1 The Return

The Aqualora, Earth

January 1, 3000 CE

The room was dimly lit as the lights pulsed slowly from within their recesses. A large built man rested in a relaxed position inside the small subspace cabin as his eyes began to glow and then slid open.

Dressed in a comfortable form-fitting t-shirt, the gruff looking man leaned forward as he twisted his body and stretched before standing. The lights in the room flared to life as they detected his movement.

Despite his age, his was quite limber, but time was of the essence as he grabbed the bomber jacket from nearby and slipped it on before he began to make his way to the door.

A young blonde woman stepped into view from around the corner of the doorway as her eyes turned to the burly man and she began to speak.

"Cross, the others await your arrival in the main observatory." Alice said softly as lights along the floor which only he could see began to light up and illuminate the path to the mentioned destination.

"Catch me up to speed on what has been happening in my absence on the way," Jericho replied casually as he began to stride forward with purpose.

It was a bit of a mental shift, going from Elysium back to the real world. His senses recovered fairly quickly however, and he felt fully rested, no different than if he had gotten a full nights sleep.

That was the main purpose of the subspace to begin with. It allowed humans to do things in a dream like state while resting, and effectively solved the long haunting issue of needing to sleep that plagued many bright minds who only wished to be free of such a curse.

Though, one could still just simply sleep if they chose to, and many did.

"6 hours and 32 minutes have passed since you entered Elysium," Alice stated as she did as asked.

"In that time, Remnant factions have appeared on our sensors and seem to be probing our technology with various tools, mostly sonar. We believe that they likely have a full scan of the complex by now, though we do not know how accurate or detailed it may be." She finished as she gave her report.

"Were any attempts at communication attempted?" Jericho asked as they walked down the curved hallway of the facility, glancing out into the inky blackness beyond and the murky illuminated water near the lights.

"No, they did not seem to be attempting communication," She responded

"Did they take any hostile actions?"

"No, only scans from what I believe they considered a 'safe' distance," Alice replied once more

"They approached within weapons range then?" Jericho asked as he cast her a inquisitive glance.

"Yes, they approached to around 65 miles away, well within sure kill range." She responded casually.

"65 miles? They really got so close?" Jericho could not hide his disbelief at her comment, only a complete fool would willingly get so close to an unknown installation.

"Did they know we were here?" He asked before she could reply to his previous question, deciding that perhaps they were unaware of the facility and got that close by accident.

"They certainly knew we were here, their sonar scans were carried out accurately and methodically, indicating they knew our approximate location to within 10 miles." She replied without hesitation, not too surprised by his behavior, it had also bewildered her.

After all, anything within 500 miles was easily within sure kill range of their weapons systems.

The various other facilities were even stationed in a way so that they would be well within sonar range of at least 2 other facilities at all times, as their sonar was effective and accurate within 1,000 miles.

Though they did have to be careful and limit the sonar so that it would not cause damage to the area around them, getting it to reach so far resulted in a very immense pressure wave.

It was for that reason the facilities like the Aqualora all started with small sonar pings and worked their way up as they mapped their surroundings.

They did not want to start with their strongest pings and accidentally wipe out an underwater city after all, even if it did belong to the Remnants.

The caution first approach was in effect, no contact with the Remnants had been made in several hundred years, so nobody knew what they were like anymore.

They may as well be an alien race by now.

"I believe that their technology is much more primitive than our own." Alice stated resolutely as she looked to Cross.

The remainder of the walk went by in silence as Jericho pondered the new information.

'Perhaps I am worrying too much and taking this situation too seriously. Are they even a threat anymore? If they had to get so close just to scan us, do they even have a weapon that can make it past our defenses?' He thought to himself as one question after another filled his mind.

Not long after, they arrived at the observatory, as various monitors adorned the center of the room, hovering over a large table which had a digital inlay, likely to facilitate holographic images easily.

Several others sat around this table, the head of each department, as well as the upper echelons of the Myrmidons, the defense company owned by Jericho.

The walls of the room were all clear acrylic and shaped into a large dome, which looked out upon the entirety of the Aqualora from above, while the floor was similarity made mostly of clear acrylic, allowing one to see in almost any direction around the room, a truly breathtaking view.

Dull lighting permeated through the water and created a very ethereal glow about the facility, while occasional white flakes of solid salt slowly drifted down like snow, catching the light at it drifted past.

Jericho approached the table as Alice sent the data to the table and a hologram flared to life before everyone present, showing a 3d representation of the sensory scans they had of the Remnant vessels that had scanned the Aqualora.