Skyfire

by Vossen, Doug

  “Fuck! Goddamn it!” Trent was disgusted, but resigned to the unfortunate reality of the situation. “Story of my life. We’re almost there. I can see the light peeking through the entranceway to the tent.”

  “Yeah man,” Martin replied with a quick breath. The aid station was little more than a quarter mile away. They fell into a rhythm carrying the dead, stinking weight. They decided not to talk further until their task was complete.

  RONAK

  “Legate Ronak, shall we continue?” asked Colonel McColgan.

  “Of course, colonel. But may I first ask a question regarding your current thought process?”

  “Please, by all means,” said McColgan.

  “You sent one subordinate to get another subordinate with the broadest of guidance, to accomplish the most significant of tasks, yet you continue to interact with me as if nothing has changed. Why is this?”

  “Damn Legate Ronak, when you say it like that it sounds like I do absolutely nothing!” The colonel sounded amused.

  I am puzzled. How can this man still find humor in the situation? This is mildly disconcerting.

  “Ronak,” McColgan continued, “I can’t speak for everyone in my position, but I pride myself on being able to find and train the best subordinates possible. If you have good people around you who care about their job, let them run with the ball. If you micromanage them, you’re stifling their creativity. You have nothing to worry about. I’m letting them get started. I’ll be checking up on them on to make sure everything meets my intent. You trust them, but you also verify. Just don’t be a cock about it. Make sense?”

  “How comfortable are you they fully understand your intent?” asked Legate Ronak.

  “My S2 and S3 know me better than I know myself sometimes,” said McColgan.

  “How did this come to pass?”

  “A lot of time, training, and real world experience.”

  This is an admirable quality we have all but lost since the singularity. “I admire this quality,” said Ronak.

  “Thank you, but surely your people can do the same.”

  Embarrassingly enough, we have become slaves to our augmentations and perfect information. This level of unpredictable individuality is rare among my kind. Ronak said nothing.

  “I don’t think I can fathom how much you and your people know,” said McColgan. “I bet there are things I would never have thought possible.”

  “What do you wish to know?” asked Ronak.

  “You’re eight-hundred plus years more advanced than us. What is the single most important thing you’ve learned as a species?”

  Ambitious, but heavily opinion driven. “It is impossible to tell you the single most important thing, but I can give you my perspective.” Make no mention of the fact I no longer possess extra-local communication or consensus data.

  “I would rather it that way,” said McColgan.

  Interesting. He means that. Do all terrans value the input of a trusted adviser over statistical consensus? “My personal view, which I still struggle with at almost one terran millennium in age, is removing personal identity from ego. There is a broader, much higher purpose for all of us to follow. We cannot pursue this purpose with pervasive selfishness. Our technology largely forced this removal of ego, but natural tendencies toward bodily self-preservation and comfort are difficult to overcome.”

  “What are the most fundamental differences if people are able to accomplish this on a grand scale?” asked McColgan.

  “The most overarching theme is the most simplistic. Everyone and everything is interconnected. Whether one accepts this fact or not, it is scientific truth. If you transcend the ego, even slightly, it is likely you will realize that if you hurt another, you ultimately end up hurting yourself on a variety of levels.”

  “Tell me Ronak, in those files in your head, do you have the phrase long-hair dirty hippie bullshit defined?” McColgan was only half joking.

  “I am aware of the cultural stereotype your military has against those of which you speak, but I assure you this concept is very significant. I suggest you realize this. You should only look to harm as a last resort in all scenarios. There is no unbalanced equation in the universe.”

  “What do you mean no unbalanced equation?” asked McColgan.

  “It is as simple as your most basic algebra. For example, if ‘x’ minus eight is zero, then ‘x’ must be eight.”

  “Obviously. I learned that as a 12 year-old.”

  “No, Colonel McColgan, you do not understand. This concept extends to everything, including the emotions put forth by every self-aware being.”

  “How so?”

  “Have you ever loved someone?” asked Ronak.

  McColgan was taken aback. “I have.”

  “Have you ever lost anyone you loved?”

  “I have.”

  “Well then, it should be obvious. The amount of grief and despair you felt over your loved one’s death was mathematically proportional to how much you loved that person. This, as well as all things, is quantifiable.”

  “I don’t understand how that’s even possible,” said McColgan.

  “Of course you don’t. We are taking the initial steps to rectify this to assist in solving the current predicament.”

  “How else does this concept manifest itself?”

  “This concept manifests itself everywhere, even in the fundamental roots of creation humans have written religious texts to explain.”

  McColgan was intrigued. “OK, I’ll bite. How does this apply to creation?”

  “Simple. Subatomic particles arise due to entropic principles that, under certain circumstances, cause phenomena similar to what your scientists describe simply as ‘The Big Bang.’ These singularity-born explosions create massive clouds of hydrogen gas. The force of gravity inevitably condenses this gas into the stars, planets, and cosmic phenomena we all observe today.”

  “OK, so there’s a shitload of space dust getting piled together into stars and planets. I’ve seen Cosmos too. How does that apply to everything being interconnected and a universal mathematical balance?” When fully engaged, as he was now, the colonel’s brain moved a million miles a second. He tended to snap back quickly with his responses.

  “Please allow me to finish,” said Ronak. “Imagine, if you will, you are digging a hole in your garden to plant a bush. When you dig the hole there is a pile of soil next to it, correct?”

  “Correct.”

  “Well, in the case of creation, all the cosmic matter we observe - stars, planets, comets, asteroids, entire galaxies and clusters of galaxies even - is the pile of dirt next to the bush. The hole is the empty, expanding space that encompasses it. The sum of the universe is zero.”

  The colonel chuckled. “If subatomic particles blink in and out of existence at random, and the sum of all this is zero, why would anyone need to create it? Wouldn’t that mean there is no God?”

  Finally! A breakthrough in free thinking by a layperson! “Colonel McColgan, this gives me hope for your race.”

  “Legate Ronak, I was half joking about that. I was raised Roman Catholic.”

  What a shame, thought Ronak.

  Colonel McColgan saw the look of disappointment on Ronak’s smooth, pale face, even if Ronak’s dull eyes were a poor messenger of emotion. “Ronak, if all of matter, including us, is the pile of dirt, and the vacuum of space is the hole, what’s the bush?”

  Interesting question. “I… don’t know.” I should have just left it at digging a hole.

  The colonel seemed pleased that he’d stumped the super intelligent big-ass alien. “I’m the motherfucking bush!”

  These terrans. “Whatever motivates and inspires you to accomplish the task at hand.”

  “So if the big bang happened randomly and everything equals zero, what is all of this ‘zero’ contained in?”

  “Nothing is nothing,” Ronak replied.

  “How can we be nothing!? We’re right here! I love how scientists say thin
gs like they can’t explain the origin of the Big Bang, but if we give them that ONE miracle they can explain away everything else. It’s kind of bullshit, Ronak. Don’t you agree?”

  “Right now, do you care?” said Ronak.

  “Fair enough, I’m being difficult. I get it. We have to move.”

  We are wasting valuable time. He is letting his curiosity get the best of him. He clearly cannot comprehend the counterintuitive nature of quantum mechanics. “Colonel McColgan, everything was born of an infinitely small and infinitely dense singularity. Please realize that although I am more informed than you, my species still pursues all aspects of science with a fervor that we believe to be second to none in the galaxy. I do not have all of the answers. I am not hiding anything from you. I am committed to providing your race with all the informational resources we Æthereans have in order to resolve this discrepancy in your city. For now, we need to focus on the task at hand.”

  “OK, I understand.” The colonel wasn’t quite sure what to believe. Ronak’s explanations were completely foreign to everything he’d been taught to believe. “So if we’re all inter-connected, why is something from this Veil you mentioned trying to hurt us? Wouldn’t they be even more enlightened than you?”

  “I could not speak to its motivations.”

  “Please speculate.”

  This is the first time in years that I’ve been able to engage my opinion, without external interference. It is… stimulating. “I would speculate that it is much like your white blood cells attacking bacteria. Taking this comparison one step further, perhaps it is similar to when people of your race voluntarily kill themselves slowly to destroy cancers in their body.”

  “So that thing is a being that wants to kill us because it thinks we’re diseased on some level?”

  “Unknown. I can not speculate on the identity of the phenomenon. It is like nothing I have seen. What I do know is there is no unbalanced equation in the universe. This applies to everything - intentions, emotions, thoughts - all of which are measurable within The Veil. This mathematical concept of balance does not solely apply to the narrow spectrum of nature terrans currently observe and measure. Concepts and intangible relationships are no less real than the very building in which we are speaking. You are a species on the cusp of unification, of Veil integration, but you are destroying yourselves in the process.”

  “How do you figure? Before this week everything was normal enough,” said McColgan flatly.

  “Everything from your agricultural practices to your energy utilization negatively impacts all living things. There are more than enough resources for everyone to live an exceedingly comfortable life, yet the stench of greed and arrogance pervades. The gap between upper and lower classes is staggering, even in the most supposedly progressive nations in your world. Since your industrial revolution, your planet’s climate has increased by four degrees Centigrade, in turn destabilizing your jet stream. Wars are fought in the interest of increasing the wealth and influence of corporate entities, entities whose sole purpose is to expand without regard for any other factors. All of this, of course, is fueled by the greed of shareholders who fail to recognize they are the ones being oppressed. The terran lifestyle is cancerous to all those unlucky enough to exist in close proximity. Need I go on?” Perhaps I allowed my individual opinion of the matter to get the best of me.

  “I don’t know, man,” said McColgan. “At this point it’s as good a theory as any. One thing’s for sure though - we definitely have a lot to learn.”

  “As do we all,” said Ronak. What is this… embarrassment? I have not felt this in over two hundred years. Why do I feel shame over expressing myself as an individual? Is passion a gift, or does it contribute to a curse of inefficiency within a species?

  “If this… thing is so advanced, why does it care what we’re doing? Why would it want to hurt us, and consequently itself, if we are all interconnected?” asked McColgan.

  “At this time I cannot formulate a more logical theory than I have already articulated. I believe this entity is beginning to view some of the organisms with which it is interconnected as detrimental, a cancer that needs to be cut out to preserve the remainder of the collective.”

  “What, so we don’t deserve life anymore? Have we fucked that up too, Ronak?”

  “Colonel, this is a fruitless discussion. I am simply speculating.”

  “OK, so what does your all-encompassing consensus think? Care to break down that wall for me?”

  This is not what I intended. “Colonel, I am having a temporary lapse in extra-local communication. It is preventing me from tapping into the universal network.”

  “Holy shit, this thing is even blacking out YOUR communications? Jesus Christ. This just keeps getting better.”

  He’s losing confidence. I cannot allow him to falter. “Colonel, it is simply a temporary matter. Occasional missteps in our form of communication are recalibrated automatically by the various nodes we established throughout the galaxy. Any technology utilized through The Veil is often fluid due to its dynamic nature. Surely there are instances in a new environment when you need to perfect your ability to speak to one another through technology.”

  The colonel chuckled. “Fair enough. I can’t expect you to have a perfect internet connection when your WiFi hotspot is parked next to Jupiter. And now I can’t believe that sentence just came out of mouth.”

  I must curb my candor. I know better than this, especially with such an undeveloped species. However, usually when I am separated from the whole it is in times of combat, not civilized conversation. Oddly, I am enjoying this. It has been too long. When this is over, I will figure out a way to be alone with my own thoughts on a regular basis.

  “Ronak, tell me about Dr. Kapur.”

  “Certainly. Mahesh Kapur was born into a family of moderate privilege in Dehli, India, in 1965. Sixteen years later, he and his family immigrated to the United States after some property development ventures became insolvent. They used the last of their monetary reserves to start over in this region, in a place called Edison, New Jersey.”

  “Ronak, not to be rude, but can we skip to where this applies to right now?”

  Why would he not wish to know all of it? Isn’t anything pertinent to the scenario of prime importance? Of course. Human brains still possess comparatively limited space for immediate recall of information.

  “As you wish, colonel. He is significant to you, and to this situation, because of his penchant for studying the universe. He went to Harvard University, studied Physics, and subsequently moved on to graduate study in quantum physics, as well as astrophysics. Very few are able to bridge the gap between the enormity of the grand cosmos and the realm of the sub-microscopic, as he does. He has a PhD in both fields. Recently, he has been attempting to put what many of you consider to be esoteric into a quantum framework.”

  “OK, so he’s smart. He’s an interface you can tolerate. Got it.”

  There is far more to it than that. Ronak gathered that terran Army officers could be impatient when they had little time to plan and needed to assimilate only the most important snippets of information. “Of note, Dr. Kapur has a family of three: a wife who is a psychiatrist, a daughter who is a graduate student in his field, and a son of twenty years who is mentally ill. It is likely they are with him, especially considering his daughter spends a good deal of time helping him with his research. It could present an inconvenient field condition for your warriors.”

  “Understood. We’ll take that into consideration when accounting for seats on our aircraft.”

  I must say, I am impressed with how quickly he has accepted me. Other less-evolved species have resorted to outright murder.

  “Is there anything else you wish to know?” offered Ronak.

  “Absolutely. But as you touched on earlier, now is not the time,” said McColgan.

  “I agree.”

  “Shall we take a walk to Major Rugerman’s S2 shop? Everyone should start trickling
in shortly.”

  “That is acceptable.”

  The two walked out into the evening. The entity hanging over the city served as a constant reminder that life would never again be the same. The military personnel and equipment in Liberty State Park reinforced this truth. Where one ordinarily saw families on day trips to national landmarks, there was now a professional military planning an operation.

  Walking side-by-side with Ronak, McColgan felt the clang of pocket change against his leg. This got him thinking. “Ronak, I just thought of something I’d really like to know the answer to.”

  “Of course.” I do quite love the inquisitive nature of undeveloped species.

  “As you said before, most of our society’s problems stem from greed and ego. Even with perfect communication and information, how did you fix this? Once people couldn’t bullshit each other any more, what did you do?”

  “That is quite a broad question.”

  “OK, what about money? Do you have money?”

  “We stopped using arbitrary currency centuries ago,” replied Ronak.

  “What’s the alternative - trading goods and services directly?”

  “We operate under what you would most aptly identify as a resource-based economy.”

  “How does it work?”

  “Well, to put it simply, our planet has enough of everything for everyone.”

  “Must be nice,” said the colonel sarcastically.

  How little he realizes. “Colonel, your planet has more resources per capita than ours ever did. It truly is a magnificent specimen.”

  “Fair enough. So it’s a distribution problem.”

  “Distilled to its most basic level, the issues you have right now are with both distribution and motivation.”

  “How did you overcome such issues? Was it all brain implants and transparency of information?”

  “Transparency is fundamental to all aspects of our civilization. We utilize it to, as terrans say, ‘level the playing field.’ This produces results in all situations that accommodate the needs of the many over those of the few.”