U4: The Space Wanderers

Chapter 11: Why Am I

The trip from Shri to Ballex takes about 7 hours at the Ultimatum's normal speed, so Sighlan put the ship on auto-pilot and everyone went to bed to sleep out the trip. Sighlan was tucked tight under her blanket. Dirken meanwhile was sleeping on top of his blanket with his bum stuck in the air. Xanny slept perpendicular to his bed in a messy manner, with drool dripping out of his mouth. Hallah slept in the fetal position clutching her pillow, still noticeably distraught about her sister's situation. And then there was Goddard.

Goddard laid on his back staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. He was restless, wondering who he was. After rolling back and forth in various positions, he then slept on his right side, staring out the window next to his bed. The sea of stars that passed by helped sooth Goddard's mind, causing him to slowly go to sleep. As he entered the darkness of sleeping, it felt like his body was starting to float, just like when he was first found by Sighlan and Dirken.

Slowly opening his eyes within the darkness, Goddard noticed a faint, green glow in the distance. Repositioning himself, he began to swim towards the green light. Goddard swam for what seemed like hours, but he never felt any closer to the light. What he did start to feel was a low humming vibration that flowed through the darkness that became slightly more intense as he kept swimming towards the glow. Suddenly, numerous stretchy arms began reaching out from the darkness, trying to grab Goddard.

Goddard weaved between all the arms, threading the needle trying to avoid being dragged back into the darkness. Luckily, the green glow was finally becoming stronger, indicating that he was indeed getting closer to it. After a few more minutes, Goddard figured out that the glow was emanating from a glass-like orb, kind of like a crystal ball. Once he touched it, the vibrations became a large wave of energy that vaporized all of the arms that were chasing after him.

Confused but intrigued, Goddard placed both of his hands on the ball. The darkness started to pulsate between black and green, and he felt his heart beat faster to sync up with the orb's vibrations. Goddard had closed his eyes from the intensity of the ball, but once he opened them back up, he was back at the palace that he saw in his previous visions. Despite this, he was still wearing his wanderer uniform, so he knew that this wasn't an old memory. He started walking around the palace, feeling a sense of an unfamiliar nostalgia wash over him.

Suddenly, sounds of footsteps broke the silence. Goddard turned around, and saw someone entering the room, in the middle of munching on some food. This unknown being had the proportions of a normal person, but seemed to be made out of a blue gel-like substance, with what seemed to be a nucleus of purple orbs in his torso. After a second of being fixated on his snack, he looked up and was surprised at Goddard being there. "Ahmm... who you be? ... How'd you even get here?"

Goddard's eyes darted back and forth before just shrugging in response. "I-I don't know?" The being placed his lunch on the nearby throne before walking up to the kid. "Huh... You know, mortals don't usually just pop up around here. This isn't even the same plane of existence as you guys." Goddard became frantic at what the being said. "Wait, am I dead!?" The being chuckled. "Heh, nah. This isn't the afterlife, that's lightyears away from here. Still though, we're thousands of lightyears away from the mortal realm, so it's practically impossible for you to even be here."

"Uh... where is here, exactly?" said a confused Goddard. "This place, it used to belong to the previous guy. The one who trained me and left me be to go out on his own. Technically I own this place now, but it doesn't really feel like I do." Goddard contemplated before asking a simple question. "So... who are you?" The being looked at Goddard, seeing the kid's puzzled face. "Oh, my name is Galactop. I'm the current person who keeps everything in check. At least, that's what I was taught to do, but there doesn't really seem to be much of anything to do at the moment."

"Keeping everything in check? Like... the universe?" Galactop nodded with a jaded expression. "Yeah, pretty much. The previous guy said it'd be an exciting job, but it's honestly pretty boring. Nothing super threatening has happened, so I haven't really interfered in anything yet. Just been lounging around this place, munching on snacks and watching what's on the waves. If anything, you're the first odd thing to happen to me since I got this position."

Goddard then remembered the elastian soldiers he and his crewmates have been dealing with recently. "Well, where I'm from, a bunch of people are being threatened by these monsters called Elastians. Wouldn't that be something that you could probably interfere with?" Galactop sat down on the throne, continuing to eat his meal. "Oh yeah, those Elastian guys. I remember hearing about them a while back. Those are an odd bunch, I actually did try dealing with them once. And by dealing with them, I mean that I destroyed their planet. You'd think not having a planet would kill off a species, but for some reason they persisted by making artificial planets, essentially giant machines that travel through the cosmos. I've destroyed quite a plenty of those things, but they always come back somehow, so I just gave up. Sorry you have to deal with that, but there nothing I can do."

Distraught with the answer given to him, Goddard paced back and forth thinking something. Galactop then interjected, saying "Anyways, any reason why you're here? Aside from asking me about the Elastians?" Goddard looked up and responded. "I... don't know how I got here, or why I'm here. Last I remember, I was asleep. The thing is though... I have memories of being here before, with other people. My memories are pretty murky though, so I don't know who I was with..." Galactop became intrigued at what Goddard had said. "Huh, peculiar... I wonder..."

Goddard then started to slowly phase out. "Uh, w-what's happening!?" Galactop was surprised, but not entirely shocked. "Ohh, so that's how you got here. I guess you were astral projecting yourself from wherever you are. Before you go, I want to say one more thing. If you are who I think you are, try to take care of everyone around you. You a lot more powerful than you think..." He then flicked Goddard's forehead, waking him up. Goddard was still sleeping on his side, looking out the window, though something was off.

For a split second, Goddard thought he could see a cloaked figure floating in space, a short distance away from his window. Goddard rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but when he opened his eyes again, the cloaked figure was gone. Goddard was silently frightened at what he had seen, but he didn't let it get to him too much since he had other things on his mind at the moment. "What did Galactop mean by that... does he know something about me that I don't?"