BONE - Strange Visitors

by swyrl

Prologue

Author's Note:

Be warned, certain themes are a bit wonky due to formatting quirks. (specifically the pony themes.) It's to do with an issue regarding newlines. I can't fix it, but I'll ask knighty about it.

Throughout history, humans have been knowledgeable and aware of only one plane of existence: our own. Even when science pushed our vision to the edges of the known, it was still acknowledged that the scope of our observation was limited. However, if we took a moment to step back and gaze upon our universe from the outside, we could see the multiverse- an infinite collection of realities, each merely a twist in a web of ever-changing threads.

This is important.

And, many worlds away, scientists were plucking at the strings.

- BONE -

Strange Visitors

"Is the array ready?"

"The calibrations will take a few more minutes, Miles. Just get a damn coffee or something."

A tall, dark-haired man was hunched over a panel of instruments, glancing back and forth between the dials and a series of notes. An array of monitors hummed away, some showing readings and calibrations, others, feeds of the array. This was a military research compound, designed to accomplish something most deemed science fiction- tapping into other worlds. In this case, for the creation of a superweapon: An enormous amount of energy, drawn from other worlds, and then released remotely by the same mechanic. So far, the St. George Array had accomplished only one of its objectives- it had successfully drawn energy from beyond its own world. Now, an attempt was being made to transport matter- in the form of concrete blocks. This was their eleventh trial. Miles, a mustachioed man in glasses, re-entered with a half-empty styrofoam cup.

"Is it done yet? We don't have time to waste, Rob."

"Yes, the calibrations should be complete, just give me a moment to double-che-"

"Just fire the damn thing up already." Rob glared at him, but began flipping switches anyways. "If things go wrong, don't blame me." he paused. All lights were green, and the switches, all in the correct positions. his finger hovered over the ignition switch at the console's heart. "Readings stable- Initialising!" The switch was flipped and the array began crackling to life.

---

In the web of worlds, one thread began to writhe violently. It stretched and bent, almost twisting itself into knots. It coiled upon itself, and pulled.

---

The readings were all in the green, and more promising than last time. The power gauge climbed to towards the execution point, and the array rattled with power. As the humming of energy reached a crescendo, the gauge topped itself off. There was a brilliant flash- which promptly fizzled out, once again yielding no results.

"Dammit. Nothing. Again! There must be a missing component to the equation; something I'm not seeing."

"We can't afford so many failures, Rob."

"You think I don't know that? Look-" He sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Can you just go over the data and compare it to the rest? Maybe we'll find the answer this time. If we're lucky, our next test will be our last."

But, as they mourned the absence of results, worlds away...

...something changed.