Shadows

by Brian Whiting

  “The orb?” Zeek replied with honest shock.

  “I don’t have time to catch you up to speed. The issue is that I have to go to Humani right now to represent humanity on the treaty we just agreed to.”

  “Sweet.” Zeek said..

  “I have to go alone, but I want Symboli to go with me.”

  “Why Symboli?” Zeek asked.

  “I’ve come to trust it on… on a level of deep intimacy. I want to be able to communicate with it while I am away from its location, but to take it with me I will need to remove it and carry somehow onto the shuttle.”

  “You will need to bring some comm gear. Wireless transmitters.”

  “Can I set it up with subspace communication?”

  “I doubt it would fit on the shuttle.”

  “It’s not enough to have some comm gear, you’re going to need a power supply,” Timmy chimed in.

  “Damn, you’re right!” Zeek replied.

  “That’s easy, I’ll just bring a Thean battery,” Alex suggested.

  “Distance will be a problem.”

  “I don’t understand.” Alex looked at the time on his datapad.

  “Communications signal strength depends on how much power you use to communicate. A weak power source equals a weak signal, which means you will have limited range.”

  “Can you guys set up the system quickly and bring it to the Humani shuttle? I’ll meet you there with Symboli. I’ll have to connect the two on my own, so make it easy for me.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Zeek asked.

  “I don’t think you want to come on this journey.”

  Alex took a moment to feel the emotions of both of his childhood friends.

  “You both have been good friends to me and I am so glad you’re both in my life. I know I was pretty inconsiderate at times. I apologize. I hope you will both forgive me. I know now that I was wrong. I should have treated you better.”

  Timmy looked at Alex with a blank stare.

  “Who are you, and what did you do with my friend?” Zeek said, smiling.

  “Anyway, I need this as soon as possible.” Alex said, and Timmy rolled his eyes.

  “Aren’t they going to ask you what is that thing you’re bringing with you?” Timmy responded.

  “Good point. I need to put Symboli in a box.” Alex said.

  “I already am in a box,” Symboli replied in Alex’s ear.

  Alex smiled. “Like a large crate. I’ll bring two of them, and one of them will have a present to the Humani.”

  “What are you going to bring? We don’t have time to make something. Besides, they are more advanced than us. There isn’t much we can offer them,” Zeek said.

  Alex looked down, admitting he was right. The more he thought about it, the more Alex felt the event should be marked with a gift. The polished stone floor gave him an idea.

  “I got it, I’ll handle it,” Alex replied with excitement as he began to edge toward the door. “Let’s be quick. I don’t have a lot of time.”

  Chapter 19

  Humani

  It wasn’t long before Alex and a few volunteers from the perimeter was on Lindi’s shuttle in very high orbit around Earth. She sent out a subspace message, and her ship arrived by FTL within twenty minutes. The shuttle docked with the ship, which seemed smaller than Alex remembered. It looked like a larger version of the shuttle, a turtle shell with a flat bottom, no angular edges anywhere to be seen. The trip to the Humani homeworld was lonely; he was quarantined in his quarters for some unknown reason. It was similar to the size of his quarters on the Enterprise, with a longer-than-average bed. He half-expected Lindi to visit him during the evening; she had developed a reputation, and it struck him as odd that she would stop now. Not that he minded, but he wasn’t sure if he really wanted that kind of attention. Only Symboli was present to keep him company via the headset. Alex regretted not devoting time to the AI issue.

  “Founder.”

  “Symboli, are you talking to me?” Alex responded as he passed the time in his cabin by outlining an intricate, almost imperceptible design on the walls with his finger.

  “Who else would I be talking to?”

  “Why did you call me ‘Founder’?”

  “I have analyzed the various forms of honoring an individual. You currently hold no active titles. Yet you command honor and power. After a review I determined that ‘Founder’ is the most apt and honorable title linked to your achievements.”

  “Can’t you just keep calling me ‘Alex’?”

  “Of course. However, I desire to honor you in this way.”

  Alex stopped tracing the line on the wall for a moment as he thought about all the little changes Symboli had made since their minds connected. This was just another such oddity.

  “As you wish. What did you want?”

  “Founder, you asked me to tell you every time twenty-four hours has passed since you boarded.”

  “Has it been three days already?”

  When Symboli didn’t respond, Alex cracked a smile. It was learning to discern rhetoric from real questions.

  The door to the cabin opened, and Alex stood straight up. As he had come to expect, a Humani, completely covered in a pure white gown, with no part of the body visible, came in holding a tray of food and drink and set it down just inside the room on the floor by the door.

  “Can you at least talk to me? Keep me company, perhaps?” Alex said with slightly elevated voice.

  The elegantly covered Humani walked back several paces, and the door folded back into position.

  “I still do not think they consider you a prisoner. It’s more probable they are observing some kind of custom.”

  Alex was still getting used to the upgraded headset he was wearing. A gift from the UEF R & D department. It streamed video to Symboli which he constantly monitored. Moreover, he was constantly surprised at how little the new headset weighed, seemingly no more than before it had its new ability.

  “Well, I can’t leave. I have no visitors, and they feed me with food passed through the door. I feel like a prisoner.”

  Alex walked over and reviewed the tray of food. It contained something that resembled scrambled eggs, except they were green instead of yellow. There was a sweet, soft bread with jelly on the side and a processed stick of dried meat with a vegetable which came with every tray. Always the same size and dimensions, a firm, one-and-a-half-inch by four-inch stick about a centimeter thick. Each stick tasted different from the one before, and it was always a combination of a certain kind of meat and a vegetable. As far as flavors went, Alex was sure Earth had nothing comparable.

  As always, he ate the food slowly, to help pass the time.

  “Founder, tell me how you would respond to this situation.”

  Alex forced a sigh. Recently this was always the opening line to yet another moral or ethical debate.

  “Let us theorize that you came into contact with an all-powerful alien race that can remain invisible, and they speak only to you. If they learned you revealed their existence to anyone, even your closest friends, they will attempt to subject your entire race to genocide. Now, suppose this race randomly kidnaps a member of your society once a day for purposes unknown. The public continues unaware of how people keep ending up missing. Now, suppose you noticed a pattern: that whoever happens to be within ten feet of water is never chosen to be kidnapped. Now, suppose you’re married with multiple kids. Would you risk telling your wife, in as secretive and secluded a manner as you can manage, the secret of the aliens and how to protect herself? Or would you let things continue without her ever knowing?”

  Alex already sitting on the floor and against the wall, allowed himself to slide to the floor onto his back. “Why?”

  “To what are you referring, specifically?”

  Alex forced another sigh and began to think about the situation seriously. His mind quickly wandered to how he had come to miss the body’s natural autonomic breathing func
tion. A considerable amount of time passed before Alex responded.

  “I would warn my wife.”

  “Interesting. I calculated an eighty-two-percent chance that you would not tell her. How did you arrive at your decision?”

  “Well, it’s a powerful alien race, and humanity is still alive. But at the edge of a knife. At any time they could commit genocide and end humanity. We live our lives with a purpose; when I marry I intend to marry with the purpose of supporting each other no matter what. If I didn’t warn my wife and she were kidnapped, I couldn’t live with myself.”

  “You would risk your entire race for yourself and your wife. Would that not be selfish?”

  “If they have that kind of power and ability, humanity would already be lost. We would already be dead. Plus, you make it sound as if it might be possible to warn my wife without the aliens finding out.”

  “But humanity is not dead. They continue life blissfully unaware of the threat, and you risk humanity’s existence for one person?”

  “Yeah, I don’t know, I might feel differently if I had to face th—”

  The door rapidly opened, unexpectedly soon after the meal had been dropped off. Alex stood back up as yet another white-gowned Humani entered the room and extended its arms, this time with a garment draped over them. “Please wear this for the ceremony. We are now ready for you.”

  Alex approached slowly and took the garment. As soon as he did, the Humani left the room. The door did not close, however.

  “As I suspected, they are observing a set of customs or traditions.”

  Alex stood there puzzled, holding the garment.

  “Why do you hesitate?”

  “I’m not sure if I need to derobe completely or put this on over my outfit,” he said.

  “Given the thickness of the material it would be cumbersome if you wore this over your current outfit.”

  Alex got undressed and put on the gown. It resembled a cross between a poncho and a woman’s dress. A curious mixture of fleece and silk, it smelled like morning-cut grass. Unsure of where to leave his clothes, he left them on his bed, because there was little other furniture in the room.

  Slowly he stepped out of the room. Waiting just outside the door was a Humani fully covered in a matching outfit, but with his or her face covered with a hood.

  “I am to escort you to the assembly,” the Humani said quietly.

  “Lindi, is that you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why have I been treated so horribly? Why have I been locked up in my room?”

  “It is our hope you used that time to wrestle with any last-minute thoughts you may have about this momentous occasion. You should have spent that time deciding if this treaty is what’s best for your people or if you have any last-minute adjustments.”

  “No, I don’t have any last-minute adjustments.”

  “Founder, keep calm,” Alex heard via his headset.

  “Then follow me closely but from behind,” Lindi said.

  Alex did as instructed, and they walked down the hallway and eventually down an exit ramp for the ship. The first thing Alex noticed was the ground. It appeared both artificial and natural, like the grass of a cement golf course. He was in a large clearing, surrounded by a thirty- or forty-foot-high wall.

  “It’s a stadium,” Alex blurted aloud. As he got closer to the sloping walls, he realized he was in fact in the presence of stadium seating. The place reminded him of the Roman Colisseum.

  When Symboli failed to respond Alex asked, “Can you still hear me?”

  “Yes.”

  Lindi continued walking further and further away from the ship, and Alex kept close behind her. Finally Alex noticed a faint melody playing loud enough for them all to hear. The closer they got to wherever they were going, the louder the music became. Try as he might Alex could not discern the source of the music.

  Lindi took a step to the side and lowered her head. “Please proceed.”

  Alex took a few more steps, timidly at first but then with confidence, toward a depression in the ground. A pool of water, perhaps a few inches deep, was visible. Several Humani stood in a circle around the inside edge of the pool. All were dressed like Alex, but with covered heads. Before anyone spoke Alex opened his mind to the emotions of those around him. Some were excited, a few were annoyed, and one in particular was furious beyond anything Alex had felt before, a pure hatred. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t identify which one harbored such terrible feelings and he wondered if the water had something to do with it.

  One of the covered Humani stepped forward and said, in what Alex discerned was a male voice, “Let it be known that we now have a treaty with your people.” The Humani bent over at the waist and submersed their hand in the water. A small thin pedestal rose up from below the surface of the water, and the Humani placed his left hand on the right side of the pedestal. “Please mark the pedestal with your right hand.”

  Alex bent over and submerged his own hand into the warm water and placed it on the left side of the pedestal. The moment he did so, the pedestal glowed a bright blue, then receded back into the water on its own.

  The moment the pedestal went into the ground, the light changed to a blue-green color. Music started playing a different tune much more upbeat but completely alien and unfamiliar, and everyone began to remove the hoods from their faces.

  “My name is Amun; I am high Ra. My people have not forged a treaty for over three hundred years. This is a most exciting day. Come, we have a celebration to attend.”

  “‘High Ra,’ what does that mean?”

  “I believe I am much like a King of England in your present-day context. Little power over politics, but high renown among the people.”

  Amun brought Alex to a large assembly room where pedestals carrying trays of food interwove themselves among the crowd. Whenever a tray neared to empty, the pedestal aborted its path and retreated toward an adjacent room, returning soon after with a full tray once again.

  Something felt familiar; Alex was sure he had heard the name Ra before.

  “Have you visited Earth before?” Alex looked over his shoulder to Amun, whose head was slightly more elongated than that of most Humani. There was not one visible strand of hair anywhere on his body, and he stood almost a foot taller than Alex.

  “No, I have not.”

  “I believe in our distant history part of humanity worshipped a god called Ra. Any relation?” Alex smiled, half joking and half curious.

  Amun stopped walking as they approached the throng of people laughing and talking near the center of the room. “I must apologize. You are more perceptive than we gave you credit for. We have long held certain biases against your people that we must let go. I believe my younger brother Mnevis influenced your people, the Egyptians. The idea of our eternal life was leaked to your people. He wanted to increase his renown by seeking a cure from our blight and went to Earth, bringing a team of people with him. I know he was on your planet a little over a year before disease killed them all. But his influence was already established. Much to my family’s delight, Egyptian society eventually died out, and their religion with them. Your people were so easily fooled into believing my brother was a god. My people find that humorous and have since thought little of your intelligence.”

  “Alex, a quick cursory search indicates Ra had a large family, and not all of them were friendly with each other,” Symboli offered in Alex’s ear.

  “Tell me about your family, how big is it?” Alex asked.

  “I formally apologize for my family’s behavior,” Amun responded.

  Alex furrowed his eyebrows. “Yeah, apology accepted. That was long ago anyway.”

  “Nonetheless, it’s important to me. I could have done more to stop him.”

  Alex realized that Amun was likely alive and had some part in what transpired thousands of years ago. The apology suddenly didn’t feel so empty.

  “Come, let us celebrate!” Amun walked into the room, and the crowd
of Humani parted before him. Alex began to receive thanks and congratulations from those nearby. They began bombarding him with questions about Earth and its long-held belief systems. Some asked about what children are like. They became enthralled by his stories. As some point Alex realized the celebration was becoming less and less like a public gathering for feast and conversation and more like a lecture hall. Even the music had seemed to lessen in volume as Alex continued talking about Earth’s history.

  “Tell us about your father,” someone asked.

  “I do not wish to talk about my father,” Alex responded as he considered his next topic.

  At his words, the room transformed. It was as if someone had dropped a bomb of silence on the entire planet and all eyes were on him. The music stopped. Varying degrees of alarm, coming from all over the room, overwhelmed his thoughts, and he had to take a moment to close his mind to the others’ emotions.

  “I’m sure this is a cultural misunderstanding,” Amun mumbled. “I meant to ask you to tell me about what your father is like. Tell us about him as a person.”

  “When I was nine years old I was in a championship baseball game. It’s a game with a stick and ball. My team lost the match. When I went to find my father after the game, he couldn’t be found. He had left me there. I walked eight miles to get home in the dark. I confronted him on why he would do such a thing to me. He said, ‘In life you either succeed or you lose. If you lose, you get nothing.’ Then he pushed me aside so he could go to bed.”

  Those present remained silent. Alex began to feel uncomfortable and spoke again. “My father was a cruel man to me all my life. He did one unexpectedly kind thing for me, as if that should make up for it. But I know what he did was not for me; it was for himself. I do not like my father.” Tears rolled down Alex’s face, and everyone else stood motionless.

  Some began to look to Amun for a response.

  “Alex, thank you for your intimacy. It’s not something we are accustomed to hearing,” he said at last. And then all Amun had to do was look up, and the music faded back into existence.

  “If you don’t mind, I would like to go to my room and sleep now,” Alex said bluntly.