Tal Kray - Book 4 Thanos Kalamidas booK 4 Tal Kray Thanos Kalamidas An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book Tal Kray - Book 4 Tal Kray Book 4 Thanos Kalamidas Thanos Kalamidas An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Tal Kray - Book 4 J oseph hale awoke with a start , his breath shal- low and erratic. The universe had fallen silent, or at least the sound of it had vanished. No hum of the ship’s engines. No communication signals flick- ering across the receiver. No familiar presence of Ele- na by his side. His eyes blinked in the dark, his mind racing as he tried to make sense of the shattered piec- es of reality around him. He could feel his body, aching, but there was no sense of motion, no gravity pulling him down or cen- trifugal force pushing him out. A steady, oppressive pressure seemed to weigh on his chest, pushing him to the very brink of consciousness. He reached out in the dark and touched something. Cold. Smooth. The sensation sent a jolt through his spine. He pushed harder, trying to find an anchor, something to hold onto. Thanos Kalamidas “Elena?” he called out, his voice hoarse, barely a whisper. No answer. Suddenly, a blinding light flickered in the distance. Joseph’s heart raced, and his muscles tensed as he was drawn toward it, his body moving before his mind could comprehend. The light was not like any star or artificial sun he had ever known. It was alive, almost breathing, pulsing with a rhythm that defied all reason. And then, through the glow, came the voice. “Are you ready?” it asked. The words pierced the silence, sharp and com- manding, laced with a tension Joseph could not identify. It was a human voice, familiar, but with something darker, something ancient lying beneath the surface. A cold shiver ran down his spine. His heart pounded. He was no longer sure what he was prepared for. The light began to shift, revealing a shape, an enor- mous silhouette looming over him, immense and in- comprehensible. As Joseph’s vision cleared, he real- Tal Kray - Book 4 ized with a sickening twist in his gut that he was not alone. In the depths of the light, an entity, vast beyond human comprehension, was awakening. Thanos Kalamidas I. Joseph Hale had always believed that humanity’s greatest achievement was its ability to reach beyond its fragile homeworld, to push out into the stars. A thousand years of effort, of struggle, had brought hu- manity to the threshold of the unknown. The solar system was theirs to command. The fabric of space itself had been unraveled by human ingenuity, yet even now; they still did not know the true boundar- ies of their reach. And that thought terrified him. The mission, which had started as a routine explo- ration into deep space, had spiraled out of control the moment they encountered the anomaly. A tear in space itself. A rift. A breach in the known laws of physics. Theories ran wild as scientists aboard the Horizon , a state-of-the-art exploration vessel, began to study the phenomenon. But no one expected this, a sudden, instantaneous collapse of the ship’s core systems, a disorienting pull that sent them hurtling into an unknown dimension. Tal Kray - Book 4 “Do you think it’s a rift in the fabric of spacetime?” Elena Michaels asked, her voice thick with a mix of curiosity and fear as she studied the sensors. Joseph stood at the control panel, fingers flying over the holographic interface as the ship’s systems went haywire. Lights flickered, and warnings blinked erratically on the screen. “I don’t know,” he muttered, his brow furrowed in concentration. “But it’s not something I’ve ever seen before.” “Can you stabilize us?” He looked at her, his gaze hardening. “I’m trying. But there’s something pulling at us from the other side. Whatever this is, it’s not just a rift. It’s a pres- ence.” As if on cue, the Horizon groaned, its hull creaking under the pressure. A low hum vibrated through the ship. The walls of the cockpit pulsed with a strange en- ergy, each pulse sending waves of dizziness through their bodies. Joseph could feel his mind stretching— twisting—under the weight of the unknown. The stars outside the viewport began to warp, bending into impossible shapes, twisting like ribbons in the wind. The boundaries of the universe, his uni- verse, seemed to be coming apart. Thanos Kalamidas “Elena,” he breathed, “I don’t think we’re just on the edge of something... I think we’ve crossed into it.” The feeling of being watched intensified. Joseph couldn’t shake the sensation that something—some- thing intelligent—was observing them, waiting for them to make the next move. A faint whisper filled the air, too low for the sensors to pick up, but he heard it in the back of his mind. Are you ready? The voice, human, yet not, sent a cold chill through his core. It was as if it was coming from the very walls of the ship itself. “I think we need to make a decision,” Joseph said, his voice strained. “We have no idea what’s on the other side of this. We could be dealing with forces that don’t obey the same rules we do.” Elena turned to him, her face pale. “And if we don’t do something? If we don’t take control, what then?” Joseph looked out into the swirling maelstrom be- yond the viewport. What if the answers they sought would tear apart everything they knew? “We may not be in control anymore,” he muttered, Tal Kray - Book 4 his fingers trembling on the controls. The ship lurched once more, throwing them both to the ground. Sparks flew as electrical fires ignited throughout the cockpit. Joseph scrambled to his feet, his heart pounding in his chest. “We need to shut it down... now!” Elena shouted, her voice full of panic. But Joseph knew, deep down, that it was already too late. The fabric of reality had already begun to unravel. * * * * * * * * * * The Horizon had been a marvel of human inge- nuity—a fortress of steel and silicon built for one purpose: exploration. Its vast array of scientific in- struments, its state-of-the-art drive engines, and its highly trained crew had made it a symbol of human- ity’s unyielding drive to push the limits of what was possible. But now, all of that seemed meaningless in the face of the terror they were witnessing. Joseph gritted his teeth and fought to stay focused. The systems were failing. He could feel the tempera- ture rising in the cockpit as the ship’s core systems struggled to compensate for the catastrophic event Thanos Kalamidas unfolding around them. The once orderly array of holographic interfaces and status indicators now flickered like dying stars. “Elena!” Joseph shouted over the din, his hands moving frantically over the controls, trying to get a reading on anything that could help. “Can you get any kind of signal from the outside? A beacon, any- thing?” Elena’s face was a mixture of concentration and horror. “The comms are down. We’re completely cut off from the rest of the fleet. No contact with Earth. No contact with anyone.” She paused, glancing ner- vously at the swirling darkness outside. “We’re alone.” “Not alone,” Joseph whispered, almost to himself. “Something’s with us.” The ship groaned again, and this time, the sound was not the natural creaking of a vessel under strain. It was as if the Horizon itself were alive, groaning in agony. A shockwave of energy rippled through the hull, sending a violent shudder through the ship’s framework. Joseph’s breath hitched as the viewport flickered, the stars outside distorting in impossible angles. Tal Kray - Book 4 “Joseph, look!” Elena cried, her voice laced with a mix of awe and terror. Through the viewport, the stars were no longer just distorted. They were moving. The very fabric of space was warping. The stars, planets, and galaxies in the distance began to melt, fusing into something new, something unrecognizable. The edges of the universe were blurring into one another, overlapping and colliding like waves in an ocean that was too vast to comprehend. In the center of it all, a figure began to emerge, a shape that seemed to shift between dimensions, nei- ther here nor there. It was the source of the pull they had been feeling, the disturbance that had torn apart everything they knew. “That... that’s not possible,” Elena whispered. Joseph didn’t answer. His eyes were locked on the shifting mass outside. His mind was reeling, strug- gling to comprehend the impossible sight. The shape was growing larger, taking on form, but its edges were still intangible, shifting, flickering in and out of existence. “It’s not just space,” Joseph said, his voice distant, Thanos Kalamidas barely above a whisper. “It’s reality itself. It’s being re- written.” The whisper in his mind grew louder. Are you ready? Joseph’s hand froze over the controls. The voice was no longer just a faint whisper. It was a command. A demand. The entity outside, the thing that had caused the rupture, was calling to them. “Do we respond?” Elena asked, her voice shaky. “Do we open the door?” Joseph hesitated. Every instinct in him screamed to run, to do whatever it took to escape this night- mare. But deep down, a part of him, something pri- mal, something ancient, knew that they couldn’t out- run this force. It had already found them. “We don’t have a choice,” Joseph said, his voice hardening with resolve. “We have to know what this is. We have to understand why it brought us here.” He pressed the control panel with a steady hand, his mind awash with a thousand questions, none of which had answers. Tal Kray - Book 4 Outside, the shape pulsed, a silent invitation. The universe itself seemed to pause, holding its breath. The Horizon trembled again, but this time, it was dif- ferent. There was no sound, no groaning hull. Just the silence of the void. And then, Joseph heard it. The hum. It was faint at first, almost imperceptible. But as the ship moved closer, the sound became more distinct, a deep, resonant vibration that seemed to emanate from the entity itself. It was a song, if one could call it that. A melody composed of frequencies beyond the human ear, beyond human comprehension. Joseph closed his eyes, allowing the sound to wash over him, even as his rational mind screamed at him to stop, to turn away. The hum was not a sound, it was a presence. It resonated within his very being, align- ing his thoughts with something far older, far greater than anything humanity had ever encountered. He looked at Elena, his eyes wide. “We’re not alone,” he said, a mixture of wonder and terror in his voice. “We never have been.” The voice spoke again, this time more clearly, as if it were speaking directly to their minds. Thanos Kalamidas Are you ready? And then, the universe cracked open. Tal Kray - Book 4 II. Joseph Hale’s eyes snapped open, but there was no immediate understanding of his surroundings. His body felt weightless, disoriented, and detached from the reality he had known only moments before. He reached out instinctively, his hands brushing against something soft, cool, yet unsettlingly alien. A ground, but not ground, a presence, but not a place. Beside him, Elena stirred. Her breath was shallow, jagged, as if her lungs had forgotten the rhythm of air. She blinked rapidly, pushing herself to sit upright, her face pale and drawn. “Where are we?” Her voice trembled, uncertain, struggling to bridge the chasm of confusion between reality and nightmare. Joseph rose to his feet slowly, the world around him shifting like a liquid, swirling with phantom images of fractured light. There was no up or down, Thanos Kalamidas no horizon, only an endless, profound darkness that stretched infinitely in all directions. But it was not a darkness that invited calm; rather, it was a void that seemed to pulse, as though it had a heartbeat of its own. “I don’t know,” Joseph replied, his voice hoarse, the air feeling thick in his throat. He grasped Elena’s hand tightly, the coldness of it grounding him mo- mentarily in the surreal chaos. He turned in every direction, trying to make sense of the space—or the lack of it. “But we’re not on the Horizon anymore.” Elena shuddered. “No... we can’t be.” She glanced around, her eyes wide, scanning the eerie expanse. “Where is the ship? The stars? This... this isn’t space.” Joseph shook his head, a wave of nausea hitting him as his mind struggled to catch up with the im- possible. “This isn’t anything. This is... a threshold. We’ve crossed into something beyond the limits of space-time.” There was a brief flicker in the air in front of them, an image that appeared like a sudden projection, yet it didn’t feel like a mere illusion. It felt real, like an entity standing just beyond the fabric of their per- ception. The figure was tall and distorted, shifting in Tal Kray - Book 4 and out of existence like smoke caught in a breeze. It was neither human nor machine, just an ungraspable presence, vague and incomprehensible, bending the air around it as if it were a reflection on a surface of water disturbed by an unseen current. Are you ready? The voice echoed in their minds, a deep resonance that seemed to emanate from the figure, but at the same time, from everything around them. It was not a sound, but a sensation, vibrating through the air, sinking into their very bones. Elena flinched at the sheer volume of it, though it was silent in the conventional sense. Her eyes searched Joseph’s face, her expression both fright- ened and defiant. “What is that? Who is it?” Joseph’s chest tightened. The voice was the same as before, but this time, it felt closer—more present. Not just an observer, but something aware of them, waiting for them to acknowledge it. “I don’t know,” he murmured, his hand tightening around Elena’s, instinctively pulling her closer. “But I think... I think it’s been waiting for us.” The air shimmered, and the figure twisted again, its form growing more distinct, solidifying for just a moment into a shape that defied recognition, a sil- Thanos Kalamidas houette far too large for any scale they could compre- hend, expanding and contracting like a living thing, pulsing in rhythm with their own heartbeats. Elena let out a soft gasp. “It’s... alive?” Joseph nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off the shifting figure. He felt his throat tighten as the re- ality of the situation settled in. This was not some alien intelligence or an interdimensional artifact. No, this was something far older, something that exist- ed before the first star burned in the sky. This was a presence that had watched the rise and fall of civili- zations, the birth and death of galaxies. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. Are you ready? The voice again, this time more insistent, echoing in the very fabric of space. It felt as if it were reverberating within his mind, his own thoughts being reshaped by the force of it. He glanced at Elena, his hand shaking. She was staring at him, searching for some kind of reassurance, but he had none to give. “We’re not alone here,” he whispered hoarsely. “Whatever this is... it’s not just a rift in space. We’ve crossed into something. Something that has always been.”