Sequence (2 page)

Final Cleanse

The drawer in the wall closed and then opened
once again. Inside was a damp white cloth. It shimmered with hints of silver and it was lighter than it looked. He didn’t need to ask what it was for. He quickly wiped and tossed it at his feet.

He pulled his pants up and said, “Let me out now.”

“We’re checking your waste. We’ll let you out when we’re sure you’ve purged everything. Stand still while we cleanse your extremities.”

Before he could
ask what the hell that meant, a harsh gust of air blew over him from every direction and a light lit him up from all around the room. His black hair was swirling in front of his face so fast that he almost went dizzy.

Then a door opened up to a brightly lit corridor. The light was blue and the walls were white and smooth. It didn’t look too alien at all. It looked like every hospital he’d ever visited. Then he had to fight off the image of being anally probed. If it was a hospital or lab, that might still happen, or worse.

He didn’t want that to happen to him, but he had the unsettling feeling that these aliens, whoever they were, would do whatever they wanted to do to him and there wouldn’t be much he could do to stop them.

The voice instructed him to walk the length of the corridor to be sure all contaminants were removed.
As he took his first step out of the room, the corridor lights flashed on and off like strobes, making audible clicks, nearly blinding him. He could only assume the lights were UV, or something that would kill off whatever leftover bacteria he might have on his skin and in his hair and on his clothing.

After he’d walked about a dozen steps, a flood of warm
, clear liquid dropped on him from overhead.

He flinched and said out loud, “Warn me next time you do something like that.”

“No.”

The liquid smelled sterile, like a detergent
, so he assumed it was also supposed to help clean him of foreign contaminants. He wondered why these aliens were such germaphobes.

He made it to the end of the corridor without any more surprises. There was a single door at the end. He waited for it to open and after a few seconds it finally did.

What he saw inside made him want to run away and find a nice dark hiding place.

Mechanized Monsters

A robotic
monstrosity fourteen feet tall and six feet wide approached Chris quickly and grabbed him by the throat. It lifted him a foot into the air as he clawed at its metal arm.

But instead of squeezing his head right off, it looked him over with its single centered eye. An array of laser light washed over his body from a source somewhere on the robots abdomen and the eye swam all over his figure before it dropped him to his feet.

It said, “You’ve been adequately purged. Welcome aboard. What should I call you?”

Chris
rubbed his raw throat and thought about telling the robot to get fucked.

Instead he said, “I’m
Chris. What should I call you?”

“Just call me
captain.”

The robot was strangely humanoid in that it was bipedal
. It had a head on top and two legs on the bottom. But it also had tentacle-like arms that jutted out over every square inch of its trunk, front and back, and from neck to waist. The tentacles were of various lengths, but they averaged about four feet long and half a foot wide. Its voice, instead of coming at him from within his own head, now issued forth from a circular membrane on its metallic neck.

Chris’ mind was reeling in utter terror but he managed to keep the horror from his features.

The captain noticed Chris looking him over so it explained: “I am not a life form like you. I am a mechanized unit with a living consciousness uploaded into it. My real body is in stasis back on an outpost world. My mind is here.”

“Ok
ay.”

“Let me show you around before I put you into stasis.”

“I don’t want to go into stasis,” he yelped, suddenly more afraid than ever. Why should he have to go into stasis anyway?

“I don’t care
what you want. You volunteered for this, remember?”

“No I didn’t. You misunderstood me.”

“I still don’t care. Come with me.”

This was unfair. There were others
who would have jumped at the chance to be aboard this ship. Dave and Jackie had voiced exactly that. So why did he draw the short straw?

Chris
noticed three other mechanized units behind the captain, all staring at him like he might be a threat. That scared him more than the thought of being put into stasis against his will.

Gene Thieves

The mechanical monstrosity showed him a holographic monitor that
displayed a star, up close, shining a brilliant white and filling the entire screen.

The
captain said, by way of an explanation: “The fourth planet from this star has sentient life. We will introduce ourselves as soon as we translate their language and catalogue it.”

“Are you going to abduct one of them too?”

“Yes, if no volunteers come forth.”

“But why?”

“We need their genetic material.”

“Then why don’t you just take a sample? Why do you have to take the whole creature?” He was mostly referring to himself.

“A sample can become lost or it can deteriorate or it might not be pure. An entire creature can give an almost endless supply of DNA so long as it’s kept alive. That’s also why we make sure to rid our passengers of all foreign microbes and bacteria. A corrupt sample could ruin everything.”

“Ok
ay, then why do you need a sample in the first place? Are you guys some kind of census takers or something.”

“No. We need a sample of every sentient life form so that we can perform a great scientific experiment. I will tell you no more than that.”

One of the other mechanical squid-men yelled out, “It’s so we can create the ultimate being. We’re going to create God.”

The captain spun on him and said, “That information is not yours to share.”

The other robot said, “I like this Earthling. He’s all stiff and awkward. Plus he’s dumb so he probably doesn’t even know what I’m talking about.”

That
condescension upset Chris so he said huffily, “Of course I know who God is. And I also know you can’t create Him because he already exists. He lives all around and inside each and every one of us.”

The robots laughed a weird, melodic laugh. The captain said to the other robot, “Maybe you’re right.” Then he turned to
Chris and said, “Your idea of God is the opposite of our idea of him. You think God created the universe. We think it’s the universe’s job to create God. It’s the endgame of all of this.”

“I have no fucking idea what you mean.”

“The universe is doomed. You know this, right?”

“Yeah. A very long time from now all the stars will burn out and everything
will get so cold that not even atoms will have enough energy to move.” For the first time, Chris was glad he had watched all of those documentaries with Morgan Freeman narrating.

The capta
in said, “That’s right. Every life form will die. There’s no way around that eventuality. My question to you is this: Would a creator god make something so worthless?”

Chris
had never thought of it that way. “I guess not, but how do you explain how all of this got here in the first place?”

“We don’t know
, so it’s a moot point. But what we do know is that as time goes on, life gets more and more complex. If you extrapolate that into the distant future, theoretically life will evolve to a point that it becomes god-like.”

Chris
scratched his head. He was aware the gesture made him look dumb, but he didn’t care. He was beyond that now. “Tell me again why you’re trying to make a god? If you’re correct about evolution, then why not just let nature run its course?”

“Because we don’t think any single species will ever reach its full potential. We are millions of years more advanced than humans and yet we are not that different
from you. We have found a few civilizations millions of years more advanced than us, and yet we are still remarkably the same.”

Chris shook his head. “I don’t get it. You think that evolution can create a
god-like creature sometime in the distant future, but then at the same time, you don’t think that it’ll happen? Make up your mind.”

The captain said, “There’s no way to know what the future will bring. What if the species destined for such advanced evolution doesn’t evolve in time? What if its race was chugging along just fine until they were wiped out by an asteroid or warfare? We know what should occur but we don’t know if it will.”

The other robot added, “We think that the genetic material across the universe needs to be combined to unlock the full potential of life. We will create a being that incorporates all of the DNA of every species of higher intelligence across the universe. That creature will be God. That creature will have the power to stop the heat-death of the universe and lead all of us to a new, golden age of awareness.”

Chris
said, “Ugh. I think the captain was right. You shouldn’t have told me any of this. It just makes my head hurt.”

“That’s because you’re a dumbass.”

Stasis

Chris found out that the other robot who told him about the mission was the first mate, and he and the captain maintained a sort of friendly rivalry full of taunts and arguments. It also seemed to him that the first mate had taken a liking to him the way a man takes a liking to a mangy dog. Chris wasn’t a proud man, but he couldn’t help but bristle at that connection.

The other two robots ignored him as the captain led him from what must have been the command station, out into another corridor.

As they walked, the captain said, “There’s more to all of this than you think. And it’s not as idiotic as you think it is either. We have some very intelligent forms of life in stasis on this ship and most of them agree with what we’re trying to do. It makes sense that the universe is here for a reason, and that reason is to create an omnipotent being that can ensure the universe never dies. The universe shall give birth to its protector.”

“Isn’t there any other way to do it? Can’t you reverse time or something
, or freeze it?”

The captain laughed. “We can leave the bonds of space and time to
jump around the universe in this ship, but we can only maintain the power levels for a fraction of a second. To stay outside the bonds of time for even a year would take more energy than the universe has made available.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’m going to show you our other occupants, then I’m going to put you into stasis until you’re needed.”

“I told you, I’m not going into stasis.”

Chris had no idea where he’d got the guts to defy a mechanical monster as formidable-looking as the captain.

H
e immediately regretted it when the captain yelled, “You will do as you’re told!”

Chris
shook his head, but he argued no more. He missed Megan already. That was an odd sensation. He usually enjoyed her absence. But he also missed the sounds of traffic. He missed the chatter of crowds. Shit, he even missed mowing the lawn. The truth was that he’d rather be anywhere than here.

“Can I go back home when you’re done with me?”

The captain said, “Sure,” but for some reason Chris didn’t believe him.

Strange Roommates

The captain stopped at a door, waved a metal tentacle in front of a tiny red light, and the door opened
into a room that was dark and musty. The captain waved a tentacle and lights came on.

C
offin-shaped pods lined the walls. Some were bigger than others. Each had a faceplate made of a glass-like opaque material. Chris expected the glass to be covered in frost but it wasn’t.

“Are they cryogenically frozen?”

“No. Freezing is not safe for many species. Your cell walls would rupture upon thawing and you’d die a fairly agonizing death. Your unit is over there.” He pointed to an empty pod at the back of the room and then led Chris over to it. It was just the right size for him.

The captain opened the door and it swung out to the side.
Inside the chamber was a single dangling hose and a bunch of spray jets that ran up and down the side-walls. It smelled like a mixture of ammonia and sulfur.

Chris
shivered, even though he knew he wasn’t going to be frozen.

He said, “Can’t you make an exception in my case? I really don’t want to go in there. I’m claustrophobic.”

“We don’t have food for you.”

“Well then
, it’s a good thing I’m not very hungry.”

Robo-captain stared at him hard with his single eye and said, “
You just purged everything from your system. You’re going to be famished before long. You’ll be okay. Come and check out your roommates. See for yourself how harmless stasis is.”

He walked
Chris around the room, stopping at each stasis pod to ogle the occupants.

The first was the largest. Inside was a hairy beast that looked a little like a giant
octopus, except for the long blond hair and the vast number of hooded eyes. It had dark brown lips that were cracked and sore looking. It didn’t move, which was good, as Chris would have crapped his pants if it had.

The next pod was very small, maybe as big as a shoebox. Inside was a perfectly bald and yellow arachnid-like creature with spines all over its back. At the end of each of its dozen legs were little pudgy feet. Each foot had three round nail
-less toes, like frogs’ toes. Its head had no features at all except for five dangling antennae with tufts of pink hair at the ends.

The captain said, “This species is very clever but very dangerous. Every square inch of its body is poisonous to the touch to most other species. It took some finagling to get her into
her pod but thankfully I’m protected from her poisons by this mechanized unit.”

The next pod surprised
Chris the most. Inside was what some people referred to as a
Gray
, the stereotypical alien portrayed in the movies. It looked almost human but it had those big black eyes and a lipless mouth, with the large head and spindly body devoid of any musculature. It looked quite serene in stasis.

The captain said, “We don’t trust this guy.
He’s from a warrior race of maniacs hell bent on space exploration and space exploitation.”

“So he’s a lot like you then,”
Chris said, jokingly.

The captain locked him in a stare for an uncomfortably long time
.

Chris froze and held his breath, sure that the captain was about to pulverize him for his insolence.

Instead the captain nodded and said, “I see the comparison, but if you ever saw his people in action, you would easily see the difference between us. We are benevolent. They are psychotic.”

Chris let out his breath and leaned on the pod to steady his quaking legs. Although he was still shaken by the look the captain had given him, he was too curious to stay silent.
“Then why include their DNA? You don’t want that element in your perfect creation, do you?”

“We need everything great that the universe has cultivated, even disgusting bastards like him. The race h
as some redeeming qualities. They’re just overshadowed by its vile nature.”

Before the captain could move on to the next pod, a voice carried around the ship, probably from a hidden speaker or else something to
o sophisticated for Chris to fathom: “We’ve opened dialogue with the planet, sir. Their time’s up. We’re about to grab one at random.”

The captain said, “Shit. Come on
, Earth-man. It’s time to put you into stasis. Sorry I have to cut the tour short. It was a pleasure to speak with you.”

Chris
panicked. He said quickly, “I’d like to see the abduction process for myself, if that’s okay.”

The captain mulled it over and said, “I know you’re just stalling. The stasis process is flawless. There’s nothing to fear. But ok
ay then, just this once. Follow me.”

Chris eagerly allowed the captain to lead him from the freakish stasis room. If he never saw the inside of it again, it would be too soon.