Mosaic (Breakthrough Book 5)

by Michael C. Grumley

  Borger was determined to stay focused. “We can do more than that. If we can reprogram the protocol you’re using, we can make it look like the same kind of traffic people use for surfing the internet.”

  Lee turned away from his monitor. “Oh. I like that.”

  “Hacking 101,” Borger forced a wink. “Camouflage your data.”

  “What’s 102?”

  “Distraction.”

  Lee nodded. “So, listen. Speaking of programming, I’ve been thinking. Getting IMIS to scour the internet looking for these ancient historical connections clearly isn’t all that simple. If we can find some generic modules to use, that will help, but…these deep-learning algorithms can be hard to predict. And since this hasn’t been done before, there’s really no way for us to gauge how much load on the system it’s going to create. Which means, with the processing load IMIS is already under just for the language translations, we may end up completely overwhelming it.”

  “Way ahead of you. We’re going to need more powerful hardware.”

  “Is this the new computer system you were talking about before?”

  “It’s called The Machine,” Borger said. “From Hewlett Packard. A supercomputer redesigned entirely from the ground up, using computer chips that work with light itself. They’re so fast, they can do a hundred genome decodes in under ten seconds.”

  “Holy crap.”

  “Believe me when I say you’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “I believe. So, how exactly do we get some of this hardware?”

  Borger stopped typing and smiled thoughtfully. “Leave that to me.”

  9

  Elgin Tay touched the walls gingerly with trembling fingers. He was now standing precariously on the ledge, searching intently for anything else around him. The surface of both the walls and the ledge had a subtle texture to them. One that took Tay’s fingers some time to finally discern as a small pattern, not etched but rising from the surface just enough for his fingertips to feel them. The patterns were tiny and felt like a patchwork of circles, or perhaps hexagons, covering what felt like every square inch of each surface. He had no idea what it meant, but the tiny uninterrupted hexagons, along with the lack of a seam between the wall and ledge, suggested it was all one giant singular surface.

  His left-hand flat against the wall to stabilize himself, Tay reached out further now with his knife. Searching. For anything.

  After several slow, progressively wider arcs, the knife’s tip stopped on something. He repeated the last swipe a second time, and it stopped again in the same place. Then again. There was something there. Tay felt his right foot reach the edge of the shelf and twisted his wrist to extend his index finger out. But he could not touch what the knife had found. It was just out of reach. He flipped the blade back around and checked again, tapping the object. There was definitely something there, and it made the same sound as tapping on the wall.

  Tay desperately hoped it was another ledge. In fact, he hoped there were many more, possibly even positioned in some kind of pattern around the inside of the ship’s hull. But any brief comfort the discovery gave him promptly evaporated as he considered what else it could be. A random protrusion. Or something completely useless. The thing could be anything. Anything at all.

  What if there were not more ledges? What if there was nothing around him except a lot of empty air?

  He found himself struggling with only two options. He could either remain on this ledge beneath him and gradually die of thirst, or he could try to slide further down into the darkness, praying that there was something else below to catch him.

  In other words, take a risk now or accept the near certainty of death by dehydration within a few days. Mathematically, the choice was simple. But emotionally, the fear of trying to lower himself down was paralyzing.

  Tay tried desperately to remember the shape of the outside hull from Will Borger’s computer-generated composite. They didn’t have every angle yet, but its estimated size and shape indicated an oblong. How tall was it again? Several hundred feet? A thousand? He was already beginning to doubt his own memory, and so far, he could not detect any curvature along the wall from where he stood.

  He didn’t know how long it took before he reluctantly forced his trembling body down onto his stomach. He gripped the side of the ledge with his right hand, pressing his left palm flat against the top, inching himself back––until he was finally able to slide one knee out and over the edge.

  There was a fearful swelling in his chest when the sensation on his leg and foot suggested nothing but cool air below. His body continued to shake as he slid further out.

  Now almost to his hip, he dipped his foot and swung his leg wider, back and forth.

  Still nothing.

  The physical tremors grew stronger, and Tay began to panic. This was crazy. There had to be another way. There had to be–

  It was too late. The tremors were manifested by a deeper fatigue setting in, and Tay suddenly found himself losing the strength he needed to pull himself back up. In a frenzy, he clawed at the metal with desperate, sweating hands but there was nothing else to grab onto.

  Then it came…all at once. The strength in his muscles vanished, leaving his arms and shoulders screaming in protest just before they gave out. In one swift motion, he lost any remaining hold on the ledge and tumbled uncontrollably into the darkness.

  10

  The plunge was beyond terrifying.

  In utter horror, Tay clawed frantically with his hands as his fall accelerated into the unknown. Seconds that felt like an eternity.

  Until he suddenly hit something. At full speed. The impact of another shelf smashing into his leg sent him tumbling even further out into empty space before having a chance to grab for it.

  He found himself in the midst of another and much longer horrifying plunge. Seemingly countless and sickening seconds of panic…before another massive impact.

  Without warning, his body crashed into and through a large surface of water, almost knocking Tay unconscious. The instant deceleration of his body was violent and left him completely disoriented, followed promptly by renewed panic.

  Tay was totally unprepared for the submersion and did not have enough breath in his lungs. He suddenly began thrashing, desperate to get back to the surface. But in the darkness, he had no idea which way was up.

  The panic intensified, causing him to thrash harder, already feeling the depletion of his air. All made worse by his desperation. Tay had only seconds left before his body would realize his lungs were empty and panic would truly set in.

  He had a fleeting moment of rational thought and fought to seize it. Seconds. He had seconds. He tried to slow his flailing limbs. Seconds were longer than they sounded.

  His lungs screaming, Tay fought with everything he had to maintain a grip on his mind. He had a chance. If he could just think! He had to know which way was up!

  His body wouldn’t tell him in time, but his breath could! That is if he had any air left. Anything at all. In one controlled motion, he brought his arms in and tried to contract his chest, trying to squeeze any remaining air out of his lungs and through his mouth.

  It was a single bubble.

  Large enough to be felt rolling over his lips and nose as it slowly launched to the surface. Even momentarily, it was enough to tell him that he was upside down. And it was all Elgin Tay needed.

  With everything he had, beyond the pain and beyond his body screaming for air, he rotated and kicked.

  His instincts told him that he wasn’t far from the surface. He couldn’t be, given his splash. And he was right. He was only four feet below, taking less than a second to claw his way to the top. Where a desperate and blessed breath of fresh air was waiting. The first came in as half air and half water, immediately followed by a second, full breath which filled his lungs to capacity. Then another and another.

  Below the water, his hands and feet paddled harder than necessary, frantic to keep his head above th
e surface. He could hear the constant splashing of the water around him. The sensation of the waves and bubbles felt familiar and strangely calming, reminding him that he was still alive.

  But he was not out of danger. He may be paddling back above the water, but Tay still felt nothing beneath him. He tried to reach out wider, feeling for safety with each stroke of his arms. But there was nothing. Only water and darkness.

  In a sudden wave of hope, he convinced himself he could not be far from the wall. He tried to relax, rose his mouth higher above the water, and yelled. “HEY!”

  He listened carefully. And yelled again. “HEEEY!” Tay then twirled around and yelled in the opposite direction. “HEEEY!”

  He could hear it.

  It was faint but noticeable. The echo of his voice off the massive wall. He paddled closer and continued yelling, hearing the echo grow louder until it was right on top of him. He reached out with a hand and felt the familiar metal. But then he was rewarded with something much more exhilarating. Just to the side, and barely a foot below the surface of the water, his left hand bumped the edge of another wide ledge.

  There, alone and in pitch blackness, shaking almost uncontrollably, Tay’s emotions were instantly flooded by cascading waves of desperation and relief––followed by elation. And as he reached out in agony to pull himself up, the short, exhausted engineer from M.I.T. broke down and cried.

  11

  Chris Ramirez remained still in his chair in the galley of the Pathfinder, staring at Alison over the chrome table between them. Having listened to her plan, he glanced momentarily at one of the ship’s crew as the young sailor passed them on his way into the kitchen. “Is that really possible?”

  “It has to be. But we’ll need help.”

  “And this is what the dolphin elders asked for?”

  “Not exactly. They just want to see, Chris. They want to see for themselves. However we can show them.”

  He sat, pondering the idea. “I guess it makes sense. I mean who can blame them? We’d want to do the same thing.”

  “We have done the same thing,” Alison corrected. “They just haven’t had the ability.”

  “Until now.”

  She nodded. “Until IMIS. Until they could finally ask for it.”

  “Geez, they are smart. Much more than we ever thought.”

  “But we shouldn’t be all that surprised.”

  Chris peered curiously at her. “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve been thinking about something. For a while now.”

  “Uh oh.”

  “Very funny,” she shot him a sarcastic look. “We’ve talked about this before. About their capacity. Neurologically.”

  “Right. The brain folding.”

  “Exactly. We know their brains have more folding than ours. Which means more neural capacity. We know they are far smarter and far more socially developed than we ever thought. And just like us, they have higher metabolic rates, allowing them to power those huge energy-hungry brains. So if their brains are so sophisticated and have more capacity, then what else? What else can they do that we don’t know about? Mother Nature wouldn’t just waste all that capability because they don’t have hands or fingers. I mean look at their echolocation. It’s still superior to our modern sonar. And I mean far superior.”

  Chris’s expression changed from curiosity to suspicion. “You know something.”

  Alison stared at him, contemplating. “I saw it, Chris. I saw it with my own eyes.”

  “You saw what?”

  “Their echolocation is much stronger than we thought. John and I were involved in an underwater rescue on our way here. A father and son were diving off a reef and got lost in some underwater caves.”

  “What the hell were they doing out here?”

  “That doesn’t matter,” Alison said, brushing his remark aside and leaning forward. “They were trapped, and it was Dirk who found them. He led us in with extra air tanks, and we saved them! But it wasn’t until Dirk led us out that I saw it. Or rather, I felt it.”

  “Their echolocation.”

  “Yes. You know how you can feel it in the water? Well, I felt it then. But that time it was much stronger. And those caves wound around in every direction, like a maze. And he brought us out a different way than we went in. There’s no way the echolocation that we’ve witnessed would have been enough to penetrate the walls of that maze. I’m telling you, Chris, Dirk was tapping into something more. Something deeper that allowed him to see through those walls. To see further, and to know how to get out.”

  Chris raised his one good hand and extended his index finger. “Okay, hold on. Let’s take a deep breath here. Even if that’s true, and I do believe you, it doesn’t necessarily suggest some vast leap in ability. Maybe it’s a slightly different mode of echolocation or sonar. Different frequencies or something. Or maybe it reflects better. For all we know, maybe he’d been in those caves before.”

  “It’s just one example, Chris. You and I both know there have been other examples too. Like when I’m talking to Sally, and so many times she knows what I’m going to ask before I say it. Both her and Dirk. They just know things. Not just things as they happen but maybe things that have already happened. It’s a feeling, and I’m not the only one who has felt it. You and Lee have too. Even Juan did. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I’m sure…I am really sure that nature would simply not develop a brain like theirs without putting it to use!”

  Chris stared at her without speaking. That was one thing he definitely agreed on. Mother Nature was not wasteful. Not for that amount of neural capacity. And admittedly, a more advanced form of echolocation would not be enough to account for all of it.

  Chris’s frown was sanguine. “Okay. Say you’re right. Say there’s still something big that we’ve missed. How exactly do we go about figuring that out?”

  At that, Alison leaned back and folded her arms. “I don’t know,” she sighed. “I’ve tried to ask Sally, but it feels like she’s evading the question. They may have shared a lot with us, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re an open book either.”

  “Which would mean that if they are, in fact, hiding some things, what they have shared is more…deliberate.”

  “Right.”

  “So, what…they have some kind of agenda?”

  “That’s what I’ve been asking myself.”

  “And?”

  Alison nodded, reluctantly. “I think so.”

  “You think so what?”

  “I think it’s possible their exchanges with us have been,” she hesitated, “strategic.”

  “Okay. Then if that’s true, the next question is why?”

  “Maybe to get us to build this metal for them.”

  “That would be giving them a tremendous amount of cognitive credit. They’re smart, but are they that smart?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” Alison said. Her arms still folded. “But what if their elders, the ones they call heads, are not just older? What if they’re also smarter?”

  12

  Hello Alison.

  Alison smiled weakly from the edge of the Pathfinder’s platform, wavering slightly with a hand wrapped firmly around one of the ship’s stanchions. Half of her was trying to remain steady, while the other half tried to fight off the nausea.

  “Hello, Dirk. Where is Sally?”

  Sally sleep. Come soon.

  Alison nodded. She then turned to one of Emerson’s crewmen standing just a few feet away. Inside her earbuds, Chris spoke in a clear voice. “You sure about this?”

  “I’m sure,” she replied, before reaching up and pulling down her mask with her free hand. “I’m not going far.”

  Alison’s splash into the emerald water was as gently as she could manage. The lingering effects of her decompression sickness were still present––thus she had made promises to both Doctor Kanna and Neely. If she needed to go back into the water, it would be brief, and she would remain at the surface.

  The init
ial turbulence of her splash was quickly replaced by the familiar coolness and gentle rolling of ocean waves around her. She let herself relax and move with the water, breathing in deeply several times before arching back into an upright position.

  Once in the water, it did not take long for her symptoms to ease. She had long known that seasickness could be eliminated almost immediately by the person getting off of a rocking boat and into the water. Something she had been counting on.

  She moved gently under the weight of her dive equipment before wiggling her mask to test the seal. No leaks. She then held the lower edge of her mask and tested the microphone again. “You still there?”

  From inside a small equipment closet, Chris leaned over a metal desk previously used by Lee Kenwood. “Hear you loud and clear.”

  “Okay, good. Let’s just–”

  Alison. You back.

  Alison turned to find Dirk circling. His dull, gray skin passed gracefully through the rays of underwater light.

  “Yes, Dirk. I’m back.”

  “That was quick,” Chris said.

  “Someone seems eager.”

  “I’ll say.”

  You better.

  She smiled inside her facemask and released the button on her vest. “Yes, I am better.”

  Where Chris? Where Lee?

  “Chris is here. On the metal. Lee is gone.”

  Why gone?

  “He’s, uh, taking care of something.” A buzz sounded in Alison’s ear, indicating a bad translation. “He’s working.”

  A short pause in Dirk’s reply reminded Alison that there was no dolphin equivalent for work. So far, effort was the closest translation.

  Dirk replied with a simple okay and continued circling.

  Alison paused her vest translation again. “He seems different.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s happy to see me, but he’s…calmer. Not like he usually is.”