…
“What the hell’s that?!” Roy yelled at the bright flashes of light coming in through the observation window.
“Temporal sublimation!” Marshall yelled back, “Subatomic, high temporal gradient slices of matter sublimating into energy. We’re still… oh shit!”
There was a heavy vibration that caused the deck to jolt sideways and outside several more trees flashed into non-existence.
“We’re crashing through unstable Field ratios,” Marshall pointed at the console.
Behind them, the control room’s electronic lock panel buzzed a negative tone.
“Shit,” said Cassidy, “They found us.”
There now came an insistent banging on the door.
As the room continued to quake, Cassidy could see that the ratio number was still dropping. Over the next few seconds the shuddering subsided and, as the ratio approached 1200:1 the Field appeared to balance out again.
“We’re stable!” Marshall’s eyes darted about over the screen’s data, then he turned to face her, “I think…”
Cassidy felt an overwhelming wave of relief pass through her and she turned to Marshall. Quite beyond her control, she found herself earnestly pushing her lips against his. Feeling him return her kiss, she slowly pulled away and looked into his eyes.
A minor tremble passed through the deck and, for a moment, everything became calm.
“I nicked this from your wardrobe…” she unzipped her Faraday jacket slightly so that he could see what she was wearing, “You’ve got, like, ten of ‘em…”
Marshall laughed at their matching ‘No FeAr’ T-shirts. His, of course, was far worse off than hers.
“For better or worse, Cassy,” he smiled through watery eyes, then glanced towards the window, “So did it work?”
Even at their reduced passage through time, hours were still racing by outside. The hammering at the control room door returned, along with verbal threats of forced entry.
She quickly kissed him again then dashed to the balcony overlooking the Observation Deck.
A campfire was there but it appeared bigger and brighter than before. The sight reminded her of when she’d seen Danny, Tyler and the others by their campfire and the defiant ‘forehead-marked’ stand they’d made against Barnes.
Perhaps prompted by the sight of the fire, her foil Faraday jacket now began to feel hot. She quickly threw the zip completely open and let the cool air in. Jerking her head to clear the pink hair from her eyes she turned towards the window.
“Marshall! People are out there!” she pointed to one of them.
…
Dipping his thumb into the black paste, the Elder marked a circle on Atka’s forehead then placed a wide dot to intersect the circumference.
The exact origin of the symbol was long-forgotten knowledge, but Atka believed in what it represented now: the circle meaning the unbroken renewal of life and the dot depicting the Orb watching over each new beginning.
Atka felt the hairs on his arms stand upright, but it was not in reaction to the symbol being placed.
He turned towards the Orb and saw that within, a Guardian had appeared.
She was pointing at him.
Her face was aglow and her floating hair was the colour of a fiery, crimson sunset. Her outstretched arm trailed a garment that appeared to be woven from light itself; its folds sparkling like the sun reflecting from the surface of the sea. The precious stone on the Guardian’s chest was like the one that the Elder wore tied to a necklace, but it appeared that her stone was not held by a ring of gleaming metal.
“Atka?” the Elder now called for his attention to continue the ceremony.
He forced himself to look away from the Orb’s radiance and the watchful gaze of the Guardian, all else now seemed dim by comparison.
…
The balcony shook under her feet and Cassidy’s Biomag emitted a whining tone. She dropped her arm to her side, fearing the unit was about to fail.
“Don’t worry!” Roy called out, “Biomag Field resonator coils are readjusting. We just passed through twelve hundred to one temporal gradient. We’re still good!”
Another jolt shook the whole balcony area and Cassidy had to steady herself.
“Temporal gradient collapse!” yelled Marshall over the cacophony of vibration that was shaking the whole Node.
Somewhere she heard the sound of breaking glass and toppling furniture. Fearing that the CPO’s had finally gained entry to the balcony, she turned away from the window.
…
Low thunder suddenly grumbled from the ground under Atka’s feet, as it had done earlier that night. But instead of running in fear he looked to the sky. As he did so, he saw the Sky-Spirits become weaker and thinner. The ground thunder grew a little stronger but now a new noise reached his ears.
A sickly, quiet wail was coming from the box within his hands. At the same time, light came from within the warm ice embedded in its surface; it was as pale as the light before dawn and, as Atka watched, the light quickly spread through its surface, leaving darker patches of shadow.
The shadows seemed to form shapes; some of which he had seen before on the ancient carved ‘ARK IV’ stone. He had no sense of the meaning of the shapes but he saw the shadows take the form of ‘2400’. The shadows swiftly flowed like black water to form ‘1200’, then the quiet wailing sound died and the ice became inert and dark again.
He felt the hairs on his arms tingle as they had done a few moments ago and there was a sudden, unnatural quiet.
There was a deep thump within the ground under his feet and the thunderous noise returned. In fear, the Elder hastily bowed to Atka and ran towards the bridge, leaving Atka alone in the Orb’s ethereal glow.
Suddenly, the Sky-Spirits vanished and the Orb’s once-steady light began to fade. Atka looked into the centre of the Orb to find the Guardian. A moment ago she had been pointing directly at him, but now she was beginning to drop her arm. He could see that she was also beginning to turn away from him.
…
Cassidy turned and saw that the balcony door was still barricaded but the attempts to gain entry showed no sign of stopping.
“We’re really doing this!” she yelled to both of them.
“Haken manifold collapse!” Roy reported.
The hammering at the door became a more determined shoulder-barging.
“Sixty to one threshold,” Marshall grinned.
Snapping her attention to the window again, she thought she could see a change. The vibration of the trees somehow seemed less frenetic and the distant stars were more discernible as points rather than crisp arcs of light. The view beyond the window was decelerating.
She felt a vibration ripple through the whole structure. The Node had begun its shift back into conventional time. The lights throughout the Observation Deck began to fail.
“Roy?” she called out.
“Just electrical subsystems!” he shouted back as the last few lights on the balcony failed.
“Three to one!” Marshall yelled from the darkness, “Here we go!”
…
Atka could see that the Guardian’s slow movement was becoming more like those of his people. But the light from within the Orb was continuing to fade, and it was becoming difficult to see her.
A final clap of ground thunder shook him, then the Orb fell into darkness. He remained standing, beholding a sight that previous generations had never seen. The Orb appeared now as a dense black silhouette against the star-filled sky.
A new quiet descended around him. Echoing back from the darkened Orb were the distant cries of his people at the other end of the bridge.
With a sense of unease he realised he was the last man on the island.
…
In the darkness of the deactivated Node, Cassidy raised her stick-lantern, so that she could see the airlock’s information panel.
“Tell me it’s good news, Scott?”
“There’s air out there,” he con
firmed the readings, “Slightly elevated oh-two levels. It’s good news…”
“Great,” said Roy, “let’s get out of here.”
“But what about everyone else?” said Scott.
Already a murmured commotion was audible from deeper within the Node.
“Well, I’m not waiting,” said Gail, hitching Neil higher up in her arms, “They’ll figure it out soon enough.”
Cassidy nodded and led the way through the Node’s short airlock to the outer door.
When the Node had first departed, the terrain had been barren and inhospitable. Now, beyond the glass, she could see the flicker of fire light; an orange glow that picked out only the lower branches of a surrounding forest.
“Ready?” Marshall stood by her side.
“No,” she turned to him and kissed him. When she was sure that he’d understood her message, she turned to face the glass again, “Now I’m ready.”
Marshall hit the airlock cycle button and the outer door hissed open.
…
The shaking and fluctuation of day and night came to a halt. Through the small bedroom window, Alfred could see the Node had stopped. The Field had been deactivated. The Biomags were now useless; his control was over.
It was all over.
He crawled across the urine-soaked bed sheet and stood shaking in the dim light of the fake Biomags. He’d ensured people’s loyalty by controlling the Node’s resources, but now that loyalty could no longer be paid for. He wouldn’t survive more than a day.
He turned and knelt at the side of the bed.
Pulling open a storage drawer, he unclipped it from its rails. In the space beneath the drawer was a handgun he’d procured from one of his Civil Protection Officers.
He calmly dressed himself and collected the gun before walking out onto the Observatory’s high balcony. He wouldn’t give someone else the satisfaction of ending his life: he was still in control.
From his high vantage point he stared out at the void below. A bright fire beyond the window drew his attention and he could see that a small group of people were making their way towards it around the outside of the Node. The bright pink hair of the person at the front of the group burned into his eyes.
She’d taken it all away from him, he had nothing left to lose. He felt his fingers squeezing the gun’s cold handle. He wouldn’t survive, but taking her life in exchange for his own was a trade he was willing to make.
She’d told him that she wanted to feel him. She would feel him, his thoughts burned, he’d get so close that he wouldn’t even need to aim.
…
Cassidy raised her stick-lantern to light the way ahead of her.
Where the Field had extended beyond the Node’s physical structure, the ground was still bare Icelandic rock; a circular slice of the 2013 landscape that they’d brought with them. However she could see that the hard rock suddenly ended in a curved wall that seemed to stand proud of the surface. It took her a moment to realise what it was: the cumulative effect of five thousand years of floods, sediment and soil surrounding the former position of the Field.
The circular boundary was broken in one place where, presumably, the Node’s vibration had collapsed the accumulated layers. The smell of damp ground and moist air reached her and spurred her on. Without breaking her pace, she walked up the uneven slope and was immediately struck by how soft and yielding the ground was; every footstep seemed naturally cushioned and supported.
Ahead of her, standing next to the fire was a young man; his clothes made from cut pieces of cloth. Although the overall impression was primitive, she could see that the fabrics themselves had a manufactured quality to them. In a few places she could see fragments of embroidered patches; coloured designs faded by time.
“What the hell are you gonna say, Cass?” said Gail.
Cassidy continued her purposeful walk, “I’m just gonna say hello.”
“Might be a problem,” said Scott, “Five thousand years. Language will have changed.”
“I’ll think of something.”
As she drew closer, the man appeared to summon up his courage and stand more upright. On his forehead was a black ash marking; a circle, broken in one place by a dot. Immediately she thought of Tyler, Danny and the other exiles standing near the broken ‘ARK IV’ stone.
As she stopped by the fire, he slowly bowed his head.
“Archiv Exordi Nova,” he said, then raised a shiny, metallic ring. He began tracing his finger around its circumference, “Equator. Find us. Eridanus.”
She could recognise the words, but had no context for their meaning. She suddenly realised what he was holding: a circular Field resonator coil. At his feet she could see the broken plastic casing of a Biomag. Obviously degraded by a long journey through time, the ice-grey LCD was inert and the green printed circuit boards were visible through cracks in the case.
“It’s a Biomag,” she whispered to herself, then pointing at the casing on the floor she turned to Marshall, “How’d he get a…?”
The others were offering helpful shrugs.
“Looks old,” Scott whispered back, “He just said Exordi Nova, maybe it’s from one of the exiles?”
“He’s got the forehead ring,” Roy was nodding, “Maybe he’s a descendant?”
“No, he said Eridanus,” Gail was frowning, “It’s a constellation, Cass. They could -”
“Would you all just shut up,” Marshall cut across them, “He can hear us, just say hello or something.”
“Yeah but don’t stick your hand out,” said Scott, “It might look aggressive.”
Cassidy threw him an incredulous look and decided on a better idea.
She turned to face the man and mirrored his bowing of the head. Stepping slightly closer to him, she smiled and patted her chest in time with the syllables of her name.
“Cassidy,” she said.
A smile developed over his face and he repeated her name.
She followed him to the Node’s broken commemoration stone, where he ran his hands over the exiles’ chiselled ‘CRESCAT KATE FORTIOR’ inscription. He reached a set of four ash-black letters near the middle and pointed at them.
“Atka,” he patted his chest, studying her eyes to make sure she understood his name. He then touched the circle of ash on his forehead, “Exordi Nova, Cassidy.”
She felt a shiver pass through her as extreme coincidences appeared to focus in one place: Atka and Kate’s name embedded within the exiles’ defiant inscription, Danny’s symbolic forehead markings, and the spoken words that meant ‘new beginning’. They were all somehow tied together in this one extraordinary moment.
With a sense of calmness, she found she knew what to say.
“Exordi Nova, Atka,” she smiled and touched her forehead.
He offered up the Biomag Field resonator coil, “Equator. Find us. Eridanus.”
Gail’s mumbled voice reached her, “There it is again.”
“I heard equator this time,” Marshall agreed.
Although a gulf of five thousand years separated her language and Atka’s, Cassidy found herself drawn to the two simplest words.
“Find us?” she tilted her head.
Atka’s eyes widened slightly and she followed him.
He led them around the commemoration stone to the side that was facing away from the fire and the Node. In the darkness, she raised her stick-lantern to see what he was showing them.
Before the Node’s departure, the stone had only been engraved on one side; that which faced the Node. The rear side had always remained blank. In the lantern light, she could see it wasn’t blank now; every inch was covered with engravings and symbols.
Perhaps following some deep-seated primitive need to absorb information by direct physical contact, she found herself running her hand over the obviously ancient carvings. She found that she stopped naturally at a very detailed glyph. She knew there was a familiarity to it, but couldn’t place it. Millennia ago, people had resorted to stone in ord
er to convey information to their descendants. Presumably, she thought, because technology or paper wouldn’t have lasted as long.
The thought of lines, symbols and contours appearing on paper gave her a blinding burst of recognition: this was a map. Like seeing an optical illusion from a new perspective, shapes now suddenly took on meaning.
Representations of the Node were present along with the island’s bridge. Beyond the markings that represented the surrounding lake, were depictions of structures she didn’t recognise; things that hadn’t existed when the Node had departed.
Places that hadn’t existed, she suddenly thought.
“Atka,” she pointed at her own eyes, then touched the map again, “Show me!”
SUMMIT
14th April 2014
The bucket-lift crawled its way up the curved interior of the USV’s dome, its vertical motion smoothly transitioning to horizontal as it gained height. Sarah could see that the power to the streets had been fully restored and there was an industrious flurry of activity surrounding the Samphire construction site. From her high perspective, the old USV nickname of the Ant Farm now seemed particularly apt.
It had been barely a day since the airlock obstruction had been cleared. The presence of a wrecked train and car was not something that she’d considered as a cause; in her opinion Izzy and Tristan’s efforts to regain entry to the USV were nothing short of heroic. However, it also appeared that a certain amount of luck had played a part. According to Izzy, the damage to the outer door was superficial, but if the car had impacted just a few centimetres to the right, they would have been unable to enter the USV.
The bucket-lift’s motion was now carrying her toward the centre of the dome. For the past day, her father had been contained there without power or communication. When she reached the Eye at the USV’s summit, she’d have to face him.
Metal frameworks swept into view on either side of her small wire-framed cage and she felt the guide rails shake before it juddered to a halt. It would take her a few moments to adjust to the lower light level, but she opened the door and stepped out.
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