A video came up, and it looked like data from one of the probes I built. It was out in space. I didn’t have to wait long for things to get started. I watched an approaching swarm of the bugs. The video panned around in a circle and showed data. There was no technology that we could detect in the system, but there was a world close by.
It was brown, with clouds of black. It looked remarkably like Venus, though it obviously wasn’t, there was data on the screen, it was mostly carbon dioxide, and the black clouds were storms raining acid.
Nadia said, “This is a world occupied by the Drenil. It looks rather uncomfortable, and you can see it’s over four hundred degrees Celsius. I know the probe shows no life signs, but the Drenil don’t have life signs. At least, not any that we can detect or understand.”
The camera turned back toward the bug swarm fleet. I’d been sure I was about to see them hit the planet. There was nothing to stop them. Then there was a white flash on the screen, if I’d have blinked I would have missed it. A moment later the swarm fleet started to explode, starting with the ships in front, and going toward the back like a wave. Another two seconds, and it was over.
A single white flash, and a million destroyed ships.
“What the hell was that? And how did we even get this data?” I asked, curious despite myself.
Nadia smiled at my question, “Here it is in slow motion. And we got it by sending a probe a few weeks ago. They ignored it.”
She replayed that section frame by frame. Something came on the screen, and Nadia paused it. It looked… amorphous. It wasn’t one of the aliens though, it was a ship, and its shape was extremely random. Curves, points, and angles that overlapped, it looked random. Like a one-year-old with a crayon had scribbled, and this is what came out. It was translucent white, and seemed to generate a light of some kind, it was also partially transparent, I could see stars behind it.
Nadia went another frame, and it appeared more solid, and brighter.
Another frame, and white dominated the entire screen.
One more frame, and the ship was gone again.
She sped it up to a quarter speed, and we watched again as the ships exploded, like dominoes falling.
I couldn’t help it, that was impossible, and I gaped.
Finally, I found my voice, “So, when the Seltan told us the Drenil were extremely powerful, but peaceful, they weren’t kidding at all.”
Nora chuckled, “You could say that, which brings us to the point.”
Nadia smiled, “The council, along with Tressia, Leira, and Omara want to send an expedition to Drenil space. The Seltan failed to open any kind of meaningful dialog in their attempts, but perhaps some of our best scientists from four of our worlds will have a better shot. Plus, maybe we’ll be able to figure out what that was, if not how to do it ourselves.”
I looked to Kristi, and she nodded. Truthfully, I was a bit curious, and the rest of me didn’t care if I went or not. So I figured, why the hell not?
“Alright, how many are going, and when?”
Nadia replied, “The people in this room, and we have to swing by Tressia and Leira to pick up a couple of more scientists. Senna, Nora, and myself are coming just in case you succeed and we can open diplomatic negotiations, and to be honest we all want to go see, and can get away with doing work remotely for a while. As for when, we’re ready when you are.”
“Can you give us an hour? And approval to land a shuttle here from orbit? We all won’t fit in the sports shuttle, and we need to go home and pack first.”
At the very least, we needed to pick up our body conforming pressure suits.
Nadia shook her head, “Make it two hours, and pick us up at JFK.”
“Alright, see you then.”
It took a surprisingly short time. The longest was getting out of New York City to a place we could fly off from, and we went straight back home. We both changed. I chose to wear a pair of dark jeans and a red shirt over the pressure suit, Kristi also wore clothes this time over the skin tight suit. Maybe because we were having guests?
I considered packing, but I still had a number of clothes to wear aboard ship, so I decided there was no point.
Kristi was ready a few minutes later, and we were on our way.
The truth is, I felt a little worried, because I truly didn’t care. What I’d seen on the video had been amazing, I should have been charged up, excited for an opportunity to even try to talk to and study the Drenil.
Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to give a crap. It was barely two weeks since Nathan died, still, shouldn’t I have bounced back, at least a little by now?
Perversely, I decided to look into it in spite of myself. Almost as if I feared if I didn’t, I might as well just roll over and die.
“Al, bring up the raw scanning data and particle emissions for the time the Drenil ship was visible. On second thought, add in a second before and after.”
For two and a tenth second span, there was a hell of a lot of data to go through. There were many types of radiation and particles, and I was sure there were some our scanners couldn’t see yet. But if I could figure out what, maybe I could figure out how?
Kristi looked at me in surprise, and that made me feel a little guilty. I wasn’t the best friend in the world to begin with, and I’d been a completely crappy one lately. Nathan was gone, but I had a lot to be thankful for in this life, and she was near the top of the list, if not the top.
I started to feel so guilty, that I teared up. I was a mess.
Kristi asked in a concerned voice, “Alicia?”
This time I was the one that hugged her as I broke down and bawled. It was different from last time though, these tears weren’t the same. They felt cleansing, as if I were letting go instead of holding on tight in denial. She held me while I got it all out, and I hoped that was it for a while, I really hated crying.
“Sorry,” I muttered, a little embarrassed now.
Which as strange as it sounds, was progress. Embarrassment meant I cared. I still missed him but I could feel, and breath again, all at the same time.
Kristi shook her head, “I’m still not telling you what I’m working on…”
I whacked her on the arm playfully, which made her giggle, and I asked with false excitement, “So, ready to invade JFK with an armed shuttle?”
She nodded, “Sounds fun!”
The sad truth was I had nothing big enough that wasn’t armed. I’d have to fix that.
I added, “Oh, could you double check the security, we’ll have nosy scientists on board, and I prefer they don’t figure out the converters, dark energy reactor, or the wormhole device.”
Kristi nodded, “I’ll double check, but no one but us should have access to those rooms, and the database is locked down by the A.I.”
“Good.”
It turned out nine of us would be going in total, four ambassador types who wanted to come along just in case, although I imagined they were curious, and then five scientists. We needed to stop at Tressia to pick up a scientist called Nalla, and then on to Leira for a scientist named Ellis before heading to Drenil space. I still missed Nathan, but my mind seemed to be working better again, as if I’d stopped punishing myself.
For what, I wasn’t sure.
Kristi asked, “You stopped the taxi build?”
She must have reviewed the ship’s status.
I nodded, and looked around the bridge as Al opened up a wormhole to Tressian space.
“I’ve been thinking. They ignored our probe right?”
Nadia nodded at me slowly, like I’d said something stupid, and looked as if she were wondering if I was feeling okay.
I smiled, had I been that bad?
“Well, I was thinking, the probe wasn’t armed right? I mean, I don’t want to assume they’ll ignore any ship. After all, would we let a race armed like this ship is, to approach one of our worlds, from a race we couldn’t talk to or understand yet? Granted, they’re different, but they clearly defend themsel
ves from the bugs, so we have that much in common at least.”
Senna nodded, “That makes sense, but what can we do?”
“I’m going to redesign the taxi by pulling out the wormhole device, and make it big enough to comfortably fit nine, and then finish it up. I suggest we park this thing on the edge of their space, specifically, on the Seltan side of the border.”
Nora asked, “Will that take long?”
I shrugged, “Just a few minutes for the design with Al’s help. The changes are small, since its already an unarmed hull. I just need to add life support and creature comforts which we already have specifications for. It should take a day to finish from where it is now. Nora, do we need to pick up your scientist, or is she taking a ship up?”
Nora replied, “She has her own shuttle.”
Kristi interjected with humor, “Well, were at Tressia, so tell her to come on up.”
I took a few minutes to remove the systems we didn’t need, and to make room for what we did. While I tuned out the conversation around me I swapped some stuff around and restarted the build. It was twice the length of a standard sized shuttle, there’d be plenty of room for nine people to work comfortably, with a restroom and some basic food and amenities, but it would have no sleeping berths which might get old fast. I supposed we could always come back to the battle cruiser to sleep.
“Anyone hungry, or want a drink?” I asked curiously.
There was a general affirmation to the idea, and we all filed off the bridge. It would actually take longer for the shuttle to arrive than the trip from Earth to Tressia had taken. I frowned, I knew eventually the tech would leak out, spying was pretty standard to all humanoid races. I was friends with all these people though, well, most of them, and I hoped there would be no misunderstandings.
It may have been inevitable, but it wasn’t going to happen on my watch, or my ship. I wondered if I was getting a bit cynical, but decided I wouldn’t be as worried if we weren’t bringing along four total strangers. It also occurred to me I’d never asked who had requested I go on this mission, Nadia had been very vague about that. Okay, now I was paranoid. Still, what if it hadn’t been the council for the USFS, but our allies, and they had more than one reason to request my presence.
I shook it off as we got to the galley, and grabbed a coffee…
Chapter 6
I nodded congenially when Nalla walked out of the back of her shuttle, “Welcome aboard.”
Nalla looked almost grave, “Thank you. Do you know when we’ll get started?”
Nalla struck me as being uptight, studious, and arrogant. That was my first impression of her anyway, hopefully she would warm up or this would be a long trip. And by first impression, I meant soul reading, she was uptight, studious, and arrogant, it hadn’t been a guess. Still, that could change and was only her outer feelings for the moment.
Kristi interjected, “It will be at least a day, we’ve decided not to go into Drenil space with an armed ship.”
Nalla didn’t look too happy with that delay, but she nodded in acceptance.
I added, “It will give us some time to go over data we already have. It wasn’t much, but I already have some speculations.”
Nalla looked slightly mollified by that idea, and I wondered if I knew the true meaning of workaholic after all. I also considered I might be a lot like her if I didn’t have Kristi as a best friend. A best friend who constantly tried to make me unwind and relax, and forced me to go out dancing and not be a hermit.
I decided I probably would be, and sent Kristi a grateful look that she probably couldn’t decipher the reason for.
“Al, move us to Leira please.”
He replied out of the deck speakers, “On our way.”
Nalla asked, “You said speculations?”
I shrugged, “Let’s wait until we pick up the Leiran scientist so we don’t have to cover old ground. Keep in mind its mostly speculation based on limited data, not a true theory at all, but it will be somewhere to start from if no one else has alternate ideas. In the meantime, food and drink, or would you like to see your quarters?”
Nalla sighed, “Very well, a drink would be acceptable, as for quarters I’d prefer to use my shuttle.”
I tried not to be offended by that, she probably just liked having her own stuff around her, and was comfortable there.
By the time we walked back to the galley, it was time to turn right around and return to the landing bay. The wormhole drive really did speed things up. Of course, it would be hurry up and wait, since we’d be stuck at the border until the shuttle fabrication was done. I decided on a whim to label the design a science research shuttle, and saved it.
The Leiran scientist came out of his shuttle with a smile and a walk that was just short of a swagger. After Alnot, his family, and Senna, I’d come to the half-baked conclusion that all of the Leiran’s would be reserved, but not so for this one.
“Doctor Jones, a pleasure to meet you,” and he shook my hand excitedly.
I watched a little in amazement as he went around the room greeting everyone as friends, he knew all their names and was gracious and outgoing. My newfound pessimism decided if anyone was a spy for Earth tech, it would be this man. Of course, the more likely reason was Senna had sent him an info packet on everyone going.
He turned back to me, “So, how about a tour of this amazing ship?”
I almost laughed, probably not a spy then. Not subtle enough.
Nalla looked scandalized by his attitude, which made me cough to hide my amusement.
“I’d be happy too, but perhaps later? We have a plan to figure out, and a little data to go over.”
Ellis nodded enthusiastically, “Wonderful idea, after you?”
Kristi and I took the lead, and walked them to a nearby conference room where we all sat around the table.
“Al, put the data up on the screen please?”
I turned to the table, “Has anyone else studied the data from the probe yet?”
Nadia shook her head in disbelief, “When the hell did you have time to do that?”
I grinned, “On the shuttle ride to JFK. I hardly performed an exhaustive analysis, but something did stand out to me right off.”
Nalla narrowed her eyes, “What? I didn’t notice anything when I reviewed it.”
“Al, bring up some of the wormhole data and put it side by side.”
I turned toward Nalla and explained, “Probably because you haven’t seen a scan of an open wormhole yet. You can see they look very different, but have a few commonalities. They both share a few types of exotic radiation not found anywhere else.”
Ellis said, “Yes, but they’re very different in scope.”
“Agreed,” I said, “the wormhole shows much more radiation. But I think that’s because the wormhole drive is very crude. We are basically punching a hole and drilling a tunnel in space time. It’s different as well because the Drenil ship never moved, it just appeared and disappeared, so obviously they don’t create a hole, I think they simply slip between dimensions, or subspace layers if you prefer. The radiation is a result of the two layers coming together when they shouldn’t, their technology is just more refined.”
“That,” Nalla paused, “Is pure speculation and guesswork. There’s no math or proof.”
“Absolutely,” I assured her, “I told you that already, it’s just speculation. Except, the flash of translucent energy also emitted similar radiation. I believe what killed those ships so fast was a… rippled tear in normal space of some kind. Why it destroyed the ships though, I don’t know, I suppose it depends on what was in the subspace layer, or dimension, on the other side of the ripple.”
Ellis frowned, “It fits the facts, but so do any amount of tales I could make up. Do you have any other data to support the theory they are slipping into some kind of theoretical subspace? Rather than just some kind of advanced cloaking mechanism?”
“One more thing yes, but this is probably going to sound nuts. A
lso, remember this isn’t a talk about conclusions, it’s a discussion to plan about where to start looking. Anywhere we start will just be a guess, this is just a slightly more educated guess backed up by exotic radiation that comes from a place we know was punching holes through space.”
Nalla grunted, “True, what was your other thought? The crazy one.”
Her voice implied all of my thoughts were nuts so far. I tried to ignore it.
“The Drenil have been called amorphous, because they have no shape that can be objectively measured. They constantly change in appearance, size, shape, and for our three dimensional minds, some of those angles and changes just look wrong and unnatural. What if their ships aren’t the only multi-dimensional thing about them?”
Kristi blew out a breath, “Are you suggesting they are multi-dimensional beings, and we are only seeing a small portion of what they truly are?”
Nalla shook her head stubbornly, “That is crazy, and impossible.”
I frowned, “Really? Then show me your soul. Can you see it?” after a pause I added, “I can.”
Nalla looked unimpressed, “I don’t understand the correlation.”
I sighed in frustration and reordered my thoughts. Was I crazy?
“The Knomen, what we can do when reading people, it’s called soul reading. There are humans on Earth who have what is called ESP, some can… know things that seem impossible to know.
“As scientists, we know that these three dimensions are the tip of the iceberg of true reality. What we see is real, and correct, but also incomplete and misleading. My point about souls is, I believe we are all multi-dimensional beings. Science can’t find and measure the soul because we’re looking in the wrong place. Yet, to my senses the soul is undeniably real and present in all of us here.
“Now, perhaps our five senses can’t see beyond the three dimensions, but suppose that little extra sense, like ESP and Soul reading can.”
Nadia interjected, “Isn’t this a bit far afield? What’s your point?”
I smiled, “I suppose I got a little side tracked, but it’s applicable. If humanoids can have senses that reach beyond three dimensions, why can’t another race that is completely alien in nature have a physical body that does? It would also follow that if they did comprehend more of reality with physical senses, wouldn’t their technology follow that same line?”
Alicia Jones 4: Enigma Page 3