Chapter No.8 The Premise
Conjecture is a slippery slope.
While traveling at warp speed, there isn't all that much to do, so I decided to do some more detective work in order to find out why Space Command was so hell bent on destroying an entire alien species. I began by looking through historical accounts for the decades before we launched our mission.
I found somewhat odd accounts of alien abduction in the first part of the 21st Century. These reports were usually dismissed as being psychological abnormalities, but the number of them seemed too large to be ignored.
One account caught my eye. Alan Stephens's, the director of Space Command in the 2040's, daughter was abducted. It didn't say that it was by aliens, but I got this gut feeling that it was implied.
UFO sightings have been a staple of the fringe pseudo-scientific culture for a long time, dating back to the mid 20th Century. There were literally millions of UFO sightings, most of which were suspect, and although reptilian aliens were sighted often, one account peeked my attention. It showed a blurry photo of an alien, and it looked very similar to our enemy alien species. I made a copy of the photo so that I could show it to Molly.
After our usual supper together, we settled down to talk in my quarter's living room. It was then that I showed her the photo.
"This was from an extraterrestrial sighting in 2049 near Tampa Florida," I said. "That just happens to be where Alan Stephens' abducted daughter lived."
"Are you suggesting that our enemy alien species abducted her?" she asked, looking confused.
"It's possible. There is a possibility that this is the incident that resulted in the attempt to annihilate the reptilian species."
She sighed. "The question is; why would these aliens want to abduct humans?"
"Good question. I could think of a few ideas. One is that they wanted to investigate our biology and determine just how intelligent humans are. Another is that they wanted humans to use as hostages if any of their kind were captured."
"What are you suggesting?" she asked. "That this abduction was egregious enough to launch a war with an alien species?"
"I don't know," I replied. "I'm just trying to understand the motive for a very expensive and dangerous mission."
"Maybe we could find more information on Earth, assuming that Space Command's headquarters is still in existence."
"We'll definitely give it a try," I said.
She sighed again and slouched down in the couch she was sitting on. "This situation is disgusting. If we don't find human life on Earth or in our solar system, we will be the only two remaining humans, and we're not human anymore."
"That's true," I said. "However, we have one advantage that humans don't have. We are immortal. We will live forever."
She turned to stare at me. "What the hell are we going to do . . . forever?"
"We are fortunate. We have this wonderful vessel that, with your modifications to the warp engines, will allow us to explore the universe."
"The universe is a mighty big place," she said. "It would take thousands of years just to explore the local group of galaxies."
"We have all the time we need," I said, smiling.
"We have no idea where intelligent life is situated. How are we going to proceed?"
"You will find habitable planets using the astronomical systems, and I will see that our ship gets to them."
"Finding habitable planets is going to require a lot of time, and we can't do it while we're at warp speed."
I sighed. "Yes, you're right. We'll just have to find a way to speed the process up."
She pursed her lips. "I have an idea that might help."
I tilted my head. "Really?"
"The main problem with finding habitable planets is the fact that it's difficult to observer planets orbiting stars because of the light glare. Most ideas use a blocking screen to cut the glare down. I believe what's really needed is a method of improving the ability to detect a wide range of light from a distant object. I think this could be done using a virtual mirror."
"A virtual mirror?"
"Yes. I think there could be a way to project a virtual mirror several kilometers wide into space and use it to observe orbiting planets."
I stared at her for a few moments before replying. "How does one project a virtual mirror?"
"I think it could be done using a phase barrier composed of dark photons. Dark photons are capable of deflecting photons."
"Sounds interesting. You should run that past the engineering androids."
"I already have," she said. "They're already working on it."
I chuckled. "You are the efficient one."
She laughed, a reaction that I considered healthful.
"I think that calls for some wine," I said.
I stood up and went to the kitchen area to pour two glasses of red bordeaux wine, but before I could do it, I was interrupted by a concerned Molly.
"There's something wrong with one of your androids," she blurted, her eyes wide with concern.
I went with her to my bedroom where I saw that Ellen was laid out on my bed.
"What happened?" I asked Alice.
"She has stopped functioning," Alice revealed, not sounding at all concerned.
I looked down at Ellen and could see that she was out cold. I placed my hand on her forehead and suddenly felt that there was something wrong with her brain. I'm not sure how that was possible, but I could detect that one of her positronic units was caught in a loop, which was stopping her entire brain from functioning. I could see no other solution other than a reboot, which I initiated using my mind.
After a few moments, Ellen's eyes opened, and she sat up.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yes, Jason. Thank you."
Molly turned to me. "What did you do?"
"I rebooted one of her positronic systems. It was caught in a loop."
"How'd you do that?"
"I don't know. I simply saw what was happening in my mind and wished it to happen."
"That means that you are in mental contact with these androids."
"I think that we both have been absorbed into their matrix," I said. "I'm not surprised that it happened. The bio-agents are in contact with the main computers just like all of the androids."
Molly gave me a concerned look. "Does that mean that we're going to be automatons like them?"
"Actually, they're not automatons. They're sentient beings. They just have a different brain structure than we do."
"Maybe our brains will end up like theirs."
"Your brain function will not be altered," Alice said.
We had no way to confirm her assurance, but we were happy to hear it.