An Obsidian Sky Part 6

Abruptly a voice I recognised well came over the speaker. 'George! Is it really you? Thank fate, it is you. Man am I glad to see you. Where are you?'

'Adrian!' my voice croaked a little with emotion. 'Adrian, I'm just on the other side of the door. We can't get to you. I want you to listen to me. I want you to hear what I am saying to you. We are going to get you out of there. But for the moment, until the ship is safe, you are better off in here.'

'Okay' replied Adrian with fear in his voice, 'what happened? The doctor got some sort of report and just bolted. Then one of the nurses came in. He was talking to me. Then he just seemed to stop. He was very quiet and just stared and stared off into s.p.a.ce. I tried to get his attention but he wouldn't answer. Then he started to giggle a little. He got a syringe of something. I don't know what. He kept laughing, he was coming towards me. A guardsman shot him in the back. Then he sealed me in here. The girl that is with me is called Julian. She got injured by another member of the crew. George what is happening? The doctors explained that the world is gone. That there are these Artefacts...' he could not continue.

'Yes Adrian. I am sorry. It is all true. We all knew it would happen eventually, that the Artefact would get to them. We just did not think that it would happen so soon.'

'Adrian,' Blue Dawn cut in. 'Have you experienced any headaches, nausea or repet.i.tion of thought. Are you or have you recently dwelled upon something that seemed as though it made no sense, as though you had a desire for something you never knew existed. Do you feel any sense of extreme tension and unease, outside of the reaction one would normally expect from this situation?'

'No, no, not at all. I mean, I am feeling some of these things but nothing more than I should be.'

'Interesting,' Blue Dawn intoned quietly.

'What?' I said urgently.

'Symptoms of infection usually occur after two days for those who are unshielded. The crew lasted a week before it got the better of them and they were at least partially shielded. The command infrastructure of this vessel was not based on individual merit, but on probable longevity. Thus Knightly and the rest of the command have survived longer, but are still showing symptoms.' She turned to me and whispered, 'it seems he might have some sort of natural defence. I do not know if he has formed an immunity or not. But nothing has ever done so before. This is very interesting.'

She then turned to one of the angels and asked, 'what do you think?' But the angel merely turned away from her. 'Didn't think you'd break your silence,' she goaded. The angel turned to face her again regarding her with mild curiosity.

'Exactly' she continued. 'Why I thought that you would really try and help us is beyond me. Since the beginning you never spoke, but I know you can. And when it was all ending, instead of offering to help me you turned away. What has changed, to make you want to help him? You rarely obeyed my commands before.' The angel gave her a stern look. It ruffled its feathers and stretched out its wings. But it did not leave and I for one was grateful that they hadn't lived up to her expectations.

I thumbed my comm unit. 'Aeniah, have you reached the CIC?' I asked.

Aeniah's voice came through crackling, 'not...quite...yet.' There was the sound of automatic weapons fire in the background. 'Stuck in a bottleneck. d.a.m.n those Equinox things move quick' the sound of her pistol made me jump. 'Motherf.u.c.ker.'

'Aeniah, we have found Adrian, I will move to your location for fire support,' I responded.

'Sounding like a real guardsman already,' she laughed, 'alright we are in the causeway on the mid floor. Come from the stern or you will get f.u.c.ked up.'

'Okay Adrian is secure in the infirmary. Heading to you now.' I looked across to Blue Dawn and she nodded. Shouldering my lancer I moved to look outside the infirmary doors. As I did so something thudded against my body. I felt as though I had been punched. With difficulty I got back into the safety of the room. A crimson stain was developing along my clothes.

'George!' shouted Blue Dawn with concern. She began to inspect my wounds. One of the angels moved its hand and placed it upon my injury. With shock I realised that I had been shot through the chest. The Equinox label on the angels dress glowed as its hand became shrouded in a contained light. With a throbbing sensation the room around me became light and I saw into the heart of everything.

Each person was made out of little sphere's of light, like the resolution of a hologram. But nothing shone as brightly as the angels. They were so bright that it half blinded me. Indeed the contrast between our surroundings and themselves was so striking that it was almost impossible not to focus upon them. I looked towards its hand which was pouring light from the environment and into me. The world looked like a sea of colour. I could see the energy of the vessel pulsing like so many rainbows. All of this was superimposed upon my standard vision of the world, which seemed dull and lifeless by comparison.

As I was drinking in the bounty the angels were offering I saw the infirmary doors open. The infected guardsman grinned. Within him, there was no light, only a trickle of darkness. He raised his rifle. The muzzle opened up a stream of hot lead towards me. But in an instant it slowed almost to a stop. I held out my hand and focused upon the bullets. Then something happened which I cannot explain. The bullets dissolved into nothing. I held out my hand to the guardsmen and suddenly a huge pulse of light leapt from it. In a moment he was shrouded in a heavenly glow. He was drawn apart by an Elysium fire. The fire exploded and the guardsman was no more.

The angel removed its hand. The world slowly washed back into its original state. Blood from the guardsman soaked the walls. In the explosion of energy that had just occurred, several screens appeared to have been damaged. What I realised now is just how the angels worked. I had not connected by myself to this source of energy but had done so through them. That single angel had the capability of wielding more power than I could ever imagine. At the same time I realised why I was so important. Unlike the others who had lived and died upon Ascension I was able to connect without the help of the Equinox subjects. It dawned upon me that perhaps the solution to the removal of the artefacts was through this energy, through this G.o.d-like might. The question that I could not answer was why the angels had not removed it themselves.

In the same moment I noticed that my wound had healed. My chest no longer hurt and under the inspection of my fingers, I discovered no trace of a wound. The angels appeared restless; it was high time we moved along. This time I decided not to be a hero and instead resolved to attempt the rescue with a little more caution.

'Perhaps you would like to hear the preferred route,' Blue Dawn stated dryly. It was incredible how her voice could contain such rhythmical composure and yet at the same time invoke irony and sarcasm.

'Go ahead,' I muttered.

'The CIC is one floor down. We are presently at the stern of the vessel and so we are in a prime location. If we take the engineering service hatch for the power-core down to that level, we should emerge ahead of the danger of the reactor and behind the free-fire-zone.'

'Sounds like a plan, but where is this service hatch?'

'It is directly opposite this room. The service hatch allows access to a coolant pipe for the reactor. The pipe's temperature is regulated by running it along the hull of the vessel and so absorbing the cold of s.p.a.ce. The average temperature in this section is minus one hundred degrees. This is considerably warmer than the temperature higher up. As we descend the temperature will rise to close to one hundred. It is with this knowledge that I suggest that you do not spend too long in the coolant system. Your suit should offer you protection for a period of no longer than half an hour. But don't risk it for too long.' With that she took another small ball from her pocket.

She let it go and it hovered to the infirmary door, which opened to allow its exit. 'All clear,' she stated. The ball must have contained some sort of imaging system for her to know this.

She held out her hand for the ball of light. It shut off its light and dropped into her palm. Without a seconds hesitation she walked right outside, with one angel following her. I smiled at my angel in thanks, but it appeared not to notice. Feeling a little disconcerted by the power of her eyes burrowing into me I hurried to catch up with Blue Dawn.

I emerged into the silence of the once bustling science laboratory. As far as I could remember this place had once been a centre of activity. Now however it lay silent. Small dark holes peppered everything. The gla.s.s walls that had once provided a window into the mysteries of science, were now so cracked that little was visible. What could just about be glimpsed through the unmarked surfaces of the gla.s.s was hardly encouraging. Vials were smashed, machines were damaged beyond repair, corpses lay motionless upon the floor, or hunched over their machines. The most tragic view that could be seen was a woman with her arms about a gene sequencer. She had died trying to protect this machine and had failed in her task. The machine was clearly damaged and it did not appear to be serviceable. I wondered what had been the point, wasting life for a smashed gla.s.s.

We crossed the small expanse that seemed to continue into eternity and arrived at the service hatch. A printed sign on the side of the hatch stated, danger, reactor coolant, authorised personnel only. With an unlikely amount of strength Blue Dawn yanked upon the hatch and ripped it from the wall. The sound of fracturing metal crept throughout the halls.

I climbed in before her. An angel moved in to follow. The tube was freezing. It was very, very cold. A warning light on my suit blinked. I kept crawling forwards.

About a yard ahead of me was a sudden bend. I held out my hand and dropped it. In the symmetrical environment of the tube it was easy to forget which way was down. The way was clearly below us. I didn't really want to go down a narrow tube, but I figured that there was no choice. There was however no turning back. So I grabbed hold of the side I lowered myself down.

My feet would not hit the ground. In fact the ground seemed to be a long way away. In panic I flailed my feet about. They found nothing. My hands were beginning to tire. I tried again. The change in motion upset my grip upon the growing slipperiness of the tube and I began to fall.

I kept picking up speed. Travelling faster and faster I felt the air begin to whoosh about my ears, growing to a deafening whine.

I felt a colossal pull underneath my shoulders and found to my surprise those shining hands lifting me up. We landed gently upon the floor. My shoes made a slight clang, but the angel's made none. Knowing Blue Dawn would soon be following I began to crawl at full speed towards the light of the access hatch. The temperature was rising now, I could feel it. With a mind not to be crushed by the descent of Blue Dawn I decided to think little on it.

Hurling my hand against the service hatch it opened to give way. I rolled, head-first, onto the floor of the stern of the middle floor. Standing quickly I realised to my horror that we had ended up on entirely the wrong part of the vessel. I must have gone the wrong way after my descent because I realised that even though we were still before the CIC we were actually ahead of Aeniah and the others. Coming up upon a large group of infected with minimal protection was not a good idea. My angel, realising perhaps just at that moment our mistake, moved very close to me to protect me. I knew in my mind that we had little recourse but to continue.

Blue Dawn dropped from the hatch behind me. Through my peripheral vision I saw her shake her head. I turned to face her head on. Her finger flashed out in the direction of the CIC and I obliged by walking in that direction. With my lancer pressed firmly to my shoulder I strode confidently, comfortable in the power of the device.

Two figures with fully automatics rounded the bend to my right. My angels exploded to my right, covering my position. They calmly absorbed the weapons fire as I span the lancer in their direction. Looking through the screen I saw that these two figures were in a far worse state than the others had been in. Their faces were badly lacerated. Their hands were b.l.o.o.d.y. They seemed excited by the violence of the event and their eyes took on a hungry look.

I fired twice. The lancer compensated for my aim which I was acutely aware was off target. The two infected were blown several feet backwards. The one with a curious wound to his head stepped back up. I took aim and fired again as he ambled towards me. He was again thrown backwards, with even more of his torso damaged. Yet he still rose. His internal organs hanging from him, throwing blood furiously along the floor. Torrents of crimson rain rushed from him, but still he came.

'f.u.c.k you,' I scream flicking the lancer onto auto. I held my finger on the trigger and a continuous beam projected itself from the device. The beam flashed towards this undying figure. As it rushed towards him the walls were cooked in the heat of the beam. As it touched him, he was immediately set on fire, blackening rapidly. Yet still he seemed to stagger forward. The beam however was too strong. In just one moment of infinite rapidity, he flickered violently out of existence.

We rounded another corner with speed, knowing that we must have alerted the others. Quickly we found a vantage point from which there was sufficient cover to lay down some fire. Sure enough a horde of infected began to run towards us, screaming with inhuman voices.

Running towards the cover I let fly with the beam which arced as I spun to the ground. Its awe inspiring beam pulverised the front line of the wave. I saw Blue Dawn's hand ejecting hundreds of blue darts with a flittering sound. Each dart broke like gla.s.s upon the infected, exploding seconds afterwards. The shards threw flesh across the hall. I took position and switched to bombardier mode on the lancer. Squeezing the trigger a hollow thud sounded from the barrel and a partially visible bolt threw itself from the muzzle. An explosion of tremendous size threw me backwards. Even the angels lifted their hands in front of them to shield themselves from the blast-wave. The walls buckled and promptly ruptured. Metal snapped with a terrifying whine and silence filled the room.

Hurriedly I searched for Blue Dawn. She was dragging herself to her feet, still immaculate. Her dress had collected some dust but it shimmered and I could see it falling off in a cloud. Within just a moment she appeared as though she was taking a stroll along a summery lane and not directly in the aftermath of an explosion. She brushed her dress anyway, as if out of habit, though I did not know where she could have picked that up.

In a partial and dizzy gaze I rose up and stumbled forward. Aeniah was not far away. I saw a figure running towards me. Over the comms I heard Aeniah's distinct voice. 'Put that f.u.c.king gun down, it's me you t.w.a.t.'

With a sudden elation I realised that it was her and put my lancer down. 'Thanks for cleaning up that mess George.' She stared at my amiable expression. In order to avoid an awkward moment of fraternity she stated, 'well what do you want? Do you seriously expect a hug?' I looked down but to my surprise she locked her arms around me and whispered 'thank you.'

'Now ladies and gentlemen. The CIC is not far from here. So let's do this. No complaining now, I won't stand for it.' Aeniah finished her heavily punctuated sentence and practically ran to the sealed door that I realised was merely yards ahead.

There was no resistance and we reached the door in minutes. Aeniah hammered her fist upon it and screamed down the comm lines for Knightly to open it. Within seconds Knightly responded by opening the door. We rushed through and into a room of worried looking people. People gray with fatigue.

Then they noticed the angels. Now our two groups had rejoined there were a lot of angels piling into the CIC. Someone screamed and not for the first time there was pandemonium upon the bridge. Aeniah discharged her pistol into the air and silence ensued. She was about to open her mouth to speak when the angels did something that I had not seen them do before. They vanished. All except my angel.

'They mean, or rather they meant, no harm' Aeniah implored. My angel rested its hand upon my shoulder and gently squeezed. I smiled back at it. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Blue Dawn was looking at us with curiosity. When she caught me registering her stare she seemed surprised that I had noticed. In an effort to cover up her scrutiny she moved off serenely to where Aeniah was busy barking orders to her subordinates, no doubt looking for some way to a.s.sert her authority.

In this moment of distraction the angle bent its beautiful head towards me and whispered in a voice that sounded like a wind-chime 'don't trust her.'

11.

The Voices of the Past In this new world so many strange things had happened. It was therefore not so strange that an envelope had appeared in my hand. I had not been aware of anyone placing it in my grasp. I smelt the paper and it was crisp and fresh. I had always loved the smell. Where I had come from, there were so few trees. Books and paper based literature were things that were held in museums, something regarded with almost divine reverence. I opened its folded creases and was transported away into another world.

I saw the girl who had written it. The words on the page seemed to hint at who she might have been. I imagined that light shone through her hair and created a spider web of patterns. I saw her hand move with such dexterity as it traced her innermost world onto the paper. She was happy and yet frail at the same time. I did not know this from looking at her, for there was little I could see, but I felt it. I saw her as if through a camera, fixed upon a single position, determined by some powerful director. I saw her write and I saw her writing.

'My dearest Julian 'I know that you have not heard from me in some time. You must be very worried. But you should not fear for I am very safe, and my every need is taken care of. I'm sure that mum is terribly worried about me. But I want you to let her know that I am perfectly safe.

'I have gone away to a very special place, a place where I am very special (at least they tell me so). They say that there will be a war at home before long. I hope that you are all safe. I cannot talk with you in any other way at the moment for I am currently in deep-s.p.a.ce and away from the satellite link-ups. I wanted to tell you sister, that I am going to help change the world. It is going to be a world with no war and no fear. Imagine that. A world where we could dance among the heavens, like we always dreamed of, without fear, without thought. I wish you were here, I really do. This station is so ma.s.sive that I get overwhelmed just by thinking about it. We all call it Ascension. When it is finished it will provide the world with a new leading light. There will be nothing to stop it.

'Blue Dawn, that's the AI, has been so very kind to me. She has made sure that everything that I could ever want has been taken care of. I have already worked for two whole days. They say that I am the perfect candidate and that in just a few days they will be ready to use me in their projects. I can't wait; the excitement is really starting to make me bubble.

'I am so sorry for cutting this letter short, I am sure you are desperate to hear more from me, but I have an early start tomorrow. I will write a letter every evening, just to let you know that I am safe. I hope that you are all well and I hope that soon, when all these political tensions are over, you can come and visit me amongst the stars.

'Your ever loving sister, Persephone.'

This was the first sheet of paper. Behind it were two others. The writing upon them was less legible and appeared smudged as if through the spilling of water. But I knew in my heart that it was smudged by falling tears. I looked up and saw the busy bustle of the CIC, men and women rushing to respond to the orders of Aeniah. Each of them was covered in a grey hue. All of them appeared to be in a very sickly condition. Aeniah and Sean appeared to be the only spritely individuals left. I turned my thoughts away from them and focused upon the second letter. I read the letter in my head.

'My dearest Julian 'I have heard the terrible news. War is on the horizon. We all knew that it was coming, but I still can't believe it. None of us know what is happening. There is a rumour that the Earth has been hit. My G.o.d Julian I hope that you are all safe. The news reports say little, we no longer have any accurate reports. Carvelle, the man who conceived of Ascension, says not to worry, that there has been little actual fighting; that they would never use such terrible weapons upon one another. But I don't believe him.

'Julian, I have dark news. I do not want you to worry, as you have other concerns no doubt, but I have n.o.body else to confide in. There is something deeply wrong on Ascension. There is something deep within its bowels that they are keeping from us. I do not think that they know what it is, but it is making the population sick. Carvelle has told me that I am unique. That I will be a saviour in a time of war. He offered me the choice, to work on the genetics project or become a part of it. His words had such a great impact that I joined up immediately. There are several other women and men who have also signed up, they are all very friendly. In fact at times it seems as though we are the only ones who are not sick.

'But I do not mean to suggest that there is anything truly wrong. It is probably just me, well you remember what I was like. I have been so jittery since getting here that I have frightened myself half to death. Never fear, Ascension is the most comfortable place that I have ever lived in. Did you know that the station even has highways, with full sized vehicles?

'We get doses for the genetics project tomorrow. Carvelle tells me that all of the stations population will reach a state of apotheosis soon, where we will have the powers of a G.o.d to use for the benefit of our people. Dawn disagrees; she urges him to be more cautious. I never know what is going on between those two, but they seem very close. They dote upon all of us in the project as though we were their children.

'I must go soon because they have told us not to be tired for our exposure to the meds. My next letter will be in a couple of days, they say that I won't be up to much for a while. Since I know that you must be struggling terribly I have included what I have earned on Ascension so far. I know it is not much but I'm certain that it will help.

'Your ever loving sister, Persephone.'

The bustle in the CIC was still growing and Aeniah was shouting for a status report. The final letter lay in my hand and the excitement of learning more about Persephone's fate was too much. With little effort I folded away the second letter and unfolded the third. The letters began to flow throughout my mind as they lifted off the page.

'Julian 'My dearest sister something has gone wrong. I hurt everywhere. It was not so bad the first day, but now I am in so much pain. I turned on the news today and heard of the most awful events. We are at war. My G.o.d, it never ends. It seems like history will just repeat itself again and again. They say that they have dropped the bombs. My G.o.d I hope that they have not fallen near you. We have heard that the colonies were lost in an instant, that all the fleets have been destroyed, that communication satellites are gone.

'There is panic everywhere here. Some of the sections have been cordoned off because of the civil unrest. We keep hearing more and more reports. None of them are pleasing to hear. They have shut off the media networks for now. But don't worry, Ascension is self sustaining, it was designed for us to live completely free of the old world. At least that is what Carvelle says. But I don't trust him. I don't trust anyone, not anymore.

'I don't know what they have done to me but it isn't good. All a feel is pain. My head hurt so much today that I did not stop screaming until I was sedated. I heard some of the nurses saying that something is going wrong, that all is not as it should be. They say that the Equinox project has gone wrong, that we were losing something.

'Julian I do not feel myself. I see things that simply should not be. I see a world between worlds, a world that does not exist. There is something draining me of who I am. I know that I should be afraid that the world is at war, but I struggle to care. I am just so drained. What the h.e.l.l is wrong with me? It is like I am losing some part of me, some part of me that regulated what I used to think. It is like I am being imprinted with something else.

'Five hours ago the power in one section of Ascension went off. They say it was a technical difficulty but I know that they did it. The ones that want me, but I am not ready for them yet. Some of the Equinox subject's who were ahead of us in the cycle say that they have been a.s.saulted, raped. It is the people that do this to their bodies. The modifications, they tell me, are doing it to their souls.

'The Equinox project, the drugs, the gene plasma, it is evil. We are to be vessels. We are like cows to be milked and when we are no longer useful, to be killed, of this I am certain. But I will not let that happen. Blue Dawn says that she will protect us, that our fears about Carvelle are unfounded and that if they have substance she will protect us. Many of the older Equinox subjects are allying themselves to her and not Carvelle. I believe her. She cannot be corrupted, for she must be pure.

'Until the next letter, goodbye.

'Persephone'

With this disturbing conclusion I finished the final letter. I wished that there had been more. I thought about what Persephone must have gone through. Worse, I wondered what she would have endured after that final letter. My eyes misted at the thought of so much suffering. Blindly I shook my head, wondering if she had survived. In my heart I knew that she would probably be dead, but a part of me continued to hope that she was alive somewhere on the station.

I rubbed my eyes to clear them and began to take in my surroundings more clearly. Knightly appeared to be about to deliver his report. I was desperate to find out what had gone on. My gaze flowed across the room and settled on each of the faces of those in the CIC. All were ashen and some had skin that was almost translucent. A guy in the corner, positioned besides an oval screen in front of me, was whispering under his breath, but I could not hear what he was saying. Ignoring the growing unease that I was feeling I quietly shuffled over to where Knightly was giving his report.

'When you first went missing, everything was fine. There was nothing strange, Ascension seemed deserted,' Knightly was explaining with a shaken voice. 'There was nothing the matter, ships systems reported no unusual activity and we were beginning to mount our rescue attempt.

'We used shaped charges upon the docks bulkheads, but to no avail. I sent out a recon team to explore the rest of the docks to see if there was any other way round. But we lost contact with the recon team. Hours later they came back, but there were not the same. We left them in isolation whilst the medics tried to find out what was wrong with them.

'The next day we sent out another recon team, the same thing happened. We lost contact for five hours that time. Later that day we heard the sound of gunfire. It was our recon team. They were shouting at the ship, tearing at it with their hands. We had to turn on the ships defences. They were butchered in moments.

'I ordered that all current operations were to be suspended and to seal off the ship from Ascension. Sensor readings had been picking up some very strange results coming from the dock and I was keen to keep a physical separation between us and the station.' Knightly was beginning to sound nervous now. The true horror of his situation was clearly beginning to unfold.

'The medics took me to see the recon team that was in isolation. They just stared off into the distance. They kept repeating the same thing over and over again. They made no sense. At four fifteen I was given an urgent call to come to the temporary isolation wards. The plastic sheeting was covered in blood. I looked...' his voice cracked and he paused. Drawing in breathe he continued. 'I looked through one and saw Emily. She had been butchered, you couldn't even see the red cross on her uniform. Her face. Her face had such a look of torture.' Knightly broke up. He covered his face with his hands trying to stop the others from seeing his pain.

Aeniah touched him on the shoulder, 'I know, I know. You and Emily were close.'

'Interesting,' Blue Dawn mused as much to herself as for anyone else's benefit. 'The infection took much longer to take hold when Ascension was first brought online. It seems 77-x must be growing in intensity, this confirms my fears about the colonies. To infect an entire planet seemed improbable, but now...'

'Now listen to me!' I interjected. 'Blue Dawn what exactly is doing this? What the h.e.l.l is the artefact? What went wrong? Tell us!'

'George,' she said, 'you are in danger of asking questions to which I have no answers. I believe that the angels may be your best source of information on those questions. But I will tell you what I know.' She paused taking in a deep breath. A penitential look covered her face. She suddenly seemed much older.

'Before what you call the Resource Wars, a man named Samuel Carvelle began to undertake a study into the possibility of freeing ourselves from the bonds of nature. You see Carvelle discovered something that even I have not been privileged to know. He found something whilst conducting research on the colony Hercula. This discovery led him to publish a paper on the possibility of something that he termed Ascension. His paper marked a revolution in our understanding of the world around us. He discovered a plane of existence which he termed The Promethean Layer. An un-original t.i.tle perhaps, but it was the closest summation of what he had found.

'The Promethean Layer is a plane of existence from which all energy is derived, a dimension filled with pure energy the majesty of which you cannot imagine. It is an energy that we cannot possibly understand in human terms. He theorised that if a person was somehow able to draw upon the energy in the Promethean Layer, then they would be able to project it in some useful way. For example if one were cold they could produce heat. If one were disabled they could float upon a cushion of air. The paper produced a revolution in scientific thinking and brought about such technology as Blue Clarity and the Quantum Bomb.

'A decade after the discovery of the Promethean Layer the United World had met with some limited personal gains. The majority of our society carried around a Blue Clarity generator. Long term studies concluded that exposure to the radiation of these devices strengthened ones DNA. This strengthening prevented genetic degradation, the primary factor in aging. Furthermore it was discovered that human cells could actively absorb this radiation and use it to fight off disease.

'Buoyed by these advances Carvelle teamed up with a very rich philanthropist name Jacob Avouris. Together they set about designing the architecture that would allow them to give human beings Ascension.' We were each of us leaning forward now, desperate to hear what had happened. All that is except for Aeniah who seemed to be casually thumbing through a screen that displayed the vessel's status.

'Early on they learnt that with significant genetic modifications a person could actively handle the energy coursing through them. They could be made aware of it, manipulate it. But so far they could not find a way of getting each subject connected with enough of the energy to do any "casting".

'It was then that they realised the size of their task. In order to allow for a person to be able to cast they had to find a way to distribute enough of the energy. The solution soon became apparent. They called this solution the Equinox project, a project separated from the Ascension project. In order for their dreams to be realised some special individuals would have to be a pure host of the energy whilst others drew upon it and used it for their own will. The Equinox subjects would be unable to cast themselves because the amount of energy stored within them would be too great to be used. Thus they would have to become an inert agent, not able to pursue their own desires.