I traveled to work. I wouldn’t have to port again for several weeks but my duties till then involved reading the reports of others who had come back in recent times. On average we had about 30 a day going and coming and the ambition was to gradually move this up to 100 per day. The training required was very long however and not everyone was suited to the task. I was beginning to wonder whether I was still suited to it myself . . .
I had felt quite fine that morning as I woke. Perhaps the sunshine streaming through my bedroom window and the cool fresh air that came with it helped, and I felt I was almost back to my normal steady self. But now, as I sat with the first report of the day in my hands in that sterile but familiar environment I felt my flesh begin involuntarily to crawl. What WAS this? Was I going mad? What the hell could it be that could make me feel like this?
It was then a thought began to bother me. I don’t know why I began to think about this, but then again perhaps it should have occurred to me long before. Could it be . . . Could it possibly be . . . that those I saw hanging in the air of that strange office on another world had also been able to see ME?
I handed back the file I’d been assigned and immediately logged myself into Support. It was an old friend of mine Harry Turnbull who saw me. He did what he could, he listened attentively, he took down notes, he did his best to reassure me, sent me for an immediate aromatherapy massage and then sent a report down the line. He also gave me a line for some tranqs and sleepers. What else could he do?
The massage did help. A little human contact. A little muscle reflex soothing. I was beginning to hope I wasn’t going nuts after all.
A note was waiting at the Support Centre reception desk as I emerged. I was to report once again to debriefing.
As soon as I saw the faces I knew that what was normally a fairly relaxed hour of question and answer on the machine was perhaps going to be a little more strenuous this time. The faces that awaited my arrival did not look composed at all. And it rattled me that they were rattled. Things were beginning to look very bad indeed.
I was put under fast. I knew that on this occasion I was also put in under direction. Powerful hypnotic commands and directives were being used and I was just aware of them at the edge of my consciousness as I went deeper and deeper under.
I woke. I was alone except for the usual two helpers who steadied me and initiated some light banter to bring me round slowly and in a comfortable state of mind. There was a slight throbbing on my right forearm and I knew I had also been dosed as well as being put into deep hypnosis. They were clearly taking this very seriously indeed.
As usual I was told nothing. This was normal operating procedure. But this time I couldn’t leave it at that. I had to know what was going on. I knew however that it would be fruitless to go through normal channels. I’d have to contact Saul if I was ever to find out.
The meeting wasn’t easy. Saul knew his job and his whole career were gone if anyone ever found out about it. But we had known each other so long and had been close for so long that I knew he was my best chance to get something, even if it was not the whole story.
“They don’t want to take any chances. This has really freaked them out. On one hand they are excited about what this could mean for the mission. The ones you saw may well have access to technology far in advance of any that the other Earth might have. On the other hand they are scared shitless that your contact, if it was contact, could lead them here. As you saw they do not appear friendly, at least not in regard to whoever it was they were treating, if that’s what they were doing. The intriguing thing is that the human you followed did not seem overly perturbed by them, right?”
I nodded. “No, that’s right, he remained calm during the whole thing.”
“But what do they intend to do now?”
“They are sending agents on surveillance duty to get as much data as possible on the location and what goes on there, that’s all I can tell you.”
“And what about me?”
“I don’t know. I truly don’t know.”
I hadn’t learned much more than I could have guessed when it came right down to it but it had been good to talk things over with Saul. I believed with confidence that he’d let me know of developments as they happened that might affect me. As long, that is, as he was kept in the loop.
I still felt shaky but was confident I wouldn’t be thrown out on the street just yet. There were so few Porters and they needed so very many . . .
~
I reported for work as usual during this period and on the surface nothing changed. I was able to keep up with the work being done but I did notice I was not being assigned any of the files connected with the surveillance of the building I had previously visited. It looked like little of any other interest was turning up. The reports I was reading held no clues, as far as I could see, that might lead to a breakthrough of any kind. I became more and more convinced that the answers must lie in and around the place I had visioned that day.
At night my nightmares continued. They mostly involved humiliation, disgrace and feelings of unworthinessss and being laughed at. They were really beginning to get me down.
Then . . .
“They have made contact with an agent on the periphery of location ‘G’” (this was the name they’d given the building). The contact was telepathic, not physical. They have said they want dialog. And they will only permit to have it with you.”
I wondered . . . had they been checking me out all this time? And was I such a puny specimen to them that they could hardly contain their disgust?
~
Behind the scenes the elite levels of political, military and scientific management must have been going through traumas of their own leading up to this point. And it’s likely they still did not know if our particular Earth’s location was known to “The Ones” as they had come to be called. Perhaps by this time they simply were beyond caring. The mission was finding few clues as to the whereabouts of the white rooms and didn’t look like finding them, ever. There were simply far, far too many locations and far, far too many time zones. The odds against hitting the bullseye again must have been trillions upon trillions to one.
So, the focus was shifting. Scarily and warily shifting. But wearily too. They were running out of options.
~
I was to be prepared. And how. I never knew how many of a staff the center had until those few days when I seemed to meet every last one of them. How was I to store all this information? All the myriad possibilities of question and permissible answer. All the implanted blocks on data not to be divulged.
I suspected all this planned subterfuge to be a complete waste of time. There wasn’t much doubt in my mind that they could, and would, see right through it.
~
The day came. I waited and the Port took me. I arrived at the familiar steps before the building I had followed Nevin into a month or so before. There was no guard and no delay to my entrance. In fact the building and streets appeared to be totally empty. I stopped and wondered for a moment why it was being done this way. Then I realized. This was the building I and Nevin had entered . . . but not on the same Earth. Another of the infinite number of Earths had been chosen for this venue. But ‘The Ones’ were familiar with this construct, this building, this location and so here I was. I glanced to my left at the adjacent buildings of some five stories that lay there. There were cracks in their structure and parts of their metal frames could be seen jutting out here and there. And in between, down an alley that separated them I saw to the horizon, a panorama of endless yellow sand.
The grey building ahead however appeared as it had done on my previous visit to its clone and I assumed everything within would be completely familiar. And so it was. the marble cladding, the mural, the office on the first floor. But no people. No one. Not one single soul.
I sat down in
front of the computer screen I knew I would find there and triggered it automatically through replaying Nevin’s actions through my memory bank. The array of galaxies was the same and the great lens too. I waited.
The flickering in the air began after some moments. Figures emerged from nebulous shapes and took humanoid form as before. I had no doubt these were not the actual forms of these beings but the shape was made familiar to us to ensure a reality which could allow communication.
Their communications were brief and to the point. They could help us. However there would be a price which, as they put it, was also part of the solution to our problems. They merely wished to harvest one third of our population. And on a cyclical basis. Forever.
We did have an alternative choice which they said, would neither suit them nor us. Total annihilation.
I don’t know what they had expected back home. But it was not this.
~
It was a few weeks later and the nightmares had disappeared. I felt relieved. The enormity of what was happening had left me almost numb. Was it real? If it was it was incomprehensible. It seemed like a very bad cosmic joke. Here we were nearing the planet’s tragic end by our own hand having frantically sought the most unlikely solution to avert catastrophy at the last possible moment. And now we were faced by the imminent possibility of our own mass execution.
It just seemed too cruel for words. Though I knew some among us would call it poetic justice of sorts. As a species we had been remarkably childish, irresponsible and blindly uncaring in our stewardship of this beautiful, lush, wondrous world. Still, I couldn’t find it in myself to see it that way at that moment. I saw instead the brighter chapters in the more innocent periods of humanity’s history, of the children and of the achievements. Then I could see little, blinded as I was by a sudden bitter weeping, for our whole sorry race.
~
I had thought the mission was ended but efforts were re-doubled. Even those who were previously rejected for training as being unsuitable were recruited and those still only partially trained were sent out. All this was in a last-ditch attempt to find at last the white rooms, collect data on new technologies and super-weapons with which to defend Earth against ‘The Ones’. But it was useless. And they probably knew it from the start. It allowed the politicians to posture for the cameras a while longer and for morale to be given a modicum of support. But it was ultimately useless and in the end, nearing the deadline which had been set all pretense was abandoned. The Ones would have their harvest, they would have their unspeakable crop.
~
After the Centre closed for the duration I could do little but go home and wait. Who would be chosen and who would survive? At first it was all anyone could think of, and it was all you could read of or watch on tv. Gradually though, once an inured acceptance had gained hold other subjects did begin to arise. Nostalgia, history and pride in human achievements past became the order of the day. In the face of humiliation and looming annihilation the human race began finally to come together, to find unity and solace in one another. Along with this came a futile defiance. But, like lambs nearing a slaughterhouse kicking against the metal walls that enclose them it was a gesture of utmost futility.
The day came when the skies grew black. Their great ships stood motionless, casting enormous shadows over every land. The black rays were seen moving incessantly. At first they took the dead. There was a harvest they could distil from them too. This did not take long. Then it was the turn of the living. Slowly but surely the count of the harvested increased. And finally the smoky black rays were no longer seen. It was over. One third of us were gone. The rest would re-group and recover. As in the Middle Ages when the Black Death plague had taken between 75 to 200 million of Europe’s population some actually benefited from the resulting shortage of manpower and renewed leverage which this brought them. It’s an ill wind as they say . . .
It was after The Black Harvest as it came to be known that the decision was made to rename our benighted world. The unanimous name decided upon by universal vote was New Eden. Those who had survived with families intact were overjoyed at their good fortune and proceeded to celebrate. They forgot the bonding that they had felt with the rest of humanity quite quickly in their enthusiasm for the new life they had been granted. Scarce workers received better conditions, pay rises and secure employment for life. Unemployment was at rock bottom. People began to put the past behind them. Retail sales soared. As did envy and greed. As did the ongoing destruction of nature and natural environments. and, the Center re-opened.
I watched it all on tv and shook my head. I thought to myself, “Here is where it all begins again”. The world has changed forever, but the road we travel on remains ever the same. I even found myself wishing the next twenty five years away. After this time they would return to reap yet another harvest from us. This was the Devil’s bargain we had made to save most of our skins and give us some small chance of a future for humanity. But, I hoped next time we’d refuse their solution. Either we’d find those white rooms, develop the weapons we needed and fight them, or perhaps . . . I mused, we might take the nobler course and the one which would be of much more lasting benefit to the planet and its other lifeforms. To choose total extinction instead.
Either way I still had a job. And there was much work to do.
Even if the time we had was rapidly running out . . .
They Weren’t There
They weren’t there
Only the shapes of their laughter
Their echo
And that presence in the air
The veranda was now dark
In the distance skeletal trees and moon
Down below dust moved
Little changed, or would be soon
Each had left their existence
Like oil on some far pool
Near a river that could be an ocean
Or so it seemed to this fool
His eyes had seen too deeply
Death seemed preferable to this
Unable to touch their presence
And their longed for kiss.
In The Kingdom Of The Blind
It was a hot spot
The nova had been a billion years before
But a certain residue
Made radiation levels soar
It was a chance in a trillion
That Earth’s orbit would coincide
With a poison almost as deadly
As sweet cyanide
~
When Joe woke up still bandaged
All he could hear was screaming
He wasn’t sure for some time
If he was still dreaming
The op on his eyes had been successful
But he still had bandages on
He could see nothing but darkness
Was it sunset, midday or dawn?
His bed was bumped and moved
As the screaming came more near
The feet screeched on the hard tiled floor
And greater grew his fear
He shouted for a nurse to come
Soon he knew, he’d scream
No, this was some kind of nightmare
It was certainly no dream
He called again and again into the void
Until at last a voice whispered in his ear
“Please, can you help me” it rasped
This was the last thing he thought to hear
“I don’t understand . . . what’s going on?”
Joe urgently asked the nameless one
“It’s me that needs help from YOU”
“Please tell me . . . what in hell’s going on!?”
“No one really knows . . .”
“Suddenly we’re all blind”
&nbs
p; “There’s not a soul here can see”
“We’re going out of our mind!”
It was some seconds before it sank in
And Joe knew a creeping fear
He had to find Jane and the kids
He had to get out of here
He knew it was not time
To take his bandages off yet
They’d said some days had to pass
It was too much to bet
Was he blind too? He didn’t know
But he felt he saw shadows flick
Were they patterns on his eyelids?
He didn’t know and felt sick
Had he been exposed?
Or had his sight been saved?
Would he see as he had before?
Those were the answers he craved
His sight before had been blurred
By cataracts since his birth
The operation had been experimental
They’d been unsure of it’s worth
Joe threw the covers off his bed
And began to feel his way around
DREAMWORLD DAWNS Page 10