The Eleusian Effect

I spoke to Marcus, now the Emissary. “You are the Emissary?”

Her voice was quieter, but still different from Marcus’s. “I am the Emissary of Trillian, originating from Eleusia, but you call it Venus.”

“How did you know we called it Venus?”

“This host provides me with all of his knowledge in order to communicate and understand your species.”

“Are you Eleusian?”

“Yes. A millenia ago, the Arbiters sent out several scout vessels to colonize and research other worlds. We are a peaceful race but we knew by studying Earth that other species could be violent. Our own race had violent periods so we sought to avoid the mistakes our ancestors made.” “Why are you here?” I felt a strange connection to the Emissary.

“Within each scout vessel, lay an omnisphere, a compendium of our planet’s knowledge and culture. It also contained technology that would allow us to connect with the inhabitants of any planet it landed on. We had hoped to build a vast network of communities throughout the galaxy. We would not ever know if we were successful since as the last vessels were launched from Venus, our world was coming to an end. The omnispheres carry the means to integrate elements of our culture, science and technology into carbon based planets and moons.” “Is Marcus all right? Will he live?”

“My time in this host is indeed temporary. He is unharmed as he is aware of everything that I am.”

“What do you want?”

“My mission is to enlighten the inhabitants of this world, known to the Eleusians as Trillian.”

Baskin spoke up. “We call it Centauri. We live here.”

“You are not native to Trillian.”

“We are from Earth. Some of us landed here by accident.”

“We are aware of your situation. It was the omnisphere that brought you here.”

My curiosity was on fire. “Why did you bring them here?”

“They would have perished. The omnisphere detected your primitive vessel and evaluated it. The inhabitants were physically unable to survive the remainder of the journey and Trillian was the closest planet that could support them. The omnisphere imbued the vessel with the sacred energy and brought it to Trillian.” “Did the omnisphere cure us?” Baskin was as curious as I was.

“Yes. Your physical maladies were simple to cure and the atmosphere was adjusted to near perfect conditions for your survival. We only asked for one thing and you provided it.” “What was that?”

“This host body. It was the best way to communicate with you. I am aware you have Eleusian technology on this vessel. I would like to access it, please.” I got the feeling that this alien, the emissary, was becoming more human as time went on. Her demeanor was becoming more familiar and she was sounding less alien. “I will have to check with the Captain.” “Of course. I will await your answer.”

“Give me a moment.” I walked over to the comm and called Tanner. An orderly showed up with some food Marcus ordered before the Emissary appeared. “Ah finally! I’m starving!” We were all shocked at the familiarity of the comment. It was as if Marcus was back. She took the sandwich and looked at us. “I’m still in here and I’m okay.” “Marcus?” Baskin was relieved but still pensive.

“Yes. The Emissary is sharing me. We are very hungry.”

“Weird.” I thought.

“This is Tanner.”

“Captain, we have an unusual situation in sickbay. You’ll want to see this yourself.”

“Acknowledged. I’m on my way.”

I turned back to Marcus/Emissary. Her eyes were still sparkling but not as bright. She was understandably hungry and was almost done with her sandwich when Tanner arrived. “So what’s going on?” The Emissary was facing away from Tanner when she walked in. “I am the Emissary of Trillian, Captain.” She turned and Tanner noticed her eyes.

“Okay, what exactly does that mean?” I knew Tanner had to see her as we first saw her. She, sensing the same, she put down the sandwich, lit herself up and rose above the floor. She shone like a star and Tanner understood. Without looking at Tanner, I said, “She is sharing Marcus’s body for now.” “Is Marcus okay? I mean is she still in there?”

In a different voice, the Emissary responded, “Yes, Captain and I am fine. This is necessary so the Emissary can talk to us.”

I caught Tanner up to speed. “So she wants to look at the Eleusian data?”

“I suspect she wants to see the updates. This omnisphere was launched before the Eleusians died. She may not know that.”

“I suppose we owe her that for saving the Tempest. I’ll allow it but you’ll have to keep close tabs on her.”

“Roger that.”

Myself, Baskin and Marteen in a protective suit led the Emissary out of sickbay and towards the Science Research Lab. The Emissary studied everything in her path. “You have come a long way since we launched our omnispheres.” Baskin asked nervously, “These spheres are like probes, aren’t they?”

The Emissary pondered for a moment. “Probes. Yes, I suppose you could call them that.”

“Why did the Eleusians send them out?”

“After several millennia of advancing our own technology and culture on Venus, we discovered that we were the most advanced race in the solar system. We sought out similar races and cultures to expand our own knowledge and when there were none in our own solar system, we ventured out beyond it. We knew that not all life forms were like us and they make react negatively to our presence. We created the omnispheres to give us as much information as possible before we made our presence known.” “Did you find hosts on other planets?” I was very curious to see how far out they were able to achieve.

“That is not known at this time. Each omnisphere is sent to a specific system. It evaluates the planets in that system and then seeks out intelligent, carbon based life.” “So you actually don’t know if your race found other planets. You only know about this one.”

“That is correct. I will know better when I am able to commune with nodes. You have been calling them drives, I believe.”

“Yes, they are in here.” We arrived at Science Lab and the techs were lining up the drives. We had the chamber sealed for the male’s protection since we did not know if the Emissary radiated the same high yield hormones that we did. I wanted to stay in the chamber. “You cannot.” The Emissary was adamant. “It’s for your own safety. I will be expelling and channeling large amounts of energy and it is not safe for you. Even in your current condition (as an enhanced female)”. I was a little annoyed but complied with her.

We had engineered compatible housings for the drives and there were about twenty of them. Each of the drives were about the size of a watermelon. The material for which they were made was unusual due to its composition and the Eleusian circuitry would not work outside of it. The housings appeared to be as hard as metal but had a waxy, soft plastic feel to them. It was easily reshaped but nearly impossible to change. It would become malleable when heated but it would not melt; it would become stiff when cooled but not break and would return to room temperature almost immediately when the heating or cooling source was removed. The Emissary stood in front of the long table where the drives sat and stretched out her hands. A dark, purple energy appeared and swirled around the room. A cloud of it positioned itself over the drives and extended a ray of energy to each. The energy ran the drives and they vibrated and shook with the intensity increasing gradually. There was a noise, a familiar hum like we had heard in the cave before we found Marcus. The Emissary’s body shone like a star as she absorbed the purple energy, which was growing lighter in color. She rose above the floor, floating like a celestial sacrifice. She seemed calm at first, but her face was showing signs of strain, as if she was lifting a heavy load. The light from the energy was growing brighter and it was becoming more difficult to see her inside the lab. The hum was getting louder, too. There was a flash and a loud thunderclap. It knocked out the lights in the lab and everything was dark and quiet.

“Computer! Turn on emergency lighting in Science lab!” I screamed. “Can anyone see her?”

Marteen was temporarily blinded. Baskin was slightly better but still trying to get her bearing. For some reason, I could still see and I tried to open the chamber. The door lock would not budge and the chamber was still dark. I ran to an access port for a laser cutter and cut through the door mechanism. “Computer! Lights on!” “Unable to comply. Lights are non-functional.”

I ran back to the port and got a flood lamp. I shone it into the lab and found the Emissary on the floor unconscious. She was barely breathing. “Obama to sickbay! Medical emergency in Science Lab One. One casualty, send medical team, stat!” I stabilized her as best as I could and attended to Baskin. She was okay and I had her stay with the Emissary. I checked Marteen and other than a slight headache, he was fine. The medical team made it in record time and they brought the Emissary back to sickbay. “I will be right behind you.” I hit the comms on the wall. “Obama to Tanner, I need you in sickbay, immediately.” “On my way.”

I ran almost full bore to sickbay. By the time I got there, the med techs were already starting an emergency medi-scan. “Her nervous system has been overwhelmed. She’ll be out for a while but she should be okay.” “All right, patch it through to my pad so I can monitor it. I’m going back down to the lab.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

I ran back to the lab and the technicians were surveying the damage. Mostly superficial with the xenon lights blown out. The drives, on the other hand were a different story. Wilson and Jamie Braddock were examining the husks of the drives. “Ruined, all of them.” Jamie was more than annoyed. “Fortunately, we were able to back them up.” I was impressed. “So we still have the data?”

“Yes. There’s still about 10% of it we haven’t gone through. We scaled back analysis when we got to Centauri. The plan was to continue after we had settled things here. I hope that the data will still work. We were pulling it directly from the drives because it was the easiest way to interface with our system.” “All right so things aren’t as bad as we thought.”

There is an old adage that says not to say things like that due to the perceived existence of a cosmic ‘jinx’. Meaning that when you say that things are as bad as they could be, the universe sees that as a challenge to add calamity. Such is the case but not the way you’d think.