by J. Benjamin
Hesitantly, he slowly climbed the stairs into the jaws of the leviathan.
“May future generations forgive me.”
Chapter 24
Val took a deep breath. Everything was silent. She opened her eyes to take in her new surroundings. She was in a virtual environment created by the New Tokyo dream-net team. Her real body floated over a levitation pod, lightly sedated.
The virtual environment was a circular space. The floors were made of white marble. A large grandfather clock took up one side of the room. On the other side was the only door leading in or out. Above it was a red neon sign saying, PLEASE WAIT.
Like her physical self, her virtual self wore a white jumpsuit. A feature of the dream-net that Val never quite understood. Perhaps it was intentional, so the subjects involved wouldn’t suffer lucid-reality disorder. A person inside an active dream sequence could forgot they were in a dream sequence.
She received an alert.
“Hello?”
“Val, do you copy?” Ty said.
“Ty, I copy,” Val said.
“Can you confirm that you are in the virtual env?”
“Confirm.”
“Are you sure?” Ty asked. “What time is it on the grandfather clock?”
“Eleven-thirty.”
“Acknowledged,” Ty replied. “We confirm your presence in the virtual env.”
“I also see the door. It’s currently telling me to please wait.”
“That’s intentional. We need to go over a few pointers.”
“Okay. Hit me.”
“The door is a mental portal. When you cross it, a mini-sequence will be triggered. Your mind will be exposed to the Aquarian anima. To do this, we created an interface which infuses our technology to cells extracted from the vessel. I want to stress that your consciousness will not leave your body. As you are aware, there is no neuroserum involved here. This is not a spacetime sequence.”
“Copy.”
“That said, the Aquarian host could interact with you in ways that are both shocking and discomforting. Be prepared for anything. Do you understand?”
“Understood.”
“Lastly, communication. There will be a short lag period where we are unable to communicate. Once we have communication, I will patch Thomas through.”
“Where is he?” Val asked.
“Thomas is currently at the mouth of the vessel, awaiting my order to proceed. He will enter shortly after you have established connection.”
“Okay.”
“Do you understand everything I’ve explained? Do you give full consent to the circumstances you will shortly face?”
“Yes.”
“Perfect,” Ty said. “I’m excited for you! Everyone here at mission control is excited.”
“Thank the stars this is just a local-host and we can communicate,” Val said.
“Don’t be too thankful. After five minutes of back and forth you might get tired of us,” Ty said. “Speaking of, somebody wishes to speak with you before you proceed.”
“Put them on,” Val said. Moments later, a third voice entered the chat.
“Hello, Dr. Alessi,” said Minister Endo.
“Minister.”
“Right now, both you and Thomas can hear this. On behalf of the people of New Tokyo, we are grateful for your service both to this mission and to our great nation. Future generations will never forget this day.”
“All in a day’s work. I won’t let you down.”
“I believe it,” the Minister replied. “Good luck.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“No matter what happens, I am here with you,” Ty said. “See you on the other side.”
“See you on the other side.”
Val approached the single door. She slowly put her hand on the doorknob and turned it counter-clockwise.
“The universe at your back,” Val said to herself. “No pressure.”
Chapter 25
Val did not feel, nor see, nor hear. There was only darkness. She couldn’t tell how much time had passed, if any. It felt as though she didn’t have full control over her mind. It was like a desktop computer from a century prior was taking forever to boot its hard drive.
As the mental reboot unfolded, Val begun to feel slight degrees of sensation returning. In the form of pulses, like a low-hum vibration.
The hums started weakly, but quickly escalated in intensity. Then colors began to form. First it was a lone speck of dim blue light that lasted what felt like a millisecond. Then it returned, this time bigger than before. That’s when Val realized the hums and lights corresponded like lightning to thunder.
“Hello,” she said. As soon as she said it, bright streaks of blue and pink shot before her toward the place where the pulses emerged.
“Hello?” This time, the intensity was twice as bright. Val understood now that her brain wasn’t rebooting. Rather, it was metaphorically rewiring for this human-Aquarian interface.
“My name is Dr. Valerie Alessi. On behalf of the Government of New Tokyo, I come in peace. You are currently on the moon of Earth, the home planet of humans. I know I am not the first one of us you’ve met, but I am here today as an ambassador for my people.” As the words left her lips, Val felt complete control over her body and brain again.
The dark space ahead lit up as the lights of blue and pink created a walking path. At the terminus of this colorful walkway lay a glistening blue light at the spot where the pulses and hums resonated.
“Now we’re talking.” Val looked down and saw her entire self. She took it as a sign her mind had connected with the mainframe. Pretty soon, the mainframe would be connected to the Aquarian host.
Val ventured up the path. As she approached, she realized the light was actually an entry.
“Can anyone hear me?” Val asked, just to be sure she hadn’t crossed yet. Nobody responded. Not Ty, not Thomas, nothing.
“Okay, we’ll try option B.” Val jumped into the light barrier. In a flash, any doubts that she previously harbored about the local host, the mission, or the capabilities of the hybrid technology died in a crescendo of otherworldly glory.
The dark and pathways disappeared. Of the million possible scenarios Val imagined when entering the local host, she never saw this one coming.
Val found herself in what could only be described as the inside of a cyclone. Fast-moving walls of pink and purple clouds whirled past her in an endless cycle. Her feet stood on nothing. Just like her physical human body, this mental projection of Val floated.
“Hello,” Val said. “Can anyone hear me?”
In the chaos of the storm, Val spotted movement on the cyclone. That’s when she knew she wasn’t alone. Slowly, their shapes came into greater focus. Their multi-colored appendages peered through the vortex like living fibers. They sensed her presence and slowly closed in on her.
“I see you,” Val said to the Aquarian workers. It was apparent the workers weren’t on the other side of the vortex, but rather, on the inside with her. There were dozens of them now, appearing at random and seemingly from thin air.
“Whoa,” Val said in amazement. It was her first time interacting with the aliens up close. While she wasn’t physically inside the host, being able to directly interface with the Aquarian anima was a prize greater by orders of magnitude.
Val didn’t care if she was a fugitive on Earth. She almost forgot about the situation which forced them to interact with the Aquarian kaiju in the first place. She was standing on top of the universe.
A static noise quickly diverted her attention. It wasn’t coming from the aliens. Val saw the alert was coming from outside.
“This is Dr. Alessi, come in,” Val said excitedly. “Can you hear me?”
“. . . report status . . .” a barely-audible voice said. “I said, report your status.” Now the voice came in and was unmistakable.
“Ty, do you copy?”
“We copy, Dr. Alessi,” Ty said. “Val, what is your status?”
“I have made contact with the Aquarian anima,” Val said.
“I’m sorry . . . can you repeat that?” Ty asked.
“I am inside the local host and have made contact with the Aquarian anima,” Val replied. A few moments passed as Val anxiously waited for her wife— command to respond.
“Copy!” Ty said, with sounds of cheers and celebration nearly drowning her out in the background. “That’s great news. What can you tell us?”
“Well, I’m in a tornado or vortex of some sort. And I’m floating! It’s almost like the environment knows the state of my physical body and is representing it inside. The workers are here too. Several of them!”
“What are they doing?” Ty asked.
“Nothing, yet. They’re just floating around. I know they see me. I can feel it.”
“Val, we have reason to believe you are in a hybrid state of both the Aquarian anima and of the local host,” Ty explained. “Some features such as your jumpsuit, the fact that you’re floating, and your ability to talk to us are from our end. Anything else is of their doing. If you are seeing the workers, perhaps they are the mental projections of the workers inside Minerva. Can you make contact with them?”
“I will try,” Val said. She minimized the alert on her smart lens and looked to the creatures before her. Now there were a few dozen more. They continued to float about like little flying bowls of spaghetti.
“Can you see me?” A dumb question, as Val already knew the answer. “As I mentioned before, my name is Dr. Valerie Alessi. I am a Research Coordinator working on behalf of the New Tokyo Lunar Colony. Seven months ago, you crash-landed on Earth’s moon. Since then, we have taken your host to a research facility. We come to you now in peace and with a desire to have an expanded dialogue.”
Val stared glass-eyed at the workers. They didn’t respond, at least not verbally. They weren’t known to directly communicate with other species beyond promulgating their flagella.
Then, Val heard a low-frequency sound. It wasn’t a hum. Instead, it sounded like low, barely-audible whispers.
“Val, what’s going on in there?” Ty asked. “We’re picking up strange energy readings from the host.”
The workers stopped floating aimlessly. They shifted their mantles and floated toward the same point, directly in Val’s line of sight. The alien sea creatures floated so close together, their tentacles started to entangle.
One by one, the aliens threaded their appendages together. Each of the creatures linked to one another in a dazzling display. Whispers grew louder and louder. Val couldn’t believe it. Of everything she had heard and read from Kiara and Matt, nothing like this was ever mentioned.
Their tentacles melded into one another as the creatures drew inward. Their fibrous limbs disappeared into the ever-growing morass floating before Val. Now, they formed a giant black blob.
New growths appeared along the mantle of the behemoth. They crept out like vines, coming by the dozens and then hundreds. As the strands emerged, they lit up with new life in a display of bright fuchsia. The whispers increased with near-deafening intensity until they abruptly stopped.
Val gazed aghast at the super-sized Aquarian which dominated the environment like a five-story building. Though it was her first time meeting the Aquarians, Val need not ask for an introduction. She knew she was now face-to-face with the consciousness of the host itself.
Chapter 26
Thomas thought he had seen it all, from the frontlines of World War 3, to the inauguration of the GSF, to almost getting assassinated, to watching the GSF fall. None of it prepared the former Secretary-General for what lay before him.
As soon as he crossed the mantle of the vessel, he felt as though he had entered the foyer of a large palace. It was evident that just as Minerva created an entryway for the humans, the air-filled part of the ship extended deep enough to feel like a large cave. Though the barrier was transparent, Thomas could determine the edges.
He saw arching branches that could be considered the spines of Minerva with thousands of eggshell pods that sustained the workers whose entire lives transpired here.
Thomas was in awe. After all he had witnessed, nothing beat being able to see the alien life from within.
“Mr. Secretary-General, what’s your status? Do you copy?” Ty said through the radio. Her voice was clear but slightly dimmer than when he stood outside.
“Copy, command. I read you loud and clear,” Thomas said. “I am at the base of Minerva. The Aquarians have created an artificial passage for humans to walk through. I am following it as we speak.”
“Affirmative,” Ty replied. “Proceed.”
Thomas noticed he was slowly climbing upward.
“Command, it appears the passage continues upward,” Thomas said.
“Can you tell where it leads?”
“It looks like a ramp. I think the host is guiding me deeper into the heart of the ship.”
“Acknowledged,” Ty replied.
The path ahead narrowed. He was getting closer to the branches above.
“Command, I believe the path is taking me directly to the branches.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“To the spot where they meet,” Thomas said, not needing to elaborate further. Ty, Thomas, and everyone who studied the subject knew what lay where the branches meet.
“Acknowledged,” Ty said.
As Thomas walked deeper into Minerva, he felt their presence. Though he couldn’t telepathically communicate the way Kiara and Matt purportedly had during their journey, he could feel the kaiju watching his every move. It was like a spider crawling on the crown of his head.
A bright purple light began to emanate ahead of him. It emerged from the thick of the branches. With each step, the branches grew bigger than before. Being this physically close to the core showed Thomas how large the pods truly were, and how small he was by comparison. The alien eggs could hold a seven-foot-tall human.
As he neared the branches, Thomas also realized the walls of the passage narrowed in on him. The watery-aquarium which housed the workers sat mere feet away. Thomas had a front-seat view of the workers for the first time.
Thomas’ first close encounter with aliens had been when he entered the vessel. Now they floated just inches beyond the transparent passage wall. One heavily-appendaged beast was so close that Thomas felt as though he could reach out and grab it.
Thomas had seen closeups of the workers through drone images and scans. He had a solid understanding of their physiology and how their flagella-mesh bodies appeared.
“Command,” Thomas said. “There’s something you might want to see.”
“What’s going on?” Ty asked.
“There’s a worker, just a few feet away. I’m about to send you an image. I’d like your feedback on this.”
“Copy.”
Thomas quickly snapped several photographs with his smart-lens and submitted them to Ty instantaneously. He paused while they uploaded.
“That’s strange,” Ty said.
“Are they supposed to be doing that?”
“No,” Ty said. “This is unusual.”
The worker floated in place. Its flagella draped downward, forming a cape below it. At the head of the creature was a faint pink light.
“It looks like a floating lotus,” Thomas said. He looked around and soon noticed that all the workers within visible range were in the same form. “Command, do we have any data on this phenomenon?”
“Negative,” Ty said. “This is highly unusual behavior from the workers. We’ll try to gather more data, but for now, continue toward the core.”
“Acknowledged, Command.”
The behavior of the workers confounded him, and the lack of intel from outside didn’t inspire confidence. The branches were now at eye-level. They extended to his left and right as the floor of the barrier brought him to the core.
A flood of purple light drenched Thomas. His helmet quickly tinted in response.
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br /> “Oh my stars!” Thomas looked into the core of the Aquarian vessel. The purple light was in fact a bright ball of plasma which spun around like a gumdrop-sized sun. That little ball pumped life into the living vessel.
“Command, I am at the core,” Thomas said. He waited longer than usual. “Command do you copy?”
“Copy, please wait.”
“What’s going on?” Thomas asked.
“It’s Val! We got contact,” Ty said. “Hold on, I’m patching you in now!”
Chapter 27
“Val? Are you there?” Thomas beckoned. At this moment, Val was staring at the consciousness of an alien superbeing capable of inexplicable power.
Val looked into the consciousness of Minerva. Its hundreds of tentacles extended like massive ropes soaring high above her.
“Val, please say something,” Thomas said. He couldn’t see what was happening inside the mental sequence.
“I’m here Thomas,” she finally acknowledged. She then spoke to the Aquarian superbeing before her. “My name is Dr. Valerie Alessi. I am an ambassador on behalf of the New Tokyo Lunar Colony. We are in a local host environment. The man speaking to me is Thomas Adler, former Secretary-General of the Global Space Federation. We are representatives of humanity.”
Though Val was technically unconscious, she could feel her heart thundering in her chest. It was not lost on Val that the mammoth alien she currently spoke to was a bright shade of genocidal death in its physical form.
“Whoa!” Thomas said unexpectedly.
“Thomas,” Ty said, still present. “What’s happening?” Before Thomas replied, Val knew the answer. A faint image appeared in what looked like a circular hologram. At first, it appeared as a haze, but slowly started to come into focus.
“Thomas. Val. What is your status? Please respond!” Ty grew impatient.
“I can see Thomas!” Val said. The projection of Thomas, mere feet away, looked realistic enough to fool someone who didn’t know better. Even through the exploration suit, she could see his face. The cracks of age and snow-white hair weren’t enough to keep him out of the field. Val held out her right hand in acknowledgement.