Event Horizon

The Visitor

The Earth's crust cracked around an impossibly heavy foot, shattering down to even the tectonic plates. Small tremors to shake the countryside, causing many of the Illinois farmers to wake up and scratch at their beards wondering what made their best china shake. The male figure grunted and shifted, funneling most of his mass back into his mouth in the Messier 110 galaxy before he placed his other foot much more softly on the grass. He had forgotten the gravitation pull on this planet was so weak. He began walking, brushing off the smoldering fabric of his jacket to put out the flame he had gotten from entering Earth's atmosphere. Even something as simple as quantum teleportation was difficult to perfect under the strange mass and grav of this planet.

The figure's visage twisted into a leer as he took in the rolling plains of amber grain and the dark sky above him. This pitiful place, even though bursting with energy to consume, was nothing compared to the vast expanse of colored space and stars that were just pinpricks of light here. Oh well. NGC 205 wasn't here for sightseeing anyways. His mistress had sent him on a much more interesting task.

"NGC 205," Andromeda had said, her voice clear and commanding as she had stood with him on a high ridge of an Andromedan planet, "You will go to Chiron's domain and find the Earth planet. I need a full report on how that apathetic wormhole is dealing with his energy source."

NGC 205 had bowed his head to his master's platinum blonde one. "May your humble servant ask why?"

Andromeda's body had rippled as her mouth inhaled another planetary body. She licked her lips and turned to stare at him. Her eyes would be unnerving, if he was a human. They were ebony; the true black that came only from the absolute absence of light and they pulsed with the darkness. "Because I need the information. I need to see if Chiron is changing his tactics or becoming more lethargic. We may both be supermassive, but I will get his planet Earth." She turned her head and shuddered again as she inhaled more matter. "Oh," she said as an after thought, "Check and see if we're still on a collision course with Sagittarius A* as well. I don't want to waste 2.5 million light years."

"Yes, of course." NGC 205 paused, unsure if he should divulge the information he knew without being given express permission to speak. She was, after all, his only hope of longevity and the possibility to become greater. He weighed the chance relevant enough. "Mistress?"

She had turned back to watching as the planet they were on approached the swirling spiral of her mouth. "Hm?"

"Triangulum is on Earth still," NGC 205 had disclosed, "He goes by Q now."

"Mmm," Andromeda tapped her chin with a finger as her body began to continually tremble and the terrain beneath their feet began to do the same. "Q? Isn't he the one that turned down my offer to become a satellite galaxy and be under my protection?"

"Yes, mistress."

That slender finger continued tapping for several minutes before a cagey smile arched upward on her severe face. "If you come across this Q," her lips pursed as she said the name, "Give him a greeting. I'm sure the little upstart would love to hear from me." Her eyes held a more menacing message in them, giving NGC 205 orders that he understood how to carry out.

"I understand, mistress." The ground beneath his feet was seeming to slide and stretch out.

Her flesh roiled on her body. "Good. You are dismissed. And I would suggest that you get off planet quickly....unless you want to my supper." Her head tilted to where her mouth had begun to break apart the planet and suck them into her stomach, light bending away and the darkness opening like a maw before him. She gave a chortle and her form dissipated as she teleported to presumable another planet or safe zone, leaving NGC 205 to try and gather enough energy from his far away mouth to teleport his own form before he became fodder.

His shoes were covered in the planet's remains and he smiled to think of a n Earth scientist happening across the dust he left behind that would be nowhere on the periodic table. Luckily he would be nowhere near Earth if that ever happened. This piece of junk space rock only held his interest because his mistress wanted it. Normally his attentions were held in his own galaxy, happily sucking up asteroids and dwarf suns. He could devour other things and stay out of his mistress's way. But when Andromeda called.....

NGC 205 strolled through the grain field until he reached a small two lane road. Finding his bearings, he began walking in the direction of the Earth city Chicago.

It was time to meet up with an old acquaintance.