40 Thousand Reasons

Much later, my Rose stretched like a lazy cat and patted my upgraded chest with satisfaction.

"This is much better, love. Great body, decent mind, mostly acceptable decisions. I might keep you just for the body though." she commented in a light tone.

I sighed and drew her into a hug. "There is a Forge World called Venatoria, and they produced a device called a Reality_Cage. I need to obtain one, and make it work. Should keep any planet safe from demons. Or at least from Warp Storms and the Silence."

She stood still for a second then climbed to stare me in the eyes. "Is it even possible? The implications...how come I don't know about this?" Rose asked in a cold tone.

I just shrugged. "The modern Mechanicus tech-priests are either idiots or unhinged geniuses. Most of them simply toil in the forge, producing same cogs and metal parts for centuries. They don't even know how the devices work, just follow the STC template like it's magic. The other kind...these guys from Venatoria tried to close the Maelstrom. Of course, they failed miserably and most records were expunged. I'm not sure even the best Necron crpyteks can do that. And humanity is 60 million years less advanced."

The Inquisitor pierced me with a death stare and poked my chest. "You know too much. Can you even make it work, at least on planetary scale?"

"Yes my dear, it's only a big Gellar field, at the origin. I am building a Hive-city-sized Gellar field over my capital on Illevar, right now. But those permanent Warp vortexes are something completely different. The fall of the Eldar created the Eye of Terror. You can guess the rest." I continued with a sadder voice.

"... I can guess, indeed. And where do you get all these stories from, Lord Lancefire? The Pharos?" she asked quite logically.

"The C'tan shard is awake, dear Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos. You may interrogate the prisoner as much as you want." I spoke in a teasing tone.

Her eyes went wide, in fear and hope. "Truly? A real C'tan? Is it coherent? At least a little?" she asked with a fast breath.

"For a simple shard of a C'tan, this being is quite sane. I call him Mighty Zurhulash, and he promised to help here and there...until he escapes and kills everyone." I explained patiently, and played with her death and duty.

But Rose didn't seem to mind, deep in a mental trance of some kind. Possibly sealed mnemonics, locked for just such a contingency.

"My orders say to contact Inquisitor Ario Barzano, in the event of making contact with a contained C'tan or a shard of one." my dear Rose declared, with a painful scowl on her face.

Probably a C'tan was way above her paygrade, among the more renowned Ordo Xenos Inquisitors, and Barzano had been close to reaching the Nightbringer C'tan, before the Dark Eldar arrived. I'd bet a throne he knew the lore very well.

I shook my head and sighed. "Well, I'm certain I can find this Inquisitor. But I don't have anything of real value to trade for him. Except...some Eldar prisoners...maybe. It would be a long shot, as these guys might not even have a craftworld anymore. I did save them for you...in case you were one of those seeking to obtain the secret of the spirit stones. Same with all these Eldar vessels I captured at not small cost."

"Where is he? Tell me!" she yelled at me in almost panic. Possibly mania-induced compulsion. Those shit-eating bosses of theirs...

"You better not know, my love. I do have control over the Pharos...so technically I could kidnap him from wherever he is kept. But those guys are...how should put it? Strong and vindictive. One of them captured an entire Tyranid Hive fleet, and keeps it in a box, on his desk." I answered rather truthfully. Perhaps not yet, but Trazyn did have a Hive fleet as a pet, in my other memories.

My Rose blinked in confusion, then started to think rationally again.

"That kind of power...what kind of people do you know, my strange Rogue Trader?" she wondered a bit amazed.

I waved her words away. "There are half a trillion stars in the galaxy, my dear. Among them...countless godlings and other entities. These C'tan...who do you think broke them into shards and bound them in impregnable prisons? The Imperium of Man is so small, like one person alone on death world... or like oil poured over a deep ocean. You look at a galactic map and think: We are so big, look at us, spread everywhere! And then waves and currents and whirlpools shatter the illusion, and the oil is scattered in the storm."

She sighed and nodded in sadness. "You think I don't know the immensity of what we face? I am a psyker, my dear Pef. I see those currents, every single minute."

"We need to sail above this ocean. Build strong islands where the waves can't reach. And when we learn enough, we can build underground tunnels and airplanes, to avoid the ocean completely. And my Blank genes, they are the impermeable suits that keep the water away." I mused to myself, in a reverie.

The Emperor had tried something like this, but ignorance was not armor. People would see the Warp and play with it. And then the Warp will play back.

"All you say makes sense, yet seems like an impossible dream. Can you get Barzano, or do I need to make an astropath call to someone else?" the Inquisitor demanded again.

I sighed and rolled away for my shower. I could try, at least. Maybe the guy wasn't dead.

Rose didn't have to shower, using her powers to burn away sweat and smells. Convenient use, if one had enough skill with pyrokinesis.

I checked myself in the mirror, and my face seemed a bit different. Prettier. Must be the new genes.

"Sanguinius, you were too pretty for your own good. And didn't even get a wife or two." I muttered in distaste, and walked out to find Rose already dressed in her combat gear, leather and chest plate, and the nice Rosarius relic on her necklace.

"Talking with the mirror?" she asked me while checking my naked body shamelessly. Well, there wasn't much body shame in this universe. People lived short, brutal lives.

"One day, I will find Sanguinius and punch his smug face. Look what his genes are doing to my face!" I complained as I began gearing for a new day in Hell.

Rose snorted amused. "That would be great to see. Especially when he hits you back."

I sighed as she was probably right. Astartes were all violent brutes.

A few minutes later, I arrived back in the Pharos, with my xeno hating girlfriend. "Mighty Zurhulash, this is an Inquisitor of Ordo Xenos. Please cooperate, a tiny bit." I spoke out loud while flipping off the stasis field around the Sounding Board.

"Puppy guy here, Lord Trazyn. Busy day?" I asked in a cheerful tone.

"Yes, but I will make time for my best favor trader. This C'tan shard has a whole new array of abilities!" he exclaimed a bit excited.

Well, he probably didn't have many friends. I'll try to be nice to him.

"Mine has Cosmic Fire. Hits harder than an Exterminatus-grade torpedo." I answered praising my own. Well, the only C'tan I knew anyway.

"Oh! I don't know that ability yet. Sounds potent though. Cosmic energies are among top five. You could train yours a bit more. Other abilities might manifest, under duress and pain." the Necron Lord advised me politely.

"Right! About that. I find myself in need of a C'tan expert. Is that poisoned guy still alive?" I wondered idly.

"Yes, but he's raving mad. I even cured him for free!" Trazyn complained petulantly.

"Did those Enslaver bone shards work like I proposed?" I asked instead. I did have a favor to collect, after all.

The Necron Lord stopped chatting for a minute. "I knew it. Well, they work differently but still work. You want the useless sword?"

"I would have, but you tested it on your C'tan, and didn't work. No point wasting my favor on it. You still have those Astartes gene-seeds?" I asked to make sure. Probably not.

"How do you even know about them? And no, someone interesting traded for them already." Trazyn the Infinite answered, a bit surprised. Or faking it very well.

"Fabius, right? Give me more work, will you? It's like you want the Eye of Terror to spread out and corrupt the entire galaxy. Keep doing stuff like this and you might find yourself alone." I muttered in fake dismay.

"Again that crazy trick of yours. I wasn't even there!" he complained in real worry this time.

"For that, I will take the Custodes and the Inquisitor. And some Astartes too...a Company of..." I began saying.

"No! Not my precious Custodes. I only have one! And no Company of Astartes either. A squad at most." he rebutted be a bit fiercely.

"You have an entire Chapter! Give me the others. Ultramarines, Salamanders and whatever else." I demanded with a harsher tone.

"Calm down, stranger...not all of them... I need to keep at least one, of every color. Where should I send the rest?" he asked after a few seconds.

"Forge Antax, the Salamanders and the Inquisitor. The Ultramarines on Forge Gantz. Anyone else, at Forge Hypnoth. And a derelict ship with STC schematics too. I forgot about them and they keep complaining." I asked with a bit of trepidation.

It had been pretty close. Plus that Forge will be attacked by other Necrons soon. Better prepare the ground.

"Alright! Trade finished and no taking back!" the Necron exclaimed in a happier voice.

"Good. Now, I have another story if you're interested." I whispered as another dataslate vanished from my hands and into his own.

"Oh? Gellar fields? From weak, to creepy, to medium. What are these for?" Trazyn asked confused.

"A thousand year ago, a group of Mechanicus tech-priests from Forge Venatoria tried to close the Eye of Terror, with a Reality Cage device. After they failed tragically, they tried again, on the Maelstrom, using reality bombs. They never found the bodies, or the devices. However, someone with patience and skill..." I continued in an enticing tone.

"Those idiots in the Mechanicus! Without Living Rock and Compressed Blackstone...no wonder they failed so abjectly. What did they use to power it, a plasma reactor?" the scientist Necron erupted in disgust.

"Well...I don't have such grand dreams. Not yet, and not without your help, Lord Trazyn. Even you failed last time...I mean in the other future where we all die horribly, and the larger Tyranid swarms not yet devoured run away in fear. Damn stupid Orks!"

I muttered in fake anger.

I bet nobody expected the Orks to devour everything, except perhaps the Old Ones that created them.

"Orks? I mean to tell me the Orks win?" Trazyn asked in outrage. I know buddy.

"Not these Orks, of course. But their Waagh field contains all the knowledge and inventions of the Old Ones. They just need sufficient numbers. A trillion planets infested with greenskins, and they are the new reality. And for that, they just need a powerful enemy to offer a 'gud fight'. Chaos or Tyranids, even Necrons...all swept away by unstoppable tides of Titan sized Orks that sprout a thousand more if you kill one. Cute revenge, right?" I asked in fake humor.

"And these Reality Cages will contain the Waagh field, just like Warp incursions. Damn it! I hate travelling!" the Necron grumbled in annoyance.

"I know the Necrons have something similar, but it would be too hard to make, by my allies. Alas, I'm off to find more nice stuff, in the Halo Stars. Don't call me, I'll call you." I said with faint amusement and closed the call.

Rose stared at me and then turned towards a moving wall, right in front of us.

Strangely, the alien C'tan looked almost human, if much larger.