She killed one, and then another, and then another, counting as she went until she had ended two hundred and twelve of the swarming aliens.
She jumped over a gap and went over to find her team-mates.
Helvetios’ arms had been torn off of his body. His face-plate was filled with blood. He had died horribly.
Captain Nihaya lay awkwardly, a dead frog under his back. He wasn’t dead yet, but he had been badly burned.
“They built this, Brightly. Did you see? A real intelligent alien race. A peer for humanity!” the captain rasped.
“I don’t think so captain. Beavers build mansions. These are just frogs,” Sally replied, checking the captain’s gun and then life-support. She confirmed that he was dying.
“Do you believe we’re alone?” he asked her.
“I don’t know,” she replied frankly.
“Don’t ever doubt. Don’t ever. The greatest day in human history will be when humanity finds its friends. We need….more friends.”
And he died.
Sally had to use her weapon seventeen more times before she returned to the shuttle with Nihaya and Helvetios’s dead bodies.
As she dragged them back inside and strapped them down for lift-off, Williamson said to her, “We thought it was an Eden, but it turned out to be a hell.”
Without missing a beat, she turned and smiled that enormous smile at him, “This has been the greatest day of my life.”
4
PRESENT DAY
Once the shuttle left the perimeter of the Marble City, the undulating green and blue energy in the sky disappeared and was replaced by a more normal light-blue heaven above them. There weren’t many clouds, but there were a few thin and wispy lines of white here and there. Charlie thought one looked a little like a dolphin.
The holographic display in the center of the shuttle allowed them to see the world outside in incredible detail, and to easily shift the angle they watched at. Charlie aimed it at the sky for a while. It almost looked like Earth’s skies and that comforted him. Then he angled it down and they watched the surface of their little moon.
It was lush. There was a forest beneath them. Most of it looked quite normal, but every now and again the scenery would be interrupted by a grove of massive deep purple oaks, or a sudden ring of rocks which looked like it belonged more in the deserts of monument valley than in a classic fairy-tale forest. They sailed over a lake, and then a field of blue flowers. A family of large mammals galloped along over green grassy hills. Charlie couldn’t tell if they were horses or cats. Allambree showed him how to zoom in and he still wasn’t sure. They weren’t like any animal he’d ever heard of on Earth.
The Crystal City was visible from some distance off. At first it looked like a mountain of white and pink quartz. The sunlight shone off of and through the crystal and it was very bright. The system had to adjust to make the light levels more comfortable for observation.
It was a tall city, taller than the Marble City. The buildings were great spires and sharp towers which reached up far farther than the more classical designs of the first city on the Shamballa which Charlie had seen. There were trees and gardens, but it looked as if the whole metropolis was all made of the same semi-transparent material.
Umbra piloted the shuttle. She brought it over the city for a circle, and then brought them down in a spiral. There weren’t as many statues in the Crystal City as in the Marble one. There were some, but the buildings were prominent. They were meant to be the works of art themselves. Too many little shapes would have just blurred in and been hidden against the long lines and sharp corners. While the outer crystals were all shades of white and rose, once they got inside the city they could see that the different sections of the city had different color rocks. They flew over a stunning series of shades of blue, over a smaller yellow section, and then seemed to be landing amid a gorgeous series of deep-green crystal buildings.
The ship docked on a landing-pad about twelve stories above the street. There were spiral staircases which led all the way down from there, or up another thirty stories or so. As they left the ship, Charlie noticed that there was an intricate series of walk-ways and staircases leading all over the architecture. They were easy to miss, all blending into the enormous towers behind them.
There was a strong breeze outside. It carried the smell of salt. Charlie saw what he thought was a bright sun in the sky, but then his eyes adjusted and he realized that the light was coming from a moon of Primus-3. Beyond it he could see the vast blue orb stretching above and below the horizon.
Allambree leaned down to Charlie and pointed up to the moon. “Primus-3 only has one tiny moon, but it’s a moon which is attempting to become a star. It’s on fire. It’s undergoing a constant volcanic reaction. Primus-3 is as far away from its sun as the planet Saturn was, but the burning moon keeps it as warm as Earth. While we’re in the vicinity, it will be our sun too for a little while.”
“What about the sun of the Primus system?” Charlie asked.
“Oh, it’s there too. You’ll notice that it’s never really night these days. But that will change when we fly away. Day and night change all the time depending on where we go.”
The scent of salt was heavy in the air.
“Is there an ocean nearby?” Charlie asked.
Kalligeneia answered, holding her arm up to shield her face from the wind. “Just the other side of the city. Our ocean might be small for Earth, but it’s a real one. This city extends out over the shore and even into the waters. Some of the buildings are sunken and flooded. We’ve never figured out why.”
They walked in from the landing pad to the building. They were in a sparkling ballroom. Umbra Farrah walked in last and shut the door behind them. The wind blew up her coat and shoved her up as she banged the door closed.
There was music paying, soft piano music in the distance.
“Could that be her?” Allambree asked.
Kalligeneia walked through the ballroom out into a crystal dining room which looked like it was made for kings as she followed the sound. The other three followed her.
The centerpiece of the dining room was a monumentally large oak table which could seat two hundred people. The surface seemed to suggest that it was a cross-section of a tree, a single tree larger than a redwood. Silver plates and settings were all laid out. Only one of them looked used and had been sloppily put back almost where it belonged.
There were muddy footprints on the floor, a floor which was so highly polished that they could see their own blurry reflections in it. The ceilings above them were covered with actual mirrors, which gave the building a bit of a disorienting funhouse feeling.
Allambree was dancing as they walked. His eyes were closed but he imitated the old ballroom dancing style of the early 20th century. He didn’t hit any of the furniture or have any problems navigating the room even with his eyes shut.
The piano music was classical, but Charlie couldn’t name the composer. He was sure it would have been old even when he was alive. It felt right for the majestic surroundings. It surged in one’s soul. It made him think of the forces of nature fighting and then coming together.
They passed through a library. It was carpeted by a long red and gold rug covered with images of griffons, dragons, mermaids, leviathans, and such. The books seemed to be an identical selection to the ones Charlie found in his room. They appeared to be old leather first-editions. They smelled wonderful.
The music grew louder.
There was a pause in the music, and then they heard a woman’s voice speaking, but they were not close enough to hear what she was saying.
The music began again. This time it sounded almost like Motown to Charlie.
“That’s 22nd century,” Allambree said, with enthusiasm. “That’s the Farajay!”
“The -” Charlie started to ask.
“A band. The most wonderful musicians I’ve ever heard,” Allambree explained.
The next room was filled with musi
cal instruments. A lot of them were very old-fashioned and looked expensive. There were lots of harps and strange instruments, a couple of which Charlie was sure had to be from the future. There were crystal bowls, which looked like they could have been carved out of the walls, and metal rods used to elicit sound from the bowls. Some of the bowls had water in their bottoms.
There was sound recording equipment and a wooden box with a big brass phonograph attached. What looked like a good-old-fashioned record had been playing. Umbra stopped it and picked up the recording. She read the label. “Nayara Borges #472. She may have made this a long time ago, or it might have been yesterday.”
“Yeah, but the record would have stopped playing if she had turned it on yesterday, right?”
Umbra smiled. “No. These are made better than that. Nayara wouldn’t use equipment which failed like that. She only chooses the best.”
“She’s a musician,” Charlie stated.
Umbra laughed. “She’s the musician. The people on my planet were genetically altered to live in a cold world. Mew Tse’s DNA was designed to live on a water world. Neither of us is genetically unique. There are thousands like either of us. But Nayara is almost genetically unique. They designed twenty women to be musicians at a level beyond human capacity. They could sing in a way humans can’t. They could play at speeds and levels of complexity homo sapiens couldn’t even attempt. But they couldn’t give them the genius spark. Only Nayara was both brilliant and born with the musical ability of the angels.”
Allambree continued, “You know how birds are born with the knowledge of how to make nests? Nayara and her sisters could play musical instruments that way. She was playing Mozart before she spoke her first words. She was born with the instinct.”
“Why did she leave?” Charlie asked. “What’s she doing out here by herself?”
Umbra answered. “This is how she lived before. She had a crystal palace which orbited in space. She would leave it for performances, but she chose to live alone with her art, not talking to anyone but her servants for weeks at a time.”
“Sounds like she didn’t like people,” Charlie guessed.
Umbra shook her head. “She was the greatest diplomat of her age, if not all time. When the age of Nightmares ended, the universe could easily have fallen into another century of war. She brokered the peace. Her skills as a diplomat are what saved us all. I’ve….I’ve drunk with her. She’s funny. She likes to party, but she always leaves early. And it’s always to get back to her art.”
“Was she involved with anyone on the crew?” the captain asked.
Kalligeneia shook her head. “No. I think she kissed Aelfwyrd once, but that was it. She only loves music. She never married in her previous life either.”
“Did she and Wu Gwei ever record anything together?”
Kalligeneia nodded. “I’m told they actually did cut an album together, but it’ll be blank since he died while you were on the beach.”
Charlie frowned.
Umbra filled through a box of Nayara’s recordings. “Well, we know she’s not dead, or these would be blank. There’s a whole city here. She could be anywhere. We just need to get her attention.”
“Is there another capital in the Crystal City, like we have in the Marble City?” Charlie asked.
Umbra replied, “There’s just one capital building. We can move it from city to city, but it’s always made of marble.”
“Are there multiple Genesis Chambers?”
“No, just one. It doesn’t move, well not naturally. It will always be in the Marble City.”
Umbra Farrah selected a different one of Nayara’s records and set it down on the player. She put the needle at the beginning of the second track and pressed play.
Charlie had to sit down. Allambree was dancing again; tears were streaming down his face. Kalligeneia wore a massive smile. Nayara was singing. Her voice was beyond humanity. It made Charlie think of whales and lions and the early morning birds of spring. Listening to her sing was one of the most purely positive experiences of his entire life. It made him feel better about being alive.
When the song was over, Umbra lifted the needle.
Charlie spoke slowly in a deep and serious voice. “This isn’t a simulation. We’re not living in a dream. I know that now. I don’t just think it. I know. Because that music wasn’t inside of me.”
Allambree nodded. The music had stopped, but he was still swaying to it. “She’s more than we are.”
5
Charlie had a new song in his head. It was inspired by listening to Nayara sing. In fact, he was writing it for her to perform. He had never been that kind of an artist. He always sang what he wrote himself, but he simply didn’t have her instrument. At times it sounded like five different women had been singing together in her song. That wasn’t a special effect. It wasn’t done with multiple tracks. She could just do that. She could sing or maybe even talk with more than one voice at once.
They continued through her tower and found another room. This one was filled with a huge desk and lots of paperwork. She had been writing on whiteboards which were leaned up against the walls. One read, “Charlie-Gold-Sun-Arthur-Superman.” Another said, “Aelfwyrd-Orange-Venus-Loki-Skywalker.”
In large letters, she had written on the one of the whiteboards, “Were we created at all?”
“Maybe you’re red?” He suggested to Kalligeneia.
She smirked.
Umbra picked up the papers. “It’s harmonics. Certain musical notes correspond to colors, to planets, to the Greek and Roman Gods, astrology, metals, alchemy, sacred geometry.”
“It’s magic?” Charlie asked.
“Very old science and very advanced science,” Umbra explained. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with how Waydio waves work: sound which can create matter.”
“She was studying the patterns of…us.” Kalligeneia sounded very surprised. “I must be Pluto. Tell me that she said I was purple Pluto?”
“Mew Tse corresponds with Neptune and the color blue,” Umbra said as she read the pages.
“This is crazy,” Charlie laughed.
“Advanced science is crazy. We would never have escaped Newtonian physics if we didn’t come to terms with that. She’s right though. Waydio science must have its roots in harmonics. We were created by an information rich sound wave. Understanding where we come from might well depend on understanding how harmonics works.”
Charlie picked up one of the stacks of papers. At first he thought he was looking at geometrical equations, but he slowly began to suspect that it was a star chart. One of the dots was labeled, “Primus-1.” He then found Primus 2, 3, 4, and 5. Turning the page, he found the layout of the Secundus system. He skimmed down a few more pages and found a forty-two planet system titled, “Tertius.”
Tertius-5 had a note written next to it: “Crew negative one?”
“Do we have this information already?” Charlie asked.
“No,” Umbra answered. “Not all of it. She’s been busy.”
“Do we know about these two solar systems?” He asked, handing the papers over to the white-furred woman.
“We’ve been to Secundus, but not Tertius. I’ve seen this system on long-range scans, but we haven’t been there. This reads like…. She would have to have visited the system to get this level of information.”
“Are you sure?” Kalligeneia asked.
Umbra nodded. “She would. Even if she had better equipment than us, she doesn’t have the skill in physics to deduce all of this.”
“Could she take one of the shuttles all the way to another solar system?” Allambree asked. “Are they made for that?”
“Easily,” Umbra answered. “She could make the trip in a couple weeks each way.”
Kalligeneia held up a piece of paper. It had a drawing on it. “What’s this?”
It looked like a dark and evil hybrid of a man and a bat.
“And this?”
The next drawing
was of a group of people without faces except for mouths and their over-sized ears. They had four legs and four arms, but looked like they were made of vegetables, not flesh.
“Welcome to Tertius,” Allambree said with joy.
August 2260
The northern continent of the second planet of the Proxima system was covered with mountains of rolling silver sands. It gathered in dunes often reaching eighty or ninety feet high. The air was almost breathable, and the temperatures were cold but tolerable. It was the extreme and exotic radiation which demanded that Commander Brightly and her team-mates still wear their environmental suits.
The atmosphere, along with suspicious rock formations, had been enough for the S.E.T.I taskforce to flag the world as interesting, but it didn’t take the crew of the UUS Descartes very long to determine that Proxima-2 was an almost dead world. It had once been covered in forests, with actual oxygen generating life, but no longer.
The sands blew across the horizon in the most beautiful and intricate patterns. Beneath them they alternately hid and revealed a hard stepped rock plateau. But when Proxima-2 had become radioactive, it had become lethal to all but the most basic forms of known microscopic life.
“I’m still optimistic that we will find specimens,” First Officer Kevin Ordways said to Commander Brightly. His voice was apologetic. “I’m sorry that you didn’t get to fight anything.”
“You don’t understand, Kevin. I don’t need to fight, you know. I want to do my duty. I’d rather find that peer-civilization that everyone is dreaming about.”
“Are you sure? You get so excited. Whenever we find bugs or goblins, you just – you never smile like that any other time.”
She sighed. “I can’t believe you misunderstand me so completely after all this time.”
He replied quietly, not wanting an argument, “Maybe I understand you better than you understand yourself, Sally.”
The Secrets of the Universe (Farther Than We Dreamed Book 1) Page 22