A.R.: Beyond the Universe
Chapter 12 - Preparations

Alex finds himself floating in space once again. But this time it is different. This time he is meant to be here. He has a job to do and he must find them.

But where is here? Where did they send him to now? How long has it been?

Alex thinks hard. Every time this happens, it is always disorienting. Each time he travels like this, he never knows where he has been sent, but he knows why he is here. The Void has arrived in this space, and he must stop at all costs. But he must first find them: the others like him.

He remembers the Void, how it appears in one space and consumes everything it in: stars, planets, inhabitants, and entire galaxies. He remembers it appearing on his first planet as a Traveler. He remembers how everything vanished before his eyes, as if the very fabric of space had unraveled itself and fallen apart, allowing everything to simply cease to exist.

He wonders if he is the first to awaken. That is always nice. Then he can have a little time to check out the surroundings before he goes to work.

Alex looks around to get himself oriented. He turns his head quickly as if hearing something far off to the right. His mind searches a seemingly endless space until his instincts tell him to stop. Yes, there it is: the world where he had been sent to stay until he was needed.

It is a nice place, nicer than the last, where everything was already dead or dying. That planet had reached the end of its life cycle. It was old, very old. The races there were in their last stages of advancement. After that, it isn’t very long before the planet simply dies of old age. Life is infinite, no matter which space you’re in. It has its cycles and then passes on to the next realm, eventually leaving nothing behind. It has been so and will always be so. When a planet or a sun has used up what it is given, time eventually erases it out of existence. He has seen it thousands of times. Even they, the Travelers, eventually reach the end of their existence.

True, he has moved from space to space for what seems to be forever. While in stasis, he does not age, even if he sleeps for millions of years. But when he awakens, the aging process starts again until it is time for him to sleep once again. One day, far in the future, he will not awaken. He also will pass into time just as others before him have done.

But for now, he must find the other Travelers. There is suddenly a sense of urgency within him. With the Void already here, time cannot be wasted. That is a luxury the unsuspecting inhabitants of this space may think they have, but the Travelers do not. He must move quickly to find them.

He begins scanning the space around him. He must start finding the other Travelers and get preparations started for establishing the barrier.

The barrier. In this space it will not be enough to stop it this time. The Void has advanced too far, too fast. He has to get the other Travelers together fast. They will have to search this space for something with enough power to compensate. It is always there; you just have to find it. He will look for a short to determine what is here and then locate the others.

Alex’s scan quickly locates not a supplemental power supply but one of the original power supplies for the barrier. It is located on the planet he slept on until the Void’s detection awakened him. His mind quickly goes to the green and blue planet and locates the storage/power unit. It is located just beneath the surface of the planet, beneath some mountains. This time, it seems that some of the locals are living inside it. This is not normal. Usually, the power units conceal themselves from the ones who live on that world. He hopes they have not disturbed anything. He does, however, sense a presence here, a very strong one. His mind searches each area, as if looking for something. Yes, there it is. Strange, it is not a machine or device that is the tremendous power source. It is one of the local inhabitants living inside the unit: a female. Not just a female, but one he knew in his previous form. When this is over, and the barrier is up and running, he will allow his previous host to come back here. This is something that he needs to check out. For now, he must complete his inspection of the unit.

While he is there, he goes over each piece in the unit. The more checking he does on the unit, the more he is remembering about it. To those who live here, this is not just a power/storage unit to help power the barrier. It is more. It is their home. Unlike these units in the past, there never had a name. They were simply units for storing and transmitting power to help create the barrier. But this unit has a name. Yes, there it is: its inhabitants call it the Complex, an odd but somehow familiar name for such a thing.

His mind continues to follow each piece of conduit, checking connection after connection, circuit after circuit. He finds several loose connections leading to the storage unit deep within the planet’s core and fixes them. If the connectors remained loose when the unit is activated, leaking even small amounts of this type of stored energy would easily damage the planet.

From start to finish, it has taken him only seconds to check and fine tune the unit, the connections and circuits. Alex finishes his inspection and sets the controls to activate the unit the moment the command is given to activate and release the massive amounts of store energy. He takes a moment to think about the unit and where it came from. He knows that it was installed on the planet just after the planet had been created, during its cooling cycle. There it sat, constantly maintaining and tuning itself, waiting for the time when it would be needed, if ever. He had always felt as though the units were almost life forms themselves. They had intelligence and could think for themselves. Usually they tended to avoid the local inhabitants, not even allowing the inhabitants to locate them. But this unit is different. It has programming that allowed it to be found and requires some of the inhabitants of the world to be there inside it. This is something out of the ordinary. Later, he would have to give it some thought…if there is a later.

Alex begins to leave the unit and continue his search for the other Travelers. But the thoughts of the female he had sensed earlier were troubling him. Like an unseen ghost, he goes back into the unit, moving through thick walls and slabs until he locates her. There is something about her he cannot identify. She is not like the others here. She has unused powers that dwarf what the Travelers can do. He studies her for a few moments, trying to scan her to determine why she is so different. And then he senses a second power source, just as powerful as this one is, another female. Perhaps these two are what the Travelers need to help create a barrier sufficient to stop the Void in this reality. As he prepares to leave for the depths of space, he hesitates a moment longer. He does not want to leave the female, but he knows he must to accomplish what he was sent here to do. He knows she cannot see him, floating above her in the corner of the room. Then the female does something unexpected: she looks up and to the corner where he is, as if looking for something. She is of a very young species on a very young planet. Yet he senses abilities in her and the other female that she and her kind should not have for millions of their years.

Sara is reading in her living room. It is late at night and she is doing what she can to keep herself busy. Her thoughts of Alex and how he vanished in front of her and Kate haunt her and prevent her from concentrating on the day’s reports. She wonders what has happened to him and where he has gone. And then there was the kiss he gave her. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. She knew she loved him, but this was different. For a moment, as he kissed her, she felt like she could see everything, everywhere: all the stars, all the planets, clusters of galaxies, everything. That was not what scared her. The thought of not seeing Alex again was what was weighing heaviest on her mind. She looks up at the ceiling and then to a corner, wondering where he is now. Maybe somewhere out there among the stars. Will he ever return to her? She shakes her head and starts reading again. Then she gets a feeling like someone is watching her. She looks around the room and then up at the ceiling, as if trying to see something or look for someone. Then the feeling is gone. She sighs heavily and puts down the reports. She gets up, stretches hard and walks to a counter, where she finds a bottle of wine. She picks it up and starts to open it. She hesitates, puts the bottle back on the counter, and walks to her PDA. She picks it up and calls her sister. A hologram of Kate appears floating in front of the PDA’s screen.

“Hi, Kate. No, nothing wrong. Just thinking about Alex. Yeah, I’m fine. I was thinking…maybe I ought to get out and go for a walk. Want to join me? Great. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Sara hangs up the call and changes out of her nightgown into some casual clothes. By the time she’s finished dressing, there is a knock at the door. As it slides open, Sara sees her sister standing there with a worried look on her face.

“You sure you’re OK?” Kate asks. “It’s not very often that you want to go for a walk.”

“Yes, I’m OK. I just thought that some fresh air might do some good. Want to go topside?”

“Sure. You know I love the mountains,” Kate says, trying to sound as enthusiastic as she can. True, she really does love walking in the mountains the Complex is buried beneath. But she is worried about her sister. She knows Sara has strong feelings for Alex. When he vanished in front of them, it was the first time that she had seen a tear on her sister’s face since their father passed away. She has had feelings for men in the past, but this was more.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Kate tells her. They leave Sara’s place and head for a chute that will take them up to the surface.

Alex turns his thoughts back to the heavens and begins to search for the other Travelers and more of the units. He finds one unit inside a sun that is about to explode. The ones inside the suns are the control units. They need the massive bulk of the sun to store all the energy required to perform their function. The control units are like the storage/power units, but much more massive. They are designed to absorb the energy transmitted to them from the storage/power units. When the time is right, the control units collectively shoot their concentrated energies towards the Void to a generator. The generator receives all the energy and transforms it into the living energy that will spread out to form the barrier, stopping the Void from moving further into that reality.

With the amount of energy already stored inside this sun by the control unit, it would take out several star systems if the sun ever exploded. Alex quickly travels to the small star and finds a flaw in the surface of the one of the energy storage packs buried deep within the sun. He locates the damaged pack, disconnects it, and relocates it to another nearby sun. Without it being connected to the control unit, the massive amount of energy stored within it will eventually dissipate on its own, helping to power the sun and increase its life. He has seen what happens when a storage pack is damaged and goes beyond its capacity for storing energy. It explodes, taking the sun and much of that part of space with it. With the Void already in this space and stronger than it was in their last encounter, Alex cannot afford the loss of any of the control units. The last time a storage pack failed, it took out several of the closer storage/power units with it, creating a chain effect of explosions that filtered down to all of the power/storage units, which annihilated everything for light years. It was fascinating to watch, but it almost prevented him from completing his mission. These accidental exploding suns are what we refer to as supernovas.

The mission. It has come, one after another, since the creation of the spaces and realities. He was to do whatever it took to stop the Void from wiping out everything in existence in that reality that he was in. He, like the other Travelers, never knew why he was able to live in the darkest regions of space, thriving on just the latent energies that space was made of. He had wondered on occasions, but he always ended up spending too much time contemplating the possibilities.

He knows there are an infinite number of these realities. In the beginning of everything, when the formation of a new reality is located, his creators placed the Travelers and storage/power units (defense units) and control units in that reality. Units are in strategic locations designed to fend off the Void should it ever attempt to invade that reality. Four Travelers are buried deep within the DNA of four of the inhabitants on worlds spread throughout that reality, always on a planet that a defense unit is placed on. The Travelers lay dormant until called upon by the defense unit. When the Void enters that space, the defense unit recognizes it as a threat, sending out the signal to awaken the Traveler on that planet. Once awake, the Travelers activate the defense units and establish the barrier to stop the Void from advancing into that space. After making sure that everything is safe, and the Void has left that reality, they sleep and then know nothing. They are then collected, placed in another recently formed reality and awaken once again to prepare to fend off the Void again.

Travelers can move within each space by simply concentrating on the destination. That way they can move instantly from place to place as necessary, easily and quickly. Distances have no effect on them; they can move from planet-to-planet or galaxy-to-galaxy, all in the blink of an eye. They adjust defense or control units and check on their working status as required to make sure they are working properly before they are to be used. When the time is right, and enough energy has been stored in each defense unit, each defense unit transmits its energies to an assigned control unit, which then absorbs it and stores it for use, waiting until the command is received to release it. Massive beams of energy are collectively transmitted from all control units to a single generator, placed just ahead of the Void’s projected path by a Traveler. As the beams are absorbed by the generator, they spread the energies, and creating the barrier, which prevents the Void from advancing any further.

So, it has been, and so it will always be until the Void is no more. That is a given.

Alex has to quit daydreaming and get to work. “There is one,” he acknowledges to himself. He has located another Traveler. He concentrates for a moment and finds himself floating in empty space next to a mass of energy that he recognizes as another Traveler.

“There is a problem,” Alex thinks to the mass. “The Void has gotten too far into this space for the control units to stop it. I have sensed several items in this space that have what is required to provide sufficient power to create a barrier that will sustain itself against the Void’s attacks. Find the others and inform them to do the same. They must first find the additional power source and then make necessary adjustments to the control and power units to match the new power sources.”

The other Traveler acknowledges and vanishes. Alex must begin to locate the additional power sources he had sensed to see if they can be used.

Alex scans the area of space that he is assigned to. He quickly locates a star system where one of the power sources is located. Concentrating on it, he finds that he just above the surface of a large sun. There, he finds beings living on the sun’s energies. They have no form, no shape. They consist of nothing but energy, looking like living sparks. Alex must now find a way to communicate with them. He must get their help. They can produce much power. The question is: can he get them to help?

Alex searches for methods of communication. Before he can find one, a blast of energy hits him, coming from one of the beings.

Being a Traveler, the energy blast has no effect on him. It simply passes through him with no damage.

Another blast more powerful than the first is sent his way. Once again, it passes through him and has no effect.

The beings begin to gather, forming a large mass. It is then that Alex receives a communication from them.

“You do not belong here. Leave this place” is the feeling he gets.

“So, they can communicate,” Alex says to himself. He searches his mind and finds the frequency that they are communicating on.

“You are in danger. Your assistance is required to stop this danger” is the message that he sends them.

“I do not understand ‘danger’” is the response he gets from them.

Alex concentrates on the Void and sends that data to the beings in the form of a hologram, which appears just above the mass of living energy. “That is what is coming. You will cease. We were sent here to stop it but are no longer strong enough. With your assistance and the assistance from others, we will have the ability to keep it from entering any further into your space. Others of my kind are now looking for others to help.”

The beings send an even more massive, collective blast of energy to force the intruder away from them. But it also has no effect and Alex does not move.

“It seems your attempts to make me leave are not working. As you have seen, you cannot harm me, and I will not harm you. However, it is here and cannot be stopped without your help,” Alex responds.

There is a pause. Apparently, the beings are wondering who or what this thing is that can resist their efforts to make it leave.

He asks them if there are others like them in this space. The response is that there are many. Alex asks if they can communicate with the others.

The response he feels is that it has already been done. These beings act as one, even though they are great distances apart from each other. They have one single conscience. They are one.

Alex asks them if they know the range of distance in which they can send their energy blasts and how much energy each can send. The data is sent to Alex.

He asks how them: “How many are you?”

The mass changes shapes to form a 3d image of the universe.

“I am here” is the response.

Alex sees, among the millions of stars, many thousands of points of bright light, spread all throughout the universe.

He must inform the other Travelers to recalibrate each control unit to receive the additional energies from this new power source. These beings will send their energies to the nearest control unit at the time requested. It will combine their energies with the ones received from the defense units.

Alex asks them if they have any knowledge of the thing he communicated, of the Void. A moment later, he receives a message that several of their colonies do not answer. A further check shows that nothing there exists now. The colonies in that area no longer exist. Nothing does. They vanished without any warning. The beings send a message that they now understand there is indeed something that will harm them, and they will wait for his signal.

Alex receives a message from them:” I will help but must be left alone when the danger has passed”. Alex agrees and tells them what they will need to do.

With a new power source found, Alex again reaches out his thoughts and locates another power source. He concentrates on it and finds that he is in space, facing what appears to be a massive, dark cloud, full of what appear to be bolts of energy running through it. The cloud has no life in it. It is a mass of negative energy so compact that if anything were able to enter it, it would cease to exist. This is a new wrinkle. Alex will have to determine if such a power source can be used. The answer is no – wrong type of energy. He will have to continue looking.

His mind reaches out and locates another source of power. He concentrates and finds himself looking at a planet covered with a liquid form of energy. This is something he can use. When the time is right, it can be moved in front of the Void instead of the generator just prior to the control units sending their energies. They can then focus the control units to fire at the energy covering the planet. The energy from the control units will merge with what covering the planet, increasing the amount of power available to create the barrier. When the time is right, a simple explosion at the core of the planet will start spreading the living energy like ripples on a still lake, forcing the barrier to spread out into a huge wall.

Alex continues to look for other power sources. There are black holes that can help stabilize the barrier as it spreads. There are stars about to go supernova. These they can use as weapons against the Void to hold it at bay until the barrier can form and solidify. But he must go into each sun and adjust each so that they will all explode at a desired time and send their energy waves toward an assigned direction: The Void. This will help destabilize the Void and keep it from advancing any further, giving the barrier a better chance to form before the Void attacks it.

Alex senses another power source, the most powerful one that he has ever encountered. It is the two females back on the planet. It is now time to get them ready.

Sara is at her desk, talking to a monitor and trying to convince a technician on another level that the connections he has just made are wrong. She opens a file on the monitor and selects a schematic showing a wiring diagram.

“If I am reading this correctly, the connections should look like this,” she tells him and moves her cursor to a point on the wiring diagram. She is clearly agitated with him.

“Sorry, but you’re looking at schematics for the wrong generator,” he informs her.

Sara looks carefully at the drawings and realizes he is correct. She apologizes to him and hangs up the connection.

“Sis, you need a break,” Kate says as she walks into the room. “You’ve been irritable ever since Alex left.”

Sara looks at her sister and knows she is right. She has not been able to concentrate on much of anything lately.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here before you regret it,” Kate tells her. “You look tired.”

Sara once again must agree with her sister, though she would not admit it. When Alex disappeared in front of her, it was like her world had collapsed around her. Nothing made much sense anymore. Sleep, it seems, was not much of an option either.

The sisters leave her office and head for a chute. “I vote for a drink, something nice and strong,” Kate offers. “And then we’re going to go dancing. I’m going to keep you out of that office even if I have to tie you to a chair and sit on you!”

Sara looks at her sister and is relieved to have her here. Though Sara is the one in charge, when things go wrong, it is always Kate who is her strength. Sara looks at her sister, who recognizes a look of relief on her face. Sara starts to say something, but Kate stops her.

“Just glad to help,” she tells Sara with a smile on her face.

As they wait for the chute to arrive, Kate sees the look on Sara’s face changing.

“Kate… something’s going on.”

“Yeah, I can feel it too.”

In front of them, a shape begins to take form. As the two sisters watch, it forms the outline of a man. As the figure solidifies, they recognize Alex’s face looking back at them.

“Hi, I told you I’d be back.”

Sara’s mouth opens wide and she jumps into his arms, kissing him before he even has a chance to catch his breath. She did not even think that Alex may not be solid.

Meanwhile, Kate is standing there, watching her sister kiss Alex. While she had been curious about what happened to him, the thing that made Kate the happiest was seeing the look in her sister’s eyes the moment she recognized Alex. There was a tear on Sara’s face, but this time it was for a better reason.

“Alex, where did you go? What happened to you?” are the first words Sara speaks, not giving Alex a change to say anything first.

“Hi, Alex. Glad to see you again. Ever since you left, my sister has been a mess. You need to straighten her up,” Kate says with a grin.

“Sorry ’bout that, you two,” Alex tells them.

Sara looks at him and then punches him hard on the shoulder. “Don’t you ever do that to me again!” she announces to him.

Alex rubs his shoulder where Sara hit him and looks at Kate. The woman has an arm on her.

“Hey, don’t look at me. You’re the one who pissed her off,” Kate tells him.

Alex looks back at Sara, who now has tears in her eyes. “Alex…” she starts.

Alex interrupts her. “Listen, we don’t have much time. There’s a lot happening out there, and we’re going to need your help. However, I think that before we get down to business, I vote for a big, thick steak with all the trimmings, some beers to wash it down with, and maybe some nice, rich cheesecake with blueberries for dessert.”

Sara looks at Alex and then at Kate. Both women look at each other, grin, shrug their shoulders, and wrap their arms around Alex.

Alex, Sara, and Kate enter the chute. Kate is the one who enters which level to stop at.

“I know the perfect place,” Kate announces.

The chute stops at the level selected and the door slides open. It is Level 3.

“Wait a minute,” Sara says to Kate. “There are no restaurants on this level.”

“Correct. But as I recall, Alex said he could cook. Since he’s the one who has been causing all the trouble, I vote that he does the cooking!”

Sara looks at her sister and then at Alex. “You did say that you can cook, didn’t you?” she asks Alex.

Alex grins and says “Ladies, if you will follow me…” and wraps one arm around Sara and the other around Kate.

As they get off the chute, they look down the corridor to see MacGuyver running towards them as fast as his little old legs will carry him.

The Sheltie has on his face what appears to be a very happy look. Alex bends down and scoops up the little dog, knowing that he’ll want to be held. Alex cannot get a word in edgewise as the dog continues to lick his face. Alex eventually must defend himself and gently places the dog on the floor. Once there, MacGuyver wags his bushy tail back and forth, looking up at Alex as if to say, “Can we go home now?”

Alex, the sisters, and the dog walk down the corridor and are greeted by Lilly, who is standing at the door to Alex’s place. “See, MacGuyver, I told you he is back home,” she tells the little dog. MacGuyver looks up at Lilly and then back up at Alex, as if to agree.

“Lilly showed up just minutes after you left. She refused to leave him alone,” Sara tells Alex. “We never did know how she knew to watch him.”

Alex takes the girl’s hand, bends down, and kisses it. “I will be forever grateful to you,” he tells the girl. “Now, we’re going to have some steaks. Care to join us, Lilly?”

“I’d better go home. Mom will be wondering what happened,” Lilly says.

As she turns and walks towards the chute, Kate looks at Sara. “How did she know he was back?”

Sara looks back at her. “I have no idea. I didn’t know until Alex showed up just now, which by the way is a very neat trick. Alex, you’ll have to teach me that one some day.”

“No way,” Kate says. “You teach her to do that and no one will be safe, especially me!”

“Don’t worry. Consider it a trade secret. Now, about those steaks…”

True to his word, Alex did indeed know how to cook. He opens the fridge, pulls out several large rib eye steaks and fires up the grill. While it’s getting hot, he seasons the steaks with “his secret recipe,” a blend of spices he mixes together. The women try to see what he is using, but he does his best to keep the blend of spices away from their prying eyes.

Dinner was a hit with all of them. Even though there was no cheesecake for dessert, they were very happy with the chocolate mousse Alex already had in the fridge, and a bottle of Sara’s wine.

With dinner and dessert completed, it was time to head for the living room and talk.

“Ok, Alex,” begins Sara. “Give. What happened?”

Alex proceeds to tell the women everything, including the part that he is a Traveler and why he is here. They say nothing while he speaks.

“When I sensed that two very strong sources of power located here in the Complex, I knew I had to come back.”

“Any idea where they are?” Kate asks.

“Yes, I know exactly. I am looking at them.”

Both Sara and Kate stare at Alex as he looks back at the both the sisters.

“You’ve got to be kidding. We don’t have anything like what you’re describing,” Sara tells him. “Don’t you think that we would have known about something like that if we did?”

“Not true. Within the both of you are conditions like what allowed me to change to a Traveler. You two are the only ones in existence like this. Like me, they had been incomplete until the gene sequence was completed. Like me, yours were not natural to you, but genetically added. All that needs to happen is for you to have the correct genes added to your DNA, same as me. The rest is automatic.”

“Alex, are you saying that we’ll do the same thing that you did, that we’ll change into a Traveler?” Kate asks.

“Yes, to a point. Someone somewhere determined a long time ago that your help would be required. This was all prearranged long before man even walked on the Earth.”

“Alex, I’m sure not that I …” Kate starts to say.

“Neither am I,” finishes Sara. “I think both of us are getting a little scared. You say that all this was anticipated that long ago? And that we are both a planned part of this thing that is happening way out in space?”

“Yes. The Travelers have long known there are forces at work that we do not comprehend. Frankly, I do not think we’re supposed to. But I do know that when we see and feel events unfolding like these have, we must go with it. Do anything else and we fail.”

Sara looks at Alex, who now has a very serious look on his face. She turns to Kate, who looks back at her. Kate looks like she is thinking hard and then nods her head.

Sara looks back at Alex. “OK, we’re in. What now?”

“I carry the missing DNA that you both need. I will add it to yours. When I do, preprogrammed instructions will kick in. The changes in you will be immediate. Before we begin, I need to do a couple of things first.” Alex looks at MacGuyver, similes, reaches down and pets the old dog. The dog looks up at him as if to say, “It’s OK,” lies down and closes his eyes.

“What just happened to him? Is he OK?” Sara asks.

“He’ll be alright. I just let him sleep. It’ll be best if he is sleeping when we change and leave.”

“You can do that?” Kate asks. “If that’s the case, I wish you were here two nights ago what I had to ditch a blind date.”

Sara looks at her sister and shakes her head.

“Do we need to have someone watching him?” Sara asks, pointing at the dog.

“I’ve already contacted Lilly. She’ll be here soon,” Alex tells her. Sara sits there on the couch, having trouble believing what she is witnessing.

Sara asks, “Is that why Lilly knew you had left? Is that why she showed up then and why she knew you were coming before we did?”

“Yes, I sent the thoughts to her. She had no idea why she needed to be here. Her instincts took over and she followed them as I hoped she would. Are you two ready?” Alex asks them.

“What do we need to do?” Sara asks.

“Nothing. It is up to me now.”

Alex concentrates on his DNA and theirs. He finds the chromosomes that each will need inside his. Because the sisters’ DNA requirements differ, each will require a different DNA strand. He pictures in his mind a single strand of his DNA and selects the pair of chromosomes necessary for Sara, and then does the same for Kate. He pictures them duplicating, vanishing and reappearing in the correct position on each of the sisters’ selected DNA strands. The effect is almost immediate on the women.

At first, they feel nothing different. Then it is almost as if they are made entirely of energy. Every fiber of their being crackles with energy. They look at Alex, who has already changed into the glowing, transparent being they had seen when he vanished in front of them.

Without knowing it, Kate sends a message to Alex without speaking: “Alex, I can see everything, all the stars, the moons, suns, planets, entire galaxies! Is this what you felt like when it happened to you?”

Alex responds back by thought alone. They are now communicating without saying a word.

“Not quite. I am a Traveler. Once my changes were completed, I knew what to do. You two are not Travelers, you’re more than Travelers. When I studied your DNA, I saw that you two alone in all this space have abilities that even we, the Travelers, do not have. We are simply here to make sure that the units work when needed. You two were put here for a purpose: to help us stop the Void in the reality.”

“Girl, you ought to see yourself.” Sara tells Kate, who is glowing and almost transparent.

“Me? Look in the mirror,” Kate tells her.

As Sara begins to get up, she realizes that she is almost weightless and looks at Alex. “OK, what gives?”

“When you changed, your physical being dematerialized, just like mine did. You are nothing but energy now. You have no limits as to where you can go; the emptiness of space will have no effect on you. The only reason that you have similar appearances to your physical bodies is because that is what you are used to looking at. Because you think it, it becomes so. You can change back to your physical bodies anytime you wish. Oh, by the way Kate, Sara told me that you wanted to lose a few pounds.”

Kate gives one of her “if looks could kill” stares.

“Well, yes, it would be nice, since you mentioned it,” Kate says.

“When you rematerialize, you can do it without including some or all of the fats cells you had.”

“You mean I can lose weight, just like that?” Kate says.

“Yes.”

“And to think that I’ve been doing it the hard way all these years. Bye-bye, exercises!”

“Oh, by the way, don’t try to rematerialize while we’re in space. Remember, there’s no air in deep space and your physical bodies require it. You won’t be able to breath and you’ll freeze instantly.”

“Out there?” asks Kate.

“You can experiment with changing later. For now, we need to go,” Alex tells them.

“Did he say out there, Sara?” Kate asks her.

“What do we do?” asks Sara.

“Nothing. Leave everything up to me. When I travel, I will bring both of you with me.”

“Where are we going? How long will it take to get there?” Kate asks him.

But before she has the chance to think of something else to say, the room that they are in instantly disappears and they find themselves floating in space.

“Uh, Alex, where are we?” Sara asks.

Without any warning, both Sara and Kate hear unknown voices in their heads.

“We need to hurry. The Void has gotten too far into this space,” a voice says in their heads.

Both Sara and Kate look worried.

“Ladies, these are the other three Travelers. We have no names, because we’ve never needed them.”

Sara and Kate look everywhere but they see nothing.

“We normally do not have or need a form. If you wish, we can be seen.” Alex tells them.

Four versions of a transparent Alex appear surrounding the sisters. Alex looks to see three other versions of him and concentrates. The other forms change to look like ghostly versions of a man and two women.

“Sorry about that. Better?” Alex asks.

“Yes, at least I can see something now. It was a little scary hearing a voice coming from nowhere.”

“Was everyone successful in getting what we needed?” Alex asks the other Travelers.

“We were. But who are these?” a voice says.

“I also was successful in obtaining what we need. These two are from a planet in this space. They are the ones who will be in charge when we are ready.”

“Did he just say, ‘in charge?’” Kate asks Sara.

“Uh, Alex, just what do you mean by ‘in charge?’” Sara asks him. “Why are we here, and what do we have to do with all this?”

“Sara, your sister has an ability, a very strong one. She can, at will, gather and absorb energies at a level that even we cannot measure, and then discharge them. I discovered it when I scanned her DNA.”

“Me? The most I can do is to make a little static electricity by sliding my feet on the carpet and then zapping someone by touching them,” Kate tells him.

“I can assure you, Kate, what I speak is the truth. You have been genetically altered to accomplish the very thing that I speak of. You can gather energies from space itself and focus those energies. You can hold the energies within you until they are needed. If you will look inside of you, you will find that you have already stored a considerable amount, enough to destroy every star system in this part of space. Just concentrate on what I just said and picture you inside your mind,” Alex tells her.

Kate thinks hard and finds it easier than she thought to see inside her own mind. Her eyes begin to widen as she sees balls and bolts of energy already there inside of her. They are forming together, looking like huge storm clouds filled with lighting. Without any warning, a beam of incredible energy shoots from her face.

“Sara, concentrate on Kate. Imagine reaching out with your mind and covering her face with your mind,” Alex says quickly.

She does as she is told and the energy beam ceases.

“Alex, what was that, and what did I just do?” Sara asks him.

“That was just a small sample of what you two are capable of doing. Her ability to gather and store energy is beyond what we can understand. I don’t know how she does it, I just know that she can.”

“And me, why am I here? How did I do want I just did?” Sara asks him.

“Sara, you are her control. You can use the energy she stores and direct it to where it needs to go. She is the power source but cannot control it. Without some type of control mechanism, her energies can and will destroy everything in this part of space. You two must work together as one. When the time comes, you two will know what to do. If I am correct, it will be almost automatic on your part, all instinct, with no assistance or guidance needed from us.”

“We have been successful in preparing,” Alex says to all. “We have obtained what is necessary to create the barrier and hold it until it we know that it will not fail.”

“But how do we control it all?” says one of the Travelers. “This is something that has not been done before. There are too many other power sources besides the units. How do we control and coordinate them? How do we know their energies will even be compatible with what the control units send?”

“This is your master control,” says Alex as he looks at Sara. “She is the only thing capable of such actions. She will be the one who will act as the single control for all energies once they come online, no matter what the source. And the other one will convert all energies to a single form. They will be the power source to stop the Void.”

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