First Contact – V
“We’ve lost contact with the surface,” Shen said.
“What?” Alan said.
“Their signals just cut out.”
“Was it as they entered the building?”
“No, we heard from them once they were in. They went in single file. But we lost contact with all of them at once.”
“I’ll need to inform Earth. Was there anything?
“Nothing.”
“The lander?”
“Still there and still transmitting, but nothing, absolutely nothing from the team.”
“Could they be out of direct sight?”
“One could, but unlikely all of them would be at once and to cut out at the same time?”
“Shit, shit, shit.”
Alan reluctantly sat at the communication console and pressed the button to transmit to Earth. Not that, it would do any good. They were too far away for any meaningful dialogue. “We seem to have lost all contact with the surface party …”
“What?” Alan said.
“Their signals just cut out.”
“Was it as they entered the building?”
“No, we heard from them once they were in. They went in single file. But we lost contact with all of them at once.”
“I’ll need to inform Earth. Was there anything?
“Nothing.”
“The lander?”
“Still there and still transmitting, but nothing, absolutely nothing from the team.”
“Could they be out of direct sight?”
“One could, but unlikely all of them would be at once and to cut out at the same time?”
“Shit, shit, shit.”
Alan reluctantly sat at the communication console and pressed the button to transmit to Earth. Not that, it would do any good. They were too far away for any meaningful dialogue. “We seem to have lost all contact with the surface party …”
The floor hadn’t disappeared, it was still there but they were in close-to free-fall. They were in a lift.
“¡Es un ascensor!” Vanessa shouted. She had reached the same conclusion as Connor.
Their sense of gravity began to reappear as the lift decelerated and eventually it came to a stop. Then there was a diffuse white light and they were in a room about five metres square, at the end of a white corridor around three metres wide and three high, that curved round to the right.
“Looks like we’re supposed to go that way,” Pavel said.
“We’re caught like flies in a web,” Iku said philosophically.
“If they wanted to kill us, they would have done,” Vanessa said.
Somehow Connor didn’t seem any less worried; spiders kept their prey alive until they sucked all the …
“We’ve got an atmosphere,” Iku commented. “Pressure and composition Earth normal.”
Everyone checked their own displays.
“I’m getting the same reading,” Connor said, “and if you hadn’t noticed, gravity is normal.”
“Should we take our helmets off?” Vanessa asked.
“We have enough air for four hours,” Pavel said. “There is no need yet.”
“I think we should take them off,” Connor said, almost surprised at his own reaction.
“Why?” Pavel asked.
“Because if we’re here for much more than another three hours then we won’t have enough to return to the lander.”
“And if we’re here for less than that?”
“The atmosphere and temperature are suitable for us,” Vanessa said.
“And if the information is wrong?” Pavel continued.
“Think about it, whoever or whatever is in here has designed this for us?” Connor said. “The chances of having such a great match for Earth conditions are pretty low. And if you’re worried, I’ll go first. Because I’m the most expendable.”
“I forbid it,” Pavel said.
Connor began to undo the clasps of his helmet. Then he lifted it off. He breathed in a lungful of air, it smelt of nothing. Nothing at all. He was tempted to pretend to choke but decided it wouldn’t be that funny. He watched as the others slowly followed his example.
“You’re on report,” Pavel said smiling. “You disobeyed a direct order.”
“You know we’re going to be in quarantine on the Moon for months,” Vanessa said.
“We were anyway,” Iku replied. “This far out, nobody really knows what’s here. Remember the first Mars mission? The fuss that was made when they all developed colds in quarantine.”
Connor hoped that he and Vanessa were in quarantine together. Stop it, he thought.
“Let’s go,” Pavel said. He started to walk down the corridor. “We’re supposed to go this way.”
Vanessa turned round. “The room’s gone,” she said. Where the room had been was now just wall.
“Is anyone scared?” Connor asked. “Because I am feeling much calmer than I should. I feel I should be shitting meself by now and I’m not.”
“I always knew you’d be calm under pressure,” Vanessa said. “But yes, I am not as nervous as I should be.”
As they walked, more of the corridor lit the way, while that behind them turned dark. After what could only be ten minutes, the corridor opened into a room about ten by ten metres that was just as empty as the corridors.
“You know what this is?” Iku said. “This is first contact. Because there is obviously an intelligence behind what is going on here.”
“We’ll go down in history,” Pavel said.
That’s if anyone ever finds out about it, Connor reflected. But then, why go to all this trouble just to mess with people? Because they are aliens and who knows what aliens may think.
“But first contact with who?” Vanessa asked.
“Whom,” Connor corrected.
“Welcome,” a voice said before the conversation descended into a grammar based argument.
“It said welcome,” Iku said.
“I know,” Connor replied.
“But it was speaking …” and then Iku stopped. He had realised they had all heard it in their native languages. That was spooky.
“Do you know why you are here?” the voice continued.
“Nyet,” Pavel said forgetting his own rule about speaking only in English.
“Because you invited us?” Connor surmised.
“You are correct, I invited you to visit.”
“Why?” Pavel asked.
“You have achieved intra-system flight and when that occurs for certain civilisations I make contact with them.”
“For any particular reason?” Pavel asked.
“In order to see what sort of civilisation it is.”
“You must know about us as you are speaking to us in our own languages,” Connor said.
“Still, meeting individuals and speaking to them is far better than observing from afar. You can find out so much more with a conversation.”
“So you are here?” Iku asked.
“In a manner of speaking.”
“And who or what are you are?” Connor asked.
“Who I am is not that important, there are more important questions to be answered.”
Connor was tempted to ask, who shot President Kennedy or which religion was really correct but thought it best not to start arsing about. He didn’t want to be put on report again.
“So you invited us here,” Pavel said. “There must be more to it than a chat.”
“I wanted you to realise that you are not alone and that there are other species out there. Other civilisations.”
That sounded very sensible, Connor thought looking about the featureless room. Why weren’t there any seats? Because the room had to be suitable for different species. But then the alien could just make seats for whoever came visiting.
“Do we get to meet other members of these other species?” Pavel asked interrupting the silence and stopping Connor’s train of thought.
“Perhaps. I could give you the means to travel there to meet them.”
“What do you mean, could give us the means?”
“At the moment you are limited by your knowledge of the laws of physics, but there are further discoveries to be made that will allow you control of the fundamental forces. When you have that knowledge, then you will be able to explore the galaxy as easily as you can now explore your own Solar System now.”
It’s not that easy, Connor thought.
“Such as?” Pavel asked.
“You would be able to manipulate, for instance, gravity, or electromagnetism or the strong nuclear force.”
“True,” Pavel answered. “But we will be long dead by that time.”
“But imagine if you could be given that knowledge now.”
“I don’t quite understand?” Pavel replied.
Connor wasn’t listening to Pavel. Had he understood the alien quite right? What a great way of killing off rival civilisations. Get them to destroy themselves.
“If you were now able to control the fundamental forces of nature, you would now be able to contact other species. You could explore the galaxy,” the voice continued.
There was silence for a few moments.
“Are you offering us this?” Pavel asked.
“Would you want it?”
“What is it?”
“It is control.”
“Control over what?” Pavel asked in Russian, he had slipped back into Russian again. Connor knew it was Russian, even though he heard it as English. That was weird.
“You could think of it as control over the fundamental forces of nature.”
There was silence. Connor looked at the others. They were obviously just as confused as he was.
“Eh?” Pavel said.
“Within your reach, in this place, there is an ancient artefact that will allow you to manipulate for instance, gravity, or electromagnetism or the strong nuclear force.”
“Just like that?” Iku replied.
For a moment Connor thought of an ancient comedian.
“And what do we need to do to obtain this device?” Pavel said snapping Connor’s mind back to reality.
“Would you want it?”
“Well yes.”
“So just tell me why you should receive it.”
“So, … with gravity control, the settlement and exploration of the Solar System would become easy. Then looking beyond, we could travel to the next systems and then eventually to the furthest reaches of the galaxy,” Pavel said. “Then there are other galaxies.”
Connor was staring at Pavel. He suddenly realised this was deadly serious, not some ancient comedy.
“We could easily colonise the galaxy,” Pavel continued. “Control over the nuclear forces, they would allow the radioactive …”
“Are you mad?” Connor interrupted. “He said electromagnetism, that’s what holds atoms together, or at least molecules.”
“Shut up Connor,” Pavel replied. “I’ll deal with this.”
“No, if you could control electromagnetism, you could just make atoms fall apart. Not the atoms but molecules.”
“Not necessarily, there are other …”
Not necessarily? Connor just stared at Pavel in disbelief. “No as soon as you get it, you have to destroy it,” Connor continued. “It’s a poisoned chalice.”
“Not if it is used properly.”
“No, some arse will get hold of it or some nutter religious sect will and turn the Earth or the Sun into a black hole or something stupid because their god told them to. Do you not remember those doomsday cults wanting the Book of Revelations to happen a few years ago? Imagine if one of them got hold of it. Because they would bloody well try and recreate their version of heaven or hell on Earth.”
“It can be kept safe.”
“No it won’t, because whoever has it, has power over everybody else. Everyone would fight over it.”
“Connor, shut up.”
“And if you have it, who would you hand it over to on Earth? Who would you trust implicitly with control of something like that? And they’d insist you handed it over. Because they would want it.”
“Connor, you’re already on report.”
“No, nobody can be trusted with something like that. Iku, Vanessa, what do you think?”
“Shut up Connor.”
“No, I will not shut up. I will not let you make the biggest mistake in the history of …” Connor was about to say fuck-ups but thought it best not to.
“So you would destroy something like that?” the voice asked.
“No,” Pavel replied.
“Yes,” Connor said. “I would, it will cause fights and wars. So so many people would want to control it. They would all justify it as for our own good in their heads, but …”
“Not if it is …”
“Pavel, do not take this.”
“Connor you are on report. I am serious this time.”
“Pavel, we need to think this through,” Vanessa said. “Connor has some valid …”
Connor turned to look at Vanessa and she wasn’t there. He turned back and realised that he was in a room on his own.
“¡Es un ascensor!” Vanessa shouted. She had reached the same conclusion as Connor.
Their sense of gravity began to reappear as the lift decelerated and eventually it came to a stop. Then there was a diffuse white light and they were in a room about five metres square, at the end of a white corridor around three metres wide and three high, that curved round to the right.
“Looks like we’re supposed to go that way,” Pavel said.
“We’re caught like flies in a web,” Iku said philosophically.
“If they wanted to kill us, they would have done,” Vanessa said.
Somehow Connor didn’t seem any less worried; spiders kept their prey alive until they sucked all the …
“We’ve got an atmosphere,” Iku commented. “Pressure and composition Earth normal.”
Everyone checked their own displays.
“I’m getting the same reading,” Connor said, “and if you hadn’t noticed, gravity is normal.”
“Should we take our helmets off?” Vanessa asked.
“We have enough air for four hours,” Pavel said. “There is no need yet.”
“I think we should take them off,” Connor said, almost surprised at his own reaction.
“Why?” Pavel asked.
“Because if we’re here for much more than another three hours then we won’t have enough to return to the lander.”
“And if we’re here for less than that?”
“The atmosphere and temperature are suitable for us,” Vanessa said.
“And if the information is wrong?” Pavel continued.
“Think about it, whoever or whatever is in here has designed this for us?” Connor said. “The chances of having such a great match for Earth conditions are pretty low. And if you’re worried, I’ll go first. Because I’m the most expendable.”
“I forbid it,” Pavel said.
Connor began to undo the clasps of his helmet. Then he lifted it off. He breathed in a lungful of air, it smelt of nothing. Nothing at all. He was tempted to pretend to choke but decided it wouldn’t be that funny. He watched as the others slowly followed his example.
“You’re on report,” Pavel said smiling. “You disobeyed a direct order.”
“You know we’re going to be in quarantine on the Moon for months,” Vanessa said.
“We were anyway,” Iku replied. “This far out, nobody really knows what’s here. Remember the first Mars mission? The fuss that was made when they all developed colds in quarantine.”
Connor hoped that he and Vanessa were in quarantine together. Stop it, he thought.
“Let’s go,” Pavel said. He started to walk down the corridor. “We’re supposed to go this way.”
Vanessa turned round. “The room’s gone,” she said. Where the room had been was now just wall.
“Is anyone scared?” Connor asked. “Because I am feeling much calmer than I should. I feel I should be shitting meself by now and I’m not.”
“I always knew you’d be calm under pressure,” Vanessa said. “But yes, I am not as nervous as I should be.”
As they walked, more of the corridor lit the way, while that behind them turned dark. After what could only be ten minutes, the corridor opened into a room about ten by ten metres that was just as empty as the corridors.
“You know what this is?” Iku said. “This is first contact. Because there is obviously an intelligence behind what is going on here.”
“We’ll go down in history,” Pavel said.
That’s if anyone ever finds out about it, Connor reflected. But then, why go to all this trouble just to mess with people? Because they are aliens and who knows what aliens may think.
“But first contact with who?” Vanessa asked.
“Whom,” Connor corrected.
“Welcome,” a voice said before the conversation descended into a grammar based argument.
“It said welcome,” Iku said.
“I know,” Connor replied.
“But it was speaking …” and then Iku stopped. He had realised they had all heard it in their native languages. That was spooky.
“Do you know why you are here?” the voice continued.
“Nyet,” Pavel said forgetting his own rule about speaking only in English.
“Because you invited us?” Connor surmised.
“You are correct, I invited you to visit.”
“Why?” Pavel asked.
“You have achieved intra-system flight and when that occurs for certain civilisations I make contact with them.”
“For any particular reason?” Pavel asked.
“In order to see what sort of civilisation it is.”
“You must know about us as you are speaking to us in our own languages,” Connor said.
“Still, meeting individuals and speaking to them is far better than observing from afar. You can find out so much more with a conversation.”
“So you are here?” Iku asked.
“In a manner of speaking.”
“And who or what are you are?” Connor asked.
“Who I am is not that important, there are more important questions to be answered.”
Connor was tempted to ask, who shot President Kennedy or which religion was really correct but thought it best not to start arsing about. He didn’t want to be put on report again.
“So you invited us here,” Pavel said. “There must be more to it than a chat.”
“I wanted you to realise that you are not alone and that there are other species out there. Other civilisations.”
That sounded very sensible, Connor thought looking about the featureless room. Why weren’t there any seats? Because the room had to be suitable for different species. But then the alien could just make seats for whoever came visiting.
“Do we get to meet other members of these other species?” Pavel asked interrupting the silence and stopping Connor’s train of thought.
“Perhaps. I could give you the means to travel there to meet them.”
“What do you mean, could give us the means?”
“At the moment you are limited by your knowledge of the laws of physics, but there are further discoveries to be made that will allow you control of the fundamental forces. When you have that knowledge, then you will be able to explore the galaxy as easily as you can now explore your own Solar System now.”
It’s not that easy, Connor thought.
“Such as?” Pavel asked.
“You would be able to manipulate, for instance, gravity, or electromagnetism or the strong nuclear force.”
“True,” Pavel answered. “But we will be long dead by that time.”
“But imagine if you could be given that knowledge now.”
“I don’t quite understand?” Pavel replied.
Connor wasn’t listening to Pavel. Had he understood the alien quite right? What a great way of killing off rival civilisations. Get them to destroy themselves.
“If you were now able to control the fundamental forces of nature, you would now be able to contact other species. You could explore the galaxy,” the voice continued.
There was silence for a few moments.
“Are you offering us this?” Pavel asked.
“Would you want it?”
“What is it?”
“It is control.”
“Control over what?” Pavel asked in Russian, he had slipped back into Russian again. Connor knew it was Russian, even though he heard it as English. That was weird.
“You could think of it as control over the fundamental forces of nature.”
There was silence. Connor looked at the others. They were obviously just as confused as he was.
“Eh?” Pavel said.
“Within your reach, in this place, there is an ancient artefact that will allow you to manipulate for instance, gravity, or electromagnetism or the strong nuclear force.”
“Just like that?” Iku replied.
For a moment Connor thought of an ancient comedian.
“And what do we need to do to obtain this device?” Pavel said snapping Connor’s mind back to reality.
“Would you want it?”
“Well yes.”
“So just tell me why you should receive it.”
“So, … with gravity control, the settlement and exploration of the Solar System would become easy. Then looking beyond, we could travel to the next systems and then eventually to the furthest reaches of the galaxy,” Pavel said. “Then there are other galaxies.”
Connor was staring at Pavel. He suddenly realised this was deadly serious, not some ancient comedy.
“We could easily colonise the galaxy,” Pavel continued. “Control over the nuclear forces, they would allow the radioactive …”
“Are you mad?” Connor interrupted. “He said electromagnetism, that’s what holds atoms together, or at least molecules.”
“Shut up Connor,” Pavel replied. “I’ll deal with this.”
“No, if you could control electromagnetism, you could just make atoms fall apart. Not the atoms but molecules.”
“Not necessarily, there are other …”
Not necessarily? Connor just stared at Pavel in disbelief. “No as soon as you get it, you have to destroy it,” Connor continued. “It’s a poisoned chalice.”
“Not if it is used properly.”
“No, some arse will get hold of it or some nutter religious sect will and turn the Earth or the Sun into a black hole or something stupid because their god told them to. Do you not remember those doomsday cults wanting the Book of Revelations to happen a few years ago? Imagine if one of them got hold of it. Because they would bloody well try and recreate their version of heaven or hell on Earth.”
“It can be kept safe.”
“No it won’t, because whoever has it, has power over everybody else. Everyone would fight over it.”
“Connor, shut up.”
“And if you have it, who would you hand it over to on Earth? Who would you trust implicitly with control of something like that? And they’d insist you handed it over. Because they would want it.”
“Connor, you’re already on report.”
“No, nobody can be trusted with something like that. Iku, Vanessa, what do you think?”
“Shut up Connor.”
“No, I will not shut up. I will not let you make the biggest mistake in the history of …” Connor was about to say fuck-ups but thought it best not to.
“So you would destroy something like that?” the voice asked.
“No,” Pavel replied.
“Yes,” Connor said. “I would, it will cause fights and wars. So so many people would want to control it. They would all justify it as for our own good in their heads, but …”
“Not if it is …”
“Pavel, do not take this.”
“Connor you are on report. I am serious this time.”
“Pavel, we need to think this through,” Vanessa said. “Connor has some valid …”
Connor turned to look at Vanessa and she wasn’t there. He turned back and realised that he was in a room on his own.
Pavel looked about. The room was empty, there was nothing here. His two colleagues looked back at him. “We should search the room, because there must be something here. We can’t have been brought down here for nothing.”
For an hour they carried out as detailed a search of the room as they could. There was nothing. Nothing at all.
“I think we should return,” Pavel said. “Helmets back on. Let’s see if there is something in the corridor on the way back. The next expedition may find something.”
“Wait, how long have we been here for,” Iku asked.
“Just over an hour.”
“So how come the time on my helmet is over two hours out?”
“Mine is as well,” Vanessa said.
Pavel checked his time. “You’re right. We’ll get the Gagarin to check when we get back,” he said.
Vanessa walked behind the others back to the lift. The walk was uneventful. Nobody had much to say, they had travelled to the edge of the solar system to find effectively nothing. They had found a room with an Earth-like atmosphere and it was empty. An alien artefact at the edge of the solar system that had nothing to reveal. Well nothing apart from the fact there was or had once been, an alien intelligence.
But then why was the atmosphere so perfect for humans?
And why was there something niggling at the back of Vanessa’s mind, she knew something was missing, as if she had forgotten to turn the gas off.
For an hour they carried out as detailed a search of the room as they could. There was nothing. Nothing at all.
“I think we should return,” Pavel said. “Helmets back on. Let’s see if there is something in the corridor on the way back. The next expedition may find something.”
“Wait, how long have we been here for,” Iku asked.
“Just over an hour.”
“So how come the time on my helmet is over two hours out?”
“Mine is as well,” Vanessa said.
Pavel checked his time. “You’re right. We’ll get the Gagarin to check when we get back,” he said.
Vanessa walked behind the others back to the lift. The walk was uneventful. Nobody had much to say, they had travelled to the edge of the solar system to find effectively nothing. They had found a room with an Earth-like atmosphere and it was empty. An alien artefact at the edge of the solar system that had nothing to reveal. Well nothing apart from the fact there was or had once been, an alien intelligence.
But then why was the atmosphere so perfect for humans?
And why was there something niggling at the back of Vanessa’s mind, she knew something was missing, as if she had forgotten to turn the gas off.
They were overdue; their air could have run out by now. Then Alan heard the news they had been waiting for.
“They’re back, or rather three of them are,” Shen said looking at the monitor.
“Who is missing?” Alan asked.
“Hold on … Connor.”
“Open a comm. channel,” Alan said.
“Hello, Pavel, Vanessa, Iku, where’s Connor?”
“What?” Pavel replied.
“Where is Connor?”
“Who is Connor?”
“The annoying Irishman. Don’t say you’ve lost him.”
“What are you talking about?” Pavel said. “And what time is it on your watch?”
“Will you stop messing about. I am serious.”
“They’re back, or rather three of them are,” Shen said looking at the monitor.
“Who is missing?” Alan asked.
“Hold on … Connor.”
“Open a comm. channel,” Alan said.
“Hello, Pavel, Vanessa, Iku, where’s Connor?”
“What?” Pavel replied.
“Where is Connor?”
“Who is Connor?”
“The annoying Irishman. Don’t say you’ve lost him.”
“What are you talking about?” Pavel said. “And what time is it on your watch?”
“Will you stop messing about. I am serious.”