The Quantum Connection

We will remedy that soon then. Just not right this second, okay? 

I understand, Steven. 

'Ah, yes, but all he has to do is download the information for you from the Universum Indicium Tela,' one of the other Grays said.

'Universum Indicium Tela?' Tabitha asked.

'It sounds like Latin, Tabitha,' Anson interrupted. 'If it is it means something like the whole world or universe, information or data, and weave or web that is weaved. He is saying the Universal Information Web or World Wide Web!'

'Latin?' Tabitha asked. Nobody responded.

'The Infrastructure?' I asked. 'We decided not to let Mike access the Infrastructure to keep you from tracking us,' I said.

'A wise decision, I suppose,' a royal Gray said.

'I agree with you, Yiaepetoes. Perhaps these primitives are more advanced than we think. It appears that they even understand the existence of the UIT.'

I found the parallels intriguing. The YIT or Universal Indicium Tela (U is a Y in latin, I, T) is very similar to us saying WWW for World Wide Web—very interesting. Then Tabitha's comment hit me—why Latin?

'Enough small talk. What is the Himbroozya and where is Tatiana?' I said.

'The Himbroozya is a technological picophage designed by Tentalos for Opolawn. He infected the human race with it more than six thousand of your years ago. As far as your friend is concerned, I do not know of her location or how we can help her,' Prawmitoos answered.

'A picophage?' Jim asked. 'What does it do and why did he infect humanity with it? And who the hell is Opolawn to us?'

'And for that matter,' 'Becca added, 'why are y'all so damned afraid of this Himbroozya that you have to disintegrate someone infected with it as soon as you meet them?'

'The Gray bastards are afraid of this Himbroozya and can't cure it. I bet that's why there's a quarantine around the isolatees,' Anson pointed out.

'You understand quite well, human,' Prawmitoos replied.

'Wait a minute,' Tabitha interrupted. 'Why Latin?'

'It is not Latin, human. It is Teytoonise. You will find most of your ancient languages have a root in Teytoonise. A side-effect phenomenon we have yet to understand about the Himbroozya is that those species infected with it evolve Teytoonise language and concept parallels,' Atalas replied.

'Well then, what does this Himbroozya do?' I asked.

'It causes a species to be immortal, not an individual. The species is immortal because it drives them to perpetuate. But, more than that it, drives the infected species beyond its abilities and causes it to develop new methods of warfare and means for destruction—which the Lumpeyins might then use against us. We also have intelligence that suggests that Opolawn himself can control individuals infected by it across vast distances of space via the YIT. Opolawn left the picophage behind to infect humanity as he knew it was deep within our controlled space. We warred with the Lumpeyins and forced them from some of our space but they took some as well. We then reached a very uneasy and false peace. But before the truce required them to leave certain regions of our space, they managed to leave behind this menace on many planets,' Feyibi explained.

'And these planets would be ones where individuals infected by this phage are denied access to your YIT, I suspect?' Anson said.

'Yes, that is correct,' Prawmitoos said.

'Is there a cure for this picophage? Why can't the nanomachines eat it?' Tabitha asked.

'Tab, my guess is that this picophage is just that, a picometer phage. That would be three orders of magnitude smaller than the nanomachines and would be undetectable by them,' Anson replied.

'You are quite correct.' The royal Gray furrowed its head and wrinkled the coloration there. It didn't seem happy that we understood their plight.

'Then there is no cure for this picophage?' 'Becca asked.

'No cure that we have been able to discover. This is why we have drones live in your solar system and conduct experiments on your species. They are trying to develop a cure for this technological disease. Unfortunately, they have yet to discover one. They are motivated, as they are exposed to the phage and cannot return unless they find a cure. We have sent our best scientist drones.'

'Yes, I bet you did. All the way to the Russian front, mein Fuehrer!' Tabitha said.

'Wait a minute.' I thought about their actions seeming a bit megalomaniacal and not with any good intent, or at least none that I could perceive. 'You could care less about us, isn't that right? You are experimenting on us to find a cure for yourselves. That is why you stay hidden away so. You are afraid of these Lumpeyins, aren't you? And what happens if we become aware or a threat?' I knew the answer. The bastards would wipe us out.

The Teytoonis didn't answer immediately. In fact they seemed to all have facial twitches. They were conferring over their headbands. I almost decided to grab one of them and connect to his circuit, but I thought better of it.

'Okay, so why can't you help Tatiana?'

'There is no escape from the collapsing quantum singularity that she has been placed in. Her use of the warp field to delay her fate was clever, but it will not save her in the end and is only delaying the inevitable. Even if we