“This is communication relay station Ω-4. We have received your request.” A voice – it should be of a middle-aged woman if Anu’s analysis of those humans were correct, or to be more precise, it was a recording that had been coded, restructured and selected by an A.I. working at an automated communication relay station. The moment a correspondent laid a finger on the control panel, it sounded, “There was some interference within the frequency band just now, and now a more stable one has been made available. The new communication line will be opened in 7.5 seconds. Please repeat your identity. Thank you.”
“This is Good Boy-21, Landing Spacecraft UHG-2402. We call any monitoring centre at the landing site.” The voice of that woman sounded rather clear, but Lee couldn’t read the image on the screen after he tried several times. “Repeat. The landing ground has been successfully developed with no casualties. A survey shows that the local environment is at least of B-class liveable. According to the certificate of authorization by the Exploration Committee, we hereby declare that we shall enjoy the ownership and prior usufruct of all natural resources at the landing site and the surrounding areas. Please answer as soon as you hear this message.”
“This is a designated Monitor, No. 4313. The signal has been received.” After the third attempt to connect video signals, Lee finally found that the other party hadn’t uploaded video files from the start, by checking the task manager. “The computer is confirming your identity, why don’t you open the video system as required?”
“The camera of the communication station didn’t work while landing due to certain…physical damage.” The woman on the other side continued to speak in a leisurely manner. It sounded like a restaurant waitress checking bills for her customers rather than an explorer in a new world of unknown danger. “We currently lack effective maintenance methods, but luckily sound signals can still be transmitted.”
“All right. This is Landing Spacecraft UHG-2402.” Lee cleared his throat. He had seen a variety of bizarre accidents during the six whole years that he worked for the Jumping Monitoring Centre. But no one ever made him feel like this…this kind of uneasy. Lee was not sure how to describe his feelings, but he felt like his head was filled with something unknown, stuffing him to nervousness. “We do have records about a bunch of guys like you. Please report your identity code…”
“β-4404, Chad.” The woman’s voice was still ‘quiet’ – this was the first adjective Lee could think of. He was right. There was nothing unusual in her voice but still, it sounded as if something had gone. Yet somehow, the ‘missing part’ always made him feel like a fish out of water.
“The identity code is correct, captain.” Rolfe, Lee’s assistant, rubbed his sleepy eyes and yawned. As the most junior employee in the Listening Centre, Rolfe had been treated with the most frequent night shift among all people – this situation would continue until the next simpleton who registered for Multiverse Colonisation Project but was unqualified for pioneering work, joined the monitoring team. “Let me see…. Oh yes, the spacecraft was one of five landing spacecrafts that were sent to K-59 last month, and it didn’t contact us until today, for the first time.” He shook his head and poured half cup of cold coffee on monitoring console into his belly, like taking medicine. “I thought those guys had already kicked the bucket.”
“Apparently not yet,” Lee shrugged. He knew about the world called K-59 – of all the potential destinations of the Multiverse project, it was a sister world of ‘their’ Earth. But they parted ways about 800 to 1,000 million years ago caused by an unsettled major quantum event. Samples of gas and water collected through exploratory micro-channels indicated that the nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere there could support living creatures like humans. And of course, the concentrations of carbon dioxide and oxygen were slightly higher, and the humidity was unduly low. But overall, that was no big deal. The DNA double helix of local organisms was mostly right-handed rather than left-handed, which was exactly the same as this world where humans are born. What was really puzzling was that the amount of biomass detected in both the collected atmosphere and water sample was surprisingly small. The experts in the analysis group didn’t discover pollen or wind-borne seeds. Spores, eggs, bacteria, and other living microorganisms did exist but were limited to a certain type and number. Undoubtedly the result of single sampling is often inaccurate and the location of sea and land, climatic conditions and even some special geographical features may also affect the test result. However, this resulting data was an average value based on a continuous sampling of different latitudes but it was still so hopelessly low. This, should really count for something.
Lee could still recall it when, in the following two days, a war of words had been waged in the Project Feasibility Assessment Committee on whether K-59 was suitable for human migration. Its intensity was no less than thirty-five years ago when Professor Greunov unveiled his ‘Parallel Universe Jumping Theory’ at the Global Physicist Annual Meeting, or fifteen years ago when experts of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sparked off a massive public controversy through their formal application for launching the Multiverse Colonisation Project. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your attitude towards it), K-59 was finally evaluated as B-level liveable. Two hundred and twenty-five volunteers who had been longing for this for a long time, carrying their real estate ownership certificates issued by the Exploration Committee according to the New Homestead Act, entered into five landing spacecraft equipped with chemical energy booster rockets, and entered into this unknown world at a relatively ‘safe’ height of ten thousand meters.
Then we got not a single message from them.
No one was surprised at the disappearance of this expedition. Although the Multiverse Colonisation Project had been under way for ten years, the colonial activities remained extremely difficult and dangerous. As to what was revealed by Professor Greunov’s formula, though it is possible to ‘drill’ from one side through the gap between two parallel worlds separated by certain contingencies (in fact, it was in this way that the early scientists proved the existence of those worlds), it is totally uneconomical. The energy consumption to keep the passage open will grow exponentially as time goes by. The entropy a passage needs to last for only tens of femtoseconds for very few molecules to get through is not even enough for a luminous bacterium parasitizing on an anglerfish’s tentacles to radiate. However, to maintain the connection between two worlds for hundreds of milliseconds – the time a passage should last for a common launching, the energy required equals the sum of all fossil fuels burned by humankind throughout the nineteenth century, and the amount of energy a passage cost to last hours was a much more shocking amount of energy. According to the technology department, even if every single hydrogen atom in this universe were fused into an iron atom by whatever means, with all background radiation taken into account, the energy they would generate could not keep the passage that long.
Of course, it is not impossible to establish a continuous connection between two worlds; otherwise, Lee would have had to find another job. To achieve that, all you have to do is just install a passage generator in each side at the exact same coordinate, so that the space-time passage can be opened and ‘stretched’ from both sides rather than one side – but you should find a suitable place at first to install the equipment, and prepare a stable energy supply for it. Before these two things, however, you must safely send a team in advance to the destination – that is where problems usually occur.
“Landing Spacecraft UHG-2404, this is the monitoring centre. Your identity has been confirmed.” Lee cleared his throat, supressed his feeling of uneasiness as much as possible, “How are you now?”
“We are not too bad,” said the correspondent of the landing spacecraft with the official unemotional calm tone, “the landing spacecraft and the equipment are basically intact. The staff…a few are dead, and some injured. Local creatures are not very friendly. We have found some hydrocarbon
-based slime molds and algae, and few aggressive higher animals. But generally we are good.” The emotionless voice paused a bit, “Overall, it is a liveable world.”
“Well, sir, seems you’re losing it.” Rolfe patted Lee on the shoulder, laughing, “You’ve bet fifty bucks that it’s not liveable. Don’t you regret it now.”
“Don’t be so impatient, lad.” Lee waved his hand. What he worried about was not the two-hour salary, but some…something else. He was grasped by a sense of foreboding which was getting increasingly intense and pressing. “Where are the other landing spacecraft? Do you have any contact with them?”
“We…yes, we haven’t found any other spacecraft, but probably one or more of them haven’t managed to land successfully. After landing, we have seen at least a pall of smoke in the northeast.”
Lee felt no surprise that some of the landing spacecraft had crashed. It is always risky to explore a new parallel world. The casualty rate of the first explorers is no less than that of five centuries ago when voyagers and sailors sailed their crude wooden ships to find the new continent. Since the space-time passage formed at an instant is full of rampageous powerful electromagnetic pulses, any electronic equipment that is more complex than an incandescent light bulb should be dismantled into parts and reassembled after arrival. That rules out the possibility of real-time reconnaissance with unmanned probes or computer-aided driving. The poor pilots had to use the most primitive mechanical transmission, like the pilots of the first half of the twentieth century did, to handle the giant cans falling down to the ground through completely manual operation. The only information they could resort to was the few scraps from the experts of the technical team from several attempts of opening mini passages. Although the entrance was set at a relatively safe altitude of ten thousand meters, in order to set aside time for staff in the landing spacecraft to react, failure was still quite common due to operational errors or merely poor luck. ‘Blind Jump’ – that was what the experts of the technical team called it when they referred to the multiverse colonization activities. There was, from Lee’s point of view at least, absolutely no exaggeration in the slightest.
“In addition, the perimeter of the landing site has already been cleared out, and the passage generator has already been installed.” The woman said continuously, “We will send you the three-dimensional coordinates right away, so that…”
“Hold on, please.” After these words, Lee immediately turned off the pickup on the communication console. “This is weird,” he said to Rolfe, “actually, very weird.”
“Oh?”
“It’s too late to get a message from them.” Lee glanced at the screen beside the console, “This is very odd. I know exactly how those explorers are. Once they had landed and found they could still breathe, the first thing they would have done would have been to assemble the communication equipment and contact us, so that they could have instantly claimed the lawful ownership of the land under their feet. If I calculate it correctly, they arrived at K-59 at least…two weeks ago, right? Why are they contacting us for the first time today? Also, I don’t really believe that ‘certain physical damage’ could cause the breakdown of video communication. As the most important equipment, the communication system has been supplied with more than one spare for its crucial parts. What is the chance that they’ve become a bunch of scrap all at once?” He scratched his chin. “And why are they so anxious for us to send them the passage generator? You know, the energy this thing demands to turn on is nearly as much as it would take to drain the reserve power in the superconducting battery of the spacecraft. But they should be badly in need of the power to sustain life and supply the construction equipment to build their settlement. As far as I know, only if the first solar power station starts to work will the explorers, most of them, try to open a permanent passage.” And my instinct, I have a bad feeling for them…. Lee shook his head – no, it’s not the right time to say it.
“Probably.” Said Rolfe, “So, what would you do? Send an urgent notice to the administration committee and let them dispatch another team of idiots for further detective work?”
“Not now. Let me ask her more questions?” Lee waved his hand and turned on the pickup again, “Landing Spacecraft UHG-2404, this is the monitoring centre. We need more of your information. Please briefly describe all your activities within 24 hours since your entry into K-59’s atmosphere, as well as your current stock of supplies and condition of your spacecraft.”
The other end of the communication channel fell into silence for a few seconds, and a few seconds more. “After jumping into the atmosphere of K-59, we found an accidental leak in the liquid fuel storage equipment. Our engineer thought it was possibly caused by a defective seal. The fire that followed spread to three supply reserves – there were four in total. Only the cabin for the passage generator’s parts was spared. We have lost a lot of supplies including most parts of the electronic equipment, all inflatable barracks, and more than half of various tools. We spent over ten days picking out available parts from the remains and assembling this communication equipment…” From the speaker came a sharp wheeze, which sounded somewhat like a laugh, “We’ve been living in the spacecraft for two weeks, and are likely to stay here for more days. The stones and woods here are not good enough to build houses, the soil is too soft to support a building of common weight, and we are short of enough equipment to build the foundation. In short, we do not lack food and energy, but necessary construction materials and equipment.”
“Poor guys. How could they have been living in the spacecraft for as long as two weeks?” Rolfe muttered, “I’d rather sleep in the mud than live in the damn coffin. Do you know how terrible the air filtration system is…?”
“So, you should probably feel happy that you didn’t pass the explorer’s selection test.” Lee glanced at his co-worker, signalled the young man to calm down. Her reply was quite reasonable, so reasonable that his suspicion seemed groundless. Still the sense of uneasiness haunted him, deep in his mind, just as it was at the beginning. “Well, Landing Spacecraft UHG-2404, your current situation has been confirmed.” Lee took a deep breath slowly, “We will receive your three-dimensional coordinates right now, but you have to wait for some time to open the passage, because you are not the first exploration team in K-59 seeking support from us.”
“Sir, what are you…” Rolfe just wanted to speak, but shut up his mouth right away at a glimpse from Lee. “There is at least one team who got in touch with us earlier, who we think are worse off than you are, so it’s necessary to help them first.” Lee continued, “In other words, because of the limited reserve of equipment and other supplies, we must give priority to them, contact and supply them first; and before that, I’m afraid that you have to wait for some time. Any questions?”
“Of course not.” After a short while of silence, the woman’s voice replied, “If we can help our companions by doing so, we are glad to keep at it longer. Over.”
“Over.” While turning off the communicator, Lee had a complicated smile emerging on his face, “Good luck.”
The moment belonging to it is coming soon.
Anu had been devoted to the preparation for this moment in the past ten days. Under its ‘guidance’, the captured humans had installed the first passage generator on an open platform with parts in the spacecraft, and powered it with the superconducting battery. A few hours later, those credulous people would open from the other side the door to a new world. If everything went well, it would soon become the master of these two worlds.
For preparing this invasion, Anu spent most of its time studying and analyzing files stored in the computers of the spacecraft. If all the files were true, this invasion would not be confronted with many difficulties. That was right. Humankind, born to be a combative and brutal race, had developed extraordinary military techniques during their tens of thousands of years of existence, but all the weapons they possessed were ai
med at their own kind. The innate inertial mind-set of this race could also be a major obstacle for them when reacting to any contingencies. Nevertheless, such a great creature as Anu was, it could still be mortally threatened by humans’ weapons of mass destruction, but Anu was ready and there would be no chance for humankind to launch those weapons. Over the past several days, Anu had produced hundreds of billions of spores carrying its genetic information. Once the passage was open, the spores would, following the atmospheric circulation, reach every corner of the humans’ world within just a few sidereal days, and take root, germinate, and become part of its body. By then, human beings should either be forced to destroy their entire world, or bend their knees to it.
Anu knew clearly that the upcoming victory would bring with it incredibly huge benefit. So far, it had only explored a small part of a human’s body; once it learned how to efficiently utilize the most complicated organ, the ‘brain’ as it was called, this kind of creature would not simply maintain the status of being organs passively manipulated by it, instead, they would help it think! Anu was sure that only by establishing full connections to a few normally active human brains, its overall thinking ability could increase exponentially. In the world it was about to march into lived billions of individuals that could think and would become part of it. Anu could not even imagine what it would be after connecting to such a huge number of brains – in some sense, it would thereby become a real almighty and omniscient God, or a real ANU!
– The moment was coming.
When the countdown on the spacecraft’s timer finally turned to zero, a message popped up on the passage generator’s console, announcing that it had detected a pulse spike that did not belong to this space-time continuum system. Power in the superconducting battery pack was continuously transmitted as microwaves into the generator; the computer on the generator automatically started to capture the signal source, analyze its features, and orderly arrange a series of preparation works. After just hundreds of milliseconds, a mirror pulse had formed with exactly the same specifications within the generator’s functioning scope. Air, dust, and other tiny things on the ground, boosted by the air pressure difference, started to get off the ground and flocked to a point a few meters above the ground. The point turned into a ball, the ball was getting larger and larger, with a pungent smell of ozone pervading the air, and finally the opaque ball extended its diameter equal to the height of an average adult and the core was getting dark….
Alien Invasion Page 27