Escaping the Sun

by Rhett Goreman

  Then almost as an aside, Dave revealed that Quatinus 1 was no longer in radio contact with Earth. Therefore, to increase our chances for a successful transport, our data streams would be sent into deep space, using all the bunker’s remaining electrical power, to multiple receiving stations. Our life signals would not only be beamed to New Earth but also into secret facilities on both the Moon and inside Vitcha’s starship.

  Suddenly, a torrent of questions flooded into my mind, but before I could even open my mouth to speak, the teleportation process had begun.

  In the fraction of a second that followed, the curious, purple, crystalline metal that filled two of the glass cylinders seemed to unravel, glow blue-white, and then to evaporate. At the same time my own glass tube filled with sparkling purple mist, and I could feel every atom of my body being torn apart.

  *

  Dave inspected the two piles of ash that now lay at the bottom of the glass tubes we were standing in moments before. The old 25th Century circuitry, in Dave’s neural network, was just sophisticated enough to be able to congratulate itself on a job well done.

  He hummed a little tune to himself and set off through the revolving door, into the corridor outside, preparing to detonate the waiting explosives and scuttle the base.

  However, he need not have bothered. At that moment the massive Earth Engine imploded. Gut wrenching gravity waves pulsed through the bunker, twisting the very fabric of space-time, including any solid rock in its wake.

  This event did not destroy the whole planet as Tukarra had been led to believe. Nevertheless, the earthquakes and aftershocks, produced by the implosion, collapsed every tunnel and cavern for a fifty mile radius around Vidora. None of the Scavengers, and that would surely include Tom, could have stood a chance.

  The foundations under Bunker 7 broke up and, along with millions of tons of rubble, the whole structure cracked open and slid out of sight into the hungry abyss that had previously taken Gerland’s life.

  A rain of desert sand followed all the other debris down into the widening chasm, dragging a thousand land mines with it. Dwarfed by the scale of the void, they seemed to explode at random, peppering this monstrous, otherwise ink dark scene with tiny flashes of light.

  Chapter 26 – In Triplicate

  The idea we could be transported to other worlds, was not entirely surprising to me. You may remember, my own Bachelor’s Degree was in ‘Applied Quantum Physics’, and much of the history of quantum teleportation had been presented to us in lectures by visiting professors. Even so, the only public demonstration of this phenomenon up until my graduation day had been the transport of individual atoms, and simple molecules. At first, this was done across a room. By the mid 21st Century, the record stood at a few hundred kilometres.

  The breakthrough came in the 26th Century, just before I was born, when Vitcha Kesinko was credited with the discovery of a new asteroid. The mysterious object had been found lurking in the outer reaches of our Solar System. Further investigation, of its highly eccentric orbit, implied it may well have wandered, undetected, between the stars, until it had finally been captured by the gravitational pull of our Sun.

  Of course, the capturing of the asteroid probably took place a very long time ago, when our solar system was still young. The odd shape and highly cratered surface showed it had been subjected to many high speed collisions. Debris from those impacts would have been blasted off into space and tiny shards of the ejected material could well have found their way to Earth. The scientific community could not rule out the possibility that such fragments, raining down on our planet, might have carried complex molecules along with them. They could even have conveyed whole alien microbes from other stars. Quite possibly, that particular asteroid could have provided the spark that began all life on Earth.

  At the time of the discovery, my father, Aleq, was Vitcha’s most promising student, and he was looking for a really great, cutting edge, subject to base his thesis on - one that would make a significant contribution to his first doctorate. So Vitcha suggested Aleq carry out a detailed chemical analysis of his asteroid. Vitcha had expected this to be a laborious task, one he was too busy to carry out himself.

  To everyone’s surprise, and Vitcha’s considerable annoyance, my father quickly discovered the asteroid was made up almost entirely of purple Astracite crystals - and they all shared a very special property, that of naturally occurring quantum entanglement with thousands of tons of these crystals sharing the same quantum state. It was as though all their atoms had been aligned with the quantum equivalent of a magnet.

  Tiny samples could be used to facilitate instantaneous long range communications, but only at low data rates, similar to Morse code. At that time, low data rates appeared to be necessary due to the difficulty of writing and reading the quantum states of the crystals without destroying them in the process.

  Larger samples could be used as blanks, like blocks of marble, upon which it was possible to carve out exact copies not just of say statues, but also copies of living tissues, made of flesh and bone. This was an expensive thing to do because it turned the original object to ash, and consumed two large samples of the unique crystals in the process.

  My father went on to publish his thesis. It was an overnight success, and he received worldwide acclaim. Later that year, he was awarded his Doctorate of Philosophy and was also offered a massive research grant by the military, which actually provided him with considerably more funding and resources than his mentor, Vitcha Kesinko, had been given.

  *

  You may be amazed to learn that a few atoms of Astracite were first observed by factory technicians during the production of silicon based flash memory chips, in the 21st Century (hopefully around the time when this book was printed), but in fact they had been classified as impurities, causing most of the affected chips to be rejected by quality control engineers!

  It wasn’t until the 26th Century, after my father had published his thesis, things really took off. He described a way to implement Biological Quantum Computers that could network seamlessly with each other, without any apparent means of wired or wireless connection. They could work together as one, and over vast distances, by incorporating small amounts of Astracite into their genetically modified neurons.

  Vitcha started to see Aleq as a threat, and the rivalry between them began to flourish. Vitcha published a number of papers on ‘Dark Matter Propulsion Systems’, and Aleq published even more on ‘Future Applications for Astracite.’

  But my father’s crowning glory, only known to the military, and only affordable on their huge budgets, was arranging to drill out, and bring back to Earth, large cylindrical prisms of pure Astracite. Some of the cylinders were two metres high and over half a metre in diameter.

  However, only after meeting up with Dave a billion years later, did I realise those very cylinders were actually for use in his human scale teleportation experiments.

  *

  A powerful, conventional, radio broadcast representing a quantum description of Tukarra and myself, was now winging its way across the cosmos, at the speed of light.

  In less than a minute, the signal had reached our wayward Moon, Cerrina. In a few hours, it would arrive at the Starship Kesinko. An observer on Pluto, provided with the right equipment, could have seen the rapidly expanding wave front, of the broadcast, leaving the Solar System and heading off towards the Andromeda Galaxy.

  This was all part of Dave’s plan. He had hedged his bets.

  By now, Tukarra and I had already materialised on Cerrina. Before long a second copy of us both would be appearing on the Starship Kesinko, as well. And in a million years or so, we would be brought back to life on New Earth, in the receiving station built into Quatinus 1 - that is, if it was still functioning by then.

  We owed it to my father, to Perkems, to Tom, to Gerland, to ourselves, and now even to Dave, to survive, to find happiness somewhere in this universe, and to live out the rest of our lives in peace - but it was going
to be an uphill struggle.

  In hindsight, I can tell you that each of these destinations had major problems and so the long term survival of the human race itself was still highly uncertain.

  Chapter 27 – Many Heads are Better Than One

  A billowing, treacle like, foul tasting, purple mist smothered my face. However, even before I had chance to panic, the thick, choking, fog was expelled, with some ferocity, from my glass cylinder.

  I was soon able to fill my lungs with a welcome breath of fresh air. For a moment my flesh felt like it was on fire, but as the electrically charged smog cleared, I found it became easier to ignore the pain.

  There were three other cylinders nearby. Two of them were unused, still full of solid purple Astracite. Then as the mist cleared in the third tube, I was relieved to make out the shapely pink costume and blonde hair of Tukarra. Her eyes were open wide; and like me, she was looking in every direction as we struggled to get a handle on our new location. We were clearly no longer in Bunker 7.

  *

  We appeared to be in the corner of a large room. It was lit only by myriads of tiny coloured lights, red, amber, and green, flashing randomly.

  The lights belonged to bay after bay of fully operational computer hardware. I assumed this was a working server farm that probably formed a major node of the Ether cloud. Yet there was clearly something wrong. Every machine was enveloped by, and riddled with, brown, vine-like, parasitic roots. No-one must have been in this room for years. The roots were not just entwined and growing throughout the equipment, they seemed to be an integral, functioning, part of its matrix. They changed colour slightly, as messages passed along them: to and from the racks of equipment.

  I had no idea what was receiving the messages on the other end of those roots; but I could see they merged together, becoming thicker, as they disappeared down every available ventilation shaft and under floor grating.

  *

  Our glass cells rotated to create openings for us both. We stepped out of the cylinders and into each others arms, tears of relief in our eyes, glad to be alive, overjoyed we were unharmed and still together.

  I felt lighter than air, and I wished for that moment to last a lifetime, but it was no use. We could not stay in this windowless room forever.

  I noticed a spiral staircase in one corner of the room, and decided we should see where it led. It took us into total darkness, and I have to admit our situation seemed to be getting worse.

  Once again our incredible suits saved the day, providing just enough of a pink and blue glow to reveal we were now in a long abandoned, diesel generator, room.

  A short corridor led us off, past a couple of disused offices, to arrive at a wide metal door, with a large red handle. Text painted on the door, in bold red lettering, read, ‘pull to open’.

  And so with some trepidation, I slowly pulled on the handle.

  *

  Tukarra held onto my waist, and peered over my shoulder as I gradually opened the door. Searing white light flooded in through the widening gap, and it took a while for our eyes to adjust.

  We were standing under a high arched roof, in a wide, spacious, zoo like, enclosure. I had to blink a few times, and my jaw dropped. Taking pride of place, in the centre of the enclosure, was the Apollo 11 landing site. At first I thought it must have been a film set, but as I kicked the dust I realised we were in a low gravity environment, so we must have been on the Moon and this was no recreation. It was the real thing. I could see the stiffened American Flag, the gold leaf covered base and footpads of the Eagle descent stage, the Laser Reflector package, and, I could hardly believe my eyes, the actual footprints left in the dust by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin many millions of years ago.

  We stepped out into the light, and I closed the door behind us. As soon as it was shut, the door seamlessly completed the panoramic landscape illusion that formed the backdrop to the enclosure. There was no sign the door had ever been there.

  Suddenly, we became aware of twenty or more faces, staring down at us, through the thick glass walls of a darkened, raised, viewing gallery. I could make out excited children, attracting the attention of their parents, pointing in our direction.

  It was quite embarrassing, as we tiptoed around the perimeter of the enclosure, desperately trying not to desecrate the hallowed ground, under the bright lights and the piercing gaze of the public. After all, they were only allowed in a special viewing gallery, and even then they were made to stay behind inch thick toughened glass.

  Thankfully, we could see an emergency exit, which looked as though it might lead out to the public gallery. As we moved closer, one of the young women, looking down on us through the glass, waved her hands excitedly. Tukarra madly waved both her arms back at her and literally started jumping for joy.

  ‘Who’s that?’ I asked.

  ‘I used to work with her. Her name is Suran. For three years we tried to understand what life on Earth must have been like in the 20th century, when this first Moon landing took place. I was studying the people, their dwellings, their industries, and their recreation, Suran was interested in the diversity of the plant life, and the quality of their environment.’

  We ran over to the emergency door. Tukarra seemed to welcome its modern looking technology and touched the door expecting it to slide open for her; but to her great surprise, and annoyance, nothing happened. In her haste to see her friend, she had forgotten that peripheral devices, such as Ether enabled doors, were no longer at her beck and call.

  Anyway, before I had chance to see if the door could be opened manually, it was opened from the other side by a tall, rugged looking, Elite man. At his side, Suran was waiting for us, bubbling with excitement.

  Suran and Tukarra hugged each other.

  ‘I thought you were on that shuttle, Endimian 389, the one that crashed,’ said Tukarra gasping with delight.

  ‘No, I changed my mind. I didn’t want to worry I might miss the very last shuttle back, so I decided to cancel my last field trip and stay here. What a wonderful decision that was for me. Did you see what happened? All those people killed, not just on the shuttle, but most of the High Elite on Cerrina as well.’

  Then Suran extended her arms, pushing Tukarra away a little, so she could get a good look at her.

  Suran grimaced and said, ‘Tukarra, you’ve changed your hair, and what’s with the pink suit?’

  ‘I’m human now,’ Tukarra said simply, causing Suran to gasp.

  Then before Suran could ask how that might have happened, Tukarra quickly closed off that line of enquiry by saying, ‘It’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about it another time.’

  ‘But what are you doing here?’ she asked, changing the subject.

  ‘I met this wonderful man,’ said Suran, now firmly holding hands with Khonen, and beaming from ear to ear. ‘He saved my life in a freak, er... accident. We’ve come here to chill out for a bit and get to know each other better.’

  Suran turned to fix her gaze on me. ‘Who’s this?’ she asked.

  Tukarra also looked at me, and touched a finger to her lips. ‘Isn’t he cute?’, she said. ‘He’s my latest specimen. He’s almost from the Stone Age.’

  The two girls giggled.

  ‘No, he really is,’ said Tukarra. ‘The earliest humans, to walk upright on two feet, lived in the Pleistocene era, a billion years ago. I revived this one from a cryogenic chamber, that had survived intact since the Holocene, only two million years after that. So that makes him ninety nine point eight percent Stone Age!’

  The girls giggled again. I pursed my lips in mock frustration at not being allowed to say anything in my own defence and grunted.

  They both laughed so much that their stomachs ached.

  I held my hand out to Suran’s, white suited, white haired, ‘wonderful man’.

  ‘Hello,’ I said. ‘My name is Rhett. What’s your name?’

  He grasped my hand firmly, but was clearly surprised when I tried to shake his.

&nbs
p; ‘Khonen,’ he replied, starting to get the hang of my Stone Age greeting and shaking my hand enthusiastically now.

  ‘Pleased to meet you Khonen,’ I said. ‘I never thought I would get to stand on the Moon. Well, Cerrina you call it now don’t you?’

  Then it dawned on me, ‘You two were on that news channel, “Cerrina Today”, weren’t you?’

  ‘Yes, so I have been told,’ he said but he then tried to change the subject. ‘Which shuttle did you two arrive on?’ he asked.

  ‘We took a one way trip using a prototype system. I can’t recommend it, I am afraid. It was quite...’

  Khonen muttered, ‘Oh.’

  Thankfully, he wasn’t really listening, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Suran. She had let down her long, silky, caramel brown, hair. She looked so happy and full of life, Khonen wanted more of that for her.

  *

  But then, the bright white flood lights went out and cherry red emergency lighting snapped on.

  Khonen looked worried.

  ‘I’ve lost my connection with the Ether,’ he said. ‘I have no idea what’s going on. We never have power blackouts these days.’

  ‘The last time the Ether went down, something really bad was about to happen,’ I was thinking out loud, then realised I had just added to the building tension.

  Suran agreed it was a cause for concern and warned, ‘Watch out for the Paparazzi turning up.’

  I almost laughed, but then realised she was serious. How else could they have captured the three dimensional views of her ‘accident’, I had seen for myself on that news programme. They had to have been tipped off that something was about to happen.

  Anxious parents, children and other visitors started milling about in all directions, in the deep red gloom, all except one tall white haired, silver suited figure who walked smartly over to the far corner of the room.

  He opened a door leading onto a long, now only dimly lit, corridor and ushered four or five panic stricken families into it.