[11] RICHARD―▲

A breeze drifted down from the snowy mountains, through the thick red trunks of the great redwoods, and down toward the Red Obelisk where Richard stood, an instrument raised toward the pulsing red beam in the center of the floating monolith. Squinting at it he frowned before smacking it against his hand. "Worthless junk," he muttered, peering at it again as two numbers flickered on the screen before dying.

43 16

"Worthless piece of shit," Richard cursed, throwing the energy reading device down next to his other discarded gear. He reached for the notebook and flipped through his notes for a moment while muttering profanities in all the three languages he knew.

A cool breeze reached him and Apollo but he paid no heed as cool breezes often blew down from the mountains snowy peaks. The raptor chittered nervously, pulling at his tether while looking between Richard and the mountains and the Obelisk. Richard ignored him and went to the saddle bag to look for a spare battery. "Figures," he grumbled. "She should almost be done...and when does this stupid thing decide to die..." He pulled out a few items shards of Element and tossed them to the side. Those were a last resort. "You just watch, Apollo," he told his still nervous raptor, "we're going to miss it because some lame ass piece of equipment decided to...ah ha!"

Pulling out his last battery reserve, Richard turned to retrieve the discarded device. Apollo bite at Richard's arm to get his attention as the man moved away. Straining now, Apollo tried to get his rider's attention again but Richard was to far away. The wind shifted again but the old man was completely obvious as he switched out the batters, smacked the device a few times and grinned when the device flickered back on. "Finally!" he exclaimed, holding the monitor up toward the pulsating beam of light that emanated from center of the Obelisk. Then he frowned. "That's not right," Richard muttered, peering at the readings. "Shifts are normal, especially as the Overseer weakens but this..."

Without warning, the device sparked in his hand. Richard cried out and dropped it. Apollo screamed at it, yanking on his tether harder. For a moment, Richard could only stare at the device as a cold sense of dread washed over him. Glancing up, he watched as the red beam of light fluctuate from red to barely anything to white. Even flecks of blue and green began to dance around the edges.

It was only then that Richard realized the chill in the air, the smell of sulfur and burning metal, and the blanket of dread that had settled over them. His heart raced. The world was silent. There were no ichthys, no pelagornis. He glanced at Apollo and for the first time realized that his raptor was in a true state of panic to the point he was biting at the tether. It was as if the ARK was holding its breath and what was to come was not going to be good.

Richard spun, ignoring his journals and scattered devices, and yanked Apollo's teather free desperately. When the knot didn't work he grabbed the knife at his belt that Jenny always insisted he carry and cut the rope, grabbing Apollo's halter first so the raptor wouldn't escape. He didn't know how he managed to get on the panicked raptors back before he took off with no guidance from Richard.

Get out of there Morgan! Richard thought frantically. Behind him, that still silence seemed to be growing but he dared not look at the Obelisk now. Apollo was a well trained beast and if he was panicked - if the wild animals had fled - then whatever was about to happen...Richard didn't want to think of that. Something is wrong...something is very, very fucking wrong!

There was little warning. No sound, no rush of anything. Behind them, a wave of red energy exploded from the tower, causing it to shake. The blast hit Richard and Apollo, sending them flying to the beach nearly a hundred yards from the shore of the Obelisk's island.

He heard Apollo's scream before it was cut off by his own blinding pain. A fire ripped through him, like a bolt of electricity. Unable to do anything except scream silently. Images and numbers raced through his mind, some things he thought he recognized and a part of his mind tried to chase those fleeting revelations before they were whisked away along the river of light that coursed through him. He was being electrified, burned, but the sciences in him was suddenly fascinated by everything he saw, even if it was fleeting. Eventually, the pain began to fade even if he felt as if he was starting to go back to normal. He forced himself to look up.

Richard was sprawled on his side facing the Obelisk. He had no idea where Apollo was. He tried to stand but his arms were tingling to much and his mind was foggy. But he could see the Obelisk and the building ball of energy around it. His heart sank, knowing that one more blast like that could very well kill him. We're all going to die... He tried to get control of his body so that he could move but he couldn't. His body was on fire but the harder he tried to get control of his arms and legs the worse he felt.

With horror he watched as the next burst came racing toward him. It exploded like a nuclear bomb of crackling red-white energy. Even if he could move he had no place to go. He and Apollo were as good as dead at this point, that is if his raptor was even still alive. The scientist part of him was pissed that he would never know what was going to kill him. The human part was in terror at the face of death.

The wave hit the shoreline - and vanished.

Only the breath of wind left in its wake, tingling with electricity and power, washed over Richard. How long he sat there he didn't know. The fire in his body subsided and his senses began to return. Though it took much longer for his heart to stop racing. The waves lapped at the shore and the wind brushed over his overly sensitive skin like electric ice. He forced himself to breath despite the pain. Over and over again he repeated inhaling and exhaling until everything became clearer around him.

It was almost as if nothing happened. Except there were no animals, just as before. He stood, his legs shaky and unsteady. Not that he would admit how much later, but he was terrified. He had no idea what happened or why. His gut was twisted as several possibilities rose to his mind but he quickly pushed them away and looked around for Apollo.

There was a saddle, his gear scattered along the beach, but nothing else. Richard's heart sank as he half walked, half crawled to the twisted piece of leather. He didn't know what to say as he grasped it, half choking back a sob as he realized that there was simply nothing left of Apollo. He had vanished. Not even a feather remained.

Richard sank to his knees next to the harness, clinging to the leather. Moments ago he had been calm and collected, ready to learn the facts and reason with what had just happened as if it had been an earthquake or erupting volcano. Now, his emotions were threatening him. He was just a raptor, he thought, trying to to focus his mind. Just a raptor... A raptor whom he had raised, trained, and rode for the last few years. Who had been faithful all that time. No, Apollo had not deserved this fate and the more he thought about it the more pissed Richard became.

His frustration and anger gave him the focus he needed. Throwing the harness away he began to rummage through it, unstrapping the saddle bags and gathering his discarded gear. He would have to inspect everything later but he had a sinking feeling that nothing electronic was going to work. At least not without some modifications. Eventually, Richard returned to the Red Obelisk. He didn't want to but his journals had been left there. He approached the giant red pillar carefully, peering at it like a frightened antelope watching a tawny patch of savannah grass for a hungry lioness. He did not trust the Obelisk now, not after what had just happened.

The Obelisk sat like an innocent child who had just been caught doing something wrong. Nothing seemed to have changed but Richard kept glancing at it as he gathered up his scattered notes and other items. He muttered to himself as he did so, cursed at times, too. After finding his last notes he sat down to look at him, hoping they would hold some clue. Think, you old fool, he chide himself. Think...think...

Taking out a writing stub, he found a blank piece of paper and began to write down what he did know. This usually helped him focus, to think of the facts when his emotions were distracting. He tried to recall everything that had been out of the ordinary before the tower had exploded. The silence, the lack of animals and Apollo's panic; he vaguely recalled now the cold wind from the mountains and the sense of dread. He flipped through his notes, trying to recall his last readings. 43 16. It had been the last number he had seen on the meter he used to measure the energy levels of the Obelisk. But that number made no sense to him. It was no measurement of power, at least one that made sense to him.

So he turned the page of the journal and started over.

What other events were going on today, at least that he knew about? Morgan had gone to defeat the Overseer today. She had gone as she always had for they had stopped by the Tower the day before as always. She had Wraith this time though, which was unusual. He had asked why but she had only smiled, a smile he had never seen on her before, and said she would explain when she returned. In the morning they had left, traveling along the coast and up into the Red Woods. The TEK gate lay at the edge of the mountainous divide of the desert and the forest. It was a well known location. But she would have entered the gate late in the evening. The fight with the Overseer was a long, brutal one, he knew, but she should have finished by now.

The Obelisk, at least the Red one as it was the only one he had easy access to, often had fluctuations as the Overseer was fought. Small ones, barely noticeable to the naked eye but detectable with his meters. The fluctuations had seemed normal...

Right up until that puzzling number appeared.

The scientist in him knew that could not be a coincidence but he didn't know how to explain any of this. If Morgan had defeated the Overseer, what had happened to cause the Obelisks to explode? Something had gone wrong, he knew, and he prayed for the lives of those on the Observation Deck. Pausing in his notes, he looked back up at the Obelisk, thinking about Morgan and her sly smile that night at dinner when she had visited. He remembered it now, glinting on her finger, but he had never asked her about it. He had decided to wait until she came back. It was no secret, even though he knew Kenneth and Morgan thought it was, that they were involved romantically. Knowing that in this messed up world people could still find something as simple and true as love made getting up this morning worth it, in a way. He had been in high hopes watching her leave, thinking that love could protect her and bring her back to Kenneth.

Richard closed his eyes, rubbing his temple. If something had happened to Morgan he would never forgive himself. They were an odd couple but they worked and he liked both of them. He had pushed Morgan to keep going back to the Overseer, had pushed her into the woman and leader she had become. But his gut told him that she wasn't going to be coming back and if that ring had meant what he thought, that Kenneth and Morgan had decided to merge their tribes through marriage...

Opening his eyes, Richard stared at the pulsating light of the Obelisk. Harmless now, but he couldn't help but look at it in a different light. He stared at it for a long time.

It wasn't until he was aware of his own steadily beating heart that he saw it. A once complicated rhythm had been replaced by one as old as humans themselves and Richard paled at that realization. The pulsating light of the Obelisk was the same as a human heartbeat. Which was simply not possible. Like many other things on the ARK, the Obelisks had a very alien, technological rhythm. Some things went in three, like the three Obelisks, or in ones. But never something as...organic as this.

Richard flipped a page and scribbled several notes before standing up. He suddenly wanted to get as far away from this thing as he could. His brain hurt now, more than it had before. He needed to rest, he knew, and to get back to the Tower.

Whatever had just happened...there was no way it had just effected him.