Hello Mr. Robinson Pt. 12

"Wait, the Watcher said the Anunnaki had never encountered their tech. Why would they lie?"

"They were programmed to watch. That sort of information would only cause problems." Nick suggested. "So where are you going Greg? Why isn't Rhea with you?"

"I am looking for something and I don't want to put her in danger." I said.

"J'Nai bonds are quite strong Nikki. Once they connect, they will die for the other before willingly place them in danger." Illy said and then fell silent. "Sorry."

"I hope you know what you are doing." Nick said his grim mask falling for a moment. "Be careful and don't do anything stupid."

The sky was darkening, and I agreed to stay the night. A helicopter would come in the morning taking me wherever I needed. Nick left me alone with Akira and Illy. I wanted to grill them over Nick, but I knew better. Akira was as close to him as Rhea was to me. I was surprised that Akira didn't follow Nick. She looked uncomfortable, so I changed the subject to current world events. While Akira could contribute Illy seemed disinterested. I asked her what she wanted to talk about. She looked at me and I felt the unrelenting force of her mind. I saw her people, the gods and goddesses of Idris-Mars. They were shining entities that were as eternal as the universe itself. In their case they had a beginning and sadly they had an end. Only Illy survived because she took a leap of faith. She willed herself through the vacuum of space and survived the crossing. She was hunger, passion, and birth.

"I've only met one other god. He wasn't so pleasant."

"Name him," Illy demanded, and I spoke the name of the Dark Pharaoh. "Yes, you are lucky to have faced him twice and lived. Fate drives you Voidsinger and at the end the Crawling Chaos."

"I guess that is why I feel so manipulated." I admitted, and she nodded. "What do you want?"

"I want you to retrieve that derelict. I want you to glean, reap, and understand what is there. I want you to take that knowledge and crush the Soul Eater. Free your adopted people and let them flourish again. Your fate is a knife edge. Should you win out I will seek you out and pledge myself to your cause."

"Um... thank you..." I stammered. "I am humbled by your offer."

She kissed my cheek and left me alone in the hot tub. I slipped beneath the surface of the water and felt the symbiote open the gills in my neck. My lungs drank the water and a rush of energy coursed through my body. As I breathed every cell of my body was invigorated. I breached the surface and the primal scream erupted from the encroaching doom hanging over my head. I climbed out of the hot tub and dried off. I wrapped the towel around me and sought out my clothes and once dressed I sought out the highest point on the ship. I sat tailor fashion on the helipad with eyes closed but mind open. I reached out for the thread. The strands of the web covered the entire galaxy. What I was doing hadn't been done since the Old Ones ruled unchallenged. They used the web to transverse time/space with a few steps. There were no machines they only used their minds. It was a tenuous thing. I was looking for gossamer that fluttered in the solar winds.

"Gotcha!"

The yacht was gone. I sat in the in-between. It was a dimensional fold that spanned millions of light years. The dancers were the only ones that knew every twist and turn. The dancers were the only ones who could detect the proximity of a strand. The J'Nai were the only ones that could breach the strands with machines of great power and cunning. I stood in the strand and wove a filament to my heart's desire. I turned towards the wall of the fold and willed a new path and it formed if slowly. It wouldn't last for long. Strands like this required passage to maintain the thread. It only required six steps. I exited the strand and felt the unyielding cold of the void. I stood upon the surface of Watcher's asteroid. It was so cold, so empty, and yet I survived, thank you Nick. I staggered to the entrance of the green house. The radiation cut through me as my body fell. I willed my body forward. The wall liquified and I drifted down and through.

I gasped as the warmth of the green house's environment revived me. I was too weak to stand but still I moved. I was being carried on the back of the servitor robot. I was lowered into one of the pools while a second servitor provided alien fruit for consumption. The exterior flesh of the plant was the color and texture of eggplant. I bit through to a juicy core that overwhelmed my taste buds. It was sweet, salty, and flavors only my J'Nai biology could detect. My mind worked to try and analyze what I was consuming. I thanked Watcher as two more of the fruit were set near the edge of the pool.

"No need to thank me Greg Robinson. I agreed to help you if you found passage here. I will admit I expected you to come through the human portal. My sensors detected you just outside the airlock. How did you manage to get here?"

"I used the J'Nai web. I managed to fashion a new strand though my aim was a little off. This fruit tastes amazing. Sorry, I am still a little rattled by my transition from the web back to real space. Wait, I thought that you feared contamination."

"Ah that, you were inoculated while you slept. I had to do a critical examination of your body. You are an amazing specimen. I have never encountered anyone like you before. Though I will admit that Nick Shaw was an equally interesting entity. Speaking of interesting, your other body was very advanced and unique. Was that Nick Shaw's work as well?"

"Yeah, he is quite brilliant. I feel pale by comparison."

"Simple... hardly... your Mr. Shaw has been using ancient technology to advance his own. I suspect he has discovered a cache of Atlantean artifacts."

"Atlantean... you mean Atlantis actually existed."

"Exists, the island is hidden by a sophisticated screen that has kept it isolated for millennia."

Watcher and I chatted while my nanites did their work and repaired damaged cells that suffered radiation poisoning as well as the bitter cold of space. Nick's tests with the symbiote covered quite a few scenarios those were two that he hadn't thought of. It is nice to know that one has limitations. A man without fear is a danger to himself and those that are around him when he makes a mistake. The pool's regenerative properties aided the nanites and cut down what would have taken days perhaps to mere hours. While I healed, the Watcher was not idle. He provided clothing and a means of reaching the derelict. The seamless weave of the leggings, shirt, and footwear reminded quite a bit of what I had seen among the J'Nai. The service robot returned to help me remove my damaged clothing. My jeans had been frozen and shredded by the cold and solar winds. We peeled the clothing off in patches as the material cracked and disintegrated at our touch. Once I was naked the robot produced a gel that I rubbed over my skin to treat it for burns, cuts, and abrasions. The robot took over and applied the medication where I couldn't reach including my hair and scalp. The gel helped heal the cuts and the burns very quickly. The bruising took a little longer, but I was more concerned about radiation sickness and possibilities of cancer.

"I am monitoring your cells for aberrations. I believe we have treated you before your exposure reached a critical level."

"Thank you, Watcher," I said and the A.I. stammered unused to be thanked. "This clothing looks amazing. It reminds me of J'Nai garments."

"While I cannot aid on a global scale or beings that would have an impact on global affairs. You and the others fall under my political protocols. I am happy to be of service concerning your arrival and giving knowledge regarding the worlds beyond. Also, those garments are of J'Nai manufacture. I requested from my brother's and sister's items I felt you would be familiar with. There is food, clothing, and tools for your mission to intercept the derelict. It seemed only logical."

"Again, thank you Watcher, you've made me feel welcome. How long do I have before the ship passes this facility?"

"Six days and thirteen human hours," it said.

"Human time keeping," I replied. "Is there a galactic standard?"

"Yes, there is. The galactic council chose one of the Anunnaki colony worlds as the standard. You would consider it metric time. The world takes twenty earth hours for the passage of one day as well as ten months for a yearly orbit. The standard is ten daylight hours, ten nighttime hours and so on. Anunnaki time is recorded in segments of ten. Ten seconds make a Tick, ten ticks for a tock or minute, ten tocks form a tong or hour. The rest is quite simple. Ten tongs for a day and another ten form a night. It goes on from there. There is a mechanism in that system that keep the ten worlds in perfect order. Three of the planets share the same orbit allowing for economic colonization. It is well known that two of the worlds were carefully selected and brought from other star systems and terraformed."

"Wow, that is amazing."

"If you find that amazing look at this." Watcher said as a hologram appeared above me. "This is called the third world."

The world had four moons orbiting it. The moons were equidistant and in geostationary orbit. The moons were known by the inhabitants of this planet as the dawn moon, the day moon, the dusk moon, and the dark moon. I was amazed at the skill and technology that went into this cosmic balancing act. The entire star system was a clockwork device that the rest of the galaxy looked on with wonder and joy. It gave me hope that if the Anunnaki can keep a solar system in balance I could find a way of bringing humanity together. Watcher showed me other worlds scattered across the Milky Way. I fell asleep as my body healed. I dreamt of standing on the surface of that clockwork world. I was sitting on the beach at daybreak. There was a moon on the horizon along with the sun. I looked up and a second moon was directly above me. A quick glance over my shoulder to see a third moon on the other horizon. The day moon rose from the ocean as the dawn moon headed for the other horizon and the dark moon disappeared. The sun illuminated the Phoenix Sea with dazzling colors that set the horizon on fire with prominences of scarlets, oranges, and golds.

If I had a chance to leave the Earth I would come here and travel this world and see what the Anunnaki made of it. It was obvious that they had put forth, so much effort made me want to see it all. What were its people like? What kind of culture did they possess? There were tons of questions and I was eager to learn all I could. One dream ended and blended into one about Rhea. She was hunting something or someone. It looked she hadn't been idle while I was away. Our mental connection was strong even over so vast a distance. I listened as she stalked the man that had wronged my daughter Cindy. She was after Oswald Sebastian Kane. The anger in her was simmering and would soon peak to a cold-blooded rage. If I had any doubt that she would kill him her own thoughts betrayed her. This was a man hunt and when she found him, she would end him.

I awoke. I was no longer in the pool. As I opened my eyes, I found my body gently cradled in a silky cocoon. It was a mix of hammock and sleeping bag. I was naked and as I slipped out of its warm embrace a service robot handed me articles of clothing one at a time with its tentacled appendages. I thanked it, but it didn't speak or react in any way. The footwear was a cunning mix of socks, boots and sneakers. I wanted another dozen pair of these for when I got home. The pants and shirt were equally comfortable and clever. When I asked Watcher about my health, he informed me I had passed the ninety-five percentile. I was ready to intercept the alien ship. The robot led me to a new part of the green house. The plain looking wall liquified and I passed through it to a gentle sloping passageway. Just like a J'Nai building the sloping corridor opened to a huge hanger.

I recognized the J'Nai scout ship right away. The craft's rune covered surface was a blend of purples, blues, and greens. The cockpit was frosted but as I approached it cleared as the craft powered up and readied for flight. J'Nai craft often have a soul stone containing a dead hero. The ghost helps as pilot, gunner, or navigator depending upon the skills of the J'Nai on board. A skilled J'Nai pilot might only require a navigator. In battle conditions, he might need a skilled gunner. The ghost provides these as well as companionship over long journeys. In my case I needed a pilot. I entered through the side hatch and informed the ghost of my mission. It tied in with the Watcher and received the current location of the derelict and plotted a course. I sat in the pilot's seat as the ghost did the rest. I was useless until we reached the alien ship.

"My name is Voidsinger. Thank you for your help."

"Honor to you Voidsinger, I am Fireprism and I will be your pilot. We should reach our destination in three hours."

The ship rose from the floor of the hanger and flew through the liquified wall into open space. As we flew, I pulled up the ship's schematics and studied them. The entirety of the shuttle's construction was woven from wraith steel. It was light, incredibly resilient, and able to regenerate if there were no critical strikes to the ship. Wraith steel also allowed the ghost to feel the ship as if it were its body. That allowed for amazing reaction times and peerless combat skills for the pilot. The ship's shape reminded me of an American Indian arrow head from the top. The rear was scooped on both sides ending in a rounded projection covering the engines. The sides were wider in the back and had a gentle narrowing slope towards the front of the vessel. The sides formed forked tines which protected the cockpit which was inset between those tines. The shuttle carried armaments both forward and aft. The main gun was the formidable J'Nai prism cannon. It can create micro black holes that swallowed up man sized foes with ease and tore larger targets to shreds from the tidal forces it produced.

"Yikes." I said leaning back after reading the specs.

"What is it Voidsinger?" The ghost asked.

"I survived a few microseconds of tidal forces. It brought back bad memories."

"You are an amazing being just as I have heard."

"Heard, how could you have heard of me?" I asked and Fireprism launched into a song about my battle with the Direlord on S'Akkun IV.

As he sang the memory sprung fresh into my mind. He was a tall bastard wearing polished daemon armor. His famed weapon, Lifebane, was in his hand. The nonreflective surface of the double-bladed polearm was fearsome to see. It was rumored to have a daemon prince bound into its blades. I carried my sword Duradanna, a holy sword fashioned in the dawn times by Kournous and blessed by the Phoenix King. I lost Duradanna after the end of the war. I tried to remember which it was, but I couldn't. I slammed my fist against the arm of my chair.

"Why can I remember every moment of fighting the Direlord, but I can't remember losing Duradanna?"

"The songs say you died. They say you fell at the side of the Phoenix King. You are a legend Voidsinger."

"I died..." I said and fell silent.

A torrent of memories visited me as I sat quietly as the ship intercepted the derelict. I remembered the Phoenix King. I could see his face, his smile, and his sorrow. I felt tears stream down my face as the father of our race perished. His fall was our race's fall. Fireprism's voice cut through the memory. I blinked away the tears and sat up as the bulk of the alien ship filled my vision. It was fucking huge! It was as large as a J'Nai citadel ship. The initial scan had been wrong. The derelict was five miles in length along its longitudinal line. It was a mile wide and deep at its furthest points. I tried to take in every aspect of its ethereal nature. The whole damn thing was translucent and covered by a shimmering power field. It most resembled an octopus but there were external organs that no terrestrial cephalopod ever possessed. There were view ports that reminded me of eyes and other rounded protrusions that defied analysis for now.

"Let's get aboard. Is there any signal coming from it?" I asked.

"I have detected a mass of psions emitted from that odd organ looking tower there." The ghost said highlighting the structure in the holographic display. "What do you suggest?"

"I can try linking with the transmission and see if I can get us aboard."

I closed my eyes and felt for the psions. They were there but the mind behind them was as alien as the ship. I tried and failed to make any sense of them. I cleared my mind and let the signal do the rest. If I removed any preconceived ideas maybe I could see something that would give us access. Nothing happened, so I tried all the ideas that I could muster. The hours went by as I exhausted every option that came to mind. Twelve hours I stared at the ship we were orbiting powerless to pierce the exotic energy field that surrounded it.

"I am open to suggestions." I said aloud.

"Tell me what you know about this ship. I cannot find any files on it in my database."

"There isn't much, it was made by a race that was hunted to extinction before the rise of the J'Nai. They were peaceful and very wise according to the stories."

"That isn't much but perhaps you should do the same. I mean, what are the oldest stories you know."

I closed my eyes and thought back to the oldest memories I had gotten from Steve. There was a singular figure that fit that criteria, the Phoenix King. I brought the clearest image of him that I could. I didn't spare the smallest detail. I sang every song, recalled every tale, and every conversation we had ever had. There it was staring at me the entire time. The Ring of the Old Ones, he had told me about it on our very first meeting. It was a gift from the Old Ones and they had received it from an even older race. I had held it and examined it in detail. I isolated each character and sent it to the ship we were orbiting. It became a learning experience then. It had recognized some of the characters and showed me which psychic wavelength they represented. The ship began teaching me the rest of its psionic alphabet. Once I had shown the capacity to learn the field protecting the ship was lowered and we landed.

"Two solar days," Fireprism remarked. "I am impressed. I am not sure if I were given a solar year that I could have done any better."

"I think it is only going to get harder from here on in."

"Don't forget your life support belt." Fireprism reminded me.

I went to the armory and collected everything I would need and key among those the life support belt. The belt was a piece of hard light technology that protected the wearer from all manner of environmental conditions. Since I didn't know how long I was going to be aboard the ship I also gathered food and water. I opened the hatch and entered the hanger. My first surprise was floating off the ramp to hang suspended in the liquid atmosphere. The race that fashioned this beast were water breathers. My second surprise were the eight columns of runic characters that surrounded me. The hanger was two hundred feet high and the symbols rotated at different rates and changed colors at regular intervals. The lowest level of runes moved slowest while the second from the top was the fastest. It must have been a puzzle to test me. I stared at the symbols and pulled up the frequencies they represented. Did they each have a numerical value? If they did it might be the key to solving this puzzle.

"This is going to take a while." I muttered as I dove into the digital ether.

I pulled up each of the symbols and found that there were no duplicates. I played their frequencies behind them seeking to determine their values. It took time, a lot of it, to crack the code. Once I solved one the rest quickly fell. The runes represented elements on the periodic table. There were more than humans had discovered but that didn't surprise me. The universe was a big place. Once I applied those elements to the puzzle it still took a long time. The creators of this place were on a level of intelligence that paled the sum of humanity by eons. I felt like an ant staring up at an entire race of gods. I just hoped this ant was up to the job. I pushed out the emotions and attacked the puzzle with the same tenacity I had training with the J'Nai.