Looks like Arven's been duped. Can he overcome this impossible situation? And what has become of Leeroy and his planet with the other Units there?
NOTE: I know, I know, it was actually A Girl and Her Uzi that's due for an update, and rest assured it will get one, but I just didn't feel like touching that story this week. This new chapter of Arven, on the other hand, came to me in a matter of minutes and was smoothed out and perfected in less than an hour. I hope you enjoy it, and stay tuned for the expected A Girl and Her Uzi update! When it drops, I'll include a little something extra to make up for the wait. Pinky promise. I even typed that last "Pinky promise" with my pinky, honest.
Arven docked Black Licorice on the dark side of a small moon near a backwater planet, confident that nobody would bother it. He powered down the engines and took the last few sips from a sweating beer sitting nearby. He rose slowly and deliberately from the pilot’s chair, and strode out of the bridge. “Let’s see what this thing can do.”, he whispered to himself as he made his way toward the back of the ship, where the red Unit lay waiting. He uttered the command for his ship to release the robot, and the Unit bent down and opened its hand for him. “Today, we’re taking you for a test run of sorts.”, Arven said to the Unit. It nodded, then deposited him into its cockpit. The synchronization process completed just a bit more quickly than it did the first time, and before long, Arven and his Unit were headed out into open space. Arven issued a mental command for the unit to raise its right hand, then fire a beam from it and take out a few nearby asteroids. After a split-second delay, it did just as he thought. In the cockpit, the gauge reading “SYNCHRO RATING” surged up from around half to nearly full, then fell back down once the robot was back in its neutral stance. “So, practice makes perfect, huh?”, Arven said to the Unit, “Then I’ll assert myself as your master, you bastard.”
Arven and the Unit flipped through space, dancing among the stars as they quickly became one. Asteroids and a few stray bits of space junk served as target practice, with the Unit deftly cleaving them through with an energy blade or shooting them. Before long, the Unit was completely synchronized with Arven, and the synchronization gauge did not move downward. Arven found himself seeing the bot’s scanners in his mind’s eye, all of its internal and external information blazing through his thoughts as though they were bits of information that he had been collecting and deciphering for decades. During the practice session, a piece of space not far away began to twist and contort. The cigarette that Arven had lit a few minutes before dropped to the floor as his jaw went slack, and the Unit instructed him to stomp it out. He did so without thinking, watching space flex and crack as a wormhole opened up before his eyes. “Wormholes are just myths!”, he cried, “A theoretical backdrop for geeks to impose their physics ideas on! There’s no fuckin’ way that what I’m seeing is real.” He rubbed his eyes, and the Unit did not follow the action. When his vision cleared and he looked back up at the view screen, the wormhole was still there. Fear gripped Arven like an icy hand around his heart, and he could barely breathe. Part of his mind screamed for him to run, but neither his limbs nor the Unit listened.
From the wormhole, there emerged a man in what looked to be a dapper Victorian-era formal suit. Arven saw his chest rise and fall, and wondered whether he was actually breathing. Clearly, whatever was floating before him was not human. It looked directly up at the Unit’s view sensors, and locked eyes with Arven. “Impossible!”, Arven cried, “How the hell would it know where my eyes are in relation to the view sensor?!” The man smiled and bowed to him. His lips moved in the vacuum of space, and somehow, Arven heard a voice. It was a deep, smooth voice, one typically associated with a masculine, gentlemanly figure. The voice’s manner of speaking matched the outfit and body it came from. “Well met, good sir.”, it said to Arven, “I see you have reached full synchronization with one of my Units.” “You created these yourself?!”, Arven stammered. The man out in space nodded, and gave a grin. “I certainly did, my dear pilot, and I created them for a reason. Allow me to demonstrate.”
The man snapped his fingers, and Arven felt something change in the relationship between himself and the Unit. Its thoughts seemed to fluctuate, and a rush of garbage data flooded Arven’s brain. Suddenly, he found himself moving involuntarily among the control panels inside the cockpit. Try as he might to pull his mind away or make his body listen to him, nothing happened. The synchronization gauge stayed at 100%. After Arven pressed a few buttons and moved a dial all the way to the right, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. The pain was immense and made his vision blur and throb, but he was unable to grip his head or cry out. He fought hard, but there was nothing he could do. The Unit seemed to have taken control of him, and he was pretty sure the mysterious man had something to do with it. “I need minds and souls to bring out my Units’ full power. I am the god of a neighboring, expanding universe, and I need to destroy this one to continue building my empire. My Units will exterminate and raze, and you will be the first inhabitant of this universe to help them do just that.” Arven’s arms went limp by his sides, and the Unit dropped a helmet without a visor or slit onto his head. A single tear rolled down his cheek, and he began to feel the Unit transform. Arven felt like energy was leaving his body and sharpness was leaving his mind as a series of sharp sounds erupted around him. Outside of the cockpit, the Unit grew larger, expanding to somewhere near one hundred times its old size. Arven’s prismatic blue-green eyes appeared on the front of the Unit’s head. A pair of black metal wings burst from hidden compartments on the Unit’s back, loaded down with thrusters, and the Unit moved closer to its creator. “For the first order of business, you will take me to the other Units.”
Arven thought of Leeroy, and of all of the people on his planet. Rage burned in his blood. The Unit began to probe his thoughts, looking for the location of its siblings. Arven flooded the Unit with the faces of people he’d met during his travels, mirroring the mind-invading tactic it had used on him earlier. The Unit was taken aback, and its creator wagged a finger at it. “Tut tut now mortal, surely you’re not considering an attempt at insubordination?” The wagging finger closed, and the man twisted his wrist upward. Arven’s head was engulfed in incredible pain again, and the base of his neck felt like it may separate from his shoulders at any moment. Mentally, he continued to fight back with everything he had, concentrating on human emotions, people he knew, and distinctly human concepts like romance and self-esteem. His eyes snapped open inside the helmet, and it slowly, jerkily began to rise from his head. “Fuck…”, he breathed, “Fuck you!” The phrase was repeated over and over in and out of his head; a meditation, a rallying cry, the tiny bit of land that Arven was trying to build a mental fortress upon. Finally, he screamed for all he was worth. “FUCK YOU, SPACE NERD!”, he finally managed to shout, “I WON’T LET YOU DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT THIS UNIVERSE AND ITS PEOPLE HAVE BUILT! I WON’T LET YOU TAKE MY WORLD FROM ME!” The man grinned silently, and the Unit’s wing thrusters engaged. Its movements were jerky and unsure, but all the same, it began making its way toward Leeroy’s home planet.x
Arven docked Black Licorice on the dark side of a small moon near a backwater planet, confident that nobody would bother it. He powered down the engines and took the last few sips from a sweating beer sitting nearby. He rose slowly and deliberately from the pilot’s chair, and strode out of the bridge. “Let’s see what this thing can do.”, he whispered to himself as he made his way toward the back of the ship, where the red Unit lay waiting. He uttered the command for his ship to release the robot, and the Unit bent down and opened its hand for him. “Today, we’re taking you for a test run of sorts.”, Arven said to the Unit. It nodded, then deposited him into its cockpit. The synchronization process completed just a bit more quickly than it did the first time, and before long, Arven and his Unit were headed out into open space. Arven issued a mental command for the unit to raise its right hand, then fire a beam from it and take out a few nearby asteroids. After a split-second delay, it did just as he thought. In the cockpit, the gauge reading “SYNCHRO RATING” surged up from around half to nearly full, then fell back down once the robot was back in its neutral stance. “So, practice makes perfect, huh?”, Arven said to the Unit, “Then I’ll assert myself as your master, you bastard.”
Arven and the Unit flipped through space, dancing among the stars as they quickly became one. Asteroids and a few stray bits of space junk served as target practice, with the Unit deftly cleaving them through with an energy blade or shooting them. Before long, the Unit was completely synchronized with Arven, and the synchronization gauge did not move downward. Arven found himself seeing the bot’s scanners in his mind’s eye, all of its internal and external information blazing through his thoughts as though they were bits of information that he had been collecting and deciphering for decades. During the practice session, a piece of space not far away began to twist and contort. The cigarette that Arven had lit a few minutes before dropped to the floor as his jaw went slack, and the Unit instructed him to stomp it out. He did so without thinking, watching space flex and crack as a wormhole opened up before his eyes. “Wormholes are just myths!”, he cried, “A theoretical backdrop for geeks to impose their physics ideas on! There’s no fuckin’ way that what I’m seeing is real.” He rubbed his eyes, and the Unit did not follow the action. When his vision cleared and he looked back up at the view screen, the wormhole was still there. Fear gripped Arven like an icy hand around his heart, and he could barely breathe. Part of his mind screamed for him to run, but neither his limbs nor the Unit listened.
From the wormhole, there emerged a man in what looked to be a dapper Victorian-era formal suit. Arven saw his chest rise and fall, and wondered whether he was actually breathing. Clearly, whatever was floating before him was not human. It looked directly up at the Unit’s view sensors, and locked eyes with Arven. “Impossible!”, Arven cried, “How the hell would it know where my eyes are in relation to the view sensor?!” The man smiled and bowed to him. His lips moved in the vacuum of space, and somehow, Arven heard a voice. It was a deep, smooth voice, one typically associated with a masculine, gentlemanly figure. The voice’s manner of speaking matched the outfit and body it came from. “Well met, good sir.”, it said to Arven, “I see you have reached full synchronization with one of my Units.” “You created these yourself?!”, Arven stammered. The man out in space nodded, and gave a grin. “I certainly did, my dear pilot, and I created them for a reason. Allow me to demonstrate.”
The man snapped his fingers, and Arven felt something change in the relationship between himself and the Unit. Its thoughts seemed to fluctuate, and a rush of garbage data flooded Arven’s brain. Suddenly, he found himself moving involuntarily among the control panels inside the cockpit. Try as he might to pull his mind away or make his body listen to him, nothing happened. The synchronization gauge stayed at 100%. After Arven pressed a few buttons and moved a dial all the way to the right, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. The pain was immense and made his vision blur and throb, but he was unable to grip his head or cry out. He fought hard, but there was nothing he could do. The Unit seemed to have taken control of him, and he was pretty sure the mysterious man had something to do with it. “I need minds and souls to bring out my Units’ full power. I am the god of a neighboring, expanding universe, and I need to destroy this one to continue building my empire. My Units will exterminate and raze, and you will be the first inhabitant of this universe to help them do just that.” Arven’s arms went limp by his sides, and the Unit dropped a helmet without a visor or slit onto his head. A single tear rolled down his cheek, and he began to feel the Unit transform. Arven felt like energy was leaving his body and sharpness was leaving his mind as a series of sharp sounds erupted around him. Outside of the cockpit, the Unit grew larger, expanding to somewhere near one hundred times its old size. Arven’s prismatic blue-green eyes appeared on the front of the Unit’s head. A pair of black metal wings burst from hidden compartments on the Unit’s back, loaded down with thrusters, and the Unit moved closer to its creator. “For the first order of business, you will take me to the other Units.”
Arven thought of Leeroy, and of all of the people on his planet. Rage burned in his blood. The Unit began to probe his thoughts, looking for the location of its siblings. Arven flooded the Unit with the faces of people he’d met during his travels, mirroring the mind-invading tactic it had used on him earlier. The Unit was taken aback, and its creator wagged a finger at it. “Tut tut now mortal, surely you’re not considering an attempt at insubordination?” The wagging finger closed, and the man twisted his wrist upward. Arven’s head was engulfed in incredible pain again, and the base of his neck felt like it may separate from his shoulders at any moment. Mentally, he continued to fight back with everything he had, concentrating on human emotions, people he knew, and distinctly human concepts like romance and self-esteem. His eyes snapped open inside the helmet, and it slowly, jerkily began to rise from his head. “Fuck…”, he breathed, “Fuck you!” The phrase was repeated over and over in and out of his head; a meditation, a rallying cry, the tiny bit of land that Arven was trying to build a mental fortress upon. Finally, he screamed for all he was worth. “FUCK YOU, SPACE NERD!”, he finally managed to shout, “I WON’T LET YOU DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT THIS UNIVERSE AND ITS PEOPLE HAVE BUILT! I WON’T LET YOU TAKE MY WORLD FROM ME!” The man grinned silently, and the Unit’s wing thrusters engaged. Its movements were jerky and unsure, but all the same, it began making its way toward Leeroy’s home planet.x
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