March 17th

Dr. Benjamin Wissen

Originally, we'd assumed an individual alien, no matter how weirdly powerful they might be, would eventually fall to some weapon we could procure or manufacture. There'd been the odd thoughts about invading alien armies that would likely steamroll us, but just one belligerent being? Something would work, if only we had enough time.

It'd been seven months. In the first month, the public saw part of what was attempted. What they didn't see was things like the CDC breaking out the weaponized ebola and attempts with diamond blades to pierce his body. His body didn't shed material like skin flakes or hair, and even the hair on his head couldn't be shaved off.

Medical equipment couldn't get a read on him, high doses of x-rays, radiation, or other high energy particles that could be quickly sourced didn't phase him or give any information about his body back. He didn't seem to breath, but that didn't stop us from immediately sealing every possible orifice on his body to try to choke him to death.

After that first month of throwing shit at a wall to see what stuck, the best and brightest of the US government decided to crowdsource possible solutions. Or as it was impolitely referred to as, crowdsourcing additional shit.

Thus DARPA grant HR501120S0034 was born, titled "Seeking methods of interaction with the alien Lei Zhaohui or a dantian'.

Eighty three separate responses were deemed worth funding, but with very few results.

"A method to annoy the alien into a different answer' had paid two hundred volunteers to rapid fire question the alien about the world's soul for two weeks straight, staggering the people so that the question was being asked non-stop every minute. It was deemed a probable drop in the bucket compared to even just the casual ask of eleven and a half billion people occasionally in that time, but would provide for possible data on if the alien could be annoyed into doing something to the people.

The group of volunteers had a statistically higher than so far average chance of developing powers, with ninety seven of the two hundred having accessed the same power as was being reported in the rest of the world. They were all being monitored now as a separate project.

There were three separate projects involving monitoring for different energy signatures, to try to determine if the alien's 'cultivating' was doing anything to the local flora or fauna. And if it was, could we interrupt it.

Why we'd approved a study of all possible religious endtime scenarios I wasn't sure beyond the whole Rite of Ragnarok thing, but whatever.

And this was all under one grant. I was managing six total grants involving the alien, and I knew of at least two others managing grants in the commercial and military sectors.

My computer dinged, reminding me of the virtual meeting in five minutes. I sighed, but pulled up the actually rather large read-ahead documentation that'd been sent with the meeting request. Dantian Seekers, "Project to connect users of power together in a college setting and analyze available information against active abilities."

The prospectus wasn't bad, and the underlying theory wasn't horrible. We'd authorized access into a couple of active scrape datastores with the appropriate commercial interfaces in front of it. The funding was a little on the high side, but getting fast tracked as a college academic society and rental of part of a college building was listed as expenses.

There was a recent new expense for an additional researcher role, but still well within budget. Interesting. Added the day before what was being referred to in the office as the Gasp. First or Last, depending on how morbid people felt like being.

I was about to go into the recent reports when my computer dinged again, and I pulled up the meeting. Already joined was Danny Sidre, the lead and until recently only person directly attached to the grant. My secretary joined a moment later.

"Mr. Sidre." I nodded to his image. "Sorry about the wait. I had your group and forty others request a meeting within hours of that debacle a week ago."

"Dr. Wissen." Danny nodded back. "I was hoping to get in touch with you even sooner, but if there were that many other groups, I'm actually kind of worried what else happened that overshadowed what I sent in."

"To be honest, a lot of requests for additional funding, comments about the alien's answer changing, and asks for additional insight to the newest issue from DARPA." I sighed. "This isn't going to be more of the same, is it?"

Danny frowned now. "No. I'd flagged it high priority as I was shown. Didn't anyone get a chance to review what's already been sent in? I honestly expected to just go over it and the new data I have as of late yesterday."

I started pulling up the attached reports. "It's been fairly insane around here with demands coming in from higher up. I've gone over maybe eight intake reports from the grant this week." The report was correctly flagged high priority, but had come in on the 10th. Pretty much everything that day had been flagged that way, and internal requirements and emergencies had basically shoved it aside and it didn't get reviewed. "I've got it now. Go ahead." Interesting visual aids.

"Damn it." Danny shook his head and could see him shuffling a bit, probably pulling up the report himself. "Alright, to start off. People can have dantians too."

He paused, but I shrugged and just motioned for him to continue.

"The attached 3-D scans are CT scans of two students in my group, one of whom I've hired as a researcher. We believe these to be their dantian and instead of the way the power is currently understood to work, these dantians are full time active and provide a baseline level of strength. My researcher is saying Zhaohui actually called it a true path when she asked about the world's soul. He only did it once apparently, but it was part of her notes."

I suddenly found myself scrambling. "Hold on, hold on. What?"

Danny sighed and rubbed his temples. "I thought someone would have read through this already. Hell, I was expecting to be called almost immediately after and was really worried there were other things going on even worse than what we knew about for our findings to get ignored. My researcher, Nicole, was told the common way we've been understanding this power is a false path. She and her friend managed to get onto the true path and have made measurable improvements to their abilities."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I was reeling already, but held a hand up to stop him. "There's more?" Danny nodded. "Please give me five minutes, I need to pull a few other people into this."

Danny gulped but nodded.

I immediately blasted out to anyone and everyone available on alien projects to join with a priority one, drop anything not remotely sensitive requirement. I flagged the call to be mute except for myself and Danny just before dozens of other names came up on the call. And ensured the meeting was being recorded.

"Mr. Sidre, you now have multiple teams utmost attention for as long as you need. Can you please start over? Teams, I'm forwarding links to the documentation now. You're muted until Mr. Sidre has had a chance to go over his report initially. And then, like the sane, responsible people you are paid to be, you're not going to start talking over each other."

Danny chuckled, and most of the team were either laughing inaudibly themselves or looking chagrined. Danny repeated his initial statements, and I could see my people splitting time between watching him and reading on second screens. There were several 'what the hell' looks spreading around the video chat.

"Additionally, these images are from March 3rd, an entire week before Zhaohui's attack. If you'll look at the image labeled Melissa, you can see a hook or flaw in the first ring, which is not in Nicole's image. We've tentatively determined this is a result of a false path breakthrough, and the lady in question had to repair it before she could increase her minimum always available power. By breakthrough, I am referring to what has been alternately referred to as a meridian, a blockage, a chakra gate, or probably any other dozen terms that once passed your power gets stronger. I'd like to emphasize that these breakthroughs don't just increase power you can utilize, but the baseline minimum."

I had to mute myself to softly breath out my own 'What the fuck?' and start taking notes on questions I now had.

"On the 11th, Nicole gathered a few people together in what I originally assumed was desperation after the attack. I was one of her invitees, and as part of that meeting she got me onto the same path as herself and her friend. The desperation part was two people in the group had no previous signs of power. And within a few hours and with several very good guesses, was able to have them light their dantian as well."

Danny paused, almost hesitating before he continued. "As part of that teaching... She told them to breathe. In a similar manner as to the attack, but at such a short range that I didn't feel any difference. She then panicked as she apparently drew the alien's attention somehow."

Half a dozen people immediately came off mute and started yelling questions. I had to remute the entire group again, then unmuted myself and Danny. "Again, please wait until Mr. Sidre has completed his delivery. But holy hell." I took a breath myself. "Do you have any more?"

"Yes." Danny answered, but now seemed hesitant. "I have more, but this is reported data that still needs to be reviewed. Nicole apparently was attacked yesterday, and spent a chunk of her time at the hospital documenting what happened for some reason. I'm just going to hit what I feel are the highlights. Please note, I still need to talk to her about this so I'm not completely sure on the story behind it, nor have I had a chance to actually find her to verify her health. I do plan on that part today if I can."

Danny took a moment on screen to compose himself. "Hit by user on false path, claimed fifth meridian. Barbell into upper right arm, thrown approximately thirty feet. Arm was hurt, but still usable."

"Multiple exercise benches thrown in self-defense. Verify weight, no issues throwing them."

"Barbell struck back lengthwise from throw. Bruising strength."

"Full cycle strike back with weighted barbell. Noticed afterwards four hundred pounds on barbell. Appears to have finger gouges in plates. Cycle weighted to first breakthrough instead of even spacing. At cycling, most of pain from earlier hits went away. Assumed suppressed, but later realized it must have been healed."

"...did something to himself in that last attack. Ripped a chunk of power out. Pieces missing in him. False path? Third breakthrough acquired somehow."

Danny quit reading. "Again, I don't have the full story on this." He waited a moment before continuing. "As for what else has been going on, I've sent a note out to the rest of the students involved with Dantian Seekers advising them to limit use of their power due to damage caused by the attack. I'm going to be scheduling an all hands in the next day or two. Either Nicole or myself will be attempting to shift people onto this true path."

Then Danny threw himself to the wolves, though he probably didn't realize exactly how badly. "That's the broad strokes of everything I have at the moment. I guess it's question time."

I looked and wasn't surprised to see everyone had their virtual hands up with questions. "Alright, I'm going to pick people and unmute them. If all your questions get answered, go ahead and lower your hand. Mr. Sidre, this is probably going to be a long call."

I picked at random.

"Mr. Sidre. Do you know if your researcher can communicate with the alien at any time?"

"I don't think so. She panicked about his interest, so it's more like he noticed her doing something unique enough to catch his attention."

"Do you know how many times then that she's done something interesting enough to warrant his attention?"

Danny thought. "I haven't asked. My guess is probably twice though. When she was told she wasn't on the false path, and then when she managed to speak somewhat like the breathe attack."

"Can we get into your training session?"

"Uhh, maybe?" Danny looked taken aback at that.

I cut in for that. "Mr. Sidre, while I do want to send a couple of people, I'm not going to ask you to support a massive number of additional people at this time. At best, I'll ask for a train the trainer session from you or this Nicole, with discussion for any additional tabled until later."

Danny fielded questions for another thirty minutes, but like any truly new research field, answers were mostly conjecture or things just not known yet.

Finally though, I cut off any additional questions. "Alright Mr. Sidre, I think we've exhausted our pool of even vaguely reasonable questions we can ask at this time. Team, thank you for your time, we'll be going through the data in more depth as soon as I can get everyone together. Mr. Sidre, please hang on while everyone else kicks off."

Every dropped but Danny after a moment. "Alright Mr. Sidre. Danny. What resources do you need? What can I throw dollars or people at right now?" I pulled open a new document for additional notes.

"Um, a line of credit for the local hospital here, so we can get CT scans for everyone. As I noted earlier, we'd like to baseline everyone on something visible we can measure." Danny started with.

I nodded. "Alright, at least one CT machine along with someone trained to use it. Do you believe you need other types of medical scans as well? Nevermind, I'll assume yes and we'll get a list of different types of scans that can be done of the body and who you can hire trained on them."

"What?" Danny looked slightly like a deer in headlights.

"There was a decent bit of conversation flying around while you were answering questions. If you can intro someone to this within hours, it's not going to behoove us to slow roll or try to hide that. That, and I don't believe you have NDAs for the students anyways."

At Danny's continued bewilderment, I continued. "Danny. You came to me with what you thought was extremely important data. I agree with you. I also don't think you realized how important this may end up. I'm going to have to continue up my chain of command to highlight your project. It's unfortunate the SecDef was one of those that died last week and the new president hasn't refilled her cabinet yet."

"I may eventually get overruled on this, but I've got a lot of leeway right now. Assume you've got an extra zero on your budget for the rest of the year."

"If we're going to get equipment and you want me to hire people, should I start looking for office space?" Danny started losing his shocked look. "Does this become a company? I'm not even certain how I'd run one."

"That does bring up some issues, yes. I'm not certain we'd want to commercialize your research past the basics either." I paused, thinking. "Ideally your Dantian Seekers become a think tank and we get your researcher to sign an NDA and hire whoever seems best at this, having them sign an NDA as well. Give out introductory information to anyone, but keep the harder to teach or learn items to yourselves and only sell that data to the US."

"What do you plan to do with this?" Danny asked. "I mean, there seems to be a big gap between even Nicole and the alien."

I shrugged but smiled. "Not really going to be my call, but the US currently has two entire branches of the military who can't do their job. I know there were a lot of plans being made on what to do with the Air Force and Space Force. This may become one of them."

~~~

A research institute, even a defense one, doesn't generally have a rapid response to anything. However, give a bunch of geeks something new to look at, and you can get some pretty fast and interesting results if you didn't question who they called to get their info.

Danny had uploaded the rest of the data he had, even the raw notes that Nicole hadn't cleaned up. As I perused the marked up documents I nodded along. After a few minutes, I picked up the phone to make another call. "Good afternoon Ms. Swibel. This is Ben Wissen over with alien research. I'm going to need to speak to the director as soon as he's available. Faster, if you think you can bump someone off his calendar."

"He was supposed to be leaving for the day in twenty minutes. Do you want to have a call while he's driving?"

"No, I believe he needs to stay for this conversation in a secure room. I'll be over in a few minutes." I might have overstepped my bounds a bit by putting a good chunk of the slush fund on the line, but he'd agree with me. The real question would be who to get on the road to Rolla tonight, and did we see if someone could deal with a Tony Direz while they were out there. The police report didn't give anyone good feelings about the man.