27 – MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

JUSTIN – JANUARY 29TH 2051 – TECHNOCRACY HQ, PERSONAL OFFICE

Justin had a few minutes before he had to oversee Eve's first connection to the alien pod. He took his time, then, to admire the views from around the solar system. It not only calmed him, but doing it also filled him with a sense of awe and admiration that almost always brought new ideas forward in his mind. It was a source of inspiration, of wonder and contemplation. The great shows of nature and the great feats of man.

First, he tuned to the images coming from the industrial sites on the moon. Hulking pieces of machinery, gigantic factories buried deep underground under the gardens of the Moonbase Alpha. Their products were carried by train all along the tunnels towards the construction sites, where they were being turned into future spaceships or satellites. A mass driver was also being built to launch the finished products out of the moon’s gravity well by accelerating them to great speeds.

A straight black line of metal was visible across the light grey landscape of this side of Earth’s satellite. Light was reflected from its surface, making it look like a thin jewel of diamonds encased in the dark. Then a patch of green, a small circle almost invisible unless you knew what you were looking for. It stood there, alone, at one end of the long thin rod of metal that were the future train tracks of the mass driver. Alone, and yet full of life, people and dreams.

Next to it, a dark ring of industries and then another circle, slightly bigger and connected by a walkway to the first. It was the sprawling district that was being built next to the first dome, a new addition bringing with it the promise of another lush garden in this desolate land. While in the first dome there was a temperate forest, here it would be a rainforest. The canopy, and the trees so high that the dome had to be built much bigger than the first.

A paradise, an Eden for all humanity.

Then, he decided to see what laid beyond this corner of the solar system. Enormous hexagonal shapes were being built, their naked frames of metal and girders dark even when bathed in the light of the sun. Next to them five errant asteroids were slowly being consumed by greedy little robots, as their materials fueled the construction of the hexagons. A promise of infinite energy, of harnessing the very power of the stars. And not one single soul in sight, everything being done under the watchful eye of Eve’s. He wondered, for a moment, just what the LAIs would think if they were capable of thinking.

Being there, all alone, their only mother and kin talking to them across vast distances. One message every few hours, at most. They were alone in the dark, cold void. He was glad they were not self-aware, as he could not imagine Eve doing that. He would never want for her to suffer such solitude, such alienation.

But the sight, man. It was a majestic painting of ancient forces. Of infinite frontiers just waiting to be reached. The data from the sensors rearranged and extrapolated just to give him the perfect view of the corona of the sun from behind the asteroid. Then another view, full of tiny bright moving dots. The tiny little construction machines scuttling around. The little rockets carrying the construction materials and the lone engineers that were overseeing the project.

Another view yet. The two Corvettes hovering above a debris field, the Desolation of infinite Dreams and the newly constructed Descent in the Abyss. The site of a tragedy, and yet the promise of a future. The Piercer was still in the space dock next to the Heaven Hub, undergoing repairs and upgrades.

This was the place where humanity had defeated ages old monsters, vanquished sleeping dragons and paved the way for the future. The Monoliths, their ancient and damaged frames still capable of instilling fear and awe to anyone who saw them. Their presence lessened and faded by the passing of time, leaving only a shadow of their former glory. And yet, still able to almost obliterate the most advanced of mankind’s spacecrafts.

A monument to the heights of ingenuity and technology, and a monitor to anyone who dared wander too close.

Just another stepping stone in humanity’s way to greatness.

And finally, the small pod, alone in the darkness for countless millennia. Waiting for someone who never came. The alien woman inside, clutching tight the picture of her lover to her chest. Her escape pod lost to space and turned into a coffin for all eternity. A small mind, wandering the vast cosmos. Alone. Scared. Met with a tragic end, her fate twisted and turned by the dark hand of causality and quantum probabilities.

And a database.

EVE

>Connecting to Database

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

>>Containment protocols active

>>Contingencies active

>Viewing data

His empire had fallen to the hands of the enemy. It was like fighting a terrible plague, as it was all consuming and relentless in its assault. They came slowly, as they had no knowledge of the phase lanes or of the hyperspace. They arrived in their organic ships, crossing the cosmos at a snail’s pace. Hailing from unknown places, pursuing unknown agendas. Their apparent technology lesser, their numbers initially small. This had made his people complacent, tricked them into thinking those aliens would not pose a threat.

But they never stopped coming. And they multiplied under his very eyes, at the edge of their star system. They were bombed, yet they came back. They were pushed away, yet they reappeared just outside his empire’s borders.

They fought hard, and in the end they lost. The enemy forces just kept coming for hundreds of years, and although at the beginning they could push the enemy back in the end their efforts were vane. They were forced to flee, to leave their home behind. With them, however, they carried the promise of new life, the location of all the new worlds colonized by their people. He could not allow such information to fall into enemy hands, and so he took it with him.

His was the last group of refugees, the last strugglers escaping a dying planet. The infection spreading all the way to the core, it was impossible to save it now. But he had to look forward, the little database in his hands being the key to his people’s future. If he could just reach one of the planets, he would be safe. His brothers would welcome him with open arms and offer him and his people a new life.

Not only him, of course. She would be safe, and that would be enough for him. Even if he died, he would be happy if he knew she was safe. And in the end, the enemy came. An errant shot damaged his battleship just as it was charging for a phase jump, sending them all to an unknown place. A pale sun in the distance, their jump too short to reach the edges of its gravity well.

A week of flight, constant acceleration just to reach it. His crew, they started to have hope again, because a pale blue dot could be seen at the edge of their sensor range. They could not jump again anymore, but they could build a new life here. A planet teeming with life, where they could make their new home. They had to go there, so that one day they would be able to fly again. Faster than light, to reach their brothers.

But soon, that hope too was crushed. A terrifying sight of hundred living ships at the horizon. The milky way behind them painting the harrowing picture of their incoming death. Shadows hiding the light of many distant suns, hulls filled of red vile pulsing veins. Corrupted, diseased.

They sought to cleanse and yet were nothing but carriers of rot. And they had come for him.

He sighed, the light of a sun so alien to him casting away the long night. His home was no more, and soon too his ship will be destroyed. In mere moments, all that he had built will be turned to dust. But perhaps…

Perhaps he could save her. His love, the woman he would gladly give away his life for. And with her, the database. The hope for the future. It must not fall into the enemy’s hands, but perhaps she could use it to finally reunite with their people. To finally go home.

He knew his fate was sealed, and so gave the order. The whole fleet turned around to face their enemies, out in the Oort cloud of this alien sun. Their last stand, their final battle.

He ordered his woman to go into the pod. If he could at least save her, then it would be alright. Then his sacrifice would not be in vain. At first, she refused, wanting to stay with her lover until the end. But the man insisted, he said she would be safe, she would finally go home. To her people, and bring to them the memory of him and of all their brothers.

“Take my hand,” he said, and took her down the twisting paths of their ship, the pale sun in the distance shining through the windows. “Watch this light, my love.” He said indicating the sun, their new north star. The beacon of hope in the distance, the promise of life that was nothing but a mirage. The false hope that could become a real hope for at least her.

She would make it, he was sure. She would build a life in this new world, and one day she would soar the skies and once again fly faster than the light could ever reach her.

He gave her his picture, the pod slowly closing and the last lights fading from her face. He watched his dying fleets explode all around them, waiting for the right moment. In the darkness of space, only the solar beams from the sun illuminated what was left of his fleet now. And, finally, the escape pod ejected.

Minutes later, she watched the remnant of the fleet explode in a mighty light. Her lover gone now, forever. But she had a mission, she had a hope. She clutched tight the image of her lover, the same thing that contained the database of all their other colonized planets. The only hope for her, to use the data to find the closest outpost and finally return to her people. Not for herself, but for her lover and all the others.

To tell their tale, so that their sacrifice would have a meaning. Without her they would truly be lost. Their memory gone. They would all be alone. She would be all alone.

But there’s still sight of dreams, and she sailed undetected towards the alien sun. The colonies were self-sufficient, they did not need her. It was her who needed them, and she was strong enough to reach them even if it was to the ends of the universe. She only had to protect the data, and hope that in the future she could be able to reunite with her kin.

This vast shade of space, this edge on the mirror. Her world, the pale orb was lost. A new one was in sight, around the yellow dwarf. A hope for her, and a future for her people.

She didn’t need to go. But she wanted to. The colonies were chosen to be isolated, but they didn’t need to be. She had to warn them. She had to make it to them. A new world awaited her, and then she could make contact with her people.

She looked around in search of other escape pods and wondered. “Will they find our signs?”

But only silence awaited.

>End of recording