Allan Ashinoff - The Vostok Revelation

Inorganic matter: metals, plastics and materials effortlessly pass through this substance while organic matter, my hand, is rejected.

An idea came to DeCordova. Replacing his tools in his kit, he then extracted a pair of metal tongs and a glass vial. After unscrewing the cap, he gripped the vial with the metal tongs and sunk it into the object. Turning the vial sideways, he began moving it toward the location where he held it cap partially submerged into the substance. Feeling the vial touch the cap, he slowly rotated the cap counter-clockwise until he felt it grab and then quickly screwed clockwise until the vial was sealed shut. Holding his breath, he withdrew the vial from the object. It was filled to capacity with the curious black substance.

The elation of his success halted quickly. “A promise is a promise,” He said as he placed his left hand, fingers fanned out, against the object. It was a tension filled thirty seconds as he waited to fulfill his end of the bargain. Nothing happened. Relieved and elated he plodded back to the helicopter, confident of his place in human history.

November 2339, Nazca Desert, Southern Peru.

Detecting a signal, a Scout ceased orbiting Vasundhara and plummeted toward the unfamiliar land mass below. Rapidly descending, it confirmed the circuit and lead patterns on the land below against the patterns stored in its memory. Adjusting its decent the Scout traveled east into the center of the fourteen kilometer long trapezoid that was worn into reddish soil. Maintaining its heading after the path had ended, the Scout came upon a series of stone structures in the middle of a desert.

As programmed, the Scout released a subsonic broadcast across the structures. Seconds later, a return-tone sounded from within a rectangular stone slab resting horizontally across the top of two vertical rectangular stone slabs several hundred meters away.

>BROADCAST: Bindu located <

November 2339, Josefa Serrano’s Private Residence, Utopia City. 934 kilometers SE of Bouvet Island.

Josefa Serrano relished the sensation of her bare flesh gliding against her black silk robe as she lounged across her sofa basking in the comforting warmth of the fire burning only a few meters away. Taking a sip from her second glass of 1999 Domingo de Pingus she couldn’t help smiling as she relived the erotic hours she’d spent with the handsome Ian Sanderson, the regional representative from New York. Despite full confidence in her competency and ability to lead the Federation, she recognized that the stresses from the extraordinary events of the past week had chipped away at her professionalism, causing her to be short and more impatient with people. The surprising and remarkably passionate tryst with Mister Sanderson was exactly what she needed to take the edge off and center herself for the challenges to come.

She took another sip of her wine, she placed her glass on the end-table and began to look for her tablet, which, she was certain, was on the couch when she and Ian started up. She located the tablet wedged between two cushions at the far end of the couch and was relieved to find it undamaged. Activating it with her thumbprint and authenticating optically, she quickly bypassed the new mail notifications and navigated directly to the private summation folders of doctors Keith Bennett — Biochemistry, Karen Schmitt — Biotechnology, Candice Morgan — Xenobiology, Matthew Chan — Physics and Mathematics, and General Abebe Naidoo — Peacekeeper Contingent, Sub-Sahara region. Each person was an authority in his or her field and each was charged to evaluate specific aspects of first contact and provide their professional assessments.

Josefa retrieved her wine, drained the glass, and settled back to focus on her work.

November 2339, Ian Sanderson, Representative New York, Temporary Housing Suite. Utopia City.

After a twenty minute commute back to the Dignitary Tower on Utopia City, Ian returned to his suite, shed his boots and jacket and then took a seat at his desk. Reaching into the center drawer he extracted his tablet and placed it on the desktop. He then spit his gum into his palm, rolled it into a ball and flattened it across the middle of the tablet display. Powering-up his device, the area surrounding the gum glowed bright green for several seconds before the unit shut down. Peeling the gum from the display, Ian re-energized the tablet to confirm that the transmission was complete. The data from Director Serrano’s tablet was fast on its way to his intermediate with the Rocky Mountain Separatists who would in turn pass it to the Americans.

Ian rose from his desk, walked to his bathroom, dropped the nanosponge gum into the toilet and then flushed. Anxious to wash the Director’s scent from his body, he quickly undressed and then stepped into the steaming shower.

The things I do for my country.

November 2339, Vostok Station Ruins, Antarctica.

> BROADCAST: Bindu located <

The human spoke briefly and then extracted a minuscule amount of its mass just prior to the reception of a signal from a Scout. The loss of several million tvaSTR was inconsequential to the hundreds of trillions of tvaSTR that comprised the Locater. Such a loss would not hinder its ability to phase or travel to collect the Bindu.

The human spun around as the Locater began to transform. It fell into a seated position in the hima, its heart-rate increased, it’s breathing shallowed and its eyes widened. As the metamorphosis continued the Locater monitored the human’s condition, ready to render assistance. Determining that the human was in no danger, the Locater flattened into a form that would allow efficient travel across the snow covered terrain and then promptly sped away.

Professor DeCordova was pleased with his ingenuity as he began his walk back to the helicopter. After only a few steps something compelled him to look back at the post. He was stunned, as no more than two meters from where he stood, the entire surface of the post teemed with activity. DeCardova fell to his ass in the snow. A dread overtook him as he resigned himself to suffer the consequence of his aggressive action. Dumbfounded, he watched as the post melted into a dark-gray puddle that rested atop the uneven clutter-strewn landscape. Still bustling with activity, the puddle took-on the shape of a rectangular two meter sheet that was a meter wide. A half-meter wide ridged track formed across the center of its length as a curve formed around its periphery. Without acknowledging his presence the track began to turn and the entity raced away from DeCardova and into the frozen wilderness.

November 2339. 1000 Hours. Jefferson Township, Wyoming Territory, Northwest Region, North American Rocky Mountains

The buried boxcar that served as the primary communications hub for the Washington, the Adams, and the Jefferson enclaves was kept at a near-freezing temperature. Samuel Davis, clothed in thermal undergarments, flannel outer-garments, and wrapped in a layered synthetic polymer parka, relished the warmth from the coffee he was drinking as the green progress bar slowly crept from left to right across the center of his screen.

While he wasn’t authorized to know the identity of the agents who regularly sent in data, he could, by examining the list of routers traversed by the incoming packets, deduce where the incoming packet stream originated. This transmission, the one that had him ordered to sit in this icebox freezing his ass off, came from the belly of the beast, Utopia City.

Like everyone in Jefferson, Samuel was more than a little concerned about the Federation’s decision to re-route Utopia City, the planets governing body, deep into the southern hemisphere. Altering the City’s global migratory schedule, a schedule determined several years in advance to accommodate regional ceremonies, ethnic festivals and official events in its Unity Square, was a political maelstrom. Even with months of advance notification dozens of events would be disrupted or canceled and hundreds of thousands of voters would become disappointed with their leadership, something the Federation worked strenuously to avoid. The fact that Serrano chose to do this underscored the magnitude of whatever was happening in the southern hemisphere.