The Best of All Possible Worlds

by Richard D. Parker

  “I thought it was a day,” Lori contradicted boldly and when Galen smiled at her she smiled back shyly.

  “Yes, that’s a common misconception,” Christine answered then continued. “There are some species of trees that can live for thousands of years and there are types of jelly fish that are, for all practical purposes, immortal. What we wanted to know is why? Why should this be? What is controlling it? Plus we wanted to find out if the lifespan of human beings could be extended. Galen was the cornerstone of our research, the DNA framework he was based on was immaterial.”

  “Who are you then?” a woman from Arkansas asked Galen, for the most part ignoring Christine and her diatribe. She was curious and was wondering just why she’d walked across the campground to be here.

  Christine grimaced and her heart began to pound in her chest. Galen’s genetic history was a closely guarded secret, and it needed to be kept. She cursed Reverend Heyworth once again. If Galen had originated from Joe Schmo he would in all likelihood be in much less danger.

  Galen smiled at her. “I was grown partly from a DNA sample taken from a…” he paused and glanced up at Christine, who shook her head ever so slightly, eyes wide with fear. “…from a man I do not know…have never met, a man who died a long time ago and partly from DNA donated from Christine,” Galen answered. “She is my mother.”

  Christine gasped; fear bubbling up inside her. He’d never been told, but somehow he knew. There was no way he should have known his origins and as far as she knew, less than a half dozen people were privy to all the information about Galen’s DNA. Adam raised his eyebrows, his concentration wavering between what Galen was saying and the woman who sat so close to him.

  “But who was the man?” Dorothy asked and Christine’s heart jumped in her chest. She was sure that Galen knew. How he knew was a complete mystery, but he knew. If he started telling everyone, things could get bad, things could get ugly very quickly. But she needn’t have worried. Galen did know all about his DNA, and while his opinion of modern organized religion was not entirely positive, he knew enough to realize that entering such an arena was akin to playing with fire in warehouse full of gunpowder. With his DNA the explosion would probably be more like a nuclear bomb. There was little reasoning with zealots, and only a fool would try.

  “I never met him…from what I understand, he died many years ago,” he answered and Christine noticed that he did not actually lie; he just smoothly evaded the question.

  Dorothy frowned and Christine wished the pleasant woman would just shut up and leave it already. Her dreams of Galen were spooky enough.

  “But I thought…I thought,” Dorothy continued, very confused and slightly disappointed, “that you might be the coming of the new Messiah.”

  Adam cursed and Christine blanched, but Galen just held up a hand and smiled beatifically.

  “Haven’t we had enough of religion?” Galen asked her simply, but he said it with such a glowingly blissful smile that most of the sting was taken out of the statement. “I truly don’t know who I am, but I’m certainly not the resurrection.” He stated confidently and then thought, ‘no matter what the Reverend Heyworth believes.’ Christine paled even more.

  The silence around the campsite was almost palpable. Galen chuckled softly, reminding Avigail suddenly of the Solitaries back on Noble.

  “Then…then who are you?” Lauren, the girl with Lupus asked, somehow surprised. There was something magical and very attractive about the young man standing before her. His mystery and allure deepened by the very fact that for some reason all the adults were listening and paying very close attention to everything he had to say. She moved a few steps closer and without thinking about it sat on the ground just behind the boys from North Dakota. She crossed her legs and looked up at Galen expectantly. Her parents gazed at their daughter stunned as she did so, awed by the apparent ease of the act. “Why are we here?”

  Galen smiled down at her and Lauren felt warmth surrounding her. “I’m glad you ask that Lauren. I believe I know my purpose. I’ve come to open the universe. Believe me when I tell you, it is far larger and far stranger than any of you know.”

  Christine frowned, not truly understanding but Blue nodded at the young man, eyes twinkling brighter than ever. “My people have known that for years.”

  Galen laughed. “Yes…but it is far larger than even the Lakota suspected; worlds upon worlds upon worlds…endlessly. My friends here,” Galen said motioning toward Avigail and Vio, “already know this better than anyone.”

  Vio looked from Galen to Adam…unsure of exactly what was happening. She could sense the tension in the air and it made her nervous…made her itch for her kali which she’d left in the rolling house. She felt naked and exposed despite the knife she carried at the small of her back, tucked neatly into the waistband of her jeans. But Adam just smiled at her and squeezed her hand so she forced herself to stay put though she was reluctant to keep still. Danger was coming; she could feel it, unless somehow she was misreading the feeling emanating from the man at her side.

  “To open the universe?” Christine asked now just as confused as Dorothy. “Galen, I don’t understand what you’ve been trying to tell me; what you’re trying to tell us.”

  Galen laughed again and went to Christine. He held out his hands, took hers and gripped them tightly.

  “Christine…you have made all of this possible,” he told her and spun her around happily. “Your R89 gene is the key, that and the sequencing. It has helped me in many, many ways.”

  Christine frowned and looked around, slightly embarrassed to be talking about something so secret in front of so many strangers.

  “But it’s dormant,” she replied with a sense of failure and disgust.

  “On my command,” Galen whispered and Christine’s eyes went wide, understanding finally dawning in her mind. “I need to grow,” he added, “quickly, or when they find me they will kill me.”

  “Kill you!” Lori Stadler, from North Dakota exclaimed. She still wasn’t sure about this strange but friendly young man and she was not sure at all how she felt about cloning, but she was absolutely sure about one thing…she didn’t want him to die. She moved forward, feeling just as protective of Galen as she did for her own two boys, Buck and Troy.

  “But who would want to kill you?” Camille asked and several in the crowd moved forward as well, instinctively wanting to protect Galen.

  Galen smiled at them all. “The Reverend Carter Heyworth for one, plus there are some others who are not too happy that Christine created me.”

  “Heyworth!” Christine spat.

  Blue patted Galen on the shoulder and looked about. “You’ll be safe here with us,” he said softly, but there was a strength and resolve in his voice that everyone around the campsite shared. Most didn’t know who this boy was, or why they were drawn to him, but they all shared in a strange desire to protect him, to keep him safe from harm.

  Everyone sat in silence for several long minutes, some feeling happy and some feeling uneasy and anxious. There were even some who discounted everything they heard, but they all shared one opinion very strongly, no one around the fire wanted the strange young man to die.

  “Come…” Vio whispered to Adam. “I need to…to go…to walk about.”

  She pulled Adam to his feet and he went willingly, finding the smell and the feel of the woman intoxicating. She led him away from the fire and the crowd and along the banks of the lake. They walked close, hips touching at times, each gripping the other’s hand tightly.

  “Vio…” Adam began and she turned on him and placed a soft hand across his mouth.

  “Not…this moment,” she stammered trying to find the words. “Come…” she repeated and pulled him farther from the campsite. All her life she’d stood by passively and waited for love, for once she was going to take a risk and fight for the love her body and mind demanded. Adam again went willingly and walked at her side silently until he could take it no more. He stopped abruptly, spi
nning and pulling her into his arms and she came to him…wanting him. They kissed hard…almost desperately, clutching at each other as if afraid the moment would end at any time. They kissed and kissed; some kisses were soft and light, some firm and searching. Eventually Vio giggled, happier than she’d been in a very long time. Adam pulled back and smiled down at her.

  “What?” He asked, but then glanced up, fear and shock reflected in his eyes.

  XX

  “Only a fool would try to reason with a Zealot.”

  Galen Dawkins

  May 9th 2015 Old Earth

  ‘Absolutely nothing!’ Special Agent Cord Armstrong thought with disgust. Even the NSA boys had come up empty and no word from any of the state highway patrol divisions and now, because of the expanded search area, they’d had to add twelve more states to the watch list.

  ‘Hell they could be anywhere in the country,’ Armstrong had to hand it to Dawkins, he knew how to disappear and with each passing hour the containment perimeter grew larger.

  Collier entered the command trailer, which was now parked on the far end of the lot outside the FBI building on Market Street. She was carrying two large cups of coffee. She smiled as she sat down and handed one of the cups to her boss.

  “Even if they don’t know how to do anything else right,” Collier remarked, taking a careful sip of her steaming beverage, “the feds do know how to brew a good cup of joe.”

  “Hmmmph,” Armstrong grunted, though he agreed with her. The coffee was far better than average.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you sir,” Collier began tentatively as Armstrong watched her over the rim of his cup. He held the cup with his good hand and used the stump of his wrist to balance it. The heat felt good against his injury. “In your report you state that these women with Dawkins came out of nowhere…literally. You saw them appear out of nowhere. Who do you suppose they are?”

  Armstrong grimaced. He’d been trying to put that night out of his mind, not only had he lost his hand; he’d lost one of his best friends during the fiasco. But he could see that Collier was genuinely curious, and after all she was his second in command. He was going to have to trust her, as he trusted Charlie.

  “I don’t know,” Armstrong replied, his eyes going blank as he relived the memory. “Something opened…between places. While it was open the wind and the noise in the park were incredible, like a dry hurricane. At first I was just trying not to get blown away…Somers…Agent Somers, he was not so lucky. I watched as he was carried up and sucked away to the other side.”

  “The other side?”

  Armstrong shrugged. “Something opened…a hole of sorts, between worlds maybe. Hell I’m not good with this Star Trek shit. All I know is that it was night on our side, but there was a hint of twilight from the other. I’m pretty sure it was not our world.”

  Collier raised her eyebrows. “Aliens…you think the women are aliens.”

  Again Armstrong shrugged. “Possibly. They look human enough, but they can move incredibly fast. That woman, the woman who did this,” he said holding up his wounded arm, “was at least twenty-five feet away when I confronted her. I had my gun on her, center chest. I was only trying to get the situation under control but she spun and was on me before I had time to even realize she was moving. The bitch cut my hand off before I even started to squeeze the trigger. She was that fast! She looked human…she was beautiful, I remember that, but there was something about her that was different from you and me. Besides being too fast, she was far too graceful. She was…” he said then paused, thinking back.

  “There was something about her face,” Armstrong continued, his expression blank, “the clarity of her eyes. She was beautiful but somehow frightening. She reminded me of the painted angels, you know, in the old, old paintings…the renaissance works in the museums.”

  Armstrong glanced up to find Collier gazing with a funny expression on her face. He shrugged. “She was…different.”

  Collier considered what her boss had said. She could tell he was not lying; she was trained in such things, but there was something odd about his expression as he talked of the woman from the other side. At first she thought he might be a man in love, even though she knew that wasn’t the case. But then it dawned on her. Armstrong was in awe…truly in awe of the woman from the other side. Collier was puzzled and tried to remember if she’d ever seen such an expression on a human face before. She thought not, but was sure if she lived to be a hundred years old that she would never forget it.

  “We’ll catch them,” she finally said drawing him out of his reverie. She sounded very positive. “Dawkins will slip up. They all do eventually. The keywords the NSA initiated are good, very good. He’ll slip up and use the phone sometime. We’ll get them,” she repeated, her confidence genuine.

  Armstrong glanced at her and nodded, though deep inside, he wondered if it might be better if the Dawkins and his group were never found.

  †

  N’dori would have been proud; Nev would have been proud and Galen Dawkins would be proud. The instant Vio recognized fear in Adam’s eyes, her mind flinched and time began to slow. The action was so quick, so practiced that she barely recognized the sound of the gun shot as it was stretched out, the pitch growing lower and slower until finally it was no longer discernable. She knew she had to be quick. The night at the pavilion taught her all too well that guns were dangerous, far more dangerous than she’d come to expect from the history books back on Noble. There was precious little time between the sound of the report and the impact of the bullet, and while she could slow time to almost a standstill, completely stopping it was something that was nearly impossible for her to do for very long.

  But Vio did not panic as she stepped back away from Adam. She pulled him to the right to get his body clear of the bullet that she could not see but knew was coming. In his frozen state, his legs would not work and so his body tipped against her. He was heavy…heavier than he looked and she was surprised by the dead weight and dropped him. He hit the ground heavily, taking her down with him. Vio scrambled to her feet and rolled Adam onto his back, his expression remained unchanged and after a quick check she believed he was uninjured from the fall, though his face was now dirty. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Vio laughed; knowing Adam would be very confused once time returned to normal for him.

  As she stood, Vio sobered quickly. She could still see the flash from the gun but as she watched, it slowly dimmed. Time was moving, albeit very slowly. She started toward their assailant, very careful to keep out of the path of the oncoming bullet, but she only made it a few feet before a powerful cramp hit her midsection. She halted and was forced to bend over, a small cry of pain escaping her lips. For a moment she was unable to straighten her body, so she shuffled in the direction of the flash, hunched over like an old woman.

  However, before she covered half the distance she was able to fully straighten her back once again, the cramp dissipating for now. The man before her was bald, completely bald, and there was something oddly familiar about him. In the darkness she could not find the bullet that she knew was traveling through the air. Another, smaller cramp hit her so without wasting any more time, she pushed on the man’s arm until the gun was pointed out over the lake, then she quickly drew her knife from the back of her jeans. She steadied herself and just as another large cramp hit her she rammed the blade up through the attacker’s midsection. It ran smoothly beneath his ribs and into his heart. For a moment there was no blood, no blood at all, but the blade was barely home before she completely lost control and time leaped back to normal.

  Vio cried out, as her entire body knotted up in pain. The attacker’s eyes tracked to her and he had just enough time for his mind to register surprise at her close proximity before his eyes widened in pain and shock. The killer slumped against Vio, his eyes moving to the hilt of the knife protruding from his chest and his last coherent thought was one of wonder. The two fell as one, but Nico Torres was dead before he hit
the ground.

  Thirty feet away, Adam was very surprised by the sharp pain that ran up his elbow to his wrist, but he was even more stunned to find himself lying on the ground and Vio gone. He hadn’t tripped. Hell, he wasn’t even moving. One minute he was holding Vio in his arms, awestruck by her beauty and the next moment he was lying in the gravel and Vio was gone…just like that. He remained on the ground for several seconds, the sound of a gunshot ringing in his ears and an ever growing dread filling his chest. He pushed himself up and heard a cry, a woman’s cry.

  ‘She can’t die! It can’t happen again! Not again…’ he thought and quickly climbed to his feet and rushed toward the sound. It was Vio…but that was not possible, only a second ago she was in his arms, now she was yards away. When he reached her she was on the ground…a man was with her, a man with a gun.

  As he bent down, fighting the paralyzing fear that threatened to overwhelm him, Vio cried out again and pulled her knees up to her chest. She was obviously in incredible pain. At first Adam thought the man was still hurting her, but when he knelt he spotted the knife sticking from the man’s chest and recognized the blank gaze of death on his face.

  “What is it?” Adam asked, very worried, though he truly wanted to ask just how she managed to go from his arms to the gunman in just a split second.

  “I…ahhhh…I hungry,” Vio told him in between cramps. “I…need…” but Adam didn’t wait for her to sputter out the explanation. He slipped one arm under her head and another under her knees and lifted her up. He stood easily despite her weight and began to move back toward the camp. Up ahead, Avigail and Galen were running in their direction.

  “I…” Vio began and Adam glanced down into her face. “I can no…hold you up,” she explained and actually chuckled despite her pain.