know fucking anything?”
'It's...' she started, glancing over the readings trickling in from Darvish at a snail's pace. 'It's fluctuating, it's not stable, but it's not un stable.'
“Not a fucking answer, Kali.” Hayes spat back, as he watched Darvish almost frozen in time, moving fractions of an inch every second as he approached the box. “I want to shoot the fucking thing.”
'Give him another minute...' she said. 'Well, give him another five minutes... He's almost there.'
Hayes pulled up scans in his lens, layering all the data that was being accrued by his senses, that wasn't within the visible spectrum. A wash of lines and pulses hovered over his sight, spectroscopes and radiation detectors, metameters and analysis graphs.
Darvish looked back over his shoulder at Hayes, who was moving erratically, ten times faster than normal speed, then with the next step, twenty times faster. The time dilation was increasing every moment he got closer to the box.
Darvish could hear beeping from the device, it was intermittent, but increasing in pace. The blue and red flashes in unison with the tones, faster and faster, until the light and the tones were a solid hum of sound and colour.
“Shit.” he said, turning on his heel and running back towards the mouth of the alley. But it was too late. It had been activated.
A pillar of light burst forth from the device, but rather than tentacles of light forming for a jump, the light was sucked straight back in to the tear in reality. Hayes watched from outside the bubble as the light crawled out of the box, the machinery that lay inside beginning to launch itself across the alley. “What's happening?!” he asked, raising his gun again.
'I...' Kali watched the feed from Darvish's lens as the light encroached towards him, fingers arcing out from the box as its contents burst out. Then the light and components stopped moving in mid-air and started making their way back to their point of origin. 'It's...' She watched in horror.
Darvish slowly tilted his head down as the light was pulled back into itself. He looked to his hands, as they contorted against his will, stretching towards the light, pulled along as the blinding rays disappeared into their point of origin, revealing a rough rip in the fabric of reality. The edges of the tear waved as if each were flags in the wind, matter sucked deep into the meta.
'It's a singularity...' she said.
“How do we stop it?” Hayes asked, putting the gun back into the holster, standing impotently at the mouth of the alley behind the rippling surface of the breach. He felt a knot in his throat as he watched his colleague fight helplessly against the pull of the vortex. His fingers were already at the event horizon, bones of his hands ripped apart at the molecular level to dust, then smaller than dust. The skin tearing as his wrists and arms followed their digits, blood coalescing around him, painting the path the rest of his body would follow. “I said what can we fucking do, Kali!” Hayes shouted.
'I don't know... I... I've never see anything like this before...'
The cobblestones and buildings surrounding the alley were beginning to be sucked into the mouth of the singularity, atom by atom. Tornadoes of brick particles dancing through the air from either side, to join the infinitely disseminating molecules of Darvish. When the brickwork was sucked through, the pipework was next, then the foundations. Hayes took a step back and looked at the buildings on either side. They were beginning to subside towards the rift.
“Give me some fucking options! Now!” he shouted.
'Ok. Give me a second... this is fucking unprecedented, so give me a fucking moment to process it.'
“These buildings are going to collapse, people are about to fucking die, and more will fucking die if we don't close this thing.
'Fine, fucking fine.' Kali shouted back. 'Shoot the fucker!'
“For real?” Hayes asked, taken aback.
'Explosive rounds. This thing
'It's...' she started, glancing over the readings trickling in from Darvish at a snail's pace. 'It's fluctuating, it's not stable, but it's not un stable.'
“Not a fucking answer, Kali.” Hayes spat back, as he watched Darvish almost frozen in time, moving fractions of an inch every second as he approached the box. “I want to shoot the fucking thing.”
'Give him another minute...' she said. 'Well, give him another five minutes... He's almost there.'
Hayes pulled up scans in his lens, layering all the data that was being accrued by his senses, that wasn't within the visible spectrum. A wash of lines and pulses hovered over his sight, spectroscopes and radiation detectors, metameters and analysis graphs.
Darvish looked back over his shoulder at Hayes, who was moving erratically, ten times faster than normal speed, then with the next step, twenty times faster. The time dilation was increasing every moment he got closer to the box.
Darvish could hear beeping from the device, it was intermittent, but increasing in pace. The blue and red flashes in unison with the tones, faster and faster, until the light and the tones were a solid hum of sound and colour.
“Shit.” he said, turning on his heel and running back towards the mouth of the alley. But it was too late. It had been activated.
A pillar of light burst forth from the device, but rather than tentacles of light forming for a jump, the light was sucked straight back in to the tear in reality. Hayes watched from outside the bubble as the light crawled out of the box, the machinery that lay inside beginning to launch itself across the alley. “What's happening?!” he asked, raising his gun again.
'I...' Kali watched the feed from Darvish's lens as the light encroached towards him, fingers arcing out from the box as its contents burst out. Then the light and components stopped moving in mid-air and started making their way back to their point of origin. 'It's...' She watched in horror.
Darvish slowly tilted his head down as the light was pulled back into itself. He looked to his hands, as they contorted against his will, stretching towards the light, pulled along as the blinding rays disappeared into their point of origin, revealing a rough rip in the fabric of reality. The edges of the tear waved as if each were flags in the wind, matter sucked deep into the meta.
'It's a singularity...' she said.
“How do we stop it?” Hayes asked, putting the gun back into the holster, standing impotently at the mouth of the alley behind the rippling surface of the breach. He felt a knot in his throat as he watched his colleague fight helplessly against the pull of the vortex. His fingers were already at the event horizon, bones of his hands ripped apart at the molecular level to dust, then smaller than dust. The skin tearing as his wrists and arms followed their digits, blood coalescing around him, painting the path the rest of his body would follow. “I said what can we fucking do, Kali!” Hayes shouted.
'I don't know... I... I've never see anything like this before...'
The cobblestones and buildings surrounding the alley were beginning to be sucked into the mouth of the singularity, atom by atom. Tornadoes of brick particles dancing through the air from either side, to join the infinitely disseminating molecules of Darvish. When the brickwork was sucked through, the pipework was next, then the foundations. Hayes took a step back and looked at the buildings on either side. They were beginning to subside towards the rift.
“Give me some fucking options! Now!” he shouted.
'Ok. Give me a second... this is fucking unprecedented, so give me a fucking moment to process it.'
“These buildings are going to collapse, people are about to fucking die, and more will fucking die if we don't close this thing.
'Fine, fucking fine.' Kali shouted back. 'Shoot the fucker!'
“For real?” Hayes asked, taken aback.
'Explosive rounds. This thing
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