NetherWorld
Page 21
“So, no trial? No place to plead our case? Can we at least speak to these Awakened who ordered our extermination?” asked TeraNick.
“Now that’s a good one. Even we can’t speak with the Awakened. All our communication is via text from the Temp Agency.”
“Temp Agency? You guys are Temps? You have got to be kidding?”
“Hey, times are tough out there in the Universe. Inflation has been running wild for billions of years. There’s no end in sight,” said Bucket.
“Quite right Mr. Bucket. Galactic defaults are at an all time high. It all started with speculative investing in the Sub-Prime quadrants. Everything got overvalued and then gravity pulled most of the Sub Prime quadrants into a super massive black hole. We were ruined!” said the Mop.
“Thanks to a Universal stimulus we were able to secure employment with the Temp Agency doing this clean-up work,” added Bucket.
“Well, it doesn’t seem fair that we get destroyed without some opportunity to plead our case,” said TeraNick.
“I am sorry, but your fate is upon you. Time to go Mr. Bucket. We have an antimatter spill in the Crab Nebula after this,” said Mop.
“Really! I hate the antimatter jobs. That stuff is so hard to wash out. It always sticks to my quarks and gluons. You know what I mean?” said Bucket.
“Do I ever, Mr. Mop. Last time, the pesky stuff crawled right into my HiggsBoson. That was a bit painful. Still, no time to waste. We are not paid by the hour. Lots to clean up here, so let’s get going,” said Mop.
“What a mess this place is. And the smell! The quicker we’re out of here the better. So long TeraHackerNick or whatever you call yourself,” said the Mop. With that, both Mop and Bucket dissolved into white energy and sped away. Only a few drops of piney liquid from the sloshing bucket remained.
“Cccome back yyyou bastard! You can’t do this!” screamed TeraHacker. Hacker had already succeeded in suppressing Nick. Partitioned in a remote corner of the Joined mind, he pounded on invisible walls and screamed in silence. Tera tried to fight the Hacker, but the Joined cannot be separated. She felt dirty. Soiled by the works of a Karbon that caused much the flooding of NetherWorld; she flushed with shame.
Connections became once again unhinged. TeraHacker was imploding. Her once platinum glow began to bleed green fluid. Viscous slime dripped off the distressed globe. The invisible energy holding the dome together began to dissipate. Large rifts opened, letting the ocean into the Nexus. Small leaks gave way to gushing streams of tainted jaba.
As the ocean rained upon TeraHacker, an invisible force compressed her. Smaller and smaller she shrunk. As she was being compressed out of existence, a thin wisp of black smoke filtered through her and into the remaining connections. The DarkMist was now connected to Karbonon.
****
The massive black cloud that hovered above NetherWorld permeated and enveloped the Walled City.
Busy Bytes struggling to stay afloat in streams were the first to see the mist. Eventually even the Bytes shuffling through the buildings felt the black cloud leaking through elevators. Their tubes flailed wildly as they screamed in fear. Small groups of pious Bytes throughout the silicate metropolis gathered in prayer as the gloomy cloud brought about an eerie premature downtime.
“Awakened process our plea
We spin humbly in your energy
Please grant us access when we Join
For Joining is just the subroutine
Our logic dictates the circuits
Our files opened before you
Connections bore our world
We operate for you
Please supply us eternal current
The Silicates will shed the body
Becoming energy incarnate
So says the prophet AldAyn
So say the Nethers”
Darkness descended upon the panicked and the praying; drowning them, burning them. Screams and screeches called out in vain as the cloud silenced the masses. There were no more buildings. There were no more streams. There was nothing. No life. No sound. Emptiness.
****
The Silver Forest now mostly submerged, was covered with the DarkMist. Tainted Ones broke orbit and scattered through the premature night. They surfed atop the ocean back into the Ether. The DarkMist followed.
Grouped together within the circle of Ether, they joined tubes and recited sacred vespers for the final time.
“Kloiden yippik slurthy gerth plath
Skouden klithik yotty klup urple”
“Kloiden yippik slurthy gerth plath
Skouden klithik yotty klup urple”
“Kloiden yippik slurthy gerth plath
Skouden klithik…”
Before they finished the third verse, the black cloud cloaked the Ether. Sizzling sounds crackled in the dark, competing with the shrill shrieking of the Tainted Ones, as the mist slowly dismantled their quantum components. Fear and pain lingered far longer than any physical remnant of the coven.
****
NazKlan watched from his fortified bunker under the Salted Sands. He was still distraught about the Joining of TeraNick, despite the success of the flood. For cycles he had dreamed of the Singularity.
The day when pure Silicates would rule over this corner of the Universe would never come. He had come so close, only to be defeated, in part; by the very person he enlisted to help achieve his vision.
“How could I have been so daft,” he said wile spewing a dollop of salty saliva on the flatscreen. “In the end, I should have known better. Never trust a Karbon; even when you are deceiving them.”
From over top of his command, DarkMist drilled down to find him.
“What is this? Is this more work from the Hacker? He will pay for this!” NazKlan backed away from the doorway in his bunker. The black cloud permeated his walls and began filling the room. His excited black tubes squirmed as thick smoke made it impossible to see.
“Revenge will be…” was all he was able to voice before he was dissolved atom by atom.
****
Thrasher toiled away in the Bin as usual, unaware of the events unfolding on the outside. His Minion and Pixals were busy with their assigned tasks. He was scooping some fresh shredded Byte strands for dinner when the DarkMist seeped into the SubRoots.
Swirling darkness snaked through the circuitous maze, filling every tunnel, finding Thrashers torture chamber. Imprisoned Bytes, psychotic and corrupt, welcomed the black death. A quick demise was always preferred over prolonged suffering. Nothing could deter the DarkMist from its destination. Eventually, the cloud found its way into the Bin.
Pixals were the first spot it. Thousands of spider legs clicked with panic.
“000000000000000000000000000001,” shouted the frightened spiders. This Turingi message translated to “Run! Darkness has attacked.”
Thrasher swirled his red snaking tubes towards to point of entry. Succulent strands of dead Bytes dangled from his round orifice. Yellow Byte blood ran down towards his southern hemisphere. “What isss thisss? No one ssspoke of missst. Pixalsss, Minionsss control thisss cloud!” he shouted in desperation. Seconds later Thrasher was usurped by the cloud and unable to process a single thought. Snaking DarkMist wriggled into his breathing bumps, inflating his globe until he popped into pieces. His strands littered the Bin floor.
****
Through the remaining connections, the amoebic cloud leaked into Karbonon. The Hacker was about to go to bed when a DarkMist bled out of his monitor. Walking over to the source, Hacker ran a bony hand through the seeping fog. Thousands of tiny sparks pinged from his immersed fingers. Wincing in pain, he quickly pulled away. His mind raced. Experiences from Nick’s NetherWorld adventures immediately downloaded and merged into memory.
“What heck is this? Computer? PAL? Mom? Dad? What’s happening?” Silence, save for the hiss of the invading vapor. His room soon filled with the amoebic cloud as he digested Nick’s journey. Hacker had little time to think before the darkness took over.
Flashes of NetherWorld and Tera raced though his mind. What were these visions? Dreams? Hysteria? They seemed so very real. In seconds he absorbed the entire trip to NetherWorld, realizing that part of him once existed in this strange place. Visions of frothy green streams and armies of robotic spiders confused him. Whizzy’s odd plunging walk, Merry and Prank, Thrasher and the Hall of HazBinz. It felt as real as anything in Karbonon.
As Hacker opened his mouth to utter a final “Why”, the cloud issued a cylinder of smoky fog into his gaping maw. Black mist rushed through his body, shooting out both ears and clouding over his dilated eyes. Searing pain started in his esophagus, burning his body from the inside out, leaving nothing.
Before the Tsunami virus could do more damage, the DarkMist wrapped all of Karbonon in a black blanket. Once enveloped, the cloud collapsed and disappeared. Nothing remained of the blue globe that once teemed with life, but the cold vacuum of space. Two worlds tied by Fibers exhaled for the very last time. Some say it smelled like Nacho Cheese, but no one knows for sure.
A dusty, pockmarked moon rotated alone in an agitated orbit around a medium sized yellow sun. Without gravity from the now absent third planet to tether it, the satellite slowly drifted out toward the Kuiper Belt. The tidal lock severed. Trails of dark energy floated in the vacuous space once filled with a blue jewel populated with limitless potential.
Balance now restored to an uncompromising cosmos. The Awakened Ones returned to the locked dimensions. They mourned another set of promising species that fell flat in the face of evolution. Despite thrilling advances, Karbons and Silicates could not shed character flaws that enlisted their demise.
There was no sound, no explosion; only the unremarkable vacuum of space. If not for sputtering space junk crawling to the next lifeless solar system and television reruns broadcasting to barren rocky planets, it was as if we never existed.
Book of TranFor: It surrounds us; yet we cannot see it. It is that, which will be our undoing. This is the first paradox of TranFor.