by Ivan Kal
In the meantime Mathias was getting himself educated on human technology. Since he became a slave, he had only used Ra’a’zani tech, and before that the highest form of tech he used was a handgun. Now he learned about everything that human hands managed to build. And he was amazed at what they had, and then angry at the way they fought against themselves and how they lost everything. If they were united before the Ra’a’zani came, perhaps Earth wouldn’t have been enslaved.
In his spare time he was studying human history, and the more he read, the more he saw what kind of people they truly were. Thefts, betrayals, murder, war. All those things made him ashamed of his ancestors. They had spent more time trying to kill each other than trying to help one another. He could see why Olympus left them behind. Even now, when all of humanity was enslaved by an alien race, they still betrayed one another, selling their own kind to their alien overlords, and all for a few more breadcrumbs. Mathias promised himself that he would not rest until humanity was once more free.
Mathias was just finishing his last lap, when a message prompt appeared in his vision. It was a message from Jacob, sent to his implant. He was given one when he first arrived to the resistance base. It was a human technology, and it completely blew Mathias away when he learned about it, he knew that Ra’a’zani didn’t have anything like it, and that just made him even more mad at humanity for wasting it all in the war that doomed them in the end. He opened the message and read it. Jacob wanted to see him in his office in an hour, plenty time for him to take a shower and change clothes. One hour later, he entered Jacob’s office.
“You wanted to see me Jacob?” Mathias said.
“Yes Mathias, come in.” Jacob gestured for Mathias to enter. He had a small object in his hand that was unfamiliar to Mathias.
“A datapad, another human invention.” Jacob said.
“What does it do?” Mathias asked.
“It’s a computer, it can do many things, but it was made obsolete by implants.”
“So why are you using it then?”
Jacob smiled. “I guess that I am used to it. I was born before implants were widespread, and I was accustomed to it.”
“It must be strange to you, I mean remembering a time when there were no Ra’a’zani.” Mathias said.
Jacob just looked thoughtfully at the ceiling for a moment. “Yes.” He said sadly. “You don’t remember a time before Ra’a’zani?” Jacob asked.
“Yes, but it wasn’t any better then. I run gang, with a girl, we were thirteen-fourteen maybe. We didn’t have electricity, but we survived, we stole mostly, and when we needed to, killed. We didn’t know better. And then Ra’a’zani came. And we became their slaves, we saw a lot of people slaughtered. We weren’t strangers to death, but this was somehow worse, they didn’t just kill to survive, they slaughtered because they could.” Mathias said.
Jacob nodded solemnly. “We will be free again, and this time it will be different. I think that all of humanity learned a lesson that had evaded us for too long. We need to be united to face the life in this universe.”
It was Mathias’s turn to nod. He like Jacob, believed that.
“The reason I called you here was, to ask for your opinion on something.” Jacob said, he put his datapad and walked around the desk, he guided Mathias to a couch and took a sit on the opposing one.
“What do you think about Asumy?” Jacob asked.
“What do you mean?” Mathias asked, confused.
“You are spending the most time with him, I’m hearing that he is teaching you human history.”
“Well, yes, in my spare time…”
“I want to know what is he like, how does he think.”
Mathias thought for a moment and a few instances of his conversations with Asumy came to mind.
“Well, he is a good teacher, he is friendly, and he likes to talk about topics he is interested in, manly history, though there were a few strange moments.”
“Like what?” Jacob asked.
Mathias hesitated.
“Mathias, I need to know if we can trust him, the future of the entire human race depends on it.” Jacob said.
Mathias sighed. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way because I know that he can be trusted, and that he wants to help us, it’s just that I think that he is hiding something.”
“Do you have any idea what?” Jacob asked.
“I’m not sure, but every time I ask him about how he was made he steers the conversation elsewhere, at first it thought that perhaps he didn’t want to be reminded that he wasn’t like us, that he wasn’t born but made, but he doesn’t appear troubled by that.”
“Do you think that he doesn’t want us to build more like him?”
“No, I don’t think that’s it. There is one thing, I didn’t tell this to anyone else, I wasn’t sure it even happened, but when Gloria and I first boarded the ship, and when Asumy’s hologram appeared, for a moment I could have sworn I saw some other image.” Mathias said.
“Other image?”
“Well, it wasn’t the image he has now, of a human man, but something else, some alien creature with four arms.” Mathias said uncertainly.
“An alien with four arms? Do you think that he could have been built by Ra’a’zani? And placed for us to find?” Jacob asked.
“No, he wants to help us, I have no doubt about that, and if that was the case Ra’a’zani would have already executed us all. I don’t know what it means, if anything at all.” Mathias said.
“Alright Mathias, I’ll need to think about this a little more, we still haven’t contacted Olympus, and I want to be sure about Asumy before we do, that’s all. You may go.” Jacob said.
Mathias stood up and went to the door, when he reached them he paused and turned his head back.
“I have been spending a lot of time with Asumy, I believe that I know him. And I know that the thing he values most is trust, if you want to know something you should ask him directly. As far as I know he has never lied to me.” Mathias said.
Jacob ran a hand through his hair. “It’s that last part that worries me.”
Mathias nodded, turned and left the room.
***
Jacob entered the bridge of Olympus ship, it was late at night, base time, so there was no one there.
“Asumy? May I speak with you?” Jacob said to the empty room.
A moment later Asumy’s hologram appeared.
“Of course Jacob.”
“I wanted to see how you were doing, we have been bothering you a lot in the last few months.”
“It’s no bother, it is well within my capabilities.”
“I heard that you have been teaching Mathias about human history.” Jacob said.
“Yes, I like interacting with him.”
“That’s good.” Jacob said, they spent the next minute in an uncomfortable silence, at least uncomfortable for Jacob, he was sure that it wasn’t for Asumy. Finally Jacob sighed.
“I’m guessing that you have been wondering why I hadn’t asked you to send a message to Olympus.”
“That has been on my mind.” Asumy responded.
“Well, the answer is simple, at first there was the possibility that this was a Ra’a’zani plot. And afterwards I was reluctant, because Olympus did abandon us, even now I don’t think that they will help us, and even if they wanted to, the earliest they could get here is in sixty years. But another reason is because of you.” Jacob said.
The hologram made a caricature of human confusion. “Me? Why?”
“I didn’t trust you, I still don’t, I know that there are things that you are not telling us.” Jacob said.
“That is true, there are things that I didn’t tell you, but none of those things pertain to you and your fight.”
“Really? Is there nothing that you are holding back that could aid us?” Jacob said.
“No, you have my promise that I will never hide anything that pertains to the survival of the human race.”
&
nbsp; Jacob looked at the hologram, he knew that the image was computer generated and that he couldn’t see into its eyes and decide whether Asumy was worthy of trust. Even his response now was an evasion, he admitted to hiding things, but made no attempt at revealing them. Jacob decided to go with his gut, and it told him to trust the Ai.
“Alright Asumy, I will trust you. Send a message to Olympus. I can transfer all the information the resistance has gathered on Ra’a’zani for you to send it with the message, tell them… Tell them that we need help.” Jacob said.
“I will Jacob.” Asumy said, and the hologram disappeared.
Chapter Five
November 2169 – Sanctuary
The great trees of Sanctuary were swaying gently on the wind as Seo-yun gazed from her balcony. She chose to have her house built outside of the city, at the edge of the plateau, looking at the great forest spread out below. In the distance she could see the great mountains with their snow covered peaks, it was fall now on Sanctuary, at least the closest equivalent, the trees here don’t shed their leaves, rather the leaves shrink and roll up in on themselves, as a way to protect themselves from the snow and the cold. It was still warm enough, they had a few months more until winter.
Seo-yun turned around and went back inside. Her home wasn’t large, it had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a large bathroom and an office. It was built from synthetic materials and metals as all their buildings were. She went through her bedroom and into her office, the lights turning off and on as she exited or entered a room. Her home got electricity like all the other buildings on Sanctuary, wirelessly. It was a concept that had existed for hundreds of years, first introduced by scientist Nikola Tesla. The energy was sent through the atmosphere from the three power plants that were built a couple of miles outside of the city, they generated energy from antimatter reactors that they finally managed to build by themselves, they were of course aided by the data from the alien databases.
She entered her office and sat down at her desk, the room was filled with holo images, graphics on the walls, and her desk was filled with data, theories, equations and presumptions. She was trying to crack the same problem that she had been working on for more than 20 years. The way that the Union ships traveled between the stars. She knew that they stopped using hyperspace a long time before they even started the journey towards Earth, and started using something they called translanes, what Seo-yun dubbed trans-space. But it just seemed impossible, it didn’t make sense, the time it took the ship to pass a set distance varied, sometimes it could take them a week, and sometimes a month to cross the same distance.
Seo-yun looked at the projected path that the Union ship took from their side of the galaxy to Earth, it wasn’t a straight line, sometimes they went back, or went around a star system that would reduce their travel time significantly. She knew that they were trying to find a place to bring their people and start over, but it didn’t make sense to ignore some viable star systems while going to other that couldn’t be what they were looking for. And their exit points inside the systems were strange as well. Sometimes they entered star systems well inside the gravity influence of the star, which was impossible, at least if one was using hyperspace, and sometimes they exited the trans-space so far away from the star that it took them months or years even to get deeper in the star system.
She used her implant to scroll through the data, coming to the entrance point into this Nebula system. They had entered the system between the orbits of the third planet – Boreas, and the fourth planet - Eurus , well within the Apollo’s strongest gravity influence. After that they proceeded to Sanctuary, which was the second planet in the system, after doing a short survey, they continued towards the other side of the system and exited the Nebula from a point between the orbits of Eurus and Gem the fifth planet. Seo-yun had already sent ships to those coordinates to scan the area, but they couldn’t find anything amiss. The way the Union ships entered and exited systems didn’t seem consistent at all, and yet this seemed to be a much faster way for them to travel, so much so that they abandoned hyperspace travel completely.
“You have been through this data a million times, it won’t change if you keep looking at it.” The voice of Luna, Seo-yun’s Ai said through her implant.
“I know, but it feels as if I’m missing something.” Seo-yun said.
“It will come to you when it comes, don’t force yourself.” Luna said.
Frustrated, she closed the files, and turned to other things, she reviewed the files her assistant sent her, concerning the Academy of Sciences, Seo-yun was elected as the Minister of Science, and was in charge of all the scientific programs. She went through the proposals, someone wanted equipment to go and study wildlife on the southern continent, then she noticed an inquiry from Nadia Wilson, she was appointed the Minister of Civil Service, Olympus had three branches the Civil Service, Military and Science branch. Between those three they ran Olympus under Tomas’s leadership, though in the past years it was all on them.
In the message, Nadia asked for permission to dig a tunnel through a hill where a science team was doing research. The tunnel was supposed to connect one of the power plants to the city. With her implant Seo-yun accessed the science team files and saw that their research was almost over, she then composed a message to Nadia telling her that the science team would be done in a few days and that she can start on the tunnel then.
As she read through the message again to check it, Seo-yun froze on the word tunnel. She immediately brought back the files pertaining to the trans-travel. She looked at the data again, at the path the Union ship took.
“What is it Seo-yun?” Luna asked worriedly.
Seo-yun was too busy to respond.
The first part of the Union word for this kind of travel wasn’t translatable so Seo-yun decided to call it trans, but the second they translated as lane, Seo-yun assumed that that was only the closest translation, but if it was a literal translation. What if Union ships didn’t travel through another kind of space similar to hyperspace, but a tunnel, a lane. She looked at the entrance and exit points of the Union ship, they weren’t constant, which suggested that they didn’t have control over where they enter or come out of it. She looked over the time the ship usually stayed in a system that they were just passing through, they would always proceed straight to the other system exit point immediately after entering a system. That suggested that they didn’t need to wait for a recharge of their drives, as she originally assumed, the translane was already there, they could detect it and use it. Which meant that the translanes were naturally occurring. She went through the scans of those areas where Union ship entered and exited the Sanctuary system, there was still nothing there, but Seo-yun was sure that she had found the answer, there was something there, and now that she knew that, she had no doubt that she would find it.
“I think that I got it.” Seo-yun said excitedly.
“Got what?”
“The translanes problem.”
She was just about to send the message to her assistant to gather her best people, contact her ship in orbit, and to come and pick her up in a transport, but she noticed the time. It was already the middle of the night, and even though she wanted to start on this immediately she put the message in her implant queue to be sent in the morning. Another thought struck her and she prepared an additional instruction, for a special kind of scanning equipment.
“Can you wake me up at six in the morning?” Seo-yun asked.
“Of course Seo-yun.”
She then went back to her bedroom and went to sleep.
***
“Be careful with that! It is thousands of years old.” Seo-yun said to the crewmembers of her science vessel Insight, as they lowered a piece of equipment from the transport.
“What is it?” Mia her assistant asked.
“It’s a scanning computer from the Union ship. I am hoping that it will see what our scanners can't.” Seo-yun said.
“Just the computer? What abo
ut the other equipment?” Mia asked.
“Out scanners are copies of theirs, a bit improved actually, the only thing that is different are our computers, there is a ton of data on each scan, the computers sort it out and present it in a way we can understand, perhaps there is something that our computers are overlooking, because we haven’t programed them to recognize it.” She said.
Seo-yun felt that she was right.
“They are done Seo-yun.” Mia said, referring to the loading of the scanner.
“Good, tell the Ship Master that we can get underway at his leisure, I will be in the lab.” She said, the science ship Insight, was the only one of its class, at least for now, there were plans to make more, but there was always something else that needed to be done. And now with half the fabricators working to help fleet expansion on Thanatos, it will be at least another year before they could start building more. The ship itself was unimpressive on the outside, it looked exactly like most other Olympus ships, its hull was grayish, and was shaped like an elongated box with soft corners, though Insight had much more sensitive sensors and telescopes than any other ship, and a state of the art labs, where the science crew could do their research. It didn’t have weapons, only two laser emitters for clearing out debris. It was equipped with two shuttles for missions, and of course an FTL comm.
Seo-yun entered the lab and sat at her holodesk, bringing up the data from the earlier scans.
“Have you found something in the earlier scans?” Seo-yun asked Luna.
“Not in the thousand times I have read through them.” Luna answered.