The Spoils of War

[WP] The ultimate intergalactic war ends with reality being shattered. Humans are the only species able to navigate the broken universe without falling into despair at the nonsensical nature of the new reality. Apparently they have these things called “dreams” that have trained them for this.

*****

The ship filled with red light. Who the hell had came out of cryo? Why now? A sound started but faded into the distance. That wasn't good; it meant the interstellar Break was happening, and worse, he felt wide awake.

Pete strapped himself into the chair, and activated the neural navigator. Whatever had happened, it was too late; it would have to be dealt with after. He's have to trust the ships intelligence to sort it out.

Pete felt himself and the body of the ship become one. His arms as pylons stretched as the solar winds brushed across. His sails bellowed out and water sprayed over the decks. Ah classic, the mindscape of an ocean. Excellent, this made it much easier to navigate, at least at the start. More worrying were the stormclouds on the horizon, which Pete hoped were manifestations of the ships alarms, and would stay away.

He enjoyed this part. The salt in the air, and the water on his face. The physical sensation turned him into the figurehead of the ship; his arms going from fixed at his side to coming loose; allowing his arm to be outstretched pulling himself along. Pulling that arm in and outstretching another, he was in the water swimming. Kicking the slightly rough sea threw him around. Something was pulling at his leg.

A crack of thunder slammed overhead, and the world darkened. Rising waves loomed impossibly high, swirling into monsters and spray. Something struck his face; the neural link flew into the deep. The waves manifested into a nightmare of a figure, eight feet tall, razor sharp teeth, metallic skin and a red eye, a Krocatian. Their eight limbs crashes into foam and blood as red lightning lit the sea for a second and sirens thundered.

Roak, his name was Roak. He was the second in command of the ship. What the hell was he doing. How, this had to be part of the Break. Roak rolled over the chair and the wind howled as another reptilian arm crested throwing Pete out of the chair.

He flew through the air for a second, a bulkhead coming closer, and closer. He seemed to half how close he was, then again, and again. Time slowed as the distance reduced. Until time stopped as he was impossibly close to a wall that stretched out to infinity. The impact would be now. It had to happen. This was the end. Maybe this is what death was, it was the last moment of your life stretched out to infinity, in that last instance to keep the souls alive. A way to fight against the infinite void of nothing.

He touched his eye, he could move it. He forced himself to move both of his eyes, and focus. Pete followed the wall into the distance, and flew along watching it extend out. Behind him rushing water crashed and rose in a cresting wave tearing and heaving. The wave reached out for him pleading. It was going to get him, to smash him against this wall. Pete flew higher, and watched the wall retreat, leaving the water behind to helplessly sag. The wall turned into a sphere, it was never infinite. It was a planet, a green marble on the edge of spacetime, endlessly spinning.

Pete felt his sense of reality coming back to him. "Normal space reached" computer voice chimed, Pete fell asleep.

The headset was pulled off him, and he was thrown into bright light and shapes. The Captain, and several other crewmembers he'd never met. The Captain stood five feet, covered head to single foot in blue scales, and hovered about a foot off the ground. "Are you ok Navigator Pete?" Came her voice.

"I'm fine." Pete protected himself from the light as his eyes adjusted "A but rougher than normal, but I got us through."

The Captain looked at the other people on the bridge. A shape formed into a medic walked over and started scanning. Pete's eyes adjusted. The bridge was covered in greenish silver blood. It was all over every console and bulkhead. Against the viewscreen was a body, of a Krocatian. They lacked several arms, and they were missing their eyes. A silver foam was leaking from their mouth.

"You have my apologies Navigator. The black box has Lt. Roak coming out of Cryo as we entered the Broken. They made a video log, and sent it to me upon waking telling me they though they could navigate. It's not worth going into the details. I believe he attacked you."

Pete felt his own face, and small amounts of red blood stained his fingers. There was a trail of blood heading over to a bulkhead, with a human footprint on the wall.

There was no way all that had happened. He could not wrap his head around the idea, around the possibility. And yet, it was clear as day that it had indeed happened, and he had been a part of it. The adventure of a lifetime, and he would have no other choice but to write all about it.

To make sure that the generations to come knew this all happened. But first, he had to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

Pete pinched himself.

*****

THE END.