CHAPTER 13

"Pssst... hey," Yasmine whispers to Dr. Adams, the artifact paleontologist. The inside of the National Resource Center is empty, and most patrons have long since gone home.

Yasmine's beginning to show symptoms of a cosmic web mutation. Dizziness continues to plague her, while the pain of a synaptic pinch bites at her wrist where the underlay lies beneath the skin. Dr. Rachel Adams of the NRC keeps her housed in quarantine away from any sightings, inside an antique book depository. Inflamed bumps lining her chest leave imprints of some latent virus that refuses to leave. Dr. Adams does not want to tamper with whatever is developing on the underside of her skin since it could lead to even worse outcomes.

A sample of blood from her finger takes only a second. "This gene designation is, is of reptiles, not mammals. What have you been eating?" Dr. Adams asks facetiously.

Dr. Adams uses the blood to fill a flask that has an automated gene capture capability. They can test for many things, and the checkup is pretty much instantaneous. While quarantined, Yasmine's only symptoms are a headache, minor pain, and some bumps, but it is what she doesn't feel that's so dangerous.

Adams continues to ask Yasmine questions about her symptoms from an intercom across offices, enclosed by thick wooden panels. She does not want to risk contamination, so she leaves. The reserve of polluted lettuce is taken off shelves, what was once in sandwiches, burgers, and anything else that already reached people all over the country. The suspension of Delphi Corp. farming machinery is just now restructuring the supply of food, but the trampled stores and emptied grocers have left cities with no other recourse. It is much too late to stop the steady decline.

Yasmine is on the verge of mutating with a transformative ability that up until now, only Yhemlen Overseers and the Grey Order possessed. Instead of mining for the coveted power stones themselves, Yhemlen prophecy is soon going to meet humanity as a divine inevitability. The cosmic web is crystalizing in a few individuals who are close to the Wall of computing power. What Yasmine feels is the pull of radioactive astral stones coalescing at her wrist. The bulge forming seems cancerous if anything to Dr. Adams who is monitoring her closely, and it is starting to scare her more than before.

As the Yhemlen prophecy comes to fruition the chase is on as Xavier Moth of the Mirai plots a course to reach the human timeline. The Grey Order is a foe that humanity has not faced. While Xavier finds a way to bring the apocalypse, Yasmine and the few other Overseers will need to use their power stones together as the rightful heirs of Yhemlen and destroy the bounty hunter. Only this time when all of them are transformed, the zodiac will not only create the Dragon but transform the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus, into Asclepius, a herculean demi-god which wields a serpent. At least, that is what should happen if these humans muster enough strength to get past the initial high doses ailing them.

Dr. Adams returns to Yasmine's quarantine room from leaving the intercom station at the clerk's desk but keeps her distance. Dr. Adams, hunkering down on a wooden table, watches as Yasmine quivers with crossed arms. Her trembling becomes so intense that Dr. Adams drops the tray of food that she specially prepared and was aiming to slide her way. Yasmine's clothes begin to disintegrate, ruffling to expose piercing bones and ligaments tearing loose from their original frame. Frightened for her own life, Dr. Adams rushes back to the door, grasping its handle with both hands.

The crystal forming on the underside of Yasmine's wrist short-circuit her underlay. Its bright, reddish-brown tinge reminds Dr. Adams of something from when she was only a child. She is fairly sure that's a Carnelian stone protruding through Yasmine's skin. Yasmine's astral power stones are the leftover radiation from the cosmic web whose new consciousness is rooting itself in a few people.

As Yasmine's physique begins to take form, Yasmine erupts in a violent cacophony of pulsating organs that widen in girth and get stronger.

Dr. Adams watches the sunset of a ginger evening sky grow in Yasmine's eyes as she degenerates from human to beast.

"Why, why such an atrocity? Come back to me, Yasmine!"

Dr. Adams pleads to whatever humanity is left. And while her fear grows, there is a solemnness that invokes beauty inside her ghastly figure. The hunter tigress within Yasmine has created this monster, the thoughts in her head that refused to show now do. At that moment, she morphs into a massive tiger.

The wild feline's roar almost deafens Dr. Adams who rushes to safety. Adams' hands clasp her ears in an appeal for rescue from the dramatic roar that rumbles the National Resource Center. A late-night robot scours the grounds outside, keeping for the plants and cleanliness of the courtyard. Even it stops to stare for a while at the open window that shakes and rattles violently. The custodian robot makes a few curious chirps and beeps to ascertain the damage.

Dr. Adams is backpedaling slowly to avoid being attacked by the monster Yasmine has become. It will be a while before Yasmine can control the primal impulses of her astral stones. Yasmine's tiger form stands atop the sturdy table where her paws are situated firmly atop the wood finish. The streaks of her coat are stunning, while sharp fangs are pointed from a striking jaw. Dr. Adams pulls a shotgun out of the rack.

"I will not stand for this Frankenstein operation anymore!" The click-clack of Dr. Adams' shotgun does not bother the tiger's vehement fierceness. "This, this is utter madness!" Dr. Adams screams.

"It is," Yasmine's mind telepathically speaks to Dr. Adams. "Though I would not call this utter madness, I would say it's miraculous! Don't you agree?"

Unexpecting, Yasmine's cognizance appears to speak through the glowing Carnelian crystal still embedded in her front left leg that glows brighter each time she speaks telepathic thoughts.

"How do I look?" Yasmine asks.

"Do you notice that?" Dr. Adams asks.

"The glow, it's pervasive isn't it?" The glow has a reddish tint to it.

Dr. Adams sees the copious glow brighten. A beam of light shines to the door ahead of them before turning to the ceiling above where it brightens the room after knocking out the chandelier's light from an electrical impulse.

"Yasmine! What's going on?" Dr. Adams runs to the door before ducking to avoid the onslaught of an orange laser beam emanating from that crystal.

Knocking Yasmine on her backside from the surge in energy, the light bursts through the ceiling, but doesn't cause any structural damage.

"It's just a glow," Yasmine struggles to say while standing on her two hind legs before knocking her head on a wooden post in the ceiling to leave a crumbled indention.

She is not alone. Others are experiencing the same transformation from high doses of radiation. At the LOTRY Community Center, leftover lettuce from the Hansen lawsuit has touched more hands than one. But both media personalities Clyde Van Dyke and Silas Betts are feeling the effects of a debilitating sickness gripping hold of their hearts' pulses as they beat erratically. Along a pier, Silas sits, dizzy from insomnia on a patch just above a sidewalk late into the night. Dropping loose change to the pavement while his head rings to a pervasive ding of chiming quarters, nickels, and dimes, it seems like time slows down for Silas who waits to discover which side the coins show heads and tails. Silas's cognizance is allowing him to predict things with accuracy. Silas's coins that lay on the pavement ahead glisten in his eyes like water in the small pond. Silas contemplates imminent death, though his heart attack is anything but when he grabs his chest. He is finally mutating from the high doses of radiation.

"Shit, ah!" he says.

On his stomach, the strain in his neck shows bulging veins where fins begin to take siege of his body. On his arms, gills are left from deep serrations in folds of skin where fins are webbing to the latissimus muscles holding his back. An astral stone crystallizes on the underside of his palm. There is no one around as metamorphosis goes on without a witness. The problem for Silas is that he has been touching the dreaded lettuce farmers and eateries implored them to trash, and the results are in. Looking down to the concrete path set only a few steps away, the late-night stars dim Silas's vision for the day, especially now that he is losing human perception.

Unfortunate victims like Silas are falling prey to the spectrum of quantum field energy that is claiming lives. Astral stones will continue to metastasize until the activity of light-ray energy is cleaned up. Those closest to Delphi Corp. are the greatest victims as they remain in Sector 10 of the zodiac. All the Milky Way is for their taking, and beyond. Luckily for them, only a few days are remaining until Capricorn is over.

"The water, water." Silas crawls with the strength left in his legs before they form into fins. Irritation in his chest is unreachable as his shirt tightens before ripping into shreds.

Now that he is close to water, he can feel the sustained pull of thirst from the pond. He is up next. Aquarius and Pisces are calling his name. Meanwhile, Silas's mind continues to cross its quantum threshold.

Before long, Silas's limbs begin to turn into fins. Silas has no one to call and the only hope left is water. Silas gasps with a final gulp before his lungs no longer work properly. Asphyxiation takes hold of him when he flops headfirst over the wooden dock. Silas's body gets caught by low laying boats along the dock, and not the water, but he manages to wiggle himself over the edge and submerge beneath the water.

The blue glow extends through the water and at the LOTRY Community Center simultaneously. The same lettuce he could not avoid is emitting a gamma radiated charge that excites the members who gather around to watch blue and red lettuce form inside bottles. Van Dyke was much too adamant about taking the lettuce from Dave's Diner, and the cost has finally revealed itself.

"What in the world?" a member says.

"Nah, homie, I wouldn't bother that if I were you."

The Grey Order's cronies are making plans for a final strike on life on Earth. Not only must they worry about the Heinemann, but bounty hunter Xavier Moth is poised to wreak havoc for humanity just the same. The only thing standing in their way are a few people with the power of astral stones who can stop them.

In the LOTRY center, the members gawking at the ivory bottle holding the radiating vegetation are floored when it disappears.

Curiosity gives one of the LOTRY center members the audacity to touch the table.

"Come on! Hey." He is berated by fellow members. "That's Van Dyke's creepy shit."

Too entrenched in curiosity, the appeal of a black stain on wooden panels is too difficult for him to avoid. "Awesome... Uh oh."

The LOTRY member quivers to violent impulses that put him in shock. As Silas morphs into a shark at the pier in the water, Van Dyke simultaneously mutates into a centaur from within a clothing store's dressing room. Back at the NRC, Dr. Adams and Yasmine are still entangled in conversation on how to proceed now that she is a tiger.

The LOTRY center dunce finally comes back to his senses when he rolls onto his back from the floor, but damage to his body and consciousness is already done. It isn't enough dosage to mutate like the others, but the damage is done.

"Yo dude, you alright? You good?" Another LOTRY brother clasps him at his shoulders, shaking him out of the trance. Dead eyes meet him before he passes out, again.

"Alright, we have to hide this shit... everyone out. Let's lock it up somewhere safe."

"Yeah, let's get out of here."

In a struggle between universes, those with the astral stones will need to unite their forces to compete with what's coming. From the ashes of Delphi Corp.'s mishaps, a new alliance is forming to make up for the mistakes.

🌌

Despite Clyde Van Dyke's surveillance, Delphi Corp. intern Ben has a friend at the LOTRY Community Center who has been making frequent stops at their video game gatherings. Christopher thinks about Ben's timid demeanor, and wonders if he's alright amid all the uproar that's been going on. The encryption device that Ben lost from club Amplify is left in a cupboard near the rotting lettuce. Chris wants to take it to him the first chance he gets when school's back in, whenever that is, but with Delphi Corp. devices disengaged it will be hard to get ahold of him. Plus, Ben was able to leave before all the radiation got to him, too.

Meanwhile, Van Dyke has been absent from his duties now that he's been exposed to the astral stones. The show goes on without him, and the mayhem transpiring can't seem to get off television screens. It is stories of mutating humans that can't be revealed to the public, though as it stands maybe it's best to reveal the true severity of the chaos. Across whatever media channels remain, the audiences imagine it as some sort of stunt gone awry.

Ben's internship partner from university, Chris, has decided to accept swapping positions with him at Delphi Corp. despite all the trouble. It is not likely they'll return to school amid this terror anyway. Chris has been staying at the LOTRY center for emotional support, waiting for his shift at Delphi Corp. HQ to start in the coming days. He believes in himself that he'll help them to get out of this mess. Like Van Dyke, Chris knows how to get ahold of Ben, especially now that Amplify is still jumping off at wee hours of the night in dark corridors of town. Some things are difficult to resist when sex, drugs, and outbreaks of violence subdue the angst, Chris could join the party. But his thoughts of partying are derailed when someone shouts from inside the community center.

"Hey everyone, look!"

The reporter on the screen moves from the scene of Delphi Corp.'s taped-off block to another description of breaking news.

Outside a name-brand clothing store, the reporter stands adjacent to a barricaded building "An apparent assailant, has pushed everyone out. I'm not sure if this is a joke or not, we're getting word that a 'glowing stallion'... a horse, has overtaken the dressing room."

The Community Center members are starting to huddle around in anticipation of a total meltdown ensuing worse than what has already occurred.

The reporter continues, "It also appears that red light is shining within the building, and we are just now getting reports that Van Dyke is missing, in his place a large horse is confined in the changing room. Well, what's left of it. The police, meanwhile, have blocked the doors."

🌌

Contacted by a burdened police chief, Bartram is confronted with another task. "We need the authorization to use the Delphi Corp. armored suits, sir. Check the news." The Chief says.

The quick message leaves Ellis frustrated. The threat of infrastructure collapse is giving reasons to hide the cloud software's problems from the public in case they can turn this around. But someone else will do that for him now that federal authorities have seized the CCS for their investigation. Wearing Delphi Corp.'s armored suits may only add to their problems.

Looking up the nearest active media channel, Bartram is surprised when it is Van Dyke's live podcast that finally appears. He is on the wrong end of a media outburst, and this time police are not accustomed to a battle where humans are the inferior species.

Xavier Moth has made it his mission to track humans through the alternate timeline. The 7-foot behemoth considers his prospects of using an autonomous Nano bug to search where the teleportation modules may have opened a portal from Pangaea to the human timeline. The darkness of source code appears near the transparent dome of the Yhemlen city, brightened by the midday sun to form a transparent portal. When Xavier Moth touches down in Pangea's open savannah, where he stands in the open brush, it seems cold compared to what is inside the dome. Xavier's facemask alerts him that the cosmic internet servers are close. Farther to an adjacent teleportation module, dark shade is obvious amid the sunshine. Xavier Moth has hit the jackpot.

Autonomous nanobots that can be remotely operated line Xavier Moth's outer vest pockets. One packet of these, and he will be able to fend off almost anything. He is careful not to disturb the few zombies that are near before starting to make a move toward the open portal network. Most of the contaminated volunteers are partially sentient, enough so that they are trying to work out how to enter the interior dome of Pangaea's city shield.

Xavier lets the nanobots loose like caged doves with a message to deliver. The granules of fine dust fly to the same open portal where the volunteers crossed universes from Delphi Corp. HQ.

In the orbiting space station, Grandmaster Frost stoops near a metallic bar meant for viewing the Earth, he dangles his large head closer to the clear window. "The prophecy is being fulfilled," he says to Ria. "New Overseers are being created. I can feel it, the astral stones." Frost catches the pain in his chest and turns to Ria, showing her the crystal embedded in his chest. It has been so long that the glisten has faded away.

"What is it?" Ria asks. He isn't alone, even she has them.

"These have been the Grey Order's greatest achievement, up to now." Frost closes the shirt's zipper along his chest. "I remember when the Yhemlen frightened us with their power to shapeshift, but we no longer need such impediments regularly manifesting. You must warn your father, quickly."

Ria knows that Gereon is close to having an angry outburst. There's a more daunting test coming their way. Now that Frost has received his transmission from the bounty Xavier, he's certain of their strike on Pangaea. The Grey Order's new planet-killer will mount a cacophony of Nano-sized bots to consume the planet. A grey goo that is indistinguishable from the liquid furnace of volcanic lava that can devour all matter in its path. Those same bugs will reproduce until the solar system, and all the galaxy is consumed.

Ria leaves Frost unattended, entering the image spectrometry room where she prepares to teleport herself back aboard the starship Nemesis. Her teleportation module readings direct photons of light to beam particles under her feet, atop the module. A familiar crust form disintegrates to the floor and vanishes. She recognizes the rapid pace of things changing, especially for Captain Gereon.

"Father!" Ria calls from the walkway in the center of the starship. Captain Gereon and Jasper are standing at the cockpit, readying the autopilot to disengage. "Brother, can you alert father of the danger he is putting us all in," Ria says.

"Not now, Ria, I've made my peace with the world. And you will come to know it too." Captain Gereon is not easily persuaded. His plan to conquer the Yhemlen requires furious rage.