“What happened?” Norman asked them.
“Alan and the fat scientist came and put the buildings on fire, throwing burning sticks, but they have clearly put explosives beforehand, since everything was instantly in flames like a torch.”
“Impossible, both of them have been with me in the control room for the last half hour.” Norman turned back to the control room. If there was any explanation at all, it was in Hans’s mind. He was their only hope.
“I think I know what’s going on, Major” Hans said without taking his eyes off the white sheet.
Nobody of the people, present in the room, uttered a sound, they were all gazing intently at the plump mathematician. “The message you have received, is true.”
660052153 054660039231
660153492669349231 534920392
660 052153 349231053660054
I AM LIFE INSIDE YOU I AM THE DEVIL
“But it can be seen in another way”, Hans started explaining. “The aliens, unaware about how human brain works, sent another message, to which you did not pay attention.”
660 052153 310293231
349231053660054 660153492660231 293920392
I AM THE DEVIL INSIDE YOU
“What does it mean?” Norman interrupted the silence. “This thing… these alien creatures are testing us.”
“Testing us?! Come Hans, how do they do it? And why would they need such a crap?” Alan interfered, the sceptic as always. “I killed Greg!” Hans said.
Sergey entered their room. Ivanov was sorting his luggage. He was throwing his personal belongings from the shelf into a big bag on the floor, while his clothes were strewn on the bed. He was moving hurriedly and when the young scientist came in, he did not even look at him.
“What are you doing, Ivanov? Where are you going?”
“I’m doing what needs to be done, Seriozha, duty calls.”
“Don’t be stupid.” Sergey knew enough about his room-mate’s nature by now. “What are you planning to do?”
“Seriozha, my friend, come with me, we cannot allow this thing to fall in their hands. Our people needs it, otherwise we’ll destroy it. These are orders from Moscow and if you are a true patriot, you’ll come with me.”
“Don’t do it, Colonel, let’s talk…”
At this moment the door opened and Michael rushed in. He looked at them with bloodshot eyes, raised his gun and without aiming, shot first at Sergey.
The young man with disheveled hair fell on the ground with a groan, clutching his chest, while Ivanov reacted like a true military man – he dashed at the young American and started punching him with his fists on the head. No human being would survive even a minute under the stony hits of that giant. But Michael seemed to have acquired inhuman force. He overthrew Ivanov with a mighty suplex, caught his neck and started suffocating him. At this moment three gunshots banged.
Amidst a cloud of smoke the silhouette of the soldier on duty, who had given the shots, appeared.
The deadly hold of the student loosened and his body fell lifeless on the floor.
The Sergeant placed his finger on Sergey’s carotid artery. He felt no pulse.
“It’s good to hear you confessing” Babyface said and made a step towards the scientist.
“Well, of course not me, but my double!”
“What are you talking about, Hans?” Norman asked. “It makes no sense.”
“Just think about it. If you are going to meet alien races and civilizations, wouldn’t you like to know more about their behavior and culture as individuals, as a society, how they react in different situations and against various challenges?”
“Be more specific, Hans”, Norman urged him.
“I have a theory: The Cube, they found on the sea bottom or who knows where, was created by an alien civilization to test us. It is something like a lighthouse, that would show them who we are. For this purpose, the Cube creates our doubles – for everyone who has been in contact with it. A double, however, who is a total opposite of us. If, let’s say, you are a good and moral person, your double is a brutal murderer. If you are bright and calm, your double is a mindless and cruel monster.”
“That explains many things. Including the way our doubles caused the fire”, Norman said, thinking aloud.
“And Hans’s fingerprints on the dead body and the murder weapon” Alan added.
“But why do they need such evil creatures?” Marcela wondered.
“Do not forget, they need not be evil by all means” Hans replied. “They are just reciprocal to their prototype. If we accept that in our case we are positive and balanced personalities with good intentions, then our doubles are obviously monsters. But if the aliens meet an evil civilization with aggressive and cruel individuals, their doubles would be real angels.”
“Yes, I can understand this, it makes sense, but still… I am not sure what they test and why”, Marcela said.
“There is another possibility, Hans. Forgive me, but even you might be wrong sometimes” Michael interfered. “I think that the Cube just belongs to a mirror universe, compared to ours, inhabited by those aliens. Or they might not be aliens, but our reciprocal reflections in this mirror reality.”
“And what is the nature of such a parallel reality?” Marcela asked.
“The idea of parallel worlds has not dated since yesterday. Some scientists believe there exists a world, or a reality, parallel to ours, in which every man and object has an analogue with the opposite sign.”
“What are you babbling about, Michael? What opposite sign? We, people, are not some goddamn numbers, are we!”
“A fully legitimate question, Alan, and actually, yes, we are like the values of the infinite numbers. Do you know what ‘dark mater’ is?” Hans interjected.
“Something out of ‘Star Wars’ probably” Marcela suggested.
“No”, the Professor continued. “This is an unexplored part of the Universe, the greater part. We know just five per cent of the visible Universe, the rest are the so called ‘dark matter’, for which we have no idea whatsoever. Black matter, or rather more importantly, dark energy, welcome to the rollercoaster in Disneyland, only without the glasses and safety belts. Imagine how few people really realize that ninety five percent of the surrounding Universe is totally unknown to us. A part, in which physical laws or science, as we know them, might not be valid and might not even exist. Life, if it is possible at all, is probably totally different and unknown to us.”
“You mean, we don’t know nothing in fact about the surrounding world?” Marcela was amazed.
“If you find enough five per cent of the Space and two percent of the human brain…” Hans smiled at her ironically. “That’s exactly what we, people, know of our own mind or of the surrounding Universe. Every elementary particle has its analogue, and also the macro objects of our known Universe have their double in the parallel reality.”
“I read about this in an online magazine. Particles of matter meet their particles of anti-matter and are mutually annihilated” Michael said.
“Yes, there is a positively charged positron and when it meets the negative electron, they are mutually destroyed. A photon is formed and a quant of energy is discharged” Hans explained. “But I don’t think Michael had this in mind. You are all talking only of specs of our reality.”
“That’s right, Hans” the student said. “Matter and anti-matter, whatever it is, are a part of our Universe, while I had in mind something totally different… something out of another world, of another reality, of another universe…”