by Brett Bam
“Oscar,” he said sonorously, “I wish to play a game. I have locked the door.” Oscar spun to see the glass wall again, his own surprised form and the epic scenery behind him reflected in it. The door was closed and the inside lights were off. There was no sign of glowing eyes lurking in the reflection.
“You can open the door, but only if you complete this puzzle. Until then, sit tight my friend.” A complex graphic sprang up in the centre of the balcony. It was round and had millions of satellites.
Oscar walked completely around it. He took his glasses off and stared at the spot, there was nothing there. With his glasses on, the object was solid enough to throw a shadow. It was a puzzle. There were little drawers which opened when he pulled at them. They contained a scroll that hinted at the location of the next release. Over hours and hours of absorbed and total concentration Oscar slowly whittled away at the graphic, it folded and turned and shifted its shape ingeniously.
In spite of his attention being focused on the puzzle, he watched the events which followed from a safe perch. He saw the wave, he saw the power start again, and he was powerless to do anything about it. He was stuck on the balcony. He turned his attention away from the view and back to the puzzle. The sphere eventually became a case which he finally opened to find a key. He took it to the door, the hologram reacting as if it had been picked up. He couldn't feel it in his fingers, but he could see it in the glasses. He walked over to the door and found a black keyhole which hadn't been there a moment before. He touched it with his other hand and felt nothing but glass. He inserted the key and heard the levers drop as he turned it. The door swung open and he was free. But, by then; Dalys, Kulen and the Ribbontail had flown off into the abyss.
In normal circumstances, the body of water which filled the conical endcap lay relatively still. There was a slight current moving from right to left when you stood at the shoreline. The current was caused by the spinning of the water. The whole body of water moved constantly. It provided stabilisation and momentum to the gravitational spin needed to keep the asteroid steady, and, through hydro electricity, it provided energy to the city looming above. It was an almost perfect system, synchronicity and balance providing power and electricity. With only a minimum of careful manipulation the system kept running. There were parks and gardens along its length, and many roads threaded their way toward it ending in large break walls of steel and concrete. Beaches fringed the shoreline, calm sandy places with bright green foliage bordering the sand on one side, and sliding blue water on the other. People swam in it, stroking against the current to stay in one place or swimming with it to cover long drifting distances. They boated on it and dived into it. There were marinas around the circumference. Where a crease in the land created a spur into the water, a wave would stand up and curl in one place continuously. People all over the asteroid surfed those waves, and there were many. In the centre of the spinning vortex of liquid, high overhead from the surfers and beach, strange things happened to gravity and people played in floating liquid.
Now, that floating liquid was seething violently.
When the asteroid had been hit by the radiation from the flare, everything had malfunctioned and shut down. The water had leaped up from its usual place to swallow everything dry above it. It sloshed through the city before finally falling and swirling back down to the base of the chamber, where it tumbled about violently. Waves of terrifying size leaped and splashed and thundered against each other in the contrary currents. The water was exacerbating the asteroid’s wobble. Like whisky swirling at the base of a tumbler, it added weight and momentum in the wrong direction. The gravity waves would get worse, until the whole asteroid cracked and split like a twisted egg, but only long after everything in the asteroid had drowned.
Before the fall, the bright lights of machinery glowed beneath the surface of the water. Stations, filters, pipelines and giant spinning impellers which maintained the current had hummed with purpose. Now they were all dark and the waters raged free.
Jack Mac and Kulen stepped up to the edge of a broken concrete balustrade and looked into the raging waters which curled above them. Behind them was a line of reanimated electronics, lit streets, houses, buildings and more. It looked like a scattered line of stars on the dark background of the city.
“Now what?” asked Jack Mac.
It was raining heavily, the drops falling in a corkscrew pattern from the city to the sea.
“I have to set the sea spinning again. Is that all?”
Jack Mac laughed bitterly. “Yes, that's all.”
Kulen stepped to the edge of the stone balustrade. He clapped his hands together and concentrated on the glove.
I see it, the way through. I see how I need to do what needs to be done. I can see the great turbines beneath the surface of this boiling water. I can tell how the power flowing through its constructed innards will empower it, make it work. I see the turbines, like a great, many-bladed fan which covers the majority of the water’s bed.
I look deep into the machine on my hand, and the light unfolds magnificent detail like an intricate fractal image. The closer I look the more I see. Until I see the place where it is bright, the point of highest pressure. At first, I pinpoint it with my finger and thumb, which I roll together, causing a little bloom of friction. The single spiral pattern of that pressured intricacy is glowing white hot. I move my fingers together just so, and the hot point snaps loose. I can roll it in my palm now, hot and sharp. I pull my arm back and fling it into the water. The path of the fragment disturbs the water, cuts through it, and leaves foam behind. The water flickers, but nothing more. This time I clap my palms together and the machine splashes across my other hand, enveloping it. I clap my hands together again. Another spark breaks loose. I roll this one in my palms, feeling it pick up mass and energy. I roll this into a ball and throw it. It skips across the water, striking like lightning, before finally falling into the sea, sinking brightly. It lies on the bottom fermenting like seltzer.
I clap my hands together again and make another spark. This one I roll for a long time, until it feels like it's burning my skin and cutting my palms. It is small and dense and sharp. I throw this one high, as far as I can, a massive throw in the variegated gravity. It drops with a massive splash that disturbs the whole of the sea above me. The turbines below the ocean start for a single second and the water sloshes. I clap again, another spark of power in my hand. I throw it, and another, and another. My arm grows weary and my shoulder aches, but the water is responding. The turbines are responding. A few of them do not cut out, but keep going. Like little lights in the chain sparking and flickering, until the whole of it suddenly activates and spins into life with a roar.
The water turned to foam. A great bubbling mass of it erupted over the walls of the stone balustrade they were standing on. Jack Mac saw it coming and jumped on top of Kulen just in time. He clung to the handrail, pinning the boy to the stone as they were submerged in plunging ice cold water. It lasted for an age. Jack Mac had no choice but to hold on grimly, not breathing. Then the current receded and the water dropped and drained away. They were standing on wet stone and they could breathe again.
The water had inverted. The spin of the turbines stabilised the majority, but a long trail of corkscrewing foam had crept up the gravitational arc and down the centre of the chamber. The sea now looked like an inverted tornado, peaking somewhere just past the city.
Jack Mac looked up at it in terror.
Kulen stood, coughing up a fair amount of water. He too looked up at the inverted tornado of water. It was wobbling, but the turbines were not done, they were still pushing. The spin got faster and the tornado climbed higher, spearing into the sky. The wobble slowed down and stopped and the horrible gravity waves stopped too. Everything was stable. The hydroelectric stations caught with a blaze of sparks and flew into life. Lights and sounds spread across the landscape as the power was restored. The city blazed with light. Sanity returned. Fires extinguished, aid w
as rendered.
Kulen turned and looked at Jack Mac. “I’m holding that water there. I can’t hold it long, I have to let go.”
Jack Mac looked at the tornado of water. It was more water than he’d ever seen in one place in his whole life. He knew from his training that a cubic meter of fresh water weighed a metric ton. The kilometres high swirling mass of water was immeasurable.
“Run!” said Kulen.
“Not without you.”
“I have to let go, run!”
“Come with me!”
“GO NOW!” Kulen put all of his command and will into the order. He blazed it at Jack Mac with pheromones and vocal stimulants. He pitched it so that it could never be refused. Jack Mac turned and fled.
He ran away from the scene as fast as he could, stopping to think of nothing else, his head down so he did not see as Kulen let go of his push on the tornado. He did not see as it rolled to a stop and turned into a clear wobbling liquid. He did not see as it splashed back down to the bed it was made for, and he did not see the wave which chased him as he ran the last mad dash. The wave peaked, massive and blue and falling upon him as he shut the water out, and went down. He ran into the skin of the asteroid. He dropped in newly restored elevators and ran down stairs. He passed some tunnels branching off randomly to each side, and at last came to a crossroads. He was deep in the skin of the rock. Only then, safe and dry, did he stop to think, did he stop to realise.
The wave had taken Kulen.
Jack Mac fell to his knees in exhaustion. He knelt in the centre of the octagon of space created by the junction, breathing heavily. He worked hard to get his breath back for a few seconds, and then tapped his comms. “Ribbontail, Ribbontail, Ribbontail, this is Jack Mac. Come back.”
He waited a few breaths. No reply.
“Ribbontail, Ribbontail, Ribbontail, this is Jack Mac. Come back.”
He waited a few more breaths, still no reply. He flicked his glasses onto his head. Jack Mac had a small pair, they looked like goggles rather than glasses. They had no strap to secure them but nestled gently over each eye, giving Jack Mac a comprehensive head’s up display only he could see. All the communication channels showed a deep green status indicating readiness and proper operation. Dalys must just be busy.
He could do nothing about Kulen. If he went back he would drown. He would open an airlock and the water would come flooding in, and he would have no chance. Kulen was dead, that was all there was to it. At least he had died a hero. He'd saved millions of people here today. Jack Mac promised himself they would hear his name and know what he had done and see the sacrifice he had made. Jack Mac swore this to himself, on his knees at that crossroads. He had no more tears, the intent to honour the dead satisfied him. His priority now was to get back to the ship. He searched a route and found one. It involved some walking and then a subway ride through the rock to the opposite side and would take him the better part of an hour. The entire subway system which laced the structural rock of the asteroid chamber had managed to survive unscathed. Some tunnels had flooded, but the drainage was excellent and they cleared very quickly with minimal debris left on the tracks. The system was already up and moving all over the asteroid. Jack Mac stood and took the goggles off. He looked left and right and forwards. The corridors led off into the distance, eventually curving upwards out of sight. He had to go back the way he'd come and then take a left. It would lead him to the subway access stairwell. He turned around.
Berea was standing in the corridor about five metres away.
He spasmed in shock and then froze in fright. His mind was overwhelmed with disbelief. She sobbed and ran to him, when she reached him she jumped, and only as she landed in his arms, wrapped her legs about him, and kissed him hard, did he finally believe what was happening. Berea was alive! She was here! He threw all other thoughts aside and luxuriated in the most satisfying kiss of his life. The relief was all consuming, and by the time they broke apart for air they were both crying. He put her down and thrust her out to arm’s length. He looked her up and down sharply and then knelt in front of her, searching her body with his hands. He remembered vividly the horrible wounds inflicted by the snake and he searched for them in vain. She didn't even have scars from the ordeal. All her tattoos were perfect and in place. There was no doubt. This was Berea.
“How is this possible?” he asked.
“I don't know. I was pulled into space. I remember seeing an explosion that hit me so hard. And then I feel like a long time passed where nothing happened, like I was asleep or more, and then there was a light. And suddenly I open my eyes and you're standing here in front of me.”
Jack Mac looked at her quizzically, a sudden doubt bobbing to the surface amongst all the endorphins.
“What? That makes no sense at all.”
She simply shook her head and wiggled her hand, a spacer’s gesture, I don't know.
“Maybe I can help clear up some of the confusion.”
The voice was deep and sonorous, and the noise of it sent a chill up Jack Mac’s spine. The man in black was standing behind him a few strides away. He hadn't been there moments ago. The same as Berea, he had just appeared. Jack Mac pulled Berea behind him and took out his gun. He pointed it at the intruder.
“Don't move!”
“You're going to shoot me? After I saved the love of your life?”
“What did you say?”
The man smiled, “I saved her. She's alive because of me. Maybe you should put that thing away before you hurt yourself.”
“Jack. Put the gun down,” said Berea. She stepped around him and touched his arm gently.
“I remember him. I remember his voice in the darkness. He was very comforting and wise and he helped me.”
Jack Mac looked at her and blinked, but he lowered the weapon and held it at his side, still unsure.
“Still hesitant? Understandable. I'll tell you how I did it, yes? That will calm your mind. I came across a wreckage in space on my way here. A curious ship, obviously Protocol designed. It had a bizarre mangle of appendages dangling from one side, it looked like an octopus climbing out of a clam. Does that simile make any sense to you? No? Oh well. Anyway, I took a look around and found more. I found some biological material. It was badly damaged and inert, and its molecules were spread over a vast distance, and still drifting apart. I gathered it all up and put it back together. It woke up, it came back to life! With a little help.” He held up his hand to show the encasing silver, which gleamed. “You see, I recognised her, I knew who it was.” Then the man in black’s attention shifted to Berea.
“Your death affected me greatly Berea. It was a trauma to see you hurt and killed. And I would like to say that technically, it was Dalys who killed you. You would have been dead in seconds anyway, but she did give the order to separate the ships. She caused the explosion which was your final memory. I saved you. I'm not the bad guy here, no matter what you might think. When I had the chance to restore you, Berea, I jumped at it. I spent all those centuries remembering your death, and to see you standing here again is glorious. I knew it was a possibility, but it was in no way a certainty. I'm very happy it all worked out.”
“Who are you?” asked Berea, “Do we know you?”
“Oh, no. You don't know me, but I know you. It's too complicated to explain it all. Just take my word for it and go off and make babies and live happily ever after.”
Jack Mac and Berea looked at each other at the mention of babies and they smiled.
“I know what you're going to say next. You're going to say…”
The man pointed at Jack Mac who said, “What about Dalys?” The stranger chorused his words perfectly.
“I have an answer for you Jack my boy, but you're not going to like it.” He spread his hands, one silver and gleaming. “Your part in this tale is done.”
“What?”
“You're done Jack. You and Berea. You'll stay here, and make a family, and live long lives. I have business with Dalys and it's
going to take us far away.”
Jack Mac squeezed his gun and flexed his arm.
“Ha. I can see you thinking Jack. You think you can take me down. Take my gift,” he indicated Berea, “take my life, and run away into space with Dalys.” He shook his head sadly. “It's not going to happen. Oh, I'm sure you're going to try. You'll run and jump and fight to your dying breath, nothing will stop you. I admire that about you, your bravery, I'd like to think that's where I learned it from, but you wouldn't understand that. No, my friend. Take it from me. Your part in this tale is done. This is goodbye to you both.”
Jack Mac jerked the weapon up and fired from the hip. The intruder vanished.
There was a playful whistle from behind him and he spun, pushing Berea behind him, again pointing his gun. The man in black was 20 metres down the corridor! He threw his head back and laughed. Jack Mac brought the gun up and emptied the clip into the central body mass of the man in black. He never noticed, but he laughed louder and then he was gone. His laugh echoed behind him, and when it was silent in the corridor again Jack Mac grabbed his lover by the hand and ran alongside her towards their fate.
Chapter 29
Gamaridia
The water has me and I cannot breathe.
I have never conceived of such a force as this. It has overpowered me utterly. My first submergence in the otherplace, in that fabric of screams was rough and overwhelming, but this submergence is many times more severe. I cannot breathe. The need to draw a breath fills my entire body, the emptiness in my lungs is painful. The water sweeps me along in the current. The turbines are spinning the entire mass of water faster and faster, a single massive swell is building and rolling around the chamber’s endcap. I feel the swell rush over me, pulling me towards its depths. I'm drifting in clean water now, it is blue and transparent, and all I can see is more blue stretching into the distance. Then I see the peak of the wave sweep around the chamber straight towards me. The swell peaks and surges, and I feel its connection to the silver on my hand. My glove is yanked toward the deep water as it surges over me, and again as it comes around. I have still not taken a breath, but now the urgency has left me. I know I need one, but my body is willing to wait, however long that will be. When the swell comes around again, I reach out and feel the balance of magnificent forces flow though the palm of the glove. The water rears up, torn asunder under the sudden influence of the infinite machine, which is now glowing white hot. The swell peaks and becomes a wave, the entire body of water spins so thin that it folds in on itself and implodes with force enough to rock the chamber. I am thrown hard across a great distance. I fall so far that it takes tens of seconds, and then the water slams into itself and savages me.
