The Origami Dragon And Other Tales by C. H. Aalberry

forever.
    The station
lights flicked on and stayed on. The life-support systems flicked
back on. This time the Anomaly’s contact was gentler, dimming the
lights rather than killing the station’s power.
    “G-r-e-e-t-i-n-g-s space t-o space E-a-r-t-h space
s-i-g-n-a-l-l-i-n-g space p-e-a-c-e-f-u-l space
i-n-t-e-n-t-i-o-n-s,” Chen spelled out aloud as they watched the
lights.
    The Anomaly
wanted to talk to them, alone and without interference from Earth.
They didn’t know why, but it was better than nothing. They
signalled their peaceful intentions back and waited. It was another
hour before the Anomaly signalled again.
    “The Anomaly
wants to talk,” said Chen with a smile.
    It made all the
fuse changing worthwhile, but left Matt wondering if this had
happened before. If this was the reason for Observer 3’s existence,
did the Anomaly’s damaging form of conversation explain the
station’s odd design? The excess of redundant life-support systems,
its absence of crew?
    The thought
gave Matt cold shivers. Chen didn’t seem worried about it, and Matt
wasn’t sure if he was just being paranoid.
    “Ask if it has
made contact before, Chen,” he said at last, deciding it was better
to look paranoid than be unprepared.
    Chen called out
the letters as Matt wrote them down in his notebook.
    “An eye of
Earth watched us, but to listen was to break. A second eye saw but
did not understand. This third eye heard once but ignored,
returning to the Earth-orb.”
    Chen said,
reading the Anomaly’s answer as Matt wrote it down.
    “Two eyes might
be Observers one and two, but I wonder if the last crew on this
station ran back to Earth when the station started shaking
around?”
    Chen nodded in
agreement.
    “That would
explain quite a lot, but not why EarthControl didn’t let us know
what to expect.”
    They took a
moment to silently curse EarthControl.
    “Permission to
converse?” read Chen aloud from the flashing messages.
    Matt wrote this
down with the other of the Anomaly’s messages.
    “I thought we
were conversing,” muttered Chen, “so what happens next?”
    They made a
second copy of all the Anomaly’s messages and placed it in the
storage sections of Chen’s cabin with an outline of their
situation. Then they went to their own cabins and wrote out letters
to their family and friends in paper torn from Chen’s notepad. Like
all spaceship crew, they had in-case-of-death letters stored with
EarthControl, so the letters were brief.
    Chen was
waiting for Matt by the window overlooking the Anomaly.
    “It’s been a
pleasure,” he said unexpectedly but sincerely.
    “Everyone who
knows me says that eventually,” joked Matt.
    Chen glared at
him for a second and then smiled broadly for the first time since
Matt had known him.
    “You’re an
idiot. Let’s hope this thing doesn’t use you to judge humankind.
Although if I am about to be utterly annihilated by conversing with
a powerful space creature, I’m glad you are here with me. That way
you can’t hit on my sister when I’m not around.”
    “Cheers,” said
Matt, grinning, and clapped Chen on the back.
    They were
silent for a moment, sincere. But they were men of action, so the
moment of reflection was short indeed.
    They signalled
a short message to the Anomaly that they agreed to converse, and
then they waited. The Anomaly started to change colour slowly, a
rainbow palette spreading across its surface. It began to move
towards the station, spraying with an impossibly broad spectrum of
energy. It consumed the station and its crew quickly, drawing them
out of the solar system of their birth and deep into an abyss of
colours.
     

 
The Origami Dragon
    This story
begins with my brother spending my life savings on a remote control
helicopter. Don’t ask me how he got his hands on my money, or why I
couldn’t get it back, because that’s a story for another day. Let’s
just say he bought this helicopter, and take the story from
there.
    My brother