by Wilson Harp
“It can’t be. At least by no means which have been discovered.”
“Then what is Jii doing?”
“He believes the key is gamma radiation. He thinks since mosar came in on gamma waves, it must be the key to its structure. He’s obsessed with the idea, although he has never convinced any of the others.”
“Why are you so sure he’s on the wrong track?”
“I’ve looked at his theories. I’m not a chemist, or engineer, but he makes several major logical jumps to reach his conclusions. The others on his team rejected it as well, but he never listened to them.”
“Could we make contact with them? See what he is doing, maybe?”
“I have faith in you Earthmen, Ambassador. But you aren’t ready for this yet. In any case, all of the other members of his team are long dead.”
“You said ‘his team’. Do you mean ‘the team’, as in those who recorded the signal?”
“Yes. Jii was one of the senior researchers in the lab who found the signal. Jii was the one who noticed the patterns and introduced mosar to our galaxy.”
“And he is now heading back where it started in hopes that he can fix what he did. He feels guilty about it,” Kyle said.
A’nacal nodded. “I think Jii is just tired. He thinks he has found one more piece of the puzzle and he’s willing to risk it all in the place where it started.”
“If Jii was a researcher, what did you do?”
“I was a gardener.”
“A botanist?”
“No, nothing so grand. I specialized in growing and maintaining decorative plants. Pinomas to be precise.”
“How did you become head of the Galactic Council, then?”
“I was a gardener when mosar came. You learn a lot in thousands of years. I only formed the council about eight thousand Earth years ago.”
“How… I don’t mean this as an insult, but how did you take on such a role?”
“Most of the other Otina couldn’t care what happens to the other races. Their interest are mostly in ways to either combat the slow conquest of mosar or to strengthen themselves so mosar cannot take them.”
“There were billions of Otina when Jii identified mosar?” Kyle asked.
“Yes.”
“What happened? Mosar becomes lethal?”
“Yes, but not in the obvious ways. As mosar seeped into us, it changed us. We first started developing wanderlust. We needed to go places and do things the older generation would have scoffed at. It wasn’t until the expansion started the real problems developed. Soon strife and turmoil took us. We were killing ourselves if we gathered in large numbers. Our behavior changed and we started traveling in small groups, away from each other. That was the trap mosar set. We were doing its bidding, traveling to many places, spreading the experience of mosar.”
“You really think mosar was influencing you?”
“Yes, there is no doubt about it. Mosar had shifted in us. It used our natural inclinations where it could and created subtle changes in our behaviors and desires when it needed to. Eventually mosar will take complete control. You can’t step away from its will. Not when you can’t recognize what is happening.”
“How are you not affected?”
“But I am, Ambassador. Every moment is a struggle against mosar. It’s insidious. It gnaws at my defenses and sometimes I have to check what I said to make sure its influence hasn’t taken me in a direction I didn’t intend to go. Eventually, I will succumb to it. When that happens, I have made plans to ensure mosar doesn’t take me as a prize.”
“It sounds like it’s worse than death to be taken.”
“It is. At least for others. It would control me and be able to access all of my thoughts and knowledge.”
Martin nodded. “And since its entire goal is to spread and expand, it would use you to that end.”
“That is correct.”
“Is mosar a single entity or is there individual pieces.”
A’nacal scratched his cheek. It was a habit Kyle had come to recognize. It meant the head of the Galactic Council wasn’t sure of the answer.
“I believe mosar is a group of individuals. But they share information instantly.”
“Like a hive mind.”
“Similar, but more. There seems to be a quantum effect. Space and maybe even time have no effect on what it knows.”
Martin stood and walked over to the window.
“Let me understand,” he said. “If mosar discovers something here on Earth, it will immediately know it on Iltia.”
“Correct.”
“What about in another galaxy?”
“I do not believe distance is a hindrance to this ability.”
“And time isn’t a hinderance either?” asked Martin as he walked back over to the couch.
“I don’t believe so,” A’nacal said.
Martin nodded as he sat down. “That’s a good thing, then.”
“How is that good?”
“Mosar is as smart as it will ever get. Granted, we may never grow to the point of surpassing its knowledge, but if mosar learns something in the future, then it already knows it. Correct?”
“You’re correct, as far as I can tell. But that doesn’t instill me with great hope.”
“What’s our best hope, then?”
“Humans, as far as I can tell, are the most adaptable race in the galaxy. And yet, mosar hasn’t been able to get a foothold in the Earth system. At least not yet. If we can find a way to keep your system pristine, we might find a way to beat mosar. But that will take a very long time. Even from my perspective.”
“How long do we have?”
“It will take mosar eighty thousand years to completely envelop the Milky Way. But we don’t have that long. If it were traveling at the speed of light, we would have over six hundred million years. But we believe we have around ten thousand years left. The speculation is mosar helped us develop the technology we use for interstellar travel. And we believe the same technology will be used by whatever races mosar has taken from their original galaxy. They have already sent a fleet.”
“You think when mosar learned of us, it responded back to itself wherever it came from and then sent something?”
“Yes, that’s it in essence. Now it could be it wasn’t until we started losing control to mosar that it was able to communicate. That may buy us another two or three thousand years. But not much more.”
“Where did it come from?” Kyle asked.
“Your astronomers have identified it as Hoag’s Object. A peculiar galaxy, and we think the result of mosar domination.”
Kyle leaned back in his seat. “Even you’ll be dead by the time their fleet arrives.”
“Yes, I have no doubt of that.”
“So why worry so much about it?”
A’nacal smiled. “The answer’s the same as why you worry so much about it when you’ll be dead. And you aren’t even to blame.”
“Because we are responsible for the time we have here.”
“Yes. And I have the extra burden of being one of those who unleashed our doom.”
“I thought you weren’t part of that team.”
“I wasn’t, but it doesn’t mean I don’t share the blame.”
“Original sin and all of that.”
“More communal sin. The Otina brought mosar here, the Otina must find a way to rid the galaxy of mosar.”
Kyle sat for several long moments. “Jii’s mission. It doesn’t have a chance.”
“I know you are just trying out the thought, Ambassador. But no, it doesn’t. It never did. Jii is feeling his mortality. He knows time is catching up to him and he wants to make one final attempt to correct his mistake.”
“And the others will die as a result.”
A’nacal nodded. “They will. Mosar will not allow an incursion into their space and allow others to escape.”
“So what do we do? How does Earth help destroy mosar?”
“We talked about it, Amba
ssador Martin. You know what needs to happen. It’s just a matter of convincing your government.”
Kyle shook his head. “It won’t be easy.”
“I’ll give you five hundred years. If Earth hasn’t complied by then, we will be forced to take action.”
Kyle laughed. “I surely won’t tell them that bit of news. If they think they have five hundred years to act, you can bet they won’t act for four-hundred and ninety-nine.”
“And they’d probably get everything done within that last year, unlike any other race. You Earthmen are peculiar. Once you have decided to do something, it seems as if you get it done immediately. But actually getting you to consider doing something seems to take more work and worry than the effort is worth.”
“That’s true, I’m afraid.”
A’nacal smiled. “But what would the galaxy do if you were quick to decide and quick to act? We would soon be under Earth control.”
“Is that the reason, A’nacal? Is it more than mosar?”
“You see what isn’t said, Ambassador. But this time it may be your paranoia letting the shadows form into a threat. The rest of the galaxy will fear the rise of Earth, but not for many, many years. What needs to be done to fight mosar will protect you when the day comes the others fear you. But that isn’t my purpose.”
Kyle stretched his arms above his head. “We have the council meeting in three hours, A’nacal. I still need to fix dinner for Sara. Greg is coming over and I promised them grilled salmon.”
“I thought she was getting serious with a man named Geoff?”
“Greg, Geoff, it’s all the same to me.”
“I’ll see you in Council, Ambassador,” A’nacal said. The image of the Otina shivered and then disappeared.
Kyle slumped back on the couch and closed his eyes. He thought about Alex, Williams, Cowboy and the rest of the men on the mission. They weren’t coming back. He forced himself to work through how to tell Kitch the news. How to explain what A’nacal would demand when the mission failed.
Chapter 6
Alex looked at the random collection of cards in his hand when he felt the engines shift.
“Sounds like we’re dropping out of warp,” he said as he looked up from his cards.
“Sounds like you don’t have a hand,” Daack said.
“You’re right,” said Alex as he tossed down the cards and started toward the cockpit.
It had been six weeks since they had left the Earth system, and Alex was at the point where he just wanted to get to Oracos and start the mission. He knew they had almost another month of travel in warp, but he was going stir crazy. He always did when he was ship-bound for too long.
Williams stuck his head out of his lab as Alex walked by.
“Heading to the bridge?” he asked.
“Cockpit,” Alex answered reflexively. “Yeah, want to find out why we’re dropping out of warp.”
“Me too, I’m running a diagnostic on the engines to make sure it wasn’t spontaneous.”
“I’ll make sure this is planned. Just want to see what’s going on.”
Williams shook his head and went back to the computers. He and Greenaway had been running all sorts of analysis on the new information which Jii parceled out. Alex would have preferred if the ancient alien had just given everything at once, but Jii saw it as some sort of game; Williams, Greenaway and the other engineers lined up to be willing participants.
The door to the cockpit was open as Alex approached. Jii was at the data station.
“Those power readings,” Jii said in his raspy, papery voice. “Tell me if they start fluctuating. We need to see if we have been picked up on their sensors.”
“Why did we drop?” Alex said as he looked into the cockpit.
“This is Ancelon. There are mosar controlled Otina in charge of this system. If mosar knows what we are doing and can detect this ship, then the mission is doomed. This will let us know if we can continue on.”
“How could mosar know?” Alex asked.
“Mosar communicates with itself across great distances,” Jii said as he continued to scan the screens of data.
“Wait a second,” said Cowboy. “If we have mosar in us, then wouldn’t it have communicated with other mosar what we are doing? Wouldn’t we have already been compromised?”
“No,” said Jii. “The mosar in humans is still too undeveloped to communicate.”
“What about you?” Alex asked. “Isn’t the mosar in you reporting everything.”
“Oh, it wants to. That’s for certain. But I keep a lot of secrets from it. At least, I hope so. It didn’t know what we were planning until you took me out of stasis.”
“But now that you’re out, won’t it tell the other mosar?” Alex asked.
“No. The ship is blocking it. Or rather some of the materials of the ship are.”
“What materials?” asked Cowboy.
“The moon dust I required for the base structure, the gel ports, even the paint. I told you, your moon disrupts mosar. Doesn’t let it communicate. Doesn’t let it replicate or transmit itself.”
“Jii, one of the energy readings just spiked,” Cowboy said.
“Someone spotted us. Let’s see how many other come over,” Jii said.
“You mean to engage them?” Alex asked.
“Yes, as long as there aren’t too many. If they send too many, we’ll just jump away. We do have the next course plotted, Captain?”
“Affirmative,” said Cowboy. “Looks like we have two others incoming. Should be here in less than three minutes.”
“Ramirez, this might be a good time to get to your security station. You’re about to handle the ships weapons in real time,” Jii said as he continued to scan the data. He hadn’t moved his eyes from the screen since Alex had arrived.
“On my way,” Alex said.
He went past the command room and into the first hatch on his right. Fuller was sitting in one of the seats. It was his shift in the security station.
“Prep up. We have incoming,” said Alex
Alex dropped into the second chair and put on the helmet.
“Incoming?” asked Fuller. “When? Why?”
“Just pull up the targeting system,” Alex said. He pushed the button on the side of the helmet and took control of one of the weapon groups as the holo-display appeared in front of him.
“Three incoming,” said Fuller. “Are we sure they’re hostiles?”
“Positive, I was in the cockpit and saw them make the move toward us,” Alex said. He wanted to make a comment about how Jii had arranged this as a test, but didn’t. He didn’t want to confuse the issue.
“Target one acquired and marked,” Fuller said. His voice had dropped into the steady tone and timbre of a professional soldier.
“Target two acquired and marked,” said Alex. “Engage.”
Both weapon groups blazed at the same time. The computer helping guide both men into destroying their targets on the first volley of disruptive energy.
“Holy smokes,” said Fuller. “What was that?”
“Target three acquired,” Alex said. He fired at the wildly twisting craft as it tried to evade the suddenly deadly ship it had been sent to investigate. Alex reflexively knew what the enemy pilot would do and a single burst of energy disintegrated the third ship.
“Nice shooting, security,” Cowboy said over the headsets.
“Thank you, Captain. Are there any more incoming?”
“We have a few spikes, but it’s time for us to leave.”
The warp engines kicked back on and the familiar low hum once again filled the ship. Alex pressed the button on the side of the headset and turned off the holo-display.
“Gunny, what was that? There was nothing left of those ships. They just melted in an instant.”
“Biggest tilsocs ever made, Fuller. Special for this ship and this mission.”
“I’m glad I’m inside this ship and not on the receiving end.”
“Me too. I�
�ll be back for my normal shift. I’m pretty sure you can go back to reading.”
“Will do, Gunny.”
Alex left the security station and walked back to the common room.
“You look upset, Gunny,” Daack said as Alex sat done in the chair he had vacated just twenty minutes before.
“Yeah, I am,” Alex said. “I don’t like to be manipulated, and I feel that’s all Jii has done to us. Like we are rats in a cage.”
“What happened?”
“We dropped out of warp and he had us shoot up some Otina as a test of our capabilities.”
Alex realized he must have spoken too loud when the rest of the common room quieted.
He looked around to assure the men when he saw Jii standing in the doorway. Jii had spent the first couple of days trying to speak with the crew, but few of the men wanted to speak to the captured leader of the aliens which had caused so much death and destruction to the people of Earth. Every man on the crew knew others who were killed in the war with the Otina.
After a few days of cold reception, Jii had retreated to his cabin and spoke mostly with Williams, Greenaway and Cowboy. The first two because they were interested in what they could learn, and the last because he was in charge of the vessel.
He stared at Alex from the doorway and motioned for the marine to follow him. He then turned and walked away.
“I guess I’ve been summoned,” Alex said. “I’ll be back when I can.”
Daack just nodded and started putting the cards away.
Alex followed Jii down the corridor. The alien walked at a measured pace to the command room.
He turned and motioned for Alex to hurry.
Alex sighed. He didn’t want to give Jii the satisfaction of having his orders obeyed, even though it wasn’t much of an order, but he also wanted to know what the Otina had to say. He hurried down the hallway and entered the command room just as Jii sat in the chair at the head of the briefing table.
“Gunnery Sergeant Ramirez,” Jii said. “Shall we discuss the event?”
He motioned toward the chair at the other end of the table.
Alex took his time. He sat down and made himself comfortable before he spoke.
