For All Mankind

TS Sigma

Dr. Correinne Ledgester

The camera points at an eye of a mouse. A triangular symbol reflects on it. As the camera slowly pulls back, TS Sigma's face comes into full view and a female voice comes from somewhere out of view,

What if you could place super soldiers anywhere you want in the universe whenever you want?

TS Sigma shakes his head as if coming out of deep thought,

What?

That’s the value proposition here. Strike with overwhelming force right at the heart of your enemy.

TS Sigma seems to struggle to shift focus from his thoughts,

Why?

If you have that and you can dominate. It's the ultimate military dream.

TS Sigma shakes his head. It's unclear if he's shaking of his meditation or disagreeing,

No I mean, why would you use this in such a horrific way?

You would be surprised how much of the technology that is now used for the benefit of civilization started out with military objectives. I agree with you, by the way. It is dark.

The camera pans back further to reveal the mouse come man and a woman sitting around a metal table. Both are wearing crisp white lab coats.

Is that why Dr. Balak is to cruel? He’s after world domination?

Dr. Correinne Ledgester grimaces and shakes her head in a not so definite disagreement,

No. Well maybe, but he doesn’t have the power in the end. This is bigger than him. In the end, I think he’s just a prick like the rest of the Unknown guys.

Sigma looks back at schematic,

Unknown guys?

Yes, they own the Unknown. This is just one venture for them. I don’t know the full scope, but I can piece things together. But look they don’t operate in the vacuum. This is military research. If you want someone that is actually in charge, look at the name on the page.

Sigma looks at the table below the schematic. It has a cell that reads,

Program Manager: General Dymas Gaticus

And what am I looking at?

She shrugs,

Beats me. I’m not a physics gal. I thought you may be able to figure it out.

Sigma looks over the schematic. Most of it is arcane. Coils winding around a triangular focus point. Cooling tubes wound around superconductors. It’s large and meant to focus energy.

A particle accelerator maybe? But I don’t know what this means.

He points at a label,

Space-manifold pressure preach point.

She comes in closer to read the small print,

Maybe it’s trying to shoot something? Like a weapon?

No, I think it’s more like a drill.

They both hunch down over the paper,

A drill? Into what?

Space-time.

Like a wormhole? Are these even real?

I don’t think so. They would cause a whole bunch paradoxes if they were. But whatever this is, I think it has something to do with it. I haven’t seen anything like this in any of the books you had me read. I don’t think this is in the literature.

Well it didn’t come out of nowhere.

TS Sigma

Dr. Correinne Ledgester

Dr. Ifan Balak

Dr. Correinne Ledgester and a rather large rat are rummaging through files in a dark office. Thick dust and old abandoned furniture surround them as they whisper in front of a file cabinet that has been pried open.

The murine quietly asks his female companion,

What are you looking for, Corrie?

The woman mumbles through a flashlight which she is holding in her mouth as her hand make quick work of flipping through the mountain of papers in from of her,

I don’t know something. Aren’t you curious?

He looks over her shoulder and then into the filing cabinet,

Curious?

Annoyed at having to talk, she grabs the flashlight and tucks it under her arm,

About what else they have here? I can’t stop thinking about it after seeing those blueprints.

Yeah, true. I find myself thinking about it as well. All the time I’m afraid. It’s kinda annoying.

She looks at him, pokes him with the flashlight, and motions to her pile with a side glance,

So? Help me look! This whole section has obviously been closed for a long time. No one is going to come. 

Minutes pass. Too many to tell time as both rifle through stack after stack of papers. 

Corrie?

TS Sigma's voice seems too loud against the silence their ears got used to. ">Dr. Correinne Ledgester] gives him a startled glance,

Yeah?

Sorry... So here is something. Did you notice the dates?

She squints her tired eyes and quickly looks back at a few papers,

What about them?

He points picks up half a dozen of papers in a fan, exposing the tops of each,

They are all over the place.

She looks on unconvinced,

Async has been around for some time. Story is was started at Unknown you know.

Yeah ok, but these dates are really all over the place.

He lays them down on the ground and points to each date, 

10,172; 9,937; 10,170; 10,204; 9,371; 7,199. Have they been around for hundreds of years?

The light drops from her mouth and she takes the papers out of his hand,

No I don’t think so. 

He then pick up another paper and puts it on top of the ones she's holding,

And look here. This date, that’s two hundred years in the future.

Maybe a typo?

He stares at the page,

Probably...

She looks at his face,

What is it?

It’s just that schematic we found.

Yeah?

He looks back into her eyes,

Well, if you can tunnel through space then, technically you are tunneling through time, relatively speaking.

She shakes her head with incredulity,

So this is from the future?

Well that’s not really how relativity works, but maybe?

She throws the papers onto the ground and spreads them,

They are going to take over the world.

Or already have.

She kneels back down and pick up two papers,

So, who is this guy?

The paper show the name, Unir NaDoldor.

She flips to the next page,

And what does Resonant Frequency Response of Hyperfolds in Space-time mean?

Their focus is broken as the overhead lights suddenly turn on and the sound of people is heard in the distance.

TS Sigma squeaks in fear,

I thought you said that nobody was here.

The both dart down to the ground,

There isn't supposed to be!

Well, maybe there is an alarm system or something.

She get onto her hunches and pulls him up,

Shit, run for the air locks.

He almost falls down again,

The air locks!? I don’t know how to fly!

I do. And I programmed a shuttle anyway.

She grabs the papers and pushes him forward,

We have to go now.

Sigma’s legs tremble. This is the only place he has ever known. And now he has to leave? Fly in some shuttle?

I think I’m going to be sick.

She grabs him by the arm and look into his eyes,

Listen to me Sig. You got this. You are ridiculously smart and we will figure our way out of this. I promise you.

As the voices get closer the woman and the little rat make their way though cubicles and then corridors. They run, first stealthily then faster and more recklessly as they hear a familiar voice behind them,

I told you to torch this place! You useless morons. I swear, if you let them get away, I’m going to chop your body up into tiny pieces and use your brain for experiments.

Time slows. Sigmas body moves fast. Faster than he ever thought he was able to run. And yet with every step he could feel his pursuers getting closer.

Finally the docking bay is within their view.

Close the doors!

The voice behind them bellows and within seconds the air hatch in from of them starts shrink. Sigma stifles a whimper,

We’re not going to make it!

She pushes him ahead of her,

Just keep on running!

With little time to spare Sigma makes a desperate jump for the threshold and tumbles inside of the shuttle. He immediately get up and finds himself alone. As he eyes the hatch he realizes his companion, the only true friend he has ever had, will no longer fit.

Corrie!!

She frantically motions behind him,

Go! Now!

I can’t!

Yes you can!

I can’t leave you!

The code is your birthdate!

What?

I programmed the course for us. It's the day we met. You need to go now.

Corrie?!!

A tear flow down her cheek as she presses her face to the now small gap in the door,

Sigma?

He moves close, they are inches and grab each others hand,

I…

I know.

She squeezes his hand hard and lets go as they feel the hatch press,

I’ll find you. You have to go now. I need you to know something. I’m not…

TS Sigma cries,

No Corrie!

And as the doors close shut,

I’m a sp…

The pressure seal hisses. Sigma looks at the window as Dr. Correinne Ledgester tries to yell something, but Sigma only hears the buzz of the cockpit. His last sight of Corrie is as she seems to scream when two large men in black suits drag her to the ground and Dr. Ifan Balak's face appears in the portal, frothing at the mouth.

Sigma looks around and scrambles to start the course. This was the first time he has left the lab. He was born here and has never been allowed to leave. As the ship departed, the orbital lab quickly shrank as the vastness of space swallowed it. 

Sigma looked around the cockpit. The navigational computer showed some destination far away and another monitor blinked. 

The rather large mouse stared at the screen and whispered to himself,

Your knew. You knew all along didn’t you Corrie.

The screen read,

Cloaking field activated. Engaging stealth routine G4.

and a symbol liked in the corner, a circle, with three arrows pointing into it's center.

The following video was found on a tablet near the body of Dr. Correinne Ledgester.

Opening the tablet reveals a meessage,

For my furry partner in crime. I never forgot about our last date.

The data pad seems encrypted with a code. When unencrypted, it reveals a the message:

Corrie's Video

The sad face of Corrine Ledgister appears on the screen amidst the jungle. She pushes back a few streaks of grey from her face. Her eyes glisten as she looks at the camera. They are sharp and alert, but linger too long in places, staring off into imaginary distances,

Sig…

The name makes her pause as she wipes a tear,

Sig, I never stopped. I never gave up on you. I tried this loop a dozen times and I keep missing you…

She breaks eye contact with thee camera and smiles to herself,

I guess our timing was always off a bit. These are still my best memories you know. Damn, I wish I was as smart as you. I bet you would have done a better job.

I really thought I had it this time.

Here eyes return to the camera, reluctantly,

I guess this will have to do.

What we discovered that day. It started everything… so much has happened. …and you couldn’t be there for any of it.

Another tear streaks down her cheek and is left to drip down her chin,

You deserved so much better... 

I’m so sorry I never told you. I tried. But it was too late.

Sig, I was, I am part of an organization called Unknown. I was recruited by the foundation as part of a program called Icarus. The project was charged with finding the source of spacetime anomalies which have occurred at three known years: 7,199, 9,371, and 9,937. These anomalies have gone largely unnoticed outside of archeological community but have left chemical signatures across many worlds. Every time they were associated with an end of many civilizations.

Entire civilizations Sig. They just go poof and leave common, be it anomalous, atomic structures. Stuff that serious scientists like you have sworn to be impossible. I won’t pretend to understand this it. What I understand is that these signatures, in all three instances, share unique harmonic piezoelectric resonances that are impossible to reproduce with known materials.

Sig, these resonances are the key to the schematic we found and the machine that made this strange place possible. 

Her hand unconsciously grabs a pendant on her neck,

I had it all ready you know. We were going to escape together on that shuttle. I was going to get them to let you join the program. I think you would have loved it.

She laughs through her tears,

It is you that would explain this kind of stuff to me and now I'm stuck fumbling through this. It’s all connected, Sig. Someone once called it “spooky action at a distance”. It’s like things are connected overs space and time, even through it’s physically impossible for them to do so.

Her hand extends to the camera and touches on thee glass,

I miss you. I miss our talks. I miss hearing your voice. I thought we had all the time in the world and now I managed to run out.

She suddenly looks behind her ducks down and continues, whispering,

Listen to me Sig. If that professor is right then this pendant is somehow connected to this. It is made out of a metal found at one of the archeological sites tied to these dates. There are more signatures. Three are not enough. They called it a pentatonic scale. That means you need five. Do you understand?

I don’t care if the next event has already happened! You have to try or it all ends. They all want the power for themselves, but they are wrong. You have to break the loop Sig! You have to try!

A distant male voice can bee heard over the jungle noises, startling the doctor,

I know you’re here Corrie! You shouldn’t have gone rouge. Now they have to send bad people like me.

Corrie ducks down and starts to move away from the voice, then running away until she’s not trying to be quiet anymore and yells toward the camera,

Dig Sigma! Go under the water and dig!

A loud bang is heard and the camera tumbles onto the ground showing nothing but dirt. Then after a few minutes it seems to be dragged over ground, then everything stops, the man pick up the data pad and turns it off. The last few frames capture his face, the face of Eddy Elbrow, a research student that accompanied the 2nd Miskatonic Expedition.