Imperfect Memories - The Eye of the Storm (Part 2)

Posted on 01 Mar 2024 @ 1:06am by Lieutenant JG Montgomery Vala
Edited on 01 Mar 2024 @ 1:43am

2,430 words; about a 12 minute read

Previously on The Eye of the Storm…

The faintly glowing dias was visible in the distance, ominous in its resistance to the frost and snow that surrounded it.

Finally the tenth phase line loomed, its sign completely encased in ice. At this juncture, Rh'vaurekorn turned to his subordinates. "You will remain here and observe. Each take a copy of any readings that may occur. If I do not return in ten minutes: leave." The two stood in silence, "Do I have your understanding," Rh'vaurekorn's sharp tone pierced the icy air.

Two affirmatives echoed around the lab. Dr. Ar'Vul had forbidden anyone going further, just as he had forbidden entering the lab at all. But as Dr. i'Varul had stated, Dr. Ar'Vul was not there. Mnhei’sahe dictated that they should obey the one presently in command.

With a slight grunt of approval at their lack of protest, Rh'vaurekorn continued forward. One foot in front of the other. His desk at the sixth phase line was given a nostalgic glance, but it was not his target. While his respect for Dr. Ar'Vul was immense, his elderly mentor was too risk adverse.

Rh'vaurekorn had one goal, and one goal only in mind. He intended to put an end to this anomaly once and for all.

And now the continuation…

Rh'vaurekorn's breaths were heavy, fogging up the visor of his helmet despite the thick rubbery suit's attempts to regulate temperature and humidity. The equipment had been rated to work at the lowest temperatures imaginable, but physics became increasingly erratic the closer one got to the dias.

Each step he took became more and more muffled, distant and echoing. A glance at his dataslate confirmed what he already expected, soon all sound would fall away to the silence of absolute zero.

Phase line six approached. His old desk, once a location of his frenetic efforts, was now nothing more than a frozen relic. There was no time for a visit or even a nostalgic pause. He trudged onwards, each step feeling heavier than the last, as if the very fabric of space-time was thickening, resisting his intrusion.

As he continued the air took on a noticeable frosty shimmer, glistening and glinting in defiance of the laws of thermodynamics. At these temperatures the atmosphere was meant to be inert.

It had been a long time since he had been so close. Memories flooded his mind. Rh'vaurekorn's lip twisted in a grimace, rebuking the feeling of trepidation that began to build up inside.

One year earlier…

"Clear down and take your stations," the voice of Dr. Ar'Vul echoed across the lab's PA system, accompanied by a burst of static, "Non-essential personnel this is your last warning - begone."

The hawkish scientist cleared his throat and turned to Rh'vaurekorn, "How are the projections looking i'Varul?" His voice was terse and slightly shrill. The rapid progress they'd made since their first success had led to many sleepless nights. The old doctor was weathered by it, but buzzing with an excited energy.

"Promising, doctor. Most promising." Rh'vaurekorn handed over a dataslate with the latest headlines, "I believe we have a visitor from the military today. Come to see our progress," he gestured to the viewing window at the far end of the lab. It was too far to make out and figures inside, "I handled a query about how soon this will be a practically applicable technology…"

"Not soon," Dr. Ar'Vul sniped before Rh'vaurekorn could elaborate further on his response, "Not on the horizon…"

"Ah… indeed doctor, I explained as much. I did mention today was a special test though - what with the new material," he quickly raised his hands before Dr. Ar'Vul could retort, "I told them no details of course!"

"Good," the doctor replied, narrowing his eyes, "It wouldn't do for too many details to exchange hands and glances. Things are not ready and others lack our… vision for such things…" He trailed off for a moment, then his eyes flicked to meet Rh'vaurekorn's, "To your station. Use the new projections and make corrections as we go."”

Rh'vaurekorn nodded and briskly walked to his station nearby. Things were much as they had been in previous tests, but through the thick glass viewing window there was no longer a bristling probe, but a sleek slab of a rare mineral, obtained at great cost. Various sensors and devices had been carefully affixed to it, but it was much smoother and less… busy than the usual objects of study. It had been Dr. Ar'Vul's idea to attempt to enhance the process by introducing an element on this side of things. It could be the change that kicked things up a gear, but it made the projections difficult.

He tapped the console a few times and released the safeties on the various levers and buttons which surrounded him. Dr. Ar'Vul's insistence on the mechanical had been something he'd found quaint and oddly amusing when he first arrived, but ten testing cycles ago there had been an unusual surge and he'd been very grateful to use a level to end the experiment prematurely when the console's power had given out.

"Secondary intervention, ready," he shouted and heard the usual resounding roll call of his fellow scientists around the dias. The PA system crackled, “Everything seems to be in order," came Dr. Ar'Vul's voice, going through the motions of a routine test. Rh’vaurekorn heard the familiar click from the station next to him,“Recording has begun. This will be test…" He could hear the scribbling of a pen, "Omega, Alpha. Primary emitters are coming online."

And so the test began as usual. Stage one emitters, stage two emitters, then the temporal modulator. Smooth so far. The system was set up with the most common variances accounted for - the usual slew of amber warnings disappeared as quickly as they had appeared thanks to an algorithm perfected over countless testing cycles.

Something was new, though. This material was certainly enhancing various aspects of the process. Streamlining it in some ways, but also throwing up a few challenges. Rh'vaurekorn began making suitable adjustments to account for discrepancies as they appeared. The chroniton field in the test chamber was around ideal saturation, and stability looked… huh… slightly erratic, "Some significant swings in field stability here, doctor," he said after a burst of static, "The new material is kicking out some… uhm… exotic particles."

"To be expected i'Varul," the static laden voice of the doctor responded, "Let's at least see the flux."

Rh'vaurekorn worked diligently to correct for the abstract particles that were now pouring into the chamber. He had not expected this and if the doctor had then he had kept awfully quiet about it. The chroniton field jumped above 50% for a few milliseconds. Vastly above tolerance. But on average it remained below.

He eyed the lever next to him. The temporal modulator could always be disengaged if things got out of hand he supposed.

Energy levels inside the chamber continued to rise, and the lights in the lab dimmed with the strain. Blue particle effects began flashing around the mineral, coalescing for moments at a time into an orb of sorts before dissipating.

The clunk of another station activating the cloaking device sounded… strange. Warped. Something was off.

Rh'vaurekorn glanced up at the viewing window and saw the cloak take hold. The material was exceptionally well suited, he had to admit, it began phasing seamlessly.

The appreciation of the material was short lived however…

With each phase in and out of corporeal space the material expelled exponentially more exotic material. Red errors began to stack up on his console and he could not adjust the field quickly enough, "Doctor," he said, his voice sounding distorted and far away. He reached for the lever, "This is beyond tolerance, we must-" Before he could finish the blue lights coalesced into an orb which enveloped the mineral.

Silence fell.

His console froze. The screen glowing but the alerts no longer pulsing.

His hand, reaching out, continued to move but so infinitesimally slowly that he would not reach the lever in a lifetime.

A crack began to form on the glass of the observation window. It snaked from the corner of the window, silently crossing the sheet. Then another, and another. Each crack took a lifetime to form, then creep onwards.

Rh'vaurekorn was powerless to stop them.

The orb itself shimmered, its energies barely contained.

Then… reality pieced itself back together.

Rh'vaurekorn fell forward, missing the lever and sprawling on the floor. Moments later the silence was torn apart as the glass shattered, spraying the space he had just vacated with razor sharp tendrils and a flare of blue plasma. He scrabbled up the machinery next to him and pulled hard on the lever but… nothing. The machinery continued to hum, increasing in intensity.

It got louder.

And more intense.

Then… a blinding flash.

Rh'vaurekorn rubbed his eyes furiously in an attempt to regain his vision. It came back slowly. His console. The level. The glass… The glass? The viewing window was back in place, the orb sitting behind it.

He shook his head, unable to comprehend the situation, then forced his eyes to the right. Dr. Ar'Vul was lying in a similar situation to him, staring at the adjoining observation window.

Rh'vaurekorn stumbled to his feet, running over and grabbing the Doctor, "We have to go," his tone was hoarse, and remained distorted by the anomaly, "Now." With that he dragged Dr. Ar'Vul towards the slope of the dias, seeing his colleagues fleeing in a similar fashion.

Back in 2366…

Rh'vaurekorn glanced at his dataslate as he passed the final phase line. The screen was flickering sporadically with corrupted data - the laws of nature were beginning to come apart. It was to be expected given what he knew. He threw it to the ground. Technology would not be of much use to him here.

The slope to the dias stretched out in front of him, an otherworldly light pulsating ahead and unevenly illuminating the heart of the lab. The silhouettes of the different stations loomed above, where once he had worked. The temporal modulator and the cloaking device cast long unnatural shadows.

These machines had long since fallen out of the research team's control. The anomaly seemed to reactivate them periodically, sending out ever expanding pulses of… something…. something poorly understood. A wave of temporal energy that seemed to reconfigure whatever it touched into a different time. Entropy strained to account for it all.

They had gotten fairly good at predicting the extent of each wave, but it was clear that the anomaly was spreading. It had reached the limit of the vast lab and was threatening the world beyond. Hence Rh'vaurekorn's decision to intervene.

He progressed up the slope carefully, his heavy, rubbery suit proving to be as unwieldy as ever. As the top of the dias approached he felt… strange. Almost like he was observing himself from the outside. Each new footfall felt slower and more distant than the last. Time, perhaps understandably, did not seem to pass in the same way here.

As he reached the dias top he glanced back at the lab, his eyes quickly locking on to two figures stumbling down the central path. Havraha and Gielo had chosen to abandon him. He would have spat had he not had the suit on. Gritting his teeth furiously he turned around and began walking to the stations.

The glow here was intense - a pale blue light shimmered and caught the tiny crystals of ice in the air, causing them to unevenly sparkle. The floor was oddly clear of frost and snow and consoles, while devoid of power, were as they had been left. They looked as good as new.

Rh'vaurekorn trudged towards the primary and secondary intervention stations, Dr. Ar'Vul's and his own. He could recall the time he had spent here, perfecting projections and variables… but it was not time for reminiscence.

As he approached, the anomaly itself finally came into focus through the pristine viewing windows. A glowing orb, coalescing around the mineral they had attempted to experiment on. Tendrils snaked from it, reaching out into and around the test chamber.

Pausing for only a moment to take it in, Rh'vaurekorn took the final steps to his old station. His first instinct led him to shoving hard on the lever which was meant to end experiments that had gone awry, but this had no discernable effect as he glanced at the aberration through the glass.

His next step was to slowly kneel by the console. The station had been designed with backup power, so in theory a working battery should be ready to activate in the stem of the unit. He fumbled with the panel with the bulky gloves of his suit, and after a time it came free. It was work of another few moments to pull the switch to activate the internal battery. He whispered a silent prayer to the elements, willing the laws of physics to work long enough for the power to connect.

He slowly stood up, pulling himself up by the edge of a counter. Amidst the eerie blue glow was a familiar pale green of a glowing console. A smile ghosted his lips, but there was little time for celebration. He lurched over to the screen and began tapping out sequences. Next time the anomaly activated, it would brick the temporal modulator and the cloaking device. Elements willing, that would put an end to the thing.

Finishing the final piece of code, Rh'vaurekorn authorised the script and shoved himself away, making as swift an exist as was possible in the heavy suit.

His feet his the plating below with difficulty. Something was… changing. He kept moving forward but gravity itself seemed to be eluding him. Each step was like wading through mud… or molasses.

He glanced around. What was happening?

Though completely silent, he could see movement. No. He could feel movement. In the dias. A vibration. A hum. He focussed on the nearest machine - the cloaking generator. A pilot light was flashing.

No sound. His eyes widened. He wouldn't have heard the warning.

He shoved himself forward, scrabbling for the slope of the dias, desperately trying to put distance between himself and the anomaly. He dragged himself forward. One step, another step then…

A blinding white light.

To be continued…

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