Chapter five(1)(M)

Who were the ancients? What did they look like? What was their lifestyle? We have yet to find a single depiction of an ancient, or indeed anything related to their daily lives.

It was funny, he reflected, to see the looks of shock on their faces. It was understandable, too. It was not every day that you could see your most advanced weapons bounce off an enemy.

He was slightly surprised though. He did not expect the enemy to already have lased-fusion warheads. Still, they were a very, very long way away from being able to so much as scratch voidsteel.

But, it was not time for fun. Maybe later, after he completed his task, but not now. Now, it was time to continue on with his job, his purpose.

Reaching out, he sent orders to his SAIs to shut down all the systems of the fleets, except life support and sensors. After all, they had only meant to find out more about something strange and didn’t actually manage to harm him. It would not make a good first impression if he killed all of them.

After snickering at the shock and inevitable messes in the ships, he engaged the Between Anchor. It was time to have a chat.

Chapter five(2)(S)

Who were the ancients? What did they look like? What was their lifestyle? We have yet to find a single depiction of an ancient, or indeed anything related to their daily lives.

The lights flickered, then died into inky darkness. Shouts of alarm rang out like a chorus, accompanied with thunderous crashes of various things falling left and right. Selene groped her way to her terminal, then hurriedly activated the com.

“All crew, sit down on the ground silently and do not move. I repeat, sit down silently and do not move until I order you to.”

The chaos slowly subsided as everyone followed orders and the bridge crew tried to get an idea of what happened.

“Report!” Selene barked out.

“We have been locked out of all systems except life support and the sensors. They have been turned off and are not responding.” A tech answered

“Put the outside sensor feed up on the main screen.”

As the screen shimmered to life, the room went even more silent than before. Everyone went pale. Because what they saw was not the familiar arrangement of stars and galaxies they usually saw.

A vast, inky black provided the backdrop, while vast rivers of purple and indigo flowed serenely through the darkness. Streaks of every color abounded, lines of the rainbow dancing and swirling across the heavens. Small, ethereal-looking bubbles lazily drifted, each the size of a grain of sand and stretching for all infinity simultaneously. Just looking at these sights would blow one’s mind.

The silence lasted for a long time, until someone spoke out in a whisper.

“Are we in heaven?”

As he spoke, the view of the outside shifted to another screen, leaving the main screen black. The main screen flickered, then changed. Everyone gaped, for the new display revealed the strangest thing they had ever seen.

It was an oval-shaped thing that looked like a head, with a glowing blue band where the eyes should be. There was no nose or ears, but there was a normal looking mouth. There were red and gold markings all over it, arranged into intricate patterns.

Then, it spoke.