Prisoner of the Amulet

CHAPTER 22

It took less than a minute for Avena Cinev to reach the transporter room situated in the exact center of their mothership. The room was some five stories above the engine chambers, and five underneath the control bridge. As instructed she completely disassembled the SEMMB on six equal sized compartments. From what Nharsia just explained to her, each one of them took care about housing and safety of separated body functions. But once divided, there was no exit from the storage device. The person would stay inside until each and every compartment was assembled.

"Enjoy this beautiful planet, maggot." Avena grinned, placing the pieces on the transport discs.

She proceeded to entered random, different coordinates, for each and every part of SEMMB. Doing it so they could end as far from each other as possible. She had purposely chosen the deepest and the most isolated locations, to make sure no one could ever find and free him.

"Enjoy the rest of your life, maggot." Avena smiled, as she initiated the transporter discs sending the compartments into the unknown.

She wasted not a second, as she turned around to leave the room. She was heading straight towards Nharsia's quarters. The chief overseer promised her an exclusive entertainment and a company in one of personalized SEMMBs. Avena wasn't going to waste a second of her time. Not only because of the opportunity to experience something new, but for the chance to finally be alone with Nharsia. Their relationship was at this point just a fling. They've only been twice together in the past four months. Avena wanted to change that.

But she was only able to make three steps, when a muffled rumble coming from below stopped her in her tracks. All of a sudden, the entire place shook in a violent tremble that seemingly wasn't stopping. The floor itself began rising for almost a meter, as if something was inflating it. It stayed like that for several short seconds, creaking and popping, before it collapsed underneath Avena's feet.

"Activate the armor." she ordered her defensive system, as soon as she realized the floors below also crumbled "Full protection."

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the movement of the surrounding walls, as if some strange energy was rippling through them. For a moment it appeared as if they were making some weird howling sounds. But they were soon drowned in the cacophony of destruction, as the walls started tearing apart. That was the least of her worries now, since she then realized the enormity of the hole she was falling through.

It appeared to be several kilometers deep. It seemed endless. Infinite. She could not peer through the thick darkness below. Which was strange, and impossible, since she knew she should be able to see the enormous ship's drive. It was housed some three hundred meters below the deck she was recently on. But it was nowhere to be found now. Avena soon understood why, as she realized she passed through the middle of space where the core once was.

Instead of it, there was now an entrance to the apparently collapsing, artificial wormhole. The entrance was undoubtedly created in the catastrophic reaction, which saw the destruction of the drive itself. Once unleashed in the closed space, the unstable wormhole immediately started devouring the ship, at the same rate as it was disintegrating itself. Avena looked around, realizing it was pulling everything within its mass, including her.

She hastily scrolled over the menu, searching for any addon that could be of help. Trying to find salvation. As if anything at her disposal could save her now. She became aware of that, once she noticed her body assumed a similar shape to the surrounding objects, deforming beyond recognition. It seemed surreal, and it certainly was weird, since she could not feel any pain. Unbeknown to Avena, the med support of her module blocked the pain receptors, in a desperate attempt to protect her.

It was a last ditch effort to ease her final moments. And it succeeded, granting her at the same time with the temporary mind clarity. She began thinking of possible reasons for this catastrophic event. Almost immediately connecting it with the geologist. Nothing else made sense. He was the only unknown. It surely seemed he managed to trick them all. For if he truly wanted to stop them, after he learned of their plans for this world, his one and only option was this.

None of them even stopped to assume the geologist feigned the escape. Knowing very well he'll be transported to Ganiwarthal after the capture. None of them stopped to wonder how strange his resistance to the drugs was. Or that his still, frozen demeanor during the interrogation, wasn't due to fear. The geologist probably used that time to somehow sabotage their mother ship. To find a way to completely destroy it.

"I'll last longer than you." were Sanomis' words she remembered right about then.

He did this. Avena was certain. He knew how this would end. He knew he'll outlive her. Outlive them all. If Avena had any more time, she'd probably use it to throw numerous curses at the geologist. But the sheer force of the wormhole prevented her from doing that, tearing her body into a thousand small pieces. Forty two seconds later, it did the same with the rest of the ship, before it collapsed and disappeared.