
The Omega File
By
CSquared



Chapter One:

Dominick Polinsky stepped out of his front door on a freezing morning in December. Wrapping his coat tightly around him, he began his walk towards college. On arrival, he made haste to his physics class - he was already late. However, on entry, he managed to irritate his teacher even more. His phone went off right in the middle of his excuse. To his teacher’s consternation, he answered it. “Dude, what is it? I can’t talk no...” He was interrupted by Elias saying, with more than a touch of urgency in his voice, “Open the package.” Dom was surprised, Elias had never acted like this before. “I can’t, dude, I’m in college. I’ll do it late...” He was again interrupted, this time violently. “YOU’LL DO IT FUCKING *NOW*!” Elias screamed down the phone, so loud as to cause distortion in the phone’s speaker. “You’ve only got about half an hour left!” At this, he hung up.

Dom looked at his phone, then at his teacher, then turned and walked towards the door. “And just where do you think you’re going?” his teacher snapped. Dom turned, and looked the man right in the eye. “Fuck off.” he said, left the room and went home.

He lived about a twenty minute walk from the college, but made it at a fast jog in a little over ten. According to Elias, this left him about twice as long again before... before what? He didn’t know. He started tearing the place apart, trying to find the package. It took him over five minutes to locate it, and another two to get it open. Shredded paper spilt everywhere, and he extracted a jewel case. The cover was black, with a white omega symbol emblazoned across it. Raising an eyebrow, he opened it. There was a similarly decorated CD inside, and a message was written on the inside of the cover. It read: “Place this CD in a laptop. Plug in the laptop, you’ll need all the battery power you can get when the time comes.”

Dom shrugged, and fished out his laptop from its bag. Plugging it in and turning it on, he slid the disc into the drive. There was a whirring sound, and white writing appeared onscreen. “Formatting disc drive...” it said, then: “Formatting complete. Running program.”

The screen went black again, then got a little fuzzy. Suddenly, a face appeared. Dom didn’t recognise the man, nor did he recognise the voice when he spoke. “Hello. If you are hearing this, you are one of the priviledged few. You are either my friend, or the friend of a friend. You are one of the chosen ones. On this disc you will find all the information you will need to survive in the New Eden. You will need to plug in the device, if you have not done so already.”

_‘Device? What device?’_ Dom thought, panicking by this point. He hurriedly searched the box, and pulled out something that looked like a satellite dish on a small stand. A USB cable protruded from the bottom, and he slid it into place in the back. As he sat down, a visible blue field rose from the dish, forming a dome over him and the computer. The man on the screen continued, having waited just long enough for this to occur. “I’m sorry to say that your world as you know it will soon cease to exist. If we had had the resources to save everyone, we would have, but there just wasn’t time. A few months ago, we learnt of the impending doom - an antimatter asteroid, heading directly for the Earth. We tried to alert the scientific community, but due to our... amateur status, they didn’t believe us, stating that they “couldn’t spare the time or the effort to check up on a ridiculous claim like ours”. Well, it’s their loss. The asteroid is going to strike the Earth at approximately fifteen minutes to nine on Monday the 13th December, 2004.”

Dom looked up at the clock - it was 8:43. His eyes widened as he watched the next part of the video. A view of the Earth from space appeared. It quickly zoomed in on the UK, then the south east. “The asteroid will impact approximately... here.” A large red cross drew itself directly over Brighton. Dom’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and he was about to jump up and run around in terror, when the voice spoke again. “I’d advise you stay *within* the force dome... you won’t stand much of a chance otherwise. Well, I’ll see you on the other side. There can’t be much more than a few seconds left. Goodbye for now.”

With that, the screen went black. Exactly fourteen seconds later, the world turned white. A noise louder than Dom had ever heard before rushed past the force dome, as the power supply to the laptop disintegrated before his eyes. More white writing appeared on the screen, but Dom missed it entirely. It said: “Initialising transportation in 5...4...3...2...1...”

Dom’s world went black.
