 
### jOvian veiL - Menticide

Published by Kurtis A. Rinas at Smashwords in 2017

Copyright Kurtis A. Rinas 2017

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hardwork of this author.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

For information regarding permission, email jovianveil@gmail.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

### Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 - Indoctrinate

Chapter 2 - Menticide

Chapter 3 - Synesthesia

Chapter 4 - Bind the Divine

Chapter 5 - Cover the Flame

About jOvian veil

Acknowledgements

### Prologue

' _For too long have you suffered because of the misguidance of your forefathers_

Their lust for false rhetoric has cast a burden on your kind like a plague

Death, decay, demise is their legacy but it does not have to be yours

Remove the hate in your hearts and receive the truth

No longer should you feel the need to hide in the depths of shadow

No longer should we let past misconceptions rule the present

No longer should we tolerate the bloodshed of this senseless fighting

Don't let the ignorance of the past taint your choices of tomorrow

Lay down your arms and open your minds to a future of endless possibilities with us

We're not your enemy, we stand together, we stand united

JOIN US

FOLLOW US

FOLLOW ME'

### Chapter 1: Indoctrinate

Slowly the darkness and nothingness faded into a consciousness and a breath. The meaningless blur of the hollow void transitioned into reality as the senses awoke. At first, the black swallowed every thought just as waves swallow the shoreline. Back and forth, back and forth, each side claiming victory but nothing is ever lost or gained; just the rhythmic dance of a seemingly never-ending battle.

'... what.... is .... happening? ' Llaus slowly thought to himself as his ability to formulate a rational thought started to unthaw.

His mouth was dry, his lips were chapped and he had a strong desire to swallow but there was nothing in his mouth other than a pungent taste.

A dull sound of static in the background was unintelligible yet there was a certain logic to the monotonous tones, like a message was clawing at the surface to be recognized.

'...where am I?....' he was finally able to form a continuous thought but that was the extent of his abilities.

He tried to pry into his memories but no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to penetrate the thick blockade of amnesia that prevented him from remembering anything.

He tried to move but his body didn't respond, he felt lifeless and cold. He felt... frozen?

It seemed like the only things that were working were his heart and a small portion of his brain reserved for primary organ function, he couldn't even open his eyes. Everything was black but now he was aware.

The energy required to maintain consciousness was tremendous and he felt like he was lapsing back and forth, into and out of reality. It was physically demanding like running a marathon at a sprinters pace but even then, it was only to keep his head above water. Every second that passed felt like an eternity.

The war within his mind waged for who knows how long but eventually with enough will he was able to move his eyes. He could feel them move ever so slightly against the back of his eyelids. He moved them side to side and up and down, each movement was painful since his eyes were so dry. The only reason he continued to move them was because the pain was real, pain was life and he didn't want to fade off into the obscurity of the nothingness that once was.

He didn't think he could keep pace but the only alternative was to submit and he couldn't allow himself to do that. The will to survive was greater than the desire to concede to the infinite of the unknown.

The dull drone of static continued to waver in the background. The signal faded in and out as if someone was trying to tune an old transistor radio. Every now and then he was certain he could hear a voice but he thought it was likely just his imagination playing tricks on him.

Trapped in his mind without any ability to move or communicate he tried to remember something, anything!

'How did I get here?'

'Where is here?'

'Am I alone?'

'Am I in danger?'

Nothing made sense.

A sense of panic and dread started to set in while he continued to scour through his memory for anything that would help him piece together who he was and how he got there. Over and over he asked himself the same questions as if a ritualistic probing of his mind would eventually trigger a memory that would make sense.

He could feel the unthawing of his body and mind, like tiny pins and needles were poking and prodding every square inch of his body. The warmth of life was returning like the slow trickle of water from a melting ice cube. He could feel a sense of his identity at the forefront of his consciousness but he couldn't grasp it, like when a word is on the tip of your tongue but you just can't remember what it is. The more you try and think of it the more evasive it is.

Eventually he was able to open his eyes. At first, everything was blurry and shapes were indistinguishable; it was just a mosaic of toneless greys and earthy browns. His limbs still weren't working so he could only blink over and over again to try and focus his eyesight. Slowly the shapes took on more distinguishable forms and the palette of a grey blur started to take shape. Sharpness and contours would fade in and out as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings. Depth was the first thing he was able to gauge and he could see that he was in a very small space.

His sense of smell was returning as well and he could taste the air he was breathing, it tasted metallic and stale. It felt dense enough to be a thin liquid but it was dry and somewhat lifeless. His lungs screamed their displeasure every time they inhaled the viscous fluid but there was nothing he could do except endure the environment of his immediate surroundings.

The noise in the back ground continued to dole out its garbled static but now he was sure he could hear voices. Still unrecognizable but the tone and shape of the sounds were more than random static, they were more intelligible. He strained his ears, trying to decipher a recognizable language but the dialogue continued to be swallowed by the static and was too faint to be comprehensible.

The shapes of the surroundings continued to become clearer as his eyesight continued to adjust. The wall across from him was illuminated with a myriad of blinking lights, dials and buttons, like the interface of an old supercomputer. They were recognizable and certainly logical and he knew there were numbers and letters on each button but he couldn't' understand the writing. His mind ached and pulsated with every breathe he took.

He was in some sort of transparent capsule that enveloped the bed he was laying on. He wasn't lying down nor was he fully upright, he was at some sort of inclined position and his body strapped to some sort of bed-like surface so he wouldn't shift out of position.

Once again, he tried to move the extremities of his body but the message from his brain either wasn't being received by his arms and legs or they chose not to respond in some sort of mutual revolt. He attempted to look at his lifeless limbs and realized that he was able to move his head ever so slightly.

He shifted his head to the right and he could see what appeared to be the outline of a seat and a window with nothing but the black void of....

'space?!?' Llaus thought to himself

'Am I in a spaceship?'

'is that really outer space...??...' He questioned himself again as if asking a second time would yield a different answer.

He was still quite groggy from the effects of the 'Vascular Stasis Sedation' but he was certain he could decipher the dark and cold nothingness of space. He wasn't sure how he was able to remember this but somewhere buried deep within his psyche he knew space travel had been part of his past. The infinite black expanse of the universe and its immensity of dark nothingness consumed his thoughts and sparked another round of self-reflection.

'How did I get here?'

'Where is here?'

'Am I alone?'

'Am I safe?'

Over and over he continued to ponder these thoughts without any ability to answer them other than his certainty that it was outer space.

He tried to move his left arm and was able to lift it a few inches this time. He moved his hand and made a fist even though he still had no feeling in the outer extremities of his limbs. He shifted his head just enough to see a tattoo scribed across his left forearm that read 'All wiLL bE ReveAled'. A moment earlier, he couldn't understand the dials and buttons on the wall across from him but now he could actually read; the fog was wearing off quicker now.

"For too long have you suffered because of the misguidance of your forefathers" the sound in the background was clear enough to understand now, though it was still swallowed by a sea of static.

'Is something trying to contact me?' Llaus thought to himself, his heart half skipping a beat.

"Their lust for false rhetoric has cast a burden on your kind like a plague"

"Death, decay, demise is their legacy but it does not have to be yours" The speaker continued with its message.

Horrific sounds of bombs, machine gun fire and screaming could be heard behind the narrative. The longer he listened, the more he started to think that he was listening to a pre-recorded message rather than someone trying to contact him. The message was too fabricated to be some sort of random communication.

'Where is that broadcast coming from?' but before he could finish his thought, the dark expanse of the universe that once consumed the entire view of the window in the cockpit started to change before his eyes. It was as if the black expanse of space had started to morph and transform into a haze. He strained his eyes to try and focus his vision.

'what is that??...'

The haze progressively changed in color from black to dark grey, it lingered and danced in front of him for several moments. It almost looked like there was something hidden in the swirling and revolving shade. Llaus strained his eyes again and tried to focus on what it might be then in an instant it changed to a light orange/beige and he was able to see and recognize the definitive horizon of a planet that was coming into view. The planet was completely orange/beige without any distinctive features; no noticeable geographical features, just a bland homogenous texture that appeared to be crawling, like a thick blanket was being dragged across the surface.

Llaus was awestruck by the contrast in scenery and transfixed by the sheer size and magnitude of the planet below. Everything he experienced was new since he awoke but for some reason the appearance of a planet really caught him by surprise. He started to wonder if there was more to his amnesia than just a hangover.

"We're not your enemy, we stand together, we stand united"

The voice recording snapped him out of his current trance and brought him back to the present, the signal must be coming from the planet below he thought to himself.

"JOIN US"

"FOLLOW US"

"FOLLOW ME" the recording continued to a feverish pitch. Thunderous applause could be heard as though someone was giving a grand speech but it sounded too fabricated to be real, almost as if to give the impression of overstated power. Then the applause faded out and the message started over again.

"For too long have you suffered because of the misguidance of your forefathers

'Was the transmission just a perpetual loop of propaganda?' Llaus thought to himself.

'What conflict was it talking about?'

'Whose voice is that?'

A whole new series of questions arose in his mind but before he could contemplate any of those thoughts another voice sounded out around him.

"WARNING!"

Its tone and inflection was much more direct and immediate, impersonal and slightly robotic.

"Current course cannot be executed without corrective measures; gravitational field will exceed vertical thrust if charted trajectory is maintained - IMMEDIATE Action is required!"

Only a few moments ago he found himself waking up from a frozen slumber, not knowing who he was, where he was or where here was to a point now when his life seemed to be very much in jeopardy but he was seemingly incapable of doing anything about it. He was able to move his head and both of his arms by now but he still couldn't move the rest of his body, his legs and torso were still in a state of thaw.

'I need to get to the controls of this ship, but even if I do manage to get there, would I know what to do?' Llaus thought to himself

He lifted his hands slowly and awkwardly towards his face, the numb sensation was fading slowly and he was able to feel his own skin. He rubbed his eyes and massaged the sides of his head as if it would help with his memory. His fingers were hard and calloused but they were sensitive enough to feel the deep grooves on his face. His unshaven face was rough and weathered. His hair was mid length, dirty and greasy with no particular style. He couldn't remember how old he was but that didn't matter.

'Age doesn't really matter in space' he thought for some reason.

'Besides, accelerated travel speeds have a funny way of aging a person. At least I can remember that' he mused to himself.

Then suddenly he felt the vessel jerk and sway back and forth slightly. There was a sharp grinding noise from underneath him and all around him then a faint sound that sounded like running water? It was constant and continuous and as it got louder, the vessel started to shake more vigorously. It must be some type of thruster he thought to himself. He was in the middle of a tug of war between gravity and the automatic sensors in the vessel that were trying to keep him on a pre-programmed course.

'Why would I chart a flight path through the gravitational field of a planet? Why not just go around?' he questioned himself then a more sinister thought crossed his mind causing the hair on his neck to stand upright.

'What if it wasn't me that programmed the flight path?' the thought left him slightly unnerved.

The wall to his left was a sea of flashing buttons, dials, lights and indicators but as the vessel started to shake he noticed a larger light illuminate near the ceiling. It was bigger than the rest and had a symbol that looked like a flame projecting from a cylinder. While the other lights flashed in various colors like orange, red, yellow or green, this light was white and its brightness easily drew his attention away from everything else that was happening. Staring blankly into the white light while the constant hum of the thrusters worked in the background, his mind drifted and he felt compelled to close his eyes and go back to sleep. Then the vessel jerked violently and snapped him out of his temporary daze like a slap in the face.

'I need to get out of here now' he thought to himself and he began to scheme how he could liberate his still mostly numb and thawing body.

"FOLLOW US"

"FOLLOW ME"

The crackle of the speaker continued to play its message in the background but his full attention now was focused on trying to free himself from the enclosure. What once was a very intriguing message became a very distant afterthought as he surmised the gravity of his immediate situation.

"WARNING! 5 minutes until gravitational field exceeds thruster capabilities – IMMEDIATE ACTION IS REQUIRED!" the robotic voice sounded out again only this time its tone and inflection seemed to be more urgent.

The countdown is ON, he thought to himself. A sudden surge of adrenaline rushed through his body and seemed to help expedite the thawing process, he could feel all of his extremities now but he still wasn't able to move his legs. He looked down as best as he could and could see that they were restrained, his arms were free but his torso and legs were strapped.

Clumsily he undid the first strap around his upper torso and immediately his body began to sag from leaning over too far. His face pressed up against the glass dome that enveloped the bed he was fastened to. Although he could feel and move now, his strength wasn't there and his abdominal muscles weren't strong enough to push his body back against the table.

"WARNING! 4 minutes until gravitational field exceeds thruster capabilities – IMMEDIATE ACTION IS REQUIRED!"

Time was moving quicker now. With his face pressed against the glass, he summoned enough arm strength to push himself back against the table.

'How does this enclosure open anyway?'

He slid his hands on the edges of the table by his sides looking for something that would open the enclosure. A button? A handle? Anything! But he couldn't find anything, he was trapped?

He started to panic, he could feel his heart starting to beat faster and his breathing became more rapid. Even though he didn't have very much strength right now, he thought that he might be able to kick the enclosure open but that would require removing the straps fastened to his legs.

He leaned over to look at his feet and assess his plan but there wasn't enough room to completely bend over and reach down, the dome-like enclosure only sat a foot or so away from his body. He would have to contort his body and squat awkwardly just to get down there and he was sure he wouldn't have enough strength to push his body back upright, let alone begin trying to kick the enclosure open.

'Why am I here? Is this a dream? Or a nightmare??' Llaus pleaded with himself.

He continued to frantically search all over inside the enclosure for some sort of switch to help him open the enclosure but he couldn't find anything. He pushed and pounded against the glass with all his strength but it wouldn't move it just resonated a dull empty. His breathing was more erratic and anxious like a panting dog locked in a cage

"WARNING! 3 minutes until corrective actions are no longer able to correct the current course – IMMEDIATE ACTION IS REQUIRED!"

"....hh.....h...hel......heeeelp" he was able to vocalize the panic that he felt inside. It was the first time he heard his own voice though he was sure he had heard it before. It was dry and raspy, weak and breathless, more of a whisper than a yell. He knew his cries were in vain yet he did it anyway, it helped him release the anxiety.

"heeellppp" he tried again, this time his voice started to take on a sense of urgency.

He desperately continued to pound on the glass of the enclosure, the hollow thud noise echoed in the vessel like a tribal drum. Then for some reason the tattoo on his forearm caught his eye again.

"All wiLL bE ReveAled" it said in a dark and cryptic looking font.

'The only thing that will be revealed is going to be me crashing into some random planet if I don't get my ass outta this transparent coffin' Llaus rebuked in his mind.

"WARNING! 2 minutes – 'Vascular Stasis Sedation pods' are being released prematurely due to impeding collision. Please seek medical help once corrective measures are taken to prevent collision" the robotic voice sounded out again almost apologetically this time.

All of sudden the pod that enveloped his body opened up and a sudden blast of frigid air rushed inside like a tidal wave. Llaus wasn't sure what was more offensive, the rapid change in temperature or the smell of the air rushing in. It was dry and stale, dusty and electrical, cold and lifeless. It made the air that was inside the pod almost seem sterilized and clinical, even though at first it was offensive.

The cold air made the hair on his arms stand up. This is when he noticed for the first time that he wasn't wearing any clothes other than a pair of form fitting undergarments. The cold air made his lungs hurt to the very bottom. He started to cough vigorously and his body began to spasm.

For a brief moment while he endured a prolonged coughing spasm, he wasn't sure what was worse, being trapped inside the pod with his impending doom only moments away or being released and being unable to function at all.

While he continued to cough and hack his body fell forward, only this time there wasn't the pod to prevent him from falling completely forward.

Bent at the waist, coughing, hacking and grasping for oxygen and life he had nothing to help set himself upright.

Bent at the waist, a surge of blood rushed to his head causing him to feel lightheaded and dizzy. The room began to spin around as he coughed and grasped for oxygen. His senses were raw and agitated, every noise, light and cough spasm irritated him to the point of rage.

"AAAAAHHHHhhhhhh !!!!!" He screamed and his voice resonated throughout the small vessel. This time his voice was strong, deep and dark, like the roar of a lion.

Although screaming helped release his inner anger, it actually brought on another coughing fit. His stomach ached from the spasms and eventually he puked a small amount of dark yellow vial on the ground beside him.

He knew that if he undid the last few straps he'd collapse on the floor in front of him but there was no alternative. He didn't have the energy to prop himself back onto the board but he didn't have the energy to continue the current struggle of coughing and struggling for air while the world spun around.

Reluctantly he grabbed the leg straps and yanked on them, near instantly his body collapsed on the metal grate flooring beneath him. He reached out with his arms to help break the fall but they didn't respond in time. It didn't matter anyway, he didn't have enough strength to push himself up let alone absorb the full force of his body collapsing. He fell hard and smashed his head onto the ground with a sickening thud, a flash of light danced across his eyes and his ears started to ring like a blown speaker.

He fought to maintain consciousness as his vision faded in and out and the room swirled around him. He could feel his mind and body separating like his consciousness was peeling away from the flesh with every breath. Time seemed to slow down and his body was beginning to go cold as he was slowly fading off into obscurity.

But through the darkness and the cold there was a warmth that was trickling across his face. Within the warmth he found a comforting and calming sensation where he could focus his inner strength. Focusing on that constant sensation seemed to re-energize his mind and his soul. He raised his right hand to his head where he felt this warmth. Touching slightly above his right eyebrow, where his head hit the hardest, he was bleeding and a giant bruise had already begun to develop. The remainder of his body was crumpled upon itself but he summoned enough strength to turn over on his back. The floor was hard and cold and he lay there disoriented and exhausted.

"DAMN YOUUUU!!!!! WHAT IS THIS??!?" Llaus screamed out at the top of his lungs.

He had no clue why he was yelling or what he was yelling at but it felt good. It was more of a release of his inner rage directed at his incompetent body and the likelihood of his demise. Only this time the vocal exertion didn't invoke a coughing fit, his lungs appeared to be as though they were finally adjusting to the new environment.

"WARNING! 1 MINUTE UNTIL THRUSTER FAILURE" the voice interrupted almost on cue as if it were answering his pleas in a mocking tone.

"SCREEEEEW YOU ROBOT !!!!" Llaus lashed out instinctively.

The outburst of anger made his head throb and his heart race but it seemed to awaken his inner self. It unearthed a side of his personality he hadn't felt until now and for the first time it felt like he was finally connecting with who he was. A shot of clarity surged through his mind as the came to terms with the reality that in less than 1 minute, this space vessel would breach the orbit of some random planet and he would plummet to his death.

'This isn't going to end like this' he told himself and with a surge of energy he propelled his body off the floor into a position where he could crawl. He lumbered and lunged his body forward with all the might of his arms and legs. His face dragged and smashed off the ground as he slithered across the floor, the gash on his forehead opening even further and spilling its contents. Sweat and dirt got into his mouth and eyes but he was determined to get to the space vessels controls. Gauging the distance, he was only a few feet away but it felt like a mile.

'Even when I get there, do I even know what to do?' a thought of uncertainty creeped into his mind.

Nonetheless he pressed on, he willed himself against the pain. Each moment, his body screaming at him to quit, to succumb, to die, but the will to live was greater.

"30 SECONDS UNTIL THRUSTER FAILURE" the robotic voice sounded out.

Llaus looked up to see how far he had gotten; the end goal was still so far. The last 30 seconds had felt like 30 years, he had been giving everything he had and yet he was still so far. A pessimistic voice from within told him to quit, to accept that he has no control over the situation and to just let it run its course.

And suddenly, the struggle within morphed into unconscionable action and he lunged forward, he crawled, he rolled, he did whatever was necessary to get to the controls.

The pain was still there but it was suppressed under his skin, buried just below the surface, still present but somehow it had transformed from a hindrance to the driving force.

"10.......9.......8...."

Without hesitation, he threw himself in the seat and frantically surveyed the dashboard panel, flashing lights were everywhere. Although he was able to read and understand the language on the controls, he had no clue what he was looking for or what to do.

" 4.....3......"

He looked around for the restraining device

"...2...1..."

"I'm going down!!!"

### Chapter 2: Menticide

As soon as the countdown reached zero the thrusters immediately stopped and the vessel tilted forward in a nose dive towards the planet below. There was no gradual change in direction; it was a sudden and abrupt change in velocity like a piece of metal suddenly being drawn towards a magnet. Forward momentum was maintained for a certain period of time but it was eventually overcome by the force exerted by gravity.

The blackness of space that once consumed the entire window of the cockpit was replaced in its entirety by the bland orange/beige of the rapidly approaching planet below as the vessel started to accelerate in its new direction. The cockpit was eerily quiet considering the drastic change in events, the void of space seemed to have infiltrated the vessel and set a somber mood for an impending and ill timely fate.

Llaus surveyed his surroundings yet again, trying to make sense of all the buttons and dials. Everything was happening so fast yet time seemed to slow down. He knew he was only a few minutes (or seconds?) away from crashing into the planet below but he couldn't help but be transfixed by its mesmerizing swirling surface, it looked like bubbling quicksand.

A loud creaking noise snapped him out his temporary hypnosis and he resumed methodically reviewing the dash panel in front of him. He had no idea what he was looking for and all the buttons looked enticing as they flashed on and off. The panic that consumed him before was still there but somehow it had transformed into an energy that he was able to work with. 'Thrusters', 'Aux. Power', 'Landing Gear', 'Auto Pilot', 'Navigation System', 'Main Power', 'Hail Beacon', each button blinking and flashing to get his attention when he suddenly realized that he had unconsciously started to read again. Llaus wondered if his memory would return in due time just like his ability to read.

Then suddenly the vessel started to shake and vibrate, the quietness that once was, was replaced with the sound of creaking and groaning metal. The eerily peaceful decent slowly turned into a chaotic event. The outside of the cockpit shield took on a very faint hue of red then within a mere second, it was completely engulfed in a giant inferno of flames.

'I must be hitting the atmosphere' Llaus thought

Still restrained at the front, he continued his search of the controls for something obvious to help regain control of the ship. His body and mind ached; his eyesight went blurry as another dose of adrenaline shot through his body.

The front end of the vessel had already tipped towards the planet but he could see that it was starting to over rotate, soon enough the vessel would be spiraling out of control as it plummeted to the surface below.

His mind raced, he knew that he needed to somehow gain control of the vessel before it began to spin out of control if he had any chance. Every light of the dash in front of him was flashing, each trying to get his attention as if their function was more important than the next.

'I need to divert power from the main space thrusters to the planetary control system' Llaus somehow managed to unearth deep from within, portions his memory were seemingly returning faster now.

He frantically searched through his thoughts trying to remember anything that would help but beyond that revelation, it was blank. In fact, the more he focused on the importance of remembering quickly, the more distant his recollections became. Llaus had to abandon the idea that the answer would suddenly come to him and he just started pushing buttons.

"Come on !! Work damnit !!" he yelled

The rotational velocity was speeding up as a huge flame engulfed the vessel. Through the fire he could see the planet then outer space, then the planet, then outer space, he was in a full-on free fall and spinning out of control. Looking out the window was nauseating, it made him feel like vomiting but there was nothing left in his stomach, whatever remains he had were jettisoned after he came out of sedation.

The rotation made it more difficult to maneuver as the vessel sped faster and faster, then suddenly the flame that engulfed the vessel was extinguished by a thick dense fog as he passed through some sort of 'dead' ionosphere, Impact wouldn't be too much longer.

He grabbed the controls and started shifting the steering column back and forth and furiously pushing as many buttons he could when he had another revelation, the 'planetary controls' activation mechanism was a toggle switch on the side of the dash.

He reached down and, to his delight felt a switch but his fingertips could barely touch the control, not enough to activate the mechanism. He pressed forward again, willing his body to stretch just that little bit more but he still couldn't reach, his range of motion was limited by the restraint system.

'Who designed this piece of crap?! I can't reach the toggle because of this damn restraint' Llaus screamed

Then he noticed that in his haste to get to the seat, he had incorrectly fastened the device and it was all crisscrossed over itself. Hurling in a free fall with a collision course set with the planet below was hardly a time to remove the only thing holding you in place but there was no other solution. Reaching beside himself, he unclipped the fastening device and was immediately launched out of the seat. He didn't have any time to brace himself as he went crashing head first into the window.

Everything flashed white again just as it had done moments before after he unfastened the restraints on the medical table. It was peaceful within the glow of the all-consuming white light and it bathed him in tranquility. Llaus was still cognoscente of his impending demise but he seemed to mind less and less as he absorbed the warmth of the white. Like a warm blanket, it swaddled him with its comfort and soft embrace but it soured very quickly like spoiled milk left out on the counter all night. The magnificent aura that once was the entirety of his senses slowly eroded, the colour changed, the peaceful tranquility that was started to slip. Edges of reality started to pierce the once seemingly opaque milky whiteness and through the edges of the infinite white he could feel the coldness of reality.

Then, like he was shot out of cannon, the white haze was gone and he was propelled back into reality. His senses screamed at him as they realized they were pried from the soothing white light and back to the cold hard reality of his impending doom.

With his back pressed up against the window, the outside of the cockpit shield began to change to a faint hue of red and within seconds the vessel was completely engulfed in flames again, whatever atmospheric condition that suppressed and extinguished the flames before was only temporary. The heat from the inferno started to transmit through the glass and he could feel his flesh starting to singe. Try as he might to push away from the heat, there was nothing he could do; the rotational speed of the vessel was keeping him pinned up against the glass just like a roller coaster ride at the fair. Llaus tried to slide across the glass to get away from the heat and to get in a better position to flip the 'planetary navigation' switch but his skin was sticking to the glass as it decomposed and liquefied under the intense heat.

He was pinned, his body was burning up underneath him and he could barely move. All he needed to do was flip the switch and the vessels navigation system would apply the corrective measures for planet re-entry. Unable to reach it by hand he twisted and contorted his body and tried to stretch his legs but he was oriented in the wrong direction with his legs at the wrong end of the controls. He lifted his legs up as far as he could, perpendicular to the window surface. He kept going until they were past center, allowing inertia to do the rest as it flung his body around. Flesh was torn from his back as he flipped over onto his stomach. Now his face was pressed up against the glass and the process of heat transfer and skin liquefaction started all over again. With his back turned to the console he couldn't see where anything was but at least now he could use his arms to push off the glass and extend his legs backwards to get closer to the console, all he needed to do was flip that toggle switch.

"Warning, Warning, Warning!!" the robotic voice repeated over and over again as a deafening siren started to sound. With his face pressed against the glass, now he could see the surface approaching through the flame intermittently as the vessel continued to rotate and accelerate towards the planet below. The surface looked imposing and unforgiving, lifeless, hard and inevitable.

Llaus' perspiration began to sizzle on the glass below his face. He lunged and contorted his body any and every possible way he could in an effort to try and somehow flip the switch. He closed his eyes and tried to envision his position on the window relative to the console; he convulsed and shook erratically as he maneuvered his body in every possible way. His flesh seemed to scream at him as it sizzled on the window like an egg being cooked in a frying pan. The rotational velocity of the vessel kept him pinned against the glass but he arched his back, contorted his body and pushed off until his legs were near perpendicular to the window. Like a gymnast holding himself up on rings, he strained his core muscles to maintain his balance until he felt something.

'Is that the console?' He gasped as he finally felt a glimmer of hope.

He continued to strain his muscles but now he could push on the console to help maintain his acrobatic position, delicately he tried to feel and recall where he was touching by using his feet. He slid his right foot forward one inch at a time trying to gauge where he was, he could feel buttons being pushed as he slid across the surface. His face and shoulders screamed in agony as they continued to be exposed to temperatures well beyond what they're accustomed to but he suppressed the pain and kept his focus on the task at hand. He kept moving his right foot forward until he felt

'The edge!' Llaus' whispered optimistically to himself as his heart leapt.

His right foot had finally found the side of the console and he could envision its approximate location relative to the switch but he could also feel that moving his right foot any further would change his center of gravity and propel his body to another location on the window. He was teetering on the edge of losing his foothold.

'Even if I did find the switch, there wouldn't be enough time to decelerate the vessel in a controlled manner.... I might as well just reposition my body and save it from the torturous sentence of being burned alive, if only for a moment' Llaus thought to himself.

He entertained this thought but only for a moment, maybe longer. Who knew? Time was funny, especially jacked up on adrenaline and under the duress of the immediate situation. With both feet firmly pressed against the dash he tried once again moving his right foot to the edge.

'Now comes the moment of truth' Llaus thought to himself

'If I slide my right foot over the edge and don't push hard enough with my left foot to lock my body in this position, inertia will flip me over, I'll spiral out of position and my time will inevitably run out'

He pushed his left foot harder on the console, grinding his face and a portion of his chest onto the window. Despite the external sound of the hull being engulfed in a giant ball of flames or the internal warning alarms, he thought he could literally hear his flesh sizzle and pop under the increased force. He slid his right foot to the edge, took a deep mental breathe and then he slid it over the edge, leaving his left foot to support his entire body.

As soon as he slid it over the edge he could feel himself starting to slip. He pushed harder with his left foot but he had gone too far, he could feel his body starting to slip under the increased forces.

'I can't hold this much longer, this is it!' Llaus frantically thought to himself.

He fought it as long as he could and in that moment he contemplated his limited options.

'Either dedicate all of my energy to offset the inevitable or just let go and take one last wild stab at finding he switch with my right foot before my body flips over' he thought.

But before he could weigh his options the choice was made for him, his left foot slipped and his body began to flip over. With one last wild attempt he lunged his right foot forward with his toes pointed. There was no time to think about where his foot was relative to the dash, it was just instinct.

His body rolled and he flipped over into another uncomfortable position with his back pressed up against the window yet again.

'I MISSED !!!' Llaus yelled as loud as he could. His heart sank as he realized that time had run out and within a moment he would crash into the unforgiving terrain below.

But as his body came to rest in its new position he could hear something happening externally. He looked down at the controls and could see that the button on the side of the console for the 'planetary controls' was flashing green. Then he could feel the force pinning him up against the glass starting to decrease as the vessels rotation was being counteracted by the guidance system.

'I GOT IT!' he yelled as loud as he could once again.

He could feel his body starting to peel off the window as the vessel assumed control and started to apply corrective measures to stabilize the free fall. The chaos of the descent was starting to subside as the vessel was starting to control itself, eventually the rotations ceased and Llaus dropped down from the window and was able to go and sit in the control chair.

He forgot about the flesh that was torn from his back and he winced in pain as he slumped into the chair. He closed his eyes, leaned back and rubbed the sides of his head as if he were trying to massage and erase the pain from inside. With his eyes still closed, he slid his hands forward to rub his eyes; he grazed the right side of his face and noticed that he couldn't feel anything.

He doubled back and gently touched the side of his face that was pressed against the glass only moments ago. He couldn't feel anything nor could he feel any skin, a portion of his face had been completely burned off. It didn't hurt right now, probably because his body was still full of adrenaline but he was sure at some point this would be an issue.

'I'll need to rummage through the vessel to find some pain killers and some sort of first aid kit with dressing to cover up the wound' He thought to himself

'Maybe the skin would never grow back?' another thought quickly creeped into his mind but compared to where he was several moments ago, this didn't seem very relevant.

For this first time since his awakening he felt like he wasn't in any immediate danger. The 'planetary control system' would plot a general course that would maintain a constant orbit around the planet until it was instructed to do otherwise. Unlike space travel this didn't require some type of propellant and only relied on atmospheric fluid displacement instead so there was no concern about running out of propellant and crashing into the planet.

Slowly he opened his eyes and allowed the world to come into focus, the sky was a hazy orange/purple mix and the clouds were gigantic. They stretched across the sky with huge elevation and they rolled on themselves, constantly swirling around in vortexes. The clouds were dark like they were gathering precipitation but they looked sick and had an odd yellow / green tinge, like a bruise after a couple of days on old flesh.

The entire planet was a uniform orange/beige from horizon to horizon. Huge peaks and valleys were everywhere, like jagged teeth. It looked impossible for these formations to form naturally but they looked organic even though their appearance was bland and lifeless. Weathering patterns should have eroded these peaks and blended them into the rest of the landscape, like a stone washed up on the beach, smooth and rounded on every side from years and years of molding and shaping. But there was no water to be seen anywhere, as far the eye could see it was just an extension of the same bland and boring landscape.

The tell-tale signs of old dried up rivers was very obvious though, enormous cuts in the topology snaked their way across the planes like lightning bolts that were frozen in time and projected onto the surface. Huge areas were depressed relative to the surroundings, probably lakes or seas but even their layout was jagged and coarse

At one point in time this planet probably would have been a lush jungle full of leafy green plants, an abundance of water and life would have been bountiful. Many years ago the landscape probably would have looked very different.

'now what?..' Llaus thought to himself

From this vantage point he figured he was probably several kilometers above the surface but other than remembering that he needed to activate the 'Planetary Control System', Llaus didn't really remember how to navigate the vessel. Then the self-reflecting questions started to creep back in again.

'How long was I asleep?'

'Where was I going?'

'Why did I wake up when I did?' he asked himself over and over again.

"FOLLOW US!!"

"FOLLOW ME!!" the looping propaganda barked over the speaker again, only this time like a command was actually given to an army, a plethora of life emerged out of the crevasses of the landscape off in the distance. It looked like an entire hive of insects all decided to evacuate their burrows at the same time.

'What and the hell is going on??' Llaus thought to himself in amazement. It was surreal, what once appeared to be an isolated desolate planet was now teeming with life but what was going on down there?

Life had emerged from the barren planet's surface like 2 tidal waves on a collision course. One side was much larger than the other, at least 5 times as big and from this vantage point it looked like it was spreading out to ensnare and absorb the other side.

'What are those things down there? They can't be insects, too big to be insects.. or if they are insects, they are very BIG insects... animals perhaps?' Llaus thought to himself

The vessel was still charting on its non-intrusive course several kilometers above the surface but Llaus grabbed the control and gently pushed forward and released. The vessel pointed downward ever so slightly, straightened out and resumed its course. Realizing that he could temporarily override the controls without compromising the navigation system, his curiosity got the best of him and he decided to descend a little closer to investigate.

Llaus figured he would need to land on the planet eventually to gather his thoughts and devise an action plan so it was probably best to gather as much Intel on the possible threats as he could, or at least that's how he justified it to himself.

He pushed forward on the stick and held it for several seconds, the vessel responded immediately and pitched forward and descended. He nudged the control to the left and the vessel banked ever so slightly to the left then straightened itself out again.

'Perfect' he thought.

'Without knowing how to fly I can descend close to the surface to investigate.'

As he got closer, he thought he could make out human-like features on the life forms below, heads, arms and legs.

'They aren't insects after all, they're some sort of primitive human lifeform?' and just as that thought crossed his mind.

KAAAAABBBOOOOMMMM !!!!

A portion of the ground lit up and extended into the sky like a crashing star. The flash was so intense and bright that it nearly blinded him.

Then another explosion!

And another!!

Scanning the ground below, Llaus could see lifeless bodies everywhere strewn out across the plains. And then it all made sense, like trench warfare these 2 sides emerged from their hiding locations to engage in an epic and deadly battle.

'And lucky me, I just happened to fly right into it!!' Llaus thought.

He pulled back on the stick to try and put some space between him and battle below but it wasn't responding, either it didn't respond to vertical ascent commands or he must have damaged the console during his struggles.

More explosions went off across the landscape that shook and rattled the vessel. Some explosions would extend up high into the sky then suddenly reverse upon itself and slam back onto the ground below, like it was spring-loaded. It was unlike anything he could recall ever seeing.

It was very obvious that one side was being completely outclassed. The larger side had all of the weapons and was slaughtering and demolishing the smaller side. A true 'David vs. Goliath' scenario only with the opposite end result. Then huge mechanical devices like giant cannons emerged from the caves and crevasses and started shooting.

KAABOOOOOOOM !!

A giant explosion went off right in front of the vessel! It shook and rattled every square inch, Llaus winced in pain as he was slammed back against his seat.

'Are they shooting at me?' he thought

Looking down at the dash he quickly looked for something that could control the speed, a throttle or something. Along the left side of the control panel he found something that looked promising and he pushed forward on it, the vessel instantly accelerated.

KAABOOOOOOOM !!

Another explosion went off behind him. The vessel shook violently but had he continued to fly along at the same pace it certainly would have been a direct hit.

'They're going to shoot me down' he thought

He toggled the stick to the left, trying to anticipate when the next explosion would go off.

KAABOOOOOOOM !!

Another explosion went off beside him.

He toggled hard right; trying to make his course as unpredictable as possible. Then he slammed the stick to the left and pulled up, the vessel only banked to the left and didn't rise. He pounded the console with his fist and reefed on the stick again.

"Damn you!!! Come on!!!"

BOOM

BOOM

Several explosions went off beside the vessel again, this time they were close enough to not only rock the vessel but the debris from the explosion pelted the side.

'I just need to hang on until I can get out of range' he thought, as he gripped the control.

He didn't know how far that would be or how long that could take so he continued to try and anticipate when the next round of fire would come in based on the frequency of the previous shots. Llaus looked own at his hands on the control and noticed that they weren't shaking anymore. They were calm and steady, strong and sure, almost like they were meant for this type of situation.

Caught up and lost in his own thoughts for an extra split second, he toggled the stick to the right but it was a moment too late.

BOOM !! a direct hit

As fate would have it, he was going down.

He buckled up and braced for impact, this time he was going down and there was nothing he could about it.

Screaming at the top of his lungs as the surface rapidly approached

Then... all was black again.

### Chapter 3: Synesthesia

Hollow and empty echoes reverberated through the swirling abyss of the infinite while solemn and subtle tones straddled the expanse of the void. It was a place where consciousness forgets the instant it remembers, like an endless start or the beginning of an end. It was circular and tireless, forever chasing the absence of time and boundaries.

Dissolving from the blackness, an apparition of a figure appeared. Its body was effluent, smoky and transparent, and it floated with the fluidity of silk and the resolve of an exclamation point. You could smell its sight and its sound was like a taste that you've never heard or sampled before, sweet and tantalizing yet bitter and tart. The way it moved invigorated the earbuds as it spanned across the senses. It was more real than anything that Llaus had ever seen, touched, tasted or smelled before.

Its sound wrapped around and bathed him in a soothing light of warmth, and then just as quickly it unraveled and circled him from afar like a predator stalking its prey. His taste buds danced in his mouth and his ears sounded with poetic praises as the apparition flew up and around him.

"Who are you, wanderer" an old sounding voice surrounded him in an echoing swirl that slowly filled the emptiness. The words were spoken slowly and drawn out like honey. Each letter and word blended into the next while each vowel and consonant sounded like a question on its own.

"Why are you here?" it queried again before Llaus could answer.

Suddenly the blackness parted and a single light appeared. All senses were drawn to the light as it contrasted the void surrounding it and within the light Llaus found that he was looking at himself from afar, like an out of body experience. His visual perspective had detached from his physical being and he was floating in the midst of the abyss but he was watching himself from above.

"Where did you come from?" the old sounding voice chimed in again.

Llaus felt connected to the voice, almost as if he was 'the voice' and he was the one asking questions and interrogating himself, watching and studying his body language for some type of response.

"What do you want? Who sent you?" The questions were more direct and came quicker as the tone of the old voice became more serious.

"...i.....i.... i....." Llaus mumbled

"...I don't know where I am...." his voice was dry and rough, cracking midway through and trailing off at the end.

"Where am I?! And who are you?! I don't have any answers, just questions of my own" Llaus responded tentatively.

His vantage point was continuously changing as he seemingly hovered over himself, floating and changing positions, interrogating his each and every movement. His attention shifted from his voice to the sound of his own heartbeat. It sounded like it got louder, or perhaps it was just because he was paying attention to it. Soon the sound of his heart was everything, steady, strong and repetitive. His vantage point floated around again and suddenly zoomed in on his face, it was like he was looking directly at himself but he couldn't see himself. It was a tremendously odd sensation and caused his heartbeat to slightly pick up in tempo.

His eyes were green and sharp, intelligent yet concealing. Eyes are the gateway to one's soul but he couldn't gauge anything from looking at himself. His gaze was solid and steady but it didn't yield any emotion, perhaps there was nothing to hide because there was nothing inside.

His face was rough and unshaven; not a full beard but not a clean shaven face either, just a dusting of facial hair. His hair was mostly black with a few greys starting on the side. It was mid length and slightly greasy, uncombed and devoid of any particular style. His jaw was strong and pronounced but his upper right cheek was burnt almost down to the bone. He had a medium/thin build with broad shoulders and arms that looked disproportionately long for his body.

"am ... I ..... dead...?" Llaus thought about saying then watched as his body enacted his thoughts near instantly and spoke, like a robot taking orders.

His lips were dry and cracking and when he spoke he could see that his teeth were straight but aged and worn. It was an odd sensation watching and studying oneself from the vantage point of someone or something else; to have a thought and then watch your body re-enact that thought moments later like it was on delay. To feel yourself being surrounded and penetrated by something that couldn't be understood.

"Chance does not define predestination nor does predestination define chance..." the old voice spoke again.

"You are not dead nor are you alive, you are in between. You are within and you are without but my questions remain unanswered. Who are you and why are you here? And .... What are you hiding?" the voice asked with a slight hesitance and uncertainty.

"I don't know... I don't who I am... is this a... "

"LIAR!!!!!!" the voice boomed and echoed across the platform of eternity as the blackness around him pulsated and reverberated.

"CHANCE DOES NOT DEFINE PREDESTINATION!!! So once again I ask, WHO ARE YOU?!! AND WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?!"

Llaus flinched at the magnitude and tone of the questions; he was being watched and in turn watching himself, studying and analyzing his body for any clues about his intentions.

"You are not dead nor are you alive but I can make sure that you never see the light of day again so I ask you once again....... WHO ARE Y.."

"I DON'T KNOW!!!" Llaus yelled. Even though the thought came from within, even he was surprised by the sharpness and assertiveness of his response.

"I don't know who the HELL I am!! OK?!! I don't know where I am or how I got here! All I know is that I woke up on some random ship that decided to crash the near instant I woke up... and now here I am?... being interrogated by you... by me... what the hell is going on?" Llaus lashed out. He could smell the honesty, taste the authenticity and feel the sincerity within his voice.

Then there was silence, an eerie silence. He could feel it wash around him and through him, analyzing, deciphering, gauging and probing.

"What do you want from me?!!! WHO ARE YOU??!!" Llaus yelled out into the void but now his questions went unanswered. Both sides traded questions like jousting knights but neither side would concede what the other wanted, maybe neither side knew what they wanted? Maybe this was just some chance encounter?

'Maybe this isn't real?' Llaus thought. But it was real, he could feel it. He could feel some sort of connection with this being, this Entity, this life force that surrounded him. He couldn't articulate the connection he felt; he just knew it was primal, real and authentic.

It remained quiet as he continued to study himself, floating in the empty void. His body was naked other than the form fitting undergarments that he had on. His right arm was covered in tattoos that extended from his shoulder past his elbow, random symbolic scripting that he didn't recognize. His back also had a tattoo at the center of his shoulder blades, once again the symbol didn't mean much to him but it looked like some sort of permutation of a rudimentary sundial compass. His torso was muscular and lean, his abs were well defined. Whatever his age was, he could tell that he was in very good physical shape and based on his appearance and partially graying hair, he would guess that he was in his early 40's but time is funny in space. He continued to survey his body and noticed another tattoo on his left forearm.

'All wiLL bE ReveAled'

Llaus recognized it from when he was awakening on the ship and wondered if this was some sort of clue from the past about his future.

Caught up in his self-analysis, he forgot where he was for a moment then without any sort of warning the void that surrounded him started to implode and fold in upon his body. His perception went from floating around to being thrust back into his body; the sensation was dizzying and erotic. Before he could fully adapt to his surroundings, a tidal wave of black washed over him. The black was sour and lifeless and it sapped his energy; he was being swallowed by the emptiness.

Llaus tried to scream but the black washed over his head and his mouth, he was drowning. He couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not, everything was swirling and black, like he was being flushed down a toilet. He held his breath until he couldn't hold his breath any longer then he unwillingly inhaled, fully expecting the black to fill his lungs with its lifeless sour emptiness, but it didn't.

It was gone.

He opened his eyes.

And he was alive.

It took him several moments to understand where he was. His mind was blank and even though his eyes were open, his mind was elsewhere thinking about what had just happened.

'was that real or was it just a dream? it felt so real....' Llaus wrestled with the inner monologue then reality shot into focus. The smell and taste came into focus as the pain became real.

He was back inside the space vessel.

'Did I ever leave?' he thought to himself.

The vessel was completely destroyed; the glass was smashed and the control panel was completely obliterated. The wall that was full of buttons and dials was blown away and there was a giant void at the back of the vessel where that once was. The bed that he woke up on was split in half and strewn across the hull and yet somehow despite the carnage of twisted metal, he was still fastened in his seat.

Other than the sight of destruction, the smell was the next thing that violated his senses. The overwhelming smell of bitter earth was such a contrast to the dry sterile air of space. It was thick and viscous, nearly visible like an opaque liquid. It combined with the toxic exhaust fumes from all of the small fires within and around the crash site to create a caustic aroma that stung as it was inhaled.

Outside of the vessel the world was upside down and Llaus' face was inches from some type of liquid that seemed to have assisted in slowing the impact of the crash. Had he not been fastened to the seat, surely his body would have been ripped apart from the impact or at the very least completely submerged in the liquid during his blackout session. His head was full of blood and he noticed that he lost all feeling in the lower portion of his legs. The only way to get out of the burning wreckage was to unbuckle himself and allow his body to fall into the liquid below.

'What kind of liquid is it? Is it toxic? Is it water? How deep is it? Can I swim?'

These thoughts crossed his mind but he also knew that regardless of the answers, there wasn't an alternative, there was no other solution. He had to unbuckle himself and brave the liquid below to escape the wreckage.

Llaus had no idea how long he had been suspended upside down in the wreckage? Seconds? Minutes? Days?? What was a day anyway? A revolution of the planet earth but this wasn't earth. This was far, far away from earth. Or was it? Llaus wasn't sure.

By the state of the wreckage he figured that it couldn't have been days, the vessel was still a smoldering mess and certainly would have been extinguished if he had been here for days.

'Wait, I was shot down!!'

Suddenly he remembered what had happened before his dreamlike encounter and an unsettling feeling washed over him. Certainly those that shot him down would have tracked his descent and based on their initial introduction, he wasn't too keen on being around when they came to investigate the crash site.

Without any further hesitation, Llaus released the restraining device and dropped into the liquid below. Thankfully it wasn't very deep; only several feet and he was able to use his arms to keep his head afloat. The cool liquid covered his body and temporarily soothed his aching muscles. It washed away the aches, pains, sweat and blood; it cooled the burns on his back and face and sent shivers up his spine.

The liquid was mostly odorless and his thirst was overwhelming. He scooped a handful up to his parched lips and hesitantly took a sip, after surviving everything that he did already, if a drink was going to kill him then so be it he thought.

His first sip was delicious, it was cool and smooth, like velvet was covering his throat with a blanket of comfort. His body demanded more, screamed for more! He took another handful and held it to his lips, the wetness was enthralling. He lapped it up in an instant and before he knew he was face down in the liquid drinking as fast as he could. He almost forgot that he needed to breath and came up gasping for air, seconds later was face down in the liquid again. Whatever it was, it was delicious and was helping regenerate his energy. He splashed it on his face and rubbed it through his hair. He felt a sense of rejuvenation and purification like a baptism as it cleansed his body and mind.

But after several minutes of this exotic jubilation his stomach clenched up, it wasn't accustomed to having anything in it, particularly something that wasn't body temperature. Llaus writhed in pain and folded into the fetal position as he clenched his mid-section. He tried to overcome the sense of nausea but it was relentless and he could feel his stomach trying to eject the contents. His abdominal muscles continued to convulse over and over again until he couldn't fight it anymore and he projectile vomited everything that he had just ingested. It was an odd sensation as his throat was once again covered in a cool velvety feeling.

After throwing up, Llaus felt great. It was almost as if his body expelled all of the pain, drugs and toxins that were within but once again, he was incredibly thirsty. Resisting the urge to engorge himself, he chose to only ingest a small amount of liquid then he lay back for a moment and took in a giant breath. He held it in for several moments then exhaled slowly, he envisioned releasing all of the tension and pain from his body. He closed his eyes and let his thoughts erode and his mind sink until he was in a complete state of relaxation.

He allowed himself to think of nothing and to feel nothing, he was in a complete state of relaxation.

Then, something moved.

It moved within his mind, like a shadow in the night.

His initial reaction was to flee, thinking that in the brief moment he let his guard down that he had been discovered but he was able to convince himself that it was just his imagination playing tricks on him.

He inhaled deeply and let it out with an exaggerated breath, the calming sensation of tranquility washed over him again. All of his worries seemed to dissipate from his pores and for the first time since his awakening he felt, alive.

Then, something moved again.

In the dark recess of his mind, he felt another life force, another Entity.

He sensed it.

He could feel it.

He was being watched.

Stalked!

Suddenly the liquid that he was laying in became very cold and goosebumps started to form on his arms and neck, but he didn't open his eyes nor did he dare move.

Llaus felt like any type of movement would trigger this Entity to react in an unpredictable way. Like a lioness hiding in the tall grass, surveying and stalking its prey, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce or the first sign of being made out.

'Maybe if I just lay still the sensation will pass' Llaus thought optimistically, still hoping that his mind was playing tricks on him.

He opened his eyes slowly, the cold sensation continued to wrap his body but he didn't move, he didn't dare move.

'Surely this is all in my mind' Llaus thought, and yet, the dreamlike encounter before he awoke seemed so much more real now.

'Is this a continuation of that? Was it real?'

He remained still and silent, allowing the coldness to penetrate his body. What once felt refreshing was quickly sapping his energy and causing his muscles to shake. He tried to control their spasms but wasn't able to, Llaus was concerned that the movement would eventually trigger a reaction.

He couldn't exactly make out his surroundings, it was dark and his eyes were still adjusting although a lone silhouette of light shone in from a hole up above. He gauged the distance to be several hundred feet above him. He squinted and focused on the light, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness around him. It appeared as though the vessel had crash landed into some sort of enormous cavern. The walls stretched up for hundreds of feet and curved into a dome like ceiling that had a single crack in it, presumably where the vessel penetrated the dome. Llaus gaze shifted from above to ground level around him, he was right in the middle of the entire cavern and the pool of liquid appeared to be very localized at the center.

'What was in the shadows? What kind of creature's lair did I crash land into?' Llaus thought

His body shook more aggressively, he needed to get out of the liquid before hypothermia set in and to take shelter from whatever was stalking him in the shadows. Looking across the cavern he spotted something that looked like a crevasse in the wall, an opening that looked big enough for his body but not much more.

If whatever that was stalking was much bigger he figured he could at least escape temporarily in that crevasse and collect his thoughts and come up with a plan of attack, being out in the open was unnerving.

Before even thinking about when he would make his move, he was already up and running! The rapidity of his movements surprised even himself so he was hoping that it would catch the would-be predator off guard as well, if it actually did exist and wasn't just a figment of his imagination.

Step after step he trudged through the liquid, hoping that each step would find solid ground for him to continue to propel his body forward faster. With each step he found the liquid getting shallower and shallower and he was picking up speed. Llaus didn't turn his head or look back but he could sense that now the chase was on. He made the first move, only was it quick enough?

He continued to push and drive his legs, it seemed like an eternity ago that he couldn't even open his eyes and now he was in a sprint for his life. Not really knowing who he was, Llaus somewhat marveled at his own physical ability as he streaked across the ground with a sprinters determination.

Now he was only ankle deep in the liquid and still picking up speed but he had no idea how much of a lead he had or if he was even going to make it. He didn't dare let up for a moment and he continued to thrust and drive his body, he could feel his heart racing in his chest and the adrenaline starting to surge. He looked up and estimated that he was only a hundred feet away from the crevasse, there weren't many obstacles in his way between he and his goal.

'I'm going to make it!' He thought to himself but kept pushing his body. His ears strained to hear movement behind him but he couldn't hear anything other than his own footsteps and his heavy breathing. If anything, the silence behind him was more unnerving than anything.

Like an Olympic athlete at top speed he dashed across the dimly lit cavern towards the crevasse on the side, his bare feet pounding on the sand and rocky ground below. They hurt with each step but he suppressed the pain and pushed forward.

Then without explanation, he felt like he was running through a thin layer of water again, like he had just come on another cesspool of liquid that he didn't see before he made his move. Llaus looked down as he continued to run but all he could see was flat ground ahead of him, there wasn't any pool of liquid.

He churned on, each step seemingly getting deeper and deeper into some type of liquid.

Looking up again, he estimated there was only another 50 feet to go.

The texture of the darkness in front of him changed as he ran towards the wall, it grew lighter like a blanket was being lifted away. He kept running but he was slowing down, only slightly.

30 feet!!

'I'm going to make it' he kept telling himself as he pushed onward, ankle deep in liquid.

20 feet

Now he was past his knees in liquid and slowing down quite a bit but he was so close, he kept pushing ahead but every step was getting more and more difficult.

10 feet

The liquid was waist deep but Llaus didn't stop, he kept driving forward with unparalleled determination.

5 feet

4 feet

Then when he was a mere arm length away from the crevasse a surge of mass hit him from behind and wrapped itself around him.

'It got me!!' Llaus thought as he instinctively began to shake and wiggle in an effort to escape but his body was caught up in a swirling vortex of liquid that propelled him vertically in a split second, the transition was dizzying, terrifying and somewhat exhilarating. He was enveloped in a churning liquid that engulfed him and shot him around like a predator taunting and teasing its prey before delivering the final blow.

The liquid was warm and its color had changed from a dark black void of translucency to an orange hue, it was alive!! The liquid was alive all along and little did Llaus know but it was what was stalking him the entire time; he never had a chance to escape.

The sheer power of the Entity was marveling as it tossed his body around like a towel hung out to dry in a maelstrom. Fighting against it was useless, the more he struggled against it, the more it seemed to flex its muscle and tighten its grasp like a snake wrapping around its prey, squeezing out the will to live. He strained his muscles until his whole body screamed for air and his eyes bulged from his head, he couldn't last any longer. And with the last bit of oxygen in his lungs, he screamed while exhaling. And yet despite the certainty of his own mortality, Llaus felt soothed and relaxed like he was, one.

His next breath was all liquid and he instinctively inhaled deeply as his body was frantically searching for the oxygen it required to keep the cells in his body alive. The liquid was warm and went right to the bottom of his lungs. Llaus fully expected that this was the end and he waited for his body to begin to spasm while it tried to expel the foreign substance, but that feeling never came. It was such an odd sensation, the warmth of the liquid touched inside him but it felt normal and natural like it has always been a part of him.

He never coughed or choked and he realized that he could breathe the liquid like air. He inhaled and exhaled deeply over and over again.

The lactic acid that was built up in his tensioned muscles slowly started to dissipate and although the sensation of ingesting a liquid was still very odd and counter intuitive, he was still alive. Very confused and disoriented but he was still alive.

The panic and dread of drowning slowly started to fade and he allowed himself to open his eyes. Llaus was still inside the liquid and it was in him but he wasn't being tossed around anymore, rather he was just being suspended in mid-air (or perhaps mid-liquid more fittingly). The liquid pulsated and changed into more of a teal color as Llaus forcefully continued to ingest it into his lungs. Then it re-shaped itself into a giant sphere that stretched from the ground to nearly 20 feet high. Llaus was suspended in the middle of it with his arms and legs outstretched and dangling like his torso was being held by a giant invisible hand. From within and from all around he heard and felt a voice.

"You and I are of the same descent, I can sense and feel it within you but our time is short, they are approaching..." An old voice said.

"There is a great evil here and I'm afraid that you've led them directly to me...to us..."

"You know not of who you are and I cannot figure out why.... and since you don't know who you are, they too will likely not know either though they will try, and try they will..." The old voice continued.

"I am very troubled that I cannot feel your past or your intentions but fate does not determine predestination so I cannot take this encounter as mere chance and though my instinct is to crush your corpse and consume your soul while assimilating your thoughts into mine, I sense there's a greater purpose. Besides it's too late to try and run, our only hope is to bond together as one and hang on..."

As the Entity was speaking, a humanoid face formed within the sphere in front of Llaus to see. The face was old and wrinkled, there were only facial features (no hair, no body) and as it spoke, the color within constantly changed to match the emotion of what it was saying.

Every time the Entity spoke Llaus could feel the liquid move and gyrate with the different tones and changing voice dynamics, he could taste and feel the authenticity of the emotion throughout.

"Who are you? Were you the one in my dreams... if that's what they were?" Llaus fired back

"Have we met before? Who's coming?"

"There is no time..." the Entity spoke softly

"Predestination does not happen by chance so the very fact that we are here now has already been foretold and as unlikely as it seems, this was supposed to happen...

We are now both in grave danger for they are coming. They have always been coming for me but now they also come for you...." the old voice said in a subdued tone while the color of the liquid changed from teal to a dull grey.

"Our only chance for survival is to create a living bond and to hang on... for you and I aren't very different after all, I can feel it in you.... there is something buried deep inside that I can't penetrate and I can't tell if you're purposely hiding something or if you don't even know but there is more to you than I am capable of identifying... and I find that very troubling since I've always been able to read a person..." the old voice admitted dejectedly.

Then within a fraction of a second the tone changed and the entities color changed from a dull grey to a vibrant red.

"Who are you?! How has your path strayed into my lair??! What are your intentions??!" The old voice launched a barrage of questions trying to catch Llaus by surprise to trick him into answering or at the very least invoke a response that he could read.

"... I don't know....I don't even know my own name..." Llaus replied just as dejectedly.

"Wait... who is coming...?? The ones that shot down my vessel?.. Who are they and what do they want from you?? Who are you?? What do they want with me?" Llaus then continued with his own barrage of questions.

"There is no time... be strong, hang on and we will come out on the other side..." the Entity said flatly and in that instant Llaus could feel the pressure around him increase and tighten around his body. The suddenly he was in a freefall, dropping and falling towards the ground beneath him. The body of liquid that surrounded him was compressing and compacting in on itself while he was still inside; he lifted his head back to the ceiling of the cavern and closed his eyes. By now Llaus was accustomed to not being in control so he just shut his eyes and went along with the ride.

When his feet touched the ground, he opened his eyes and noticed that the liquid that once surrounded him now stood in front of him in a humanoid shape. The liquid took on the appearance of his shape and likeness only it was fluid and dynamic and its color fluctuated from teal to orange, it was like looking in the mirror.

"What are you doing?..." Llaus asked, somewhat afraid to hear the answer.

"Our only chance to survive is to bind as one..... you won't like this... I won't like this... but.. It is necessary.... you must hang on for both of us" The Entity said in non-negotiable terms.

And without a moment of hesitation the liquid figure dropped to the ground like a bucket of water being thrown only its size reduced as it was dropping. When it hit the ground it pooled into a small spherical shape, no bigger than a basketball. Its color changed again from orange and teal to a swirling dark red and deep blue and it lay motionless on the ground only for a moment, then it rolled forward.

Llaus' reflexes took over and he took a step backwards, his instinct was to run but he could sense that there was no running from this. Whatever this was and whatever it was going to be was inevitable so he took a step forward towards the sphere.

With remarkable speed and precision, the sphere stretched out and changed its shape into an elongated cylinder like a fence post. It sat motionless only for a moment and then in the blink of an eye, it was on him. Like a snake, it coiled and wrapped itself around his body starting with the legs. Its color changed again to an orange flame and it burned as it slithered around his near naked body. Slowly and methodically, it coiled its way around his body, searing the flesh and leaving its mark like a slug leaving its slimy trail in the morning dew.

It continued to work its way up and around his torso, each turn and each inch more painful than the last. Llaus couldn't take it any longer and he tried to push down on the cylindrical snake body but it just kept moving up his body. His hands became entangled and not before long they too were wrapped in the coiled Entity as it kept snaking its way around his body. Now up to his chest, his arms were fully secured and he was unable to move any of his limbs, his entire body felt like it was on fire. Llaus lifted his head to the sky to scream but the instant he opened his mouth to scream, it entered him through his mouth!

Like a coiled up spring, it unloaded and washed itself down his throat, the fiery flame that surrounded his body was now inside of him and Llaus collapsed to the ground. He could feel that there was one within and that his thoughts were not his own, then an unspoken voice that was not his own resounded from within.

"All will be revealed but for now there is no time... "

And together they screamed in unison.

"THEY ARE HERE!!!!"

### Chapter 4: Bind the Divine

Before the echo and resonance of his words finished bouncing off the walls of the cavern, multiple explosions detonated in and around him, they came from everywhere. Bright explosions of white light illuminated the entire cavern before he could even hear them, he tried to shield his face from the light but it was too late and all he could see was white. He tried blinking several times to clear his vision but it was useless, it was burned into his retina, only temporarily he hoped.

Instinctively he dove to the ground and covered his head and face. That's all he could do since he was located in the middle of the enormous cavern with nothing around to hide behind or under. The sound was piercing and resonated everywhere; it shook the ground and rattled the walls. Loose rocks on the upper ceiling crumbled and fell down, several stones pelted his body as he cowered from the relentless bombardment.

More explosions and smoke filled the cavern; they were coming from everywhere and seemed to be getting closer. Llaus wondered if they were dialing in their accuracy like an artillery bombardment or if it was more for effect than to actually try and kill him. Certainly with this kind of firepower they could have shot and killed him dead in an instant before he even knew they were there. Especially with him being exposed out in the open like he was. All he could do was cover up on the ground in the fetal position and hope that nothing fell on him.

Then just as quickly as it started, it stopped and an eerie silence swept across the cavern, though his ears continued to ring and small debris continued to fall from the ceiling. The contrast was chilling as he opened his eyes and slowly looked up. He strained his eyes but couldn't see anything, the dust was too thick and he was still seeing the residual white from the flashbangs. He strained ears but he couldn't hear anything either. The cavern was completely engulfed in dust making it difficult to see and breathe.

'What just happened?' Llaus thought as he covered his mouth to try and shield himself from breathing in the thick swirling dust

'Why did it just stop...?....' he thought as he continued to look around. He fanned at the dust but still wasn't able to see more than a few feet in front of his face.

Then the dust started to settle just as quickly as the bombardment had started, it stopped swirling and seemingly fell to the ground as if someone had commanded it to stop floating. Llaus stopped what he was doing and the hair stood up on the back of his neck as he realized that the entire cavern was filled with armed Beings and he was surrounded.

They were too tall to be human; they stood nearly 8ft tall and had wide shoulders that looked disproportionate relative to their bodies. They were all wearing the same type of helmet and face shield that covered their eyes and mouth and they were all dressed in matching form fitting uniforms.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, motionless like statues with their gaze focused on Llaus. Somehow during the bombardment, they entered the cavern and surrounded him. He was certain now that they hadn't intended to kill him (yet), he remembered the conversation he had had with the Entity only a few moments ago and wondered what these Beings would do next.

Llaus stood up quickly with a strong posture, after all that he had been through there was no reason to show fear in this moment. Besides, he didn't feel like he had to face this alone, he felt the Entity inside him. Its presence was calming and reassuring even though he could sense that it was afraid.

He stood there motionless, waiting for someone to do or say something but nothing happened; they just stood there like statues, motionless and emotionless. Several minutes passed by but no one moved or said anything, they just continued to stand there watching him.

Llaus found it difficult to gauge how many Beings were actually in the cavern because they were much taller than he was and he couldn't see how far back they went but he figured there was about 50 Beings that formed the initial ring around him.

Llaus summoned the courage to break the deadlock and made the first move, he took a hesitant step forward towards the row of Beings that circled him. They didn't move.

"Who are you?... what do you want?" He said as confidently as he could though his voice sounded weak and fatigued.

He waited several moments for a response but nothing came so he cautiously took another step towards the row of Beings.

Still they didn't move.

He took another step forward, and again, there was no immediate response or movement from anyone or anything.

'What if they're robots and they all somehow malfunctioned' Llaus thought optimistically, by now he was less than 10 feet away from inner edge of the circle.

He took another step forward.

Then another

Without any further hesitation he charged towards the line of Beings, aiming for the small gap in between their arms.

"What do you want!?" He yelled as he charged the line but still there was no answer.

He wasn't sure if he could break through, or what his plans were if he succeeded to break through but he charged nonetheless.

His yell became a flurry of profanities and insults as he lowered his left shoulder, bent his knees and braced for impact like a football running back. His shoulder slammed into the side of one of the Beings but it was like running into a tree. He bounced sideways off the seemingly immoveable Being but kept his legs driving forward and his head down. His face slammed into the mid-section of another Being and once again he found his body deflecting and yielding to its grandiose size and mass.

He continued to drive his legs but it became more of a one-sided shoving match and his footing was slipping beneath him as he lunged with all of his might against the hulking bodies of the Beings. He continued his barrage of insults as he struggled and pushed against these motionless and empty adversaries. At times, he felt like he was making progress only to look up and see that they continued to stand in the same place as they were before. No matter how hard he pushed they didn't seem to move.

His drive continued but he was getting tired, he couldn't maintain this level of effort forever and he was desperate to get through. He turned his back to the Being to get better footing and started pushing backwards. His mind was constantly racing and thinking about how he could gain leverage or find something, anything that could help him.

He scoured the ground and spotted a medium sized rock several feet away. Without hesitation he abandoned the shoving match and dove towards the rock. He picked it up, pivoted and lunged towards the head of the Being in front of him with outstretched arms and the rock in his hands.

Llaus moved quickly and powerfully, his timing and technique was flawless. Time stood still for a moment as his body flew across the dusty ground, then only a few inches away from smashing the rock into the face of his adversary, it moved!

Really fast!

In a fluid motion, it slide backwards, extended its arm and caught Llaus by the neck. Its hand was large and powerful and it quickly tightened around his neck before he could do anything. It all happened so fast but everything still felt like it was in slow motion.

Then time caught up and in a split second and he was slammed to the ground, the rock that was firmly lodged between his hands went tumbling to the side as the suddenness and forcefulness of Being slammed into the ground jarred it from his grip. The impact also knocked the wind out of his lungs but he didn't realize it right away probably due to the fact that a giant hand was still firmly wrapped around his neck and the grip was tightening. The Being that was once standing motionless like a statue was now menacingly standing over him and pushing his head firmly into the dusty ground.

Llaus wheezed and struggled for his breath. He tried to pull the imposing figures grip from his neck but the sheer size and strength made it near impossible. He struggled and wiggled his body in every which way possible to gain some leverage but in a cold and calculated move, the Being grabbed his swaying legs and pinned them to the ground as well. Now he was fully restrained and the blackness that he had just awoken from was creeping back again, the outer edges of his vision were starting to blur and fade inwards concentrically.

He continued to struggle but then something within him conceded to the inevitability of the situation and he stopped and submitted. He acknowledged the vulnerability and impossibility of the situation and he accepted the blackness. By now this was no stranger to him, he was ready to accept whatever fate this was and he let his body go limp. The grip around his neck got even tighter and he could hear the muscles in his neck starting to groan as the last instances of oxygen were squeezed from his body. Then just as the blackness was about to fully set in a booming voice echoed throughout the cavern

"ENOUGH !!!"

Instantly the hands that were restraining him were removed and he was left gasping for air. He coughed; choked and swallowed as hard as he could to try and open up the airway to lungs but it felt like his throat had been crushed. He grabbed his tongue, stuck his fingers down his throat to try and make himself puke, he did whatever it took to breathe again and to fend off the blackness from setting in.

After several minutes of only being able to take in small doses of air, he was able to breathe again. With his face down he inhaled deeply and took in a large amount of dust, it tickled the inside of his lungs and caused him to cough. He rolled over onto his back and let his arms fall to his side. He started to laugh as he looked up at the imposing figure standing over him, the same imposing figure that could have snuffed out his life.

"You're a real son a of bitch ... you know that?... " his voice was soft and weak, somewhat nasal as his vocal chords tried to reset themselves after being throttled.

His neck throbbed with every heartbeat and his head ached from being slammed to the ground so hard but for some reason this moment stuck out as being quite hilarious. Not in a funny kind of way but more of 'how and the heck did this all come about' kind of way.

Llaus laughed out loud, albeit a somewhat sarcastic laugh while he lay flat on his back staring up at the imposing figure that nearly just flat lined him. Then it actually was funny and he couldn't stop laughing, the cavern reverberated with his laughter.

"With a grip like that, how do you jerk off without squeezing your dick off?? .... ya prick!!" he said, almost challenging the imposing figure to finish what he started.

But it didn't, it just stood there staring down at him, once again motionless and emotionless like it had gone in to sleep mode again. They all were emotionless and yet they weren't, he could feel the hate in that Beings hands when it was wrapped around his neck only moments ago. He felt the intensity of the hate and gauged that it must have taken a great deal of restraint to not snap his neck.

"ON HIS FEET!!" the same voice from before boomed. The voice was deep and complex, hard and assertive, one that sounded like it was used to giving orders and insisted on getting its way.

Several Beings stepped forward, grabbed Llaus under his armpits and lifted him up with such relative ease until only his toes were touching the ground. His head sagged and drooped while the rest of his body was left dangling in midair.

The armed Beings brought Llaus back to the middle of the circle and waited there for further instructions. Once again he didn't try to resist, couldn't resist, he was physically and emotionally exhausted; there was nothing left to give.

"HOOK HIM UP!!" The deep voice bellowed yet again and another Being stepped forward with some sort of thick and bulky brass coloured collar. It had a multitude of flashing lights and connections around the exterior. The lights were all flashing in unison at the same rate as a lighthouse beacon, red then yellow over and over again.

The Beings that were holding Llaus lifted his chin up and forcefully snapped the collar closed around his neck. It fit snuggly and somewhat interfered with his breathing and swallowing.

"ASSESSMENT!!" the voice echoed again.

Several Beings that stood on the interior circle stepped aside and let another Being behind them step forward. It was different from the others but only slightly, its mask and uniform were a slightly different colour and the body was thinner and not as tall. It made its way across the opening to the middle of the circle with some sort of briefcase in hand.

It stepped forward, placed the case on the ground and extracted several cable ends then stepped towards Llaus and without speaking a word, connected the cables on opposite sides of the collar. Then it went back to the case and extracted another cable end, it was black and thicker than the first two. Coiled around the cable was some sort of fluorescent twine that pulsated a light blue colour with somewhat the same frequency as the lights on the collar.

The Being stepped forward again and connected it to the middle of the collar. The instant the connection was made a surge of energy rushed through Llaus' body. It didn't hurt but it didn't feel good either, it was just a different sensation that he'd never felt before (or could recall feeling). He was paralyzed by the sensation and could feel it pulsating within his body.

All he could do was remain motionless and allow this to happen, there was no point in fighting, besides it was probably wise to retain whatever energy he did have left. The frequency and intensity of the light wrapped around the cable started to flash more intensely after it was connected. The colour changed to an aqua blue and he felt another sensation in his body like there was something within him that was probing and searching his body. An invisible hand that was able to travel inside him.

He was completely immobilized but felt like every muscle in his body was being flexed at the same time. The frequency of the flashing light on the big cable increased steadily until it was a solid green hue.

Then suddenly the cable turned a vibrant scarlet red and a charge like electricity shot through his body. Llaus convulsed and twitched under the intense load as an agonizing pain shot through his limbs. The epicenter of the shock felt like it was attacking his heart, causing his body to surge with adrenaline and his eyes to roll into the back of his head.

But just as quickly as it started, it was over.

The load that shot through his body was suddenly gone and the big cable was back to its regular color and frequency of flashing lights. Llaus began to scream as he regained control of his body.

"Damn you!!" he yelled as loud as he could, physically exhausted from the brief pulse of energy.

The Being that connected him to the cable stepped forward, removed the cables and turned back to the case. Without verbally communicating it shot its arm straight up in the air as if to signal something.

"BREAK LINE !!" the confident voice beckoned through the cavern from afar once again.

The circle that was formed around him started to shift and parted to create a gap in the line. The multitude of Beings that occupied positions behind the initial ring also shifted to allow a gap, they all moved until there was a clear and direct pathway that led to the outside of the cavern.

Llaus lifted his head and saw a silhouette of another Being standing at the entrance. Behind him was a giant hole in the sidewall that wasn't there before, certainly created during the barrage. Light poured in from behind this Being casting a shadow that stretched nearly across the entire cavern, it was enormous!

The shadow slithered across the ground with each step as the lumbering Being made its way towards the center. Each step had a purpose and intensity about it, cold and calculated. Llaus thought the Beings that manhandled him were big but whatever was approaching was even bigger.

It was wearing a blue form fitting leather outfit but unlike the sea of uniformed Beings in front of him, this one wasn't wearing a mask. The hat it was wearing was decorated with a symbol that looked like a sun crossed with samurai ninja star. It was sharp and edgy yet simple powerful.

It was evident that this was a military outfit of some sort and this was a high-ranking officer. A slew of medals adorned the upper left portion of the chest and the same symbol found on the hat was crested on the right.

As the imposing figure continued to approach him, his memory jogged back to only a few moments ago and the warning he received from the Entity. The words that were spoken then didn't make much sense then but they certainly did now.

'You must hang on for both of us' kept playing over and over in his head and as his thoughts drifted to the past he could sense a one-ness within himself. An odd sensation, like drinking a warm cup of water on a cold day, you can feel it penetrate and make its way through your body, transferring its energy and becoming a part of you.

The lumbering beast of a Being was nearly at the edge of the inner circle when it suddenly bull rushed forward with a shot of speed that was both impressive and fearsome, like a charging rhinoceros. The hulking and imposing figure stopped just short but extended its arm and grabbed Llaus by the neck, lifting him up until they were almost nose to nose. Its smell was a repulsive combination of sweat, dust and some type of fuel.

Now face to face with this Being, Llaus could truly appreciate how massive it was. Its head was nearly twice the size of his and its nostrils flared and projected hate as it snorted an intense disgust. Its breath had an earthy smell with undertones of some type of fish or crustacean.

It positioned Llaus' head so that it could peer deep into his eyes and for several moments they remained there, staring deep into each other's souls.

Llaus sensed that this was a test and showing any signs of weakness in this moment would certainly spell the end for him. So he stared back at the massive Being in front of him and didn't allow his gaze to shift or show any sign of weakness or fear.

The grip around his neck progressively got tighter the longer this staring contest continued until at last the hulking Being relinquished its grip and let go, allowing Llaus to fall to the ground.

It stepped back almost comically and seemed to bow in front of him like this whole confrontation had been some sort of performance and he was waiting for the applause. It remained in a bowed position only for a moment then stood up, folded its arms behind its back and turned to face the direction from which it came so that its back was facing Llaus.

"Do you know......" it let the sound of 'O' resonate for a few seconds, deliberately drawn out for effect.

"who I......"

"Am???" the question hung in the air like a feather blowing gently in the wind on its way down to the ground.

Llaus tried to speak but his voice was non-existent once again from having his throat crushed. He swallowed hard which gave the impression that he was nervous, and maybe he was a little. This pleased the large Being a great deal as a thin smile formed on its lips. Pacing back and forth slowly in front of him with its gaze focused on its feet as they shuffled across the dusty ground.

"no......" Llaus was finally able to mouth the word as he stood up.

"I'M THE LT. COMMANDER AND I'M IN CHARGE HERE!" its voice boomed across the cavern causing Llaus to flinch.

"And........do you know......" again letting the sound of the 'O' trail off...

"Where you are??....." the Lt.Commander asked with a slight hint of arrogance in its voice.

"...no...." Llaus answered again but before he could finish speaking the Lt.Commander turned and rushed forward with a sudden burst of intensity unfitting for its size. It placed its hand around his neck, lifted him and pulled their faces nose to nose again.

"And I suppose you don't know WHAT I WANT DO YOU?!" it said with spit coming off its lips as it emphatically mouthed the words.

"LOOK INTO MY EYES UNTIL I CAN FEEL YOUR SOUL!!" the Lt.Commander shouted as it glared with the intensity and desperation of a cornered animal.

Llaus defiantly locked eyes with the large Being and tried to match its intensity.

"I don't ..." he responded as he bit the inside of his cheek to draw a bit of blood.

".... but I'm not sure why it MATTERS ANYWAY!!" Llaus shouted while allowing the very little bit of spit and blood in his mouth to come out as he over articulated the words.

This sudden act of defiance caught the Lt. Commander by surprise, it wasn't use to, nor did it tolerate any sort of insubordination. It shifted its gaze towards the Beings in the cavern (his Elite Guards) and although they stood like emotionless statues, it could sense that they were eagerly awaiting a response. Anger swelled and surged within the Lt. Commander's body and mind as it calmly wiped its face and tempered its desire to retaliate.

There were more important things at work here, besides; it had plans that wouldn't be pleasant for this defiant human. Then it released Llaus' from the choke hold and allowed him to drop to the ground again.

"If you didn't possess something that I've wanted for a very long time you would already be dead by now... " the Lt. Commander finally broke the silence in a quiet voice.

"you see... I have been searching this planet for a very long time for a certain Entity that resides here... and you... YOU !!!! show up out of nowhere and IT FINDS YOU !!!" the anger rising in his voice.

"Somehow it has attached itself to you... and I suppose its fortunate enough for you that I don't have the resources in this cavern to extract it otherwise .. you'd already be dead..." the Lt. Commander said flatly as he turned towards several Elite Guards.

"Restrain him and bring him to the Fortress"

### Chapter 5: Cover the Flame

Scene I

At first, the sight of thousands of dead and decomposing bodies across the vast landscape was unnerving but it was the smell that offended his senses the most. As he scanned the horizon he could see bodies littered all across the ground and in various states of decay, some were hardly recognizable, more of a flesh smear than anything. The bodies were quite a bit smaller than the Beings that had captured him, more the size of a human but it was difficult to tell since they were all so mangled.

He noticed that most, if not all were very poorly dressed for combat in contrast to the Beings that had taken him captive. These dead bodies were wearing nothing more than rags for clothes and scattered around their bodies were misshapen sticks and very primitive looking swords.

'No wonder there were so many dead bodies, they didn't stand a chance' Llaus thought to himself.

Somewhere buried deep inside his mind, he could sense that this wasn't the first time he'd seen something like this. And an even more haunting thought was that maybe he'd been responsible for it as well.

After being dragged out of the cavern, he was strapped to the front of some sort of vehicle. His arms and legs were shackled spread eagle and he was left dangling, exposed to the harsh elements. There was no way he could escape, he was fully restrained.

It was a dry dusty hot outside, the kind that penetrated deep into the pores and caused your skin to bake like leather. The sky was covered by a type of cloud dust that swirled and suspended in the air like flocking birds. Through the dusty orange/purple haze he could see the outline of several suns; one was much larger than the other and was obviously much closer.

The landscape itself was predominantly flat and smooth. It looked like a giant surface of swirling granite that was covered in granular dust and littered with large jagged rocky outcroppings. There wasn't a distinct roadway, just the flat smooth slopping surface that carried on for an eternity. Occasionally there were visible holes cut out in the topography, some were large enough to swallow the entire front end of a vehicle, which might explain why they were traversing so slowly.

Most of the holes were smooth and looked natural but others were jagged and too perfect, like they had been cut out by some sort of boring machine. Other holes were charred and littered with dead bodies like some sort of explosion had extricated the bodies from a burial site.

They drove across the barren land slowly and didn't stop for anything or anyone. In fact some of these other humanoid Beings were still alive and they called out in agony, begging and pleading for their lives. But the more they pleaded, the more it seemed like the driver would go out of his way to drive over them, slowly creeping the vehicle forward inch by inch to prolong their agony. If this is what they did to these people he could only imagine what was in store for him. Llaus started to wonder why he tried so hard to prevent the vessel from crashing. That seemed like a lifetime ago already.

The dust and debris for the barren land pelted his body as they sluggishly made their way across the terrain, squashing and killing everything in sight. The complete disregard for life was appalling and slightly overwhelming.

Llaus tried to let his body relax, he anticipated that it was going to be a long ride and he needed his strength for whatever was to come next. He lifted his head to the sky and took in a deep breathe. As he exhaled, he let his body go limp and it sagged in the shackles, applying a painful amount of pressure on his limbs.

Once again he thought back to what the Entity told him before the Lt. Commander and his goons had captured him. To "hang on" and "Our only chance to survive is to bind as one".

'Where is the Entity now?'

'Why doesn't it help me?'

'It chased me down, picked me up and literally threw me around like a rag doll, why didn't it do the same to the Elite Guards and the Lt. Commander?'

'Why is it hiding in me? Why doesn't it help?'

Llaus asked himself these questions over and over again trying to understand what had just transpired and but it didn't make any sense. Then he looked off in the distance and that's when he got his first glimpse of the Fortress. The actual size was tough to gauge but it spanned across the horizon and looked enormous.

There were several towers that projected up and above the towering walls; they were strategically positioned at regular intervals across the front. But at the center of the Fortress was a tower that stood far beyond the rest, it reached to the sky and disappeared into the murkiness of the upper atmosphere. Llaus presumed that this was where the Lt. Commander took up residence, far above anyone or anything below. Far beyond the reach of any primitive weapon that may ever get pointed in that direction though it really didn't appear as anything would ever be able to approach the Fortress without being noticed miles and miles ahead of time.

The immense size of the angular and dark structure was imposing and threatening and even though there was no direct sun light, the tallest tower cast a shadow across the land like a giant hand reaching out to swallow up whatever was in its way.

Llaus turned his head as far as he could to the left and shouted

"Heeeeeyyyyy!!!!! Sttttooooooppp!!!" His voice was surprisingly loud as he tried to get the attention of the Elite Guards that were driving the vehicle. However, the vehicle just chugged along and almost seemed to snort its exhaust fumes even louder each time he tried to get their attention. There was no stopping; they were headed straight for the Fortress and his impending fate.

Each bump shook his body and caused the shackles to rub against his wrists and ankles until they were bleeding and raw. The pain had long subsided though, now his extremities were just numb. He almost felt like at some point his hands and feet might sever from his body. A horrible scenario but that might be a plausible way to escape, Llaus thought morbidly.

'What do they eat?' he thought as he looked around at the desolate landscape.

The view from outer space painted a bland and homogeneous picture and now that he was on the surface it appeared to be the same dry and desolate environment, completely incapable of growing any type of food at all. As far as he could see, there wasn't any water or any animals either, just a nothingness, an empty and hostile space. Llaus wondered how life came to exist on this planet in the first place.

He closed his eyes and allowed his body to go limp again, it was just easier this way. His body rocked from side to side, backwards and forwards like a flag in the wind. Although his body was imprisoned, his mind was free to roam and for the first time since awaking, he had time to just allow his mind to wander. He was in danger but at this point in time there was nothing he could do so he let his thoughts drift.

First he allowed his mind to go blank, he tuned out the dull hum of the motor and the creaking noise of the chassis as it navigated the uneven terrain. He tuned out the noise of the shackles bending and twisting as the vehicle maneuvered. Then he allowed himself to think of a single flame in an abyss of nothing, small and weak compared to the vastness of the black void. The flame burned bright and projected its light regardless of how small it was compared to the surrounding blackness. He cast his focus on this light and navigated his vantage point around the flame. He looked deep into its burning center; the dance of the flame was mesmerizing. Then without any mental effort on his part, the flame grew in size, it got bigger and bigger and a face appeared within the flame. He recognized the old and weathered face immediately. It was the face of the Entity that had consumed him and allowed itself to be consumed by him, the Entity that lived within him like a parasite.

'A coward parasite' he thought.

It didn't say a word but its facial expression said everything he needed to know, it was terrified. Its eyes were wide and hollow and its cheeks were flush with anxiety.

Then just as he was about to say something he was jolted back into reality. He opened his eyes only to see that he was heading straight towards a wall of spikes. They were going to crash right into the spikes with his head leading the way. He winced and instinctively closed his eyes but just as he was about to taste the cold and ending taste of a steel spike through his face, they came to a screeching halt. He slowly opened his eyes only to see how close he really was to the spike. He figured he could stick out his tongue to taste it though he didn't try.

'And this is when the real fun begins' he thought to himself

Then the wall of spikes began to drop into the ground until they were completely gone. The vehicle lurched forward again on top of the platform that the spikes must have been installed on. They advanced forward several feet then started to turn clockwise, like they were on some sort of rotating platform. The platform rotated until they were looking back out over the landscape from where they came from.

Llaus couldn't tell where he crashed or where he had been but that wasn't what caught his immediate attention. Leading up to the Fortress were hundreds of thin poles that were planted into the ground. They snaked their way across the landscape for miles like a slalom course and stood about 15-20 feet tall. But it wasn't just the poles that caught his eye, it was what was attached the poles that really got his attention. Impaled at the top of each one of these poles was a dismembered body, a skewered lifeless body without a head. Some must have been there for a while since the skin on the body was shrivelled and looked like leather.

The poles rocked gently back and forth like tall grass in the wind, all in unison, almost like they were waving a final good bye to him. The sight sent shivers up his spine. Then the vehicle jerked backwards and the doors to the Fortress began to close.

Llaus wondered if he would ever see the light of day again.

Scene II

Deep within the bowels of the Fortress Lothian was preparing the 'Investigation' chamber just as he had been instructed. The Fortress was completely abuzz with rumours that the planets Deity Rryl had been captured in a human host and they were on their way back for extrication, it was only a matter of time before they arrived. He was already nervous because this would be the first time he was able to assist the Doctor but now he felt even more anxiety considering the magnitude of the operation.

He wasn't certain how a successful extrication would affect him on a personal level either since he and a very select few of his peers were actually indigenous Beings but were raised by the Regime.

'What will the Regime do once they accomplish their primary objective and seize the Deity?'

'Will they leave? Or will they continue to occupy this planet indefinitely?'

'And most importantly, will I still have a purpose?' Lothian contemplated each question while he continued to prepare the chamber for the important operation. The troubling questions made him think about his mother.

He didn't really know his mother very well other than a few vague memories from his early childhood. She had been captured during the 'Great Revolt' when the war between the Ekatorak (his native kind) and the Regime had just begun. She was pregnant with him but for some reason she was spared and consequently so was he.

She was young, pretty and caring but one day she disappeared when he was very young and never came back. No one was ever able to tell him what had happened to her other than she had work to do elsewhere and would be back as soon as she could. She was only 32 newsuns old when she disappeared. Newsuns is the measurement they use to calculate age on their planet since there were multiple suns that orbited at different intervals (Equivalent to 21 years old on Earth).

The one thing that he could really remember about her was how she would sing songs to him and how he loved it when she would run her fingers through his hair. It would always help him fall asleep but when he would wake up she would always be gone. His favorite song was the one about the 'Star Giant' that fell in love with 2 moons and had to choose between them. But rather than choose one and break the heart of the other, the 'Star Giant' chose to live a life of solidarity and obscurity.

It wasn't until years later that he would come to understand that the songs she would sing to him were actually stories about his heritage. She was subconsciously planting the seed of his past so that he would understand where he really came from. The songs were ingrained in his brain and he could recite them without even thinking.

Years later he came to learn that the Regime implemented an 'Assimilation project' where they would purposely capture pregnant indigenous females in order to steal their child. They would raise the child within the confines of the Fortress but brainwash them so they would never know of their true ancestry. Then they would release them back to the Indigenous in an effort to infiltrate and preach their message of admiration for the Regime. They were hoping these young Indigenous prodigies would captivate the masses with stories of their privileged upbringing. It was a relentless onslaught of propaganda aimed at destroying the revolt and opposition to the Regime's occupation but it failed miserably and the offspring, referred to as 'the outcasts' were slaughtered by their own kind. The project was abandoned and the few remaining 'outcast' Indigenous children were given positions within the Regime, Lothian was lucky enough to be one of the last few.

He was raised by the state and though he was mercilessly teased, mocked and beat by the Regime's offspring, he remained focused and managed to aspire to the position of 'Execution and Torture assistant'. He never knew what it was like to live in an unoccupied state but it hadn't always been like this.

Once upon a time this planet was inhabited exclusively by the Indigenous or so he had deciphered from several of the songs his mother sang to him. Then the Regime arrived.

At first they came in peace and just sent explorers. They said they were only exploring for educational purposes and would be gone soon enough. But then more came and they set up an extraction mine.

Then more arrived.

The Indigenous leaders contemplated striking out against the unwelcomed guests for overstepping their boundaries but were overruled by the masses. By that time, the Regime had already started to pay some of the Indigenous handsomely for allowing them to extract minerals from their lush planet and they enjoyed the luxuries they brought with them.

It actually became a time of great progress and prosperity. The Regime brought and shared much of their advanced technology and ways of thinking. Education of the young became a top priority and the bright were promoted within the ranks of the Regime as 'Indigenous officers'. They oversaw some of the most important extraction projects. The Indigenous had grown fond of the Regime, they were kind and giving. It was almost as if it was too good to be true and with hindsight being what it is, it was too good to be true.

One day everything changed.

And by the end of this day everything would change again.

Scene III

Doctor Exstruum was old and twisted in both his body and mind. His back was profoundly hunched over but it also had a slight twist in it which gave the outward appearance that he was always looking to the left. He walked with a slight limp but this wasn't due to his advanced age rather it was due to a very rare disease that continues to grow one leg bone indefinitely and never stops.

The only solution was complete amputation or to temporarily remove the bone, grind it down and re-insert it back into the body, a very painful procedure and time consuming rehabilitation. For many years the Doctor would habitually go in for surgery and deal with the painful rehab until one day he decided to take matters into his own hands. He devised a hip replacement coupler that shifted the bone out of socket and allowed it to grow without causing any growth discomfort. This of course required the bone to be exposed and protrude from his thigh muscle so that he could trim it once it got too long.

He was completely bald except for a slight patch of hair at the nape of his neck. Most people would just shave it off but he relished the last bit of hair that he owned and he let it grow as long as it would go. It was so long that it nearly touched the floor. Most of the time he would have it braided and done up so it looked somewhat presentable, he was of course the leading scientist at the Fortress and had to look the part. But on days when he would torture innocent indigenous for information he would let his hair go wild like a mad scientist. He thought it was funny to pretend that it was his twin brother with an alter ego that performed the sadistic and torturous trials.

Today was no exception and his grey hair flung wildly about as he made his way to the basement. Only today was different, they had found the Deity and it was his job was to secure it without doing any harm. The host was merely a vessel and wasn't important so he could do to him whatever he pleased just as long as the Deity remained unharmed. Once the extraction was complete he promised himself that he would have all the fun he wanted with the host, as a celebration of course.

Over the years, Doctor Exstruum had created a game that he liked to play with the Indigenous that were brought in for 'interrogating'. He would set a timer and try and guess how long they would last before telling him what he wanted to know, most of the time he overestimated. He called his game 'the spill drill' because most of the Indigenous wouldn't hesitate to spill their guts before he spilled theirs.

Despite their loyalty and their love of their land, their pain tolerance was abnormally low and they would typically provide information after a few warmup tests, as the Doctor called them. Only a few endured torture until death but they were rare, he had a secret admiration for those that remained silent until they permanently fell silent.

No one ever left the basement alive other than him, his assistant and the guards that regularly patrolled the corridors. And even then sometimes the assistant didn't make it if the Doctor was in a foul mood or having a bad day. He was known for his mild manner temperament and explosive rage. He wasn't physically intimidating whatsoever and due to his hunch appeared to be much smaller than average but what he lacked in size he made up for, and then some with his intelligence.

His favorite torture/execution device was the 'Fibrillato' which uses natural frequencies to pulverize and essentially explode the head of the person being tortured. He always swelled up with a certain sense of pride when he would install it on someone's head because he invented it himself. Initially the natural frequencies would distort and disrupt the flesh on the individuals face up until the point of elasticity; that was level 1. Level 2 would take it a step further and permanently deform the skin, usually the ocular extensions (otherwise known as earlobes) would be the first to dangle and droop, the skin around the eye sockets was typically next, this is where most Indigenous would tap out and call it quits. Level 3 would melt almost all of the skin off the face leaving them with a fully functioning exoskeleton, if any survived to this point they would be screaming for him to end it which he would gladly do, slowly, of course. Level 4 would focus an intense vibration to the core of the brain, expanding it until the point of liquefaction and always ending in a bang. The contents would always be collected and used for other experiments or to feed his pets, whatever suited his fancy that day.

Doctor Exstruum ran into the Lt. Commander and several top Elite Guards as he was making his way through the main gathering chamber to the basement. This was very uncommon since the Lt. Commander would typically reside in his citadel and bark orders to his Generals to do his dirty work, very rarely did he make his way to the main chamber unless there was an important message to be delivered to the faction.

"Doctor Exstruum" the Lt. Commander barked as the Doctor tried to sneak his way by without being noticed. He didn't enjoy conversing with anyone very much, most especially with his superior whom he loathed. The Doctor had the brilliant scientific mind and yet he had to answer to the 'hulking piece of meat', which is what he referred to the Lt. Commander in his mind.

"DOCTOR!" the Lt. Commanders voice grew louder when the Doctor didn't immediately look in his direction. The Doctor knew he wouldn't be able to slip away so he begrudgingly turned around and looked surprised as if he didn't hear the first time.

"Commander, what brings you down here?" The Doctor asked with very little enthusiasm and a slight hint of annoyance.

"You already know how important this extraction is so I don't have to stress that again. As soon as the Deity is removed I want you to report back to me then I will join you for the finishing touches. I have a personal agenda with the host..." the Lt. Commander instructed his voice strong and confident.

The Doctor failed to acknowledge the request in a timely manner so the Lt. Commander raised the intensity of his voice and repeated himself.

"I WILL join you for the finishing touches, do you understand Docccctooooooorrrrrr?" he said allowing the 'R' to roll off his tongue slowly as he stared intensely at the chief scientist.

"yes Commander... but of course.... I shall summon you once the extraction is complete..." the Doctor said apologetically though in his mind he was cursing ten times for every word spoken.

Scene IV

Outside the execution chamber, Lothian was waiting patiently, he was nervous. As the Doctor came down the hallway towards him, he adjusted his lab coat and made a conscious effort to suppress his anxious thoughts, he needed to be as focused as he could be today. The Doctor was renowned for his sudden temper and Lothian knew that the only reason he was tasked with assisting today was because the previous lab assistant suddenly 'resigned and moved to another department', or at least that's what he had been told.

"I'm very excited to be joining you today Doctor, it's always been a dream of mi...."

"Shut your mouth boy !!" the Doctor blurted out as he hobbled by.

The Doctor took several more steps forward before stopping and turning to address the young scientist.

"Today is a very important day and I am NOT in any mood for an inquisitive mind, you hear? You do as I say, when I say and how I tell you to otherwise you will be dismissed. Do I make myself clear?" the Doctor calmly yet firmly declared as he squinted trying to read the name of the lab coat.

"Lothian...."

"yes...pp...p..perfectly..." Lothian stammered

"Good, now follow me, we have a lot of work to do before the host and the parasite Deity arrive" a thin smile formed on his lips as he turned his back to the young scientist. Intimidating others always gave him such pleasure, almost as much as torturing.

Scene V

Immediately upon entering the Fortress Llaus was forced to lay down on some sort of medical table, his hands and feet were shackled up once again and a mask was pulled over his face. The mask was completely black and somehow formed to the contours of his face but had a couple of holes that allowed him to breathe through his nose. It was cool to the skin and though it was completely the wrong time to be thinking of anything else, he thought it would make an excellent sleeping mask.

After hanging off the front of a vehicle for the past who knows how many hours, the chance to lie down temporarily was enthralling, his mind and body were exhausted.

'this isn't real' he kept telling himself.

'Just relax and you'll wake up soon enough' but the more he kept telling himself that the more he realized that despite everything that he'd been through, the nightmare was just about to begin.

Although the mask blocked off all of the light and his mouth, it didn't cover his ears and he was able to hear everything that was going on around him. Most of the conversation that was happening was quiet and mumbled so he couldn't distinctly hear what was being said. There was a loud humming noise and he momentarily felt like he was dropping. This lasted for several minutes and he assumed that he was on some sort of elevator, taking him to the deepest and darkest recess of the Fortress, where no light could penetrate and no hope could be found.

"Doctor, he is all yours.... We'll be waiting outside for you to finish. When you are done with the extraction you are to let us know so we can summon the Lt. Commander" a burly voice issued monotonically.

"yes, yes of course... as soon as I'm done I'll summon you... " the reply was curt and excitable. Llaus could envision some type of mad scientist rubbing his hands and licking his lips as he surveyed the constrained body, like a hungry wolf having a steak diner delivered to his door.

"Now if you would be so kind, could you please bring the patient over to this side of the room..." the excited voice said, squealing with the anticipation of a child on Christmas morning.

The table shifted again and pivoted until it was inclined at about a 30 degree angle then it was locked in place.

"Remove the mask"

Llaus could feel several hands loosen the restraints that were keeping the mask secured against his face. It was removed and he was instantly blinded by an excruciatingly bright light shining directly on his face. The light was only a mere few feet from his face and was so large that he couldn't see anything else in the room. Only a few seconds under the light and he could already feel perspiration starting to form on his forehead from the intense heat.

"Normally I leave the mask on and leave my patients in the dark but today is different" the Doctor said with his snarly and nasally voice as he leaned in uncomfortably close and spoke into Llaus' ear.

"I want to see the face of the one who absorbed the life force... the Entity... their Deity" the Doctor whispered as he ran his hands through Llaus' hair and began to massage his scalp. The closeness of the encounter was very uncomfortable and Llaus already felt violated.

The Doctor's breathe was hot and foul smelling, like the smell of a rotting and decaying corpse. Llaus wondered for a moment if the Doctor actually ate the corpses of his patients after he was done torturing them. In this moment, all he could do was bite his tongue, saying anything at this point wouldn't help his cause so he chose to say nothing at all.

"You find yourself in a very precarious condition my friend, a very precarious position indeed...." The Doctor snickered as he continued to massage Llaus' head and whisper so closely that his lips touched his ear.

"We have been searching for what is inside of you for many many years and unfortunately for you... now we've found it!!!" the Doctor squealed with such delight that it gave Llaus goosebumps.

"Of course, we didn't anticipate finding it under these conditions... but we have our ways of retrieving what we want..."

"Engage the Scuplinator" the Doctor said abruptly as he stood up and turned to the side.

"Welcome to the 'interrogation' room, my name is Dr. Exstruum and I will be taking care of you today" he said like an airline attendant but in a mocking tone.

"This operation will definitely hurt you more than it hurts me and for that I should apologize, but I won't, because ... you see, your pain and suffering brings me joy, so the more you suffer, the more I enjoy what I do... and the longer it takes to break you the more satisfaction I get from being able to break you..." he said with his tone taking on a more clinical and psychopathic flair as he leaned back in to whisper in Llaus' ear.

Llaus still held on to some hope that he'd be able to escape and figured that this was as good a time as any to test the restraints on the table. He thrashed and flailed his body with all of his might, making contact with the Doctor while doing so and drawing blood. But despite all of his efforts he was still firmly fastened on the table. Llaus watched the Doctor's smile and smug look turn into one of anger and rage as he took a step back and wiped the oozing blood from his nose.

"AAAaggggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!" the Doctor screamed as he pushed away the bright shining light and turned over some of nearby trays in a fit of rage.

"You son of a BITCH!!! You foolish son of a BITCH!!!" his voice dynamic changed from a high pitch squeal to one full of anger and hate.

"ooohhhhhh..... now I'm gonna hurt you !!! Now I understand why the Lt. Commander wants to come down to see your termination personally!! but I'm going to have a little fun beforehand..."

"leave the Scuplinator for now, I want to see this maggot dance! get me the Electrovoltor" the Doctor commanded.

A helmet with many wires was placed over Llaus's head and clips were attached to each of his toes and fingers. Wires were connected to each clip and led off to a machine with many dials and buttons.

"I wasn't planning on using this because it serves no other purpose than to inflict pain and possibly liquefy internal organs... but .... You deserve it..." the Doctor said while smiling in his direction.

"Tell me when things get a little.... warm, won't you?" the Doctor giggled out loud before turning a large rotary dial with his right hand.

Instantly Llaus could feel something happening to his body, the muscles in his abdomen began to flex and spasm uncontrollably and he seemed to lose all control of his motor skills. A numb static was walking up his arms and his legs but it didn't hurt, it was just an awkward sensation. The static worked its way all the way up his body, past his abdomen, through his chest and up into his face and head. It still didn't hurt but just felt incredibly funny. His stomach muscles continued to flex uncontrollably and he could feel his body wanting to throw up. He turned to the side and vomited as much as he could onto the floor but the sensation was still there.

His body was completely engulfed in a state of numbness to the point where he couldn't distinguish the feeling in any part of his body anymore, it all just felt like a scrambled radio signal, present but indistinguishable.

"Things feeling a little weird?" the Doctor asked mockingly while smirking and leaning in close enough to Llaus but not close enough to be hit should he thrash around again. The Doctor wiped his nose again, checking to see if there was any more blood.

With the flood light now lying on the floor, Llaus could see the remainder of the room he was in. It was a midsize room, dimly lit with a single and solitary light hanging above him. There were no windows and everything was painted in dark colours. Across the room from him were several desks and a large set of doors. To his left was a wall with a multitude of gadgets and devices that he didn't recognize, each one he presumed was just another way of inflicting pain. Off in the corner to his right was another person that he assumed it was the Doctor's assistant, the one he kept barking orders to.

"Let's turn this dial a little and see what happens... shall we...?" the Doctor asked rhetorically as he started to turn the rotary dial again.

Then all of a sudden the numbness of the static began to change, the sensation started to get hot like each part of his body was being placed over an open fire. The feeling within his body continued to increase in temperature until it became very uncomfortable. He started to twitch and wiggle, trying to get away from the heat source but no matter how much he moved, he couldn't get away because he was the heat source.

Llaus started to yell, verbally trying to release as much of the pain as he could but it still continued to get hotter. His vision started to blur as his eyes felt like they were burning up and drying out under all the heat, he turned his head and looked in the general direction of the Doctor and began to smile.

"Is that all you got? ....." Llaus said taunting him and purposely trying to egg him on. If he was going to die today then he would do his best to make sure that he killed whatever they were after in the process.

"DOCTOR BITCH!!! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT" Llaus then screamed at the top of his lungs.

Somehow the more he taunted the Doctor the more he was able to deflect the feeling of pain and the heat almost became tolerable.

"IS THAT ALL YOU GOT ???!!!!! DOCTOR PUSSY !!" Llaus screamed as loud as he could.

The taunting made the Doctor furious and he quickly abandoned his plan to torture Llaus slowly. He grabbed the rotary dial and turned it all the way up to 11, its maximum setting.

The shock applied to Llaus' body was so great that he immediately went into convulsions. He started foaming at the mouth and his eyes rolled in the back of his head. The Doctor grimaced with hate and a certain level of insanity as he looked at the patient, completely forgetting about the primary objective to extract the Deity.

Lothian saw what was happening and knew that making the wrong move at this moment in time would cost him his life as well. If the Doctor killed the Host then he was certain that he wouldn't be leaving the basement of the Fortress alive either.

"DOCTOR !!" Lothian screamed

"Don't kill the Deity!!" Lothian's words were like a sobering bucket of cold water thrown on a match. The Doctor instantly turned the rotary dial all the way to 0 and pushed the off button. In a blind fit of rage he wasn't sure if he had killed the host or not.

One thing was for sure however, he was certain it wasn't his fault and if he had indeed killed the host, his assistant was to blame for not warning him earlier. He would certainly pay for his ineptitude.

The Doctors attention shifted back to his patient on the table, his body was smoking from the heat that had just been applied. It was limp and lifeless but still had a pulse and was still breathing so he was still alive.

'Why did he stop me prematurely?' The Doctor thought as his focus shifted back to his assistant.

'Who does he think he is to question my methods? Certainly he will pay for his misguided advice! If I can't have the pleasure of killing the host then I will certainly enjoy killing him for this misguided folly' an evil smile slowly formed on his thin lips as he turned away from looking at Llaus and shifted his gaze back towards Lothian.

'This will be fun' the Doctor thought to himself before barking out another order.

"FETCH ME the natural frequency manipulator, I'm not done with this one yet!"

"Of course Doctor" Lothian obliged without hesitation. He felt that his intervention had saved the host from being cooked alive and quite possibly saved the entire extraction operation but the look the Doctor had given him was unnerving. His senses were on edge and despite his self-proclaimed heroics, he felt like his life might be in jeopardy.

Regardless of what he felt, he summoned the device as instructed and passed it over to the Doctor. He was well acquainted with the device since he did one of his post graduate studies on the science and function of the invention that the Doctor invented. It utilized natural frequencies to distort and manipulate the body of the individual it was being used on.

Initially it was designed for healing purposes, to help control, manipulate and eradicate rogue cells, like Cancer that may be present in a patient. Its success rate was remarkable but once the Regime found out what else it could do, it was never used to heal again.

The Doctor installed the see through box over the head of Llaus's lifeless body. The box looked like an old scuba diving mask except it was square and all the sides were transparent except the back which housed the capacitors, regulators and sensors required to govern the projected frequency.

"Adrenaline" the Doctor said impatiently, somewhat expecting his assistant to already know what he required before he asked for it. Lothian handed him a giant syringe with a large dose of adrenaline and without hesitating he plunged the syringe into Llaus's chest and injected him. Near instantly Llaus gasped for air as he snapped back to the present. His heart rate started to accelerate and he started to breathe heavy.

The Doctor grabbed Llaus by the chin and leaned over to look him in the eyes.

"That was just the warmup ... now let's see how much you like my own personal invention"

He turned the dial to 1 and within several seconds the skin on Llaus's face started to deform. The pain was excruciating as the cells in his face disengaged from each other. His eyes began to droop and his nose started to distort. Llaus was rendered paralyzed by the pain and even though his body was coursing with adrenaline, he couldn't move.

The Doctor beamed with pride as he stepped back and looked at Llaus' face through the glass. He always enjoyed watching the horror wash over the faces of his patients as they realized that the skin on their face was shifting and distorting. The final head popping finale was his favorite part of course but the initial stage was a close second.

"Had enough?" he sneered a rhetorical question as he tapped on the glass. He knew the pain was paralyzing and he wouldn't get a response yet somehow just asking and taunting his patient brought him a certain level of satisfaction.

After several minutes of face distorting pain the Doctor turned off the machine. This time there was no sudden outburst of anger that may "accidentally" decapitate his patient prior to the extraction, just several minutes of 'fun' to loosen him up.

"Now that you're nice and warmed up.... Literally" The Doctor laughed a little too enthusiastically at his own joke.

"It's time for the main event...."

"Prepare the EXTRACTOR!!" the Doctor shouted like he was singing the chorus of his favorite song.

The Extractor was another one the Doctors self-contrived devices that was used mainly for delaminating minerals and substrate from core materials of the planet but it had also been used in other experiments. The Regime had unsuccessfully used it to try and separate a being from its very own soul, to split apart the physical and consciousness. Though it had never worked for that purpose, the Doctor was convinced that it would separate the parasite Deity (as he called it) from the host.

Lothian helped the Doctor place the bed back in a horizontal position and install an encapsulating glass dome. The glass dome was fastened to the floor and several hoses were connected at the back. A cluster of wires leading from the bed were also connected to a large main frame device on the sidewall. At the very top of the dome was a brass coloured disc, it was about twice the size of a hockey puck and it flashed with lights similar to the collar that had been installed around Llaus' neck in the cavern. They worked quickly and efficiently at setting up the device and it was ready to use in a matter of minutes.

"Initiate the flux capacitors" the Doctor instructed his young assistant.

"On my command, begin the process of adding the catalyst... slowly"

Lothian was still concerned about the look the Doctor had given him earlier. Although everything had run smoothly since then, he still had a feeling deep down that he too wouldn't see the light of day again. Nevertheless he did what was asked and initiated the flux capacitors; they hummed and whined as they began to work. Next he moved over to the catalyst, a de-ionized gas that allowed electricity to separate the host and parasite Deity.

"yes... YES.... This is going to work well..." the Doctor mumbled as he positioned himself on the far side of the room beside a giant lever.

Inside the glass dome Llaus was oblivious to all of his surroundings, he was still completely jacked up on adrenaline and still feeling the remnant paralysis effects from the 'Frequency Manipulator'. The gas pouring into the glass dome made him choke up a bit but after several deep breaths, he was accustomed to the chemical taste.

"I suggest you add your gamma goggles assistant, that is if you want to see what's happening and not be blinded" the Doctor said with a certain disdain.

Both Lothian and the Doctor fastened their goggles in place before beginning a very brief countdown.

"3....2......1... Engage" and he flipped the switch

Instantly the interior of the dome changed colour to a deep hue of purple and Llaus's body was completely immersed in a haze and although he was only a few feet away from the scientists, they couldn't see him at all.

The Doctor turned another dial slowly and the deep purple dissipated into a fluorescent green stream of electricity that started at Llaus's head and ended at his toes. He adjusted another few dials and the light began to bend and deviate, it bent towards the top of the dome where the brass coloured metallic device was located, almost like it was a magnet. The hum of the electricity sounded like a locomotive.

The Doctor turned another dial slowly and suddenly whatever was inside the host was drawn out slowly like a shadow stretching across the ground at dusk. Its colour was opaque grey and its shape was erratic and deceptive as it fought against the current of the device.

"YEEEESSSSS !!!!!" the Doctor shouted triumphantly !!! "I see you Rryl"!!!! "YEEEEESSSSS" he laughed maniacally.

Lothian strained his eyes to see the Deity that he had heard so much about. At first he couldn't see anything other than a fluid opaque shape but the more he strained his eyes the more he could decipher the outline of an old face and it was looking directly at him, or at least it seemed like it was. Its eyes were sad and anxious and its eyebrows were tilted in a way that gave the impression that it was in a lot of pain. Lothian was fixated by the old face in the dome, it wasn't what he was expecting at all, he actually had no idea what to expect but it certainly wasn't this.

"Save me" the Deity mouthed over and over as it looked towards Lothian with a broken and hopeless gaze, the same you might see from a beaten dog at an animal shelter.

Over and over the Deity continued to repeat the same words "save me..."

"save me..."

The constant pleas for help were starting to wear on him and Lothian wasn't sure how much longer he could watch the pain and suffering. His gaze was fixated on the Deity in the dome as it continued to be drawn up and out of the host's body, which was more of a corpse than anything else at this point. Lothian quickly scanned over to the screens on the far wall to check vitals, they were still present, very stressed but the host was still alive, for now.

The Doctor turned the dial a little more and the sound felt like it amplified ten-fold, the shadowy figure changed colour to a more translucent mustard colour. The Doctor left his controls and ran across to the glass dome.

"COME TO ME Rryl - YESSSSSS !!!!!" he screamed with bewilderment, his eyes flickering with insanity as he pressed his face up against the glass.

Lothian's gaze shifted back to the Deity and before his very eyes, the shape changed to something he had not seen in a very long time. It was his mother! She was young, innocent and beautiful, just as he remembered. Lothian couldn't control his emotions and he cried out loud, fortunately the Doctor was so caught up in his celebrations that he paid no attention to his young assistant. Lothian reached out to his mother and she reached back to him, she spoke and somehow he could hear every word she was saying very clearly.

"Lothian, my son..... help me!.... Help yourself!.... There isn't much time..." the voice was soft and delicate.

Completely sobbing at this point, Lothian knew that he needed to intervene. He needed to abandon whatever plans he had and he needed to put a stop to this before it was too late. He needed to save his mother and the Deity for the sake of his kind.

And in a moment of pure adrenaline, Lothian dashed across the room and grabbed the 'Natural Frequency Manipulator', he didn't look to see if the Doctor saw him or not, it didn't matter. He knew what he had to do.

He picked up the device and turned towards the glass dome, fortunately the Doctor was still preoccupied with his celebrations to have noticed what he was doing. Lothian quickly gazed into the dome once more but his mother's face was gone and so was the face of the old man but he knew they were still there. In a single motion, he lifted the device, ran across the room and hastily slammed it over the Doctor's head.

Without hesitating for a moment, he turned the dial to 4 then slumped to the floor beside the dome.

The machine would take care of the rest.

###

### ABOUT

jOvian veiL is a Hard Rock album written in unison with a Science Fiction Novella (Series)

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And be sure to check back often for updates, the next instalment of the series 'jOvian veiL – Sentient' is slated to be released in 2018. A rough copy of the story has already been written and the music is well underway.

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### ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to acknowledge the following individuals who helped bring this project together

Michael Herbert

For being the catalyst and a tremendous colleague. This project had been spinning its wheels for many years until you jumped onboard and gave it the 'kick in the butt' it needed. Tons of talent and super easy to work with, you 'Da Man !!

Brian Duggan

For your creative input and belief in this project over the years.

Ryan Duncan (Cover Art)

For helping bring the artistic element of this project to the next level.

Chris Atwell

For hosting the initial #studiodays that helped this project gain some musical traction.

Jen, Avery and Payton

For pushing me to practice what I preach and supporting me along the way.

And to the many other friends and family that have inspired and supported me over the years. It's been a long time coming but all in the right time...

