Armando paused and said, “Okay, who’s next?”
The voice of the creature's device came over the comm system. “Okay. Yes. We have words you speak.”
Desmond turned to the three strangers. The male in the center raised his arm device to his mouth and whispered softly to it while he pressed on it with his other hand. The device translated. “We go out this room now. Speak to you. You open room.”
The humans in the viewing room exchanged nervous glances.
Fornas stepped closer to the window. “We don’t mean to be rude or inhospitable, but we prefer to speak to you this way. We prefer that you stay inside the bridging chamber for now. I hope you understand.”
The male’s translator emitted a rapid-fire stream of foreign language. He listened until the device was finished and then whispered into it again. “Easy to talk outside room. Not easy to talk inside room. You open room.”
Fornas glanced at Armando and shook his head slightly, apparently at a loss regarding what to do next.
Desmond heard a frustrated growl coming from Infinity’s throat. She started to say something, but he held up a finger and whispered to her, “We’re guests here, remember? Maybe we should let them handle this.” He nodded toward Armando and Fornas.
Infinity narrowed her eyes at him but stayed quiet.
Armando addressed the strangers. “Please forgive us, but we are concerned about the possible spreading of disease. It is clear to us that you are from a version of this world that diverged from ours long ago. Therefore, it’s quite possible you could infect us, or we could infect you. Our precautions are for your safety as well as ours. But we certainly want you to feel welcome here, and we do wish to speak with you. We are curious as to who you are and how you got here.”
The creature eyed Armando for a moment, apparently waiting to see whether he was going to say more, and then pressed on his translator. The device spewed out another rapid stream of language.
The three strangers glanced at each other. Desmond couldn’t be sure, but he thought they might be frowning. The one who had been translating, apparently their spokesperson, whispered into his device again and waited for it to translate. “Outside this structure. We put something there. You go. You see.”
Again, the humans exchanged glances.
“We’re still in quarantine,” Fornas muttered. He stepped to a control panel on the wall, pressed three different buttons, and said, “Fuller, are you at your desk?”
After a delay of several seconds, a voice came over the comm system. “Sorry, Dr. Fornas. Yes, I’m at my desk now.” The guy sounded like he had just sprinted several hundred yards.
“Fuller, I need a favor. Can you take a look around outside the facility and let me know if you see anything out of the ordinary?”
“I don’t need to,” said Fuller. “I’ve already seen it. Do you know something about it, Dr. Fornas? It’s got everyone on edge out here.”
“What’s got everyone on edge?”
“The structure, or sculpture—whatever it is. I was hoping you could shed some light on what it is and how it got here.”
Fornas looked at the strangers beyond the window. “Describe it to me, Fuller. What the hell are we talking about?”
“It’s on the front lawn. I don’t know how somebody hauled it there without anyone noticing. No one came inside with delivery papers for me to sign, and nobody else saw anything.”
“Describe it, Fuller!”
“Sorry. The thing’s at least thirty feet tall, shaped like a cone, with a base maybe twenty feet wide. It’s painted solid green, like army green or something.”
Desmond’s eyes met Infinity’s. “Oh shit,” he heard himself say. He turned to the fur-covered beings in the bridging chamber.
The male in the middle spoke into his translator, which then spoke to the humans. “You open room now. We speak to you.”
5
Consequences
April 10 - 4:36 PM
“Do what they ask,” Infinity said. “Open the bridging chamber.”
Fornas shook his head. “That would be terribly reckless. I cannot allow it. They could be carriers of all manner of—”
Infinity grabbed his shoulder. “Listen, goddammit! That green cone outside is exactly like the one we saw this morning before bridging here. These guys have something to do with the destruction of the version of Earth my colony just evacuated. Maybe they caused it, maybe they were trying to prevent it—I don’t know. Either way, we have no choice but to cooperate with them.”
Fornas rubbed his temples. “My God. I’m completely out of my depth here. I’ll have to consult with people who have more authority, perhaps Colonel Chislett. This is a matter of national security.”
A voice came over the comm. “Listen to me, goddammit!”
Everyone turned toward the strangers. The words had come from the center male’s translator.
The creature whispered into the device, and it translated. “Yes, we have something to do with the destruction of the version of Earth you just evacuated.”
Even though the translator had mimicked Infinity’s words almost exactly, the slightly different phrasing made it clear that he understood the conversation and was conveying his own coherent response.
He spoke into his translator again. “You open this room. We go out. We talk to you. Now, goddammit.”
Infinity turned back to Fornas and raised her brows. “We can’t afford to play games with these people. Let them out.”
Desmond spoke up. “I think right now we need to be more concerned about destruction of the entire planet than contracting a disease.”
Fornas took a deep breath and pushed three buttons on the comm system again. “Fuller?”
“Still here, Dr. Fornas,” Fuller said over the comm. “Is everything okay?”
“I need you to get ahold of Colonel Chislett. If he’s not available, ask for the next highest ranking authority who is involved with the National Bridging Center. Tell them it’s urgent!” Fornas pushed another button and turned to one of the bio-suited techs. “Harwood, alert the Marine squad over in the quarantine bunk room and tell them to take up position outside the bridging chamber hatch. They should come armed.”
Harwood turned without a word and left the tiny room.
Infinity turned to the viewing window. The strangers were still standing motionless, waiting. “We want to talk to you,” she said. “We’re getting ready to open the bridging chamber now.” She pointed through the window at the hatch behind the strangers. “We’ll be outside that door waiting for you.”
The male’s device rattled off a translation, and the strangers turned and glanced at the hatch.
Fornas walked out of the viewing room, and the others followed him out the door and through the med lab. “This had better not be a mistake,” he said as they all gathered quietly by the bridging chamber hatch.
Seconds later they were joined by eight Marines in paper clothing, each carrying a handheld weapon made of living tissue. As the Marines were assembling into a tactical formation, five more approached, each accompanied by a robotic creature the size and shape of a large dog but which appeared to be constructed of exposed muscles and tendons connected to a white plastic skeletal frame. Infinity had first seen these creatures the previous day, when Armando and the Marines had appeared unexpectedly on the arthropod world. Armando had said the creatures were specialized, bridgeable weapons. They certainly had a wicked, intimidating presence.
Fornas addressed the Marines. “Less than an hour ago, the bridging chamber was somehow breached from another timeline. We have no idea how—”
Infinity interrupted him. “We really can’t afford to make these visitors wait any longer.” She turned and addressed the Marines. “Three people are going to come through that hatch. They’ll look strange to you, maybe even alarming. But it’s critical that you do not threaten or intimidate them. Don’t do anything unless they physically attack. Got it?”
A few
of the men nodded. All of them were frowning.
She nodded to Fornas. “Let’s do this.”
Fornas sighed and, to Infinity’s surprise, stepped up to the hatch and opened it himself.
Several of the Marines mumbled curses as the three strangers stepped out.
Infinity immediately noticed a pleasant aroma. Either these beings were fond of perfume, or they naturally smelled like flowers. This smell seemed strangely fitting, considering the stylish, intricate ornamental patterns dyed into their fur.
The strangers stood in the hatch’s opening, surveying the med lab and the people facing them. The female pointed to one of the robotic dogs and then muttered something into her translator. “Those devices are for hurt,” the translator said. “You take those hurt devices away. We talk when no hurt devices.”
“Yes,” Fornas said, “those are hurt devices. We call them weapons. We have them here because we don’t know whether you want to hurt us. We need to be able to defend ourselves if you try to hurt us.”
Again the woman spoke into her device. “You take weapons away now, goddammit. We talk after weapons are away.”
Infinity took a few steps toward the strangers and examined them more carefully. Other than the rope-like garments around their waists, which were too skimpy to conceal weapons, they only had the translators attached to their left arms. She turned back to Fornas and Armando. “Unless those translators can also be used as weapons, they appear to be unarmed. I think we should put the weapons away and see what they have to say.”
One of the Marines spoke up. “I’m Sergeant Virgil Harrington. I lead this squad of Marines. All of these men have volunteered to put their lives on the line for this bridging program. I don't know who the hell you are, but I know you're not even from this world. I can't imagine what would make you think you get to be in charge.”
Infinity leveled her gaze at the Marine and then glanced at the furry strangers, who were watching this conversation intently while the devices on their arms translated what was being said. She turned back to Sergeant Harrington and said, “My name’s Infinity, and I have no interest in being in charge. But you need to know we’re on the same side. You guys saw what was happening on the world you rescued us from today. You saw that green cone beside the bridge-in site. Well, these creatures have somehow placed one of those cones just outside of this facility. We need to cooperate with them if we don't want the same thing to happen here.
Sergeant Harrington frowned and turned to Fornas. “Is this true?”
Fornas nodded. “We have no idea how it got there, but it’s there.”
“Jesus!” said the sergeant.
“We have a delicate situation here,” Infinity said. “We don’t yet know what these beings are capable of.”
Harrington pursed his lips and then nodded. He turned to his men. “Shepherd, Epsom, Lowman. Collect the weapons and take them back to the bunk room.”
The Marines nodded and started gathering the handheld weapons. Then they took the leashes of the five robot dogs and headed back to their quarters.
Infinity turned back to the three strangers, who were still watching with apparent fascination.
The one who had done most of the talking inside the bridging chamber held his device close to his mouth and whispered into it. When he was done, the translator said, “Now we speak. We are here because you have done things you must not do.”
The room grew silent.
“What do you mean?” Armando asked.
The creature replied through his translator. “You have a bridging device.”
Armando nodded. “Yes, we do. As we explained, we discovered the instructions for building this device in a radio signal transmitted by an alien civilization we call the Outlanders.”
“Yes, the Outlanders,” said the being. “The Outlanders sent instructions. We received Outlanders’ instructions. We made bridging devices.”
Fornas spoke up. “So, what have we done that we weren’t supposed to do?”
The three strangers turned their attention to the door on the far side of the room, where Shepherd, Epsom, and Lowman were returning without the weapons. The three Marines took their positions among the others.
The female creature stepped away from the two males and walked toward Infinity. She stopped when she was about two feet away, wafting her distinctly floral scent, which was even more pleasant at close proximity. She stared into Infinity’s eyes, and for the first time Infinity noticed her irises were not blue, green, nor brown, but rather a striking golden bronze. The woman studied Infinity’s face, apparently fascinated. She lifted a hand and gently touched Infinity’s scalp.
“How did you bridge without losing your hair?” Infinity asked.
The woman touched her translator, and it spoke rapidly to her. She whispered her reply, and the translator said, “It is important that you ask how. What you ask tells us information about you.”
That wasn’t even close to an answer. What information had Infinity just given them? She was tempted to ask again but decided to hold off.
The woman lifted Infinity’s paper shirt and peered underneath, and Infinity had to fight the urge to slap away her hand. The woman returned the shirt to its original position and looked into Infinity’s eyes again.
“Infinity,” the woman said, without the use of her translator, obviously trying to slow the word down to match the pace of human speech.
“Yes, I’m Infinity. What is your name?”
The woman’s translator spewed out at least a dozen words in less than two seconds. She smiled and spoke to her device, which then said, “You cannot speak my name. You make name for me.”
Infinity fought back a smile. “Okay, I’ll call you Kitty.”
Again the woman slowed down her speech. “Kitt-ee.”
Infinity nodded to the man behind her who had first spoken to the humans. “We’ll call him Tigger.” She shifted her gaze to the other man. “And we’ll call him, um… Teddy. Is that okay with you?”
The woman listened to her translator and then replied. “Yes. Okay with us.”
Fornas interjected, “What have we done that we were not supposed to do?”
Kitty spoke through her translator. “We have procedures. You must do our procedures. Procedures are for to help the Outlanders. Outlanders are important and wise and foremost. You did not do our procedures.”
Armando cleared his throat, “Are you saying there are rules that are supposed to be followed that we broke?”
“Yes, you did not follow procedures. You broke rule.” The woman pointed to Armando’s chest and gave a curt spin of her finger, apparently telling him to turn around to show his tattoos of the nine hundred symbols again.
Armando turned and lifted his shirt far enough to expose about a third of the symbols. “What rule are we breaking?” he asked.
“You have key to bridging technology,” she said. “It is there, on your back.”
Armando lowered his shirt and turned back around. “Yes. This key was given to us.” He nodded toward Desmond. “To him, actually. He was on a version of this world that was occupied by beings he called mongrels. The mongrels were kind enough to give him the key to bridging technology.”
The woman turned and rapidly exchanged a few phrases with Tigger and Teddy.
Tigger stepped forward and whispered into his translator. “The mongrels broke rule. Rule is do not give key to bridging technology. When you give key to bridging technology, we must give consequences. We gave consequences to mongrels. They will not give key to bridging technology again.”
Infinity felt her chest begin tightening. “What do you mean, you gave consequences? What did you do to them?”
“Mongrels bridge to many worlds. We destroy all worlds mongrels bridge to.”
Infinity stared, trying to comprehend the implications of what the creature had just said.
Desmond cleared his throat. “You destroyed every one of the worlds the mongrels have bridged to?”
<
br /> “Yes, we gave consequences.”
Desmond ran his hand over his scalp. “The world we were on when the mongrels gave me the key to bridging technology—did you destroy that world?”
“Yes. We destroy all worlds mongrels bridge to.”
“Hundreds of our people were on that world,” Infinity said. “And there were probably millions of others living there. Those people didn’t deserve to be killed!”
“We gave consequences. Mongrels will not give key to bridging technology again. Now mongrels must convince us that we should not destroy mongrel home world.”
Infinity suddenly felt the urge to kick this fuzzy asshole in the face, to break his jaw and then keep kicking until his head was nothing more than a pile of goo on the floor.
“Did you destroy the world we were on earlier today?” Desmond asked. “Is that why that green cone was there?”
“Yes. That green cone make heavy particles. You know about heavy particles. Bridging device with no key make small number heavy particles. That green cone make large number heavy particles. Bridging device with no key destroy world slowly. Green cone destroy world quickly. We gave consequences. Mongrels gave key to bridging technology to you. Consequences for mongrels. Consequences for you. That green cone.”
A grave silence permeated the med lab. Infinity glanced around at the faces of the other humans. They were all frowning, but she wasn’t sure they understood fully what was happening.
“So you're just going to destroy this world and the billions of people who live here?” Desmond asked.
After the man’s device had translated these words, the three strangers lowered their translators and exchanged a few phrases in their own language. The woman then spoke to her device again. “The mongrels gave the key to bridging technology to you. We gave consequences to mongrels. We do not know how many others you gave key to bridging technology to. Because we do not know, we destroy all worlds you bridge to. Rule is do not give key to bridging technology.”
The Trial of Extinction Page 5
