Vostok

by Steve Alten

  The suddenness of the history lesson was overwhelming to both of us as I realized the E.T. was tuned in to my thoughts.

  “Charon is called Mars; Berudim is called Earth. You are a human. Life has evolved differently on Earth, but your RNA was harvested from our genetic matrix. Despite our appearances we are one.”

  “Avi Socha, what happened to your planet? In our time Mars is a dead world lacking oceans and an atmosphere.”

  “Charon’s ruling clans engaged in technologies that weakened our atmosphere, while they ignored the threat of our calderas. The magma pockets became unstable as our two planets’ orbits coincided in a doomsday event prophesied as the Miketz. We seeded Berudim in the hope that intelligent life would evolve, allowing my consciousness to communicate with an incarnate who could provide us with the secret to generating a quantum vacuum flux field. We need it to leave the solar system, to relocate our people to another suitable world.”

  And suddenly everything made sense.

  I had been chosen to be the gatekeeper of zero-point energy not because I was intuitive or smart, but because my soul had inhabited this being’s body billions of years ago. The information imparted to me by the alien Joe Tkalec would save Avi Socha’s species, the forebearer species that had seeded life on Earth.

  Joe was right. In a sense, I really was saving my species.

  “Avi Socha, I have been given the knowledge you seek. Do you have the ability to extract it from my memory?”

  “I already have, my brother. Take care of our soul.”

  And he was gone.

  42

  “One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.”

  —Lewis Carroll

  My consciousness passed through the center of the whirling electrogravitic rings. When I opened my eyes, I found myself back inside the chamber, which had again been created to resemble Joe Tkalec’s home library. I was seated in my familiar padded rocking chair adjacent to a wall of books. Alien Joe was in my mentor’s easy chair, a leatherbound copy of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland open on his lap.

  Adjusting the book’s page to the light from his flickering red candle, the E.T. read aloud:

  “‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,

  ‘to talk of many things:

  Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—

  Of cabbages—and kings—

  And why the sea is boiling hot—

  And whether pigs have wings.’

  “You have questions. Ask.”

  “Was it all real?”

  “It was simply one potential multiverse. Your participation has made it real.”

  “And if I hadn’t participated?”

  “That would be another multiverse.”

  “You know what I mean. Did life on Earth begin from a primordial soup delivered by an extraterrestrial species?”

  “If it did, wouldn’t that make the E.T.s a homogenous species? Or, at the very least, a parent species? And like all good parents, they seek only what’s best for their children.”

  “Who are you?”

  “What does your gut tell you?”

  “At the very least, my guardian angel. Guardian, because you’ve kept me alive through some harrowing times. Angel, because the person who I suspect you to be died long ago.”

  “And who was that?” he asked.

  “You’re Avi Socha. At least you’re his consciousness. That’s how we’re able to communicate, through the shared energy of our soul.”

  My mentor smiled. As I watched, his appearance changed, morphing into the Gray I had conversed with earlier.

  “No, Zachary. The being you conversed with during the zero-point energy transfer was the consciousness of Avi Socha as it existed 3.75411 billion years ago. I speak with you now as an Avatar, a servant of the Light, the effect of the cause.”

  “What happened to you after you returned to Charon?”

  “The information you transferred to me gave our ships the ability to escape the caldera eruption. From there we left the solar system but were denied interdimensional travel for another four generations until every last child of the Miketz had passed on, including myself. Only then were the tribes of Charon of a high enough morality to be allowed to access the Upper Worlds. This was our punishment for allowing our enemies to die.”

  “Wow. That seems pretty harsh. How can a people who were tortured to death be expected to save their abusers?”

  “Zachary, stop thinking like a physical being and think like our Creator. If you desire mercy, you need to show mercy. There is neither hatred nor judgment in the Upper Worlds, no greed or violence—just love. And this is why humanity should never fear their E.T. brethren, because we could never have been permitted access to traverse the universe through the higher dimensions without exemplifying this morality, a morality that refuses to consider vengeance upon a hostile military regime that downs our vessels and kills our kind.

  “There is a plan in effect, Zachary Wallace, and all multiverses lead to it. The question is how much pain and suffering we must endure from incarnation to reincarnation before we realize the simple truth of existence—that we are all children of the Light, the sparks from one unified soul, communicating through one universal consciousness.”

  “I get it, Avi. But looking back at my last seven years, how am I—my tribes, my people—expected to collapse the paradigm of the rich and powerful, a shadow nation that shows no mercy, a group that controls the media and the message and hides the truth about E.T.s and zero-point energy and other technologies that can save our planet? What happens when our caldera erupts?”

  “There are things we cannot see, Zachary, because our perspective is so small. The Miketz appeared to us as a curse, a time of chaos that would lead to our extinction. Instead, it turned out to be the cause that led to the birth of your world and the salvation and evolution of ours. Both our oppressors prospered by understanding that without a threat there is no need for a cure, or a cause. Those who choose an existence in darkness will suffer their choices before they are permitted to access the Upper Worlds. Each of us has a role to play, including the villain. In some cases the bad guy is a magma pocket that forces a species to evolve… or die.

  “But make no mistake, our choices lead to our destiny, and the soul chooses its next life before a new life is born. Our soul chose us because it knew that we would not sell out our people for a few pieces of gold. Use the last seven years to guide you. If you decide to introduce zero-point energy to your world, then a new multiverse of possibilities will unfold for humanity. The enemies of true freedom are everywhere. Your first vanguard shall always be the masses. The public needs to be part of the solution if the technology—and its caretaker—are to survive the launch.”

  EPILOGUE

  “Love is all around us. It is an energy we can always tap into simply by giving it to others.”

  —Yehuda Berg

  “Huh!”

  I opened my eyes to my heart pounding rapidly in my chest. The chamber was dark, the only light coming from floor-to-ceiling windows offering a breathtaking view of Loch Ness and the snow-covered peaks of the Monadhliath Mountains rising above the far eastern bank.

  Am I really back?

  Excited as a kid on Christmas morning, I flipped open my laptop to verify the date, only to be confronted by an article in the Science Journal… today’s Science Journal!

  Life on Earth—Death on Mars: New Evidence

  Scientists agree that life on Earth began approximately 3.8 billion years ago, but exactly how it began has long remained an unanswered question. Biologists theorize asteroids—space rocks containing water molecules that created the precipitation that filled the oceans—bombarded our still-evolving planet. But Dr. Sankar Chatterjee, a professor of geosciences at Texas Tech University, believes that in addition to bringing water, these asteroids contained the chemical constituents of life that ultimately gave rise to living cells.

/>   My eyes quickly scanned the rest of the article.

  About the same time that Earth’s primordial soup was spawning life, death was occurring on Mars with the eruption of Olympus Mons. The largest volcano in the solar system, it towered sixteen miles above the surface of the Red Planet—three times higher than Mount Everest—and is roughly the size of the state of Arizona. Olympus Mons contains six collapsed craters known as calderas. These magma chambers are stacked atop one another to form a depression that is fifty-three miles wide at the summit. The worst of the lot are resurgent calderas—geological time-bombs responsible for massive eruptions and extinction events.

  In the United States there are three resurgent calderas less than 1.5 million years old—the Long Valley Caldera in California, the Valles Caldera in New Mexico, and the Yellowstone Caldera in Wyoming. The last caldera eruption on Earth occurred 74,000 years ago on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. The Toba caldera complex generated nearly three thousand times more pyroclastic material than Mount St. Helens and unleashed an ash cloud that encompassed Earth’s atmosphere, which led to a decade of volcanic winter that wiped out nearly every hominid on the planet.

  I closed the story.

  I was back. I was really back, back at Loch Ness! My family was safe and intact, True was alive, and David Taylor was just a middle school kid hitting puberty. Vostok hadn’t happened yet, but Ming and Ben would be arriving any minute to make their pitch.

  Screw them!

  Avi Socha had allowed me to retain the knowledge of my past multiverses, and in this reality I’d be ready.

  Creating an encrypted file on my laptop, I typed furiously, describing every detail I could about the zero-point energy generator and the Yellowstone Caldera.

  That gave me pause.

  A cataclysmic eruption had transpired on ancient Mars, ending an autocratic rule while pushing a civilization to venture into space. Yet, only by vanquishing their egos were the descendants of Avi Socha allowed access into the higher dimensions and taught how to traverse the cosmos and mingle with other races.

  For thousands of years, advanced species of extraterrestrials had kept an eye on us. That relationship changed once we had discovered how to split the atom. Like an adolescent with a new gun, we had become a threat to ourselves and others.

  Much had changed since Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Roswell.

  Forty percent of the wealth on our planet was now controlled by one percent of the population. Two billion people lived in poverty; another two billion were starving. Meanwhile, we were polluting our oceans and atmosphere, our forced addiction to fossil fuels causing the earth to warm, the ice to melt.

  Could zero-point energy save us?

  Would the shadow government allow it?

  If not, was the Yellowstone Caldera the catalyst that would advance our species… or end it?

  I made myself a quick reminder to meet with Jonas Taylor and convince him to incorporate airbags into his Manta sub blueprints. I thought about providing him with details about his main attraction’s pending escape and death, but preventing the monster’s demise didn’t seem like a good thing.

  Finally, I made a quick list of people not to trust: Ming, Ben, Colonel Vacendak, Susan McWhite.

  Susan…

  Was she really a Nordic, or was she just a member of the JASON Society who had learned how to thought-communicate? Either way, she was the Colonel’s pet and needed to be avoided.

  I saved the file just as Brandy abruptly entered the restaurant—alone.

  “Zachary, you could have teld me ye were expecting guests. A sexy Asian woman and her entourage are waiting outside the restaurant. I’m leaving with William tae visit my—”

  Brandy was startled as I swept her up in my arms, planting kiss after kiss. “You’re the only sexy woman I want. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened. You and William come first, but you’re absolutely right; I need to do more to help the Highlanders. I have an idea for an invention, something that can spawn a new industry right here in the Great Glen.”

  “Whit kind of invention?”

  “I can’t say, but—”

  The restaurant door opened and Ming entered. “Excuse me, Dr. Wallace? I’m sorry to interrupt you and your wife, but my associates and I have traveled a long way to meet with you. My name is Dr. Ming Liao and—”

  “I’m not interested.”

  Brandy grinned as Ming’s cheeks flushed red. “I haven’t even told you why we’re here.”

  “I don’t care. Now you and your companions have two minutes to get out of my hotel before I have my brother-in-law feed you to the croc—er, to Nessie.”

  “I thought you killed Nessie?” Ben Hintzmann said as he entered the restaurant.

  “I did, but it had babies. In fact, I spotted one of them in Urquhart Bay just before you arrived. Big one, too. The kind that eats deer.”

  Before I could say another word, Brandy’s lips were pressed against mine.

  Ming was far from through. “Whatever this new invention is, you’ll need start-up money. Sorry, I couldn’t help overhearing.”

  Brandy pulled back. “Perhaps ye should listen.”

  “Nah. I know a guy; he’ll be rich real soon.”

  Ming Liao began again, “Dr. Wallace—”

  Brandy turned to Ming with fire in her eyes. “Ye heard my man. Fuck off!”

  The restaurant door opened again, and Dr. Stewart entered, followed by Susan McWhite. The memory of Colonel Vacendak putting a bullet in her brain flashed across my mind’s eye, causing the blood to drain from my face.

  Different multiverse, different probabilities. Play it cool, Wallace.

  The twenty-seven-year-old grad student was dressed conservatively, but nothing could conceal that figure. Her eyes seemed to look straight through me.

  Dr. Stewart stepped forward, offering me his hand. “Chris Stewart. I’m a friend of your father.”

  “That’s your problem, friend. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my beautiful wife and I were just on our way to visit her ailing father—”

  “After I screw yer brains out.”

  “Correct.” I squeezed my wife’s hand.

  Flustered, Ming looked to her three colleagues, then left.

  Ben was about to say something, but Dr. Stewart was already herding him out, leaving only Susan standing by the door.

  “I’m a big fan of your work, Dr. Wallace. What’s your new invention?”

  “It’s a Nessie dildo so women like you can go—”

  “Zach!” Brandy clamped my mouth shut with her hand. Then, with a Cheshire Cat smile, she sauntered over to Susan. “I want tae apologize for my husband’s rude behavior. He’s a bit awnry today. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re aboot tae commit a few health code violations.”

  Guiding her out of the restaurant, she bolted the door while I dialed a number on my cell phone.

  “Whit are ye doing, Zachary?”

  “Calling True. I want to make sure he doesn’t rent these people a room.”

  Pushing me down onto the table, my wife pulled off my pants and hitched up her skirt. “Call ’im after we’re through. It feels like years since we’ve been together.”

  Rain punished the closed green umbrellas outside of Fiddler’s pub. Seated at the bar, Susan watched Ming and Dr. Stewart attempt to pitch Angus Wallace on their venture.

  For whatever reason, the old Scot was having none of it.

  She drained her third whisky, pondering what it must be like to have biological parents, or any parent that cared. Created in Groom Lake’s genetics lab from a human egg and donor sperm from a dead E.T., Susan McWhite had led a sheltered life with other hybrids. She had not left her subterranean quarters by herself until she was eighteen, after she had completed her required assimilation fieldwork and extensive Kama Sutra training—something the Colonel “tested” her on frequently—everything designed to prepare her for her first assignment. Only then had she begun her course work at UNLV.

  She ordered
another malt liquor, still shaken over the image she had lifted from Zachary Wallace’s memory.

  Her cell phone vibrated. It was the Colonel.

  She answered, “I’m listening.”

  “Has he accessed the portal in another incarnation?”

  “No.”

  “You’re certain?”

  She glanced up as two bouncers rushed over to Angus’s table. “I’m certain.”

  “Then we’ll need to get him to Vostok.”

  “That won’t be easy. He refused to meet with Dr. Liao, and his father just punched Dr. Stewart in the mouth.”

  “He has a wife and kid. It couldn’t be easier.”

  “No.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “If you take that route, I’ll expose you.”

  “Are you challenging my authority?”

  “Consider it more of a threat.”

  The line went dead.

  She crushed the phone beneath the heel of her boot, then looked up as True MacDonald returned from the men’s room.

  The big Highlander sat down next to her. “So, lass, have ye thought aboot my offer?”

  “I accept, on one condition: I want to swim in the loch.”

  “Like the wacky Polar Bear ladies? Sure. They meet every Sunday afternoon after church.”

  “No. I want to go now.”

  “Now? It’s dark outside, and the water’s damn near freezing.”

  “A two-minute swim to cool my blood, big fella, then I’ll rock your world.”

  “There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.”

  —Senator Daniel Inouye, Iran-Contra hearings

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments