Act I, Chapter 4
Inspection
Location: Antarctica
Perhaps the reason the aion network has only been stimulated by us is because others who know about it know its true nature: the second time dimension acts inversely to the first. Motion through space slows our internal clocks down—there’s a direct tradeoff between motion and time that’s capped by the speed of light—but motion through the aion network speeds its “private” second time dimension. Objects governed by it need to move through space to feel the passage of time. Our continuous tampering is evolving the entire field into something unknown…
—In Vino Veritas, page 95, note 12.
* * *
Athena was enroute to the Olympian base under Antarctica. Before arriving—and being trapped under the communication blanket of the Svalinn shield—she wanted to gain some control of the situation by notifying the Olympian central command in the Bellum system. I’ll use long-range communication so they understand the urgency.
Athena, because of her rare military rank of Umbra Obcisor, had the privilege of communicating on two channels: close- and long-range. Close-range communication relied on simple electromagnetic radiation traveling through space no faster than light, but long-range was delivered instantaneously. Aion communication was only available to the Olympians because they had, through theory and experiment, acquired the scientific knowledge necessary to perform it.
As she keyed in the command to bring up the aion system, Athena felt an inadvertent thrill despite the urgency of the situation. Most civilizations knew that space had additional spatial dimensions at the quantum level, but very few knew about the extra time dimension. Knowledge of the quantum time dimension was still very much in its infancy and progress moved at a glacial place. What was known was that the quantum time dimension governed at least one field consisting of nearly massless particles, labeled “aions.” The aions acted as a web across the universe and, if any single particle was stimulated, then the entire network of particles across the universe was simultaneously stimulated. Essentially, the entire field vibrated.
The Olympian military used this functionality to create a form of emergency code. Because any communications through this channel were broadcast across the entire universe, messages needed to be short and only sent when absolutely necessary.
Athena’s Aegis was one of four starships that could interact with the network of aions. The Olympians’ central military base in the Bellum system monitored the network for all communications. She thought for a moment what to say to central command. If these intruders arrived through the Chronos Passage then they’ll have knowledge of the future… She dialed in her message and relayed it on the long-range channel: “Stay away from Earth.”
* * *
Athena arrived back to the facility in Antarctica a few minutes before Atlas had completely recovered from hibernation. She made her way directly to the command station and looked for anything odd occurring in Earth’s atmosphere. The Olympians conducting research on Earth had to be careful to only use technology that was either available to humans or well-cloaked. One of the many tools they set up around Earth for the purposes of observation was a series of exceedingly miniscule satellites that—even if detected by humans—appeared as inconspicuous pieces of rock naturally orbiting the Earth. Athena tapped into the satellites and used all of their monitoring power to survey the atmosphere of Earth. She wanted to pick up some sign of extra-terrestrial entry.
“Fuck, biological re-acclimation is tough,” Atlas said, leaning against the door and rubbing his temples. “Why was I woken up?” Atlas took a step closer. “Athena?”
“I woke you. All three labs in this system have been destroyed and both Chronos Passages have collapsed.” Athena remained stoic and emotionally distant from the sudden loss of Olympian life.
“Uh…When…Why did they send you to wake me? How long ago did the collapse occur? I thought my chamber was designed to naturally wake me up in the event someone didn’t manually choose to continue it once every seven days?”
“I woke you up before the collapse occurred.”
“Why are you here? Am I still considered that much of a danger to Olympia that you need to wake me?”
Athena ignored him. “Found them.” She got up and walked past Atlas.
“Follow me. I’ll need your help if we are going to track down the intruders.”
“Intruders?”
“Yes. And we can only use Earth tech…for now. I don’t want to flag our presence to them. And who knows—they may have already guessed some Olympians are hiding on Earth and they’ll be looking for advanced tech to track.”
“Athena, stop prattling. Intruders? We’re being tracked? What’s going on?” Atlas asked while following her to the hanger.
Athena continued to ignore him and made her way into the cockpit of a single propeller Cessna. She activated a conveyor belt that would take her out under the ocean between Antarctica and Peru. Once she was far out enough at sea that no coasts could be seen on the horizon, a sealed platform would raise her to the surface of the ocean and allow her to take off. After she was airborne the platform would automatically sink back to the bottom of the ocean.
“Get in,” she said to Atlas.
Atlas rushed to the plane and seated himself next to Athena. “Where are we going?”
“Nazca, Peru.”
Act I, Chapter 5
Intruders
Location: Kuiper Belt
Sigyn was reeling from what were the most intense few moments of her life. Her experience started off unquestionably terrifying and ended with her paralyzed in an awe-inspired stupor. She almost didn’t realize she and the team had teleported to the Kuiper Belt, but approximately one year earlier than they left. Her mind may have stayed frozen on the magnificence of the Chronos Passage if Vili hadn’t spoken up.
“Ten minutes until the Hades space evaporates.”
Sigyn pulled herself back to the moment just in time to see their vessel plow through a metallic, post-like beam hanging in space. Why is there a beam—the exit!
Sigyn whipped around to gaze at the exit end of the Chronos Passage. Unlike the entry point, this Passage appeared sadistic in its movement and decidedly less hypnotic. Sigyn was able to discern the various floating beams around the structure that somehow kept the Passage open and stable. They lose their beauty quickly—we’ve only destroyed two of the stability beams.
While Vili piloted the Svadilfari into additional beams, Sigyn scanned the surrounding area for ships. As with the entry point, there was Storskip defending this Passage. Unlike the entry point, the only other ship was a mid-sized vessel. Sigyn could identify no armaments, only very rudimentary combat shielding on the second craft. It was likely a retro-fitted passenger or freight vessel, used for storing research results and providing the tools necessary for the scientists to send messages home and relax.
After three more beams were hit, the Passage became wildly unstable. Its motion had become completely random. The calming, constant hues had become a harsh, blinding strobe of red, yellow, and orange. The movement became more exaggerated and the red light started to dominate the other colors. Sigyn shut her eyes tight and put her hands over her face, but her visual field was still periodically enveloped in a deep, blood red. Her heart rate skyrocketed as she realized her eyes had no defenses to the blinding light. I’m trapped! I’m trapped!
She fell to her knees and inhaled, ready to yell out in fear. Her scream morphed into an awkward grunt as a hand reached down to grab her jacket and pulled her up.
“It’s over. The Passage is collapsing.”
Sigyn opened her eyes to see Vili’s hand receding back to the controls. As her vision widened, she saw they had flown through the Storskip, leaving a surgical cut piercing its cockpit. A split second later, the Storskip was ensconced in ionized particles from the exploding Passage. An incredible amount of energy burst from the spot the Passage stood moments before and bega
n devouring what was left of the dying vessel.
The intense energy release ate through multiple sections of the hull and melted the Nemesis fighters that were flying nearby. Sigyn watched as the Storskip went through a rapid decay on the section facing the blast, deforming into a suspended liquid metal. Due to the movement of the vessel, cohorts of rapidly hardening metallic chunks left a trail that grew in size proportional to the destruction of the hull. Soon, all hulls were breached and the inside of the ship was exposed to the vacuum of space. The engines and life support failed, causing the entirety of the inside of the ship to freeze. The impressive Olympian transport ship was reduced to a floating graveyard in a matter of seconds.
The mid-sized research facility was far enough away to receive only moderate damage. Vili piloted the Hades ship into its engines to ensure the lab was crippled and then headed straight through the cockpit. He kept the ship suspended in the hanger while the Hades space evaporated.
After a few moments the rubber-liquid completely evaporated and the shell of the Hades vessel was safely landed. Sigyn breathed a sigh of relief as she exited behind Vili and Loki into the hanger. Her relief was short-lived, though, as she was greeted with alarms, smoke, and the noxious smell of cremating bodies. Wasting no time, she briskly followed Vili to a thin triangular ship that had a raised cockpit in the center.
The ship—known as a Hod—wasn’t more than six meters wide at its widest point. Sigyn noticed the sharp, angular hull was completely ensconced under a thin, flexible, and adhesive screen. This more primitive piece of Olympian technology—which was the defining feature of a Hod-class ship—was designed to allow half the screen, at any given moment, to act as an input and the other as an output. The input side would absorb high resolution imagery of the environment—with a refresh rate exceeding that of even Olympian vision—and the output side would mimic it. When integrated with a starship, it allowed the pilot to dynamically control which cross-section of the ship would be visually cloaked at any given time. The simplicity and parsimonious nature of the material made it ideal for use by the researchers to get closer to Earth when necessary.
This time, Loki took the pilot’s seat. Sigyn sat with Vili directly behind him. He rapidly keyed the ignition sequence, then flew the ship out of the Kuiper Belt and toward the other Chronos Passage near the sun, sending a distress signal as he flew. “Emergency: Chronos Passage collapse. Stay clear of Kuiper Belt. Survivors relocating to Chronos entry point.”
Sigyn wasn’t sure what they would find at the entry point to the Chronos Passage. They destroyed the exit point that, in theory, was linked to the entry point a year from now. It was anyone’s guess as to how the entry point would be behaving today.
“Sigyn, any idea what we’ll find?” Vili asked.
“Scientists back home think the entry point will remain untouched and, in one year, it will suddenly collapse. I don’t think that makes sense—I think it will have already collapsed.”
Loki spoke up, his voice tinged with sarcasm. “Always the contrarian, eh Sig?”
Sigyn scowled back. “No, I just don’t think their explanation makes sense. The universe has a set of rules it follows to stay internally consistent and it needs to course-correct for actions that aim to break those rules.”
Loki didn’t respond—he seemed to have stopped listening—but Vili expressed some concern. “What happens to us? Isn’t there another Vili somewhere in the galaxy right now?”
“That’s a tougher question. My gut—” Sigyn caught herself and changed her wording mid-sentence “—I mean logically, no. I think our actions caused the universe to reset itself to this previous moment in time and, in the reconfiguration, we are now here instead of where we were.”
Vili still looked confused, but gave a grunt which Sigyn took to mean the conversation was concluded.
* * *
Vili moved forward next to Loki. “We’re here.”
The first thing Vili saw as they passed the edge of the Svalinn shield was a wildly unstable entry point. The posts around the Passage were violently shaking and the Passage was vibrating and spinning much faster than the version he originally saw. The Passage was also slowly changing from a disk to a warped sphere. What once touched viewers as scientifically and aesthetically sublime, if not bordering on spiritual, now undoubtedly struck horror in the heart of everyone at the station. Three vulnerable ships were floating in the chaotic ocean of space; completely at the mercy of the unpredictable unfolding of the Passage. And the Aesirians were voluntarily entering this violently unsettling sea.
Vili knew they needed to act fast to avoid going under with the rest of the station. Loki flew them to one of the portable research vessels and landed in the hanger. There were four other ships parked in parallel; Olympians were scrambling to disconnect them from fuel lines and board them.
“Loki, open the cockpit,” Vili barked. As the cockpit hissed open, Vili made a quick mental note of his combat readiness, although he had triple checked his gear already. He was covered in body armor that would absorb the impact of most close combat projectiles. Strapped to his hip was a standard Petram pistol that fired tiny spherical bullets at an incredible speed and released a minor explosion upon impact. On his left forearm he carried a thick, two-way retractable, rectangular shield that could extend to three-fourths his height. His right hand brandished Mjolnir.
Vili leapt from the top of his ship and landed near the back of the neighboring vessel, swinging his hammer and annihilating its engine. The adamant cut and deformed the titanium and aluminum compounds like a knife to butter. He pivoted and threw his hammer at one of the scientists attempting to board the same vessel. Vili saw the chest of the man depress as his hammer cracked his sternum. His victim flew back toward the large opening of the hanger while Vili simultaneously jumped at the poor Olympian and summoned Mjolnir back to him. Deftly snatching the hammer out of the air, he crushed the head of the wheezing Olympian that lay before him. Lightning crackled around his arm as the adamant was discharged.
The small points on the face of the hammer concentrated Vili’s blow, rupturing the already dying Olympian’s skull. Vili felt a spray of warm blood splash against his face after his victim’s head shattered. His lips curled upward as he relished in the death of his enemies. It had been a long time coming. After centuries, finally, revenge!
Vili’s prone position and momentary vengeful reverie left him open to assault from two guards on the opposite end of the hanger. Indistinguishable except for the patches on their jackets, Vili recognized a junior lieutenant and common hoplite. Both carried a Securis, the standard Olympian automatic combat rifle. He turned and raised his now fully extended shield, deflecting bullets coming from both guards, and ran back behind the ship he had grounded. He proceeded around the back and used the other vessels as cover, closing distance with the guards.
Shots echoed in the hanger as he approached the engines of the second docked ship. He swung his hammer in a high arch above his head, flexing his stomach and throwing his left arm down to the side to add momentum to his swing. The strength of the artificial carbon alloy muscle fibers in his right arm would have been enough to destroy the engines in a single hit, but Vili felt himself slipping into a battle frenzy. He felt like the legendary Asgardian Berserkers, an ancient group of warriors that gave themselves over to a trance-like fury during battle. Vili found the destruction of Olympian life and property cathartic; he allowed his adrenaline and excitement to put him on the brink of an ecstasy-laden rage.
He looked toward the bow of the vessel he just grounded and locked eyes with another scientist. Instead of running, the scientist lunged at him. Vili smiled and let out a single laugh before stepping toward his attacker and swinging Mjolnir downward. He caught the scientist just above the collar bone. The man’s body went almost instantly limp as Vili’s hammer forced broken bone down into the man’s heart, piercing it before ultimately crushing it.
Vili continued to the third ship and disable
d its engines, but this time he conserved his energy with a less dramatic swing. His battle lust had abated, and the tactician was back in control. As Vili approached the last ship in the row, the hoplite, who he had forgotten in his Berserker rage, surprised him from his right with a swing of a metallic blur. Vili inwardly cursed himself as he narrowly dodged the guard’s first swing and blocked the next with his shield; he never should have lost his poise. The guard had detached a thick, one-half meter long cylinder from his Securis and activated a switch on the bottom which sprung to life the retractable ax head on the other end.
The lieutenant jumped onto one of the ships behind Vili and started firing at him. He hit Vili in the back of his left shoulder, causing him to turn into the space between two parked ships. While repositioning, he swung his hammer in a low arch to swipe the leg out from under the hoplite, his graceful movements belying his bulky frame.
The few bullets that hit him burned through his armor. One pierced his skin, lodging itself in the back of his shoulder. Vili’s genetically engineered body immediately started healing the wound and pushing out the foreign metallic object. He threw Mjolnir at the hoplite while he was attempting to get up, narrowly missing the low-ranking foot soldier. In the same motion, he unholstered his pistol to fire at the lieutenant still standing on one of the ships. The lieutenant jumped down before Vili could land a clean hit and moved to the opposite side of the hoplite in an attempt to trap Vili between them.
As the lieutenant ran, Vili called back Mjolnir and turned to the hoplite brandishing the Securis ax detachment. Vili’s hammer blocked and parried a swing of the ax, crushing the Olympian’s chest in response. He heard the sound of armor breaking and ribs cracking as the hoplite fell to his back. Before Vili could finish him off he was forced to spin and block a swing from the lieutenant who was now clutching the same detachment. Vili internally acknowledged the fatigue building in his still-mending left arm from blocking so many blows. Even the rank-and-file Olympians were strong, deadly combatants.
The Gods Who Chose Us Page 4
