Chapter 35. Future Vision,

After the crew was transported down to Houston Command Center, James and Jessica met with Evan to discuss the situation.

"There's no trace of the person who occupied the spacesuit you returned," Evan said. "The only thing we found is a tiny hole in the visor. It's as if the body was sucked out after being reduced to a liquid."

"That's a scary situation," Jessica said. "It suggests that the aliens sucked the crew members out of their suits without disturbing anything using an unknown technology,"

Evan sighed. "That's crazy." He paused as if trying to control his thoughts. "At least you got the telescope back up and running,"

"Yeah, but we still don't understand what's going on."

"You two deserve a vacation," Evan said. "I've set you up to live in a small house that's on the property. It'll allow you to enjoy more privacy."

Both Jack and Jessica looked at him as if he were kidding. But he wasn't.

Jack and Jessica were driven in a transport by a robot to a house that looked like an efficiency apartment sitting all by itself on a small lot with trees and bushes. It had two large bedrooms but only one bath, a kitchen, living room and a covered patio.

"This is rather cozy," Jack said, looking around the living room that contained a couch and two easy chairs. "It has more room than the dorms."

"That's for sure."

"I'm going to take a shower," he said.

She nodded and sat down on the couch and activated the video screen. It had mostly propaganda about NASA and the Federal Government.

She dozed off but was invigorated by watching Jack come out of the bathroom while holding a towel around his waist bellow his navel. His cat appeared, making them look at it.

"I like the shower," he said. "it's old style."

"This place is more suited for a married couple," she said with a sour expression.

"Maybe we should be," he said with a hint of a smirk.

She looked at him monetarily surprised before offering him an ornery smirk. "Is that a proposal?"

"Yes," he replied without any sign of emotion.

She perked up and looked at him with her mouth agape. "Are you serious?"

He smiled. "Yes I am."

"Oh my God!"

"If we get married, we won't be separated. We'll be able to take over NASA together." He smiled. "Besides, I need you to discipline me if I get out of control."

"I don't know what to say," she said, staring at him with her mouth agape.

"Say yes," he replied.

"Yes, of course! Yes!"

The cat meowed its approval.

He sat down on a chair opposite her, "We can tell Evan tomorrow."

"I wonder what he'll say," she said.

"I think he wanted it. That's why he put us up here."

"So," she said with the hint of a grin, "What sort of discipline do you wish?"

"I'll let you decide."

She smiled, but decided to mash her mouth into his for a long kiss that was long needed.

The next morning, they broke the news to Evan, who reacted with a big smile, "That wonderful! When's the big day going to happen?"

"We need to get a marriage license and then find someone to do it," Jack said.

"I'll help get the license and there's a judge I know who will gladly do it."

"Great." Jack said. "We'll be ready to do it."

When their crew found about it, they were both astounded and excited.

"I never imagined them getting hitched," Natalie said. "They were always competing with one another."

"Maybe they're doing this to make it easier to take over running NASA," Roxie said.

"Could be," Lorrie said. "Hopefully, it will put us in a better position."

"We'll see," Natalie said.

The big day occurred on a holiday, which allowed many NASA employees to attend the wedding in a small rural church. Some of the inhabitants from the area attended because they wanted to see two young people getting married, a rare event post pandemic.

Jack and Jessica didn't go on a honeymoon. Evan handed over the reins to them and went to become a farmer. Fortunately, most of the usual tasks were handled by robots, Jack and Jessica's job was to manage the mostly young gals and a few young males doing the jobs needed to keep Earth safe.

Jessica was surprised by the female work uniforms, which consisted of short shorts, cutoff tees and slip in sneakers. The few males were more officially dressed in tees, shorts and slip in sneakers. It had no comparison to traditional NASA protocol.

But it didn't matter. Robotics were slowly taking over many factories and institutions. The new world order was not about wealth, but rather about control, which was slowly slipping into the black hole of AI.

Earth's human population would eventually recover, but the damage was done. It would never be the same. Welcome to the future.

But Jack wasn't satisfied yet. There were too many questions about what happened, and finding the answers to those questions was paramount to surviving.

His biggest problem was getting any solid information from NASA employees, who were young and not very curious.

One of the women workers was more mature, being thirty-two years old. Gretchen Masters had been a theoretical AI physicist before joining NASA. She seemed to be well versed in NASA customs.

He questioned her in the administrative office that Even once occupied.

"What do you know about how this pandemic started?"

"Officially, it was a variant of the Covid varieties, but there wasn't any trace back to the previous pandemic. One theory was that it came from birds, but it didn't match any bird flue varieties. I believe this pandemic was an attempt to kill off Earth's population."

"Are you suggesting that aliens did it?" Jack asked her.

"There's no evidence to back that up. I think it was a Chinese weaponized version. The bad news for them was that they had the largest death rate."

Jack nodded. "That makes more sense than it being an alien attack."

Gretchen nodded.

"I would like you to begin investigating the robotic operations. We discovered that our robot pilot had become sentient. I'm concerned that this could be happening in all our systems."

"It has. I'm not sure we can control its progression. It may be too late to keep it from getting out of control."

"You're probably right. It's worth a try to get it under control."

She smiled. "I'm happy to see that you and Jessica have taken over. You seem to be more alert to the situations we face."

"I suppose it's because we've been out there dealing with aliens that are way more advanced than we are."

She stood up and smiled. "Welcome to the loony bin."

He smiled but realized how right she was.

Later that day, Jessica came into the room and sat down at her desk. "I'm tired already. Trying to make sense of this place is giving me a headache."

"We have someone that's aware of what's going on here. Gretchen Masters is willing to work on the robotic problems. She told me that the pandemic was a Chinese weaponization of a Covid variety. She also going to work on the AI robotic situation."

"That's great. We need all the help we can get. What I don't understand is how we can keep up the advancement of space technology."

"I think it's the result of the space science competition between us, China and Russia. If there is superior technology out there, the United States wants to be first to get it."

"I doubt that Chinese are depending on teenybopper gals for their space science," Jessica said with a smile.

"They are probably in the same situation we are because of the high male deathrate."

Jessica smiled. "Yeah, I forgot that."

"We still haven't found out what happened to the original commander and his cronies. Are we sure that their ship exploded?"

"I found a report that indicates that there were no signs of them in the damaged ship," Jessica said. "Maybe this could be related to what happened to the crew that tried to repair the Astrolabe telescope."

"Let's assume that" Jack said. "Would it suggest that the alien species we made contact with is able to turn human bodies into a fluid that they can suck up?"

"That's gross, and it doesn't make sense. If they're silicon based, why would they want to consume liquefied humans?"

"Maybe they don't need it for sustenance. Maybe they have some other use for it."

Jessica shook her head. "We need more information if we're going to blame them for it."

"I agree, but I don't have any good idea of how to get that information,"

Jessica smiled. "Maybe we need some help to solve this problem."

That came soon enough.

Mary Sanders, the chemistry expert was the obvious person to ask about the alien method of sucking up bodies.

"The only possible way I could see this happening is if concentrated Sulfuric Acid, boosted with Hydrogen Peroxide, were used."

"Wouldn't that result in a lot of heat?" Jack asked her.

"Out in space, the heat would have dissipated."

Jack rubbed the back of his neck. "Why would they want to liquify humans?"

"You said that the aliens are based on silicon."

"That's what our robot pilot claimed. I'm not sure how he determined that."

"Maybe they're not just silicon, but something like the rubber Silicone, or some version of it. Silicones can be made to resist heat, cold and various chemical agents. It's possible that they've evolved to use liquified flesh and bones as a lubricant or a delicacy."

"That would be a serious threat."

"Or it's just them taking advantage of humans being out in what they consider their environment."

Jack sighed. "Ok, let's study that possibility and come up with a possible defense. In the meantime, we'll stay out of space for the time being."

"The way to get around the threat is to send out robots. We already have the technology to do that."

"True. Hopefully, it doesn't hasten the robotic apocalypse."

She responded with a smirk before getting up and leaving.

Jack decided to not go into the possibilities of what the aliens were like. There was no solid evidence to indicate that they would farm humans for their liquified bodies. It meant the end of humans going out into space. Robots would eventually take over many former human tasks.
Would it result in the artificial Intelligent apocalypse? Maybe, but maybe intelligent robots would be more logical and dedicated to tasks without being evil like humans.

What happened next partially answered that big question.