Perseus-Pisces
European Space Research & Technology Center, Randstad Conurbation, , September 17, 2047
"Sir what are you doing here? No, shit, what the hell?"
As the guard dropped down the 60 cm broad black M-brane fold entry sphere that Wietse had situated at the guard's feet, the black sphere flickered for a second. Long enough for a few drops of seawater to come splashing up. The research center was situated close to the shoreline and dropping people into the sea, sixty, seventy meters from the shore was a decent way to asure he could work without much interuptions. The PUPR agent gear that Wietse had just acquired hadn't come one hour too late. The grid was increasingly less stable and the adjustments needed to keep controll over the nodes just couldn't be kept up with using a mere console.
It still felt odd using the brain implant though. While Wietse knew he was in control, that the augmentation was now part of him, that the using the quantum trinities, the M-Brane grid was now like part of his own body, it still felt foreign. Wietse knew how this tech was used by PUPR agents in the war. PUPR agents, the cruelest and effective soldiers, spies and executioners this world had ever known. Something about the tech created a disconnect with their humanity but while Wietse feared for 'his' humanity using this tech, quite possibly, today this tech could be the only thing that could save humanity as a whole.
Once part of a proud European space agency, this ESA research institute today basically was an archive. A museum and library of old space tech.
As Wietse looked around for usable stuff, he noticed a small window and through the window saw the snow-covered dunes that he remembered from long ago. The Dutch dunes had been a big part of Wietse's childhood, of his life before ….. While the image brought back memories, it just didn't feel right. But what was it that was wrong here? Then it hit him, it never snowed in September, not here? The snow-covered dunes were a familiar sight, but it was an image that belonged to winter and early spring, not to the final days of summer! Could this be related?
Then Wietse noticed a glass cabinet in the middle of the room. A space suit, or rather a 'moon' suit. Wietse remembered his granddaughter. She was on the moon now. Reestablishing contact would have to wait until he figured out why things had gone so wrong during their last contact, figured out how he could prevent another m-fold accident like that, especially at this distance. The M-fold exit spheres were increasingly more difficult to control at larger distances, and the moon was at the very edge of what Wietse was able to control. Before Wietse could think it through, a black sphere formed at the bottom of the cabinet. The moon suit dropped through it and the sphere disappeared. The advantage of the brain augmentation was that it allowed for quick, natural, gut responses. Responses at speeds that would be impossible at full cognition. A drawback to this, however, was that with untrained reflexes, some responses could actually bypass conscious decisions. Wietse was startled by what he just did. He might just have put her in danger. But chances were she might have a good use for a moon suit where she was at.
He was looking for something else though. Something specific. A space telescope! If his intel was correct, ESTEC owned an old space telescope.
Then his eye caught a floor plan on a large, three meters wide, screen on the wall.
"Map, show me where I can find the biggest space telescope."
No response. Was this old tech? Wietse noticed an index next to the floor plan. As he quickly scanned the index, his eye spotted what he was searching for: Hubble Telescope D5. Wietse touched the word Telescope with his index finger. Nothing happened.
"Damn, not old tech: 'zero' tech."
The screen didn't even respond to his touch.
"Why in heaven's name? ..."
This didn't make sense and Wietse had no time for this. Who would create a non-interactive map for a bleeding museum? D5, Wietse remembered and looked back to the floor plan that was divided up into a grid. In cell D4 there was a large room with the inscription 'Hubble Zaal'. That had to be it. With quick strides, Wietse made his way to the room in question.
As Wietse opened the door, there was a huge telescope laying there. It was absolutely huge. Much larger than Wietse had anticipated. Twelve, thirteen meters long at least. Wietse moved over to the side marked as 'aperture door' on the narrower side of the telescope, then looked up at the ceiling of the room.
"Damn, the bastard is huge!"
Wietse took a power cell and a radio transmitter out of his backpack and started installing it where the fake replica solar panel was connected to the telescope.
"Sir! You are not allowed to touch the exhibits! Verdomme, shit ..."
Another guard dropped down an instant fold into the nearby sea with Wietse hardly having to give it more than a volatile thought.
The power was up now. Wietse took out his radio receiver and started scanning for the signal. Then he took a few quick steps back. A huge half sphere about seven meters in diameter filled half the room emerging the broader side of the telescope. Then the non-emerged part of the telescope started tilting up, picking up in speed.
"Shit, no, no, no!
The backside of the telescope hit the ceiling. Not really hard but not in a way that felt safe for the delicate alignments of the mirror system either. Then the tilted telescope disappeared into the sphere. The sphere shrank to a size of about seven centimeters and hovered in front of Wietse's receiver.
Wietse was nervous now. Until now 'his' grid had been under attack by someone, something controlling the foreign node. Until now Wietse's fight had been defensive only from his part. This time Wietse had sent something through to the other side to a remote node Wietse had traced to the first signs of an attack in Wietse's logs. He had to find out what was out there. He knew Intel was his number one asset. He also knew that lacking Intel, this first step at gathering it was the most dangerous step. Could they trace him? Could whatever he was fighting use the M-fold he just re-opened, against him? Wietse closed his eyes and allowed the data stream to flow to his mind through his new brain augmentation.
The images coming to him were beautiful. A red nebula of a beauty Wietse had never witnessed on the left side of his vision. As the image zoomed in deeper, Wietse saw multiple galaxies come into view. The coordinates were correct, Wietse knew what to look for and he was looking at the milky way and Andromeda systems there, dead center as he had calculated.
The small sphere flickered for a moment as Wietse gave the command for the telescope to make a slow turning manoeuvre. The telescope zoomed out and as the picture streaming into Wietse's mind changed, the white contours of a planet or moon. As the image became sharp, grey clouds against the backdrop of a frozen planet, a planet of ice and dark clouds became visible.
Then parts of the screen became blurry with the remaining parts showing a much faster movement than could be explained by the motion Wietse had set in motion. Wietse sent out a new command. What was happening? Whatever it was, not knowing struck Wietse with a deep fear. This couldn't spell anything good.
As the telescope started to focus, while the backdrop of the planet's surface blurred, the blurry parts of his feed started to reveal the contours of fingers. Three monstrous light grey colored fingers with pointy black nails covering the telescope.
"My God, the aperture is two meters across! "
Then the image jolted. A giant eye looked into the telescope, but the way it looked made Wietse feel as if it looked straight into his soul. The eye was almost all white but for a thin vertical slit of black, cold predatory piercing eyes. While Wietse, having had a glimpse of just fingers and eyes. could not make out what or who these eyes belonged to, he knew whoever these were, weren't poking at his grid out of scientific curiosity.
Wietse's worst fears had been confirmed, and worse.
At his feed went black, the small silvery sphere disappeared, but it hadn't been Wietse. 'They' had closed the far end from him. No, while he was hesitant to trust anyone, anyone but her, Wietse realized this threat was real and he couldn't fight this fight alone.
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Cover art by Keith Draws