The Day It Changed

I was fifteen on that day. Everyone remembers where they were. It was April seventeenth, nineteen-eighty-seven. Twenty seven minutes past two pm. I was unaware at the time of what had happened. However I remember what I was doing like it was yesterday. It was math class, we were having a pop quiz on… Algebra if I remember right. But we all heard it before we knew fully what it was. A large boom followed by the whole class shaking. We thought it was nukes at first. Our parents used to go on and on about all the drills they used to do in school in case of a nuclear attack, we thought it’d never happen. But in those first few minutes all of us, all the girls and boys and even our teacher… A pencil thin balding man in his fifties called Mr Ray… assumed the worst. But after two minutes and a look outside we saw that the skies were blue as ever except for the smoke on the horizon and the military helicopters flying towards it.

We found out later that it was not the Russians or even our own military but something far worse. Around one-hundred and forty miles from Las Vegas an object had crashed into The Earth from orbit. The government was trying to keep it under wraps. I remember early claims that said it was a nuclear test gone awry but looking back it was impossible to cover up. That evening President Reagan addressed the nation, admitting to the true nature of the object. It was a spaceship. Like the ones from Star Wars I guess. Estimated to be one point two thousand miles in length. Made of unknown metals that had crashed in the Nevada desert. My home town, Mammoth Springs, wasn’t too far from the Nevada border, but towns and cities nearby got the worst of it. Many small towns in Nevada had become uninhabitable. Las Vegas itself was almost levelled. According to the news that night casualties were in the thousands and climbing with more injured being hurried to temporary hospitals.

Although the concern of a soviet invasion had subsided, the concern for a more… worrying… invasion had arisen. Could the ‘little green men’ be sending their invasion fleet? Was this ship a crashed war vessel? Although a lot of information of the nature of this ship as well as what was inside it was covered up in those early days. We were assured that nothing resembling weapons were found aboard and that our military, politicians and brightest minds were investigating and evaluating the ship and the threat it posed. These early days were chaotic to put it lightly. In Mammoth Springs there was uproar as refugees came in from towns closer to the blast, seeking shelter and aid. 

Some found it, others were turned away. Among the kids and even the teens in my School, there were scares that anyone could be an alien body snatcher. 

My brother was seven at the time. I remember the kids in his grade turning it into a game They called it ‘Alien Tag’. One kid was the alien and would have to find the other kids. Like hide and seek but with a loose plot I guess. It caught on in other towns in California and across the States I heard.

Beyond just Mammoth Springs there was chaos and uproar everywhere. The threat of an alien invasion. The threat of a soviet invasion too, taking advantage of the chaos. Demonstrators took to every street in every major US City. I remember seeing it on the news. Men and women shouting and holding signs calling for the military to take action, to de-classify the research and documents relating to the ship. In Washington I remember seeing a news broadcast of protestors outside the White House, demanding Reagan share the secrets of The Ship, that’s what they called it. Just The Ship.

There was a religious uproar too. God I remember how insane that was. In the two years after the crash there was a nationwide crisis of faith, especially evident to me. Mammoth Springs had always been religious. I’d never really given it much thought honestly. Concerned folk running to their pastor or rabbi asking what to do and their holy men at a loss for words, their texts never considering life beyond our world. Some clung to their faith, not letting this revelation change all that much, or crying about the end of days. Some abandoned their faith altogether. But the third group made a whole bunch of new religions worshipping The Star People as they called them. The bringers of a New Dawn. Soon these separate groups combined into the Dawnists. The Ship became sacred ground and they were the ones demanding that they be allowed access to The Ship, still being investigated by scientists so they were turned away without hesitation. Dawnism became big in my town. There was a major temple. I never bothered going.

It wasn’t until nineteen-ninety when information about the ship became declassified. The metals were unlike anything ever manufactured. They appeared to be a sort of alloy derived from Titanium, Tungsten and Platinum along with other metals. At the time the fuel of The Ship was unknown, but it was dumped and appeared in Earth’s upper atmosphere on April seventeenth, nineteen eighty seven at around 1am, California time. As for the ‘little green men’ – a rather childish view looking back- there were none to be found.

 Not to say there were some other breed of alien in there but no bodies at all. Instead there were metal husks. Robots essentially. That’s what the public called them. The official term was ‘Extra-Terrestrial-Abiotic-Organisms’ or E.T.A.Os. A mouthful to be sure but it made you sound smart at Thanksgiving at least. 

I remember hearing the news whilst studying for my SATs. I rushed to the TV to catch the broadcast. I was desperate to learn anything more about The Ship. When I entered the room I remember seeing the diagram on TV. All the researchers had to go off were a few debris that were apparently mechanical in nature. Some were relatively intact so we had a decent idea of who The Ship’s pilots were.

The diagram resembled a traditional flying saucer which was ironic, almost funny really. According to a bird’s eye diagram the E.T.A.O.s had five symmetrical halves and long mechanical, almost tentacle-like, legs which ended in clawed feet. Of course they were Abiotic so I don’t think I would describe it as their anatomy… Design maybe? They were made of the same alloy as the ship, if a somewhat weaker version. Their circuitry was unlike anything we’d ever made at that point. It was impossible to discern which part of the circuit did what. As well as what powered them, the researchers didn’t know how these beings saw the world if they did at all. Nothing they could distinguish could be likened to any camera or microphone that we had. Instead there was a “node” on the topside of the E.T.A.O. that was more conductive than the rest of the body, leading the head researcher to speculate that they communicated using electrical charges. Or at least sensed their surroundings using electrical charges.

Besides that not much more was known. All we had for now was guess work. Everything about the E.T.A.O’s home world and culture was unknown. As was their mission. But in the same broadcast the researchers promised that their teams were working round the clock to understand more about these beings as well as deciphering their technology and soon their codes. “Within our lifetime” the researcher said, “We’ll know the same amount about these… Extra Terrestrials as we do ourselves”. A bold claim indeed. But that was not the end of it. Many speculated what these beings truly were. Explorers? War robots? Who were their creators? The Dawnists christened the E.T.A.O’s as ‘The Prophets’. The Heralds of The Elder Ones. A galaxy spanning civilisation who sent The Prophets for first contact. The next day at school the cafeteria was abuzz with everyone’s wild speculation and theories.

I remember watching TV just after graduation where it was announced by George Bush Senior himself that the FBI had struck a deal with tech companies across the United States to distribute understood alien tech from the research done on The Ship to be made into household products. Whilst the US Government would continue to develop other tech for military purposes. In January of 1991 the first product to use technology from The Ship hit the stores across the US. I remember the advert in the newspaper… hell the articles in the newspaper! Apple presents: The Mac Galaxy. A home sized supercomputer. Using technology based on salvage from The Ship it could run several complex calculations at once, connect to the electricity and heating grid to automatically control lights, heating and appliances as well as run games at sixty-four bits. That part sold my brother. It was the must-have gadget that year. Advertisements and commercials were everywhere. Celebrities and tech experts were raving about it. And it was almost never in stock. We didn’t get one until Christmas nineteen-ninety-three. 

There were a catalogue’s worth of other products also released by various US based tech companies the following years. Ford released The Model X. A family car powered by miniature nuclear reactions, which was made possible by reactor components from The Ship. In nineteen-ninety-two Google released the Ultranet, an interconnected super highway of knowledge and research from across the globe, allowing people from across oceans to share research and chat, much faster than on the World Wide Web. In 1995 Boeing launched a line of planes that could fly from New York to London in half an hour. The military too were taking full advantage of the research available. New weapons that saw combat as well as became fully declassified were full on stealth aircraft. That could absorb light as well as disappear off radar completely. Firearms which could disable the nervous system of an adult human. And that was just scratching the surface. Ever fearful of an act of aggression. In Nineteen-Ninety-Seven President Clinton announced the launch of The Shields. Networks of hyper dense particles that were near impenetrable around US landmarks and important buildings. He made the announcement just as The Shield around The White House was armed. It was amazing to watch the air dance a brilliant purple live on our flat-screen. Another measure were hydrogen missiles ready to be launched at a moment’s notice should invaders attack, whether they are from Moscow or Mars.

The Dawnists were not too happy about this. Claiming we were defiling the sacred Prophet’s graves. Nobody really listened. Besides, the Dawnists were still a fringe cult at this point. Then in nineteen-ninety-nine, as the millennium came to a close, MIT announced the launch of LAD or Linguistic Analytics Decoder. A supercomputer created from circuitry from the E.T.A.Os themselves. LAD was created by a team of scientists and researchers from MIT, Harvard, Yale and a bunch of other institutions from the US and abroad. Canada, Japan, UK, a whole lot. The aim of LAD was to decrypt and translate The Ship’s memory. What information could we uncover? Given how we managed to make so many technological leaps by firing blind the general mood was very optimistic. Researchers and personalities across all fields were saying how we could finally find out where The Ship came from, why it was here, who built the E.T.A.Os. But also all sorts of scientific secrets from the secret to interstellar travel to perhaps true artificial intelligence.

At this point I had moved away from Mammoth Springs, still kept in contact with my family through regular Face Mail, however I was now in Florida working for NASA. You better believe I was keeping track of the latest Ship related discoveries. We all were. NASA had its hand in some of the research too. Thanks to The Ship we developed better propulsion systems, more fuel-efficient craft as well as superior navigational systems. I helped develop the latter. At this point in my life I was thankful for the crash. I had always wanted to work for NASA despite the generally decreasing interest in space. But The Ship had rekindled our love for the unknown. Over several years LAD continued its calculations. Every time it seemed close to an answer it would just escape its grasp.

During this time The Dawnists had become more extreme and more influential. Several senators were public Dawnists. As were many celebrities who brought Dawnism to the American households. John Travolta, Nancy Cartwright and Chick Corea to name a few. However for the most part they were kept in check. However on October fifteenth Two-Thousand and Two Several Dawnists attempted to storm The Pentagon, Silicon Valley as well as NASA headquarters. I was there that day. Luckily our Shield was up but Silicon Valley wasn’t so lucky. The next day the headlines read: “Silicon Valley attacked by religious fanatics! Hundreds Dead!” The mood was sour in the following months, even longer. The attacks were carried out by a fringe sect of Dawnists, not affiliated with the national church. Yet this didn’t stop other Dawnists from being harassed in the streets, fired from their jobs and evicted from their homes. There were a few Dawnists at NASA. One of whom… Lorraine… I had a crush on I’d say. She was fired. Due to how close NASA was to being stormed she was verbally and sometimes physically harassed in the office in the days leading to her termination. I should’ve said something. DONE something.

What followed next was a liquidation of all Dawnist assets. Homes and businesses belonging to Dawnists were raided. President Bush ordered that Dawnists be relocated to Alaska for ‘their own safety’. Many of us at home doubted it but we didn’t have the courage to stand up. Dawnists who didn’t leave or refused to denounce their faith sympathised with the extremists. Fighting raged in the streets of major US cities until mid-Two thousand and four. Whilst this was happening LAD was continuing its calculations. It wasn’t until March third, two-thousand and four, that it had finally cracked the code. We at NASA celebrated and partied harder than when the moon landing happened. Now begun translating the files. Soon its secrets would be humanity’s. Despite its achievements there was international pressure on the US. Dawnism had become a global religion. Millions of followers worldwide. With fanatics causing havoc in the streets of every major city from Toronto, to Tokyo, to London, to Dubai. A summit was held in the United Nations with the founder and High Priest of the Dawnists. A man by the name of Carlo Reid. A frail man in his late eighties. As well as his advisor and wife, Zoe Lawson, who was Thirty-Two. They pleaded for the persecution of Dawnists to end. How the actions in October were done by misguided individuals and they still should have the right to practice how they saw fit. The trials continued for many days. The world watched. Until it was agreed that A small section of Alaska would be a semi-autonomous zone for the Dawnists. They still had to answer to the US government, however.

Many were unhappy on both sides. Dawnists wanted an end to humans defiling the graves of The Prophets. Those opposed believed the Dawnists should pay for their crimes. Either way half of the Dawnist global population moved to Alaska. Fighting between Dawnists and other religions decreased, not ceased. Back in Florida we were all following the updates from LAD as they came out. Most of the data was logs from its interstellar travel. Fascinating but nothing Earth shattering. Mostly relating to the status of the ship on its journey, damage it sustained, repairs made and distance travelled.

It wasn’t until December tenth, Two-thousand-and-six, when the real juicy information was extracted. At that point I was training to become a fully fledged astronaut. But when the announcement came I was getting a bit… private… with Jenny, she was a mathematician. A good one too. Brain as big as her… anyway… What LAD had uncovered was the Ship’s Origin. A star in the constellation of Cygnus, at least from our perspective. According to these logs the E.T.A.Os were built by beings LAD referred to as The Makers. Little was recorded of their physical characteristics and culture. It was speculated that they shared their pentagonal symmetry of the Ship’s pilots. Later that year the mission was revealed. The E.T.A.Os were explorers, looking for new worlds, to what ends were unknown.

In Two-thousand-and-seven it was found that The Ship crashed due to a shield malfunction, allowing radiation from the ship’s power core, now known to have been powered by advanced hydrogen fission, which contaminated the onboard operating system as well as the circuits of the E.T.A.Os which caused them to crash on Earth.

Then in Two-thousand-and-nine we had it. With bated breath we read over LAD’s findings for Faster Than Light Travel. We had already discovered and perfected Hydrogen Fission, a near limitless source of renewable energy. It was now a simple matter of actually building the engine to the specifications described by LAD. By this time I was a fully-fledged astronaut. I was married to Jenny with a house not too far from Headquarters. And a cat, Lincoln. I was among the first to apply to the first FTL mission. However that honour went to another. Everyone remembers his name: Steven Briggs. However I was still selected for a future FTL mission. The mechanics behind building an FTL Drive was simple, with our technological understanding and with LAD guiding us. By contorting space time around the vessel it would decrease the journey time. Making a journey that should take eons would only take hours.

Briggs’ mission, Hermes One, went off without a hitch. He was the first human to travel at FTL speeds. His destination: The Moon. A test drive really but it was a monumental day for humanity and NASA. Hermes Two, destination: Mars. Successful. Hermes Three. Saturn. Unsuccessful but were undeterred. Hermes Four. Saturn again. Successful. Hermes Five. The Oort Cloud. Successful.

Come April Seventeenth, Twenty-Thirteen, it was my turn. My mission was to The Maker’s supposed homeworld. We called it Cygnus-Eden at NASA. That night I kissed Jenny goodbye. I prayed it wouldn’t be the last. At Five am I boarded my ship. Hermes 10, a few test runs were done to other systems. Most successful. At Seven am it was launch. With the Gs pushing me down I pushed forward. My only company on board was LAD2 – a ‘miniature’ of the original LAD program. This time a fully-fledged AI tasked with real time translation of Maker language as well as assistance and observation.

My mission was simple. Travel using the FTL drive to Cygnus-Eden, it’s around five-hundred-and-forty light years away and should be a seventeen hour journey. Once there, see if The Makers or E.T.A.Os make contact. After the FTL drive has recharged, begin the trip home. It would be too much pressure on Hermes Ten if I were to go planet side. From what we could gather The Maker’s home world was larger than Earth by a fraction. So just stay in space. It would be unlikely That I would make first contact. LAD was recording everything I was doing. So I couldn’t do or say anything too embarrassing on the seventeen hour flight. Christ. In the upper atmosphere I could see The Scars. Lines of scorched land across North Africa and The Middle East. A result of a series of battles between Dawnist separatists fighting for independence in the regions. A large chunk of this land was now barely habitable. I could also see the Alaska DMZ, another result of conflict, vast uninhabitable land in Alaska stretching into Canada. A small part of me hoped that I didn’t make contact if this was the planet I was representing.

Communications from Ground Control came in shortly afterwards. I was clear to engage. Around me space seemed to warp and stretch. I had heard other astronauts describe Drive Activation and I’d seen it on debrief recordings. But the feeling was unmatched. The tales of the astronauts didn’t do it justice moving colours seemed to dance outside the cockpit. I had plenty to do to pass the time. Crosswords, E-Novels, puzzle games. NASA knew how to keep their astronauts stimulated. Every now and then I’d have to check systems whenever LAD alerted me. But for the most part I just stared into the void. Wondering what else was out there. Who else was out there. Was I just a footnote in a long story of expansion and discovery.

The journey seemed to take forever yet barely any time at all there was so much on my mind back then. The shapes outside Hermes Ten became static. The shifting colours condensed into black. It was there, I saw it…

The calculations were definitely correct. I could see the star, a K sequence star, as described by LAD. But I expected to see some sort of megapolis or a series of satellites around a vibrant blue and green sphere. Instead I was greeted by…

A rock. Well a planet but the remains of one. Its black surface scarred with craters and explosions. It looked like an unfathomably large being had punched a hole through this planet. Large chunks of it floating away as its molten core spewed into the void. Around my chunks of rock, meteorites or perhaps crumbs of this world floated across my vision. Most disturbingly husks of derelict ships and satellites. Metals like the ones of The Ship. Floating around me too were the remains of other E.T.A.Os. Exactly as they had been reconstructed all those years ago. They weren’t moving. Truly dead. If they were ever alive in any way I could recognise.

I would never forget that sight. I would never forget the horror I felt. The Makers or their machines were not the expansionist, all intelligent, space faring civilisation we had imagined but they… they were extinct. Snuffed out. Meddling with forces best left alone without the right motives and guidance…

I would never forget that day. The day it changed.