“Uh, Galyn? Need some help here!”
Arkay hurriedly hit the massive emergency stop button up above him, but to his dismay, the ship hadn’t quite slowed down as much as he’d hoped. There was still a lot of forward momentum, moving towards the massive silver pyramid that had just appeared in front of them.
Thankfully, Galyn quickly arrived, slammed his claws against several more buttons and brought the Thantir Two to a proper stop.
“Did that just appear from thin air?” Galyn asked.
“I assume it was cloaked or something, but yeah.”
“How far are we from the Life Oasis?”
Arkay glanced at the console that was tracking their position, then, as he realised he didn’t have an answer, turned his attention to it properly. “Uh… A big number.”
“Give me a percentage.”
“We’re 82% complete on the journey.”
Galyn frowned, sitting back in the co-pilot’s seat and tutting. “Not good. Not good at all. We are out of their potential territory, so they are intercepting us on purpose.”
Behind Galyn, Retvik and Litvir had appeared, both fully armed and armoured. They had clearly felt the sudden braking.
“Why have we stopped? What is that and why is there a large mirror on it?” Retvik asked. “Is that a mirror?”
The large pyramid ahead of the Thantir Two had opened up slightly, revealing what looked like a mirror at first, but was in fact a screen. After a large amount of flickering, something appeared on the screen, the image of a large, heavily armoured and horned being. By the Voidborn entity’s side were three much smaller beings, two of whom were about the same size and shape as Retvik and Litvir.
“DECAY BEINGS, IDENTIFY YOURSELVES.”
Galyn grunted, then reached for the nearby microphone, the only real way to respond to the call. “We are just passing through. We were unaware that this is your territory and are leaving now.”
“ALLOW US TO TAKE VISUAL CONFIRMATION OF WHO YOU ARE.”
“If you wish to send a drone, go ahead.”
As Galyn predicted, a small, silver sphere popped out from underneath the pyramid and raced towards the Thantir Two, peering into the glass of the cockpit. The reaction of the Voidborn entity and its companions was… interesting.
“Are you three thinking what I am thinking?” Retvik asked, keeping his eyes on the screen.
“What, the fact that, although the Voidborn looks nothing like Galyn, its buddies look just like us?” Arkay muttered.
“That is exactly what I was wondering too…” Litvir seemed concerned. “Are they us, from a parallel universe?”
Arkay shook his head. “The way Kairos controlled time ensured that direct universal parallels couldn’t exist. Most likely, they’re distant familial parallels, probably related to Kinisis and using the same universal blueprints, unintentionally creating something similar to what Kinisis originally made. After all, a lot of local Life Goddesses kinda do the same stuff.”
“But even then, why do they look… so similar to us?” Litvir clearly was getting more and more concerned, especially since he could tell that the Voidborn being and its companions were making the same realizations they were.
After some muted but obvious discussion, the Voidborn turned back to the Decay Lord ship.
“YOU ARE TRESPASSING IN OUR DOMAIN. WE WILL NEED TO INSPECT YOUR SHIP. YOUR SHIP WILL BE TRANSPORTED INSIDE OUR VESSEL. REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE.”
A large beam emanated from the silver pyramid, surrounding the Thantir Two. While the Thantir Two remained stationary, the large pyramid was definitely moving towards and over them.
“Fuck, what do we do?” Arkay asked, a worried wobble in his voice.
Galyn tutted, crossing his arms. “If they wanted us dead, they would have fired at us already. Keep your weapons miniaturized and by your sides, keep yourselves protected, but let them do their checks. We have no valuables on board and nothing they could want, so they will most likely just check and leave us be.”
“What if they attack us though?”
“Then we will defend ourselves…” the elder Decay Lord growled. “Arkay, go put your armour on and come back to the cockpit. Retvik, Litvir, please come with me to the cargo bay, so we can greet these beings…”