“You are smaller than most dragons but faster and more agile. There is still a lot that can be learned about an ice elemental dragon.” Kronos stretched before deactivating the simulator and returning to the ship. “Come on we have battle preparations to make.”
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Even by the standards of some of the dreams Kiyan had, this one was strange and fragmented. He had been walking a corridor of the Avenger. Somehow he couldn't remember where he went or what he had done. The dream had started with the feeling of hurtling in a void. Kiyan's sense of time was distorted, the dream could have spanned a moment or a thousand years for all Kiyan could tell. Thinking about it Kiyan remembered points of light moving past. Some faster than others. At some point there was no more individual lights but larger shapes made up of a million individual lights frozen in a spiral against the dark. Kiyan turned on his bed and reached for a blanket. Finding no blanket Kiyan sat up and rubbed his eyes. Trying to focus through his groggy eyes felt like he had slept for days. He finally realized that he was in the dark and began using his bending skills to see. The landscape that met Kiyan's mind was unfamiliar in the extremes. Standing up he surveyed what looked like an impact crater on the surface of a barren planet. It was several times taller than him and many times wider at the top.
Kiyan's legs felt unusually weak as he tried to climb out of the crater. It took some time but Kiyan finally gained the rim and looked over a dark landscape covered in craters like the one he had climbed out of. He caught a glimpse of movement on his side and wheeled as rocks levitated around him.
“Save your strength, you're going to need it.” Kiyan still stood ready to bend half the landscape on the stranger. “Its good to see you awake nonetheless.”
“Who are you?” Kiyan cautiously circled the glowing and glimmering apparition. “How did I get here?”
“I'm you. A part of you at least.” Kiyan was still slowly circling the still person. “Don't worry, I can't hurt you.”
“I've heard that before.” Kiyan wasn't reassured.
“You remember when the Assurians gave you your implants, don't you?” The stranger wasn't even looking at Kiyan as he circled.
“How do you know about that?” Kiyan was beginning to feel the strain of levitating so much rock.
“They said you were part AI didn't they? Well I'm that portion of your mind.”
“How come I never sensed you before if you are supposed to be part of my mind?” Kiyan lowered the rocks and stopped his wary circling.
“My code only finished building a few thousand years ago. No surprise we haven't met until now. You've been asleep for the last twelve thousand. I know how much people like designations so you may call me Luke.”
“No, no that can't be right. We were just preparing for an offensive against the drakken in our universe. There is no way I slept for twelve thousand years.” Kiyan collapsed to his knees as a sudden bout of dizziness overtook him.
“You used your ice bending to cool your core temperatures to near absolute zero. Your brain was still active on some level hence me. You survived the vacuum of space by becoming colder than the void.” Luke still hadn't moved.
“So how did I get here?” Kiyan wasn’t ready to accept what he was being told. “By the way where is here?”
“This is the Assurian world. You crashed here a few hundred years ago. When the Avenger was erased from time it was traveling near the speed of light on a course that intercepted the path of this world.” Luke flickered and was standing in front of Kiyan. He reacted by slinging a rock at the apparition’s chest. The rock harmlessly passed through and Luke didn’t even blink.
“Erased? What do you mean?” There was silence for a moment as Kiyan pondered Luke's words before he continued.
“The drakken managed to travel here. It took them years even at warp and I have no idea how they even knew where here is.” Luke paused before continuing. “They destroyed the probe that carried Alpha before it landed, or more accurately, will destroy the probe. That means every ship in the protectorate fleet was never built. You and the other ascended with built up temporal energy survived but were left drifting in space.”
“What about my crew, the rest of the unascended in my crew.” Kiyan's mind flashed over the names of several of his crew as he spoke.
“Long dead, or never met.” Luke was blunt. “You are here to fix that. Your energy reserves are dangerously low, I would suggest you find some way to replenish them soon.”
“I'm on a planet in the galactic void, where am I supposed to find energy?” Kiyan stared at the expressionless Luke.
“I detected some radioactive material a few clicks that direction.” Luke motioned across the dark landscape.
“You're in my head, how do you detect anything? Besides what am I supposed to do with radioactive rocks anyway?”
“Have a little trust. I can access your abilities when you aren't using them. Comes in handy when you need to make course corrections. As for the rocks, you can metabolize most forms of energy with your implants. Another possibility is reversing the flow of time for roughly fourteen seconds.” Luke followed Kiyan as he set out.
“Reversing time is too risky, I might not be able to control it well enough. I might end up a thousand years in the past and vaporize the planet in the process.” Kiyan trudged across the barren expanses in the direction that Luke had said to go. Hours passed before he began to see a greenish glow on the horizon when he looked out his eyes.
“I didn't know that this planet had a sun.” Kiyan squinted and held a hand up to shield his eyes as the star rose above the horizon.
“Judging by its radiation profile I would say it is an old star at that.” Kiyan could sense Luke pouring over data and calculations before he continued. “The elements in this atmosphere do not filter any of the ultraviolet wavelengths. Your shields are filtering the dangerous radiation levels and charging off the energy. We are still some distance from a substantial energy source though.”
“That explains why it’s so bright.” Kiyan squinted at the now brightly lit horizon for a few minutes at what looked like a low mountain range. “Is that what I think it is?”
“I suspect it is worse. Your shields are too weak to withstand a sandstorm.” Kiyan sensed Luke doing computations and possible scenarios, only a few had somewhat positive outcomes. Kiyan took matters into his own hands and reached out with his bending and connected with the sand drifted around. He bent heat into the swirling clouds until he was surrounded by a mist of molten rock. Kiyan saw designs and calculations from Luke as he began fusing the lava into plates. He relinquished control to Luke and felt like he was watching from a third person's vantage point. When he got control back he was encased in thick plates of solid stone. The finished suit of armor was four times taller than Kiyan and had a smooth black finish. Fully articulated arms and legs were attached to the torso that encased Kiyan. He attempted to climb onto his new legs but was only successful for a moment before he crashed back to the ground. He had to use his earthbending to move the heavy limbs. Slowly Kiyan raised himself back up as he began to sense the suit's balance. Luke helped by translating Kiyan's thoughts into commands for the larger form. Kiyan could still see using his bending skills but otherwise was completely protected from the harsh environment.
“That took more energy than I had anticipated.” Luke managed the suits balance as he recommended Kiyan find the energy supply soon. Kiyan managed a few tentative steps before the sandstorm hit. He was thrown to the ground by the first blast but recovered himself and was soon working his way onward. After a few minutes Kiyan became steady enough to try moving faster. Attempts at running soon had him tumbling into a sand drift. Flailing in the shifting sand Kiyan solidified the drift enough to stand. Kiyan bent the suits legs then sent a pulse of energy through the suit. He sensed the air flying past as he catapulted through the storm. The ground approached alarmingly fast until he slammed into it. Surprisingly the suit absorbed the entire shock of t
he landing. Kiyan launched himself into the air again and again as he sped across the surface of the planet.
Kiyan's final leap landed him on a rocky outcropping at the location Luke had told him about. He sensed the stored energy in the scattered crystals that glowed in the storm. Energy arced to the suit as Kiyan picked one of the crystals up. He felt a surge of energy as the crystal pulsed as bright as a star. When the energy stopped flowing Kiyan watched as the crystal disintegrated into dust before blowing away in the wind. He picked up a few more crystals before he had refilled his energy reserves. Kiyan picked up a half dozen more and bent slots into the suit. When he inserted the crystals the suit began to glow with marks and patterns in the Assurian language as Luke manipulated Kiyan's nanites into the suit. Kiyan realized the difference that full energy reserves made as he hardly felt the effort required to move the armor suit. It felt like an extension of his own body now.
“What now?” Kiyan stood still as the storm raged harmlessly around him.
“We need to find out what destroys the AI probe in two hundred years.” Luke proposed returning to stasis sleep for most of the remaining time. Kiyan didn’t like the idea but wasn’t keen on hanging around on the barren planet. Ice forming in the armor suit proved different. It felt confining but safe as he sensed the energy humming in the suit. Kiyan felt sleepy as the comfortable cold seeped into his extremities. The last thing he remembered was the distant hum of the suit as he drifted into a deep sleep. The long sleep was punctuated by strange dreams as the years slipped by. Kiyan was vaguely aware of Luke's presence on occasions as he neared consciousness before he slipped back into the cold.
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Rinald’s attention drifted as the history instructor droned on as the group of new rebirths walked through the museum. It had only been a few weeks since Rinald had been reborn. He was still getting used to the memories of his past life drifting through his head. The memories felt like they didn't belong, like he was only an observer of someone else’s private thoughts. The most vivid memory had been of the previous Rinald’s death. He had been a member of the elite sniper squad that patrolled the borders of the free conglomerate or FC as it was known.
Rinald caught motion out of the corner of his eye and reacted just in time to catch a soft ball flying toward his face. “Good to see you are paying some attention. Now can you tell me about these artifacts?” Rinald grimaced as he recalled this instructor was prone to throw these balls at any one he thought wasn't paying attention.
“These are remnants of a civilization that was thought to inhabit this planet before it drifted free of the Andromeda galaxy cluster.” Rinald tossed the ball back at the instructor before picking up a holographic fragment of metal. “Most of the remnants of the civilization have disintegrated over the last few hundred thousand years. Over the last hundred thousand years the atmosphere shifted composition as the sun aged. The change preserved what is left of the Asgard civilization.” Rinald tossed the hologram back at the display case where it reappeared at its original location. He hadn’t really been listening but had recited information from one of his predecessor’s memories. Rinald counted himself fortunate that his predecessor had been something of a history buff.
“Correct, you might have learned something yet.” The instructor eyed Rinald suspiciously before moving on to the next display. Some of the Reborn present didn't have any memories to pull from and all this was new to them. A recent raid on the drakken base had resulted in several clone sequences being “liberated”. Yesterday’s lesson had been about the history of the reborn. Rinald ducked the next ball but it hit the student standing behind him. Rinald tried to pay more attention to the lesson but his mind wandered anyways. Yesterday he had endured a lecture about the accident on the drakken ship that had activated the original genetic profiles of all the new clones. Imprinting didn't work and the reborn clones rebelled and seized control of the ship. Years later when what was left of the fleet arrived at the rogue planet the other drakken had discovered what had happened. The reborn ship took out several of the other ships before it crashed to the surface of the planet. The reborn had survived on the harsh planet under a shield dome in spite of the constant harrying from the imprints.
Rinald hardly had time to catch the ball as it sailed towards his face. He looked around at the surprised faces around him. “It normally takes years to develop reactions like that. You must have integrated your previous life exceptionally well.” Rinald wasn’t sure if the instructor was annoyed or angry with his lapses. “Let’s move on and at least pretend to pay attention.”
The group assembled in front of a reinforced display case. They looked in awe at the black statue with the glowing glyphs covering its surface. This was something that Rinald didn’t already know about. It hadn’t been here in his last life.
“This is a new addition to the museum. It was discovered in a solar crystal field some time ago and our scientists have been studying it for the last few months. To the best of our knowledge it was some sort of mining robot that is technologically beyond us. The glyphs appear to be related to the Asgard symbols we have found but as of yet we haven't been able to translate them. We don’t know much as the outside is made from obsidian and the core is shielded.” The instructor flipped through some pages on his wrist computer before continuing. “The consensus is that it was left active when the Asgard departed the planet but malfunctioned a long time ago. Its good condition is probably due to the internal solar crystal power source and repair nanites regenerating it over time.” The instructor tapped a few buttons on the control panel and paused before continuing. “Strange, the crystalline core is usually near absolute zero but now it is several degrees warmer.”
Everyone nearly jumped out of their scales as the blast doors slammed down at the entrances to the building. The instructor paled as the hologram disappeared when he tried to bring up his wrist computer. “We must be under attack again.” The instructor faced the group and began to give instructions as the lights went out. The room was only lit by the glowing glyphs on the giant mech suit.
“It’s moving!” One of the students gasped as he began backing away. Rinald was cautiously backing away himself as the suit slowly stood up. The armor plating glass shattered into a million pieces as the suit’s head touched the display case ceiling. Rinald doubled over onto the ground as he felt something strange in his mind for an instant. For that instant he sensed the powerful mind of a young alien.
“Identify yourselves.” The voice shook the room as the suit thundered an order. Rinald understood what the alien had been searching his mind for as he understood his own language.
“We are reborn drakken, we don’t mean you any harm.” The instructor was obviously shaken by the change of circumstances but managed an explanation.
“They don’t look like drakken.” Rinald heard a voice that he would have expected to hear associated with the mind he had felt.
“It's been twelve thousand years since we fought them, they might have changed how they look.” The original voice thundered in the room.
We aren't imprints if that’s what you mean. The instructor was surprisingly courageous in the face of the current danger. There was confusion evident over the dual personality the mech was exhibiting.
“He’s right, they don't think like normal drakken, these might be drakken like Drovak.” The second voice confused Rinald. It seemed like there was two people talking. A glance around at the terrified students told him that he wasn’t the only confused individual.
“Explain what you are.” The second voice filled the room as the mech suit smashed what was left of the display case.
“We are reborn drakken. There was an accident on our ship with the clone generators that reactivated our original DNA sequences. The imprinting process didn’t work on us so the imprints tried to eliminate us.” The instructor gave a brief history before curiosity got the best of him. “How do you know about drakken, we thought that the Asgard race had gone extin
ct hundreds of thousands of years ago?”
“Asgard? No I am a protectorate commander. We are at war with the drakken.” The second voice was much quieter than before. “What are you doing here?”
“Protectorate? You mean there are other people fighting the imprints?” Rinald shared the instructor’s confusion.
“We ask the questions for now but yes we are a member of the allied temporal races.” The first voice still made everyone jump but it sounded less threatening.
“We were in orbit of this planet when the clone generators activated. I think we were supposed to be on some sort of mission but the imprint didn’t work on us so we don’t know.” The instructor was looking less worried.
“My mission was to prevent the destruction of a ship when it arrives here. How do I know you aren't the ones that destroy it?” The second voice spoke ominously.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Rinald tried not to let his voice shake as he spoke.
“So you’re drakken fighting the drakken, Drovak would be overjoyed to hear this. Can you tell me what might destroy the ship when it arrives?” The mech suit settled to its knees as it spoke.
“This planet is surrounded by a minefield. If anything that is what will destroy your ship.” One of the other students spoke this time.
“If I succeed with my mission, none of you might have ever existed.” A seam appeared in the torso of the mech suit and a cold fog began seeping out.
“If you succeed with you mission what will happen to the imprints?” The instructor asked the question this time.
“We hope to drive them from this universe.” The seam on the mech suit split open and released a wave of the frozen fog. Everyone stepped back as the fog dissipated and revealed the alien. “I’m Kiyan and you heard Luke earlier. It is nice to finally get out of that suit.”
“We need to take you to our leaders to decide on a course of action. Unfortunately we seem to be under attack at the moment so we are stuck in here.” The instructor motioned towards the blast doors barring all the entrances.