The TALE of the TESSERACT
1: Another Day
"The God That Will Come is a false deity. If this god exists at all, it is a demon bent on perverting Spode's worship. Whenever you encounter his followers, you should know you have encountered an enemy!" -Scrolls of Faith
"The Grox are a machine race that guard the center of the galaxy against all life-forms. It is not known if their ultimate objective is to prevent us from breaking in, or to prevent something else from breaking out." -Books of Science
At sector 17 CF-3, on Galactic date 3247b6, something materialized. It blasted into our world, streaking through the vacuum of space at faster than the speed of light. It raged through nebulae and exploding stars, heading straight for the Aeron Galaxy. Nothing could stop its course. The object was only 2 feet wide, but it was the most powerful thing in the known universe.
"Good morning Thar! It's the begging of a new day and it's time to..." SLAP. Roku was tired of listening to that guy say the same thing every morning. Nevertheless, it did its job He was awake and ready to take on another day of being a "space captain" as they called it. Personally Roku thought it was a cheesy name, but it had been used for millions of years, so changing it wasn't much of an option. Roku plopped his talons down onto the floor and got up out of bed. After taking a long yawn, he stretched his wings and walked over to the closet. With a slide of his hand, the door slid open. Roku though for a moment before picking the red and black captain uniform. It wasn't like their was much of a choice.
With the snap of his finger, the hover clamps inside the clothes lifted up a plopped the clothes onto Roku. With a bit of adjustment he was already done. How he like the new technology. It seemed like there was something new every week. Fortunately, the Tharians did not let themselves degrade with the new advances, unlike another race that we know...
Roku walked over to his balcony. As he stepped outside, he breathed in the cool air of Thar, the homeworld of the Tharians. He laughed for a moment. They were one of the few species that actually named themselves after their planet... or the other way around, Roku wasn't sure actually.
Currently, Roku was staying in one of the Tharian Residential Towers.
That's right! His memory came back to him. Roku had returned to Thar after a recent mission on the planet Lux-5. He was back to refuel his ship, and recharge the Dark Energy Core that powered it.
Roku looked out over the balcony's edge. Thar. It was an amazing planet. Towers stretching up into the sky, millions of hover vehicles, and the star Pyles blazed in the sky. The empire was huge, stretching hundreds of stars. And at the heart was this, Thar. A planet that was constantly busy. The majority of the planet was completely urbanized, with buildings reaching up for the stars. But no building stood as tall as the Main Control Tower. Roku could see it in the distance. It was HUGE. It seemed to go into space itself. It was the center for any Tharian exchange. The center of the Tharian Empire. Everything was controlled by it. And inside was the object that made all of this possible. The Hypercube.
Around a thousand years ago, an object fell from the sky. It was glowing cube, emanating massive amounts of energy. Back then, the Tharians looked completely different. They were much more bat like. They had eye stalks and webbed hands. Looking back, some of today's tharians would say they looked like monsters.
But then, the Hypercube.
After years of investigating it, the scientists began to create and invent things that they had never even dreamed of before. Then, slowly, the Tharians structure began to change. They evolved, again, even though they were already sentient. They changed into what they are now. MUCH more bird like. The tharians were now bipedal, and as the residents of Sol III would say, "humanoid." The tharians had the usual formula of two arms and two legs, but they also had a pair of eagle-like wings on their back and talons for feet. All of the tharians limbs were covered in feathers, but the hands and face were very similar to that of humans. After this change, the empire would forever more be referred to as the "New Tharian Empire," a name that was known throughout the Galaxy.
With these new advances, the tharians believed they could at at last combat the Grox. They sent Roku in a one-manned ship, to attempt to penetrate the massive empire and reach the Galactic Core. After a long struggle, Roku succeed. One of the VERY FEW captains to do so. And what he found there... we'll it sort of ruined the whole "grand uber meaning of life" thing.
He returned to Thar and continued to be one of the most successful captains in the known galaxy. Everyone knew about the mighty New Tharian Empire, and especially about the legendary Captain Roku.
Roku laughed out loud, it was funny that he was actually part of this huge empire. When your actually in it, it doesn't feel as amazing. He did however admit that the combination of wings and hands was a nice touch, but he knew that there had to be more. What he found at the center of the Galaxy gave him many more questions than answers.
Bleep. Bleep.
"Oh forgot about that," said Roku. It was Harko sending a subspace message, SM for short. It was ironic though, as it was completely unnecessary. They were both on Thar, so their was no need for an SM, but... that's Harko for ya'. It read: are you gonna charge your ship or what?
"Oh my gosh what time is it!" Roku said, scrambling for his watch.
12:07. Man he had slept in late! He said he was gonna be their by 10:00. We'll that's what happens when your an incredibly busy space captain. He took one last glance at the Main Control Tower, and then dashed for the door.
He stopped for a moment. Almost forgot. He walked over to the vault by the closet. After typing in the complicated 42 digit pass code, it opened. Before him was the reason he had traveled to the Galactic Core. He took it out and held it in his hands.
The Staff of Life.
A long white rod, with a two curves at the top. It was easily equip-able into his ship, and acted as a terraforming tool, but Roku preferred they way it looked outside. Smiling, he took it with him as he dashed out the door.
Roku sprinted down the hallways, passing up random Tharians that were saying things like, "Oh Captian Roku", or "Is it really you?" After a few minutes of pushing through a crowd of people, he finally made it to the second door. He opened it and found himself in the main silo.
He jumped off the ledge and fell down the shaft. At the last moment Roku unfurled his wings and glided to a halt. With the staff in his hands, and a Poision Blade in the other, he dashed though the next door, into the Spaceship bay. There it was. Roku's Spaceship, given the name "Tharak" by the Tharian Council. She was beautiful. Roku stepped under the ship, and pressed the button to activate the lift beam.
"DNA matched with that of Captian Roku of the New Tharian Empire. You are cleared to pass." said the ships computer. Roku smiled as the beam teleported him into his ship.
"Just another ordinary day." he thought.
Author's Note:
Welcome to the Sci-Fi epic: The TALE of the TESSERACT!
If you are a new reader, please note, that this story... is quite long. As you reader further into it my writing skills grow extensively - if you're kind enough to stay that long, that is. So if you liked this chapter, you'll definitely enjoy what's in store later on. Regardless, if you like epic battles, a plethora of action scenes, sci-fi mysteries, ancient evils, advanced civilizations, and pretty much anything and everything awesome... then I am sure that you'll enjoy this story.
I should note that this story is part of a collaboration called "Project Tesseract." This means that the narrative of this story takes place in the same world as the others in the collaboration. I have made an effort to design this particular story, The Tale of the Tesseract, so that you don't need any prior knowledge of the collab to fully understand and enjoy it. Regardless, I know for a fact that those other authors would definitely appreciate your reviews.
And... um... so would I.
Chronological order of the collaboration: "The Time of Ancient Order," "Veara (Remastered)," "The Battle for Korona," "Grox and Kisses," "The Vacor Incident," "Faith In Alliances," "The Storm" / "The Tale of the Tesseract"
I update this story on a fairly irregular basis. But, if you're just getting started... you'll have a ways to go before you have to wait on anything. Enjoy!