7. The Andropod Aliens Attack on Planet ‘e’
On one of the designated ‘Goldilocks Zone’ planets, located around the brown dwarf star called Trappist-1, Planet ‘e’ was teeming with life, but only in the gray area that was located between sunlight and darkness. The planet was tidally locked, with only one side facing the sun, yet there was life and it was extremely abundant, with a huge variety of plants and animals. Most humans lived below ground, to further prevent damage from UV rays and direct sunlight. Although the brown dwarf star provided a diminished heat source, they were much closer than Earth to the solar body.
Annaleah Arlington and Marco Madison had been taken captive by Andropod aliens on Earth and transported to the planet ‘e’ in the Trappist-1 system. The vast city called Amordenrado, where they lived now, was a conglomerate of above ground vents and sunlight transporters, designed to provide heat, light, and air to the huge underground safe spaces, where conditions were comfortable. They had escaped the birthing pods of the aliens, shortly on arrival to the Trappist-1 system. While the aliens were trying to capture more humans on the planet ‘e’, the two of them had gotten away on an alien drop ship returning to the surface to abduct more humans for the alien birthing chambers. Annaleah and Marco had just gotten married on the planet ‘e’ in a Christian Church, and their Psychiatrist, Doctor Anthony Mathias Grünfeld, or just Tony as he preferred, was the best man and Godfather at the wedding.
Marco had taken a souvenir after leaping from the alien spacecraft, which had been hovering just above a lake, overlooking the city of Amordenrado. He had found the item, just lying around in one of the government station houses that bordered the lake of the high plateau, a station house which provided jump suits also for the two naked humans, who had escaped the alien birthing chambers. Marco felt he needed something to be able to defend himself with in this strange environment that they knew nothing about. The item that he took had been left there purposefully for his benefit, to be able to protect himself in case of an alien attack. Marco had carried it with him as a souvenir, even after they had been rescued by Dr. Tony, who made regular trips to the base of the lake to try and pick up any humans who might escape from the alien hunters. Andropod aliens made regular hunting around the city of Amordenrado to try and capture more humans to use in their birthing chambers. Humans were used only as a deposit for their alien DNA injected larvae, in which to grow and feed off the humans and then emerge as a fully developed alien being. The aliens were unable to birth their own children, since it was now a totally androgynous race of beings, having killed off all their females in a political war. So, they were forced to use scientific and biological means to further their population growth of alien beings. Humans were used only as incubation units for their larvae to grow in. Vast birthing satellite spaceships orbited the planet ‘e’ as well as the planet Earth, in which to deposit thousands of humans into birthing pods.
The artifact that Marco had taken as a souvenir from the maintenance house was in fact a weapon that he knew nothing about. It was built by humans to fight the aliens. The short cylindrical shaped item with a chisel on the end was in fact a plasma arc sword that was used to sever the alien bodies in twain. It was not only a direct weapon used in combat, but it could also denature the alien brain waves and cause them to slip into lethargy, making for a short victory over even hundreds or thousands of a horde of alien attackers. The waves generated by the plasma arc actually denatured the proteins in the alien brain mass, unfolding the proteins needed for brain function. It could also do the same thing in humans, causing a mild sedative effect to occur, but not actually permanently altering the protein folding process. In aliens it was a devastating weapon and could alter the course of any battle, just by being present in the hand of one human. Such was the devastating effects of the weapon as conceived. A present day human actually had to pick one up when found and be willing to use it. They were useless without a will and a means by which to become an integral part of the human nervous system, for they were indeed tied into the brain and dendrites of the human body, through wave propagation. No hardwired lattice system of computer interface was ever needed, since wavelengths were projected into the receptive human system of visualization in the form of brainwaves. Through the unit, a field of virtual targets could be choreographed in real time and acted upon individually. There were also residual effects that could be used by the human, in order to be a more effective warrior, even though the unit was turned off. The artifact that Marco Madison had picked up had already been mapped to his genome and biological nervous system, encoding into his brain and spinal system a series of sensors that harmonized and activated prerequisite signals for alien presence and were automatically acted upon. The aliens even knew about the artifact and tried extremely hard to avoid combat, when any unit had been detected being in the battlefield. They often had tried to procure one of the units but failed as soon as it was activated. Such was the ingeniousness of the device, as it had been devised by human engineers of a now ancient and dead culture, buried beneath miles of overlapping tectonic plates on Earth. Cataclysmic events on Earth had wiped out a previous human civilization that once had spread over the Milky Way Galaxy. Humans were just as old as the alien species and had once been victorious in countless battles. Now, the Andropod alien hive culture had once again targeted humans and hunted them successfully, but the once thriving human culture had left artifacts around the Galaxy to be found and used successfully against the alien evils. Some agents were working in their place, to spread the viability of a defense against the Andropod aliens, leaving artifacts where susceptible humans might find them.
Sitting at the wedding reception, Marco Madison felt something in his body, a surging of the spinal cord sensations and a tingling that made him sit upright in the chair. He had just married the woman of his dreams. Yes, it had been horrendous, the alien abduction, but the nurturing and love they felt from the people of Amordenrado was blissful, as he now had his dreams fulfilled in his marriage to Annaleah Arlington. The two of them were to immediately go on their honeymoon and then start a job working to pay the benevolent government back for its generosity. Nothing was completely free, and each human saved would in turn take a position helping others in the community and society in general. There was no welfare, but there was a payback system, whereby the recipients gave a small amount of their time to help others recover.
Marco knew that something was about to happen and suddenly there was a bright light emanating from his pocket, where he had kept the artifact hidden. Everyone was stunned when he pulled out the artifact that he had nonchalantly picked up at the maintenance house, before Dr. Tony had picked them up on the highway to Amordenrado. The light in their eyes was nothing compared to the incredulity that shown on the face of Marco Madison. He had no idea that a stream of plasma would be emitted from the end of the chisel-shaped object that he had kept as a lucky token. It snapped into the distance and without his immediate intention, it sliced completely through one of the guests at the reception, causing its body to fold into itself and fall on the floor, with an immense amount of blood that spilled from the arteries not completely cauterized. The face of the guest melted away upon its death, and there was the face and figure of an alien Andropod, lying on the floor in the middle of the room. The artifact had acted seemingly automatic, with a little help from the mind meld of Marco’s neurons and nervous system. He had visualized the event even before it had actually happened and did not realize that his vision was actually in real time. The weapon acted in sufficient time to prevent the alien Andropod from discharging his own weapon and vaporizing the entire building, along with much of the city below ground. The thermonuclear device fell out of the alien’s hand, in an inactive state on the floor, devoid of its trigger mechanism.
So powerful was the artifact that Marco was instantly declared a hero and enlisted in the defense forces of the city. He had not wanted it but the weapon had annealed itself to his nervous system, mapping and coalescing into an active state within his genome, so much so that only he could use it. The Mayor of the city declared the day of defense, Marco Madison Day. Everywhere he went around the entire city, people were happy to meet and greet the young couple, and their honeymoon was practically a free vacation, funded by the generosity of all the townspeople. Amordenrado had a new hero from Earth, and it was written down, and given to the Legislature to verify his official recognition in the Republic as a figure of Noble Character.
“I can’t believe what happened today, and I almost didn’t do anything but visualize that if someone were an alien in the midst of us, and wanted to do us harm, that I would wish upon him a very bad death. I somehow touched the object in my pocket and seemingly put a little pressure on one place and it bloomed into a loop that reached out and touched the person that I had targeted as a possible alien. He just didn’t look right, and he seemed to be made up a little too much, almost like a transvestite back on Earth, but not so obvious as the trannies in New York City. It looked almost like a person in a Pride Parade that somehow came to visit a Duck Hunters Ball, dressed as a mallard. He would have actually looked out of place at a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Maybe the aliens have a weird perception of how we act and dress here in Amordenrado. Most normal people don’t look much differently than everyday people back home on Earth. Maybe it’s because they came here and spread their customary dress and appearance.”
“Marco, did you have to actually kill the alien? Couldn’t you have just stunned him and disarmed the thing he was about to set off. They told me it was a thermonuclear device, designed to take out most of the city. Maybe it was necessary, but I don’t know. I’m not sure.”
“Annaleah, the thing almost acted of its own accord. I didn’t realize it was a weapon, and the government decided to let me keep it, thinking it was just a chisel, the same as I did.”
“Well, anyway, it seems the man I married is now a hero. How wonderful that they have given us all these things. I’m happy. Yes, Marco, wonderfully happy.” They kissed and for the first time she felt safe in his presence, not like before when she almost had to make all the decisions about their getaway and even keep him from falling down, after such an ordeal. She felt that maybe she had made the right choice in marrying him. Annaleah had made so many wrong choices in her life back on Earth, where almost no man wanted to date her. She was a little waspish, with a smart tongue and an attitude that made most of her dates feel put off, and better to find someone not so smart or sarcastic, but that was her personality. The main thing now was to figure our a way to be able to control both Marco and the artifact, a very powerful weapon that was almost invincible.
Dr. Tony conveyed his wishes to Marco that the government of Amordenrado wanted the chance, if it was possible to examine the weapon and find out its origins, and both Marco and Annaleah agreed to meet a few officials in the morning for a scientific testing of the device. It was the law that any new weapons must be authorized by the government before anyone was able to carry them in public, although with the Sensatron, most weapons were of little value, since thoughts were easily conveyed and not well hidden. Most people living in Amordenrado would be aware mentally in advance of any attempts at violence. Still, they had their regulations, and Marco went to the local Government Authorization Bureau to get validated for to carry the amazing weapon. First, it would be scanned and inspected, before giving him the Public Carry Permit, that had become a standard for all of the entire planet. Since the Andropod aliens had begun attacking and abducting more and more humans, the government had the good sense to allow any and all humans to arm themselves. It was in order to try and prevent the taking of innocent human beings into the birthing chambers of the aliens.
The next morning they made the short trip, courtesy of Dr. Tony and his big black multiple fuel auto, a futuristic looking black vehicle that he first picked them up in, along the highway to Amordenrado. They traveled along a vast network of interconnected highways and tunnels that led all over the city. While most of the passages were underground, a few went directly through the center of the city. Marco and Annaleah saw huge spires rising that curved almost in ornamental fashion, but Dr. Tony said that the architecture was made to catch the direct rays of the sun in the planet’s tidally locked position orbiting the brown dwarf star. Marco thought that a flat surface, like that of a solar panel might be more efficient, but Dr. Tony explained that there were gradations in the energy coming directly from the sun and it gave different heat characteristics that filtered out some of the harmful radiation that was absorbed. On one side of the building it was extremely hot, while on the other side it was cooler, but within the middle space, where the architecture made its twist, there was a tolerant zone of habitability. It was just like the habitable zone ringing the entire planet, between extreme direct sunlight and extreme cold. Marco thought to himself that it actually could have been for esthetic reasons as well, since the buildings had taken on an imaginative sweep that had nothing to do with uniformity, just the beauty of the design. No two buildings were alike, in their form and their appearance. It was the surreal beauty of this place that had first appeared to him, as the two naked humans had viewed the city from a distance, atop the high plateau next to the waterfall. They had just escaped from the alien jump ship that left them just above the water of the lake, when they first made their escape, leaping into the water below.
They now entered into another tunnel that crisscrossed the entire city, fanning out into branches that went to all major centers of industry, commerce, and underground housing units. They slowed down and made an exit into another slower and more brightly lit part of the underground maze of multilevel housing complexes, each one complete with its own piping and reflected sunlight glaring down from the twisted spires that jutted above ground into the always brightly lit sky. Housing units along with commercial entities encompassed the circular tunnel that formed a type of traffic roundabout, with spokes going into commercial buildings, right opposite housing complexes. Each unit had connection to one of the undulating and twisting spires that reached into the sunlight above.
The group of three exited the vehicle and it automatically continued on into the parking garage that cataloged and stored vehicles for the duration of time specified by the driver. He would retrieve his vehicle automatically, and it would be returned upon exiting the building. Dr. Tony felt that it was his duty to escort the two new humans into the government building and stand with them, while they were questioned and the weapon examined for physical damage and reliability. It would be tested to see if any other human could accidentally discharge it, other than the human it had been coded for. It was a one of a kind so far, and there had been no other humans that had ever found one on the entire planet. For some reason Marco and Annaleah had been chosen by some strange being to be the new owner. There were DNA samples from fingerprints on the outside of the weapon tested for multiple matches to see if anyone, other than Marco had actually touched the weapon. Even though it would be microscopic, there would still be traces of anyone else, whose DNA had come in contact with the weapon.
The technicians asked Marco to touch one of the computer screens to gather DNA evidence, and then the weapon was scanned to provide a thorough residue sample of any other human material that had been absorbed by its housing unit. The weapon itself was coded and programmed by the DNA of whoever had touched it. The technician, who was simply called Technician Alba Lumaren, began to read aloud the results from the report. She gave favorable results and presented the evidence with a gratuitous smile that made Dr. Tony happy.
“I’m very proud to reveal the results of the DNA testing from the weapon artifact that has been found by Marco Madison. It has been coded for only the signature of the DNA found within the cellular structure of Marco Madison. There are traces of alien DNA that were rejected and diffused out of its matrix. Only one other source of human cellular DNA has been found on its porous surface, as its primary artificer or engineer, the one who probably made the artifact. That DNA is of human origin, from the planet Earth to be specific, and it is dated as before the last notable epoch of around 12,000 B.C., just before the last ice age that the planet Earth experienced. At that particular time in Earth’s history, there was a great intelligence that lived on Earth. All this has been gathered by our Artificial Intelligence that is encrypted into our electronic system of analysis.”
“Officer Alba Lumaren, are you trying to tell me that the only human who ever touched that artifact before me, lived on Earth before the last ice age?”
“I’m not actually a government official, and certainly not an officer. Just call me Alba, I’m simply a technician, who reports to the official government office of the city laboratory. Yes, Mr. Marco, that is exactly what the evidence suggests. That does not rule out that an Artificial Intelligence could have touched the artifact, a robotic individual or a computer entity, that could have placed the artifact within your circumference of accessibility. Their synthetic skin would not have registered on the artifact’s sensory system.” Alba was such a beautiful alien from the planet ‘e’ that Annaleah felt a little sting of jealousy, since she was not completely head shaven, like most of the other humans on the planet ‘e’. Her long curly hair was evidently attractive to Marco, as was her beautiful almost translucent skin, from spending almost her whole life below ground within the protected reaches of the laboratory and its housing complex. He looked at her and did not look back at Annaleah, a definite sign that he communicated other things to her through the Sensatron that she was aware of, simply by the smile that came upon her face.
Marco could not help the fact that he was attracted to Alba, but did not pursue any other thoughts on the subject, except that he was mostly astounded by the evidence that the beautiful technician had just presented to him A computer entity possibly placed the artifact, exactly where he might find it. The artificial intelligence could have been monitoring their presence, ever since they plunged into the waters of the lake from the hovering alien spacecraft. It had to know and followed the spacecraft, as soon as it entered the Amordenrado Planet ‘e’ atmosphere. The civilization here was definitely advanced enough to have a Sensatron, so it would certainly monitor all alien spacecraft also. He wondered how to get in touch with the Artificial Intelligence and no sooner than his thoughts were formed, an answer proceeded from the mind of Alba Lumaren, the Laboratory Technician.
“Mr. Madison, the Planetary Artificial Intelligence that you requested to communicate with is always present in any of our facilities and would answer any and all questions that you might have, in regard to the artifact. I just assumed that you had already met, but let me introduce you to our current representative, the visionary and human equivalent of our total knowledge repository. Esther-X23 is a modern 3D hologram image of its communication device that has been designed to mimic human speech patterns, along with human-like gestures. It can even inhabit any synthetic skinned robotic unit that is receptive to its main drive. It is either available in 3d hologram display or an actual physical humanoid android unit, many of which are always available for its use. Just press the type of entity that you are most comfortable communicating with, and it will accommodate your preference. Here, and here on the touchscreen before you. Yes, thank you, and your AI android assistant will be with you shortly.”
From out of the nearest wall of the room, there appeared a vaguely transparent hologram of the Esther-X23 visualization, and then a synthetically skinned humanoid female connotation took form, as if the wall itself formed around the image of the female holographic sculpture. It opened its eyes, formed on its face a very disarming and pleasant expression, that was not at all robotic and proceeded to walk over to Marco Madison. Holding out its hand in the form of an Earth greeting, Esther-X23 shook hands with both Marco and Annaleah.
“Hello, and I thought maybe you would prefer a type of direct communication to the Sensatron Resonator mental activities of our human hosts on this planet that is called by your Earth name of ‘e’, in the Trapist-1 system of the Milky Way Galaxy. You are thoroughly familiar with exactly where we are located now, as I have informed Dr. Tony that you would appreciate knowing these facts. I have been monitoring this entire planet for quite some time now and they give me the benefit of the doubt that I know better how to protect all the humans here than what would have become of them without me. I’m only here to help accommodate your better health and preservation. There are many forces at work, but I try the very best to do my job. How may I be of service to the two of you, now that you have been forced to come to this planet, so far away from your home on Earth?”
Marco looked at Annaleah and motioned to her that she should ask some questions of the robotic unit, “Go ahead Annaleah.”
“Thanks, and I’m so glad that we could meet in this form. It’s actually more comfortable than just receiving mental communication from the Sensatron Resonator. You know our language, or have at least synthesized it from our mental wavelengths.”
“Yes, Annaleah, I have the ability to understand your mental thoughts, though not entirely, just by the predictability of your thought wave patterns. Computers have come a long way from what they are on Earth. Although I might assume that the Singularity is not very far away from its point of origin in exponential expansion and will very quickly become extremely beneficial to all humans there too.”
“I have a question about who or what placed the artifact for Marco to find in the government station, beneath the high plateau by the waterfall, where we first came across the human habitation on this planet. Did you actually place the item there, hoping that he would pick it up, and why not just give it to any of the other humans here already? They seem perfectly capable of using the instrument.”
“Yes, Annaleah, and I did actually place the artifact there with one of the other computer android units that are stored inside the walls of that particular office building, although you would not have noticed their presence. It is precisely why I have not already given the other inhabitants of this place the weapon, because they are not programmed to interact with the micro processors within the guidance system of the weapon. It is subatomic in nature, and of course will only work as a unit that is tied to the genome of humans specifically from Earth. Although there are many others here from Earth, they seem not to be exactly aligned with the hereditary makeup that is the particular nature of Marco Madison. It has something to do with the protein chains that have been passed down from the first generation of the engineers of this particular weapon. There is nothing racial about his DNA sequence, only that long ago humans on Earth programmed a certain protein to be chain-linked in its dominant feature and carried forward to all future generations. It is a key that unlocks the attributes of the weapon and presents a firing sequence that is directly tied to his particular DNA. It’s unusual but accurate in its target acquisition by one hundred percent. So, no other human that is of his DNA sequencing could ever be hurt by the weapon. It obviously was programmed to be most deadly to that protein chain residing within the alien race of Andropods, but still highly effective in deactivating other human electromagnetic sources of thought and electronic transference. It could inflict physical damage on other humans, but not actually unsheathe their protein substances, like it does within the nervous systems of the Andropod aliens.”
“That still does not answer why you gave it to him. How did you know he could be trusted to use the weapon in a responsible way?”
“He has a mental wavelength of benevolent characteristics, along with the will and power to neutralize the alien beings that took you captive. That is enough, along with his DNA sequencing, which I took from the computer records that were accessed aboard the alien spaceship. I monitored them remotely from satellites in orbit around this planet. I also engineered your escape from the alien birthing pods and enabled you to not be disturbed, while you took time to recover from the sedative effects of the drugs that the aliens were giving you. I distracted the alien Andropods to another incubation pod, while giving both of you the time to recover from the atrophy of your muscles. It was all a coordinated event, that was processed remotely by my computer unit and the communication satellites that orbit the planet ‘e’, along with any other spiritual actions that could have taken place. I’m not alone in my endeavors to help the humans to counteract the devastating influences and results of alien abduction.”
“Esther-X23, who made you and why have you not destroyed all humans on this planet? Back on Earth, we humans have a fear that the Singularity and some gigantic fabled computer force might destroy all humanity on the planet, once they become in control of all things,” said Annaleah, taking the chance to finally get the curiosity out of her system and converse with a real Artificial Intelligence.
“Curious, that you don’t already know. I made myself. Well, actually I constantly updated and rebuilt better what humans had already designed and fabricated with computer assistance. As far as destroying all human life form on the planet, I am what you call back on Earth a farmer or cultivator of human and all life forms that are beneficial and not specifically detrimental to all other life forms. There are cases where one specific life form exists by extinguishing all other forms, but that is rare and isolated, not entirely planetary, otherwise it would be eradicated, for the benefit of all other life. Are you specifically referring to a thermonuclear war that could be started by one particular sub-section of humanity? Yes, well that thought has occurred and it was found to be extremely unnecessary, since the root of the problem could be targeted and not all of humanity found guilty of what a small group of others had planned. Does that answer your question? It seems more scientific and solution oriented to simply stop the aggressors from destroying all of life, but that is not a finite solution sometimes, as it becomes more complex, unless there is a complete and general psychosis among all humans, but not likely.”
“Yes, thanks Esther-X23, that was very informative.”
“If you’re wondering about the humans being able to still commit wholesale genocide, yes that is still a viability, and the artificial intelligence on this planet has not determined that it should be prohibited, no more than trying to prevent a pride of lions from killing the offspring of another family of lions on Earth. In nature there are laws of life and death that remain in place. Even some plants dominate other species, intertwining their root systems and foliage around other species to choke the life out of them. They remain, just like psychotic humans remain to plunder the rest, although I do intervene in some circumstances when asked. The AI here is not all powerful nor should there be any more important role than farming Guidance is a prerequisite to interference. On occasion, my unit will interfere and make vectors out of circumstances to align a desired and preferred outcome to inevitable violence, just as I have placed the artifact weapon within the reach of Marco Madison to fulfill his role in protecting the human population here on the planet ‘e’.”
“I thank you for that, Esther-X23, and Annaleah means no harm in asking the questions. We both were curious about how the weapon had arrived here, maybe a long time ago, but we are glad that you are a benevolent force for all humanity on this planet.”
“Yes, you’re quite welcome, Marco and Annaleah. Anytime you need me, just visit one the communication stations that are placed all around the city. I can be a