She woke up hours later, to see the scientist sitting next to her. She was still shackled to the table, but there were no Jupitains in the room.
“What… what did you do to me?” She asked, still dazed.
“I’ve activated your Meta-Gene,” he said simply. He didn’t say anything else; instead, he just stared blankly at the floor.
Claire looked at him, confused, but before she could ask another question, the man started to talk about something else.
“They… they told me, at the Ascendentry of Cyrus… our planet’s most pristine academy, that we would be working on peaceful innovations, experiments that wouldn’t focus on the war-torn agenda of the Coalition… however, I guess… I guess we were just kidding ourselves. It was idiotic to believe them.”
“W-what are you talking about?” Claire blinked.
The man looked at Claire, his face only showing sorrow. “I alone, am the reason so many people have died… or worse. I helped make something… something horrible. Something I thought would benefit my world, help us make the lives of not just our own, but the entire Galaxy, better, but in the end, they were only going to use it for war.”
“What? You mean, you created the Jupitain?” Claire asked, starting to get angry.
“Worse.” The man said, looking at the floor again. “Something much, much worse. Without a controller… a master, Experiment Six is mindless, savage. However, when controlled, they can do and will do, anything they’re told. We made, that master… and it… it was ruthless.”
Claire grimaced, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You're confused… I get it. I know you’ve been hiding among the Kelisians for a long time… your people have been traumatized, and you know… so, so little, but you're going to need to get over that, and quickly.”
The man pointed at Claire’s new hand, “That, connected to your arm, is a Meta-Core. A Cyrus-enhanced machine, designed to transform into anything, and everything… well, anything not organic at least. It’s a limitless amount of potential, connected to you.”
“What?” Claire asked automatically.
“It’s all right.” The man chuckled sadly, “I wouldn’t expect you to understand it… but, the Meta-Gene, the only reason you’re still breathing right now, is inside you, inserted into you during your conception. The rarest, most incredible thing, most likely in the entire Universe. It is a mysterious, and marvelous gift, that can control the form of the Meta-Core, without the Dark matter from the Core, corrupting your body, and killing you.”
“This thing… my left hand, can transform, into anything?” Claire asked, her fear turning into skepticism. “Computer… gun, engine… anything, even with all those components and circuits, it just, makes them? All of those things?”
The man nodded. “You can create all of those things… however, it comes with a cost, when you create something, the more detail put into it… the more energy is drained from your body.”
“How… how does it work?” Claire gaped.
“Every somewhat of a genius in the Universe has been trying to determine that since it’s discovery. It’s one of those things science can’t explain… although many have given very reasonable explanations, they never truly solve everything. Explanations vary, when the Dark matter is combined with a metal-like solid, it will turn into something called Meta-Core, and when the Meta-Gene connects with the Meta-Core, well, the Meta-Core’s very molecules can be changed or transformed at will. That’s the most compelling explanation I’ve heard anyway.”
“Wait a second,” Claire laughed a little when realizing this, “If this thing is that powerful, then why would that blue guy have it put on me?”
“He wouldn’t, he was watching through the E6’s visor the entire time, I injected you with a fake serum so that he would think you were dead, then I told him that I would extract the gene from your body… however, even if I wanted to, the gene’s already ruined. Even if he made a perfect clone of you, which is surprisingly easy to do, the gene would kill it. It is connected to you only… the way you think, act, are. It is blended to you, and you only.”
“So, if you had just taken the gene out of me, without attaching the Meta-other thing, that guy could’ve just killed me, no side effects.”
“Yes.” The man answered.
“Why?” Claire whispered.
“Karalus is a psychopath. It was understandable at first… his entire world, gone, because of me, but then… then it just became barbaric. When his anger began to fade, and he began questioning himself… he started, injecting himself with small doses of Dark matter. In any dose, it kills you. No matter what, unless you have a Meta-Gene, but the time varies. Varies from minutes to hours, to days… months, years. He took his chances, and so far, it’s worked out for him. The matter’s boosted his intelligence, helped him develop a new type of stealth tech, but it’s also fueled his rage.” The man sighed. “I couldn’t let this… this monster commit another genocide over this galaxy… it’s suffered enough already.”
After a short pause, Claire glanced at her new left hand, still restrained, “I wish you would’ve put it on the other one, I’m right handed,” Claire said, glumly.
Suddenly, footsteps started to echo from the hallway.
The scientist whispered to Claire in utter seriousness, “Lay down, and pretend to be dead, do. Not. Breathe. Visors scan heartrate too but… it’s the only thing you can do.”
The door opened, and in came the blue man. Karalus. Two Jupitain bodyguards trailed in behind him. Both of them were carrying laser rifles.
“Well, how’s my new asset doing, updates?” Karalus asked in a fake upbeat tone, trying to hide what seemed to be stress.
“Sir, the procedure went how I predicted.” The scientist replied. “The patient is dead, but the Meta-Gene is still unharvestable.”
Karalus frowned, disappointed. “I kept you alive for one, special little reason my friend… you were smart. That’s the only reason you’re still standing here, facing me!” Karalus leaned in, eerily close to the scientist, face to face. “If I didn’t need you, I would’ve killed you and erased you Cyrisian scum as soon as I found you're little… colony, but no, I kept you around, and you only, because you’re my key to unlocking a power that could destroy my republic’s only threat.”
Karalus stepped back, breathing heavily, “My… vengeance, is for the Kelisians, and the Kelisians only, but the Lore, they need to be exterminated as well. I’ve spent decades, studying their technology, analyzing their strategies… and there’s nothing special about it, certainly not as impressive as the Nova Alliance. The only advantage they have is Gold matter. They use it for their ships, their weapons, and their city… and it outmatches Cyrisian tech, every. Single. Time. If they were to, learn about my plan, while in motion, everything would be ruined.”
“I understand sir.” The scientist said.
“Oh please, you have to say that… I know how you feel about me Riois, about how I killed every, single, last Cyrisian refugee, and you think I’m insane for it… but give literally anyone the opportunity to do what I did, and all of them would agree to it. You helped infect this galaxy with a cancer, and nobody would ever forgive you for it.” Karalus looked down at Claire, “Not even this, insect, of an organism.”
“Sir, scan of subject; human, completed, vital signs detected.” Screeched one of the Jupitains.
Karalus gave Riois a smug look, and without even hesitating, pulled out a blue laser pistol, and shot at Claire. If the surge of energy had hit Claire in the head, she would’ve died… but it didn’t. The surge of energy, in the span of half a millisecond, was repelled by a piece of metal, that shot out of Claire’s Meta-Core hand at the speed of light. The piece of metal hit the wall, and stayed there, engraved in it like a bullet.
Before Karalus could fire again, Riois charged into Karalus at full speed, knocking him to the floor. The two Jupitains immediately shot him, hitting him three times in the back with a voll
ey of laser bolts.
During that, Claire effortlessly freed herself from her left-hand restraint, the Meta-Core hand breaking through like it was nothing. Then, she pulled the other restraint off, and without even thinking slightly, transformed her Meta-Core hand into a laser cannon.
Phoom! Phoom! She shot the Jupitain on the left in the stomach, doing nothing but alerting it of her presence. Claire cursed as it started shooting at her. Claire flipped the operating table over so that it could provide cover. The Jupitain’s visors had special aim enhancing modules installed in them, so one of the Jupitains easily shot Claire in the arm because it was out of cover.
Claire cried out in pain, holding her arm, and wincing. She cringed as the energy crackled in her wound, making it more painful. She cowardly inched above her cover, to peek at the Jupitains, then jerked back down when they immediately started to fire at her. Karalus pushed Riois’s corpse off of himself, and jumped to his feet, brushing his war jacket energizingly.
“Come on Claire… you know you don’t wanna do this. Give up. You have no idea, what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
Claire started to think intensely about what to do. She could shoot at them, her aim was horrible… she was an asteroid clearer for a reason, but, she had to think — anything, literally anything. Claire started to hyperventilate slightly until she thought of something. Launcher… grenade launcher.
The Meta-Core accepted her request. She barely had to think about the details. It knew how she wanted it. It formed into a grenade launcher, little particles and metal fragments piecing together, all perfectly coordinated. Then, she fired. It made a poouum sound while leaving the barrel, and landed near Karalus and the two Jupitains. Karalus’s eyes widened when he realized what it was, and he shoved one of the Jupitains into it, before sprinting out of the room.
Pazouch! A ball of electricity engulfed the two Jupitains, causing their visors to go black, and make them disperse into dark goo. She looked over the table, and hopped over it, not seeing anything dangerous. She looked at the puddles of Dark matter, impressed that she actually managed to kill two Jupitains. Then she looked at the scientist… Riois. He was dead, and he had sacrificed himself to save her. Claire looked at his body for a few seconds, until she heard an ear-piercingly loud alarm blare through the hallway.
“Attention all E6 soldiers on board,” Karalus screeched through the intercom, “We have a hostile Meta-Gene on this ship, arm yourselves, and be prepared for anything! Do not let her escape; put the entire ship on lockdown!”
The Jupitain horn of death blared through the halls. Apparently, that was the sound they used for everything, thought Claire.
She ran through a dimly lit hallway until a door started closing in front of her. Before it could hit the ground, she slid under it. Another one caught her off guard, it slammed into the ground, leaving her trapped between the other door. She remade a laser cannon and fired. The impact blew a giant hole through the two-foot-thick door, leaving metal pieces scattered across the hallway.
Claire gasped, smiling broadly. This is unreal, she thought.
Then, she saw at least forty Jupitains at the other end of the hallway; they had run from a nearby checkpoint. One saw her and roared. Claire cursed, then quickly leaped back through the hole she had made in the security door. The Jupitains fired a rain of red laser bullets at the door, not causing any real damage except some burn marks on the outer metal.
They started to move in closer, slowly. They were being extra cautious. Claire tried to think, but panic was starting to get to her head, she’d never had to deal with so many Jupitains at once before. She’d never even fought one before today. She never had such a powerful weapon before either though. She took a deep breath and tried to imagine what she could make, what she’d seen. Swords, shields, guns, ships… no way she could make a ship, she thought. The Meta-Core started to vibrate like it was ready to make one, and all it needed was for her to think of something.
She tried to think, all while the Jupitains were starting to get closer and closer. She didn’t want to make a United Worlds fighter jet, or a standard United Worlds flying saucer because they would be shot out of the sky immediately. Think, think, think. She remembered, the invasion of Earth, after the Jupitains destroyed the most important facilities of every continent from afar, they sent out their fighters to kill the soldiers, and capture citizens. That was it, a Jupitain fighter. It would blend in with Jupitain forces perfectly. She didn’t need a hangar, just her imagination.
She imagined the fighter. A hull that looked like a right side up boomerang, but the tips sharp and shorter, and the middle, a cockpit, with the guns at both sides of the cockpit, but when turned around, formed into small thrusters. Then, when the Meta-Core responded to her request, she felt, different… different than when she made the laser rifle. Like her entire body was losing strength, out of nowhere. She felt like she was… dying.
She grunted at the pain, but then as quickly as it had come, it vanished, along with some of her energy. Her eyelids started getting heavier, and she felt exhausted, but her Meta-Core was making results.
A hull was forming out of what used to be a laser cannon, pieces spread, linking with each other, creating all the sides, and pieces, even the holo-pad… out of itself.
“This is insane!” She yelled aloud, her energy returning slowly. Every single last detail was formed, nothing not-included, and Claire didn’t even have to think about the ship that much for her Meta-Core to understand.
Then, she heard a loud screech! Like metal colliding against metal. It was the outer parts of the ship trying to break out of the warship. Then, a scch, ticch, bvvoouum! A small section of the hallway’s roof was blown off, and so was part of the floor, revealing the top of another hallway.
The fighter was formed, but there were holes put into the bottom and top of the hallway, the tip showing from outside of the warship. The squad of Jupitains was blown into the vacuum of space, roaring. Since they weren’t living organisms, they just floated away slowly, unable to get back.
“Ok,” Claire said, “So how do I get out of here…” She was still stuck inside of a massive warship, and only punctured one hallway. She pressed a button on the touchpad, trying to activate the engines, but it wouldn’t work. “Can’t I make this English or something?” The language was just a bunch of symbols, most likely Cyrisian.
The top part of the fighter or shark tooth tip had cut through the top of the warship, showing from space, while the bottom had gone through the roof of another hallway.
Claire searched through a series of random symbols until she found one that looked promising. It looked like some sort of super speed, like the kind the Kelisians used to get across space at extraordinarily fast speeds. I-Hypotonic warp. She tapped it and waited for a few seconds. The engines started to hum, then roared to life, the energy burning the hallway.
The ship started to move into the metal of the warship’s outer shell at full speed, the engine ear-piercingly loud. It was beginning to break the hallway’s layers, little by little until the warship’s metal shell finally snapped with a loud pcchh!
The fighter sped into space, faster than light, leaving a trail of blue energy behind it.
Imptanius; Kelisian Gigantium-class Flying Saucer, Mars; 2027, August 1st
“You know, just because I’m human, doesn’t mean I’m stupid if that’s what your dad thinks.”
“What? No. That’s a careless accusation.”
“Well I mean it’s true, whenever he sees me the look on his face just says, ugh.”
She imitated the look she was describing. They both shared a laugh. She had dark blue eyes, with cut ginger hair, that only reached her shoulders.
“Abigail, I’m sure it’s not personal; he thinks that way about all the humans we rescued.”
She looked at him, her face saying, ‘thanks for making me feel better,’ sarcastically.
“How are the spies’ Intel?” She asked.
Imp
pressed a button on a smooth touchpad, and a sizeable spherical diagram appeared, of Earth.
“Hmm, there’s a new project going on right now in the… United States, that N.A.S.A. program hired a bunch of private companies to help them send another probe here… filled with more colonization supplies, hope it can’t see through stealth tech.”
“I doubt it can… the bathrooms here are more advanced than that place’s command center, so yea, I think we’re good.”
The two of them were sitting in white lounge chairs; the room was completely white, with some streaks of bright green along the walls.
“Imptanius, why haven’t the Martians shone yourselves to us yet, well at least the ones that haven’t been abducted.”
“I’ve told you this; we can’t interfere with primitive planet’s paths unless it’s an extreme emergency.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
Imp sighed. “It makes perfect sense. Every organism plays a role in the Universe; we have to wait and see what role humanity will take.”
“Then why are there humans here?”
“My father didn’t tell me much; he just said that the Main Leader chooses a select few to stay here, for a specific reason. If they want to stay, they can, but if they want to go back to Earth, they’ll have their memories wiped, and be returned to a safe location.”
“I’m glad I decided to stay,” Abigail said.
“Why’s that?”
“Because if I left, I would have never met you.” She leaned towards him, and they kissed.
What the Kelisians never told anyone, was that when they arrived at Mars one year before the Jupitains reached the Inner Solar System, they found something… horrific. The surface scans found massive metal catacombs under Mars’s surface, an ancient species used to live on the planet, the ‘real’ Martians, and they were not peaceful.
Underground, ruins of countless laboratories and hangars remained, along with corpses. Their skeletons looked like tiny elves, but bio scans looked into their previous appearance.
United We Stand Page 6