Dark Matter

by S. W. Ahmed

  “Where are we going?” he asked, as the vehicle swooped down towards the city’s buildings.

  “To your quarters for the journey, Mr. Zemin,” she replied.

  He was getting a closer look at the many buildings and streets below. Everything looked amazingly well planned, with symmetrical designs of circular gardens surrounded by identical looking cylindrical towers. The trees and bushes were neatly trimmed, and the streets looked perfectly clean. Thousands of Mendoken were floating between places on the ground, while others were flying in different directions in vehicles or in their own cylindrical containers.

  “Why do you need such a large population on a ship?” he wondered aloud.

  “Not large by our standards, Mr. Zemin. Only 201,625 of us on this ship. This is both an exploration and a military vessel, and it usually goes off on long missions. So we maintain the semblance of life as it would be on one of our planets, with all job functions needed to preserve the management of an entire city.”

  Their vehicle slowed down in front of one of the taller cylindrical buildings, right outside the 32nd level. As the vehicle came close to the dark, glass-like wall, a section of the wall on that level slid aside.

  “These are your quarters,” Hildira said. “You will find everything inside according to the average preferences of your species. If you need anything, communication controls are available inside to contact me.”

  With that, she motioned to Marc to step out of the vehicle and into the building. Luckily the vehicle was almost touching the wall, so he just needed to take a small step. He turned back to thank her, but she had already sped off in her vehicle. Stepping further inside the room he was now in, he heard the wall behind him automatically slide shut.

  “Average preferences!” he exclaimed in surprise. “You gotta be kidding me!”

  It was undoubtedly the most lavish, spacious suite he had ever seen. The Mendoken clearly wanted to make sure he was comfortable, and had gone to great lengths to determine what humans considered luxurious. He was in a big living room with plush, white carpeting, furnished with sofas, tables and chairs. Nice paintings hung on the walls, and there was even a bar in one corner. Overall, the theme seemed modern and tasteful – all the furniture was curved and simple, some of it transparent. The air was also warmer than the other parts of the ship, closer to the room temperature that humans preferred.

  Another corner of the room housed a dining table, covered from one end to the other with different kinds of food. Slices of beef steak and roast chicken lay on one plate, mixed vegetables on another, right next to a bowl of soup that looked like tomato bisque. Other plates contained bread, potatoes, salad and fruits, as well as a chocolate mousse cake for dessert. An assortment of wine bottles and juices stood on one corner, next to a pot of freshly brewed black tea.

  A quick glance at the table was all he needed to realize how hungry he was, especially once he remembered that he had not eaten anything for almost 12 hours. But first, he would have to wash up. Adjacent to the living room was a bedroom, filled with a queen size bed and a closet containing a collection of clothes. Attached was a bathroom containing a toilet, sink, shower and a large bathtub. No toiletry was missing – soap, shampoo, body wash, toothbrush, toothpaste – everything was there, including a host of other items he didn’t even recognize. He took off his clothes right away and jumped into the shower. Nice, hot water began blasting through the jets as soon as he entered, instantly refreshing and relaxing him.

  As he stood in the shower, he let the events of the past few hours unwind in his head. These Mendoken were quite resourceful, to say the least! It was remarkable how quickly they had put all of this together, just for him. There couldn’t have been more than a 3 hour time interval between the moment his pocket watch had appeared in their space and the moment they had shown up in his lab. During that time, they would have had to trace the path of the watch back to Earth and to his lab. Then they would have had to do a complete background check on who he was and whether they could trust him or not. Then they would have had to gather the appropriate teams, brief them, assemble the armada of ships, and finally send them through 50 light years to pick him up. All that in the span of 3 hours!

  After the shower, he tried on a pair of slacks, a dress shirt and a pair of walking shoes that he found in the closet. They all fit him perfectly. Next, he sat at the dining table and ate his fill of the different items. Everything tasted top notch, a welcome change from the dreary fast food he was used to as a poor student. The soup was exquisite and the meat so tender, with just the right amount of spice and seasoning. The cake was very rich and sweet. These aliens were real gourmet chefs, or at least they had studied the work of gourmet chefs on Earth and had figured out how to replicate their dishes.

  With a cup of tea in his hand, he moved to one of the sofas and slouched into it. He really liked good food, and there was nothing like a delicious meal to lift his spirits. His eyes began to close, and his mind drifted to happy thoughts. He almost forgot that he was on an alien ship, traveling through space at 500,000 times the speed of light.

  Chapter 9

  “Had a good lunch, man?” a voice asked.

  Marc opened his eyes in surprise and looked around. The living room was empty. Through the window, he could see Mendoken outside, flying in vehicles and containers between the city’s buildings. But there definitely was nobody else inside the suite.

  “Come on, was it up to par?” the voice continued. The accent and tone were curiously similar to Marc’s own.

  “Why, yes, much better than par,” he answered cautiously, springing up from the sofa and surveying the room again. “Who are you?”

  “I am you.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Well, okay, not really you. But a replica of you. At least, what these Mendoken think is a replica of you.”

  Then a figure appeared, right in front of him. He jumped, thinking he was staring into a mirror. The figure looked exactly like him, and was even wearing the same clothes.

  “What in heaven’s name is going on?” he asked in bewilderment.

  “Relax,” the replica said. “I am only a hologram. Call me HoloMarc, if you like.”

  HoloMarc clearly was a hologram of excellent quality – he looked just like the real thing. “Try touching me,” he said, holding up his hand. “That will help convince you.”

  Marc tried touching HoloMarc’s hand with his own, but his fingers slid through thin air. He then pushed his hand through HoloMarc’s body, and it came out the other side with no effort. He was astonished. “Wow! This is quite something!”

  “Isn’t it?” HoloMarc seemed completely unaffected by the incision through his chest. “You’ve got to admit it – these Mendoken types are absolutely brilliant.”

  “Why did they create you?”

  “To help you adjust to this strange, new world. They thought you might have an easier time talking to me than to any of them. Let’s face it – they are a bunch of stiff, emotionless, expressionless, robot-like creatures, eh?”

  “Well, yeah, a little! So what are some of the things you can do, HoloMarc?”

  “My projection range is restricted to these quarters, so I can’t really go anywhere with you. But I can talk to you as much as you want while you’re here.”

  “Ah, now that’s a great help,” Marc thought sarcastically. That was the last thing he needed – being able to talk to himself.

  HoloMarc went on. “I can play any music you like, from any genre. Name it.”

  “Really? Well, let’s see, how about Enya?”

  The room was suddenly filled with sounds of the first track from Enya’s Shepherd Moons album. Such crystal-clear sound quality Marc had never heard in his life before. Her soothing voice sprang to life right in front of him, and the accompanying piano notes flowed gracefully into his ears from all around. It was as if he was in the middle of a live performance, with Enya standing no more than 5 feet away from him.

  “Wow
!” he whispered. “Incredible!”

  HoloMarc switched the music. “How about some Bach?” The Toccata in pipe organ immediately took over, so loud that it was deafening to Marc’s ears. “Or maybe you would prefer rock?” Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” followed.

  The entertainment wasn’t over. “If you’d like to switch to visual satisfaction, I’ve got a great collection of movies,” HoloMarc said.

  A large movie screen instantly appeared out of thin air in front of Marc. Previews of different movie classics flashed on the screen, one after the other.

  After a while, Marc asked HoloMarc to stop. “This is all great, but I really can’t concentrate on music or movies at the moment. Too many things on my mind.”

  “Can’t say I blame you,” HoloMarc said, as the movie screen disappeared. “It’s been a crazy past few hours, eh? Well listen, I’m also connected to the ship’s central database, giving me access to pretty much any data you could possibly want.”

  Marc’s eyes lit up. “Oh, really?”

  “Oh, yes! Go ahead, ask me a question.”

  “Okay. Let’s see… where did the Mendoken originate from?”

  A 3D screen appeared in front of Marc, in the same spot where the movie screen had been seconds earlier. In clear view was a galaxy, looking much larger and denser than any galaxies Marc had seen pictures of back on Earth. It had a fuller, rounder shape.

  “This is the Milky Way galaxy in its entirety, as it looks without the filter that our friends have placed on us poor humans,” HoloMarc said, pointing to the screen. “You, ah, do know about the filter?”

  “Yes, I have just recently been enlightened.”

  “Great! Quite a surprise, huh? Anyway, there are about 2 trillion stars in total in the Glaessan. That’s what they call the Milky Way, by the way.”

  “Yeah, I heard that from Petrana.”

  “Due to its real size, the Glaessan easily engulfs the so-called nearby Magellanic clouds, which really aren’t separate, smaller galaxies in the vicinity, much as we humans would like to believe. The diameter of the Glaessan is actually over 200,000 light years, more than twice what people on Earth think it is at its widest cross section.”

  The screen zoomed in on one section of the image, a fair distance away from the center.

  “Here’s our beloved Sun,” HoloMarc continued, as a red circle appeared around one of the uncountable number of white dots. “And here, 3048 light years away, is the Mendo-Zueger star system.” Another red circle appeared at the other end of the zoomed-in image. “The first Mendoken appeared over 3 billion years ago on the ninth planet in this system. The planet is now known as Draefarel, or literally ‘The Beginning’ in English.”

  The image zoomed in further, now displaying a star much bigger than Earth’s Sun. It had a total of 24 planets in orbit. The ninth planet was highlighted.

  “Today, the Mendoken inhabit about 50 billion star systems, and another 350 billion fall under their jurisdiction,” HoloMarc added. “Isn’t it mind-boggling?”

  The screen zoomed out to highlight the section of the galaxy under Mendoken control. It was a large slice of the upper half of the galaxy, taking up much of the edge. But it narrowed down towards the center, closing up before reaching the center itself.

  “Mind-boggling doesn’t even begin to cut it!” Marc replied. By now, he was sufficiently impressed by HoloMarc. “This is cool stuff! Okay, tell me, how do I distinguish between different Mendoken? They all look the same to me!”

  “Yeah, that’s a tough one,” HoloMarc admitted, stroking his chin. Pictures of several Mendoken appeared on the screen. “It is actually very difficult to tell them apart. Eventually you’ll get used to it, though. You’ll notice slight differences in the sizes of their eyes and ears, and the color of their skin. Another distinguishing factor is the brightness with which their mouths light up when they communicate, as well as the angle at which the mouth juts out from the face.” He showed examples on the screen.

  “And the color of the hats, I suppose.”

  “Ah yes, the hats! Good point. You see, the Mendoken are a highly disciplined, hierarchical society, with many roles and ranks. Everyone does his or her part towards the greater good. The entire population is pretty much part of one gigantic organization. Here’s a basic rundown.”

  HoloMarc displayed a hierarchy on the screen, and went to great lengths to explain some of the different ranks and how they were related to each other. There were many thousands of different types of positions, each one with an extensive set of responsibilities. At the very top was an elected leader known as the Imgoerin. Under the Imgoerin was a circle of a couple of hundred elected advisors, and under them a greater parliament of several million senators. Under them, in turn, were several billion representatives from all the different star systems. On and on it went, down to leaders and commanders of planets, space stations, ships, as well as breakdowns into different kinds of professions – scientists, engineers, architects, builders – the list was endless. One interesting fact was that the Mendoken did not have any distinctions between civilian and military personnel – everyone was a soldier.

  “As you have probably figured out by now, each rank has its own hat color,” HoloMarc said. “And the long number that you hear at the end of each of their names pinpoints exactly where that individual falls within the entire hierarchy, rank and all. The funny thing is, even with this strict hierarchy all the way down to the bottom of the pit, you don’t see any discrimination or unfairness at any level. There is no concept of rich and poor, no homeless or malnourished living in shantytowns beside decadent barons in their fancy mansions. No, in Mendoken society, everyone is well taken care of, and rarely are there complaints of any kind.”

  Marc thought for a moment. “What about freedom?” he asked. “And the rights of the individual? Sounds a lot like what we humans would call a communist society.”

  “Hah! Far from it! Communism in practice means enslavement of the masses by a select few dictatorial leaders at the top. But in Mendoken society, every leader at each level of the hierarchy is elected by the members of all levels below. And any individual may be elected into any position at any of the higher levels. Every individual has his or her rights, including the right to explore his or her own goals. But the interesting thing is that none of them choose to exercise that right.

  “That’s the main difference between these aliens and us humans. Whereas we place such a huge emphasis on the freedom of the individual and the desire to gain wealth and success for oneself, they actually prefer to all work together toward the common good of the entire population. Contribution is what makes them happy, not competition. And, well, look at the progress they’ve made compared to us!”

  “It certainly is hard to argue with such success,” Marc agreed, as unconvinced as he still was about the Mendoken definition of happiness.

  The discussion continued for a good few hours, during which Marc’s mind was overloaded with information. He learned how the Mendoken had come into existence and how they had evolved into the nation that they now were. He saw images of some of the other major species, and found out about their characteristics and histories. He was briefed on the background of the current war between the Mendoken and the Volona, and on other wars fought between the different civilizations in the past. HoloMarc also explained some aspects of science and technology, including the mechanisms of space travel and the laws of physics that governed the universe.

  Marc knew some of the information would be biased from the point of view of the Mendoken, but he found it all highly interesting nonetheless. Although HoloMarc went into a lot of detail, much of which Marc wouldn’t be able to remember later, the following facts would forever remain engrained in his exceptional memory:

  1. The Mendoken

  By number the largest species in the Glaessan galaxy, and generally accepted as the most technologically advanced. They evolved originally from amphibious creatures on the green planet Draefar
el. Their brains developed more rapidly than the rest of their bodies, largely due to their consumption of a highly nutritious plant called Torteg. From the very beginnings of their civilization, they began building and using machines. To protect their soft, vulnerable organs and tissues, they encased their bodies in metal armor, with antigravity mechanisms installed at the bottom to allow them to float above the ground. They also attached robotic limbs and other mechanized body parts to enhance their strength and mobility.

  As opposed to humans, who have a stereoscopic view of the world through two eyes facing the front, the Mendoken have a single eye around the head that sees simultaneously in all directions. This gives them a circular frame of reference, allowing them to operate in multiple directions at the same time. This is also why all their structures are circular or cylindrical in design, in contrast to the rectangular shapes that humans generally prefer.

  A community based, hierarchical society, they place great emphasis on collaboration and participation. Shunning emotions, pleasure and spirituality, their approach to life is highly logical and scientific. Their whole definition of success is based on advancement in technology and exploration, not on individual gains in possessions or satisfaction of their senses. As a result, they are extremely united as a population, with very few reasons to hate or fight each other.

  The Mendoken make no distinction between their males and females. They have no concept of intimate companionship, marriage or family. All offspring are artificially inseminated and born in laboratories, and then raised together in groups by dedicated professional staff. Cloning is only used for regeneration of injured body parts. Cloning of entire bodies is strictly forbidden in order to maintain sufficient individuality of every Mendoken.

  The current Imgoerin, or supreme elected leader of the MendokenRepublic, is called Franzek Treital 00000001. A new Imgoerin is elected every 120 Earth years. The average lifespan of each Mendoken is about 600 Earth years. They can live so long because of their advanced medicine and technology, and particularly because of the symbiotic relationship between the organic and mechanical components in their bodies.