Galactica
Prologue
"Hey Zeo, could you give me a hand over here?" one of the students called out from the other side of the cavern we were in. About half a year ago these ruins had been discovered by a team of workmen who were building an elevator shaft through the mountain. The Professor who came here with his students to study them, had hired local muscle, preferably with knowledge about local lore.
"No problem Andy." I said as I walked over to where the young man stood. His work lamp was pointing at the piece of a fallen pillar which blocked a hallway he was interested in. I saw his problem, but no way of solving it without some heavy gear.
"Think we can move it? From what I can see through the cracks, the walls in there are just full of writings, and I would love to examine them more closely." Andy asked, handing me his lamp so I could see for myself. I, of course, was no archaeological student and therefor couldn't read runes. I saw his point however.
Still, the heavy equipment was not due for at least another three days, and we just didn't have enough people with us to try and move a block of this size. If I had been asked about it's weight, I would have guessed that it weight about six tons. I shook my head.
"Sorry mate, but I don't think we can do anything about this until the crane gets here on Thursday. But why don't you send in the drone for the time being? The crack seems to be big enough for it to fit through." I suggested, and his eyes immediately lit up. Apparently he hadn't thought of that possibility.
Thanking me, I saw the back of his dusty brown shirt disappear towards the little camp we had set up at the entrance to the ruins. We didn't sleep there if we could help it, but the tents were a good place to store our equipment. Especially if one considered that everything had to be brought up some pretty steep ladders. It just wouldn't do to carry our Laptops and other stuff in and out again, so everyone just carried a USB-Device on which he/she could save the data they had found.
I had one as well, but no one really expected me to make any discoveries, since I was just the guy who carried their stuff and was consulted if one of them scraped a knee or something. None of them, except one, took me seriously. And really, why should they have? I was just a former nurse who had taken this opportunity to make some good money.
Walking past the statue of a pretty small looking Unicorn, I entered the main chamber of what we assumed to be a temple. The Professor had almost fainted when he had seen that statue for the first time, believing that it was hard evidence that such creatures appeared in German mythology first. I thought the old man with the beer belly and white mustache was a little bonkers, but he paid good money for the work I did, so I didn't disagree with him. Not openly at least.
Even if one considered the myths from other countries, this Unicorn looked... wrong. It was too small, and it's eyes were at the front of it's head. That was usually not the case with herbivores. And there was something else strange about them. There seemed to be an intelligence behind them, that far exceeded that of any horse I had ever seen. But then again, the people who had build this place had worshiped this horse. Maybe the artist had just taken some liberty when he had created the statue, and I was simply over thinking things. That seemed to be the most like explanation in my opinion, since it also wore glasses and had a cross edged into it's flank. Not to mention that Unicorns were not real. That fact alone should have given me a pretty good reality check, but for some reason it didn't.
I looked over the group of about twelve students as they were clearing away centuries of rubble and debris that had fallen from the rocky ceiling, as a meaty hand found it's way onto my shoulder. Turning around, I could see the smiling face of the Professor in the bright light of the LED flood lights.
“So, Zeo. Found anything interesting?” he asked with an obvious undertone. Somehow he knew, or so I guessed, that I had done something that I was forbidden to do by my contract. Last night, when everyone had already left, I had used some of the equipment to see if I could get a better image from the rooms behind some of the sealed stone doors. I had, in fact, found out that this complex was much bigger than the Professor had initially thought.
Explaining this to him however, did nothing for my situation. I was sure he'd fire me, but instead he just nodded energetically and patted me on the shoulder once more.
“Don't worry your head of young man. I'm not as strict as some of my students think I am, and I knew that you had a good head on your shoulders the moment I saw you at the job interview. To be honest, I had expected you to do something like this much sooner. So, what exactly did you find out?” the old man asked, sitting down on a slap of stone and gesturing for me to sit opposite him. I glanced over at the students for a second. I was, after all, hired to help them out if they needed anything, but the Professor was insisting that we talked about this now.
“OK, I went to the west wall of the main chamber yesterday night. As you know, there are three sealed doors that way. Number one and two are... dangerous.” I said as I pulled the printouts from the equipment from one of my many pockets. They distinctly showed metal spikes under the floor, and I assumed them to be a trap of some sorts. After all this time it was questionable if they would still work, but I was not willing to take that risk. If one of the students had found a way to open these doors, I would have stopped them before they went in. I said as much to the old man sitting a few feet away from me. He just nodded and gestured for me to go on.
“The third door however... It's strange. There is some kind of mechanism in the door, and I even found an opening for a small round object which I suspect to be the key, but we haven't found such an object yet. I'm afraid that, if we can't find it, we'll have to force that door open. The only problem is that, seeing how much of this place has collapsed just since we started working here, I believe such an action would bring the whole place down on top of us.”
“Have you made a test drill through the wall next to the door? Put a camera through it to see what's beyond it?” he asked, pushing his half moon glasses up his nose once more. They always seemed to slip down when he was getting excited about something.
“Yes I did. It's a small chamber, but I think it might be the most important one yet. There's some sort of library in there. Rows upon rows of stone shelves with scrolls on them. Now, I know that most of them will most likely be lost causes, but the ones I saw in the front row still seemed to be intact. They looked as if they were wrapped in plastic or something. The light from the stick-cam reflected off of them.”
“My boy, that simply can't be. I'll take your word for the library part, but this temple is older than any written history we know of. How could there be surviving scrolls in there? Even if they had been written on thin copper, as was sometimes done in history to preserve crucial texts, they would have eroded long ago. This place isn't the driest after all.” he replied, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiping a bit of sweat of his wrinkled brow.
“Professor Schneider, I think it would be best if you left this place for today. We can talk again tomorrow, or I'll come by your hotel this afternoon, but you really should go out and get some fresh air.”
Professor Schneider chuckled dryly at this, breaking out into a coughing fit shortly after. He knew I was right. I knew I was right. And I think that was the only reason he did not argue. I had been shocked when I had first seen him. From a medical standpoint it was irresponsible of me to let him stay here for any length of time. The only problem with this was, that I could tell him to leave all I wanted. If he did not want to go, or felt especially stubborn that day, he would just ignore me. I knew his kind only too well. Even if it killed him, he wanted to be here when some major discovery was made.
Today however, he agreed to go with a hearty chuckle. I sighed, scratching the back of my head awkwardly as I watched his overweight backside disappear into the darkness. If he hadn't been one of the most brilliant archaeological minds of the day, I believed he would have made a great Santa Claus imitator. All he lacked were the red coat and hat. But, despite how he treated his students at times, he was a good man. A little too open minded sometimes, but still very good and patient.
“Zeo! I need some help over here. Do you have a minute?” one of the female students called out to me, kneeling next to a medium sized piece of rubble. I sighed once more. She could have moved it by herself if she put her back into it, but Sandra always asked me for help. No matter how small the task was, she always wanted me to help her with it. The most irritating incident in this long chain, had been when she had asked me to help her translate some of the runes that were written on the base of the statue out front. I had, to her disappointment, not been able to translate them to her satisfaction. How should I have been? I was a nurse, not a druid for crying out loud...
Walking over to Sandra the first thing I noticed was that she was sweating profusely. Maybe she had tried to move this rubble alone and had exhausted herself doing so? No, that couldn't be it. Her hands were still clean, as were her knees. She gasped in surprise as I grabbed her hand and put two of my fingers to her wrist to measure her pulse. Considering that I had startled her, and that the air in here wasn't the best, her heart rate was still a little bit too fast.
“Have you eaten anything bad lately? Or aren't you feeling well maybe?” I asked, removing her glasses and putting my free hand on her forehead. I just couldn't help going into full nurse mode.
“W... Well... It's a little warm in here...” she stammered, removing a stray lock of auburn hair from her face with the back of her right hand.
It was, in fact, a little warmer inside of here than was necessary, but not enough to make a person sweat this much. Deciding that I would move the rubble for her, let her do whatever she wanted to do behind or with it and then sent her outside to get some fresh air, I let go of her wrist. She looked a little forlornly at her now free left hand, before flinching for some reason as I grabbed onto the piece of rubble she had wanted me to move in the first place. It wasn't that heavy to be honest. Fifty kilograms at most.
When I had removed it, I saw that there was a little drawing on the wall there. Apparently Sandra had seen it when she had looked over the piece of rubble, and wanted to inspect it more closely. I could only stare at the crude little drawing. It was done in paint made of fruits or something but it wasn't as detailed as the other ones I had seen all around the ruins so far. It was almost as if this one was done by a child or something... A very morbid child...
The drawing depicted the Unicorn outside, but in color. Apparently it had a mustard yellow coat and a lavender blue mane. It looked like no horse I had ever seen before. But what struck me the most was that it lay in a pool of blood. Behind the fallen body stood a bear like figure which I guessed was supposed to depict a big man with a lot of muscles, but I couldn't be sure. Millennia of water running down this wall had made it blurry, but the message was still quite clear. The Unicorn that was worshiped here, had been murdered supposedly.
I was pretty sure that this was just the depiction of some children story a child had scribbled onto a wall, but it still made me feel incredibly sad. The Unicorn on the floor looked shocked, one of it's hooves raised to it's throat as if it wanted to stop the flow of blood, while the other figure stood over it with a crude knife in it's hand. What the heck could be the reason for this man to murder a Unicorn....?
Sandra caught me as I began to stumble backwards and almost fell over. Had she not steadied me, I might have cracked my skull on the small rock I had moved for her just now. Still, my vision was blurry, and no matter how much I blinked, it only got worse. Finally my knees gave out from under me, and I felt myself fall, despite the lithe student trying to hold me upright.
“HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!” I heard her scream echo through the cavern, as the world around me faded to black.
o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o
What the heck was going on? When I opened my eyes again, I was in a much smaller body. How did I know that? Simple. Everything around me looked much bigger than it had before. Also, I was wearing some kind of weird jumpsuit with a lot of pockets and a utility belt that held a lot of different medical things. Bandages, syringes and different vials with colored fluids in them. I could only imagine what they were for though, since all of it looked pretty futuristic.
What struck me the most however, was that I had no control over my body whatsoever. It was like I was dreaming, but everything felt so real that I almost believed that I had been transported to some strange video game. In addition to that, my surroundings looked pretty futuristic as well. It was some kind of lab, with big panorama windows. Whoever I was in turned around and took a look out of the window. It was... unbelievable. I saw the valley my hometown sat in, but now it was completely overgrown by a thick forest.
The building I was in apparently stood were our towns castle was in my time, and I could therefor overlook the whole valley. Only one relatively small patch of land was free of trees, and I could see smoke rising from there. A community? It was hard to tell from here, but I guessed that they were located where the river that gave this valley it's name ran. Now however, it was only a tiny little stream.
It was these facts that brought me to believe that I was looking at the valleys past. But from what I saw, it was a quite distant past. A few thousand years at the very least. As far as I knew, there had been no tribal communities in my area until the castle was build. But then again, if this really was a view of the land of thousands of years ago, then the remains of that community could be buried under tons of rock in my time.
A sound from behind the young boy I was in drew his attention, and he turned once again. I have to admit however, that it was a strange feeling to feel this body move without me doing anything. Had I been able to throw up, I might have done so.
Behind us, something came up the stairs. It was the Unicorn I had seen as both a crude drawing on a wall, and a statue. It looked kind of tired as it's horn glowed, levitating a small cup next to it's head. It smelled distinctly like coffee to me. Could horses even digest that? In addition to the floating cup, which didn't seem to care in the slightest that cups didn't have the ability to fly, there was a small alabaster sphere following the Unicorn around. I had no idea what it's function was supposed to be, but it never flew farther than a few feet away from it's apparent master.
“Enjoying the view?” it asked in a gentle, surprisingly female, voice. My host nodded, apparently either mute, or unable to reply for some other reason. The Unicorn sighed and walked over to a small shelf that stood at the far wall. It's horn glowed once more, and several of the books on it floated out towards my host. By this point I just ignored the breaking of every law of physics I knew and just enjoyed the ride.
“Here. Read these, then we can get started on some more advanced stuff. I know you want to learn more about infections and bacteria, but I'd prefer it if we kept things slow, shall we?” it asked with... a smile? Since when could horses smile? On the other hand though, this was definitely not a normal horse. It looked almost exactly like the statue I had seen.
My host nodded once more, taking a bright orange backpack from under a desk and depositing the books the Unicorn had given him into it. The boy I occupied bowed deeply to the Unicorn who, in turn, nuzzled his cheek gently.
“Now get on your way. I wouldn't want your mother worry about you again. Last time she came here she was quite hysteric.” it said, and the boy made his way down the stairs. The downstairs area looked nothing like the upstairs one. It was decorated quite nicely, and I could see that this was a living space on first glance. While the lab upstairs had looked like something from a Star Trek movie, this area was much more recognizable. There was a small kitchen are to the left of the staircase, where I could see several different vegetables and plants on a counter.
To the right was an open door through which I could see a beige sofa and something that looked like a television. A pretty big television. I didn't even want to imagine what such a device would cost.
Then.... my host got run over. Not only run over, but practically knocked against the wall next to the stairs by a big man dressed in what looked like several wolf furs. The last thing I saw before my host fainted from the impact, was that the man was carrying something in his arms. Something that looked kind of like a very young child, but was deformed and bleeding very badly.
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The young boy I was in awoke to total darkness outside the windows and shouting upstairs. The female voice, I knew, belonged to the Unicorn from the statue. The other, much deeper and rough voice, I assumed to belong to the man who had knocked my host over earlier. Then, I heart glass shattering and something fall to the ground with a heavy thump.
My host, even though he felt very dizzy and his vision was hazy, struggled to his feet and went up the stairs as fast as he could. Which wasn't very fast at all, considering that he had probably suffered a concussion from his heads impact on the wall.
When he reached the top of the stairs, the first thing he saw were the glasses of the gentle Unicorn laying on the top step. They were broken, with small spiderweb like cracks running through them. Then he looked up and saw the man from earlier pinning the struggling Unicorn to the ground from behind. The man grabbed its horn and jerked its head up.
The Unicorn, laying on its stomach, tried to free itself by jerking its head every which way to try and stab its attacker with its horn, but it was no use. He was just too strong. It seemed like my host was moving in slow motion as he rushed forwards, trying to stop what I knew was coming. The bear like man produced a knife from a sheath at his belt and, in one fluid motion, cut the Unicorns throat. Blood splattered everywhere, and the boy I was in almost slipped on it as he barreled into the giant of a man.
Caught by surprise, the impact of his tiny frame was enough to make the man stumble backwards and land on his backside. The knife came up again, and I was already contemplating what it would be like to have ones throat cut, when I felt some tugging at the young boys belt. The boy looked down, and I saw that a syringe and a bottle were surrounded by a yellow haze.
They floated out, the syringe plunging itself deep into the rubber cap of the bottle and sucking up its contents greedily. Just when the man attacked my host, and I thought everything was over for sure, the syringe darted towards the man at amazing speeds, burying itself into his neck and injecting him with a lilac liquid.
His charge ended abruptly as his eyes rolled up to the whites, and he collapsed. My host scrambled to his feet as fast as he could, and went over to where the bleeding Unicorn lay. There was barely any life left in its eyes, and only the softest of glows was radiating from its horn.
The boy pulled out bandages and filled another syringe with a magenta liquid, apparently trying to help the mare, but it was already too late. I had worked in an ambulance for a while, and I could tell that his efforts were in vain. After he had put on the first layer of bandages, the Unicorn had already gone still, and its eyes had broken. When the boy realized this, I heard him utter a single word. The only word he had spoken so far.
“Jade...” he muttered wetly, tears running down his cheeks and blurring his vision even more.
Still, while he was focused on the dead Unicorn, I took a moment to take in the scene before me. There was blood dripping from one of the tables, which was clearly not from the Unicorn. For one, it was in the wrong direction. The blood from its wound had flowed towards the stairs, while the table stood near the back of the room. On it lay the figure I had seen the man carry. The tiny form of a young girl that was missing an arm, and whos ripcage had been ripped wide open lay there. Even modern medicine could not have saved the child...
o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o
I awoke with a start, sitting up from one second to the next. A nurse I had once worked with was checking the readouts on the monitors next to me. My sudden awakening had startled her quite a bit, for she had dropped her clipboard and was now holding a hand to her chest.
“Sorry...” I muttered apologetically, leaning forward to pick up the clipboard she had dropped onto my bed. From how I felt, and the readouts, I was as fit as... well as fit as a horse.
“Don't. EVER. Do. That. Again.” she said, emphasizing each word. Usually, she would have never talked to a patient like that, but since we had worked here together in the past, she talked to me as she would have with any other person who had startled her.
“Sorry Anna, won't happen again. So, what's the diagnosis?” I asked, taking a look at the clipboard I had picked up. There was only one sheet of paper on it, indicating that I had been here for less than a day. My readouts had been unstable when they had brought me here, but from what I could see, they had normalized as soon as they had put some sedatives into my system. Anna snatched the clipboard out of my hand briskly, tugging it under her arm.
“Stress. According to Doctor Henning, you collapsed due to stress.” she said sharply, and I could only snort in response. I worked only five hours a day with the Professor and his students, and I even had every weekend off. Not exactly a stressful job. Not to mention that...
“Aww come on Anna. You know Henning is full of shit. He couldn't diagnose a cold if it bit him in the nose.” I joked. It was basically true. Doctor Joseph Henning was the most incompetent doctor our local hospital had to offer. He had once diagnosed a broken hip on one of my patients, and had rushed her to surgery, just to find out that the woman simply suffered from arthritis. The only reason he had not lost his job yet, or so many of us had assumed back then, was that he was related to the hospital director.
“That may be, but you'll still stay here for a week.”
“A week? Aww come on! I just fainted after lifting something heavy in a room with bad air. It was probably just lack of oxygen. Just hand me the release form, so I can go home already.” I replied, noticing that it was dark outside. I wasn't at all sure that lack of oxygen was the actual cause for me fainting, but it was the best explanation I could come up with.
Anna sighed and pointed to a sheet of paper on my nightstand. Apparently Henning had already anticipated that I did not trust his diagnosis at all, and had already prepared one for me. The two of us always had a very strained work relationship. It hadn't gotten better after he had gotten me fired two years previous for calling him out on one of his many mistakes.
Signing the document, I got out of bed and my former co-worker covered her eyes instantly. What I had not noticed until I was already standing, was that they had stripped me naked instead of putting a hospital gown on me. Great... just another thing she could laugh about in the break-room at my expense from now on...
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As soon as I left the hospital, I checked my cellphone. There was only one knew message, and that was from Professor Schneider. He wished me a speedy recovery, made some bad joke about how it had been me who had fainted in the end, and assured me that I did not have to worry about my wages. The old man was willing to pay me out of his own pocket if he had to apparently, which was quite generous of him, considering how he was always moaning about the costs of this dig.
“Man... this day couldn't suck more.” I sighed, as I realized that my scooter was all the way down the hill and next to the entrance to the excavation site. That meant that I had to walk at least an hour and a half to reach it. Or I could just go home from here. The distance was basically the same...
But who was I kidding? There was no way I would let my trusty scooter just sit there over night, so I got walking. While doing so, I began to think about that strange dream I had while I was out. I always had a very lively imagination, but this was taking things to a whole new level. Had seeing that one crude drawing somehow sparked something in me, causing my brain to try and come up with a story behind it, or was that some kind of vision?
The latter was soon dismissed as my common sense kicked in again. There was no way this could have been a vision. If it had been, then why had no one ever found the remains of that village I had seen? And what had happened to that big building I had been in? In it's place stood castle Altena now, and I was pretty sure that there were no legends about ruins being there first. Or some highly advanced technology.
Then again... there was one story from my childhood that suddenly sprang to the forefront of my mind. The legend of Ech'Anta. Supposedly Ech'Anta was a spirit of healing who had come from the stars to help the people during times of crisis. Up until now however, I had never really thought about what such a spirit might look like...
Taking out my cellphone, I did something I rarely ever did because the costs were just a killer for my bank account, but I couldn't wait until I got home. Using Google, I soon found a website that had a complete rune dictionary on it, and could even translate words. It even gave me some information on the origin of the words I entered.
Ech: Horn/Horned. Short form of Echercha. Often used in names or early texts that describe mythical beasts.
Anta: Horse. Short form of Antalo. Often used in early texts to describe wild horses.
So.. in short... the name of the spirit in the fairy tale I knew, meant horned horse... or Unicorn in other words... Was it so far fetched that the inhabitants of this valley, prior to the castle being build, had worshiped this entity? Seeing how there was a complete underground temple, I thought that it was quite plausible.
It even explained the second part of the tale I knew. According to it, Ech'Anta had left one day, as she was recalled by the gods. Her home on the Wolfsegge, which was still the regional name for the mountain the castle stood on, had vanished overnight shortly after...
My head began to throb as I reached the foot of the hill the hospital stood on. What did it all mean? Did we find the temple of some ancient tribe that had left it's mark, even on our modern society? And what about that dream I had? If the fairy tale really referred to the Unicorn I had seen so many times in form a statue by now, then could it be that this dream was also real?
I just didn't know. I needed a smoke. Badly.
Putting my right hand into the pocket of my leather coat, I frowned. I was expecting my pack of tobacco to be there, and I was not disappointed. There was, however, another item which I did not recognize at all. It felt like a small metal ball just big enough to fit into my hand comfortably. Pulling it out, I saw that it was some sort of device. I froze in my tracks as I stared at the small alabaster sphere in my hand. It was damaged somehow, since I could see a cut on one side of it and a few wires hanging out.
It was the device I had seen in that weird dream. The one following the Unicorn around at all times. But how the hell had it gotten into my pocket? Had someone put it there? But even if someone did slip it in there, what the reason for it? If it really was what I thought it was, then it belonged into some museum, not into my pocket.
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After retrieving my scooter and driving home, I got to work on the strange device I had found in my coat pocket. In my younger years I had once had some basic training in electronics and my Dad was storing most of his tools at my place. So, since I was not expected at work the next day anyway, I pulled out the table mounted magnifying glass and other tools to see if I could maybe repair it. I was aware of the fact that it was an archaeological artifact, but I just couldn't stop my curiosity from taking over at this point.
In the end I had checked what I could with my limited knowledge, and now knew that there was some kind of battery in this thing. At least that was what the voltmeter had told me when I had connected it to one of the blackened cables. In fact, the meter had fried so I was pretty sure that I didn't want to get a shock from this thing.
That didn't stop my curiosity though. A few cuts later and I had removed the charred parts of the cables, and replaced them with fresh ones from my Dads toolbox. I had no idea if they were the right ones, or if they could stand this kind of electricity running through them, but I just wanted to know what the heck this thing was. It turned out that it was a good thing I wore rubber gloves while working on the device, since I did not see any way to take out that battery.
Even through the thick gloves though, I still felt the slight tingle of a current run through my hands as I worked. I was determined to give this thing at least one shot and then go to bed regardless. I'm just hard headed that way.
In the end, one try was all I needed. As soon as the last connection was repaired, the little alabaster sphere sprang to life and shot out of my hands faster than I could react. It zoomed through my two room apartment pretty quickly, a cone of bluish light running over every single one of my belongings as it did so. I jumped up, trying to catch the thing but it was too fast for me. Each time I thought I had it, my hands missed it by an inch.
Then, it turned towards me. As much as I had wanted to catch it earlier, I was now turning tail and running into the opposite direction. My neighbor from below was already banging on his ceiling with a broom handle because of all the noise at two in the morning, but I didn't care about that one bit. I dodged and jumped over my sofa avoiding the little ball.
In the end however, it had driven me into a corner. A little LED on it's front activated and the blue cone of light it had swept over my stuff now enveloped me. From one moment to the other, the world disappeared in a flash of light.
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Water. Hot water. That was the first thing I felt when the world refocused itself. In a matter of seconds I was drenched from head to toe as I lay in a metal bathtub. It wasn't pretty in any meaning of the word. Just a giant metal bowl with a shower and a tap if someone wanted to take a bath.
And then there was the scream of course. The scream that pierced my ears so badly, that I clamped my hands over them instinctively to prevent myself from going deaf. I won't lie. I've heard women scream before, but this was... something else. Much higher than anything I had ever heard. When my eyes found the source of the noise, I saw that it was... Oh damn... was I maybe in a coma or still dreaming?
The scream that was threatening to shatter my eardrums was coming from a lavender Unicorn that had retreated to the far end of the tub. Apparently my sudden appearance had startled it enough to make it break out into a screaming fit. I didn't know what was going on, where I was or if it could even understand me, but I still raised my hands in a non-threatening gesture to show it that I was not about to hurt it.
Why the heck did I even do that? It was not like this animal was intelligent... or was it?
“Hey, could you cut the screaming? My ears will start to bleed if you go on like this!” I whined loudly, trying to sound as non-threatening as possible. It did actually stop a few seconds later, opening it's muzzle as if to say something, but got cut short by the automatic door to the small bathroom hissing open. Three cat-like creatures stormed in, walking on two legs and wearing white uniforms with golden trim around the collar.
Before I could say another word, one of them was already on me and hit me straight in the face with the bud of his futuristic looking pistol. I didn't go out right away, so it repeated the process a few times for good measure until I was out...
“What the fuck did I get myself into?” I thought, just before my lights went out once more.
Galactica
Chapter 1
Processing
I awoke slowly, my head pounding badly. The surface I lay on was surprisingly soft and comfortable. If there hadn't been the voices in the background, I might have thought that everything had been just a dream. A cool and wet cloth had been draped over my forehead, taking away some of the pain. Despite the strangeness of the situation, I decided against standing up and demanding answers. For the time being, listening to their conversation seemed like a better move.
“I said no, Lieutenant! Now would you please get out of my quarters so I can start to get things worked out?” a female voice said quite firmly. Another female voice, this one sounding like someone who was trying to imitate a growl, answered the first one.
“Miss... This is most unwise. We should bring that creature to security and process it immediately. It could be dangerous.” the second voice said almost pleadingly.
“Nonsense. It's a normal human, and from what he's been carrying with him, he is not armed in any way. Or do you think I can't defend myself, Lieutenant?”
The hissing of an automated door announced the second speaker leaving without another word. As the door closed, I heard what sounded like an angry cat. Someone sighed, and I could hear the sounds of hooves on a carpet. The smell that hit my nostrils only a few seconds later told me who the first voice belonged to. It wasn't unpleasant, yet one could hardly mistake it for perfume. The slightly sweet and musty smell of a horse. No doubt about it.
I just lay still, wondering what would happen next, as something round and hard was placed on my chest. Was it checking my heartbeat? But... how could it do that with hooves? Another sigh, and the weight disappeared from my chest as quickly as it had been placed there.
There was a strange sound that I couldn't place, accompanied by one I knew only too well. A pack of tobacco unrolling.
“Mhmm... it doesn't smell that bad...” it said, before suddenly spitting and dry heaving. I just couldn't keep quiet and longer, and decided to move the cloth over my eyes aside to take a look. What I saw, made me laugh pretty hard. The lavender mare was standing at a table on which everything that had been in my pockets was spread out. One of the packs of tobacco I had been carrying was floating in front of her, and she was now frantically trying to wipe her tongue with her hooves. While I was a smoker, I had to admit that trying to chew tobacco tasted pretty horrible.
“Hey! Thwat's mot fummy!” she shouted, while still trying to get rid of the taste in her mouth. I got up, and found that it was pretty hard to move around, due to the thick plush carpet that covered the floor.
“You mind?” I asked, as I snatched the pack of tobacco out of the air and took a look inside. Then I looked at the wet glob on the floor. She had actually tried to chew a mouthful of the stuff and, since she had a very big one compared to me, the pack was almost empty. I could only imagine how bad it must have been.
“What... What is that stuff?” she coughed, and I just hoped she hadn't swallowed any of it. The stuff was poisonous after all.
“Tobacco, and it's not for eating. You smoke it.” I explained, grabbing one of the other three packs, that were still sealed. A fresh pack of papers came with it, thank god, since her tongue had slobbered the one in the first pack up beyond help. She was watching me intently as I rolled myself a smoke and put it in my mouth... Only problem was that, no matter how hard I looked, my lighter was gone! I asked about it.
“Security said it was potentially dangerous, so they took it.” she replied cautiously, giving me a strange look. It was then that I noticed that, no matter how relaxed my body language was, she was always keeping a certain distance from me. Just outside of arms reach. To be honest, that suited me just fine, since I was not sure about this strange Unicorn at all.
She was now wearing a black Uniform, that covered most of her body, except for her head and hooves. I could also see one of those strange looking weapons on her belt, which didn't do much to reassure me at all. Just... from what I had overheard, she had kept those cat things from taking me somewhere. They hadn't liked it by the sounds of it, and since I never was one for beating around the bush, I popped the question.
“So... where am I, and when can I go home?” I asked, sitting back down on the sofa while rolling the cigarette between my fingers. Man, was I aching for a smoke.
I have no idea how I was able to tell, but her expression changed dramatically. The curiosity and wariness was suddenly gone, replaced by a look of sadness. I didn't like that change at all.
“There... is a slight problem with that. We can't send you home. Not after you've seen us. We're in trouble as it is, and sending you back would have even more dire consequences.” she said, without looking at me. I was not going to take that lying down. OK, my life back home was not particularly great, but it was still better than being trapped somewhere I didn't want to be.
“You've got to be kidding me! Come on. You've got to have some technology that can remove those memories from my brain. Besides, what kind of trouble could you possibly be in? I'm the one stuck who knows how far from home, talking to a freaking horse!” I finally snapped. And once again, her expression changed pretty abruptly. This time however, I liked it even less. The cool look she gave me, made me realize that I had overstepped some kind of line.
“You being here violates Paragraph forty-two section Z of the intergalactic peace treaty. We can remove your memories, yes, but only by doing severe damage to your brain which, I assume, you don't want either. And the trouble we'd be in is far worse than what you have to face. The life as a galactic citizen can be quite pleasant. If this gets out to the wrong people before we can get you to Equus however, it could cause the second intergalactic war. Trillions died in the last war, and several races were pushed to the edge of extinction. Do you really want all that blood on your hands?” she asked me in such a cold voice that I couldn't help but shrink back a little.
After I had composed myself again, I sighed. No. I did not want any blood on my hands if I could help it. But why on earth would anyone be willing to fight a war, just because I had ended up here? It wasn't like I wanted to be here, or like these... people had brought me here deliberately after all.
“What's your name?” she suddenly asked in a much gentler tone, and I noticed that I must have been staring at my shoes for a good few minutes.
“Zeomak Seline Salchar. What's yours?”
She made a strange noise, that sounded like the snorting of a horse, but I guessed that I was better off not saying that. Instead I told her that I didn't understand what she had said. I was quite surprised that she blushed so hard that I could even see it through her lavender coat.
“My name is Twilight Shine. I'm the head researcher here. Nice to meet you Zeomak.” she said a little embarrassed, and I guessed that the snorting had been her native tongue.
“So, Twilight Shine... What will happen to me now? And what's that about a second intergalactic war? Mind explaining this to me?”
Twilight closed her lavender eyes for a moment before sighing heavily.
“I guess that was to be expected. Come on, it'll be faster if I'll just show you.” she said, motioning with her head for me to follow her.
It was... strange. Even as she left the carpeted room, she did not come closer to me. Instead she trotted about three meters ahead of me, while we walked through empty hallways. The color white was everywhere here. Touching one of the walls with my hand, I noticed that the material almost felt like plastic. Only a whole lot harder. It must have had some sound absorbing qualities as well however, since I could not hear Twilights hooves on the ground at all.
“So, as you might have guessed, you are on a space station. One of a few thousand to be precise. This was the first, and they exist to protect your solar system from outward influences.” she began to explain as we walked. I tried my best to remember the way we took, but it was no use. These hallways all looked the same to me.
“Earth... When our race first encountered it, it was nothing but a volcanic wasteland, incapable of supporting life at all. It's gravity was much higher than it is now, but we saw it's potential. It was decided to terraform it, so that Equi colonists could live there. A lot of time and resources were spent to accomplish that goal. Afterwards, we left your planet alone.”
“”But... if you wanted to found a colony there... then why did you just leave?” I inquired, earning myself a sheepish grin over her shoulder.
“We enabled the planet to sustain life, but we also wanted it to develop for a while. We brought seeds and DNA samples from several worlds, so an ecosystem could develop on it's own. It's much simpler that way. Bringing plants from other planets is much more expensive, and takes much longer. It's easier to just plant some seeds and let nature run its course.” she explained, as we stepped into an elevator. Or... at least I suspected it to be an elevator. It was big enough for her to keep her distance from me.
“But... since you did not colonize Earth, I guess something didn't go according to plan?” I suggested, and she nodded grimly.
“Yeah... We Equi have been at war with a race that calls themselves the Arcoria. They are carnivores, and consider our meat to be a delicacy. When they heard of our colonization project, they sought to compromise it. They are also very skilled in genetic engineering, and so they just dumped some of their failed experiments on your planet, hoping that they would result in mutations and make the planet uninhabitable for us. They got their wish. Partially at least. Some of the waste they dumped caused the creatures that had developed on Earth to mutate. Soon the dinosaurs were born. A cosmic event that we couldn't have predicted wiped them out eventually, but the damage was already done. Life on your planet continued to thrive and evolve. Soon the first early humans had evolved.” Twilight sighed as the elevator came to a halt with a resounding ping.
“Well, sorry if you lost your colony planet due to us, but I don't really complain. Had it not been for these... Arcoria, I wouldn't be here today.” I joked, but her steely gaze told me that this was a touchy subject for her.
“However, we abandoned the colonization plans and left your people alone since we saw your potential to become an intelligent species. Others saw the entertainment value of such an early civilization however. Some even came and wanted to use your people as slave workers. A quite easy process for a civilization who has mastered intergalactic travel really. Some of those species have a breeding cycle that lasts for several of your earth years, while humans only need nine months to be born. Their plan was, to have a little breeding population of humans, take the children and dump them into growth chambers. That way they would have become adults in a matter of hours, instead of years. An implant, that would have been put in their brains prior to that, would have contained all the information and training they would have needed for their work. A really disgusting practice, but it was carried out for a while.”
I shuddered as I imagined this. Of course, it sounded like it came from a bad science fiction story, but then again, me being here wasn't exactly normal either.
“You are telling me that, even as we speak, there are other humans out there?” I asked indignantly. Twilight shook her head sadly.
“No. Two of the three races who sought to use your people in such a way, have been annihilated in the first intergalactic war. The third has exhausted their supply of humans in that war, and with us guarding your solar system, they have been unable to get more. There are however...” she said, and I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw the room she had brought me to.
The walls down here were different. They had been white at some point, I supposed, but now they were blackened in places. It almost looked as if someone had torched the walls with a laser or something. And then I saw them. About ten humans, even though I could barely identify them as such, were scattered around the room. One woman, who wore what looked like some sort of exoskeleton, was frozen in mid air as she jumped over a desk for cover. There were also several Equi, all of them firing their weapons at the humans. Their shots, were frozen in mid air as well.
It was like a 3D hologram of a battle for life and death, yet the air just in front of me was rippling slightly. The smell that came from that room was also not a pleasant one at all. Blood. Fresh blood. And burnt flesh. It was... surreal...
There was another Unicorn mare in the middle of it all. Other than her purple mane with the pink stripe in it, she was the spitting image of Twilight Shine. She was poking her head over a sparking console, her eyes wide in horror, as a beam of red energy hung in the air in front of her face. Her left hoof rested on a small lever, while her right one was pressed over a bleeding wound in her side. I could see that this bolt of energy, would take her face off if it wasn't frozen in mid air. Just what the hell was going on here?
The Equi guards seemed to have tried to keep these strange members of my race away from her, while she was working on something. But even though I could not see the entirety of the room, I saw that the fight had not been going in their favor. I could only see two mortally wounded humans, one man and one woman, while there were at least two dozen clearly dead Equi.
“This was the last battle in the intergalactic war. Well... in fact it is still going.” Twilight said as she stepped up next to me, removing a stray strand of her black mane from her face with a hoof.
“What the hell...” I muttered, not daring to touch the rippling air.
“The Arcoria heard that one of our rulers was due to visit this research station. It was an inspection, before the peace treaty was signed. They were weakened by the war just was much as we were, and so they formed a plan. The security during the actual signing ceremony would have been much too heavy, and so they sought to assassinate head chancellor Celestia during her inspection. The humans you see here, were the last ones they had, and they wreaked havoc down here. Reports of the attack contradict themselves, but one thing is quite clear. Twilight Sparkle, one of my ancestors, saved this station and ensured that the Acoria would not be granted a voice in the intergalactic Senate for over a thousand years.” Twilight Shine explained, pointing at her doppelganger in the middle of the room with a hoof.
“How exactly?”
“I don't understand half of what she did. I'm not a genius, even though I am the head researcher. All I can say, is that she used some kind of time spell that she was working on. From what I was able to gather from her notes, she wanted to invent something that could replace our quite unreliable cryogenic technology. Sadly, all the data about is are on that console she's hiding behind...”
“Spell?” I chuckled disbelievingly. I was quite sure that I didn't hear that correctly. Twilight Shine however just snorted.
“In olden times, we called the use of galactic background radiation magic. Nowadays, we know better, but the techniques my subspecies of Equi can use with it are still called spells.” she explained, rolling her eyes at the unknowing human. I left it at that. There was no point in arguing about something I had no idea about. And, to be honest, I got the distinct feeling that I had all the time in the world to learn about it eventually.
Eyeing the scene before me a little closer, I saw that these were quite early humans. Not quite Neanderthals, but they weren't much farther along either. They had a distinctive skull form, and were quite a bit smaller than me. Nonetheless, I was sure that each and every one of them could kick my butt pretty hard.
Then, I saw it. One of the downed humans, the woman, had received a bad wound to the head. Part of her skull had been blown off, and where I should have seen her brain, I only saw electronics. At least I assumed that they were circuits of some sorts, since I saw a few small sparks frozen in mid air.
“So you've noticed it, huh?” my four legged companion asked as she noticed where I was looking.
“Pretty hard to miss...” I mumbled, not wanting to imagine what had been done to that poor woman.
“The Arcoria removed part of their subjects brains, replacing it with cybernetic implants. It ensured that they were obedient and knew everything they needed to know to carry out their mission. The procedure was... barbaric, and yet their Senator has made demands to our own Senator in the council to return them, ever since they were allowed to join. We have refused their demands each and every time because, if they were to get their hands on these specimen, they would use their advanced technology to create more of them. They'd make them even more deadly, and this time they would come straight for our home world. You must know that you humans... We may be more advanced, but you guys are superior to us in physical terms. In addition to that, some of the modifications the Arcoria made in these mutants genome, makes them immune to galactic energy. That means our only defenses are firearms once they have landed. Close quarter combat usually ends badly for us...” she explained, pointing her hoof towards a stallion who lay in a heap, his head turned in an unnatural way.
This was just too much...
So the race that created humans as a byproduct in a war by dumping their waste on earth, wanted to use us as some kind of super weapon? A weapon that would ensure their victory against the Equi, whom they considered a delicacy? Oh, a few of my friends would really have field day with that idea... in a bad way...
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“I am terribly sorry that we have to do this, but we can't assign quarters to you without having you guarded for now, and we just don't have enough security officers on board for that.” Twilight Shine said, bowing her head as I grabbed the bars of the cell they had put me in. I didn't make a fuss or rattle away at the bars. I just stood there, looking into her eyes accusingly.
She had, after all, brought me here under a false pretense. I had been promised food and a place to rest. A place where I could think about all that I had learned today. When she had walked me into a very nice looking office, that was filled with dozens of smaller cubicles, about a dozen of those cat creatures had jumped me. I didn't fight them. I went with them willingly, but even that didn't seem to mollify them enough to go easy on me.
To Twilight Shines credit, she had shouted at them not to hurt me. To her shame however, she had done nothing to prevent them digging their claws into my shoulders through my leather coat. I had to admit, it hurt... a lot! Their claws were razor sharp, and even breathing while they were embedded in my flesh, made them cut deeper into me.
My wounds had since been treated by a creature that had introduced itself as Foranga, and looked like a strange combination of horse and spider. No seriously. Foranga was an eight legged horse with six eyes.
I was still looking at Twilight, and I could see that it was making her very uncomfortable. Good. I wasn't really in a social mood right now. It had been hours since my last smoke. These cats had taken all my stuff away from me again, and I had just been thrown into a two by two cell. My only silver lining was, that it was a solo cell. No three meter cell mate like that guy who occupied the cell on the other side of the corridor. Thank god for small favors.
In the end, I turned around and flopped down on the metal bed with a groan. It was hard and cold and did nothing to improve my mood. Twilight did try to get me to talk, apologizing over and over again, but I wasn't having it. After about an hour, she finally left. At that point, I was glad that there were bars between us, because I could barely control myself anymore. Sweat was running down my face, and my blood felt as if it was boiling in my veins. Nicotine withdrawal... so not fun...
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I had lost all sense of time since I had been put into this cell. How long had I been locked up here? One day? Two? A week? I didn't know. The only indication of time I had, were the meals a robot delivered to each cell. What it brought me was... I don't know... It tasted disgusting, almost like rotted flesh, but my stomach accepted it without throwing up. That had to do for now I guessed. The robot had also informed me, that inmates did not get pillows or blankets. That meant, I had spent some time in this cell, without getting a decent nights sleep.
At that point in time, I was pretty sure that I would kill the first being who was foolish enough to open my cell.
“Addicted, huh? What ya on?” The one eyed beast they had put in the cell next to mine asked through the bars in its raspy voice. It's slimy hands grabbed them, and some of the fluid dripped onto my sorry excuse for a bed. I snapped. With rage filling my vision, I shot forwards, reached through the bars, and grabbed onto the eye-stalk of the beast. It began to scream in pain as I squeezed, trying to pull it's eye through the bars to show it the mess it had made in my cell.
The next thing I knew, were five cat creatures pouncing on me. Their claws dug deeper this time, but I barely noticed the burning pain they caused. My fist connected with a fury nose, earning me a deep growl from the thing that fell back immediately. Punch by punch, kick by kick, I was working off my anger. The only problem with that was, that these cat things were very fast. I did land the occasional hit after that first one, but they took me serious now.
Had I been able to think straight, I would have realized that they were wearing me down on purpose. Make me bleed and then exert myself...
The world around me began to blur, shortly before I fell flat on my face after one of my punches missed it's mark. I was swallowed by the darkness of unconsciousness shortly after...
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Next time I awoke, I lay on a quite comfy bed. A nice change from the metal one I had been forced to use in that cell they had put me in. Twilight Shine sat next to the bed, a black sphere hovering around her head as she was shouting at someone I couldn't see.
“This is unacceptable! The Nekorai ought to have shown some restraint! I know they're hunters by nature, but you promised me he would be taken care of like a guest!” she shouted, and was soon answered by another female voice. This one sounded regal and used to giving orders. Not only that, the one speaking also sounded as if she was used to her orders to be followed to the letter.
“Twilight Shine, mind you manners! It's his own fault. The Nekorai only did their job in restraining him. He could have killed one of his fellow prisoners if they hadn't. Besides, I said I would do my best to make his stay on the station as pleasant as possible. I never said he'd be treated like a guest.”
“It still is unacceptable, head chancellor. Zeomak did not resist when he was first put into custody, and not once did he try to escape. There must be a reason for his aggressive behavior, I'm sure of it.” Twilight argued and I finally managed to sit up on the edge of the bed. She scrambled away from me as soon as she noticed this, but I only waved a dismissive hand at her. My breathing was labored, and I felt as if someone had put my lungs into vice and was now doing his best to squeeze the air out of them. I really needed a smoke...
“Ehm... head chancellor Celestia? May I call you back? He just woke up.” the lavender Unicorn said and, to my astonishment, the black sphere suddenly turned to me. I swatted at it with my right hand, missing on purpose. All I wanted to relay here, was that I didn't appreciate being prodded by some strange device right now. A slight chuckling could be heard from the device as it positioned itself in a respectful distance away from me.
“So you are the human everyone is talking about, are you? You don't look anything like the humans I remember from the great war. Mind to explain why you attacked our security officers?” the female on the other side of the line said, sounding almost disappointed. I just nodded, looking longingly at my belongings that were laid out on the small metal table in the middle of the room. My tobacco was there, and they had even decided to add my lighter to my collection again. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to look directly at the small camera in the hovering sphere.
“I'll answer your questions, I promise, but please let me have a smoke beforehand...” I said as calmly as I could, trying to control my breathing. Twilight, who seemed to remember what I had said the last time, levitated one of the packs and the lighter over to me. I took that as permission and rolled the fastest cigarette in the universe. I noticed that a small lavender field of energy was forming around the smoking end of it, but I didn't care at that moment. After the first puff, I coughed hard, but my heart rate calmed down almost instantly. Sure, I was feeling a little sick due to the long time I had gone without a smoke, but it was totally worth it. As long as I had my smokes, I was as calm as the sea on a sunny day.
“Feeling better now?” the voice from the sphere asked, sounding almost amused. I nodded lazily, enjoying the last few puffs on my cigarette. After putting it out on my tongue, since I didn't see an ashtray anywhere, I looked at the rest of my things once more. My cellphone, my tablet, three extra packs of tobacco and my glasses. Everything was there, but there was something extra as well. Struggling to my feet, I walked over to the table. I immediately noticed that the floor in this room was not carpeted, so I was not in Twilight Shines quarters this time.
I must have looked like an idiot as I picked up the golden chain that lay on the desk. A fang was fastened on it like a pendant, it's root still showing a little bit of dried blood.
“You like your trophy?” the female voice asked, and I spun around. It wasn't a good idea, since it made me feel quite dizzy and I had to steady myself on the table to prevent myself from falling over.
“What do you mean, trophy?” I demanded, looking closely at the fang.
“That fang belongs to the female Nekorai officer you punched yesterday. She brought it over this morning.” Twilight Shine explained, grinning sheepishly. I had the distinct feeling that I was missing something important here.
“So, I punched one of her teeth out, and she makes me a necklace out of it? Why?”
“The Nekorai may be part of the intergalactic community, but they still value some of their tribal traditions. At some point in their evolution, the females decided that they would test any potential partner. Only if the male was able to get a trophy from her, which has to be a part of her body, and she decides to give it to him, she will be willing to mate with him.” Head chancellor Celestia explained, and I instantly dropped the necklace.
“No use now. You've touched it, so your smell is on it.” Twilight sighed, but the sly grin that played around her muzzle betrayed her amusement at my situation.
“Oh, come on! You've got to be kidding me! I'm not looking for a wife, especially not one that could cut me apart with her claws!” I grunted, putting my right hand to my forehead.
After about twenty minutes, in which I didn't stop to lament my predicament, we finally got down to business. Twilight explained to me that they had decided to put me into my own quarters after all, since I didn't seem to get along with the other inmates. The small alabaster sphere I had found in my coat back on earth was also returned to me.
It would keep an eye on me, and had been programmed to disable me if I stepped out of line. How it would do that was not explained, only that I was not going to like it. After that, I was informed that a shuttle would take me to Equus the following day for an audience with the two head chancellors of the Equi Empire. They would then decide if I would be made an Equi citizen or not.
Celestia however reassured me that it was quite unlikely that Twilights request to make me a citizen was rejected. After all, the Equi had a lot to loose in this as well. If they adopted me as one of their citizens, the council could punish them, sure, but they would not have to face the full scale or retribution from the rest of the intergalactic community. It had something to do with laws and regulations, which I did not fully understand, but in the end it came down to one point. As long as I willingly asked for refuge, there was a law that allowed them to take me in, even if I was not from a race that belonged to the intergalactic community. They would suffer some trade embargo for a while, but nothing more serious.
If I did not become a citizen, then other races could declare treaties null, and try to make their move on earth once again. In this case, the Equi defense fleet was authorized to use lethal force to prevent them from entering the system. It was up to me to prevent that. With a heavy sigh, I resigned myself to my fate in the end. I even put on the necklace that had been left for me. After all, in twenty-four hours, I'd be gone from this space station, and that cat creature thing would not follow me, right?
