Absolute Power (Book 1): Origins

by Queen, Grayson

  “Fifteen seconds,” Henry said.

  From their spot near the device, Eve and Koji saw into the observation room, when suddenly a door was nearly ripped off its hinges. Fugen’s monstrous face appeared briefly and then was replaced by Jess. Her cheeks were bright red, and Eve could vaguely hear her screaming. Director Kelley was the target of her rage. He took an instinctive step backwards. Henry was too distracted to call out the last few seconds of the countdown. Inside the test chamber, the noise of the machine was ear-piercing. Arcs of electricity jumped across the metal framework.

  “I have a connection,” Henry’s voice was nearly unintelligible over the roar.

  A second later there was a flash of light then absolute silence. The machine had created a portal. The event horizon shimmered and rolled. Its rippling edge stretched outward. The computers picked up the expansion a second after Eve spotted it. Henry saw the read out and hit the intercom button.

  “Collapse the portal,” he shouted. Jess and Kelley had stopped arguing and were staring.

  Eve didn’t see, but more felt the portal expanding. Its presence was like a pressure in the room. When she tried to close it, she discovered that it was more powerful than she expected. She concentrated harder, but by that time it had grown, and with it so had the energy behind it. The edge of the portal was threatening to swallow Eve.

  “Koji I need your help,” she yelled hoping he could hear her.

  He didn’t, but he had already been working to close the portal himself. Even with both of them combined it wouldn’t be enough. Eve changed her strategy. Instead of closing the artificial portal, she created another one to envelope the first. It was the largest portal she had created, nearly swallowing the entire room. Still it needed to be bigger as the first one continued to increase in size. The event horizon breached the testing chamber setting off an alarm. Henry worked frantically to come up with a solution, but the equation was changing with each expansion. Eve couldn’t keep up with the energy output. By the time she ran out of strength, her portal had enclosed a small section of R&D. The artificial portal grew until its event horizon merged with Eve’s.

  There was an explosion of darkness and sound that tore through everything, but went nowhere. Eve was knocked backwards. The protective glass of the observation room blew out, the slivers stopped in mid-air. A wall had begun to disintegrate; its molecules were breaking apart, and observable to the naked eye.

  At the last second Henry had grabbed Jess and Kelley, shoving them to the ground. He positioned himself to take the brunt of the blast, but it never came. In front of him, shards of glass floated, defying the laws of physics. With one finger, he touched a nearby piece. It spun and bobbed as if there was no gravity. Behind him, Jess and Kelley got to their feet and watched.

  “That’s impossible,” Kelley said.

  “But it’s happening,” Henry retorted, “so it’s not.”

  Kelley went to a computer and jabbed at the buttons. Nothing happened. The screen was frozen with the last second of read outs. “According to this there were two portals,” Kelley said. “And they combined.”

  That was enough to catch Henry’s attention. He turned to study the screen and tested the computer as well. It was frozen, or broken, or suspended like the glass. “Who knows what could happen if two portals combined,” he said.

  “This,” Jess murmured. “Oh, god, the kids.” She had spotted Eve laying on the ground of the testing chamber. Without thinking, Jess leapt through the broken window sending floating shards in every direction. The ceiling of the room was on fire, but the flames were stationary. When she reached Eve, she checked for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief. “Eve,” she said, “Eve, wake up.”

  Henry was next to her in a second and used his sensors to scan Eve. “Nothing’s broken,” Henry said. “Unconscious, coma? I can’t tell, especially if we take into account our current situation.” He spun around suddenly. “Where’s Koji?” The two of them dashed around the metal frame that was now twisted and flashed with electricity. They found Koji surrounded by some strange energy discharge. His body had been thrown back against the wall, and now he was pinned there, frozen like everything else.

  But he was conscious. “Jess,” he cried. Tears were dripping down his cheek.

  Jess reached out for him, but Henry pulled her back. “Don’t touch him,” he yelled. “He’s in a state of flux. Touching him could be very, very bad.”

  “Henry,” Jess had started to cry, “Henry, please.”

  “Doctor Schreier,” Kelley called from the other room.

  “Stay with him, Jess,” Henry said. “I’ll do everything I can to fix this.” Leaving Jess, he went to see what Kelley wanted.

  The Director was holding a notepad and copying information from the computer screen. When Henry came in he said, “I’ve been analyzing the data. It looks like we’re in a temporal anomaly.”

  “That’s obvious,” Henry snapped. He took a glance at Kelley’s notes. “Recursive… If we’re going to get out of here, I’m going to need to know what resources we have.” Kelley was silent, so Henry looked up at him.

  The Director raised an eyebrow. “Now you’re giving orders?” He scoffed.

  Henry folded his arms and sat down on a chair. “Okay, sir,” he growled. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

  “You field operatives hate me because I don’t give you everything you want,” Kelley said. “More leave. More resources. Less conflict. Less oversight. Do you think taking care of an entire society doesn’t have costs? Costs that we pay with services. For over twenty years, I’ve reviewed millions of decisions that affect the lives of thousands. And in that time our death rate has been less than two percent compared to AJ Rodgers’ thirty-five. So take Colonel Porter’s warhorse mentality and shove it, I know what I’m doing.”

  “Are you done?” Henry asked. “Can we get to work?”

  Kelley shook his head in frustration. “You’re going to spend a long time as a Sergeant,” he said. He left, using the door to get to the testing chamber. Jess had pulled Eve across the room closer to Koji. She was sitting with Eve’s head in her lap talking softly. “I need Fugen to help search the area,” Kelley said to her.

  Jess glared up at the man. “Well, you’re out of luck Director,” she snarled. “I can’t reach him. We’re cut off from everything. This is your fault. You wanted so badly to build this secret project that you were willing to put these kids’ lives in danger. If they die, it’s on you.”

  “I don’t know how you found out about this, but you should know it’s classified Ultra,” Kelley warned her.

  “Yes, I know,” Jess snapped back. “When you put restricted clearance on two kids’ files, it’s a big sign you’re doing something wrong. If anything happens to any of us it’s all on you, and I’ll make sure everyone knows.”

  Without saying a word, Kelley turned and left the room. There was no point arguing with someone who was acting irrationally. The project was classified Ultra, and she’d never say anything to anyone. It was up to Director Kelley to take stock of the surrounding area. The portals had cut a perfect sphere out of the R&D building. At the end of one of the halls, the world just ceased to exist. It was replaced with a black void. Kelley picked up a piece of debris and tossed it into the darkness. It disappeared, and he made a mental note to stay clear.

  Like in the observation room, all the other computers were frozen. None of them had been monitoring the test, so they didn’t show any pertinent information. The various other technical equipment had also ceased to work. Their outlook was becoming bleak. One of the rooms that had been trapped with them was an electrical room. It was a junction that ran the height of the facility. Looking up and down the ladder, Kelley discovered that part of the level above and below had come with them. He went down and was startled to find that there was no floor. Only the top half was there; the tops of filing cabinets, part of a potted plant and the lighting. Despite the absence of a power supply the overhead f
lorescent lights were still on, but they couldn’t illuminate the darkness below. The top level wasn’t any safer. Its ceiling was gone. To keep his head from touching the void, Kelley crawled on his hands and knees. At times, he was required to change course because climbing over an obstacle meant getting too close to the edge. Inside a partial office was where he finally found something useful.

  “Hello,” Kelley called out. There was something moving in the corner shadows, and it was obviously a person. “It’s Director Kelley,” he announced himself. “Were you in R&D during the accident?”

  “I caused the accident,” a familiar voice replied.

  “How did you do that?” Kelley asked.

  “By letting you go unhindered,” it said. A man leapt from the shadows, grabbing Kelley by the throat. The force knocked him onto his back. “You made me do it.” The face staring down at him was old and wrinkled, but it was Henry Schreier. He had aged forty years. Kelley shoved the Doctor back into a desk and struggled to regain his breath.

  “What are you doing up here?” He asked.

  Henry scrambled away, tucking himself into a corner. “Hiding,” he answered.

  “Why?” Kelley asked.

  “Because…,” Henry started to answer. “I don’t know anymore. I just want it all to end.”

  “We haven’t even begun working on a solution,” Kelley said.

  “I’ve been working on it for thirty-six years,” Henry cried. “I can’t die. I can’t starve, but I keep getting older.” He held out his wrinkled hands. “Look at me, wasting away. The connections to my cybernetic systems are degrading. I’m going crazy.”

  Kelley watched as Henry tugged at his hair. “I can see that,” Kelley retorted. “And you say you’ve been here thirty-six years? Maybe you should come to the observation room with me, and we can sort this out.”

  “We can’t leave; we can’t go anywhere,” Henry said. “They’ll get you, forty-six. Like Forty-two or… or no, not like Kelley thirty and Jess eighteen.”

  “If I’m interpreting your ranting correctly, you’re saying there are multiples of us?” Kelley asked.

  “This is a singularity,” Henry laughed. “Everything is here. Everything has happened. And it will all happen again. We all end up here, for some reason, but I guess that’s the nature of a singularity.” He laughed again, though there seemed to be a semblance of rationality mixed in with sorrow. “Eve seven was twenty-eight years old when she came here. Eve fifty was sixteen and twelve, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four…”

  “Where did all these incarnations go?” Kelley asked.

  “Multiple dimensions, multiple personalities, and time does strange things to people,” Henry answered. “They get killed. They kill themselves. I said I would stay. Once, we got together to figure a way out, but Kelley ten showed up and killed them. I said I would stay, to warn the others. I’ve been here so long. I know how to hide. I know who’s evil. And I know how to protect myself.” He pulled a pistol and pointed it at Kelley.

  Kelley tried to scoot away. “Let’s keep calm,” he said.

  “I’ll keep calm if you stop moving,” Henry said. Director Kelley put up his hands and stopped. “Why did you initiate this test?” He asked.

  “What?” Kelley understood the question but not the reasoning. He was afraid that the wrong answer would get him shot. Henry waved the gun, indicating not answering would have the same results. “It was an experiment based on data we gathered from Miss Levitas’ tests.”

  “How old is Eve?” Henry asked.

  “We estimate that she’s around fourteen,” Kelley answered.

  “Who is the Controller?” Henry asked. Kelley shook his head.

  “Hubris?” Henry shouted.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kelley pleaded.

  “What would you say if I told you they were rebuilding the Killer?” Henry watched Kelley’s reaction carefully.

  “You’re talking about GESH,” Kelley said concerned. “That’s classified Ultra.”

  Now Henry chuckled and set the pistol down. “To go back to those innocent times,” he said more to himself. “No war. My friends are still alive. Hell, I’d give my arm to get The One back.”

  “The One is gone in your dimension?” Kelley asked.

  “The One is gone in most dimensions,” Henry said. Something struck him as odd, and his brow furrowed. “That’s a mathematical improbability. If the dimensional convergence is truly random… But it’s obviously not. There must be a commonality. We have to see your Henry.” He got up onto all fours and crawled out from his hole carrying the pistol like it was a toy.

  Kelley didn’t have much choice, so followed along until they were downstairs. Before they entered the observation room, he grabbed Crazy Henry by the arm. “Maybe I should make the introductions,” he said. The rationale was lost on the insane man, but he shrugged his shoulders and let Kelley take the lead. Henry was sitting at a desk with all the blank paper he could find. The papers were covered with equations, and his pencil was little more than a nub. “Doctor Schreier,” Kelley announced himself, but Henry ignored him. “May I introduce Doctor Schreier?”

  That got his attention, and he looked up. Crazy Henry waved with his gun hand, giving a wild smile. “How far have you gotten in your equations?” He asked. “Have you seen the Mobius strip? Are you theorizing about matter conversion?” He grabbed a chair from the corner and sat unnervingly close to the other Henry. Then without asking, he rifled through the pages of notes. “Oh, I see, you’re about to figure out we’re in a singularity.”

  “Singularity,” Henry exclaimed. He looked at the numbers again, disregarding the fact that he was sitting side by side with his doppelganger. “That would explain you.”

  “And the others,” Crazy Henry said with a nod.

  “Others?” Henry asked.

  Kelley gave him a brief answer before they were caught up in Crazy Henry’s insanity. “There have been dozens of versions of us, apparently,” he said. “Your double says they either killed each other or themselves.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Henry said. “First off, how did he survive?”

  “Someone left a cheeseburger in room two twenty, I eat it. Then it comes back and I eat it again,” Crazy Henry answered.

  “Okay, but why did the others resort to murder?” Questioned Henry

  “Mine is not to reason why, mine is but to do or die,” Crazy Henry replied.

  “None of this is important,” Kelley interrupted. “A moment ago he seemed to have a revelation. You two need to work together on a solution.”

  “Oh yes, yes,” Crazy Henry said excited. “The dimensional convergence is not random.”

  “What the hell?” Henry was struck. Again he looked back at his papers. “I think I see what you’re talking about, but are you sure? It looks to me that the similarity is in the divergence.”

  “Said the same thing,” Crazy Henry mumbled. “A lot of mes’ did, but the tests say the opposite.”

  Henry was about to ask a question when the lights went out. A second later they came back on with a rumble that shook the ground.

  “What was that?” Kelley asked.

  “Them,” Crazy Henry said. He was gripping the pistol and fiddling with the safety. “Maybe more yous and mes. Maybe evil. Maybe crazy.”

  “See that doesn’t make sense,” Henry spoke up. “Why would there be so many aggressive versions of us?”

  “Nonrandom convergence,” Crazy Henry said as he stood. He poked his head out the door, waving the pistol around.

  “It’s not a convergence,” Henry argued.

  “Either way,” Kelley interrupted, “best to play it safe.”

  Crazy Henry was still standing in the doorway, and he patted Kelley on the shoulder. “Good thinking,” he said.

  Quietly Kelley said to him, “You told me that in most of the variations, The One no longer existed. So does that mean the same will happen in my dimension?”
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  “Highly probable,” Crazy Henry said.

  “Because of GESH and Hubris?” Kelley asked.

  That made Crazy Henry laugh. “Like pawns on a chess board and I’m only the bishop, but I can still kill,” he said.

  “I could use some help,” Henry said. “And maybe, Director, you should look after the kids?”

  Kelley hesitated. There were answers to be found, but Crazy Henry wasn’t being helpful.

  Before he left, Crazy Henry grabbed him by the wrist and said, “Every god is eventually culled by his people.” Letting go, he watched Kelley enter the test chamber. When they were alone, he turned to Henry. “I think he’s the one,” he announced. “It is a divergence and your Kelley is the reason.”

  “What are you going on about?” Henry said.

  “When Kelley gets out of here, he’ll commence with his evil,” Crazy Henry said. “That’s why the universe has trapped us here. We have to set things straight. We have to kill Kelley forty-six. I thought it was the other Kelleys, or maybe the Jesses, but I’m sure now it’s forty-six. I saw it in his eyes.”

  Getting up slowly from his seat, Henry said, “You killed the others.”

  Crazy Henry shrugged. “Just the ones that were mathematically evil,” he said. “I’m not crazy, Henry. I’m Doctor Henry Schreier.” His words came out with a thick German accent. “Do you remember Nebraska and Reliant Dynamic Science? We were lying there, helpless after the surgery; they could do anything they wanted to us. And they did. They changed us like we were a desktop background. Our friends did this to us, Robert, Angie, Porter and that one.” He waved to the other room. “He’s the center of all this. He creates war and destruction at his whim.”

  “Maybe that’s what happened in your dimension,” Henry said, “But how can I be sure it happened in mine?”

  “The accent, Henry,” Crazy Henry replied. “You lost the accent somehow. The humor. The personality shift. And if we kill forty-six, things will all go back to how they were.”

  “There’s nothing to suggest that,” Henry argued.

  “But it won’t hurt,” Crazy Henry retorted.