The Syndicate's Journey

by Nicholas Bogucki

  “This is quite unique, but how can I use it? It seems as if this liquid changes forms when exposed to light or heat? My entire body is covered in it, and the liquid did not move or change, it instead formed to my body.”

  J’uhleesa looked at his left arm and saw the object still there. His arm was chilled to the bone, but not frozen.

  He moved his right arm over to where it was on his left wrist and tried to grab it and peel it off his arm. Slowly the liquid was coming apart from his arm, and he was able to carefully remove the entire object and held it in front of his face.

  “So... seems like when this is in the sun, I can re-use this. I wonder if this can change besides what I see here.”

  J’uhleesa moved both hands together and squeezed and molded the object back into the square shape that it was before. He moved his left hand and saw in his right hand that the object had returned to a square shape. He realized that this object could be used and re-used for many purposes.

  I need to test this for future use. I need to find out how durable it is, the elasticity of this, how long it can be on a Snargde before it warms up or breaks. There are so many questions and so little time. You are going to help so much.

  J’uhleesa grabbed the object, and with both hands, stretched it out. He then moved it all over his face. He closed his eyes, and he felt the coolness of it resonate all over his face. The feeling felt pleasant and calming to him. He then opened his eyes, and he could see through the liquid. He blinked once, then twice. He did not open his mouth and was afraid of what would happen if he did.

  I can see through this, so flawlessly. It is almost as if I don’t have anything on my face. But how can this be? The material is so thick but, yet it is translucent.

  J’uhleesa had to know if he could talk through this object. He opened his mouth and spoke.

  “Uh…well…”

  He closed his eyes as he moved his hands to peel the object from his face and held it in his hand and squeezed back to its original form.

  I need more of this. I need to know what I can do with it.

  J’uhleesa stood up, clutching the object and turned around and walked back into the cave as he carefully crept back inside of it, walking ever so lightly as he made sure he did not step on a Snargde that was asleep.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The four generals walked to their cabins to rest after the meeting with Lieutenant General Armitage. The meeting lasted roughly an hour, which left them nine hours to sleep and get ready for their intergalactic mission.

  Aboard the USV Valkanaut, uniformity was essential. Every door and every room were the same. The Major Generals pressed the respective buttons in front of their quarters to open the door, and each one walked inside into their cabins. The doors shut behind them, and they knew they had to get some rest, but the meeting with Lieutenant General Armitage was on each one of their minds. The Major Generals each had their own assigned cabins. The cabins were nearby from one another. Major General Lokhorst walked down to the furthest cabin down the hall and walked inside. Major General Solbrig entered the one right next to hers. Major General Brentari’s cabin was next to Solbrigs,’ and Major General Reingle’s was the closest one to the hallway.

  Major General Reingle laid in bed and moved his left hand to open his INH. He was curious about what Lieutenant General Armitage showed them all and wanted to learn more before his trip to Snakardekus in the morning. He had tapped on “Files” then “NEW: SNAKARDEKUS,” and then he flicked his hand to the left and found “Pictures” and tapped on it. Before his eyes was a picture that seemed to be taken from a probe, which was a photograph of the planet from space. Snakardekus looked desolate in his eyes; it seemed very solemn and hot. He studied the picture and couldn’t believe that he was going to be there tomorrow. A call came in the INH that disturbed him from looking at Snakardekus.

  MAJOR GENERAL SOLBRIG IS CALLING

  He tapped “Accept Call,” and Major General Solbrig appeared on the screen.

  “Hey.”

  “Did you need something?” Major General Reingle asked.

  “I know that we were just in the meeting with Lieutenant General Armitage, but did you have a chance to look at those files he gave us?”

  “I’m actually looking at them right now.” Major General Reingle stated.

  He moved the video image of Major General Solbrig to the right side of his INH while he was looking at the pictures of Snakardekus on the left side of his INH

  “How far have you gotten?” he asked.

  “Well, right now, I’m literally looking at Snakardekus...that’s really about it.”

  “Oh...well don’t worry about too much what it looks like...worry about what is inside of it.” Major General Solbrig explained. “You’re only on picture one.”

  He tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

  “Reduce the picture you’re looking at and go back to the screen with all of the pictures.”

  He did what Major General Solbrig had told him. He moved his hand on the screen and reduced the picture, and all the images of Snakardekus in the “Pictures” were shown. One-hundred and thirty-two pictures were on his display.

  “Whoa. I didn’t realize that the Syndicate had so many pictures. How come we never knew?”

  “You sound surprised. Scroll down to picture seventy-three.”

  Major General Reingle looked at the left side of his screen and saw that the pictures were labeled. One through thirty-three were pictures of the planet itself and the atmosphere. Thirty-four through seventy were pictures of different minerals and rock formations. Seventy-one through one hundred were pictures of Snargde, and one hundred through one hundred and thirty-two were miscellaneous pictures of Snakardekus.

  “Don’t worry; you’re not missing anything by skipping through pictures. Now before you open it, just don’t freak out.”

  “What? Why would I?” Major General Reingle asked. “Why are you acting calm about this?”

  “Well, let’s just say it was very unsettling for me to see.”

  “Okay... well, I’m going to tap on it now.” Major General Reingle said nervously.

  “Okay.”

  Major General Reingle tapped on picture seventy-three, and the picture appeared in front of him. It was a picture of a Snargde. The photograph was a close-up picture of one. The photograph showed a Snargde standing upright in the desert, looking off to the right. He saw its features, the elongated snout, the beady eyes, and its brown scaly body.

  “That...looks just like a lizard, but a lot bigger?”

  “Yeah...not so pleasant to look at, huh?”

  He continued to look at it while he talked.

  “I wonder how tall the creature is, Solbrig. I have so many questions...” His voice trailed off.

  “I wanted you to see it before we landed there so you wouldn’t be distracted in case we saw one up close. I already looked through all the pictures. There’s a few more with several Snargde, but they all look the same, and they look like they have a blank stare.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like clueless, you know? Here let me show you. Tap on picture ninety-three, and you will see a group of Snargde just standing in the desert.”

  “Uh-huh...” he continued speaking as he moved his left hand to the pictures and reduced the photographs and found ninety-three and tapped on it. The picture that appeared was the picture that Major General Solbrig mentioned, and it had shown a group of Snargde of around seven or eight. They were all standing in a line and had looked identical like how the Snargde from picture seventy-three had seemed. The group of Snargde all looked the exact same; all had brown scales, all roughly the same height, and all of them were standing on their legs.

  “What are they doing?” asked Major General Reingle.

  “I have no clue. It’s almost as if the Snargde is motionless.”

  “Hmm...I wonder why they are in the same stature as the picture before?” Major General Reingle asked. “Oh wai
t, do you think there’s a way to check out when each picture was taken? Maybe these are the same day?”

  “You have a point! Major General Solbrig exclaimed. “Well, the bottom right corner there is an icon of a gear, maybe tap that?”

  Major General Reingle followed the instructions and tapped the picture, then the gear appeared, he tapped it, and all of the information was shown about the image. The gear revealed the time the image was taken, the day, and where on Snakardekus it was located. Along with other miscellaneous statistics. “I found it!”

  “Good to hear! I have picture seventy-three on my screen.” Major General Solbrig told him as he tapped the gear icon.

  “Oh, when does it say the picture was taken?” Major General Reingle asked.

  “Uh, let me see…Dosga the Twelfth.”

  “What year?”

  “564 EBA.” Major General Solbrig stated.

  “Damn. Picture Ninety-Three was taken in Kopry sixth of 588 EBA.”

  “Does that answer your question?”

  “So... twenty years and three months apart and yet the Snargde are in the same position?” asked Major General Reingle.

  “Well, I mean, let’s not jump to conclusions now; maybe that’s just how the Snargde function? Or perhaps the pictures have the wrong dates?”

  “I think it is a simple malfunction. The pictures look like they were taken relatively close, not twenty years apart.” Major General Reingle uttered.

  “I would agree with you on that. I mean, look at the pictures. Even looking at the Snargde themselves look similar! The claws, the tail, and their height, even.”

  Major General Reingle replied, “There are many species that are identical, why would this be different?”

  “I’m sure we will find out more information about the Snargde when we get there. All we know about them is from this file right here, who knows how they function.” Major General Solbrig noted. “Better be cautious than not at all, right? I think that’s why Lieutenant General Armitage told us to bring weapons.”

  “Wait a second.” Major General Reingle paused.

  “What?”

  Major General Reingle was looking through the pictures as they spoke, and he had reduced image ninety-three and placed it to one side and reduced again and found picture seventy-three and moved it on the other side of the screen. He pressed the gear icon for both and scrolled down to see the date again.

  “Picture Seventy-Three was taken 564 EBA, and picture ninety-three was taken in 588 EBA.”

  “Yeah? I thought we already went over this...”

  “Don’t you see?”

  “See what?” Major General Solbrig asked.

  “These pictures are taken twenty years apart, but this is one-hundred and ninety years ago!”

  “That is definitely a malfunction. It can’t be that long ago!”

  “What if it is?” Major General Reingle asked. “What if this happened almost two hundred years ago?”

  “Well...” His voice changed to a whisper, “I’d say that the Syndicate has been keeping all of us misinformed...but we can’t say that...”

  “We are the first transhumans to go to Snakardekus, right? I mean...what if other transhumans went before us?” Major General Reingle asked.

  “I am sure that there is a way to find out, I just don’t know how.”

  “Maybe ask Lieutenant General Armitage?”

  “I don’t think so. I think Lieutenant General Armitage put himself in jeopardy for even giving us this information. I would not want to bother him nor put his rank at risk.”

  “You think so?”

  Major General Solbrig looked at him through the INH with a piercing gaze. “Yeah. Did you not feel the uneasiness in the room? Lieutenant General Armitage had helped us before and gave us insight when needed, but never to this degree.”

  Major General Reingle pondered on what he had said. “Maybe you’re right, but I don’t know...I feel like the more we look into this, the more dirt we’re uncovering. Literally and figuratively.”

  “Well, of course. We just now know that the Syndicate has been to Snakardekus before.”

  “The pictures were taken from probes, though...” Major General Reingle continued speaking. “Probes do not necessarily mean that we made contact with them.”

  “No, you’re right, but who knows if there are more pictures than these?” He asked.

  “You have a valid point, but I don’t think that is something we will ever know, unfortunately.”

  “Don’t stay up too late looking at pictures. You’ll see firsthand in a few hours. We have some time on the ship to look at pictures.” Major General Solbrig reassured him.

  “You’re right, but I want to be prepared.”

  “I understand, well, I’m going to bed. Don’t stay up too late!”

  “Okay...” his voice trailed off as he was looking at pictures.

  “Reingle, Get some rest. In eight hours, we leave for Snakardekus.” Major General Solbrig demanded.

  Major General Reingle’s eyes moved to the screen, and he grinned at Major General Solbrig through the hologram.

  “Well, goodnight Solbrig, see you in a few hours!”

  “You too, Reingle.”

  CALL ENDED WITH MAJOR GENERAL SOLBRIG

  Major General Reingle moved his hand over his INH screen and enlarged the files to fit his screen. He couldn’t believe that the Syndicate had secrets from roughly two-hundred years ago.

  What else can I find out?

  He swiped his hand to move the pictures seventy-three and ninety-three back to their original place and continued looking through the images. He saw all sorts of things about Snakardekus, such as the various structures on Snakardekus.

  What is that?

  He swiped to picture one hundred, and it showed a different angle of the previous picture that he had seen.

  Hmm... What if I...

  He reduced the picture and tapped on one hundred and enlarged it and then tapped on one hundred and two and enlarged it as well. He moved the two images together on the left side of his INH screen.

  It’s a puzzle! Maybe… there must be more pictures.

  He continued to swipe through more pictures, dragging the ones that resembled each other and moving them to the left side of his INH He found images one hundred and seven, one hundred and twelve, one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and twenty, one hundred and twenty-four, and one hundred and twenty-five.

  Alright, I have eight pictures here. Let’s see if I can figure this out.

  He moved the pictures, so he had four rows and two columns.

  Let’s see... they’re all the same color, helpful but not really. Some have sand in the pictures, and others don’t...maybe I can categorize them?

  He moved three pictures that had sand in them, which were picture numbers one hundred and seven, one hundred and twelve, and one hundred and twenty-four. These three pictures he moved around until the pictures seemed to look close to one another. He had five pictures in one column and the three with sand in them in another column.

  I’m not sure exactly what this is yet, but I can tell that these pictures belong together. There is sand at the bottom of all three photos, so I’m going to assume they belong together.

  They all lined up seamlessly, and most of the pictures showed some rock formation in them.

  If only I can get these to match up with those other pictures.

  He played around with the pictures, moving them every which way that they could be moved. Horizontal, vertical, rotating them ninety degrees trying to make a match.

  Wait for a second...

  He tapped on each picture that did not have sand and dragged them on top of the three photos with sand. Before his eyes, the image formed.

  Whoa...

  All eight pictures were together and appeared to show a cave. The mouth of the cave and the sand all around it. Even some cacti were in the distance. Major General Reingle could see something deep inside the cave but could
not make out what it was.

  That’s a cave...or at least I think it is. So, there’s a cave in Snakardekus?

  He tapped on each picture individually and looked to see the information of each one. He wanted to find out when the creation date was when the picture was taken, and to see if it had a location. Maybe then he could see if it was the same area and the same cave. He tapped the picture numbered one hundred first. The creation date told him it was taken in the Northernmost region on Snakardekus. Comogh Fifth of 589 EBA.