by Greg Remy
A sudden thought occurred to Zoe and she nearly fretted for a moment. “Prof?”
“Hmm?”
“The piece doesn’t pose any physical threat, does it?”
“Oh, no my dear. The artifact is completely inert. I’ve secured it as such for safekeeping. Go ahead, read through the study. In fact, it’s quite possibly the closest thing to being negatively inert!” He made another quick laugh. “What is most fascinating is, wherever it has been, it does not seem to have completely returned from. In a small way, on a scale beyond that of micro, this artifact has reached a pseudo-physical qualitative state. Go ahead, read through the report.”
“Oh, I will Professor. I’m scanning it now.”
“No, give it a good read. I know you’re like a bullet from a gun, but this is one, Zoe, needs to be sifted and washed so that its pearl may be best observed. Anyhow,” he continued in a tone Zoe was quite familiar with from the distinguished professor, “I trust you will read it.”
Zoe nodded at the Professor’s words and felt the old influences of her teachers. Though she had graduated with top honors and Professor Kring had said she knew enough to teach his classes for him, she couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic about her past learnings. That period of her life at the university, with the Professor included, had kept a piece of her, in much the same way this new version of space still held on to the ancient fragment.
The professor continued on, “Have you been able to locate the gentleman you so rushed to find? I am most curious to see the boreholes of his vessel.”
This was the bubbling-over point for Zoe. She let out a soft whimper before stating in choked words, “Captain Henry... he’s dead.”
There was a pause. “Oh, my dear. I am so sorry. What a true tragedy. He was a friend, I trust?”
“Yes,” said Zoe, stifling a sniffle. Darious was at her side; his own face was somber though he had never met the late captain.
“And tell me,” asked the professor, “is that chap you mentioned so fondly with you at the moment?”
“He is.” Zoe grasped Darious’ hand.
“Sir, I apologize, I forget your name. Was it Darren? Das—”
“Darious sir,” he spoke into the nearest microphone.
“Ah, my boy.” The professor cleared his throat. “You be sure to take care of that girl. Now, normally under such circumstances, I would say to her she is in good hands with such an individual as yourself—a trusty companion at her side—but I know Zoe and it is you whom is in good hands. She is strong. Stronger than you or I. Stronger than the bonds of lead.” Zoe could feel herself start to smile.
“Sir, I do know it,” said Darious. He gave Zoe’s hand a squeeze to which she reciprocated, and her smile widened.
“So, you two wanderers of our great galaxy, though I cannot leave my post as I have been absent from by duties for too long, I request that you visit the Copper Ephemeris Station.”
“Professor?” asked Zoe.
“I have some follow-up research to be done, which cannot be accomplished here. This facility has such capabilities and I have a colleague there which can assist you. Do you accept?”
“Certainly sir!” Darious blurted and then quickly looked at Zoe for an approving signal.
Zoe smiled at him. “Yes sir!” she rejoined.
“Excellent. I’m sending you the coordinates now. I will let Dr. Wright know to expect you and I will send him the work to be done. Now, let me calculate...” his voice drifted to quick ramblings. “You’re at Sector Beta Prime 932A by... with dual fusion thrusters... 45.38 998—”
“I also have four high-speed proton thrusters,” Zoe said.
He paused. “My dear! It is a wonder you haven’t pierced through the fabric of space-time yourself.”
“Haha! Oh, Professor Kring. It was good seeing you.”
“And you as well, Miss Zoe. Next time, be sure to have Mr. Darious with you. I’d much like to meet the lad who dares to share the stars with such a trailblazer.”
“You as well sir,” Darious responded.
“So, Prof, based on the coordinates you just gave, we should be arriving there in about 4 days, 3 hours.”
“Thank you, Zoe. Please keep me up to date. See you two around. Zoe: verve, nerve, and adventure to you.”
Both Zoe and Darious gave a cheery ‘goodbye’ and hung up the call.
Zoe sat in thought from nearly a minute while teasing a toggle switch. Darious meanwhile had begun reading through the report on her screen.
“Darious,” said Zoe. He turned to her and she stared deep into his eyes. “I pledge to get to the bottom of this and I accept whatever risks may come along. I accept the uncertainties and a possibly hazy future due by my actions. I pledge this to you and to Captain Henry and to Dr. Saknussemm—whatever hand he might have had in all this.”
“I too pledge. To you Zoe.”
“I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side.” She smiled and then added solemnly, “It is no doubt going to continue to be dangerous Darious.”
He nodded and resumed his seat. “I can navigate us to the monitoring station. I would also like to review the work from Professor Kring, if you don’t mind.”
Zoe sent over the coordinates and the research. She then silently stared out at space, her recent tears lubricating the ever-present gears of her mind, building steam towards her absolute resolution.
Chapter 33
Who Watches the Watcher?
Four days later, Zoe’s ship was on its final approach toward the massive space monitoring station. Telescoping antennas of every size and shape protruded from all sections of its skeleton-like body. More than just a nerve center with many vertebrae, to Zoe, it looked like a beast with a billion backs, a complex set of instrumentation for snooping in every nook and cranny of the galaxy.
Zoe turned off her music. “Darious, everything is scrutinized here. Everything.” She took her feet off of the console as he came over to look out at the station. “It’s a CF facility. We should heed what we say here.” Zoe tapped her fingers on the armrest. “I sure hope Professor Kring is right in moving us in this direction.”
“The Copper Ephemeris Station is quite a human achievement,” said Darious. “I read that it collects petabytes a second of galactic information.”
“Ya, more or less,” said Zoe with a hokey scoff. “I already received the docking info. We are set to land at Bay 11. Care to guide us in?”
“Aye Captain,” said Darious as they switched positions.
Darious made his smoothest landing yet and in no time, they were ready to disembark. The gangway was lowered, and the pair made their way down.
“Jeeze,” said Zoe. “Do they ever decorate these places? The same white everywhere. It’s enough to bore a rock.”
They were soon past the landing bay and entering into the main lobby. Zoe put on a cheerful smile and strolled to the front desk.
“Greetings, fellow carbon-based biped!” she exclaimed. A plump woman in a white coat with the CF science insignia smiled at her.
“Hello. May I help you? Ah, wait, Miss Zoe I presume?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You are scheduled for a meeting with Dr. Wright at 3:30.”
“Yeah. How did you know it was me?”
“We don’t get many visitors,” responded the receptionist. “I will let Dr. Wright know you are here. Would you like a water or tea?”
“No, thank you.”
“None for me either,” said Darious, earning a scolding glance from the secretary. He pulled his hood down low over his face.
“Come on,” whispered Zoe. “Let’s take a seat.”
She took up a chair at the meager waiting area and stretched out her legs. Darious perfunctorily sat beside her. Looking around, Zoe noticed the somewhat decrepit state of the place. The waiting room was of a wholesome white, but from each corner a slight discoloration was creeping outwards. By this, Zoe came to the conclusion that though this station was a hub for the
CF’s monitoring activities, its funding might not be what it once was. The secretary’s desk evidenced the same dilapidation. From Zoe’s experience, she had known how it was common for departments of the CF to replace their furniture every few years; they gotta make sure to spend the whole budget, lest they chance getting a smaller amount the next time around. Zoe was tempted to ask the secretary about the state of things, but decided against it. The receptionist hung up the phone.
“Dr. Wright will see you now,” the woman said, standing up. “Please follow me.”
Zoe promptly rose and followed the lady as she waddled through a series of corridors. Zoe’s hypothesis gained traction by each step as she noted the many empty offices. After a few minutes of silent walking, they stopped before an open office door.
“Miss Zoe is here to see you Dr. Wright.”
“Thank you,” said a voice from just around the corner of the door. The secretary smiled at Zoe and then left. They entered the office and were greeted by a balding man with a long, gray beard. He shook Zoe’s hand.
“Welcome.”
“Hello Doctor Wright. I am Zoe, and this is Darious.” Darious held out his hand, which the Doctor languidly shook and then went back to ignoring his existence.
“Please have a seat, Zoe.”
She motioned for Darious to sit next to her. Dr. Wright took a seat behind his desk.
“I’m sure Professor Kring apprised you of his current studies,” said Zoe.
She had spent the better part of the last four days reviewing the Prof’s work alongside Darious. The Professor had ingeniously found a single resonant harmonic which stood out from the piece of Origin-X, due perhaps from part of its matter being slightly attenuated and missing in that higher energy state. The harmonic was subtle, but definitely perceivable. Dr. Kring proposed that the same phenomenon could exist elsewhere, thus any chance of finding corroborating evidence should be at once investigated. It was a good idea; a single identifying signal could crack this whole thing wide open.
Zoe looked at the library of books behind Dr. Wright, layered from floor to ceiling. It was an impressive collection of everything from EM synaptics to tactile bioengineering. She tilted her head, reading through the imprinted spines.
“Yes, he has,” said the Doctor, bringing Zoe’s attention back to him. He spoke with an air of superiority. “I have prepared the prerequisite annotations for us in the Stellar Lab. I must say though, before we begin, when Dr. Kring described the intricacy of the problem and an associate coming to perform the work with me, I envisioned someone a bit… older.”
Zoe couldn’t help but grin. “Should we get started then?”
No reciprocating smile came from the Doctor. It seemed her age really did bother him.
“Yes, Miss Zoe. Please, follow me.”
He led Zoe and Darious through the office section of the space station, past its many vacant labs, to the stellar research area. They entered into a large hollo-plotter, similar to the one Zoe and Darious had used at the Majora Station, though Zoe estimated this one to have somewhere around 1,000 percent better precision in addition to having the ability to scan the entirety of the galaxy with a multitude of waveforms.
“Here we are,” said Dr. Wright. He turned toward Zoe. “Have you ever visited our Stellar Lab before?”
“No,” replied Zoe. “I. Am. Impressed.”
She turned to Darious with an approving nod. This was indeed a state-of-the-art facility. If there was any place to find an odd signal, it was definitely here. Professor Kring was smart to think of utilizing this station’s capabilities. They just might get a better clue as to what had happened to Origin-X.
“Before us and around us is the Stellarizer-2206, version 3.0. Utilizing compound emission bands and special compilers, we are able to visualize the entire galaxy at all wavelengths in a true 3D fashion.”
“Damn,” said Zoe.
They centered themselves in the room around the podium. Dr. Wright turned down the lights and closed the door. As he continued to operate the console, the room vanished and soon they were surrounded by unobstructed space. Darious stiffened his stance as the floor became seemingly null underneath them. Zoe was looking all around, positioning herself in the clouds of stars. She quickly recognized their location; they were standing where the Copper Ephemeris Station would have been.
“Dr. Kring sent me the protocols by which to search. I’m loading them now. He did not specify to which emission bands we should constrain the search.”
“Stick to x-class bands.”
“Setting the parameters now,” said the Doctor.
Suddenly, they were transported out from the star system and rapidly away from innumerable celestial bodies with speeds impossible by any spacecraft. As they zoomed outwards, space seemed to recoil inwards. Just a few seconds later, the cosmic ride slowed and stopped. Displayed at their feet and extending all around them was the whole of the Milky Way Galaxy. Its many great arms of golds and blues dazzled Zoe. She had never seen such an immersive view of her home.
“Oh my…,” she said.
“Yes. Please be mindful of your balance. It can be disorienting for first-timers.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s so… beautiful.”
“Oh,” said Dr. Wright with zero enthusiasm. “We can see from here it is simply billions of stars and matter in orbit around a gravitational sinkhole.”
“Sir,” said Darious in a very serious manner. “‘It’ is ‘simply’ prodigious. Though,” he added, “I may need to sit down.”
The Doctor ignored him, so Zoe gave an empathetic nod. “Feel free to, Darious. The ground is still there like normal. Okay Doctor, let’s clear up the clutter and get a better look.”
Dr. Wright coughed and typed into the podium. “Shifting bands,” he said. A wall of text appeared to their left, hovering in space, closest to Zoe. She read through the scrolling data.
“Can we decrease the theta background noise?” she asked.
“The computer is already collecting samples of cosmic background noise to remove,” responded the Doctor, with slight condescension. “I’m editing the filamentary protuberances. Please apprise me of any anomalies you may note.”
In the slow-moving data Zoe had read through, so far all was normal. “Nothing to report yet.”
A blue square appeared, containing several lines of text. “The background noise has been fully isolated and scrubbed,” said Dr. Wright. “The resolution is now at the micron level for all x-class emission bands. The time-scale is from the present to the last fifty years in steps of microseconds, as dictated by Dr. Kring. Querying now with the provided harmonic waveform.”
Zoe couldn’t help but hold her breath. This was it. What else was hiding in their galaxy? What were they about to find? Minutes went by with Zoe reading every letter from every line of data. Nothing.
“Scan complete. Preservation with less than a total of 100 microns of error. What do we have here?” The Doctor perked up from the console and went over to where Zoe was staring at the resulting information.
“Nothing,” she said.
“Ah. As I suspected.”
Zoe turned to him and couldn’t help but give a slight scowl.
“I did a preliminary scan before your arrival. I am not entirely sure of what Dr. Kring is hoping to accomplish. I gather he is looking for some sort of unusual, previously unnoticed signal. I would hate to think the university is dabbling in metaphysics.” Zoe was fighting off the urge to glare at Dr. Wright until he turned to stone. “No abnormalities. No odd signals. Miss Zoe, please relay to Dr. Kring, if I were to ever discover any unidentifiable abnormality, to which I highly, highly doubt, you can be sure I will forward the information to the university for further study. Dr. Kring is an old colleague after all. Anyhow, this was an odd request to begin with. I cannot provide further services. As it stands, I shall be billing the university for my time. What is it Dr. Kring is researching exactly?”
Zoe ignored the qu
estion; the one within her own mind was too loud. “Doctor, allow me one more request; then we will get out of your hair.” Or what’s left of it… “Can you complete the same scan, at your highest resolution, for a particular location I have here?” She brought out her lightcard and with a few commands, synced it to the hollo-plotter. “There are the coordinates and the time-stamp.” Surely here, the Stellar Lab would recognize what Zoe had held in her own hands.
“Scanning now,” said Dr. Wright, with an opprobrious exhalation.
Their view of the galaxy zoomed in at a fantastic speed to the spatial location which Zoe and Darious had pulled that recondite relic from the vacuum of space. In a moment, the scan was complete, and a floating data square showed the same null results.
“No,” said Zoe calmly, almost prepared to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
“Pardon me?” said Dr. Wright.
“No,” repeated Zoe. “It’s wrong.”
She should have expected this. The data was undoubtedly manipulated, the same as the Majora Station. Pantheon Industries had undoubtedly even edited the entirety of CF’s galactic systems. There was nowhere to go. She looked out to the billions of bright specs and suddenly space felt so closed, so compact, as if it were squeezing her.
“Ma’am,” said Dr. Wright. “This is the galaxy’s finest spatial monitoring station. If we cannot detect it, it simply doesn’t exist. I am sorry for whatever hypothesis Dr. Kring has you naively spending time on.”
Zoe went over to the console and turned the lights on. Darious was on the floor and looked up at them. She helped him up and turned to the Doctor.
“I am sorry,” he repeated apathetically. “Any further questions?”
“Yes,” said Zoe, with a sudden gust of unrestrained inquisitiveness. A theory was building up in her mind, past what Professor Kring would be comfortable with. “Has this station ever found any anomalies that couldn’t be accounted for?”