Theo’s head pounded as consciousness clawed its way back. The void of nothingness he’d plunged into was replaced by something far worse: sensory overload.

  The air was thick and humid, laced with the tang of ozone and a faintly floral scent. His skin prickled with a strange energy, as if static electricity were dancing over every inch of him.

  He forced his eyes open, only to immediately regret it. The sky above was a fractured kaleidoscope of color, shifting and warping with no discernible pattern.

  It was as though the universe had decided to throw up every shade of insanity and pin it to the heavens.

  The ground beneath him was smooth and glossy, like obsidian, but etched with faint, glowing lines that pulsed in rhythm with some unseen heartbeat.

  Theo groaned, then sat up, his muscles protesting.

  The last thing he remembered was the press conference: the lights, the roar of the crowd… and then, nothing. Now he was here, wherever ‘Here’ was.

  His fingers brushed the ground, tracing the glowing lines as his mind scrambled to make sense of his surroundings.

  A sudden, unbearable pressure gripped his skull. Theo cried out, clutching his head as a force he couldn’t see but could definitely feel tried to worm its way into his mind.

  It wasn’t just pain—it was invasive, like something was digging through his thoughts with clumsy, oversized hands. His knees hit the ground hard, his breath coming in short, panicked gasps.

  Images he couldn’t recognize and sounds that defied logic assaulted him. They didn’t belong to him but were forced into his consciousness like puzzle pieces from a completely different picture.

  “Get the fuck out of my head!” Theo shouted, his voice ragged, though he didn’t know if anyone could hear him.

  Then, just as suddenly as it started, the pressure vanished.

  He collapsed forward, panting as sweat dripped down his temples. His ears rang in the absence of the intrusion, the silence almost as unsettling as the invasion itself.

  Before he could gather his thoughts, the silence broke. A strange series of sounds, sharp and uneven, resonated around him. At first, it was nothing but disjointed tones—harsh clicks, metallic shrieks, and guttural growls.

  Then, the sounds morphed, struggling to form rhythm and structure. A garbled language spilled out in fragments, flickering through alien tongues, each discarded as quickly as it came.

  Theo flinched as the cacophony grew louder, like an orchestra of wrong notes testing his limits.

  “What is this?” he gasped, staggering upright, his fists clenched against the chaos.

  The sounds refined themselves, honing in with eerie precision. Familiar shapes formed within the nonsense, syllables aligning like gears until finally, words emerged. English words.

  "Welcome, Theo Kane."

  The voice was disembodied, sterile—less spoken, more processed. It cut through the air like a precision laser, threading through his spine with an unsettling chill.

  Theo shot to his feet, body instinctively dropping into a defensive stance. His eyes darted around, searching for the source. Nothing. "Oh, great. Mystery voice. That’s never a bad sign. Where are you hiding? Behind the creepy sky or the haunted floor?"

  The voice continued, utterly indifferent to his presence.

  "Error: System integration failed. Subject is ineligible for assimilation. All standard functions are restricted.

  Unexpected anomaly detected: Catalyx designation present. Catalyx inhabitants were not anticipated on [PLANET DESIGNATION: EARTH].

  Intergalactic treaty EXOCAT58 forbids termination."

  Theo blinked. System? Integration? Cats? “Try making sense!" he shouted, trying to sound tough, but the exasperated quiver in his voice betrayed him.

  The voice ignored his outburst, continuing its clinical assessment.

  "Confirming genetic lineage...

  Inhabiting Ancestor: Confirmed. Ascertaining last known coordinates of Ancestor…

  Location obtained. Presence of living ancestor overrides isolation protocol.

  Relocating subject to registered benefactor’s last recorded position."

  Theo barely processed the words before alarm surged up his spine. "Wait—hold on a goddamn minute!" He threw his hands up. "Ancestor? Race? Can we maybe back up and start with what the actual fu—"

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  The world lurched. It wasn’t a physical movement—no shifting ground, no rush of wind—just a sudden, impossible shift. Like reality itself had been yanked sideways.

  Theo’s stomach churned, and for a brief, horrifying moment, he thought he might hurl.

  When the vertigo subsided, he found himself standing in front of a building. If it could even be called that.

  The structure loomed, a jagged monstrosity of metal and organic material fused together in a way that defied logic. It pulsed faintly, as if alive, its surface shifting like it was breathing.

  He took a cautious step forward, inhaling deeply. "Okay, so either I’m supposed to go in there, or I’ve just unlocked a horrifically cursed side quest." He muttered, shaking his head. "Yeah, no thanks."

  Still, he had nowhere else to go. The alien landscape stretched endlessly around him, a patchwork of biomes that seemed ripped straight from a fever dream.

  In the distance, he could make out expansive, lurching forests, a river of molten silver, and… was that a volcano spitting purple fire? None of it looked remotely safe.

  He turned back to the building and shook his head in consternation. "Alright, big dog. There’s an incredibly high chance this isn’t real. CTE has kicked in early."

  The door—if it could even be called that—slid open with a wet hiss as Theo approached, revealing a dark corridor lined with glowing vein-like cables. They pulsed faintly, casting an eerie light that did little to reassure him.

  He hesitated at the threshold, every instinct screaming at him to turn back.

  He crossed the threshold and managed a few tentative steps before an ominous glow dimmed the already oppressive ambience.

  “Ah. See, this is the part where the horror movie guy dies to kick everything off. Hard pass.” he said aloud, taking a step back. “I’ll just wait out here until…”

  The door hissed shut. Theo’s stomach dropped. I just shouldn’t talk.

  Inside, the air was cooler but carried the same electric tang. The walls shimmered faintly, alive with strange patterns that seemed to shift and swirl in response to his presence.

  He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched.

  As he ventured deeper, the corridor opened into a vast chamber filled with technology that made his head spin.

  Monitors floated in mid-air, displaying symbols he couldn’t comprehend. Mechanical arms whirred and clicked, their movements precise as they worked on… something.

  The centerpiece of the room was a towering column of light, its surface rippling like liquid glass.

  “If you continue forward you’ll be a puddle in three seconds. State your name and class,” a voice boomed. Unlike the earlier disembodied voice, this one carried a sharp, almost accusatory edge.

  Theo froze. "Uh, Theo Kane? I guess, lower class?"

  The voice came again with admonishment. "Your system class, numb nuts! Why are you even here so early, the tutorial should still be ongoing."

  Theo startled back, surprised at the acerbic nature of the reply. "Well I don’t know what that is?! Early, what? I didn’t exactly book a ticket. Your system thingy dragged me here."

  There was a pause, the kind that felt like judgment. Then, the column of light shifted, its surface rippling as a holographic figure emerged. The figure was humanoid but distinctly alien, its features sharp and angular, with glowing blue eyes that seemed to pierce through him.

  "You’re not supposed to be here," it said, its tone a mix of curiosity and irritation. "How did you bypass the initialization protocols?"

  Theo shrugged, trying to mask his unease with bravado before losing control and raising his voice with exasperation. "I can’t help but feel like I’ve already made it clear that I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"

  The figure tilted its head, studying him. "Hmm. Mildly Interesting. A deviation. EG won’t like that."

  "Wonderful," Theo said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now,can you please explain why I’m here? No one has told me anything and to be perfectly honest with you, I’m about one more invading voice away from imploding."

  The voice bit back immediately, "I don’t know… Maybe to test the limits of how resilient my work is to unheralded levels of whining? I don’t control what that bitch of a system does."

  Theo opened his mouth to retort, but the holographic figure raised a hand. "Shut up. I’ll figure this out. Take one step forward but touch any of my shit and you’ll die."

  Theo thought about giving some quip, but the cameras weren’t on, and he wanted answers more than he wanted to soothe his wounded pride.

  With a deep breath, he took a cautious step forward.

  The room responded instantly. Lights lanced over his skin, each pulse crawling into his veins and tugging at something deeper—like the machine wasn’t just scanning him but unraveling him piece by piece.

  The hologram flitted between him and some unseen interface, muttering in frustration.

  “Oh, you have got to be shitting me!” it exclaimed, its earlier cold composure unraveling.

  Theo crossed his arms, his brow furrowing. “Care to let me in on the joke?”

  The hologram’s gaze snapped back to him, glowing eyes narrowing. “You ARE the joke. A colossal, cosmic one at my expense.”

  “Dad? I thought you died,” Theo quipped, his voice laced with sarcasm before an awkward silence followed. “Ahem, apologies. I get sarcastic when I’m abducted into a sci-fi nightmare.”

  The voice ignored him; its form flickered, glitching as it muttered to itself. “Catalyx signatures… It shouldn’t have skipped this many generations. Why aren’t there more if it survived?”

  Theo blinked, the words flying past him like a language he wasn’t fluent in. “Ah, thanks. Really cleared things up.”

  The scans abruptly stopped, and the hologram dissolved as if it had never been there. A heavy, distinctly human voice replaced it, sharp with frustration. “Get in here, Theo.”

  Theo glanced back at the door sealing him off from the chaos outside. With a resigned sigh, he stepped forward, crossing the threshold into the unknown.

  Darkness enveloped him for a moment, his heart pounding in the suffocating stillness. Then, the voice spoke again, quieter this time, almost grudging.

  “This should’ve been impossible… but here you are.”