章 4: The architect
At the center of the flat, desolate summit, John and Lucia's gaze was drawn to something utterly unimaginable—a figure, lying motionless on the cold stone. The sight was jarring, almost surreal. The being before them was unlike anything they had ever seen, yet disturbingly familiar.
The figure appeared human at first glance, but the details defied comprehension. His skin was an unnatural shade of pale white, smooth and flawless, almost glowing under the weak sunlight.
His hair, impossibly long and jet-black, cascaded over the stone like a dark river, far outstripping the length of his own body.
And he was naked—completely exposed to the harsh environment of the asteroid, yet seemingly unaffected by the cold vacuum of space. His body was massive, easily over two and a half meters tall, with muscles sculpted like those of a statue, perfectly proportioned as if designed by some master craftsman.
"What... What is that?" Lucia's asked, her words trembling as fear tightened her chest. Her mind struggled to reconcile what her eyes were seeing, the primal part of her brain screaming danger even as curiosity drove her forward.
John was rooted to the spot, his breath caught in his throat. Every instinct told him to run, to get as far away from this thing as possible, yet he couldn't move. The shock was too great, the sheer impossibility of the situation paralyzing him.
Lucia's breathing was ragged, each breath a battle against the terror clawing at her insides. Yet she couldn't stop herself. Compelled by a force she didn't understand, she stepped closer, her feet moving almost of their own accord as she approached the figure lying before them.
John finally snapped out of his daze, panic flaring in his chest. "Lucia! Get back, don't go near it!" he shouted, his voice tinged with desperation. He took a step forward, but his legs felt heavy, weighed down by the fear that gripped him. She didn't respond, her focus entirely on the figure ahead.
"Daniel! Do you copy?!" John's voice was laced with urgency as he tried to raise their crewmate, but only silence met his call. The stillness around them was suffocating, pressing in on him from all sides.
"Shit!" The curse escaped his lips as he hurried to catch up with Lucia, his heart pounding in his ears. He couldn't let her get too close—whatever this being was, it radiated an aura of danger, a presence that sent chills down his spine.
Lucia was already standing beside the figure by the time John reached her, the size difference between them stark and unsettling. She looked down at the being, her mind reeling at the sight of it.
"It... It must be at least two and a half meters tall," she breathed out, her voice a mix of awe and terror. The figure was enormous, dwarfing her in comparison. It was a sight that defied logic, a creature that shouldn't exist in any world they knew.
John muttered a curse under his breath as he finally stood next to her, his eyes locked on the being's form.
They couldn't see its face, obscured by the thick, flowing hair that draped over its features, adding to the mystery. But one detail caught John's eye—the figure was lying on a thin, strange-looking mat, woven from its own hair, as if it had been resting here for an eternity.
"John... This.... Is the most important discovery ever made in all of humanity's history!" Lucia said taking time to breath between words, but without taking her eyes away from the being lying on the ground.
John's mind was a turmoil. He simply couldn't believe it, the fact that they found alien life. The proof that they weren't alone in such mysterious and unforgiving universe.
He was curious too. He couldn't let the chance pass by.
Lucia watched as John knelt beside the giant's head, his movements slow and deliberate, as if any sudden motion might awaken whatever ancient power lay dormant in the figure.
The sheer size of the being made John feel like a child standing next to a colossal statue, yet the reality that this was a living creature made his skin crawl with unease.
John's hand trembled slightly as he reached for the small knife strapped to his waist. He hesitated for a moment, the blade hovering over the dark, silky hair that draped over the being's face.
With a quick, precise motion, he cut a single strand, carefully capturing it and inserting it into a small, handheld instrument designed to analyze biological samples.
Lucia, her breath shallow and fast, nodded to him, understanding the gravity of what they were doing. In a matter of moments, they would have data—perhaps enough to determine the age of this being, or at least confirm that it was as ancient as everything around them suggested.
But the answers didn't feel like they would bring comfort; instead, they promised to unravel more mysteries, more questions that had no easy answers.
Their gazes drifted back to the giant's face, the only part of him still hidden beneath the thick veil of hair. Both felt an overwhelming urge to see it, to confront the identity of the being that had built this impossible place.
John reached out again, his fingers trembling as they neared the obscured face, ready to pull the hair aside.
(Play music)
Before he could make contact, a voice crackled through their helmets, shattering the tense silence. "Hello? Lucia? John?! Do you hear me?"
Both of them jumped, their hearts leaping into their throats as the voice reverberated in their ears. For a split second, they had forgotten the existence of anyone else—so absorbed were they by the presence of the giant. But it was Daniel, his voice cutting through the fog of their fear.
"Yes, Daniel, we hear you," Lucia responded, relief mingled with the lingering tension in her voice. "We've reached the top, and... you won't believe what we've found!" Excitement tinged with a quiver of dread slipped into her words.
"Sir! I lost contact with both of you, so I made the decision to come looking for you guys. Wow, this view is incredible!" Daniel's tone was light, almost awe-struck, but he hadn't yet seen what they had.
"What?" John's mind clicked into place, understanding why Daniel had been out of contact—why their calls had gone unanswered. The thick walls of the pyramid must have cut off their communications, leaving them isolated in more ways than one. "Where are you now?"
"I'm climbing the last set of stairs outside, almost at the top. Are you guys there?"
John and Lucia exchanged glances before turning toward the way they had come. They began to move toward the edge of the platform to meet their crewmate, their footsteps slow and reluctant, as if an invisible force was holding them back from leaving the figure behind.
As they reached the halfway point, Daniel's helmet emerged into view, followed by his chest as he crested the final steps. But as soon as he caught sight of what lay on the platform, his movements halted abruptly, his eyes widening in shock.
"We found it, Daniel!" Lucia called out, trying to break through the stunned silence. "We have proof!" But even as she spoke, she saw the expression on Daniel's face, a mirror of the one she herself had worn moments before.
The sheer terror in his eyes sent a jolt of fear through her.
"Calm down," John said, trying to regain control of the situation, though his own nerves were fraying at the edges.
"Let's think straight. First, we need to make sure our ship is secure. Protocols prohibit us from leaving it unattended." His voice was steady, but there was an edge of urgency beneath it, a reminder of the training that now seemed woefully inadequate for what they were facing.
Daniel opened his mouth as if to respond, but instead, a scream tore from his throat—a sound of pure, unfiltered panic. His arm shot out, pointing behind them with a trembling hand.
John's blood ran cold. He didn't want to turn around; every fiber of his being screamed against it, terrified of confirming the scenario his mind had already conjured. But he couldn't ignore the growing dread in his stomach, the sense that something had changed—something catastrophic.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Lucia turning first, her body twisting to look back. Her reaction was immediate and visceral—her legs gave out, sending her crashing to the ground, her hands scrambling to push herself away from whatever horror had caught her gaze.
John had no choice. He turned, his breath hitching in his throat.
The pale giant was no longer lying prone on the platform. It was rising, slowly and with an eerie grace, its massive form unfolding as it stood. The hair that had covered its face fell away, revealing eyes that gleamed with an unnatural light, intelligent and ancient.
John's entire body locked up, paralyzed by the sheer wrongness of the scene. The being was alive, and it was waking up.
The giant's gaze slowly settled on them, and in that brief moment, John caught a flicker of something in its expression—was it curiosity? The pale giant's eyes were unnervingly human, yet there was an alien coldness to them, an intelligence that seemed to weigh and measure them with an intensity that sent a shiver down John's spine.
With deliberate, almost graceful movements, the giant took a step forward. Then another step, and another, each one closing the distance between them.
"H-he's coming! What the hell is that?!" Daniel's voice broke into a high-pitched panic, his legs threatening to buckle under him. He stumbled backward, his mind reeling from the sight of something that defied all logic.
"How is he alive?!" Lucia's voice quivered with terror as she backed away, desperately searching for answers in the chaos of her thoughts. But no answer came; there was only the chilling reality of the giant approaching them.
John's survival instincts finally kicked in, breaking through the paralysis that had gripped him. "Run! Run back to the ship! Now!" he shouted, his voice sharp with urgency. He lunged forward, grabbing Lucia's arm and yanking her to her feet. They had to move—every second counted.
"Shit, shit, shit!" The panic in Lucia's voice matched the pounding of their footsteps as they bolted for the stairs. But the giant was too fast, too powerful.
Before they could reach the edge of the platform, they felt a cold, iron grip close around them. The being's massive hands lifted them off the ground as easily as if they were children's toys, their feet dangling helplessly above the stone surface.
"Fuck!" John swore, his mind racing as he struggled against the giant's hold, but it was like trying to break free from a vise. The being turned them both to face him, his eyes scanning them with unnerving precision, as if he were studying every detail, every flaw.
The proximity was overwhelming—the sheer size, the power, the absolute control this creature had over them.
"Oh my God! John! What is he doing?!" Lucia's voice was barely a whisper, the fear in it so palpable it made John's heart pound even harder. They were so close to the giant's face now that it filled their entire field of vision, the alien intelligence in those striking green eyes making them feel as insignificant as ants.
Suddenly, both heard a shout and John saw a blur of movement out of the corner of his eye—Daniel, charging at the giant with a small knife in hand. With a cry of desperation, Daniel drove the blade into the creature's side, the metal sinking into the pale flesh.
For a moment, it seemed to work—the giant's grip loosening just enough for John and Lucia to slip free and fall back to the platform.
"Aaaaahhhh!!" Daniel's screams echoed inside their helmets as he continued to stab at the pale giant, each blow driven by a mix of fear and fury. But he barely reacted, his expression unchanging as he reached down with one massive hand, plucking Daniel off the ground like a ragdoll.
"Let's go! Back to the ship, now!" John shouted, scrambling to his feet and pulling Lucia with him. They had no time to process what was happening—only the instinct to survive drove them as they sprinted toward the stairs.
A strangled cry from Daniel made them glance back. Their hearts nearly stopped at the sight—Daniel, suspended in the air by the giant's hand, was being lifted higher and higher, until with a casual flick, the alien hurled him skyward, sending him spiraling into the endless blackness of space.
"Wait! No, no, no! Help me!" Daniel's terrified voice and pleas of help could still be heard even as he flew farter and farter.
The horror of it almost overwhelmed John and Lucia, the realization that Daniel was likely lost forever sending a cold wave of dread through them.
But they couldn't stop—they couldn't afford to. The only thing they could do now was run, to get back to the ship and somehow escape this nightmare. Their minds raced, torn between the instinct to survive and the crushing guilt of leaving a friend behind.
As they reached the stairs, the giant turned his gaze toward them once more, and John felt the weight of that stare like a physical force pressing down on him. They were outmatched, out of their depth in ways they could never have anticipated. But there was no turning back now.
"Fuck!" Lucia's voice broke into a desperate cry as she bolted down the stairs, her mind too consumed by terror to look back.
John was right behind her, but something compelled him to glance over his shoulder, a lingering sense of dread gnawing at him. What he saw nearly made his knees buckle—the giant's wounds were gone.
Every stab, every cut had vanished, the pale skin flawless once more, as if nothing had ever happened. John watched in horror as the last of the wounds sealed itself, the flesh knitting together with an eerie fluidity.
Their eyes met—John's filled with fear, the being's with an unreadable, almost serene calm. The connection was broken as John ducked below the platform, his mind screaming for an escape.
"John! We're not going to make it!" Lucia's voice trembled with despair as he caught up to her near the entrance to the pyramid, where darkness was waiting to swallow them whole.
"Calm down! We're g—" John's voice faltered. Something made him stop mid-sentence, a primal instinct urging him to look back once more.
There, at the top of the stairs, stood it. John's breath hitched in his throat, his body frozen in place. This couldn't be real—it had to be a nightmare, a hallucination born of fear and exhaustion.
"Uuaaahhh!" Lucia's scream shattered the silence, raw and filled with unrestrained terror.
The giant took one step forward.
They had lost Daniel.
Another step.
Their ship was to far away.
Third step down.
A warning beep echoed from the instrument on John's waist.
A fourth step closer.
John glanced down at the screen, his mind struggling to process the numbers scrolling endlessly across the display.
[Estimate age: 99999999999999999999...] It didn't make sense. Nothing made sense anymore. The only thought that formed was a question that chilled him to the core: Is he older than the universe itself?
Then something inside John snapped, a survival instinct overriding every other thought, every other fear. Training, logic, and reason were cast aside. Only the primal need to survive remained.
He grabbed Lucia's hand, yanking her with him as he leaped off the side of the pyramid.
The fall was slow, their descent cushioned by the low gravity as they tumbled down the sloped surface. They hit the ground fairly hard, the impact sending waves of pain through their bodies, but they were alive. Dizzy, tired and disoriented, they struggled to their feet.
"Come on, Lucia! We're almost there!" John's voice was a mix of desperation and determination, his grip on her arm firm as he pulled her forward.
"Please, God, save us!" Lucia sobbed, tears streaming down her face as they stumbled toward their ship, the promise of safety now so close, yet feeling impossibly far away.
Hope surged through them as the ship came into view, only a few dozen meters away. But that hope was brutally crushed when the ground shook, and dust exploded into the air as the giant landed before them, dropping from the sky with terrifying speed and precision.
The impact sent debris flying, the force of it nearly knocking them off their feet.
"It's over," both thought, despair clawing at their minds. How could they possibly escape something so powerful, so relentless? But to their shock, the giant didn't turn to face them. Instead, he moved toward the ship, his massive form casting a long shadow over it.
"No. No!" John shouted, desperation clawing at his throat as he and Lucia ran after the giant. They had to stop him—they couldn't let him take the ship.
But the giant reached it first, his long strides covering the distance in mere moments. With a few swift movements, he found the door, his fingers deftly unlocking it. The door swung open.
John and Lucia reached the ship just as the giant began to enter. Without thinking, they hurled themselves at him, their small bodies crashing into his legs with all the force they could muster.
"Fuck you!" John's voice was a mix of rage and desperation as he lashed out, slashing at the giant with his knife. Beside him, Lucia did the same, their blades cutting into the pale flesh.
But the man barely noticed. Ignoring their attacks, he stepped inside, closing the hatch behind him with a resounding click.
A green button on the wall caught the giant's attention. With a single press, the ship's interior was filled with breathable air, the system hissing as it restored the atmosphere. The door to the inner chamber unlocked with a soft beep, allowing the giant to move further inside.
John and Lucia watched, helpless and dazed, as he paused, lifting his head and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, his chest expanding with a sense of satisfaction. The air—fresh, clean, and alive—filled his lungs, intoxicating him with its vitality.
"Hhh... grruumm... Aaaha... Ahaahahahaha..." The giant's laughter erupted, a deep, thunderous sound that reverberated through the ship, shaking its very walls. It was a sound of triumph, of a being rediscovering something long lost.
Without warning, he turned and struck out, his massive fist connecting with John and Lucia, sending them crashing into the walls with bone-jarring force. Their vision blurred, consciousness slipping away as the pain overwhelmed them.
The giant paid them no further mind, his focus now on the command room. He moved with purpose, his eyes scanning the control panels as he deciphered the new language. After what seemed like hours, he began pressing a series of commands, his actions deliberate and precise.
The ship shuddered as it powered up, its engines roaring to life. Slowly, it lifted off the ground, leaving the cursed asteroid behind as it set a course for a distant blue dot—a new world, ripe for exploration.
The pale being took another deep breath, a smile curling his lips. He had found his new home, and the small beings would be his guides, whether they liked it or not.
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