Chapter 334: Infinity and Beyond

16th May 2013, Sayre Manor

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

I nodded, "Good. I know that you have complicated feelings about what happened, and how much I have changed, but I am still your mother, and I love you. I just need this trip to clear my head. And I did always dream about going to space."

The two girls snorted in amusement. My daughter gave me a warm smile, "I will miss you, mom."

My eyes moistened when she called me her mother, but I steeled myself, "I will miss you too, Wanda. I am trusting you both with the safety of this planet. I have faith that you'll do a good job. Goodbye, Wanda, Jean."

I walked away and went to join Hela in the garden, still overwhelmed by the simple act of Wanda calling me her mother once more. It appears that I haven't lost my daughter. That was a good feeling.

When we were finally in the garden alone, Hella asked me, "Well, where's the famous spaceship of yours?"

I raised an eyebrow and gave her a small grin. I didn't respond verbally and instead just snapped my fingers. Right next to me, the floor split in half and started to fold up. Slowly a platform rose as well with Ego's famed spaceship sitting on top of it.

I have to say, for all of the Celestial's madness and obsession with a galaxy wide genocide for no apparent reason, he had a good sense of style. The ship has a smooth, curved design with a white and gold color scheme. It looked more like a high-tech giant egg than an actual spaceship, but somehow it seemed to work.

I had fished the ship from where it was hidden after I had defeated its creator. The guy actually left it in the middle of the desert in Texas but had activated its cloaking capabilities. It took me a few hours to find the damn thing. Even then, I didn't even try to open it, and just sent it through a portal to Sayre Manor.

Still, it had been worth it to find a method of space travel right on my doorstep, and after millions of years of life, I was sure that whatever Ego had built would surely be a veritable marvel of technology, especially with the instinct towards technology that being a Celestial provides.

By channeling a small amount of cosmic energy, the door opened up, allowing us to enter the spacecraft. The interior was lined with smooth, gleaming surfaces, which reflected the warm light from the glowing panels overhead. The ship's design was sleek and modern, with very few physical buttons and controls considering that it was a spacecraft of all things.

The two of us walked down the long, curved corridor that led to the ship's central chamber. I stifled a smirk as I noticed, Hela's eyes widen in amazement, "Impressive, isn't it?" I remarked.

The Goddess of Death was too distracted by the intricate designs and symbols on the walls of the ship. She was probably feeling the raw cosmic energy that is used to power the ship. The glow pulsated, almost like a heartbeat, which made the ship feel like it was alive in a way.

When we finally reached the central chamber, Hela couldn't help but release a gasp, and I couldn't really blame her. The chamber was a massive, open space, with a high ceiling and walls that curved away into the distance. In the center of the room was a massive, glowing structure, which seemed to be the source of the ship's power.

I could hear Hela mutter to herself, "This is amazing."

I grinned and responded, "Yes, that it is."

"Who built this masterpiece?"

I shrugged, "The father of the man we're looking for. Let's just say that he was a very disturbed individual and I ended up disposing of him. He came to Earth on this ship, and I thought that it would be a shame to let it wither in ruin."

Hela burst into laughter, "I didn't know that you were a thief as well as a murderer."

I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow, "It's not my fault the man was trying to kill me for no apparent reason."

I didn't care about her calling me a murderer, not really. I was a murderer, and I accepted that fact thousands of years ago after my first genocide. I was the ultimate murderer, Death's hunter. No matter what Hela would have done, I have performed deeds that were a hundred times worse, and I was not ashamed of it. I stand by my actions, even if I was ordered to do so. I did not relish in the endless slaughter and constant deaths, but my hands still have done the deed. I have still killed them all.

Hela broke my train of thought by speaking up, "So, how does this thing work?"

I raised an eyebrow and extended my sense. The technopathy that I gained when I ascended into a pseudo-Celestial, was very useful in this situation. I tried to communicate with the machine and marveled at the response I got.

This was pure Celestial technology that worked solely on cosmic energy. It was probably more limited than anything Arishem would have built, but it was more advanced than anything built with mortal hands. I understood why there weren't any buttons or navigation equipment; the entire ship was telepathic.

Yes, the ship listened to telepathic commands and had a supercomputer that interprets the commands and executes them. It was such a foreign idea, to have a machine understand telepathic messages. Because human thoughts were complicated, varied, and too chaotic to be put into words. Honestly, when people say that the English language is limited, they were not kidding.

Thoughts were more than just intent, it was an intent with so many nuances, emotions, feelings, and so much more. There is a reason why artists that put their thoughts and emotions into paper format are called geniuses. It was a very impressive achievement to accurately portray a single thought or feeling in words. For a computer, a non-sentient machine, to be able to somehow interpret the complex commands of the human mind was far more advanced than anything humans would build in the next million years at least.

And yet, the ship was listening to me. It closed the doors of the ship, activated the cloaking shield and started flying away until we were firmly outside of the planet's orbit. The damn thing was fast as well. We were further than the international space station in a few minutes.

I gave Hela a smug grin, "You were saying?"

"You didn't even push a single button!" she protested.

"I don't need to. That's how good I am."

I ignored her spluttering, and with a mental command, I turned the walls of the ship transparent. I could see countless stars better than any other human had ever seen with the naked eye, and yet, my eyes were fixed on the brilliant blue and green sphere that hung in the darkness below me. It was hard to believe that this was my home, this tiny dot in an infinite universe. I have fought for thousands of years to protect this little dot, this little sphere. And for the first time, I started to wonder about the futility of it all. Earth was so tiny compared to the universe. Do my actions even matter in the grand scheme of things? I never left the small rock that I call home and explored the universe. The idea that I might not be able to use magic frightened me. I would be weaker, and more vulnerable, and I resented that.

From up here, all the petty squabbles and problems of humanity seem so small and insignificant. The Earth looked so small, so fragile, and it made me wonder how such a small planet could be so divided.

Hela didn't seem to share my fascination with the view, "So, where are we going?"

"We're about to find out."

I waved my hand and the sphere I created with Meredith Quill's bones appeared from thin air. I sent a mental command to the ship and a small podium grew from the ground, letting me put the tracking sphere inside.

I explained how the tracking device worked and the ship immediately understood and started to move away as quickly as possible away from the planet.

"What's it doing?" Hela protested.

"The ship is trying to get as many readings as possible to triangulate the signal," I responded.

By the time the ship had finished, we had left the solar system entirely. It barely took half an hour for that to happen. The ship then created a holographic map of the galaxy with the location of my target.

Unfortunately, it would take years for the ship to get there through normal space flight, which is why we were going to use jump points to get there. It was a network of portals created and managed by the Shi'ar Empire all over the galaxy. Well, it was mostly to rule over their own empire, but after a peace treaty with the Kree and Nova Corps thousands of years ago, it became a galaxy wide thing.

Their jump points are also one of the biggest reasons Earth was such a hot commodity. Its closest jump point was more of a knot in the network, allowing access to a large number of locations.

As for our trip, it was seventy-nine jump points away, which while a little over the recommended number for the average mortal, Hela and I were not mortals. Which made things a lot easier, since we could just handle it.

I gave Hela a challenging smirk, "Well, this trip will probably be a bumpy one, think you can handle it?"

She glared at me at the idea of doubting her, "Of course, I can."

I nodded and sat down on the sofa. A belt materialized itself around my torso and chest, locking me into place. Hela followed my lead and sat down on the opposite sofa.

Feeling a bit cheeky at the idea of space travel, I ask the ship to let me start the journey by creating a lever to pull.

Hela raised an eyebrow and I just shrugged unabashed, "I always wanted to do this."

"Do what, exactly?"

I smiled widely and bellowed, "Allons-y!" as I pushed down the lever.

Immediately, the ship roared to life and accelerated to the nearest jump point. A hexagon made out of energy appeared, and the portal opened up.

As we entered the Jump Point, I was immediately struck by the kaleidoscope of colors that surrounded us. The walls of the ship seemed to shimmer and pulse with the energy of the wormhole, creating an otherworldly light show that was both mesmerizing and disorienting.

The feeling of being inside a Jump Point was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was like being in the heart of a star, surrounded by some sort of pulsing energy that threatened to swallow us whole. I could feel the g-forces pushing against me as the ship hurtled through the wormhole, and I had no idea how a normal spaceship could hold up against something like this.

The feeling kept repeating again and again, through one portal after another, until we came out of the last one. The ship then flew towards our destination. We were probably half a galaxy away from Earth and I had never felt more alive.

When we finally stopped, we were met with a massive spherical structure floating in space. I asked the computer what it was telepathically and was immediately met with a hologram showing the details of this structure.

It was known as Klyn, one of the largest and more secure prisons in the Nova Empire. It had a reputation of being inescapable. Hela was reading the text from behind my shoulder and asked, "Now, what?"

I grinned at her, "Now, we plan a prison break, my dear."

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