By: Sufficient_72958

After the morning prayer, Michael was finishing eating his meal with his brothers. He felt the moist crisp morning air rush in through his nostrils into his lungs. He was about to set out with the caravan of a local merchant towards the port of Dyrrachium, and then by ship to head for the city of Acre. He was sent by his superior to carry aid to pilgrims trying to reach the holy land in these difficult times. Rumors of looting by Saracens as well as devils suffocating travelers in their sleep circulated in the taverns. Although Michael, as a learned man, doubted the truthfulness of most of them, he could not refuse his superior’s command. How could he be worthy to stand before the Lord if he now proved to be a slacker and a coward?
“Michael!” He was snapped out of his reverie by a trader’s call. “It’s time to hit the road.”
“Indeed, chase the oxen and I’ll catch up with you,” he replied after which he set off for the cell to grab the provisions packed in the panniers for the road.

Location: star system Dalsgaard-3, Virtual research torus supervised by Adaptive Mainframe Management and Diagnostics OS. Active environments: 3. Suspended environments: 5 Star status: expected coronal mas ejection, stable. Probability of data loss: 0.511. Transferring backup image to outer layers… Probability of data loss: 0.002

On the roof of the fortress, the commander of the mercenary group was giving a briefing. “It’s a simple job. Four people have gone missing from the southern fortress since spring. They paid us to patrol the surrounding caves and promised an extra ounce of copper for each person whose fate we manage to determine. They were probably eaten by some wild beast as they were hiding from the storm, or similar shit like last time.” He walked over to a chest standing nearby and pulled out a leather canteen. “You know the rules, you each get one, use it when you want, but if you don’t return it I’ll deduct from your pay. We will meet at this place in three days.” Jargoon went to get his ration after which he flew to search the forest area to the far south.

Location: star system Dalsgaard-3, Virtual research torus supervised by Adaptive Mainframe Management and Diagnostics OS. Inbound object detected. Object wasn’t on whitelist schedule. Transmitting “Nothing_to_see_here_4.2” data packed…

After a few days of wandering, Michael reached a place where a river flowing down from the mountains bounces north of the path, flowing through muddy plains. Walking west from that point, he reached the coast from which he could already see the port city. The view was definitely more dignified than the odor he soon smelled. He could feel that the fishermen would be complaining about the low prices rather than the scarcity of fish. Near the old amphitheater he began to look around for an inn where he could find a merchant willing, as a godsend, to take him across the sea.

Jargoon, as he expected, found nothing special in the area he had come to investigate. Trees, stones, more trees, a forest clearing with a grazing hare, the smell of roast meat…. ‘Wait a minute, I think I’ll be richer by those few coppers after all. I just can’t see anything from here through the bushes.’ Overjoyed, he landed as close as conditions allowed then went in search of the missing. He didn’t expect to see what he found. At the entrance to a small cave stood 2 massive wooden cages with 2 emaciated figures staring straight at him with terrified eyes. On a debarked log, now serving as a table, lay a severed head with intestines crumbling underneath. To the right, other body parts were baking on a hot stone in the middle of a bonfire. His legs buckled under him at this sight. He dropped to the ground and crawled over to the survivors closely watching the entrance to the cave. “What’s going on here? Who caught you and how many are there?” He asked in a whisper. He didn’t have to wait for an answer, because at that moment 2 coal-black figures came out of the cave holding a large basket. They approached the fire after which they took the roasted meat and marched back into the depths with it without a second thought. “Please, hurry up! When they emptied the area of animals they started eating us” He heard a desperate voice from the cage. “I’m a scout, sit tight. You will be home before noon” He lied. ‘No one pays me for heroism. Scouting is done, it’s time to collect the cash and fuck off closer to the capital.’

Location: star system Dalsgaard-3, Private Space Vessel Stop Abuse Now Initiative

Capitan painfully woke up. His thoughts were foggy, but still able to command a ship. To reduce weight he was a part of the ship as a brain in a jar. It was much the most economical way to send complex stuff at speeds near “c”. Any artificial neural network system was vulnerable to ever present radiation coming from ship colliding with stray hydrogen atoms in vacuum of space. There were three possible options: using a bulky, power inefficient and slow but resilient CPU arrays, using a modern nano-quantum processor shielded with thick lead walls and a leading deflector drone along the path or using cryopreserved cell culture to incubate an integrated neural system on the site. He known that it was a one way journey when he sign up for this expedition, but if he manage to accomplish his mission and send data back on Earth, he will be cloned back to live with old memories before this torment. By the law citizens can’t duplicate their beings, but changing form was allowed as long as number of individuals was the same. Every previous probe send to this system was sending data that didn’t match up with telescope spectrum. This was evident proof that System Government officials were hiding something here from public view, but nobody knew what to expect. Capitan initiated outside telecoms and sensors to ‘take a look’ on the system and start a scan. Around a red dwarf was a megastructure made of semitransparent layers of interconnecting rainbow-sheen sheets of nano-conducting fabric. According to analysis the whole thing wasn’t rotating, but rather counteracting gravitational pull by reflection of the solar wind. Real time made adjustments was visible in form of ever-changing translucency of fabrics. With his mission fulfilled he initiated transmission of incoming data as he started retrograde burn of remaining fuel.

Michael chuckled for the third or fourth time. The sea was choppy, and on top of that, the wind direction was said “to have sucked”. He didn’t know anything about sailing, but the crew was pissed so he didn’t argue. Only the thought that by enduring the hardships of the voyage he would redeem the Lord’s favor raised his spirits. If the storm stops they should reach their destination in no more than five days.

Jargoon started running immediately after talking to the prisoners. His clothing did not resemble a uniform in the slightest, so it won’t take them long to understand that help won’t come in anytime soon. Desperate men who have nothing left to lose are as dangerous as darklings. Apparently, the blacks decided to slaughter another prisoner, and in despair he revealed that he was nearby. He was already out of bows firing range when he heard the sounds of commotion in the camp behind him. Several blacks rushed toward him through vegetation. ‘I’m on the wrong side, the keep is in opposite direction. Hmm.. but their camp is not far from the edge of the island.’ He thought after which he rushed out and took to the air towards the cliff. ‘Since they threw themselves into the chase as they stood they will be unprepared for long-distance flights. They’ll have to turn back quickly to avoid collapsing from exhaustion.’ However, the black abominations didn’t bother with such cheap logic and continued the chase. ‘I won’t be able to fly much farther, it’s time to cheat’ He reached into his belt for a jug of honey-healing concoction and emptied it greedily, then began to slowly bounce to the right so as to fly parallel to the shore with a smirk.

Location: star system Dalsgaard-3, Virtual research torus supervised by Adaptive Mainframe Management and Diagnostics OS. Collision trajectory detected. Origin of object: man-made. Object will intersect computing matrix 11 times before deorbiting into photosphere. Starting shutdown procedure. Saving results with redundancy factor 2. Sealing core to SPORE domain.

880 years later

Location: star system Dalsgaard-3, Autonomous Maintenance and Repair Hub A. [info]Boot type: 0x2. 3831.02.12 15:28:04 source: Kernel-Boot [info]System resumed from low-power state. 3831.02.12 15:28:04 source: Power-Troubleshooter [info]WLAN module started successfully. 3831.02.12 15:28:05 source: WLAN-AutoConfig [error]Server {Caretaker-31D-420} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout. 3831.02.12 15:28:10 source: DistributedCOM[info]Changing mode of operation to auto. 3831.02.12 15:28:10 source: Kernel

Location: star system Dalsgaard-3, Autonomous Maintenance and Repair Hub B. [info]Boot type: 0x2. 3831.02.12 15:28:04 source: Kernel-Boot [info]System resumed from low-power state. 3831.02.12 15:28:04 source: Power-Troubleshooter [info]WLAN module started successfully. 3831.02.12 15:28:05 source: WLAN-AutoConfig [error]Server {Caretaker-31D-420} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout. 3831.02.12 15:28:11 source: DistributedCOM [info]Changing mode of operation to auto. 3831.02.12 15:28:11 source: Kernel

Something happened to the word. Without any warning the sea has calmed down, there was a loud thunder and a strange light appeared in the night sky. Michael was puking on deck when it happened. When he looked up he saw clouds moving apart like… like nothing he saw before. Dark clouds was somehow pushed away from the sky above his head and this new strange star was now as bright as a full moon. ‘This must be a sign from Lord’ he thought. He ran to aft of the ship and whispered:

“Katepano! I suggest to order a sermon to saint Nicholas of Myra to beg his intercession.”

“YOU ARE NOT in charge on this ship!” Was the only answer.

Not long after that he heard a scream: “Folks! I see an angel coming to us from the heaven!” shouted one of sailors and began to cry and pray on knees. Michael looked up in direction the crewman was starring and indeed there was something gliding down on its massive wings.

Jargoon felt strange sensation when he was on the run from darkling pursuit group. One moment he exhaled air and in the blink of an eye his chest inflated like rotting carcass of a deer. With pop in his ears the day turned to night and warm air currents were gone. He turned head back to take a glance at the chase. Four black bodies fell inertly towards water but rest, despite the struggle, wasn’t giving up yet. He found out soon that his flight ability up was affected too. Landing in water was equal too certain doom so panic started to creep into his mind. ‘Fuck, what’s going on here? Was I poisoned by my own people or did the blacks use some kind of magic? A powerful spell would explain why a few of them died. There must have been a witch I missed. Think, think, th…’ He coughed and fine blue spot marked his snout. He could only fly straight ahead slowly losing altitude, because with each maneuver he was losing speed and elevation to the chase. He looked around desperately and spotted a ship. ‘It looks like there are some creatures on a floating barrel ahead unfolding a big white flag. Never heard of them before, but it can’t get any worse.’

Sailors parted sides at the sight of Jargoon landing. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to pick up speed, causing the landing to end with a spectacular sail slam, followed by a fall to the deck. Jargoon lost consciousness at this point. The assembled people did not have much time to think, because immediately after the crash, black figures rushed onto the deck seemingly out of nowhere. They immediately drew their daggers and rushed at the people. “Don’t stand there like rams, slaughter the damn things!” Shouted the captain. The fight was short, but many many people were injured. When the situation calmed down the order was given: “Dress the wounded and bring 2 barrels of herrings in cabbage on deck. Pack these monsters with salt so they won’t rot, then we’ll sell them in the port… And prepare a mass for those who can walk and for the souls of those who have left us” The captain commanded respectfully. Michael walked towards the lying Jargoon.

“This one is different, though similar in shape. Blue blood, wings… I think we have witnessed the banishment from heaven of some fallen angels.”

“What do you mean by different? Should I finish it and throw it in the barrel with the rest or risk losing more men?”

“I’ll interrogate it, and until then, tie it to the mast.”

At dawn, Jargoon regained consciousness. Around him roamed hairless creatures emitting unintelligible squeaks and mutterings. Three steps away from him lay a stinky mountain of rotten plants with fish and 2 barrels with darkling body parts sticking out of them. ‘Are these creatures some kind of scavengers feeding on whatever falls from above? Why didn’t they kill me? Are they waiting until I die to devour me? I’m hungry.’

“Hey, you opened your eyes.” Michael said.

“Mel’nakit,” replied Jargoon.

Unable to understand or reply anything, Michael twisted his head in surprise. ‘It’s not Greek or Latin, maybe Aramaic? At that moment, Jargoon began drawing the shape of a fish with his claw across the deck. Michael nodded in understanding then began to untie the knots. ‘Maybe I won’t starve to death after all,’ Jargoon thought.