by Richard Dusk
When the lovely woman's voice announced the floor and opened the door, pleasant smells coming from variable dishes played a symphony for his nose. It was probably the only place in the entire facility without contrasting combinations of white color. Black glossy floor and wooden mosaic ceiling helped this place to look more like a restaurant. The walls carried giant screens with non-intrusive company propagation videos and mottos. They covered more than half of the walls' size and played time-lapse scenes of Eagle Nebula, night downtowns, and blooming colorful flowers. When Garrett saw a young family of three standing in the knee-high grass under an oak tree at sunset, and read 'Your life is in our hands. Diamond Corp.' he didn't feel he wants to agree with that quote at all. Several people at long plastic tables sat on sky-blue, grass-green, and white canteen chairs. Display counters full of cakes and desserts, submarine sandwiches, ice creams with waffle cones and bowls, fruits and hot chocolate for dipping waited just for him, same as four soups to choose from: sweet pea soup with avocado, roasted almonds, and parmesan cheese; cauliflower cream with Norwegian wild salmon roe; clam chowder with crispy bacon; and creamy rice soup.
No, not anymore. We've spent too much time together, he frowned over the rice soup and moved to dishes from cuisines of Italy, France, and Japan.
He gulped his watered mouth over French roasted duck with orange sauce and quickly took a full plate. His second stop went around fruits and fruit salads. Last time he ate a fresh piece in one of the emergency camps with his daughter. He sat down at the table and picked up that one apple. He rolled it, spun it, and thought about the way how quickly and easily he got it. Clean and ripe, sweet and gently sour, prepared for anyone passing by.
"There you are," sounded Sarah's voice from behind. "I hope you received the message. Are you enjoying the food?"
"Yes, thank you. How's Jillian?" he said at once when she walked by him.
"She's in good hands, don't worry. Lizzie will tell you everything later. We're very well prepared for worse injuries than hers," she carried a stack of papers, laptop and coffee mug on the top. Once she laid it down, she sat on the opposite side of the table. "Garrett," she sighed, and her hand moved as if she wanted to grab his hand and stroke it but masked it with taking her mug. "I'm saying honest sorry once again, but I have to engage you in work even though you've just come. We're running out of time faster than we imagined. The world outside is unutterable. I heard about it, I saw it, and that's why I feel terrible to ask you to work for us again with no rest you desire and deserve. Your eyes speak for yourself that there happened too many things. You know I'm not a chatty person, and maybe you want to speak about what happened, but it doesn't feel right to force you to live through all of it once again, even if only in your memories," she began spreading the papers across the table.
"Sarah, it's a darned world slaughtering all who are surviving outside. Everyone knows it. I crave to forget everything that happened and erase my memories completely. I don't want to rake over the ashes. It's history now. If you need me, and it will be within my abilities, I'll help you. It's all right. I've spent a year trying to get here, and I don't want to be a burden for you. You gave us shelter and food, and that is more than I can ask for. After all, I will gladly feed my brain with something."
"Thank you, Garrett. I promise I'll try to do everything to make you feel like being home again," she said, and Garrett looked at her in a manner showing that she'll never succeed in that.
She understood the expression on his face and turned on the laptop, "Okay, let's get into this. The thing I want to open is the last project you worked on here and-"
"Wait. Tell me everything that happened. Where's Hikls? I'd like to speak to him."
Sarah froze on the spot. She played with her lips anxiously, hesitating with the answer.
"Garrett, he's dead," she said slowly, watching his reactions. "We lost him months ago."
"What? No, that's not possible. He... How... What happened?"
Sarah breathed in deeply and put the computer aside, "What do you remember, Garrett?"
"Far less than I need. I tried to recollect every memory I could, but I can't puzzle it out. It's like I've forgotten all of the last year or two when I worked here and a lot beyond that. There left some fragments, but they don't fit into anything. The last thing I know for sure is that we explored various Ocrosir applications with him, but it's nothing worth mentioning. After that, it's just a blank roll of film."
"You've probably suffered a serious trauma out there. Are you sure you don't want a check-up before we speak? You seemed less injured than the girl, so I didn't push you into one. I was afraid that your body might not handle more strain, and it wasn't possible to move forward without washing you. I hope you don't mind that I left you alone like that. We're a bit in a hurry, and there are no free hands."
"I'm good, I'll seek somebody later. It's not that urgent. Please continue."
"Okay, I'll try to summarize everything I know since the beginning. Maybe it'll come back to you," she turned the computer to show Garrett the screen. "In the late fifties, scientists of Diamond proposed one of the top classified projects titled Ionospheric Radial Transformation that included the development of a device named X-RON. The primary aim was to gain control over the fertility of Earth by affecting and modifying important parts of the close outer magnetic field, and therefore, everything related to weather, plant growth, and so on. But it turned into failure. None of the known natural or synthetic materials could perform at the strength and precision required. The entire project had to be terminated and archived as impracticable. No one attempted to reopen it because they knew it was doomed. Until you've synthesized Ocrosir. Do you remember the year before you began to work here? The long-lasting period of hot days beginning in spring and ending at year's end?" she watched Garrett nod with the full mouth of duck meat.
"Yes, I do. Unbearable heat. It didn't rain for months, did it?"
"Yes, everyone remembers that terrible year, and predictions assessed that in less than five years, we would be facing famine afflicting ninety-two percent of the population. Estimations proved that deserts will expand and cover eighty-five percent of the land overgrown with existing vegetation. We've destroyed Earth's natural cycles, and we needed to solve the matter of how to control rains, rivers, temperature, and essentially the whole climate. Therefore, some of our scientists proposed to reopen X-RON project with the Ocrosir molecule. They put Hikls in charge, and of course, he wanted you, the creator, to co-operate and lead this project with him. They believed you developed a molecule able to work exactly as they needed and expected in relation to this project. I presume you remember what capabilities it possessed. Does anything of this ring a bell?"
"No, not at all. But we never properly tested Ocrosir. Army took it before we could do anything about it," he grumbled, but Sarah beckoned him to calm down.
"I'll be honest with you, Garrett. It wasn't the army. They've never had any interest in its utilization. They just arranged this transfer to our hands. Don't take it wrong, but we acted reasonably concerning the drought and its consequences. Several people died because they underestimated the power of Ocrosir. We had the joint effort to understand it, and we gladly offered you to come and work here," she watched a vein pop on Garrett's forehead. "You must admit that we generously funded the research in comparison to the university," she quickly added to stop him argue with her. "Anyway, that's a digression from our topic. As I said, we couldn't count on natural ways of reversion to a normal state. It would take too long, and we didn't have time for that. You and Hikls successfully completed X-RON, and it worked remarkably, but after some time, it went haywire.
When the first catastrophes and casualties occurred, all the blame fell on Hikls. As a leader of the project, he had to explain what happened and stop it from repeating. At first, we thought it disrupted Earth's core magnetic field. It appeared to be the most reasonable but unconvincing hypothesis we had at hand to examine. With tons of data
from satellites orbiting Earth and other labs, we thought we confirmed it. Images from satellites showed an increase of its strength over the North Pole and the South Pole. It came periodically, negligible, and shot up within days. We had to move the scale significantly to cover the range. And then at one day, all the accumulated energy just burst across the Earth, came out at the poles, and flew into space. That day all of us down here thought the doomsday is coming," she sipped the coffee. "We didn't understand a single bit of what happened. None of us did. We've lost communication with other bases and with all satellites. One day later, we received these single last images," Sarah pulled out papers from an envelope and handed them to him.
Garrett put the knife aside and looked at satellite maps of the magnetic field. The first map showed red rings encircling Earth and moving across it the same way as Sarah said.
"The other one is a computer-processed analysis and extrapolation of the field one year ago. We can only assume what's the current status," Sarah handed him a photo of a tangle of red and blue lines in all directions, twisting and overlapping one another. "We asked for Nevada's borehole measurement results, but they showed minor differences in core's properties," she stirred her coffee nervously and drank it in one gulp. "As you can see, it's insane. Nothing's in order," she handed him another image with red circles over the entire Earth. "Moon temporarily orbited closer to the Earth by that burst. It maintained its speed, which caused an increase in angular velocity. For a certain period, it revolved faster around Earth, which also spins negligibly quicker.
But that's not the worst. You were outside, you've seen it. Earth is uninhabitable. Most of this continent is dried up, and others aren't in better condition. No fields and crops, no production, nothing. The way of life we had ceased to exist. Patrols even reported the existence of areas where oxygen simply disappeared – cities and vast lands full of suffocated people. We couldn't do anything about it and accepted it as a part of the magnetic or gravitational problem that might be solved later.
Our primary concern began when we recorded the first replications of objects and their disappearing. When this happened, we reached the dead-end. We had no knowledge about this whatsoever. No one ever experienced anything like this. It became dangerous to everyone and everything, including us. We decided to destroy X-RON and sent our teams to Sigma station in Greenland. X-RON is built within caves beneath the surface. Only one team managed to get there alive, but they never came back. A message arrived one month later. It reported that everything they used against it didn't work because of the strong field it generates. No charges, explosives, hacking. Nothing they used to blow it up had an effect. They couldn't even touch it because X-RON creates its own force field," she said, but Garrett stopped her by raising his hand.
"As you speak about X-RON, I'm beginning to recollect some fragments, which I didn't even know about. But I don't understand the replications you've mentioned. I thought that all objects just disappear, transfer, and reappear in some other place."
"Garrett, we can't even explain why it happens and not to mention the science behind it. That molecule you've created is not ordinary. It creates fields we've never encountered before. It defies most of the validated theories and mainly fine structure theory. We recalculated and experimented with the alpha constant, and its value locally differs over the globe. If we're correct in calculations and hypothesis, then there may indeed arise different worlds with absolutely unique or non-existing life, physical laws, and so on. You are right about reappears, but not entirely. We thought it too before, but now we know it's different. Anything may disappear and appear as the same one in a different place, or it stays at the same spot, and its copy appears somewhere. By the end of the year, we may be buried under ruins coming from anywhere."
Garrett looked skeptically at her because it was only half equal to his thoughts about this, "How do you know that?"
"Several of our ships duplicated right inside Diamond naval base."
"What?" Garrett didn't believe these words, but she nodded to assure him of it.
"As I've said, we decided to terminate the X-RON project. You and Hikls spent many days searching for the answer and came with a plan that could resolve this issue. He wanted to build a new device with you, but you disappeared overnight and left no trace behind. Nobody understood why. We searched for you because it was vital for humankind's survival to finish that research."
"I disappeared overnight? Why would I do something like that? I could never leave him in the lurch," he shook his head, but Sarah just shrugged and continued.
"He utilized the principle on which X-RON is built but made it working in inverse mode and thought it would be strong enough. The similar way he built coils to counteract waves and protect Nest from disappearances, but much smaller with the same efficiency. A month later, he organized an expedition to destroy it. Fully geared and fully equipped, they rode to the naval base in New York Bight, and thirty hours later, they reached Greenland's shores. He somehow managed to send us photos and several lines of his findings and attempts, but it came scattered and incomplete. We couldn't understand anything useful about it except that his weapon didn't have the strength to destroy it."
"He died there?"
"We don't know that. He could die on the way back."
"My God," Garrett put down his knife and fork onto the empty plate. "What about Whitkis? Who is he anyway? He's losing a grip," Garrett watched him heading to them.
"He is just somebody who used to lead former division here. Trapped here this long time and in these conditions probably triggered some disorder inside him. We keep him away from serious research and dope him. He is clever and valuable and might be used later. Now he has his optimistic phase, which is keeping him awake for the last three days. We gave him some tasks to keep him busy and entertained, but- Hello doctor, how are you?" she said happily to Whitkis accompanied by a soldier. His tray was full of ice cream and fruit salad.
"This is a wonderful day, my dear! Look at that stunning dessert!" he shouted so loud that everyone must have heard him. "I see you're chatting with our new colleague. Very well, my dear. I'm going over there to my biology friends to ask them about those creatures living up there," he chortled. "Oh, and don't forget to tell him about CHED, will you? It's promising research," he nodded very quickly with glittering eyes.
"Certainly," she smiled, and he walked humming away.
"What's CHED?"
"Controlled hypermagnetic field disintegration. That's why I need to talk with you," she said desperately. "It's the device Hikls designed and built a prototype to destroy X-RON – it has a principle of EMP strengthened with Ocrosir magnetron. It worked better than we imagined, and it was far more dangerous than we expected. It disintegrated matter into subatomic particles. Don't ask me how, but there left no trace of anything he used it against. Hikls believed it will destroy X-RON and took it with him. But it didn't," Sarah handed him a thick sheaf of images. "This is a photo taken in Greenland," she said about the pixelated image with the missing bottom half. "What you see are scattered remains of CHED, and here is a minor crack in the ground. That's all we know."
Garrett looked concerned at the image. He noticed a big black circle on the wall looking like burnt by a fireball.
"You were the one who created that molecule. We need you to finish and improve his research and go to Greenland to end all of this, Garrett," she pushed a black folder full of papers to him.
"I need another cup," Garrett said swiftly, tossed images on the table, and went to the coffee machine.
He needed a few seconds to absorb the facts she just told him. The wheels inside his head began to turn, and he realized the truth that can't be denied. The responsibility of the apocalypse lies with him and him only.
"I killed all those people. For God's sake, they all died because of me," he whispered to himself and felt his heart pounding and pumping the blood faster. "This can't be real. This must be nonsense, I couldn't do it," he persuaded himsel
f, rubbing his eyes.
If he didn't synthesize Ocrosir, then they wouldn't be living in this world. And now he has to build a device that probably killed his friend and has to set out on a journey that may cost him his life. If he doesn't go, it will cost the lives of all people who are still fighting to survive. A few hours back, he walked outside in the snow and dust, and in a matter of days, he's supposed to be out there again. His chest tightened, and sudden dizziness followed by a headache and finger tingling overwhelmed his body. Tens of seconds passed during which he rubbed his eyes and thought about the promise he gave to Jillian. All that he believed will be the end is just another beginning. He looked at Sarah who watched him and grabbed two cups.
"What happened at bio division?" he said with a poker face, hiding the shuddering inside, to change the subject for a while and handed her a cup of coffee.
"We had an accident the other night before you came, which caused water to flood all upper biology levels and most of the lower ones. As you know, Nest is drowned in a water capsule supported and protected with titanium alloy framework. We had coils keeping Nest shielded from these waves, but one broke, and rivets traveled like bullets through water and labs, and many walls disappeared. Everything there is destroyed. We lost all departments except physics and a few floors of human research. Soldiers partially repaired the shield and pumped all the water away from upper levels to seal the walls and keep Nest away from breaking down."