The Writer - Danilo Clementoni 4 стр.

"Let's say there were a series of particular events, and I must have dropped it.”

"And someone else found it and activated it for you?”

"We still haven't been able to determine what really happened but that's a distinct possibility."

“And now? How do you plan to get back here?”

"That's exactly why we're contacting you. We could do with a nice quick solution to this little problem.”

“Little?” replied the Elder jumping to his feet with surprising nimbleness. “Do you realize what you're saying? Your time frame is already almost at its maximum limit. You should have already left and you’re telling me that the Theos no longer exists and you’re pretty much stuck on earth. What are we supposed to do now?"

“Well, I don't really know. You're the Elders. We’re trusting that, with your experience and your infinite wisdom, you’ll be able to help us out of this unfortunate situation."

The old man sat down again, letting himself fall heavily into his soft grey chair, then he leant his elbows on the table in front of him and put his hands in his long white hair, remaining in complete silence. He remained still for a few seconds then he lifted his gaze again and said, "I’ll try summoning the Council urgently and I’ll put all our best Experts to work. I hope to be able to give you good news very soon” and he ended the communication.

Pasadena, California – The nerd

"Is that all?" exclaimed the big, decidedly overweight guy, as he observed the strange device that the young nerd was holding in his hand. "You’re not going to tell me that you’ve made us wait more than a month just to show us this thing flashing."

"I can assure you it’s working" replied the terrified boy. "Indeed, I think it’s already done what it was designed to do."

"Yes, but are you going to tell us what?” yelled the tall thin guy as he jumped to his feet. "Now I really am losing my patience."

In the basement bulging with equipment, monitors and computers of all kinds, lit by a dim led light which was reflected off the worn walls, the boy’s emaciated face looked even paler than it really was.

"Listen here, if you don’t tell us what this thing’s really for, I swear I’ll make you swallow it whole" exclaimed the fat guy grabbing the nerd by the scruff of the neck.

"But I told you" answered the ever more frightened boy. "It’s a system to activate a procedure remotely."

"But what procedure? What is it?" continued the big guy, as he shook the boy as if he were mixing Margaritas.

"I'm not sure” the young man tried to answer. "But I think we’ve activated something very particular and dangerous, given the protection systems I had to bypass."

"Explain yourself," said the fat guy still continuing to shake him.

"If you let me go, I'll show you.”

"Okay. But I hope it’s convincing, or else the biggest bit of you that’ll be found will only be visible under a microscope."

The boy straightened his shirt, readjusted his long hair that hadn’t seen any shampoo for quite a while and headed towards a workstation with two keyboards and a series of half-dismantled computers. He quickly typed several incomprehensible commands and, after a few seconds, a three-dimensional image of the strange object that slowly revolved upon itself, appeared on a giant screen that hung from the ceiling.

"This is our mysterious remote control.”

"Ah, now it's become a remote control?”

“Well, considering its function I think we can safely call it that."

“Go ahead,” said the thin guy as he settled himself on a shabby chair in order to better observe the large monitor.

“Well, the main problem was how to reactivate it. I struggled quite a lot because, most likely, not only had it been turned off but the owner did not want anybody to ever turn it back on again.”

"See it wasn’t the batteries that had gone flat, you silly old fool," exclaimed the fat guy, turning towards his crony.

"No, there’s no batteries inside,” continued the nerd. "I think it works with an external power source, a sort of electromagnetic flow that it manages to capture and transform into pure power.”

"Interesting" commented the skinny guy. "But what’s its scope?"

"In theory, perhaps even several hundred thousand kilometres."

"Blimey" exclaimed the fat guy as he held the strange object in his hand. "Are you telling me that this little thing might be capable of transmitting a signal from here to the moon?"

"I think so and it probably already has done."

"And what’s it supposed to have transmitted?"

"Well that’s the interesting bit" continued the boy as he brought up a new picture on the big screen. "These are the symbols that appeared on the front of it after it had been reactivated."

"It looks like some sort of ancient language" commented the thin guy. “I'm sure I've seen it somewhere before.”

"In fact, it’s cuneiform. The Sumerians used it several thousand years before Christ."

"And what’s it doing on such a technologically advanced instrument?"

"It’s the language of our alien visitors."

"Are you telling me that those brutes who captured us speak cuneiform?" asked the big guy somewhat surprised.

"Well," the boy tried to explain, "it’s not exactly that you speak cuneiform. It’s a form of writing. But I think this is their language."

"And have you managed to translate it?"

"Actually, for the command to be sent, I had to insert a kind of password. In practice, by touching the symbols in the right order, I entered operational mode."

"Basically, like the system you use to unlock your phone?"

"More or less, yes" said the nerd smiling, happy that the two guys had finally understood what he was talking about.

"You’ve done a really good job," said the fat guy looking pleased.

"Yes, but we still haven’t understood its true function yet," replied the thin guy rather disappointed.

"I could hazard a guess which I think might be quite realistic," said the boy, softly.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Talk," replied the fat guy, moving within just a few centimetres of his nose.

"I think it’s a system to activate the self-destruct procedure of a spacecraft, as well as who knows how many other functions."

The two buddies looked at one another in amazement for an instant then, as if someone had just given him the most wonderful gift in the world, the larger of the two exclaimed "Please, tell me we’ve blown them up."

"Very probably the aliens will have had ample time to get to safety, but their vehicle might have come to a really bad end."

"Son, you’re a genius," exclaimed the big guy. Then he pulled a USB memory stick out of his pocket and added, "Put all the data you’ve got on this thing and then cancel everything. If we discover you’ve kept even a single byte..."

“I know, I know. You’ll make mincemeat out of me."

“Well done. I knew you were a smart guy."

The copy process only lasted a few seconds. Then, after removing the USB stick from his computer, the nerd held it out to the big guy who quickly snatched it out of his hands. Then, after also grabbing the strange object and putting them both in his right trouser pocket, he said to his partner in crime, "Let’s go old chap, perhaps our dreams are about to come true."

They had almost reached the threshold when the young man exclaimed, "Hey, aren’t you forgetting something?"

"What are you on about?” asked the tall skinny guy.

"Err… the rest of my money."

“Money?” replied the fat guy. "Thank the Lord we haven’t broken your neck" and he banged the door behind him.

Taurus constellation - Planet Kerion

At almost sixty-five light years from earth, the red giant named Aldebaran dimly illuminates a barren planet known by the name of Kerion. Its surface, which nowadays features only arid deserts, parched rocky landscapes, deep dry gorges and smooth plateaus, was not always like this. The planet began its slow decline about ten thousand years ago when, for reasons as yet unknown, the metallic fluid which constituted its core began slowly but inexorably to reduce its speed of rotation, causing a relative progressive reduction of its magnetic field.

Nowadays, Kerion’s atmosphere, once composed mainly of nitrogen and about twenty percent methane, is virtually inexistent. In fact, the harmful rays from its star, no longer shielded by the powerful planetary magnetic field, have gradually dissolved it and reduced it to about 0.1 percent of what it once was. Seas of liquid hydrocarbons used to occupy almost half the planet. Lakes of methane and countless expanses of iced water were dotted around the land above sea level and life flourished luxuriantly. But the catastrophic event apparently marked the destiny of Kerion. For millennia, its inhabitants tried to find a solution to restart its core but without success. Since the start of the slowing down process, they have also tried venturing into risky and extremely long interstellar voyages in search of a planet, similar to their own, to which they could move, but none of these missions has ever been successful.

When their vital resources were almost at an end, they became more or less resigned to their inevitable extinction when, one of the brightest minds on the planet proposed what for most of the population appeared to be an absolute folly: get rid of everything that could "die". The Kerian in question began a series of experiments which, within a few decades, led him to extract what we might call their "soul” from the material bodies of his fellow beings, thus releasing it from its bond, until then believed to be indissoluble, with the physical body. The very essence of some volunteers was separated from the living matter and implanted in new, fully mechanical structures. This gave birth to a new species, based entirely on cybernetic bodies but equipped with their own intelligence and that cosmic essence called soul or, more simply, life.

The separation of the souls of all the inhabitants was completed in just a few years but, given the scarcity of suitable materials for making the new cybernetic bodies, the transfer went ahead far too slowly. So, it was decided to organise the conservation of the "essences" in special dedicated egg-shaped casings, so as to be able to preserve them from destruction until their new exoskeletons had been made.

The first new beings created, now virtually immortal, therefore began a new saga of exploration of the cosmos searching, this time, for planets that could provide them with the necessary raw materials for the completion of the project. Ten were identified, even at distances of several hundred light years from their home planet, on which actual real laboratories were built where the resources of the planets were extracted and used on-site for the creation of new bodies. The presence of helium-3 which, through a complex system of nuclear fusion, would guarantee each individual new Kerian’s structure a virtually inexhaustible source of energy, was paramount. To reach all those so very distant planets, veritable interstellar portals were created through which the containers with the souls of the inhabitants and the necessary equipment were transferred to the assembly workshops. The creation of each individual body, the implanting of its soul and its complete activation required a very long procedure each time but, for them, time was no longer a problem.

"We’ve received a strange message from plant /\” announced the Kerian in charge of transmissions.

“What’s the message?” replied his commanding officer, who answered to the name of Supervisor RTY and whose body shape greatly resembled a kind of very long-legged arachnid with a massive body.

“Strangely it was interrupted before completion. This is what reached us,” and he transmitted the communication fragment in sub-light.

Laboratory attacked. We’re sending back ...

“We’re sending what? Attacked by who?"

“There wasn’t anything else. Since then communications with /\ have been interrupted."

“Let’s try to re-establish them as soon as possible and find out what’s happened” ordered RTY. "There are more than ten million souls in that laboratory waiting to be transferred.”

"I’m well aware of that," said the transmissions officer. "But, for the moment, the only thing I’m receiving is the signal from container (|) which is going through the intercommunication tunnel.”

"Perhaps that's what they’re sending back to us.”

“We’ll soon find out. It’ll be here in three hundred and twenty cens."

Tell-el-Mukayyar – The pyramids’ energy

“There they are, they’re coming,” said Petri indicating the three shuttles that were rapidly approaching the excavation site.

"Standard positioning,” Azakis ordered the pilots of the vehicles through his hand-held communicator.

The two aliens, together with Jack and Elisa, remained silent as they observed the shuttles as they completed the fast and precise landing manoeuvres.

"We should activate a dome-shaped forcefield to create an atmosphere more suited to our respiratory systems,” suggested Petri.

"I agree," replied Azakis. "I’m already fed up of wearing these damned things," and he pointed to the two little breathing tubes inserted in his nostrils.

"There’s too much oxygen here, for us. Perhaps it would have been better to organise our emergency base high up in the mountains."

"No. At least not for the time being. The forcefield will be more than sufficient until we get ourselves organised a little better."

"Ok, you're the boss," said Petri, emphasising the phrase with a kind of military salute like he had seen the terrestrial soldiers do.

“Shuttle two. Activate the containment dome,” said Azakis into his communicator.

Starting from the top of the central shuttle and betrayed only by a slight vibration in the air, a sort of almost invisible veil spread rapidly with a radius of about a hundred metres, forming a hemisphere-shaped hood which extended from the apex of shuttle two’s virtual pyramid straight down to sink into the desert’s sandy soil.

"That looks like a good job to me," said Petri satisfied.

"Why have they positioned themselves like that?" asked Elisa intrigued.

"Like what?" replied Azakis. “What do you mean?”

“The shuttles. The pyramids they’ve formed are almost in a straight line and positioned with one side facing south. The two most external ones are apparently aligned while the central one looks slightly more off-axis."

"You have an excellent spirit of observation" commented Azakis.