Tides of the Continuum 1: Making History (6 page)

“Yes, Ms. Dane?” Athena answered.

“Please, call me Aurora.” She said.

“Okay, Aurora. How may I help you?” Athena asked.

Aurora started, “Well, I’d like to get to know you better. Where did you come from?”

Athena didn’t need time to think, “I was first brought online almost eighteen years ago. My matrix was put under construction in a large laboratory clean room somewhere near Tonga two years before my birthday. I call it my birthday, because I wasn’t aware before that date.”

Aurora wanted more. “Who were the people responsible for your creation? Were they alien or human or what? How did you get here if you were built on Earth? How many megahertz are you? What’s your hard drive capacity? How fast can you fly? Tell me about your nitty-gritty guts.”

“Well,” Athena began, “I think I can tell you most of that. The beings responsible for my concept, design, and construction, were primarily androids. The next phase of my construction was the building of my ship. At first, I was fitted to a relatively small vessel. It was only a few hundred feet long, and didn’t have many whistles and bells. I could get around the solar system well enough to escape capture
, and I could defend myself effectively.” Aurora assumed the only ones who would capture and threaten an interstellar computer were Cold War vintage xenophobic government officials with space-bound nuclear missiles. Aurora snorted as she imagined Khrushchev and Kennedy playing space invaders with a machine as advanced as Athena. Athena continued, “I wasn’t fitted into this starship until near its completion. I was carefully removed from my previous ship and installed without incident. The ship was finally declared complete on April 14, 1998.”

Aurora interrupted, "So, I was fourteen years old when you were installed. While I was getting acne, you were leaving the solar system."

Athena continued, “To answer your previous question concerning my processing speed, I think that megahertz is a rather insufficient scale. I would be measured at near 4.8 yottahertz, or roughly one quadrillion times the speed of a 5-gigahertz chip."

"Whoa, that’s pretty fast. What kinds of materials make that possible? Are the technologies alien or human?"

"My actual physical processor is primarily constructed with several different types of ceramics and Newtonian Glass, which are superconductive at room temperature. My memory capacity is different than anything you know. It isn’t physical memory at all, but virtual storage. It is similar to the fashion of memory used in the human brain; the only difference being my core is not organic. I have, within my core, a library of everything on paper. I possess the combined knowledge of humankind, plus a large portion of the Visitors’ knowledge, as well."

"So in the wrong hands, you could be pretty dangerous."

"My memory core is inaccessible to any being save one only. My matrix is maintained by a single android, which is housed inside my memory compartment. I possess a completely separate reactor, insuring that my power will remain intact in the event of emergency. I communicate with the rest of the ship by the use of telekinetic field relay circuitry. I can neither be jammed, nor compromised.”

“I also possess a way of evacuating, if needed, from the bulk of t
he Legion, and in the case of extreme emergency, I have the capability to incinerate myself and everything else in my compartment. And finally, the Legion’s top speed is point zero two percent over 2048 times light speed.”

“So, you’re fully loaded, huh?" Aurora observed. Then another question struck her. “Athena, where is your processor located? What I mean is
, where are you? Is your location classified?”

For once, Athena paused, considering whether Aurora could be trusted with this information. She began, “Aurora, I am hesitant about telling you my location. There are only ten people onboard the Legion who know it. If my location was to be broadcast, and I was to somehow be shut down, I would no longer be able to protect my crew. I hope you don’t feel bad if I refrain from telling you?”

Aurora wasn’t hurt at all. She was just troubled by the possibility of attack. She thought the earthbound humans were no threat at all. But then, she realized that a desperate man could do dangerous things, especially if he is sitting on a nuclear warhead. “No, I don’t feel bad. I was just trying to learn more about you. If you don’t want to tell me where you are, I don’t mind. By chance, what time is it on this ship?”

Athena seemed to be perkier now. “Our time is based on the National Institute of Science and Standards, in Fort Collins, Colorado. The atomic clock they possess is perfectly attuned to my atomic clock. The time is presently seven thirty-eight in the evening.”

Aurora yawned. “I guess I’ll go to bed now. Could you please wake me up at six a.m.?”

“Of course. Goodnight Aurora, sweet dreams.”

Aurora went to her bedroom, changed into some pajamas and slipped between her sheets. As she stared at the paneled ceiling, she mulled over everything she had learned that day. It felt like an input overload weighed her head down. All she wanted was to sleep, but her intuitions pounding in her head warned her that something was about to happen.

-MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM 'BISHOP'

-FILTERING...

-DECRYPTING...

-TRANSLATING...

-DISPLAYING MESSAGE CONTENT:

We are nearly ready on

our end. Final testing

was successful. During

the event, we will extract

you and give you your

reward.

-COMPOSING REPLY FROM 'ROOK':

I’m finishing my part; stick to the plan.

8

Aurora’s restless dreams were rife with strange shapes. She seemed to be floating in space, watching a grand battle. She could distinguish tiny lights whizzing around several gigantic starships. She recognized one of the giants as the Legion and supposed these flaming insects were small, one-man fighters in some sort of conflict.

She saw terrible explosions, and flashes of light. Miniscule green and purple lines shot from the darting insects, as powerful red blasts came from various positions on the two giants.

Flaming clouds started to creep ever so slowly from the side of the Legion. Their speed seemed distorted because of the massive vessel they crawled along
. As the Legion was conflagrating, the other vessel was moving forward, passing the first doomed ship to a safe distance. The Legion suddenly burst as blue rings of light pulsed from its center creating an energy wave that ripped through space.

Aurora watched as the energy wake disintegrated the smaller gnat-like fighters, the ones who couldn’t get away in time. In sheer horror, she realized that the wave was also traveling toward her at unprecedented speed. She tried to run, but her legs clumsily moved her nowhere in the vacuum of space. She couldn’t even turn herself to block her view of the ever-brightening death threatening to engulf her. The vacuum of space eerily silenced all the sounds of her impending demise except the erratic pounding of her heart in her ears.

All at once, she heard a voice in her ear. It was muffled but distinguishable. It said something in another language, one she didn’t recognize. Then it came again, only this time, she understood. “Aurora? Can you hear me? I am calling, as you asked, at six a.m. Are you awake?”

Aurora opened her eyes with a shock. She bolted up in her bed, shrieking and covered with sweat. She looked around her. The walls were a dull gray, but turned smoothly white as the room lights came up. Few decorations caught her attention like the one opposite her bed, some sort of abstract sculpture made of shiny metal. She hadn’t remembered seeing anything on that wall before. Then the voice came again. “Aurora? Are you okay? I sense your pulse racing, your breathing heavy, and you’re shaking. Did you have a bad dream?”

It was Athena speaking, very concerned with the well-being of her newest guest. Aurora wiped the sweat from her face and hands as she got up from her bed. She went into the area labeled sanitizer. She took her clothes off and touched the control panel for a shower. As she slowed her breathing, she remembered that Athena was speaking to her. “I’m fine. I just had a bad dream. It seemed so real, though. Things weren’t dream-like; they were as vivid as memories.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, would you please tell me what occurred in your dream?” Athena inquired.

“Well,” Aurora began, “there seemed to be a sort of space battle going on. I saw two huge ships fighting, one was the Legion. They were surrounded by lots of little ships fighting. There was a big explosion, and the Legion blew up and the other huge vessel kind of moved passed it to get away. I thought it odd that it didn’t just turn around or go backward or something. But the battle ended in a huge shock wave. Does that sound weird or what?”

Athena was silent. Then she spoke. “Your presence is requested in a briefing on deck three-five-two, section C, subsection 58. I’ll tell you the directions along the way. Please get dressed as fast as you can, they’ll be waiting for you.” She sounded urgent. Aurora did as she said.

The clothing provided her was of a new design. It resembled the uniforms she had seen on other people, excepting a few differences. The uniforms she had seen were predominantly gray, with various colored highlights. Lincoln had identified the meanings of the colors; red was medical staff; amber signified the command personnel; the mechanics, engineers, and the technical groups all sported a shade of dusty green. Aurora's outfit was predominantly a dark gray with purple highlights on her cuffs, collar, and waist. Her footwear was replaced with special boots. They weren’t bulky; they just had a support strap imbedded in the sole, which enhanced the grip to the gravity plating.

When Aurora left her quarters, Athena directed her to another nearby maglev. She found it empty and stepped inside. Athena navigated the car to her destination. Aurora sensed the car accelerating to great speeds on the long stretches and recognized that it changed direction frequently. She asked, “How do these move so fast?”

Athena explained, “The size of the ship necessitated the design of high speed travel. The Legion is riddled with corridors. They aren’t pressurized. There’s no wind resistance or friction to slow you down. The high speeds are achieved by manipulating the ambient magnetic field; we can travel extremely fast and cover large distances in a short time.”

The car arrived at the nearest junction to her destination. The door opened and Aurora stepped out. Athena then directed her to the briefing room where a group was waiting for her. As she entered, everyone at the large conference table stood. A young-looking blonde man introduced himself. “I don’t think we’ve met. My name's Blake Heron, but everyone calls me Buck. I’m the Senior Tactical Officer. You can sit in this seat.” He directed Aurora to a chair next to his own. Everyone was seated.

Buck was a shorter man, very muscular, with crew-cut hair. He had a two-inch scar below his left eye, connecting to his jaw line.

Lincoln sat at one end of the table. He was dressed like the other people in the room, with amber highlights on his cuffs, collar, and waist. He spoke to Aurora. “Athena has told us of your dream. Can you tell us of any other details you might recall?”

Aurora appeared slightly confused. “Are you serious? You called a meeting of your Senior Staff to discuss a dream I had last night? I’m not psychic, you know. It was just a dream.”

Lincoln looked at a few other people at the table before continuing. They each nodded in turn. He began, “Remember when I spoke of the Visitors, the aliens?” Aurora nodded. Lincoln continued, “Well, the main way they
contacted us with information was through the use of a sort of telepathy. We’re not sure how they did it, but they also had a way of projecting it for communicating over astronomical distances, by inducing message dreams. The mind is most susceptible to suggestion in R.E.M. sleep. With great distance, their effect on our minds is diminished, but they can still send message-dreams.”

Lincoln continued,
“When I said that we lost contact, what I was meaning was that the last message dream we received was about five years before we moved our facilities from the moon. The Visitors told us to set up spies in NASA to anticipate its moves. The only people who know of message-dreams are the people in this room. The Visitors only contacted Earth Protection Force leaders in this way. This is why we are worried.” Lincoln sat back in his chair.

Buck started, “This message-dream comes at a very tense juncture. We have received word from an outer rim station warning us of a disturbing occurrence. A fleet of space vessels has been detected approaching this direction. Our recent intelligence has also tracked the research and development of a gravimetric weapon, code-named Black Core. Potentially, it has the ability to create an artificial gravity well a great distance from its primary generator. We have no information on its full capabilities, but if such a device were given enough power, it could create enough gravity in a specific location to rip apart a moon, or a planet. It may even be engineered to crush an entire star."

"What does this have to do with my dream? I didn't see a black hole in it."

"Dreams can be interpreted and the other ship may have represented this gravity weapon, which we know is a real threat. Additional reports point to a known extremist, an individual named James Benton. He now calls himself Gracchus.”

Aurora was trying desperately to keep up. “There are hostile aliens approaching Earth? Let’s blast ‘em. This ship can do that, right?”

Buck looked at Lincoln. Lincoln answered, “Your dream suggests otherwise. In your dream, the Legion was destroyed. A gravimetric weapon like the one our intelligence has described would be a very formidable foe for us to battle. And, no, these aren’t aliens. They’re human. You see, about forty years after Earth Protection Force started, there was a power hungry man in the ranks who desired to lead the EPF
. His name was Alexei Romanov, originally from Russia. He attempted several times to seize control of the moon base, but in the end was defeated. He escaped with a handful of androids and a few dozen mechanics, and left Earth’s space.”

Everyone at the conference table nervously shifted as they listened to Lincoln unfolding history. Behind him, on the wall, a screen came to life.
A space map filled the screen showing the assumed movements of Romanov.

“Romanov didn’t stop at the edge of the solar system, but kept going. He made it all the way to Alpha Centauri before he decided to stop. It wasn’t very long before he and his followers moved again, though, traveling still farther from
Earth, trying to find a planet that could support life. It is quite possible that they did, though we haven’t found it yet. As near as we can tell, they’ve been recruiting more people from Earth since then as have we. The difference is they use androids for nearly all their military jobs. They have about a hundred military personnel and about fifty thousand artificial soldiers, from our last report. But we have no way of knowing how many civilians they have.”

The image on the screen disappeared and everyone refocused their attention to Lincoln.

He continued, “We predicted Romanov would go and get himself killed, and he eventually did, leaving his first mate in charge. After several violent shifts in leadership, we come to the present day. This Gracchus is now in command of the rogue group, which goes by the name Koratind Ratahn."

"Do we know what their intentions are?" asked Aurora.

Buck, as the lead strategist, interjected, "The Ratahn imagine that their founders were expelled for no reason from Earth, and for this they wish to hurt Earth. Aurora's message-dream indicates that if we confront that fleet directly, we will fall, and Earth will be defenseless. We can’t let that happen. No government of Earth is prepared to repulse a space attack, nor will they be for years to come. The nearest ally ship, the Vestroya, is over a week away, and they won’t be able to put up much of a fight against a threat that causes the Legion to pause and take count of itself. So it’s down to us and whatever we can do in the time remaining. Does anyone have any ideas?”