Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 45: The Clash, Part 2

Tim spent his time in the astral world training, attempting to understand ways of identifying people by the image of their mind when his link to the physical world broke away.

 During the moment of his physical death  an unknown force attempted to pull him out into the darkness that lay between here and the physical realm. The unnatural sensation lasted for a short while, he resisted it with ease. After the link to his body disappeared, he felt his mental image become stronger. Now nothing would hold him back. Now he was all 'here'.

Tim stood in the infinite hall and stretched his arms - a chaotic view of many red dots in the darkness appeared, small part of them tangled by a blue web radiating coldness.  He took a moment to concentrate and the chaotic layout of points turned into a pattern.  Now, the red dots formed a sphere with the most concentration on its lowest, flat, circular part, more dots were scattered in other two flat, ring shaped levels. He observed the ones touched by the blue web, all of them far away from the center of the cluster.

Then, out of nowhere, the web contracted and concentrated round a point the furthest of them all. Without hesitation, Tim dove towards the thick web leaving his own imaginary home behind. The closer he got the colder and more alien the strange cluster felt. He moved upwards and downwards, avoiding the web, aiming for its center, its thickest part. Then, for a short moment, the web concentrated on a single point and exploded into its previous form. Touching and wrapping onto and round the red warm dots far in the distance.

With all his will, Tim projected himself into the point that was a singularity just a moment ago, pushing the alien entity, connected to the web, out.

 He found himself in the physical world, controlling a body boiled and eaten by parasites from inside, an unfamiliar unparalleled strength in its muscles. When he opened eyes, he saw Tom, looking at him, smiling. That instant, Tim understood where and in whom he was. He said, "I finally found you! Sorry for coming so late. Quickly, finish him."

After the life shut down in the vessel of his enemy, he turned his attention to the web, surrounding him, wrapping and tightening its grip. Loud voice roared, shaking every fiber of Tim's essence, “You little bastard! You crossed the line! You will pay for this!"

Tim found himself in the room of infinite space once again, only now it was pierced by an alien plane, a window from elsewhere. Stream of blue smoke coming out of it, concealed an alien figure, its eyes empty black as the cosmos. Tim could hardly bare the coldness radiated and pressure projected by the thing.

 He extended his shaking hands forward and an invisible glass wall appeared between him and the intruder. For a few seconds the pressure went away.

The creature spoke up, projecting its controlling voice at Tim in a powerful tone, "I was born in this place. Only I, my brothers and my kind belongs here. It was nature's mistake for you to awake!”

The image of the creature vibrated and Tim's wall shattered into pieces.

Before the pressure overwhelmed him, Tim bent his head downwards, closed his eyes and focused for aid into the warmth deep inside him. Then, radiating immense red light that disfigured his image, he said, "We both know you won't kill me."

"So clever, aren't you, little boy?!" The Outsider said, his voice shaking Tim's insides. The Outsider’s image got larger, blue vapor poured out of its eyes.

"I'm not a boy in here," Tim resisted. There was no way he could keep defending for long. Yet the energy projected onto him felt false, as if the entity withheld its full power, perhaps there was still a chance.

Tim gathered his all strength and said, "Y-you can't take me out, because for all eternity you would drift here, alone."

The Outsider's gaze pierced Tim's image, removing the redness it had. And then, the tention in the air suddently stopped.

*****

After hearing Tim's words, images of his past returned to the Outsider. He drifted into the memories of the life he had before reaching this monstrous ship.

 He remembered that he came to life as an effort of a planet's mind to understand the violent enemy massacring the inhabitants it was responsible to protect. The mind of the planet was so old and powerful that it existed without boundaries of time, yet it was not omnipotent. Its mental image was so vast, that it had become unmovable in space; tangled around the world it had attached itself to since the beginning of its time. In order to handle the intruders, it tore a piece of itself away, and breathed in the awareness of the outside onto it, giving birth to an astral child. The being had no name, nor did it perceive itself as an individual. It could figure what individual was only after meeting humans. A selfless creature had hard time understanding selfish beings.  Yet it was its task to stop them by any means necessary. After spending time with the enemy, without noticing, the being became similar to the creatures it was made to destroy.  

The Outsider took his time to understand the nature of humans and their two leaders. The toughest problem he had in the beginning was the difficulty to stay inside any physical human’s body for long before being identified as an alien. Even though at that time he had no 'evil' intentions, he knew not how to pretend to be one of the aliens. A misuse of words, actions that were inappropriate for given situation, a lost control of a body and many other failures made him to slip. The intruders had become aware of him and created weapons to thwart the Outsider's possessions and he became useless.

The great mind suggested to its child to take him back in time, so it could learn about humans and have a second chance to top them. The Outsider accepted this and was shot back in time, following a never-breaking lifeline of the immortal leader of the aliens - Tom Landau. A long, one way trip took him back to the instance where Tom was in the past - two thousand years ago.

Now the Outsider took his time, to plan and scheme, to understand his enemy. He learned and drifted, unnoticed in the weak minds, whispering to them, conversing. He attempted to take over their control for short periods of time and succeeded. Year passed and he noticed that he could easily imitate humans and fit in, not perfectly, of course, but it did not matter as the bodies he took over were not perfect anyways. The only thing he had not learned was to be silent and ignore the pleasure of company. The astral world in which he was born was a dark and lonely place.

 ******

"I will deal with you later!" The Outsider roared at Tim and disappeared together with the plane.

    Tim attempted to leave the chamber of infinity, but he could not. He was stuck. With no link to the outside he had difficulty relating space-time of this place with that of the physical world. He had no clue how much time had spent wandering the room, before his power returned to him.