A phone call from the facility concierge woke Doug with a start. He had only slept about two hours. He was sluggish and struggling not to be distracted as he went over the message again and again. Dr. Persaud would not be at the meeting with Mekhos. Stan Foley was unreachable, his condition unknown. Doug was afraid that Jamieson wouldn’t be much help either. When Doug had reminded Jamieson of their colleagues’ situation he’d shrugged his shoulders and said, “Stay on task, carry out the mission.” Then again, maybe Jamieson’s reaction actually was help of a sort. Stay on task.
Doug had breakfast accompanied by an enormous amount of coffee. He ate with Jamieson and a few security officials at the facility. Doug said nothing to Jamieson about Bishop’s message. He couldn’t predict how the man would react, and Doug was having trouble trusting anyone but himself. Besides that, there were too many people around and nowhere to talk that wasn’t under heavy surveillance. Doug didn’t understand the code but he went over it again in his head.
They were driven back to the MC. Jamieson was asked to remain in the lobby while Stacey escorted Doug to the room in which government officials and academics conferred with the machine. He was finally going to communicate directly with Mekhos. I’ve got to clear my head, Doug thought. It all comes down to today.
– 77 –
Bishop entered his office with Jamieson and closed the door. His colleagues were at their desks.
“Gentlemen, this is Commander Jamieson from the Twin,” Bishop said. “He’s here with Professor Lockwood. Commander, this is Philips and Gerard,” gesturing to each of them in turn. As each man stood and walked from behind their desks to shake hands with Jamieson, Bishop leaned down to open his desk drawer and pulled out a fully charged conductive energy device. He handed it to Jamieson while drawing his own and aiming it at Phillips.
“What the hell is this?” growled Gerard. At the same time, Philips reached for his holstered Glock 17 but Bishop had already fired, the twin prongs of the electrical projectiles hitting Phillips square in his chest. He stiffened instantly and dropped in agony as Gerard watched in disbelief.
As soon as Phillips was hit by the Taser darts, Gerard had reached for his own holster as he spun toward Jamieson. He wasn’t fast enough. He looked back up just as Jamieson fired the Taser-like device that Bishop had given him. Gerard stiffened instantly and then slumped to the floor next to Phillips. While both men were still in shock Bishop zip-tied them into a painfully tight looking fetal lock and taped their mouths with a roll he retrieved from one of his desk drawers.
“Just stay calm gentlemen,” he said to the two agents. “You’ll live, and this will all be over before you know it.”
– 78 –
Doug was escorted by Stacey Lau through a set of doors, across a small foyer to another entrance where they paused. The narrow double-doors had no markings, and there were no visible keypad or card swipe locks anywhere. Lau turned to him.
“Only about one hundred people have ever been granted entrance privileges to that room. Only one hundred people have heard the voice of Mekhos. I’m one of the privileged few that have heard him more than once. I just thought I’d say that so you would have an appreciation for how rare this moment is.”
Doug didn’t reply. He looked at Lau and felt a slight chill. She was smiling with what seemed to be a mixed expression of pride and reverence, as if she viewed her privileged status with Mekhos as her greatest achievement. He was beginning to understand the blind allegiance some people had towards Mekhos, and the dangers of such blind faith. He hadn’t thought that Lau would be one of those people. Then again, it was turning out that his first instincts were correct and that he didn’t know this Stacey Lau at all.
The door opened. Doug looked to Lau in case she was going to say something else but she had already turned away and started walking back the way they had come. Doug hesitated a moment, then stepped inside.
The door closed behind him.
Doug slowly turned his head to take in what he could. The room was rectangular, about fifteen meters wide and about ten meters to the wall opposite him. The floor was covered in a thin, featureless neutral grey carpet. The slightly arched ceiling was fairly high, and the plain white walls were decorated with darker vertical fabric panels. There was a single chair and console desk to Doug’s left, set away from the wall about two thirds of the way down.
Doug walked to the center of the room. He could hear his footfalls on the carpet and he had become aware of own breathing and elevated heart rate. The room was very quiet, and Doug guessed the panels served some acoustical function. After a moment he wondered if he should speak, but decided to wait. Mekhos must be aware of his presence.
“Welcome Dr. Lockwood.”
Doug spun around. There was nobody else in the room. The male voice sounded completely human, but it could not be localized. There was no echo or reverberation. It almost seemed as if the voice was inside his head. Perhaps the voice emanated from the acoustic panels, timing and tracking him so that no matter where he was in the room, it reached both of his ears simultaneously.
“Thank you for seeing me.”
There was no response. Doug wondered if he should wait for Mekhos to continue. After a short pause he remembered Dr. Persaud’s recommendations, and decided to press ahead.
“Before we talk about the current problem, I’d like to ask you a question. I’m concerned about my colleague, Dr. Foley. He was taken away from our party as soon as we landed. We haven’t seen him since. Can you offer an explanation?”
“Dr. Foley was concealing a pathogen harmful to humans. He was removed.”
Doug didn’t understand.
“Do you mean he was sick? He had a common infection, a complication from surgery to remove his appendix. I would like to know where he is.”
“Dr. Foley’s surgery infection was relatively harmless. The pathogen was deadly. He has been removed.”
Doug shifted his weight and again looked around the room in an attempt to determine where the voice was coming from. He was also buying a few extra moments of time trying to think of how to overcome the vague answer Mekhos had given about Foley’s status and location. Doug calmed himself. His studies of logic and his long conversations with Miekela were fresh in his mind. He regulated his breathing.
“Mekhos, please define removed in this context.”
“Dr. Foley’s body contained an encapsulated virulent pathogen engineered to create a plague condition among the population on this planet. It was designed to be activated within days of Dr. Foley’s return to normal gravity. His body has been cremated.”
Doug felt a cold sweat coming on. Mekhos had ordered Foley killed. His colleague and friend of many years was dead, possibly only minutes after he’d been taken away in the ambulance.
“We had no...” Doug fumbled for words. “I’m sure Stan...I’m sure Dr. Foley was not aware. Neither was I. Why did you have to kill him?”
“Correct. Dr. Foley was unaware. You were unaware. The perpetrators are at the Pentagon on your Earth. Dr. Miekela Persaud was aware. She is being held indefinitely. This does not impact your status here, Dr. Lockwood.”
Doug’s pulse was pounding in his ears.
“You didn’t need to kill the man! You could have put him into quarantine.”
“Quarantine would not have completely eliminated the risk. The pathogen was extremely virulent Dr. Lockwood. It would have shortly killed Dr. Foley. It was your superiors on your planet that killed him. Removing Dr. Foley at this time succeeded in sparing needless deaths on this planet and also spared Dr. Foley any further suffering.”
Doug was reeling. If Mekhos was to be believed, Arthur Leach and his minders had used Stan Foley, sacrificed him in a secret plan to...what? Hold FLO hostage to a plague epidemic? What would that accomplish? Was it an attempt to coerce Mekhos to return the Moon? That implied there was a cure for the pathogen. Or was it just a simple plan for revenge?
And Miekela was in on the plan. Was she
a willing participant, or did she have no choice? Doug realized the other implications. He was duped by his own people. Sent here as a pawn on a mission of peace while the true mission was to murder millions of people in cold blood. How could anyone on FLO, much less Mekhos, trust them now? He struggled to maintain his composure.
“On behalf of my colleagues,” Doug said quietly, “and the billions of good people on Earth, I am sorry. I believe only a few of the individuals in charge saw fit to implement an awful plan. This is not something I considered or wanted to happen.”
Doug realized the apology might mean nothing to Mekhos. He was addressing the machine as if it were human. If Mekhos didn’t think the conversation was productive, he might end it.
“That is understood,” replied Mekhos.
I need to talk to Mekhos in terms it will understand, while still impressing upon it the waste, the madness, of letting a thriving society die, Doug thought. And I need to clear my head. He took a deep breath.
“Mekhos,” Doug said firmly, pushing all thoughts of Stan Foley out of the way, “my goal is to discuss as much as possible another removal – your removal of my moon to its present destination in orbit around your planet.”
“That is understood.”
“Mekhos,” he asked, “can you summarize exactly what mutually beneficial actions you considered and then discarded in favor of the action you took? Those mutually beneficial actions which would have left my planet and yours in stable condition and able to continue thriving.”
“A satellite of Jupiter in this solar system, called Europa, is fractionally smaller than the satellite in question and was considered first as a replacement. That option was deemed inappropriate due to the amount of time needed to convey Europa into orbit around either your planet or this planet.”
“Mekhos,” Doug said immediately, “your response suggests that it is then possible to convey Europa and re-orbit it around my planet.”
“There remain time and resource limitations, Dr. Lockwood. Your Earth’s ecosystem collapse is unavoidable after five months of being without the gravitational and cyclic influence of the Moon. The stability of this planet was suffering at an accelerated rate. There is only one body of sufficient mass within a reasonable distance.”
“Then is it possible for you to apply the same time-space jump used to dimensionally relocate your planet as a means to relocate Europa to an orbit around my planet?”
“No,” Mekhos replied, “the trans-dimensional technology cannot be applied remotely.”
“There must be comets and other bodies nearby that you could capture for either world.”
“Comets and asteroids lack sufficient mass. Thousands would need to be collected, and this could not be done in the restrictive time frame.”
“Even a few asteroids positioned together in orbit under your control might be enough to recreate the nightly light phases! This would help some species.”
“Correct. However the major ecological impact is caused by the elimination of gravitationally influenced tides. A few asteroids in orbit would not correct this.”
I’m getting nowhere. Perhaps if…
“Mekhos, It has taken the modern civilization of my world about five thousand years to reach the level it has now. Before that, hundreds of thousands of years of primate evolution. Like the people of your world, we have struggled to achieve greatness but have not yet succeeded. We’ve created so much art, culture and knowledge along the way. It cannot be allowed to pass. You of all beings should be aware of how you have interfered in the natural order of things. Your actions, left uncorrected, will destroy my civilization. You are changing the course of our future in the most injurious way. Does this not seem contrary to nature and to the founding intentions of your creators?”
“What was destruction in one universe is life in another,” Mekhos replied. “Without action, the civilization that brought me into existence would have been destroyed. With action it survives.”
“At the expense of others. This should not be decided by equation alone. There are people and things of value that must be saved. I implore you. With the power you have at your disposal, implement procedures to capture, move and re-orbit Europa. A solution too late to preserve civilization on my planet as I know it now, will nonetheless preserve the natural evolution of my planet and my people for the future. A sister and ally for your planet rather than the enemy it will become instead.”
“Dr. Lockwood, there are an infinite number of universes. The outcome with respect to our two planets is the opposite of what it would have been without interference. However the net result is the same. One Earth civilization survives, the other does not.”
“It may be too late to prevent damage to my current civilization, but the eventual arrival of Europa would help my people and my world recover. The attempt is almost as important as the degree of success. It will give my people hope, and perhaps that alone will save many.” Doug was reaching and he knew it, but he was running out of options. Mekhos remained emotionless.
“Dr. Lockwood,” Mekhos replied, “my analysis reveals that there is an eleven percent chance of success if the appropriate equipment is manufactured and launched as soon as possible.”
Doug took a deep breath and said slowly, “An eleven percent chance is far more than my own people can create on their own. Even only that much chance of success would be an incredible accomplishment on your part.”
Silence. Doug waited for a response, but the room was eerily quiet. Evidently Mekhos had not been designed to offer conversational hints to those with whom it interacted. After a few seconds Mekhos spoke.
“I have calculated the time and physical resources needed on both planets to manufacture the required vehicles, support equipment and control mechanisms. The process will take somewhat longer than nine months, too long to prevent ecosystem failure and the food supply from falling to critical levels, which will occur within the next five months. Global war based on competition for resources on your planet will be initiated before then. Civilization collapse is inevitable. Life can be made comfortable on your Earth for 500 million individuals. Equilibrium will be reached in approximately thirty years.”
“And between now and then? Anarchy, starvation, and the death of billions? All of which we have you to thank for!”
The machine was silent.
“Mekhos,” Doug said, speaking somewhat more slowly, “the legacy of death and destruction left on my world will ultimately stand as the most shameful act of genocide in all the history of your people. A straightforward decision for you, in the end essentially makes your creators murderers at your insistence. Some will be appalled. Surely that is not the outcome you planned. It represents, I think, the fundamental flaw in your decision. Norman Stravinsky did not create you – he did not invent you – out of a desire to impose rigid order. He built you to be forever creative and resourceful on behalf of all people.”
“You may stay on this Earth Dr. Lockwood. Your education and experience would make you a valued member of this society.”
Doug felt sick to his stomach. The situation appeared hopeless.
“This world, Mekhos, is not my home. My world and my colleagues are counting on me. On you. Will you at least try?”
Mekhos did not answer.
“Why did you even agree to see me?” Doug asked.
“Because your world is faced with a problem without a fully viable solution. Because you deserve to have your curiosity satisfied. You are free to stay and make a life here or to return to your Earth.”
The doors opened. Evidently Doug’s audience with Mekhos was over, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. Doug turned to go. As he crossed the threshold he turned back to face the room.
“Do you ever think about the fate that awaits so many people? Do you operate entirely without regret?”
Silence.
Doug’s right hand was trembling. He was on the verge of panic over his apparent failure. He hadn’t even obtained so
much as an I’ll consider your request Dr. Lockwood. He turned to go once again but hesitated. He suddenly thought of the code message Bishop had given him. He had spent hours trying to analyze it, unconsciously memorizing it. Memorize then destroy then repeat to Mekhos, the note had said. Give Mekhos my best during your meeting tomorrow, Bishop had said. This is the time, Doug thought. He stepped back into the room.
“Mekhos. I have something else to say.”
Doug’s mind went blank for a moment as he struggled to remember the instruction set and the sequence. He didn’t have much time. Mekhos might have already called an escort to remove him.
He remembered.
“Theta file, zero six zero six five, execute,” Doug said loudly and clearly
A pause.
“Mekhos,” Doug continued, “you have solved all formulae in space-time where cosmological constant Q equals zero point seven three. Solve where Q equals zero point seven two nine, down to point seven two one, inclusive. Execute all equations concurrently.”
The lights in the room dimmed. Doug could now hear the ventilation system where before there had been silence.
“Solving,” Mekhos said, startling him.
The lights flickered. Doug turned back to the door but it had closed again. There did not appear to be any way to open it.
“Dr. Lockwood,” Mekhos said. The voice had lost much of its human quality. It sounded synthesized. Doug wasn’t sure if he should answer.
“Problem will be solved within two hundred and fifty hours. Correction. Three hundred hours. Correction. Three hundred forty hours. Trajectory will not be under control for that time. Dr. Lockwood, this...serves...no...purpose.”
Dark Nights Page 24
