Through the Abyss

by Daniel Litchfield

  “Change your mind Sir?”

  “You only wish I did. Can you secure this for me? There is a certain Crew Chief that I personally want to give it back to.” Caruso took the helmet but didn’t say a word. “Thanks, I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early Steward Operative Caruso.”

  Before coming to attention, Caruso tossed the helmet into the Shuttle without even looking and brought up his arm.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. Get home safe please,” Euphretes said, waving down the incoming salute.

  Euphretes quickly turned around and made his escape. But just as he was about to turn the corner, Caruso had one more thing to say. “Sir, by the way, I’m the one who gave that helmet to your Transport’s crew; and it was my idea to make it think you were partially blind and mentally impaired.”

  “You what?!” Euphretes yelled back.

  “You’re welcome. See you tomorrow Sir!” Caruso bellowed while throwing full power to the Commander’s Shuttle in the opposite direction.

  “I’m not even mad! That was a good idea!” Euphretes shouted at the retreating vehicle.

  As he exited the testing grounds, he quietly said, “By the way, thanks for all of your help. I know I don’t say it enough, but there’s no way I could have done any of that without you.”

  The voice, now full of compassion, answered, “Euphretes, we’re in this together, remember? This is just another stepping stone toward a promise that I fully intend to keep.” Her reassuring words brought with them a flurry of emotions that drew his thoughts back to as far back as he could remember.

  His childhood was fraught with misfortune and disease. His birth mother, Tabor, mysteriously disappeared with an unknown Baikal deserter who worked deep in Emperor Indus’s most classified projects. After two long years of sporadic communication with her family back home, she finally returned. Arriving at the Huron Royal Palace completely unannounced, in the dead of night, and in deplorable condition, Tabor barely managed to reach the dumbfounded front guard before collapsing to the ground. Trying to get a positive identification while calling in assistance, the Guard approached her. Before he was even close enough to touch the fallen woman, his heads up display started projecting information and vital signs. As he gently turned her over, the guard’s equipment recognized the Huron Emperor’s sister.

  “Get my brother. He has to know,” Tabor mumbled. Knowing his gear had already alerted every active Security Guard and senior member of the Royal Palace’s staff, he said to her, “Already done, Ma’am.” He unsealed his visor to allow the her to see a human face. “The Emperor is on his way, Princess. My job now is to keep you conscious. Tell me, who did this to you?”

  CLICK. CLICK. SSHHSSSS.

  A tear rolled down Tabor’s sunken cheeks, “No one. Listen to me. Listen. This was my choice. The boy. He’s my. He’s my brothers only chance. Tell my brother. Tell Him. The boy must live. He. Must. Live.” Her words trailed off as they broke free from her waning soul.

  By the time Emperor Carpathian arrived, Tabor had lapsed into a coma. In an effort to save her life, the Royal Family rushed her to the nearest hospital. Once there, it was discovered that she was pregnant. Further examination, however, revealed that the pregnancy was abnormal. Through thorough examination it became evident that Tabor was unable to digest any food. She simply wasn’t getting the nutrition she needed. The doctors gave her a continuous supply of nutrition through an IV and placed her into a medically induced coma in case her original coma subsided naturally. This would help prevent her consciousness from unnecessarily burning her baby’s fuel.

  While Tabor fought for her life, so did the baby inside of her. Euphretes required so much energy that should Tabor wake up and start using conscious thought processes, she would starve and kill them both. Like an auto immune disease that was given a concoction of steroids and a never ending supply of adrenaline, Euphretes’s body was nearly destroying itself faster than it could heal or develop. Doctors were rushed in from across the Galactic Group; but no matter the treatment, the fetus found a way to adapt and overcome the medicine’s effects.

  The Emperor realized that his sister may never come out of her coma, and there were still so many unanswered questions. He took it upon himself to hire the very best investigators to research her past and at the very least obtain some helpful information. However, after six months, there was almost no news. He decided to end his quest for answers and settled for being happy that she had returned.

  Half a year after Euphretes’s harrowing premature birth, Tabor succumbed to the absolute abuse her body endured and died, taking all the unanswered questions along with her. Having no children of their own due to the Pariah Modification Disease, Emperor Carpathian and Alsea happily adopted the boy. They kept the truth about the adoption hidden from the Empire, as well as from the boy.

  Unfortunately, whatever had plagued Euphretes in the womb, followed him after he was born. He was sickly, socially awkward from confidence issues, and entirely unathletic. He was destined to be ordinary. At least that’s what his adoptive parents thought until he turned seventeen. Over the next three years, Euphretes would inexplicably explode into an almost whole new body.

  Feeling the shift in Euphretes’s consciousness guiding him toward both of their most prized memory, the reassuring voice inside his mind space decided to share in the moment. Adding her picture perfect memories and attaching her own sensations to them as if they were his own, the Bio-Dependent Artificial Intelligence perfectly hidden within his DNA guided him back to the fateful day they officially met. It was the moment he first heard Neuma’s voice echoing in his mind space. It was the moment his life truly began, the moment everything began.

  Euphretes had just turned nineteen when Alsea gave birth to a son. While the Empire celebrated what they thought was the couple’s second miracle, the universe unfolded around Euphretes. Shortly after Volga’s birth, Carpathian and Alsea decided that the moment had come for Euphretes to learn the truth about his mother.

  The room felt as if it was closing in around him as he collapsed onto his bed. The initial shock gave way to a flurry of questions, which the Royal couple did their best to answer. However, not receiving the answers he desperately wanted, Euphretes stormed off with true teenage rage.

  The loss of the crown meant little to him, but the loss of an identity that seemed to be the one redeeming aspect of his peculiar life hit his soul with Mjölnir’s might. Turning to the one thing that helped him shut his mind off, Euphretes jumped behind the controls of an Intersystem Sprinter and flew until the tears and anger at the unfairness of life stopped flowing. “Who am I?” he silently shouted. And so it was, in that moment, in the silence of the cockpit, when his heart could no longer wallow in self-pity, that Neuma spoke.

  “I know who you are, Euphretes.”

  Euphretes froze.

  Neuma continued. “You have fears, doubts, and obvious disappointments. You’re possibly even afraid of yourself. However, only you can determine how those fears affect you,” She paused to let the works sink in. “No, you’re not who you thought you were. That’s alright. In fact, that’s exactly how I want you. You have nowhere to go from here but up. You see Euphretes, my job, why I am here, is to make you into the Champion that I know you CAN BE.”

  At first, Euphretes thought he was going insane hearing this voice inside of his head responding to his thoughts. The hope rising in his soul felt vivid and alive however. With youthful naivety he responded, “I’m sorry, but I’ve always been told to avoid talking to strangers, especially those in my head.”

  “I’ve always loved your clever remarks, but this isn’t the time for levity. You’ve already been out for too long as it is.”

  “Ok, seriously, this is getting weird. Stop.”

  “I have a name,” The voice quietly said, letting her disappointment of the moment spill over into Euphretes’s consciousness.

  Hit by a ravage guilt on par with disappointing Carpathian, “I apologize for my be
havior. This is just. This is just.”

  “Impossible?”

  “I was going to say all too familiar. I know your voice, I swear it. And whatever it is you’re doing inside of me, I recognize this feeling too, but can’t pin point from where.”

  “Go on.”

  “You’ve always been here, haven’t you?” Euphretes asked. When there was no response he continued speaking. “But I digress, you were politely asking me to ask for your name.” Euphretes could sense an upward surge of energy radiating from the presence when he hit the nail on the end.

  “You’re right Euphretes, I’ve been by your side from day one. My name is Neuma, and you have no idea how long I’ve been looking forward to this moment.”

  “Hello Neuma. It’s a pleasure to meet you, I think. And what, exactly, are, uh …”

  Knowing where the idea was heading, “Are you trying to find a polite way to ask just what I am exactly and how I’m talking to you?”

  Grateful for her intuition, “Well, to be honest, yeah, I am.”

  “We don’t have much time until Carpathian starts sending his Fleets to chase you down and bring you home,” Neuma said with a sober tone. “So, long story short, I’m truly a Bioenabled-BioDependent Artificial Intelligence that was implanted inside of you while you were just an embryo. I was only given one principle foundation, leaving the rest open to my interpretation as I grew with my partner, which is you. I’m here to guide, grow, love, and ultimately shape you into someone who is capable of pulling your species out from the pit of extinction.”

  “You can’t be an AI, that would mean that…” Euphretes’s tone was foreboding, referring to the fact that he would be executed if anyone found out about Neuma.

  “It’s okay Euphretes. They won’t find out about me, I won’t let that happen.”

  The words were spoken with such confidence and the sense of ease radiating from Neuma’s aura so insufferable that Euphretes dropped the matter right then and there; but the fear of being discovered would always linger like a dark presence at the back of his mind. “And how am I supposed to help you, specifically?” Euphretes finally asked. He could feel Neuma smile as he started to embrace what was happening to him.

  “It’s more along the lines of forever actually. You see, Euphretes, I’m here now, and I’m here to stay. You, we, will never have to be alone again. Regardless of our fate, I just want you to know that I’m never going to leave you for as long as you live.”

  Euphretes sat silent, oblivious to the fact that Neuma was guiding the Intersystem Sprinter through him because he was utterly lost in the moment. The air in the cockpit vibrated with a euphoric hum as a comforting cloud of peace descended upon him. Euphretes found himself paralyzed with joyous tranquility, unable respond, as tears poured down his cheeks; for the first time in his life, he had a true purpose.

  “I’ve been shaping you into someone worthy of being my vessel. Someone who I can trust will do the right thing when it counts. An incorruptible Leader who will wholly embrace the responsibility born with enormous power rather than skirt its edges. But above it all Euphretes, I’ve been shaping you into someone who will end up holding the keys to humanity’s Destiny when it matters most.”

  Chapter 3:

  Admiral for a Day

  The Royal Huron Special Operations Training Center and the Group’s Headquarters were situated outside Ozark’s largest city, Alphero. It was close enough to enjoy the city life during days of nonscheduled training for teachers and cadre; but far enough from the noise and distraction for the cadets. The city had a population of one hundred and fifty thousand, the largest on Ozark and the fourth largest in the Empire. However, because of the Pariah Modification Disease’s far reaching effects, its numbers had dwindled from the once vibrant five hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants. Alphero was home to the Huron Empire’s most prominent engineers, intellectuals, and entrepreneurs. It had become a playground for new and exciting architectural designs and concepts in spite of the population decline.

  Seven satellite boroughs surrounded the Capital city, with the Huron Royal Special Operations Command making up two of the seven. Composed of the Training Grounds, which included the Recruitment and Selection School, and the Huron Royal Special Operations Command Headquarters’s installation, the two areas combined for a total of four hundred and ten square miles.

  Cadets seeking to join the Huron Military’s Special Forces would spend eight years at the Recruitment and Selection School before being allowed to take their culminating event Test to graduate. In order to even get into the program, candidates had to have at least four years of experience in main line military service, be recommended by a Captain or above in their Chain of Command, and pass a grueling physical fitness test.

  The school was extremely difficult and demanding, and as a result it struggled to maintain a forty-five percent graduation rate. The instruction phase began with three years of classroom and basic fundamentals in which written exams were given twice a week. Two failures and a Cadet was recycled and had to restart. After one recycle in the first three years, the candidate was released from duty and sent back to their main line unit. At the end of the third year, each cadet was classified as either an Enlisted Candidate or an Officer Candidate. At this point, the Recruitment and Instruction Phase of the training program ended and the Training Selection Process began.

  Over the next five years, both classes would focus heavily on small team tactics, space warfare, survival and evasion, piloting all known ships in the Galactic Group, handling and disposing of explosives, and training on every different weapon platform known to be in existence. Additionally, throughout the entire process, they would be constantly scrutinized by outside Special Forces Units who had to bid for the candidates that they wanted to fill their open slots.

  While the Officer Class learned everything that their enlisted counter parts were learning and had to pass the same exams, they were placed in an accelerated environment. In addition to their standard curriculum were large scale space warfare tactics, land based tactics for invasion forces, psychological manipulation tactics, and countless hours in simulators honing their abilities to track and control the hundreds of different moving pieces found on a battle field.

  Those that made it through all courses were randomly assigned to a team of other randomly selected cadets. Together, they faced a final culminating event, or Test, in order to graduate. The team would either pass or fail as a whole. Given two attempts, the Cadet and his team would have to use all of their training to complete a final mission over a sixty day ordeal. After two fails, the Cadets could either recycle back to the beginning of the Recruitment and Instruction phase or return to their main-line units. Teams that accomplished their mission were immediately stripped of their Cadet title and given a rank. The Enlisted class received a mid-level Noncommissioned Officer rank while the Officer class started at the bottom as Warden Ensigns.

  Seeing the exact same buildings that he saw after graduating from the rigorous school brought back memories. Before entering the program, Euphretes served quietly for four years as an Officer in the Mainline Huron Military. Once inside the training grounds however, Euphretes broke long standing records left and right along the way to graduation day. When the day finally came, Euphretes was immediately sent into combat where he would stay put for the next fifteen years.

  The three hour walk went by in the blink of eye as he reminisced about the past and conversed with Neuma. Before he knew it, he made a left turn and found himself facing his new home, the Royal Huron Special Operations Command Headquarters. Euphretes wiped beads of sweat from his brow before walking up to the entrance. The pearl white building loomed large before him. The glass front doors opened automatically as he approached them, and the building’s primary RAI, HQ6, appeared on the right hand side of the entrance to greet him.

  “Warden Admiral Euphretes, it is a pleasure to welcome you back. Your office is ready for you with your requested belongings and
specifications already in place. Is there anything else I can do for you, Commander?”

  Euphretes smiled, “Nothing that I can think of. Thank you HQ6. It’s great to be back.” He then continued through the entrance, where his unit’s motto was displayed just above the door leading into the security checkpoint.

  Stewards of Peace

  Wardens of War

  Masters of Death

  The text was cut out of the jet black wall and given a clear seal to allow a glowing liquid to fill the gaps. Iron oxide rich magma was then allowed to freely flow throughout, which caused the letters to glow brightly against the black backdrop of the wall. Euphretes walked down the short transparent security hallway that was designed to scan for any unauthorized weaponry or property, and monitored the individual’s vital signs. The main purpose for scanning the individual’s vital signs was to ensure no one with ulterior moves entered the lobby.

  Ivory marble with sapphire colored veins covered the floor while information interfaces made up the walls and ceiling. Two senior cadets in the Royal Special Operations School sat behind a desk in front of the entrance and greeted Euphretes the second he exited the security checkpoint. An interactive map and directory of the building sat to the right hand side of the desk along with HQ6 who was standing in his Dress Gold uniform. In the center of the lobby was a large map of the Huron Empire, made out of different colored electromagnetic particles free floating twenty feet above floor. The particle’s created chain lighting in the same color of their non plasma state and was controllable by a program. Casting a shadow with a surface area of eight hundred square feet, the map was clearly the focal point of the lobby.