Chapter 3

Like Unto Me

Virgo POV

I wasn't afraid of dying, of course not. I couldn't die. I could, however, feel pain, and Virgo told me that not-dying was one of the most painful things she had ever endured. Besides, it would send me off somewhere unpleasant, far away from here.

Who are you? A voice, similar to the creature's wail, spoke into my mind.

You speak my language? I asked it, shocked out of my thoughts of death. It stood in front of me, about five feet tall hunched over as it was. It stood up to its full height, probably around six and a half feet, to talk down to me. Of course I speak your language; I am speaking through your mind. Whatever I say, you hear as your own tongue. Now, answer my question: Who are you?

The voice reminded me of nails scraping across glass, but not quite as harsh. I am Virgo. I come from a very far off place, searching for abilities that I might learn. I found your control of fire very interesting. My thoughts were still scared and confused, but I managed to reply to its question.

How would you go about learning my techniques, if you are not of this planet? It asked me. I felt confusion seeping through its thoughts, and tried worming into them without it noticing. I could tell that telepathy was the limit to its mental powers, besides striking fear into whoever it was talking to. Me in particular. I am capable of learning to do anything. I…read from the being's mind how to use the ability, and then I am able to perform that particular task. If you would allow me to read how you do the fire manipulation, I could show you first hand?

I could feel its uncertainty, clearly not wanting me inside its head. It didn't know that it was already too late, however. I had already slipped through all the minor blocks it had, and it had no idea that I was searching through its full capacity as we spoke.

Very well, I will let you see how to do it. If you can, then you will only be one of millions on this planet who can do it. Nothing special. It said as a sudden torrent of thoughts flew at me, pushing me out. I saw pictures on how to move the fire, bending it to my will. Instructions came in the form of words, with more images to illustrate them.

After around three minutes, a small burst of flame erupted nearby, hanging in mid air for a while. Grab it. The creature instructed. Using my new knowledge, I stretched my mind out to the fire. As though it were another limb, I pulled it away from its position in the air, over to my outstretched hand.

The fire was orange, as normal fire should be, but with streaks of green and a nasty yellow color. I folded the fire multiple times, until all that remained was a tiny flower, the size of a pea. It had the same brilliant color as the gem, the same shining radiance.

So, you spoke the truth when you said you could learn to do it. I am most impressed by this power of yours. What else can you do, child?

I don't know. This is the first place I have come to, to learn new abilities. My most prominent ones are control over space and time. I can be anywhere that I want, whenever I want to be there. I can also change my form. As I said this, I began growing taller, my skin wrapping tightly around my bones. MY skin faded to the deep green of his, I had discovered the human equivalent, and new limbs formed. Almost immediately, I was the same as him, except with the light blue streaks down my thighs that marked me as a female.

He stumbled back in shock, not expecting me to take the form of a female of his species. Is the fire control the most prominent power of your species? I asked, changing back into my own form.

Yes, we all can do it. No other powers, such as yours, are ever found among us. Aside from the mind-speaking, which you can do as well, the fire control is the only non-physical trait of our species. As you have seen, we can move at very high speeds. This is because we have immense control of our bodies, allowing us to perform many feats that appear impossible to your race.

Now, I have a few more questions, young girl. What planet are you from?

I contemplated for a few seconds before answering, gauging his mind for any possibility of them ever coming to Earth. Finding none, I felt comfortable in answering, I come from a planet very far away, called Earth. It is a blue and green planet, where there is a plethora of life. I supplied his mind with images as I spoke of the wonders of Earth, completely unimaginable to the denizens of this barren wasteland.

Stare into my eyes, and I will show you first hand the glories of the blue planet. I opened my eyes wide, allowing him to gaze into their infinite depths. I felt him trying to move around on his own, but I immersed myself in the world he saw, guiding him with my thoughts. We raced through empty space, quickly flying into the Milky Way.

The large blue planet flew towards us, and we entered its atmosphere quickly. Together, we flew over the most wonderful parts of the world, the parts that were not even figments of his imagination.

All too soon, we had finished soaring above the planet, and we returned to his own field of rock and fire. He stumbled backwards, shocked beyond comprehension, as he thought about all he had just seen. He had felt the glory of water through my memories, the brush of grass against your skin. That was…amazing! He exclaimed, enjoying reliving the journey he had just taken. How can a planet be so clean, so colorful?

It truly is a wonder. I must depart now, however. I am afraid that I will need to seal your memories, making you forget that I was ever here. I had been warned by myself about this. If I ever conversed with one of the denizens of a world, I must clean up after myself, leaving no trace. What? No! He shouted, his large eyes glowing faintly. That was an interesting way of showing surprise/anger.

I will let you dream of what you have seen, however. I will not leave you completely empty. Before he could make any further complaints, I froze time. I touched his head, and sealed the entire encounter behind the veil of consciousness. He would never again see this meeting while he was awake. Only in his sleep, would the visions of the blue planet visit him.

I removed myself back into space, allowing time to restart around that planet. I rushed away, leaving the rest of that lifeless galaxy far behind me.

As I flew, I felt a very large presence approaching me rapidly. I turned, and screamed in shock, my voice being drowned in the vacuum of space. Flying towards me was what looked like a jellyfish, but much larger than any jellyfish could ever grow to be. Although it was still very far away, its body seemed to be the size of a small planet, its tentacles far longer. Each tentacle hung so long, one could encompass the earth several times.

The massive fish then moved, its massive body pulsing, sending it through space towards me. It moved in large, slow waves, but each wave sent it far enough to cover the distance between Earth and the sun. It was merely three of these movements that brought it close enough for me to see inside of its large bell; It seemed to be a large colony of creatures, all moving and performing some task or another.

Instead of the typical formless masses inside of a jellyfish's head, the large structures seemed metallic, shiny. I flew closer to it, becoming lost in its mass of tentacles as it swam again. Each of the larger central tentacles seemed to be the diameter of the moon. The millions of smaller ones, several hundred miles wide. The entire structure glowed with a faint luminescence, a pale blue that penetrated the darkness of space.

I flew upwards in the mass of tentacles, approaching the internal organs that now seemed to be hubs for life. Suddenly, something large and metallic rushed past me. I turned but it was gone. Several more blurs streaked past me, and I froze time soon enough to catch one. Well, I could have caught them all, but I only wanted this one.

I turned and saw a light green metallic ship, about the size of a small house on Earth. I drifted towards it, but it was entirely opaque, allowing no insight to the confines within. I unfroze time, and it streaked off, weaving agilely through the massive tentacles.

As I flew higher into the belly of the jelly, these ships became more frequent. Every few minutes, a large group of them would blur by, leaving the mass of jelly.

I finally broke through the forest of tentacles, into a fairly open space. The main features, inside the bell of the jellyfish, were the large sacs, spaceships swarming all around them. There were a total of eight bulbs, a very large building on each of them. Ships would fly into these buildings, and others would fly out of them. The buildings were a similar color to the large sacs, and they looked like very shiny plastic. They were apparently much stronger than plastic, however.

Don't those buildings bother the jellyfish? I wondered. I extended my mind out, trying to find the consciousness of the great creature, but I found nothing but the minds of the inhabitants of the ships. I needed my questions answered, so I flew up towards one of these large stations.

I quickly found the entrance to the building and flew inside. I felt a light buzz as I passed through the doorway, only about one-hundred feet square. Obviously, this place was only meant for smaller ships. It makes sense though, with all the tentacles so close together. Nothing too large would be able to get through.

I landed on the ground, and I saw several beings rushing around, all of different species. I approached a human-looking being, and he turned to me. "Ilik gh snefnariat ktupt?" He said, but I stared dumbly. He looked human, but he spoke no language on Earth. Well, duh! I am nowhere near Earth, why would anyone speak an Earth language?

I entered into his mind and began speaking directly. What is this place? I am a wanderer, and I found this place exceedingly interesting. Never before have I found such a place in my travels.

Ah, a telepath. My apologies for not speaking to you properly, earlier. He replied. He was clearly at home speaking with his mind, and he knew how to block it well. I would need to focus to gain any leverage over his body, if I needed to. As for you question, this is a fuel center. For hundreds of thousands of light-years all around, planets have harmonized, sharing a common fuel source. It is known as flehrerin, and is produced in copious amounts in these great beasts. I did not recognize the word 'flehrerin', so it must not be anything from Earth.

These buildings harvest the flehrerin from the creature, and turn it into usable fuel for all small vessels. The tentacles provide excellent protection from pirates, and the jellyfish's skin is entirely impermeable. When one of these creatures was first encountered, it was fired upon by the heaviest artillery know to the galaxy. They did not even deter it from its course.

Now, we recognize the dangers of free flying fuel stations, but it is too profitable to pass up.

How did you get these massive stations onto the bulbs, if the tentacles prevent large ships from entering? I asked. I was now entirely engrossed by these magnificent creatures that I had found so disgusting a while back. Well, that was the hard part. You see, the tentacles produce an acid that burns away any metal, and also most other solid materials. Including skin, so don't touch them. Anyways, we found this material that is unharmed by the acid, and we were able to tow large pieces up to the sacs, where the acid is no longer produced.

Don't get me wrong, it was extremely difficult maneuvering through the forest of tentacles with a ship large enough to carry the glentin, let alone several hundred ships. It takes nearly three decades to set up this kind of operation, and sometimes the jellyfish swim away before it is completed. We have found a way to encourage the jellyfish to stay in this area longer. We just set off a large explosion in the direction we want it to go. It will change its course to find the disturbance. If it arrives before the explosion is gone, then it will feast on the leftovers. He explained all this very simply, as though it were not difficult at all.

So, are there any people here with 'special' powers? I asked. I still wanted to find new things to learn, and powers were really all that there was to learn. No, sadly. Even though billions of beings pass through this station every day, none are special enough to have powers. Well, except for the occasional telepath, like yourself, but those don't really count, since it is part of the species.

A sudden shuddering groan sounded throughout the complex, causing deep vibrations. What is-?

Shrill shrieking ripped through the air as all of the lights in the building turned off, leaving only the glow of the jellyfish outside to see by. I placed myself in a third person view, to see better, and I nearly screamed out loud. Flying around the complexes were several large glowing bodies, entirely formless. One of them flew into the building I was in, and I followed it with my sight.

I WOULD LOVE TO INTRODUCE MYSELF TO THE LIKES OF YOU. It began, taking the shape of a human. I AM KNOWN AS A DEITY, AN ALL-POWERFUL BEING OF THE UNIVERSE. It sounded like my idea of myself, just much more flamboyant. I SENSE A BEING LIKE UNTO MYSELF IN THIS ESTABLISHMENT. COME FORWARD, LITTLE DEITY, AND MEET YOUR FUTURE!