by Dan Glover
The Ladies, on the other hand, remembered everything. Before leaving Toulon Castle for the north of old Scotland she talked to the Ladies about her life and loss.
"How old is my Father, Lady Lily?"
Ena knew the Ladies didn’t count the years but she wanted to know more about the man who had helped give her life.
"The man we know as Kāne was once called Bilbla, darling Ena. He was born to Lady Lauren during the cold times when ice covered the Lake year around. I have no idea when that occurred, however."
"I don’t understand how you could have lived under the surface of Lake Baikal for so long, Lady Lily... wasn’t that hard?"
"Life was difficult, sweet Ena. But it's been difficult above the waters too. I was younger then, too, and I felt alive beneath Lake Baikal, more alive than I ever have on the land. If we hadn’t been forced from below, I like to think we'd still be there."
"Aren't you happy here, Lady Lily?"
"I am neither happy nor am I unhappy, sweet Ena. I am content now that I am back with Natalia and Lauren. We're in the midst of planning a trip to the Lake. Our famously courageous Nate is to take us."
Ena remembered going to the Lake a few times while coming of age at Orchardton Hall and later on the Isle of Skye but it never called out to her the way it did to the Ladies. She preferred the sea to fresh water, and particularly the waters around the north of old Scotland.
She used to swim in the surf nearly every day. Lately, however, she was too lonely on her own. Even when Alpin was staying in his cabin deep in the Grampians, at least she knew he was safe and sound. Now, she couldn't shut off the cacophony of images arising in her mind of her husband lost, hurt, and all by himself in a comfortless place far from any solace.
There were no more planes to fly except those in need of repairs she didn’t have the skills to master. Grandfather Nate talked of returning to old America to look for survivors but when she asked to go along with him, he said he first needed to take the Ladies to Lake Baikal.
"Perhaps I could take the other anti-gravity machine, Grandfather Nate. I'll only be gone a few days."
"It doesn’t belong to me, precious Ena. You had more to do with its inception than I did. Tell me though: who will go with you? It isn’t a trip to be made alone."
"Luciana told me she would travel with me... she wants to find her husband's body and return it here for burial. I think I should bring someone along who knows the territory, however. I am considering making Micah go in her stead."
"I already promised Luciana I would go back to old America and help her find Kirk... when he was attacked we ended up having to leave him in one of the tunnels leading into Cornell University. He was too heavy to carry."
"She told me about your offer... thank you, Grandfather Nate. She's been distraught over losing him. She says she keeps dreaming about him all the time. Is it possible Kirk is still alive?"
"Micah said when the nanobots were rendered inert, it meant they could no longer keep Kirk's blood oxygenated. Up until that happened, we had hoped to get him back to Lady Lily's presence. It was very odd, my darling Ena... when the nanobots began dropping out of the sky, Kirk became enormously heavy. We could carry him before that happened.
"I'm not sure that taking Micah along is a good idea. I don't trust his intentions. Please take care, my darling Ena. That whole area is still heavily contaminated, and that man disturbs me. It is as if he has a secret that he isn’t telling us."
"Thank you, Grandfather Nate. I get the same feeling from Micah but I think his help will prove invaluable. I want to search for Alpin as well while we're there, and Maon too. Will you be joining us after your trip to the Lake?"
"Yes... but it will be at least a fortnight. I've installed short wave radios in both anti-gravity machines so please keep in touch. Remember to call me right away if you run into any hardships. I'll forego the visit to Lake Baikal, bring the Ladies home, and be by your side within an hour."
"The radios will not operate while we are in flight, Grandfather Nate."
The words were out of her mouth before she considered the ramifications of not only her attitude but the tone of her voice. She had embarrassed her grandfather more than once and she was doing it again. More than likely, however, she was only showing her own lack of understanding. He had doubtlessly already taken the warp field signatures into account and added a tunneling effect to the radio signals making use of the entangled spheres. It would take only a minor modification to enable instantaneous communication over any distance.
"I hadn't thought of that, my sweet Ena. We'll have to only use them when we're not in flight."
She thought he might be agreeing with her out of compassion until she received the sense that he seriously had forgotten how the radios would not work in flight as configured. Either that or he didn’t grasp the fundamentals of using entangled particles to share information. Of course standard physics declared it impossible but once a warp field was generated all those equations went out the window.
She understood at that moment that the reason Grandfather Nate and Mr. Pete had such difficulties in building the anti-gravity unit was that they were stuck in the world of the normal. There was so much they hadn’t considered that to her was as plain as common arithmetic.
There would be time for that later.
Chapter 70—Mirages
"Is this real?"
Maon woke to blue skies as a gentle breeze sweetened the air. Alpin was sitting beside him clearly happy to see his father conscious again. Rising from his sleep Maon breathed deeply for the first time since they arrived in old America.
"Yes, father... the nanobots are dead. The rains are slowly dissolving them back into the ground. Soon green plants will start growing again."
"Where are we, Alpin?"
"I don't know. That way is east, however. I think that's the direction we should travel. If we can reach old New York City, perhaps some of our friends will be there. Otherwise, I don’t know how we'll get back to old Scotland."
"We'll manage. If we have to, we'll find a boat and sail home."
Standing, a wave of dizziness beset him and he nearly toppled over until Alpin offered a muscled arm for support. He didn’t remember what happened or why he ended up here, but he was weak from hunger and thirsty too. Alpin must have read his mind.
"We need to find food supplies, father. All the buildings here have either been buried beneath the sand or have rotted away. I've been walking for days. It is a wonder I didn’t pass you by. I guess the rain must have washed away the sand that was covering you, otherwise I never would have seen you lying here."
"I remember flying but not in an aircraft. It was as if I was riding a gigantic bird."
"I think we were both carried off by swarms of nanobots, father. I ended up many kilometers from here but in the same general direction. They must have had plans for us; I bet they were taking us to their haunts back in old New York City."
"Are you all right, Alpin?"
"Yes, father... other than being hungry and thirsty. There was nothing but sand for as far as I could see but after the storm, a lot of it washed away. Remember the time we got caught in the volcanic eruption in old Italy?"
They had been scouting the west coast of Italy searching for artistic artifacts when a deep rumbling began. It sounded as if a giant was pounding upon an enormous drum in a rhythmic fashion. It was so loud the vibrations roiled the waters through which they sailed.
Within a few minutes, smoke began to pour out of the northern sky obliterating the sunlight. Day became night as choking fumes engulfed their ship making it nearly impossible to navigate.
Knowing they were in peril, Maon used the compass to turn southwest away from shore. He had read about volcanic eruptions in the past but didn’t expect to actually be witness to one.
Stones began falling upon them, first small ones the size of gravel, but then larger and more robust rocks that pummeled their sails and threatened to batter the ship i
nto the sea. Though they took shelter in the wheelhouse it soon became apparent they would be smashed to bits if they stayed aboard.
Rushing onto the deck and diving into the sea they swam deep until finding a strong undercurrent that carried them out of harm's way. As far as he knew, the ship was crushed as boulders the size of houses cascaded down from the sky.
It had taken them a week to swim back to Toulon Castle, arriving there hungry and bedraggled but alive. Nate lent them the use of the Nautilus to sail back home to the Isle of Skye. But the vision of that boiling ash cloud descending upon them stayed with Maon for years. Often he'd start from sleep after finding himself back on the coast of Italy watching as a rock grew larger and larger as it fell out of the sky trailing flames and hot ash.
"We nearly died there, Alpin."
"But we made it, father. We can walk out of this place just as we swam out of that one. It might take us a while but if we go slow, conserve our strength, and watch for sand traps, we'll get through it."
"What do you mean... sand traps?"
"I think trees were buried beneath the sand, father. Either they are beginning to grow again or most likely they are starting to decompose, but either way, they leave a void under the surface that isn’t noticeable until you walk into it. I nearly got sucked into one the day before I found you.
"I was lucky enough to be able to swim out of it by surfing on the surface of the sand the way we do on the ocean. I think if we can find some long poles to carry with us, it might help too. If we stumble into a trap the pole will hold us up long enough to make our way out.
"I believe we should follow each other rather than walking side by side, father. That way, if the one leading is sucked down, the one behind can pull him out. We should keep a distance between us of at least ten meters, just in case."
"That's pretty sharp thinking, son. Would you like to lead first or to follow?"
Maon had always been a little distant from Alpin, even while the boy was growing up. That's why he took him on trips around old Europe. Often times Ena complained to her mother that Alpin got to spend so much time with his father while she rarely did.
It wasn’t that he didn’t love Ena like his own daughter... he did. It was just that the girl had always been incredibly self-reliant even as a child. She knew things that no normal girl her age should know. It was as if she was tapping into some primordial race consciousness of which the rest of them were unaware.
It made him nervous to be around her for any length of time. He knew it wasn’t right but that's how it was. Luckily his father Nate had taken the girl under his wing and taught her things like sailing and flying. Maon felt a tinge of guilt each time he thought about how the girl had been reared by her grandparents more than her parents.
Sileas felt it too, the distance between what they were and what their daughter was. Karen had warned them about the potential difficulties in rearing a child conceived of four parents but still they were unprepared for the range of talents Ena possessed even as a baby.
It frightened him to know she could read his thoughts as easily as listening to his words. Though he would rather hide that fear, with Ena that was impossible, and perhaps part of that awkwardness was directed subconsciously at his son.
When he praised Alpin and Ena, the words sounded hollow, as if he merely mouthed them without any feelings in his heart to back them up. In time, the eloquence of words became lost to him when it came to his children and he didn’t understand why: if he could not share the deepest secrets of his psyche with his offspring, then who?
Sileas seemed to pick up on his reticence when it came to their children but he saw it was only because she too shared the same affliction. It was an unspoken truth that burrowed beneath their love for one another surfacing at times in heated words and recriminations. The fact that they were made for each other did not help ameliorate the pain of knowing they would be forever distant from the children they begat together.
Was any of it real? The question besieged both his waking and dreaming life. Finally, he decided it didn’t matter. If he acted as if everything was real and solid, then there could be no mistaking the illusion for what it wasn’t... only what it was.
Life was but a mirage, constantly shifting into something else each time he thought he had a handle on it. Long ago Maon had decided it was best simply to ride the crest as long as he could before diving into the next trough.
The fact that one day he might not surface did not trouble him as much as it should, perhaps.
Chapter 71—Loss
There was a time when her world was full of color
Now she saw it in black and white. With Pete gone, all the glorious shades of love had seeped out of her life. She wondered why he couldn’t be honest enough with her to have at least told her goodbye rather than lying to her but she knew the answer to that question.
It was her fault.
She had talked him out of going to old America with Nate... no, she had gone behind the man's back and pleaded her case. Pete on the other hand must have conspired with Maon to fly with him or more likely, the man volunteered. Karen hadn’t reckoned on the love everyone felt for Lady Lily or the sacrifices they were ready to make.
"How do you make it through the day, precious Karen? I can't stop thinking about Kirk and how he must have suffered."
Luciana and Amanda returned to Toulon Castle three days before Karen left for the Isle of Skye. Chester was weak after his brush with death but Amanda said she had high hopes for his full recovery.
"I thought I might die of heartbreak at first, darling Luciana... I saw Pete's face everywhere I looked... but then I took a breath and then another. I didn’t die. The Ladies tell me I may never die.
"I think about Pete each second of every day. I dream about him at night. I wonder if I will be able to withstand the guilt I carry for having led him in the wrong direction. If I had let him go with Nate, he might well be alive now."
"Kirk went with Nate, sweet Karen. He didn’t return either."
In the depths of her despair, she had forgotten that others had lost their loved ones too. Alpin and Maon were missing and quite possibly dead. The sacrifice made by Pete and by Kirk should serve to inspire everyone, not set them on the road to morose broodings.
"You are right, my precious Luciana. I'm so sorry. I'm thinking of only myself."
The notion of going through innumerable eons without the love of her life by her side caused Karen to inwardly cringe. Once—when she was a young girl working her way through medical school—she had thought of the watch she wore upon her wrist as a sort of klepsydra, a water clock, a thief of time, an hour-glass glued to a table and slowly dribbling down. Now, time didn’t matter except when looking up at the mountainous abundance of it facing her.
"Isn't it possible that your Pete is still alive, sweet Karen? I have read how the pilots of old once ejected out of their planes just before they crashed."
"Yes, that's true, my darling Luciana... I thought of that too. But if he was alone, he would succumb to Lake Syndrome in a matter of hours... unless the nanobots caused him to revert to his old form."
"I guess that's why I want to see Kirk's body, my precious Karen. I asked Nate to take me to old America when they return from their trip to Lake Baikal. I feel as if I have to assure myself that Kirk is really dead. I keep dreaming of him like you do of Pete. Our girl asks about her father every morning... where is he and when is he coming home. It breaks my heart to lie to her but Candice is only two years old. When she gets older, I'll tell her what happened."
"Is it just you and Nate going to old America, precious Luciana?"
"As far as I know... yes... did you wish to accompany us too?"
"From what I understand the craft only holds four people. It is possible you may find survivors there. You'll need to room for Kirk too."
Karen couldn’t bring herself to say 'body' although she was sure Luciana knew what she meant. Though she didn’t say so, she was intr
igued at how Kirk had been overcome so quickly by the nanobots and his flesh impregnated with metal. She longed to get a look at the body, to examine how his internal organs had been affected, how they mutated in response to an influx of silicon particles with no real life of their own.
She had been taught that evolution programmed biological organisms to use inorganic particles to their own advantage. With the advent of Micah's invention of the nanobots, it appeared the opposite was occurring. If that was so, then it was a dead end. Why would such an intelligent man not see that too?
She knew evolution had no foresight yet the nanobots had specific goals programmed into them. With living organisms, there were no goals... rather, a mutation might arise which proved beneficial to life and so it was propagated through the succeeding generations. Obviously, Micah used the principles of evolution in his creations and yet failed to fathom the simplicity behind it.
In a sense and from what she understood, the nanobots used the same technique to continually improve. They would never achieve perfection. Human beings seemed to be ignorant of that. Most of those she knew who were interested in improving themselves modeled their behavior on individuals they deemed faultless. Perhaps that was Micah's downfall too.
She was the same way, especially in her younger days. She had idolized Madam Curie and the stunning discoveries she had made to enable the betterment of humanity. In the entire history of medicine there were only a few women who had made their mark. Most men took advantage of them, taking credit for their discoveries, treating them as second-class citizens.
Karen had once thought her name would be written in the annals of history as the person who discovered the key to immortality and the end of disease. Instead, she had contributed to the greatest extinction event in history.
Even now, humanity hovered precariously on the brink. Losing Kirk and Pete meant there were only two living males left on earth and neither of them appeared to have any inclination at propagating with female members of the People.