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The Shepherd's Diary: Genesis: Part 3 of 5
Posted By: Reign_of_Fire90
Date: 1 August 2006, 5:52 pm
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CHAPTER 5
It was black. The only light, whatever it's worth, came from the small blinking lights on the various control panels. Switching on and off they resembled twinkling stars in the night sky. Suddenly, shattering the silence to a thousand pieces, a large churning noise could be heard, then a thump…another…and another, then high above there was a flicker of light.
On the third time the flicker burst into full-fledged light and other lights beside it went off down the corridor in a row, illuminating the room. After all the noise had settled down a small floating machine gently floated down the walkway. The machine was not sharp and jagged, mush like the walls and other machines that surrounded it, instead it was smooth and the light reflected off its silver coating. A blue light pulsed throughout it and as it progressed it started to hum gently. It was a merry tune, one almost that someone could dance too.
As 343 Guilty Spark made his way down the lit corridor to the control room he reviewed the current status of the ring. Things were progressing quite smoothly, there were no large incidents or outbreaks, and the flood had been contained and cryogenically frozen successfully within the past week.
Much unlike some other installations, he recalled the situation on installation 06 when there was a small outbreak of the flood. Took half of the sentinel team to suppress it, the other half was lost, most unfortunate. He must say, if it was within his programming to do so, that his creators made him the best and smartest. He said to himself "I am a genius, hehehe, much unlike those other monitors".
As Guilty Spark entered the control room the main panel in the center flickered to life, colors of light scrolled across it and it started to gently purr with life. He, Guilty Spark, was there to receive his updated information and orders. When he approached the console a spark of small "lightning" shot from the center of his "eye" and began it's daily download.
When he was done he moved his attention to the sentinel's direction command as he uploaded the new guidelines and protocols for the containment of the flood he reflected over the curious bit of information about the Halos from the Hierarchy.
Darkness again. This time though there were no blinking lights, no humming, nothing, just darkness. In the room an enormous creature laid, encased in a deep, deep slumber. In his mind he was plagued with wisps of fog and shadow as he struggled to remember who and what he was, where was he, and why was he here.
The creature had grown impressively in a remarkably short amount of time, expanding far into his room and coiling around any rock or metal he could find. He…he began to remember people in white, a room of white…everything white…except for what they had in their hands, it was black. He couldn't…. remember……..pain…there was a massive pain…a voice….it said….something……he couldn't remember….he awoke in another room of white….people were screaming…..running……then more pain….then this…..
CHAPTER 6
Given the fact he almost died on two planets the operation had run well Hermes thought as he approached the second to last planet. Upon the surface Hermes proceeded with the usual task of getting the Key out of the ship, teleporting, and moving the crystal to a desolate cave.
However, once in the cave Hermes looked around him with his glow stick, switching the setting to full to light up the entire area. There was no one there. Yet Hermes still felt as though someone was watching him in what he was about to do.
Hermes placed the glow stick upon the Key case and took out a small laser pen, no bigger than a twig. With it he started to write on the wall, when he was done there was about a small paragraph written. Hermes looked around him again as he pocketed the laser as if expecting someone to jump out and say "AH HA!" But no one did.
Back in his ship, and continuing the journey to hide the last Key, Hermes thought over what he just did. In the cave Hermes left a riddle as to how to find the last crystal, even though he had not hidden it yet he knew where, by using the geological space 3-D map on his ship. And now he was bound to that location, or make the riddle a lie.
Hermes, upon his journey, could not stand the thought of leaving all the Keys, everything that stood between the galaxy and death, totally isolated and leaving only luck to find them. It went against his moral code and ideals to do such a thing.
Instead, since the first crystal, he had left clues and riddles to the location of the next crystal, and the next and so on. However he did not feel totally comfortable doing this, he knew that for whatever reasons the counsel would imprison him, for they became more paranoid with every passing day.
If caught, he would simply deny leaving direct directions to the next Key. After all, had he not left confusing riddles and clues to help conceal the location of the other crystals? Yes, that would be his ace in the hole, but he prayed he would never have to use it.
In the last cave, for the last crystal Hermes slowly, deliberately took the crystal to the hidden location. This was the last one, after this his journey would be over, he felt somewhat saddened by the fact and could not, for some reason, let a tear escape from his eye. He stood before the wall, oh what looming wall it was, he placed the package upon it and again, for the last time, took out his laser pen.
Upon the wall he wrote:
This is the seventh, upon more there are if not all found yet
After that he left a clue to the first crystal, now it was a cycle, a complete circle, now it was done.
The creature continued to stir in the blackness of his room, thoughts and memories slowly came back to him, he was starting to remember his name. Yes…. it was……….Gravemind….yes, that was him, he was certain. He lifted his head and looked around, but he could see nothing, he concentrated harder and harder.
Slowly a green light began to pulsate from his body, enveloping him a green mist that gave off light and played with the shadows on the wall. Gravemind didn't know where he was, but that didn't matter, he needed a way out.
He looked around the room and yet saw nothing, he drooped with sadness, he was doomed to spend eternity in this darkly prison. And yet…..he was not alone…..he kept hearing voices….then it came to him, these were not his voices, but the ones outside this room, this prison.
He struggled to hear, to concentrate on them and communicate with them. He knew that there was no way out, but for now he would listen to the world, he would listen through rock and metal and time.
Back at Earth the Ark Project was still undergoing construction, due to some fluke and a cave-in new workers were needed to not only to rebuild the Ark but also to build a memorial to those who died from the cave-ins. Fortunately it was not too many, it could have been worse, however now due to the shortage Shepherd himself had to work in the Ark.
Unbelievable, he was just two ranks below ship commander and yet here he was among grunts doing hard labor? At least he was able to command a portion of the workers, about a quarter, but from time to time, which was becoming more frequent; he was needed to work in the mines. But there was good news, rumor was that there is supposed to be a celebration party once the project is finished, but he had not yet asked Tricost about it.
Just the idea alone made him laugh; he played out the scene in his mind "Tricost?" "Yes Shepherd?" "Is there going to be a party tonight?". Eventually Shepherd decided he would anyway and touched his com-link headset to open a private connection.
"Ticost?"
"What is it Shepherd? Is there a problem?"
"No problem commander, but…"Then Shepherd suddenly thought up an excuse to his absurd call "Its getting to be annoying, some of the grunts are too excited to work"
"Excited? Why?"
"I don't know, they keep saying something about a 'party'".
"A party?"
"For when we celebrate finishing building the Ark"…silence….Shepherd suddenly started to shift with unease, perhaps this had been a worse idea then he thought…"Sir, its just that its getting hard to control them, you know how the grunts can be"
"I do, Shepherd listen, there is a party after the construction but do not tell them, it will only rile them up more"
"I understand sir, thank you sir"
"Oh, and Shepherd?"
"Yes commander?"
"You're a horrible liar"
And he hung up. Shepherd looked back among the workers feeling highly embarrassed but also slightly amused, he and Tricost had been friends since the academy, but Tricost had always been just a little bit better than him at…just about everything, even lying.
It was three weeks later when the entire Ark project was finished, as promised Tricost was indeed holding a small party on the main cruiser. However Shepherd was still in the Ark, fixing up electrical problems because the proton-electric engineers had left and the grunts were too stupid to do it.
As he worked he could hear ships take off into the outer atmosphere to the main cruiser. He wanted to get out of the Ark, he felt that if he didn't get on one of the ships then he would be left behind, he knew that would never happen but the idea always haunts him.
Almost before he finished a voice appeared in his ear,
"Captain Shepherd?" it said, it was Logan, the pilot for the last group of workers still on the planet
"I thou-"
Suddenly the crystal around Shepherd's neck started to glow
"-ght you sh-h-h-h-h"
Shepherd tapped his earpiece, static was filling the channel and he couldn't understand what Logan was saying
"Hello? Logan?"
"Sh-h-hepar-r-r-rd the"
The crystal glowed even brighter, more static filled the channel
"la-a-a-a….wi…in about…."
"Logan? Logan! Logan I can't understand you there's too much interference!"
Back at the landing deck Logan repeated "Captain Shepherd! I thought you should know we're leaving in about fifteen minutes, can you hear me?"
But Shepherd couldn't understand him, couldn't even hear him.
Shepherd turned off his com link channel, it obviously wasn't working, when he did the crystal started to dim and returned to it's original color.
It was about fifteen minutes later that the last party started to load the ships leaving the planet, as the workers piled aboard Logan stood to the side counting them off, making sure everyone was here. Eventually he got all 227 and when piled on the plane, he started the engines and the ship roared to life.
As he flew later on into the atmosphere and then into space he would not realize his greatest error, there were not 227 passengers aboard the ship but 226.
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