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Wayde Evans
Dr Donna Mazza
CCC3109
4 June 2019

Project Zeugma

“Lieutenant Falco, what’s the status on the situation with the intruders?”

“Sir, there’s still no response, and they continue mining the Sun. At the current pace,

our readings indicate orbital drift will occur within seven years.”

“Very well Lieutenant, inform me if there’s any change.”

Breaking his silence when he could no longer contain his concerns, the young officer

appeared deeply troubled. “Sir, we have to do something, we’re running out of time! You

have to initiate Project Zeugma before it’s too late! Sir, please…”

“Lieutenant! You forget your place!”

“Forgive me Admiral, I meant no disrespect. Should I continue scanning for

communications?”

After casting a pointed and fixed glance of judgement over his lieutenant, the admiral

responded with a simple nod of the head that his officers were well accustomed to. Admiral

Wade was known on Angelia 5 to be a fair man, but also known to have a dark and dangerous

side. A long-running joke amongst the crew was that it was safer to be a human on the dark

side of the moon, than an Angelian on the dark side of Wade.

Looking around the bridge that had served as Angelia 5’s command centre for more

than 15,000 years, the admiral’s expression was seen to drift into a solemn despondency

never before seen by his crew. An uncomfortable silence fell over the bridge, and looks of

trepidation were passed around the room. Then as if waking from a daydream, the admiral

regained his composure and turned his attention to Commander Aurelia, his second-in-

command.
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“Commander, I’ll be in my ready room. You have the bridge.”

“Yes Admiral.”

Back in his ready room and seated behind his desk, the weight of responsibility felt by

the admiral was never more pressing than it was at that moment. Was it already too late? Had

he already waited too long? He considered the story of Gandric Knower, and how he was able

to use the Zeugma to create the arcs of Angelia, but Knower was Angelian. What could a half-

breed be expected to do in the same time? All of these thoughts ruminated within his mind,

but he also knew that his lieutenant was correct. It was time to make the call…

“Admiral, tell me you have good news…”

“Sir, I do not. The intruders remain unresponsive, and we are still no closer to

understanding why our scanners and weapons are ineffective. Our only remaining options are

to initiate Project Zeugma, or begin the evacuation of Earth.”

“Very well Admiral. Initiate Project Zeugma immediately, and keep me apprised of its

progression.”

“Yes Sir.”

“And Admiral, do I have to remind you of just how powerful a Zeugod can become?”

“No Sir.”

“It is absolutely crucial that the subjects remain contained until their true natures have

been fully ascertained, and any destructive subjects are to be terminated without delay!”

“Understood Sir.”

“Well then, good luck Admiral.”

“Thankyou Sir.”

The call ends, and the Admiral immediately made another.

“Gentex…”

“This is Admiral Wade, Authorisation NOHAHC-1-7-7-8. Put me through to Dr Henry

Cassian.”
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“One moment…”

“Hello Admiral, this is Dr Cassian.”

“Dr Cassian. Project Zeugma has been authorised. Begin immediately, and update me

directly with daily progress reports.”

“Understood Admiral.”

The Admiral leaned back in his chair, slowly stroking the short white stubble on his

face. He was aware of the potential of Project Zeugma to save the Earth, but equally aware of

its potential to unleash a far greater threat upon the universe. A Zeugod’s power rested in an

ability to harness the flow of reality, and re-form the perceptual constructs that define its

shape; not something that should ever be taken lightly. Back in the beginning, on Angelia

Prime, the Zeugods of Olympus were well aware of the risks involved in misusing the

Zeugma. Its potential was limitless; granting them powers of heavenly creation but also of

hellish destruction. It was with great foresight and wisdom that Zeus set forth the ten

commandments that went on to govern the use of the Zeugma, and ‘The Code of Zeus’ paved

the way for almost 4,000 years of peace and order… until his wife, Lucifer, attempted a coup

that ignited ‘The Celestial Uprising’ of 13,413 BCE.

Admiral Wade poured himself a whiskey, and sat amongst the countenance of his

thoughts…

Subject Z-020 : Jack Phoenix

Project Zeugma proceeded as planned, and after six years had passed, only one subject

remained. He was known as ‘Subject Z-020’, but his name was Jack Phoenix.

Jack Phoenix was always anything but normal. He never knew why he was different,

only that he was. But six years ago, things really began to change for Jack. It was during a

freak mid-summer storm that woke him in the middle of the night, as his bed shook with the

force of an earthquake, and a blinding white light filled the room. The sounds were unlike the
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pounding claps of thunder that one might expect; they were ferocious crackling zaps that

sounded like powerful arcs of electricity being forced between a matrix of conductors

surrounding his house. And on that night, not a single drop of rain fell, but Jack’s perception

filter had inexplicably fallen away. His previous curiosity with patterns quickly became an

obsession, and over the course of the six years that followed he developed an ability to not

only predict the patterns that form reality, but also to harness their creative potential.

“Hey Jack, you comin’ or what mate?!”

“Nah, not this time man, got another assignment I gotta get done.”

“Another one?!”

“Yeah, you know how it is…”

“You’re still comin’ to the game though, right?”

“Yeah, I should be finished by then.”

“Alright then mate, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Seeya man”.

Jack headed home, expecting to spend the night working on another one of his

university assignments, with no idea of the real work he would be doing… at Gentex. Even

within an organisation as secretive as Gentex, there were still only a handful of employees

with security clearance high enough to gain access to the identities of Human-Angelian

hybrids. The high level of secrecy was never an issue though. All of the hybrids were injected

with unique radioactive isotopes for the purpose of wireless tracking and transportation, and

memory software with partitioning and editing capabilities was used while they were in the

digitised state of the wireless transportation process. In this way, the Angelians working on

Project Zeugma were able to train and prepare their subjects, without the subjects ever being

made aware of it. Although… they were half Angelian, so who can really say for sure what

they were aware of.

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Jack arrived home sensing something important was about to unfold, yet unsure of

why he felt that way, or why the feeling was so intense. He stepped inside, closed the door,

and flicked on the light. But what he saw next, as he turned around, was not the house he

walked into; Not a house at all… he found himself in a completely new and unfamiliar

location.

“Dr Cassian, I’ve lost the signal of Subject Z-020. I had him in the buffer, about to

switch over to partition Z, but then he was just… gone!”

“Well get him back!”

“I’ve tried Sir, but the system can’t locate his signal. I can attempt a digital

reconstruction of his pattern from the buffer’s memory, but it’s already degrading…”

“Do it!”

The engineer had worked for Dr Cassian for a long time, and never once had he lost a

subject during transport.

Scrambling frantically to recover the subject’s pattern, the engineer eventually

relented: “I’m sorry Sir, I was unable to reconstruct the subject’s pattern from what remained

in the buffer. Subject Z-020 is lost.”

Jack looked around, thinking this must be another one of those lucid dreams he’d been

having. But in the other dreams, he was always in the same room. This place was different.

There were no other people this time, and he was floating mid-air in some sort of spherical

translucent structure. He could see through its ‘walls’… outside was only darkness and fire.

“You have been taken. A disturbance in the Zeugma has been detected, and you are the

source. The threat must be assessed.”

Jack looked around, but the voice seemed to be coming from inside his head.

“Our presence here is necessitated by the actions of one of your kind. In our time, the

knowledge of Zeugma is strictly controlled, and its use has been prohibited for centuries. We

come from the year 3,047, more than one thousand years into your future. In one year from
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now, a Zeugod will initiate a universal star drain that progresses exponentially, forward in

time, as it bleeds through into every moment that is yet to come. We have not ascertained the

purpose of this drain, but in our time, there is very little star energy remaining in the universe.

Our only option was to harvest energy from stars, as they existed before the drain, and at

levels that never supersede the function of each to sustain its solar system.”

It was in those moments, as Jack listened to the voice of the sphere inside his head,

that something beyond comprehension was set into motion. Whether you call it a time

paradox, or boot-strap theory, for Jack it was much more vivid and real. For Jack it was as if

the entire universe -- past, present, and future -- had exploded inside his mind, and his

thoughts were now travelling through infinite streams of time and possibilities.

Then it stopped.

The consciousness of Jack Phoenix, through some inexplicable twist of fate, had

merged with the Zeugma in its most primordial state. For an instant in time that became a

non-linear spark of creation, Jack had at once finally understood his true purpose. That

disturbing feeling, that for so long had echoed up from within the deepest recesses of his sub-

conscious mind, had finally shown itself; And now he felt only peace.

The consciousness of Jack Phoenix swept through time gathering up the energies of

close and distant stars, and in a blink of his own perception, he emerged at a point where spirit

collides with destiny – The Big Bang.