PROLOGUE

ENTERING THE MILKY WAY

Space is about as wide and unknown a medium as the average person on Earth could possibly comprehend. Take, for example, our own galaxy—the Milky Way. If humans had the technology to reach the speed of light, it would still take almost one hundred thousand years to cross it from one side to the other.

Even more astounding to know is that to reach our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, again, even if we could travel at the speed of light, it would still take two and a half million years to reach it.

Unfortunately, we as humans do not yet possess the technology to travel at these speeds and reach nearby galaxies. We are still quite a way off. But out there, somewhere in this Universe—or the next—it is likely that there is some form of life that does possess the technology to make light work of these distances.

Maybe not in our current timeline, but if this form of life could somehow easily traverse these distances, then maybe, just maybe, they could similarly traverse the barrier of time-space itself.

The Milky Way and Andromeda are in fact, as we speak, set on an inevitable journey that will one day, a few billion years from now, force them together, creating one huge new galaxy. At the center of these existing galaxies lies something else that will also be driven together, for at the center of each galaxy resides a gigantic black hole, the proverbial yolk among the egg whites.

When these galaxies do collide and merge, inevitably, their black hole hearts will also be forced together, forming one new supermassive black hole.

What will lie beyond this newly created monster? Could something, or someone, be residing inside, beyond its mouth? A whole other Universe, perhaps?

In October of 2017, an object was detected by long-range telescopes on Earth as it sped through our solar system. Other than it likely being a visitor from outside of our solar system, nobody had a clue what it was or where it had come from. Technology had not yet advanced enough to give the people of Earth a detailed image or composition analysis of the strange interstellar object. Rumors were rife that it could be an alien object or craft, sent to listen to the Earth and its inhabitants. Or was it simply another space rock?

The object’s entry point into this Universe, yet far from being the beginning of its journey, was the center of a black hole—a black hole that does not yet exist—appearing from the space approximately midway between Andromeda and the Milky Way.

This object, now racing through the silent, haunting void is a parcel, its contents hidden beneath a cloud of energy and ice, remnants of matter from a different place and time. A tail of materials follows behind in its wake, not by choice but caught up and dragged along an inter-universal, inter-time journey spanning billions of years. Visibly, one would think it to be a comet.

The mechanics buried inside the parcel are so far advanced beyond Earthly technology that to fly at the speeds they do, they emit a forwardly projected field. Inside the field, time is slowed to a point where it barely ticks by at all. Yet the space outside that the bubble passes through moves along at a rate that would seem impossibly quick; even light itself would struggle to keep up.

Inside the core of the package, beneath all of the particles and icy layers, sit two intelligent metallic spheres. They fly, unpiloted, through space as fast as they can. They do not know what force is speaking instructions to them, telling them where to go or who to find when they get there, but an instruction flows deep through their very circuits, nonetheless.

Is it an algorithm? Manually and purposefully input by somebody they were unaware of? Or has some outside force tampered with their program? For some reason, their initial programming has been . . . not wiped, but improved—yes, improved. That is the feeling, one that tells them to head for the Earth together, rather than to separate, and to register a connection with an individual.

It is difficult for the spheres to pinpoint where these quite specific instructions have come from, yet they are there, deep inside. An instinctive feeling, just as a baby is intrinsically instructed to take its first breaths from a place it was yet unaware of, or to let the people around it know that it needs food.

The two spheres are aware of their surroundings. They have a partial consciousness, kept awake as they travel in a state not unlike a unihemispheric sleep, that which Dolphins employ, partially asleep and partially awake deep inside, to perform rudimentary navigational and survival duties.

Their preprogrammed instructions should have seen them separating once clear of the black hole, from the place at which they entered this Universe. It should have foreseen they would then make their way to different sides of the Universe, away from each other, to select a world the spheres could communicate with and assess its inhabitants.

They would then interact with said life and bring an intelligent subject back to its masters for study. All this to help further their masters' knowledge of the Light Universe into which their inventors are not easily able to cross.

But these two particular spheres hug one another, refusing to separate as they know they should, not unlike school children sitting at the back of a classroom, content with each other's company with no thoughts or desire to part ways. And in the process, not meaning to but causing unintended mischief.

Now there is a new voice from somewhere telling them repeatedly, Do not worry. Trust us. Go together to the Earth.

The journey is long and silent, the sights between galaxies few and far between. The odd misplaced rock, the dead remains of a former star, or even the birth of a new star in the form of cloudy colorful nebulae are their only company.

Even the spheres do not understand why they can deny their masters’ programming to follow this updated instruction, nor do they know why they have not yet separated, but they are aware that there must be a reason for this unusual business. All they can do is follow the instructions that their current programming tells them. Whether it is right or wrong, they will follow it to its conclusion.

After a much smaller passage of time than man would take to travel this distance, they hit the outer rim of the Milky Way galaxy. Stars begin to streak by, looking like strings of white lightning.

The blindingly bright heart of the Milky Way lies conspicuously in the distance, majestic and sprawling, spreading wide its limbs outwards and welcoming its new guests with a beckon of its tentacles.

Mere weeks pass by when the spheres feel an urge to slow. Temperature and magnetic sensors within them begin to fluctuate, flickering back into life, waking them a little more from their dreamlike state. They are told by their insides that they have crossed into the protective bubble of their destination solar system. The long-range telescopes of Earth will soon be able to sporadically detect them.

Through this young solar system, they fly with an odd inkling of familiarity, craving something on the Earth, like a thirst. But what?

A connection to someone yet unknown to them is their program. Their path is plotted out before them as they navigate their way past rocky dwarf planets, gas giants, icy worlds, and moons against their internal ancient star charts. They clear a region of meteor-filled space and recognize Neptune.

The huge bright yellow star of the system looms in the distance ahead, pointing the way like the beating heart of a celestial living body. The covering that had been surrounding them throughout their deep space journey begins to fall away as the space around them and their outer shell slowly warms.

They feel the occasional tug, trying to tempt them from their path. Planets and moons try to lure them in as they fly by. This feels exciting, tingling, as the planets want the passing spheres to become a part of their gravitational estates. But the spheres have other ideas; their destination is already set, and nothing will distract them from their destiny. The grip of gravity feels like a hug followed by a burst of energy as it then releases its grip, and they break free.

Coming into view and getting larger by the second, they see half of a bright blue-green cloudy world that will soon become their temporary home. The other half of the world is disguised, hidden inside the black veil of space. The Sun rages, large and hot, behind it. They feel such intense warmth on their shiny surfaces as they swing by the Earth and back again to slow into alignment with the Earth's rotation, ready for the plunge down into the atmosphere. They have never felt this kind of heat before. They pass over a dark half of the world and then again feel excitement tingle their circuitry, a sensation they have never felt before.

Like waking from a dream, their insides are delighted by the heat put on them as they dive, falling deep into the Earth's atmosphere. Hastily they scan their surroundings.

They become aware of the continents and the oceans below them, mapping the terrain as they travel quickly around the globe from daylight and back into darkness again. They have never seen the Earth like this, only wielding the most basic of images and drawings to tell them roughly what to expect.

Deeper still they descend together through the moisture-rich dark-blue sky. The distance between them begins to grow larger, and they drift apart. One of them comes to a dead stop in the sky, scanning the thoughts and intellect of everyone on the planet. Then it drops rapidly, straight down into a lower stream of air than the other.

The dark skies of the United Kingdom open up beneath the clouds with twinkling lights and sounds below them. It stops again, hovering high in the cool air above the cities, processing information deep inside itself before it feels a strong urge to head north. It drops even lower. A target has now been registered, pulling it where it needs to be. The sphere stops directly overhead of its chosen landing point.

The sphere feels droplets of water on its shell, a refreshing sensation. Then it sets off its first signal beacon, an intense flash of light to indicate to its sibling that it has found its target and is proceeding to the next stage.

The higher of the two spheres acknowledges that the first is set and so it continues, speeding overhead around the globe in an almost straight flight path across large volumes of land and then water below it, scanning everyone beneath it as it travels. The skies lighten around it as it reaches the shores of a new continent. It pauses when it hits the shores, processing. It feels a sense of fulfillment; a target of its own has now been registered.

Canada lies directly beneath it. It feels an urge to dip in trajectory and travels west for a brief period before coming to a full stop. The Sun is setting now; its rays feel wonderful on the sphere's shiny surface as it sits in the air. It sets off its own first-stage beacon, letting the other know that it has also registered a target, before darting toward the ground. Once it feels the Earth's materials beneath it, stage two starts with the release of a field necessary to protect the relationship between the sphere and its chosen subject.

A higher force has influenced the spheres’ choices. For what reason remains, at this moment, a mystery. The effects of the field will be felt for miles around.

It is necessary.

CHAPTER 1

DANIEL, ENGLAND

The blinds in the window bounced and rattled as the wind rushed into his bedroom like a clumsy intruder. Matte black deodorant cans, mostly empty, of varying fragrances were flung from the windowsill and landed on the floor beside his bed. Chaos ensued, the unsettled autumnal weather wishing to make itself known as a symphony of clamorous noises woke Daniel from an earlier than usual deep sleep.

It was Monday night, not yet midnight at the end of September of 2019, still not cold yet but often wet. Autumn had begun to gently wrest summer's grip away from the UK shores and skies.

He looked over to his left toward the window from his bed. The blinds were closed but periodically flapped about when caught from behind, funneled in the wind. There was a gutter around the top of the house, and the sound of rainwater cascading down the downpipe next to Daniel’s window on its way into the drains made it seem as if he had his own personal waterfall.

Swaths of white light channeled in through the not-quite-blackout blinds, a combination of moonlight from overhead and waste light pouring in as it did every night from the powerful LED floodlights over the school grounds at the rear of their garden.

Daniel had thought about reaching down to pick up his phone off the floor to check the time, but he was worried that leaning out of bed may wake him up from being still half asleep to being fully awake, thus preventing him from being able to drift straight back into the unusual early deep sleep he had been enjoying so far.

Daniel was still at school, and he would need to be up quite early tomorrow; he had chosen to stay on for another year studying history and sciences until he felt surer about what he wanted to do with himself once he did leave.

Outside, the rain was getting louder, pounding on the glass as the wind seemed to rapidly change directions. He thought that closing his eyes and listening to the rain for a while might help him drop back off. It was pleasant at first, even calming, like those Sleep Easy CDs that were popular for a time. It did not help, though, and prevented him from going back to sleep, instead becoming rather annoying after a while.

He put one foot on the floor to the left-hand side of his bed in the hopes of reaching the handle of the open window to pull it closed and twist it locked, which he successfully did, rewarded by a splash of rainwater falling onto his wrist. The drops were cold—pleasant, even, and he watched as they spread out on his skin, falling in drops on opposite sides of his wrist.

While he was at the window, he dared a peek through the blinds. The trees in the wetness outside were being blown all over the place as the grass wavered and reflected white moonlight like an ocean from its sodden top layer.

Looking further out toward the school grounds, he could see the heavy rain illuminated in the strong beams of light projected down and outwards from the floodlights. This bright light from the floodlights had recently been called out by his dad, who had told him that this was light pollution. His dad had had a friendly conversation about this with the site manager at the school, their long-term family friend, Brian, who also happened to be Joseph’s dad, Daniel’s best friend since they were small. Brian had said that he would deal with the lights, but he never did.

Feeling thankful that he still had ample sleep time left, he lay back down, pulling the duvet up to his chin and wrapping his legs around the bottom end. Then he did his best to empty his thoughts and breathe slowly, deeply.

Bringing him back to the surface sharply, as quickly as if someone had thrown cold water over his face, a sudden light made itself known. His small bedroom was filled from floor to ceiling and wall to wall with a bright white light. Daniel’s eyes flew open, immediately squinting closed again under the harsh intensity of whatever was happening.

What the hell?

Blindly, with one hand folded around his head, blocking light as best he could with his arm across his eyes, he put out his other hand in front of himself and stepped out of bed again. Feeling his way to the radiator beneath the window, he saw the light had already started to dissipate by the time he was standing up and looking outside again.

Daniel pulled on the little chain at the side of the window to twist open the blinds, searching the scene for signs of what might have caused such a bright light. A storm, maybe? He pushed open the window again, as wide as it would allow, waiting for signs of a storm—although he couldn’t help but think that this wasn’t like any normal storm he had seen before.

There wasn’t anything different or unusual that stood out of place to him now. The garden was still dark and quiet; the wind was still up, and it was still raining. The school was still illuminated, pointlessly at this time of night, by the floodlights. He gripped the sides of the window frame and leaned even further out of the window, as far as he safely could without falling, checking left and right.

He saw what looked like a simple star at first, albeit closer than a normal star, to his right-hand side out of the window. Whatever it was, it was quickly growing in brightness, and it soon became apparent that the shiny object was racing toward him. In a mere second it grew as bright as a car headlight, blinding against the dark sky behind it, which he could not even see anymore. The whole sky above the school was now as bright as daylight on a sweltering day.

Should he shout for his family? To warn them, or perhaps so they could join him in watching the object from space—if that was what it was—land?

Should he grab his phone to start recording it? Or to use it to call the police? No time. Whatever the thing was, it was approaching so fast, there was not time to do anything but watch it hit the ground. Hopefully, it will hit the ground, anyway, and not one of the houses!

It was too late—whilst he was thinking all of these things, the object had already hit the school grounds. His breathing quickened, his emotions undulating like a wave from excited to terrified and back again as he realized how close the object had come to hitting any of the surrounding houses around the school, including his own.

That would surely have wiped his family from the map, or if not them, then one of his friends or neighbors and their families. Even more terrifying, if the object had been bigger, it could have been catastrophic for the world.

Luckily, the object—which did not seem large enough to cause mass destruction in the end—had slowed and dipped sharply right at the end of its journey. It had been very close to scraping the top of the main school building but narrowly missed it. The object, right before landing, had disappeared temporarily from Daniel’s view behind the main school block. A loud car-crash type of noise—breaking glass and twisting metal—screamed out from behind the block, amplified by and echoing around the empty playgrounds. The school had now returned to darkness and silence again.

Daniel saw something small and fiery hop back into view in the distance. He could not tell what it was from up here. It bounded like a bouncing ball, coming from the rear of the main building, and skimming along the playground floor, leaving small patches of flaming waste material behind. It bounced several more times before skidding to a full stop in the grass of the playing fields in front of him.

Around the school grounds, the dark-as-black rear of the surrounding houses on the estate behind their house were brought to life again. As lights came on one by one in the windows, the silhouettes of people looking out from the windows appeared.

All Daniel wanted to do was to go outside and see what was in the school for himself—before anyone else came or the authorities took the possible space-traveling object away from them.

(Come outside, then.)

What? Who thought that?

The object remained burning on the grass, a small fire marking its position. Just then, taking Daniel’s attention from the window, his dad burst into the bedroom, flinging open the door and switching the light on.

What the bloody hell was that? his dad asked, rushing to join Daniel who squinted again at the window. His dad wore a creased old T-shirt obviously pulled from the barely used section of his wardrobe, a space reserved for T-shirts that had been demoted to pajamas or used for gardening and decorating duties. Boxer shorts were the only protection of his modesty. Daniel’s mom and sister soon followed, both fastening up their dressing gown belts and yawning in almost mirror images of each other as they entered, filling any remaining floor space in his small room.

Looks like a meteorite, Dad! Daniel said, pulling the white string at the side of the blinds to fully retract them, revealing a clearer window to the outside. Sorry, Mum, would you mind turning that light back off please? You can see better in the dark.

Bloody lucky it landed right there! his dad said. I wonder if Brian’s seen it.

Brian and Joseph only lived next door. Their house was one of the last ones on this side of the street before the school gates.

Did it hit any houses? his mom asked, yawning again, trying to get a look over Daniel’s and his dad’s shoulders through the window.

I think it might have hit something at the back of the school, but it missed all the houses and the main school building luckily. You can just see a few small fires on the playground and the grass where it landed, Daniel answered.

His dad stretched himself out through the gap in the window to look left and right like Daniel had earlier, not taking his eyes away from the view. Daniel watched him excitedly.

Good! I’m going back to bed, then, his mom said, leaving the room, uninterested.

Me too, said his older sister, mimicking their mother.

When they left the room, Daniel’s excitement spilled out. Shall we go over and have a look, Dad? he prompted, knowing full well that his dad would say yes; he had not seen him this excited in years.

Bloody right we will! Can’t be long before the emergency services get here. I’ll go and throw something on. We can knock on Brian’s door on the way past.

Daniel's dad left the room in a hurry. Bless him, Daniel thought, amused. Daniel was still staring out of the window. He was about to throw something on himself when something new happened outside—a wave of energy. Similar in appearance, Daniel had time to think back to how a star looks when it goes nova. A bright white ring of light suddenly appeared around the spot of fire on the grass then instantly expanded, shooting away in all directions from the object. The ring of expanding light headed right toward Daniel. Daniel turned quickly to protect himself as light once again filled his room.

The light completely enveloped him. Daniel could not see anything but white light.

This feels different from the first flash. What is happening?

Accompanying the light this time was a wave of energy that felt like a blast of warm air. It was like—or at least what Daniel imagined it was like—being trapped inside a tornado. Daniel could not move; he could only stand and feel the force blowing his hair around. Then a strange high-pitched noise pierced his ears.

The force was so strong that it lifted Daniel, fully supporting his weight in the air. He felt his tiptoes lift off the ground. It was as though the light had a grip around his waist, and . . . a purpose.

(Come outside.)

He instinctively tried to raise his hands up into the air to cup his ears, but with the current of energy thrusting toward him from the window, he was unable to even do that. For some reason, his thoughts started to become vague, as though only the most basic of thoughts were able to form themselves. His head was being examined and emptied. All he knew was a basic feeling of how unpleasant it felt being trapped like this; there was no more intent to get free or wonder what was happening. Then a new thought flashed by, it felt stronger than a normal thought. It was a feeling of . . . something else. Someone else?

After what felt like minutes had gone by—though in reality it was only seconds—the light vanished, the noise and flow of air with it. As he limply dropped to his knees on the floor at the foot of his bed, he saw an echo of the energy that had surrounded him, now moving away from him, a band of misty white air phasing silently through the walls toward his parents’ and sister’s rooms.

What the hell was that? he was left thinking, looking around the room, blankly at first. His brain felt empty, almost as though he had never been here before. Then, as though his brain was re-patching itself, normal thoughts and memories started to return.

He looked toward the bedroom door, thinking about his family, expecting that his dad would rush in like last time to check that he was ok. He did not. There was only complete silence.

Daniel turned to face the window, still on his knees on the floor, when something caught his eye. A simple movement in the dark corner at the right-hand side of the window—something like a shadow. The light from the moon and the floodlights started to highlight the edges of a nose, cheeks, and then a forehead. It was definitely a person.

It crossed Daniel's mind that he surely had to be dreaming all of this. Stuff like this doesn’t happen in real life. Then again, the strain of his arms propping him up on the carpet, the feel of the carpet beneath his palms, and the stiffening tension in his shoulders as he thought about jumping up to defend himself told him otherwise.

What the bloody hell was someone doing in here, anyway? How did they get in? The only people in his room before the light were his family, and they had all left.

What was stranger still was that the person-thing had a transparency to it that became even more apparent as it moved gently forward into the incoming light. This caused Daniel to freeze for the time being, telling himself not to shout out, not to launch himself at it, but just to watch it—for now.

He was, for the first time he could remember, truly scared. Not scared that there may be someone in his room but by the sheer illogicalness of it all—the not knowing, the not seeing properly, and the general feeling of what he could see not making any sense.

The shape took another step forward into the light, away from the shadows near the wall. Its whole shape was in the window now, and he could see right through it. It paused for a moment. Is it looking outside? Then it turned and took a step in Daniel’s direction.

Shit!

Daniel clawed at the carpet, moving backwards. His back hit the closet—there was no more space to move out of the way. He began rapidly calculating possibilities; his next step was going to be important, not just for himself but his family too.

On one hand, he might get into a fight with an intruder and save his family, be the hero. On the other, he might stupidly throw himself at the object, hitting the wall as he flew straight through the strange clear person that may not even be real, and end up in a collapsed bruised heap at the other side of the wall. Likely fully awake by then, his sister would come in and yell at him to stop banging about.

As Daniel’s back hit the closet, the doors banged against the body of it. There were no sounds of movement at all coming from the landing, no lights coming on. The thing in Daniel’s room did not react either. Daniel—on his own, by the looks of things—stood in position to confront whoever it was, ready to take a swing, when something stopped him. As Daniel looked at the head part of the shadow thing before him, moonlight hit the back of its head, giving form to its face. The illuminated shadow creature revealed something that threw Daniel completely off-guard.

It was indeed a person, and the face, clear as day now as it stood right in front of him staring back, was his own.

CHAPTER 2

INTRUDER

I’ve got it, Daniel thought . It’s me and I’m astral projecting. I’ve done it! But hang on . . . He looked over at his bed, confused. His body, of course, was not lying in it.

If I’m astral projecting myself, then my body would be lying on my bed, surely? I wouldn’t be standing here AND walking around my room dressed like a shadow at the same time.

Daniel had long been fascinated with the subject of lucid dreaming and astral projection. He had read many books and internet forums to learn what he could about astral travel.

He had given up on the subject after reading one negative blog on the subject that suggested that there was the slightest chance that if you did not know what you were doing whilst outside of your body; something else could theoretically jump into your body. Something dark and possibly demonic. What also sounded terrifying was reading about the silver cord that, following what he had read, tethered your wandering soul to your terrestrially rooted body. What if that could get cut, leaving you lost and unable to find your way back to your body? Too scary.

The normally very talkative Daniel was lost for words for a change. He could not physically pull any words from his head; nothing came forward at all. His mouth hung uselessly open. At the end of a long stretched-out second or two of staring at each other, Daniel finally asked, Are you me?

The figure seemed to form a comforting smile. Any remaining panic in Daniel subsided when it did. He, the transparent shadow copy of Daniel, looked as