CHAPTER 15 - MISINFORMATION

DATE POINT: MARCH 23rd, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL

COMMANDER RICARDO ALVAREZ

A series of loud knocks woke commander Alvarez moments before a text arrived in his expanded vision. He couldn’t help but notice the time. Had he already been asleep for two hours? It surely didn’t feel like it, as he blearily clawed his way back to consciousness, fighting the annoying buzzing feeling in his head.

I HATE WAKING YOU, SIR, BUT THIS CAN’T WAIT. -LANCE

With a heavy sigh, he stretched and cracked his back before he got to his feet. Lance hardly was one to spook easily, so this didn’t bode well. He palmed the door control and it slid open to show his old friend looking grim. Curiously, he was holding his helmet under his arm, but otherwise was dressed in his BDU’s.

“Get in here, Blackford.” Alvarez growled. “Where are the terror twins?”

“Cleaning what’s left of Andrew Reese off the bulkhead and seeing to it that we can close the book on this ugly bit of business forever.” Lance said as he leaned against the wall.

“Stuck them with the messy job, eh?” Alvarez grinned.

“No… that honor fell onto me.” Lance said, speaking slowly and staring off into the wall. Commander Alvarez felt his spine tingle as he absorbed the comment.

“It’s not like you to beat around the bush, so why don't you just tell me what happened.” Alvarez commanded.

“Aye sir, I’ll share the mission cam for you, it will make more sense. I can plug my helmet into your computer and directly transfer the file. I think it’s best if we keep this one off the network file transfer logs for now.” Lance said as he pulled a rubber plug out to reveal his helmet’s data port.

Alvarez sat down at his desk and fired up his workstation. He then began to hunt for a data cord before he remembered he had been using it to charge his datapad. He un-plugged it and handed the other end to Lance.

“Thanks, I think we were right about an hour in when we began the assault, if you want to skip forward.” Lance said.

Commander Alvarez simply grunted and fast forwarded through until he reached the part where the trio began to fly the recon drone and Lance motioned for him to stop.

“Go ahead and play it from here. Spoiler alert, Vic gets frustrated and charges the breacher to take it out. It gets interesting after that.”

“I can see that, the damn fool. He took a hell of a hit there. Is he alright?”

“Probably gonna have a nasty bruise is all. Those new composites used in the Paladin armor plus the angled cuirass really did the trick. Now here is where it gets strange, right after the extreme temperature warning.”

Alvarez looked over at Lance but stopped himself from asking. He didn’t have to wait long as he saw the multi-spectral image filter activate on the HUD camera. Andrew’s thermal signature flared into view, surrounded by some kind of swirling vortex of energy in the form of a flurry of bright orbs.

“What the fuck..?” Alvarez asked as the anomaly formed some kind of shield and sword and charged Lance. Alvarez sat there as the fight progressed, dumbfounded. Utterly failing to fit what he was watching into his world view and experience.

“Yeah, that was my reaction too. Notice how it seems to be testing me rather than trying to kill me.” Lance replied before the anomaly backed off the assault. Alvarez paused the video to catch his thoughts.

“The spook might have some answers for us. Karst is about the closest thing to an expert we have on the manifestation of anomalous powers.” Alvarez said. “Hang on, I’m going to bring him in on this.”

KARST, MEET ME IN MY QUARTERS. I NEED YOUR EXPERTISE ON A CRITICAL MATTER RIGHT AWAY. – CDR ALVAREZ ALRIGHT, ON MY WAY OVER NOW, I’M CLOSE BY. – KARST

“There, he should be here soon. I’ll rewind it back to the environmental warning so he can help weigh in.”

“Wise, especially if you think he has some special expertise that might help. It only gets stranger after the battle when I make verbal contact with the entity.” Lance said with a nod.

“Dios Mio… I see why you woke me up now.” Alvarez said.

“See what I meant now by having the messy job? Are you sure we can trust the spook with a secret this big? I know I have the video and all, but I am not trying to risk my career on exposing this shit. I plan on cashing in my full twenty.”

“Frankly, old friend, I don’t think we have a choice but to bring Paul in. It will probably be harder to get him to tell us what he knows than it will to convince him to stay silent about it. I can order him to secrecy if it comes down to it.” Alvarez said.

I’M HERE, LET ME IN. – KARST

“Lance, would you get the door?” Alvarez asked as he rewound the video back to the start of the encounter. Lance nodded and moments later, Paul walked in with narrowed eyes and folded arms.

“Alright, Commander. You have my attention.” Paul said.

“Lieutenant, meet Lieutenant-Commander Lance Blackford… “ Alvarez began before he was cut off.

“I know who he is, I’ve read his file, even the redacted parts. Look, I am really busy so can we make this quick?” Paul scowled.

“Don’t cut me off again, Karst. I called you in because with your powers and connections in the intelligence community you might be the only person on board who can help identify what just happened during the confrontation with fireman Reese.”

Paul cocked his head and readjusted his stance, this time staring quizzically at the computer screen for the first time.

“I’m listening.”

“Good. I’ll play the video from the start of the confrontation. Once it’s over I will be fascinated to hear your take.”

Commander Alvarez grimaced and hit play, trading his attention between the video, and watching Paul’s face. He gave up rather quickly when the most he got was a raised eyebrow before he caught up to his prior stopping point. By that point, the video had captured his full attention, as he had yet to watch the rest before deciding to bring Paul in.

”Surrender yourself now Andrew, don’t make this harder than it has to be!” Lance’s voice rang out loud.

”How can I explain to them the enormity of the wisdom, it is too much your eminence… Silence wretch! We will speak for ourselves. You know nothing of the threat which you face, human. We wish not conflict, but parley. We wish to retain ownership of this fleshy vessel in exchange for the trade of knowledge and wisdom with your leadership. We are but days from reaching the Heliopause, time is of the essence. This first warning is offered for free, knowledge of the other dangers you face will come after we are assured ownership of this form. You must turn back before it is too late.”

“Too late? Heliopause? What are you talking about?”

“No!! This was not the deal!” Fireman Reese yelled.

“You… would doom your entire timeline to preserve your dying ambition for but a moment longer? What lunacy besets those cursed with flesh. What… are you doing?”

“Andrew, don’t do this, we need to know what happens when we pass the heliopause!”

“I am a dead man walking already. Say goodbye to the physical world, demon, go back to hell, or wherever it is you came from!” Alvarez watched as Andrew shot himself and his body fell to the ground.

“You… have been… warned… Our energy… is spent… To the sea… of primordial chaos… we return… Good luck… human.”

Silence reigned in the room as Paul stood wide-eyed, and as Alvarez processed the new information for himself at the same time.

“Yeah. So that happened.” Lance began, which broke the tension, if just for a moment.

“We are both at a loss right now. Reese called it a demon, but I don’t know if I am willing to open that can of worms first. There has to be a better explanation.” Alvarez began, “I am hoping you can provide it.”

Paul sat silently for an eternity before he took a deep breath with closed eyes.

“Ho boy, where to begin? First off, there is no visual effect for any powers that I am aware of that will show up on thermals like that. Whatever that was, it was new to me. Second off, that shield and blade are clearly made from null matter, but nobody that I know of even has a theory on how we could shape it in such a precise manner.” Paul thought out loud before he turned to look at Lance.

“Shit, man you are lucky it wasn’t trying to kill you. A flat blade of null matter like that would cut straight through your armor like paper.” Lance paled slightly before he regained his composure.

“So, you don’t know anything then?” Alvarez couldn’t entirely hide his disappointment.

“I wouldn’t say that. I think I know what that was, and most importantly, I think that thing is also our murderer. There are certain details in the case like the total and complete lack of any physical evidence and the fact that the final victim was bisected so cleanly and the wound cauterized so perfectly, that it looked like a laser had done it. Put that together with some other anomalous events linked by the message left on site to turn back? I am sure you can see my reasoning.”

“Okay, let’s say I agree that you have a high probability of being right, that begs the question; what the fuck is that thing!?” Alvarez shouted in exasperation.

“Alright, what I am about to tell you is extremely privileged information. I need your word that it will continue to stay that way. The CIA spent a lot of blood and treasure investigating the paranormal in the twentieth century. Most of the programs turned up nothing, some actually uncovered some truth behind the urban legends and myths they sought to investigate. My own powers and the program that trained me was one such example. The official story was always said to be there was nothing to any of this, but that isn’t strictly true.”

“Speak plainly, Paul. You’re dancing around the topic. I need to know what it is that I fought back there.” Lance added in. Paul scowled and held his hand up.

“I was about to get there, chill! Alright, so a lot of the scientists that ran these programs were brought to the USA under project paperclip. Just in case you don’t know, that was when we swooped up as many former Nazi scientists as we could before the Soviets could get them after world war two. There are two projects that I am aware of that I think can explain this one. The first one is linked to the Vril society, which were some channelers from the turn of the century that believed they had contacted aliens. They got pretty famous, they even handed off some advanced spacecraft designs to the Nazis several decades later. We captured a highly radioactive attempt at building such a craft at the end of the war, they called it “The Bell” due to its shape. Well, as it turns out, our scientists determined later, partially through recreating their methods, that they actually had been contacted by higher dimensional entities that claimed to be aliens. We know now that they are not aliens, at least not in the strictest understanding of the term. They have been on Earth for a long time, and different cultures across history have attested to their existence, under different names such as demons or Djinn. I saw a video where a possessed person murdered half a security team in seconds before they took them down with a bullet to the head as it tried to escape. After that, it was determined they were a force too dangerous to try and control so the program was shut down.”

“I think I heard of some of this stuff, but I always thought it was complete bullshit.” Lance said. “Kinda hard to argue their existence when one of them tries to kill you like that.”

“Okay, let’s set identification to the side for a moment. We need to figure out what it was alluding to when it said we need to turn around before reaching the Heliopause.” Alvarez added, trying hard to stop his world from spinning by moving the topic away from talks of ghouls and demons.

“Oh, that? There is no problem with passing through the heliopause, come on. Our scientists would have forecast it and figured a way around whatever it is they are talking about, or we would never had risked sending a multi-billion dollar investment through it like this. We all know we don’t get a second shot at this. Furthermore, we know the giants can use this method of FTL and we know that Joshua Warden also used it to escape Sol with his followers. It is really important to remember that these entities feed off of strong emotions, especially fear, and are weak against extreme anger and or strong willed resistance directed toward them. They also are known to enjoy mischief and misinformation. Human beings are little more than playthings to them, entertainment, if you will. We really shouldn’t be taking anything the entity says too seriously, especially when it has a vested interest, hell, an addiction to feeding off our fear.” Paul scoffed.

Whether it was Paul’s sheer confidence, or his desire to put this whole event behind him and return his life back to normal, Alvarez found himself believing Paul. He felt a weight he had been carrying lift a little.

“Okay, well, that sounds like a mystery solved to me then, I take it you two can handle briefing the captain?” Lance said, seeming much calmer as well.

“Yeah, I’ll take care of it, and I will send a report up to command. Gonna need that helmet cam file though, I’ll have Alvarez make me a copy. Needless to say, this information stays classified need to know only. Did anyone else witness this?” Paul asked.

“Nah, we had everyone evacuated well back from the area before we went in. I can talk to my squad about the basics and let them know to keep it quiet. You won’t have to worry about any of us.” Lance said.

“Good. Then you are dismissed, unless you had something you wanted to talk to him about?” Paul asked, looking over to the Commander who shook his head.

“Nothing, other than a commendation for a job well done. Oh, and tell Victor that the next time he pulls a stunt like that I will have him on latrine duty for a month.” Alvarez laughed and Lance broke into a grin.

“Aye, Commander. I’ll pass the message along.” Lance said with a salute before he collected his helmet and left the room.

“Alright, I’m glad that this wasn’t a total waste of my time. In fact, my life just got much easier since we have an explanation for the murders. Now I just have to figure out how to write this up in a report. Was there anything else you needed to talk to me about?”

“No, that about takes care of it. I just clipped a video file of the entire interaction with the entity if you want to hand me your datapad I can upload it.” Alvarez said. Paul handed it over and Alvarez got to work transferring the file, keeping it off the network once more.

“Awesome, I’ll raise this topic with command, see what they say about this heliopause angle too. Maybe see if Dr. Rousseau can weigh in on the topic before I bring it to Henry’s attention.” Karst said.

“Fair enough, but you will be bringing this to Henry’s attention either way, right?” Alvarez asked with an edge to his voice.

“Yeah, I mean, if they order us to continue the mission anyway and Dr. Rousseau puts any heliopause concerns to rest then we can probably leave well enough alone to be honest. Giving him the illusion of choice in the matter will just stress him out.”

“Henry O’Toole is your captain, and a damn fine one at that. You are to brief him whether or not he is to have a say in the matter because he needs to know everything that is happening on his ship. You will brief him, Lieutenant. That’s an order.”

Both men stared each other down for a moment before Paul relented.

“Yes, Commander.” Paul said with a scowl.

“You are dismissed.” Alvarez said with a wave, his mind already turning back to bed as Paul left the room. What an asshole, gonna have to follow up on that one. Hardly had his head hit the pillow before he found himself drifting back into the embrace of sleep.

SHORTLY THEREAFTER…

DATE POINT: MARCH 23rd, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL

LIEUTENANT PAUL KARST

“Took you long enough, where were you?” The shrill voice of his personal perpetual pain in his ass called from across the hall.

“Stow it, Ariana, I had to come from halfway across the ship and I got sidetracked by Alvarez.” Paul called back, indignant.

“Really? What about?” She asked him as he caught his breath and reached for the life support pack she had prepared for him.

“They finally got the ringleader, Fireman Reese. Turns out he was our murderer too. Even crazier is that he was a natural telekinetic, which explains some of the oddities of the murders pretty neatly.” Paul replied, simply, keeping the part about the Djinn to himself.

He then shouldered the life support backpack and clipped it together before he cinched the straps down to fit comfortably over his BDU’s. Ariana was a step ahead and had already sealed her helmet to the hardpoints around her BDU’s neck.

“Seal check?” She asked. Paul slipped his own helmet on and watched as the HUD lit up on the inside of his faceplate and the various subsystems of his nearly completed space suit booted up and began intercommunicating. Paul set about checking that everything on Ariana’s suit was properly attached and tightly sealed before he gave her a thumbs up. He then finally donned his gloves and activated the command on his HUD to pressurize the suit.

“Seal check?” Ariana nodded and proceeded to check him as well before they walked together to the airlock and opened the inner door. The pair walked inside in silence.

“Ready?” Paul asked. Ariana simply walked over and pushed the cycle airlock button in reply. The inner door closed and atmospheric alerts chimed after a moment to let them know they were now in vacuum. The lights in the airlock turned to amber ones as the outer doors opened before them.

“The Fist of the Argonauts antimatter threat report gave us a two-hour window with very little antimatter risk for us while we are out here. We have to be fast, since half of that is already gone thanks to your diversion.” Ariana said as she put her hands out to form a TK field over their heads.

“I know that, trust me. Let’s get this over with.” Paul countered as he felt the familiar tug of inertia as they lifted off the deck and flew towards the edge of the baryonic bubble.

“Get me close, just like last time, the closer I can get, the better. My mass senses can’t get a good read this far out.” Paul said. Ariana simply edged them closer until Paul began to feel the repulsive forces exerted by the flowing river of Null matter and he came to a dead stop in the equilibrium. He closed his eyes and focused on building a feel for the elusive sensations reverberating from afar through the null matter medium.

“Holy shit, things have changed a lot since we last tried this.”

Paul said, trying to focus his senses ahead of them towards the heliopause. They had been too far away previously to get a good read. Ahead of him, a churning sea of charged particles weaved into an unfathomably large blanket of golden fire. Paul focused on the section where the null matter stream would intersect, trying to glean any insight he could as to the alleged danger they were in.

“What are you doing? You’re supposed to be focusing on the planetary orbit anomaly, you are facing the wrong way dumbass!” Ariana scolded.

“Hang on, let me focus!” Paul snapped, turning his focus onto the intersection anew. There seemed to be a gap punched through the sea of plasma, almost like an oasis in the desert of charged particles through which the null matter stream flowed. He could see no danger, it appeared to be just as Dr Rousseau had predicted. Being so close to it now simply gave Paul the ability to verify it himself.

“Well? Need I remind you that we are running out of time for this nice antimatter-free window to finish the job? Plus, I can’t keep up a one gee field forever like this, hurry up.” Ariana said from behind him in an altogether more threatening voice.

“I’m just checking out the forward path too is all. Can’t be too careful.“ Paul said, shifting his attention. “Whoa, that’s new.”

Behind him, billions of masses of all shapes and sizes fought to overwhelm his senses. Each one appearing to streak across the sky in its orbital pathway, occupying the entirety of the orbital path at the same time, stretching the image impression and making the sky appear like a colorful mass of worms or spaghetti. When he focused on any one object, however, it would immediately appear as a single object fixed in place at its closest point relative to him.

A migraine began to spike as his forehead burned with the stress of perceiving so many objects at once with his mass senses. At the center of it all, the sun seemed to be cycling through birth and death cycles when he looked away and as the old familiar yellow sun when he focused on it. He felt panic rising within himself, but he was unable to comprehend why. He felt something dripping from his nose and eyes in the last moments before he began to struggle mightily against losing consciousness.

“Paul?! PAUL!? Fuck! Hang on, I am getting you out of here!” The last thing Paul remembered was the tug of inertia changing before he awoke inside the airlock as Ariana tugged his helmet off his head.

“Fucking ow.” Paul said as the cold sensation of his cooling amp worked overtime to fight the overheating of his Neural Pineal Carbonic Structure. “Gonna be feeling that one later.”

“You scared me out there, how did your mass senses give you brain boil so fast? What did you see?”

“I saw everything, the birth and the death of the solar system, and felt every orbit of every object. There were so many of them, and nothing would stay the same once I directly tried observing it. It makes my brain hurt again just thinking about it. I would venture to say that is the source of the increasingly anomalous readings returning from behind us. It's like the farther we are from observing them, the more they revert to occupying their whole lifecycle simultaneously. It makes sense, looking back last time, the shadow masses looked just like their real space mirrors did in real space since we were still so close.”

“What do you think it means?” Ariana asked him as she handed him a cloth bandage from the nearest med kit to clean the blood off his face.

“I don’t know, but there has to be a reason Dr Rousseau asked us to do this at first opportunity the other day. I am going to have to trust him to interpret what I saw. What I can tell you is that there seems to be a gap punched through the worst of the plasma of the heliopause to allow these null matter currents through. I see absolutely no danger ahead of us in passing through the Heliopause, at least not that I can tell.”

Ariana looked at him strangely. “What do you mean by danger in passing the heliopause?”

“It’s nothing, just superstition and misinformation that I wanted to debunk while I was out there.” Paul said dismissively. “Let’s get out of here before anyone asks any questions.”

Paul then walked over to the airlock and inserted a data stick which unlocked root access to the security logs. He then got to work deleting any record of them having accessed the system.

“Are you going to be alright?” Ariana asked in genuine concern.

“Yeah, don’t worry about me. It’s far from the first time I have pushed myself a bit too much, probably won’t be the last either. The amp did its job, and my NPCS is already cooled down and feeling better. The biggest thing I need to worry about now is sending this report.”

“Alright, have it your way tough guy. If you need me, you know where to find me.” Paul waved her off as they went their separate ways. Paul was already lost in thought. They had passed the termination shock already and were going to pass through the other side of the heliopause any day now. It seemed rather obvious there was no clear and present danger to the ship in passing said barrier, but the Djinn’s warning stuck in his mind anyway. Without hardly realizing it, he found himself at his door as he had walked on autopilot, lost in thought.

With a shrug, he unlocked his door, fired up his workstation, and began to type up his report.