The Stream

by Mark White

  'What do you mean, this isn't first contact? Who else have you met?' I asked, alarmed.

  'We encountered Captain Shigekatsu Ishihara of the Tenjiku Tokubei. At that time, we were able to materialise without problem in his ship and engage conversation with Captain Shigekatsu Ishihara. We told him about the damage to the bulk, our nature, and offered to help. Ishihara-san agreed to return to Earth to ensure full negotiations were started straight away. He filed a report of our meeting and headed straight back home. He never arrived. We have been unable to materialise in proximity to the Stream since,' she said, expressionless.

  I was stunned. I knew of the loss of the Tenjiku Tokubei, it suffered as catastrophic failure of its bulk drive as it arrived back in the solar system, with all hands lost. It's not something another Captain could ever forget, as the failure had never been fully explained. This isn't something I can ignore or take any chances over.

  'That's terrible. I knew Shigekatsu-san well, he was a good man. Is it a coincidence that his wife was named Safira?' I asked, suddenly realising why the name rang a bell.

  'No, I met his wife also. I chose her name as a tribute to her and all those in the crew who died. We played a part in their death, and do not forget,' Safira replied.

  'OK, I'll do as you suggest, at least until I get back to talk to Marcus. Is there any way we can communicate with you once I am back on Earth?' I asked.

  'It won't be easy. If you set up a Stream-free enclave using shielding or interference systems, it may be possible for us to make contact. We will attempt to do so in any such location, but take care these do not arouse suspicion. We do not wish to pry in your daily life, but will monitor you regularly if you wish to leave us a message. It would be best if you unambiguously label any such message you wish us to take notice of,' she said.

  'OK look out for the initials FEOS in any message subject or report heading. These will be items that contain information I believe you will find of interest,' I said.

  'FEOS. Is there a meaning to this?' she asked.

  'For the Eyes Of Safirans,' I said smiling.

  She smiled back. It felt like a breakthrough. 'I believe we can do business,' she said.

  'One more thing before you leave,' she said. I didn't realise I was leaving yet, but it sounds like my time is up.

  'I have a gift for you, to do with as you wish. We have been investigating your history, and how the Confluvium became fully subsumed into the Stream. We are concerned that in order to fully be free of undue influence, an individual may need to give up access to the Stream. We developed an equivalent "antivirus" to the one used on Flood Day, except that this has exactly the opposite effect. It will cause the Tap to wither and die, and will actively fight any new Tap growth. It must be directly injected into a blood stream to operate. You may use it as you see fit. It is on the table next to you,' she said, gesturing towards it. I glanced down and saw it. I'm sure it hadn't been there before.

  My eyes widened. I couldn't see the need for this, but maybe Safira could see further ahead than me. No harm taking it, but I couldn't imagine ever using it.

  'Thank you,' I said. 'I will consider its use carefully.'

  'Do you have any further things to ask us or tell us Geraldine Mander' she asked.

  'No, I don't think so. I will attempt to contact you again once I have discussed matters with Marcus,' I replied.

  'Very well. Goodbye Geraldine Mander,' said Safira.

  I was immediately back on the Zheng He. I gestured to the crew that I was fine, and told them the cover story, which got quite a few of them rattled, and some angry. Around the ship, the flickering lights all disappeared simultaneously. I'm pretty sure they were just there for show, but it was impressive. First thing before I file my report though is to archive this personal pool along with a couple of images, and replace it with a false one that matches the official story. I'm sure Marcus will be interested in this real one once I'm back.

  Pool (2): Kofi Albus - 14th Sextilis 227PD

  I sat there with my whisky glass in my hand, untouched. I looked at it, lifted it to my lips and sipped once. I sniffed the luxuriously peaty aroma, and then downed it in one. I filled it again.

  It all seemed to click into place. The whole pattern of events all seemed to suddenly make sense. The Safirans were a threat because they couldn't be assimilated into the Stream and controlled like the other races of the Confluvium. Control over the other races, including humanity, was being increased generation by generation. We had peace, but at the cost to our freedom, and the lives of the Safirans.

  Why did this control need to be tightened right now? Is it in reaction to the threat the Safirans pose?

  We're still no closer though to working out who or what is behind all this. It dates back to before the Flood, so it won't be the same person from back then still alive now. Is it a group of people, handing the responsibility down from generation to generation? That's such a cliché, a shadowy council secretly controlling events, while dressed in silly clothes and performing masonic rituals. I guess these clichés are often built on grains of truth though, so we can't rule it out. Ditto for an external alien race, manipulating and controlling the Confluvium to their own ends. But what could those ends be? Everything else seems to be clicking into place, the patterns all match and we have a cohesive set of events. But still no cause, no guiding force. What is behind all this?

  As Geraldine said, it can't be a coincidence that Marcus died while he was away. He obviously couldn't be trusted after forcing through the contact mission, and they weren't sure about Geraldine after the Safira meeting and wanted her to be kept busy and monitored in the public eye. So they killed two birds with one HOME.

  It feels as if my next report for Geraldine could be a waste of time, things are moving so fast. Not from Geraldine's perspective though I guess, as she's known the truth about the Safirans for a long time now. I may as well get on and do it, after all, the Fount does predate the Flood, so its genesis may be uncovered there. I can't think of anything better to do either. So let's clear my mind and get on with some research.

  Well, that's a few hours looking into the political and religious history in the decades before the Flood. I knew some of it, but the things in the restricted records shook me to the core. I knew things had been bad, but the level irrationality, prejudice, terror and pure evil that lived in the world was hard to believe. It's not a humanity that I recognise. I can't deny that the world is such a better place now. I feel disloyal even questioning it. We can't go back to those days. Is freedom from control really worth that price?

  But why can't we keep the stability we have in the world now, and just excise the Fount from its position of control? Surely we would not slide back into those dark days again, having pulled ourselves into the light.

  I can't answer any of those questions, until I know what this Fount is, and the reason for its actions. So onwards and upwards we must go.

  Now I need to switch off and relax a bit. So I may as well carry on with the Confluvium VR drama. No repetition of the odd playback glitch again, but I'm worried that there's something badly wrong with my VR Tap infrastructure. Not my top priority to worry about right now though, I'll live with it. We've got past the Sirian section now, onto the Wellsians. From what I remember, it follows very much the same pattern as before. We met them on a typical first encounter exploratory craft mission to Procyon, lead by Isaac Wells. They had a pretty advanced industrial society, with a huge pollution problem. Initially Isaac Wells named them the Proxys using the usual convention of deriving something badly from the star name. However the media on Earth didn't like it as it was too close to Proximates, so they started being called after the Captain, as people liked the links in his name to classic science fiction authors.

  Flood Day 4 happened. We got on well with the Wellsians. They sorted out their pollution problem. We all lived happily ever after. I'm sure there's a bit more to the story than that though, let's take a look.

  OK, j
ust pausing the playback as usual to take a good look at a Wellsian up close, never having met one of them in person either. They're definitely another one that fits nicely into the panspermian theories. Bipedal, two eyes, one nose and mouth, two arms, bilateral symmetry in general. The face even had the same sort of feline characteristics as the image of the Safiran attached to Geraldine's pool. I looked closely at its face. It blinked.

  'Hello Kofi Albus. My name is Safira. I am pleased to meet you.'

  I'm proud that I didn't just panic and drop out of the Stream this time. OK, I did jump out my virtual skin and shouted 'What the fuck?' but nobody's perfect.

  'My apologies for startling you, Kofi Albus,' said the Wellsian. 'I have been attempting to contact you via different routes, but failed until today. I cannot communicate with Geraldine Mander, as the agency that stops us materialising also blocks access to the null Stream areas.'

  'It is now safer to contact you rather than Geraldine Mander due to her public position. I recently understood how to use the Stream to enter the VR system without materialising. I believe this has gone unnoticed. Your Shallow nature and mental strength blocked my contact though, until now. I believe your knowledge of my meeting with Geraldine Mander changed your perception of us, and let me in.'

  'I, I am pleased to meet you Safira,' I replied, accepting things at face value as calmly as I could. Why not? I need to start believing in something. 'Apologies for my reception, I was started by your movement.'

  'It is unimportant. What is most…' Safira started and then froze. Her image stopped moving, back in the paused state where I left it.

  'Safira? Can you hear me?' Yes I know that was a stupid thing to say but I didn't know what to do. I was just about to speak again, when she suddenly moved, and spoke with urgency.

  'Kofi Albus. Apologies, but this link is not stable. I know how to stabilise it. Let us make an appointment by when this will be resolved. Meet me here in twenty hours. Is that acceptable?'

  'Yes, I look forward to it,' I replied, trying to be hasty and yet courteous. I'm not sure what the done thing is when negotiating with alien may-be-threats. I need to be careful though.

  'I must go. Use FEOS. You must not tell Geraldine Mander of our meeting until af…', she said, until abruptly cut off. I think I got the gist. Geraldine won't be in the office tomorrow, so I couldn't tell her anyway, as I'd want to do it face-to-face. And I should label things with FEOS like Geraldine to ensure it gets noticed by her. I guess that proves who it is.

  Well fuck me. That's quite a day. I started the day thinking I was paranoid, and ended it not only with things being darker and weirder than I thought, but I'm also conversing with the race I thought were our biggest enemy. And yet, I'm still no closer to knowing what's behind all this. However I'm not alone, and all the recent glitches and shadows I've experienced suddenly make sense. I'm not going mad.

  OK, only one thing to do at this time of night. Yes, one more dram of Laphroaig while I gather my thoughts, hopefully it will help me sleep. I think I'll make an early start tomorrow, lots of research I want to do on the pre-Flood history, and I need to be settled in at home in less than twenty hours. I really hope Safira gets the link stable.

  Pool: Kofi Albus - 15th Sextilis 227PD

  I'm still feeling a bit disoriented today, I didn't manage to sleep much at all. I spent most of the night tossing and turning, even after taking a sedative. Having your perception of the Universe flipped tends to do that. Why should I trust Safira? How can I trust an unknown alien race over my own? Yet, at the moment, that's what I'm minded to do. It seems indisputable that there is an unknown agency, the Fount, driving humanity and the Confluvium to their own agenda. Could that agenda actually be to protect itself, and us from the Safirans though? Even if it was, could that justify what they've done? How could they have known about the Safirans before the Flood though, which is when all this dates back to? Round and round in circles these arguments and counter arguments went in my mind. I think I drifted off for a couple of hours, but was soon awake again. So I decided to get up and make an early start.

  I've done a bit of basic research on the political picture before the Flood while at home to start the day. I knew most of it from my basic history training, but felt like I needed a refresher given how alien it is to the world today. Jove, what a mess. I'll have to think carefully how to structure my report to bring out the interconnectedness of the events, without making it all jumbled up. There were moments in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, using the old calendar, when it looked like international co-operation was going to help bring the world together into a more cohesive order. Then they got ahead of themselves and tried things the world wasn't ready for, allowing the dark forces lurking in humanity's soul to rise and exploit this for their own ends. Seemingly small events all lead to a downward spiral into chaos, usually in the name of democracy. Religion seems such an anachronism these days, but it played a key role in some of the pre-Flood events. I haven't quite got my mind round why it was so important to events back then, so I'm going to make the status of religious power my focus for this morning once I get in the office. I've scribbled down some notes in an old-fashioned way so I don't forget. It just seems to help my thought processes getting things down on paper.

  Before that though I'm going to take a detour on the way in to do something pleasant for once. I'll call in and see Doctor Mauro Sosa and let him know of our research funding. Yes I could just send him a message, but I fancied the personal touch for once. Having failed to get funding so often myself, I know how important it will be to him. Anyway, I'm hoping a bit of human contact will help me wake up properly.

  'Good morning Mauro,' I said, reaching out to shake his hand. 'Sorry for coming unannounced. I just wanted to bring you some news to start the day.'

  'OK,' he said suspiciously. 'So what is it?'

  Oh dear, sounds like he hasn't had enough coffee yet either. Let's not take our relationship back to square one. I guess I'll have to get used to his mood swings.

  'Don't worry, the news is good. Geraldine Mander has given me approval and a budget to fund some research. I'd like you to do as you suggested and look in more detail at the link between HOME deaths and Shallows,' I said as positively as I could.

  He beamed back at me. 'Come in to my office. Let me get you some coffee and we can discuss the details.' That's better, mood swung back to manic happiness.

  Once we were settled in, I discussed the results of my follow up research which backed his theory of a correlation between HOME deaths and Shallows.

  'That's fascinating,' he said. 'I was worried I was seeing a pattern that might disappear when more data was studied. That sounds pretty conclusive to me. There could be some neurological link between the reason why some people can only immerse shallowly, that makes them also more susceptible to HOME. Possibly some other cause, but think that's where I should start. I'll need to have access to the bodies of one or more recent victims so I can study the pattern of decay. Oh and I'll need some better scanners. And I expect I'll…'

  I interrupted. 'Mauro, please don't worry about the details now. Just write up a brief overview of what you'll be looking into, what approach you'll take initially, what equipment and other resources you need, and send it to me for approval. Give an approximate first estimate at budget and timescales please, so I can get the contract written up. I don't want this to get overly bureaucratic, so I'll keep it as informal as possible. We'd like to keep this investigation confidential please, so make sure you send all data to me directly and end-to-end encrypted too. We're calling this Project Impala.'

  'Sure,' he said, sounding a bit surprised. 'I'll need to get my time approved by the institute's board, but I don't see that as being a problem. They'll be delighted to get funding for anything, especially with the added prestige of doing work for a Decemvir’s office.'

  'Fine,' I said. 'Sorry for keeping this so brief, I have to go straight to my office now. I wanted to take the chance to give
you the news in person, and thank you for the help you've given me.'

  'It's my pleasure,' he said, standing to usher me out.

  After my early start, it's still only mid-morning when I get to the office, despite the detour. I feel a bit more positive myself, there's something about Mauro's excitement that is infectious. Hopefully my religious research won't drag me down.

  'Good morning Kofi,' said a voice behind me. Damon sneaking up again. 'In late this morning?'

  I looked round, trying to decide what approach to take. May as well just be honest, if not too open.

  'Yes, I had to make a call at the DJ Institute. I'm just setting up a small research project there with Doctor Sosa, just some background data for my personal support for Geraldine. If you see a reference to Project Impala anywhere, that's what it is.'

  'Ah right,' he said. 'I'd seen you visited the institute a couple of time recently, that explains it.'

  Had you indeed? I'm going to have to watch my step. He really does keep his eye on what's going on a little too closely. I'd heard him referred to as Gulzari's spy. I thought it had been in jest, perhaps I need to re-evaluate that.

  'Looks like you're looking into religion today then,' he said, gesturing down at my hand written notes from earlier. 'That's quite a roving remit Geraldine is giving you.' Shit, as they say, just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean to say they're not out to get you. Damon probably is just doing his job, but I really need to be careful here. I might need to discuss this later.

  'Yes, I'm just doing a bit of checking on something for my own interest,' I said, hastily deciding what to say. 'Nothing to do with Geraldine this time though, my research on Raj just got me thinking about the past. That's the historian in me, I can't help but think how things have changed from the past up to our present day. Religion was so all-pervasive in pre-Flood times, it's amazing how quickly it died out afterwards. Just shows human nature can change.'