Chapter 1 – Contact
Time was mysterious and beyond human comprehension. At least, that was how the ignorant perceived it to be. Some others said that time was actually simple in its own way. But then again, such a view was also considerably ignorant, in its own way.
If one wanted to try and define time's finer points, one would be hard-pressed to find a definite answer. Indeed, such an answer probably lay beyond the understanding of mortal beings. But psychic pokemon had been considerably cooperative with humans who had in the past been curious with regards to the nature of time, and so some light was shed on the eternal flow's strange secrets.
Time, according to the psychics, was both simple and complex at the same time.
It was not possible to quantify time with as crude and imprecise an instrument as a clock, they had said. Nothing was certain in time save for the fact that it was always in motion, and this principle of uncertainty applied to its progression rate, of course. In fact, one of the psychics who offered insights into time grudgingly admitted that Albert Einstein's theory of relativity probably was the closest human beings could ever come to understanding the flexible, formless nature of time.
After all, even the practically boundless power of human imagination could not possibly see all the possible outcomes of a particular event. Anticipation and prediction could only go so far, because time itself was unpredictable. Even the greatest psychic pokemon that the world had ever seen could not foresee many things, their own deaths included. Some described attempts at foreseeing their own deaths as being like viewing a watercolor painting through a glass pane with water running over its' surface.
All they could see was a blur of colors and swirling shapes, but never anything that was definite enough to constitute a prediction. Always in motion and full of surprises, the future was. Only the past was static and definite.
The conclusion of every theory on the nature of time was simple – making predictions was more of an art than a science, and more often than not, the paints insisted on messing themselves up on the canvas before they dried.
xxx
The time was sometime past two in the morning, and Lucian, Phoebe, and Cynthia were seated before a large computer monitor. Their reflections stared balefully back at them from within the huge machine's polymer screen, and the blackness of the screen seemed to swallow up all ambient light. All that clued them in to the fact that the supercomputer was in fact functional was the faint sound of humming that was constantly audible in the considerably cold room.
"Are we ready?" Cynthia asked the other two, softly. "It'll be here at any moment now."
"Reaper is restless," Phoebe murmured, as she turned to observe a shadow on the wall that seemed to be lit from within itself with a sinister red glow. "But yes, he is ready."
Lucian didn't need to say anything; his metagross materialized in the room, narrowly missing smashing open an expensive-looking console with one of its heavy claws.
"Let's begin, then."
With several keystrokes, Cynthia accessed the computer's first security level. Several more keystrokes got her into the electronic brain's higher levels, courtesy of her password. Eventually the screen, which had been filled with rows of programming code, went black. A brief pause was had, before a small pop-up box appeared.
"SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED," droned the computer in its toneless, synthesized voice through several speakers installed at the corners of the room. "ENTER IDENTITY AND PASSWORD."
"Elias, Cynthia," she enunciated clearly, even as her fingers danced across the keyboard and hit several crucial keys. "Password as input."
"ACCESS GRANTED. SELECT CODE LEVEL."
"Command."
"PREPARE FOR BIOMETRIC SCANNING."
Cynthia sat up straighter in her seat, and remained completely motionless as the room was briefly illuminated by a flash of brilliant blue light.
"PROCESSING... PROCESSING... ACCESS GRANTED."
Once again, the screen was filled with programming code. However, the lines of code began to bend and distort, eventually forming a three-dimensional, grid-like shape. The code-solid rotated slowly along its vertical axis, even as miniature spikes began emerging from its sides and pulsating.
"Computer, open the porygon file."
"PORYGON FILE OPENED."
The pulsating form split into three separate shapes, which immediately reshaped themselves and began moving on their own. One resembled a cube, the second was a sphere, and the last was a vaguely flower-like shape with three petals that constantly rotated like a propeller.
"STATE REQUIRED FILE VERSION."
"Mark-2 and mark-Z."
"ACCESS TO PORYGON MARK -2 AND PORYGON MARK-Z GRANTED."
Within seconds, the screen had changed once again to show two blue-and-pink pokemon. The first resembled a duck in some aspects, whereas the second looked quite a miniature windmill, what with the way its head and limbs kept spinning about aimlessly.
"So... how shall we do this?"
"We'll need to trace the time series once again, and then link it to the porygon," Lucian said, as his metagross' eyes began to glow with a dim red glow. "From there, the porygon-2 should be able to establish a link."
"And the porygon-z?"
"The porygon-2 is going to be solely for linking us to their server. It'll be the porygon-z that facilitates the actual communications between us."
"Shall we begin?"
"One moment, Cynthia. Even a metagross needs time to track down a previously seen time series."
The large, blue-colored psychic pokemon was beginning to levitate as it drew on steadily increasing amounts of its psychic powers. Meanwhile, Phoebe's dusknoir was becoming gradually more tangible, emerging out of the shadow on the wall as its lone red eye glowed like a burning lump of coal.
Seeing into the future was never easy, and trying to see the exact same time-line multiple times was significantly more difficult. The first time Reaper the dusknoir had used Future Sight and accidentally discovered the possible future that interested his mistress so, Lucian's alakazam had been accompanying him. While the elderly ghost glanced into the flow of time, his psychic companion had seen the whole scene through his eyes – or eye, if one wanted to be specific. A dusknoir couldn't possibly have recalled everything that it saw while using Future Sight, but an alakazam with its eidetic memory could easily remember everything that passed through its densely interconnected neurons.
Using Future Sight and trying to pin down such a view was hard simply because memory was fallible. To see the same future twice, the pokemon which used Future Sight would need to follow the exact train of thought which had led it to said future, since any thought, regardless of its size, would present the seer with a whole set of possible futures.
Which was why the metagross was needed; its four linked brains offered perfect recall, and could see into even more possible futures based on the dusknoir's view if the need arose. In this case, the dusknoir was little more than the psychic's puppet once it had triggered Future Sight – the metagross controlled its thoughts and ensured that the precise sequence of memories and ideas was traced.
"Dusk..." rumbled the one-eyed ghost pokemon. "Dusknoir!"
"He has found the time-line," whispered Lucian's metagross in its grating, metallic voice. "It is only a matter of time now."
"How much longer?"
"One moment. I am linking with the porygon-2 now."
On the computer screen, the duck-like pokemon had frozen in place, its eyes pupil-less and opaque. A soft beeping was heard coming from the computer's speakers as the cyberspace pokemon processed the information which the metagross was feeding into its' artificial mind, and within seconds, the image shown on the computer screen was beginning to flicker.
"Linking to the Amaterasu server..." metagross murmured with glassy eyes. "Security clearance required."
"Security clearance?" Phoebe asked in disbelief. "Just how are we supposed to get that? They're literally several light years away from us, physically!"
"We can't," Cynthia said calmly. "So we shall just have to make them aware that an unauthorized connection to their server has been established."
"Metagross, make some noise in there."
Within moments, the screen went black, and a hissing sound came from the speakers.
"Identify your selves immediately," said a raspy, emotionless voice, amidst all the hissing. "We know that this isn't a virus, so don't bother trying to stay silent."
Cynthia glanced at Lucian and Phoebe, drawing in a deep breath as she did so.
"This is Earth."
For a few moments, the room was silent save for the hissing sounds. Eventually, whatever that it was over at the Amaterasu server spoke once again.
"Earth?"
"Yes, Earth. Maybe a reference to the Odaiba incident will refresh your memory?"
"Wha-" The unknown speaker began, only to be cut-off by a harsh voice not unlike the sound of glass being crushed.
"Spokesperson of Earth," said the new speaker brusquely. "We are aware of your world's existence, and have no intentions of maintaining contact with you humans."
"May I inquire as to why that is?"
"While your world is rich in all manner of natural resources, we have decided that it is simply impractical to maintain contact. Other worlds within closer proximity to Data are sufficient for our needs."
"Is that so?" Lucian asked quietly. "Or is it due to the activities of a certain group of human children?"
Once again, the other server's spokesperson fell silent.
"We are aware of your existence, and your original reasons for making your way to Earth. Trust me when I say that resources were probably near the bottom of your list."
"If you are aware of our true intentions," laughed the mysterious voice, "what made you decide to establish this connection?"
"Let's just say that... negotiations may be in order."
"... Negotiations, you say?"
"For what you originally wanted, anyway – a labor force and some resources."
"Interesting indeed... and just what is the reason for this benevolence on your part?"
Cynthia answered the question this time, "The greater good."
Once again, the screen's image flickered. The difference was that this time, the image of the two porygon vanished, only to be replaced by that of a squat, metal-bodied being with four legs. Two cable-like arms were folded across its rounded body, and the top half of its 'head' consisted of a transparent, cylindrical structure with various circuit boards and machinery insist it.
"It seems," the creature said, displaying several rows of corroded metal fangs as it grinned, "that we finally have some common interests."
"Our interests place the welfare of the human race and pokemon first."
"And ours lies with the acquisition of resources."
"There will be no allowance for ANY attempts at conquest. Is that clear?"
The cyborg-like being merely smirked at them in response, "Transparent."