Live or Die Trilogy

by J. A. Hawkings

  “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Sirio said in his own language.

  “Dammit, speak English!” Mike yelled.

  “We have to risk it!” Sirio translated, without conveying the eloquence of the Italian expression.

  “Fine!” Tylor grunted, rapidly moving toward the holographic monitors. “Watch closely,” he said resolutely, turning back to his companions. “I don't know if this is the appropriate sequence, but it's the only procedure that comes to mind. So you see this green icon? Good, press it! Then, press this other one, and finally the symbol to confirm. Is everything clear?”

  “Yes,” Namiko replied.

  Mike and Sirio nodded their assent and devoted themselves to beginning the procedure on as many cryogenic containers as possible.

  “Green icon, then the second one above it and confirm. Green icon, then the second one above it and confirm,” the Italian began to repeat as if possessed.

  After a short period of time, Tylor asked his companions on how many screens they had performed the procedure.

  “About fifteen, I think,” Namiko replied.

  “Yeah, me too,” Mike said.

  “I think I got twenty,” Sirio yelled.

  “Good, let's all do twenty five and go from there. For whatever reason, this place appears to be hidden from the artificial life forms on the ship. I certainly wouldn't want them to find it because of us.”

  There were no objections and a few minutes later, they found themselves back in the hallway that had led them there.

  “I hope that the central computer doesn't find out what we've done,” Namiko said out loud.

  “Perhaps it's been observing the entire process and will help us,” the American replied.

  “Only time will tell,” the Australian affirmed.

  As soon as they were far from the cryogenic chamber, two drones stopped in front of them.

  Tylor and Mike instinctively raised their hands in a sign of surrender.

  The drones began to probe them with a red ray, which seemed to have no lasting physical effects.

  “Lower your arms,” Namiko suggested. “We don't know how they might interpret such a gesture. They haven't been programmed according to human logic.”

  Her companions obeyed, remaining petrified and each saying his own prayers.

  20

  “You guys are crazy!” Franz burst out.

  “We knew that you wouldn't approve,” Tylor said. “I don't know why we even told you. We could've acted like nothing happened. You would never have known about it, whatever the outcome.”

  “Besides going up against clanking scrap metal, we're now going to face a million crazed aliens. That's what the result will be,” the German replied, annoyed.

  “That's not certain,” Igor commented.

  “What? Now, even you think like them?” Franz asked, amazed by the Russian's observations which, until now had always been similar to his.

  “You can't imagine what these damned beings are capable of doing!” Igor noted. “They managed to make me feel unseen pain and violated every part of my being. The cryogenically frozen aliens may be able to stop all of that.”

  “Igor is right,” Sirio said, turning to the German. “It doesn't make sense that an extraterrestrial civilization would cross the galaxy to remain frozen, even after they arrive at their destination.”

  “Shit! From the day that we arrived here, I knew we were screwed,” the German replied.

  “I just hope that they don't let us die slowly. I don't know if I can tolerate this thirst any more,” said the Italian, exhausted. “I feel like my entire body is begging for water. And those metal beasts that grabbed us, throwing us in here, haven't been exactly hospitable.”

  “If they didn't let us die after they pulled us out of those holes, they aren't going to let us die this time either,” Tylor asserted, anchored to his enthusiasm.

  “That's assuming, of course, that they don't fry our brains first,” Igor commented.

  21

  The robot that had just left was very different from those that they had seen until then. More articulate and innocuous, it had given the ship's prisoners food and water, proceeding with the inevitable scan before taking its leave.

  “Blech!” Mike said, disgusted. “Do they really think that we're going to eat this stinking swill?”

  “You were expecting Italian cuisine?” Franz asked mockingly.

  “It's actually less disgusting than I thought,” said Namiko, who was the only one brave enough to taste the alien victuals.

  “Water is enough for me,” Sirio commented.

  “They must've designed a food suited to our bodies,” Tylor reasoned. “I'll bet that swill is more nutritious than any Terrestrial food.”

  “And I'll bet that it's more disgusting than any food in the universe,” Sirio said with a little smile.

  “I'll pass!” Mike announced, pushing his plate away.

  “I'm sure that when real hunger pangs strike, nothing will remain of that much-criticized dish,” Tylor replied.

  “Don't the rest of you find Mr. Know It All irritating?” asked Franz, obviously annoyed by the Australian's behavior.

  “Have you considered that it's you that may be annoying us?” Sirio answered.

  The German raised his middle finger in response.

  “Are those empty containers being used as I think they are?” Namiko wondered aloud, changing the topic to avoid any more arguing.

  “And what do you think they are?” Mike asked her.

  “To attend to our physical needs.”

  “That's disgusting. As if this swill wasn't enough,” said the American, shaking his head.

  Three days passed, at least according to the six prisoners' calculations. In the end, as Tylor had surmised, no trace was left of the alien food. The containers for human waste proved carefully sealed when closed; and robotic units collected them regularly.

  “What are their intentions? They don't think that we're lab rats, do they?” exploded Sirio who, after dozens of hours being locked in there, couldn't take it any more.

  “At least now we know how they feel,” Tylor replied.

  “The rats?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Jesus Christ, we're not rodents!”

  “Maybe from their point of view, we are.”

  “Assholes!”

  “Don't feel too sorry for yourself, they deliver food to our door.”

  “Food,” Sirio commented in a disgusted tone. Did they ever think that we might need to, I don't know, wash up.”

  “Are you sure that you're a secret agent?” the German asked indignantly. “You're always whining, like a little girl.”

  “If you want, come over here and I'll show you some balls!” Sirio thundered.

  “Be good, boys. Reign in that testosterone,” Namiko said, trying to restore calm.

  From the look on the Japanese woman's face, Sirio understood that he was behaving like a rowdy little boy. To avoid disillusioning her, he abandoned the fight.

  “What, you're giving up already?” Franz demanded patronizingly.

  “I'm not going to respond to your taunts.”

  “In any case, I think that things are actually going better,” Igor interrupted, tired of their silly bickering. “No drones have come to harass us and the energy barrier has been deactivated.”

  “Activated or not, it's all the same. We're still confined,” Mike said.

  “Yes, but it means that their intentions have changed in some way,” the Russian declared.

  “And now I'm wondering: is it due to their system rebooting or because of what we did in the cryogenic chamber?” Tylor voiced, concerned.

  “I'm afraid that we did absolutely nothing in there,” Sirio commented, worried.

  “Perhaps it's too early to tell,” Namiko said.

  “How do you think they'll react once they wake up?” the American asked.

  “Who knows?” Tylor hurriedly replied. “I think, af
ter looking at this from every angle: they could reduce us to molecules, give us full honors or fail to notice us for months.”

  “And perhaps even make contact, once they're light years away from Earth. You have to laugh about it,” Sirio reasoned.

  “I'm afraid for those who have already died on our dear planet,” Igor said with a touch of sadness, “although they may have been more fortunate than those who survived.”

  “Why is no one willing to believe that the aliens might be peaceful and friendly?,” Tylor asked angrily.

  “Are you serious?” Franz screamed in his face “They killed billions of people!”

  “After we attacked them. Not to mention that we don't have any proof of what actually happened on Earth,” the American interjected.

  “You called us yourself after North Korea launched the missile,” the German noted.

  “But, back then, we knew practically nothing. What the various Commands told us was of little to no value. So little that, instead of them, it was the beanpoles' little robots who came to get us.”

  “I only know that we're at their mercy. And it's unbearable,” said the Russian, who then turned to the German and added: “Could you give me some water, please?”

  Franz had started to pass it to him when the doorway opened and a creature emerged; although alien, it had a familiar face.

  22

  “It's him...” Mike immediately murmured, connecting the face of the being in front of him to the first of the faces discovered inside the cryogenic containers. The aliens all had features which were similar to one another, at least to human eyes, but something told him that his intuition was correct.

  “He doesn't really seem like an android,” commented Igor who had noted greater fluidity in the being's movement.

  “So you did it,” Franz said, dismayed.

  “It would seem so,” Tylor limited himself to whispering, for the first time worried about what would happen.

  Sirio and Namiko didn't say a word, prepared for their inevitable fate.

  The extraterrestrial got closer. He was wearing a semi-formfitting midnight blue outfit, dotted with tiny fluorescent stones. The indigo luster to his skin and his elegant movements exerted a strange charm.

  The being looked at them with his large, slanted eyes, disturbing and mysterious. He then slowly opened his six-fingered right hand. Inside were some small, dark boxes. With a sudden gesture, he threw them in the Terrestrials' direction. The small objects bounced on the ground, as if they were made of foam rubber. Then the extraterrestrial showed them one in particular, placing it in plain view in front of him. Making sure that were all following what he was doing, he placed it on his chest, making it adhere to the outfit. With a gesture, he urged the six humans to imitate him.

  “I think he wants us to wear one of those things,” Namiko said.

  “What if it's a trap?” Igor asked.

  “What trap!” Tylor snapped, struggling to keep his tone down. “If he wanted, he could reduce us to powder or brainwash us with his drones.”

  “Let's put them on and see what happens,” said Sirio who, as he was putting the tiny square on his chest, saw it come to life and cling to his outfit. “I'm fine,” he then said. “It's all good. Nothing to worry about.”

  “As long as it's not taking over your mind,” said Franz said ironically.

  When they had all affixed the mysterious objects, the alien began to speak: “Hello, people of Earth. My name is Eldgh. What I have given you to put on is nothing more than a universal translator. You are the first intelligent, organic species that we have met since we fled our planet. Because of this, we weren't sure that we would be able to successfully translate alien languages, but the artificial intelligence algorithms that we've developed have demonstrated their functionality in Terrestrial languages. Before you can reply to my words, I warn you that I have set the translators so that I cannot understand what you say; this to prevent interruptions and give me the chance to tell you everything that I need to. Once I have finished, I will modify the parameters to allow you to voice your concerns. Furthermore, any attempt to escape or to retaliate against me will be inhibited by the force field that surrounds my body and blocks the exit behind me. If that's all clear, nod your heads.”

  The six companions made the required movement of assent.

  “We could've used something like that at the CIA” Mike commented in a low voice, managing to force some smothered laughter.

  “Excellent,” Eldgh replied. “Before I briefly explain what happened after our arrival, I want to offer you my sincere apologies for the unfortunate incident that brought you here, in a state of captivity, which is completely at odds with our beliefs. We are already working to remedy this and make you our guests.”

  The alien paused briefly, as if weighing which words to use.

  “We came from Taahr, a rocky planet with a mass similar to yours. To our dismay, the evolution of the star, which for billions of years has supported life on our world, began to exhaust its fuel, turning it into a red giant and forcing us to flee. The journey took several thousands of your Earth years. On the day of our departure, we entrusted the task of identifying the most suitable planets that could become our new home to our central computer. And so, Earth was identified among the various possible worlds. Once having reached our destination, the C6 units, our androids, were supposed to interrupt the suspended animation process, but that didn't happen. From the evidence that we've examined over the past four days, we've found that the problem was caused by an extremely advanced and complex virus, which managed to erase entire directories in our operating systems, rendering the execution of certain programs impossible and damaging the mainframe. Our artificial beings, being part of the network with the ship's servers, were themselves infected. The virus was contracted in orbit around a planet that was completely artificial, like a great machine. At the moment, we don't know what other interactions may have taken place between it and our ship, but it's certain that from the moment they came into contact, the totality of our artificial intelligence forgot about our existence. However, the main mission remained active. The computer continued to seek planets of a particular class, and left the artificial world, which it deemed unsuitable.”

  Of all the galaxies,why did they have to end up here?, was Franz's thought.

  “Perhaps one day,” the Taahrian continued, “when the time is right and our knowledge is more advanced, we will return to your planet, prepared for any eventuality.”

  “And destroy some other innocent civilization!” Igor grunted.

  “You know he doesn't understand you,” Tylor reminded him.

  “About eighty light years from Earth,” Eldgh continued, “our sensors picked up the waves from your radio-television broadcasts. The central computer, having processed the data, included the existence of intelligent beings on Earth. So your world became our prime candidate. A peremptory instruction had been inserted into the memories of our the artificial intelligence on board. Finding a civilization similar to ours was to be a turning point. Once close to the target, we were supposed to emerge from our long sleep, but the damage caused by the virus made that impossible. We had not planned to interfere, damage, or be damaged by a civilization which might be far more advanced or behind us in terms of technology. Unfortunately, you know how it went...”

  The Taahrian paused for a few moments, thinking about the horrors that his ship had caused the human beings.

  From his manner, Sirio thought, I'm afraid that it was far worse than he could've ever imagined.

  “Once we reached Earth,” the alien continued, “the C6 units concerned themselves with beginning the simulation program for you Terrestrials. It was nothing more than executing emergency software. Never, and I mean never, should something like that have been used for a first contact. Unfortunately, someone among your people made the unfortunate decision to attack us with a nuclear weapon. The computer interpreted the action as hostile, assigning a fifth level
threat value, which is the most serious and dangerous. Our automated defense system initiated the Rapid Domain program. Elsewhere, we were still in a deep sleep. It couldn't allow us to be potentially destroyed by an encounter with an alien race. ”

  Tylor smiled considering the irony of the universe. To them, we're the aliens!

  “Before allowing you to ask your questions,” the Taahrian began to wind down, “I want to thank and congratulate you on being able to terminate the suspended animation program. Unfortunately, the awakening sequence was started incorrectly. Most of those that you tried to awaken are dead. But you succeeded with me. At present, ten thousand Taahrians have been revived. You have been held here for four days, in order for us to understand what happened and to exclude any biological contamination between our races. We have found no danger. You can rest assured.”

  Rest assured? Sirio mused, refraining from screaming. Does this crazy space guy realize what he's saying?

  “I will now modify the parameters of your translators so that you have a chance to voice your concerns.”

  Having said this, the Taahrian manipulated the little box that clung to his clothes for a few seconds. Then he bowed his head slightly, closing and reopening his large slanted eyes, ready to receive the insults of a civilization that, ultimately, he and his kind had ruined forever.

  23

  “In the pseudo-films shown by your artificial intelligence,” Tylor began, addressing Eldgh, “your star of origin was named as Betelgeuse, but that's impossible!” he affirmed with all the conviction in the world.

  “What do you mean?” Franz asked, in the alien's stead.

  “You're right,” Eldgh replied calmly. “Are you someone who studies the stars?”

  “You could say that I study the laws of physics which regulate the cosmos.”

  “You have an interesting task,” the extraterrestrial commented. “So you know that Alpha Orionis has a life cycle that is too brief to allow a life form as complex as ours to evolve.”