CHAPTER 6

WHAT WAS

SCRIPT

With visions of our ship ripping apart as it was struck by weapons from my own world filling my imagination, I rushed toward the cockpit.

I arrived to find Joanna and Christian on duty. I thought about telling Joanna that Elis had woken up and then fallen unconscious again, but I had a job to do.

I quickly explained what I had been told by the cube. Christian and Joanna looked at each other and then began working on the controls. After a moment, they had calculated a new flight plan, one that would take us out of the path of the incoming weapons. I had no idea what they could be, but nuclear warheads seemed like a good bet. (Thoughtful) Or it was just hunks of metal with an engine strapped to them. It’s easy to hit a target when you know exactly where it was going to be. We had been kind enough to supply a flight path telling them exactly that.

As the ship banked gently to one side, throwing us off our pre-arranged route, we agreed that we would not inform anyone of the new flight path.

There was another problem though. As we got closer to Earth, we would become more and more visible to searching eyes. There was little we could do to correct that. At our current distance, we were effectively hidden due to our small size, against the back drop of stellar giants.

Our other advantage would be our new radio silence. If we flew in silence for the remainder of the way, and made the occasional course change, we would be more likely to remain undetected. There was a trade off though, as the course corrections would cost fuel, which we did not have much of to begin with.

With the immediate disaster averted, I told Joanna and Christian of the whole series of events that had brought us here. Joanna left her seat with haste, and started for the medical bay. Christian gave me a nod that she would be alright, and sent me after her.

We arrived at the bay, and Elis was still out. Joanna went to his side while I checked the instruments. They showed him to be stable, and seemingly just sleeping.

After a moment, he stirred, and looked to me. He asked me what had happened, and I explained. (Said with a sigh or a smile, like trying to express something that cannot be expressed easily) I told of what I had seen, what I had been told, all of it.

Nodding has he listened, he offered his own side of the picture. When we had found the Cube on Mars, he had been compelled to touch it, the Cube had seen something in him that made it confident in his ability to survive the interaction, and that he would believe what he was shown.

He had seen what I had seen, had heard what I had heard, only rather than a warning of weapons, he was told of the urgency of getting the Cube to earth, so that the Messenger could complete its mission, and so that the strain on him could be reduced.

He had told Joanna of the effect it was having on him. When I had seen them embrace back at the Martian base camp, that had been when he had told her that he might not survive the trip back. (With Admiration) Joanna’s trust in him, the fact that she did not protest or fight him on this, showed some of her character.

I looked at her, her eyes were fixed on Elis, and she held onto one of his hand tightly. She looked relieved. It was the most I had seen her at ease since we had found the Cube.

Elis explained that now that they were closer to Earth, the pressure and drain he had been feeling were lessened. He said he could feel it getting steadily easier to bear. Part of that was our shortening distance to Earth, and part of it was that I now shared the burden.

We spoke at length of the feelings and thoughts that we had processed. We wondered whether others on our crew would have their chance to touch the Cube and see what we had seen. We also wondered what the Black Cube had shown its own acolytes, or even if it resorted to that kind of direct interaction.

There were a lot of unanswered questions, but every day we got closer to some answers.

The rest of the journey went without trouble. There were a few times that mission control sent out radio messages to us, asking us to confirm our flight path, but they went unanswered.

As we approached our final destination, our determination increased. As the Cube drew closer to the Earth, its ability to influence people on our home increased, as did it’s ability to know what was going on.

Elis had all but recovered at this point, having only some lingering weakness, but he continued to gain strength. As for myself, I had felt some of the drain, but it had not lasted long.

The Cube had called on me again, and had shown me what was happening at Mission Control. The Black Cube had been focusing its efforts there, and with some choice military officers with the capability to stop us on our flight. The White Cube had been using it’s own influence to throw them off our path, to make sure when they looked for us, they did not see us.

At that time, the Black Cube was not yet aware of the full capabilities of the White Cube, though they shared similar designs, it had not had to test its ability to reach out across vast distances like the White Cube, and so did not know what it would take to do so.

This uncertainty on the part of the Black Cube served as one of our only advantages during this time. The White Cube explained that it gathered energy over the centuries of waiting, while watching the development of our people. It knew that eventually the Black Cube would want to reach out into the stars, to disrupt the great work of the Creators.

It needed to get to other worlds, make more of itself and seed them among the stars, to thus corrupt the work of the creators and start it’s own work.

To do that, it needed a people capable of making it to the stars without the help or consent of the creators. A people of ingenious natures, builders, thinkers, in short, what we were, what we had become.

In all other worlds, the technological progress of a people had matched their cultural, spiritual, and ethical development. No other world, according to the plans of the Creators, would reach for a technology without carefully considering the implications of it’s adoption.

Other worlds had discovered gunpowder, but rarely had that translated into weapons of war on the scale we had created. Other worlds had split the atom, but only two others had armed themselves to a degree capable of destroying their own world.

This out of countless worlds.

I had asked the White Cube how many worlds had been part of the Creators test, and Cube seemed almost apologetic when it told me I could not comprehend the age or scope of the work, that to me it would be just a number, if counting it as a number even did it justice. The work continued to grow, always, and almost without a hitch the whole time.

As it had said, the Black Cube was not the first attempt at corrupting the test, and likely it would not be the last, but it was the exception and not the rule.

(Temporary pause) Where was I?

Oh yes, our one advantage. The Black Cube had no concept of what was possible under the difficult circumstances of the White Cube, and even better, it seemingly had come to the conclusion that the White Cube had been completely wiped out by it’s attack back at the beginning.

It had been completely surprised when report of the White Cube’s discovery had come back to it from our mission. It was only then that it had realized what the White Cube had done.

It had saved its power, built up it’s reserves over centuries of observation, until mankind had finally started to touch the stars, and when the time was right, had used all of that energy to effect the Director, and guide the first mission to where it lay in the Martian sands.

It had used it’s influence to that one purpose, so that we would come close enough to it, to be touched by its influence, and awaken us to the state of our existence.

It had worked, obviously, the evidence of that sitting in our cargo bay on it’s way back to Earth with us.

What would wait for us back home, we didn’t know. The Black Cube was now aware of the existence of it’s antithesis, and would know that if it got back to Earth, it would have access to the human race just as it did.

We had to come up with a plan though. Once we reached Earth orbit, we would be an obvious target, and would likely be quickly destroyed.

With this in mind, the crew gathered once again, and discussed our options.

The first idea we had was to take the lander, and abandon the ship at the first sign of weapons coming to destroy us, but this would make our lander a target. If we planned where we came down, we would likely make it to Earth before they could do anything against us, but there was no guarantee.

Another thought was to broadcast our location as a general surrender, and let them send someone to us and take the Cube. Once whoever had come was within it’s range, it might very well be able to counter whatever effect the Black Cube had on them. But this was risky, for there was nothing stopping the Black Cube from simply causing our destruction with nuclear weapons as soon as we got close enough.

We went back and forth for some time before an idea came to Christian.

The Black Cube had to have gotten to Earth from space somehow. It suggested that Cubes could survive reentry on their own. A target as small as the cube, traveling in a free fall, would never be able to be intercepted by any weapon on the way down. If we just dropped it out of the ship, it would survive.

But what would happen after that, was anyone's guess. They would know where it landed, and be able to nuke it then.

With nothing else, I went to the Cube again to ask it it’s thoughts. We were now only days away from being visible from Earth again, and we needed a plan.

I gave the cube a run down of our ideas, and the situation we found ourselves in.

It gave me the only option that would have a chance to work.

We had to drop it right on the Black Cube. That close to the other Cube, they couldn’t risk nuking it, and with it in such close proximity, the White Cube would be able to counteract the influence of the Black Cube in the area. In effect, they would stalemate each other, leaving us free to act beyond the influence of either of them.

I wondered what I would do, when my thoughts were my own, and my actions not influenced from other sources.

The Cube reassured me, that since we had left Mars, it had had very little effect on my choices or thoughts. My impressions of it’s message, my desire to help, were all my own, it told me.

I would soon find out.