“She tried.”
“Sousa killed her before she could say anything.”
“You are daughter of Lucinda and Fahwad.”
“Huh?” She gaped, the revelation stunning her into silence. The man next to her seemed to sense this and also remained quiet, allowing her time to think.
Everything had made sense. Catlin had thought Lucinda looked at her strangely the first time they met, now she understood why. Marion said that she’d always been looking after her, from behind the scenes, even going so far as to hire Sousa to protect her in the background.
She shuddered at the thought of him, but realised he must have been watching her for a very long time too. Despite not condoning his behaviour she began to understand where it came from, he had been protecting her for years and almost certainly developed feelings for her in that time. He just lacked the ability to convey himself and to control his behaviour.
“Most strange.”
“What?” Catlin asked.
“Honestly don’t know, thought all humans had passed from here. Smith, told me before left that there were no more, that was alone. Guess not see you.”
“No more left?”
“We are all that remains. Humans have perished, their life returned to their threads. Humans no longer inhabit the Earth. Well at least the humans that changed into.”
“Huh?”
“The threads, they changed humans, when they came here. Thousands of years of integration and that was the result. Fahwad was behind it all, devouring and mixing life, just as he did on his home planet.”
“This all sounds very odd.”
“Is it though? As humans, grow up with no memory, a civilization with amnesia. Sure, we went to schools and there was instructed history of world, but that not the truth.”
“Humans not suddenly wake up one day and decide to build pyramids or develop mass agriculture. Didn’t evolve slowly over time as taught, no, something change us from simple nomadic people to intelligent, yet destructive beings.”
“The threads.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Our DNA mixed with theirs, right?”
“Over time.”
“And that’s what has progressed us?”
“Wouldn’t call what man has achieved progression, would you?”
“Why not, look at the marvels man has created.”
“There was a time, once, where man on par with surroundings, he part of Earth. But time has long past and been replaced by bad things.”
“There are elements that are good in man.”
“Yes, you are right. But fundamentally flawed if he not understand where he come from, how he began. To know one’s beginning, is to know one’s end.”
“And do you know how it began?”
“Have answers, somewhere inside, but that will take time.”
“Do you know when this all started?”
“No. But I do know that we have been here before.”
“Here? Like now, end of the world you mean?”
“It not end of world, world just given rebirth. What mean is that people, humans, they were wiped from this planet more than once before.”
“Clearly not.”
“What?”
“We wouldn’t be here if they’d been wiped out before.”
“Of course. They survive ice age and comet strikes, maybe will survive this also. Resilience is nature, persistence is time.”
“Man just forgot past. Like said, was living with amnesia. A race that completely forgot its origins, a race that was deceived by the likes of religion, possession or money, something ruled by ego.”
“How did we just forget all this?”
“When a civilization is wiped out, so is its history. The victor then re-write history to suit themselves. Such and so forth it goes over history until have what have today, a civilization with amnesia.”
“Right, so what difference does that make?”
“Man mix with thread, thread create ego, ego re-write history and man forget, man lose connection to Earth, to world he part of.”
Catlin always had a sense of doubt when it came to the origins of man, nobody seemed to be able to understand the true origins and explain it to her. But if what the kid was saying was true then the threads came here, created something else and caused man to lose his connection to the Earth.
And the result was a species that was not in touch with its surroundings, it was a foreigner that usurped the land and decimated its environment.
Now, it seemed, this modern man was gone, the threads restored.
“So what does that mean for me? That I’m not human?”
“You are part, but also part like them. The ones who come from sky.”
“Wow. How did that happen?”
“Perhaps it is best that you do not know.”
“How can I know where I am going if I don’t know where I have come from?” she used his words against him.
“True,” the man laments. “You were conceived through force, man named Samuel was body but mind and spirit was Fahwad.”
“By force?”
“Yes.”
A long silence ensued between the two as Catlin absorbed what the man was saying, it was a side to her history she’d never fathomed possible. She’d been conceived by force, apparently by two men, Lucinda being the victim.
Like mother, like daughter.
“I don’t understand how I can have two fathers.”
“Was Fahwad, inside Samuel’s body, they one and same, he reason no harm come to you.”
“Well that explains that,” she huffed, understanding she must have derived some sort of power from Fahwad as his daughter.
“You lept from cliff,” he whispers softly, sensing her mood. “But not die from fall. You not eat or drink in weeks, nor clothing to protect … yet here you are.”
She tried to hold the guilt back, but clearly he knew more about her than she, “I did try to end it. I caused pain to many and did not want the weight of it on my shoulders anymore. Then a man came, he took advantage of me … I don’t know what I was thinking … I thought it best that I just end it, so no others would have to experience my inadvertent destruction and I wouldn’t have to deal with my mind. I thought it better if I was dead. I thought that Destiny was protecting me, using the thread to keep me alive, I didn’t want that on my conscience anymore so …”
“You survived that fall and have survived many other things in your life before this day.”
“I thought that was because she’d been protecting me, from Destiny?”
“Not need protecting.”
“So what? I can’t die or something?”
The man shakes his head, clearly confused, “Umm, can an only see part of you and that part is unclear, assume because of your history with death you have a gift, one that is like theirs.”
“You said before that humans are gone, taken by the threads. Why then do you make it rain?”
“… figured rain would restore the balance, wash away the sins of our forebears and make for a fresh start.”
“Fresh start for who?”
“The Earth of course. She’s bled for long enough, now she can heal from the ravages of man. Now she can be the beauty that Smith always cherished.”
“And do you think it will work?”
“Maybe, don’t know, there’s only one person who can answer that.”
“You mean Smith?”
“Yeah.”
“The black guy?”
“Yeah.”
“And how would he know what to do?”
“He always knows what to do, even if he doesn’t.”
“Last I saw he was locked up in Destiny kid.” She deliberately left out the part about how he ended up there.
�
�Not anymore.”
“So where’d he go and is he coming back?”
“I want him to, but I don’t know if he can. He’s left his planet to try and return the others back to their home. He told me not to expect his return.”
“How did all this happen, the threads? Last I saw was three men come inside the facility, come to take Fahwad.”
“Greed. Lust. Power. Ego.”
The words reverberated inside Catlin, exposing her to the soul. She knew she fell victim to all of them.
“In the end it was Sousa,” he muses softly. “Sousa was the person Smith had wanted all along, his plan was to use him to end it. Sousa and his greed, Sousa and his lust for power gave Smith the chance to fight without fighting. Don’t fight the enemy, let the enemy fight itself.”
“What? Sousa? What happened exactly?”
“Smith managed to trick Sousa, he made him believe that he was ‘the key’. Sousa didn’t understand at first but when all the dots lined up, Sousa thought he was destined for greatness, that he had been chosen. Smith offered Sousa his power.”
“Using the signs available to him, Smith sacrificed himself. But neither him nor Sousa knew that and after he took his power, Sousa did what only Sousa could do, he wanted more power. He found the unconscious Fahwad, connected himself and absorbed him and all the threads he’d taken too, he absorbed everything.”
“Whoa.” Catlin went wide-eyed.
“Something happened when Sousa put them all together, they became one. But Smith ... who was inside Sousa, was the only one to rise from the transfer, a man containing all the other. Sousa became part of the collective, too insignificant to matter, but Smith ... all the life is contained in Smith now.”
“Wow! So Sousa tried to take it all?” she wondered. “All the threads for himself?”
“He tried, exactly as Smith wanted him too, Sousa was the key.”
“And he failed.”
“I would say he succeeded exactly as Smith wanted him too.”
“Can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em … funny how things work sometimes.”
In response the man shot her a knowing look, smiled and held her eye for a good minute before breaking contact again.
“And now what?” Catlin asked.
“Smith holds the power now, all of it. He has left Earth and now he goes, to take the threads back to where they came from.”
“Which is?”
“Hivan 5.”
“How?”
“The coffin.”
“The what?”
“It’s a vessel, Smith took it and the threads. Now he’s gone from the Earth in search of where they came from, to take the threads home.”
“And what about you? How are you still here then?”
“He left me in charge.”
“Who?”
“Smith.”
“Oh.”
“So, what now?”
“You asked that already.”
“Well I don’t understand what’s happening here.”
“Earth has won, the virus that infected it for a millennium has now gone. Have washed away all traces of humans, of their existence. Now Earth can heal itself, with help it can return to the way it once was, before they came.”
“An Earth without humans ... the sacred balance that once was now shall be again.”
And almost as if the Earth has heard the call, a bird lands softly at their feet, chips and flaps its wings. Its cry is melodious, joyous and only lasts a moment before the bird up and jumps away.
The two remain seated quietly for a long period following this, Catlin poured over her thoughts and the kids revelations. She never expected when this all started it would eventuate as it had, destiny it seemed had its own way and regardless of what her or anyone else had tried, the balance had indeed returned.
The Earth was free of man, free to grow again.
“So, you sure did make it rain,” Catlin mused aloud, marvelling at the immensity of the scene before her. Everywhere she looked there was water, stretching far beyond the horizon.
“Yes. But stop now.”
“Did you say there are still more threads?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t they go with Smith?”
“Cannot find.”
“Why not? You found the others, right?”
The man recalls a memory and a smile creeps up on his face. “A lady called Alison, she was the one who found the threads. She was the one who unravelled all of this and she did so without wanting for anything, she knew, because Smith made her see ... what it was like before the threads … would you like to see?”
Catlin seemed to ignore the question and was focused on something else. “What if the other threads are not on land, have you considered that?”
He looks at her funnily, for clearly he hasn’t. “You know, Smith, he spoke only of the virus that infected his land. He never actually said anything about the sea.”
“There you go then ...”
“I will think on this. The sea is not my domain, the land is. And what about you?”
“Me? What about me?”
“Where does your path lie now?”
“I don’t know,” she worried. “I tried to kill myself, I tried to take the easy way out because it all got too difficult. Now … huh … I’m the daughter of …”
“Do you want redemption? Or do you want to go back to the place where you fell?”
“You’re telling me I have a choice?”
“Telling you that you have two sides, but can only help with one. It’s up to you to choose which one you want to invest in, which one you want to stand in the light and which one you want to send into the dark.”
“Huh,” she pondered. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
“We have time.” He smiles, uncrossing his legs and stretching out with his arms. As he does so the clouds begin to break and warm rays of sunlight penetrate through the gloom, basking the flooded waters in golden sunshine.
“What’s your name anyway kid?”
“Have no name anymore.”
“Yes you do, I remember seeing you back at Destiny and in Melbourne. You’re the kid, the hacker.”
“No.”
“Yes, I remember, Han Solo, your name was Han Solo. Wasn’t it? No wait, now I remember, it was Harrison.”
“No, it was,” he reflects, looking up over the world before him, brilliant beams of sunshine now reflecting off the water. “Now … am a Smith.”
- -
THE MAN ON THE RED ROCK
THE MAN ON THE RED ROCK
THE MAN ON THE RED ROCK
THE MAN ON THE RED ROCK
THE MAN ON THE RED ROCK
the end
Recalling Destiny Page 74