Tides of the Continuum 1: Making History (4 page)

“That's proof enough, Lincoln. Now put him back together, you're embarrassing him.” Aurora was convinced, but then who wouldn't be after a bizarre demonstration like that?

“They're modular, just in case.” Lincoln put TK's head back on and he walked away saying something about power converters.

“Just in case of what?” Aurora's curiosity piqued.

“Just in case we need them to be modular.” Lincoln definitely wasn't the type to give out extra information. “This isn't the end of my proof. Do you remember that field trip I mentioned? Would you like to find out where it’s headed?”

“You mean we’re going somewhere else?”

“If you are still interested, but it will take longer than thirty minutes. You won’t be returning tonight. Is that okay?”

“Is water wet? If everything you say is true, you can't keep me out of this.” Aurora leapt up the ladder steps to the hatch. Lincoln pulled a small object from his pocket and raised it toward the craft. It beeped and the hatch opened with a hiss of expelled air and the whine of electric motors.
They both climbed inside, followed by TK.

“He's coming, too?”
Aurora felt unsure of what to expect. “Shouldn't he stay and keep the place running?”

Lincoln had strapped himself into a comfortable looking chair and pointed to an open seat next to him. Aurora snuck several quick looks of how he arranged his straps. She did the same with her own seat-restraint.

“Keep what running? We aren’t leaving anything in that little house, and we aren’t coming back to this barn. I can't leave any traces; remember we are a secret organization. Besides, do you know what would happen to TK if he were found? Let's just say it wouldn't be a pretty sight.”

“So where are we going?” Aurora inspected the controls in front of her for clues.

“You'll see.” As Lincoln pressed a few more buttons. Sounds erupted: some whirring, some buzzing, and some humming, all new to Aurora's ears. Before Aurora could brace herself, the small craft lurched forward and forced them both back into their seats. It smashed through the other barn door, which Lincoln hadn’t opened. They were already a mile away, when the old barn creaked and sagged. Another mile later, and the whole structure collapsed in on itself, kicking up a large cloud of dust and debris.

It wasn't too long before Lincoln slowly pulled back on his control yoke. The ship's nose pointed higher into the sky and Aurora guessed where they were headed. “We're going to the North Pole, aren't we? That's the perfect place to put a secret base. No one lives there.”

“We thought about it, but there was a high chance for discovery. Do you know how many expeditions go there every year? No, we're going somewhere a little more secluded than the North Pole.”

“Do you mean the South Pole? I've always wanted to see a penguin!” She grinned as she tested to see if he'd divulge their destination.

“Nope, not the South Pole. And before you ask, we're not going to the East or West Poles, either!”

Aurora squirmed at his cavalier attitude. Growing more impatient and excited by this new experience and the possibilities it offered, she asked, “Would you mind letting me in on the big secret of where this thrill ride will land?”

“I'd tell you where we were going to land, but we're not going to land. We will be docking in roughly 18 hours. Then you'll see the final evidence that EPF is real.” Lincoln paused for a moment, and then added, “I guess I fudged about the long ride there, but I was upfront about the absence of the bus.”

As they passed through some clouds, the ship shook slightly. Lincoln muttered something about turbulence and touched an area of the windshield. To Aurora's surprise, it displayed a set of colored spots. He tapped a few of them and a new set of colored spots replaced the previous set, however the pattern was different. He finished with these spots and they disappeared with a soft swishing sound. At the same time, Aurora felt a rather odd sensation, like a rush of wind that didn't really touch her, but she still sensed it. She couldn't help but gasp when it happened.

“You just felt the static buildup being discharged from the hull. It’s a side affect of the system I just enabled. The hull now absorbs radar; no radar reflection means no annoying chase by the military. I bet they'd love to get their hands on this sweet little ride.” Lincoln sounded like the boys in the auto mechanics lab talking about their muscle cars.

Their little star pod felt quick and agile. They cleared the upper atmosphere within minutes, nearly obliterating a weather satellite along the way. But Lincoln piloted deftly around its edge. Before long he tapped a few colored spots on his instrument panel, then let go of the yoke and unbuckled himself. He stood up and stretched. Aurora caught him. “Aha! I'm not that dumb! I know there isn't any gravity in space. This was just some kind of simulator! Nice field
trip.”

“You would prefer to travel like this?” Lincoln reached out and tapped a few buttons on his panel and grabbed his chair. A few beeps sounded and Aurora’s stomach flipped as if she was falling from a great height. She grabbed her chair waiting for the impact, which, to her surprise, didn't come.

She opened the eyes she hadn't remembered closing and looked around. Lincoln, floating upside down in front of her, smiled. He held a small clear bag in his outstretched hand. Aurora soon discovered its purpose when the burger, fries, and shake she had eaten at The Den came back up to visit her. After wiping her mouth, she announced, “All right, I'm convinced. Turn the gravity back on. Please.”

“This isn't a necessary part of space travel, but it does make it easier for everyone without astronaut training. One of many gifts we received from some visiting friends of ours.” Lincoln tapped some buttons on his console and the gravity slowly came back. The rest of their trip was uneventful for the most part. But it did feature a very interesting history lesson. Lincoln answered a few questions she’d asked, and a few others she hadn’t.

-MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM 'BISHOP'

-FILTERING...

-DECRYPTING...

-TRANSLATING...

-DISPLAYING MESSAGE CONTENT:

Now that you found her

are you ready for the

next phase? And what

of your item? When can

it be ready?

-COMPOSING REPLY FROM 'ROOK':

The BIRD will be ready soon.

6

Lincoln sat back in his pilot's chair and turned it to face Aurora. He began, “Have you ever thought about all those stars out there?”

“Of course, I have, but it always makes me feel so lonely and small. All those stars and all that space and well, then there I was, alone.”

“Yes, many people think that we humans are the only ones. Think of it, a hundred million stars and planets and only one of them is inhabited. The odds of that being true are so close to impossible that, as far as I'm concerned, it’s just that.”

“Are you saying that your group has made contact with an alien species?” Aurora was awestruck.

“To them, we're the aliens, and some pretty primitive creatures, at that. About one hundred fifteen years ago, they came to Earth. They had one intention and that was to help us, and many others, to ‘break the bonds of ignorance and take our place among the stars’ as they put it. They were giving us an opportunity of a lifetime.” Lincoln was sitting on the edge of his seat now with his eyes shining.

“Did they give you this ship also?” Aurora studied the design. There weren't any alien decals or odd fixtures. “Did they make it for you? It doesn’t look a hundred years old.”

“TK’s buddies made this ship, about four years ago out near the asteroid field. The facility is crude, not fit for humans, but it has everything the androids need to build ships. They don't eat, sleep, or breathe. They don't need heaters or sun block
, and they are perfectionists. We never have to worry about shoddy work.”

Aurora calculated her next question. “How many androids does your group have?”

“At last count, there were five hundred million, give or take a thousand.” Lincoln had said it so matter-of-factly that it took a second to process.

“Five
hundred million! Why did they give Earth that many?” Aurora strained to comprehend that great number, more than the population of the United States.

“No, they didn't give us that many. They only gave us one, but the one had within its memory, the complete schematic to reproduce itself. For the first year, the android assembled the resources necessary to build a satisfactory production area. On its home base, an island near French Polynesia, it constructed more androids, finishing one a week. It copied its memory core into the new unit, and they both began work on two more. With this exponential growth, you can see how, before long, the original group had a sizable number of androids to work with.”

Lincoln continued, “After there were a sufficient number, they shifted their focus from building more androids to building spacecraft. They kept a few teams in the area of reproduction, and spaced the rest.”

“Spaced the rest? Was that a high tech storage space in the stars or did they have a mission in space? Like to build larger items in a place that would not draw attention. I mean I get that so much building could be hard to hide from the rest of the world.” Aurora asserted.

Lincoln smiled. “Aurora, you are going to fit right in with the EPF.”

“What do you mean?”

“You understand the logistics of building a space fleet and you’ve never really seen one before.”

Aurora flushed at his praise.

Lincoln continued the history lesson. “In the 1930’s, war threatened the androids’ island operation. If the Japanese army, through its island hopping, found the facility, the war could have turned out differently. The androids fled the island leaving no trace of their activities and set up shop on the dark side of the moon.”

“Like the Pink Floyd album?” Aurora grinned.

“Yeah, something like that.”

Aurora continued, “What about the first man on the moon? Didn’t anyone notice thousands of alien designed robots?

“When the United States formed NASA in the fifties, it also threatened the secrecy of Earth Protection Force. We placed spies in the organization, to warn us of developments. It was good we did, because on December 24-25, 1968, Apollo 8 orbited the moon ten times, a mere week after we evacuated the equipment and scrubbed the site. Through the same spy network, we know that soon, NASA will be sending manned missions to Mars and beyond. We've already started the process of moving again, from the asteroid belt, all the way out to the biplanetary system of Pluto and Charon. It will be a longer trip back to Earth, but we will also be undisturbed for a very long time.” Lincoln sighed after such an uncharacteristically long monologue.

"Wow!" She closed her eyes and stood up. This was all happening so fast. One hour before, Aurora had no inkling of any of this, and she wasn't positive that she was ready for such a huge paradigm shift. “Are all of your orientations so intense?”

Lincoln sighed and rolled his eyes as he leaned back. “Actually, this is the first orientation I have conducted in a long time. All of my earlier candidates were almost to this point, but they each stopped returning my phone calls.”

“I’m not sure if I should envy or pity them.” Aurora paused for a beat. “Are these aliens still around? Can I meet them?”

Lincoln lowered his shoulders into a slouch; this was always the disappointing part. “Well, the truth is we have seen neither hide nor hair of them since about 40 years ago. After we left the moon, we lost communication with them altogether. It's as if they're leaving us to our own devices now. I don't get it; they've already changed our course of development. I don't think they could do any more damage.”

Aurora rubbed her temples and sighed. “Do you expect me to sleep in that chair, or is the floor more comfortable than it looks?”

Lincoln forgot about the time. By Liberty Falls' reckoning, it was already past midnight. “I don't expect you to sleep in that chair; we have accommodations near the back of the ship.”

“From what I remember of the outside of this thing, there can't be a lot of room for comfort.” Aurora's eyes were starting to burn. She rubbed them lightly as Lincoln stood up to direct her to her bed.

She followed him to the rear of the ship. Lincoln placed his hand on a glass panel and slightly pushed. A quiet hiss sounded as the door slid open, revealing a darkened rear compartment with some compactly stacked bunks along the wall. “We don't usually use this ship for long trips, and we usually don't mind sleeping in the cockpit. Keep in mind: we're only going to be in here another couple of hours. I'll wake you up when we get to our destination.”

Aurora ducked through the small opening into the dimly lit alcove. She pushed down slightly on a bed; she didn't find it comfortable. “This thing must have been designed for men. Wake me up before we get there. I want to be ready.”

Lincoln made a sign, something like a salute, and in a husky voice, grumbled, “Aye aye, captain.” Lincoln reached in, showed her how to open the door from the inside, and then closed it, leaving Aurora to consider all that he had told her. She felt awestruck with the future possibilities; so much had happened in so little time that it felt like a dream. But it was definitely real. She remembered all too well what happened when Lincoln turned off the gravity. Her stomach was still a little unsettled.

Sleep wasn't too likely in her mental state, but physically she felt exhausted
, and she wanted to be ready for what greeted her next. As she sat on her bed, she noticed a figure opposite her, standing next to the wall. She jumped slightly, but recognized TK. He seemed to be in sleep mode. She noticed his form didn’t move as he stood.

On the other hand, Lincoln sat back in his pilot's chair and tapped some functions on his console. Part of it cleared to display a screen with a man's face on it. “Docking control, this is Colonel Smyth, I've cleared Earth's moon, and estimate arrival in 12 hours and 28 minutes. Please ready a female's quarters, seven changes of clothes, a computer access station, and a greeting from as many of the senior staff as are available.”

The man's face remained unchanged as he replied, “Yes, Sir. Anything else?”

“No, that's all. I'll see you when I get there.” Lincoln tapped a yellow spot on his console and the screen disappeared
, replaced by other functions. He tapped a few more and classical music played softly. The cabin lights dimmed, and he closed his eyes. He liked to go to sleep to Mozart. Lincoln dreaded sleeping in this position, but wasn't about to sleep on the floor, and Aurora needed her privacy. In the back of his mind, Lincoln held to the thought that the next time he fell asleep, it would be in his own bed. It was this thought which carried him into the dream world.

Aurora waited in bed for half an hour
for sleep to overtake her. Her eyes felt tired, but her mind couldn't calm down enough to go to sleep. Instinctively she pulled her bag to the bedside. Whenever she couldn't sleep at home, she started studying, and that usually did the trick. She pulled out her math book and looked at the axe equation. She knew she had somewhere around 10 hours or more before they docked. She thought doing homework would be a good use of time; at any rate, it might help her to get to sleep soon.

Three hours later, she had simplified the large equation Dr. Graf had given her and was starting to get drowsy. She lay back on her bed and closed her eyes. Soon enough, her imagination showed her visions of the events in history, as she thought it might have looked. The large android factory on the island, their facility
on the moon, the aliens' faces; all these and more surrounded her until she was lost in the shadows of her imagination.

A screeching alarm ripped through Lincoln's consciousness and his eyes shot open. The chirping was coming from the timer he had set eight hours before. He sat up and tapped the reset. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and oriented himself to his situation. The ship still had four hours left before they were to dock with the EPF Legion, and Lincoln had to prepare Aurora for the encounter. He raised the lights in the cabin and picked a meal packet from their supplies canister. He read the label: “Menu #2 Corned beef hash, accessory packet B." He commented under his breath, "Yum, Yum. I think I'd rather wait until we get there than eat this swill. I hate corned beef hash.” Lincoln wasn't speaking to anyone in particular.

Soon, the door to Aurora's compartment opened
, and she stepped into the cockpit. She walked to one of the windows and looked at her reflection. She gave a sort of grunt and started applying hairspray in small amounts to the hairs that had escaped her braid in the night. “This thing needs a shower installed. I feel horrible. What was that bed made of, cement?”

“I agree. However this class of ship wasn't intended to be used for more than a few days, otherwise it would have been designed differently.” Lincoln shouldn't have had to defend the look of the craft. It was a drop ship, not an RV. Comfort ranked pretty low on the list of requirements when these ships were built. “Before we dock, I have to help you comprehend what you're about to see. What's the biggest spaceship you ever saw in the movies?”

Aurora sat in her chair and furrowed her brow. After a second she replied, “Well, in the movie
Star Battle
, the main ship, The Unicorn, was like two-thousand meters long. That's a little over a mile. I think that's the biggest.”

“Well, let's think bigger. How big do you think a ship would have to be to comfortably house ten-thousand crew and one-hundred thousand androids like TK?”

Aurora's eyes widened. The Unicorn only had a crew of 400, and it was over a mile long. Thinking proportionately, to house one hundred ten thousand men, assuming the rest of the androids were humanoid like TK, the ship would need to be at least a thousand times the volume of The Unicorn. She assumed that the androids wouldn't need bathrooms or bedrooms, so they wouldn't need as much space as would men. “It seems to me it would have to be about a thousand times bigger than The Unicorn!”

Lincoln leaned in a little closer. “The ship we're joining is called the EPF Legion. In length, it measures roughly 1000 miles, width 800 miles, in height almost 400 flat, and contains 4270 decks."

"Did you say miles?" interrupted Aurora.

"A lot of the volume of the Legion isn't livable space because it's fu
ll of machinery to support life and produce propulsion. There are also several hanger bays, which, because of their size, aren't pressurized. Nonetheless, it's a big ship."

"What about cosmic dust? Asteroids? Caustic gas clouds? How do you protect something of that size?"

Lincoln responded, "The outer hull of the Legion is 100 feet thick for protection against impacts. Abrasion from cosmic dust is eliminated by charging the hull to repel the dust."

Aurora, ever the eager learner, continued to ask questions. "How fast can a ship of that size travel?"

"It has a maximum speed of around seven hundred million miles per hour, just over light speed, with its slow engines. In hyper-cruise, it's been clocked at two thousand times that. When you see it, keep in mind that it was designed for one primary purpose: to maintain peace at all costs.”

“How long did it take to build it?”

“Five-hundred million artificial laborers, working around the clock, completed the Legion in five years' time. They had to make it from scratch. They used asteroids for ore and vast quantities of various gases they harvested from some of the outer planets. The Legion has been in service for almost seven years.”