SIDE D | CHAPTER 3

2084

I found the remnants of the ship traced to one of Pluto's moons, Charon. If I hadn't seen it in the bubble I am sure I would have never found it. It looked like the ship had made a rough landing—it had been in pieces when I'd seen it. It surely looked like it was hobbled together, but there was enough knowledge behind getting it into space and to its destination. I had to find out who was on that ship.

I navigated toward the landing pad where the remains of the ship lay. Its edges up close reveal the hasty nature of its construction. It's the work of the unskilled, for sure. I walked over to an alcove that lead to a gate of some substance I didn't know of—it looked like a glowing purple metal. The ground beneath me transitioned hard into the substance—it certainly looked like intentional design rather than natural formation. I kept my hands prepared for hostility. Plasma danced on the edge of my fingertips. I heard the echoing of hard footsteps in the distance. It sounded...like two figures—assuming they were bipedal. I dashed inside and saw two robotic figures turn around at the sight of me.

"Oh, robots. That's fine. No moral quandary for me, then." I called out, whipping my right arm out. Plasma leaped and coursed into a bolt of lightning in mid-air. It wrapped around the figure on the right. It looked to be made of a similar substance the walls and floor were made of—but silver in color. An oblong head flashed red as electricity coursed through its body.

"INVADER SECTOR 0. ENTRANCE LEVEL. D DOCK," A woman's voice called out, although I couldn't see anything else around that could have received the call.

"INITIATE LOCKDOWN IMMEDIATELY. THE INVADER HAS STRUCK DOWN KENNEDY-423. ZERO LIFESIGNS," the voice called again.

Behind me the hatch to the outside sealed shut. It was much darker here than previous. I balanced a light on my hands and tossed it upward—illuminating the rest of the dock. Dozens of machines of unknown use littered the hall and I saw a way down deeper in a staircase on the far end. Bullets shot past me and I stepped back. I hadn't noticed the robot was armed—then I saw its hand had transformed into a rifle of some kind. The next spray I blocked, stopping the bullets in midair. I could see they seemed to glow with a golden intensity. They vibrated and exploded in my grip, covering the ground in a molten substance.

"Shit!" I shouted, jumped back. "Okay, you're going to stop now." I closed my eyes and shot more of the electroplasma toward it. Like the first it screamed and fell to the ground, motionless.

"Can't be just robots here. Come on, gotta find something. Please let me find someone."

I lifted off the ground and flew across the room in a single leap. I landed hard on the ground just before the stairs and dipped down as the ground dented so much that it tore. "Gah!" I called as I fell to the layer below.

I landed on my back and felt dazed as I sat up. Sore, I saw an entire dock full of similar looking robots all staring, confused at my entrance.

"God damn it..." I said. Before I could get another word out the firing began. I immediately through bullets to the sides of the room—at other robots—at the ground, everywhere but myself. My vision filled with golds and oranges and it became unbearably hot. I lost myself in the motions until I heard the end of the firing. The entire dock assembly had melted. Furniture, structure, even large amounts of the robots, just gone.

"Intruder, cease your violence," came a weathered voice over above me. "If you truly wish to destroy everything we've kept here, spare the others. They've got nothing for you. You can meet with me and settle whatever score you've got. I cannot see you, but I can feel your presence up above me. Come to my chambers. The most direct route from your location should appear momentarily."

As the voice concluded I saw a path highlight in front of me. It was cut off by the parts of the ground that were melted, but I saw it continue on the floor below toward another staircase spiraling down. I leapt down the gap in the floor and hovered just above the ground before landing.

I didn't want to be caught off guard again. The path continued down three more identical looking rooms to three more identical looking stairways. The path finally diverged and continued straight past the next staircase down. Shimmering lights underneath my feet guided my way through a narrow hallway that only seemed to shrink subtly the further down I traveled.

It finally opened to a dome shaped room with angled panels that covered the walls. They all guided my attention to the figure standing in the room, and the massive computer network standing behind him. The man that stood there stared at me with a look of measured fear. I was staring at an old man. Aged lines marked his face with permanent scars of worry. His green eyes cut through the darkness as if endlessly analyzing me.

"What are your demands, phantom? Why do you invade this space...and why the fuck have you stolen my old friend's face?"

"Andy..." my shoulders slackened, and for but a moment I felt like the urge to cry was the most important thing in the universe. I took a step forward, and an arc of flames shot between us as his hand returned to his side.

"Not another step, monster. What cruelty runs through your mind to step in here with another's face? He was a braver than you could ever hope to be."

"Andy...what happened? Where is everyone? Why are you here?"

"Quit pretending!" Andrew yelled, a harsher sadness than my own permeated the room. "Just reveal your true face and end the charade!" He motioned his arm out again.

I felt a force press on my face, but it faded quickly. I stood there unphased.

"Why didn't..." He looked down at his hand, and tried again.

The same empty force brushed past me.

"What is this...?"

"Andy...it's me."

He shook his head. "No...that can't be. You died. I couldn't..."

"Andy...what is going on here?"

For the first time he looked at me. "Everyone...I tried to save everyone. The planet was going to explode..." his voice started to break. "I tried...to fix my mistakes. I couldn't save everyone," his hands started to glow faintly.

"Andy, please, I need you to calm down. We can talk about this, we can try to fix this..."

He looked up at me, his eyes glistened with the start of tears. "Fix...we can't...we can't ever fix this. And now...so many more are..." his gaze hardened. "Why did you kill them...?"

"What?"

"Those up there...they were people Gavin. The remains of who I could save. We had to...we had to make them like you were. We had to keep living. Even...if they were made into slaves. I couldn't fix...they were at least alive! We could have saved..."

And it dawned on me what he had meant. The robots above...they were automatons. Androids outfitted with human consciousness--just like the body I inhabited before in this universe. Never to age, never to wither, to eat. And yet...they weren't human-like. Those above were sentries, workers, numbers.

"Where did you get the idea to come here?" I asked. "Who built this? Built their bodies?"

"I don't know if it matters anymore Gavin," Andrew said, choking back tears. "I can't sense anymore of them out there. We only had so many available. The rest are stored in this computer. I tried to save the ones I loved from that...that servitude that Khap-En enacted. They're still in here, trusting in me, believing I made the right choice. And I can't...I can't bear to face any of them."

"Face me, then. Not as an enemy, but as the friend I know you to be. Andy, even in my darkest moments I knew deep down I needed to return to you--to them, to everyone I loved."

"What a time to come," Andrew said, despondent. "You don't know how much suffering you missed. How many hard choices I had to make. And you think you can just come back and pretend like everything is okay?"

"Andy..."

"EVERYTHING IS NOT OKAY." He cried out. "This world is fucked. I killed everyone on Earth, and now you're here to finish the job because that's how the universe is written. Everything one cosmic joke to spit in the face of effort."

I shook my head. "No, Andy, it's not. I know this is hard to believe, but I've seen how the universe is written. It's a long story--one I'd love to tell you later, but things are different now."

"Nothing is different. Nothing's changed. I almost wish you were some cosmic doppelganger at this point. The Gavin I knew died long ago. You're just here to bring pain where pain exists and thrives." His hands glowed with the light of small suns. "I'm asking you to leave so I can try and fix this before it dies forever."

"Andy...I've spent dozens of lifetimes to make it back here. I want to help--"

"I've nothing more to say to you," He bit his lip and rose one hand. "One last warning. Just...leave."

"You don't want to do that, I assure you I don't want to hurt you."

"You've done enough."

"Andy."

A shot erupted from his hand and I stopped it in midair, redirecting it to the wall behind us.

"Stop destroying what I sacrificed everything for!"

"I can't if you don't stop firing!" I called back. "I'm not trying to insult you, Andy, but you literally cannot harm me. I'm..."

He let out a growl that didn't seem human and jumped to the side, letting three shots out at a speed that seemed above him.

I caught each one and sent them behind me.

"Andy, please. The harder you throw these the harder it is for me to control where they land. Please, I'm begging you."

"Then stop blocking them and leave!"

"I can't do that, friend."

"My friends are all dead! Don't you get that? You're nothing but a haunting memory." He threw another two shots out and like the others they made their home embedding into the walls, tearing open the material. I hold out both of my hands and grab his from across the room. They're stuck like glue to his sides and the lights dim.

"Let me go," he called out to me.

"We're done fighting, Andy. I don't want you to do something you'll regret."

"Fuck off!" He pushed me away with a surprising amount of force. His hands began to glow with all different colors of the rainbow.

"Andy no--!"

The blast erupted from his hands faster than I could react. The energy hit my body and all at once I could feel nothing. It repelled back at him and I tried my hardest to split the wave down the middle to avoid it making direct contact with him. I was screaming and managed to redirect its path to right behind him.

His scream was louder, and I realized where it had hit. The central computer housing the consciousnesses of every remaining human.

The computer exploded and flames spread through the complex. Andrew turned and ran to the computer, using his telekinesis to compress the flames down. The sight of it was a far cry to the man I knew. As I sat there, watching him try his hardest to prevent what couldn't be, I realized that we shared similar feelings. The friend that I had known had died back on Earth, and all that remained was a manifestation of regret and sorrow. He couldn't help but try to cling to life as much as possible because he believed dying would be an even greater insult to those he failed.

I looked away, there was nothing I could do here. I turned into myself and left a single tear behind.

I found myself back into the dimension between dimensions. An immense wave of sadness poured over me and I sat looking out at the millions of universes at my fingertips. I had a responsibility to oversee them as well, but a part of me wished I could save the one I had come from. I saw the bubble, spinning on its cursed axis, and I could tell time was passing in much greater amounts. If I re-entered now, how much time will have passed? Ten years? A hundred? A thousand? I did not know, and I almost would not have ever known, but that was when I noticed the star.

From within, a single glowing point flew backwards, against the flow of time. I looked closer, and suddenly I was looking out over Earth...years before I was born. It brought tears to my eyes, and from behind me The Pit growled as lights from within shot up from the depths and returned to the bubble, and the universe within. Two of the brightest lights I could see very clearly as they passed in front of my face.

Alex Sharpe and Devon Campton. They were integral to this new singularity. They were the key to fixing everything.