CHAPTER 3
ANGE
THE MEETING OF TWO SPECIES
Angelique, or Ange, as she had to remind herself, drifted into consciousness. Even though she had cloned herself many, many times before, she never got used to the feeling of waking up believing she was Angelique but then experiencing the slight disappointment when she realized she was a copy—an Ange’s Angel. What made her different from just a standard copy of Angelique was that all Ange’s Angels had a deep-rooted desire to recombine with Angelique. It made her feel like a piece of her was missing and she needed to get whole again.
The eleph-ANT that carried Ange had a mobile hapticgraphic projector unit, which meant her avatar faded into existence. Then next to her, her Ship appeared, too.
She gave him a little wave, then noticed the clothing on her arms flopped down. She looked down at the dress she was wearing and realized nothing looked right. Her body and clothes were still obeying the laws of gravity. She gave the mental command, and the experience around her changed. She began floating in zero g out in deep space as the eleph-ANT carrying her made the short journey from her spacecraft to the aliens’.
Then she gave the mental command, and she and Ship became outfitted in space suits. Complete with tethers connecting them to the eleph-ANT. Much better, she thought to herself.
The eleph-ANT they were tethered to had traveled for quite a while before she was switched on. So, when she looked back toward the space station they had come from, it looked like a large glowing star in the sky because it was reflecting a lot of light from the system’s host sun. She could barely make out any of the features on the orbital platform.
She was about to turn her head toward the alien ship they were approaching when Ariana appeared next to her in a similar space suit.
Ange looked at her puzzlingly because it was Ange’s technology powering everything. Her eleph-ANT, too. Only she should have had the override codes to turn herself on before the others.
Ship filled in the details. “It looks like she never went to sleep. She removed the coded ability to turn herself off.”
Suddenly she felt a bit self-conscious, as if she was doing something suspicious and might be caught, even though she wasn’t; she was simply wanting to steady herself and acclimate to being an Ange before the others joined. She quickly gave the mental commands to turn on the rest of the team, lest anyone get suspicious.
Everyone else winked into existence in similar-looking space suits.
Ange pointed toward the alien spacecraft they were fast approaching. She watched as everyone stared, mouths wide-open in amazement.
It was the first time they had properly seen an alien technology up close. And it was interesting.
The enormous alien spacecraft looked like four dark spherical objects connected together in a pyramid shape, the outside of each circular object almost devoid of color. She couldn’t tell which of the bubbles was the primary one.
The shape of it wasn’t what made everyone stare—these were all shapes that they had seen before. It was the simple fact they were all looking at an alien design for a spacecraft. It was new, interesting, different. The novelty of it all made it impossible to look away from. Combine that with the fact she was getting closer and closer, which meant more details were revealed as they approached it.
Ange struggled to gain a sense of size without a reference point. Despite all her advantages of being a simulated human, her vision still suffered from the limitations inherent to all humans. Without a comparison point, she wasn’t able to comprehend the size of the alien vehicle. On a planet’s surface, where humans had evolved, there were always trees or buildings around, which made it easy for humans to quickly judge the size of something. Out in deep space there wasn’t anything to compare it to.
She sent a message to Ship, and a projection of her spacecraft appeared in front of them. That put the size of the alien vehicle in perspective. It was enormous. About eighteen times as big as what she was traveling in. She wondered if all that space was full of aliens.
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“Is it a colony ship?” she muttered to herself. “Or maybe a generation ship?”
It looked big enough to house thousands of humans at once. She didn’t know how big this alien was, but surely a lot of them would fit in the spaceship she was looking at.
Hearing her muttering, Unity replied, “Surely they wouldn’t come out here with a spacecraft full of living creatures. You wouldn’t threaten another alien species in a colony ship.”
Hezekiah wiped something off the top of his visor. “They would if it was full of soldiers, not civilians.”
Ange considered that for a moment. Was there really an army inside of that thing? Surely, they had been spying on the betas ever since they had left Earth. It made sense that they understood the technology humans had. So they had access to the Starnet. Surely it made more sense to send a ship that didn’t have any sentience in it. So, if things went wrong they were not losing any lives. A shudder went up her spine when she thought about how advanced this aliens’ technology must be if they confidently brought a ship full of life to a situation like this.
Reading the change in emotions, Peter took control of the situation. “Let’s not speculate. We’re moments away from finding out what’s really inside of that ship.”
He was right: a glowing arrow started to appear on one of the orbs pointing toward something. Ange used the enhanced cameras on the eleph-ANT to take a closer look. The alien was guiding them toward an air lock door. It was a large square door with two gears, or at least they looked like gears, on the outside—one large and one small. The bigger axle started spinning counterclockwise, which set off the smaller one spinning at a fast pace in the opposite direction.
There were no sounds in space, but Ange felt like she heard an audible click when the gears stopped spinning and the door began to swing outward. It swung slowly at first.
Ange noticed everyone had their eyes fixated on what was happening. Light was shining brightly out of the square exit. Gas filled the chamber, enhancing the glow.
Ange couldn’t help but hear ominous music inside her head as she approached the opening. She felt a mixture of dread and excitement. The mixture of feelings churned inside her stomach. She hadn’t felt this way since she’d colonized her first planet. That exhilarating feeling of not quite knowing what was about to happen.
This was the reason she’d joined the beta-explorer program in the first place—discovery and exploration.
They were approaching the lip of the entrance now. Nothing was visible yet; smoke still emanated from the exit, limiting everyone’s view. It felt cold and slightly magical.
The eleph-ANT carrying all of them slowly made it through the air lock door. Visibility was still nonexistent as they slowly moved inside.
Ange switched her eyesight to infrared. Infrared could see through gas, but it had no ability to see markings on the walls. So she could make out the outlines of the walls and anything on them. But any drawings or markings painted on the surface would be invisible. She still wasn’t able to see anything in the room. She was in a large chamber. The panels were flat. Same with the floor and ceiling.
The eleph-ANT carrying them all touched down on what Ange was now considering the floor, the legs of the eleph-ANT engaging magnetic clamps to lock the eleph-ANT into place. Then Ange and the team floated down afterward. Their space suits disappearing in a pop as their feet touched the surface.
“What now?” Atlas asked.
Almost as if answering the question, the smoke throughout the room started to dissipate. Either it was being sucked out of the room, or the room was being filled with some sort of clear gas—Ange couldn’t tell which of the two.
Either way, it gave her visibility throughout the room. The room was like a large cargo hangar. On one side of the room Ange clearly saw some hinges, and it looked like that whole side of the room could open up. This chamber was probably used as a temporary holding room to cycle in an atmosphere to balance it with the rest of the ship.
On the wall to the left of them was a smaller air lock door. Barely big enough to fit a human through without bending down. It had some strange markings on it that Ange didn’t recognize.
The team stood there for a good while, nothing really happening and not quite knowing what to do. It gave the team a false sense of safety. Ange felt herself relax a little, and her mind started to think about the technology she was about to witness.
Ange pointed up at one of the corners. There was a large contraption that kinda resembled a camera. “They’re watching us.”
Atlas nodded. “I think that has a hapticgraphic projector built into it. It’s way too big to just be a camera.” He floated up toward it. “It’s a very similar design, too; they have been stealing our technology.”
Hezekiah had noticeably relaxed. Seeing the smaller door, he ran over to it to take a closer look. “If this is a standard door for them, then they’re a small species of alien.”
He was right; next to Hezekiah’s monstrous size, the door looked fit for a baby.
The small door clicked open, and Hezekiah yelped. He jumped back toward the others, almost cowering behind the eleph-ANT.
The door opened just a little, then out the side of the door the head of a little penguin-looking alien appeared.
The alien made a few guttural sounds, then wore on its face what Ange assumed was confusion. It poked its head back out the door. Ange assumed it left to turn the translators back on.
Moments later its head poked back through the air lock.