The TALE of the TESSERACT
35: The Ark of Infinity
"NOW!" Maruck exclaimed.
The scorpnak spun around the corner, with Arcadia mimicking his motion across the hallway gap.
The Dronox didn't even see it coming. Two plasma blasts sliced through the matter in the air, disintegrating the guards on contact.
"Let's move," Arcadia stated.
The scorpnak and the chimera advanced around the corner and past the bodies of the fallen Dronox, with the tharian engineer, Harko, in tow.
They were within the main prison block of the Kimplemvora Prison facility, a section adjacent to the spaceship Flight Deck 37, which was their apparent destination. The walls were a mix of green and blue shades, spread across hexagonal metal patterns. It was definitely "futuristic," but there was still a noticeable hint of prison.
Harko ran past the two captains and towards the sealed door.
"This should be the third security partition between us and the main lobby. The last one should be right after this one," the tharian explained, moving towards that door's holographic control panel. In a swift motion, he pulled the metallic plating off of the device to reveal the circuitry underneath. "Ah... this one is tri-sealed... it might take me a bit longer to crack it."
Maruck turned and pointed his plasma gun back at the hallway they had just passed through, guarding their position.
"Well..." the scorpank responded, "Go as fast as you can. I don't like the idea of just standing here in an inescapable dead-end."
"I think you might have spoken too soon..." Arcadia said, also raising his plasma pulser, a look of determination on his face.
Three more Dronox ran around the previous corner. One of the other two fallen Dronox must have sent a distress signal.
"Let's rock and roll," Maruck exclaimed. The two captains dashed forwards, rapidly firing plasma bolts from the barrels on the space-age weapons.. The flurry of energy smashed into Dronox defensive shields. The mutated faces of the creatures twisted into an unpleasant smile.
"You cannot harm us now!" the Dronox said, speaking in its distorted mechanical voice, "These shields are 100% resilient to plasmatic weaponry."
Arcadia let out a small laugh.
"Then obviously you didn't do your research."
With a motion of all four of the Chimera's arms, and wall of thick ice erupted into existence, forming a solid barrier between the two captains and the advancing Dronox. In another quick forward gesture, the ice wall accelerated forwards, smashing into the Dronox soldiers, and taking them, involuntarily, along for the ride.
Of course... their ride ended rather abruptly as they were smashed between the ice barrier and the prison wall on the opposite end of the passageway. They, quite simply, were not going to be doing much moving after.
"Excellent work," Maruck commented.
"Got it!" Harko shouted from behind them.
There was a noticeable clicking noise, followed by the sound of a door sliding open. Maruck and Arcadia spun around to see that Harko had successfully hacked through another security partition. The sealed door was now wide open.
"Then there's no time to waste," Arcadia commanded, running back up to where Harko was, along with Maruck.
The next room was an actual prison cell complex. It was a small and relatively claustrophobic hallway. As they walked through, the hallway intersected other perpendicular hallways once every 30 or so feet. Between each intersection was three distinct prison cells, with walls made of tritium and translucent shields as an external barrier. Each one had one or two beds, as well as other scattered miscellaneous items. As Maruck ran past each prison cell, he expected to see actual, well... prisoners.
But in fact... there was not a single creature in any of the cells.
"Harko," Maruck said, getting the attention of the tharian.
"Yep."
"Not to waste time... but... where is everyone?"
"The prisoners? From the little information that I've gathered, the Grox have taken all of them, and, well... added them to their army."
"And by that," Arcadia added, "He means they wiped their brains clean of all memories and emotions, exchanged a good portion of their body for cybernetics... and sent them to battle for the 'never ending glory of the Grox Empire.'"
"Yeah, something like that," Harko said.
The Scorpnak, Chimera, and Tharian came skidding to a halt in front of the final security partition. The door looked just as impassable as the previous ones, but Maruck and Arcadia knew from experience that they were no match for Harko.
"Another tri-seal. Give me a moment... I'm also quite sure that those suspicious footsteps in the distance are quite possibly hostile."
Maruck and Arcadia did another 180 degree spin, discovering, to their dismay, that two Dronox and one of the large and intimidating Insectrox were advancing towards their position.
"You guys again, seriously?" Maruck whined.
"What's the plan this time?" Arcadia asked, ignoring Maruck's rather childlike attitude.
The mutated Grox soldiers began a quick sprint towards the two captains. They were still a good 60 feet from where they were.
"Um... I have an idea. I've been meaning to try this out... cross your fingers that we don't all die."
"Wait what?"
Maruck raised his own arms, channeling the Alminar ability that had been bestowed upon him. He closed his eyes, focusing his thoughts on the shields that covered every prison cell all around him. They were all made of kronon energy, an expression of the electromagnetic properties of all matter in the universe. If he could just grab ahold of that power... and amplify it...
To the unbounded gratitude of the Scorpnak captain, his plan played out in an absolutely beautiful success. Arcadia watched in amazement as all of the prison shields around Dronox troops began to vibrate and distort, as if they had become the surface of moving water.
Seconds later, they exploded.
The exotic particles making up the visible surface of the force fields blasted in every direction. A shockwave of bright blue light blasted through the prison hallways, cascading outwards through every branching passageway. All of the hostiles were, inevitably, completely incinerated in the blast.
With the utmost control, by the time the shock wave had reached Maruck and Arcadia, it was nothing more than a light breeze.
Maruck opened his eyes.
"Wow."
That was all Arcadia needed to say.
"They're just like... completely gone. There is legitimately nothing left of them. Let's make sure that goes down in the book of awesome things that Maruck can do."
"Of course."
Another clicking noise resounded behind them, followed by the predictable sound of the security door sliding open.
"Let's go," came Harko's voice.
Maruck and Arcadia broke out of their trance, once again dashing through the open doorway. The next room was much larger than the previous ones. In that respect, it was the main lobby room.
The walls were made out of the same hexagonally organized metal. In fact, the six walls of the room were all organized as a single hexagon, coming to a stop at a large glass dome at least 30 feet above their heads. There were four visible entrances to the room, the one they had just come through, leading to Prison Block Alpha, the one across the lobby, leading to Prison Block Beta, a locked passageway into the administration offices, and a final sealed security partition leading to Flight Deck 37 and teleport hub.
That was their destination.
There was also a main desk situated near the administration door, containing multiple vacant computer stations. Above that was a large holographic sign reading "Kimplemvora Penitentiary." In the middle of the lobby were small waiting areas, each containing one or two couches.
This would have been incredibly easy. All they would've needed to do was cross the lobby and enter the Deck 37. Two steps... nothing remotely complicated.
But then... there was the figure standing in the center of the room. It was figure standing with a defiant smirk on his face. A figure of ultimate disgust.
Alan Marks.
"Look what we have here..." Alan said, his syllables blurring together into the evil tone that was common across all of current Grox leaders.
"Alan..." Maruck said, letting the word fall of his tongue like it wasn't true.
The human was wearing a powerful set of nearly pitch black Tritium Armor. There were basically no conventional weapons that could pierce that protective barrier. He carried no technology apart from the armor. He was unarmed... but they knew from experience that regular weapons were not in his arsenal of choice. They had something far worse to worry about.
"I'll do this," Arcadia stated in a defiant tone.
"Excuse me?" Maruck asked, looking towards the Chimera, "We're all in this together."
Arcadia took a deep breath, and responded - "No, this is my battle."
The Chimera stepped away from Harko and Maruck, approaching the center of the Prison Lobby, and the form of Chase's corrupt brother.
"I do not care who's battle it is. I shall destroy all three of you equally as easy," the human said, looking into the eyes of the approaching captain.
"Will you? Alan?" the Chimera said, rattling of the words rather quickly, "From what I've been told, you barely escaped your last confrontation with Chase. What makes you think you'll be just as lucky this time?"
Alan let a large smile come across his face. Arcadia was now feet from the human, who had yet to move at all.
"The past has no importance in what will happen today."
"The past has absolute importance, Alan!" Arcadia exclaimed, stepping even closer to the human, "You orchestrated the destruction of my entire homeworld. Millions of innocent chimera were slaughtered when you reduced Phyrchous to nothing but a spinning clump of magma."
"And what do you plan on doing? Avenging them? Please, it's over."
"It is never over. So long as I stay standing, the power of all those who you killed give me the courage to stand before you with no fear. You killed all of them! Every last one! Men, women, and children! Tisep! Gire! Draxus! Believe me, human, this is the beginning of the end for you!"
Maruck and Harko began to move forwards, in an attempt to join the confrontation. They were almost instantly stopped by a repulsive electric force field. A blast of energy from the suddenly visible barrier knocked them back a good 5 feet.
"But you're absolutely right, Arcadia," the corrupted human stated, looking around the infuriated Chimera and over at Harko and Maruck, "They will not be assisting you in this battle. This is fight between you and me. And by that extent, the end of you, Captain Arcadia."
Maruck and Harko we're getting back on their feet.
"Can't you destroy the shield?" Harko whispered to Maruck.
"I could... but I don't have enough control over that ability it to ensure that it doesn't destroy Arcadia as well."
Alan leaned in close to Arcadia to say one last thing.
"You're move."
High Security Vault Unlocked.
High Security Doorway Open.
The rather large and thick metal door split into two distinct halves, the large locking mechanism in the middle spinning until it too disappeared into the walls on either side. The entire door had a thickness of at least 5 feet of solid metal. Whatever was in here, required absolute security.
Roku, Chase, and Stekvan were back on the Tetradon Research Facility. They had been escorted to this location by Anson himself, who refused to give any information on their actual destination within the facility. It was rather eerie, in a way. The last significant thing that had happened was an ascended deity appearing at the announcements... asking them to come to where 'she really was.' Anson had almost immediately orderd Chase, Roku, and Stekvan to follow him back to the facility. The entire time he seemed flustered and angry. He kept murmuring to himself about having 'known all along.'
Cathy was also with the group, standing behind them.
Once the doorway was completely open, Anson passed through, followed by the three captains and his daughter. They were now in a small and cramped passageway. It was just barely big enough for all of them to fit through. The amazing part was... that all of the surfaces were made of a resilient and sturdy material... but it was completely transparent. Through this, they could see their destination: A gigantic spherical object suspended within a much larger cylindrical chamber. Their passageway was a bridge exactly halfway up the large cavern, creating a pathway between research station hallway they had come from and the suspended sphere on the other end of the passageway. This, of course, gave the impression that something was in the sphere. Huge beams of arcing energy were emanating from the distant walls of the chamber and slamming into the giant sphere, which appeared to be protected by at least six powerful kronon barriers. As they passed through the tight passageway, the captains watched as they moved through energy barrier after energy barrier, marveling at the unbelievable security.
"We are just above the core of the Research Facility. Our Quantum Reactors provide energy for this entire facility, but nearly 94% of it goes into maintaining this room. The area around this temporary bridge is a complete vacuum. There is no form of energy permeating anywhere in this chamber, apart from the kronon shielding," Anson explained, finally giving some answers, "It takes huge amounts of power to ensure that she has none. This entire facility was constructed around the core generators... but the original intention for the facility was the containment chamber... with the express purpose of trapping an ascended deity. We needed her... to find out what we could do. How ironic that she was the reason in the first place."
They reached the end of the bridge.
Retinal Scan Requested.
Anson placed his face close to the scanner. A small holographic grid scanned his pupils.
Identity Confirmed. Gregory Anson. You may pass.
Another incredibly thick door unlocked and slid out of the way. Stekvan and Roku gave each other a glance before following the scientist through the open passageway.
The interior room was not what they expected. All of the walls were transparent, just like the passageway they had exited. However, since they were now within the sphere, they were not seeing back into the large vacuum chamber, but into the interior of the sphere. Large rotating concentric rings were placed all around the glass room., slowly moving through a swirling mass of a mysterious liquid, one that gave off a faint purplish red glow. The actual shape of the transparent surface was that of a common rectangular prism, but the complicated fluctuations of color just beyond the walls, floor, and ceiling made it difficult to see exactly where central room ended and the rest of the glowing liquid insides of the containment sphere began. Because of this, it felt as if they were within the purple liquid, engulfed in a glowing purple field of energy.
But right at the center of room... was the prisoner.
Directly atop a small pedestal was a metal restraining chair, and sitting in that chair, bound by multiple shining energy ropes, was the same ascended deity that had projected herself to the announcement speech.
Yagoda.
Anson stepped in front of the creature, absolute disdain in his expression.
The creature had the same ominous features as before... one piercing eye, purple skin, and a shifting aura of energy.
"You lied to us," Anson stated.
"I never lied, I simply didn't fully reveal the truth," the deity responded, a smile breaking across her lips.
"My race spent thousands of years running from this collapsing universe! Why would you do that? Why would an ascended deity, the epitome of wisdom and enlightenment... take the effort to orchestrate the destruction of an entire existence!"
"I will tell you the truth, human. Today, you will learn why I am here. I was foolish. I accepted the offer of the Void, in my own self, with a plan to overthrow his power. It failed."
"Excuse me?"
"Besides, I am not here to talk to you, Anson. I am here to speak to my dear birdie."
Roku rolled his eyes.
"I hope to Spode she's not be talking about me."
"But I am, tharian. You may not remember me, but I remember you all too well."
Roku took a few hesitant steps forwards, moving up next to where Anson was standing.
"Tell me now, who are you?"
"I am simply fascinated by your ignorance."
Roku wasn't in the mood to show patience. He turned to Anson.
"Who is she?"
"She is an ascended deity from the Karadanth Universe. When the fabric of our universe began to fall apart, we were able to observe and study the ascended deities that move between worlds. Regardless of our confidence that this was not natural technology... we... we still took advantage of it. We grabbed hold of everything we could to give ourselves some kind of hope."
"Your species gained capabilities impossible and inconceivable," Yagoda said, "You gained the power to contain an ascended deity!"
"And we used it," Anson said, looking directly at Roku, "We captured her. We needed as much information as we could attain. Before we had launched the Tesseract... we were in the dark, and she was our best lead. We used all of our knowledge of ascended deities to build this chamber, an entire complex designed specifically to contain and nullify all capabilities of the ascended prisoner. Keep in mind, these deities are pure psionic energy... it took some major finagling to anchor the vast consciousness into a single restrainable physical form, not to mention huge amounts of power required to nullify her psionic presence."
"It is torture," Yagoda spoke up, "Not through pain, but through my state of mind. I was once capable of being omni-present, but now I am condemned to space and time!"
Chase took a few steps around Anson and Roku to stand on the other side of them. Yagoda shifted her gaze to the human in interest.
"Sorry if this sounds a bit basic or juvenile," Chase began saying, "But could someone give me a complete briefing on what an ascended deity actually is. I mean, we had theories back in Epsilon, but nothing with proof."
"Ascended deities..." Anson began.
"No," Yagoda interrupted, "Allow me."
Anson shut his mouth in annoyance.
"We, ascended deities, are the souls of reality. The ancestors of new life. We are the completion of the grand cycle of civilization and sentience, the ultimate goal of all knowledge and wisdom."
"Yes, but what does that mean?" Chase asked.
"It means, that if a civilization succeeded in not destroying itself, not being destroyed by another race, or not devolving into insanity... it reaches the stage I am at. Their knowledge and wisdom turns inwards... and they ascend. The life form will desert its physical body completely, instead reverting the ultimate energy of the soul and of consciousness. The life form will become completely psionic, unbound by physics and causality."
"Like... a god... almost."
"Some choose to think that. Some choose to use their power to observe the wondrous complexity of reality for the rest of eternity. Some choose to use their ability to create universes of their own. This is how the cycle comes full circle. They start new life, and watch as it grows and evolves within their existence. The only problem... is that once they do, they become anchored to their creation. They give themselves up to create it... to become it. They exist for as long as it does, nourishing and protecting its life all through its timeline... until the universe comes to an end. At that time, the ascended deity passes on with it."
"But you didn't do that."
"Precisely. I didn't want that... and I also wasn't content to float within hyperspace admiring complexity. I wanted more. I wanted the joy of shaping a universe without the fear of perishing, of hindering my own immortality."
"So what did you do?"
"She became a parasite," Anson butted in, "She hopped from universe to universe, using her powerful psionic abilities to bend the will of the universe to her own... Time between universes is not constant, it flows in an out of sync, making it very difficult to pinpoint the relationship between events in different worlds. But from what we know, she would find a universe created by another deity, drain the deity of its power... and then rule the universe herself."
"I was not attached to any existence. I was my own power," Yagoda said, "It was truly brilliant, if you think about it. I was a goddess, absolutely eternal, and had complete power. But, even in that grand success, there was something more... Someone had been calling me all that time."
"Let me take a wild stab in the dark... Agriath," Roku finished, having know immediately what to say.
"Agriath indeed..." Yagoda said in a sly tone, "All of the ascended ones know of his existence. As we travel through reality, we hear a voice in the distance, emanating from the absolute dread of the dark hollow. The entity whose sole desire is a return to nothing... continually screams at creation from the void. But one day... he contacted me. He spoke to me directly."
"And what did he...?"
Yagoda smiled. "What did he say? He gave me a directive. He promised me great power and an endless dominion of universes, if I were to carry out one task. One simple task... I had to destroy another ascended deity... by the name of Aurora."
"You can do that? You can kill other deities?" Roku said.
"Yes, but given the normal status of peace and wisdom that is within ascended deities, killing isn't action that is ever really considered. Reality is so vast, that we normally mind our own business, well... normally. Agriath knew what I had been doing, how I had been preying as a parasite on other universes. He knew that he could use me, for his own deeds. But, I am not foolish. I know, and always have known, what he truly desires. Clearly, my existence is not a part of his return to absolutely nothing. I needed a plan of my own. I wasn't going to mindlessly follow his commands."
"And so you..."
"I'll get to that. First, I did what he wanted. I wiped the psionic energy of the deity Aurora off the face of reality. It was quite a battle... but I was stronger."
"But... who was Aurora?" Chase asked.
"Haven't you figured it out yet? I'm sure Anson knows."
Ansons looked confused. "I know? How would I know who this 'Aurora' is... You've literally given us no clues other than..." He paused, an expression of awe covering his face.
Yagoda giggled in a creepy fashion. "Yes, that's right Gregory Anson of the Humans... Aurora was the ascended deity whose essence created this four-dimensional universe... Tetradon. She created your universe."
"And when you destroyed her..."
"Your universe began to die with her. Without the life-force of the being who had created it, Tetradon began to implode in upon itself. This, absolutely, is not natural... an event brought on only by the intervening of Agriath himself, through me."
"And why didn't you tell us all this before?" Anson shouted, obviously angry.
"You pulled me right out of hyperspace and into causality. You restrained me in this containment cell. You questioned me over and over again. Why would you expect me to tell you? You are the unnatural product of my intervention. You are a disease spreading across reality. Don't you realize? Because of what you did, a race in Epsilon followed in your footsteps... but didn't have nearly as much luck as you did. After that event was set in motion, I watched as Agriath's plan unfolded... his ultimate scheme to escape the Dark Hollow... to reach reality and tear it to shreds. He almost succeeded. You need to understand this: He wants more than just control over reality. He wants reality gone. If he had he been absolutely successful in reaching the interior of Tetradon, he would have been capable of tearing apart all of reality."
"What?" Anson said, disbelief in his voice, "Now that's just ridiculous. Yes, opening a portal to the hollow is basically just tearing a big fat chunk out of reality... but that's just a hole, and in just one universe. He might have been able to widen the hole, but..."
"You understand so little, human. You assume that all universes are completely separate, with little continuity. All universes are connected in a massive inter-dimensional lattice... a universal framework referred to by my ascended brethren as the 'Causality Lattice'. Quantum Hyper-Entanglement, an absolutely impossible technology, tears a portion of the lattice to shreds. And, just like a piece of paper, which is hard to pull apart when intact, but easy to shred once a cut has already been made... any rupture in the lattice results in terrifying instability. From all the knowledge of the ascended one's, reality exists as the symbolic embodiment of Agriath's prison. And... Quantum Entanglement is like unlocking the cell door."
This information, was, to say the least, a little bit shocking.
"Now... that's not to say the rupture doesn't require some form of amplification, something to add a huge amount of instability into the already present tear... a way to give the tear enough energy to shred apart the entire lattice. Once wide enough, Agriath himself could tear apart the rest of the Lattice... but he'd need something tangible and powerful to widen the initial tear to a massive enough scale."
"And where would he get that?" Roku said, "It's not like he ever actually got into Tetradon. The humans here closed the rift with their fail-safe just before he could pass through."
"And all of you, ungrateful mortals, can thank me for that." Yagoda now had a smug look on her face.
"Huh?"
"I told you already... I was always suspicious of Agraith's motives. Of course I desired the dominion of universes that Agriath promised... but I was still skeptical of if he would truly deliver. He claimed, back when he asked me to destroy Aurora, that after he got what he wanted he would leave a portion of reality for me to control. But, the moment I sensed his energy moving across the Causality Lattice... and towards rift I had indirectly caused you to create in Tetradon... I knew immediately what his motive was. I knew immediately why he had wanted me to cause the death of your universe... and I knew immediately that he had absolutely no care for what happened to me."
"So... then again I ask... why?"
"He wanted this universe to slowly die for two reasons. Obviously, the first was that he wanted to cause the creation of unnatural hyper-entanglement technology, so that a piece of the Causality Lattice could be torn... but he also wanted the surviving inhabitants of this universe to build a device capable of repelling the collapsing force of their dieing universe. He wanted to ensure that they survived long enough to complete the first objective. I was also tasked with ensuring that this happened."
Anson spoke up, "You can't be talking about... The Ark?"
"Yes, human. The Ark of Infinity. That network of concentric satellites with hyperactive energy cores sitting at their hearts... an endless source of power. The artificial construction where 100% of its potential goes into keeping this universe from imploding. Oh... had you yet to tell your three dimensional friends about it? It's quite a story."
Roku looked over at the Human scientist with a look of curiosity.
"Before we built the Tesseract," Anson explained, "and before we set our sights on capturing an ascended deity... we needed to find a way to survive. We had less than 20 years before Tetradon would completely implode. I had the inspiration for a device that could repel the collapsing universe. Dark Energy is the natural force that causes the expansion of a normal and healthy universe... so why wouldn't it aid us now?"
"So you created a sort of repelling force field?" Stekvan asked, now interested.
"In essence, yes. Dimensional breaches and Erratic temporal storms were raging across Tetradon. We needed a place to be safe and continue our research. It was a massive project... but it worked. We called our finished device the 'Ark of Infinity.' Long story short, it uses the same principle as an artificial gravity generator, but in reverse. In order to stop the barrier wall of this universe from fully imploding and vaporizing us... it was necessary to produce a repelling energy. To achieve this, we created a concentric series of large satellites orbiting around our artificial Gravity Well, which now coincides with the position of Pandora's Rift, along with the planet Ranau and this station, that are all connected and synced to the core of this Research Facility. The six stars in orbit around the Well are also part of this system. Concentration and manipulation of their gravitational fields is what powers the Repelling Field."
"So technically..." Roku began to say, "This entire area, the station, the six stars, the Rift, and Ranau are all within the Ark. You created a sanctuary in a sea of chaos."
"The area enclosed within the Ark's protective field is approximately the diameter of one light year, with the Stars sitting on the outer edge and what would later become Pandora's Rift at the center. With this system, we bought ourselves an extra 1500 years."
"But... oh so clever human," Yagoda began to say, clearly sarcastic, "Where do you think your miraculous inspiration came from? Not just for your precious Ark, but for the Hyper-Entanglement technology as well? Hm? Could it be... I don't know... from the one tasked by Agriath to ensure that this unnatural universe survived long enough to produce said entanglement technology in the first place?"
"Even if it was you that caused us to produce the Ark and the Rift, what does that have to do with what's happening now?"
"Everything, Anson!" Yagoda exclaimed, her voice ramping up, "I could not directly control all of the humans in this universe... and so, the only way to get you to produce hyper-entanglement technology was to whisper the concept into the minds of all of your top scientists... you included, Anson! Do you want to know where that unnatural technology comes from? Do you want to know why a technology capable of tearing a piece of the Causality Lattice to shreds even exists? I'll tell you... it's because it doesn't! Nowhere in the natural evolution of a civilization does this technology ever appear... ever! This was all according to Agriath's plan. It's simple, in a natural course of a civilization's evolution, it is impossible to move between universes without ascending. Therefore, it's impossible for any natural civilization to have any knowledge of the causality lattice, the dark hollow, or the Aether between universes... and therefore no knowledge of how to break through it! The only time you could even conceive of such a technology, is if you are already ascended! Therefore, my dear audience... Quantum Hyper-Entanglement is absolutely not natural!"
"And the only reason we created it... was because you influenced us... just like you influenced our creation of the Ark of Infinity..." Anson said.
"Exactly. But, I couldn't just give you the way to create Entanglement... that wouldn't work... as you'd have no understanding of the concepts. Now do you see? That's why you're universe needed to collapse. Agriath wanted you to see the way that hyper-reality worked... so that you could understand all of the concepts necessary to create Quantum Hyper-Entanglement... to create the device that would allow him to escape."
Everyone listening remained silent when Yagoda paused.
She continued, "But of course... that method of teaching came with its own risks... you're death. If Tetradon imploded too quickly... you would die before the technology came to be. That was why I also influenced the creation of Ark of Infinity... almost exclusively through you, dear Anson."
"That's the only reason the Ark exists?" Roku asked, "To keep the Tetradon humans alive long enough to release Agriath?"
"I thought so too... but I was wrong. Like I was saying before, the moment I saw Agriath moving towards your universe, I realized his true motive. He was going to use the outward forcing power of the Ark like a bomb. An explosion of Dark Energy with the same magnitude that is necesarry to hold the barrier walls of an entire universe in place could easily cause massive damage to the tear you had already created the Causality Lattice. Remember what I said before? In order to truly cause a collapse of the Lattice, Agriath would need a massive energy explosion with enough power to widen the rift you had created. And thanks to his, in all honesty, brilliant planning, he already had that."
At this moment, everything clicked in Roku's mind.
"Dear Spode..." Roku said, taken aback, "He had it planned from the start."
"What?" Chase said.
"It all makes sense," Roku continued, "Agriath couldn't escape the hollow and destroy reality naturally, because reality was the thing keeping him at bay. He used an already corrupt deity to not only cause the humans of this world to open a rift to the Dark Hollow... but to have the inhabitants of Tetradon produce a device that could aid in his victory... AND ensure that the first part of the plan came to pass."
"And you realize what that means, right?" Yagoda asked
"Yes, and it's horrifying... It's a double edged sword. There is no correct answer to the problem."
"What do you mean?" Anson asked, a little worried.
"Agriath needs the Ark of Infinity to bring about the end of... well... everything. If he is able to reach the Ark and direct all of its power at Pandora's Rift..."
"The Lattice comes crashing down - and not long after - reality with it," Yagoda added.
"But, we need the Ark to survive. If you were to just destroy it now... Tetradon would implode instantly, all of the energy from the Ark falling into the Rift... and... and..."
"Nearly the same result would ensue... A massive portion of this Aetherical plane would be destroyed. In that scenario Agriath may not be present to rip all reality to shreds, but it sure as heck would do some serious damage. Right now you guys are sitting on the weakest point in all of reality... a schism in the Lattice that is terrifying unstable... an area of space-time being held intact by device that is equally capable of ripping it apart far... far more."
Chase was blown away. "But... but since Agriath is in a mortal body right now... if reality was destroyed, he would die too... right?"
"Yeah... and so would everything else."
"Fair point."
There was a tense silence of contemplation.
"But he didn't succeed," Yagoda said, continuing her long explanation, "The moment I knew for sure that he wanted nothing more than the destruction of everything, I closed Pandora's Rift. Well... technically I used my psionic ability to strongly suggest one of your scientists activate the fail-safe closing procedure. Using a portion of the Ark's repelling power, specifically the gravitational fluctuations generated by the orbiting stars, you were able to hold the Rift shut indefinitely."
"You... saved us?" Anson said.
"I saved everything, human. I should never have trusted Agriath. He would never have given me a 'dominion of universes.' Why would he?"
"I suppose that's one thing we can be grateful for," Anson stated.
"Not entirely," Yagoda continued, "You outraged Agriath... as... as he didn't really know of my intervention. He had been so close to escaping the hollow. He had spent an eternity waiting for the perfect opportunity. Waiting for an ascended deity that he could commune with... one that would actually listen to him. He found that, finally, in me. But then... you closed the rift before he could escape."
"So, technically, it's all your fault then..." Chase said, looking directly at the creature, "You're the reason that everything is happening... You're the start of the chain reaction... the thing that caused the fall of Tetradon, of the Jaxxod... and now, once again, the potential destruction of everything. But then... what happened after that?... After you saved this universe... what did you do?"
"I watched over it... There was no way that I could fully restore Tetradon, as a universe can only truly be empowered by the deity who created it. I just watched as the humans continued to survive. I watched as they built the Tesseract. I had no influence in that matter. It was merely the humans own brilliant planning - a way to cheat the rules of the universe, without having to worry about Agriath's domain. It would have, and should have been, absolutely successful. Anson, I don't think you realize how close you were... you were on the verge of creating the inter-dimensional alliance that you wanted. There was nothing stopping you. The plan was literally brilliant, something I hadn't even thought of... producing a simple static teleport bridge and creating the receiving end by advancing another species in the other universe... simply elegant."
"What are you trying to get at?" Anson asked, in a serious tone.
"You missed one crucial element. And then, thanks to variables beyond your control, the one mistake was amplified ten-fold."
"We know... someone planted a virus within the Tesseract launching software... it ricocheted the object way off course in Epsilon's time stream."
"Yes, such a tragic incident. In truth, I dearly wish I could tell you who it was. But I cannot," Yagoda admitted.
"Wait... Ms. All-seeing deity can't solve the simple mystery of who planted the virus into our mainframe?" Chase asked, a little taken aback.
"No... I can't... I'm not omniscient, Anson. I wasn't giving your project much crucial attention until the day that the Tesseract's destination was sent askew. Backtracking in my memory I was unable to find anyone who had done anything suspicious to the Tesseract's launching algorithms during their production."
"How...?"
"In this regard, you know just as much as I do," Yagoda stated, "I have no idea. All I know... is that someone among the scientists here is not to be trusted."
Everyone gave Yagoda a look of exceptional unsurity.
"And no it's not me," Yagoda stated, "What I was trying to say was that you made one tremendous mistake in the production of the Tesseract."
"And what's that?"
"Having created it like a super-monolith powered by 4D in 3D potential energy... you wrapped up all of your knowledge into the cube... hoping to bestow all of your advanced knowledge onto the receiving human race in Epsilon. One problem... you wrapped up all of your knowledge. Not just powerful manipulation of dark energy. Not just unbreakable energy shielding. You gave the receiving species a basic subconscious understanding of the way hyper-reality operated. You gave every race that encountered the Tesseract that unatural capability to create Hyper-Entanglement technology of their own. Like a disease, it spread to the Jaxxod of Epsilon. And thanks to the mishap with the destination of the Tesseract... that mistake became a glaring flaw... more so than Agriath could have dreamed. There is no 'time' in the Dark Hollow. The same Agriath that tried to enter Tetradon was the same Agriath that managed to enter Epsilon 300 billion years ago from that universe's perspective. We may interpret a difference that we call time... but Agriath does not. In the end, he succeeded. He made it into reality."
"But why didn't he just... destroy reality from within our universe?" Chase asked, still puzzled at the entire situation.
"Because he didn't have the Ark of Infinity..." Roku realized, "He needs that powerful outward forcing source of energy to shred apart the Causality Lattice. Without it there was no point in completely obliterating Epsilon. That's why he didn't just destroy our galaxy when he arrived! He didn't want it destroyed... yet. He wanted to use the inhabitants of our universe like an army to... Oh it all makes sense!"
"What does?" Anson asked.
Yagoda was beginning to smile. They were getting it now.
"Everything that's been happening! At first, I had no idea why the Grand Master was so desperate to come to Tetradon. It all makes sense now... he needs the Ark of Infinity to wipe out reality. Since, way back when Stekvan sealed Agriath's essence into the galactic core the Master Staff of Life fixed the Rift that the Jaxxod had created in Epsilon... now... Agriath has no other option. The only way for him to destroy reality is to come to Tetradon and collapse the Ark of Infinity into Pandora's Rift... just like he originally planned. That would finally bring him to the victory that had been delayed over and over again by various means.'
"No..." Stekvan said under his breath.
"But to do so..." Roku continued, "... and to attain everything he needs to make that plan come to pass... he needs a powerful army to back up his currently mortal form and to help him get everything set in place for his invasion of Tetradon. Once he reaches here he can pass directly through Pandora's Rift and into the Hollow... regaining all of the power removed by his long presence in Aeron's Galactic Core. He would once again become the nearly all-powerful Archon Lord that he used to be... the way he was during the fall of the Jaxxod. After that he could easily... he could..."
Yagoda finished for the stuttering tharian.
"Use the Ark of Infinity to obliterate all of Reality."
That last comment caused a complete silence among everyone in the room.
They were at the precipice of understanding. This had been Agriath's plan all along.
This was exactly what he had wanted.
Was there any good news?
Yagoda resumed her explanation, "In order for any of this to come to pass, Agriath needed to get ahold of the Tesseract. Once the New Tharians got their hands on it, and became what they are now, there was no way a single faction of the Grox would have been powerful enough to take them down. He needed an army resilient enough to take out the New Tharians in one fell swoop... and he could only find that in a single, unified, and fully coordinated Grox Empire. By that same extent, he would only be able to swiftly take control of the Grox if their cybernetics were all unified in a single Grox Matrix Core. After all, nothing would be worse than for Agriath to die in his mortal host body. He wanted a guaranteed victory. I may have had a part in this re-unification, but that's besides the point."
"What then..." Roku asked, taking a deep breath and composing himself, "What did you do afterwards?"
"Honest to Anu... not long after that, I was captured here. They saw me... and placed me in this spode-forsaken prison chamber."
"That's it?" Chase said.
"Yes, that's it... what? Trust me, it was just as anti-climactic for me as it is for you. Funny how fate works out... that I was captured by technology that wouldn't even exist if it weren't for my own meddling."
"Yes... ironic indeed," Anson said.
"So all of that is the past... what do you want now?" Roku said as a final question.
"I want Agriath destroyed. I want reality saved. I no longer desire a dominion of universes... I simply want the existence of all universes. Even if you don't believe me. Even if you still think I am the dark creature I once was... then believe this: One cannot rule universes if there are none to be ruled. I will help you to the absolute best of my ability. I will stop Agriath."
Roku didn't speak for a moment. The situation presented a seemingly impossible choice.
"Can we release her, Anson?" Roku asked, turning to face the scientist.
"As much as it may be tempting, I simply cannot allow it. You may risk your own life... but you will not put the lives of my fellow humans at risk. Releasing her is putting this entire universe in danger. She helped Agriath multiple times... albeit with alternatives motives... but all the same, she did not desire good for either of our universes. She cannot be trusted... she is a threat."
Roku looked back at Yagoda.
"Are you simply going to stand there, Roku Azero?" the deity asked.
"I am not going to challenge Anson to anything. He's right. We cannot trust you, regardless of anything you've said or done for us today."
"Then the war is already over..." Yagoda muttered, "Besides... you have a bigger problem at hand."
"And what's that?" Stekvan asked.
"What... you haven't figured it out yet? It's rather obvious in my opinion."
"Yagoda..." Anson muttered under his breath.
"Alright... Alright... The Grand Master didn't just send you here to learn a whole bunch of wonderful information from you'rs truly. He was testing out his quantum gateway... trapping you here."
"What?"
"He deactivated the gateway on Thar, shutting off the connection between the two universes, for now at least. I sensed that right after all of you arrived. There is no way for you to return home. You are stuck here."
"This ends today!" Arcadia shouted, charging into battle.
He pulled his arms back and then sliced forwards, activating the potent energy blades strapped to his wrists, giving him a clear shot at hitting the human standing before him.
Instinctively, Alan responded. The human almost gracefully jumped backwards, dodging the incoming blades.
Arcadia, not wishing to be in a vulnerable position, quickly reset his arms, jumping backwards as well.
"Anxious to fight now, are we?" Alan said, again in his annoyingly smug voice. He was standing straight up with his arms crossed, the tritium armor giving him a powerful form of defense.
"Don't get too confident, human." Arcadia shouted, accelerating forwards. With a quick motion of his arms, a spear of solid ice was brought into existence through the water molecules in the air. Grabbing hold of it with his right arms, he tossed it forwards like a javelin.
Alan threw his arms up in defense, a wall of fire erupting and forming a protective barrier. As the ice spear flew through the field of molten heat, it almost instantly vaporized into liquid water, falling to the ground with an anti-climactic splash.
"You're going to have to do better than that, Chimera," Alan stated, smiling.
Alan dashed towards the Chimera, bringing his arms down to his side. Between his palms, a bright sphere of plasma was forming. Right as he got near the Chimera, he brought it up, opening his hands and releasing the energy.
A torrent of flames was released at Arcadia. The heat from the blast could be felt all around the Kimplemvora Prison lobby.
Arcadia immediately brought all four of his arms up in a block position. A solid wall of ice erupted in front of him, forming a solid wall between him and the advancing column of death.
The fire torrent smashed into the ice wall, slowly eroding away at the barrier. The ice was inevitably subject to melting.
"You can't hide forever... Arcadia," Alan stated.
"I don't need too," the Chimera responded coldly.
Arcadia made a large forwards push motion with his arms. The wall of ice obliged, dislodging from its position in the ground and blasting forwards, directly at Alan.
The human was taken by surprise for a moment, but quickly compensated. He dropped his arms, stopping the flow of the fire beam. An instant later, Alan made an impressive jump upwards clearing the ice wall. He proceeded to perform a second jump off of the top of moving ice wall, just before front flipping and landing effortlessly on his feet. He stood back up and looked towards Arcadia, who easily had a look of frustration on his face.
"You will not be rid of me as easily as you thought," Alan said.
The human brough both of his arms up, pointing them directly left and right, with his palms facing outwards.
Suddenly, the temperature began to rise. The area within the shield was experiencing an extreme increase in temperature. This couldn't be good.
An aura of flames was building up around Alan's body, and before Arcadia could do anything, it exploded outwards. In a radial blast, a wall of fire was sent hurtling in all directions. At the last second, Arcadia threw one of his arms up, creating a second ice barrier. As the heat from the blast smashed into the ice wall, it caused an almost instant warping of its shape, bending it into a concave, almost shield-like appearance.
The blast of fire continued on past Arcadia, smashing into the actual energy shield that was isolating their battle. The entirety of the kronon barrier was visible in that instant. It was a large hemisphere, extending up at least 20 feet above where the Chimera and the human were fighting.
The heat from the blast was so intense, that once the fire had dissipated, Arcadia's ice shield was gone.
"So, you are not easily killed either," Alan said, looking at the Chimera captain with a mock 'impressed' look.
"The first correct thing you've said so far."
Arcadia launched himself forwards, using his powerful Chimera legs to give him an impressive jump. As he was in mid air, he channeled his alminar ability to create four separate ice spears, one in each arm.
"This ends now!"
Arcadia thrust all of his arms together, sending all four objects on a collision course with the human. In response, Alan did the unthinkable. He jumped up, using the accelerating ice spears as mid-air platforms. With a large evil smile on his face, Alan created another large energy sphere between his hands.
"Indeed it does," Alan said calmly.
They were now both in mid-air - Arcadia falling and Alan moving upwards. Alan threw his arms forwards, smashing the plasma orb directly into the Chimera's chest. Another large explosion of fire, this one not nearly as forgiving.
The plasma blast sent Arcadia hurtling towards the opposite end of the lobby, where he collided with the shield and slid slowly down to the ground.
Alan landed back on the floor, the ice spears having impacted the metal behind him.
"Come on Arcadia. Did you think I wasn't trained extensively in battle techniques? It's over. Stop now."
"Never."
Arcadia jumped back to his feet, taking a few large breaths before charging at Alan again.
This time he was not going to back down. There would be no hesitation.
With one of his arms, he charged up another ice spear. With the rest... he channeled a large cloud of extremely low temperature, directing it at Alan.
To the humans surprise, he suddenly felt ice build up all across his body. He couldn't move, his body was being frozen in place. To the humans dismay, his form was quickly enclosed within a large block of ice.
Following up this action, Arcadia readied the ice spear in his arm. He grabbed hold of it firmly, and then thrust it forwards with all of his might. The large chunk of ice easily sliced through Alan's ice enclosure, directed on a path that would have passed through Alan's body.
That had to have worked.
But Arcadia did have doubts... and his doubts were confirmed.
Moments later, the ice enclosure began to melt. Not long after that, it instantly vaporized into a puddle of water. Alan was completely unschathed.
"Did you honestly think a spear of ice is going to be able to penetrate this armor?" Alan asked, moving across the now soaking wet floor and towards Arcadia, "It's solid tritium. Frozen water isn't going to accomplish anything."
"I am just getting started Alan."
"Are you? You look pretty exhausted to me."
"You don't understand. I will never stop. No matter what happens... I will continue to fight!"
Arcadia extended all four of his arms, producing a large torrent composed of a violent and swirling blizzard. It was a single beam directed at Alan, containing nothing but spinning snow, hail, and sharp chunks of ice.
Alan smiled.
With his own power, he created a beam firing in the opposite direction, this one containing plasma, thermal energy, and an aura of fire.
They collided in the center of the prison lobby.
A shockwave blasted outwards in all directions, slamming into the shield just as before. It was a battle for dominance and power. The two beams were pushed back and forth, both members of the battle trying with all of their might to obliterate the other. A steady flow of water was pouring out of the collision point between the two beams, making a thin and slowly rising layer of water underneath the battle.
"No more!" Arcadia exclaimed.
Arcadia's ice beam suddenly grew in power by several orders of magnitude. Not prepared for the assault, Alan's plasma beam was quickly enveloped in the incoming ray of frost. Seconds later, Alan was hit directly with a flurry of ice and wind, knocking him off of his feet and sending him flying backwards a good 15 feet.
Without delay, Arcadia sprinted over to where Alan landed. Before Alan could get back on his feet, he was enclosed within another ice prison, this one locking him to the metal floor of the lobby. However, Arcadia intentionally left Alan's head out of the enclosure.
The Chimera captain slid to a halt and pulled out his plasma pulser, pointing the barrel directly at the head of the trapped human.
"Make any attempt to escape and you're face will be instantly treated to a blast of exotic energy."
Alan smiled, and didn't make any struggle. "What's this going to accomplish?"
"Before you die. I need an answer. What happened to Roku, Stekvan, and Chase?"
"Those three? Oh, I assure you you'll never see the three of them again."
"The truth, Alan!"
"Why should I tell you? You're just going to kill me anyway."
Arcadia didn't respond to that comment, he simply stood his ground.
"Do it then," Alan said, staring into the eyes of the Chimera, "Kill me, the brother of Chase. Kill the one he grew up with... the only member of his family left. Come on... do it!"
Arcadia's plasma pulser was shaking. He had to make a choice, right now. He had the ability to kill Alan without remorse. He had the ability to avenge all those who were killed on Phyrchous.
But would he?
He had waited too long.
"Arcadia, look out behind you!" Maruck screamed from behind the shield.
The Chimera felt a blade press up against his neck.
"Too late," a cold voice whispered into his ear.
It was Veara.
She had a nasty habit of showing up at the worst possible times.
One of the Artlen's arms was firmly grasping the Chimera by a pressure point, while the other had a glowing red dagger making light contact with the lower part of Arcadia's neck.
"It's a blade laced with pure archon. If you even get so much as a scratch... you're dead," Veara hissed, her face position just next to Arcadia's right ear.
Alan, now free from possible annihilation, melted the prison around him. He stood up, water dripping off of his armor.
"How did you...?"
"Short-range teleport. Did you honestly think the Grand Master would send Alan alone out here to kill you? Please."
Arcadia's mind was racing for a possible escape. He could only think of one.
"Maruck!" Arcadia shouted, carefully trying to make sure that his neck moved as little as possible, "Can you destroy this shield?"
"No, not without killing you too," Maruck responded, anxiously.
Arcadia thought for a moment, and then realized what needed to happen.
From the bottom of the Chimera's feet, a sheet of ice began to form. It shot out in every direction across the floor. As it reached the dome-like shield, it began to crawl up the sides. The ice was forming in the shape of the shield, creating a solid and visible wall just in front of the position of the shield.
"What are you doing, Chimera?" Veara asked, snidely.
The ice completely enclosed their position. The shield was hidden behind the dome of ice.
"Now Maruck!" Arcadia shouted, hoping the scorpnak could hear him.
He did.
Maruck channeled his own ability, focusing it on the kronon barrier. The shield vibrated and distorted, before releasing all of its energy in a massive cascade of exotic energy.
The energy smashed into the ice barrier, disintegrating it in the process. The energy from the cascade also accelerated upwards, filling in every area of the lobby it could reach.
Maruck himself was channeling his own power to protect his body from disintegration.
The metal of the walls was heavily damaged in the process. Thankfully, the ice barrier had provided just enough matter to satisfy the exotic energies ravenous appetite. Veara, Alan, and Arcadia were safe, but, like Arcadia had planned, the shield was gone.
The energy from the collapsing shield hit the glass window at the top of the lobby. It shattered on contact. A downpour of sharp shards of glass was now raining towards everyone in the lobby.
Veara looked up to view what was happening. Perfect - Just a moment of distraction - exactly what Arcadia needed.
The Chimera reached up with his right hand, grabbing the arm Veara was using to hold the dagger against his throat. He pulled it away from his neck, proceeding to spin around on the spot, allowing his long Chimera tail to smack Veara in the chest. This knocked her back and sent her skidding across the floor. The dagger went spinning off in a random direction, slowing to a stop.
Not wasting any more time, Arcadia generated another ice shield above his head. He looked across the room to see the Maruck had ducked underneath one of the random desk scattered around the lobby. Veara and Alan quickly activated shields built into their armor.
The glass rained down on all of them, impacted the respective protective barriers. After a good 15 seconds a shear chaos, everyone in the lobby had managed to survive the downpour of lethal objects.
As Arcadia threw his shield off to the side, he felt a sudden and especially undesirable increase in temperature directly behind him. The Chimera looked over his shoulder to see Alan standing there, his arm outstretched, with another plasma orb readied in his hand.
"Veara may not have been able to kill you, but I will!"
Arcadia was not prepared. He had no armor, no protection. This blast would kill him. He needed a miracle.
BAM.
A huge explosion took everyone off-guard. As Alan fired his plasma orb, it went ricocheting way off course, as its controller had been thrown off of his feet. Arcadia collapsed to the ground, and Veara, who was standing back up, was thrown off balance.
The doorway to the Flight Deck... The doorway to the section of the prison facility that had been their destination... was gone.
All that remained was a massive crater in the wall, the edges of which were signed with glowing plasma. Behind the breach was Flight Deck 37. But at the center of that... was something far more amazing.
Arcadia realized what was happening. While he had been battling Alan... Harko had hacked the final door between them and Deck 37. He had gone in and taken it upon himself to use one of the spaceships weapon system to obliterate the wall between them and the Flight Deck itself.
Regardless of that, it wasn't the fact that Harko had used a spaceship to blow a huge hole in the wall of the Prison facility that was surprising. Far from it.
It was what spaceship Harko had used to blow a huge hole in the wall of the Prison facility that was so jaw-droppingly unbelievable.
Hovering before Arcadia, was something he absolutely couldn't believe.
A piece of technology he had through was destroyed.
The crown-jewel of New Tharian space vessels.
The Tharak.
And in the cockpit of said vessel, Arcadia could see a smiling and waving Harko. The entire vessel was just big enough to fit inside the lobby, although it didn't move past its position.
The tritium glass that composed the front part of the cockpit split in two and spread apart, giving a clear view of the pilot.
"I guess this is what happens when you don't destroy a valuable piece of New Tharian engineering," Harko said from within the Tharak, "I suppose you guys thought it would be smart to move the Tharak off of Phyrhcous before it was destroyed so that you could study its rather original and unique twin dark energy engine design... created by yours truly... but in the end... it was kind of stupid." The tharian was looking down at the four fighters in the middle of the lobby. "I guess this is what Roku meant by 'something of incredible use.' Hah! You bet this is of incredible use. Oh and wait a minute, that's right! I have teleport beaming technology! Oh... and yeah, even better... Veara had to disable whatever nullifier this moon had to get here... how convenient!"
"You will not escape!" Alan shouted in retaliation
"ASCEND!" Harko exclaimed.
"No!"
It was too late.
Two beams of light shot out of the belly of the Tharak, engulfing Maruck and Arcadia. To the absolute dismay of both Veara and Alan, they were situated within the spaceship shortly after.
The cockpit of the tharak closed, with Arcadia and Maruck placed safely inside.
"Engage engines! Full speed short of FTL!" Harko commanded.
The computer obliged. The engines ignited. The Tharak blazed upwards, blasting outwards through the now open ceiling. Veara and Alan could do nothing but stand in the center of the lobby and watch as the heroes escaped.
Maruck and Arcadia didn't even have time to sit down. The Tharak blazed out of Kimplemvora's atmosphere, the inertia of which sent the two captains smashing into the back of the ship, their bodies pressed against the metal thanks to Newton's first law.
"I didn't say I wanted to leave!" Arcadia shouted, "I had unfinished business with Alan!"
"As does Chase. But for you, it would have resulted in death," Harko responded, attempting to pilot the Tharak and speak to Arcadia at the same time, "We can't worry about grudges right now. We have a mission."
"What is our mission now?" Maruck asked.
"We head straight for the Tharian Control Tower. We need to find and re-activate whatever this 'Quantum Gateway' thing is!"
"Wait... you know how to fly the Tharak?" Maruck shouted.
"I built the Tharak!"