Tresda POV
Working as an astronaut for the Pelsyl Astronautics Institute (PAI) was, at the present time, an unglamorous job. There was a skeleton crew left on the payroll, with the agency on the brink of being shuttered altogether; the government didn’t find space exploration to be worth the investment. I had numerous scientific credentials, and I doubled as a researcher with all of our missions postponed for the foreseeable future.
Our personnel roster had been slashed even further, when the scientists responsible for monitoring deep space objects had become the world’s laughingstocks overnight. After we issued drastic advisories about an ELE asteroid that had a high likelihood to strike Teska, future readings showed both our data and the subsequent projections had been off by an egregious margin. I wasn’t directly tied to that incident, but I didn’t understand how we could’ve been so wrong.
Everything both at PAI and TAI pointed, with increasing certainty, that it would be skirting close to Teska. However, seemingly overnight, it was as if its path shifted.
I sat alone at my desk, rubbing my eyes and poring over the asteroid spectrograph data as the last one at PAI again. “There. Its axial spin changed, but there’s no sign of a second object. It’s not irregularly shaped enough to be influenced by solar radiation pressure.”
“Tresda, here again into the late hours of the night?” My supervisor, Malorn, sighed, as he collected his coat to head out for the night. “Perhaps ferromagnetic attraction pulled it one such way. We can’t verify its composition, or whether it came across another object with a strong disruption. Perhaps a gust of solar wind caused uneven heating that we couldn’t detect. Perhaps we misrecorded the data because of mechanical error.”
“Sir, there’s no evidence for any of those theories. The data aligned from multiple, international telescopic observatories! There’s no observable reason that we missed the mark by so much. What if this wasn’t natural intervention? Because to me, it looks unnatural.”
Malorn threw up his hands. “Mr. Czar, aliens saved us for some unknown reason! You have to believe me; there’s this researcher back at PAI, and she told me that it’s the best explanation. What do you mean you’re not going to fund us? We’re doing real science here!”
“But what if it’s true?”
The Pelsyl supervisor shook his head with disgust. “Where’s the evidence for that? You think aliens moved a rock invisibly?! The one rule of astrophysics is that it’s never aliens. You would be laughed out of any academic circle for making such a suggestion.”
“I’m looking into it on my own time, sir. This data doesn’t make any sense, so I’m willing to look at outlandish explanations. Shouldn’t we be trying to explain it, especially when the Czar wants us to justify why we were so wrong?”
“What we need is to prove that we’re valuable, not to sound fucking insane! I would love to have all of the answers, but right now, I’m just trying to keep the lights on. You’re a damn good astronaut, and one of the last ones. You ever want to step onto the flight deck again, drop this and find a passion project that makes us useful!”
Malorn stormed out in a huff, and I stared at the darkened cubicles with a storm brooding in my mind. No one ever believed me when I broached my theories about the asteroid, and at this point, I was beginning to lose hope that any respectable scientist would even consider the possibility. The incongruity of the two datasets defied explanation, no matter how much I tried to make them fit with conventional causes.
If a third party had shifted the course, that meant they knew about Aratas and were benevolent enough to spare us. We had to try to investigate their intentions, because why wouldn’t they make contact with us? The idea that we weren’t alone and that we were being observed was…both disquieting and comforting. I liked the idea that extraterrestrials were peering up into the skies and exploring, and that we could have some sort of meaningful communication.
It’s one that could unify Pelsyls and Treysyls behind a shared mission, to learn more about these otherworlders. Couldn’t we at least send a “thank you” message and see if there’s any response? What could it hurt? On the slim chance that this is right, they’d need to possess some kind of exotic power source that our instruments couldn’t see. I guess it does sound nuts.
“Psst,” a voice said alongside me. I turned to see the PAI physician, Breida, having slipped into the chair alongside me. She managed studies of the physical effects of Aratas living in space, and also conducted health examinations of astronauts like myself. Had she been eavesdropping? “I believe you, about the aliens. Look, I have proof of their presence on Teska, invisible just like with the astronaut.”
I gawked at the doctor for several seconds. “What?!”
She pressed a piece of paper into my palm. “Come to this warehouse at twodawn. I have something to show you. They’re always watching, and I can’t say for certain what they want with us, but I can say…they take whatever they please, without us knowing. It’s all connected. I need someone to help figure it out! I have no clue what they’re doing.”
“What do you mean that they take ‘whatever they please?’” I hissed.
“I’ll show you the physical evidence. I don’t know whether to be concerned, but your asteroid theory has pushed me more toward the side that they’re benevolent. Whenever I try to make people study my data, they think I’m nuts. I don’t dare to bring it up to Malorn. I need someone who’ll believe me!”
“Then tell me what we’re even speaking about.”
“Not before you see the evidence. I don’t want you to write me off before I even have a chance to present my case. Maybe together, we stand a chance at getting more people onboard. Or at least learning about them, for our own curiosity. Just be at the warehouse tomorrow morning. Please!”
I was mystified by what the physician was babbling about, but having been written off by Malorn, I supposed I had to gather the facts and learn why Breida believed me. “Fine. I’ll take any proof of their existence at this point, no matter how thin. I can’t just forget about something like…fucking aliens. I’ll be there.”
“Wonderful. Thank you, Tresda; you’ll see!”
I yawned as the doctor scurried off, and shut down my computer. I fiddled with the alarm on my phone, setting it to go off on time to make it to the warehouse before my shift. It was unclear what evidence a physician could have to offer that’d add veracity to my case, but I supposed beggars couldn’t be choosers, if I wanted to meet the scientific burden of proof. I leaned forward onto my desk and draped my jacket over my head, crashing at the office once again.
In my head, asteroid calculations danced in the last moments before drifting off, and then half-remembered dreams about parlaying with aliens flitted through my mind. My work had consumed me ever since I tunneled on the idea of outside interference, to the detriment of my health and personal relationships. If it kept me secluded from the talk of war that pervaded the social psyche, then I was more than happy to have a different center of my world.
The alarm jolted me out of my sleep, feeling as if I’d never drifted off at all. This better be worth it, Breida. I’m sleep-deprived as fuck from my relentless obsession and no closer to answers.
I managed the short drive past the commune pueblos, where multiple generations of large families often cohabitated; childbearing was a strong value in Pelsyl society, which was part of the reason I was a bit of a pariah for never having any. I was too devoted to my work, and that could take me up into space for months at a time. I couldn’t dream of settling down or putting anyone through that separation. I pulled into a parking space, not liking how dilapidated the brick building was from the outside. It looked…sketchy.
“Breida?” I puffed my frills out with distaste and locked my vehicle, forcing myself to head inside the seemingly abandoned building. If this was a movie, people would call me a character too stupid to exist for going inside despite the dead silence and the atmosphere. “It’s Tresda. What is this place? Where are you?”
“Right here! I’m so glad you came.” The doctor turned around in an apron with dried blood on it, before standing aside to reveal an entire row of Pelsyl bodies that seemed to have been stolen from the morgue? All of them had their skulls removed to expose the brain? What the fuck?! “The aliens desecrated them before I did. I had to know.”
I took several steps back, swallowing and debating how fast I could call the police. “I…I left my notepad in the car. Be right back.”
Breida rushed forward before I could sprint out of this place, grabbing me by the arm and herding me toward the nauseating bodies. I retched from the stench and the sight of the spongy brains, uncertain whether I was about to join them. The physician had a giddy expression on her face, and I wondered why she worked for PAI rather than being a mortician. She pulled up several charts and brain scans, which were placed alongside the corpses.
“We have extensive physiological data on our astronauts. That includes neurological data. There were stealth spaceplane pilots with the military who had to go through our training: you know how rigorous that is, of course. Anyway, after the Cosmoshopper-3 crashed back down to Teska out by the Agritic coastline, we went to recover the pilot’s body. A chap named Ralto.”
“Okay?” I asked, utterly bewildered. “Your point?”
“We wanted to view the differences in all of his organs, and his family agreed to a full autopsy. At any rate, there were slight differences in the structure of his brain, as opposed to when we imaged it before the flight. The gyri are in minutely different patterns than we observed in the scans, and the sulci are ever so slightly deeper. There’s also no accrual of amyloid plaques like we would expect.”
“I didn’t come here to talk about weird effects of space on the Aratan brain, with all due respect. It doesn’t explain why you’re surrounded by fucking corpses! I came here to discuss aliens.”
Breida stared at me as if her conclusion was self-evident. “I exhumed multiple corpses after verifying my findings, and found that all of them that died after the asteroid had the same hallmarks! They’re close replicas of the brains, but not the real ones. I think the aliens have only been observing us since they stopped the asteroid. They’ve been stealing our brains post-mortem!”
I gawked at her, flabbergasted by the lunacy she was spewing. “You’re telling me you think the aliens are magically swiping the brains of everyone who died?! You’re…insane! They can’t just be everywhere, and I mean, what the fuck is this theory even? That there are aliens is one thing, but the asteroid is already a stretch!”
“I considered other explanations, of course. The first being that we live in a simulation. However, that was thrown out because we’ve observed brains correctly in the past. Also, a simulation would devote resources to rendering it in full detail, if it was being examined.”
My frills were puffed out with disbelief, hearing such delusional memories. If this is the type of person that believes me, that’s just fucking swell. “What exactly would aliens be doing snatching every Arata brain after we die? Are they brain fairies?”
“That’s a good question. They could be putting Aratan brains in jars for experiments,” Breida mused, her eyes far-off. “They might be cryogenically preserving the brains, but better than the dim hope we can do. Or, they could already have the key to death and be bringing us back! The question is where do they go with the lost souls? I hope it’s the last one. They’re very powerful and benevolent if so! Unless they want slave labor. Which they might since they didn’t tell us.”
“You’re out of your fusudamned mind! Teleporting brains…I can’t believe I came here bright and early to stand amongst a graverobber’s cadavers. Don’t hijack my credible fucking theories with your madness. Don’t contact me again. You need to stop all of this! I’m going to leave, and consider yourself lucky I don’t report you. PAI can’t take this publicity hit. Malorn is right.”
“Not about the aliens. You don’t believe that.”
“Maybe he is. Now I hear how I sound, reaching for that immediately.” I sprinted away from her, casting a final glance back. “You need help, Breida. Mental help. Please, for your own good. Normal people don’t do this!”
I ducked out of the warehouse and bolted for my car, backing out of the parking space like my life depended on it. In terms of acquiring concrete proof of the aliens’ presence, this had been a complete disappointment; it’d made me realize that without the addition of new, solid evidence, I should consider my own theory bunk. Maybe one day, PAI’s exploration would lead us to aliens, but for now, that was wishful thinking.
Unless I was ready to throw in my lot with a nutty scientist that thought aliens were resurrecting us all, it was time I focused on more practical endeavors to save our agency.
A/N - 22! We meet a Pelsyl scientist who hears “crazy” theories from Breida about disappearing brains. What do you think seeing the view from Teska and from the other side of the Aratan racial divide? Do you think Breida will be able to convince anyone, and how would Tresda react if she did believe?
As always, thank you for reading and supporting!