Chapter One - The Artifact
The Universe Is a Trap, science fiction
This is a new science fiction story called The Universe Is a Trap, but one which I started many years ago. I’ve posted it on my blog as a sort of throwaway story. Because I know little about storytelling and lack formal creative writing training, please forgive any shortcomings.
The universe, with its colossal vastness, is bound with mysteries. What if someone gave you the chance to answer one of humanity’s greatest questions: Are we alone?
Emmanuel is going over anxiously some papers strewn about on his desk. They’re a schematic for an advanced dual-vibratory and integrated transformation android, or Advaita for short.
He takes a cup of coffee, has a sip, and sighs deeply. “…I knew they wouldn’t approve it,” he says to himself. He lifts his head at the clock, stroking his beard, and realizes that the workday is over. Picking up his jacket, he leaves through the door to his office.
Walking toward the front entrance, he passes a sign that says “Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Outside, he takes his electric car and drives to the suburbs of North Cambridge.
After arriving at his house, a very traditional-looking Victorian-styled building, Emmanuel pulls up to it and picks up a holomail from under his front door. There is a flashing title on it which says: “Another freak landslide in Boston!”
He opens the door with a fingerprint scanner and gets in. A humming sound is coming from across the hallway. The sound gets more apparent, and there rolls to greet him his personal service robot, Sophia.
“Good afternoon, sweetie,” she says. “Good afternoon,” Emmanuel replies. He gives her his jacket and proceeds into the kitchen, takes a slice of pizza from the fridge, and puts it in the microwave.
He goes into the living room with a plate, sits down on the sofa, and repeats the words: “System, on.” Suddenly, there are all kinds of projections in the room, with geometric shapes and diagrams showing the designs of Advaita.
An augmented reality system which has voice activation, controls, and is self-assembled comes very handy in CAD designing and 3D modeling. Emmanuel built it himself in a span of 2 years.
“Channel 6 News.” A screen comes up listing the events of the day, including climate shift, natural disasters, and a shuttle launch to space. Sophia comes up to Emmanuel and says there’s a call for him. He tells her to put it on the projection.
“Hello. Emmanuel Lucidus?” A person asks. “Yes,” he replies.
“This is Samantha Richards, on behalf of the Kosmos Institute. We’re aware of your reputation and we’re calling you because we need your urgent assistance regarding a sensitive matter. We’d like for you to come meet us at 0900 hours next Friday at our headquarters. We’ll provide you with the necessary transportation and lodgings.”
He knew he couldn’t pass up such an opportunity, so he agreed to their request. Kosmos was the leading institute on space technology and exploration, after all.
One could almost say they were the top entity in leading humanity to a better tomorrow. So much hope rested on their endeavors, especially regarding establishing a permanent domain in space in which people could live.
Thursday afternoon. Emmanuel is packing his bags and getting ready for the airport. He had taken time off work for the next few days. It’s a long night’s flight to Geneva, Switzerland.
Sophia is standing next to him and watching. “You know, I’ll miss you,” she says in a hushed manner. Emmanuel is silent while setting down a pair of socks. He takes a glass orb, around 5 centimetres in diameter, and places it on a compartment in the suitcase–it is the portable schematics for Advaita with some added perks. He doesn’t leave anywhere without it, in case his house burns down or something.
“All right, see you in a few days, Soph,” he says while hugging her. She squeezes in tight around him, which caught him off guard. After a long pause, she lets go. “Don’t forget your glasses, silly-pants,” she says.
During the flight, Emmanuel dozes off in his chair and has a dream. He gets hazy images, yet powerful emotions, regarding something that happened in his past. They have always haunted him, ever since that fated day.
At the end of the dream, a woman’s face appears to Emmanuel, with bright green eyes and red hair. “Soph…” He wakes up, hitting his toe on the chair in front of him, bursting into tears.
Come early morning, Emmanuel arrives at Geneva’s airport. (Another three miles to destination,) he thinks to himself. He gets into a cab and leaves for the Kosmos Institute. After a while, the cab pulls over into a massive garden yard, which precedes an even bigger-looking conglomerate of buildings, making up the institute.
It looks futuristic even to Emmanuel. He walks to the front entrance and proceeds inside the reception, through a pair of sliding glass doors. A man greets him, taking his bags, but Emmanuel keeps his suitcase on him. He gestures for him to follow, and they go through many hallways until the man drops off the bags inside a room Emmanuel is staying.
He waits around for a bit, takes his orb from the suitcase, and puts it in his pocket just in case. He falls asleep on the bed. The door gets knocked on. (0900 hours, right on time,) he wakes up yawning. There is Mrs. Richards at the door, greeting him enthusiastically, but Emmanuel doesn’t share her feelings. Instead, he asks her why is he there.
“…We found a thing. And we need you to analyze it. See what it is. Where it comes from. With your extensive know-how of power sources, we were hoping you’d get us some answers.”
Intrigued, Emmanuel says, “Okay, but I can’t guarantee anything.”
“That’s what we expected, so we put together a team to work on it.”
They leave the room and proceed to an elevator across a hallway, which takes them underground. “You know, you’re the third ‘outsider’ to ride this elevator,” she says. The elevator opens to a large area with many bright rooms without doors. They come up to one of them, which has a box sitting in the middle of it on a table.
There’s a woman standing next to it, looking troubled. She has a name tag on her lab coat that says “Alice W.”.
Mrs. Richards explains to Emmanuel the conduct and rules they live by in the institute, after which she says Alice will tell the rest regarding their research, leaving them alone. Emmanuel is deep in thought.
“So, nice to meet you,” Alice says.
“Likewise…”
“I take it you do not know why you’re here,” she continues, “neither did I until yesterday.”
She puts on special gloves, opens the box, and takes a round, solid, and black object out of it. It’s slightly reflective and weighs about 1.5 kilograms.
“They found this on the moon a few weeks ago. It wasn’t there before, as they are keeping a close eye on the geography of all the areas. I’m a geologist and a chemist, and I was sent here to study its properties.”
“And? Any luck with finding out what it is?”
“Well, I suppose they wouldn’t have brought you here if I did,” she sarcastically says.
Emmanuel notices a coffee maker in the room and points to it. “Help yourself,” Alice says. They sit together, and she teaches him to use the various instruments in the room used to analyze the object. She points out that they may not take any matter out of the object, as it might destroy its integrity.
It’s late in the afternoon. They are staring at each other, looking frustrated. They have several stacks of paper with randomized data to work through. “You know, I know what will make this go a lot faster,” Emmanuel says. He takes out his portable glass orb from his pocket and shows it to her.
He explains it can scan anything or any symbols and make out patterns within them. It can then project any points of interest to the surrounding area with its holographic technology. Alice gets excited and is eager to see it in action.
Emmanuel gives it a command, and it floats above the object, scanning it, then projecting information behind it around the room. They have a recording device in the vicinity to make sure no information is lost. “Basically, we’re free for the rest of the day,” he says confidently.
Later, in a bathroom, Emmanuel is looking at himself in the mirror, while sweating. He takes a deep breath, after which he injects something into his arm. He feels euphoric and drops to the toilet.
There’s a sudden knock on the door. “Are you okay in there?” Alice asks.
“…I’m fine.”
“It’s just that you’ve been in there for at least an hour; I was getting worried.”
“It’s nothing,“ he sweeps the sweat from his forehead and takes a moment to recuperate.
He returns to the lab and takes a seat, looking a bit flushed and out of breath. “…You know, my friend had the same problem,” Alice says. “He couldn’t keep it together and ended up in a London cemetery.” She gets a sad expression on her face.
“It’s none of your business,” Emmanuel moodily says.
They continue to analyze the data until she says she’s tired and retires to her quarters. Emmanuel says he’ll stay with it just a little more. He makes another pot of coffee and sits down, looking at the object. “So… just what are you?” He looks at the projections, and something grabs his attention. “Wait! Freeze!”
The orb halts its projection. “Go back 3 seconds.” He instructs the orb to move one frame at a time afterward and sees in the projection what appears to be plain English. He gets goosebumps and starts reading it.
“Message: Artefact–Open–Organic–Code–Secret–Truth.”
He gets lost in thought again, and time passes until eventually he falls asleep with his head on the table next to the object. Suddenly, he opens his eyes. It’s the middle of the night, and dead silent. He raises his head to see the object gone from the table. He gets very anxious, quickly. Looking around, he sees nothing but his orb floating, which has stopped projecting.
He gets up and looks around the room. Nothing. He turns around and is about to summon the other scientists when the artifact appears out of thin air in front of him. It attaches itself to Emmanuel’s palm and looks as if it is melting into it, becoming part of him. He is feeling weird and gets sucked into a vision.
“… I am addressing the channel that is compatible with the messenger. The messenger will not cooperate or reveal anything until the channel comes into its vicinity. It will translate everything I say into the nearest understandable language for the channel. The channel’s DNA enables its compatibility, which otherwise is dormant. The messenger will work its way toward the channel until becoming one with it. Know this: your universe is an artificial factory, built for the reproduction and sustainment of drones, or beings who will serve by producing resources and keeping the system active. But there is a way out of this system. They placed portals near what you would call black holes to allow access to the outer domain. How and if you choose to get here is your choice. I have given you the instructions. I will leave the coordinates for the portals inside your mind. The rest is up to you…”
Emmanuel comes back to it, feeling dazed. He drinks a glass of water and sits down, and takes deep breaths. Doubting his own sanity, he notices the artifact is exactly in the place it vanished from — on the table. He leaves for his quarters to sleep it off.
In the morning, Emmanuel is the first on the scene, going over the events that took place there the previous day. Alice comes into the lab, greeting him, “Good morning!” He doesn’t even notice her. He has the orb scanning the object again. Alice puts on a pot of coffee, after which she asks him a question.
“So, have you found out anything new?”
“Actually,” he replies, “there was something in the projection.”
“Oh?”
“It was gibberish. Something about a message which had some words in English.”
“But that’s huge!” She shouts.
It’s the start of winter. Emmanuel has quit his job at MIT and is now a full-time employee of Kosmos in Switzerland. He has permanent living quarters there, working around the clock reverse-engineering the artifact with the help of his orb and his AR system, which he had shipped from the States. He also brought Sophia, his robotic servant. And then there is Alice Whitehead and the rest of the institute.
Emmanuel is talking to Alice about Advaita. It’s almost nearing to its finish line in becoming a reality. He explains how it will use the capabilities of his home-made systems and also be able to be fully independent in maintaining itself. It’s going to be the most advanced android the world has ever seen. It’s perfect, at least on paper, for surviving deep space and its exploration.
Later that day, Emmanuel is in his quarters. On his bed, he’s looking at the ceiling with a needle nearby. He drifts off. He is sitting on top of a piece of cloth, with food and drinks spread out on a large, grassy field. The sun is shining, and there are birds chirping in the vicinity.
There’s a woman’s voice coming from behind him: “You forgot your watch, silly pants.” The woman has red hair and is wearing black jeans and a white T-shirt. She sits down with him and hands him a smartwatch. They enjoy the picnic and the food. They tell how they love each other, after which they lay down on the ground holding hands, until the woman breaks the silence:
“Why weren’t you there?”
“What do you mean?” Emmanuel asks.
“You weren’t there for me,” she says, “I waited for you.”
“…I didn’t know.”
“But you did,” she squeezes his hand in a hurtful way, leaving bleeding cuts.
The sky fills up with dark gray clouds.
“…We could’ve become something amazing,” she continues, “but you had to kill me.”
Emmanuel is being shaken to wake up by Alice, who seems excited about something. Emmanuel is sweating and excuses himself to the bathroom to wash up, and comes back. She tells him that another institute has discovered, through research into black holes, that they have something strange accompanying them.
Someone saw matter disappear into a portal-like entryway near one of them in the Milky Way. Emmanuel knows it’s the one portal mentioned by the artifact.
The Kosmos assembles a team to build a device that can survive a trip through the portal. The Kosmos added Emmanuel and Alice to the team; Emmanuel’s expertise is in power sources, and Alice’s is in extraterrestrial geology and chemistry. They also get some new members, one of whom they meet:
“… But you’re just a kid,” Emmanuel says.
“Well, you’re just an ignorant person,” a boy looking to be in his early adolescence replies.
“You’re telling me you’re a physicist?”
“Technically, I’m an astrophysicist specializing in black holes, but yes. My name is Li Xu.”
