Zero-Point

by T J Trapp

  He looked at her as the car stopped. “Please stop thinking about me as ‘the old guy.’”

  They got the pizza to go, and ate in silence as the car drove down the road, looking at every vehicle they approached with apprehension. Celeste had never felt so relieved in her life as when they finally reached the shop, a half-hour after closing time.

  Don’t forget to attach the car to the charger, Celeste thought.

  Daniel scowled.

  46 – The Truth

  Alec was watching the latest about the Mumbai Beast on his cell and Erin was just finishing her second cup of coffee and another breakfast donut when Celeste joined them.

  “I understand that you and Daniel had quite an adventure yesterday,” Erin said, pouring a cup of coffee for Celeste.

  Celeste shuddered as she recalled the events. “I would call it more of a nightmare than an adventure, but we had it. It was late by the time we got all of my stuff back here. But it was nice to have my hairdryer this morning.”

  “So you got everything you needed from your apartment okay?” Alec asked.

  “Yes, except my pistol, but I want to show you something.” Celeste left the room and came back with a book. “Daniel noticed this book on my bookshelf. It was with some stuff that was my Mom’s.” She held out the book, back cover facing up.

  “Oh,” Erin said. “A very nice picture of you, my Great Wizard. With lots of runes surrounding you – ‘words,’ as you call them. And you look even younger than when we first met!” She smiled at Alec.

  Celeste turned the book over and handed it to Alec. “Is this your book?” she said accusingly.

  Alec looked at the cover for a brief time. “Ha! ‘Dark Energy: The Call of the Future.’ I haven’t seen a copy of this in years. I’m surprised that any still exist.”

  “I’m pretty sure that Professor Smidt also had a copy on his reference shelf. But this one apparently belonged to my mother. And look.” Celeste flipped open the book to the inscription.

  “‘To Sarah,’” she read aloud, “‘with all my love – I never could have done it without you – Alec.’ This looks a lot like your handwriting, although I haven’t really compared it to one of your little notes.” She looked at Alec. “Of course, working in the Museum, I have heard the name of the late great Dr. Holden,” she said, eyeing Alec closely. “And when I first met you, you said you were related to him. His brother. But – I sense that there is something more to this. Are you … are you him? Are you the Dr. Holden?”

  Alec returned her gaze.

  Tell her, Erin urged him.

  “I am,” replied Alec, finally. “I am indeed ‘the late great Dr. Holden.’”

  “Then that explains why you know so much about dark energy,” Celeste said, “and why you have this dark energy set-up here at your ranch.” She slapped her fingers against the book. “Did you write this?”

  “Yes, I did,” Alec said. “That was the first textbook I wrote. And, yes, that’s my picture on the back.”

  “But what about the inscription on the book? Did you give this book to my mother?” Celeste persisted.

  Alec looked at her tenderly. “I did give that book to your mother. She helped me write it – she helped me with my research.”

  “So you really did know my mother.”

  “Yes, we worked together at the dark energy research center at NAI. We were friends. Very close friends.”

  Tell her, Erin demanded.

  “More than friends, actually.”

  “Really?” asked Celeste.

  “Yes. We were very serious about each other.”

  “Does Erin know about that?” Celeste asked nervously, placing the book on the table.

  “She knows about my relationship with your mother. We don’t have any secrets from each other. She knows that … that I was very much in love with your mother.”

  But that doesn’t make any sense!” Celeste exclaimed. “You couldn’t be the original Dr. Holden, and you couldn’t have worked with my mother! You couldn’t have been her boyfriend! You can’t be that old! You’re not that much older than me!”

  Alec looked at her. “I am older than you think,” he said calmly.

  “And then there’s this – these,” Celeste said, pulling the two crystal roses from her pocket. “Daniel said they are diamond, and that they had to have been made by the same person. But one was my mother’s, and one is the one you made a couple of months ago for Professor Smidt!” Tears welled up in her eyes as she laid the two flowers on the breakfast table. “What are they made of – and did you make them?”

  Alec touched the flowers with his finger. “Yes,” he said, “I made both of them. Daniel is right – they are made of diamond.” He gently arranged the two flowers in front of himself. “This one,” he said softly, remembering, “I made for Sarah. It was a special gift. I wanted to ask her to marry me, but I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure that we were right for each other.”

  “You wanted to marry Mom?” said Celeste, not quite comprehending. “But you were too young.”

  “No,” said Alec patiently. “That wasn’t it. I think that actually I was born before your mother.

  “How can that be?”

  “Well,” Alec said, sighing, “time is relative and not absolute. Let me explain.

  “Do you understand about the space-time continuum? You’ve probably studied Einstein’s general theory of relativity – that was a crude understanding of the multiverse physics that we understand today, but the bottom line is that time is not constant. What we perceive as the passing of time happens at a different rate in different places. So, where we have been, Erin and I, time passed at a different rate than it did here on Earth. More slowly.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Our perception of the passage of time is influenced by dark energy,” Alec said. “On Nevia, where Erin and I live, the higher levels of dark energy make time appear to move more slowly. Also, the dark energy heals our bodies, so that they do not show the wear and tear that would show up here on Earth. Does this make any sense?”

  “The truth is, no,” replied Celeste.

  You’re just speaking annoying wizard-speak, thought Erin. Quit stalling.

  “Let me explain it a different way. Sarah and I both worked for Dr. Alder at the Institute; then I was accidentally transported to Nevia before you were born. I have been on Nevia ever since, until last fall. So although I have aged at the normal rate on Nevia, I would seem a lot older if I had stayed here on Earth, because more time had passed on Earth.”

  “You knew my father, too – you knew Dr. Alder? At the Institute?”

  “Yes, I knew Dr. Alder. He was my mentor. He hired me.”

  “There’s something else. I can sense you haven’t told me something.”

  “Yes, there’s something else.” Alec paused. “I knew Dr. Alder. And I knew your father, too.”

  Tell her.

  “Wait – are you saying that you thought somebody else was my father? Not Dr. Alder?”

  Alec nodded.

  “But that’s not right!” Celeste exploded. “Dr. Alder was my father! I remember him from when I was very little. Before he was killed in that accident. How can you be saying that he wasn’t my father?”

  “Because your mother told me,” Alec said softly.

  “What?” Celeste’s jaw dropped.

  “Tell her the story that Sarah told you,” Erin said.

  “You’ve heard about the accident that was said to have killed your mother and your father, and was said to have killed me, too,” Alec said. “But it didn’t kill me. I wasn’t in that accident. Instead I was transported to another world – Nevia – when a dark energy test of Dr. Alder’s went astray. I had no idea where I was or what had happened but thought I would never see this world or Sarah ever again. Then I found Erin, and fell in love with her, and we became consorts. Married.

  “Dr. Alder thought I was dead, and I’m sure that your mother thought so too. Several years
passed on Earth, but much less time than that on Nevia. Then, as part of his studies, Dr. Alder sent your mother to Nevia.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “I think it was part of his project to reach out to other worlds; she was working on the same project. At that time, Erin and I were involved in a great battle, between her country, Theland, and another army, called ‘the Aldermen,’ and we encountered Sarah on the battlefield. She had been mortally wounded. She was dying. We tried to save her … but …” Alec wiped his eyes. “We couldn’t. As she died, she told me about you. She said that she had given birth to a daughter not long after I left Earth, and that after I left, she had consorted with Dr. Alder. But the last thing she told me was that Dr. Alder was not your father, Celeste.”

  “If he wasn’t my father, then who was?”

  “I am.”

  “You?!?” Celeste looked at him with tears running down her cheeks. “No!”

  She was silent for a moment, then continued. “I can sense that you are mostly truthful, and that you think that you are my father. It was easier when I was confused about who you were, and how we are related. But now – even if you speak the truth, it cannot be. My entire life would have been one big lie.”

  “I don’t know all the details for sure,” said Alec gently, “but I believe that what I told you is true.”

  “No,” Celeste said, starting to cry. “My mother and father were killed in a lab accident when I was five. There was never a question about who was my father.” Celeste put her head down on the breakfast table and sobbed. “And besides,” she said as she cried, “if you are Dr. Holden, as you claim, then you would have died at the same time Mom did.”

  “I didn’t die, although everyone seems to have thought I did,” Alec said, stroking her shoulder. “And, you are my daughter.”

  “I know this is a shock to you,” Erin said, placing her hand on Celeste’s other shoulder. “But you must believe my consort. Your mother Sarah was not killed in a laboratory accident. She was killed on the battlefield near my home in Theland. I was there. She was a great warrior – a great wizard, like Alec.”

  “She wasn’t a warrior,” sniffed Celeste. “And she wasn’t a wizard! She was my mom. And she dropped me off with my grandmother one morning, and then she never came back. I never saw her again! And my dad, Dr. Alder, never came for me, and Grandma said they were both killed in an accident where they worked. I waited and waited for Mom to come back and get me, and she never did!”

  “I’m sorry,” Erin said.

  “And he can’t be my father!” Celeste said, jerking her thumb towards Alec.

  “But he is, you know,” Erin said. “I have seen the lines, and your lines and his lines are the same. And you will come to know this, too.”

  “Maybe we can get a DNA test,” Celeste mumbled. “And then he can see that he’s not my father and we can see how we are related. I’ve heard of half-brothers showing up as cousins. Maybe he’s my cousin.”

  “This is a lot for one morning,” Alec said. “I can understand why you are upset. Just take it easy today.”

  Celeste left the table, shaking here head, and headed back to her room with her book and her crystal flowers.

  “She just needs a little time, that is all,” Erin told Alec.

  “I’ll check in with her later,” Alec said. “Right now I’ve got to port over to the shop and meet with Frederick.”

  ✽✽✽

  “I understand why Frederick needs to have Alec meet with him at the shop, but why do they need me?” Erin asked. She was still not completely comfortable with the holo technology of her cell, but could use the device if she had to.

  “Mr. Thelander thinks that your business skills will be important in today’s discussion,” Sylvia said, her face hanging in front of Erin’s little cell screen.

  “Well, this is an inconvenient time, with Celeste being so upset, but I guess the Great Wizard must think it important or he wouldn’t ask me. All right, I guess I can go now. I’ll head to the portal and you can port me to the shop.”

  Fredrick and Alec met Erin at the shop portal.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Thelander. Mr. Thelander said that Celeste and Daniel had a rough time yesterday at the Institute. Sorry I didn’t see them when they got back here to the shop.”

  “Yes, they did. Celeste is still quite upset.”

  She’s still crying in her room, Erin reported to Alec. I think some time alone will help her, so I came here.

  “Sorry to hear that,” Frederick said. “But, thank you both for coming. I wouldn’t have asked for you two to be here at this meeting, except it seems that a significant client opportunity is waiting for us in our conference room.”

  “Tell Erin what you told me,” Alec said.

  “They come to us with an unusual introduction,” Frederick said. “Chief Veranzo called me yesterday and asked me to meet with these two gentlemen. He told me that ‘he was here to reduce my resistance to talking to them,’ and he said to tell you those words exactly. He said he thought you would want to hear what they have to say. Sylvia is already in there with them, outlining some of our technical capabilities.”

  Erin gave Alec a questioning look and he shrugged his shoulders in reply.

  They entered the meeting room. Two men who Erin did not recognize were in the room, along with Sylvia, and rose for introductions.

  Fredrick started the discussion. “These two gentlemen have come to us with a proposition for a new product. I wanted you to hear them before we make a decision.”

  One of the men, with sandy hair and wearing an ill-fitting sports jacket, leaned forward. Erin sensed and could feel a combination of fear and confidence in him.

  “Thank you for meeting with us, Mr. Thelander and Ms. Thelander, especially on such short notice. I understand that Mr. Veranzo, our agent, called Frederick yesterday to set up this meeting. I think we have an area of mutual agreement that might benefit us both. We were directed to the possibility of using your establishment by a colleague at NAI, Dr. Smidt.”

  “Dr. Smidt?” Alec said, surprised. “How good of him.”

  Celeste’s boss? thought Erin. Why would he send someone here?

  “If I may – We would like to speak to the two of you, as owners of this company, privately for a few minutes.”

  Frederick stood up. “That’s okay, boss, Sylvia and I will step out – we’ll be right here in the hall if you need us.” Sylvia gave him an exasperated look, and followed him out of the room.

  “I will speak bluntly,” the sandy-haired man said. “We have been told that you understand the global situation, difficult as it is right now, so I will not try to explain it. We think that we understand what you are doing with your … independent research and development work.” He looked at Alec, then Erin, for a hint of reaction. Seeing none, he continued. “We are interested in obtaining a quantity of … ‘specialty products.’ I believe you are familiar with the type of items that we are looking for. If your people can help us, it will serve to our mutual benefit.”

  The other man, shorter, with a dark complexion and wearing a small hat, chimed in.

  “Mrs. Thelander, I see that you are wearing a certain kind of ring. Not your wedding ring of course, lovely as that is, but the gold ring with the unusual pattern.”

  “Why yes,” said Erin, somewhat taken aback. “It … it is a family heirloom.”

  The man smiled. “Mrs. Thelander, we know full well what kind of ring it is.”

  Are these guys elves? Alec quickly asked.

  No, not elves. I’m not sure what they are, Erin shot back.

  They are not wearing elf rings, Alec noted.

  “And I need to ask you – why do you wear that ring?” the man with the hat said, looking closely at Erin.

  “It helps me focus my thoughts,” Erin said, returning his gaze.

  Careful, thought Alec.

  “Are you asking me about something else?” Erin said coyly. “My allegiance, perhaps?
My intentions?”

  A guilty look flickered across his face. “That is correct. Mr. Verranzo has told us a little about you, and your … special abilities.”

  “I am not part of the current disruption, if that is what you are asking,” Erin said.

  The sandy-haired man leaned forward again. “We do not have a great deal of time to spend in empty conversation. We understand that you both know about the Grand Cull, and the threat of the ‘Mumbai Beast’ and its ilk. We need to verify that you are not part of the harvesters.”

  “We understand your question, and your concern,” Alec said. “We are not assisting the cull.”

  The man continued. “We have been watching the local elves. We know that they are currently very busy setting up their preparations for the Grand Cull, and they are not paying attention to you at the moment. Now, we need your help. If your shop can help us, we may cause enough … resistance … in the early days of the cull so that you can continue your own research and development work unhindered.

  “We need some specialty components that are very valuable to one of my clients. We would like for your shop to manufacture as many of these components as you can make. We will pay a premium price for them.”

  “What do you want us to make?” Alec said.

  The second man pulled a briefcase from under the table and carefully unlocked it. He removed two items from the briefcase. “We understand that you can manufacture these.” He placed an elf ring and a medallion on the table.

  Erin touched the ring and nodded her head to Alec in affirmation. It is real. Alec reached out to the medallion and focused. Dark energy flowed through the medallion.

  “Yes,” Alec said cautiously. “We are familiar with these items.” He cleared his throat. “And we can manufacture them.” He looked at Erin, then back at the man. “How many of these do you want and when?”

  “As many as you can make, for as long as you can make them,” the man replied.

  “Of course, you understand that there is some risk associated with this,” the sandy-haired man said anxiously. “There are those who ferret out anyone who can make things like this, and put them out of business, if you know what I mean, so your business is at risk with or without us as customers. However, we will pay dearly for your product if the quality and performance tests out. My client had no question that you can make these products.”