Cherreads

Chapter 52 - Chapter 52: The Gate to the Stars

At the virtual conference room, Solendel Corporation Headquarters, Planet Aerysia...

Though the physical bodies of the executive team remained on the distant planet Solendel, through the 'Holoform' technology, the light-form avatars of Zaria and Zen, controlled by their consciousness, had appeared at the Aerysia office to personally select new personnel.

"Your qualifications are excellent, Mr. Henrik," Zaria's holoform said to the middle-aged man before her. "But I'd like to ask... aren't you afraid of the technology or the powers that we possess?"

The man smiled warmly. "I only see 'opportunity,' ma'am... an opportunity for my son to live in a better world... and I want to be a part of building that world."

The selection process was intense. In the end, the first group of ordinary personnel, without any special powers but filled with skill and "faith," were sent via an Aegis Industries vessel to the planet Solendel to become a part of history.

On Planet Solendel, at the 'Runic Gate' construction site...

A true fusion of the powered and the powerless had occurred. The newly arrived personnel were assisting with technical and management tasks alongside the 50 awakened employees, all under the direction of the core team.

Karess, in his full operational suit, floated at the center of the ring gate. He used his high-precision mechanical arms to carefully install the final Resonexium circuit panel into the central core.

And at the very top of the gate, Zen was standing... He wasn't creating a rune from thin air, but he was about to do the most important thing... to awaken the "will" of the runes that had been so beautifully inscribed.

He placed his palm on the symbol of ᚱ (Raidho), which was magnificently etched at the apex of the gate. He closed his eyes and sent his "will" for the journey and his desire to connect the two sides of the sky into its core.

VWOOOOMMMMMMM!!!

Instantly... every rune on the entire structure lit up in unison! Golden light flowed through the complex circuits like the veins of a giant living creature. A massive amount of energy from Sora was drawn into the central core.

The empty space in the center of the ring gate began to distort... the air vibrated violently, creating visible ripples before it tore open... becoming a flat surface like a pool of water in space, reflecting the images of distant stars... and at the center of that image was a familiar, jet-black planet... Virelya.

A hush fell over the construction site... everyone stared at the sight before them, their mouths agape. No one dared to move, or even to breathe too loudly...

"My home world..." Karess's voice murmured from behind his mask, breaking the silence. "To see it from this angle again... so beautiful, and so dark."

Hesitation was clear in everyone's eyes... It was a success... but was it truly safe?

Karess closed his eyes for a moment, before sending a thought-wave directly to Sora through his Bio-Sora system.

Sora's gentle voice replied in the private communication channel of the core team instantly.

At Sora's confirmation... Karess opened his eyes, his gaze now filled with resolve. "Alright... get on the ship."

"Wait!" Lina cried out. "If you're going... you have to make the world remember it!"

She quickly turned to her control panel. "Sora... prepare to live-stream the feed from Karess's ship... send a direct signal to all 'Solendel Network' channels on Aerysia, now!"

[BREAKING NEWS! LIVE BROADCAST FROM ALL SOLENDEL NETWORK CHANNELS!]

Before the executives at Cygnus Dynamics could even formulate a counter-plan, all their hologram screens cut to an emergency live broadcast.

The image that appeared was of Karess's spacecraft, flying through a gigantic ring gate, before the view cut to the cockpit... Karess, in his full operational suit and Oni mask, was looking at the image of the planet Virelya appearing before him.

The voice that came through his helmet's speaker was soft, but clear... "I'm home..."

Text appeared on the screen: "Solendel Corporation officially announces the launch of the 'Runic Gate'... reducing the travel time between Aerysia and Virelya from 2.1 years... to just 2.1 minutes... A new era of travel has begun."

A dead silence fell over the boardroom of Cygnus Dynamics... The counter-plan they had been devising... now seemed so naive, so laughable.

While they were planning to build "walls"... Solendel had just built a "highway" that no one could ever hope to catch up to.

More Chapters