45 Minutes later, 19:20 Apus Minor, Edge of the Residential District
John quickly covered ground in the Predecessor colony by running to and fro. He had passed into the central area of the colony. Unfortunately, the buildings, stands, and other structures were in a dangerous state of repair. He bumped into and crashed through a structural wall that resulted in the building falling in on itself. He only escaped that building because of the in-built jump jets on his suit of armor.
He had presumed the central area to be their home of government and retail spaces. Bordering this area was a mixture of more retail space but primarily what appeared to be living space. The buildings that the aliens called home were neatly arranged in rectangles. Each with some presumed greenspace, including the retail and governmental buildings. The homes themselves were all two or three stories.
“They are all the same, aren’t they?” John said as he was viewing his drone's real-time footage as he walked along the street.
“The square footage of each building is identical as well,” Eve said, “We’ve not uncovered a single unit that has had more usable space than their neighbors.”
“Mandated equality? Could a society really be this homogenous?”
Eve didn’t reply. She didn’t need to though. John knew he wouldn’t fit in with these aliens. Everyone knew what everyone else thought was a scary idea to him. The interesting question was whether their government-mandated strict equality or if their society had done that for its citizens instead. With everyone having the same, it wasn’t outrageous to presume it’d lead to less conflict or issues.
“Humanity would never agree to such a ridiculous idea,” John said confidently, “The need and ability to reach above our station is what prompts great growth.”
“And great conflict,” Eve said in her normal matter-of-fact tone.
“You aren’t wrong I guess.”
John darted off down a side road towards a home that his drone was hovering over. When he got to the gate the drone began a detailed scan of the residence. The gate was about three feet too narrow for him to walk through. So, John did what he did best, he broke the gate.
“Oooh, that shattered way easier than I expected,” John looked back and cringed a little at seeing the destruction his suit caused.
“The home’s structural integrity remains consistent with the initial structure we were in. It shouldn’t collapse like the last one,” there was a hint of sarcasm added to that comment from Eve.
“Are you still upset at that?” John grinned as he walked over to what he believed to be a shed.
Eve didn’t respond to John’s bait. He gently pulled at what appeared to be a door handle. To his surprise, the other door began opening too. Inside he found a mechanical gear system that opened both doors when one, or the other, is pulled on. He was impressed that the little system hadn’t rotted away over time.
Two shovels, a rake, and some hand tools were found inside. Not unlike the tools humans use. They were smaller than he was used to seeing though. And not just because he was in a roided-out suit of power armor, the tools themselves were roughly three-quarters the size of the tools he was accustomed to seeing.
“Eve, compare the size of these tools to the nearest human variants.”
“Seventy-three percent the size of human tools.”
John nodded as he touched one of the hand tools. The metal flaked away with the slightest of touches. The tool then fell off its hook and shattered into dust as it struck the ground.
“This species would be what, a foot and a half shorter than we are?”
“With the presumption that the tools are close analogs, then yes. The species would stand around fifty-one to fifty-three inches tall.”
“That explains the tight stairwells. Is the drone done doing its thing out here?”
“It is returning now.”
“Let’s head into the home. Keep the cameras rolling.”
John walked over to the front door. It didn’t open. He chuckled at himself, why would it open for him? It was highly likely that the doors were gene-locked to the family that once resided there. That meant force was going to be used to gain entry.
His suit made easy work of forcing the door open. The poor locking mechanism received so much force that it shattered into several pieces. As the door opened with a loud metallic scraping sound.
The lights on his suit were re-enabled, and the home’s lights were still functional but incredibly dim. The living room, or what John presumed was the living room, looked homely. A pair of chairs were resting near a ledge a couple of steps from the door. There was a painting or photograph, long since faded away, on the wall to his right. A shelving unit, with a vase, was below the painting.
“Very welcoming if I may say so,” John said as he continued to look around the room, “Proportions aside that is.”
A red icon was beeping in his HUD.
“Eve, you can simply ask the question you’ve come up with without asking for permission to do so.”
“My programming dictates otherwise.”
“Very well,” John said as he carefully walked around the room, “Ask away.”
Eve paused a moment, “Why did the scanner affect you and the two scientists? Telepaths have commented in the past an inability to read you or affect you with their abilities.”
“That’s been knocking around my head too. I’d guess they were more like me than the others,” John grinned as he knelt by the kitchen table, “Which does make me rethink my current status. If you are bored go ahead and analyze the readings and see what you find.”
John gently placed his hand on the table. He was careful not to exert too much force on it. The colony could best be described as brittle. Delipidated was another. So many stories were present, but they were so long buried and unlikely to be discovered. But he felt something palpable here, like an ancient psychic imprint.
As he looked at the kitchen and living area, John closed his eyes and tried to expand his mind. While he hadn’t done that in a number of years, mostly because his gifts of telepathy no longer allowed him to connect to another person’s mind, it was still old hat to him. His mind’s eyes opened, and to his great surprise, he could almost see it.
“Holy shit,” John said as he stumbled backward and destroyed the table he tried to respect.
He caught his footing before he tumbled into, and quite possibly through, the wall behind him. He outstretched an arm and steadied himself against the bare wall. How was this possible? He shouldn’t be able to use his gifts anymore.
“Engage the primary amplifier, fifty percent output,” John said as he went down to a knee.
Once again John withdrew his conscious mind. He focused all his abilities on opening his mind’s eye once again. When it did, he was struck by the power of the imprint here. It was shining so brightly. It was far more powerful than anything he had ever encountered. But as Icarus flew too close to the sun, so too would John.
“Maximum power,” John said through labored breaths.
So powerful was this imprint that it overwhelmed him. Now would be a good time to quit, but that was something John could not do. He had to see it. At that moment John was as obsessed with the imprint as the scientists were with this doomed colony. A giant angry hypocrite he was, but none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was seeing this imprint.
Even at maximum power, the psychic amplifier didn’t give John enough power to see through the psychic brightness. Major details could be determined, but it was still blinding him. Plan B it was.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Activate the secondary amplifier, maximum power.”
“That is ill-advised. The last test did not end well for you,” Eve said casually.
“Dammit, do it now!” John hissed through the pain.
Eve complied with his ridiculous request. The second amplifier was brought online and spooled up to its maximum output. Perhaps it was because he had something he dearly wanted to accomplish or perhaps it was the location he was in. How or why didn’t matter, but it was finally working. The light grew dimmer, and some pain in his mind subsided, but a new pain throughout his body could be felt.
The human form had not evolved to handle this amount of psychic power. His heartbeat was as high as it’s ever been. His blood pressure was elevated to dangerous levels. Breathing had become erratic. He had precious little time left.
“Remove the safety limits on both. Ten-second burst. I need more power,” John said through gritted teeth as he tried to pull everything he had and then some.
The twin-fusion reactor roared to life. More power was sent through the amplifiers. John’s psychic capabilities rose exponentially in power. He was at least hundreds of times more powerful than he had ever been. As he was trying to focus his abilities wave after wave of raw inverse telepathic energies radiated out from him.
And then he saw it. The latent imprint of this home. Of a family long since gone. But as soon as the imprint was clearly viewed the safety systems killed power to the amplifiers. His ten seconds were up.
19:35 Warehouse District
An unnatural wave of psychic energy passed over the group. Then another and another. The feeling was sickening and nauseating. Several of the scientists began vomiting on the spot. Others fell to the ground and curled up into the fetal position. Still, others did a combination of the two.
The remaining pirate guard leaned against a pillar and dropped his assault rifle to hold his head. The rifle swung back and forth on its sling before banging against the pillar. To the pirate this feeling was almost unholy, it disturbed the man to his very core. And he saw things, something he desperately wanted to be wrong about.
Then just as soon as it started it was over. The party began to look at one another. Some began trying to clean themselves up. Others tried to collect themselves emotionally. Whatever it was that happened took an emotional toll on them.
Parts of the psychic imprint that John had uncovered had been transferred to everyone in range of the blast. While only John captured the full picture of what it was, all felt an unmistakable helplessness. The species that built this was dying a slow death, and worse yet, knew exactly why that was the case. They were helpless to stop it.
“Dr. Hamelin, what in the hell was that?” Mateo asked before washing his mouth out with his canteen.
“I do not know. That was most,” Dr. Hamelin let the word hang as he wiped tears from his eyes, “Unsettling. No doubt that over-armored brute triggered something.”
“I hopelessness in whatever that was. Like they were at an end,” Lina said.
“I felt it too,” Kenneth said, “Though what I saw was a finality of sorts. A coming to terms.”
The pirate then walked up to the leaders of the scientists, “My comrade is dead. Your plan didn’t work.”
Dr. Hamelin nodded, “We told you that the plan he opted for had a low probability of success.”
The pirate looked at his data slat, “I’m going to his location now.”
Before they could say anything, the pirate ran off. Dr. Hamelin shrugged, the pirates they contracted weren’t really there for their protection. They accepted their help but knew deep down the pirates were there to find some loot worthy of sale.
Gavin then came up to them, “You must look at this crate. Whatever it is was perfectly preserved.”
“Lina and Kenneth, please take care of that. Gavin, I need to contact the teams in the residential area. To see how they are doing after that… Well, event.”
“Understood. By the way, the military countdown stands at one hundred twenty-nine minutes. What are your plans?”
“We will continue to spend as much time as we need to. We can’t leave yet. Though I suppose we can free up a couple of people to move that crate to that building to bring up to the surface when we’re done.”
Mateo then stepped forward and got into Dr. Hamelin’s face, “Are you making the assumption that he’s lying to us? He hasn’t lied…”
“He has lied. Both overtly and through omission. Mateo my old friend, Lieutenant Lief is duty-bound to fulfill his mission through any means necessary. He will lie, steal, kill, and everything else in order to accomplish the mission,” Dr. Hamelin paused, “To ensure the military hordes these secrets to themselves.”
“I know. He’s a win-at-all-costs kind of guy. Lief doesn’t come off as someone that would willingly throw his life away without a good reason. There’s no good reason in here to do so.”
“We’ve talked about this too frequently chief,” Kenneth said, “He’s bluffing. It’s pretty clear that he wants the military scientists and engineers to pick this place clean. That’s why we need to spend as much time here as possible. We need to be the ones to uncover the secrets.”
“Agreed,” Gavin said opportunistically.
“Says the Alliance dirtbag that conned his way into this mission,” Mateo spat out, “You realize we’re going to be branded as traitors when the truth comes out?”
“If that happens our nation will welcome you with warm and open arms,” Gavin said condescendingly.
“That’s enough out of both of you,” Dr. Hamelin pointed at Gavin, “We’ve been forced to accept uncomfortable bedmates to progress in this field. This is but a bump in the road. I believe that having them here with us will prevent a catastrophic arms race.”
Mateo shook his head, “This is not a game I recommend playing.”
“That’s enough,” Lina said, “I’m sick and tired of hearing your concerns Mateo.”
“I’m the fucking security chief you all hired. I’m the only one in this party thinking rationally. The first attack against Lief failed. You can call me pessimistic all you want, but I know for a fact that this plan of yours is going to blow up in your faces.”
Kenneth and Gavin looked ready to speak when Dr. Hamelin quieted them with a simple gesture. He was tired of this same old argument. But more important he didn’t need this argument spreading to the rank and file they had with them. As one of them was walking toward them.
“Dr. Hamelin, I regret to inform you that three of my team in the other warehouse are beside themselves right now,” the scientist said.
“What do you mean?” Lina asked.
“They lost all energy and excitement. We believe them to be latently telepathic. That, well whatever that blast or wave was, affected them deeply,” the scientist took a deep breath, “We gave them some medicine, but they do not want to be stuck down here anymore. They were pleading with me to take them to the surface.”
“Three more people lost,” Dr. Hamelin said quietly, “No that makes five with the previously injured pair.”
“Six, I’ll take them up to the surface,” Mateo said, “Consider this my last act before I resign from this boondoggle.”
“Very well, I accept your resignation. Please understand you are still bound by your nondisclosure agreement,” Dr. Hamelin said spitefully.
All that he got was laughter. Mateo let out a belly laugh before turning to leave the group. That laughter could be heard until Mateo exited the warehouse. It was an unsettling site to see a grown man behave in such an undignified manner.
Dr. Hamelin didn’t know that the laughter was at him and his nondisclosure agreement. If Mateo was right about Lieutenant Lief, and he was pretty certain he was, his assistance wasn’t going to be necessary at all. Lief had likely, all on his own, come to the conclusion that this scientific study was dirty. And if he was right, this was one of the only ways that he’d survive to see another day, staying in these ruins was a certain death sentence.
20:12 Residential District
John was walking towards the scientists. He continued to marvel at the sameness here. The homes were precisely the same size. The gardens were the same size as well. Hell, the sheds were the same size. He had looked at two more sheds and each one used the same tools.
“I have completed my analysis of the signal,” Eve said unprompted, “Would you care to hear my summary?”
“Could they have been connected through some sort of shared consciousness or hive mind?” John said to himself as he looked at another toolshed that was the same, “I suspect I’ve already come to the same conclusion you did but I’m all ears I guess.”
“You were able to access the latent imprint because your new form of psychic abilities mirrors that of the predecessors. Down to the exact wavelength, but substantially less powerful. The device detected the psychic signature you give off and knew instantly that you shared something of them, but the potency was noticeably lower.”
“They only opened the doors when I tried to attack it when I condensed my powers into a singularity. It was a weak attempt at what this race could do with nary an effort,” John responded, “Which also implies that if anyone else is like me I’d be able to read their thoughts. More or less confirming my initial theory after my injury.”
“That is correct,” Eve said before displaying a blip that was moving toward them, “I’m detecting the last remaining pirate heading to this location.”
“Wonderful,” John said sarcastically as he turned to face the pirate.
The pirate walked with an unusual amount of swagger. But then he did something that surprised John. He tossed his weapon to the ground.
“You killed Yariv?”
“That was his name? Yes, but that was after he tried, in vain as it were, to kill me,” the external speakers boomed John’s voice in the delipidated colony, “His body is outside the central reactor. It’s about a fifteen-minute walk down the main path.”
“Your warning about this place was not in jest?” the pirate’s voice wavered a bit.
“It was no jest,” John answered the question directly, “The landscape is going to see a radical change in a few hours.”
The pirate nodded, “Then I will bury him as is the custom in our culture. I was duty bound to attempt to defend his honor but there’s no honor in a futile fight to the death.”
“Who was he to you?” John inquired.
“My soulmate and husband,” the pirate said with a morose tone.
John nodded. He then walked by the pirate, paused when he was just to his side, and looked over at him. Words escaped him at that moment. What was there to say?
“We came because of the money. We should have known what was in front of us. At least our children will be well compensated and be set for life.”
“The things we do for money,” John said plainly as he began walking, “I wonder if your kids would rather have the money or their parents?”
The pirate turned and asked loudly, “Why do you not strike me down? It would be more merciful.”
“It would, wouldn’t it?” John began to jog off.
Behind him, he left a broken pirate. He was right, it would be merciful to end the pirate’s life. Maybe it was spite, maybe indifference. In the end, John didn’t feel right killing a man in cold blood. They weren’t armed and weren’t threatening him.
The audio receptors could hear the sound of faint sobbing behind John. What he did was cruel and prolonged the suffering of one. Maybe it was spite more than any sense of code. In any case, it didn’t matter. The pirate threat was now eliminated. But what would the scientists do, if anything? That was the question at hand. And it would soon be answered.