City-Ship Ascension

Michael’s Office

It was late at night, but Michael was still in his office, reading the last draft of the speech he would give to the UN General Assembly tomorrow morning. He was about to call it a night when a dim shimmering in the air alerted him that Max was materializing his hologram, a behavior he stopped doing lately in his efforts to act more like a normal human being.

“I have a couple of things to talk to you about… privately,” the AI abruptly said, standing in front of his desk.

Michael looked around his empty office. “We are all alone Max, don’t be so dramatic.”

“Well, the occasion demands it,” the AI said with a smirk. “Seriously, these are some dangerous topics, so I took the liberty to lock your doors and place sound suppressor fields around it.”

Michael lifted both of his eyebrows, realizing that the AI was quite serious. “All right, I’m all ears,” he said and focused on the hologram.

“I was looking through some obscure files in the ‘Knowledge Vault’ for any new tech that could help us, and found a hidden file, just an hour ago. Within it were comprehensive data on two technologies that can give us an upper hand in the conflict against demons, but those technologies can endanger our entire species if we ever lose control over them. That is why I didn’t mention this discovery to anyone… not even Ision and Ares. I need your input on how we are going to proceed with them,” Max said, and started pacing in front of Michael’s desk.

“The first item is the complete process for antimatter production,” Max declared and complicated schematics started appearing on the holo-screen.

Michael did a double-take, imagining a few scenes from his favorite sci-fi movies. “Antimatter! Max, that is great—”

“Hold your horses’ chief,” the AI interrupted his instant elation. “Playing with antimatter is insanely dangerous. It makes nukes seem sensible and mild in comparison; no more hazardous than a bunch of firecrackers. Ancient angels did extensive research on the subject and then decided to completely abolish its production and use, on account of its inherited instability. That is why they have gone with cold fusion reactors for energy production, even if it was far less efficient. Antimatter requires absolute separation from any sort of matter, or else it goes boom—in a very spectacular way. Therefore, the only way to store it is to place it in an uncontaminated magnetic field; common dust particles coming into contact with it could be disastrous. If that confinement is lost for even a nanosecond, you do not want to be anywhere close to that place. While a few of Earth’s scientists have researched the subject and made some sound hypotheses, no human can truly comprehend how destructive this thing can be,” the AI said, shaking his head.

“All right Max, I understand it’s beyond dangerous, but if it could be weaponized… that could be a deciding factor in future battles,” Michael said, feeling his hope rising about being on equal footing with the Demons.

Max acceptingly nodded his head. “Theoretically… it could. For all that, we will need to do extensive research on our own, and test every single aspect of production and utilization. As well as building the production facility far away from Earth, in the asteroid belt or beyond, with no humans involved. There is absolutely no way to shield anyone from a potential blast if anything volatile happens.”

“That seems sensible,” Michael said, imagining missiles with antimatter warheads, striking the demon ships.

“OK, I will give orders to the MIs in the belt to start assembling the production facility. That’s settled, there is one additional thing…”

Michael looked at the AI, and for the first time saw a worried frown on Max’s face.

“What is it?”

“Let me show you,” Max said and an image of an unfamiliar planet appeared as a hologram on the top of his desk.

“This is a planet in the Hemina solar system, fifty years before their nuclear war and more than a thousand years before the demons arrived. They were using a small moon in its orbit as a testing ground for an experiment based on a very convoluted theory, even for their level of advancement.” Max explained and the image zoomed to a small moon, close to the planet. “The planet itself was very similar to Venus with its pale-yellow color, but its moon was about one-third of ours. This was the time when they were still researching alternative ways for interstellar travel. The working theory behind this experiment was that they could establish a bridge to distant stars by creating artificial wormholes. It was a sound theory on paper, yet, in its execution, it left much to be desired.”

The image zoomed even closer to show a facility on the surface of a small moon, and then it focused on a massive metal ring standing upright a few miles away from the building.

“Are you telling me that they were trying to create… a Stargate?” Michael asked, remembering one of his favorite TV shows.

The AI rolled his eyes. “Not really, but for the sake of an easier explanation, you can call it that. Now, the ancient angels planned for that ring to be the edge of the wormhole terminus; as it happens, their theory was flawed. The experiment will begin in a few seconds; this is the footage the cameras managed to transmit before they were destroyed.”

Michael could see that the entire ring glowed with bright light. Electric arcs were jumping from one spot to another. In the next few seconds, the space in the middle started to waver, similar to watching air above a hot plate. Then it started rotating by itself. Slowly at first, but faster with each succeeding second, until he could see that the exact middle of the newly created whirlpool had turned black. That blackness spread exponentially, up to the moment it touched the edges of the metal ring, and then the image was lost.

“What happened?” He asked, looking at Max.

“Something they didn’t plan on, or even theorized as possible. Here, this is the recording from a spacecraft that was a long way from the Moon.”

The next image that appeared on a holo-screen was of that same moon, taken from a far greater distance. The planet behind it was like a never-ending yellow wall. There was a flash of light that began from the place where the facility was located, but then it disappeared, only to be replaced by a black vortex that quickly grew in size. It was a swirling whirlpool of nothingness that sucked everything in. Massive chunks of ground were breaking and flying toward the center of the anomaly.

The phenomenon lasted for a few more seconds, before it suddenly stopped, like the last few cups of water going down the drain. Leaving in its place an image of utter devastation; with it, most of the Moon was gone as well. As if some invisible cosmic beast had taken an enormous bite out of that celestial object and disappeared into oblivion. There were no big explosions or fire, as one would expect with the destruction of such magnitude. The entire event looked like an implosion, apart from the fact that the enormous amount of matter the Moon was made of had inexplicably disappeared into nothingness.

“Sweet mother of God… what the hell was that?” Michael asked as he watched the few remaining pieces of the Moon break into smaller fragments and then fall to the planet's surface, blazing fiery trails after entering its thick atmosphere.

“That’s the thing… I don’t know,” Max said. “My first theory was that they had somehow created a black hole, but the data doesn’t support it. Right now, I think they had somehow managed to open a rip in reality that led to another universe or dimension, something similar to what starships go through during the translation jump. Except that the one they tapped into had radically different conditions than our own, different laws of physics. At the moment when the magnetic fields that held that antimatter failed, there should have been an explosion; as you saw—something weird happened. We have no foundation in our science to explain it, and angels didn’t know either. They abandoned all research into it as there were more than one thousand scientists on that moon, and you saw how they ended up. All information about this research was sealed almost 14,000 years ago, and the only copy that wasn’t destroyed was placed inside the ‘Knowledge Vault’. The encryption on that particular file was beyond paranoid, they did not want their descendants to play with such forces. I checked the records and I am the first to look at them since it was sealed.”

Michael swallowed a lump in his throat. “Do you have the designs for it?” He asked quietly.

“Yes, the main ingredient is antimatter which is suspended within that metal ring. Just the same, this thing scares me even more than playing with antimatter, especially as I don’t have any idea what we are dealing with. Angels thought they were playing it safe by conducting that experiment on the Moon orbiting a planet that was a long way from Gaina; as you saw, it was anything but.”

“You know what I am thinking, right?” Michael asked while his gaze was still locked on the frozen image of a destroyed Moon.

“Yes, I know, but I’m not sure I like it. This can be a game-changer, especially if we find ourselves with our backs against the wall. But no matter how you look at it, this is something with the potential to obliterate entire planets. So… do we want to open this can of worms?” Those last words were spoken so quietly, Michael could barely hear them.

He didn’t respond for the next few minutes, thinking of all implications his choice would have on the future. This was a proverbial Pandora’s Box, filled with unimaginable horrors, but it also held one of the most precious things in the universe—hope.

“What choice do we have? I don’t see us signing a peace treaty with the demons anytime soon, and they are so ahead of us, any sane tactician will have a desire to crawl under the bed and hide. You saw the size of those ships in the Hemina system, and that was ages ago. God knows how much more they have by now, or in other star systems. Our temporary anonymity is the only real edge we currently have. For that reason, keep this between us, but conduct a few experiments in the asteroid belt. I pray we never have to use something like this, but prayers alone will not make us survive what is to come.”

The AI nodded and his hologram disappeared from Michael’s office.

He sat in his chair for hours, replaying that moon’s annihilation on his CEI, and imagining what destruction of that magnitude would do to a populated planet. He began this entire journey as a way to escape all the bad things that were happening on Earth. He wanted to give humanity a backup option in case conflicts between people went too far, and destroyed the ecosystem. Inadvertently, his decision made it possible for an antagonistic alien race to rediscover Earth, after thousands of years.

He truly never wanted to ever be placed in a position where he had to give an order for the use of such a devastating weapon. Nonetheless, deep inside himself, he knew that if such action became necessary to protect the people he was responsible for—he would.

***

City-Ship Ascension

Michael and Elizabeth’s Apartment

Michael couldn’t fall asleep, no matter how much he tried. After lying in bed for hours, staring at the ceiling, he got up. Careful not to wake Elizabeth, he went to the apartment’s balcony. Messing around with his CEI to put himself under was not something he liked. A few times he tried, it didn’t agree with him the next day, something just felt off. A similar feeling when one works late and then oversleeps the next day.

In little less than ten hours, he needed to be in New York, to give his speech. It was far more reasonable to face those people well-rested, but the image of that moon disintegrating was better than any cup of coffee to keep him awake. It may look a little irresponsible that he was sitting on the balcony in the middle of the City-ship’s night and drinking cold beer. On the other hand, medical nanites would clear any traces of alcohol from his system, well before it could produce any intoxicating effects. At best, he could achieve a mild buzz.

Tomorrow he was going to thoroughly ruin some people’s day, and those were movers and shakers of the Earth’s geopolitical scene. He would inform the world leaders of the new reality in which they have all found themselves. The entire history of the conflict and all the proofs needed to corroborate his story. They were not alone in the universe, and the black beyond was not a nice place. The plan was to give them one Demon’s corpse from the scout ship, and additionally, he managed to convince Pope John to testify about the things he knew and to bring a few pieces from the Vatican’s collection of ancient remains for the presentation.

One inescapable fact was that he would have to tell them the entire story of how the Solarian Union managed to get their hands on ancient angel technology. And he knew that few of those people would immediately start asserting that they had some right to it as well. That scenario was not going to happen as long as he was alive. With it in their hands, the Earth wouldn’t need aliens to come to a sorry end.

Besides, Ision and the children in the stasis module had the biggest claim on the entire tech base since they were the direct inheritors of Atlantis. He was not yet ready to give information about the children to anyone. God knows what some crazies on Earth would do, to be in possession of real live angels.

The situation on Earth has begun stabilizing from the horrific events of the biological attack, and people were anxiously waiting for all the changes that would come with the introduction of new technologies the Antarctica deal promised to make available to them. No matter the new situation, he had every intention to stay true to that deal, future alien attacks or not.

His original plans called for more time, a lot more. That was the reason they concentrated more on building infrastructure, not weapons of destruction. Their long-term schedule of gradual space colonization was shot to pieces. In hindsight, and considering this new development, they took the wrong path in their pursuit of advanced technologies. Who would have guessed that the Demons would find them? If the scout ship was any indicator, they will not be able to hide their existence past the six-month deadline, and that did not bode well for the future of humanity.

He remembered all the happy faces by the lake today, and felt the overpowering weight of responsibility for their lives and futures, pressing down on his shoulders. They have been incredibly lucky so far, not losing that many people, despite some tricky situations they’d involved themselves in. What was coming will take lives, many of them, and there was no escaping that certainty. All projections of the size and numbers of the enemy force that would come to the Solar System were inconclusive, they went from three to twenty ships, and they didn’t know their fighting capabilities. Judging by the resilience of the scout ship, the bigger ships would be a tough nut to crack.

“Michael…” Elizabeth said behind him.

“Hi, sorry if I woke you,” he replied, turning around and looking at this vision of beauty that had for some reason decided to share his crazy life.

“No, I couldn’t sleep either... bad dreams,” she said and leaned on him.

They stood there for minutes, not saying a word; enjoying each other's presence.

“Let’s go to bed, there are better things to do than looking in the distance and trying to solve all the world’s problems,” Elizabeth said and gave him one of those looks that immediately increased his heartbeat.

He could not help but plaster the ‘cat that ate the canary’ smile on his face while he followed her inside.

Yet, even as he smiled following her enticing form, one part of him remained grim and unwavering. If Tyron or other members of his team looked at that moment in his eyes, they would have recognized the particular intensity that was hidden behind his smiling facade.

He was set on a path that no force in the universe could deter him from. There was a solid core of purpose within him, which pushed him to do anything he could to protect this dream they created, from those who dared to endanger it. It didn’t matter if they were terrorists, demons, or the gods themselves; the reasons and their motives were not that important. As far as he was concerned, he had declared a total war on all his enemies. To safeguard his home, and people dear to him, he would go to any length needed so that the enemy is completely destroyed in time.

He was a human being, a product of millions of years of fierce evolutionary struggle—the unending battles for survival. Even if it was not politically correct in today’s way of thinking, Michael knew that when the decisive time comes—he will show no mercy.