Barbas didn’t speak much to me during this time, preoccupied with the intricacies of his project, but I didn’t mind. During our “vacation”, we’d become comfortable with each other, and with companionable silence, sometimes spending hours reading different books at opposite ends of the cabin’s wide porch, content to simply be near each other. The niggling thought that all of that was illusion didn’t seem relevant to the point. We worked all day, Barbas toiling in the machine mind of the Fabricator and its growing skyscraper child, even as I walked the perimeter of planned hurricane eye, setting sensor stakes and static manipulators into the ice. I listened to an audiobook with half an ear as I worked, my brain caught up in the repeated motion and the woes of Edmond Dantes.
It wasn’t until I drove the last of the sensor stakes into the ice that I realized that something had changed. I couldn’t have told you exactly what it was- perhaps something about the quality of the light, perhaps a shift in the tone of the wind’s perpetual whine against my suit- but I knew something was wrong. “‘Bas?”
"Yes, Joanna," he responded, his tone distant with concentration.
“Is there a storm coming?”
Barbas made a sound that was halfway between a startled grunt and a little yelp. “Where the hell did that come from? Yes, there’s a storm coming fast, a big one, less than one-hundred fifty clicks from your position!” He sounded both frustrated and confused. “I was tracking all of the nearby storm cells, there shouldn’t be one near enough to threaten you- I don’t know where the hell that thing-”
“Barbas!” I snapped, interrupting him. “I’m exposed here. Can we start up the Engine yet?”
"Not quite," he hissed, clearly stressed. " I need you to make manual adjustments to the projection arrays of at least half of the spikes you set." He swore. "I meant to run some stress test simulations before we actually used this fucking thing! If our storm collapses, the whole damn tower could come down, and I don't know if we'd have enough of the rarer elements left to rebuild it without mining for them!"
I felt myself grinning. This had always been how I'd reacted to crisis. When I was a kid, and the war had come too close to wherever I'd been living at the time, the sound of falling bombs or passing bullets had always brought to my brain an icy calm and a maniac's certainty that nothing could happen to me. So even as the fear flooded my brain, fear of dying, fear of being flensed down to a smear on the ice by the incoming storm, the terror froze over into hard, obdurate certainty. I was Joanna Fucking Angeles, and I wasn't going to be killed by some two-bit asshole moon in the back end of some no-name star system. "Well, ‘Bas," I cackled. "I guess we're stress-testing the old fashioned way. Give me the nav points for the bad stakes on my HUD, and I'll run. Let's see what this armor can do!"
Within moments an array orange arrows popped up in my field of vision, hovering in a gradually curving line over the sites where I'd placed the perimeter of stakes. I leaned forward and ran, speeding across the terrain in great, bounding strides. It was a strange sensation since I was used to being less than two meters tall, strange to eat up the distance with the legs of a nine-foot-tall armored titan. I was thankful for it, nonetheless, and before long I was at the first of the series static manipulators I had to readjust. Barbas projected instructions into my field of vision, one at a time, and I worked quickly, using the array of micromanipulators fitted into the index finger and thumb of my suits left gauntlet. The adjustment work seemed to take a minor epoch, and all the while the howling wind became louder, more insistent. We didn't have much time.
"It's good! Go!" Barbas snapped, and I jumped to my feet immediately, taking a short skipping step to avoid the machine I'd just recalibrated. I ran to the next one and repeated the process, which seemed to go more quickly, then I stood and ran to the next, and the next, and the next, determinedly ignoring the environmental hazard warnings that had begun to flash to the far left of my HUD. I worked this way for what must have only been fifteen minutes. It felt like an eternity, each step is taken before a darker, angrier sky, each hurried repair job punctuated by a little beep to let me know that the temperature had dropped another fifteen degrees Celsius. And then, I was at the final stake, and I found myself slowed by a growing wind, every movement hindered by a gathering force that pushed and shoved and tugged at me, making my actions broad and sloppy. I was forced to restart that calibration twice before I finally managed to get it right, shifting the instruments into the right configuration before snapping shut the protective cowling. I'd done it. I breathed out a sigh of satisfaction and relief, straightening up, and froze. I could no longer make out the horizon. Instead, rushing toward me on the teeth of the shrieking wind was a storm like nothing I'd ever seen before.
The storm was piled hundreds of meters into the sky, in a towering, broad pillar of bulbous, seething black clouds, lit from within by a nearly continuous strobe of luminescent green. Hissing sheets of lime-tinted lightning blasted the ice beneath its towering bulk, and with every flash, I saw boulder-sized chunks of ice flung high into the air. It hurtled toward me with a ground-shaking, perpetual roar of cascading thunder, and for a moment I just stood there, transfixed, my body paralyzed, not by fear, but by overwhelming awe at the spectacle of incoming doom. Barbas was screaming something in my ear, but I didn’t hear him. I just couldn’t process the scale of the thing I was seeing. I doubted very much that our machine, grand as it was, could possibly create something to rival this thing.
“JOANNA.” Barbas’ voice boomed directly into my skull, actually setting my ears to ringing by some kind of subconscious reflex. I snapped out of my trance. I didn’t know how long I’d been standing there, but the vast, alien stormwall was approaching, carrying a cloud of flesh-shredding ice and debris in its wake. I needed to get to a shelter or I would die, armor or no. I opened my mouth to reply to Barbas, but something out there, toward the incoming storm, caught my eye. I turned back out toward the onrushing darkness, and I saw something impossible.
Someone was walking toward me from beneath the storm, her pace unhurried, her movements unconcerned, her body utterly naked to the wind and the cold. She seemed unaffected by the temperatures, which should have had her skin freezing solid within seconds. She looked human, after a fashion- with two legs, two arms, a symmetrical head with two eyes- and she was even beautiful, in the same way, a long distance runner or a gymnast would be. She was all slim lines and understated but perfect curves, and she moved with the sure-footed grace of a dancer. Her skin was very nearly translucent, as was her hair, and both refracted the bright streaks of lightning behind her into a prismatic aura of other-worldly green. Her canted eyes were dark, all the way through, and at this distance, I couldn't tell what was the iris, and what was the pupil. The storm was coming, and I needed to get to shelter, but this…
“Barbas,” I whispered into my helmet mic, unsure why I felt the need to lower my voice. “Are you seeing this? Is she real?”
"I don't know," he said, his voice tinged with anxiety. "I don't know what that is. She's there, I can see her, you can see her, but she's not registering on any of our sensors." He seemed to gather himself because his voice became much steadier as he continued, "But if you stay out here any longer, you're going to die. I have to bring up our storm if we're to survive this, and our storm wall will kill you just as dead as that one in front of you. It's going to hit us in just over a minute."
I raised a hand toward the woman walking out of the storm. She mirrored my gesture. I smiled, forgetting that it was unlikely that she could make out my expression through my armor's faceplate. I took a hesitant step forward, hand outstretched toward the strange figure. Again, she mirrored me, one hand reaching forward toward me- and then, without a moment's warning, the woman lunged at me, fast as a viper. I took a bounding step back, opening up a couple meters of space between us, and then watched with mingled astonishment and fear as the woman turned her missed strike into a spinning motion and slammed her fist down into the hard glacial surfa
ce beneath us. Before my eyes, a glittering, crystalline layer of ice spiraled up her planted right arm, crossing her shoulders and surging down over her chest toward her hips. The ice was so deep a blue as to be almost black, and as it grew, it segmented, changing from a rigid crust into a flexible set of armor, not unlike my own. A spiked helm grew up around the expressionless, heart-shaped face, quickly followed by a grotesque mask that reminded me forcibly of the old Japanese legends of the Oni demons. The frozen features scowled in the nightmare face, and only the woman's eyes could be seen, deeper pools of shadow than even her armor. The warrior stood, and from the ground as if it had been hidden there specifically for her use, there rose a spear, made of the same black ice as her armor. It looked like it had been ripped out of the coldest, darkest nightmare, so dark that it seemed to devour the flashbulb brilliance of the onrushing storm. The armored warrior spoke, and despite the oncoming tempest, I could hear the unfamiliar language perfectly, as if we were standing in a silent room. Her words echoed on the rushing wind and seemed to grow, and before I knew it, we were engulfed in the storm wall.
Barbas was yelling to me, bypassing the illusion of the radio, directly into my mind, but I couldn’t stop to listen. Everything was happening too fast, a confusion of movement frozen into random still frames by the teeth-rattling explosions of lightning strikes all around the ice-bound warrior woman and me. FLASH BOOM! I was barely dodging aside from a long thrust of her spear, sure somehow that even my armor would do little to stop the point of that cold black spear. Another flurry of movement and then FLASH BOOM! We were close together for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes from an almost intimate distance as I seized the edge of her frozen pauldron and slammed my fist down toward her armored skull. FLASH BOOM! This time, the thunderstroke was close, very close, and all sound turned to a monotone ringing in my skull as my opponent and I were hurled apart in a shower of sparks and shards of ice. The sudden silence gave me the chance to focus on Barbas' words for a moment, and then they blasted into my thoughts, nuclear-hot and clear as flash-grenade afterimages in my brain.
“JOANNA!
RUN!”
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Glossary
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Alec: Member of the Organization, also called the Mist. Using his superb hacking skills, he makes sure to get out of every situation unharmed.
Alyce: a 300-years old Phadh which translates at around the age of 21 in human years. A young adult still searching for her place in the Phadh ecosystem, Alyce is vastly interested in politics and it’s thinking of taking over her father’s place in the Phadh hierarchy sometime in the future.
Android: anthropomorphic robots that exist solely to assist and obey humans. However, most Chroniclers use a custom build off those androids with advanced artificial intelligence capabilities and endless catalogs of information called K.G.A, or else, Known Galaxy Archives.
Arlen: Member of the Organization, also known as Nebula. Being deaf gives him a superb ability to hide his presence, making him a gifted assassin the likes that the Organization has never seen.
Asimov's Laws: A set of Three Robotic Laws introduced by the great writer Isaac Asimov. The rules state that:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law
Every Android, assistant and generally any artificial intelligence supported system follows those three laws.
Blank Spot: The outcome of the last Intergalactic War was a “spot” in the Known Universe Map that no one could access or populate. It has come to be known as the Blank Spot.
Bryp (Rank 5 Species): The last ranked species of the Known Galaxy Alliance, the Bryp are human-like creatures that are living under a collective hive hierarchy where everyone’s opinion matters. They’re are stuck in the Rank 5 of the Alliance for many decades since it’s exponentially difficult for the Bryp to make a decision or change their set ways.
Caso: An underground, human settlement on Xioria. Colonized in the early days of the Space Boom, Caso is also one of the most neglected and overpopulated settlements in the galaxy, making it a famous location for thugs and thieves to hide.
Chronicler: After Humanity’s Space Boom, the need for a broader definition including historians, archaeologists, and the ancient chroniclers arose. Nowadays, Chronicler is some part of all the above sciences, but mostly centering around the advancement of Humanity’s Expanded Empire of the Known Galaxy through uncovering ancient alien relics.
Chroniclers are divided into many different majors, almost always falling under one of three bigger departments. The Magnum Problema, The Sentibus in Libro, and The Nova Inventio. Magnum Problema is by far the most underappreciated since most humans tend to look for easier jobs through the other two departments.
City Forests: Primordial Earth is now covered by overgrown and mostly mutated forests that evolved to envelop whole cities, turning them into the so-called city forests. They are dangerous, exotic places that most people don’t even dare to visit. Except Primordial Earth, Origins Mars and Ancient Venus are both other planets with signs of early city plantation.
Class 5 events: Class 5 events, or incidents, are used to describe the need of red tape and bureaucracy surrounding them. Class 1 incidents are impossible, with Class 5 being plausible but certainly not easy. Everything not categorized under the Class system is called Classless and is perfectly achievable through the Chronicler’s usual means.
Colossi: When an Elder Phadh gets old enough, they return to their home planet, Zeania, to turn into Colossi—giant trees that connect to the global, empathetic field surrounding their planet.
Cryogenic Preservation: Ultra hibernation method that aids hyper-travel trips. It is also used for recovery.
Cryogenic System Support: While on Cryogenic Preservation, the Cryogenic System Support is the thing keeping the subject alive while also archiving the passing of ages and important cosmic events.
Cryptic Technology: A Nusae-inspired technology that enables robots and handy tools to morph into different kinds of forms to better suit their purpose.
Detir: Detir is an aquatic creature that shares his home planet with the Pots. See Pots for further explanation.
Doctor Dale Cross: A blond, blue-eyed human working in Yaerus' Global Hospital. Doctor Cross is intelligent and charismatic even though he sometimes seems to be hiding more than he tells.
Ecli Star: The New Huma Sun, Ecli, is the central star of the Yaerus system, or else called Ecli Constellation. It’s the central star that’s about the same size of the old Sun.
Eladia: Young, female human, a relatively inexperienced Chronicler that aims to solve the Great Mystery, or take an important towards the right way. Black, long hair that she keeps caught in a ponytail, dark brown eyes that shine when angry, and an average build body complete her appearance.
Esuh of the Two Faces: or simply Esuh, they are a lost species of symbiotic, humanoid organisms that are hosting a parasite that enhances their abilities. There are no mentions of them in the K.G.A.
First Kinds: see Originators
Five Great Species: Including humans, the Known Galaxy territory is divided into Five main species. Right now, humans are in the Third place, making them a strong adversary to complete for the Second place. Some say that in the next election, the humans will also be able to match the First place, although it is a far-fetched dream that no human should chase.
Great Embassy: A building every world capital has, its purpose being to house the many leaders that visit the planets for negotiations. Mosa’s Great Embassy is one of the biggest and most bea
utiful in the Known Galaxy.
Great Mystery: The Great Mystery is one of the main departments of the Chronicler’s science. The Great Mystery is the vanish of a highly-advanced alien species called Nusae and all of their structures. Little to none of their relics remain to the galaxy, and some Chroniclers still chase them in hopes of finding out more about the Nusae.
Grid: Using advanced, light-amplified data rays, androids and Chroniclers can connect to the net through the Grid. Until now, there's no place in the entire galaxy that the Grid can't reach.
Humanity’s Expanded Empire of Known Galaxy: Pretty much what the name suggests. The Space Boom ended up with humanity becoming a considerable force in the galaxy. The Expanded Empire of Known Galaxy is an alliance through every humanity’s colony that helps maintain and govern the expanded human empire.
Alien Romance Box Set: Alien Cube: The Sci-FI Alien Invasion Romance (Books 1-5) Page 58
