The Chosen

Chapter 1

The year is 2193. What is left of Earth’s once-beautiful landscape is now in ruins, having been utterly annihilated by World War III. Many of the world’s original races were destroyed in the Federation of America’s lust for genocide. Those that were captured alive were cryogenically frozen, and all those that had sustained any sort of injury were incinerated. As time wore on, this genocide was forgotten and humanity returned to normal. The Federation of the Americas grew in size and power. Technology was developed to create artificial wormholes called slipgates. Massive ships were made to create and travel through these slipgates, and hundreds of planets were colonized. Some of these planets were like Earth, with a breathable atmosphere and primitive life forms. It is on one of these ships that this story begins.

This ship was not like the others. It contained one third of the remaining population of Earth, in the form of 100,000 cryogenically frozen bodies. The ship was called the Saxon IV, though most referred to it as the "Arc." Its destination was in the outer reaches of the galaxy, in a dense star cluster that was believed to contain a massive wealth of precious minerals. The journey would take 23 years, even through a slipgate. A crew of 300 personnel was assigned to the Arc. The captain was the only one of those 80 that had not gone into stasis. This story takes place 19 years into the journey. The Arc is currently farther than any ship, or human for that matter, has ever traveled before.

The instrument panel blared annoyingly. Captain Homer Winston painstakingly pulled himself from bed and walked to his terminal. "What is it?" he mumbled angrily.

"We are picking up odd signatures in the slipgate. I am not entirely sure what they are, but they seem to be of another vessel."

"Impossible. Recalibrate your sensors and let me sleep."

"My sensors are accurate. I think you should come to the bridge right away."

"Oh, all right then. Just let me get some clothes on!"

Homer quickly dressed, cursing to himself. When he got to the bridge, the main screen was lit, and an image of a small ship was in clear view. "See? I told you it was a vessel! I scanned all I could. Nothing human, that’s for sure. I am detecting traces of minerals. They are not in my database."

The captain was wide-awake now. He quickly began to shout orders. "Make sure that it doesn’t fire anything. Check to make sure that our weapons drive is online and fully functional. Also check our force fields, especially around the cargo bay. Make sure that all the cryo-trays are secure. See if you can detect any life forms aboard. Gather as much information as you can!"

Suddenly a loud high-pitched screeching noise ripped through the air.

"What in the name of the heavens is that?"

"I think they are scanning us. It’s no use blocking them, I can’t even locate their frequency. They are scanning everything, weapons, defense, our database…"

Without warning, a loud bang echoed around the bridge, and the floor began to quake. Grabbing for something to steady himself, Homer fell to the floor and hit his head. Reality faded away as he slipped into unconsciousness. As his limp body lay flat, the enemy ship kept up its assault. Slowly, one by one, the ship’s systems went out. All but the atmospheric controls for the bridge and the cryo-drive in the cargo bay.

Large dark figures boarded the ship and began moving around. High-tech instruments hummed as they dissected the ship, bit by bit. They stumbled over the captain, and, without any display of emotion, vaporized him. All that remained were ashes. After they had salvaged all that they could, a massive hole was blown into the cargo bay, and the cryo-units were removed and placed into the cargo hold of the enemy ship. As soon as everything was loaded it sped off, leaving the burning wreckage of the Arc adrift in the entrance slipgate where it would eventually be pulled apart by the massive forces that were already at work on its buckling hull.

He just didn’t get it. Where was he? He was in a small cylindrical room, with a large screen at one end. On it was an image of a naked human. It was a male, and there were strange characters labeling all of its major body parts. Suddenly, it came to him. This was a 3D model of himself! Slowly, the model split in half, and its insides were revealed. Its upper section was then magnified until his head completely filled the screen. It was split in half, and the left side disappeared. His right side rotated to reveal a cross-section of his head. A small part of his brain was highlighted. After a few minutes, he felt a sudden pain emanate from his head. He began to panic, but he could not move. Then the model disappeared. It was replaced with some text that filled the screen. "Prepare for enhancement." All of a sudden, his entire body began to ache. He kept trying to move, but could not. It was like a perfect nightmare. Then everything stopped. His mind went blank. He could not think, nor could he not think about not thinking. There was nothing. Slowly, he fell back, once again unconscious.

When he came to, he was sitting in a chair, facing a large dark entity in a hooded cloak. Two blue luminous eyes shone out from under the hood.

"Welcome," it said.

Looking around the room, he noticed that there were at least six of the beings. Some were looking at him; some were talking amongst themselves. The strange thing was that he could understand them, even though they were talking in a language that he had never heard before.

"Where…where am I? Who are you? What is it you want? And anyway, how is it I can understand you? I have no idea what or who you are, nor what language you are speaking."

The dark robed figure facing him spoke. His voice seemed calm and soothing, but Willfred was well alert.

"Your mind has been altered…you will soon find that you can fluently speak and understand our native language."

"Okay, and just where am I? When am I? All I remember is this horrible dream where I was in this dreadful room… "

"That was no dream. Nine years ago, you were awakened and prepared for enhancement—a way to prepare you for what you are soon going to face. The year is 2202. You are among the last survivors of the human race. The rest were exterminated. We have colonized your home world and adapted much of your way of life. You are now in an underground facility in the area you once called Western Asia. Above us is the town of Beijing. The last thing you must remember is being in a large maturation room. That was nine years ago. It took all that time to cleanse your mind and adapt you to our environment. You are the only human that is not in one of the cryo-units. You will be introduced into our culture, and will act as an ambassador on behalf of the rest of your species. We will not hurt you. On the colonized planet of Alpha Prime, your people constructed an immensely powerful weapon that fired an enormous mass of energy at our star system. It was destroyed. Revenge was our only option. After killing every human we could find, we realized too late that we had committed xenocide. It was then that one of our interplanetary cargo ships met your colony ship. Orders were immediately sent out to preserve the colonists. They were brought here and are currently being stored in an underground facility in Antarctica. We plan to re-introduce you all to Earth, as well as the rest of your planets, and you are to live with us in partnership. We have salvaged most of your technology as well as much of your historical writings and realize that you have much potential as a race."

"But how? And why? Why did we all have to suffer for the mistakes of our government? We are no longer the democratic race that we used to be."

After what seemed like much thought, the robed figure spoke. "I do not know. All we knew was that ninety-percent of our population had been decimated by this weapon. We were forced to take violent action, and this was a great mistake on our part. After we realized what we had done, it was just too late."

"But what’s to say you won’t just de-activate the cryo-units and dispose of them as you did the rest of us? How am I to know you won’t just use us as live specimens in some lab experiment?"

"We do not need to hurt you in order to gain any information. We have the technology to do so without inflicting any damage. We are offering you and your race a second chance at survival. There was no need for this; it would not have benefited us."

Suddenly, Willfred literally felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. His natural reaction was to feel anger towards this being, all of them for that matter, for slaughtering all his people. But then he realized that humanity would have done the same, if not worse, under these circumstances. Shrugging, he sighed, and shamefully agreed.

After the "meeting," he was led to a room with many different instruments.

"A good example of our technology. You will be transported to Antarctica to witness the re-awakening of your people. Please remove your robe."

Looking down, Willfred saw he was dressed in the same dark robe as the other strangers. Sighing, he removed it. He was now completely naked. The figure led him to a small chamber with shiny metallic walls. The door was closed, and a voice spoke to him. It was once again in a language foreign to him, and yet he still understood it.

"Please prepare yourself for transport. Place your hands by your sides, keep your knees locked, and try not to move. On my mark, take a deep breath, and close your eyes."

He obeyed. Suddenly, a great flash of light penetrated his eyelids. Gasping, he felt a large jolt, and then he was weightless. He remembered not to move, and within five seconds everything returned to normal. This time, the room he was in was somewhat larger, and the walls were a dull red color. The door in front of him hissed open, and he found himself facing a large hallway.

"Please proceed down the hallway. Take a left at the end and then a right. There you will see a large door. Enter it."

Looking around, Willfred struggled to find the source of the voice. It seemed to come from all around him. He didn’t understand. He started walking. At the end of the hall was a fork. He turned left, and came upon another fork. Turning right, he saw the door. It looked similar to an airlock, with a large round handle in the center. He turned the handle and pushed. A rush of cold air bit into his face, and he winced. Entering through the narrow opening, he found himself on a balcony. Below him were hundreds of thousands of pods. He knew that each contained a human, a human oblivious to the genocide that had occurred, oblivious to the fact that they were probably all that was left of humanity. He sighed and wished they had chosen someone else. He did not even know what to do now. Turning back, he saw that the door behind him was closed. He tried to open it. It would not budge. He spun around so that once more he was facing the colonists. Suddenly, steam started to emerge from the units. Lights began flashing, and computers began to hum. One by one, the units sank into a dark blue liquid. After about twenty seconds, they emerged. Then, much to his surprise, a large apparatus descended from the domed ceiling. It slowly began picking up the units, one by one. After it had picked up at least one hundred units, it disappeared into a hole in the wall. The door behind him opened again. Out came one of the beings. He guided him back down yet another corridor.

"It’s time to meet your people. You will have a lot to explain."

Strangely, Willfred felt prepared.

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