A.R.: Beyond the Universe
Chapter 19 - On-board the Collector

“Did something just happen?” Dale asks in the monitor.

“I think we’re moving” Kate tells him.

“Nope, moving is done. We’re here,” Alex responds.

“What do you mean by: moving is done? We’re here?” Kate asks Alex.

“I mean that you, me, the Complex--it’s all been moved. We’re no longer beneath the Himalayan Mountains,” Alex says.

“Uh…if we’re not there, we’re not on Earth anymore?” Dale asks.

“Nope. Welcome to the Collector.”

Alex turns to a wall and part of the wall vanishes, leaving an opening that allows them to see the hangar bay that the Complex has relocated to. They see rows of other defense units, massive blocks of metal over 25 miles high. The Complex has appeared in the same place that the replacement unit was sitting at, in a huge hangar bay onboard the Collector. Everyone, including Sara, is having trouble believing what has just happened and what they are seeing. She has seen Alex move suns and black holes in their fight with the Void. But that was watching. It was completely different when you are the one being moved, especially in something that you had always considered massive, like the Complex is.

There, in front of them, are two rows of huge, towering walls forming what looks like a very long canyon. As Alex concentrates on him, Dale appears from nowhere. They look around, sticking their heads out the opening in the wall. Dale steps out and looks up to see if he can locate the tops of the walls. They seem as if they go up forever.

“Remember, Dale,” Alex tells him, “the Complex is a little over 25 miles in depth. You won’t be able to see the top. Unless I do this…”

Without any warning, the four vanish from the opening and reappear on top of the Complex. Alex thought they might get a better view if they could look at the sights from on top of their Complex.

“Don’t do that again without any warning,” Kate tells him. Her eyes are flashing as if on fire.

“She’s right, Alex. If you’re going to move someone, you must tell them first,” warns Sara.

“Sorry ’bout that, everyone,” Alex apologizes and tries to kiss Sara. “Point taken. Won’t happen again, I promise.”

After the shock of being moved unexpectantly to the top of the Complex wears off, the three begin to look around.

The view is nothing short of incredible. The hangar bay is designed for storing many defense units, just like the Complex. There is about 50 feet of clearance between the top of the Complex and the hard, flat ceiling above them, a ceiling looks like it goes on forever in both directions. Sara knows the Complex is huge, but nothing had ever prepared her for something like the Collector.

She can now see what the top of the Complex looks like. It is divided into 10 equal, six-sided areas. Each area has a central chute that goes from top to bottom with other chutes connecting different parts within each area. Each area is about 3 miles wide. However, no one had ever been able to determine what the outside of the Complex looked like until now.

The shape of each defense unit (i.e. the Complex) is not rectangular, as they had long suspected. The shape looks more like a huge honeycomb. The top of each defense unit is divided into 10 equal six-sided parts, with each part having an intricate network of interconnecting tubes, cylinders, and conduits.

To Dale, the shape of each defense unit looks familiar. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his PDA.

“I’ve seen this shape before,” Dale tells them.

“What shape?” Kate asks.

“Look at the top of the Complex and the other defense units. Now look at this,” he says as he hands his PDA to Kate.

Drawn on it is a sketch of what they are now looking at: the top of the Complex.

“Dale, where did you get this?” Alex asks.

“When I woke up this morning, I saw this in the back of my head. Had no idea what it was, so I grabbed my PDA and sketched it out.”

“OK, so now Dale is dreaming up stuff. Alex, what’s going on?” Sara asks him.

“No idea,” Alex tells her. “I have a funny feeling Dale may be able to do things he has no idea he can do. We’ll have to run some tests on him later.”

They all start to take in just how large the hangar bay is. It is vast, with most of it a huge empty space. There are 15 other units identical to the Complex, each sitting there as if waiting to be used. Dale pulls out his PDA and starts to do some calculations. Alex knows what he is after: the size of the hangar bay.

“Hang on, Dale. I’ve got something to show you,” Alex tells him. “I’ve already done what you’re going to do. Here.” He hands Dale his PDA.

A hologram appears in front of the PDA. It shows a live 3D image of the hangar bay, the remaining defense units and the Complex. He zooms in to see the four of them standing there on top of the Complex. He zooms out to see the entire area they are in and sees that it is rectangular. He asks his PDA the dimensions of the room and whistles as he sees that it is 27 miles deep, 1680 miles long, and 840 miles wide.

“Let’s see, if there 16 units sitting here, and we have this much space to fill…” His eyes open wider.

Alex smiles at him because he already knows the answer.

“This room will hold 176 of our Complexes!” Dale announces.

“And guess what else?” Alex asks him.

“Now what?” Kate asks.

“This is one of 108 equally sized hangar bays. On the two long sides of the Collector, you will find 3 levels of storage bays just for the storage of the defense and control units. Each level has 18 bays. That means the Collector has the capacity to hold over 19,000 of our Complexes--actually, 19,008, but who’s counting?”

That makes everyone freeze in their tracks.

“If the Collector is all about the moving and storing these “units,” what’s all the rest of it for?” Kate asks.

“Not sure yet. Remember, I’m almost as new to the Collector as you are. I didn’t even know the Collector still held other defense units until just before I left it when I came up here a couple of weeks ago. We still have a lot of investigating to do on it. I’m thinking that most of the rest of the Collector is filled with storage cells for storing collected energies and equipment for collecting all that energy. Then you’ve got living quarters for the original builders, atmosphere generators, weapons systems, propulsion, guidance…the list goes on and on.”

Sara is standing there beside him, almost looking scared.

“What’s wrong, Sara?” Alex asks her.

“Alex, this place is, well, huge. And frankly, it’s a bit overwhelming. I think that, in order not to freak out everyone in the Complex, we should ask that everyone stay inside for a while. Let the techs and engineers go about their business on the Collector until each person has an idea just how big the Collector really is and what it is.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Alex tells her. “Don’t want anyone to panic, not just yet. Let everyone go about their normal daily lives as if nothing has happened. As far as they are concerned, we are still beneath the Himalayan Mountains. If anyone asks when the Complex will be moving, we’ll have to handle it then, I guess.”

“What do you mean as far as they are concerned? Surely, they know we’ve moved to the Collector,” Kate asks Alex.

“No, they have no idea. The move was instant, as you saw. If you weren’t with me when I told you we had moved, you’d have no idea the Complex had just been moved to the Collector.”

“Alex, do you have any drawings or schematics of the Collector?” Sara asks him.

“Yes, I can get some. Why?”

“I think we need to let the people know we’ve moved” Kate tells him. “They’ll get really mad if you don’t. We need to show them where they are going to be living and just how safe this thing is going to be. We can get a slideshow together and have everyone watch it. If I am correct, you are going to have a lot of very curious people who will want to see what it’s like to walk onboard an alien spaceship. They are also going to need to know just how big this place is so that they’ll know what they are going to be living in.”

“Alex, Sara’s right,” Sara says. “I know most of these people. The more information they have, the better off they’ll be.”

“Very well, one set of drawings coming up. How about some holograms?”

“That would be great. Everyone here is used to seeing them. The more they can understand, the better,” Sara tells him.

Alex, Sara, and Kate look to see Dale touching the floor (the top of the Complex). He has an amazed look in his eyes.

“OK, Dale. What are you thinking now? I know that look,” Kate asks him.

“Look at the surface of the Complex,” Dale says. “See any dirt? See any pits or scars of any kind? It looks like it was just made, and yet it is as old as the Earth. I don’t know about you, but that’s a pretty amazing piece of information. Look, no dirt anywhere. When the Complex moved from the Earth to the Collector, it took only itself, nothing else. Not one gram of dirt or rock. It looks like it has just been washed and waxed.”

“Alex,” Sara asks, “when the Complex moved, did it cause any problems with the Himalayans? They didn’t fall into the opening that was left, did they?”

“No,” responds Alex. “When the Complex left, a duplicate defense unit was put in its place instantly. Anyone standing anywhere in the mountains above the Complex would have felt nothing when the Complex changed places with its counterpart. The move was instantaneous and so was the replacement.”

“But what about the original opening to the Complex, the cave? Won’t someone find it and try to use it as shelter, like our father did?” asks Kate.

“Be back in a minute,” Alex says, and he vanishes, only to reappear a minute later.

“And where did you zip off to?” Sara asks him.

“I ‘zipped’ back and closed the opening with a landslide. It is now sealed tight, covering any evidence that anything was ever there, including the sealed entry door. I can assure you that no one will ever know anything like the Complex was ever there, including you-know-who. Even if they were to get in, all they would find is the biggest hole on the planet.”

It is a couple of hours before Alex gets enough information together to create a show for the inhabitants of the Complex to watch. He will first show them a 3D model of the Complex, something that most people living there are already familiar with. Then he will zoom out and show them the hangar that the Complex is in, along with the remaining 15 defense units. He will zoom out further to show more of the Collector and keep doing so until the entire Collector has been shown and explained in both size and function.

Sara sits down at the desk in front of the camera and microphone. Alex and Kate are standing off to the side. When the communications tech gives her the signal, she looks to the camera and makes her announcement.

“May I have your attention, please? Again, attention, please. I have an announcement that will bring you up to date as to what has recently transpired. A short while ago, I asked that you vote: either you can stay with the Complex and to join it in space, living on an ancient space ship, or you can stay on Earth and leave the Complex. All the votes are in. It seems everyone who voted was in favor of going with the Complex rather than staying on Earth.

“I can imagine many of you are wondering just how the Complex will be making the trip to this space ship that I mentioned, how long it will take, etc. Well, I have some news to give you on the trip.

“But before I tell you about the trip and the specifics, you must be informed about someone who is still new to the Complex. This is a very special person. This person is someone many of you have already met or know. He is the man I fell in love with and very gladly married. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Alex Rogers.”

Alex looks surprised. He had no idea he would be giving a speech to almost 50,000 people. Sara waves him over; he reluctantly walks to the desk and takes the seat next to her. With the cameras pointed now at him, he takes a deep breath, clears his throat, grabs a glass of water, takes a large gulp, and begins his story.

“As many of you know, I came to the Complex as a person whose life was in danger. Sara and the Complex took me in with open, welcome arms. I have never felt as at home as I do now. And, I have never had so many people who I can call friends.

“There is something that you need to know about me. The reason I came to the Complex and the reason my life was in jeopardy were because I had a dream about something out in space. As it turned out, my dream was showing what was really happening out there, out in deep space. The thing that I saw was what Sara has described to you. It was the Void, an ancient thing that has the power to destroy entire galaxies. I saw it make entire star systems vanish before my eyes. We were able to stop it from entering any further into our galaxy. It has left. But the reason we were able to stop it was because of what I now am and can do.”

Alex looks for and finds the glass of water. He wishes he had something stronger. He takes another large gulp and continues.

“When I had that dream, something inside me changed. It awoke something inside of me: an ancient being called a Traveler that had been buried deep inside my own DNA. It was awakened when the Complex identified that the Void had entered our galaxy and then sent out a signal for that being to wake up. When DNA tests added the missing pieces to its instructions, I changed from being a man to something more: a Traveler. This being can instantly travel to any point in space, whether it is in this galaxy or the next. Once the change was completed, the things I can do are remarkable, to say the least. One of these is the ability to move objects instantly, from one place to the next. It can be something as small as a grain of sand, or as large a sun or a planet. I (we) can move objects such as a sun or black holes in the fight with the Void. That is one reason that we were able to stop the Void. But I, as a Traveler, was not alone. There were three other Travelers who had awakened in other parts of our galaxy. They were there in the fight and helped to stop it. However, in that battle, the other three Travelers were lost. The Void got to them before it could be stopped. They are now gone. That leaves the one Traveler (me) to continue with the battle. The Traveler within me has no name; it is older than the oldest star in our galaxy. His sole purpose is to stop the Void and move on to other spaces, stop it there and then move on to the next battle. This he has done in our universe, but we must continue the fight in other universes if we are to stop it forever. That is why we have asked for your help in using and operating the Collector and joining us in this battle.

“This space ship is a massive energy collector. It is a vessel that collects and uses energy from this space and others like it to help establish and power the defense grid that stopped the Void. I suspect that this Collector is probably one of many that were used after the creation of this space and everything in it. So far, this is the only Collector that has ever been located.

“It is a large and powerful ship. It is old – it was placed here just after this galaxy was created and has sat dormant since then. It is massive in size, about 30,000 miles long. Other than collecting and storing energy, it is also designed to transport and store things called defense units: items that are used to provide power for the weapon used to stop the Void. Your Complex is one of these units. The Collector can hold over 19,000 of your Complexes. So, as you can see, it is very large by any standard.

“In case any of you are wondering who built the Collector and the Complex, we still do not know. They were built and placed here long before the Travelers even existed. The Travelers are the ones who use these defense units in case the Void ever tries to enter another universe. That is what we do. Travelers have never had to ask for help from inhabitants from any place before. But, as you have been told, my companions are now gone, and we need your help.

“The Collector is more than a storage or transport device. It is also a weapon that can be used to defend a universe against the Void. In previous successful battles with the Void, we did not have the Collector to use as a weapon. But we do now. Without your help, it would be impossible to operate it by myself and use it as a weapon. So, I give you many thanks for your aid, help, and support.

“Now, as to the question of how long the trip will be, when it will start, will you feel anything, and a million other questions, you do not have to be concerned in any way. Once the votes were in, counted and verified, the trip was made that instant. You and the Complex are no longer on Earth or even in your own galaxy. You and the Complex are millions of light-years away from Earth and are now sitting inside the ship we call a Collector. The trip has already been made and was done so instantaneously. That is why none of you knew that the trip had already had occurred.

“I erroneously made the decision to move the Complex on my own without letting you know first. For that, I sincerely apologize. I promise you that I will never let it happen again.

“For those of you who are curious about your new home, the Collector, I have created a show that will give you some insight as to its size, functions, and capabilities. Sara, would you please?”

With the mic and camera turned off, Alex slumps into the chair and takes another large gulp of water.

“Sara, I think that was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. You have the admiration of a Traveler. Facing the Void in combat is one thing; there I know what to do. But facing the camera and the people of the Complex is something else. You have no idea if you are saying the right thing or not.”

“Thanks,” Sara tells him. “Serves you right, though. Maybe next time you’ll give us fair warning when you’re about to do something that will affect every one of us.”

“Point taken. I’ll be sure to give ample notice from now on,” Alex tells her.

They sit back in their chairs and watch the show Alex had created. It shows what the Collector looks like, what the cannons can do, what happens when it is collecting energy, and where the energy is stored. It shows how it moves through space by folding space and slipping from point to point in an instant. It explains what realities are and how the Collector can move from reality to reality. It shows the Void and how it can cancel out an entire galaxy in an instant. It also shows the barrier being created and the effect that it has in stopping the Void’s progress. Alex tried to cover everything that he could think of in such a short amount of time to answer many of the questions people would have about the Collector, the Void, and why they are here. The show is impressive and answers many of the potential questions. But it did not show what Sara and Kate can do, or their part in the battle with the Void. Everyone had agreed they would keep that a secret, for now.

When the show is over, Sara goes back online.

“Now you know everything that we do and why we are here. I apologize for not giving you any notice that the Complex was about to be moved and that we are no longer on Earth. Alex has promised several times that he would never do that again. If you have any questions, please send them to me as soon as possible. My husband and I will try to answer them as we get them, if possible. Teams of guides will be set up soon to introduce you to the Collector and let you see it for yourselves. I thank you for your help, and may God bless.”

“Well, that’s it,” she tells Alex and Kate. “We’ve spilled the beans. I hope that they can forgive us for not telling them we’ve left Earth.”

The questions start coming in almost immediately. Much to Sara’s surprise, most were glad the move. No regrets on leaving Earth are expressed, other than what was going to happen in their favorite TV shows or some sports. Many want to know when they can leave the Complex and check out the Collector for themselves.

Sara reads one transmission, a simple question from a 10-year old boy: “Sara, you keep calling the ship the Collector. Does it have a name?”

“You know, I never thought of a name for it. I suppose that it ought to have a name. Any suggestions, anyone?” Sara asks Alex and Kate, but a cameraman provides the best response.

“Sara, how about asking the people? Give them the chance to name it,” one of the cameramen suggests.

Sara looks at the cameraman, then at Alex and Kate. “You know, he’s right. The people here should select a name for it. Alex, did you ever see anything like a name for the ship on the side or in any files?”

“Nope, nothing. If we want to call it something other than the Collector, I guess another announcement needs to be made. Want me to do it?” Alex asks.

“Go for it,” Sara tells him.

Alex sits back down in front of the camera and waits for the signal to start talking.

“Ladies and gentleman, sorry for the interruption, but a question has been asked that we feel you would like to answer. It has come to our attention that the Collector does not have a name or an official title. I cannot locate one anywhere on the ship or in its records. If any of you out there are interested in suggesting a name for the Collector, the suggestion with the most votes wins. Some of you know that I am a pretty fair cook. I’ll make you a deal: the first one who submits the winning name will get me to cook the next Sunday dinner--your choice of menu. And, as a Traveler, I’ll take you for a ride to see some of our universe up close and personal. I’ll give you 3 days to send in your suggestions. Have fun.”

“There, that ought to get some response,” Alex says.

For the next three days, suggestions poured in. A few were, as expected, a bit off the wall, but most were good. Names like the Raven, Avenger, and Scout are popular. The second most popular name is no surprise: Enterprise. The winner turns out to be the simplest: the Ark. It receives the most suggestions. Sara says that it was appropriate because the Ark had saved humanity in the Bible. Here, it’s going to save everything from extinction.

The winner of Alex’s contest is an eight-year-old boy named Adam. His vote for dinner is hot dogs and pizza, which Alex gladly fixes for him and his family. Then Alex puts them all in a large, clear, sealed box of energy, complete with heat, light and comfortable seats. They instantly travel with him to see several dozen places throughout the many galaxies in our reality. They see colorful clouds of gases and some of the many different and strange shapes galaxies come in. He shows them a planet with friendly inhabitants who looked like small fairies, flittering about on gossamer wings. He also, at their request, shows them the barrier, with its glittering wall of energy.

After they come back and word spreads about what the family has seen, it becomes a weekly Saturday treat for a select few to take a ride with Alex to see the stars. Both Alex and Sara think it is a good idea. It gives the people of the Complex a chance to see things no one else on Earth ever can and to get to know him. It is Alex’s way of saying “thank you” to the ones who had decided so quickly to help him. It also gives them something to look forward to while Dale and his crew proceeded with final preparations to run and operate the Collector.

It is that a long-deserted alien spaceship, an energy collector, weapon, and transport, is now inhabited by a large group of hopeful humans and one very grateful ancient alien. It is now the Ark.

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