Wind: Meeting Samson

I woke up with a start, my body felt heavy and weird and moving around seemed a little bit more difficult than normal. It was then I noticed I was drenched in a strange and thick amniotic fluid; its viscous nature would give any bystander the idea of mucus or some other discharge of a peculiar nature, but notwithstanding it didn't have any sort of taste or odor either, it was just really thick.

I felt weak, and it seemed I was even more helpless than when I first woke up on the desert. However my current environment seemed to be a lot more better and safer than the desert I woke up in.

I got my feet under myself with shaky and unsteady movements, my heart beat a little faster with the strenuous effort I had to apply into such a simple action. I felt helpless, but at the moment there was nothing I could do about it. My surroundings were dimly lit by a floating orb of light that hung right above my head.

It was quite strange looking at it, it was almost like a miniature sun existing in its own solar system, I did not have much of an impression of what should be normal and what could be considered weird due to not knowing where I was, or how things worked on Gonin Gora; that is if I really was on that planet. Wary as I was I just had to take the presence of a floating ball of light at face value, because I had other things to worry about.

The light from the orb was enough to give me proper illumination of my surrounding, I noticed I was in a circular chamber of some sort, it was not really big only about two and half meter in circumference.

The ground beneath me was made of metal and seemed to have holes designed into it, giving me the impression of a grate or a drain. Due to the orb of light i couldn't exactly see the roof of the chamber but its walls were strange.

They were made of the same viscous liquid that was currently sticking to my body, only it seems that this wall was in a constant state of flux, almost like I was in a pool or a river. There was no door of any sort around so it looked I was stuck right where I was.

I was close enough to tentatively stretch out my hand and touch the wall of thick amniotic fluid. It was extremely warm, almost to the point of being considered scalding hot, I quickly withdrew my hand in shock. It was now covered in more of the fluid prompting a look of disgust to show up on my face. I quickly shook my hand to get rid of the feeling as I gave a thorough inspection of what I was now considering a cage or at least a cell of some sort. It reminded me of those cryo chambers back on earth.

The last thing I remembered was collapsing at the front off the castle, a bright light, and a million flying snakes running behind me and clamoring for a taste of me and my son. Or maybe it was more than a million, I really can't tell the exact numbers though. It was a harrowing experience to say the least, but now it seemed I had to go through another one, what with waking up in a strange place again, and this time without my son.

From where I was standing there was nothing much that seemed probable to be done except maybe taking a leap of fate. So left without much of a choice, I did just that. I jumped straight for the wall of viscous liquid; and considering the fact that wall of almost burned me, then this would have been an incredibly stupid move. But I didn't care, not one bit, because I know I needed to find my son wherever he is.

I closed my eyes in anticipation of the slimy and painful sensation I was sure was about to encompass my body. But instead it seemed as if I. slammed into a solid wall.

*BOP!*

I was thrown backwards with such a force that I flew right back into the enclosed space hitting the wall behind me with an equally harsh impact that left my head reeling and my vision swimming with lights, for a moment I thought I could actually see stars due to how dazed I had become. My legs gave out from beneath me as the assault I just received made my already weak body even weaker.

I took a few moments to catch my breath before looking at the wall like I had seen what could most probably be the worst evil in the world. Safe to say I had no intention of trying to leave again at least not until the room stopped spinning. I've learnt a hard lesson from my first attempt. I sat down with a groan right in the middle of the chamber waiting for some sort of reaction from it.

And in such a fashion an hour went past without a smidge of change except for the fact that I became desperately hungry and even more worried for Max. I was quickly getting impatient, not to mention the gnawing hunger in my gut took pleasure in reminding me of my pitiful state every few minutes.

I gave a huff as I stood up once again, I did not feel like sitting around on my ass was the proper thing to do, not when I had no idea where my son was. So I'm going to tackle this wall again, I refuse to believe that there was no way to get through.

I approached the wall of moving liquid and placed my hands on it like it was something fragile….. Or dangerous. It offered a little resistance at first, like a rubber band, but it slowly gave way and my hand plunged into the thick hot liquid. After about five inches of the revolting feeling my hand broke through and I felt a draft of cold air.

I quickly pulled my hands back through the wall, for the most part my hand looked fine, and it seemed like there was actually something beyond the wall of liquid, and it was a little thick but not impossible to go through. But then again the fact that I was thrown around like a soccer ball did not seem to make sense. My previous experience elicited a rather careful and fearful approach with any thing that had to do with this damn wall.

This time though, I put one of my very naked leg through the wall, to be honest the heat was actually quite comfortable, however the feeling of the liquid still elicited a feeling of disgust from me. My leg went through too and when I felt the draft of cold air, I pulled back and inspected my leg. It did not seem any different than when I put it through, so I figured that there was nothing dangerous beyond this chamber, well at least not in my immediate vicinity.

I plunged both my hands through the wall, took a deep breath and stepped forward. I was assaulted by a heat that seeped deep into my bones with such comfort that for a moment I was tempted to just remain there, stuck between the chamber and freedom, hanging in that wall of amniotic fluid for as long as I wanted.

However the motion of the liquid on my body made me shiver and gave me an urge to vomit; so much that I rapidly discarded any thoughts of staying within it. I pushed through completely and then I fell, or it could be quite accurate to say I tripped. My naked body impacted the tiled floor beneath me with a resounding smack. I could not help curling into a ball as I held onto my midsection in pain and abject discomfort. Wherever the hell this place was, I could not help but begin to hate it already.

I got up with a little more effort than expected, but at the moment the weakness of my body was not at the forefront of my thoughts, where was Max? This place was empty, for lack of a better description it looked like a cross between a lab and an infirmary.

The entire room was large, very large. My rough estimates would put the room around a hundred meters in length, and about 30 in width. Behind me was a pod of some sort, it was actually what I had just come out from. It was about three meters tall, it had metal coverings on both the top and bottom of it.

Unlike its interior when watched from outside the viscous liquid was actually transparent, which meant anyone standing outside would have been able to watch what was going on inside, while the person inside would have been none the wiser, and be completely unable to see what was happening outside.

At the bottom of the pod, thick cables of two varying colors and build could be seen. One if them was transparent and it seemed to ferry the thick liquid that served as a barrier for the pod. The other however was pitch black and had incisions on its frame like some sort of gill, steady and rhythmic light could be seen moving through it, it was almost as if it was breathing.

There were nine of the pod spaced evenly from each other and placed from one end of the room to the other. However the others were rather dull except for one, while the others seemed to be deactivated. There was no source of light or breathing from their black cables, and the viscous liquid seemed to have solidified into a crystal like substance.

I felt a blast of cold air cascade over my naked body earning a shiver from me. I turned my eyes to the left side of the room as a host of electrical appliances and infirmary beds came into sight. But apart from this, nothing else could be gleamed from the room.

I did not recognize any of the equipment in the room, granted I'm not really supposed to recognize anything courtesy of being on an alien world, but still I had hoped to find or at least feel a sense of familiarity from anything that my eyes could come across.

I looked at my wrist, and a screen that seemed to be a part of my skin, but was not a part of it lit up. I was so shocked by it's appearance that I almost let out a scream.

This was supposed to be the regulator given by the U.N for communication and the monitoring of the pioneers vitals. But it was now a part of my freaking body! There was not too much of a change to its whole setup. Except that it was now showing my information in a very weird way.

[RADIATION BAR: 540/300: COMMENSE MODIFICATION:YES/NO]

[PLEASE CHOOSE PARAMETERS TO MODIFY: STRENGTH, VITALITY, AGILITY…..]

I was a little put off by the change. No matter how I looked at it, modification sounded like a very painful thing to experience. Not to mention I had no idea how the regulator got grafted to my skin or how to even go about implementing this modification. I was so confused about what I had to do; that I really had no idea how to act at a moment like this. So in that regard I really wanted to be careful, I still needed to find Max.

As soon as my decision was made two huge metal doors on the right end of the huge infirmary/lab slid open and a very peculiar sight came through the door. It was a machine, or to be more precise a humanoid robot with a stack of cloth strewn all over its mechanical arms and head.

The robot actually had four eyes that glowed an eerie purple, but its eyes where not located in a socket, instead they seemed glued to its head as they creepily moved every which way.

I took a few steps back in shock, apart from the sudden appearance, the strangely moving eyeballs was recipe for a freak out episode. The robot's body had no seams or joints and looked completely like it had human skin, it glowed a dull copper and had a height of about five feet. It was not as tall as I was but it was still frightening none the less.

The robot came to a stop two meters away from me, then it gave an awkward bow, before depositing the cloths on the floor. It did not say anything, though I doubted that it could considering that I couldn't see a mouth of any kind on it.

Tentatively stepping forward, I grabbed the whole clothes in a haphazard bundle and created a more comfortable distance between the both of us. Then with a watchful eye on my new companion I slowly put on the clothes that were handed to me. The clothes however were rather peculiar, first I was given a silver white jumpsuit that seemed to be made of some sort of elastic material, but it was rather baggy and huge and seemed to be made for someone three times my size.

But the moment I put it on, it immediately shrunk to completely fit every contour of me body, then it became a little translucent. It made it seem like I was covered by layers of silver white scales.

It was rather fascinating and I could not help admiring it for a while. It reminded me of the flight suits I had used when I had to suit up for a mission in the past. After that, I put on the rather normal looking shirt and jacket that came along with a trouser that I swear was made from some sort of metal. I was not given any shoes though, not even socks, so I was left with my feet exposed to the cold air.

"You may address me as Samson. I am the seneschal in charge of this tower. I bid you a hearty welcome seeker."

I could not give a proper answer, in fact I could not give any answer at all. And not because the robot could talk, no that was well within expectations, what really freaked me out was that the robot whose face was smooth and pretty seamless, occupied by nothing but four moving purple eyeballs. He did not even have a nose or an ear for that matter, but all of a sudden the lower part of his jaw spilt into a hideously wide grin, complete with teeth and fangs that would make the snakes I faced run away in terror.

It was quite safe to say that I was terrified if not outright traumatized by such a sight. But the robot, whose name was Samson did not seem to take notice of the rather horrified look on my face. Well even if he did, it was quite obvious he did not really care as he continued to speak.

"You are the first seeker to find this tower in almost eight thousand years. I must commend you on passing the test of the red desert, I doubt those lesser Wyverns would have been easy to deal with.

Especially with the child and dog holding you back. So for making it here you are now qualified to inherit the legacy left behind by the First Mages Of The Grand College Of Magi Arts right here on the blessed planet of Gonin Gora.

But on that note your body is a little strange. You have no Mana pathways, it's the same with the child's, and I can sense no considerable amount of energy from you. Short of what you need to survive you are essentially an ordinary human being, but even weirder. I must say you are an interesting specimen."

And then the robot….Samson spiraled into a cacophony of unintelligible muttering leaving me very confused and still very much terrified. But the only thing I could pick out was the fact that he had mentioned the child many times, which meant he knew where Max was. But I could not help but feel that being called a specimen did nothing but spell doom for me and my still missing son.

But what could I do, I couldn't make any rash decisions, especially since I don't know where Max is. I was confused by the endless stream of useless words and information I did not understand from a robot that looked like a ten year old's Halloween nightmare. Of course he looked nice with all the sleek and seamless look, very futuristic. If I had to give an opinion; Samson could be considered good looking, as far as robots go in the looks department.

But the underlying fact remained that I was still very much confused and I had no idea where my son was, or what to do. The U.N expressly ordered me to keep contact with the locals; limited if not completely uninitiated. But I don't think I'm left with any other choice, seeing as I'm stuck here with a Robot that seems to have lost his mind.

"Please forgive me for my neglect, it has been a really long time since I had been given a chance to converse with someone other than myself, it would take a while for me to adjust. Well your biology aside, I'm sure you have some questions, and I still don't know your name how clumsy of me. Please tell me your name, what level apprentice mage are you, what is your element, and how conversant are you with close quarters combat?"

Samson had a rather smooth voice, apart from his terrifying visage, he sounded like someone stuck between teenage hood and full adulthood. That sounded really weird to me but they worked well for comparisons sake. Wary as I was, I really felt the pressure building from Samson's question, so I really had no choice but to answer, well I chose to answer with a question instead. As such the first words I said to an alien lifeform was.

"Please where is my son, is he okay?"

"Oh! The child is yours? Why didn't you say so. Come with me, he's in the other pod. I'm afraid his injuries are a lot more extensive than yours." Samson explained.

But I was no longer listening, I had ran straight to the other pod with my heart in my chest, pounding away with such speed that I felt as if it was going to jump out of my mouth. He was there, and unlike my own Pod he's was filled to the brim with the same amniotic fluid that I woke up in. His eyes were closed, and he floated helplessly within it.

"What are you doing to him! Get him out now!"

I turned to Samson yelling as I took a basic combat stance, which was not quite good considering I was trained as a pilot and not a combatant. Samson's four eyes shrunk and enlarged on his face and rotated past each other on his face.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, not unless you want him to die. Your son is essentially brain dead, from my diagnostics he's been exposed to cosmic rays responsible for spatial jumps and time travel, and he was not wearing any proper equipment to protect him from it. The reason you're relatively unscathed is because you're older. But he's a child and even though it was only for a moment, your hectic journey has disconnected your son's soul, from his mind, his body and spirit. All four entities required for the animation of human life are all seperate. That pod is the only thing keeping them from dispersing and wiping your son out of existence. It would be like he never existed, he would be gone forever."