‘Okay, so you produce the trihadronite and build a bomb, then what happens… you just strap it to the solar probe?’
‘Daniel, Daniel… ‘Don’t you think I’ve thought all this through? We use the same technique. While I’m working at CERN producing the trihadronite, the Gatekeeper… Orion, is going to infiltrate the NASA design team. We’ll redesign the probe to carry six, rather than the published, five experiments. It’ll be a top secret military experiment, our experiment… a trihadronite bomb.’ Anubis opened the journal and showed Daniel the diagram depicting the probe’s interior. There were only five experiment bays and no mention of any military involvement.
‘This is all clever stuff, but remember… Abraxas is coming!’
‘We’ve got more than enough time! The probe is scheduled to launch in three years, that’s less than a day on Creation. Knowing Hedrick, they’re all just sitting around perusing audit reports. This solar system is going to experience its second Big Bang. The Big Bang that’s going to blast us out of here.’
‘But there’s still one factor you haven’t taken into account.’
‘And what might that be?’
‘You’re not going anywhere without the encryption key!’
‘It works both ways, Daniel. You won’t be going anywhere either. That bitch Amy’s probably forgotten about you already. She’ll be fucking some other technician by now.’
Daniel stood to face-up to Anubis when a door slammed behind him. He turned to see Orion walking towards them wearing a white lab coat, face mask, safety glasses and latex gloves. He was carrying a small glass vial and a narrow length of curling paper which resembled a cash register receipt. ‘It’s negative again.’ Orion said to Anubis, waving the printout as he approached.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Definitely!’ He pulled down his face mask and sighed, ‘The samples Tanka brought in this morning are all negative.’
‘Shit!’ Anubis cursed as he took the printout.
‘What’s up?’ Daniel asked.
‘The DNA experiments… they just keep failing.’
‘What are you trying to do?’
‘I’ve been trying to insert our DNA into the human genome.’
‘Why?’
‘If we could regain biological control, it would compensate for the changes I made to the drone code. But their immune system is too strong… it keeps rejecting the merged cells.’
The angel Haamiah was furious. And, although she had left Amy’s presentation displaying a calm exterior, inside she was like a volcano about to erupt. ‘This situation is completely unacceptable!’ she ranted. ‘And why Those-On-High are delaying the inevitable is totally beyond us. We are extremely vexed.’
‘We agree! Director Hedrick should not get involved with our business. It is time to put an end to his meddling.’ Rampel was trying to second-guess Haamiah’s intentions.
‘No!’ Haamiah’s presence started to expand until she dwarfed the other angels. ‘We will not criticise Director Hedrick! He has been deceived as much as we have. I tried to explain why Lucifer had been banished to Creation, but the information overwhelmed him.’
‘So… why are Those-on-High being so lenient?’ Abraxas asked.
‘Because, there must be other Heavenly bodies involved whose purpose we do not understand.’ Haamiah was slowly deflating as she spoke.
‘It must be the poltergeists!’ Abraxas said, ‘We have already had to purge one of them from Creation.’
‘YES! It’s the poltergeists! We must eradicate them… Now!’
Haamiah turned on Rampel and held up her hand, ‘No! There’s a more subtle way of handling this. If we were to send the extraction wave now, it would not reach Earth for twenty-four hours… so technically… we would not have broken our agreement.’
‘Excellent!’ Rampel replied excitedly.
In another dimension the Prima-Ghosta was debating Director Hedrick’s request, ‘This is an extremely delicate situation we find ourselves in. Guiding the Technician Daniel back to Creation will almost certainly conflict with the wishes of the angel Haamiah.’ The Prima-Ghosta smiled inwardly, 'Can you imagine how incandescent she will be when she realizes it was the ghosts who rescued this creationist?’
‘Maybe so, but what happens if things go wrong? Remember it was creationists who made us redundant, convincing Those-On-High that drone technology was superior.’
Before the Prima-Ghosta could reply a younger ghost joined in the argument, ‘I agree. What has Director Hedrick ever done for us?’
‘Everything!’ the Prima-Ghosta snapped, ‘If Haamiah had had her way, she would have extracted our dimension millennia ago. It was Director Hedrick who convinced Those-On-High that the ghosts still warranted a place in Heaven. So, like it or not, we will locate Technician Daniel, and guide him safely back to Creation.
22
Usha’s Return
Usha returned within picoseconds of her scheduled arrival. Jessian was waiting in the control room, anxious to collect the drone’s flight data. ‘Which universe are you interested in?’ The launch platform coordinator asked, as he typed his password into the workstation.
‘5781256669,’ Jessian rattled off impatiently, glancing at the scrap of paper she was holding.’
‘Slow down, miss. My old fingers can’t type as fast as they used to. Right, you want universe 5, 7, 8, 1, 2, 5, 6, 6, 6, 9. Is that correct?’
‘Yes. But can you hurry? It’s very urgent.’
‘Look, miss, badgering me isn’t going to get things done any quicker. Now, which galaxy were you interested in?’
‘4567890123,’ Jessian said, this time waiting for the coordinator to enter each digit before moving on.
‘You see… that was much easier.’ As he spoke the progress bar slowly filled from left to right at what seemed a glacial pace. Jessian reached down as the memory cartridge ejected itself from the front of the workstation. ‘Not so fast, miss. We can’t have people running off with drone data before it’s been booked out. The coordinator then sedately wrote the details into his log, before printing a small label which he meticulously positioned on the side of the cartridge. Happy with the finished article, he slid the memory cartridge sedately into its case and snapped it closed. Then, looking up, handed it to Jessian.
‘Thanks a lot.’ she said, snatching the case from his hand and running from the room.
Mohammed and Ravi were examining Anubis’ drone as Jessian skated into the workshop. ‘I’ve got it. I’ve got Usha’s data,’ she shouted excitedly, running to the digital workstation. She pushed Amy aside and inserted the cartridge. The screen flickered and a file transfer bar appeared. Before the bar had filled, Mohammed and Ravi were standing behind her, peering over Amy’s shoulder. ‘I asked the drone team to include Daniel’s essence signature in the mission plan. If he’s on the planet, he’ll show up in the data,’ she said, typing furiously into keyboard.
Jessian’s claws tapped impatiently on the desk as they waited. The first match was for planet 4567890973, she pressed the Search key again. It took several attempts before the listing for planet 4567890123 was displayed. ‘Bring it up!’ Amy instructed excitedly. Jessian pressed the Activate key and an image of the planet appeared on the screen with a small, flashing red dot, to one side of its disk. ‘Zoom in, zoom in!’ Jessian tapped the Zoom-in key as fast as she could. As the image grew, it gave the impression of falling towards the planet’s surface. Soon, land features could be seen. ‘More, more!’ Amy cried impatiently. The descent accelerated; land masses became features, features became objects, objects became molecules, which then expanded to reveal their atoms. ‘Stop, stop! You’ve gone too far.’
Jessian slowly tapped the Zoom-out key. The atoms shrank back into their molecules, which disappeared into the cells of some form of organic life. Soon the surface of the skin was broken, the bristling hairs resembling the trunks of trees growing in a dense forest. As though rising in a hot-air balloon, the view shrank away, until M
o reached out and grasped Jessian’s wrist, ‘Stop there.’
In the centre of the screen was a group of bipedal life forms, standing in what looked like a narrow plaza lined with buildings. Superimposed on the group were flashing yellow labels, displaying their essence identification tags, Anubis-37, Daniel-42 and Tanka-87. ‘Who’s Tanka?’ Mo asked.
‘He’s the archivist at the Grand Depository,’ Amy said, as she repositioned the cursor over the creature tagged as Daniel-42.
Jessian tapped the Zoom-in key until its face filled the screen, ‘Ugh… what a hideous creature! It hasn’t got any fur, or a snout. It makes you feel queasy just looking at it,’ she said.
‘Daniel,’ Amy said, pushing Jessian to one side, ‘there you are.’ She leant forward until the end of her muzzle almost touched the screen and whispered, ‘I’m coming to get you, I won’t be long.’ She kissed the image and turned to look up at Mo, ‘What are we waiting for? Let’s go and get him!’
The group sprang into action, collecting together what they needed to activate Anubis’ drone. Jessian ejected the memory cartridge and slid it into the pocket of her overalls while Amy collected together the printouts and any other paperwork she thought might be needed. Mo went to the workbench and started throwing various tools into his toolbox, then got down on his knees and, crawling under the drone, disconnected its umbilical cable. Amy reached out her hand to pull him to his feet, ‘We’ll go ahead and open the chamber doors. You and Ravi bring the drone.’
Fifteen minutes later, Amy was standing in the pressure chamber watching Ravi make final adjustments to the drone. She glanced up at the observation window and nervously smiled at Jessian, who was double-checking the destination coordinates with Mo. Amy jumped as the klaxon sounded, and turned to watch the chamber’s door slowly close. The red mission light started to flash. Ravi grabbed Amy’s hand and towed her to the drone, ‘It’s okay, Amy, nothing will go wrong.’ They climbed into adjacent seats. Ravi unhooked the control panel and held it so Amy could see the display, ‘Look, we’ve got the exact coordinates Anubis used. In a couple of minutes, we’ll be there too.’ He pressed the red button. Instantly the Launch Platform was filled with the sound of hissing air as the chamber was evacuated. Amy felt the air being sucked out of her lungs and, failing to control her panic, grabbed Ravi’s arm. Inside the drone a relay clicked and Amy could breathe again, her whole body immersed in purple light. There was a tug on her arm as she drifted away from Ravi. Tightening her grip, she pulled herself back into her seat. Ravi was intently studying the control panel, building up the courage to press the blue button. Then, squeezing her hand, he took a deep breath, and pressed it.
Mo was almost hysterical. He stood, beating his fist against the observation room window, screaming into the Launch Platform intercom, ‘NO! No! Not yet.’ Jessian had cupped her hands over her muzzle in horror and disbelief, as she saw the lifeless bodies slump into their seats. ‘That stupid idiot!’ Mo cursed, writing down the Launch Platform settings before he forgot them. Both Mo and Jessian had realized simultaneously that Ravi had not adjusted the coordinates to compensate for the time difference between the drone launches.
‘What will happen to them?’ she asked.
Mo didn’t answer. He was too busy making calculations on the back of a printout. He let out a sigh of exasperation and scribbled through his workings. ‘It’s too complicated. There are too many variables. I need a workstation. Come on, back to my lab.’
‘We can’t just leave them! We need to get their bodies on life support. ’
‘Press the emergency alarm, that’ll call the medics,’ Mo shouted as he ran out of the room.
Jessian punched the red alarm button by the door as she ran after him, her ears ringing as the emergency siren started to scream. ‘Mo, tell me. What’s going to happen to them?’ she shouted.
‘The universe is expanding. By now the coordinates Anubis used will have moved. They could arrive anywhere; in the middle of a planet, in empty space, anywhere!’
As they entered the lab, Mo went straight to his workstation, telling Jessian to shut the door. The noise level dropped to a hum. ‘This is going to be a nightmare. The planet is orbiting its star, the star is moving within its galaxy, the galaxy is being pulled by others in the cluster, and everything is accelerating away from the Big Bang. Then, there’s the effect of Dark Matter, plus we need to know the expansion coefficient that was used.’
‘How long’s it gonna to take?’ Jessian asked.
‘My workstation isn’t one of the fastest. I’ve been asking my director for a processor upgrade for months. But he always gives me the same old answer, there’s no allocation for new worksta-.’
‘MO! How long?’
‘I don’t know… a few minutes.’ As he spoke, he was carefully keying in the figures he had noted down in the Observation Room.
As the months turned into years, Daniel’s guilt grew. What he originally thought would be a distraction for Anubis until he was rescued was becoming a reality, a reality that would bring forward the planet’s destruction by billions of years. It seemed incredible that such a trivial act as purchasing a magazine could result in the untimely end of humanity.
As a senior engineer at Universe Seeding, Daniel was familiar with most aspects of planetary drone design. And so, Anubis had given him the task of designing the energy absorbing antennas which would activate the drone as the Sun imploded. He dragged the work out as much as possible, hoping to give Abraxas sufficient time to locate them. But his delaying tactics led to confrontation, with Anubis becoming increasingly suspicious as to Daniel’s motives.
That afternoon, Daniel and Tanka had assembled a prototype antenna for Anubis to test the following day. Not having a star to implode, the only element that could be fully tested was the drone interface, with Anubis meticulously checking every aspect of Daniel’s design.
Having washed the mugs and dishes and, tidied up the kitchen, Tanka and Daniel walked back to the pub. As they entered the bar, Sally was wiping down the tables and rearranging the chairs. She looked up and scowled at her mother, ‘I thought you were coming back at lunchtime, Mum. It was really busy. I was rushed off my feet!’
‘Sorry, Sal. But Daniel needed my help, I tried to call, but I couldn’t get a signal.’ Tanka reached behind the bar and took Daniel’s room key from its hook, ‘Dinner’s at seven. It’s your favourite, roast pork, with crispy crackling.’
‘Fantastic! I’m famished.’
After locking the door, Daniel sat on the edge of the bed, contemplating Anubis’ escape plan. Again, trying to negate his guilt, he reasoned that, as Earth’s destruction would be an inevitable consequence of harvesting the Dark Matter, would it be such a big deal if Anubis brought that day forward by a few million years? He sat staring into the dressing table mirror, feeling no empathy for the creature looking back at him.
His tired eyes were giving him double vision. He blinked, there were still two images. Approaching the mirror, he realized that only one of the images was moving. He blinked again, this time looking more carefully; there was definitely a second image standing in the shadow of the wardrobe. Daniel spun around and found himself facing a translucent, humanoid figure. Taking a step back, he waited for the entity to speak, but it remained silent. ‘Who sent you? Why are you here?’ he barked.
The figure coalesced into an almost perfect interpretation of Mrs. Perkins. But as it spoke, the voice was unfamiliar, ‘We have been sent by the Prima-Ghosta at the behest of Director Hedrick.’
‘We? There are more of you?’
The entity ignored Daniel’s question, ‘I have been instructed to guide you back to Creation.’
‘Ghosts can’t interact with the physical world,’ Daniel scoffed, not convinced about his visitor’s credentials.
‘That may be true. But remember, ghosts are omnitemporal. I can see the outcome of every action you plan to take, even before it has happened. So do not dismiss me so quickly, Daniel. Use me wise
ly and I will guide you back to Creation.’
Daniel realised that this entity was his only link to Creation, his only link to those who could actually help him escape. ‘I appreciate your presence, please thank your Prima-Ghosta for me.’ Mrs Perkins’ translucent white face cracked into a smile. ‘So, if we’re going to work together, what do I call you?’ Daniel asked.
‘Why is it that solid entities have a need to name everything?’
‘It’s how our solid minds work.’
The ghost stood and thought for a moment, ‘I think the Ghost of Mrs. Perkins would be appropriate.’
‘Can’t you think of something shorter? Amy named the poltergeist that came with us, Orion-’ Before Daniel could finish the sentence the ghost had vanished, leaving him standing in the bedroom talking to himself.
He spent the next twenty minutes soaking in the bath, mulling over various escape options, all of which seemed to revolve around sacrificing the planet and all life on it. He dried and dressed himself then, laying on the bed, watching the Evening News Report on the TV. The day’s events seemed to comprise a litany of self-inflicted tragedy. The male newsreader told of an aircraft, packed with tourists, which had crashed while attempting to land after being hijacked by a terrorist. His female colleague then described how children were starving to death in what looked like an arid, sand covered park. She continued to describe how their villages had been destroyed by soldiers claiming to be liberating them. It went on and on, disaster after disaster, until Daniel virtually lost interest. Anubis was right; removing this planet would be a saving grace. Think how much future suffering would be avoided.
At precisely seven o’clock Daniel entered the bar. Sally was sitting by the fire staring down at her mobile phone. Hearing the latch click, she jumped up and skipped across the bar to meet him, ‘Mum’s waiting for you in the snug,’ she said, pointing at the narrow doorway next to the bar. She stood gazing into Daniel’s eyes, then, stepping aside to let him pass, brushed her breast against his arm.
Creation- The Auditor’s Apprentice Page 19