Skull Island Base - Two Weeks Later
The primitive village was gone.
In its place stood a fortress of prefab steel and concrete.
Ernst stood in his newly excavated cavern laboratory.
It was a marvel of anachronistic engineering.
Generators hummed with Kryptonian energy signatures, and consoles flickered with holographic displays that wouldn't be invented for another seventy years.
"Status on the mapping project?" Ernst asked, adjusting a dial on his console.
"Signal interference remains at 90% beyond the two-kilometer perimeter," the Red Queen's voice echoed from the speakers.
"The bio-magnetic field of the island is shielding the interior."
Ernst frowned. "Then we bypass the field."
He opened a canister. Inside sat a swarm of nanobots, no larger than mosquitoes.
"I've modified the comms relay," Ernst explained.
"Each unit is fitted with a microscopic shard of a Tesseract energy cell. They don't transmit radio waves; they transmit via localized subspace wormholes. Instant, unjammable communication."
"Ingenious," the Red Queen noted.
"Release the swarm," Ernst ordered.
Thousands of mechanical insects buzzed out of the cave, disappearing into the jungle.
Days passed. The nanobots mapped the island, revealing a nightmare ecosystem.
Ernst watched the feeds.
He saw the Iwi tribe—relocated to a new settlement—feasting on carcasses left by Kong.
The Titan was feeding them, protecting them.
A symbiotic relationship, Ernst noted.
He is their god; they are his fleas.
Then, the alert came.
"Dr. Ernst," the Red Queen projected her avatar—a young girl in a red dress—into the center of the lab.
"I have found something. Something... impossible."
"Show me," Ernst said, leaning forward.
The hologram shifted to show a serene, mist-covered lake in the center of the island.
The viewpoint plunged underwater.
The feed switched to sonar visualization as the water grew dark.
Deep beneath the surface, the lake bed opened into a massive subterranean hollow.
Lying in the mud were monsters.
They had skull-like heads, serpentine bodies, and two powerful forelimbs.
"Skullcrawlers," Ernst whispered.
"The devils of the island. They are hibernating."
"Keep watching," Red Queen instructed.
"Below the nest."
The nanobots pushed deeper, past the sleeping monsters, into a chamber that defied geology.
Resting in the center was a smooth, oval object.
It was colossal—easily a hundred meters in length. It pulsed with a faint, rhythmic bioluminescence.
"It's not a rock," Ernst realized, his heart skipping a beat.
"It's an egg."
He scanned the readings.
"Biological markers are off the charts. The energy density... it's stellar. What creature lays an egg that size?"
"Analysis complete," Red Queen said softly.
"Subject identified as Balaena Stellaris. The Star Whale."
Ernst froze.
Doctor Who.
In his past life, he had watched the show.
The Star Whale was a legendary creature, the last of its kind, used to save the human population.
He didn't expect to find one here.
"A Star Whale?" Ernst feigned shock.
"I thought they were myths."
"They are ancient," Red Queen recited from the Kryptonian database.
"Eons ago, they roamed the vacuum of space. They were benevolent. They fed on cosmic radiation and... emotion."
"Emotion?"
"Empathy," Red Queen corrected.
"They possess a unique psychic physiology. If a planet cries out in pain—if a civilization faces extinction—the Star Whale hears it. They come to save the dying. They act as arks, carrying refugees across the stars on their backs."
The hologram showed ancient star charts depicting massive whales carrying cities through space.
"They sound like angels," Ernst murmured.
"And like angels, they fell," Red Queen continued darkly.
"Civilizations discovered that the cerebral fluid of a Star Whale acts as a potent neuro-enhancer. It grants god-like intelligence and psychic expansion. So, they hunted them."
Ernst looked at the egg. Brain fluid. Like CPH4, but cosmic.
"They were hunted to extinction," Red Queen said.
"The hunters discovered their weakness. Because the Whales feel the pain of others, they cannot bear to see suffering. Hunters would torture innocents nearby, crippling the Whales with shared agony, making them easy to kill."
"Barbaric," Ernst said, disgusted.
"Effective," Red Queen countered.
"However, the archives note a statistical anomaly. Every civilization that hunted the Star Whales... collapsed. Plagues, civil wars, solar flares. The probability of such bad luck is infinitesimal."
Ernst nodded slowly.
"The Universe has a will. It protects the compassionate. You kill a savior, you pay the price."
He looked at the massive egg on the screen.
It was the last of its kind, hiding here on Earth, protected by the magnetic field of Skull Island and the ferocious Skullcrawlers.
"Is it alive?" Ernst asked.
"The heartbeat is faint," Red Queen replied.
"It has been dormant for thousands of years. It is waiting for a signal."
Ernst sat back in his chair.
A hundred meters of cosmic biology.
The potential for infinite knowledge.
He could crack that egg, drain the fluid, and push his brain to 100% instantly.
He could become a god tonight.
But he thought of the "bad luck."
He thought of the innocents tortured to kill these things.
And he thought of the Doctor.
"We leave it," Ernst decided firmly.
"Doctor?" Red Queen tilted her head.
"The resource potential is incalculable."
"And the risk is infinite," Ernst lied, masking his morality with logic.
"If we crack that egg, we might trigger a psychic backlash that fries every brain on this island. Or we might summon whatever killed the others. No. We mark the location. We protect it. If the Earth ever faces extinction... we might need a ride."
"What is the present status of the egg"
"The egg needs star light to hatch it is very weak."
He stood up.
"Delete the coordinates from the local server. Keep them encrypted in your core. No one finds this egg but me."
"As you wish, Dr. Ernst."
Ernst looked at the screen one last time.
Sleep well, he thought.
'As long as I am alive no one will hurt you.'
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