//------------------------------// // Part 2, Chapter 24: Discourse // Story: The Portgate // by Archival //------------------------------// "Earth is overcrowded. Billions of people inhabit its surface, their hunger for resources barely sated as they produce more and more pollution and waste every millisecond. Exponential population growth would eventually leave humanity with two choices: reduce either its population or its consumption. Now, both paths were unlikely to have ever had any effect on the scar we had left on our environment - at least, not any visible one. It was almost impossible to stop the collision course that was humanity's ever-growing search for more and more raw materials and resources, and there were worries that we would soon run out. All of that changed when we found a new, pristine world that had everything we desperately needed so much. Land, rich soil, minerals, unpolluted air...it was a second chance for humanity to fix its problems and start anew. Unfortunately, someone was already living on that land - and the needs of the millions are always outweighed by the needs of the billions." -Marti Guptachandra, Economist -Leah- It had been a long time since she had spoken the alien language, and Leah figured that wouldn't be the case for much longer. The odd team of three ambassadors quickly rushed to the west gate, their footsteps crunching into the gravel path that divided the camp into four quadrants. A large pickup truck slowly passed them to their left and turned down into a side road, its flatbed loaded with cardboard boxes full of scientific equipment and tools. All around them, the little camp was bustling with all the energy and the enthusiasm of New York or Chicago, though it most definitely wasn't as big or as populated as the megacities were. It was definitely crowded, though; everywhere they went, Leah felt as if the people and buildings around her were packed together as tight as sardines in a can, the makeshift avenues constantly teeming with all sorts of different personnel going about their business. She also noticed that the tents were disappearing, too; in fact, the little tent they had called home just a few weeks back was quickly taken down and replaced by a plywood framework, specks of sawdust still hanging in the air when they moved back in. The canvas and cloth tents that used to be so commonplace were being swapped out for plywood and concrete edifices, some of the larger ones near the Portgate even reaching two stories into the air. And it wasn't just the housing that was being replaced; administration buildings, laboratories, and even warehouses were being constructed daily, the labs supplied with biological and chemical testing equipment that the physics-centric main facility couldn't offer at all. And that wasn't even mentioning the Hesco walls that surrounded the camp, each day bringing the two closer and closer until there would be no more space to expand. Leah shook her head. That wasn't right; they would just tear down the walls and let the buildings spill out. It would happen soon enough, though - every day more and more people spilled into the outpost, many of them taking residence both on the surface (even though the media was still a strong competitor for real estate up there) and on the alien world itself. The facility was beyond packed, that was certain. But for how much longer would it be that way? What did the future have in stock for them? "Let's hurry," Andrew mumbled to Leah with a hint of urgency in his voice. "They'll be needing us soon, and I don't want to be late." They quickly hurried down the road, the three not quite running but not exactly walking either. The sun glared down on their surroundings, giving them a bright, bleached look that was as sharp as the cold air that gently blew across their bare faces. Their hoodies and jeans were probably far from what was appropriate for such a monumentous event, but the garments kept the chilly autumn wind out well. It didn't take long for them to reach the western part of camp - at that distance from the center and the Portgate, there were very few people actually there to get in their way. "Didn't you say that nobody was supposed to go outside of the walls today?" Andrew asked. Noah nodded. "They're also trying to keep this low-profile so that we don't have any interruptions while we're meeting the ponies. I think this meeting is on a need-to-know basis." "Fair enough. Hopefully we won't slip up or anything." Someone in a dress shirt and khakis waved at the group and beckoned them over. Leah followed Andrew and Noah as they walked over towards the woman, who checked something off the clipboard in her arms and spoke into her walkie-talkie. They were just a few yards from the gate's entrance, the wall barely tall enough to conceal them from the forest and anyone in it. "Zhou, Martinez, Breston...is that you three?" "Yes." "Yeah." "Mm-hm." "Good. Now remember, y'all are gonna be there as friendly faces and maybe translators, not diplomats. Just be friendly, but don't try to make any big decisions, okay?" The three nodded in agreement. "Now, wait here. When they call for you, just meet up with the people who are already in front of the gate. Follow them. And try not to do anything bad or possibly unagreeable when you're meeting...them. Got it? I need to be somewhere, so good luck!" Leah ran her hands over the canvas outside of the dirt-filled walls as the woman hurried off somewhere else. She felt an almost nauseating wave of unease suddenly fill her stomach, the anxiety taking her breath away as the full weight of their situation hit her. Thoughts of what would happen if she messed up ran through her head, each hypothetical worse than the last. "You okay, Leah?" The two men turned towards her in concern. "Yeah," she shakily replied, "I'll be fine. It's just that...well...you know how big this is going to be." "Hey." Noah put his hand over her shoulder. "You'll be fine. Just act natural." "You're right, Noah. I...just give me a minute to collect-" A sudden burst of radio chatter echoed across the wall, abruptly interrupting Leah and sending a shiver up her spine. The sentries standing on the foot-tall ledges peered over the top with an air of urgency, their walkie-talkies blowing up with activity. "No time. They're here." Andrew and Noah pulled Leah towards the gate and stopped just before the corner as a convoy of official-looking men in suits rushed forward, each one carrying some sort of box or tub with them. Each of the containers held a wildly diverse variety of equipment and tools ranging from cameras and microphones to books and whiteboards. They watched as the ambassadors gathered in front of the gate, their expressions sober and serious as they waited for the signal to head forward. It only took a minute for them to receive the go-ahead, and one of the men beckoned towards the three to follow him. "Should we go?" Andrew asked. Noah sighed. "Seems like it. Come on." They quickly caught up to the group and tailed them, the mass of black obscuring their vision. Noah strained to look through the shifting gaps between the suit jackets, then suddenly recoiled in surprise as his eyes widened. "...Hey, are you the one getting cold feet now, Andrew?" "Pfft, not a chance. I'm just a bit tired, is all." "Tired?" Leah chuckled. "I suppose we all are. Noah, are you..." "She saw me." "...who?" "The blue one. Oh God, what am I gonna do?" Andrew cleared his throat. "Relax. She's not here to hurt you." "How do you know?" "Just chill, and everything will be alright. Okay?" "..." "Everyone, put your friendliest faces on!" one of the men muttered. Noah nervously tried to correct his expression as best he could into a nonchalant look as Andrew and Leah attempted to mask their nervousness. They stopped about five meters away from the ponies, each party seemingly unsure as of what to do. Both sides stared at the other in a mutual attempt to gauge each other. The purple winged unicorn was the first to make a move, stepping forward and raising a hoof at the humans. They silently watched, then jumped in surprise as it calmly greeted them "Hello" in a strange, muffled accent. It paused for a second, apparently unsure of just how to react to their reactions, before continuing. "I am Nœctër Inćerníg, Se-Aréchní of Équies. I come for talking." Nobody in the group seemed to want to talk, the humans simply looking at each other in confusion and shock. "How do they know English?" one whispered in a nervous, uncomfortable tone. "I taught her some," Leah shakily replied. "And I'll talk to her." She walked forward, knelt down to the purple pony's level, and grabbed her hoof. "Hello, Lee-ah." "Hi. I always called you 'Purples', but...i guess that's your real name." "Yes. Name...not to yours." "You learned how to speak?" The unicorn tilted its head in confusion. "Speak, you know...talk." "Talk! I learn from you. And," she pointed at the large crystal dangling on her neck, "this help also." "Great. Well..." It stared at her, waiting for her next sentence to come. "...close?" she whispered. "Close?" Leah suddenly leaned in and grabbed the fuzzy purple unicorn in a big bear hug, her arms wrapping around its shoulders and tightening around its back. The humans behind her anxiously buzzed and murmured, clearly torn between stopping the dangerously iffy embrace and keeping out of what they thought would become an unholy mess. Everything turned out better than expected, though; the unicorn returned the gesture and hugged Leah with her front hooves as well, sending conflicting feelings of shock and adoration through the spectators. "I missed you," Leah chuckled quietly. She pulled back from the hug and sat down on the grass cross-legged, ready to reconnect. The unicorn smiled as it sunk down onto its rear and slid its saddlebags off of its back. "Feeling...good. Now," it sighed, "do we work." Its eyes focused on Leah, but couldn't seem to quite focus on her. "Oh! Yeah," she muttered. Leah turned towards the dazed group of humans, the men still too surprised to react. "Do we have anything we're supposed to do?" One of them patted their pockets and pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper. "Um...Give them the books. Get the books out. Where are they?" "In here," another replied as they hefted a plastic bin full of thick reference books and set it down in front of Leah and the alien. Leah slid it between the two and opened the bin, then pulled out the first book she found and showed it to the pony. "This is an encyclopedia. Got it? It's a book that has lots of information...knowledge...knowing...about us humans. We're giving this to you so you can know more about us. Understand?" she asked as she set World Book 2020 A-Az down on top of the pile of books. The unicorn nodded. Its horn suddenly lit up as a lavender aura surrounded the encyclopedia and lifted it out of the bin, prompting another series of fascinated whispers amongst the human ambassadors as they curiously stared at the phenomenon. One of the men designated to be a cameraman zoomed in on the book, capturing the pony with a hungry-looking expression in frame as the thick tome levitated up to its eye level, opened, and flipped through its pages. Satisfied, it set the book back down and put the lid back on top - and then lifted the several dozen-pound bin with its powers and dropped it in front of its accompaniment, as nonchalantly as if it were a thin paperback novel. "Caéren esi. Gráca," she quickly said to the three armored unicorns behind her. "And...how say...?" "Hm?" It pointed at Leah. "How say?" Confused, Leah looked around for a moment before she got what it was trying to say. "Oh! Did we not ever talk about this? I," she said as she pointed at herself, "am Leah. I am a human." She waved at the people standing behind her. "They are human." "Now I know." The unicorn nodded with a smile. "Also give you." The latches to the saddlebag at the pony's side undid themselves with the same strange force as two thick books slid out of them and floated onto Leah's lap. She picked the top one up, fascinated by the cover's intricate detailing, and flipped through the yellow pages filled with strange drawings and paragraphs of alien text. The script was blocky and simple, yet flowed with a strange efficiency across the paper from left to right. "I...thanks," spoke Leah breathlessly as she closed the book with a soft thunk and set it back down. "We will learn a lot from this." The woman stood up and brushed her pants, then handed the two books to one of the men behind her. "We say together is good. Yes?" "Yes, I believe so," she chuckled lightheartedly. "Estiiiii... " The purple unicorn nervously shifted around as it hesitantly spoke, her ears lowered and her tail tucked between her legs. "I will..." "Hm?" "Stay with you?" she quickly blurted out. It took a second for Leah to decipher what she meant, and her eyes widened in surprise at the same time as the dark-blue unicorn. "Nœctër! Quie iste acébiña? Eb sloka?" "Baqü, śiniqe! Maov et intiñe slibi køenib? Ñete viriwa andora, eto mañe plu haorétte," the unicorn replied. "Anara ist ëst?" "Mát." "What are they saying?" one of the men whispered as the tall, dark unicorn argued fiercely with the short, purple one. "I don't think anyone here can translate that," Andrew replied. "Leah, what are they arguing about?" It was Leah's turn to be surprised; her mouth was wide open as she turned her head to answer the question. "I...I think the purple one wants to stay with us." They didn't say a word, but Leah knew what they were just itching to say. Their pained expressions spoke volumes. "...anara amidaé?" The tall one asked in a defeated tone. "Ériste cos enseg." "Astar alo resçuich pvau querci solasti," it sighed. "I...will be stay you...five sun. And Luorície will be come. I learn...speak, and...human...doings." "Makes sense. So, guys, she plans to stay with us for five days." She had ignored the faint whispery chatter of the earpieces the suited men wore, but it was difficult to pay little attention to them as they suddenly erupted with a torrent of high-pitched, tinny shouting and confusion. Leah sighed; it wasn't as if she wasn't trying her best to make things work. "After that," she continued, "they'll come back to take her back. Straight from the horse's mouth." More radio chatter. "The higher-ups say that it's going to make relations easier. You can accept." Leah looked at the unicorn and extended her hand towards her. "Yes, you can stay with us." Her eyes lit up almost immediately after Leah spoke, and she eagerly extended her hoof into hers. Leah grabbed it and started shaking it, the supposedly foreign custom somehow mutual between the two species. "I don't know whether to d'aww or to wring my hands," Andrew frowned. "Quiet, you." Noah silenced the technician as he watched the two wildly different yet oddly similar beings interact, the bond between the two species slowly but surely tightening. He couldn't help but wonder what the next few months would have in stock for him as he watched his friend talk to a real, living fantasy creature with his two very eyes - after all, was this as far as things would get? How much farther down the rabbit hole was he - and by extension the human race - going to fall? Questions for another day, he thought to himself. Just savor the moment. -John- The custodian slowly pushed his cart down the wide, open hallways, the plastic wheels rumbling loudly as it slowly meandered across the facility. His keys jangled against his belt loop with each step, the identification card pinned to his chest pocket keeping time with his rhythm as well. He kept his head high as he walked so as to not attract any suspicion - if anything, looking at the men and women squarely in the eyes as they walked down the corridor seemed to act as a repellent, abashedly sending their gazes elsewhere as if they were the guilty ones. Strange how the times had changed. There was once a time where the opposite would have been true, he thought to himself as he shoved his cart onto the service elevator and pressed the -1st floor button. People weren't afraid to talk to each other back then. To look each other square in the eye and speak to each other like proper men and women. Nostalgia suddenly washed over the old man, and he couldn't help but whistle out an old, long-forgotten tune as the elevator hummed and whirred. His stomach floated up into his chest and hovered for a second before coming back down to rest. With a ding, the doors noisily slid open, and the janitor pushed his cart forward into the large, well-decorated lobby. Just a few weeks ago, the lobby was a calm, quiet place for the scientists to gather and discuss their research; now, the slow, echoey chatter was washed over by a deafening din of footsteps and boomy voices, filling the room as much audibly as it was filled physically. It was a struggle just to get past the clusters of people congregated amongst the tables and couches, but the immediately-recognizable hollow rumble of his cart was amazingly effective at clearing out a path for the grey-haired old man, parting the sea of bodies with biblical efficiency. Eventually, however, the crowd of people thinned out as he exited the lobby and continued down into the service hallway, the pristine, white walls slowly becoming more and more cluttered and dirtied with pipes, electrical wires, and scratch marks. He took a right turn just as he entered the electrical service corridor, checked to see if anybody was around, and pushed open the bathroom door, the shiny stone floor slabs abruptly transitioning into a checkered black-and-white tile pattern. With a click, he locked the door behind him and pushed his cart further into the restroom. Someone was in the second stall, but the custodian simply continued forward, setting his cart to the side as he reached into his pockets. "Knock-knock." "Who's there?" he replied. "The janitor." "But I'm a custodian!" "Alright, alright. Hey, can a guy get some toilet paper or what?" With a sigh, he pulled out the rectangular metal slab in his pocket and stooped down, then passed it under the stall door to the man behind it. "Is that all?" "Thanks. Karma will pay you back, my good man." John Baker leaned back and chuckled as the door slowly closed behind the janitor, his fingers sliding across the cool, hard metal of the hard drive. Two thousand and forty-eight gigabytes of top-secret data rested in his hands, the weight of the little wallet-sized slab somehow heavier than he expected. Two whole terabytes of raw, society-shaking power was in his custody, and he could do with it as he pleased. John could even snap it in half and toss it in the trash if he wanted to - and the temptation was gnawing on his conscience. But John had a contract to fulfill, signed in twenty-dollar pen and with two legally-bound witnesses to testify against him. It would be a bad idea not to follow the instructions given to him, especially considering the nature of his profession and his employers. Then again, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to just hand over the information to the soulless, immoral megacorporation he worked for. Maybe it would be best if he really did toss the drive away. Humanity's future for hundreds of years to come, or his own hide? The lock clicked open. John walked out of the stall and snapped the lid of his briefcase shut. The latches went down with a soft click. Not a very difficult decision.