The Archytas

by Kinsella, Luke

  He always had an adventurous side, which made him thirsty for exploration, and he knew it. He took high pride in such a fact.

  Parkins averted his gaze from space and back to the entrance to the deck. There was still no sign of Yudar. He thought that something must have happened. He wondered if Yudar had been caught lying, or if someone had discovered something to do with Carter; even the pistol could have brought with it a wealth of new evidence. He worried for his own safety. He began to worry a lot, but that worry did not matter, as in the distance, a light appeared which was about to erase all of the difficulties that Parkins was envisaging.

  It came suddenly, a pop. Then it was gone. A bright white light that filled every corner of the viewing platform, and illuminated every part of space around him. Objects were clear for a brief second. A light so fiercely bright that Parkins knew it was some kind of explosion. He could not directly see the source, only the confounding remnants of an incredible white afterglow.

  Parkins rubbed his eyes just as alarms filled his ears. A moment later, debris thrashed through space in every direction. Pieces of ship glided past at rapid speeds, objects crashed into the reinforced glass wall of the Observation Deck. He heard the scraping of metal, the fierce pelting of smaller objects smashing into glass. He saw shapes of bright red, not on fire but at extreme heats as they bolted past the Archytas. Like a beautiful meteor storm fuelled by the aftermath of destruction. Fallout. A backwash of objects forming a dancing wave in wake of Yudar’s plan.

  Parkins watched a moment longer. He counted lost lives and thought about his friends. He had to find Yudar. However, at the same time, he had to stay safe, for he knew that he would be asked in for questioning, but then again, he wondered by who.

  78

  Grace and Carter headed back to the kitchen, leaving the confused machine, boy, whatever it claimed to be to power a generator for the rest of eternity.

  “My friend said to me that whatever that boy in the photograph says should not be believed. I fear that they have already communicated to each other about our presence and whereabouts. It might not be safe here anymore, Grace.”

  “I agree, we should leave, at least find somewhere else, away from the eyes of boys.”

  “And pigeons,” Carter added.

  “But where? And what will we do there anyhow?”

  “I don’t know, survive, and fight back. I haven’t really thought about it. See what’s beyond this, beyond this city of walls and fences.”

  “What if he was telling the truth though?” asked Grace. “The things he told us, about just wanting to run a society the best way they knew how. There could be truth in that.”

  “There could be, and their way might actually be the best, but for us, we have to do whatever we can. Prepare for our own survival just in case.”

  “Okay,” Grace nodded.

  She began to gather her things, returning briefly to her room to collect her bags. Carter did not have many things, just the silver box that Yudar had left him. He placed it onto the kitchen table, before collecting any objects that might be of use; knives, a few glass jars, a tablecloth.

  On Grace’s return, she looked at the box on the table.

  “You said before that this contained an object I couldn’t see. What did you mean by that?”

  “Oh, the object, that’s how he referred to it. I have no idea of its purpose. I was just asked to steal it, bring it from space with me, and keep it protected.”

  “I see.”

  There was a slight pause. Carter tied together his knives and jars using the tablecloth. Grace slung her bags over her shoulder. Carter collected the silver box.

  “Ready?” he said.

  “Ready,” she said.

  They left the farmhouse and went out into the open. The sun was shining and the air was warm.

  “Which way?” asked Grace.

  “Well not the city, definitely not that way. Did you already explore?”

  “I did, there was a fence surrounding the whole area, within the fence an enclosed forest of plants, food, somewhat self-contained. Outside the fence it looked a lot more overgrown.”

  “Overgrowth sounds good; less chance we will be seen. And the fence? You think we can cut through it?”

  “I doubt it, but I’m not really sure. It’s destroyed in places from when you crashed.”

  “Okay, we could try to find an opening.”

  As they made their plans, something occurred at the very same moment in the skies above Utopia, an event that Grace was all too familiar with, a second blinding light.

  “Another transport?” asked Grace.

  “Or a missile?”

  “A what?”

  “Never mind. Let’s head that way,” said Carter, pointing toward the falling light in the distant sky above the capital, to where once again a mass of birds was slowly beginning to gather.

  79

  Yudar launched from the Archytas at the exact moment the explosion occurred. The perfect distraction for him and his ship to sail away undetected. Uniform velocity, the initial acceleration propelling his ship through space in the direction of Terra.

  Yudar opted out of immediate use of quantum stasis, choosing instead to observe the destruction he had inevitably caused.

  For a while, he watched the shards of wreckage from the Enigma scattering through the vacuum of space, until he was satisfied that his escape plan had been sufficient.

  He thought about all he could do on Terra, his plans to spend some time studying, researching, to finally enjoy the peace and quiet of existence without the responsibility of his job as engineer. He would awake in a million years, he would experience more simulation dreams, watch them all, the huge archive he had preloaded to his ship. He would research the original Sol System, calculate, and use his knowledge of geometry and mathematics to figure out how to harness energy, his species main mission, now a one-man mission. The fate of all relying on him alone.

  He programmed a sounding bell, before eventually clicking the button that would pause life for him, take him out of time. Lock him into a bubble of preservation, until the day he would reawaken, back to where it began, back to Terra, finally.

  He looked around one more time, before things began to set in. Dark glimpses of space. Glimpses of his own. Then quantum stasis. Then finally, nothing.

  80

  “What is your status, Parkins?” asked Kin-Commander Sykes.

  “I’m fine,” he said, a slight wavering to his voice.

  “Good, and Chief Engineer Yudar?”

  “I don’t know, he isn’t here,” Parkins glanced around, six officers stood behind him. He was the most senior member of crew aboard the Archytas now. His instinct told him that he would never see Yudar again, that he would have to stand up, take control of the ship.

  “So, this is what we know so far,” said Sykes. “The Universe Prism was sent from the Archytas to the Enigma. Commander Ragin gave the order to open Q-Deck, to collect the object before scanning for anomalies. As the door to Q-Deck opened, for a reason that cannot be determined, the vessel carrying the Universe Prism exploded. An immense amount of energy consumed the Enigma in a single second, giving time to everyone on the ship.”

  “No survivors at all?” asked First Technician Williams.

  “No, Ms Williams, everyone is dead.”

  One of the lower ranking officers spoke, “Are you sure this wasn’t a weapon, perhaps sent deliberately to destroy the Enigma?”

  “What are you inferring? A conspiracy?”

  “It’s highly possible,” said the officer.

  “I don’t believe that after all of these years, a conspiracy of such would formulate. There have been countless opportunities over the last few millions of years for an attack of the sort you are suggesting. We are, of course, a peaceful species, and always have been. Shake those ideas from your head right now.”

  “But shouldn’t you run some tests? At least to check.”

  “Of course,” said
Sykes. “We are analysing the data, but I am certain that any conspiracy you might be suggesting will be ruled out instantly.”

  “Agreed,” said Ms Williams.

  “Agreed,” added another officer, with nothing else substantial to add.

  “So, what now, Sykes?”

  “Well, first, Parkins, I would ask you to locate Yudar. Marx, are you with us?”

  “I am,” said Cartographer Marx.

  “Good. Nearest habitable planet from our current location?”

  “Twenty-two thousand years, sir.”

  “Can we reach it with our current supplies?”

  “We can, sir. Without the Enigma to provide for, we can reach the next system with ease.”

  “Right, good, have everyone plot a course.”

  “Done,” confirmed Marx.

  “Williams?”

  “Yes?” she said, half listening.

  “Any damage to the remaining ships is being taken care of I assume?”

  “No, half of B-deck aboard your ship is being sucked out into the vacuum of space as we speak. Oh, you wanted me to fix that huge hole? I thought...”

  “Williams!” Sykes screamed. “This is no time to be joking around.”

  “Come on, don’t ask me stupid questions. Repair scouts were already sent out and returned. Repair bots went out and fixed all damage on all of the other ships. Repair bots have since returned, satisfied that all damage had been repaired. Sweeper ships have collected all threatening debris. Missiles were launched and successfully destroyed all objects moving at speeds that could cause impact damage. Repair scouts went out again and checked for any further damage and returned with satisfactory data that the rest of the ships are still fine. Sol is no longer operating at ten percent light and has returned to resting mode.”

  “Good. Without the jokes is better,” affirmed Sykes.

  “Good,” replied Williams, a certain mockery to her tone that Sykes chose to ignore.

  “I will take command of the fleet until Yudar returns. We will have a meeting tomorrow to elect the new leader, a time memorial for Commander Ragin and the rest of the men and women who served on the Enigma will be held on the next card. For now, we move forward with our plan. No more magic energy prisms, we can continue on just fine without abstract distractions.”

  “Very well,” said Parkins.

  “Agreed,” said Marx.

  “Continue on,” agreed Williams.

  And continue on they did.

  81

  Yudar could see Lunar. Dimly lit. A faint beacon that confirmed him on course. He thought briefly about Carter, how he would not have had the opportunity to enjoy the view, how he would have most likely woken up with fear, not knowing who he was for the briefest of moments. Not knowing where he was, if he even realised now.

  For Carter, only days would have passed since he left the Archytas and arrived on Terra, and Yudar hoped that whatever or whoever was there to greet him on arrival, was not someone that was a threat to him. If anything had happened, it was on his head now, and that worried him, assuming of course that he survived on impact.

  Yudar thought briefly about Tom Somertri, how he had taken time from a man that had initially, or it had seemed, helped him, and later, to help him again. He thought about what he left behind, a city, Utopia. He wondered if it still functioned now, if any energy remained within Terra, if they, the humans, had found an energy source that would still be sustainable after all those years. He doubted it though; it had been an impossible amount of time since the day he left, and without food, the human species would surely be extinct now.

  As Yudar approached the atmosphere, he tried to enjoy the view, but further thoughts entered him from nowhere. He wondered whether they could see him, whether anyone existed on the surface that perceived him as a threat. He remembered the last time he had visited Terra, how they had shot down his ship without remorse.

  His eyes began to focus intently on the planet below, a wash of white above a sea of green and blue. The strange glowing ring of light around the planet they called Earth, a spectacular beauty and one that he remembered fondly from before. If a planet ever were God, then Terra would have been a fitting choice, something alluring, breathtaking about the way it looked. Pure from a view, imperfections within.

  As his ship drifted closer, he crossed over, and the general feeling inside of his vessel changed. He always felt the change, the strange sensation within him, where vacuum ended and gravity began. His ribcage began to feel like the weight of the universe was pushing down on his body, a crushing feeling of immense power. He began to feel heavy as weight returned and the push of gravity beyond him forced him further into his seat. The hardest part, despite experiencing it countless times, was the breathing, the shortness of breath, the lack of comfort it caused; shallow, fragile in form. He tried to push his arms forward, to rest his hands on the console, to open up a path to guide the flow of oxygen to his lungs.

  He drifted closer, free falling now. He saw the disc that made up the city of Utopia, possibly his destination, but he was not sure. It was the middle of the day, it seemed, and no traces of lights from the city were visible. Yudar had no way to prepare himself for whatever existed, and would be landing blind.

  As his ship fell closer still, he saw a magnitude of birds, darting around in what seemed to be small specks of panic. This confirmed one thing at least, that the pigeons were still active. He was not pleased or displeased by this revelation though, and in fact, it was exactly as he expected it to be.

  Yudar slid his hand across the control panel, and activated his anti-gravitational landing field, before switching to guided mode. He faultlessly drifted his ship through a gaping hole in what otherwise looked like quite a nice chain fence, before landing neatly in a field of potatoes.

  82

  Birds were gliding around on Terra. The planet was barren, before sentience. Only plants and forests grew. Marine life existed, but such organisms left the birds alone, and the birds left them alone, after all, the pigeons had a task to complete.

  The birds moved swiftly and efficiently. The only delay was when they briefly stopped as they passed in the air, as if communicating soundless messages to each other.

  Some of the pigeons were burrowing, deep down into the ground. Narrow tunnels, perfectly straight, stretching vertically through the planet. Other pigeons were carrying in their mechanical beaks small shards of an invisible prism.

  It was as though this organised arrangement of birds had within them a collective consciousness of sorts. A group thinking or shared programming. The birds were of course copies of other birds from a distant future. However, from the day that they had appeared in this time, it was as though their purpose or task was already clear. They began working seconds after materialising.

  Deep beneath the ground, beyond the tunnels and shafts, other pigeons were delivering small pieces of the prism, attaching them to newly created generators, hidden machines that would provide an infinite source of power for the humans, and themselves. The generators would outlast their own existence in this time, long after they became wiped out following an irregularity from space, crashing into Terra, obliterating all.

  But, the birds foresaw this event, and despite fearing death, they knew that regardless, their task had to be completed. It would never have started if it never began in the first place; loop logic; the things that come after, influenced by the things that came before, influenced, by the after events.

  The thousands of copies of birds continued building the mammoth generators, powered by fragments of a broken prism from the future. Power for them, power for everything after them, then power for them again.

  83

  “Good, I see you still have the box,” said Yudar, as he stepped out of the ship to see Carter and an unknown woman.

  “Good to see you too,” said Carter, offering Yudar a reassuring smile.

  “I’m Grace.”

  “Hello, I am Yudar, but we can talk later.
Carter, please open the box, I take it the object is still inside?”

  “It is. At least I think it is,” he said, setting the box down on the ground and opening the lid. “What now?”

  “Okay, leave it like that, everyone take a few steps back.”

  Carter and Grace followed Yudar’s lead, and the three of them stepped backwards away from the box.

  It did not take long before they began to appear. From every direction, birds clouded the sky. Thick black clouds of mechanical pigeons.

  Shadows formed on the ground where the three of them stood watching. Eventually, a small group of birds drifted down to assess the object. One of the birds perched itself on the edge of the box, and began pecking violently at what Grace saw to be nothing at all.

  Yudar grinned. “Just as I thought,” he said.

  “What’s that?” asked Carter.

  “The bird is dismantling it.”

  They watched as a second bird drifted down, opened its beak, before joining the other birds in vortex. A third bird did the same; all the while, the first continued its violent pecking.

  The process repeated itself continually, birds drifted down, collected what Carter presumed to be a broken piece of the object, before joining the others in the skies above. It was as if they had executed such a procedure once before.

  “Are we safe here?”

  “Yes,” said Yudar, confidently. “They are only interested in the Universe Prism now. They have been waiting for it, it seems.”

  “The Universe Prism?” asked Grace.

  “It is a terrible name, I know,” said Yudar. “Geometrically speaking, it is not even a real prism. Still, the prism is very powerful and provides a great deal of energy. It does, however, have one very strange side effect.”

  “Side effect?” asked Carter. “Does this have anything to do with me seeing my own body lying on a table?”

  “Exactly,” said Yudar. “The prism has the power to make copies of things. What this means exactly, especially for the birds, is that they are creators.”