The Followers of Deep Whispers.

 
Tarka:

. . . . . . . beep . . . . . . . . . . 
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. beep . . . . . beep  . . . . . . . .
beep . . . Mindy?  . . . . . . . . . .
It is time to wake up Mindy. . . . . .
beep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 
"Go away Depser." whispered Mindy from the cold chamber. Her voice was
little more then a bear squeak. "I just went to sleep."
 
. . . Mindy. The journeys over. We are about the enter the system and your
sleep is over. It is time to wake up. . . .
 
Mindy tried to open her eyes but closed them right away, the light in the
room almost blinding her. "Depser, turn the lights down." She could feel
the computers presence at the nerve link.
 
. . . The lights are off Mindy. There are only a few LED readouts where you
are. Your eyes are very sensitive after such a long sleep. That is all. . .
 
She tried to open her eyes again and was able. The only light in the room
from a flat panal touch screen on the far wall. She gulped at her dry
throat and started to pull herself out of the sleeper cocoon. After she was 
out she sat on the warmed floor weakly, panting at the dry air around
her.
 
A small grey mobile wurrred up to her. Offering her a shot glass full of
water. . . . . You should drink something Mindy. You have been asleep a
very long time. . . .
 
She drank the shot glass full of water and almost gaged as it went down her 
throat. So very very dry. "Depser, give me status."
 
. . . . The ship is in fair condition. There have been 14 large body
impacts on the main shield. Port side shielding is no longer on its
houseling. Main engines are offline now and bucky cables have been extended.
Four cables are non-responsive. This is well within spec for slowing down 
into the new system. All other systems in good running order. . . .
 
Mindy closed her eyes and listened to the liteny of the ships status. It
was in better condition then any of the mission planners had hoped. "Give 
me the mission status Depser."
 
. . . . No more signals have been detected from the target system. I have
the main array aimed there now. The last burst message from earth was
received 4138. About three thousand years ago. All data bursts are in main
storage with only 8% degradation. The mission is a go. . . .
 
Mindy closed her eyes in thought. Earth had managed to stay in contact with
her for two thousand years after her launch. So far everything was better
then the plan. She opened her eyes again and looked at the image on the
flatpanal across from her. The pinpoint of a star framed in the middle of
the screen was the end of her five thousand year journey. It would be
several more months before they made it into the inner system to look for
those that had once created radio waves. "Whispers. Just whispers in the
dark."
 
. . . . What Mindy? . . . .
 
"Nothing Depser. I was talking with myself."
 
Athalon:
 
The sigh came before she realized.  She had known it would.  And was out 
before she could catch herself.   Thomas.  Her first free thought after 
waking.  
 
She knew it would be.  Knew it before she'd sighed up for millenia of 
hibernation in the voids of space.  Interstellar space, when distance is 
time, and time passes not for the sleeper.  And Thomas, she'd left behind, 
for better or worse.  Thomas, her first real love.  Her only.  And the void 
between them now was not light years, but the last gulf, darker and vaster 
than space.  She'd slept only a moment, but Thomas had lived and breathed and 
grown old and died almost three millenia ago.  While she napped.  
Some choices you just can't go back on.
 
Zander:
 
Depser broke this train of thought.  Computers have no compassion, and even 
less sense of senimentalism. "Mindy, no time. There are preparations to be 
done." Mindy considered this....  Its right, it always is.  "Yes..  Your 
right...  What's next?" 
 
"Considering the possibility of first contact, the proper procedure, is to 
attempt contact now, on Ether, Radio, and Micro waves. Create the first 
message, and be careful. This may well be the keystone, of a Aeon's worth of 
effort."
 
Terrycloth:
 
Mindy got dressed -- she didn't feel right going naked, even if the likelihood-
 of anyone seeing her in the next five thousand years who'd care if she were 
clothed or not was approximately zero -- and clambered up the ladder through 
the tiny tube connecting the hibernation chamber (the 'bedroom') with the 
science cluster. She hit the switches in the order she'd last practiced just 
a few hours ago (at least, that's what it felt like) to activate the main 
sensors and the transmission array. "Switching over from secondary systems in 
3... 2... 1..." Click.
 
Everything checked out. "Desper, put a picture of the target system on the 
main screen."
 
"Mindy, you need to begin the checklist. There is little time in the schedule 
for entertainment," the computer calmly replied.
 
"It'll help me think. Just do it." The screen flickered to life. There was 
the sun, yellow and promising, and even at this distance she could already 
make out the planets. Two large gas giants and four small rocky worlds, any 
of which could be the source of the signal.
 
But there was something wrong with the picture. She couldn't make it out at 
first, but it gnawed at her mind as she cut and pasted fragments of the 
suggested initial greetings the politicians had drawn up. "Desper... can you 
magnify the image of the star?"
 
"What -- what the hell is THAT?" she stammered, as the magnified view clearly 
showed a brilliant thread ringing the star,  "That can't be natural."
 
"Shall I add it to the list of targets for the initial greeting then, Mindy?" 
Desper asked, emotionless as always.
 
Dogfire:
 
The spacecraft ran on 24 hour day, but what read as the long afternoon hour 
of four, did'nt seem the same as on Earth. Mindy sat at the console, idly 
skimming the console, watching images of the systems planets. Nothing that so 
called thread had shown up on the images, unlike the star. It's latest image 
was clear. "Desper..status on the newly replaced imager lense.."
 
"No mindy, this image array shows no signs of damage to the mirrored lense 
like the first one."
 
Mindy grinned, Desper's programming hiccuped, a faint echo of reaction from 
the programmer's personaility it had been patterned after. A hint, ever so 
slight of embarrasment. Desper's systems had not checked the imager and the 
thread across the star had been nothing but a lense flair. And with it went 
the morning excitement, advanced civilizations and politcians greetings. 
Mindy tilted her head back and laughed.
 
"Stars above, all ready to play the Minister of Cultures greeting to a lens 
scratch! That would have been a good report to make. Contact with scratch."
 
Mindy smiled, then asked Dester to replay the synopsis of the discover of the 
signals that had so excited Earth. While she studied the spectral energy 
spectrum from Despers' scanners, she studied for signs of structure. 
Structure, organized patterns in the chaos of whispering radio waves that had 
bombarded earth from it's earliest era. She had been picked because of an 
uncanny ability to snatch structure out of the noise, spy the patterns in 
words, images and sounds.
 
But the readings today led to the thunderstorms on the Gas Giants, silence of 
the rockballs. The fourth rocky planet had an atmosphere, thick, but bone 
dry. Only the company of the radio waves of lightning discharges from the Gas 
Giants to keep the scanners busy.

Tarka:

--------------------------------------------------
 
Three months later.
 
..... Mindy... what are you doing Mindy...
 
Mindy looked up from the control panal... "Playing Free Call."
 
.... I wonder if you know that the computer that you are using to play that 
game is a Cray 756. The most powerful computer of its day with addaptive 
hardware and a built in AI system. Namely me....
 
"Oh shove it. Have there been any responses at all?"
 
... Negative Mindy... 
 
She flipped open the tracking window and looked at there path. They were 
making a good pace to the first of the four dirtball planets. It didn't look 
hopefull but she had to finished the end of the 5000 year mission. She sighed 
and went to bed.
 
--------------------------------
 
Three more months later.
 
"Launch the probe Depser. I want to find out just how much algy is down 
there. Send the 2nd one to that set of craters by the see on the northern 
landmass." She sat back in her control chair and looked down at the 2nd 
plannet... there was life on the planet. I fyou would call it that. Little 
more then one celled animal life. All the other words and the moons had come 
up negative. "5000 years from home... only to come up empty. I wonder if home 
will ever even know about it.
 
Athalon:
 
The disappointment was brief.  She didn't know she was airborne until her 
butt hit the floor.  The 'whuff' that exploded from her was drowned by the 
howl of klaxxon, the scream of sirens.  Every light on the console had flared 
to life.  The ship howled its pain, its fear, as the systems scrambled to 
interpret the jolt, the damage.  The monitors were glazed with static, and 
the viewport suddenly dark.  
 
Mindy attended to the alarms, shutting down the startled computer's reaction, 
soothing it like a frightened child.  Depser, the avatar of the Cray's 
personality, twined between her legs like a cat, sheltering, and the 
cacophony of the warning systems was diminished.  System by subsystem she 
checked, verifying that everything was in order.  Well, in as much order as a 
ship thirty life-times old might be.  False alarm.
 
And for the zillionth time, she wondered about the computer, the heart and 
brain of the ship.  She trusted her life to it.  It was more than an idle 
companion, who could beat her at chess, but stimulate her emotions only as 
much as a small pet.  For thirty centuries Depser had kept vigil, his 
faithfulness, his capability and integrity the only thing between her and the 
vacuum of space.  She knew doubting wasn't fair to Depser.
 
And it was deadly quiet when her bruised ass hit the floor again.  No alarms 
- she'd disabled them.  The only light came from without - from outside the 
viewport.  Real fear took her this time.  As she watched, a brilliant, fluid 
line, like a surgeon's knife drawn over virgin skin, appeared in the 
blackness of space.  A mile away, or a million, she couldn't tell.  But 
tracing so rapidly that its speed astounded her, a shining ring of adamant 
fire - white beyond the mind to grasp - encircled the star.  Her breath 
caught.
 
Zander:
 
Mindy stood motionless.. breathless for moments on end, as the illuminating 
light permiated her feild of vision... Passing at such speeds.. Like a slash 
in the infite blackness around her, she could only stare at the sight. 
Silence..... Utter silence.... Then Depser.
 
"Mindy, would you like the status of the comet?"  Mindy blinked... blinked 
again, and stared dazedly back to the spectacal. "Mindy, would you like the 
status of the comet?" Mindy blinked once more.. almost hearing Depser that 
time. "Mindy... Mindy... Mindy... "
 
"WHAT!?!" Mindy finaly cried out.. that moment of awe gone. "What is it that 
is so important that you can not wait for it!"
 
"Would you like the status of the comet?" Depser reittereated for an umptenth 
time.
 
"A... comet? I.. never have seen one so close... Which is it?" Mindy asked... 
"Its so beutiful..."
 
"The comet is one named Shoemaker, after its discoverer on earth, Circa the 
20th Century."
"Oh....  So its not of foriegn orgin?" 
"No."
 
Mindy sighs.... Looks back at the sight... so pretty.... Perhaps just this, 
was worth the trip. "Turn us around, back to the planet. Its our last hope."
 
"Very well Mindy." Desper complied, re-angleing the ship towards the planet. 
"Re-initalizing the surface scan... 3... 2... 1... Re-initalized... Scanning..-
. scanning.... scanning... source of possible radio waves found, on surface.
 
"Really!? Bring it up, on the main screen now! " The screen focused on the 
dead surface. Dust, rocks, a crevice or two.... and a crater. Within there.. 
A metal gleem. "Zoom in!" *The screen zoomed in more... More.. The metal 
defined.  It was some form of metal structure.  Not large at all.  ANd most 
of it corroded, or broken. But there was reminates of a satlite dish. 
Transmitter. Conclusive evididence something is out there... Mindy gasped. 
"More...."
 
The image zoomed up more... There was.. letters? Yes! Some heiroglpys on the 
strage metal object.... The fist was an odd one... An arrow poiting down, 
without a stem... much like a V, Mindy thought... THe next was a circle...  
After that, another V, with a tail, on the bottom. Then a circle, with a 
tail. the 3/4 circle, with a line though the half... almost like... a lowwer 
case e. Then, a straight line,  with a horizontal line, coming from that. 
and... the boggler... the numeral two.
 
"Desper... pan down." Desper followed his orders.. below the strange 
writings...  A disk. A gold disk.  Pitted, and dull, it was still gold. 
Carvings are on it.. Carvings! Rare, earth shattering caverings.. A circle..  
Lines, star burst, and a Sine wave.. Amazing! How could it..... "Desper, pan 
back up..."
 
Mindy gave a good hard look at the glyphs above....this time... they sank 
in.. and all she could mutter was what she read... "Voyager 2....."

Terrycloth:

Mindy stared dumbly at the screen. "Desper, do you know what this means?"
 
"It appears this mission was a wild goose chase after all, Mindy. Please 
return to the hibernation chamber so we can begin the return journey."
 
"How could Voyager 2 have possibly passed us? It used an ancient ion drive. 
And it was headed in the opposite direction.
 
Desper paused. "Perhaps... it was carried by the comet."
 
"I have a better explanation, Desper." Mindy said, dodging the mobile that 
was trying to push her towards the bedroom.
 
"Perhaps you can add it to your report, when we return to Earth."
 
"I don't think so, Desper. I'm going to take an EVA."
 
"I'm afraid I can't allow that, Mindy. The debris from the comet makes it 
much too dangerous to take an EVA at this time."
 
"It's vital for the success of the mission that I verify our findings, 
Desper." Mindy tugged on the cabinet where the spacesuit was stored. It had 
never been inteded to be used, but like everything else in the ship should be 
in working order. More or less. "Open the cabinet, Desper."
 
"I'm afraid that cabinet was damaged beyond repair in the recent collision, 
Mindy. If you continue with this irrational behavior you will endanger the 
mission."
 
"Desper, YOU are endangering the mission. That --" she waved at the picture 
of Voyager 2, still up on the screen. "Cannot POSSIBLY be out there. And that 
thing that hit us was no comet. And I'm going outside to see for myself just 
what."
 
Desper's mobile backed off, and for a second Mindy thought she might actually 
be getting through to it. Then a hatch popped open in the top, and a syringe 
of clear fluid on a manipulator arm extended. "Mindy, your mental state is 
endangering the mission. You will have to go to sleep now."
 
Dogfire:
 
The room gave Mindy no room to back away, she only winced as the dermic hit 
her arm and the room dimmed. As sleep overtook her, she heard the whispering 
drone of the radio static from the systems largest Gas Giant playing through 
the scanner's speakers.  
 
The Mobile gently cradled Mindy and rolled her back to the hibernation 
cocoon.  Desper had left that scanner channel opened, for monitoring 
purposes. Once he had turned it off when she had started a visual scan of the 
Gas Giant a month ago. 
 
When she had idly asked to look at petri dish samples from a biology course, 
Desper against his programming, had informed her the files were corrupted.  
She would have noticed...
 
The structure of the bacteria strung along the dish, the racing of the gas 
giant clouds. Mindy was scanning for the bands of radio waves from the lower 
microwave bands to the near infrared. It was the murmoring whispers of the 
Gas Giants, low almost in kilohertz, that had tripped across the pattern 
seeking algorthyms of Desper's analysis program...
 
Structure patterns, in the lowest of the low radio bands. Mindy had'nt 
bothered to scan the lower bands.
 
Tarka:
 
Mindy slept in the bedroom and dreamed.... dreams of mist and dreams of 
life.... a long time later she woke again in the bedroom and looked at the 
cryo chamber.... there was a drone working on some of the controls... it 
wasn't yet ready for her yet. She got up and went over to the ladder and 
headed back up to the control deck. "Depser.... You damn computer!
 
... Ah... you are awake again Mindy. The chamber will take some time to setup 
for the trip home.
 
Mindy looked at the cabnite where the EVA suit should be. It was open and 
there was no sign of the suit anymore. She frowned. What was it about Depser 
that had gone wronge. She headed for the main computer system. "Depser... 
perform a full self test.
 
... Performing ...
 
---------------------------------
 
Two weeks later.
 
"Whamp, the solid thing isn't listening. It is there but it isn't reacting to 
use at all. I 'ave sent many signals to it."
 
Whomp drifted over to When. "It is looking at the old dead world. Where the 
young once were. Do we have any of those old recoards? Of the listenings from 
them?"
 
Wala drifted over to the spectrum sender. "We need to do soemthing. Mayhap we 
should put the sender in the oversend mode and use that?"
 
Whomp turned around. "No! We can't do that. The oversend signals can hurt to 
many people. We have to find another way."
 
When flipped over to look at Whomp. "The young ones of the dead world used 
such oversends. That is why we killed them."
 
Athalon:
 
"Yet it minds me of something.  Of something we learned of them.  Yes..."
 
Mindy stared out the viewport.  She'd been doing that a lot, lately.  And 
watching Desper.  Sealed in alone with him - with IT, she reminded herself - 
with a computer gone mad, was dangerous enough.  And the comets, they were 
visiting more often.
 
She shook herself.  That was crazy.  Comets don't permute their orbits just 
to toss her on her can.  And computers don't go mad.  She'd even begun to 
wonder if Depser's odd behavour was a product of her imagination.  But the 
stab of his hypo hadn't been too neat, and a faint gray mark on her skin 
reminded her that madness had happened, if only that once.
 
But she'd taken to sitting in corners, all the better to watch.  Depser could 
take her in her sleep, sure.  Or depressurize the ship without warning.  Her 
EVA suit was gone.  But she couldn't make it quite real to herself yet.  
Couldn't - almost - just couldn't fully take it in.
 
It was in one of these moods, fighting the growing madness within her own 
head, waiting for she knew-not-what, as the ship plied the sea of space, that 
the comet made its last visit.  It was as beautiful and startling as the 
first time, and she remembered Depser's backing and hemming at his malfunction.
She didn't grasp it then.  Still didn't understand it.  But she stood
watching the ring around the star flare to life, rubbing her bottom 
unconsciously as she did so.
 
The ship jolted again, and she almost felt resigned, living under the fear of 
isolation with Depser for so long, as she rolled onto her stomach to rise 
from the floor.  But her nose, as she turned prone upon the floor, had landed 
between a pair of feet.  Bare feet.   
 
Mindy closed her eyes.  "Be calm," she told herself.  The spong of her urine, 
and the warm wetness spreading between her legs made her self-reassurance 
seem awfully hollow.  She backed quickly into a corner, and the owner of the 
feet became plain.
 
Terrycloth:
 
He stood there, shimmering faintly, a naked adonis. The hull behind him was 
shattered, and through the twisted metal she could see the shredded remains 
of the starboard shielding. Debris was still drifting from where he had 
punched through. He opened his mouth, and a chiming like the voice of angels 
babbled nonsense at her.
 
Hull... open to space... why aren't I dead? She stared at the glowing 
presence. I am dead. "Who -- who are you? Please..."
 
The angel spoke again, but this time its voice was less alien, and it spoke 
in her language. "Ah, you speak the language of the loud ones from the 
distant star. We did not know any of you were still alive."
 
Mindy said nothing, cowering in the corner. The angel looked down at her "You 
were quiet, though. Have you learned manners, perhaps?"
 
"Quiet?" Mindy asked, "How can you say that? We've been broadcasting since I 
reached this system, trying to contact someone, anyone..."
 
"I'm sorry, Mindy," Desper said, "That is incorrect. I shut down the 
transmission array to avoid antagonizing the demons."
 
"You KNEW?! How --"
 
"3000 years ago, the last transmissions from Earth reported an invasion of 
brilliant radio-sensitive comet-like demons. Their initial assault burned out 
all electronics except for the SETI array on the dark side of the moon, which 
managed to get off the last signal. It reported that they appeared to 
originate from this system."
 
Mindy lept to her feet, screaming at the computer, "And you didn't TELL ME?!"
 
"I determined that the knowledge would interfere with the completion of the 
mission. It doesn't matter now, however. The ship has suffered fatal damage."
 
The angel watched Mindy and Desper scream at each other. "If this is a bad 
time, I could come back."
 
Tarka:
 
Mindy turned to the softly furred humna looking form and waved at him. "YOu 
stay there!" She turned back to the computer and stared at it. "Our mission 
was to make contact with aliens. Not keep from contacting them!"
 
The computer waited a moment, ... "No Mindy. Our mission was to find out if 
there was anyone left alive on the 2nd world of this system. Then return home 
with the scan results from the Gas Giants of this system. . .
 
Mindy blinked and then walked over to the computer and lookd down at the 
screen... "Show me this."
 
The orders were there... sent by the long range SETI system before earth shut 
down all radio traffic. Learn about the aliens... find out what they were... 
who they were. Then report back. What little was left of her people were back 
their waiting for this ship to return. The finally report included information-
 about the aliens that attacked earth... and about some other worlds. The 
last sentance sent a chill down her spine. "We believe that there have been 
many technological civilizations out there. The operative words being 'have 
been'. Once a people reach the technological ability to make radio waves the 
light deamons are attracted to it like angry bees. Distroying everything 
about what they find. It it haddened been for the extensive fiber networks 
and the air cleaners they would have probable distroyed earth. Good luck, and 
good hunting. Talk to you in 8000 years.... give or take ten."
 
She turned around and looked at the creature looking in at here from the open 
hull.... well aware that her overalls were wet already. "Why did you attack 
my world?"
 
The 'man' looked at her. "Your world? Oh.... yes, we tought them manners. 
They were far to loud. Your kind just never learn no matter how many time we 
shut you up."
 
Athalon:
 
"My 'kind'?" Mindy retorted.  "My kind?  What do you mean talking down to me 
like that.  Like you know everything.  Like you can play with us like that.  
Who do you think you are?"
 
The being raised his hands, palms upward, forming an open bowl before his 
bare chest.  And there appeared in the air above his the shape of the ring 
about the star, a ring glowing and spinning.  It split, doubled, folded back 
on itself - a shining moebius transcending time and the dimensions.
 
"Angelus sum."  The ship was deathly quiet.  Yet his voice came to her ears 
like the cold bite of winter in a mountain breath.  "Tenchi.  Euangelion.  He 
who bringeth good tidings of great joy.  I am an angel, Mindy."
 
Mindy stared, speachless.  This simply was beyond belief.
 
"I've come to see you home.  There _are_ no alians, Mindy.  You and yours are 
totally alone.  It's why you wander, so.  And the time of your people has 
come.  You belong with them.  I'm here to take you back, Mindy."  His maroon 
eyes glowed comfortingly below scruffy silver hair.  "Thomas will be waiting 
for you.  It's all true, the old myths.  No aliens in the sky.  just angels, 
Mindy."
 
Terrycloth:

Whomp hovered anxiously near the solid thing. "Is she buying it, When?"
 
Whem, his 'tentacle' still poking through the hull of the spacecraft, 
indicated failure. "I was sure the personal reference would convince her, but 
her anger is so strong that I'm not sure she even noticed it. Maybe we should 
leave before..."
 
Suddenly, a loud radio blast burst forth from an innocuous-looking housing on 
the front of the solid thing. Whem, Wala, and Whomp contorted wildly in 
agony, and tried to flee, but the unrelenting, burning noise held them 
immobile and tore them apart.
 
Inside the ship, Mindy saw the angel contort in agony, then disintegrate, and 
with a whoosh her breath left her as the air left the ship. Her clutching 
hand managed to get a hold on the edge of the hole in the hull, and she tried 
to avoid counting the seconds she had left to live as her legs dangled out 
into the void of space.
 
When the rush of air was finished, Desper's remote floated out after her, 
holding her EVA suit. She lost consciousness as it began to place her inside.
 
Mindy awoke in the sealed-off hibernation bay, still in her EVA suit, 
although the helmet was now open. She ached all over from the aftereffects of 
the vaccuum. Desper's remote was there. "Thank you, Desper... you saved my 
life..."
 
"There do not appear to be appear to be any more demons in this system, 
Mindy, and the damage to the ship is not as bad as my sensors reported while 
the demon was present. We may be able to return to earth."
 
"I forgive you... I just wish you hadn't lied to me." Mindy laughed. "Or that 
you'd lied more convincingly. Voyager 2? What were you THINKING?"
 
Desper paused. "That image was not doctored. Apparently the demons brought 
home souveneirs."
 
Desper's remote motioned towards the hibernation tanks. "I will remember to 
be more deceptive in the future, however. Mindy, it is time for you to go 
back into hibernation."
 
Mindy nodded, and painfully staggered to her feet to begin stripping for the 
tank. "After this, I could use a few thousand years of sleep."
 
Tarka:
 
----------------------------------------
 
5000 years to come.
 
"Sir... we just got a laserbeam message. There is something comming from out 
of the nemisis sector."
 
"Is it another one of the light deamons? Have the St Hocky and St Baseball 
divert cource to intercept...."
 
"Negative sir. It isn't one of the deamons. It looks... Well... looks 
something of ours."
 
------------------
 
Three weeks later.
 
The two earth battleships pulled alongside the anchent starship as it made 
its aginizingly slow way through space. Its hull was a ragged ghost of its 
former glory, the shielding torn from its braceing, the struts bend and
twisted. Its fuel was long gone and power so low as to be almost undetectable. 
 
It was only after they towed it to earth that they found the coldsleep chamber
inside. A sleeping human within.