1 comments/ 7701 views/ 4 favorites She, of the Reliquary By: James Cody 0. Haste The vessel pushed away as it rode the gravitational shock wave of the imploding star. The sudden expansion of the star's surface had cindered the world known as Home and now, as the celestial body's mass collapsed upon itself, the dark emptiness of space rippled as the planets that survived the initial trauma were torn apart and crushed to an elemental dust that formed an ever shrinking cloud of heated matter that spiralled toward the centre of the star's mutation into a singularity. The vessel itself resembled a sphere flattened along its vertical axis. A column of bright white light emanated from the centre of the disc as other illuminated, concentric circles radiated across its colourless surface. From a forward section of the vessel, a hooded figure looked back at a holographic rendering in real time of the end of a star. The colours filling the system vibrated along wavelengths the vessel's intelligence corrected so they could be perceived by less evolved eyes -- yet the watcher was one of the few who could perceive the maelstrom of invisible colours that were the star's dying words. The figure saw the plumes of elemental matter ejected from the star's vertical axis at speeds nearing those of light. The figure raised a hand and made a gesture and the vessel's intelligence modulated its self generated gravity field to match the rippling forces as the star collapsed, allowing the ship to plow ahead without hindrance. The figure made another gesture and the intelligence reached out and sought its brethren, enquiring if they had escaped as well. The space beyond space where the intelligences communed echoed empty and the vessel felt alone. The figure gestured and the vessel ceased all attempts at communication and accelerated to a high fraction of the speed of light as it rode the wake of a projected singularity focused some measure ahead of its hull. The vessel was constructed of pure dark matter and as it reached the physical limits of the relativistic universe, its exotic nature split the bosons that held space/time in tune -- the vessel and its occupant slipped outside the parameters of the universe and travelled hyperspace toward an unknown destination. 1. To covet The figure walked the circular corridors of the vessel till he reached the centre. A capsule awaited him, held steady and weightless under the faint glow of a stream of light that broke the darkness around him. The capsule was as obsidian in colour as the cold emptiness that separated planets. The hooded figure laid a strong hand with thick fingers upon the capsule and its black surface illuminated with a series of lines of information displaying the content's metabolic status. Eyes scanned and registered every bit of information, seeking abnormal patterns that would denote illness or injury. When the hand was removed, the capsule went black. The figure then pressed a finger to its side and swiped from left to right and back. The darkness of the capsule melted away as it molecules realigned and exposed its contents: a body wrapped in an alabaster skin while bathing in a reddish solution full of nutrients and nano-sized machines overseeing the body's survival. The figure pushed the hood back and let his eyes roam across the inanimate body. He was the Warrior. He was sworn to protect this being -- this woman, he remembered -- from all harm till they reached a world where she could awaken and fulfil her purpose. He examined the softness of the curves of her hips and her breasts, both voluptuous and inviting. Though covered in a sustenance skin, he knew her true skin to be warm and soft. He removed his smock, taking stock of his own bluish skin. He could make it as soft as hers or as hard as the dark matter of the vessel's hull at will. He had been made to protect her and to ensure he would always follow that prerogative -- though he had never seen her -- he was made to love her. He felt that love stir in his loins and his anatomy responded -- his erection was long and hard. He looked at his penis in stark amazement. He knew he was built to respond as a man but the sense of obsession that accompanied his arousal and the need to possess and release the madness it caused was disconcerting to him. Yet, instinct guided him and he stroked his shaft as he rested his upper body against the cool husk of the capsule and he longed for her curves to press against his body -- his hand was moving rapidly and his reason relinquished to the need for release and his tongue shot from his mouth and he licked at her face and groaned as he ejaculated a thick stream of synthetic come against the capsule. His knees weakened and he slid to the cool dark floor, exhausted and cursing his makers. He watched as the gobs of his come evaporated under the crackling effect of nano-machines dedicated to the cleanliness of the vessel's interior. He felt the crackling around the tip of his cock as the machines cleaned him as well. He wished they would cleanse the vulgarity of his actions. 2. The uncertainty of conscience The Warrior stood on the surface of the vessel's outer hull, watching lakes of cool methane sway back and forth as the vessel navigated the chaos of hyperspace. Waves of energy ebbed against the distortion field that held the ship's integrity when he saw -- through the waltzing flashes of colour -- three distinct amorphous shapes closing in on the vessel. With a thought the hull dissolved beneath his feet and solidified as he ran toward the nerve centre of the vessel -- the intelligence had already collected the images he had seen beyond the field and confirmed the Warrior's fear. Quantum Wraiths -- even in the young universe, life existed in unexpected fashions. The wraiths were collections of unsubstantiated consciences that sought proof of their own existence beyond uncertainty. The Warrior nodded and the vessel split the intrinsic field of the universe and reintegrated its relativistic nature. The hull lurched as the projected singularity drive pulled the vessel ahead at sub-light speeds. The guardian armed himself with a slice of a quark star -- a quark sword. It had mass and depth, but no width. At certain angles it was wholly invisible. The Warrior looked up and emerged on the vessel's surface. The vessel deactivated the singularity drive and held its position with pulsating g fields. The wraiths had left hyperspace and approached the vessel, tracking the elements of sentience of the Warrior, but were more dangerously attracted to the sentience of the woman in the capsule. He watched as the wraiths flipped between states of being and non being -- they slowed as they hovered over the scintillating rings of light of the vessel's hull. "Am I/we real?" a wraith demanded as it slipped into non existence before launching itself at the Warrior. Stars twinkled and galaxies collided as he watched the creature rush him -- the others crashed against the vessel's hull. He ran to meet the wraith head on, hoping his timing to be perfect. When the wraith was nearly on him, the Warrior slid to his knees and stabbed the wraith at its weakest point: the moment it formed a thought and flickered into being. The quantum wavefront it generated struck the exotic matter of the quark sword and the wraith sighed as the uncertainty of its existence subsided and it died, thankful in knowing it was real. The Warrior gained his footing and whipped around to face another oncoming wraith -- one did come by him but it ignored him and cannibalized some leftover dreams of the dissociated, dead wraith. The Warrior let the wraith graze and assumed all was secure till a warning from the vessel's intelligence pinged his mind. He saw the remaining wraith manage to phase its structure to match the amplitude of the emptiness in the vessel's dark matter architecture and slip inside before it flickered into non existence. The hull beneath the Warrior dissolved as the vessel knew his duty. The Warrior landed in a crouch and then launched himself toward the relic chamber where his ward was held in stasis. He charted the circular corridors with speed that rivalled the stellar winds. He burst through the wall rendered intangible by the vessel in time to see the wraith envelope the capsule in its ethereal fog and cause it to shatter. The wraith held the Warrior's ward delicately and rotated her, seemingly examining her from every angle. The Warrior hissed his anger and jealousy at the sight of the wraith touching what he loved while he could not. He fought the urge to lash out with the quark sword, knowing it would tear uselessly through the wraith and erase her from existence. He again had to rely on his timing -- the wraith was going to substantiate a thought in tandem with a dream from the woman and once they shared a common subconscious, the quark sword would have to find its target. But before the guardian could act, the sustenance skin that bound his ward suddenly rendered itself to shreds and she screamed -- the force of her shriek knocked the Warrior from his feet and smashed him into a curved bulkhead. As he regained his senses a few moments later, he witnessed the woman resting on her knees while her face was twisted in a strangely satisfied grimace -- she inhaled the unsubstantiated mist of the wraith with relish and glee till it was gone. She collapsed to the ground. The Warrior flew to her side and gently raised her head and rested it on his lap. She emanated an intense heat, as burning as a solar flare -- he basked in it. Her eyes fluttered open, long eyelashes exaggerating the motion. He gazed into her eyes, diaphanous colours danced within her irises. "Hello,"she said, as she reached up and touched his cheek. "Hello." "You're naked," she whispered as she closed her eyes. "Then that ... is something we have in common." 3. By any other name She wore a hooded smock, similar to his except that it was grey. He observed her as she stared at a display replaying the explosion of the star they had recently fled. The colours from the holographic rendering cast iridescent lights upon her high cheekbones and thick lips. "That's were we came from," she stated as she turned to look at him. Her dark eyes reflected chaotic colours as they bore through the Warrior. He simply nodded. "And this," she gestured, her arm moving in a wide arc, "is a ship?" "The Reliquary. One of many. But as far as we know, the only one to have survived." "That's for relics." She walked to him and stood by his side. He gazed upon a real time rendering of the anti-matter singularity that powered the ship. "Or holy things. Like you." She sat down on the cool dark matter floor. "What does that mean?" "Your race," he started, "were the Providers. Their origin is a mystery but their ending was foretold. They sought out a means of bestowing their essence. They created the Relics and the Seeders -- their union will ensure that the sum of what the Providers were -- and what they could be -- survived. "But Home star was degenerating more quickly than anticipated. Much of this Universe is transitional and their project went unfulfilled and within the final minutes, they launched this and other Reliquaries. Some with women and others with men. Women were bestowed with Warriors while men received Guardians." She stood and undid her smock, displaying the large, firm breasts he had lusted after. Her nipples were hard and pointy and their aureoles large and bumpy. She had a small, trimmed patch of pubic hair lighter than her dark, braided locks. "They made me," she whispered. Her voice was like starlight. "No. There were manipulations -- but you were born. Naturally. On the other hand, I was assembled." "You sound sad," she said, stroking his smooth, blue cheek. She looked down at his erection. "But you're more than that." "I was made to love you." She raised herself onto the tip of her toes and kissed his lips. He kissed her gently back, his lips infinitely colder when compared to the heat she generated. He was drawn to her heat but he gripped her slender shoulders and firmly pushed her aside. "This is not wrong," she whispered as she dropped her robe, exposing to him her full figured. "You're sworn to protect me -- but what I know now is breaking my heart. Please, don't let that happen." "I am sworn to protect ..." he said. He let his robe fall to the floor. Her words burrowed into his mind and the Warrior felt a series of synaptic blocks disassemble and new sequences of emotions and motivations cascaded across his mind. "I am more than dust ..." the Warrior muttered and he scooped Her in his powerful arms and he kissed her violently. Her response was more measured -- where his tongue was savage, hers was methodical and exploratory. Where his hands pawed her breasts clumsily, her hand found his manhood and balls and played them with virtuosity. But when he leaned forward and his lips encircled her hard, pointy nipples, she realized there was no need for reason or thought. There was just this perfect moment where the weight of the universe was measured in sighs. She raked her nails across his smooth scalp as he twirled his tongue around her nipple, triggering sparks just beneath her skin that united her pussy to her nipple. As his saliva ran down her breasts, her juices flowed down her thighs -- the overwhelming madness that filled her senses was the revelation of a universal truth: flesh and desire are the only things that exist in the moment. For the Warrior, this act was the proclamation of his motivations. He pushed her to the floor and released her nipples and traced a wet line from her breasts to the moist area between her thighs -- arcs of blue lightning jumped across the trail of saliva he deposited upon her warm skin. Implanted instincts guided him toward her delicate centre while his hands glided across her flesh and her skin formed rows of little bumps as blissful chills invaded her. The Warrior sighed as his fingers spread the pristine folds of her otherworldly pussy and he pressed his nose to her outer lips -- the scent was musky with a mix of fear and wonder. He processed the varying pheromones she released and then moved to lap from her thighs the juices still dripping from her pussy. While he sucked on the silky skin of her inner thigh, his thumb found the nub of her clitoris and he began to rub it in a figure eight motion. She gasped as her body was wrecked by eruptions of pleasure whenever he pressed on one side of her clit or another. Yet, behind her bliss cut a jumble of images that filled her mind: her birth from a dying mother; her delivery into the data infusion solution and the tearing of her sense of self; her accelerated growth and sorrowful entry into adulthood; the sky turning and odd shade of purple as the first waves of ultraviolet and x rays striking the atmosphere and the ozone scented rain that started almost immediately; hard hands dragging her as a blast of infrared radiation struck and super heated the rain, turning it into a shower of blazing plasma that dissolved whomever it struck; her encasement in the stasis capsule under the watchful gaze of who she knew now was her Warrior. But as she succumbed to his deliberate tongue, those painful memories were burned away by the blithe of orgasm. The Warrior trembled as she radiated her climax -- even the dark matter that made up the Reliquary rippled as she came. His cock jerked as she was overcome while his mouth danced across her inner lips. He understood that the core of her femininity existed beyond her role of progenitor -- she was a being evolved for pleasure. It was the only way for her to survive the crucibles of her existence. He licked at her sex with renewed vigour and she shook till she grabbed his head and pulled him to her face. "Take me," she whispered as she covered his face with feathery kisses. "Let's forget we have any other existence ..." The Warrior obeyed his mistress and lifted her from the floor -- he held her close while he sat back onto his heels and she held tight his neck and wrapped her legs around his slim waist. He snaked his hand between their bodies and grabbed his hard shaft and manoeuvred it so it rested against the entrance to her pussy She moaned and gasped simultaneously -- the Warrior moved in such away that the tip of his cock parted her pussy lips. "Do you want me?" he asked. "Yes ..." she whispered to his ear. On that word, he gently lowered her onto his thick shaft. Her breath became shallow as he filled her with a communion she had never engendered. He touched areas of her flesh that ignited a phalanx of intense desire that spread across her skin like an inferno. As he slowly thrust into her, her juices flowed liberally down their thighs -- he felt her burn with the intensity of the core of a newborn star. As his pace accelerated, she began to move her hips in tandem to his thrusts and her pussy formed itself to his shaft and they fit like a key and a lock. Soon, she allowed herself to fall back and she supported herself on her arms -- he grabbed her waist and they fucked with an abandon that rivalled the chaos that followed that single point that grew and became all. "Oh YES!" she cried as the walls of her cunt began to tremble and her juices fought against his thrusts and she came with a rapturous howl. For the Warrior, he felt a slow build-up of energy amass in his groin, sourcing itself from every extremity and particle of his being. Though breathing was not essential to his existence, his grunts were nonetheless raspy and ragged as he thrust violently into her, ravaging her like her home planet had been ravaged by gravity gone mad. Upon his last thrust and his last moan, he reached the apex of his passion and he unleashed a flow of come deep into the depths of her womb. He fell on top of her while their hips continued to move against one another -- his lips met hers and they kissed wildly while the last drops of their combined come dripped from their inner thighs and onto the floor. The drops fizzed into smoke as airborne nano bots cleansed them away with micro arcs of plasma energy. He rolled off of her and she took his cool hand and squeezed it tightly. "That is an experience I will never forget," she murmured as she kissed his hand. "Do you still love me?" The Warrior closed his eyes and took a deep sigh. "I will always love you." In a blur, he returned to his feet and was dressed in his hooded robe. "And I am in your debt," he said. "What are you talking about?" "This act has freed me of my obligation. Therefore I can fulfil it willingly." "Do you have a name?" she suddenly asked before he left for the command centre. "No," he said, facing her and bowing his head. "Oh," she nodded. "Do I have a name?" "I'm sorry -- I know only you are the Lady Relic." 4. Visions in the black Her studies of the workings of the vessel and the forces of the expanding universe were advancing by leaps and bounds. She could repair the fragile neuro-uncertainty relays of the vessel's intelligence's quantum computing cores as easily as she could predict the type of star creating a gravimetric effect in hyperspace just by measuring the ripple surges in the ambient energy flux. But the need for clothing was always secondary to her. It was one of these predictions that entreated her to summon the Warrior from his routine swim in one of the liquid methane lakes that formed on the vessel's outer hull, to the Reliquary's command centre where she intently studied a holographic projection of a spike in the local hyperspace flux. A series of complex equations floated around the graph and in a secondary display, a young yellow star and the raucous disc of planetary matter that orbited the blazing nascent fusion reactor shone brightly. She, of the Reliquary "This is the one," she declared triumphantly, pointing at the distorted rendering while her firm breasts swayed under the glow of the display. The Warrior stared skeptically at the display -- sneaking furtive glances at her chest -- while plumes of methane sublimated from his muscular, light blue frame. He raised an eyebrow: "Forgive me, but whenever you show me one of these displays, I get ill. One what?" She dismissed his sarcasm. "My projections tell me a class m star is forming -- or has already formed. There will be life there ..." He walked forward and touched the display: "So the end of our adventure is at hand." She noted the resignation in his husky voice. "It was never meant to last forever." "Nothing ever does." "So," the Warrior continued through gritted teeth. "When will we know?" "The Reliquary is already on final approach and we will be phasing from hyperspace soon." @@@@@@@ The Reliquary emerged soundlessly into relativistic space near the fifth planet in the young planetary system. It was a potential proto star that was only a few masses away from fusion ignition. It had enough smaller satellites to constitute its own inner system. The vessel orbited the gas giant, analyzing the various moons, establishing that some could support life but not following the evolutionary tram she required. The vessel broke orbit from the gas giant and plunged deeper into the planetary system -- the star radiated massive amounts of energy across the spectrum and occasional gravitational tidal forces slowed or accelerated the inner planets as the star and the gas giant fought for supremacy. The vessel crossed a young field of asteroids of varying size -- this was evidence that a planet had once orbited in that plane and was mangled by the tidal forces generated by the two rival masses. The Warrior watched as the Lady Relic manipulated the holographic rendering of the four inner planets -- strings of information flashed around the planets, conveying data regarding atmospheric and geological composition and surface temperature. The two outer planets held the best chance of evolving carbon based life. "There!" the Warrior indicated -- a section of space around the fourth planet was highlighted and enhanced. The vessel's intelligence reached out and connected with the object in orbit around the world. She had not noticed the shadow in the display. Her eyes grew wide as she recognized the silhouette. She turned to her Warrior who nodded gravely. "Another reliquary," he confirmed. "What is it doing?" she murmured. An odd energy field connected to the intrinsic field of the planet to the reliquary. The Warrior ignored the question and reached out to the intelligence -- the vessel shared what it learned from the other reliquary. "This can't be right ..." the Warrior said as he shook his head. "It's tying to seed the planet," she said, incredulous as the other reliquary's noosphere effect and its goal of delivering the pure cognisance of the Providers caused the planet's genosphere potential to collapse on itself, inviting the life that existed already to fall prey to entropy. "But its incomplete and incompatible ..." "It's a Seed Lord and he is acting alone -- the knowledge is not being broken down into strings of inceptualized potential," the Warrior hissed at the travesty. His mind touched the vessel's intelligence -- failure will send the other reliquary to the third planet in the inner system. She watched her Warrior with intense concern as his face turned sour and he said: "We can't interfere with the operation -- it's already too late. The tidal forces are too strong -- we will phase into hyperspace and reemerge near the third planet." She nodded, understanding the inherent danger of such a short transition in hyperspace. She smiled in resignation and the Warrior signalled the vessel to reenter hyperspace. 5. The weight of a world The emergence from hyperspace was not as simple an affair as when the Reliquary phased near the orbit of the fifth planet. The gravitational tidal forces pulled the space-time fabric apart with a blinding flash of light as bright as a second sun when the vessel popped into the third planet's near orbit. But the Reliquary was a sturdy vessel and as it stabilized its trajectory, it was already feeding information to the Warrior and his ward. The atmosphere was a chaotic maelstrom of nitrogen, methane and carbon dioxide, keeping the meagre heat the planet received and allowing the sparsely spread pools of water that filled the pock marked facettes of the ever shifting plates that formed the planet's malleable surface to remain liquid. The water was the result of impacts from asteroids and comets early in the world's history that exposed deep segments of the planet's iron geology. She observed a series of graphs that indicated a carbon cycle originating from those small lakes and that steadily increased the oxygen and water vapour. "There's life here," she said as a topographical map of the planet's surface formed behind her eyes. "Mass ... composition ... atmosphere ... it's perfect!" The guardian gazed at the display and its multiple coloured graphs and nodded gravely. "This is where the other reliquary will come once the failure with the other planet is complete. This is where we will wait and make a stand." She turned to her guardian and put a hand to his shoulder and kissed it. "You won't let this world die, will you?" "It would break your heart -- I cannot have that." @@@@@@@ The Reliquary orbited the third planet, its sensors establishing the full topography of the surface, as well as the best areas to insert the noosphere fragments of inceptualized potential. If completed successfully, the noosphere would slowly reform, prompting and nudging evolution down a set path. The Warrior and the Lady Relic pondered the arrival of the second reliquary and its passenger: their vessel did not possess any weapons and luckily nor did the other reliquary. Although the apparent madness of its Seed Lord might be weapon enough. The planet completed two full stellar orbits with the Reliquary circling it before its long range sensors located the other ship as it navigated the slowly stabilizing tidal forces that pulled at the inner planet and against the young star. "They must have been damaged during the escape," the Warrior theorized as he paced the length of the command chamber. "Or perhaps quantum wraiths ... that could warp their sense of purpose. Your purpose." She looked from her chart and smiled sadly at the subjugated meaning in his words. But before she could add to his comment, the inner lights of the Reliquary's command centre shifted to a deep red and a large holo-display filled the room -- it showed the third planet and its satellite and indicated an incoming point. The other reliquary was within range. "They aren't answering our challenge," the Lady Relic stated. The Reliquary had reached out to its sibling but while they had shared a mind upon entering the system, silence was all that awaited the intelligence. The other reliquary established an orbit opposite the Lady Relic's vessel and they proceeded to circle each other like two mighty predators eyeing the same meal. The Warrior made a small gesture and the Reliquary accelerated its orbital velocity to rendez-vous with the other vessel while it established a geo-synchronous orbit over the main land mass -- the Reliquary slowed its orbital speed but had to veer hard around the other vessel as it expanded a null gravity web. "Are they going to trigger the effect already?" she asked as she noticed the concentric rings that marked the other reliquary's hull flickered and changed erratically. The Warrior studied the readings along with her and his purpose -- which included the ability to destroy -- allowed him to discern a pattern to the other reliquary's actions. He touched the display, his finger tracing a line from the immobile reliquary and the land mass and back. "No," the Warrior murmured. "They plan to use the null G web to envelop the entire planet and invert the mass effect, flattening space-time" The lady Relic gasped as she brought her slender fingers to her thick lips. "That will tear the planet apart," she whispered as he nodded. "The entire star system may be compromised," the Warrior added. "The gravity well this planet represents acts as a buffer between the tidal forces of the star and the gas giant," the lady Relic stated, her mind playing the likely scenarios. "It also maintains a gravitational anchor -- the system is young so the planets are steadily moving away from the central star. The farther they move away the easier their velocity might fling them from the system. Or the reverse effect might happen and the planets will all fall within the star." "This can't happen!" she cried as she turned to her Warrior and grasped her stone like shoulders. "You promised ..." 6. Broken The Reliquary accelerated its lateral orbital velocity as it rode the outer delimitation of the expanding null G web generated by the other vessel. The Warrior chose the quark sword he had used in his skirmish with the quantum wraiths. It was a two dimensional weapon and thus he could conceal it within the spaces of his molecules. He had removed all garments and stood in the capsule room where the Lady Relic had once slumbered. She watched him carefully as he advised the Reliquary intelligence of his course of action. The floor thinned and the swiftly moving planet appeared beneath him and a cylinder of light enveloped him. The Lady Relic put her hand on the solidified energy field and watched as the colour of his skin turned a deep shade of blue and his strong, regal features and ears melted away, leaving on his face and cranium smooth but for only his two blue eyes as he prepared to face the harshness of an orbital ejection. Once the Reliquary was parallel with the other vessel's vertical axis, the floor beneath the Warrior's feet dissolved and he was ejected from the bottom hull of the Reliquary with the explosive force of a fractal dissolution. In such a high orbit, the lingering young atmosphere was insufficient to transmit any sound but the Warrior could imagine a tumultuous rush of sound as he crashed towards the expanding reliquary. The Lady Relic was already moving away at high speed -- he was aware of his own speed as friction heated his skin as he crossed the expanse towards the deranged adversary. The Warrior crashed into its erratically coloured hull with an impact that made the ship's dark matter surface ripple. Once the hull regained its composure, he felt its surface and noted how cold it was -- a cold that told him that this reliquary's intelligence was dormant or worse. Touching his chest, the Warrior extracted the quark sword and sank it into the dark matter of the reliquary and carved an incision as that temporarily disrupted the cohesion of the hull -- he managed to pry the incision apart and he slipped into the ship before the incision sealed itself. The interior of the reliquary was that of a tomb -- the atmosphere was stagnant and fountains of light occasionally flashed from the ebony walls like ephemeral embers. The Warrior pressed the sword back into his body and a sequence of genetic triggers made his ears and features to reform. He cascaded a series of synaptic sequences and his awareness reached out to contact the ship's intelligence. It was cold and quiet as the ship itself -- even the swarms of maintenance nano bots were listless. The Warrior walked the arched corridors of the ship, noting cracks and warping within its basic structure. It had been made sick by the flawed noosphere effect and the stress of the null G web was slowly precipitating the degeneration. Despite the silence, he was able to detect a slight vibration -- he dropped to his knees and touched the floor and a three dimensional map appeared before his eyes, displaying his location and indicating a path to the source of the vibration. The source itself was veiled in electromagnetic interference. But it was a simple affair for him to locate the source of the interference -- the ship's command centre was barricaded with both pieces of inner bulkheads and force fields. He attempted to cut through the barricade but the unstable entropic nature of the dark matter reduced the efficiency of his quark sword. He replaced it within his core and examined the barricade, his augmented vision revealing every little flaw within its dynamic structure -- until he found what he sought: a truncated tesseract that functioned as a portal between the two side of the barrier. Without hesitation, he pressed his head against it and was immediately catapulted through the barrier and emerged on the other side with a crash from which he easily rose and assessed his surroundings. An eerie green illumination filled the vast chamber. Panels were ripped and strewn across the floor while a flickering holographic display of the third planet and the growing null G web occupied the centre of the room. Beyond the rendering, he spotted two figures -- one stood at a peculiar angle while the other knelt. His awareness was dulled by the interference. The Warrior stepped through the rendering and was taken aback by what he saw: the Seed Lord was strung up to the ceiling, cables and relays entered his flesh where it was torn open, exposing his juicy muscles as they bled, leaving a crimson pool under him. The cables and relays were connected to his nerves and cerebellum while a rudimentary interface was wired through his eyes and mouth to his frontal lobes. Saliva bubbled and ran down the cable in his mouth as the Seed Lord took the occasional, shallow breath. His guardian was beneath him, her lips wrapped around his grossly erect penis and she sucked lavishly at the bruised member. Her head was as bald as his but was somehow marked it with a series of chaotic line drawings. She was tall and carved of lean muscle -- like him, she was designed for swiftness and strength and was possessed of the power to destroy. Her hips were slightly flared and her breasts were small but enticing while her nipples were as thick as her thumbs and stiffly erect. As he triggered a series of sleeper genes to better perceive the electromagnetic spectrum, his eyes identified a faint glow emanating from the markings covering her skull. On a quantum level, her entire body appeared to flicker in and out of existence like a virtual particle. "Guardian!" he bellowed. The entire chamber shook beneath the force of his voice. "What have you done?" The guardian released the Seed Lord's cock and sprang to her feet with disturbing elegance and covered the space between her and the Warrior almost instantly. Her eyes were orbless as she examined this new comer. "You came," she said as she smelt the newcomer. "We thought we were the only ones left." "You're not alone," he said. Some of his indignation turned to pity. "What happened?" "There was a rift in hyperspace," she said as a tear drifted down from her empty eye socket. "The reliquary flew through a swarm of uncertain things. We were lost." "What about him? Why did you try to seed the fourth planet?" he demanded as he grabbed her shoulders and shook her despite himself. "We came here -- the core intelligence told us the planet was ripe for seeding the noosphere and that encoded fragmentation was unnecessary." The guardian walked around the display, her arms hugging her shoulders and covering her small breasts as though she felt cold. "But there was a backlash -- the planet's evolutionary tram derided the noospehre's introduction. The core intelligence was destroyed and the reliquary needed a new core ..." She had moved over to the pendant Seed Lord and caressed his greying skin. "At his command, I improvised," she added. "I've been trying to retrieve the noosphere code key but I have been unable." She touched his cock. She turned to face the Warrior and said: "I don't have much time left, do I?" The Warrior examined her -- the glowing fissures on her head were gradually spreading across a body that had once been an ode to athletic power and grace. "No," he said as he stood next to her and put a broad hand on her shoulder. "Can the null G web be reversed?" The guardian brought her eyeless face looked at him. "The inverted mass effect is greater than the planet's own mass." She went over to him and rested her cool head against his thickly muscled chest. "Warrior? May I have one last request?" "Of course, my sister," he said, acknowledging her as being of the same type of creation he was. "I don't want to die cold." The Warrior cupped her dirty face and tilted her head back and he kissed her -- when he touched her lips he felt her body warm up slightly and the haze leaking from her markings abated slightly. With her actions, she had betrayed the oath to protect the Seed Lord. But when he touched her hips and felt the passion ignite within her as she plunged her tongue into his mouth, they shared a sudden synaptic harmony and the holographic display in the room faded and began showing her memories and he understood: she had stopped loving the Seed Lord. They had encountered a swarm of quantum wraiths but damage suffered during the escape from their home system left them susceptible to the madness of the agglomerated beasts. The Warrior had pushed her up against the bulk head and he kissed his way down her neck till he found her nipples. He swirled his tongue around her thick nubs while he cupped her breasts and his mind was filled with the guilt she experienced -- the display shifted to show that despite her lack of love, she was still compelled to follow his orders and she did. After the failure at the fourth planet, the insane Seed Lord ordered the destruction of the third planet, certain that the planets themselves were actively plotting against them -- so she established him as the ship's new core and they came to third planet. She redesigned the singularity drive and created the null G web. "I'm sorry!" the guardian sighed as the Warrior fell to his knees and placed her thigh onto his shoulder -- his mouth found her sex and he kissed her moistening flesh, his tongue exploring her inner folds. As she was getting warmer, the Warrior felt his own limited body heat diminish as it seeped into the guardian. But the risk was worth it if it could relieve the guardian from her guilt -- he put a finger into her pussy and made a figure eight motion with it to accompany his tongue against her clitoris and while she shuddered, she grabbed the back of his head and pressed his face into her fabricated sex. The Warrior explored the guardian with a fervour he had not experienced when he had coupled with the Lady Relic -- he stood and held her against the the warped bulkhead and she snaked her legs around his thighs and he reached between them and rubbed his glans against her clitoris. "Please," the guardian pleaded, her voice a hoarse whisper. The Warrior bent his knees slightly so he could better angle his cock and he slid into her with a series of slowly sensual thrusts while her virgin cunt accepted his scorching member. She wrapped her arms around his neck and covered his face with desperate kisses as his thighs and buttocks clenched, pushing his shaft deeper into her core while her juices leaked down their thighs. Her tongue parted his lips and danced about his tongue like a wanton prey offering itself to a stoic predator; he slipped a hand under he ass to support her as she squeezed his waist whenever he thrust, driving him deeper towards her artificial womb; his other hand slid up her muscled stomach and he squeezed her firm breast and erect nipple; she moaned through their kiss and her skin began to glow while some of the markings that were spreading across her flesh receded. She, of the Reliquary The Warrior opened his eyes and saw to his amazement that her eyes had regenerated -- tears ran down her cheeks and she tossed her head back and her body stiffened while an orgasm passed through her with the sudden ferocity of colliding comets. As the after effect of her orgasm lingered, the Warrior could see that the guardian's body blazed in the infrared spectrum as it fought the cooling wave of non-existence while his own flesh was slowly cooling. But craven as they were by lust, the guardian turned her back to the Warrior and placed her hands on the bulkhead and spread her legs and swayed her hips. "End this before the cold takes you too," the guardian commanded. The Warrior grabbed her waist and entered her from behind, his cock following the slanted angle of her pussy and he renewed his pounding with the fierce alacrity his artificial being was bred for. She pressed her forehead against the bulkhead and its dark matter architecture rippled and radiated from the Warrior's every impact deep within her cunt. He grabbed her wrist like reins and pulled her back and battered her with his violent lovemaking -- to his eyes, a singular line of energy seemed to coalesce from his body and cross into the guardian's and back into him. The feeling of bliss and harmony was unlike any he had felt before -- but he realized that it stemmed from the guardian. The fissures had spread across her body like fiery ley lines. The guardian had already accepted her fate. "Guardian!" he bellowed as he erupted within her, his come more like the blistering plasma of a solar flare than the imitation substance made for his mistress. The guardian cried in pleasure as she was rocked with another orgasm -- but this one ended with her body glowing blindingly across the entire spectrum while she was consumed in an explosion similar to a star gone nova. The force drove the Warrior across the chamber and he watched as arcs of energy ricocheted off the bulkheads, inflaming whatever they touched -- he was stunned to see them pass through him harmlessly. The hanging Seed Lord was shredded by the arcs of plasma, his skin vaporizing and his limbs falling to the floor in bubbling, bloodied heaps. The Warrior rose to knees and scanned the devastated chamber -- green plasma fires danced across the curved bulkheads in an eerily silent ballet. Strange shadows shimmied across the chamber. He strove to his feet when he felt his skin prickle -- he thought that it was a discharge from the reliquary finally tearing itself apart. But the sensation soon changed to one of something burrowing into him. He shifted his spectral vision and saw that he was surrounded by words ... actions ... ideas ... -- and he felt and odd sensation for the first time: fear. The Warrior stood amidst a cloud composed of the whole of the Providers' knowledge embedded in coherent quantum wavefronts that ebbed and flowed around him. It was the noosphere in its purest iteration -- akin to the madness and logic melded and designed to be carried by biological vectors -- the wavefronts converged on the Warrior. He wanted to fight the intrusion he felt as his every atom was fissured and then fused with a quantum component of the noosphere -- an eyewitness would describe it as seeing billions of micro-nuclear explosions enclosed in a sphere of incandescent energy. While his body was destroyed and remade by the noosphere input, the Warrior found himself screaming against the irascible will of the Providers. Throughout the ordeal, the logistics part of his synthetic brain was monitoring the gradual reassembly of his body and understood that his artificial nature was quite suited to temporarily receive and carry the noosphere. At the same time, he monitored the approach of the Reliquary -- diminished velocity indicated a potential docking attempt. But a connection with the Reliquary's intelligence clarified the attempted manoeuvre. Using a boosted signal from the Reliquary, the Warrior accessed the coherence circuit of the ship he was in and the floor beneath him dissolved and gravity ripped him from the ship and pulled him towards the hostile surface of the young planet below. 7. Abiogenesis During the descent, the noosphere completely bonded with the Warrior and his mind suffered a synaptic reboot, leaving him in a limbo till his sense can back on line and he managed to solidify his flesh before he impacted the harsh terrain of the planet. The impact rumbled though the thick atmosphere and a high column of dust rose from the deep crater the Warrior left as his first mark upon this newly trekked planet. From the centre of the crater, the Warrior unfurled and stood to his full height, his body acted like a display, showing the history of the Providers -- their wars, their art, their technological singularity, their failures ... even their demise. There were also projections of personal stories that floated around him like an errant mist. This circulation ensured the Warrior did not overload with concentrated knowledge. The Warrior looked up at the reliquary from which he had narrowly escaped and registered the vast shadow it left on the planet. He also saw the Lady Relic's Reliquary crash into the other and a massive flash of light erased the planet's surface. Despite the illumination, the Warrior was able to filter the wavelengths and witness the Reliquary collapse its singularity drive and phase into hyperspace the moment it crashed into its dying sister ship. The intrinsic field of the universe was breached as the two vessels disappeared beyond its boson boundary -- but the presence of the null g web prevented the collapse of the planet's intrinsic field and the breach sealed itself while a sudden rush of atmospheric gases crashed together, filling the vacuum left by the huge, absent ships. A shock wave rippled across the atmosphere and mounting winds knocked even the Warrior from his feet. The Warrior maintained his solidified state, his skin nearly indigo in colour while he managed to fight the wailing, particle filled winds and struggled to his feet. Stones smashed against his dense body as his deliberate steps propelled him forward. He reached out to the Reliquary with his mind but found only emptiness. So he looked to the sky to where it had crashed with the other vessel; but he already knew where it had went. The slowing winds and the shattered null g web confirmed it -- the Lady Relic had phased into hyperspace, carrying the other ship with her and had gambled, emerging at the planet's core. By collapsing the singularity drive and encasing the subsequent black hole in a tomb of dark matter comprised of the two reliquaries, she had added to the mass of the planet's core enough to overload the null g web and neutralize it. Once the dust settled and the winds subsided, the Warrior ran north, seeking a high vantage point when the surface of the planet began to quiver and shake, reflecting the massive upheavals affecting its core. To his left and to his right, the ground heaved and complete mountain ranges burst from the planet's mantle -- the Warrior had to leap gushing rivers of magma, nearly as hot as the star's surface, that erupted from the base of the rising behemoths. Standing on a rocky out cropping, the Warrior observed the columns of ash and lava flows that cooled upon encountering the sulphur smelling air. Through the clouds and ash, the Warrior identified a quasar like burst of x-rays. Upon recognition of the beacon, it triggered a cascade of images before him, replaying the departure of the reliquaries from relativistic space and the the launching of a escape pod towards the surface. The realization set the the Warrior on a frantic race to locate the pod, his rebuilt legs propelling him to speeds never seen on this planet. The Warrior ran for what like felt an eternity till he found the pod protruding from the side of a rocky hill. Without hesitation, he grabbed the side of the pod and easily hefted it free from the clinging, heated stone. He gently deposited it to the ground and he sent a sensor wave from his fingers to assess the Lady Relic's condition -- she was alive but unconscious, injured, and losing blood. The Warrior sought the seam and the virtual panel that would allow him to breach the capsule -- but when he did it was unresponsive to his commands. He realized he had one chance at opening the pod. His flesh returned to its original shade of blue, although it still displayed and ever changing cavalcade of images relating the Providers existence. He tapped his left pectoral muscle twice and the quark sword ejected itself from the space between his molecules. Using a magnetic rendering of the internals of the pod as a guide, he carefully inserted the sword into the pod and carved a path, allowing him to cleave it in half. He flipped the top section off with an easy flick of his wrist, inserted the quark sword back into his chest and pulled the Lady Relic out of the pod. Setting her on the ground, he was encouraged to see she was clad in a transparent atmo-morphic skin. It allowed her to metabolize usually unbreathable gasses while allowing her senses to function normally. He ran his fingers over her fragile form and identified her injuries: a gaping hole in her side where a rib had pierced her skin and shattered, collapsing her lung. Before he could even think, the noosphere within him dictated his actions. He had to replace her rib -- he reached into his side, his skin splitting and he seized one of his ribs. He inserted it into her wound and the rib occupied the space left by the broken one. At the same time, the new rib released a series of nano bots that proceeded to build architectures onto which accelerated tissues could mend her injuries. The process lasted till dark while the Warrior stood vigil, monitoring the Lady Relic's progress as well as being tutored by the expansive noosphere. Two more of the the planet's revolutions passed when the Warrior felt a delicate hand touch his shoulder. "Hello there," the Warrior said, the young atmosphere warping his voice. The Lady Relic sat down on the harsh ground and looked up at the ashen sky as the volcanoes around them spurted great plumes of magma and soot. The Warrior sat down next to her -- she gripped his arm and rested her head on his thick shoulder. "It's beautiful here," she said as the nano filters of her atmo-morphic skin purified her air, extracting as much oxygen as possible for her to breathe. She then moved slightly away from him, realizing his body was like a living holographic emitter. Directly in front of his face, she saw a graphic of the third planet, the way it would look in the future. "It's all in there," the Warrior said, tapping his forehead. "The download was ... unpleasant." He smirked. She nodded and admired the cloud of knowledge that floated around him. "All they were and all they achieved ..." "We're stranded here," he added as the graph of the planet morphed to show it the way it would be deeper in the future, teeming with life. "Wasn't that supposed to be our purpose?" she asked. "To come to a planet like this and spread the seed of the Providers?" The Warrior stood and looked out to the horizon where the young star was setting and said: "I was never supposed to think about purpose beyond acknowledging it and accepting it. My purpose was to love you, and I do. My purpose was to fight for you but I failed -- instead, you saved this world at your own risk ..." The Lady Relic scrambled to her feet and twisted the Warrior harshly so she could look up at him. "You failed nothing! You gave comfort to brethren so she could die in peace. You gave me solace when my heart was breaking -- you took the noosphere into you even though that could have destroyed you. Do you think fighting only means waving that quark sword?" She hugged him close and pressed her face into his chest. The Warrior felt her innate heat seep through the atmo-morphic skin and relished it -- but he also felt her tears against his flesh. "You've always fought," she mused as she pulled his face to hers and kissed him. "Now stop fighting and love me," the Lady Relic ordered. The Warrior bid her command and kissed her back, his tongue a slow moving but welcomed intruder against hers and she allowed her fingers to linger on his hardening sex before she roamed over the hard muscles of his arms and shoulders -- he was like living stone, a monument to the accomplishments of the Providers. The sensitivity of the atmo-morphic shell was startling as her fingers tingled wherever she touch him, leaving a fading ripple of light that glowed beneath his skin. The Warrior fell backwards onto the ground the Lady Relic fell on him -- she slid up his torso so his lips she craved could embrace her nipples. He licked them voraciously, tracing tight circles around her aureola while squeezing her firm tits and drawing a thankful moan from her lips -- she shuddered when the tips of his hard cock bounced against her pussy. "Why is kissing you making me spin like a pulsar?" the Lady Relic asked as she covered his face with little caresses from her full lips. Her mind was arrested with dizzying images that left her dumbfounded. His answer was to press his lips to the soft flesh of her neck and to sneak a hand between their bodies till his fingers found her cunt lips and he parted them and ran his middle finger across the length of her slit till he found her clit and he rubbed it furiously. The Lady Relic moaned and arched her back as his fingers played her to orgasm. She pressed her nipple deeper into the Warrior's mouth, seeking to add to the churning pleasure his fingers were triggering within her. "Ahhhhh," her sigh echoed when he lightly bit her nipple while thrusting a finger into her cunt. Around them, the knowledge filled mist of the noosphere dissipated as small droplets formed on the surface of her atmo-morphic skin. The Warrior pulled his hand from the attraction of her pussy and cupped her breasts, pinching her nipple. The Lady Relic raised herself and straddled the hard muscles of his belly while his warm hands caressed her flared hips. Looking down at her Warrior, she remembered the bliss she had felt when his mouth had connected to her pussy -- she wondered if she could give the same to him. To his wonder, the Warrior watched as the Lady Relic flipped herself around and lowered her head -- then all sense of self and of the noosphere shattered as his long, thick cock passed though the thin, filtering layer of the Lady's atmo-morphic skin and he entered the warm embrace of her waiting mouth. Her long hair draped his lap, the tips of her locks tickled his balls as her tongue swirled around his shaft, sparking a cascade of pleasure filling his brain, awakening a more primal aspect of his existence. Wherever the Lady Relic touched the Warrior's veiny shaft, packets of energy shifted into her -- the noosphere was loosening itself from him and moving into her and she was glad to rid him of the burden of a dead civilization. She began to bob her head and pump his shaft -- the Warrior groaned but managed to place his mouth on her pussy and used his tongue to spread her lips and find her clit while caressing her ass as she straddled his face. He thrust upward when she twirled her tongue around the warm, silky tip of his cock. The Lady Relic felt a shiver rollick through her body as the pressure the Warrior put to her clitoris and the inside of her pussy carried her closer to the edge of orgasm. His body shuddered under her as bliss invaded him, displacing the noosphere in energy packets from his body to hers. The Warrior's mounting orgasm that was overwriting the advanced synaptic cascades of his reason when he began to suck on the Lady's clit -- she released his cock and tightly hugged his thighs as she came. It was during her orgasm that the fragments of the noosphere combined with her inner sense of self, her pleasure suspending her individuality. The Warrior couldn't wait any longer and he easily lifted the blissfully dazed Lady Relic and in a swift, graceful manoeuvre, he placed her on her back and he positioned himself between her thighs. Her eyes were closed and the atmo-morphic skin glistened from the area around her pussy. But something was wrong -- the Warrior's reason overruled the programmed instinct to fuck and he examined his former ward. He perceived the transfer packets that floated about them, awaiting them to rekindle their passion so the noosphere could finalize its transition to the Lady. His gaze met hers and she gave him a subtle nod, and he did the same. She reached between them and guided his cock into her canal. Once the total length of his shaft touch the entirety of the inside of her pussy, a connection was established -- their bodies were closer than any had ever been in the universe as well as their minds. It wasn't an artifice of a connection like the one he had shared with the guardian -- this was sympathy and empathy. It was a connection that grew with each slow stroke of his cock as his hips and buttocks worked to push him deeper into her tight, willing pussy. The Lady Relic felt a dual sense of fullness and plenitude as the Warrior's cock stretched her like she was space-time itself, and her mind was emptied of any worry or anxiety. He laid his body on top of hers and quickened his pace -- his rocking thrusts were complemented with her rolling hips and their eyes met. Around them, the streaks of lightning that erupted from the savage storms of the planet's young atmosphere to stab the surface froze; bright red eruptions from the massive volcanoes that surrounded the lovers became static tableau of violent creation. The Warrior had achieved his final stroke when he had met the Lady Relic's eyes -- his balls tensed and his entire body felt as though it was made of glass as it seemed to shatter when he filled her pussy to her womb with his hot, lava-like come. The Lady Relic took his orgasm into her and the walls of her pussy trembled as she succumbed to her own pleasure. Through the fiery veil of bliss, the noosphere left the Warrior and possessed the Lady, bestowing upon them a sense of shared wholeness. The transfer complete, they rejoined the activity around them with a resounding crack of eldritch sound. The Warrior looked upon the woman he loved as her flesh crackled with multicoloured rifts of energy -- he went to his feet and watched as her lite form levitated above the ground, science and technology no longer a factor in the Lady Relic's ascension to singular purpose. He smiled and felt her smile in return -- her last living act before she decimated the noosphere effect across the surface of the planet. In the pools of water where the first bobbles of unicellular life stirred, the complexification of existence began. 8. Epilogue The immobile monument that was the Warrior had remained in place for billions of years, a silent vigil over the threads of evolution. He had witnessed the rise of the seas, the fracture of the plate tectonics as they formed continents -- he had fallen to the abysmal regions of the ocean beds and seen the advent of mollusks and fish. He washed upon the surface of a southern continent as great beasts fought to survive, though they gave him a wide berth. He had survived the great impacts and upheavals that had almost ended the experiment that was life on this world. He witnessed a smallish hominid come close to him, eating a scorched piece of some mammal and recognized puzzlement and the first sparks of curiosity in her brown eyes. The young female touched him and drew her hand back when she sensed a spark that tingled her longish, hairy fingers. She yelped when he moved for the first time in aeons. The Warrior gazed at the young female while he analyzed her biometric condition. Fragments of inception were clearly in her DNA.