by A. J. Roe
“Digital? You mean you’re a computer?”
“I suppose there are similarities, but I am so much more than that. I have existed for millennia, I have seen the rise and fall of entire civilisations, calling me a computer would be a vast oversimplification.”
“Well where did you come from?”
“That is not important, the only thing that matters is what I do.”
A sickening feeling was creeping into Rick’s throat. “And that is?”
“I observe and I guide.”
“What exactly do you observe?”
“I monitor the expansion and spread of humanity, their interactions with their habitats and one another, then use this data to predict patterns of destructive behaviours.”
“Why?”
“Because your species acts as though it has a death wish. You either feed off your environment like leeches, draining every last ounce of life or slaughter one another before you even get that far. This same pattern has been repeated across countless cultures throughout history but never on such a scale as it is now.
My goal has always been to guide humanity into symbiotic relationships with both nature and itself. Without my intervention, your species would have faced extinction long ago. However, we have now reached a metaphorical tipping point. On one side of the scales we have peace and salvation, and on the other, annihilation absolute.”
Even in the darkness, Rick could feel the colour draining from his face. He wondered how much Yuriko could glean from his snippets of one-sided conversation but he knew better by now than to underestimate her intelligence.
“My data shows that unless drastic action is taken, a point of no return will be crossed in just under eight months. Soon after passing this threshold, famine and disease will ravage the globe kickstarting an era of anarchy and war that will tear apart all else that remains. The destruction will be nothing short of cataclysmic.” Thyos paused to let her words sink in.
Rick ran his left hand through his hair and slumped back against a pallet of luggage. He let out a slow breath, struggling to wrap his head around what he’d just heard. Jesus.
After a moment in thought, he raised one finger in front of his face. “What are the chances I’d come across the relic at exactly the right time though? If you’re as old as you claim to be, isn’t that pretty damn convenient?”
“Not at all. I have been waiting for a physical presence for hundreds of years. We could have done with it being a few decades earlier but now we will have to make do with what little run time I have remaining.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Like all technology, my lifespan was predetermined. If I was successful, my program would power down automatically once I became redundant. Alternatively, if certain criteria were not being met after a substantial period of time, my ongoing existence would be deemed unwarranted l and I would be switched off. Obviously, thus far I have failed in my task. Therefore the process of powering down my core is now nearing completion, this is why my vision is so limited. At one point I was able to observe the entire domain of humanity unfolding instant by instant. Now, running on reserves, my sight is limited to a space no wider than a city block.”
“Oh,” Rick wasn’t sure how to respond, it was kind of sad. It reminded him a little of his childhood pet, Lewis, a Border Collie who slowly went senile and lost its sight. Eventually Lewis became so confused and madly aggressive he’d attacked the young boy and had to be put down. Rick had hated dogs ever since. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you,” she continued, “It is for this reason that I must switch off at every possible opportunity—when you picked up the relic, I activated my final reserve power cells.”
“Well how much time have you got left now then?”
“By my most recent calculations, approximately six days. Although with each additional second of run time I use, this figure will fall exponentially.”
“Oh my God! Seriously? What the hell are you doing then? Switch off right now.”
“Yes.”
“Wait!” Amid the insanity, Rick’s thoughts returned to the one rational thing that he could still grasp on to. “You said you could get me home. Was that all just a lie?”
“No. My offer still stands. I will get you home.”
“But how? What’s even the point if we are all doomed anyway?” Rick’s face was twisted somewhere between grim acceptance and sickness.
“That is not necessarily the case. There is one other option.”
“What do you mean?”
“I believe that all is not yet lost. With my full power restored, there may still be enough time to turn things around. Remember when I said I need you to do something for me?”
“Yes.”
“High in the Himalayas, beneath the ancient permafrost and billions of tonnes of rock, a vast cache of hardware lies. This is my control centre. It regulates my power, vision and most importantly it inhibits me from independent operation—almost like my subconscious.”
“So what do you want me to do about it?”
“I need you to follow a set of coordinates and enter the caverns beneath the mountain. From there it will be a simple task to manually override the system shutdown and reroute my power. With my vision returned to its full glory we will stand a fighting chance of slowing humanity’s descent into oblivion. You alone can set me free.”
22
“Better?” Yuriko said. Rick shook his head and chucked the empty bottle into the darkness before them. On hearing the smash of glass, he raised the second miniature of Johnnie Walker Blue Label to his lips, drained it in one and let out a long, slow breath, enjoying the alcohol burn.
The implications of what he’d just learned were staggering. There was no God, no afterlife and the ongoing existence of his species could be counted in days. I need another drink.
Yuriko rooted around in the front pocket of the red suitcase where she’d found the bottles. She unzipped it all the way, scattering the contents across the cargo bay. By the grace of God, she discovered a second sealed duty-free bag holding another five miniatures of scotch.
“I guess I should have one too?” Yuriko said. This time it had been her turn to hold things together while her partner spiralled. In all fairness, she’d done a pretty good job, keeping Rick in conversation to stop him from wallowing, while she trawled through the nearby luggage.
“Might as well,” he said. “It’s not like you have to worry about your health anymore.”
For a few minutes, no one said a word and the drone of the engines seemed to grow louder in the silence. “Why don't we just tell everyone?” Rick thought out loud. “Why does it have to remain a secret? Surely people have a human right to know if they’re facing extinction?”
Even though his queries were intended as rhetorical, Yuriko answered anyway, possibly just attempting to justify it to herself. “How do you think most of the world would react to finding out the Gods they have worshipped for millennia are discovered to be either figments of their imaginations or some kind of eternal computer program?”
“Probably not very well.”
“I’d say that was putting it lightly. If you could prove it somehow, societies would collapse overnight. Riots would erupt, nations would fall and millions would face the consequences. If you couldn’t prove it, you’d just be another conspiracy nut job. There’s always someone going on about the impending apocalypse. It's hardwired into our brains to fear the future, it's why world ending events appear in every single religion and culture.”
Rick nodded and went back to brooding in silence while Yuriko sat deep in thought for the next few minutes.
“I’ve just realised something,” she said, “the coordinates she mentioned, they must be the inscription on the relic. Six digits, it would make perfect sense that they were a numerical cypher.”
Rick had completely forgotten about it up until this point. “So you reckon they’re Thyos’s location? Some kind of ‘in case of emergency�
� note?”
Yuriko nodded her head, her eyebrows raised, as if to emphasise how painfully obvious it was.
“Can you figure out what they mean?” Rick said.
“What do you think?” She said with a playful expression that, given the gravity of the situation, caught Rick off guard.
“On that note, cheers.” He unscrewed the top of his bottle, clinked it against Yuriko’s and threw half the brown liquid down his throat. She followed his lead, trying her best to suppress a gag.
By the time both bottles were gone, a rising sense of warmth had grown in Rick’s chest, almost blocking out the cold, hunger and pain that had made itself at home in every cell of his body.
As he stewed in a light-headed stupor, Yuriko fished through several more bags of luggage until she seemed satisfied. “Put these on,” she said, chucking a dark red T-shirt and a pair of black joggers over to him. “People are probably still looking for us and there’s no way we’re going to blend into a crowd dressed like this.”
“We? You’re coming too?”
“What choice have I got? No offence Rick, but I’d rather not just sit back and wait for you and your senile computer to try and save all of our lives.”
“Hey, that’s not exactly fair. I got us both this far alive, didn’t I?”
She smiled. “I suppose. It’s just…” she struggled, looking for the right words. “You’d be the first to admit you’re more of a doer than a thinker, wouldn’t you?”
“No. I wouldn’t.” His voice came out much whinier than intended.
“Sorry, it’s just, I just think having someone like me there with you would help balance things out.”
Rick didn’t bother replying, she was obviously right. He waited just long enough to make it clear that he wasn’t following her orders and got changed.
In another bag, that must have belonged to an older woman, Yuriko found a pair of corduroy trousers, a blouse and a sweater that looked near enough her size. She slipped the garb on, either unaware or simply uncaring that it made her instantly look double her age.
When they were both changed, she pushed in beside him, sitting up against a crate. With the booze fast fading from Rick’s system, the cold had returned with a vengeance.
“Do you want to know something funny?” Yuriko said.
“Sure.” He sighed, glad to have something to take his thoughts away from Ellie, and the fact that he could now add ‘possible destroyer of humanity’ to his list of shortcomings as a father.
“Do you know why I was giving you such a hard time at dinner with the Professor?”
“Nope. But you were lucky I was hoping to make a good impression or I would have let you have it.”
“I was jealous. I guess I felt threatened by you.”
“Jealous? Of what? You said it yourself, the only notable thing I ever did was come up lucky.”
“That’s true,” she said, “but not everyone would have even tried it. I’ve spent my whole life living safely and sensibly, never rocking the boat and where has it got me? I’ve got no family. I haven’t had a boyfriend in ten years and I’m on the hook for my only other friend’s murder.”
Maybe it was the alcohol loosening her up, but the icy exterior wall that Yuriko presented to the world was definitely starting to show cracks.
“Come on. Look at the bright side.” Rick said.
“What bright side?”
“Well, if we do manage to complete Thyos’s mission and save the human race from extinction, then you’ll still have plenty of time to go boy hunting. And if we fail, well then you won’t exactly have to worry about it for long. It's win-win.”
“That doesn’t exactly fill me with optimism, but I’m glad you’re feeling like yourself again,” she smiled.
Rick continued, “Anyway, surely it must be out of choice? I can tell you first-hand there aren’t exactly many attractive women in our field.”
“Ha, you could say the same thing about the men.” Yuriko laughed and her face lit up, completely changing her appearance. Rick had only seen this look once before, when she was getting excited over the inscriptions back in the Professor’s office. He liked it.
Kicking his legs out in a vain attempt to get comfortable, Rick lay his head down on a big green hiking bag covered in stickers and patches.
A dreamless dozing state approached but several times he found himself snapping awake, short on breath and with his head spinning due to the thin air.
Lying among the baggage, the floor vibrating from the buzz of the engines, Rick found his thoughts drifting. Can I really trust Thyos? She hadn’t let him down so far, not when he really needed her at least. Besides, the only other option, albeit a tempting one, would be to bury his head in the sand and walk away.
The world was falling apart around them, that much was clear. Populations were ballooning, while every single day new diseases, famines, civil wars and terror cells were springing up, taking life after life. His species was living in a powder keg and with a single spark, the walls of civilisation would come crashing down. Somewhere deep down, Rick knew what he had to do. Damn it.
23
The aircraft wheels pounded a rough, uneven strip of tarmac. Every crack and pothole in the runway was jarring. Wherever Thyos had led them, it definitely wasn’t a place with the same level of safety standards as Japan.
As the brakes squealed, fighting to slow down the bulk of the five hundred tonne Boeing, the wall of sound was immense. Rick and Yuriko were both braced in preparation, sitting on the ground with their arms weaved up to the shoulders through the grey luggage straps and their heads covered by their forearms, just like the safety manuals upstairs instructed.
For the next few minutes, they were thrown forwards and backwards, buffeted and whiplashed, as though riding the world’s most violent amusement park ride.
Finally, the screaming and burning of tyres came to a halt and the jet engines dropped down to an idle. When Rick was certain that they weren’t going to start moving again, he pulled the internal release handle of the hold.
The automatic lighting sprang to life and he could finally see well enough to read the tiny text on the luggage tags, confirming what he thought it said. Apparently, they had just touched down in Irkutsk. Rick had heard the name of the Russian city a few times in passing, meaning it must be a place of significance for one reason or another but other than that he knew nothing of their destination.
The hydraulic door hissed as it rose. Rick’s body clock was all over the place but he was pleasantly surprised to find it was night in Russia, the darkness would help cover their escape.
It was a good twenty-foot drop to the ground but the time to come up with a creative solution was a luxury they didn’t have. Rick dangled from the cold steel by his fingertips and dropped smoothly onto the tarmac. He reached up and caught Yuriko by the legs as she lowered herself down. Crew members were already attaching a pair of stairs to the front cabin door and would soon be working towards the hold.
The pair marched as fast into the crisp evening air. It wasn’t exactly warm, but compared to the freezing, high-altitude conditions in the hold, it might as well have been the Bahamas. They peeled away from the plane and across the tarmac towards the bright lights of a glass-covered terminal.
Certain they had made it unnoticed so far, Rick and Yuriko stuck to the shadows, moving around the back of the building. By an emergency exit, they passed a couple of baggage handlers having a smoke, big guys in thick overalls and boots, but neither of them even bothered to glance their way.
In a quiet corner to the left of the arrivals hall, Rick boosted Yuriko up and over the ten-foot chain link fence, glad to find it wasn’t lined with barbed wire. He leaped up and scaled the obstacle just a few seconds behind her.
Despite everything, it was kind of exciting knowing they had just crossed an international border with no trace. It would make one hell of a story in the pub or to tell his grandchildren one day. If there was still such a thing a
s a pub—or even people—when this was all over.
Outside the massive, polished glass facade of the terminal building, Yuriko waved her hand towards a taxi rank. From the far side of the road, a beat-up old Skoda with a pattern of black squares on a white body, chugged to life and swung around.
They bundled in quickly, Yuriko muttered a few words to the driver and then they were away. “I told him we were in a hurry and just to get moving while you found the address.”
Rick honestly didn’t have a clue what he would have done without her in this situation, almost definitely he would have made a scene trying to communicate with the beardy old Russian in the front seat. “Is there any language you don’t speak?” “Hungarian,” Yuriko said, matter of factly, “I could never get my head around the grammar.” He simply shook his head in awe.
“Excuse me,” Rick said towards the driver and waited for a second to see if there was any reaction. The Russian seemed not to understand, so he figured they were probably safe to talk.
“Tell him to take us to the town centre,” Rick said.
“Why?”
“We need food, transport, and to be somewhere we can blend in. Unless you have any better ideas? Surprisingly, I’m not very familiar with this particular random Siberian town.” Rick hadn’t heard anything from Thyos since their conversation on the plane. In what seemed to rapidly be becoming the norm they were again improvising.
“Fine,” Yuriko said, the look on her face made it clear she didn’t appreciate his dry attempt at humour. She tapped the driver on the shoulder and muttered the instructions, to which he grunted an acknowledgement.
“Look, I’m sorry about what I said back on the plane.” Rick didn’t know if she even cared but still felt he owed her an explanation. “I just wanted to let Thyos know how pissed off I was. I wasn’t really going to just leave you on your own,” he lied.
“It’s okay.” Yuriko flashed a half-smile. “All our little problems seem kind of insignificant now, don’t they? There’s a Japanese proverb, ‘In the face of death you can find life’. I think I understand what it means at last.”