Sunday, August 21, 2016

A fall from grace

Bob's teeth met each other in a way that no teeth should have. 
His vision wasn't working as it should. 
When the capsule fell off the side of the waterfall he knew that the impact was going to be uncomfortable. But even then ... 
The acelogel only did so much to protect his body from the impact. The sea of methane was as unforgiving as it was turbulent. As his neural implants worked to bring his nervous system back to a level state his mind raced to make sense of it all. Only minutes before he had been overhead, gliding over the landscape he was now tumbling over. 
When his cockpit had begun flashing red he only had seconds to react. His batteries and anti grav, overloaded, created a cascading set of failures. 
It wasn't ever supposed to happen. Anti grav was ... in all respects stable and predicable. He had never heard of such an event happening. 
Far overheat his Punch drive ship's AI was trying to communicate with him. Diagnostics said that the quantum particle in his neck was working properly. His body hadn't recieved any damage beyond mild soft tissue damage and chipped teeth. He felt alone. 
He couldn't remember a time that he didn't have Lightstorm with him. Paired at birth like the rest of the Empire's children the AI had grown with Mack. He wondered if Mack too was experiencing the fear that he himself now felt. 
If the failire of his glider was unthinkable, then for a quantum link to break was more so. A "nearby" supernova had once taken a colony off the grid for a period of minutes as the space time had rippled. If that had happened then it shouldn't have effected his craft. Reviewing the stored flight logs in his cerebrx memory he replayed the incident. 
His cerebral computer made contact with the spheres external sensors.

- July 20 2021

Outpost

The sky was gray like a LA morning at peak hour. The air thick with acrid dense particles. 
The orbital bombardment had stopped several minutes ago. Around him the rubble lay resting, a thick layer of dust had already settled over it. Strewn about were the remains of his team. Strewn ... christ, there was nothing left.
*****
When the empire had expanded into the outer planets they had not expected this. It was supposed to have been a new era. So much land, space and resources, there shouldn't be any need to squabble over any of it. Humanity would be free to - explore - to learn  - to be HUMAN. Thats what the emperor had said. 
Back then we had asked ourselves what being Human meant. Was it a desire to ... explore ... to learn ... to create? Maybe ... for so long we existed in our virtual worlds. Who needed planets to explore when we had entire networked virtual universes to live in.  
We were told to search for something real - they said that humanities mind had become stale. We had mined our own history until we had permutated out every probablity. In short we were recycling ENTERTAINMENT and living in the past.
The marketing was pretty clever, why look backwards when you could look forwards.  
Thats what humanity had become. Beasts driven to consume the next story, the next experience the next adventure ... in simulated 3D. 
The Punch drive was a game changer. For a relatively modest fee you could pilot a quantum engangled probe in a different solar system. In return for the adventure you fed your discoveries back into the Empire's library. The story writers could use the data to create new experiences for all to enjoy. 
***
In his hands he held a nano wrench. If the outsiders decided to land, he would need to defend himself. His vision flickered slightly as his neural impant rebooted. He suspected an EMP had also been cast over the base. It had been their first warning that something  was wrong. Shortly after the lights went out. Thunderclaps had emminated from the directon of the hangar. 
Dense iron rods had fallen from the sky, their kinetic energy enourmous. It was a efficient tactic. Whilst in orbit, your relative velocities to the ground were tremendous. There was no need for a powerful linear accelator. All you needed was enough of a push to let a balistic trajectory into a gravity well to do the rest. 
That the habs were left intact wasn't an accident. They intended to settle here. 
*****
25 years ago, Humanity was shocked to discover The Others. DNA examination from corpses suggested that aside from some understandable deviance, for all intents and purposes, they were as Human as we were. 
A young Probe rider had stumbled across them whilst exploring an M class planet. The remotely piloted probe skipping through the sky had detected a heat source. As the probe approached a beam of intense energy lanced up from the ground, visible on camera. Seconds later the entanglement and ceased transmitting meaningful data. As word spread on the net thousands of other probe riders jumped their robots into the system.
If The Others had a detection system turned towards the sky, which they likely did. Then they would have thought they were being invaded. More and more green beams burnt up at the probes as they entered the atmosphere. Each one ceasing transmission as intense burning light incinerated everything in its path. 
Within minutes of the first waves of probes being knocked out of the sky, the Emperor's office took over. All probes were immediately recalled back to earth. 
Emergency orders were put into effect and all exploration was put on hold. 
*****
Streaks of fire lit up the night, they were coming. If he were to survive he would need to get to the quantum radio and make for cover. Heaving himself out of the electriacl conduit he had been working in he fell to the ground. The first of the fireballs had dimimished. The yellow fire replaced by the fierce aqua blue from the landers atmospheric engines. He had minutes before they would arrive. 
*****
At first all attempts to contact them had failed. How could you speak to a different species. We could train a dolphin to balance a ball on its nose in return for fish, but we knew little of their language. How could humanity communicate their intentions of peace. New probes were built - and placed into orbit around the faraway planet. Broadcasting and listening on every concievable band.

Observers

The keyboard glared at him. It had been bothering him for a while that no matter how many times he sat down - it was there. He had no problems moving his fingers over the keys, he enjoyed doing that. His chair was perfectly set and the view... oh the view ... well it was spectacular. Certainly no complaints there. 

Inspirational points of thought bounced around in his head.  Yet no story, no great tale appeared to him out of the ether. This was going to take some work. This was going to take  a level of focus that he had not yet shown to the rest of the world. A swimmer passed by, each arm cycling one over the other. The afternoon sun kept the fledgling authors face warm and comfortable. 

In front of him sat some people each relaxing in their own way. Take for instance the three girls. Only a few feet from the gentle crashing waves, staring at their phones. The couple not quite sure if it was warm enough to submerge themselves in the winter water. Their steps slow and cautious. The red headed child splashing around in the water. Hopeful gulls wandering from one group to the next in the hopes of a scrap of food. 
It was, by all accounts a peaceful afternoon. 

How could there be a story here, what was it that made this place interesting? Was it that, was it the quest for nothingness that made this place interesting. 

If life had taught him anything in his 34 years nothing was ever as it seemed. 

The girls, their Instagram accounts, peppered with smiling selfies hid unwholesome truths. Pregnancy scares, financial distress and family feuds. The couple now out of the water and staring at the sand, the goose bumps on their skins signaling defeat. Each hoping the other would find a way to overcome the argument they had that morning. The child ... well the child had problems on a whole different scale, by you get the point right. Nothing was ever as it seemed.

People watching an age old sport had been packed up, curated and marketed for free online. The surface was all that people could see now. Sure there was happiness behind the scenes too, it wasn't all doom and gloom. There wasn't any cracked and maleveont evil hiding behind it all. It was just that to see the world you had to dig, just that little bit deeper and nothing was ever quite as it seemed. 

He wondered if any of the other people out here had his secret. His worrying secret. 
For the last few months he had gone to bed alone. His wife's side of the bed cold and empty. In the morning when she got home from the observatory  he would share breakfast with her.  Yet Ameliea hadn't been home for a few days now. Over the last few weeks she had looked more and more alarmed. Then three days ago she had announced that she was to fly down to Canberra. A big conference was to happen and she was on the panel of guest speakers. 

He had asked her what it was about. Apparently Some quasar or something had begun interfearing with some communications satelights. Canberra wanted to know if there was a way to stop it. Strange thing to be loosing sleep over. 

He wondered if it has something to do with the meteor shower last night.  He was sure that last night he watched a few of them change direction. Internet reports suggested that others had seen it too. For a meteor shower, this seemed unlikely. The news suggested that people mistook what they saw for a satilight. Huirtling in the opposite direction no less. He might have believed this had he not discovered the hidden object in his wifes backpack. 

A few weeks ago he had broken routine, usually after sharing breakfast he would head out down to the beach. But on this occasion he had come back to fetch his jumper from the drawers. Sprawled out on the bed in front of him was his wifes bag , the sound of the shower informing him of where she was. He might not have noticed it had he not have been looking for the jumper. But his search in the wardrobe had failed and out of frustration had begun shuffling the loose items on the bed. As he lifted the back pack a small dark ellipsoid fell out. When he picked it up it gave him a shock. His unexpected yelp prompted the shower to stop in the other room. 

"Honey is that you?" Called Amelia from the en-suite. 

"Yeah Babe, just me - looking for my jumper, I think its going to be cold down there this morning" He replied. 

"Have you tried the dresser, I think I saw it last night before I headed out to the observatory." 

Hastily shoving the item back in the bag he checked the dresser. Sure enough, she was right. 

"Ah yep, you were right, have a great day honey !" 

By the time he had left the room he had heard the shower restart. His wife often had all sorts of gadgets that related to her work. For instance his study had long ago transformed into a server room. His wife had been working on a way to merge together data streams from different radio telescopes. In effect making one huge telescope from each of the smaller ones. 

 Ordinarily he wasn't usually nosy, but recently his writers block had been crippling. On that day he had moved his mouse to minimize the blank document in front of him and had gone looking on the internet. Entering the search terms Black object shock space, yielded nothing of merit. A few articles about black holes and failed launches. He tried again, this time he smirked as he repeated the last words and then entered Alien at the end. 

The second image that showed up was exactly the object he had found in his wife's bag that morning. Clicking on the link he read how a similar object was found on the body of a hiker in Lamington national park. It had made the news because the object was the only thing on the person. That AND for some reason the police officer who was moving the body received third degree burns. 

 -----
Errata 


They said that his generation knew everything, when made them desire less. How could you want more, with a click of a button any question had an answer ready to go. 

Observers

The keyboard glared at him. It had been bothering him for a while that no matter how many times he sat down - it was there. He had no problems moving his fingers over the keys, he enjoyed doing that. His chair was perfectly set and the view... oh the view ... well it was spectacular. Certainly no complaints there. 

Inspirational points of thought bounced around in his head.  Yet no story, no great tale appeared to him out of the ether. This was going to take some work. This was going to take  a level of focus that he had not yet shown to the rest of the world. A swimmer passed by, each arm cycling one over the other. The afternoon sun kept the fledgling authors face warm and comfortable. 

In front of him sat some people each relaxing in their own way. Take for instance the three girls. Only a few feet from the gentle crashing waves, staring at their phones. The couple not quite sure if it was warm enough to submerge themselves in the winter water. Their steps slow and cautious. The red headed child splashing around. Hopeful gulls wandering from one group to the next in the hopes of a scrap of food. 
It was, by all accounts a peaceful afternoon. 

How could there be a story here, what was it that made this place interesting? Was it that, was it the quest for nothingness that made this place interesting. 

If life had taught him anything in his 34 years nothing was ever as it seemed. 

The girls, their Instagram accounts, peppered with smiling selfies hid unwholesome truths. Pregnancy scares, financial distress and family feuds. The couple now out of the water and staring at the sand, the goose bumps on their skins signaling defeat. Each hoping the other would find a way to overcome the argument they had that morning. The child ... well the child had problems on a whole different scale, but you get the point right. Nothing was ever as it seemed.

People watching an age old sport had been packed up, curated and marketed for free online. The surface was all that people could see now. Sure there was happiness behind the scenes too, it wasn't all doom and gloom. There wasn't any cracked and malevolent evil hiding behind it all. It was just that to see the world you had to dig, just that little bit deeper and nothing was ever quite as it seemed. 

He wondered if any of the other people out here shared his secret. Its weight bore down on him even if others couldnt see it. For the last few months he had gone to bed alone. His wife's side of the bed cold and empty. Usually, in the morning when she got home from the observatory  he would share breakfast with her.  Yet Ameliea hadn't been home for a few days now. Over the last few weeks she had looked more and more alarmed. Then three days ago she had announced that she was to fly down to Canberra. A big conference was to happen and she was on the panel of guest speakers. 

He had asked her what it was about. Apparently Some quasar or something had begun interfering with some of the governments communications satellites. Canberra wanted to know if there was a way to stop it. Strange thing to be loosing sleep over. 

He wondered if it has something to do with the meteor shower last night.  He was sure that last night he watched a few of them change direction. Internet reports suggested that others had seen it too.
 
For a meteor shower, this seemed unlikely. The news suggested that people mistook what they saw for the ISS conducting regular orbit corrections. Yet this too was unlikley, the ISS couldn't suddenly begin hurtling in the opposite direction! Pre-occupied with his seemingly impossible task. He might have believed this had he not discovered the hidden object in his wifes backpack. 

A few weeks ago he had broken routine, usually after sharing breakfast he would head out down to the beach. But on this occasion he had come back to fetch his jumper from the drawers. Sprawled out on the bed in front of him was his wife's bag , the sound of the shower informing him of where she was. He might not have noticed it had he not have been looking for the jumper. But his search in the wardrobe had failed and out of frustration had begun shuffling the loose items on the bed. As he lifted the back pack a small dark ellipsoid fell out. When he picked it up it gave him a shock. His unexpected yelp prompted the shower to stop in the other room. 

"Honey is that you?" Called Amelia from the en-suite. 

"Yeah Babe, just me - looking for my jumper, I think its going to be cold down there this morning" He replied. 

"Have you tried the dresser, I think I saw it last night before I headed out to the observatory." 

Hastily shoving the item back in the bag he checked the dresser. Sure enough, she was right. 

"Ah yep, you were right, have a great day honey !" 

By the time he had left the room he had heard the shower restart. His wife often had all sorts of gadgets that related to here work. For instance his study had long ago transformed into a server room. His wife had been working on a way to merge together data streams from different radio telescopes. In effect making one huge telescope from each of the smaller ones. 

 Ordinarily he wasn't usually nosy, but recently his writers block had been crippling. On that day he had moved his mouse to minimize the blank document in front of him and had gone looking on the internet. Entering the search terms Black object shock space, yielded nothing of merit. A few articles about black holes and failed launches. He tried again, this time he smirked as he repeated the last words and then entered Alien at the end. 

The second image that showed up was exactly the object he had found in his wife's bag that morning. Clicking on the link he read how a similar object was found on the body of a hiker in Lamington national park. It had made the news because the object was the only thing on the person. That AND for some reason the police officer who was moving the body received third degree burns. 

 -----
Errata 


They said that his generation knew everything, when made them desire less. How could you want more, with a click of a button any question had an answer ready to go.