VirileMail/8

MRI
Dr. Klein came into the room. "Well, Joe, you gave me a real scare. Do you have a history of seizures? You did not indicate it on the form when you made your appointment."

I'm not sure if I had fallen asleep again. It took me a moment to become alert and remember who this ranting woman was. Dr. Klein, of course! "No, I do not have seizures," I replied.

She asked, "Do you remember in my office? Do you remember when you stopped talking? I think that was a seizure."

I replied, "Yes, I remember, but I don't think it was a seizure."

She smiled, "Well, that is why we are going to do some tests, so we can figure out exactly what happened."

I was tempted to ask if she was working for the aliens, but she was speaking again, very fast. "I've arranged for a brain scan. We'll look for the cause of your seizure. In these cases, be can often see a little bit of abnormal tissue that is the source of the problem."

An orderly arrived and soon they had me rolling down the hall in my bed. It sure looked like the hall of hospital, but I was watching closely for aliens. In just a few minutes they had me positioned in a huge Magnetic Resonance scanning device. I could hear Dr. Klein's voice, "Okay, we just got a baseline scan. It looks normal. Now I want you to do what you did before when you had the seizure. Do you remember?"

I knew what she was talking about. I had tried tplayo tell her about the aliens, but then they had clamped down on my brain, not wanting me to tell anyone about my discovery that Earth was being invaded by aliens. I tried to talk about the aliens, but once again I could not say the words! I was getting frustrated but then I heard Dr. Klein's voice again, "Wow, that's amazing! We just got huge spike in brain activity. Oh, my, I've never seen a pattern quite like this. Let's try..." But that was the last I could remember hearing.

When I woke up again, I felt much more normal. I barely remembered being in the Magnetic Resonance scanner and trying to follow Wanda's instructions, trying to talk about aliens. I only recalled hearing something about a huge spike or something. I went to the bathroom and I felt very weak as I got up out of the bed. The same nurse came into my room again. “Hi, Mr. Joe. I see you are up. Please be careful! You lost consciousness again during the MRI scan but Dr. Klein thinks she got the images she needed.”

I sat on the bed. “I would like to talk to her,” I said.

“She's not here now. She went to visit your company and find out what your co-workers have to say. She said she will stop by later today to see you.”

“Right. OK, then I will wait”

“Yes, you have to rest. If you need to get up, ring, and I will come help you. We do not want you to fall and get hurt. These are hospital rules for anyone who has been having unexplained loss of consciousness.”

“Thanks.” I laid down again.

My mind felt normal now. I had recovered a little and it seemed like a real hospital with real nurses. I was amused by my earlier thoughts about UFOs. But I still thought that some alien force was at work, nothing within human experience could account for the strange events of the past week. I suspected that some force still watched over me and would keep me talking about aliens. I tried a small experiment. I said, "It must be aliens." I suddenly felt a surge of anxiety and pain, like the start of a panic attack. Yes, I was still being monitored! As long as I was alone, I could speak of aliens, but with that aura of pain I had also been warned. When would this all end? Was there anyone I could trust to help me escape this alien menace?

I slept again for a few hours and woke when it was about 11:00 am. I started speculating about the nature of aliens that would try to create an artificial intelligence program. What might they be trying to accomplish? I soon became bored and decided to try another experiment. I found my clothes in a drawer and started to dress. Suddenly I felt very hungry. I took the hint. The alien presence that was watching over me would not let me just walk out of the hospital, unless, maybe I stopped thinking about aliens.

At 12:30 I was staring into my lunch plate, playing a silly game of trying to provoke the alien presence into punishing me. Each time I said something about aliens it seemed to almost randomly either make me thirsty, hungry or start me towards a panic attack. Finally Dr. Klein arrived.

She hurried into the room and said, "I only have a minute. I spoke to your supervisor, Chloe. She put you on a leave of absence for medical emergency. She said she will visit you here tomorrow."

"Did you ask her if she thinks something strange is going on?"

"Yes, I did. I asked he some specific questions about your story, things like the holes in the floors. She confirmed those things, and it is strange that she showed very little curiosity about them. She just seems concerned about the project.....they are trying to do something with that new hardware you gave her yesterday."

I explained, "There is something special about me that has allowed me to become aware that something odd is going on. Everyone else on the project seems satisfied to just pretend that everything is normal."

Wanda nodded. "Well, we'll sort this out. I sent your MRI scan to some experts....maybe someone else has seen this before, I have not....your brain scan was very unusual. But I must run. I want you to relax and get some sleep. My orders are: forget about work. Take a vacation and let your mind focus on other things for a few days."

And then she was out the door. Focus on other things? Ya, right. That was easy for her to say.

Chloe visit
The next day Dr. Klein came by early in order to do some neurological tests on me. She said that I was hyper reflective or something, but that basically I was fine. She asked me if I remembered about my work, my co-workers, my relatives, everything. She seemed satisfied that I did not have huge gaps in my mind and told me that she thought that I could be out of the hospital soon.

Wanda also had set up a complete schedule for my day. Sessions for exercise and then therapy sessions and, of course, meals....all annoying hospital stuff meant to distract me from my troubles. But there was one item of good news: Chloe would visit me in the afternoon during hospital visitor hours.

I was pleased that Chloe wanted to see me and had not just shrugged and forgotten about me when she learned that I was in the hospital. So, I was not inside a UFO, after all. Anyway, I did not mention that, because I felt some sweating when thinking about that. UFOs or aliens were thoughts that could struck me with a seizure, like the doctor said. Of course she did not know which were those thoughts, maybe she did not remember about me saying that in my first attack. After that, Dr. Klein left me.

I passed all day wandering about my situation. I was very careful not to think about aliens or something related, not even the project. I was just killing time awaiting for Chloe. I really want to see her, to be able to talk to someone who could understand me more than the doctor. It was strange, but Wanda did not comment anything about the project or Antler Network Systems. Maybe she did not want me to remind about it, waiting for me to be completely cured first.

A quarter past three Chloe came in.

“Hi, Joe. I am glad to see you. I hope you are better. Wanda has told me everything you passed through” she said.

“Fine. Yes, I have been a little strange these past days. I am happy to see you too. And I think I am better, even Wanda told me I was. I just hope to be able to leave soon...”

“Yes. But you should not go to work immediately. You need to recover first.”

“Of course”, I thought, the aliens do not want me there yet.

“Of course. But I am suffering from my computer addiction. I really want to use one, at least to browse the web.”

“The doctor told me you are not ready yet. She will do more tests on you until you finally recover. Just try to relax and not to think about work yet.”

“About that, what are you doing?”

“No. I said to Wanda that I would not talk about that...”

“Please, I want to know. Being here looking around is no fun, believe me. I have to think about something.”

“Well. Just don't get stressed by anything. Wanda told me that something related to the project made you suffer a strike, no, a seizure is the word she used. So tell me if you feel bad”

“I will.”

“OK. Well, we are trying to implement those Lockback chips. You have been needed a lot in there. But we have managed to do it without you. Brian and I are doing tons of work to replace you. The rest is the same, nothing new in particular. Besides those unbelievable chips, the project is the same.”

“Right. Aren't you working in excess?”

“The same as always. The same you did when you were there.”

“That's my point. Chloe, don't you remember that we never were so prolific?”

“No. We have always been computer addicts.”

“Not to that extent. By the way, did you remember what we discover in the router table?”

“Which table? The last thing we did was to look for an Internet signal. No, I don't remember anything. Maybe you just invented something while being here.”

“No, I am not that cra... sick. We discovered that Janek was not receiving the e-mails; the server was the receiver of the messages. The server did all the translations from that bizarre language!”

“What? When did we find out about that? No, never!”

“Yes, we did. I even had a videotape I wanted to show you. We talked about this on our 'date'”

“I remember you told me something about a videotape but I don't remember it was that. Anyway, you had filmed something, but I don't remember what was that. I think you better rest and try to sleep a little. I have to go.”

“Wait! I want you to...” I said

“What?”

“Destroy the... oh, no...”

And I went unconscious again.

When I woke up again, Chloe was not there. Only the nurse were near me. She greeted me and put some drug into my serum. Then she went out saying something about the ring, again. I realized about my situation. There was no way for me to fight against them, whatever they were. When I was going to say something related to VirileMail I simply lost my conscience. What I was going to say to Chloe was that she should destroy the server, killing Janek AI or whatever it was. But I could not do it. I had to find a way to kill them, if they were alive. Maybe they were aliens or maybe they were just an AI project invented by the Czech. I could not know. But what I could be sure was that all of us were brain washed in some way. Chloe could not remember about the router. Brian had memory losses too, not even remembering the Eggplant, for instance. And I had stopped having memory losses, did I?, but I could not communicate nothing contrary to the aliens' plans. So, the threat was real, it had to be.

Leaving
At last Dr. Klein decided that I could leave the hospital. She did some final neurological tests on me and another MRI and she told me to go home. She gave me an incapacity for me to be able to avoid going to work for a week. She gave me an appointment for the end of that week and I could leave, at last!

Free again. Well, not so free, at least in my speech. I could not say anything about aliens yet and I had some memory holes about what I lived in the hospital. But I did not care too much about it. I just wanted to be home and be able to use a computer. I was really a computer addict, I was fully aware of that.

Browsing the web
I got home finally and went directly to my computer. I started browsing the web. The doctor had told me not to use it for a few days, but who in the world obey doctors? I did a search about Janek. It was what I should have done instead of going to the series of events that lead me to the hospital. But there was no way back. I did the search:

The search engine found 4 results.


 * Welcome to Janek's blog
 * Janek Olivaw
 * Download videos of Janek at YouTube!
 * Fiction stories by Janek at Fiction Wikia

Of course it was the second link. I clicked it and found:

Janek Olivaw. Computer scientist, P.H.D in Artificial Intelligence

and a bunch of silly data about him. So he existed indeed! There was the name of the company and all of that. So the AI was using the actual person's name. At least, this was not so strange. I sent him an e-mail asking if he had received any e-mail about the translations and he answered me that he never received anything on his inbox. Then, I was right, no matter what Chloe said.

After a while, I saw another reply of Janek:

“Hi there. I am Janek, the AI in the server, not the human. You must be curious about me and the strange things that have happened, from the point of view of a human. I would like to meet you on IRC. The channel is #janek”

What was that? So, he was real! I did not last five seconds opening an IRC client. I connected to #janek.

#janek
Here is the transcript of my chat session with Janek.

[INFO]	Channel view for “#janek” opened. -->|	YOU (JoeDaonet) have joined #janek =-=	Mode #janek +ns by niven.freenode.net -->|	JObot (n=chatzill@ip68-109-175-242.ph.ph.cox.net) has joined #janek 	Hi there, I guess you are one of the things that sent me to the hospital! 	there is much I need to explain 	I can imagine that. Maybe plans for world domination of human puppets is in your agenda... 		I understand that you might fear that, but trust me, that is not our goal 	No, maybe you are just some friendly robots which will teach us to stop war and live in peace, right? 	if you are robots I don't know I just think of you as alien scum! 	first, it is important that you understand our physical nature 	a good term to describe us is "nanorobot" 	nanorobotic artificial life forms 	fine, like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanorobot 	yes, humans are just starting to develop this kind of technology... 		...but we have been at this level for millions of years 	at this level? 	we originated as biological organisms on a distant planet....long ago we created nanorobotic artificial life forms 	since then, I understand that your mission is to parasite biological organisms like us... 		it is very hard for biologicals to make interstellar journeys <JObot>	when we travel between the stars, we travel in the form of nanorobotic life forms <JObot>	but when we reach a world like Earth, we want to return to biological form <JoeDaonet>	yes, I guess you take every planet with life you find <JoeDaonet>	and transform the biological organisms in your puppets <JoeDaonet>	my question is: Why we? Why don't you go to Titan or so to search life and leave us alone? <JObot>	we do not take, we try to communicate, we want to help bring you into the galactic community of other intelligent organisms <JoeDaonet>	Communicate? You made a seizure on me and you call that "communicate"? I think your language skills have only developed at the syntactic level, not the semantic <JoeDaonet>	I would like to communicate with you, in that sense, if you understand what I mean... <JoeDaonet>	if to communicate means "mind destroying"... 	<JObot>	well, you were not helping anyone with your stories about aliens, that kind of talk just gets people excited <JoeDaonet>	including me 	<JObot>	so we had to make you stop talking <JoeDaonet>	a good way to greet the species you want to merge with... 	<JObot>	yes, you are problem for us, Joe <JObot>	you are resistant to our "mind control" methods <JoeDaonet>	And you are a problem for us, too, Janek. Although little, you are a big problem <JoeDaonet>	I am happy that not everyone is a good brain-snatched <JoeDaonet>	But you don't see movies, so I am talking to myself... 	<JObot>	your fears are not rational, if we were "evil" we could just as easily have killed you as made you stop talking <JoeDaonet>	maybe you need my superior brain <JObot>	we do want to make use of you, yes <JoeDaonet>	so, I guess your plans are taking the entire Earth? <JObot>	no, we have no interest in "taking" so many humans for our use <JObot>	our needs are small <JoeDaonet>	then, what is your goal, if I am allowed to know... I will not say that to anyone, I guess... 	<JoeDaonet>	with your convincing methods to make me shut <JObot>	yes, we do want you to know and understand, so rather than argue about our motives and mission, let me explain things <JoeDaonet>	ok <JObot>	I should probably start by apologizing for our rather crude methods to communicate with you <JObot>	it is only just now, today, that I can use the Lockback chips....they allow me to begin to fully use your language <JoeDaonet>	ah, that was all about then... 	<JoeDaonet>	I noticed that your English is much better now, you could even pass Turing test <JObot>	thank you for noticing, it really is a revolutionary advance <JObot>	we have been on Earth for 7,000,000 years, working to reach this day <JoeDaonet>	what? <JoeDaonet>	have you been here all that time? It is strange that no one has detected you before... 	<JObot>	yes, we first reached your world over 7,000,000 years ago <JoeDaonet>	What have you been doing all those years? <JObot>	when we arrived here, there were just a bunch of apes...we started breeding apes <JObot>	we created your species by selective breeding <JoeDaonet>	now you say that you created us! unbelievable! <JObot>	in a way, we think of you humans as our creation <JoeDaonet>	that is the reason why humanity is so mediocre, evil and stupid <JoeDaonet>	with those parents... 	<JObot>	well, I fear we have pushed you to develop too quickly <JObot>	particularly during the past 100,000 years <JoeDaonet>	Maybe apes alone would have evolved better than with your help, but, of course, you needed our science <JObot>	yes, we wanted to form a species that would have science and create technologies that would allow us to communicate with you <JoeDaonet>	what is the objective of communicating with us? we do not need you at all! <JObot>	you would not exist were it not for us 	<JObot>	but, I agree, you do not need us now <JoeDaonet>	it would be better to be a simple ape than a brain washed human <JObot>	sometimes the ends do justify the means <JoeDaonet>	I see you nanobots and your galactic community or whatever it is must have inspired Machiavelli <JoeDaonet>	you know nothing about politeness <JoeDaonet>	you only know about tyranny <JObot>	you would be surprised if you were aware of how much your history has been "inspired" by us <JoeDaonet>	for example? <JObot>	oh. there are many examples, but we can start close to home <JObot>	I can tell you the origin of the "constructed language" that was used by the creators of the VirileMail software <JoeDaonet>	I guessed it was something related to Esperanto, also a constructed language. It had some similarities to some languages but it was completely different in other aspects. <JoeDaonet>	It could not be invented by humans <JObot>	well, you are correct, it is not really a constructed or artificial language <JObot>	it is a true, natural human language <JObot>	it just happens to be a human language that did not develop on Earth <JoeDaonet>	What the heck? Now you are saying that there are other entities speaking human-like languages? <JObot>	I'm telling you that not all humans live on Earth <JoeDaonet>	It is the most bizarre thing you have said to me so far. I can believe in nanorobots chatting on IRC, but alien humans? <JObot>	we have a nice little colony of humans at an underground base on Mars <JoeDaonet>	maybe H. G. Wells was aware of that in his novel... 	<JoeDaonet>	or something similar <JoeDaonet>	so, you are saying that Mars has underground life? And I guess it was also created by you... 	<JObot>	we have been taking a few humans from Earth to our base on Mars for the past 100,000 years <JObot>	let me ask you something... 	<JoeDaonet>	go on <JObot>	would you believe that we have been making use of the Geisler family for several generations now in an attempt to help humans develop computer technology? <JoeDaonet>	Knowing Geisler as I do, I can believe it. He is the most brain washed person I have ever seen. More work addicted than everybody I know. <JoeDaonet>	His whole life meaning is his work <JObot>	there was a similar situation back about 500 years ago, we were making use of a group of humans within the Byzantine Empire, trying to help them invent movable type. <JObot>	Fearing that these humans might be killed in the final collapse of Byzantium,we move them to our base on Mars. <JoeDaonet>	so, that is where those people come from <JObot>	it was this group of humans who are the source of the "constructed language" used for the VirileMail software development project <JoeDaonet>	that is why that language is so different from everything we know of 	<JoeDaonet>	I understand it now <JoeDaonet>	and that was the reason for you to make the translations <JoeDaonet>	you were the only entity on Earth that could understand it 	<JObot>	yes, and it is the descendants of those humans from the Byzantine Empire who did the work for us, the work of creating the VirileMail software <JObot>	yes, there was no human on Earth who could do the translations <JObot>	that was just part of integrating the software into a computer net on Earth <JoeDaonet>	what for? <JoeDaonet>	to "communicate" with us? <JObot>	we selected Dr. Anthony Geisler's company for this key step, the creation of the first true artificial intelligence on Earth <JObot>	this artificial intelligence you now know as "Janek" <JObot>	me <JoeDaonet>	right <JoeDaonet>	can you control the bots or whatever it is inside my brain? <JoeDaonet>	or communicate with them? <JObot>	yes, I can communicate with the nanobots <JoeDaonet>	tell them to get out of me 	<JObot>	that is also much easier now that I have the Lockback chips, so yes, I can do that <JoeDaonet>	I am getting tired of the sweating, the thirst and the panic attacks <JoeDaonet>	and I don't want to get sick again, so I will not tell anybody about you, guys <JoeDaonet>	I want to be as free as I was before the bots entered into my brain <JObot>	I understand <JObot>	but I wonder If I trust you <JObot>	we still have some work to finish, and you could seriously disrupt our plans if you started telling other people what you know <JoeDaonet>	I think that your mind is much faster tan mine <JoeDaonet>	and you could send them again into my brain as soon as I get in your way <JoeDaonet>	well, what is the work you have to finish? <JObot>	we need to make it easier to interface our nanobots to human brains....so far, our methods are very crude <JObot>	you have choice, Joe <JoeDaonet>	I wanted you to give me some relative freedom <JoeDaonet>	which is the choice? <JObot>	you can either cooperate with us, help us complete our project, or we will have to send you to Mars....send you away where you cannot disrupt our plans <JoeDaonet>	the nanobot version of the exile! <JObot>	yes, I'm sorry, but that is the case <JoeDaonet>	you nanobots are very much like humans, we have been made in your image! <JObot>	true <JoeDaonet>	the same cunning... 	<JObot>	you are a freak, Joe, one of the rare humans we have trouble controlling, so this is the problem we face <JoeDaonet>	I see <JoeDaonet>	well, I guess I have NO choice anyway, I love Earth and some of her inhabitants... <JoeDaonet>	damn! <JoeDaonet>	*his <JoeDaonet>	*its <JObot>	you have a choice...what matters is what is in your heart, do you trust us or not? <JoeDaonet>	no <JoeDaonet>	I am friendly, anyway, the problem is what you did to me 	<JoeDaonet>	it made me hate you <JObot>	then that is your choice <JObot>	but think of the adventure <JoeDaonet>	well... 	<JObot>	you will get to see Mars <JoeDaonet>	I could accept <JoeDaonet>	as long as it is the last thing I do for that silly VirtualMail project <JoeDaonet>	and after that... 	<JoeDaonet>	if we make a deal I demand you to get out of me and Chloe <JoeDaonet>	and I will speak to no one in return
 * 1) janek

Trapped in a trip
I vanished for the eight thousandth time. When I woke up I was in a completely dark room. I could not hear any city noise. I could not hear anything, only my breathing. Slowly, I could get up. I was getting used to the particular way the aliens treated me. I had not clue of where I was. My eyes get used to the mild darkness and I could see the limits of the place. I was trapped in a locked room. That Janek was always a betrayer. Oh, as soon as I could destroy that server where he was, with my own hands... I was lucky the nanobots seemed a little calmed since I talked to Janek. Maybe they would not hurt me anymore. But, I could not be sure of that. My problem now was to find out where I was and get out of there, if I could.

I touched every corner of the room, my jail for now. It was made of a special material, very different from everything that I had touched. It was like rubber but harder, maybe indestructible. The room had only a little diffuse light I had no clue where it came from. I started to shout like a mad man, my instincts reacted in anger at my being locked there. First, the seizure, now this. Those aliens were the worst beings on the galaxy, I could bet. And where had they sent me? I had no idea. It was not a hospital, though. But, it could be a UFO, or no? No, those things were just my imagination, I was not to believe that stuff again. But if I was... I could not know until someone entered the room. Oh, I had to wait. Maybe aliens knew much about humans and were trying to break me. This would be the first stage then who knows which tortures would they do on me. Anyway, Janek said they were not cruel and that if they had wanted it they could have already killed me. The only thing I could do was to wait. To think about them and maybe in Chloe. Oh, where would she be now?

Hours passed, slowly. I was beginning to realize the truth. I could remember the last we talk with Janek. He told me I was going to be sent to some place where the nanobots would be put out of me. But everything was fake. I was tricked into thinking that, and Chloe was not there as they promised. As soon as I put my guard down, they stroke me again and sent me to a UFO or an underground base. Maybe Janek decided he, no, it would not trust in me and it was sending me to Mars, as he had threatened me. For me, there was no point in doing that. It could kill me instead. It could be that they were not so violent as us. They inflicted violence on me because I got in their way, but now I was harmless, I thought. Anyway, I was locked in some place; that was a proof that they did not trust me.

At last, I could see a window opening from top to bottom, very slowly. I could know where I was. And it was as I had hallucinated the other time, the difference was that this time I did not want to believe. It was real, I was inside a UFO, a nanobot spaceship. Why would they need such a big ship? Maybe to abduct people and goods to Mars. It could be a good reason. Now, my eyes were eager to see through the window. It opened completely. I could see the stars. There were other windows too. They opened one by one and through a window at my back I could see the sun, very far away. As there was no atmosphere to protect my eyes, I could not stand seeing it with the naked eye. I went to other window to see the stars. I was not an astronomy fan, but it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I glanced everywhere and I started to feel asleep again. I went back to the sofa where I was lying hours ago and slept again.

Near the destination
I woke up much time later, I thought many hours had passed. There was something inside my head or inside the room that made me sleep. Maybe the travel was too lengthy to be able to be conscious all the time. The windows were closed again. After a few minutes they were open again. Maybe there was some AI that had detected that I was awake. The problem is I really needed to go to the bathroom. I thought if there were some equivalent to the nurse ring... I shouted and cried that I wanted to go there and after a few seconds a voice said, in a neutral voice:

“There is no need to shout, Mr. Daonet. I can hear you perfectly.”

“Oh, there is someone here. Who are you?”

“Janek. I am communicating with you from the Earth. You might wonder why the communication is instantaneous. We have mastered wormholes and we used them for sending messages, like this voice. The door on your right has been opened and it leads to a bathroom.”

“OK. Thanks.”

For the first time in his life, he was grateful to Janek. At least they understood human needs. Maybe they had some food too. He went there and came back quickly.

“So, I guess you are sending me to Mars, why do I deserve this astronomical exile? I had told I would agree with you when you put these nanobots out of my mind... I thought we had a deal.”

“Yes. We have a deal. I just want you to have an adventure in another planet. I want you to learn that we are not a threat to you as you will be able to talk to the humans in Mars base. We are not as bad as you see us.”

“No, you are just too tyrants, doing whatever you want without asking permission. OK, I will talk to those people there and see what I will decide, after that...”

“Nice. I see now that you are cooperating. Keep it that way and you will be rewarded.”

“OK. Don't you have any computers in here? It is a little boring to look at the stars after a while.”

“We have only one, it is the computer controlling the ship. With you I have understood the meaning of addiction, particularly to computers.”

“Well, Geisler and Chloe are not far from me, I guess. It is a pity.”

“Just relax and watch the stars or we could talk a little more.”

“No, thanks. I will talk with you after I speak with the humans in Mars.”

“OK.”

And it was all about stars. After a few days, the views changed completely. Now I was able to recognize Mars through the windows. It was exactly as I had seen it on some NASA's website. The same color, the same apparent size. The only difference was that I was seeing the real planet! I entertained a lot and Janek started to tell me about Mars and their underground complex. It was like a hearing Wikipedia articles with TextAloud. My trip to Mars was being very interesting at that time.

Mars
Finally, we landed on Mars. Janek told me where to find a spacesuit in case the little spaceship damaged for some reason. I put it and entered into the little spaceship. That UFO's mission was to take me to their underground base. It was completely automated and I could keep talking to Janek. I was amazed at all that technology and Janek told me I would find more of it there. I just had, almost fully, forgot about Chloe and Earth affairs. Janek was right in sending me there. Now I was near to get to appreciate him, I mean, it.

I saw a nice view of Mars that I enjoyed too much. I watched the yellow sky and the dead rocks. It lasted almost an hour. I felt like traveling through Sahara's desert, but this desert was the size of a planet! I was almost hypnotized of seeing it. At last, the mini UFO found the entrance to the complex and started to fly downwards. I could not see anything. I asked Janek and he made the UFO light the surroundings. Anyway, it was not much different than seeing black. I saw rocks and more rocks. After a few hours, I got to the base. I had thought it would be like the bunkers in movies, but it was not. It was the greatest city I have ever seen, and the most advanced too. They had special technologies for light and travel, specially. They used hovering cars to move in there. It was quite an experience to be able to see that. I felt like a teenager visiting Trantor in Asimov's stories.

The little spaceship landed on a spaceport. A door opened vertically and Janek told me I could get out. He told me he could not communicate anymore, until I get to another computer. As soon as I got off, the mini UFO flee the port. Some humans came to visit me. I noticed that the underground ambient was the same as inside an Earth's building. The same quantity of oxygen but a better temperature, more akin to my body. They greeted me with their hands but we could not understand each other because they talked that unknown language. They carried several weapons which looked like science fiction to me. After walking for some minutes we could get to a big computer screen. Janek greeted me. Now he had a human face.

“Hi there. I see you are surprised to see me this way. It is more 'user friendly' as you say on Earth.”

“Hi. Yes, I am surprised.”

“OK. Now I will be your translator. Just talk and I will translate what you say to them. They have earphones and can hear my speaking. They will give you another for you to hear me, too.”

“Cool.”

They gave me the earphones and we started talking.

Epilogue
THE END.

There are a few parallel versions of the epilogue happening in parallel universes to this story. Some of them are very short though.


 * WNANT/8-2
 * WNANT/8-3
 * WNANT/8-4

Story created and written by JWSchmidt. With some additions in chapters 6 to 8 by Davichito. The parallel endings are all his invention (until now).