Live or Die Trilogy

by J. A. Hawkings

  Sirio looked around, unable to believe how realistic the illusion of that huge arena was. They found everything as they had left it, with the passageway open and the drone immobile.

  “From this point on,” Tylor stated, “the energy barrier should be back up.”

  “Even if we stay far from it, I doubt things will be any better when the gate closes and the drone reactivates,” Franz said.

  The Australian nodded, including his teammates as he tried to understand how the masks functioned.

  They seemed like plastic to the touch, but different from anything he'd ever seen before. Most impressive was their interactive simplicity, as if the masks were a toy. Touching one with his fingers, it became luminescent, and a window, like the screen of an operating system, opened in the middle.

  “Do you like the new generation tablets?” Tylor asked, amused, but no one answered. Evidently, he was the only one in a joking mood.

  “So these masks are real? They're not just holograms?” Sirio wondered.

  “Well, apparently so. They needed to be believable in the simulation. It would've been somewhat remarkable if our atmosphere was ideal for their lungs, although I imagine that in a million years of evolution, our respiratory apparatuses will be capable of amazing things too.”

  “A million years?” Franz repeated derisively. “We don't know if mankind will still exist tomorrow!”

  This time, they were dealing with a set of facts that wasn't defeatist, but simply realistic, which made even the Australian sad.

  It didn't take long to understand how the masks worked. Their screens seemed to react similarly to those of the best Terrestrial multi-touch systems. The symbols which appeared to be an alien script were indecipherable; but, scrolling through the various screens, Tylor was able to figure out that the patterns of some figures indicated the shapes of molecules for the most common elements in the planets' atmospheres. By interacting directly with the circular diagram, it was possible to determine the percentage of some gases.

  “I told you that getting top grades on my chemistry exams would come in handy,”Tylor said, feeling satisfied with his insights. “Now, let's just hope that the percentage of gases actually correlates to what the wearer should breathe.”

  They adjusted the oxygen to twenty one percent and nitrogen to seventy nine.

  “Other gases? I'm not a biologist, but I think we should be fine,” the Australian stated.

  “I remember that in discussing breathing mixtures for diving, the instructors spoke of nitrox, which consists solely of oxygen and nitrogen,” Franz told them.

  After that, Tylor touched various icons, to try to get the symbols that would confirm the operation.

  “Okay, we're ready!” the Australian stated. “Who wants to try it first?”

  “Why don't you go,” Sirio replied.

  The others said nothing.

  “You're all that brave?” Tylor said sarcastically, but without animosity.

  And that's how he became the first to wear the item, which adhered perfectly to his face as soon as he put it on, without any means of attachment.

  “It's fantastic! Like I'm not wearing anything!” Tylor said enthusiastically.

  “Good, now let's grab those masks and get out of here,” Mike suggested.

  As soon as they exited, the expression on the Australian's face changed; immediately afterward, they saw him suffocating.

  “Oh my God, Tylor!” Namiko screamed in terror.

  They all began to fear the worst, but before panic began to spread irreparably, their companion in the mask began to breathe normally.

  “It was a joke, I'm fine,” Tylor said, amused.

  Namiko went over and gave him a slap.

  “You're an asshole!” swore Igor, who hadn't spoken until then.

  “I wonder,” said Franz, turning to his Australian companion, “how it's even possible that they put someone like you in the hole. It's absurd! The fate of the world in Tylor's hands... Unthinkable.”

  “I think that I've actually been the most useful of all, up until now,” the Australian rationalized in a lackluster voice, aware of the bad joke he had just perpetrated.

  “Come on, let him alone,” said Sirio, giving him a pat on the back.

  15

  Back in the corridor again, they went the opposite direction from that taken the first time, but had to stop and help Igor after a few steps.

  “I'm sorry, I can't do it,” the Russian said in a weak voice. “I'm still groggy from that damned drone. Go on without me, and I'll stay in the holographic room where I can breathe some decent air.”

  “We can't just leave you there,” Sirio said.

  “I'd only get in the way. And, in any case, you have exactly four masks. We'd have to continually alternate. I'll save you a little work,” Igor concluded, short of breath and trying to force a smile.

  “I'll stay with him!” Franz declared. “We'll remain just outside the confines of the energy barrier. If they were to all awake, we'd be trapped anyway.”

  His companions, aware of the situation, nodded without actually replying.

  Wandering through the ship, they found a sort of elevator, but couldn't activate it.

  “It probably responds to vocal commands,” Tylor reasoned.

  “This ship must be as big as a city,” Namiko commented, looking all around.

  “Over there,” Mike said. “I see some stairs.”

  Shortly after that, they found themselves on a lower deck.

  At first glance, its structure appeared different than the rest of what they'd explored up until that moment.

  “I repeat, where is everyone?” asked Sirio, unable to believe that a spaceship could be so immense, and at the same time, completely deserted.

  “I think we're going to find out soon,” replied the American.

  After what must've been hours, an intense discomfort began to creep into their minds.

  “Guys, I have the impression that we're not getting anywhere. We're just wasting time and energy. And I'm beginning to get unbearably thirsty,” said Sirio, feeling increasingly worn out.

  “That's why we need to explore this place!” Tylor responded charismatically. “We need to know how to get liquids and food for ourselves. None of us knows how long we're going to be on stand-by. For all we know, the ship could stay like this for days, months, or even forever. We have to figure out how to survive.”

  “Excuse me,” Namiko interjected, her eyes shining. “Perhaps the solution is right in front of us.”

  16

  Down the hallway that they were following, they caught a glimpse of lush vegetation. The four companions quickened their pace and, as soon as they reached the end of the passage, an amazing spectacle appeared before them: a multitude of colorful plants meandered as far as the eye could see, in an environment of unprecedented size. They looked admiringly at silver tree trunks and magenta leaves, blue flowers with three meter long stems, and plants that were black as coal, dotted with golden specks, reaching as far as the ceiling.

  Throughout the colorful vegetation, they could see flying insects as big as seagulls; they looked like giant orange and green dragonflies with translucent wings.

  “Wow!” Namiko exclaimed open-mouthed.

  “I hope one of those doesn't land on us,” said Sirio, unnerved by the strange flying creatures.

  “Ow!” Mike yelled, moving nearer to the plants.

  “What happened?” Sirio asked.

  “I tried to get closer and what felt like an electric current ran through my body.”

  “A force field,” Tylor asserted.

  “A force field?” Sirio repeated disconcerted, like a question.

  “It's like a huge energy barrier that surrounds the giant garden in front of us.”

  “Garden... interesting definition for something like this.”

  “I don't know if its function is merely aesthetic or if there's more to it; but, at the moment, I don't know what else to call i
t.”

  “A force field,” Sirio said again, smiling. “Sometimes it seems that you know more about this ship than your own home.”

  Tylor couldn't tell if his companion was serious or just joking with him.

  “It's not difficult for a physicist to hazard hypotheses. This is like a journey into the technology of the future. It's called scientific progress.”

  “To me, more than anything,” replied Sirio, who didn't share the Australian's enthusiasm, “it seems like a journey to hell.”

  Contemplating the alien spectacle, the four went back to wandering the ship, passing a dozen androids, drones and robots along the way. As astounding as the inside of their cell had seemed before, it now appeared ridiculous and harmless, like a sophisticated washing machine that had been left unplugged in a corner.

  As soon as they decided to turn around, their attention was captured by another corridor, which was narrower than the others. This last unexplored area was devoid of any alien life forms and inexplicably dusty, as if no one had passed through there in centuries.

  “God knows why, but we seem to have found the one section of this ship that's been abandoned and forgotten,” said Mike, amazed by what he saw around him.

  “Listen, I think it's time to go back,” Sirio proposed. “Maybe we'll find something to quench our thirst on the upper deck.”

  “But as long as we're here, at the edge of this ship's mega level, let's go see what's at the end of that corridor; then we'll return to Igor and Franz,” replied Tylor, who couldn't contain his curiosity.

  “What do you guys think?” the Italian asked his other two companions, seeking support.

  “I think that we should give it a quick look and then leave,” Namiko answered.

  “Since we're already here,” Mike said briefly.

  “I get it! Let's go. But then we're coming right back,” Sirio responded unhappily.

  His companions assented with a nod of their heads and they ventured into the mysterious corridor.

  17

  If they had found giant leaves and strange dragonflies to be surprising, what they found hidden in that corridor really shocked them.

  It was a boundless area that, from top to bottom, had been developed with dozens of levels, along which thousands of silver containers lay in an orderly, uniform fashion.

  “They look like refrigerators, laid along their sides,” Sirio said.

  “They remind me of Storm Shadow!” Mike agreed.

  “You mean the missiles?” Tylor asked.

  “Yeah, those.”

  “They look more like coffins to me,” Namiko added.

  “We'll just have to go and see,” said Sirio purposefully.

  They went down a ramp, reaching the first level of the expanse. Each one of the large objects had two big pipes attached to a wall where a diagram with unintelligible symbols was projected; one for each of the objects.

  Approaching the alien artifacts, Mike put his hand gently on top of them.

  “Crystallizd water,” the American whispered, as if he'd never seen it before.

  “I guess you were right,” Tylor affirmed, turning to his Italian companion.

  “About the refrigerators,” Sirio asked.

  “Sort of.”

  “Let's continue,” Namiko urged Mike.

  “To do what?”

  “To rub it.”

  The American looked at her, puzzled; from her invitation, she seemed to have arrived at something that he had yet to understand. He decided to follow her suggestion and, after a few moments spent defrosting the object, found something hidden under the ice that made him shout in alarm. Mike instinctively jumped backward, bumping into Namiko, while Tylor and Sirio each cursed in their own language.

  Recovering from the scare, the American went back to repeat the operation on another two artifacts which, once defrosted, both appeared to contain the same thing.

  “My God! That's where they all are!”

  18

  It was unmistakable.

  Inside each of the containers, of which there were thousands, if not millions, were the alien beings.

  “Cryogenic cells, that's what they are,” Tylor explained.

  “The only way to survive a journey that's lasted centuries,” Mike reasoned.

  “Exactly!” said the Australian. “When they awake from hibernation, it will only seem like a matter of minutes has passed. At least in theory.”

  “What I don't understand is why they're all still sleeping.” The American still couldn't believe what was before his eyes.

  “They're in suspended animation,” Tylor corrected him.

  “Whatever.”

  “They probably used an automated system which malfunctioned,” Namiko hazarded.

  “The fact is that their automated system is the robots,” the Australian said with conviction.

  “You think?” the Japanese woman asked, nodding her head.

  “I don't see another answer. There are no personnel on board and we've seen what the drones are capable of doing.”

  “Do you think we should wake them?” Mike asked, getting to the heart of the matter.

  They were all quiet for a few seconds, thinking about what might be their only possibility of turning things around in their absurd situation.

  “Okay, but how?” Tylor wondered. “I doubt it's a simple procedure. Beyond our ignorance of their technology, we don't know the meaning of those symbols on the charts.”

  “You seem to have done pretty well with the masks,” the American said with an approving smile.

  “We were lucky,” the Australian interjected.

  “That's not it. The more technology progresses, the easier its interface becomes,” Namiko said. “At least on Earth.”

  “Okay, let's say we succeed in this enterprise,” cautioned Sirio who, until that moment, had only listened to the others. “Don't you think that it might be dangerous?”

  “Maybe, but I don't see how our situation could get any worse,” Tylor commented. “If the ship's occupants hadn't fallen into this comatose state, we would've all had our brains fried. You saw what happened to Igor.”

  “Also, they've just arrived on another planet, they surely didn't intend to stay inside there,” Mike added.

  “Shouldn't we consult the others first?” Namiko asked.

  “No!” the Australian exclaimed. “I'm sure that even though there are dozens of reasons to revive them, Franz will want to wait, and Igor doesn't seem to be in a position to make a choice.”

  “Let's put it to a vote,” Mike suggested.

  “That's pointless!” Sirio replied. “Given that it seems all three of you are in favor, it doesn't matter much that I think you might be making a mistake. Go ahead and try. But I warn you, I'm about to go back, to one of those rooms we found.”

  “Your opinion is important, but, really, think about it,” Tylor attempted to convince him. “This is the only opportunity we have to change our fate. So, relax, we're dying of thirst too, trust me.”

  When they first touched the projections with the diagrams, the tactile experience was incredible. The physical contact with the holograms gave them a pleasant feeling, like a caress.

  “I may have gotten it!” Tylor exclaimed excitedly.

  His companions immediately came over.

  “The possibility of something like this isn't that remote,” he began to explain. “I recognized the icon to confirm the procedure and one other symbol. I need to think about this and collect my thoughts. Why don't the rest of you do as Sirio suggested and go back up? Even I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold out.”

  “Okay,” Mike responded.

  “Great idea!” the Italian exclaimed.

  “And maybe you could avoid telling Franz about our discovery of the containers,” Tylor suggested.

  “If you ask me, he's going to be very unpleasant about it,” the American commented.

  “Are you going to tell him?” Tylor asked.

&
nbsp; “Are you crazy? Of course not!”

  They all laughed, something that rarely happened.

  “Come on, let's get those frozen things out of there,” Sirio said to Namiko, who seemed like she didn't want to leave the place. In beginning to do so, he brushed her shoulder and she looked at him with her two black pearls. Instantly, Sirio's mind went back to all of those memories in the underground.

  “You two!” Mike yelled in the direction of Namiko and Sirio. “Do you want us to give you some privacy?”

  “You'd be the first ones to do it on an alien spaceship,” the Australian quickly added, amused.

  “Don't be assholes!” Sirio replied, without actually sounding upset.

  “Hey buddy... don't get angry. We're just joking around.”

  The Japanese woman wasn't really bothered and Sirio replied with a smile, which told them that he wasn’t annoyed by the joke or the absurdity of thinking about sex in their predicament. He was in a spaceship with thousands of cryogenically frozen aliens, and androids who were running amok, while the Earth was in flames; and what was he doing? He was thinking about Namiko's panties.

  It was absurd!

  In any case, it wasn't his colleagues' jokes that brought him back, but the sudden sound of alarms and metallic voices.

  19

  “Goddam it, the ship must've rebooted itself,” Tylor yelled.

  “So now what do we do? If they realize that we're here or fail to find us in our cell, we won't be able to wake anyone up,” Mike shouted.

  “Let's thaw them out now!” Namiko proposed.

  “It's not like taking fish fillets out of the freezer. It's a lot more complex,” Tylor explained. “We risk failing and perhaps even killing the individuals we're trying to reawaken.”

  “Better them than us. But until now, weren't you the one advocating their revival?” the Italian noted.

  “Yeah, but I thought I'd have more time.”