Eva

by Simon Winstanley

  Not for the first time, she felt a cold regret. The opaqued windows of the Node had prevented them from seeing any of this. If she hadn’t given Alfred Barnes the key, it was possible they’d have seen all this much sooner. Of course there was also the chance that Alfred could have reacted in a worse way; given the number of Biomag ‘accidents’, she may not have survived at all.

  Atka continued to navigate the branching points of the path from memory. Soon the forest cleared entirely and they emerged into what was unmistakably a village; a dense collection of stone roundhouses topped with wood and vines. At the centre of the village Cassidy could see a concentration of firelight; several dozen people were holding torches outside a much grander structure. The word temple sprang to mind, but she knew the word wasn’t quite right: clearly it was old, but there was something about its architecture that was out of place with its surroundings.

  As Atka led the way, he held aloft both his torch and metallic Biomag resonator coil. The nanocomposited crystal within it glinted in the orange light and the crowd parted to allow him through. Cassidy could hear the murmurings falling away into hushed whispers as they continued their walk through the centre of the village. By the time they arrived at the temple-like building, all was quiet.

  Ahead of her was a circular pool of water, bounded by a ring of stones. Like the circles she’d seen in the forest, the circumference also contained a slightly larger round stone.

  Atka was beckoning her to stand on it.

  …

  The broken circle symbol had been Alfred’s own invention. The sign was synonymous with fear and made people turn to Archive for salvation; salvation that would never come, but ensured a dedicated work ethic during Siva’s approach.

  Using nothing more than the ‘Fallen Veil’ trigger words, several of Archive’s ego-morphs had been switched to become leaders of Exordi Nova terrorist cells. Their chaos had only made Archive’s efforts more believable, but things had then started to get out of control.

  They had begun following their own mandates, targeting crucial Archive projects under the misguided impression that they were doing the right thing. He remembered seeing news footage showing the iconic destruction of Downing Street and the London Eye, the first of several such attacks.

  The Exordi Nova symbol had then grown beyond his control.

  Today it was more true than ever.

  Alfred could see that the circle-dot symbol was present on the foreheads of many villagers. Ash markings that appeared just as defiant as the day he’d seen them on the foreheads of the Node’s exiles.

  Danny Smith’s scar had made him the perfect scapegoat for Colonel Beck’s murder; framed as an Exordi Nova disciple no-one had challenged his exiling. It had also been the perfect opportunity to rid the Node of several other troublemakers. Though to this day, Alfred still couldn’t understand why Dr. Caroline Smith had chosen to secretly exile herself. She’d been a close confidant yet she’d betrayed him to stand alongside the others, marked with her own circle of ash.

  He felt another flash of anger.

  Somehow the exiles hadn’t perished in the arctic cold; it seemed that they’d grown in number over the past five thousand years. Where once there had been perhaps a dozen exiles, there were now more than fifty people. Instinctively he knew there should be more, but his agitated state wouldn’t let him dwell on the idea. He had one goal and it was smothering his rational mind. He pulled the cords tighter on his stolen hoodie, further concealing his face, then pushed on through the murmuring crowd. The grip of the gun in his pocket felt warm and reassuring.

  Ahead he could see the orchestrator of the treasonous plot. The pink-haired beacon who’d destroyed his empire. Standing nearby were her acolytes: the woman stargazer, the burn-handed freak, the T-shirt drunkard and, of course, the right-hand man. Alfred mentally registered the irony that Dexter had ultimately had a sinister role, but he got no satisfaction from the intellectual connection. In fact it only heightened his growing sense of bitter betrayal. He wanted to make each of them pay for what they’d done, but there would only be time to kill one. As he looked at scene in front of him, it seemed that his symbol had echoed down through the generations to show him who that person would be.

  She was standing on a dot within the circumference of a small pool of water.

  More than anything he wanted to bury the gun’s muzzle in her chest, so that she could ‘feel him’, but he knew he’d get no better opportunity than right now. She was close enough and the exiles’ descendants would be taught a lesson: ultimately he still controlled their fate.

  Pushing the last few people out of the way he pulled down his hood. In the final moments he wanted her to recognise him. The fire of righteousness gripped him until all he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears. He pushed out from the crowd, raised his gun and headed towards her.

  Although there was no Field present, he felt time slow for him.

  Her pink hair flared outwards as she turned to face him. She was raising her arms to protect herself; her tortured expression screaming the word ‘No’.

  He continued striding through the shallow pool and felt the glorious anger arrive, hot and livid. He felt his logic and reason fail; satisfyingly strangled and drowned under a crushing, animalistic wave. He felt his finger stabbing again and again at the trigger as her chest and face exploded under the might of his bloody rage.

  Then it was over.

  He saw her corpse fall and the chaos erupt around him.

  He felt the impact as he was tackled, too late, to the ground. His vision blurred as the beating began; a constant rain of blows that delivered him to a darkness from which he would never wake.

  ~

  Kate smiled at the fire-lit meeting outside the Node: a meticulously planned event that was designed to ease their delicate first moments and allow Atka to guide Cassidy and the others to the village. She permitted herself the luxury of reviewing the event in linear time.

  Atka had once again demonstrated his courage in dealing with the unknown and Cassidy had adapted well to reading small communication cues; something that had always been a strength.

  Though Kate had only spent a month inside the Node, she’d quickly understood Cassidy’s innate ability to empathise with others. Looking at her today, it seemed that time had softened her tendency to be outspoken but she was still as vibrant and intelligent as ever.

  Kate had first met her within the Node’s active Field, so she couldn’t revisit the moment, but she remembered it clearly enough.

  In the privacy of her quarters, she’d just finished decoding her father’s Biomag message. Among other things it had told her that ‘Pittmanbarneskillednapier’. Shortly afterwards she’d been going through a bag of donated clothing and found a handwritten note, pinned to a pair of jogging pants. The note seemed to reinforce her father’s message; it had read ‘Barnes=Danger’.

  At the time, she’d considered the possibility that the note was some sort of twisted test from Barnes himself. However, the note’s colloquial reference to the suggested meeting place had made this unlikely: Barnes would probably have used the term ‘Geothermal and waste reclamation level Sub-13’ whereas the note had used the more lavatorial phrase, ‘Node’s Ass’.

  She’d met with Cassidy, Tyler and Danny three days later at the lowest accessible point within the Node. Their alliance had ultimately formed the basis of a resistance movement, but Kate hadn’t been there to see its fruition.

  Kate now recalled the last time that she’d met with Cassidy in Sub-13. Kate had predicted that Barnes would forcibly exile others alongside Danny. In the wild conditions outside the Node, she knew that people would be vulnerable to accident and injury. They would therefore need a doctor. The hard task she’d given to Cassidy was to find a way to get Caroline Smith out of the Node during the exiling process.

  Cassidy had excelled, borrowing from a technique that General Napier had used to save Danny. Caroline, however, had been less than pleased to
wake up inside a crate and outside the Node.

  Kate smiled at the thought. Caroline’s subsequent actions had actually helped matters more than Cassidy knew.

  She now watched Cassidy and Atka crossing the bridge and then walking to the village. She saw the hushed crowds, the fire-lit circular pool of water and the Elders wondering how to proceed.

  So much of Atka’s world was a distorted misinterpretation of the historical facts. However, the ritualistic nature of their lives had enabled information to be passed from generation to generation.

  She could see Cassidy taking her place at the side of the pool.

  For Kate, these events were rare moments of joy; witnessing the first unfolding of an intervention and the branching formation of a new future.

  In an instant, the future died.

  She saw Cassidy’s outstretched hand and her brutal slaying at the hands of an unhinged Alfred Barnes.

  She saw the inert body collapse into a heap.

  Kate’s mind actually reeled in horror.

  She’d seen this death before. Or something like it. Something buried in the deep past, but somehow connected. In shock, her mind stumbled and flitted between the ages and found the connection. Danny. The exposed top floor of the ‘Gene Pool’ building.

  She’d seen it before, but found herself present at the actual event again.

  As armed men dropped from a helicopter, Danny had tried to warn Sophie not to go down a stairwell. One of the armed men had turned and eliminated the pink-haired witness. Like Cassidy, Sophie’s hair had flared outwards; a vibrant flash of pink that had preceded death.

  Kate’s mind tumbled forwards through five thousand years.

  General Napier, Colonel Beck and she herself had been victims of Alfred Barnes’ desire for power. Cassidy was now another statistic; lying dead in a pool of blood and water.

  The memory of Cassidy’s handwritten ‘Barnes=Danger’ note bubbled to the surface of her turbulent thoughts. It was a warning that Kate had completely failed to heed.

  The notion of calmly planning an intervention was replaced by a chaotic, impetuous and emotional desire to act in the moment. She felt the fire of determination ignite within her as she moved backwards through the last three seconds.

  She no longer cared who saw the intervention.

  ~

  Standing at the side of the circle, Marshall replied to Cassidy.

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged, “Maybe it’s some sort of welcome ritual?”

  He could see that, a few feet away from the circle, Atka was deep in conversation with some elderly men and women. It appeared that they weren’t entirely sure how to proceed either. He could only assume that there was nothing in their traditions that covered the arrival of the Node’s occupants.

  “Just… don’t go anywhere, OK?” she told him, her eyes showing the faintest signs of worry.

  “Yes, my leader,” he smiled mischievously.

  Her look of rebuke was priceless but it quickly softened into one of her knowing smirks. In that moment he knew he’d do anything for her.

  He could only imagine the mental suffering she’d experienced at Barnes’ hands, but that was over now. Whatever the future held, he’d be at her side to protect her.

  As the elderly men and women turned away from their discussions a slight murmur ran through the gathering; perhaps sensing that an announcement was to be made. Turning towards the crowd, Marshall noticed that several people were being jostled aside. Wearing a black hoodie, Alfred Barnes pushed his way out.

  To Marshall’s utter horror, Barnes raised a gun at Cassidy and continued walking towards her, straight through the pool. He wasn’t going to stop.

  In an instant, Marshall felt the cold punch of his adrenaline react to save her. Before he’d managed to move an inch, she threw up her arms and yelled.

  “No!”

  Time slowed.

  Not figuratively, he now realised, but actually.

  Barnes was still striding through the water but it appeared that, within the confines of the circular pool, time itself was moving slowly. At the boundary of the pool, walls of water to the left and to the right of him were rising.

  The gun fired.

  Spirals of smoke looped from the muzzle then the bullet emerged, pushed from behind by a mushroom cloud of white-hot expanding gases.

  The walls of water continued to rise.

  Despite wanting to race to Cassidy’s side, Marshall found that something was actively preventing him from moving. He knew it wasn’t fear that had frozen his actions. It seemed that he was not allowed to intervene. All he could do was watch.

  The water rose and curved inward, as if flowing around the inside of an upturned glass bowl. The bullet continued its straight path, but it too was slowing down. The gun fired again, sending a second projectile after the first. Water now completely surrounded Barnes but it continued to rise above his head.

  As a third muzzle flash slowly began, the walls of water met up at the top, sealing Barnes inside a shimmering hemisphere of water. Ripples passed through the surface, distorting the events inside, but he saw several more muzzle flashes.

  A shudder passed through the ground, then the hemisphere of water simply collapsed. The water dropped into the pool, drenching Barnes and sending him falling to his knees, gasping for breath.

  Cassidy still had her hands outstretched, but she slowly stood more upright.

  She looked down at Barnes who was now cowering in fear at the centre of the circular pool.

  “No,” she repeated calmly.

  Marshall felt the impediment leave him and rushed to be with her.

  Ignoring the spectacle that had just unfolded, he found that his first words were of apology.

  “I tried to get to you!” he hugged her, “I couldn’t move! It was -”

  “I know,” she whispered to him, “I couldn’t move either, something stopped me.”

  At the same time, they both noticed the sudden quiet.

  They turned to see that the people of the village were bowed towards them. Also, either out of respect or because they were unsure how to behave, several people from the Node had dropped to one knee.

  An aftershock passed through the ground and a crack ran from the circular pool to the building behind them. Several stones and branches within the front wall collapsed and fell to the floor. When the dust cleared, Marshall could see that a ragged doorway had opened up.

  MATRYOSHKA

  10th November 2177

  Sometimes Lana found it easy to forget the fact that her world was the interior of a cylinder. Routines and repetition had removed almost all aspects of novelty; during the straight-line flight to Epsilon Eridani she had a day job to do.

  “In terms of our point mass, the M-Field is on a direct course,” Chris Powell was advising her, “But our spin is relative to the Field. Fai can compensate for our end-to-end pitch and tilt, but we should try to ensure even mass distribution across the diameters.”

  “Create building sites in opposing pairs?” Lana looked at the circular diagram he’d drawn.

  “Exactly,” he pointed out of the office window to the Greenwich Hub’s tall tower, “A lot like we have the balance masses placed at the other compass points around the equator.”

  There was a knock at the door and her assistant leaned in.

  “Lana, sorry, there’s a man here. Says he’s got a three-thirty appointment with you?”

  She’d been so busy, it was possible that she’d simply missed it.

  “Chris, do you mind? I’ll just see what this is and -”

  “Do you want me to wait outside?”

  “No, it’s fine,” she said, waving him back to his seat, “OK, send him through.”

  The man bustled through the door barely a second later, smiling broadly and carrying a briefcase. Before he’d reached the office table, he was holding out his hand.

  “I just wanted to say what a fantastic job you’re doing,” he looked between both of
them, “First rate, really.”

  Lana offered her hand out, “Thank you, Mr?”

  “Kohlner,” he shook hands with both of them, then placed a rectangular card on the table.

  It took her a moment to remember that this used to be a custom before beginning meetings; people would exchange business details that could be taken away and filed for future use. His piece of card told her that he was from Luóxuán Biotech; an embossed, white double helix logo stood slightly proud of the light-blue card.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have one of these,” Lana picked up his card.

  “I think I can probably remember who you are!” he laughed and pointed at the view beyond the office window, “Like I say, just amazing. Do you mind if I sit?”

  Lana offered him a chair and he took the opportunity to open his case on the office table.

  “Now,” he clicked his pen and jotted something on a notepad, “Thank you for seeing me. Unfortunately, I drew the short straw, so it falls to me to advise you of the main fact.”

  Lana exchanged glances with Chris. It seemed that neither of them understood what the man meant.

  “What fact?” said Chris.

  Kohlner paused and looked between them both.

  “My team didn’t advise you that I was on the way?” he shook his head and gestured to the outer office, “That explains the slight confusion out there -”

  “Mr. Kohlner,” Lana interrupted his self-assured smile, “What fact?”

  “The fact that, without our prior approval or financial recompense, Luóxuán Biotech research was used in the construction of the Eridanus ecosystem.”

  “Excuse me?” said Chris.

  Kohlner slid a glossy looking brochure across the table.

  “Namely, that the Z-bank you retrieved from the FLC,” he addressed her, “was used without our consent. Our patented samples and sequencing technology formed the basis of the terraforming operations and subsequent organism generation.”

  Lana laughed, “Everyone knows that Fai handled the complex bio-development algorithms -”

  “That were built upon our patents,” he cut in.