Original Design

by William Latoria

  “They’re getting better!” Blackshade said.

  Notes looked down at him, “It is a wonderful game, and I cannot wait to try it!”

  Blackshade was about to respond to Notes’ comment when, without warning, an incredibly loud buzzer went off. The sound was so unexpected, it forced Blackshade to his knees as he covered his ears with his hands. The buzzer only lasted a few seconds, and when it stopped, Blackshade regained his feet. He looked up at Tremendous and Notes, bewildered. Tremendous looked back at him and smiled.

  “The first portion of the game is over.”

  Chapter 18

  Blackshade spent the next few days in the Omega city being interviewed by Notes and teaching them what he could about basketball. It was still surreal to him, their fascination with the game, but at the same time it gave him an odd sense of pride that the Omegas so thoroughly enjoyed something created by humanity. Compared to the gifts they had given humanity, this seemed like a paltry repayment, but with the technological gap between them anything was better than nothing.

  His time amongst the Omegas passed almost entirely without incident. The only exception had been when he had suggested the basketball games they were playing needed a referee to officiate the games. The Omegas were wholly confused by the concept of a referee and when he had explained that the ref was there to ensure no one broke any of the rules, their response was not only immediate, but irate. The Omegas were very insulted that he had implied that any of them would break a rule against a fellow Omega. Blackshade had never been concerned for his safety while in the presence of the Omegas before, but there had been a few moments when he was worried that his status as their Ambassador was about to end… violently. Thankfully, Tremendous restored order quickly and explained to Blackshade that Omegas were not like Humans, and would not break the rules for a dishonest gain. Deep down, he thought the Omegas were full of it, but rather than press the subject he let it go and backed off his suggestion. The basketball games continued without referees and after a couple days of watching them play, he had to concede that once the Omegas were told how a rule worked, they did not break it.

  On his fourth day in the city, Notes came to him and offered him a tour. He had accepted eagerly and was excited by the prospect of seeing the Omega city while being chauffeured around in some sort of high tech Omega conveyance. His hopes of seeing any sort of conveyance were crushed after he had jogged after Notes for the better part of five miles. As far as he could tell, there were no conveniences or other modes of travel inside the Omega city. So, while Notes walked him around the city, he jogged beside the researcher to keep up.

  During their walk, Notes asked him many questions about humanity, with the subjects hitting on varying aspects. Emotions, relationships, breeding, pets, money, war, and a slew of other topics. Blackshade, enjoyed the conversation and gave the researcher the best and most honest answers he could think of. He wanted the Omegas to have a positive view of humanity, but he also didn’t want to mislead them in order to do so. Since neither he, nor Notes required any breaks to eat or sleep, they continued to wander around the city for days, and before Blackshade had realized it, he had been in the city for a full week.

  During their travels in the Omega city, Blackshade discovered it was entirely made up of the same drab, gray material he had seen on their ships. The multicolored lights were still everywhere, seemingly at random, but the longer he spent in the city, the more the positioning began to make sense. Even the alien shapes and sizes of the workstations, and outcrops of what constituted furniture began to become more understandable to his perception. As they were making their way through the city, Blackshade noticed a spherical shape in the middle of a walk way. It stood out because the drab gray material looked wet to him. As they passed it, Blackshade discovered that it seemed to be some kind of basin. When he asked Notes about it, the researcher told him it was a relief substation for one of the naturally occurring water sources on this section of the continent. Notes explained to him that without it, the pressure from the water source could potentially cause erosion damage to the city. The researcher then proceeded to tell him just how caustic and vile water was, and how thankfully rare the substance was in the universe. Notes also told him that the fact humans had adapted to be made up of a large percentage of water might explain why they were able to survive so well on the planet. The researcher promised they were looking into the subject with great interest.

  After another week of basketball mentoring and answering questions about humanity, Blackshade had had enough. He asked to be returned to the Foundation in order to get back to his life and his work. There was still the aftermath of the protest he wanted to help deal with. Tracking down Humanity’s Paragons and bringing them to justice for turning the protest into a riot was high on his list of priorities. He was also curious to see what, if any, progress Pious had made spreading its religion. Also, he hadn’t spoken to Zahera since he had arrived in the Omega city, and he knew he was going to have hell to pay for going so long without contacting her. Of all the things requiring his attention, he was the most anxious about Zahera.

  Thankfully, Tremendous had been more than understanding and within an hour of his request, he was matter dispersed back to his domicile inside the Unification Foundation. He had, of course, fallen unconscious because of the experience, but when he awoke in the medical center inside the Foundation, they told him he had only been out cold for ninety minutes.

  More questions were asked of him by a dozen doctors. They took blood, hair, and skin samples from him for testing. They tried to get a urine and fecal sample, but found his bladder was empty and his colon was surprisingly clean. Luckily for him, these doctors had already been briefed about the human body’s lack of need for sleep, food, or drink after exposure to the Omega ships. So this discovery wasn’t as surprising as it could have been. Still, as it was, they kept him quarantined for two days while they ran tests on him, using the CDC to ensure he wasn’t infected with some unknown Omega super virus. After the second day in quarantine, Blackshade was able to make a call to Zahera. She answered before the first vibration had completed it sequence.

  “Hey beaut….” he began.

  “WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?” Zahera yelled, interrupting him.

  Blackshade grimaced, he had been afraid of this, “Sorry, Za… Pious sent me…” he began meekly, trying to explain.

  She interrupted him again, “Don’t give me that shit! Do you think I’m stupid!? I’m well aware that the Omega sent you back to their space ship so you could talk about the moon! I’m also fully aware that you’ve been gone for two weeks, and you never so much as sent me an e-mail! The Omegas are infinitely more advanced than we are and yet they couldn’t give you five minutes to call me and let me know you were ok?!” she was panting a little and her face had turned crimson.

  Blackshade was at a complete loss, “Za, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset. I was so busy answering their questions and trying to get answers of my own, I never even thought to ask them to let me contact you.” he told her honestly.

  If looks could kill, Zahera’s would have eradicated him. She held up a finger, silencing him, “You… never even thought to call me. Is that what you just said?” she snarled.

  Too late, Blackshade saw his mistake and stammered, “Zahera! It’s not like that! I was distracted! I didn’t deliberately ignore you, it’s just overwhelming to be in their presence! The Omegas don’t typically give me a lot of free time while I’m with them.” he blurted out, trying to make her understand. “Besides, I don’t even know if they would have let me contact you if I had asked.” He knew before he finished his last sentence he was only making things worse, he just didn’t understand why. Her face turned so red it almost looked purple.

  “Overwhelming!? OVERWHELMING!? Don’t you DARE try to tell me I don’t understand what it means to be overwhelmed! I am the new Commander of your old unit! I took over the Roswell site after you got whisked off by
the Omegas and had to establish my command, and my team, in a matter of hours before those fucking entitled civilians could overpower the barricades! Not to mention, answering for the civilians that died during the initial breach!” she was seething now. Tears were beginning to form in her eyes, the site of which broke Blackshade’s heart. He was about to apologize again when she continued, “You absolutely suck at setting up a defensive perimeter by the way! Absolutely, suck! I had to re-accomplish almost every aspect of your perimeter and reassign our troops in order to properly cover all of the holes it in! There were gaps in your security so wide an Omega could have walked through!” she paused in her tirade and closed her eyes. She took a few deep breaths before looking back up at him through his display. Any hope he’d had that she was calming down was vanquished when he saw the fury in her eyes, “And the whole time, the WHOLE TIME, I was worried sick about what was happening to you! And you DARE to tell me that just because you’re having a conversation with an Omega you’re too overwhelmed to even THINK about contacting me!? Fuck you, Bill! FUCK YOU!” she screeched at him before ending the call.

  Blackshade stared blankly at his arm. He felt terrible about what had happened and for how much he had hurt her. What upset him even more was that she was right. It had never occurred to him what her perspective of the events had been, nor how the consequences of those events affected her. His mind raced, trying to figure out what to do to make amends for his oversights. He tried to call her back, but unsurprisingly, she didn’t answer. He sent her a message via his tissue-ware, but after waiting ten minutes for a reply, he got nothing. He was about to try to call her again, when Soearth walked into the room. The man looked uncomfortable, but pleased to see him. The words, ‘Poor guy’ flashed on his forehead.

  “Glad to see you’re back, Bill.” Soearth greeted him with forced joviality.

  Blackshade thought he knew why his friend’s tone was faked. The man knew what just happened, “The Foundation is monitoring my calls, aren’t they? You know Zahera is mad at me, don’t you?” he replied coldly.

  Soearth had the decency to blush, “I’m sure the powers that be are recording everything you do, Bill. Wouldn’t you, if your roles were reversed?” he retorted, a little irritation flowing into his words. “Even if they weren’t though, the doctors are monitoring you, and it’s being live fed to their offices. They should have told you, and they know that, but we all heard what happened when you called Zahera.” Soearth’s irritation faded as he made this confession. The words, ‘Poor guy’ reappeared on his forehead. “I will not pretend to know much about the fairer sex my friend, but from what little I do know that was not well handled. You may want to give her some time to calm down before you try to contact her again. One of the doctors said that if you don’t hear from her in a couple days, to send her an email reiterating how sorry you are.”

  Blackshade was thoroughly embarrassed by this, and his discomfort quickly manifested as anger, “I don’t want or need to talk about this with you or any of the other voyeurs that took it upon themselves to pry into my love life. Zahera and I will be fine without any help from you!”

  Soearth just gave him a sad look. Blackshade thought his words had really hurt the man’s feelings until the word, ‘Understandable’ appeared on his forehead. This did nothing to improve his mood. He did not want to talk about Zahera right now, didn’t even want to think about her, until he was alone and could focus on the situation fully. He also didn’t want to continue to attack his friend. As mad as he was, he knew Soearth was just trying to help him, and wasn’t that what friends were supposed to do?

  Blackshade sighed, his anger subsiding, “I’m sorry. I know I failed her pretty bad. I just don’t understand why. I thought about her all the time. Hell, one of the reasons I asked Tremendous to send me back was so that I could contact her.” he confessed, defeated, “I don’t know how to even approach her on this now… I’m terrible at this relationship stuff.”

  Soearth placed a hand on his shoulder, “Yes, you are, Bill. Would you like to speak to a police officer about it?” he asked sincerely.

  Blackshade thought about it for a moment before dismissing the idea. Receiving counseling from a police officer was tempting, but he could never get his mind around opening up to a complete stranger, even if that stranger was a professional.

  “No, I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Zahera will either forgive me, or she won’t. I know her well enough to know that when she’s like this, there’s no reasoning with her. I’ll let her cool off and try to contact her again later. If she is going to end our relationship, there’s nothing I can do to stop her.”

  Soearth didn’t reply, instead he simply sat there with him, sharing in his misery. Surprisingly, it helped, Blackshade looked up at his friend, about to say as much when he saw the words, ‘I will tell him later’ scroll across his forehead. Blackshade gratefully jumped at this, “What do you want to tell me?”

  Soearth looked very surprised by his question. The word, ‘How’ flashed on his forehead. “Umm… it’s nothing, Bill. We can talk about it later. It can wait. Get some rest.” he replied, standing to leave.

  Blackshade grabbed his arm stopping him, “You, of all people, know I don’t need rest!” he said with a laugh, “Just tell me.”

  Soearth shrugged and pulled weakly at his arm. Blackshade realized that the man couldn’t have gotten out of his grasp if he had had a crowbar, and released him. Soearth rubbed at his arm absently as he made his way to the wall and punched in a few commands at the input terminal. After a few moments, displays filled the wall, showing him satellite views of multiple devastated areas and a birds-eye view of the Omega city. He was surprised to see that the city didn’t take up the entire land mass of South America. The city matched the shape of the continent, but between the city and the shoreline there was around three miles of space. Granted, that space was filled with the debris of its former landscape, but it clearly wasn’t part of the Omega city.

  The other displays showed pure devastation. The first display his eyes settled on showed three massive craters that overlapped each other. Nothing existed inside of those craters, and each one must have been around seventy miles in diameter. Dust and ash still littered the air around the sites, giving the image a grimy appearance. When the display zoomed in a little, he could make out small figures that he assumed were personal conveyances, possibly industrial, that seemed to be searching for something amongst the ruins. What that could have been, he had no idea. As far as he could tell, nothing had survived whatever had occurred there. One look at the label on the top left of the display told him everything he needed to know to put the image into context.

  “That’s all that’s left of Moscow, isn’t it?” he asked Soearth. The man nodded solemnly.

  “It’s been completely wiped off the Earth.” Soearth confirmed sadly, “Our best analysts have gone over video of the event multiple times. If you recall, Moscow fired three previously unknown super weapons at the Omega ship. The projectiles were ultra-dense, magnetic devices that were super-charged with electricity.” he explained, pointing at the display with the three craters, “The projectiles were magnetically fired and moved at a speed approximately one fifteenth the speed of light. Due to the technological superiority of the Omega ship, instead of eradicating it upon impact, the projectiles, for lack of a better way to describe it, inertly thudded against the hull, and then fell back to the Earth moving at terminal velocity. The results of which were three, equally devastating explosions, within ten miles of each other, all happening within seconds of one another. The yield of each of those explosions was the equivalent to a one hundred megaton nuclear bomb and left blast craters approximately seventy miles in diameter. Nothing survived inside the blast radiuses, and massive earthquakes and tsunamis began to take shape. Much of the surrounding landscape was ruined by the blast waves. The only reason there wasn’t more devastation is the fact that the natural disasters were stopped before they could reach their ful
l potential. We can only assume that the Omegas were the ones that stopped them, as no science known to man can explain what neutralized them. Even with their assumed intervention however, over two-hundred and seventy-eight million people were erased from existence by Russia’s mistake; the entire city is gone.” Soearth paused for a moment, as the display zoomed into the craters. The orientation changed from a bird’s eye view to two hundred feet above the ground, which allowed Blackshade to better make out the shapes he had seen moving around inside the craters. He wasn’t surprised to see industrial conveyances littering the area. At first, he thought the Russians were looking for survivors, but as he watched, he realized that wasn’t the case. The conveyances weren’t looking for survivors or salvage as there were obviously none. Instead, they seemed to be trying to excavate the three projectiles that had caused all of this. The realization made Blackshade feel a little sick.

  Soearth continued, “You can see that there is some recovery activity in the area. From what we’ve been able to ascertain, they have found nothing. The devastation is complete.” he paused at this point, a gloomy look darkening his face, “We don’t think they’re looking for survivors, Bill. We think they’re trying to recover the remains of the weapons they fired at the Omega ship. Whatever those things are made of, they seem to be of great value to the Russian government.”

  They were both quiet for a moment while they contemplated it all. Blackshade motioned toward another display. At his silent question, Soearth enlarged the display, showing what looked to be the remains of a neighborhood. By comparison, the neighborhood looked recoverable, given enough time and resources. There were ample signs of small arms fire, and larger caliber explosions everywhere. Some of the exterior walls of the homes had clearly been blown open by those explosions, and judging by the damage seen inside the homes, the occupants had put up a fight. Whether they had lived or not was anybody’s guess, because there were no bodies or body parts anywhere to be seen. There were plenty of shredded garments on the ground or hanging off of random debris. There was also plenty of blood peppering the image, but not so much as a dead animal could be seen anywhere. Blackshade looked up at the title of the display and saw he was looking at a neighborhood in the province of Tibet, China.