Chapter 10:

Will and his friends looked honestly shaken for the first time since meeting the alien duo in their garage. Sil remained quiet, allowing the humans to process what he had said, and Will eventually responded.

“Honestly, I’m not really sure what to say to that. I mean, I survived, so I guess my first question is why? Why did I survive something that has killed everyone else who ever experienced it?”

Sil considered the reactions of the people in front of him. He had wanted to communicate that this needed to be taken seriously, and he was confident he had succeeded.

Paige, then Jake, interjected at that point.

“This is heavy. Really heavy. It sort of feels like everything just got a lot more real.”

“You’re not joking. Will, I’m not sure how you’re keeping your shit together right now. I’m glad you are, though, because I’m on the verge of losing MY shit, and it didn’t even happen to me.”

Paige just nodded at that, and Will thought about it for a moment.

“I get what you guys mean about it getting real, and I am freaking out on the inside, a bit. At the same time, I have to hold on to the fact that I DID survive.

I feel like a new reality just smashed us all in the face. I also feel like this new world is the one we’ll be living in moving forward. If I’m right about that, I don’t really have time to freak out. So, for now, I need to get all of the information I can, then deal with all the mental stuff later.

Does that make sense?”

His friends thought about his words briefly, then Jake said, “Honestly, if you were anyone else, I don’t know that I would believe you. I definitely wouldn’t be keeping it together this well, but you’ve always been a calmer person than me.”

Paige’s addition was a sincere request.

“You’ve always had a knack for compartmentalization and keeping a cool head. Please, just do us all a favor. Make sure you don’t just bury this shit, and let it fester. I think you’re right about our future, so none of us can afford this stuff coming back to bite you in the ass later.”

Will simply nodded at that, and added, “Just so you know, I really appreciate both of you being here for this. Your presence is helping me to maintain my rationality right now.”

Paige and Jake’s expressions made it clear they appreciated his words.

Sensing the friends were satisfied with that resolution, Sil answered the question Will had asked before the brief interruption.

“As far as why you survived, Will, that is something we aren’t yet positive on the answer to. Tests are underway on a DNA sample acquired from your bloody clothing. We believe it will shed some light on the situation.

For now, we should focus on the specific changes you experienced. Even compared to the most gifted humans who broke out of the Latent stage of Activation, you went through an extremely accelerated evolution process.

It is likely that the lightning strike is at least partially responsible for this, as that is the one variable we have no background information on.”

Will had clearly changed mental gears and questions were almost visibly bubbling up from the depths of his psyche, so Sil quickly continued before the human could go off on a new random tangent.

“I’ve mentioned the stages of activation briefly. People who reach Initiate level gain the ability to consciously use the energy provided by their nanites. Doing so, over time, makes them more powerful. This is also the process that enables them to eventually cross the threshold to the next stage of activation.

It’s a matter of how much energy from the Aether one is able to absorb into the tissues of their bodies. Additionally, each stage represents an exponential shift in relative power from one stage to the next. This means, it also takes exponentially more energy to be infused into their beings to progress from stage to stage.

Now, normally someone would spend several months, at least, absorbing energy to transition from Initiate to Operator. Everyone has a limit to how much energy they can pull through their aetheric connections.

You, on the other hand, reached the level of Operator shortly after losing consciousness the first time you experimented with actively pulling on your link. To put that in perspective, there are only a few known individuals, from my own race, gaining power that quickly.

My people have been using this technology for thousands of years. In hundreds of years, no human has even come close to your pace in this, and we don’t yet know what other differences you may experience.

Your unique nature is why Artie and I decided it was prudent to intervene directly. Under normal circumstances, we would have simply engineered an encounter between you and a member of The Activated.”

“My nature, in this case being something you’re still trying to figure out? Also, does that mean that normally when people become Initiates, Artie reaches out to this super secretive group? Then, said group arranges for the newbies to meet up with someone, who… recruits them?” Will asked, just to be clear he had things straight.

“Yes. They call themselves The Activated, and they operate all over… Why are you raising your hand, Will?”

“Just a question. You’ve said the general term used for people who can use this stuff is being activated?”

“Yes?”

“Their super secret society is named The Activated?”

“Also, yes.”

“That was seriously the best they could do for a name? I mean, come on. It sounds like the name for a hippie sex cult.”

“Well, it was founded by a number of powerful, old men. If you meet them, feel free to criticize their poor branding instincts.”

“Ohh… right. This was a long time ago. I don’t want to think about old timey sex cults. Just the smell of all that syphilis, and a profound lack of bathing… Ugh.”

“That is a truly vile thought. Dear god, man.”

“Yeah…. that train of thought really got away from me. Let’s pretend it never happened, and just move on.”

“Gladly. As I was saying, their society is a global one. Even with only a small percentage of the population reaching the level of Initiate, with millions of people in the world, even a fraction is a significant number of newly gifted individuals.

After thorough background investigation by us, we anonymously send word of their existence to a contact in the… organization. Well, Artie handles that bit.

Anyway, in your case, were it not for your extraordinary circumstances, we could’ve gotten word to someone in the Reno branch to intercept you.”

“Okay, but I don’t even like most people, let alone trust them, so why would I have listened? I mean, your appearance alone gave you credibility. Some rando I’ve never met? Not so much. I might even get suspicious if I had just gone through this crazy transition.”

“Well, it bears mentioning that it’s not normally as dramatic as what you experienced. I also imagine they could have stated what you were feeling, at the time…” Sil was forced to trail off at the audible snort from all three of the humans in front of him.

“To which I would respond with something along the lines of, ‘Sorry, I left my shirt that says I don’t join cults at home today, you mind waiting here while I go get it?’ and noping the fuck right out of there.”

Sil was momentarily confused, but Artie cut in.

“To be blunt, they likely would have sent someone you would find sexually attractive with the social acumen to have you persue the contact. Most of them are not stupid, and there is enough information online about you to clearly indicate sexual preferances. Also, males your age can be quite intelligent, yet also prone to being idiots where the potential for sex with an appealing partner is concerned.”

Now, the three were laughing, uproariously. “He’s so right!” gasped Paige, to which the others nodded. Calming down a few more moments, Will was left smiling, ruefully.

“You got me. That probably would’ve worked. So, there is a branch in Reno? Should I go to them?”

“Actually, no. What we want to do is help you, while maintaining our anonymity from the bulk of their organization. At the Initiate level, people tend to feel a connection to others who have been fully activated. As an Operator, you will be able to actually sense the energy used by others at Initiate or higher rank.

That sense allows your kind to pick up on aetheric energy being pulled into our dimension. Because of this, you will want to delay encountering anyone of real power, that can’t be trusted, until you are able to effectively suppress your energy tap.

We will ensure that the person they send is someone with discretion, who will not be motivated to report any oddities about you they may observe. It is, however, important that they initiate the meeting with you, as it will allow you to hide behind supposed ignorance.”

At that, Will interrupted by asking, “Quick question, I thought you said you didn’t actually know these people personally. How will you be able to be sure the person coming to meet me fits that profile?”

“It will not be overly difficult to arrange,” said Artie, “I have access to their national network, and can manipulate things to have the correct person given the assignment.

Most of the computer infrastructure they have is archaic even by human standards, but certain groups at the top of the organization are considerably more technologically adept. It’s not something the general membership has any knowledge of, but they have enough digital communication that it will not be an issue for me to redirect things to fit our goals.”

“Okay, I’ll just take your word on that, but I’ll also plan to be on my guard when I meet with this person.”

Sil picked back up the conversational thread now that that particular digression was handled.

“That would be quite sensible.

Now, something you need to know is that while we are helping you, you also represent an opportunity for Artie and myself. With that in mind, we do have a favor to ask of you. For it to work, you will have to make an effort not to reveal your knowledge before she can provide it.”

After that statement, Sil once again paused. Will and his friends were beginning to think the guy hadn’t really grasped the timing for dramatic pauses yet. Or practical humor. Or social interaction.

“I’m already a cynic, guys. I assumed you would want something for taking all this time to talk me through things. You have my undivided attention.”

Will suspected they had worried about this part of their presentation, not knowing how he would react to immediately being asked for something. For his part, Will really had expected something like this would come up. Cynicism had served him well over the years, after all.

“Well, frankly it’s something we need someone WE can trust to investigate, while our existence remains unknown.

Something in the area North of Reno, is intermittently blocking our sensors. This shouldn’t be possible with current Earth technology. Therefore, we really need to find out if this represents the existence of other alien influences here.

We have decided we need an agent to investigate on our behalf for a couple of reasons. Artie and I are not yet ready for our presence to be widely known. Even with the abilities of the Cube at our disposal, going somewhere inundated by people with enhanced senses would essentially be asking for trouble.

Additionally, potential signal jamming could represent a very large problem since we use sensors in order to see the world. Not having actual eyes could easily be a problem. Similarly, a drone is also not a good idea. Not only would it have the same potential weakness, but we really can’t have obviously alien technology falling into the wrong hands.

Therefore, we are hoping you would be willing to serve as our agent in this.”

After thinking for a moment, Will responded.

“Okay, I could see that. Next questions are why me, and how am I qualified?”

“Hmmm…” hummed Sill briefly, before saying, “First, qualifications are limited, but you do have a mind naturally prone to figuring out how things work. All of your academic records, as well as this conversation, bear that out.

Also, as an unknown factor to The Activated, you will have a level of anonymity to their higher echelon members that will likely be invaluable.

Lastly, you are intelligent and resourceful enough that we are confident in your ability to carry out this job.

As for why you? That is a bit more troublesome. There are two primary reasons we have chosen to ask you.

First, we have been evaluating your relationship with your friends, and every scrap of data we can find about you online. From everything we can tell, you are a loyal and trustworthy individual. To us, there is only one other factor we deem more important.

We need someone who won’t be easy to kill and dispose of.”