Peter was lost in thought, so he didn't notice Samantha approaching until he almost ran into her.
"So where's your head at?" she asked. "I was waving at you from across the street and you just kept shambling along like a zombie."
"Really? Huh. Yeah, I guess I was thinking about a bunch of stuff."
"Like what? Spill it. You're the closest thing I've got to a friend on this bucket, so we should, like, tell each other stuff." She bumped her shoulder playfully into his while they continued their journey toward the Wonderland Library.
"Oh... mostly I was thinking about my life before all this happened... wondering if there is any way back to it. Like, did the aliens hang on to our bodies? Are they stashed in some life support pod back on Earth, just waiting for us to be loaded back into them, or are they well and truly gone?"
"I asked Mel about that a while back. She thinks the scanning process was destructive. Like, disassembling our molecules was needed to get the data, but reassembling them afterward would be rather pointless if even possible, from their point of view at least."
He shrugged his shoulders. "You're probably right, I guess. I just don't know what that means for my future. What sort of life can I have as only a digital... thing? How do I even go to job interviews?"
"Dude, we live in the age of the information economy. All the best jobs nowadays are all about creating or moving data around. We can make this work. Besides, we probably should worry about saving the planet before we get too hung up on what we do after."
"I get what you're saying... It's not really just about getting a job or anything like that." He wasn't sure what it was he wanted to say. He couldn't really find words that really encapsulated what he was feeling. "It's just.. I'm not sure I know who I am anymore, I think."
Samantha walked silently beside him for several paces before answering. "OK, I get that. I only just got over my own existential crisis, I can't blame you for wrestling with your own."
"Ah, is that what this is. Nice to be able to put a name to it. Thanks."
"No problem. What are friends for if not to help you wrestle with the big, unsolvable problems." They reached the entrance to the library. "Speaking of which, how about we join the rest of our friends and figure out how to save planet Earth."
Peter smiled grimly and opened the library door.
Sydney, Mel, and Roger were already there along with a full array of tea and snacks. Surprisingly, Marguerite was also present, though she was at the far end of the table apparently reading three books simultaneously. Peter and Samantha joined them at the table.
Mel poured two more teas and slid them over to Peter and Samantha. "OK, so now that the full war council is present, I call this meeting to order." She mimicked banging a non-existent gavel.
As Peter lifted his cup, he thought for perhaps the hundredth time about how much he missed coffee. He decided not to mention it to the table full of tea enthusiasts. They had not been sympathetic previously. "Thanks," he said. "So, what's on the agenda for today?"
"Oh nothing too important," Mel replied, "just, you know, saving the whole freaking planet from brain eating aliens."
A chill embraced Peter. "Wait, what? So now we've learned they eat brains?"
Sydney shook her head. "Ignore my sister's flair for the dramatic. There is no evidence they eat brains. We spent most of the night in shadowspace digging through every alien database we could crack, and we've essentially confirmed the swooping down and invading planets thing, but it is still not clear what the whole 'feasting on complexity' is about. It is definitely not good for the local inhabitants, however."
"OK, so... cuneiform aliens bad. We know that much," Samantha stated, "but how do we stop them?"
"Our best bet still seems to be an alliance with their adversaries," Roger replied. "We should find out the capabilities of this planetary defense network of theirs. Also, we should probably advise world governments of what we know so they can marshal what defense they can."
"Do you think they don't already know?" Peter asked. "They've probably been in bed with the aliens all along and covering the whole thing up."
"That's entirely possible," Sydney agreed, "but we shouldn't take anything for granted. That fleet is almost here, so we shouldn't sit on anything. The best plan, I think, is to share what we know with all the parties that can use the information, and do it quickly."
Peter considered her words. "We could aim an antenna at Earth and broadcast what we know. Can't get faster than that."
"We considered that but ruled it out," Mel answered. "Aside from the potential for creating panic, the signal could echo back and get picked up by our enemy. If they know we've cracked their language, we might lose a tactical advantage."
"And beyond that," Sydney continued, "a broadcast isn't as useful as an interactive conversation. I think we really need to go down to the planet and make contact."
"But how do we manage that?" Samantha asked. "We are basically just data trapped in a computer wrapped in a big honking spaceship. That doesn't exactly lend itself to face to face dialog."
Mel gave Samantha a double thumbs up. "Perfectly stated. You advance to the bonus round. Sis and I have been working that exact problem most of the night, and we think we have a solution."
"It also answers a question that has been nagging me for some time," Sydney continued, "specifically, how were those faceless alien jerks able to appear and disappear in my apartment? After a lot of digging through shipping manifests and inventory databases and sending maintenance bots down into the lower levels of this base, we've worked it out."
Mel made a tossing motion. A floating hologram of a roughly cube shaped machine sprang into the air. "They used this."
"It looks like a rooftop air conditioning unit," Peter observed.
"Yes, it does," Sydney agreed, "and that is not an accident. In truth, it is a force field projection system that creates avatars that can interact in the real world. This particular unit also contains a scanning component that can digitize solid objects. The range is rather limited, only a few dozen meters. We think they dropped one of these on the roof of my apartment building."
"So the aliens were never real," Samantha concluded.
"Correct," Mel confirmed, "You score double points. They were projections, beamed through my ceiling from a gadget they somehow snuck onto the roof."
Samantha nudged Peter and whispered to him, "double points. I'm beating you."
"It's not a contest," he shot back.
Roger nodded his approval. "So this should allow us to more easily interact with whoever we choose to meet with."
"Yes, though this particular unit is rather unwieldy," Sydney answered. "We kept digging and found an even better option." She made another tossing motion, and the rectangular machine was replaced by a different image.
"That one looks like a coffee thermos," Peter noted.
"It does, sort of," Sydney agreed, "but it's actually a portable force field projector paired with a miniature hexframe."
"It's a Mobile Emitter," Mel stated.
"We are not calling it that," Sydney insisted.
"Hey, you're the one wearing a Star Trek uniform," her sister countered.
Sydney sighed. "Whatever you call it, this gadget is far more flexible. The hexframe is just large enough to hold a full neural download, and it can project a body around itself, allowing the projector to be carried with. It gets around the range limitation of that bulkier unit."
"According to the inventory," Mel elaborated, "they had a bunch of these. They were as common among the aliens as cell phones are with humans. Over half their population was digital. They must have used these to create bodies to interact with organic friends and do physical work and stuff. They took most of them with them when they vamoosed, but they left a few behind."
Roger leaned back in his chair. "So the plan is to load ourselves into these machines, journey down to this alien base near the city of Boston, and confront our erstwhile alien adversaries with the hope of making them allies. Correct?"
"Yes," Sydney confirmed, "though not all of us. Mel and I will go down in the Wonderland while the rest of you stay here in The Island of Crows until we know it's safe."
"Hmmm. I can't say I agree with that plan." Roger looked from one sister to the other. "It puts both of you in danger while leaving us trapped here without a skilled pilot. It makes more sense for me to accompany one of you. I am, after all, the expert in variant cuneiform."
Peter could tell Mel wanted to say something but was biting her tongue. Finally, she said, "OK, fine, that makes sense. You and Sydney go down to Earth, but you keep an antenna pointed at the moon and yell if things go sideways."
Roger breathed a sigh of relief. "That would be acceptable."
"What is it with the dudes always thinking they need to play hero," Samantha asked.
"Hey, I'm OK with sitting this one out," Peter replied. "I mean, have you even considered the risk of getting shot at by our own military?"
"We have, actually," Sydney confirmed. "We just... don't have a good answer yet."
They all looked at each other over the table, nobody speaking.
Mel refilled her tea mug, then disposed of the floating 'mobile emitter' hologram with a swiping motion. She then threw a new image into the air, a cartoonish exploding spaceship covered by a circle and diagonal slash. "OK, so next item on the agenda. How to fly an alien spaceship into US airspace without getting blown up."