by J. Benjamin
“You have a lot to learn, and we will discuss it all in greater detail,” Agamemnon said. “For now, go and rest. The workers have built a garden and will prepare the agricultural items necessary for your consumption.”
Alex, stared in horror at the sights outside, then turned to Agamemnon with a similarly stunned gaze before turning, at last, to Edie.
“Edie, what the Hell have we gotten ourselves into?”
Chapter 10
New Tokyo, HAB 3 - January 10, 2083
Since arriving at the Moon, Val had come to regard sleep as far more precious a commodity than she had before. She wasn’t sure whether that had to do with the low-gravity or whether it had to do with nearly her entire universe upending at the speed of light. After a year on Space Station Sagan, Val knew the only gravity that could affect her was that of the state of the now-defunct-but-not-quite-defunct GSF, and mounting uncertainty about whether she and Ty would ever be able to return to Earth as anything other than political prisoners.
One thing Val was thankful for in this moment was the rooftop pool on her apartment building in HAB 3. If she couldn’t sleep, she would keep active in the wee hours. It certainly beat wallowing in her neuroticism, which was a personality trait Val had coped with since long before the events of the past week.
At this late hour, Val was fortunate to have the pool to herself. Resistance wise, swimming on the moon wasn’t all that different, because the inertia of water remains consistent, regardless of gravity. The waves and ripples caused by her splashing jumped higher and lasted longer than in Earth’s gravity though. And there was Val’s favorite part of it all, the acrobatics. Val, being a mathematician, could calculate the depth and velocity necessary for her next move. She took a plunge and sank until her feet touched the floor of the pool. Bending her legs, she then jumped from the bottom with all her strength. As she thrust to the surface, Val pushed her hands onto the water and flipped a full 360 degrees. She landed with an epic splash that drenched the pool deck.
Having achieved something unthinkable on Earth, Val relished the accomplishment. It wasn’t perfect and she’d need a lot more practice. Val felt an exhilaration that made up for her insomnia.
Part of Val wished Ty were there to see the feat. Not necessarily for validation from her wife, but so that Ty could have peace of mind, seeing Val calm and in her element. In the two years since they’d been married, Ty helped Val reform her life. Gone were the days of her drinking, a habit she picked up while living on the Sagan and dealing with Starscraper. It was Ty who encouraged Val to try new activities and get outside her comfort zone. It was the best way to cope with her anxiety and not feel the weight of the world constantly on her shoulders.
Though Val certainly wasn’t a swimmer of her old friend, Kiara Lacroix’s caliber, it was one of the mediums she found solace in, especially now in a low-gravity pool. It got Val thinking about the lake she’d seen earlier that day. She wanted to step out of the pressurized limelight and spend a few hours alongside those people she’d seen wakeboarding, she thought. Too bad the rental place was closed at this hour.
Val’s research on the Aquarians also proved far more fulfilling than she imagined it would. Starscraper was as big a pain in the ass as ever, but as much as it pained her to admit it, she liked working with it. Only a few years before, Val had explored the worlds uncovered in Pelican data with the space-based intelligence. This was before the mind-shattering discoveries of Wolf 482 changed humanity forever. Sadly, Val had already transferred teams when that discovery arrived.
The stresses of the Sagan convinced Val that living on a space station wasn’t for her. Indeed, she even had doubts about living on the Moon, when considering the confines of the colony. It wasn’t much bigger than the tin-can of the Sagan. However, Val reminded herself it was also that same tin can where Val met the love of her life. Val noticed the short walls surrounding the pool roof were lined with a species of vine similar to the Sagan’s arboretum.
All things considered, her situation could be worse. She could be imprisoned like former Secretary of Defense Gwen Jackson. Worse, she could be living in the lawless donut that was the William Herschel station at Saturn.
She felt a splash. Val turned to see who had surprised her in the pool at this late hour. Except, there was nobody. Instead, the pool vibrated as if someone had turned on a wave machine. Then the waves intensified until they became unbearable.
Val quickly swam to the edge of the pool and yanked herself out onto the deck. Except the deck was also shaking.
Had she been on Earth, she could have easily banged her head against the side of the pool. This was unusual. Moonquakes of this intensity didn’t occur often. Val dried herself with her towel and threw a robe on over her bathing suit.
Opting to not take the elevator, she dashed down the stairs. She emerged at the sixth-floor common area, practically empty at this hour, except for two people. The first person, a resident who’d fallen asleep on a couch while watching a holo-show, looked perplexed.
Thomas, still dressed in the same buttoned-down white shirt and slacks he wore during the day, dashed toward her.
“Val, Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “What are you doing here this late? Did you feel that?”
“You know me,” he replied. “I’m an insomniac just like you. Was studying intelligence briefs from the Minister’s office. You?”
“I was swimming, then that shaking.”
“Moonquake?” Thomas asked.
“That was my thought,” Val said. “But I’ve read about them and they’re not supposed to be that intense! Plus they also last much longer.”
Thomas shot a concerned look at Val, as if he didn’t want to imagine the other potential explanations.
“Minister,” Thomas said, answering a call on his smart lens. “I’m with Dr. Alessi. Did you feel that?” Thomas waited nearly ten seconds before Minister Endo finally replied.
“Come to the Research Bay, now,” she said in a cold, monotone voice. “Bring Dr. Alessi, but nobody else.”
“I’ll let her know,” Thomas said. The Minister quickly hung up.
Val sensed the urgency, since Minister Endo called Thomas directly. “What’s going on?”
“Come with me,” he said.
“But what about Ty?” Val asked. “I need to call her and make sure she’s alright.”
“Val, if she was asleep then she’s in the safest place she can be. Please, we need to go now,” Thomas beckoned with great haste.
The monorail system was still in operation, and they summoned a funicular. Thomas, using his newly-granted privileges, commanded the carriage to the Research Bay with no stops.
Val had a thousand thoughts running through her head, and none of them were good. What made the moon shake? Why was it enough to spook both Minister Endo and Thomas? Why were they headed for the research bay? Most importantly, was Ty alright? She wasn’t even able to check.
Val felt a pit at the bottom of her stomach. It was a stress she had only felt twice before. The first was when she was trapped in Starscraper’s chamber during a terrorist attack on Space Station Sagan, and the second was a few days ago when she learned the GSF had been overthrown. Whatever awaited them in the command center, Val knew it couldn’t be good. Val had known Thomas since the day he became Secretary of Defense under his now-deceased predecessor. This was the first time she had ever seen him worried.
Upon arriving they ran into the cavernous command center at the research bay. Already waiting, stood Minister Endo and Kosuke. They didn’t even notice the two GSF transplants enter.
Val saw terror beyond comprehension in their faces.
“Oh my God!” Thomas shouted. Val turned to see what it was that had sent them all into panic. On the other side of the glass, something had changed in Minerva.
It was a description Val had only heard about through the second-hand testimony of Kiara Lacroix and Matt Ashford. Nevertheless, it was as clear
as ten thousand emergency broadcast sirens blaring at the loudest decibel. A sight which had struck fear into the consciences of sentient species all across the galaxy.
Minerva, clearly no longer dormant, had started transforming from its peaceful turquoise to the color of a fiery, deathly fuchsia.
Chapter 11
Edie lay in the bed the aliens had built for her. As she stared up beyond the fly-trap membrane of the bed’s walls and at the liquid alien ceiling above, she considered how surprisingly comfortable the sheets were. The Aquarians had already taken her and Alex far beyond the space of the Universal Crescent. She could tell because the temporal sensations allowing her to sense the orbital fleet fell precipitously with each passing minute. Agamemnon was journeying into deep space, along with its two human passengers and thousands of workers.
So much went through Edie’s head. She couldn’t believe she and Alex actually took the plunge and left. Edie had contemplated what life might look like with just one other human beyond the Crescent. So far, it was not what she’d expected.
Edie and Alex’s newfound ability to telepathically communicate with the Aquarians, while conscious, raised the stakes to a whole new level. While it meant an opportunity to better understand her alien collaborators, and vice-versa, she still wasn’t sure how it played into the Aquarian agenda for humanity. The trifecta at Villa del Universo hadn’t told her much beyond “humanity’s future depends on it.”
Edie closed her eyes, and let her consciousness fall as deep as the sheets and pillows surrounding her. She tried to forget about the weight of everything on her shoulders and just allowed her mind to find a place of balance.
When she opened her eyes, she saw stars. Surprised, she looked out at the rich sky of nebulae, far-away suns, and the spiraling disks of distant galaxies. She looked down to see she was sitting on the outside surface of Agamemnon. Edie found it odd that she could casually walk along the outer surface of an alien ship, in space, without masks, and at what she figured was a death-defying velocity. She reminded herself she wasn’t truly on Agamemnon’s surface. As Edie walked along the bright blue surface, she turned and saw another familiar face sitting just a few feet away.
“I guess these new patches let us walk outside our bodies too?” Edie said to Alex. The blue light of Agamemnon reflected on his body as he sat.
“Figured that had to be the case, since we’re not asphyxiating,” he replied.
“So weird.” Edie sat next to Alex. “I wonder how far we can go with this thing. Think I can take it back to Earth?”
“I am certain the patches only let us go as far as the nearby Aquarian psyche extends. We can project ourselves to the outside surface of Agamemnon, because we’re currently connected to it.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” Edie said, nodding. “And since each Aquarian cell effectively has the power of sight, we can see from any perspective on the ship.”
“Looks to be that way,” Alex acknowledged. Edie walked along the liquid surface of the ship to sit beside him. She quietly listened as he spoke. “But judging by the looks of things, I’d say we are a far ways away from anything familiar.”
Edie glanced at all the stars. Gone, were any of the familiar constellations she knew from Earth. The dense, green strips of gas clouds that streaked the edges of space were not of the nebulae that formed the bands of the Milky Way. None of the galaxies Edie looked at resembled any she had ever seen through a telescope.
“Where do you think we are?” she asked Alex.
“Beats me,” he replied. “Certainly not in the Milky Way. Probably not even in the local group.”
“Even on the clearest of nights, we could never see the galaxy like this!” Edie waved her hands to motion to the green nebulae. “That’s the thing with the Aquarian map. No matter how close we are to another node in their network, that node could be in another universe for all we know.”
Alex remained quiet for several moments as he stared at the unfamiliar stars and galaxies they were passing.
“Edie.”
“Yes?”
“Are we broken?”
“Come again?” Edie was surprised to hear him ask such a question.
“Are we broken?”
“I don’t follow.”
“Well, think about it.” Edie considered his weary expression a departure from the often defiant and unapologetic man she knew. “We were criminals on Earth. We fled. We ended up on the Herschel. We fled. We became the first humans to ever physically leave the Solar System. We got routed to the Universal Crescent. We had a new home there and then before you know it, rinse, repeat, here we are again. Except this time, it’s just us.”
Edie needed a minute to think. There was a lot of truth in what Alex was saying, even if she didn’t want to admit it. They did have a habit of leaving a trail of destruction wherever they went. Nevertheless, it was something Edie had long ago made peace with as she tried to better understand why their situations always turned out as they did.
“Alex, when the GSF folks showed up and I asked to help confront them, why did you do it? You could have easily said no.”
“Are you kidding me?” Alex replied with a scowl. “I wasn’t going to let those Earth goons rip up our community and turn it into another satellite for human militarization of space. It’s bad enough what they’ve done to the Solar System.”
“But Kiara was a civilian,” Edie said.
“Doesn’t matter,” Alex replied. “She knew what she signed up for. Especially when she teamed up with Matt. He’s such a monster. She was probably teaming up with him in other ways too, if you catch my drift,” Alex said with a snide expression. “You didn’t force me to do that. I wanted to confront them. You know how Earth-based militaries work. They think they can just come to our home and set up a beachhead. When I looked into the eyes of Matt Ashford, I saw the eyes of Satan himself. And Kiara made her bed with him.”
“And Kiara made her bed with him,” Edie said, repeating Alex’s words. “Funny you use that choice of words. Interesting little fact. Did you know that my great-grandfather was a Holocaust survivor?”
“Really?” Alex said, surprised. “I had no idea.”
“It’s true.”
“But how?” Alex wondered. “That was a century and a half ago.”
“He was a Jewish Dutch boy, fourteen. Had to lie and say he was older so that they wouldn’t send him straight to the gas chambers. They sent him to hard labor, the Nazis. By the time the Allies liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, he was practically a human skeleton. He was one of the lucky ones.”
“I never knew that about your history,” Alex said. “How long was he around?”
“Oh, he died before I was born,” Edie answered. “But it’s funny, because he always used to talk about the Holocaust and atrocities with my father and grandfather. You know what they’d always ask him? How could so many people just let it happen? You know what my grandpa used to say? It was what Bishop Desmond Tutu said a century ago. Those who choose neutrality in situations of injustice have chosen the side of the oppressor. In other words, they made their bed.”
“They made their bed,” Alex said, nodding in agreement.
“Now don’t get me wrong,” Edie said. “It’s a far stretch to say Kiara is a Nazi collaborator. Even so, she’s on the side of the oppressors. If only she knew it. And that’s the thing, Alex. Good people don’t know when they are unwitting assets to those with malicious intentions.”
For a minute, they said nothing. They chose to appreciate where they were, sitting on the outside of an alien spaceship with no spacesuits. The blue light of Agamemnon illuminated their bodies. The never-ending sights of the living cosmos expanded in all directions. Discs of light at stardust sat beyond the bright dots. Eventually they would all end up like the bright, green, gas clouds which crept along the sky. Or, they would fall into darkness like the black holes at the center of the galactic discs. Together, they were seeing the universe without an atmosphere, a window, l
ight pollution, or any obstruction. Edie put her hand over Alex’s and grabbed tightly. She looked him in the eyes.
“By the way, I like your necklace,” Alex said, pointing to the green crystal adorning Edie’s neck.
“Thank you,” Edie said. “It was from Simon.”
“Ah, I see,” Alex replied.
“And to answer your first question, no Alex. We’re not broken. Humanity is broken. The universe is broken. Because we dare to recognize this, the world casts us as the broken ones. But I dare say, we are more whole than most of the humans out there. Fate brought us together and made us stronger. Together, we are a force that can’t be broken.”
Alex held Edie’s palm tightly. He continued to stare into her gaze. Then closed his eyes.
When Edie reopened her eyes, she was back in one of the egg-shaped recliners in their living space.
Chapter 12
Val dared not move. In an instant, every thought, every memory, and everything she had ever known danced before her in a rush of fear, panic, and existential terror. The transforming fuchsia output of Minerva filled the room, the white walls, the desks around the perimeter, faces, awestruck mouths agape, the aluminum control boards—everything was bathed in the glow. The atmosphere, Val realized, felt claustrophobic with it, as if filled with poisoned air.
The Aquarian host known as Minerva, clearly no longer dormant, had already partially changed color before Val arrived. As she stared in horror, the last bit of the teardrop-shaped vessel turned fuchsia, completing the iridescence process. They might as well have been staring into the deepest pits of Hell. Only a handful of humans had ever seen the Aquarians turn fuchsia. It was the Aquarian color of death.
“No.” Thomas clasped his hands to his forehead as his knees caved to the ground.