Hearts of Darkness - Plague of the Void Seeds / 3

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Post 3

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Tweny five years ago

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Gary – “I wish I was coming with you.”
Anna – “I know.”
Gary – “I still can’t believe this is happening in my lifetime. I’d give anything to take a closer look, to be up there among it.”
Anna – “Well I’m pissing my pants.”
Gary – “Ha! An old timer like me has nothing to lose. It’s always the way. The old linger on whilst the young cast themselves into the hungry maw.”
Anna – “I don’t know about casting…more like blasting if you ask me.”
Gary – “Indeed!”

Anna is gathering some documentation and notes from around her workstation. They're alone in a large open-plan office. A NASA logo adorns some of the stationary that is lying about. In a short while, Anna would be boarding a rocket and blasting off into space in order to reach the International Space Station. The station had been getting quite a lot more attention lately, with increased visits, rapid upgrades and modifications. She had been chosen to oversee the final stages of installation for the most powerful telescope ever built by mankind. It’s fabrication had been commissioned by the newly formed 'Global Alliance of Nations' and jointly funded by the world's wealthiest countries.

People’s attitudes towards each other had changed rather dramatically over the last five years. The existence of intelligent alien life was now widely regarded as a certainty, though no contact had yet been made. Our entire galaxy 's existence was under immediate threat and as a race, we were hopelessly unprepared, both biologically and technologically, to deal with the impending threats. The universe had become a hell of a lot smaller and any notion of human pre-eminence, completely and permanently abandoned. Understandably, such knowledge had proven to be a powerfully unifying and galvanizing force for humanity. Well, for those that didn’t immediately and irretrievably lose their marbles. Thankfully, only a small percentage had been so afflicted.

Gary – “How long is the mission?”
Anna – “It’s a minimum of six months.”
Gary – “You be careful up there.”
Anna – “I will.”

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Present

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…..As the boy finishes the Void Seed’s dark heart, with pitch black matter staining his teeth and face, he collapses onto the carcass. Whatever force had once animated and bound the Void Seed together had departed and the midnight form seemed to melt away as a kind of thick vapour, into nothing. Before long, the boy was lying face-down on the floor of the woodland glade, surrounded by the fallen.

The remaining Ziff was crouched down by her companion's corpse, a soft keening sound emanating from her throat, as she gently cradles a delicate and blood-stained hand. The sound of undergrowth rustling and twigs snapping brings her out of her reverie and her quiet, mournful song ends. The Valhalconin and Shaddonos have survived, though only a stump remains of the Valhalconin’s right arm and his head is caved in on one side.

The Shaddonos walks over to the white blade, now lying on the woodland floor next to the boy and returns it to a sheath on his back. They all look down at the boy.

Khalzirin-amonal (the Shaddonos) – “That was suprising.”
Bulvodin (the Valhalconin) – “Indeed. I've never heard of anything like it.”
Khalzirin- amonal (the Shaddonos) – “He ate it’s heart?”
Sill (the Ziffnindell) – “All.”

Bulvodin walks over to Sill, kneels down, and rests his massive, grey hand gently on her back.

Bulvodin – “Sorry.”
Sill – “Love. All.”
Bulvodin – “All. Love back.”
Sill - "So many. Sorrow."

Sill leans up and they briefly touch foreheads.

Khalzirin-amonal – “We must leave. The boy will come with us. We have no choice and neither does he.”
Bulvodin – “Agreed.”

Khalzirin-amonal picks up the boy (Joshua Logan) and the survivors walk back into the woods.....