Hearts of Darkness - Plague of the Void Seeds / 3

in #writing8 years ago (edited)


Pre-altered source image - jordygoovaerts-750531

Please click here if you would like to read Post 1, the beginning of the story

Please click here if you would like to read the previous Post

Post 3


Tweny five years ago


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.”


Present


…..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.....

Sort:  

haha.. I do not believe in love :D

....and yet as a feeling and an idea, it exists ;)

yes I know , every human being must be the feeling of love is a natural thing

I added a little more, that love makes us crazy

weve love makes us crazy, laughing to himself and his own smile smile and make us feel good and bad that's love :D

Thank you! Now it's like a TV show (1 episode for a week). Hard to wait :-)

Well, on the one hand i feel bad for not being able to give you more, faster! On the other, i'm so thrilled that you want to know more!

Okay, I will be waiting. And how much parts of story will be?

I don't know yet. I am very conscious that I have only a certain amount of time I can commit to a piece of work like this and also that it must reach a conclusion. So I will try to gauge it as we go but hopefully it will be a short book in length, like the hobbit. Maybe even shorter.

Well it's no so short. And so becomes addicted on Steemit :-)

I'll have to read to beginning for it to make sense but intriguing writing. I will follow you. I dig steemit mostly for the original content and it seems to be teeming with it for now. Kudos to you on your budding sci-fi (or whatever you call it) saga.

Thanks very much. I agree, there's so much good stuff happening on Steemit right now!

Thank you! I wold prefer longer chapters maybe once a week. Very interesting.
And you have shown to @kita that love exists, it's great!

Mmmmmm, longer chapters once a week. I will certainly give that some thought. The reason I wanted to post every day is because this size of post is easier for me to manage with work and everything else. I can also continue to engage more easily on Steemit. However, I can totally appreciate that it would be frustrating to have a story with so many breaks and it's you guys who are enjoying it now that I care about the most. I really will think long and hard about how I might transition to a weekly post with more content.

Please just only give it a thought:), No matter how often you put out chapters I think shorter chapters are perfect for steemit, and you can always compile the story when you complete as-well. Cheers @benjojo!!!

Posting once a week might give you more time to refine the ideas, and more space in an individual post to develop a plot arc and tension. Figure out whatever works best for you though, and do that!

This feels like a Final Fantasy story, I like the names you created, reminds me of the show gladiator back in the days:)

Getting more interesting. I will be waiting for the next ine. Thank you for sharing.

I like where this is going.. is Joshua going to be like an hybrid or something, and the way the 2 stories start to being told, im sure they'll connect soon, and we all will be O.O

haha, good one, please write more

Loving the terms that you used. Able to learn a lot of vocabulary from your articles!

Wow, that's great! I'm so happy it's helpful for you to learn more English.

me too, my english is awfull..lol

nice story. but, I like most romantic type story. Have you any plan to write romantic stories in the near future?

I could always try, but I think, certainly for the near future, I'll have my hands full.

Each time, more and more interesting)

More more more!! One chapter a week sounds fine but still cant decide if I can wait that much.

Gary and Anna history gives a very nice touch to the story timelapse. Got us all hooked to this.. great job.

I really enjoy reading this fantastical sci-fi thriller with my morning cup of joe @ benjojo - It is very weird, true and kinda scary - how unprepared we are as a race for contact with any form of alien life :))

That made me smile. Yes and if we ever became considerably more advanced, what would we become? We are so closely defined by our evolutionary history and our biology.....if we could become smarter, more durable, more technologically competent, what impact would that have on the bent of our thoughts, our desires, our philosophy?

Quite the conundrum, if I do say... :)) Would we lose that part of ourselves that makes us distinctly human..? But it is this connection (for lack of a better word at the moment) that makes for great writing, in my opinion. I commend you for your dedication to not only this 'killer' story.., but to the characters that live inside of it. Thanks @benjojo

we lose our minds for love, it gets good, youre doing an interesting serie

Sharing a personal story, check it out when you can, help me get more visible please, cheers @benjojo!
https://steemit.com/story/@arcaneinfo/un-foreshadowed-true-story

Lets see how we connet all of the storys. I enjoy the images of it, im working in writing something too keep it up!!