by S D Taylor
“Save their world? How? Do they believe that we are responsible for things happening in their timeline? Don’t they realize that all these temporal rifts are creating their own new timelines? Otherwise, we couldn’t have future and current versions of ourselves together.”
Older Erin wished Dara was there to have this discussion with Doug. “It is their government policy to destroy all temporal rift travelers. Dara said their teams had killed about a thousand so far. She was very willing to discuss it with us, but there was no convincing her to change her mind. She is firmly committed to following orders.”
“Well, we will just have to find a way to change her mind if we ever see her again. Somehow, we have to be better prepared.” Doug had no idea what he was going to do, but he would have to be more creative than last time. First thing was to see if anything or anyone else from the future or past was anywhere on the island. Maybe there was something they could come up with that would make things a bit more difficult for the future people if they ever returned.
Chapter 19
Dara looked down at Erin as she lay on the deck, immobilized by the mild stunpulse. Even in that state Erin was able to see Insect Man push the older Erin over the rail and into the water. With his jerky, spider-like walk he returned to where Erin was laying and put the well worn Red Sox cap on her head. He touched her shoulder and somehow released the effects of the stunpulse. She struggled awkwardly to her feet and glaring at Dara, ran to the railing where she saw Doug approaching rapidly in the zodiac. He glanced her way one last time and then veered toward where the red haired woman was in the water holding onto the green float. At that moment, a white light engulfed the boat and the scene changed into one with a gray sky over a windswept sea. In the distance to the east, there was an almost treeless, shrub-covered island. The future version of the island Erin had called home for the past week.
“NO!” Erin cried as she realized what had happened. Doug, her world, everything she had ever known were left behind in that flash of light. Maybe forever. Probably forever she told herself as she stood there shaking with anger, sadness and the effects of the stunpulse. She had a vice-like grip on the railing as she tried to steady herself.
“Hard to recognize you are still on Earth, isn’t it?” Dara was standing next to Erin on at the railing. “You can see that humans have not done well at maintaining the quality of life.”
Erin turned rapidly toward her and felt like grabbing her by the throat and choking her. Fortunately, Dara held up a warning hand and said simply, “You can’t hurt me, so don’t hurt yourself any more. All of this will go better for you if you just quit resisting.”
“I will live to see you dead for this.” Erin could feel the venom in the words as she surprised herself by saying them.
“You very well might. And sooner than you think.” Dara smiled ironically as she said that and turned back to look at the island in the distance. Gone were the tall trees and the blue sky above. It appeared that there was a high cloud layer that covered the earth in all directions. It wasn’t so much dark as just gray. Flat light that gave the whole scene an unnatural feel as if it had been constructed rather than created by nature. There were some trees on the island, but they were sparsely distributed and much less dense than the thick foliage she had seen just moments before.
Erin could feel heaviness in the air and a slight burning sensation as she breathed. Her first impression on this future world was not a good one. More than three hundred years had passed in that flash of white light and Erin had a sudden sad thought that everyone she knew from that earlier time would now have been long dead. She wondered if she would ever get to go back to her time. It seemed impossible to her as she tried to steady herself.
Dara took her arm and pulled her away from the railing gently. “We should go below deck for a while. The air inside is filtered and will allow you to adjust more slowly to the acid content in our world.”
Erin was surprised by Dara’s gentleness which was the opposite of what she had come to expect. “Can you survive outside in this world without a mask?”
“New people should only be out a few hours a day at first. If you are out too long your lungs will be damaged and form scar tissue. Similar to someone who had been in a burning building and inhaled too much hot smoky air. For short periods of exposure, the lungs can clear out and heal. Once you have the nanobots inside you, it won’t be a problem. They make corrections that keep the air from causing any harm.”
Erin heard the term nanobots in a science fiction movie but she was uncertain how they applied in this situation. She decided not to ask right now since her head still seemed a little muddled by the effect of the stunpulse.
The two women, accompanied by the half-robot guard returned to the cellblock. Erin rejoined Peter and Gaby who were extremely worried about what was going on.
Peter had to be warned to step back from the door. “What have you done to her? What the hell is going on? Where is the older Erin?”
Dara gave him her most condescending smile as the door opened and she helped Erin into the cell. “I thought you two would appreciate a little private time together.” She puckered up her lips and made a kissing sound. Dara wasn’t expecting Peter to charge the door as quickly as he did. She took note that she had pushed his buttons effectively with that comment. He almost got to her before the proximity stunpulse fired from the node on the top of the cell, dropping him in his tracks with the same twenty-four hour paralysis that Doug had experienced. Gaby rushed to his side and cursed at Dara.
“Well, he will need to learn to avoid rising to the bait like that. It is an automatic feature of this cell and I don’t recommend doing that more than a couple of times. We have had a few people who didn’t recover after being stunned repeatedly.”
Erin paused at the cell door and turned to look at Dara. “I hoped there might be some humanity in you. Some part of you that saw this was all wrong and that you could do something about it. I guess I was wrong about that.”
Dara looked at her without smiling. “My humanity or lack thereof is really of no concern to you. I probably erred in letting your older version return to her family, but if you are looking for something in me to feel good about, you better hang on to that and the fact that my mechanical companion retrieved a cap to replace the one you left behind. You have already had far more consideration and humanity from us than any of our other condemned prisoners.”
Erin nodded slightly. “Thank you for that.” Saying those words nearly made her choke, but she was genuinely happy that the older Erin would now be able to return to her girls. And maybe that version of her could find a new sort of life with Doug once it became clear that the younger version wasn’t coming back. Erin turned and walked into the cell and knelt down by Gaby, trying to hide the tears running down her cheeks from Dara. “He will be ok in a day or so, Gaby. That’s how long it took Doug to get back on his feet. I saw him just now approaching us in a zodiac and he seemed fine. He was attempting to rescue us before we jumped into the future. Let’s get Peter into the bunk so he can sleep it off.”
Gaby stopped and stared at her. “We jumped into the future? That’s what the white flash was about? I guess I expected it to be a more dramatic event.”
“It will turn out to be dramatic enough when you see the place. For now, we need to stay focused and take care of Peter.
Dara secured the door and watched the two women drag Peter over to the bunk bed and lift him, with some struggle, into the lower bunk. “We will be at sea for two days and then reach the capital of Transarctica. You would know it as Anchorage from your time. The Yir-Lak Command is headquartered there.”
“What do they call it now?” The irony of finally making it to ‘Anchorage’ wasn’t lost on Erin and she thought there was a flight delay joke for the taking if things weren’t so dire.
“It is now called Selenton. Named for a famous politician from a hundred years ago.”
“What are you going to do to us th
ere?” Erin lifted Peter’s feet onto the bed and walked back to the door of the cell.
“We have some tests for the three of you. You will find it quite interesting. We want to understand your physical and mental makeup. See if you have anything useful to contribute to our world.
“Sounds wonderful,” Erin said sarcastically. “I can’t wait. But if you are just going to kill us, why all the elaborate effort?” Erin was right next to the clear wall, staring intently at Dara. Gaby joined her. They were both wishing that they could get to the other side of that wall and wipe the smug look off Dara’s face.
“As a culture, we are highly committed to the value of scientific and technical knowledge. If we didn’t pursue knowledge that led to solutions to the Earth’s problems, humans would have perished within three hundred years of the time we just left. But the rapid advance of science managed to outpace the rapid deterioration of the physical environment and we have been able to keep just ahead of extinction ever since. The Yir-Lak believe that there must be some knowledge stored in the brains of our test subjects that could help us better combat our environmental challenges. So we pursue a sophisticated program of stimulus and incentive to try to access that hidden knowledge.”
“Why don’t you just ask us for our help?” Gaby wasn’t going to concede that the future people were all that much smarter.
‘The idea that you could make meaningful contributions to our science would be akin to believing that a series of parakeets selected at random could chirp out the symphonies of Protenwa.”
“Who is Protenwa?” Gaby had never heard of that composer.
“She was great a composer of the twenty-third century. Along the lines of Mozart or Bach. I am sorry I used an example from your future, but you should listen to her works. It might enlighten you to some of the positive aspects of our cultural contributions. I realize you want to condemn everything about us, but before you are terminated you might come to respect what we have accomplished.”
“That sounds like a comment the Nazis would have made to the inmates at Auschwitz before they gassed them to death.” Erin said the words quietly but the depth of her passion and disgust was evident to Dara.
“But if I remember my history, the Nazis were pursuing a misguided attempt to purify their race at the expense of the rest of the world. My people are trying to save the entire world.” Dara turned to go.
“None of that rationale matters a damn if you are the one being terminated.” Erin spit the words at her captor.
Dara turned and looked at Erin and Gaby. “No, I suppose it doesn’t. But it is hard for me to spend much time worrying about the inevitable. As I told you, I am on a list to be terminated as well.”
Gaby and Erin sat on the lower bunk and watched Peter breathing quietly as he slept off the effects of the stunpulse. “I am sorry that had to happen, Gaby. Dara seems to delight in testing us. Trying to see how far she can go before we explode.”
“I’d enjoy watching her explode. I wish I had a grenade. I don’t suppose this is going to end well for any of us, is it?” Gaby felt a sense of dread that she had been able to suppress when she and Peter were kidding themselves that they might have a future together. “What did Dara mean that she was on a list to be terminated?”
“Apparently, in this world you are only allowed thirty six years to live. Her time is about up so she isn’t kidding. If we can believe anything she says. She said we would be terminated after the experiment unless they decided to give us thirty six years in the country. Since we just entered, that would mean we have the full thirty six years.”
“Do you think that could be possible? That we might be able to live here after they are done with us?”
“I don’t know. Yesterday, I would have said we are all going to die. But after they let the other Erin go free, I don’t know what to think. It seems everything they say and do is designed to prompt a reaction from us. Either positive or negative. Or maybe just confusing us would make them happy too.”
“So they are most interested in seeing what makes us tick? You asked Dara the right question. Why the hell do they care if they are just going to kill us anyway? Do you really believe they are seeking some kind of hidden knowledge in our heads?”
Erin shook her head. “No, but they are looking for something about us. Something that is different about people who have gone through temporal rifts perhaps. Or people from three hundred years ago. Maybe we have something they lost. Something they need.”
“Like the DNA sequence for kindness and compassion?”
Erin managed a weak smile as she looked up at Gaby. “That was pretty good. Did you just think that up or is that part of your set for open mike night?”
Gaby laughed. “Well when she was talking, it occurred to me that the rapid evolution of technology, coupled with the dramatic environmental changes could have made humans evolve in some way that they are still trying to recover from.”
“They seem to have made some technological leaps with that hybrid metal insect man. He seems to be a blend of human and machine. They probably have lots of cloning going on as well. In three hundred years there have likely been advances far beyond what we can imagine. She is probably right that in their eyes we have the intelligence of lab rats.”
Gaby took Erin’s hand. “What do we do? What can we do? I want to find a way for the three of us to escape and return to where we just came from.”
“I want the same, Gaby, but to do that means that we would have to overpower Dara and her protector, disable the automatic protections on this boat that keep zapping us, steal the boat, program it precisely to return to where we came from, and then confuse them enough that they don’t follow us. I hate to be negative, but I don’t quite see the plan that gets all that done.”
“How can we get to her? You have been working the humanity angle pretty well it seems. Otherwise, why would they have let older Erin go?”
Erin kept returning to that thought. “I think they planned to do that all along. Just to see what we would do. How we would react. It was as if they wanted to get all of us to a heightened emotional state for whatever purpose they have in mind for us.”
“I guess we better hope that the reason they do that is unrelated to making the meat more tender.”
Erin had to laugh at that one, even though she couldn’t completely rule it out. Dara seemed to have no boundaries to what she was capable of. At least if the Yir-Lak, whatever or whoever they were, commanded it.
“Do you ever wonder if any of this is real? After that stunt they played with Peter’s leg appearing to be cut off, I have wondered if they are planting all these experiences in our heads.”
Gaby frowned and stood up. “I hadn’t really thought about that scenario, but I suppose it is possible. It reminds me of one of those beer-fueled discussions in college about the nature of reality and whether any of us are real or just the figment of somebody’s imagination.”
“It usually turns out that everyone believes that they are the real one.” Erin remembered exactly the kind of discussions that Gaby was referring to. “I always thought the proof that everything was real was the simple fact that if they were all figments of my imagination, all the men would be nicer and better looking. And have more money.”
Gaby smiled. “You may be on to something there. But in the current situation, my reality tells me that Peter is both nice and very good looking. So by the inverse of your reasoning, he may be a figment of my imagination?”
Peter groaned. “Whichever of you is making me up in their imagination, could you imagine my legs and arms working, and do something about this headache? You know, there is a reason that most of those discussions were fueled by beer.”
Gaby ran over to him and put her arms around him. “I am glad you have rejoined us. And just as we were getting to the interesting part.”
“And I thought the interesting part was where I made an ass of myself and got blasted into the non-working pile of flesh you see before you.”
Gaby kissed him on the forehead. “Don’t worry, Peter. Erin tells me that Doug regained his feeling after a day. You should be ok.”
“Well I can’t guarantee that I will be a good patient between now and then, but I appreciate knowing that I won’t be like this forever. It is going to make it hard to execute a good escape plan until I can walk and use my arms again.”
“Yes it is, Peter. It certainly is, but we can’t wait forever. Try to heal quickly.” Erin smiled as she patted him on the shoulder.
“I’ll try. I will certainly try. In the meantime, could one of you get me a drink of water?”
Erin filled one of the small plastic cups that their jailers allowed them to have. There was an automatic water spigot on the wall that would fill the cup exactly three quarters full and stop. They all tried to figure out how it knew to stop filling, but there was no obvious sensor visible. Erin held the cup to Peter’s lips as he drank it. “Would you like another?”
“No thanks. And I have to say I hate laying here helpless. Next time I plan something that is pointlessly heroic in nature, please kick me before they have time to do this to me again.”
Gaby patted him on the head. “Don’t worry. I will be watching you closely. Whatever comes next, we need everyone at full speed.”
Erin thought about that phrase. ‘Whatever happens next’ was a pretty scary thought. She wished Doug was here with her, but with the likely outcome she was facing, it was better that he wasn’t there to share it. She wondered what sort of life he would be able to have on the island with older Erin and the girls. She thought it made sense that her older version got a replacement Doug to help her and her two daughters through whatever lay ahead for them.
This future time where Dara had taken them was painfully real to her and she couldn’t help retuning to the thought that everyone she knew from the past week would have been long dead and buried over there on the island. She felt a wave of intense sadness pass through her as she thought about their lives. She wondered if Doug had waited year after year for her to return from the future, sitting on one of the high bluffs on the western side of the island, watching the sunset each day and hoping for a dot on the horizon. Or if he hit a point where he moved on. She wondered what relationship her future self and Doug would have if they both determined she wasn’t coming back. She hoped they had found happiness in some form and she resolved to accept whatever she found if she ever returned. And that thought made her feel slightly better.