Immortal Suicide: A Fight Across Time And Space

by Simon Bown

  “Yes of course.” Gea replied without turning from the window.

  “They are waiting upstairs in the meditation room.”

  Jenson entered the meditation room followed by Gea and Filerea. The three alien Mezzyima floated just a few inches above the floor. Ripples of movement continually fluctuated across their liquid metal bodies. This slight penetration through from their own neighbouring universe allowed only a glimpse of their true form.

  Jenson turned to Gea. “The Mezzyima have asked me to communicate for them as they fear an exposure to Harmony may be too much for you at present.”

  “Harmony? Is that real?” Gea asked.

  “Yes.” Jenson replied. “They’re saying they will bond with you through a passive connection. They will be able to monitor and experience everything you experience. Is that acceptable?”

  “Yes, I trust them.” Gea said. She sat on the floor in her usual meditative position.

  Filerea and Jenson sat on either side of her facing the Mezzyima. Each held one of Gea’s hands and quickly raised themselves to the alpha state. Gea reached the alpha state a moment later and awaited their guidance.

  “I am going to take you to the site of the expanse we have witnessed in your core psyche. Remember we are all here to help and protect you.”

  Jenson accessed her telepathic centre and moved slowly to unravel the virtual cloth. The powerful psychic light shone out from behind the decreasing layers of cloaking as Jenson revealed its full intensity. Shocking sudden flashes of temporal insight challenged both the Mezzyima and the immortals as Gea’s true potential began to assert itself. The moments of insight improved in length from flashes to several seconds largely as a result of the Mezzyimas’ powerful telepathic influence. The powerful uncontrollable bursts steadied and settled into a manageable stream of information. A succession of alien races, most never before known, came to prominence in turn and in a beautiful clarity. Their perspective on the phenomenon shifted backwards to a greater viewpoint. Many intertwined, multi coloured energetic streamers chased across a magnificent expanse. The glowing rivers of intensity writhed and flexed in a constant state of flux before intersecting different parts of an energetic base.

  “The Mezzyima are concerned what we seeing may put too much stress on you. They have requested they take control. Are you okay with this request?” Jenson asked.

  “Yes.” Gea replied.

  The Mezzyima took them down onto the foundation of the expanse. The perceived solidity of the base energy fluctuated as they dropped onto it.

  “I can feel something.” Gea reached out instinctively. Jenson and Filerea were thrown out of the connection by a shocking surge in energy. A subsonic tone resounded through the room vibrating both Jenson and Filerea.

  “What is happening?” Jenson struggled to be heard over the extraordinary sound.

  Filerea opened a telepathic link. “I think we have stumbled upon something that may be beyond our control. We should stop this now.” She linked to the Mezzyima and began her protest.

  The sound ceased as, to their left, a hole in the cosmos opened. The rift expanded to a six feet diameter through which the old city of the immortals was clearly visible.

  “What is this?” Jenson asked. He felt a ripple of discussion resonate through Harmony.

  “It is a rift in space-time.” The Mezzyima replied.

  LAS VEGAS 2163

  The calm serenity of the sea lay undisturbed by the rich sub bass tone that heralded the appearance of a point of bright blue light a metre above the water. Growing marginally in volume the bass tone pulsed as the light grew to a rift two metres in diameter. At first the fissure was bereft of illumination, no light entered or exited leaving a darkness that implied an overwhelming glimpse of eternity. As the rift’s opacity faded a confused Lucy Harcourt came into view.

  Lucy’s calculations asserted that the rift would open at dawn, two miles out of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert. It was sunrise and that indicated it was the correct time of day but an ocean was definitely not anticipated. She looked through the rift from her basement and then studied the results of her equations. A light sea breeze swept through the room unsettling her notes. She sighed, irritated, and without removing her eyes from her paperwork reached over and switched off the gravity generator. Everything she had done made sense but the rift had opened over an ocean. A heavy frustration was beginning to settle over her. She was not used to making mistakes. She went through the whole set of figures again and came to the same co-ordinates. She sipped her hot chocolate, it was cold. With her eyes closed and her head in her hands she considered the possibilities. If she opened the rift close to the centre of the city it was more of a risk but with the ocean unexpectedly located in the desert, there was little choice. The timer on the reactor was set for twenty-four hours, after it had closed the rift she was on her own. She would just have to make sure she was there when it opened. The generator start-up procedure ran smoothly and the rift opened with the subsonic bass shaking the basement. Lucy stepped through the rift and after the quick shock of passing through the vast expanse of time’s entirety she found herself in Las Vegas the year 2163. Luckily the rift had opened between two houses and there had been no one to witness his extraordinary arrival. The fissure collapsed with a loud clap leaving Lucy suddenly alone. The clothing she had chosen was black trousers and a black top, in her estimation she should be neutral in any environment. A quick check of her surroundings revealed no one nearby and she walked out onto the street. To her left, approximately one mile away, tall buildings reaching into the clouds suggested the centre of town and with a little trepidation Lucy began her exploration.

  Long Crendon landed his patrol car on a police bay above the old MGM Grand museum, removing his helmet and rubbing his eyes. His coffee had run out two hours ago and now he suffered from heavy eyelids and occasional blurred vision brought on by the post caffeine come down and the non-stop physical police work. The nightshift was almost over and working twelve straight hours had left him tired and in a bad mood. There had been nothing but constant interruptions, never being able to finish what he was doing without a call because of another theft or fight or whatever else these rich tourists could think of getting into. At last he could contemplate going home and getting some sleep. Unfortunately it was not to be. His car’s communications display alerted him to a contact request and it was then he knew he wouldn’t be leaving on time.

  An image of controller Churt appeared on the monitor. He was an unhealthily skinny man with a bushy moustache. “I know this is the end of your shift Crendon but we’ve picked up a male lacking an implant, check him out and if needed eject him.”

  “An illegal in the city? But how is that possible we would have seen him at the gates.” Long Crendon was annoyed, it had been a difficult, busy night and this was the last thing he needed.

  “We’re as mystified as you are but the sensors clearly show somebody down there without an implant.” Churt shrugged his shoulders. “It’s probably a glitch but we have to check it out.”

  “Yes sir.” Long waited a moment after Churt’s image had left the monitor. A glitch? This was no glitch. Illegal migrants were always finding some way through the city walls. The riots of 2147 were something he remembered well and the thought of all that starting again filled him with dread. The scum outside had been bleeding the city dry for years and he, like many, was sick of it. He sat forward, engaged the gravity drive and lifted his air car into the stream of airborne traffic.

  Lucy found herself in the centre of town surrounded by a hurried mass of people. Their hasty momentum jostled Lucy. As the people around her wore bright garish colours she realised her clothing was somewhat odd and not the neutral she had intended. Loud raucous music came from every direction as the shops fought to gain attention. Advertising holograms decorated building after building painting the sky in a haphazard colourful chaos. Occasionally the smell of some exotic food would catch her interest. The crush of bodies hamp
ered her progress in any direction and she found she had to fight her way through. Irritated by her lack of progress on the street she entered a shop for a quick break. The shelves were filled with boxes of products she did not recognise and the writing made little sense. Surely the English language couldn’t have changed that much? She became aware of somebody standing behind her. She turned and, feeling a hot flush rising up her face, tried not to show her sudden nervousness.

  “I have to see your credit disk.” The shop clerk talked with a tired resignation, his bad breath momentarily soured Lucy’s breathing.

  “Is there a problem?” Lucy asked. Body odour stifled her sinuses as the man moved closer and fixed her with a bloodshot stare. Lucy returned the gaze with the same level of optical unwavering.

  “The sensors didn’t detect a credit disk when you entered. If you haven’t got one you have to leave.” The shop assistant waited.

  His edgy countenance worried Lucy slightly. It was as if he could snap at any moment and become violent. Lucy searched her pockets feigning a shocked expression. “I’m sorry I must have left it in my hotel room.” She made her way out of the shop and walked quickly away.

  The shop clerk watched him leave and returned to the counter. He sat down and placed a large set of headphones over his ears. His eyes glazed over as the local net interfaced with the headpiece. The shop shimmered as he entered the virtual world and the walls of the shop raced away at great speed. He was positioned at the centre of an expanding sphere disappearing into the distance. At the limit of the effective expanse the shop walls were replaced by a plethora of multi-coloured imagery. Suddenly the massive area collapsed inward upon him leaving him standing on a platform surrounded by garish vivid choices. He lifted his virtual arm and prodded a connection. The platform shifted to the left and out of the middle distance a door approached at such speed the shop assistant took a virtual step back. Across the door written in plain black type was one word ‘Police’. He stepped through the door into the police interface.

  Waiting behind a counter a man in a flawless uniform smiled. “Please state the reason for the emergency call.”

  “I am a shop assistant in Clinton and I’ve just had a woman in my shop with no electronic signature.” He leaned forward to get a closer look at the policeman, the clerk’s expression a combination of disgust and suspicion.

  “Could you describe the illegal for me?” The continued smile confirmed he was a sprite.

  “Yeah, sure.” The shop assistant replied. “I’m going to get the reward aren’t I, I mean there is a reward out for these people isn’t there?”

  The police sprite smiled but didn’t answer.

  Now nervous the shop assistant continued. “Uh, well she was wearing all black, head to toe, that was why I was watching her. She was about six feet tall, dark hair and sort of thin, too thin if you know what I mean.”

  The sprite paused, locked in position and completely lifeless. It returned to life and continued questioning. “Did you get a reading from her medical bracelet?”

  The shop assistant was slightly agitated. “No. I told you there was no electronic signature.”

  “Thank you. We will despatch a patrol immediately.”

  The police interface quickly expelled the shop clerk and he found himself back in the real world with a jolt.

  Long Crendon had arrived at the location of Lucy’s appearance and found no trace of her. As time passed he was becoming more and more irritated. He accessed the surveillance logs and watched a woman dressed in black appear from behind a building. Lucy was easy to follow until the centre of town where she disappeared amongst the crowds. He took a deep breath and turned his air car towards the bustling streets. A contact request flashed up on his communications display and he set the air car to hover as he answered. Controller Churt came into view on his monitor.

  “We’ve just had a call from a shop assistant in Clinton, he said there was a woman in his shop with no electronic signature.” Churt smiled.

  “No signature? Nothing at all?” For the first time all night Long had received some good news, the lack of any electronic mark would make the illegal very easy to locate now he knew what to look for. “I’m over Clinton right now, she should be easy enough to find I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve dealt with her. I just hope she doesn’t get too close to Reagan arena.”

  “It must be the illegal from earlier, the shop assistant said he was wearing nothing but black clothing. You should spot him a mile off.”

  The patrol car was moving before he had cut the connection. He reached the Clinton shopping centre and set his bio sensors to ignore all people with an electronic signature. Searching in the infra-red the multitude appeared as a mass of undulating plasma, individual images flowed across his main monitor as the computer isolated each person and removed them from the search.

  Lucy became aware of an odd noise. The sound came from every direction at once. She turned quickly to try and work out where the sound was coming from but found nothing. People moved away creating a circle with her at the centre. She couldn’t understand why everyone was staring at her until she looked up and saw the police car descending. Suddenly panicked she leapt at the edge of the crowd. Pushing through proved difficult but they were slowly making way for her.

  A tiny door in the underside of the air car opened and a small sphere emerged. A beam of blue light reached out, connected with Lucy and enveloped her.

  Movement became more and more difficult and she felt as if she were running underwater. The colour of the beam darkened and intensified. The strength of the gravity stream suffocated Lucy. She was soon unable to support her own weight and collapsed. After rolling onto her back she looked up through a blue haze to see the police air car come down and land close to him. A man in uniform climbed out, walked over to Lucy and got down on one knee.

  “I’m going to turn off the graviton beam, I don’t want any trouble. You make one move out of turn and you will be in serious trouble.”

  Lucy tried to reply but all she could do was nod. It dawned on her that she might not make it back to the rift when it opened and that she would be stranded. The beam cut off as she was turned over onto her front, Long Crendon pulled her hands up behind her and locked the handcuffs with a loud snap. |Fear shot through her and she closed her eyes to try and cut out the painful reality. How could she be so unlucky, every time she had used his gravity generator she had ended up in difficulty and every time was worse than the last. She was led to the air car and stepped into the cramped space behind the pilot seat. Long Crendon attached the handcuffs to a lock directly behind Lucy. The air car lifted off the street and turned onto a course for the city wall.

  Long Crendon viewed Lucy through a remote camera and shook his head. “You have caused me too much trouble this morning, I don’t care how you got in but I sure know how you are going out.” He sent a contact request to controller Churt. “I have her.” He said. “She has no I.D. whatsoever. Do you want to talk to her or shall I expel her?”

  “Expel him. We haven’t got time to waste on these illegals.” Churt looked to his left at someone out of sight and nodded. “She must have come in as a member of a work gang, since there are no new holes in the wall, and seismic sensors haven’t picked up any tunnelling.”

  Lucy listened in to the conversation and became increasingly confused.

  “Dump her and then log off the shift.”

  Long Crendon cut the connection and smiled. The air car gained height and accelerated.

  As they cleared the tallest buildings Lucy caught sight of the city wall. The barrier stood sixty feet tall and curved around the east of the city in a perfect semi-circle. At its furthest reaches the wall met a great expanse of water. Lucy realised now why her first rift had opened over a sea and not the desert. The western shoreline was occupied by an impressive number of glamorous and outlandish hotels. A striking white sandy beach was populated by the morning tourists out for an early swim or a relaxing sun bathe
.

  But Lucy found the sight outside the wall the most shocking. Thousands of people surrounded the city in a wretched mess of improvised shelter. The vast township was peppered with small smoke trails from the numerous cooking fires. Piles of rotting waste and the hundreds of partly naked people reminded him of the pictures of African famine that had shocked him in the 1980s. A confused dark fear settled upon her. It was clear she was going to be expelled into this desperate location. She still didn’t know why she had been picked up. Could it be something to do with not having a credit disk? She pulled against her handcuffs and found them to be quite secure. Thoughts of desperation rushed through her mind, she searched for ways to extricate herself from this shocking situation but discovered nothing she thought might help. The search stopped and her mind locked into a stunned reality. She was going to be ejected from the city and miss the rift the next morning. And yet if they were used to picking people up, as it seemed from this antagonistic policeman, then there must be a way in, a route back to the rift and home.

  The central security building was located at the exact midpoint of the wall. It was a featureless grey concrete box, functional and ugly. It had been set up as the main monitoring station for all the traffic moving through the city gates. A lack of commitment from the local government had led to under funding and the inadequate staff levels struggled with meagre facilities.

  The air car landed in the security area just outside the ejection processing division, Long Crendon pulled Lucy out and pushed her toward the building. She looked over her shoulder at the twenty-foot fence and longed to be away and closer to her rift. They reached the large doors and Long removed the handcuffs.

  He turned Lucy around to face him. “If you try this again you will be caught quickly. You had better be careful you don’t meet me again or you will be sorry.” He sneered at Lucy and pushed her through the doors.