2Chapter 1: The Blinding Lights
His eyes were filled with infinite colours, the unseeable made visible to him by making him feel the colours. He pushed back against the pressure with both his Light and Darkness, the two opposites working together to fight back against the crushing force that threatened to destroy his ship, himself and his Ghost. The weight lessened, if only by a bit, and the creaking of his spaceship lessened, only small rumblings and shakes could be heard.
"How long until we're out of the portal, Arce?" The glimmering eye of his ghost looked at him from his peripherals, giving an uncertain look at him. "The worst should be subsiding in a couple of minutes. If we are lucky, we might survive, unlike the first Guardians to investigate the portal." The mangled bodies of the three brave Guardians flashed in his mind but for a moment, the disgusting sight of their bodies and Ghosts grafted into their ship's hull.
"We shall survive, no matter what." His voice was hard, his mind focusing on the task at hand: keeping the forces from collapsing everything around him.
The groaning and rumbling slowly quieted, until there was only the sight of impossible lights flashing before his eyes. "We seem to be clear, for now at least." Arce was looking around the cockpit, seeing if any damage was being reported. Her shell body became more relaxed the more she looked at the reports: "Minor damage to the communication array, can't send any long-range messages. The thrusters are doing good, just some minor fluctuations in power consumption. The reactor is alright, just stressed from the increased load from shields and thrusters." Her voice droned on, a familiar habit that she had when stressed.
"The portal's readings are stabilising. Man, if only we could send our findings back to the Vanguard, imagine how many Guardians would go inside the Traveler!" Arce's voice became more upbeat, her mind steered off from the dread of imminent death. The silence was calming, with no imminent danger of being crushed by paracausal forces. The cockpit was quiet for many minutes, the Warlock and Ghost savouring the silence before the possible chaos that would come. "I am feeling a shift in forces…but I don't know where they are leading us to." Arce looked at the screens showing the outside world, seeing that the colours had changed into more bluish shades.
"Even the power itself is changing, it's turning weaker and…more chaotic." She sounded worried, the Warlock noticed, 'She is rarely worried'. The outside world had changed mostly into blue with differing shades and some sparks of pink and violet.
The Warlock looked at the ship's readings, seeing that the power fluctuations had stopped and the reports from SIVA repair nanites showed that long-range communications was possible now. "Arce, try to see if we can get a connection to the Tower." Some beeps sounded out and the Ghost sighed. "I can't get any signal out, and it seems like there are no signals coming in as well."
He sighed, feeling mentally exhausted from all the stress that has been put on him for what felt like days, but probably was a couple hours. Time worked differently in this portal, he noted.
An alarm sounded from one of the consoles to his right. Looking at the scans he noted that it had found a change in space-time, meaning he was nearing the end of this portal stream. "Looks like we are going to find out where we are in a few seconds." Arce looked at him and disappeared in a shower of Light.
"Exiting portal in three…two…one." A heavy shake went through the ship, signifying the successful jump from a portal to real space. What greeted his eyes was not surprising: stars in the backdrop of space. But the scanners surprised him. "Where is the Traveler?"