Pierce took a few steps backwards, his legs hit the table and he sank. He sank through the past. had his pod been bit by the enemies weaponary? And if so, how did it cause this fall through space, and time.
There was little left in Pierce's mind when he stood, his world has collapsed, his fiance gone, family long dead, and the small man realised this. Perhaps there was a spark of pity within his beady eyes, he said "Hey, Hey, I wanted your ship and uniform because I thought you stole it, I can help you".
Pierce stopped still, any friend in what was a virtually new galaxy was a good one, he reached out his hand and said "In exchange for my ship, I will tell you things you could never dream of".
Gerb backed away - he was not a smart man, and a deal between his boss and another party always scared him. Pierce's recovery scared the little man too, the almost six foot and half naked man who seemed so weak, now towered above the both of them. Pierce stood fully in the rooms only light now, his physique, which appeared godlike on the table, was pale from years inside the chamber. The bald man stepped toward him, "My name is Alec, and my assistant, Gerb. I collect antiquities, which means almost everything from your old life, and I say old life because as you understand, there is no way to take you back through time.", A flash of sadness flashed across Alec's face before he tucked it quietly away behind a small smile. "I dont pity you, I think, Captain Pierce, when you see the world outside of my rather...richly laden home, you will see the damage time has done to our species".
Pierce snapped back to reality, an image of Sylvie had been running through his head, but Alec's words drove the truth of his situation home like several hundred sledgehammers through his skull. They shattered his thoughts as he registered what Alec had just said. "What damage? What happened?". Now Sylvie was not the only sad thought, Pierce's heartrate rose, what had happened to the human race? Did the UCA and the SF ravage the galaxy? No, if a low down space port can still survive, then nothing too bad has happened. By the time Alec opened his mouth to speak Pierce's fear had subsided somewhat. "Nothing tangable, but we are a dead race now, dead in the mind, Come this way, you will sit, and I will talk". With that, Alec shuffled towards the room's only door. Beyond it was a larger room, using the loosest possible term of the word. It was a hall, and a museum, and partly a kitchen. Technoligies from Pierce's life, (Pierce had to remind himself that his life and everyone else's past were now the same) spanned the space around him. Rusting type-78 Falcons hung above him, Next to him was a transuranic battery rifle, chairs from the Gor dynasty sat nearby and the walls themselves were a myriad of styles and lifetimes. Pierce was seated in what appeard to be a real wooden chair, and he listened, he listened to time unravel inront of him, one hundred and thirty years of life and rebirth in approximately fifteen minutes.
Alec began with the time when the UCA and SF armies annihilated each other in what Pierce had thought of as a another skirmish, that turned out to be the final firing for either side. Both armies had continued to call for reinforcements until the majority of each army, and the most high ranking commanders were present. The SF's new weapon, the same one that pushed the Daemon out of the fight and as Alec surmised, scrambled Pierce's escape pod was the SF's new EMP field generator, it was the rebirth of totally electric weaponry. However this rebirthed ancient weapon type was not only born into blood, but mutual destruction. The SF's secret golden child, would destroy its creators with the ease of a lightning bolt frying a tealeaf. They discovered that an EMP weapon was dangerous when being fired by over a thousand ships in close proximity, and while the SF destroyed almost all of their enemies frigate, they also caused a chain reaction from one allied ship to another, which ultimately created a high voltage circuit through the fleet.
Furthermore no outside party could enter the battlefield that encompassed three solar systems, as the EMP had fried the UCA ships, however some had enough emergency power to keep the automated defence systems firing, similar to the defences of Pierce's escape pod. This meant that while the UCA frigate was still dormant, any ship that was not marked with UCA credentials, would be shot down by a superior grade of weaponry to what was available on the civilian market.
As both sides has spent years fighting each other, they were no longer supporting their citizens, and when the state of total war ended by the destruction of both fleets the human race was leaderless. They expanded, leaving the Sole sector, and with new drive propulsion technology it took only ten years to reach the edge of the galaxy.
However it was there that mankind fell from grace. There were around four hundred planets found that could be habitable by humans, and with a quick population growth, they would not be unoccupied for long. Alec's face was clouded by this point, he had to stop, and Gerb fetched him a glass of water before continuing. The collector gathered his resolve and headed on,
"As a race we stopped, we could not get any further, we had traversed but now we stood montionless. Not even the closest galaxy was close enough. A journey would take at least a million years, and every simulation displays some natural obsticle that will destroy our ships before they can reach new territory, however no ship can stay powered for so long anyway. So we regressed mentally, I guess we lost our drive, with no power structure we fought and died in clan wars and family feuds. Over 120 years we regressed in our ideals and beliefs. Captain Pierce, I am afraid to suggest to you, that we are now purely cave men, cave men with particle beam and point mass weapons.".
Pierce, who had sat in silence, trying to allow his brain to accept the infomation being presented on a barbed platter. "So, in this neverending night, what do you suggest I do? I dont know this galaxy, not now, I cant walk into anywhere and work, I cant simple return to my command ship, and I can not sit here and do nothing while the whole damned human race turns into dust!". Alec beamed, he appeared to physically radiate with joy as he said "Hah! I knew you wouldnt be like everyone else, as soon as that DNA test came through, I knew that you wouldnt just lay down. Ok, well, I have a proposal.". The lights in the mans eyes were now roaring fires as he continued on, every word dripping with entheusaism. "You may be far away from the Original wreakage from the Daemon, but from what the stories say, it was thrust out of the fight by the force of the first EMP blast, so it wont be completely destroyed, In a cruiser thats properly travelling, not just drifting, you could get there in a day!", Alec paused for breath, before delving deeper into the adventure unraveling in his mind. "You can fly out in your pod, and salvage what you can. In return you will come back here, and you will tell me, you bring my diagrams, and perhaps a spare uniform. Overall I know I cant have a whole ship, but I want to know, I want to learn what it was like, what happened. But I understand your plight is more definate then mine, so you can gain your reward first, what do you say?".
Pierce seemed to consider this for the moment so long, it made a marriage proposal feel like less then a heartbeat, but the universe did not hold its breath, it knew what Pierce would say. His good natured ideas giving shape to a strong willed military career had made the decision for him.
"I am humbled by your offer, and I accept, there's little point in turning my back on the life that I lived, and picking up the pieces is my next step."
Alec's face proved beyong the laws of reality to somehow appear even happier. "Well then, let us head to the hanger, I have your pod docked already, and I assume you will be dying to get underway".
