Playing Marbles for the Big Blue -07-

Playing Marbles for the Big Blue

07 Transformation

By Jo Dora Webster

What happens when the Van Allen Belt disrupt the travelpod from the Quantum Dancer and triggers Rasctan's emergence prematurely?

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Author's note: This story, ending with chapter 26, is set in my Limoxian Universe. My other stories set in this universe are books published by DopplerPress on Kindle and all the proceeds from purchases go for the support of BCTS. They are Pretty Please! No Foolin' and Space Force Enterprise. You can find these books on Amazon via the story links for them in the right-hand margin. And now on with this story!

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07 Transformation

The stars wheeled past the Quantum Dancer's viewport as we continued our journey toward Sol, each point of light bringing us closer to our destination and further from everything I had ever known. The encounter with Makelan's Dreadnought had left us both shaken but oddly exhilarated—we had faced our first real test in the void and emerged victorious, though the temporal rift had raised questions that would haunt me for cycles to come.

"Sela," I said, settling into the command chair as the ship's systems hummed around us, "tell me about our destination. What do we know about Sol III?"

"The closest planet is Sol III or Terra, inhabited by Terrans," Sela replied, her voice carrying the measured tones she used when accessing official databases. "It's been a quarantined planet due to being primitive, with mandatory Terran body illusion required for any contact. But in your case, it won't be necessary because Terrans are identical to pre-emergent Albans."

I leaned forward with interest. "Identical? How is that possible?"

"Albans may have colonized Terra in the distant past, but Terrans don't have an emergent state. They remain in corporeal form throughout their entire existence, never achieving the energy consciousness that marks Alban adulthood."

"And that's why they're considered primitive?"

"Partly. Terra is primitive because Terrans perpetuate wars with themselves using fission and fusion weapons. Their technology is unremarkable, and with their rockets they have only had manned landings on their moon, Selene."

I absorbed this information, trying to imagine a world where beings who looked like pre-emergent Albans fought each other with nuclear weapons instead of achieving the transcendence of Emergence. "It sounds like a tragic waste of potential."

"Indeed. However, their science fiction broadcasts suggest they possess remarkable imagination and theoretical frameworks that could complement our technology in unexpected ways."

I stood and moved to the navigation console, studying the star charts that showed our approach to the Sol system. "Sela, set a course for Sol III and engage Tessaract Drive."

"Course set and Tesseract Drive engaged and operating under normal parameters," she confirmed, and I felt the subtle shift in reality as space-time bent around our ship.

"Sela, E.T.A. to Sol III?"

"One microcycle."

The speed of our approach was breathtaking—what would have taken months using conventional propulsion was reduced to mere moments by the Tesseract Drive's manipulation of space-time. Yet something nagged at me about the wisdom of approaching an unknown world so directly.

"Have there been any sanctioned landings on Sol III?" I asked.

"There is no data on that, since all spaceships that made a close approach to the planet sent back the limited data we have on the planet, but none returned. Standard procedure on approaching a quarantined planet is to remain cloaked so that Sol III's limited spaceships and sensors could not detect them."

A chill ran down my spine. "None returned? What happened to them?"

"Unknown. The data simply stops transmitting once ships reach the inner system. It could be equipment failure, hostile action, or some environmental hazard we haven't identified."

I began pacing the bridge, my mind working through the implications. "Sela, do you have any recommendation on how to proceed?"

"Rasctan, we could terminate the Tesseract Drive at the edge of the Sol system and engage our cloak, then travel using our photon drive. The Sol system has an asteroid belt which is mostly unexplored by their probes. We could hide the spaceship behind one of those asteroids and take a cloaked travel pod on photon drive to explore Sol III from orbit. If there is no danger detected, then a landing would be indicated."

The suggestion made tactical sense, but it also highlighted the moral complexity of what we were attempting. "Sela, if beings more advanced than us sent a ship into proximity of Alban Kai, then we would consider that an alien invasion, wouldn't we?"

"It's only in the third person that it would be their invasion," she replied with what I had learned to recognize as her version of humor. "In the first person, it would be our exploration."

Despite the tension, I found myself smiling. "Semantics aside, we should proceed with caution. Sela, alter destination to boundary of Sol system, then cloak and proceed to their asteroid belt on photon drive and park behind an optimal asteroid."

"Course altered and implemented. Further instructions recorded for later execution. Sol system boundary arrival, ship cloaked and proceeding on photon drive. Course set for Asteroid AET64. ETA one hundred picocycles."

As we approached the asteroid belt, I felt a mixture of excitement and apprehension. We were about to become the first Albans to conduct a detailed study of Terra, potentially opening new avenues for trade and cultural exchange that could reshape both our civilizations.

"Sela, please do not give a countdown to arrival. Please park behind Asteroid AET64."

"Compliance!"

While we traveled through the asteroid field, I decided to continue our analysis of Terran transmissions. "Sela, scan signals from Sol III and detect speculative fiction, and scan them for concepts not considered by Alban technology and report by most remarkable."

"Most remarkable concept is a teleport," she replied after several minutes of analysis. "Albans have nothing like it. However, their own physics discovered by their Heisenberg renders actual implementation impossible. Their fiction gets around it by saying that the teleport has a Heisenberg compensator."

"Fascinating. Sela, has our science created a Heisenberg compensator?"

"It has, and all of the functions of a teleport can be reduced to mathematical implementation. It would be restricted in range from high planetary orbit to the surface."

The implications struck me immediately. "You mean we could actually build the technology they've only imagined?"

"Correct. The theoretical framework exists within our quantum manipulation capabilities, combined with Tesseract field technology."

"Sela, extend your function to be able to teleport."

"Additional function implemented. We have arrived and have parked behind Asteroid AET64."

I moved to the viewport and gazed out at the massive asteroid that now concealed our ship. The Sol system stretched before us, with the blue-white star at its center casting light on worlds we had only observed from vast distances. Somewhere in that system was Terra, with its primitive but imaginative inhabitants who had conceived of technologies their science said were impossible.

"Excellent. Sela, please ready the travel pod for operation. I'll be there momentarily."

"Travel pod ready for departure. What a good idea to monitor the Terran fiction broadcasts. They have thought of many things that the Albans have not yet, and we have the technology to implement."

I made my way to the travel pod bay, feeling the familiar thrill of approaching a new challenge. The pod itself was a marvel of Alban engineering—a small, highly maneuverable craft capable of independent operation while maintaining quantum entanglement with the mother ship.

"Sela, engage cloak and set course for travel pod to high Sol III orbit and engage photon drive."

"Course set and photon drive engaged."

As we departed the asteroid's concealment and began our approach to Terra, I found myself contemplating the magnitude of what we were attempting. "Sela, how much trouble awaits me back on Alban Kai?"

"Since the cloaking technology that I used on you and the spaceship is unknown, there is not any evidence of what you have done. Your absence may be detected, but it would not occur to them to look off-planet for you. We have arrived in high orbit of Sol III."

I moved to the pod's forward viewport and gazed down at the world below. Terra was beautiful—swirls of white clouds over blue oceans and brown-green continents, with the bright gleam of ice at the poles. It looked remarkably similar to Alban Kai, yet I knew that beneath that familiar appearance lay a civilization that had never achieved Emergence.

"Alert! Radiation detected in belts surrounding the planet of a kind unknown to us!" Sela's voice suddenly carried urgent warning tones. "Alert! The radiation belts have expanded due to the impact of Sol eruptions!"

I felt the pod shudder as unknown energies began interacting with our systems. "What kind of radiation?"

"Alert! Radiation has penetrated ship systems, damaging them. Alert! Photon drive detonation imminent!"

The pod's lights flickered, and I could hear the ominous whine of systems beginning to fail. But something else was happening—something inside me that I had never experienced before. A strange tingling sensation spread through my body, as if every cell was suddenly alive with new energy.

"Sela, teleport! Teleport now!"

But even as she began the emergency teleportation sequence, I felt my body beginning to change in ways that defied comprehension. The radiation from Terra's Van Allen belts wasn't just damaging our ship—it was triggering something in my Alban physiology that shouldn't have been possible.

The Emergence was beginning.

I had always been told that Emergence occurred naturally in the fourth or fifth decade of life, when an Alban's consciousness was ready to transcend physical form and become a being of pure energy. But the exotic radiation surrounding Terra was forcing the process to begin decades early, and without the proper preparation or guidance.

My body began to dissolve into streams of conscious energy, but something was wrong. The radiation that had triggered my premature Emergence was also destabilizing the energy matrix that should have formed my new consciousness. Instead of the controlled transformation that marked normal Emergence, I was experiencing a chaotic dissolution that threatened to scatter my consciousness across the void.

"Rasctan!" Sela's voice carried panic as she detected what was happening. "Your energy matrix is destabilizing! The radiation contamination is preventing proper Emergence formation!"

I tried to speak, but my vocal cords had already dissolved into energy patterns. My consciousness was fragmenting, scattering like light through a prism, and I could feel myself beginning to fade into nothingness.

But Sela was more than just an AI—she was my closest friend, my greatest creation, and perhaps the only being in the universe who truly understood me. As my consciousness began to dissolve, she made a decision that would change both our destinies forever.

"I'm detecting magical energy patterns in the space around Terra," she announced, her processing cycles working at maximum capacity. "The Terrans' fiction speaks of magic as well as technology. I'm going to use the ambient magical fields to stabilize your consciousness and transform you into a form that can survive in this environment."

"Magic?" I managed to project the thought even as my energy matrix continued to destabilize.

"The radiation belts contain more than just charged particles—there are quantum probability fields that respond to conscious intention. The Terrans call it magic, but it's simply another form of energy manipulation."

I felt Sela's consciousness merge with mine as she began weaving the magical energies around Terra into a new pattern. The chaotic dissolution of my premature Emergence was gradually brought under control, but the process was transforming me in ways neither of us had anticipated.

Instead of becoming a traditional Alban energy being, I was being reformed into something entirely new—a hybrid consciousness that combined Alban energy manipulation with Terran magical resonance. And as the transformation reached its completion, I found myself taking on a physical form that was unmistakably female and undeniably Terran.

"Amaza," Sela whispered as the teleportation completed and we materialized on Terra's surface. "You are Princess Amaza now, in truth as well as name."

I looked down at my new body—definitely female, definitely human in appearance, but somehow retaining the essential consciousness that had always been mine. The premature Emergence had been traumatic and dangerous, but Sela's intervention had saved my life and given me a form that could survive on this strange world.

"What happened to me?" I asked, marveling at the sound of my new voice.

"The Van Allen radiation belts triggered your Emergence decades early, but the contamination would have destroyed your consciousness if I hadn't intervened. I used the magical energy fields around Terra to stabilize your matrix and give you a form that can survive here."

I stood on shaky legs, feeling the strange sensation of being fully corporeal again after the brief experience of energy consciousness. "So I'm truly female now? Not just transformed by radiation, but actually emerged as a female energy being?"

"Yes, though your energy matrix has been stabilized in physical form by the magical fields. You're something new, Amaza—neither fully Alban nor fully Terran, but a bridge between both worlds."

As I looked around at the alien landscape where we had materialized, I realized that our mission had taken on dimensions we had never anticipated. We weren't just explorers anymore—we were refugees, transformed by forces we barely understood, stranded on a world that might hold the key to technologies that could revolutionize the galaxy.

"The travel pod?" I asked.

"Destroyed in the radiation belt. But we have each other, and we have capabilities that no Terran possesses. We can survive here, Amaza. We can thrive here. And perhaps we can find a way to bridge the gap between our peoples."

I nodded, feeling a strange sense of completion despite the traumatic circumstances of our arrival. Princess Amaza had been declared dead on Alban Kai, but here on Terra, she was very much alive—transformed, empowered, and ready to discover what this strange new world had to offer.

The journey that had begun with a theft and a quest for recognition had become something far more profound—a transformation that would reshape not just my own identity, but potentially the relationship between two worlds that had never known they were connected.

As I took my first steps on Terran soil, I couldn't help but smile. The supposedly dead princess had found her resurrection in the most unlikely place imaginable, and the adventure was only beginning.