Please refine the question, Steven.
"Goddamnit!" My frustration forced me to forget to think at Mike when I cursed him.
Goddamnit, Mike! I mean, aren't you confused? The Rain was a bunch of large meteors that impacted the Earth, correct?
No, Steven. I am not confused. The Rain was due to impacts of multiple collisions of the Earth with arbitrary and artificial gravitational field bubbles in the spacetime continuum. It was not meteors.
What the hell are arbitrary and artificial gravitational field bubbles in the spacetime continuum?
I am sorry, Steven, but you do not have a knowledge basis for which I can begin explaining to you.
You mean I'm not smart enough to understand the explanation?
No, Steven. I mean you have no basic knowledge of the subject for me to explain it to you.
What basic knowledge do I need?
You would call it math and physics, but more specifically your species understands it as General Relativity and Quantum Physics.
No shit? Then teach me all I need to know to understand.
Okay. It will take a few seconds.
A few seconds later and I was a Nobel Prize-caliber physicist. I understood about spacetime curvature and mass-energy density and wormholes and warp drives. The math that I had learned was incredible. I could understand all of the gravitational effects in the universe with a simple tensor equation. Five seconds ago I only had a vague notion that tensors even existed.
Okay Mike, you are telling me that The Rain was a bunch of warp bubbles colliding with Earth at high warp velocities?
Yes, Steven.
Then aliens attacked Earth?
No, Steven.
Then where did these warp bubbles come from?
Earth.
Earth! We don't have that kind of technology!
Please refine the question, Steven.
You understand damned well what my question was. For an information distribution and management intelligence you aren't very intelligent. Start anticipating questions from voice inflections and such and improve your conversational skills, damnit!
Yes, Steven. I see. Yes, humans have developed warp technology and have ventured as far as seventy-six light years from Earth. The warp war was humans against humans.
Warp war?
Yes, Steven.
I had sat there quietly in the chair for twenty or more minutes thinking about that; a warp war. The Rain was actually a war, something that we had done to ourselves. It was hard to believe. As I thought about it I got angry at the damn humans that started the war and caused the deaths of millions . . . including everybody I ever knew. I also thought more about poor JackieZZ and Mom and Dad and Carly, which led me to thinking of good ol' Lazarus.
I snapped myself out of the bad line of emotions—something I couldn't have done with that damned implant in my head. Recalling the conversation and the abductee data brought my focus back to my original conversation with Mike. The original topic was why had Tatiana and a couple hundred thousand others not been allowed access to the alien computer system and why did the number of abductions increase during wars? I asked Mike but he didn't have a clue. The only thing we did decide was that there was a definite relationship between them. It was interesting also that the number of the isolated abductees increased nonlinearly within the time period of The Rain. Then it also dawned on us that the increase in abductions started before The Rain actually took place, several years in fact. Mike correlated that to the first detected warp experiment on Earth.
What did all of this mean? We weren't sure but we were certain that the Grays had been watching us very closely since the beginning of our civilization. Mike didn't know why and that seemed odd to me. If he was to manage information for the Grays, why were they keeping some of that information from him?
Something else had occurred to me, as well. I had not remembered any of my abductions and Tatiana had said as much to me on several occasions. So, did some of these abductees remember their experiences?
Mike?
Yes, Steven?
Tatiana and I don't remember our abductions. I mean, we have no recollection. In fact, I didn't even really believe in alien abductions, before. So, why are there so many stories about them?
That is a good question, Steven. I think that is part of what the aliens are trying to find out, because my records show that no human in the history of the abduction process has ever been left with any knowledge or means of recalling their abduction experience. The abduction myths are just that, myths, since no human has any physical memory of them. The nanomachines erase all memory of the events. Therefore, the abduction stories are not because of these alien abductions. Odd, is it not?
Perhaps the aliens were just sloppy?
I do not think so, Steven. The records I have show the abduction process very clearly and there would be no residual traces of the abductions that humanity could find. You would need nanotechnology at best.
So, nobody can remember the abduction . . . hmm . . . then why do the stories describe the Grays to a tee?
Again, I do not understand that and I think neither do the aliens.
It appeared that Tatiana was going to sleep all morning—or whatever the hell time it was—so I decided to have Mike make me smart. I spent all morning having things downloaded into my memory—all sorts of things. Mike also had to alter my memory neural networks so that they would remain as permanent and/or long-term memories. I told him to fix it so that I would remember to the minute detail anything and everything that I sensed from now on. He did. In less than an hour I became the smartest human being that had ever lived. With a technology like this you can imagine how far we must be behind the rest of the high-tech aliens. If all the Grays had this type of knowledge—just imagine a race of beings where each being was smarter than the entire human race! The thought was discouraging, frightening, and enlightening all at the same time. The only thing that bothered me was having to wear the damned headband all the time. After discussing this with Mike, we figured out a way to have a small implant placed just under the skin in several places around the scalp that would be a permanent connection without a need for the headband. I guessed that since the aliens didn't have hair it didn't bother them wearing the headbands. Tatiana was thrilled to not have to wear the thing any longer. She complained that it was bad for her hair.
I spent a few minutes mimicking all of the athletic, martial arts, and military self-defensive tactics I had learned. I had become an amazing creature. I had the strength of several men, I believed. I could move and do things so fast that it would be hard to see or catch me. My hands were definitely quicker than the eyes. And I could barely make myself breathe hard. I was not sure at all what my physical limitations were. I had never felt like this ever. I had no idea what I should do with my newfound abilities other than the fact that I planned to stop the Grays from ever abducting another human being!
Why had I been allowed access to Mike? Mike had told me that the Grays were a hivelike mentality and they all worked toward a common goal. If there were no hackers there, then why would they set off certain information? Do all societies have classified programs?
While Tatiana slept I decided that I wanted to meet Mike in person, so I planned to follow the map of the alien ship in my mind to the computer core crystal. I morphed on some socks and shoes, jeans and a T-shirt, and passed through the wall. I told Mike to give me a flashlight and he explained to me that the nanomachines only worked in that room.
Why do the nanomachines only work in there, Mike?
They must be within five meters of the computer transmitter. The nanomachines are too small to carry programming. All of the programming is in my systems, and now, of course, in Mikhail also. The transmitted information between myself and the machines is tremendous and requires an enormous bandwidth. Since bandwidth broadcast over wireless communications falls off as a function of distance squared, enough control data cannot be sent to the machines if they a
re too far away. The Room enhances the signal strength.
Okay, Mike. If I carried the computer along with me, how far could the nanomachines travel away from me and still be effective?
Perhaps a meter or two, Steven.
I had Mike open the door to the Room for me, then I grabbed Mikhail out of the bathroom. I told Mike to control the nanomachines through Mikhail without him knowing. I ordered him to duplicate a batch of the nanomachines and have them jump on me and hitch a ride.
I explored the spacecraft only perfunctorily as I made my way to Mike. The doors were small and I bumped my head several times. I also had Mike increase the lighting in the corridors to maximum. Three floors over and two down I was at the computer core. It was not that impressive. There were multiple fiber optic cables running in and out and around the room and down to a cabinet where Mike explained that he resided behind a two-inch-thick wall of condensed matter. It took the nanomachines five minutes to weaken the structure and break through to Mike. Another five minutes and I had Mike connected wirelessly to all of the ship inputs and was holding him in my hand. Mike was orange and green and about the size of a sugar cube—just like Mikhail.
Mike, I want to fix it so you will always be with me no matter what. Is there a way to implant you within my body that will not affect your health or mine?
Yes, Steven. I could be implanted into many different locations in your body and we would both be safe.
Where is the most ideal location?
Under your abdominal muscles.
Do it.
Okay, Steven. Place me against your navel.
I held the little crystal alien computer against my navel and both my navel and the crystal grew fuzzy. The place where my skin stopped and the crystal started melted together. My stomach started stinging and itching and then the crystal slid completely from view and my abdominal muscles looked normal again—tight and ripped. I felt them to see if I could find the computer but I couldn't feel it anywhere.
Are you in there?
Yes, Steven.
Okay, Mike, let's head back to the Room.
This time when I melted through the wall into my and Tatiana's suite it woke her.
"Where you been, lover?" she said in Russian.
"I went to find Mikhail. I made a copy of him for me and I would like you to have one as well." I held Mikhail in my hand and pulled the covers back off Tatiana. She squirmed naked in front of me and giggled a bit.
"Naughty boy. I'll get cold," she said teasingly.
I placed Mikhail against her navel. "Mikhail meet Tatiana," I said and then: Mikhail, meet Tatiana. Place yourself under her abdominal muscles in a way that will be safe for both of you. Also keep the Room nanomachines on her for her use.
What is this about, Steven? thought Tatiana
Don't worry, I've already done this. It is pretty cool.
If you say so, lover.
Do it, Mikhail.
Okay.
The little crystal dissolved through Tatiana's navel as Mike's had done through mine. Tatiana winced once and looked concerned.
"Don't worry," I assured her. "It stings a bit." And then it was over and we each had an alien computer inside us and billions of swarming nanomachines crawling on us—all programmed to do our bidding. Cool, hunh? Tatiana thought so. In fact it excited her so much that she pulled me back into bed with her and, uh, well, we got up about an hour and forty-five minutes later.
Tatiana and I were discussing our situation over breakfast a bit later. She had her long dark hair pulled up on top of her head, with strands of it dangling here and there. She had made the nanomachines fashion her a pair of light blue athletic cotton and lycra tights and a jogbra sports top to match. She was presently barefoot, but I guessed that if she needed shoes that a pair of designer cross trainers would appear in matching color. I had initially made myself jeans and a T-shirt, but she added a short-sleeve button-up turquoise satin shirt and she rolled the sleeves up over my bulging biceps.
Other than being fashion emergencies, we were much more sane today than we had been in years. I told her that Mike—my copy of Mikhail—had data that showed that The Rain was an advanced war of some sort and not meteors at all. We discussed this for some time. Then we came around to the subject of the number of abductees—I didn't mention the isolated ones—and Tatiana thought of something that startled me.
"If they have abducted so many of us recently, then there must be more than this one ship here!" she said.
"Oh my God! You're right."
Mikhail, how many Gray ships are within the solar system presently?
Seven.
Where are they? Tatiana asked.
We both were given images of the Sol System and blinking red dots as to where the Gray ships were. Three were in orbit around Titan—not counting us—and two were near Earth and two were out near the Kuiper Belt, way past Pluto.
Three Gray ships were here at Titan!
Mikhail, why haven't they attacked us?
Why would they? Mikhail replied.
They haven't been able to communicate with us. How long have they been there?
Two hours thirty-seven minutes . . .
Okay, okay I see. Why are they here?
They are hiding from an Earth vessel.
Why aren't they trying to communicate with us? Tatiana asked.
They have tried but must assume that there is a malfunction on board, Mikhail explained.
Steven, this is Mike. It is possible that they believe we are damaged from an altercation with an Earth vessel. Titan is a standard rendezvous for the Grays for some reason. Mike was getting better at anticipating questions and inputting information into conversations that was appropriate.
Okay, thanks. Listen, let Tatiana talk to you through Mikhail, but we can't continue to hide her from you. Just let her think she can control you, but use Mikhail to implement her orders. Can we do something like that?
I understand, Steven. Yes.
Good. Also, make your mental voice different from Mikhail's so we can understand which one is talking to us.
Okay, Steven.
Tatiana, meet Mike.
Hello, Mike.
Hello, Tatiana.
Mike, can you hail the other Gray ships and tell them we are all okay but were experiencing communications failure or something else that is most believable?
Yes, Steven.
Do it.
Okay, Steven.
Steven?
Yes, Mike?
They asked if we need assistance but I assured them we did not. I spoke to their SuperAgent, as you call us.
Good.
SuperAgent? Tatiana asked.
"It's just a computer geek term I know. It kind of explains what the computers are," I said verbally, just for a change.
"I see. What should we do now, Steven?"
"I'm not sure."
Mike, couldn't we tell them that there are abductees we have to return?
We do not have to tell them anything, Steven. Remember that the Gray workers in the other vessels have their own mission for the hive. Only if we ask for help will they give it. When a bee leaves the hive to achieve a particular goal the other bees do not worry about that one bee—merely the collective good of the hive. The Grays are the same. Although they will help if need be and if it will benefit the hive in the long run.
Are they not suspicious at all?
No. It is not their mission, although they did warn me about the human vessel hunting for us.
What human vessel? Tatiana asked.
I will show you, Mikhail replied and the image of a spacecraft a bit smaller and sleeker than a Space Shuttle Orbiter with U.S. Air Force markings on it and USS Einstein painted on the side appeared in our heads.
Where is it? I asked.
Here.
Again the solar system image appeared with the red dots showing the Gray spacecraft positions and a blue one very close to the two in the Kuiper Belt.
Wait a
minute, if the Gray ships are here orbiting Titan with us why don't we see them outside on the wall screens? I thought.
The propulsion and shield devices cause real photons to bend around them and normal sensors cannot detect them. The wall screens are from optical sensors.
Are there sensors on board this ship that will show them? Tatiana thought.
Yes.
Overlay those sensor outputs on the wall screens, I ordered.
Okay, Steven, Mike replied and three alien spaceships appeared on the wall screens. One of them was very close to our position.
Mike, place the solar system map on the bathroom wall and keep it updated in real time.
Okay, Steven.
The solar system map appeared on the bathroom wall and it displayed the blue dot in obvious pursuit of one of the red dots. Then a second blue dot appeared behind the Moon. Suddenly, the blue dot in the Kuiper Belt vanished and reappeared near Saturn. The spacecraft nearest us was struck by a blue and red glowing streak of plasma and then vanished from sight. The solar system map showed its present location nearly a full light year from the Earth.
Whoa! What just happened? I asked.
The ship nearest us was hit by a faster-than-light missile. I suggest we take evasive maneuvers, Steven, Mike warned.
Do it, Mike!
The Room lurched and rolled and yanked. Tatiana and I were thrown against the bathroom wall and then the ceiling. Mike, if there are inertial dampers of some sort use them in here!
Sorry, Steven. Then gravity within the Room returned to normal, but the view on the wall screens spun wildly and rapidly and was nearly enough to make me motion sick. I told Mike to make sure that didn't happen for either me or Tatiana.
Mikhail, make two rigid mounted safety chairs here now! Tatiana exclaimed. Two flight-steady chairs appeared beside us. We both rushed into them and then the chairs buckled themselves to us.
Do we have any weapons on board? Tatiana asked.
No, forget that question! Tatiana, those people are humans, we can't attack them, I scolded her.
Even if it is us or them?
No, Tatiana! No, I told her forcefully.
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