Fade Out

by Patrick Tilley

  As an ex-RAF navigator, Wetherby found the problem especially appealing. He paused to consider the perspectives he had opened up. ‘As a matter of fact, you know, it could be jolly exciting.’

  Wedderkind checked the time and finished his coffee. ‘I think I’ll take the diesel down to the base camp and phone Bob before I talk to Allbright.’ He turned back in the doorway of the trailer and smiled at Wetherby. ‘Living on the edge of the Chicago campus has certainly sharpened your sense of survival.’

  Wedderkind arrived back on the Ridge some twelve minutes after he was due to meet Allbright in the command hut.

  ‘Sorry I’m late. I was down at the base camp trying to contact Bob Connors.’

  ‘But he wasn’t in Washington.’

  ‘No…’ Wedderkind took the offered chair.

  Allbright sat down behind a spartan desk, the top of which was as trim and ordered as a barrack square.

  ‘What was it you wanted to see me about?’

  ‘Evacuation.’

  ‘Partial or total, and on whose orders, General?’

  ‘Phased and temporary,’ said Allbright. ‘And it’s not an order, just a suggestion. Starting with all nonessential personnel. In view of what is happening – and what may be about to happen – it would seem to be a sensible precaution. Especially as the cutoff zone has virtually brought all research activity to a halt.’

  ‘I agree there’s not a lot we can do up here at the moment,’ said Wedderkind. ‘I wouldn’t oppose a reduction in numbers. I assume you’re proposing to transfer them to the base camp?’

  ‘That would be the first step,’ said Allbright. ‘If we accept the idea that Crusoe is preparing for takeoff, then according to your theory, he should revert to his fluorescent state. That will mean he’ll be beaming out a large amount of ultraviolet radiation. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have this campsite crowded with spectators when that happens.’

  ‘No, that’s right.’

  ‘Good. Now as you know, before any of us can leave this area, all Ridge personnel have to be checked out by the base camp medical unit. That process takes thirty-five minutes per person. Deducting our recent losses, we’re left with a total strength of three hundred and twelve men, including yourself and Mr Connors. The unit can process two cases simultaneously, giving us a total processing time of around ninety hours. That’s three and three-quarter days, assuming the unit works nonstop. Given a sudden emergency, we could find ourselves with a big tailback.’

  ‘There’s the emergency medical unit on the Ridge, and NASA could always draft in more staff,’ said Wedderkind. ‘But in any case, General, is it really necessary to have all your people processed? You and I, Bob Connors, and Alan Wetherby have all been given a clean bill of health. Not once, but several times. If anybody on the project had been taken over by a parasitic host, or were incubating a virulent extraterrestrial plague, surely we would have been contaminated too.’

  ‘I don’t think our medical opinions carry much weight,’ said Allbright. ‘Washington’s fears are understandable, the Defense Department directive is quite specific, and I don’t have the authority to countermand the order.’ Allbright allowed himself a quiet smile. ‘I also think it’s time we stopped pretending.’

  Wedderkind frowned. ‘I don’t understand what you’re getting at.’

  ‘Oh, come now, Mr Wedderkind. Do I really have to put it into words?’

  ‘It might help.’

  ‘I wonder…’ Allbright looked squarely at Wedderkind. ‘I was referring to the fact that you and I both know that everyone on the Ridge has, in varying degrees, been affected by the contact with Crusoe.’

  ‘Well, obviously, we’re bound to be changed in some way by this experience.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Allbright. ‘But I’m not referring to a change in attitudes. I’m talking about a physiological change that hasn’t been detected yet by the base camp medics. That opens up… how can I put it… new areas of understanding?’

  Wedderkind didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. The other way was so much easier. He relaxed his defence and let his mind interlock with Allbright’s.

  WEDDERKIND: HAVE YOU TOLD ANYONE? Allbright: No. I thought it might be misinterpreted. I was reluctant to believe it myself, AFRAID? At the beginning, yes. I was afraid I might be losing control over my own actions. Now I realize that nothing else has changed, NOTHING. WE STILL HAVE OUR FREE WILL, ONLY OUR PERCEPTION HAS INCREASED. CRUSOE HAS UNLOCKED THE CLOSED DOORS IN OUR MINDS. BUT WE ARE STILL LIMITED. WE CANNOT COMMUNICATE IF EITHER OF US REFUSES INTERLOCK. Perhaps that will change with time. Do you think Crusoe has been interlocking with us? YES. I BELIEVE HE WAS IN CONTACT WITH SOME OF US WHILE HE WAS STILL IN ORBIT. Feeding us with ideas? YES, BUT ON A LEVEL BEYOND OUR PRESENT DEGREE OF PERCEPTION. I AM UNABLE TO DISTINGUISH HIS THOUGHTS FROM MY OWN. So, in fact, we could be completely under Crusoe’s control, HOW CAN YOU THINK THAT WHEN YOU HAVE HELPED PLAN HIS DESTRUCTION? That’s true, but we could still be deluding ourselves. The idea that we still retain total freedom of action could be just an illusion. Covert mind control was the one thing that the people in Washington feared, ALL GOVERNMENTS FEAR IT BECAUSE THEY KNOW, SUBCONSCIOUSLY, IT IS A POWER THEY WOULD LIKE TO POSSESS – AND MISUSE, TO BLUDGEON US INTO CONFORMITY. THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR. WE ARE AS WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN. THE POWER IS WITHIN ALL OF US. ONLY NOW, SOME OF US ARE ABLE TO USE IT. But why set us apart from the rest? And why me? I am committed to destroying Crusoe. Why arm his enemies? PERHAPS HE KNOWS YOU BETTER THAN YOU KNOW YOURSELF. IT MAY BE BECAUSE WE WERE AMONG THE FIRST TO MAKE CONTACT WITH CRUSOE – OR THE FORCE HE IS RELAYING. WE ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES AFFECTED. I CAN SENSE A GROWING AWARENESS AMONG EVERYONE ON THE RIDGE. PEOPLE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING WITHIN THEM. Is Connors aware? ONLY PARTLY. HIS MIND IS STILL CLOUDED. I CAN FEEL THAT HE KNOWS SOMETHING IS HAPPENING TO HIM BUT HE IS TRYING TO FIGHT IT. IT WORRIES HIM. And many of the others too. The degree of awareness varies from person to person. It is as if they had been handed a strange tool without any explanation on how to use it – or what to use it for. YES. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US AND THE OTHERS IS THAT WE HAVE BEEN QUICKER TO UNDERSTAND ITS POTENTIALITIES, AND TO USE THEM. I KNOW THAT COLLIS AND BRECETTI ARE ALMOST AT THE SAME POINT, BUT I HAVE NOT TRIED TO CONTACT THEM BECAUSE IT IS STILL TOO DANGEROUS. IT IS BETTER TO WATT. THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF TIME AFTERWARD. There may not be any ‘afterward’. I CAN’T ACCEPT THAT. THERE HAS TO BE. OTHERWISE THERE WOULD BE NO REASON FOR OUR EXISTENCE OR CRUSOE.

  The exchange widened out to include other ideas, attitudes and experiences, and as they progressed towards a deeper understanding, Allbright unexpectedly revealed a terrifying vision that had lain inside his brain like a hidden cancer for years.

  Countless explosive chain reactions, fusing into one enormous, apocalyptic, cleansing fireball that would wipe the diseased, the poverty-stricken, the overpopulated, burdensome nations of the world clean off the face of God’s Earth. Society would start again. Start anew. The rotten would perish. The sane would survive. And so would the strong. Enough to build a new America. A clean, straightforward, simple America, that his father had known and that he, himself, had seen corrupted…

  Wedderkind was so disturbed by the discovery that he lapsed back into speech. ‘Did you really want that to happen?’

  ‘It was a nightmare wish that stayed with me a long time,’ admitted Allbright. ‘It may have been because of my job. When you are near the apex of the command system that controls the most powerful, most destructive force the world has ever known…’

  ‘I know. One tends to develop a Jupiter complex. Scientists are sometimes afflicted with it too,’ said Wedderkind. ‘And now –?’

  ‘Now I realize that there are other ways by which the same end result can be achieved.’

  ‘But less bloodily.’

  ‘That depends very much on how people react,’ said Allbright. ‘Things may go badly if you rely on people’s willingness to make great sacrifices. The kind o
f change you and I are talking about will be viewed by most people as a global catastrophe – and no doubt they will react accordingly.’

  ‘And will you still go ahead as planned?’

  ‘Of course. There’s no other alternative.’

  ‘Even though you may be risking your life?’

  Allbright shrugged. ‘That’s nothing new. We are all condemned to die from the moment we’re born. It’s what you do in between that counts. If I refused to carry out my orders, it could put the lives of everyone on the project at risk.’

  ‘You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that.’

  ‘In any case, neither you or I have the right to allow Crusoe to impose his ideas on the rest of the world. If it was put to the vote what do you think the verdict would be?’

  ‘How often has the majority been right?’ asked Wedderkind. There was no room for the democratic process in your own thermonuclear solution.’

  ‘My personal feelings are irrelevant, Mr Wedderkind. I took an oath of allegiance to serve my country. Crusoe’s presence may be benign, but neither you or I have absolute proof of that. Whatever benefits Crusoe may have come here to bestow on us – and already, we both know of one – his presence and power threaten the authority of the government that the people of the United States elected, and that I serve. Regardless of any other considerations, for that reason alone, if the order comes, I have to act.’

  ‘Oh, it will come, General. It’s inevitable. We are all prisoners of the system. I know the present situation is fraught with danger, but I’m praying for your efforts to be rewarded with total failure – and also for your safe return. Even if it is only to arrest me for treason.’

  Allbright smiled. ‘If it does prove impossible to destroy Crusoe, I hope, for your sake, I do survive, Mr Wedderkind. You’re going to need people like me.’

  Despite the apparently frank exchange, Wedderkind had been aware that Allbright was blocking off certain areas within his mind that held information he was not ready to share. In visual terms, the sensation was rather like driving along a freeway in clear weather and then suddenly running into a dense bank of dark grey fog that blots out all sight, sound, and movement. With practice, it might be possible to probe through the mental barriers into the concealed areas. Allbright must have experienced something similar, because Wedderkind had, himself, made a strenuous effort to hold back his knowledge of the possible existence of other landing sites.

  He realized that he would have to work hard to develop his reawakened telepathic powers. In particular, Wedderkind foresaw an urgent need to perfect a blocking technique that employed a diversionary segment of irrelevant experience to screen off the knowledge he wished to conceal rather than the telltale ‘fog’. If he was going to find himself surrounded by a host of open-minded telepaths, a little mild deception might come in handy…

  AIR FORCE ONE/WASHINGTON-MOSCOW

  With Connors and Fraser aboard, and Colonel Buzz Bricker at the controls, Air Force One took off from Andrews AFB at 10 A.M. Thursday and headed eastward across the Atlantic on a route that would pass over the Azores.

  It was the first time Connors had been face to face with Fraser for more than an hour without a table between them. The President had intended him to go alone, but after their midnight meeting, Fraser had asked to go along on the trip. This time, at least, they were agreed on the course of action to follow.

  Before leaving, Connors had reread the background material Greg Mitchell had compiled on Fraser. Just reading about him had been an exhausting experience. Not content with collecting good grades in law and economics, Fraser had been a star football player at Oregon State, had served with distinction in the Marines, played good golf, had helped crew one of the yachts in the 1970 America’s Cup Race, was a keen fisherman, strong swimmer, ran three miles every morning, and enjoyed chopping down trees with an axe.

  Connors had never played football, couldn’t bear golf, preferred boats with engines, found his fish in restaurants, could just keep himself afloat with a floundering breast stroke, had lately been having problems running up his own stairs, and the nearest he’d got to an axe in the last twenty years was a stereo version of ‘Woodchopper’s Ball’. Still, his record was not one of total failure. With single-minded determination, Connors had made the UCLA tennis team but only because he was even more determined to make the women’s singles champion. At the end of the season she had announced her engagement to a thirty-year-old dentist. Totally disgusted, Connors abandoned sports and went back to the college library and the more rewarding pursuit of girls with glasses.

  Connors had viewed the forty-eight-hour trip with mixed feelings, but fortunately, Fraser had brought four Defense Department aides with him. Apart from some initial desultory conversation, Fraser spent a lot of the trip working with his aides on a sackful of papers. It gave Connors time to review the files on Crusoe, CAMPFIRE, and Commissar, and to work out exactly what he was going to say to the Russians. He reflected for a moment on the curious way in which his life had been dogged by the letter C: the choice of his own surname; California, the state in which he’d spent his first years in America; the name of his first wife and the name of the girl he might yet marry – and now Crusoe…

  Just after the Azores had drifted past the starboard wing, Fraser left his shirt-sleeved colleagues and came over to Connors. ‘May I join you?’

  ‘Sure…’

  Fraser sat down and loosened his striped tie. ‘Boy, have we got problems…’

  ‘The fade-out?’

  ‘Yeah… when those short waves go, the shit really hits the fan.’

  ‘Yes, I can imagine.’

  ‘I wonder if you can,’ said Fraser.

  ‘I’ve been on the NSC and the Special Action Group for two years,’ said Connors. ‘That does give me some idea of the workings of the military establishment.’

  ‘Do you realize that without radar and radio it’s practically impossible to hold this country together, let alone defend it? And globally, by the time that last three-week fade-out ended, we’d lost our grip on the whole situation. But I mean totally. If the Russians hadn’t played it straight down the middle – ’

  ‘At least I got that bit right,’ said Connors. ‘They’re in as bad shape as we are.’

  ‘Don’t kid yourself,’ growled Fraser. ‘They’re not geared up the way we are. Do you know how many of their tanks have radios? One in four.’

  ‘But at least their Red ant heaps didn’t swarm all over us.’

  ‘Not last time. But don’t write off that possibility. We don’t know how long this new fade-out is going to last – or whether the Russians will go along with us. If these guys sense an opportunity to screw us, they will. Look at the way they covered up the second spacecraft.’

  ‘And the way we broke the agreement to ban reconnaissance overflights. That’s going to take some explaining when I lay the photographs of Commissar on the table.’

  ‘You’ll think of something,’ said Fraser. ‘Listen, the only reason they didn’t try it was because they don’t have anything to match the SR-71A. The dummies went banco on photographic satellites. Fat lot of good that did them. And what about Crusoe? You and the Old Man led the big clam-up on that.’

  ‘Weren’t we right?’

  ‘Absolutely. It just proves my point. When it comes down to the real nitty-gritty, all this talk about trust and mutual understanding between us and the Russians turn, out to be plain hogwash.’

  ‘You know why we decided to keep quiet. Crusoe’s landing created an entirely new situation. We didn’t know how we would react, let alone the Russians. Especially under the impact of the fade-out. That altered the whole balance of power that formed the basis of the agreements we’d reached.’

  ‘My words to the President exactly,’ said Fraser. ‘Except that in my opinion, the agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. I put my faith in a big gun and a strong dollar.’

  ‘Yes… the trouble is, we don’t seem t
o be able to have both.’

  Fraser didn’t say anything. Winning congressional approval of his Defense budget was just one of his current problems. And now, with the renewed fade-out, the billions of dollars already invested in advanced electronic-based weapons systems was looking, at least temporarily, like a total write-off. Without a big gun, and with the dollar weakening under the economic impact of the fade-out, the only way for the United States to avoid trouble was to make friends and influence people. And that meant using the relationships people like Connors had helped the President build with the Communists.

  ‘Do you think they’re going to buy this bluff of yours?’ asked Fraser.

  ‘I think we have a more than even chance.’

  ‘Well, if it comes off, it will be one hell of a double play.’ There was a hint of grudging admiration in Fraser’s voice. ‘Still, I suppose you people understand better than we do just how their minds work.’

  Connors ignored this veiled reference to his middle-European origins. He had, after all, only been six years old when following the collapse of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, his parents had brought him to America after a perilous crossing of the Austrian border under fire from a Red Army patrol that had killed three other refugees travelling with them. ‘The point is this, if the Russians do agree with our proposition, can you guarantee that a nuclear bomb is going to destroy these spacecraft?’

  ‘What else do you suggest we use?’ asked Fraser.

  ‘But is a fifty-kiloton weapon going to be big enough?’

  ‘The Russians can use what they like,’ said Fraser. ‘We’ve calculated the size we need. What do you want us to do, use fifty megatons and destroy half of the midwest?’

  ‘No. I trust your experts. It’s just that we may only get one bite at the apple.’