She, of the Reliquary

The Warrior opened his eyes and saw to his amazement that her eyes had regenerated -- tears ran down her cheeks and she tossed her head back and her body stiffened while an orgasm passed through her with the sudden ferocity of colliding comets.

As the after effect of her orgasm lingered, the Warrior could see that the guardian's body blazed in the infrared spectrum as it fought the cooling wave of non-existence while his own flesh was slowly cooling. But craven as they were by lust, the guardian turned her back to the Warrior and placed her hands on the bulkhead and spread her legs and swayed her hips.

"End this before the cold takes you too," the guardian commanded.

The Warrior grabbed her waist and entered her from behind, his cock following the slanted angle of her pussy and he renewed his pounding with the fierce alacrity his artificial being was bred for. She pressed her forehead against the bulkhead and its dark matter architecture rippled and radiated from the Warrior's every impact deep within her cunt. He grabbed her wrist like reins and pulled her back and battered her with his violent lovemaking -- to his eyes, a singular line of energy seemed to coalesce from his body and cross into the guardian's and back into him. The feeling of bliss and harmony was unlike any he had felt before -- but he realized that it stemmed from the guardian. The fissures had spread across her body like fiery ley lines. The guardian had already accepted her fate.

"Guardian!" he bellowed as he erupted within her, his come more like the blistering plasma of a solar flare than the imitation substance made for his mistress. The guardian cried in pleasure as she was rocked with another orgasm -- but this one ended with her body glowing blindingly across the entire spectrum while she was consumed in an explosion similar to a star gone nova. The force drove the Warrior across the chamber and he watched as arcs of energy ricocheted off the bulkheads, inflaming whatever they touched -- he was stunned to see them pass through him harmlessly. The hanging Seed Lord was shredded by the arcs of plasma, his skin vaporizing and his limbs falling to the floor in bubbling, bloodied heaps.

The Warrior rose to knees and scanned the devastated chamber -- green plasma fires danced across the curved bulkheads in an eerily silent ballet. Strange shadows shimmied across the chamber. He strove to his feet when he felt his skin prickle -- he thought that it was a discharge from the reliquary finally tearing itself apart. But the sensation soon changed to one of something burrowing into him. He shifted his spectral vision and saw that he was surrounded by words ... actions ... ideas ... -- and he felt and odd sensation for the first time: fear.

The Warrior stood amidst a cloud composed of the whole of the Providers' knowledge embedded in coherent quantum wavefronts that ebbed and flowed around him. It was the noosphere in its purest iteration -- akin to the madness and logic melded and designed to be carried by biological vectors -- the wavefronts converged on the Warrior.

He wanted to fight the intrusion he felt as his every atom was fissured and then fused with a quantum component of the noosphere -- an eyewitness would describe it as seeing billions of micro-nuclear explosions enclosed in a sphere of incandescent energy. While his body was destroyed and remade by the noosphere input, the Warrior found himself screaming against the irascible will of the Providers.

Throughout the ordeal, the logistics part of his synthetic brain was monitoring the gradual reassembly of his body and understood that his artificial nature was quite suited to temporarily receive and carry the noosphere. At the same time, he monitored the approach of the Reliquary -- diminished velocity indicated a potential docking attempt. But a connection with the Reliquary's intelligence clarified the attempted manoeuvre. Using a boosted signal from the Reliquary, the Warrior accessed the coherence circuit of the ship he was in and the floor beneath him dissolved and gravity ripped him from the ship and pulled him towards the hostile surface of the young planet below.

7. Abiogenesis

During the descent, the noosphere completely bonded with the Warrior and his mind suffered a synaptic reboot, leaving him in a limbo till his sense can back on line and he managed to solidify his flesh before he impacted the harsh terrain of the planet. The impact rumbled though the thick atmosphere and a high column of dust rose from the deep crater the Warrior left as his first mark upon this newly trekked planet. From the centre of the crater, the Warrior unfurled and stood to his full height, his body acted like a display, showing the history of the Providers -- their wars, their art, their technological singularity, their failures ... even their demise. There were also projections of personal stories that floated around him like an errant mist. This circulation ensured the Warrior did not overload with concentrated knowledge.

The Warrior looked up at the reliquary from which he had narrowly escaped and registered the vast shadow it left on the planet. He also saw the Lady Relic's Reliquary crash into the other and a massive flash of light erased the planet's surface. Despite the illumination, the Warrior was able to filter the wavelengths and witness the Reliquary collapse its singularity drive and phase into hyperspace the moment it crashed into its dying sister ship.

The intrinsic field of the universe was breached as the two vessels disappeared beyond its boson boundary -- but the presence of the null g web prevented the collapse of the planet's intrinsic field and the breach sealed itself while a sudden rush of atmospheric gases crashed together, filling the vacuum left by the huge, absent ships. A shock wave rippled across the atmosphere and mounting winds knocked even the Warrior from his feet.

The Warrior maintained his solidified state, his skin nearly indigo in colour while he managed to fight the wailing, particle filled winds and struggled to his feet. Stones smashed against his dense body as his deliberate steps propelled him forward. He reached out to the Reliquary with his mind but found only emptiness. So he looked to the sky to where it had crashed with the other vessel; but he already knew where it had went. The slowing winds and the shattered null g web confirmed it -- the Lady Relic had phased into hyperspace, carrying the other ship with her and had gambled, emerging at the planet's core. By collapsing the singularity drive and encasing the subsequent black hole in a tomb of dark matter comprised of the two reliquaries, she had added to the mass of the planet's core enough to overload the null g web and neutralize it.

Once the dust settled and the winds subsided, the Warrior ran north, seeking a high vantage point when the surface of the planet began to quiver and shake, reflecting the massive upheavals affecting its core. To his left and to his right, the ground heaved and complete mountain ranges burst from the planet's mantle -- the Warrior had to leap gushing rivers of magma, nearly as hot as the star's surface, that erupted from the base of the rising behemoths.

Standing on a rocky out cropping, the Warrior observed the columns of ash and lava flows that cooled upon encountering the sulphur smelling air. Through the clouds and ash, the Warrior identified a quasar like burst of x-rays. Upon recognition of the beacon, it triggered a cascade of images before him, replaying the departure of the reliquaries from relativistic space and the the launching of a escape pod towards the surface. The realization set the the Warrior on a frantic race to locate the pod, his rebuilt legs propelling him to speeds never seen on this planet.

The Warrior ran for what like felt an eternity till he found the pod protruding from the side of a rocky hill. Without hesitation, he grabbed the side of the pod and easily hefted it free from the clinging, heated stone. He gently deposited it to the ground and he sent a sensor wave from his fingers to assess the Lady Relic's condition -- she was alive but unconscious, injured, and losing blood. The Warrior sought the seam and the virtual panel that would allow him to breach the capsule -- but when he did it was unresponsive to his commands. He realized he had one chance at opening the pod. His flesh returned to its original shade of blue, although it still displayed and ever changing cavalcade of images relating the Providers existence. He tapped his left pectoral muscle twice and the quark sword ejected itself from the space between his molecules. Using a magnetic rendering of the internals of the pod as a guide, he carefully inserted the sword into the pod and carved a path, allowing him to cleave it in half. He flipped the top section off with an easy flick of his wrist, inserted the quark sword back into his chest and pulled the Lady Relic out of the pod.

Setting her on the ground, he was encouraged to see she was clad in a transparent atmo-morphic skin. It allowed her to metabolize usually unbreathable gasses while allowing her senses to function normally. He ran his fingers over her fragile form and identified her injuries: a gaping hole in her side where a rib had pierced her skin and shattered, collapsing her lung. Before he could even think, the noosphere within him dictated his actions. He had to replace her rib -- he reached into his side, his skin splitting and he seized one of his ribs. He inserted it into her wound and the rib occupied the space left by the broken one. At the same time, the new rib released a series of nano bots that proceeded to build architectures onto which accelerated tissues could mend her injuries.

The process lasted till dark while the Warrior stood vigil, monitoring the Lady Relic's progress as well as being tutored by the expansive noosphere. Two more of the the planet's revolutions passed when the Warrior felt a delicate hand touch his shoulder.

"Hello there," the Warrior said, the young atmosphere warping his voice.

The Lady Relic sat down on the harsh ground and looked up at the ashen sky as the volcanoes around them spurted great plumes of magma and soot. The Warrior sat down next to her -- she gripped his arm and rested her head on his thick shoulder.

"It's beautiful here," she said as the nano filters of her atmo-morphic skin purified her air, extracting as much oxygen as possible for her to breathe. She then moved slightly away from him, realizing his body was like a living holographic emitter. Directly in front of his face, she saw a graphic of the third planet, the way it would look in the future.

"It's all in there," the Warrior said, tapping his forehead. "The download was ... unpleasant." He smirked.

She nodded and admired the cloud of knowledge that floated around him. "All they were and all they achieved ..."

"We're stranded here," he added as the graph of the planet morphed to show it the way it would be deeper in the future, teeming with life.

"Wasn't that supposed to be our purpose?" she asked. "To come to a planet like this and spread the seed of the Providers?"

The Warrior stood and looked out to the horizon where the young star was setting and said: "I was never supposed to think about purpose beyond acknowledging it and accepting it. My purpose was to love you, and I do. My purpose was to fight for you but I failed -- instead, you saved this world at your own risk ..."

The Lady Relic scrambled to her feet and twisted the Warrior harshly so she could look up at him. "You failed nothing! You gave comfort to brethren so she could die in peace. You gave me solace when my heart was breaking -- you took the noosphere into you even though that could have destroyed you. Do you think fighting only means waving that quark sword?"

She hugged him close and pressed her face into his chest. The Warrior felt her innate heat seep through the atmo-morphic skin and relished it -- but he also felt her tears against his flesh. "You've always fought," she mused as she pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

"Now stop fighting and love me," the Lady Relic ordered.

The Warrior bid her command and kissed her back, his tongue a slow moving but welcomed intruder against hers and she allowed her fingers to linger on his hardening sex before she roamed over the hard muscles of his arms and shoulders -- he was like living stone, a monument to the accomplishments of the Providers. The sensitivity of the atmo-morphic shell was startling as her fingers tingled wherever she touch him, leaving a fading ripple of light that glowed beneath his skin.

The Warrior fell backwards onto the ground the Lady Relic fell on him -- she slid up his torso so his lips she craved could embrace her nipples. He licked them voraciously, tracing tight circles around her aureola while squeezing her firm tits and drawing a thankful moan from her lips -- she shuddered when the tips of his hard cock bounced against her pussy.

"Why is kissing you making me spin like a pulsar?" the Lady Relic asked as she covered his face with little caresses from her full lips. Her mind was arrested with dizzying images that left her dumbfounded. His answer was to press his lips to the soft flesh of her neck and to sneak a hand between their bodies till his fingers found her cunt lips and he parted them and ran his middle finger across the length of her slit till he found her clit and he rubbed it furiously.

The Lady Relic moaned and arched her back as his fingers played her to orgasm. She pressed her nipple deeper into the Warrior's mouth, seeking to add to the churning pleasure his fingers were triggering within her.

"Ahhhhh," her sigh echoed when he lightly bit her nipple while thrusting a finger into her cunt. Around them, the knowledge filled mist of the noosphere dissipated as small droplets formed on the surface of her atmo-morphic skin.

The Warrior pulled his hand from the attraction of her pussy and cupped her breasts, pinching her nipple. The Lady Relic raised herself and straddled the hard muscles of his belly while his warm hands caressed her flared hips. Looking down at her Warrior, she remembered the bliss she had felt when his mouth had connected to her pussy -- she wondered if she could give the same to him.

To his wonder, the Warrior watched as the Lady Relic flipped herself around and lowered her head -- then all sense of self and of the noosphere shattered as his long, thick cock passed though the thin, filtering layer of the Lady's atmo-morphic skin and he entered the warm embrace of her waiting mouth. Her long hair draped his lap, the tips of her locks tickled his balls as her tongue swirled around his shaft, sparking a cascade of pleasure filling his brain, awakening a more primal aspect of his existence.

Wherever the Lady Relic touched the Warrior's veiny shaft, packets of energy shifted into her -- the noosphere was loosening itself from him and moving into her and she was glad to rid him of the burden of a dead civilization. She began to bob her head and pump his shaft -- the Warrior groaned but managed to place his mouth on her pussy and used his tongue to spread her lips and find her clit while caressing her ass as she straddled his face. He thrust upward when she twirled her tongue around the warm, silky tip of his cock.

The Lady Relic felt a shiver rollick through her body as the pressure the Warrior put to her clitoris and the inside of her pussy carried her closer to the edge of orgasm. His body shuddered under her as bliss invaded him, displacing the noosphere in energy packets from his body to hers.

The Warrior's mounting orgasm that was overwriting the advanced synaptic cascades of his reason when he began to suck on the Lady's clit -- she released his cock and tightly hugged his thighs as she came. It was during her orgasm that the fragments of the noosphere combined with her inner sense of self, her pleasure suspending her individuality.

The Warrior couldn't wait any longer and he easily lifted the blissfully dazed Lady Relic and in a swift, graceful manoeuvre, he placed her on her back and he positioned himself between her thighs. Her eyes were closed and the atmo-morphic skin glistened from the area around her pussy. But something was wrong -- the Warrior's reason overruled the programmed instinct to fuck and he examined his former ward. He perceived the transfer packets that floated about them, awaiting them to rekindle their passion so the noosphere could finalize its transition to the Lady.

His gaze met hers and she gave him a subtle nod, and he did the same. She reached between them and guided his cock into her canal. Once the total length of his shaft touch the entirety of the inside of her pussy, a connection was established -- their bodies were closer than any had ever been in the universe as well as their minds. It wasn't an artifice of a connection like the one he had shared with the guardian -- this was sympathy and empathy. It was a connection that grew with each slow stroke of his cock as his hips and buttocks worked to push him deeper into her tight, willing pussy.

The Lady Relic felt a dual sense of fullness and plenitude as the Warrior's cock stretched her like she was space-time itself, and her mind was emptied of any worry or anxiety. He laid his body on top of hers and quickened his pace -- his rocking thrusts were complemented with her rolling hips and their eyes met.

Around them, the streaks of lightning that erupted from the savage storms of the planet's young atmosphere to stab the surface froze; bright red eruptions from the massive volcanoes that surrounded the lovers became static tableau of violent creation. The Warrior had achieved his final stroke when he had met the Lady Relic's eyes -- his balls tensed and his entire body felt as though it was made of glass as it seemed to shatter when he filled her pussy to her womb with his hot, lava-like come. The Lady Relic took his orgasm into her and the walls of her pussy trembled as she succumbed to her own pleasure. Through the fiery veil of bliss, the noosphere left the Warrior and possessed the Lady, bestowing upon them a sense of shared wholeness.

The transfer complete, they rejoined the activity around them with a resounding crack of eldritch sound. The Warrior looked upon the woman he loved as her flesh crackled with multicoloured rifts of energy -- he went to his feet and watched as her lite form levitated above the ground, science and technology no longer a factor in the Lady Relic's ascension to singular purpose. He smiled and felt her smile in return -- her last living act before she decimated the noosphere effect across the surface of the planet. In the pools of water where the first bobbles of unicellular life stirred, the complexification of existence began.

8. Epilogue

The immobile monument that was the Warrior had remained in place for billions of years, a silent vigil over the threads of evolution. He had witnessed the rise of the seas, the fracture of the plate tectonics as they formed continents -- he had fallen to the abysmal regions of the ocean beds and seen the advent of mollusks and fish. He washed upon the surface of a southern continent as great beasts fought to survive, though they gave him a wide berth. He had survived the great impacts and upheavals that had almost ended the experiment that was life on this world.

He witnessed a smallish hominid come close to him, eating a scorched piece of some mammal and recognized puzzlement and the first sparks of curiosity in her brown eyes. The young female touched him and drew her hand back when she sensed a spark that tingled her longish, hairy fingers.

She yelped when he moved for the first time in aeons. The Warrior gazed at the young female while he analyzed her biometric condition. Fragments of inception were clearly in her DNA.