by B. C. CHASE
Henry led the way as they filed through the door. Secret Service men did a quick body check as they came through and were ushered to a couch against the wall. The interior had hard paneled wood and was luxurious and spacious. The vice president and his entourage entered and the door sealed shut like the door to a prison cell.
The chopper immediately began to rise, providing a bird’s eye view of the pandemonium below. Families were running with children in their arms or in tow. The FlyRail station had been overrun by a mass of humanity. In the distance, black smoke was billowing up high into the atmosphere from the crippled ship. Lady Shrewsbury shook her head, staring out sadly. She said, “And we were talking about paradise and peace on earth.” She looked up at Henry with a pained expression, “I wonder if this really is the end?”
Henry tried to sound reassuring, “Don’t worry.” Henry noticed that the vice president was staring at them in an unsettling way, his countenance dark and forbidding.
The helicopter soared past the Paradeisia Angel. A giant concrete depression in the ground some distance past contained a deflated giant elephant head balloon. A number of small drones were lowering still-inflated whale balloons into the cavity. “So that’s how it was done. Very clever,” Henry said. “But what about the statue itself? How did it disappear?”
“Its surface is made of hundreds of thousands of double-paned glass fractals. By charging a gas inside the panes, they can be immediately frosted with any number of colors, which gives the appearance of solidity and reflects light that is shone on them. When they are switched off, the panes are transparent, which, with light shining out from inside the statue, makes it appear that the statue has disappeared, at least momentarily. And of course it also allows us to display the hummingbird inside, which is simply a giant spinning frame which has thousands of LEDs that switch on and off. Like a paper cartoon, it creates the illusion of animation.”
“Brilliant.
Gonzales nodded, but there was no glint of pride in his eyes.
The chopper glided past a cluster of buildings where the skyscraper that was still under construction stood. One of them had the words “NOVEA REGAL HOTEL” illuminated on top. As the chopper turned toward the mountains, Henry caught another glimpse of the inferno at sea. The ship had split in the middle and rolled onto its side, the stern protruding higher above the water than the bow. Hundreds of people could still be seen clinging to it.
They took a wide flight around the forested foothills to the far side of the island and began to descend near an imposing cliff that jutted out over the ocean in a small peninsula. A pure white dome structure commanded the top of the cliff. A green Flyrail track was visible above the shoreline, hugging the forested ridges and passing through a tunnel in the cliff. As they descended to the base of the cliff, a latticework of glass prisms built into a junction of two ridges was visible. On the top were the illuminated words Paradeisia Science Centre.
The helicopter passed just over the Flyrail track to settle on a road in front of the glass structure.
As they exited, Babel said, “We have approximately two hours until the deadline. So, in the meantime, I’ve arranged a demonstration that I think will help you understand the urgency. Then perhaps you can help me. Come with me.”
Henry asked, “Help you with what?”
“You’ll see.”
Babel led the way across black pavement toward the glass structure of the Science Center. There were no doors, but thin sheets of falling water where the doors would have been. As Babel approached one, it parted, allowing him to walk through without getting wet. Everyone followed. Inside, it was humid and warm. There was a forested, flowering cliff face with bamboo octagonal structures jutting out at intervals. Signs marked various plants along a path which led up to the cliff. A giant, cylindrical aquarium swarming with freshwater fish was in the center of the structure. Birds flittered from the branches of trees and shrubs all over, and, in a natural enclosure surrounded by water, were capybaras. Another enclosure housed caimans, which rested on the banks.
Two signs were near the base of the cliff. One read “Planetarium” and the other “Life Sciences Exhibits.” Babel took the path toward “Planetarium.” Recessed into a granite wall in the cliff was what appeared to be an elevator. They entered as the doors parted and found themselves in an extremely large car with room for thirty individuals. After the doors closed, their car suddenly dropped an inch. Then it lifted, silently. Within a few seconds, the walls of the elevator slid down, revealing cliffs surging down behind them, the ocean quickly falling away to the left, and the coast and foothills in front and to the left. They were catapulting up the opposite side of the peninsula. The elevator was riding on two cables which were suspended in a half circle from the cliff on giant braces. The car slowed as it approached the top of the cliff, where the cables brought it in horizontally to rest at the foot of the giant white dome they had seen from the air. It was now apparent that there were actually two domes—one shorter and one taller. The doors opened and Babel stepped out. Henry could feel that the car was still slightly swinging from its momentum as he disembarked. Babel proceeded to the structure.
Inside was a massive telescope aimed toward a small opening at the top of the dome. Several personnel stood at screens. To one of them, Babel said, “Daksha, please introduce yourself to our guests.”
The man turned around and said, “I am Doctor Daksha Kapoor, chief of the Indian Space Research Organization.”
“Is the demonstration ready?” Babel asked.
“Yes it is. It was easy to reconfigure.”
“Great. And some of the images our guests see come from this very telescope, right? So there is no doubt that what our guests will see is real?”
“That is correct.”
“Perfect. Thank you, Daksha,” Babel said. Then, turning to Henry and the others, he said, “Come with me.”
Babel led them through the area toward a pair of doors with a sign above them
: PARADEISIA PLANETARIUM.
Instead of a planetarium past the doors, there was a long series of barricades and walls outlining a seemingly endless queue. Screens on the walls showed images of space, with voices narrating. Babel led them speedily through the maze until they arrived at a bay where there were rows of eight roller coaster seats on steel arms.
“Have a seat,” Babel commanded. “This planetarium will show you exactly what the telescope can see. And then you will understand.”
When they were all fastened, the arms moved, swinging the seats around into a black space ahead. As they entered the darkness, Henry could feel the wind blowing past them. The seats took a stomach-churning dive and then rolled backwards, reclining the passengers horizontally. Just as this happened, the blackness gave way to an endless three-dimensional vision of stars.
It was as if they had been thrust into outer space. It was exhilarating.
The scientist’s booming voice said over speakers, “What you are seeing is the night sky from the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile. This is exactly as it appeared on the night several years ago when the scientists made the discovery that changed the world. At first, it was merely a blip on the spectrograph. A tiny decrease in the light from an obscure star. This is called transit photometry. Then something unexpected had happened. The star had become two stars.”
The seats seemed to begin hurling through space, the stars growing larger and closer, narrowing in on a small cluster.
“Typically in such cases, the light from a star will diminish ever so slightly, merely a spec in time. But if this spec occurs more than once and becomes a pattern, this pattern can be associated with the orbit of a planet. So a new planet is discovered, part of a new solar system perhaps hundreds of light-years away.”
“In this case, it did not become a pattern. In fact, it didn’t go away at all. Instead, the light from the star increased. The star became two stars. Two stars became four.
“Then they disappeared. T
he light from one star that had become four stars vanished without a trace. Then more blips on the spectrograph appeared: more stars duplicating, farther apart. And this could mean only one thing. Something was between this star and us. And it was causing gravitational lensing.”
“It was growing larger, swallowing up more and more space. Finally, to our deep-space telescopes, it looked like this.”
The seats suddenly spiraled around to direct the passengers toward a different view. Now visible was a nebula with a myriad of stars obscured by a circle of total black. The light around the circle was skewed, with stars stretching into circular lines.
“Hawking radiation detection confirmed our suspicions. This was an intense gravity anomaly, catapulting through space at incredible speed. As the measurements poured in, the truth became apparent. This anomaly was heading straight for us. But its effects would be felt long before it was anywhere near.”
The dark sphere was shown growing increasingly large and ominous. “Now you will have an opportunity to see it with your own eyes.”
The seats rotated around and traveled through a black hallway where they stopped in the original room with the queue. The harnesses opened to release the passengers.
Babel said, “Come with me.” He led the way back into the observatory with the massive telescope. Pointing to a screen that displayed the sphere they had seen previously, he asked Doctor Kapoor, “Is this it?”
Doctor Kapoor nodded, folding his hands over his chest.
Babel explained, “This is the object as this telescope sees it here, now, as we speak.” Turning back to Doctor Kapoor, he asked, “You have the binoculars?”
Doctor Kapoor nodded, pulling a pair from a drawer.
“Let’s go outside.”
“That is the constellation Ara, nebula 1688,” Babel was saying, “For the record.”
In the darkness of the night, Henry lowered the binoculars. He was dumbfounded. It was only barely visible. A tiny black dot with a circle of bright around it.
“You saw it?” Babel asked.
“Yes,” Henry admitted.
“Some asteroids have already been thrown out of their orbits, thus the sudden increase in impacts.
“So imagine, if you will, that you are President of the United States. You are informed that the solar system is facing imminent destruction. There is nothing that can possibly be done to prevent it. What do you do? What do you do?”
Lady Shrewsbury suddenly interrupted, “Under the circumstances, I would suggest that somebody pray.”
Babel shook his head, “If only that would help.”
The doors opened to a garage, where several JLTVs were parked around a large black bus with tinted windows. Babel invited them inside the latter.
The interior displayed all the trappings of excess, with black luxurious leather seating, a bar, wood trim, giant screens, and LED lighting in the ceiling.
“Sit down,” Babel ordered, his voice commanding. The bus started to move. Two youthful women with little in the way of clothing emerged from a door at the back of the bus. One sidled up to Babel seductively while the other went to the bar and started pouring drinks.
“Champagne, anyone?” Babel asked. Everyone declined, but he downed the glass the second woman handed him. “We activated the plan in the Baltimore area several weeks ago. So far, so good. Now, all these people on Paradeisia have given us a new opportunity—a last-chance effort to save humanity.” He stood sipping and staring out the expansive glass in silence while the women ran their hands all over him.
The trees flew by in a blur. Henry asked, “Where are you taking us?”
“The villa.”
The bus was now traveling through the Rome area. Streams of people were trudging in an endless line on the cobblestone plaza in front of a giant replica of the coliseum. In front of the coliseum was a statue 103 feet tall of a nude man resting one forearm on a column. On his head was crown with rays pointing out from his head in all directions. A black, acrid smoke was rising from within the coliseum.
“They think they are going to be cleansed of the virus,” Babel said, shaking his head. “Sad it has come to this.” Then, to one of the girls, he said, “Put on some music, please. Something soft. Harp, maybe.”
After about fifteen minutes of travel on jungle-enclosed roads, the bus approached a clearing in the forest on the top of a ridge where sat a crop of multi storied buildings with large windows and sharp triangular gables consisting of multi-colored wood. It looked residential in a flamboyant, Polynesian kind of way.
They came to a stop in front of the largest building where. The vice president said, “Come. This is where we’re going to set up camp.”
“Set up camp? But this, this is Ignatius’s home,” Lady Shrewsbury protested. “You’ve trampled his Barbados lilies! I’m afraid you’ve got to find another campsite, Mr. Vice President.”
“Oh don’t worry. We’ll be moving to the command station at the FlyRail Hub as soon as we’re done here,” the vice president replied.
He exited, followed by his entourage. Henry, Lady Shrewsbury, and Gonzales followed. There was a row of soldiers on each side in a straight line toward the villa. The chopper’s engine shut down and the blades slowed as Henry followed the entourage to the large wood-framed glass doors.
Inside it was airy and expansive, with wood-lined vaulted ceilings and tropically-themed ceiling fans. The floors were polished bamboo with large, rustic carpets under the furniture. Trinkets on pedestals were everywhere, in a corner of the room was a gigantic, empty cage. A seating area surrounding a fireplace with a chiseled stone mantle was on the left side of the room, and a conference table with seating for at least sixteen was on the right. Drawers and cabinets had been emptied, with papers, books, collectibles, and other items tossed onto the floor.
The vice president invited them to take a seat at the table. He was stopped by one of the soldiers, who pointed him back toward the table. When Henry, Lady Shrewsbury, and Gonzales were seated, Babel slipped a small, aluminum box out of the inner pocket of his suit jacket. Opening it, he extracted a syringe. Then he said, “You’re right that it would be unnatural for me to be here, given the circumstances with the SaiLine Paradise. However, as you have guessed, my presence is entirely unrelated to that. I am here for something much more important. And I believe that your friend, Jinkins, has what I need. If not him, then one of you can help me.”
The way the soldiers stood around them, arms at the ready, was disconcerting to Henry. They were unlike any soldiers he had seen before. With beady black eyes and overly chiseled features, they looked almost inhuman. “What is it that you need?” Henry asked.
“We need your help,” he said, smiling. “Knowledge. Information. Illumination.”
Babel said, “It is true, isn’t it Lady Shrewsbury, that the major attraction of this island is a shaft down from the lake-filled crater of an extinct volcano which leads to a kind of an underworld complete with atmosphere, water, and even life?”
She calmly replied, “Yes, from what I understand that is true.”
“And isn’t it true that this is nothing more than a clever ruse?”
“A ruse?”
“Yes. A fraud.”
She stared at Babel, unblinking. “Paradeisia is the most magnificent tourist destination in the world. Beyond that I have no idea what you are—”
Babel slammed his fist on the table, “NO GAMES! We’ve been in your computers. We have seen the truth. You really think that you could have found what you did and that the most powerful interests in the world wouldn’t hear about it? Oh, no. The news reached us. Now we’re here knocking on your door, and we expect to be shown the way in.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lady Shrewsbury exclaimed. “Now if you’ll excuse me—”
“Why did everything change? Why did you scale back your plans for the portal?”
Lady Shrewsbury stood, her face quickly reddening, “This, sir, is entirely
improper. I hardly think America’s executive branch has the authority to—”
The vice president interrupted loudly, “It’s a brave new world. Now, I will ask you kindly one more time to please help me.”
“I most certainly will not—even if I could.”
“All right,” Babel said. “Okay. Let’s try to be civil, here. We would get this information from Jinkins if we could, but he isn’t … cooperating.”
“I told you, I haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re after,” Lady Shrewsbury barked.
Babel nodded to one of the soldiers, “Return Lady Shrewsbury to her suite, please. She will be more useful to us there.”
As soon as she had left and the door closed, Henry said, “We know as little as she does. Unless there’s anything I can help you do to assist the ship catastrophe, you should let us go.”
Babel said darkly, “Oh no, you’re not going anywhere.”
Manassas Field
Wiggins tossed the spade over the fence and then climbed it, followed by Kelle and Wesley.
He marched out onto a grassy field. The sun’s first rays were just creeping above the western horizon. Coming under a large oak, he handed the pistol to Kelle and struck the spade into the ground. It didn’t go very deep. He pulled it out and plunged it into the ground several times in several spots until it sunk deep. He proceeded to dig in a circle until his shovel struck a hard object with a thud. He cleared the soil above it and extracted a case. He brushed it clean, saying, “He gave me a key for it.”
“Well what’r you waiting for? Crack ‘er open!” Kelle exclaimed.
Wiggins looked up, “Cool your hotcakes, Kelle. I left the key at home!”