The Rift: Hard Science Fiction

by Brandon Q Morris

  “You know, Derek, you were so exhausted yesterday that you needed someone to take care of you. And that’s what we’re doing now.”

  “We?”

  “I just sent Akif out with the trash. He should’ve returned already. I wonder where he is?”

  “Where did the two of you sleep?”

  “The living room. We unfolded the sofa bed. It was big enough.”

  The two spent the night together in the same bed? Derek was curious, but he didn’t dare ask any questions. “I can honestly say I can’t remember anything that happened yesterday,” he said.

  “Did you black out?”

  Derek nodded. “All I remember is that the engine failed.”

  “After that, we dropped you off here. You were so exhausted you couldn’t drive home. Then we started driving back to Ottawa, to our own homes, but I started worrying about you, so finally I asked Akif to have the car turn around.”

  “I don’t remember any of that.”

  “I’m not surprised. We found you on the kitchen floor. Next to you were two bottles of whiskey, one empty, one half full. You’d thrown up. At first, we were going to call an ambulance, but then we thought it’d be easier to clean you up and put you in bed. To be safe, we stayed here overnight.”

  “That was very kind of both of you.” Derek felt all warm inside. He couldn’t remember when anyone had shown him that much love.

  “We should’ve seen it sooner. When the rocket didn’t launch, you really took it hard.”

  “I was hoping to see Mary again.”

  “That’s what I thought. You almost got your wish too, just not the way you imagined.”

  “I wasn’t trying to kill myself,” Derek said. “If that’s what I wanted, I could’ve used my gun.” He wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth. Maybe at that moment he just hadn’t remembered there might be a more efficient way than whiskey. So, Gita had filled in what had happened during his blackout.

  The feeling that he had no more interest in living was not something that he’d forgotten. And it appeared that not much had changed. His life had definitely not gained any new meaning since yesterday. Maybe now that he was awake, he would be better able to plan the action he had wanted to take yesterday.

  The kitchen door opened with a metallic creak. “These hinges could use some oil,” Akif said. “I saw some in the garage, so I’ll take care of that next.” He had two empty trash cans in his hands. “And while I was out there, I did a little straightening up, I hope you don’t mind,” he said.

  “Ah, that’s why you were gone so long,” Gita said. “I need you to dry these.”

  Akif put his hand gently on her shoulder. Derek noticed the gesture. “Derek can do that. He knows better than I do where all these plates and cups go,” the doctor said. “I need to go back to my car for something.”

  Gita handed Derek a dish towel, and he began to slowly dry and put away the giant pile of clean dishes. Drying dishes was a meditative activity. It was good for him. In the meantime, Gita had finished washing the remaining dirty dishes. She let the water drain out and cleaned the sink. She sang quietly as she worked. In that tiny moment, Derek felt happy.

  The kitchen door creaked again. Akif was right, the hinges needed oil. “I’ve got something to show you,” the doctor said.

  He put a small radio, which must have been 30 years old, on the kitchen table. He reached behind the radio and picked up a cable that he plugged into an outlet. Derek was afraid that Gita would stop singing, but he also didn’t want to ruin Akif’s fun, so he didn’t say anything. There were a few seconds of pop music and then a news announcer started speaking.

  “Yesterday, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a space elevator was launched for the first time,” the professional voice said.

  A space elevator? Derek imagined himself in an elevator car, its doors sliding shut as he presses the button with the label SPACE, and a minute later the doors open and he walks through them into a space station. He nods as people walk past him to get on the elevator.

  The news was followed by some technical details and elaborations from excited experts.

  The last sentence electrified Derek.

  “Starting tomorrow, NASA wants to use this innovative concept to finally study the still-present rift from up close,” the announcer said. “And now from Washington. In the budget crisis, the Senate and House of Representatives still appeared to be far...”

  Derek set down the plate he had just dried, went to the kitchen table, and turned the radio off. “Did you hear that?” he asked.

  “The space elevator? I thought they had shelved that idea years ago,” Akif said.

  “Yeah, but now they’ve tested it and are going to launch it.”

  “But not all the way to space. They don’t have a license for that. I bet all the space travel companies objected to it. They’d want to keep it from competing with their rockets,” Akif said.

  “But I don’t want to go into space. I want to go where they’re going tomorrow.”

  “I wouldn’t turn down an invitation, either, Derek.”

  “They’re not going to give out invitations.”

  “That’s the problem. We’ll have to stay here.”

  “There’s always a way,” Derek said. Akif and Gita looked at him with shock.

  “You want to break in by force?” Gita asked.

  “They’ll throw you in jail for years,” Akif said.

  “They’ll have to catch me first.”

  Derek could feel his determination growing. It was interesting. First it had been a crazy dream, but with just a few spoken words he felt like it had transformed into a real possibility.

  “How would they not catch you? The space elevator launches from an active military base. There must be a few thousand soldiers there. Are you going to fight off all of them?”

  “They won’t even know I’m there. I’ll sneak in and hide myself in the elevator.”

  “How could you possibly do that, Derek? Surely the base is well secured.”

  “I was in the Air Force once. I know the protocols. A man in the right uniform won’t arouse any suspicions. Especially right now, when there will be so many extra, non-regular workers moving around the base.”

  “So that’s another reason you think you won’t look especially strange,” Akif said.

  “Yeah, I think I can pull it off.” The opportunity was beginning to feel like even more than that for him—it was transforming into a real future. He wanted to see it happen. Derek’s stomach tightened. “But I’m going to need some help.”

  Akif and Gita looked at each other. Derek noted the still-skeptical look on the doctor’s face.

  Gita nodded. “You don’t expect us to fight our way in, do you?”

  “No, I just need eyes and ears, and a little logistics.”

  “‘Logistics?’” Akif asked.

  If the doctor was already asking about details, Derek knew he almost had him convinced. He didn’t want to put his new-found friends in danger, but he knew he had no chance at all if he tried to do it by himself.

  “I have to get there somehow. But if a truck stops in one place for too long anywhere close to the base, even if it’s still on a public access road, someone’s going to get suspicious and raise an alarm.”

  “Okay, I can drop you off with your truck,” Gita said. “No problem.”

  “After that, I’ll need you two to do surveillance.”

  “How do you envision that working?”

  “You’ll have to set yourselves up with binoculars and night-vision devices at overlook points outside of the base. Then I’ll need you to warn me if a patrol is coming too close.”

  “That sounds doable,” Akif said.

  “It’s also not a crime to look at the base from public land, even with binoculars,” Derek said. “Unless they catch me and can prove that you were assisting me. But they’re not going to catch me.”

  “I don’t understand how you can be so opti
mistic about that,” Gita said. “Let’s assume you’re able to actually get into the elevator undetected, and ride along as a stowaway. You might be able to get that far. But at some point, you’ll have to reveal yourself, otherwise why even go? And then when the elevator comes back down, the military will be waiting for you and take you into custody.”

  “Yes, I’ve thought about that too,” Derek said. Then he paused, because he knew that his friends wouldn’t like the rest of his plan. He wasn’t sure if he liked it very much himself. After a long time, he had finally apparently found some real friends who wanted to support him, and then he was going to leave them so soon?

  “Then there’s a slight problem, don’t you think?” Gita asked.

  There was no way around it, he was just going to have to tell them the plain truth. “No,” he said, “because I’ll have left the space elevator by the time it returns to the ground.”

  Nobody said anything. Akif and Gita looked at each other again without a word. There was definitely something new going on between them. The doctor no longer looked at Gita like his sexless employee, but instead like a beautiful woman. And Gita had started projecting a real radiance these last few days. Derek was happy about it, because it probably wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t shaken things up with his crazy idea.

  “I... I don’t suppose you’re planning to bring along a parachute, and then jump to escape the soldiers?” Akif said finally, breaking the silence.

  “No... No, I’m going to jump into the rift,” Derek replied. “At first I thought I’d tell you some fairy tale like me jumping back to the ground with a parachute, but you’re my friends and you deserve to know the truth.”

  “Thank you, Derek,” Gita said quietly.

  “Besides, that clearly wouldn’t solve anything, because they would just track me down. Breaking into a military base isn’t something they could just let go. It makes me a little worried about you two. They’ll find out my identity somehow and then figure out who I’ve been in contact with recently. That could then lead them back to you two.”

  “Then we’ll try to cover our tracks. Luckily, in this country they still have to prove your guilt before you can be convicted.”

  “I’ll gladly help if I can,” Derek said. “I was always trained to never leave any trace behind in my missions. Does this mean you’ll help?”

  “The weekend’s coming up,” Gita answered. “We didn’t have any other plans, did we, Akif?”

  “I’ve always wanted to see California again,” the doctor said. “That’s where my family entered this country when I was young.”

  Derek used the morning to straighten up the house. Akif gave him a hand. The doctor turned out to be a pleasant person to talk to. Gita had gone grocery shopping earlier and was back to singing in the kitchen while cooking their lunch. Even as he noted how much he enjoyed this domestic scene, everything felt like a long, slow farewell. Derek kept switching between sadness and anticipation. It was good not to be alone.

  They had decided they would try to come up with a rough plan while eating. Gita had made a spicy Indian curry. Derek burned his tongue with the first bite. A good time to pause the meal and iron out the details. “It’s about 26 hours to the coast,” he said.

  “We could fly,” Akif suggested.

  “Then I can’t bring my gun with me,” Derek said. “Don’t worry, I’m not planning to shoot anyone, but I’m going to need some way of holding off the other passengers on the elevator. They’ll outnumber me.”

  “If we took my car, we could let the autopilot drive,” Akif said.

  “Unfortunately, we can’t do that, or the authorities will be able to track you two down. They can read all the electronics easily. My old truck is still completely analog.”

  “Okay, then we’ll have to take turns driving,” Gita said. “That’s a good eight hours for each of us. That’s doable.”

  “But isn’t the launch scheduled for tomorrow?” Akif asked.

  “I thought of a plan for that too. We’ll send out a terror threat,” Derek said.

  “That’s crazy. Won’t they put in extra precautions around the base? It’ll be even harder for you to get in.”

  “That wasn’t my experience during my active duty. Shortly after the threat there’ll be a lot of chaos. They’ll search everything and everyone, but as soon as they figure out it’s a false alarm, the level of attention and care will drop below even what it was to begin with.”

  “That makes sense psychologically,” Akif said, “but I wouldn’t have thought that it’d be true for Air Force personnel too.”

  “They’re only human, just like the rest of us,” Derek said.

  “Then the launch would be moved to sometime Sunday morning?” Gita asked.

  “Yes, that’s the most likely outcome, I think. The terrorist threat will cost them a few hours—they’ll know that right from the start, no matter how it turns out. That’s just standard protocol. They’ll have to send the press home and tell them to come back the next day at the same time.”

  “That’s what I would think too,” Akif said.

  “You’ll bring me to the base sometime around midnight. Then you’ll leave my truck in a neighborhood close by and rent a car under a false name to drive back. You can be back to open up your office right on time Monday morning.”

  “If anyone asks us, we’ll just say we were on a premature honeymoon. We saw you last on the 31st. There are witnesses to that,” Akif said.

  Gita beamed at Akif. Derek grinned. I knew it!

  “They’ll find out that you were in California, you’ll have to expect that,” Derek said. “The rental car company will confirm it.”

  “True. I’ll say that I’d always wanted to see the ocean,” Gita said. “And as an unmarried woman, I couldn’t just use my real name, traveling with a man. What would people say!”

  Derek turned away. He was unsure. Investigators would see right through these lies. His friends would be headed right into trouble all because of him. But no one could prove that they knew what he had planned. Nobody would be able to interrogate him. He was certain no one would believe Akif and Gita, but in the end, the authorities would have to let them go. They wouldn’t have done anything wrong themselves. At least he hoped not. It weighed upon him that they might have to suffer because of him. They didn’t deserve that.

  By now the food wasn’t so hot anymore. They ate in silence.

  “I’ll pack some food and water,” Gita said after the plates had been cleared. “The two of us will have to stay in the truck while we’re on the road. Otherwise a security camera might film us somewhere. You two should probably put on some new clothes.”

  “Can I borrow some clean clothes, Derek?”

  “No problem, look in the closet in the bedroom.”

  “How about you, Gita?” Akif asked, “do you need to get anything from your apartment?”

  “A lady always has a change of underwear with her,” Gita claimed. “I already washed what I was wearing before, earlier this morning. They should be dry by now.”

  “Let’s meet at the truck in 15 minutes,” Derek said. “I’ll be happy to say goodbye to this house.”

  He was alone in his house again. Nevertheless, it wasn’t completely quiet. There was a ticking sound coming from somewhere in the distance, although he didn’t own a non-digital clock. Now and then he heard a rustling, some animal probably. His breathing quieted. A beam of light came through the keyhole in the kitchen door and landed on the dark floor, dancing in slow motion. Small particles of dust glittered in the light like diamonds. The kitchen smelled of Indian spices and wood preservative.

  It wasn’t a beautiful house, but it had been a good one. Derek was grateful for all the time that it had provided him with shelter and safety. He hadn’t often been happy during his years there, but it wasn’t the house’s fault. Gently he ran his hand over the shiny brown wooden ball that formed the end of the banister. If he were to come back, he would remove the brow
n paint. He imagined the hidden grain of the wood underneath. It would most certainly display intricate paths as inextricable as those in his own life. By all standards he was probably crazy to believe in a different reality. But he had decided he would try to follow this path to its end. He owed it to Mary.

  Derek touched the wooden ball affectionately, as if it were a representative for the whole house. As soon as he let go, dust would start to settle on it. Dust would continue to collect inside the house after he left, just like it had grown dusty over the last several years due to his lack of care. The rain would wash the outside, but it wouldn’t reach the inside, at least until the roof leaked and the house started to fall into disrepair. Someday the wooden ball would be almost unrecognizable under a thick layer of dust.

  He turned around and walked to the door. The boards creaked under his steps. He opened the front door and had to shade his eyes, it was so bright outside. He took a big step across the threshold and stood outside. Then he turned around and pulled the door closed. He left it unlocked.

  June 1, 2085, Ceres

  M6 lifted his left front leg. With the free gripping mechanisms, he opened the flap to the analyzer. He took out an object, a foreign body, that hadn’t been in there yesterday.

  He had birthed an automatic camera.

  M6 was proud of his product. He activated the remote connection. The camera confirmed that it was there and successfully completed its self-test. He gave it the command to take a photo. Milliseconds later it delivered its picture. He saw a section of his own, relatively giant-sized body. So, the camera had seen its maker.

  He picked it up, set it down a little farther away, and moved back a bit. Then he sent a command for another picture. The picture now showed almost his entire body, but it was little more than a dark silhouette. He would have to adjust the settings to better fit the lighting from the surroundings. M6 tested two other positions. Then he calculated a lighting curve from the pictures and uploaded it into the camera.

  The next pictures looked particularly good. But the picture noise grew when he was too far away. That could be fixed. He had selected extra robust designs for the sensors.