Last Gasp

Dover and Franklin held centre stage, and the audience was eating from their hands, from which they were fed titbits and familiar anecdotes of the lives, they shared on Pioneer Space Station. It was fun and felt great, but although heartfelt it saddened them as it was all part of the strategy employed to ensure the audience felt confident that they were who they thought they were, good old Dover and Franklin, the Rock Zone's two most talked about legends. They needed to re-establish their previously unquestioning bond with the others before completing the final parts of the revelation that would enable them to fulfil a personal obligation to their fellow Rock Zone workers and their families.

Still nervous about taking the next step they walked from the Dias, snubbing the staring dignitaries who they passed by without giving a glance as they strolled into the throngs of cheering workers. They had chosen that moment carefully, instructing their Skinsuits, which were merely a nanobot simulation to enter Transparency Mode, thereby exposing what the crowd would believe was their true selves in full view of the crowd. And for maximum effect, their reveal was displayed on the big screen which was still being transmitted live across the Solar System. After copious shaking of hands and hugs from friends and family, they strolled back to the Dias where they turned to face the crowd and spoke in unison, proudly exclaiming.

"We would like to introduce you to our families!"

As if by magic the Dias widens, and the crowd go silent as they watch lumps sprout like molehills from the surface of the Dias, which rapidly grow into six figures, those of their wives and children. They knew this was a critical moment and gave the crowd a moment to absorb what they had witnessed. At first, there were only gentle whispers of enquiry which rapidly rose to a crescendo until Dover's voice echoed in every headset.

"I know that there will be a lot to take in and you will be overflowing with a multitude of emotions and questions, but please hold firm, and listen as we do our best to explain."

He then turned toward Franklin, who took an audible deep breath, as Dover invited him to speak, and began by asking the crowd what he knew was a rhetorical question, well at least to the adults.

"Have you ever wondered how in such a brief time so many of us were able to make the journey from Earth to the space station?

To make his question feel personal he pointed at those he knew well and a dozen or so of those he did not and asked the question directly and each gave the same audible reply which was echoed thousands of times by their fellow workers.

"Using cryogenics of course."

First, he shook his head, indicating a questionable response, then replied.

"That's what I believed too, but that is a lie because we are at least one point six light years from Earth, it would have taken over thirty years even if ISO's Interstellar Fleet had operated at maximum capacity 24-7!"

As expected, there were those in the crowd who instantly questioned the source of their data and the following were the most common of the questions asked, to which Dover would need a reply.

"Why should we believe you?"

"Who provides you with your data?"

"Firstly, I'm not asking you to believe me, as you know full well, I'm not qualified to make such an assertion, and this brings me to the most pressing of your questions."

"Who provides you with your data?"

He took a step back and points towards the giant screen which loses its picture and once again displays a vista of interstellar stars, he pauses for a moment before speaking again.

"Let me introduce to you the architects of the movement known as the Aequalitas Causa. Econtos and Salvenza De Schmittenvere, who have renounced the egotistical surname of Zillion in favour of that carried by their ancestor the ISO founder Rebekah De Schmittenvere."

The screen begins to shimmer and after a long moment the picture resolves, to reveal a middle-aged couple, standing in what looks like a laboratory dressed in standard-issue white coats. The couple were unimpressive, lacking the natural aggression of a typical Zillion and humbly introduced themselves taking the time to explain who they were, and that they lived in exile due to the threat posed to their lives by their younger sibling Oscar Zillion. The CEO of ISO they had been expecting to see on the screen today. Econtos and Salvenza had expected a more hostile reception, but Rock Workers and their families are not people prone to overreaction, and patiently allowed them to continue uninterrupted, barring the odd heckle from the now uncomfortably seated dignitaries. The crowd hissed with disdain at every heckler, this gave the De Schmittenvere's an unexpected advantage due to the respectful manner they treated the crowd, unlike the contempt frequently shown to them by Oscar Zillion's seated minions, so the crowd responded positively to the twins.

Before proceeding Salvenza warned the crowd that what they were about to see would shock even the most stoic among them to the core. And that they needed to try to remain calm throughout their presentation, and to remember that the most important thing they had was each other. The camera zoomed into the three screens that formed part of the laboratory wall, upon which they displayed three figures and only then did Salvenza continue.

"It may not be obvious, so let me explain, each of the figures on the screen represents one of the three different forms of humanity coexisting on Space Station Pioneer and the other ISO Outposts scattered around the edge of the Solar System."

At Salvenza's mention of three different life forms, there was a noticeable intake of breath at all the ISO Outposts, and this was the reason why it had been imperative to ensure that where possible the message was issued across the Solar System in one shot and after riding the pause Salvenza continues by explaining what is displayed on the screens.

"The figure on the lefthand screen represents your good friends Dover, Franklin, the crew of the Sphere, and the other Aequalitas Causa team members scattered across the Solar System, which includes me."

"The figure on the righthand screen represents every last one of the Rock Workers, their families and any non-Tech Team support workers employed throughout the ISO Empire!"

Salvenza deliberately overstressed the word empire to ensure maximum impact.

"And last but not least the centre screen represents Oscar Zillion and all his minions, such as these pompous looking dignitaries sitting on the Dias like Heads of State, in what I'm sure are no longer comfy chairs, who will be in no doubt about the authenticity of what is revealed."

Back at ISO HQ Oscar Zillion was no longer feeling quite so comfortable, but in true CEO fashion remained as cool as a cucumber, with his finger smoothing the attack button on his wrist pad. Things were about hot up, as the Sphere's ramp spilt out onto the Dias, and a solitary figure dressed in a skinsuit emerged through the wall of the Sphere. The figure casually walked across the Dias and looked down at the face of the reclined Oscar Zillion, and waited as he relaxed on his throne whilst watching the events that were unfolding on the screen. Whoever controlled the media superimposed the image of the silent skin-suited figure which stood before Oscar so that it stood side by side with the lefthand figure displayed on the laboratory's screen. But throughout the presentation, Salvenza was unperturbed by the figure's emergence at either ISO HQ or on the screen and continued confident in the knowledge it was all part of the main plan. Moving a step or two forward she pulls up her left sleeve to reveal a wrist pad, not dissimilar to the one worn by Oscar and casually presses a button, in response the figure displayed by the centre screen resolves into an X-ray image, showing a typical human internal anatomy, comprising of a skeleton, vital organs, muscles, and brain etc. nothing that would excite the watching crowd, who gave out a little sigh of disappointment, which was exactly as she had expected and in her mind thanked god before continuing.

"As you can see there are no surprises here, well, that's apart from the fact that the skeletal structure is absolute perfection, with no sign of a flaw, quite clearly the product of costly genetic engineering."

"Well, as that did not excite you, let's take a look at the figure on the left which represents members of the Aequalitas Causa deep space team, like me Dover, Franklin and their families who are deployed on interstellar missions."

The next image revealed on the screen came as a surprise to both Rock Workers and Dignitaries alike, but still, Oscar remained impassive, he was well-practised in the art of dealing with surprises and knew his siblings well, so had been expecting something outrageous. The X-ray image showed that the skinsuit was an exoskeleton held together by an internal lattice-like infrastructure, comprised of countless interconnected cavities or pockets. Each cavity or pocket even though not tissue and veins like a human brain, there was a similarity in that the fluidic medium it contained was host to a network of pulsating interconnections instead of neurons, but did not contain any organs, or anything physically resembling a brain. Salvenza paused and allowed the audience to take stock because they were aghast and asking each other all sorts of questions, dozens of which were trivial and irrelevant. Fortunately, the crowd on the ISO HQ space station maintained an air of calmness however, it was unfortunate, that there was no live feed from elsewhere in the solar system, through which they could gauge the overall reaction, but secretly hoped that solar system-wide it had remained just as calm.

And expectantly, the Rock Workers were waiting for the centre screen to reveal what they thought would be an X-ray like that of the Technical Support Teams anatomy, although they knew it would not be picture-perfect like that of Oscar's genetically modified minions. But what they saw before them was an overwhelming shock, their skeleton was a humanoid robotic structure protected by a robust exoskeleton, but no evidence of vital organs or a brain, and just like the members of Aequalitas Causa their exoskeletal heads contained a similar lattice structure filled with a fluidic medium and a network of pulsating interconnections instead of veins.

Oscar Zillion had seen enough to know he had no choice but to destroy every piece of evidence before it was transmitted publicly beyond the control of ISO's security system by the watching media, but before he had time to press the button he'd been caressing, the skinsuit standing before him resolved into his twin sister, Marie-Anne De Schmittenvere. This was a surprise, and for the first time, he showed signs of emotion, knowing that he was guilty of meticulously planning her murder and to achieve this had paid pirates a heavy price to have her captured and ejected into the endless vacuum of interstellar space. But the family reunion did not last long, for she only had enough time to quote the family motto, before Oscar, without showing any further signs of emotion pressed the button on his wrist pad.

"It will be wonderful to die, knowing I had a marvellous time, ruining everything my competition had to offer."

At the push of a button on Oscar's wrist pad, all the satellites orbiting the ISOHQ turned and aimed their laser arrays directly at the Sphere, a move which had been anticipated by his siblings and in the instant before he hit the fire button the Sphere expanded to absorb his twin. Although not nuclear the energy imparted by the lasers was over a megaton and in seconds the Sphere was glowing like a small sun, but it did not yield and kept absorbing the power until it eventually emitted a spherical energy wave that engulfed the ISO HQ Space Station in a huge glowing ball of what appeared to be plasma, and the Earth it seems had acquired a new neighbour.

Epilogue

This brings us to the end of Between a Rock & Interstellar Space, Volume One, which sadly didn't make it to the final stages of ONC 2023, but it was a pleasure to write. So, here's an enormous thank you to those of you who took the time to read and comment.

Total Words: 2064

Rolling Total: 21,126

Twenty thousand word mission accomplished