Harmonics: The Accidental Project

I walk into the conference room with the other volunteers. The room is rather large and very empty. I had been concerned about the two guards outside the door, but they did nothing. There were some people in the room already, and we are encouraged to sit near to eachother. This leaves a good portion of the table empty.

"We were really hoping for a few more volunteers," I chuckle lightly at that. I don’t recognize the woman speaking, I don’t really recognize anyone. aside from Erin, whom I only know as the first volunteer. I do think I recall the other woman from a picture somewhere, maybe she’s one of the important people here. People start introducing themselves and I listen intently.

The woman who had spoken up was Doctor Maggie Henson, head of the Harmonics emitter team. There was also a Doctor Alden Rowe, chief of medicine. Doctor Hermann fischer; he was in charge of a project I don’t remember hearing about, something called Project: Ascent. He sounded slightly australian, I wonder if his project is based in a foreign country. Would that mean that this Project: Harmonics is a world-wide effort. There is a short and thin man that appears to be in his middle ages, he identifies himself as Doctor Edwards. He doesn’t give afirst name, just Doctor Edwards. There is also a military observer by the name of Major Mitchell Morris.

"Have we all already introduced ourselves to each other? Yes? Good! Let's get right into it, then! First and foremost, did you all have a chance to go through your paperwork?" The man from the podium takes a seat at the head of the table and we all assure him we had.

"Good deal! First thing, then, is that we need you all to sign the confidentiality agreement. Basic non-disclosure, under penalty of treason, of any information that you may be told in here. Do any of you have any questions? No? Then sign away, my wonderful volunteers!" It sounds like standard top-secret stuff, but everyone looks nervous. I see the girl named Erin look at all the other volunteers and then at me, she notices that I’m the only on unfazed by this. I slide my paper over to the man at the head of the table cooly, the other volunteers all do the same. Truth be told, I’m just as nervous as the rest of them. I’ve just learned to hide mild nervousness really well, but only mild nervousness. If I’m confronted directly, I’m not so great at hiding.

"Good, now that that is out of the way, I have to say that we're going to be introducing you to some very radical concepts here. Not only the cybernetic implants, which I touched upon very briefly during the meeting, but some cutting-edge stuff that anyone out in the world today would tell you is nothing but science fiction.” I look back at all I know about this world, it already sounds exactly like science fiction.

"I have to warn you that there's no going back after this point. You can still refuse to participate, once you hear the offer. But if you decline, you will be kept separate from the rest of the personnel on-site. That's non-negotiable, I'm afraid. Your only contact will be with other people who have the same information that you do, at least until this particular project has run its course. Any who wish to leave may do so now, with no hard feelings, and go back to the scanner arrays." I’m fine with that, but it would seem one volunteer isn’t.

The woman makes her excuses and walks quickly out the door, the blushing was very obvious. A guard pops his head in the conference room, the man at the head of the table tells him she’s free to go. I’m actually not all that concerned about this, it helps to ensure that I’m kept in the facility.

"Ah, well, not as bad as I was expecting. Well, if the rest of you are very sure? Good! Then let's get into some of the data that we know." the man clicks a button and the lights dim. a screen at the back of the room lights up with a scene from the video earlier.

The man starts to explain about how they edited out some of the more spectacular things, but I already have an idea of what he’s talking about. I watch as a pony with a four leaf clover cutie-mark picks up some branches with magic. The man starts to equate their magic with telekinesis and I tune him out. I don’t want to correct him for fear of being caught, but I can’t stand hearing magic like that. My attention is caught by a picture of Twilight Sparkle reading while walking.

“Dang it, Twilight.” I snap to attention when I realize I said that out loud, I laugh nervously when the others look at me. I had been thinking about how Twilight had promised to stop reading while walking after the time she almost walked right into the street. This probably isn’t the same Twilight though.

"Obviously, the telekinesis presents a great unknown factor. This is one way in which this world is different than ours. Who knows how many others there may be?" I begin paying attention to the man as he continues.

"How do you get all these videos?" Erin asks in amazement.

"Ah, glad you asked! The drones that we sent over are very small, programmed to evade notice, and have simply the best cameras money can buy. They stay some distance outside of town, zooming in on whatever their programming takes a fancy to." the man replies.

"Sir," a volunteer that had introduced himself as Adam speaks up, "What's the significance of the tattoos on their hindquarters?"

"Ah, that, we honestly don't know. All of the adults have them. It seems to be some sort of ritualistic 'rite of passage' into adulthood kind of thing, but we're really not sure. We have cataloged a few of these, but there seems to be almost no correlation between the pony and the tattoo. Outside of the different types of pony, that is." I fight back the urge to correct anything and everything.

“What do you mean?” Erin asks. I tune out his explanation as best as I can, but I cringe as I hear about racial separation.

"So, basically, we want you to go and infiltrate pony society. Find out how things work there. Try the local food, so you can give the sensors we'll implant in your digestive tracts the ability to analyze the nutritional content of it. Mingle with the ponies, learn how the economy works, what the difference is between the classes of ponies besides the obvious. Find out how the government works, that kind of thing. Basically, just gather any and all information that you can, as quickly as you can." the man summarizes.

Adam laughs and I feel obliged to agree with his sentiments.

"And how are we supposed to do that? Just walk up to them and say, 'Hi there, little ponies, I'm an alien that wants to gather information about your world'? How would they even understand us? I doubt they speak English!" Adam says incredulously.

"That's one of the most amazing things," Dr. Velchiek replied, chuckling." One of the probes we managed to get across happened to pick up a brief conversation as a couple of ponies wandered by underneath it. Apparently, they speak perfect English. Honestly, I was still too shocked by the telekinesis to be much bothered about that, but it is, perhaps, the most astounding thing, I'm sure you'll agree. As for the other thing," the man clears his throat nervously, "you won't be aliens at all. We plan to... well, to turn you into ponies." there’s the catch, but I’m not bothered by it. I’ve been a pony before, it’s not so bad. There’s a long pause in the room as everyone tries to comprehend this.

“I’m sorry, what?” Erin says after a moment, she looks dumbfounded.

“Yes, into ponies. Dr. Fischer, if you could take over?” the man asks.

“Certainly, Paul.” Well, at least now I have a name for him. The screen changes to strange and mechanical looking grains of rice. or, at least, rice looking things.

"I work on Project Ascent. This project had one goal in mind. To figure out how to counter the Black Tide's nefarious little nanomachines with nanomachines under our own control. Unfortunately, their machines are much more advanced than ours, and simply consume them like they consume everything else. In any case, what you see here is the fruit of our labor. Each of these little pellets is invisible to the naked eye, smaller than a red blood cell, and yet has the ability to rearrange matter in much the same way that the Tide's own nanomachines can. Only, in this case, we can control it." The man explains.

"I'm done. No way that's going to work for me, sorry. This sounds way too 'mad scientist' to me." I don’t blame him, it does seem a bit crass. I can understand not wanting the same type of technology destroying your world on yourself.

“Very well,” Paul escorts the man to the door and whispers to the guards before returning. “And then there were three, please continue Dr. Fischer.”

"The procedure is perfectly safe, I assure you. We will turn you into ponies, of the plain variety, and give you what we hope will be an appropriate mark on your flanks." he continues after some thought.

"Why can't we be a winged pony? I'd like to be able to fly!" Erin says, she seems pretty sterling for the idea he’s describing.

"If you can tell us how they fly, and describe for us the anatomy of their wings," he said, "then indeed we'd be happy to make you over into a winged pony. As it is, though, we have no idea how to replicate the abilities of the horned and winged ponies that you see in our videos." maybe I should look into that, I’d like to be a unicorn again at some point.

"We can do this, we assure you. We've already done significant animal testing, and we believe we have the flaws worked out." Dr. Fischer continues.

"And you have my personal word, that you will be turned back at the first opportunity when you return from Ponyworld. And, just to sweeten the pot, if helping to save the world isn't enough, I will personally guarantee that you will be compensated well enough that you will never have to work again. Also, you will be heroes the world over, once this is all said and done. So, what do you say?" Paul promises

"Where did this technology come from? I've never heard of anything like this, ever. This seems like it's years beyond anything we're capable of." Adam says. Dr. Fischer looks uncomfortable but continues with the go-ahead from Paul.

"We... have studied the nanomachines of the Tide. we were able to retrieve some damaged ones and figure out some of the properties by which they work. Our own nanomachines were built using that knowledge." Dr. Fischer confesses. When I said the technology that is destroying your world, I meant nanomachines in general. I didn’t think it was literally Black Tide technology.

"So, you're saying you're planning on using technology inspired by the Black Tide to turn us into ponies," Adam deadpans. I roll my eyes at the simultaneous confirmation. They actually expected more volunteers?

“Then I also have to say 'no', sorry. I agree with Richard, this is just too crazy. Sorry, you two. Looks like it's down to you." I can’t be the only one to go. they need someone focused on actually saving their earth. I could get too caught up in dimensional travel and research to actually find anything of value. I won’t ask enough questions, I already know enough about the place! I can’t let my decision influence hers, not in a negative way at least…

“And then there were two, what do you say… Erin was it? And you, what’s your name?” Paul asks me.

“Skylar,” I answer simply.

“Well then Skylar and Erin, The fate of the world rests in your hands. No, the fate of two worlds. Ours, and theirs. Because I guarantee you, whether or not we gather the intel we need, humanity is moving into Ponyworld in about eight month's time. We already have emitter stations going up all over the world in preparation for the event. We plan on doing this as diplomatically as possible, but the survival of the human race has to take precedence. The information you gather could make that transition so much easier on both species. Will you do it?" Paul explains, I remember that I have to encourage acceptance.

“Sir, I…” I hear Erin start, “can I sleep on it?” she says.

“It’s sounding like a no, but I think I need to sleep on it as well,” a little trickery can’t harm much.

The man agrees and escorts us to the doorway. The other people went their own ways, a guard even came back. Paul escorts us to specially prepared dorms. he was monologuing about something, but I wasn’t really listening to any of it.

"Well, here you are, my dears. I really hope you take us up on this opportunity. You'll be doing everyone a lot of good, if you agree." Paul leaves after that. The two of us enter the doorway, we come across a large sitting area with several massive screens. the central area has various places to sit and bookshelves lining the walls. Off to one side I see a bar and kitchen area, the two boys who had declined look up at us.

"Well, that didn't take long, I didn't think anyone would go for that. It's just too crazy!" Adam comments.

“Actually, we haven’t made up our minds, yet.” Erin says.

"You have got to be kidding! They want to break your body down and recreate it! Recreate it as a stupid horse! Using technology inspired by the Black Tide! How can you even consider that?" the way he worded that offends me, stupid horse?! I smartly keep my mouth shut and let Erin do the talking.

“Because a lot of lives are at stake, that’s how!” Erin snaps.

"Don't be stupid, nobody is going to die. We've got a world to move into. Getting information is pointless, we're going in whether or not those ponies like it. And if they fight us, well... we're not exactly leaving any of our military hardware behind, are we? I doubt those winged ponies can out-fly a jet!" This guy’s view is almost enough for me to scream at him for his stupidity, but he might be helping me. Erin might not need persuasion at this point.

Erin turns around abruptly and I follow her over to the door we just came in. we walk over and she opens it up, one of the guards attempts to stop us.

“Sorry, ma’am, but you can’t leave-” Erin cuts him off.

“Please send for Dr. Velchiek, Tell him I’ve made up my mind. Tell him… Tell him I’ll do it.” She takes a deep breath before finishing her last sentence. Now I have a name for the man other than just Paul. Paul Velchiek. Doctor Paul Velchiek, I like the sound of that.

“Tell him, we’ll do it,” I add with a cheeky grin. Erin looks at me in slight shock.