The first contactPart 1 of the fictional series 'The Energetic Grid of the Universe' |
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"We waited decades for a sign of intelligent life out there in the dark, and all along we'd missed the obvious: the Illumis have been living among us on Earth for centuries."
Demian walks slowly through the starship's corridors. It's one of the newest models—rooms and passageways that reconfigure themselves on demand. Nine researchers have called this vessel home for the past six months, ever since leaving Earth orbit. A sleek video-communicator drone glides behind him, filming a live stream in real time. It darts in for intimate close-ups: Demian's intense eyes, the unruly mane of hair, the trimmed beard, the long, fine, almost fragile yet unmistakably strong hands. Demian has set the drone to "thriller" mode; the AI obliges, cutting dramatically, layering ominous music beneath the silence of space, interspersing the feed with sweeping interior shots of the ship, star-fields streaking past the external cameras, and archived glimpses of the beings the crew now calls the Illumis. On the lens display of Demian's smart-glasses, his grandmother Naomi appears. "Why did you call them Illumis?" she asks, voice calm but edged with wonder. Demian smiles faintly. "Pure accident. One of our atmospheric scanning visors glitched. Suddenly they were… visible. Dozens of them, glowing softly, moving through the ship like passengers who'd always been there. Illuminated stowaways. Illumis. Someone made the inevitable Illuminati joke, and the name stuck. What we didn't expect—what none of us were ready for—was discovering they've been on Earth the whole time." Naomi has gathered the surviving founders of humanity's first deep-space program in the old house she still keeps on the coast. Four women, three men, all in their eighties now—the legendary "Generation One." Demian reached them first, before any government agency, before the military, and certainly before the world's religions could claim the Illumis as angels or gods. Naomi taps her wrist. The drone hovering above the living-room table instantly switches from thriller to documentary mode. It begins panning across the weathered faces, overlaying discreet subtitles: name, original role, mission year. When Naomi speaks again, the drone locks two metres in front of her, framing her like an old portrait come to life. "You say they live on Earth. How can you possibly know that from out there? Have you learned to speak with them? Do they even experience time and space the way we do?" She finishes. The drone pulls back smoothly, revealing the entire circle of pioneers. These are the people who, a lifetime ago, launched humanity toward the stars—not just to find a second home when Earth grew too crowded, but secretly hoping, almost praying, that we were not alone. The camera lingers on their lined faces: curiosity, fear, the first traces of awe. Video: Generated with Grok. To be continued in "The Greater Whole" Part 2 of the series The Energetic Grid of the Universe |