12 Days of Fiction 2016 -7: Discovery, Part 3
A spaceship. In a secret underground facility in Antarctica built by Ethan Musk. Of course, there had to be more.
“This is not human-built,” Max said.
“Alien. An alien spaceship, Max!”
It was obvious: the craft appeared weird, all curves and odd angles with a shiny silvery skin. It looked closer to a sci fi model than to a real human spaceship.
“It was a serendipitous finding, Dr Danek,” Dusk said. “But a fortunate one. An extraterrestrial vehicle.”
“But how…?”
“We were looking for something else, and found a dead body buried in the ice, frozen. A body that didn’t belong to a human, or to any animal that could have evolved on Earth, Dr Danek. Later DNA analysis proved that.
We changed our aims. I posited there had to be a ship nearby, and we found it. We excavated this facility in order to study it. There’s a full report in the public folder of our network. You should have been granted access now, and I’m sure Max can find it.”
“Done,” Max said. “Wow. I’ll show you a complete version, but he’s given us the sweet and short of it.”
“What was he doing here when they found the ship?” I asked Max.
“No mention of it. Do you reckon it’s important?”
“I have no idea, Max. Send an autonomous probe into the system to find out all you can, will you? Make sure it’s armoured and anonymized. Assume Dusk is aware of your capabilities and act in consequence.”
“On it.”
“Have you finished talking to Max, Dr Danek?” Dusk was smiling again.
“Oh, sorry. That’s something I should work on. People back at the lab have already grown used to it, but I’m told it’s… creepy.”
“Not at all! I told you, I find it fascinating. I think I’d indeed like to have one AI of my own.”
“I don’t think I’d like that,” Max said.
I stared at Dusk. What was that in his eyes? Greed? But here was a man who had everything, and who had managed to get it all through hard work. Hell, I was sure that if he wanted a symbiotic AI he could design and build a better one himself.
“I’m not so sure of that,” Max said.
“Anyway, we may talk about it at a later date. Right now, I guess perhaps you’d like to visit the ship?”
“Oh yes.”
“Good. This way, please. We need to dress up.”
I noticed there was a room next to the wall, by what I thought was the ship’s stern, and Dusk was motioning me towards it. Inside, two technicians helped Dusk and me put on full-body isolating lab coats on top of our clothes, including gloves, boots and hoods. They inspected us and gave Dusk a thumbs-up.
“Shall we?” he said. I couldn’t see his face, but I bet he was smiling again. I thought he was really enjoying this.
We crossed a sliding door that opened automatically, and we found ourselves in a section of corridor that was made up of framed corrugated plastic, barred by a second door in front of us. I was blinded by gas that blew from above us with a loud hiss, but that lasted only a few seconds as it was quickly vented out through slits on the floor. The second door opened into a longer tube that sneaked towards the ship.
“This looks like E.T.,” I told Max.
“Well, the frozen aliens certainly won’t go home anytime soon,” Max said.
“Got something?”
“Not yet. I’m searching Dusk’s main system, you know, just out of curiosity. As any user would. I’ll let you know when the probe returns.”
The plastic tube ended at the ship’s body. An elongated section matching the shape of the tube had been obviously cut out to allow access to the vessel.
“We had to use laser cutters. Nothing else worked,” Dusk said. “And there are no obvious means of entrance. No hatches, or windows. Nothing. We determined there was a large enough cavity here, using ultrasonic probes, and drilled us a way in.” I thought I read pity in his voice. “We really don’t know if we’ve ruined anything vital. Or if there was anything left to be ruined, for that matter.”
The ship’s interior was… weird. Everything was plain. Just odd shaped corridors without doors or windows, like Dusk had said. Just a surface that looked metallic on floors, walls and ceilings.
Dusk let me wander in silence. We passed a couple of rooms, large openings in reality, that looked as bare as the rest of the ship.
After a while, Dusk spoke.
“So, Dr Danek, what are you thinking of?”
I looked around me.
“Where’s everything? There’s nothing. I see nothing. No machines. No communication devices. No computers. No life support. No propulsion. Nothing. Where’s it all?”
“Good questions,” Dusk said. “We believe all systems are embedded within the ship, in the parts that are not cavities or corridors. We think that mainly because there’s no other possibility.”
“Amazing,” I said.
“That’s where you come in, Dr Danek.”
“Me?”
“Yes. You, and your symbiotic AI. You see, we need you to talk to the ship.”
