Might's Odyssey (The Event Book 2) (10 page)

The hover cycle slowly stopped about a foot from the edge of the crater. Might got off it slowly and stepped towards the edge. The bottom was invisible, shielded from view by the thick plumes of black smoke coming from inside.

“You have to go down.”

So Eleyon speaks again. What was down there?  Wasn’t the plan to get to Rikley’s?

“This is the dark sector__ Rikley’s is beneath you.”

This time it was the onboard computer on the hover cycle that spoke. A frown roughened Might’s brow at the computer’s voice. It was just his luck that Rikley’s happened to be domiciled at the bottom of a smoking crater.

The steam from the crater was already misting up the glass of his helmet. He wiped the glass with his glove to clear it before leaping down.

It occurred to him as he plummeted that what he was doing was rather stupid. He did not know how far down the crater went and it was very possible that there was lava or fire below. Well it was too late now.

The smoke billowing around him started to clear and he found himself falling at breakneck speeds towards a red colored rock. He hit the ground hard with a loud thump, shaking everywhere and digging a five-foot hole in the rock.

The ground had deep fissures cut into it. Red-hot lava flowed through the fissures, bubbling with intense heat. He felt the threads in his hazmat suit tighten as it turned to armor a few seconds later.

A head’s up display appeared on the glass of his helmet. It showed the layout of the ground around him and the temperature reading. It was almost a hundred and fifty degrees centigrade. The heat melting the ice probably caused the steam and smoke. However, since he was no expert he could not be sure.

Ahead, against the side of the crater was something that did not belong here. It was a door, a wide steel door. He walked towards it still frowning. Taking a deep breath, he tried the handle. It did not budge.

The funny thing was, the door wasn’t hot. It was quite cold. In light of the immense heat around, it was surprising it was cold. Heat of this kind should have made the door red-hot. However, according to the readings in his helmet, it was borderline frozen. 

Taking a firm stance, he drove a hard right into it. The metal crumpled like paper revealing a dark passage beyond it. A light on the helmet of his suit came on lighting the passageway.

Ten steps away from what remained of the door, was an elevator. Might walked forward scanning the darkness around him for threats. He saw nothing. Stopping, he turned around in a half circle to get his bearing.

A railing lay to this right. He walked towards it and peered down its side. There was another drop. How far down this went was what he could not tell. The light from his helmet did not reach the bottom.

His eyes once again drifted to the elevator. There was a red and green button on the right side of this elevator. He walked to it and pressed the green button. Nothing happened.

He sighed. It was too much to hope for.

“You have to jump__”

“What will I see down there.”

There was a pause.

“That is for you to find out.”

Eleyon’s voice sounded impatient. He wondered why.

Placing his hand on the edge of the railing, he leaped over, plummeted about sixty feet before hitting the ground hard shaking everything around him.

A faint light lit up the darkness revealing a massive control hub with huge computers and other sophisticated instruments. Like on the other base where he had discovered a green light blinking from General Holdstatt message, there was a green light blinking on the largest computer to his right.

He walked forward his eyes fixed on the green light. Was it another message? Well there was only one way to find out. Reaching it, he searched for a button he could press, but saw none.

Leaning closer, he discovered there were some words written underneath it. These words said communication line open. A frown hardened his face. Communication line open? What did that mean?

A couple of switches lay to his right, just above the massive screen. He could just make the words out. It said power input. His frown grew harder. Maybe the thing had no power.

Standing on tiptoe, he reached up and turned the switches on one after the other. The light continued to blink but the screen did not come on.

Twirling around in a half circle, the light from his helmet swept over the disheveled room. Some parts of the roof had caved in filling most of the room with hard packed dirt. To his right was a door sealed and bolted tight.

“Go to it__”

He nodded and started towards it. Sliding the bolt aside, he turned the door’s handle, surprised that it opened. A cloud of dust filtered out. Waving his large hands to clear it, he entered the room.

The room was wide and spacious, completely covered in dust. A large socket lay to his right and lying on the floor directly beneath it was a massive jumper cable. He took a good look at the mouth of the cable. It looked as if it would fit into the socket on the wall.

Could it really be that simple? Walking forward, he picked up the cable and slid its mouth into the socket. It fitted perfectly, but nothing happened.

Leaning closer to the socket to examine it, he saw that there was a switch on top of it. Taking a deep breath, he turned the socket on. He leapt back startled as several lights came on in a flash. Half a dozen light bulbs shattered instantly. The lights in the outer room however remained on. In addition, there was a loud humming sound coming from the outer room.

He turned walking back into the outer room. The massive computer came on, showing its welcome display. Ten seconds later the words display message appeared.

He walked towards it staring in confusion at the legion of buttons on the keyboard in front of the monitor. The enter button seemed to reel him in. He reached forward and pressed it.

There was a screech followed by a long humming sound and then__

“This is Snagnahoot! Is anyone receiving me? Please respond__”

What in the world was a Snagnahoot? He asked himself as he stared at the computer as if it was a particularly nasty insect. There was something off about the voice. It sounded slurred and mechanical. As if he wasn’t listening to a human being, but some sort of robotic entity.

He crouched down in front of the computer, his face now level with the screen. How did one operate the damn thing? Did he just speak to it? He paused for a few seconds. He made his decision quickly, after all what did he have to lose.

“Hello__ my name is Might.”

There was a pause and then__

“Thank the ethos__ my people and I feared the worst. Where is General Holdstatt? Does he still live? I need to speak to whoever is in charge.”

“You and your people?” Might asked looking puzzled.

“Might there is no time__ put Holdstatt on the line or whoever is in charge?”

“General Holdstatt is dead. There is no one else here but me__ the ether-tome killed everyone.”

A long pause followed his words.

“How did you survive Might?”

“I wasn’t here when the disaster occurred. This is centuries after. Nephilim is now a deserted wasteland with only four cities filled with pockets of survival.”

“Nephilim? What is Nephilim?”

“Nephilim is this world___” Might barked irritated. “That is what the people here call it.”

“Might that is not Nephilim. The world you are on is called earth__”

Might stiffened shocked. The word earth mentioned again? It was getting tiresome hearing something and not knowing what it meant.

“The people here call it Nephilim__”

“I am not saying I understand what is going on Might__ but believe me when I tell you that is earth.”

Might’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“The way you talk, it’s almost as if you are not resident on earth or Nephilim__ whatever this world is. Who are you really Snagnahoot? And what sort of game are you playing?”

“This is no game Might__ and yes you correctly deduced that I am not on your world. Where I am speaking to you from is more than six hundred million, maybe even hundreds of billion light years away from earth.”

A bubble of laughter burst from Might’s lips. Who did the fool think he was deceiving?

“Why do you laugh and jest?”
Snagnahoot asked sounding insulted.
“There is nothing humorous about what is happening and what I am telling you.”

“Do you take me for a fool Snagnahoot? What game are you trying to play? Where on Nephilim are you? And why are you trying to convince me that Nephilim is earth and you are not on it? Or are you in league with the ether-tome?”

Snagnahoot’s voice when he spoke was very cold.

“That my dear Might is highly insulting. If you were close to me, I would demand we settle this in combat. No one sullies my word and accuses me of being a liar, so watch it. Now shut up and listen to what I have to tell you because there is no time. The fate of both of our worlds could well depend on it.

“I am from a planet or world if you prefer, called Exilron One Prime. Location, three hundred million light years from the boundaries of the Kaiper belt. I know none of these terms make sense to you but bear with me. My people and I are called Exilrons. Many years ago, we sought to expand our reach through the solar system searching for other worlds, which might have life on them.

“One of our probes and star crafts piloted by biomechanical clones we call extracts ran into a solar storm on the boundaries of your galaxy and lost their navigational systems. They drifted aimlessly for months losing more of the star crafts vital systems until they crashed in New Mexico.

“That marked the beginning of contact between your world and my own. Your leaders and ours kept in touch for eons helped in part by our development of a prototype communication technology that allowed us to send messages across vast distances of space in real time distorting the laws of time and physics. When it became apparent that we meant your people no harm, they warmed up to us. Being superior in the area of science and technology, we offered earth’s scientists blueprints for the improvements of their military, internet and health technology to mention but a few key areas.

“When the ether-tome erupted from the ether and every attempt by your world’s governments to repress its incursion failed, we were contacted. We helped your scientists develop the tech Aziomle and zebra one used to build the biosphere. In addition, they consulted us on the production of tachyon missile technology, the hover cycles; digi-maps and eventually Darwin; some of which am sure are still working till now. The life span of all existing technology built by my people is one thousand years. We don’t throw away tech in Exilron, we only recycle, because it hardly ever stops working. Sorry I digress, let me continue____

“Unknown to all but the top brass of Aziomle, Aziomle with consulting services provided by my people, started to build the defense system designated Darwin almost thirty years before the ether-tome incident happened.

“Holdstatt wanted weapons that could destroy the enemy especially after nuclear weapons proved ineffective. Seven months after the ether-tome’s explosion from the ether, we lost contact with your world. We were of the opinion that maybe the earth had been destroyed. We sent more probes that never returned. They did however send information back to us that the earth still lived but we never heard from anyone again until now.

“Seventy five years passed. Seventy-five years in our world is almost three centuries in yours. The ether-tome erupted on our own world too. We did all to stop it, but it prevailed turning Exilron to a wasteland like it did earth. I am the last surviving general in our army.

“In the years of our expansion through the vast depths of space, we discovered almost three dozen other planets with life on them, spread across billions and billions of galaxies all of whom I am in contact with. According to them, a version of the ether-tome darkness also erupted on their worlds rendering it a wasteland as it did with earth and Exilron one prime. What happened on your planet was not a random event.

“Our research leads us to believe that there is a greater destruction approaching. Planets, moons are going out of sync. Many are for some strange reason spinning out of their orbits. There have been terrible collisions, indescribable destructions, star explosions occurring throughout the length and breath of deep space. Our greatest scientists postulate that the entire solar system might be collapsing on itself. What some of your scientists have called the big crunch.

“Might a greater threat looms, and it is infinitely larger than anything brought by the ether-tome. It approaches swiftly. The other alien races and my own have decided we need to form a coalition. We have to combine our resources to repel this threat.

“To do this however we need to carry out tests and research on the planet where the ether-tome first appeared. This is to understand what this new destruction is so we can better repel it. The two occurrences are not unconnected. The ether-tome was the first phase. We believe the second phase has the capability to wipe out all life in the cosmos. Our star crafts, teleportation pods, light travel portals have all been destroyed by the ether-tome so we cannot come and do the tests ourselves. We need someone on earth to carry out the tests for us. The findings will_________”

There was a screech followed by a series of what sounded like loud explosions and eerie screams before the connection went dead. Might cried hello almost two dozen times but got no response. Giving up, he turned and headed back into the inner room.

Walking into the center of the room, he stopped looking around slowly, his mind racing in a dozen different directions trying to process all Snagnahoot had told him.  

So something more horrid than the event was coming this way. That meant he had to escape from Nephilim as quickly as possible. There was nothing else for it.

His eyes quickly swept over the room he was in. Seeing nothing of interest, he started back to the outer room. He noticed a ladder leading up to the elevator and floor above when he was searching for a way to get the computer on.

That was probably going to be his way out. He could see no other way to exit this place. Eleyon spoke as soon as he stepped into the outer room.

“Go back to the room you found the jumper cable__”
Might paused for the briefest of seconds before he started back to the room. Reaching it, his eyes scanned his surroundings searching for anything that would indicate an opening to another room.

“Punch the wall to your right.”

He made for the wall on his right. Leaning backwards, he drove a hard blow into the wall. There was a clang and the wall came away in a shower of dirt and plaster.

Beyond the wall, lay what looked like a sort of panic room. A man’s skeleton lay on the floor on the tattered remains of a sleeping bag. His face grew grim when he spotted the skeleton.

An iron box lay to the left. It was big, about three feet in height and almost five feet in width. It was locked, sealed by a big rusty padlock.

The padlock crumbled in his hand as soon as he touched it. Raising the top of the box up, he looked down into its hollow depths anxiously.

Inside it was a rectangular shaped card with a tiny red button in its center. Frowning he picked up the card, dusted it off, holding it away from his face when it began to glow.

The red button blinked intermittently without stopping. With his frown deepening, he raised his thumb leaving it hovering over the red button. Taking a deep breath, he pressed it.

The card vibrated three times and the light coming from the red button turned white and beamed upwards forming a holographic image. The image formed a familiar face. It was General Holdstatt and this time he looked strong and refreshed. Something told Might that this had been recorded long before the incident of the ether-tome.

“I am General Holdstatt, this is the first keycard to the prototype defense system designated Darwin___”

The General’s words fizzled out and the image vanished. Might was on the verge of lowering it when more light burst out of the red button and a series of coordinates appeared, hovering in mid air. He memorized it quickly, the light fizzled out as soon as he was done and the glow of the card vanished.

“Get top side__”

He nodded and started for the outer room slipping the keycard into a cavernous pocket that sealed itself, becoming armored immediately his hand withdrew from it.