Phasewave

by David Gill

  'This isn't something I want to rush into,' said Declan. 'I need a little more time.'

  'Time is the one thing we haven't got, remember?' said Jenna. 'I need to know what you've found before I go crazy.'

  'I understand, but I haven't yet reached a conclusion.'

  Jenna looked away. 'I know you have. If you haven't got the courage to tell me it can only mean that you don't believe me. I won't ask you again.'

  Declan touched her on the arm. 'I do believe you, and I promise to tell you everything I know, as soon as I am able.'

  Jenna ignored him and started to eat. Declan helped himself to some fruit and they sat in silence.

  'Do you mind if I ask you a few, final questions?' he said.

  'Yes,' said Jenna.

  'I need to know what happened after your return to Vennica.'

  'You already know.'

  'Tell me anyway,' Declan persisted.

  Jenna shrugged. 'Don't you ever give up? Okay, the Amar brought us back and by the time we docked at Spaceport a circus was waiting. We were both arrested and taken to Kalmis where we were imprisoned. Game over. That's all I intend to say. The subject is now closed.'

  The meal was consumed without further conversation, after which, by wordless agreement, Jenna and Declan made their way down from the mountain. Declan now fully understood everything Jenna had told him but still could not think of a way to share his findings with her. By the time they reached their apartment the daylight had gone flat and a grey tinge to the sky heralded expectations of snow to come.

  'I guess this is it,' said Jenna, taking off her coat.

  'I must try to reach the authorities,' said Declan, even though he had no idea to what authorities he was referring.

  'It's too late, they won't listen to you,' she said sadly, taking Declan's hand and gently pressing it against her breast. 'It's over. We have to accept it. This is goodbye.'

  The pain that had formed in Declan's chest prevented him from answering. By way of reply he lifted Jenna off her feet and carried her through to the bedroom where they slowly undressed each other and made love, at first frantically and then slowly and afterwards lay together and shared an unspoken sorrow.

  Jenna traced a pattern in the hair on Declan's chest. 'That guy Slater. You knew him before, didn't you?'

  'He was the reason I went to Scion,' said Declan. No, he reminded himself, it was his decision alone to flee Vennica, and Slater was merely the catalyst that had precipitated the event.

  'Do you want to talk about it?'

  Declan had never before discussed the cause of his self-imposed exile; it was as if the memories had been stored for this one moment in time. 'Six years ago I was working for Gil and the Justice Department. In those days enormous sums of money were offered for information - with the few staff employed by the Department it was the only practical way to solve crime. Then one day an informer turned and led two agents into a trap, after which they were tortured and killed and their bodies dumped outside the headquarters building. It was a warning from one of the Kalmis syndicates that we were getting too close. The Department hadn't lost anyone for years, so you can imagine the reaction of the other agents. In retaliation, two of Gil's men discovered the identity of the informer and went to his apartment one night. They slaughtered his whole family. He was forced to watch while his partner and children were butchered, and afterwards met the same fate.'

  'That's bad,' said Jenna. 'Did they get away with it?'

  'The whole department was in mourning and couldn't forget the treatment that had been handed out to their own agents, so nobody was particularly upset about the murder of an informer, or his family. Except Gil, he was concerned, so he assigned me to investigate the killings, which was when things started to go wrong.'

  'And you found out that Slater was involved?'

  'Slater was one of the men involved, but it transpired that they had got the wrong target and wiped out an entire family for no reason. The rest of the agents took the position that it was bad luck, but the informer was a known criminal and probably deserved everything he got. Slater openly boasted about what he'd done and became something of a local hero. During the investigation evidence started to go missing, witnesses dropped out and the whole thing stagnated until Gil was summoned before the Security Council and forced to call it off. That's when I lost faith in the Department and left for Scion.'

  'And here you are, back again, waiting for Slater.'

  'Yes, and he'll be well pleased to see me out of the way,' said Declan. 'Slater has no qualms about removing people he doesn't like.'

  Jenna rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. 'I thought Carrick was bad news, but compared to Slater he's almost normal.'

  'We live in interesting times,' said Declan.

  'No, we live in unfortunate times,' said Jenna.

  Declan turned onto his side and held Jenna beneath the covers. 'Jenna,' he said, 'I want to tell you how much I love you.'

  'No,' said Jenna. 'You mustn't talk of love. You don't understand because you don't know what love is.'

  'I know what I feel,' said Declan.

  'You think you know how you feel at this moment, but love goes much deeper.'

  'Have you ever been in love?'

  'Yes.' Jenna smiled knowingly. 'Haven't you worked it out yet?'

  'What do you mean?'

  'Brant and I were partners. We were in love with each other.'

  'Oh,' said Declan. Jenna's revelation was the last thing he had been expecting, but at least it resolved one problem - now he could never tell her what he knew.

  'You and Brant have a lot in common. If you ever met you would get on really well together.'

  'I think not,' said Declan.

  'What makes you say that?'

  'Well, for a start, I can't see him appreciating our being in bed together,' said Declan, and, without any apparent physical movement, he sensed the gap between their bodies widen slightly; it was almost as if he had discovered a total stranger in bed with him. He quickly overcame the thought and tried to hide his feelings.

  Jenna laughed. 'Don't be such a prude. Brant wouldn't mind because he's not like that.'

  Declan found it difficult to come to terms with the fact that Jenna had lived another life before they met. 'Do you wonder what Brant is doing now?' he asked.

  'All the time,' said Jenna. 'When we last saw each other he told me not to be concerned and that he would wait for me until the day we would be together again.'

  'It sounds like he has a plan,' said Declan.

  'I can't think what it might be. Since I last saw Brant things have only gone from bad to worse.'

  Declan lay and mused over what Jenna had told him about Brant, but it made no sense at all, he could not see how Brant was in a position to influence Jenna's future. As for the question of his unexplained escape from custody, Declan was consoled with the fact that he alone on Vennica knew the answer to that. Jenna gradually drifted into sleep, but Declan was restless and remained awake. After a while he slipped from the bed, dressed and went out onto the balcony where, as he was watching the grey clouds scud by in the gloom, he heard his messager calling. It was Gil.

  'What's happened?' asked Declan.

  'I'm back on the case,' said Gil. 'It's complicated; I'll fill you in on the details later. Slater and Jarvine are now officially stood down, and I intend to come to Plano and personally assure you that you are both safe. Unfortunately the surveillance was shut down this afternoon, and the team will be withdrawn tomorrow morning. The communications link between Plano and Kalmis was "accidentally" re-routed, so I've been out of touch for a while. Has Jenna come up with anything?'

  'I think I know what happened,' said Declan, 'but I don't think you're going to like what you hear.'

  'What's new?' said Gil. 'Tell me anyway. It might just cheer me up.'

  'Jenna doesn't know the full story and you'll understand why when you've heard it, but let's start with what we know so far of the event
s that took place on Bouron.'

  'That won't take long,' said Gil.

  'Probably not, but let me test the logic on you.'

  Gil sighed. 'I've got a feeling that I've been here before. What makes me think a lot of speculation is coming my way?'

  'I think I know what happened,' Declan continued. 'Six months ago a Phasewave unit on Bouron was damaged by a massive energy input, and afterwards that unit and a nearby tracker station were modified in a manner and for a purpose that cannot be explained. Following the modifications to those units, four people disappeared and their bodies were never found. There is a gap then, during which we only have Jenna's version of events to work on, until the emergency call from Bouron which led to Jenna's evacuation, but not before Unit Nine and Tracker South were blown up, destroying all evidence of the modifications carried out to them. Last week another Phasewave on Vennica was broken into, and that is as far as we have got in this investigation.'

  'I could argue that most of that isn't set in stone,' said Gil, 'but I wouldn't be helping the case. You haven't mentioned Brant. Where does he fit in?'

  'Where Brant is concerned the facts in our possession are all contradictory. Shortly after arriving on Bouron, Brant was accidentally killed while he was examining the burnt-out Phasewave. Nothing more was then heard from him until he contacted Jenna from inside the Phasewave machine and pointed her in the direction of his detonators. Then, when Ellen had begun to suspect that Jenna had caught her out and was about to put the pressure on, Carrick took Brant's place and gave Jenna an ultimatum - give up or never see Brant again. That, however, had the opposite effect and gave Jenna such a jolt of indignation that she turned on Ellen and eventually managed to force her back inside the machine, after which Brant then reappeared in physical form for the first time since his death.'

  Gil started to interrupt, but Declan signalled him to wait.

  'Held in a maximum security prison after his return to Vennica, Brant then simply walked out of prison and shortly afterwards the Kalmis Phasewave was broken into. That is basically all we know about Brant.'

  Gil shook his head. 'Later I'll tell you something about Brant that you don't know, but right now I don't know what you're getting at. Is this leading anywhere?'

  'Don't you understand?' said Declan. 'The key to this investigation is the alien; it's the alien we should be looking for.'

  'Isn't that what Jenna has maintained all along?'

  'What Ellen told Jenna was that the alien had taken their life forces and transmitted itself to Vennica through Phasewave, but what I suspect happened was that the alien never left Bouron and remained trapped inside Unit Nine, although Ellen and Carrick were unaware of its presence. I think that something went wrong with the first experiment.'

  'Hold on,' said Gil, 'this is a long way from the original story.'

  'When Ellen talked about the alien leaving with their life forces, I'm sure she believed it to be true, but there was never anything to substantiate that claim. I think that, following the failure of the experiment, the alien adopted a low profile and waited while events unravelled, whilst trying to work out another way to assume physical form. After watching Carrick and Ellen go about things it must have reached the conclusion that Jenna was a key player in its transfer to a human form.'

  'I thought this thing was supposed to be an advanced life form. If it's so clever, how come the experiment failed?'

  'The alien acquired its knowledge of the human race from the data passing through the Phasewave system, in other words it was basing its assumptions on second-hand knowledge. You and I have learned most of what we know from experience, but the alien had never attempted to do anything physical in its life before. How much practical value is there to be gained from watching the Scyros Maddoc show? I think it accidentally destroyed Rogan and Sewell when it attempted to transfer them into the machine and on its next attempt it successfully reduced Ellen and Carrick to aphysical forms, but it appears that their life-forces were not used for anything else. The alien could not access the Intranet because Bouron is a relay base; it needed to find another Phasewave in order to do that. Confined to the Phasewave unit, it was only later, after Carrick and Ellen had demonstrated that their practical approach to capturing a life force proved to be more successful than the alien's, that it was able to start making plans for the future again.'

  'This is stretching things beyond the limit,' said Gil. 'You make it sound straightforward but you have conveniently overlooked a lot of "ifs" and "maybes".'

  'It's the only explanation that fits the facts. Don't forget that this creature must have an intelligence far higher than our own and once it had assumed a physical form it would not have had any difficulty breaking out of prison or into a Phasewave unit.'

  'Wait, wait!' said Gil. He paused while he tried to digest what Declan had said. 'You're going too far. Are you seriously telling me that Brant is the alien?'

  'Yes.'

  'That's ridiculous! Jenna said it was definitely Brant who came out of the machine.'

  'It was someone who looked like Brant,' said Declan, 'but Brant was almost certainly killed in the first accident and never got near the inside of the machine. If I'm correct, the alien has not got a mind like ours, it has a total record and recall system, which means that once it had observed Brant it would never forget him. At the end, when Ellen was outside the machine with Jenna, the alien was impersonating both Carrick and Brant - that's how they were able to conveniently switch places at crucial moments to put pressure on both Ellen and Jenna. Once the alien had possession of a life force it could materialize in any chosen physical form; it could replicate Brant down to his every mannerism and movement, and even physically reproduce him using his own DNA.'

  'Wouldn't Jenna have been suspicious? Surely she would have noticed some differences?'

  'Jenna had no reason to suspect anything. After all, Brant had technically returned from the dead and could be forgiven if he acted a bit strangely. As long as Jenna remained under the impression that the alien had long since departed for Vennica she would have had no reason whatsoever to suspect that it was still lurking inside the machine. Another coincidence remains unexplained - the situation where Jenna was trapped outside the base on Bouron when it suffered a total power failure, something that apparently can't happen on a Phasewave base, yet which managed at the same time to knock out Carrick and release the airlocks. What phenomena could account for that if it wasn't engineered by the alien?'

  Gil shook his head in disbelief. 'I'm becoming very, very confused. Who broke into the Kalmis Phasewave, Brant or the alien?'

  'Neither Brant, nor any other human, possesses the ability to walk out of a prison or penetrate the Phasewave base security system - it had to be the alien. There is no Brant, only an alien life form which has taken on his physical characteristics.'

  'So why did it access the Kalmis Phasewave? What was it hoping to achieve?'

  'It did so because Kalmis is a terminal site, not a relay station like Bouron, and from here it can gain access to the whole Phasewave network. Once the alien has accessed the system, and I think we have to assume it has now done so without the complicated structural alterations to the units it needed in the past, it will be fully protected and be able to travel the universe at will.'

  Gil scratched his head. 'Will it retain any of Brant's characteristics or will it change again into something we won't recognize?'

  'Who knows? My guess is that the alien will only retain human form until it becomes emotionally mature and will then seek other experiences. Brant formed a relationship with Jenna and she fell in love with him. That's why I can't say anything? How can I tell Jenna that she's taken an alien for her partner?'

  'That takes some swallowing,' said Gil.

  'Which is the reason why I want only you to know about it.'

  Gill scratched his head and mulled over the information. 'I haven't yet had chance to tell you this, but I've just discovered that, after the Kalmis Phasewav
e was broken into, Brant was found inside one of the units suffering a total memory loss. Phasewave security held him for two days before telling anyone because they didn't want to admit that a total stranger literally walked off the road and entered a Phasewave unit undetected. Apparently nothing was disturbed and they could establish no reason for the break-in. Brant is now back inside a prison hospital where they have confirmed that he is suffering from some kind of amnesia. So where do we go from here?

  'We don't,' said Declan. 'If we release this information it will cause pandemonium and there will be alien sightings in every shadow. I want to take Jenna to see the Kalmis Phasewave.'

  'I'm not sure if that's a viable option at this point,' said Gil.

  'It may be our only chance to take the case forward, but we won't know unless we see for ourselves. Brant did nothing to hide his actions after he entered the Phasewave base, so it could be a sign, his way of signalling to Jenna that he is there for her. There must have been a reason for his visit.'

  'I'm stuck in a fork,' said Gil. 'How can I release any of this information to the authorities, especially without a shred of proof? If only we had something to show, anything. What do you expect to achieve by visiting the Phasewave? Are you hoping to make contact with the alien?'

  'Yes.'

  'I'm beginning to wonder if you've caught space sickness yourself,' said Gil.

  'Very well,' said Declan. 'I will retract everything I've said if you can explain how Brant escaped from prison, how he broke into a Phasewave base and why.'

  Gil thought hard before replying. 'There's no answer to those questions. I need to think carefully about visiting the Phasewave, because right now there's no way the Company would officially allow Jenna anywhere near one of its units, especially after the latest events. Meanwhile, I'm letting the surveillance team go. It was too short notice to change plans, and I think they have already completed as much as they could. Tomorrow morning I have to be in Kalmis, so I will come and collect you by the end of the day and take you both back with me. This is your last opportunity to talk to Jenna and, if we can't come up with anything, all this effort will have been wasted. Make the most of your last night; I will see you tomorrow.'