Chapter 009: Revelations

The so-called Wall of Faith is a scientific phenomenon, first discovered and described in 2129 by a group of scientists that attempted to explain the gradual deceleration of the scientific progress which began during the Days of Fire. By 2129 the process was obvious enough that it could no longer be explained by factors such as general drop in Homeworld’s population and access to education, and the Third World War’s era devastation. The world healed from the wounds of the Days of Fire, yet the speed of scientific progress kept decreasing.

The initial inquiry was met with criticism and mockery, with even the term ‘Wall of Faith’ born from an article attacking the concept. However, the theory remained… and returned to public awareness after a few decades, when it became apparent that the scientific progress was still decelerating. By the year 2200 the human scientific progress stopped altogether, pushed further only by occasional breakthroughs caused by reverse-engineering of archeotechs.

The mystery of the Wall of Faith remains to this day. Many theories were created to explain it. Is the universe merely a simulation, and Mankind reached the end of the programmed research tree? Or maybe Mankind lacks the intellect and cognitive abilities to discover the remaining secrets of the Universe? Did God punish Mankind for its scientific sins that led to the War of Purity, and a million other misuses of technology? Or maybe He punished the entire Creation?

All known alien species are subject to the Wall of Faith, trying equally desperately to climb it. Those alien species that succeeded in the past have achieved technological godhood… but none of them remained alive to this day, leaving only the archeotechs behind. Is something hiding behind the Wall of Faith, wiping out those that succeeded in climbing it? Or perhaps the seed of self-destruction lies in the technological godhood that sooner or later turns against those that achieved it, making the Wall of Faith a giant warning sign that everyone ignores?

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 1, page 215

***

Commander Lena Drathari entered the Echo’s bridge… and sighed. The sight in front of her was worse than the most horrifyingly wrong images invoked by her imagination. It was moments such as these when she felt the overpowering compulsion to notify the higher-ups of the Guild that the Echo’s crew requires urgent psychological help.

The second she entered the bridge, a UI overlay was automatically installed, displaying it as some space fantasy about Homeworld’s pirates. There was a jolly roger flag beneath the main monitor, sabres, flintlock pistols and tattered flags adorned the walls, and everyone present looked like a pirate. The captain had a wooden leg, a large red captain’s hat, and a parrot on his shoulder. And Lieutenant Commander Innocent…

Maybe I should have stayed in the Navy?

“Commander Drathari! Arrrr!” Captain Keller saw her and said hello, in his own peculiar way. “Sorry for the change in aesthetics, Innocent pointed out that we are technically stealing a ship to sell it for profit, so a pirate look made sense. Better the Homeworld pirates of old than those Discord degenerates of now, eh?” Of course. Who else could have been the source for this idea? I swear I hear Innocent’s name every time something eccentric happens. “I thought you were overseeing the boarding from the communication room. What brings you here?”

“A message from the Chief Petty Officer Sistonen, that I, well, do not understand. So I resolved to relay it to you personally. Hoping you will enlighten me.” Captain raised a mug of ale which, under the overlay, was a cup of orange juice. “What does ‘Recovery Team 08 reports second counter falling rapidly’ mean?”

She knew it was something grievous the second Captain choked on his drink. The pirate overlay was switched off, and Innocent abandoned all remnants of decorum by half-running and half-jumping through the computer terminals and workstations between him and the tactical officer station, which looked liked some demented parody of hurdle jumps.

“Em, what the hell is…” She wanted to ask, but she was cut off when Captain punched the combat alert button. As sirens began howling in the background, Captain started barking out orders, oblivious to the fact that half of his uniform was stained with orange juice.

“Innocent, every single weapon system on Jewel, ready to fire on my command. Helmsman, engine on standby. If Lieutenant Commander Mendez won’t arrive in time to plot a course, full steam ahead in the direction opposite to the ship. Lena, tell everyone to run back to the shuttles. NOW!”

***

The first sign that something was wrong (at least save for the second counter falling down like crazy) was the temperature dropping. When they landed it was a pleasant 27C everywhere, with the ship exactly as warm as the surrounding Hyperspace. But then, it abruptly fell to -50C. And kept dropping.

Then the gravity started glitching. Followed by air pressure meter falling down and raising up at random. Then the floor started shaking.

“Uhm, what the hell is happening?!” Ryan asked the obvious question. Ships this big do not ‘shake’ unless something goes really, really bad.

“Like I know.”Christopher answered. “I think we should go back to the hang…”

PRIORITY MESSAGE FROM

COMMANDER LENA DRATHARI

To all crew members aboard the Pristine Jewel: Evacuate immediately. Abandon equipment, drop whatever you are doing, and run back to the shuttles. NOW.

This is not a drill.

Ok, so we have an order. Phew. At least now I know what to do! Let’s…

“NO.” The familiar voice of the Guide filled his mind, everything around him fading into the blackness. “YOU WILL NOT MAKE IT IN TIME. IT’S AT LEAST THREE MINUTES OF SPRINT TO REACH THE HANGAR, AND YOU WILL ALL BE DEAD IN SEVENTEEN SECONDS. JUMP DOWN THE HOLE AND RAN AS FAST AS YOU CAN. SHUT THE BULKHEADS YOU PASS. GO. NOW.” The blackness receded, leaving Christopher back in front of the damaged bulkhead and his squad, all of them in various degrees of shock.

Two opposite orders. One from the second person in Echo’s hierarchy, the other from the slightly abusive ‘guide’, whose nature remained an enigma to him… and everyone else he knew.

Fuck it.

“Down the hole.” Christopher declared, some of the people around him looking at him in silence. “Jump down the hole, NOW!” They would not listen to him. After all, they received Commander Drathari’s order too. And he was ‘only’ a petty officer. But then a horrifyingly screeching noise came to them from the direction of the hangar. And when all of them looked that way, they saw the corridor… getting crushed.

The primary transport artery of the ship, almost five meters wide and three meters high corridor, was getting crushed. The walls caving-in, a process accompanied by screeching of metal, electrical discharges from broken cables, and torrents of liquids from ruptured pipes. Meter after meter. Closer and closer.

Rukh reacted the quickest and leaped towards the hole in the ground. This broke their shock. One after another they jumped down, some of them screaming half-formed questions which found no answer. Christopher was the last one - the second before he dove in, he glanced back to see the crawler torn to shreds.

Holy SHIIIIIIIT!

He dashed through the secret passage. It was a lengthy and narrow corridor, too narrow for more than one person. This meant that he was running as the last one, the closest to whatever was crushing the corridor.

Whatever it was, it lunged into the passage after them, at least judging from the sound of metal getting crushed that kept getting closer and closer to him. It was so close, so damn close… when he passed through a large bulkhead.

Bulkhead!

He stopped and turned back, only to see the crushed tunnel five meters in front of him… and the bulkhead with the control panel two meters from him. No time to reach it, which became obvious when he saw the speed of the corridor being crushed.

He punched the button with telekinesis, thanking God that he had an idea to set the telekinesis amplification work through a shortcut. The bulkhead closed instantly, stopping the cave-in of the corridor. And the first Mysterious Counter budged a bit, revealing what it displayed.

Not the time for this!

He turned back towards the direction of the escape as the bulkhead started bending. But once he figured out what the Guide meant with the bulkheads, gaining some space between him and the pursuer was much easier. He sealed in every bulkhead in this idiotically long corridor, leaving the cave-in behind… but getting further and further from the evacuation point.

He caught up with the rest in the place where the corridor changed into a hall. The hall that was insane.

It was… complicated to describe. The walls, ceiling, and even the floor were extremely uneven, their surface bending and twisting without any sort of pattern or sense. Hundreds of small robots (each of them a few centimeters wide) were moving around in an equally nonsensical way, each of them carrying something like a pole, but one which exact shape and length changed with every passing second. The cacophony of noises coming from every direction only worsened the impression.

He saw his team members waving to him from the other side of the pandaemonium, standing on a small island of stability - a platform in the middle, connected with the entrance through an equally stable catwalk. He joined them quickly.

“What the hell was that?!” Everyone was still wearing helmets, making reading emotions harder. Tendrik’s voice was clear to read, however.

“No clue. We got ahead of it, but it’s still coming. Did you find any way out of this pl…” The sight of blackness overwhelming everything was almost familiar at this point.

“IT WILL NOT PURSUE YOU HERE. YOU ARE SAFE. AT LEAST UNTIL ECHO FIRES UPON THE PRISTINE JEWEL, SO FOR ABOUT FOUR MINUTES.” What?! “THE THING THAT PURSUED YOU EXERTS INFLUENCE THAT REACHES THE ECHO. IF IT WON’T BE DESTROYED, THE CRUISER WILL NOT SURVIVE FOR LONG.”

So what now? Did you lead us here so that we would survive for two more minutes?

“NO. I BROUGHT YOU HERE BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE YOUR JOURNEY STARTS TRULY.” The Guide decided to remain mysterious, as instead of clarification, something else came afterward. “THE DEVICE YOU ARE INSIDE OF IS A MARVEL OF SCIENCE. FOR YOU ITS SHAPES, MOVEMENTS AND SOUNDS MAKE LITTLE SENSE, BUT IF YOU GO FROM A 3D SPACE INTO A SLIGHTLY LESS TRIVIAL LEVEL OF EXISTENCE, IT BECOMES AN IMAGE. WHICH WAS ENOUGH TO SUMMON SOMETHING. SOMETHING THAT WARPS THE REALITY AS YOU KNOW IT UNCONSCIOUSLY, SIMPLY BY BEING CLOSE. IT WILL NOT AFFECT THE IMAGE THAT BROUGHT IT HERE, THUS YOU ARE SAVE INSIDE IT. ”

Wait… what if we damage the image? It will go away, right?

“PRECISELY. BUT NO HALF-MEASURES WILL SUCCEED. IT HAS TO DISAPPEAR ENTIRELY AND INSTANTLY. THERE IS A COMPUTER TERMINAL BEHIND YOUR FRIENDS. ITS SECURITY MEASURES ARE TOO GOOD FOR YOUR MACHINE/ORGANIC FRIEND TO HACK IT IN THE TIME BEFORE ECHO DESTROYS PRISTINE JEWEL. BUT THERE IS ANOTHER OPTION. USE IT. MAKE HIM PERSUADE THE MACHINE CONSCIOUSNESS TO SWITCH THE ARRAY OFF..”

The Guide stopped speaking to him. The lights returned. According to the chronometer, not even a second has passed.

“..place?” Christopher somehow finished his sentence that was interrupted by the Guide.

“No, we searched around. Not even a conveniently placed ventilation shaft.” Ryan answered him.

Wait… Ryan!

“That computer.” Christopher pointed towards the computer terminal at the end of the platform. “It controls this place. We need to switch the array off. Before Echo destroys the Pristine Jewel.”

“I will say it. He is insane.” Rukh spoke for the first time since they met. It had to be something like that, of course. The rest stood silent, glancing at each other. Christopher couldn’t blame them. Everything around them was strange, and the mix of stress, adrenaline, and bizarre circumstances didn’t help.

“Well, I think I already revealed to those of you who aren’t extremely asocial that I hear voices.” Not the best way of explaining that you weren’t deranged, but he said that to get their attention. “Though both Lieutenant Commander Athalia and Captain Keller seem persuaded that it’s not insanity, and something is actually communicating with me.” Slowly, calmly, and with big names mentioned. Yes. It’s going ok. “Whatever it is, it’s very talkative right now. And if we didn’t listen to it, we would already be dead. The bulkheads in the transport artery did not close even remotely as fast, so this ‘cave-in’ would have caught up with us. Whatever caused it, it will do the same thing in the Echo if we don’t banish it. This will force the cruiser to open fire. And then we’ll be dead.” If one-tenth of what he heard about Echo’s firepower was true, a civilian ship in such a close range would be vaporized in seconds.

“Ok, I guess it makes sense.” Tendrik said, certifying that what Christopher has said worked. “But I tried to unlock it already. It has some really, really good security. Without Innocent or Fouquet we won’t open it anytime soon.”

“We don’t have to.” Christopher turned to face Ryan. “Ryan. Use your magic.”

“Ehm, sorry to say, but my ‘magic’ doesn’t work on computer security.” Ryan responded. “Trust me, I tried. their sole reason for existence is to NOT unlock unless the codes and so on are correct, so they always decline to help.”

“Ignore them.” And let’s not dig into the fact that you tried to open something secure in Echo. “Persuade the computer to deactivate the array. We don’t have to access the system conventionally.” This idea must have made sense, at least judging from Ryan’s reception. He kneeled beside the computer and put his hand on its main unit. The first counter budged a bit.

Time passed. Seconds turned into a minute. The silence was deafening.

“Ryan?” Christopher broke it.

“It’s not that easy, I’m trying. Give me… wait, it worked!” The hue and cry of machinery around them halted… and a few seconds later the second counter returned to its normal position.

“Great, now let’s just hope that the Echo will notice that before opening fire. There are only 50 seconds left.” Tiriel spoke for the first time in a while. “And even then, we are still sealed in a metal cage not visible on the ship’s blueprints, which also has its only exit blocked. If that wasn’t enough, our air supply is limited, and we cannot be sure that the air outside is breathable.”

I didn’t think about that.

***

Seven hours later (and four hours after the Recovery Team 08 was released from its cage by lots of well-placed explosives and some drilling, and evacuated back to Echo), Commander Drathari entered the now empty array room in the massacred wreck of Pristine Jewel.

She saw Lieutenant Commander Innocent tinkering with the computer and Captain Keller standing beside him. She strolled through the catwalk, plotting the talk in her head. So many questions.

“Captain Keller, you summoned me. Can I assume that you did so to provide me with some answers about the recent events?” His nod was comforting. She could think of at least several less optimistic reasons for being called here, outside of the communication range.

Most of them would still be better than remaining on the Echo. Overflowing hospital, a swelling list of people that died (including an entire group sent to the Engineering Deck), emergency repairs… You never get used to that.

“Yes. When you were assigned to Echo for the last stage of your training, it wasn’t to learn procedures, rules, and other dull things.“ Unsurprising. I might be the only person onboard who ever heard the term ‘rules’. “There are also pieces of information that we share only face to face, without committing them to such untrustworthy mediums like paper or digital data. We ran into one thing I aimed to teach you about, though it came a bit too early. Ever heard about extradimensionals?”

“Ah, yes. The space myths about mysterious things from another level of existence, hunting unfortunate ships in the depths of the Hyperspace, and the dark void between the star systems. You don’t plan to tell me they actually exist, right?” There were limits to her ability to believe in things. Fairytales were light years away from those limits.

“More than that. One of them almost crushed us.” Is he for real? He is tough to read, but… it seems like he is sincere. “The ‘second counter’ in the standard-issue suits for the Guild’s boarding parties is supposed to detect them. A small part of the suit’s computer's processing power constantly runs calculations. When basic and static stuff like Planck’s constant stop making sense, it’s an obvious signal that laws of physics are going on a vacation. Which means either some abstract archeotechs… or extradimensionals.”

It was preposterous. Commander Drathari was waiting for a loud ‘HAHA, GOT YOU’... but it wasn’t showing up.

“During your time aboard Echo you will see that a lot of ‘space myths’ are legends with a grain of truth at best and barely suppressed knowledge at worst. As a captain of an Explorer Guild’s ship, you will get a higher level of… well, initiation sounds cultish, so let’s go for ‘security clearance’. Get high enough and you might even learn why we keep such things secret.” The captain chuckled. “However, we have a bit of a headache here. Innocent, could you elaborate?” So, he is above me in terms of knowledge too?

“Quick Answer: Yes.” Lieutenant Commander Innocent rose from the computer panel and turned towards them. “The chamber we are inside was designed to attract the extradimensionals. The abrupt cessation of hostilities that hindered the imminent destruction of Echo and saved the remaining members of the boarding party was caused by the deactivation of the summoning array by members of the Recovery Team 8. The entity in question lost the ability to notice us and disappeared.” He stopped talking. Instead, both the priest and the Captain stared at her, as if waiting for something. Is that some sort of test?

“I don’t get one thing. How such a backwater country like Tavia could set up something like this? And why did everyone aboard die?” She passed the test, at least judging from the Captain’s nod of approval.

“That’s where the headache resides. All governments of the members of the Confederation are cognizant of the existence of extradimensionals.” The talk entered the field of conspiracy theories. “However, only a handful of them possess the knowledge and technology needed for the establishment of such a machine. And all of them are much too sharp to do it, as interfering with extradimensionals is forbidden by the secret appendix to the Icarus Accord. And every country that dared to break the Accord in the past disappeared from the map. Because of that, I believe that the Republic of Tavia never made it. It wasn’t even conscious of its existence when it pressed the Pristine Jewel into its merchant fleet.”

“The… outside contractor?” Commander Drathari said, which brought up another nod of approval.

“Precisely. Innocent checked the records. Pristine Jewel was built by a company known as Sieg Heavy Industries, from the Federal Republic of Germany, a member of the European Commonwealth. This company, according to the fragmentary data we received from Tavia, was liquidated four years ago, which means one year after Pristine Jewel construction. “ Odd. European Commonwealth is not far from here, yes. But I’m from the Oversector, so I’d have heard about that company. “Yes, judging from your looks you already noticed how suspicious that is. But it gets worse.”

“How so?”

“All seventeen ships that disappeared in the subsector ten months ago were created by outside contractors… who, mysteriously, vanished from the markets soon afterward.”

“Wait… wait a second. Let me unpack that.” There was a lot to unpack here.

“You mean… you suspect that all of them had such arrays installed? All seventeen ships?” When Captain nodded, Commander Drathari continued. “Someone killed almost thirty thousand people… for what? For some sick experiment?” This time it was Innocent that answered.

“Answer: No, not for an experiment. The array was set to automatically activate once the ship’s main reactor would be switched on. It was a trap.” And the group which was most likely to board the ship… was the Explorer’s Guild.

“For us.” Captain declared, unaware of the understanding to which Lena had already arrived on her own. “I think that the other sixteen ships were done similarly. They had an array installed by default. Then, once the time was right, they were ambushed and boarded. Like with Pristine Jewel, the defenders were wiped out, and then the attackers pumped the deadly dose of sleeping gas into the ventilation system. Once all non-combatants fell asleep and passed away, the main reactor was switched off. Leaving the ship undamaged and tempting, and the array ready to switch on the second someone decides to bring the ship online.”

“The disappearances.” Lena connected the dots. “Three Guild’s ships in two months. The reason we moved to the subsector.” Captain nodded.

“The array’s ‘firepower’ is random. It depends on the things it attracts. I know of at least five types of extradimensionals that would have stayed to wipe out everything even after Christopher and his merry band of misfits switched the array off. And even the thing that got summoned would have destroyed Echo if the array wasn’t shut off in time. I suspect the rest of the ships had less luck than we did.”

“So… it’s a minefield. Minefield of immense proportions. Directed at us.” This was preposterous but made sense considering the recent discoveries.

“Which leaves us with two questions. First: Why does not a single Guild’s ship run into any of the ‘mines’ in the past five months? And the second is, who is responsible for all of this?” Captain said.

“Long Answer: The answers to both questions are connected.” Innocent spoke before Lena could. “Abyssal cults possess the scientific know-how, but they didn’t infiltrate the Confederation to the point of being able to pull an economic fraud of this magnitude. Besides, they are too sadistic for something as humane as death by sleeping gas.” What? The abyssal cults exist as well?! “Remnants of the Transhuman Alliance have the know-how too, but it’s not their modus operandi.” I’m not even shocked at this point. “This leaves us with one suspect.” He hesitated and glanced at the Captain who picked the subject up and continued on.

“An organization whose scientific knowledge eclipses even the most technologically advanced members of the Confederation. Which is merciless in carrying out their actions, but refrains from unnecessary sadism. And who has demonstrated on multiple occasions that its ability to infiltrate governments or even the Guild through bribery, seduction, brainwashing, and blackmail is unmatched. The one and only group in history who was driven out of the Confederation for violations of the Founding Charter and Icarus Accord… and survived the ensuing manhunt.” No. No way. Not them. “For now, we assume that local structures of the Guild and regional governments are compromised. We will proceed to the Texia system, where we will spend at least a month repairing damages we received in this incident in the local shipyards of the Republic. And then…“ He grinned, but his eyes were one of a predator watching his prey. “... we’ll start trashing their plans. I already have a few ideas on how to start. For now, that’s all.” He glanced at Lena and smiled wryly. “How’s the mood after the first part of the revelations to come?”

“I’m a bit… overwhelmed.” These revelations suddenly changed several things she took for granted. And this was only the first part? She had always heard that the Guild had lots of secrets, but this was… It was so incredible, she was yet to decide if she believed in all of it. Only time would tell. “So, what will I learn next? That the Guild can somehow detect and measure sorcerer powers? That it can detect a latent power that will Awaken after being exposed to Hyperspace? That it knows who will and who won’t go catatonic after voidjump? Or maybe that it controls the Confederation in secret?” She dropped several questions about well-established impossibilities.

“Esper powers are measurable. The first counter in the boarding spacesuit displays the result.” For real?! “As for the latent power, well, the Guild can’t do it.” Phew. “Lieutenant Commander Athalia, in the meantime, can do it, but I’m yet to persuade that paranoid jerkass to share the secret with the Guild. There is a reason he calls himself Mankind’s best doctor and biologist, you know. Well, two reasons, including a lot of hubris.”… “As for Voidjumps, it’s the same case. The Guild doesn’t know how to do that, but I do. And I’m not sharing the secret either.”

He winked mischievously, leaving Lena confused. Is he making fun of me right now? I can’t tell. Probably? Was any of that true?

“As for the control over the Confederation, well, it’s complicated.” Captain continued. “And above your initiation level. My bad, it was supposed to be ‘security clearance’.”

“Right. So let’s assume that you are not making fun of me. Who other than the two of you are aware of these… secrets?” And whom can I ask to verify this wave of impossibilities eroding the riverbed of my sanity? “Aboard the Echo, I mean.”

“Well, it’s the two of us, Lieutenant Commander Mendez and Lieutenant Commander Athalia.” Captain froze for a second. “Don’t mention to him what we just discovered here, ok?” Talk about something suspicious. “You can return to the Echo. We’ll be back soon. And then… we depart towards the Texia system.”

Well, at least this assignment won’t be boring.