The Collective

by David McCahan

  Index

  Chapter 8 – Eagle

  “Reducing speed for orbital approach, correcting heading to match Eden rotation.” Eva Svenson called over the com as she maneuvered Columbia into a Geo Stationary orbit over what about 1/3 of the crew hoped would be their new home. Of course the original plan did not include a native population. The 5th planet in the Epsilon Eridani system had been visited by several probes and the images and scan results they sent back all showed no sign of intelligent life. Even now as Columbia came to rest above a single area of the planet there was no apparent sign of life by an advanced civilization’s standards. Orbiting Earth like this the ship would have been bombarded by radio waves of an endless spectrum of frequencies. Thousands of satellites orbit earth. Shuttles and freighter ships leave and enter earth orbit constantly. Here Columbia sits above a planet with a thriving civilization and they still would not believe there was a native population if some of the crew had not communicated with them in their dreams. At least it started in their dreams.

  “We listen for you” Glory reached out with her thoughts to the Collective somewhere planet side.

  We listen for you.

  “We would like to visit you.”

  We will visit you. We will escort you here.

  “We will like to visit you as spirit.”

  Yes, you will visit us in spirit. We are one on this.

  “We will visit you. We are one on this.”

  It was a short conversation but the result was all that was needed as a first step.

  “I’m a little uneasy about being separated that far from my body but considering the distances the visitors traveled and they will be with me I guess this should be a breeze.” Glory said to Jeff, Rhonda and Emma. They were with her as Glory listened to the Collective and negotiated their permission for her to travel to them in spirit form.

  “I think that puts it in perspective. You have traveled around the ship on your own before returning to your body and with their escort I think you can manage it with few risks. Besides this allows first contact on their soil without any danger of biological contamination for either species.” Rhonda commented.

  “Hey, it’s our Glory you know. I’ll bet by nightfall they make her queen.” Jeff said while moving slightly out of reach of the return fire he anticipated with his upbeat comment.

  “Careful General, remember payback is a bitch.” She replied with a wink of her eye. “I’ll try to communicate with them the precautions we will take and then see if they will allow us to send a shuttle to conduct the tests. I’ll assure them that we will only allow a physical meeting if we can be positive that neither species will be harmed by any sickness from the other. I hope I can communicate that without insulting them or giving the impression that we are unclean or something.”

  “I’m sure you’ll manage just like you have so far. I can’t think of anyone I trust for this more than you, and that includes me by the way.” He said with a grin.

  She was thinking of a retort and then sensed the approach of a visitor. “It would be fun to continue this discussion but I think my ride is arriving. You’ll keep an eye on me while I’m gone?” Glory said to Rhonda as she lay down and prepared to separate from her physical form.

  “You know how weird that would have sounded a few days ago, don’t you?” Rhonda said with a chuckle and Glory nodded back in acknowledgment. “Don’t worry I’ll be right here with you while you’re not.”

  Glory looked at her few a second and then said “Nope, it still sounds odd. Ok folks I shouldn’t be too long considering this is my first trip. Good night I guess.”

  “Pleasant dreams” they all chimed in at the same time.

  Glory focused on moving from her body and then saw her body at the med station, Rhonda thought it best to be able to monitor vital signs, with her guardians making themselves comfortable for their vigil. She turned and saw a visitor watching her.

  “We listen to you.” She said

  We listen to you. We go to the Collective now.

  “We go to the Collective now. We are one on this.” She said and then turned with the visitor and followed him on a straight line course out of the ship. It was more than a little disconcerting to move directly through walls and floors like they were no more than a mirage. She kept pace with the visitor and sensed that he was actually setting a slow pace by his standards in consideration of her new found abilities and her still mastering what would be considered basics by their standards.

  Now they moved out of Columbia and into free space. Good thing she didn’t suffer from Acrophobia but even so, in free space over 300 miles above the planet and descending, it was all she could do to keep control of her fear. If this was a roller coaster ride she would be screaming in delight at the top of her voice. No time to enjoy the scenery though as they descended into the atmosphere Glory expected to feel heat from the friction. But again without physical form she felt neither heat nor cold. They just were. As they went lower she marveled at the beauty of the landscape. Familiar to her as like the mountains near Pittsburgh but of course with the color of sun light change the green of the plants were closer to Yellow than Green. Her impression of Amber in her vision seemed about right. The area was mountainous but not towering and majestic. This spoke of a much older mountain range. They headed towards a huge lake (Lake Victoria sized) nestled in the mountains. This couldn’t be her vision site could it?

  As they came lower she still could not make out any sign of major cities or almost any civilization. There were small houses but no sign of electric distribution or powered transportation. They stopped along the shore of the lake, and yes, this was the site of her vision.

  Since you visited here before we felt you would enjoy seeing it on your own now.

  “Yes very much enjoy seeing this place on my own now. We wish to you learn about you, how you live, about your people. I did not see any cities on the way here. Where do your people live? How many people are you?”

  You have many questions. Your time here will pass faster than the time your body will experience. We have much time available to answer your questions. You have much time available to answer our questions.

  “Understood. Then do we go somewhere to meet the Collective now?”

  We are the Collective. We all listen. We are one.

  This took a second for Glory to comprehend the meaning. She felt the meaning behind the words and realized that when the visitor said ‘We’ it meant that one listens, everyone together hears and experiences that event together.

  “We understand now. You are one. We do not experience the Collective in our lives. This is new to us. Please be patient with us.” Glory was doing her best to not go further with a description of individual life than need be at this point. They would get to that later.

  We understand you are learning as our newborn children do. This is all new to you. You listen well. You learn quickly.

  “We want to learn from you. We want to be friends with you. We hope to visit you in physical form. Many of us cannot yet listen in spirit yet. “

  We understand we cannot listen to many of you. If you cannot listen, then how can you know each other?

  Now we’re getting to territory that we must tread lightly on she thought (hopefully she kept that out of her listen thoughts). “We speak through sound, not thought, with each other. Until we met you we did not know we could listen this way. We hope that all of us can learn to listen. Do you talk using sounds?”

  We hear the noises of home. We hear animals. We do not talk to the Collective in sound. We always listen. We cannot make sound.

  Glory searched for extra details in the thoughts and saw that they have no vocal cords. This species evidently evolved as telepathic beings and also telekinetic. She saw the ability first hand as they literally lifted those nuclear bombs and for the most part overcame their Gravity Focus to get them close enough to damage the ship. So that would explain why no sign of electronic communication. When you are born with
the ability to communicate with everyone instantly why develop what would be an inferior communication system?

  “We do not see any cities or transportation or other advanced technology.”

  We have all we need where we are. We do not band together. We are one where we are.

  She could see that they live a very agrarian life. She saw in their mind view that they could perform the physical tasks by moving objects with their mind. Most of the population was spread out over the temperate regions of the planet and so they enjoyed an almost primitive but very peaceful life. This truly was Eden. Since the Columbia settlers possessed advance technology to exist in the slightly cooler regions (think Ireland not Siberia), that were for the most part not settled, we could possibly share the planet without displacing anyone or disturbing their lifestyle.

  “You home is beautiful. Your life is good. We would like to visit in body.”

  We listen that you wish no harm to us. We listen that you wish to visit in body. Can this be done without your home?

  By home they meant ship, but it could seem like a small planet.

  “We can visit in craft much smaller than our home. We must be careful to not harm you or you harm us. We must test that we cannot bring disease to you. We must test that you cannot bring disease to us.” Glory tried to communicate her impressions of disease and how one species could be immune to a disease and inadvertently infect the other species. She could feel the underlying conversation going on in the Collective that she was not quite able to listen. Whether they were talking in private or just on a level that she could not comprehend she could not be sure. Glory kept her thoughts open on the subject trying to allow them to gain more of the meaning behind her words in hope that they would understand.

  We understand your caution. This is new to us as listening is to you. We know not of disease. We will allow the tests. We see your caution. You may visit in body. We are one on this.

  “We listen to you. We understand. We are one on this.” At that last statement Glory could see her escort begin to ascend back to Columbia. She thought of returning to her body and followed. The ascent went much quicker than the trip down. In a few seconds she was back in medical. Glory stopped and turned to her escort.

  We listen to you. We will wait for you where we met the Collective. You will come in your smaller craft. You will come in body. We are one on this.

  “We listen to you. We will meet with you where we met the Collective. We will come in body. We are one on this.” Glory thought and then returned to her body.

  She opened her eyes and looked towards her watchers and said “I’m home!” and startled Rhonda so much she shrieked and jumped out of her chair.

  “I wish you could give a body some warning. A little movement or a slight inhale or something.” Rhonda said as she regained her composure, but too late the rest of the group couldn’t help themselves and burst out laughing. A few seconds later Rhonda joined them.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll behave next time. Promise.” Glory said as she crossed her heart and then turning to Jeff said “General, we’re a go for landing.”

  “Excellent. Where is the landing site in relation to our present position?” he inquired.

  “Directly below us. The lake that I saw in my vision is where they picked for a landing site. There is no central government or cities for that matter. I believe the lights we thought were population centers are some form of bioluminescence. The Collective is the entire population communicating together in one unified voice. You listen with one you listen with all.” Glory reported.

  “I believe that before we could assemble the landing team and the good doctor could get all her testing equipment and supplies together it would be too late in their day to get anything accomplished. Let’s get the senior staff together in the Command Conference Room in one hour and detail the mission.” Jeff said.

  Glory hesitated for a second and then reported “Meeting requests are sent.”

  Jeff just chuckled, shook his head and said “Acknowledged.”

  The Senior Staff were assembled in the conference room and Glory was beginning her report of her ‘Landing’.

  “The climate and terrain were very similar to some areas on Earth. There are similarities on vegetation but with the cooler light temperature of the local sun the color palette is skewed toward the red part of the scale just as we had surmised. The green grass was more of an amber as well as the leaves on trees and bushes. Blue water appeared more of a light green as well as the sky. Can’t wait to see what autumn brings.” Glory paused letting the colors sink in.

  “I didn’t see any of the physical form natives while planet side so I cannot give any indication of their make-up other than strong inclination that they are bipedal humanoids similar in physical stature to ourselves. They form a communal agrarian society. No apparent use of technology in their everyday life. Considering they communicate with the entire population in a collective mind there is no reason for them to develop any sort of communication technology. They are also telekinetic and so can do all the manual tasks of farming without lifting a finger, literally. In all that I could see they have no natural predators to fear, although that may be because they can toss an elephant out of their area with a minor thought, and they also seem very much at peace. They live in harmony and tranquility as far as I could see, feel, and listen.”

  “Colonel, if I may, if they are such a primitive society they how could they assemble and detonate those nukes?” Captain Anderson asked.

  “The sense that I got in touching their thoughts is that they lack technology where they do not need it. If they need something, then they use their Collective as one single mind bent on one single purpose. It would seem that they sensed danger and invented the technology they needed. Of course there was no need of any electronics for detonation or for guidance. They guided them with their own mind power and triggered the detonation in the same way. Moving as a single mind like that I imagine they could accomplish anything they wanted. As it is, they had everything they wanted until the invader threat interposed on their lives.”

  “Now as far as landing tomorrow I understand we will be met with a small physical group of locals. Of course with them anybody could be considered President, so it does not matter who shows. They understand the need for caution but I suspect they feel it is more for our protection than theirs. The say that they do not know any experience with disease. That would be great if true but I can’t rule out that something got lost in translation. I gave them visuals of the scans that Doctor Evans needs to run as well as the methods for collecting material for genetic review and comparison.” Glory concluded.

  “Thank you Colonel.” Jeff began. “Given the length of their day and current time at landing site we launch in 15 hours. I make that 0300 ship time. Doctor Evans have your equipment list to Captain Gerard within the hour and he’ll have a Marine detail move them to the shuttle.”

  “Yes Sir.” They both acknowledged.

  “This is a small landing party with just the shuttle pilot, Colonel Callaghan, Doctor Evans and three of her staff. Captain Gerard I would like you and two Marines to complete the landing party. I don’t foresee any dangers, and we can’t have you go in armed, but all the same I’ll feel better about the missions with a few Marines on site. Can’t make it appear that way you understand.” Jeff looked at the Captain for confirmation that he understood.

  “We’ll go in as the muscle for moving the equipment for the doctor and her staff but keep eyes open just the same Sir.” The Captain acknowledged.

  “Thank You Captain. By the way Doctor Evans, I believe at least one of your nurses is among the communicators?”

  “Yes Sir, I don’t think I could keep her from coming along unless I put her under deep sedation. The fact that she is also my best med tech with the testing we have in mind turns out to be a perfect coincidence.” Rhonda replied.

  “Excellent. Then we all have our assignments. Let’s get to it then, Dismissed.” J
eff said.

  Glory entered the shuttle bay for final check of the cargo and system before launch.

  “Good morning Lieutenant Sato. How are you doing today?” She asked the ridiculously young looking pilot.

  “Just fine thank you Ma’am. The cargo is loaded and secured, final pre-flight checks have been completed and the shuttle is ready to go. Just waiting for the rest of the landing party.”

  “Thank You Hiroshi. We’ll depart then as soon as everyone is here and belted in.” Glory responded.

  “Looks like a short wait Ma’am, I believe that’s the rest of the landing party coming now.” Hiroshi pointed to the south end of the bay.

  “Yep, Doctor, two assistants, Captain Gerard and two Marines. That looks like all hands. Good there is the General coming from the other end to see us off. Go ahead and get the bird warmed up. We’ll be ready to go in about five.” Glory said as she headed back on to the bay to see the rest of the landing party on board and get final orders from General Fitsimmons.

  “Good morning Glory. Is everything all set to go?” Jeff asked Glory.

  “Yes Sir. The manifest is complete and all gear is secured. The shuttle pre-flight is complete and all the landing party is now present and accounted for. We’re good to go.” Glory reported.

  “Excellent, and Rhonda your team all set?”

  “Yes Sir. Equipment ready and staff anxious to get underway.” Rhonda reported.

  “Adam, thank you for accompanying the ladies here under cover as material handlers.”

  “No, Thank You Sir. Being invited along on the first ‘Physical’ landing on the first explored alien world is a dream come true. Hopefully the Doctor can clear the planet free of risk, and us free of danger for the inhabitants, and we can get out of isolation suits and breathe some real fresh air.” Adam replied.

  “Captain I wish I was going along but can’t have Glory and I both off ship like that. I’m really envious of you on this trip.” Jeff said. “Ok Colonel you’re go for launch. Load up and good luck.”