by Paul Harm
“This is Doctor Ali van Ost entering the laboratory’s daily log on Monday 7th of March 2079. I’m excited about this project which seems so promising. Our equipment is set up here in Israel and fortunately the ethics commission can no longer interfere with our project. The models and simulations look promising and while we go through our last worst-case scenarios we’re comfortable that we can start field trial in about a year giving we find subjects who are willing to participate.” He started to laugh madly. “Anyway, we’re looking forward to the start of the field phase of project Phoenix.”
The screen went black again as Joseph, Claire and Eliah looked at each other. The little white line on the monitor returned and slowly blinked its way from the left side of the monitor towards the right as it suddenly stopped. Another video log showed up and Dr. Ali van Ost had an insane grin all over his face.
“This is Doctor Ali van Ost entering the laboratory’s daily log on Thursday December 24th, 2081. The company complied we’re getting our first research subject codename Lilith. It should be a success and we shall be the heroes of humanity for it. I’m very excited to work with Lilith and I’m sure we’re going to be successful. I cannot believe how easy it goes when you leave overregulated countries, these UN ethics commissions ruin the very core of scientific progress.”
Another popping of the white line. “You remember Lilith?” Joseph’s head sank down “Yes, I remember.” “What the fuck I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The two of them had totally forgotten about Eliah in the dim light and his silent nature. “We’ll tell you afterwards, but it didn’t end very well for her.”
“This is Doctor Ali van Ost entering the laboratory’s daily log on Friday 27th January 2082. We reran our models and calculated the risks and we’re comfortable the genetic recalibration is going to be a full success. The process itself might take up to 12 months but this is just the prototype procedure I’m sure we’re able to speed up the process once we’re out of the testing phase. We had more good news this week two more test subjects were given to our cause by the company the other day as head of the company Alastair Grey announced. One of them seems to be a blood relative. I’m not sure what I should think about that. Never mix family and business but it’s not my call.”
The monitor’s white line jumped a step at a time in the right corner.
“This is Dr. Ali van Ost it’s the 23rd of April 2082. Our trials have been a full success, as expected, and we’ll be able to initialize the recalibration of Lilith soon. The other two subjects arrived today both in hibernation chambers. I’m not sure if they gave their consent but that isn’t my place to ask where my test subjects are coming from. Since we don’t have their real names or anything I’ll call the Asian Yuki-onna and the Caucasian Eve, it seems to be the right call as Lilith’s successor.” The video started to surge and hiss as it finally went out. The time index still continued though. The white line reappeared in the video and typed a message: Emergency shutdown... Energy supply unstable... Establishing satellite uplink to Schwarzschild archive.... 69.94° North... 121.31° East.... Established... Backing up all data logs... Time to fully backup files 61:56:57.
The timer counted down for a couple of seconds until the screen went black again just for another video log from Dr. Ali van Ost to appear.
“We’ve got problems with the fusion reactor all the time now. I think we’re going to move soon since we require a stable power source. Fortunately, even though we’re isolated from the world we still have our data backups.”
“This is Dr. Ali van Ost it’s the 30th of May 2084. The recalibration took much longer than we expected, and the constant power scourges and lows are endangering the project. We shall move within the next year until then we can do nothing but sit back and enjoy the calculations of probabilities. The other two research subjects remain in hibernation until we’re ready. I don’t like this constant moving first from Bolivia here and now again to London I’m not a fan. Anyhow, I’m willing to do what it takes to ensure the success of the project and with a stable power source we should finally be able to get into human trials.”
The white line sat in the upper left corner and blinked steadily. “I don’t understand what this should tell us Joseph.” Claire shook her head. “We run from one end to the world to another and to the moon for this fragmented nonsense information and we’ve no idea what it’s all about. I mean obviously there’s been some kind of experiment on women.” “I know what you mean Claire, but I’m afraid there’s no way back we just have to keep going. Akachi never explicitly mentioned it, but our lives as we knew them are over. If you would’ve seen what happened to me in the office when that strange lady appeared with her four henchmen. It was unreal, obscure and horrible.” “What lady?” Claire looked puzzled at him. “There was a woman in my office, she stood behind Gabriella’s desk and in every corner of the office stood a man in black robes. All of them looked away from me, their heads covered in big hoods, and then all of the sudden the ground beneath my feet vanished, the room around me caught fire and I fell into a nightmare. In between what must have been hallucinations they asked me about Melinda. Fortunately, they backed off and Akachi showed up right afterwards telling me to run and hide so I did. I know this sounds strange, but I knew from the beginning something was odd about Melinda I just thought she’s a strange person that’s all. But after all I’ve seen and this here now and the hideout in London, the box in the Bay of Bengal. Claire! Something very strange is going on here on a very large scale. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve to get to the bottom of this.” Joseph started shaky when he began to talk but his will and his determination grew more powerful with every word he spoke and somehow that was enough for Claire to calm down. “Ok, so what do we do next?”
Eliah was standing in a dark corner of the gloomy room they were in and said nothing while all those strange things he observed happened. “I’d go for the archive.” He mumbled more to himself than to anyone else. “What?” Joseph and Claire yelled at him. “The archive, I’d go for it. The video logs and the dates they don’t seem to be consistent and furthermore there are no files on the hard drive I bet and there isn’t a single folder standing around in this room, it has all been abandoned. And while that strange Doctor was making one of the videos the power went out for a second, so the backup system seemed to initialize a safety protocol uploading all gathered data to an archive.” Claire’s eyebrows narrowed “Schwarzschild it wrote, Schwarzschild archive. Is it in Jerusalem?” Joseph just shrugged and looked at Eliah. Eliah did the same thing. “I’m not an expert, but I never heard of a Schwarzschild archive. We should just check out the coordinates.” “Well let’s get out of here then, this place gives me the creeps.” Claire commanded as she headed for the entrance. The two men followed her lead not too comfortable in the abandoned laboratory themselves.
As Joseph left through the Laboratory’s entrance a shiver ran down his spine and he felt like someone was looking at him from behind. He turned around and as he looked back into the laboratory and he felt watched. He took a look around and saw a camera in the left upper corner of the room a red light blinking on it. “Shit!” “What?” The other two stopped and looked at him. “There’s a camera.” Joseph pointed on it and as he did Claire ran up to it and knocked it down with a stone she found in the rocky tunnel in front of the laboratory. As it hit the ground not only did the red light stop but at its side there was an opening something seemed to be stuck into it. “Oh, look at you.” Claire mocked in a victorious way as she pulled out a similar device to what they found in the box in the ocean. “Another one of those sticks.” She stated as she triumphantly held it up high. “Now let’s get out of here, fast.” They made haste and shortly after they exited the waterfall. They did not realize how much time they spent in there searching and probing the place since outside the light already started to fade as the last sun rays fell upon the oasis and the desert around it. “It’s getting dark we should find a place to sleep and
ride home tomorrow morning.” Eliah proposed as he stretched signalizing his tiredness. “No.” Claire and Joseph barked at him. “We have to move now and fast grab your stuff and make a run for it.” Eliah still in the middle of his stretch did not know what to make of it. “The camera, we don’t know if someone is still watching, if they see me they’ll come for me.” Joseph pointed out with his hands on his shoulders almost in an invoking manner. “Ok ok we can go but it’s going to get cold you better grab what you can and make haste that will keep us warm enough.” Claire and Joseph grabbed their stuff in a matter of seconds and mounted their dromedaries. They left the oasis immediately after.
Approximately ten minutes into the desert Claire turned around with narrowed eyebrows. “Do you hear that?” “Hear what?” Joseph and Eliah replied almost simultaneously. “That howling. It’s very quiet, but I’ve been able to hear it for a couple of seconds now.” Eliah and Joseph turned their heads in every direction but could not seem to hear anything. Until Eliah declared: “Oh yes I hear it too.” It became louder and louder until Joseph heard it too. It had become very loud by now. The second it stopped, the oasis they left about twelve minutes was hit by some sort of orbital strike. The flames climbed up to the height of a skyscraper and a sea of flames consumed the oasis entirely. When the shockwave reached them it blew the deserts sand all over them, by than they were galloping for cover. “What the fuck is happening.” “I told you already, the less you know the better.” Joseph yelled at Eliah. “How long until we reach the city?” “I think in this tempo about forty-five minu...” He broke in mid-sentence. Eliah stopped his dromedary and climbed off it. “Eliah what’re you doing come on!” Claire screamed at him while she slowed down. But Eliah did not hear her. From the sky there fell a white light in front of him leaving a shining beacon of beautiful white fluorescence in the desert. He saw the silhouette of a woman covered in the white light and around her the same light fell from the sky again but this time the color was dark, black only visible because of her radiance. The shadows fast as lightning circled him while he still was fascinated and thrilled by that luminescence’s presence. “Where are they?” A soft voice whispered in his ears coming from nowhere and from everywhere at once. Eliah raised his hand and pointed in the city’s direction. A tear ran down his cheek Claire saw it as it reflected the fire’s light from the orbital strikes which where blowing up the area around them. “ELIAH!!!” Joseph grabbed her and made haste. “ELIAH!!!” Eliah did hear her, like underwater from far away, he did not react. The white lady did know that he heard something. The black shadows around him laid their hands on his head and he felt a thousand blades piercing his body while he burnt in the flames which consumed everything around him. “Thank you, Eliah.” The voice as soft as a spring breeze spoke to him again. Eliah’s hand sunk down, blood dropped from his nose, tears from his eyes and just like that Eliah’s sun set as his body fell on the ground.
“What just happened?” Claire’s voice was filled with pain and confusion. “I don’t know but I think it’s the same thing that happened to me in the office. It’s some sort of daydream, a hallucination probably.” Out of nowhere a blue glow on the horizon caught Joseph’s attention. He pointed towards it. “Do you see that?” “See what? Oh, that yeah I see that.” “We should follow that I think we’ve been immune to her because of the chips Akachi gave us but I don’t know whatever it is that does those things to people can do to us still or through someone else.” “I agree let’s head for the blue light.”
As Claire was done speaking, the hissing started again quietly. Soon after in approximately a kilometer to the east a firestorm high as a skyscraper again rose into the sky accompanied by a loud and terrifying sound which carried its shockwave. It went on like this for quite some time hissing and explosions. Fortunately, Eliah pointed a bit too far to the east when pointing towards the city of Jerusalem and fortunately the blue glow was leading them away from the city getting them out of the line of fire. But one thing was for certain those orbital strikes were meant for them they had no doubt about it. After some hours the blue glow disappeared and the two of them were officially lost in the desert. “What’ll we do now?” Joseph asked while in the distance fire cascades still rose into the night sky. “I saw a river south from the oasis on a map before we left. Do you see that star?” Claire pointed towards the brightest star in the celestial body. “No Claire I don’t.” “It is Polaris the North Star. This star is always in the north. Therefore, we can go into the opposite direction and shall reach the river soon which will lead us back to Jerusalem.” “Good plan.” Joseph smiled a restrained smile at her, it was an honest one at least.
After another couple of hours into the night the bombing stopped. They reached the river and made their way upstream. It did take them quite some time to get back to Jerusalem but at least they got there safe. When they finally entered the city from the south and left the dromedary at the river, so they would not reveal where they came from, they discovered that the cascade system was shut down rendering the city closed off from the outside world. Well there was the dromedary left but no cascade was available for now which made high speed travel almost impossible. Malfunction in the distributing unit, the sign stated. As they read it two military officers in full gear walked by them, Joseph and Claire looked instinctively in the other direction in order to hide their faces in a natural and not suspicious way. They did not speak to each other as they went into the center of the city exhausted from the long ride and sleep deprivation. As they went by a coffee house they both felt like this is the place to take a break. It was not only still further outside of the city center but it had a certain appeal to the both of them.
Mirage, the wooden letters on top of the entrance stated. As they entered they found themselves in a classic coffee house untouched by centuries of technological revolution. Instead it was almost technology free except that one screen which did not display anything at the moment but was big and rather new. It was probably for public viewing of certain sport events. The interior was made from solid wood, no synthetic Nano-Tek material, and it seemed that everything in there had been made in the ancient past. Wide open entrances and big opened windows showed the garden in its full beauty. It was a place to refresh your batteries. It was quite a surprise since the shabby entrance from the street suggested a fleabag at best. As they entered and looked for a place to sit, an old lady spotted them as they sat down as she was at the bar and watched them enter. She got up and moved towards them as her green eyes focused on them and her long white curly hair danced in the wind. As Claire and Joseph ordered their coffee at the bar she was right next to them. She leaned towards the obviously exhausted couple. “They shut down the city. They say there’s something wrong with the distributing unit.” The old lady had a strange familiarity to Joseph. “But I don’t believe it. Do you know what I think?” Claire looked at her and she said it as polite as her exhausted body and mind allowed it. “I’m sorry, but we’re exhausted, and I don’t care what you think.” The old lady laughed and started to cough. When she was able to speak again she leaned almost into their faces. “I think if I want to leave this place I’d go to the beach where the youth do their boat racing and let them drop me off in Port Said.” She tapped them on the shoulders and stood up to leave. Joseph grabbed her arm and looked at her both helpless and decisive. “Do I know you?” Joseph asked to her harsher than he realized. “Do I look like you know me? Now let go of my arm you brute.” And with that she freed her arm with one swing and left. Joseph and Claire stood at the dark wooden bar. “We’ve to get out of here fast.” “I agree let’s try what the old lady suggested.” Joseph shrugged. “Alright. She reminded me of someone.” “Whom?” “I don’t quite know... It’s just like I felt like I knew her.”
XXIV. The Beginning of the End
After refreshing and gathering some energy Joseph and Claire headed for the beach and followed the old woman’s advice. After walking the beach for an hour, they almost gave
up on ever finding that boat racing youth. They found one eventually and watched them rushing through the open ocean. They were incredibly fast thanks to fusion technology. “Well we found them, but how do we get to them? Or should we just steal their boats?” Joseph laughed “No honey we shouldn’t steal their boats. But we have to somehow get them to take us to Port Said.” “Maybe we can trick them.” “Like how?” “Well they seem to be very competitive. So, I say I think he’s being faster and you kind of say: `No the other one seems to be faster´ and then we let them race one of us on each boat. First we tell them a story of the old Port Said Jerusalem race or something with a speed record or so.” “Hm... that might work, but first we’ve to actually get to them.” Joseph pointed out into the open sea as the boats raced over far outside in the open ocean. “There probably is a hangar or a harbor nearby since we didn’t see one when we walked here it’s probably somewhere further south.”
Joseph nodded and so they continued their journey south. After some time, they found a crowd which stood in a circle around a tablet in their midst and cheered for something. As the two of them came closer they saw that the crowd stood around a tablet which showed the current state of the race between the two speedboats. “Oh my god Andi is going to make it.” A female voice screamed. “No way look, Robert is coming out of the slipstream.” And as the boy was done commenting it the boat overtook the other one. Claire and Joseph stood there and waited for the spectacle to end since no one was paying any attention to anything but the boats anyway. After another ten minutes the race seemed to have ended and the crowd slowly broke up. A young woman still stood there with her giant hat and her white bikini. “Can I help you?” She asked when she saw the odd couple. “Oh yes. My husband and I were betting that in a longer race the red boat never going to get to, let’s say, Port Said before the black one.” “Lady before you say anything else, the red boat as you call it is called Thunderbolt and the black boat is called Lightning. They’re just the fastest boats you going to find in this part of the world.” She declared obviously pissed because of Claire’s lack of knowledge. “My name is Rosanna and I’m their chief engineer.”
