The Eternal Sphere

by Xarmar13

Underdeveloped Planet

Fayt woke up with a pounding headache. The turbulence caused by the arrival of a Federation vessel shook the escape pod so severely that he bumped his head hard on the walls of the pod which knocked him unconscious for a couple of hours. A small trickle of blood had poured down his head but had dried since then. Thankfully, escape pods were equipped with medical supplies such as painkillers.

Nothing had happened while he was knocked out and the pod was still travelling in gravitic warp space. Thanks to that Federation Battleship, Fayt knew that his pod was knocked off course and was no longer heading to Remote Station Six where he intended on reuniting with his family. He could only worry about what happened to them as he was now travelling in an unknown direction. Of course, he was in no position to be worrying about them right now and had to worry about himself.

First things first, he needed to find somewhere to land the pod because its supplies wouldn’t last him forever and there was no telling when rescue would arrive.

He addressed the onboard computer, “Computer, what is the current course for this pod?”

“At the current speed of warp six, we will arrive at the nearest inhabitable planet of Vanguard III within one hundred and forty-two hours.

“Vanguard III is located approximately zero point five lightyears from current location. Axial tilt of thirty-five degrees results in extreme seasonal weather. Existence of humanoid lifeforms confirmed. This planet has been classified as an underdeveloped planet. Civilization level: approximately equivalent to sixteenth-century Earth. Would you like to review the Underdeveloped Planet Preservation Pact?”

“Yes,” Fayt affirmed.

“The Underdeveloped Planet Preservation Pact was established in order to protect planets with developing civilizations. Contact with civilizations that have not reached a civilization level that nears the development of interstellar travel is strictly prohibited by Federation law. This is due to the fact that contact with advanced civilizations has a high probability of greatly influencing the history on a less developed planet. All individuals and organizations belonging to the Pangalactic Federation are required to adhere to the tenets of this pact, unless faced with a clear danger to life or limb. This pact is one of the most important components of Pangalactic Federation law. It also serves as a guideline for civilian conduct in emergency situations. Violators will be tried by the Federation Council.”

Fayt recalled his history lessons about the UP3 which came about as a result of actions caused by a small crew of explorers on a ship called the Calnus back in S.D. 10. The captain of the ship, Edge Maverick, interacted with several underdeveloped civilizations and influenced their development. One such example led to an alternate version of mid twentieth-century Earth to destroy itself along with the entire planet when they experimented with an exalithium core that was required for warp drives.

Since this was an emergency, Fayt resolved to not make any significant impacts on the Vanguardians.

Fayt made sure that there weren’t any foreseeable problems and had the computer scan him in case he had a concussion. While he did have a small concussion, it was nothing to worry about. Since he wasn’t going to be doing much for the next six days, he figured that he would be fine by the time he got to Vanguard III.

---

Twilight could only facepalm in response to the situation. For some reason, the Vendeeni have been quite persistent in their attempts to capture the Liengods. Even if they knew that Fayt and Sophia were genetically altered and they wanted the Symbological Genetics research, sending an armada to Hyda IV seemed a little extreme.

That wasn’t why Twilight facepalmed though. She was aggravated at the convenience of the arrival of a Federation battleship that not only knocked Fayt’s pod off course to Celestia knew where, but now they had the deal with an unintended guest in the form of a bouncy little circus performer.

She was going to be spending long hours tracking possible vectors to where Fayt went…unless…

Twilight quickly brought up a display and began using the Federation channels to locate any distress beacons from the escape pods. While there were many, only a few were moving along one of the possible vectors that the target pod went. All but one of those was still headed toward one of the remote stations. The last one was headed toward an unknown destination.

Twilight dearly hoped that that was Fayt’s pod.

Proximity sensors suddenly picked up on another ship entering the area, not far from their position. The make and model of the ship was inputted into the database and Twilight discovered that the ship was of Klausian origin. The only reason Twilight could figure for a Klausian ship to be in the area would be if they were members of Quark and were looking for Fayt.

While the nearby Federation and Vendeeni battleships were locked in combat with one another, the Klausian ship, small as it was, was ignored by the combatants. Twilight suspected that they took the opportunity to scan for distress beacons. It was a few minutes later that the ship began angling itself toward the vector that Twilight suspected where Fayt’s pod went. The ship moved in that direction with their gravitic warp engine beginning to activate. They would likely engage the engine once they were outside the anomaly zone produced by the Vendeeni ship.

Twilight was not about to let Quark get to Fayt first. While she knew that Maria was leading them, she also didn’t know enough about the second child to trust her because for all she knew, Maria could be seeking revenge on Doctor Leingod. Twilight needed to know what powers the children were given before something happened to them.

Twilight began activating her ship’s gravitic warp engine and moved out of the anomaly to pursue the Klausians and Fayt.

Meanwhile, Lyra decided to greet the new guests. She left Twilight to her calculations to see how the newest additions to the ship were holding up.

She quickly spotted the group looking around the hallway outside the transporter, checking the rooms. Lyra got their attention by calling out to them and waving, “Hey!”

The group quickly saw the aquamarine-colored mare and their eyes widened, surprised to see a familiar face. “You made it!” Peppita said. “I was worried that something happened to you since we didn’t see you at the shelter.”

Lyra laughed awkwardly, “Yeah, Twi and I transported to our ship once the civilians were evacuated.” She shook her head to drive away the awkwardness. “Anyway, my name is Lyra Heartstrings.”

The others introduced themselves in turn, even though Lyra already knew their names.

While the others had a friendly demeanor about them, Sophia narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Peppita noticed the look. “Sophia? What’s the matter?”

Sophia figured that she might as well come out and say what was on her mind since holding her piece was going to get her nowhere. “I have some questions: Out of the many civilians that you could have rescued, why did you rescue us? What about Fayt?”

Lyra’s awkward expression returned. “About that, to answer your second question, We intended on transporting Fayt here but a Federation ship appeared out of nowhere and knocked his pod off course and we ended up transporting Peppita instead.”

“So I’m only here by accident? Aww…” Peppita pouted. “Here I thought you brought me on board because of my awesome fighting skills.”

“To answer your first question, it’s because we know how important you are and why the Vendeeni are after you.”

Robert raised an eyebrow, “What exactly do you know about us? It’s clear that you’re no ordinary civilians.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not the one with all the details. I’m pretty sure my partner, Twilight, will be able to explain better.”

“Then we’ll wait.”

Twilight walked into the hallway a few minutes later. She and Robert approached one another before he spoke first, “Are you Twilight?”

Twilight nodded in affirmation. “Sorry for transporting you from your escape pods, I couldn’t risk the Vendeeni capturing you.”

“But can we trust you? How do we know that you’re no better than the Vendeeni?”

Twilight sighed, “I wish I could earn your trust Robert, but time is a luxury we can’t afford right now. Quark is looking for Fayt and the second child is leading the organization.”

If Twilight didn’t have Robert’s attention before, she had it now. He had no idea that Maria survived the tragedy that took the lives of the Traydors. Of course, he was also filled with a renewed hope for the universe. If what the mare in front of him said was correct and all three of the children still lived, there might still be a chance for the universe to be saved from the coming threat, even if it was a small one.

“I need to have a brief chat with my wife, excuse me for a moment.” Robert brought Ryoko to one of the cabin rooms. Twilight placed a silencing spell on the cabin door in case Peppita or Sophia became curious.

Sophia’s frustration was more evident than before. While she had picked up feelings of concern at times where such feelings weren’t appropriate, she didn’t think much of that before. Now, her aunt and uncle were acting suspicious and it made those prior feelings make more sense. She would have let the matter lie eventually except she was reasonably certain that the matter had everything to do with herself and Fayt. When Twilight mentioned a “second child”, Robert behaved like his secret might have been exposed and he was trying to run damage control.

Lyra picked up on Sophia’s frustration and tried to use an old trick that her first master, Tassadar, taught her to soothe the girl’s mind.

That was when Lyra felt something powerful coming from Sophia. When her psionic waves made contact with her mind, she felt those waves being sent back at her in the form of a feedback loop. Thankfully, the feedback was weak because her trick was not meant to bring harm to another’s mind. It was still enough to give Lyra a slight headache.

“Only someone with a decent level of psychic power could erect a mental barrier like that,” Lyra thought. “Just who is this girl?”

Since calming Sophia was out of the question now, Lyra had to take a direct approach to distract her from her family members. This was also a chance to learn more about Sophia’s mysterious powers.

“Hey,” Lyra spoke, getting Sophia’s attention, who responded with a glare. “Let’s take a walk around the ship, there’s actually something that I want to ask you.”

Curiosity mixed in with Sophia’s frustration. While she wasn’t happy with her aunt and uncle, and possibly her parents since they worked in the same lab together, keeping important secrets that seemed to be related to her, she also knew that she needed a distraction to keep herself from saying or doing something foolish.

“Can I come?” Peppita asked. “After everything that’s happened, I don’t wanna be alone right now.”

Lyra smiled, “Sure, let’s explore the ship together.”

A few minutes after Lyra, Sophia and Peppita walked away, Robert and Ryoko opened the door to their room. “Miss Twilight, can you come in here with us?” Robert asked.

“Just Twilight is fine,” Twilight responded. She entered the room.

The atmosphere in the cabin became tense as she entered. Robert had his arms crossed and Ryoko looked at her husband in concern. The room was cast in silence for a few moments as Robert stared at the purple mare before he finally spoke.

“What are your intentions for the children?”

Since Robert was in no mood for nonsense, Twilight gave the best answer she could without giving unnecessary info away. “As you know, my people have been interested in the science of Symbology. Our discoveries and yours have been exchanged over the centuries. Symbological Genetics is another field that my people have taken an interest in learning. I have also learned that you have produced three successful subjects in the children of your research group.”

“That research was supposed to be top secret. Only the upper echelons of the Federation should have had any knowledge of our project. Even then, I made sure to keep the existence of the third child hidden in a secret file on Moonbase. Even if you were a part of the Federation’s top brass, you shouldn’t have found out that Sophia was a subject too. How did you find out?”

“Are you really asking me that?” Twilight deadpanned. “I already know about who worked at your facility. The Leingods, the Traydors and the Esteeds; it’s not a huge leap in logic to make the assumption that you experimented on her too. My intention is to study the powers they gained and learn about how Symbological Genetics can benefit my people.”

Robert pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses. “Do you have any idea what’s at stake here? The entire universe is in danger and all you can think of is how this benefits your people?”

“What do you expect us to do about that, Robert? What do you expect three genetically modified children to do against a universe-ending threat?”

Robert lowered his head and his voice to just above a whisper, the fatigue of the recent events catching up to him. “My greatest hope is for them to enter the realm of The Creator and convince him to spare our universe.”

This piqued Twilight’s interest, if Robert intended on having the children leave the Eternal Sphere and into the real world, then whatever powers the children had, despite being made of data, would have to alter their own existence, become able to interact with the real world, and even then, they would have to find a way to bridge the two universes. Since Twilight and Lyra were already connected to the real world, it would be interesting to learn how the children could form their own connection.

Robert looked Twilight in the eyes and spoke with a hint of desperation in his tone, “If you intend on studying the children, can I ask you to look after them for us? I don’t know about Maria’s status, but neither Fayt’s nor Sophia’s powers have manifested yet. Until they are ready to challenge The Creator, they need to gain experience through combat first. Please, help them become strong so that they might save our universe.”

Twilight wasn’t about to tell Robert that she was The Creator that he was preparing the children against, but perhaps Fayt, Sophia and Maria, could be guided to whomever released the virus into the Eternal Sphere. Of course, that was conditional to the experimental symbols actually working as designed.

Twilight smiled as she put a hand on Robert’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure your children survive their coming ordeal. Our mission hasn’t changed, it just means that we will be directly assisting them from now on. Me and Lyra will keep them safe.”

“Thank you so much,” Ryoko nearly shouted in gratitude.

The rest of the time was spent discussing less important aspects of science.

Meanwhile, Lyra, Sophia and Peppita were exploring the ship, finding that most of the rooms were cabins, the cockpit, the transporters, or a small cafeteria with food synthesizers.

Sophia quickly became bored of the tour and decided to move on to more important topics.

“So, what did you want to ask me?”

Lyra stopped, Peppita stopped a moment later, looking at the two in concern but stayed silent.

“What do you know about psychic powers?” Lyra asked.

“Huh!?” That caught Sophia off guard. She never expected anyone to ask a question like that. She shook her head to regain her composure. “Well, not much, I’m afraid. Psychics are very rare and few races are natural psychics.”

“Are you aware of your own psychic powers?”

“Yes, but the doctors said that I could feel the emotions of others at best. It’s not a very useful ability in general, but it might be somewhat useful for interrogations.”

“That can’t be right,” Lyra thought. “There is far too much psionic potential in her for her abilities to be limited to mere psychic empathy. She’s either lying or there is something going on within her that she’s completely unaware of. I’m pretty sure that what I felt before was merely the tip of the iceberg. If I’m to get some answers, I need to look inside her.”

“Let’s find a place to sit and relax at the cafeteria. I want to try something but I need your consent to do it.”

Sophia became even more curious, she could only wonder what Lyra intended as they returned to the cafeteria and found a place to sit. Peppita sat next to Sophia.

“I want to look into your mind, but I need you to relax as much as possible. This procedure is going to feel invasive, but I need to know what is going on inside your mind before I can try anything else.”

“Why?”

“Because your psychic powers are far greater than you are aware of, but for some reason you seem unable to access the vast majority of it. I want to find out why?”

Sophia felt unsure if she should allow Lyra in her head, but this was also a chance to get some answers about herself. For some reason, she felt like she could trust the pony in front of her. She nodded and closed her eyes, doing her best to relax.

Lyra took this as permission to continue so she began releasing analytical waves of psionic energy into Sophia’s mind. She was met with resistance, but not as much as earlier. Given what she went through, Lyra figured that this was the closest to calm that Sophia was going to get for a while.

It took some effort, but Lyra managed to break through the girl’s mental defenses. Looking through her mind, she saw some memories of her growing up, some sealed memories that Lyra decided to ignore and worry about later, and other parts of her mind.

While her mental processes appeared normal, it was when Lyra discovered a portion of the girl’s mind that was wrapped in psychic fog that piqued her curiosity. It took all of her effort to try to peer through the fog to discover what the girl’s own psychic powers were concealing.

The revelation shocked Lyra and broke her concentration, catapulting her from Sophia’s mind and causing her to fall back and onto the floor. She breathed hard for a few moments as she did her best to recover from the shock. She knew there was something odd about Sophia, but she never figured that that was the cause. Of course, it would explain the reports of enhanced strength and increased regeneration. The question was how did she come across them when they shouldn’t even be in this part of the galaxy.

Lyra now knew that the majority of Sophia’s powers were being used in keeping that thing suppressed so that it wouldn’t spread all over her body.

Lyra could only feel sad for Sophia who was unaware that her own body was a battlefield.

---

Six days later…

“Entering Vanguard III’s gravitational field. Prepare for entry turbulence.”

That was all the warning the computer gave before Fayt braced himself for the shaking to come as his pod entered the planet’s atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the pod wasn’t designed for landings and Fayt was anticipating a very rough crash landing. He took every precaution he could to make sure he didn’t hit his head again from the inevitable crash.

After a few minutes, the flames of atmospheric reentry dissipated from around the pod. It flew into what appeared on the screen as a small forest before the expected shaking from a violent impact as the pod touched ground and slid a few kilometers before coming to an abrupt stop.

Fayt looked around the pod and found that the impact had damaged nearly everything. It was easy to conclude that the pod was beyond repair. Some systems were still functional and he was thankful for that. The distress beacon was also functional.

It was time to assess his situation. He was currently on Vanguard III, an underdeveloped planet, he was stuck there until someone came to pick him up, being in a forest meant that he might have to deal with its denizens which meant that sleeping in the pod again might be a bad idea, and he doubted that the supplies were salvageable.

Fayt pulled out his portable standard issue quad scanner to analyze the area around him and found a village nearby. He also used the pod’s still-functioning replicator to create a longsword to use as he made his way to the village.

Along the way, Fayt encountered tiny, aggressive slime monsters that proved difficult to hit because of their size. While he managed to compensate for their size, the tiny slimes did manage to smack him in the face a few times. Fayt preferred fighting this type of creature over the other type that he found in the forest.

Fayt had heard stories about monsters that looked like humans dressed in garb from Earth’s Renaissance period and carried around toy pistols. While harmless, they were extremely aggravating. They invaded the personal space of travelers to complain to them. It appeared as if the creatures were born to annoy travelers. Whenever you beat them up a little, they begged you to spare their lives. If you spared them, they left treasures behind and fled, if you wounded them, they started running around in a reckless panic and tripping over themselves, scattering fol all over the place. While an adventurer who was short on funds would hunt these guys down, Fayt found them too annoying to be worth the energy to hunt.

While he did a lot of combat training in a simulator, Fayt was lacking in stamina as the battles, combined with the the long trek through the forest and potential jet lag from travelling in a pod for six days with little to do since he had to take it easy because of a concussion had begun to hit him all at once. Overwhelming fatigue struck him as he began to shamble toward the village.
He had just made it to the edge of the village before the fatigue had won the battle in his mind and he dropped his sword before falling to his knees and then on his face.

His last moment of consciousness was spent listening to approaching footsteps.

Author's Note:

I think it would be pretty easy to guess what Sophia is unknowingly harboring since I suck at keeping the reader guessing.

Those of you who have seen/played SO3 probably know who is piloting the ship that Twilight is chasing.

Comments

[Black--Soul]

Damn fine story chapter! I don't know the game and are hyped to learn about 'her body is a battlefield' thing.

What irony... If i imagen humans being the creator... They be doomed Lucky them it's Pony's.
Screw the lawsuit This is a fruitful living environment that already spawned science progress!

Time for some seriouse RPG adventures to start

[Xarmar13]

11060310
Plenty of playthroughs on YouTube if you want to know how the game goes and compare it to the story.

[Black--Soul]

Fayt looked around the pod and found that the impact had damaged nearly everything. It was easy to conclude that the pod was beyond repair. Some systems were still functional and he was thankful for that. The distress beacon was also functional.

I get flashbacks...