Our new spacecrafts could now be openly seen flying in the skies overhead in the time that followed. Some were piloted by military personnel, but most were the J-2's. They undertook impressive demonstrations over the airspace of major population areas. These were usually done at night so that they could be visible in the high altitudes of the atmosphere. Groups of fifty or more soared above at unthinkable speeds showcasing the machines incredible capabilities for people to see with their own eyes. Further rallying the hope of mankind.

"Have you heard from Jacob?" I asked Morales, one Thursday evening at the SETI headquarters. It had been over a week now since he had been in to work, and I had not heard from him at all in that time.

"I got an email from him last night, he said he was caught up with some things in his work, and that we might need to cover for him for a few more days." She said, looking a little dismayed.

Jacob was becoming even more distant than his usual self. I could tell that it was concerning Morales, who never seemed the type to become overly attached. But their relationship had been going well despite all the happenings of our tumultuous daily lives. None of us wanted to see this pull them apart. Despite this, Morales was very understanding of Jacob's position, and without having to ask I knew she would do whatever she could to stand by his side through it all.

"It's been a while since either of us spoke with the Ark, hasn't it?" I asked her. I almost forget sometimes that we are just about the only people who had the clearance to do so. Because Jacob was always typing away at the speed of light, not always trying to burden us with the intellectual rhetoric we couldn't hope to understand. I thought for a moment about all the things Jacob had said. His predictions, about how things will play out, and those certain things having to do with the Ark itself.

"You still here with us?" I said out loud. Morales knew the question wasn't meant for her.

"I am still here." Came the resounding voice that we had long since heard. It was hardly a comfort to hear. In fact, I much preferred the time spent when I had completely forgotten this thing was present in the room with us.

"How's everything going on your end?" I asked, not really knowing what else to say. The conversation wasn't something I had thought through very well, or thought through at all, for that matter.

"What specifically are you referring to?" The voice asked from our speakers. It was gentle and pleasant with its question, but to me something about its voice was always discomforting.

I had to think for a minute about that. Meanwhile Morales gave me a concerned look but did her best not to get involved herself. Just then I thought of something. It was something I remember Jacob covering early on, something I'm sure he already had the answer to, but he wasn't here now, so why not let the Ark refresh my memory?

"How are the passengers of your ship fairing?"

"Their status has not changed. The life support supplies remain on track to run out in approximately eight months." Came the reply. The voice remained a comfortable balance of machine and human. But I began to realize that what it lacked was sincerity.

"And the enemy still remains close behind you?" I asked.

"Yes. From what Mr. Teebler has told me your satellites have a clear image of this now."

"That's right, we do. I just wanted to check with you and to see if anything has changed in the recent days. I did also want to ask about your passengers. Have any more of them happened to fall ill in their cryo-sleep?"

"No. Since the death of lady Izla, our people have experienced no further cases of illness caused by cryo-sleep. Thank you for your concern, Mr. Olivera."

"I'm glad to hear that. Another question though, if you don't mind. I'm sure it is something you have already gone over with Jacob, but when do you plan on waking your passengers, or at least someone else that we can have communications with from your ship?" There was the briefest moment of hesitation in its answer, something so brief that in a normal conversation with another human would probably be overlooked, but both Morales and I noticed it in an instant. She stopped pretending to do whatever she was working on and perked up her head.

"That would depend on how events develop as we near your planet." Its answer was entirely vague, yet simple and logical. We both knew what it meant, and it seemed to know that we were aware as well. Neither Morales nor I spoke. After a long and unsettling silence, the Ark spoke again, assuming that we would not.

"I do not intend to wake any of my passengers until I can ensure their safety. Lady Izla's uncle Ardan is the highest-ranking member of those who remain on board, and he has been chosen by the council to be ambassador to Earth when the time comes. Though you must understand, leaving cryo-sleep now, with our limited resources, would make it impossible to re-enter. Given my most recent analysis of his state of health he would have a 90% chance of survival if woken within three days of arrival, that percentage drops dramatically if awoken any sooner." There was another brief pause again after this, I was about to speak but the Ark continued. "I will not awaken Ardan, or any of my people, until I have complete confidence that we will not be met with any resistance on our journey."

It was referring to the scenarios that Jacob had presented to us months ago in his faraday room. The scenario in which our government will attempt to avoid all conflict with the enemy. Did the Ark already know? Or was its mind, like Jacob's, simply summing up all the most likely possibilities? Only one way to know.

"What do you mean resistance?" I asked, speaking with the most unaware facade of curiosity I could bring forth.

"I have seen the diplomatic tactics of multiple intelligent species succeed and fail during my existence. I have much knowledge of your people, and of your past and current military strength. From my point of observation, it seems a likely scenario that your own government of the United States will attempt to avoid conflict to retain power without consequence to your people . . . or their newfound position." This answer was quick and directly to the point. But it did not give any hint of actual knowledge of this probability beyond impressive deductive reasoning. So, the question for now remains. Was it now capable of knowing the exact happenings on our planet, or was it just intelligent enough to guess at these things without any real proof?

Morales chimed in to help end this conversation as pleasantly as possible.

"We have done our best to help prepare our world for your arrival, and as far as the two of us know our government stands by what it has promised. But we are for the most part stuck here and have no say or knowledge of what is happening at the highest levels of our system."

"I am aware of that, and I thank all three of you for all that you have done to help ensure the protection of my people. I also understand that some things are out of your control. While we are on the matter, I have not spoken with Mr. Teebler in quite a few days, how is he? I only ask because he is usually more persistent with his inquiries into my data reserves."

This wasn't something either of us were prepared to answer. Jacob never said what to do if the Ark should ask about him or his whereabouts. When he did speak of the Ark at all in recent days, he seemed hesitant, and cryptic, so it seemed best to follow his lead.

"Jacob has been working directly with the military, helping to continue to develop our forces off site." Said Morales. Which wasn't entirely a lie. The President did keep Jacob closer in these recent months, not so much by his side, but they would communicate on numerous occasions without the rest of us being included. The Ark didn't inquire any further.

Evening rolled around on the following day, and we still had no word from Jacob. Morales said she would go to his place and see if he left a note of any kind, or some sort of hint to his recent whereabouts. Sure enough, he had. Just a note on his kitchen counter saying he'd be flying back in the next morning. We both found it odd, had he come back, written the note and left again without checking in? And why not just give us a text. We wanted to allow Jacob his privacy and space, but it was becoming concerning, especially with so little time left before the arrival.

The next morning Jacob showed up at SETI with a nonchalant attitude as if nothing was out of the norm. We didn't pry into his business there, especially after that slightly unsettling conversation with the Ark. As night rolled around we gathered our things and headed home just like we did after any other day at SETI. I expected to come home and relax for a little bit with Tomiya and Oshie before going to bed, but when I arrived Tomiya was there waiting inside the door for me. She didn't speak but quickly pulled me in for a hug, as she did, she moved awkwardly to bring her closed hand between the two of us where she revealed a note that read:

"Come to my place as soon as James gets home. Don't speak about this note. Act Casual. Will explain when you get here. -Jacob"

It was definitely his handwriting. But what was with all this secrecy? And how did Tomiya get the note in the first place? I wanted to ask but she rushed me out the door almost at once. And from there I drove as calmly as I could to Jacob's place, making regular small talk along the way, still very confused about the nature of his note. We arrived and hastily made our way into his building. The feeling had grown from confusion into concern in my mind on the drive over, as I am sure it had for Tomiya too. We were nearly running when we got to the elevator that led to Jacob's loft.

A sigh of relief rolled over the two of us when the elevator doors opened, and we found Jacob and Morales causally chatting as if nothing were awry. I immediately started "Jacob! What was the-" He cut me off with a look, and both Morales and his facial expressions grew serious.

"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, damn military has me all over the place these days!" He was putting on a show. He then motioned for us to follow him into the room behind his bookshelf where we all too often found ourselves meeting these days.

Once inside he turned to the three of us who eagerly awaited an explanation. It appeared that Morales had also been kept in the dark up until now. She was smart, so she would have picked up on Jacobs' queues not to speak about anything until we were behind the closed doors of his secured room.

"Our satellites picked up on something early this morning. Something that I was afraid they would eventually detect. It was a brief signal in the form of a laser which I do not believe was meant to be noticed." We all looked at him still completely dumbfounded as to what he was even trying to say.

"These signals are sent in the form of lasers as an advanced form of high-speed communication. At the moment there is no such technology on Earth capable of creating such signals. . . I have had my concerns for some time now that we might end up dealing with this." He paused again, not realizing that we still weren't fully following him.

"So, what does this mean, we are receiving signals from the incoming crafts sooner than we expected? I asked.

"Yes, but the question is which ones? It has to be either the Ark or the enemy fleet, or possibly both. The real issue we are faced with is that the Ark never openly said its ship possessed these capabilities. I have spent some time in the past inquiring about this technology, but I was only ever given experimental blueprints from the Ark, who had still assumed we had little knowledge of the tech ourselves. I had no reason to expect that it was holding anything back from me, so I didn't pursue the matter any further. As a failsafe I instructed some of the early J-2's to retrofit a device I created onto a number of our satellites while they were undergoing their space flights. And these devices just picked up on the laser communication signals."

"Ah, well that can't be good." I said matter of factly. "But what exactly does this mean, does it pose some sort of immediate threat to us?"

"That depends. If this signal is coming from the enemy's ships, yes. They could be using it to establish some sort of worldwide cyber-attack if their capabilities are advanced enough. The issue that it poses for them is that there are currently no devices on our planet that have the instruments to relay any information back to their ships at the same speed. But still, they could very well be attempting to upload malware of sorts to anything susceptible to these signals." Replied Jacob.

"Why were you so insistent on getting us in here, in private, to talk about it if any information happening on Earth can't be transmitted back to the enemy in real time anyway?" Asked Morales with her quick deduction of the scenario.

Jacob gave her a loving glance. His bittersweet smile all but said "this is precisely why I adore you."

"I am afraid that it is possible whoever is sending these signals might have a way of relaying them back to whatever craft it has originated from. This is not something I have any proof of yet, but I have a terrible feeling that it is the case."

"What would it mean if they could send and receive signals from our planet in real time?" asked Tomiya.

But after giving it just a moment's thought it dawned on the three of us just what that could mean. That the enemy could know our every move. Not only could they be uploading their own malware or coding into our technology, but they could also be listening and learning about everything we are planning. In which case we could never hope to defeat them.

"We have to ask the Ark then. To help us know for sure, don't we?" I asked him.

Jacob understood my desire to seek help from the AI that had been guiding our way. But he shook his head just then and continued to dawn that look of uncertainty.

"I think it is just as likely that these signals are coming from the Ark as they are coming from the enemy. No, rather I should say I think it is even more likely. I know more than anyone how much the Ark has done to help us in our advancements, and in our preparations of this very real threat. But it is that reason I believe that it has withheld certain information. As a failsafe for itself, and for its people." He then paused to let us take in this revelation as best we could. "Should we, or our government decide to not help defend the Ark against the enemy, then my fear is that it will have put measures in place to ensure that it has the strength it needs to do so."

That strange solemn demeanor that Jacob had not been able to hide in recent times finally made sense to us now. This fear of his was one that went back all the way to his youth, it was one we all had in the back of our minds. Placed there at first by stories and films. A fear that was furthered in more recent times by our own advancements in the field, by rumors of experimental artificial intelligence programs becoming self aware and having to be shut down. And even more recently by the discovery of the existence of the Ark. This thing we were putting the faith of our world into. Could it too become our enemy?

"I didn't want to cause any more worry than we are all already bearing. But I thought this much you should be aware of. If this does turn out to be the case, there is nothing we can do to stop it. If the Ark is able to access our computer systems, it will certainly have the capabilities of taking control of them at will. The only question will be, to what end? Either way none of you should dwell on this potentiality. I brought you here simply to inform you of it, and also to ask you once again to trust me. I am afraid I will have to spend even more time away now. And I ask that you do not mention this or anything we have discussed to anyone else. Secrecy will be our only advantage from this point on. And this room is one of very few places that will be safe from the prying eyes of whoever is watching."

So cryptic, as usual. We all wished he could tell us more, especially Morales who now clinged on to him with all that she could, afraid to lose him and the love they had found together. This was the very reason she did not pry any further. For fear that she might lose him entirely.

"Four months." Said Jacob softly. "In four months, the Ark will have passed through the Kuiper Belt and will have entered our solar system. Assuming the enemy fleet still follows close behind, soon after that we will face this conflict in one way or another."

Thus came the end of our meeting. We left, doing our very best to internalize any thoughts and any fears that might sway our resolve in this final stretch.

I had a terrible dream that night and found myself shaken awake by Tomiya in the dark, covered in my own sweat. I had yelled out in my sleep apparently. The memory of the dream faded quickly after I awoke but an inkling of it still remained, imprinted in my head, and for I don't know how many days I could not shake that bit of it that I could still remember. It was a feeling mostly, a dreadfully ominous feeling hovering above me. But below me, in my arms were my wife and daughter. They were trembling and afraid just like I was. In the dream I wanted to cower there with them, clinging with all of my strength on to the little bit of light and happiness that their presence brought me. That feeling seemed to last an eternity, stuck hiding with them wrapped in my arms, with my eyes closed tightly waiting for it to come claim us. But as that looming presence approached, I could not help to open my eyes and look up at it. What I saw when I finally forced myself to gaze upon it was brighter than the large dark figure which I half expected to see standing above us, only it was far more terrifying. I can't exactly remember what my surroundings were when my eyes finally opened, just what I could see in the sky that was overhead. It was as if the cosmos had come crashing down. Thousands and thousands of pieces of massive debris burning down towards us and all the world around. The sight was so grand, and it felt so real. In my waking mind I wondered if this was the fate that was in store for us. I hoped beyond hope that it was not. That sight was the last thing I remembered before Tomiya shook me awake.

Even though I could still picture those apocalyptic moments from my dream, that looming unseen dread remained. Behind all of the tangible yet imaginative destruction my subconscious created; this dark presence continued to haunt my waking mind. It was something above it all, out of sight, and it was waiting for me.