Outsider

[Laowai]

The Gunboat “Outsider” stood docked in the belly of the Battleship Fes. Her crew now well dispersed among the great ship's bar, liberally helping themselves to the food and beverages on offer. All of Elder Ben Laowai's crew members were known on the ship, and her acting captain; Commander Philip Alberto was well known to its officers.

They had come this time as escort to their Elder, flying beside his Gladiator as they made their way to the Fes. Upon docking, Laowai and his men had paid their customary dues to the Fes's commander and the drinking had begun.
Laowai however, did not join them... alone and without announcement he boarded his Gladiator sometime later and had headed out into Omega 47 to the small grey planet at the edge of the system.
Tangier.
It seemed almost like a second home to him at times. He had always remained loyal to Crete, he had sworn to protect it with his life - and yet Tangier had a special place in that most secret part of his heart and mind... It was here that he would retreat, it was here that he found peace, wrapped in the arms of his wife, Zarita, who had all those years ago, given up her physical life to save his and who now remained, preserved, trapped, eternally forever in the ancient crystal chamber buried deep under Tangier's surface.
This visit however, would not be like all the others, this would end differently, it was his hope and his dream that this time... he would not be leaving alone.

He knew. After all these years he knew what to do, and it amazed him that the answer to the problem had always been on Tangier itself, right where this had all began. The Corsairs of Tangier had no idea what they had discovered. He did, at least now he thought he did.
As he approached the bleak looking planet he banked his ship towards the sun and away to confuse the scanners of the orbiting Hessian Depot. Moving across to the far side of the planet he used line of sight to obscure his ship and took her down into the cloudy atmosphere. He broke through the clouds somewhere above the hidden Corsair colony, reaching beside his chair he placed his hand on the crystal stored there ***It's Laowai, putting her down in the usual place***.
A thought came back into his mind instantly ***Of course Ben... and welcome back***.
An Elder he might be on Crete, but here he was not - trusted as he was by the Corsairs who made this place home he would never be one of them, Zarita spoke for him.. and he had kept their secret for these long 30 plus years - but he had no rank here. These people had their own Elders, their own council... and they kept to their own set of rules.
He thrust the ship down towards the ground and a hollow beneath him began to open.... a large open cavern, the closest thing these Corsairs had to a spaceport. Its mouth was covered by large coated Timber gates which were opened by crude machinery adapted to the purpose. These machines would have run out of power years ago if Ben had not brought them fresh supplies, but he knew that it was only him that ever used these doors, the few ships the Corsairs of Tangier possessed, a Titan or two and an extremely antiquated freighter had not been flown in years; no one here had any desire to leave.
Landing the ship, Laowai climbed out of the cockpit as the room about him was plunged into darkness as its great wooden gates were closed overheard... a few spotlights around the cavern burst into light and shone the way to the mouth of the cave that exited the hangar. He was met at the mouth of the cave by a young Tangier Corsair he hadn't met before.
“Greetings” said Ben, “ive come to see my wife”.
“Of course” said the young man - You know the way of course, is there anything I can prepare for you?”

Ben shook his head - “No, That will be fine - could you please turn the power on to my quarters however?”
The man nodded and turned and left. Ben then made his way though the caverns and down its many twisting paths towards the crystal chamber. He passed people along the way, nodding politely and smiling - the younger ones he passed stared at him curiously, he was always a source of novelty for them; for most of them, he was the only off-worlder they had met, and indeed, would ever meet.

He continued downwards through the caverns and the tunnels, till he reached the area where the strange lights in the walls reacted to his presence and began to light up. A few Tangier families wandered past him, evidently having visited the chamber to visit friends and relatives... long gone. None of them new what he intended here - he wondered if it would truly work, and what would happen if it did.
He rounded the corner and pushed aside the heavy fabric covering, entering the chamber as he had so many times before. It shone with the same eerie brilliance it always had, and he noted, in exactly the same way the ancient chamber he had found on the Dyson Sphere. These places had a purpose he now knew, it was where things were born, and... thanks to the information he had gleaned while on the sphere, it was where he hoped Zarita would be reborn.

He took his Crystal from his pouch and wrapped his hand around it. She was with him instantly. ***Thank the gods your alive! Ive been worried sick!***

He thought the most reassuring thoughts he could towards her. ***im fine, im fine.. and I have good news***

She knew immediately what had happened of course, when linked this way, he hid nothing from her, and her him. She knew immediately what had happened, what he had learned, and what he intended to do.
He looked at one of the facing walls at the far end of the room and he heard her, ***It's in there... its been in there the whole time?!***

***Yes*** he returned ***and none of us knew***

He could feel her hesitating. Her questions filled his mind, almost faster than he could process them, ***But... what Will I be, Human? Not human? One of them? I mean... What are they Ben?***

He gave her the knowledge he had, that what possibly lay beyond that door was a shell, a vessel, something incomplete that had never taken true form, it was a vehicle for her with which she would live, breathe and walk again.
Her questions remained ***But what would I be?, here I'm... me, I know who I am, even though I have no form, no body, but my soul is intact*** , ***Does it even have a soul?***

He smiled ***It will my love, it will have yours, and you will be free, you can see the stars that I have shown you with your own eyes again***
He could feel her hesitating, part of her wanted it, part of her was driven to try as he was, and yet fear of the unknown remained - as far as he knew, and thus as far as she knew, no one had ever attempted this before, at least none Human that he knew of - and this was alien, ancient and something that despite his confidence, he hoped he understood.
She felt his doubt ***I know you think you know*** she said to him ***But you feel it yourself, no one knows.... ***
He wished he could see her, touch her - but it wasn't the right time for that event to take place, all he could do was let her feel his thoughts and feelings - this is what we have sought..... he passed onto her This is the answer we have wanted, this has been what I have chased all these years.....
Lastly, he felt her fear ***Ben... what if I die? if it can die, what if I die with it?... here, I live on forever, and when its your time... you will be here too... but out 'there', what happens?***

***Its life Zarita*** he thought ***and it will be our life out there, and I would never let anything or anyone hurt you.***

Standing on the precipice of the moment he felt her give way to the decision ***ok*** she said ***we have to try at least***.

He walked to the wall and placed her crystal in its niche. Immediately her voice was gone from the wider room as she passed her consciousness into the crystal and out of the chamber. He held it in his hand, in doing so he could still hear her. ***Lets do it then.... *** he felt her say to him.
He placed her crystal in his pouch and, still clutching his own, he stared at the point on the distant wall.
Nothing happened, so he focused his thoughts again... concentrating on the image that he had gleaned from his contact with the being on the Dyson Sphere, it was vague... distant... and yet

Chamber....

Suddenly, like mist clearing from a morning rain, part of the wall seemed to shimmer, it appeared translucent and then suddenly vanished. He raised his eyebrows in surprise, He wasn't sure even that would have worked.
He walked through the entrance carefully, not seeing anything in the gloom in front of him when was startled suddenly when the room burst into light, reacting as everything did here to a physical presence.
He shook his head, he really should be used to that by now. Entering the room he looked about him. The room looked completely bare, Crystal walls as the main chamber had, although these were interlaced with similar kinds of masonry and designs of the kind he had seen on the Dyson Sphere.
He was in the right place. Quickly looking behind him he tried to think of some kind of thought that indicated “Close” - the door however seemed to catch his drift and the wall seemed to coalesce again behind him, hiding him from sight should anyone else wander into the main chamber.
Yet, there seemed to be nothing here? He looked puzzled, this had to be the place... he ran his mind back over what he had learned from the being and tried to recreate it in his mind. Focusing hard he thought Chamber... active.....

Again, nothing - He repeated it again and suddenly the room about him burst into activity. Walls shimmered and shifted, changing form as if being moulded instantly by skilled hands - the floor in front of him began to raise until it formed a pylon much like the ones he had seen previously. Around the room, one by one large cylindrical monoliths began to emerge from the wall, they moved forth slowly, each one standing at at least twice the height of a man. Large and round they were made up of two large stones, one atop the other separated in the middle by a gap in the stone. Each of these gaps lay empty, all save one.

From within the centre of this one a light shone out, illuminating the room about it. A Circular, shifting shape of light that seemed to dance within the confines of its pillars, twirling and changing silently powered by an unseen energy. Laowai stared at it... mouth agape... the vision he had seen had been right, this was it, this was what he had sought. It must be some kind of stasis chamber he thought to himself, but if it were it resembled nothing of similar technology made by human hands - and Human examples were only believed to last a few hundred years at best before they would need maintenance.... How long must this thing have been active? Thousands? Hundreds of Thousands of years?.....He wondered incredulously.

He reached in to his pouch and took out Zarita's Crystal, once more the moment he touched it she immediately knew what he knew, saw what he saw. He could feel her wonderment matching her own, behind that, her nervousness and uncertainty. He reassured her ***Soon my love, I will see you soon***.
He placed the crystal on the pylon in the centre of the room. He had no idea if that was what he was supposed to do, but the vision he had taken from the being seemed to indicate that this... whatever it was was going to look for something, that is if he managed to turn it on.
The final part of the puzzle came to his mind.... he sat down on the floor and held his own crystal in his hand... he tried to recreate the patterns that had entered his mind on the Sphere

Code... sequence.... code seq.....

Before he could even consciously think another thought a splitting pain coursed through his head, he doubled over and screamed in pain. He tried to drop the crystal but he was unable to move his muscles and his hand gripped it like an iron vice... ***Code 'remember' errors/regret awaken*** a thought burst from his mind, but it was not his. He fought against the pain now raging inside his skull and as he did it seemed to subside....he collapsed onto the floor, water filling his eyes and a cold feeling of shock beginning in his stomach “What the hell......?” he said out loud, when a sound from across the room caught his attention.
The monolith with the light was moving..... It shifted forward slightly, its massive stone base scraping on the floor below it, the light from within it seemed to dance faster now, turning and shifting more erratically. Laowai propped himself up on one arm, and steadying himself against the wall he managed to get to his feet.
As he did, a blinding flash of light filled the room - it circled the room once and then focused on the pylon in the centre, flashing up and over it moved across the base and then over the top, lingering for just a moment on Zarita's crystal as it passed over it. Then, almost as fast as it had appeared the light vanished back within the monolith.

Silence.

Ben dashed across the room in a panic, he grabbed the crystal frantically.
She wasn't there.
Panic began to set in when the monolith began to move again, in shock all he could do was stare it it. It slid back into its wall recess and the light within it seemed to grow. It filled the centre of its cell and then continued growing, its light seemed to glow brighter, brighter, spilling outside the chamber that had held it and growing still - no longer dancing, now it had began to form a solid ball of light, glowing brighter and brighter.
Ben shielded his eyes, covering them with his hands and peering through the gaps and still the light burned brighter.
Then suddenly it was gone, there was a crack and a hiss and suddenly within the monolith itself there glowed a strange, glowing translucent blue form, the light faded and the form slipped out of the monolith and slipped to the floor with a liquid thud.
Ben stood over it.... What was it? It looked like... nothing? It had no shape, and yet it did, it seemed organic, and yet it moved and glowed with an energy that seemed to glow from all around it. This looked liked nothing he had seen before, certainly not like any of the organic remains of Nomads he had studied over the years, this looked different, it looked almost like..... their ships....

*** aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargghghhhhhh***!!!! a scream of raw agony pierced his thoughts, a terrified, wild and uncontrolled emotion that invaded his mind without pause or consideration. The force of it knocked him off his feet for the second time. Gatherthing himself up quickly he tried to focus, but realised he didnt have his crystal in his hand, it was still somewhere on the floor where he had dropped it and as he moved to try and find it it came again ***AAAAARRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH***. The thought rang out with the same intensity of a mother in the throes of the agony of birth, it bombarded his mind with a force like nothing he had felt before and he cried out “For the Love of Crete what......”

*** AAAAAAAAAAARRGGHHHHH BEN WHAT.........!!?! * Terror * ***

He leapt up, “Zarita!” he called out desperately, no longer bothering to try and find the crystal, “ Zarita is it you?”
The shape on the floor moved, erratically at first, shifting shape and form and moving as if unable to control itself, it rolled towards him and then slivered away, shifting again and then once more a scream of agony pierced his mind... but this time.. it did not stop.

***AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH***!!!!!

It crashed into his mind like a tsunami demoloshing any defences he had and completely overwhelming him, he grasped his hands to his temples and tried to stop it but on and on it came, an endless piercing wail that had no sound but was at the same time deafening, pain gripped his head and he began to scream out loud.
His voice filled the chamber and seemingly echoed the one in his head that none save him could hear.
Yet the sound began to change, it began to leave his head, the pain began to subside, he stopped screaming, and yet there was still a scream in the room, a piercing, human sound, terrified and unmistakeably female.

He took his hands from his head. There, at the foot of the monolith, shaking and screaming, was Zarita.

He shot across the room and gripped her arms, her real, tangible physical arms - she looked at him in terror, wide eyed and startled. “By god” he said in sheer amazement, he gripped her face, holding her steady - “Zarita, its me... its Ben... by god it worked....”

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