Ashton Etrigan

  Age: 28

  Current Mass: 68 kg

  Mental Status: Determined

  Physical Status: Waking Up

  THAT WOULD BE ME. MORE SPECIFICALLY, BOTH OF THOSE ARE THE RESULTS OF CONSTANTLY CONVERTING MATTER INTO ENERGY. THE PROCESS GENERATES A FAIR AMOUNT OF VIBRATIONS AND SOUNDS, THE HUMMING, AND AFTER A LARGE EXPENDITURE OF ENERGY, SUCH AS GENERATING LIGHT OR MANIPULATING LARGE AMOUNTS OF MASS, YOU MUST REFILL THAT MATTER AND RENEW YOUR ENERGY.

  Fornax’s answer came quickly and succinctly. It was phrased in a way I understood perfectly. In fact, knowing what I did about celestial bodies, such as stars, the explanation felt obvious in hindsight.

  Stars are functionally the same as a nuclear fusion reactor, except scaled up to a billion. Hydrogen atoms inside a star’s core are smashed together by the immense pressure of its own gravity, and turn into helium. In the same process some of the mass is turned into energy, in the form of heat. It doesn’t sound like much, but in reality those small amounts of energy are practically never ending firestorms that would sunder continents if released on Ma?l. If sound could travel in space, a star would sound approximately like ten million loudspeakers blasting bass. No wonder my ears were humming.

  Wow, okay, thank you. That actually makes a lot of sense, although I’m not sure I love the idea of constantly having to listen to what is essentially my new digestion system.

  YOUR BODY WILL ACCLIMATE. HOWEVER-

  Actually, that reminds me of another thing, I cut him off.

  My nerves had calmed a lot since this long conversation started, and I was growing eager to learn more. I was laser focused on one thing, and one thing only. That’s probably why I failed to notice that something had changed inside my Void.

  My body is all brand new, and can apparently do some incredible things. Scary things. How do I learn to control all that, and how do I know what I can and can’t do? I would prefer to avoid future situations where I hurt someone out of ignorance.

  My tone grew more serious as the question formed itself. I’d been contemplating what I’d done to my boss, Frank, and cold I’d been. I wanted to ask why I’d felt the way I had, but another part of me was scared of the answer. I would ask later.

  BEFORE I ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, ASHTON ETRIGAN, YOU MUST FIRST KNOW THAT I AM ALSO NEW TO OUR CIRCUMSTANCE. MANY DETAILS ARE UNKNOWN TO ME.

  Right. I wasn’t the only one going through this. In fact, out of the two of us, I was the one who was coming out on top, so to speak.

  Fornax might be an ancient consciousness in the form of an actual star, but that didn’t mean he knew everything about everything, despite him clearly knowing a lot more than me. I wasn’t going to let my eagerness get the better of me. Nodding to myself, I took in his warning and accepted the fact. Very adult of me.

  ADDITIONALLY, I MUST INFORM YOU THAT OUR TIME HERE IS OVER FOR NOW.

  I- wait, what? The Void flickered. Small specks of color floated around me. When had they appeared?

  I TRIED TELLING YOU EARLIER. YOU ARE WAKING UP.

  But I still have so many questions! How do I gain control? What happened at the gym? Why did I glow? And… will I remember our meeting this time? Please, give me more time!

  PEACE, LITTLE LIGHT. BREATHE. STAY COOL. YOUR MIND HAS PROBABLY EVOLVED ENOUGH TO NATURALLY BE ABLE TO RECALL YOUR TIME IN THE VOID BY NOW. WE WILL SPEAK AGAIN SOON.

  Fornax’s vibrations grew weaker and weaker, until they faded away entirely. I took several deep breaths, trying to prepare myself for whatever came next. The last thing I remember before the Void was… eating a whole drawer full of real food. Fucking shit, that was Frank’s food. And he’d called the Guard on me during my eating trance. Then I’d… fallen asleep on the floor. And I had no idea how much time had passed since then. Great.

  Hey, what do you mean “stay cool”!? I thought your grasp on human language was not “fully assimilated”!

  ???

  “...his vitals, I want to know if anything changes. Somebody go call the captain, and let him know the boy is awake.”

  Sounds of boots on rubber floors separated itself from the buzzing in my ears. Hushed voices whispered around me, discussing things I couldn’t quite catch. I tried to turn my head, but I couldn’t move. I cracked open my eyes and found that they had been covered by something wrapped around my head.

  I was lying down on my back, some sort of mattress beneath me. My hands and feet were restrained, and I was cold. I didn’t know where I was, or how I’d gotten there. Someone had taken me, blinded me, and made sure I couldn’t escape.

  “What is going on? What are you doing to me?” I was ignored.

  The humming in my ears grew louder.

  “Sir,” someone behind me yelled. “The frequency is changing! It’s getting faster.”

  “Sedate him!” Someone else said. The same voice I’d heard calling for a captain. That’s right, it was the Guard. Frank had called them while I stole all his real food. They must have come and arrested me while I was passed out.

  Shit, what do I do? They’re gonna turn me into some crazy experiment! I don’t wanna be imprisoned like this forever! I was panicking, making it hard to think straight.

  The humming kept getting louder, and I couldn’t help but try to tear my hands and feet free of their restraints. They didn’t budge. Someone yelled at me, or maybe around me, I wasn’t listening. Something sharp poked my neck.

  “I’m having the same issue as before, the needle just broke.”

  “His vitals are spiking, one thousand hertz.”

  “Dammit, just force feed it to him! Here, give me that!”

  Sounds of chaos erupted around me, even drowning out the hum. A pair of hands grabbed my face, and fingers forced my lips apart. Someone tilted my chin backwards, and some kind of liquid was poured into my mouth, followed by a gloved hand clamping down over it. In my panic I swallowed on reflex to make it easier to breathe through my nose. It tasted like chemicals.

  The hand let go of my face as soon as I swallowed. I took a breath through my mouth, then held it, not knowing what was about to happen. Whoever else was there seemed to hold their breath as well, because suddenly there were no more sounds.

  “Anything?” A woman to my right asked in a whisper. No one said anything. I slowly exhaled, trying my best to feel if anything was happening inside me.

  “Well!?” The same woman to my right.

  “Uh, the frequency seems to have stabilized, ma’am. It capped out at one point three and stayed there.”

  The room got quiet again, apart from the faint sound of light footsteps moving to a spot somewhere behind me. I tried to focus my hearing, but it was hard to do through the humming. At least it had stopped getting any louder.

  BREATHE

  Instantly my panicked brain relaxed. Not completely, but enough for me to think clear thoughts. I remembered the Void, and my conversation with the impossible being called Fornax. I remembered what he showed me, and the questions he’d been able to answer. I had to find a way to calm down. Then I realized another thing.

  They’re observing the humming. That’s the “frequency” they’re talking about.

  The revelation that someone else could discover the hum both scared and excited me, but then I remember how I’d learned about it in the first place. When Em had come to me after my coma, and shown me my lack of a normal pulse. It wasn’t really something I would be able to hide. I let the excitement pass through me, and kept focusing on just calming down.

  Fornax’s words repeated in my mind. Breathe. Stay calm. So I did that. I inhaled as deep as I felt was necessary, then exhaled slowly. Over and over. I also stopped struggling against my restraints, letting myself do nothing but feel the mattress under me.

  “Ma’am, it seems to be working,” someone behind me said. I couldn’t make out whether or not it was the same person as before.

  Breathe in… breathe out.

  “Explain,” the woman in charge snapped at whoever had spoken.

  “Well, the frequency he’s emitting is slowing down now, rather quickly. Whatever he was trying to do, the sedative worked… we think.”

  “You think?” The woman did not sound assured.

  “Yes. The lack of a pulse, and the fact that we can’t measure his brain activity only leaves us that sound to go off. Besides, his breathing slowed down considerably, and he seems to have stopped moving.”

  The person nervously rattled off the facts one after the other, like someone reading off a notepad. It made me feel like I was just a piece of metal under a torch. I figured I’d keep letting them think that, if only to avoid any more chaos.

  However, I was in fact very much awake still. Whatever sedative they had given me, it didn’t feel like it did anything. I tried to sense any change in my body, but nothing felt any different. My mind was clearing up as I got the panic under control, and just like their equipment said, the humming was settling down.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “I don’t trust it,” the woman said. “But it’ll have to be good enough. You two, keep a close eye on him. If he acts up, stun him.”

  Two new voices responded with a snappy “Aye!”, and boots moved on the floor. I had no actual idea how many people were around me. I guessed there were more than I was strictly comfortable with, so I tried not to think about it. The comment about stunning me didn’t really help either.

  For a moment there was relative quiet in the room. I couldn’t see, so I tried identifying people by sound. I already knew about five. The bossy lady, with the snappy tone, the nervous technician and his colleague, and the two officers who were told to watch me. I tried picturing them in my mind, giving them any sort of characteristics I could hold on to. I gave the nervous techie curly red hair, and his colleague got bushy eyebrows. The soldiers were both given crooked noses and big foreheads, making them look tough, but dumb. The boss lady I imagined had a big scar across her left cheek that ran down to cover most of her mouth. I don’t know why, it just felt like something a tough high ranking Guardsman would have.

  The little exercise in imagination was abruptly cut short when the screeching sound of a large metal door tore through the room.

  “Captain Greaves, Sir!” Boss lady sounded a lot more respectful all of a sudden. Footfalls from heavy boots hit the floor, and the smell of something burning hit my nostrils.

  “At ease, Lieutenant.” Whoever this Captain Greaves was, he sounded like rocks grinding against sand. While his voice was rough, his tone wasn’t nearly as harsh. He sounded calm, and in control. Like he was used to being listened to whenever he spoke.

  “I have new orders for your squad,” Captain Greaves continued. “A civil servant is en route here, and I want you to welcome them properly. I don’t have all the details yet, but my gut tells me it’s related to him.” He emphasized the last word, and I could practically feel him pointing at me. “Yes, Captain!” snapped the boss lady, followed by the shuffling of feet.

  In the silence that followed I heard someone make a sound like they were blowing on something, and more of the burning scent filled the room.

  “Sir, please do not do that here,” someone said. “These machines are very delicate, and-”

  “You’re right,” Captain Greaves cut them off. “Please excuse my disrespect, I’ll take care of it right away.”

  He’s smoking?

  The respectful tone surprised me. To my knowledge there were no more guards around at the moment, yet Captain Greaves spoke as if the request had come from a peer. My opinion of him rose a few ticks. A high ranking Guard who spoke respectfully to civilians was a rare thing, especially one that risked throwing his life away by smoking.

  Cigarettes and other smoke products had once been pretty normal in society, but that was a very long time ago. There was really only one company that still made those products, but they still had a lot of power. Before power had become so expensive, people used electric devices to smoke different oils and leaves, but now it was much cheaper to just pack reusable filters into a small flash furnace, and fill it with your choice of synthesized material. All of this was only popular among the wealthy, of course. Whatever you liked to smoke, the price was high. Monopolies control the market. Anyway.

  “I want a report on what’s happened so far. Tell me what you’ve learned and how you learned it,” Captain Greaves ordered. He sounded relaxed, but there was no room for uncertainty in his words. Honestly, I kind of liked him. I bet he wasn’t as shitty of a boss as Frank. Besides, I was curious to know myself.

  “Certainly, Sir. According to the arrest report the subject appeared to emit a type of energy that injured the manager at the crime scene. When he was arrested by the guards on site he was in a comatose state. Completely unresponsive to verbal and physical stimulus.”

  “Yes, I have read the report, please move on,” the Captain urged.

  “Eh, yes, of course.” The speaker sounded more nervous now. “When the subject arrived here for study we weren’t able to fully complete a medical examination. The only thing we know for certain is in regards to his pulse. He has none.”

  Tell me something I don’t know!

  “Fascinating,” answered the Captain. “What does that mean exactly? Is he dead?”

  “No, the subject is alive, somehow. He breathes normally, and our cerebral scans show normal activity during sleep. That is as far as our medical examination could take us however.” The speaker coughed, and a woman took over for him.

  “His skin seems to be the issue,” she said, with a lot more confidence than the last guy.

  “His skin? How?”

  “It’s hard to explain. We believe it is somehow… reinforced. We can’t cut through it with our scalpels, and when we tried internal imaging the results only gave us a black silhouette. It’s as if we were taking pictures of a mirror.” She paused for a second, and I heard the sound of paper being flipped.

  “However, it responds very, um… ordinarily to non-intrusive physical touch. Flexible and pliable, in most circumstances.” She flipped another page. “Absolutely no body hair, though, which might not be relevant, but certainly odd.”

  I wanted to shout something about personal privacy, but I kept my mouth shut. It was embarrassing enough to know they’d checked, I wasn’t gonna confront them about it.

  “Reinforced skin that acts as normal until it’s put under certain amounts of stress. Am I understanding that correctly?”

  “That’s correct, Sir. Aside from that, we have only discovered one other item of interest.” Someone stepped behind me, and I heard the familiar sounds of key presses. A moment later a low humming sound filled the air. I recognized it immediately.

  “This is the big one, Sir,” someone behind me, a man this time, began explaining. “We discovered it during the medical examination. Due to the nature of the subject's skin we had to use more analog tools, like this.” A drawer opened and closed.

  “A stethoscope,” the Captain murmured. “I’ve never even seen one of those outside of a medical museum.” He sounded impressed, but personally I didn’t really get it. I wasn’t familiar with whatever a stethoscope was. Em probably knew what it was, and why it was impressive. I just focused on breathing slowly.

  “That is correct, Sir. I didn’t expect, err- I mean-”

  “The Guard teaches many useful skills. Plus, I have a fondness for museums.”

  Even when cutting someone off, Captain Greaves managed to sound patient and polite. Something about his people skills itched my brain. They were too good, and no, I didn’t think so just because I was jealous.

  “Well, Sir, with the stethoscope we were able to at least listen to the subject's body. That’s how we discovered his lack of a pulse, and it is how we found this sound.” He paused for a second, letting the hum fill the space.

  “We think it comes from his bowels, but it is too faint to say for certain. We’re not actually measuring the sound right now, only the minute vibrations it causes in the subject's eardrums.” Someone tapped my head, or rather the thing attached to it. I almost froze up from the sudden, indirect touch, but managed to turn it into an extra deep breath instead.

  “And the sound?” The Captain asked.

  “Computer generated, based on the frequency,” said the woman from before.

  “Hmm.”

  “That frequency, along with what little data we’re able to gather from our neural monitors, gives us a baseline to measure his physical state. For instance, right now it’s stable and quite low, which indicates dormancy.”

  Whoever this woman was, she sounded like she had something to prove, with the way she forcefully grabbed every chance to speak. She kept going.

  “Our other big indicator happened when the subject initially woke up from his comatose state. As he began moving the frequency spiked, and only once we managed to get him sedated did it go back down.”

  “And what does this mean, exactly,” said the Captain. His words had an air of finality, like he was attempting to wrap things up very soon. Someone turned the loudspeakers off, and the only humming left was the one in my own ears.

  “We think-,” one of the men began, but he was cut off.

  “It means we need to study him,” the woman proclaimed. “If the incident report is to be believed, and if that frequency is somehow connected to those events, then this boy is proof.”

  The woman's voice got low, and her next words came like an intense whisper.

  “It means the other one isn’t an isolated incident. If we can-”

  “Thank you, that’s enough.”

  This time the abrupt interruption was far less respectful and polite. And while the words themselves were quiet, Captain Greaves’s voice was heavy. I could almost feel how the rest of the room stopped moving, and no one did so much as breathe loudly. Something metallic clicked.

  “Sir, what are-”

  Boom!

  I jumped against my restraints, startled almost out of my own skin. The noise had sounded like thunder. In its wake a second of silence passed. I could only hope no one noticed my reaction.

  “Please, no! We signed-”

  Boom!

  Screaming erupted in the room. Feet trampled everywhere. The smell of burnt ozone hit my nostrils. Cold sweat ran down my back.

  Boom! Boom!

  Less screaming.

  Boom!

  Silence. The only thing I could hear was the painful whine in my head from the thunderous booming sound- No, wait… there was a wet, gurgling noise somewhere.

  “Why…” someone wheezed in a broken voice, followed by more gurgling.

  “My job is risk assessment,” Captain Greaves answered simply. Then I heard the same metallic click again. I braced myself.

  “STOP!” someone shouted.

  “If you fire that weapon again, I will drag your ass through enough lawsuits to bankrupt your entire genetic heritage!”

  As threats go, that one was like taking a mag-train to the face. Whoever had just appeared, they had no time for bullshit. Hard soled shoes clacked quickly against the floor as the speaker approached us. “Step away from my client,” a man said as he got near enough to not have to shout. My breath caught as he said ‘client’. It might have been a long shot, but there was a non-zero chance he was there for me.

  To his credit, Captain Greaves seemingly obeyed the order, merely sighing as he started walking away from the survivor of his sudden assault, who was still wheezing on the floor. I let go of my held breath, and my hope of rescue with it. Of course the government was here for their scientists, not me. I was on my own.

  Keep calm, keep trying to look sedated. Maybe I’m not as fucked as I think.

  “You’re the civil servant, I take it?” The captain’s voice was back to the calm and polite tone he’d used earlier. As if the lives he’d just taken never even existed to begin with.

  “I am,” the newcomer confirmed. “And I hereby place you under arrest for gross negligence and illegal discharge of a government issued firearm. Please hand over your gun, and call your medical team down here immediately.”

  It was obvious this attorney guy had seen some shit, or perhaps even this exact kind of shit, many times before. He spoke forcefully and steadily, seemingly unaffected by what I could only assume was a pretty macabre scene.

  “By what authority, exactly, are you placing me under arrest, Mr…?” Still the captain kept his polite tone, unaffected by the fact that he’d been caught in the act by a government official.

  “My name is Nathaniel Parks, Luxin City District Attorney, and current Legal Executive at Lodestar Labs, and affiliates thereof. You may address me as Mr. Parks.”

  This guy worked for Lodestar, which in my mind could mean one of two things. One; he was here to reclaim what was legally Lodestar’s property, namely the marble in my stomach, or two; make sure I never saw the light of day ever again. Either way, I was in trouble.

  “Hmm,” Captain Greaves sounded kind of… disappointed?

  “I see.” Something beeped. “Lieutenant, I need a medical team down here ASAP. Four casualties and one critical condition, over.”

  “Understood, Sir. ETA twenty seconds. Out.” Boss lady’s voice hissed out from some communication device.

  “Satisfied, Mr. Parks?” The polite murderer asked.

  “Not even close,” the lawyer answered. “In fact, your idea of a ‘welcome party’ gives me half a mind to report your whole squad for everything between gross misconduct, all the way up to treason.”

  At that moment, a swarming of boots and voices entered the room. It must have been the medical team, judging by what Boss Lady had said earlier. Orders were given, and they quickly got to work. Some small part of me very much hoped whoever had survived the captain's attack would be okay, despite what their intentions were with me. They were just doing their jobs.

  As I listened to the medics, I had to admit, Mr. Parks was kind of a badass. Even Captain Greaves waited quietly while the medics worked, and when they eventually hurried back out with the gurgling person, there was a lot more seriousness in his response.

  “I understand. I will make sure your offices receive an official apology from my team, and I will personally take responsibility for this incident. Now, may I please know why you are here?”

  The lawyer grunted, clearly not happy with the controlled way the Captain handled the situation. Despite the fear I felt at that moment, I very much agreed with his sentiment.

  “I am here on behalf of Solomon Industries, and I am commanding you to free that boy from captivity. He is to be released into our care, effective immediately. Any attempts to deny or refuse this command will be met with the combined forces of Lodestar Labs and Solomon Industries available assets. Have I made myself understood, Captain Richard Kenneth Greaves?”

  Mr. Parks ended his speech with a tone that very much sounded like he really wanted the Captain to try and deny these very intense orders. For my part, I was just trying to keep myself together after hearing who the lawyer represented.

  Why does this shit keep happening to me!?

  Hearing that Solomon Industries was working in tandem with Lodestar Labs on this only solidified my worst fears. The only chance I had was to attempt an escape whenever they freed me from my blind prison.

  “Crystal clear,” said the captain in answer to Mr. Parks. “Although, and I say this with all due respect, the image of a bunch of stiffs from your legal team doesn’t really evoke the same kind of ferocity you came in here with, Mr. Parks.”

  “I never stipulated our assets only consist of legal teams, Captain.” I could practically hear the corners of Mr. Park's mouth stretch into a smirk by the way he dropped that last line. This guy was connected and powerful. Which made me fucked.

  Captain Greaves apparently reached a similar conclusion, judging by his lack of a clever comeback. In its stead I felt something touch the thing around my head.

  “In any case, I think it’s time you undo these restraints,” Mr. Parks told the quiet captain.

  “Mmm,” he grunted.