Pilot X

by Tom Merritt

  “They’ve beaten us,” Aelreda finally sputtered.

  “No,” said Alexandra. “You can still make this right. I know you can.” Her eyes bored into Pilot X, piercing his heart.

  “Oh no,” he yelled, backing away. “Once burned, twice turned. I am not falling for that one again. I couldn’t help you, even if I was stupid enough,” he scoffed. “They have Verity.”

  “And you’ve removed all your possessions?” asked Alexandra.

  “What?”

  “You can’t store them there. It’s against regulations.”

  “Why do you care?”

  “Because it’s your excuse to get back in. And your excuse to steal her.”

  “Steal who?”

  Alexandra looked surprised. “Well, Verity.”

  “Oh.” Pilot X thought about it. “Oh no . . . well, maybe. But not for you.”

  THEFT

  Pilot X carried nothing as he approached the guard shack.

  “Greetings, Ambassador X,” the guard said. “What can I do for you?”

  “Just Pilot X, Guard . . .”

  “Henta. Guard Henta.”

  “Guard Henta. Just came to get my things out of Verity,” said Pilot X nonchalantly.

  “Oh.” The guard looked pained. She obviously respected Pilot X and didn’t want to deny him anything. “The Verity is on lockdown right now on strict orders from the Council. Nobody allowed in or out.”

  “Understandable,” Pilot X said with an easy smile. “And I won’t touch her controls. Just need to get my stuff out.”

  “I’m sorry,” Guard Henta said slowly. “I’m not allowed to make exceptions.”

  Pilot X frowned. It was a friendly frown. The frown you have for a friend who’s in a hard position. “You’re not allowed to break regulations either.”

  “Exactly.” Guard Henta relaxed.

  “And one regulation says you can’t allow storage of personal effects for unassigned personnel in unassigned capsules, right?”

  Guard Henta unrelaxed. “Yes, that’s true.”

  “So if you don’t let me get my things, you’re essentially letting me store them in the Verity.”

  “I see what you’re saying, but—”

  “I know.” Pilot X shook his head. “It’s unfair that they put people in these situations.”

  Guard Henta seemed frozen.

  “Just between you and me, what are the actual orders restricting Verity?” Pilot X asked.

  “Well. No one is allowed to enter, activate, or modify the Verity until further notice. No exceptions.”

  “Ah. I don’t have any reason to activate or modify her if I just want to get my things. So I’d only be violating the entry provision. However, if I leave my things in there, then I’m violating the entire regulation.”

  “I guess so.”

  “When did the restriction on the Verity come down?”

  “Right after I started my rotation.”

  “Do you constantly check orders while on duty?”

  Guard Henta puffed up a bit. “I make it a point of pride to check in regularly.”

  Pilot X inwardly groaned at her pride in obedience. “But it’s possible that orders come in that you don’t see right away.”

  She deflated a bit. “I guess so.”

  “Could happen to anybody!” he reassured her. “You just let me get my stuff, I’ll be gone, and you say you saw the orders after I left. Right?”

  Guard Henta looked unsure. “I don’t want to lie—”

  “And you don’t have to. Just don’t volunteer that you saw the orders before I came. Honestly, if I just leave with my stuff and the Verity is locked up tight, no one will care.”

  “What if something goes wrong?”

  “You blame me!” Pilot X said cheerily.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t want to do that.” Guard Henta looked shocked.

  “It’s OK. I can take it. Deal?”

  Guard Henta came to a decision and nodded. Pilot X motioned Alexandra to come over to his side.

  “Who’s that?” Guard Henta objected.

  “I need help carrying things,” Pilot X explained easily.

  “Oh, right. OK. Make it quick.”

  “We will,” Pilot X reassured her. They hurried toward the Verity. Pilot X felt bad about Guard Henta. She was so sincere.

  CHOICE

  Pilot X asked Verity to land in a hidden field on the far side of Alenda while he figured out what to do next. He would have jumped in time too, but Alexandra was a member of the Alendan Core and forbidden to travel in time. Besides, they would look for him to jump through time. Jumping only in space might be a better disguise anyhow.

  “So what’s the plan?” Alexandra asked.

  Pilot X looked skeptical but said nothing.

  “To what plan is she referring?” asked Verity.

  Pilot X sighed. “As you know, we’ve been duped. Alexandra here thinks by stealing you, I can somehow undo the damage and still stop the war. But I’ll be honest, I have no idea where to even start. I only went through the plan this far in order to get you back, Verity, and to have an excuse to spend more time with Alexandra.”

  Alexandra blushed.

  “You have all you need for such a plan,” said Verity.

  “Lovely,” scoffed Pilot X. “You’ve moved on from humor to poetry.”

  “Is that poetic?”

  “Sort of,” said Alexandra when Pilot X didn’t answer.

  “Noted,” said Verity. “But I was not attempting to be poetic. I was hoping to assist the beginning of your planning.”

  “What do you mean?” Alexandra asked.

  “Yes, what do you mean?” Pilot X repeated.

  “You have in your possession a gift from the Progons, no?” Verity asked.

  Pilot X nodded without changing his confused expression.

  “And some remains from the Sensaurians. That matter you found stuck to our side.”

  He nodded slowly. He’d almost forgotten about that. After the Sensaurians had pelted the Verity with pieces of themselves, he’d scraped a piece off the hull to examine later.

  “The Progon gift is a communicator; the Sensaurian remains contain telepath generators, as do all their cells. Your display generator can combine with an Inverter-Chrono-integrator, which we have stored in the singularity chamber. You can use those to create the Instant and remove the war without destroying all people or all timelines.”

  “What?” Alexandra and Pilot X said in unison.

  “How do you know this?” Pilot X said.

  “So all of us will survive?” asked Alexandra.

  “I cross-referenced available information on the Instant with the items’ capabilities and verified the potentiality. I am ninety-seven percent confident it would work as expected. However, not all would survive. The three civilizations of the war would be eliminated.”

  “What?! Why do you think I would do that?” Pilot X shouted.

  “Because of all the devastation you’ve seen,” answered Alexandra slowly. “Devastation that you now know the Alendans were just as responsible for. You can still preserve most threads. That’s thousands of civilizations. You’ll not only bring multiple civilizations back from the dead but also give them whole futures they never could have had in the current timeline. Only the three warring civilizations will be affected directly, right, Verity?” she asked.

  “That is correct. Its use would cause a transdimensional rift that would eliminate all Alendans, Sensaurians, and Progons from history. To an observer who doesn’t know better, it would appear that material of the universe is missing or undetectable. A dark sort of matter,” Verity concluded.

  “Think of it.” Alexandra’s beautiful eyes sparkled. “Yes, a universe without Alendans, but without Sensaurians and Progons too. A universe where the most devastating war possible disappears. By sealing off the war and hiding the battles, you could make this possible. You can remove the war from space-time, Pilot X.”

  He thoug
ht hard about it. Could he destroy his people? All his people? Not end their lives but end their entire existence. Wipe them from history. His people had done that to thousands of other civilizations. But that didn’t make it right. Or did it? He could save and extend trillions of potential lives, rejuvenate thousands of whole civilizations across billions of years. It was immeasurable. But he had to sacrifice two civilizations he did not care for and one he was a member of.

  “How could I do that?”

  Alexandra put her hand on his.

  “You can’t. Not if you think of it as ending Alenda. You know how time threads work. You will be protected and exist in this new thread. This thread you’re in now must still have some reality for you to make that transition. So all you’re doing is stanching a wound. You’ve seen the complete depth and breadth of this universe. Is it not worth creating a new one so we can learn from the mistakes of this one?”

  Alexandra stared deeply into his eyes. “You have the unique set of skills to give us a second chance. And by us, I mean existence. And your purpose once you’ve done this will be to tell the story of this universe to that new one. Help them not to make the same mistakes. Don’t allow Sensaurians or Progons or Alendans or anything like them to rise again.”

  Pilot X nodded. He thought of the destroyed systems he had barely preserved. He thought of the planets that suffered under the despotism of the fifty Manic Masters. He remembered the massive battlegrounds and frozen bodies flung into space from the unrelenting bombardments. He thought of Yeoman Alphaea on Mersenne. How he wanted his children to play in the forest.

  He looked down for a long time. Nobody spoke. He finally looked up again. “And you’ll come with me?”

  Alexandra lowered her eyes. “I can’t. You know I can’t travel in time.”

  “How does that make sense? You’re not preserving the timeline anymore if the timeline disappears and you with it.”

  Alexandra laughed.

  “Why is that funny?” Pilot X said.

  “Because that’s exactly why I can’t go with you. These threads have to have some reality for you to carry this out. If I leave, I weaken them. Even if it’s just a little, it’s too much.”

  “Then I’ll come back for you. After. Somehow.”

  She smiled and shook her head as the tears flowed out. “You won’t. You can’t. And you shouldn’t. But it won’t matter because you can’t.”

  “Verity?”

  “Alexandra’s basis for staying in her timeline is sound.”

  “And?”

  “Probability of being able to return to this thread after a timeline reset cannot be calculated.”

  “You hear that?” Pilot X said.

  Alexandra nodded. “I do. I hear it more clearly than you, Pilot X. It means good-bye.” And she cried. And he cried.

  And they kissed good-bye.

  OBSERVERS

  “What is that?! A ship? How did it get in there? It’s identified as the Verity.”

  “Is that Ambassador X?”

  “He’s not Ambassador anymore. He’s gone rogue, didn’t you hear?”

  “Citizen X, please cease your activities and vacate at once!”

  “Citizen? No need to insult the man if you want him to comply.”

  “What’s he doing?”

  “My stars, how did he get that?”

  “He’s not going to use it, is he?!”

  “Ambassador X, stop this minute.”

  Foomp.

  THE END AS BEGINNING

  An echo rumbled through the tower as the Verity settled into place outside the abandoned lunar command center. The sky above burned with millions of lights, all representing destruction. The tower was on a moon orbiting Mersenne, which burned below.

  Pilot X left the Verity and began his work on the bare rock surface of the moon. He thought about his conversation with Captain Alphaea so long ago. The Yeoman had gone on to run a planet that could now no longer be run.

  Mersenne wasn’t even a target, just collateral damage in this three-way war. As Pilot X worked, he thought about how he’d been tricked into hiding the war’s existence.

  A shimmer appeared in the distance. Pilot X stopped what he was doing for a moment and grabbed a scanner to investigate. He couldn’t possibly have been followed. He zoomed in and saw a small intrasystem craft had settled neared the remains of the base. Three figures were carrying luggage out of the craft. Their clothes barely deserved the name. They were covered in grime and thin as wraiths. The tallest of the three seemed familiar. Pilot X looked closer. It was Captain Alphaea. The other two were what was left of his children. They disappeared inside the rubble of the base in a desperate attempt to flee the destruction above.

  Pilot X looked at the device he had assembled in front of him and finished the last few pieces. The Instant. It was ready. The Verity was plugged in, providing coordinates. The Progon transmitter was humming. The Sensaurian material presumably awaiting his command.

  He made himself think of the other people who would never be if he activated the Instant. Of the lives irrevocably changed. They wouldn’t realize it, of course. The Instant cut time at the base, causing the timeline to repair itself like a wound. Its inhabitants would assume that things had always been the way they were. No. That wasn’t right. They wouldn’t even assume. The idea of things not being what they were would never occur. Pilot X wondered how many times this had happened. A useless word, times, given the nature of this.

  Only he would remember. He and Verity sheltered within the bubble of the Instant’s operating field. He alone would carry the memories of a broken universe. He alone would carry the responsibility of wiping out and replacing everyone. This made him neither god nor devil. It only made him responsible.

  And he feared that. He shied from it. He desperately thought of a way around it, a way to bring the three parties to peace. But he had seen all of this war now. He knew how it ended. With nobody. No system left unscathed. No one left to carry the lesson. That was the biggest crime. The Alendans knew this would not end with a better universe, and yet they persisted.

  He thought about the destruction of countless systems. He thought about the Alendan Council’s arrogance and laughter at how they had manipulated him. He thought about the dead. He realized the Alendans didn’t care. He thought about Captain Alphaea, cowering in the nearby rubble with his children, unaware of the danger lurking nearby in the hands of Pilot X.

  Nobody made him do this. Nobody knew for sure that he was here. Nobody was depending on him. This was his choice. His hand shook.

  He flipped the switch.

  The lights disappeared in an instant. Like turning off a light switch. For a moment he thought he might have destroyed everything in the universe but himself. But a dim glow from the Verity showed he still had rock beneath his feet. As his eyes adjusted, he could make out stars and even the faint glow of Mersenne in the distance. The nearby base and its rubble, along with its occupants, were gone.

  He cried. The unstoppable wave had raced through space and time to the fringes of the universe, destroying some, rewriting history for the rest.

  It had happened so fast. He felt like he could flick the switch the other way and it would all come back. But of course it wouldn’t. That’s not how it worked. He flicked the switch anyway. Nothing happened.

  He sobbed.

  He had done it. He had irrevocably destroyed his own timeline. But he had stopped them. His people. And their enemies. A war that had unleashed a million maniacs on unsuspecting worlds. A war that killed so many innocents, leaving him no choice but to take this action, at this moment, irrevocably.

  He had not just destroyed, though.

  What had replaced it? Was it something better?

  That was his purpose now, to explore this new timeline. To see what had changed. To do his best to make those changes positive.

  The tower loomed dark behind his ship just on the edge of the protective envelope, thin and insubstantial. It would fad
e as soon as he left. He dragged himself into the Verity and told her to set course.

  “Where?” she asked reasonably. Always reasonable, Verity.

  He would head for the Fringe Cascade, to the limits of existence, and see how they had fared there.

  Pilot X fled from the dark tower as it faded and disappeared into never having been.

  APPENDIX

  ENCYCLOPEDIA ALENDIA

  A recovered page from an encyclopedia known only to exist in the Library of Verity.

  Alendans—A race of bipedal mammals who use technology to move their whole bodies individually or in groups through time. They are a tribal culture, although largely unified in the face of contact with other species.

  Alendans are born from females after genetic mixing between pairs. Alendan mothers normally give birth to one or two babies at a time, with a range of one to three babies on average in a lifetime.

  Alendans are colonial and operate outposts on moons and planets in their own system and others.

  Alendan society is ruled by the Guardians of Alenda, who oversee the conduct of time travel, which is central to the culture. The Guardians delegate much of their authority to a Secretary who serves as the executive of the government.

  The Guardians of Alenda consider themselves the highest authority in the universe on time travel. They police the timeline and endeavor to keep time travel safe.

  The Progons and Sensaurians do not recognize this authority in their own time-related activities. This has given rise to rumors of a Dimensional War between the three cultures.

  Home planet: Alenda (which means “land”).

  Communication: Mostly vocal and written, with some hand signals.

  Evolution: The Alendan species evolved from tree-based bipedal mammals, most directly from the species Dimana alendsimia.

  Diplomacy: Representatives assigned to all cultures. Main diplomatic relationships throughout time are maintained with adversaries in different manners. In eras with diplomatic relations, a representative of Alenda is assigned to Tiel, the Progon homeworld, and a Progon automaton is assigned to Alenda.