Transmigrant - Chapter 24
Copyright © 2024 Stephen B. Anthony
In the depths of forgotten knowledge lies the key to understanding our purpose. It is only through the whispers of the past that we grasp the truth of who we were meant to become.
—Thairis, Memories
CHAPTER 24
Estia left the bridge of the Shinobi and returned to her room to watch additional episodes of a show called Chuck, which depicted a computer nerd who accidentally became a spy when someone uploaded a computer program into his brain. She wondered if the programming Chuck received was the type of thing Ray was concerned about for her, but she did not think this kind of thing was realistic.
She was halfway through an episode when she heard a hum and paused the video, then stepped out of her berth. The ship was empty. Kaylie and Ray had gone to visit a waterfall. Wondering if someone had left the winch on, she entered the cargo bay to check, but Ray had already turned it off. She tiptoed around the cargo bay, listening carefully, and realized the hum was coming from the artifact.
Estia placed her finger on the material. It felt both cool and warm to the touch, sending a shiver down her spine. She then placed both hands on the material and felt a very subtle thump, then another. It felt as though a distant heartbeat pulsed within the artifact. She moved her hands along the hull, and as she approached the middle, the heartbeat became more robust.
To her surprise, the hull material dissolved before her, revealing a doorway inside the artifact. She stepped inside, and the hull reappeared behind her as if there had never been a doorway. Lights came on inside the artifact, flooding her senses.
A voice in her mind said, “Greetings, advocate!”