Shadows

by Brian Whiting

  “Do you think we pee in there?” Alex asked. “Eons of evolution, and we still can’t do better than a hole in the wall.”

  Just then another door opened into the room from the opposite side. A frantic-looking crewman came running into the room. He appeared to be young, but Alex knew not to trust the visual.

  “Hey, don’t trust anything they are telling you,” the crewman said. “It’s worse than they claim it to be. We’ve done horrendous things to your people. We want you to talk about the deadly enemy that is coming for us all.”

  “Who are you?” Jack asked and looked at Alex. “I was about to tell you not to talk about that stuff.”

  “Why?” both Alex and their new visitor said in unison.

  Jack grabbed Alex over the shoulders and pulled him away from the newcomer.

  “I don’t have a lot of time. You need to hurry, I can’t be seen down here,” the newcomer whispered, while looking toward the room Alex and Jack had come from.

  “They have a serious disregard for the spiritualists. Do not side with them or give any indication that you have any belief in their beliefs,” Jack whispered to Alex.

  “Why?” Alex asked again, losing patience.

  “These are very dangerous people; we don’t know who we are dealing with and we need to keep our cards close to our vest until we learn more.”

  Alex’s natural urges began to overrule the conversation.

  “Hey, where do I go pee in this room?” Alex turned and asked the skittish newcomer.

  Instead of smiling and laughing at him, the newcomer pointed to the three elongated vertical holes in the wall nearest them.

  While Alex relieved himself the newcomer approached from behind. “My people are the ones who contacted Timmy through the orb,” he said, as quietly as he could.

  “OK, now you got my attention,” Alex replied. “Why in the hell did you tell us to come here?”

  “My people live in ignorance, there is a threat larger than most of us know, and if we don’t begin to face it now, we will not survive. You need to bring to light whatever information you have on the threat and do it now while you have both of our worlds’ attention.”

  “Both?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah, your meeting is being transmitted to both of our worlds. I need to go.”

  “You’re a spiritualist…aren’t you?” Jack asked calmly.

  “We are more than they claim. Listen, if it helps, in some twisted way you owe us for your existence. Talk about what you know, that’s all we ask.” The mystery crewman sprinted off to the other side of the room and left the same way he entered.

  “It occurred to us you might be having some trouble using our facilities down there. Are you OK?” Captain Rosmussin shouted from the entrance, though he was not visible from where Alex and Jack stood.

  “We are almost done,” Jack called. “We are just talking now.”

  “Please, we would ask that you talk in the meeting room. Allow us to hear your concerns.”

  “In another moment.”

  “What should we do?” Alex asked.

  “I still don’t think we say too much,” Jack replied.

  “I believe what that guy just said though, about the threat.”

  “You have no evidence,” Jack whispered as he turned to see if anyone was coming down toward them.

  Alex eyed the doorway, and the captain began to descend into the room. Alex nudged Jack back toward the door and they began to walk.

  “He is right about one thing. You may not have another opportunity at having their entire world’s attention,” Jack said just as they got near the captain.

  “Are you men OK?” Rosmussin asked.

  “Yes, we are fine, as I already told you. Let us return to our discussion.”

  After a few moments they all returned to their seats and Alex grabbed a few more refreshments; even Jack gave in and grabbed some of the edibles.

  “Thank you for the use of your facilities. As I was saying, it’s ironic you talk about a great threat. I have evidence to suggest that such a threat exists.”

  “Captain, the Zorn are not a thr—” Rosmussin said.

  “I am not talking about the Zorn!” Alex said. He pulled out his datapad and pulled up an image taken of the mysterious ship that had transmitted a message to Earth, then handed it to Lindi.

  “May I retrieve information from your datapad and display it here among us?” she asked.

  “Yes, of course.”

  Within a second the image of the ship appeared on an invisible screen in the center of the room. Alex could feel shock among the others.

  After a moment, Lindi stated plainly, “Umm, well, this ship is approximately the size of a mountain or a large city?”

  “That’s quite a large ship, and I do not recognize it,” Rosmussin said.

  “This ship appeared in our system, relayed a message, and jumped away.”

  “Yes, we too get such messages, threats, and promises to eliminate our society for defending our borders.”

  “Not a threat…a warning. We are still attempting to decode the message, but we have been able to read part of it.”

  Alex took the datapad back and swiped to the next screen, where a star chart of varying degrees of detail appeared; Alex still believed that the ominous border represented an expanding threat.

  “What nice artwork! Did you draw this?” the captain asked, quite seriously.

  “This is not a drawing; this is an unknown alien civilization that is expanding its territory.”

  “Fascinating interpretation. How do you know that just doesn’t mark that species’ borders and they were simply warning you not to interfere with it?”

  “I guess I don’t.”

  “I see. Well, if you still have the raw data, I’ll have our renowned scientists decode it without delay.”

  “I’ll see that you get it,” Alex said, hiding his dejection. As he gleaned the captain’s emotions, he was surprised by the intense rage that bombarded his mind.

  “Are you OK?” Dentri, the third-in-command, asked.

  “I am fine, just a headache.”

  “Ahh, yet another thing we have conquered. If you would like I’ll have someone escort you to our medical room where you may receive treatment.”

  “No, thank you, I’ll manage.” Alex looked at the other officer, Lindi. Unbidden, her emotions, a mix of great excitement and anticipation, pervaded his mind. Had he relied only on her face, he would never have guessed.

  “Have your people always been stubborn, Captain, or is this a recent development for your kind?” Rosmussin said, and it really wasn’t a question.

  “Well, I’m not sure, of course, but I think after being abandoned on an alien planet, hunted by wildlife, hunted by the people who put us there, it has cultivated a strong sense of distrust and suspicion as a matter of survival. Wouldn’t you agree?” Alex stared directly into the captain’s dull eyes.

  Captain Rosmussin didn’t respond. Alex didn’t need to sense his emotions to know that he was livid.

  “It’s true, as you say; however, I’m sure you can agree that we have both now matured to a point to put our past behind us so we can learn to work together. We have a lot to offer each other.”

  Alex stood for several moments thinking about what they could want with him. “Fertility,” he blurted out. “That’s what you still want from us.”

  “Yes, we are very interested in resuming research and we have made many advancements in our medical knowledge. We are confident that with some minor willing participation we will soon overcome our problem.”

  “I’ve got an idea, why don’t you stop taking the everlasting-life elixir? That way you’ll reproduce again.”

  “We have tried that, many times. The reproductive cycle does not return,” Lindi said.

  “Look, Captain, all we ask is that you go back to your leaders and ask if they are willing for a treaty of sorts. We will provide some technological advancements, you can provide the
medical… supplies we require.”

  Jack looked at Alex and nodded his head just slightly. Alex’s mind drifted to the council.

  “You’ll have my support in this regard.”

  “Excellent, let us no longer delay.” The captain stood up from his chair.

  “Sir, I’ll be honored to be selected and escort them to the leaders of their world,” Lindi said as she too stood up.

  “I’ll go,” Dentri, the third-in-command, said.

  “Then it’s settled. Please see that our guests arrive safely. Captain Alex, we have noticed your ship has sustained a significant amount of damage. Do you need any assistance?”

  “No, we’re fine, thank you.”

  “As you say. Until we meet again, Captain.” The captain strode past along with the third officer out of the enclosed room, leaving the second-in-command smiling happily next to Alex and Jack.

  “Please follow me. We will return to your ship with one of our shuttles.” Lindi motioned for Alex to follow her.

  Alex wanted to talk to Jack, but as they were led out of the room on the bridge and then into the large circular room which was quite crowded, he didn’t get an opportunity to speak privately until they reached the hangar bay. They stood on the other side of a clear barrier of glass, Alex suspected. The hangar bay was full of various shuttles and other kinds of craft.

  “Please wait here, I’ll be providing logs to the ship. I’ll be back.” Lindi walked toward a pedestal and after a few more moments disappeared into another room.

  “What do you think?” Alex whispered.

  “Hell, about what exactly?”

  “About the treaty?”

  “You mean the treaty of sorts…I guess that depends on what we get out of it and exactly what they want.” Jack looked over his shoulder to the other room, which was still closed off. “I’m still trying to figure out what our mystery bathroom guest was all about.”

  “Crap—” Alex froze.

  “What?” Jack looked around with a slight panic.

  “That whole conversation went live toward Earth. Our people will be clawing each other to get their hands on the secret to immortality,” Alex said, looking at Jack.

  “Our shuttle is ready!” Lindi said, startling them both. She turned and walked toward a door that slid open. Alex and Jack followed closely.

  “Oh, excuse me!” a crewman said as he clumsily collided with Alex. In a flash Alex recognized the mystery crewman from the bathroom.

  “You have the space of this massive hangar bay and yet you still cannot find a way not to collide with our most honored guests. Go perform the ma clet,” Lindi commanded.

  The crewman lowered his head slightly and walked calmly out of the room.

  “I apologize for that embarrassment, Captain. Will the ma clet be satisfactory to you?”

  “Uhhh… I guess, I mean. What is it?”

  “It’s a ritual of embarrassment and discomfort and is customary among my people for a mistake such as this.”

  “Let’s just get back to my ship.”

  “As you wish.”

  Chapter 17

  Liable for Damages

  It was late. The Enterprise was on a eight day journey back to the shipyard using its sole remaining anti-gravity disk for the journey. Alex was hunched over his desk in his cabin on the Enterprise, having just pulled out a note he found in his coat pocket. The paper felt thick and odd. The writing was nearly unreadable. Some letters were long, some were backward. He struggled to make sense of what was written. One thing was sure, he knew who had put it there.

  (Alex – sorry for the means. Good try, but insufficient. You must go and bring back evidence. Do not accept the long life your people. We can help but must be won to it. Good fortune.)

  Alex read it over and over again, leaning back in his chair, mulling over the words.

  “Symboli,” Alex said, and within a split second Symboli responded in his headset. “There is an image on my datapad. Taking into account what is in my log and everything we know about our newfound distant cousins, what do you make of this message?”

  “It’s strange that the mystery guest, as you call him, spoke fluent English, as did the captain and other officers. Yet this written message does not convey that same fluency. The fact that the mystery man gave you this message does not mean he wrote it.”

  “Right, someone could have given it to him to give to me.”

  “Precisely. It’s obvious that the faction Rosmussin claims was eliminated is in some capacity still operational.”

  Alex sat quietly for several moments and a myriad of thoughts came to his mind. Suddenly, he jumped out of his chair and made a straight dash to the prohibited section of the ship. Once he opened the door he stared at the bluish tank.

  “Symboli, do you know where I am?”

  “Yes, you are with me.”

  Alex stepped closer, much closer, to the tank and placed his hand on it. Alex focused but felt nothing. Alex spent a few moments opening the tank with a set of specialized tools that were secured in the room.

  “Captain, what are your intentions?”

  Alex ignored Symboli and placed his hand in the tank. The fluid was cool; it tingled his hand and felt like a light syrup.

  Just then the door opened, and Lanora came into the room. “Alex?”

  He ignored her and focused as the initial hint of feeling began to seep into his mind. He smiled, was encouraged to focus harder. The hyperactivity was almost oppressive, like trying to count falling snowflakes, the hopeless task of identifying any one emotion or feeling. Alex tried to remove his hand, but something was calling to him, or locking him in place, he couldn’t tell which. A consciousness brushed up against his own mind, foreign, alien. It sifted through his memories like data files. He tried to make it stop, but it was like fighting the waves of the ocean.

  He stopped trying to fight the waves and instead decided to flow with them. The analytical mind, making strange assumptions and conclusions that no one could relate to, thoughts so vast and complex he could spend his whole life reviewing them and never come close to getting the true meaning. He began to feel panic. But who was panicking? He rode the waters to a cave of information. What he learned was disturbing, a hidden plot, and a plot within a plot. Secret instructions and coding so old and foreign not even they know about its existence. What are they planning?

  ***

  “Clear.”

  Alex clutched his chest and opened his eyes. The bright fluorescent lights caused him to squint as he looked to his left and right. The floor was cold and unforgiving.

  “Are you OK?”

  Alex looked into Lanora’s eyes. It was hard to focus as the seeming reality of the cave was supplanted with actual reality.

  “Pulse is good and healthy. Sir, I don’t know what you were doing, but I don’t suggest you do it again.”

  Alex looked to his left, where a medic was putting wires and equipment into his bag.

  “What were you doing, Alex? You scared me. I thought you just died right in front of me,” Lanora said.

  Alex came back to his senses fully, keenly aware he was wearing his headset.

  “Alex, can you hear me?” Symboli said in his headset. “I am not including Lanora in this conversation.”

  “Yes, I hear you,” Alex replied out loud, now sitting up in the middle of the room.

  “Track my finger.” The medic held up a finger, and Alex followed it with his eyes. With the other hand firmly on Alex’s neck, the medic said, “You’re going to be OK, sir, just get some rest.” The medic zipped up his bag, stood up, and left the room.

  “What were you doing?” Lanora asked.

  “Tell her nothing, Alex. I will fix this. I promise you.”

  The emotions from Lanora were flooding his mind. Confusion, fear, deep concern.

  “I had a hunch and I wanted to test my theory,” Alex managed to mumble, thoughts of a plot still at the forefront on his mind.

  “I’m listeni
ng.”

  “The digiforms were created by neural muscular entities. They might have interfaced with them directly. Chemical connections, you know.” Alex blurted out, surprised his mind had conjured up such excellent lie so quickly.

  “Yeah, OK, so?” She reached out with a hand and pulled Alex up to meet her. For a moment they were far too close to each other, and he let her linger in his space. When he looked into her eyes, she stepped back.

  “I… I felt it.”

  “Alex… please don’t do this,” Symboli said in a uncharacteristic voice.

  “It was, like, liquid electricity…both wonderful and fearsome at the same time. I think I was electrocuted.”

  “That might explain why you froze and your heart stopped beating. You just fell flat on your back. I called the medic; thank God they are only two rooms down the hall.”

  “Look, it was a theory. If it wasn’t so dangerous I might be tempted to do it again, but obviously I won’t. I really need to go to bed and sleep.”

  “Of course, I’ll walk you.”

  Alex was going to protest, but he decided to let her feel like she was helping him. It might make her feel better. “Sure thing.” He sensed thankfulness from her and immediately knew he had made the right call, even if he didn’t want her there with him at the moment.

  The walk was quiet and uneventful all the way up to his cabin door. “Thank you, Lanora, I’ve got it from here.”

  “Look, I want you to stop by the medic station in the morning for another checkup.”

  “You giving your captain an order?”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it, sir, but all the same I’ll be looking forward to hearing from the medic on duty about the visit. Good-night, sir.”

  Alex eagerly stepped into his cabin. The moment the door shut, he spoke into his headset. “You better start talking, or I’ll personally spill your guts into space myself.”

  “Alex, my people have never experienced what I just did. We don’t have this kind of perception, this view of the world your people take for granted. It would change everything if I were to share what I know now.”

  “I want to know about the plan.”

  “And when I tell you, you will never trust us again. Meanwhile, I would do anything to earn that trust back, but it will be too late for me and my people.”