Spires

Now

“I was so very wrong. It did turn into a fight. One that we barely escaped with our lives. Naturally it was followed almost immediately by the first mass invasion from the Spawn Point. We never did figure out if we triggered it with our actions that night, but whatever started it the result was death and heartbreak. Brave lives, young and old, lost. Families broken.” Cal’s voice was soft, forcing the interrogators to increase the volume in their power armors’ auditory intakes. “After that the monsters started to attack periodically. We fought them back, but slowly and surely they pushed us back from the high school. Increased their territory in an ever widening circle. We fought like this for another six months, before we launched a desperate assault into the heart of it, the high school. Sixteen battle hardened, brave people… only half made it back, but we did it. We destroyed the Spawn Point, fought the secret boss to cleanse the place. Turned it into what it once was, just a school. No more Spawn Point, no more Encounter Challenge. We learned so much from that most terrible experience.” He stopped. “From the looks on your faces I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“Yes, Designation: Honor. The Threnosh know all too well the devastation that an unchecked Spawn Zone will cause,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 said.

“Our world lost entire regions because of them,” Interrogator Ethereal Loaming 5623 said.

“And are they still lost?”

“Some.”

Cal was surprised to see the two interrogators lower their heads in unison. They had changed their demeanor over the last few sessions. Less guarded, less controlled. They gave all the appearances of having started to feel some sort of empathy towards Cal. Naturally, he was suspicious. A quick peak into their thoughts only provided a glimpse at someone they viewed in reverence. It was from this individual that this new directive to attempt to form some kind of connection or bond with him originated from.

Cal thought at first that this must’ve been their supervisor, which was unexpected since over the many sessions with the interrogators he had seen nothing in their minds that hinted at having a superior that they reported to. Upon further reflection he decided that assessment was wrong. The way they viewed this Prime, as they thought of them, was closer to the way his people, humans, viewed their holy figures, saints and the like.

“To this day?”

“There are worse spawns than the gremlins, as you call them.” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 said. “Even so it is commendable that your people were able to triumph. The question is how? As we have stated we are familiar with those spawns and with the power levels that you claim the probability of successfully destroying the Spawn Zone was 4.397 percent.”

“Okay, you got me. I didn’t give you the full truth,” Cal said. He decided to give a little to hopefully gain a lot more. “Our powers were actually more varied than just physical enhancements.” He still lied, but he added some truth in the interests of building upon the emerging rapport with the interrogators.

Cal lay back inside the black void of his high tech alien sarcophagus. He could see nothing and the only he thing he could hear was the barely perceptible hum of the unknown machinery that made it work. Within this prison time had no meaning. By his reckoning roughly thirty-eight days had passed since he emerged from the spire into this alien world. He had been immediately beset by dozens of power armored aliens. There was a brief fight, but since he quickly realized that the aliens were trying to capture him and since he didn’t want to kill any of them just to escape he surrendered. They had rendered him insensate with some sort of device. He was already interred within his prison when he regained consciousness.

The sarcophagus wasn’t all bad, he had to admit. It provided him with regular nutrients and water through a tube that appeared from somewhere. It took care of his waste matter in a similar fashion. It had been a concern at first and he struggled mightily to hold it in. After he couldn’t hold it in any longer he was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only did his waste disappear, but the machine somehow cleaned him up. He felt as clean as he did after taking a shower.

The sarcophagus also took care of the muscular atrophy issue. In as much that it rendered it moot. It regularly stimulated the muscles in his body. It took sometime for Cal to realize that it was mimicking the movements he would’ve made during the course of a regular day. Unfortunately, from what he could tell it was unable to duplicate the effects of his regular, strenuous exercise regimen.

If he couldn’t keep up the exercise of his body, then Cal doubled the efforts to exercise the only part of him that the aliens didn’t restrain.

He was careful at first, wary of detection. When the aliens didn’t try to stop him or punish him even when he started to peak into the two interrogators’ thoughts then he started to stretch and strain his mind further than ever before. He explored the entirety of the facility all while completely encased inside the alien sarcophagus. It was surprisingly small, like a narrow three story row house. Like those in the Victorian Era? Cal wasn’t sure, his knowledge was mostly based off fictional shows and books. Beyond the facility was nothing but wilderness as far as he could stretch out with his telepathy and he could reach out far.

More surprising was when he discovered that outside of the sessions he had with the interrogators he was entirely alone. There were no guards and once a session ended the interrogators would leave for somewhere else beyond where his mind could follow.

Cal also worked on his telekinesis. The spire tutorial for his specific, special class was maddeningly vague, but it did specify that both of his powers were unique in the sense of a lack of limitations in comparison to others in the same class group. From trial and error over the last few years he surmised that this meant that he was extremely lucky. Unlike other telepaths and telekinetics, he could do nearly everything. He could manipulate tiny objects with precision and control, while at the same time he could use it for brute force applications like lifting a many ton train engine and using it as a battering ram. As of yet he hadn’t encountered another with the same class as him, so he wasn’t yet able to confirm his theories.

Using both of his powers he explored the inner workings of his sarcophagus for hours every single day. Each day was full of the wonder of discovery as the alien super science slowly unraveled under his delicate mental touch. Over the days and weeks he learned. He was eager to apply this new knowledge to the power armors that the interrogators wore, which were different from the ones that the aliens he fought at the spire used.

From what he could tell the aliens didn’t have any of the sorts of abilities that he and his fellow humans got from the spire. The aliens didn’t display any obvious physical enhancements, indeed their bodies were extremely weak and fragile. He suspected the answer lay with the super science that they displayed in their armors and maybe his sarcophagus. He thought that perhaps what they received from the spire lay in their intelligence, but a cursory peak into their minds was inconclusive. He couldn’t detect anything that stood out as unnatural. Cal wished he could look deeper, but he was ever wary of discovery.

Thus he passed the time in between interrogation sessions, which if he was being honest weren’t at all bad, even the occasional mild electric shocks were no big deal.

“Designation: Honor, explain why you left your fellow humans to the spawn,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 said.

“Um… could you remind me?”

“The opposing force you faced in the Encounter Challenge Zone. The place you referred to as em-el-kay.” Interrogator Ethereal Loaming 5623 stumbled over the acronym. “The force led by the one called, Jay.”

“Oh, that’s a bit out of nowhere,” Cal said. It had been several sessions ago since he had covered that particular battle. He had also intentionally glossed over that particular detail. One, he was partially ashamed and two, he didn’t want it to reflect poorly on him and humanity in the aliens’ eyes. Although as it turned out the fact that humans fought each other in the first place was something unthinkable in Threnosh culture. “Well, honestly, it slipped my mind,” which was true, “and it wasn’t something I really wanted to be reminded of,” also true. “The priority was on escape. To get the captives free and safe. Jay’s men were wounded, which would have only slowed us down. They were also a threat to our lives. Besides at the time we didn’t really have the means to keep them imprisoned. I thought that we’d be able to deal with them at a later date. I also didn’t know how a Spawn Point functioned. I was still under the impression that the monsters would’ve remained in their areas, hence the football field where he left the men would have been relatively safe. I didn’t know that the gremlins were able to spread throughout the grounds and beyond.”

“The gremlin spawn killed them.” A statement from Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337.

“Cruel and unnecessary,” Interrogator Ethereal Loaming 5623 said.

“I know and I realize that my ignorance is no excuse.”

“Efficiency dictates that you should have have eliminated them immediately.”

Cal’s widened in surprise at Loaming’s unsolicited words. “Huh?”

“You had no intention of taking them prisoner,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 said. “As you stated, you lacked the means and the will to do so. We can only concur that you did not desire to make a decision. And so you abdicated your responsibility based on an emotional response. In turn it created a cruel and inefficient outcome.”

“This does not reflect well on you and your species,” Interrogator Ethereal Loaming 5623 said.

“I don’t really know if I agree with that assessment,” Cal said.

“You made the determination that your enemies’ deaths were the most beneficial outcome, yet you refused to take the simple and direct action to carry out this objective. Instead, you left them to die in a cruel and unnecessary manner. Furthermore the failure to act according to efficiency strengthened the gremlin spawn.”

“Hold on a second— wait, what? Strengthened them? What’re you talking about?”

“You were unaware?” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 frowned. “When a spawn kills it gains strength.”

“Are you saying that if a monster were to kill me then it would gain points?”

“Our experiences have confirmed this. The spawn gains strength in the same way that our people and yours gain Universal Points from killing them,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 said.

“How much?”

“Designation: Honor, are you unaware that all sentient beings are worth a Universal Point value based on their level of power and advancement?”

Cal’s mouth dropped. “Actually, yeah, Tides. I wasn’t aware. If I may make a guess. If, hypothetically, a sentient being kills another sentient being, then the first being gains the seconds’ Universal Point value.” He was dreading the answer that he could already see on the interrogators’ nearly expressionless faces.

“That is correct.”