Noumenon Infinity

She rubbed her eyes. The chem lab was bright, the lights harsh and true white. “I need to get back to analyzing the new items we found. Some malformed block metal.”

“Still nothing like the Babbage Engine on the Nest? No computers, no archives?”

“Nothing. They cleaned up real good when they left. It’s spotless, almost like a crime scene. They rolled up all but the sidewalks.”

“Isn’t that strange?”

She shrugged. “If someone handed an alien a fork, a zither, and a hookah, how accurate do you think their assumptions would be? I feel like that’s the level we’re working on. We have nothing, we know nothing. Our only real hope of understanding them is in those maps. If we don’t find the keys here, we just have to prep for the next stop.”

There were seven more X’s in all on their alien map. The farthest away was a gravitational mega cluster—was it the Nataré home system?

That’s what many were speculating, although it wasn’t the only theory. There were so many possibilities now that they knew evidence was out there, that the maps were real!

He looked concerned then, like she’d just said something that undermined his entire world view. “Caz, you’re assuming …”

She cocked her head, wary of his tone. “What?”

“You’re assuming there is a next stop. The board committed to coming here, but if there’s nothing related to the Web, no instructions, no hint at its engineering, origins, or purpose, then … You know it all has to come back to LQ Pyx to be seen as worthy of convoy attention.”

He can’t be serious.

She pushed her goggles onto her forehead. He was about to protest, but she barreled forward. “That was before all this,” she said excitedly. “That was when we weren’t sure there would be anything to find. But look at this.” She stabbed the glove box, leaving a fingerprint on the otherwise pristine surface. “So simple, so basic, yet brilliant in its design and range of application. When we find a real settlement, a place they truly lived and died, think of what we could uncover. There’s no way the board is going to turn down the opportunity to chase after an entire civilization’s worth of learning in favor of a single construction project.”

His expression didn’t change. Something unsettling snaked its way through her stomach, but she held fast to the evidence before her.

It would take them centuries to hit all of the X’s, and they would have to travel light-years upon light-years in the opposite direction of the Web.

But why should that matter? What was one alien artifact to an entire alien history?

This was bigger, better, surely the board—hell, every last crew member—could see that.

Dr. Baraka saw it, long before anyone else.

With a sigh, Diego removed his hands from the glovebox. “You know the official mission statement doesn’t mention the Nest, or the Nataré.”

Because those points were kept secret from Earth, to ensure they wouldn’t interfere. “So?”

“So, you might find that means something to some people. That they don’t see the omission as subterfuge so much as emphasis—on what’s really important.”

“You know what’s important?” she asked firmly.

“What?” He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

She kissed the top of his head. “You, me, and our girls.”

“Nice subject change.” He laughed. “Smooth.”

OCTOBER 25, 122 RELAUNCH 5279 CE

Anticipation made Caznal’s head light. Today she’d lay out the Nataré team’s final conclusions about the alien history of the planemo, and her plan for which X on the map to travel to next.

There was a gravity well closer than her intended destination, but she wanted to journey to where two X’s were less than three light-years apart. It would give them the biggest bang for their buck, to employ an old saying. As a personal bonus, they would still arrive before her retirement, allowing her to play the greatest part in Nataré research for the maximum amount of time.

Dossiers had already been distributed. She’d take final questions, and then it would be onward.

Navy-colored uniforms shuffled in—all of the ship’s captains and their seconds in command—followed by at least one uniform of each other color. Many handshakes and smiles propagated throughout the gathering. There was a buzz in the air, and a buzz in their bellies as copious amounts of coffee, tea, and yerba maté were passed around the long marble table.

“Are we ready to begin?” asked First Officer Joanna Straifer. She was a direct descendant—the biological granddaughter—of a Reginald Straifer clone and a Nika Marov clone, and shades of both of them could be seen in her face and hair. Everyone aboard knew those lines well. There was a special hall on Aesop wallpapered with portraits of the clones who’d had a great impact on the convoy, and Joanna was the product of not two, but three. Her biological mother, Esperanza, had spearheaded the initiative that saved I.C.C. from Earth’s interference. “Caznal,” she continued, “you have the floor.”

Screens took up each wall, but Caz chose to use the holographic projector in the center of the table for diagram viewing. She brought up a model of the planemo, then zoomed in on Crater Sixty-four.

“First off, I’d like to say how great it’s been working with everyone on this project these past few years. We’ve been able to learn so much, it’s—it’s been exciting.” A small pang of guilt hit her. Dr. Baraka sprang to mind, his face flush with joy. Now, he was as he’d been when they’d first arrived: dreaming. Lending his processing power to the Nest, to the department he’d cared so much for. And yet, he had no idea what lay kilometers below his sleeping form. She shook his ghost from her mind, then continued.

“These are the layers of excavation.” She gestured at the changing hologram. It displayed a cross-section of the crater, with a flag indicating where each item of interest had been found over a fifty-six-square-kilometer area. “The top layer was explored mainly in months one through three, the next in four through seven, the third in seven through sixteen, and so on.

“The third layer is where we first found definitive evidence of the domed structures. And it was the fifth layer where we uncovered the three-mile-long metal scaffolding.” The image shifted at her command, displaying only the scaffolding in its unexcavated form. It was a series of long crushed beams—more log-shaped than steel girder–shaped—tangled and twisted, but clearly once the skeleton of a structure. “At first we believed it represented a horizontal building, but we now conclude …”

With a few artful flicks of her fingers, she repositioned the holographic pieces. Like the fossilized bones of a dinosaur rising from a tar pit and finding new life, the digitized framework pushed itself up, hammering out its own kinks and mending its breaks. It sat up tall, its narrow, topmost point jutting away from the planet’s surface.

“It was a single vertical tower,” she said. “Likely the foundation point of a space elevator. Models indicate that it’s likely many of the domed buildings were actually attached to the elevator—as temporary living quarters, workstations, or lift pods, we don’t know. What the elevator could have been reaching toward is also a mystery.

“But this much is clear. Crater Sixty-four was excavated by the Nataré—giving it its distinctive terraced rim—and used as a staging ground much like the Moon was utilized during the creation of the P.U.M.s. Also clear is that the settlement was quickly, yet thoroughly, dismantled. Much of what would have been required to run such a station is missing, indicating they either took it with them out of necessity or a sense of responsibility.

“The remains of the space elevator and the supercycler towers, however, were left behind. It seems they were toppled and buried by subsequent space collisions, which suggests that once the site was abandoned, the Nataré never returned.”

She scanned her notes quickly. “Oh, and one geological item of note. The thickness and density of the secondary ice layer, meaning the layer beneath the debris layers, is of an unusual uniformity across the entire planemo. A few of our geologists have suggested this could have been caused by the rapid freezing of a once gaseous atmosphere, indicating the planemo did not coalesce here. It either originated in a distant star system and was thrown out of orbit, or it once wandered with a much higher velocity and passed through the radiation of—but was not caught by—a star which superheated its ice, forming an atmosphere which rapidly cooled again once it had escaped the star’s influence.

“This is relevant to our Nataré research, since the aliens chose to bury the bases of all of the remaining structures below this ice layer. Perhaps they felt it was too unstable a foundation, so they cut through to the stone beneath. We’re presently unsure, but it gives us one more data point on Nataré thought process and construction habits. All of the information and samples we’ve gathered have given us plenty of work to sustain us to our next destination.”

Caz shuffled through her folders, finding the one with the maps. “Which brings me to the future. What are our next steps? Which Nataré location should we travel to? Which one gives us the best chance at the most data? After consulting our gravitational surveys and—”

“I’m sorry,” Captain Nwosu, Joanna’s cycle partner, interrupted. Their two clone lines were staggered in growth, so that the two of them would be each other’s master and apprentice clone after clone. Much like Caznal and Ivan. “I’m going to have to stop you for a moment,” he said.

Caz mentally stumbled—she’d been on a roll and had just missed a stair. “Oh, um, why?”

“We aren’t here to discuss a destination change,” he said frankly—clearly confused by Caznal’s confusion. “We’re here for a summary conclusion to this portion of the mission, to be sure it’s time to move on.”

Several brows around the room were furrowed, many mouths drawn tight. “What destination change? I wasn’t aware a destination had been chosen.” She of all people would know which X they’d picked.

The captain exchanged glances with the two department heads nearest his chair. “You’re suggesting we travel to someplace other than LQ Pyx, are you not?” He said are you not, but it sounded like did you have a stroke?

“LQ—you think it’s time to go back to the Web? Now?” Never mind not being on the same page, they were in completely different books. “Why would we abandon the study of the Nataré? We’ve barely scratched the surface of our available research, we have a map with seven other independent locations to explore, and we haven’t yet found anything relating to the construction of the Web.”

“Exactly,” the captain said, as though Caznal were making his point. “Our investigation of the Nest has always been directly tied to our priority: the Web. Without any evidence that a further exploration of Nataré worlds will lead to information regarding the Dyson Sphere, we can’t afford to continue on this tangent.

“Our intellectual resources only stretch so far. We could spend infinite lifetimes following these breadcrumbs, hoping for more than scraps, or we can focus on the ultimate point of our mission: completing the Web and harvesting its energy. This is a real, solid goal, versus a vague promise of a possible treasure trove.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Did they … could they not see? How could these people not understand?

Atlanteans. They’re here.

We’re in the Night Land and I’m getting messages from the Lesser Redoubt.

And just as with the wanderer, no one else cares.

Her abdominal muscles tightened, and she fought to keep herself upright. She felt like she’d been punched in the gut, kicked in the face.

There’s nothing quite like being told everything you’ve ever worked for is a waste.

And still, she wouldn’t accept it.

Not after we went at this so hard. Not after my team—not after the professor—

“You’re telling me a dormant, incomplete megastructure beats out alien settlements—however temporary—for importance? There could be living, breathing Nataré out there, but discovering whether or not that’s true, that’s just a tangent?” Her gaze flickered around the room, looking for help, for a sympathetic face. “That’s unreasonable, isn’t it? That doesn’t make any logical sense.”

We could be sharing this galaxy with other sentient beings. They could have families, feelings, wants, dreams.

Wasn’t that what reaching out into the stars was all about? Finding humanity’s place in the universe? Figuring out if we’re alone.

And now we’re on the precipice, might be able to answer yes or no, but the crew …

Nwosu cleared his throat and leaned forward, threading his fingers together on the tabletop in a far too polite, I’m-about-to-educate-you manner. “Convoy Seven has had a very clear goal from the beginning. It began with Noumenon’s inception—” The entire room collectively nodded once at the mission name, an unspoken reverence echoing through the situation room “—and continues now with Noumenon Infinitum. We have a collective calling that our genetic lines were chosen hundreds—and in some cases, thousands—of Earth years ago to fulfill. Esteemed scientists handpicked us, assigned us our posts and our goals, with a strict purpose. It is our calling, our—”

Caznal laughed. It was a sharp, manic sound, which threw itself from her lips the moment she understood what the captain was trying to say. “Are you … are you kidding me? Manifest Destiny? You are scientists, engineers. Educated to the gills for the purpose of exploration and innovation, and this … this mythicizing of our place in—”

She took a deep breath, reeling herself in when she realized she was hunkered over the table, fists balled, voice raised.

Okay, they want to focus on the mission? Bring it back to the mission.

“Noumenon Infinitum,” she began, articulating firmly, but keeping her tone reserved, “clearly states that the study of the Nataré is vital. We can’t reject our findings outright. We can’t abandon the evidence or the maps.”

“We won’t,” said Margarita Pavon, communications head. Where Straifer and the rest of the long-haired command team had their locks tightly pulled or slicked back, she let her ample curls bounce freely. “Everything you’ve uncovered will be communicated to Earth. We will suggest a new mission, focused on the Nest’s maps. Then they will be able to build the appropriate research vessels and construct a fit team. Right now, most of your division is a hodgepodge. Repurposed. We’ve been unprepared to study the aliens from the beginning. And now that we know our best chance at further construction on the Web relies on reverse engineering—”

“We don’t know that at all,” Caz grumbled under her breath.

“—rather than an alien instruction manual, we can continue on with our society’s purpose.”

“Really, Caznal,” Nwosu said, “I have no idea why this surprises you. There are millions upon millions of worthy research subjects in space. We can’t go willy-nilly picking whichever one we want. We are a Planet United convoy. You should take comfort in having a firm, forward goal.”

“I take comfort in mindful pursuits,” she bit back. “Noumenon’s original goal wasn’t to build anything. It was a mission of discovery. Finding any proof of extraterrestrial sentience was in itself considered an improbability. You aren’t making a decision based on critical thinking. You’re not even choosing legacy ideals over new discoveries. You’re pursuing a mythicized version of reality; instead of looking forward, you’re romanticizing the past.”

“I don’t understand why we’re letting this conversation continue,” huffed the head of education. “Doctor Caznal’s fundamental misunderstanding of our entire social order can be amended on her own time. No one here is looking to put a new destination to a vote, so I suggest we move on.”

“No,” Caz shouted. “No. We were only supposed to move on to LQ Pyx if the destination proved fruitless—”

“It has,” he said.

“How can you say that? If you were being the objective scientists you’re all supposed to be—”

“I’m sorry, Caz, but I don’t think we’re the ones not being objective,” said Captain Onuora.

Caznal’s eyes shot to Hvmnd’s captain—her friend. Onuora’s dark eyes were sympathetic, and her tone matched. But every word that followed felt like a knife to Caznal’s back.

“We know you despise the decision to keep Doctor Baraka under when we arrived at the planemo. I think this decision feels like another betrayal to you. As though we’ve undermined not only the man, but his legacy. No one is suggesting we halt analysis on the data you’ve already collected. Nor should we stop examining the Nest. But the pursuit of the Nataré as a people—as Web builders—has to end. We have other work to do—that we were always meant to do. It’s not personal. Don’t make it personal.”

This is my entire life … how can it not be personal?

“That’s not what this is about,” Caz said meekly.

“Either way. As a colleague, and as a friend, I suggest you let us move on to the next order of board business.”

With her will suddenly drained, it felt as though the bones had been plucked from Caznal’s body. She sank into a chair with no firmness to her movement.

Onuora was wrong. Wasn’t she? Caz wasn’t trying to overemphasize the importance of the Nataré because of Dr. Baraka. No, of course not. Wouldn’t the botanists be surprised and angry to have their hybrid programs suddenly stopped? Wouldn’t the engineers cry foul if they lost access to the Nest or the Web node? She’d just had the rug pulled out from under her professional life. That was it. That was all.

“Mom? You all right?”

A soft crash-boom of distant waves underscored Min-Seo’s voice. As water rushed up Caznal’s calf before receding again, she opened one eye.

Her grown daughter leaned over her, hands on her hips, her computing jumper left behind in exchange for a tank top and slacks.

The wave pool sloshed once more, and the sound system continued to play real surf sounds. Every ten minutes, a gull squawked. Up and down the sandy beach, other crew members read books or took naps. One woman on a beach towel scowled at Min-Seo.

“This is the quiet pool,” Caz reminded her at a whisper.

“Oh, sorry.” She settled in beside her mother, rolling up the cuffs of her trousers to stick her feet in the damp silica. Fine, pale grains stuck to her toes.

“Thought the three of you were supposed to be on a romantic vacation,” Caz said, noting neither Hiro nor Kexin, her daughters-in-law, nearby.

“We are. I could tell things were getting a little spicy, so I excused myself.” She checked her forearm implant for the hour. “I’ll get back just in time for the cuddles. You know what I always say …” She gave her mother a wink.

Caz cleared her throat and recited, “‘The advantages of being an asexual panromantic in a polyamorous relationship.’ By the ships, that is a mouthful.”

“Which is why I like to hear you say it. It’s life affirming and a tongue twister all in one.”

The sand was both rough and soft, a dichotomy Caz enjoyed. She slipped her fingers beneath the surface, down where it was dark, and cool—untouched by the sun-mimicking lamps overhead. “So, you happened to find me, or …?”

“I got a message from Dad.”

“My pilikua is worried about me?”

“Yes. He said you haven’t been yourself since—”

“Since the board voided the importance of my entire field of study? Yeah, you could say that.”

“Shh,” hissed the woman on the beach towel.

With a dramatic eye-roll, Caz heaved herself out of the sand, clearly giving Min-Seo whiplash as she was settling in. “Come on,” Caz said, giving her a hand up. “If you’re going to cheer me up, we better go someplace else. Preferably a place with a lot of chocolate or mod-coca.”

Hand in hand, they wandered away from Shambhala’s wave pools, past its gyms, and down to the dessert bars. These were new—an upgrade installed before second launch. Food printers allowed chefs to turn convoy basics into a variety of concoctions—both healthy and not so. The professional behind the counter scanned your biometrics, looked up what you’d already eaten that day, then created a specialized dessert menu based on your remaining rations and current blood sugar.

Science at its best, Caz thought.

“Oh, Gyeongju bread,” Min-Seo said, sniffing the air as a crew member strolled by with a plate of three of the bean paste–filled rolls.

“Go for it,” Caz said, “I think I’m going for a pick-me-up of the green-leaf variety.”

“Meet at our star-window?” Min-Seo asked.

“Of course.”

The mod-coca dispensary was a charming little nook that mirrored the tea dispensary on the opposite side of what had come to be known as “dessert lane.” Caz chose a small packet of dried leaves for chewing and the botanist in charge took vice points off her rations file.

The first pinch was bitter, had a bit of a sulfide bite to its bouquet, but it settled nicely in her cheek as she made her way to the meeting spot. Relaxing as the chew was, she knew it would do little to help her depressive mood—unless it magically imbued her with the ultimate powers of persuasion. How could she make an entire society realize its error in judgment?

The star-windows were located on the ship’s topmost level. During SD dives, they displayed a false-view of space. Nebulae would engulf them in colorful haze. Dying binaries would dance by. Stars would twinkle balefully in the distance.

Now, they were true windows. Floor-to-ceiling, turned to give the perfect top-down view of the planemo, which was largely dark save for the single crater overrun with human lighting. They were just far enough out that the dark spot was ringed with stars, and if you put your forehead against the glass—as Min-Seo and Caznal did now—letting your eyes cross just so, you might feel, for a moment, like you were falling into a black hole.

“It’s been two weeks,” Min-Seo said between bites.

“I know.” Caz sighed, her breath lightly fogging the window. The aluminosilicate glass was frigid against her skin. “And it’s not just me.”

“The whole Nataré division,” Min-Seo said knowingly. “Vega said she’s barely gotten two words out of Ivan.”

“Did you hear they’re thinking of reassigning our lines?” she asked Min-Seo. “Putting the next clones back into the business they were chosen for?”

Min-Seo stopped her chewing, a wad of pastry and beans rounding out her cheek. “But I thought they said you could still work on the crater samples.”

“Yep, we—meaning those of us currently working. Once we’re retired, they figure it’s all clones on the Web train once more.”

“It’s too bad it has to be one or the other. I mean, doesn’t it make sense to do both? We haven’t heard back from Earth yet, we know they can’t be counted on to follow up. We’re the explorers, we should be doing everything we can.”

Caz shrugged and stuffed more coca in her mouth against her gums. The bulge in her lip made her sound funny, but Min-Seo wasn’t one to take a cheap jab. “Unfortunately, one convoy equals one mission. They’ve narrowed down what that mission is, and my people are just SOL.”