The Omnivault: Chapter 18.
Written: Saturday. December 21, 2019.
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When Toby and Lady Veergha arrived at the space ship, Toby noticed that his friends were chewing something in their mouths. He asked them what they were, and Tom hands him a small container. Inside, there were these small white candies. At least, to Toby, it looked like candies.
“This is candy, huh?” Toby asked them. “That’s what you’re chewing in your mouths right now, yeah?”
“Technically, they’re Mentos.” Tom replied.
“Yeah, okay.” Toby takes one from the container, “Who has the time to question the logic out of all this, right?” and pops the mint into his mouth.
“Do not worry yourself, Terran Tobias.” Lady Veergha told him. “This is your people’s delicacy. We supply ourselves with it whenever we visit this system.”
“Keeps us cool, young-ling.” Ervagh added.
“Yep,” Toby said, tasting the mint in his mouth. “Can’t argue with that.”
Lady Veergha settled Omnius on the ground. Omnius walked closer to Toby, asking him to give one of the breath mints. Toby gives him the whole container. But once Omnius tries to put one in, the mint just breaks inside his mouth. Him having no saliva, the now powdered mint just falls from his lips.
“Aw, man! That’s no fair.” Crumbs of mint fell from Omnius’s mouth as he spoke. “I can’t even taste the flavor!”
“Guess you’re not a real boy just yet, little guy.” Amanda pats Omnius at the top of his head. Or what she assumed was the top of Omnius’s head, seeing that Omnius was shaped like a full rectangular box; just with added limbs on the sides and at the bottom.
“Do you think he’ll start remembering things?” Drew asked Toby. “Like, things from his past, where he came from; that sort of thing.”
“Who can tell, man.” Tom said. “This guy’s just a walking-talking Pinocchio.”
“Literally.” Amanda added.
“I dunno.” June was finished chewing her mint. “But I do see a pattern happening here.”
Lady Veergha looked at her, “How do you mean, child?”
“I mean,” June slowly starts pacing inside the ship, “ever since the third piece of whatever Omnius was made of merged with him, he’s gained more control of his entire…character? Physique? That’s just my observation. And, like Amanda said, he’s starting to recall some of the past events that have occurred. Example would be the Pinocchio references that he made the moment he, shall we say, ‘transformed’ into a more defined version of himself.”
“So you are suggesting that each piece that merges with The Omnius,” Lady Veergha started, “gives him more power?”
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that it gives him ‘more power’.” June replies. “If anything, it gives him more control of who he is. Or what he really is.”
“And what would that be?” Lady Veergha asks.
“It’s like I keep repeating,” Toby says to her, “You two should be answering that question for us. We’re just five ordinary high-school students who happened to stumble upon this extra-terrestrial — cosmic — being. This thing came from your planet. It’s you who needs to know exactly what he is.”
“And I’ve told you once before, Terran Tobias, that these orbs were already on the planet Omnia I even before we succeeded in dominating the race that inhabited it. We didn’t care to question its properties, let alone know what it does.”
“My Lady,” Ervagh butts in. “I thought you didn’t want it to be called Omnia I, and insisted on calling it Volga VII?”
“Now’s not the time, Ervagh.”
“Yes, my Queen.”
“So you see where the dilemma is coming from.” Toby said to Lady Veergha. “Miss Victoria — “
“Do not call me Miss Victoria — “
“Fine! Veergha,” Toby’s voice echoed in the ship. “I don’t care what planet you aliens came from. I don’t care if you’re some Warrior Princess whose purpose in life is to commit genocide on the other planets you just happen to come across. Omnius came from your planet; He is your responsibility. My friend Tom here was just dumb enough to take a piece of it home.”
“What about me, Toby?” Amanda stood up and faced him. Toby reflexively steps back because of Amanda’s height advantage. “I was just as well ‘dumb enough’ to have brought Omnius to my house when he came to me as a metal disc the night of the meteor shower? Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s not — “
“And suppose the fact that I came willingly to meet up with you three — when you were looking for people who knew something about the metal pieces that were dropping from the sky — was also complete stupidity, on my part?”
“That’s not what I was trying to say — “ Toby had to take more steps back each time Amanda advanced on him.
“You think you’re the smartest out of all of us here, don’t you?” Amanda looked Toby straight in his eyes. “Drew has been covering for your inexplicable outbursts every time Omnius does something illogical. But how would you know, though? How would you know what’s logical for an ancient extra-terrestrial artifact that came from a million miles out of our own goddamn solar system, huh?”
“Amanda, don’t.” Drew got in between the two of them. “It’s nothing. Toby’s just always like this.”
“Bullshit.” Amanda tried pushing Drew out of the way. “You two are hiding something.”
“I must say,” Ervagh said in the background, “You Terrans do a lot of bickering in dealing with your frustrations. Never going straight to the point, and slicing each other to pieces.”
“Must I take your own life, Ervagh?” Lady Veergha said to him. “Remain silent. I feel as though a revelation is afoot here.”
“Quite so, my Queen. Quite so.”
Toby turned away from Amanda. Drew noticed this and lowered his arms. Toby glanced down at Omnius, who was just looking up at all of them, not really knowing what was currently happening. It’s been so long; He thought to himself. That dream of mine. Why’s is it all coming back to me now. And why’s everything so different?
“You don’t have to say anything, Toby.” Drew said to him, “It’s been three years. It could’ve only been a coincidence.”
“It’s okay, Drew.” Toby said. “They need to know at some point.”
“What’s happening right now, guys?” Tom looked at both of his friends. “What this secret you’re not telling us? Not telling me?”
Toby took a deep breath, and looked at Tom. “I’ve seen all of this happen before.”
“What?” Amanda and June said at the same time.
“Just in parts.” Toby continued, “I only told this to Drew, because he was the only classmate I talked to back in freshmen year. I haven’t talked about it to anyone ever since. Cause I thought it was just this crazy dream that I had.”
“What happened in this dream of yours, Terran Tobias?” Lady Veergha asked him.
“In the dream, I was the one who discovered the metal ball.”
“Oh God, dude!” Tom said. “This is just your made up excuse for being jealous that I found the metal ball first — “
“Tom!” Amanda demanded. “What else happened, Toby?”
“Omnius was in the dream.” Toby continued. “He was smarter. Kind of like an Artificial Intelligence. He knew things about Earth. He knew things about other planets, and the aliens that lived among them. I can’t really remember any of them, but it always felt like I was talking to an intelligent being. And not the version we have today.”
“So that’s why you’re so pissed off about him.” June said. “He’s the complete opposite of the Omnius that was in your dream.”
“That’s not all.” Toby continued. “The Omnius in my dream never called himself by that name. He never called himself anything at all. And it was always just him as a metal ball. He could speak, sure. But he never changed forms. There were never any other parts that needed to merge with him so that he could be ‘whole’ again. And then,”
“And then what, Terran?” Ervagh asked.
“And then the dream shifted.” Toby replied. “I was suddenly looking at this enormous being as high as the sky. It was about the size of a hundred-story building; maybe more. It’s arms were massive. It’s feet caused tremors as it stomped the Earth. It was angry; Mad with power. I could only remember being so scared in my sleep, that I wanted it to end so badly.”
“And did it?” Amanda asked.
“Not in the slightest.” Toby answered. His eyes were starting to water up. “Imagine, all of life as we know it, just gone. Dead. Lifeless. Everything around me was collapsing. Everyone around me was screaming in pain. The trees were dried up or burning. The ocean as black as oil. The animals were dead and dying. The sky was blood red. On Earth as it is in Hell, the dream felt like. And at the center of it all, was me and this…this monster. It was like I was forced to see it all happen.” He started crying, “When I woke up, I was screaming at the top of my lungs. And I kept on screaming, until my mother calmed me down.”
“Jesus.” Tom said. It was the only thing he could think of saying.
Toby fell to his knees. June immediately took a handkerchief from her pocket to try and rub his tears away, as well as her own. Drew put his hand on one of Toby’s shoulders. Amanda just stood there, looking down on Toby. Then proceeded to hit the button that opens up the ship, going outside as soon the ramp hits the ground.
Ervagh looked at his Queen. Lady Veergha looked at her knave as well. Both of them seem to know exactly what the other is thinking. “Shall I look into him, Lady Veergha?”
She shook her head, “No, I shall be the one to do it.” Lady Veergha moved closer to Toby, and takes his hand.
“What are you doing?” Toby asked Lady Veergha.
“Don’t worry, Tobias.” she replied. “This will only take a moment. Now, let your mind be free.”
With this, Lady Veergha leaned her head down to reach Toby’s hand. And together, their eyes started glow.
End of Chapter.
