He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty - Returning Home

Leif, Zyre(Zee), Chen Xue Min, Zheng Min, Xavier... these were the names he had been known by whilst connected and living, for all intents and purposes, in the alien archive.  But his actual name was Orion Hollister.

He'd been a Witch, a bit of a pirate, a temple guard, a soldier on a backwater planet and an I.T technician. But in truth, he was none of those things... all though the technician wasn't too far out of his scope.

Orion owned the rapidly rising company, Future Electronics, which developed technology and programs based on other companies wants and needs, though he has so far avoided military interest.  He was a prodigy within the market, having risen to becoming one of the most sought after developers in their niche after just two years, earning billions and he was only twenty three.  He hadn't floated the company on the stock exchange as yet, as he hailed from a rather large and rather greedy family who would keep mentioning the words 'discounted' or 'free' whenever the word 'shares' were mentioned. 

When he had heard about the alien archive and its function to be able to bring multitudes of worlds to the minds of observers, his curiosity had won over and he had applied to join the other V.I.P's in exploring them.  And just like that, despite his celebrated IQ, he had become trapped inside it.

When he opened his eyes to the real world, he had done so with a sigh.  His mind was working rapidly, reviewing what he had just learnt from the Master and figuring out solutions to all of the problems he knew that they would face from then on out.  For the one thing, how was his company fairing?  Fortunately, his lawyer was a clever man and could prevent those vultures from doing any real damage... he hoped. 

He moved his arm through the thick liquid surrounding him and tapped upon the upper surface of the submersion pod.  This caused a flurry of activity around him.

He was not the only person to wake up.

Currently the man who had been known as Wulfgar(Five), Jariden, Wu Chang, Song Jian And North, but was actually called Damien Harris was being debriefed on the examining table in the medical office.

He had been an assassin, an entrepreneur, a soldier more than once and the personal agent of an actor. And now he was a soldier once more, a lieutenant. He had been one of the squad to dive into the alien archive in order to rescue to hostage V.I.P's. He and his team had failed, but though it shamed him and his position, he couldn't bring himself to hate the fact all that much.

"How are you feeling, soldier?" The Captain in charge of the sleeping V.I.P's and their pods was asking.

Damien stretched and maneveoured one of his arms, lamenting that his defined muscles had weakened considerably.  "Hmmm," he nodded, but did not elaborate. 

"How did you get out?" The Captain asked.  Damien looked at the man with a frown, wouldn't the others that the Master had claimed were already free have told him?  "We negotiated the freedom of most of the V.I.P's a while ago, but it was like they were thrown out.  A small number remained trapped, but the three who have awoken since couldn't tell us much, just that they had 'died' and awoken here."

Damien nodded.  "I was found and rescued."

The Captain looked surprised.  "How?"

*****

Aidan and Kyan woke at slightly different times in the White space under the thoughtful gaze of the Master.

They had left the world only days apart, their bodies weary from a lifetime spent together in the village. It had grown rapidly with the influx that they had caused and had had to split into a second community. That community had moved under the watchful gaze of Leif, leaving Eulalia as the new Village witch of the first village, her husband Herebert and her only daughter and heir by her side.