Remus: Sorry for taking so long to get the first chapter up. Anyway, if I manage to finish this and Shadows and people like them, I've thought about doing other stories which take place within the main storyline. Email me your thoughts.
"Tell me again why we have to test these things?" The 17 members of the DSS Explorer's command crew were preparing to test the ship's escape pods. "Someday we might need them." "I know, but why do we have to test them? Can't someone else do this sort of thing?" "I dunno, I guess it sets a good example." The plan was for everyone to strap in, jettison the escape pod, prevent the rockets from firing, then get picked up by a launch. But the best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray, and the rockets fired. "This is okay, they'll just catch up and then rescue us, right?" "DigiPort, dead-ahead!" "I told you guys we should just stick with cold fusion and not mess around with trans-dimensional power sources, but did you listen? No! I told you that having the ship exist in more than one universe at the same time would create random portals, but did you listen? No!" "Shutup!!" A wave of energy passed over the craft as it rocketed out of dimension 124 and onward toward a troubled world with an unkown future.
"Mark, we've just picked up a high-speed crash in quadrant 3, see to it, over." "Spy plane?" "Unlikely. Energy signatures are consistent with an extra-planetary origin." "I'm on it. Those damned Autocrats keep meddling in our affairs."
The command crew, meanwhile, had landed in what appeared to be a junkyard and were trying to get their bearings. "Where are we?" "Well, judging by the level of technology these people are throwing away, I'd have to say Earth." "Somehow I just knew we'd end up back here." As Mark moved silently between piles of trash he decided that he'd need to have his audio sensors recalibrated. He was sure he'd heard a female voice, or maybe two, but Autocrats were genderless, and grown in laboratories. It'd been centuries since Autocrats and Terrans had been even remotely the same. No matter, he thought as he leaped over a tractor-trailer and leveled his R18 Devastor at the invaders, they'd die like the scum they...weren't. He looked from one to the next, unsure of who they could be. They sure didn't look like Autocrats, although he'd heard rumors...no, these beings were definitely Terrans, but Terrans rarely left their planet, and when they did, everyone tracked them. "You're clearly not allied with me, so unless you'd rather die, you're all prisoners of the City-State of America."
The captives began talking all at once. "You can't do this!" "I thought America was a country." "If our digimon were here, they'd-" "Hold on, digimon?" Mark the Ironfist stopped their chatter when he heard a word he recognized. "Digimon, eh? How'd a bunch of Digitalists manage to get into space and back out undetected?" "What are Digitalists?" "What, did your latest failure give you guys amnesia? You're a cult based in Japan that keeps trying to open a portal to some other world so that you can follow your 'Digital Gods' into space. Weird people." "Who are these Digital Gods?" "According to Digitalists, the Digital Gods were a group of humans who opened a gate to another world - a digital world. The creatures that lived their supposedly called themselves Digimon. The Gods befriended these Digimon and did great deeds with their aid. Then, for reasons that Digitalists don't know, the Gods left Terra to travel to other worlds. Digitalists believe that if they purify themselves and Terra enough, the Digital Gods will return and will bestow wealth and magical powers on all who the Digitalists see fit, then take some of the cult members to join them among the stars. If you ask me it's all a bunch of baloney. I mean, the only people who've ever left Terra are Autocrats, and they certainly haven't found any - hey, what's so funny?" The digidestined were laughing hysterically over this description of them. "You gotta be kidding, people worship us?" "Wait a minute, you don't really expect me to believe that you're the Digital Gods, do you?" "Call us what you will, but we left Earth 1000 years ago, and when we did, it was still called Earth, America was a powerful country, and nobody thought we were gods."
Mark had no proof that they were telling the truth, but he knew how to get it. He walked up to the nearest one and jabbed her with a needle from his finger. He analyzed the blood sample and concluded that at least one of them was born 1060 years ago, give or take a decade, and in another dimension at that. A dimension which didn't exist anymore because it had merged with his during the Great Upheavel. "Well," he said to them, "if your DNA is anything to go by, you guys are who you say you are." "Amazing! Our descendants have created robots that can analyze DNA on the spot! Score one for science." Mark snorted. "Your science must not be as good as ours if it takes a robot to do that." "You-you couldn't possibly be just a cyborg. There's nowhere near enough room inside the human body for that kind of equiptment." "Haven't you ever heard of - no, you wouldn't have." "Heard of what?" Mark sighed, and then he told them the story.
"Tell me again why we have to test these things?" The 17 members of the DSS Explorer's command crew were preparing to test the ship's escape pods. "Someday we might need them." "I know, but why do we have to test them? Can't someone else do this sort of thing?" "I dunno, I guess it sets a good example." The plan was for everyone to strap in, jettison the escape pod, prevent the rockets from firing, then get picked up by a launch. But the best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray, and the rockets fired. "This is okay, they'll just catch up and then rescue us, right?" "DigiPort, dead-ahead!" "I told you guys we should just stick with cold fusion and not mess around with trans-dimensional power sources, but did you listen? No! I told you that having the ship exist in more than one universe at the same time would create random portals, but did you listen? No!" "Shutup!!" A wave of energy passed over the craft as it rocketed out of dimension 124 and onward toward a troubled world with an unkown future.
"Mark, we've just picked up a high-speed crash in quadrant 3, see to it, over." "Spy plane?" "Unlikely. Energy signatures are consistent with an extra-planetary origin." "I'm on it. Those damned Autocrats keep meddling in our affairs."
The command crew, meanwhile, had landed in what appeared to be a junkyard and were trying to get their bearings. "Where are we?" "Well, judging by the level of technology these people are throwing away, I'd have to say Earth." "Somehow I just knew we'd end up back here." As Mark moved silently between piles of trash he decided that he'd need to have his audio sensors recalibrated. He was sure he'd heard a female voice, or maybe two, but Autocrats were genderless, and grown in laboratories. It'd been centuries since Autocrats and Terrans had been even remotely the same. No matter, he thought as he leaped over a tractor-trailer and leveled his R18 Devastor at the invaders, they'd die like the scum they...weren't. He looked from one to the next, unsure of who they could be. They sure didn't look like Autocrats, although he'd heard rumors...no, these beings were definitely Terrans, but Terrans rarely left their planet, and when they did, everyone tracked them. "You're clearly not allied with me, so unless you'd rather die, you're all prisoners of the City-State of America."
The captives began talking all at once. "You can't do this!" "I thought America was a country." "If our digimon were here, they'd-" "Hold on, digimon?" Mark the Ironfist stopped their chatter when he heard a word he recognized. "Digimon, eh? How'd a bunch of Digitalists manage to get into space and back out undetected?" "What are Digitalists?" "What, did your latest failure give you guys amnesia? You're a cult based in Japan that keeps trying to open a portal to some other world so that you can follow your 'Digital Gods' into space. Weird people." "Who are these Digital Gods?" "According to Digitalists, the Digital Gods were a group of humans who opened a gate to another world - a digital world. The creatures that lived their supposedly called themselves Digimon. The Gods befriended these Digimon and did great deeds with their aid. Then, for reasons that Digitalists don't know, the Gods left Terra to travel to other worlds. Digitalists believe that if they purify themselves and Terra enough, the Digital Gods will return and will bestow wealth and magical powers on all who the Digitalists see fit, then take some of the cult members to join them among the stars. If you ask me it's all a bunch of baloney. I mean, the only people who've ever left Terra are Autocrats, and they certainly haven't found any - hey, what's so funny?" The digidestined were laughing hysterically over this description of them. "You gotta be kidding, people worship us?" "Wait a minute, you don't really expect me to believe that you're the Digital Gods, do you?" "Call us what you will, but we left Earth 1000 years ago, and when we did, it was still called Earth, America was a powerful country, and nobody thought we were gods."
Mark had no proof that they were telling the truth, but he knew how to get it. He walked up to the nearest one and jabbed her with a needle from his finger. He analyzed the blood sample and concluded that at least one of them was born 1060 years ago, give or take a decade, and in another dimension at that. A dimension which didn't exist anymore because it had merged with his during the Great Upheavel. "Well," he said to them, "if your DNA is anything to go by, you guys are who you say you are." "Amazing! Our descendants have created robots that can analyze DNA on the spot! Score one for science." Mark snorted. "Your science must not be as good as ours if it takes a robot to do that." "You-you couldn't possibly be just a cyborg. There's nowhere near enough room inside the human body for that kind of equiptment." "Haven't you ever heard of - no, you wouldn't have." "Heard of what?" Mark sighed, and then he told them the story.
