The borderlands

Cillian stared into the endless blue fog that surrounded him. As he looked beneath his feet, he saw a white line that had a translucent glow to it. The line extended in front of Cillian, countless branches splitting off from it, which then split into further sub-branches. This went on almost infinitely, creating a complex network of white paths in front of Cillian that looked like cracks.He wanted to move forward But no matter how much Cillian struggled, he couldn't move a single muscle. He couldn't even feel his resonance link. As he just stood there like a statue, a voice that seemed to be omnipresent rang out: "The time is yet to come." With that, Cillian felt the world collapse around him.

*Huff*

Cillian panted heavily as he sat up. He was drenched in sweat. As he looked around, he found himself in the captain's quarters which he had appropriated for himself after he took over the pirate ship.He put his hand on his head, trying to remember the nightmare he had which he could only barely remember even after having the same dream for the past few days. It's been 2 weeks since Cillian escaped from the foundation. At first he was afraid that the foundation might come after him, but fortunately, it seemed that they believed he was dead and disposed of. He was currently heading to a remote system within the empire to meet the so-called 'friend' of Simmon to get his identity problem solved. Due to the military outposts placed throughout the border, it was suicidal to use hyperspace jump to cross the border, but it wasn't impossible if you have an advanced stealth ship like the foundation. However, his current ride was anything but advanced. So the ship was using the old-school way of sneaking itself into the empire through a secure smuggling route the long way.

As Cillian tried to recall his dream, the only thing he could remember was blue fog and white lines that branched infinitely. This annoying dream has been showing up every day since cillian absorbed the higher-dimensional energy from that pioner.

At first, he thought it was natural that he can absorb higher-dimensional energy from people just like super crystals because pioneers naturally channeled higher-dimensional energy to use their resonance, but when he tried it with non-awakened people, it didn't work at all. Even if people didn't awaken their resonance, the link to the higher dimension which the scientists called the origin did exist and however small it may be, they still drew energy from it to power their resonance. This has been proved through countless experiments by humans and aliens alike. But Cillian was unable to draw any higher-dimensional energy from them at all, though through much effort he was able to sense the presence of the energy within them and he could tell how strong they are approximately from this energy. But this detection ability was not unique to him though, as almost all Pioneers can approximate the power of other pioneers if they aren't way more powerful than them or are suppressing their power intentionally. But Cillian's detection ability seems to go a step further and see the flow of the energy itself, giving him a precise evaluation of the enemy. Unbeknownst to Cillian, what he was currently doing was something only higher-ranked pioneers are supposed to be able to do, but he was doing it purely by virtue of the nature of his resonance. Another odd thing Cillian noted was that when he tried to absorb higher-dimensional energy from Simmon, he felt a strong resistance, one he couldn't overcome even with his full exertion. It seemed that in order to pry the energy apart from the host, they need to be incapacitated to the point of being incapable of using their resonance; or possibly dead that was the conclusion Cilain came up with.

As Cillian was lost in thought, the comm inside the room rang. Cillian reached out and pressed the answer button.

"Boss, sorry to disturb you, but I need you on deck. We are at our destination."

"OK, I will be there in 10 mins." Cillian hung up, changed into a fresh set of clothes, and made his way to the main deck. Simmon was leaning in the pilot's chair, looking at the massive virtual screen that showed him a 360° view of the outside of the ship. In a world where super-powered people who can fly in space and guns that could blast planets apart exist, only fools would have a non-armored direct view command center when one rogue hit from a main cannon could obliterate even the toughest ballistic glass developed. There was simply no material available that can have the strength of armor and still be transparent, not in human civilizations anyway. So all spaceships were constructed with the reactor and the command center as their core and most protected parts, unless they are geared solely for entertainment and recreation like luxury liners, racers, private vessels, etc. Even space-borne colonies were padded with layers of armor and armed to the teeth.

As Cillian walked onto the deck, Simmon stood up and assumed a more respectful posture.

"Boss, we are here."

As Cillian looked at the odd scene that was on the screen, showing not one but three planets in the same orbit revolving arround a slightly smaller than averge star Simmon explained: "This is the borderlands, a star system that has been heavily altered to be suitable for human settlement at the beginning of the golden age. There are 3 habitable planets within the system. Even though it is in empire territory, the entire system is run by the alliance of 7 major pirate groups that descended from a group of mercenaries and criminals who fled to this system just after the war. They terraformed this system over a century and wanted to rule it independently, but the newly formed empire didn't like uncertain factors at its borders and sent its army and pioneers with an ultimatum: 'either join the empire or perish.' The seven leaders of the strongest mercenary and criminal groups of that time recognised the real objective of the empire which was to get his hands on the huge profit brought in by the blackmarket that existed in the border lands but knew that they were outmatched, so they made a deal with the empire. In return for their unconditional surrender, the empire would let them run the t illegal and criminal black market that has taken root in the system due to its unique position at the borders of human civilization on the condition that the the empire will get its fare share and thus Borderlands became one of the major strongholds of the black market with the indirect support of the empire behind it and the 7 heads grew to become the 7 warlords. So even if it is considerable empire territory, and technically under galactic laws the only law followed here is the law of the strong."

Cillian listened to Simmon's explanation carefully not to miss any details For all his bravado, he wasn't an expert on outlaws and the black market. That's the reason why he enlisted Simmon's help, even though he acted like he didn't need Simmon's help.

" So where are we going first ?"