The Never Ending Tails
Patterns of Order Within an Ocean of Chaos

Throughoutall of the new multiverse, the Heralds started spreading bringing the touch ofthe Goddesses and Gods to their world. Among all of those countless chosenavatars, only one was ever chosen by two Gods at once. Her name was Lysei Mirr.

Lysei happened to be born in the farregions of the Triangulum Galaxy, 2.3 million light years away from Earth;however, Lysei still shared the same genetic material as the far away humans ofthe blue planet.

Lysei was born on the planet-ship Etheria which was part of amassive global evacuation mission sponsored by the global federal government todecrease the levels of overpopulation. 9 planet-ships have been deployed inthat effort hosting one billion people inside each of the giant structures.Massive scale engineering was applied during almost a century to build andfully operate the new mechanical asters.

The ships were spherical with giantthrusters built at six navigation points enabling them to move in virtuallyall directions with the added angles of the sliding structures.The outer layer was of a mirroring metal that helped provide additional solarenergy to the ships. The inner side was formed of 15 layers with the voidparticle processor at the center of the inner layer.

It was thanks to thediscovery of Void particles that are spread throughout every single structurein the Universe, and the design of operational ways to harvest the energy ofthat Void, through Light interaction, that it was possible to build those moonsized ships. They were fully constructed in space at different orbits, and the9 billion people selected for this project were sent to their new homes insmaller spaceships.

Those events happened six generations before Lysei wasborn, for her, those facts sounded like old tales, from another reality thathad nothing to do with hers. All Lysei ever knew was Etheria, and the giantinfinity of space through which the planet-ship was sailing.

Lysei lived in the orange zone, theseventh layer up. When she turned 21, she officiallystarted her community work. A highly bureaucratic system was in place inEtheria where every citizen is assigned to a specific job fitting her or hisaptitudes when they reach the given age. When it was the case for Lysei, shewas chosen to join the inner structure maintenance division. She had to move tothe division’s quarter in the purple zone, the 12th layer.

In the headquarter of theMaintenance division, all newly assigned members were put through a trainingprogram to provide them with the last bits necessary to start this functionthat they will carry on for the rest of their active life. Lysei didn’t have togo through that program, she managed to get the highest scores possible in allthe modules she took and was assigned a personal training before gettingofficially assigned to the division. While all the other new recruits had to spendthree months preparing at HQ, she was the first member of the division toever join a team without passing through the official training.

Lysei was assigned to the Omegateam, an elite force among the division who recently saw their oldest memberretire, it was perfect for the command of the division as they wanted tointroduce new blood to that team, and saw in Lysei the perfect candidate.

The first day, she got a bit late to their official meeting as she still did not perfectly know her way aroundthe purple layer. She got to the Omegaroom with her short silver hair still soaked from the shower she tookbeforehand.

She looked at her reflection on the metal door; her clothes were amess, and lost a lot of the cuteness she hoped her green and yellow jacketwould bring. She could see her right golden eye, and her left one partiallyhidden by her floating luminous interface glass.

Through that small square, shewas connected to the local network and kept in track with her virtual presenceby having notifications directly appear in her view field.

She took a deepbreath before pushing the button that enabled the metallic door to slide.

The first thing she could see of the inside wasa large round metallic table; through her interface she could see a holographicprojection detailing various technical blueprints of the inner structure ofEtheria. As she entered the room, she finally got a sight of what she assumedwere the members of the Omega team.

The individuals were sitting around thetable sporting the official orange and black uniform of the team, with theGreek letter omega as insignia on their chests. As Lysei was looking at themembers, their IDs started showing up on her interface.

First was Alice Stone,a 32 years old woman that specialized in AI personality engineering. She hadjet black hair and fair skin, she seemed pretty young for her age, but the darklayers under her bright blue eyes suggested countless sleepless nights. She wasresponsible of managing the main AI: L.1.n.k that controlled the innermachinery of Etheria. She was also the Omega team leader and Lysei’s superior.

Sitting next to Alice was Bernard Reed, 62 years old with rare grey hair, andglasses hiding dark piercing eyes. He was the second in command and responsibleof managing the team and setting assignments. Lysei would also have to answerto him.

On the other side of the table were Samantha Lee and Albert Grey whowere both 25 respectively and assigned to the field, they wereresponsible for manually repairing the parts of Etheria that L.1.n.k couldn’tremotely manage to reach for a reason or another.

The final member of the teamonly had his name revealed on the interface: Arthur Lars. Lysei took a goodlook at him, he seemed pretty young, no older than thirty, but had uncannywhite hair with amber eyes; he also didn’t wear an interface. He calmly lookedback at Lysei before directly speaking to her:

“You must be Lysei, our new team member, areyou shocked that you couldn’t pull much information about me through that handydevice of yours?” He asked with a smile. “Don’t worry, it’s totally normal, myposition requires me to stay off the grid, I never have been very fond of thenetwork anyway.”

“Don’t scare the rooky Arthur!” Alice respondedbefore addressing Lysei. “I’m sorry about his behavior; Arthur has someantisocial tendencies and a complete disrespect for formal communication. Weall welcome you to the Omega team. I personally vouched for you to join Omegaafter seeing your test results. I am sure you will be a major asset to us withyour promising potential.”

“Thank you for your kind welcome commanderAlice.” Lysei responded. “It is an honor to be assigned to a team asprestigious as Omega. I am really excited to get to know each of you and workalongside…”

Lysei was still mid-sentence when an alarmstarted ringing inside the HQ.

“I suggest the getting to know each other partto be adjourned Miss Mirr,” Bernard said standing up in response to the alarm.The others shortly followed his lead. “Sensors in the outside layer of Etheriadetected a leakage of unknown inorganic matter within the ceiling buffer ofLayer 15. Alice, do you think L.1.n.k can contain the substance before it leaksinside civilian quarters?”

“I already instructed the AI to reinforce theceiling of layer 15, but I’m not sure if that would be enough, the best courseof action is to send a squad to directly contain the unknown substance, orneutralize it if necessary. Samantha and Albert, as well as you Lysei will beappointed to the squad. You will wear protection suits. We don't know the risksrelated to the substance. You will need to use the diamond enforced containment vacuumto seal the unknown element. Understood?”

“Roger!” Samantha and Albert responded.

Lysei hesitated a little bit, it was her veryfirst day and she felt a little bit scared to go on such a mission so soon, soshe approached Alice.

“Commander Alice, do you think I am ready for amission this advanced. I just joined Omega, and I am not sure I have enoughexperience…”

Lysei got cut by Alice before finishing hersentence.

“You have excellent adaptation and analysisskills; you are very efficient at using your interface for optimal informationrecalling. You have excellent physical aptitudes and you are a member of teamOmega. I am pretty sure you are qualified, now be a dear and go put yourprotection suit for the mission.”

Lysei blushed; the words of the commander gotto her and boosted her confidence pushing away the weight of uncertainty shewas feeling.

“Yes Ma’am!” She said before joining Samanthain the girl’s locker room.

Once in the locker room, she found that Samantha wasalready putting on her protection suit and started doing the same.

“You know you are lucky, newbie,” Samanthacasually said zipping tightly her protection suit. “I had to wait for almost amonth for a real mission when I joined Omega. It’s not any day that we containsome alien stuff; this might be the discovery of a life time!”

“Aren’t you worried that this alien ‘stuff’might be dangerous or contaminated by some deadly virus or something?” Lyseiresponded finishing putting on her suit.

“It is a possibility indeed, but I am fairlysure our suits and the diamond layer of the vacuum’s containment box can easilystop anything this stuff might be. Cheer up newbie! This will be cake for thethree of us.”

Lysei wondered about why Arthur wasn’t assignedto this mission as well, then again, she didn’t know much about him or what hisrole within the Omega team was.

“Are you girls ready yet?” A voice said fromoutside the locker room.

“Almost Albert.” Samantha responded. “Don’tforget to put on your helmet newbie, you don’t wanna go catching them alienviruses now do you?” She said addressing Lysei with a foxy smile, then put onher helmet before leaving the locker room. Lysei proceeded to do the samejoining Samantha and Albert in the debrief room.

“L.1.n.k will transport you through the tube tothe closest exit pod in the ceiling of layer 15. Once there, your interfaceswill point you toward the unknown substance leakage. Proceed to contain it asfast as possible and make sure you don’t leave any of it. The substance will befurther analyzed by the science division upon recovery.” Bernard said givingthe squad their final instructions.

The three entered the transport pod that movedthrough the tube. The highly advanced system was put in place in order toenable the Maintenance division’s various teams to operate within the machineryof Etheria. Lysei was still shocked that she was on her way to contain an aliensubstance that could potentially be like nothing she ever imagined. The fact that she was asked to act beyond her knowledgeand skills made her feel unease and inadequate.

“What’s with the gloomy face new blood?” Albert asked. “You don’t have to worry withthe two of us with you, right Sam?”

“That’s what I have been telling her, but shefears the substance to be deadly. Honey, there is nothing team Omega can’t dealwith, you gotta believe in that!”

Lysei tried to pull out a smile to show somegood faith, but she could only awkwardly grin.

“I believe you are right, I really hope youare…” She muffled.

Before anyone could bring more to the talk, theplatform within the tube stopped, and the hatch opened. Few dim lights exposed the intricate machinery of the last ceiling. Lyseiwas amazed by such work of human engineering; the fact that it was performedgenerations before she was even born made her feel proud of her ancestors.

Thecoordinate of the substance showed up on her interface followed by the voice ofAlice on her ear piece.

“Scan the perimeter, contain all the substanceand see if there is need of repairs. Communicate your progress as you gothrough.”

“Roger that.” Samantha answered. “You heard theboss, let’s finish this up!”

The group moved following the directions ontheir interface. After a few minutes of navigating through the dense machinery,Samantha and Albert stopped shortly followed by Lysei. Samantha pointed hertorch toward the higher region of the ceiling revealing their objective;viscous black goo that was hanging to a pipe.

“It doesn’t seem very threatening to me.”Albert said reacting to the sight of the alien goo.

“It might not look like much, but we bettercontain it without waiting further. Do you receive that boss?” Samantha added.

“Affirmative.” Alice answered through the earpiece. “Proceed with caution.”

“Yeah, yeah, we get it,” Albert said annoyedbefore strapping the vacuum to his back and proceeding to climb the pipes.

Samantha and Lysei followed him and waited to see if he needed their help. Lysei was feeling unease, somethingabout the goo seamed wrong, how it stuck and stayed in suspension, it wasalmost like a lure. She tried to move toward the pipe, to scream out to Albertto come back, but felt something cold on her neck, like a drop of water. Sheimmediately reached for the spot where she felt the strange contact, but foundnothing, no sign of water either. As she looked back toward Albert, she sawthat he already took the vacuum out and was pointing it at the goo. As he was goingto start it however, the goo moved.

“Start the vacuum Al! Now!” Samantha screamed,but Albert was startled by the sudden motion of the goo and couldn’t press thetrigger, by then, the goo, stuck to his arm and started rolling around itgripping it tightly.

“It’s breaching my suit! Get it off me!!Someone!” Albert screamed.

Samantha started climbing the pipes, but thegoo quickly entered Albert's system through the exposed skin wherethe suit used to be. In a matter of seconds, the goo completely disappeared.Albert blacked out, just as Samantha reached and held himbefore he fell. With the help of Lysei they got him to the surface.

“Alice, what do we do now? The goo breached hissuit and is in his system. We need to quarantine now!”

As Samantha said those words, Albert opened hiseyes and screamed in pain before exploding into gray dust in a burstthat pushed back the two girls.

“What the…” Samantha started, but the dust wasalready moving, floating like a cloud, and dangerously approaching her andLysei.

Lysei was frightened, but as she felt that theend was closing in and that her life might be over, something deep within herawakened. What touched her before; it must have been some of the goo shethought to herself. As the dust entered in contact with her skin and startedcrawling benath it, she heard the scream of Samantha before everything turnedto black. She was there and not there anymore, she was stillalive, but not the same.

“Where am I?” She said out loud to hear thesound of her voice and be sure it was hers.

Images started appearing illuminating thedarkness around her, a sea of shapes and colors with an uncanny serenity.

“What is happening to me?”

A voice rose from the silence around.

“You have been chosen Lysei Mirr of Etheria.”

“Who is this? Chosen for what?”

“Chosen to grasp the ocean of Chaos…”

“...And see the patterns of Order within it.”Another voice completed, more feminine this time.

“We are the personification of both, and youshall be our herald,” The two voices said in unison. “Your body has beenbreached to make you an agent of the World Eater, but with our blessing, thispoison shall be your greatest weapon. Lysei Mirr of Etheria, do you accept yourresurrection as our champion?”

Lysei didn’t respond immediately, she thoughtto herself for a moment before saying:

“Do I have a choice… if I am to become yourherald, what is expected from me?”

“In exchange for being able to channel bothChaos and Order, you will be tasked to protect the balance of the two from theincoming doom of the World Eater. You have the power to save your kind and thebalance of the multiverse as a whole. But your foe won’t be easy to stop, it isa rogue world that consumes everything on its way and it is on its way to thisuniverse.”

“Will I be able to do something like this? I amonly human!” Lysei responded with a hint of fear in her voice. She was completelyterrified by the implications of those words spoken by those invisibleentities. She has to contain a World Eater that devours entire universes; howwas she supposed to do something of that magnitude?

“You are no more a simple human Lysei Mirr fromEtheria, you are the herald of two Divinities, the champion of both chaos andorder, you are also as powerful as the World Eater with the part of it thatbecame a part of you, what will your answer be?”

Lysei stood silent thinking. She went throughso much in so little time, and now she was asked to go through yet anothergiant change. She wasn’t sure she could do what was asked, but saying no tothis offer would mean the end of her, and she wasn’t ready to give up on life, there was so much more she wanted to do, so much more she wanted todiscover…

“I’ll do it. I’ll be you’re herald.”

“Lysei Mirr of Etheria, you are now theguardian of Chaos and Order in this Universe, your new life starts now…”

As the last words were uttered,reality came back putting an end to the display of shapes and colors.

It tookLysei a moment to grasp her surrounding; she wasn’t in the ceiling anymore, butthe different screens monitoring her vital functions made her quickly realizethat she was in some sort of medical facility, probably one following themaintenance division. Lysei quickly felt very weak, and extremely thirsty. Shefound a glass of water by her bedside and drunk it in a go. As she was puttingthe glass down, she heard the voice of Alice through a speaker in the room.

“You really scared us Kid. We thoughtthat neither of you would wake up. You were both in a very profound comatosestate.”

Hearing those words, Lysei had a flash of theirencounter with the alien goo, the agent of the world eater. She remembered howAlbert tuned into dust in an instant, she also remembered the dust making herway to her and Samantha…

“Samantha is still alive!” Lysei respondedsurprise; after what happened to Albert, and due to her encounter with theGoddess and the God, she never knew what happened to her other mission partner.“That is wonderful news!”

“Albert wasn’t as lucky as you must know. I amafraid it’s not the only bad news to bear; both you and Samantha were infected;we had to place you separately in Alpha quarantine. We weren’t able to separatethe alien pathogen from your metabolism...”

Lysei wanted to tell Alice about the urgency ofthe situation, about the oncoming doom of the world eater and about the pivotalrole she was given to play by the Goddess of Order and the God of Chaos. Shewanted to say something, anything that would make her realize how in dangerthey all were. Before she said anything, she felt a tingling sensation at theback of her head, then a voice, her own mental voice that gave form to herstream of consciousness. This voice of hers uttered words that she didn’t thinkabout, words of warning.

“Scout Nano-cloud activity detected twelve feetwest. Approaching.”

“Alice! She is awake!” Lysei screamed.

“Impossible! The video feed shows her still inher bed, her vitals still show a comatose state. What made you think she is?”

“Nano-cloud moving away.” Her mental voicesaid.

“Alice! Where are you?!” Lysei asked trying tobe as calm as she could.”

“I am with Bernard in a monitoring room; don’tworry Lysei, we are not too far from you.”

Lysei understood what was happening. Samantha,or rather the scout wasn’t moving toward her anymore, but toward Alice andBernard. It was breaking out!

“Alice! Wherever you are, leave and seal thearea, the Alpha quarantine won’t be enough to contain her!”

“What kind of nonsense are you saying kid? Thereadings are perfectly normal!” Bernard’s voice uttered through the speaker.

“Forget the readings! She is not the Samanthayou know anymore! She is a colony of nano robots that could easily absorb andcopy any kind of matter! We are not safe, nobody on Etheria is as long as sheis not stopped.”

Bernard was saying something but Lysei wasn’tlistening anymore; she caught the words ‘crazy’ and ‘completely lost it’though. She didn’t blame them; they had no idea what they were dealing with,and if she didn’t move fast, everyone on the planet ship will be in danger. Shegot close to the wall and put her hand on it, then closing her eyes, shethought of words trying to reach that voice that warned her before; she knewwhat it was, her own personal Nano-cloud.

“I need to save Alice, Bernard, and all theothers. I want to go out this room and toward the scout. We are partners now,and I need your help for this, please lend me your power.”

She waited for a response for a few longseconds before her own mental voice responded.

“My powers are yours, we are one Lysei Mirr.”

Lysei started feeling her hand melting with theconcrete wall. A surge of energy then zapped from the back of her head towardthe concreat resonating with it. Lysei noticed the primordial chaos of theatoms and electrons forming the wall, and in the middle of it, the harmoniouscomposition, the code to the wall being what it was, the pattern that made itunique. She felt the code changing, shifting in vibration and reaching aperfect resonance with her own pattern. For a second, she and the wall wereone, then the wall sprouted to dust and the dust came back to her.

Where thewall used to be she could see a narrow corridor and countless doors. She wasamazed by this enhanced vision that she knew was the awakening of the powersthe Gods gave her. She was also amazed by what her Nano-clouds were capable of,which instantly made her fear what the scout could do. She could see the wholestructure of the quarantine area in her mind and exactly where Alice, andBernard were as well as the husk of Samantha under the complete control of thescout.

Lysei was in panic. She run faster and faster,through the maze of corridors.

“This is taking too much time, I need anupgrade.” She thought to her Nano-cloud.

“Defining optimal path. Raising particlevibration levels. Phasing will be possible through contact with solid matter.”

“You want me to walk directly into the wall?!What if I don’t get through and get blocked halfway.”

“Fear not Lysei Mirr.”

Lysei closed her eyes then turned toward thewall and kept on running. The solid stop to her progression never came whichprompt her to open her eyes. She was running through walls like if they weremade of air. She almost reached Alice and Bernard, she just needed to go alittle bit further.

“Scout closing on Alice and Bernard.” HerNano-cloud mentally warned her.

“No! No No Noooo! Not yet! I’m almost there!More upgrade please.”

“Reducing bone density. Leg muscle increased.Sensory input upgraded. Speed 75% increased.”

Lysei felt like a bullet rushing through themaze without a care for its intricate structure. She started losing hope inmaking it in time, in saving her teammates. As she stepped through the finalwall she was relieved to see both Alice and Bernard doing fine.

“I really feared I wouldn’t make it in time. Iam so glad she is not here yet. We need to go fast!”

She then noticed what she refused to believe,what she knew all along. Alice and Bernard’s empty eyes.

“I…I…failed…it’s too late isn’t it…”

She felt the weight of the universe dropping onher, she was so scared, and despite everything she did to keep on moving, shestill failed to save them.

“It was too late all along. We tried to avoidyou the shock of the brutal reality. You are a broken unit under the orders offlesh, a heresy to us, and a heresy to the Deus Ex Machina.” The voice ofSamantha said as the door to the room was opening.

Samantha walked inside with the same empty eyesAlice and Bernard had.

All that time, Alice and Bernard were already gone.Lysei never stood a chance to save them. She felt rage rising within heroverflowing her enhanced senses.

“If you infected them all along, why did youwait for me to wake up? Is this some kind of cruel joke?”

“Merely a change of objective. The initial planwas to overtake this whole craft and generate a portal for the arrival of theDeus Ex Machina in this universe. But when we tried to overtake you while youwere in a coma, all our attempts failed. It seemed to us that you have beenupgraded with technology beyond even our infinite knowledge; technology thatwas capable to reboot the unit supposed to overtake you. We came to theconclusion that you unconscious state was behind our failures as it was givingyour biological processor enough focus to keep a flawless protection over you.We made this scenario in order to tackle you when your conscious mind is theone processing, with the emotional stimuli, your grasp over your power islimited enough for us to encode you. You will make a great addition to thecountless knowledge we assimilated so far.”

“Not if I can stop it. Also! What a doozie of amonologue. Man! Do you ever shut up?” a familiar voice uttered through thedoor.

Lysei turned around to see Arthur getting inthe room with a calm smile on his face.

“You! We put an end to you!” The scout saidthrough Samantha.

“Oh you mean that old body you overtook! Luckyfor me that was a very replaceable peace of technology. That body might havebeen human, and so does this one, but I am as far from human as you are.”

“What are you? Explain!” Samantha’s voicestarted to seem almost angry as the scout uttered those words.

“For now, a big distraction! Do your thingLysei!” He responded turning toward the girl.

Lysei stood up and closed her eyes. Through thedarkness she perceived the chaos around, the random mixture that composed everysingle particle of the event she was in. She perceived the arrangements around,the code of the scout through the body of Samantha, Alice and Albert as wellas Arthur own pattern, as she glimpsed at it, she finally understood who hereally was. His body was human, but his brain wasn’t. He had the same signatureas everything within Etheria, the same signature as L.1.n.k.

Lysei snapped outof the amazement such a discovery brought her and focused on the scout. Sendinga powerfull wave, she started resonating with it. She felt resistance as thescout was trying to absorb the energy and changing the resonance.

“I don’t know if I can do it. Everything dependon me, I must do it.” She thought to herself.

“Remember Lysei Mirr, we are one, we are theheralds of Chaos and Order, this scout is no match to us as long as we areaware of who we are.”

“We are! You are right Lys! We can do it!”

“Lys? You gave me a name?”

“You don’t like it? You can choose your own ifyou wish.”

“Lys is acceptable.”

“Now let’s do this together!”

Enhancing the wave of energy Lysei and Lysreached the perfect resonance. Breaking down the scout, getting it out ofAlice, Bernard and Samantha, and absorbing it, making it part of themselves.

The three previously controlled members of theOmega team started to get back to their senses. Lysei and Arthur took care ofthem and explained the whole situation. After a while, they were still shockedby all the information but were finally able to respond.

“So if I understand well, the situation isresolved now, right?” Bernard asked.

“Not exactly.” Arthur started. “The scoutovertook one of my spare bodies, it is nowhere on Etheria. I believe it escapedsomehow to outer space.”

As Lysei and Lys overtook the scout they wereable to access the last moments of feed with the missing body. It was able toopen a rift in the fabric of space the same way it got to this universe. Lyseiwas shocked when she knew where it was heading.

“That part of the scout opened a wormhole andis light years away now, but still in our universe.” Lysei said.

“Where did it go?” Alice asked.

“To Earth.”

Nobody said anything for an awkwardly longmoment. Then Samantha finally started speaking.

“What are you going to do now Lysei?”

“I will follow it the same way it escaped.”Lysei answered.

“Then I’ll go with you! After that thing usedme, I am not ready to let it harm anyone else.” Samantha said determined.

“Hey! Don’t cut me out of the fun!” Arthurstarted. “I am coming too! No way I’m missing Earth!”

“But How about your role as L.1.n.k?” Lyseiasked.

“A backup will finish where I left. CommonLysei, it would be fun, the three of us going to our native planet!” Arthursaid.

“What about you Commander Alice? Bernard?”Lysei asked.

“I would love to, but I am needed here. Etheriacan’t go two days without Team Omega.” Alice responded.

“And I am way too old for this kind of journeys,I am fine staying with Team Omega and doing what I do best.” Bernard said.

“Bossing people around?” Arthur said joking.

The group laughed for a moment before sayinggood bye.

Lysei opened a rift, beyond it through aninstant journey was Earth. She took a deep breath. Far away was the time of oldstories from other realities. She went through followed by Samantha and Arthurleaving the rift to close shortly after their departure.