1.17-Roots of Abyss

Get the Soundtrack ⁠here⁠: [Transcript]Between the cantilevered axis of the Nadir and Apotheosis galaxies lies the Chasm. Nadir’s spiral arm locks with Apotheosis some 80 million light years below us. Odo lens cracked again, spinning us way out into the breach here. Not as bad as gettin’ hurled into the Lorn Supercluster, but unlike that there’s little help out here.We were transportin’ a Kedash Monolith for a Penumbra Vigil on Badacamsana. It’s strapped down in the hold next to what we found along the edge of the Lestif Quadrant. We drift, bathed in the distant light of nebulae and cosmic luminant brumes. Rogue IGM storms brush the vitro-plastic steel of the ship. Hamark checks to see if anyone back on Gashia is watching for entangled coms and Zery gives me the hundredth look about replacing our Odo lenses. We drift.Cycles pass. Entangled coms are silent. Galactic cores on both sides of the viewport stare like adrisconic pupils at us, watching. Supplies run low. Metaphysic diaphragm can’t replenish this far away from life elsewhere. We conserve power. Lights are left off. Hamark works on a reserve battery. Zery and I slumber in the sarcophagus together to let the cabin drop to ambient vacuum temperature while we rest.Two thirds through a cycle, I wake up to hear scratches as if something’s wriggling along the haul. Nothing outside the viewport. Pitch black but it undulates. And we’re moving. Inertia holds us to the floor as we gain speed. Then a metallic thud. Zery kicks on the cabin lights. The darkness ahead of us is smaller somehow than where we are. There’s a gurgle outside and a shunt forward but the ship can’t seem to fit. Whatever’s got us tries again and again and I worry the diaphragm will break under the strain. But then it stops. And we start gettin’ pushed the other way.Now we are really moving. Stars appear behind us. We’re over the rim of Apotheosis. I can nearly see Vikoor 6 on the scopes. Hamark’s on entangled coms which are resounding with chatter. Zery pulls out the Psychic Zoetrope to astral project to the outside of the ship but freezes. Pulling back into the Chasm is a winding shape of crooked silken darkness that I can’t help thinking looked almost like a root.