GENESIX: THE TRILOGY

by Greg Logan

  Alexander decided it was time to get on board with their seemingly improvisational way of doing things. “All right. Let’s begin this, then. Jeff and Jake, fly up entirely out of the atmosphere.”

  Three seconds. Then Jeff said, “All right. I’m more than one hundred kilometers above the Earth. Well out of range of the tachyon field.”

  “Me too,” Jake said. “Fire away.”

  Scott’s voice. “Energizing.”

  And then, as Alexander stood on the moon, nothing happened. The Earth was still there. And yet, he realized, it didn’t seem to be such a brilliant blue. In fact, it had a sort of hazy brownish color in places. He flipped the tricorder at it and saw an atmosphere of limited oxygen. Extremely high carbon gas levels. Extremely high radiation levels.

  “Sammy?” he said.

  Sammy’s voice now came through the helmet speakers clearly, with no static. “I’m here.”

  “Cassandra?”

  There was static, and her voice was fuzzy and distorted. “We’re here, my love.”

  Her signal was now coming through from the alternate reality.

  Alexander said, “It worked.”

  Jeff’s voice. “You sound a little surprised.”

  “No. I don’t mean to. It’s just, I was expecting some sort of visual effect.”

  “Time travel is really not a thing of fireworks and explosions. Usually, at least. Normally, you just step into a time frame, and then you step out. The same for dimension hopping. You just step in, and there you are.”

  “What’s the state of the tachyon field?”

  “Broken up. I can see glowing strands of it drifting all around me.”

  Alexander decided not to bother to check his tricorder. After all, redundancy might seem justified in the pursuit of scientific accuracy, but sometimes it was just a pain the ass.

  “All right. Let’s prepare for the next phase of our operation.”

  Scott was at the bungalow. Cassandra was wearing jeans cut-off about as short as they could be, and a tank top, and she sat at a holographic computer console. Scott didn’t know what he was more amazed at, that this woman who looked like a swimsuit model was actually an A.I, or that all of this futuristic equipment about him was actually a holograph.

  Scott had also been sitting at a console, and he stood to stretch his legs. Something Cassandra didn’t have to do.

  April had been behind him, in her golden battlesuit. Ready for the next phase.

  “Did it work?” April said.

  Scott nodded.

  Cassandra said, “It worked even more smoothly than it did in our computer simulations.”

  “But I didn’t see anything or feel anything. I mean, when Jeff drags you through time, you feel it. If you’re not ready, it can lurch the daylights out of you. Even if you are ready and bracing yourself, it can make you tingle.”

  Scott said, “That’s because when Jeff takes you through time, you’re moving individually. But if he were to move something like, say, an entire building, then the people in the building probably wouldn’t feel a thing. The same holds true for an entire planet.”

  Cassandra said, “We’re hoping none of the squid operatives out there realized they were moved. If they don’t realize they have been moved to a different universe, then they’ll just think they’ve lost contact with the armada.”

  Scott nodded. “By the time they figure it out, if they ever do, the armada should be long gone.”

  April said, “So, do you really think I can do this? Channel enough solar power to essentially create a solar flare?”

  He took her gently by the shoulders. “I know you can.”

  “So, now we just wait for Jeff?”

  Scott nodded. “Gives me time to do this,” and he pulled her to him and gave her a gentle kiss.

  Jeff came descending out of the permanent night sky of the moon to land beside Alexander. Jeff was also in a pressure suit. He needed to power-down as much as possible before he could travel through the strands of time. Once powered-down, he wouldn’t be able to survive on the moon without a pressure suit.

  Jeff said, “I’ll be ready in a couple more minutes. Powering-down from such a high degree of power takes a little while.”

  Alexander said, “Understood.”

  Jake soon arrived, also in a pressure suit. He was also powering-down, so his zeta energy wouldn’t disrupt the tachyon field Jeff would have to generate.

  Alexander said, “You didn’t damage that suit handling those nukes, did you?”

  “Nope. Tricorder readings say it’s fine.”

  And so they waited. Two minutes and twenty-two seconds later, Jeff said, “All right. Let’s rock and roll. Brace yourselves.”

  All went dark and Alexander felt a lurch right down to the core of his being, and then they were standing in the bungalow. He staggered a step, but Cassandra was there, rising from her chair when he arrived, and she reached out a hand to steady him.

  Jake said, “Some day I might get used to traveling like that. But somehow I don’t think so.”

  “Be right back,” Jeff said. “Gotta go fetch Sammy.”

  And he was gone.

  Scott said to April, “So once you’re there, just aim your quantum energy at the sun, and think pull.”

  April said, “As simple as that.”

  Alexander had pulled off his helmet. “It’s amazing how simple things that you would think are complicated really are. And vice versa.”

  Scott cocked a brow at him. “Getting philosophical, are you?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe I’m still light-headed from dimension hopping.”

  Cassandra grinned. “Sometimes good things happen when you’re light-headed.”

  He returned the grin. “But usually the light-headedness comes from margaritas.”

  Jeff now reappeared with Sammy, who headed off for decontamination.

  Jeff said to April, “So, are you ready?”

  “As much as I ever will be, I guess.”

  “Okay.”

  “You sure you can do this? Beam me over after I’ve gone quantum?”

  He nodded. “Tachyon fields can move energy as well as matter.”

  She stepped off toward the center of the room. “Okay. Here goes nothing.”

  She was suddenly gone, and in the center of the room was what appeared to be disembodied glowing sunlight.

  Jeff said, “All right. We’re off to blow up a planet. Be back as soon as we can.”

  And he and the glowing light were gone.

  Scott dropped back into his chair and he sat wearily. Jake had removed his helmet, and he placed a hand on his old friend’s shoulder. “She’ll be all right.”

  Scott nodded. “It’s just that we won’t be able to monitor much of it. Once the planet begins to break up, we’ll likely lose all communication.”

  Cassandra said into the audio field around her, “Jeff, can you hear me?”

  Jeff’s voice came through, muffled and fuzzy. “We’re here. I’ve begun powering-up. I’ll have to power-up to a level I’ve never achieved before, so it may take a few minutes.”

  “Is April with you?” Scott said.

  “She’s right here. She came through with no problems.”

  “This has been too easy, so far. I’m getting worried.”

  Jake shook his head with a grin. “Forever the pessimist.”

  Alexander tapped Scott on the shoulder, and motioned for him to vacate the seat. He said, “I’ll monitor things. You’re too emotionally attached to be objective.”

  “I’ll be all right.”

  Jake said, “He’s right, Scott.”

  Scott reluctantly nodded, and got out of the chair.

  Jake looked to Cassandra. “What’s Jeff’s power level at?”

  “No way to tell. We can’t run scans in that kind of detail from one plane of existence to another.”

  Jeff said through the sound field, “I’ll tell you, I’m powered way up. That’s about the only measurement
we’re gonna have.”

  “Jeff,” Scott said, “there’s no way to know how powered-up you’ll need to be for this. You’ll just have to play trial-and-error.”

  “Roger that.”

  Jake said, “You know what we might want to do, while we wait? Contact the Boston people. See if they noticed anything during the shift.”

  Sara stepped into the room. “Is he over there now?”

  Jake nodded. “Getting ready to blow the planet to pieces.”

  She shook her head with amazement. “To think any one person is powerful enough to do something like that.”

  Scott said, “It’s what had Quentin Jeffries so worried about us in the first place. Power corrupts.”

  Jake said, “And absolute power corrupts absolutely. But no person, not even one of us, has absolute power.”

  Scott shrugged. “There might be a maximum point, a ceiling, to how far you and Jeff can power-up. But so far we haven’t found it. If you don’t have absolute power, you have the closest thing to it any human has ever experienced.”

  Jake didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t thought about it that way before. He looked to Akila, and she stepped closer and slid an arm around him.

  Jeff said, “I’m going to open my helmet now, and try a couple test shots.”

  Jake said, “Be careful, son.”

  “I’m way beyond the point that I need a pressure suit, now. I’ll just need it for later, when I power-down so I can bring April and me back.”

  Jeff was hovering in space with the Earth in front of him. His onboard computer gave the distance as approximately eighteen hundred kilometers. Not far enough, he knew. He had to be far enough away so he could essentially outrun the shock waves. The pressure suit he was wearing was tough, but he doubted it could withstand the shock waves generated by a planet being ripped apart.

  He turned and zipped away. With no air friction to slow him down, he could really move along. He thought the word faster, and his speed increased. The propulsion unit built into the suit ran on the same principles as the one in his battle suit. It manipulated gravitational fields, so rather than being pushed along like with conventional propulsion he was literally falling through space.

  He said into his helmet, “What is my speed?”

  A female voice that sounded very close to the computer voice on Star Trek, said, “Point zero eight five the speed of light.”

  Despite the immensity of the situation and the task Jeff was here to do, he couldn’t help but crack a grin at Scott and his Trek geekiness.

  “Distance to the Earth.”

  The computer voice said, “Twelve million, seventy two kilometers.”

  Good enough. He turned back, and realized he couldn’t see the Earth anymore. It was simply one of the many points of light decorating the starfield before him. But then he thought about it. He figured the Earth might be the largest point of light, so he focused his attention on it. Powering-up to the degree that he was, his vision was almost infinitely sharper than that of a non-powered human. He trained his sight on the large dot, and realized it was sort of a bright, hazy brown. He looked closer, focusing his vision even more intently, and after a few moments could make out the shape of continents. Yep, it was the Earth. No longer blue because of the nuclear devastation.

  “Cassandra. Scott. Can you still hear me?”

  There was no response. He was not entirely surprised. They had thought this might happen.

  He was also now out of communication with April, but per the plan she was to take a position a few thousand kilometers from the Earth. Shock waves or flying debris shouldn’t harm her in her quantum state, but there was a chance that the zeta energy Jeff was going to fire might.

  zeta energy, when fired from his eyes, moved at the speed of light. Or, at least, this had been theorized by Scott, Alexander and Cassandra. Jeff figured they were probably right. Scott tended to be strangely wrong a lot of the time, but Alexander and Cassandra had said so, too. And you can’t argue with a female android scientist who looks like a swimsuit model.

  He had a sudden thought. He didn’t need the pressure suit when he was powered-up like this, so he removed it. And to remove it, all he had to do was think the word, eject. The suit then opened and he simply slid out of it. He then figured he could position himself in front of it to protect it from shock waves, and then slide back into it again when it came time to power-down.

  He cut loose with the energy, driving it out of his eyes. Within but a few seconds, it was ripping into the Earth, cutting its way like a giant laser torch through the mantel. He cranked up the power even more and continued to fire one long, steady beam.

  Already there were explosions within the atmosphere. Rocks and dust were flying up, and then a pool of red molten rock. He had cut through nearly to the center. The ground was shaking like a giant earthquake. Mountains began to break apart.

  Then an entire chunk of the Earth simply crumbled away and magma began oozing over the surface. Steam clouds and smoke were obscuring Jeff’s vision, but he kept the blasts going.

  Then it all went up in a giant explosion. There was no sound, but the planet ripped apart amidst a flash of light. Within seconds, millions of pieces of rock were flying outward. Magma, glowing red, spread out and was quickly cooled and hardened by the coldness of space.

  Okay, Jeff thought. Here it comes. He reached back to grab the pressure suit as it was floating behind him and make sure he was directly between it and the oncoming shockwave.

  The wave hit and it was a monster. It felt like he had been hit by a truck. He wasn’t sure if he was going to hang onto consciousness, even powered-up as he was. He realized he was moving, as the shock wave had knocked him backward, and the pressure suit was riding along, pressed against his back.

  He engaged his battle suits flight ability to slow himself down. He eventually brought himself to a stop. Then, grabbing the flight suit with one hand, he began back to where the Earth had been. It was time for April to begin creating her artificial solar flare.

  The team at the Bungalow waited. Ashley and Chloe and Sammy brought food down for everyone. Chuck and Rick checked in from the patrols they were conducting. Every so often someone would check their watch or glance at the chronometer on the wall. And they waited.

  “Two hours,” Jake said at one point.

  Sara said, “How long does it take to generate a solar flare?”

  Alexander was watching the monitor at his station, checking various read-outs. “That can depend. There are so many factors.”

  Cassandra had reset her controls to scan for tachyon energy. “Wait. Here they come.”

  And then, they were back. Jeff, in his pressure suit. April still in fully quantum form.

  Jeff removed his helmet and took in a lungfull of air. “We did it. I can’t believe it, but we did it. We blew up a planet.”

  There were hugs all around. And cheers. Hands slapping people on the back.

  “April was awesome,” Jeff said. “She handled that solar flare like she had been doing it all her life.”

  That was when Scott realized April wasn’t in the crowd taking part in the group congratulations. He looked to the far side of the room to see she was still in quantum form.

  “April?” he said. “Are you going to change back?”

  She then did something she had never been able to do while quantum. She spoke. “Scott? I don’t think I can.”

  TWENTY-TWO

  Tests were run. Four hours of tests. They scanned April in every way they possibly could. Scanning the light spectrum. Scanning for radiation. Scanning for thought waves. They ran their data through Alexander’s computer, then they began scanning again.

  They found nothing. No reason why she should be stuck in her quantum state. She could zip about, even expand her energy field. But she couldn’t change back.

  Finally, there were simply no more tests to conduct.

  Scott went topside, and stood outside the bungalow. In front of him was
the sandy beach and tropical ocean waves were rolling in beyond it. It was early evening and the sky overhead was a dark blue. The crimson of sunset had faded from the clouds it touched in the distance, and night was coming on.

  Hovering above Scott was the bright, glowing patch of light he knew was April.

  “When it comes right down to it,” he said, “despite all of the tests we ran, we know very little about your ability. What makes it work. One of the many ways in which I was negligent.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, Scott.”

  “You’ve had this ability for years, now. I always procrastinated on running the proper tests to see how it worked.”

  Jake and Akila had stepped out of the bungalow and were approaching. Sammy was immediately behind them.

  Jake said, “Scott, you’re only human. There’s only so much, even you, can do in a day. There were always so many projects ahead of us that seemed so pressing.”

  “Nothing should be more pressing than April.”

  April said, “Aw, that’s sweet.”

  Jeff and Sara had been hanging at the beach. They were in swimsuits and thought maybe a dip in the ocean water would be what they needed, but it wasn’t. This thing with April was too disturbing to simply unplug from. They saw everyone gathering outside the bungalow and decided to walk over.

  “The reality is,” Jake said, “April wasn’t in any immediate danger. She seemed totally in control of her power.”

  She said, “I thought I was.”

  Jeff said, “It had to be when she created that solar flare. It must have pushed her ability beyond some point of no return.”

  Scott looked over at his Jeff. He hadn’t been aware Jeff was present. In fact, he hadn’t been aware a small crowd was forming.

  April said, “Maybe I’m like the Darkness now. Stuck in this energy state. Except I’m made of light energy, and he’s made of some sort of dark energy.”

  Sammy said, “Colloquially put, but probably essentially correct.”

  Scott said, “We’ll never stop looking for a way to help you return to normal.”