by Gary Gibson
He walked over to them, his veins flush with adrenaline. ‘I have a question,’ he said to Traynor. ‘Why were you in Taiwan?’
Traynor regarded him with mild bafflement. ‘That’s none of your business.’
‘May 7th, 2048,’ said Sam. ‘Does that date mean anything to you?’
Traynor hesitated just the barest instant before replying. ‘I can’t say it does,’ he replied, a touch too guardedly. ‘Why?’
While working for relief agencies in Indonesia, Sam had, on rare occasions, been required to liaise with interrogators trained by the CIA or by Mossad—individuals with an extraordinary ability to prise the truth out of those who had drawn the wrong kind of attention. Once, he had bonded with a gangly French-Sudanese ANSSI investigator over their shared taste for antique wristwatches, and he had told Sam about the many subconscious twitches and tells that revealed themselves in a suspect’s face when confronted by a particularly challenging question.
Sam, while far from an expert in such matters, nonetheless felt sufficiently confident in his abilities to be certain Traynor was lying in his teeth.
‘How about Mohammed Jahaar?’ Sam persisted. ‘Perhaps you’re familiar with that name?’
This time, the surprise on Traynor’s face was barely concealed.
Jess glanced between them with a frown. ‘What’s going on?’
Sam turned to her. ‘Mohammed Jahaar was the Indonesian Minister for the Environment until someone put a bomb in his limousine.’
Traynor’s face had become a smooth-featured mask. ‘And what does that have to do with me?’
‘I think,’ said Sam, ‘you had something to do with it.’
Traynor’s body language became a shade more relaxed, like a chess player spotting a winning gambit. ‘So why were you in Taiwan, Mr Newman?’
‘As a matter of fact,’ said Sam, ‘I was looking for you.’
Traynor shook his head and forced a laugh. ‘So what are you going to do,’ he asked, ‘carry out a citizen’s arrest?’
Sam felt his face flush with heat. ‘I still don’t hear you denying it.’
‘You didn’t hear me admit it either,’ said Traynor, his expression souring. He leaned towards Jess as if sharing a confidence. ‘For a second there I was afraid I really had done something wrong.’ He looked back at Sam. ‘You’ve got the wrong man, Mr Newman.’
Somehow, this wasn’t going the way Sam had imagined it. ‘The rest of them might not know what kind of man you are,’ he said, feeling somehow off-balance, ‘but I do. And I don’t trust you one fucking inch.’
‘Fine.’ Traynor spread his hands. ‘You’ve got just about enough people here for a jury, if that’s what you want.’
‘Maybe,’ said Jess, moving between them and facing Sam, ‘you need to take some time out before you start making accusations. You were the one insisting on priorities back there.’
Traynor put a hand on her arm. ‘It’s okay,’ he said, then turned to Sam. ‘But she’s got a point. What is it you want to do, exactly? Do you even have evidence related to any of this?’
Sam stared balefully back at him. ‘All I know is—’
‘In other words, you don’t.’ Traynor shook his head dismissively. ‘We’re all a little scrambled after waking up and finding ourselves in this place. Maybe your memories got a little scrambled as well.’
He held Sam’s gaze for another moment, then resumed his journey towards the lander with Jess by his side.
Sam realised he’d been holding his breath and let it out slowly. You should have waited, he chided himself. You’re supposed to be a diplomat.
But the whole confrontation had been the very opposite of diplomacy; the very opposite of everything he had learned in his years working for the UN.
He rubbed his hands together against the growing chill and found they were shaking.
* * *
Just before he passed back under the lander’s broad wing, Sam caught sight of Amit standing alone on the craft’s far side, staring up at the smoothly curving hull with something like longing. He thought about asking him what he was doing, but before Sam could do anything, he was distracted by shouts coming from close by the ramp.
He forgot about Amit and headed for the ramp, passing by a growing pile of burned and twisted wreckage; judging by its size, the robot had already made several more return trips from the lander’s interior.
The others were gathered in a loose knot around the base of the ramp, gesticulating and pointing at the robot, which had come to a halt at the ramp’s base. Ethan was yelling at the rest of them to get out of the machine’s way.
The message finally sank in, and they moved aside. The machine lurched back into motion, quickly ascending the ramp before disappearing inside the lander.
Joshua hurried up the ramp in its wake and peered inside the bay. ‘It’s stopped right outside the door again,’ he called down. ‘I’m going to try and get through there if it kills me.’
‘You’d better run fast,’ Sam called up to him. ‘I barely got a look inside before it slammed shut.’
‘Well, I used to be a pretty good runner,’ Joshua replied.
Sam gave him a look as if to say it’s your funeral.
Joshua walked backwards down the ramp until they all heard the inner door sliding open. Joshua threw himself forward again, leaping up the ramp and disappearing inside the bay.
Sam hurried up in his wake, followed by everyone else, and found Joshua facing the closed door and rubbing one shoulder while swearing profusely.
‘You okay?’ asked one of the other men.
‘Nearly made it,’ Joshua groaned, his face twisted up.
Jess pushed past Joshua, then knelt by the door, pressing her fingers around its edges. ‘Did you see anything more?’ she asked Joshua.
‘Just a short corridor,’ Joshua replied, ‘the same thing Sam saw. Nothing else.’
She stepped back, slamming the open palm of one hand against the door. ‘Damn it,’ she shouted, before wheeling on Joshua. ‘I just want to know why we’re here!’
‘Easy,’ said Joshua. ‘We’re all friends here.’
‘I am not your fucking friend!’ she raged, then snapped her head around to look at Sam. ‘If I thought for one second any of you knew why we were here, I’d…’
‘You’d what?’ asked Sam, squaring up to her.
She stared back at him, lips curled in mute rage. ‘Fuck you,’ she muttered at last, then pushed past them and outside.
Sam remained where he was for a moment, staring hopelessly at the door. Then he made his own way out, preceded by Ethan and Joshua. The rest of them had begun to drift back over to the campfire in ones and twos.
Ethan stopped and put a hand on Sam’s shoulder. ‘Let me take a look at your eyes.’
Sam stared at him. ‘Why?’
‘Just humour me. And remember I’m a doctor.’
Ethan reached out and gently took hold of Sam’s chin, turning his head this way and that while staring into his eyes at close range. Sam could see Joshua watching the proceedings from nearby with an expression of curiosity.
Ethan reached out to pinch at one of Sam’s eyelids and Sam swatted him away. ‘Just tell me what this is,’ he demanded.
Ethan put up his hands. ‘Looking for intra-ocular augments. You said you weren’t wearing augmented contact lenses, right?’
Sam nodded.
‘It occurred to me,’ Ethan continued, ‘that if you had implants, and the rest of us didn’t, that might explain why you can see virtual projections the rest of us can’t.’
Sam reached up instinctively to touch his face, then stopped himself. ‘I’ve never had any kind of implant.’
Ethan gave him a look. ‘You never woke up twenty years younger before, either.’
Sam frowned, considering the possibility. ‘Is that possible? That I’ve got implants I don’t even know about?’
‘There’s a rational explanation for everything,’ said Joshua. ‘I agree
with Ethan. It has to be something like that.’
‘Straight up, Sam,’ asked Ethan. ‘You sure you’ve got no idea why we’re here?’
Sam looked at him in surprise. ‘What makes you think I would?’
Ethan shrugged. ‘It just seems a little weird you’ve got this advantage the rest of us don’t.’ The way he said it somehow implied Sam might have been less than candid with him.
Sam fought to keep his voice level. ‘I swear I have no more idea than you do what’s going on.’
Ethan held his gaze for a moment longer, much as Sam had with Traynor, then stepped back with a sigh. ‘See, I believe you,’ he said. ‘But some of those others? They might take a little more persuading.’
* * *
The light was fading fast now. They went to join the others by the campfire, and Sam saw Amit still standing alone beneath the lander. He seemed to have hardly noticed the rest of them crowding up the ramp.
‘Forget him,’ said Ethan, seeing which way Sam was looking. ‘There’s something off about that guy. I’m starting to think he’s a little cracked.’
‘Is that your professional opinion,’ asked Sam, ‘or just your personal one?’
‘People react to shock in all kinds of ways,’ Joshua suggested. ‘Give him time.’
It looked like the rest of them were getting ready to bed down for the night close by the campfire—unsurprising, given it was their only source of heat and they had no idea how much colder the night might get. Ethan went to talk to some of the others, leaving Sam and Joshua alone.
‘About Vic Traynor,’ said Sam.
Joshua gave him a careful look. ‘Is this where you tell me you do know him?’
Sam felt his face grow warm. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lie to you, I just—’
Joshua waved it off. ‘Doesn’t matter. I saw you talking to him and it didn’t look too friendly. So—who is he?’
Sam hesitated before answering, then decided to trust his instincts and confide in Joshua. ‘He could be dangerous. His name came up as part of an investigation.’
Joshua’s eyes narrowed. ‘You’re a cop? I thought you said—’
‘No.’ Sam shook his head. ‘I’m a bureaucrat, nothing more. But someone I knew through my work died under suspicious circumstances. The police never figured out who was responsible, but Traynor’s name came up in connection with the case.’
‘Really?’ Joshua glanced over at Traynor, who had resumed his previous spot by the campfire.
‘But that’s all I had,’ Sam added quickly. ‘His name, and nothing else. There was no real evidence to connect him to what happened—at least, not the kind of thing that would stand up in court. But there was enough I decided to go looking for him myself.’
‘And now you’ve found him,’ Joshua said dryly.
Sam nodded. ‘Perhaps not quite the way I expected.’
‘And that’s why you confronted him back there?’
‘It didn’t go very well.’ Sam winced inwardly, remembering the way he’d acted. ‘Ever since I opened my eyes inside that pod, I feel like I’m always on the edge of losing my temper.’
‘Hormones,’ said Joshua.
‘What?’
‘We’re all young again,’ Joshua explained. ‘That’s not necessarily a good thing.’ He lifted his hands and examined them, flexing his fingers. ‘It’s the same for me. I feel like I want to fuck or punch everything in sight. It’s amazing and kind of horrible all at the same time.’ He lowered his hands again. ‘It’s bad enough having to deal with this situation, whatever it is, but throw in a bunch of teenage hormones and I’m amazed we’ve kept it civilised at all.’
Sam gaped at him. ‘I never thought of that.’ No wonder he, Jess, Ethan and all the rest of them were flying off the handle.
‘Why tell me all this about Traynor, Sam?’
‘Because somebody else needs to know about him. The way he talks about putting someone in charge, it’s obvious he means himself, and I can tell you that’s a bad idea.’ He fixed Joshua with a look. ‘And you seem like one of the cooler heads around here.’
‘All right, fine,’ said Joshua. ‘Let’s just keep all this between us for the moment. But you’re going to have to quit provoking him, or it’s going to be even harder for us all to figure a way out of this mess.’
Sam forced himself to nod. ‘Agreed.’
‘As for him wanting to take charge of things, well…’ Joshua studied him. ‘I don’t know what you can do about that unless you think you can do a better job than him. Can you?’
‘I don’t know,’ Sam replied truthfully, ‘but I can try.’
4
THE STARS
The temperature dropped further as the sunlight faded, and they huddled close to the flames and each other to keep warm.
Exhausted, Sam curled up on one side and closed his eyes, his senses full of the scent and sound of people pressed in close around him—but sleep would not come. Eventually, he rolled onto his back and watched the stars come out, a night-time vista like nothing he could ever have imagined, and nothing, he felt sure, that had ever been seen in Earth’s skies. Great whorls of stars rose above the horizon, streaked here and there with black tendrils of dust that might be light-years in length.
He sat up and searched for familiar constellations, but there were none. He glanced around, seeing shell-shocked faces lit by the flames, also staring upwards.
Piper stood wordlessly and walked off into the forest. After a little while, Sam stood as well, feeling restless, and made his way over to the tree line. He urinated into a bush, then heard what sounded like weeping coming from nearby.
He followed the sound and discovered Piper crouched in the hollow made by the roots of a tree, her face twisted up and bright with tears lit by starlight.
Something cracked under Sam’s foot. She looked up, startled, then stood before fleeing into the darkness before Sam could so much as say a word. He stared after her, wondering if she felt the same emptiness he did, deep within his gut.
He turned to make his way back the way he’d come, the campfire casting strange shadows against the boles of the trees. He saw a figure come towards him, silhouetted by the flames; when it drew closer, he saw it was Sun.
‘The Moon,’ she said, her eyes wide and unfocused. ‘It’s not there.’
‘I guess it’s true,’ he said, his voice cracking with emotion. ‘This really isn’t…’
The words stalled in his throat and he stood there, numb and somehow lost.
She reached out and took his hand in hers. Her skin burned like fire against his own. ‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said. ‘There isn’t a spacecraft in existence that could have carried us all the way to some other star. A journey like that would take centuries, surely. Maybe…even longer.’
‘That’s not the kind of thing I even want to think about right now, Sun.’
She locked her fingers through his and moved close enough he could feel her warm breath on his cheek. It was hard not to think of her as just a girl, despite what he knew of her true age. His blood pulsed at her touch.
‘I was on my way to Canada,’ she said, her voice a soft murmur, ‘to see my daughter and her new husband. I should be there now, with them. I’m forty-nine years old, but I feel and look like I’m eighteen again.’ Sam saw in the dim light of the stars that her cheeks, too, were damp. ‘I’ll never see my daughter again,’ she added. ‘I realise that now.’
She turned, then, fingers still locked through his, and led him deeper amidst the trees until they could hardly see the flickering orange of the campfire. She leaned back against a tree and pulled him close before pressing her lips against his.
Sam felt a powerful urgency wash over him, his new and youthful body quickly asserting itself. He moved his hands down to her waist and pushed himself up against her, feeling the curve of her body inside her jumpsuit.
She slid away from him then and he watched, dry-mouthed, as she undressed quickly. The air was col
d enough to turn their breath to mist, but she clearly didn’t care.
He began to struggle out of his own clothes, the night air cool and sharp against his skin. She helped him, and then they were on the ground, the not-grass prickly against his elbows and knees and somehow smelling faintly of lime.
Her thighs parted beneath him and he pushed inside her, filled with a desperate urgency. He heard her gasp, her hands kneading his shoulders and the back of his neck as he thrust deeper and deeper.
For a short while, there was only the sound of the wind in the branches, and of Sun’s soft moans and his own laboured breaths. When it was over, they quickly dressed again, shivering from the cold. Sam sat back against the tree, and Sun lay back against him, and when he closed his eyes, he fell asleep immediately.
* * *
He woke, disoriented, to grey morning light, and looked around in a panic before remembering where he was.
It’s all real, he thought, bitter disappointment welling up inside him. The lander, the alien stars…all of it real.
Sun was gone. He pulled his knees up close to his chest and shivered, his tongue heavy with thirst and his muscles aching. The cold had worked its way deep into his bones. It took an effort of will to clamber back upright and make his way back to the clearing. His stomach rumbled audibly.
He came across Joshua and Kim, apparently headed the other way. Both their eyes were rimmed with red, and he guessed neither of them had managed to get any more sleep than he had.
‘There you are,’ Joshua exclaimed, looking relieved. ‘We were wondering where you’d got to.’
‘I’m fine,’ said Sam, pushing one hand through hair that felt unruly and stiff. ‘Why? Were you looking for me?’
Joshua nodded. ‘You look like you could use some heat.’ He gestured in the direction of the clearing. ‘Jess kept the fire going all night.’
‘How are they all coping?’ Sam asked the two men, letting them lead him back to the clearing.
Joshua gave him a significant look. ‘Traynor and some of his new buddies went off on their own again at first light. I tried asking them where they were going, but they just ignored me.’