"Technology has evolved over the past few years of humankind's dedication and commitment to discover new ways to travel; the innovation is limitless, yet one's creativity is bound by one's resources. But such challenges cannot hinder, we, humans.....have the ability of adapt, and compromise to survive, I Dr. Henry Dravern, believe that this no mere invention, this is a new era for humankind, and I am confident that more advancement will come in the future..." a voice is looping in the speaker that echoed within the lab. Every scientist is busy, all wearing protective equipment, stern and dedicated, the effort to create something that only people could ever imagine.
Borealis X is a machine developed by Dravern Corporation to enable people to travel in time, to relive the past, and take a glimpse of the future. The unforeseen is no longer a mystery, a machine that defies the rules of nature to our advantage.
Vanessa Fox, a 29 years old lady is one of the lead scientist for the project, she has a degree in theoretical physics which made her qualified to take control of the project, she dedicated her life finding a way to travel through time, her father, Jack Fox went missing without a single trace, 2 years after his disappearance, he was later declared dead. Vanessa was 6 years old at that time and had little to no memory of his father, yet there's one thing that his father left for Vanessa to find: in a box, there were two contents: an old journal and a small piece of blue stone.
"Time traveling is possible, but it requires something, an entity that exist in different timeline to create a path that connects two timelines, the circumstances makes a very limited travel, but I've discovered an ore that happens to exist in almost all worlds that I've name "Gem X", some are vastly different from the world that we live, today is January 19, 1986, today the prototype portals will be tested, and will be activated for only 4 hours due to its high consume of electricity, in this experiment, we used two hare, one who wouldn't go to the portal, and one that will test the portal, the results will be calculated based on the changes the test hare have after going to the portal and back and the hare that didn't go to the portal," it was the last entry of Jack's journal before he went missing.
This drives Vanessa to make improvements to her father's design of the portal and make it commercial so that people can travel to see their deceased loved ones.
30 minutes before the test begin, Vanessa stood in the observation room where she have a clear view of Borealis X by looking through a think glass pane, She sighed, looking back to all that she have sacrificed to accomplish this, her eyes fixed to the Borealis X, filled with fulfillment and optimism as she looked at the ore locked inside of Borealis X, a dark purple gem, the Gem X as the machine's core. Every scientist in the observation room is preparing to boot up Borealis X, stabilizing the core of the machine.
"The next step of human evolution," Vanessa whispered with a slight grin upon her lips.
A scientist stopped for a second as he heard Vanessa's gentle words. he gazed and adjusted his glasses.
"Truly a magnificent sight, Dr. Dravern," he agreed.
"But something bothers me..... the core is very stable, yet fragile, stage 4 emitters might cause slight fractures upon the ore," the scientist awkwardly adjusted his glasses.
"I am aware, that's why we will test objects rather than people," Vanessa replied with such confidence.
"Dr. Dravern...it is not what we will use to test the machine, what I am concerned about is the reaction of the emitters to a fractured core, the energy's path might shift and...."
"Come on, Dr. Duffy," a middle-aged doctor cut Dr. Duffy off mid-sentence. "The test chamber is designed to withstand intense stress from radiation and heat. We are prepared in case of an anomaly," The middle-aged Doctor said.
"Chin up, Dr. Duffy, you have nothing to worry about," Vanessa said.
"I believe so," he replied gently,"
A radio inside the observation room let out a static noise, which ended with a beep as a voice was heard speaking, "Test object has been delivered, ready for deployment," the voice said.
Vanessa took a deep breath and leaned toward the microphone. "Activating stage one emitters," she said plainly. 4 thin rays of white light struck the core, "Stage one emitters are now active,"
Dr. Duffy, a lanky blonde scientist with a dorky persona, let out a huge sigh and adjusted his microphone, "Activating stage two emitters," he said with a shaky voice, "Stage two emitters is now active," 8 rays of violet light struck the core that causes the ore to slightly vibrate,"
The middle-aged doctor pulled his chair towards his microphone and said, "Activating stage three emitters." 2 huge rays of green light struck the core, the ore is slowly reflecting the lights, Vanessa noticed small fissures in the core, her eyes widen.
"I think Duffy is right, something is wrong with the core," Vanessa said with urgency in her voice.
"Nonsense, Dr. Dravern! It is normal, such powerful rays are normal to cause small cracks, but I am sure that it will not affect the outcome of the machine. I will now activate stage 4 emitters."
Before the middle-aged doctor could activate stage 4 emitters, a loud bang was heard. The core has an enormous fracture that almost split it in half, the core is making a loud buzzing sound that can be heard from the observation room. The doctors were frightened, petrified in their seats.
"SHUT THIS DOWN!" the middle-aged doctor exclaimed to Duffy.
"Attempting shut down," Duffy said in a cracking voice, his forehead was drenched with sweat, as he typed a command to abort the operation, "It's....it's not shutting down!"
"Initializing emergency shutdown," Vanessa pressed a red button in the center of the observation room, but the lights just continued to intensify.
Before the scientists could react, a deafening sound pierced their ear, the thick glass pane of the observation room is slowly cracking, Vanessa dropped on her knees, covering her ears, she can barely see the other scientists because of the blinding white light, she can hear faint shouts from Duffy calling out her name. Vanessa tried to stand up, but she blacked out.
She was awakened by her heavy breaths and the distorted sound of birds chirping. She slowly opened her eyes and saw with her blurry sight gray skies, tall oaks, and green grass. She rubbed her eyes and sat down, it was different, everything is different, she was sitting in the forest in the cloudy afternoon, she panicked and quickly sprang up her feet, she could barely maintain her balance, she was nauseous and tired, yet with all her might, she managed to walk, leaning to the oaks, she paced from tree to tree. She gazed and an eerie view filled her eyes with sorrow and disbelief, a bare eyot, there piled the bodies of other dead scientist that almost resembled a small hill, blood ran from their bodies and into the still river, the water around it turned red. Vanessa froze in place. She looked at the corpse of the scientist and noticed deep wounds; the cut was clean, which implies that it was most likely caused by a sharp object, preferably a sword.
"Tung Rung Satur!" A monstrous, loud shriek was heard. She stooped behind the tree and peeked. She saw...creatures, they look human, but they are not, Vanessa is certain that they are not human. The creatures are communicating words that she can't understand. They were carrying a large axe covered with blood, and some of the creatures were throwing more dead scientists into the pile of corpses.
Vanessa took a clear sight, these creatures have fiery red skin, their brown long hair is braided, they were huge, their physique almost resembles a humanoid gorilla, they are about 7 ft tall, and their body are full of scars. Two big teeth stick out of their lips in their bottom jaw, similar to a hippopotamus.
"Tralalo Sahur!" exclaimed one of the creatures.
"Ber der patapim," a deep growling voice replied to the other creature.
One of the creatures noticed Vanessa's head sticking out of the tree, its forehead wrinkled with anger, fumes coming out of its nostrils, "Eabab tolita!!" the creature alerted the other creature, the creature pointing its finger in Vanessa's direction.
The creature swarmed Vanessa, their feet caused a splash with every step in the river. Vanessa was backed, quickly ran away from the river before the creatures could catch her, without looking back, she headed for the marshes, her white lab coat was now covered with mud. She rushed panting, her throat was dry, and every breath made count, she could hear the loud cry of the creatures gradually closing reaching her.
Vanessa tripped over a tree's root, she twisted he ankles and couldn't stand up, gasping for air, she crawled away, she felt hopeless, the creatures' voice are getting louder and louder, in the most desperate moment, she can do nothing cry for help in the hopes of someone, or something can hear her.
No one answered. She closed her eyes. At this point, resisting is futile; she lay flat on the ground. Suddenly, she heard a subtle silence, no cry from the creature, just a calm sound of the forest, she slowly opened her eyes.
Vanessa saw a man wearing a beautiful dark green hooded cloak, who was wrapping his hands around her as she gazed at the creatures from a distance, searching for her. She looked up and saw the man's face, it has a fine appearance but was quite odd. His eyeballs were black and his cornea is as blue as the ocean, yet his pupil is emitting a bright white light under the shade of the cloak, his hair is straight and white and shiny, it is comparable to silver, and his skin is glistening like a pearl, his lips are like peach, his scent smells like pine and eucalyptus. He was holding a staff with fissures that emitted blue light, he was stooping, gazing at the creatures from afar, while gently wrapping his hands around my shoulders and leaning on his stick.
He let out a huge sigh, "Those bloody orcs!" he exclaimed gently, "They hunt when the sun is hidden, they roam the woods for the knights have banished them from Grayfields." The man shifted his eyes to Vanessa, she flinched gently as she examined his face
The man give her a slight smile and let loosen her grip upon her shoulders, he stood up and leaned on his staff, "Don't fret, for I am not hostile," his voice is soothing, Vanessa tried to speak but no words come out of her mouth, his eyes and staff glow brightly as he stood still.
"I am aghast to see people conquering the forest in this weather where orcs are most active, I see that you are not adventurers for you are not burdened with gear, nor you are mages, for I can see that you can't protect yourselves from the orcs," He shifted his sight to the horizons, "I tried to rescue the other people with white coats, yet they attack as they saw me thinking that I am hostile, of course I can't risk to reveal my presence to the orcs so I have no choice but to leave them... some has been slain and a few fled to the southern alps, I am sure that they will reach the Fort tavern and find shelter in there," He looked at Vanessa who's still astonished with his appearance.
"Are you alright? Care if you tell me your name?" Vanessa didn't respond, "Well..... I am in a hurry, so I can't escort you to Greyfields, yet we must chat later, for it seems that you are quite familiar with Woodraft."
"Woodraft?" Vanessa whispered to herself.
"The sun will soon set, and you shall move with haste is you want to live," he looked at Vanessa's ankles, he moved his staff and touched the staff's tip on her ankles, blue light travel from her ankles and around her body for a brief moment, The man leaned on his stick towards the setting sun, "Follow the sun and you will reach the west, you will reach Grayfields in time, if you're lucky, you will see knights guarding their post, they might be alerted because of your odd appearance so you will be presented to King Harry, unlike the late rulers, he is kind, tell your tale to King and he'll listen, he will give you anything that you need....for now...we shall part ways, this this will not be the last time that I'll be seeing you, look in the skies, the blue sparrow is the symbol of my presence,"
The man tapped his staff two times, and blue fumes suddenly came out of the bottom of his staff. It quickly covered him, and he vanished with his smoke. Vanessa slowly got up, she could feel the spike of energy within her body, she took a brief moment to observe the orange skies as she proceeded at her pace towards the sun.