Extinction Point

by Paul Jones

  “It’s doing just ...”

  Everything changed.

  * * *

  Five

  A little science estranges man from God,

  much science leads them back to him.

  Louis Pasteur

  - Project TachCom Laboratory, 1st January 2042 -

  At 1.30 a.m., the laboratory was finally prepped and ready.

  The transmitter sat on a plain wooden table in the center of the laboratory. About the size of two paperbacks stacked one on top of the other, it was not what style magazines would call 'sexy' in its design. Encased in dimpled black impact-plastic, it looked clunky and utilitarian. No sleek curves or shaded coloring, no logos or trendy advertising motifs; just a solid black box with a connector for a microphone on its fascia. Next to that; a plug for a VR-keyboard, and from the rear of the box a two-inch thick red high-voltage lead that snaked across the floor to a large transformer sitting in a locked cage in one corner of the lab.

  A young woman wearing a white lab coat, her blond hair tied back in a ponytail that stretched down to the middle of her back, approached the table; a portable microphone in her left hand and its corresponding floor stand in her right. She placed both items on the table next to the box, careful not to jostle the delicate piece of equipment.

  "Doctor Lorentz would you like me to connect the microphone now?" she asked.

  Dr. Mitchell Lorentz looked up from his VR-Comp and regarded the girl over his pince-nez glasses.

  "Yes, please do Doctor Drake. The sooner we get this over and done with the sooner we can get on our way, yes?" He smiled warmly at his assistant before turning back to his VR-comp.

  Lorentz was a distinguished looking man. At seventy, he still had a full head of hair, sparingly peppered here-and-there with the odd brush stroke of gray that he insisted on keeping slicked back across his pate. Although he liked to dress casually, he always gave the impression he would have felt just at ease in a business suit or a tuxedo rather than the khaki slacks and polo shirt he wore beneath his ubiquitous white lab overcoat. A full mouth that was quick to grin and rarely frowned complemented his lean face and long Romanic nose.

  Well known around the lab for being a stickler for his daily exercise, the professor would routinely break off a meeting if it interrupted his lunchtime workout regimen. Fit and lean, he was still a good-looking man for his age, his broad shoulders and toned arms often allowing him to be mistaken for a decade less than his actual age.

  There was no Mrs. Lorentz. When asked why he had never married, he would reply in his most charming voice 'Not married? Have you not met my wife?' while indicating the lab with a sweeping hand.

  Those close to him, of which there were few, knew that he was too dedicated to his work to inflict his obsessive pursuits and eccentric time-tables on a wife. Not that there had been a lack of interest on the opposite sexes part, but it became quickly apparent to any woman who entered his life that work was his first and only true love.

  He had started out as a research assistant almost fifty years earlier, working for JPL out of California after graduating summa-cum-laude at Cal-Tech with a degree in Advanced Applied and Theoretical Physics. Part of the original NASA team that formulated the design of the first manned mission to Mars he had left the agency after the disastrous loss of the ship and its four man crew in 2017.

  Despite the failure of the Mars project he quickly advanced, thanks in part to his capability as a project-manager but in no small way to his work on theoretical particles. Within ten years, he had gone on to head-up the research department at TachDyne Research Industries where he had received his first of two Nobel prizes for Science.

  In 2030, just a few years after leaving TachDyne to open his own research lab in Pasadena, he had received his second Nobel prize for his company's work on superluminal propagation, proving finally the existence of that long disputed particle; the Tachyon. Long thought to be the equivalent of a scientific Snipe hunt, Lorentz proved its existence beyond a doubt when he simultaneously disproved the paradox of Gödel's time-travel in a rotating-Universe theory and proved the veracity of the reinterpretation principle, a theorem now known as the Lorentz Effect.

  A few months after receiving the second Nobel, he sold his company to Aberdeen Enterprises and used the profits (which were considerable) to create a small start-up in Reno where he returned to his first love: hands on physics.

  Dr. Lorentz spoke into a lapel mike attached to his lab-coat. "Edward, are you about ready?"

  Lorentz voice was calm and level, and it amazed Drake. Here they were on the verge of an experiment that would revolutionize the communications industry and the Professor showed no signs of excitement at the prospect. She had worked with him for long enough to understand, she believed, why that was. He was one of those men who enjoyed the chase, the existence of the puzzle rather than its solving. It gave little gratification to him to know that he had potentially succeeded in his goal. She found that odd, alien even in this results driven world where she had spent her last few years.

  Three rooms further down the corridor from the room that held the transmitter box, a similar box sat in a similar room. Instead of the connectors for the VR-Comp and microphone, this box had only one for an ancient Bose speaker that was resting on the table next to it, connected by a length of twisted speaker-wire.

  A young man, his eyes owlishly amplified by his thick glasses, sat with the lid of the receiver resting next to him on the table. A soldering iron in hand, he was deep in the wiring of the machine, his shoulders hunched tightly as he maneuvered carefully through its electronic guts. A thin plume of gray smoke rose into the air as he secured a new component in place and the acrid smell of hot solder floated through the air.

  "Just finishing up, Doc," he said in a basso-profundo voice that belied his wiry body. "Give me about five more minutes and we'll be ready to roll."

  Back in his room, Dr. Lorentz pulled up a second virtual-display on the VR-comp and using his index finger to highlight and capture the data on the first display, pulled a duplicate across to the second screen that seemed to hang in the air a few feet in front of his face. Thanks to the holo-projectors located strategically around the room, no matter where Lorentz or any of his staff moved, the display screen of the VR-comp would follow them, always at the optimal position and angle for reading. As Lorentz walked around the room, the screens became transparent to allow him unhindered vision, coalescing once again back into visibility when he stopped moving.

  Data was collected through the myriad sensors scattered throughout the room, or if manual entry or adjustment was required then by voice or hand; alleviating the need for physical keyboards. The main CPU that drove the system was located in its own room elsewhere within the laboratory complex.

  "Alright," came Edward's voice over the com-link, "just running the diagnostics ... and ... couple more seconds ... okay, everything's kosher here Doc."

  "Thank you Edward." Professor Lorentz pressed an icon outlined in red on the floating display in front of him and 'RECORDING' began to flash at the top of the VR screen.

  "Okay team, we are up and running. Everybody stand by, please," he said.

  The computer now began churning through an automated program, displaying each step and its result onscreen. Although everybody on the project was receiving the same feed, and the VR-Comp was recording everything in real time, Lorentz still read each step aloud as the computer progressed – old habits died hard, at his age.

  "Phase 1 Diagnostics: Complete." And: "Phase 2: Diagnostics: complete. System Diagnosis: Optimal."

  The transformer in the corner of the room began to power-up, emitting a low whine that rattled the protective bars of its cage like a monkey testing the security of its enclosure. The whine slowly grew in pitch until it passed out of the range of human hearing, leaving behind a low thrum that reverberated through the walls and across the floor of the lab.

  Then: "Power: Engaged." The old scientist's screen flashed
a message in bold green letters:

  System Diagnosis: Completed.

  Power Level: Optimal.

  And a few lines underneath that, outlined by a flashing red border, a single icon glowed beckoningly.

  ENGAGE? it blinked.

  He regarded the screen for a few moments longer, savoring the moment before finally turning to look directly at the black box on its table and his associate professor standing expectantly next to it, holding the microphone in her hand.

  "Alright, fire her up," he whispered and pressed the engage icon.

  Everything changed.

  * * *

  PART-TWO

  - Towards Yesterday -

  "It is hard to have patience with people who say 'There is no death' or 'Death doesn't matter.' There is death and whatever is matters."

  C. S. Lewis

  "Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life."

  J.R.R. Tolkien

  Six

  Rebecca Lacey woke up screaming. Her fingers twisted into claws that grasped at the cloth of her sodden, sweat soaked tee-shirt, bunching handfuls of the material until the shirt was pulled far enough up to expose the lean paleness of her damp belly. Her breath exploded in short, ragged, panting gasps as tears spilled over her scarlet cheeks and beads of perspiration dribbled over her naked arms and legs.

  She heard her words as if from a distance, more pleading than spoken. "Oh ... God! Oh ... God." A mantra of horror repeated over and over as her heart rattled behind her ribs, a terrified animal trying to escape its cage.

  The dream - it felt so real - started out so wonderfully. She was somewhere beautiful. The half-remembered sensation of running her hands through long grass. Warmth. A wonderful light that permeated all things. And clouds. The scent of something so ... she could not remember, there was no word to describe the wonderful fragrance.

  And then it was all gone, ripped away from her in an instant and replaced by a horror so profound that her very breath froze in her lungs.

  The knife.

  She could still see it glinting in the light of the naked bulb that hung from the bare stucco ceiling of her apartment, the glass lampshade shattered on the floor where her head had smashed it into a hundred pieces.

  The stranger had twisted the knife back and forth, back and forth, letting it glint and scintillate across her eyes, his face inches from her own, and his breath hot against her cheek.

  She felt the frigid keenness of the blade as he traced its point from her forehead over the ridge of her nose and across her lips, sliding it down the curve of her throat until it reached her breastbone.

  An everlasting pause and then:

  Snick.

  He had sliced away one of the buttons of her blouse.

  A moan of terror had escaped her lips.

  Snick. There was the next.

  "Oh please, no. God. No," she whispered.

  He had worked his way through all of the buttons, his breathing becoming more and more rapid, and then, Oh dear God, and then he had ... he ... Rebecca threw herself over the side of the bed and heaved a steady stream of vomit that spread in a rank pool across the carpet and splashed against her ghost-white skin.

  She kept throwing-up until there was nothing left, just dry heaves that forced the breath from her until she thought she would choke to death. And, when finally that was over she started screaming. A shrill horrified ululation that escaped from deep down within her soul shattering the calm of the room before petering off to a low sobbing howl of pain and fear.

  The door to her bedroom burst open. Between her wracking sobs of terror, she managed to lift her head towards the two people who now stood in the doorway and mumble through chapped, vomit caked, lips, "Mom ... Dad... he killed me. He killed me."

  In the doorway, Mr. and Mrs. Lacey stood in their nightclothes and as the early morning sun shone through the bedroom window, framing them in a beam of dust-mote filled light, Jim Lacey, his eyes agog, fell to his knees and began to weep like a baby at the sight of his child. Sarah Lacey, her hair disheveled and tumbled, crossed the space between the door and her daughter in two quick bounds. Then she gently took Rebecca in her arms and held her until Becky could hardly breathe, all the while keening in her daughter's ear, "You’re alive, praise Jesus. You’re alive."

  * * *

  Seven

  Oh, if only Jupiter would give me back my past years

  Virgil

  “... fine.”

  Jim Baston blinked at the sudden change of lighting.

  His skin tingled as though a light coat of static electricity played across it. There was an odd leaden fluttering sensation in his stomach and he felt as though he had come to a sudden abrupt stop after a long fall.

  He breathed in. Leather, like expensive new shoes; the smell filled his nostrils.

  The young store assistant stared back at him across the counter top. She looked to be about to speak, her rouged lips opened ... and then closed again as a cloud of confusion passed across her face. Her brow knitted above brown eyes, the pupils of which had suddenly and fully dilated. The left side of her mouth lifted while the right side dipped down, her head tilted towards her right shoulder as though she was suddenly deep in concentration.

  "I ... I," she stammered as the cloud of confusion turned rapidly into a storm of bewilderment that billowed and rolled with her expression.

  "I'm terribly sorry but I ... what were you saying?" A momentary pause in which he could have answered but did not, his own confusion freezing his tongue, arresting any possibility of a reply from him as his mind furiously tried to understand what was going on. The silence between the two strangers stretched out before she asked in a timid, apologetic, frightened voice, "Where am I?"

  Auburn hair whipped back and forth across her face as she glanced frantically left and then right; panic now superseding confusion. Her cheeks flushed red as blood rushed to her head and Jim could see her breathing rate increase rapidly.

  He regarded the confused woman standing across from him for a long second. His own head now cocked questioningly to one side. He was sure that he had a similar look of confusion on his face because he had no idea on God's good green earth where he was or why he was here. He could not even remember how he got here. Panic began to claw its way out of its hiding place in the pit of his stomach, crawling on taloned fingers towards his throat.

  The last thing he could remember was answering the phone to his agent. He had been talking to him just a second ago – the phone had been in his hand. It was New Year’s Eve. He had been out, had a couple of drinks and made it home sometime after midnight; exactly what time he couldn't recall. A cold shiver of fear ran down his spine as a single thought filled his mind: Alzheimer's. They could fix it nowadays of course but they had to catch it early enough to stop any damage. Once memories were lost to the disease, that was it, they were gone forever and if this was an episode of the disease, then how far had it progressed?

  It had been four years since Jim had been to his doctor and he mentally kicked himself for not keeping those yearly appointments for his checkups. He swung around and took in his surroundings. He recognized nothing. This was not the comfortable bedroom he had been standing in seemingly only an instant before. Instead, he found himself next to a glass counter-top, on the other side of which stood the woman who looked as confused as he felt; three rows of display racks ran through a store that was lined top to bottom with expensive looking leather luggage; bags, women's purses and crocodile skin briefcases. A rotating display unit off to his left was full of men's wallets and a sign fixed to the top of the stand proclaimed finest calf leather in an elegant hand.

  Behind the glass counter that separated them, the young store assistant had started speaking again, calling out as if to a lost child or dog, "Steven? Alison?" A disturbing edge of panic creeping into her voice each time she called out the names.

  How the hell did I get here, he thought to himself. Where am I?

  "Do y
ou think I could use your phone?" he asked but the girl did not even register his question, her gaze sweeping over him like a searchlight and moving on having found nothing of interest.

  "Steven? Alison?" The panic in her voice now pronounced.

  "It's just that I don't seem to remember where I am. It's just a local call," he said. He was disturbed to hear a note of desperation in his own voice.

  "Alison? Oh, my God." The young woman's voice now so alarmingly tremulous he could barely understand what she was saying.

  Something was not right. Jim could see three other customers in the store, all of them a lot younger than him but as he regarded each of them in turn, he could see that same strange look of confusion reflected back from each of their bewildered faces. They looked as though they had all just walked into a room and then forgotten why they were there or what they had come to do; as though they had left something undone that should have been otherwise.

  A large glass window filled one wall, through it he could see a white marble-effect walkway that ran parallel to the store. Across the walkway, he could make out two other shops: a Gap clothes store and a Pretzel-Time. Reflective aluminum safety rails ran down the center of the walkway, guarding an open space that, presumably he guessed, dropped down to at least another level below the one he was on.

  Several people had gathered outside the store window, milling aimlessly. Jim watched them looking around in that same bewildered manner. One of them - a young woman who until seconds ago had been revolving in slow circles as she gazed up at the ceiling somewhere outside of Jim's vision - seemed oblivious to the baby stroller that her left hand rested upon, it’s plastic hood concertinaed back into the closed position. As the young mother completed one more slow turn the clutch bag slung loosely over her shoulder clipped the handle of the stroller and sent it rolling noiselessly away from her. Noticing it for the first time, she took two quick steps after it, taking hold of the handles with her outstretched hands she brought the errant pram to a halt before stepping around to the front of it. Kneeling almost reverently before it, Jim was sure he could see tears beginning to flow down her face; her jaw seemed to be vibrating. Reaching out, her hands disappeared inside the buggy, when they returned into his view she held a baby no more than six months old. Her mouth began moving but he could not hear what she was saying. Whatever it was, she was repeating the words again and again. A smile of utter joy lit her face as she stared at the child she now held cradled to her breast.