Chapter 7 - The Final Countdown
TerraAlpha had never really seemed to Sarah like the bustling hive ofactivity that one would normally associate with a major population oradministrative center, but then it hadn’tseemed like a total ghost town either. Whenever she had looked outfrom her floor of the medical center or had been out and about therehad always been people flittering about here and there, running thevarious errands that they needed to do in daily routines. But in thelast week or so it had become virtually deserted. Most had alreadybeen either been moved to Terra Beta ready to board whichever shipthey had been assigned to or had in fact already boarded thePilgrim’sHope ready for launch.
Sarahhadn’t exactly been forgotten, in factmost of her clothes, what little of these there were, and few otherodds and ends she had picked up over the last few weeks had alreadybeen loaded sent aboard the Pilgrim’sHope ready. It was more by choice thananything that she had remained here at Terra Alpha as most of thosewho had been moved still had duties to perform in the preparation ofthe remaining escort style ships, to Sarah it only really seemedappropriate to call Pilgrim’sHope an explorer or in preparing thegreat Ark‘s that would soon be ready. Things were really starting to escalate towards to the finalcountdown and Sarah wanted some time alone in order to sort throughwhat she had been able to recall of her former life.
Inthe previous weeks she had attended various classes alongside thosewho had been assigned to their other four ships and some of those whowould soon be frozen for the journey. These had been larger intendedas refresher courses for those who had undergone the extensivetraining just after being selected or as introduction to topics thathad been added after the training had taken place. The latter had bynecessity been rolled out to those assigned to the Pilgrim’sHope as this would be the first ship toleave the Sol system and it therefore seemed to Sarah everyone elsehad been five steps ahead of her and she had been constantly tryingto catch up. A lot of the subjects she couldn’t quite get her headaround completely like how the gravity drives worked or how thereactors produced such a high efficiency of energy production.
Theprogram she had been signed up to also included a high intensityphysical fitness program that had seen her pushed to the limit on adaily basis. And this coupled with the academic study that she hadbeen required to take meant that there had come a point where it justwasn’t possible for her to try and remember what her life had beenlike before. There hadn’t been time forSarah to contemplate her sanity either, which seemed like a blessingin disguise to her. But now that she had completed to shortened, butintensive, four week program (and had comfortably passed) there wasnot much to do except think.
Shetried some of the deep breathing, meditative exercises that had beendesigned to enhance recall and help students commit factual knowledgeto memory that she had picked up from some of the other newertrainees. While these lulled her into a very relaxed and contentedframe of mind and helped with her recent studies, they did verylittle to help her to access her longer term memory. Except for somestrange ‘visions’she had had during a couple of very deep relaxation exercises thatshe put down to, for want of a better explanation, lack oxygen to thebrain. These often involved spirit like beings or places thatseemed familiar yet different form the everyday here and now worldshe was used to. None of these really made any sense to her, and shehad tried to record some of them, but when Sarah reviewed these notesthey seemed all too vague.
Onesuch ‘vision’,again Sarah had no idea what else to call them, involved a walkaround a large heavily populated city. Most of them people she sawseemed to be human and some occasionally acknowledged her presents,but most just ignored her like people do when they are focused ontheir next destination or that all important business meeting thatthey simply can’t fail to impress at. What did take her by surprise was that some of the people Sarah saw,as she explored this place, seemed to have a double appearance. Thatis they had their regular everyday face and just out of phase with itwas another more reptilian face that seemed to almost coexist withthe regular one. This was pretty much the point that Sarah haddecided to put these ‘visions’down to lack of oxygen to brain and try something else as what shesaw was impossible. And even if it were possible it made her skincrawl as the implication was that these ‘people’also had some hidden agenda or ulterior motive that went with theirduplicity in hiding what could be their true identity. Of course itcould just have been some kind of subconscious reference to the factthat people often have hidden parts to their lives. So Sarah decidedto put it down to experience and move on.
Ithad also been suggested that she try regression hypnosis which couldeither be self-induced, or preferably performed by someone trained inthe field. Sarah dismissed this as being not all that much morereliable or useful as the relaxation techniques. After all as far asshe was aware the process of hypnosis was just another form of therelaxation techniques she had already tried and could lead to falsememories implanted by suggestion, either deliberately oraccidentally. Anyway this pretty much left her back at square one. Stuck in what could be the far future with no memory of whom she wasor where she came from.
Therewere a few things that she thought she could assume by deduction,especially that is that she was human and that she had been some kindof space traveler. But beyond that there was not a great deal.
TheLight found itself in a strange land that seemed familiar, yet it wasas different from anything the Light had ever knownbefore. There was a blue hue about the landscape and the sky thattotally alien to the Light and unnatural. All around there palebluish beings that had a humanoid form and were vaguely human inappearance but were not human. They black circles were their eyesshould have been and there was no more than a line or slit for amouth. None of these creatures had eyes or noses that the Lightcould see; they seemed to ignore the Light completely. The Lightlooked down at itself and could that it also had a humanoid form andappendages such as legs and arms, but it didn’t seem to have aspecifically physical form.
Thisplace was different from the Abyss, mostly because the Light was nowaware of other living beings, of a sort, and also because there was asensation of time moving in a linear fashion. Whereas in the Abyssthere had been nothing at all, no direct awareness of other livingbeings nor of time. Just nothing.
Thebluish beings glided around across what appeared to be the groundand, although they too had what appeared to be legs, didn’t seem tobe in contact with the ground nor use their legs to propel themselvesforward. Though they were unaware at the movement of the Light, theydid communicate with each other, more through some form of telepathyas the Light could not make any verbal communication. While it could‘hear’the communication between the bluish beings, the Light could not makesense of what was being said, it seemed to the Light that the beingswere passing feelings between each other than the communication ofconcepts or words that most people would have understood ascommunication. In fact these beings didn’t seem to be propersentient beings to the Light, they just were. More instinct andemotion than actual organized thought.
Thelandscape was barren, there were no trees or other forms ofvegetation or where there any kind of structure that would pass forbuildings. Certainly none that the Light could see. On the groundthough there were areas marked out like the lanes of roads going toand from the horizon in both direction, or rather more like pathsthat the beings traversed along, than actual roads.
Whereor when this place was the Light did not, it just knew that it was.
TheLight then moved amongst the other beings and tried to get theirattention so that it could ask them questions. But they either couldor would not acknowledge to Light’spresence nor would they answer its questions. The Light wonderedwhether they in fact had any knowledge of any kind or just simplymoved along these paths for some unknown reason. In fact none of thebeings venture off the path it was on and merely followed the one infront. The Light didn’t think that they were not able to ventureoff the path that they were as it could move between them easily; itseemed to be a case that they were not willing to do so.
Afteran age of moving up and down the lines of moving beings the Lightdecided that it was futile to even try and communicate with thebeings as they wouldn’t even acknowledge the Light. At this pointthe Light just sat down between two of the paths and looked skywardwondering why it was here and how it could leave this place. Thiswas the first time the Light realized how lonely it could be in acrowd of people, or at least pseudo-people, and held its head in itshands.
Thenthere was a change in the feeling of the place and the beings stoppedand momentarily looked around. The Light then felt, as opposed toheard, some kind of trumpet or bugle call and the beings lookedstopped all movement and looked forward. On the second bugle callthey all lay face down on the path where they were and remainedabsolutely still. The only movement was the Light who looked aroundfor where the bugle call had come from, but as it was a feeling andnot sound the Light could not tell. But the Light did feel an almostirresistible sensation to lie face down like all those bluish beingshad down.
Mereseconds later there was movement in the distance to the Lights leftand a blurred image approached at an incredible speed and in littlemore than two or three seconds it had reached a point almost parallelto where the Light was now standing. The Light had no consciousmemory of the act of standing up from its previous sitting position,but here it was standing almost parallel to the thing that hadtraversed the path over the beings. Time slowed down to almost astand still as the thing passed before the Light and it lookeddirectly at the Light all but willing the Light to prostrate itselfbefore the irresistible will of this grotesque creature.
Duringthe seconds between the few seconds between the blur appearing on thehorizon and the creature starring straight it, the Light felt orheard the first coherent thought (or feeling) from the beings sinceit had arrived. It was simple and its meaning was clear, “Herecomes the Grotesque, all hail the Grotesque”. Like many things about this place, the Light was sure whether thiswas what the beings were saying (or feeling or thinking) or if it wasjust the Light’sinterpretation. But the Light felt that the meaning was prettyclear. They wanted the Light, or rather the Grotesque to know thatthey honoured and worshipped it, and that the Light should do so aswell.
TheLight was able, for whatever reason that neither it nor the Grotesqueknew at the time, to resist the will of this being. And in no timeat all the Grotesque moved on towards the other horizon at the sameunimaginable speed as it had arrived. In the milliseconds that timehad slowed and the Grotesque had stared at the Light, the Light hadgotten no real clear sense of what this creature was, or where it wasgoing, or even where it had come from. The only thing it had beenable to get from the Grotesque was that it must be obeyed and that itnow knew the Light and would recognize the Light when, not if, theymet again.
Inthat split second the Light wasn’t able to clearly see what theGrotesque looked like, but it seemed to resemble some sort ofterribly misshaped gargoyle or some titan of a monster from someancient mythology or other. It did, however, seem to represent allthat is evil and cruel in the universe, but possible had no distinctshape or form of its own. The Light also knew that it wouldrecognize this foul creature if they ever met again.
Whenthe Grotesque had vanished over the opposite horizon the bugle callcame again and the beings rose and went about their business asbefore, as though nothing had happened. The Light again got nothingfrom them and they completely ignored the Light.
Thewhole incident left the Light wondering exactly what had justhappened and what the Grotesque was. The Light also wondered justwhat the Grotesques’ holdover these beings was and why it did or needed to travel over theprostrate bodies of these beings. What the Light did know was thatnone of these questions would be answered now and certainly not bythese half sentient beings. The Light decided that it would take thedirection that the Grotesque had travelled off in and see if it couldfind something that go somewhere to answering the questions it had. As the Light started off in that direction it found itself pulledaway from this place by a force not even it could resist.
Sarahfelt consciousness once again wash over her and almost instantly shewas aware of her surroundings. She was in her room at the medicalcenter at Terra Alpha and it was latemorning, possible around midday. The previous evening had been oneof celebration and pretty much all of those who were off duty, andsome of those who had been on duty, had taken part in a feast worthyof many a king of days gone by. Well, apart from the fact the foodhad been more of what seemed to Sarah as the usual tasteless andboring stuff she had shoving down her throat since she was able tofeed herself. But that had not taken from the fact that thePilgrim’sHope had successfully completed a lightspeed trip between Mars and Jupiter. And had returned safely.
Thedistance hadn’t been all that far in thegreat scheme of things, but the significance of the fact the engineshad worked and everything had gone according to the simulations wasnot lost on Sarah. In fact she had partied the previous night ashard as anyone else, a little bit too had if the pounding in her headwas anything to go by. Like the food the alcoholic beverages weren’tanything to write home about, but had the required effect and she hadgotten very drunk. Not that had been an unusual state of being formost people that night. She had even been able to mingle with andget to know many more people than she had done previously. Includinga Lt David Morris, who claimed to be able to speak fluently over twodozen languages and had made more progress translating the aliencraft found here on Mars than in the preceding two hundred years. Neither really convinced Sarah as he struggled with English most ofthe night, but she assumed that had been down whatever he had beendrinking in copious amounts.
Shehad slept through most of the night; well it had actually been fromaround 3am when someone had been able to take her all the back TerraAlpha from Terra Beta, with little or no dreams that she couldremember having. Who this was and how they had gotten here, she hadno idea just that somehow she had gotten back to her own bed andfallen asleep almost immediately. But then something had woken her,and now that she was all but wide awake Sarah decided she might aswell dress.