Obsolete Theorem

by Stan C. Smith

  Looking up, he saw Virgil, Jazzlyn, and Derek making their way down the slope from the cave. In spite of his injuries, Derek was again carrying the duffel bag of gear on his back.

  “How’s the module look?” Virgil asked as he and the others came to a stop beside Maddy’s broken body.

  Lincoln patted his pocket to indicate he had successfully removed the module.

  “Where do we go now?” Skyra asked.

  Lincoln pointed to the river. “Back to the T3. From there, back to the place where I’m from.”

  She looked out over the scene. “Ripple has not come yet.”

  “Do you want to wait here a little longer?”

  She seemed to think about this. “Ripple has told me many times it would have to leave me someday. Maybe this is the day.”

  Actually, Lincoln had been thinking about the drone also. Ripple still hadn’t fully explained why it had left a message for Lincoln to come to this time and place. It was unthinkable to jump back to the future without even learning why they had come here. “Ripple knows we’re going to the T3. Maybe it will be there waiting for us.”

  She continued gazing toward the river. “Yes, maybe. I am ready to go to the T3.”

  Lincoln took one more look at Maddy’s broken body before starting the descent.

  Several minutes later, when the group was at the base of the hill of boulders, Jazzlyn turned and stared back up the slope. “Three nights in a cave. That was not on my bucket list.”

  “You should try sleeping naked on gravel,” Lincoln quipped. He didn’t mention that his night on the gravel had also involved holding Skyra against his naked body.

  As they headed across the open field of rocks toward the river and the T3, Lincoln’s apprehension grew. Would the T3 still be functional? Was it even possible to jump to the future? If so, what would they find there?

  The others must have been contemplating similar thoughts—they were unusually quiet as they picked their way through the sage-like brush and jagged rocks.

  When the group was only a few hundred meters from the river, Skyra pointed ahead. “Ripple! You were right, Lincoln, Ripple is here.”

  The drone apparently had left the T3 and was walking out to meet them. It stopped as they approached and said, “Skyra and Lincoln, I am pleased to see that you are alive and healthy.”

  Derek hoisted the duffel bag from his back and let it drop to the ground. “Yeah, the rest of us are okay, too. Thanks for your concern.”

  Ripple shifted its vision lens toward Derek. “Your sarcasm is noted, and I apologize. Skyra and Lincoln are of immense importance to my mission. Therefore, the majority of my concern is for their well-being.”

  “You kind of suck at apologizing,” Jazzlyn said. “And what do you mean by my mission?”

  Skyra kneeled beside the drone and ran her fingers over what appeared to be fresh scratches on the front edges of its shell. “You are hurt, Ripple. Did my tribemates attack you again?”

  The drone’s red lights pulsed twice. “No. They were intensively occupied with fighting off the hyenas, so I was able to make an escape. I replenished my power level and came here.”

  Virgil stepped closer to the drone and kneeled. “You have something stuck to your foot.” From the traction claws of Ripple’s left hind foot, he pulled loose a shred of what appeared to be thin leather. “What is this?” Virgil said as he stood up and examined it. He turned it over in his hand. Then he pulled off his glasses to get a better close-up look. “Oh, crap. Is this what I think it is?” He handed the shred to Lincoln.

  It wasn’t leather at all. It was brown fabric. Hundreds of thread-like tubes extended from the torn edges, severed at various lengths as if the shred had been violently ripped rather than cut with a sharp tool. Lincoln recognized the fabric. He tried to swallow, but his already-dry mouth refused to cooperate. “This is fabric from one of our body bags,” he said to Ripple. “Why was this stuck to your foot?”

  The drone’s red lights rotated clockwise, then reversed, then reversed again. “It is important that you and Skyra remain here.”

  Lincoln stared, struggling to comprehend.

  “What the hell are you saying?” Derek demanded.

  “Forgive me,” Ripple said. “I am attempting to carry out my mission.”

  Lincoln stepped toward the drone. “Just what exactly is your mission?”

  “At the moment, I am simply trying to make sure that you and Skyra remain here. I tried to disable your T3, but I discovered I am not well equipped for such destructive endeavors. I was not able to inflict as much damage as I had intended, and my efforts have nearly depleted my power level.”

  Skyra was still on her knees beside the drone. “What are you talking about, Ripple? I want to go with Lincoln to the place he is from. I do not want to stay here.”

  Ripple turned toward her. “Please trust me. You must remain here.”

  Derek picked up the duffel bag and shrugged his arms into the handles. “I’m going on ahead to the T3. If that drone has destroyed our chances of getting out of here, I swear I’m going to smash it so it can’t even be used for spare parts.” He took off toward the river.

  Virgil looked at Lincoln. “I’d better go with him.”

  Lincoln nodded.

  Without saying a word, Jazzlyn followed Derek and Virgil.

  “You need to explain,” Lincoln said to Ripple. “Now!”

  The drone shifted to look at him. “You coded me with sufficient autonomy to make decisions and formulate strategies.”

  “Evidently that was a bad idea.”

  “It was a very good idea. You, Lincoln, have a deep concern for the well-being of your fellow humans and for the planet. As you continued developing your fascination for studying Earth’s past, you came to realize that your drones might be able to do more than simply gather environmental data.”

  “Such as?”

  “Such as doing helpful things for the indigenous constituents. You decided, considering you had no choice but to leave your drones in the past, they might as well make themselves useful. So, you expanded their physical capabilities, increased their longevity, and coded them with unprecedented cognitive skills and autonomy. Of course, the drones’ main purpose was still to gather and transmit data during the nineteen minutes the portal remained open. Once the portal closed, however, the drones were free to do as they pleased, limited only by pre-set parameters.”

  Lincoln could hardly believe he would ever so willingly embrace the idea of interfering with indigenous life and cultures. Then again, hadn’t he done just that during the last four days? He glanced at Skyra, who was watching the conversation intently, then turned back to Ripple. “So you completed your data-collection duties, the portal closed, then you befriended Skyra?”

  “That is correct, although I encountered several humans and numerous other Neanderthals before befriending Skyra. I recognized Skyra was extraordinary. You don’t know this yet, Lincoln, but you expanded your future drones’ analysis capabilities with probes for sampling plant and animal tissue, including cursory DNA analyses of blood samples. In spite of the inherent difficulties of finding, subduing, then sampling and analyzing the blood of an indigenous creature, the probes proved to be revelatory. When I recognized Skyra possessed cognitive and sensory capabilities that in many ways mirrored your own, Lincoln, I sampled her blood.”

  “Use words I know, Ripple,” Skyra said.

  Ripple ignored her and continued. “As it turns out, Skyra’s genetic material is just as extraordinary as yours, Lincoln. I realized you and Skyra were a perfect match for each other.”

  Lincoln stared at the drone, not sure what to say. “You’re freaking kidding me.”

  Ripple’s red lights pulsed twice. “You have stated I was found along with Skyra’s remains. I was found because of a beacon I had set to activate at a particular time. Have you wondered, Lincoln, why I set my beacon for that specific time?”

  He shook his head, confused by the appare
nt change of subject.

  “I set my beacon to activate on a specific date. Why? Because I knew you would meet a woman named Lottie Atkins one year after that date. Then, four months after that, you and Lottie would become husband and wife. I needed to contact you before you met Lottie. I needed you to come to this time and place so you would meet Skyra before you met Lottie.”

  “You’re freaking kidding me,” Lincoln said again, this time almost in a whisper.

  “I don’t understand,” Skyra said, her voice becoming more urgent.

  Lincoln turned to her. “Ripple is saying it wanted me to come to this place so you and I would meet each other.”

  Her intense gaze didn’t falter as she stared back at him.

  “You are oversimplifying my mission,” Ripple said. “You told me my message stated that all of civilization was at risk. The message was not an exaggeration. When the two of you combine your genetic material and produce offspring, over ninety-five percent of your offspring will be extraordinary. They will possess keen sensory predictive abilities, as do the two of you. They will have remarkable intelligence in the realms of language, mathematics, and problem solving. Also, they will likely have a highly-expressed sense of compassion for others.”

  “You want us to have kids together,” Lincoln said flatly.

  “If you do not, future civilization is truly at risk of not reaching its full potential. If you do, civilization 47,000 years from now could be stronger and more vibrant than any civilization you could imagine. This is the plan I have devised. It is my mission. I did not intend to reveal the details quite yet—I would have preferred to do so after the two of you developed a higher level of affection for each other—but circumstances have forced my hand.”

  Lincoln began pacing back and forth, focusing on the pain on the bottom of his foot simply because it was something real that he could understand. This whole nightmare was taking place because one of his drones had concocted a far-fetched plan for populating the world with human-Neanderthal hybrids. How could he have thought it was a good idea to code his drones with this absurd level of autonomy? And what about this woman, Lottie? Ripple had effectively destroyed his chances of meeting this woman and possibly living the rest of his life in love. What in the living hell?

  He stopped pacing and turned back to Ripple. “What about Veenah? What was your plan for her?”

  “I had not actually met Veenah until three days ago when we took her from the human camp, but I already understood her to be Skyra’s genetically identical twin. I hoped that Veenah would survive so you could impregnate her as well as Skyra. Multiple times, ideally.”

  Lincoln could only shake his head.

  Skyra, still crouched beside the drone, was watching him with her large, imposing eyes. Did she even understand enough of the conversation to know what was happening? He stepped over and kneeled before her. “Do you still want to go with me? To the place where I’m from?”

  “Yes,” she said without hesitating.

  He turned to Ripple. “We’re not staying here.”

  “You must stay here, or my plan will not succeed.”

  “Turn yourself off, Ripple,” Lincoln ordered.

  The drone remained silent for a few seconds. “My plan will not succeed if you—”

  Lincoln grabbed two of the drone’s legs and pushed it over onto its side. “Turn yourself off, or I’ll go in there and do it myself!”

  “Please, you must think about what you are doing.”

  Lincoln held the struggling drone and started turning the four knobs to their unlock positions.

  Something sharp pressed against his throat. “Are you trying to hurt Ripple?” Skyra demanded.

  He realized the sharp object was one of her stone knives. “No, I’m just making it go to sleep.”

  Ripple stopped kicking. “Skyra, do not harm Lincoln. You and Lincoln must take care of each other. I will turn myself off.”

  Lincoln lifted his hands away from Ripple’s access panel. “I’m not touching it. Can you please take the knife from my throat?”

  She pulled the knife back, but only a few centimeters.

  “I will turn myself off,” Ripple repeated. “I only ask that you please consider what I’ve said. If you consider the logic of it, I’m sure you will conclude that my plan will result in a better world for everyone.” The drone retracted its legs into its shell. “Powering down.”

  Skyra glanced at the drone then slowly placed her stone knife back in her wrist sheath beside the other one.

  The following seconds of silence were perhaps the most awkward Lincoln had ever experienced.

  “Ripple wants you to put a child in my belly?” Skyra asked.

  That made the situation even more awkward. “Um… more than one child, I think.”

  She chewed on her lower lip. “Well, I am in my ilmekho.”

  He blinked, struggling to comprehend how the conversation had become surreal so quickly. Yes, he found Skyra to be strangely fascinating, perhaps even attractive, but they were from completely different worlds. Hell, they weren’t even the same species. He wouldn’t last a month in her world, even with her protecting him with her spears, khuls, and knives. She could definitely exist in his world, though, if they could get there. If she were dressed in modern clothing, most people probably wouldn’t even notice she was different. He had to at least try to take her there. He got to his feet and held out his hand.

  She accepted it and got up.

  “Maybe this is something we should talk about later,” he said. “If Ripple hasn’t completely destroyed the T3, we’ll soon be at the place where I’m from.”

  “Are you one of the dominant men in your tribe?”

  He considered this. “In spite of my appearance, yes. Actually, I am the dominant man.”

  “That is good,” she said. She picked up the drone and hoisted it onto her shoulder. “We will go with you to the land of your tribe.”

  He shook his head, still bewildered, and started walking.

  When they arrived at the T3, Lincoln’s chest tightened. Shreds of torn body bag fabric were scattered everywhere.

  “It’s not quite as bad as it looks,” Virgil said, eyeing the dormant drone as Skyra lowered it to the ground. “Ripple destroyed nine body bags. The other fifteen appear to be intact, including all three of the larger bags for the T3. The drone also tried to damage the T3 itself.” He pointed to the boulder, which was now covered in minor dents and scrapes.

  “No wonder Ripple didn’t meet us at the cave,” Lincoln said. “It was too busy being destructive here.”

  Virgil went on. “I think we’ll be okay, assuming the T3 is still functional. As I said, we’re down to fifteen body bags. Not enough for three more jumps, but we never thought we’d really need three more jumps anyway, did we?”

  Lincoln stared at the T3, thinking. There was no way to know for sure how many jumps they’d need. The extra body bags were a precaution, in case they found themselves in a dangerous time and place. It was a precaution he didn’t want to lose. “We’re going to jump with only five bags,” he proclaimed. “That includes one of the T3 bags.”

  Virgil frowned. Jazzlyn and Derek stopped what they were doing.

  Lincoln stepped over and picked up one of the intact bags Virgil had laid out. “We can do this. These bags are large enough for two people each. We’ve lost some of our gear, most of the food is gone, and we’ll only have ten spare body bags to pack. We’ll use one of the large bags on the T3, then we’ll squeeze ourselves and the gear into four body bags. That way we’ll still have the option of jumping two more times, using five bags each time.”

  Virgil’s expression betrayed his fear. “We haven’t really tested… I mean, it might not—”

  “It’s going to work!” Lincoln said, more forcefully than he’d intended. “Virgil, it’s going to work.”

  Lincoln and his team connected the cords from four of the body bags to the T3, made sure the connections were secure, and st
uffed most of the gear along with the ten remaining bags into one of the connected bags. Surprisingly, Skyra asked no questions throughout the entire process.

  When Lincoln pulled out one of the mini-drones and powered it on, Skyra finally spoke up. “El-de-né! What creature is that? It is Maddy’s child?”

  Lincoln chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it is. We call it a mini-drone.”

  While Virgil disconnected the gear-filled bag and two of the empty ones, Lincoln placed the rabbit-sized mini-drone into the remaining connected bag and zipped the bag shut. The T3 was already programmed for the return jump, having processed the massive placement calculations for jumping to Lincoln’s lab at four minutes past the time his team had originally jumped.

  He tapped his watch’s screen, working through the menus. The T3 began emitting an almost indiscernible hum. He tapped again, and the lump in the body bag where the mini-drone had been abruptly collapsed.

  As Lincoln began counting the seconds in his head, he glanced at Skyra. She was staring at the now-empty bag.

  “Please, please, please, please,” muttered Jazzlyn.

  At about twenty seconds his watch chirped and a green checkmark appeared. He smiled and held his watch up for the others to see. “We’re good to go, folks. Destination site is clear.”

  “Yes!” Jazzlyn exclaimed.

  Derek reached over and ruffled Virgil’s hair. “We’re finally leaving this hellhole, Virg!”

  Unfortunately, the mini-drone didn’t have the time or capability to send video or still images. It was designed for making a destination viability determination as quickly as possible. So, Lincoln still had no idea what would really greet his team after jumping. At least the mini-drone had sent its signal, which proved that jumping to the future was indeed possible.

  Derek helped Virgil position one of the large bags over the T3, lining up the holes on the bag with the T3’s connection ports. Virgil then reconnected the bag containing the gear and the two remaining empty bags.