21 – Findings Eric – December 20th 2050 – The Belt

“Uhm, sir.” Said Jackson, his British accent heavier than usual. It usually happened when he was excited about something.

“Yeah?” Asked Eric lazily.

“There’s a… bump, I guess?”

“A bump.” Eric felt like facepalming. What was the supposed to mean?

“Ah, an anomalous surface feature?” Asked the man timidly.

Eric pulled up the hologram. Indeed, invisible to the naked eye and partially hidden in a crater, there was a smooth metallic object. It wasn’t the first anomaly they found in an asteroid so far, but it was the first that seemed definitely not natural.

“Protocol?” Asked Smith. While Jackson probably wanted to shoot it, Smith looked like he was ready to put on his helmet and go on an explorative spacewalk.

“The ship’s LAI says to get a better scan, report it and move on. They’ll send a specialized ship soon.” Eric said, after a moment of silence. He touched his right ear in exasperation. The LAI was not even an Eve surrogate, it was just bad.

“We don’t have another ship, though.” Jackson said, deflating.

“Perhaps it’s the other one that’s being built?” Smith said. He pulled up the designs for the second corvette and looked at the metallic sphere as if it contained the secrets of the universe.

“So, it’s gonna be a science vessel.” Jackson was dejected. “I hope, for their sake, that they include some weaponry onboard.”

“It’s a corvette. Of course, it’s got weapons. Just a bit more science equipment and a bit more scientists than usual I suppose.” Smith replied.

“Scan is done, airheads.” The navigator said, her voice soft as if talking to children. “Move on to next target?”

“Did you take a couple pictured, though?” Asked Jackson.

“We’d have to reposition in order to get some visible spectrum. I can give you a multilayered image.”

“Yes please.”

The image appeared as a three-dimensional hologram next to the image of the asteroid. It was a small thing, perhaps a couple meters long, with round edges and a few inscriptions on the surface.

“Looks like a coffin.”

“Come on, Jackson. Wait, you know what? It really does look like one. What about those inscriptions?”

While the rest of the bridge crew chatted, the Desolation slowly rotated towards the next target. A couple radiator fins extended into space in order to dissipate the waste heat, making the sphere look like it had wings made of red-hot metal.

Then they sped away, the familiar gravity returning weight to their bodies for a brief time until they reached the next target.

Eric – January 3rd 2051 – Earth Orbit

“Would you look at that!” Smith was overexcited once again, Eric noted. He envied the man, getting off just by sheer geekiness. Give him some numbers to look at, or a particular piece of engineering and he’s a happy man. In fact, ever since they found that alien coffin, Smith had been looking at the images non-stop. Never mind the fact that they had to analyze dozens of space rocks after that, he would have scanned the entire belt just to have more time with his precious dead alien relic.

Eric, on the other hand, felt very lonely in space. No Eve not only meant constant silence in his head, but also meant no connection to the Internet. His brain, like the brain of many other people, had adapted to the constant presence of the cybersphere by pulling information from it even without conscious decisions on his part. A prime example of such adaptation would be Dimitri and his ability to see auras based on the data he downloaded off the net, but Eric too had developed something similar. Not auras, of course, but he still felt as if the cybersphere was en extension of his senses, of his self. Being without it felt like an amputation.

And now Eve was back. He was chatting with her, catching up with all that happened on Earth and on Luna. He was so distracted that his conscious mind completely ignored the information regarding the very thing that got Smith excited. It had treated the piece of data as just background info and dumped it in a recess of his memory.

And this is the reason why, when he lifted his head, he was momentarily confused. “Uh.” He said, and didn’t immediately see what was there to be so excited about. Only when his brain caught up with reality, and understood the fact that it had misplaced a new memory by putting it too far in the past, did he realize the oddity of the situation.

“Uh… since when there was a space station here?” He finally asked.

Justin – Heaven space hub

“A ring…” He muttered to himself. “A fucking orbital ring…” He said, floating around his office. It was a temporary hindrance, the weightlessness. He just had to wait until they completed the five hundred meters wide ring and then set it spinning, and then he’d have his gravity. He really hoped he would not suffer motion sickness, though.

The windows were huge and offered him a view that so far only selected few had been able to constantly see for long periods of time. Right now, the whole ring was immobile, and he had the Earth right under what would soon become the floor of his room. The ceiling was bolted in place to the radial support beams that would keep the ring in place once it started spinning. Which meant that, right now, the view from either of the windows on the side walls was the amazing sight of the curvature of Earth. Its atmosphere slowly disappearing in the distance and leaving the place to the interstellar darkness, to the eternal night between planets.

He could make out the main features of the places he was orbiting around. Rivers, mountains, even cities. The seas reflecting the sunlight in a bright yellow hue. The clouds parting and splitting around the mountaintops. The green lush forests that were growing again all around the world. He could make out his house, if he used his optic implants. That would be a fun game, trying to spot it from this high up.

Not that he actually lived there, being always out for work. And he loved his job. First it was just moving around the various engineering facilities in the US. Then all around the planet, which allowed him to visit places he would have never even dreamt of. And as he thought he’d never get sick of travelling, he got sent to the moon. And now here, in space, in orbit around the pale blue marble that was his homeworld.

What an exciting life.

He sighed, looking at the message he received for the fifth time already. The same man who gave him this liberating lifestyle, who made all his dreams come true, who literally rescued him from a life of mediocrity was also the cause of his many headaches. This time he wanted to see if he could build an orbital ring!

That man was nuts. But Justin too agreed with the fact that if the man had not been nuts, all this would not even exist. Who, if not him, would have thought of building an AI and unify the whole world soon after?

Better get to work, then.

A bright light distracted him for a moment. It was the Desolation, its fusion flames pointed in the Heaven’s direction for its final deceleration. There were no space docks for now, so the gigantic sphere would have to just hover in space next to the space hub while it restocked. Not that the hub could offer any entertainment to the crew yet, so they were not missing much on that front. As soon as the ring was completed, though, the ships would be able to dock in the middle, non-rotating, section one at a time to unload their tired crews. And then fly off into space and park next to the station via remote controls.

And speaking of the Desolation. The data about the strange coffin, or pod, or whatever it was on that asteroid was very intriguing. The Piercer of Darkness, the second corvette and also the first science ship ever built, would be ready to depart soon. Just the final paint job and then off they go to investigate that strange finding. Who knows what wonder it contains?

Dimitri – Washington DC

It had been an odd month. Going from being an average person living in the cold expanses of Russia, to being the right-hand man of the most powerful person in the solar system. That was not normal, even for the post-Eve world standards. And yet here he was, assigned to be around Luke whenever he went around.

Did Eve smell something bad was happening and decided the man needed a bodyguard? Did she realize that the man was not as mentally stable as he seemed? Did she order him here to help Luke out in social situations, given the man’s evident issues?

They were all questions he could ask himself, but which he decided to ignore. He enjoyed the man’s company, and he hoped that the man too enjoyed his.

“What do you think about him?” Asked Luke. He was eyeing the waiter, without minding the fact that he was not being very subtle.

“He’s a waiter. I don’t see why he would be relevant. Do I need to read his aura to you?” Dimitri asked, eyeing the overflowing plates that were coming their way.

“Just humor me, please?”

“Alright.” He squinted his eyes in an involuntary motion as he focused on the man’s aura. His brain started working and parsing the data available on the Internet, which meant all the data Eve would give him about the man in question. “Oh…” He suppressed a gag, eliciting an odd look from the very man he was spying on.

As the man left, after depositing the plates, Luke spoke up again. “See? What should I do with people like him?” He asked. He was wearing his informal aura, as usual, but it was clear as day that as he asked the question the absolute ruler aura surfaced for a moment.

“I-”

“Alright, an easier one. Ask Eve to send you aura data about a certain Tom Heling.” He said, planting the fork with absolute precision in the middle of a sausage. A difficult skill to learn, given how slippery those round pieces of meat could be.

He accessed the data, and a representation of the man came to life before his eyes. “It’s… violent. I smell blood, and hate. He hates the world perhaps, but he also hates himself. He understands he is not made for this world, but doesn’t want to bend to its rules. If anything, it’s the world that should bend to him.”

“Alright, I think you are on point.” He said, the sausage having all but disappeared while Dimitri was focusing on the data. “Then let me ask you. What would you do with him?”

Eric – January 6th 2021 – Earth orbit

After resting for a few days, finally restocked and resupplied, the Desolation left for its first real mission in space. The survey of the asteroids had been a part of the training, after all, but this… this was going to be the real deal.

A first contact with a hostile alien entity. Investigate the eerily silent asteroid, land a team on its surface and see what the hell is going on in there. Ramirez was excited already, although Eric was not as happy. At least, since he was the captain, he was staying on the Desolation coordinating and commanding his underlings from the relative safety of the Corvette.

It was a three days travel until they reached the Interloper, but the time flew away in an instant.

“Matching speed and trajectory.” Said the navigator, after which a small burn followed. This far out the gravity of the sun was weak enough that there was no need to burn constantly in order to keep pace with the asteroid falling down in the gravity well. “Distance is three million kilometers.”

“Passive scans say it’s just a normal asteroid. Thermal anomalies here and here.” Said Jackson, his mood serious and professional now. “No movement so far.”

On top of the projection of the asteroid, a thermal overlay showed the two hotspots of residual heat. They were on the opposite sides of the potato shaped space rock, slowly cooling down by radiating infrared waves across the cosmos. The very same waves that were made into color in the hologram.

“They’re cooling down.” Said Eric. “Does it mean whatever is in there is dead?” He mused. “Active scan, please.”

Jackson complied. Twenty seconds later the data came on the screens. “It’s hollow, sir. Still no movement.” A map of its interior appeared. There was something akin to a system of caves, with odd protrusions here and there along the walls. The resolution was not great, however, giving only the general layout of the major cavities inside the asteroid.

“Alright, magnify image where the heat signatures are strongest. See if there’s an entrance somewhere. Ramirez, prepare a remotely controlled drone. Jackson, put your fingers on the triggers and be ready to act quickly. Navigator, prepare evasive patterns, patch the LAI to the navigation computer directly. If something comes out of there, we’re out as fast as we can.” Small beads of sweat were almost rolling down his forehead. The air in the room was cool and dry, but his thumping heart made it feel like he was in a searing desert.

“Yessir. What’s the delay?” She replied.

“Twenty second signal lag at this distance, can you do it?” Eric asked.

“I can manage.” She said.

“Good. Activate your HUD, then. Jackson?”

“Found something like an airlock, or at least it looks like one. It’s blown open.” He said, and the hologram zoomed in to show the place to all the people in the room.

The airlock was an odd structure made of purple crystal-like growths, with two stone plates that were supposed to keep the air in, and the vacuum out. Those plates were out of their hinges, however, and laying crookedly in their sockets.

“It looks horrible.” Said Smith.

“It does, Ramirez you are green to launch the drone.” Eric said.

A small round opening appeared on the surface of the Desolation, and a little drone came out of it. It sped towards the asteroid, crossing the enormous distance in a few minutes.

“Still intact?” Eric asked.

“The drone is fine so far, no EM fields, no defense systems from the Interloper.” Ramirez said.

“Okay, we’re still game. Guide it towards the airlock and take a peek inside.” He said.

“It won’t fit through.”

“Just a peek with the cameras.”

The drone approached the airlock, slow and controlled movements following mainly pre-programmed flight patterns. The distance was too great to control the drone manually, so any reaction to the environment was delegated to its internal programming.

The feed from its cameras was being projected in a holo window next to the asteroid in the middle of the room.

“Approaching.” The short woman said, a concentrated look on her face. “All clear so far. The corridor inside is dark but nothing’s moving.”

“Wide range test then. Send a few signals and simulate a few people standing there. Let’s see if it reacts.” Eric commanded.

Nothing. No reaction. It was, then, time to send a manned team inside.