Earth Space Union's Alien Asset Files: #1 - Private Capal

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We were gathered today in a detached research laboratory for the first teleportation test. Months of research had allowed for the capture of negative energy through barrier manipulation. Afterward, teams had studied the data from the Elusians warping Preston and Sofia away to determine how to use the mined power to the same effect. The real work would be done now that we had a mechanism that could, hypothetically, punch a hole in spacetime.

The problem was that we had no idea where the other end would surface, or the specific amount of negative energy needed to keep open any tunnel that crossed through a higher dimension—in this case, the fourth. We couldn't control it like the Elusians. To travel between two universes with portals, we'd need wild, sustained amounts of energy and to even…know how to connect it with another realm.

Words to describe such concepts barely existed! How had the gray aliens ever figured such things out, just identifying where each realm was located in 5D space—which our minds couldn't even comprehend? If the humans could figure this out, that would make them godly in my eyes much more than their super strength; unfathomable scientific leaps were needed to become a true, interdimensional power. I considered myself lucky to be along for the ride, despite the subpar company.

It was strange to be back among my own people, working alongside General Kollig's team of experts. Ambassador Jetti's massive entourage, made of any researchers that the Derandi could whip up, worked alongside the small handful of human scientists who were readily able to get to The Gap. The dimension hoppers were doing most of the heavy lifting back in their universe, with their researchers relaying experiments conducted on Earth from afar. Also participating remotely were the Girret, once they heard about the android presence.

From what I've gathered, the humans are happy to not have a bunch of Girret guests on site. The reptiles want to be in the loop, but not to contribute to more than second opinions and far-out readings in case we…lose any objects. We have no idea how to control where the portals spit stuff out.

Humanity's plan for the machines to warm to their creators by working alongside Kollig's people wasn't working. Mikri was the only one who participated in our collaborative sessions with ESU scientists, and the other organic Vascar didn't reciprocate his friendliness. My cohorts either acted like he didn't exist, or spoke to him with scathing disdain. The android didn't show any irritation, contented to follow Sofia around, though I wondered if he was secretly fantasizing about killing all of us creators.

"Capal." The sound of an electric razor being switched on jolted me out of my trance, as I had been staring at the crude teleportation field generator through the deck's bay window. I flung myself backward, after seeing Mikri lurking ominously behind me with the razor raised inches from my head. "I require your mane."

I crawled backward, wondering where Sofia had vanished off to. "What? You can't 'have' my mane! Why would you even want it?!"

"I want a soft mane. Preston says my rubber mane is for robutts, which I am not; I have learned it is not good to be associated with organics' posteriors."

"Preston says all sorts of crazy shit! I don't see why you'd care about being associated with a body part, since you have no juvenile mirth about waste orifices!"

Mikri beeped. "Who says that I am not amused by how gross organics are? At any rate, I need this for Preston…so he'll like me more. He has been subdued since we returned from Doros. I want our friendship to go back to normal. I do not wish for him to be disappointed in me any longer."

"So this is what, an apology gift, like the hula hoop? You want to cheer him up?"

"Yes!" Mikri whirred as closely as he could to the razor's buzzing, like singing along to a song. "I could source this fur from one of the other creators here, whom I do not like, but I do not see the harm in you helping me. Your mane will grow back, so it is a temporary deficit."

I raised a claw, defending myself in a hurry. "Whoa now, you don't need to take a mane from anybody. Ours wouldn't even match your coloration; you want the same silver color as the one you have now, right? You can have hair like…the humans' stuffed animals. Polyester—synthetic and soft!"

The android switched off the razor. "This seems acceptable. Please procure this for me at once! I want it to be a surprise."

"This chipbrain is threatening you with a weapon?" General Kollig stormed over, reaching for a gun he did not have; the ESU hadn't allowed our people to bring any firearms. "It just wants to kill us all, and the humans let it parade around! It's a fucking butcher."

"Leave him be. Mikri…asked very nicely if he could borrow my mane, and I gave him another solution. It's nothing to worry about," I said.

Mikri ducked his head in a shy gesture. "I mean no threat to you. I want to have tactile appeal to my human friends."

"What does that mean?" Sofia asked, having returned to the room with a cup of water. "Mikri. Why are you hiding a razor behind your back?!"

"I'm not."

The scientist snatched it from his grip. "Then what's this?"

"A razor. However, if I was able to hide it, you would not have seen it. Therefore, I was not hiding it."

Kollig scoffed, curling his lip. "Hear how literal it is? It can't understand anything."

"Mikri understands perfectly, and is being obtuse on purpose," Sofia sighed. "Give him a chance, will you? He's trying to work with you; a lasting peace would be good for everyone."

"Again with the unspecific terminology." Mikri's eyes glowed in a way that seemed mischievous. "Peace is good. So long as Sofia does not mean 'lasting' for merely as long as Larimak does in…sensual ways."

The Vascar general gave the android an astonished look. "Excuse me?"

I chuckled. "You still think he doesn't understand what he's saying, Kollig? Mikri has worked very hard to wrap his head around us, and you have to admit, he's come quite far."

"It can never understand what it means to be a complete, feeling being. It is code, a program that we made possible. The Servitors are nothing but our biggest mistake, and I'm humiliated to watch this test as 'equals' with it."

"You're lucky that you are given equal treatment, with all that we did to the humans. You simply don't want to consider that we did unimaginable harm to a complete, feeling being."

"You know what they did to us! You're a traitor to your people, defecting to the humans in all but name."

"You throw that at me like I'm not proud of it. Unlike you, they have an actual cause to fight for!"

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Mikri whirred in frustration. "Enough! We all have sided with the humans now. It does not benefit our objectives to persist as enemies. I forgive Kollig's ignorance."

Sofia placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm proud of you for being the bigger person, Mikri, and not letting his actions define yours. Today is a big day for us, and the culmination of months of hard work. We should all keep our eyes on the prize."

Taking a literal interpretation, I focused my gaze on the humans' contraption in silence. We were minutes away from warping the fabric of spacetime with a negative energy field, and witnessing the ripple effects of such distortions. While the Elusians' wormhole had been self-contained, we were keeping the experiment a jump and a skip away from the Space Gate facilities just in case. For all we knew, the gray aliens had some supplemental field to stabilize the warp tunnel, or an understanding of the exact parameters needed for it not to emit a devastating pulse.

None of the androids' simulations suggest that forming a brief bubble that sucks you through to a different point would have catastrophic energy output in its vicinity, but we've never witnessed it in real space.

"I never imagined that we'd be powerful dimension hoppers when I signed up to go through The Gap," Sofia breathed. "All I wanted was to explore the rest of our universe. What a beautiful desert mirage Sol's stars are, as gorgeous as the shimmering horizon on Doros."

Mikri offered a subtle beep. "I've never understood how you assess what 'beautiful' should refer to, and why this generates positive emotions."

"Beauty, to my eye, is drawn from that which captures your fascination and makes you dream bigger dreams; it fills you with a deep pleasure and calmness that is just intrinsic. Like I said then, that comfortable tapestry makes you feel at home. It's why I suggested stargazing back on that beach with you. I spent many nights just looking up and…wondering."

"I do not think I have ever wondered about things that I have not encountered, and what hypothetically may exist…apart from wondering if there may be another you. You are beautiful, Sofia."

The scientist smiled. "You are too, Mikri. It takes a uniquely beautiful person to move and inspire me like you have. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I've always…tried to be a good role model for you."

"You are not a good role model. You are a great one."

"Can I have a role model?" a chirpy voice asked behind us. I glanced backward to see none other than Hirri, hopping around. "If yes, I choose Mikri!"

"No! Not me. Your mother is your role model, and there is no need for you to calculate other options."

Sofia narrowed her eyes. "How did you get in here, Hirri?"

"Preston told me to sneak in. I wanna see the magic trick! He said you're going to make a spaceship disappear!" Hirri answered, bouncing with excitement.

I raised a claw, waggling it in disagreement. "It's not disappearing. It's being transported somewhere else in an instant."

"Even cooler! It disappears and reappears far away! Let me watch."

I hesitated, before picking the avian child up. "Okay. I'm Capal. I'm Mikri's friend. What does your mother think about you being here?"

"I don't know. She let me stay on the station because Preston is mad at her. I guess she said really mean things during the flashing lights: like the kids who say mean things to me for being unable to play sometimes. I don't know why Mama would do that though! He's big and nice, and his fingers feel really nice when they scratch me."

"All I care about is keeping you safe and letting the doctors treat you!" Jetti had noticed her son's escapade right over to a human scientist and a dangerous android, hopping over. "Hirri, I let you stay because I was unfair to Preston, and I'm trying to show him some trust. I've asked you not to get close to the humans! I've explained how easily they can squish you just by…slipping or pressing down a bit too much."

"We're very mindful to avoid hurting you. The Derandi's help has been invaluable, and I'm glad we can all see the moment of truth. Hirri deserves the joy too." Sofia gestured toward the window. "Are you excited, Jetti?"

"Not really. I'm worried by how casual travel from Sol will be now. You already have enough power and insane technology, able to skip on in from another dimension."

"So do the Elusians. I wonder how your people feel about what they told us."

"The Elusians never interfere, yet they created a species that altered the course of our entire universe without saying anything or explaining themselves, even now?! It's a move of extraordinary recklessness, or carelessness, on their part to leave us at the mercy of a species with disproportionate power! We're very lucky that humans are kind monsters."

"Monsters?" I echoed. "Granted, I thought the same when I saw them punching through concrete and my friends alike, but I dropped that idea the second I heard what they had to say. You just said humans are kind. They're not monsters solely because the Elusians made them this way. Put yourself in their place."

"Of course, I meant monster as in…frightening. Their abilities are extreme and shock the senses."

"Then I want to be a monster!" Hirri declared.

"No, you don't. And you can't be anyway; you're a Derandi."

Sofia bit her lip. "Don't discourage Hirri, please. The defining mark of a parent is to let your kids dream what your generation thought was impossible. Derandi could be able to do this 'magic trick' soon. That's cool and visually shocking."

"Did your parents encourage you to teleport and pick up trucks with your bare hands?!"

"Not exactly. But I was always told to go out and do the things no one had ever done. And here I am."

"I'm here too, somehow. I'm helping dimension hoppers make history, a few months after being a foot soldier. Life can turn around in an instant," I said. "We're progressing thousands of years as a society in a decade. Not even the precognitive humans truly know what the future holds!"

Mikri beeped. "I only know one thing about our future: that so long as I exist, I will always love Preston and Sofia. This is impermeable."

Sofia's eyes shone with tenderness. "You can know two things then, because we'll always love you back."

Awww. That android and his humans were so sappy sometimes that it made my heart swell. I steadied an excited Hirri on my shoulders as the project leads began the countdown, and all eyes turned to the teleportation field generator that was prepping for initiation. The Elusians' flashy demonstration had given us crucial sensor data on the location and strength of its negative pulse. This could then be compared to the radius of that warp bubble, to gather a rough estimate on how much energy we needed to capture a certain area with the effect.

That was how the humans knew where to place their drone, to be whisked elsewhere in this dimension and hopefully beam back data to give an answer to the last part of the equation—how the energy and angle of the pulse decided where it would end up. From there, we had to compare how it functioned in Sol physics and finesse it enough to be reliable, but this was the big moment. Mikri's kind had really come through as the backbone to accelerate this process, though I dreaded what they'd ask for the second this project was complete.

Tomorrow's problems should be for tomorrow though; today, I wanted to celebrate.

"Five, four..." Sofia counted, encouraging Jetti with a pointed look.

The Derandi hesitated, but noticed that Hirri was vibrating with excitement. "Three, two…"

"One," I finished, eager to see the results.

This culmination was the reverse of when Preston and Sofia's ship popped back into the hangar, paying no heed to the solid barriers around it. There was a round flash of light that was almost nauseating, reminding me of the sensory disorientation that humans described passing through The Gap; it was gone in a mere tenth of a second, like a mouth that had closed over a berry. The ESU drone being sent through had vanished—swallowed by the pop of jumbled radiance—in a near instant transfer.

Derandi, Vascar, and humans alike stared in awe. I had never seen such a grand achievement of science in my lifetime, and it was beautiful; it filled me with the exact fascination, dreaminess, and contentedness that Sofia described to Mikri when discussing such an assessment. It was a short moment, but one that you came out the other side from knowing the world was changed forever. The prototype had really worked! These crazy dimension-hoppers had brought together a team and replicated Elusian technology in months.

As the gravity of this monumental success released its stranglehold, the humans in the room broke out in raucous cheers and applause.

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