“That is where the Capitol building is anchored in this world. When you ripped open the veil between Atlantis and Earth, you did so too quickly. The rift you made is still open, held open the same way time tears you go into on quest stay open. Now, the rift is slowly growing bigger. The only difference, is anyone can go through it from either direction. Left alone, both Atlantis and Earth shall equalize, but Aerth shall be obliterated in the process. EVE has calculated all the possible outcomes and that is what she has decided will happen under every circumstance if Earth has any hope of surviving.
“I have people altering the video feed the satellites show, to hide our existence, and more yet slowing the speed at which the rift grows. But that is only a Band-Aid. Soon this world and Atlantis will come crashing together. To prevent that, EVE has already set in motion its own plan, to sacrifice Aerth to close the tear. Her programming is such that she prioritizes Atlantis’ survival above everything else.
“Now, I will be honest, I can get my people to reprogram her to an extent. But only so much that she believes Aerth is Earth and Earth is Aerth. In essence this will rip asunder the veil between Atlantis and Aerth, combining them into one world, but destroy Earth in the process.”
He watched Kimberly’s eyes widen as the full import of what he was saying hit her. He was offering to save Earth at the cost of Aerth, or save Aerth at the cost of Earth. “Can’t we send people through to the other world to save them?”
Jeremy shook his head. “Unfortunately that is not possible. We could migrate some in this way, but the strain of moving too many would be disastrous. If we transfer them from Aerth to Earth, they will lose their magic. That means any magical creatures, such as centaurs, fairies, and dragons, will die. Creatures who rely on magic but are also partially human, such as trolls, giants, and to an extent even dwarves and elves, will also eventually waste away or be captured for experimentation. As for Earth, well, not many people can deal with the truth of the other worlds. Or survive the transition for that matter.”
“So you are saying if I return with you, the tear will close itself?”
“Not exactly. Balance has to be found still. Your returning will close the rift, but the damage already done will need to be fixed.”
“What damage? Nothing seems wrong to me.”
Jeremy touched his black box, altering the screen once more to hospital security cameras trained on a nursery. Pictures of premature births and deformed children filled the screen. Another satellite picture displayed the upper half of a dragon in the middle of a forest.
“Thousands of hospitals are experiencing the same phenomenon. Humans as you know it have largely evolved out of magic. There are still a few exceptions, but even they only carry the latent gene within them. Humans of your world are just not built to house magical energy anymore. As such, having large influxes of such energy creates aberrations such as these children. Right now, it might only be a small four percent of the world population, but soon, every child born shall look like this. In an attempt to alleviate some of the stress, new hiccups and rifts are appearing on Aerth at a rapid rate. The world trying its best to send that magic back where it came from. The magical creatures are going crazy as the world they live on thrashes in pain. They get caught by the tears and find themselves here on earth, whole if they are lucky, only to die soon after.”
“How will such a thing be fixed?”
Jeremy shrugged. “I do not know. Perhaps a city on Aerth will be wiped out, causing thousands to die. Perhaps a massive terraforming of the planet. Or perhaps all the magic that is draining out of Aerth while the rift is open will be lost forever, which in turn will weaken or even kill many creatures that rely on it.
“What-- what’s the Due Date? I mean I know this isn’t a regular rift where we need to straighten out the timeline, but there is a point of no return right? A point when it will be impossible to close the tear, or to avert EVE from enacting her plan.”
“One more week.”
Jeremy pocketed the black box once more, giving Kimberly a small bow before heading towards the door. “I will leave you to reflect on your decision. Know that I will always be nearby, so if you wish to speak with me, just call out my name.”
With that Jeremy exited into the hall and activated his camouflage once more, his feet moving towards the stairs.
Prince’s condescending voice wafted from the left. “You should have just told her to come back with you instead of giving her time to mull it over.”
“True, but her rift power is much like mine. It draws it’s energy from intent and desire. If her desires are not strong enough, going back to Atlantis will not close the rift. It is tied to her, opened by her desire to see her mother once more and held open by that same desire. Killing Valerie is not guaranteed to sever that link, so I would rather save such an action for a last resort. If Kimberly decides of her own free will, to return, our chances of saving all three worlds is much greater.”
“You could just allow Aerth to die and let Atlantis merge with Earth. That would solve all our problems. I don’t die, and new blood can be introduced into Atlantis like you want.”
“Even I could not live with myself if I were to allow one world or the other to get destroyed.”
“Do you think she will really choose to return?”
“Oh yes. I have no doubt as to what she will decide. Even if her brain hadn’t been rewired and programmed as it was.”
“Why? Because she is your daughter?”
“No, because she is Kimberly Changa.”
Chapter 37: Resolution and Resolve
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to school today, sweetie?”
“Yeah mom. I’m not feeling all that well so I think I’ll just rest today.”
“Okay. I’ll be in the living room if you need me. Mrs. Wurther asked me to do some embroidery work for her. It won’t pay much, but at least it’s something.”
“Okay.”
The door closed, leaving Kimberly alone once more. Leaning back in her desk chair, Kimi stared at the ceiling. She badly wanted to tell her mother the truth, but she had made J a promise. Even if she hadn’t, she knew the truth would make her sound crazy. Falling forward, Kimi let her head rest on the cool wood.
What was wrong with her? She should be happy to be home, and she was. But she missed Aerth too. She missed talking with Bree, Jasmine and Isabelle. They had quickly become close friends. Compared to the girls here, they were more real, more open and honest. Even Amy had become important to her.
Kimi pulled open the center drawer of her desk, taking out the six inch dagger, vial of mage sweat, and the small bag that still housed her Map. Once more Kimi tried expanding the bag, but as always, it remained the size of her palm. She wondered how the Grand Quest was going. Had it been resolved already? Had her friends survived? What about Joel, Grell, and Jordon? They were probably worried about her too. J had said people couldn’t be evacuated from one world to another, but what about just one person? If Kimi could get her mother over to Aerth, that would be perfect. She would have no problems going back through the rift and never looking back.
But was her mother one of the ones who could survive the trip?
J had said not many could. Kimi had survived, so didn’t that mean there was a high chance her mother could too? Was it some sort of genetic thing? Much of Atlantis seemed to run on genetics, so wouldn’t the barriers the ancient Atlantians and mages erected also rely on those things? She just didn’t know. But she did know someone who would.
“J, if you can hear me like you say you can, I want to talk.”
The room was silent. Kimberly wasn’t sure what she had expected really. Unless he was in the room with her, he still needed to travel from wherever he was. With his advanced Atlantian technology, she had no doubt he could hear her from far away, either with some sort of bug or other listening device. For all she knew he had a machine that could read her thoughts.
A light tapping on her window caused
her to jump. When she investigated, she saw J stood on the wall outside as if it were the ground. Quickly she opened the window to let him in, receiving a thanks in return.
“Gravitational alteration devices are great, too bad they interfere with the camouflage cloaks. Thank you for letting me in so quickly, I doubt you would want anyone to see a man standing on the wall outside your window. I’d have come in through the front door, but I would rather not put your mother to sleep too often. I’m not sure what affect our Atlantian drugs might have on her. So, you wished to talk?”
“Right& gravitational alteration devices, of course you would have something like that. You know what, it doesn’t matter. Yes I’d like you to answer some questions for me.”
Jeremy leaned against the wall next to the door with a tip of his head. “If I can, I will be more than happy to.”
“First off, would my mother be able to go with us? Through the rift I mean.”
J pulled out his strange black box one more time, a keyboard appearing with a swipe of his finger along its side. Kimberly wasn’t sure what he was typing exactly, but she could hear the faint whirling of the machine once he was done. Without a word he cracked the door open holding the box out towards the hall. Kimi saw a blue light scan the area before he pulled it back inside. As the box hummed yet again, J held the box up with a smile.
“Portable EVE, never leave your dimension without it. Not as comprehensive as the original, and much slower too. Still, it has a direct link with the main servers and more than sufficient for the low grade technology of this era. It can’t answer complicated questions, but you don’t need a Seer to understand the answer either.”
The box went silent, Kimi held her breath as J looked down at the face of the box.
“EVE says yes. Remember though that is just a general answer. That isn’t giving the chance of failure or complications. The true answer might be a ninety percent chance of success and ten percent of failure. This just condensed that down into a yes or no answer we could understand. She also says your mother would have to be the only one. The tear can’t withstand too much extra stress.”
“That’s fine. If you live your life acting only on the numbers and the percentages, how is that any kind of life? There is always a chance of failure in everything, You said EVE was a supercomputer with amazing computational skills. If she says my mother will make it, even factoring in the odds of failure, than that is good enough for me.”
“As you say. I merely wished to point out the limitations of EVA here to you. Now, the question becomes, how will you explain this to your mother to get her to agree?”
“Could you help with that?”
“I’d rather not in all honesty. Humans of this era are not supposed to know of our existence. Just because EVA says she will survive the trip, does not mean she will wish to come with you. If she refuses and I have revealed myself, that will create complications.”
“Can’t you just-- wipe her mind or something if she doesn’t agree? I know you have the ability to do that.”
“You would not mind?”
“No. I have to try to make her come with me, she’s the only family I have.”
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“You did not say you had to convince her to come because you love her. So than, are you trying to save her out of obligation because of that connection as family and not because you really care about her?”
“No! I love her because she is family, don’t you understand that?”
“No. All I have left is my sense of duty and survival.”
“Don’t you love your wife?”
“Sometimes I wonder about that myself. I am grateful for her, and I care for her, but I am not sure if what I feel for her is love. Marrion understands this and accepts it.”
J shook his head as if to banish his thoughts. “But that is neither here nor there. I am not here to discuss my life. I am here to save the lives of many others.”
J suddenly shimmered and disappeared. If Kimi looked closely she could see his outline faintly. Seconds after he hid himself, the door opened and Kimi’s mom popped her head inside.
“Is everything all right dear? I thought I heard voices.”
Kimberly shifted her eyes from her mother to J still standing hidden inches from her mother’s face, and back again. With a deep breath she decided to plunge right in.
“Mom, can I talk to you for a moment?”
“Of course, sweetie.”
Kimi’s mother entered the room and took a seat on the edge of the bed. Swiveling her chair around, Kimberly drew confidence from having the solid desk at her back. Kimi felt foolish telling her mother everything that had happened to her so far. Even though it was the truth, she knew it sounded like a strange dream. Her words were halting at first, but her mother sat and listened without saying anything. Kimberly told her everything she could remember, about Due Dates, about the balance of the three worlds, about the people she had met and the adventures she had gone on. And finally, about the danger Earth was in because she had ripped the barrier to come home.
“Now, the only way to close it is if I go back through. I’m told I can take you with me and you will survive the transition. But, we will probably never be able to come back. So I want you to come with me. We will just get away from all of this. Start a new life. You won’t have to work fifteen hours or more a day to make ends meet, or have men over to pay the bills. Aerth might not be as technologically advanced as Earth, but it isn’t bad.”
When her mother smiled, Kimberly knew she thought the story complete fiction. Her mother always had that smile when Kimberly spoke of things she didn’t understand. That smile that said she was humoring her daughter.
“Maybe we should take you back to the doctors. Remember what they said? That it wouldn’t be uncommon for your mind to fill in the blanks as a way to cope. Perhaps another check-up is in order, just to make sure there is no lasting affects from wherever you were for a month.”
Kimberly let out a sigh of frustration. She wasn’t sure why she thought her mother would believe her that easily. “J, a little help please? I understand the risks, and I’ll accept them.”
“Even if they are not favorable to what you desire?”
J faded into visibility from his position next to the door. It looked like he hadn’t moved a muscle the entire time. Her mother’s eyes went wide while her jaw dropped.
“Yes, even if they aren’t favorable.”
“Very well.”
As Kimi’s mother inhaled a deep breath to scream, J glided forward and placed a single finger over her lips. Leaning in close he stared deep into her eyes with an open smile that spread slowly across his lips. Incredibly, this calmed her mother down and stopped her from freaking out over his sudden appearance. His finger moved from her lip, only long enough to cup her cheek in his palm.
“Do not be afraid Valerie, I mean you no harm. While fantastic, all your daughter says is true. I come from Atlantis. I am one of the Sages who lead the city. Do not let your mind be clouded by the limited knowledge you know and understand. Be open to the possibilities laid out before you. Do you not find it strange that while your daughter professed ignorance of the places she had been, she still retained her mental faculties? In any amnesia victims, rarely is only certain memories lost. While it is true there is selective amnesia which does just that, even than there is loss at the fringes of the mind.
“I am sure you have seen the small changes in your daughter too. The way she sometimes seems to be someone else for the briefest of moments. The way she no longer needs to wear glasses. The way she is more confident and assertive, with an air of maturity about her. Did you not think to question this? Did you not stop to wonder what she could have done in so short a period of time to bring about these changes? Kidnapping, alien abduction, running away from home-- or whatever other story you might come up with-- do any of them explain all these things? She is your daughter is she not? Can you not tel
l when your daughter is speaking truth? Her story fit’s the product she has become. Now, tell me true, do you think she is lying?”
J finally broke eye contact, his soft, soothing voice and presence retreating as he took his hand away and stepped back. Her mother seemed dazed, as if she wasn’t quite sure how to react now that he had broken eye contact. She blinked rapidly, finally looking between Kimi and J.
“I-- I don’t want to believe she is lying to me. Kimi-- Kimi is a good girl. I’ve never known her to lie too often. You’re right. I have seen the changes. But I didn’t want to say anything in case it upset her. I was just happy to have her back.”
Kimi gave J a raised eyebrow. “A useful skill you have there. I didn’t think it would be that easy to make her accept it all as truth.”
“After dealing with Phasers of all ages for a few years, you get a feel for it. My wife is much better at it than I am though, I just have enough to keep them from screaming bloody murder from the moment they wake up. She has that whole harmless grandma air about her. Me-- well, I have the whole shifty drug dealer vibe going. You’re willing to trust me at the start, but after a while you’d rather keep your distance.”
Kimi couldn’t deny his assessment. It was a good way to describe her feelings towards him. It wasn’t that she thought he was out to harm her or anything, but now that she had been around him for a period of time she couldn’t warm up to him. She trusted J, just not completely. Kimberly was more than willing to ask for and accept his help, but she didn’t want to spend much time with him outside of that help either. Kimberly had a feeling part of it was the mask he always wore. Something about not being able to see his face made him suspect.
“So& what now?”
J shrugged. “Now we go back through the tear to Atlantis. That will close it back up, then we will have to open a tear to Aerth. Assuming you still wish to go that is.”
Out of Time the Grand Quest Page 43