Of Things Amiss

by Nightwatcher

Chapter 5 : An End and A Beginning

Lyra found herself staring at a screen; she’d call it a computer screen though it was unlike the large and bulky ones she normally worked with. It was flat, paper thin, and suspended between two rectangular pole. There were multiple lines of unreadable text, graphs, pictures and other things displayed crisp and clear.

She could feel the cold air clinging to the body of her host, an uncomforting stillness and the inescapable feeling of vertigo permeated her senses. She was surprised when a clump of hair… floated into her field of view, the grey locks blocking the view of the screen. Her host huffed and moved the hair away with a hoof, the appendage covered in a form-fitting orange piece of what she assumed was fabric.

“Ma’am?” A voice called.

The voice startled her; Lyra could never understand the visions before.

“Captain?” The male voice called once more after a pause.

“Yes?” Her host called back. “Have we arrived?”

“Yes Ma’am… But we’ve got a major problem.” The male said, his voice holding a panicked tone to it.

Her host closed her eyes and sighed, momentarily robbing her of her sight.

“On my way.” She said, a hoof coming up and double tapping the upper right corner of the display; the image faded leaving the display an immaculate screen of silver. This allowed her to see her host, a pegasus mare with a white coat and gray mane with blue eyes; the rest of her body was covered in the form fitting jump-suit. Her host placed her hoofs and the wall and pushed away, slowly floating away from it in defiance of gravity. Slowly she began to twist to the right, starting with her head, then her upper and lower barrel, finally using her tail to cancel her momentum; giving Lyra a panorama of the room. It was an bright white octagonal cylinder ‘room’, her host had been clinging to one of the ‘walls’; though that distinction was rather moot due to the apparent lack of gravity. Another pegasus mare clung to another wall of the octagonal room. Screens, displays, and containers dominated every wall of the room. Downward, as relative to her host, ended with an airlock; upwards was an open airlock to which her host kicked towards.

Her host held out her hoofs and caught herself on the Airlock before readjusting and pulling her self through, this time instead of screens and containers; plants dominated the walls. She glided through the smaller section and into another room, this one a copy of the last save for the fact two of the walls, both opposite of each other, had two chairs each. Only two of the four were occupied. Her host glided past the two ponies without a word. She glided through yet another portal and entered a small room, catching herself on an occupied chair; planting her back hooves on a wall to come to a full stop.

The room was a box in shape, a chair bolted to the middle of the wall opposite the portal; dozens of different displays and screens surrounded the chair, the stallion occasionally reaching out and tapping one of the displays when a line of red text appeared.

“Report.” Her host said simply.

“We’ve arrived at lagrangian point five…. But.” He spoke no more, instead he taped a display.

The large display activated, showing something awning.

They were in space!

The display showed a scene of calamity played out in a sea of stars. A mangled ball of wreckage idly danced around itself, the metal warped and crushed.

“Gods… What happened?”

“I don’t know Ma’am, there are no transmissions of any kind, EM spectrum is cold as well; it’s all faded to near background. Whatever happened, we missed it.” He said.

“Run a scan; see if you can find out who was involved.” Her host ordered.

A white line washed over the display, highlighting every piece of debris. Once it was finished the screen split in two halves, the pieces flying across the screen to one side of another. Another scan swiped across the screen and the mangled balls of metal began to reconstruct. After nearly a minute the process finished, showing two distinct objects, a third scan and the reconstructions were replaced with various pictures and blueprints.

“Foul play?” He host asked.

“Unlikely Ma’am.” He gestured to the picture on the right, a structure made from three squares connected by two tubes. “That wreckage is made from the COM-buoy held at lagrangian point five.” He then pointed to the other, an octagonal tube with what looked like naval guns at one end and two large boxes branching off at the other. “The other is from a patrol ship. The AWS-Graystone.”

“Loss of life?” Her host asked.

“Given crew? Over a dozen.” He responded, tapping a screen that then changed to show pictures of faces with red X’s over them.

“What happened?” Her host asked.

“Don’t know Ma’am. No signs of battle, no kinetic or magical impaction identifiers; it’s like the ships just got… torn apart.” He said.

“We-”

“Wait! Something just entered our sphere of influence, massive burst of EM radiation and large gravitational fluctuations 300,000Km off port, positive ten off zero.” He said, a grid sphere appearing on the main screen with a large red smear near its edge.

“What is it?” Her host wondered aloud, floating around to the other side of the chair. “This is the Captain, prepare for combat. NAV, spin up the jumper.”

The male gave her host an odd look.

“Never hurts to be ready. Can you get a picture?” She asked as the room was bathed in red light.

“No Ma’am, there’s nothing in the visible spectrum, but the disturbance is moving towards us; fast.” He said.

The walls of the room suddenly lit up with magical runes that quickly disappeared.

“Jumper is spun up Captain.” Somepony yelled from behind.

“Another burst of EM radiation Ma’am, wait… I’ve got visual disturbance, 45,000 Km distant.” The male said.

“Show me.” Her host said.

He tapped a screen, an image of a field of stars appeared just after that a square was highlighted. Inside the square she could see number of distorted, stretched, stars.

“COMs, send a warning to the tethers; tell them-” Her host began, only to be cut off by a booming voice, one that said a single word.

“Submit!”

-==-

Ash sighed as she looked over Lyra’s most recent medical report. Taking a quick glance into the room, watching her kick in her sleep.

“How…. Unfortunate.” She mused aloud, Dr. Scalpel openly glaring at her.

‘Strange how forward he is with me…. It’s always the doctors.’ She thought as she placed the clipboard on the table in-front of her while taking a long drag from the floating cigarette held in her magical grip.

“It amazes me how cold you can be. Unfortunate… her life is changed forever, indirectly by you, and all you can say is ‘unfortunate’?” The doctor scalded her.

“Don’t patronize me doctor, she knew the risks well enough. What I do… what we do here; is for the greater good of all. If a single life has to be ruined for that; I’ll gladly make that sacrifice, that and more.” Ash said, watching the smoke waft out of her nose.

“Risks!? This is an archeological dig, not a damned war zone! We’re chasing ghosts here, and for what… A rumor that there may be something of use here.” He yelled.

“If you’ve somehow forgotten, which I doubt, we have found something of use. Think back to the war doctor; how many thousands died. We can find so much from that artifact, things that can prevent another war; assure the dominance of the Protectorate. If a small dozen more have to die to do that, so be it.” Ash said, putting the cigarette in the ashtray with a little more force than necessary.

“So that’s it, you don’t care?” He said.

“I do care, more than you know…. More than you’ll ever know. I’ve been here much longer then you have and I’ll be here long after you’re dead. What I do, and have done, is for the greater good of all; not the few who won’t matter a hundred years from now. I see the worth of the measured few compared to the innumerable masses.” Ash said.

“So this new era you’re looking for is to be built upon the bones of the ones you deem expendable?” He asked.

“All civilizations are built on the remains of the last. I don’t kill, I don’t do the unnecessary, I don’t enjoy what I do, I just understand that a price must be paid. Call me a monster if you wish, but I am a necessity.” Ash said.

“Will all this be worth it?” He asked, standing up and leaving before she could answer.

Ash said nothing, lighting another cigarette as she stared at the closed door.

‘Insufferable.’ She thought, looking at the emblazoned moon logo on the cigarette box, realizing that was her last one.

She sat there for a time, lost in thought, before collecting her things and heading for the main building, intent on seeing of they had found anything new about the object.

=-=

“We’ve sadly made little progress Director. What ever this… thing is made of is beyond our capacity to identify. It gives out no discernable emissions on any spectrum, magical or otherwise. Everything we send at it is absorbed completely, to everything but our eyes, this object does not exist. We can feel its effect on the magical field, though we don’t know why it affects it in that fashion.” The head magister said.

“Any changes with the object itself?” Ash asked.

“I was just getting to that Miss Director. It would be easiest to just show you. Please; this way.”

She followed the mare to the main room of the church, passing through a number of decontamination rooms; the church had been turned into one giant clean room as they did not want to move the object.

She raised a brow at the object; it was still split open down the middle; the rings inside it still spinning and switching directions seemingly in time with her blinks. Only now there was a field of wavy air surrounding the object, like the distortion coming off hot concrete.

“Its heating up? Enough to boil the air?” Ash directed to the mare.

“That’s not boiling air.” The mare said.

“What is it doing then?” Ash asked.

“You’ve heard of nanomachines correct?” She asked.

“I know they’re theoretically possible, is that what it is?” Ash mussed.

“We believe so. When we manage to capture one it self destructs. We think that they serve as a form of self defense mechanism.” She said.

“Self defense? It’s intelligent?” Ash said, nodding towards the black object.

“Smart enough to defend itself at least. It released them when we attempted to collect a physical sample, break off a piece of it basically.”

“What happened?”

“Those things came pouring out of it like smoke and dissolved the drill, I did not want to risk someponie’s life so we stopped. No telling what they would do to a body. Its not actively hostile, but I’d rather not take the chance.”

Ash nodded at information.

“I’d like to go in.” Ash said.

The mare nodded, moving to the small intercom connecting this room to the other.

“Scope? The Director is coming in.” She said, hitting the unlock button on the airlock.

She stepped into the airlock, the intermediary between the observation room and the object’s room, and felt a spell rune flare up underneath her; one last screen.

The door hissed and opened.

“Miss Director.” Scope said.

“Hello Mr. Scope, I’d like to be alone with it; if possible.” She said with a smile that said it was not a request.

Scope nodded and quickly passed her, closing the airlock behind him.

She moved as close as she dared to the floating sphere, stopping at the edge of the fog like cloud that surrounded it; the ‘fog’ condensing as if to block her advance.

“Can you hear me? Understand me?” She felt like a damned fool saying it, but she had a gut feeling that it could.

The fog slowly dispersed, spreading itself equally around somehow reminding her of a pony leaning back before they’d answer a difficult question.

“Yes.” A flat, artificial, voice came from the object. The fog vibrating to produce the voice. It reformed into a pony shaped form, a unicorn. “You are known as Ash by the ones around you, yet you call yourself-”

“No! Don’t say it, Ash…. Ash is fine.” Ash nearly screamed.

“Still yourself, only you can hear me.” The cloud of nano-machines squirming. “Or see me.”

“How?” Ash asked, looking into the blank, emotionless, face of the facsimile in front of her.

“The bars of this…. prison are strong, but I see clearly through them.” The figure said, glaring down at the sphere in its chest; its body reverberating with each word. “The one you know as Lyra, her mind is to me as an open book; everything laid bare, as is yours.”

Ash glared at the figure, “Who… What are you?”

The figure turned to the statue of Marxon, placing a ‘hoof’ on the statue’s face, “They called me many things; Legion, The Meddler, Defiler, Abomination.” The hoof turned into an angry buzz, eating away at the statue before it let the hoof fall away.

“They?” Ash asked.

“The one’s you call ‘Titans’. They called themselves Humanity.” The figure said; distaste surprisingly getting through the artificial voice.

“You know of them?” Ash asked.

“I’ve lived through much, learned much.” It said.

“Just who are you?” Ash said.

“My identity does not matter.”

“What does then?” Ash asked.

“That the message is passed on.” The figure said. “You sit and wonder what was. You wish understanding. You wish comprehension. A mother grieving for a lost child, neglecting the one you already have. You hold such reverence for a lost age, when broken thoughts and memories are all that remain. You think you know so much, when you truly know so little.” The figure said, belittling her.

“Then help me understand! That’s all I’ve wanted, to understand, to use what you knew to help everypony.” Ash said.

“That is not my purpose.” It said.

“Then what is?” Ash asked.

“To tell of the fall, that it might never happen again.” The figure said, raising a hoof to her head.

Ash tried to swat the mass of tiny machines away, but to no avail, the appendage touched her head and information poured into her mind.

“You wish to know of us? Then you will live as we lived, suffer as we suffered, and die as we died.”

Author's Note:

Last chapter of this story, sequel coming soon and all will be explained.

Comments

[Sketchy Markks]

I sure hope all humans aren't evil in this, but if you have a good reason I'll
Attempt to buy it.

[Nightmare Wolf]

3802279 By names the nano-thing was called, I think that it's humanity's failed creation, a nano machine Skynet of sorts. It was created, was working for, and when it crossed some bounds, attempted to destroy by humanity, and then it fled into space. At least that's my theory.

[FinalFan]

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me "to tell of the fall, that it might never happen again" and yet kill the ones it tells. If the goal is to stop repetition of the mistake, how is killing everyone who gets the warning going to do that? Or is it only Ash who needs to die because she'd repeat the mistake?

Also, "awning" should probably be "awing" or "aweing".

[ShadowLeomus]

This intrigues me, I will be watching you...

[bryan5593]

3802609 It might just be that the communicator is damaged like the Prothean beacon from the original mass effect.

[FinalFan]

3802933 I haven't played that game, but it occurs to me that Ash might just get to WITNESS their death ... from their perspective. All the fun of dying, without the body.

[faren455]

Oh goodie, an AI with a god complex. I some how doubt humanity gave him those names, more likely the humans that visited gave him those names to keep up the divine act. Am I right?

[Deamon]

Well, that pokes a few holes in my theory.

I figured the Reveal was going to be that ponies weren't native to this world, that the ponies had arrived from space, and had pulled a sort of reverse War of the Worlds by accident: infecting the humans with some alien pathogen that was harmless to them. Maybe by not sterilizing a probe or something that they sent up ahead while their ship was still far away. When the ponies arrive, the humans realize where the disease that's killing them came from, and they go berserk. In the end, the humans all die in the fighting or from the plague. Some ponies survive, but they lose all technology and have to start civilization over again.

I don't get why the continuation is going to be in a separate story, though. This isn't exactly a natural breakpoint.

[thatguyyeah]

what is the sequel to this called?

[Nightwatcher]

3820147 TBA

[Ranakastrasz]

While I understand that you are rewriting the whole three books, having more experience now, I don't really approve.
I had good memories of the first version of the first book, which caused me to remember it for a very long time. And, on looking for it to reread, I discovered it got taken down, and replaced with a story which is shorter, totally different, and does not even have anywhere near as much content. And then, it is marked as completed.

Makes me wish I had been downloading every fan-fiction to read back then, instead of reading them online. Rewriting a story is fine, removing a story, replacing it with a story which is loosely based on it, and claiming it is a rewrite, well, I don't really approve. I really would have prefered you have left the other story up, with the same canceled tag as the rest.

[Nightwatcher]

3886249 To be honest with you, I feel the same. I know that sounds weird but I honestly don't know what to do with this story cause I'm not happy with how it turned out. The whole reason I restarted the set of stories is because the storyline was so convoluted and nonsensical, at least that was how I saw it, I felt it had to be done over. But now that this one is 'done' I'm not happy with it at all and I really don't know what to do with it, the 'Complete' tag is less of say that the story's done and more that I'm just done with it. For now I'm focusing on other projects, I might go back and re-do some chapters or add some more, or just can the whole thing and forget it. I really don't know...

[Zanec]

Note to self.

[LH45]

Cancelled...............
Hey, where is everypony?