NaNo Session 4

Late post! Bet you'd given up tonight. ;)

This...did not turn out how I thought it would. o_O

“An artifact? Like…what kind? Some kind of weird alien artifact?”

“Undetermined. Much of his research on the subject was encrypted, even from myself.”
“So many secrets,” Evan said, peering out the window. “I’m guessing you have no idea who this Galeth guy is, either?”

“He turns up only occasionally in the research notes on the database. He collaborated at different points on different projects, some of which were connected to the artifact that has now fused with yourself.”

“We’re here,” Derek said, pulling over the car. “Okay. Let’s see what he says.” They climbed out of the car. The station was largely abandoned - old with dirty windows and rusty pumps. A slender man with long-ish blond hair stood there, elbows resting on the counter, flipping idly through a magazine. He glanced up, apparently interested as they approached.

“Yes? Can I help you?”

“Er - well, are you Galeth?” Derek asked tentatively. A long silence. The man for a long moment didn’t move before the man gave a short, unconvincing laugh.

“That’s an outlandish name,” he said. “No, that’s not it.”

“Er - well, thing is - Frank Seghill told us to find you…” the man closed the magazine.

“Frank sent you, did he?” he said. “Prove it. You best leave the past in the past - where it belongs.”
“Please, sir - I’m his son,” Evan stepped up, drawing a deep breath. “His house was attacked by…by I don’t even know.”

“Ex-MagnaCorp Raiders,” Derek said. “He teleported us here, we have a car pre-loaded with Alice.”
“He actually got that AI of his working?” Geleth said incredulously. “I never would have guessed in the slightest. Alright, fine. You all look like you need some help…”

“He said you would have the coordinates,” Derek said. “And that you would help us.”

“It’s come to that at last,” Geleth said. “At last. The war’s back on?”

“War? What war?”

“I’ll explain later,” Galeth said, tapping a button and pulling out what appeared to a heavy duty laser rifle. “Right now? We have company.”

At that moment, a heavy black car rumbled up to the gas station, a dozen members spilling out from inside. They were already inside the car, surrounding the station.

“This doesn’t look good…” Derek said.

“You’re with me now - they’re not even a real challenge.” He smirked, pulled the trigger. A blue burst of light exploded the front of the store. A dozen members - fried and gone. Immediately, faintly electric images appeared, shimmering where they had once stood before coalescing together into a new form, a terrible shimmery ethereal figure identical to the one back at the house.

“What - what is that?”

“Trouble,” Galeth said, tossing the gun over to Derek. “Keep it at bay, if you would please. The gun’s set at the highest settings. It won’t quite kill it - you can’t really kill a Wraith…”

“A wraith?”

“Formed from bits of time debris, final thoughts of dying men, and a pinch of pocket energy stored in an Ingral Incubator. Very challenging materials! Someone is very well connected indeed to have something like that - you said ex-MagnaCorp? That would explain it-”

“And you,” he gestured to Evan. “You’re with me.”

“You can’t just expect to stay out here with that…!”

“Fire and keep it busy! Move, move, move, move!”

At that moment, the front of the station, the figure floated through.

“Your father is in captivity,” it droned. “We know all. You will come with us as well.” Derek fired the bolt, just as Geleth grabbed Evan’s arm and yanked him behind the counter.

“You have the Artifact. I can already sense it. Another one of Frank’s schemes that paid off.”

“Schemes?!”


“Alright. Now - there’s only little time before your friend there dies and is integrated into the wraith - you’re going to access the database and you’re going to use one of the schematics. Reshape whatever you need…”

“You can’t be serious!” A note of hysteria rose in Evan’s voice. “Reshape what?”

“Just concentrate. That artifact was full of blueprints for…well, machines, weapons - infused with your father’s personal touch, of course. You just need to summon the will, or this will all be for naught. Do you understand?”

Evan nodded, sweat dripping off his face. “You owe me an explanation,” he said. Geleth smiled slightly.

“Duly noted. Just concentrate, imagine the pyramid floating in the center of your mind…”

Evan did so. It came remarkably easily, time slipped away even as the gas station trembled and fell apart around them. A letter peeled off of it, presenting itself as a possible option for him to create. It reshaped itself, forming three horns, a crest and a thick tail-

He got up, though he was barely aware of doing it and lifted one hand. A sphere of energy appeared, rapidly forming into a three-dimesional holographic shape of a Triceratops. And then suddenly everything burst in the air, swirling in rapid formation all around the image. Metal from the counter top. Shards of broken glass. Plastic pop battles. Even the laser cannon pulled itself of Derek’s hand, disassembling into the glowing, translucent robotic Triceratops at its core-

A burst of light. Evan crumpled to the ground, a wave of weakness and exhaustion pouring over him. A small Triceratops, all sleek chrome and gold plating stood there facing the wraith. Lasers appeared on each horn, forming a triangle. A burst of light - the Wraith was completely gone.

Chapter Five

Derek stood stunned, at the wreckage of the gas station and the small, compact dinosaur that stood there. He blinked several times, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

“Did…did we just get saved by a robot dinosaur?”

“His father imprinted on the machine. It apparently reshaped its schematics to resemble the mightiest of the creatures that used to roam this world,” Geleth said grimly. “Help me move him - he’s going to be very weak for a while.”

The Triceratops, in the meantime, hadn’t moved.

“What about that?”

“It’ll come to us in due course. Using the artifact is draining - best if its hooked up to a machine instead of a person. We need to get to the coordinates and get off the world - preferably now.”
“Off the world…?”

“You didn’t really think something of that magnitude would be invented on Earth, now did you? I’ll explain as we drive. I assume the car’s still intact.” Miraculously, it was despite the flaming wreckage of the gas station.

As they lifted Evan up, the Triceratops obediently marched behind them, climbing in the car and standing, frozen, next to Evan.

“That creature is linked to him. It’s essentially a guard dog,” Geleth said, as they drove away. “Which is good - he’ll need it. We all will.”

“Now can you explain what’s going on?” Derek demanded. “I mean - Mr. Seghill was always pretty friggin’ weird but I mean - we were just attacked. Twice. You threw a laser cannon at me to fight off a ghost and we were saved by a robot dinosaur that Evan apparently created with his mind or something because he absorbed an alien artifact.”

“An excellent summary. Well put,” Geleth said. “And that artifact is at the center of it. What happened all those years ago, with MagnaCorp and all of that business - well, its merely the latest iteration of a long conflict. Your people were drawn into it - because some of my kind thought that the Artifact would be safe here. We were, obviously, wrong. We spent many years trying to hide it, and they attempted to find it. An arms race resulted.”

“And that spilled into that huge…whatever it was that happened,” Derek said. “But it ended.”
“The enemy was scattered and dispersed - its true. We knew they’d be back someday…highway 83, here we are. It’s a three hour drive, so we might as well be comfortable…”

“What if they come back?” Derek asked anxiously, turning in his seat. “They found us awfully quick…and how did the car survive anyway?”

“Force shields activated the moment you entered the vehicle. They protected against the damage caused by the Wraith and the men with guns.”

“Oh.”

“They won’t find us again?”

“Hypothesis: they tracked the teleporter and then attempted to dispatch another group.”

“And these people don’t have teleporters?” Derek asked. “I mean - if this was some sort of weird arms race and Mr. Seghill had one, they could have just used that.”

“He permanently disabled that teleporter as you left. There can be no going back,” Alice said. “The mansion and the estate are currently in the hands of the resurrected MagnaCorp.”

In the backseat, Evan groaned and sat up, blinking. “Where are we?”

“On our way,” Geleth said. “There’s still the matter of the Sentry to defeat and, of course, we’ll have to hope the ship is in working order. But one problem at a time.”

“We’re just leaving the planet,” Derek said. “Just like that.”

“Just like that.” Geleth nodded gravely. “We can’t stay on Earth - its much too dangerous. So, we’re departing for one of the hidden refuges - Karn’s Hold. It’s where I from.”

“I can’t just leave the planet! My friends - my family!”

“They’ll be in danger if you go back. The people hunting for you will assume they’re valuable and try to capture them too. The war is really just beginning…er - you know, I don’t believe you ever told me your names?”

“Derek.”

“Evan.” Evan sat up, as the tiny metal Triceratops lifted its head, finally unlocking.

“Right. Well - as I was saying. We need to mobilize the forces. The artifact’s here, next step is to reclaim the Forges. We’ll need him for that.”

“The Forges?”

“Yes. Frank had some ridiculous name for them - Quantum Fabricator or something ridiculous. The Artifact contains the schematics and blueprints for an army of machines. Whoever has it and the Forges together…”

“Creates an entire army. Powerful and deadly.”

“You mean that thing already exists?! He was working on trying to create it…”


“Trying to figure out how it works. He was funny like that, back in the old days. Now, look out. This
is going to be a long ride.”