Humans and other Aliens: Book 1

by Winzer, Alexander

  Zoe nodded. “We won’t know until we’ve tested it out. A fake alien like this man in red is for sure very different to the real thing. I’ve seen one of the aliens myself and I’ve experienced how fast and strong they are … but I also saw how Chris and Suki stopped it in its tracks by simply joining hands and standing in front of us. We’ll see…”

  Jon nodded. “Let’s have a half-hour break and then do it again. I’m sure we’ll all do much better next time.”

  It was getting late and Eva loaded the results of the fifth test run onto her holo display. “Congratulations. You’re all doing well now.” She studied the group of people who looked as if they had attended a five-hour boot camp. They were sitting on chairs or directly on the floor stretching out sore arms and legs.

  “Ivan, you’ve improved the most. From zero percent on your first go to saving nearly eighty percent this time.”

  Ivan didn’t know if he should be laughing or crying, his body felt like sleeping, but his mind was asking for a celebratory drink of vodka.

  “Zoe, you and your team have the highest average score while Jon holds the record for saving most people in one single mission. Well done, Jon, ninety-two percent in the last run.”

  Jon nodded. “I think it’s time to retire and get some sleep. Tomorrow will be an important day. We’ll be facing a real-life situation, a real alien.”

  Now Ivan felt even worse. He had been expecting a few more days of practice, but Jon was right; they couldn’t let thousands of people die just because they were not sure if they were ready.

  Forty-One

  Anaya

  “Jon, do you mind if I see Delta before retiring to my room? I’d like to ask him something.”

  Jon was surprised that Anaya still had enough energy to talk to Delta, the only thing he could think of was a shower and bed. “Sure, just go in and check if he‘s OK with it.”

  Anaya nodded, squeezed Ciaran’s hand, and walked out of the room.

  She doesn’t walk, she glides, thought Jon, looking after her.

  “She’s pretty special, isn’t she?”

  Jon hadn’t noticed Eva standing next to him “Ahh… yes, special, for sure, but not as special as you are. Let’s go, my feet are killing me.”

  Anaya stood at the entrance of Delta’s room watching him scanning through the recordings from today’s training simulations. “Hello, Delta, do you have a minute?”

  “Sure. Please sit down. You like mountains… they are majestic and beautiful in their fierceness.”

  Anaya sat down, thinking about her life-changing experience on top of Mt. Kangchenjunga. She was about to ask Delta about something that had happened on that very mountain, but somehow she felt that he already knew why she had come here. “I do. I’ve been climbing mountains since I was a small child. I always loved it.”

  Delta turned to face Anaya. “What did you love about them?”

  Anaya remembered the feeling of freedom, of being far away from the civilized world with all its issues and problems, of being at peace. “The feeling of getting lost in the process. Climbing a mountain is not only about the scenery. It’s about the climb, the experience. You forget yourself and simply live the moment, every moment as it arises and vanishes.”

  Delta nodded. “Don’t you do that all the time? Maybe you are not aware of it, but you are always on the mountain.”

  Anaya knew that he was right; there was nothing special about the mountain, not even about the experience. Every moment was just as good or bad as you believed it to be.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  Delta sat in silence for a little while before he continued, “Sure, but before you ask, contemplate who is asking … and who will benefit from the answer. You know, every question already carries its own answer inside. No question has ever been asked without a background, without a certain expectation about what the correct answer might be. If you don’t have any idea, no expectation at all, then something truly magical will happen … the question dissolves and thus no answer is required.”

  Anaya felt like the little girl who had continuously pestered her parents with questions and now, thinking back, she understood that she had always carried an idea of what she hoped the answer would be. She remembered being disappointed when her parents’ answer was not as expected. “It’s like sitting in a car, driving to a place you really want to be, asking your dad how long it will take to get there. You think it’ll only be five minutes, but his answer was usually an hour and a half.”

  Delta nodded. “Many questions arise out of boredom. You turn your face away from the now and project into the future. There can be no question about this very moment, not if you truly live it. There can only be questions about the past or the future; both are purely conceptual. So what is your question?”

  Asking a question was a strange thing to do after this kind of talk, but she had come here to ask and she was not someone who changed her mind easily. “You know, when I was up on the mountain I saw something that changed me. I saw life through the eyes of a Tibetan man; maybe he was a saint, or something similar. He didn’t have a center. He experienced life as a flowing continuum. If there was any identification at all then I would say it was with the flow of life itself, not with a limited entity, not with his body or even his thoughts. This feeling has not left me, of course I’m still partially the girl I was before, but I’ve seen that this girl is not much more than a nice story, a drawing in the comic book of life. I was wondering… why all this? Why these alien attacks if they’re only attacking life itself?”

  Delta leant back in his chair considering his answer. “Why do your white blood cells destroy an infection? Why do ants protect their nest? Why does earth have a fever?”

  Anaya was surprised. She had expected an answer, not more questions.

  “Ahh … well … it seems that this is how life works. All it does is survive and it does it in a way that is not always gentle and kind.”

  Delta smiled. “Yes… life is not kind or gentle, it is only your expectation of life that states that life should be like that. Whatever stands in its way will eventually be overcome. It is like a river carving its way through rock as it flows to the sea. It is like a volcano covering everything with glowing lava just to create new life in its wake. Life aims at creating perfection, the perfect species. The perfect species is not one that dominates. Not even one that is always at the top of the food chain, but one that lives in perfect harmony with everything else. Humanity has turned into a disease that has forgotten what life stands for. Man aims at immortality of the individual no matter the cost. You surely remember the story about the valley of immortality that was meant to exist on the mountain that you climbed. People have been looking for it for hundreds of years, but no one has ever found it. Why? Because it is not a place at all, it is your very heart, it is your true being that you are meant to find. This is the valley of immortality. You are that valley. There truly is no greater sin than forgetting what you are. You are not this fragment, this broken-off piece of misery that looks for temporary satisfaction in objects just to experience a small glimmer of peace. You know that, but knowledge alone is dry, it is dead just like the eyes of the rich man that has everything and more. Life is alive. Be alive and you will never die.”

  Anaya shook he head. “I cannot see how mankind will change that much. How can we take away their greed, pride, and foolish self-importance?”

  “You should know that. You have changed, why do you believe that humanity cannot? Deep in their hearts all humans are the same, everything is, even the most evil amongst them will see the light once he has been shown his true heart. It can happen, but there is still a long way to go. It is just like climbing one of your mountains. You do it step by step, taking every step fully, consciously. And when you arrive at the peak, when you stand there enjoying the view, it will again be now. It will be just another step, not a final step, there is no finality at all. There are just steps that merge into the whole. But the w
hole is not made of steps; the steps are just an idea, like what you call life is only an idea. The whole has no substance, it needs no interpretation, it simply is. That’s good enough.”

  Anaya only nodded before slowly getting up and walking out of Delta’s room. She headed down the corridor towards the canteen, her mind still processing Delta’s words.

  “I was wondering where you were. Aren’t you hungry?” Ciaran nearly bumped into her as he walked out of the compound’s restaurant. “I’ve already eaten, but if you like I can join you.”

  Anaya didn’t feel like being alone. “Sure, if you don’t mind.”

  Ciaran smiled. “What would you like to drink?”

  Anaya normally didn’t drink lemonade, but right now she had a real craving for something bubbly and sugary. “I’ll have a Coke please.”

  Ciaran looked surprised but didn’t say anything. He walked over to the drinks dispenser while Anaya ordered her meal on the touch panel of the food synthesizer.

  “So how was your chat with Delta?”

  Anaya sat down and started poking around in her meal. How could she summarize his message into a short and simple excerpt? “It was very interesting. He thinks we can turn things around, not by beating the aliens but rather by dismantling the egos that humanity has conjured up for itself.”

  Ciaran raised an eyebrow. “That sounds easy, not… How in God’s name would we do that?”

  Anaya slowly chewed her first bite and swallowed. “I guess fighting the aliens is just a way of buying us more time for the real challenge, something that Jon called planting the seed of mirror consciousness. As far as I understand it, this has to be done in the past so that it can propagate itself into all of mankind.”

  Ciaran nodded. “Sounds logical. But… if we had been successful wouldn’t humankind have already changed? If the seed was planted in the past, then why are we still fighting the aliens? Maybe it didn’t… won’t… work out.”

  Anaya was confused. She always felt that the idea of changing the past with the aim of altering the present and the future was a strange concept.

  “Look at it like this…”

  Ciaran nearly jumped out of his seat when Jon joined their conversation.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude. I just overheard your discussion about time.”

  Ciaran pointed at the chair next to him. “Please take a seat, we’re curious to hear your point of view.”

  “It’s not so much my point of view, but Delta’s. I’ll be repeating what he told me. It makes sense, but only if you drop your belief in time having destinations that one can travel to. It doesn’t work like traveling in space, from let’s say here—” Jon put his glass to one side of the table and a spoon that was left on the table next to Ciaran “—to over there. Time does not progress in a linear fashion from the past, to the present, and into the future. Delta says that it is truly always now and that this very now, the present, holds all states of information in itself. Time is only an idea pointing to different states of information. This very moment holds all of its past and all potential future scenarios in itself.”

  Anaya swallowed another bite of her food as she shook her head. “I’m not sure I understand, but please continue.”

  Jon smiled. “The portal gun is based on this theory and it works. It uses a small object, which, according to Delta, is essentially pure information arranged in a certain energetic way. The object holds a matrix of configurations, which correspond to what we call the past. By making the object collide with a black hole, which is void of any kind of information, we can superimpose the object’s matrix over the black hole, which in turn creates a wormhole to a specific state of information, something you call the past.”

  Ciaran looked at Jon with his mouth open while Anaya slowly chewed her food. “Thank you for the explanation, Jon. I have no idea what you’re talking about, but as long as you know what you’re doing it’s perfectly fine by me.”

  Jon laughed out loud. “Yes… sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse you. I’m pretty amazed that it works and so is Ivan. I think the only one that feels confident about the theoretical background is Peter… but hey, he’s a theoretical physicist, they’re comfortable with the strangest things.”

  Jon got up and smiled at Anaya. “Goodnight… and try to get some rest.”

  Ciaran looked puzzled. “I don’t know, but somehow everything that he says seems to have a hidden meaning attached. I think he spent too much time with his own creation.”

  Anaya laughed. “It seems he’s a good judge of character…”

  She got up from her chair, smiled at Ciaran, and left the room without another word.

  Ciaran felt lost. What the hell was going on? Had he missed something important? Anaya seemed to like him, but they had only just met. He had been brought up in Scotland, where it was common to spend at least a couple of weeks courting before anything happened, if at all, and now he had the strong suspicion that this approach might be considered conservative, maybe even old-fashioned and outdated. On the other hand he didn’t want to upset Anaya. What was she expecting from him? He simply didn’t know.

  Ciaran slowly got up and walked out of the canteen, trying not to think about it too much; then suddenly he was standing in front of Anaya’s door. What had happened? How had he ended up here? Maybe he should ring the bell and wish her goodnight. His hand slowly moved to the touchpad. He heard a buzzer inside the room. The door opened; Anaya stood there still in her skin suit.

  “I was wondering if you’re OK… You looked a bit upset after talking to Delta.” Anaya smiled and waved him in. “You can help me out of this suit.”

  Ciaran blushed as he looked at her waist as she turned around so he could open the closing mechanism on the back. The material of the suit felt like fine sandpaper, not exactly pleasant to touch. The suit opened revealing her back.

  “Thank you, now turn around while I get into something more comfortable.” Anaya peeled off the tight suit and put on her baggy track pants and T-shirt.

  “I’m OK… I just wasn’t sure if the whole process makes any sense. Then again… what makes sense in this crazy world?”

  Ciaran nodded. “I was wondering… did you notice anything special when Delta switched our physical experience? I felt there was a moment that existed in between the physical state, a pure, energetic vibration. At that moment I sensed something … an immense power. I think it was still dormant.”

  Anaya sat down on her bed; she looked worried. “I noticed it too, but it wasn’t the first time. I felt this presence a few years ago, on a mountain … when I touched a figurine that was carved into a rock wall. It felt like an opposing movement to the expression I know as my female energy.”

  Ciaran extended his arms, inviting Anaya to place her hands in his. “Let’s try something…”

  Anaya hesitated. Ciaran felt her reluctance to make contact. He knew that their combined power was intense, maybe too strong for their own good, but Anaya’s curious attitude clearly overcame her concerns and she gently placed her hands into his. She closed her eyes. Ciaran felt a tingling spreading from his pulsating hands, moving up his arms. He closed his eyes, but he didn’t find the darkness he expected.

  “My beautiful children… It has been a long time since you have come to visit me. Why are you here?”

  Ciaran looked down at his body; it had changed. Instead of his legs he found the massive trunk of an ancient tree. He gazed to his right where another tree was growing. Its branches as well as its roots entwined with his own in an intimate embrace. Two beings interconnected into one single organism. He looked up at his branches. They reached out towards a silvery sky where two black suns were joined by a glowing cloud of debris, roughly resembling a figure eight, a huge snake devouring its own tail for all of eternity.

  He felt Anaya’s answer as a physical sensation vibrating through his transformed body, “Mother! We have come to ask for mercy. Please, allow us to reveal to humanity what it has forgotten.” T
he glow of the two suns turned into a pulsing rhythm as a voice echoed through Ciaran’s mind.

  “The arrow has left the bow of potentiality. I cannot stop it anymore. It is up to you if it will find its target or shatter on impact. You are all alone. I am just watching.”

  Ciaran observed a massive storm brewing on the horizon; lightning lit up the sky dipping the landscape into its purple light. It was approaching fast. The first leaves on his arms rustled in the wind.

  “Ciaran… We have to leave!”

  Ciaran felt the wind picking up. It turned into a gale. His arms bent. They threatened to break under the force of the storm.

  Anaya’s message now felt urgent. ”Let go! Now!”

  Ciaran received her message. He remembered his human form. He let go of her hands and dropped to the floor. He opened his eyes.

  Anaya was lying next to him, breathing shallow and fast. “Are you OK? That was unbelievable…”

  Ciaran nodded. “Did you sense the sadness in her voice?”

  Anaya looked up at the ceiling. “It felt like her heart was bursting with love while at the same time she was bound to flow with the principles of life. She will not… no… she cannot intervene.”

  Ciaran nodded. “She’s right… it’s all up to us. We are all alone.”

  Forty-Two

  Team

  Jon stood next to Eva’s control station. He was addressing the four teams assembled in the corners of the lab that had been assigned as their point of return.