Ascendancy: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller

by Randal Sloan

  Julie laughed, “Wow! Your sources are good. Good thing you didn’t ask, because I really can’t tell you yet. But one of them I suspect you’ll be quite excited about when you see it, but the other not so much so.”

  Xiu gave her a smile. “So one of them will change the way of life for us in the somewhat near future, and the other is a weapon that we hope we never have to face.”

  Julie gave her an intense look. “You are indeed as brilliant as you are beautiful. You hit that one exactly right, but I really can’t tell you more right now. But the life-changing one you’ll see within a short time, although obviously the products themselves will be a little longer coming out.”

  “By the way, we’re not sending out official invitations, but the two of you are invited to our wedding, which is currently planned a little over two weeks from now, pending the successful rescue of my father. I’m waiting for him so he can be there, hence the reason for our plans around that date.”

  James smiled at her, a more roguish smile than she was used to seeing from him. “You can count on me being there. And this one time, I have this lovely lady here at a disadvantage. I happen to know where the wedding will be held.”

  “Yes, the First Lady, the wife of our current President, has very graciously granted us the pleasure of having the wedding in the gardens of her summer home estate. As a matter of fact, she pretty well wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  “I suspect there’s quite a story there. Someday perhaps you’ll be comfortable enough to share it with me.”

  “Well, we’ll have to have the First Lady’s position on that first. If she gives the ok when you see her, I’ll be glad to tell you more. I will only say for now that she knew my mother and has been very helpful to me. In many ways she has treated me as a mother would her own daughter, something I desperately miss with the loss of my own mother. So to me she has a special place in my heart. For reasons I don’t know, they don’t have any children. So perhaps I’m the daughter to her that she never had.”

  “Thank you for sharing that much. I will definitely be looking forward to your wedding and to meeting your gracious hostess.”

  #

  The next day, they arrived at the coordinates Julie had projected. Of course, nothing was there, just as she expected. When they scanned the area with their highest level detectors on the ship, no asteroids or comets were to be found. Again, exactly what was expected due to the location above the solar plane. Just as Julie was getting ready to order the ship to start the sweeps to lay out the detection grid, the grid they were leaving that would let them know where the ship came out, they detected a very faint signal at the extreme far end of their search grid, really a little further away than the actual grid.

  But something about it pulled at Julie very strongly, such that she did not want to wait for the completion of the process to lay out the search grid to go see it. It wasn’t like they needed her here anyway; the rest of the crew could easily handle that task without her. Mentally touching Zeke, she realized he felt the same way. She had her corvette, and while the ship was doing their task, the two of them could go check out the object.

  So giving her shipmates the task to lay out the grid, Julie told them that she and Zeke would go check it out. Strangely, both of the envoys expressed a desire to go with them. Julie just didn’t have the energy to argue. They quickly boarded her little corvette, immediately launching and heading toward the object. When they did, the pressure in her head relaxed to a light presence.

  Realizing that something was going on here, Julie turned to look at her shipmates. “Did all of you feel compelled to go on this little journey to check out this object or was that just me?”

  Each of them answered in turn and each answered in the affirmative.

  “So what should we do?”

  “I don’t feel any danger, but I still feel we need to go see. At this point, just the pure curiosity of it is enough for me.” The Professor was proving to be quite the explorer. The others nodded agreement.

  “Let’s do it then.” Julie sent their little vessel along an interception course. She wasn’t in an emergency rush but she didn’t dally either.

  When they got close to the target coordinates, Julie slowed her ship down and approached more slowly. She still couldn’t see anything, so she moved them closer, slowing even more. Just as she was ready to tell everyone that nothing was there, it was like a fog lifted away. Somehow she knew that if she moved their ship away even a tiny fraction, everything would go away again.

  What they were looking at was an object unlike anything Julie had ever seen before. It was obviously of unknown, possibly alien origin. It was some kind of obelisk, yet it did not generate a negative feeling like some objects of that appearance would. Instead, it seemed to give off a peaceful feeling that each of them felt.

  As they sat there looking at the object, the obelisk seemed to wake up. A scanning beam appeared from the top of the obelisk and swept over their ship. As soon as the scan completed, it turned off and an instant later a second beam focused directly on their ship.

  Somehow, the second beam was a communication system that oriented on each of the individual passengers on board the ship. Each person received an individual message tailored to him or her specifically, so that no one else heard their message.

  #

  Julie suddenly saw her daughter standing in front of her. She was a little older than the girl she remembered from her recent vision. The girl had a big smile on her face, although it was touched with just a little bit of sadness.

  “Hello, Mom,” her daughter said with such a sweet voice that it made Julie want to reach out and hug her.

  “Don’t ask me how I am doing this, because I have no idea. I’ve met some friends of Earth that have the technology to do it, something way beyond anything we have. They’re human, but they’re from a planet a little over 15 light years away, and originally from our far future.

  “When you arrived at your current location, your arrival triggered a signal, and in your time there it has just been sent to our friends. Because of their technology, they received your signal immediately, but it was my brother and I that they have recruited to help this time. You will see in a moment that you have enough to do in your time.

  With their help I was able to modify the drive system that my brother and I have been working on so I was able to travel to meet them. As you know, I have my father’s ability to see the drive fields, but I also somehow can feel them like you too. That allows me to directly modify a field without going through a slow computer interface and that was one reason I was able to make the voyage.

  “Once I arrived here, I met our friends and while I was at first skeptical of their story, I’m now convinced it’s true. It appears Earth is involved in some kind of temporal war. A temporal war is a war fought across time. Prior to now, the technology has only allowed information to be sent back and inanimate objects, such as the obelisk you’re seeing. For the first time, our friends have taken it a step further, bringing a crew back in time. Quite amazing really, but it didn’t go off without problems. Right now they’re stranded here in our time. I’m working with them to see if I can help them get back home.

  “But I’m digressing and I need to get back on topic. So the same technology used by our friends to send this message to you is also available to their enemies. Those enemies are the ones that call themselves the ‘Real’ Organization and they’re responsible for the chaos that bunch of pirates and terrorists in your time has caused you. That of itself is enough reason to oppose them and work with the ones fighting against them, isn’t it?

  “Somehow, our family is at the center of this. You in particular seem to be the one and by extension, my brother and I. I know you saw me in a vision because I saw you watching me. I expect you will be taking a peek at my brother sometime later. He can be a pain sometimes, but I love him anyway. The two of us have both chosen to be the ones to work with our families in the past, the idea bei
ng you’ll be more comfortable working with us.

  Apparently our opponents managed to split our timelines, which is something that can happen during a temporal war. Usually the two diverge so much that one eventually fades away, but so far that hasn’t happened. You and my father somehow get together in the alternate reality too, so my brother and I are here in both timelines. To make a long story short, I’ve been assigned this timeline and my brother the other one. By using their temporal technology, I’ve prepared this message and they’re sending it back to the current place and time to reach you.

  “All of this is just a way to explain this: You have a task that you must complete to protect this timeline. Your task is to bring your father here to the obelisk, and you must accomplish it or serious damage will occur in our timeline. I love my grandfather, so I beseech you to complete this task, whatever it takes.

  “I suspect when I return home to you in my current time, I’m going to be in a little bit of trouble, so try to remember this message when I do. I’ve been told, however, that anything that will affect my future timeline will be blocked from your memory until the events that are part of my past have been completed, so that you can’t change the future involving me.

  “I’m hoping the block will be gone when I return home so you’ll remember this part then. Either way, I’ve done what I had to do. For your task there, it is now up to you. I’m sure you’ll get it done; I’ve never seen anything stand in your way of accomplishing whatever you want to do.

  “Ok, I’ve got to go now. I still have a task to leave for my father and no, he’s not going to tell you his, just like you can’t tell him yours. You two can talk about the messages, but the tasks themselves are blocked so that you cannot talk about them. Somehow they’ve made it where you can’t even pick it out of his brain like you always do me when I get in trouble. Just trust the two of us to do what’s needed on his task too.”

  Something distracted her for a moment so that she looked away. But she quickly looked back. “I’ve really got to go! I love you so much, Mom!”

  #

  Zeke received his own personal message. He also saw his daughter standing in front of him. She was just a little older than when he saw her in the vision with Julie. She was even more beautiful now if that was possible, and she looked so much like her mother that it filled him with joy.

  “Hello, Dad. I just got through leaving Mom a message, and I explained all the details of how I’m able to leave this message. So I’m going to let you ask her about that. I knew Mom wouldn’t listen until I explained as much as I could. But with you, I’m going to get directly to the point, because you already know how to leave those things to my Mom and concentrate on what you need to do.

  “Each of you on this ship are being given a task that is very important to the timeline that will eventually lead to me and my brother. By the way, I saw you and Mom watching me in the race, and everything I did in that race I learned from you two. But I felt your love for me.

  “Now to your task. You’ve been given the most difficult of all of them. Your task is to protect my mother’s life in the upcoming action with the pirate ships, and you have to do it without getting yourself killed. The plan you and Joe came up with won’t work for two reasons. One, our enemy that we’re fighting has been able to tell them your plan, and so they won’t behave like you’re expecting. The second problem is that the pirates have been given a weapon that uses future technology in direct violation of temporal warfare rules. They’re fighting a temporal war, which is bad enough, but even in those they have rules that they’re not supposed to violate. But the bad guys have violated them. This weapon will produce an explosion that’s many times that of a nuclear explosion, and will overcome the shields you guys have built, at least on the corvettes.

  “The only way this explosion can be shielded is with the big ship Mom has modified for the trip to go get my grandfather. So for your task: You’ve got to persuade my Mom to fly the corvette in the battle instead of this ship. The bad guys won’t be targeting the corvette because they have been told my mother won’t be in it. Instead, they’ll target the big ship, expecting to find her onboard it.

  “So you need to be in the big ship, but remember me! You’ve got to survive so my brother and I will be here. Add the shields to the big ship. It’s a logical thing to do anyway. But you’ve got to tune them to match the following signature.”

  His daughter concentrated, and suddenly he saw the fields in his head. “I know you can see them, so that should be easy for you. But you must not get distracted by the battle and get too close, or the aftereffect of the blast could still harm my mother and Joe. You’ve got to trust them to do their part. You must promise me that you’ll do that no matter what happens.

  “So sorry, Dad—You always get the hardest tasks, but I know you can do this one. You can’t tell Mom any of this or she will try to stop you. You won’t be able to tell her this part anyway, because our friends have blocked it somehow, but you two will be able to talk about me. And remind my Mom that in the future she shouldn’t be too mad at me. You’ll know what I’m talking about when it happens.

  “I love you, Dad!”

  #

  Xiu was astounded to see her mother standing in front of her. She had not seen her mother since she was a little girl; her mother had disappeared when she was 6 years old. Her father had not talked about her for many years, but she knew that her mother had left them on her own decision.

  Her mother began speaking to her in the Chinese dialect of her childhood. “My dear Xiu, I have been given an opportunity to send you a message. I have made many mistakes in my life, but one of the biggest that I made was leaving you and your father and I very much regret it. Then I became involved with a very bad group of rebels and now I must pay the price. Unfortunately, I can’t undo that and I can’t come back to you, which I am even more sorry about. The thing is, in order to have the privilege to leave this message for you, I must give you a task. But it’s a task that you will like.

  “You see, you have a sister somewhere, and she is going to be very important to you and your father. She will be a little more than 6 years younger than you, so yes, you can do the math, she is your father’s daughter and your full sister, since I was pregnant with her when I left. But I had to give her up because I was too stubborn back then to ask your father for help.”

  She paused a moment. Xiu could see the sadness in her eyes. “So here is your task. You have to find your sister and unite her with your father. To do this, you have to bring your father to the wedding that you are attending in a couple of weeks. When you get to the wedding, you will understand what you must do. Please do not underestimate the important of this task. It will mean the difference in the events to come for you and your father, and because of this, it will mean the difference not only for our country but for the whole world.”

  “I am so glad that I was able to give you this message. Please know that I love you very much and that I’ve thought of you many, many times. Do you remember the song that I sang to you every night when you went to bed?”

  Her mother sang the lullaby that Xiu still listened to in her head every night before going to sleep:

  “The moon is bright, the wind is quiet,

  The tree leaves hang over the window,

  My little baby, go to sleep quickly,

  Sleep, dreaming sweet dreams.

  The moon is bright, the wind is quiet,

  The cradle moving softly,

  My little one, close your eyes,

  Sleep, sleep, dreaming sweet dreams.”

  Tears were in both of their eyes. Finally, her mother ended the message. “Goodbye, my baby. Know that my strongest desire is to someday see you again.”

  #

  James thought he was keeping it together. But then his wife, the one he had betrayed and caused such enormous grief, was standing there. She had disappeared a couple of years ago, and he had no idea what had become of her. That was one of the r
easons for his broken relationship with his daughter.

  “Ellie!” James exclaimed in shock. He had never expected to see her again.

  “Hello, James. I expect you’re very surprised to see me. After you betrayed me with that student of yours, I managed to get myself in a very bad situation. I was given assistance in my darkest hour, and the cost of that assistance is that I must leave you this message and assign you a very important task.”

  “You must patch things up with our daughter, and you must invite her to the wedding that you’re attending soon. You must introduce her to our current First Lady, Julie Randolph, and the other envoy. When you do this, you will understand the thing that has been troubling you the most the last few days.”

  “Your task is very important. In fact, the completion will determine your success or failure as an envoy and the success of many plans depends on it. Don’t screw this one up like you did our marriage.”

  For a moment she just gazed at the VR camera, her expression fierce, but finally her gaze softened a little. “I’m sorry I’ve made such a mess of everything. I knew you and I were done, but I should have been there for our daughter. I’ve done some things I shouldn’t have done, and now I’m going to have to pay for my crimes. Someday, hopefully, I’ll make it back to be in her life.”

  She glanced away a moment, before turning back toward him. “It looks like my time is up. Good luck, James.”

  James was a little sad to hear her situation was so grave and that she still couldn’t return even for the sake of their daughter, but he understood. He had to accept his share of the blame, although he really did try to fix it years ago. He guessed some things were just too far gone to fix. He prayed that his chance with his daughter wasn’t so far gone.

  #

  Each of the four had been completely transfixed by their vision. To the ship’s chronograph, only a tiny period of time elapsed. But to each in his own vision, the time passed was much longer. The communication beam ceased and for everyone time began moving again.