Zhenyi embraced him. It was logical behavior that documented her pleasure at seeing him again. He registered a slight warming of his outer skin. This was probably caused by the contact with Zhenyi’s hands, which were roughly 36 degrees. Water dripped on his shoulder. Was Zhenyi losing hydraulic fluid too? He couldn’t see it because his head was dangling at his back.
Then Zhenyi let go of him. He swung his head around elegantly, caught it in his arms, and held it in front of his chest. Then he placed his finger over his lips again. Where was the security console in this room? He found it to the right of the door. That was password protected too, of course, so he couldn’t deactivate it. He opened the casing and opted for the simplest solution. He placed a finger on the relevant connection, analyzed the data stream, and simply duplicated it, creating a continuous loop. Now the control room would only receive a frozen audio loop. He could only hope there wasn’t a surveillance camera. But if that was the case they were probably already being observed.
“We can speak now,” he said.
“Puppy, I’m so glad you survived,” said Zhenyi.
“Well, that observation is not entirely correct, as I’m not alive, but I know what you mean. I’m very pleased to be able to continue to serve you.”
“Thank you, Puppy. Can’t we do something about your head? It irritates me, seeing it hanging off you like that.”
“We’ll have to postpone that until later. Right now I can’t remove my hand from the console. Otherwise we’ll be heard in the control room.”
“They’re busy right now,” said Zhenyi. “I don’t think they’re watching.”
“Then we should use the opportunity,” said the butler.
“To overpower them, now?”
“Who knows when they’ll next be distracted.”
Zhenyi didn’t immediately reply. She scratched behind her ear. “You’re right,” she finally said. “They share their body in a way that one of them is almost always awake. And right now Marie is on the neutron star and Pierre is concentrating on her. It won’t get any better than this. But there’s a problem.”
She pointed at the box that hung on a string around her neck.
“This thing?” asked the butler.
“It’ll shred me if I get too close to Kepler. And he’s in the control room right now.”
The butler grasped the box with his free hand and analyzed it with X-rays. There were clearly no explosives in it, just some electronics that measured the passage of time. He tore it off her.
Zhenyi went pale. “If I take it off it’ll trigger the explosive, I was about to say.” But nothing happened. Zhenyi waited a while with bated breath, then the color returned to her cheeks. “That swine,” she said. “He fooled us.”
“We should end him,” said the butler.
Zhenyi counted down on her fingers. Three... two...one... go!
The butler tore open the door to the control room and stormed in. Zhenyi followed him. She stayed behind, as they’d agreed. A large hologram filled the right side of the room. Pierre Curie was standing in front of it, moving his arms like a conductor. Kepler sat a little further away at the table.
Pierre turned around. Kepler sprang to his feet. The butler calculated the distance. Kepler was too far away. The butler himself was the closest to Pierre, so he ran to him. He hoped that Zhenyi would stay behind him, but he couldn’t concern himself with her just now, because the man in front of him was drawing a weapon. It wouldn’t be dangerous to him, he’d already established that. But the Curies were clever. They knew just as well as he did that they couldn’t stop a robot fast enough. And sure enough, Pierre aimed his gun not at the butler but at Kepler.
“No!” cried Zhenyi.
Faster, faster! He had to neutralize Curie as quickly as possible. The butler activated his entire energy reserve, but he couldn’t defy the laws of physics. However, Kepler reacted surprisingly fast. He simply slid off his chair. Now the tabletop was shielding him. And Pierre reacted just as quickly. His arm jerked around. He aimed at the butler, at head height. But there was no head there, it was hanging on his chest. Zhenyi was still behind him and she was taller than he was. The butler jumped. He had to get himself into the path of the bullet.
There was a bang. A small piece of metal flew through the control room. He was too slow. He couldn’t stop the bullet. His left hand met with Pierre Curie’s neck and sliced it in half. Blood sprayed out. But the bullet flew. Puppy flung his head around while still in full flight. He watched in slow motion as the bullet bore into Zhenyi’s skull, just below her hairline.
Momentum kept Wang Zhenyi, the famous astronomer, moving forward, but her head tipped back unnaturally. She slammed against the table. Her torso flopped onto the tabletop, then bounced off, while her lower body slid under the table and pulled the rest of her after it. Zhenyi landed directly in front of Johannes Kepler. The butler heard him cry out as he killed the Curies’ body with an iron grip around the neck.
“Marie Curie?” Kepler spoke in a toneless voice the butler had never heard him use before.
“Pierre, is that you?”
“It’s me, Johannes Kepler. Your husband is dead. Or at least, your shared body. And you’re going to die too.”
“What... what’s happening down there? Please don’t leave me behind. You’re not inhuman!”
His voice was now stronger. “That’s what I used to think, but now I know better, Marie. You’ll die right there where you are. It’s still an unusual grave, you can be proud of that. But first you can tell us how to stop the process you both started. Then maybe I’ll spare you from being crushed by S0-122.”
“That’s impossible. Everything is already in motion,” said Marie.
“Thank you, I was sort of hoping you’d say that. Now you’ll get the horrible death you deserve. My own imagination couldn’t have come up with anything more fitting.”
“You’ll die too, Kepler, but unlike you, my husband and I will live on in the new universe. In our universe.”
“I promise I’ll do everything I can to prevent that.”
“It’s too late.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Kepler cut the connection.
“We’ll fly back to the unknown system,” said Kepler.
The butler had never seen him so decisive. He seemed to be imbued with a sacred fire.
“What do you expect to achieve there? The collapse will be initiated by Sagittarius A* in the core of the Milky Way. Perhaps we can do more there,” said the butler.
“Zhenyi didn’t lead us to the Herbae for no reason. You heard it. They helped the Curies figure out their plan. They owe us!”
“That makes sense. Do you have instructions for what should happen to Wang Zhenyi’s body?”
“No, I don’t have the strength for that right now. Her final send-off will have to wait. Please preserve her body.”
“Of course, Johannes.”
Cycle ZZ6.2, S0-122
She was alone. The radio messages she sent over the antenna remained unanswered. Marie’s strength was waning. The nanomachines that had given her physical form were losing power. They could no longer withstand the enormous attractive force of the neutron star. It was a deathly embrace, which she could only escape if Pierre recalled her consciousness to the ship.
But Pierre was no more. He had gone ahead of her into eternity. She’d captured his genetic code herself and immortalized it in this dead star, whose core was made of the most densely packed neutrons. It was good, meaningful work. They would depart this cosmos before the others. But because of that they would be the first and the only ones to reawaken in the new universe. They would become gods, beings from the time before time.
Marie laughed to herself. The mortals were so stupid. They believed they could still interfere with the plan. But even if they succeeded in stopping the black hole from being overloaded, the plan would yet be realized. The information they had transmitted was immortal and indestructible. They had memorialized themselves
so that they would outlast the end of time, even if the universe didn’t end in a Big Bang but in a slow, painful process.
Marie was glad they wouldn’t have to experience the tragic period to come. She felt sorry for Johannes Kepler. She knew that she’d be reunited with Pierre. But Kepler would only know sorrow, and it would have a hold on him his entire life. Unless he ended it by ending his own existence.
The nanomachines began to decay. Their atomic bonds broke, crushed by gravity. A mighty being trod with iron soles on every one of her cells and ground them into dust. The pain became intolerable, but she couldn’t block it out—her consciousness had no escape. Marie Curie died a slow, tortured death, which she couldn’t speed up. It ate at her from the outside in. Her consciousness began to dwindle, but not so much that she couldn’t perceive the pain. No, the pain remained with her to the very last cell, and it was unbearable. Her consciousness now contained nothing but pain. It was everywhere. She was pain.
Marie Curie was dead. The matter that of which she’d been made sank slowly into the star, mingled with it, and turned into a soup of identical components, indistinguishable from each other. Nothing was left that could be attributed to Marie Curie. But the information that had shaped her continued to exist and, as they had intended, would outlast time.
Cycle AA2.1, unknown system
“We missed the turn of the era,” said the butler as he served Kepler orange juice and buttered toast. “Are you sure you don’t want coffee? And no egg either?” he asked.
“I’m not hungry,” said Kepler. “But what did you mean by ‘turn of the era?’”
“We’re back to cycle AA,” the butler explained.
“Oh, right. The alphabet has a limited number of letters.”
“Humanity had a huge celebration at the last turn of the era, I remember it well.”
“No idea what everyone else is doing. I’m not in the mood to celebrate.”
Kepler thought about Zhenyi’s corpse. The butler was keeping her body on ice somewhere in the cargo bay. He would have to hold a wake for her at some point. But should he burn Zhenyi, bury her, or send her out into space? What would she have wanted? They’d never talked about it. At some point he would come up with something that was right for her.
“What happened to Pierre Curie, by the way?” Kepler asked.
“You didn’t give me any instructions, so I followed the standard protocol for organic matter.”
“What does that mean?”
“I sent him to be reprocessed.”
“You did what?”
“Reprocessed him. Recycled. Organic matter has a low entropy. It’s valuable.”
The butler was nuts. That meant his toast could be made of parts of Pierre Curie. So could parts of the butler. He held up the toast and looked at it. It bore no resemblance to the Curies.
On second thought, it seemed appropriate. He bit into the toast. “Tastes like toasted white bread,” he said. He chewed and swallowed, then took another bite.
“One of Wang Zhenyi’s recipes,” said the butler.
“Thanks. Didn’t I ask you to remind me of her as little as possible?”
“Forgive me, Johannes.”
Kepler leaned back. Maybe he should have an egg after all. The idle period was at an end. They had reached the unknown system. The ninety-niner was already orbiting the innermost planet.
“Shall I clear this away?” asked the butler.
“Yes, please. And prepare my expedition equipment. This time I want to be prepared for anything.”
“May I accompany you, Johannes?”
“Please do.”
Kepler scratched his head. Until now, the Herbae had primarily cooperated with Zhenyi. He had to establish their trust. But how? Would they even remember him—or the fact that Zhenyi had trusted him? He brooded. There was an idea in his head that didn’t dare come to the fore. It swirled around in the extremities of his brain so that he could only see its shadow.
He grasped at it. And there it was. It startled him when it reached his consciousness, but it seemed sensible. He would take the body of his beloved down with him. Then the Herbae would definitely recognize him.
“Puppy?”
“Yes?”
“You’ll need to prepare Zhenyi for the trip too, please. The how I’ll leave up to you. She needs to be easily transportable by one person.”
“Certainly, Johannes.”
The shuttle landed directly on the planet’s North Pole, right where they had exited the shaft the last time. How long had it been in local time? A hundred thousand years, half a million? Kepler’s heart sank. After such a long time, most people wouldn’t remember them. Did the Herbae think on a different time scale? He could only hope.
Kepler climbed out. The twilight had a tranquilizing effect on him. The butler would arrive soon with Zhenyi. He had taken her body out of the cargo bay. Kepler hadn’t seen her again since... He was afraid to. Her body would surely already be showing signs of decay. That was normal, wasn’t it?
“I’m here,” called the butler.
Kepler walked up to meet him. He was pushing a wheelchair containing something that looked like an empty spacesuit. But the wheels of the chair sank half a centimeter into the soil. The suit wasn’t empty. The butler came closer and Kepler recognized Zhenyi’s face behind the visor. She seemed to be smiling. Kepler couldn’t hold back the tears.
Then he saw the hole in Zhenyi’s forehead and his tears turned to rage. He had to avert the death of the universe. He couldn’t let the Curies win!
“I’ve lowered the temperature in her suit to four degrees. Unfortunately it won’t go any lower,” said the butler.
“I think we can work with that,” said Kepler.
“And how do we get down there?”
That’s right, the butler hadn’t been with them the first time. Kepler went to the edge of the shaft. The copter that had carried them back up was nowhere to be seen. He shook his head. Of course, no technical device would last that long in this climate. It had probably crumbled to dust long ago. That meant there was probably no way back up either. But it didn’t matter now. Either he would succeed in convincing the Herbae, and they’d save the universe, or he’d have to spend his remaining years down there.
“Going down is easy,” said Kepler. “We jump.”
“I understand. The shaft will catch us in the middle.”
“Something like that, Puppy. Will you take the wheelchair? You’ll have to make sure it stays upright so it’s not separated from its load.”
Its load. Kepler bit his tongue. He should call the corpse in the spacesuit Zhenyi, not load, even though it hurt. She deserved it.
“I mean Zhenyi,” he corrected himself, “so that Zhenyi isn’t separated from it.”
“I’ll take care of her, Johannes,” said the butler. “Don’t worry.”
Just like you took care of her in the ship? No, that’s unfair, thought Kepler. Attacking Pierre Curie would have definitely been Zhenyi’s idea. And if he hadn’t hidden under the table, Curie would have shot at him and not at Zhenyi. Why had she shouted ‘No?’ He had his friend on his conscience just as much as the butler did.
“Then let’s go,” said Kepler. “First one to the bottom.” He took a run-up of a few steps and jumped, making it almost to the middle of the shaft.
“I’m coming,” called the butler.
In the dark blue circle above Kepler appeared a silhouetted figure with pedaling legs, pushing a wheelchair. He leaned forward and spread out his arms to slightly break his fall. The butler soon caught up with him. Because he was upright, holding onto the wheelchair, his air resistance was lower and he fell faster, overtaking Kepler.
Kepler was left behind. He turned himself upside down so that he was falling head first. Now his own surface area was smaller than that of the butler plus wheelchair. He caught up with the butler again, then grabbed the right handle of the wheelchair, now floating just above Zhenyi. He could see her face through
the helmet. It looked like she was smiling at him.
Cycle AA2.2, unknown system
The gigantic dome was just as impressive as it had been on his first visit. All that was missing was Zhenyi’s reception. But she wouldn’t come out to meet him. She was sitting next to him in the wheelchair. Back then he had sat on the ground with her. They had held hands and marveled at the view. Now her hand was stuck in the glove of a spacesuit. He reached for it. The glove was cold and what was inside it was hard. He swallowed and tears welled up.
“This is amazing,” said the butler, looking around by turning his head in all directions with his right hand.
“I did describe it to you.”
“Yes, but seeing it for oneself is quite different.”
Kepler had to look away. It wasn’t a pretty picture, the butler twisting and turning his head on the end of the long neck. “We have to do something about your head,” he said. “Zhenyi’s house is over there on a platform. How long do nanomachines stay functional?”
“Forever,” said the butler.
“Good, she’s got some stored in there.”
They moved off. Just like on the surface, the grass retreated from them. Hopefully he would be able to connect with them. If the Herbae couldn’t help, the universe was lost.
The terrace was still there, the house still standing. The butler pushed the wheelchair up onto the platform.
“It’s best if you leave her there,” said Kepler. “Then she’ll have a nice view.”
“If you think so, Johannes.”
Kepler remained standing in front of the house. He didn’t dare go inside. The memories would overwhelm him and he wasn’t strong enough for that. He touched the outside wall. The material showed no signs of weathering, probably maintained by nanomachines.
But he had to go inside. If he wanted to make contact with the Herbae, he had to get into the chamber. The entrance was off the hallway. At least he wouldn’t have to go into the living room, or his or Zhenyi’s bedrooms. Kepler opened the door and went in. It was peaceful in the house, very quiet. He could hear his own heartbeat.
The Death of the Universe: Hard Science Fiction (Big Rip Book 1) Page 23