1 Prologue
ACTIVATION No 30765
A powerful source of Azure radiation detected
Absorption initiated: 1/1000
Activation No 30765
Incarnation impossible
The host is infected. Regeneration impossible. The energy source is irreparably damaged.
Search for a new host initiated...
Light. That was the first thing I saw. A dull light seeping out of a crack which ran all across the wall, top to bottom. Where was I?
The room was weird. It resembled the inside of a giant egg, its black vaulted ceiling webbed with a complex light-blue pattern. Several tall objects sank deep into the floor below, giving the impression they were alive and rooted to the ground. They were veined with the same light-blue pattern which crept around their bases like shots of ivy.
As soon as I focused on one of the objects, a frame appeared in my field of vision, highlighting it. It was followed by a translucent message box:
Black Sarcophagus
A cryogenic capsule. Origin: an unknown xenotechnology.
Damaged
I was soaring in the air right above them. As I descended a little, approaching the sarcophagi, I realized that they were indeed technogenic objects: flattened cylinders made of some black metal. One of them had been ripped out of its gossamer light-blue support and lay aside from the rest, misshapen and ripped open.
A group of people stood next to it. They looked sort of weird even though I couldn't quite put my finger on it. They must have just forced the black sarcophagus open and were now studying its contents, speaking in low voices between themselves. Their speech resembled a sequence of long clicking sounds. I seemed to be grasping some of their meanings.
Trying to listen, I floated slightly closer. Now I was hovering directly above their heads. Still, they completely ignored my presence. Was I invisible?
They'd done quite a job on the sarcophagus: mangled out of shape, it must have burst open along the seams. Inside, behind a mesh of tubes and steel supports, lay a dead man: a grinning blackened skeleton with a few bits of mummified flesh still clinging to it.
When I descended yet more in order to take a better look at it, the frame in my field of vision informed me again:
Dead A-Man
Collecting data...
Integrity: 22%
The energy source is irreparably damaged. Evidence of genetic modifications and reinforcements detected. Traces of infection detected: ???
Incarnation impossible
The light-blue frame turned a flashing red. Somehow I knew this was a danger warning. I also discovered another element of the same interface: a translucent light-blue bar which was barely one-quarter full.
The moment I noticed it, new information appeared inside the bar:
Azure: 173/1000
Current absorption rate: 58 Azure per minute
The group counted seven people in total: five men and two women. All of them were armed with miscellaneous weapons and clad in some weird greenish gray suits of armor, giving them a fleeting resemblance with medieval knights. Two of the men had their faces concealed by closed helmets.
Having finished inspecting the broken sarcophagus, they must have decided to remove the lid off the next one. I watched them use various tools and an unusual light-blue flame torch with which they prized open the hoops which held the cylinder together.
The result wasn't what you'd expect. Some pitch-black substance poured out of the opened half, gooey like rubber but runny like water, making a large puddle all around the sarcophagi. The liquid splashed everywhere, its long thin dribbles landing on two of the people around it.
A chaos ensued. The two victims began to scream and squirm as they tried to brush off the dark liquid, then they dropped to the floor, convulsing. The five survivors dashed toward the crack in the wall and squeezed themselves through it while shooting at the threat, their flashing weapons dispelling the gloom of the room.
They managed to escape.
I noticed now that the strange liquid wasn't as static as you'd think. It seemed to be capable of moving albeit quite slowly. Its black mass rippled, approaching the two bodies still squirming on the ground: a young woman with a long dark ponytail and a burly man with a scarred face. It began enveloping them, forming an opaque film over their bodies, until their screaming and groaning was reduced to unnatural bubbling sounds.
I descended even more, hovering over them. Soon their faces and bodies reappeared, pale and bloodless. Their skin seemed to have absorbed all of the black liquid: there was not a trace of it left now on the floor.
The message box informed me again:
Dead Human Being
Collecting data...
Integrity: 99%
No energy source detected
WARNING! Contamination in process!
Incarnation impossible
A vague feeling of danger stopped me from studying them any further. I soared up just in time, because the two infected creatures opened their eyes in sync. I managed to notice yet another peculiarity: their eyes had no pupils or irises, completely flooded with blackness.
They could see me. Their heads turned; their eyes focused unmistakably on me. The feeling of dread intensified, tolling through my head like an alarm bell. I hurried to gain altitude, climbing all the way to the vaulted ceiling.
More shouting came from the outside. I glimpsed the outlines of the remaining group members through he crack in the wall. Then the room was doused in jets of blue-and-orange flames.
The two infected creatures didn't make a sound even though their clothes went up like paper, spreading blotches of burns all over their skin. All they did, they stopped looking at me and turned to the source of this new danger instead, apparently switching their priorities.
A new message appeared under the light-blue bar which was now completely full:
Total Azure count: 1000/1000
Critical quantity
Absorption aborted
The torrent of flames pouring through the crack in the wall had stopped, replaced by the sounds of shooting and explosions outside. Judging by all the shouting, there was a new combat raging outside. Enveloped in flames, the man and the girl moved awkwardly, their movements jerky and unnatural as if they were learning to use their human bodies.
Ever since the moment when my conscience had switched back on, I couldn't quite work out who I was, what I looked like or what I was doing here. I just wasn't interested. But now I suddenly "remembered" exactly what I was supposed to do.
As long as I was inside, I was in danger. I had to get out, find a suitable host and bring it back to life.
I had to do it ASAP.
