A Spacetime Tale

by J. Benjamin

  The inside of the vessel was a vast expanse that went on for miles. The illuminating blue walls that made up the outside of the ship were now visible as the furthest horizons in this unearthly blimp.

  Giant branch-like structures filled the massive voids of space. Upon the stalks laid thousands of bubble-shaped pods that lined them from root to stem. Just like the ship, its walls, and the branches, they too appeared organic. The stretches of bubble pods terminated in a thick mass at the core of the vessel. The heart of the ship came to life by a shimmering purple light emanating from its center. Yet, despite the impressive nature of all of this, it didn’t compare to what was occurring around it.

  From every angle, tiny creatures moved about in each direction like animated blots of black paint. The beings traversed in and out of the pods with ease. Some of these creatures could be seen through the translucent bubbles of the branch pods themselves. Then, one moved within a few feet of the Pelican, giving it a closeup view.

  It was just like the slimy, multi-appendage sea monster that leaped in the air and destroyed the Pelican from the second report. Its appendages lit up in a beautiful array of colors with the ferocity of a firefly. The question as to whether the alien ship belonged to the Aquarians had quickly been answered.

  It was also apparent that the inside of the ship was not an open-air space, but rather a giant sack of liquid. In other words, the Pelican was floating inside a sprawling alien aquarium full of Aquarians.

  “I think it is safe to say at this point that the ship or its Aquarian hosts have taken control of the Pelican. As you can see, they are dragging it in the direction of this purple light at the core of the ship. The energy readings from that thing are off the charts. We believe that is the reactor powering the entire vessel. Without it, this entire craft would likely cease to survive in space,” Kiara explained.

  “Incredible,” replied the secretary-general.

  Pelican #53’s console remained blank even as the outside forces pulled it further toward the jaws of the vessel’s core. The view became less visible with each moment as the purple light blocked out everything around it. The Pelican moved further in until it abruptly stopped. At this point, nothing was visible beyond the purple light blasting into its lens.

  Pelican #53 had one job, and that was to follow the mysterious anomaly orbiting Kennedy. Now the AI-programmed bot, several million miles from its base planet, stumbled upon not just one but fifteen alien flagships. Then it was forcibly extricated from HiveAI and infiltrated by an extraterrestrial species, the first-ever cross-civilization contact in human history. After all of that, it sat dead frozen in the core of one of those alien megaships, staring at its purple reactor.

  Everything that had led to the eleventh report would have been more than enough to dramatically transform the entire field of exobiology. No doubt once it went public, it would change every assumption ever conceived about life in the universe, just as the Zelthrati had done when their discovery helped bring about the end of the Third World War. Except this wasn’t where the report ended. No, everything that had just occurred would pale in comparison to what was about to happen.

  Pelican #53 jolted. As it looked into the rotating, purple heart, thin lines of black crept down its eyesight. Something had grabbed hold of it. A split second later, the Pelican was no longer facing the reactor, but away from it.

  Three of those blots of black ink now floated four feet away from the Pelican. The reactor’s light reflected brightly off their translucent skin. Each appeared to be six feet in diameter, thereby dwarfing a human counterpart. Their appendages latched onto the Pelican as they carefully inspected it the way a child examines an autographed baseball.

  This was as close as humans had ever been to seeing the Aquarians in their natural habitat. These unusual, biology-redefining masses with fiberoptic flagella had accomplished technological feats that made humans look like cave people just discovering fire for the first time. Yet, it was the humans that had crossed the expanse of space and brought the party to the Aquarians.

  As the three Aquarians resumed their fascination with the alien visitor from Earth, another phenomenon almost went unnoticed. The Pelican’s command-line interface stopped outputting random characters.

  )%JN#0ingkl2_)(J(@$Nkjg08u)$@…..

  System recalibrate…

  …

  …

  Loading interface…

  Pelican53 {0000-01-01 00:01} Accessing internal database….

  Pelican53 {0000-01-01 00:01} DBGoldenWave access…

  ….

  …

  …

  Pelican53 {0000-01-01 00:01} Uploading data in 3… 2… 1…

  10%… 23%… 47%… 51%… 73%… 84%… 97%… 100%

  Pelican53 {0000-01-01 00:01} DBGoldenWave uplink complete

  “Did… did they just figure out how to hack the Pelican’s database and trigger a data dump?” Gwen asked.

  “Yes,” Kiara said. “The Pelican’s timer was reset. Yet its internal hard drive appeared to remain intact. But once the Aquarians seized the Pelican, they had no problem hacking its data core and extracting the Pelican’s backup of the Golden Wave.”

  Golden Wave was an advanced storage component operating separately from the HiveAI and Pelican logs. An homage to the Golden Record from the old NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft, it contained more than ten thousand films, two million songs, video games, a detailed history of Earth, humanity, and plenty of digital maps to guide even the most confused alien races directly to Earth.

  Moments after the upload, the Pelican died, and the screen turned to black with the message “End Transmission.” For a while, nobody said anything. Then, Thomas spoke up.

  “So, the Aquarians have the Golden Wave. If they can hack our Pelicans, they can probably access the millions of files stored on the uplink.”

  “Correct, Mr. Secretary-General,” Kiara replied. “It also probably means that if something far more complex showed up in their aerospace, like say a spacetime rip, that they would see it right away. They could probably comprehend at least several of the thousands of signals that would be sent through during the sequence.”

  Thomas nodded his head as Kiara spoke and considered the information being presented to him and the rest of the Cabinet.

  “Dr. Lacroix, thank you for leading us through the presentation of the eleventh report. Secretary Jackson and I need a few hours to present this to the GSF Security Council as well as the Joint Chiefs.”

  “What about the mission?” Matt asked. “Are we still going? It is in six days.”

  “Admiral Ashford, given the gravity of what we have just witnessed, forgive me, but we don’t have a definitive answer right now,” Thomas replied.

  “I understand,” Matt said.

  “Give us some time to discuss this. We will get back to you later,” Gwen said.

  “For now, you two are dismissed,” Thomas added.

  Kiara and Matt left the situation room.

  “What did we just watch in there?” Matt said. They walked to the exit of the building.

  “I’m still coming to grips with it.”

  “And to think, we are going to attempt communication with those things. Aren’t you nervous? What if we don’t come back?” Matt asked.

  “Of course, I am nervous,” Kiara said as they walked outside the building. “But I am also excited. We get to do something no human being has ever done. There are going to be so many history books written about us. This makes Apollo look like a walk in the park. Especially ironic now that their original landing site is a park, but I digress.”

  Before them sat a black limousine. A female SPG agent stood at the back entry holding the door open.

  “You coming?” Kiara asked.

  “They let you have one of these?” Matt asked.

  “I’m Cabinet.”

  “I don’t recall Leon having one of these when he was in your position,” Matt said.

  “That was before the events of December
17,” Kiara said. “Now, all sitting Cabinet members have security details.”

  “When was that policy decided?” Matt asked.

  “A week ago,” Kiara replied.

  “I wish I could be like the cool kids in the Cabinet,” Matt quipped.

  “You’re an admiral. You have top secret clearance. I wouldn’t complain if I were you. Now, you gonna join me or not?”

  “Guess I don’t have a choice,” Matt said. They stepped into the limo, and the agent closed the doors behind them and stepped into the front seat. The driver turned around to face Kiara.

  “Where to, Dr. Lacroix?”

  “Take us to the Ivanov,” Kiara replied. “We’re going to grab brunch.”

  “It’s not the Ivanov anymore,” the driver said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “After Dev Ivanov’s downfall as chairman of Cosmineral, the holding company that now owns the real estate rebranded all the buildings. Sonofabitch didn’t even own the damn hotels. Now it is called the Neo Renaissance on Mission Street.”

  “Neo Renaissance?” Kiara asked in disbelief. “What a dumb name for a hotel. Well, not as dumb as Ivanov. Okay, take us to the Neo Renaissance.”

  “You got it, boss,” the driver replied.

  “Thank you, Corey, that will be all,” Kiara concluded. She kept her eye on the privacy divider as it started closing. 3… 2… 1…

  Their faces met, and they kissed passionately.

  “Fuck, I thought we’d never get out of that damn meeting,” Kiara said. She pinned Matt to the seat as she simultaneously took off her suit jacket.

  “You seem energized today,” Matt said.

  “Hey, you said it yourself,” Kiara replied. “What if we don’t come back? What if this is the last time we get to enjoy ourselves on Earth? Best to go out on top. Right? Now shut up and kiss me.”

  The world outside turned gray as the infamous Bay Area summer fog consumed their flying transport. Their short flight was bumpier than expected. Kiara caught a glimpse of the notorious red towers of the Golden Gate Bridge as they passed by the windows.

  “Off to San Francisco.”

  They did not grab brunch. Instead, the gammanauts headed straight to a reserved hotel suite on the 63rd floor to finish what they started in the limo. Kiara rolled over to the right side of the bed.

  “Is sex before you go on a suicidal dream sequence a class that they teach in the military?”

  “I’m pretty sure the military teaches us to be as sexless as humanly possible.”

  “It should be a course,” Kiara said as she turned to kiss Matt on the cheek.

  “Do you think they know about us?” Matt asked.

  “Who?” Kiara replied. “The tabloids? The Cabinet? Thomas? I’m sure they’re not idiots. They always see us leaving meetings together. They always see us eating together. I’m sure they can put two and two together.”

  “Still a little weird that they’d let us spearhead a mission, given our… relationship.” Matt said.

  “Oh! You said the R-word!” Kiara said. “Seriously, though? I think they prefer gammanauts who have high levels of trust, rather than a bunch of strangers who can’t stand each other. We learned that in our training. If we fail to trust each other, the dream sequence fails.”

  “I couldn’t think of another person who I trust, both in and out of my dreams,” Matt said. They said nothing. They just looked at each other and smiled.

  Their bliss was broken by a loud alert that came simultaneously from their smart lenses.

  “Oh shit,” Kiara said. She put in her smart lens. “Oh, fuck! It’s Sec-Gen.” Matt laughed hysterically. They answered their calls at the same time. Kiara was somewhat relieved that the video feed was only one-way. Otherwise, it would not be an ideal situation.

  “Sir,” they both said simultaneously.

  “Dr. Lacroix, Admiral Ashford,” Thomas said. “Sorry to disrupt your, er, brunch. I thought you should know that Secretary Jackson and I had an extensive conversation regarding the findings from the eleventh report. We do have concerns about the advanced hacking capabilities of the Aquarians, both as it relates to your safety and to national security. Nevertheless, we have determined that we are going to put the choice in your hands.”

  “I see,” Kiara replied.

  “If you want to go forward with the spacetime sequence, we will continue as planned. However, if you have reservations, we will cancel the mission at once. Both of you will still get paid your contractual amount. We felt it would be unfair to not ask since none of us knew what these creatures were capable of when the sequence was planned back in December. So, what do you say?”

  Kiara looked at the hologram of Thomas on her right eye. She then looked past Thomas at Matt sitting before her. Matt did the same. Kiara held Matt’s hand in hers. Finally, they both made their choice.

  “I understand,” Thomas said. “I will inform Secretary Jackson as well as Dr. Srivastava of your decision.”

  They finished their conversation, going quiet for a minute as they considered the decision they just made.

  29

  June 9, 2082

  There was nothing typical about the throngs of people who lined the Golden Gate Bridge and the shores of Baker Beach. They came by the thousands, with their gazes locked to an area between the City by the Bay and the Global Space Federation’s Earth Capitol.

  Most showed up with candles or placards in support of the gammanauts. The Golden Gate Bridge was shut down to press only. Sure, there were protesters on the Sally Ride side of the water. However, they were mostly limited to the park in front of the ‘golden egg.’

  On the other side of the world, the Cardinals gathered at Vatican City for an emergency session at the behest of Pope John Paul IV. It was to discuss the crisis of faith brought about by the recent events. Yet despite all fleeing the church, there were as many rushing to join, for fear of the Apocalypse.

  In New York City, delegates to the United Nations took to the floor to shout down and condemn the Global Space Federation for initiating spacetime sequences without the approval of the UN Security Council. Mainly, it was from member-states who were part of the UN, but not part of the GSF. The representatives of the GSF fled the main room, but not before having several objects hurled in their direction and being cursed at in two dozen different languages.

  In many places, people threw End of the World parties. There were no rules. That was the point.

  It wasn’t limited to Earth either. Thousands of Lunar residents gathered in the urban layer of New Tokyo to witness footage from the Bay Area on a massive hologram.

  More than seven hundred and fifty million miles away, the Cosmineral lawyer John Alvarez sat in a lawn chair in the Chronos bubble park at the edge of the hydrocarbon lake at Huygens Landing on Titan. He started viewing the time-delayed coverage of the event. He immediately removed his smart lens and said: “fuck this shit.” He then proceeded to look out the bubble and smoke a cigar.

  ***

  In Sally Ride City, everybody was on full alert. Dr. Srivastava oversaw the spacetime command center with his legion of scientists and medics at work. Secretary-General Adler and almost the entire Cabinet watched closely in the situation room.

  The two gammanauts were suited, plugged-in, and ready for their mission. At the edges of the city, the five lasers of the Leon Esposito Spacetime Accelerator carefully focused their energy on a ring that was anchored to a small platform built off the coast of Ocean Beach.

  Kiara opened her eyes. She was standing on the uncharacteristically calm waters between San Francisco and Sally Ride City. On any typical day, the Pacific Ocean would be moving violently, but this was not an average day, and Kiara was not in an ordinary world. That was the beauty of being in a dream.

  “Hey, stranger,” said the voice behind her. She turned around, and there was Matt. They had passed their respective cliffs.

  “I would say you are two for one now,” Matt said.

  “
Pardon?”

  “That is, you beat me to the gate two of the three times we have done this,” Matt explained.

  “Ah, yes, I believe you are right,” Kiara said. She took a deep breath as she looked at the path before them. “So, what cliff did you get?”

  “I was on some space elevator thing,” Matt replied. “It was weird. I think it was in Kenya. Even more strange because they are building an actual Kenyan Space Elevator, but it won’t be complete for another twenty years.”

  “Interesting.”

  “What about you?”

  “Me? I was in Sitges, Spain,” Kiara replied.

  “No way. In Catalunya? That’s awesome. I’ve always wanted to go there.”

  “It was nice for a few minutes. Then a giant seagull swooped in and lifted me off the ground. A damn shame. I would love to be there right now. Not sure why I agreed to this damn thing.”

  “Ditto,” Matt replied. “If we live through this, want to visit it for real?”

  “There’s no place I’d rather go with you,” Kiara smiled.

  They walked in the direction of the swirling wormhole that towered over the waters before them. The blue shifting walls of the wormhole were visible. Kiara looked out and took a moment to really let it sink it. She took a long look at San Francisco, at the Bridge, at the Marin Headlands. Kiara realized there was a chance this could be the very last time she’d see any of it, and it wasn’t even the real version of it. She stopped and turned back to Matt.

  “There’s something I want you to know before we do this,” Kiara said. “Six months ago, my life changed in ways I never even remotely imagined possible.”

  “I know. Aliens, spacetime, the coup, the Cabinet. It all happened really quickly,” Matt said.

  “Actually. No.”

  “No?”

  “I mean, yes. Those were all big deals, and they had a huge impact. But Matt, don’t you get it? You are what changed my life. In these six life-changing months, you have remained the only constant. I don’t know if I could have done it without you. If we do somehow live to tell about this, I want that candle to never burn out.”