The Pale Prince

Not Alone

"I do hope that Hermes told you how long we have been waiting for you."

Fortress looked around at his surroundings, the black metal surface being illuminated by Invaluable Hermes' bright golden flecks, floating through the atmosphere with an ethereal delicacy, running over all that filled the room like water that ran over rocks, delicately stroking his glowing, disorganised form against them. "Three billion years." Fortress muttered, looking over as more golden, glittering lights shook down from the ceiling and held themselves in a frozen motion around the heads of the two figures – the one not native to the country his ship found himself in standing far taller than the superhuman that coupled him. "I don't understand why though – what's so special with me?" David muttered, playing dumb to the abilities that he held and the other humans did not.

"Please," Achrom muttered, placing his seven fingered hand against one of the gel-like panels that sat against most doors, applying itself to his large hand and stroking at it as it gathered his genetic material painlessly. Pulling his hand away, the huge humanoid turned to regard the superhuman with a seeming lack of interest. "It is okay – Invaluable Hermes has already completed a physical and memory based scan of your body and accessed your world's satellite systems. He has seen what you can do – I am confident that you are the one that we have been waiting so many years for." The huge figure clasped his seven fingered right hand within his left one, stretching his fingers backwards obscenely, the icy-blue nails scratching against the back of his palm. "If Invaluable Hermes believes that you are the one that we have been looking for, then so be it.

"But why have you been waiting for me?" Fortress muttered, looking up at the Prince – for once in his life feeling dwarfed by the overbearing size of the visitor. "What have you come to Earth for if not just to wait for someone like me?"

"There are very few beings like you in this universe, David." The Prince stepped into the room as the door slowly slid open, beckoning for the smaller human to follow him. Fortress did so, looking around at the huge domed room with surprise and wonder. The room itself was devoid of the flecks of light that made up Invaluable Hermes, the AI being left outside of the room to stew in the knowledge that he had gained from his scan of David – likely the most unusual candidate for the AI's first scan of human life. The walls were lucid and stirring, the liquefied metal toiling and running around the edge of the room as it made shapes similar to planets in the solar system. Lights flickered all along the walls like stars swallowed by the black steel – glittering and yearning for a chance to shine through the darkness. In the centre of the room was a huge observatory, another slope curling around its circular edge. The flat edge bent up once more and flicked outwards, each becoming an individual panel leading upwards to the large circular observation landing. "You are, unique – your kind I mean, not you."

"What do you mean not me?" Fortress mused, walking into the room and spinning around – David looked towards the swirling walls with a vast contentment, the beauty of the swallowed stars seeming sad and destitute amongst the blackness yet glorious and beautiful, bursting with light amongst a place in which the material did not allow it. "I was under the impression that I was the only one in the world who could live for 115 years and still look this beautiful."

"Yes, the human expectancy of life is rather short." Achrom muttered, regarding Fortress with a smile as he began to walk up the steps.

"I told him that." Invaluable Hermes exclaimed, leading David to merely imagine the wide smile upon the childish AI's 'face'. "When I scanned over your body we could find no sign of expected death - it would seem that you have somehow conquered life; it is a charming gift – even AI can die. I find myself jealous."