Incarna

95 - Alien Memories

Day 13: Early morning, JI Research Centre, Lake Katithandra Central Australia.

Massimo Quollwood turned gave the love of his life the most incredulous look he realised he must have ever given anybody. He choked back the guffaw that as rising like tsunami out of his belly then realised Koora was serious. His incredulity changed to pity and he frowned.

"I'm truly sorry Koora but," and he changed tone. "Ms Bubuk, all evidence points to a man made source for the Incarna Interventions!" He watched her face remain posed in it's 'you're wrong, and I'll prove it' expression and his frown deepened.

"You mean you don't know about the aliens," she said returning his incredulity, "but you were there that night. You must have seen them too!"

Massimo's jaw dropped and he stared at her, "what the fuck are you talking about?" all formality gone from his demeanour in an instant and said without thinking through the consequences first.

"You were there in club that night when that jerk banker came up to proposition me, yes?" "Ah yeah, of course I was lusting after you and wanted to ask you out but he got to you first ..."

"And you were there the week before when that weirdo came in an' asked for me then acts like some long lost cousin and plants one on me?" "Yeah, well, ah he was your weirdo cousin wasnt he?"

"Nope, never seen him before but some blokes you go along with till security arrives and he was one of them."

"I just thought it was just a joking relo blown in from the never never sort of thing. I kinda see a lot of that when I'm travelling, you know!"

"I do too, but he wasnt! Can't you remember the security guys, how he just kinda phased them out and then apologised to me, saying everything would be alright no matter what happened and then he vanished!"

"... and the CCTV?" "Was all static, but ..." Koora turned her ePad to face her and swiped through various screens and brought up a file.

Massi looked up at the wall screen. All the AINGEL orbital track predictions were green and he could see which ones Max and Harold were sorting through the orbit that AIME was refining.

"You've got five minutes or so then I'll be needed, so what aliens did I miss?"

"This one," and she started a video of compounded street CCTV sequences. Each one showed a figure that moved toward the cammera then the image faded to static. She tapped on an icon and up came a still of the figure which she enlarged. It was the weird relo from the club but his visage was fuzzy as if dust or something was streaming away from him as he walked.

Koora brought up a cllage of stills from when he was in the club, then his walk through the Domain to when he disappeared in Hyde Park. Each one showed more and more distortion till he was cloud like then nothing just mist, or dust.

Massi tapped on various ones and compared them then closed them and went to the last one. He looked across at her and waited.

"When he kissed me it tasted metallic. I was expecting alcohol breath, but it was maybe like a grittyness from, I dont know, dust!" Massi took her hand, "and can you remember anything about the man himself?"

Koora looked at him and frowning in confusion, "it wasn't a man. Don 't you get it?" Massi sat shaking his head in disbelief. "As it came near me my hair stood up and there was a strange smell, like ozone and Uluru red dust mixed!" Massi smirked then wrinkled his nose at the description then nodded.

"Have you been watching your Dune series videos again," he queried and she smacked his left shoulder. "Why is it that women are allowed to smack men like that?" "Because they say stupid things so they get stupid smacks for it." Massi grimaced, "alright so I missed this bloke in the fremen stillsuit, people are saying are describing such encounters with everything from djinnie to aliens, it's all halucinations!"

"You really don't believe ..." "Nope and sorry for cutting you off but I've got a double degree in Anthropology and IT and everything I've ever seen just turns out to be creatures or beings we've created to explain stuff we can't explain. Like Succubus and Alien Abduction for the halucinations that go with Sleep Paralysis. I love you, you're fantastically gifted and I want your skills as part of what we do here, and we've gotta stay real!"

Koora sat back, took a deep breath, pursed her lips and ... "Ok then, well my contribution tot he Incarna program is this," and she swiped open a new window and tapped open a folder labelled Incarna Stuff.

It opened in list form and Massi read the numbers. There were 33 sub-folders and Koora tapped open number 27. There were four figures of files in there. Massi whistled, "you've been collecting?"

"Everything! I set up a search and retrieval program and everything went onto a series of Terabyte external drives. It is all backed up onto high density disks as well and in three different places including the National Library!"

"Ooh I love you even more, smart move!" Koora didn't pause, "That was then sorted and filtered for different levels of relevance, all automated and I left it to sort itself out. Rama let me have a dedicated server at my office for my research." "Rama, you never told me ..." "You never asked lover boy ..." "Do you still work for him as well?" "Of course, your contract doesn't conflict with my singing at his club or my consumer analysis for his corporation. I did declare it in my JI contract, anyway ..." and Koora turned back to the screen and tapped open another sub-folder.

"Here is every description of every Incarna encounter to go to the web. Every blog, video or tweet. All filed under correspondences and similarities. The smell and the taste is the same everywhere!"

Massi turned to his keyboard and a folder appeared on the wall screen. It opened to display a similar series of sub-folders. He tapped one open, showing the listings were similar. "I used JI to do the same but I had all the AIMEs run the search programs and I think I got just a little more. The medical reports from any first aid or hospital tests carried out, as in the," and he tapped open one file in particular. "The banker you kissed that night in the club."

Koora's face went white and she slumped in the chair, "I didn't know ..." "Nobody does, except Harold Max you and I, oh and AIME."