Beyond The Impossible

Aegian Galaxy, 2.5 million light-years from Earth

Noriko Null stands on the surface of planet Halia… or rather, on what’s left of it.

Her technology can’t find any signs of life beneath the solid block of stone that used to be an ocean.

The merman Kestral floats towards her, suspended over the stone by an anti-gravity belt and surrounded by water created by his Drylon powers.

<I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do here; even if I was able to transmute everything the way it was…>

<Everyone is dead, I know. Did you notice the air?> she asks, seemingly detached from being at the center of a genocide.

<Yes, it’s very cold. I noticed it when I turned it into water. An ocean of stone instead of water completely wrecked the planet’s weather patterns.>

<That’s not my point. There’s air, Kestral.>

<I’m not sure I follow. Maybe it’s because I don’t breathe the stuff, but… why is that important?>

<Medusa turned everything into stone. The oceans, even those she couldn’t actually see because they were on the other side of the planet. Down to the bottom and beneath it; the entire world is stone now, down to its core… but the air is still here.>

<That is weird, not that you mention it. Why didn’t her power affect the air?>

<I haven’t figured that out just yet. But any advantage can be helpful if Medusa’s powers are as dangerous as they appear to be… especially now that she has teamed up with Skorpios.>

<Are you sure she did? She might have turned her into stone and she could be around here somewhere.>

<Both Skorpios and the Defiance-IX were in this system, according to the sensors. Medusa can’t have left the system on her own, since she can’t move faster than light, and I’d be able to follow the ship’s trail if she used it. She left with Skorpios.>

<There’s also the possibility that Skorpios defeated Medusa and left on her own.> Kestral suggests.

<Possible, but unlikely. Skorpios doesn’t do things lightly, there would be at least a city-wide crater somewhere if she was in a fight. The only aspect I can’t figure out from their alliance is why they took the ship with them… it can’t possibly have any use for either of them.> Noriko thinks out loud, stroking her chin.

<We also have to figure out where they’re going to strike next.> he reminds her.

<Oh I know exactly what they’re up to. They went to kill Despoina.> Noriko mentions, taking out her N-Phone and looking at it like nothing happened.

<What!? We need to get to her right now then!>

<I fail to see why.> Noriko shrugs, her silver eyes shining as she interfaces her brain with her phone to set a complex series of commands.

<What do you mean? If Medusa took out Rhodos that easily, Despoina doesn’t stand a chance!>

 

<Neither will we until we have a reliable way to counteract Medusa’s petrification powers.>

Then a sudden realization hits Kestral.

<You… don’t really care whether Medusa kills more gods, don’t you?>

<I can count on one hand the number of gods that I wouldn’t help her kill, and I don’t even need all the fingers. What I do care about is neither Medusa or Skorpios seem to care about collateral damage. What I care about is that we are currently standing on the largest mass grave in the universe, and I’ll accept as many dead gods as it takes to avoid there ever being a second one.>

Kestral mistook Noriko’s earlier coldness for callousness. Now he realizes she’s channeling calm fury into a strategy.

<I’ve reconfigured your ship’s long-distance scanners into sending a trans-dimensional signal to the Portal Generator. I’ll get back as soon as I have a proper defense; I’m leaving behind Vesta and Gilgamesh, they’ll assist you in case another planet is targeted. If things get out of control, call me.> Noriko tells the merman, tossing her phone to him.

She disappears in a bright flash of light as spacetime warps around her body, leaving Kestral alone on the dead world.

 

Defiance-IX, intergalactic space

When he became the first Earth-born human put in charge of one of Null’s new warships, Major James Davis knew it wouldn’t be an easy assignment.

Whatever he imagined, though, wasn’t to have his entire crew turned into stone and his ship stolen by a goddess and a space terrorist.

<Why do we even need this guy?> Skorpios asks, lounging on one of the bridge’s chairs after teleporting one of the statues into the nearest latrine.

<Because mortals need testimony of why what we are doing is the dawn of a new age; he will be the one to tell how we liberated them from the tyranny of divine rule.> Medusa answers.

<Really. You want an apostle now? What do you say to that, soldier?>

<James Robert Davis, Major, Olympian Galactic Fleet, identification number ΟΓΦ-74-918263.>

<I hope you’re not planning to start a religion based on that.> Skorpios snickers.

<You are not a prisoner, Major Davis.> Medusa reassures him.

<Will you release my crew and send this ship back to Earth?> he asks.

<Not for the moment, you still need to witness…>

<James Robert Davis, Major, Olympian Galactic Fleet, identification number ΟΓΦ-74-918263.>

<He’s of no use. We should get rid of him.> Skorpios insists.

<I told you, no unnecessary mortal deaths!> Medusa repeats, raising the volume of her voice.

<I meant by bringing him back home. You do realize I have instantaneous access to any place in the universe, right? We don’t need a spaceship, and we certainly don’t need an apostle.>

<But the people need to know…>

<Medusa, you’re new to this. But I’ve been fighting to liberate my galaxy from divine rule for most of my life, and all I got was being labeled a terrorist and a monster. We don’t do this to spread good feelings.>

<Then why do you do it? Revenge? Glory?> Major Davis asks.

The bald mortal stares at him. She is seriously considering teleporting each of his organs in a different galaxy.

<You don’t even care about what gets in your way, do you? The Fleet has extensive records on you. You’ve had your Drylon device inside you since you were a child. Unprotected exposure to that technology can turn a regular person into a psychopath in months. What does growing up with one of them while being groomed into being a terrorist do to your soul?> asks.

She stands up from her chair and walks towards him. Medusa had had her fair share of experience with gods being a hair’s width away from murdering someone for a minor offense, and she recognizes the same exact attitude.

But instead of ripping the human to shreds, she rolls up the sleeve of her uniform to show something tattooed on her forearm, surrounded by scars of cybernetic implants.

<Skorpios of Troy, Indentured Slave, Ilium Incorporated, serial number Σπ-79999875. I’ve seen what cruelty mortals and gods are capable of, soldier. Their souls can be equally rotten, but only one can’t be redeemed because they face no punishment. Until now, that is.>

Skorpios opens her arms wide, and space itself obeys her commands.

<You want an apostle, Medusa? Fine. Let’s give him words to spread.>

 

Kore, 35,000 light-years from New Atlantis

The youngest daughter of Poseidon has lived her whole life in the shadow of her older siblings, and in the same of being the only one to believe herself to be the daughter of Demeter and not of his wife Amphitrite.

Watching her father die was a small price to pay to finally be recognized as the true heir to his kingdom. At least by the time the other gods would inevitably recognize her higher rank, by virtue of being the offspring of much more important and powerful gods.

Her dreams were shattered by the imposition of mortal rule by Noriko Null, but Despoina considers that a temporary setback. Just a few insignificant decades and mortality itself would grant her a new occasion, especially now that Persephone has recognized her as a true half-sister.

She’s contemplating the new possibilities opened by the disappearance of Rhodos when she suddenly finds herself away from her throne room.

The water around her sublimates into ice crystals now that she’s suddenly in outer space.

<I was hoping you would challenge me.> she admits, conjuring new water around herself.

<I’m not here to challenge you. Consider yourself lucky you’re not already stone.> Medusa replies; the snakes on her head are hissing at Despoina, without emitting a sound or talking through radio waves like the goddess they’re attached to.

<No, you’re here to be crushed by the daughter of Demeter herself!!!> Despoina shouts, generating a massive tidal wave out of literally nothing and throwing it at Medusa.

The water immediately rushes towards someone else: a bald woman floating in space.

It drains into a single sphere she’s holding in the palm of her hand; it’s completely invisible at first, just barely noticeable by how it bends light around it, but if fully absorbs a sea’s worth of water.

<Actually, she’s here to watch. I’m the one making a point here.> Skorpios clarifies.

Major Davis is right behind her, holding tightly to his chair. He was already aware of the abilities provided by her Manifold device, but Null’s description didn’t make her justice.

She’s not just warping space to compact the mass of that water down into a microscopic black hole she holds in her hand. She’s also making sure that the pocket of air surrounding him doesn’t freeze and warping the trajectory of space radiation before it can reach his body.

<I remember you, pawn of Ulysses. You’re no match for a goddess!!!>

Despoina is many things, but a fine strategist isn’t one of them. She repeats the same attack, just on a much grander scale and from more than one direction.

Medusa is actually worried for a second: in just a couple of seconds, Despoina has summoned an entire ocean that completely surrounds them in all directions.

Turning it to stone would probably override Despoina’s control over it, but it would still mean dealing with way more mass than she’s capable of destroying.

Skorpios doesn’t sweat it. Moving at such high speed that it turns into burning plasma, the water is rapidly absorbed by the sphere she’s holding… a microscopic accretion disk.

<If that is all you’ve got, no wonder Demeter never recognized you.>

<You DARE to mock me!?> Despoina snaps, and she angrily channels new oceans into a single compact stream of water pressurized to the point of being able to drill through continents.

Skorpios slowly advances towards her, as the water just keeps being absorbed by the sphere.

<You are already a mockery of a sentient being. A creature of pure power only focused on petty pleasures and self-aggrandizing. You call yourself a goddess, but you are a joke. Like all of your kind, a sick joke on the universe.>

<Enough! I will not allow a…> Despoina yells, stopping when Skorpios is close enough to shove the sphere right into her stomach.

Medusa hears the horrified screams of the goddess as she attempts to remove the black hole that is absorbing her from the inside. Even attempting to grab it results in Despoina losing her hands.

<Are you seeing this, apostle? This is what a real god looks like. Underneath all their bravado, they are just scared little bullies. They are all so proud right until they find a bigger fish.>

<Please… help… me…> Despoina pleads to Medusa, with her tears flowing into the black hole.

Medusa obliges. One look and Despoina turns into stone… but the black hole doesn’t.

It takes only an instant for the stone to be swallowed into nothingness, but Major Davis could swear he saw the statue crumbling as he stared into the sheer terror in the eyes of a goddess.