Chapter 1 — Departure

Something was waiting. From beyond the depths of space and through the reach of time, some salvation was calling. It took the breath from Lunya’s chest and the color from her cheeks as she grasped the throttle with sweaty hands and prepared for the final push. She thought about her grandmother (the painter) and her grandfather (the musician) whose talents taught her how to harness fear before their legacies were lost to a pragmatic and desperate world.

The Voidwalker 3 was codenamed Gulliver for a character from Lunya’s favorite book, a memory made possible by a brave ancestor who managed to drag a small paperback published in 1982 through all the worst things: The eruption, the outbreaks, the earthquakes, the starvation seasons, the list goes on. When asked in a briefing interview why she chose the name, Lunya answered laughingly “If we meet tiny people, our Gulliver will be ready with 18 tiny people inside it.”

The control bridge was silent and solemn as each of the brave travelers coped individually with the imminent adventure that lay before them. Over her left shoulder and almost drowned out by the whirring and chirping of instruments, Lunya could hear Alister’s occasional sniffles. Alister had left his wife with their small child. As the mission’s chief analyst, he knew better than anyone the likelihood that he would never see them again. Still, the stakes were too high and his duty was too important, so here he was.

A quick look over Lunya’s right shoulder revealed Pria, who sat silently stoic with an eerie calm. Her sharp eyes were transfixed on the anomaly that was growing larger in the viewing window with every second as they approached. The powerful and exotic array of both weapons and supplies within Pria’s grasp may ease the mind of a taskmaster like her, but Lunya found no comfort in such preparation. The fact remained that their destination was a complete mystery, and the 18-person crew was now on a fated path completely out of their control.

Gulliver was the most advanced all-terrain vessel the world had ever seen, and at 6000 meters beneath the ocean’s surface it was showing its mettle. After a rapid and successful descent, the crew had traversed the ocean floor until they reached the mouth of the cave in which the anomaly had been discovered just three months ago. Gulliver could walk, roll, swim and fly. It could handle both the pressure of the deep oceans and the vacuum of outer space. It was also equipped with formidable multipurpose weaponry. The Voidwalker was Lunya’s own design, and in this artless world, she was bold enough to think of herself as an artist and this piece of tech as her masterpiece.

The anomaly was discovered not by the colorful light it produces, but by the strangely musical patterns of sound it creates. The underwater waves of otherworldly songs were carried throughout the world and imitated by whales, then traced back to this single origin point — the anomaly. Tests of increasing complexity were sent into the anomaly, beginning with simple transmitters and ending with robot probes made of organic flesh and living tissue. While the matter of these mechanical adventurers vanished without a trace, their transmissions never ceased. Finally it was decided by the Agency that the anomaly was a gateway, and that is when Lunya was called into action.

Gulliver was no more than 100 meters from the anomaly, and its ethereal music could now be heard even inside the pressurized cabin. The most peculiar aspect of this music was that it was always changing, as if it was being composed moment to moment by the anomaly itself. The bright and colorful lights of the anomaly coalesced into tendrils that seemed to reach out toward Gulliver as it continued its approach. As the anomaly reached toward the Walker, Lunya felt a sudden surge of energy beyond the supposed capabilities of her machine. The Walker increased its speed with the overload of pure power.

The longest tendrils of the anomaly were about to make contact with the Voidwalker. With a thousand colors and a million unique sounds, the anomaly was performing for them, calling them into its presence to show them something no human had ever seen. As it touched the vessel, the generative music of the anomaly was suddenly inside Gulliver’s cabin. The iridescent tendrils of the anomaly were now making their way through the bridge, weaving themselves in and out of the instruments, bringing new color and sound to the blinking lights and dull monitors that filled the space.

Lunya let go of the throttle and gave into the pure captivation that filled her mind as her senses fully experienced this alien presence. The vessel was almost entirely absorbed now in the anomaly’s embrace, which meant that it was almost time for the voyage. With a sudden rush of devotion for her crew, she hoped they were all prepared for anything that would come next.

As the music and color increased to a level that was too great for a human mind to perceive, Gulliver was transported away from the bleak and gray world Lunya knew. While she could not explain or quantify the feeling, she could feel that world’s grip on her spirit slipping away, and that’s how she knew that the Voidwalker was in another place.

Then the lights and music were gone. With a sudden feeling of weightlessness, Lunya could tell that Gulliver was no longer underwater, but suspended in open space. Through the viewing window, the expanse before them gradually came into focus.

It was a dark, starless sky, filled with strange, massive Orbs. Each was unique in color, and as Lunya fixed her eyes on a specific orb, she instantly began to feel things. It was like each Orb had the power to open a line of direct communication to her heart. One blue Orb reminded her of a snowy day, gazing out the window while her grandfather played a forgotten song on the (what was it called?) piano. An Orb of deep purple filled her with the pride she felt on the day of her Academy graduation. An Orb of blood red instantly rekindled the fear she had felt in the heart of the Great Resource Crisis when her family was unsure where they would find their next meal. A yellow Orb overwhelmed her with the memories of her true love, then an Orb of dark orange brought back to life the pain of losing that love.

Unable to handle the rush of feelings, Lunya averted her eyes from the Orbs in the distance, but she could still feel them pulling at her soul. Looking around, she could see that both Alister and Pria were wrestling with similar experiences. Something like an undeniable voice told Lunya that these orbs were the reason she was in this place. With a deep breath, she powered up the thrusters and began approaching the field of Orbs in the distance.