Ben 10 Primix, chapter 27: Negotiating.
Summary:
Silvaros and Carl are bonding during the time that Bens creating Anur Vladias. Some mishaps occur and Ben almost short-circuits the ship. Silvaros keeps him contained while both of them try to ignore Verdona. Kevin, Eunice and Gwen start their dive into the Challenger Deep.
Gwen's view:
The creaking of the vessel made my heartbeat quicken. All three of us put on the helmet in case the vessel would break. Kevin cursed and activated a second set of pressure shields. It helped only a little as the pressure rose. A large snap was heard and the first crack appeared on our windshield, slowly growing in size. Our first attempt on contact was a fail apparently. "Kevin, start rising. They are not responding to the message… We can't stay any longer. Just imagine what this pressure would do to us." Eunice jumped up. "Wait, look out of the window." I shrieked. I felt bile rise in my throat. Just looking at it gave me shivers. I thought that it was a corpse floating under water. It was like a scene out of a horror movie. The only thing missing was the classic horror music to accompany the creaking of the ship. In front of our window drifted a translucent being. Its reddish skin tone did nothing to hide its innards. You could see his organs and blood vessels move beneath its translucent skin. Everything was moving in a rhythm.
It reminded me of the pictures of my biology class. The worst thing was its human appearance. The reason I thought that we were looking at a corps. Yet this being had no noticeable muscles or bones. It was sickening to see the actual blood circle in person and very distractive in our current situation. It had a slender tail and a larger forehead, yet it was still similar to us. Its organs clearly were similar to us; I could announce them all like those on biology dolls. Kevin cracked his fingers from the nerves. "Should we count it as a human? It's close enough to one, except for the tail?" Eunice smiled with a nervous tone. "Incredible, it could be the next form of the human's evolution. How exciting!" I was absolutely not as happy as Eunice. She was scanning and recording the being. Was she aware that it was still trying to kill us? The facial expression on the 'human' being seemed to indicate unhappiness. I would have thought that it was dead if its eyes hadn't locked on to us.
His mouth opened slightly. A low and rough voice spoke to us. "What do you seek?" His tone sounded angered. Wait a second? How could we hear him? The sound on the scanner was off. The shields around the ship should shield us from any sound? The blaring alarms should have drowned out any sound from the outside. "State your business or drown like your brethren!" Would talking work on this being? I glanced at Kevin. "Kevin can you activate the microphone?" He nodded. I tried to right myself from the fright I just suffered. "Like our message said, we are looking for a way to save the earth. We found evidence that the council intends to destroy the earth soon. We know that they intend to steal the water of our planet, kill the humans and take our planets core. We seek help from you, who have been protecting the core from the hands of the council!" The being sneered showing of his sharp and pointed teeth, very unlike humans. "None of you belongs to the homo sapiens! Do you believe that your brethren never tried this tactic before? None of you outsiders will ever reach the core, now die!"
The cracks in the windshield doubled in a second. A small leak had formed in the ballast shields. All alarms blared, giving me a headache. How should we get out of this one? This was unbelievable. We had traversed the entire universe and we die at the hands of our own indigenous species? We couldn't even fight for our lives, because the pressure outside could flatten us. Eunice yelled. "Wait, we have vital information!" Silly girl? How could he have heard that? The microphone was broken duo to the pressure. Yet the loud creaking of the ship eased up? The being showed annoyance at the interruption. "Speak without lies." How had it heard her? Could it hear the sound waves even inside the ship? Eunice sighed. "Sir, we are in the possession of a strong relic, capable of being an Ark. It could potentially copy the earth's core and all its living beings as a safeguard. If the council succeeds in any way possible, the planet and its core would remain safe and out of hand." The creaking ceased. Some of the alarms stopped blaring, but there was still a hole in the hull. I closed it with a bit of mana and those alarms stopped as well.
His low voice irritated my ears. "Then show me? All I can see are not homo sapiens!" I bit my lip and tried not to argue with him. Why did Eunice tell him that? This would endanger Ben. Yet it could be our only chance to get away with our lives. Eunice glanced at me and winked. I nodded. "It is at our ship. At the moment the artifact is recreating a planet formerly known as Anur Vladias." The eyes of the being shrank to slits. "Show me this artifact and you may keep your lives!" I glanced at Kevin who started the engines again. We slowly rose up. The beings low voice echoed in our ears. "How bothersome you beings are, can't even handle a bit of pressure." The tone of his voice was grating my nerves. It felt like he was laughing at us. It was still unnerving to even look at him. You could see everything inside him move at a pace. Even his brain was visible. He didn't possess hair, clothes and surprisingly no gender. It was only his form, organs and blood vessels that resembled a human. Would this really be our evolutionary form? It was rather horrific to look at if I'm honest.
After an hour of going up I contacted Verdona. She studied the monitor near her with a large scowl. "Gwen dear, what in the name of anodyne did you pick up? I do not recognize its race, yet it seems very similar to something… Wait, is that supposed to be human?" I gave her a grimace. "We are not sure Verdona; he might not fit the term Homo sapiens. Eunice thinks that he's in a different stage of evolution. He will not harm us if we show him proof that we travel with an 'Ark'. As long as we show him the 'device', he'll allow us to live." A low voice interrupted me. "And if I find you treacherous, I'll sink all of you to the bottom of this trench!" A grin spread on his face, showing of his teeth. "Drowning you like so many before you!" I noticed the shock on Verdona's face. Had she heard his voice too? She gulped, but why? Verdona was powerful as well, wasn't she? She could take him right? Verdona stood up. "I'll open the hatch of the hangar. Please wait beneath it." She closed the monitor and the image became black.
Kevin steered us beneath the hatch. The large hangar door opened and bathed our vessel in light. We had to blink several times to adjust to the light. A pink veil protected the surface once again and slowly pulled the vessel inside. The strange 'human' being rose out of the water and stepped into the hangar without a sweat. He didn't need to crawl onto the floor at all. Kevin used his switch to close the hangar hatch. After it closed he enabled the locks of the vessels hatch. With a soft puff the hatch depressurized. Yet it was stuck. Kevin growled. "During the attack, the hatch must have warped out of shaped. Let me handle this." His arm took over the metal of the vessel and he punched against the hatch. It slammed open startling Verdona a little. One by one we stepped out of the vessel, keeping our eyes on our guest. Eunice was observing our guest with obsessive eyes. It was creeping me out. Our vessel left a large puddle of water behind on the hangar floor. Should we offer 'it' a towel? I then noticed that not even a drop of water was beneath our guest's feet. Was this his ability? How could he belong to the evolution of the human race? I highly doubted that.
Eunice was exited. "Can you tell me about your species? How are you related to humans?" His facial expression turned grim. "If you don't show me the artifact now, I'll start sinking your ship!" A terrible groan could be heard and felt from the metal hull of the ship. Was it smart to bring him near Ben? No, absolutely not. We sadly had no way to escape without Bens help. "We will, but the 'Ark' is precious to us all and it's host is vulnerable at the moment. If you try to harm either of them, we will attack you, no matter the consequences!" It was better to keep a few facts hidden. If he, at least he sounded like a he, would target Primus, Ben and his universe would be safe. He surprised us yet again; he reacted without anger on my treat and calmly nodded instead. "Understandable. If you truly possess such an artifact, we the Dimidium sapiens shall protect it as well." I nodded in surprise. "Follow me, Verdona could you inform our other companions of his arrival?" Or rather warn them of him. Verdona nodded and floated away in front of us towards Ben's room.
The self-proclaimed Dimidium sapien made almost no sound while moving. It reminded me of so many horror movies that Kevin had watched. I glanced at Kevin noticing the same nerves, but also a bit of irritation. He didn't like being held captive with his life. Yet angering this being was bad news. We arrived at the locked door of Ben's room. Uncle Carl and Silvaros glanced at our guest with slight disgust. We should have warned them of his appearance to not agitate him any further. I had no doubt that this being could crush our ship and drown us. I could just feel some kind of…aura leaking out of him. It didn't feel like mana or energy. Aura was probably the best match. Seeing the closed door, the aura turned calmer, less oppressing. Verdona tapped me on the shoulder. "Allow Carl and Silvaros to guide him into the room. I wish to report our progress to you." I nodded leaving Kevin and Eunice in the hall. We both walked onto the bridge.
Verdona closed the door behind us. Her eyes were wary of the being we brought with us. She grasped my shoulder painfully hard. Her nails were digging into my suit. She closed her mouth, but I could hear her voice. {Gwen, I'm talking to you with telepathy. Don't use your voice or he'll hear us. Dear girl, he's very dangerous. His power can overpower both mine and Silvaros. My mana won't work on him, neither would yours. I never expected to meet such a powerful race on this mud planet. Somehow his power has completely enshrouded our ship. We can't escape even if we want to. Whatever we do, we must not agitate it. I can't save us out of this mess. Neither can Ben while he's in a coma.} I shivered at the idea. {We have to warn the others!} Verdona shook her head. {Silvaros and Carl already know. The felt it just like me, it strikes fear into the core of our very being. Your mana isn't as strong enough yet to feel the true might of him. And the worst part, there is another one in our vicinity.} I glanced at the large windshield of the bridge. I couldn't see anything on the monitors, but I could feel a more violent aura in the water.
Verdona gave a small pinch on my shoulder. {The power that enshrouded our ship doesn't come from our 'guest'.} Wait what? {What do you mean? You just said that our 'guest' was powerful?} She sighed with a slight shiver. {Yes the Dimidium sapien is, but something outside our ship is working together with it. Its presence is everywhere, like the water surrounding our ship. It feels as if that being is trapping us with the water itself.} I felt dizzy from her loud voice in my head… and the things she just told me. {So you think that our 'guest' is only a puppet for whatever is out there?} She nodded with a tired look in her eyes. {Tell me Gwen, did you see him move or talk when his attack reached you, any indicator that he would attack?} I tried thinking of his movements. The only thing we saw him do was talk. Every time he told us to die, the pressure would continue. {No, he only opened his mouth and threatened us. So his 'attack' might not even be his at all? Yet his aura is so strong. It sends chills on my back.} Verdona glanced at me in curiosity. "{Aura? Yes, that is a fitting name for this invisible pressure around us. Something we can feel, but not touch.}
I glanced at the door. {Should we join the others, to see how it went? We have been taking our time.} Verdona nodded and opened her mouth this time. "We need to think of a way to keep this planet out of the councils grasp. Our first priority after this is finding the purge ships before the council attacks. They could be anywhere." She winked at me. Her change of topic was so fast that it took me a while longer to react. She intended to make them accidently overhear this conversation. "Yes, they should've been spread around the earth already. We need a way to locate them. What if they are hidden in the water? Our planet surface possesses 71 percent of water." Verdona nodded with a grin. "We need their cooperation to find and destroy those purge ships." I nodded. "Let's discuss it after proving the Arks existence." This should make our cause believable. Verdona was the one to open the door again. As the door opened, we felt a slight change in the aura around our ship. This was proof that they were listening in on us.
We noticed Kevin, Silvaros and Eunice standing in the hallway. I fastened my pace towards Kevin. "How did it go?" Kevin's mouth twitched in a crooked smile. "Unexpected." Was all he said? I glanced behind me. Our 'guest' was kneeling on the ground with its eyes closed. His hand was on the hourglass symbol. His mouth made a soft humming sound. Carl sat on a stool near the bed keeping an eye on him. I stared at Kevin. "What happened?" Kevin scratched his chin were a few stopples were growing. "He ran into the room, yelled in a strange hissing language, knelt down while basically grabbing Ben's crotch and stared humming. That's it." I internally groaned from Kevin's short explanation. Carl shook his head and I motioned for him to speak. "Ben was nearing another power spike again. This guest stepped in and dispersed the building energy, while yelling at Silvaros and me. After he sat down, Ben's energy levels remained steady without any fluctuation. That's also the only reason that I'm even allowing him to touch Ben."
Our 'guest' opened his eyes and stopped mumbling. He did it so suddenly that all of us flinched in surprise. He resembled his movies counterpart perfectly. Kevin gritted his teeth in shame. His low voice pulled our attention. "You have proven your claim, although you have twisted some fact. The artifact is nothing more than a mere machine to regulate the Arks energy. The host is dealing with a core similar to Earth, possible even more powerful than Earths. I've asked 'them' for guidance." He glanced down while saying that. It was strange. He was kneeling, but it felt like he was still looking down on us. "I can feel that you told me the truth about his ability to create a second Earth and its core. Your Ark is still very young and needs some guidance that this artifact cannot provide him. 'They' shall guide his energy until the current process of creation is finished." Who were they? He called out to them like 'they' were his superiors. Was it the being outside the ship? "Why can't the artifact help him? It did so before?"
Our guest snorted. "This machine can't withstand the power of a core like ours. Nor could it handle the core he creates right now. The Ark has larger capabilities than this artifact can handle. It's best to remove it sooner rather than later." I noticed the satisfied smiles on uncle Carl's and Silvaros faces. Should I ask further? "We have yet to find a way to separate it from the Ark." Our 'guest' eyes focused on me, with slight understanding. "As soon as the Ark wakes, you shall present him to us. You'll dive with this vessel into the deep were we met. He'll be allowed near the core and start the process of creation. If you follow these, we'll allow all passengers on this vessel to life." Uncle Carl stood up from his stool. "I won't allow you to force my son." The 'guest' glanced at him with a snort. "It's wise to know that nobody has yet to face us and survive! If not for the Ark you would have face the same fate to keep those space dwellers from finding us."
He stood up in a fluid movement. "I shall take my leave. Be warned. If you dare run, you shall face death and we shall safeguard the Ark ourselves!" And he simply dissolved into a puddle before our eyes.
