by Nina Silver
I touched the narrow com band on my left wrist, and the cave was bathed in pale blue light. I kneeled and inspected the globe – the markings were clearly Ourupta, but I recognized none of them as those I had studied in Neptune. I leaned closer and tried to hear if there was any mechanism inside it. My bio-hearing, gift from the military, picked nothing and I leaned back examining the globe from any possible way I could.
“Did you guys touch this?” I asked the five kids skeptically. They frowned but nodded. “And?”
Joey shrugged. “Nothing happened, it just felt kinda cold and heavy.”
“Heavy?” I leaned out and cautiously touched it with a fingertip. I had never seen anything like this before, but I wouldn’t put it past Ourupta tech for this to be some kind of narc or leftover bio-bomb that wasn’t detonated until now. I figured if the kids had touched it, and nothing had happened in an hour it might be okay for me to touch too. It felt cold, surprisingly cold considering that it was so close to the hot waters, and under a cave that was basically as good as an oven. Hmm, how odd. I put both hands and tried to move it, and with a grunt managed to not dislodge it a single millimeter from its place.
“Damn thing is heavy.” I grunted again as I tried to pry it from its place.
“Yeah Chief, we tried to pull it - all five of us together and apart - but no luck.”
I finally exited the hot cave and wiped the sweat off my face. Even for a bio-advanced soldier such as I, New Earth was still too hot to handle at times.
“What are we gonna do Chief?” One of the other kids asked.
“Boys, I think I’m gonna have to take over from now on. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, now run along home and don’t spread too many words about this yet.” I gave them a stern look. “Got it?” They all shook their heads honestly, and I motioned them away. It wouldn’t do for the reservation to find out about this piece of alien tech. “Hey Joey, come back.” The boy rushed back looking at me expectantly. “On second thought have your dad meet me at the Commons.” Joey nodded and ran along. His dad was a local enforcer, and he could help if need be.
The res was one of the smallest and most isolated on New Earth’s now one and only continent, it was in the northeast section, and had only about a thousand residents. No one wanted to live near the hot Pink Ocean, or the stifling heat of the Great Red Desert, most humans of New Earth were congregated in bigger reservations were there was some modicum of advanced tech and goods.
After I couldn’t hear the boys' chatter or running steps anymore, I tapped my com band again and thought of my best friend, Haze Whitmore. Haze and I went to the Academy together and trained together, we even were stationed together at some of the interstellar exploration trips we had taken with purpose of finding other alien life or the home world of the Ourupta – of course with no luck. After I decided to return to New Hope, Haze and I kept in touch. He was now on a few month’s leave at Neptune before heading off to another mission in five months.
“Cove, my man!” Haze’s cheery voice came through my com transmitter. “What’s up? I was just about to call you. Was thinking of visiting you for a few weeks. You know get a break from space, spend some time on Mother Earth.”
Haze finally paused, and I smirked. “I always forget how fast your yap that tongue old friend.”
“Har de har har.” Haze sounded sarcastic. “Always the funny one.”
“Listen, I’d love for you to come visit but I also got a matter that cropped up here.” I cut to the chase. Haze immediately picking up on my seriousness answered soberly.
“I’m listening.”
"Some boys found this sphere thing - looks Ourupta made from the same metal as their tech and has similar looking symbols only I haven't seen these ones before. It's about the size of a basketball and heavy as shit - I wasn't able to budge it a single inch." And Haze knew that was important since he was also a bio-enhanced soldier. We could both easily bench press three large transports if we wanted without breaking a sweat.
"You think it's a bomb or narc of some kind?"
"I thought the same, but those typically emitted small grinding sounds and had specific symbols. This is dead quiet and cold to the touch."
"Cold?"
"I know, odd."
Haze breathed slowly. "Let me look around the databases here. Perhaps I'll find something on it. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
"Great! Thanks buddy, hopefully, this is nothing but an old memento."
"I hope so man. Let me see, and I'll ring you back." My com went silent, and I turned to look at the dark sphere. I had some synthetic rope lying around the transport hangar, I'd see if that helped dislodge the damn thing.
⋗ ᛟ⋖
Two fucking wasted hours later I threw the rope on the ground with frustration!
"I can't believe that thing won't budge!" My younger brother, Siel grunted sounding as frustrated as I was.
"What the fuck man." Tyler, one of the reservation's enforcers and Joey’s father, also joined in frustration.
"I can't believe the damn transport pull didn't work either." Siel added, and we both looked at the bloody sphere. The sky was darkening, and the heat had started to increase. We'd have to give up our goal of taking the sphere for the night and go back to the reservation soon to seek protection from the evening heat. That was worse than the day one, as unbelievable as that was. People who were caught out at night so close to the desert or the coast died within hours from dehydration - their brains and internal organs boiling within their skin.
I had seen a couple bodies in my lifetime, and that was no way for anyone to go.
"Come, let's head back. Nothing we can do now, I'll probably hear back from Haze soon, and then we'll have a better idea of what that is."
We all piled in the transport and within a minute were back at the reservation, which citizens had named at its founding sixty years ago New Hope.
Feeling tired I headed to my unit, hoping that I could splurge on a cold shower. Our small reservation had at least that much needed luxury.
I showered, had a hasty dinner, and then opened my informator and started scanning databases for signs of the dark sphere. Ten minutes later it was evident that was useless. I gave up and went into my room to use the boxing sack I had hung from the ceiling to exercise before bed.
My com vibrated, and I saw Haze's name flash. "Hey, any luck?"
Haze sighed. "No man, I looked at pretty much everything but found nothing. Did you take any pics of it?"
"I got some, but they're not the best - I'm sending them to you now." I tapped my com performing the task.
"Got ‘em, I'll send them to some of our decipherers here and see what they think."
"Alright, Siel and Tyler tried to help dislodge it and still nothing, we even tied it to the transport and it didn't budge."
"Fucking odd - I don't think I like it."
"Me either dude."
"Anyway, I'll send those pics out and get back to you tomorrow."
"Alright, talk tomorrow then." And hopefully get more information on that unsettling black sphere.
Three
Iolee
The first day at my new dream job had ended up being anything but a dream! Holding back my tears I went back to my newly assigned single unit and entered kicking my shoes with an extra oomph of energy off my tired feet. I watched with a tinge of vehemence as they hit the wall.
My new unit was almost like the one I had been sharing with Xan except much smaller, now had a tiny bedroom, but the same efficient kitchenette and wash unit. At the thought of Xan, my heart gave a weird twitch and holding back my tears became even harder. I had seen her off today as her ship departed our Colony for the one in Neptune earlier this morning. The flight was six hours, and she had just messaged my com saying she reached Neptune fine and was settling in her new single unit.
The rest of my day had only gone downhill after that, there was an issue with the internal transports, and because of that, I
had been a full hour late to my new post. As soon as I arrived I was greeted by an older man who looked very very displeased, and a grinning man a few years older than me who looked all smug. Dr. Morton and the other assigned person in our team and also new graduate Marlin Tiltman. Ugh, I hated that creep. He always tried to show me up in any classes we were together and had even tried to sabotage me from getting this much-coveted spot.
In shame and horror, I watched as Dr. Morton, barely looking like a man in his early 60s despite his 126 years of age, scolded me about my lack of professionalism and maturity.
He didn't care, he stated, if it had taken me three hours to make my way into his office, I should have been there sharp at eight standard hours. For the rest of the 8-hour work day, I had to play waitress and bring them food and beverages as they pored over different symbols of the Ourupta language and discussed possible semantics and meanings.
I tried to intersect, I tried to speak, but they would have none of that! With a huff, I jumped on the gel bed as I let my bitter tears of humiliation roll down my cheeks. I didn't sign up to be a damn coffee carrier! What hurt the most was the loss of esteem I felt towards Dr. Morton - how could a war hero, a brilliant man like him, treat me so insignificantly? I sobbed some more, my body aching, my feet throbbing from all the running around I had done in my modest heels all day long.
What a huge disappointment. After I had allowed myself a few more moments of self-pity, I rose from the bed and started undressing. I took a calming nine-minute shower - using about the remaining half of my allotted twenty minutes of daily water consumption, and then I decided to eat my leftovers from yesterday's dinner. After I had eaten, I pulled out my informator, a handheld device that one could use as a pad to keep track of information, search info, and keep notes, and went and accessed my records. I was working on deciphering some of the Ourupta symbols that had not been deciphered yet. The Ourupta language was surprisingly like the ancient language of hieroglyphics. Different symbols that when combined with others gave specific meanings.
Dr. Morton had been able to decipher the ten basic symbols the previous century - which we now understood made most of the enemy's alphabet. Using those ten symbols we had then been able to greatly decipher much of their leftover technology that had been found in crashed ships and in some of the structures they'd begun building so long ago. Despite that, there were still portions of the language that we had no idea about, and that's what I had been working on for the past five years.
I had a theory that some of the symbols were numbers, but anytime I'd brought that up with the University Professors they had shut me down. I wondered what Dr. Morton might have thought of my theory, but after today I wasn't so sure if I'd ever approach him with that one.
I looked at the shape in my notes - it looked like an inverted 7 crossed by a square that surrounded an eight-point star. The inverted 7 was one of the ten basic symbols, and it was used in many of the most complex symbols - it had varying uses and meanings. I focused on the square with the star. This symbol was one we had not deciphered and I puzzled over its possible meaning.
For the next two hours, I took notes on my thoughts and the different meanings that could be possible depending on the use of the inverted 7 attached on the front of this other symbol. Finally, when I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, I decided it was time to rest. My head hit my gel padded pillow, and my last thoughts revolved around hope - hope for a better work day in the morning.
⋗ᛟ⋖
"Miss Panou, get me some more coffee. This time don't put that much sugar in it. I'd rather not die from diabetes at my age after surviving the destruction of my world by an alien force." Dr. Morton's voice grated my nerves as he expectantly pointed to his cup. Diabetes didn’t even exist anymore! I looked over at Tiltman and he grinned at me, his lips twisting cruelly. We both noticed that Dr. Morton had not once used my honorific title.
"But Dr. Morton, I was just about getting ready to input these formulations on the informator." I stated and hated the whining tone of my voice! I didn't want them to think even less and state I was whining.
That stupid jerk Tiltman frowned disapprovingly at me. "Miss Panou, how dare you refuse our esteemed Dr. Morton! Why, if it weren't for him - we wouldn't be here."
I greeted my teeth and glared at him. Dr. Morton preened appreciatively at his words and turned to glare at me. That ass kisser.
"Coffee, now please." Dr. Morton stated and with mounting frustration, I rose and grabbed the cup.
"Grab some for me as well my dear, won't you? You are going after all so why waste my time?" Tiltman grinned even more and I felt my hands twitch. If only I could get them around his neck to throttle the damn fool! Angrily I stomped away going towards the kitchenette and making coffee. A few minutes later I returned and set their cups down saying nothing.
They were huddled over Dr. Morton's informator and were chatting about something on the screen.
Tamping down on my anxiety I bit my lip - should I ask or not? Deciding to take a risk I gulped down a breath. "What are we looking at?" They both looked up at me and feeling surprised I saw Dr. Morton waving me over.
"I just received this pictures from a former student of mine that works on deciphering and decoding at Neptune." He zoomed in on a darkened patch of the picture, and we all looked at what seemed like a sphere made of the same material all Ourupta tech was and with a great many new symbols I had never seen before.
"Is that new?" I asked in awe a sense of excitement fluttering in my belly.
"No, you can see here from the lackluster dullness of the metal that it's a leftover from the war." Tiltman preened waiting with a proud smile.
Dr. Morton smiled. "I have to agree with your colleague Miss Panou. Excellent deduction Dr. Tiltman."
"But the symbols - I know that at least we've never seen them before..."
"Pfffft." Dr. Morton made a dismissive gesture. "We have seen most of it. Look here..." he pinched over and zoomed in on a section of the pic. "Here - the symbol for heat and then the symbol for light and finally fire. We know that these three many times were put together to indicate a bomb. This is nothing but an inactivate whole bomb. It probably defaulted, never went off, and now it's been found after so many years."
I felt my eyebrows rise in bewilderment. "But couldn't it possibly mean something else as well? These symbols directly next to those three could substantially change the meaning, and they are curved unlike the straight lines."
"Bah – highly unlikely." Dr. Morton dismissed me once more.
"I agree with Dr. Morton." Tiltman piped in as if anyone actually asked him! "These are just nonsense symbols - I theorize that many of the symbols mean nothing but are just simple decorations. Many old civilizations included drawings along with letters."
"But these look too deliberate and precise." I commented and pointed to the neat rows of symbols. "If they were decorations there would be others repeating as if in a pattern - there's nothing like that here. And there's also some symbols that we do recognize intertwined. Again, if it were decoration, it would not include any of the known symbols!" I finished with conviction and looked expectantly to Dr. Morton – surely, he'd take my side and see the truth of my words. Instead, he gave me another disappointed look.
"Miss Panou I had thought that with your impressive resume you would be much more knowledgeable. But once more you are disappointing. As an old Earth saying once said 'sometimes a cigar is just a cigar' so I'm telling you now that sometimes a symbol means nothing. I'd have thought that you'd know that by now."
"But Dr. Morton surely-"
"No buts, not everything has to mean something - sometimes it's just simple as that."
I bit my lip to hold my tongue. What an idiot! How could these symbols not have meaning? The Ourupta did nothing if it had no value to it and he should have known that better than me seeing how crucial he had been in their defeat.
"Why don't you go take a break my dear, let the two of us ca
tch on some work without having to explain every little nonsensical point to you." Tiltman offered with false politeness and with anger and humiliation I grabbed my stuff and exited the office. Ugh, what kind of nonsense was this? Why were they treating me that way? I had three degrees damn it - I knew some things - if they were only willing to listen to me!
It was only midday and I had a few more hours for work so I couldn't in good conscience go home yet. I took a stroll around the building and even bought a sweet treat from one of the cantinas to help myself calm down. I knew the sweet would go straight down to my curvy hips but I didn't care much for that.
After half an hour, I headed back inside the office and saw the two men again huddling together and whispering softly to each other.
"Ah great, you are back Miss Panou." Dr. Morton smiled at me and I felt a sense of unease over my spine. "There's been a few updates since you left for your break."
"Yes?" I hesitantly asked and pushed back an errant curl of my wild mass of hair.
"Yes yes, you see we were requested by Neptune to make one of us available for a trip to view this sphere and try to analyze it from up close." Dr. Morton stated and gave me an up and down assessing look. "I thought since perhaps you were not so convinced of our deciphering that maybe you'd like to escort a team from Neptune to view the sphere?"
I blanched and felt my eyes grew wide. "Really?" I swallowed, I knew why he was sending me - he thought I'd hate this errant and find it a waste of time. I, however, was excited! "To New Earth?" I asked breathlessly.
"Where else would such an object be? Of course, to New Earth!" He responded with disapproval.