Ally or Alien: A Sci-Fi Novel (19 page)

He paused.

"Everything beyond Earth can, and will, wipe you out. That's why you have to fight your way through that chaos and survive, no matter what it takes."

eLoom watched his grimace.

Her mouth angled downwards. 

"I'm sorry you see it that way."

Me too, eLoom, me too.

But reality has a factual bias.

He pointed toward the Tri-D projection. The biomorph walker approached some kind of antenna station and integrated it into this BLDR-22 body, probably adding another function to its already dangerous arsenal.

"Go talk to that creature about harmony and sustainability. We'll see it how will react to your peaceful ways."

"We can not treat it like a humanoid mind. We must see it as an organism with different needs and an unknown way of thinking. Once we are able to communicate with it, we will find a non-confrontational solution."

Pause.

She added a warm smile.

"Fingers crossed to the max."

Keep on dreaming, Bellrock thought, but he kept it to himself. He did enjoy seeing her glowing eyes and passion, even though they were misguided. There was something alive about her, the way she moved and spoke and looked at things. In a way, these Newtype were like privileged children with good intentions, living in their nano-tubed ivory tower, far away from the realm of reality. If only he could open their eyes…

46

Back on Earth, where the winds of autumn roared through the suburban streets of Falls Church. Kids stopped playing outside, dogs followed their owners back home, unleashing one last pile before hitting the cozy inside.

Anything to avoid the incoming cold.

Inside the Taurus mansion, the artificial fireplace warmed up the rooms like hot chocolate with honey flavor. The scent dispenser added a marshmallow flair that accentuated the camping atmosphere.

Ringy dee ring.

This was the moment the Secretary of Space Defense had been waiting for. The Director called him up on the commlink and shared the discovery. The bald man pixelated in high res and moved his lips upwards.

"We finally have the report, sir."

Yes, yes, triple-yes.

Taurus even wiped his hands and grinned like a boy ready for the two Christmas gifts—the danger assessment and the alien data. The Director said,

"I think it's better if we send the report straight to your account.”

"Do it."

3.5 seconds later, Taurus received the full report from the duo back on Mars.

A total of 27 pages, if printed out the old-fashioned way.

Taurus scanned through the stats, speed-watched the footage showing a ship wreckage, surrounded by some kind of shield projection. He went straight for the verdict and rolled his eyes.

"The biomorph is inactive."

The Director nodded.

"That's basically it, sir. Dr. Rao has concluded that the biomorph is a fairly-primitive organism that ceased to react once it impacted the Martian surface with its ship wreckage. He also added that in case of movement, the Newtype are more than equipped to handle the situation—thanks to their advanced technology that is lightyears ahead of ours."

Sounded like a bad, bad joke, so Taurus zoomed into the details and soaked up every single line.

Watched snippets of the footage again and inspected the still wreckage structure from every angle. 

A freaking ship hull.

But was this really the life form? 

It showed no movement and no reaction. 

Dead like a monument.

It took the Secretary of Space Defense at least five minutes to sniff out the details, but the Director waited. 

He had to.

"An alien organism that channels solar energy to manipulate electronic equipment."

He looked back at the 3D avatar of the Director. It was a sharp transfer, which meant every micro-gesture of the man could be seen. 

Taurus said,

"Does this look harmless to you? Sounds like a sentient weapon system to me."

The Director shrugged.

"Sir, no offense, but maybe you have overestimated the gravity of the situation. Maybe the crash eliminated most of the life form's vital functions and thus rendered it useless. Besides, the Newtype use an intricate shield which prevents the creature from expanding."

His lips stretched.

Taurus wanted to punch him for it. 

That damn Director reeked of Newtype sympathy, it bordered on mental instability. Worst of all, the man kept on blabbering.

"We should be grateful, sir. We have nothing to fear on Earth, and our allies are doing the best to protect us.”

All this swoon over these shells, even NASA was corrupted by it. With his eyes glued to the virtual report, Taurus said,

"God bless those Newtype. Maybe we should dedicate a national holiday to them."

The Director looked bewildered, but Taurus ignored the man's confusion and cut straight to the core.

"Have your experts properly checked it?”

"Yes, of course. We've analyzed every detail."

"Then do it again."

"Sir, we..."

"I want you to analyze every single line from scratch and re-watch the footage for details. This report's data is too clean. It doesn't add up."

The Director shook his head on the micro-level. A faint motion, invisible to the unschooled eye, but Taurus caught it. He knew very well when his subordinates disagreed with him but weren't man enough to show it. After an eye contact that could have pierced a cruiser hull, the Director scratched his neck and cleared his throat.

"Maybe we did overlook something. We will go through this report again as soon as we have finished this conversation, sir."

"Good plan. Update me the second you find something out."

"Yes si—“

"Bye."

Taurus closed the connection, synced his intercom with his printer and brought the report into physical form. He always did this, because feeling the paper running through his fingers gave him a different perception. 

Digital meant distraction, physical meant power of focus.

In the middle of combing through the report, one of Taurus' sons tiptoed into his office room with a gravball pressed into his scratched fingers.

"Hey pops, wanna play grav?"

Taurus bowed over his report and holed the writing with his eyes.

"Not now, I'm in the middle of a discovery that could change the fate of humanity."

"How about later?"

"Maybe."

He read the next lines and inspected the motion images, but his son besieged the doorframe. Taurus looked up from his papers and watched his boy shifting from one foot to another.

"You want to be useful?"

The boy shrugged.

"Sure."

"Then make me some coffee."

Blank face from the boy, followed by slumped shoulders.

Taurus added,

"A can of Gabriel's Finest with five droplets of goat milk and no syn sugar."

The son didn't look too happy but abided. 

Back on the report, Taurus magnified the findings of the footage and fought through endless babble about the biomorph's size, energy intake and weight. He double-inspected the documented hyper-res images of the structure up close. Took out an old 2B pencil and started sketching on the paper, thinking: where's the catch?

47

Biomorph going berserk.

So far, it swallowed a cybernetic arm, a recon drone, and an array station.

Bellrock saw it all, on the Tri-D projection hovering in the situation room. 

He hated to be a passive bystander, watching the creature becoming stronger with every mechanical swallow-up. He breathed heavily and made sure eLoom heard it. 

"Get every single electronic device out of that thing's reach, damn it."

"We already did, but the biomorph's movement is unpredictable.”

Pause.

"But do not worry. From now on, it is only going to be soil and dust, which is of no use to the life form."

At least some good news on this terrible day, or sol, as the Martians used to say.

"How's Rao?"

eLoom's eyes glued to the projection.

"He is still being repaired. We'll need another two and a half hours till we can leave."

"Well, looks like we don't have that many hours left."

"Then we need to buy him more time."

Bellrock halted.

Finally a sound statement from her side. 

He channeled his attention to her blue iris.

"That last military option you talked about—now might be a good time to consider it."

"I see."

He craned his neck and watched as the two Newtype mind-talked to each other. Thank God it took less than five seconds.

eLoom said,

"The Exec agrees that we will have to use defensive measures to slow down the life form. Our access is hereby granted."

"Access to what?"

"We have a special room that allows for manual control over the entire facility."

Bellrock's curiosity surged.

"Go on."

"It's called the CoreCommand, and it's a relict from the conflict-ridden days."

Read: the Separatist War.

Funny how the Newtype always avoided to call the child by its name. As if they wanted to purge that violent past from their oh-so peaceful days.

Still, Bellrock was glad to hear about the 'CoreCommand'.

It sounded military.

Which meant: impact.

"What does it do?"

"It allows manual control over every defensive measure this facility provides."

"And you're telling me that now?"

She shrugged.

"It wasn't necessary to bring the CoreCommand into conversation. We had this situation under control until—“

“—the biomorph broke out of the impenetrable dome shields. Yeah, well, that's war. Conditions change all the time."

"In any case, we have a variety of military droids suited for long-range self-defense."

She flicked a glance at the projection which the lonely recon drone was still live-streaming from the air.

"I do realize we have to take active measures or else we lose this station and everyone in it. Despite what you may think, I'm not naive. I detect problems when they arise and tackle them hands-on."

Her eyes became the world of this moment.

"Your friend needs more time and we are going to deliver it to him." 

Yes, eLoom making more sense with every new statement.

God bless her.

Bellrock's curiosity burned.

"Now, are you gonna show me your magic command room?"

She titled her head.

"Oh, it is not magic. But it does have a spellbinding effect once you see it. Follow me."

They entered a tube system that looked similar to the one in the ringstation. A pipe mechanism embedded into the curved walls, approachable via an open capsule module. Bellrock was so focused on his mission and the biomorph, he hadn't even noticed it. Which made him curious—how many other areas did this facility contain? Everything from the repair to the hangar bay seemed to be hidden from the main corridors. He wondered whether that was a deliberate design choice.

eLoom stepped into the capsule first and shot off. eVax reached out his right hand and motioned the captain to take the next one.

In fewer than two seconds, Bellrock stepped out of the tube's opening without having the desire to vomit. He followed eLoom into a giant chamber and watched her face light up.

"Welcome to the CoCo."

What he saw blew his mind.

48

This wasn't a chamber.

It was a top-tech wonder dome. 

With transparent walls that ran thousand specs of data, including a 3D worldmap of the Martian surrounding, the status of the power grid, a blueprint of every room within the facility and a hundred other info points. It looked like a giant observatory without a telescope but with dozens of dashboards and panels protruding from the central spot. Circuit patterns snaked into the system and connected it to every hull plate inside.

"The entire dome is a giant supercomputer."

She smiled at him.

"It's the ultimate command center."

Bellrock whistled as he twisted his neck. 

Not even a Dreadnought's bridge looked as impressive as this dome chamber. eLoom pranced toward the middle as the dashboard curved around her figure. The circuit patterns beamed in blue and fed the energy into every cell of the dome. 

It came alive. 

Bellrock approached the Newtype woman and stood behind her, drooling at every screen on the curved ceiling. One window panel increased three times in size and showed the droid footage of the biomorph walker in hyper resolution. It was the sharpest screen Bellrock had ever set his eyes on. And it featured the worst creature in the universe.

Bellrock glanced at eLoom as she connected with the system. The circuit patterns around her skintight armor became blue. A spider web of neon azure carved into every surface of the dome.

Bellrock swallowed.

"Are you okay?"

"I just synced my body with the facility."

She winked at him.

"I'm overwriting the Exec control via the emergency protocol, which allows me full manual access for a limited time period."

Didn't sound freaky at all.

“What can you actually do now?"

She talked like a self-reading instruction manual.

"I have full control over every droid, shield and defense unit within the complex. Even better, our solar panels have loaded our powercells, which means we are at full capacity. This station is ready to engage."

Bellrock's heart just went ba-dump, ba-dump.

Engagement was his style. The Newtype have finally, finally realized that the only way to respond to the biomorph was to annihilate it. Let's hope their 'advanced' tech was able to vaporize it into nano-particles.

eLoom said,

"Look at the center screen."

He did.

And saw cylinder-shaped pillars protruding from the ground around the facility, probably half a kilometer away from the actual station. Five hundred meters next to the first, a second pillar tore through the desert ground.