STASIS: Part 3: Restart

by E. W. Osborne

  “I want you there.” He reached out and patted his hand. “Dad wants you there.”

  He stared at the edge of the deck, the trees and leaves beyond a blur. “Will you answer something for me? A straight answer, no dancing around and all that bullshit.”

  “Of course, if I can.”

  “Are we—I mean…” He took a deep breath and held it, fighting against a wave of dizziness. “We’re fixing this right? Not causing it? Tell me we aren’t the bad guys here.”

  Jamie made a sympathetic sound as he rubbed Christopher’s shoulder. “We are not the bad guys. After today, things are going to be set right. I promise you.”

  July 20th

  “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

  Christopher tried not to look her in the eye when he lied. Maybe it was silly, but he was terrified she could pick him apart with one look. It was becoming such a common occurrence, he was afraid he’d never meet her gaze again.

  “I’m not really sure. He wasn’t big on details plus, you know. The whole situation is up in the air.”

  Kristine returned to the chopping board, pushing small florets of broccoli to the side. “If they’re friends of his, why don’t they just come stay here. There’s safety in numbers.”

  “I think they’d rather get their own situation fixed rather than depend on someone else.”

  She grunted a wordless response. He wasn’t sure if his explanation had been convincing enough, so he tried another angle.

  “Besides, the more people that find out about your pregnancy, the more dangerous it is. Right?”

  He felt guilty for feeding into her fear, but it was technically true. They needed to keep her hidden away. Who knows what someone might do if they discovered she was pregnant? Some crazy woman who lost her baby might snap.

  As she sliced the head of broccoli into smaller chunks, she glanced up. The way she could chop without looking made him nervous. “What does a financial analyst or whatever know about fixing generators?”

  He hesitated, mumbling through a few weak responses before landing on, “It’s more of a all-hands-on-deck kind of thing.”

  “Helping the community.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And they called for help? Even though the systems are stretched so thin, they’re barely working?”

  “Satellite phones.”

  She cracked two eggs into a metal bowl. The sound of the fork scraping against the side sent shivers down his back and he had an irrational feeling she was doing it on purpose.

  He tried to sound casual, as if answering an innocent question she hadn’t asked. “I guess a while back they had troubles up here with the cell and wifi signals. Something about the mountains. So everyone around got satellite phones. Safer, ya know?”

  She grunted again, stirring her eggs into the frying pan. He tried to calm his pounding heart, feeling like every little thing he said dug a deeper and deeper grave. He was just about to leave when she spoke up.

  “If they have any chickens, see if you can get a couple. Might be good to have fresh eggs.”

  “Why would they have chickens?” he asked without thinking.

  Kristine arched a brow at him and spoke slowly. “Because you’re going to a farm…”

  He coughed and slid from the stool. “Well yeah, but not that kind of farm. It’s a cattle farm. Dairy or something. Cows, not chickens.”

  She nodded slowly, only pulling her eyes from his face when the butter in the pan started to pop.

  “Right then. I better see if he’s ready.”

  Christopher paused at the edge of the kitchen counter, glancing back at her. He loved the few chances he got to watch her without her knowing. He loved the way she moved, the little gestures that were all her own. He slipped in from behind her, running his hands along her waist and threading together in the front. It could’ve been his imagination, but it felt like she stiffened for a second when he touched her.

  “Sorry. I’m a little more ticklish than normal,” she said, apparently sensing his reaction.

  “Your belly’s getting bigger.”

  “Pregnant or not, that probably isn’t the best thing to say to a woman,” she snickered.

  He brushed her hair to the side and kissed her neck. “It’s a good thing. It means you’re already caring for our child, helping him grow.”

  “Him?”

  “Her. It. They.”

  Her head snapped around, daring him. “Don’t you dare say that. One is going to be bad enough.”

  Christopher’s eyebrows met as he spun her to face him. She peered up at him almost guiltily. “What do you mean?”

  “Hard. Difficult. That’s all I meant.” She placed a quick kiss on his cheek and returned to her omelet. “It’s not like it’s gonna get any easier, either. Even if it all somehow ends and nothing horrible happens again, we’ll still be the only ones with a child of that age. An entire generation decimated.”

  With his head hung low, he placed a kiss between her shoulder blades. “That’s true.”

  “Not to mention all the millions of others.”

  He wanted so desperately to say something about their plans, to reassure her that, while hard, life was going to get better after today. He had the power to reassure her, but couldn’t.

  He squeezed her shoulder once and stepped away. “I’m sure things will work themselves out soon. You’ll see.”

  A few minutes later, he and Jamie were heading out the door. Kristine was perched at the kitchen island eating her breakfast, idling scrolling through the news on her tablet.

  “We’re off,” he said, kissing her on the cheek as they walked by. “Call from the sat phone if you need anything.”

  She looked up, her eyes flat and free from any kind of emotion. Her voice was equally dead. “Sure. Have a great day at work.” The odd comment was enough to make Jamie look over his shoulder on the way out. Christopher paused in the doorway and she added with a broad smile, “At the farm, I mean. It’s like I’m seeing you off to work and I’m the little woman left at home.”

  He chuckled hesitantly as he shut the door, sure he’d just gotten into trouble but couldn’t figure out how.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Alfreton, UK

  July 20th

  Alex wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to plug an unknown drive into his computer without taking some precautions first. He was surprised to find his hand trembling with nerves as he tried to connect it to his isolated computer terminal. Disconnected from the internet and his internal network, if something dodgy was hiding in the drive he’d been given, it would only burn up one computer. After a couple attempts, he finally managed to plug it in.

  “Calm down,” he whispered, wiping his palms on his trousers.

  Nothing happened. Nothing blew up, at least, nothing obvious. It was a good sign so far.

  Every step along the way pointed in the right direction. That alone left him suspicious. It was too easy. He never pretended to understand the motivations of others. In school, kindness usually led to an even more evil form of teasing and bullying. In a time when people were doing everything they could to fend for themselves, closing in and protecting, it didn’t make sense this Gardener would stick his neck out to help.

  But he couldn’t deny the guy had skills. He’d managed to break through every line of defense he’d set up. Alex was the smartest person he knew. Realizing The Gardener was even better than him was equal parts aggravating and impressive. Still, he didn’t allow himself to believe this was the real deal. It felt like a trick, especially when the beautiful people showed up on his doorstep, clean and polished and utterly untouched by the state of the world.

  It was only when he’d gotten to the actual code did he begin to believe this was the real deal. As far as he could tell, the drive was safe. He moved everything to his home system and flung it all up around him. The monitors, the Smart Wall. It all perfectly showcased the work of a talent far greater than himself.

&nbs
p; “Fuck me sideways,” he muttered. He stepped back and scanned the living room as if taking in an awe-inspiring painting.

  In a lot of ways, it was art. It wasn’t painted or drawn or sculpted, but the code was beautiful. Even he couldn’t understand it all, but the bits he could, were pure beauty.

  He was afraid the sample had been a tempting lie, but it wasn’t. He dove straight in, picking the threads apart to see what was inside. As far as he could tell, the software was able to break into the Steele Industries network and bypass the Seed authentication requirements. Just like an update to any kind of software, each Seed would be prompted to download a new packet. Only in this case, it’d be done without the user’s awareness or permission.

  That gave him pause. Boiled down, he was essentially hacking into millions of brains, flipping a switch, and slipping out. He could give them a choice, but the work he’d done with Kristine had left a bad taste in his mouth. People couldn’t always be relied upon to do what was best, even for themselves. It seemed they’d be more likely to do the exact opposite, frustratingly enough. All it took was a handful of people to ignore the update and nothing would be fixed. Before long, a controlled murderous zombie army would carry on terrorizing the world. Sounds like a good movie, not so much a good reality.

  Before he did anything further, he went through the footage from above the front door. Slowing the speed of the video down, he managed to grab a clear shot of Julian looking directly at the camera. Calm, cool, collected. It was only then he realized where he’d seen his face before… standing behind that sweaty mess of an MP. It was a detail he jotted down to explore further. First thing was first. He had to focus.

  Just to be sure, he grabbed a shot of Harriet. Even though he couldn’t be sure it’d get to them, Alex wanted to make sure Kristine and Maggie both had a copy.

  I’m going to run a fix. I’m sorry, it can’t wait. If something goes wrong, if I get done for blowing up the world, these were the people who gave it to me.

  It took him hours to finally feel comfortable with the idea of executing this plan. The room had gone dark, the only light coming from his monitors. As he stood on the brink, he couldn’t help but feel like he was walking through a door that could never be shut. The fact that the future of humanity lay in his hands was not lost on him. Some paths are chosen by inaction, as if the road moved rather than the feet. Those, he’d walked his entire life. Now at least, with confidence and hope, he made a choice.

  With a click from a shaky hand and a few typed commands, he set the whole thing in motion.

  A progress screen popped up. He sat back and released a huge breath he hadn’t meant to hold. It would take hours before the entire thing was finished executing, but there was no turning back. Stopping the process half-way through could mean an entirely different kind of devastation.

  When Alex looked back at this moment, he tended to rewrite history. In his memory, he’s not nearly as terrified or doubtful. He sees himself as stuck between two impossible choices. On one hand, if he does nothing, the world is doomed. On the other, if he commits this code and sets things moving, he couldn’t be sure what would happen. Any path would’ve been better than the one they found themselves trapped on.

  He had no way of knowing how wrong that was.

  It wasn’t until later that the most obvious question occurred to him. If The Gardener was so obviously smart, why did he want Alex’s code to begin with? He could’ve designed circles around him. So why go through all the trouble…

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Undisclosed location, Upstate NY

  Christopher had never felt more anxious or tense in his entire life even though the house was the very picture of contentment. Kristine in the kitchen humming away, the gentle taps and clanks of her putting the finishing touches on dinner. It was a cool night, so Jamie had decided to build a fire in the open aspect fireplace centered between the living and dining rooms. It could’ve been tranquil and serene if he hadn’t known they were about to drop a bomb on the world outside.

  He lurked in the hallway that opened into the living room, just out of sight of his fiancée but not his brother. Jamie was oblivious to his brother’s nervous pacing. He was too busy setting up the firewood in a perfect stack.

  Christopher waited for the right opportunity to get him alone. When Jamie stood and announced he had to get more wood, he leapt into action. Shooting from the hallway like he was jumping off a starting gate, he rushed to his brother’s side.

  “Lemme help you with that. We can keep the fire burning longer if we have more.” He felt like he was talking too fast, his voice a little manic, but neither Jamie or Kristine seemed to notice.

  “Sure thing,” his brother smiled.

  Once they were outside and walking toward the wood pile, Christopher glanced back to the house. The pile was tucked under an awning easily twenty feet from the front door, yet he felt like Kristine could hear every word he said.

  “Whatever your wife is making sure smells—”

  “We can’t go through with it,” Christopher hissed. “We have to stop the restart.”

  Jamie’s expression didn’t change, like a father humoring his son’s wild and impossible request. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “It has to!”

  “You didn’t have any doubts this afternoon as we were setting things in motion.”

  He had, big ones. But Christopher was still too proud to have the courage to speak up, especially when he was at the side of the CEO surrounded by people a hundred times smarter than he.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about this. This should’ve been something we bring to the government or whatever. They’re the ones who figure this stuff out, not people like us.” He was pacing two steps to the right, two to the left, gesturing wildly.

  His brother spoke in a frustratingly slow and deliberate tone that made him feel even more tense. “I know these kinds of things can be scary. Trust me, I’ve done what you’re doing right now more times than I can count. But you have to trust that we know what we’re doing.”

  He slammed a heavy chunk of wood into the carrier. “But do you? Do you really?”

  With a placid smile, Jamie nodded. “Yes.”

  “You keep saying trust as if… as if, there’s nothing for me to trust!”

  He touched Christopher’s arm and smiled softly. “You need to have faith.”

  Hot frustrated tears prickled the corners of his eyes. His brother turned away, considering the conversation finished. As he bundled up the last of the wood into the carrier, Christopher filled his arms with heavy logs. The weight was comforting, centering. The texture of the splintery, dry wood grounded his mind.

  As they trekked back to the house, he blurted out his decision before consciously deciding it. “I’m going to tell her tonight.”

  Jamie stopped. “Why?”

  “Because she has a right to know. I can’t keep lying to her, especially now I’m in up to my fucking chin.”

  He set the canvas carrier to the ground and crossed his arms. “Look, I think it’s great you found someone you care about. I understand your natural inclination is to share everything with her, but that’s a big—”

  “This isn’t just about sharing. Christ, Jay. We’re in the thick of it and she doesn’t even know it! That’s not fair, especially now we’re up here. She should have a choice.”

  “The way you didn’t?” Jamie asked with a hooded look.

  He shrugged the load of logs in his arms, jumping his feet away just in time. “Your words, man. Your words.” He looked longingly at the warm lit windows of the house, wishing like hell he could dip into another reality where all of this wasn’t taking place.

  “You can’t tell her anything. It isn’t a good time.”

  “There is no good time for something like this. There’s only now.”

  Jamie took a step closer, looming over him. He was suddenly aware the burden in his arms meant he couldn’t adequately defend himse
lf, leaving him vulnerable.

  “And right now I’m telling you, you can’t tell her a thing, especially in her condition. I can’t imagine what kind of stress that might put on the baby.”

  He stared into his brother’s eyes, reading the truth in his threat. Christopher was pretty sure how Kristine would react to the news; anger, shouting, probably leaving him. But was Jamie truly threatening what he thought he was? Would he hurt his baby? Make them disappear? Was he capable of any of that?

  He was considering all of these options when Kristine called from the house. “Hey, you two. Dinner’s almost ready.”

  Jamie’s demeanor shifted on a dime. He gave her a friendly wave and gathered the forgotten wood. “Coming!” When they were at the threshold, he blocked Christopher’s entrance. “Are we clear?” he asked in a low voice.

  “You’ve made your point,” he replied, avoiding directly answering.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Undisclosed location, Upstate NY

  Detectives will stare at evidence for hours, searching for clues they might’ve missed. In a way, they almost look through it, hoping subconscious parts of their brain might latch onto a new nugget of information they overlooked. It was with this tenacity and drive to find the answer that brought her to Project Stasis.

  She typed the address into her tablet and hesitated. All the things Neil, Maggie, and Alex had told her had been enough to stop her before. But a part of her wondered if her critical eye might discover something else. Things weren’t getting any better out there and at least she knew who the enemy was. If he wanted to send men in black to make her disappear, fine. She wouldn’t even make it hard for him. Hell, we’re sleeping under the same roof.

  The site was a bit of a letdown. The countdown was gone, there were no cryptic messages. It was a flat gray background with a slightly off-white sequence of numbers and letters repeating in the background. Not knowing if it’d make it through with the connection issues, she sent a message to Maggie and Alex, asking them to confirm what she was seeing. She stared at the page, through the page, willing it to give up its secrets until the door clicked open. She’d been so engrossed, she hadn’t even heard the car pull up.