Boundary (Field Book 3)

by Simon Winstanley

  “This is our stick-man,” said Douglas, the marker squeaking with every stroke, “and here’s the edge of our Field, expanding as it starts up.”

  He drew a curved line to the left of the man.

  “The Field expands out through our man and emerges on the other side of him.”

  He drew another, longer, curved line, but to the right of the man.

  “This has been our model until now,” Douglas finished his mental recap, “Oh, wait a minute…”

  He hastily sketched a rectangle next to the man.

  “Mustn’t forget the Biomag… there.”

  Using broadly spaced diagonal lines, Douglas then began to shade in the area between the two curved lines taking care not to draw through the man that was between them.

  “This is the region inside the boundary, which passes through our man for a millisecond. Man experiences infinite temporal variation.”

  Anna smiled as Douglas added a few circles and stars of nausea above the man’s head.

  “In reality, this region inside the boundary has no observable thickness,” Douglas pointed to the shaded area, “Geometrically, these left and right curves appear to occupy exactly the same space.”

  Anna could see where he was heading and added:

  “So when the Field inflates or collapses, the Biomag’s spatial influence isn’t a factor. Our stick-man remains anchored inside the three-dimensional space he started in.”

  Douglas nodded and capped the marker pen.

  Anna studied the sketch for a moment, then pointed at the sketched Biomag next to the stick-man.

  “The Biomag shields us from space-time pocketing inside an already established Field.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Douglas, “that’s why we turn them on before establishing the Field.”

  “But what if the Biomag is doing more than that?” Anna tapped at the shaded area, “What if it’s also shielding us from this shaded area of space-time? What if it’s shielding us when the Field starts or stops?”

  Anna took the marker pen and carefully crossed out the sketched Biomag. Noticing that Douglas had recoiled slightly at the thought of removing a Biomag, she continued swiftly on.

  “What if the Biomag was off, during the Field’s inflation or collapse…” Continuing to use the marker pen, she reinforced the diagonal shading lines, but this time she allowed the lines to pass straight through the stick-man. A few seconds later the man was completely embedded within the shaded region, “If the Biomag wasn’t active, and the Field was still in dimensional flux, what would the stick-man see?”

  After several hours of discussion and extrapolation, they came to agree upon one conclusion: the dimensional complexity of the Field’s boundary should never fall into Archive’s hands.

  The Boundary was intrinsic to the Field’s equations, but they would make no effort to highlight it. In fact, so strong were their feelings on the matter, Anna and Douglas knew they’d have to make every effort to conceal it.

  A while ago, before the Field inversion equations had actually emerged, Anna had raised a concern. She had feared that when they handed over the Field solutions, Archive would not need to guarantee a place aboard the Node for either of them. They had both recognised the need to plan some form of insurance.

  Today, those plans came into action. After transferring the Field inversion equations to two separate memory sticks, they purged the Mark 3’s computer memory of all data.

  Knowledge of the Boundary now existed only in their minds.

  However, they both knew this would not be enough. When it came to valuable information, Archive always had some form of contingency. Although the data had been purged, it was entirely possible that a backup existed somewhere else within the confines of the Mark 3. The only way to ensure the destruction of the data would be to ensure the destruction of the Mark 3 itself.

  Anna took one final look through the observation window. Carter and Pike still appeared to be frozen in place, still playing their slow-motion tally game. For them only two minutes had passed but for her, twelve hours of exit preparation was reaching its conclusion. She turned and walked down the spiral stairs one last time.

  As she reached the lower level, she could see Douglas was taping down some temporary wiring with the last of the red insulation tape. He then tossed the remainder of the roll across the room and walked over to stand by the airlock.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Let’s go,” Anna replied, “Oh-two masks?”

  “Check. These should give us at least twenty minutes if we breathe slowly, but we may not need them - I’ve raised the general oxygen level throughout the Mark 3, so the airlock will sustain us for a while. There’s no point leaving any unused oxygen behind, and when we trigger the electrical overload it’ll get the fire started more efficiently.”

  “Biomag,” she inspected the device around her neck, “Check.”

  Douglas did the same for his; squeezing at the plastic casing to check its integrity.

  “Biomag, check,” he patted it twice, “The Field will collapse when the power supply is destroyed, which won’t take long. When the Field fails, the Mark 3 is going to burn. Whatever happens, just get clear as fast as you can.”

  Douglas followed Anna into the tiny space inside the airlock.

  “Ready?” he checked again.

  “Go,” Anna gave a firm nod.

  Douglas punched the improvised switch he’d set up outside the airlock. The electrical system had already begun to whine as Douglas pulled the airlock door closed. Over the next few minutes they watched through the door’s small porthole. Thick grey smoke had begun to fill the interior of the Mark 3.

  LINEAGE

  18th August 2013

  “Benton, I’ll need a full debrief of your time spent escorting Miss Walker here,” said General Napier, as the two of them walked towards the assembly hall, “We’ll need to keep her isolated in the holding cell for now, until I can work out how to handle this.”

  “Until Dr. Walker returns from his…” Benton tried to recall the appropriate term, “research expedition, I think you called it?”

  “I only called it that for Miss Walker’s benefit. Douglas is doing research, but he’s in there,” Napier pointed to the hangar sitting in front of the Node, then checked his watch, “He’ll be out in a few hours, but after that it would be best if he’s not made aware of his daughter’s arrival.”

  “Understood. Do you think she will cause trouble, General?”

  “She’s a useful asset,” Napier replied, “but she’s also a Walker. If I’ve learned anything -”

  He was interrupted by a siren that split the air and sounded throughout the base surrounding the Node.

  “What the hell?” Napier looked around for likely sources of threat. The bridge that connected the Node’s island to the far shore of Öskjuvatn Lake was clear and, as far as he could tell at this distance, the perimeter fence was intact.

  He checked in the opposite direction and saw that the doors to the Mark 3 Hangar were being dragged open. The siren stopped and the shouts of organised instruction now rose to prominence instead. A few moments later there was a flash of light from inside the hangar accompanied by a low frequency shockwave in the ground. Then the whole hangar shuddered and a burning panel fell from the roof, followed swiftly by two more.

  In horror, Napier realised that the Mark 3 Field capsule was ablaze.

  With large portions of the hangar roof now missing, the convective effect of the heat escaping through the roof was causing more air to rush in through the open hangar doors, stoking the fire further.

  It appeared that the Field itself was no longer active; with some relief, Napier could see that Colonel Beck and a lieutenant were assisting Douglas Walker and Anna Bergstrom to get clear of the burning hangar.

  Napier walked swiftly towards the hangar, assembling a small troop as he went and instructing them to start a personnel chain to get supplies away from the fire. Suddenly the metalwork
in the base of the Mark 3 started to sag under the thermal stress, and the tortured air began to carry a new high-pitched whine as the framework began to give way. A moment later he watched as the Mark 3 began to list and collapse to one side, then its momentum took over and started to roll the entire burning sphere slowly across the hangar floor. The heat was so intense that the hoses trained on the blaze were merely producing clouds of steam rather than extinguishing the fire. Through the steam, Napier could see that the Mark 3 had rolled to a halt lying on its side.

  He could see that Douglas and Anna were making their way towards him but when they arrived, coughing and spluttering against the inhaled smoke, his first thought was not for their wellbeing.

  “Tell me you got out of there with something?”

  “Our lives, thanks for asking,” Anna Bergstrom coughed, “Nice to see you too, General.”

  He did his best to quickly wrap his head around the complicated interplay of the differing time rates. For him, they’d been gone only a day and a half, but for them the journey had been almost two years. If he looked carefully, he could just about discern the additional grey hairs. Their faces looked more lined too, though this was probably due to the smoke and ash rather than age.

  “Sorry Dr. Bergstrom -” he found himself apologising.

  “It’s OK,” Douglas cut in, “we only left you yesterday. We’ll be fine.”

  Napier watched Douglas pull a small memory stick out of his pocket.

  “We did it,” Douglas reported, simply.

  The ground under their feet shuddered.

  A loud, metallic, shearing sound caused them all to quickly face the hangar, then an angry ball of fire erupted through the roof. Frantic fire crews were training hoses into the hangar, and still more troops were forming chains away from the building, passing supplies away from the blaze. Napier turned away from the chaos.

  “This is it?” he pointed to the memory stick.

  “Everything we need to invert the Field,” Anna nodded.

  “Twelve hundred to one ratio,” Douglas added.

  Napier shook his head in disbelief. In Douglas’ palm was the solution to Field inversion; the information that would allow the Node to travel through thousands of years, while its occupants barely aged a decade.

  He smiled at the fact that the solution should be reduced to something so small and mundane. He looked at Douglas and was about to congratulate him but from his expression, Napier could see there was a complication.

  “What?”

  Douglas closed his fingers around the memory stick, and spoke above the continuing noise.

  “There’s an asymmetric issue we believe is intrinsic to the Field.”

  As the burning roof above the Mark 3 collapsed into the hangar, it sent a new wave of heat in their direction; Napier had the uneasy feeling that both the hangar situation and the conversation were beginning to slip from his control.

  “As a consequence,” explained Anna, “Douglas and I will need to oversee the activation of the Field.”

  The heat subsided slightly and, as the Icelandic chill started to reassert itself, Napier read between the lines. She was making their threat very clear; the full solution to the Node’s Field equations would only be provided in exchange for a guarantee.

  “And, of course,” Napier stared at Anna, “you will need to be aboard the Node to do this.”

  “Of course,” she stared back at him, “but where else would we be?”

  “I think we understand each other,” Napier forced his mouth into a smile.

  He suddenly became aware of a single voice above the surrounding chaos. It took him a moment to realise that the voice belonged to Dr. Walker’s daughter, Kate. She was shouting for her father and running in the direction of the burning hangar, pursued by an armed guard.

  Before Napier could question the fact that she’d escaped from the holding cell, he saw the guard suddenly stop.

  “Halt! I will fire. Halt!” the guard targeted his assault rifle and had his finger on the trigger.

  Suddenly, Napier felt his sidearm being snatched from its position on his waist. He watched as Benton swiftly sighted the gun on the guard and fired. The guard’s body armour absorbed the shot but it sent the man spinning to the ground, cursing.

  Napier watched as Benton then calmly put the safety catch back on and handed the gun back to him.

  “My apologies,” said Benton, his face inscrutable, “I didn’t have time to ask your permission. He will be fine, and at least your asset is still alive.”

  Napier watched powerlessly as Douglas ran to be with his daughter, then swore under his breath as he watched both the hangar and his leverage go up in smoke. Many years ago, he had watched as Bradley Pittman had shown Douglas the faked photographic evidence of his family’s death. Napier himself was complicit in the necessary cover-up that had inevitably followed. Douglas must, even now, realise his involvement.

  He studied the Walkers; against the background turmoil, their conversation was inaudible.

  “Benton,” he spoke without facing him, “That was quick thinking.”

  “No. It really wasn’t,” he replied genuinely.

  In the distance, another structural support beam within the hangar gave way and the shriek of metal echoed in their direction. But Napier was more concerned with the collapse of control happening closer to him.

  “There’s something wrong here,” Napier frowned in the Walkers’ direction, “I can feel it.”

  He saw Kate hold out a small red envelope for her father.

  “This is no coincidence, Benton. The fact that Monica Walker’s daughter happens to be right here, right now…”

  “I agree, General. With your permission, I would like to continue monitoring the Walkers for any and all signs of covert communication.”

  “Absolutely,” Napier stated resolutely, then remembered to add the ego-morph’s conditioned response phrase, “For the good of Mankind.”

  Napier noticed the barest delay before Benton replied using the exact same phrase, but he attributed this to the extenuating circumstances. Before he could dwell on it any longer, he saw Douglas turn and advance in his direction. Instinctively he drew himself up to his full height in preparation for the confrontation.

  “Douglas -” he began, but was silenced by Douglas levelling a finger at him.

  “Dylan,” Douglas interrupted with force, “Under Archive’s Protected Lineage Directive in return for my Lifetime Services, I reassert my rights. My family is protected and included, either jointly or separately, in all Impact Event counter-enterprises.”

  He had never seen Douglas look so determined and knew the time for conversation or discussion was not now. He hoped that at some point in the year ahead he may be able to regain control, but for the time being he knew he could only say one thing.

  “Agreed, Dr. Walker.”

  Douglas lowered his finger and stepped even closer to him, brandishing the red envelope he’d seen a moment before. The hand written and faded ink read ‘External Variable’.

  “Do you remember Monica saying these two words to you?” Douglas flared, “Do you remember what they mean? External. Kate was supposed to stay out of Archive’s affairs and you’ve dragged her into it -”

  “Douglas, I didn’t drag her here, it was -”

  “Don’t,” Douglas cut across him, “You leave my family alone, or I’ll bring you down with another two words. Words that matter to you - Danny Smith.”

  Despite the background chaos and noise of the hangar fire, Napier felt as though the Node’s island had fallen suddenly silent. Those two words were the loudest sound ringing in his ears.

  “If you understand me, Dylan, get out of my way.”

  Napier knew he had no choice. In the last few minutes he had lost all leverage over the Walker family. As the remainder of the hangar began to collapse in on itself, he stepped aside to allow Douglas through.

  As Napier watched, Kate and Anna followed Douglas away from t
he burning wreckage of the Mark 3. Benton then arrived at his side.

  “General, with your permission, I’ll begin my surveillance of the Walkers now.”

  Still deep in thought, Napier absentmindedly nodded his assent and waved him on his way. Within a few moments, he saw Benton moving in the direction of the holding cell, no doubt trying to determine how Kate had engineered her escape. While considering his next move, Napier turned away and stared into the hangar fire.

  He needed to plan carefully and swiftly to keep Danny safe.

  The fact that Benton was now preoccupied with the Walkers was an advantage. The last thing Napier needed was an ego-morph watching his every move.

  Turning his back on the remains of the Mark 3, Napier marched back to his office. He instructed the guard on duty to stop anyone from entering and then locked the door behind him.

  Almost automatically he picked up his coffee pot and began pouring it into his permanently stained mug. He suddenly recalled earlier events and put the coffee pot and mug firmly aside. During his tense initial conversation with Kate, Benton had intervened. Napier hadn’t even seen his actions, but Benton had apparently managed to drug the coffee pot, putting Kate into a swift sleep. It had prevented her from asking some awkward questions, and had made it easier to place her in the nearby holding cell.

  An ego-morph’s ability to anticipate people’s actions, simply by observation, was a tactical advantage and there were times when he almost envied their metathene edge.

  At other times, he felt a deep sense of remorse; owing to the ego-morphs’ underlying genetics, he knew that the metathene could easily be used to turn them into a mere controllable tool.

  Napier’s sense of remorse had its roots in empathy.

  After discovering that his own infant son was a carrier of the genetic variant capable of absorbing metathene, he had taken steps to hide him from the upper echelons of Archive at the time.