12

A drone waited by the hallway, controlled by Prime, and he led us toward the newly-built area on Floor Five.

The chamber was shaped like a hexagon, two stories high and about three thousand square feet. The southeastern side—where we came in—was the antechamber, elevated by a five-foot-high platform, walled by thick glass panels, and each side had stairs toward the metal sliding doors leading into the main chamber. A thirty-by-thirty-foot holographic war table was raised on a three-foot platform, displaying the Earth, the moon, and the five floating stations in orbit. The chamber had no windows, but at least three dozen video feeds were plastered against the dark walls, showing the station’s exterior from different angles. A couple of them were pointed towards the planet, where the station now hovered above the East China Sea.

A pair of narrow stairs lead to separate observation decks on the northwestern and southwestern sides. There, thick glass walls overlook the entire chamber. I caught sight of three drones slipping into a round vent and disappearing just off to the right wall. I had a feeling I’d be seeing more of them around the station.

A blaring alarm clanged. “Unauthorized personnel,” Prime said sternly.

Covering my ears, I looked behind me and saw Amelia, Jason, and Ben had just entered the room. Jason raised his hand instinctually as if he was about to get shot by laser beams.

“Oh, uh, they can come inside,” I said.

“Denied. Unauthorized Personnel.”

“I’m authorizing it, Prime.”

Still, Prime did not relent and continued its ear-piercing alarms. A few drones began clamoring out of the vents, but they looked different than the worker drones in the ships: bulkier, meaner-looking, and their tentacles gleamed a laser point toward my friends. Shit. I scrambled for something before these drones started shooting. I didn’t know the requirements to authorize the others, but what else would make them come inside safely? An idea crossed my mind.

“Prime, I authorized a one-day pass into the command center for my guests. Call it a diplomatic authorization.”

A pause, then the alarms died quickly, and the drones hurried back into the darkness and into the vents. I let out a heavy breath.

“A one-day pass, huh?” Tom chuckled. “Can’t believe that worked.”

“You’re not authorized personnel, apparently,” I laughed. “Prime takes things too literally. Come on. Let’s check out my new crib.”

“Stations Two, Three, Four, and Five are in a trajectory for docking and reunification,” Prime announced casually from the console as if he did not just blare the loudest alarm possible earlier and almost killed my friends. Again.

“Why are you bringing them to us?”

“This station is one of the eight that comprise the Forerunner Hub.”

“Wait a minute. Eight stations?”

“Yes.”

“Um, I don’t know if you have been counting, Prime, but where are the other three?”

“The last three stations are significantly smaller than the core five. Station Six is currently orbiting Jupiter. Station Seven, the smallest, is above Neptune. And Station Eight is within Mars.”

“Within?”

“Yes. Within.”

I nodded. Just like one of the stations under the ocean. “What are they not here?”

“I thought sending five stations would be sufficient to counter the quartz. Besides, they are currently asleep to conserve power.”

Amelia put her hands on her hips. “Forget what I said, Tony. We can fit fifty million people if we combine all eight stations.”

“This station is Central Command, the largest of all,” Prime continued. “You can control all stations and primary systems from this newly-built command center. I have pulled various blueprints from your world to build this room, one that makes sense for your crew’s safety, comfort, and needs. Here, you are protected from any attacks from the outside. It will be difficult for an invading force to reach this section. I have installed cameras around the station’s exterior to compensate for the lack of sight. Unlike previous species I have worked with, I realized how visually dependent humanity is.”

Given his dodgy knowledge of us, Prime’s relationship with humanity was smaller than I thought. Throughout history, I presumed he was only a passive observer who studied us as mere numbers and graphs, barred from interfering with our civilization’s progress. But with the solar system threatened, he was forced to make a deadly first contact.

I looked around the chamber. “Where do you get the resources from? This must not have been easy to acquire in such a short time, unless….” Unless it was already here.

“There are multiple factories and nanite production facilities controlled by worker drones on levels one to five. I have turned them online to convert the metal and mineral-rich ores I have collected for the past millennia.”

That got my attention. “Uh, you collected metal and minerals?”

“For over twelve thousand years, I have collected the necessary resources to build ships, equipment, and important metals and minerals congruent to your societal desires and needs by mining this star system’s asteroid belt and other celestial bodies. I halted mining operations two hundred years ago to lessen the risk of my premature discovery by your species. These resources have been dormant in this station until your assessment nine hours ago.”

“Oh? Then, give me a summary list of resources that you have collected. All of it.”

A long list began appearing on the holographic screen, filling the entire wall. We watched, hand over my mouth, as I guessed how much those all cost. Large portions were steel, aluminum, lithium, titanium, ceramics, and carbon and graphite fibers. Millions of pounds of quartz sand had been manufactured many times to create pure silicon. A quarter of these metals and minerals had already been turned into multiple different alloys, or heated into other materials, hacked into percentages over the screen. What was shocking was the amount of gold Prime had collected.

“You have two-point-five million tons of gold?” Ryan blurted out. “That’s fucking way more than all the countries’ reserves combined! Fuck, maybe even the entire planet!”

“I had conducted a long-term social observation reading in the span of four thousand years, and I have found that humanity values this metal more than others, with most of your civilizations using it as currency. I have begun to collect them for the forerunner, mining other planetoids and the asteroid belt for the precious mineral. A quarter of the gold is leftover materials.”

Leftover. Probably coming from the previous forerunner’s homeworld.

Amelia turned to me. “We’re standing on trillions of dollars of raw materials, Tony.”

“To be precise, it is about 121 quadrillion dollars worth of materials, Ms. Hansen. If you compare it to Earth, it is estimated that only five quadrillion worth of resources remains on the planet to be mined and dug up,” Prime corrected. “These stations carry alloys, machines, equipment, and other resources that rivaled Earth twenty-five times over.”

Prime didn’t include the silver, copper, and nickel collected, stored, and accumulated dust for twelve thousand years. Prime might see these as mere numbers on a chart, but to people like us, these numbers were life-changing. I could pay the debt of the United States a thousand times over with this kind of money with enough left over to pay off China, Great Britain, and many other European countries. Hell, forget the first-world nations. I could pay off everyone’s debts on Earth!

Jason whooped and hopped on my back. “Dude, you’re one rich son of a bitch! As I said, you have one crazy inheritance!”

“Our first-ever quadrillionaire! Right?” Alonso said, elbowing Rachel if he said it right.

“Fuck…I need to sit down for this,” Tom pressed two fingers on his temples and started massaging them.

I started to sweat, gently shaking Jason off me. How much was all that? Did I hear him right? It would be enough to pay my student loans, two credit cards, car installments, hell, even my dad’s auto repairs shop, and personal loans. I could even pay off the mortgage of his house and my brothers’ college! I pictured giving him the documents of ownership of his shop and that he didn’t have to pay any damn taxes since it was paid for life or turn his business into a franchise. He might even get an early retirement, and maybe I would, too.

But my thoughts abruptly stopped there.

This wasn’t just to pay the debts of my family and friends. These minerals and metals were to be used for making electrical components, spacecraft, machinery, and alloys for a plethora of applications. Gold, for example, was useful for computer microprocessors and was a dependable metal in circuitry and temperature regulators inside a ship. It could be used to jumpstart my own economy, use it for trade, and buy other materials that I lack. A mere speck could pay off the debts of all the people in this room. The rest was for the future.

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Once I got that going, all that wealth would slowly leech away. I would be working against a heavy loss for at least another hundred years until I could find a way to make a profit.

Most of these materials were meant for more than just machines. They were meant for a station filled with millions of people working together and living among one another. One of the things that tethered civilization was currency, and I didn’t think it was a coincidence when Prime specifically mentioned it. People, after all, needed to get paid for their services. The question was, what kind of services would I need?

I shuddered at the answer I came up with:

Soldiers.

Lots and lots of soldiers.

“So, what now?” Tom asked after we had pondered over the information and the money we were literally standing on.

I shrugged and turned to the war table. “I built the command center, Prime. What’s next?”

“With your command center completed, I am attempting to connect to the Hyperion.”

“I’m sorry, the Hyperion?”

“The network that connects all Forerunner Hubs across the galaxy.”

I froze. Other hubs? “Why are you connecting me to them?”

“Because another forerunner has been found in this sector. This will link you to the other forerunners and allows you to communicate with them.”

“Um, Tony…” Amelia elbowed me, pointing at the screen. Various star systems showed up on the screen.

“Fuck.” It was all I could say. There were other forerunners. Alien forerunners. And Prime was connecting me to all of them. “Prime, abort. Now.”

“Request denied. I am obligated to connect this star system to the Hyperion.”

“Well, I don’t want to reveal myself or Earth to potential threats. So, stop it.” This was a bad idea. I could feel it.

“Denied. The connection is complete.”

A message materialized on the holo-screen.

THE HYPERION NETWORK

WELCOME, FORERUNNER.

“These are the active forerunners within this sector,” Prime said.

I stared at the list appearing on the screen. Prime tried his best to translate the words into something I could pronounce.

The Orion-22 Sector

Guruta (Class 4)

Choaxethai (Class 2)

Dreshan (Class 2)

Earth (Class 1)

Shit. That’s a lot of hostiles capable of wiping us out. What’s worse, they possessed the same technology as I did, and I’m at the bottom of the fucking list. As I began to wonder what the classes meant, Prime answered for me. “Earth is considered a Class 1 civilization. You have discovered space travel but do not have celestial colonies or the military might to match the other forerunner species. The higher tier the civilization, the stronger they are.”

“How do you increase in Class?” Tom asked.

“Each Class is determined by military strength, forerunner prestige, economic might, and cultural influence of the forerunner species. Tony Segerstrom, the forerunner of Earth, must build, colonize, expand, and conquer. Then, he will be able to match the other forerunner species. The Guruta Hegemony is currently the dominant species of this sector, established five hundred years ago.”

“And if we encounter one of them?” I gestured to the list. I didn’t like how one of them had a five-hundred-year head-start.

“War,” Prime said. The word alone sent shivers down my spine. “You must defeat the other forerunner species to control this sector.”

The others got nervous and restless behind me. “War?”

“Yes. It is the only way to survive.”

“Why can’t we just be friends, you know? The galaxy is big enough for everyone,” Jason said.

“It is an option, albeit a rare one. Over the past hundred thousand years, I have recorded many forerunners devolved into warring states. It is an inevitable outcome. Tony Segerstrom must prepare Earth before encountering a forerunner species. Contact with any of the three will be deadly. You have seen what my maker’s technology can do. They can be…devastating in the right hands, capable of wiping out multiple worlds.”

“Are the quartz part of this? Are they a forerunner race, too?”

“Inquiry placed to the Hyperion. Please wait a moment.” Prime was quiet for a few seconds. “The quartz are not forerunners. They belong to an unknown faction.”

“Who is also capable of space travel,” I added.

“Yes.”

“How many of you are there?” I asked.

“When I was made a hundred thousand years ago, I had four hundred brothers,” Prime said. “Over the millennia, many of them had perished, lost, or gone dormant when I connect back to the Hyperion. Each millennium, the numbers grew less and less. However, each of us has the same purpose: to find people like you, forerunner.”

“There’s only four in this sector,” Amelia noticed. “Where are the others?”

“I am not allowed to disclose the others. However, I can reveal that the Orion Sector has a total of six forerunners, including Tony Segerstrom. Two forerunners had been taken off of the list.”

“Why—” I was about to ask. I didn’t have to be Einstein to figure out why. Those forerunners were dead, probably destroyed by my competition.

Prime continued, “Earth must first control this sector before I can connect to the rest of the galaxy.”

And by eliminating the three civilizations left, I thought. “You mean the ones who now control their starting sectors?” I asked.

“Correct.”

Wonderful. Not only did I have to contend with the quartz, but I also had to worry about three alien superpowers next to me and the civilizations much more powerful than them.

It was like a galactic Battle Royale.

Destroy the competition.

Increase your rank.

Then, you moved on to the next arena with a much more powerful civilization.

But what was the end goal? I wondered. I noticed that the location of the other three forerunner species was not shown. Neither was Earth’s. I guessed we had to find each other. This was a battleground and a glorified hide-and-seek across thousands of stars.

I assumed they must be wondering who I was since I went online. As long as they didn’t know where I was, Earth and I was safe. For now.

I didn’t know if I should be glad that the universe was populated by a lot of people (and that we were not alone in the universe) or be frightened that each one had the potential to kill us. I looked over the screen; the other three civilizations had not contacted me yet, and I was not going to message them first. They were probably biding their time and sniffing me out.

“Collapse the list and let’s focus on our current problem, mainly the quartz,” I said. “Prime, can you show me the entire solar system?”

The holographic images of Earth, the moon, and the five orbiting stations gradually grew smaller and smaller. More of the inner planets and the other three stations cropped up from the periphery, then the yellow sun until the entire solar system was revealed. There were no lines marking the trajectory of the planets and all celestial bodies within the system. I realized I could step onto the platform and walk on the war table.

“Anomaly detected,” Prime proclaimed.

Three four-inch holographic triangles appeared against the quartz’s vessels, flying through space. Their shapes were a little blurry until I realized Prime had displayed a real-time portrayal of the solar system. It was hard to tell the quartz and the forerunner stations apart, so I commanded Prime to paint the quartz in red while the forerunners were in blue.

“Prime, can you tell us anything about these ships?”

“Data insufficient. Multiple vessels are out of range. Further data such as their trajectory and heat signatures can be collected and reviewed for extrapolation.”

“So, where are they going?”

The display zoomed in on one of the ships hurtling through space. A faint line slowly appeared out of its body, extending further toward Mars, and ended there. The display panned again toward the second vessel, where another faint line connected it toward the asteroid belt, while the last one was fixed in a trajectory toward our moon and disappeared on the dark side.

“They’re splitting up?” Ben asked curiously.

“What happened to the fourth one from China?” Amelia chimed in.

“Unknown. The fourth vessel is hidden from my scans.”

“It might still be on the planet then,” Ben mused.

I didn’t like that. Why would the ship stay behind, and where was it hiding? What was it doing for the past few hours since the others had left?

“Variables indeterminate. The fourth vessel’s location cannot be defined.”

“Can you extrapolate?” I asked.

Prime showed a set of coordinates on the screen. “Last whereabouts is in the Qinghai province of Western China. I will list possible locations of its flight plan across the Tibetan Plateau.”

Tom blanched. “Ah, that’s a lot of ground to cover, Tony.”

“Yeah, that’s gonna be a headache.” I studied the nearby mountains. “Send the spheres around that area, Prime. Didn’t you say they’re for observation? Can they track as well?”

“They can, forerunner.”

“Good. Do it.”

“How many should I send?”

“How many do you have?”

“To cover the Qinghai province, I can send two thousand spheres from Station Two.”

“Good enough. What else can you tell me about these vessels? For instance, who owns them?”

“Unknown. No one in the Hyperion network has encountered their species. I postulate that they are reconnaissance vessels, equipped with probable heavy ordnance.”

“Why are they here?”

“Unknown, but given their actions, they are considered hostiles, possibly a part of an invasion fleet.”

“An invasion?”

“It is all guesswork based on the parameters you have set, forerunner. However, any unidentifiable vessel is subject to scrutiny. Caution is advised.”

But what if I killed them, and more of their people would knock at my door, looking to even the score? I stared at the holographic vessels for a few seconds, thinking.

“Prime? What do you suggest I should do?” I finally asked.

“Make contact with the vessels and neutralize them.”

“Er, any other options?”

“Make contact with the vessels and neutralize them,” he repeated.

“Well, I was kind of hoping for a peaceful resolution.” And not the one that would kill me and possibly seal the deaths of eight billion people. “I know you mentioned you tried to contact them but failed. Can’t we try that again? You have a forerunner now. We have a command center.”

“As long as they remain within this star system and in close proximity to forerunner technology, they are a threat. They are outside the main mission directive of my makers. I am compelled to protect you from such unknown data.”

Ah. I get it now. Prime wanted to avoid falling into the wrong hands. Given the capability he had demonstrated, any species in the galaxy would love to have him as an asset. If he could build things in less than nine hours, what more could he build in under a year? In ten years? Growth would be exponential as long as he had the available resources. He mined the asteroid belt for thousands of years without using physical organic manpower.

I asked again, “Can my current vessel reach them?”

“The ship has an engine capable of interplanar travel and is only equipped for hostile engagement. Its secondary purpose is for escort missions across celestial and man-made bodies at short distances of up to one billion miles.”

“You called that short?”

“In terms of traveling across the galaxy, it is a short distance. I recommend modifying your engine to allow you to travel to the edge of your solar system and have enough power to return to Earth.”

“We need a bigger ship, is what he meant,” Tom said. “Look, Prime, we don’t know how to build ships. That’s NASA’s job.” He pointed at Ben.

“I’m Air Force. Not NASA,” Ben corrected. “And technically, I don’t know much about spaceships.”

Oh. That’s right. “But I know how,” I said to them.

The others narrowed their gaze at me. “Since when are you an expert in aerospace engineering?” Amelia asked.

I ran a finger at the back of my head where the injection’s scar would have been if the nanites hadn’t healed it. I grinned at my friends. “About nine hours ago.”

First order of business, deal with the quartz. Next, I’ll think of a way to make Earth stronger. Maybe then, we’d survive.

I hoped.