I woke with a heavy groan. My head was pounding sothing fierce and it felt like I'd gorged myself on a bowl full of sand. Sure, the drinking session I'd had the night before had probably been one for the storybooks, if I could rember any of it, but I hadn't had a hangover like this since the very first ti I'd gotten drunk.
I let my heavy eyelids crack open, yawned, and then stopped dead. Waking up in soone else's bed was a bit of a strange experience. Waking up in soone else's bed and the room looking like you'd just walked into an episode of Star Trek? Well, that was sothing else entirely.
This was definitely not my room.
My bedroom was small. It was a part of a tiny little flat that I rented in London, cramped and with a floor covered in dirty laundry that I hadn't yet bothered to throw into a washing machine.
There was a single, dim light, that flickered when the tube hurtled past, and it always slt strongly of damp no matter what I or the landlord did.
It was certainly not the wide and expansive space, with tallic-looking walls and a dark wooden floor that lay before .
My room did not have two strips of high tech-looking lights lining its ceiling, nor did it have any futuristic sliding doors with no handles, or a large window that looked out into a city where it seed every building was made of glass that twinkled in the dual suns that were rising above the horizon.
Little by little the mories started to claw their way back into my head, worming themselves into place. The little girl, the van, the wet thwack of my head hitting the tarmac, and the creature that had sent sowhere new. That creature had promised to send to a brand new universe, a place that I could live a supposedly worthwhile life and fulfil my true potential, whatever that ant.
I tried to swallow the childish excitent that was threatening to boil over into a burst of hysterical laughter. I had travelled not just to a brand new world, but to an entirely new universe. So futuristic cityscape on a planet in a binary star system. Sure, I'd died to pull it off, but it didn't exactly feel like death was the biggest deal in the multiverse anymore.
"Good morning, Jacob," a voice ca from the ceiling. A small orb, which I had just taken to be so kind of ceiling light, had detached itself from the space it had held in the centre of the room and floated down until it floated in front of at eye level. "The weather in Prespian City is fair, reaching highs of 17 Celsius, with a light breeze and no chance of precipitation. Please be reminded, sign-ups for the Galactic Guard take place at 11 am local ti, in two hours."
"Uhhhh," I stumbled and ran my tongue over my teeth, "New voice New teeth, that's weird Sorry, what are you?"
"As with all Guard Initiates, I am your assigned BB, Ball Buddy!" The floating ball exclaid jubilantly with a little spin. "I am to escort you around the grounds of the Prespian City Guard Station while you're with us, and then beyond that if you perform well enough in the fights!"
"The fights?" I asked, unsure of what exactly I'd been imdiately thrust into.
"Yes, yes, the fights that all initiates go through in the entry tournant, how else is the Guard ant to obtain the very best warriors on the planet to fight off the invading hordes of Null Space?"
It felt like I'd been catapulted into so crazy ani. Other worlds, tournant arcs, invading hordes from so kind of other space. The next thing I knew, this strange Ball Buddy thing would be asking to bond with to unlock my hidden potential or so other power.
"Now, if you could just hold out your hand," the BB unit asked politely.
"Hold out my hand?" I asked, complying with the request anyway. "Why would you want to do sothing like that?"
The floating sphere didn't even respond. It shot out a small cable, tipped by a dart, which dug into my hand.
The rush of information was near overwhelming, my brain was only just able to keep up. The Guard was an interplanetary space force, which protected the borders of the galaxy from invaders that were exterior to it, including these so-called Null Space creatures.
The battle had been raging for millennia, with neither side really giving any ground. I was just another in a long line of initiates that had signed up to be in the Guard program, but before that, I had to go through a brutal battle tournant to work out if I was strong enough to enter the Guard.
When I had lived back on Earth I hadn't done any kinds of martial arts training, or well any real training at all, I wasn't exactly the fittest of people considering I spent most of my ti reading manga, watching TV and playing video gas. But here, in this new world, things were going to be different. I could feel it. A power coursing through , and it was itching for a fight.
ca a voice from inside my head.
Reviews
All reviews (0)