> I recall a moment deep within my lives. In the grand scheme of our many wisdoms, it is insignificant, yet I can’t help but find it memorable.

> I hunt alone. Armies of oak and spruce envelop. Terrific camouflage for a terrific predator. I think myself a predator, too. Trees could serve as my ally. I escape my tracker’s pursuit, but the trees played their part too well. For now I am lost, and here I perish.

> ~ Light of the Quadrinity: Vol. 202 (The Liaisons)

Nearly two months passed between the procurement of the Cube and its sudden removal from Earth’s clutches.

The United States of America, Earth’s leading hegemon, had first discovered the interstellar vehicle in the year 2039 CE. While mining out the Chicxulub crater for precious meteorite fragments, they had managed to tunnel down to the craft.

Unbeknownst to the government of Mexico, on whose land the Cube resided, the Americans transformed the mining site into a covert research lab. While the surface maintained the illusion of a dig site, the true purpose took place well below the surface.

To avoid alerting the Mexican government or the general public of their discovery, the American researchers decided that the best course of action would be to research the Cube where it was found.

Some suspicions were initially raised due to the massive influx of scientific personnel to the dig site, but none were damning enough to warrant an investigation.

For forty-five days, the researchers poked and prodded at the exterior of the Cube, praying for some discovery that would allow them entry to the vehicle. At the very least, they wished to be clued into how the thing got to their planet in the first place. The Cube’s near-indestructibility made this task near-impossible.

The little information they had, though, was scrutinized to complete exhaustion. Using incredibly precise methods of measurement, the scientists confirmed exactly what they had suspected: Every side of the Cube was perfectly equal.

The height, width, and length all measured at exactly 16.162550000 meters. There were no bumps, no imperfections. Something of that precision was unthinkable to even Earth’s greatest minds. They were forced to assume that each side was equal down to the atomic level.

Moreover, the side lengths appeared to be a significant dog whistle for physicists. It represented that of the Planck length—the smallest measurable unit of the universe—multiplied by 1036.

The Tourists seemingly did it as a performance of their reality-warping capabilities—a tribute to that which they disregarded. And the humans possessing the Cube heard that message loud and clear.6

> 6 | They also learned something of the species that built the Cube. The Tourists, it turned out, used the same number system as we humans, base 10. This fact heavily indicated to the researchers that the species also had something akin to 10 fingers or toes—some number to constantly be held out in front of them. UcoSim proved this theory to be factual. To learn more, you may be inclined to read Counting with Fingers by Pool Salami.

Subsequently, the researchers accepted that penetration of the Cube would be impossible with Pre-Bottleneck humanity’s destructive capabilities. So, they pursued other avenues in hopes of provoking the Cube.

Every form of radiation was thrown at the craft, an endless attempt to bombard the Cube into submission.

It did not yield.

Then, heat was applied, only to be followed by cold—both proving to be equally useless. Light was next, but no variation of type or intensity managed to open the Cube. One researcher even went as far as to focus his mental energies on the craft for hours every day, hoping that the Cube was somehow telepathic.

Finally, though, they managed to find a crack. The researchers had weaponized sound. Through tedious and unrelenting frequency testing, the group finally pulled a response out of their subject. The research team worked their way up from nothing for two weeks, gradually changing their output frequency one microhertz at a time. Just as with all other attempts, their sound attack seemed futile, and the team anguished in the monotony of their task.

Finally, though, their boredom ceased when the group unknowingly settled on the natural frequency of an adult Tourist.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

As was the intentional design of the Cube, an opening at the bottom of the Cube’s four7 slanted legs formed upon recognizing this frequency. The humans had tricked the craft into believing a Tourist was present! This, I must reiterate, is a huge accomplishment. No human of this time is comparable to one of the ethereal Tourists, of course, but to outsmart one of their machines is still an incredible feat. Their subsequent prize was well deserved.

> 7 | Dearest Quadrinity. I know you read through my eyes. Hear through my ears. Taste through my tongue. Take my joy, take my vigor, account for it in your judgment of humanity. We love you. We cherish your holy guidance. Your light may never dim, but mine will, and I hope you love it so.

None at the site questioned who would be chosen to be the first to enter the Cube. The head researchers of the Chicxulub testing site, Dr. Terrence Martin and Dr. Abigail Melfi, would be the ones to see the fruits of their labor.

Having recently rattled the entirety of Earth’s scientific community through the release of their paper On the Mechanics of Invisible Forces,8 the pair were shoo-ins to lead the United States’ most classified research endeavors. Their understanding of theoretical physics was unparalleled at a global level—a skill highly desired by their government, especially when investigating extraterrestrial technology.

> 8 | I understand what you must be thinking, and yes—this is the same OtMoIF that you once learned of in your youth. If you ever questioned the significance of this text and its place in our culture, look no further than the species-defining acts of Doctors Martin and Melfi.

Having prepared endlessly for the moment they would gain entrance, Terrence and Abigail wasted no time investigating the new opening. It was unclear if their frequency hack could serve as a long-term solution—they had to act quickly.

Precautions were taken, of course, but not many. Drones were sent in to detect dormant pathogens and poisons, but none were found. Bob’s remains had been scattered and dissolved to the point of being essentially invisible. Additionally, the ship’s cabin had stabilized upon the door’s opening, automatically tuning the internal atmosphere to that of Earth’s. They found no reason to abstain from entering any longer.

Terrence and Abigail entered the craft with very few items on their person: their state-of-the-art protective suits, a tablet containing the entirety of On the Mechanics of Invisible Forces, along with its vast library of supplemental material, and a protein bar that Terrence had forgotten about in his pocket. It never occurred to them just how crucial each of these smuggled items would prove to be.

They climbed into the newly formed hole, leading them into a vestibule, which they correctly assumed to be an airlock. Standing in their sleek, pressurized suits, Terrence and Abigail stared into each other’s eyes. They silently acknowledged the unease felt for the coming expedition. Everything seemed too good to be true.

After another strained vertical scramble through the airlock’s entryway, they found themselves in the Cube’s main cabin. The walls illuminated upon their entrance. The Cube knew they were there. For a split-second, they were filled with wonder, only for the sensation to be replaced by a gut-wrenching dread. Before Terrence or Abigail could react, sliding metal was heard beneath their feet.

They turned to the exit but quickly learned that the moment of escape had passed them by. The hole was gone. It was again replaced by that sleek, indestructible metal—indistinguishable from the rest of the ship’s walls.

Standing on the bottom of the mysterious Cube, Terrence and Abigail exchanged horrified looks. Mirrors remained an unknown concept to the pair, yet their intuition screamed that something was about to unfold.

The ship’s internal computer, confused by Bob’s sudden death upon his arrival to Earth, did not know how to process the appearance of new life within its walls. As a fail-safe, it fell back on the last command it had been given, assuming it had been executed improperly last time. A Mirror opened beneath the Cube, with the other side set to Earth’s universal coordinates—which had not been updated for sixty-six million years.

Only space existed on the other side—a vacuum. For the few seconds the Mirror was activated, the research center reacted precisely how one would expect a pressurized environment with a sudden pressureless opening to react.

First, the air rapidly escaped into the void. Then came the ship falling close behind. The resulting pressure imbalance then caused the structure of the research bunker to collapse inward, buckling to the demands of physics. Some mangled bits of stone, metal, and human remains passed through the Mirror before the gateway closed.

Terrence and Abigail were thrown about the cabin, sustaining minor injuries from the brief, yet harsh impacts. Terrence slammed into the suspended console in the ship’s center—the Mirror Maker.

In the collision, Terrence’s finger slipped into one of the Mirror Maker control ports, inadvertently requesting the creation of a gateway to the next most recently created Mirror. These spatial coordinates referred to those of Bob’s home planet, 66 million years in the past.

Maintained momentum from their initial departure sent them through the new Mirror, tunneling them to a distant corner of the universe—a billion light years from Earth.

Confused, adrift, alone, and without gravity, Terrence and Abigail writhed in a pain that was both physical and mental. Though they could not yet see outside of the craft, it was evident that something went horribly wrong.

They were lost—more lost than any human before. Soon their home planet would be no more than a memory, and then, simply a myth. Eventually, they, too, would be only remembered as legends—as the founders of the Pilgrim Empire.