Star Navs: Cosmic Fold

by Salami Femi

The sterile white lights of the displacement chamber hummed, reflecting off the polished floor. Ayo shifted his weight, the infused fibers of his stealth suit whispering with the movement.

“Listen, everyone,” announced Chief Edun, a man whose scholarly reputation was as impeccably tailored as his robes. He was flanked by two silent, broad-shouldered assistants. “The mission is simple: take us there and bring us back in one piece. Got it?”

A chorus of “Yes, sir,” echoed from Ayo and Kemi.

“Then let’s make history,” Chief Edun said with a politician’s smile.

The group stepped onto the central platform. Ayo and Kemi stood back-to-back, their hands rising in unison to touch the glowing symbols on their foreheads. The air in front of them shimmered, then fractured. Distances collapsed, space folding like a celestial origami project. Stars became streaks of light, and the solid floor beneath them seemed to melt into a vortex of cosmic energy.

When the light subsided, their eyes adjusted to an alien twilight. A desolate, grey landscape stretched to a horizon that was too close, a small, crater-pocked moon under a sky dominated by a colossal, ringed gas giant.

“Welcome to your new world,” Kemi said, her voice steady.

As the last of them stepped off, the chamber platform flickered and vanished, leaving only the stark alien rock. The Chief and his assistants began unpacking scanning equipment. Ayo, however, felt the familiar itch of boredom. He kicked at a dark, crystalline rock, sending it skittering into a crater.

“Look at this alien rock,” he muttered. “What use is it to me?”

“Everything,” Chief Edun replied, not looking up from his data-pad. “Most of our basic technology is powered by mineral composites from alien worlds. We have clean energy today because we stopped using coal centuries ago. Some of these ‘rocks’ have quantum properties that need examination. That, Cadet Balogun, is why we are here.”

Suddenly, Tope, one of the Chief’s assistant moved with shocking speed. He didn’t reach for an item from the crate. Instead, he pulled a small, woven mat from within his tunic and threw it to the ground. It glowed with a soft, internal light.

“Tope, what is the meaning of this?” Chief Edun demanded.

Tope ignored him. He raised a hand, his own forehead symbol flaring a violent red. The space around him warped. The other assistant cried out as the spatial ripple caught him, hurling him into the void between worlds. He was just… gone.

Before Ayo or Kemi could even process the betrayal, Tope held a sleek, energy pistol pointed at the Chief.

He fired. A lance of crimson light struck Chief Edun in the chest. The scholar gasped, and died.

“No!” Kemi screamed.

In a fluid motion, Tope grabbed Kemi, locking an arm around her neck and pressing the pistol to her temple. His eyes, now blazing with fanatical fire, found Ayo.

“Step onto the mat, Navigator,” Tope snarled. “Or I paint this moon with her brains.”

Ayo’s mind raced, his own power stirring, but he was frozen. One wrong fold and Kemi could be torn apart.

“Don’t do it, Ayo!” Kemi gritted out.

Tope’s answer was to shift his aim and fire. The beam seared into Kemi’s leg and she cried out.

That was all Ayo needed. Rage, cold and sharp, shattered his paralysis. With a roar, he didn’t fold space—he launched himself forward, tackling Tope at the waist. The three of them tumbled onto the glowing mat.

The world dissolved into a nauseating lurch. The barren moon vanished, replaced by a hammer-blow of absolute cold. A hurricane of frozen methane screamed around them, and the temperature instantly plunged hundreds of degrees.

Tope’s scream was cut short. A spiderweb of cracks appeared on his faceplate of his stealth suit, and then it shattered. His body flash-froze in an instant.

Ayo’s own suit screamed its warnings, his personal shield flaring as it fought to contain his body heat. He couldn’t stay or think. Kemi was shivering violently in his arms, her suit breached at the leg. He had one chance.

Gritting his teeth, he focused past the pain, the howling wind, and reached for the fabric of reality. He folded space again, a desperate, uncalculated jump.

The biting cold vanished, replaced by a thick, humid heat. The roar of the ice storm was replaced by the squelch of mud and the chorus of unseen, chittering life. They collapsed onto a spongy, violet bank. A swamp.

“Kemi? Kemi, talk to me,” Ayo pleaded, cradling her head. Her eyes were fluttering, her breathing shallow. Her leg was a mess of scorched fabric and flesh.

“Water… everywhere,” she slurred. “No…”

Before Ayo could even attempt to gather his strength for another jump, the swamp erupted. A multi-legged creature, all chitinous plates and dripping mandibles, burst from the murk, charging them.

Ayo shoved Kemi behind him, raising his hands to fold space, but he was drained, disoriented. The creature was too fast. It slammed into him, its claws tearing at his suit. He fought back with raw desperation, but his strength was failing.

Suddenly, a blur of motion. A figure, tall and humanoid, clad in rustic, armored leather, dropped from the canopy above. It moved with impossible grace, a blade of obsidian-like material slicing cleanly through the creature’s primary limb. The beast screeched and retreated into the murky water.

Gasping, Ayo lay in the muck, his suit torn, his body aching. He looked up at his savior. The figure’s face was obscured by a hood and a goggle-like apparatus.

“Thanks,” Ayo panted, his voice raw with exhaustion and relief. “She’s hurt… We need help.”

The figure stood perfectly still for a moment then, with a speed that matched the swamp creature’s, the figure swung the pommel of its blade. He saw it too late.

His last conscious thought was not of anger, but of a profound, sinking betrayal and helplessness in an unknown swampy world.