Emergence

by Nick M Lloyd

  Bob looked remorseful. ‘Well, we did strap you in to keep you from hurting yourself, as well as to heighten the fear. We were also monitoring your vital signs.’

  Jack stood up and paced around the room, never taking his eyes off Bob. ‘I saw Louise Harding! Is she part of a government investigation into stress and trauma?’

  ‘Well, yes…‌almost. She’s involved because you’re involved.’

  The confusion of the last few weeks came flooding back to Jack. Nothing really fitted, all the strange events. ‘And are any of you even doctors?’

  ‘Medical doctors…‌no.’

  Jack looked around the laboratory. He was struggling to stay calm. ‘Jesus, guys, I told you I was struggling with my mental health and you do this. What the fuck! Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?’ Jack walked up to Bob and pushed him in the chest. ‘What’s the full story?’

  Bob stumbled back slightly and opened his mouth to speak, but Jack overrode him. ‘No, Bob. I think I’ll hear it from Louise.’

  Mike went to the doorway and called. A few moments later, Louise and Jeff walked into the room. Louise stopped a few paces away. ‘Hello Jack…‌Well, I guess this is a very strange situation we find ourselves in.’ She paused. ‘You were a shit to do the things you did at Glowview.’

  ‘Typical Harding, attack first.’ Jack turned and walked towards the exit.

  Louise stepped forward and spoke in a rush. ‘Sorry! Don’t go now, you may be in danger. We need to stay together. It all sounds unbelievable, but you have some special powers and we think there are aliens involved as well.’

  Jack sneered. ‘If it’s true, then I’ll take my chances with them over the likes of you.’

  ‘Look, I admit the original Glowview investigation became too personal. I was trying extremely hard to get you thrown into jail. I crossed the line a few times.’

  ‘You’ve crossed a few more lines now. The only reason I’m not going straight to the police is that I trust them less than I trust you.’ Jack turned to open the door, but it was locked. ‘Let me out now!’

  Mike came forward. ‘Look Jack, we have information about a possible alien presence…‌observing us. We don’t really know for sure; or, if they’re there, whether they’re dangerous or not, but we should stick together.’

  Jeff had been quietly standing in the background, playing with Bob’s scanner. ‘There seems to be a signal emanating from Jack.’

  Mike turned. ‘What do you mean? Let me see.’ Mike waved the scanner over Jack’s body. ‘Jack, do you have any irritation inside your nose area?’

  Jack had had enough. ‘What? Open the door!’ He felt his breathing speed up.

  Mike scratched his head. ‘I know it’s a lot to take in. It’s about drugs, mind control, telekinesis, alien abduction, superpowers…‌and now we think there may be a radiation source up your nose.’

  ‘Are you mental? There’s nothing up my nose.’ Jack looked around, there were four of them. If they turned on him, could he overpower them? He shook the door.

  ‘I promise I’ll open the door, once you’ve listened for two minutes,’ said Mike.

  Jack stopped rattling the door and turned back. ‘One minute only.’

  As fast as he could, Mike gave Jack a brief summary: The Crash, FibonacciEddie, Hedgehog, Bill Jones, the MOD, G60, alien rumours, and finally, the results of the laser test.

  Jack was incredulous. ‘So you started investigating my luck because Louise was sad I had survived a crash, and you’ve ended up discovering I have special powers, and we’re being watched by aliens?’

  Jeff murmured in the background. ‘She wasn’t sad. She needed a story.’ Jack looked over to see Louise walk over and take Jeff’s hand.

  Mike spoke again. ‘You are now as confused and amazed as we are. Do you believe us?’

  ‘I don’t know. But I’m not staying here to discuss it. Not after what you’ve done.’

  ‘Do you know the chances of getting one hundred blue lights in a row?’ Jack shrugged and Mike continued to talk. ‘If we took ten thousand trillion people, so fifteen million times the population of Earth. Then we asked them to do this experiment ten times every day. Well…‌after the approximate lifetime of the universe so far, about fourteen billion years, one of them may have achieved it once.’

  ‘So I’m lucky. I’ll make sure to buy a lottery ticket.’

  Bob spoke. ‘Look, Jack, I’m not sure what you are, or what you have done. But if you want to leave, we can’t stop you. I’m hoping that, once you can see our intentions were purely scientific, you may go easy on us. And I’m slightly worried about the radiation in your nose.’

  Jack looked around the room. His breathing was evening out, and he could feel the adrenaline start to drain out of his system. His eyes lingered on Louise for a while before he spoke. ‘They say a drowning man will grab for what he knows to be a concrete ring, if it’s painted to look like a life-ring.’ He paused. ‘But I’m not putting myself under your control.’

  Bob unlocked the door and opened it. Louise stepped forward. ‘Please, Jack, reconsider.’ She reached out to take his arm.

  Jack knocked her hand away. ‘Haven’t you heard anything I’ve said?’ Jack left.

  Jeff followed. ‘I’m going for a cigarette anyway, I’ll make sure he finds the car park. And I’ll get some coffee on the way back.’

  Louise followed Mike and Bob back into the experiment area. They went over to the chair; the metal was buckled, the leather straps stretched thin.

  Bob looked at Mike. ‘I’m not sure what we’ve got into here.’

  ‘I’m not sure either.’ Mike’s face was unusually grim as he walked around the chair a few times shaking his head.

  Bob ran his hands through his hair and sighed, looking around the laboratory. Then he picked up a leather strap stretched so thin as to almost having been snapped. Bob held it up for Mike to see. ‘Mind over matter.’

  Mike looked up, his frown slowly transforming into a smirk. ‘The placebo crowd will love this!’

  Louise remained silent. Well, I’ve got my story. What next?

  A few minutes later, Jeff returned with coffee. They all sat around in the laboratory discussing the next steps. Ashley and Willis had come through from the coin-tossing area to join in the discussions.

  But Jack was gone. What could they do?

  Louise turned to the group. ‘Shall we try to re-run the laser test with either Willis or Ashley?’

  Mike shook his head. ‘There would be no fear.’

  Ashley nodded. ‘Honestly, I’d rather head home if it’s all the same to you guys. I’ll go back to Bath but I promise I will keep quiet. You get the exclusive in the next few weeks and then I clean up on the chat show circuit.’

  Willis shrugged. ‘I’ll stay, maybe try another test.’ He turned to Ashley. ‘I’ll call you in the next few days; you owe me that conversation, right?’

  ‘I promise. You’ll get your chance.’ Ashley and Willis hugged, then Ashley headed for the door.

  Louise noted the closeness. They seem to have become friends.

  Jeff stepped forward. ‘Okay, Ashley, I’ll take you back to the car park.’

  Again Jeff left the room.

  Bob stood with the scanner in his hand; he turned to Mike. ‘Scientific discovery of the century…‌and that’s even excluding the possible alien discovery.’

  Louise watched Bob as he walked around the experiment desks; then she turned to Mike. ‘What’s your thoughts?’

  Mike smiled. ‘Without a doubt, the discovery of the century. But the evidence seems to have just stormed out.’

  Chapter 53

  Justio sat at the main desk in the crew room looking at the blitz of data received from the mini-bots transmitting from Jeff’s clothes: video feeds, recorded conversations and data sucked out of the laptop. Jeff’s mini-bots had aggregated from across the whole mini-bot swarm using short-range data sharing. Ju
stio had it all.

  The material covering the coin tossing was inconclusive, but the laser test was significant. Skimming the footage of the laser test, Justio could make out the colours as the laser fired. Red lights or blue lights initially, then only blues.

  The discussions after the laser test were problematic, they’d clearly discovered Jack’s powers. Not bad in itself, but the last five minutes of the recordings were a disaster. Discussions about aliens! They’d found a signal emanating from Jack’s nose. The mini-bot had not been contactable since Justio had tried to detonate it a few days earlier.

  This changed everything; the humans could not be allowed to find definitive alien proof. The historical case studies showed very clearly that knowledge of an alien presence would give the Earth factions a common enemy to rally against. It would be nigh on impossible for him, individually, to sow discord.

  Plus, although he wanted a little war to underline failed stewardship, he didn’t want to condemn Earth to the enforced fallow period.

  He now had two clear objectives: remove any evidence of alien existence, and silence any humans who could credibly propagate stories about alien technology.

  Justio opened the mini-bot communication panel and instructed all of them to move to the most sensitive levels of security. They would now self-destruct if tampered with in any way, or if they did not get a stay alive signal each day. The mini-bots inside the shielded laboratory would get their instructions passed on to them when Jeff returned from his coffee break.

  The mini-bot up Jack’s nose would not respond to his instructions; it would have to be destroyed another way.

  An alarm went off in the crew room and Justio turned to the screen showing the Gadium ship main corridor. Aytch was walking up to the main blast door. Justio focussed his attention on the electronic locking mechanism. Aytch seemed to tamper with the override lock. Justio opened up a communications link with the corridor. ‘Aytch, stay away—or I will vent you into space.’

  Aytch retreated back to the stasis area.

  Justio reviewed his priorities. Jack Bullage mini-bot. The others could wait, all they had was a list of numbers: they didn’t have Bullage, and they didn’t have a mini-bot.

  But contingency was always good, so Justio refreshed his memory of the mini-bots in Mike’s garage—cutting the gas pipes, and in Louise’s car—infiltrating the brakes.

  Now to deal with Jack.

  Justio turned back to the screens. Jack had got into his car. He would be heading home soon.

  The crew room walls filled with databases and map overlays of the various fuel delivery companies. Which tankers are close by? Results soon started flowing in. He found a tanker containing liquid propane. Then Justio picked an ambush spot based on his prediction of Jack’s route home. He hacked the fuel truck’s satnav. He’d have to remember to erase all traces of the control overrides after the crash.

  More contingency required.

  Calling Jeremy Benedict, Justio asked him to stake out Jack’s house. He assumed Jeremy would take his car, under which was residing a golf ball sized reconnaissance drone. The drone had two tiny, but operational, antimatter missiles, each capable of vaporising Jack’s head. Jeremy’s phone diverted to voicemail.

  Need to avoid using AM if possible, too exotic.

  Then Justio accessed the mini-bots stationed in Jack’s sports car. They were all online.

  For 10 minutes Jack sat in his car in the university car park, trying to get his head together. He rubbed his wrists where he could feel the leather straps had cut into his flesh. He could still sense the lingering feeling of the restraints, but when he inspected his wrists there was no damage. I was sure they’d drawn blood.

  He started the car and pulled out into the road. As he drove, he reflected on the morning’s shocks. Aliens? Mind-powers? He shook his head. He wished he didn’t believe a word of it, but he’d seen some of it with his own eyes. Even if Bob had faked the test, he knew he’d been the focus of some strange occurrences recently: the lights going out, the railways crossing, and the techno-glitches all around the house. He kept looking back over his shoulder, half expecting to see Louise Harding following him, but she wasn’t there.

  After only a few minutes of driving, Jack hit a high street and quickly got stuck up behind a large white van, it appeared to be blocking the road entirely. After a few moments it edged forward. Just normal traffic.

  But Jack was sweating. The reduced visibility, because of the massive car in front of him, was making him nervous. He forced himself to slow his breathing and looked around; the pavements were crowded with Saturday shoppers. But they were just ordinary people going about their business.

  Driving down Christchurch Avenue, Jack thought back to the number of times Sarah had teased him about having such a girly car—his little two-seater sports car. He shook his head to clear the memory of her gently chiding expression as she tried to convince him to get something manlier. He’d always told her he was so much of a man he could roller-skate around in a pink tutu and no-one would doubt his manliness. He didn’t feel manly now; he didn’t feel invulnerable now; he didn’t feel like a master of his own fate. Things felt uncertain and volatile. Volatile is bad.

  A few miles south of Jack, Ajay Moss pulled out of Wormwood Scrubs Sports fields after his morning on the soccer pitch. He and his team had won their seventh league match in a row and, after a quick drink, he was making the short trip back to his home. Turning north, Ajay swore under his breath as he was brought almost to a standstill behind a slow moving fuel tanker dribbling along at only a few miles an hour.

  Ajay swung out into the middle of the road to take a look, but the steady stream of oncoming traffic stopped him from overtaking. He nestled back up behind the tanker and edged forward.

  After only five minutes of driving, Jack pulled off the high street and headed south. He had a nagging feeling he could not shake, as if his subconscious was trying to tell him something he was incapable of understanding. I just need to get home.

  Up ahead Jack could see a bridge, which he knew took him over the canal, and further down the road he could see a large fuel tanker moving slowly towards him. At 70 metres away, he started getting a really uncomfortable feeling. His memory flashed back to the inferno a few weeks earlier. A fuel tanker had been involved in the pile-up.

  At 50 metres away Jack thought the tanker was edging onto his side of the road. Am I imagining it? The memories of the crash came flooding back. Sarah!

  Jack let out an involuntary shriek and slammed on the brakes. Nothing happened. He was still moving towards the tanker.

  Ajay noticed the tanker swinging towards the middle of the road. Oncoming cars were mostly slowing down, but one car swung across the road and passed the tanker on its right-hand side. With the car coming towards him, Ajay instinctively swung his car to the left. Mercifully, he missed the oncoming car, hit the side railing on the bridge, scraped for a few moments and then came to a stop. He looked up at the tanker; it was near the middle of the bridge now and had veered all the way across the road. The far side lane was blocked and there was little space on his side of the road.

  The tanker stopped.

  Jack passed a garage, the last building before the bridge. He saw the tanker stopped less than 30 metres away, almost blocking the whole road. There was a small gap in the road, on the right of the tanker, and Jack swung the wheel hard. The electronic steering did not respond. Jack screamed and pulled harder.

  Something gave. His car swerved right, narrowly missing another car in front of him. He swung on to the right hand side of the road, but when he tried to straighten the steering, nothing worked. The car left the road. There was a gap in the railings and he sailed through it, and down a short grassy bank into the canal.

  The water was only a few metres deep but, as he hit it, all the windows opened half-way and the muddy canal water came flooding in. Shit! Jack lunged for the window controls but they were not respo
nding. Jack kept pulling on the switches but the windows did not respond. The car was filling with water.

  There were a few tiny explosions within the car. Jack looked through the flood of muddy water filling over three-quarters of the car’s interior. The dashboard was dark. He turned his attention to the doors. They wouldn’t open.

  He hit at the window glass, but it resisted.

  I’ll drown.

  Now he was totally under water except for his mouth and nose. The water was hampering his movements, so that he couldn’t get any force behind his blows. He lashed out again, but still nothing gave. Involuntarily he drew a breath, and took in some water. He overcame the urge to draw in more water, but he knew he was drowning.

  I must survive!

  Somehow, the urge to breathe lessened, but Jack didn’t know how long he could hold on.

  Justio accessed the remaining mini-bots within Jack’s car. He had very limited video feeds. He opened up a feed from a nearby CCTV camera. The car was totally submerged. Nothing had come out of the car or the canal.

  A text message from Jeremy indicated he couldn’t get to Jack’s until 7pm. Justio shrugged; hopefully it wouldn’t be needed. When the ambulance arrives, I’ll make sure they put the body near the tanker.

  Justio watched, via the CCTV, as a crowd started gathering around the canal.

  Ajay started running towards the canal. He had seen the car go in, and hadn’t seen anything come out. He slipped through the gap in the railings and down the grassy bank. Then, without a pause, he jumped into the canal and put his head under.

  The water was murky, but he could see movement within the car, a body wildly thrashing around. Ajay tried the door; it was stuck. He felt a reverberation as the person inside the car seemed to land a hit on the driver’s window. Ajay couldn’t see much. Is there just one person in there?