Infinite Dark: Awakening
Chapter 12

The next 24 hours were strange for Sarab but also richly rewarding. Learning about the Neptians; their world, abilities and technology was a perfect distraction from the heartache in her life.

The creatures were amazing; thanks to the translators every Stanannokian had implanted in their ear, they were able to translate their language to every sentient being with spoken language ability.

The Neptians did have mouths beneath their fur; but they did not have arms or legs. The hair on their bodies acted like millions of tiny arms and legs instead; able to move them across the ground quickly or lift objects several times their body size and weight. As small as they were, compared to Sarab and her peers, they were very capable and intelligent.

Their true strength was in their abilities to create force fields.

Even Callib was impressed by them; their shield technology was far more advanced due partly to a natural magnetic barrier their own planet gave off.

Sunlight was rare beneath their heavy and dense cloud covered planet; but just a little light was magnified many times by the natural shield their planet gave off, giving it a reddish glow in the sky. The shields were weakest at the poles of the planet; this is the only way a ship can enter or leave Neptia.

The Neptians learned the process of how the planet gives off that energy naturally to make the force field and adapt it as their own. Now; with minimum effort, they could create a force field which could block nearly anything the mystery of space could throw at them; super and hyper nova’s, radiation, lasers, asteroids and had even been able to deflect the gravitational pull from black holes!

The dense thickness of the atmosphere was the main catalyst for the Neptians to develop faster than light travel also. The thrust needed to reach outer space took nothing less than that kind of force and with their shields protecting their ships they achieved space flight in a far faster time then the average civilization.

The Neptians numbered about 3 million in total across their small planet; mainly divided into various groups of about 10,000 or so to a “city.”

Their cities were tall pillars of rock, stacked high atop each other until they reached a mile into the sky. Neptians would climb them and air out their fur while eating bugs that swarmed through air currents. Their bodies could shoot up the pillars with amazing speed and fly down upon them just as quickly.

Sarab had never encountered such an interesting and fun race before, she had to block from her mind how delighted Rossiana would have been to interact with these creatures.

She worked closely with Dantos and Callib learning the Neptians shield system. Callib was able to use an elementary design of his Infinite Orb technology and knowledge to power the shields even further and even design a way to implant them into their Battle Suits.

“We might be able to get within a meter of Rogue and punch it in its face!” Callib said excitedly. “If the thing has a face that is…”

“We can punch it but I doubt that would do any damage to it.” Dantos said with a frown.

“We have to replace a way to completely disrupt its make up or trap it.” Sarab spoke. “Is there a way to trap it within a force field?”

Callib shook his head;

“The shields are powerful but still can be weakened and destroyed, Rogue would break free eventually. Even with the shield technology the Neptians have it would take me at least a century to create another Infinite Energy Orb that could contain Rogue for all time,” Callib explained.

“Perhaps there is another way…” A Neptian scientist working with them spoke; they had taken to calling him Blip since Neptians didn’t officially have names for one another.

“We have been tracking the movement of a Magnetar only 2 light years from our planet. Our thick atmosphere and shields have prevented us from being disrupted from it.”

“A Magnetar!” Callib said in amazement. “I’ve never come across one in my life; their lifespans are so short it’s hard to study them in detail.”

“Yes,” Blip concurred; “We have studied this one, its Magnetic field is very powerful and it’s in the prime of its energy lifespan. We have a theory of enveloping it within our Force Fields and harnessing its power.”

“That is fascinating!” Callib exclaimed; “It’s a neutron star so it’s small enough to contain, the size of a city actually and its magnetic waves are so strong they can disrupt atoms! If we can harness its energy and refine it into a beam we can fire it at Rogue and completely disrupt its make up!”

“How long would something like this take?” Sarab inquired.

“Our shields can be used at any time for this” Blip spoke.

“I can create the device we need within the day,” Callib assured; “I’ve used such beams before, I’ll just have to modify it to a Magnetar make-up.”

“Will it be enough to defeat Rogue though?” Dantos asked; “How do we know it will work?”

“I can develop the beam to use the entirety of the Magnetar star,” Callib said. “These are rare and very powerful neutron stars so we only realistically have one shot at this. If we use the entirety of the stars energy it will cease to exist but should be enough to destroy Rouge utterly.”

“That much energy will be hard to control and no matter the shields used the magnetic energy will disrupt the computers used to auto-lock and fire.” Sarab spoke.

“This is true…” Callib pondered; “It seems we will have to go about this the old way and fire it manually with an actual gunner. The suits with the new shields on them will operate normally near the Magnetar and with my device and the force field around it we can harness it to be used as a giant cannon.”

“That leaves the question of who shall fire the shot?” Dantos asked looking at Sarab.

She stared back wondering it herself. They both had a claim to it but both knew and understood how dangerous such an endeavor would be. It could be very likely that whoever took the shot would not live through it.

“Who indeed…” Sarab spoke; her mind already made up.