Shadows from the Badlands

The conversation died shortly there after. Thoughts weighing heavily on both of them. Michael's mind went back and forth, between thoughts that a large scale war had been fought, to the facts that he was beginning to have a crush on an alien. Better still, his mind supplied ironically, that the alien neither returned his feelings or did anything to refute them, he simply found it curious.

The thought suddenly occurred to him, that while the Protoss seemed to be a male, he had seen no confirmation. A horrified giggle almost escaped his mouth that he could very well be attracted to his first woman, and that he may have though the woman was a man. He shuddered at the thought, and hoped that would not be the case. He searched back over his memories, realizing with a start that indeed at no point had Dash'r referred to himself as either male or female. His mind was babbling back and forth, constantly bringing up things that he simply had no knowledge of, did the Protoss even differentiate between male and female. He had no means of knowing one way or the other.

He had not been paying attention, and was interrupted from his internal ramblings by Dash'r. "We are nearly there."

Michael looked around, and saw nothing. "Any chance what we're looking for is buried? Or really tiny or something? 'Cause all I see are a bunch of trees."

"I do not know, I thought it was near the surface." Dash'r trailed off, lost in thought. He almost seemed to be meditating as he sat down on mossy ground. Michael himself switched on some of the more battery intensive sensors that his suit was equipped with. He had never bothered turning them on since the crash, figuring that the sensors which were normally only used on a dig site were unneeded.

All around him, the sensors reported something, and overlaid a scan of faint electromagnetic energy on his HUD. They were indeed effectively right on top of whatever they were looking for, yet when Michael walked forward and attempted to touch the side of what looked to be a massive structure, his hand met nothing. He took a closer look. The overlay showed a clear outline of a structure, reminiscent of the Protoss ship, having sharp angles that could easily be crystalline, and yet the true view of the area show trees and other plant life growing in the same area. "Hey Dash'r, I got some pretty advanced sensors in my gear, and we're right on top of something, he said absently, still trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Dash'r looked up, interested, "I see nothing, describe it?"

"Its odd, it's showing up in the electromagnetic spectrum, and it's big. But it's like it's not really there. Kinda superimposed over the terrain and plant life. It's hard to really describe."

"Is there anything that looks like a door? Or any openings for that matter?"

"Yeah, come here," Michael said, gesturing to an area right in front of him. When Dash'r raised his hand, Michael grabbed it, and guided it to what he saw as the very surface of the doorway in front of him. He stifled the inappropriate thoughts on the texture of the aliens hand, and the heat emanating from the close proximity. He saw Dash'rs eyes dim, and as he concentrated on the immaterial door, the space around them rippled.

The structure itself was still only a vague impression, but something the Protoss had done cause a doorway to form directly in front of them. The hallway lead off a ways, dimly lit, yet looking around the door, Michael could still see the hilltop and forest.

"Folded space?" He asked, having heard theories of it in the past, yet no human even had the slightest idea of how.

"I believe so," said Dash'r, now concentrating on the hallway in front of them, "my people can do something similar, yet not even approaching this scale. And to have it still functional after all this time, this structure must be very old, possibly of Xel'Naga origins."

"I've got better eyes, or sensors at least, I should go first if you want to check it out." Michael was almost foaming at the mouth. He had spent years looking for ancient alien tech, and his few finds had never even approached the scale of this one doorway, let alone the entire building. Even if he never got to tell anyone of it, his curiosity made him desperate to go inside and look around.

"Very well, Michael, even if you cannot see me, I will be close," Was all that Dash'r said as he faded into the shadows again. Michael had become more adept he thought at picking out the emotions of the voice that sounded in his mind, and was sure he felt excitement coming from the alien.

He slowly walked inside, his sensors tuned to the maximum. The interior was almost completely silent. His power levels would hold for almost a day without a recharge, which he had no means of getting for the time being, and he concentrated, trying to communicate the information to the Protoss who was following him.

"I understand, Michael. Try to find a power source, or the control room."

Michael was relieved that he would be able to communicate still, and hit the commnd on his suit, causing it to illuminate every source of energy that stood out from the rest. The various sensors were still churning away at the incoming information as they made there way deeper into the building. He had only a partial map built, being expanded further as time passed. The sensors estimated that there was almost a kilometer of hallways, lined with empty room. Only a few errors popped up as his computer tried to make sense of being inside folded space.

After 15 minutes, a pattern began to emerge in the layout of the hallways. All of them seemed to congregate in a single area. "I understand, it believe that to be the control room," Dash'r responded to the information that Michael had tried to make available to him.

When they reached the central room, Michael thought it looked more like an art gallery. The crystals lining the wall were intricate, and vaguely resembled the ones he had seen on the crashed Protoss ship. In the center of the room stood a tall, slightly carved stone. It glowed slightly around the grooves, and seemed to be actually be made of several smaller pieces. Dash'r stood silently, and gazed at the stone. He eventually turned to one of the crystals on the wall,and gently tapped it.

Instantly the entire room lit up, momentarily blinding Michael. As his eyes cleared from the sudden light, he found his gaze drawn upwards. The room was massive, his sensors had indicated this but seeing it lit up was another experience. He saw holograms flare into existence. A star-map formed, of the local star cluster, each of the planets affected by the mass disappearance was high lighted. The map zoomed out, encompassing a massive amount of space.

"Each of these corridors leads to another planet," Dash'r said, his voice dead, gestured to a hallway, "this one, after several branches, leads to a facility like this on my home world." A light flashed on the screen, indicating a massive distance from there current location. "I believe this may be some from of transit system, that allowed the Xel'Naga to traverse great distances without the need of star ships. Indeed, right now this structure is truly not in any space, but tucked away in the void between stars."

"Does regular radio communication work on these worlds," Michael asked, gesturing to the cluster of worlds surrounding the Protoss home world. "Because something on that cluster of stars has been interfering with communications for months."

"That would be the crystal," Dash'r said, indicating the mildly glowing crystal in the center of the room. "It is underpowered, but it is a defense mechanism, the computers here indicate that it is incomplete, lacking it's primary power source, but even unfinished as it is it is able to disrupt most communication on the planets it is targeted at through the space folds, as well as inhibiting the Zerg's ability to evolve. If we could find the power source, and finish this, it would free countless worlds from the zerg."

"That's nice, the computer tell you where to find it by chance?"

Michael could hear a new found excitement in the voice of the Protoss when he replied, "Not exactly, but the fragments are scattered in the Koprulu Sector, where the rest of yours and my kinsman reside." A series of planet flashed on the hologram, exit points that the two would b able to use to rapidly travel the distance to those worlds.

"That's great, but I'm expecting there's a pretty big catch."

"That is perceptive, the last thing I heard from my people indicates that every one of these worlds has been over run by the zerg, and that this one," the mapped zoomed in, a single planet was highlighted in a binary star system, "Is the currently the zerg home world."