Time dialation

Sound tore through the streets a sound Elizabeth had never heard before, sharp and urgent, cutting through the usual quiet like a blade through flesh. She ran into the meeting room, Arthur close behind, and stared at the monitors. Her hands trembled as she read the display. "Planet: Gaya-Prime," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "System: Gaya BH-1. Dark-energy intake disruption detected." The color drained from her face. Arthur stared at the screen, equally lost. He understood the words individually, but together they formed something incomprehensible—a threat he had never been trained to recognize. S.U.N. materialized fully in the center of the room, glowing brighter than ever, her golden light casting long shadows across the walls. "He is there," she said softly. "Who?" Ethan asked, stepping forward. "The General." The word fell like a stone into deep water. Silence rippled outward. "This is a highest-priority mission," S.U.N. continued. Arthur stepped forward immediately, his voice sharp with protective fury. "That planet isn't under our jurisdiction. We have a rookie." He gestured toward Ethan. "Send someone else. Send Redstone." "I am very sorry," S.U.N. replied, her tone carrying genuine regret beneath its mechanical precision, "but this mission poses a direct threat to this place." She paused, her light dimming fractionally. "Ethan must go alone." Everyone reacted at once. "He is standing at the portal. He has requested Ethan personally." Silence fell again, heavier this time. "We have no alternative," she added. "No," Arthur snapped. His hands clenched into fists. "I don't care what he wants. Ethan isn't going." "I'll go," Ethan said. Arthur turned sharply, his eyes wide with something that looked like betrayal. "This is my decision," Ethan continued, meeting his gaze. "You heard her. This place is in danger." "But Ethan—" Elizabeth tried, stepping toward him. "What if he attacks?" "I'm going," Ethan said louder, his voice carrying a finality that allowed no argument. "Enough. Just... wish me luck." He turned before anyone could stop him and walked toward the portal chamber. Behind him, Arthur's voice broke. "Ethan—" But the door had already closed. When Ethan stepped through the portal, a giant figure waited for him. Nearly three meters tall, wrapped in crimson armor that seemed grown rather than forged—organic plates that pulsed with faint light, as if the metal itself were breathing. The being's flesh was the color of dried blood, his eyes yellow and cold. "So," the General said calmly, "you are the new sentry from Earth." Ethan ignored the smile that spread across the creature's face—too wide, too many teeth. "You wanted to see me. Why?" "I wanted to meet the man," the General replied, his voice carrying the weight of casual certainty, "who according to that transparent parasite's calculations will be the one to end the Emperor." Fear tightened Ethan's chest like a fist closing around his heart. "That's nonsense," he said. "S.U.N. only told me about the Emperor because we learned of him first. She said he broke the truce." The General tilted his head, studying Ethan with the detached curiosity of a scientist examining an interesting specimen. "What else did she tell you?" "Nothing," Ethan said honestly. Then he hesitated, the question surfacing despite his fear. "The mutant—the one we fought—said he heals worlds. What did he mean?" The General's smile widened. "He does." A pause. "Your world is next." Ethan froze. "What do you want from Earth?" he demanded. "We didn't do anything." The General studied him with something like disappointment, as if Ethan had failed a test he hadn't known he was taking. "It is easier to eliminate the predator while it is still a cub." Ethan growled, his hands clenching into fists. "You want to eliminate us?" "No," the General replied calmly, as if explaining something obvious to a child. "He wants to save you from yourselves." Ethan stepped forward, his thrusters beginning to hum with building energy. "Leave us alone." The General ignored the threat and gestured skyward with one massive hand. "The Emperor has a gift for you. This system orbits a black hole. While we stand here talking, hours have already passed on your planet." Ethan's breath caught in his throat. Time dilation. The physics clicked into place in his mind with terrible clarity. For every minute here, hours—maybe days—passed on Earth. Kate. Nessa. The General pointed toward a red beam of light on the horizon, cutting through the planet's ash-gray sky. "The device you are here to destroy is one day's travel from here." He looked back at Ethan. "Only you may destroy it. If someone else does, more will be built." Behind Ethan, a sound—a whisper of displaced air. He turned just in time to see his jet explode. The blast threw him forward, heat washing over his armor as metal and composite shattered into fragments. When the light faded, nothing remained but scorched rock and smoking debris. Ethan spun back around. The General did not flinch. He stood exactly where he had been, watching with that same cold smile. "You have a choice," he said. "Stay and complete your mission. My army has already reached Earth. If you succeed, you will never know what happened to your loved ones." Ethan's mind screamed at him to move, to fight, to do anything—but his body remained frozen, paralyzed by the weight of impossible mathematics. "Or," the General continued, "you refuse the mission and return to protect them." He paused, his yellow eyes gleaming. "There is a third option. Join him. Together, we heal the universe." He turned toward his ship, which hovered silently in the distance. "Are you staying... or coming?" Ethan's hands shook. He thought of Kate's smile. Nessa's hand-heart. The life he had promised to protect. He thought of Numinous. Of Arthur and Elizabeth. Of the impossible city that had given him back his legs, his purpose, his future. "I'm staying," Ethan said coldly. The General's smile faded. He studied Ethan for a long moment, as if committing his face to memory. Then he boarded his ship. The vessel lifted without sound and vanished into the ash-colored sky. Ethan stood alone on the barren plain. He ran. He had planned everything while the General spoke—calculated routes, energy expenditure, time remaining. His mind worked with the cold efficiency of someone who had already accepted that he might lose everything. "Arthur, do you hear me?" "Yes, Ethan." Arthur's voice crackled through the comms, strained with worry. "I'm coming back. I need to secure my family. Then I'll shut it down." Silence. "Arthur?" S.U.N. answered instead, her voice gentle but absolute. "I am sorry, Ethan. The device must be disabled." "Please," Ethan begged, his voice breaking. "Open the portal. Let me bring them somewhere safe." "I am afraid I cannot do that." Ethan understood then. To the Mind, the device mattered more than people. The equation was simple: two lives against an entire city. Against millions. Against the delicate balance that kept Numinous standing. "Send someone else," Ethan said, desperation bleeding through his words. "Arthur knows where they live. A woman and her child. They're my family." A pause. "I will send Iona immediately," S.U.N. said. "I promise." Ethans eyes flickered with joy Iona is back? Is she back? S.u.n ignored his question Her voice hardened. "Now shut the device down." Ethan ran for ten hours. Pink grass stretched endlessly beneath him, alien and wrong, bending beneath his feet as his thrusters carried him across the landscape in great leaping strides. His HUD counted down distance, energy expenditure, oxygen levels—all the numbers that meant nothing compared to the ones screaming in his head. Kate. Nessa. Waiting. Alone. He crushed the images with hope, forcing them down beneath layers of training and discipline. Iona will find them. Iona is fast. Iona won't fail. The device rose from the plains like a red pillar—massive, imposing, humming with power that made the air shimmer with heat. Ethan didn't slow down. He fired everything he had. Hephaestus roared. Energy beams tore into the structure. Explosive rounds detonated in sequence, climbing up the pillar's surface like a ladder of fire. The explosion threw him hundreds of meters backward. He hit the ground hard, skidded across pink grass that tore beneath him, and immediately stood. Ran again. Ten more hours back. His legs burned. His armor's power reserves dropped steadily toward critical. His lungs ached despite the oxygen conversion. He didn't care. He ran until the portal opened before him like salvation. "Arthur! Did Iona return?" No answer. His HUD flashed: FULLY CHARGED. The portal had recharged his systems completely energy flooding back into depleted reserves, oxygen refilling, systems rebooting. Ethan launched himself into the city, thrusters screaming. He searched the streets, the houses, the briefing rooms anywhere Iona might be. Then he saw him. Sitting on the steps outside the central building, his head in his hands. "IONA!" Ethan shouted, running toward him. "Where are they?" Iona looked up slowly. Shame filled his eyes terrible, crushing shame that Ethan had never seen before in the confident Georgian's face. He shook his head. The gesture was small. Final. Ethan's legs gave out. He collapsed to his knees on the cobblestones, his hands splaying against the ground as if trying to find purchase on something solid. But the world had already shifted beneath him. And nothing would ever be solid again.