"No," corrected Alex, "it's only someone that looks like you."
"But…"
Before Simon could continue, Fenske interrupted, "Whoever that is, he ain't human."
Both Morton and Kraus dropped what they were doing and joined the group, while Alex moved over to study the data that Fenske was looking at. "Is this a false colour infrared image?" he asked.
"Yes it is." confirmed Fenske, "As you can see, the intruder seems to have almost no heat signature."
Alex peered at the frozen image. The fake Simon was coloured in indigos and black, while in the background he could make out his own silhouette bathed in reds and oranges.
"Now let's see what he is made of…" continued Fenske as he typed furiously on his keyboard bringing up various graphs. "Oh! This can't be right…"
Alex studied the graphs. "No elements identified…" he said out loud, "…energy emissions…mostly visible light…some x-rays…high gauss reading…"
"It basically says he doesn't exist!" exclaimed Fenske.
Alex smiled at that. "Obviously he exists, what I think you mean to say is that he isn't composed of matter." He then mused at some of the data he was seeing, "X-rays; could be an indication of some exotic particles…"
"Life can't be composed of energy." countered Fenske.
"True, but I don't think we're dealing with a life form, but a hologram."
An audible hubbub of disbelief erupted from the small group. "It would explain how he got in and out so easily without anyone noticing." observed Lt. Barrow.
"Was it created by The Obelisk?" it was Kraus that posed the question.
"That would be a logical assumption. We certainly lack the technology to make something that mimics reality with such precision." Alex's face clouded with uncertainty, "Then why did it produce an image of Mr. Simon that was somewhat different from what he actually looks like?"
"Look guys…"
"It would seem to me," ventured Kraus, "that The Obelisk might have used some method other than visual. Perhaps it took a DNA sample or reading of our Mr. Simon and extrapolated an image from there."
Alex nodded at the hypothesis, it seemed basically sound. "Now I would assume that the purpose would be for communication, but what it said to me didn't seem to make a lot of sense."
"Well assuming the builders had a very alien syntax, perhaps The Obelisk is still working out our language." suggested Morton.
"Guys…"
"Or perhaps there's been some degradation in its programming causing a bit error that's causing a cascade failure." put forth Fenske.
"So it was saying one thing but wanted to mean something else?" asked Alex.
Fenske nodded in the affirmative.
"Are we saying that The Obelisk is intelligent?" questioned Sarah.
"If by intelligent, you mean self-aware," replied Fenske, "then not necessarily. It could just be a very sophisticated UI."
"UI? Oh, 'user interface', never mind." smiled Sarah awkwardly.
"Guys, can I point something out?" it was a frustrated Simon, who for the past couple of minutes was trying to get word in edgewise. Having finally gotten everyone's attention he continued, "That guy is wearing my shirt…and possibly my jeans."
"So?" It came out more condescending than Alex wanted it to.
"Let me try to explain. You see that stain on the sleeve?" Everyone peered at a black mark on the left sleeve. "That's from me changing a toner cartridge in my office printer. Those white spots on the lower back? From when I was splashed by bleach on a job site two years ago. Ruined a brand new pair of jeans. That mustard stain? Uh, well, I can't recall when that happened…" Simon paused for a moment and took a breath before continuing, "Anyway, the point is that that's my shirt, which currently sits in a dresser drawer back home….in Houston."
It took Alex several moments for the significance of the Simon's revelation to sink in. There was quiet conversation taking place that Alex tuned out as he turned and stared at the still frozen image of the fake Simon. His mind tried to work it out. It was seemingly a cosmic paradox. Finding the artifact was a remarkable event. Interacting with an energy-based doppelganger was also a remarkable event. The odds of two remarkable events occurring independent of one another in the same area was astronomical. The two events had to be linked, but Alex was stumped on how they could be. He took a quick sideways glance at Simon, who was paying attention to a conversation that was taking place to his left. One idea occurred to Alex, but he immediately dismissed it. It was too outlandish, the stuff of science fiction. He turned back to the monitor. Could it be that The Obelisk had been monitoring us beforehand? Unlikely, thought Alex, but it leads him to another thought. Perhaps The Obelisk has tapped into the internet, looking up information on each of us. Perhaps it pulled the image of Simon from a Facebook page or…
"Alex. Alex!"
Sarah voice pulled him away from his thoughts, "Hmmm, what?"
"Col. Brock is offering to send an armed soldier down in case the intruder returns."
It took a couple of seconds for Alex to mentally switch gears to ponder the new problem at hand before he could respond. "I don't think it would be necessary. The intruder made no threats, veiled or otherwise, made no aggressive moves. Besides, it's a hologram or at least hologram-like. It can't hurt us and we certainly couldn't hurt him. Bullets would just pass through him."
Sarah turned back to the image of the two Colonels and informed them that they won't need any armed security. She returned her gaze back to Alex, "Shall we continue with the examination, or shall we call it a day?"
"Well it's ultimately up to Mr. Simon here, but this incident shouldn't affect the examination. In fact I for one would love for it to continue just for the possibility that the intruder might return. Questioning it might yield some important information."
"I'm all set up and ready to go. I think we're close to a major breakthrough. I want to continue." added Simon.
Sarah smiled, looked at her watch and spoke, "Okay then we will continue. We have two more hours before we hand it off to Team 2 and then we will debrief and have supper. If there are no questions, let's get back to work." And with that Alex and Simon headed back into The Obelisk.