The filters failed as the explosion overwhelmed the cameras. Both his primary screens then went blank. Because of the dimensions of his cocoon, Igor was unable to turn away. Instead, he closed his eyes. Aida’s sobs came through his speakers. There was a dull rumble he could not place. Even though he knew it was a hallucination, the faces of his three friends appeared in the reflection of his dead monitors. That image would haunt him for the rest of his life.
ACT VIII: AUGUST 1, 2041
AKI CONVINCED HERSELF that the graser had not fired after all. Then there was a shockwave that was almost strong enough to shake her loose from the branch to which she had tied herself. Thick gray dust filled the air. A powerful wind swept through the ship. A piece of loose debris slammed Aki’s right arm. It left a mark, but the suit held; had it ripped she would have died instantly. The tether holding her in place stretched to its limit as she was tossed about in the fierce wind.
Aki was horrified to see the blackness of space only twenty meters to her right. The rim of the hull around the gaping tear glowed white-hot. Then thousands of grayish fibers streamed from the surfaces of the ship, covering the fissure. Aki was terrified but could not help but think that the spinning fibers reminded her of cotton candy. Within seconds the fibers had completely sealed the opening. Taking a deep breath, Aki wondered why the same thing had not happened when they had cut the ship open with the plasma torch. The sudden loss of pressure must have been what triggered the rapid repair. The portable airlock used on entry had kept pressure constant, thus the ship had not been stimulated to self-repair. The wind died down gradually.
“Joseph, Raul, can you hear me? Are you injured?”
“I’m about five meters down. Stupid tether snapped,” Raul answered.
“That must have been one of the nukes. Good thing we didn’t take a direct hit,” Joseph said.
Within minutes, the dust had been filtered from the air and full pressure was restored. They went down through the broken branches to the beach, regrouping and inspecting each other for damage. Their bodies and their suits had held up.
“We are all right. Now we check on them,” Aki said.
The dunes had been leveled. Most of the black fluid was gone. Most of the Builders had curled up into balls, as armadillos do when attacked. One was sprawled on the sand, a large wound in its side. A viscous tar escaped from the gash. Aki did not think it was breathing.
The other Builders started to uncurl. Aki recognized the one they called Alice. She ran to the creature’s side. Alice elongated herself and lifted her head toward Aki. Aki hugged the Builder, relieved that Alice was safe for the moment. She could not help but wonder what the UNSDF would try next. Knowing that the UNSDF was likely to kill them all triggered an even greater affinity to the alien species.
“I find myself fine, Aki Shiraishi.”
Aki whirled around to see where the voice had come from. “Raul, your jokes have gotten sick. I can’t take this anymore!”
“I said that I find myself to be quite fine, Aki Shiraishi. There is no need for having emotions over it,” the voice repeated.
“Who said that?” Aki asked, glaring at Raul, still convinced that he had found some way to fake this odd-sounding voice.
“I am speaking. The one that you have called Alice,” the voice said in a rumbling alto.
Alice lifted her head even higher. It was clear that she was looking directly at Aki. Her enormous black eyes moved up and down as she waited for Aki to acknowledge her. Raul and Joseph came and stood by Aki’s side. Raul started shaking. He tried to speak, but it was unclear what he was trying to say. Several other Builders raised their heads. Each one turned its head and eyes toward Aki.
“How do you know my name?” Aki asked.
“I stored it in my memory.”
“From when? There’s no way for you to know my family name.” Aki presumed that Raul or Joseph had said her first name in Alice’s presence, but they rarely called her by her full name.
“You gave it to me many years ago. You said, ‘Hello, Natalia. I am Aki Shiraishi. How are you today?’ It was something that I remembered.”
Aki looked at Raul. He was as dumbfounded as she was. Then Raul stepped forward. “Unbelievable. Is Natalia connected to you somehow? Her memories of my tests are intact and part of your memories, is that it?”
“Natalia’s flaw was that she could not communicate with humans—she had nothing else in the universe to communicate with. How is Natalia or Alice or whatever is going on able to talk to us?” Aki said. Raul shrugged in response. Aki turned toward Alice.
“Why didn’t you acknowledge us before? Why start talking now? Why have you come to our solar system? What made you leave your home? Do you understand who we are? We are humanity, an intelligent species endangered by the Ring around our sun, by your presence in the solar system.” She would have continued her gushing river of questions, all the thoughts that had built up over the decades, but Alice started to answer them.
“I have always heard you. I know that you have been using different means to reach us. I understood everything that you have said, including the sounds and images that you have been broadcasting to me for many years now.”
“Using some kind of supercomputer to make sense of it all?” Raul asked.
“I was able to do it within myself—it is not difficult for me. The reason I ignored you is because you were in the peripheral awareness of our group consciousness. I simply was not able to realize that you were distinct from me to react to your presence.”
“You did not realize we were there even though you heard our messages?” Aki asked.
“Being able to hear you and realizing your presence are not the same concept. Our collective consciousness underwent scission in the nuclear explosion because of the extensive damage throughout this vessel. I am now using the sensory organs in this particular body, which is allowing me to function as an individual entity. As a result, I, individually, am able to perceive your existence as beings separate from ourself.”
“By scission, do you mean that the network connecting you into one consciousness has malfunctioned?” Raul asked.
“Yes, that is accurate. It has been damaged and is functioning in a diminished capacity.”
“When you are fully linked, your senses in that specific body are not active. That is why you could not see or hear us before even though we were standing right there?” Aki asked. Of all that she had imagined, she had barely considered a group consciousness that could function with little need for input from the sensory organs of physical bodies. She pictured humans wired together and in sensory deprivation tanks.
“That is accurate. Being in the collective consciousness, I am unable to perceive the existence of adaptive entities.”
“What do you mean by the word ‘adaptive’?”
“Humans are the product of evolution. You humans have adapted to your environment and to other environments as you have evolved. My existence functions on a different path. Adaptive beings with individual consciousnesses are attached to the physical universe.”
“Are spaceships and missiles also products of the physical universe?” Raul asked.
“That is accurate. You, even in your individual consciousnesses, are living in the physical universe, and anything you create is affixed to this universe.” Alice lifted her head.
“I created Natalia. Wouldn’t that attachment make her adaptive because I created her?” Raul asked.
“Natalia is unfinished as of yet—but Natalia is a nonadaptive intelligence. You are unable to understand Natalia even though you are her creator because her nonadaptive consciousness emerged without you. Natalia transformed into something your planet had never seen before. It occurred completely by chance.”