CHAPTER 4 -THE ASCENDANT SIEGE
1265 Words
The chamber shuddered as the black ships pierced the ringworld’s atmosphere—silent shadows slicing through the violet sky. Alarms pulsed across the walls in jagged bursts of crimson light, illuminating Aria’s stunned expression.
Ascendants.
Kaelis Vorn’s army.
A faction that believed evolution required surrendering humanity to something older, something cosmic—something most people didn’t dare name.
Rourke slammed his fist against the sealed doors. “They must’ve tracked our jump signature. Damn it—they were waiting.”
“No,” Aria said quietly, staring at the ceiling as more ships descended. “They were following the signal. Same as us.”
Nova paced wildly, arms flailing. “Great! Fantastic! A secret ringworld built by ancient gods or something—and we brought the universe’s most dangerous cult straight into it. I didn’t even finish paying off my tools.”
Lumen’s optics dimmed as he monitored the structural vibrations. “The Ascendants are deploying plasma anchors. They intend to breach the outer shell.”
Rourke muttered, “Of course they do.”
Aria stood absolutely still, her breath shaky. The echo of her mother’s hologram—her voice—still vibrated through her bones. She forced her thoughts into a single line.
Move. Act. Survive.
“We need to get back to the Valkyrie,” she said.
Nova’s eyes widened. “Uh, small problem—the only exit is behind that sealed alien door.”
As if responding to her words, the walls trembled again—this time not from the external ships, but from somewhere deep within the structure. A low tone vibrated through the chamber, resonant and rhythmic.
Aria recognized it instantly.
The same frequency as the signal.
The sphere on the pedestal flickered once more, dim but still functional, its c***k glowing faintly. Lumen stepped closer.
“It appears the sequence has not fully completed,” he said. “The hologram was only part of its purpose.”
Before Aria could respond, the sphere emitted a pulse of light. The symbols on the walls reactivated, swirling into complex geometric patterns.
“What is it doing?” Nova asked, ducking as a holographic line flew overhead.
“Protecting us,” Aria whispered.
Rourke raised a brow. “That’s optimistic.”
“No,” she said slowly, eyes narrowing on the shifting symbols. “It’s opening a path.”
The chamber floor separated, panels sliding apart like petals unfolding.
A staircase descended into the depths of the ringworld.
Rourke exhaled sharply. “I hate this. I really, really hate this.”
Aria stepped toward the staircase. “Let’s go.”
---
The stairs spiraled downward into a tunnel of bioluminescent structures. The deeper they went, the more the architecture shifted—from metallic to something organic, alive.
“It feels like walking inside a circuit,” Nova whispered.
Lumen scanned. “Incorrect. This is a multi-layered neural architecture. It is thinking.”
Rourke groaned. “Why can’t ancient structures ever just be buildings?”
They reached the bottom—a wide circular chamber, much larger than the one above. At the center stood a towering column of liquid light, swirling in silent currents.
Aria felt the pull immediately.
Like gravity.
Like memory.
Like her mother’s voice calling through time.
Lumen approached the column cautiously. “It appears to be a central processing core.”
Nova squinted. “Uh-huh. And in non-nerd terms?”
“A brain,” Aria translated softly. “This is the ringworld’s intelligence.”
The entire chamber trembled.
Rourke grabbed the nearest support beam. “They’re breaching the upper shell!”
Above them, muffled blasts echoed—Ascendant plasma cutting through ancient metal.
Aria stepped closer to the core. “We need to access its data. If my mother came here, she left something behind—a key, a map, instructions—something.”
Nova hesitated. “You’re assuming the intelligence won’t fry you the second you touch it.”
Aria didn’t stop. “It didn’t kill my mother.”
Rourke’s voice softened. “Aria—she recorded a message telling you to run. Not to dive deeper.”
She paused.
Only for a second.
Then she pressed her palm to the core.
A flare of white swallowed her vision.
---
Aria stood in a different world.
A memory—not hers—unfolded around her in panoramic clarity.
A starfield.
A swirling rift.
A colossal being of light and shadow emerging from the void, its form vaguely humanoid but shifting, unstable.
Voices overlapped—thousands, millions—layered in frequencies she couldn’t comprehend.
A word formed in her mind, even though the creature had no mouth.
“Origin.”
Aria staggered backward—yet her body didn’t move. This was all happening inside her mind.
More images flashed:
—Civilizations bowing beneath the being’s presence.
—Stars collapsing as it fed on gravitational fields.
—Structures like the ringworld forming in its wake.
—A countdown carved into spacetime itself.
A warning.
The last image froze.
A woman—Aria’s mother—standing before the core, tears on her face.
Whispering:
“Don’t let them finish it.”
The vision shattered.
---
Aria staggered back into her body, gasping as the chamber came into focus.
Rourke steadied her quickly. “Commander! What happened?”
Aria clenched her teeth. “This ringworld isn’t just a map. It’s a containment system.”
Nova blinked. “For what?”
“A being older than galaxies. The one who started the countdown.”
Lumen’s optics flickered. “The Origin.”
Aria nodded. “It’s waking up. And the Ascendants want to free it.”
The chamber shook violently—dust falling from above.
Rourke swore. “They’re inside. We have minutes at best.”
Nova scanned the pulsing core. “So, what do we do? Shut it down? Power it up? Pray?”
Aria glared at the swirling column. “Mom wouldn’t have left a message unless she knew there was a way to stop this. The ringworld isn’t a prison—it’s a lock.”
Lumen tilted his head. “A lock implies a key.”
Aria’s hand trembled as she reached into her suit pocket.
She pulled out the cracked metallic sphere.
The core pulsed in response—brighter, stronger.
“It’s the key,” she whispered. “This whole time…she carried it. And now it’s mine.”
The sphere activated—glowing with golden light.
Nova backed up. “Oh, that looks dangerous. And ominous. And very…explode-y.”
Footsteps thundered above—from the upper chamber.
The Ascendants had breached the door.
Rourke raised his weapon. “We don’t have long.”
Aria turned to the core.
“If I connect the sphere,” she said, steadying her breath, “it will seal the containment system. It’ll freeze the Origin’s awakening. But it may also lock this ringworld from the inside.”
Nova stilled. “Meaning…?”
Lumen answered for her. “Meaning we may never leave.”
Rourke stared at her—silent, steady, resolute.
“We came this far,” he said. “Finish what you started.”
The sphere pulsed in her palm.
Ascendant voices echoed down the twist of the staircase.
Aria stepped toward the core.
Her mother’s voice whispered in her memory:
“I love you. And if I never return—know that I tried to save you.”
Aria pressed the sphere into the heart of the column.
The ringworld roared to life.
Light erupted—white, blinding, searing.
The chamber walls dissolved into radiance.
Aria screamed—
And the world fractured.
- Writer
