Leaning forward, Singh frowned at the admiral. “Perhaps you can talk some sense into him, sir. If my only concern was for his health, it would be one thing, but we must know why his cryo-chamber readings were different from the others recorded during the space/time anomaly.”
This caught Solomon’s attention. “What are you talking about?”
Singh’s black, bushy eyebrow rose in surprise. “I was hoping the admiral had informed you of the space/time distortion we experienced en route to this star system.”
“She did, but what does that have to do with my cryo-chamber?”
“Yes, well,” he said, avoiding the admiral’s glare, “during the anomaly, there was a strange occurrence that affected those of us locked in cryo-stasis. Up to that point, our cryo-monitors displayed the appropriate reading: zero neural activity. However, when the anomaly occurred, our monitors recorded activity where none should’ve been. Each brain became active, despite being frozen. The instrumentation recorded an unusual brainwave function—one never seen before. We’ve tentatively labeled it the Omega Wave. See, the brain emits alpha waves and zeta waves and—”
“Yes, Dr. Singh, I’m well aware of how the brain works,” Solomon groused.
“Yes, of course … of course you are,” he acknowledged. “Anyway, each person in cryo-stasis experienced between thirty seconds to two minutes of these omega waves. Your brain was the exception: it was still emitting these omega waves two minutes after the anomaly ended, totaling four minutes and ten seconds of wave activity. Most unusual, wouldn’t you say, Dr. Chavez?”
This news was troubling. “Yes it is,” Solomon admitted. “Have you determined how these so-called omega waves affected our brains?”
Singh nodded. “The readings from your cryo-chamber were most valuable. Their duration allowed us to come up with a baseline model to compare against those in the cargo hold. We now believe that everyone experienced … a dream.” He smiled, seeing the quizzical looks on the faces of Solomon and Admiral Axelrod. “But not a normal, REM dream,” he expounded. “It appears that each person relived a moment from their past, with some reliving their past longer than others. Thankfully, there was one similarity between this cryogenic dream and a normal dream: the dreamer had no recollection of the dream. As such, if they dreamed of something traumatic, they would not be traumatized a second time … hopefully. At least that’s the theory.”
Recalling how he felt immediately after waking, Solomon suspected that Dr. Singh’s theory was correct. He had no memory of dreaming, but he did wake up thinking about his daughter. Had he been dreaming of her? It was possible. Most days he woke up thinking about her and her mother, despite them being dead for over a century.
“I appreciate your interest in my case, Dr. Singh,” Solomon admitted. “I’d like to postulate a theory as to why the readings of my cryo-chamber were at variance with the other six thousand in stasis. Since they are controlled by a separate system, there was probably a buffering effect that had nothing to do with my cryo-chamber. In my opinion, that’s why my dream lasted longer. I’ve suffered no ill effects, so any further testing would be pointless.”
“I beg to differ,” Singh protested. “Perhaps later today or first thing in the morning you could come down to the medical wing and—”
“I’ve made myself clear,” he interjected, annoyed with the man’s continued insistence. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I want to be the only person in the room when Mona wakes up. I have a few questions to ask her, in private, before she’s taken to the brig.”
“I’m not sure that’s appropriate,” Singh declared, addressing the admiral, who was headed toward the exit. “There might be a conflict of interest.”
Looking over her shoulder, Axelrod said, “Don’t push it, Doc. If Solomon wants to ask Dr. Levin a few questions before security gets their mitts on her, I say let him. And, with it being my ship, I have the last word on the matter.”
“I wasn’t questioning your authority,” Singh remarked, taking on an imperious tone. “It’s just that, as it applies to medical issues, my authority supersedes yours, Admiral.”
“I’m well aware of that, Doctor,” she snapped, providing Singh a withering stare. “But I’m telling you right now: this is not a medical issue, so back off.”
Without saying another word, Singh stormed from the room.
“Like I said, he’s a jackass,” she said, following him out the door.
With a shake of his head, Solomon sat in his reading chair to wait for his old colleague, Mona Levin, to regain consciousness.
•
As Mona’s brain activity increased to the point of wakefulness, she at first thought something had gone wrong: she couldn’t have slept for ten and a half years. However, as her mind stretched out into her body, she realized how sore she felt, which strongly indicated that her plan was a success.
The lid to Mona’s cryo-chamber opened, and she filled her lungs with oxygen. After more than a decade of inactivity they were raw, painful to operate. If it weren’t for the anti-emetic administered during the re-enervation process, she would’ve probably puked right then and there. She felt terrible. Her middle-aged body was having difficulty recuperating. This was one reason why only younger people could become colonists, as their bodies were more resilient than those in the older age groups. The elderly would’ve never survived the process, she imagined. Of course, the main reason for the age-restriction was to ensure fertility, which made sense if the mission statement was to colonize a new world.
Mona sighed. A muscle relaxant was working its magic, making her feel more comfortable, her body nearly pain free. Her vocal cords felt rusty, nonetheless. After clearing her throat, she opened her eyes and addressed her PID, her voice raspy, “Judah, how long have I been in cryo-stasis?”
“Ten years, four months, and twenty-eight days, Dr. Levin,” the familiar baritone replied.
Something was wrong. According to her extensive preflight calculations, the ship wasn’t due to arrive at the planet for another two weeks. Could she have miscalculated? It was probable, but highly unlikely … she was a mathematical genius, after all.
Since she was unable to see much of the room from her prone position in the cryo-chamber, Mona listened carefully, yet failed to hear anything of note … except for a soft, rhythmic tapping. It almost sounded like fingers on a … no, it couldn’t be; it had to be something else.
Mona’s heart was pounding. She desperately wanted to rise up, to see the cause of the noise, but her body refused to move.
It was nothing. The noise was nothing, she told herself.
After taking a deep, calming breath, she forced her arms to obey her will. Reaching up, she gripped the edge of the cryo-chamber and pulled herself to a sitting position.
Her body jumped with surprise. Solomon was sitting in his reading chair, staring straight at her, wearing an angry, disappointed look on his face.
“You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you, Mona?” His fingers stopped drumming the chair’s armrest.
“I, um, Solomon … what are you—” she sputtered, unable to form a coherent thought.
Rising to his feet, Solomon took a menacing step forward. “How did you get the password to my door?” he hissed, looking ready to throttle her with his bare hands.
“I’m sorry,” she rasped. Her heart was pounding and she felt lightheaded. Mona had seen him angry, but not like this.
“I’ll ask you again. How did you get my password?”
His eyes were flashing with too much anger, too much passion—which made Mona’s fear give way to suspicion. What was so important about that password that its revelation would spark such outrage? She wanted to ask him who Selena was—but she held back, deciding instead to tell the truth. She could always investigate this mystery at a later date.
“My PID circumvented security protocols,” she replied. “If I’d been unsuccessful, I would’ve missed seeing your, um … unhappy face.”
“
You’re damned right I’m unhappy,” he said, though an odd glint of relief flashed across his face. “I’m joined by a few other unhappy people standing in the corridor.” Solomon picked up a white robe lying on the table by his chair and tossed it to her, then activated his Bluetooth implant. “You can come in now.”
Mona suddenly realized she was naked, and immediately covered her breasts as the door slid open. In walked Admiral Axelrod, along with Dr. Singh who was pushing a wheelchair, and two security officers, one of whom was Floyd Sullivant. Solomon was right: none of them looked particularly happy to see her.
“Judah, please initiate cryo-chamber exit protocol.”
“Yes, Dr. Levin.”
The left-hand edge of the chamber lowered, allowing Mona to swing her legs over the side.
Floyd Sullivant stepped forward. “Dr. Mona Levin, you are under arrest and charged with the unauthorized boarding of a secure vehicle, illegally tampering with said vehicle, illegally stowing away onboard that same vehicle, and other charges to be named at a later date.”
With a heavy sigh, Mona reached for her PID.
Holding out his hand, Floyd continued, “You will relinquish your Personal Interlink Device, Dr. Levin. Your communication privileges have been revoked. Please stand. You will be escorted to Life Sciences, where Dr. Singh will perform a physical examination. A security officer will then escort you to the ship’s brig to await court-martial.”
11
ONBOARD THE ARROW: TWELVE DAYS LATER
After decelerating for a year, the Arrow had slowed to a speed of twenty-five thousand miles per hour, and in two days would reach its destination—the lone habitable planet discovered in the Epsilon Eridani star system. There were six other planets in the system: two gas giants near the system’s edge; three small, rocky planets close to the sun; and lastly, a planet approximately the same size as Mars, but covered entirely in frozen ammonia. The only other detail of note was a thinly scattered asteroid belt beyond the orbit of the gas giants.
Their destination, which they’d designated EE-4, was located in the Goldilocks Zone, not too close and not too far from the sun.
Solomon sat behind his stateroom desk, staring at an image on his computer screen of the planet they’d soon be colonizing, and wondered if they’d made a mistake. The planet was barely habitable. According to initial estimates, EE-4’s surface contained a breathable atmosphere and some plant life, but little else to brag about. From all accounts, like Mercury, one side of the planet faced the sun at all times. Most of the planet’s backside was covered in ice—thankfully, of the H2O variety. The sunward side was undoubtedly baked clean, which they would confirm after achieving orbit. From what they already saw, EE-4’s only habitable region was a thousand-mile-wide stretch of land that encircled the globe between the planet’s desert and ice regions. In the center of the habitable region, a five-hundred-mile-wide forest was detected, not thick enough to be deemed a jungle.
Solomon was studying the planet’s telemetry readings when a voice addressed him over the ship’s intercom. “Dr. Chavez, this is Admiral Axelrod. Please come to the executive officer’s conference room, ASAP. A discovery’s been made that I believe you’ll find interesting.”
“I’m on my way.”
Slipping his PID into his breast pocket, Solomon exited the stateroom and hurried to the turbo-lift. The doors opened to reveal Dr. Singh inside. “Have you been called to the conference, as well?”
“Yes. It sounds rather important.”When the turbo-lift arrived at the command deck, the two strode to the executive officer’s conference room, located adjacent to the bridge, and took their seats at an oval table positioned in the center of the room. All of the ship’s executive officers were present: Commander Richard Allison, sitting to the left of the admiral’s empty chair; Lt. Floyd Sullivant, seated to the right; Chief Engineer Gary Wong, a rail-thin Peruvian of Japanese descent, sat beside him; and Lt. Julie Norwood, ship’s navigator and communication’s officer, who sat beside Commander Allison. Solomon sat beside her, with Singh seated across from him. Solomon was scooting his chair up to the table when the admiral entered through a door connected to her ready room. She was dressed like everyone else, in dark blue coveralls, with her rank embroidered on the collar. Her light-brown hair, which was showing a touch more gray these days, was styled in a French braid. Following close behind her was the ships’ science officer, Lt. Commander Karen Albans: a smart, attractive, but somewhat reclusive woman in her mid-forties with short-cropped brunette hair. Solomon hardly ever saw her socializing with the rest of the crew.
Everyone began to rise to their feet.
“At ease, ladies and gentlemen, at ease,” said the admiral. She stopped behind her chair and waited for Albans to take her seat beside Dr. Singh. “I have very exciting news to report,” she said, pulling out her chair and sitting. “As I’m sure most of you know, the ship’s computer has been running a data collection subroutine involving the space/time anomaly we experienced seven years ago. Approximately twenty minutes ago, Lt. Commander Albans was notified that the computer received new data that allowed it to reach a conclusion. I’d like you to take over from here, if you please, Albans.”
“Yes, sir.” She faced the view-screen embedded in the wall opposite the admiral. “Computer, activate view-screen in command deck conference room. Open space/time anomaly subroutine and run newly collated data projection.”
A rudimentary CGI model of the solar system appeared. A glowing yellow dot, representing the Arrow, was converging on EE-4. Behind the Arrow sat a green dot labeled, area of metallic residue and tachyon emissions. This detail caught Solomon, and three others—Wong, Norwood, and Fletcher—off-guard.
Albans said, “That green dot represents metallic residue from a mechanical device—possibly of alien origin. Along with the device, the scanners detected—”
The room erupted, with Albans and the admiral being pummeled with questions.
“Quiet, everyone!” the admiral ordered. The hubbub immediately subsided. “Lt. Commander Albans will respond to all pertinent questions after the briefing is over. Go ahead, my dear.”
“Thank you, sir.” She shifted her attention back to the view-screen. “As I was saying, we also detected tachyon emission residue. Both the metallic residue and the emission signatures are over two thousand years old. Nothing has been detected that is of a more recent origin; therefore, if aliens did live in this system, they either left long ago or died out.
“Computer, display metallic device as it once appeared, extrapolating from observable data.”
The CGI rendition of the Epsilon Eridani system was replaced by a rotating metallic ring measuring three hundred feet in diameter.
“What the hell is that?” Ensign Fletcher muttered, speaking for everyone in the room other than Albans and the admiral.
Albans stared at the others, a deathly serious expression on her heart-shaped face. “According to the computer’s projections, this device was designed to fold space.”
Solomon gazed at her incredulously, as if she’d just said that sunlight was made of lemonade.
“I kid you not,” she added. “Whoever or whatever built this artifact, at one time possessed the technology to fold space.”
Chief Engineer Wong broke the stunned silence. “Has the computer extrapolated enough data for us to reverse-engineer this device, Karen?” Wong’s eyes were glued to the screen. “This discovery is incredible. It’s the Holy Grail of engineering. It would change everything.”
Albans shrugged her shoulders. “The computer is still working on it, Gary, but the prospect doesn’t look good. There are a few recoverable bits and pieces, but the internal components were destroyed. Unfortunately, this is merely an extrapolation of what the device looked like, not of its internal workings, I’m sorry to report.”
Wong addressed the admiral. “I have a question, sir. Once the colony is up and running, may I lead a mission back to this sector of the solar system? If the en
gineering department is allowed to perform a comprehensive study on the debris, it might prove fruitful.”
Rubbing her lower lip, the admiral pondered his request. “Hmm, it might be worth—”
The computer suddenly interrupted. “Admiral, the ship is being hailed. The hailing frequency is originating from EE-4’s surface.”
•
Katherine Axelrod wasn’t entirely sure she’d heard the computer correctly.
“What does this mean?” Solomon asked, sounding a note of uncharacteristic fear.
Albans and Norwood, the ship’s science and communications officers, were both typing furiously on their respective Interlink Devices, trying to determine just that. The others were stunned into silence.
“Computer,” Admiral Axelrod said, trying to stay calm. “Repeat your last statement.”
“Certainly, sir. Admiral, the ship is being hailed. The hailing frequency is originating from EE-4’s surface.” She’d heard correctly: the planet already contained intelligent life. Contingency plans had been drafted to deal with intelligent, alien life, but most of those plans centered on subjugation or extermination, not living in harmony. She hoped exterminating the first aliens encountered by the human race would not be required.
“Why haven’t we detected any sign of civilization, Albans?” she asked.
“Due to the challenging conditions on much of EE-4’s surface,” said Albans, “it’s possible the aliens live underground or possess a cloaking device. However, I’ve instructed the computer to begin a detailed surface scan for smaller structures—in case this planet is an outpost, instead of their actual home planet.”
“Good work. Speak to me, Norwood,” she demanded, addressing the petite redhead sitting to her right. “What kind of signal are they using? Will it be possible to formulate a response?”
“The hail is being relayed via satellite, Admiral,” she responded, looking puzzled. “Until we received the hail, there was no sign of electrical activity in that orbital region. Strangely enough, along with the electrical activity, there’s also a faint, very fresh, tachyon signature … analogous to the signature we found in the region containing the ancient metallic residue. Whoever they are, they are much more technically advanced than us. That may explain why we failed to detect their presence.”
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