Chapter Eight - Broken Foundations.
Things settled down after the strange explosion of void
space. Captain Ellison found herself standing alone by the half-melted remains
of her captain’s chair. They were watching the rest of the crew, as well as the
two newcomers. Keygoire and Theo were lost in conversation about something that
involved void space. Sir Reginald was sat with his back against the wall within
the lower section of the bridge. He was playing with a small mouse that he had
either found onboard the ship or had brought with him. White was sat down next
to the bodies of the deceased crew, lost in thought. The poor pilot had been
through a lot. Ellison felt strangely protective of Sam. They were the youngest
member of her crew, and despite their natural talent at piloting, they were
still very green. That lack of experience was showing, as the stress of real
combat was obviously taking its toll on them. Valentine was in the process of wrapping
the cultist’s bodies up in body bags and then adding them to the collection of
other bodies. While captain Ellison didn’t mention it out loud, it felt odd,
wrong even, to lay those cultists next to the bodies of the crew that hadn’t
survived the crash.
But that was what death was, wasn’t it?
The great equaliser. No matter who you were, everyone was the same once they
were dead.
Although now that there was a chance that literal Gods were real, was that even
true anymore? If Keygoire and Sir Reginald were right, what did this mean for
her world, the world of science. Until this moment, the universe had been a
strangely simple place for Ellison. Sure, it was complex in a sense, with
science pulling at the threads of understanding, uncovering string theory,
quantum physics, and other advanced fields of science. But for all this
complexity, existence had always been limited to just this world, this life,
this universe. That had always meant that with science, and enough study
everything was theoretically understandable.
The magic that Keygoire had just used, had just undeniably proven to be real,
destroyed Ellison’s simple notion that this universe was understandable through
science. He had created water from nothing. She had just watched as a man broke
the first law of thermodynamics, the conservation of energy, like it was a
normal thing for him to do. Which, as she now understood, it very much was for
Keygoire. This meant that the very foundations that the captain had built her
life upon were false, provably so. Everything that she thought to be basic,
obvious, fact, was wrong.
She didn’t know how to handle such a revelation.
Ellison made her way down the stairs to the lower section of the bridge,
towards the area that would usually have been occupied by the holoscreen. Sir
Reginald was still sat against the wall, playing with the little mouse.
“Mind if I sit with you?” The knight looked up at her, which revealed an
expression of worry on his face.
“Captain Ellison, my fair lady, it would be a pleasure to share your company. I
offer my humblest apologies for my dour mood.” Ellison sat against the wall,
next to the strange man.
“What’s wrong, if you don’t mind me asking?” The captain was hoping that she
would be able to distract herself by helping someone else. It was her usual way
of dealing with difficult emotional problems. Ignore them until they felt
better.
“Thank you, my lady. It’s Quinn, my squire. I’m worried that we won’t be able
to save him from those foul cultists, that his blood will be on my hands.”
“It sounds like we need a plan. What can you tell me about this cultist base?”
Captain Ellison and Sir Reginald started to work together to arrange a plan of
attack.
Sam was sat on the floor, next to the body bag that hid the
corpse of Peters.
A lot of things about White’s understanding of the universe had changed with
the discovery of this world. Keygoire and Reginald had opened their eyes to a
whole new way of understanding life and death. Religion had always felt like a farse
to Sam before. Stories of afterlives spent living in a paradise for lives
well-lived, or eternal torment for those that choose self-interest over
altruism. They were all promises with no evidence. It was the hope of being
able to see those lost again someday, but it had to be built on a foundation of
blind faith. Faith that White had never been able to find within themselves.
Then Sam had watched a knight of a God they had never heard of produce a
flaming sword that never extinguished, as well as a wizard able to create water
from his hands and lightening from his staff. Keygoire had even mentioned that
religious leaders often conversed with their Gods on this world. While it had
been a brief footnote, he had even mentioned that the God Interitus had
attempted to invade this world before.
As Sam looked down at Peters, they felt hope that his soul was out there,
somewhere. With one of the Gods that he had yet to learn about.
“I’m sorry Peters.” Calling him by his surname felt wrong in this instance.
“I’m sorry, Leo. I’m sorry that I couldn’t save you.”
White then got up, wiped the tears from their face, and walked over to Keygoire.
“Of course, without the guidance of Tywyll, one would never be able to traverse
his realm of Uffern.” The wizard was halfway through a conversation with Theo
but quickly turned his attention to Sam as he noticed them approaching. “How
may I be of assistance, my good man, or were you looking for the attention of
my non corporeal friend here?” The misgendering hurt, but there was no sign
that it had been intentional.
“Sorry, but I’m not a man, I’m non-binary.” White’s voice was still quiet,
which reflected their anxiety.
“Hmmm, like the dwarven folk or certain elves, interesting. Allow me to ask my
query anew then. How may I be of assistance, my fine fellow?” Keygoire’s tone
was full of arrogance, but it was that that had Sam hopeful that he would be
able to answer their questions.
“What do you know about the afterlife?” Sam spotted the look of concern on
Theo’s face as they asked this.
“An interesting subject.” The wizard began, as he ran his fingers through the
tangled mess that was his beard. “We know that the soul does depart this mortal
realm upon death, and various Gods, such as Solas or Grundle, have confirmed
that certain souls have made it to their realms. Beyond that, I’m afraid, I
know very little.”
“Are you okay, Sam?” Theo’s kind voice was reassuring to hear, and they didn’t
want to worry him, so they answered as truthfully as they could without getting
into the details.
“I’m holding up. Thank you for asking. How are you feeling Theo?” Sam had
chosen their words very carefully. If they were right, and Theo’s code was
evolving, then the word ‘feel’ would be very important here.
“It’s strange, I’m feeling a lot of things. I believe I’m feeling grief
for those that didn’t survive the crash, relief for those that did, fear for
what’s to come, and hope that the plan I’ve been discussing with Keygoire will
work out. It’s confusing to have so many conflicting processes all active at
once, but I suddenly understand why humans create poetry. I believe it’s an
attempt to capture this confliction.” Theo stopped for a second, clearly
reflecting on something, then added. “Thank you for asking, Sam.” All they
could manage was a simple smile in return, but it seemed to be enough for Theo.
“Do you think it’s worth mentioning your plan to the captain?” Sam asked, to
move the topic of conversation forward as much as for its practical purpose.
Theo then blinked out of existence, leaving Sam and Keygoire alone, before they
reappeared next to the captain and Reginald. Then they disappeared from next to
the captain and reappeared next to Valentine, before reappearing, once again,
next to the wizard and pilot.
Ellison, along with Reginald, joined with the rest of the
team ready to hear out Theo and Keygoire.
“It seems that you fine people have one fundamental problem.” The wizard began.
“To put it simply, we’re trapped here, on Honosreach, with no way to return to
Ociea Prime and warn the Alliance of the Brotherhood’s VSD navigational
capabilities.” Theo continued.
“Well it would seem that to navigate the realm of Uffern, which you fine people
know as void space, you would need the assistance of Tywyll, otherwise known as
Interitus.”
“To communicate with Interitus, we would need a VSD navigational orb, which the
brotherhood assassin is in possession of.”
“These orbs are known as Orbs of Regna on this world. It would be safer not to
have more than one here, as they were once used by the God of Destruction
during an attempted invasion. If more than one is kept on Honosreach then such
an action may, once again, become possible.”
“So why not solve both problems with one action? I propose that we use the VSD
navigational orb, along with the brotherhood’s assassin armour and ship, to
trick Interitus into navigating us through void space back to Ociea Prime.”
“Which would allow you to warn your Alliance and would safely remove the Orb of
Regna from our world.” Keygoire finished.
“We still have the issue of the cult and their kill zone.” Valentine pointed
out the obvious flaw in the plan. They needed to make it into the cult’s lair
to deal with the cultists and the brotherhood assassin, which would mean having
to walk into the choke point at the entrance of the lair.
“Me and Reginald have been thinking about that, and we have a plan, but it’s
not one you’re going to like…”
