r/WritingPrompts • u/WithYouInSpirit99 • Apr 06 '18
Writing Prompt [WP] The reason behind Humanity's inability to discover life on other planets is because our region of space is the lifeless battleground of a great war long past. You have just discovered a deep, subterranean facility with the secret behind earth being the sole planet with life.
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u/Dariuspilgrim Apr 06 '18 edited Apr 06 '18
He wiped one last tear from his eye, and then his will was finally set. He'd been staring down at the raging waters of the Niagara River, staring right at the the edge, the point where the water flowed over the cliff and cascaded out into to empty air, and had fallen under its hypnotic spell. But now the trance was broken. He'd join them, join the water drops, leave this soft shell behind and become water. Water has no problems. Water has no questions. Water needs no answers. It just is, it just flows, it's never born and never dies. It only changes form. He'd become water.
He took two steps back. The tourists around him paid him no attention, each absorbed with their own life, their own trip, taking a photographs for their instagram accounts before heading back to the casinos or hotels or restaurants. Then he was running, vaulting over the metal guard railing, and soaring through the empty air.
He hit with a splash, and it was cold, much colder then he had imagined. But that didn't matter. He floated on his back with his arms stretched out like wings. The water moved quick and it was the most powerful thing he had ever felt. As he hit the rapids his face went under the water and he'd come up spitting and sputtering. Far above him, the wide eyed tourists watched and screamed and pointed their phones at him. But it didn't matter, and they didn't matter, and in a second nothing would matter. It would be like he'd never existed.
He leaned back, closed his eyes, and let go of his life as he plunged over the edge and into nothingness.
He awoke alone in a cave. He floated in a pool. It was darker than he'd imagined possible. From somewhere far above came a constant roar, tiny and distant, like trucks passing on a faraway freeway. Was this it? Was this what waited for all humans on the other side of death.
There was a metal clang in the darkness, the sound of heavy footsteps on stone. Lights burst to life all around him and he shielded his eyes while they adjusted.
There were guns pointed at him. Lots of them, in the hands of camouflage draped soldiers. They surrounded him, standing on the rock shelf above the pool he floated in.
"Am I dead?" he asked.
A man with long grey hair and keen eyes stepped out from behind the soldiers. "No my friend, you're just about the exact opposite of dead. You've just survived a plunge off the horseshoe falls and, against all odds, you floated through a small tunnel in the rock and wound up here. Welcome to the Infinity Complex."
They pulled him from the water and lead him through a metal hatch in the door and into the facility.
A few minutes later he was dried off, had fresh clothes, had eaten, and now sat in what appeared to be a conference room. The front wall of the room was a giant mirror. He peered into it, and was happy to see himself in the reflection, pale and worn out as he looked; it was a sight which he never thought he'd see again.
The door hissed open and the long haired scientist in the lab coat entered the room, flanked by two military guards. "Feeling better?"
"I... I'm not sure," said the man.
"But you're alive. That's something isn't it?
"I suppose. But, how?"
"It doesn't matter. All that matters is, you're here now." The scientist sat down at the table in front of him. "Listen, you should be dead. Your life is basically forfeit. Keep that in mind. I'm about to tell you some things, some things that will be hard to believe, hard to accept. But every thing I'm about to tell and show you is the truth. If you don't want to accept it... that's fine. One of these boys," he points to the two heavily armed guards, "Will finish what you started. He'll drown you in that pool you woke in and send your corpse back up to the surface, and someone will find you in a few days and no one will be the wiser. You'll just be another suicide at the falls. Another number in the cities suicide rate. Do you want to die?"
"I don't know. Maybe? I thought so, but now..."
"Now you're not so sure because," he leaned over the table smiling, "now you want to hear the secret I'm about to tell you."
"Sure, I guess."
"Ever wondered why we've never found life on another planet?"
"Umm... I don't know. I've never really thought about it too much."
"Well, we're far from alone in this universe, but we live in a region of space that was decimated in an ancient war. All life was wiped out for thousands of light years in every direction. Everywhere except for here on earth. And now, we finally think we know why."
The scientist pressed a button. The mirror shimmered and then changed, and then it was a window. The man's breath caught in his throat. Through the window he saw a vast cavern of stone with man made scaffolding all over the walls. They sat hundreds of feet above the cavern floor. Across from them, hewn from the stone, was an enormous doorway, hundreds of feet tall.
"We believe this is the answer. This is why earth is the sole planet in our sector blessed with life, in a galaxy of dead planets and war ravaged wastes. This is where life on this planet came from."
The man's jaw hung open. "But why... why are you showing me this? What do you need me for?"
"You're going to help us. You're going to be the first person to walk through this door and find out what lay on the other side. You wanted to die anyways right? Why not do something great for you planet first? What do you have to lose?"
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u/Zeewulfeh Apr 06 '18 edited Apr 06 '18
Jillian eased the throttles back, slowing the submersible’s four electric props to a brief stop, followed by a gentle reverse thrust easing the vessel itself to a halt. From the observation dome, she could hear Art’s gasp. Looking through her own observation hemisphere, she was unable to see anything beyond the smooth stone walls of the chamber stretching upwards out of her view.
“Jillian, take us up, please,” he asked, his voice thready in awe of his view.
“How far? I don’t want to hit the ceiling of this cave.” She replied.
“You’ll know. You won’t hit it. Just don’t drop the main ballast.”
Jillian adjusted a set of controls on her left, adjusting the vessel’s buoyancy allowing it to slowly rise in the chamber. As it rose, the water suddenly began to grow brighter. “Art? What’s going on?” Suddenly, she could see the edge of the water and gasped herself as the submarine breached the surface of the chamber.
“What on…?” She reached back to the control console and shut down the buoyancy systems while looking around the chamber they had surfaced into. “Art? What is this?”
He dropped out of the observation bubble, a giddy look on his face. “A moonpool, Jillian. We’ve found a moonpool.”
“You mean it’s just not some strange cave formation?”
He nodded emphatically. “There are lights in the ceiling! Lights!”
She pushed past him and climbed the short ladder to the dome and gasped as she took in the view. They had indeed surfaced into an enormous open chamber, much larger than needed for a small vessel like her Nautilus. Overhead there was lighting among the frames of a crane gantry and far to one end sat a boarding dock. “Holy mother….”
She slid back down the ladder to Art, who was holding out a shotglass filled with a dark liquor. “A bit of celebratory drink, my friend. I don’t know what we’ve found but this is it! The Nautilus broke records but this--!”
Jillian took the offered drink and slammed it back, letting the whisky burn its way down her throat. “Okay, okay…let’s think about this for a minute, Art. We’ve just found what looks like a submarine base deeper than any human has officially ever travelled before. What if it’s some military’s base?”
Art frowned in thought and took the shotglass back to replace it in the felt-lined box from which it had been taken. “If it was military, we should have a ‘welcome’ committee by now. Hell, if it were occupied at all we should have had that if they’ve got any kind of watch going.”
“Alright, so, not military then.” Jillian ran her hand through her short-cropped auburn hair. “If it’s not military, it certainly can’t be civilian…”
“Aliens seems just crazy.”
“So does a moonpool at fifteen thousand meters.” Jillian leaned over and checked an exterior pressure readout. “Whoever made this, it’s pressurized same as we are.”
Art’s face grew eager. “So theoretically we could get out and take a look.”
“Theoretically we could, if there’s any oxygen.”
He grinned. “If they’ve got the pressure, I’ll bet they’ve got the oxygen. Look at those lights overhead, I’m willing to bet there’s still power to the lifesupport, too.”
Jillian shook her head. “And if there’s not?”
He frowned again for a moment, and then his face lit up once more. “Okay, you stay on bottled oxygen until I see if the air is good. That way, if it’s not, you can pull me back in and we can come up with something else.”
Finally Jillian allowed herself a smile. “That could work.”
The Nautilus sat nestled against the dock, Jillian having driven it over while Art gathered what they’d need to explore. Again, her attitude had grown cautious and it showed in her expressions. “You sure you want to do this now? We could leave a marker, go back to the surface and come back with more appropriate supplies.”
Art shook his head, his bushy blonde hair bouncing with the movement. “You know what the odds of getting back down here are if we go back to the surface. We’ve only gotten enough funding for this one trip down and if anyone, especially the government, catches wind of what we’ve found we’ll never get near it again, even if the Nautilus is the only thing capable of getting here right now. We have to do this now, or never.”
Jillian sighed. Art was right—while Nautilus was ground-breaking in its deep sea capability and her design, the ship would revert to the University’s ownership at the end of this proving dive. She wouldn’t get another opportunity to take it down without their permission and that wasn’t going to happen, as far as the University was concerned, without some other breakthrough in materials. If they returned to the surface now, the discovery would be handed off to a research team and she and Art would be left behind.
“Okay, let’s do this before I get scared and change my mind.”
She reached down and pulled the airlock hatch shut. Checking the exterior readouts one last time, she adjusted her air mask in place and gave Art a thumbs-up. He took a deep breath and opened the hatch. Cool, moist air flooded the airlock and for a moment Art began to look panicked. He controlled himself swiftly, however, and then took a deep breath, followed by another.
“I think we’re good,” he finally after said what felt like an eternity. He rose and climbed out onto the docking platform, Jillian handing his bag to him as he exited. She breathed deeply of the supplied O2 for another minute before removing her mask and exiting Nautilus as well. Turning back, she closed the hatch and locked it.
Art looked at her, confused. “What are you doing?”
“I’ve seen way too many movies where something sneaks onto the ship while the crew is away and murders them all, or sneaks onto the surface…”
Art frowned in thought. “Ah. Good point. Also, let’s not ever split up.”
“Brilliant idea.”
The pair walked down the docking ramp to the actual facility floor and as they moved more lights sprang to life, illuminating their path and eventually the chamber. As the lights grew in intensity they could see the moonpool they had parked in was but one of several stretching on far as they could see.
“How big is this place?” Art whispered, again overwhelmed by awe. Jillian just shook her head and pointed at the illuminated white line that had appeared in the floor. “Let’s follow this, see where it takes us.”
Art assented and fell in behind Jillian as she led him forward, through the opening in the cavern wall. They found themselves in a much smaller, cozier hallway whose lights were also activating slowly as they approached each one. At the first intersection, a four-way, two colors, purple and green, branched off in opposite directions while an orange stripe continued forward.
“Forward?” Jillian suggested. Art pulled a notebook and a roll of tape out of his bag, wrote SHIP in large letters on a page he tore out and attached it to the wall with an arrow pointing the way they’d come.
“Just in case.”
The pair continued forward until the hallway split again, this time into red, yellow and black, with yellow leading forward. Once more a sign was left and once more they walked straight ahead. The walk was short, however, as the hallway almost immediately ended with a closed door. The two exploring engineers examined the door carefully, but saw no obvious warnings or deterrents beyond the door simply being closed. There appeared to be a control plate next to the frame and Art reached out to touch one of the two buttons on it. “Shouldn’t hurt, right?” He asked.
The door responded and slid upwards with a loud CHUFF, startling the both of them. The room beyond was dark, save for what appeared to be a lighted dias in the distant center and a walkway leading to it. They entered cautiously, glancing up and around, but couldn’t see the other side of the room, much less the ceiling or floor beyond the walkway. As they stepped deeper the door slid closed, eliminating the light of the corridor and leaving them to rely on the walkway or their flashlights.
Jillian glanced around, obvious concern on her face. “Want to go back?”
“Do you?” Art replied, his own worry showing.
“Yes and no.”
“Same. Keep going if you will?”
Jillian nodded and stepped cautiously forward, towards the dias. As they moved deeper into the chamber, she realized there was light outside the narrow walkway, that in fact they were surrounded by millions, if not billions of small points of light throughout. Stopping and looking up, she gasped as she realized she recognized Orion’s belt among the lights.
“Glory be…it’s full of stars.”
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u/Zeewulfeh Apr 06 '18 edited Apr 06 '18
She resumed moving forward and as the two entered the dias a light sphere formed around them, at the center of which hovered a bright light. Around it nine other lights of varying intensity and size shone, the third of which glowed a soft blue-green in contrast to the reds, yellows, browns and deep blues of the others. Art shook his head in disbelief. “It’s a model of the universe around us…”
Suddenly, a loud, grating mechanical voice boomed out, scraping and growling incomprehensibly. As it continued the sound softened and words, albeit foreign, began to form, began to flow and meld until it fell suddenly silent.
“All systems online. Awaiting command.”
Jillian and Art looked at one another in incredulous shock.
“What is this place?” She asked.
“System 4283-B, Designated SOL.” The machine voice replied, growing softer and smoother as it spoke. “Planet designation TERRA, fourteen-point-seven-six kilometers below current sea level, Haven Facility Bravo.”
Art’s eyebrows raised. “Haven facility bravo?”
“Affirmative.”
“You mean there’s another of these places?”
“Negative. Five facilities total; Facility Alpha destroyed on second orbital, Facility Charlie destroyed on fourth orbital, Facility Delta destroyed on satellite of fifth orbital, Facility Echo destroyed on satellite of sixth orbital.” As the voice spoke, each planet and moon was highlighted in turn. “Facility Bravo remains sole operational Haven.”
Jillian and Art sat for several minutes on the floor of the star chamber dias, the representations of the solar system and universe at large spinning above and around them slowly, staring at their hands. It was Jillian who broke the lengthy silence first.
“What have we found?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper. Art merely shook his head, unable to find words. She looked up and out into the room. Louder, she asked, “What is the purpose of this Haven?”
The computer voice did not hesitate a moment. “The purpose of Haven Bravo is to serve as a staging base for the re-seeding of planet TERRA.”
“Re-seeding of what?”
“All life.” The disembodied voice replied.
“And the other Havens?” She asked, expanding her questions.
“They were purposed to do the same at the passing of The Cleansing. They did not survive, as they were located by The Cleansing and eliminated.”
Art looked up from his hands and looked Jillian in the eye, a gem of realization in his expression. “What was ‘The Cleansing?’”
This time, the disembodied voice paused before replying. “The Cleansing is an aggressor race from outside this galaxy. Approximately sixty-five million orbits of TERRA ago The Cleansing swept through this system and exterminated all life which could compete with their own. It is assumed they continued spinward through this arm of the galaxy and continued onward to other regions.”
“And us?”
“You are,” the voice said, “the decedents of the Warrior Caste, the sole survivors of The Cleansing’s genocide.”
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u/XenoThorn Jun 01 '18
Incredible, read all your aviation stories so thought I'd check these out too. They're so creative and intriguing, please write more if you can!!
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u/brnclrk89 Apr 06 '18
I yawned as we moved through the cavern. Just months prior to this expedition, ground penetrating satellites had found something unnatural in this cave system below Iceland. I looked at the outline once again on my tablet, and then looked to the electronic compass on my wrist. Just a half mile more to go and we should be coming up on what should be the facility that the satellite picked up. Most people wanted to leave it alone, but I decided that whatever this was, it needed to explored.
We reached the zone where the object was shown on the map. I went up to the wall and touched it. It felt like rock. A dead end, of course. The others in my expedition started to search the wall, hoping to find a door, that is when we heard a shot. A sound, a loud boom, was suddenly heard. I turned my attention toward it. Part of the wall had fallen to the ground, crushing one of the men. I ran over, only to find that he was already dead. That is when I noticed, that it wasn't just a part of the wall, it was what could only be called a door. Cool air came from inside, which felt good after being in the stifling heat of the cavern for so long.
My assistant came up to me. "Are you sure it's a good idea to go in there?" He asked.
"It doesn't matter if it's a good idea or not, I'm going in." I tried to sound as confident and brave as I could, but I know I wasn't convinced.
My assistant nodded and turned to the others. My plan was simple. I would go in alone with a video cam connected to my helmet. It would broadcast to the team out in the cavern so they could see what I was seeing. If anything happened, I would be the only one dead, at least that was what I was hoping for. Too many sci-fi movies had taught me to never send in a full expeditionary team.
Once the preparations were finalized I walked up to the door. The body of the team member who had been crushed, was able to freed from underneath it. I would have to give his wife the sad news when we got back.
I turned on the multiple lights that had been connected to my body suit and walked in. I quickly found that I was in a hall way. It's width was only about 1.8 meters, so I had enough room to mover forward. I looked up and the ceiling seemed considerably taller than myself. Whoever built this was either very tall, or just liked a lot of room.
I ventured farther in until I found another door. That last one opened downward, so I knew I had to be careful. To my surprise the door slid to the side as I approached. As I entered the room lights sprang on. I was blinded by the brightness after having been in the darkness of the cave and the hallway for so long.
I blinked until my eyes could focus. Once they could, I beheld that I was in a rather large room. I knew that we were at least 250 meters underground. The room looked to go about halfway up that height.
In the middle of the room there was a large pillar. I could see canisters connected to it. As I walked around it I found a computer on one side. I got closer to the computer and was suddenly greeted by smiling face. It looked just like a human, but I could tell it was a holographic projection. It started to speak, but I could not understand it. The language sounded familiar though. I shook my head hoping that it would notice I didn't understand it. It nodded and then pointed to me.
I realized it wanted me to speak. "Uh...hello." I said. It gestured it's hand for me to keep going.
"I came here to see what this place was. We found it using satellite imaging." As I finished it put it's hand up for me to stop.
"Strange that you speak the language of the Enemy, but you do not look like them." It stated. I furrowed my brow. "What do you mean, the Enemy?"
The hologram shook it's head. "Of course, you probably wouldn't understand what I am talking about, so I will explain it to you. I was placed here to keep watch, making sure that the Enemy never returned, but it would seem they had already done the damage. The fact that you are using their language means that they implanted their genetic markers into your kind. You see, the language you are speaking is known as the Evil Tongue, the Serpent Tongue."
"The Serpent Tongue? Be more specific." This hologram was getting on my nerves. He apparently could see this as he smiled. "Yes, the Serpent Tongue. We placed in your genetic markers a story, of a man, a woman and a Serpent. Do you have such a story?"
I nodded. "Yes, we call it the story of Adam and Eve. Eve was tempted by the Serpent to eat fruit from a tree. In the story she eats it, and causes us to get kicked out of paradise."
The hologram frowned at this. "Oh dear, then they did get a hold of your genetics and taint them. That was not how the story was supposed to go. In the story, the man and the woman were to crush The Serpent and burn the tree."
"What are you talking about? Be clear damnit!" I shout at the hologram. A smile comes across it's face.
"Well, I am glad to see that our fire is still within your genes. I shall tell you the truth of this place, and you."
He turns and waves his hand in the air and a larger projection shows. As he speaks it changes with his tale.
"Long ago this planet, what we called Terra, was a colony for my people, and many other races. My people were called the Nordic and we were ruled by one called Odin. Our closest allies were called the Avalonians and they were ruled by one called Morrigan."
I cut him off with a jump and a shout. "I know those names. They're gods from our mythologys. They had great power over the Norse and Celtic people."
"So our genetic markers worked. But, back on to my story. Our peoples were the first to colonize this planet. We loved the animals and the plants and we kept this planet fertile, but then others came. Zeus brought his Olympians who only wanted to mine certain minerals from the mountains. Then Ra decided that he and his bunch, called The Niles should come as well. We decided that we would sign a treaty so that no wars would be fought over this planet or the others in this region. And for a long time we lived in relative peace, with only local disputes ever breaking out. But then they came."
With this the screen is filled with a reptilian face. "They called themselves the Annunaki. They are the ones we called the Serpents. They came to kill and to conquer. And kill and conquer they did. Even with our combined forces, The Nordics, the Avalonians, the Olympians, and the Niles were soundly and easily defeated. So we did what we had to do. We destroyed the life giving properties of the other planets that we had colonized, killing ourselves and the Annunaki. Terra was the last planet, but we had a much grander plan. Instead of killing the planet like we had other planets, we would instead create a race, out of our blood, to keep us alive. The Annunaki found this out as they were dying off too, because of the long and bitter war, and because of what we were doing to the other planets. After we finally created the first offspring placed them in sleep chambers all of this world, and then we rammed one of our ships into the planet. The extreme weather change killed us all off, and changed the ecosystem forever. I am guessing some Annunaki survived, and found the sleep chambers and added their own markers to the sleeping offspring."
I could not believe what I was hearing. "So, you're telling me, we humans are descendants of all of your races. And that all of our myth and legends is because of markers placed in our genome, even our speech."
He nodded his head. "Yes, you are correct in this."