Prisoners of Sol 21

Anecdotal evidence piled up within hours of miniscule levels of foresight, once the stigma began to erode over what was obvious crazy talk hours earlier. The fact that a vast majority of the crew by the Space Gate were having strange dreams bore investigating. The gathered military officials in the room looked skeptical, as Sofia hurried in to explain her theory. I hoped the scientist had an excellent explanation, since the brass were all too eager to skip to plotting our next move on Jorlen, with orbital defenses down. 

Mikri sat next to me; the Vascar had been unusually quiet after meeting Capal, and had hurried off to conference with Sofia. I wondered what his network thought about organics with the potential to see the future. While some other androids had arrived and interacted with our staff, I knew that most found us to be a nuisance. I’d heard the way the other tin cans had reacted to me, aloud, during the drop pod sequence. Their deep-rooted mistrust for fleshy lifeforms hadn’t cleared either, despite working together.

We need to bring more humans through The Gap to interact with the Vascar, but we can’t do that if it’s…driving people insane. I remember getting a weird feeling before the prince tricked us. I don’t understand how this divination is even possible though! Why would weird time shit cause other species to go nuts, but not us?

“I saw the future, Mikri. You joined a boyband,” I whispered to the android, arching my eyebrows.

Mikri’s glowing eyes turned toward me. “What you saw was wishful thinking, not the future. I am worried by the prospect of humans losing their grip on reality due to this. It is too easy for that to happen. We must conduct research during your sleep.”

“Sure. Then you’ll see your inevitable future with your own eyes. You in skinny jeans and—”

“I do not understand many of these words you are saying, but I feel that I am being mocked. You get a devious glint in your pupils which is perceptible, despite not being spelled out on the facial emotions chart.”

“I’m not mocking you. I’m the devil on your shoulder, feeding you ideas that would be spicy! It keeps life amusing.”

“Your nonsensical antics and illogical whims are enough amusement.” The Vascar lowered his head. “Is it true that I have no meaningful forms of expression, Preston? That I do not know how to care for anyone or anything?”

My eyebrows shot up. “Who the fuck told you that?”

“Capal. The creator prisoner.”

“That Asscar doesn’t know you. I know he touched a nerve with your insecurities, but you’re doing better than plenty of humans. The painting, the drawing on your armor, your idea to make muffins because you learned and empathized—you express yourself plenty. Those pricks don’t get to decide what’s meaningful.”

Mikri emitted a sad whir. “I only do what humans have taught me, whether I have witnessed it or sought out the information. I am incapable of creating expressionism on my own. I do feel hurt because you are suffering, but this is not how to care for someone. I can only guess at things that would help.”

“I’m going to let you in on a little secret. No one truly knows what’s going on in someone else’s head or how to fix it. It’s a big fucking mystery. You just have to do your best. Maybe you try and fail, but it’s the trying that helps.”

“I am trying, but my instinct is to find a concrete solution for problems.”

“Life is messier than that. You’ll have to hold us organics together with duct tape and call it good enough, Mikri.”

“I do not understand.”

“Sure you do! And on ‘meaningful forms of expression’—try to make up some bullshit and see what’s meaningful to you. It doesn’t have to be original; every human alive learned of our arts passed down from ten thousand fucking years ago. Just make it better, make it yours. Create goofy computer models, write songs about the quadratic equation, speak in rhyme to the network to see if they catch on.”

“If I speak in matching airs, they would summon me for repairs.”

I grinned at the robot. “Exactly! And you will not let them fix you.”

“Mikri doesn’t need fixing, as long as muffins need mixing. I have been banished from the kitchen, but Sofia said not to listen to your bitching.”

I glowered at the apprehensive scientist, who gave me an oblivious stare. “Hey! Enough rhymes…though you are dropping some bars. When did she use those words?”

“She did not. I extrapolated this meaning when she ripped up your sign.”

“Fair enough. Eh, we probably should shut up now, so we can hear her explanation.”

“I already am familiar with her conclusions, but I will indeed not disturb her out of respect.”

There was already a great stir over the fantastical insight that humans had, in this dimension. I knew this news would only be heaping gasoline on the fire, especially if we could attain scientific verification of the claims. I saluted as General Takahashi entered the room, knowing she was in charge of this installation; chain of command still meant something to me, despite my Space Force enlistment remaining in a psychologist’s hands. Now that everyone was having wild dreams, it might help my chances.

Sofia had powered up a projector, her light brown skin creasing with worry. I remembered when the ESU paraded us in front of the press, and how we’d bounce off of each other to make it through interviews. Many had deemed it a suicide mission, asking stark questions about what we thought of our chances. My laughter and bravado, I thought, had firmed our resolve. I couldn’t help my intellectual colleague through this public spectacle; I wasn’t able to grapple with theoretical concepts about portals, or make meaningful conclusions about the data from the probes we sent through.

We thought we knew what we were signing up for, when we went through The Gap. Now that we’re aware that the gray aliens actually exist, physics do their own thing here, and we have fucking visions like a Greek oracle…I’m not sure we did. Somehow, the unknown was so much simpler.

“Thanks to all of you for coming together on such short notice. As I’m sure you’re aware, we’ve had some strange reports of precognitive flashes and feelings. On their own, this would be dismissed as nonsense or coincidence, but the fact that these traits have been observable since we crossed the portal suggests a correlation.” Sofia sucked in a sharp breath, and I shot her a thumbs-up. “What I’ve created is only a theory to explain what might be happening.”

General Takahashi offered an unamused scowl. “I have one. Psychosomatic symptoms caused due to the stories about other lifeforms going insane from portal transit. Isn’t it human nature to look for evidence of that in ourselves?”

“Of course, but predicting an android in an apron is compelling, especially when multiple witnesses heard that. If I may, I’ve been having odd dreams myself. I…I saw myself telling Mikri not to blame himself, like it was through a reflection pond, and this before the captured team ever left for Jorlen—before we knew of these side effects. I didn’t understand the context until much later. I chalked it up to a weird coincidence, but there’s only so many instances before a coincidence becomes a pattern.”

Mikri whirred in surprise, and spoke in a low voice to me. “I did not know that Sofia was experiencing these symptoms. She did not freak out from the actualization of her dream, in contrast to the human in Capal’s cell.”

“I didn’t know Sofia was a damn prophet either, but I’m sure she’s more curious than alarmed,” I muttered with worry. “I hope she’s alright.”

Sofia waited for the murmurs to die down, while she drew a straight line on a piece of paper. “I’m drawing this as a way to visualize what I’m about to say. Humans exist in three-dimensional perception. We can see this 2D object in its entirety, from beginning to end. Reality exists in four dimensions, and we experience time as it impacts our 3D world. Does that make sense?”

I held up my watch, pointing. “Yes. Tick tock.”

“Tick tock. Very good,” the scientist sighed with apparent sarcasm. “That takes me to the portal. To travel between pockets of four-dimensional spacetime, which we would call a universe…this would require fifth-dimensional interactions, as the Vascar have suggested. In simpler terms…”

Sofia drew a line on a second piece of paper, and held it elevated above the original. She used a pencil to connect the two, making it obvious even to a dumbass like me that she was demonstrating a bridge between both points. The bottom line was a representation of Sol, while the top paper was where we were now. We’d gone through the writing utensil, except it was in higher dimensions which were hard to display in digestible terms. 

“These lines are two separate planes of 2D space, which can only be connected through the third dimension. The Gap is the connector from 4D to 5D. And back to the line, if you were outside of 4D spacetime—in that 5D transitional space—you could see all of time at once. Beginning to end. Much like we’re viewing this line in its entirety from our vantage point.”

“Hold on. You’re saying that The Gap exists outside space and time as we know it,” General Takahashi reiterated. “The Elusians created these portals, so they have the ability to manipulate the fifth dimension. This is madness. It’s evident that humanity cannot contend with that.”

“Perhaps, or perhaps we could learn to create 5D bridges ourselves. Mikri told me the Vascar’s creators encountered an organic race, who hadn’t been stopped by the Elusians, that arrived from another dimension. That empire aren’t the only lifeforms capable of creating technology like this; they’re just the only ones capable of traversing it. Until us.”

“What about Mikri? Your Vascar friend visited Sol, no worse for wear.”

“I am not organic,” Mikri commented helpfully. “I did not note any visual stimuli in the portal. It was empty and devoid of input. My guess is that such spaces are not perceptible to my instruments, and even if they were, it would result in an error rather than a mental cascade. You have many systems that process time, and such data may overload organic synapses.”

“Then why does it not do this to us?”

“Humans are exceptionally resilient due to the harsh physics of your pocket dimension. Your reaction times are quick, suggesting that you have unique processing power and speed. However, this alone does not explain everything. That you can make any sense of…infinite data is beyond my reasoning.”

Sofia cleared her throat. “Ma’am, my thought is that the Elusians might know something about our capabilities. That might’ve explained the nature of their experiments and studies on Earth, if the legends are to be believed.”

“The aliens that we think locked us in our solar system, and who are said to prohibit interdimensional travel, might’ve known something about this? No shit, Sherlock,” the general spat.

“Except they didn’t stop us. There’s no reason to believe that they’re hostile, and if they were: these are godlike beings who’ve existed for millions, if not billions, of years. They’ll find out we escaped Sol eventually, so in my estimation, we’re better off coming forward and asking what’s going on.”

“Hmph. Thank you, Dr. Aguado. I will consider it, though I must first turn my attention to the next step of our campaign against the Vascar Monarchy. If anyone has any prescient knowledge, do share.”

Don’t get captured, I thought to myself.

Mikri fixed me with a stern look. “You will not go. I will stop you by any means necessary.”

“So much for my own free will,” I grumbled.

General Takahashi’s lips curved downward. “Larimak and his military assets took off after we shut down their orbital defense network, and left the civilians to fend for themselves. We believe they intend to go scorched earth on Jorlen…and perhaps they are looking for The Gate, as a way of getting at Sol. We must add extra layers of defense, beyond all reasonable doubt.”

Mikri doesn’t want me to go back out there, but it sounds like the party might be coming to us. If Larimak and his people get a single shot at Earth…maybe that’s why the Elusians obscured our location. To protect us, because our physics were so comparably slow.

“I think that we should reach out to the Derandi and the Girret,” Mikri spoke up, earning shocked looks from the other Vascar—and myself. “They left the Alliance and are believed to be more reasonable. It may be possible to reason with them, as they have shown a genuine desire to help others.”

The general fixed the robot with a piercing stare. “Where is this coming from? I thought your people distrusted all organics and considered them to be enemies, enemies that would never be on your side.”

“I am choosing to believe that friendship may be possible. You have attempted this with the creators to see how they responded. If you thought this worthwhile with Larimak the Insane, then perhaps it is equitable to give the other two governments, with less cruelty, the same chance.”

“The fact that there’s a rift between the Monarchy and their two allies suggests they might be open to talks. It seems the Derandi and the Girret even have rightful grievances with the Vascar. Humanity won’t be sending any unarmed diplomats to enemy terrain, however. I’ll see if we can arrange a meeting on neutral territory—and Mikri, I want your people to be there too.”

“I volunteer to personally help with your efforts, and to learn more about these mistreated organics myself.”

“What?” I recoiled from whiplash, hearing this come out of nowhere; my friend had spewed hatred for anyone allied with the Asscar. “Ma’am, if Mikri is going, I’d like to be his ESU escort. He’s a high-value ally that deserves military protection.”

“I’d like to accompany Mikri as well,” Sofia remarked, pride gleaming in her eyes. “While I’m no diplomat, I was part of our first contact, and I know the procedures down to the letter.”

Takahashi raised her hand. “I’m not assigning personnel to the mission until we have the details ironed out. There is a lot to think about. Please, unless you have Alpha-Level Clearance or higher, clear the room.”

I imagined the concept of clearance levels was baffling to Mikri, since the Vascar network shared every detail without regard for ranks. My head was spinning as we departed from the room, though my friend offered no commentary on his sudden change of heart. Maybe Sofia was right that meeting Capal was a good idea, if my favorite tin can was now willing to help foster a peace with other organic races. It was evident that was Mikri’s personal decision as well, rather than the will of his people. Whatever the Derandi and Girret were like, it’d be difficult to be worse than the Asscar.

With all of the uncertainty hanging over humanity’s future, I hoped that I could harness some of those precognitive abilities soon.

A/N - 21! Mikri questions whether he has any meaningful forms of expression after talking with Capal, rather than just what he absorbed through osmosis from humans, which Preston reassures him about. Sofia then spearheads a briefing about the precognitive dreams and impulses that have spread across the base’s population, suggesting that from within portals, the entirety of 4D spacetime can be viewed. She tries to indicate that the Elusians might know something about their abilities, and that we should go to these godlike beings in good faith. 

Do you think it’s a good idea to go straight to the Elusians? Is that the real reason that they involved themselves with Sol?

Then, of course, Mikri makes the poignant and shocking suggestion when discussing how to handle Larimak abandoning Jorlen and possibly plotting a strike on the Space Gate; our favorite android wants to reach out to the more reasonable Derandi and Girret, and to personally be involved. How do you imagine the other Alliance members, disgruntled by Larimak, will react to diplomatic endeavors? Are you surprised to see Mikri’s hope that friendship is possible?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting!