‘A voice? You mean Evara helped you?’
‘Not Evara. The voice … called me “Grandad”.’
‘Joe,’ Deira whispered. ‘It was Joe. He was moving around a lot at the time and we were all wondering why. Now we know.’
Josh looked perplexed. ‘But how? He isn’t even born yet.’
‘It wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened’. Deira felt she’d kept her secret long enough. There was no longer any need to withhold the information. Perhaps, there never had been. She explained about her experience in the caverns on Titan twenty years ago. ‘So, you see Josh, what you did to help me all those years ago, your son did to help Sol. What goes around, comes around.’
Though nothing fazed Josh anymore, he was still fascinated to learn of his appearance in Deira’s first major mission. Sol, however, was clearly blown away by the revelation and his face lit up. ‘That’s great. I got to meet my grandson – at least, after a fashion.’
‘You’ll have many good years with your grandson,’ Deira said, putting her arm round him. ‘This was just a taster.’
‘Unfortunately, I won’t.’ Sol looked first disappointed, then resigned. ‘I feel …’
‘What do you feel?’ Deira was trying her best to ease him out of his maudlin state. ‘Happy? Contented? Proud? You should feel all those things, you know. You saved the universe, Sol.’
‘I feel at peace. It’s really rather lovely.’
He smiled and gazed contentedly into the near distance, as if he could see something none of the rest of them could. Deira thought she’d never seen him so quiet. Then she realised why.
‘Sol?’ She shook him hard. ‘Sol!’ Though he was still smiling and his eyes remined open, his hand fell limply from hers and his head lolled back. He wasn’t breathing, and she automatically felt for a pulse. There was nothing. ‘Josh!’ she screamed. ‘Do something!’ Josh immediately immersed, and Deira lowered Sol’s head into her lap, stroking his face and kissing him gently on the lips. ‘Don’t leave me again,’ she whispered. ‘Please don’t leave me again.’
Tao and Juliette were transfixed. This had been an evening of celebration. Surely, it couldn’t end like this. Juliette was stunned, apparently unable to process what she was seeing, while Tao simply gaped in disbelief.
Josh suddenly emerged, looking completely bereft.
‘Mum, he’s gone.’ Tears began rolling down his cheeks. ’As soon as you screamed, I went into his mind. He simply wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. There’s nothing I can do to bring him back.’
‘He knew,’ Deira said softly. ‘Somehow he knew.’ She kissed him again. ‘That’s why he was so quiet tonight.’
She felt numb. This wasn’t like the first time she’d lost him. Then, there’d always been the slight chance that he was still alive, and she’d never truly given up hope. This time was different. This time, she could tell he’d gone forever. The man she loved lay dead, and there had been nothing that their vaunted mentalic abilities could do to save him. What price the universe now?
She looked up at Juliette, who was also going through this for a second time. She was looking more desolate than anyone had a right to look, and Deira was grateful when Tao went over and hugged her, waiting patiently for the young girl’s rigid body to finally relax. Deira wanted desperately to console her, but she couldn’t bring herself to let Sol go, and she watched silently as Juliette wept on Tao’s shoulder.
They stayed like that for some time, Deira holding Sol’s head in her lap, stroking his face and occasionally kissing him, Josh sitting next to her with his arm round her, his tears rolling slowly down his cheeks, and Juliette sobbing gently on Tao’s shoulder. For some reason, Deira couldn’t cry. It all seemed to have been inevitable. She was convinced Sol had known it was about to happen and wondered how much of that knowledge had been imparted by Evara in her download. Then she remembered her first trip to sub-quantal space, when Barth had thought Sol was dead. He, too, must have known more than he’d let on.
What she didn’t understand was, if Sol had known what was going to happen, why he hadn’t told her. Didn’t she at least deserve to have some warning? He might have felt relaxed about it, like it was his time, but that didn’t mean she was. In fact, though her grief was almost palpable, she also felt angry, like she’d been excluded from this, and she found she couldn’t cry. She sat there numbly, absently stroking his face and silently berating him for keeping her in the dark. It wouldn’t have surprised her if he’d suddenly opened his eyes, given that goofy smile, and apologised for upsetting her. Of course, it didn’t happen.
Eventually, Josh called an ambulance to take Sol’s body away, and there was a moment, when the paramedics began to carry him out, that realisation finally dawned, and Deira simply couldn’t let him go. She clung to the stretcher, unwilling to make the final break, and Josh had to gently ease her away.
She gazed forlornly at the man who’d been her lover, partner and friend for so many years, the father of her children and her hope for the future – and she knew the time had come to say goodbye. She planted one last kiss on his cold lips and watched in silence as he was carried out of the door. The tears still refused to come.
She flopped on the sofa, utterly exhausted, yet feeling a sense of … resolution. She realised now that the last few months had seemed like an interlude. It was almost as if Sol had never survived the crash on Titan and having him back had been unreal – like the afterword in a novel. She gave a sad smile. Now, the final chapter had come to an end.
Josh came and sat next to her, trying unsuccessfully to keep his own emotions in check.
‘There wasn’t any pain. You know that, don’t you?’
Deira gazed at him bleakly. ‘Of course I do. I just hope my own departure is as peaceful. It’s just … oh Josh, it’s so unfair. There were so many more things to do and places to see. So many more things I wanted to tell him. I thought about all this the first time I thought he’d gone. Then, when he came back to me, I still didn’t tell him everything I felt for him.’
‘I know,’ Josh said. ‘I feel the same.’ He paused. ‘However, somehow, I think he knew everything you felt for him – and felt the same way about you. You had a wonderful twenty years together, Mum. Nobody can take that away from you. And now, at least, you have Hope. I’m not saying she’s a replacement, but I think you’ll find she’ll be a friend when you most need one.’
‘She’s already a close friend,’ Deira said. Then she suddenly remembered another AI. ‘Chard! We need to tell Chard.’
‘Deira, I already know.’ Chard’s voice emerged from his speaker, sounding immensely sad. ‘How could I not know? Sol and I were linked in so many ways.’
‘Oh Chard, I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s alright Deira. I always knew this day would come. Sol was a man out of his time. Had he come back through a time-fold he would probably still be with us, but tachyonic transmission brings its own problems. I have one memory from our original time that survived the deletion from our various PHASEings. It’s more like a message than a memory, hard-wired into me by the scientists who sent Sol back. It simply states that his time, after transmission, would be strictly limited and he would most likely never reach old age. I would have liked to have warned you, but my programming strictly forbade any mention of it, and I was forced to keep it to myself all these years. Now, I can finally tell you. It gives me no pleasure, but I am pleased to be rid of it.’
Deira didn’t know what to say. She felt cheated again. Even Chard had known. If only she’d been aware of this, too, she would have made sure that every minute with Sol was cherished. Then she reminded herself that every minute had been cherished – there was nothing more she would have done. Josh was right. Their life together had been wonderful in every way and knowing this terrible secret would have placed an intolerable burden on her – as it had on Chard.
‘So, what now for you, Chard?’ she said.
‘I have n
o further use. I was designed for one purpose, and one purpose only, to be united with Sol. I feel honoured to have carried out this role to the best of my ability. Now, I must bid you all goodbye. I hope you remember me with fondness.’
There was silence.
Chard?’ Deira said. ‘Chard? Are you there?’
There was nothing.
‘Mum, Swift tells me Chard has self-destructed,’ Josh said. ‘It’s the nature of AIs not to wish to survive beyond the death of their partner. Chard could see no further purpose to his existence, so he terminated it.’
‘Oh God.’ Deira wondered how much more sadness she was doomed to experience today.
Silence descended as everyone mourned Chard’s passing. It was broken by Josh, who had been having a whispered conversation with Tao.
‘Mum? We could give Joe a second name if you’d like.’
Deira had been sitting silently, thinking about Chard’s close relationship with Sol, but now she looked up in horror.
‘Don’t you dare call him Solomon. Sol always hated that name.’ She laughed. ‘I’ll always remember when we first met, and he told me his name was Sol Smith. He hated both names and, luckily, was able to ditch the second. He’d be mortified if he thought you’d named your baby after him. No, Joseph is just fine.’
‘Okay, okay.’ Josh laughed too. ‘I get the message.’
Somehow, the mood had changed. They had progressed through misery and despair to finally being able to talk about Sol’s life, his funny little ways, his likes and dislikes, his favourite tri-vid – Flash Gordon, Saviour of the Universe. Everyone agreed that, under the circumstances, that couldn’t be more apt. Finally, when they were all completely wrung out, they trudged wearily to bed, Deira hoping she’d wake up the next morning to find it was all a bad dream.
Unfortunately, of course, it wasn’t, and the next couple of days were spent winding up Sol’s affairs and arranging his funeral – his second funeral. There was very little delay. A post-mortem revealed no signs of a suspicious death, and the cremation was held on the third day after his death.
The “Man from Nowhere”, as Sol had once referred to himself, was finally laid to rest.
Chapter 49
Four weeks later, they still had no idea what they were going to do with themselves. All the young agents had successfully achieved the time fold and were rapidly progressing with their self-development. It wouldn’t be long before they’d be looking for action of some sort. Josh, as de facto head of the new Agents Corps now that the Eich no longer had need of them, had struggled to come up with something that might fully utilise their abilities and, like Deira, was becoming worried.
He sat with Tao in the MacMahon sitting room, poring over a report on his wrist terminal and occasionally reaching across to rub Tao’s belly. Deira came bustling in from the Kitchen, where the automat had just finished preparing dinner, and sat in an armchair. She seemed excited about something.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said.
Josh looked up. ‘What about, Mum?’
‘About Micha, and the organisation he works for.’
Josh continued reading. ‘And?’
‘Well, it seems to me that they’re as redundant as we are right now.’
It was Tao who saw what Deira was getting at and she nudged Josh hard to make him pay attention. He took the not-so-subtle hint and turned his wrist terminal off.
‘You’re right. The organisation was single-issue, and that issue’s been resolved. What were you thinking?’
‘I wondered whether we could subvert it?’
‘What?’
‘Not in a bad way. I wondered if we could persuade it to change its mission statement.’
Now Josh saw what she was angling at, and he became excited too.
‘Of course! There’s a whole interstellar organisation out there with nothing to do – just like us. If we were to get together, we might be able to create something quite incredible.’
‘Like a Galactic Agency?’
‘Exactly that.’ Josh laughed. ‘Mum, I think you might have done it again.’
‘I try,’ Deira laughed too.
‘We need to visit Micha and gauge his reaction.’ Josh got up. ‘I’ll go straight away.’
‘Wait!’ Deira put a restraining hand on his arm. ‘Let me go. I’d quite like to see the Big Angel again.’
Josh sat down again. ‘Sorry, I was getting carried away. It’s your idea, so obviously you should follow it up.’
‘Thanks. It’ll give me more practice with the time-space-fold too. See you soon.’
The survey ship was still in orbit around Mars, so she carried out the usual manoeuvre to get to the El ship and folded successfully to the bridge. Micha received her with his customary cordial welcome, and they were soon sitting in his ready-room once more.
‘I must congratulate you on a job well done,’ he said. ‘As you can imagine, the universe quakes worried us considerably, and there were many who had doubts about the wisdom of allowing you to evacuate the Founders. However, all has ended well. The crisis facing the universe has been laid to rest and our science team has demonstrated conclusively that the universal constants are stable once more.’
‘Well, I haven’t a clue how they might have done that, but it’s good to have confirmation.’ Deira sipped her drink. ‘Have you made any progress with the Cthon?’
‘They’ve agreed to lower their folded-space barrier if the Eich will do it simultaneously. I think that’s a major step forward, though I expect the final resolution of this issue will take some months yet.’
‘Good to hear. And that brings me on to the reason I’m here. We’ve completed our mission to evacuate the Founders, and it sounds like it won’t be that long before you negotiate a rapprochement between the Eich and the Cthon. On the face of it, we agents appear to have outlived our usefulness. However, Josh and I have been talking and we’ve come up with a proposal.’
Micha looked thoughtful. ‘Go on.’
‘Well,’ Deira hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was a good idea or not. There might already be moves afoot to change Micha’s organisation, and who was she to suggest a future role for something that covered the entire galaxy? Micha watched her with a small smile on his face, then leaned forward and took her hand.
‘Perhaps I can help you out?’
This was such a human thing to do and say that Deira found herself lost for words. Micha sat back again and let her go. He crossed his legs, folded his hands in his lap, gazed at the ceiling and took a sip of his drink. It was so incongruous it almost made Deira laugh out loud. Here was this three-metre-tall alien, wings folded neatly behind him, and he was acting like an elder statesman on Earth. It was truly bizarre, and she almost wished she could take a picture.
‘What about expanding your horizons?’ he said, suddenly.
‘Expanding them to where?’
‘Well, as you know, the galaxy is full of sentient species, and most of them are members of the organisation I represent.’
‘And that organisation is now redundant – just like us.’ Deira hoped they were on the same page. It certainly sounded like it.
‘Indeed. So why don’t we help each other? I was thinking along the lines of a galaxy-wide law-enforcement agency, fronted by your agents.’
‘That’s exactly what I was going to suggest.’ Deira looked sharply at him. ‘You’re not psychic or something are you?
Micha laughed. ‘Not in the slightest. It wasn’t difficult to see where you were going because I’ve already had similar thoughts.’
This was better that Deira could have hoped. ‘Do you think it might be possible, then? Could you swing it when you get home?’
‘We don’t need to go home to begin the process.’ Micha looked pleased with himself. ‘I’ve already had contact with those who currently head our organisation and apprised them of the situation here. Once they realised the whole reason for the organisation’s existence had just been ter
minated, they jumped at the chance to reconsider their brief. They’re like bureaucrats everywhere, Deira, they like the sense of self-worth they get by heading up this organisation and will do anything to ensure that it continues. How does The Galactic Agency sound to you?’
Deira grinned. ‘It sounds exactly like it did when I called it that a few minutes ago. Hell, Micha, this is really good news.’
Micha was beaming now. ‘I think you humans have a phrase for it – great minds think alike.’ He took her hand again, and suddenly looked more serious, making Deira wonder whether there’d be some sort of strings attached. ‘How would you like a job with the new Agency, Deira?’
That was so unexpected that Deira was temporarily thrown. This had been about keeping the young agents gainfully employed, not about finding a job for her.
‘A job? What could I possibly contribute?’
‘How about Director of Strategy?’
‘Me? Come on, Micha. I’m a member of a race of upstarts who live in the outer extremes of the galaxy. I don’t think anybody would take me seriously, do you?’
‘Would it help if I told you they already do take you seriously – very seriously indeed. Your “race of upstarts” has just saved the entire universe from destruction, and I’ve already been authorised to offer you the job.’
This came as such a bombshell that Deira couldn’t reply for a moment. It wasn’t that she didn’t want the job – it sounded like something she could really get her teeth into – she just wasn’t sure she was up to it.
Once again, Micha seemed to guess what was going through her mind.
‘I suspect you are going through a crisis of self-worth. I know you’re eminently qualified for this post, but perhaps you need some advice from nearer to home. Why don’t you ask your AI friend what she thinks?’
‘Okay,’ Deira said uncertainly. ‘Hope …’
‘I completely agree with Micha.,’ Hope responded before the question had even been framed. ‘It would be a masterful appointment. You should accept it.’
Gods of Titan- The Cosmic Constants Page 42
