Black Infinity

by Salvador Mercer

  “Proximity alert, proximity alert,” the computer warning voice said, high pitched but lifeless.

  “What now?” Jules said out loud to herself, punching the flashing alarm to see that the forward-looking radar had picked up an object on, or near, a collision course with the Black Infinity.

  “Good morning, Jules—do you copy?” Craig’s voice was both identifiable and welcome.

  “Sorry, Craig, give me a moment, I have an issue I need to deal with,” Jules said, trying to get a read on what the object was and where it was located.

  “An alarm?” Craig asked, his voice calm.

  Jules keyed her mic, then flipped it to auto so it would pick up her voice at ten decibels and transmit automatically in the future. “Affirmative ... radar has something static within the Infinity’s orbital trajectory. I can’t make it out, though.”

  Craig laughed, and that concerned her. “Broaden the radar beam—that should take care of it.”

  “I did that already,” she said, exasperated.

  “No, you didn’t broaden it enough. What setting are you on now?”

  “Setting three, orbital debris detection.”

  “Go to maximum, setting eight. That should do it.”

  “Craig, why would I put it on deep space detection?”

  “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but you’ll have visual soon enough if you don’t change it.”

  Jules looked out the front view port window and didn’t see anything, though most of Jupiter filled her screen to her left. Anything against that backdrop wouldn’t be visible until her perspective changed and brought it in front of the black starfield. Giving up, she switched her radar setting.

  “Is that what I think it is?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Craig said. “We have to inform Houston that Science Officer Mayer has received a field promotion to Commander. Do you think they’ll object?”

  Jules held her breath and then had to gasp to get her reflexes moving again. “How?” was all she could muster.

  “Ask her,” Craig said. “I’m just here for the ride. Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to spend the next year in that tin can. It needs more than a few upgrades.”

  “What do you suggest?” Jules asked, looking at the massive radar dot blinking along her track over Jupiter’s Red Spot.

  “Well, we can’t really exchange the gas in here, and I don’t think hydrogen will do us much good, so we’ll need to pick you up and use the Black Infinity for life support on our way home.”

  “Pick me up?”

  “Yeah. Once you pass, we’ll pull in behind you and open one of the ship bays.”

  “Ship bays?”

  “It’s going to be a very long day if I have to repeat everything,” Craig said. “Take an hour to digest this and we’ll talk once you’re on board.”

  “If you say so,” Jules said, seeing for the first time the immense alien ship as it floated above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, not far from her projected trajectory.

  Maria had pirated the alien ship.

  NASA SPACE COMMAND

  Houston, Texas

  In the near future, Year 5, Day 80

  THE LINK WITH THE PRESIDENT of the United States was active, and Rock stood in the conference room at a whiteboard, finishing his presentation. His team—Marge, Lisa, and Jack—were in the room, as well as Admiral Nicholson, Doctor Navari, and Mister Smith. The president was in the White House briefing room along with several key advisors.

  “Any questions, Madam President?” Rock finished.

  Gloria Powers answered, “I have too many at this point, but for the sake of brevity and national security, I want to confirm that there will be no more EMP attacks on Earth moving forward.”

  “In essence, from this particular ship, no more attacks. That would be correct. The one due two days ago never occurred, so I feel it’s safe to draw that conclusion.”

  “Excellent news,” Powers said. “I will have the rest of the world’s leaders notified so that we can get back to normal procedures, especially with our logistical support needs. This is a historic day for all of us.”

  “Agreed,” Rock said, smiling back at her.

  “If I may, Madam President?” Smith asked.

  “The floor is yours,” she said.

  Smith looked like a child in a candy store. “You’re sure that Officer Mayer can pilot this thing back to Earth for inspection?”

  “No,” Rock said. “I’m not sure of anything anymore. However, right now, she is piloting it and its trajectory is for Earth’s system.”

  “What do you mean by ‘system?’” Smith asked.

  “We’re not getting this thing too close to our planet,” Rock explained. “The flight path of this alien ship is so exact that we’ve calculated its destination to be the Earth’s moon.”

  “Is the ship piloting itself or is Officer Mayer in command?” Smith asked.

  “It’s under her command, from what we understand, and she has ... instructed it to head for lunar orbit, for lack of a better explanation.”

  “And the crew?”

  “Officer Mayer, as well as Commanders Alders and Monroe, are using the Black Infinity as a life boat, so to speak, within the alien ship. Once they arrive here, they will take the ship and exit the aliens’ ship bay, and enter Earth’s orbit for inspection.”

  “I take it the nuclear weapon is still armed in case the ship decides to attack Earth at close quarters?” Smith asked.

  “I covered that in the briefing, but yes, that is why we’re going to keep it in lunar orbit. It is so large and has such an enormous mass that if we did have to destroy the ship, we don’t want debris from it entering our atmosphere. That could be as catastrophic as the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.”

  Smith was still optimistic. “We still get to ... inspect the ship when it arrives. Isn’t that right, Madam President?”

  President Powers nodded on screen. “To your heart’s content, along with a military attachment, and of course our NASA engineer team. Speaking of which, did we finalize our analysis on the array of radio transmissions and other waves that have arrived the last couple of days?”

  “No, Madam President, but the working theory was that once the alien ship was taken from Jupiter, whatever tamping device it used to keep the skies dark went offline.”

  “So why did it take days to receive these alien signals?” Smith asked.

  “Probably because the tamping device extended out towards the Oort Cloud, and even at the speed of light, it took some time to reach us,” Rock explained.

  “Its significance?” President Powers asked.

  “Nothing more than what we already learned over five years ago—that we are not alone in the universe,” Rock said. “There appear to be thousands of worlds and civilizations nearby, at least on a cosmic scale.”

  “Cosmic scale?” Smith asked.

  “Within 1,000 light years of us.” Rock put his dry-erase marker down and moved to his seat.

  President Powers asked, “I didn’t hear from Doctor Navari or Doctor Jones today. Have they finished the Intent Report on the alien species?”

  Rock nodded at Marge, who in turn nodded at Doctor Navari, who said, “Ah, yes, we have the first draft complete, though it’s only been two days, and this will be a summary only until we have more data from an analysis of the alien ship, its technology, and materials used to construct and operate it. Of greatest note is its gravity manipulation. That will be of huge interest to us and factored into our report.”

  “What part?” Powers asked.

  Navari nodded at Marge, who said, “Madam President, we’ve drawn a conclusion, based on current data and analysis so far, that the alien species is most likely indigenous to a hydrogen-based planet.”

  “Why indigenous?” Smith asked.

  “Their home world is most likely a gas giant,” Marge explained. “The parts of the Jupiter ship that appear to be designed and en
gineered for them was filled with hydrogen. Furthermore, there is no perceptible furniture for sitting or sleeping. We believe that the species is biologically buoyant, breaths hydrogen, and while intellectually far more advanced than us, they are militarily naïve when it comes to threat assessment.”

  “Why does that last statement sound like it did not originate with NASA?” President Powers asked.

  “That’s because we worked on that part with Admiral Nicholson,” Marge said.

  “Admiral?” President Powers prompted.

  “Well,” Nicholson began. “We collaborated on threat assessments with NASA, and based on some rather obvious but simple data sets, we’ve agreed on our conclusion that the alien species either doesn’t understand tactical warfare or doesn’t have a strategic plan that addresses systemic weaknesses in their culture. Maybe both.”

  “I’m going to need that in simpler terms,” President Powers said.

  Nicholson shrugged and looked at Marge, who said, “Madam President. We’re saying that the alien culture, while significantly advanced, especially with technology, is ... how do I say this appropriately?”

  “Just say it,” Smith prompted her.

  Marge took a deep breath. “They’re stupid with regards to unknown variables.”

  “You just referred to a species that can manipulate gravity as ‘stupid?’” President Powers asked in a level tone.

  “Well,” Marge said, searching for the right way to explain herself, “they had no plan to open a door if the door mechanism was destroyed.”

  Rock added, “Their defensive strength was in ensuring that any alien technology never came close to their own. It was supposed to be impossible to reach Mars or even Jupiter, but when we did, especially regarding this alien ship, they weren’t prepared for us.”

  “They had no locks on their doors,” Marge said, grasping for an appropriate analogy.

  “How do you account for this?” President Powers asked.

  “We can’t,” Marge said. “The Intent Report will give our hypothesis, which is that the genetic coding most likely means that they’ve been here before, long ago.”

  Navari added, “Since we don’t fit the genome coding found, it is plausible to extrapolate that our species evolved differently than intended. Indeed, a simple mutation in the DNA of our ancestors could have very well led to our rise as an intelligent species that far exceeded what, if any, genetic engineering the aliens may have performed years ago.”

  “This is speculation based on what?” Powers asked.

  Marge explained, “The Great Red Spot has been swirling for hundreds of years—at least, that’s how long we’ve been able to record it. The latest data from the Hubble Two telescope is that the Red Spot is winding down now. In less than a week, it has started to shrink, and at that rate, the well-known phenomenon will dissipate and be gone within a few weeks.”

  “You think they’ve been here for a few hundred years?” Powers asked.

  “That’s only what history has recorded. They may very well have been here thousands of years ago; a million years is also possible. We have no way of knowing for sure.”

  “And your science officer, Maria Mayer?” President Powers asked. “How do you explain her actions?”

  “We can’t,” Marge said, “at least not fully, and not until we evaluate her brain functions when she arrives, but what I can tell you is that there was an apparently unintentional information exchange between her and the computer program that interrogated her on Mars. Doctor Navari and I feel confident that the program wasn’t expecting a sentient being as intellectually advanced as Maria.”

  “What was it expecting?” Powers asked.

  Navari chimed in. “Someone from the pre-industrial era.”

  Silence fell over the room, and then Smith asked, “We’ll have access to their technology, right?”

  Rock answered, “Yes ... we hope to reverse engineer what they have. You and our intelligence departments should have a full analysis by the end of the year, though it may take years, if not decades, to even remotely understand what we’re dealing with.”

  “And then?” Smith asked.

  President Powers answered, her voice representing several billion people, millions of whom had perished at the hands of the alien technology. “Then, we give the aliens a dose of their own medicine.”

  “Damn right,” Nicholson said.

  ALIEN PROBE SHIP

  Entering the Sol-Terran Solar System

  In the near future, Year 7, Day 362

  THE WORMHOLE RIPPED the space-time continuum and heralded the arrival of visitors to the Sol-Terran System as a large, black, egg-shaped ship appeared. The wormhole closed in on itself, as the power required to open it rivaled a million suns and could only be sustained for microseconds.

  The three alien life forms inside the ship would best be described, if done so by an Earthling, as jellyfish-looking in nature. They floated in their hydrogen atmospheric ship at their command console and immediately began reading the telemetry of the Sun’s planets, while looking for the familiar beacon of their command and control ship that was their destination. They would transfer to that ship and then ascertain what had malfunctioned and sent an alarm to their home world.

  Using tentacles to manipulate the controls, they spoke to one another with light from their brains that pulsed to form words and logical constructs. Their bodies were translucent, allowing any species that utilized visible light to see right through them.

  They first noted that their destination ship was not berthed where it was expected. Instead, the undeniable anti-matter drives of its main energy generator showed it in orbit around the third planet’s moon. It was not supposed to be there. From the fifth planet, a gaseous world that reminded them of home, they altered course to the rocky, humanoid-infested world that they were cultivating for their economic gain.

  The second thing they noted, with alarm, was that the entire system—especially the third planet—was radiating advanced forms of energy and communications. Somehow, their cultivation had run amok; they needed to send a warning to their home world.

  There was no time.

  Their own command and control ship pulsed with an EMP attack, carried on neutrino waves, hitting their ship and knocking out its controls. Inertia kept their ship heading for the third planet. It took days, but as they were continuously hammered by wave after wave of their own weapon, they watched, helpless, as the small armada of alien ships rose from its gravity well to greet them.

  The hunters became the hunted.

  ALIEN PLANET

  Center of the Milky Way Galaxy

  In the near future, Year 29, Day 111

  THE GAS GIANT REVOLVED around a class G spectral star similar to the Sol system. The pair swept through space at a speed relative to a fraction of the speed of light as it orbited a black hole. This granted a hint of immortality for those who lived on the gas planet, as an hour of time here was the equivalent to a year’s time in the outer galaxy, and a day was more like a couple of decades to the slaves who served the empire.

  The species had evolved billions of years ago, at the dawn of the creation of the very universe. Mastering technology, they had retreated to the gravitational center of a large spiral galaxy and had begun a systematic conquest over other sentient species in an effort to support its large ecosystem. The species had turned within; obsessed with their own civilization, they paid little heed to the trillions of lifeforms that perished over the eons in service to their needs. Their entire economic and logistical system had been completely enclosed into a well-run program that required only a little of their attention and had never caused a serious issue over their lifespan as a species ... until now.

  Their strategic command and control ship had been made millions of years ago and had subjugated thousands of civilizations during the course of its operational life span. It was forbidden for its slave ships to enter their home world system for good reason. The arrival of their ship through
their wormhole portal gate, located not far from their system, came as a surprise to them. The fleet of smaller ships, all carrying primitive but effective atomic and nuclear weapons, confused them until they received a signal in their own language, consisting of a light pulse series.

  It was a single word, and one that they barely understood, but a quick analysis of the humanoid lifeforms on board told them all they needed to know. Immortality came at a price. Fate was a fickle but patient mistress, and their time had come to an end. The single word flashed over and over as the fleet approached their planet, right up to the time when their history ended, and another history began. It was the most human of words and most appropriate for their sins.

  The word was JUSTICE.

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