Astronordic Nomads

AN Part 21 the Escape, Demands Sacrifice

He was holding the spear as Shel rose to her feet. Johkofu felt it but had no desire to be trapped in this place. She snatched the spear back from Johkofu as Cyrus pulled him aside. "How do you suppose we use this thing?"

Noahkah smiled. He knew the future and could not tell them what was going to happen in fear of changing the ripples of time. But the spear was meant to be the epicentre of power among the Astronordic Nomads. The Galactic Empire of Anu-nyki had been lost long ago, but this artifact was the only remnant of their empire.

Without knowing it, she was already working out how to get out. But Noahkah spoke up, followed by the Steward of the Architect of Existence, who spoke of a key and drew them close to the doorway that appeared as the group approached. The outside world of Mars's last era loomed, but as she placed the tip of the spear inside the doorway, or at least what looked like an archway, Shellura felt the spear's handle click as its internal mechanism unlocked. At first, the group saw the rim of light fold into an archway. As she looked back, he stepped through the water-like forcefield. Noahkah nodded to the others, who followed. He stayed behind, waiting for answers from the Steward.

His Omnimon beast sniffed the air as Noahkah felt some strange signature, a presence unknown. The invisible entity of pure evil slipped past him. Unaware that the thing was even there, he felt it for but a moment. Then the steward appeared. She, or at least he thought so. They had no gender and were responsible for life spread throughout all universes and multiverses. Others saw these beings as a higher power, indistinguishable from magic due to the advancement and nature of their being. To outsiders, their tech seemed like magic. Some of the most advanced civilizations had technology that was indistinguishable from magic. The Scimagi approached Noahkah as he wiped sweat from his brow.

The floating rags and ghostly appearances scared Noahkah a lot. But as she spoke, it felt calm and clear, smart and cool, confident. She spoke without moving her mouth, or so it seemed, as the telepathy was enough to grant Noahkah his mental stability while they spoke. It was hard to follow. He felt it more than saw it, the hallucination of their eyes giving him a dream vision of what was to come.

After the ghostly Steward floated back, leaving a fresh imprint on Noahkah's mind, she vanished or faded back into the sim. When Shel put her head through and shouted, "Oi, hurry up, Noah," she could not be bothered speaking his full name. He shook his head, followed her voice, and exited the sim.

As he stood there, in the captain's chamber, the command centre was blanked out, and nobody could see anything until Noah shouted, "Lights!" The auto sync activation and his words bonded to the computer system known as M.A.R.S (Multi-Astro-Rumaton-Synthiosus). The ship's AI talked like it was alive with respect.

Shellura was still in charge, but Noahkah knew things they didn't know. He asked the AI, "Can you please activate secondary ether protocols, section 2.3 of the Tera-morphing code?"

The voice echoing around them from every speaker said with urgency, "You can't leave without someone staying behind to ensure a successful launch. I can not remain here on board. We have two minutes until rebuff activates, and there's no escape from this planet's orbit for another 20 years!" Noahkah turned to the others, pushed them out the door, and activated secondary security.

They slammed on the acrylic blast doors as he turned his gaze away from all six of them. Arcadius nodded and pulled them on. "We need to get to the pods. He is doing what he wanted."

"No!" Shel shouted. "I'm the one that's meant to..." She was ready to die.

But as soon as Noahkah tapped the sequence and codes, a voice spoke louder than the alarm.

"Transference in process, QAI Michene intelligence. One minute to completion. Please make your way to the escape gaps. Preprogrammed trajectory enabled. Please don't mess with the controls."

Noahkah was flipping switches and tapping touch tiles as they vanished. Luckily, he had studied ancient technology, or he would have been screwed. Thirty seconds until launch. The ship in the centre of the city began to shake.

All he could think about was the people in the old world city. They might get scorched, and when the AI jumped back for a second, he said, "You can put that stabilizer and cool jet systems, allowing you to take off without burning fuel." Noahkah nodded and said goodbye. "Take care of the crew, okay?" The AI Quantaz had a symbol or a face on one of the screens. She nodded and shed a tear while she continued the localized ejection of the survival craft.

Cyrus, Sunbeam Moakia, Johkofu, Arcadius, and Shellura all had their own ships, but they were connected. The first green light was active when Shell took her seat in the captain's craft. Its name on the wing was Harlyquin Gapper. The others had different names, but the entire ship was one craft.

The anti-gravity wave activated, pushing them up out of the crater from 0 to 12,000 klm Per seccond, as the Graviton wave immitter pushed them into orbit within five seconds. The ship at first felt like it was going to fall apart, but as space took hold of it, the ride began smoothing out.

Noahkah, who was still in the artifact, heard several red alarms, and he was ready to die. But as soon as they left, the explosions inside the ship stopped. The lost Steward appeared. "Your time has not yet come. You must find your friends and save them. Beneath this command centre is a captain's escape pod. It will take you 40 days to get to the New World, but you are needed there. Mars will survive while you're gone." She nodded.

Behind her, a blue portal opened. As she was pulled through, he turned around as the portal closed. He assumed where she went was not for humans.

He saw the handle beneath the desk. As he pulled the lever, a panel popped up, revealing a chamber behind the walls of the control panel.

Reaching the chamber, it was much like the sim. A cold, waterless liquid filled up the pod. At first, he was afraid, but something told him to breathe. He let go and took a breath in. The liquid was filling his lungs, but he was not losing oxygen. The fluid was hyper-oxygenated bio-synth capable of bringing the occupant's heartbeat down to one beat a day. As he was almost frozen in place, it was more chrono- than cryogenics.

His pod shot off into the sky. The artifact shut down but leaked fluid deep underground. As it seeped into the silica and dirt, mixing with the oxygen pockets deep underground, the bioluminescent glow continued to breach the core while Noahkah entered orbit around the moon of New Mars. Its magical or technological change was strong enough to morph the core.

Then, on the 39th day, people who breathe OS began to feel capable of a change. But the oxygen gas mixed with the elements of Mars. Morphing continued to generate life. But the trees and plant life seemed unnatural. People were now able to leave underground caves, where they got air from the Martian mouth breathers, who lost control over their slaves and began to slowly die off from lack of carbon dioxide.

The flora of the plant kingdom rose from the red dirt. Even clouds formed rain, creating an icy and sandy storm torrent, making it impossible to explore the surface.