Between The Stars Epilogue

The klaxons wailed on into the night like the screams of a thousand men, a pulsing green light peering through the windows as the base arose into action. Agent Gallagher hadn’t even made it to the parking lot before the alarms went off.

What the hell did these people do?!

After a few moments of hesitation, his security detail had begun to forcefully usher him to his motorcade outside. “Wait!” he said before giving in to his flight instinct. The facility was his responsibility, and he could not leave it to handle the problem alone. The Administrator wouldn’t have it. “Benson, Ehrenreich, with me. The rest of you, back to the convoy. Unless I say otherwise, wheels up in ten!” He handed Colonel Ramirez’s quantum hard drive to Nichols.

“If things look to be getting FUBAR before the ten minutes are up, ensure this makes it out. This is priority one now. ”

The paling man paused for a bit before acknowledging with a simple nod, shaking hand taking the glowing data bank from Gallagher and putting it in his inner coat pocket before running down the hall with the rest of the security team.

He’d better not shit himself like that if he faces the council.

Given the circumstances however, he didn’t blame Nichols for his fear. He turned about and ran back towards the observation center as fast as his legs could carry him, Benson and Ehrenreich trailing him. The hallway ahead was a mess of military and civilian personnel running up and down the red lit corridor, following their assigned emergency protocols.

Good, no unnecessary interference.

They ran past the chaos until there was no more, through the commissary, civil offices, and detention area, all devoid of activity. All the while, the ethereal light outside began pulsing brighter, and faster with each window he passed. He caught a passing glimpse of four open cell doors. The intruders were loose. Betting they have something to do with this.

Gallagher pulled his ID badge from beneath his coat and outstretched his hand, allowing a scanner to meet it as he closed the distance. The metal security doors flung open

*Access granted: Agent 97, Gallagher, Willem R.*

The operations room, quiet and orderly no more than a half hour ago, was now a bustling mess of Society personnel. The observation windows were now lead shuttered, but the green light could still be seen pulsing though the small spaces in the metal blinds Technicians were running wild, manning the scopes and meters, a few on comm channels with other facility personnel. “We’ve lost contact with ground level! All Zero Pads, status report!” one desperately called out. “The vibrational frequency is destabilizing!” said another. “Where is the Colonel!”.

Agent Gallagher saw Dr. Levin in the center of the room with two other Society scientists. The man was visibly out of breath and the left side of his face was as red as the emergency lights, as if he had just been out in the sun all day. “Doctor!” he called out. “Dr. Levin!” The scientist turned to face him. “What the hell is going on!”.

“It was…it was the professor and his students. The fools…horribly misinformed. Drew the…the wrong conclusions. They’re…they..”

The doctor’s voice was pained, and not from his burns. Gallagher had been in the intelligence community long enough to know when a man had seen a gruesome death for the first time. He allowed Levin to collect himself.

“I couldn’t save them,” he continued “and we may all be doomed because of it.”

His heart sank “Elaborate please, Doc.”

“They managed to damage the EM field containing the anomaly. The field maintained a static vibrational rate of 790 terahertz, the maximum required frequency needed to maintain breach stability. One of the EM verticals was damaged however and now the anomaly is beginning to peer through the shield. That hideous light outside is the time-space of our reality tearing under the weight of another. ” . Gallagher went numb, his hands began to clam and his throat went dry.

How the hell do we stop this?

As if reading his mind, Dr. Levin said “We’re trying to get in contact with the Zero Pads to activate their sonic countermeasures. Theoretically they can slow down the tear long enough to repair the vertical, but none of them have deployed yet. I fear the vibrational interference from the anomaly may be screwing with their comms.”

“Then send runners down there if you have to but I want those sonic cannons online immediately!”

Dr. Levin then looked towards the two scientists he was talking to before. Both white garbed men proceeded to run out of the room. The ongoing pandemonium of the room was soon navigable by Gallagher after he calmed himself. He took a look at one of the technician’s monitors.

|Ground Level Frequency: 950 tHz ^|

|Status: Critical |

“God, please. Let them get there. Let those pads get online. Get me to my son.”

|Ground Level Frequency: 1000 tHz ^|

|Status: ------ |

The room was engulfed in a blinding flash of light. The ground came up and met the back of his head, a warm pool formed beneath it. Agent Gallagher groaned in pain as his ears internalized a monotonous ringing.

For what seemed like an eternity, his existence was reduced to oblivion and pain. A white plane before him with nothing but the ringing. It became a pleasant contrast to the dim, alarmed rooms of the facility. Just as he began to welcome it, the plane began to dissipate and reality blurred back into focus, slowly revealing the remains of a ceiling. He sat up. The front half of the room was gone, the back half was littered with bodies and debris. The absence of obstruction revealed the ground level below. The anomaly glowed hues of blue, purple and green hovering just above the desert surface. Inside it however, was a vast cosmic expanse, as if the very universe itself had opened up beneath him. An array of stars and galaxies and celestial objects littered the rift.

I see your fondness for your work now, professor. I’m sorry.

He could not deny the beauty that lay below, and felt remorse for having treated the professor the way he had earlier. Gallagher’s thought shifted however, when dark clouds began forming inside the breach, slowly blotting the lights within the portal. A universal eclipse. Within the clouds were figures, abominations. They were what was being contained, but now saw the breach and recognized their freedom. They approached the breach, getting larger every second. Hideous silhouettes of colossal waving tentacles reached for the rift between realities, hungry for liberation. Hungry for domination.

They’re coming. Can’t keep them back anymore. Only one thing I can do now.

He felt around his jacket for the comm fob. Left inner pocket. He pulled it out, turned it on, and spoke into it.

“This is Agent 97. I hereby enact Halcyon Protocol on Facility 23. I repeat, Halcyon Protocol on 23! All Society assets activate. Hammerdown authorized. Hammerdown au–