Watchers

by S. T. Boston

  “Wait a second,” said Sam, shifting slightly in his seat so he could face her, “are you telling me that those guys were all the same as you, and all from wherever it is you're from?” He shook his head in disbelief.

  Oriyanna nodded. “Yes they were. I did say sometimes things are not as they seem.”

  “Just how many of you are there here?”

  “Usually only four,” she replied, her stomach lurching a little. She was dreading explaining it all to them. “John Remy was nearing the end of his second term in office as president. Once he stepped down, his period as a Watcher was to end. The one who was set to replace him is already here on Earth. It's vital that any new Watcher spends a few years here before taking up their post. The ones who killed John Remy and took the others obviously didn't know about him, or we wouldn't have discovered anything was wrong until it was too late.” Deep down, Oriyanna feared that it might already be too late, but she didn't bother raising the point.

  Sam narrowed his eyes. “Okay, none of this really makes much sense. Why would you have people here? And how come no one else knows about all this? And what is a Watcher?” Sam wasn't sure just how much more he could take. He had the feeling though, that what he already knew hadn't even scratched the surface. He massaged his temples and chewed at the loose skin on his lip once again.

  Oriyanna glanced down at the sleeves which had already slipped down over her hands. “We come from a planet called Arkkadia,” she began awkwardly. “It's around six hundred light years from Earth.”

  Adam drew a sharp breath in through his teeth. “How long did it take you to get here again? Those disappearances were only two weeks ago.”

  “The journey time between Arkkadia and Earth is just over seven of your days,” she replied.

  “So it's possible to travel faster than light then?” Adam asked excitedly.

  Oriyanna had known this would happen. She hadn't even gotten started and already the questions were flooding in. She shook her head. “No, you can't travel faster than light in an object with mass, it's a scientific impossibility,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “Then how—” began Adam.

  “Look, it's going to take me a while to explain it all. I'll try and cover any questions you have a little later,” she snapped. It sounded as if she was being hard on him, but unless she was strict, explaining would take even longer.

  “Okay, sorry,” he replied, sounding a little dejected. “I'll try my best just to sit and listen, but I warn you, I'm a writer and reporter so it goes against my nature.” Adam took his eyes away from the rearview mirror and stared intently at the road ahead. The night was gradually growing clearer. Light clouds made silvery, mackerel-like patterns across the moonlit sky.

  “Thank you.” She patted his shoulder, feeling a little guilty for the way she'd spoken. “As I said, Arkkadia is around six hundred light years from Earth. Our sun is close to the constellations of Lyra and Cygnus, so it's visible from Earth.” She paused as a patrol car shot past them, its blue lights flashing brightly in the night. They all let out a long, relieved breath when it took a left hand turn off the main road and went about its business. “Arkkadia,” she continued, “is a little under twice the size of this planet. We don't have a great deal more landmass though, as much of our planet is covered with water. I am led to believe that around ten years ago, one of your deep space telescopes actually found our planet and highlighted it as a place likely to contain life.” A wry smile formed on her face.

  “Did you know about that, mate?” asked Sam. He liked the way that no matter what the subject, Adam usually had some knowledge of it.

  “I vaguely remember something about it, but it was a long time ago now. It's the kind of thing that makes the tail end of the news for a day or two then just gets forgotten about.”

  “It's funny though,” Oriyanna continued. “A deep space telescope was how our ancestors first found the Earth — close to fifty thousand years ago now.” Much to her surprise, neither of them cut in or interrupted. “Back then, the Arkkadian people were much like you are now, just taking their first tentative steps off the planet, looking to the heavens and wondering if life could possibly exist somewhere out there. We don't have droves of information about our ancestors who first came here, but I will tell you what I can.” She arched her back slightly, stretching out a niggling travel pain from the seat. “As I said, when our ancestors first found Earth they could do nothing but look at deep space images and wonder if any life could exist here. From what we understand, it was that way for almost three hundred years. After nearly three centuries of research and development, our whole planet marvelled at the invention of an engine that would make deep space exploration possible.” She looked fleetingly at Adam. “Don't worry, if you really want to know how it all works, I'll tell you later. I also understand that your best minds are working on a similar project, although you are many years away from being able to put it to practice.” He glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled in appreciation. “Once they knew the technology was stable and after many more years of testing, three craft were sent here. They found Earth to be in the grip of your last ice age. Much of the northern hemisphere was one big ice sheet. The southern hemisphere and around the equator were slightly warmer, but it wasn't the paradise they'd thought it would be. Exploration of the warmer regions of the planet found it to be teeming with life of all kinds. For the first time in our history, we knew that life existed elsewhere, that we were not alone. Geological scans of your planet also found it to be rich with precious metals and minerals. But that was not the most amazing discovery, not by far. They found a semi-intelligent race that your history calls Genus Homo. Like us, they were bipeds and seemed similar in height and build, although they were covered in much more hair and had a much darker skin tone. What our ancestors found most remarkable was the fact these creatures used tools and weapons for hunting. The first mission took two of these creatures as specimens, one male and one female. After two weeks' initial exploration, they returned to Arkkadia with the creatures as well as geological survey maps of Earth.” Oriyanna stood up and stretched her back again; the seat was really not that comfortable. “Can I get some more water, please?” she asked, turning to the fridge.

  “Sure,” replied Sam,” just help yourself.” They had cleared the southern tip of Denver's city limits now. Adam took them onto State Highway 85, heading toward a town called Sedalia, avoiding the need to use I25 with its ever-watchful traffic cameras. Despite the fact the road was small and narrow in places, the lack of traffic still enabled them to progress at a fairly decent pace. The roads here were clear and dry; the storm which had hammered them earlier had petered out just south of Denver.

  Oriyanna returned to her seat and took a mouthful of water before screwing the cap back onto the bottle. “From the records we have of those first missions,” she continued, “we know they carried out genetic testing on the Genus Homo creatures that they took. It showed them to be what we call an evolutionary dead end.”

  Adam rubbed his eyes a little, they were starting to feel sore and sleep-deprived. “I'm sorry, what does that mean exactly?” he asked.

  “It means they had evolved as far as they could. From what we can tell, they had been at that state of evolution for tens of thousands of years, if not longer. They just didn't possess the genetic ability to progress any further.” She paused for a second, wondering how to cover the next part. “We were a very different people back then,” she said awkwardly. “The governments that ruled Arkkadia were keen to carry out mining operations on Earth, and they knew that precious metals and stones from this planet would be near on priceless.” She stopped and looked away to the side, avoiding eye contact with either of the men. “They sanctioned a genetics program to develop the Genus Homo breed for mining purposes. They took a small amount of the Genus DNA and mixed it with our own to create a cross breed; in effect, they bridged the evolutionary dead end and created a new race in their image. It was a race
bred for the sole purpose of working. Intellectually, they were back engineered and didn't possess a high enough intelligence to have any grasp of who their creators were or the technologies they possessed. Ethically, I don't know how they could ever have done it. I guess they saw it as a far cheaper alternative to transporting large numbers of Arkkadians to Earth and paying them a wage.”

  “So you're telling me,” snapped Sam angrily, “that you created us as slaves! Is that where this is going?”

  Oriyanna turned back to face him. He looked flushed with anger. “Please understand, Samuel, that our ancestors were a very different people. It was thousands of years ago now,” she pleaded, placing her hand on his shoulder. Sam immediately relaxed a little at her touch. “Over the next two hundred years, our ancestors carried out mining operations all over this planet. During that time, they continued to develop and advance the new worker species that they'd created. They called them Adamites. In our language it means those who are of the ground. The project also had a name with which you will be familiar – Eden. Even your name is derived from those early worker species they created, Adam.” He flashed her a quick look in the rearview mirror but didn't cut in. “Over time they introduced females into the population so they could reproduce themselves. I am ashamed to say that our ancestors were as hungry for wealth as they were for power. They ruled the Adamite people with fear, killing any who became too weak to be of use.”

  “Don't beat yourself up too much,” Sam sympathised. “There are plenty of people on Earth just like that. I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, as they say.”

  She nodded. “Yes. Unfortunately, we have noticed very similar traits in you over the years.” Oriyanna took a swig from the water bottle and placed it into the drinks holder at the side of her seat. “As I was saying, for around two hundred years our ancestors came and went from Earth, studying it and mining what they could. But the whole operation halted when a massive disaster fell upon Arkkadia. Our home planet was hit by a meteorite. Despite their ever-growing technology and understanding of the stars, there was nothing they could do to stop it, it wasn't even spotted until it was too late. The impact almost wiped us out completely. I know Earth suffered a similar event millions of years ago, which led to many early species being wiped out; this was a similar extinction-level event. At the time, we had no craft on Earth or on other exploration missions. The only people not on Arkkadia were in a space station that orbited the planet; they witnessed and recorded the whole event. Massive tsunamis washed clean whole continents, enough dust was thrown up into our atmosphere to block out our sun, the impact winter it created lasted for thirty-eight thousand years.” Oriyanna stopped and wiped at her eyes. She'd seen the ancient footage of the event which had nearly killed her entire race many times as a student. Despite the dislike she felt for her ancestors, the images still horrified her. She took another sip from the water and carried on. “The event cast us back thousands of years, we lost everything, our race turned into scavengers who were almost no better than the Adamite people we had left on the Earth. Our rich technological history almost passed into myth, and very little evidence of the great race we once were survived.”

  “You weren't kidding were you when you said it would be hard for us to grasp,” said Sam. His stomach was experiencing the first few pangs of hunger, but the selection of corn chips he'd picked up back in Empire didn't appeal in the least.

  “I know, I'm sorry. I will try to keep it as simple as possible. I must sound crazy, but I promise you it's the truth. If you'd rather, I could show you.” She raised her hand, prepared to pass the information to Sam through touch.

  “No! no, you're good. Just telling me is fine,” Sam replied hastily, leaning away from her a little.

  Oriyanna smiled. “I thought you might say that.” She lowered her hand and began fiddling with the Key Tablet, turning it over and over as if it were some sort of stress reliever. “Anyway, as the impact winter began to end we started to get back on our feet, a mere shadow of who we used to be. Steadily, over hundreds of years, we began to rebuild. Stories of our ancestors had almost turned into legend, but as we rebuilt, traces of our old civilisation were found. Slowly we came together, united out of the tragedy of near-extinction. Our new civilisation longed to regain some of the knowledge that our ancestors were rumoured to have possessed. Stories of the Earth and the race that had been left behind were now nothing more than what you would call folk tales. Then, as the first of our astronomers began to use technology to look to the skies, they made a startling discovery. There was an ancient structure still in orbit around our planet, a relic left from the old days. I was born around a hundred and fifty years after its discovery. I remember studying what had been found when I was a student. The information they had gleaned from it was unbelievable. The very first of our astronauts to go there found that amazingly, the reactors were still running. It still had power. The crew were still on-board; obviously long dead, but with no moisture in the air everything was preserved, almost appearing new. Over time, we learned how to access their computer systems. The information held on them changed the way we thought overnight. They discovered detailed plans on how the craft had worked and enabled us to once travel to the stars. Instantly our technological understanding advanced hundreds of years. The most ground breaking discoveries though, related to Earth. Not only did they find satellite images of this planet, but also star charts and equations on how to navigate here. The thing that shook us the most though, was learning about you. It was true, not only had we once visited this planet, but a race created by us had indeed been left here. Over the decades, speculation of what might now be on Earth was rife. You had been left unhindered for tens of thousands of years. Many believed that an advanced civilisation would now reside here, whilst others believed you would be extinct, having gradually died out over the years.”

  “I hate to butt in,” began Adam, “but we're going to need a gas station pretty soon.” He glanced at the fuel gauge nervously, as it crept even further into the red. Using the RV's computer, he found the fuel range guide. “It says we have just over twenty miles before empty.”

  Sam leaned forward and investigated the SatNav. “We should be fine. We're just less than twenty miles outside of Castle Rock. There'll be a station there. Just drive as fast and as economically as you can.” He returned his attention to Oriyanna as she rolled up her sleeves for about the tenth time. “So how and when did you become involved in all this?”

  “The subject fascinated me as a child. I was born into a time when they were just beginning to grasp the technology and understanding of how to rebuild the craft that had once made it possible for us to travel here. As a student, I was naturally talented in math and physics, as well as many other areas of scientific study. Our education systems were not too dissimilar from yours back then.”

  “Hold on a minute,” said Sam, shifting in his seat to try and relieve the dull ache gradually forming in his neck. “You were born – before your people had even returned to Earth? Just how long ago was that?” He was trying to run the math in his head, but couldn't quite believe the answer.

  Oriyanna looked a little uneasy. “Just shy of six thousand years ago now,” she replied awkwardly.

  For a few seconds, and not for the first time that night, Sam sat there looking a little like a fish which had just been caught and laid out on the river bank with its mouth gaping open. “Oh, right. Okay,” was all he could manage; he had given up trying to question anything now. It was much easier to just accept it and carry on.

  “When I was roughly twenty-nine Earth years of age I became involved in the final stages of the program that was rebuilding the craft our ancestors had once used. The engines we developed were exactly the same. It had taken us decades to understand the physics behind it. Like I said before, these engines do not enable us to travel faster than light, due to the fact our craft have mass. Not to mention the fact that as you approach speeds of that nature, time virtuall
y bends around you. The faster you go, the more time bends. If it were possible to travel many times faster than light, you would virtually be travelling in time. While a few days might have passed for you, many years would have gone by for everyone else. Even if it was possible, it would be highly impractical.” Oriyanna paused, briefly allowing them to get their heads around the concept.

  “Okay, I have a feeling I'm really going to struggle on this bit,” sighed Sam, already confused. “Just try and keep it as simple as you can.”

  “Do you have a piece of paper I could use?” she asked.

  “Yeah – sure,” he said, opening up the glovebox and fishing out the hire agreement.

  Oriyanna held it up. “Right, let's say this corner is Arkkadia and this corner is Earth.” She ran her hand diagonally across the sheet. “This represents the distance between the two planets.”

  “Okay, I'm with you so far,” said Sam. He looked as though he wanted badly to understand what she was saying.

  “Now the fastest way to get from this point to this point is how?” she eyed him, enjoying the look of confusion on his face.

  “By making them co-exist at one singularity!” cut in Adam, looking rather smug. Sam turned his attention to his friend, who for the first time in a good few hours had a triumphant smile on his face.

  “How the hell do you know this shit?” he asked in amazement.

  “What can I say? I like to read,” he responded, grinning.

  Oriyanna enjoyed the banter between the two men. The atmosphere was about as relaxed as it had been since she'd met them. “I'm impressed,” she said. “I know the theory behind this has been looked at on Earth. Unfortunately, as I said, you're still a good few hundred years, if not more, from being able to put it into practice. I know that NASA is hoping to harness it in the next hundred years, but I fear they may be in for disappointment, unless they experience a real breakthrough. I would add though that the amount of power required to create a bend in space that spans six hundred light years is massive, and far more than the engines on our spacecraft can manage.”