“As no doubt would the child,”
“Doctor Aiziz,” the Liaison intervened, “According to your pre-briefing report the Ship proposed more than just the exchange of technology and cultural information. Would you elaborate, please?”
“As I said, the Ship is a repository of knowledge from thousands of worlds, across hundreds of galaxies,” Aiziz said, “For millions of years these worlds and their civilizations have coexisted peacefully in a loose cultural League. The Ship and its crew came here originally in hopes of making contact with intelligent life on this world in order to bring us into that League. The Ship still wishes to carry out that mission.”
“How does it propose to do that?” the American Delegate asked, “After sixty-plus million years that League might not even exist anymore.”
“The nature of the League is multi-generational,” Aiziz replied, “As many planets as there are in a galaxy, and as many galaxies as the Ship and its like have visited, it would take millions upon millions of years to catalogue them all. It is possible that some of the races from this League have become extinct since the Ship arrived here. However it is also more than likely that new races have since joined. As to how the Ship proposes to introduce us to the League,” she consulted her notes again; she wanted to get the phrasing of this correct. “The Ship wants to take a representative sample of humanity back to its point of origin.”
♦♦♦
The Ship Survey Expedition was cleared to return to the Ship the following day. The SSE would now be divided into teams: Aiziz Andrews and N’banga would remain in the Language Lab, Aiziz to further her study of Shiplanguage and coordinate requests for communication with the Ship in accordance with the information exchange. Andrews and N’banga would continue to study the Ship’s scientific catalogue. Benedict, Bloom, Paulson, Kodo and Cole would begin exploration of the Ship.
♦♦♦
They followed a long, wide corridor to a balcony. It looked out over a vaulted chamber surrounded on three sides by a deep channel; the floor of the chamber was some five meters below, accessed by two gradually sloping spiralled ramps. The chamber was dominated by one central feature: a stark silver sculpture, an alien shape with strange and varying textures; once smooth then pitted, striated and corrugated, branching and stretching out from the center of the dais on which it had been mounted before folding back upon itself, new textures new angles new shapes emerging from this alien Rorschach. Strange features in its geometry made it difficult to look at, as if doing so was pulling at the fabric of Bloom’s sense of reality and sanity. It was only as she pulled her eyes away from the hypnotic and maddening artwork that Bloom noticed the platform below. She was already moving down the ramp to her right before Benedict could approach. She glanced at the sculpture upon reaching the platform. From this angle it seemed a different piece of artwork altogether. Doctors Kodo and Cole came down the ramp close behind. Bloom scanned the chamber: A large, crystalline conveyance sat in the recessed channel, three doors on the side facing the platform open in its transparent skin. Bloom turned back to Benedict.
“Do you realize what this is?” she asked, excitedly.
“Yes,” Benedict said, “It’s a transitway; the transitway; the gateway to the Ship.” Bloom looked around and noticed the panels that stood every few meters beside the channel. They were location markers, clearly indicating where the track went. Bloom stepped up to one and began working the touch screen. A new image appeared, tracing a trail down the transitway to the next destination. The image resolved itself, showing a massive construct hundreds of levels high, tram tunnels going to and from each level. A bank of lifts ran up the center of the massive station. A series of Shiplanguage runes appeared on the bottom of the display. To their left, in English were the words Central Station. Benedict approached.
“The whole Ship is ours,” Bloom whispered reverently, “The whole thing is open to us from here.”
♦♦♦
An inner base camp was soon set up inside the first station, complete with mobile mess and toilet facilities, a small infirmary and a communications relay to Fort Arapaho and the World Ship Summit beyond. Despite Benedict’s insistence that the balance of the Ship was unexplored and therefore potentially dangerous, Bloom refused to back down from being one of the first to breach its inner levels.
“I’m going in first Major. You’re not keeping me from this one.” She stared at him defiantly, unblinking, silently daring him to challenge her authority on this one again. Benedict was the one to blink first.
“Very well, Colonel,” He said sighing heavily before turning his tone sharp: “But at the first sign of anything I don’t like I’m getting you out even if I have to knock you cold and drag you the hell out to do it. Ma’am,” Bloom smiled. The Major had balls. She was glad of it and hoped that her guidance had helped him grow them, given the naïve pilot she’d first known years before.
“Let’s go,” she said. Bloom, Benedict, Paulson, Kodo and Cole boarded the tram. The tramcar sealed itself seamlessly shut and began moving around the track to the exit point.
On the back wall of the tramcar was a terminal displaying an animated map of their progress through the Transitway. The screen also displayed a short list of some of the locations accessible to them from Central Station: points of notice that the Ship expected them to find interesting. A short text began printing out in the lower left-hand corner of the terminal. Paulson leaned in to read it.
“The Ship suggests we go to see the habitat, in the center of the inner hull. It also points out the…life archive, apparently where it has stored its catalogue of biology,” Paulson looked at Kodo. The young biologist’s face was bright with intense attention.
Paulson continued: “Apparently it has a catalogue not just of early life on this world, but of all the worlds it has visited.” Kodo looked as though his knees might buckle. It was as if he was a drunk handed the keys to the largest liquor cabinet in the world.
“There’s also a list of other sites in the Ship; the drive decks, I would assume that’s main engineering; an astronomy archive; an archive of culture; it even lists hangars for support vehicles.”
“Support vehicles?” Bloom repeated, her voice guarded. She couldn’t help but wonder if there were entire fleets of Bug craft cradled somewhere in those hangars; hundreds if not thousands of wasp-like ships sitting just waiting to be taken into the sky.
“There are hangars all over the inside of the primary hull,” Paulson said, “There are directory terminals on each level of the Central Station and we have full access.” He looked up from the panel as the tramcar crossed through a major bulkhead and entered an open space. They all stared awestruck by the sight before them: Platform after platform rose from the center of the great vaulted chamber; the spherical bulkhead that surrounded the levels shining great beams of light onto the structure. The central station was suspended by giant honeycomb lattices through which countless transit tubes flowed. Shining with an eerie twilight blue, the connecting tubes of the transit system and the lift banks rising through the center of the platforms connected each level of the station to each section of the Ship. Bloom was reminded of a passage from the Torah: behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven…the angels of God ascending and descending it…Had the Builders seen the perfect beauty of this colossal construct? Had they understood the majesty of their creation? Or was this as everyday a structure to them as a house or an office building was to Bloom and most of the Human race? As their tramcar approached, swiftly closing the distance between them and Central Station, Bloom wondered on the culture that had spawned the Builders, on the world that had created the creators of the Ship. If the Ship was only a single vehicle, one of a fleet of many, what did the rest of their world look like? What wonders had they made to grace their home and what inspired them to feel the humbling awe Bloom felt now? The tramcar entered the station, slowing and halting near to the bank of lifts that would take them to the other levels
of Central Station.
“So,” Bloom asked, “Where do we go first?”
“We should go down to the habitat,” Kodo suggested, “If the World Council does finally agree to allow the Ship to take passengers with it back to its point of origin, it’s there that they’ll live.”
“I can’t imagine being cooped up inside a ship, even this Ship, in space for years at a time,” Paulson said.
“Let “s go see the habitat then,” Bloom said. Kodo consulted the directory.
“Let’s go,” he said, “This way.” They followed him to the lifts. It was no surprise to anyone that the lifts were transparent here as well. The elevator car was equipped with a control plate rising from a stand to the right of the now-sealed doorway. Peter found and pressed button for the level that would take them to the habitat.
“The tram to the habitat is on the lowest level of the station,” he said as their car began dropping. As they debarked from the lift Peter once again consulted the directory before leading them across the level to the right platform. They peered down the tunnel for the tram; it spiralled gradually downwards and out the lower bulkhead.
“We’re actually not that far from the habitat, relatively speaking,” Paulson said as they stepped aboard.
“The Ship has adjusted the atmosphere of the habitat to more closely match our own,” He said, “Although it’s taken the liberty of removing the toxins from the inner atmosphere; it says the habitat has been adapted to be suitable to life on this world.”
“Holy God,” Bloom rasped, staring ahead of them. She’d caught a glimpse of something down the end of the pipe ahead.
“What is it?” Benedict asked.
“That,” Bloom said. They crossed the bulkhead into the transparency of the tram tube and were shocked into silence by the scene below them. The tramway was spiralling down towards a landing platform at the top of a massive sphere; the sphere of the habitat. A floating island several kilometres in diameter, the habitat was ensconced in a sky of the purest blue and covered in lush green foliage from one end to another. It rotated slowly on its own axis below them, the equatorial ring of the small globe lined with edifices of alien construct.
“According to the Ship, it was populated long ago,” Peter said, reading from a panel in the tram car, “With flora and small fauna native to primordial Earth.” Kodo stopped short and turned to Paulson.
“What?” Paulson asked.
“The plants and animals here...they’ve been isolated aboard the Ship for millions of years!” Kodo rasped, excitedly, “That means they’ve followed an evolutionary line completely independent of anything...” The tramcar stopped at the polar station. They stepped off onto the gently rotating surface of the sphere. Bloom steadied her balance a moment.
“It’s like the garden of Eden,” Kodo exclaimed reverently, “This…this has been here, waiting for millions of years. The air is so fresh…so clean…”
“And we’re the first people to see it,” Bloom said, “The first Humans to set foot in here.”
They could hear chirping from the fern canopy above, rustling in the branches. Bloom smelled the damp, earthy smell of the forest and looked up to the artificial blue sky and illusory sun radiating heat and light overhead.
“It’s a giant biosphere,” she said, “A completely self-sustained miniature world.”
“Everything Darwin theorized during his trip to the Galapagos is true; this place proves it.” Kodo said, “And this is only the outermost level,” Peter said, “Living quarters are spread out along the equator. Then inside the sphere itself there are hundreds of sublevels. The Ship can adjust areas of the surface to suit our needs or the needs of anything we choose to populate the habitat.”
“Let’s get back,” Bloom said, “We should tell the others. We should tell the Summit.”
“We should explore this,” Kodo said, panning his head around so his headset cam recorded as much as possible, “Explore the whole habitat.”
“All in good time,” Bloom said, “We have to stick to procedure. There are rules…” She looked around the splendour before her, smelled the air and listened to the rushing of water, somewhere nearby.
“Mind you,” she said, “I can’t see anything wrong with spending a few minutes looking around. Major, would that be a problem for security?” Benedict could barely register her question. The perfume of the exotic plants, the air, the sounds and sights before him were completely enrapturing.
“I don’t see why it should be, Colonel,” He said at last, “As long as we don’t touch or eat anything. Christ knows if any of this is toxic, or not.”
“Good point.” Bloom said, “So, let’s look, but not touch. Got that, doctor Kodo?”
“Yes, ma’am,” He said, “But I do want to collect samples.”
“All in good time,” Bloom said, “Right now, let’s just go for a walk.”
EIGHTEEN
REVELATIONS
Now that the Subjects had sufficiently demonstrated their intelligence, the Ship had granted them nearly unlimited access. It hardly expected that every one of these beings would want to or be able to learn the subtleties and complexities of its language so it was more than happy to communicate with them in their native languages. The one known as Soniaaiziz continued to converse with the Ship in its own language and was fast becoming fluent. The others would speak to The Ship in the common language of this world, a language known as English and the Ship obliged them by communicating with them in kind.
♦♦♦
“Minister,” MI-6 said, shaking the Minister’s hand, “It is so very nice to meet you in person at last.”
The Minister smiled. “With the conference in London and a meeting scheduled I thought it might be an interesting opportunity to sit in on the Committee with my British colleagues.”
“Our sources on the World Ship Summit have confirmed that the Summit will be making a press announcement,” The British Minister said, “They are revealing almost everything that has occurred since the delegates from the Vatican Council first spoke with the Ship.”
“And what has the World Ship Summit decided regarding the Ship’s offer?” the Solicitor General of Canada asked.
“The World Council is accepting the Ship’s offer,” The Curator said, “And the Summit is now working out the logistics of the technology exchange and how to proceed with finding people for the…cultural exchange.”
“Isn’t there some way to delay the announcement?” Natural Resources asked, “Allow us time to gather intelligence from within the Ship? Once the announcement is made the Summit will begin sending in teams to extract information and technology from the various archives in the Ship. Once the tech mining begins our chance at the Ship ends.”
“Then perhaps it’s time we closed the book on the Ship,” the Minister said, “It certainly no longer falls under our mandate to keep secret alien artifacts.”
“I agree, Minister,” MI-6 said, “The Ship is public domain now and once the Summit makes its announcement it will be all the more so. Frankly, at the next General Council session of the Committee and our advisors we should discuss a new mandate. However, at the moment we have a narrowing opportunity to access the Ship and Colonel Bloom has presented us with the very means to do it.”
“Namely?” the Curator asked.
“Mister Chairman,” MI-6 asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, “Would you be so kind as to run the video from Colonel Bloom’s report to General Harrod?” Seconds later each member of the Committee beheld images from Bloom’s headset cam. Bloom narrated:
“We’ve just returned to Fort Arapaho from our initial drop deeper into the Ship,” She said, “There’s a transitway system within the Ship; a network of high-speed pods analogous to a subway that accesses every part of the Ship. Through it we’ve been able to access the habitat; a biosphere set up to be the living quarters for the Ship’s passengers and crew.”
The image changed, showing visuals of the approach made to the habi
tat and their walk through the dense foliage of the habitat itself and of the series of buildings that ringed the biosphere’s equator.
“The habitat is an artificial planetoid suspended in the core of the Ship,” Bloom’s voice continued, “The Ship’s measurements put it at around five point two-three kilometres in diameter. Plants and animals are directly descended from samples taken by the Ship when it first landed here, eighty million years ago. There’s a large freshwater lake located along the southern pole of the Habitat. The entire biosphere seems to be fed by its own micro-environment, with regular rainfall plant growth and a heated core. The ring of buildings along the equator that extends to a small network of support systems, storage and empty constructs beneath the Habitat’s surface. The tram station at the northern hemisphere is accessed from several foot paths and mini-car lines that run from the equator to the North Pole. There’s an incredibly well simulated sky; the air is fresh…it’s the ideal environment to support human life.” The images changed continuously as Bloom spoke. This time it was showing detail maps from the Ship’s display.
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