Fluency

12

“Salvation?” Dread filled Jane, a cold, paralyzing feeling. “From what?”

“The Interspecies War. The Sentients from all corners of the known galaxies fight for dominance, for control of habitable worlds. Terra is untouched by this, due to its remote location. It was our hope to find you ready to answer the call.” It was clear from his mood, his tone, that he deemed Earth exceedingly unready to answer this call.

Jane was reeling. “Are you serious? Earth will bring salvation from a war? But how? Why? I don’t understand.”

“Your species is such a curiosity. You thirst for knowledge of the origins of life, but fill in the unknown with imagination. It is peculiar that the Cunabula should withhold from your kind that which is commonplace among the rest of us. Perhaps they intended that hunger for knowledge to inspire you to reach out, to search.”

“Tell me about them,” she urged him.

“It is said they were a people without humor. Now that I have become acquainted with you and your colleagues, I am inclined to disagree.” He rumbled with something akin to laughter. Waves of amusement washed over her.

She anchored herself, holding giggles at bay that were perilously close to breaking the surface. His moods affected her so easily when they shared this state. “Ei’Brai—you digress.”

“A common accusation, you will find, in time. I have missed the company of others.” He paused in reflection. “They are the oldest of the known races—arisen, it is said, from the farthest reaches of the universe, where the oldest stars are now burning out and dying—their light still illuminating from such distance, just as the Cunabula still bestow their influence, though they may be long gone. It is said they were bipedal, quad-limbed, yet not derived of apes, but some other species, lost to the ages. They were scientists, perhaps not unlike the Sectilius. They mastered the physical sciences primarily and began, thus, to explore the stars, seeking out life, much as you have wanted to do. They observed, made alliances, and catalogued all that they encountered.”

“But what does this have to do with Earth?”

“It is said the Cunabula began to see disturbing trends, species arising with greater aggression, seeking dominance over all—to the point of precipitating extinctions of more peaceful, benign races. ‘Evolution is inevitable, yet diversity shall be pinnacle, even to that.’ That is a quote, as often taught to school children, from a text attributed to them. They worked tirelessly to forestall the aggressors. The histories say that, to that end, they set their sights on mastering the biological sciences.

“The earliest forms of genetic transmission at that time were more primitive, confined primarily to three types, found throughout the cosmos. What you now call DNA, RNA and mitochondrial DNA once existed each to its own realm. They combined these three elegant systems, creating a more robust form of life, fit for their own purposes, in order to disseminate it as far as their reach would allow.

“They seeded barren planets with this genetic information, programmed by their deft handiwork to explode into lush worlds, like your own—where the genetic information could subdivide and increase at will, filling every niche with extraordinary, diverse life.

“You see, we—all of us—are alike at our core. From the lowest microorganism to the highest form of Sentient, we share the most basic aspects of all living things from protein folds to cellular organization. The secrets lie within the dual nature of intron and exon—expression and suppression and recombination of these—allowing life to seek infinite forms.

“It is within this duality, and the two strands of DNA, that are the source—and an Ark to usher that duality safely into worlds devoid of life—two of each?—two strands for each kind. Your kind misunderstands the literal nature of it, obscured in the unknowing, in the infancy of your science, in your violent, primitive history. But it resides there, within the collective psyche, despite the fact that you cannot name it.

“The Cunabula continued thus, through the eons. Growing wiser, depending on their legacy as a defense against the growing giants, always grasping for more space, never satisfied. The Cunabula turned the tide with their cleverness, with sheer numbers.

“It is said they favored the ape-derived hominids as being most like themselves, though their many gifts extended to so many races that hardly seems likely—my own race being a perfect example of this. Regardless, it is your form they must have felt would be the one that would hold the line in the final fight. Some say Terra was nothing more than a social experiment. Others give it rich religious significance. Only the Cunabula know the truth of it and they are not here to tell us.”

“A social experiment? I don’t understand.”

“History suggests the Unified Sentient Races of that time had suffered a terrible setback. They longed for peace, but the hungry evil would never allow it. The Cunabula revisited their young, seeded worlds, seeking the fittest, the strongest. They found, on Terra, several races of ape-hominids developing into species with much potential. Terra was remote, distant from any busy nexus or hub. It is said they took the most promising ape-races from several worlds—nine in total, the texts tell us—and put them in competition for the resources of your world. They adjusted their genetics, amplifying aggression, entitlement, the drive to expand to all borders, making the need to lay claim to land as urgent as the need to reproduce—all attributes rampant among the enemy, but only mildly expressed among the majority of the Sentients of the time. These races competed, interbred, struggled for dominance. It was perhaps unexpected that you would not be prodigies to the stars—turning instead to subjugate your own kind and to war amongst yourselves. An oversight? Perhaps you required more guidance. Left to your own devices, you disappoint.”

“Oh, my God.” There was a truth to this story that resonated. It felt more true than any Sunday sermon she’d ever been forced to attend by her pious grandparents.

“Many believed Terra was a myth—that the Cunabula intended us to search for you, in order to expand our boundaries and search for alliances, rather than be complacent or accept the inevitable. There have been Sectilius searching for you for all of recorded time. Now we have found you and still we have failed.”

“But what did the Sectilius intend to do?”

“Bring you into the Alliance.”

“But how? Are there Sectilius on Earth now?”

“Alas, no. We were implementing the early stages—learning about your culture, gathering specimens—”

“What kind of specimens?”

“Humans, of course. A necessary step. It was decided that a group of Sectilius would be surgically altered to pass among you, to infiltrate your governmental-militaristic-industrial complexes, to gain trust before revealing their origins and goals. Specimens were needed to study certain features of human anatomy and physiology. We did not harm them. They were returned.” He sounded affronted in the face of her revulsion.

“The universe is insane. The shuttle—the crashed shuttle in New Mexico—that was Sectilius too?”

“Indeed. The inhabitants were en route to Terra when….”

“Oh. I see.”

“Yes. It led you here, however. Perhaps all will be well, Dr. Jane Holloway.” Hope surged in him again.

Jane felt dazed. She struggled to make sense of everything she’d just been told. “We were meant to be this way. Not to fight the worst aspects of our nature, but to embrace them.”

“Just so. To exploit your inherent qualities, in the service of others. It is the belief of many that they hoped to create a warrior class that would turn the tide, yet leave their brethren to live in peace. To respect the diversity and protect it.”

“But they abandoned us. They didn’t follow through.”

“A mystery, true.”

“It’s too much to ask. They poisoned us. We’re not…happy.”

“Many suffer. Many exceed these limitations. Be grateful it is the Sectilius that found your world first. Not the Swarm.”

Jane gasped. She inhabited the memory of a young Sectilius woman, fighting to squeeze herself and her children into an escape vessel. A fearful mob crushed them, bruising skin, cracking bones, in the desperate struggle to survive. Shielding one child in her arms, another clinging to her waist, she could smell the coppery scent of blood. She could hear the clamor of the anguished, the plaintive. And over that, a deafening, ominous roar.

The sky darkened and lowered, pressing down, a blanket of flashing, metallic bodies streaming over every living thing like locusts. The hatch closed, severing limbs, and the vessel was away, sluggish, overburdened by a mass of frail, living mankind. Children cried. Men and women keened. She watched through the small portal in the hatch as her world disappeared forever under the gnashing jaws of the Swarm.

“No!” she cried out, involuntarily—an outraged denial—and she wasn’t sure whom it came from—the woman who had lost too much—or from herself. She could not unsee the violence she had witnessed. She could not unknow the pain or terror.

She curled into herself, ineffectually trying to protect herself from the horror.

“Dr. Jane Holloway,” Ei’Brai purred, buoying her into a warm embrace, tendrils of soothing thoughts flowing over her and through her mind. She began to breathe again, in strangled, gasping sobs as the tightness in her chest slowly subsided.

She choked out, “Why would you show that to me?”

“I could not allow you to trivialize the need. This is what we face.”

Images continued to trickle through the connection with Ei’Brai, gentler now, more like a documentary than first-hand experience. They seemed less immediately threatening. Her pulse slowed.

Immense insectile creatures sunned themselves on a hillside. The scale was astonishing. The group of arthropods, all the size of elephants, roused themselves, lifting armored carapaces and unfolding monstrous leathery wings. They took flight, hunting a herd of a deer-like mammal. The deer didn’t stand a chance. It was over in moments.

“The Swarm is a formidable foe. They developed first as you see here, large-scale, flying insects, dominating their home world, carnivorous and ruthless, with little to keep them in check. Their population reached unsustainable, peak levels, their food supply over-hunted to extinction. It might have meant the end of their species, or merely a chance for another species to rise to dominance. Then a single individual was born with a mutation that allowed it to seek prey under the surface of water.”

A graphic formed behind her eyes—a 3-D, transparent depiction of the insect’s anatomy, highlighting some kind of swim-bladder. “That individual survived to procreate, to create a new lineage that was more versatile. They ravaged their home world eon upon eon, populations rising and falling, multiple adaptations allowing them to consume more and more of their world, until the day came that that world could no longer sustain them.”

There was a large group of them diving in concert, scooping up sea-life, then basking on a sandy shore. The sequence changed smoothly from image to image showing the gradual changes in the insect’s evolving morphology. Words like ‘hydrolysis,’ ‘storage organ,’ and ‘organic fission reaction’ were highlighted along with various parts of the arthropodal anatomy, now very much changed from its original form.

Ei’Brai showed her a sandy ocean floor. A school of large fish swam into view. The sea-floor lifted as one. As far as the eye could see, streamlined aquatic insects rose from under the sand to devour every fish in sight.

“They move in concert, like hive insects,” Jane murmured.

“Indeed.”

The insects rose to the surface in formation and soared into the sky, higher and higher into the clouds, leaving thin, white jet-trails behind them. As they gained altitude, their numbers became fewer as those who could not sustain the velocity needed to escape gravity dropped off. Only a few broke free of the atmosphere. The viewpoint zoomed in to reveal one of them was female with a fully mature egg-sack attached.

They drifted through space, homing in on another blue-green sphere, the moon of another planet in the habitable zone of that solar system, also rife with life. One individual survived the heat and stress of reentry. A male. He found the dead female, fertilized her eggs, then began to hunt.

“A new species was born, their unique adaptations allowing them to eventually move between stars—to consume a world’s resources and lay eggs for the next generation of devastation to begin. They do not give themselves a name, do not communicate with their prey, never acknowledge sentience in another species. It is unknown if they have language or culture. The Sentients have given them the name, the Swarm.”

Jane shuddered.

“Your kind considers outsiders to be alien. The Swarm is truly alien, without conscience or soul. There is no other consideration for them, beyond sating hunger.”

The lesson was over. The shadowy darkness returned.

“You knew that woman? The one in the memory?” Even as she spoke, she knew the answer.

“She was the Quasador Dux of this vessel. She gave her life to find your world.”

“After surviving that…she…. I don’t know what to do with this. What am I supposed to do now?”

“Bring her voice to your people. Make ready.”

“I don’t know how I could ever make them understand this. It’s not like I can show them the things you’ve shown me. All I can do is describe it. How can that ever be enough? They won’t see it the same way. They’ll want to protect themselves. They’ll want to stay in hiding, here, where we’re safe.”

“You will convince them. There is no other way. Safety is an illusion. You know this to be true.”

“I…do.”

“You must go. Your companions have need of you. Tell them of this, Dr. Jane Holloway.”

“Ei’Brai—I—you should call me Jane.”

“Without your earned title? I will not be so disrespectful as this. Shall I call you Dr. Jane?”

“No. It’s a gesture of—”

“Ah. Friendship. I see. Quaint. You will understand if I insist on using my own title?”

She let out a single, baffled laugh at this.

Indignation rolled off of him in waves. She could see plainly in his mind that the prefix Ei’ indicated his high status and rank, earned over many years of faithful service. “Of course. It’s short and to the point.”

“Indeed.”

She withdrew slowly, tentatively, feeling her way back, and gradually became aware of jostling movement and discomfort. There was something hard jammed into her midsection. Was she upside down?

“Aughpf,” she wheezed, trying to orient herself. A hand tightened…on her ass? “What the—?”

“Sh,” someone hissed in the dark.

Apparently she was being carried, bodily, over someone’s shoulder. That person stopped moving and stooped. She slid down slowly, becoming aware, as she did, of a familiar, masculine scent. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light, but she already knew she was face to face with, pressed tightly up against, Alan.

His bearded cheek slid over hers, his breath warm against her ear. Good grief, he feels good. She hadn’t been held like that for far too long.

“Are you ok? You were out for hours,” he whispered. He sounded worried.

She answered in kind, a million questions tumbling over themselves inside her head. Why was he carrying her in the dark? Why was he embracing her so ardently? Why did everything change every time she turned around? Where the hell were they? That one, at least, she thought she might be able to answer. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. What’s going on? Why were you carrying me?”

“It’s Walsh. I fell behind, but he’ll notice soon. He’s flipping out, Jane. He wants to retreat to Mars already. He’s trying to get us back to the capsule, but, well, I think you know you’re the only one who can do that. We’re lost. He’s tried several times to use the deck-to-deck transport, but he has no idea how to select the right deck. He—”

“Keep up Bergen!” Walsh’s voice rang out sharply. The light from a flashlight blinded her momentarily. She heard some quiet cursing and heavy boot steps, heading their way.

Alan squeezed her tightly and murmured in her ear before releasing her, “Careful, Jane. Walsh doesn’t trust you.”

“What? Why?” But there was no time for him to answer.

“So, Holloway, what do you have to say for yourself, now?”

She drew herself up straight and turned away from Alan, shielding her eyes with a hand against the glare of the flashlight that Walsh had aimed directly at her face. She had a quick insight into why this hallway was dark—Ei’Brai did not approve of this excursion. “Why does that sound like an accusation, Dr. Walsh?”

“What have you been doing all this time?”

She took a step toward Walsh. He tensed, his posture defensive. She slowly reached out and pushed down on the flashlight, aiming its bright focal point a little lower, so she could see. “I was doing the job I was recruited to do—communicating with our host. What about you? I thought we agreed we were going to make camp in the medical facility?”

“Things have changed.”

Jane darted cautious looks at the others. They all looked uneasy. Walsh was adroitly using his military background—they were more comfortable with his leadership style. Technically, she was supposed to have taken command under any scenario where the Target was inhabited, but all that changed with the new orders from Houston and he was capitalizing on the lack of a clear chain of command. Nothing had gone according to any of the plans they’d laid out at Johnson. Nothing.

“I didn’t know you were such an impatient man.”

“Not impatient. Practical.”

“Is that why we’re eleven decks away from the capsule?”

Walsh’s eyes narrowed. Jane studied the others’ reactions. Was there hope they’d hear her? Alan stood behind her. He’d warned her; she could count on his support. Gibbs looked conflicted. Ajaya was watchful, frankly assessing the situation. Tom seemed strange, blank.

Walsh spoke, distracting her from Tom. “Am I supposed to believe you know exactly where we are? Just like that?”

“I know precisely where we are. This level is primarily crew quarters.” Jane gestured at a nearby door. “Through that door is a cafeteria.”

Walsh nodded at Gibbs, who then cautiously opened the door, then stepped inside. The lights came on, illuminating a vast room full of an eclectic mix of tables and chairs of various shapes and sizes, in the same murky green as everything else in the ship.

Jane took a step toward Walsh. “Is this exploration or escape?”

Walsh’s lips tightened. No one said anything.

“Escape, then. From what, exactly? There’ve been no threats from the alien—quite the opposite.”

“I disagree.”

“What are you basing that opinion on?”

“This is pointless. I have no way of knowing if I’m even talking to Jane Holloway.”

“What are you talking about? That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? You said yourself he’s inside your head. Even if you’re you, there’s no way you can be objective.”

“That’s simply not true. Look, you haven’t given me a chance to explain anything. There’s a lot as stake here. This is bigger than all of us. Bigger, even, than Earth.”

“I’m sure it is. I’m sure he’s told you how he’s a victim of circumstance. How he needs your help to survive.”

“He—I….” Jane took a step back, nonplussed, and glanced at Alan. He had a thunderous expression on his face.

Walsh pressed his advantage, “He’s told you you’re special, you’re the only one who can make a difference, you have to convince everyone what he says is true. He hurts you and then he makes it better? Right?”

“You don’t know what he’s said to me,” she retorted hotly, trying to mask her confusion while she figured out what was actually happening.

“It’s classic Stockholm conditioning, Holloway. I can see it all over your face. Everything I’ve just said is true.”

“You’re twisting everything before I’ve even said a word. NASA—”

Walsh spoke over her, cutting her off. “I’m trying to protect you. I’m trying to protect all of us. I don’t know what that thing wants. None of us do—least of all you.”

“It’s not like that, dammit! I’m not going to allow you to discredit me this way. Is this going according to plan? No. I can understand how that would make you uneasy. You aren’t in the loop. You don’t know what’s going on. That’s scary. I get that. But, we can’t run away from this. We can learn so much from him. This is an opportunity of a lifetime—”

“It’s going to be a very brief lifetime, if we stay here,” Walsh cut in acidly.

Bergen surged forward. “Quit bullying her. Let her talk.”

Jane grabbed him by the arm and pushed him behind her before things escalated out of control. She filled her voice with conviction. “Listen to me—this ship has been vacant for decades. There’s been no one here to perform routine maintenance, so some things have gotten out of control. We can work around that. We can perform the maintenance, if necessary. We can still do what we came here for—we can learn about the technology. You’re all capable of meeting this challenge. You’re experts at the top of your fields—electronics, computers, engineering. I think that if we worked together, diligently, we could learn to fly this ship. We could take it home, with his help. We don’t need to shut ourselves up in the Providence for another year and a half. We don’t need to run. We can do this. This is why we’re here.”

Ajaya spoke up for the first time. “Is this what he’s telling you, Jane? Is this what he wants?”

Walsh was shaking his head derisively, but stayed silent.

She raised her chin, refusing to back down or try to deceive them. “Not directly, no. He’s not like us. He doesn’t speak plainly about anything. But, yes, I think that’s what he wants.”

Gibbs asked, “Why isn’t he doing the maintenance?”

“He can’t. He’s not…he’s integrated into the ship somehow, stuck in one location. He can’t move around the ship.”

Ajaya said, “But, what purpose does he serve here, then?”

“He’s the ship’s navigator. Look—you all have to learn the language and then you can ask him all the questions you want. You can talk to him like I do. There’s a language lab on this deck. It’s meant for adolescents, but there’s no reason why I can’t use it to teach you. We can use these crew quarters. We don’t even have to go back to the capsule for supplies—there’s plenty of food here. We could thrive here—do work that will go down in history. Just give me the chance to show you. Trust me. I want us to succeed.”

Walsh glared at her. “If you’re so sure it’s safe here, tell me, Holloway—why is he the only one left?”

Jane breathed deeply and squared her shoulders. “I won’t gloss over this. He trusted me with the truth and I’ll share it. The universe is a dangerous place. We—Earth is completely unprepared. If we don’t get up to speed, our home and everything and everyone we love could become food for another species. The people that came here inside this ship were peaceful scientists. They were looking for allies against these kinds of predators. They intended to help us prepare to fight. They all died trying to bring us this knowledge. Someone didn’t want them to find us first. Someone engineered some kind of disease that wiped them out, all at once, before they could make contact with us.”

Ajaya was instantly concerned. “A disease? What kind of disease?”

“I don’t know. They all just stopped functioning—all at the same time, all brain activity blocked, and they died of starvation within days…. What?”

They all looked alarmed, every last one of them. And they all turned to look at Tom Compton, who was standing there, staring off into space, drooling.