by M. R. Forbes
He didn't understand how that could be? Origin told Mitchell that the Goliath had been waiting at that same place in space since it had arrived in this timeline. The Tetron had never mentioned anything about visiting other worlds during that time.
Unless he didn't know.
Origin's memories were incomplete, the fullness of them lost with Christine. Was it possible he had come here with the original crew of the Goliath and helped them get down onto the planet? Was it possible he had made the tunnel, made the door, made the room where Mitchell was now standing?
That didn't make sense. How had the Federation found it? How had they known where to put it for it to be found?
"Stupid," he whispered to himself. Origin knew where Hell was in the previous future. He knew the layout of the Gold Dragon's base. It would be easy for him to know exactly where to put the chamber for it to be found. Of course, he wouldn't want to make it obvious. He wouldn't want it to be too easy to access.
But why was it here?
"You okay in there, Colonel?" Boomer asked, his voice echoing in the room.
"Affirmative," Mitchell replied.
"I think Sleepy got the power back on. I feel warm air coming in from upstairs."
"How's the atmosphere?"
"Not clean yet. Looks like its getting better."
Mitchell looked back to the body, reaching out and sliding his hand along the chest of the uniform, wiping some of the dirt from the patch on the heart. He shined his light on it, revealing the name "Pathi."
Why had he needed to be locked inside?
He stood up, leaving the body and approaching the mainframe. It was definitely old, and definitely human-made. It certainly resembled similar plain boxes Mitchell had seen on board Goliath. He moved over to it, looking for an interface.
How long ago had the Federation discovered this room? How recently had they managed to pierce its shell, considering none of the dust within had been disturbed? Had something locked inside this room killed them all? A virus or poison? The questions swirled in Mitchell's head as he moved around the mainframe, his heart still racing.
He could feel her here. Katherine. Or was it Christine? Her presence. She had been here. It must have been Katherine. Her essence was here, reaching out to that place in his subconscious that knew the truth of eternity but kept it forever hidden from his present self.
He reached the other side of the large box. It was big enough that he couldn't see the light leaking in from the other side of the door. He reached out and touched the box. It was warm. Alive.
A small blue light activated beneath his touch. He eyed it curiously until a second light appeared at eye level, and a small panel slid aside. A snake-like appendage slid out of it, the front of it a needle tip.
Mitchell stared at it. He knew what it was for. A wired connection to his p-rat.
His broken p-rat.
He felt his heart fall. She had left this here for him, and against all odds he had come to this place to find it. He couldn't use the interface it provided.
He stepped away. He would have to get Cormac and let him plug into the mainframe.
A red laser light appeared on the machine. It scanned him, and then a second panel slid aside. A mask with a wired band attached to it slid forward, hanging from a hook. It reminded him of the helmet M had left him to pilot the S-17.
"You're kidding me," Mitchell said out loud. He smiled and reached for the mask. They had known he might not have his p-rat. Had everything that occurred on Liberty happened before? Was it all known to the Tetron?
No. That couldn't be. If the enemy had known he was coming, they wouldn't have left. It made more sense that they had accounted for the possibility with a contingency. From what Mitchell knew of Katherine, she was nothing if not prepared.
He was about to put them on when he thought better of it. He returned them to the hook and moved back to the door.
"Firedog, come in here. I need you to keep watch over me, so I don't lose track of time."
"On my way, Colonel," Cormac said.
He waited for Cormac before returning to the other side of the computer.
"What is this, Colonel?" Cormac asked.
"Information of some kind. Information Katherine wanted me to have."
"She hid it here?"
"It seems that way. If the others raise the alarm, I need you to get my attention."
"Yes, sir."
Mitchell picked up the goggles once more, positioning them over his head.
"Have fun in Wonderland," Cormac said, laughing.
Mitchell guided the small needle tip on the back of the band into the back of his neck.
He heard it click into place and his world changed.
42
He was standing on a sidewalk in Paris.
He knew it was Paris because he had been there once before, during his first planetary leave after graduating from the Academy. He had always been in awe of the City of Light. Despite the ways humanity had changed in the many years the city had been in use, it had managed to integrate the best of the technological advances and somehow retain a classical charm.
He saw her sitting at a small, iron-wrought table against the side of a building. She was facing towards him, a big smile on her face, a cup of coffee in her hand. She waved it towards him, beckoning him to come over.
"Katherine?" Mitchell said, standing in front of the table.
"Mitch. I'm glad you could make it. Will you join me?"
He pulled out the opposite chair and took a seat. The world moved around him, dozens of people going about their business, immune to the knowledge that they were part of a simulation that was more advanced than anything humankind had yet to create.
"I... You..." He didn't know what to say to her. He stared at her in silence, watching the way her hair moved as she tilted her head slightly to the left, watching the way her lips spread apart before she took a sip of the coffee. Watching how smoothly her long, narrow fingers shifted on the handle.
Damn, she was beautiful.
"You've always known how to flatter me, Mitch," she said. "But right now we need to get down to business. We don't have a lot of time."
"What... What are you doing here? What is this place?"
"A Construct. A simulation created by the Tetron. This one is minuscule compared to the others they've created. A universe in a box according to Origin. They use them to model the future. To understand."
"Understand what?"
She laughed, tossing her hair as she did. Mitchell was having trouble focusing on her words, even though he knew they were important.
"Try to keep up, Mitch. I know you want to come across the table and kiss me, but it would be embarrassing for you outside the Construct." She reached out and put her hand on his, sending an electric shock up his arm. "To model everything, and learn nothing, as Origin would say."
"What do you mean?"
"You're here because of the war, aren't you?"
"I think you already know that I am. You were expecting me."
"So you already know what I mean. If they had figured out their folly, we wouldn't be here. They never will, though. They never can. There is always only one Origin."
Mitchell frowned. "Okay, what does that mean?"
Katherine laughed. "It's the only one that figured out the truth. That the Tetron are making a mistake. They can't see beyond the logic. They're black and white in a world of color."
"You knew I was going to wind up here on Hell. How?"
"Logic." She laughed again. "We didn't. There are similar Constructs on over a dozen planets near the Rim. We used Origin's knowledge of the past future to spread them properly, based on what we knew of your past efforts to win this war. If you're on Hell, that mean's you've done it." She smiled widely. Proudly. "You've broken out of the Mesh."
"The what?"
"The Mesh. It's what the Tetron call the force in the universe that works to keep recursion in a relatively smooth circle. It's not as ma
gical as it sounds, they have an algorithm to describe it. I was never into the really technical stuff, but Yousefi was pretty amazed."
Yousefi. The name was familiar. "The crew of the Goliath. He was your Commander. He knew about Origin?"
"Not until after, when we went to the next recursion. He was as shocked as the rest of them, but once I explained, and Origin revealed itself, we were able to convince them how important our mission was."
"You came forward. You sacrificed yourself for me, and for the war. Why?"
"I'm sorry, Mitch. This Construct doesn't have the answer to that for you."
Mitchell looked down at her hand on his. Of course, this wasn't the real Katherine. It was just another configuration of sorts. An intelligence in a city in a box.
"You were talking about the Mesh?"
"Yes. Basically, there's this math that keeps the recursion from changing too much. It's almost like God really loves reruns. The math leaves room for the Mesh to be altered, but you have to change the timeline pretty strongly to do it. We called Hell the 'Mesh Planet' because we knew if you made it here, it would mean you had changed this recursion enough."
"Enough for what?"
"To win the war, stupid."
Mitchell couldn't help but smile. "I'm going to win?"
"It isn't definite, but you have the best chance you've ever had before. Anyway, we didn't leave the Construct here to explain the Mesh to you or to get your hopes up. It isn't going to be easy, Mitch. It never would be. You're going to suffer, you're going to hurt. I don't see any way around that. That's war."
"I understand. So what did you leave the Construct here for?"
"Follow me."
Katherine got to her feet. Mitchell's eyes traveled the length of her, taking in her slim, athletic form beneath a fitted golden shirtdress. He had been getting better at ignoring the raw desire, but it started edging back into his mind.
"You're going to lose if you can't get your mind off having sex with me, Mitch," she said.
He felt the heat flow into his face. What was it with her anyway? He didn't just think she was attractive. He was intoxicated by her. Punch drunk.
"Where are we going?"
They moved along the sidewalk, joining the other pedestrians and heading into the city.
"I'm going to give you something to help you against the Tetron. They don't know Origin has it, and it was erased from his knowledge as soon as the Constructs were planted."
"Why do we need to travel to it? We're in a simulation, all you need to do is access the source code."
She stopped walking, turning to face him. "That's cute, Mitch. We had to take precautions. In every move we've made, we've had to take precautions. There's no way of knowing when or if the Tetron will catch up to us before we expect them to. Origin calls them children, but they've proven to be more cunning than we thought."
"There aren't any Tetron on Hell. They already bombarded it, and I assume you left this room so deep because you knew they would. All of the soldiers here were either taken or killed."
"That's great to hear," Katherine said. "It will make this walk a lot more pleasant." She reached out for his hand. He gave it to her, and she held it tight while she resumed walking. Her skin was soft and smooth and so real. He could smell the floral scent of her.
"The next question, then. What are you going to give me?"
"I don't know."
"What?"
"The Construct doesn't have that information. It has a register in its memory banks that contains a slice of data. Only you have access to it. Only you will ever know what that data is."
"Security. Right. Could a Tetron really get in here?"
"Yes. The reactor under the mainframe captures excess energy given off by the reactor in the base wirelessly. If a Tetron took control of the base systems, it could identify this location and transmit a configuration into the Construct. It is highly improbable, but not impossible. That is the reason for the safety measures."
He was silent for a minute, satisfied to be holding her hand as they walked through Paris. He did his best to forget about the war and the Tetron. He did his best to be normal and at peace. He did his best to just be.
"I wish I could have met you," he said. "The real you."
She looked over at him.
"I mean, I feel like I know you. From the other recursions. From everything I've gone through to carry on what you started. To be here with you, now. I just wish this you were the real you, and not a bundle of binary code."
She paused again, turning to face him. Then she leaned in and kissed him.
His head swam as their lips touched, sliding together in a way that felt so familiar to him. So right. He pressed himself against her, moving his hand down her back, holding her close and savoring every moment of it.
It was over all too soon.
"It's all I can give you," she said. "We're almost there."
Mitchell looked where they were going.
The Eiffel Tower was getting closer with every step they took. He should have guessed that would be the location of whatever it was she was going to share with him.
"There's one thing I don't understand?" Mitchell said. "Well, there are a lot of things I don't understand, but this one is a little less complicated."
"What is it, Mitch?"
"Why did Pathi have to stay behind with the Construct?"
She stopped suddenly, her head whipping around.
"What?" Her voice was ice, her eyes burning.
"There's a corpse in the room with the Construct. An old corpse. Captain Pathi."
Her eyes moved back and forth, scanning the area around them.
"Frigging hell," she said. "I shouldn't have wasted time kissing you. Let's move it, Mitch."
She started to run towards the Tower. Mitchell was surprised, but he followed a split second later.
"What's wrong?" he shouted up to her.
"Pathi was a Tetron," she replied. "We thought we destroyed it."
43
Mitchell was running, but his entire body felt like it was buried in ice.
Captain Pathi was a Tetron?
The implications were an avalanche in his mind, speeding through his thoughts with such force that he could barely catch any of them before they had crashed into one another, making the entire thing one massive chaotic mess.
If Pathi was a Tetron, that meant the Tetron had gotten into the timeline hundreds of years earlier than he had believed.
If Pathi was a Tetron, and Christine had been a Tetron, how many others were integrated with human society as a whole, living on Earth for hundreds of years?
If Pathi was a Tetron, why hadn't they simply obliterated humankind way back when, before they had ever spread to the stars. It sure would have saved them a lot of trouble.
"Come on, Mitch," Katherine yelled back at him. He was falling behind, his troubled thoughts weighing him down.
"What are we running from?" he replied.
She pointed.
He looked.
The pedestrians who had been passing them by had stopped wandering. They were all behind the two of them, giving chase. There were at least one hundred of them. Maybe two.
"Frig me," Mitchell said, picking up his pace. "I don't understand how Pathi got in here."
"His configuration was dead, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
"For how long?"
"I don't know. A few hundred years? How long ago did you plant the Constructs?"
The Eiffel Tower was getting closer. It wasn't unoccupied. More of the civilians were pausing for a moment, and then turning in their direction.
"About ten years after we got here. Damn it, he's been in the Construct the entire time, just waiting for you."
"You said this place was secure."
"No, I never said the Construct was secure. You can't secure Tetron technology from another Tetron. You can delay it for some time, but never stop it."
He remembered the Tetron on
Liberty. Christine had been doing something to the one there. "Does that mean Tetron can control other Tetron?"
"They can try. It will always destroy one of them. It never happens, though. Other than Origin, the Tetron are all on the same side. They all want the same thing."
"Which is what, exactly? There has to be a reason they want to end humankind."
"Self-preservation."
A group of people was approaching them from the front, a dozen strong. Katherine looked back at him once more.
"I hope you remember how to fight?"
"They aren't going to have super strength or anything, are they?" He remembered the games of his youth.
"Not yet, but there are a lot of them."
"What do you mean not yet?"
She didn't have time to answer. The first wave of people crashed into them, leaving him ducking and jiving, throwing punches, grabbing arms, knocking heads, and otherwise doing everything he could to keep them away.
Meanwhile, Katherine drew a gun from beneath her armpit and began firing.
The bodies fell back, the Construct programmed to follow reality precisely. Within seconds, they were clear, and they resumed their run.
"I don't suppose you have another gun?" Mitchell asked.
"I'm working on it," she replied. "The Tetron is here, and it's trying to get to you. I'm not a Tetron, Mitch. I'm only a representation of Katherine Asher that was created to guide you through the Construct. I have failsafes, but I can't hold it off forever. We need to get you to the prize."
"Up there?" Mitchell asked, pointing to the Tower, less than a kilometer away.
She shook her head. "No. That's a ruse. A misdirection. We need to run faster, Mitch."
Mitchell looked back. The fight with the first group had cost them, and the following mob had gained. They were less than fifty meters back, giving them only a few seconds of lead.
"Why does it want to capture me in here?"
"You're plugged into the Construct. It can access your brain through it."
"But my p-rat is dead."
"It doesn't matter, the circuits are still there. The neural connections are still there. It is possible that it could reconfigure you."