by J. Benjamin
“Minister Endo, I have to agree with Dr. Alessi on this one,” Seiji replied. “You heard him. If you send in a ground team, Thomas Adler is as good as dead.”
“Collateral,” Minister Endo replied coldly to the now-horrified faces of Seiji, Val, and Ty. “Come to your senses, people. Kosuke is in possession of a weapon far more dangerous than every weapon in human history combined. If he kills Minerva, the consequences would be catastrophic beyond recognition. This is not a bank robbery hostage negotiation. We have an irrational man holding a gun to the head of the entire human race. And you all know if Thomas’ radio were operational, he would demand the exact same thing.”
Val, Ty, Seiji, and all the scientists and engineers took in the full weight of Minister Endo’s assessment. Val knew that Thomas dying, horrible as it would be, was not the absolute worst outcome that could arise from Kosuke’s actions.
“Seiji, how long will it take to assemble the strike team?” Minister Endo requested.
“Five minutes,” he replied. “Once you give the order, they’d storm the vessel and do whatever it takes to neutralize the threat.”
“You mean kill him?” Ty said.
“Like I said, whatever it takes,” Seiji repeated.
“I still don’t like it,” Ty said. “I mean, what is Kosuke’s end game here? Does he have explosives? Does he have chemical weapons? Does he intend to meltdown the vessel’s core? If he sees armed soldiers, he could speed up whatever agenda he has planned.”
“Doubtful he has any explosives,” Seiji said. “Even with his access, it would be near impossible for him to steal any from weapons storage. He’d set off every alarm.”
“And somehow he still managed to get into the vessel without anyone noticing,” Ty replied.
“What are you implying?” Seiji inquired, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m implying that for a mission with major life-and-death consequences, you couldn’t even keep your eyes on the one place where they were needed the most. How can we be sure he didn’t steal a bunch of C4?” Ty angrily pointed her finger at Minerva.
“Enough!” Minister Endo stormed. “Both of you. Security is notoriously limited on New Tokyo. Our worst threats are 250,000 miles away. We prioritized protecting ourselves from the outside and protecting our most valuable weaponry from the inside. How did we know there was going to be a living alien ship in our midst? Certainly we couldn’t predict one of our own would lose his shit. But that is neither here nor there. Now, we have a crisis on our hands, and we need to eliminate it.”
“Excuse me,” an engineer interrupted from one of the consoles. “Seiji, Minister. I have something you might want to see.”
“What is it?” Minister Endo clenched her teeth.
“I just completed a diagnostics scan. Check out drives fifty through sixty-five.”
“Drives fifty through sixty-five?” Ty raised an eyebrow before burying her face in the console before her.
“What’s going on?” Minister Endo replied, crowding behind Ty along with Seiji and Val.
“Holy shit!” Ty said.
“What’s happening?” Seiji asked.
“Drives fifty through sixty-five were cloned to an external device moments before Thomas set foot on the vessel.”
“What was on those drives?” Val asked.
“Starscraper,” Minister Endo replied, her face filled with horror.
“Cloned? Can we bring up the Starscraper interface to find out what happened?” Seiji asked.
“Negative,” Ty answered. “It seems right after Kosuke made the upload, he encrypted the entire interface with new keys. I could try to break through the firewalls, but it would take hours that we don’t have.”
“So that’s his agenda,” Minister Endo said. “He’s not blowing up Minerva. He’s going in there with Starscraper and doing God knows what.”
Everybody looked at Ty’s console, unsure why Kosuke would bring a clone of a sentient AI on a nano-crystal drive inside an alien host.
“I’ll go,” Val said.
“I’m sorry, what?” Minister Endo reacted.
“Don’t send the strike team. Send me. I’ll check on Thomas’ status and get intelligence.”
“Like Hell you will!” Ty said. “You’ve been through enough today.”
“Ty, I love you, but you don’t know how I feel right now. A little vomit and a slight headache, but I’m fine.”
“I don’t care,” Ty said. “I’m not losing you to some maniac with a death wish.”
“I know Starscraper like the back of my hand,” Val said. “If you don’t send me in there, we’re all as good as dead.”
“Dr. Alessi, I don’t see how this is the wisest course of action,” Seiji said.
“Go on,” Minister Endo interrupted him. “I’d like to see where you’re going with this, Val.”
“Minister, I’ve been following Kosuke’s work ever since I got here. He’s studied the Aquarian biology with precision. He knows how each of their cells, from the workers to the host, process knowledge and act as mini-computers. His research is the foundation of the hybrid interface which let me communicate with them. He figured out how to bridge their biology with our technology. Connect the dots,” Val explained.
“He’s going to connect Starscraper to their anima?” Seiji asked.
“He could already be several steps ahead. The process wouldn’t take long. That’s why you need me in there,” Val said, turning her gaze to Ty, who stood by her side displeased. “There’s no other way. I’m the only one here who can contain Starscraper. You have to trust me.”
“I don’t want to lose you.” Ty choked on her words. Val held her hands in hers.
“It’s the only way. If I don’t do this, we’re all dead.”
Ty couldn’t believer her wife volunteered to enter the gates of Hell.
“Be careful,” Ty said.
“The strike team will be right behind her, in case anything happens,” Minister Endo said to Ty.
“Thank you,” Ty replied.
“Dr. Alessi,” Minister Endo started. “Star’s speed. For all of us.”
Chapter 31
January 16, 2083
“I’m inside the host,” Val said through her comms.
“Acknowledged,” Ty answered. “Keep us informed when you reach the core.”
“Affirmative.”
She was already walking up the incline where Thomas had been not long before. The thought made her stomach lurch.
The glowing light of the core was up ahead. Her fifty-pound tactical suit felt heavy. Nevertheless, she picked up her pace. Thanks to the low gravity of the moon, she practically leaped her way up. To Val’s surprise, the helmet did not hamper her vision.
“I’m approaching the core,” Val said.
“Do you have visual?” Ty asked.
“Negative, I . . .” Val stopped.
Facing her was the bright, glowing, purple core of Minerva. To the right, a person in a spacesuit laid on the ground, their arms tied behind their back.
To the left of the core, another person stood, several cables emerging from their spacesuit. The cables terminated into a digital mainframe, which sat at the base of an orange information crystal. From that mainframe, another bunch of cables emerged. Except they weren’t cables. They were biological fibers constructed from cells unlike any that Val had observed on Earth. Those fibers fed directly into the trunk that held the core in place.
“Holy fucking Christ!” Val said.
“Val, what’s going on there?” Ty said.
Despite all her years studying exobiology, she was unprepared for this.
“I’ve located Thomas and Kosuke,” Val said to Ty.
“What’s the status?” Ty asked?
“He’s alive,” another voice said in Val’s headset. It was Kosuke.
“You can hear us?” she asked.
“No,” Kosuke replied. “I figured your first question would be how he’s doing. He’s beat up, but he’ll be fine.”
“Can I talk to him?” Val asked.
“He was still knocked out last I checked. The stun blast blew out his vital sensors. I scanned him with my own equipment though. Heart still beating. Oxygen on high supply. Not that I think he’d need it in here.”
“I see,” Val said.
“You gonna tell Ty and Endo about him? They’re probably wondering.”
“They can hear you,” Val said. “They can’t talk to you directly but they can hear you.”
“So I take it your next question is . . .”
“What the Hell are you doing with that nano crystal?” Val demanded.
“Removing the veil that’s been concealing them ever since first contact,” Kosuke said.
“How far along are you?” Val asked, pointing to the nano crystal and biological fibers connecting it to the Aquarian host.
“More than halfway,” Kosuke said.
“And what do you mean when you say remove the veil?”
“Well isn’t it obvious?” Kosuke asked. “I’m using the hybrid anima to dig into this thing and learn all the secrets it’s hiding.”
“Secrets?” Val questioned. “Kiara and Matt found those secrets when they jumped through space and time.”
“Kiara and Matt got a taste of what the Aquarians know. Now it’s time to break them and get it all,” Kosuke said.
“You think Starscraper is going to help you accomplish that?” Val asked.
“If we can connect their mainframe to ours, then Starscraper could interact with their computational biology and download their information. It’ll be just like when their hosts hacked the Pelicans at Wolf 482.”
Val shook her head in disbelief. “Have you completely lost your mind? Do you have any idea how Starscraper works?”
“Of course I know how it works. Who do you think was the one who managed to synthesize it from it’s previous liquid state down to a small nano-crystal?”
“No! That’s not how this works! Starscraper is an artificial sentient intelligence. There’s a reason it took the form of a lake of liquid nanites. You connect it to the dream-net or the old Internet, and it would unleash a world of chaos in every direction. You think of Starscraper as a person, but it’s really a virus. This is a mistake.”
For a second, Kosuke said nothing, and then laughed at Val. “Don’t you get it? That’s exactly my intention. We’ll never tame these beasts if we don’t fight fire with fire.”
Before Val could reply, the purple light ceased at the heart of Minerva’s core and the entire vessel went dark.
“Val, what’s going on . . . we’re . . . strange readings,” Ty said, as her communications cut in and out.
“I can’t see anything,” Val said. Several seconds passed and nobody replied. “Hello? Ty?”
The only visible light came from the red lamps on Kosuke’s helmet. Through his visor, Val could see him laughing.
“Yes. Yes! It’s happening,” Kosuke shouted.
Terror pierced through Val’s veins. It was a terror she had only experienced once, when another madman almost destroyed Space Station Sagan. Except it wasn’t the ego-maniac laughing like a hyena that caused her to panic.
As she stared into the darkness, Val felt a presence akin to a sixth sense. It creeped into her mind like a hand crawling on the skin of her forehead. It was just like when she connected to the local host.
Minerva’s consciousness awakened in their minds. Unlike before, it wasn’t coming to them like a river of knowledge. Instead, the angry and chaotic mind of the alien anima violently rushed into their heads like a flood careening toward the back of a dam. Before Val knew it, the dam shattered.
Chapter 32
The Krayasee
Edie conjured mental images of what meeting ‘the brains’ might entail. In one version it would be like meeting the supersized projection of an Aquarian consciousness. In another, it would be something boring, like a large A’biran larvae hanging at the edge of a pool. Pravixyt, Ruutana, and Sattui escorted Edie and Alex back to the narrow path with Hieroglyphic walls. They entered another tram-turned-elevator, and it shot straight up.
It terminated at a cavernous dome of what appeared to be translucent stone. Edie could see the city lights through the thick, brown walls. It was reminiscent of a tour she’d taken of the La Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona. Even that paled in comparison to the core of the dome. A swamp like stench caught Edie by surprise.
Edie and Alex, flanked by their hosts, gazed toward a pool at the center of the rooftop dome. Like the other sustenance pools lining the Krayasee, it glowed a bright radioactive green. Ten A’biran surrounded the pool, motionless.
“What are they doing?” Alex asked, pointing to the ten A’biran at the pool. Their hind legs hunched up while their front legs knelt toward the pool in a downward-dog pose.
“Check that out,” Edie said, pointing to the containment chamber of the A’biran closest to them. The slimy larvae which lived inside the metallic bowl was gone.
“Initiate cerebral transfusion, seven, nine, two, sequence,” Pravixyt said. Then, the three companions who accompanied Edie and Alex leaped to the pool, landing between their A’biran brethren and causing a splash which landed at the humans’ feet.
“Holy shit!” Edie reacted in amazement. They watched as Pravixyt, Ruutana, and Sattui arched their hind legs up, and crouched their metal bowls toward the lake of bright green sludge. The lights inside the bowls deactivated, as the transparent lids holding them shut opened.
Finally, Edie saw her three alien companions in their true natural states, as the slimy larvae that composed their actual bodies slowly emerged. They slid from their containment chambers like slugs. On the outside, they seemed to stretch longer than Edie imagined they could. Possibly because they were condensed when inside their metal bowls. One by one, they stretched their slimy bodies into the pool and dove inside.
“So that’s how they do it,” Alex said. “Damn!”
The two humans approached the sustenance pool and at the several A’biran, their vessel bodies slumped vacant, as the slimy creatures who controlled them swam freely in the open.
“Shit, I get it now,” Edie said.
“Get what?” Alex asked.
“Why they’re called brains. The brains isn’t one entity. It’s several of them acting as a collective.”
“You are correct,” a mysterious voice whispered. Edie and Alex turned to face the obvious source. They watched as thirteen alien larvae quickly jetted about the pool before them.
“The brains is all of you?” Alex said.
“Yes,” they responded.
“So which of you are we speaking to right now?” Edie asked.
There was a pause. “All and none.”
“All and none?” Edie repeated. “You mean to say we’re speaking to every one of you at once and none of you specifically?”
“Correct,” the brains responded.
“What is your purpose here?” Edie questioned.
“We are the collective which controls what you know as the Krayasee. All major decision-making comes through us.”
“And how are you chosen?” Alex asked. The programmatic-talk of their previous encounters with Pravixyt, Ruutana, and Sattui ended, as the brains spoke in perfect English.
“The strongest and wisest among us are the ones which form the collective,” the brains replied. “Acts of great honor are also heavily weighed when inviting new members to join the brains.”
“Acts of honor?” Edie inquired. “Interesting. What did our three hosts do that was honorable?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” The brains reacted. “Pravixyt, Ruutana, and Sattui introduced a new species to our home. They have committed the greatest act of honor and bravery and are now one with the great collective.”
“I think this is the first time anyone meeting us was deemed honorable,” Alex joked.
“You said this is your home?” Edie said. “There’s no way you originated o
n this rock. I mean, look at this place! It’s in the middle of a debris field. There’s no goldilocks zone. You have to have come from somewhere else.”
“Our species travels to other places, yes,” they said unemotionally. “Sometimes with the Yonapi. Sometimes with ships of our own. We have advanced expertise when it comes to starship construction. However, this has been our home for longer than the time it would take your species to undergo several evolutionary cycles.”
“That means you’ve been here for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years!” Alex said.
“We do not understand your version of a year as we have not visited your home star,” the brains replied. “But after studying your cellular structure and biology, we have surmised the average lifespan of a human. Several ten-thousand human lifetimes would indeed be an appropriate measurement for the age of our city.”
“So the oldest cities on Earth are like newborn children compared to the age of the Krayasee,” Edie said.
“Yes,” the brains replied.
“Where do the Yonapi fit in?” Edie asked.
“The Yonapi, or Aquarians, were the ones who helped us establish our home,” the brains explained. “Many, many cycles ago.”
“So your species did not originate with the Yonapi?” Edie asked.
“No,” the brains said.
Edie decided to switch gears. “Do you remember history before the Yonapi found your species?”
“Barely,” the brains said. “As you know by now, the origin of the Yonapi precedes both of our species. There’s so little we know of life prior to the Krayasee. But there is one thing we do know.”
“What is that?” Alex inquired.
“Before the Ultimate Rebirth, the A’biran were a species on the verge of extinction. Our original home, whatever it was, had been reduced to a war-ravaged, ecological disaster. By the time we made contact with the Yonapi, our species was one hundredth of the population it was at its previous peak. The Yonapi rescued us and brought us forth to a new home,” the brains explained.
“How do you remember all of this?” Edie asked. “You don’t even know what your original home was. Could have been a planet. Could have been a meteor. How do you know all these details about war, environmental destruction, and your population size?”