{"sf1_id":707212,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Finding Truths - Prologue","author":"Eolaiokt","words":1983,"posted_at":"2014-05-20T02:02:00.000Z","tags":["Character Development","Preview","Sci-Fi","Story Progression"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/707212-finding-truths-prologue","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/707212","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=707212\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"         \nHe had to get out of here. They'd come. Long before they were supposed to. He was unprepared. All of them were unprepared.  \n               \nHe activated the jump, looking back at the door in terror as it\nbuckled, letting out a small sigh of relief when he heard the pad\nwarming up. \n... \nNothing happened. \n... \n                He screamed. \n*** \n \n               \nAnother alarm. Erin groaned as he snapped his door open again. Would\nthis place give him no sleep? The hallway outside was bustling, men and\nwomen running by far faster than they did in normal alarms. He frowned\nand shut his door again, hitting the panel next to it. The connection\ntook a few minutes to establish, but Glory's face soon appeared in it.  \n                \"Yes, sir?\" \n                \"What's going on?\" He asked. \n                \"We've lost another connection, sir.\" \n                Erin looked up, pleading with the gods. \"Which one?\" \n               \nGlory paused, and Erin's gaze snapped back to her, his eyes widening in\nhorror. \"It was... I'm sorry sir, it was Center.\" \n                A little part of Erin died. \n*** \n               \nThe room was hushed. That was unusual, for The Empire's Parliament. At\nleast, it would've been under any other circumstance. Considering the\nnews Erin had just given though, it was no surprise. He walked off stage\nquickly, taking the glass of water offered to him by Glory and walking\non, waiting for her report as she fell in behind him. Glory was a decent\nassistant. Mark IV Android assistant, to be exact. Technically the\nbest. Right now, decent was all Erin could manage.  \n                \"Ystaerial\nhas reported in. The Evacuation of Prime isn't going as well as you'd\nhoped, even with the news we brought. Beta is pulling strings, but the\ngovernments of both Gamma and Alpha are resisting. Heavily.\" Glory said\nquickly, reading off the list on her pad. \n                \"Center?\" \n                \"No word. All attempts to re-establish connections have resulted in blown continuum circuits.\" \n               \nErin rubbed his forehead. \"With Center down, we only have access to\nthis half of the Verse. Any success with bridging the gap?\" \n                \"We have contact with Yin, but no matter transit. Other connections have failed so far.\" \n                \"Call in our best. All of them. We need everyone working on this. How's work going on the Transit Pulse?\"  \n                \"We've succeeded in blocking transit between local universes, but it has limited effect on outside transit.\" \n                \"Limited how?\" \n                \"It slows the process down by a few seconds.\" \n               \n\"Requisition them more resources from the Council. Tell them that's our\nmost important project right now. It might end up saving us.\" \n                \"Me, Sir...?\" \n                \"Yes. Congratulations on your promotion. Get to work.\" \n*** \n                I'm not even sure it matters what year it is anymore. When we lost Origin, our concept of time kinda\njust... reset. With the level of interconnection we've built up between\nuniverses, time is really dependent on your perception. My Home,\nCenter, was the first place discovered after Origin. It's not even a\nreal universe. It's a pocket dimension, made on accident in our first\nattempt to Jump Universes. We ended up there, and that ended up being\nour hub for travel. Most of the other universes we've connected with\naren't quite full universes either. We've encountered a total of 6\nTruths (the full universes). We don't mess with the Truths. They have\ntheir own things going on, and it's banned by the UTA (Universal Transit\nAgency) to interact with them. Origin was the only Truth we were\nallowed to interact with, and after we lost it, the most we get to do is\nsee a Truth when we pass through one on the occasional Jump. I've seen\ntwo of the Truths. The first one was nothing more than a boiling mass of\nseething antimatter, and in the second, our Jump Point was so far out\nall we could see all around was a starry sky. A really starry sky.  \n                We\nonly inhabit those places that are broken. The half-universes. The\nLies. Not that we really call them lies, that's just what I call them.\nFull-universes are Truths, so broken universes are Lies? I think it\nmakes sense...  \n               \nThey're really called The Broken. We think that maybe they're the\nleftovers of real universes, or maybe the creations of our jumps. We\nbarely understand the technology, so it really wouldn't surprise me that\nthey're accidents caused through misuse. \n*** \n                One of those days, then. The one where the annoying Director informed him that he was being moved. Again.\nHe'd just gotten this assignment. What right did they have to transfer\nhim to another one?! He'd taken it up with the Director, but the staredown he'd gotten had made him leave the room in a huff.  \n               \nHe slipped the last computer crystal into his case, closing it and\nlatching it carefully, the lock automatically sealing the whole thing\nclosed. He glanced about his 4 day old office and sighed, taking the\ncase with him and leaving the building, ignoring the requests for\nattention he got from quite a few of the other employees of the place. \n               \nHe really didn't belong in Hale anyways. Too much sun, and his white\nhair and pale skin were sensitive to the broken sky's imitation\nsunlight. Hale was the seventh Broken that they'd discovered. Jumping\ncould be programmed to go anywhere. TO just dump people in a random\nuniverse, but there were safeties against that. They had to scrounge\nthrough the dilapidated equipment that had been left over from whoever\ninvented the damned things for addresses. Not that they were really\naddresses. Jumping was more a game of... perfection.  \n               \nSilvis, or Vis for short, was a Jump coordinator. One of the best. He\nhad a depth of understanding of the Jump platforms that many others\ncould only boast of. He'd just gotten a job at the Injin\nFrame Company. They were the ones who found the new places. The ones\nwho deactivated the fail-safes and Jumped all over the universes. As\nlong as you had a return platform, and you knew where Center was, you\ncould get back without any difficulties. \nErin's job was to design those jump points. He didn't do any of the actual jumping, but he found places for others to go. \nAs soon as he stepped out of the building, the doors sliding shut behind with a nearly inaudible hissss, he noticed the car parked right in front of the building. Cars were rare now-a-days. With so many people flititng\nabout in Hale, there wasn't enough room for cars, so everyone took the\ntransit systems. Which made room for cars, ironically enough. \nAn\nandroid stepped out of the back seat as soon as he appeared, and stood\nto the side. He paused for a moment before continuing forwards, stepping\nup to her.  \n\"Good evening, Mr. Vis. My name is Glory. We have need of your assistance.\" \n*** \nI\nnever liked the jump coordinators. They were an arrogant bunch, and\nrightfully so, a lot of the time. They had enough intelligence to make\nall of our Mark IV androids look inept, but they didn't have any of the\nbuilt in moral compunctions. If they wanted something, they got it.\nHell, with what they did, and how well they generally did it, they\ndeserved the things they usually got.  \nBut\nVis... he put the rest of them to shame. Made them look like a bunch of\nbumbling babies in a toy factory. He could pop a jumper down 50 feet in\nthe air on a tight rope the size of a single thread, and then get them\nback again before they hit the ground. Give him some time, and he could\nfigure out an entire area just through jump mapping.  \nIt\nwas hard for him though. He came with all the skills, and none of the\nself-confidence. He had to teach that to himself, and even then, it was a\nfragile thing. Those first few weeks we worked together on getting back\nto Center, he nearly broke down 11 times. I was able to convince him to\nkeep going on, but I knew he was only listening because he knew I had\nfamily on the other side of the Verse. \nWhen we did get through though... we wished we hadn't. And we were glad we only got messaging.  \n*** \nErin's\nface was grim. The message was repeating over and over, in his own\nbrothers voice. \"Don't come. This half is lost. I've sealed the jump\nsystem- Don't come. This half is lost. I've sealed the Jump System-\nDon't - \" Glory shut the recording off.  \n\"This half is lost...?\" He asked wearily. \"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!\" \n\"We\ndon't know sir. Initial Jump mapping showed...\" Glory paused. \"It\nshowed carnage sir. Vis isn't quite sure what he's looking at, but he\nthinks...\" She shook her head. \"He thinks the jump platform is being\nused as an... altar of some sort. A sacrificial altar.\" \nErin groaned. \"Anything else?\"  \n\"No, sir. As soon as the message came through, Vis freaked and locked the gate down. Said something about protocol 9 before running out of the room.\" \n\"Protocol 9?\" Erin asked warily. \"Any idea what that is...?\" \n\"No...\" \nVis\nwalked into the room, looking shaken. \"Protocol 9 is one of the 11\nemergency protocols the Jump guild has given all of it's members.\" He\nsaid, taking a chair. \"Glory, could I get some water please?\" \nGlory\nnodded and left. Vis turned to Erin. \"It's only supposed to be used in\ncase of invasion. Specifically, invasion from one of the Truths. \nSpecifically, invasion from Earis.\" \n\"Earis? You mean the truth where our gate pops out right onto another planet, instead of a station out in space?\" \n\"Yes. It's inhabited by a rather volatile race. Decently advanced, although their techology\nis... crude. They must have discovered the Gate and activated it while\nwe had a mapping session being performed. Which didn't give us the\nchance to shut down the gate before they could get through.\" \nVis sighed. \"You realise what this means, right? Almost all of\nour food came from the other half. With our population as is, and our\nstocks as is... we've got maybe 6 months before we need to start\nrationing, and a year before we run out of the chance to survive.\" \nErin nodded grimly. \"I'll talk to the Council. I have a plan.\" \n*** \n\"Not a chance in hell!\" Councilor Victus roared, standing from his seat and slamming his fist into his table. \"We have those rules for a reason! We don't interfere!\" \nErin\ngrowled and stood up to his full height. \"We're going to die if we\ndon't do something!\" He pointed at the screen sitting behind him. \"Vis\nhas already set everything up. We won't even be impacting  an\nestablished civilization! He took the effort to find a planet that was\nuninhabited by any intelligent beings. We just need approval!\" \nThe other council members began arguing among themselves loudly, ignoring Erin's pleas for order.  \nA shar rapping emitted from the desk in the center. The eldest Councilor, Prim Urula, stood up, wobbling a bit. Her wrinkled face and stark white hair made her look wise. Erin's opinion was that she was. \n\"You\nhave approval.\" She said. The other council members cried in outrage.\nShe slammed her gavel more. \"You've all forgotten! Emergency act 3\nexplicitly states that 'Should contact with Center be lost, and the Metallic half of the Verse be on the verge of collapse, the prime Councillor is to appoint an Emperor to rule things' and I appoint him!\" \nErin blinked. \"What...?\" She turned to him, ignoring the cries from her fellow councilors. \"Congratulations on your Promotion, Emperor Erin,\" and winked."}