The Machinist Child
You enter your small room which consists of just a bunk, desk with a chair and a small closet for change of clothes. You don’t mind the small space, you’re not exactly the type who likes to stay put for long periods of time anywhere. You un-holster your HAM Pistol (Heavy anti-matter pistol) and face plant onto your bed, quickly drifting off.
Off into a dream world, you see your wife and son. You beam with happiness as they run to you laughing. A warm glow is all around you as you embrace your young son. He looks at you with bright eyes, asking you to play a game with him. You ask him what he wants to play, he smiles as he thinks about it.
Quickly however, the warm lights fade away to darkness as your smiling wife and son are shrouded in shadows and petrified like statues. You try to shake your son awake but he is as cold as the dead, frozen. Dark billowing clouds emerge around everything and you hear the voice again.
"Garen….Garen…free us…. Please… free us."
You shout at the foreboding clouds even though the voice is everywhere.
“Free you from where?! Who are you?!”
"We are an enslaved people….the sphere… find us in the sphere…001.357."
“Coordinates? Are you in danger, who is enslaving you?”
"Be wary Garen Koda….The machinist child is the one who keeps us imprisoned. We are tortured by his followers….Save us from this evil…You will be greatly rewarded…”
The voice is ghostly and alien, you feel intense fear.
“Why me?! Why do you contact me to help you?!”
"You are our last chance….Time…Time… is slipping away…"
You awake in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. You look at the clock on your desk, 2 am. You quickly head to the cockpit of the Montezuma, Mora is still there, her eyes heavy with fatigue. She turns to look at you.
“Ahh..Nice to see you awake Garen. No changes so far, the engine-“
You cut her off “Take the manual controls and steer the ship towards 001.357.”
“What? Why?” She says surprised.
“Just do it.” You think now is not a good time to talk about the voice in your head if you can’t back it up with some proof, so you remain aloof with Mora. She adheres to your order and steers the ship in that direction. Long silence between you two as the ship drifts slowly toward the coordinates in your vision. After about 20 minutes, a strange object comes into view. A sphere.
“What…What is that ?!”
“Oh..My God…Mora, wake up Dr. Wun…maybe he can make sense of all this.”
Dr. Wun a renowned archaeologist enters the cockpit amazed at the object. After some quirky assessments with only himself he begins to speak as the grey metal sphere comes closer into view. You can already tell this sphere is absolutely massive.
“Well I must say this is an extraordinary find Mr. Koda, this discovery makes perfect sense to our little mystery!”
“How do you figure Dr.? Does this have anything to do with that outpost we were at earlier?” You ask.
“Yes yes it does Mr. Koda, very good! The team and I have been investigating a large colony that left earth over 2000 years ago and were never seen or heard from again. Various clues led us to this sector and now I can conclude what has happened to this group of rogue colonists!”
Dr. Wun continues between a large breath, the old man can barely contain his excitement, “The planets near this sector we have been investigating are all barren, but they were not always like this Mr. Koda! The others and I have theorized that almost every planet in the previous sector were stripped of all resources and used by the colonists for some sort of super project. It looks like we now know what those ancient colonists have built…a Dyson sphere! How wondrous!”
You look at Mora who seems as perplexed as you are.
“You’ll have to excuse our ignorance Dr. Wun, but what’s a Dyson sphere?”
Dr. Wun’s eyes light up, the old codger always gets amped up when he can spill some knowledge on the layman.
“A Dyson sphere is a uniform solid shell of matter surrounding a star. It captures 100% of a stars energy output allowing the occupants of such a sphere an endless supply of energy for a highly technological society. The idea has been theorized but never built due to the massive amount of materials needed to build such a mega structure. This must have taken them hundreds of years to build!”
The Dr.’s explanation raises some questions for you.
“Ok so they stripped dozens upon dozens of planets for the materials, but how did a group of colonists from 2000 years ago know how to put this idea into practice and actually succeed?”
The Dr. Smiles, “I’m looking forward to finding that out as well Mr. Koda!”
Off into a dream world, you see your wife and son. You beam with happiness as they run to you laughing. A warm glow is all around you as you embrace your young son. He looks at you with bright eyes, asking you to play a game with him. You ask him what he wants to play, he smiles as he thinks about it.
Quickly however, the warm lights fade away to darkness as your smiling wife and son are shrouded in shadows and petrified like statues. You try to shake your son awake but he is as cold as the dead, frozen. Dark billowing clouds emerge around everything and you hear the voice again.
"Garen….Garen…free us…. Please… free us."
You shout at the foreboding clouds even though the voice is everywhere.
“Free you from where?! Who are you?!”
"We are an enslaved people….the sphere… find us in the sphere…001.357."
“Coordinates? Are you in danger, who is enslaving you?”
"Be wary Garen Koda….The machinist child is the one who keeps us imprisoned. We are tortured by his followers….Save us from this evil…You will be greatly rewarded…”
The voice is ghostly and alien, you feel intense fear.
“Why me?! Why do you contact me to help you?!”
"You are our last chance….Time…Time… is slipping away…"
You awake in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. You look at the clock on your desk, 2 am. You quickly head to the cockpit of the Montezuma, Mora is still there, her eyes heavy with fatigue. She turns to look at you.
“Ahh..Nice to see you awake Garen. No changes so far, the engine-“
You cut her off “Take the manual controls and steer the ship towards 001.357.”
“What? Why?” She says surprised.
“Just do it.” You think now is not a good time to talk about the voice in your head if you can’t back it up with some proof, so you remain aloof with Mora. She adheres to your order and steers the ship in that direction. Long silence between you two as the ship drifts slowly toward the coordinates in your vision. After about 20 minutes, a strange object comes into view. A sphere.
“What…What is that ?!”
“Oh..My God…Mora, wake up Dr. Wun…maybe he can make sense of all this.”
Dr. Wun a renowned archaeologist enters the cockpit amazed at the object. After some quirky assessments with only himself he begins to speak as the grey metal sphere comes closer into view. You can already tell this sphere is absolutely massive.
“Well I must say this is an extraordinary find Mr. Koda, this discovery makes perfect sense to our little mystery!”
“How do you figure Dr.? Does this have anything to do with that outpost we were at earlier?” You ask.
“Yes yes it does Mr. Koda, very good! The team and I have been investigating a large colony that left earth over 2000 years ago and were never seen or heard from again. Various clues led us to this sector and now I can conclude what has happened to this group of rogue colonists!”
Dr. Wun continues between a large breath, the old man can barely contain his excitement, “The planets near this sector we have been investigating are all barren, but they were not always like this Mr. Koda! The others and I have theorized that almost every planet in the previous sector were stripped of all resources and used by the colonists for some sort of super project. It looks like we now know what those ancient colonists have built…a Dyson sphere! How wondrous!”
You look at Mora who seems as perplexed as you are.
“You’ll have to excuse our ignorance Dr. Wun, but what’s a Dyson sphere?”
Dr. Wun’s eyes light up, the old codger always gets amped up when he can spill some knowledge on the layman.
“A Dyson sphere is a uniform solid shell of matter surrounding a star. It captures 100% of a stars energy output allowing the occupants of such a sphere an endless supply of energy for a highly technological society. The idea has been theorized but never built due to the massive amount of materials needed to build such a mega structure. This must have taken them hundreds of years to build!”
The Dr.’s explanation raises some questions for you.
“Ok so they stripped dozens upon dozens of planets for the materials, but how did a group of colonists from 2000 years ago know how to put this idea into practice and actually succeed?”
The Dr. Smiles, “I’m looking forward to finding that out as well Mr. Koda!”