The Other Side of Beyond, page 19
part #2 of Mitch Mythic Series
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ROBERT’S GUTS JUMPED up into his throat as he neared the blinding light at the end of the tunnel. Screaming in horror as he was drawn into a luminous spiral, his body extended to impossible lengths, stretched across the oblivion. Immeasurable pain ripped into every fibre of his being and he felt himself being torn apart. Before could comprehend was happen ing, he was writhing in pain on a flat, cold surface. The sound of laughter filled his ears and he opened his eyes to see the callous face of Commander Holrathu looking down upon him with cold indifference, lips sightly curled into a cruel grin.
“Enjoy your trip, dear Robert?” Holrathu said with a laugh.
“Where am I?” Robert asked as he rolled over onto his side. He quickly became aware of others standing behind the commander and they all seemed to be enjoying Robert’s painful predicament.
“Rise and face your Masters,” Holrathu said as he stepped back to reveal a large, circular chamber, stark and imposing. Several cloaked figures stood dispersed across a series of tiers which rose up in rings around an open space at the center of the room. Each figure clutched an elaborate weapon with an armored hand. Swords, axes and staffs dazzlingly decorated with ornate jewels and carvings, weapons of destruction sparkling in the light.
Kalis stepped out of the shadows to the right of Robert and grabbed him by the hair. She thrust him into the middle of the room. Stumbling forward, he fell to his knees and he heard more laughter as got back to his feet.
“Who is this wretch you bring before us, Holrathu?” a voice said from up above.
“Is this the fool who botched our plans on that miserable, wet planet you devoted so much of our time and effort to?” another voice asked.
“Yes, this pathetic waste of flesh is the one who failed us,” Commander Holrathu said as he stepped to the center of the room.
“Well, go on then, let’s have his guts spilled before our council. The Emperor has no time for failures,” a spiteful voice said.
“If it were up to me I would have torn him limb from limb, peeled his skin off of his flesh with my fingers, but it would appear that our Emperor, in his divine wisdom, has different plans for this pile of excrement,” Holrathu said as he looked down upon Robert with disdain.
“What use could the Emperor possibly have for this despicable waste of space?” said a voice from one of the upper tiers.
“An excellent question, Master Dubun,” Holrathu said as he looked up towards the speaker. “But who are we to question the Emperor? Humble servants such as you and I may only glimpse into the infinite wisdom our Emperor shares with the Empress. They alone possess the strength to harness the powers of the universe, the powers that wrought our world into existence. And it is to them we must look to for guidance in these troubled times. For have they not guided us thus far?”
“One cannot disagree with this rationale, Commander Holrathu,” said one the masters in the front row. “To them we must go.”
“All in favor of an audience with the emperor say: Aye,” Holrathu shouted out.
“Aye,” the masters responded in unison. Holrathu pounded the butt of his axe into the cold floor and silence reigned throughout the chamber. Robert looked about uneasy for a moment before he felt a jolt beneath his feet as the floor began to rise.
“On your knees, maggot,” Holrathu said and Kalis shoved Robert to the ground again. “Sink before the Emperor and thank him for his mercy. You must show him gratitude for saving your life. Once you are witness to his divine power you will understand your place within the universe.”
“Or you’ll be torn to bits,” Kalis said as she bowed her head. Robert could feel that they were rising at rapid rate. He looked up and saw a light burst in from above. Flinching, he covered his eyes as pain flashed through his skull.
The ceiling slowly dilated above them as the platform rose up towards the opening. Robert felt a chill around him as they were elevated further upward. Beyond the opening lay a dark sky littered with opaque gases and shining stars.
The ceiling dilated completely and the circular floor surrounded by the tiered rings passed through the opening with perfect precision. The masters on the tiers remained kneeling and Robert could feel that floor was still rising, a pedestal ascending towards the heavens.
He looked to his right and his jaw dropped as he glimpsed a billowing nebula, stars enshrouded in cosmic gases, the cradle of the universe. Feeling another jolt, he sensed that their journey had come to an end. He looked around in anticipation, his heart pounding in his chest .
Looming next to him, Robert could feel the presence of Commander Holrathu. His massive boot encased en armor caught Roberts eye. Mustn’t be invincible if he needs all that armor, Robert thought. But he didn’t have time to mull his chances against the imposing commander. A shock-wave of sound rippled over him and he had to cover his ears. He looked up and saw that one of the masters had stepped onto a platform which the pedestal had leveled against. On the platform stood an enormous metal disc with a series of ornate carvings etched into its surface. The cloaked master’s weapon of choice was an elaborately designed hammer. The head of the hammer seemed to be the size of a small tree, impossible dimensions, but the Master seemed to have no trouble wielding the weapon. He deftly pulled the hammer to his side and swung at the disc with ease and grace. The disc rang out again and Robert clutched his ears, hoping that they wouldn’t bleed.
He felt another lurch underneath him and he became acutely aware that he and the surface beneath him were moving away from the cloaked figures standing on the stone tiers.
“Rise my dear Robert and bow your head to your Emperor and Empress,” Commander Holrathu said as the distance between Robert and the masters grew. He looked over his shoulders in astonishment. Two enormous spheres of energy gyrated before him. Opaque and immense, the spheres revolved around each other in a fixed orbit. Their paths blurred as traces of light tailed behind each orb creating an illuminated trail. Standing up, he realized he was now the sole occupant of a flat disc set adrift from the large tiered pedestal.
“Behold, the strength and glory of the Emperor and his divine Empress. It is from these two forces we draw all of our power,” Holrathu said as his voice grew distant.
“You mean there isn’t an Emperor?” Robert asked in disbelief.
“Did you expect a pitiful old fool with a crown upon his head?” Holrathu said with a laugh. “Such figure heads are only useful to keep the slaves in line. The Masters have no time for such nonsense. Power is the only thing worth worshipping in this universe and our Emperor is chock full of that.”
“What is this thing?” Robert said. He felt a tingle of panic ripple up his spine as the gap between he and the masters widened at an alarming rate.
“An inconceivable phenomenon, or rather an anomaly that should not exist. An intelligence unlike anything in the universe,” Holrathu said.
Above Robert appeared an opaque screen similar to an inReal display. He saw an image of a planet’s surface. A massive circular device hovered above its surface. “Long ago, the ancestors of the masters made a great discovery. And this discovery led to all manner of experimentation. As you are well aware, we, the Masters, possess great and powerful technology. This technology harness’s matter and energy undetectable by the crude senses of organic beings. Before the Masters came into existence, war ravaged our network and petty squabbles between inferior beings caused a great deal of disharmony. A great work was undertaken to regain control of the network. But it was comprised by a weak leader. An accident led to a malfunction.”
Robert watched as the circular machine began to spin and draw energy away from the planet. The energy overloaded the device and its rotations accelerated. A massive vortex appeared beyond the machine. “The power we attempted to harness was too strong for own devices and our leader at the time vacillated as the situation spun out of control. When things began to escalate, I relieved him of his command.”
The vortex grew in size and intensity and everything within its grasp was drawn into the dark maw at its center. “With no escape we were drawn into the void, lost into a wormhole. But we emerged here, at the feet of this phenomenon. The energy of darkness and light locked in an eternal dance. It is from this source that we draw our power. And now you, dear Robert, will face your ultimate judgement. The Emperor and the Empress have been waiting for you. You owe them a tribute for your failures,” Commander Holrathu said as he seized his ax with both hands and swung out at the disc which Robert stood upon. He leapt back and cowered away from the blow, but he was knocked off of his feet as the blade of Holrathu’s axe shattered the disc, shards of stone spiraling out into the ether.
Robert felt his heart skip a beat as he fell backwards off of the crumbling disc. Spinning around as he fell, his guts jumped up into his throat. The depths of the universe stared back at him as he tried to regain his balance. But there was no balance to regain. He didn’t fall. He was floating in open space and he could feel himself drifting further away from the hooded figures standing on their tiers behind Commander Holrathu, weapons gleaming in the star shine.
Robert felt himself accelerating and he managed to turn himself around only to come face to face with the revolving spheres. He tried to struggle against the gravitational forces which were drawing him towards the binary mass, but his efforts were futile. He had entered the orbit of the anomaly and he was now at its mercy. Each rotation of the spheres drew him in closer and he was overtaken by the immensity of the phenomenon before him. The larger sphere was a bright orange and the smaller sphere was pale blue. Each sphere cast off a tail of energy that blended with the other sphere in an infinite, swirling dance. The orange and blue colors mixed together creating a circular tube with a purple hue as the orange and blue mixed together.
Robert was certain he would be smashed by one of the spheres at any moment as he drew nearer. But the immense size of the anomaly was revealed to him as he came closer. He felt like a speck of dust against a planets surface as he beheld the majesty of the Emperor and the Empress. A wave of awe and understanding flashed over him and he became aware of the fact that he was rising up above the rotating spheres at a phenomenal rate. It was impossible to tell how fast he was traveling, but he had the feeling he was somehow moving at an interstellar rate, a galactic velocity. Looking back over his shoulder, he could not make out the pedestal from which he had begun his journey, impossible distances spanning the void.
The opportunity to enjoy the view passed in a fleeting moment and he felt the gravitational pull drawing him towards the gyrating spheres. He had ceased struggling. Any attempts to escape were hopeless and vain. A stoic resolve came over him and he awaited what fate would bring him. Robert had never had much time for emotions and he wasn’t about to let his feelings cloud his judgement now.
He entered what appeared to be a dust cloud surrounding the spinning spheres. Illuminated particles swirled around him, light tracing in their wake. He wasn’t the only thing being drawn in by the spheres. The forces of nature aren’t particularly selective. Other Chunks of cosmic debris accompanied him on his journey. It was mainly bits of rock, but he saw things that appeared to have been crafted by some type of intelligence as well, remnants of forgotten empires and misplaced footwear.
Through the debris field he could see he was about to crest the top the spheres orbit. Beyond the purple tube, at the center of their endless dance, lay a dark maw, a gaping, merciless, mouth of destruction. Robert gulped as he saw what lay ahead. A swirl of light ringed the blackness and felt his body distorting as he neared the edge. Beneath him the spheres continued to spin against each other creating a vortex of swirling matter spiraling down into the blackness at the center of the gyrating anomaly. He had now accelerated past any comprehensible speed and he crested the path of the spheres in what seemed like a few seconds. The pathway down towards the sucking blackness began in full after he passed over the crest of the rotating orbs and he could see the route ahead of him as the debris field entered the vortex, spiraling arms of galactic waste entering into the void.
He could see the spheres behind him now, but their rotation seemed to have slowed to a standstill. He quickly realized the spheres hadn’t slowed, but rather his velocity had now matched the rate of the spinning orbs, joining in on the cosmic dance.
His descent into the pit of darkness began in full as he crossed below the apex of the spheres. His trajectory dipped considerably and he felt his guts rise up in his chest again as he entered into the black maw. The crush of the oblivion enveloped him as all the matter around him was pulled together, plummeting further into the gaping hole. Vision distorting, he could no longer comprehend his form as he and his companions on the voyage, a smorgasbord of intergalactic debris, compacted upon each on their final descent into the awaiting orifice of destruction.
He felt the infinite weight of the universe swelling around him as the energy present in the spinning spheres compressed against the very framework of his being, his mind and soul squashed by immeasurable cosmic forces.
He could no longer gauge any sense of self, blending into the debris field. Sound, sight and touch stripped away by the oblivion. Emptiness overcame him as he settled into the vacuum.
A dark and malicious heart must lay at the center of the universe, a hubris of hatred and anger taking joy in torturing it’s woeful subjects. To be torn asunder by forces of nature and abandoned in the void, a husk of identity left to ponder its very existence. Such an act could only be the work of some type of cold malevolence, he wondered to what remained of himself.
Death would be a welcome reprieve from this emptiness. If he were dead then he wouldn’t be forced to wonder what had become of himself, cast off into an inescapable endlessness. To shut the door on the final chapter of this doomed existence would, at the least, bring at all to close. But how was he to pull the plug if he couldn’t find the cord? He couldn’t tell where his existence ended and the blackness began. He was aware that he could comprehend, but what was it that he was comprehending here in this horrible void? Having lost all sense of anything, nothing at all could be perceived. His self, his memories, his mind were all gone. Synapses were needed for brain waves to circulate and form thoughts, but if all physical form was lost then what were these attempts to recognize that which wasn’t there.
He had become nothing and nothing had become him. Beyond the clutches of the universe he had now broken free of any bonds that tied him to anything, but what was this weight holding him down? This desire to be, to remember, to know and understand when nothing needed to be understood. Alone in the emptiness he needed nothing and nothing was heaped upon him, a billowing abundance of nothing stretching into infinity.
Nothing had no need for time and he hung there in the nothing while universes came and went in instances of infinity for all he knew. Existence had ceased to be, yet here he was in the emptiness, pondering that which could not be pondered. But wonder he did all the same. If everything had ceased to be then how was it possible that he had not? How had he, among all things, managed to overcome the odds and become the sole occupant of the emptiness?
But then, out of the darkness came a lone light. A distant speck there on what may have been a horizon. A particle, a lone chunk of the debris, accompanying him on his descent into emptiness. This simple chunk, alone in the nothing gravitated towards him, drawn into his orbit. He must have some type of mass in the emptiness in order to attract this tiny traveler. It drew towards him at a phenomenal speed and as it neared he saw others on the horizon. They came at him slowly at first and then in droves. Waves of illuminated particles clambering out of infinity, drawn towards the mass at the center of the nothingness. A universe reborn. The destruction full and final completed by the forces which draw all things together and tear them apart. Even in this nothing the laws of attraction still applied.
Robert watched in awe as a cloud of particles swirled around him, a nebula of whirling debris, radiating from within. Galaxies unto themselves, endlessly revolving, condensing and changing form. He felt himself at the center of this gyrating maelstrom and he could feel himself drawing it all in towards the center of his emptiness. Physical from returning, an outline at first, the hint of a limb, a torso. The revolutions began to accelerate and the particles were drawn closer to the center, filling the outline of his form. A skeletal structure emerged followed by a network of neurons, electric pulses pumping through fresh wires. Flesh wrought against the bone, particles condensed together by gravity’s inescapable grasp.
Robert watched in amazement as his existence was reforged before him. His very self stitched together by the same forces which had torn him apart. After his form coalesced, the armor thrust upon him by Holrathu and Kalis reformed against his flesh. He could sense the energy seething under its surface, two opposing forces brought together in impossible circumstances pushing against each other. The dark matter pushing endlessly against the light, an alloy forged at the heart of the universe.
He could feel the energy emitting from his form, borne from the combination of light and dark matter. He reached out with his arm, extending it across the universe. Doing the same with his opposite limb, he could feel himself drawing the universe in towards himself, willing it into existence. He spun himself around and kicked out with his legs, energy pulsing through his body, drawing it in from the void.
