Chapter 76 - Through The Looking Glass

Most herald the greatness of Wolf Gustafson's son Sigmund and tend to forget or ignore the treachery of his father.  Many prescribe to a revisionist view of history, but among the Gustafson clan the bitterness runs deep and some continue to view their ancestor with disdain.

Taking on the name of 'Wolf' was often viewed as praising Sigmund who took on that mantle as a title of distinction and many generations of Gustafson men since have carried it in that way.  Wolf Gustafson, changed the meaning and breaking tradition by honoring a traitor.

It was never shared openly, loyal soldiers of Wolf Gustafson helped end his misery and his stay on the island was brief with a mercy killing.  The soldiers were found wanting and themselves punished and tortured severely.  The fate of their descendants became intertwined with the Gustafson's who share home on Triton station and are the most loyal of their crew.

Captain Wolf often debates with his sister Louise on the fate of their namesake and were it not for the heroism of Sigmund their line would have diminished and decayed.  It was incredible to consider the unnamed teacher's blood flowed through other descendants of Wolf Gustafson through Sophie marking their clan with greater prominence.

Louise cast shade on the notion and felt anyone who lived during those turbulent times were marked for distinction as so few survived the frequent wars and devastation.  In time all the blood lines would intertwine and a future descendant could claim right to everything.

She had recently returned from another deep space adventure with Yuna.  They crewed a new ship the Excalibur and were making great progress in understanding faster than light travel.  The Excalibur was specially designed and retrofitted to exact specifications at Triton station by Yuna and several other engineers from both the inner and outer rims.  Ignoring fuel considerations they could achieve a distance of 100,000 light years in an hour, but it would be a one way trip.  They determined the optimum duration was closer to a week to ensure multiple jumps.  The Excalibur could then feasibly travel 100 times further on the same amount of fuel.

Louise was giving her goodbyes to her brother as Yuna was preparing for a possible route to the edge of the universe and estimated it would take 30 years one way.  She would not see Wolf again until they were both in their 90s.  And if they discover the edge is not the end, they will likely push further to the limits to the feasible maximum of their fuel and supplies would allow.  A maximum of 100 billion light years.

They spoke of the future and she left in Wolf's care her three daughters from a previous marriage.  The eldest was near the age of recruitment into the sisters and while she was initially against it, she relented as Sophie Gustafson showed considerable promise.  The others would make capable housewives.

Wolf's own growing family of seven children assured there would be another generation of Gustafson's and he wished his sister well on her final journey.  He however had more difficult matters to attend to as he was assigned command of Tiersias and its military installation.  He heard stories of the place from others who he held in high regard and was visibly shaken by what they told of secret experiments and the existence of monstrous hybrids.  He was very upset when he learned of the defection of Ul-Kaine as they were dear friends and this raised suspicions among the Loyalists who questioned his own devotion to the cause.

It made him angry as he trusted Ul-Kaine and held him the highest regard above all others.  But it made him harbor self doubt and fearfully he admitted privately only to Louise that something serious must have happened to cause someone like Ul-Kaine to defect and renounce the Proto-Artesians.  Ul-Kaine was in command of the previous research facility on Despina and little is shared beyond whispers that something terrible befell the scientists and soldiers stationed there.

The captain, a colleague of Wolf's who was assigned the task of cleaning up Despina suddenly committed suicide a short while after and most of his crew also died in mysterious and unusual ways.  In ever increasing circles, he feels something or someone is picking off all of his trusted friends and feels relieved that Louise would embark on a long journey far, far away from the intrigue.

Louise surprised Wolf when she asked for his advice on the matters of her ex-husband.  They married at a young age and were both assigned as junior officers aboard their first training vessel.  They were together for seven years and divorced on good terms.  He was once a promising officer, but the stress from several difficult assignments damaged his resolve and he retired to a desk job on Triton.  That wasn't the reason they separated as most would assume, but it was more on his terms and she felt she owed him a debt.

There are no debts between lovers was Wolf's automatic response.  To claim otherwise is to assume the principle of ownership.  Either party can choose to stay or fall out of love at anytime and any burdens are their own.  He had since remarried to a woman more suitable and by all measures is happy and content.  Louise envies him as he found what he wanted very early in life and she continues to search for her purpose.

Chapter 75 - Tiersias

Hera the ninth planet in our solar system was the last to be discovered and found about a century ago by the Proto-Artesians.  It had an unusual orbit that would randomly dip close to Neptune then veer off.  The planet was found by accident and initially one of its moons Tiersias was the first planetary body to be discovered and it too had an unusual orbit that brought it several hundred thousand miles near Hera and at other times stretched over a hundred million miles away.  This made the moon the perfect home for a secret military base.

There were no existing installations from before the end times and it was assume that either they never discovered Hera or for reasons unknown they chose not to colonize.  The irony, although astronomers have theorized the existence of a ninth planet, none could prove it existed, but many had given it a name and one of them was fittingly Hera.

Before relocating to Tiersias, the Proto-Artesians conducted heinous experiments on Despina and used unwitting volunteers.  Led by Dr. Maude Tilden, a rival of Dr. Hsiang when they both worked together on Despina, she performed unspeakable tests in attempting to create a viable human and brain worm hybrid.  Her experiments involved implanting a brain worm symbiote into a human body.  She succeeded, but at a terrible cost.

Most of the volunteers died soon after a symbiote was implanted and only through the sacrifice of her own daughter was she able to create a stable hybrid.  A few others degenerated and began to feed on the hapless researchers and lab technicians, necessitating in calling in an elite unit of Proto-Artesian soldiers who lost half a division destroying the hybrids.  The Proto-Artesian elite gloated at the death count confirming the destructive potential of the hybrids.

Dr. Tilden evacuated with her daughter, the only surviving hybrid and a few members of her research staff and relocated to Tiersias where she assumed command and worked to perfect the process.  Sister marines proved the most viable candidates and a team of soldiers waited on Despina and were rewarded with the capture of Enya and the other sister marines.

Of the eleven captured, only four survived the gruesome experiments.  They were inundated with the thoughts of billions of years of Alpha Centauri that had been feasted upon by the brain worms and some were reduced to a catatonic state.  Enya was the only one who exhibited any capability to resist the brain worms and became a perfect hybrid.

Enya was trained by Dr. Tilden's daughter Madeline who instructed her on dream travel and together they began to raid and destroy several strongholds of the brain worms, including iG's homeworld.  They were encouraging a detente and to strike a bargain with the brain worms and the Proto-Artesian elite.  They almost succeeded, had Deacon and I not intervened.

I recognized almost immediately the silhouette in the recordings and it was Enya.  I felt sick to my stomach realizing my poor sister had become a monster, as Deacon described what was done to the others including Dr. Tilden's own daughter.  The brain worms were also aware and could not stop the hybrids who were able to hide their identities and move about freely.  They were wrecking havoc on their dwindling food supplies and pushed them to threat of extinction from a projected billion years to only a few million years and at their pace, they could wipe out the brain worms.

They beseeched both of us help them and would agree to any terms.  We pondered privately at the thought of allowing them to succeed as it would eliminate a serious threat, but we knew their real goal was to ensure only the Proto-Artesians had the power of a hybrid and would eventually turn around and unleash that destruction.

They would succeed in carving out an existence for only the Proto-Artesians and achieve a sort of transcendence even Zal could not have predicted.  He quivered in his brain case whenever the hybrids were near and he had not felt such fear realizing the incredible potential of what he viewed as inferior and puny beings.

Maude gave a glance and a menacing smile when she chatted with Zal and pondered a loud if she could created a success chimera of all three.  Zal decried it as an abomination and she conceded she could not anticipate the consequence of combining the three species.  But the mere thought crossed her mind, terrified Zal who watched her many macabre experiments and her utter lack of remorse or care.  She carved up live specimens without anesthesia as she felt it heightened her ability to make micro-adjustments when she could see them in pain.

The hybrids obeyed Maude without hesitation.  Whenever they were not needed they remained in stasis, floating in a gel-like substance that sustained and rejuvenated their bodies.  The hybrids could not survive for more than a few days outside of the gel vats as the brain worm symbiote progressively caused the human bodies to decay rapidly.  It was a limitation of the transformation process and something Maude desperately wanted to correct to produce a truly terrifying new weapon.

They kept the stasis chambers a secret and limited the missions to no more than 24 hours at a time.  Outside of a few senior researchers, few knew of this limitation and most were told the stasis gel was meant to sedate and numb the overwhelming urges of the brain worms to feed.  This was only half-true.

Enya and Madeline did not sleep while in stasis and were awake and cognizant.  Another side effect and they could only sleep when they dream travel.  Eventually, their human brains will collapse into madness and Maude predicted it would be less than a year she would lose them both and raced to perfect her process.  She learned of me from Enya and was dismayed when she was informed I was purportedly may have been killed while in Vega.  Her interest then was drawn towards our half-sister Felicia and she made plans to send a team of Proto-Artesian soldiers to find her and bring her back to Tiersias.

Chapter 74 - Riella of Hyperion

The famed sister marine Riella of Hyperion was a favorite of Enya's.  She knew everything about her and emulated her same fighting stance when sparring with other students.  She yearned to be just like her, the greatest of battle maidens.

Riella fought in the battle of the Saturnian moons and rescued many of her sisters during that pitch brawl.  Riella sacrificed herself at a pivotal moment by latching onto an enemy star ship.  She had several belts of explosives wrapped around her body and she made herself into a large bomb.

Riella was also deemed a traitor who had maintained contact with the rogue sisters and with Anna Three's mother Diana.  The two were rumored to be lovers and they had hoped to restore the shattered bonds between the Houses of Anna and Olivia.  This did not come to pass and some even claimed the battle of the Saturnian moons was staged to simply find a suitable reason to execute Riella.  As much a traitor, she was held in high regard by many of the younger sisters and initiates and her death in glorious battle would prove more useful to reinforce the principles of the sisters than an ignominious death.

She had a son with a common man on Triton.  They named him Arlen and unbeknownst to him his heritage, only that he was always under the kind eye of Diana and later her daughter Anna Three.  This made him a target of opportunity for Pei, but when she learned who his famous mother was she swore off killing him.  She toyed with the thought of having a child with Arlen, while of no better bloodline than Linst, Riella was a famous sister marine and Naoka would not have disapproved.  Pei was star struck as he had his mothers eyes and auburn hair, while a more masculine build, he did pass a striking resemblance.

Although not expressly forbidden, no one was allowed to tell Arlen the truth about his mother.  He only was told that she had abandoned him as a baby, which was true, but did so to fight and die near Hyperion.

He had no regrets and his father had shared that she loved him and cared for him deeply.  She named him after her own grandfather who was a famous soldier in his day.  Alas, they did not have family names and Arlen was a popular name.

He did suspect that she was something special and not from Triton.  After Pei's death, he finally learned of Riella and his heritage.  A sister marine, carrying the banner and scabbard of the fallen Riella arrived at the Himetsu while bringing word of Pei's death.  It was a rare honor granted by madam Sophia.

Arlen was besides himself as he learned of Pei's death and at the same time of his famous mother.  All he could do was keep himself busy and continued serving customers until he closed the shop and sat alone on the roof top looking towards Vega.

Chapter 73 - Deacon

Pei is dead.  I was alone in my room on an upper level of the Betelguese Laboratories of Dr. Peter Hsiang.  He treated me as his guest, but I was more a lab rat.  I had time to console myself and shed tears for her.  She had been my teacher and prepared me for the difficult moments in my life and I would now face them alone.

Deacon paid a visit, as he always did every evening after dinner.  He was still involved in Dr. Hsiang's research and spent less time on dream travel.  They were working to perfect the inhibitor drugs that both Ilara and myself were taking on a daily basis.  I was developing a tolerance faster than Ilara which both surprised and troubled them.

I was now taking about 10 micrograms compared to 3 micrograms for Ilara.  At the present rate they expected I would hit the safe limit of 15 micrograms and would have to cease treatment.  They gave me about three months before that would happen, but were uncertain as my resistance to the inhibitors was growing exponentially.

They provided the drugs in a serum that we injected every morning.  Deacon was able to reduce the dosage for a while by having me injected in smaller amounts throughout the day.  I would take 3 to 4 shots of 2 or 3 microgram doses.  The drugs were very powerful and I felt nausea and during the worst of it an induced vertigo.

Deacon no longer took the inhibitors as he exceeded the safe limit and would sometimes be forced to take a brief dream trip to reset himself.  He hasn't dream traveled in a while and avoids the topic when I ask him.  Finally, he told me that on a recent trip the brain worms began to swarm towards him and he could feel a sense of anger and hatred.  They must have discovered what we are doing and are showing their hostility.  He narrowly escaped his most recent encounter a week ago, but knows he must make another trip soon.

Once you are off the inhibitors, you have to travel every few days otherwise your brain begins to experience excruciating headaches and your body begins to shut down.  It's something Dr. Hsiang is trying to solve.

I asked if we could go together on his next dream travel and he reluctantly agreed.  Dr. Hsiang was open to the idea and allowed me to halt the injections.  I felt lightheaded and a sudden rush of euphoria and Deacon said he suffered the opposite with painful withdrawal symptoms.  He had been tested with an earlier version of the drug that proved addictive.

We found a comfortable spot in one of the domed gardens and Dr. Hsiang ensured our privacy.  Ilara joined us, although she wasn't dream traveling with us.  She agreed to monitor us as she was familiar with the signs if something were to go wrong and how to bring us back safely.

Deacon and I agreed to enter through a junction and head towards iG's planet.  We found the void empty, with the exception of the crystalline strings and plucked the one that pulled us towards our destination.  I had a sense of foreboding as I saw not a single trace of a brain worm and we could see millions of miles in all directions, nothing.

We reached iG's planet and found it too had changed.  The plants were wilting or dying.  The shadow robots were nowhere to be found and I could only seem dim lights from the various sleep towers.  We rushed to the nearest one and found each of the doors, spanning the long corridor were dim and empty.  All of the sleeping Alpha Centauri were gone.  We went building to building, hallway to hallway and each was the same.  iG's world was now completely devoid of sentient life.

The only light still flickering brightly was from the Library.  Deacon took me there and the glowing orbs were now a crimson red and crackled.  I pulled forward an orb and it showed me what had happened as it was a record of the planet.  The power source maintaining the sleep towers had been shut off and slowly everything went with it.  We saw what appeared to be a humanoid figure walking about and assumed it must have been another human dream traveler, possibly one of the Proto-Artesians who were trained on Despina.

Deacon tried to remember and recalled there were at least 3 others who managed to survive Zal's training and at least one he believed could have mastered these abilities.  We decided not to linger any longer and attempted to return to void, but found our way blocked and we remained stuck on iG's world.

I then heard a familiar whisper, it was Sam.  He began to reform and wiggled out my hand.  He was the size of a small inch worm, but I could see his face and he smiled.  Deacon also realized his brain worm had returned.  They had not been killed, but merely incapacitated and recently awakened from their slumber.  Sam was not upset as he smugly replied and wished to help us.  The other worms were blocking their ability to enter the void so they would beam up first to have a chat with them.  They had more pressing matters at hand as several billion Alpha Centauri were just wiped out of existence and this has diminished their food supply.

Sam immediately returned and signaled for both of us to join them in the void.  We arrived and were in shock as all we saw was a writhing mass of darkness spanning as far as the horizon.  Sam said this was but a few of the brain worms, but enough to share a voice for all.  They have been monitoring events as well and tracked another human who caused the destruction on iG's world and to their fear also knew of the location of other sleep farms.

The brain worms had no known defenses other than to shut off all access to the void and only allowed Deacon and myself to enter so they could observe us then possibly ask for our help.  Sam explained that without a sufficient food source, they would cease to exist and to their greater fear the void that was created by the Scion's would also collapse and disappear as well.  They had carefully calculated and had reserved enough Alpha Centauri to sustain them for the billion or so years it would take mankind to reach the equivalent stage of evolution to become a replacement food source, but now with the loss of iG's homeworld, they were reduced to a fraction of that timeframe.

Very soon there would be riots and war among the brain worms as they will fight over the dwindling food stock.  Sam was fearful of this as it could spillover to our reality.  The void in many ways is a mirror and when cracked in a certain way it can cause inconceivable consequences in our reflection.

Deacon shared with Sam that Dr. Hsiang was trying to evolve me into a Scion and I was making great strides.  Sam addressed the other brain worms who were suddenly hushed.  If a human could evolve into a Scion then this would be the answer to their impending crisis.  A true Scion, even a human one could restore the thoughts of the countless Alpha Centauri in deep sleep and replenish their food stores well in excess of a billion years.

Some of the worms smacked their lips.  The thought of Scions being created so easily from an inferior food stock could change many things.  But Sam warned that I was exceedingly rare, unique and unlikely to occur for many more generations.  However, my potential to become a Scion would resolve many problems and they excitedly allowed us to pass and travel freely anytime we so chose.

I asked Sam if I were to become a Scion, what would become of me.  He sighed, I would be eaten.  It would be a true feast as they haven't had a Scion, not for millions of years.  The loss of iG recently was a considerable tragedy.  What confounded them was usually a Scion near death would create a beacon and transfer all the thoughts it has remembered to all remaining Alpha Centauri.  Naturally, this beacon would attract brain worms, but by not beaming out those thoughts, they were lost forever and its unclear if there are any Scions left.

The brain worms had been rationing their food supply and gambled that a Scion beacon would refresh their supply.  It didn't and now with the loss of what precious few Alpha Centauri its exacerbated their problems.

Chapter 72 - Scions

The greatest of the Alpha Centauri, the leaders were known as Scions.  For every trillion of their race, there was at least one Scion and there were millions of Scions at the peak of their civilization.  The Scions were the true masters of creation and they formed and designed the galaxies, the stars, planets, everything.  They created the void and connected everyone's minds into a collective.  Of these, iG was one of the first and greatest of the Scion's.

The Alpha Centauri woman named Ilara knew a great deal about the Scions as she was tasked by the brain worms to hunt them.  She brought them to the brain worms and it was such a feast, her reward was being excluded from their constant feedings and in time a promise that when all the Scions were eliminated all the remaining Alpha Centauri would be released from their sleep farms.

When the brain worms were initially presented to the Alpha Centauri, they were deemed as a gift of a new life.  They could erase memory and with the safety of the collective, an Alpha Centauri could reassemble their lost thoughts.  A temporary amnesia was enticing for very long lived beings, to become almost child like again.

Like points of light, the Scions served as bastions of all the memories of the Alpha Centauri and whenever someone was ready to restore their thoughts they would seek out a Scion.  With countless millions of Scions illuminating the void, there was no reason to ever fear the permanent loss of their collective.

For a long time, they co-existed and were in balance and alignment.  Then something tipped the scale and they discovered too late the brain worms were actually a weapon.  Create by a Scion who had defied the others when he discovered a new creation being crafted by the other Scions, man.

Instinctively, some of the Scions knew the true purpose of the brain worms and began conceiving of a creature that was not connected to the void and would serve as vessels for an Alpha Centauri.  Primitive man was designed with a massive brain that it had little use for, even now we use only a fraction of our capacity.  Ilara explained, this was by design.  But she shared the brain is only one of the storage compartments of a living being and there are other devices that we cannot perceive physically.  We can access them as we sometimes get feelings or hunches, that do not originate from our primordial brain.

It was iG who rescued the humans under his care and sent them to Alpha Centauri.  Either he didn't realize or he knew, he also sent another, Zal who was part of the opposing faction of Scions that created the brain worms.  It's Zal whose brain who we found on Proxima B and she found that quite odd we would listen or take lessons from someone who hates mankind more than anything.

Zal cannot be trusted.  He is a worthless being, he desired to join the ranks of the Scion, but his puny intellect could not fathom what is necessary.  And those feelings of rejection, festered and created a twisted mind.

I asked Ilara if she was a hunter and once allied with the same faction as Zal's how could we trust her?  She agreed and said she shouldn't be trusted as she wants to return to the void and the collective and would do anything in her abilities to accomplish this.  But unlike Zal, she has no ill will towards mankind and simply wants to leave.  And if we keep her imprisoned for much longer, she couldn't promise she would eventually resent us.

There are so few Scions remaining and those that cling to life will eventually be found.  Once they are all gone, she will be free.  She can only laugh at mankind's audacity to think they could evolve into a Scion with such a short lifespan.  It takes countless lifetimes, entire galaxies can form and die several times before someone is capable of even understanding what it means to become a Scion.

Chapter 71 - Hat Trick

The Earth is about 25,000 light years from the center of our galaxy and almost equally distant from its edge.  Yuna wanted to push the star drive to its limits and most warp jumps have been limited to under 1,000 light years.  There was a theoretical limit due to the immense amount of energy needed to power the star drive.  Based on her calculations and study of the star drive, she made a breakthrough and realized two ships flying in tandem could exponentially improve the efficiency of their star drives and thus reduce the amount of energy needed.  Her best guess, she could make it to the galactic core using the same amount of energy it takes to travel from Earth to Proxima B some 4 light years away.

The only Captain crazy enough and willing to make the attempt was Louise Gustafson who was given one of the new ships from the Pacific foundries.  She reviewed Yuna's plan and her engineers confirmed it was plausible, but risky.  If they somehow were able to make it past a certain point, say 5,000 light years, let alone 25,000 light years, if either of their ships star drives became inoperable, they would never be able to make it back.  It was a risk Louise was willing to take and the two ships were tethered together.

And like they did so many times before, they pointed their nose towards the center and blinked out of view.  While travel to Proxima B was near instant, there was a considerable time lag and they traveled through a warp tunnel for several hours.  It intrigued everyone as they took measurements and studied this new phenomenon.  They soon learned there were different speeds based on the amount of power they expended upon entry.  To their astonishment, they successfully reached the galactic center and confirmed it was the boundary of a giant black hole.  They remained safely behind the event horizon and then returned home.

The experience was enlightening and soon other ships were vying to break the record with the limit tested with a Proto-Artesian ship the Majestic reaching the Andromeda galaxy some 2.5 million light years away.  It achieved this by placing star drives in external nacelles and attached them to the hull with long pylons.  These star drive nacelles mimicked the effect of tethering multiple star ships together and the distance traveled took barely a week.

The Majestic was subsequently lost when it attempted an even bolder distance of some 1 billion light years.  Even Yuna felt that was too brash a move as a ship traveling that far a distance would remain stuck in the warp tunnel for possibly years and if done improperly, may eventually reach its destination centuries later.  Based on what data was provided she calculated the Majestic would appear some 487 years later in the distant galaxy of Cygnus-3 based on its last known trajectory and velocity.

Chapter 70 - Ul-Kaine Angelopoulos

Ul-Kaine was born on Ganymede station.  The son of wealthy farmers, he enjoyed a comfortable life of privilege.  He became a hero for his actions in defeating the Formidable near Deimos.  That sparked a revival among the Proto-Artesians political fortunes as he demonstrated a diminutive ship crewed by a determined group could defeat one of the most heavily armed warships of the inner fleets.  He was only 19 and now nearing his 60s he regrets everything.

Alice Angelopoulos, his wife is half his age and he found her on the streets of Ganymede.  He took her in, raised her and when she was of age instead of finding a man of suitable age, she confessed her love for him and asked to marry him.  He refused at first, but after several years relented.  They have a child, a young son who lives with his niece on Ganymede.

He had her trained with the rogue sisters and for a time was almost ready to become a sister marine.  She turned her back on them and returned to Ul-Kaine, earning her the mark of a failed recruit.  They blindly followed the Proto-Artesian ways and were once members of the Loyalists, but learned of the horrors of the brain worms from what transpired on Despina.

He followed Dr. Hsiang into exile and his group splintered off becoming the Revisionists.  He shared all that he knew of the Loyalists with Sophia, having once been a senior member.  She in turn agreed to offer me in exchange, provided I not be harmed as she hoped the Doctor would succeed in freeing me from the brain worms.

Arka was found wanting and Pei had been sentence to die for quite some time.  Alice obliged and was comfortable dispatching Arka, but was no match for Pei.  I angrily confronted her for killing her and she conceded it was not her wish to harm anyone, but was madam Sophia's orders and was unanimous decision of the descendants of Olivia.  We both conceded, none of us are ever free of the sisters and when they call, we must obey.

Ul-Kaine shared more detail on what happened on Despina and the cybernetic brain began training new dream travelers including Dr. Hsiang's assistant Deacon.  Most died or were left permanently scarred, but a few like Deacon proved adept and were given even more advanced training than what it had shown me.  Then the brain showed its true intentions and had them help some of the brain worms adapt and be able to survive in our reality.  Despina became infested and the Proto-Artesians soon lost contact.  They did a mop up mission and believed they had wiped out any trace of the brain worms and left no one alive.

It was about that time, he learned the dark truth of the Proto-Artesians when they shared their founder Edgar had commissioned them to fulfill the legacy of our creators and to wipe out the existence of all mankind.  It broke Ul-Kaine's heart to discover he had been a member and staunch defender of a death cult.  A few other ex-Loyalists defected along with Ul-Kaine and they made it to Vega.  They picked that horrible place of death rock for the purpose to fool the Proto-Artesians thinking they were condemning themselves to die and would be left alone.

And for a time, Ul-Kaine thought he would die there until Dr. Hsiang showed him the ship and he was close to completing his research.  Ul-Kaine agreed to provide him continued cover and they hatched the plan with madam Sophia who sent Arka, Pei and myself.  I found them all to be wanting and wished to be left alone.

I was left alone, unguarded and Deacon approached me.  We talked about dream travel and he was still able to do so.  The powerful sedative I was given included the drug that the Alpha Centauri woman was also given and that prevents us from dream travel.  It also traps any brain worms that might hop along for the ride.

I told him about my brain worm, his name was Sam and we both laughed.  He too had his own worm, but was never given a proper introduction as it was killed and removed.  He still dream travels and the worms keep their distance, they know something has changed.  I asked him about how he can travel in tandem and he confirmed and from what he learned they could do much more, but are still far away in their abilities.  Dream travel as we describe it, is much more than beaming our consciousness from one point of the galaxy to another via the void.  We are actually manipulating everything around us from matter, to energy and even time and space itself.  With sufficient training we could move entire planets, will stars into existence or make them implode and form a blackhole.  Dream travel is the cornerstone of Alpha Centauri technology.

He then surprised me by saying he knows of iG and been to his world.  He learned of him through a compatriot, another Alpha Centauri who sacrificed himself to show him the way to their world.  As soon as the Doctor said I was well enough, Deacon wanted to take me back to visit iG's world again.  The Doctor has been there many times and has barely gone anywhere else except the library of light.

Chapter 69 - Whispers

It began to talk to me.  I could hear at first a faint whisper, then a clear and concise voice.  It didn't sound masculine, nor feminine, just a voice that I recognized as of the brain worm still attached to me.  It told me to wake up and I slowly opened my ears with great effort and difficulty as the powerful sedatives they gave me had not fully worn off.

It would help me, it said as it began to cleanse my blood of the drug and almost immediately, I felt a sense of clarity and hit my head on the glass tube we were encased in.  We are in some kind of laboratory it said, and something or someone was preventing us from dream travel, otherwise it would have fled some time ago.

I sensed fear and apprehension.  I couldn't believe it, a brain worm afraid.  It didn't have a name, but to make it easier for us to communicate he took the name of Sam and to assign male pronouns, although he had no gender.  I asked Sam how long have we been here and did he see who was keeping us here.  The last I remember was being blown into space and picked up by Ul-Kaine's crew.

Sam confirmed he was awake the entire time and listened to everything Ul-Kaine and the others were saying and doing to me.  To his amazement, they addressed him, although they couldn't see him, they welcomed the little brain worm for the ride.  Whoever Ul-Kaine works for, they are very familiar with brain worms.

As far as he can say, they hadn't done anything yet in terms of experiments.  The trip was uneventful and they had spent only a day or two in transit to the lab they presently find themselves on a moon orbiting the main planet of Betelguese.  He is familiar with both and had traveled there a long time ago.  What is terrifying him, he is used to being able to zip back to the void and hasn't felt the comfort of home for several days now and its nerve wracking.

Sam beseeched me to find a way to escape.  I tried to move and felt my hands and feet bound tightly to a gurney inside the glass capsule.  We squirmed, but it was no use and the straps dug in deeper into my skin.

Dr. Hsiang entered the room and addressed both of us.  He wished us no harm and behind was walking the Alpha Centauri woman.  She had been awakened first and given a special drug that they had developed after many trials and errors with the previous test subjects.  She still felt a little lightheaded as her consciousness had been severed from the void.  Sam looked closely and he felt some relief as he saw a brain worm was attached to her as well and the pair looked intently at each other trying to communicate what the other knew of the present situation.

Sam relayed what he had said telepathically to him.  He had been stuck with the woman for a very long time and this was his first time waking up.  He was more bewildered than Sam as he had no memory of humans, but he assured him so far it had been safe and he relished the freedom to walk about with his host.

Then to Sam's horror, Dr. Hsiang used a long stick and stabbed the brain worm in the head.  He then yanked it forward and cleaved it in two with another stick.  It wriggled and shrieked in pain then fell silent.  They disposed of its body in a container and carted it off.  Sam was freaking out and shaking the capsule in anger.  He was screaming loud enough for everyone to hear that they murdered him.  He would exact his vengeance on them.

Sam then looked angrily at me and back at Dr. Hsiang and he dived into my chest and attempted to stop my heart.  My tongue fell to the back of my throat as I gagged and the doctor's team rushed to open the capsule.  They removed Sam and in an instant as he begged them to stop and spare him, they sliced him in two and he was dead.

Dr. Hsiang helped me into a wheelchair and pushed me out into a corridor with large windows.  We could see the lush planet from the moon's surface and we continued walking accompanied by the Alpha Centauri woman and passed countless other staff who gawked at us.  He had been studying the brain worms for some time and figured out a way to kill them, so long as they existed in our reality.  The technique required building a device that prevented them or anyone from dream travel and it took years to develop and perfect.

The chance discovery of surviving Alpha Centauri helped him complete his research and it was further accelerated by another dream traveler, one of his former assistants on Despina who escaped and warned him of what had happened while he was away.  Deacon, became very adept at dream travel and was more advanced and could bring others along for the trip and took Dr. Hsiang to many new worlds, including iG's planet and he found the library of knowledge.

From that he discovered a great many things about the Alpha Centauri, the brain worms and even our own creation and later evolution.  Both the worms and man were part of the same grand experiments and there were countless other creations.  Most of the Alpha Centauri race are also quite primitive in most regards, all can dream travel, but a rarefied few were the leaders and masters of their race.

To ensure obedience, most of the leaders were eliminated, but a small few managed to elude capture and some hid among the others on the sleep farms, others fled like those who were with the Alpha Centauri woman.  They taste the best, a brain worm delicacy and often were ferreted out or hunted whenever given the chance.

I asked what has this to do with me?  Dr. Hsiang smiled and said somehow, by my rapid progression in dream travel, I had awakened parts of my brain that normally would remain dormant and I was evolving into something new, something similar to an Alpha Centauri leader.  I wasn't fully evolved yet and he wanted to help complete the transformation.

Chapter 68 - Tradition

Naoka was numb when she received word at first Pei was overdue and then of her death.  They found her frozen corpse near death rock and brought it back to Io Station.  She was fuming inside, but knew the traditions of her fellow sisters and she already sacrificed Pei many years ago on Triton, her death was merely delayed.

But her personal anger was towards her daughter Mei who made her own bargain with the daughters of Olivia to choose Felicia over me.  She knew that eventually her time would come to pass as well, but had fallen in love with her charge and did everything to assure she would be the lone survivor of Ninya's bloodline.

Naoka warned her that neither Enya nor I were dead yet.  I had been bartered with by Sophia and the others to prepare for the coming war with the mechanical brain and his Loyalist followers.  Mei made it clear she would not accept any other alternative that did not include Felicia being the survivor and would do everything at the disposal, even defying her own mother and sisters.

She agreed to a new bargain and instructed Mei that she would have to eliminate Enya and that would be that.  Neither of them expected she would survive as Enya had grown into a very capable sister marine and to assure a successful assassination, she would destroy the stealth ship that they would both be placed on for a new mission to Despina.

Mei was to leave immediately and arrived on the same ship captained by Lydia.  Enya was onboard and they were briefed on the important mission to Despina.  There had been no contact for some time and relations between the sisters and the Proto-Artesians were strained.  Onboard, Enya became more acquainted with the sister of her mentor Shil Yun.  She was already aware of her intent and invited they make for a duel at their earliest convenience.

They were both pleased that it would be more fair to be aware of Mei's treachery.  To show she was ready and had no remorse, she let it be known she had killed her own mentor.  Enya had suspected for sometime the entire Linst clan were treasonous and she would take them out one-by-one.  After Mei it would leave only 2 surviving daughters of Naoka, but at least she would be tied with Anna Three on body count.

Enya hoped this revelation of Shil Yun's death would enrage and possibly imbalance her.  Naoka already knew of her death and was her reason to agree to send Mei on this foolish task.  She didn't want to risk her other favored daughters for someone as worthless as Mei, even more worthless than Pei.

She smiled, she could sense the anger welling up inside.  They readied their blades and began pacing the small room.  Mei lunged first and clashed, Enya deftly moved more quickly and slashed the back of her suit, leaving a deep gash.  Mei reached for her side and felt the dripping blood.  She screamed and lunged again.

The door to the room opened as Lydia and the other sister marines rushed in.  They separated the two and sent Mei to the infirmary to be patched up.  Lydia sat down with Enya and she had suspected Mei's treachery, but now had proof and assured she would be dealt with after their return to Mars.  They placed Mei in suspended animation as the ship arrived and began orbiting Despina.

Lydia and several sister marines accompanied Enya by a small shuttle on the far side of the moon.  They could sense no activity and other than the power signature of the nuclear core, they sensed no living beings.  Finding an exhaust hatch, the sister marines entered and made their slow crawl to the main labs.  An overwhelming stench was confirmed as they found hundreds of dead bodies huddled in various parts of the lab.  The floors were still sticky with dried blood and it seemed like some remnants of a recent massacre.

Bullet casings were strewn everywhere and someone had hastily executed all the scientists and support staff.  Nearly 300 people.  The eerie glow of a blue liquid near the center of the room rested the cybernetic brain in a glass vat.  Enya felt it first and the brain communicated by Hsiang's interface it addressed her as my sister and warned me not to linger for long here.  He asked for only one favor to be disconnected from the life support machines and allowed to finally die.

Enya instinctively reached for the cables and felt the brain brighten with anticipation.  She stopped and then asked what had happened here.  It grew angry and refused to speak anymore with such lowly creatures.  Enya smiled and walked away, with the brain increasingly despondent and in a rage demanding they kill him.  She laughed and told him to kill himself.

The sister marines delved into the computer systems were able to find out what had happened.  A virus in the form of tiny worms had infected several researchers then spread quickly.  The Proto-Artesian military stepped in at the last minute and killed everyone, then for added measure they killed their own soldiers before departing, destroying their shuttle.

After completing their reconnaissance, Lydia ordered everyone back to the ship.  Lydia assured Enya she would make sure Mei was punished.  No sister marine should ever betray their own.  As the shuttle docked, there was a bright flash and Mei's bomb that she was still carrying on her body detonated.  She had set a timer during the fight to ensure even in death, she would succeed.  The shuttle was blown from the hanger deck and began spinning wildly towards Despina.

With a struggle, Lydia seized control and made a hard landing back on the lab hangers.  They watched as the wreckage of their stealth ship disappeared in the bright explosion.  Lydia and the others were a little shaken, but unharmed.  They decided to find safe quarters and find a way to contact another sister marine ship for help.

Chapter 67 - Vega Rock

Pei invited me on one of her missions.  We boarded one of the legendary stealth ships, painted all black and nearly undetectable.  It was commanded by a sister marine Captain Lydia along with seven other sister marines, most hailing from Ganymede or Io.

Her mission was to visit a remote outpost on Vega.  Unlike most other settlers who jetted to the nearest habitable planet, a breakaway group had chosen to build a station around a seemingly worthless rock in a fairly inhospitable region of the Vega star system that was constantly irradiated.  The settlers on death rock have inundated the other colonies with their sick and dying.

Settlers are a stubborn breed and old habits die hard.  This particular group had grown up on desolate asteroid mining camps in the outer rim and found the abundance overwhelming planet side.  They preferred familiarity and comfort in the known, including its pains and suffering.

We hitched a ride on one of the newest ships, none the wiser.  Pei smiled and confirmed my suspicion that this happened quite often and there were dozens of stealth ships in active service.  It was madam Sophia who instructed Pei to have me become more immersed in the ways of the sisters.  While they did not expect I would fully embrace their ways, they would show me more of their secrets.

Both Enya and Felicia have already traveled by stealth ships and performed several missions of their own.  Enya having earned her stripes and now a full fledged sister marine.  Pei liked us both and found Enya capable, but too eager.  Felicia too timid and emotionally burdened.  She admired me as somewhere in the middle, a truly ideal candidate for a sister marine.

I made no allusions and asked what bargain had made with Sophia.  Pei smiled and liked most my ability to discern the truth.  She was offered the right to train her daughter personally and to be released from her marriage with Kallos.  Pei thought I would be both relieved and glad that she was handing him back to me.  Pei is despicable and so is her mother Naoka.  She agreed with me.  She felt relaxed around me and had no reason to ever hide or lie.

We neared our destination and disembarked along with another sister.  Lydia would return in a few weeks and we were tasked with finding passage to the death rock from one of the planetary colonies.  I asked what was the intent of Pei's mission and she informed me that we were to give the settlers a reason to abandon their rock and finally move to one of the main planetary hubs.  In simple terms, they were going to destroy most of the onboard station systems managing life support, power and artificial gravity.

It would be a controlled failure giving the settlers enough time to abandon in an orderly fashion.  Sister Arka was an engineer by training and would handle the sabotaging of the station, we were to provide cover and reconnaissance.

The first few days were uneventful and we mingled with the settlers who spent most of their day complaining about the cramp conditions and the lack of suitable ore to mine.  The station chief, Ul-Kaine was different, he was out of place among his own.  Pei knew of him and he was once a star ship captain.  He lost his ship after destroying one of the main warships of the Martian fleet, the Formidable.  A fools errand as the rest of his scouting party turn tail, he alone continued and face the entire Martian armada near its moons of Deimos.  Lacking the firepower to defeat a dreadnought, Ul-Kaine forced the Formidable to give chase and brought it within the gravity of Deimos, just enough to attract all of its aft torpedoes that the Martians were not suspecting.

Ul-Kaine's ship was not designed for torpedoes and he had them secretly installed.  But he only had enough to destroy one ship and the rest of the fleet exacted their revenge for the loss of the Formidable.  Most of his crew were killed and he was found drifting in an escape pod.  He was spared death and exiled.

Pei was upset at this discovery.  She had not been informed that someone like Ul-Kaine was here and in command of this station.  But she now understood why she was selected for such a delicate mission.  We convened at a local bar and Arka advised we should abandon the mission and return to a planetary hub and await for Lydia's return.  I didn't understand why they were concerned with Ul-Kaine.

Ul-Kaine is a leader of the separatists known as the Revisionists who are currently in a civil war with their Proto-Artesian brothers.  He is allied for now with the Neo-Artesians who provide the Revisionists weapons and supplies.  This station must serve as some sort of rebel base, perhaps for training or possibly weapons research.

How could the sisters not know something like this?  Pei felt someone had intentionally withheld information and she needed to confirm with Sophia whether to continue or scrub the mission.  We all agreed to leave when a group of men approached us and a woman introduced herself as Alice and his second-in-command.  They were aware of our presence and been monitoring us since our arrival.

We were invited to meet Ul-Kaine and escorted to his home near the end of the station.  It was a cramp series of rooms and his was the only one with a window.  He addressed us as sister marines and had anticipated someone would attempt to force the settlers to leave.  He welcomed us and wished to assist.  He then gave his reasons for why they had chose this inhospitable location to establish a base and he explained that they had found an alien ship encased in the rock.  Only a few among his group of followers knew of its existence and they've been studying the alien ship for some time.

The timing was perfect as they were ready to leave onboard the alien ship and wished to fake their own deaths by having the station destroyed in spectacular fashion.  He was tired of Proto-Artesian spies constantly prying and attempting to infiltrate his operations.  Only with his faked demise would they cease hampering his efforts.

Pei and Arka agreed and they were provided assistance by a dozen of Ul-Kaine's men who knew all the of the maintenance tunnels and ship's systems.  They left with Arka to begin planning a way to destroy the station and provide everyone ample time to escape.

Pei and Alice went to another room to discuss an agreement Ul-Kaine had made with the sisters, specifically with the rogue sisters of Triton.  For reasons unknown, they provided him immunity and some had assumed it meant he was of a special bloodline, but he had no ties to any of the sisters, nor to Karl Knutmudsen.  Pei promised to honor the agreement.

I was left alone with Ul-Kaine who asked me to sit with him as we shared a drink.  He had a private supply of Martian wines and we enjoyed a glass as he wanted to know more about my dream travels.  He had heard of it and was impressed that I had become an adept.  They spoke of stories of people who could travel the stars without the need of space suits or ships.  He felt it was the ultimate leap in technology to become one with everything and knocked on the din of metal and steel that we were primitive compared to the Alpha Centauri.

He then shared he was friends of Dr. Peter Hsiang and that he had been dismissed from Despina.  He now worked for the Revisionists and they planned to pilot the ship to his new research facilities near Betelguese.

This ship, while more advanced than anything man could dream of conceiving, is still quite primitive relative to the Alpha Centauri, but from their initial research they believed it was very old and possibly was created by the ancestors of the Alpha Centauri.  At one point, in the distant past they were a primitive people and they too had to make the gradual leaps and bounds of technological innovation.  The ship had been drifting for billions of years and in time collected dust that clumped into a million tons of rock.

He then asked if I wanted to see it for myself and curious, I agreed.  We left on a small mining rig that could fit only two people and docked with a mining tower beneath the station and attached to the asteroid.  A space elevator took us the rest of the way as we descending into the darkness of the rock.  After several minutes we reached a platform deep within and took another larger rig deeper still until we reached a room.  Inside, there were several series of doors that opened until we reached a very intricate door with runes I recognized from Sirius.

He pressed on one and the doors gave way and we entered.  Lights began to flicker and illuminate the entire ship and it was massive, at least a quarter of the size of the entire asteroid, bigger than the Amaya and Grand Traveler combined.  He took me into a central room and to my shock, he revealed a door, like that on iG's planet and within a sleeping Alpha Centauri, the hissing of fog reminding me she was still alive and dreaming.

Ul-Kaine stroked her hair and commented at how beautiful the sleeping woman.  The door seemed different in style and technology than the rest of the ship and Ul-Kaine confirmed they had reached a similar conclusion that someone else must have placed the sleeping chamber within this ancient ship, but done so a long time ago and for reasons they could not understand.  We surmised it was the Alpha Centaturi who re-discovered this ancient ship and sealed it away.

The only others who are aware of this are the inner elite of the Revisionists, the Loyalists and the cybernetic brain on Despina.  He is well aware of the despot of Despina, Dr. Hsiang brought him up to speed on all that had happened while the Loyalists ran amok.

I warned them not to awaken her.  She would live for only one day and then succumb to the brain worms.  Ul-Kaine agreed that would usually be the case.  I raised an eyebrow, there were others?  He smiled and said my perception of things proved true and said there were a dozen others, they had all since died, but not after experiments were made to try and sever their connection with the void.  On their most recent attempt, they nearly succeeded and for a time had a living, breathing Alpha Centauri walking about the ship and communicating with them.  It lasted for only a few weeks then he too died suddenly, but they suspected he dream travel to escape.

He told them a great deal and shared that they were refugees who found the ship and hid inside hoping to avoid being captured.  There had been a great civil war fought among their kind and a smaller, more militant faction finally achieved victory with the release of the brain worms.  They were initially allied with the winning side, but were sickened by what they saw being done to their fellow Alpha Centauri and fled.

They were hunted down and were whittled away from several thousand to only a handful.  The larger contingent fled for other parts and a dozen hid aboard the ancient ship.  It's hull made of a special material that would shield their existence from being easily detected.  He also had the purplish scars that I carried and said they offered some protection from the brain worms, but at a terrible cost.  I would eventually die, unless I fed off the living thoughts of another.  And only those who could access the void and of sufficient quality to be food for a brain worm.  I had as my symbiosis the same cravings and needs.  Eat or be eaten, he lamented.

Arka completed all the necessary steps to destroy the station in three days.  It would be a more rapid and violent destruction and would give the settlers mere minutes to escape.  But before that they would prepare for toxic radiation leaks to force many to take refuge planet-side and Ul-Kaine would ensure at least 5,000 of the 5,500 settlers would evacuate as anymore would invite suspicion.  The rest would be able to escape quickly on escape pods, mining rigs and shuttles.

I asked to remain and with reluctance Pei agreed.  We made arrangements with Ul-Kaine that if unforeseen problems would emerge he would have us escape on his ship.  They would make a warp jump within the cocoon of the rock and go directly to Betelguese.  There, we could make contact with a colony hub to return back to Mars.

The days passed slowly and we waited while the initial evacuation commenced and the ship was largely deserted.  We drank alone in the bar and prepared for the final few hours.  Alice joined us suggested we make towards a mining rig or escape pod.  We knew of several nearby and Arka left to prepare one for us.

Near a few minutes to the hour, we heard the controlled blasts radiate through the exterior of the station and panicked voices and sirens alerting that it was a catastrophic failure and to abandon the station.  We made our rush to Arka and instead found her dead, her throat slashed and the escape pod gone.  Pei was suspicious, Arka was a sister marine and it would take someone with considerable skill to kill her so easily.  She had sensed for some time that Alice didn't appear to be who she claimed.

We had little time to ponder and looked for another escape pod.  Our search became more frantic as we realized there were none left and the blasts were increasing with the hull now groaning as it began to heave and come apart.  Without much time, we could start to see the bulkheads come undone and before I knew it, Pei had wrapped a portable emergency spacesuit around me and sealed the helmet.  She kissed me on the cheek as violent decompression ejected everything into space.  I could barely see anything and was screaming her name.

I drifted for an hour and began to lose consciousness.  I decided to dream travel. but found something was preventing me from doing so.  A mining rig emerged from the wreckage and its pincer arms took hold of me and carried me towards the alien ship.  I collapsed on the deck and Ul-Kaine was waiting for me along with Alice.  Alice took out a syringe and injected something in my arm and I felt immediately drowsy and closed my eyes.

Ul-Kaine advised his men to take me to the room with the sleeping woman and to be careful as Dr. Hsiang would need both of us for his final experiments.

Chapter 66 - Sirius

We made camp near one of the stone cities that the colonists discovered when surveying the 3rd planet in the Sirius system.  They had already established a home on the outskirts of one of the largest cities spanning at least a thousand square miles.  Our overland flight took in the breathtaking size of the towering stone skyscrapers casting their shadows over a complex weave of roads.  Conservative estimates were at least 100 million inhabitants once lived there and there were hundreds of these large mega cities.

Kallos took a small rock and hurled it against the invisible force field.  Like the settlers and the other teams, none could figure out what was preventing us from entering the city, nor a way around it.  It baffled us further as the various living things native to the planet could pass through.  A few teams attempted to encase probes within a shell of native materials be it a plant or within a living carcass, nothing.

After several days, we decided to take holiday and most of the crew made for the colony outpost or enjoyed the native hills and lakes.  Pei, Kallos and I took our time preparing a nice dinner.  The colonists helped us identify which native plants and animals were edible and we had caught some eel like fish and a ground tuber similar to wild potatoes.  I spent the time mashing and found hard rocky crystals that I gently removed and placed on the side.

After dinner, we relaxed by a campfire and enjoyed the open sky.  It was familiar, yet we could see constellations in a different alignment and now included Earth in its own cluster of stars, the Knutmudsen constellation.

Pei and Kallos retired together in a tent and I went to my own near the edge of a small pond.  I dipped my toes in the cool water and dozed off into a dream.  The Alpha Centauri on Despina had helped me improve my skill and precision and I found myself peering back at myself from within the stone city.

I continued walking towards a large building and felt the same sense as when I was on iG's homeworld that it was a library.  The shelves were empty and any trace was mere dust.  Not wanting to waste time walking through the same stone building after another, I began jumping from place to place within the city, spending a few seconds to look about and see if there was anything of interest.  After several hours of this, I grew bored until I noticed a dim and flickering light.  Walking towards the small building almost in the center of the city and surrounding by some of the tallest of buildings, I found narrow steps leading up several stories to a large doorway and I could hear the hiss of fog shrouding something from view.

Reaching in, I felt a small round cylinder and pulled it forward, the hissing increased as the fog subsided and within the palms of my hands floated gently a clear white cylinder encasing what was glowing dim, but still bright enough to illuminate the large room a miniature star.  This must be the power source maintaining the city and the force field.

A circle of large runes appeared in yellow hovering around the edges of the room and pulsated as they begun to spin slowly around me.  I waved my free hand and a rune would spin closer towards me and gesturing it would dissolve and something within the city would awaken.  There was a loud cracking sound and all the large buildings near the city center pulsated and glowed with a clear bluish white light.  I could see the lights snaking up and around the edges of the towers of stone cutting at straight angles with each weave and turn.

The runes, imparted some recognition within my mind of their purpose and I searched for one that controlled the force fields.  A circle rune with a dozen interlocking lines spun towards me and as I dissolved it, a loud audible hiss let out a large sigh as the entire city spanning field dissipated.

Kallos called for me over our comms and told me he was awakened by the loud crack and saw the center of city light up.  The Amaya also reported a similar experience of seeing the light visible from orbit stretching deep into space and sent a narrow beam of high intensity towards Altair.  He was initially concerned as my tent was empty, but relieved then surprised that I was several miles in the center of the city.

To my amazement, he was right and pressing my hands to my sides, I could feel my own body had somehow was now there.  I don't remember if it happened when I began dreaming, or if somehow it later followed.  They quickly joined me as well as other crew and colonists who began fanning through the city.  It was all nothing but stone and light, there were no artifacts or trace.  After a few more days, we decided to seal the city back up and once again I pressed the runes and returned the glowing cylinder back on its altar.  Fog slowly wrapped around and a hissing until it was completely covered.

I was physically within the city, but when I reached the city limits, I was able to pass through effortlessly.  Kallos, Pei and the others who also were with me could also do the same and many of the colonists continued to make excursions to continue studying and exploring.

Madam Sophia contacted me directly.  Pei had briefed her on what they all witnessed on Sirius as well as my previous dream travels.  She was both intrigued and concerned as it appeared whatever powers I had discovered were increasing.  She asked me to visit her on Mars at my earliest convenience and invited Kallos and Pei.

We were greeted by Andrea, who had resumed her duties as a sister marine upon our flight back to Neptune at Triton Station.  She shared word that all of the sisters, including those who became savages had since been rehabilitated and restored and now serving the Neo-Artesians once more.  She was made a madam and granted the freedom to travel around the outer rim until she settled on a place to establish her own chapter.  She blushed when near Kallos and embraced him with a bear hug, her large 7 foot frame wrapped around him with powerful arms still bearing the deep spars of her sister's blades.

Being freed from Proxima B and suddenly being surrounded by billions of humans was a dream and she rampaged through for almost three years enjoying everything she could lay her eyes on.  The gardens, my favorite refuge also became hers and we shared casual strolls, feeding the koi ponds and recalling the ferocious battles she endured.

Sophia arrived and met me for tea at a nearby shop.  We were alone and she shared that the sisters have known of dream travel and warp sickness.  Many of Olivia's crew were afflicted by it and she had several who were most severely afflicted placed in isolation.  It was one of her reasons for not returning as she felt the place was cursed.  Olivia herself noted her own travels and her descriptions were detailed and similar to my own.  She also visited Sirius in one of her many dreams and discovered the stone cities and of the glowing cylinder.

I asked her if there was more and she added most of the sisters would stop at the nightmare of the brain worms and afterwards lost all ability to dream travel.  A few, however also were given detailed instruction by the mechanical brain in a similar fashion and were bitten as they described by a brain worm.  Only, they realized later the brain worm did not dissolve and die, but remained intertwined in a symbiotic relationship with the host.  The worm was still alive and attached to me.

I recoiled in shock and looked down at my scarred hands and arms, still a dark purple across my pale skin.  How?  I thought was that thing still there?  Sophia reached for my hand and said eventually, like the others, I would start to see the worm again as it has an intelligence and is sentient, it'll start to speak to me.

For the others, they all were driven insane.  Olivia was one of the few to persist for a few more years trapped with the endless thoughts that the brain worms pumped into her mind.  She described their hunger as insatiable and ravenous.  They exist only to feed on the thoughts of others and they found the Alpha Centauri who had built their massive subspace universe with their subconscious, a literal feeding ground.  But with each host's death, their once seemingly endless supply was dwindling and their attempts to find new hosts was borne out of their desperation.

iG's world was nothing more than a farm.  They have a few more like it scattered across the galaxy, but their large numbers were in need of sufficient replacements.  They timed the evolution of man to eventually spread across the stars and multiply in numbers so they could become the next ready hosts.  That brain sitting in a vat on Despina was one of the willing converts and handlers of the brain worms.

She then placed an old revolver in my hand.  It belonged to Ninya, Olivia's dearest daughter and my bloodline.  When she reached the end of days, she took her own life.  She had warned the madams who would follow to place that same gun in the hand of another dream traveler and they will one day embrace and seek out its salvation.  I cried and winced and asked defiantly, the other sisters who experienced the nightmare, they continued?  Sophia nodded they did, but my experiences appeared different as I may not have had that dream, but already accelerated beyond.  She honestly did not know and only was obeying the wishes of Olivia.

Chapter 65 - Proto-Artesians

Edgar is presumed to have been the founder of the Proto-Artesians, but in truth he merely reincarnated a long extinct sect that created the devil beetles and sought to complete the work of our creators in the total annihilation of all mankind.  This small cabal of followers known as the Loyalists continue to seek out this aim and keep their true intentions hidden from the larger circles of followers.

The original Proto-Artesians from before the first end times were the impetus of mankind's push into space and the eventual discovery of Alpha Centauri were born when they translated and accepted the literal intent of their creators.  They also numbered a small few, but were in the highest seats of power and industry and were largely trusted.

But one of their own, defected and before they could complete their final work, sabotaged the devil beetles who unfurled their shells and rained fire and cracked the Earth, preventing any from escaping.  He hid away, deep beneath the Arctic ocean and died alone, in solitude.  He wrote his memoirs and in his depression chronicled the existence of the Alpha Centauri and the Proto-Artesian faith.  His book eventually made its way into the hands of a young Edgar.

They were not called Proto-Artesians then and instead Edgar took on the guise of the Knut in re branding them into some more appealing and palatable and elevated Karl Knutmudsen into a god.  To reconcile with the other Loyalists teachings, he claimed the Knut was an apparition, an avatar of the mechanical brain that would take shape every few millenia to inspire man and lead them forward to new beginnings.

It was the greatest con and throngs of new followers joined with appealing explanation of Karl being divine.  The Proto-Artesians kept themselves well hidden and avoided being detected by both the sisters and the Neo-Artesians who came to dominate the new colonies.  They bide their time and when it was Olivia who brought the mechanical brain into existence again, they revealed themselves.

When Doctor Hsiang warned the Loyalists of what had transpired on Despina, they dismissed it, but in secret took it as confirmation that their way was true and they would soon appease their creators.  They replaced Doctor Hsiang and any of his team who were not true believers and communicated with their master their intentions to carry out his work.  If he could smile, he would.

He began sharing secrets that he had not told the Doctor, nor myself.  He explained the terrible disease was engineered and created by a disgruntled few within the Alpha Centauri who were displeased with the emergence of the inferior and diminutive ancestors of man and in an act of defiance unleashed this awesome weapon on their own kind.  He himself took part in assisting the greatest of his race who conceived of the brain worms and learned to care and nurture them until they gestated and were ready.

He blamed the destruction of his own people on man and as penance he instructed his followers on how to use the brain worms to destroy mankind.  The Loyalists dutifully obeyed and wished to appease their master and believed in time when all were dead, they would join them and finally atone for their existence.

A select few began training in the art of dream travel and began visiting various worlds, learning and preparing.  They practiced grasping and attempting to bring the brain worms into our reality and in time they adapted and evolved until they no longer shrieked in agony and could maintain stable form, breathe our air and multiply.  Within a short span of time all contact with Despina went dark.

Chapter 64 - Ceremonies

At long last, the Pacific Foundries sprung to life and the first ship in three long centuries emerged from beneath the waves.  It's glistening white hull inlaid with black lines and the name of the Amaya emblazoned in bold lettering.

It was the fastest ship ever built and rivaled the size of the Grand Traveler.  Captain Edward Nathans of Ganymede was selected by lottery among the Proto-Artesians and he took command with a crew of a thousand mariners.  Their maiden flight to Alpha Centauri was uneventful and they were cheered and greeted by the Charon and Meteor.

The Amaya assumed the role of transiting the increasing frequency of ore shipments as new ships were being built to replenish the fleet.  For the first time in centuries, old ships were retired and scrapped not for lack usefulness, but of the ready quantity of newer, better ships.

Gregor kept the Grand Traveler and turned down the second ship the Perry.  That went to Mars and every other ship was handed to either a Proto-Artesian or Neo-Artesian leaning Captain until the first hundred ships were evenly distributed.

Liberty Station had finally delivered on its promises and were richly rewarded for heralding a new golden age for mankind as a dozen of the new vessels began charting paths to new star systems and planets.  Future generations will look down on us and feel appalled at our squalor conditions on cramp and aging space stations compared to the luxury and abundance of whole new planets lush with green plants and blue oceans.  The rush to colonize new planets caused surging vacancies across the inner and outer rims with hundreds of millions signing onboard for the next jump to stars as hundreds and thousands of light years from Earth.

We followed star charts that were gleaned by the Proto-Artesians from the mechanical brain and identified at least a thousand habitable worlds once home to the Alpha Centauri and we laid claim on all of them.  The value of the knowledge gleaned from that dead alien brain could not be understated and coupled with the new star ships we had all that we needed to forge our own Empire.

I was granted special audience with the researchers who had been studying the alien brain and visited their research installation on Despina.  They were led by Doctor Peter Hsiang, a Martian Neo-Artesian who surprisingly led the Proto-Artesian team.  His obsession with the mechanical brain led him to Despina and he had been successful in building an interface to communicate in a primitive way to extract valuable knowledge and information.  They were able to map some of the complex brain waves and could interpret its thoughts and believed the it could still dream.

Doctor Hsiang was most interested in meeting me as he heard of my dream travels and after examining me found it remarkable that we had many similar brain wave patterns and even more startling we both once had a similar tumor.  The alien brain's tumor was long since exhumed eons ago when it was first severed from its body.

I placed my hand on the thick clear glass and was startled that I could sense it and felt its general unhappiness.  The Doctor showed me how to use the interface and the brain recognized me as someone who had also traveled through dreams and eagerly wanted to converse with me.  It felt trapped and wanted to be allowed to pass on than persist as some macabre science experiment.

There was little more of value it could share or know as it was a low ranking member of its race.  He described his past life as akin to a maintenance technician.  He agreed to share what else it could in hopes of earning its freedom to travel once more and it wanted to share a secret with me alone, asking the Doctor and its team to leave the room and not hear what it was about to tell me.

Peter hesitantly agreed and promised we would be alone and no one would listen to what it was about to say.  For added security, the brain showed me how to converse directly with telepathy and we practiced for several minutes until I felt a rush and sense of clarity.  His thoughts were so clear and I could hear everything he was saying at an incredible pace.  He must have spoken a million words in a fraction of a second as he quickly brought me up to speed on all the particulars of dream travel, including its obvious risks and dangers as I had already become aware of.

He then asked me to stretch out my arms and dip down.  He warned it would be frightening and excruciatingly painful, but something I had to experience eventually.  It will leave scars both visible and seared into my being.  I agreed without hesitation and we both jumped to another world, not too far from our own and he pointed out a tiny speck of light as our Sun on the horizon.  Then in a dark hole that appeared he had me dip deep down and I reached in and felt the squirming brain worms.

I could feel it crawling and its touch burned my skin, it was awful.  He made me grasp it and then we quickly jumped back to Despina and I could see the horrible thing flailing about.  It let out a piercing shriek as it began to disintegrate and dissolve into a burning ooze.  It had wrapped its tentacle body around both my arms and as it hissed into nothing I could see my skin scarred with purple and black contusions that were raw and bleeding.  I could feel the thing, the worm that pierced to the bone and I collapsed screaming in pain as the Doctor and its team came rushing in, they could see the smoke and for a moment the silhouette of the brain worm.

Then I heard a laugh and a cackle, this was a cruel stunt, a joke.  The Doctor's assistant helped me to the infirmary as the Doctor frantically pressed on the interface and all it got was the same reply that the brain wished us doom.