Tabula Rasa

by Filip Forsberg

  “It’s floating. But, how can it float?” Like her finger would remind gravitation that it actually had an object here that did not obey order. Julius smiled.

  “This is something outstanding we are dealing with here; it is something completely unique.” Julius sounded thrilled. Elisabeth stared at him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It's absolutely amazing, I hardly understand it myself. It seems that the information stored in it has somehow changed it and the Skydisc seems to be a key to the information” he paused, “it's like the information in the holocube has affected it physically.” He shook his head. Elisabeth looked at the holocube in front of her.

  “What is it that you’re saying?” her eyes narrowed. “Is it some kind of trick?”

  Julius laughed.

  “No, no. This is something absolutely wonderful, I've never seen anything like it. What was previously a common holocube is now something more.” He cleared his throat and continued, “It seems that it contains information. A lot of information apparently.”

  “Information about what?”

  “Yes, that's a good question. According to what I have been able to decipher so far it contains information about space.”

  “Space?”

  “Yes, it describes what seems to be several million different star systems. This is something quite exceptional. This is information that we don’t have available on Earth.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “I mean whatever it contains, it is not coming from us.”

  “Are you saying its extraterrestrial?”

  “Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.”

  Malin had been silent and looked with a bewitched look on her face at the holocube while it rotated in front of them. As Elisabeth watched, Malin stretched out her right hand towards it. Before Elizabeth managed to say anything, Malin touched it with her index finger. Elizabeth gasped and Malin quickly pulled her hand back. She blinked rapidly.

  “What happened? What did I do?”

  “Why did you do it?”

  “I don’t know. It wasn’t me.” she fell silent.

  “Whatever you did it seems to react to it.” Julius pointed.

  The holocube had started spinning faster and faster. Along the sides it began to glow faintly, then more and more intense. It was like a light inside had been lit and increased in strength second after second. The glow increased in intensity until they began to squint.

  “What’s happening?”

  Before anyone could answer, the glow changed character. From being completely white, the light began to change to blue tones. The whole room got increasingly colored with the bluish shades as the holocube transformed.

  In Richards’s voice a hint of worry was noticed.

  “What does this mean?”

  “I have no idea. Can we stop it?”

  Elisabeth knew that the holocube was not dangerous. She did not know how she knew that. It was something primitive inside her that spoke. The group stood around the blue shimmering sphere and stared at it. The rotating light cast long shadows on the wall behind them and the shadows danced around.

  Elisabeth were just about to speak when the holocube changed yet again. This time it was not the light inside of it that changed but the holocube itself. Elisabeth fell silent when she saw that one of the edges of it seemed to start to soften and after a couple of seconds it sank in to the middle.

  They doubtfully stared at what took place in front of them. The holocube accelerated and at the same time started even the other edges to dissolve. It started to lose its cube like shape. The edges sank in to the middle and started more and more to look like a ball.

  * * *

  Richard stared at the holocube, which floated a not more than fifty centimeters above the Skydisc. Elizabeth held her breath. Faster and faster, it accelerated around its axis. Both Malin and Julius instinctively took a step back. But Elisabeth was not afraid.

  It changed its appearance again and the soft form assumed the appearance of a pyramid. It became more and more pronounced when the holocube edges sank into the middle. Small, fixed edges appeared on other parts of the sphere and rose to the surface.

  “I would not be surprised if you measured it, it would appear that it was a perfectly shaped pyramid.” Julius said quietly.

  The others looked at him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that if it by itself can reshape into a perfect geometrical shape it is an expression for something intelligent. Neither you or me or anybody else would be able to create a perfect shape of something using our hands.”

  Malin looked back at the pyramid that spun around in the air in front of them.

  “You’re saying that we wouldn’t be able to make a perfect shape?”

  “No”

  “I don’t believe that. I wouldn’t need help from a computer. I could do it using a T-square and a pencil.”

  “You’re not listening to what I’m saying.”

  “Yes I do, right?”

  “No, I mean without any tools at all. To create something perfect without having any tools or something else. That is something completely different than what you are talking about.”

  “Is it really that difficult?”

  “Yes, it’s actually impossible. It depends on which scale to have when you measure but if you go closer and closer it becomes harder and harder to reach perfection. Every surface that you create contains small variations that disturbs the perfection.”

  “Yes, of course. When you get closer and closer it always shows that the smoothest surface in reality looks like a moon landscape in miniature.”

  “And if you continue measuring, then you see that the moon landscape starts to look more like Grand Canyon. And if one goes even further down in the resolution, you’ll see that Grand Canyon looks like Mount Everest. And so on and on.”

  Elisabeth that silently had been standing next to them and almost seemed hypnotized stared at the sphere that floated in front of them, opened her mouth.

  “Look, it’s changing again!”

  Everybody in the room spun towards the table and watched. The edges of the Pyramid started to soften up again. The sharp edges seemed to get softer and softer, like butter being heated in a microwave oven. The edges started to get more and more rounded until you could barely see that it was a pyramid anymore. Now it looked more like an uneven ball. The surface of it stated to shift from silver grey to a more bronze like color. Small ripples of different colors rose up from inside and spread out over the surface.

  It was as if the pyramid had realized that it was dealing with an intelligence. As if the thing that spun around in the air in front of them did something with it to not scare them. They stood silent in a circle around the table for what seemed to be an eternity. Slowly, without a word, Elisabeth started to reach out her hands against her father and Julius. Rows of text started to roll down the big screens that surrounded them.

  Elisabeth stood petrified and awed. The screens in front of her was filled with row after row of text that quickly rolled down. The characters came first slowly, then faster and faster until they held a steady high speed down the screen. No one could write so fast, Elisabeth thought it resembled a core dump from a computer. The green light from the screens was unusually bright and she squinted to not get dazzled.

  “What’s happening?” Julius whispered quietly.

  Richard shook his head. This was something he had never seen before. The text in front of him, rushed forward at a rapid pace. Every second more than ten lines of text rolled on the screens and according to what he could see, it was not the same text on the screens.

  “Look, the text on them is different.”

  Richard looked around at the other screens. There were five of them and he let his eyes slide over all of them. He gasped.

  “Yes, you are right.” he pointed at two of the screens, “and do you see that?”

  Elisabeth leaned forward and looked back an
d forth at the two screens.

  “What am I supposed to see?”

  Richard tapped his finger on one of the screens and at the same time pointed at the other one.

  “It is not the same signs on the screens. It is actually not the same signs on any of the other screens. They are all different.”

  Elisabeth carefully studied all the screens and gasped.

  “You’re right. They are different.” she was quiet a couple of seconds before she hesitating, “What does that mean?”

  Before anyone could answer, the information on the screens changed again.

  *

  Paris, France.

  2048-12-31

  The insight that something extraordinary was going on had become increasingly clear to him the last day. It was late in the evening and Backmann stood beside his desk and his hand trembled slightly.

  A bead of sweat trickled down his neck, and he shivered when it ran inside his shirt. He had just finished a video conference with seven employees placed around the world and what they had told him was upsetting. Normally he was not a man who was easily affected, he was known for his stoic calm and had an eerie ability to control his feelings. For some, he appeared more like a robot than a human being. It had always been like that, he had always had it in him, usually he was a rock but now he was shaken. He looked over at the holoscreen that hung on the wall.

  The extraordinary newscast had told about the discovery of a large glowing sphere that been found in orbit around the moon in the previous days, but which now seemed to move toward Earth. The news anchor was significantly affected by the seriousness of the matter. The initial analyzes claimed that at this moment there was no further information about the sphere but worked intensively to gather more.

  He blinked and wiped a drop of sweat from his upper lip. Now that the discovery of the sphere was public, the circumstances had changed. If it were so that the sphere was no longer in a stationary orbit around the moon, it would change everything.

  The question was whether he would also contact the authorities to inform about the Amber group's work. But what authorities? The Americans, the English, the Chinese? He hesitated. At the same moment as the authorities were informed, he would lose control.

  At the same time, he had received alarming reports from his colleagues. The conversation with the seven colleagues had made a deep impression on him and he struggled to regain the initiative. They worked in an industry that, to a great extent, was hidden from the eyes of the public.

  People usually had an idea of the historical treasures and works of art were found during archeological expeditions and then naturally came in the hands of various museums which then gave the public access to view them. That the process in some way took place in a controlled and honest way.

  Nothing could be farther from the truth. The fact was that the archeological industry was an industry that balanced on the edge of a knife. Daily struggles of life and death arose when ownership was argued.

  Fantastic discoveries were made and failed to be reported. Fanatic collectors who acted in a twilight world went above and beyond to expand their collection of unique artefacts. Both men and women fought and died anonymously in order to continue to fuel the insatiable black market that constantly demanded the latest discoveries and the most amazing treasures.

  It was on this dramatic scene that the Amber group acted. It was here, in the shadowy side of society, that they offered a service to reclaim artifacts that had gone astray for a variety of reasons. The Amber group was not cheap but the service they provided was of high quality. Discretion was their trademark.

  He shook his head while he walked around the desk and sat down in his leather chair. The seven colleagues around the world had more or less said the same thing. Three of them worked together on a mission that involved two Chinese bronze dragons. The others worked alone on their missions but their feedback had been eerily similar.

  Everyone had reported on exceptional events in the last days. Normally, extraordinary events occurred occasionally but what happened now seemed to be something completely different.

  One of his colleagues, Julia, told that she had been in an excavation in Chile and two glowing spheres had been found within less than three days. The excavation had been focused on an ancient Aztec sculpture but everything had stopped when they had come into what looked like a small cave during the excavation work. In the cave, a shining sphere had been found along with a disc that, according to the description, was similar to the Skydisc from Nebra. Three days later, the incident had repeated itself when another cave had been discovered.

  Another colleague, Thomas, had recounted the recent events he had experienced on the border between Mongolia and China. Thomas worked together with a Chinese archaeological group to dig out a temple found last year and they had managed to keep the work secret. Two days ago, the group had entered the temple and did their first initial investigations. Exceptional paintings and statues had been discovered and Thomas had been completely captivated by the secrets that the temple seemed to hold. Further inside the temple, Thomas and the group had discovered something that seemed to put the rest of the discovery in the dark. In a room by itself a bright sphere had been discovered. And that was not the most amazing thing. What really impressed them was that the sphere was not on the ground or in any container. Instead, it seemed that the sphere, by its own force, floated in the air in the middle of the room above a disk of gold. Backmann had asked about the details and Thomas had answered the best he could, and by all accounts was the discovery identical to the others.

  The others had recounted similar stories and even Lisa King who worked in Costa Rica had reported that she had found one of the mystical objects. The glowing spheres started to appear around the world in an astounding pace. According to Backmann's calculations, at least nine spheres had appeared in the last few days. It must mean something, perhaps was there a pattern in it all, and what did it mean in that case? The spheres had been found on almost every continent. And that was only part of the problem. The information about the spheres on earth that previously had only been available to a handful of people, but now the amount increased exponentially. The more people who gained access to the information, the faster the stories would arrive to some journalist. It was inevitable. And now that the sphere in space was all over the news it could not be stopped.

  He sat down at his desk and sat in silence a couple of minutes and pondered his next move. He thought of Marie that had been silent as a clam the last days. He knew that it had to do with Jonathan and he knew that he had to deal with that sooner or later but not now.

  Now there were more prioritized issues on the agenda. He took out the latest report from one of his agents, Paco, that had managed to infiltrate Tabula Rasa but have not been heard from for a while. Backmann had tried to contact him but had not been successful. Paco had been a reliable source that had forwarded lots of useful information but now he was like vanished from the face of the earth. Backmann sat preoccupied while he read through the report. After a while he pushed a button on the intercom.

  “Please send in Marie, Richard and Elisabeth.” He knew that Malin was busy with her own work.

  A metallic voice answered.

  “Yes, sir.”

  A couple of minutes passed in silence as Backmann went through the last day’s events to himself. There had been so many extraordinary things that it was hard to keep track. A short knock on the door.

  “Come in.”

  The door opened and Richard and Elisabeth Snow entered the room and closed the door behind them. Backmann gestured for them to sit down.

  “How’s it going with you?”

  Elisabeth laughed.

  “Well, it’s going fine, thank you. Much better now that we have got out from Tabula and the assassins that were after us.” Backmann smiled at his comments. He nodded thoughtfully and pressed on the intercom again.

  “Where’s Marie?”

  The metallic voice sou
nded stressed.

  “I can’t find her, sir. She doesn’t answer on the call.”

  Backmann looked over at Richard.

  “Yes, it seems that it was a dramatic rescue?” he paused, “and you look pretty tired Richard?” and raised one eyebrow. Before Richard could answer, Elisabeth nodded.

  “Yes, it really was. It was a close call. For a while there I actually thought that we wouldn’t make it” she paused, “But I’m so sorry for what happened to Jonathan. I couldn’t believe that he jumped out from the boat just when we were getting out of there.”

  Backmann smiled grimly.

  “No, I don’t know if he told you but his mission wasn’t only to rescue you.”

  Both Elisabeth and Richard stared blankly at him.

  “What?”

  Backmann shrugged.

  “I suppose it doesn’t matter now but he was also going to get in contact with one of our agents that we have lost contact with. Apparently Jonathan thought that he had a chance to do that after you were rescued.”

  Elisabeth shook slowly her head.

  “What a fool. To get back in there after all that happened and so close to dying that we were.”

  Richard leaned forward while choking a yawn and put the hand on her arm.

  “But we didn’t. We made it and we can only pray that Jonathan also will make it.”

  Elisabeth smiled at Backmann.

  “Yes, thank you for all the help. I don’t know what to say. I am forever grateful for your help. Without it both I and my father would be dead for sure.”

  Backmann pushed back the chair he was sitting in and stood up.

  “We are working with the United Nations with some hidden diplomacy about how we will get Jonathan out of there but it will probably take a little time before the planning is done.” He paused, “But there are more things happening now that make us have to gather our forces and think how to handle the immediate future.” He paused, “Specifically, that holocube you brought out of Tabula Rasa. How is it going with that?”