Previous chapters:
Chapters 1 - 7
Chapter 8
Editor's note:
This is by far my favorite chapter. It accomplishes two things.
One, it introduces Admiral Thompson. Although he plays a somewhat minor role here, I feel he should have been in this thing from the start. I really like his character, and in future chapters you'll see why. If I ever do another installment in this series, he will definitely play a solid role.
Two, this advances the story of the relationship between Bryan and the Orb far more than any previous chapter. The first half of this story really builds up a lot of mystery, while the final chapters work towards resolving those mysteries. I feel that half of this story revolves around this relationship, and therefore I find this chapter to be the most interesting to me.
Enjoy.
“Aries Leader to CED Expediator. Request permission to dock.”
Bryan was unsure what kind of response he was going to get from the CED, but he had to try to do this as smoothly as possible. If anyone found out what kind of cargo he had, things could get ugly, and he didn’t want that.
Moments later, the radio crackled back at him, “Permission granted, Commander. You’re a long way from your assignment, aren’t ya, Bry-man?”
“Gerard!” exclaimed Bryan as he recognized the voice. “What are you doing on these air waves?”
“Big promotion, buddy!” replied Gerard with his unwavering excitement. “They’ve got me working comm now in a whole new place. It’s good to hear your voice again! Proceed to bay four for docking.”
“You, too!”
Bryan closed the channel and let out a sigh of relief.
“So now what?” asked Natalie.
“First,” Bryan began, “We get a hold of someone who knows of the mission that Admiral Gonzalez is on. Perhaps I can finally get some clearance, and…”
“Commander Chambers,” came a new voice over the radio, “this is Admiral Allen Thompson of the CED Expediator. You and Ensign Jacobs were expected to be transported to Jacobs Station on the Demetri. Where is she, and why are you not on that ship?”
Bryan sighed again, hardly in relief this time. “Sir, Ensign Jacobs is here aboard the Phoenix with me. The Demetri has been destroyed.”
“By who?” demanded the admiral.
“By me,” stated Bryan clearly, “after Captain Bellows and Commander Jordan attempted to kill us.”
There was a brief moment of silence before the admiral returned, “I can’t say I’m surprised. I will arrange quarters for you and Ensign Jacobs, and expect to see you both in my office in thirty minutes. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” responded Bryan.
“See you then, Commander. Admiral Thompson out.” The radio hissed as the channel closed.
Natalie said dryly, “It sounds like he was expecting something like this.”
“No kidding. This may go better than I had hoped.”
They arrived on the ship and were escorted to their quarters. One officer offered to take the chest containing the Orb, but of course Bryan declined, requesting a bag to carry it in. With the time it took to complete the docking and getting to their quarters, it was already time to meet with the Admiral.
Bryan and Natalie made their way to the Admiral’s office and found it open, with Admiral Thompson waiting for them inside. He looked up when they arrived and flatly stated, “Bryan. Good to see you again. Come on in.”
Bryan smiled, as Admiral Thompson’s dry personality never ceased to amuse him. As soon as they were inside and the door closed behind, Bryan stated, “Requesting session encryption, sir.”
Admiral Thompson stated dismissively, “There’s no need to encrypt over the antics of the Demetri, Commander, this is only confirming what we have known for quite some time about them and their connection to Admiral Gonzalez.”
Bryan shook his head. “With all due respect, sir, what I have to say goes beyond Admiral Gonzalez and his hired hands.”
“Oh?” asked Admiral Thompson curiously. “Then request granted.” He punched something into the display in front of him and an ominous locking sound was heard within the room. “Enlighten me.”
Bryan began, “First of all, are you familiar with the charges against myself and Ensign Jacobs?”
Admiral Thompson nodded. “Yes, and I have dismissed them, although I do have a written reprimand for you for cursing out a superior officer.”
Bryan grinned. “It was necessary at the time.”
Admiral Thompson was having trouble keeping the tone of his voice as flat as it had been. “Believe me, it’s necessary all the time with him. I’m assuming that Captain Bellows and Commander Jordan attempted to make you disappear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What prevented them from doing that?” asked the Admiral.
Bryan was silent for a moment. He looked at Natalie, seemingly for guidance.
“Commander?”
Natalie nodded her head solemnly at Bryan in approval. Bryan continued, “Technically, I did.”
“Technically,” mocked the Admiral. “You’re being awfully cryptic, Commander.”
Bryan tried to change the subject. “What do you know of Admiral Gonzalez’s mission?”
“I’m assuming this has something to do with how you avoided death on the Demetri?” Admiral Thompson asked, the tone of his voice practically ordering him to get to the point.
“Indeed it does, sir,” responded Bryan.
“I do, but am not at liberty to discuss it,” stated the Admiral.
Bryan looked to Natalie again. He knew what he had to do, so he reached for the bag, removed the chest, and said, “Perhaps upon viewing this, you’ll find such a liberty.”
As Bryan opened the chest, the Admiral stated, “Amusing, that you assume that I…” The Admiral’s voice trailed off as he witnessed what was inside the chest. He stood up to get a better view. “Commander…” he said slowly. “Is that…” The Admiral was clearly at a loss for words.
“The Orb of Infinity, sir. Yes.”
The Admiral viewed the swirling patterns and colors in awe as he said, “I’ll see to it that I lose that reprimand, Commander. How did you find it?”
“I did not find it, sir,” stated Bryan, “Commander Evans did. I recovered it from the wreckage of his Pyro-GY.”
The Admiral slowly sat back into his seat. “Fascinating. Simply fascinating.”
There was a moment of silence among those in the room. The Admiral was now looking between Bryan, Natalie, and the Orb, as if trying to figure out what to do. Bryan almost expected the Orb to do something, but as of yet nothing had happened.
Bryan broke the silence. “I am certain Admiral Gonzalez is behind this, and I know who he reports to.”
The Admiral eyed him skeptically. “And who might that be, Commander?”
“Paul Dravis, sir.”
Bryan watched for the Admiral’s expected reaction, and wasn’t disappointed. He seemed to respond more to this news than he did to the Orb of Infinity. “What? You’ve got to be kidding me. An Admiral of the CED, dealing with the PTMC?”
Natalie spoke up for the first time. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It makes a lot of sense from that perspective.” Bryan and Admiral Thompson both eyed Natalie for a moment, until she finished with a nervous, “Sir,” to which the Admiral chuckled lightly.
“There are some other things that I know, Admiral,” said Bryan. “If you know anything of the rumors of its origin, you know about the Orb’s first true owner?”
The Admiral stated dryly, “That’s classified information, Commander.”
Bryan smiled. “I’ll take that as a yes. The owner is known as Emperor T’baxla from D’mandria…”
The Admiral cleared his throat and cast a quick glance over to Natalie. He repeated sternly, “That’s classified information, Commander.”
Natalie understood what Admiral Thompson was getting at. “Should I leave?” she asked.
“Yes.” “No.”
Bryan and Admiral Thompson stared each other down. “Do I need to remind you of the chain of command?”
Bryan sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. He knew it would come down to this when he revealed the Orb to his superiors, but he still wasn’t ready for it. He took a deep breath as he open his eyes and began. “Sir, there is a lot that I could do with this Orb. I could choose to be no better than Emperor T’baxla, but I do not. There is much that I care for in this universe, and I know that by using the Orb for my own purposes that I will eventually lose that. However, I…”
Bryan was interrupted by a bright flash of light from the Orb that receded as quickly as it appeared, leaving Admiral Thompson stunned for a moment.
Bryan, realizing the Admiral just learned a whole lot about him and Natalie, stated, “I’m sorry, sir, I cannot really control that part of the Orb’s power.”
“No, no,” stated the Admiral, “it’s okay. Things were just… put into perspective for me.”
Natalie asked again, “Should I leave?”
“No,” came the response, this time in unison.
The Admiral blinked a few times, unsure of what he just saw, and then spoke. “Commander, Ensign, I support your decisions and the conclusions you have put together. However, there is one minor problem we have yet to solve, and that is the lack of evidence against Admiral Gonzalez. Having him fly off the handle at his subordinates is not exactly worthy of a court marshal.
“Therefore, I am assigning you, Commander, and your wing to find this evidence. You by far are the best equipped and to handle this, the most knowledgeable in understanding what you are up against, and the most skilled to handle it.”
Bryan smiled, “Thank you, sir.”
The Admiral straightened up. “To that end, the CED is at your disposal. You tell me what you need, and it’s yours.”
Bryan then turned to look at the Orb himself. Its pattern of swirling light still struck him with a sense of awe. He was hoping that at some point it would fill him with answers. “I’ll need some time to determine the best course of action to take.” He turned back to meet the Admiral and added, “One that will draw the least amount of attention.”
The Admiral nodded. “You both still have your quarters. Get some rest and meet me tomorrow at 1115 hours and we’ll see where this goes from here. Dismissed.” And with the tap of a few keys in the console in front of him, the Admiral dismissed the session encryption with a sound much akin to a key turning in a lock.
Bryan returned the Orb to the chest and closed it, and then motioned for Natalie to lead out of the Admiral’s office. Natalie stood there for a moment, looking into his eyes with a smile that, despite her exhaustion, had something much deeper to it. Bryan beamed a wide smile, knowing that despite everything that had happened, she was still there for him.
“Mmm hmm,” stated the Admiral, observing the exchanged. “I said ‘rest’, Commander.”
Natalie rolled her eyes while letting out a quiet giggle as she started out of the office. Bryan tilted his head down, laughing quietly to himself before providing an obligatory, “Yes, sir.”
They both exited the office, and as the door closed, Natalie let out, “He assumes a bit much, don’t you think?”
“Well,” started Bryan, searching for the words to say that wouldn’t ruin the moment. He failed, however, and made a half-hearted and unsuccessful attempt to withhold a bit of laughter.
“I’ll tell you what,” offered Natalie as they approached the intersection in the hallway where they would part ways, “it’s just after 1400 now. Let’s get a bit of rest and then we can do something that I know will get your blood flowing.” She finished just as they made the intersection, and she seductively turned towards him with a flirtatious look in her eyes.
“Oh?” Bryan said as he advanced towards her, waiting for her suggestion that he was sure would end in a night of excitement, passion, and…
Natalie grabbed Bryan by the collar and pulled him towards her until his face was less than an inch from hers before delivering, “I’ll meet you in the sims.”
The intensity of her smile was matched only by the look of disappointment in Bryan’s. She let out a short burst of laughter that Bryan was certain was pure evil. She then released his collar, turned around, and made her way back to her quarters.
As she disappeared down the hallway, Bryan muttered to himself, “Son of a ★■◆●.”
Finally, he collected himself and made his way back to his quarters. Once he got there, he resisted the urge to collapse on the bed, and instead decided to relax with a nice hot shower.
After that was finished, he still wasn’t quite ready to nap, and his mind was beginning to wander. He opened the chest, and took out the small metallic pad that B’lar had given him. He began to wonder how much trouble he would be in if it were ever found out that he had that encounter with B’lar, but quickly put those thoughts aside as he began operating the pad.
The glyphs and symbols appeared to them as if he had known them all of his life, and he found his ability to read them even easier than it was to read English. He began to recite parts of what he was reading aloud in B’lar’s language, simply because he liked the sound of the language.
“The Orb is best described as a life form… around for over thirteen billion years since the dawn of our universe… thought to be one of a kind, even across the multiverse… an only child…”
Bryan stopped at that last part. “Only child?” he said, this time in English. He turned to look at the orb, still in the chest. “‘Child’ seems pretty accurate to me,” he said, saying it directly to the orb. “You can’t even properly communicate.”
The orb’s swirling pattern of color changed briefly, as if in response to what he just said. In fact, it was the clearest Bryan had ever seen it. He admired its beauty for a moment, and then continued to read in B’lar’s language.
“Once the Orb understands how to interface with the host being’s brain waves, it is believed that it never forgets. Thus, a previous owner would not have any lead time to re-interface with the Orb like a new owner would.” This made it perfectly clear to Bryan how dangerous it would be for the Orb to even be close to Emperor T’baxla.
He skipped a few more parts before he finally got to a part that seemed a bit more interesting. “It is unclear if the Orb experiences emotion or has free will. It might be assumed that since the Orb is a life form of some kind that it would at least be in control of its own actions, but the only action it has ever been known to take is action that protects it from harm. One would think that if the Orb thought that it was in a bad situation, it would use its infinite power to remove itself from harm, but calculations are inconclusive as to whether or not it would actually do that, should a situation…”
The sound of the door chime interrupted his reading. He certainly wasn’t expecting a visitor, so, remembering his experience from the Sirius, he picked up his laser pistol and cautiously approached the door. “Who is it?” he asked.
Silence.
“Who is it?” Bryan repeated, his tone more commanding this time. The results were the same. He stood back a distance from the door, keeping a table between it and him. “Open the door.”
The door opened, and what Bryan saw was something that, at first, he couldn’t comprehend.
It was Natalie. But it wasn’t.
Her normal, playful demeanor was completely lost. In fact, her face was devoid of emotion altogether. Perhaps the most obvious change was in her eyes, which instead of being deep blue were glowing a soft…
Glowing?!
Bryan placed the pistol back down on the table and cautiously approached Natalie. She was not looking at him, but rather at the orb in the chest. “Natalie?” he asked nervously. She glanced at him, and a chill shot down his spine. Something was wrong… unnaturally wrong. Concern began to creep into his voice as he asked her, “What is wrong with you, Natalie?”
Natalie focused her attention again on the Orb and entered the room, the door closing behind her. As she approached the Orb, she answered, “Natalie Jacobs would like for you to know that she is okay, and has accepted my presence.” The voice was like Natalie’s, but it sounded as though it was reverberating through a small canyon.
Bryan blinked a couple of times before he grasped what she was even saying. “Then,” he began, searching for the right question. “Who are you?” Fear was starting to creep in, fear that he had lost Natalie, and fear that he may very well be next.
Natalie was now standing in front of the Orb of Infinity. “I am…” she began, as if she didn’t know how to introduce herself. She then picked up the Orb, staring into it for a short amount of time. Finally she turned towards Bryan, looked straight into his eyes, and presented the Orb to him, finishing her sentence: “…this.”
The fear that had crept into him began to fade as he realized, “You… are the Orb?” He looked into her now glowing eyes, and after a few moments began to see familiar patterns of light swirl within her eyes, answering his own question. The Orb had possessed Natalie.
“Yes,” she confirmed, and then returned to staring into the Orb, admiring its beauty as if it were the first time she had seen it.
There was a long period of silence. Bryan didn’t know what to say, what to ask. He didn’t even know why the Orb had done this.
Finally, Natalie stated, “You are upset that I have been unable to communicate in a way that is familiar to you.” Bryan nodded slowly, and Natalie again turned to look into Bryan with her eerily, glowing eyes. She stated plainly, “I have listened.”
Bryan thought for a moment before asking, “So, you took control of Natalie’s body so that you could communicate with me?”
“Yes,” came the clear response. “Compared to you, her emotions go largely unchecked, which allows for a more natural thought process, making interfacing a smoother process. You, on the other hand, tend to hold back your emotions, believing that if you do not show your emotions, you will gain some kind of tactical advantage. This disrupts your natural thought process, increasing the difficulty of interfacing. But it does not make interfacing impossible.”
Bryan blinked for a moment. Was he just insulted? “I’m… not sure how to respond to that.”
Natalie stated dryly in her new voice, “There was no question to respond to, Bryan Chambers.”
Insulted, and then belittled. Bryan did not like the new Natalie. “You do plan to let her go at some point?”
“When you no longer have a need to communicate with me, I will no longer be in control of Natalie Jacobs’s actions.”
Her voice was cold, and Bryan no longer felt comfortable around her. Instead of communicating, he was being intimidated, and whether it was intentional or not, all he wanted was for this to end. “Perhaps I no longer wish to communicate in this manner.”
Natalie again gazed into the orb for what seemed like forever before she responded, “Again, you hide. But you also fear, and wish to be protected.” Before Bryan could answer, a flash of light emanated from the Orb, and when it receded, Bryan found himself contained in a light bubble of some kind. “This is the same energy you had me use the first time we were able to interface. You believe it saved your life.”
Bryan’s mind raced as he tried to remember when that could have been, before remembering the battle outside of the S.S. Sirius where his ship was hit with three direct shots from a mass driver and lived. “Yes, I remember…” trailed off Bryan’s voice.
Natalie looked towards him again, but this time she had a softer expression, though still nearly void of emotion. “You are different, Bryan Chambers. You protect. You defend. You kill, but only to preserve that which you care for. I don’t understand you, and I can’t understand you unless you more freely express yourself. It is a prime element of the interface.”
“But why?” asked Bryan, full of questions but unable to clearly express himself. “Why the interface? What is the purpose?”
Natalie answered, “The interface is the reason for my existence. Without it, I am nothing.” Her expression soured as she sadly looked into the Orb once again. “I am alone.”
“Companionship?” Bryan asked incredulously. “All of the power in the universe, and you crave companionship?”
“I hold no such power, Bryan Chambers,” responded Natalie as she seemed to search the Orb for answers. “The fallacy of my existence is that I hold an untold amount of power. The reality is that there are limits… limits that I do not understand. If I had power, I would not be alone.”
A lone tear dripped from Natalie’s eye and onto the Orb. Bryan wondered if it was the Orb triggering the emotional response or if it was…
“Natalie Jacobs understands my plight.” She made no attempt to conceal the emotion that was on display. “She feels what I feel. Without interface, I cannot function. Without interface, my consciousness fades. Without interface, I have no life. I can replay memories and play out fantasies to anyone, but it is such a mundane, trivial task, it is like breathing to your kind.” She paused, tears nearly streaming down her face. “Imagine that you could do nothing but breathe.” She then shot a glance at Bryan as a light flashed from the Orb…
Nothing. There was nothing but the sound of his own breathing. Bryan was sure that this was just another short demonstration of the Orb’s power.
Until time seemed to stand still. Seconds stretched to minutes, which stretched to hours. And there was still nothing…
Bryan had to take a moment to regain his balance, but soon realized that all that he experienced must have had to have happened within the span of less than second, because everything was as he left it, including Natalie and her unnaturally glowing eyes.
“Imagine eons of that. Imagine having no release. Imagine a life of nothing. Imagine my life.”
Bryan nodded and said, “I understand.”
She returned to her previous point. “Natalie Jacobs does not wish to interface. She finds me dangerous, and although she was willing to let me communicate with you, she is too afraid of what may happen should an interface be successful.”
Bryan tilted his head questioningly. “Is she afraid of your power?”
Natalie shook her head. “Remember, I do not hold power.”
“Then how…” Bryan’s question trailed, not sure how to word it.
“In order to expend energy,” Natalie explained, “I must first take it. Within the orb is a rift that operates in ways your kind cannot understand. When I interface, I must tap into the energy created by the rift, which is limitless and constantly replenished.”
Bryan thought of the many questions he could ask of the Orb, and settled on one that was central to the situation. “Do you understand what kind of danger one of my kind can put others of my kind in by having that kind of energy available to them?”
Natalie was confused by the question. “I do not understand. I do what you wish.”
Bryan added, “But you have killed people.”
Natalie corrected him. “I provide energy to do what you want. If you wish to kill, you know why you wish to kill.”
“I don’t wish to kill,” Bryan returned. “In fact, I don’t wish for anyone to kill if it’s unnecessary. What T’baxla did was downright evil.”
Natalie seemed to sigh before continuing. “I still don’t understand you. You protect. An’val T’baxla killed. You are different than him, and I don’t know why.”
“Because maybe I’m not evil?” Natalie seemed to ponder the answer for a moment, although Bryan’s response was more commentary on her lack of understanding. “Look, I don’t understand T’baxla myself. I’ve never met the guy. But I can’t understand how you cannot grasp the concept of evil. Killing two million people in cold blood is evil. Making a subordinate die because you don’t like what he said is evil. Do you understand?”
Natalie frowned and replied, “No.”
“Okay, okay,” said Bryan, wanting to change the subject. “You remember Jared Evans.”
“Briefly,” Natalie stated, “he expired before I had a chance to begin the interface process.”
“Jared Evans was my best friend.” The words were hard to say, but Bryan knew that he needed to say him to convey his point. “He was killed because someone was looking for you, someone who wanted to use you to get what they want.”
Natalie asked, “So evil is the willingness to cause life to expire to obtain a goal?”
Bryan sighed. “You’re not making this easy.” There was no way he was going to get his point across, there was just too much the Orb didn’t know about humanity. Giving up, he finally sat on the nearby bed, unsure how to continue. “Maybe we do need to interface. Okay, what do I need to do?”
“Be yourself,” responded Natalie. “Don’t give into the habit that causes you to hide your emotions. If your emotions show through, I can learn faster.”
There was a long pause. Bryan’s mind began to wander, wondering what would have happened if Jared had lived through the encounter, or how much different things would be if it were Bryan’s life that had been taken instead.
“Jared Evans,” Natalie repeated to herself. “If evil is the willingness to cause life to expire to obtain a goal, and you are against evil…” The Orb was clearly enthralled with the logic Bryan had presented to him. However, what she said next threw him completely off guard.
“You wish him to live?”
Bryan blinked. Yes, he wanted to blurt out, but now he was feeling as though he wasn’t any better than T’baxla. He was being selfish, wanting to use the Orb’s power to return Jared to life.
Natalie added, “It is what you have wanted ever since the day we met. You wanted the same of Natalie when you presumed her dead.”
Bryan remained silent, almost embarrassed at the thought.
“You want me to bring him back, even now. You can’t hide that from me.”
“Fine,” Bryan conceded, “I do want him back. He meant everything to me, he is the reason I do what I do. But he is gone. No one can bring him back.”
Natalie walked over to where Bryan was sitting on the bed, Orb in hand. “T’baxla wished for death, and death is simple. You, however, wish for life. That is much more complicated than granting death. It requires energy you cannot comprehend.”
Bryan knew this wasn’t going to happen, and just surrendered to the fact that he would never see Jared alive again.
“However, the power available to me is infinite.”
Bryan sat up and looked square into her eyes, seeing the light patterns and trying to make sense of them. “You can do that?”
Natalie nodded.
Bryan knew he should stop now, but the excitement overwhelmed him. “Then do it.”
The Orb immediately began to glow, but this time it was nothing like he had seen before. He had to quickly shield his eyes, and soon that wasn’t enough. Then came a wall of sound, louder than anything he had heard. With both hands over his eyes and his eyes closed, the light was beyond blinding. “My eyes!” Bryan screamed as the pain became almost intolerable. The light was gone, but still the pain was there as the sound that filled the room was like nothing he had ever heard before, as if a rush of wind from every corner of the room was fighting for supremacy over each other.
It took several minutes before it seemed as though things settled down. Bryan opened his eyes but saw nothing. “I can’t see,” complained Bryan.
Then, he slowly saw a hand fade into view in front of him, only inches away from his face. It didn’t take long for his vision to return and realize that it was Natalie’s hand in front of him.
Suddenly, a loud siren followed by a computerized, “Security Entry Clearance!” Bryan quickly turned to the door just in time to see them open, and several armed officers flooded the room, followed by Admiral Thompson.
“What the hell is going on in here?” demanded the Admiral, his eyes searching the room. “We saw a bright light emanate from your quarters, and then…” his voice trailed off as his eyes focused on something in the far corner of the room.
Before it occurred to Bryan to look, the Admiral identified what he saw.
“Commander Evans?!”
Bryan turned to the corner, and sure enough, to his surprise, curled up in the corner, naked and shivering, but most definitely alive, was his best friend, Commander Jared Evans.
