“And what’s wrong with the mission? Here we are at the other side of forever, a bunch of scientists, artists, and dreamers. Who here doesn’t want to explore and discover the answers to all the mysteries? We can. We should. But if we keep running ourselves the way we have, we wouldn’t learn a thing in another million years.”
Allambree spoke up again. “Every time we die, everything we’ve learned gets lost. We don’t have any notes. The computers go blank. How can we learn anything if we keep going back to day one?”
Charlie pointed at him. “Let’s stop going back to day one. Let’s take better precautions to make sure that we don’t die again and again. And when we do learn something or create something, when we have something important to share? Let’s share it. That way, if one of us does die, the rest of us can brief the next version of that person on the work they were doing. Screw paper and keyboard. Let’s start an oral tradition. What are the odds of all twelve of us dying at the same time? As long as one of us survives any single disaster, we should all be ready to brief the ones who do regenerate.”
“So, we all become masters of every discipline? That’s just not practical, Charlie,” Allambree argued.
“We’ll see. In any case, the party’s over. I hope you’re all enjoying your vodka. This is the last staff meeting we’re going to have alcohol at. I wasn’t President when they pulled me out of time, but I wasn’t just a musician either. I fought in a war, and we had to have discipline if we wanted to defeat The Machine. Starting tomorrow morning, you all have jobs. I want you to all start wearing uniforms and showing up here to work at nine am every morning.
“We’re going to create a duty roster. I want someone stationed in the Genesis Chamber at all times, in case of an accident. You say we need our gold mines mined? Then maybe everyone here is going to have to spend a little time banging away with our pick axes. And this spaceship? We’re gonna take her out and see what there is to find out here. We’re going to explore as many galaxies as we can find.
“Any questions?”
Gloryannana was shaking her head and smiling. “I’m not mining. Can you imagine it?”
“I can imagine it.” The captain’s voice dropped. “You might be the Queen of a dead country on a dead planet, but I’m Captain of this world, unless you want to leave, you will follow orders.”
“You mean, leave the planet?” Avraam asked, incredulously.
“I do. We’re all big and important historical figures. Anyone who feels they can’t serve on my world under me, well you can go live on Primus-3 for as long as the crabs let you. Then we’ll see if the next you is more compliant.”
“What do you want to look for out there?” Allambree asked.
“I guess you spent your life studying dead alien civilizations. Why don’t we try and find some living ones?”
“Because there aren’t any,” Sally spoke up. “I spent my life searching. We never found anything as bright as a pig. After my time, humanity explored galaxy after galaxy. The best we ever did was the dead world Allambree excavated and two others not quite as advanced as that.”
“A wise man once said, ‘Anything which happens once can never happen again. Anything which happens twice will surely happen a third time,’” Allambree quoted. “Either humanity was unique or not. We know that we were not. Therefore civilizations do happen.”
“Maybe, but what if they’re millions of years apart?” Sally argued.
“Do you think – do you think the people who created us were insane?” Kalligeneia asked Charlie, raising her voice.
“Why would you ask that?” Charlie replied.
“They put Fock and Wu on the same team. They gave us a President before he was ready. They delete our notes. Is this the world you’d make? If you wanted a team of explorers to wander the universe and solve all the mysteries…You’re right. This is the wrong team. I would have picked twelve people like Sally, who actually spent their lives exploring, not cyborg fascists dictators or eugenic doctors!”
“What if the scientists of the 32nd century are so much more advanced than we are that we can’t even fathom their motivations?” Veronika said, quietly and thoughtfully.
“What if we’re all dead and this is Hell?” Avraam asked.
Veronika looked at him with contempt, as if he had just asked the stupidest possible question. “Don’t be an ass.”
“It might be,” Avraam protested, but no one took up his side.
“We’re not dead. When you’re dead you can’t have sex. You can’t eat. You can’t squish your toes in-between the blue sands. Otherwise, there’s no meaning in that word,” Kalligeneia argued.
“If I could make a suggestion,” Doctor Aelfwyrd spoke up, “Reality is surely constrained by pragmatism up here, the same as it was on Earth. Maybe it’s all illusion. Maybe an angry God is lying to us. But what does it matter? The captain is right. We have work to do. You’re all accomplished. You all had to work hard to do what you did on Earth. Let’s give it a year and try things the captain’s way. You scientists should all love the opportunity to explore a deeply alien corner of the cosmos. You artists should be desperate for all of the fodder the exploration will give you and your muses. Avi, we may even find some monsters for you to slay.”
Charlie didn’t particularly like being defended by Aelfwyrd. He didn’t want to think of the doctor as his ally. The man had not only killed him 24 times, but then been reborn, thought about it, and decided that the best course of action would be to do it some more. But Aelfwyrd was making his point and the crew was listening.
“Mr. Wu, how is your health?” Charlie asked.
“I will be fully restored within 48 hours,” he replied.
“I understand that you’ve taken on the job of quartermaster. You made Avraam’s mace. You supplied our survival kits.”
He nodded.
“I want that to formally be your title and position on the ship. To that I will add the responsibility of preparing the duty roster.”
“I can do that,” Gloryannana interrupted.
“I… think the duty suits Mr. Wu better. He’ll make sure we all do our time in the coal mines. Your majesty, you’re my first mate, which means most of your time will be spent working with me. I need to learn everything we know about this ship. We’re going to use it.”
“Very well, Captain.”
“Sally, your primary duty will be piloting the ship. Avraam, I believe you’re infantry. The rest of you, I’ll learn your skills and how to work with you in the weeks to come. But we’re all going to be here at nine am five days out of every seven. Mr. Wu will schedule a staggered weekend so that we all get time for our music, and other arts.”
“Good. This sounds very positive,” Umbra remarked. “But I fear that dear Nayara will not be so agreeable.”
“Who’s Nayara?” Charlie asked.
“We didn’t get to her. Nayara Borges is a wonderful singer from the 27th century.”
“She’s a work of art,” Gloryannana said sincerely.
“She lived her previous life in a crystal palace orbiting Jupiter. Last we saw her; she went to live in the Crystal City. She wanted to be alone,” Umbra continued.
“How long ago was that?”
“It’s been nearly six months.” Umbra answered.
“How do we know she’s still alive?” Avraam asked.
“Because she hasn’t regenerated,” Gloryannana shrugged dramatically.
“Then we’re going to go and visit her. Mr. Wu said he needed 48 hours to recover. Let’s give him that. Everyone will have two days to get ready, and then we get to work.”
“I’ll take you to the Crystal City,” Kalligeneia offered.
“Thank you.”
“And I’d like to come. I want to see it,” Allambree said curiously.
Charlie, Kalligeneia, Umbra, and Allambree took a shuttle across the surface of the U.U.S Shamballa to the Crystal City. It was arranged that Sally and Gloryannana would share communications duty w
hile they were gone, checking in with the away team every four hours, and one of them would monitor the lines at all times until the team got back.
July 2251
Sally Brightly was nineteen years old when they put her on the UUS Arizona. She was twenty-three when she left the Solar System and traveled to the Betelgeuse system. Her commanding officer, Captain Nihaya, was a loud and smiling braggart, who thought he was twice as charismatic as he actually was. His heart was in the right place. He wanted to be a good commander. He wanted to inspire his crew and be the best that he could, but his jokes always seemed to fall flat and his claims of affection for his crew and his ship felt insincere.
But his own superiors took him at face value and believed he was one of the best the Unified Universe had to offer.
Sally didn’t have much patience for the jokes the rest of the crew made at their leader’s expense. She didn’t care about nonsense like that. Her heart burst when she thought about their mission. By the end of the year, the crew of the U.U.S Arizona would be the first humans to walk upon at least seven extra-solar planets, and quite possibly, they would be the first human beings to make contact with an intelligent alien civilization.
Even the most arduous of her duties on ship filled her with joy. She seemed to radiate enthusiasm. She had to wrestle back a ridiculous smile all day long. She didn’t mind their ludicrous captain at all.
And so, as the Arizona locked into orbit around Betelguise-7 and the captain shouted, “Anchor’s away, me hearties, ar ar ar!” in his high-pitched and uncertain voice, the rest of the crew groaned and rolled their eyes, but Sally just beamed. Her white teeth reflected off of the window, so that they appeared to be super-imposed on top of the yellow and green world beneath her.
“Helvetios, MacGregor, Williamson, Brightly, you’re with me,” The captain shouted a little too loudly, as he leapt up from his chair and began charging back towards the shuttle.
Brightly had to pause for a moment to figuratively wipe the drool from her chin before following the captain. This was the moment she had waited her whole life for.
MacGregor made a joke about the captain thinking he was “Captain Hook” as they got dressed, but Sally could barely hear him. Her eyes were shining. Her heart was racing.
She sat down next to the captain in the round and cramped landing shuttle. He was staring at her in an unprofessional way.
“I bet you didn’t expect to go down with all of us today, did you Brightly?” the Captain quipped just before they dropped.
“No, sir,” Sally replied, not caring at all about his horribly sexist joke.
They fell down through the atmosphere at an extreme speed. The gravity pulled all of their faces up and made them want to vomit. They had been trained for this, but it was rough all the same. Sally’s lips flapped in front of her face. She just couldn’t stop smiling.
The seventh planet of the Betelgeuse system was primarily covered in white and yellow mushrooms, from which long wispy vines hung. Some of them were twenty or thirty feet tall. The Earthlings’ round little shuttle broke through a series of the large mushrooms as it landed. The growths had been large and thick enough that Sally could actually hear the cracking as they broke from inside of their ship.
The drone was launched first. Williamson controlled it through a small panel and video screen. Sally could see over his shoulder and watch as the machine tested the environment. There was a peculiar variety of mud on the ground. There were puddles, and she saw a small buzzing life-form zip past.
“Ah!” she exclaimed and pointed at the screen. The rest of the landing crew all cheered. They couldn’t be sure, but they believed they had seen the same thing she had.
On a second screen, MacGregor pulled up a still of the creature and enlarged it. It was flying. It did have wings, but more than anything it resembled a wet and slimy frog covered in a gel, like a tadpole would float inside of.
“It has a spine,” MacGregor said in a deep voice.
Moving his hands over the screen, he displayed deeper levels inside of the creature’s body, beneath four layers of skin. He began mapping out the internal organs.
Williamson announced that conditions outside were acceptable. The captain led Sally and Helvetios outside through the cramped airlock. Even though she was wearing a heavy and solid helmet and an orange jumpsuit made of sewn synthetic diamond, Brightly imagined that she could smell the new world and the scent immediately made her think of tangerines.
Helvetios immediately primed his pacifier. Sally could hear the hum of his weapon charging. Captain Nihaya rushed forward and began splashing in the goo which had tumbled out of one of the enormous mushrooms which their landing had smashed open. Young Brightly checked on the drone and confirmed that it wasn’t having any issues. Then she climbed up onto a rock where she could get a slightly better view.
Williamson spoke over the sound system, “The target structure is four hundred meters to the south. You’re going to want to move quickly. You only have two hours until sunset.”
“Yeesir, ve do it right away,” the captain replied in a fake accent which seemed part Spanish and part French.
As they moved away from the landing site, the vines which hung from the heads of the mushrooms became thicker and pinker. They had to move them aside, like curtains, to progress. The water beneath their feet grew deeper and muddier. Here and there were little white patches of minerals which looked like sand. Sally stepped on them whenever she could, to prevent sinking too deeply into the water. At one point, her knees dipped beneath the surface.
“Ready weapons,” the captain ordered as they came through a particularly thick curtain of hanging life.
Brightly took out her pacifier and began the power cycle. As she did so, she looked down into the water beneath her feet. Two little slanted eyes looked right up at her. They weren’t completely round, more oval, but they were eyes like she might see on any animal on Earth. She paused, listening to the gentle hum of her weapon coming into life, and she shared a moment with whatever tiny xenomorph was hiding in the mud beneath her orange boots.
“Brightly. With me,” the captain barked.
Sally jumped up, forgot her little friend in the swamp, and rushed forward through the dangling. On the other side they emerged at the top of a small cliff overlooking a valley filled with interesting shapes.
They might have been buildings once, but they now looked like melted buildings. Sally’s best guess was that the grey rocks which appeared to have stairs and windows and straight edges, were in fact a natural formation.
“It sure looks like a city,” the captain said in a hush. “What strange fingers rent this out of the rock?”
Helvetios’s right hand was extended as he interacted with a virtual interface inside of his suit. “It’s old. Millions of years old. There’s no sign of electricity or metal.”
The captain began a controlled slide down the side of the cliff and onto the highest peaks of the structures below. Helvetios followed behind scanning and recording everything around them through his virtual interface; he held his right arm erect all the way down.
Sally was more careful. As she slowly made her way down, she thought she saw a large black shape moving in the shadows. It appeared to leave one of the “buildings” and climb in through the “window” of another. It slinked like a cat, as if it were stalking.
“Imagine the people – the creatures who built all of this before humanity was even walking erect. This place is a marvel!” The captain beamed.
“I’m not detecting much which would support your thesis,” Helvetios said kindly. “Based on these readings, I think this placed was burned into existence, perhaps an organic acid could have done it?”
“Then it was built by aliens using an organic acid. Don’t expect everything all the way out here to be exactly the way it was back home. Who is to say that every intelligent species has hands? They might have to salivate and chew to build. Could you imagine a technology based on chewing a
nd sucking?” the captain lectured.
“Yes, sir,” Sally replied enthusiastically, but really her guard was up. Did she see another shape moving down below? “Captain, I’m not sure, but I may have seen something.”
“Seen what?”
“Movement in the shadows: something big, something sneaky.”
Sally fell. Her left leg was pulled out from under her. Her right arm crunched into the hard rock and she felt the electronics of her suit being driven into her ribs. She fell down into the water. For just a moment, her head was below the surface. She pushed herself up and tried to stand, but something had her leg.
She heard a weapon fire two times. Helvetios shouted something incoherent. One of the creatures climbed on top of Sally and tried to bite its way through her mask. The face-plate was much too strong for its bite and so she lay there for a moment watching it try to chew. The monster didn’t have individual teeth, but instead a hard ridge inside of the mouth, like a beak.
The creature was gummy and soft. The alien reminded her of a frog.
She reached out and found her pacifier. Using it like a club, she hit the frog in its head as hard as she could. It lost its balance and fell off of her. Sally scooted back and aimed. One second later the alien was cooked black. Looking around, she saw two more. Like a machine, she turned and fired and burned them where they stood in the water.
She waited just a few heartbeats for the flames to die down and then she walked out of the alley. The structures around her looked a little like houses, but they also looked like something which might be built by bugs or rats. Some lines were straight, but many had been done carelessly and unevenly.
She saw another one of the frogs, and she burned it before it even saw her.
Brightly found a wall which she could climb back up. On top, there were a couple dozen of the frogs, swarming over Captain Nihaya and Helvetios. She opened up the chamber and began frying them one at a time, carefully, taking the time to aim.
The Secrets of the Universe (Farther Than We Dreamed Book 1) Page 21