Beyond The Impossible

Rigil Station

Alpha Centauri A, 4.37 light-years from Earth

Construction of the space station hasn’t even been completed yet, but it’s found itself the center of galactic politics. Hundreds of ships have reached this system from across the Olympian Empire, assigned to a newly created fleet.

General Kamos has been quite busy concentrating the effort, but the chaos surrounding his staff was nothing until the arrival of a very special ship.

The Aegis, the capital ship of the Athenian Federation, has docked into Rigil Station attracting a lot of curiosity with its owl-shaped design and hull of Neutral Matter.

The Aegis rarely travels out of the Federation, and even more rarely it’s personally commandeered by the Goddess of Wisdom herself.

Kamos stands at attention as the docking hatch opens, revealing Athena wearing her full battle armor and holding her spear. Having spent most of his life under her command, he still has to fight the urge to bow before her.

<Your Majesty. I had not been informed that you would join the operation.>

<No kidding, don’t you usually let Nike handle to grunt work?> Kari Zel asks, appearing out of nowhere after transforming her body from light into flesh and blood.

General Kamos is taken aback by her arrival, but Athena keeps her usual composure.

<This is an unusual situation, as heralded by your new status. You are adjusting to using Quantum’s powers remarkably well, Kari, but I would suggest you keep your abilities a secret.> Athena suggests, completely ignoring the minotaur general to talk only to Kari.

<I really don’t care if people know, Athena, we have bigger problems. I assume you’ve been informed about what happened?>

<Yes, Earth is now under quarantine after being taken over by Abyss and we must intercept the Ragnarok before it reaches the planet. But thankfully you were wise enough to keep the exchange of powers as top secret information: believe me, that could be more damaging than Abyss.>

<I doubt anyone would really care if I have Quantum’s powers, Athena…>

<Certainly not: in the grand scheme of things, you are unremarkable. No offense, obviously. But the fact that Noriko is currently a goddess… how many people outside of the Vanguard know?>

<Including us three? I’ve informed only Prime Minister Lyra and Enyo, as Minister of Defense.>

<Good, good. General Kamos, it is absolutely vital for the survival of the Empire that this information never goes on record, and not a single other being must know.> Athena orders.

<You’re not the boss around here, Athena.> Kari reminds her.

<And neither is Null, at the moment. Do you not understand what is happening?>

<Other than we’re wasting time?>

<Noriko can only be Mortal Empress if she is mortal. The very Olympian constitution that she wrote explicitly forbids gods from serving the position, including deified mortals. The position is effectively vacant.> Athena explains.

<You’re making a big deal out of nothing: we also have a Divine Empress, so Hebe will be in charge until we reverse the effects of the switch.>

<The Divine Empress is a ceremonial position. Have you seriously not read the constitution?>

<I assume you know it by heart.> Kari replies, rolling her eyes.

<Article 2, Section 2, Clause 6: “Whenever there is a vacancy in Mortal Throne (as defined in Clause 7), the powers and duties of the Mortal Sovereign shall devolve to the Prime Minister until a new Mortal Sovereign is elected. The election of the new Mortal Sovereign must take place within 30 Olympian Days from the start of the vacancy”. And Clause 7 defines the vacancy as…>

<Alright, alright, the throne is currently empty, so what? You have a problem with Lyra being in charge or something?>

<I am a vassal of Noriko Null, Kari. I will not pledge my allegiance to a mere politician, and neither will the other vassals. If news of this vacancy reaches them, the Empire will be dissolved.>

<Your Majesty, Lady Zel, please… the N01-Ragnarok will be within the system in moments. This is not the time to discuss politics!> General Kamos intervenes.

<Nonsense. The Ragnarok is only the second most powerful warship in the Galaxy, after the Aegis of course. I shall take care of it myself.> Athena boasts, then teleports out of the station.

<Great, on top of everything else, I have to babysit a war goddess now.> Kari comments, transforming her body into radio waves to follow her.

General Kamos is left behind, wondering if accepting the promotion was a wise choice after all.

 

Ben Nevis, Scotland

Max Black wakes up with a colossal headache and feeling like he’s been sleeping on a bed of rocks, because that’s exactly what he’s been doing.

The first thing he sees is his sister Kayla, standing before him with her hands clenched into fists that are glowing with blue energy.

<Eyes wide open. If I see even a tiny bit of silver, you’re going down.> she threatens him.

<Where the hell are we?> Max wonders, looking around. Only for Torn to hold him by his jaw, turning his head in order to stare directly into his eyes. And his soul.

<He’s clean. No trace of Abyss.> the Demon reassures the others.

<Give him some breathing room. How much do you remember, Max?> Vesta asks him.

Max gets back on his feet, looking around to understand where he is.

<I don’t remember how I got here. Isn’t this that cave where Vesta kept her statue thingy?>

<It worked. He’s back to his limited brain again.> Torn adds.

<You don’t have to say like that, you know.> Max points out.

<Please focus, Max. We need any intel you can give us about what Abyss is planning, but be careful not to activate the Nexus again.> Noriko intervenes.

<I’m not in a rush to go through that trip again… it was like being in a constant coffee high, bombarded by information coming from anything I laid my eyes on, unable to stop thinking… holy crap, Nori, is that how you live?>

<You learn to tune it out.> she shrugs.

<That’s what I was trying to do. But the more I pushed away, the more Abyss took control. It was subtle at first, and by the time I actually noticed I had become an unbearable a-hole it was too late.>

<Could you read her thoughts? What’s her plan?> Noriko insists.

<I don’t know if I’d call them “thoughts”, it was more like fingernails on a chalkboard. If the chalkboard was on fire. And bleeding. But I could figure out an image from her mind, before she fully took control… a black cloud coming out of the planet, growing to swallow the entire Galaxy.>

<She wants to take over the rest of the Empire, like she controls Earth’s population?> Vesta hypothesizes, but Noriko shakes her head.

<Even if there was a way to do it, it doesn’t sound like Abyss. She has no interest in ruling anything. All she wants is to burn everything down.>

<So the only reason she hasn’t killed Earth’s population is that she needs them to kill more.> Torn comments.

<Yeah that tracks. I felt her effort to limit the number of deaths: she needs every little ounce of brain power than she can gather. I don’t know for what, but…> Max backs him up.

<Oh my God, that’s it. I know what Abyss wants to do.> Noriko finally realizes, her eyes turning bright red with worry for a second.

<That can’t be good.> Max says.

<She’s like a single planet-sized brain now. We already saw that’s enough for her to have any of the bodies she’s possessing generate a Final Abyss… but if she could expand to control the thousands of worlds in the Empire…> Noriko realizes.

<She could have the same effect on a galactic scale.> Torn nods.

<Definitely not good, right?> Quantum adds.

<Wait, isn’t the Final Abyss just lethal for gods?> Kayla asks, already lost.

<Only because I’ve never been crazy enough to use it on mortals. And working at that scale, Abyss could probably do more than a Final Abyss… she could upgrade it to an Eternal Eraser.> Noriko realizes, sounding even more worried than before.

<I have no idea about half of what you guys are talking about. What kind of damage could this Eternal Eraser do?> Kayla asks.

<It erases information. At the levels I’ve used it… it can one-shot a Class-1 god, lobotomize every single brain on the planet, and wipe out any electronic database. Backed up by trillions of brains? If Abyss achieves that level… eradication of all sentient life in the Galaxy, mortal and divine.>

<Aren’t we jumping the gun a little? We don’t even know if Abyss even has the ability to expand her control so much.> Vesta tries to calm everyone down.

<Yeah, uhm, about that… there is one bit I recall clearly, even from before Abyss fully took control. Nori, I didn’t want to worry you about this while you were dealing with your new powers, but… remember when the Ragnarok is scheduled to return?> Max asks.

<It’s not due for another… uhm… lemme think… oh. S#it. It totally slipped my mind!> Noriko complains, slapping her own forehead with the palm of her hand.

<F##king Siduri. Of course Abyss wants her.>

<Are you guys even considering letting me know what the f##k you’re talking about!?> Kayla protests. She doesn’t know whether to be annoyed about being left in the dust, or worried by how much the Vanguard seems completely disorganized.

<Siduri. She’s the member of an other-dimensional race of beings from the Celestial Galaxy; she’s on board the Ragnarok taking back to Earth. Those beings can’t travel faster than light on their own, but that’s basically their only weakness: they can be completely untouchable and untraceable, even by the most powerful gods and all Drylon technology. They can manipulate and possess matter to interact with our universe… in their galaxy, they use stars for bodies.>

<In essence, a being of pure mind. Like Abyss.> Torn realizes.

<The first time she was separated from my body, Abyss once took control of all the Blood energy in Hell… and that was before she had a planet’s worth of brains to back her up. If anybody could take control of Siduri, I bet it’s her.> Noriko says.

 

Edge of the Alpha Centauri A system, 4.37 light-years from Earth

Athena floats in the emptiness of space, standing guard with her spear a few hundred feet above her Aegis ship. She acknowledges the arrival of Kari Zel once the latter transforms from tachyons to flesh and blood, floating next to her as the belt she’s wearing projects a Survival Field that allows her to survive in outer space.

<You should take the form of a holographic projection. Quantum does it all the time.> Athena suggests, talking through radio waves.

<It’s way harder than he makes it look. And there’s so many weird energies around this area, I’ve never seen stuff like this.>

<It’s called a Warp Roadblock Inducer. The Aegis is equipped with projectors that flood space with particles that disrupt most methods of faster-than-like travel.> Athena explains.

<Sounds like useful technology. Why have I never heard about it?>

<Because the Athenian Federation considers it a state secret. Get ready, the Ragnarok is about to approach.> she reveals, moving into a fighting stance.

<How can you be sure about WHOA!> Kari exclaims, as everything in front of her happens much more quickly than she anticipated.

The Ragnarok drops below the speed of light as soon as it passes through the roadblock placed into her preprogrammed flight path… but it’s still going at a significant percentage of the speed of light, and it hits Athena directly.

The goddess is pushed back several thousand miles per second, but in an unbelievable display of sheer strength she’s not just able to survive: she pushes back so unbelievably hard that the Ragnarok is barely able to travel a million miles before it comes to a complete stop.

 

Its hull made of Neutral Matter is nearly indestructible, so from the outside it doesn’t look like it sustained any damage, but its engines were definitely not built for something like this.

At the speed of light it’s a short trip for Kari, who is relieved to see that the ship has been stopped… but she can also see something coming out of the hull.

A woman with bronze skin and without a face, phasing through matter.

<This was not planned, yes? I was promised a return to the Empyrean.> Siduri tells Athena.

<There has been a change in the schedule. Let me introduce myself, I am…>

<Irrelevant.> Siduri dismisses her, floating back to the ship.

<I did not dismiss you!> Athena complains, attempting to grab Siduri by the arm.

She goes completely through her, and even if she doesn’t have a face Siduri is clearly bothered by the encounter.

<You are the one being dismissed, vermin.> Siduri retorts.

Upon her words, Athena’s sphere takes a mind of its own: given that it’s also made of Neutral Matter, it’s solid enough to withstand the core of a star… but now it bends and twists itself like a snake, going as far as piercing Athena’s throat.