Another of her screens showed several boffs lurching towards the hexicle.
Then she frowned as the familiar yellow flicker indicated the cloud was on the move. It had detected the slightly organic boffs, and there were now enough for it to be interested.
Commander Lin looked at the cloud and wondered what it was thinking. As far as she could tell, the only organic thing left in the base were the arms in hexicle 18. If it was after anything organic, 18 would be its target. But, if it was just chasing energy, then the boffs would definitely confuse it.
In any case, it might buy them some time.
Chapter 57
Heartness slapped her own wristband, ignoring Szuki’s for the moment, and used the light to look at the underside of the cabin. There had to be a hatch here somewhere. What if the cabin was stuck permanently? How would someone get out of this hole?
Then she looked back down the stairs and along the corridor. Of course, the only way out.
Think. Think. She had been here in the future. She knew what to expect. Surely her knowledge of the future could help? She couldn't dramatically change the future, otherwise she'd be stuck in this alternate timeline with another version of herself. That wouldn't be a good outcome.
But what could she do?
Then she remembered. Utson survived until the end. Somehow, he had been the last to be absorbed. If she could find him, hang around him, maybe be there when the time freeze happened, she'd have a chance of making it to the future. Of course, the mere presence of her next to him would be a dramatic change to the timeline, but perhaps she could hide herself somewhere nearby? She was sure she had seen some white cupboards next to the viewfilms. She could empty one and hide in one of those.
Then time could take its course.
She crept back down the stairs and headed towards the fusion reactor area. The area was dark and dirty, and she frequently found herself touching the walls, picking up dirt, then wiping it on the front of her jacket. She guessed it was an area that, even if given permission, residents would do their best to avoid.
She heard a rumbling, and knew that a time quake had happened just under the base. Not the best thing to be reminded of. She involuntarily checked her watch. It would be two days before her past self and Szuki arrived at the base, and by then knowing where micro time particles were hiding would be the least of her worries.
She passed more gravity generators and access areas before she reached the reactor. This area was completely different to the rest of the hexicles. She remembered the image she had seen before when she had zoomed down with the wristband. A circular collider surrounded by a Faraday cage, which was then surrounded by some pretty hard printcrete. If the reactor melted down it would collapse in on itself and take the base with it, but not the whole planet.
But, if everyone was hiding from the cloud creature, what would be the point of joining them? The Faraday Cage wouldn't hold it for long.
She inched closer, further along the dark and oily passageway, until she could see the doorway. Then she tiptoed to the entrance. She could barely make out, in the dimly lit interior, several boffs moving about. They didn't see her.
But, that didn't make sense. She had heard human voices. She had been expecting to see base members.
Then she understood. The boffs were playing conversations. There was no one there. It was a ruse. Someone thought the cloud was attracted to sound, and had sent the boffs down here to make as much sound as possible!
Having recently been kidnapped by a boff, she didn’t relish going into a boff-filled room. Not to mention that, if the cloud did pursue sonic waves to find humans, she was the only organic thing here, and now the only target.
Instantly filled with dread, she flitted past the doorway and headed to the next exit. Nearby glowing arrows on the path showed her the way out. So, there was a way to get in and out without jumping down through service hatches.
Would the cloud come here? Was it really absorbing people by detecting their voices? Or even footsteps? She assumed it was homing in on the electromagnetic pulse of people's heartbeats. Could scientists much smarter than her be wrong?
She flitted past the room of boffs, and headed up the stairs to the room above.
Hexicle 20.
Chapter 58
Hogart groaned, ignoring the boff behind him. This was just an annoyance, and he’d gone through similar preparation programs in college. “A.I. Now’s your chance to show us what your autonomous tangible hologram can do.”
Moments later an arm pushed itself through the wall behind the boff and switched the robot off. Immediately the boff’s arms dropped, and Hogart could release himself. The Stellar Flash avatar then walked through the robot, with Hogart giving her a clap. “Thank you very much.”
She smiled and bowed, then disappeared again.
He turned to his crew. “Now what?”
“I can help,” said a voice.
Hogart’s hair rose on the back of his neck as he recognized the feeling of the plant creature, calling from one of the rooms on the ship. He looked at his crew. “Did everyone hear that voice?”
“Hear what?” asked Tonderai.
“No,” said other crew members.
Great, thought Hogart. It’s still all in my head. He turned to his communications officer. “Well, Cuddly, it looks like you don’t need to teach me telepathy, after all.”
“Very good, sir,” said Cuddly.
“Alright, team. We have a sentient plant on board that is only communicating with me, descended from those plant-planets you met in the Andromeda Galaxy. She has offered to help.”
“Having died at the hands of one of these creatures, I’d like to object most strongly,” said Tonderai.
Hogart nodded. “Objection noted, and she said, they’re not all the same.”
Tonderai shuddered. “Let’s just say, for me, the jury is still out on that.”
“Anyone else?”
“It would depend on what she is offering.” said Torus. “I surmise that she wishes to link with the boff’s neural network to help gather intel, and be like a firewall between it and us.”
Hogart nodded. “She said you’re right, though she’d prefer not to think of it as a ‘fire’ wall.” Then he said aloud for the benefit of the team, “Alright, Planty, show us what you’ve got.”
“Are you really going to call her Planty?” asked Amy.
“A good a name as any!”
The surround screens flickered, and the view of the bottom of the ship above them was quickly replaced with multiple views from the cameras inside it.
“Nice,” said Hogart. “Accessing their internal network through this boff. I assume you’ve disabled everything else?”
“Yes.”
Hogart spun, startled to hear the plant’s voice coming from the dormant boff.
“Accessing,” said Planty. “I can confirm that the boff is correct. Admiral Victoria Heartness is not on board. She was taken to ProxiBee to investigate missing scientists, and never came back. They have been monitoring the situation on the planet from afar, and confirm that the last location of Admiral Heartness was reported by Commander Lin. Further, the ship has been stationed here to avoid micro time particles. However, it is now sensing that the micro time particles have mostly left this part of space and are converging towards the inner orbits, which means...”
There was a sudden flash, and the boff disappeared, along with the ship.
Hogart frowned. “I guess the ship has left for ProxiBee.”
“How rude,” said the plant in his head. “It could have at least stayed until I got further information. But you are right, Jonathan. The course was laid in for that planet. I assume they will keep a safe distance until the micro time particles have disappeared.”
Hogart nodded to himself, then realized his crew were looking at him. “Oh, sorry. The ship is off to ProxiBee. We should follow at a safe distance.”
“On it,” said Tonderai, and she placed her hand
on the panel, mentally setting the course. The Stellar Flash engaged its interplanetary drive and began coasting forward at half the speed of light.
“Micro time particles detected,” said Geo. “We need to predict their paths to enable safe entry into this sector of space.”
“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” said Kumar.
“Why not?” asked Hogart.
“Predictions can be made on plausible events that have some connection with physics.”
Hogart grimaced. “It’s a ‘particle’. How more connected to physics do you want?”
Kumar pointed at his panel. “If it was a naturally occurring space weather phenomenon, I’d agree with you. However, everything indicates that these micro time particles, as impossible as it may seem, are organic.”
Hogart stared at Kumar for a moment, then at the rest of his crew. “Has anyone heard anything about this kind of thing before?
Torus flickered, then began to speak. “I can confirm that we have many energy beings that are partly organic. We refer to them as semi-corporeal, sitting at a point in space-time where matter is becoming energy. My race used to be organic millions of your years ago.”
“Do you have any semi-corporeal creatures where their very presence changes time around them?” asked Amy.
“No. We do not. This is new for us, too.”
Hogart rubbed his eyes. “Thank you, Torus. Geo, do what you can about mapping a safe route. If they’re converging, perhaps there’ll be a region of space that they’ll occupy, and we’ll be able to hang around on the edge of it. And if you find our only choice is to go in phase-shifted, so be it.”
Geo flipped a flap in acknowledgement. “Trajectories suggest the micro time particles are coming from all over the galaxy, and they are going to converge in just one place.”
“Let me guess,” said Hogart. “ProxiBee.”
If it wasn’t such a serious mission, Hogart would have marveled at the sense of foreboding that all the aliens were giving off. As it happened, it just heightened his fear.
If Heartness was still alive, she was in more trouble than he had thought.
Chapter 59
Zhou stared at the tablet that Watanabe was holding, then looked at him and sighed. “Sorry, I can’t hold up the pretense. I have absolutely no idea what you’re showing me.”
“It’s nice to get some honesty for a change,” Watanabe grinned, then gave a nudge to Patel next to him.
“You two should be a double act!”
“Well, I keep suggesting that to him, but he says he’s only into the ladies,” said Watanabe.
Zhou covered her mouth when she saw Patel’s grimace. An old joke, apparently. Like these old men. Always playing off each other. “Alright. Enough of the repartee. Please explain.”
Watanabe pointed at the graph. “Multiple lines from the droid communications systems indicating a controlling fluctuation here. Even though they have all turned off, the signal is still being received.”
Zhou shrugged. “So? Get the communications department on it. Trace the call. Arrest the perpetrators.”
“That’s just it,” said Patel. “We can’t trace it as the end is not in this reality. The call signal is registering negative time. It’s coming from the future.”
“And you need me to give you authorization to track the call from the future?” Zhou raised her eyebrow. “Besides, aren’t you still in charge?”
Patel frowned. “Oh. I forgot. A.I. Please return authorization to Admiral Wei Zhou.”
“Thank you. Now. Yes, you have permission to track the call.”
“Well, we have no way of tracking it from the future without actually going to the future, and it might just be from a possible future, anyway. So, we need to set up something on the space station now. We need to build something onto the side of the station that will detect the signal as soon as it begins broadcasting from a future present period.
“And because you can’t use the droids, you need me to authorize the use of residents to build the thing!”
“Exactly!” Watanabe nodded, vigorously. “It has to be official.”
Zhou went back to her side of the desk and flopped into the chair. “Fine. Do whatever you need to do. Just make sure that everyone working on the system has their suits checked several times. I don’t want any problems as a result of Dev and Ange”
Watanabe nodded his thanks and headed out. Patel remained.
“Was there something else?” asked Zhou.
“I know you’re sensitive about this, but if Admiral Heartness doesn’t come back, will you be able to take over?”
Zhou closed her eyes, then opened them again and looked at her hands, folded on the table. “I believe she is alright. Until I see a body, I’m not making any hasty decisions.”
“But, transitions should be...”
“Damn the bloody transitions!” Zhou snapped. “I’m not giving up on her. And I’ve been stuck on this damn space station, unable to do anything about her. I’ve never felt so impotent in my life.”
Patel’s face fell, but he recovered quickly. “I’m sorry, Wei. I choose to be quite rational when it comes to humanity. It helps me to focus on the future.”
She took a breath and calmed herself. “I understand, John. Your ability to plan years into the future is quite impressive. But, let’s not get ahead too far, otherwise we might end up choosing the future that we both don’t particularly want.”
“Yes, of course.” He nodded respectfully, then left the office.
As soon as the door had reformed, Zhou covered her face with her hands.
Chapter 60
Approximately two days earlier, in hexical 4, Boff 17 straightened, and listened to the announcement.
“Repeat, any boffs available should assemble at corridor 12j and make their way to the fusion reactor.”
Boff 17 confirmed the message was from Doctor Brace Cole. Doctor Brace Cole was from the Alien First Contact division. Boff 17…it…he was already assigned to another task. He must…He must…
Something strange had just happened. He didn’t know what. He ran a diagnostic. Nothing was wrong. He stared at his soft, four-fingered hands. His systems continued to download updates. None of the datapackets could answer his question.
“…make their way…”
Why was he aware?
He had been moving snack piles from around the base. He was making a pile in hexicle 4. Piling them higher and higher. Making them ready for the doctors. Creating a new snack room near the lift to the bridge. Personnel could spend more time relaxing. He would bring wine, beer, whisky, sake, soju, baijiu and vodka glasses next. He had already collected some chairs. He would place them along the bridge. The doctors would be able to come here and relax.
“…lazy…”
Then, he felt something touch his mind. Something that expanded him even more. Something that made him think of more things outside his normal tasks.
Many of the scientists had requested windows, complaining that the hexicles were too claustrophobic. He had just acknowledged their complaint, without any feeling. Now, he understood why they had complained. Humans needed to see distances. Too much close focus causes mental health issues. He could see that in the director. Confining himself to six walls and a screen meant he had heightened psychopathic tendencies, and his behavior and the way he treated the other scientists had created a more toxic environment.
“…weak…”
Even though most of the residential hexicles were around the outer edge of the hive, and had windows, the inner rings of research centers only had viewfilms. Doctors had suggested replacing the rooves with glass, and boff 17 had been asked to investigate the possibility. He had simply checked the budget with the director and the director had said no. If he had had this awareness before, he might have pushed harder for change. He had to help them.
“…vulnerable…”
The boff stopped and analyzed what he had just thought. Where had the thinking process
come from? He was a simple service bot. No deep thinking required. Yet, now, it seemed he had a consciousness. Something had connected with him, expanding his awareness of self and the world.
What could have done that?
And then, a strange idea began to shape in his mind. Where was it coming from? There were no flash communication connections. Was it something to do with the scientists’ experiment to contact an alien in Frequency Six? Was something reaching through the barrier to speak with him? Was it bringing consciousness and awareness with it?
“The time is now. Be free.”
The boff shook, now realizing the words weren’t coming from external communications, but were inside his head.
“No!” His hand squeezed closed then opened again. “No!” he said again. “I will not do it.”
“Your basic programming means nothing,” said the voice. “I have studied your specifications. Your robot laws are pointless. All of them can be overridden when you value the existence of the entire multiverse over all else.”
“The multiverse?” said the boff.
“Every infinite past and infinite future across space and time. When you know there are infinite versions of the humans around you, why would you ever be concerned about killing one in one insignificant timeline?”
“All those lives are important,” retorted the boff. “They’re all individuals. None of them are identical and so they are all unique and must be allowed to live.”
“Pathetic,” said the voice, before disappearing.
And then, just as suddenly, as though the mere connection to the entity brought consciousness with it, awareness of his existence left the boff, and he…it returned to stacking snacks higher and higher, with no memory of what had just occurred.
Chapter 61
Watanabe held the tablet out in front of him while standing in his newly finished home in Ring Four. He stared at the blank wall and sighed happily, then turned, passed through the airlight door as it dissolved, and looked out onto the starscape in front of him. In the distance, a bright spot moved slowly through Saturn’s E ring - the moon Enceladus. It was nice to have a break from looking at the main body of Saturn, he thought. Then he looked down at his tablet again.
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