Prologue

“Someone once said space is not only bigger than we imagine, but bigger than we can imagine…. They had NO idea…”

Quinn Derelith

In a little used section of a universe, a glimmer appeared among the stars. The effect only lasted for a moment, but at that time it was the most important event this universe had seen in a millennium. Of itself, the glimmer was nothing to behold but rather, what it hid. The long, sleek missile beneath paused for a moment before heading for its final destination.

Landsraan’s moon Secondus hung against the starry backdrop, never realizing what was about to greet it. Approaching the moon’s orbit, the illusion was cast aside and the deadly dart flung itself into the ground. For a brief moment, nothing. A flare, brighter than Landsraan’s sun, erupted from the point of impact. Waves of savage flame swept across the surface consuming everything in its path. Frantic calls from hundreds of starcraft nearby fall on deaf ears, for hundreds of thousands of lights have been extinguished in a matter of moments. On the planet below, a lone figure wrapped in shadows looked up at the conflagration and smiled. In a low whisper it said, “It has begun.”

Chapter One

You know, The one with all the extra-dimensional visitors?

BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZZT! An alarm goes off as the sun beats down on a clear Arizona morning, or is it noon? BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZ-CRASH!! Silence. A synthetic voice speaks out, not that the lone person in the room is listening.

“Initiating Cryo-Aquatic measures.”

SPLOOSH! “YEA-AUGHH! What the ever-lovin’ schnott are you doing L.I.T.E.?,” said the lone person upon receiving a rather rude awakening.

The synthetic voice replied with a deadpan, “Waking you, Sir.”

If the AI system governing the facility ever decided to develop human emotions, impatience would very well be the first, considering the nature of the person it was trying to rouse.

It added, “As per your orders.”

Quinn Derelith sat up on his bed, sopping wet with the ice water his Amazingly Wonderful cyber assistant had just hosed him with. “Yeah, I don’t seem to recall that last bit on my list from last night.”

The A.I. replied, “No, that was a last minute addition from Mr. Hazard.”

I really have to check LITE’s algorithms later, Quinn thought; for a second there he almost sounded amused… “What time is it? Oh, Crap! Crap! Craaap! I’m late!” Quinn yelped.

“Yes Sir, by point seven five hours,” The AI intoned.

Quinn hurled himself at his closet and quickly pulled on some pants and a red T-shirt and grabbed his favorite Datapad. “Schnott-Fire! Why didn’t you wake me earlier, LITE?” He scolded the Computer.

The Facility A.I. quietly reminded him, “I did Sir. You ‘Pressed the Snooze’, as you put it, approximately twelve times.”

Quinn jerked his shoes on and flew out the door, almost knocking over a small maintenance Bot as he ran down the hall. “I’m guessing my esteemed colleagues are already in the Lab?”

The AI’s voice now came from the datapad, “Affirmative. I have a message from Mr. Happ, he says: ’At least you don’t need to take a shower now.’ End message.”

“Oh, the fun just never ends around here...” fuming and still chilled from his abrupt dousing, Quinn turned down another corridor in the complex.

Situated next to an old and rather large crater in the Arizona desert, J-Corp Engineering is home to some of the most advanced scientific discoveries in the later half of the 21st century. Quinn inherited control of the corporation four years ago when he turned twenty-one.

“You’d think the president of the flippin’ company could manage to sleep in without two yahoos deciding to get funny,” Quinn fumed to no one in particular.

Several other residents of the research complex offered morning greetings as he dashed by.

“Hey Quinn, late night?”

“Isn’t that like the third time this week?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the main lab right now!?”

“NOTED!” Quinn yelled as he finally came to the massive doors leading to his pet project.

He thought, ’Hopefully this won’t be the biggest flop in the universe if it doesn’t work. But hey, it’s not like they can start without me; I have the ARM key!’

Passing through the entrance, Quinn saw two of his best friends and associates. Standing there were Mattholomew “Duke” Hazard and Kenshiro Happ. Oddly enough, Happ is not oriental in the least but wishes he were.

Quinn shifted to scold mode and fired off, “What have I told you two about making weird changes to LITE’s programming? One of these days he’s going develop a sense of humor and NO-body will be safe!”

He then thought again, ’Can’t be too mad though, this is one of the most important days of my life. Maybe now I can finally find out what happened to Gramps.’

Quinn’s Grandfather was the founder of the J-Corp research group. He went missing many years ago attempting, and possibly succeeding, in what Quinn was going to try today.

’Except this time we’re going do it by the book,’ Quinn hopefully and silently prayed, ’Fifteen years is way too long.’

Duke looked up from a monitor and said, “All systems out of warm up. RDM console is fired up and on standby. We’re green, Quinn.”

The Resonant Dimensional Matrix stood at the heart of the massive wall of electronics across the room.

“You DID remember to bring the ARM key, didn’t you?” Happ added, with a slight smirk on his face.

“Like I could forget it,” Quinn chided, “It’s only the most important key to a doodad I’ve ever built.”

Kenshiro shook his head and replied, “Just checking, dude…”

Quinn slapped a nearby counter top. “Well let’s get this party started, shall we? Bring the emitters online and activate environmental lockdown. LITE? Sound the alert.”

“Yes Sir.” The computer’s voice blared across the facility’s loudspeakers: “All Residents, prepare for lockdown! Proceed to your designated areas and observe all necessary restrictions. Project initiation in fifteen minutes,”

The massive doors behind Quinn slowly closed with a low boom, sealing the three engineers in.

’History is about to be made here today,’ Quinn internally mused; ’We’re finally going to crack the dimensional barrier and possibly discover a whole new universe. Or blow the whole flipping place up; But you know, let’s not be a Negative Ned.’

Quinn grinned as banks of equipment came to life around the room. Ever since he discovered in his Grandfather’s notes that a synchronous tone sequence was needed to stabilize the D-Matrix, things had really progressed.

’This one’s for you, Gramps.’

He was broken out of his reminiscing as LITE announced, “Matrix activated, emitters online, awaiting ’Go’ from Command.”

Quinn looked at the other two and asked, “Ready, gentlemen?”

“Ready to rock, old chap,” said Kenshiro.

Happ was situated behind the heavily modified keyboard that generated the control tones for the flickering lights now starting to form in the center of the D-Gate.

He added, “All areas report ready and waiting.”

Quinn inserted the Amplified Resonance Module key into the main console and inquired of his head security officer, “Mr. Hazard, are the security measures in place?”

Duke turned and saluted before jovially replying, “Aye, Keptin!”

“...Don’t do that,” said Quinn as he gave Duke the humorous Evil Eye while the lights intensified. “OK, Mr. Happ, get those fingers walking.”

As the musical tones starting coming from the system speakers, Quinn had to wonder if a rock band from the latter quarter of the 20th century would’ve had any idea that part of one of their songs was the key to stabilizing a dimensional wormhole. Too hilarious. The lights now reached a crescendo.

“UMM, Quinn…” Quinn jerked his head around at Duke, who added, “Something’s off here…”

LITE abruptly sounded off, “ALERT – ALERT! Gate integrity compromised, incoming interference detected.”

“IN-coming?! What the Sam Frell is going on?” yelled Quinn.

Kenshiro looked up from his monitor and shouted, “Something not being generated by us is synching to our gate frequencies, the power output is rising, fast!”

Quinn quickly ran to LITE’s main panel and inquired of the computer, “Can we shut it down?”

The AI replied, “Not advised, Sir; The feedback would form a new crater beside the existing one. Caution, detecting incoming transit signal.”

Duke yelled from the other side of the room, “Something’s coming through from the other side!”

Quinn grabbed a nearby railing and answered, “Duke! Sound the EVAC alert and prepare for unannounced guests!”

Duke started frantically punching buttons. “NOTED! Perhaps they’re friendly?” he asked hopefully as reinforced blast shields were activated around the command area.

The light in the matrix was violently churning now, and with a sudden surge seven forms came hurling out onto the floor. Moving wobbily to its feet and dressed in some sort of red armored spacesuit with a opaque helmet, one of the newly arrived visitors spoke:

“Ugh. This doesn’t look like Abyillon Central. Where the fiznab are we?!”

Quinn stared in astonishment and said, “Well it ain’t Kansas.”