THE CUBE

by Alex Gore

  “What are you talking about, Major? I don’t understand…

  really. There must be a huge misunderstanding here.” Hans

  needed to talk and acquit himself. He had spent a few hours in

  solitude and unawareness. He got to hear explanations. “You killed Greg. We have your fingerprints all over his body.

  Confess!”

  “I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.” It was

  obvious that Hans was genuinely amazed.

  “There is a procedure about these things, according to which

  you will be held responsible later. Now, tell me, what is this?”

  I AM LIFE INSIDE YOU, I AM THE DEVIL The inscription was shining on the screen. It was the latest message.

  “I don’t know, Major. I really can’t say. I need time and space to analyze it… not only the letters but the figures too…

  “Take off his handcuffs and give him access to the computers now. Let him sit here, but while he is working, watch him all the time.” Norman stood up, he needed to check the safety measures at the base. “When I come back in an hour’s time, I expect you to be ready!”

  At this moment the room whirled under their feet.

  A stunning explosion cut through the air.

  The shock wave sent everyone lying on the floor, while the tables and the computers collapsed over their heads. The lights went out and for several seconds they were as if in a knockdown, hardly able to feel orientation who was where, which was ‘up’ and which was ‘down’.

  The soup of people and objects soon came to the boiling point.

  The mess was clearly seen when the emergency lights went on and everybody searched the eyes of his nearest neighbor in order to make sure he was alive.

  The first one to regain control was Norman. He stood up, looked through the window and started giving orders:

  “There is an explosion in the dome next to this one. I’m going there to check what’s going on. Lieutenant, restore the order in the room and continue with the work. Be sure to watch Hans, never take your eyes off him. I need the answers as soon as possible. Am I clear? The rest of you stay here and nobody move. Understood?”

  “Yes, Sir!” The Lieutenant also rose and helped the plump scientist get up. The rest were getting up from the floor, shaking the dust off their clothes. Nobody was seriously wounded.

  Norman went out and saw that three of the buildings had turned into burning stakes. The dome to the right of the center, where the Russians slept and Alan’s, next to theirs, were totally destroyed, only the foundations were left to burn out. The guard on duty had descended from the tower and was trying to put out the fire with the help of two other Sergeants.

  “What happened?” Norman asked them.

  “Alan and the fat scientist came and put the buildings on fire, throwing burning sticks, but they have clearly put explosives beforehand, since everything was instantly in flames like a torch.”

  “Impossible, both of them have been with me in the control room for the last half hour.” Norman turned back to the control room. If there was any explanation at all, it was in Hans’s mind. He was their only hope.

  Control room, Day 6, 12:11 p.m. “I think I know what’s going on, Major” Hans said without taking his eyes off the white sheet.

  Nobody of the people, present in the room, uttered a sound, they were all gazing intently at the plump mathematician.

  “The message you have received, is true.” 660052153 054660039231

  660153492669349231 534920392

  660 052153 349231053660054

  I AM LIFE INSIDE YOU I AM THE DEVIL

  “But it can be seen in another way”, Hans started explaining. “The aliens, unaware about how human brain works, sent another message, to which you did not pay attention.”

  660 052153 310293231 349231053660054 660153492660231 293920392

  I AM THE DEVIL INSIDE YOU “What does it mean?” Norman interrupted the silence. “This thing… these alien creatures are testing us.”

  “Testing us?! Come Hans, how do they do it? And why would

  they need such a crap?” Alan interfered, the sceptic as always. “I killed Greg!” Hans said.

  The Base, Day 6, 2:31 p.m. Sergey entered their room. Ivanov was sorting his luggage. He was throwing his personal belongings from the shelf into a big bag on the floor, while his clothes were strewn on the bed. He was moving hurriedly and when the young scientist came in, he did not even look at him.

  “What are you doing, Ivanov? Where are you going?” “I’m doing what needs to be done, Seriozha, duty calls.” “Don’t be stupid.” Sergey knew enough about his room-mate’s

  nature by now. “What are you planning to do?”

  “Seriozha, my friend, come with me, we cannot allow this

  thing to fall in their hands. Our people needs it, otherwise we’ll

  destroy it. These are orders from Moscow and if you are a true

  patriot, you’ll come with me.”

  “Don’t do it, Colonel, let’s talk…”

  At this moment the door opened and Michael rushed in. He looked at them with bloodshot eyes, raised his gun and without aiming, shot first at Sergey.

  The young man with disheveled hair fell on the ground with a groan, clutching his chest, while Ivanov reacted like a true military man – he dashed at the young American and started punching him with his fists on the head. No human being would survive even a minute under the stony hits of that giant. But Michael seemed to have acquired inhuman force. He overthrew Ivanov with a mighty suplex, caught his neck and started suffocating him.

  At this moment three gunshots banged. Amidst a cloud of smoke the silhouette of the soldier on duty, who had given the shots, appeared.

  The deadly hold of the student loosened and his body fell lifeless on the floor.

  The Sergeant placed his finger on Sergey’s carotid artery. He felt no pulse.

  Control room, Day 6, 2:49 p.m. “It’s good to hear you confessing” Babyface said and made a step towards the scientist.

  “Well, of course not me, but my double!”

  “What are you talking about, Hans?” Norman asked. “It makes no sense.”

  “Just think about it. If you are going to meet alien races and civilizations, wouldn’t you like to know more about their behavior and culture as individuals, as a society, how they react in different situations and against various challenges?”

  “Be more specific, Hans”, Norman urged him.

  “I have a theory: The Cube, they found on the sea bottom or who knows where, was created by an alien civilization to test us. It is something like a lighthouse, that would show them who we are. For this purpose, the Cube creates our doubles – for everyone who has been in contact with it. A double, however, who is a total opposite of us. If, let’s say, you are a good and moral person, your double is a brutal murderer. If you are bright and calm, your double is a mindless and cruel monster.”

  “That explains many things. Including the way our doubles caused the fire”, Norman said, thinking aloud.

  “And Hans’s fingerprints on the dead body and the murder weapon” Alan added.

  “But why do they need such evil creatures?” Marcela wondered.

  “Do not forget, they need not be evil by all means” Hans replied. “They are just reciprocal to their prototype. If we accept that in our case we are positive and balanced personalities with good intentions, then our doubles are obviously monsters. But if the aliens meet an evil civilization with aggressive and cruel individuals, their doubles would be real angels.”

  “Yes, I can understand this, it makes sense, but still… I am not sure what they test and why”, Marcela said.

  “There is another possibility, Hans. Forgive me, but even you might be wrong sometimes” Michael interfered. “I think that the Cube just belongs to a mirror universe, compared to ours, inhabited by those aliens. Or they might not be aliens, but our reciprocal reflections in this mirror reality.”


  “And what is the nature of such a parallel reality?” Marcela asked.

  “The idea of parallel worlds has not dated since yesterday. Some scientists believe there exists a world, or a reality, parallel to ours, in which every man and object has an analogue with the opposite sign.”

  “What are you babbling about, Michael? What opposite sign? We, people, are not some goddamn numbers, are we!”

  “A fully legitimate question, Alan, and actually, yes, we are like the values of the infinite numbers. Do you know what ‘dark mater’ is?” Hans interjected.

  “Something out of ‘Star Wars’ probably” Marcela suggested.

  “No”, the Professor continued. “This is an unexplored part of the Universe, the greater part. We know just five per cent of the visible Universe, the rest are the so called ‘dark matter’, for which we have no idea whatsoever. Black matter, or rather more importantly, dark energy, welcome to the rollercoaster in Disneyland, only without the glasses and safety belts. Imagine how few people really realize that ninety five percent of the surrounding Universe is totally unknown to us. A part, in which physical laws or science, as we know them, might not be valid and might not even exist. Life, if it is possible at all, is probably totally different and unknown to us.”

  “You mean, we don’t know nothing in fact about the surrounding world?” Marcela was amazed.

  “If you find enough five per cent of the Space and two percent of the human brain…” Hans smiled at her ironically. “That’s exactly what we, people, know of our own mind or of the surrounding Universe. Every elementary particle has its analogue, and also the macro objects of our known Universe have their double in the parallel reality.”

  “I read about this in an online magazine. Particles of matter meet their particles of anti-matter and are mutually annihilated” Michael said.

  “Yes, there is a positively charged positron and when it meets the negative electron, they are mutually destroyed. A photon is formed and a quant of energy is discharged” Hans explained. “But I don’t think Michael had this in mind. You are all talking only of specs of our reality.”

  “That’s right, Hans” the student said. “Matter and anti-matter, whatever it is, are a part of our Universe, while I had in mind something totally different… something out of another world, of another reality, of another universe…”

  “You are scaring me, Mikey, please…” Marcela said.

  “The so called super symmetrical particles exist, which are actually in a universe, parallel to ours and have the respective mirror analogues in our world.”

  “But how so? Is there any connection between them?” Michael asked.

  “The objects of super symmetry are absolutely identical with those with us, but are reciprocal, turned backwards, with an opposite sign.”

  “Like reflections in a mirror, is that it?” Marcela was addressing rather Hans than Michael.

  “Exactly. Imagine you are looking at yourself in the mirror in the hall of your home” the Professor replied. “Your wedding ring on your right hand is on the left hand of the image before you. His left ear is with the earring that is on your right one.”

  “You have an earring on the right ear only if you are gay, dude, and I’m not sure you are exactly married” Michael laughed.

  “The objects in the parallel symmetrical world are called s-objects and we define them as ‘partners’ of the respective objects in our Universe. Thus, for example, the partner of electron is selectron, the one of the quark is squark. For us today these are only hypothetical particles, since they have not been discovered or proved yet. The exception is the x-boson, which is the analogue of the known to us fermion.”

  “Wasn’t the x-boson the so called ‘divine particle’, about which those scientists from CERN bragged they have managed to discover?” Alan asked, dimly remembering an article on the matter.

  “Yes, Alan.”

  “Tell them, Michael, tell them when these ‘symmetrical’ particles appear.”

  “For their creation and proving… or rather for passing beyond that border a large amount of energy is needed. Like in the first minutes of the Big Bang.”

  “Which we obviously have in the submarine with its temporal engine and artificial creation of singularity. Is it possible, Michael, that in such conditions super symmetrical objects might appear?” the Major asked.

  “In theory, yes, this is one of the possibilities… a tunnel in time.”

  “People, I can understand the theoretic postulates about elementary particles, but here we have before us macro creatures, don’t we?” Marcela asked.

  “Yes, but what are we built of, our bodies? Of elementary particles, atoms, molecules.”

  In this case is it theoretically possible, since little symmetrical particles exist, that people, mirror-like to us exist as well? You remember the message 1986/9861, like one, reflected in a mirror, backwards.”

  “Yes, why not? Physics allows this possibility at least theoretically.”

  “These are exactly the doubles, ladies and gentlemen, they are our mirror Self.” Hans got up from his chair, took out his pipe with an elegant gesture and bowed slightly. He resembled an actor, who goes all sweaty back on the stage for an encore after having done the perfect part in the performance of his life.

  Day 6, 3:17 p. m.

  “There is, however, one more message.” Hans pressed two keys on the keyboard and figures appeared on the screen: 66920392 310920920923 153231 052153349

  660 492660054054 923660054054 66920392

  YOU TOOK ME AND I WILL KILL YOU

  “What does it mean?” Alan addressed Hans.

  “Better ask the Major.”

  This time the glances were directed at Norman and after

  hesitating for a couple of seconds whether to answer sincerely, he said: “We removed the Cube from the ship and put it here, in the Base. At this moment it is only a few yards away from you, behind this wall, in the next room.”

  “My God, Norman, what have you done?!” Marcela exclaimed. “People, you know that this is a mission of the government. I, as commander, follow orders. Which, by the way, you should also do.” Norman did not quite sound as if he believed what he said. “This Cube belongs to mankind” Alan said firmly.

  “And to all nations round the world” Marcela added.

  Control room, Day 6, 6:43 p m. “Sergey is dead and there is not a trace of Ivanov.” “And where is the body, Lieutenant? What did you do with it?” “We took it immediately to the room for biological research,

  the Romanian lady is there with it. I put a guard in front of the door, Sir.” The Lieutenant saluted briskly. “Very well, Lieutenant, observe the controls and if there is news, immediately report to me on the radio. I’m going to see what’s this whack that harasses us and I swear, once I get to know what it is, I’ll fix it my way instantly!

  Ammunition warehouse, Day 6, 8:14 p. m.

  Ivanov charged his gun and started slowly forward. He had just the warehouse to finish with and he would be ready.

  The helicopter would wait for him after eleven hours at the agreed spot, eight miles from here, direction east-northeast. It would take him to a Russian nuclear submarine by the shores of north Egypt, and from there – home.

  But the most important thing now was to finish destroying the base and take the Cube with him. He knew it was heavy, he had tried to overturn it as soon as it was discovered on the submarine, but he had no doubt that he would be able to carry it for eight miles. He was worried only about the weather – in this storm the problem would be not so much walking through the sand, as some difficulties that might arise about his orientation in the right direction.

  Suddenly, out of nowhere, Marcela appeared in front of him. She held one arm behind her back and in the other hand she had a plastic explosive with her finger on the detonator.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”, the Colonel hissed quietly and raised his gun at her. She dashed towards him without answ
ering, as if wishing to embrace him, but what she did was push him with inhuman force, sending the giant on the ground. Her red eyes twinkled in the pale moon light, then her hands pinned his own on the sand, while her sparkling white teeth dug in his neck.

  Her hands were clutching his head as a vise and the warmth of the blood, gushing like a fountain, covered all his right side. He knew he would lose consciousness any moment now, and like his training dictated, he considered the options for some outcome from this situation.

  If he did not overthrow her away from him, he was lost, he knew it very well. He succeeded in tucking one hand between her legs and with the other he squeezed her neck. Her flesh was hard as steel, nothing human felt this way.

  The bulky man moved with great effort the body of the woman several inches and could hardly lift her a bit, she was as heavy as iron. Her limbs resisted chaotically, but he managed to move her at some distance and looked at her face.

  Her eyes were sparkling scarlet-red, with the beautiful and unnatural shining of an artificial blood red diamond. The paleness of her skin was in even greater contrast with her bright pupils.

  Despite the great loss of blood, Ivanov succeeded to overturn her with trembling arms but with a skillful grip and to press her with his powerful body. He acted on instinct and bit her neck. Instead of blood he felt the acidic taste of something like cider vinegar between his teeth and removed his head from her body. He saw the death convulsions of her chest slowing down, then gradually stopping.

  He looked around for help, then submitted to unconsciousness, falling over the lifeless body.

  Biological laboratory analyses hall, Day 6, 8:20 p. m. “What’s this motherfucker?” Norman looked at her inquiringly. “I’ll show you now, Major.” Marcela had finished the autopsy, took off her gloves and sat in front of the computer to show him the results.

  The lifeless body of the double was lying on the table with his tummy open. There was no smell of decomposition or traces of bleeding, only some strange whitish liquid with revolting acidic stench.

  “A normal in appearance human body of a male individual, aged about 22…” “Please, March, cut the crap and say directly. What is actually this shit on the table?” Norman had no time or patience for unnecessary details.