The cold morning began to get a little more color as the sun struggled to rise above the horizon. She would have ample time to arrive at Kastrup. The Volvo drove through the toll booth station and the boom went down behind her and the car accelerated up onto the bridge.
Small, thin veils of snow swirled past. The pale blue sky was intercrossed by white trails from the airplanes and a flock of birds flew southbound over the bridge. After a minute or so, the car was just below the speed limit and made good progress towards Kastrup. Henrik's flight would land in half an hour, so she still had a good margin. Here on the bridge there was no snow, but sometimes there could be ice-tracks on the roadway during the winter, so she touched the screen to inform the car that the road was treacherous. It was unnecessary when Volvo's automatic safety system was among the best in the world, yet it gave her a sense of security.
She relaxed and was just about to get out her holo-phone when something glittered and she turned her head to see what it was. The water below the bridge looked strange. She stretched upwards and leaned forward to get a better look.
There. Something gleamed in the black water far below the bridge. She did not understand what it could be, and she squinted and blinked a couple of times to see if it disappeared. The monotonous sound from the highway spread through the car. The bridge railings on the sides of the roadway hurled past.
The light appeared to come from something that moved in the water. There was something there. Something big that moved. The light was perhaps two hundred meters away, out in the sail trench that stretched under the bridge. The water towards Saltholmen was dotted with small, ice floes that lazily moved over the waves. The wind was relatively calm and only rhythmic, small waves rippled the water surface.
She peered down and could see a small but sharp bow wave that spread out in a V-shaped pattern just behind what was now moving where it slid parallel to the bridge. What could it be? A submarine of any kind? She did not think so. It did not look like a submarine she had ever seen. Granted, she was not a submarine expert, but she suspected that they did not build submarines that would glow, they probably would not have a particularly long survival time in war.
The bridge railings continued to speed by and the car was jolted by a sudden gust of wind. She was considering stopping the car, but it was dangerous to stop on the bridge. She knew that it was forbidden. There were always some tourists in the summertime who thought you could stop anywhere you wanted the bridge, but she did not want to make the same mistakes.
It must have something to do with the spheres. She thought about the news of the morning, which for the tenth time went through the events that had taken place on Tabula Rasa. As she stared fascinated at the light, she saw how it slowly changed direction to instead of moving parallel to the bridge to move towards one of the huge pillars that held up the bridge.
She gasped when she realized that the light would hit the pillar.
"My god, it will hit the bridge! No, no!"
Copenhagen, Denmark
March 15, 2049
Panic slowly faded within her as a strong wind diminish. Her thoughts swirled, and she tried to remember several details of the light that had moved under the bridge. The car slid softly up from the tunnel that stretched from Pepparholmen towards Kastrup.
Dark clouds rolled in from the west and carried a pledge of rain. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. What was it that she had seen? She had never seen anything like, so she had no idea. She took a few deep breaths while the car approached her exit. She peered at the clouds and wrinkled her forehead. She reminded herself that she would need to check the degree of pollution later, she probably did not need extra protection if she needed to get out of the rain.
The exit led the car off the highway and she drove past a stoplight and a roundabout, down in one of the underground car parks that lined the airport. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts about what she saw in the water that she did not notice a flock of birds lifted from the roadside and flew towards Copenhagen.
The automatic boom at the entrance to the parking lot rose and the car drove through. Small green lights above the parking spaces indicated vacancies. She looked through the big front window when the car was searching for a free space. Two lines away from the exit, there was a free space and the car moved into it and parked automatically.
The belt buckle released, and the door slid open with a wheezing noise. She stepped out, glanced at the clock, five past nine. At the same moment, her phone vibrated. It was a text message from Kastrup's information system. She scrolled down. Henrik's flight had landed. She smiled, dropped the phone into her purse and checked how she looked when she passed a long section reflecting on her way into the elevator. Once inside the elevator, she again checked to see that she was presentable and took out a lipstick to improve her lips. The doors opened, and she stepped out into the cavernous arrival hall.
She went over to the exit doors where all passengers came out after they had gotten their luggage. Her hands held the cold metal railing that separated the travelers from those who were waiting for them.
What could it have been? She went through and rejected one idea after another. She glanced on the hologram clock that projected floating, glowing figures a few meters up in the air. A quarter past nine. Her mind raced as a crowd of people poured out of the exit when the passengers passed customs on their way out.
A family was reunited when a mother came home, and her children rushed to her under happy shrieks. A young woman ran to an elder and Maja could see that they had to be sisters. A religious group moved slowly through the crowd of people and they were all smiling as the progressed and the leader stopped regularly in front of people she met and opened her arms. Most people ignored her, but a few hugged her back.
She smiled to herself and stood amid people when she heard a familiar voice. Henrik waved and smiled at her when he walked towards her. Maja waved back, and she could feel his familiar scent when they embraced each other. They kissed, and Maja mumbled.
"Hey, handsome."
Henrik's blue eyes looked at her and she was temporarily lost in them. They had been married for almost three years and their marriage was still fresh. She was happy that she still felt electricity when Henrik held her. The heat from his body was near and she closed her eyes. After a few seconds, he let go of her and kissed her again.
"Hi, good-looking. That was some welcome."
She smiled at him, took his backpack as he held his hand and threw it on her own back.
"No, now it's not too often that you're out and traveling so I thought I'll do something that makes you feel welcome home."
He chuckled.
"You make me a happy man."
They started walking through the crowd, and Maja wondered if she should tell him what she had seen under the bridge. An overweight man walked too close to her and his shoulder bumped into her. She stopped abruptly, and Henrik shouted at the man who hurried forward.
"You there, take it easy!"
Maja massaged her shoulder where the man had bumped into her. Her thoughts about the sparkling light were knocked out of her head and she decided to take it later.
"It’s ok, let’s just get out of here."
Henrik nodded reluctantly, and they went toward the elevator to the lower parking levels.
"How did the presentation go?"
Henrik pulled his bag into the elevator and leaned it against the metallic wall.
"What level are we at?"
Maja turned to the center console.
"Four, thank you."
The elevator doors slipped close and they started to descend. Henrik looked at her.
"It went well, it did not take more than half an hour, but they seemed happy. And Tommy and the others were well prepared for the questions that came after, so it was a good day's work."
Maja knew that Henrik was being modest. He and his team had been working on that presentation for two weeks and she knew how much he had practic
ed and how nervous he was when he traveled. He had tried to hide it, but Maja saw through him. She leaned forward, and the tip of her nose touched his.
"Good, I'm sure they were blown away."
Henrik grinned, pulled her in and kissed her deeper than he had done in the terminal. Maja enjoyed his scent, the taste of his lips. She lost herself in the moment but was jolted from the moment when the elevator stopped. A soft voice spoke while the doors slipped aside.
"Level four, your car is thirty-five meters from the exit. Follow the blue line."
They went hand in hand towards the car and Maja enjoyed the natural silence between them. A row of lamps in the roof shone in a water puddle and the thought of the shimmering light slipped back in her mind.
"Hey, you?"
Henrik released his bag next to the trunk of the car. Maja unlocked the car and the boot lid rose. Henrik put down the bag in the trunk and closed it.
"Yes?"
She hesitated.
"I saw something. Something in the water below the bridge as I was driving here."
Henrik looked at her. She was unsure at the passenger door.
"What?"
She did not know how to start. Henrik stood by the trunk and looked quizzically at her.
"I saw something in the water when I drove here. In Oresund. Something down in the water, something big."
"A ship?"
"No. Not on the water, in it."
He wrinkled his forehead while walking around the car.
"A submarine?"
She opened the door and got in in the passenger seat
"No. Not a submarine."
Henrik got in the driving seat and closed the door. He turned to Maja.
"I don’t follow, what was it?"
"That’s just it, I don’t know. It was something I've never seen before. Something that shimmered in all the colors of the world. It was beautiful. I saw it when I was heading up on the high bridge. I was watching the news and had just muted it when I saw something in the water, like a kind of craft that glided along the bridge. It glittered. The water around it was black but whatever it was it was shining. "
Maja told her about the drive across the bridge and what she had seen. Henrik studied her. He did not smile but instead wrinkled his forehead. She felt some relief over the fact that he did not burst into laughter when he heard her wild story.
"What do you think it was then?" If it were not a ship or a submarine now. "
She shrugged.
"I really do not know. It was big. Much bigger than a fishing boat." she thought. "Just over eighty, ninety meters. One hundred maybe."
Henrik mulled over her story. Maja tried to visualize how the shimmering light had seemed to slide forward under the surface, parallel to the bridge. She thought of the blinking lines of light that stretched from edge to edge of the craft. Craft. What the way it was?
As they drove down to the highway and the tunnel back to Malmo, her mind was racing. The traffic was unusually dense on the way down to the highway, and she saw three big trucks placing themselves immediately after each other as they approached the tunnel. The automated systems of the trucks established electronic communication and adjusted the speed of the trucks so that they matched each other. Maja saw how the distance closed between the trucks until it looked like they were a single long truck. Slowly, the car increased on the road down the highway. The car accelerated up to just under a hundred kilometers an hour and Maja put his hand on Henrik's legs as they slipped into the tunnel.
* * *
They approached the end of the darkness, the shining light outside was sharp and Maja squinted. The traffic in the tunnel was dense which was surprising given that they drove to Sweden and it was just before lunch. The car automatically increased the speed while the road rose smoothly from the tunnel up to Pepparholmen. The dense flow of cars made their Volvo decrease their speed.
"Do you think something has happened?"
Henrik leaned aside to look better.
"I do not see anything. At least there seems not to be any accidents."
Maja shifted in her seat and peered in the rear-view mirror to see if she could see an emergency vehicle. She did not have to do that. The automatic emergency system implemented at the bridge could take control of all vehicles located on the bridge if necessary. When there was an emergency on the bridge, the system steered the cars to the respective emergency tracks to the right or left so that the emergency vehicles could get free in the middle. But nowadays, it was very rare that it was necessary after the national road safety system that controlled traffic in Sweden, was developed and implemented in the late 2030s. The ancient chaotic existence of the ancient times was now, in principle, a mere memory.
"I cannot see any emergency vehicles," she hesitated, "What should we do?"
The car lowered the speed even more
"I don’t know."
In front of them, more and more brake lights shined angry red and Maja leaned hesitantly forward and peered down at the dashboard, uncertain whether Henrik should take over the control of the car. Before she did anything, Henrik pointed forward, out through the windshield.
"There, you see?"
Maja looked out at two long rows of candles that shined in different shades of red. The car came to a full stop and joined two long lines of cars that were neatly parked at Pepparholmen in the direction of Sweden. Maja peered to the left and looked to her suprisement at two similar stagnant lines of cars with the front pointing towards Denmark.
"What’s happening?"
She pressed a button and the side window slid down. She could smell the salty scent of the sea and the surprisingly powerful wind tousled her hair. A pair of screaming seagulls played in the wind and maintain themselves in fixed positions a few meters above the protective barrier.
"Well, now what do we do?"
Maja saw three men excitedly running past their car. They shouted to each other, but she could not hear what they were saying.
"Where are they going?"
Henrik leaned forward and looked after the men who disappeared down the ramp in the middle of Pepparholmen.
"No clue."
Before she continued, a woman ran passed them while talking on her cell phone. Maja heard the woman's voice as she ran past.
"Do you see it? What is it?"
The woman hurried past and her voice disappeared. The thought of the shimmering object appeared in Maja’s consciousness. She murmured.
"Imagine if that's what I saw?"
Henrik turned towards her.
"What?"
Maja peered out the front window. The four large pillars at the high bridge stretched toward the sky. A couple of seconds passed, and she saw a slight shimmering color reflected against one of the pillars. She pointed.
"Imagine if it's the same thing I saw?"
Henrik remained silent. A strange, budding feeling within her told her that she had to go down to the water's edge to see with her own eyes what was going on.
"I have to get out."
Henrik stared incredulously at her.
"Do you want to get out?"
But Henrik got no answer because Maja had opened the door and started running along the line of cars. Henrik swore as he saw his wife join a further ten persons running along the edge of the road. He threw the door open and ran after her. He reached her after twenty yards.
"What are you up to? Why are we running?"
She pointed to the growing crowd down at the water's edge. There were probably over a hundred persons standing and staring out over the dark waters of Oresund. More people came running from the highway and joined the crowd. Maja and Henrik ran towards a smaller slope to get a better view of what everyone was watching. The salty breeze was more powerful here, so close to the water, and Maja pulled away hair that constantly flew in front of her face. The glittering light in the ocean in front of them was the same as what Maja had seen before. She pulled Henrik’s arm. It was stiff.
&n
bsp; "That was the light I saw. Do you see?"
Henrik nodded, not sure how to answer.
"But what is it?"
As she stared at the light as it was shimmering in blue shade, she saw something else that was moving in the corner of her eye. Somebody pointed and shouted when Maja saw another shimmering object rising from the depths. This object was more reddish and moved quickly through the water. After a few seconds a third light ascended, this time yellowish, and the bright objects quickly approached each other. As Maja watched, the three objects seemed to merge into one. She dared scarcely breathe. Henrik said something she did not understand.
The crowd, who stood behind the huge boulders that formed a breakwater, gasped. The shimmering shadow was now moving faster, and Maja could see how the water was pushed aside. The object came rushing just below the water surface and moved huge quantities of water in front of it which grew for every second. The wake behind the object spread out like two, sharp lines in the water.
Maja forced herself to breathe. The light was subdued and turned into a dark shadow that moved into the water, affecting her on a deeply personal level. There was something threatening about the now dark creature that silently slid forward. She could hear how the water was pushed aside as the shadow approached. It approached the breakwater obliquely from the front and appeared to grow.
Fear within her had now shifted to something that reminded of panic and she instinctively seized Henry's arm. She gripped it tightly and Henrik placed his arm around her.
The dark shadow was now no more than thirty meters away and it approached quickly. The powerful bow wave in front of it grew. Maja took a step backward. She could see shimmering lights turn on and saw that they stretched backward in two oblique lines. A woman shouted next to her, and Maja flinched. The wind changed its direction and came in straight from behind, and it seemed as if it wanted to push her to the edge of the breakwater, against the growing shadow approaching them. The shadow broke the water surface, and Maja could see more rows of different light as sparkling moved along the entire back portion of the object. She gasped.
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