The visibility of seat can be seen. Empty. For a second, I thought that my head was electrocuted in a spooky itch of sort in some millisecond. Only it isn’t so. Then a man in uniform with long rows of badges set himself, and adjusted the com-link.

“Mr. Malagigi,” he said with a formal voice. “Have you done the things that I specify you to do?”

“Not yet,” I said. “It will be done soon. General, sir, there is something on my mind. If everything goes smooth…” I paused. “Will there be a colonial expansion? That is, if the mission is accomplished.”

“Let me deal with it first with high staffs. I’ll let you know about several possible scenarios,” he said.

“You better. Or I abandon this mission. I have the upper hands.”

“You have my words. What’s on your mind exactly?” General McCafferty inquired.

“I have three things. first,” I took a gather in thought. “Suppose if the mission fail. And I make it back to Earth. Will you secure Sonya and I safely?”

“Sure thing.”

“You know what I mean. The future of Earth is in a critical phase at this point. And I mean far away from politics. Alaska.”

“Mr. Malagigi, I can’t guarantee that-”

“Don’t,” I said. “Or I abandon.”

He had no choice. I wondered whether if military had a back up plan. I can’t know for sure. One thing is certain: military is not to be trusted. I just hope to God that they don’t have something sneakily up their sleeves.

“Secondly, if I don’t make it… have all the finances deposited to Sonya’s holdings.”

“Including assets?” McCafferty pryed.

“Everything.”

“Ok. What’s the last?”

“If everything goes well according to the plan… Can you send Sonya up with other colonists?”

He thought for a moment. “With a kid on board?”

“Exactly,” I protested out of bonds.

“I’ll consider that. For now, it’s entirely up to senate’s decision of our meeting. Next time then, unless you have anything more to say?”

“I thought for a moment. “General, I want to ask something. I’ve been two months behind.”

“One month and half in our Earth time to be exactly,” he said.

“Right. What’s going on with politics?”

“Well, it’s getting hotter by day. It won’t be long before an international war break out. Genocides have already began in Middle East and Africa continent.

“So Eugenics Wars is dawning on us at last,” I said. “Well, not me.”

"It is as expected. It’s not just that," the voice said groomily.

“Sir?”

Silence.

“Sir, you don’t mean?”

“Yes. It has began,” General McCafferty said.

“That isn’t possible.”

“They found the scriptures, Mr. Malagigi.”

“What scriptures?”

“Scriptures that are suited with systems. The industrial system of war machines,” McCafferty hollowed.

“What possibly scriptures be compatible?”

“Well. Communist Chinese government has held the information in secrecy for too long. They managed to decode Tibetan, Sanskrit, and ancient Egyptian scriptures all-in-one. It is astonishing in what they find,” he said. “In fact, the three scriptures found a common ground: an unknown alien language. One that seems to open the consciousness of machines. At least what I read in the reports,” he said.

“Sir?”

“It is a perfect doomsday machine,” he echoed. “It is something that we have never seen before. The machines become… independent minds,” he added the emphasis.

“Are we talking about the dead languages that unlock the greatest see-all conqueror of ancient civilizations? Pre-Troy days?” I asked.

“It would seem so. Chinese government is doing experiments with it. It won’t be long before the militant means are grasped to contain the control of such technology. We are tracking fast and grab the technology before they do. We can only hope. Before it goes from bad to worse.”

I was thinking too much. “General. I better go and prepare according to the plan,” I said.

"Good. Don’t screw it up. You are our only future," he said, and disconnected the station comlink.

I exhaled. I need a shower, I thought. I haven’t done it for over a month. A normal person would probably smell something wrong with my body odor. A process of detoxication secreted by enzymes, usually the produce the last energy of food available for bodily consumption. I wonder what I smell at this point, lest after I increased the output only recently. What sort of body toxins did I smell? I wouldn’t know.

© Jiri Stefanovich

℠ Bad Robot

™ Donald Kintz

Incorporated Dimension Home Video Inc.