The Nexus Hub of Hrok'Dok Studies

Document: Report on the First Encounter of Hrok'Dok

Submission Date: 1/1/1

Submitter: Head of Hrok'Dok Studies, Chief Investigator Qom

Submission:

I just made it back home... With incredible evidence that proves the existence of the hrok'dok! But at what price...? I've decided to create the Nexus Hub of Hrok'Dok Studies so that if I die from this damn bite, others can carry on my research... Let this day be known as the first day of the first month of the first year of the existence of the nexus. Ugh, I'm so tired. But I can't sleep, not yet... I know what they do when you sleep... I have to get the transcript recorded.

Transcript of Interview with Krac/Fenry Zilken

MYSELF: *I enter a white room built for outsiders talking to patients. It's only furniture is a white table and two white, rather uncomfortable, chairs.* "Good morning, young sir."

PATIENT: "You don't look like the other people..."

MYSELF: "What other people?"

PATIENT: "The ones who put me here. They were afraid of me." *The young Perrachi smiles, rather creepily.* "So you're someone else... The question is, who?"

MYSELF: "Well I suppose introductions are in order then, my name is Chief Investigator Qom. I want to know everything that you know about what happened to the Shallow Springs colony."

PATIENT: *The patient smiles that creepy, somewhat frightening smile again.* "Of course, of course. My name is Krac. It means worthless one in the Hrok'Dok tongue."

MYSELF: *Stunned* "I-I... You... You know their name? But your name is actually Fenry Zilken."

PATIENT: *Smiles again.* "Fenry was swallowed by the Blood. There is only a krac now."

MYSELF: *I now notice that Fenry/Krac hasn't blinked once, or moved his gaze from my eyes. He is very disturbing.* "Only 'a krac' now? I'm a bit confused."

KRAC: "I am a krac, a worthless one. My life is nothing. My only purpose is to serve the Hrok'Dok, the Hatchlings of Gods, which is the translation in your language. At the same time though, my name is also Krac."

MYSELF: "I see... How do you serve the Hatchlings of Gods, more specifically?"

KRAC: "I do as my masters command. There are basically 'standing orders' though, such as spreading the Blood."

MYSELF: "Spreading the Blood? What is the Blood?"

KRAC: "The Blood is what gives the masters and their servants long, long life. To be more exact, it's an ancient nanomachine that was developed millennia ago by the masters, with many functions. Some believe it might even predate the masters' civilization, because no one remembers how to make them anymore. They just reproduce through consumption of the necessary elements, and is spread through liquids like blood. But the key thing is, it doesn't always spread... the Blood seems to have a mind of its own. Sometimes it speaks to the masters, sometimes it speaks to kracs. The Blood spoke to me though, it told me to take care of the eggs..."

MYSELF: "Eggs? The 'Blood' doesn't always spread? What happens if it doesn't spread?"

KRAC: "The eggs came in a sphere that was guarding them, from outer space. Sometimes the Blood doesn't spread. Sometimes it will outright kill you, sometimes the nanomachines simply choose to self-destruct inside you. As far as the masters know, it's not related to genetics. When another species is exposed to the Blood, four things can happen: They can become kracs; they can die; nothing could happen; or the Blood could choose simply to enhance them as it does the masters. Now, it's very unusual and rare for the Blood to simply enhance another species. To do so is like the Blood stating that that creature is on the same level as the masters, and in a way, it's true. As much as they might hate it, the masters accept that there are creatures that are apparently worthy enough to stand with them."

MYSELF: "Hmm. Ok, well, can you explain what happened at Shallow Springs?"

KRAC: "Fenry was out playing with his friends in the woods when they came across the guardian sphere. He had the courage to approach it, and it opened for him when he touched it. The outside was slimy, this is what contained the Blood that entered his body through the skin. Inside was a tiny clutch of hrok'dok eggs, three to be exact. A male and two females were preserved inside, but Fenry didn't know that. He stubbornly took the eggs home, against what his friends told him to do, and hid the eggs in his closet.

That night, the Blood made its move as he slept, as the Blood so characteristically does, with a dream. A dream that depicted the masters in their adult form, and how they had escaped the destruction of their galaxy by their own arrogance."

MYSELF: "Sorry to interrupt you, but destruction of their own galaxy?"

KRAC: "The masters were once the supreme civilization in their galaxy, holding control over all of it, having crushed and exterminated countless rival civilizations. But they fell into civil war. Every side threatened every other side, until things devolved into war. Then, finally, every faction began unleashing black hole weapons, breaking multiple treaties designed to prevent the use of gravitic weaponry, particularly hyper-gravitic weaponry. Ultimately, the galaxy became doomed to be sucked into a bunch of artificial black holes. Before this happened, a faction of hrok'dok sent the sphere with the eggs out of the galaxy, with a trajectory to reach this planet."

MYSELF: "Why didn't the hrok'dok simply perform an exodus from the galaxy?"

KRAC: "An exodus was seen as cowardice, and dishonor. The hrok'dok chose to honorably accept the consequences of their actions, and 'go down with the ship,' so to say."

MYSELF: "Please continue your story, krac."

KRAC: "The dream explained their situation, and Fenry was sympathetic to the hrok'dok. So he kept them hidden, and they hatched a few days later. He got food for them, and spent months carefully tending to their needs, slowly losing himself in his service. Soon though, they were too big to fit in his closet, for the length of an adult hrok'dok is about eighteen to twenty feet, occasionally more, and he had to let them out into his room. Things starting going to hell at that point." *The krac smiled and laughed.* "Fenry's mother walked in to clean his room, screamed at the sight of the hrok'dok, and was promptly ripped apart and eaten. My memory is cloudy at that point, when Fenry was swallowed by the Blood. I just know that things really fell apart, that the hrok'dok started killing people and biting them, and soon, everyone in Shallow Springs was either a krac or dead."

MYSELF: "Then the military stepped in at some point, and discovered the kracs? You know the colony was nuked eventually."

KRAC: "They captured me shortly before that happened. I played the part of insane young boy who just survived an unusual incident. The next day, after my rantings and ravings, they decided to sanitize the colony."

MYSELF: "You convinced them to destroy your own people? What about your masters?"

KRAC: "The masters escaped unharmed, long, long before the colony was sanitized. And I did it because the masters wanted me to. The 'Shallow Springs Incident' wasn't supposed to have happened. There weren't supposed to be sapients on the planet. The masters were fearful of the screaming female Perrachi, of all the other sapients that lived in Shallow Springs. It wasn't something they had encountered. You have to understand, they're still children. They won't be reproductive adults for five more years (Qom's note: Shallow Springs occurred approximately three years ago), and they won't be full-fledged adults for another two decades after that. The masters couldn't have a colony full of witnesses to their existence. So I convinced the military the only option was thermonuclear."

MYSELF: "Ok... So where are the hrok'dok now?"

KRAC: "I don't know. I was unable to hear them speaking to me once they left in the ship they took from the colony. I have no idea where they went."

MYSELF: "Well thank for your time, krac... Now, I have to wonder, why did you tell me all this?"

KRAC: *The krac blinked* "You have to find them, Chief Investigator Qom. They cannot be allowed to become extinct. And I have to make sure you do..."

MYSELF: "What do you mean make su- oh shi-" *The krac leaps across the table, his beak wide open, fangs that shouldn't exist for his species extended towards me. Claws have extended out of his hands, things that also shouldn't exist for the Perrachi. Needless to say, I'm scared ****less at this point. I fall back in my chair, kicking the table up instinctively, sending him slamming against the roof. When he hits the ground, he simply starts running towards me. The krac is unusually fast and agile. I kick the little demon in the face, but it keeps coming at me, snapping with its fanged beak. It latches onto my leg with its claws, digging in. I try to shake the creature off, but its grip is like steel. The damn thing is unusually strong too. I can't get it off, and it sinks its fanged beak into my leg. I can feel something being injected into me as the guards come storming in and stun the krac into submission. I realize I now carry the Blood...*

I'm so, so tired now... I haven't slept in at least two days, but I can feel the changes already. Please, if the Blood swallows me, someone kill me... I can't stay awake any longer.