Touchstone (Meridian Series)

by John Schettler

  “What about Kelly and Maeve?” Paul cautioned. “There’s an alert on, and we can’t just leave the Arch facility in the middle of things. The Golems haven’t even finished their report yet.”

  The phone rang, on the emergency line reserved for the senior team members, and they both craned their necks to look at it. Paul was the first to the receiver, smiling when he heard Maeve’s voice on the other end of the line.

  “Hello, Maeve,” he began. “You coming in soon? We’ve got an alert from Kelly’s Golems and… What’s that? … Oh lord!” His eyes widened with shock and surprise and Nordhausen felt his stomach churn. Paul listened, his expression becoming more grave with each passing second.

  “We’re coming right over,” he said. “No, don’t worry about the Arch, the Golems are working the report now and it will take them at least an hour… Yes, I’ve got Robert right here. He’s on to something as well. Hold on, Maeve. We’ll be there in a flash.”

  “What?” Robert was about to explode.

  “It’s Kelly,” said Paul. “He’s collapsed. They’ve got him over at University Hospital. I’m afraid your notebooks will have to wait, Robert.”

  “Collapsed?” The look on Robert’s face was plain, and it was clear that he immediately associated this news with his own misdeed in using the Arch. The professor was up and heading for the door in an instant, but something jarred Paul’s thinking and his anxiety increased with every step his friend took. The notebooks…

  “Robert, wait! Stand where you are! Don’t take another step!” His tone was so urgent and strained that it served as a strong leash, jerking his friend around, who stared at him with wide eyed surprise.

  “Now what?” Nordhausen gave him an exasperated look.

  “The notebooks,” Paul repeated. “The Meridian has changed, Robert. There’s been a Transformation. Don’t you see? I know nothing about these hieroglyphics, the Rosetta Stone, and all the rest. But the information is safe and sound in Kelly’s RAM bank—and in your head.”

  “Yes, yes—but we can talk about this on the way, Paul. Come on!”

  “Let me finish!” Paul’s voice was riveting. “It’s not a Gordian knot, Robert. It’s Paradox I’m worried about now. It’s you. The information about the Rosetta stone is in your head too, alive and well. But if you set foot outside the protective bubble of the Arch Nexus, then…”

  “Then what?”

  “You expose yourself to Paradox—Free Variable or not. Time has no way to account for your knowledge of the glyphs if you set one foot outside this room.” He folded his arms, his breathing finally stilled now that he had given birth to his fear and delivered his warning.

  Nordhausen just stared at him.

  Part III

  Schroedinger’s Box

  “Contradiction should awaken the attention, not passion.”

  —Thomas Fuller: Gnomologia

  7

  The revelation had shocked the professor, but his emotions transitioned quickly as he thought on it.

  “You mean to say that I’m trapped in here? If I leave the Lab then I’m going to be … erased, like Kelly?”

  “Possibly,” said Paul.

  “But you said I was a Free Variable.”

  “That too,” Paul equivocated.

  “Well, which is it? Am I going to vanish or not?”

  “I don’t know—but why take the risk? I can go check on Kelly while you remain on station here. We’ve got an alert on, remember? The whole point of this setup was to get one of us safely under the influence of the Arch Nexus so we could research the Variance and see what could be done about it.”

  “But Kelly…”

  “I’ll go. You stay here, safe in the Nexus.”

  Nordhausen hesitated, torn between Paul’s warning and his overriding sense of guilt, heightened by the fear that he was somehow responsible for Kelly’s collapse. His emotions roiled, and the tension was pulling at his face as he struggled to know what to do. Then he reached an inner conclusion, his jaw set, his eyes hard as he spoke.

  “No,” he said flatly.

  “But Robert, I’m not fooling around here. The risk is very real. You know about the hieroglyphics, and that creates an impossible contradiction in the world outside this room—outside the influence of the Nexus Point. As long as the Arch is running we can maintain a safe Nexus here until we decide what to do.”

  “No!” Robert’s tone was even more adamant. “Until we decide what to do? Listen to yourself, Paul. How long might that take? We can’t keep the Arch running forever—and I damn well won’t be a prisoner here because of a glitch in your time theory.”

  “It’s more than a glitch, Robert—it’s Paradox. Christ, we’ve one member of the team down already. Now what if you vanish in a haze the instant we set foot outside this lab?”

  “I won’t,” said Nordhausen. “I’m a Free Radical—you said it yourself—and more than that: I’m a Prime Mover. My head is a living process. It’s a mini-Nexus all on its own. Time wouldn’t dare lay her greedy little hands on me. I was the one who deciphered the Palma clues that led us to Minifir. I’m an original Founding Father. You hear me?” He shouted that last bit at the ceiling, not at Paul, as if he were hurling a challenge at Mother Time herself, daring her to interfere.

  “No,” he said again. “Kelly’s down, and I’m responsible—responsible for it all—for every living being outside that door: all the misery, the suffering, for everything that’s going amiss now, or ever will go wrong because of my foolish meddling. It all depends on me. I’m the one that caused it, and if time wants me, then by God, let her have me. But I’ve got to see about Kelly, one way or another, no matter what happens.”

  His expression was almost pleading now, tormented by everything he had concluded. Paul knew that there would be no stopping him, so he stepped quickly to Nordhausen’s side, putting his arm on his shoulder.

  “Then we’ll go together,” he said with finality. “I’ll second your motion. If time wants to pick a fight with you, then I’ve got your back, Robert. She’ll have to take on the two of us. Let’s go.”

  They started for the door. In spite of his resolve, Nordhausen could not help the thumping of his heart as they pushed it open and stepped into the foyer. His mouth was dry and a sheen of sweat misted his brow. The cooler air of the outer foyer played upon his forehead, giving him a momentary start when he felt the chill.

  He hesitated, a shiver taking him as he stood there. What if Paul was right? Then he felt his friend’s reassuring touch at his elbow, and his strength returned.

  “I’m a bloody damn Prime!” he bellowed, his voice echoing in the foyer. “You want me? Here I bloody well am!”

  Paul could not help smiling, in spite of his own anxiety. As they pressed ahead, he cast furtive glances this way and that, as if he expected to see a pack of ravenous hounds fall upon them the instant they set foot outside the door. There was a bluster of wind outside, a low growl that preyed upon his emotions.

  But nothing happened to them. They pressed on, Nordhausen boldly pushing at the outer door until it gave way and they were out in the twilight of the early evening as it settled on the parking lot.

  “Well, that’s done it,” Paul breathed. “We’re outside the Nexus for sure now. How do you feel?”

  “I’m fine,” said Nordhausen. “I told you, Paul. You said it yourself. We’re all Prime Movers now—possibly more. We’re imperative to the whole notion of time travel. You don’t fuck with an imperative, my friend. I’m fine—you’re fine— “

  “Then what’s happened to Kelly?” said Paul, and a bit of the bravado eclipsed in Nordhausen’s eyes. “I wouldn’t be so smug until we figure that out, Robert. But the fact that I was proven wrong just now leads me to believe that the Nexus is deeper than we thought. It’s not just the physical Nexus about the Arch now…it’s something more. Time is waiting. She isn’t certain what to do. I’m not exactly certain either, but whatever the answer is, you and I have something to
do with the outcome.”

  ~

  The two men had much on their minds as they drove to University Hospital. When they got there, they rushed to Kelly’s room, and met a worried Maeve Lindford, pacing the hallway in front of his door. She was wearing a casual khaki colored suit over a loose white silk blouse. She had evidently been called away from her classroom, since she was carrying her pigskin book bag slung over her shoulder and had a brace of dry-erase markers in her breast pocket.

  As soon as she noticed the two men, she hurried down the hall toward them, and said, “The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with him, none of the medicine seems to have any effect on him… he’s disoriented… in and out of consciousness, and…” She gave them both a searching look. “I think it might be temporal… some kind of after effect from the first project drop. God only knows. I thought you said you two had this figured out!” She wheeled in anger. “So what are you going to do now?”

  Dorland held up his hands in front of him warding off the emotional onslaught. “Maeve, we don’t know what’s going on just yet. Let’s not jump to conclusions. Calm down—”

  She cut in. “Don’t give me that. You know exactly what is going on here. One of your time shenanigans is expressing itself! Some consequence from whatever you two have been up to since you started that machine up again.”

  “Maeve…” Nordhausen tried to intercede.

  “And you! You are in this hand and glove! Are you satisfied? Kelly’s life signs are so faint they can barely read him at times. Damn it! Fix this—now!”

  “Please, Maeve, we can’t talk about the project here,” said Paul. “There are too many variables.” He looked around him, noting the passing of nurses and orderlies in the halls, and the open doorways leading to other rooms.

  Lindford pulled herself together, and brushed back a loose strand of red hair that had gotten in her face. “Yes, I understand but…“ She broke down, her voice choked with emotion.

  Paul and Robert instinctively went to comfort her. “Come,” said Robert. “Let’s get out of the hall.”

  It was a semi-private room, and Kelly’s bed was screened off by an opaque blue curtain. Paul peeked behind it, thankful that there was no other patient occupying the other bed. His eyes were immediately drawn to his good friend Kelly, who lay on an adjustable bed, as though paralyzed. He was hooked up to heart monitor, a glucose drip, and an EKG record brain wave response. The lines were moving, tracing a thin milky phosphoresce on the monitor screens, but there was little life to them.

  Kelly’s eyes fluttered open, unfocused. His head lolled in their direction, as if he was aware of their presence. Paul leaned in, talking to Kelly as he knelt by the bed.

  “Hello, mister. It’s me. Can you hear me, Kelly? How did this happen to you?”

  “Just came on…” Kelly’s voice was barely a whisper.

  “Has this ever happened to you before?”

  Kelly seemed to gain a bit of strength. “I’ve had random fits where I felt…precarious. You know… Like that night on the project. I felt like I was slipping… Like I might just vanish into nothing.” His breathing was labored as he spoke.

  “Stop it, Paul!” Maeve hissed. “See how he is? It’s temporal variance—I’m certain of it. If we had a lab machine hooked up to him you’d probably say his pattern signature was fading or something. Can’t you see it? I thought putting that DVD in the memorial was supposed to fix all this! Why is this happening?”

  Paul gave her a serious look, deep in thought. “Kelly,” he said again, with more urgency. “Please, I have to know if this came on suddenly, or if this is an effect that has been accumulating over time.”

  “What?” Kelly closed his eyes.

  “Kelly. Kelly Ramer! Listen to me! When did this happen? Can you remember that?”

  “When?”

  “Oh, leave him alone, Paul,” Maeve protested again. “I can tell you exactly when it happened. Come outside. Robert, you stay here with Kelly.”

  Paul nodded and the two of them stepped out into the hall. Nordhausen gave them a glance, a worried expression on his face, but he soon turned his attention to Kelly.

  “Robert?” Kelly had opened his eyes again, and he was trying to force a smile.

  “I’m here, Kelly. The others stepped out to talk. So… how do you feel?

  “Pretty damn mortal.”

  The professor was distracted by the beeping of the hospital monitors, which seemed to speed up, then taper off again.

  “It’ll be okay, my friend,” Robert consoled. “Paul will know what to do. Just be here now.”

  “Where?” said Kelly. “What time is it?”

  “What does that matter.” Nordhausen put his hand on Kelly’s brow, feeling an odd coolness there. He certainly wasn’t running a temperature, which ruled out any sudden illness.

  “You don’t understand…” Kelly labored to speak again. “This isn’t life for me, Robert. I should be dead now… I’ve thought about that every second I’ve lived since the mission. Every second of every moment. Hell… Maybe I am turning into a wraith…”

  “No good with that sort of talk, Kelly. You just hold on now. We’ve got an alert on the Golem line. Your program is running numbers and working up the report right now. We’ll get to the bottom of this. You’ll see. You are going to be fine. Maeve will stay here with you, and Paul and I will go take care of this business. You’ll will be out of here in no time! I promise!”

  “Okay… I just feel so strange…wish the damn drugs would help. What are they shooting me up with?” His head lolled up to look at the glucose drip.

  “Just fluids and sugars to help stabilize your system.”

  “Sugar buzz…” Kelly began to drift. “Got to rest…”

  “Sure, sure, just rest. I’ll wait here till Maeve and Paul come in, and we will take good care of you. Just relax, don’t worry about anything. You’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah, fine…” He closed his eyes and lapsed into silence.

  Nordhausen turned the lights down, and sat in a chair by the bed. He watched his friend’s breathing, his chest hardly moving, his breath the barest whisper on the oxygen feed line near his nose. Tears welled in the corners of his eyes and his face betrayed the deep emotion he was feeling now.

  “My fault,” he whispered. “I did this…” The hospital monitors were pulsing calmly as Kelly seemed to be falling into a deeper sleep.

  The door opened again and Maeve stepped in first. Paul remained outside, gesturing at Robert to come. Robert gave Kelly one last look and stood up, offering the bedside chair to Maeve.

  A moment later the two men were standing in the busy hospital corridor, speaking to one another in low whispers.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Robert was eager to do something to change the situation.

  “Well this is all very theoretical, and I haven’t done any real time mapping yet, but Maeve and I think we have to go check the DVD in the grave—you know, the memorial site where we buried our mementos for Kelly.”

  The professor glanced at the open door to Kelly’s room, as though afraid that Maeve would overhear them. “Does she know?” His voice was a whisper in Paul’s ear.

  “Not everything. She thinks the alert is the cause of the incident. I didn’t mention your … well, you know.”

  “Right,” the professor agreed, glancing over his shoulder. “Not the time for it. But what do we do now?”

  “We’ve got to get back to the Arch. I’m pretty sure the Nexus from your mission has dissipated by now, but we still have the shelter of the Arch Nexus as long as we can keep it running? We’ll check the Golem report and then get on over to the memorial site to see what’s up.”

  The implications of that finally came home to the professor. “You think someone may have tampered with the DVD?”

  “It’s a possibility.”

  “Okay, let’s go. But what would that mean, Paul?”

  “I’ll explain in the car. Let’s say goodbye to Kelly
and Maeve and get moving.”

  ~

  They returned to Paul’s car, a white Honda Civic that he had been fond of for many years. As soon as they were underway Nordhausen returned to the subject of their errand.

  “Why do you want to go to the gravesite?”

  “We think the DVD might not be safe there. As you know, we counted on the time travelers of the future, who saved Kelly from a paradoxical disintegration. We counted on their finding the DVD we buried in the grave so they could know when and where to snatch Kelly, just before he vanished, and it worked. When the Nexus Point dissipated, they sent him back.”

  Safe and sound, it had appeared, until this event.

  Nordhausen asked, “So what do you want to do?”

  Dorland thought a moment. “Maeve thinks that’s not a safe place. She wants me to get the DVD, and put it in a safe deposit box or something, where we can be more assured of its security. We’ll set up a foundation to maintain it or something. And I don’t think that’s such a bad idea.”

  “Security? But who would want to dig up a grave site? Are you thinking some gardener got his work order wrong and went trowling through Kelly’s memorial ground?”

  “Maybe,” he stretched out the word, to emphasize how remote he thought the possibility, “someone might get there before Mr. Graves’ friends find it in the future. That would immediately expose Kelly to paradox again.”

  “Someone? Who are you talking about?”

  “Remember that satellite phone call you made from Wadi Rumm?”

  “Yes. What’s that got to do with this?”

  “Whose phone was it?” Paul gave him a knowing wink.

  “You mean to say that you think Rasil… that the Assassins…”

  “We don’t know, but as I said before, that call would have been easy enough to trace. No matter how much we try to cover up our activities here, it could have been an obvious pointer to this point in the continuum. They know we have an Arch complex operational here, and they damn well know we must have had something to do with the Palma thing.”