Reality: The Struggle for Sternessence

by Daniel A. Liut

  “Nothing other than the life form, Captain.”

  Foxso’l swung slightly on his chair. “New speed setting, point zero, zero, zero two relative.”

  “Point zero, zero, zero two relative, Captain. Present range seventy-four hundred kilometers, sir.”

  “Let’s get the object in through the bow bay main gate.”

  Witts nodded. “Capture sequence engaged. Bow bay main gate opening, sir. Zero relative speed.”

  The unidentified object was right above the bow bay main gate.

  “H.R. scanners,”80 Foxso’l said.

  “H.Rs engaged and probing, sir. Megalium alloy metal, thickness ranges between one and three inches. No propulsion system detected. No dangerous instruments for unknown purposes scanned. No chemical explosives detected. Internal atmosphere with high contents of bioxyn and catalyon.81 Traces of inert gases. No radioactive materials detected. No perilous free sub-particles identified. One water canister. Organic material registers as possible food. No toxic gases or liquids. Abundant additional data of lesser relevance. Safety classification one: no threat detected, Captain.”

  “What about the life form?”

  “Humanoid.”

  “Tora, are you still there?”

  “Affirmative, skipper.”

  “Watch out for any sign of activity.”

  “Aye, skipper.”

  “You stay here. I’m gonna take a closer look at that thing,” Foxso’l said to Witts.

  “Acknowledged, Captain.”

  “I’m going with you,” added Duncan.

  Foxso’l and Duncan now stood waiting in front of the hatchway that connected to the bow bay. Once the repressurization sequence was completed, a whirling electronic sound rang, and the hatchway began to open.

  In the middle of the hangar, a dark gray object—conical in shape—stood alone in silence. Tenuous vapors were emanating from the capsule’s skin. Foxso’l stepped into the bay, followed by Duncan. They stopped about three feet from the object and watched.

  “Don’t touch it!” Foxso’l yanked Duncan’s arm, holding him back. “It’s still extremely cold.”

  Duncan stepped back from a small lever that had just sprung out from the capsule’s hull. Above the lever, a smashed yellow arrow pointed down.

  After adjusting his gun, Foxso’l began irradiating the lever with an amber-colored ray. Duncan gave him a curious glance. “Just heating it up so that we can handle it,” Foxso’l explained.

  Shutting down his gun, the skipper approached the lever, his nose almost touching it. He could not perceive any heat. Using his fingers, Foxso’l carefully made a final check. “That’s much better,” he said, and waved to Duncan to go ahead.

  Duncan grabbed the lever and pulled it down. An equalization-of-pressures hiss issued from the hatchway as it opened.

  The capsule’s only passenger looked first at Foxso’l, with apprehension, and next at Duncan. “Where am I?”

  “You are on board the Angel Spark, ma’am,” Foxso’l said.

  The passenger looked around cautiously.

  “I am Foxso’l, captain of this vessel, and this gentleman is Dahncion.” The skipper waved a hand casually. “One of my assistants.”

  Duncan drank in the Earth-looking woman—a perfectly Earth-looking woman. She did not exhibit any of the traits of the different creatures he had met so far in that universe—rilitian, tori, or any other. She looked fully human and was definitely most attractive.

  “Would you help our guest out, Dahncion?”

  Eyes fixed on the female presence, Duncan delayed his reply for about a second. “Sure, yes.” He stepped forward clumsily, extending his right hand inside the capsule. Leaning on his arm, the woman stepped down onto the bay deck. Her attire, practical though it seemed, enhanced her beauty.

  “Welcome on board the Angel Spark,” Foxso’l added courteously.

  “Thank you, Captain.”

  “My pleasure, ma’am.” Foxso’l inclined his eyes gallantly. “Could you tell us something about yourself?”

  The woman smiled kindly. “My name is Erina Brikana, and I come from planet Earth.”

  40.

  It was about 2100R when Erina was rescued. She was exhausted and did not feel like having any food. She did not feel very well either. Erina looked and talked as if she had not slept in days. The Angel Spark was far from being a pleasure cruiser, but her captain kindly granted his own quarters to the new passenger.

  While Foxso’l showed her his cabin, accompanied by Witts, Erina shared a few comments about her trip and immediately retired. She said very little, mainly that she did not belong to that universe, even if she was familiar with some aspects of it.

  After she went to bed, Foxso’l, helped by Duncan, ran several tests on her capsule. He could not find anything threatening or anything that would link it, or Erina, to the Establishment. Her claim could not be verified yet, but there was nothing that would contradict it, either. Eventually, Duncan retired, but Foxso’l stayed on the bridge two more hours scanning for any activity in the area. He found nothing.

  41.

  In the morning, Duncan headed to the commissary for breakfast. It was too early for Foxso’l to be there, who had gone to bed much later than Duncan, and too early for Tora, who had covered the early morning watch and would be in his resting period. As for Witts, he was covering his watch on the bridge. Yet Duncan would not have his breakfast alone.

  “Good morning,” Erina said, as Duncan walked toward the food machine. She was sitting at a corner table, behind the entrance.

  Surprised, Duncan turned around. “I thought you would still be sleeping.”

  “I had enough sleep.” Erina’s tired eyes did not seem to agree with that statement.

  After pouring some amis82 and picking up a couple of klets,83 Duncan approached the table. “May I?”

  “Please.”

  Duncan sat down and started breaking his klets in halves. They were hot and steaming. “You must’ve had quite a day yesterday,” he said, stirring his amis.

  The capsule’s only passenger looked around cautiously.

  “I sure did.” Erina pushed her hair to one side and sighed. “But we finally made it. I’m the first woman ever to get to this universe.”

  “No doubt you’re the first woman, but certainly not the first human,” Duncan said, with a grin.

  “As far as we know, the other team had not been able to make it.”

  “I don’t know about this.” Duncan wrinkled his forehead. “But I did get here without anyone’s help—anyone from Earth, that is.”

  “I guess many travels to my universe may have already taken place,” Erina commented. “This would clarify a number of unexplained sightings people claim once in a while.”

  “I am from Earth,” Duncan declared, with a strong emphasis.

  “No doubt.” Erina smiled kindly. “Though not from my Earth, the Earth from my universe.”

  “That is precisely where I’m from,” Duncan asserted. “From our universe, from our same old Earth.”

  The woman looked at him and sipped more of her amis.

  “I am a human being, like you,” Duncan added, with a touch of discomfort.

  Erina moved her chair closer to him and looked into his eyes. Immediately Duncan could detect an attractive scent emanating from her body, though nearly imperceptible. It had been some time since he had been in the presence of a woman from his own world. Perhaps this was enhancing his perception of her femininity.

  “Take my hand,” Erina said, her palms up and a wrist gently bent. Clumsily, Duncan touched her hand.

  “You see? I’m different. I wasn’t born in this universe,” Erina explained.

  “Neither was I,” Duncan said, putting his other hand on top of hers. “This is not my true appearance. I mean, I look pretty much like this, but I had to be changed—my body, that is—to be brought here, to this universe. They call it bio-assimilation.”

  Erina took her hands away a
nd stared at him. “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “People from this universe brought me here through a transrealitic jump.”

  “Do you mean that one fine day, some people over here teleported you into this universe?”

  Duncan chuckled anxiously. “It was not quite like that. They came to our universe in some transrealitic vessels, reconfigured my body with a . . . a RIBA device, and took me to one of their planets—Realitas—in this universe.”

  “They . . . forced you—”

  “No, no, no, nobody forced me into anything.”

  “Incredible.”

  “I know, but that’s how it happened. You might’ve gotten here in a similar fashion, I mean, even when using Earth technology.”

  Erina raised an eyebrow, moving her head slightly to one side. “The transrealitic procedure you’ve mentioned seems . . . different from the technology that brought me here.”

  Erina’s story was quite different, indeed.

  “So, how did all this happen?” Duncan asked.

  Erina put her cup on the table and crossed her legs. “I guess everything started when a group of scientists, rather accidentally, discovered the existence of this universe, while working for a military project. Right from the start, they found strong evidence for intelligent life. Some people in the government decided to keep the discovery a secret. The repercussions would have been unpredictable. They wanted to collect the maximum amount of information before making it public, especially about the advanced technologies they had picked up. They were also concerned that some other countries could use the discovery against us.”

  As she went on with her story, Duncan looked at the woman with fascination. Her uniform, which covered her whole body, did not hide any of her beauty. Beyond the external appeal, her intelligence made her even more appealing to him. Erina had a magnetism that energized Duncan’s senses.

  Erina continued. “Two years later, the first version of a system called T.D.C.—Trans-Dimensional Connector—was completed. A quasi-trans-dimensional door, or Q.T.D., could now be generated. That meant a physical link between universes.

  “In the beginning, Q.T.Ds were opened for just a few microseconds. Within a few months, the microseconds had turned into milliseconds, and soon the time threshold needed to send massive objects, and reconfigure their physical structure, was achieved. But even before that, different types of radiation emitted through open Q.T.Ds had been detected and processed, indicating possible intelligent origins.

  “Finally, we were able to send large objects. We started by injecting three probes that sent back very valuable data. We tried to open Q.T.Ds as close as possible to some of the sources of the signals. The third probe landed on a planet, close to what appeared to be a city. It was a very small device. Passing natives never noticed it. It sent many images of different people, some of them quite similar to us, some looking more like you do now.”

  Duncan tapped on the table with his fingers and nodded. “So, how were you selected for the trip?”

  “I was involved in the space program. A couple of years ago, somebody asked me if I would be willing to take part in a new project. It was a highly classified program, so if I accepted, I wouldn’t be able to back out for a number of years. I knew the person who was proposing this unexpected deal, and she was somebody I could trust.

  “She said the project was much more exciting than the entire space program put together, and reassured me of my personal qualifications. Her proposal sounded truly exciting, and the mystery surrounding it added a good share of fascination to it, though it was a leap in the dark.

  “It didn’t take me long to make up my mind. I soon got deeply involved in the new program and was glad to be there in spite of the risk. I remember very well the day the first images were sent back by the third probe from what we came to call planet Alpha-u1. It was amazing. None of us had ever thought that in the course of our lifespans, we would make contact with an alien civilization—from a different universe.”

  Erina sipped more of her amis and leaned back in her chair, holding her cup with both hands.

  “How did you finally make it here?” Duncan asked.

  “A team of univnauts—that’s the fancy name they found for us, which soon evolved into just u-nauts. I was one of them. Then, one got ill, two showed a negative sensitivity to the Q.T.D. system, the physiology of two others rejected the bio-reconfiguration necessary to live in this universe. In the end, I was the one chosen for the job.”

  “It must’ve been a tough process.”

  “Quite,” Erina said. “Soon the day—yesterday—came for me to step into the transition-capsule, the same capsule that you found me in. After a three-hour countdown, a Q.T.D. was opened—the largest Q.T.D. ever—and I was projected through it. The transition was made to a position close to Alpha-u1, although something apparently went wrong.”

  “How does it feel?”

  “The projection?”

  Duncan nodded.

  Erina sighed mildly. “The Q.T.D. opens, and suddenly you are here, in this universe. You don’t feel much of a change.”

  “Sounds similar to my trip,” Duncan said.

  Erina grinned. “Anyway, I found myself inside some ionized environment, and immediately a ship appeared and captured my capsule. In the process, many of the external instruments and sensors were damaged; from that moment on, I lost contact with most of what was transpiring around me.

  “The atmospheric sensors were still operative, and soon I was picking up readings of a breathable atmosphere surrounding the capsule. I decided to open the hatchway, but the locking system was stuck. I tried again, but it wouldn’t open. I hoped that someone would activate the emergency exit latch from the outside, but that was not happening either. After a while, I was starting to get worried.

  “Half an hour or so later, the capsule shuddered violently, and I experienced a strong jolt. I was very fortunate to be in my commanding console at that moment.

  “Now all external atmospheric readings were gone, and I was floating in the capsule again. The disturbing idea of being a derelict in space hit me. But not long after that, I started hearing noises on the hull. Almost immediately, I fell down to the capsule’s deck. Breathable atmospheric readings reappeared in my console display.” Erina rested her chin on one hand, leaning her elbow on the table. “I didn’t have to wait long until you and Captain Foxso’l triggered the emergency opening system.”

  Duncan was impressed with Erina’s story, but had mixed feelings about the implications. All of a sudden, he was not the only human being that had ever traveled from his Earth to that universe, and Erina’s trip suggested that many would follow. Thus, the exclusivity aspect of his being there was no longer true. The notion of his having a unique and potentially important role in resolving the universal conflict, as he had been told, had just been undermined by this revelation, and his doubts about his alleged role began to haunt him again. On the other hand, Erina had been able to make the trip without having to change her perfectly human appearance—from Earth’s standards—whereas his seemed alien to her, which bothered him.

  “The ship that first picked your capsule up was probably a Realdom vessel, which was being chased by an Establishment battleship,” Duncan explained. “The one we destroyed, as the captain told you yesterday.”

  “Establishment?”

  “It seems the Establishment’s ship badly damaged the one that recovered your capsule. You were probably jettisoned right before it exploded.”

  “Establishment?”

  Duncan nodded. “As we speak, the Establishment keeps adding worlds to its Equity.”

  Erina nodded slightly, stroking a lock of her hair.

  “This Equity can be very persuasive, invasive,” Duncan hurried to explain, “and very difficult to question.” He had learned a lot about the conflict while staying in Realitas, after his first mission in Veridiawa, mostly through Realitas public network.84 He would hear very little about the Establi
shment, and the conflict in general, from his comrades, although Foxso’l, and in particular Tora, were much more outspoken about the whole thing.

  “So people resent the Equity?” Erina asked.

  “Not all. For many, it’s like a holy book. It was written by Em-Rasinka, about two hundred years ago. She is considered the founder of the Establishment. Moving from planet to planet, Em-Rasinka spread the Equity with amazing speed—and success. There is not one single world where she preached her Equity that has not been converted, if I may use the expression. Not that everyone falls for it, but once installed, no one dares to oppose it.”

  Erina sighed. “So an actual war is waging right now.”

  “Unfortunately. Some time ago, a coalition of many worlds known as the Realdom elected a General Council and declared its autonomy from the Establishment. The General Council began to issue regulations related to foreign commerce and other activities on Realdom worlds. The Establishment took that as a violation of principles of their Equity.” Duncan pushed away from the table a little, holding up his cup of amis. “They asked the Realdom to dissolve the General Council in favor of a Universal Council constituted by both parties but based on Equity principles. The Realdom didn’t accept that, and that’s how the war got started.”

  Erina was listening to Duncan with attention, but she was not asking too many questions. She seemed more interested in Duncan’s personal story. “How long have you been living in this universe?” Duncan blinked. “Mm . . . five months, I think.”

  “And what have you been doing all this time?”

  “Well, it’s a long story, but . . . I’m involved in the war, on the Realdom’s side.”

  “We belong to a different reality.” Erina raised an eyebrow.

  “I know, but there’s more to this. Some people think there is a connection between things that happen here and on our Earth.”

  “How so?”

  “I don’t know yet, but they think I could be of some help to end this war, and perhaps even help our own Earth.” Uncomfortable, Duncan rubbed his temples. “That’s why they invited me over to this universe in the first place.”