.”

“Obviously, I do too,” said Diaz.

“Fine. Thanks, Katiya,” nodded John. “Anyone else?”

“I’m going with you,” Yui got on her toe tips and raised her hand. “Let’s see if that’s true.”

“Yui, are you really going to—”

“Doctor,” interrupted Yui. “this is for science, not for me. Besides, I had the idea that this thing manipulates the mind, so I’m going.”

The old man only negated with his head and rolled his eyes. “Kids these days...”

Valva spoke. “Reality Warpers utilize cerebral functions to create a highly controlled, interactive environment. They are a common technology with our people.”

“Amazing,” Doctor Weiber nodded at it, its lilac light reflecting on his white hair. “We have only proposed something like and created unstable prototypes, but never something this advanced… Wonderful.”

“Well, let’s hope it does not fry us up," said John.

“You’ll be alright,” Valva extended his hand too. “Your armor seems to offer good protection, and everyone not connected to the device will be able to see what we’re seeing through the holographic screen.”

“Amazing technology!” exclaimed Yuri. “But I won’t use it. I’ll watch from the outside.”

“Eh, I’m going there, son,” joined Derek. “Gotta say I always had a thing for virtual reality.”

They nodded and extended their hands further. John, Yui, Derek, Heinrich, Valva, and Manak crossed their hands inside the lilac circle shining in the air. Their consciences dazzled white for a second, and before they could say they fainted, the alien device connected their minds inside a warped version of reality. They plummeted to the ground, a fine thread of lilac light connecting them to the alien device.

“Commander?” Katiya immediately kneeled next to the unconscious John on the floor. Doctor Weiber looked disconcerted at Yui, Derek, and Heinrich laying too. Were they harmed? The rest of Soku didn’t mute at their brothers on the floor. They kneeled and put them in a resting position.

“Hey, look at the screen!” Yuri pointed to the lilac circle. It was all white, and there were the figures that touched the device viewed in the third person, unaware of their spectators.

John found himself on the ground, feeling his stomach nauseous and a small headache pulsating on his head. There was no sense of floor, walls, or ceiling. Everything was white up to where the eye could be, just like the chamber where they retrieved the same device they were using.

Everyone else laid on the ground, except Valva and Manak. The first extended his giant hand to John.

“Need help? It’s natural. The first time using a reality warper makes you feel sick. It’s alright.”

Derek, Heinrich, and Yui got up too, wearing fatigued faces and trembling legs. “Damn… I’m getting too old for this,” said Doctor Winslow.

“Say that when you’re my age,” Derek helped him straight up. “The last cryohangover lasted me five days.”

John walked towards Yui and helped her stand too. “My head… it hurts,” she complained, rubbing her thick hair.

“With that superbrain of yours, how is it not supposed to?” joked John. “C’mon. We’ll be alright.”

“Is that, teasing, or a compliment, John?”

“Nevermind. Where are we?” he looked around, not finding anything out of the white.

“Doesn’t seem like a usual warp,” said Valva, looking as fresh as he did out of the simulation.

“You humans are even weaker than I thought,” mocked Manak with disdain, raising one eyebrow. His father growled again at him.

But Doctor Winslow didn’t wait to respond. “Seems like you’re strong enough. Why don’t you demonstrate to us that when we face Goliath’s 2.5 meters tall insectoids?”

“The Vajak are no game,” said Valva, using the Soku word for ‘insect’ to refer to the insectoids. “They can lift an adult male Soku and ragdoll him around.”

“Hey, look at that,” signaled John. A shadow appeared in the distance, advancing slowly at them.

“What the hell?” cursed Heinrich.

The vanishing black fog revealed its shape as it approached; a slender, lanky, and biped humanoid of nearly three meters in height, its shape too blurry to discern any detail on it, not even the fingers on its extremities nor the place where its arms and legs joined the torso. It reminded John of a monster he had seen in a horror movie.

Everyone took a step back, even Valva and Manak. John’s first natural instinct was to reach for his back and unleash his TR6 rifle, but it was not there. Valva was also not carrying his hammer-spear hybrid weapon.

The shadow stopped at five meters from them, pronouncing noise in an indiscernible language.

No one said a word. Heinrich was about to speak, but the shadow then spoke English in a raspy, guttural voice, yet monotonous and smooth like an AI would.

“...Human ...Soku.”

Everyone traded frowning looks. “What are you?” replied John. “What is this?”

“Yes… Human. Humans are here. Humanity has arrived,” its voice lost distortion, gaining a much more vivid tone. “Humans. Soku. This means you have evolved. And the Absorber must be after you.”

“The Absorber?” asked John. “You mean Goliath? Anuk?” he looked at Valva.

“Yes. It has not stopped. And it won’t stop. We always knew it would come after you. You were always different.”

“Different? What do you mean? Who are you?”

“We no longer are. I am nothing but an artificial intelligence left by my masters in a desperate attempt that you would find us. And put an end to the Absorber’s tyranny.”

“Your masters. Did they create these structures? are they… dead?”

“Yes. In other times, they were the dominating species, extending through an important fraction of the galaxy, conquering other worlds, and making contact with other species. But that was before you could be even considered a sapient species.”

“And then,” John intuited it. “Goliath. The ‘Absorber’ you mentioned...?”

“Yes. It destroyed most of the legacy of our people. We called ourselves the maximum guardians once. Our technology peaked. It did so much that it ensured our own destruction.”

“What happened? Where did this Absorber come from? What does it want?”

“Allow me to show you ancient history,” the whiteness around the fuzzy shadow disappeared, making everyone hop on themselves as if they were about to fall.

But they didn’t. The white got replaced by literal outer space. Millions of stars perforated every corner up to where the eye could see, but the most impacting landscape was the object below them; extending a hundred light-years from point to point: the Milky Way Galaxy, its center shining in intense, whitish-yellow, and its arms of crimson and brown superclouds making a static swirl around it.

John panicked for a second. It was the most huge thing he had ever seen. Comparing bacteria to an elephant was a too-small comparison. Maybe a subatomic particle and the solar system was a more fitting analog!

He also felt euphoric. Even if it was a simulation, they were standing in the middle of space without the need for any suit or vital support! It was one of his most recurrent dreams when he was a young kid: flying and moving freely through the universe, discovering colorful planets, stars, and galaxies.

“Goddamnit,” cursed Derek, covering half his face. “I swear I’m about to vomit.”

“The Milky way!” exclaimed Yui. “I have been in space virtual simulators before. But this is nothing like that... Amazing!”

“Interesting,” Valva limited himself to say. Manak didn’t say anything.

The shadow was now a light; shining as a cloud to contrast with the dark environment around. “I will reveal to you what my masters wanted you to know. What you must know. You must understand our history first if you want to understand the Absorber. We created it thinking that it would lead us to another era of security and peace, but we were too ignorant and arrogant, and we had to pay the price for it.”

An alien race that existed long before humans could be considered homo sapiens, and not only created those mysterious structures and robots, but also that giant ship. John understood more, and a shiver was sent down through his spine.

If Goliath was the product of an ultra-advanced alien race and was now thirsty for alien blood —especially human— nothing pointed to anything remotely good.