“What was stasis like?” Robbie asked.
“Uh, kind of like suspended animation, only not really. Temporally locked. If you’re wondering if you’re missing a hundred years of memories, you aren’t. You’re missing probably a few hours, tops.”
“Suspended animation that killed our electronics?”
“Anything with batteries died over time, but not from the stasis. I had to remove them; they created interference.”
“Hey, I have a question,” Bethany said. “I have a question.”
“Go ahead, Bethany,” Noah said.
“Whoa, it knows my name,” she muttered. “Okay, why’d you put us back in our own homes and all? Was that to trick us?”
“Because of Raymond,” he said. “He was the first one I took, so he was the first one I put back, but he didn’t take it well. I didn’t even think about putting him back in his home, but in my defense, it wasn’t there anymore. I thought if you guys started out somewhere familiar, you’d have a chance to, I don’t know, ease your way into things. Better than he did, anyway. And it worked, right?”
“It was terrible,” she said, quietly.
“I know. But it was gonna be terrible either way.”
“What year is this?” Ananda asked.
“Oh, easy one. It’s, um . . . it’s 2127. March, I think. You want the exact day? I’d have to look it up for you.”
“That’s good enough,” Robbie said. “You found traces of tachyons in us, kidnapped us, and then buried a machine in Cambridge. Why’d you do all that?”
“Why? I like you guys. As a species, I mean. When I picked up traces, I tried to understand the when and the where and all that, but I also knew that regardless of when and where, the whole human race was about to get wiped out and I wanted to stop it. My device is kind of like a roach motel for Tachyonites, or it was supposed to be. But like I said, it didn’t work.”
“It’s a prison?” Carol asked.
“Should’ve been. I was trying to catch it before it did what it did. But I messed up.”
“Everyone was trying to get away from it,” Win said. “On the roads, everyone was leaving town. Was that your fault?”
“Yeah, sure, indirectly. I didn’t mean for them to find it. I stuck it in the foundation of a building around 2022. In 2043, they decided they didn’t want that building anymore, they found my tech, and it went south from there. All they were able to figure out was that it had something to do with tachyons, which it does. It’s kinda like a Thermos, with a layer of tachyon-reactive . . . never mind. It’s advanced. I’ll give you the poop on it later, Ananda, if you guys survive this.”
“‘Survive’?” Robbie said.
“‘If’?” Touré said.
“Yeah, like I said: It’s still going to wipe you guys out soon, but let me finish. They unearthed my roach motel and, after doing a bunch of tests, figured out it was extraterrestrial and thought it might be a bomb. The attack came during the total evacuation of the area. I think that’s probably a coincidence, but maybe not. I was too busy trying to understand why my trap didn’t work. But the good news for you guys is, I think I got it right this time.”
Paul laughed, then went and sat down in the first row. “I know what comes next,” Paul said. “You’re going to tell us we’re bait, aren’t you? To see if your toy works?”
“No, no, no. It’s not like that at all.”
“How is it, then?”
“For starters, if you don’t do anything at all, it’s going to kill you. You’re not bait, because you’re already in mortal danger. I’m offering a lifeline to you, the last of the human race.”
He stopped, perhaps for dramatic effect. Noah might not be human, but he seemed to know a lot about theatricality.
“Has it started to get aggressive yet?” Noah asked. “The lights?”
He looked around the room. No one wanted to answer.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything. I can tell by the way you’re looking at each other, it has. Well, that’s going to keep getting worse. What it’s doing is conducting experiments to work out what makes you seven different. It’ll eventually get tired of trying to solve that puzzle and just clean up after itself and move on. Then we both lose out. I miss out on an opportunity to gain valuable information about these creatures, and you miss out on living. Your other option, what I’m offering, pastor, is a chance to maybe not die.”
“This device of yours,” Ananda said, “does it kill them?”
“I don’t know how to kill something like this. I can trap it, is all. The trap won’t even hold it forever, but it’ll hold it for long enough to get it off the planet and a very long way from here. Maybe I’ll throw it into a sun, I don’t know. I can buy you time and distance is what I’m saying. Can’t guarantee it will last forever, not until we have a better idea of the Tachyonite’s motivation. Figure that out and we can move the human race off the extinction list.”
“Sounds great,” Paul said. “I don’t believe a word of it.”
“Neither do I,” Carol said.
“It’s your choice,” Noah said. “I’m just laying out the options. And, I mean, I apologize about the whole abduction thing, but you have to realize that I saved your lives when I did that. Don’t hold that part against me.”
“Robbie?” Carol said. “What do you think?”
Robbie didn’t know what he thought yet and hated that the others wanted to know. It was all a lot easier when this was just a crazy idea he’d had about an alien hiding in the shadows.
“You let us catch you,” Robbie said to Noah. “You’ve been helping us all along. You gave Bethany a wheelbarrow and unlocked the door on the supermarket roof. Am I forgetting anything?”
“Elton?” Win said.
“No, the horse was just good luck,” Noah said. “There’s a few dozen of them running wild west of here if you’re curious. But yes to everything else. If you want to know why I haven’t just popped in and said hello, that’s what I did with Raymond, and he did not handle it well. I tried to open up a dialogue with Carol, but I think we all know how that went. You guys had to work it out on your own. Hopefully, before the Tachyonite decided to get rid of you.”
Robbie nodded. He looked around the room to see if anyone else had more to add, but they were all looking to him. Their leader, apparently.
“Okay,” he said. “What do you want us to do?”
2
What Noah wanted them to do was simple enough: gather at his device, all seven of them, at a particular time.
It was a slightly problematic ask, only because they had no timepieces, and he couldn’t give them more than a certain occasion to be named later.
“I’ll know when,” he said. “The problem is in the detection. I’m looking for that moment when the . . . What were those things, the, um, the jewelry? . . . Mood rings. It’s like mood rings. I’ll be able to detect when the creature’s about to attack because its energy levels will crest. Again, I can’t explain it any better without a ton of detail, and the truth is, I’m about a half an hour away from the oxygen eating through my skin here.”
“How long will we have?” Ananda asked. “Once you’ve notified us.”
“An hour, maybe two. Think of it like a grenade. The Tachyonite has to be near the device when it’s about to blow. If one of you isn’t near it, there’s a risk the grenade will go off around that person first instead, and then we’ve lost our window, because it’s only vulnerable to the trap right at that moment.”
“This is happening soon?” Robbie asked.
“Not sure. Could be a week or a month. Maybe two. Look, I really have to go, man. Can I have my doodad?”
Robbie looked around the room for someone to decide this for him. Nobody did, so he stood up and handed it over.
“Thanks,” he said.
He pulled something else out of his cloak and tossed it to Ananda.
“If that box gives you a solid red light, it’s time to go,” Noah s
aid.
“What do the other lights mean?” she asked.
“Don’t worry about those.”
That just about guaranteed it would be all she was going to worry about, but maybe Noah knew that.
“You’re not coming back when it’s time?” Robbie asked.
“I will, but not until it’s over. Like I said, if it sees me, you’re done where you stand. Okay? See you guys on the other side.”
He raised his injured right arm and pushed the button.
Noah’s disappearing act was fascinating. It was as if he walked backwards into a darkened room until overtaken by that darkness, except that there was no room to back into, and the darkness came from within him.
They all stood there awhile, just staring at the spot he’d vacated.
“Yellow spots,” Bethany said, pointing at the floor. “See?”
Noah had dripped some blood next to the chair.
“Saw that,” Robbie said.
“Told you I winged him in the driveway.”
“Yep.”
Robbie sat back down next to Carol.
“So,” he said, “are we going to do what he says?”
“I thought you already made that decision,” Paul said. “I wouldn’t have let him leave.”
Robbie turned to Paul. “Nobody here was stopping you from making that decision,” he said. “If you had something to share, there was time for it.”
“Sure,” Paul said.
“No, really,” Robbie said. “I’m not the last word here. I think we should do it, but there are seven of us and nobody elected me. So I’m asking what you think. All of you.”
None of them wanted to go first. It was an odd new dynamic for the Apocalypse Seven, Robbie thought. They never really had to vote on many things before this, because in the past there was always a clear expert on the subject—whatever the subject—among them, and everyone else was willing to defer. They didn’t have a first-encounter-with-an-alien expert, though.
“Touré?” Robbie asked. “What do you think? Do we do what he said or not?”
“It’s a lot to take in, dude,” Touré said. “But I vote yes.”
“Yeah, so do I,” Bethany said. “Anything that stops those lights.”
“Carol?” Robbie asked.
“I don’t trust Noah,” she said. “But if you do, I’ll go along.”
“I’m not sure I trust him either,” Robbie said. “Win?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Something smells funny.”
“That’s just how he smells,” Touré said.
“Ha, not what I mean. You mentioned him, when you were feverish. Do you remember?”
Touré looked shocked. “No—did I?”
“Yeah, by name. You kept talking about having to get back to the gang, and Noah was one of the people you named. He said we were only missing a couple of hours from our memories, which I took to mean the time he abducted us and the time he put us back. I’m just wondering if it was more than that.”
“Maybe Touré’s fever helped him remember whatever Noah erased,” Robbie said.
“I’m saying, it could have been more,” Win said. “We have no way of knowing, not when we’re dealing with someone who can vanish like he just did, someone who can alter our memories like he already admitted he was capable of.”
“That’s fair,” Robbie said. “Does that mean you’re not in?”
“No, I’m in, for now. I just feel like we’re missing something.”
“Okay. Ananda?”
“I’ll do it,” she said. “It’s a risk of death versus a virtual guarantee of it. But I reserve the right to change my mind.”
“Sure.”
Robbie turned to the pastor, sitting in the first row.
“No,” Paul said. “Absolutely not.”
“This will only work if all of us participate,” Ananda said. “You heard what he said.”
“I did. The space alien said a lot of stuff. About the only thing I’m willing to believe is that he’s really a space alien. For the rest of it, I’ll hold out until a better explanation comes along.”
“I understand it if this is troubling for you—” Robbie began.
Paul cut him off. “No, it’s not that, kid. I know where you’re going. You all think I’m just some Bible-thumping yahoo. Maybe that’s what I am, but this isn’t about that. I’m not going to debate divine intent or whether the thing that just vanished is a devil or whether space aliens have souls. It’s not about any of that. This is about free will. I think I have it, and I think what I just heard said otherwise, and so I am exercising that free will by rejecting the premise.”
“You’re thinking we don’t have a choice?” Robbie asked.
“No, you’re not looking big enough. You want to tell me the shimmer is the afterimage of an alien who moves backwards through time . . . no. The Lord gave me free will, and that free will resulted in my being chosen to remain on this Earth for reasons only He understands. I accept that even if I don’t understand it, because I am in control of my decisions. Now I’m hearing that the spaceman saved my life and dropped me into the future because he could detect some kind of trace evidence that I was going to be in the future. That’s the description of a world where our fates are predetermined, and I can’t abide that. So, no sir. You can count me out.”
With that, Paul got up and left the auditorium.
They all sat in the near darkness in silence for a little while.
“I’ll talk to him,” Win said.
“No, I will,” Ananda said.
“Give him some time,” Robbie said. “Maybe he’ll come around.”
Ananda held up the box Noah gave her.
“We don’t know how long we have,” she said.
“I know. Give him some anyway. He’s a reasonable person.”
Sixteen
Robbie
1
Spring arrived a week later.
With it, the spirits of the seven remaining members of the human race should have been lifted, as that was what springtime ordinarily did to members of the human race. It didn’t work, though, because the shimmer was still turning up randomly . . . and it was getting worse.
Or it seemed like it was. Everyone reported seeing it more often and that it had been coming off as more aggressive than it had previously, but—and it was Ananda who pointed this out—it could be that they only felt that way now because the idea of malicious intent had been planted in their heads by Noah.
This observation was not helpful.
By the fourth week of spring, everyone was on edge. Light-show assaults were coming daily, and nobody was getting much sleep while waiting for the red light Noah had given them to come on, which it thus far stubbornly refused to do. (It had a blinking yellow, a solid green, and an intermittent orange light, none of which seemed to be detecting useful things.)
At the same time, the situation with Paul was becoming strained, though aside from the moment when he’d stormed out of the meeting, he was his usual pleasant and chatty self. Which was great—at first. He remained approachable, certainly, and so every one of them, at one time or another, did approach . . . and asked him to reconsider.
He debated Ananda for three hours on the nature of free will, and Win for two or more on the nature of the soul. With Bethany, it became a discussion about fear and how one should not let it govern one’s actions—information Bethany only found useful in the abstract.
Carol’s effort nearly worked, at least according to her. Robbie didn’t entirely understand what her approach was—she’d cited Hume, Saint Augustine, and Descartes, but couldn’t say how those citations coalesced into a cogent thesis—but when she was done she was certain he’d been convinced.
He was not.
Even Touré tried, despite having already gone on record with the admission that Paul made him nervous. They went back and forth for the better part of an afternoon on game theory and the prisoner’s dilemma. It di
dn’t change Paul’s mind, but Touré nearly changed his.
Robbie waited until everyone else had taken a turn before trying himself, because he was really hoping one of the others had a key to unlocking Paul that Robbie already knew he did not.
2
Robbie found Paul sitting at a table in front of a taco place around the corner from the campus.
The pastor was drinking a beer and attempting to derive pleasure from a cigar that was so stale, it somehow even soundedstale every time he puffed on it. Despite his scarred face, he looked beatific, staring off into the middle distance.
Paul could be equal parts serene and terrifying at any moment. It was kind of amazing. Robbie envied the serenity part.
“Can I sit?” Robbie asked.
“Sure,” Paul said. “Do you want a beer?”
“No, I’m good. I never really enjoyed beer.”
“It’s what you were drinking at the party,” Paul said.
Robbie had a moment of disconnect, thinking at first that Paul was referring to the keg party Robbie had been at on the night of his abduction. But he was talking about the rooftop barbecue.
“Yeah, I keep thinking the next time I try it, I’ll like it. Hasn’t happened yet. Dunno why I’m still trying. Maybe if it was cold.”
“Nah. The cold just means you’re not tasting all of it. It’s fine like this. How about a cigar?”
“No, definitely not,” Robbie said.
“Fair enough. You know, I didn’t really get around to appreciating this until now, but there’s a lot of stuff just lying around here, owned by nobody in particular. Now that I’m not spending all my time worrying about how to make it to the next sunrise, it’s sort of nice to indulge. Even if the cigars are stale and the beer’s flat.”
Robbie smiled. “Not a bad way to look at it, I guess,” he said. “Sounds like something Touré might come up with.”
“Well, he’s flighty, but he’s got the right attitude.”
Robbie looked down the street, in the same direction as Paul. The view caught part of the river and the bridge spanning it. There were deer running all over the place, especially near the grassy area, under the tree cover right at the riverbank.
The Apocalypse Seven Page 34