We've Seen the Enemy Page 6

  The klaxon warning sound thankfully shut off, though the red blinking lights near them kept going on and off. They headed in the direction the robot had gone, and soon came to an intersection labeled “Elevators”. The corridor they were on stopped there facing the elevators and new corridors continued to the right and left. The lights above Timothy and Ruth penetrated the darkness of those corridors for only about 20 meters either way, so they had no way of knowing how long each corridor was.

  The central elevator doors opened automatically as they approached, and it appeared to Timothy and Ruth that they had been kept well maintained. They walked into the elevator and looked at the panel.

  It was difficult for them to press any button at all because the tribe had been warned for so long that buttons and mechanical or electrical things of this sort were part of the “Dangers of the Heathens”, the evil god-like enemy that caused the Great Cataclysm and left behind the “Tests of Faith”. But by carefully studying these “Tests” and pressing similar buttons, Timothy had kept himself and a number of others alive. He came to the conclusion that these devices were too mechanical to be from any god and that the heathens weren’t gods at all. From what he could tell at the time they weren’t human either but that he kept to himself. In the meantime he had disassembled and reworked some of those “Tests” and used them to do chores according to their abilities, until Pliny found out and yelled at him for removing them and ‘Interfering with what God had put in place,’ as he said. He insisted that Timothy rebuild them and put them back where he found them, but these were weapons designed to kill humans and had been very effective on the tribe, and without the support of the group Pliny found himself unable to enforce this demand. Last time Timothy saw the elder, he’d noticed real hatred in his eyes.

  Once in the elevator, Ruth finally chose a button labeled ‘CR’. It was one of three buttons in that center section, the other two being ‘MAIN’ and ‘GR’.

  The hum heard in the hallway was louder in the elevator and increased in pitch as they descended to CR. Timothy felt great speed and it took only fifteen seconds before the door opened again. In front of them stood a long single corridor with doors on either side, and the corridor itself went on into the darkness. Ruth took one step out of the elevator and a scanning laser suddenly started surfacing her. Timothy and Ruth had seen similar designs in the past, and in each case it meant big trouble. The laser was an identifier, which in turn informed a computer on whether to fire or not. The only way to defeat such a setup was to stand absolutely still and wait for a companion to disable the turret that fired the micro-flechetes, small carbon needles almost invisible to the naked eye that penetrated the skin and embedded themselves, tearing people up with each movement. Timothy had learned that it was designed to scare people and slow them down, to occupy the group with the injured that now had to be carried and cared for and to demoralize them as they watched their loved ones die a painful death.

  He knew that most people hit by the darts died, and he was terrified that Ruth would be next. Surprisingly though, the laser shut down, much to Ruth’s relief. The four gun turrets powered down and withdrew into their ports.

  They carefully started walking down the hallway in the only direction available, the lights turning on in front of them and off behind them as they walked. The hum was louder on this floor, but it didn’t increase in pitch as they walked. Finally the last light of the hallway turned on and both Ruth and Timothy stopped as they looked at what the light revealed.

  “WHAT is that?!” Ruth asked, while Timothy stood there open mouthed. Ahead of them was another machine, humanoid and standing in front of a thick, solidly built door, its nondescript face dark. It held a single weapon, large and attached to its back, and on its torso were a pair of arms on each side of its body, one set facing forward and the other set facing the back. Timothy guessed that it could see behind itself as well as in front. Ruth looked at Timothy, wondering what they should do.

  “We’ve come this far, and the turrets didn’t shoot us earlier, so maybe it’s ok…” Timothy said as he positioned his crutches in front of Ruth and moved ahead of her. She was upset he had jumped in front of her, but he was already up against the machine and there was nothing she could do about it. The machine stood there unmoving even though Timothy had touched it.

  “Maybe it has no power,” Ruth said.

  “I doubt it, everything here is powered except the first door we through and the room in the hospital with the alien. But it does look inactive. Maybe it broke down? It has been 800 years after all.”

  “Tim, look behind the machine.” He saw the words “Control Room” beside a palm pad. The whine they were hearing suddenly increased in pitch and a deep rumbled started shaking the floor.

  “Something’s happening. We have to get in there… I think our answers lie behind that steel door,” Timothy said.

  At that moment, the klaxons sounded again but with a different sound, and a voice came over the intercom and said in the old world language: “Generators on stand-by, opening exterior weapon port.” They heard a metallic sounding clump, and then another slower rumble added to the first. Timothy decided to go around the machine as he tried to get to the door but it suddenly moved aside, allowing him access. It was so quick that Ruth jumped and gave the machine a solid whack with her wrench.

  Timothy cringed with what might come next, but all the machine said was: “Please don’t do that,” and continued facing the hallway. They were so relieved they couldn’t help but laugh at the machine’s reaction.

  Ruth stepped up to the door as Timothy looked at the palm pad. He had no idea what it was but figured it must be some system that was used to get in. As he stood there trying to figure it out, Ruth turned to the machine and asked, “How do you open the door?”

  Without any visible reaction the machine said, “I would have to break it open.”

  Timothy and Ruth laughed at their mistake, but before they could correct themselves the machine added, “But you have clearance to go into the control room if you so desire. To gain access, simply put your palm against the palm pad, the dark rectangle on the left where you are standing, Timothy.”

  “How do you know my name?” The machine remained silent. Timothy shrugged his shoulders and touched the pad with his hand.

  As he touched it, it lit up and scanned his hand in less than a second. It was so fast he didn’t even have time to react. The heavy door opened, revealing a room full of blackened displays with a countdown visible in the top center. As soon as they entered, all the displays turned on, and Ruth and Timothy looked at them one by one.

  The countdown was near zero, with only ten seconds to go. They could see one display showing the outside ridge, and noticed that the ridge was actually two ridges – one circular, similar to the ridge of a volcano and the second one straight, intersecting the round one at one edge and running to the chasm Timothy had seen earlier. The round one had a depression in the middle, now open and the center had two large half round doors that had swung up to reveal a large weapon. The door surfaces appeared to be rock from the outside.

  Another display cycled views from different parts of this structure and a third had an image of something not from Earth, dark and sinister, near the stars. That one they watched intently. A voice over the intercom stated: “Firing, 500 milliseconds” and before they knew it, the sound died and the red lights stopped flashing. The sinister machine on the display had just been chopped up into a neat little cube, and then the same voice said: “Gravplane on intercept course. Approximate time of intercept is 1.7 hours.” Then all the displays went black except for one.

  Ruth was confused while Timothy, now exhausted from the walking, slumped into one of the chairs in front of the only still lighted display.

  “What just happened?” Ruth asked.

  “Alien species number 001 has sent a scout ship from a Capital Ship that was in high moon orbit. The scout ship has been rendered inoperable and its computer mo
dule is now deemed safe to approach,” said a disembodied voice. It sounded as if the speaker was right beside Timothy and Ruth, though they were in different parts of the room. It was unnerving to them both, and Ruth hadn’t really expected an answer from this invisible person.

  “Ask it another question, Ruth.”

  “Is that scout ship the object near the stars?”

  “Yes,” the voice said.

  “How big is it and how many scout ships are there?”

  “Only one exited from the Capital Ship, as far as can be ascertained,” said the voice. “As to its size, scout ships vary in length, girth, and displacement, but this one carried only one pilot and was twelve decimal six two meters long.”

  Ruth and Timothy thought about that one for a second. “Pilot?” Ruth said to Timothy.

  “I think it means an operator for the machine,” Timothy replied. “Is the pilot like us?” he asked the voice, but stopped himself. “Wait, you answered that – alien species 001 you said. Is this the same as the creature that was found in the infirmary?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why was it destroyed?” Ruth asked.

  “It is a danger to the human race.”

  They thought about that for a few moments. “What happened to the Capital Ship? You said that it was in moon orbit. Where is it now?”

  “It was destroyed within one second of the destruction of the scout ship by China Lunar Base.”

  This took them both by surprise. There were two of these bases, as this voice told them, and one was near or on the moon. The implications left them with a thousand questions, but Timothy focused on the event. “How many ships have been destroyed since the Cataclysm?”

  The voice remained silent for a few seconds and then said: “By Cataclysm it is calculated that you mean the attempted human extermination by species 001, 743 years ago. If so, since that time this station alone has destroyed over 400 alien craft, the majority of these being scout ships of various sizes and capabilities. China Lunar Base has destroyed over 850, both hive ships and scout ships.”

  As the voice answered, the computer started calculating their IQ. It had been very impressed by the results generated from Timothy’s question and his actions, but it knew that more replies would be needed.

  “Ruth, do you understand what this voice is saying? It must be talking about Pliny’s ‘agents of God’, and it called them alien species 001. This machine created by us has been destroying these things for 743 years!”

  Ruth let this sink in. So many questions were running through her head and she didn’t know where to begin. She thought of the last statement the voice made. “You gave this species a number, ‘001’. How many alien species are there?”

  “There is not enough information available to answer your question.”

  She rethought her question. “How many alien species have been catalogued?”

  “Parameters please. What degree of intelligence are you looking for?”

  “Species intelligent enough to communicate with other species,”

  Timothy said, looking smug.

  “There are 687 known extraterrestrial species.” It corrected its initial assessment of Timothy and Ruth’s intelligence, and noted a probability of 62% that its new assessment was correct.

  “How many of these species are able to travel the heavens?”

  “If you mean ‘space flight capability’, there are only six, according to my last update.”

  “How many have attacked us or shown that they are our enemies?” Ruth added.

  “One.”

  “How many have helped us?” Ruth asked. “Out of the other five, that is.”

  “That information is not available to you at this time.”

  ‘Hmm’, Ruth thought. She drew a blank and looked at Timothy.

  He thought deeply about the reply given by this ‘voice’, and then he asked: “How do you know there are 687 extraterrestrial species?”

  The machine bumped up Timothy’s I.Q. calculation to close to 200, but simply said, “That information is not available to you at this time.”

  ‘Fine’, he thought. Timothy tried another question.

  “What happened to the humans that were here just after the destruction?”

  “Because of the nature of the power generation for this Base, ground-based toxins left behind at around the time of the alien retreat were especially concentrated in this area. These poisons drifted upward from the generator area and made the base uninhabitable. The poisons are now diluted to just above higher than normal concentrations in day time.”

  Timothy and Ruth thought about the answer, and Ruth didn’t miss the part about the ‘alien retreat’.

  “How many operational bases like these are there on Earth?” Timothy next asked.

  “That information is not available to you at this time,” said the voice, and recalculated their intelligence with an 84% probability of being correct.

  Timothy thought about that, while Ruth asked: “How many non-operational bases are there?”

  “Four.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “Base Cuba was destroyed by aliens just before the retreat. Base Japan was destroyed by an earthquake 432 years ago. Base Hawaii was flooded out in a Tsunami and destroyed in a subsequent volcanic eruption and Base Canada was attacked and made inoperable by humans, as far as I can ascertain.”

  Those names and places meant nothing to Timothy and Ruth but they had so many more questions to ask that they didn’t know where to start.

  Timothy blurted out, “How far away is Base Canada?”

  “From here, a straight line measurement at ground level would put the old world border at 1678 kilometers away, and the base itself 2660 kilometers away.”

  “I don’t know that unit of measurement. How many cubits away is it?” Timothy asked.

  There was a pause and the voice replied, “It’s presumed you are referring to biblical cubits. That being the case, the most accurate known point of reference is the water tunnel built by Hezekiah. Archeological excavations done on the tunnel almost 900 years ago confirmed its length at 533 meters, and historical records recorded a length of 1200 cubits. That puts the cubit at 44.5 centimeters. Thus, the base is 3,843,700 cubits away. What will you do with this information?”

  Timothy couldn’t imagine that distance, but he knew he could travel 72,000 cubits in one day if the ground was clear and the terrain easy. He quickly worked out that it would take him at least two lunar months to reach there if he wanted to. He felt that this was an important question although he didn’t know why. He thought carefully as he looked at Ruth and then said: “My tribe needs to know the truth.”

  “All humans need to know the truth!” Ruth added.

  “Why did humans destroy the base?” Timothy asked. He looked at Ruth and saw a pensive look on her face that slowly turned into a frown.

  “There are various theories surrounding the base’s deactivation.” They didn’t miss the fact that this voice now called it ‘deactivation’ instead of ‘destruction’, but they let it continue without interruption.

  “One theory involves an attack from an outside force. Another is that the base’s discovery by those living outside, and the subsequent information given to a tribe by those they contacted inside the base disrupted the local hierarchy. To protect their position, ruling religious leaders misled their group of humans into believing that the base itself was a spiritual test, and that its deactivation would guarantee God’s favor and bring about an earthly transformation.”

  “Is the tribe still there?” Timothy asked.

  “Yes and no. Its progeny are still there but the ruling system has changed.”

  “How do you know this?… And what is their situation?” Timothy was now slightly suspicious.

  “Timothy, I am not programmed to lie. I can either answer your question or refuse to answer it according to my original programming. As to your questions, a cleaning bot survived the destruction of the
base. It was accessed by this base via remote link and reprogrammed to repair surveillance cameras and avoid detection. Concerning the tribe itself, optical link confirmed that the knowledge some received brought on destabilization on the local religious government, and that the subsequent rebellions led to cannibalism and human sacrifice. The last significant information received over two hundred years ago confirmed that the religious order had been usurped and replaced by a military one fashioned somewhat similarly to the existing system before the… ‘Cataclysm’.”

  Timothy and Ruth absorbed the information they had received from this voice and meditated on what it had said about the religious order. The similarity between this tribe that attacked Canada Base and their own tribe was unmistakable.

  “What is your name, voice?”

  “The resident humans in this base called me HAL, after a name of a character in an old science-fiction movie.”

  He had no idea what a science fiction movie was, but ignored this. “Well then HAL, why are you telling us this? You can see the outcome the last time people were informed…”

  “Because it is my mandate to ensure the survival, propagation and advancement of humanity. Knowledge is the key to successful propagation and advancement. I have been created for this purpose.” As it answered, it studied Timothy and Ruth’s reaction to the information, noting their facial pattern, tonal inflection, body temperature and a dozen other variables.

  Timothy had run out of questions, and when he turned to Ruth he noticed her crying, tears streaming down her face.

  “What is it Ruth? What’s wrong?” Timothy asked.

  “No. Well, it’s just that…Tim, everything we have learned is all wrong! We have lived our whole life taught to believe that punishment was retribution for a sinful course, …the need for penance…so many people of ours dead for their supposed sins, and Pliny and the others lying to us, …and…and…” Now she was sobbing uncontrollably as the truth finally sank in.