Dark Matter

by S. W. Ahmed

  Marc headed back to his quarters, figuring Petrana and everyone else would now either be busy flying the ship or fixing it. There wasn’t much he would be able to help them with, since he knew nothing about Mendoken technology. He drove the vehicle he had come up in back down to the city, and parked it at the same spot in front of his building where he had left it. The trip back down was much easier, now that he was starting to get the hang of how to operate these vehicles. Hildira met him at the entrance to the building, and showed him back up to his apartment on the 32nd floor.

  Back alone in his living room, he sat on the couch and thought about everything that had just happened. He felt horrible. An entire planet destroyed, right in front of his eyes, and that too a planet whose sole purpose it had been to save the lives of others. Why not at least attack Mendoken battleships or military installations?

  This was genocide, pure and simple. Something had to be done – justice had to be served. He didn’t know the full history of the war between the Mendoken and the Volona, but from what little he had seen so far, the Mendoken didn’t seem like the types to perform such unforgivable acts of mass murder. Sure, they had planet destroyers, but more as self defense deterrents, not unprovoked aggression. After all, they had protected Earth for so long, longer than the entire existence of humanity. But these Volonans – if they won this war and took over Mendoken space, then Earth could very well share the same fate as Kerding. Maginder clearly hadn’t been lying about the Volona not taking any prisoners.

  Marc’s mind was in turmoil. On the one hand, he felt more determined than ever to help the Mendoken. But on the other hand, he had now seen for himself how high the stakes were. If he couldn’t reproduce the consar, then all hope would be lost. The war would soon be over, the great Mendoken civilization would be annihilated, and humanity would perish along with it. Either way, the only thing he knew for sure was that there was no longer any option to turn back.

  Chapter 12

  Mendo-Zueger was a giant star. With a diameter about 60 times the size of Earth’s Sun, it shone brightly in the night sky, even in the furthest corners of the galaxy. It was home to 24 planets, each with a unique size, composition and climate. They ranged from the green, marsh covered Draefarel to the desert wastelands of Vertat, from the tiny sea world of Kaurpa to the gas giant Nees. Apart from Nees, all the planets and moons in this system were inhabited by the Mendoken.

  Although the origin of all Mendoken life, the planet Draefarel was no longer the seat of power. It was a neighboring planet called Lind that currently housed the central government. The top layers of the Mendoken Hierarchy, including the Imgoerin, his advisors and the upper parliament of senators all resided on Lind and governed the entire Republic from this planet. As a result, it was the most heavily protected planet in the Republic. Due to the current war with the Volona, 300 highly fortified space stations surrounded Lind and its moons, carefully regulating the arrival and departure of every single ship. At least 50 stations surrounded every other planet in the system, and the system as a whole had another 4,000 stations around its perimeter.

  The Mendoken had clearly seen to it that anybody foolish enough to attack the Mendo-Zueger system would inevitably face catastrophic consequences. Even with their consar technology, the Volona had never dared to attempt a strike here in the heart of the Republic.

  The ship Marc was on arrived safely in the Mendo-Zueger system, moving unhindered past a series of space stations on its way to Lind. After the incident at Kerding, the rest of the journey had fortunately been uneventful. Marc had spent most of the time in his quarters, going over all his research and experiments. Fresh food had been delivered every few hours by Hildira, while HoloMarc had reappeared several times to keep him company and provide him with information on topics he had wanted to know more about.

  The ship docked at one of the space stations around Lind, after which Marc transferred to a small shuttle that would take him to Ailen, one of Lind’s four moons. Ailen was the largest, most advanced hub of scientific research and technology for the Mendoken. The entire moon was one big urban jungle, with monstrous buildings far wider and taller than anything on Earth. As Marc learned from the pilot of the shuttle, however, what was visible on the surface was only the tip of the iceberg. Since Ailen had no atmosphere of its own, most of the buildings were actually underground.

  Underground the shuttle went, right into a tunnel that belonged to a sophisticated network of busy highways through the moon’s interior. The shuttle eventually came to a stop at the main entrance to the SpaceTravelResearchCenter, a very important and highly respected scientific institution among the Mendoken.

  Several minutes later, Marc was standing in a briefing room, in front of several key Mendoken scientists and engineers. He felt very nervous, worried to death that he would fail to show them what they had brought him all the way here for.

  The Mendoken in the room had been equipped with translator devices, in order to be able to communicate with Marc in English. But a couple of these devices didn’t seem to be working properly. As advanced as these Mendoken were, their technology evidently wasn’t always infallible.

  “Mr., you might to be in knowledge, Zemin, for the travel in higher dimension in Glaessan, not allowed this,” Floray Erzass 44532105, the lead scientist at the center, said. She was slightly taller than the others, and had a small scar to the left of her mouth. Her hat was turquoise in color.

  “Okay, please call me Marc,” Marc said right away.

  “Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Marc your name is,” Floray said.

  “Yeah, well, Floray ain’t much better,” Marc thought. Perhaps it was just a mistake of her faulty translator device.

  “Mendoken the bestest technology have in Glaessan,” Floray explained. “Volona only with breaking laws in consars ahead got. Mendoken in otherwise would prevalence be.”

  Marc took a couple of seconds to understand what she had just said. “Yes, that was explained to me by Commander Maginder.”

  “Marc, you us teeeeell yourrrrrr expeeeeeeeerimint.” That was the slow, rumbling voice of Renkan Boesa 44532189, the lead engineer at the center. A little plumper than Floray, his translator was clearly in worse shape than hers. He also had a turquoise hat on, indicating that they were both of the same rank.

  Taking a deep breath, Marc began explaining everything he had done in his research. A virtual whiteboard appeared in front of him, allowing him to draw diagrams and write equations for the others to see. Fortunately the translation of his words into their language was working fine, as everybody seemed to be following his explanations.

  A lot of questions were asked about how he had actually performed the work, particularly by a young engineer called Sibular Gaulen 45383532. Tall and slender, with a wider mouth and a thinner eye than the others, he seemed the brightest and most technically savvy Mendoken in the room. He understood everything Marc was saying right away, and much to Marc’s relief, his translator was working perfectly both ways.

  “This makes sense, Marc,” Sibular said, after Marc had finished explaining how he had opened the consar. “Can you now tell us how you stabilized the consar?”

  Marc went off on another long explanation, feeling a little more relaxed after sensing some acknowledgment and satisfaction from his audience. Sibular in particular seemed very interested in everything he was saying, and kept giving him positive feedback.

  The discussion went on for a good hour or two. At the end, Renkan communicated silently with Sibular for a while. Then Renkan spoke. “Rrrrreeeaady gooooooooo teeeeeeest tot-to-tooooo.”

  Sibular stepped in to address Marc’s look of confusion. “We believe we understand all your steps, Marc, and are now ready to conduct a test. There are a number of assumptions you made in your calculations, but we can compensate for them. This will help in controlling the end point of the trajectory.”

  At that moment, the wall on the far side of the briefing room vanished into thin air, revealing an entrance to a hug
e hall behind. The hall was broken up into multiple rings, each ring containing all kinds of strange looking equipment that Marc had never seen before. There were quite a few Mendoken about in the hall, conducting different kinds of experiments in the rings.

  Sibular explained that this was one of the main laboratories at the center. It was, in fact, one of the few laboratories left in the entire Republic that had the equipment and staff to perform consar research.

  Marc was stunned. “Why?”

  “Because the Volona somehow always find out about the location of our consar research facilities, appear through their own consars and destroy them before we can make any reasonable progress in our research,” Sibular replied. “Hence our limited progress in all this time since the war began. We suspect there are spies about in the Republic who feed the Volona this information, but we have not been able to identify them so far. This is also why we have limited the amount of consar research performed in this particular facility, in case the spies take notice. We cannot afford any incident here, so close to the seat of power on Lind.”

  Sibular led the way to a ring at the far end of the hall. The equipment from Marc’s lab at Cornell had already been transported there, and most of it was sitting atop a table in the center of the ring.

  Marc was asked to set up the apparatus to repeat his experiment, which he began diligently doing right away. Normally this process would have taken him a good few hours, but thanks to the help of Sibular, Renkan and Floray, the setup was done within a half hour. They followed his instructions to the letter, never once making a mistake. Surprised that such important figures as Renkan and Floray would actually perform manual labor like this, he guessed that this was nothing unusual in Mendoken culture.

  Many Mendoken working in other circles stopped what they were doing, and crowded around to watch. Marc and his team were in the limelight.

  “Okay, I think we’re ready,” Marc finally said, looking at his laptop screen one last time.

  “This is exactly the way it was in your lab?” Sibular asked.

  “Yes, at least as far as the equipment we brought is concerned.”

  Sibular communicated with a couple of the spectators, who took off and returned shortly with a number of small devices that looked like empty glass cases. A device was placed on top of each of Marc’s instruments, including the laptop and even his notepad. Sibular then touched all the devices, one after the other, in a sweeping motion with his hand. Each device instantly shot a ray of light upwards. All the rays converged on a point above the table, where a large 3D screen took shape in midair. The screen began displaying data and charts, all in strange characters that Marc had never seen before.

  Using his long metallic fingers, Sibular quickly made several adjustments to the data on the screen. As he did so, new data was transmitted to each of Marc’s instruments, causing some of them to change their settings.

  “My adjustments will help in controlling the trajectory of the consar,” Sibular explained.

  “Sounds good,” Marc said. “So what should we use as the guinea pig?”

  “Geeeeeeeeeennnnnnneeeeee peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeg?” Renkan asked.

  “The device to be transported, in our first experiment.”

  “Your choice,” Sibular said.

  Marc took out his pocket watch. “It worked once before, so let’s see if it works again,” he said, placing the treasured timepiece carefully on the center of the table, surrounded by the three energy emitting devices.

  Sibular plotted the course of the test consar on the screen – a very short trajectory from one end of the hall to the other, no more than a thousand feet away. “Please, begin when you are ready,” he said to Marc.

  The moment of truth had come. Marc checked everything once again. Then, rubbing his hands and closing his eyes, he pressed the Enter key on his laptop.

  Hearing nothing, he opened his eyes and peered nervously at the table. The watch was still there. Why wasn’t it working? Or was time just slowing down for him because he was so anxious?

  Finally, he heard the hum of the three energy emitters. Then he saw their bright rays shooting towards the center of the table. A white glow began forming around the watch, and kept increasing in intensity until it looked like a little white sun.

  Marc heaved a huge sigh of relief. The first stage had worked! Would the consar open up now? Again, each second that passed felt like an eternity. At last, there it was! A blue circle began forming around the little sun, and a tunnel into another dimension opened up behind it. The circle grew into a sphere that engulfed the timepiece, and then catapulted with a bright flash into the tunnel. After that, the tunnel entrance abruptly vanished. The watch was gone.

  All eyes now turned to a screen that showed a live close-up of a ring at the other end of the hall. Almost immediately, the tunnel exit appeared above a table in that ring, exactly at the location specified by Sibular’s calculations. The blue sphere rushed out and stopped at the center of the table, and then faded away. The tunnel exit also vanished as quickly as it had appeared. All that was left was the pocket watch, resting comfortably on the table.

  Marc rushed to the other end of the hall, followed by Sibular and the others. Panting, he reached the table and picked up the watch. It was still in one piece! He opened it – his parents’ picture was still there, and the dials were working perfectly.

  “Success!” he yelled, showing the timepiece to everyone. “Success!”

  “Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr,” some of the Mendoken remarked in unison.

  “Thanking Marc you to,” Floray said.

  “Thaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnkkkkkkkksssssss,” Renkan added.

  Others in the hall began coming over and thanking Marc, most of them just putting their hands on his shoulder for a few seconds before returning to their duties.

  The experiment was repeated, not once, but many times, with a variety of different objects and coordinates. Every time it was successful, without a hitch.

  “The next step will be to remove the need for the external energy emitters,” Sibular said, “so that the device traveling through a consar has the ability to open the consar by itself without any outside help.”

  He opened up one of Marc’s energy emitters, studied the technology inside, and within the span of several minutes added that same capability to a vehicle that was parked inside the hall. The vehicle was then sent off by remote control through the hall, abruptly disappearing as intended into a consar before reaching the far wall. Seconds later, a report came in that the vehicle had appeared on the surface of the moon at the designated spot.

  At that moment, a door opened at the end of the hall and a single Mendoken floated in. A hush instantly fell over the hall, and all the Mendoken present bowed slightly towards the newcomer in a show of respect.

  “Who is that?” Marc whispered to Sibular.

  “That is Osalya Heyfass 00000663,” Sibular said quietly. “She is one of the Imgoerin’s top aides.”

  “Really? Why is she here?”

  “For you, no doubt.”

  Osalya looked different from the others. The color of her skin was darker, almost black. On her head was a gleaming, white hat, offering a sharp contrast to her dark skin. The metal encasing her body was a tad cleaner than everybody else’s, and displayed several strange looking symbols that probably spelled out something important in Mendoken script.

  She floated directly towards the ring where Marc and the others were, and came to a stop in front of Marc. “We are deeply obliged, Mr. Zemin,” she said.

  Marc took a few seconds to respond, still in awe of this individual’s importance. She was, after all, top aide to someone who ruled over about 400 billion star systems.

  “Thank you for your kindness,” he said nervously, bowing his head a little in an effort to mimic the other Mendoken. “I’m glad to be of service.”

  Osalya communicated silently with Floray and Renkan for a moment, and then spoke to Marc. “There is a ship waiting abo
ve Lind to take you home, Mr. Zemin, whenever you are ready to leave. We ask only for your word that you never mention us, the silupsal filter, or anything else you have seen on this journey to your people. Their time to join the galactic community has yet to come.”

  Marc was about to open his mouth to voice his agreement, but, to his surprise, no words came out. Instead, a wave of weakness suddenly overcame him, and his head began spinning. He tried to shake it off. Perhaps this was a result of all the stress he had been under for the past couple of days, or maybe he had just eaten too much during his last hearty meal.

  “Are you alright, Mr. Zemin?” Osalya asked.

  But he could hardly hear her. The muscles in his body were losing their strength, causing his legs to give way. His knees hit the ground first, followed by his upper body. Before he knew it, he was lying flat on the ground, face downwards and eyes closed. Strangely enough, he didn’t feel any pain. He couldn’t even sense the presence of any of his limbs, as if his mind had totally separated from his body. Was he dead?

  His mind was certainly alive, very much so. He wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating or dreaming, but he began having visions, one after the other. First came a view of Earth, looking quite at peace from the distance. But then it blew up in a massive explosion, just like the explosion he had seen in his nightmare a couple of nights earlier. Then he saw other planets blowing up, whole star systems disappearing into oblivion, and finally the entire Milky Way galaxy crumbling to dust. He saw dead humans rotting away and Mendoken bodies broken into multiple pieces. He saw rows and rows of Aftarans hanged by their necks, and Phyraxes crushed to pulp. He saw other creatures he couldn’t identify wailing away, their hearts broken with sorrow.

  These were the most horrible things he had ever seen in his life, causing his mind to be filled with despair. Why was everybody dying, and why were all the planets exploding? Why would anybody or anything want to cause so much devastation?

  The visions continued. All of a sudden, darkness engulfed him, and he began to feel cold, very cold. He began shivering uncontrollably, unable to see anything. The only thing he could hear was the sinister laughter of a shadow far away.