Oracle

by Douglas E. Richards

  “While here on Earth it’s been the complete opposite.”

  “That’s right. When the portal first appeared and opened long ago, we were eager to explore a planet so remarkably distant, and be the first to make contact with a new intelligence. We came through as I mentioned, and began to study your emerging civilization. We even brought back a number of volunteers so we could learn more about your species. Exchange students, if you will. We studied them. Did comprehensive brain scans, and used these to make perfect computer models of the human brain. We also studied physical specimens of human brains. Taken from those already dead,” he hastened to add.

  The corners of Anna’s mouth turned up into the hint of a smile. “Good to know,” she said, breaking into an unexpected yawn as she did.

  “It was readily apparent to us that your conscious minds were inferior to those of the other known intelligences,” continued Vega. “Vorian memory, for example, is orders of magnitude better than yours. I can memorize entire languages in days, and store a hundred different ones for easy conscious access. This is true for almost all twenty-seven species.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “At the same time,” he continued, “our scientists came to realize that your subconscious minds more than made up for this conscious deficiency. Unlike every other sentient being we have yet studied, the vast majority of your calculations, analysis, and decision-making are hidden, even from yourselves. Something human science has come to appreciate more and more recently also, as you so eloquently explained over dinner.”

  Anna frowned, annoyed that she had spent an hour telling him what he had already known, but didn’t interrupt. She understood why he had approached her in this way.

  “After further study,” continued Vega, “our scientists came to understand just how unique your hidden minds really are,” he continued. “They came to believe that your subconscious has nearly unlimited potential, in fact.

  “We saw some evidence of this even then. But now, it’s abundantly clear. The subconscious minds of your greatest scientists—your Newtons, and Einsteins, and Feynmans—were able to grasp breathtaking concepts in one fell swoop, in ways that no conscious mind ever could. Catapulting you forward in bursts of inspiration that weren’t possible for the rest of us, exactly as our brain modeling data predicted would happen.”

  Anna shook her head. “Where were you and your brain modeling data when I was writing that paper on intuition?” she said wryly.

  Vega smiled. “I would have loved to be there for you,” he replied. “If only I hadn’t been trillions of miles away at the time.”

  “If I’ve heard that old excuse once,” said Anna with a grin, “I’ve heard it a million times.”

  She paused, and her smile vanished. It was time to brace herself for what was to come. “My gut says you’re about to get to where I come in,” she said.

  “Your gut is, of course, correct,” said Vega. “Based on our analysis of the human brain, our scientists predicted with great confidence that a small fraction of humanity—their best guess was one in five million—would have slight mutations that would give them a conduit to their brilliant stranger. And I’m not talking about autistic savants—which they also predicted, by the way—but intuitives like you.”

  Anna kept her eyes glued to the alien, mesmerized by what he was saying, but also apprehensive.

  “Our scientists also predicted that this trait, given certain structures they found in your brains that I’ll get to later, would allow these precious few to see future events. A weak, murky clairvoyance, to be sure, that the few carriers of this trait wouldn’t even know they possessed. Still, even weak precognition is quite powerful. And our scientists were also certain that the power of this future sight could be boosted considerably, given the right scientific techniques. Certain that this clairvoyance could be dramatically sharpened, and extended to reach further and further into the future.”

  “Which is why we’re going to Huntington, Utah, isn’t it?” said Anna. “Your colleague there is Vorian, and you want to try to amplify my abilities.”

  “You’re right, of course. My colleague will also be able to explain the science behind clairvoyance, and how she proposes to improve yours. But that’s a discussion for later. The point I’m trying to make is that it became clear to our scientists on Vor that if they were right about all of this, your species could be a game changer. Or, perhaps more accurately, individuals with this particular phenotype could be. Individuals like you, Anna. And I’ve come to believe that you’d stand out, even among fellow intuitives.”

  The detective shook her head. “You’re exaggerating my abilities,” she said, “and my importance. By about a million fold.”

  Vega sighed. “No,” he said firmly. “I have little doubt that you could be a true game changer. You could break the deadlock, turn the tide in a twenty-two-thousand-year galactic war. We have reasons to believe that the Gatekeepers monitor conscious functioning, be it biological or computer, to keep us in our place. All attempts made by any of the twenty-seven to push conscious minds to higher levels, or to achieve what you would call paranormal abilities, fail.”

  He nodded slowly at Anna. “Which brings me to you,” he continued. “The evidence is complicated, and beyond even my understanding, but I’ve been assured that subconscious minds are not monitored. They are much too wild, their workings hidden and largely unknowable. So when someone like you possesses extraordinary abilities stemming from their subconscious, this will fly below the Gatekeeper’s radar. Which would allow you to operate unmolested. Or unsabotaged, in any case.”

  Anna looked unconvinced. “You aren’t even sure that these mythical Gatekeepers really exist,” she pointed out. “Yet you’re certain of what will, and won’t, escape their notice?”

  Vega smiled, as if pleased with a prized student. “When Einstein came up with his theory of relativity,” he said, “there was no direct evidence that it was correct. To use your word, it was as mythical as the hypothetical Gatekeepers. But if it was correct, relativity implied certain truisms about the universe.”

  “So there may not be Gatekeepers,” said Anna, “but if they do exist, and act in the way you believe the evidence supports, theory predicts that my subconscious and I will fly under their radar.”

  “That’s right,” replied the alien. “But to continue, my people came to Earth all those years ago. And once our home scientists fully realized the potential of your species, the Vorians on Earth began searching for a clairvoyant. But it was a daunting challenge. The population of the entire planet was small and spread out. If you’re looking for a one-in-five-million phenotype, you want the largest, most concentrated population you can find.

  “Then, too,” he continued, “life was exceedingly hard for most humans at the time. And meritocracies were few. If you were a peasant, poverty-stricken, or born into a lowly caste, you couldn’t stand out, no matter how superior your intuition. Society was too stacked against you. Even the genius of Albert Einstein would have never come to light had he been born into absolute squalor.”

  “You really have a thing for Einstein, don’t you?” said Anna with a smile.

  Vega nodded. “Of all your historical figures,” he admitted, “I find him and Richard Feynman the most fascinating. But the bottom line,” he added, “is that we fully expected our search to take centuries. And also, once we did identify a candidate with abilities like yours, they had to be kind as opposed to evil. Compassionate as opposed to ruthless. They had to be someone we could put our faith in. Someone we could be confident would use their abilities for the good of all, rather than just for themselves.”

  Vega frowned deeply. “Then the portal disappeared,” he said miserably. “And that was that. So much for any human game changers.”

  His voice took on a note of pride. “But we readied ourselves in case the portal ever opened again. We improved our tech so that rather than needing an external light source, we could use an undetectable internal one. We taugh
t generations of selected recruits all about Earth. Recruits trained for the day the portal did open, with a mission that we believed might end the war.”

  Vega stared at his companion, almost in awe. “All of which has led us to you.”

  Anna considered this for several long seconds. “Even if I have the abilities you think I do,” she said sadly, “which I don’t, you still have the wrong person. I’m far from the saint you’re looking for. I broke our laws repeatedly. And I was selfish. And sometimes cruel. All of which disqualify me.”

  “Not at all,” insisted Vega. “So you acted out as a kid. So what? This makes your journey even more impressive. Despite being pushed into a dark place by fate, and succumbing temporarily, your innate altruism and optimism could not be smothered. I’ve been with you in the trenches now. I’ve seen how you handle yourself when your world is caving in, and people are trying to kill you. Throughout this discussion we’ve been having, your obvious decency, empathy, humility, and compassion have shined through.”

  Vega stared deeply into the detective’s blue eyes. “You’re exactly who we’ve been looking for, Anna Abbott,” he added softly. “I’m sure of it.”

  Anna thought about this further. “Even if that is true,” she said, shaking her head, “it doesn’t matter. I can’t even help you win a single skirmish. And you seriously think I can change the course of an entire war?”

  “Yes,” said Vega emphatically. “Not immediately, but yes.”

  Anna shook her head once more. “Not a chance. One human being against the galaxy? Are you kidding? This makes the other preposterous things you’ve said seem downright reasonable. Even if I’m a little bit clairvoyant, and even if you can amplify this so I can see a short time into the future—without the Gatekeepers knowing it—I was barely able to save myself tonight.”

  “What you say is true,” acknowledged Vega. “You, alone, wouldn’t move the needle a nanometer.” He paused. “But you directing tens of thousands of warships could well turn the tide. You’d never lose a battle.”

  The alien paused to let this sink in. “I wasn’t sent here to find a detective, Anna,” he added evenly. “Or even a clairvoyant to make vague predictions of the future.” He raised his eyebrows. “I was sent here to find the next admiral of the allied fleet.”

  PART 3

  “ . . . the goal was a mental flash, achieved somewhere below consciousness. In these ideal instants one did not strain toward an answer as much as relax toward it.”

  —Richard Feynman (Nobel Laureate, Physics)

  “Once the future is foretold, that future becomes a living thing and it will fight very hard to bring itself about.”

  —Stephanie Garber

  24

  Anna couldn’t help but laugh at this latest demonstration of Vega’s ridiculous faith in her abilities. Admiral of the allied fleet? Her?

  She was absolutely stunned. There was surreal, and then there was this.

  She must not have heard right. Had Vega really suggested he wanted her to command tens of thousands of starships—warships—in a raging battle in the center of the galaxy against numerous advanced alien species?

  It would make more sense to put a fruit bat in charge of the US Air Force, simply because it had its own built-in radar system.

  She shook her head at the continued absurdity of it all. How had her vaunted intuition missed something as obvious as this? she thought to herself wryly. She should have known she’d be getting this offer when she had awoken that morning.

  At least now the seemingly outlandish statements Vega had uttered earlier made sense. He would take a bullet for her. And he really did believe that she was the most important human in history.

  But not based on what she could do for humanity, but what she could do for twenty-seven alien species.

  As Anna thought about this further, she realized this wasn’t technically true. Presumably, humanity was about to enter this desert, this fray, as a wanderer, along with the other twenty-seven. So if she really could do what they thought, her deeds could well be critical for the future of humanity as well.

  Except that there would be no deeds. It all continued to be preposterous.

  The Honda arrived at the chipped and weathered concrete parking lot of the Rest Easy Motel, which appeared to be mostly vacant. Anna resumed manual control and parked the car around the corner from the small, dingy office, just out of sight. Against her better judgment she turned the inside lights on for the benefit of her alien companion, who looked relieved by this mercy.

  “I’m not going to be the admiral of anyone’s fleet,” she said to Vega firmly, making no move to leave the car. “Hell, I don’t even want to be captain of my own department. But at least I could be successful in that role.”

  “Believe me, you could be successful commanding the allied fleet, as well,” insisted Vega. “You just don’t know it yet. But give me a chance to explain more about your abilities, and how we can enhance them, and I think you’ll see the potential.”

  “I don’t care how much you enhance my supposed clairvoyance, it’s not going to happen. Me as an admiral? Commanding a fleet of ships that can travel nine million miles in less time than it takes me to say nine million miles? I’m a good detective, but I never even played chess or Risk as a kid. Or even one of those battle games online. And I don’t even like to kill bugs if I can help it.”

  She winced. “It’s true that I had to kill today—yesterday by now—but I had no other choice, and I feel awful about it. Beyond awful.”

  “Another example of why you’re the right choice,” said Vega softly. “As admiral, you’d be responsible for making choices that would result in countless deaths. I can’t sugarcoat that. But that’s the nature of war. You’re killing people who want to kill you and yours. So you’re saving as many lives as you take.

  “But most importantly,” he continued, “once we’ve annihilated all other fleets, giving us free rein, we wouldn’t destroy planets and drive species to extinction. We would use our dominance to secure a lasting peace among all intelligences. Perhaps this will prove to the Gatekeepers that we’re worthy of moving forward in our evolution. If not, we can work together to learn if there really are Gatekeepers, and if not, find other explanations for our stalled progress.”

  Anna put her hand over her mouth once again as yet another yawn refused to be denied. “Look, why don’t we table this admiralty discussion for now,” she said, still unable to believe that she was actually saying these words. “Let me finish assimilating the entire situation and we can come back to it. Not that it will do any good, but at least I’ll hear you out.”

  Vega sighed. “Whatever you say,” he replied. “So what else can I tell you to help bring you up to speed?”

  She thought about this. “A lot,” she said, pausing to attend to yet another yawn. “Beginning with how the Tarts fit in. And what they’re doing on Earth.”

  Anna gestured in the direction of the small motel office. “But that will have to wait,” she added. “As much as I want to continue, we have to get settled in. I’ve been fighting off sleep, but I won’t last much longer. My brain is about to shut down.”

  Anna had managed to keep her growing exhaustion at bay, helped along by revelations so compelling they could have kept her on the edge of her seat if she were dead. Still, there was a limit to what even adrenaline could do, and if she didn’t recharge, she was about to crash hard.

  Her day had been endless, and she had lost blood, to boot. Besides, she had more to digest than ever before, and her subconscious seemed to consolidate information best during sleep. She owed it some downtime to further analyze what Vega had told her and begin to draw its own conclusions.

  Anna drove the short distance to the lobby and again left the lights on inside the car. “Wait here,” she told the alien. She pulled a single hundred from the paper bag inside her duffel and shook herself like a dog so she could remain alert a little longer.

  Minutes later she retur
ned with a room key, the old-fashioned kind. “We’re in room forty-nine,” she told Vega. “At the very south end of the motel. I asked for no guests on either side.”

  She put the car in drive, yawned, shook herself awake again, and parked in front of a poorly lit door with gaudy brass numbers nailed to the wood. Room forty-nine.

  It was past midnight, and no guests could be seen on the entire property. They exited the car, with Vega carrying the duffel bag.

  “Follow me,” whispered Anna, veering off to her left and walking briskly but quietly to the north.

  “Isn’t that our room?” Vega whispered back, gesturing to a door with a brass four and nine affixed to it that was rapidly receding behind them.

  “It is,” said Anna in low tones, not slowing. The nearly non-existent lighting must be driving Vega mad, even with his implants, and she gave him credit for not whining about it. “But we’ll be staying in an empty room at the far north end. Occupied rooms are almost sure to have a car in front. Unoccupied ones won’t. Although we’ll check first to be sure.” She shrugged. “Then we’ll break in.”

  “So you paid for room forty-nine, only to break into another one?”

  “Sure,” replied Anna with a weary smile. “Isn’t that what everyone does?”

  25

  Anna found the room she wanted and removed her thick sweatshirt, wrapping it around the door handle to muffle the sound to come. She pressed her gun just under the handle and squeezed off two silenced rounds in quick succession. The sound of the lock giving way to the point-blank shots was much less stealthy than she would have liked, but the motel was largely vacant, and she didn’t think she had drawn enough attention to matter.