A familiar prickly, wet sensation washed over her entire body, and then the forest, the bubble, and the mongrels were gone.
12:01 PM
Infinity landed lightly on the padded floor of the bridging chamber. Her nausea passed quickly, and she rushed to Desmond’s side. He was sprawled on the floor, choking, trying to catch his breath. The bridging process had emptied the mongrel fluid from his lungs, but apparently the sudden switch from breathing liquid to breathing air had been a shock to his system.
She put a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”
He coughed a few more times and nodded. “I need—” More coughing. “I need something to write with. A table with pencils and a poster board or large paper.”
“Bridgers, are you okay?” Armando said through the comm system. “The med techs are on their way in.”
“We’re fine!” Infinity shouted. She turned back to Desmond, who was trying to stand up. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
“I need pencils and large paper—now!” he shouted, looking toward the people behind the observation window. He took Infinity’s offered hand and let her pull him up. “I’ll explain when I can, but I need to write this down before I lose it.”
The airlock door hissed and popped open, and four techs rushed into the chamber.
Desmond repeated his request a few more times with increasing desperation until two of the techs led him from the chamber to the lab.
Infinity turned to the viewing window. Armando Doyle, Reese Eagleton, and Celia Pickett were gazing back at her.
“Infinity, it’s great to see you alive,” Armando said.
Infinity started to reply but the building began shaking. Armando, Eagleton, and Celia remained silent as the tremor continued for at least a full minute. Finally, it tapered off.
“Has that been happening often?” Infinity asked.
“More frequently with every passing hour,” Armando said. “And they’re getting stronger. We anticipate that the bridging device will only be functional for another day or two.”
Infinity’s gut tightened, and she stared at them through the plexiglas. “Another day or two?”
“How did it go with colony ST5?” Eagleton asked. “Are their prospects favorable?”
Infinity shook her head. “Not so much. The destination world was nothing like what we’d hoped for. We had lost as many as a hundred fifty by bridge-back. The rest have a fair chance at best.”
Eagleton frowned. “What the hell happened?”
“It’s a long story. But we wouldn’t have made the mistake of sending them there if we’d taken time to do an assessment excursion.” Even as she said it, Infinity knew this was no longer a valid argument. An assessment excursion would just now be returning with bad news, and then the whole process would have to start over. Eagleton had been right, but Infinity wasn’t about to tell him that.
Another thought occurred to her, based on Abel’s reaction yesterday to questions about the small musk monkey among the bio-probe animals. “That green creature that returned with the bio-probe—where is it?”
“It’s still in containment,” Armando said. “Why?”
“We have reason to believe it might be dangerous.”
“Should I have it destroyed?”
She considered this. “Not yet. Just make sure the techs know not to touch it.”
Armando nodded. “Go on in to the lab, Infinity. We’ll meet you there.”
Infinity followed the two remaining techs through the airlock.
Poppy Safran was waiting in the lab. She grabbed Infinity’s shoulders to hold her still. Then she turned her around, giving her body a cursory inspection. “Jesus, Infinity. What happened to the back of your head?” Infinity had long since gotten used to Poppy asking this question about whatever wounds she had sustained during her most recent bridging excursion.
Infinity scanned the lab and spotted Desmond at the far end, hunched over a table, furiously writing or drawing something. “My head will have to wait,” she said. “Armando and Eagleton want to talk to me.”
Poppy grabbed Infinity’s arm. “I heard what they said. They’re coming in the lab to speak with you. So you will sit right here while I get started on this mess you’ve made of your scalp.” Pulling on Infinity’s arm, she dragged her over to an exam table and forced her to sit on the edge. She then handed Infinity a paper gown. “You may want to put this on.”
As Infinity donned the gown, the outer airlock hissed and popped open. Armando and Eagleton came in without biosuits or masks. Infinity realized no one in the lab was wearing a biosuit, which likely meant they all expected to die soon anyway.
“So enlighten us,” Eagleton said, wasting no time. “What chance of survival do you think colony ST5 has?”
Poppy was wiping the back of Infinity’s head, which made it hard to concentrate.
“Seventy percent in the short term. Fifty percent in the long term.”
Eagleton and Armando exchanged grim looks.
“I suppose it could be worse,” Armando said.
The building began shaking again, and everyone paused, looking up at the ceiling as if expecting it to come crashing down. After about thirty seconds, the tremor stopped.
Eagleton cleared his throat. “We don’t mean to be insensitive to whatever you’ve just been through, but things have changed in the last thirty-six hours.”
Infinity’s heart sank. “It’s too late to try to bridge colony ST6, isn’t it?”
“Perhaps,” Eagleton said. “But we intend to try. The problem is the entire electrical grid for this region is down. Probably permanently this time. SafeTrek’s been relying on backup generators for almost thirteen hours now.”
Armando spoke up. “Our generators weren’t really designed for long-term use, especially not for activating the bridging device every hour of every day. As we speak, we’re having five diesel generators installed, with reinforced housings mounted on fluid damping systems. The new generators will likely outlast the SafeTrek facility itself. But switching to the new power system will cost us precious hours. It could take the rest of the day and into the night.”
Eagleton jumped in, as if the two had agreed to tag-team the discussion. “And so we’re planning to start bridging colony ST6 at 7:00 AM.”
“If the facility is still standing at that point,” Armando added.
Eagleton looked at the floor for a moment and then glanced around as if he were about to reveal a secret. “I hate to say this, but we’re operating on the assumption that ST6 will be our last colony. Therefore we’ve re-shuffled the refugees from ST6 and ST7 to form a single group that’s more representative of the best interests of the human species.”
Infinity stared at Eagleton and then glanced at Armando. “What does that mean? You went out there and told some of the refugees they’re no longer part of ST6?”
“Be glad you weren’t here for that,” Armando said. “The situation got ugly.”
Infinity shook her head. “I bet it did.”
Armando stepped forward and, to Infinity’s surprise, took one of her hands in his. “What we’re trying to say is we need you and Desmond to lead colony ST6. We’ve hand-picked over fifty national guardsmen, including the guy you recommended, Gideon Stead. The rest of the 718 are a mix of highly skilled men and women from a variety of professions, all of them physically fit and of reproductive age. Desmond’s two friends, Lenny Stiles and Xavier Cahill, will be in the group, as they’ve had bridging experience. Poppy here, as well as most of the other med techs, will also be with you.”
Infinity looked Armando in the eye. “And?”
He half-smiled. “I’ll be going as well, although I hardly consider myself to be worthy.”
Infinity realized she had stopped breathing, and she sucked in a deep breath of air. Billions of people would soon die, along with every plant and animal on Earth. The scale of the tragedy was beyond comprehension. And she was partly responsible for it. She had tried to re
deem herself in one small way by helping a few colonies of refugees in their attempts to escape and survive. But she had no way of knowing the outcome of these efforts. She would never know. Now she had been given the opportunity to help one more colony. And this time she’d be there beyond the initial thirty-six hours. She would remain with the colony for the rest of her life. She would know, one way or the other, whether she’d had any impact at all on the survival of the human species. And even beyond her guilt and her need to help, she felt a desire to finally have peace—and a life with Desmond.
“We’ll be ready,” she said, barely above a whisper.
23
Practice
September 3 - 12:56 PM
Desmond finished writing the last row of figures and sat back to look over the entire grid. He ran through all the symbols again, starting with the top row and working from left to right. As far as he could tell after checking his work, all the symbols were correct and in the right order. He finally allowed his mind to relax. He was exhausted from concentrating on row after row of symbols he couldn’t comprehend.
He rubbed his eyes, anticipating what it would feel like to lay his head on a soft pillow. He unfolded a paper gown the techs had given him and quickly put it on before carrying the poster board over to the table where Infinity was talking to Armando Doyle and Reece Eagleton.
“You finally going to explain what you’ve been doing?” Infinity asked.
Desmond held up the grid of symbols. “Well—” He hesitated. Perhaps explaining verbally wasn’t the most efficient way. Did he still have his telepathic ability? “I want all of you to humor me for a moment.” He held out his left hand. “Please place a hand on my arm.”
“You gotta be kidding,” Infinity said, narrowing her eyes at him.
“I don’t see why I shouldn’t try.”
She shook her head and put her hand on his. “You might as well go ahead and do it,” she said to Doyle and Eagleton.
Frowning, Doyle put his hand over Infinity’s.
“No,” Desmond said. “It needs to be on my arm, against my skin.”
Doyle moved his hand to Desmond’s wrist.
Desmond gazed at Eagleton, waiting.
Eagleton sighed and then complied, putting his hand on Desmond’s forearm.
Desmond turned to the med tech. “Poppy, you too.”
“Hold on,” she said. She snipped a stitch on the back of Infinity’s head, set her scissors down, removed her latex glove, and put her hand on his elbow.
Desmond concentrated on arranging a sequence of visions of his encounters with the mongrels. He then consciously projected these visions outward, forcing them from his mind, through his arm, and into the hands and to the minds of his audience.
Infinity sighed. Doyle and Poppy widened their eyes in surprise.
Eagleton pulled his hand away and stepped back. “Good God in heaven, man!”
“I’m not finished,” Desmond said. “Please put your hand back.”
Now fascinated, Eagleton returned his hand to Desmond’s arm.
Desmond resumed the process of pushing out his thoughts. He showed a few crucial visions of the painted herd and Abel, including Abel’s plan to dose every refugee with mind-projection serum. He showed the mongrel bubble, along with what the mongrels had done to the entire planet. He showed his entrance into the bubble’s fluid, and his discussion with the nearly invisible beings. And he showed himself receiving what the mongrels called the key to the bridging machinery, as well as the importance of whatever information was contained in the key.
“You can let go now,” he said.
Everyone but Infinity had closed their eyes, apparently to process the mental imagery more easily. They now opened their eyes and withdrew their hands.
Infinity gave his hand a firm squeeze before pulling hers away. “I guess bridging didn’t strip away your thought-projection ability,” she said.
The others stared at Desmond as if they were looking at a two-headed snake.
“Ignore the fact that thought projection should be impossible,” Desmond said. He held up the poster board again. “This is supposedly a cipher to the bridging technology key. The beings who gave it to me had discovered a way to use the bridging machinery without destroying their own world. And they implied that other capabilities of the technology could be unlocked with the key. They said the key was actually embedded in the Outlanders’ instructions, so we must have missed it. Perhaps it’s too late for us to make use of it—I don’t know. But I wanted to get the information back here, just in case.”
“Ignoring the fact that you just projected your thoughts into our minds would be quite impossible,” Doyle said. “But for the moment, I’ll try.” He took the poster board from Desmond and studied it. “There must be a thousand symbols here. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that someone capable of projecting thoughts could also memorize this.”
Desmond shook his head. “The two abilities are unrelated. What’s your impression? Can we do anything with this information? Can we even decipher the symbols?”
Armando continued staring at the grid. “If there is meaning to this, the folks at SETI can decipher it—I can almost guarantee that. They learned a lot from deciphering the Outlanders’ radio signal, even if they missed this.”
Eagleton was still staring at Desmond in disbelief. “I’ll get on the SAT phone and let Washington know what we have. The internet has become pretty much nonfunctional of late, but I’m sure they’ll have a way for us to transmit an image of these symbols. Either that or they’ll do things the old-fashioned way and send a chopper. If these symbols contain any valuable information, someone will figure it out.”
He took the poster board from Armando and turned to leave but then paused. “It could be days before we know more about this. Colony ST6 will still begin bridging at 7:00 AM. I assume you are all still on board?”
Desmond, Infinity, Poppy, and Armando looked at each other and then nodded.
Eagleton exited the lab through the airlock, which had been left standing wide open to the rest of the facility.
3:19 PM
Desmond stared at the remains of his pasta salad. Beside it on his tray was a pile of protein bar wrappers. It had been almost forty-eight hours since his last meal, and he had no idea how long it might be before his next, but he was too full to eat another bite.
“Twenty years,” Xavier said. “I know it’s a done deal and I have no say in the matter, but twenty years? You know we’re all going to have to decide whether to meet the alternate versions of ourselves, right?”
Xavier and Lenny were sitting across the table from Desmond and Infinity. Xavier was referring to the twenty-year divergence point for the destination world selected for colony ST6. The reasoning for this divergence point had involved a tradeoff. With only twenty years since divergence, it was unlikely the societies on the alternate world could have collapsed, like those on the mongrel world. The problem with this, though, was that twenty years ago was only fifteen years before the SETI institute had discovered the Outlanders’ radio signal. It was possible that at that point the sequence of events leading to the discovery had already been set in motion. However, it was also true that the discovery had been a rather random event and may not have happened in most alternate timelines. And even if the signal had been discovered, it may not have been effectively deciphered, or humans may have wisely decided not to build bridging devices.
Desmond had actually seen that this last possibility was real. When the mongrels had somehow thrown him briefly into the lives of several hundred alternate versions of himself, more than half of those versions were completely unaware of bridging technology.
“Perhaps, brother,” said Lenny, “you’re afraid to find out your alternate self has made more of himself than you have. He might already have his PhD and be a tenured professor. Wouldn’t that suck?”
“As a matter of fact, it would suck,” Xavier said. He then looked across the table. “Infinit
y, how do you feel about the possibility of meeting your alternate self?”
Desmond watched her, curious.
She shrugged. “Not likely to happen. In nine out of ten do-overs of my last twenty years, I’d have ended up dead. I doubt there will be another me to meet.”
The table fell silent for several long seconds.
“Damn,” Lenny said. “How about you, Des?”
Desmond considered this. Thanks to the mongrels’ strange ritual, he had already seen a disturbing variety of his alternate versions. “I’d prefer not to meet him.”
Lenny put his fork down and pushed his tray away. “Well, someone here needs to be upbeat about this. I do want to meet my other self. Why? Because I think it’d be cool to have a twin. The guy will like me, for sure. I mean, how could he not? He’s me, right?”
Xavier said, “If he’s as annoying as you are, you may not like him.”
Desmond laughed. “I have to say, I’m glad you guys are going with us. But right now I’m so tired I can’t think straight.” He got up from the table.
“As of 7:00 AM,” Infinity said, “Desmond and I will hold the world record for back-to-back bridging excursions. It’s never been done before because bridgers believed no one could survive it.” She got up from the table without explaining further.
“You’re a ray of sunshine today, Infinity,” Lenny said.
Desmond eyed her. “They believed no one could survive it?”
She glanced at him without smiling.
Desmond shook his head and turned to Lenny and Xavier. “Get yourselves as hydrated as possible tonight. Even with a divergence point of only twenty years, there’s no way to know what we’ll bridge into.”
Xavier nodded and held up his water bottle.
“You got it, Des,” Lenny said.
Bridgers 3_The Voice of Reason Page 21
