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End of the Beginning

Repeat for Success or Defeat

By Thavien YliasterPublished 2 years ago Updated about a year ago 13 min read
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End of the Beginning
Photo by Aman Pal on Unsplash

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

Yet, that is if you were a carbon based life-form. For those that would have to rely upon the vibrations of mass like particles that would act as a fluid such as a liquid or gas, space would be a deafening occurrence to them. No matter how beautiful the cosmos looked when it was full of nebulas within galaxies upon galactic filaments, sound was deafened within the void that was space.

If a star exploded in a galaxy, would anyone be able to hear it? No, especially since there were no more stars to be made. The last of human civilization remained on a dark planet, warmed from thermo-nuclear vents that pushed forth energy from their powerplants. Though there were many on that small world, there was only so much world for them to go have. Even though it grew over the millennia, it was less that than of a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things.

Dust, nuclear energy, humanity; these were all things not currently present on the mind of one of the last constructed dragons. Having ripped the Quilter to shreds after having destroyed it from a single breath combined with the flap of its wings, the tachyon dragon had other matters to attend to.

Though the humans had their atoms scattered back to quarks, only a few things had remained practically untouched. Making haste, the older, more grown tachyon dragon started to turn its attention towards the engine behind it. What was made of atoms had been dispersed as well. The only things that remained were the photon gears, along with the eggs (aside from Aleesha's bullet tips).

Its consciousness moving faster than the speed of light, it proceeded to notice the other dragons beginning to hatch as well. Their eggs vibrating, some starting to crack, while others nearly took the crystalline shells of their prisons and had almost started to add them to hide as armor. Older than its siblings by just mere seconds, the eldest tachyon dragon began to eat.

Cannibalizing on the eggs of its younger siblings, it knew that it'd rather have all of space to itself than any others like it in its potential territory. Since the GOOGL gear reduction ratio of the photon gears couldn't keep up anymore due to being doused heavily in a neutrino blast, the older dragon knew it had to make quick work of its younger siblings. The only way to keep them from growing would be to have them incased in a tachyon prison itself; its own stomach.

Just as it had eaten the first of the other seven, the cracking of the shell with and swallowing of the egg caused the other six to start to hatch even faster. Like crocodile and turtle eggs that begin to hatch together, and like baby turtles that make a mad dash for the safety of the surf from the beach, the unhatched tachyon dragons knew that it was only a matter of time before they were munched on if they didn't escape soon.

*Crunch Crunch Crunch* The six egg went to the rest of its siblings. A wavelength of tachyonic particles went out to them for their perception of understanding.

*Crack-Crack-Crack* The rest of the little dragons rapidly poked their egg-tooth on the crystalline shells that currently held them imprisoned.

Just as the fifth egg had the tip of an egg-tooth poke through it, the older sibling crushed down on it with a powerful set of jaws, before flicking it upwards from its current position into space. With the strongest vector of gravity being away from light-years, the elder sibling slapped the egg back down into its mouth with one of its many tails. Three down, four to go.

As crystalline egg shells stuck out on the side of its jaws, punctured by its fangs, the older dragon jabbed its wings into the remaining hull of the ship carrying it forward to the other eggs.

They were all almost out of their eggs now. At least, that's the perception of the time that it took them. For them, it was moments, for a human, though none remained alive after the older sibling had flapped its wings, everything was taking place in less than the blink of an eye.

The fourth and third eggs had their dragons break out of their shell past their necks, and the tips of their wings were protruding. *Fffftck Fffftck!* The hatchlings cried out in pain as they had been impaled by two of the older dragon's tails. Bits of eggshell went flying faster than the a sonic boom, but to the older dragon everything was seemingly happening in slow motion.

Stuffing them greedily into its mouth, the older dragon pulled out the stained tips of its tails, gnawing down on its kin. The hatchlings of the second and first egg were moving more rigorously than ever having seen the others before them be predated upon. Freedom was so close, space so vast, and time for them was either going to be extended for eternity or cut very short.

The second and first one had just breached out of their eggs, when the older cannibal started to approach them quickly after having swallowed their previous kin. Knowing they were next, they put their wings to what was left of the Quilter's floor of the hull, and like a bat they began to jump trying to take off into space.

Thinking that the last tactic would work again on these ones, the cannibal struck with the tips of its tails towards the hatchlings. The second hatchling was capable of dodging three times successfully. However, since its X, Y, and Z axis travel was figured out, it couldn't escape the fourth tail. Being dragged back on the stake of the cannibal's tail, the older dragon proceeded to further impale it with its other tails to cease the hatchling's struggling.

Knowing of the demise of its other siblings, the last hatchling took off into flight. It knew that it couldn't fight against the older one in terms of mere size, but it was composed of tachyons just like the cannibal. Surrounded by nothingness for lightyears on end, it didn't care about fighting, it cared about surviving. Sure, the dragons may not have been of the same size as the Quilter, but they would both need a lot of territory to roam in. Hoping that if it could get far enough away that it could live, the last surviving hatchling took off faster than a bat out of hell.

Speed... speed met everything here. How fast you could get from point A to point B. Speed... velocity, a vector of distance over a given amount of time, how much displacement could be attained in a certain duration of time. Time, what seemed to be a constant stream of a fourth dimensional vector that most living beings that reside within the basic three dimensions lack control of traversing across.

These creatures, however, having the ability to travel faster than light, they could travel between not just from one location in the third dimensions, but also a slight difference in the fourth, in time. They weren't just traveling to a forward linear spot in time, but they could travel to a same spot in time at a different location, if not even along the negative axis of time to a different 3rd dimensional location.

With nowhere else to go but space itself, the hatchling tried to get away as fast as possible. However, after its last snack, the cannibal began its pursuit. Knowing of the danger that itself presented, it couldn't allow the possibility of another being like itself to exist within the cosmos. The hatchling was hoping that if it could just escape into another galaxy, a different cluster, different strand of a galactic filament, or if worst came to worse, a different universe entirely.

As the two dashed across the vast void of nothingness, the older was trying desperately to gain, meanwhile the younger was trying desperately to gain distance. Streaming across the universe faster than blazing comets, the two went this way and that, from Y axis to X axis to even the Z axis. The one axis that they were always in at the same time, was the prime axis. Though they may have been going in and out of time, a few seconds before, a few seconds after, a minute here, a minute there, they were always in the same one. The hatchling couldn't escape the older. The older couldn't accept to let the younger escape.

As they kept racing, one chasing and the other being chased, the hatchling was growing. Though they were traveling in and out through time dilations, they dragons had their own rate of growth and bodily functions separate from the continual universal stream of time itself. No matter where they went, they couldn't exist in the same place at the same time, as they would displace themselves. The older dragon knew that it couldn't travel back to a certain point of time to try to eat the hatchling as it had already existed in that periodical point. It knew that the hatchling would exist there at that period of time, but it couldn't focus on the hatchling back then as it had to focus on the hatchling that existed now.

Though the only thing that seemed to exist for years in the distance where they were currently at, was the ball of dirt that those humans seemed to live on. However, they were lightyears away. Though they were tachyon dragons, even the distance that the Quilter had traveled would be exhausting for them.

Getting closer to the hatchling, as its size caused it to put on weight, and it struggled to maintain its current velocity. Though this brought the hatchling closer to the cannibal, the older knew it had to get closer and soon. If the hatchling grew too big, the older could have a potentially have to fight for real.

As the two kept racing, they eventually found something that shimmered in the distance. The younger, not knowing what it was, quickly dashed in its direction, causing the older to chase after it. The younger dragon was just hoping that it could be something to run around or hide behind. Only knowing of the other seven siblings, neither of them thought about there potentially being and other beings in the universe at all.

As they got closer, they could feel the electromagnetic radiation gracing their wings, tails, and armored scales. What used to be a tiny small dot in the distance, was now a large sphere that seemed to dwarf the both tachyon dragons. Seeing this was a spark of literal hope for the younger dragon. As it was hoping to use such waves and pulses of its electromagnetic radiation to hide, and mask itself till it could grow large enough to fight back, but ultimately for both dragons to recognize that it would be better to not fight at all.

Zooming in close to the surface of this blazing sphere, the dragons leaped, looped, and dodged around gravitational forces as heaps of light and heat splashed around them in spirals , coils, and rings. Diving closer to the surface, the older tried to remain overtop of the younger, as it knew that it would be harder to escape the pull of this orb's gravitational force ever so slightly. Yet, though of the both of them could do so with ease, it desired to remain faster than the younger at whatever cost. Never taking an eye off of it, it diligently followed the trail of velocity that it left across the surface of heat and light.

Yet, the older never thought that the younger would ever try to do such a daring tactic such as this. The younger, proceeded to dive, and dive even farther into the surface. Its speed, its velocity, the force that it drove into this pill of radiating fever, it seemed to have a concavity bubble surrounding it, protecting it from the other forces trying to bombard it. Instinctively knowing that it couldn't meet the younger on the other side if it tried to race around the surface, the older knew that it'd have to chase after it.

Diving in after the ever-growing hatchling, the cannibal pushed forth giving way to gravity. Concavity bubble after concavity bubble, the cannibal may have lost sight of the younger, but it could sense the stream of its trajectory. Like an arrow slip-streaming to another arrow, or two nascars on a racetrack, the older started to gain. Until, something wasn't right.

It sensed that the gravity wasn't just stronger when pulling it in, but there was also a bit more of resistance. Then it felt a lacking bit of resistance above its neck. The younger had begun to climb.

Feeling tricked, it seethed in rage, and flapped its wings in a great mighty burst of energy trying to desperately catch up to the escaping hatchling. Breaking the surface of the radiation mix, trying to slipstream again in order to gain on the younger, knowing that the difference in friction could help turn the tides of this race, the cannibal's jaws started to salivate. The hatchling craned its neck, looking over its shoulder, losing just a fraction of being aerodynamic against the fluid of radiation of gravitational force, it knew that it was almost free. With just another wing flap it could burst away from the cannibal in the smallest fraction of a second.

Lifting its wings, just as the cannibal had almost reached the tips of the younger's tails, the wing flap of the younger had sent a shockwave of frictional force onto the cannibal, propelling the older backwards, towards the sphere ever so slightly, and the younger towards freedom and autonomy.

Freedom, at last. Autonomy, finally. No more worries about predation. As the slightest amount of distance that was now between the two had given the younger the time to be able to not just fly as far away as needed, but to be able to grow in peace.

*Squeek!* Its time was cut short. Its neck was broken within the claws of another. Not even knowing that the palm was there, the younger dragon had broken its neck from the sheer force of its body rushing past it, dislocating its vertebrae. Though its body wasn't dismembered thanks to its armor scales, its bones on the insides were crushed, and its organs suffered heavy bodily trauma.

The older tachyon dragon, the cannibal was taken aback by this. The sudden interruption of their chase, even though it had lost, shocked its instincts to the core. Almost as if the other eggs and hatchlings that it consumed could sense the death of the last remaining survivor, its stomach quivered worse than the surface of the orb below it. Steadily floating, being pulled back towards the surface of the sphere below it, it looked upon the being that had stolen its prey.

Roaring in electromagnetic radiation, reverberating the cosmic nothingness that surrounded them, an invisible beast soon shone itself to give form to its new adversary. Gripping the hatchling in its clawed hand, the newly visible dragon proceeded to feast hastily. The tachyon dragon growled and roared at its new adversary. The last of the hatched tachyon dragons from the Quilter faced its opponent, now being bathed in light from both directions. A sphere behind it, and a photon dragon in front of it.

***

The previous chapter.

The next chapter.

Sci FiShort StorySeries
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About the Creator

Thavien Yliaster

Thank You for stopping by. Please, make yourself comfortable. I'm a novice poet, fiction writer, and dream journalist.

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