Chapter 4: The Silent Prison


    Era: Post-Terran Expansion/ Cosmic era (Year 10,050 earth calendar.)


    Cosmic calendar unknown for now.


    [Same Galaxy as earth.]


    Space was silent, save for the faint hum of the scavenger ship’s engines. The void stretched endlessly, an ocean of stars bearing witness to the rise and fall of countless civilizations.


    Among these, humanity was but a flickering ember. The once-proud species had reached the stars only to find themselves woefully unprepared for the immensity of the cosmos.


    Now, humans were scavengers, hunters of the forgotten scraps of greater races. They clung to the remnants of their ingenuity, surviving as mercenaries, traders, and salvagers.


    They called themselves the Sol Dominion, a name meant to convey unity, though it was little more than a desperate boast.


    Earth was scarred and struggling, Mars was a factory world choking under its own industry, and the rest of the Solar System offered only meager hope.


    The earth solar system is also known in the universe as the junkyard. Because humans collect other Galaxy Races broken tools, trying to learn from them.


    The Last Chance(ship name) drifted through a dense asteroid field. Its hull, patched together with mismatched alloys and dented plates, bore the wear of countless journeys.


    Arkis Dray, the ship’s captain, sat at the helm, a cigarette dangling from his lips. His rugged face was lined with the fatigue of a life lived on the edge.


    “We’ve been out here for three weeks,” Arkis grumbled, his voice carrying the gravelly tone of someone who had seen too many bad deals.


    “And all we’ve got is a cargo hold full of junk.”


    “Better junk than nothing,” Tenna Voss replied from the co-pilot’s seat. She was younger, sharper, her green eyes gleaming with an unshakable determination.


    She is young and her body has all the curves.


    Her lips were like soft cherries. But her attitude and behaviour is totally opposite like a cowboy.


    She had joined the crew to escape the suffocating slums of Mars, and though life as a scavenger wasn’t glamorous, it was freedom.


    Arkis snorted. “Freedom doesn’t pay docking fees.”


    Before Tenna could retort, the ship’s scanner emitted a sharp ping. A holographic display bloomed between them, revealing a dense cluster of metallic debris.


    “What’s that?” Tenna leaned forward, her brow furrowing.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Arkis examined the readout. “Composition’s weird. Not like anything I’ve seen before.”


    “Could be valuable,” Tenna said. “Rare ore, maybe.”


    “Or it could be a waste of time.”


    Tenna shot him a look. “Do we have anything better to do?”


    With a resigned sigh, Arkis guided the Last Chance toward the anomaly. The ship’s mechanical arms reached out, carefully extracting a jagged object from the field.


    It was enormous, nearly four meters long, its surface smooth and unblemished. Faint veins of cosmic light pulsed across it, casting eerie patterns in the dim cargo hold.


    Once secured aboard the ship, Tenna examined the metal up close.


    It was cold to the touch, unnaturally so, as though it absorbed the heat around it.


    Its surface was unyielding, not a single scratch or imperfection marring its flawless form.


    “What do you think it is?” she asked.


    Arkis shrugged. “Doesn’t matter what it is. What matters is what we can get for it.”


    Tenna wasn’t so sure. The metal seemed… alive, in a way she couldn’t quite explain. She felt an inexplicable unease as she looked at it, as though it were watching her.


    “Let’s get this back to Sol Magna,” Arkis said. “The labs can figure it out.”


    [Mars: The Forge of Humanity]


    Mars, known now as Sol Magna, was the heart of the Sol Dominion.


    Its red sands had been transformed into a sprawling industrial wasteland, where towering factories belched smoke into the thin atmosphere.


    Massive energy conduits crisscrossed the surface, drawing power from the Solar Forge,


    a gargantuan structure that siphoned energy directly from the sun.


    The Forge stood as humanity’s last hope a beacon of progress in a universe that had long since left them behind.


    At its pinnacle resided Elon Musk, or what remained of him. His mortal body had perished eons ago, but his consciousness had been preserved within a crystalline shell powered by solar energy.


    Musk was now more machine than man, his artificial form a testament to humanity’s refusal to fade into obscurity.


    In the laboratories beneath the Forge, the unknown metal became an object of intense scrutiny.


    Scientists proved it with lasers, diamond-tipped drills, and even experimental plasma tools. None left so much as a mark on its surface.


    “It’s not just metal,” Dr. Vrelan, the lead scientist, said one day, his voice tinged with frustration. “It’s something else. Something… beyond us.”


    Musk observed the tests from his elevated platform, his crystalline form shimmering with faint light.


    “Keep working,” he commanded, his voice a mechanical monotone. “This metal is the key to something greater. I can feel it.”


    For years, they worked tirelessly, yet the metal yielded no secrets. It became an obsession for the scientists of Mars, a riddle they were desperate to solve.


    Unbeknownst to them, the metal was not merely an object. It was a prison, and within it, something ancient and powerful stirred.


    Reacher Kent had been trapped for thousands of years, his body encased in a crystalline cocoon.


    He had been a man once, but the blood of chaos god and divine energy of water goddess had transformed him into something else entirely.


    Suspended in a state between life and death, his mind was adrift in a sea of dreams and memories.


    He saw stars being born and dying, world''s crumbling under the weight of celestial wars, and empires rising and falling.


    He felt the power within him, a force that could reshape reality, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he would wake.


    The scientists of Mars didn’t notice the subtle changes in the metal’s pulse.


    Its veins of cosmic light glowed brighter, their rhythm quickening like the heartbeat of a sleeping giant.


    But Reacher’s time was coming.


    Life on Sol Magna was harsh. The Martian colonies were overcrowded and polluted, their skies perpetually hazy with industrial smoke.


    The wealthy few lived in domed cities with artificial environments, while the majority toiled in the factories or scavenged for resources in the outer reaches of the Solar System.


    Arkis Dray and Tenna Voss were part of this majority, their lives dictated by the whims of the market and the dangers of space.


    Arkis had once dreamed of a better life, but years of hardship had worn him down. Now, his only goal was survival.


    Tenna, on the other hand, still clung to hope. She believed in the potential of humanity, even if the evidence was scarce.


    She saw the unknown metal as more than just a payday; it was a mystery, one that could change their fate.


    As the scientists continued their fruitless efforts, whispers began to spread among the workers of the Forge.


    They spoke of the metal’s strange properties, its resistance to all forms of analysis, and the eerie glow of its veins.


    Some claimed it was a gift from the gods, while others feared it was a curse. Musk dismissed the rumors, but even he couldn’t deny the unease that crept into his synthetic mind.


    “This metal is unlike anything we’ve encountered,” he said to Dr. Vrelan one evening. “It defies logic, but that only means we’re not looking at it the right way.”


    “And if it’s dangerous?” Vrelan asked.


    “Everything is dangerous,” Musk replied. “It’s our job to decide if it’s worth the risk.”


    In the heart of the unknown metal, Reacher Kent’s dreams shifted. The fragments of his past coalesced into a single thought: freedom.


    The pulsing veins grew brighter, their glow visible even to the naked eye. The scientists noticed it at last, their instruments buzzing with activity.


    “What’s happeni


    ng?” Vrelan demanded, his voice tinged with panic.


    “I don’t know,” a technician replied. “It’s… reacting to something.”


    Musk watched from his platform, his crystalline form shimmering with anticipation. “Prep


    are for containment,” he ordered.


    “The energy inside, it’s going to blast.” Move.


    Reacher’s eyes opened. And the universe would never be the same.