THE BABYLONIAN

Chapter 6: The Ship

‘Why didn’t our scanners picked it up before it got inside?’ Red was shouting at Winston and some of the others as I walked towards his place.

‘It must have been shielding itself using an electromagnetic interference similar to our system', said Winston with a look of uneasiness on his face.

‘Why would it do that unless it already knew we where here and was seeking upon us?’, demanded Red.

‘I don’t know', said Winston looking down.

‘They could have traced the signal back here when you last lowered the shield to transmit some message with Nova’, I said as I came and stood aside Winston.

‘That’s not possible. The last time we transmitted anything was weeks ago. If they had traced it, they wouldn’t have waited weeks to send a search and destroy party', said Red, not pleased by my presence.

‘Then it is as I doubted – they always knew and was waiting for the right time', I said.

‘No, that’s not possible', said Red, clearly agitated by my remark.

‘Maybe he is right. They did send a destroyer masking its presence to purposefully destroy our artillery forces', said Winston looked at the destroyed jets and artillery house burning in the farthest corner.

‘Many of the towers have been destroyed. We should try to get the shield back up as soon as possible', said Red.

‘What good would it do, if they already have our location?’ asked Winston.

‘They deliberately took out our defenses and destroyed a lot of our artillery: that could only mean that they are going to hit us with a large force very soon', I said looking at Red.

‘If that’s case, we are toast. We have no choice but to transmit a message asking Nova for help, strengthen our defenses, get ready for battle, and hope that Nova would send reinforcements in time', saying this, Red turned back and walked towards his quarters.

I walked back towards the dock where I had been sitting when we were attacked. As I was walking I saw that many people had gathered around the smoking drone. There were noises and shouting everywhere as people were trying to make sense of what had happened. It was still dark and the fire burning from the destroyed squadron could be seen like a bon fire: that reminded me of the fire I saw in the town in which I had found the girl. It made me think of her, for I still believed that she was the means for me to get to Opium – where I would find the meaning of this game.

As I walked past the people gathered around the drone, I heard Red’s announcement:

‘Dear people of Tandum, we have reason to believe that tonight’s attack was just a foreboding of something far worse to come as the enemy now knows our location. As I speak, we are transmitting a message to Nova – asking them to send reinforcements as soon as possible. We have lost…’

I stopped listening to it when I saw the boy sitting near the dock. As I walked towards him, I looked up and saw the Minovaes, that had deserted their nests hearing the loud noises from the shooting, returning back. I was very much immersed in the details of everything happening around me, and that made me wonder – am I forgetting that I’m in a stimulation.

I went and sat near the boy. The luminescence of the water was subsiding and I couldn’t see the reflection of the moon anymore. I looked up – there was a dim, pale color to the sky and I thought that the dawn was upon us.

‘Do you still want to see it?’, asked the boy, looking at the sky.

‘Sure, why not! Now’s as good a time as any.’

**********

He lead me down through one of the tunnels near the third squadron. It was the first time I noticed that they weren’t really tunnels; it looked like the inside of a large underground facility. There were many labs and rooms meant for developing and testing weapons inside, but as we headed deep inside the place became more remote and broken down. Many of the paths were, partially or completely, blocked by fallen debris.

‘What is this place?’ I asked.

‘You’ll see.’

We got to a place where there was a huge hole through the floor that looked like it was created due to a big blast. I started climbing down, following the boy.

‘Be careful, or you’ll cut your hand’, he shouted from below.

I saw many structures in between the different compartments, but couldn’t recognize what it was. The path through which we were climbing down became narrower. The boy then jumped onto a ledge on the other side and skidded into a huge hollow; and I followed him in. The place was huge and there was a platform on the middle that stood raised, and in the middle of it was a bowl like depression; and the boy walked towards it. If it weren’t for the sunlight creeping in through a big hole, high up on the other side, the place would have been completely dark. The boy, walking up to the platform, took off something from his neck that looked like a necklace with a small, long crystal on one end; and placed it into the hollow in the middle.

The place suddenly lit up, and huge blue holographic projects appeared all over the place. It looked like some sort of navigation system showing the positions of stars and galaxies. Then it suddenly dawned on me and I said to myself:

‘Of course; it’s a ship.’

**********

I climbed a tall cliff that was about half a mile away. I did it in order to get a clear view of Tandum: I was surprised that I didn’t notice it before – the huge structures surrounding the place clearly had an unnatural arrangement. But it had never crossed my mind that it could be a space ship. Some sort of chemical reaction had caused the material of the ship to act as an absorbent, and form thick layers on the surface that gave it the appearance of a rock surface. It must have been lying there for thousands of years. I wondered who had discovered it first.

‘You see’, said the boy who had just finished climbing up.

‘The thing on your neck, what is it’, I asked as I sat down to catch my breath.

‘It’s a crystal. My father gave it to me, and he said that his father gave it to him. I think it’s some sort of a key that makes the ship work.’

‘Maybe.’

When I got back, it was almost noon. As I was walking back I looked up at the sky, and noticed that the sun never reached vertically above – I am somewhere near the North Pole, yet it’s not that cold. I wondered whether they had designed the game from the real world outside.

‘We’re near the North Pole, aren’t we?’, I asked the boy.

‘Yes', answered the boy.

‘Do you know what the rest of the world is like?’

‘No, they say it is a vast desert; except for the two poles. There is another settlement in the South – they say that it is larger than all the settlements in the North.’

‘Is that where Nova is?’, I asked.

‘No. Nova is somewhere between the equator and the North Pole', said the boy. ‘It is the biggest military force we have. It is too hot for anyone to live near the equator, and it is where THEY are.'

‘So that’s where Opium is.’

The boy nodded with a grave expressed on his face.

*********

I saw that weapons were being set up in anticipation for the arrival of the enemy. All of the remaining towers were mounded with two more guns, and there were guards keeping watch at all times. All the squadrons were being mobilized, and the jets were kept ready to take off in a moments notice. I went to Red’s place to know what his plan was.

‘You’re telling me that now… morons’. I was able to hear Red’s shouting from a hundred meters away. Red and some of the others were standing below the huge weapon I had seen near Red’s place – the one they called Verge.

The shouting continued as I went towards a guy who was standing near the Verge. I asked the guy what the problem was.

It turned out that the huge weapon was actually a very powerful particle accelerator. It uses tremendous amount of energy to compress light particles into a neutrino beam that is strong enough to converge the space-time fabric – thus the name Verge. And when the fabric of space and time is infinitely converged, it will create a space-time singularity which can swallow any kind of enemy ship – even a whole fleet – and then collapse; making them lost forever.

But there was a small problem: we didn’t have the technology or resources for creating such a machine. However, Nova figured out that some of the enemy ships were capable of interstellar travel, and they followed a similar principle of making a space-time singularity in order to create a wormhole. Nova took down one of their ships and were able to scavenge enough parts to create the Verge. The testing of the Verge, being a dangerous process, were given to Tandum; so that they can carry it out in a remote area – Winston was in charge of it.

Winston tested it on the monster that attacked me on the first day, and reported it as a success. But, however, there was a small detail Winston hid from Red – the singularity they created was unstable and it didn’t collapse right away; it kept on becoming bigger, until it swallowed the whole town and then collapsed.

‘We don’t stand a chance against them without the Verge', Red was saying as he walked to and fro, looking at the large weapon.

‘We can move it out and then use it’, said Winston.

‘Even if we see then coming, which we won’t, we won’t be able to use it in the open without being spotted', said Red, still walking to and fro; now with his hands behind the back. Red paused and added: ‘let’s hope Nova gets here in time.’

Without the Verge, it was impossible for us to hold our own against Them. Red had said that our transmission must have been received by now, yet there was still no response. Red belived that Nova had received the transmission and didn't respond because they weren't able to get a safe window to transmit their message without compromising their location. However, many of the others were skeptical about Red's theory.

Anyway, there was nothing left for us to do except wait and prepare for the comming battle. As I turned to go back to my squadron, I noticed a large open box - inside it was a big - crystal like - ball; about the size of a football. It reflected the light in a brilliant way, unlike anything I had ever seen. But I realized that I had seen that kind of reflection before, and that too very recently.

As I stood there, staring into the orbuculum, I felt a sensation inside me as if I was looking into the past - a past that is very far behind. The feeling felt almost tangible: like the memory of something that hadn't happened yet, or small that was waiting to happen. It was very difficult for me to tell what was what anymore.

'Zero'. I heard a female voice call me.