She didn’t dare say his name.
49
M ICHAEL BUNDLED A LIFETIME’S WORTH of adventure into the past three years, so this new concept of ‘forever’ stretched the limits of his imagination. The notion of ‘neverending life’ scared the hell out of him. And if he faced a sentence of ‘eternity’ without Sam, what value was there in living longer than the greatest human empires? So, as Michael trudged on across Hiebimini’s fertile, youthful terrain, he set aside the idea of immortality and focused on the single goal that propelled him across a vast sector of the galaxy.
To that end, he plotted a potential course toward a population center. The radiation signatures his DR29 discovered before Maya sang, “Happy birthday, you’re the impossible future,” matched Fulcrum radiation. One of Salvation’s ships must have opened a wormhole nearby in recent days. Yes, it might have been a long-range exploratory mission. Yes, the settlement might exist on the far side of the planet. But it was their only lead after the initial ten-kilometer sweep concluded, so Michael, Maya, and Aldo marched onward.
As the sun kissed the western horizon and turned into a dark mango blaze, the group reached seven kilometers into their journey. They passed through many distinct ecosystems – deciduous, cedar, and tropical rainforests plus tall grassland and a miles-wide peat bog. All tracked along the Bengalese River, which widened after the land settled and branched off into a series of streams.
“Whoever – or whatever – did this,” Aldo said, “must have had an endless palette of ecological options. They chose a little of everything.” These ecosystems, he explained, would exist far from each other on a typical planet, at varying altitudes and latitudes. “They either didn’t care how they seeded this world, or they wanted to create the galaxy’s largest botanical garden.”
“It’s beautiful either way,” Maya said. “Does the motive matter?”
“It might. All these systems are young, but I don’t know how many will survive. Nature is remarkably adaptable, but climate is cruel and endlessly demanding on the most pristine of worlds.”
“Aldo, I think you missed your calling. You’re putting those exobiology studies to good use.”
He returned a distant gaze. “I’m less concerned about the biology than the competence of the designers. What does this haphazard approach to terraforming say about the Jewels of Eternity? These creatures – if I may – seem to possess an intelligence damn near omnipotent. They set Hiebimini’s atmosphere on fire, killed no one on the surface, and remade this planet in less than half a century.”
“Hey,” Michael said, his eyes focused on the DR29’s data package. “Sounds like another version of Genesis. What you just said? Make it the first chapter of a holy book, and I guarantee people will eat that shit up.”
Aldo groaned. “Perhaps you’re on to something, Michael. We wiped out holy books three thousand years ago. But I studied enough pre-history to know those books each began with a creation myth. It’s the one gap in history the Chancellory has never been able to fill: how humanity came into being.”
“You ain’t suggesting these Jewels were behind it all? And now they’re creating a second Eden? Shit. I think that was the plot of a bad TV show I saw once. Stories like that never end well. Too many weird rules. People rebel. Planet blows up. End of episode.”
Michael was talking out of the side of his brain, half aware of the conversation as he scouted kilometers forward. Ecosystems changed rapidly, and the land rose steadily toward high plains. A small line of storms raced southeast, dumping heavy rain with high winds. The wormhole radiation reappeared in scattered doses, following the river’s track. Still, no evidence of human life.
Michael turned to Maya. “You spent time with one of the Jewels. It lay any of this hand-of-God jazz on you?”
“If you mean, did it talk to me about Hiebimini? No. As I said before, it showed me the past, never the future. And it spent time with me. Just to be clear.”
“It had to see, right? If they did everything for this algorithm of life, then they knew we’d end up here. The terraforming wasn’t random. They remade Hiebimini and lured us here for a reason. Spin it how you want, but it sounds like Hand-of-God, Inc.”
They reached the edge of a cedar tree line that opened onto a wide prairie with wheat-high grasses, which slow-danced in a swirling breeze. The sun raged like a fiery dome as it sank into the horizon.
“The Jewel always treated me like a friend,” Maya said. “It offered advice, showed me secrets, but I never felt manipulated. Never like a piece on a galactic chessboard.”
“God’s plan. That’s what we called it where I grew up. A lot of folks believed everything that happened was part of God’s plan. Sometimes I’d ask a friend, ‘OK, so what’s God’s plan for you?’ They never knew. Always said something like, ‘He works in mysterious ways, but I know He has a plan for me.’” Michael pivoted to Maya. “Sounds like the Jewels work in mysterious ways, too.”
“I see. Did God speak to you?”
“Me? Shit, no. But weren’t hard to find folks who claimed to talk to Him every day. At church, women raised their hands to the sky and swore they could feel the power of the Lord.”
“Ah. Your God was incorporeal?”
“No. He was an old white dude with a beard. His son was a young white dude with a beard.”
Maya and Aldo stopped and stared. Michael threw up his hands.
“What? That stuff was passed down for a couple thousand years. A lot of it sounded cool. Some of it, not so much, but that ain’t my point. Whether God was real or not, people bought it and set their lives around Him. They prayed to Him, and they thought He listened and offered advice. You know, like a friend. Mysterious ways.”
Aldo shook his head. “Michael, I think you have validated the Chancellory’s extermination of religion. Humans are at their best when they do not rely on the Divine to chart their path.”
Michael laughed. “Yeah, because that’s made the Chancellors into a winning team. Right? Maybe you folks could use a little old-time religion in your cereal. If I …”
He blinked twice and rubbed his eyes, just to make sure. At first, he thought it was a trick of light and shadow. Michael hid his face behind the DR29 and focused its convex gradient on the setting sun. In particular, he wanted to know more about a narrow, vertical structure that seemed to cut the sun in half.
“What’s wrong?” Maya asked.
“The sun. Look. See what’s in front of it?”
“I don’t see any … oh. Yes. What is that?”
Aldo looked away, rubbed his eyes, and tried again.
“My depth perception is dreadful, I’m afraid. Is that some sort of building? What are you learning, Michael?”
The DR29 analyzed the structure for height, distance, and composition. Michael realized why it never showed on the ten-kilometer sweep.
“Damn,” he whispered as the data package made its projections. “It’s seventy-one kilometers away, two thousand meters tall, and a little under fifty meters wide.”
“Its composition?” Aldo asked.
“Nothing showing up on the metallurgical analysis, but we’re too far away. Why didn’t we see this before?”
“Flat land, clear horizon. No mystery. I can tell you this much: It’s new. The tallest terrestrial structure on old Hiebimini was the Ashkinar Continental Enclave in Messalina. Five hundred feet.”
“What the hell is it?”
“If I had to guess? Answers.”
“What do you mean?” Maya asked.
“Terraforming as we know it requires more than seeding the surface. You need control mechanisms to adjust the atmosphere and manipulate the climate. Maybe that’s how the Jewels are doing it.”
Michael was glad they were headed in a different direction.
“The last time I saw a tower that size, a few days later the bastard fell out of the sky.”
“What if it’s an energy source, Michael? The terrorists might have settled nearby. Perhaps
we should alter course. Yes?”
“No. I show wormhole signatures at multiple locations on southward trajectory, all inside the river basin. There’s nothing out there when I sweep west. At least not for ten K. We agreed. Follow the leads.”
Aldo’s uncomfortable grin predicted his response.
“And this,” he pointed west, “is a remarkable lead.”
Michael felt a stubborn streak coming on.
“No. That’s not the way to Sam.”
“You’re certain?”
“No, Aldo, I’m not certain. I walked across the universe like God himself and jumped in here four hours ago. I don’t know Hiebimini, and neither do you. At least not anymore. I’m here to find Sam. That’s it. The Enterprise didn’t send us here on a damn science mission.”
Maya reached out to him. “Calm, Michael.”
“Sorry, but I’m the guy with the blast rifles. I’m gonna find Sam, I’m gonna kill James and all the fuckers who worship the son of a bitch, then I’m gonna get my girl off this planet before your people,” he pointed to Aldo, “land an invasion force. I don’t want to sound like an asshole, but don’t try to pull rank. Just so we’re clear …”
“Michael, sweetie, you’re …”
Aldo intervened. “No. It’s all right. Michael, we left our ranks behind. This is your mission. Given everything I’ve seen and heard, you are meant to be here. Me? I’m an interloper who grabbed your fortunate coattails. Your instincts will guide us.”
Michael felt a few pounds lighter. “Thank you.”
“But I must make this one point. That tower has a purpose we don’t understand. Possibly it’s benign. Possibly not. Either way, it was created by these Jewels, and we do not know their goal for us or Hiebimini. Keep one eye open for James Bouchet’s group, but the other needs to be alert for the Jewels.”
Minutes later, the sun disappeared, and the tower vanished after nightfall. Following an hour’s walk, they neared the opposite end of the grasslands. Maya suggested they rest. She opened her bag, which contained mobile kiosk rations. She and Aldo found a clearing and took a seat, a glow pod between them. Michael tossed his ration into a pouch on his body armor.
He couldn’t sit. He wanted to plow forward. Before long, someone would suggest they try to get a few hours’ sleep and recharge. Though Michael’s patience stretched for months on Tamarind, each hour on Hiebimini seemed dangerously long. Aldo insisted Michael’s instinct would guide them.
Fine. My instinct says I’m out of time. We may be immortal, but that ain’t a guarantee. If I don’t find Sam by tomorrow, I never will.
This realization, which had no basis in logic but he knew to be true, struck Michael like a thunderbolt. A lighted tunnel opened his mind to a variety of other insights competing for his attention. They arrived with furious abandon, but they didn’t speak.
Hiebimini shifted under his feet, and he was cast in a glow. Michael swung about and looked toward the night sky, but all the stars were hidden behind a monstrous black wall. The light source intensified, sharpening into a blue laser originating thousands of feet above the surface and filling his eyes with a blinding sear.
50
H E WAS NOT ON HIEBIMINI. Michael looked out upon the city from a viewing platform. The city’s towers reflected the rays of a white-hot sun. They shimmered in glass columns and cylinders that stretched for miles through a deep canyon beneath an olive sky. On either side, snow-capped mountains rose in steep ridges, the tree line dwarfing the city’s tallest structures. A tiny craft descended inside a translucent bubble and landed at the largest avenue entering the city.
The sights mesmerized Michael, but the sounds …
There were none. He stuck a finger in each ear, rubbed it about. Still nothing. Was this real? A memory?
A sudden wash of sorrow brought tears to his eyes, but it wasn’t Michael’s pain. As he watched three humanoid figures exit the tiny craft, he sensed them losing heart. He felt their grief.
Something approached from behind. Michael detected vibrations. He turned. A lump in his throat descended into his stomach.
Three boulders smashed everything in their path, unstoppable as they approached his position. He couldn’t run; the platform caged him in. He screamed for help, but the volume remained on mute.
The stones tore the platform off its moorings and lifted Michael bodily into the air. But he didn’t fall beneath their fury. Rather, they carried him down the mountainside and rested him not far from the tiny craft. They dissolved into dust.
The craft resembled nothing he ever saw. Its outer shell pulsated like a human heart. Blood vessels coursed through a sinewy texture.
The grief intensified. It paralyzed all other thoughts. Their hopelessness crushed Michael’s spirit. It was as if he stood over the open coffins of everyone he loved. He wiped away his tears and tried without success to contain his sobs.
Slowly, begrudgingly, he walked past the craft and saw its occupants up close. They were string-bean thin but nine feet tall. They appeared to sway in the breeze. Two legs, two arms, but proportionately small. These people were mostly thorax. Their bald heads were oblong, but the features recognizable – eyes, nose, ears, chin, jawline. Their skin was pallid. And when they saw what awaited them in the city, they fell to their knees.
That’s when the others appeared. When Michael understood.
He saw thousands more long, thin humanoids. Many sat on their knees. Others dangled outside windows as far up as he could see.
None were clothed.
A sudden swift breeze greeted him with the odor of rotting flesh.
The bodies decayed in front of him, their skin peeling away and their limbs dissolving. They changed from emaciated to skeletal to gray petals shorn from a dandelion.
The three humanoids who watched alongside Michael lifted their hands toward the sky. Though he could not hear them, Michael knew they were begging forgiveness.
They pleaded to the four winds, turning a full circle. He didn’t understand at first when they returned to their craft on nimble feet, ready to depart forever.
Fiery orbs emerged from the mountains and hovered over the city. This terrified the humanoids, who closed the bubble on their craft and tried without success to lift off.
Michael’s grief morphed into the terror they experienced. Utter hopelessness dragged him into a suicidal abyss when he realized what was approaching the city.
He saw the orbs closer now, descending the slopes in a steady march. Michael saw inside, through the translucent bubbles. A humanoid piloted each, twice the size of the three whose craft remained grounded.
Each pilot hovered inside an orb, hands extended as if in a warning to remain still. Electric fire spilled from those hands and wound itself into an avalanche of tornadic winds and a lightning-hot wall.
The storm shattered the great columns and cylinders of glass and pulverized the city. Michael succumbed as the fire, thousands of degrees, incinerated him and the three poor creatures who tried to escape. His final thought picked up the echo of the only spoken word since he arrived here:
J’Hai’Nyon.
He emerged elsewhere.
The field was green, and the poppies were about to bloom.
Off in the distance, fire poured toward the sky and the land shook between the great mountains.
He wasn’t alone.
The humanoid beside Michael bowed his head and cried. He extended a long, slender arm toward Michael. He turned up his palm.
Michael understood. He took the humanoid’s hand and listened even though the creature never opened his mouth.
J’Hai’Nyon.
He laid a poppy in Michael’s hand and gave permission to speak.
Michael replied: “J’Hai no more.”
Michael did not want to know what followed. He was bombarded by emotions, non-human expressions of joy and disgust, and by the sorrow of both of the victors and the vanquished.
Somewhere amid the torrent, the creature asked Mi
chael a question.
“Yes,” Michael said after deep contemplation. “I’ll try.”
The poppy field disappeared, and Michael plummeted.
Maya was tugging him from behind.
“Michael? Michael, what’s wrong? Are you with us?”
He swung about. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“I said come sit with us. We’ve got a long journey ahead, and you need to pace yourself. What did you do with your ration?”
He reset his thoughts. “The food? Oh, it’s here.” He pulled it out of a pouch. “Did you see a blue light or …?”
“What?”
He looked up. The sky was full of stars.
“Maya, you said it never used words.”
“Who?”
“The Jewel, when it was inside you.”
“That’s right. It spoke through my senses and emotions. Why?”
He waited until the picture unscrambled and walked to the glow pod, where Aldo was finishing his meal.
“Join us,” Aldo said as Maya took a seat.
Michael hesitated. It’s too damn much. I can’t believe this!
“What’s the problem?” The old man asked.
“Um, remember how you said that tower might have answers?”
“Are you suggesting we change course?”
“No. We follow the river. It will take us straight to their city.”
“How do you know?”
He ripped open the ration pack just to have something to do with his hands. Michael remembered it all, including the unbearable grief.
“I know why they’re here.”
“The Jewels?”
“Why they remade Hiebimini. Why they lured us here. I know what they’re gonna do. Oh, God. I know what they’re gonna do.”
Maya leaned in close. “Michael, how? What have you …?”
“We eat. Then we get on our feet and we move. Fast.”
“Why, Michael?” She said. “What’s going to happen?”
“The end,” Michael said. “It’s the fucking end.”
51
Project Drawbridge staging area
The Impossible Future: Complete set Page 136