Chapter 400: Tick Tock

Kelvin sighed as he looked across the room at the returning team—a team led by Jace, a human who showed him absolutely no respect. Once the rest of the team was through the teleporter, the leader came through. Jace stood with an indifferent, almost bored, look on his face. The man kept his head shaved for some reason, and wore nothing but a mid-tier set of leather armor—it was almost like he enjoyed being injured.

The armor had deep cuts that went all the way through in it. There was no way that whatever had caused the damage didn’t also cut deep into the man. And the man’s weapons of choice completely baffled Kelvin. He wielded two short, slightly curved blades that were actually wider on the end than the base. Not only was the fact that he used the weird weapons—when a pair of nice swords or even sabers would be more efficient—odd, but the fact that he kept them on his back at all times instead of in his storage bracelet was confusing. It was faster, after all, to draw a weapon from a storage device than to reach for it with it strapped to one’s back.

Kelvin shook his head at the weapon and continued examining the man. The tan that the young man had previously had already disappeared—whether that was because he hadn’t spent enough time in the sun, or his stats had grown enough for the sun to no longer affect his skin, Kelvin couldn’t say. He almost hoped that the young man hadn’t grown that fast, but by the looks of him and his team, he doubted that was the case. Kelvin couldn’t help but grumble at the thought of the man being one of his lieutenants.

“Lieutenant… Jace,” Kelvin spoke between clenched teeth. “Report.”

Jace yawned and his eyes flickered over to one of his team members—a large human wearing a thick set of steel armor. He was the blacksmith that Jace had chosen first out of his team members. Getting Jace’s nod, the man stepped forward.

“Sir!” The smith saluted. “I am pleased to report that the mission was successful.”

“You are?” Kelvin asked.

“Rodrick, sir,” the smith answered.

“Fine.” Kelvin’s eyes went from Jace, then back to the smith, and he sighed. “Give me your report.”

“Yes, sir!” The man saluted again. “The King Beasts of planet A-92 have all been slain, and the remaining beasts currently pose no threat to soldiers who are stationed there. Operations have resumed, and the planet is ready for further development.”

Kelvin nodded slowly. Even with his dislike of the man, he had to give Jace credit. The elite team that he formed worked extremely quickly. His unit had become somewhat of a strike team that would go in and clear out any high-level beasts that were hindering planetary development. This was the third mission that they’d completed in the short time since he’d formed the team.

Kelvin couldn’t figure out how or why, but all of Jace’s team members seemed to have the utmost respect for their commander. Still, Jace seemed to have quite the problem with authority, and Kelvin needed to work that out of the man. He thought that the missions he’d been sending him and his team on would be enough to humble the man, but he just came back even fiercer and stronger each time. In fact, Kelvin would say that it actually had the opposite effect on the bald man.

“Very good,” Kelvin replied to the smith. “In that case, you are all dismissed for the time being. Rest well and prepare. You will be receiving another mission soon.”

With the dismissal, all the members of Jace’s team turned to look at him instead of Kelvin, which struck a nerve. Jace gave them a nod of approval, then his team left. As Jace took a step forward to follow, Kelvin held out his hand to stop the man.

Jace’s team continued on, and when they were out of the room, Kelvin said, “I still need a word with you, Jace.”

Jace looked down at Kelvin’s hand, then back up into his eyes. “What?”

“You need to fix your attitude. It seems that it’s rubbing off on your team members, and the last thing we need is a team full of you. Fix it, or I’ll fix it for you. Your accomplishments from the tutorial won’t protect you forever.” Kelvin couldn’t help himself, and finally told the man what was what.

For a moment, Jace’s eyes flashed red, and an unrestrained aura of battle-lust leaked out and almost caused Kelvin to take a step backwards. Instead, he clenched his fists and stared the young man down—neither flinching. The aura disappeared almost as soon as it appeared and Jace snorted.

The young man stepped forward, beside Kelvin. Then, he placed his hand on Kelvin’s shoulder and in a whisper said, “Don’t take too long, Kelvin. I’m not a patient man.” Jace licked his lips and smiled, then removed his hand and took another step forward. As he left the room, Kelvin heard him speak again just before he disappeared. “Tick Tock.”

Kelvin was left standing in the teleporter room alone and so angry that he was shaking. At least that was what he told himself. Surely, he wasn’t scared of the new recruit that was rapidly increasing his strength. What kind of commander would he be if that were the case?

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With a sigh, Kelvin released his anger and unclenched his fists. It wasn’t the time to waste his efforts on the young, unruly man. Jace would learn his lesson soon enough. He and the others on the council had a meeting with Darvin soon, and it seemed that it was important—of course it was important. That man almost never called for a full council meeting. Perhaps he’d found out what was going on with the system.

In any case, Kelvin turned around and left the room. It was almost time for the meeting and he didn’t want to be late.

***

Darvin was floating back and forth—impatiently waiting for everyone to arrive so he could share what he had learned over the last year. At first, he couldn’t find anything to explain why the system was acting so weird, but as his search continued, he began to piece some things together.

However, there still weren’t any records matching what the system was currently doing—at least none that he’d gone over, and he’d gone over countless ones. But, he realized that just because the system had never acted this exact way, didn’t mean that it wouldn’t have if certain conditions were met. Now, he was anxious to let the council know his theory and get their opinions on the matter, because, if his theory was correct, they would need to do some preparing, and fast.

Soon enough, everyone that he’d called in for the meeting had arrived and were in their seats. It was only the second time in his long stay as the System Watcher that he’d called a mandatory meeting for all council members to attend—and it was over the same topic. This time, even Jakis, the six armed humanoid council member representing the Danari species, and Cuthos, a shark-like being representing the Zaahzu species, showed up. It would have been odd if they hadn’t, considering the punishments they received after missing the last mandatory meeting.

With everyone in their rightful seat, Darvin pulled up the hologram and expanded it for all to see. “As you saw before, and as you see now, the system has continued to expand rapidly in a singular direction ever since the one known as Derek Hunt disappeared into the void. However, if you look here,” the Malaxi zoomed in closer to the outermost limits of the system and pointed. “You will see that the system expansion moved in a strange manner before expanding its area, and has even somewhat slowed recently.”

“What do you believe this to mean?” Amelia, the nine feet tall, crimson-skinned Ascari, leaned forward to get a better look at the hologram and asked.

“That’s the thing,” Darvin said. “I’ve gone through records left by hundreds of my predecessors over the years, yet I cannot find mention of this ‘anomaly’ anywhere.”

“So you don’t know any more today than you knew at our last meeting?” Kelvin asked. “Why are we even here? I have a pain in my ass that I’m trying to figure out how to deal with—one that you won’t lift a finger to help me with, by the way—and you summon us to waste our time?”

“Silence!” Darvin half shouted at Kelvin. The human leader had gotten on his last nerve because of the young man from Earth. “I said I didn’t find mention of this specific anomaly. I did not say that I didn’t find other things.”

“So, what else did you find?” Holcom, the other Malaxi, and the one representing their species, asked.

“Before, Amelia had said that it seemed that the system was hunting, yes?” Darvin asked, and they all nodded. “I have found records of similar situations, but none where the system grew only in one direction. However, I found two reports where the system found…” Darvin paused for dramatic effect. “Another system.”

“What?” Almost everyone asked all at once. Some even jumped to their feet.

“That’s right,” Darvin said, his hands shaking. “From what I’ve gathered, there are other systems out there in the universe. I don’t know how they are connected, or if they are connected at all, but they are out there. The last mention of it was from a record kept by a System Watcher over 35,000 years ago.”

“What did it say?” Holcom asked with bright, glowing eyes.

“Nothing much,” Darvin sighed. “It said that our system bumped into another while expanding and issued emergency orders to attack the other system.”

“So they weren’t friendly?” the insectoid Xephos asked.

“No, it seems like they weren’t,” Darvin answered.

“What happen after the attack?”

“That’s just it,” Darvin said. “That’s where the record ends. There is nothing about winning or losing—in fact, after that, it seems like a new System Watcher was chosen.”

“So, you’re saying…” Kelvin asked. The human leader had regained his interest in the topic and didn’t seem to be worrying about that young Earthling anymore.

“Something happened to him,” Darvin replied. “He could have died, been stripped of his class, or a dozen other things. It happened so long ago, and no other records mentioned him. Either the next System Watcher in line wasn’t able to record it, or they didn’t even know about it. Our records go back millions of years, so, without a goal in mind, it’s not easy to find occurrences like this.”

“But you said that you found multiple records,” Amelia pointed out.

“And that is true,” Darvin answered. “Yet, each record of another system ends suddenly with no other records about it. It’s truly strange.”

“It truly is,” Holcom echoed. “So, you believe that we have another system in our midst?”

“I do,” Darvin replied. “It’s the only explanation I have been able to find.”

“And what is your reasoning for the even more erratic behavior displayed by the system recently?” Amelia asked.

“I think it has something to do with Derek Hunt. I believe he somehow ended up in proximity to another system, and our system was able to sense it and chase after it. The erratic behavior we’re seeing, I believe, has something to do with Mr. Hunt disappearing from our system’s detection for a time.”

“So you think that our system was moving toward him instead of the other system—that he is like a beacon to the other system, and that when he… disappeared, the system had to correct itself?” Holcom asked. “Do you believe our system is still using him, or has it changed?”

“I think that the reason it has slowed is that it’s no longer locked onto Derek Hunt, and that it is instead carefully moving forward now that there is no beacon. Perhaps he died, I do not know. It could also be that our system is drawing close to the other. Both reasons would explain the movement—especially the expansion of the search area.”

“So,” Kelvin leaned forward and licked his lips in an odd manner—Darvin had never seen him do that before. “What you’re saying is…”

“I think we should prepare our best for battle.”