Time till fist contact: 9 days, 5 hours and 45 minutes. The world was still oblivious to the message sent by an, at this moment, unknown presence. No one knew if it was organic, hostile or friendly. But one thing was clear. This will change the world for ever. “What was so important that you had to drag us out here?” Boris grumbled as he walked by Tau on his aircraft carrier. “Yeah, we were in the middle of something when we were called in” Elizabeth grumbled as well as she stretched a bit. They were both wearing their special suits, as they walked towards a helicopter. “Will you quit whining already” Tau grumbled as he knew perfectly well what they were doing. “Although I appreciate a good fuck as much as the next one, one of these days you two are going to traumatize Kathalina…” he continued as he got into the chopper. The two followed close behind and just chuckled as their gazes met. “She’ll be fine. She’s been through worse” Boris chuckled, but then cleared his throat and asked what was nagging him from the start. “What’s going on Tau? You seem on edge, the people close to you seem on edge, and we’re on a chopper about to take off from your aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? I don’t think we’re here to do some fishing and get some R&R” he asked as he looked at the feline sitting across him. “Yeah Tau” Elizabeth added “You’re on edge even for your usual slightly paranoid self… What’s up?” and moved to readjust herself s the chopper took off.
“It’s not as simple as just telling you two what’s going on” Tau said in a low voice as he seemed to be lost in his thoughts. “This is far beyond you, or even me. And to talk too much about it in an unsecured place is out of the question” he continued as he went silent once again. Boris and Elizabeth just looked at each other as they were a bit confused. But they said nothing more as well, and the rest of the journey went in silence. “Sir, we’re approaching the border” one of the pilots finally broke the awkward silence. “Good, get us low to the ocean surface” Tau replied as he shifted in his seat, obviously more than a little nervous about the entire situation. “You okay boss?” Boris asked him as she placed a paw on his shoulder. “I’m fine!” Tau snarled as he shoved his paw away. Both of them flinched at that reaction, and Boris couldn’t help but to bare his fangs a little. “Sorry… sorry” Tau murmured out as he went back into his thought. “What’s the matter with you Tau? Eli was right when she said you’re even more on edge that usual?” Boris as ked as he looked at the troubled feline. “I think it’s time I told you two something… But this never leaves, anywhere, understood?” he said as he looked out the window, and found at least some comfort in the endless blue of the ocean. “You know you can trust us Tau. My dad’s been with you since, well… since you took him in. And you saved me and my family, or at least helped with it” Elizabeth tried to comfort and reassure Tau a bit.
“It’s not that simple Elizabeth. This has tremendous consciences behind it.” Tau said in a low voice once again. “But I guess it is the time that you two found out about this…” he sighed as he rubbed the ridge of his snout. “It has to do with you as well, and the suits you’re wearing, and with the blood flowing through your veins. Again, this does no...” he started to explain as the pilot cu t him short “Sir, we’re approaching the landing point. We’ll need you to open the passage” “Wait, what passage?” Boris asked as he looked out the windows, trying to spot anything. “Yeah, there’s only ocean around us, there’s nothing here” Elizabeth added as she too looked out, trying to spot anything resembling a tunnel of sorts. “As observant as ever I see” Tau actually chuckled a bit. “But you failed to notice that this isn’t a regular chopper” he said as he pulled down a pane of smart glass. A few moments later, what appeared to be a log in screen appeared on it. A few laser scanners scanned his face, and he spoke “Tau Maxim” What appeared to be a female human face appeared on the glass and spoke out in a fairly robotic voice. “Mr. Maxim, it has been a while. To what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your voice?” it asked as it turned around to look at Elizabeth and Boris. “And you must be Boris and Elizabeth. A pleasure to meet you, finally” it continued as Tau interrupted it. “Open up the passage SACS, we’ll have time to talk later” The pilots stopped the chopper, and hovered it over the ocean surface while they were talking. “Hands free, she’s all yours SACS” the pilots said as they let go of the controls. “Please do not touch the controls and try to remain calm” SACS said as something quite unbelievable happened. The helicopter started to descend, but it never hit water. “What the?” Elizabeth and Boris yelped at the same time as they saw the ocean starting to part in a square. “Please remain calm. There is nothing to be afraid off” SACS said again as they started their descent into the darkness of the ocean. “What the hell is going on here?” Boris growled a bit as he looked around.
“This is why I called you two here. You two are going to be among the select few that know of this place, and that have had the privilege to visit it.” Tau said as he folded the smart glass back up into the ceiling of the chopper. “We’re descending into the most secret place on Earth. What you’ll see here… let’s just say be prepared for it” he continued as the two finally started to calm down a bit. But in that moment, they both gripped their heads and screamed out in pain. Their heads were spinning and they were almost on the verge of passing out, when the strange feeling went away. “What the fuck was that!!??” Boris snarled, and immediately SACS said in a plain robotic voice. “Please do not hold this against me Reaper, but syncing with your nanexes is necessary. Everyone in this base has one, and it is crucial to the base’s operation” They went deeper and deeper, and there was almost no more sunlight when they started to slow down their descent. “Please prepare for landing” SACS said as a loud metallic sound echoed through the helicopter. Metal walls soon appeared instead of the water ones, and they landed with a gentle thud. The engines shut off as they waited for the doors above them to close and seal shut. “Wait… everyone on this base has this thing?” Elizabeth asked as she shook her head a bit, getting rid of the last of the sickness caused by the merging. “I thought that this was top edge tech, still in development? And…” she continued as she looked at Tau. “That means you have one as well!” Boris huffed out a bit louder as he leaned in towards Tau. “I thought that you were against augmenting your body! That’s why you wanted me to try it out first. I would do it myself, but I can’t bring myself to modify my body, not after how I ended up this way. Remember that?!” Boris snarled a bit louder this time. “I lied, yes. You were never in any danger in the first place, if it makes it any better. But it had to be done. At the time I didn’t know what I was dealing with…” Tau explained but was cut short by SACS again. “That is an understatement Mr. Maxim. To say you had very little idea about what you were doing would be like saying that an ameba has a basic understanding of quantum mechanics” which managed to defuse the situation a bit as Elizabeth chuckled a bit. “Nice computer. Who did you get to write the dialog?” she asked as the started to get out of the chopper. “Since you are new here, I will not take offence. I am a fully functioning AI” SACS said, and it almost seemed that it was offended.
“SACS, Self Aware Computer System” A scientist said as she approached them. She was a fennec fox, with long ears and a bushy tail, much like Kathalina. “Hmm, well hello there” Boris murred as he was taken away a bit by her, and for the time being, forgot about the argument. “Please, you’re not my type” the fennec pushed him aside as she walked to Tau. “It’s been a while cat. I thought you said you’d come around more. But you’ve been away more and more” she grumbled as she tapped her foot on the ground. “It’s always a pleasure to see you again Jessica. Sometimes I wish I made you my little play thing after you asked me to transform you as a favor” he purred and rubbed her cheek. She brushed his paw aside, and handed him a page of smart paper and pointed to it with a stylus pen. “Sign here, here and here. We need some more money and a few more test subjects. Oh, and my name’s Jessica Riley. Head scientist on this base. Please don’t touch anything that seems important… scratch that. Don’t touch anything” she said as she took back the paper Tau signed.
After she walked away, and left them alone for the time being, Elizabeth grumbled “Well, she’s a ray of sunshine isn’t she?” Elizabeth grumbled as she slapped her father on his snout. “You have a plaything already, and me. So quit it” she chuckled lightly as she stretched a bit. The fennec came back a short time later, and stood in front of them. “So, you two are the result of my research hmm? I’ve read some of the reports….” She said as she shook her head. “And?” Boris asked as he looked over her body. “And… I’m disappointed. You two are reckless, and I’m surprised that you’re still alive. And you managed to almost destroy the suits a couple of times, which I’m not even mad about…” she grumbled as she flicked one of her large ears. “Now now, play nice Jessica” Tau murred lightly. “Let the kids have their fun. Besides, they proved themselves more than once” he continued as he peted her on her head. “You know I don’t like it when you do that” she said annoyed and moved out of the way. “Now, if you would follow me please” she said as she turned around and started walking towards the security bulkhead. “Why are we here again?” Elizabeth asked as she followed the fennec. “I presume that you’re here for her” the fennec said as the doors closed behind them. “Who’s she?” Boris asked as he was a bit pissed off at this point. Tau had lied to him, he didn’t know where he was or why he is there, and to top it all of, he’s being bossed around by a stuck up fennec.
“She is why you two exist. She is the reason why this place exists” Tau said as the other side of the airlock penned, revealing what seemed to be a reception area. “Who is she?” they both asked at the same time as they approached the middle of the room. A hologram of the entire base appeared in front of them, revealing just how big the facility was. “Is this real?” Elizabeth gasped as she saw the hologram. “Yes it is” SACS said as its head appeared by the hologram. “Mr. Maxim poured a lot of money into this facility. It is a small city in its own right.” It continued to explain. “And she is… well, I think it would be better if you saw her” it said as the bottom corners of a corridor lit up lightly with a green light. “This way please” Jessica said as she flicked through a few things on her piece of smart paper. They all walked down the lit path, and brushed past quite a few people. Form what seemed like janitors, to technicians and doctors. “How much did you put into this place boss?” Boris asked as he looked around. Corridor after corridor, room after room went by as they continued to walk. And judging by the holo-map, it seemed that they were going to the middle of the complex. And, after a while, they finally got to it. It was a large dome like room. In the middle of it, was a large cylinder shape and in it, there was something that loosely resembled a jet fighter.
“Is this it? This is all the fuss is about? A crashed jet?” Boris almost snarled out as he got close to the balls. On it, SACS’s face appeared and said in its cold, robotic voice. “This is no normal jet. But since you said that, I assume that Tau hasn’t shown you yet” it said and an oscilloscope screen appeared on the glass. “Greetings. We are here to greet you on behalf of the galactic…” the same recording that Tau listened to a few hours ago started playing. “You see, we’re not alone in this galaxy. We are only a small part of it, an insignificant part of it to be exact.” Jessica said as she looked into through the glass. “Every large country has its own UFO secrets. The US has Roswell, the Russians have their Incident 1, the Chinese have the Origin project, and I could o on and on and on.” “Wait? So you’re telling me that we knew about alien life all this time and no one said a word about it?” Elizabeth asked as she stepped closer to the glass. “But where do we come in? Wait, don’t tell me…” she gasped as she looked into the cockpit of the weird jet. “Is that?” she yipped a bit, and before Tau or Jessica could answer, SACS stepped in. “Yes, that is the nano suit you’re wearing. Or to put it more correctly, you’re wearing a cheap knock off, while the suit it’s designed on is in there. You two also have her to thank for your genetic makeup. You see, even though Mr. Maxim is quite the extraordinary mind, he still could not replicate the effects of her genome.” It explained briefly. “So we’re the product of some experiment to try and reverse engineer some kind of alien tech?!” Elizabeth yelled out a she turned to Tau. He, to put it simply, slapped her across her snout, and managed to knock her to the floor. “Hey!” Boris yelled out as he went to punch Tau in his face. But he stopped an inch away from making contact as he snarled out “What the fuck!?” “I do apologies Reaper, but I cannot allow you to harm Mr. Maxim. Please calm down, this is no time to be upset” SACS said as she moved Boris back a few steps. “What the hell is going on here?!” he snarled in response as he tried to moved on his own, but to no avail. “Don’t fight it, SACS’s controlling you through the nanex. It’s useless to fight it, so just calm down and shut up. If you would have listened, you would have heard that who, whatever contacted us is going to make itself known to the whole world on the 30th of August, at noon Greenwich Mean Time, somewhere in Switzerland. We do not have time for your tantrums…” Jessica said as she walked around the cylinder. “Wait what? You mean aliens are going to come and, land? In Switzerland?” Elizabeth asked as she whipped some blood from her snout.
“Yes. Look, I’m sorry that I had to lie to you, but it was necessary. When I found this deep in the Siberian tundra, a race against the clock started. Nothing so advanced would be lost forever, and it was just a matter of time when we’d make first contact. That time has come, and I’m sad to say, I’m nowhere near where I wanted to be when this day would come. Now, if you’d be ready to put aside your emotions, I’d like to make this situation at least a bit better. Yes, you’re gene tweaks are the product of her there, and your suits too. This whole facility is able to operate because of the lucky find I made all that time ago. Even SACS is based on what we found in the onboard computer. Now, if you wouldn’t mind” Tau said as he pointed towards another corridor. Elizabeth and Boris looked at themselves “We don’t really have a choice… But I’ll beat your ass when this is over” Boris huffed out as he was finally able to move again.
