Against Time

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  Fisher decided that their only hope in learning even more from Benson and his people was to confide in him.

  “Could you focus this image in again to this area of space?” Fisher asked, pointing to the floating galaxy.

  Benson nodded and the floating image focused down and Fisher pointed to a yellow star about sixty light years from this sun. “That’s our Earth. And we are the only two that have this kind of technology at the moment.”

  Benson nodded. “I figured as much,” he said. “On a couple of the planets in our area single explorers were the first out between the stars as well.”

  “So we are the first in this area of space?” Doc asked.

  Benson nodded. “But after some of your visits to a few of the planets, I have a hunch those won’t be far behind now that they know it’s possible.”

  How in the world had he traced us? Fisher was about to ask, but Doc got a question in first.

  “So is your drive the same technology as ours?” Doc asked as Fisher turned to stare back out at the damaged planet below.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Benson shrug. “Just more advanced, but the same principles. If you want, I’ll get some of our scientists to explain some of it to you.”

  “You’d do that?” Fisher asked, turning to Benson. Fisher was again as stunned as Doc looked.

  “Why not?” Benson asked. “We’re all out here together. If we can’t help other human civilizations, what’s the point?”

  Doc opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He was like a kid that had just been offered everything for free in a candy store.

  Fisher just shook his head and turned back to the viewport. “So how do we help all those people still down there?”

  “When they get here, we just keep them comfortable and calmed down as much as possible,” Benson said. “After we put them back, we can’t do much. At least not right now. Not until they get through the rebuilding stage, which the experts tell me is going to take a few hundred years at least.”

  “They have enough population to survive?” Fisher asked, surprised.

  Benson nodded. “More than enough. The Seeders only put a hundred and forty-four thousand humans on every planet and all but a few populations managed to keep going. There’s almost two million alive down there still.”

  That exact number the Seeders used bothered Fisher, but now was not the time to ask. A lot about this was bothering him, but he knew he was in such shock, nothing was fitting together.

  “You are saving millions of humans,” Doc said. “That’s impressive.”

  “And we didn’t save many millions and millions more,” Benson said, his voice soft. “But the one thing we know about humans, we survive. And the people of this planet will as well. The Seeders made sure we all had that trait.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  CALLIE MADE IT BACK to the lodge and turned on lights in the big lobby, then locked all the doors to the place. She wasn’t sure exactly who she was locking doors to stay safe from, but she felt better doing that.

  At this point, she was too tired to question anything she was doing. She just had to keep moving, stumbling forward.

  The only clothes she had were the ones she wore in the cave and they were all muddy. So she headed back up to the room where the young couple had stayed and borrowed the woman’s suitcase that had been tucked off in a corner of a second room, so the smell had not yet got to it. The young woman had seemed to be about the same size as Callie.

  Callie went down to the main floor, found the biggest suite on the floor. The suite had been made up for some future guest that would now clearly not arrive.

  Callie left the clothes that she had been wearing out in the hall near another door, then went back, locked the suite door and turned on the shower.

  She could feel that she was completely numb. She had just been moving, not thinking, and now she was so tired, she didn’t dare allow herself to think about anything.

  After a long hot shower, she got her hair dry with the blow dryer, then went through the girl’s suitcase.

  Callie found a nice pair of sweat pants and some new underwear that the girl had never worn that fit Callie fine.

  She also had a green and white University of Oregon sweatshirt, so Callie put that on as well, along with some nice new socks. Clearly, this trip with her boyfriend to this lodge had been something special for the young girl.

  Then in the sweatshirt and sweatpants and socks, Callie crawled into the big featherbed.

  She almost shut off the light, but then on second thought decided she wasn’t ready to face darkness at the moment.

  She curled up under the large comforter on the soft old bed and was instantly asleep.

  What seemed like only a moment later she was awakened by the strangest feeling of floating.

  Then a moment later she found herself in a bright room with hundreds of other people.

  She wasn’t laying down, but instead standing.

  All of the people she faced looked shocked.

  As shocked as she was feeling.

  If this was a dream, it was the strangest and most real dream she had ever had.

  Some of the people around her started crying, some dropped to the floor and huddled with their heads down.

  Everyone looked like they had been through a very, very hard day.

  Some were dressed, some were naked and others were moving to cover the naked ones in blankets.

  And the distinct smell of human death seemed to suddenly be everywhere again.

  Callie looked around. Huge tables of food filled one wall, medical staff seemed to be working their way through the people, while still other rescuers were helping others toward what looked like showers.

  She scanned the room until suddenly what was behind her caught her eye.

  She spun around, only to be faced with the most incredible sight she had ever seen.

  An entire wall that looked like a window and seemed like a lot of movies she had seen shot from orbit.

  Below her the Earth was slowly spinning past.

  Not possible.

  That view was too much for her to take.

  She could feel the room growing faint and she started to slump to the ground, but strong hands caught her.

  She mumbled “Thanks” before everything went black.

  CHAPTER TEN

  FISHER STOOD AND WATCHED the people appear in the big room.

  It was just creepy. One moment there would be an empty spot, the next moment a person would be standing there. No shimmering, no sound, nothing. Just sort of “blink” and a person appeared.

  Creepy.

  Benson had left them almost an hour before to tend to other duties, so Fisher and Doc had stayed in the room, gotten a quick sandwich, then helped the crew get ready for survivors to come in.

  A guy by the name of Glove explained to them what was going to happen. It seemed they were going to bring in about two hundred survivors to this room, give them medical attention, let them get cleaned up and eat something and try to just keep them calm for a number of hours until they could be returned to the exact spot where they were taken.

  “Will the rescued people remember any of this?” Doc had asked.

  Grove had shaken his head. “Very few of them will, and those few who do will think they just had a very strange dream.”

  Grove had stationed all the help around the room to assist people as they appeared. He told Fisher and Doc that when the room was full, all the survivors that were coming to this room were here, Benson would come and give an explanation of what was happening.

  Then it would be up to the staff of the room to keep the people calm and fed until they could be sent back.

  Fisher had been assigned an area near the big window looking over the city.

  At first he was stunned at the smell of a few people as they arrived. The worst-smelling were taken out of the room almost at once, which Fisher appreciated. He had been around dead animal bodies before, but never an
ything like this.

  After fifteen minutes, most of the people had arrived. He had helped a couple people find chairs and reassured a couple others that a full explanation would be coming.

  Then, when he thought the room couldn’t hold any more, about ten feet to his left a beautiful woman appeared, looking as stunned as everyone else.

  Fisher had to step back. The attraction to her was so intense, he could feel it instantly.

  She was the most beautiful woman he could remember seeing.

  Ever.

  And he wasn’t honestly the type that noticed attractive women. He had been so wrapped up in his work and studies for years and years, a relationship hadn’t even crossed his mind.

  It just seemed like it would have been too much work and taken too much time.

  And back when he was fat, no woman would look at him anyway.

  So the fact that he had a reaction to a woman was very different for him.

  Very, very different.

  His heart was racing, he felt short of breath, and all he could do was stare at her.

  She looked to be just slightly shorter than he was and about the same age. She had short brown hair that was messed up so that it looked like she had been sleeping when brought up to the ship.

  She wore a green and yellow sweatshirt that looked like it was from a university somewhere and dark sweatpants. She didn’t have shoes on, only green socks.

  And she looked to be in great shape, as if she exercised.

  She stood there, alone, sort of staring around, taking in the big room and clearly trying to get her balance and bearings.

  And then suddenly she caught sight of the view out the big window behind her.

  She spun around to stare at it.

  Fisher somehow got himself to move and just in time as she stared at the planet below and then just sort of slowly started to slump.

  He managed to catch her before she hit the floor.

  She mumbled something and then passed out.

  He picked her up, savoring the feel of her in his arms. He quickly moved her over to an empty chair where he eased her down into place.

  Fisher got her situated and motioned for one of the big ship’s medical staff.

  An older woman in a white smock came quickly over and knelt in front of the woman he had caught.

  The medical person did a quick check with a small medical device and scanner and nodded. “Exhaustion, hunger, and shock,” she said. “She’ll be fine. Stay with her. I’ll have someone bring some food and something to drink.”

  Fisher nodded and pulled another chair over facing the woman he found so attractive.

  A juice drink and a few cookies were brought over from the food table by another staff member and handed to Fisher just as the woman started to come around.

  “You’re going to be all right,” Fisher said softly.

  He wanted to lean in and touch her hand, but instead stayed back.

  The woman opened her eyes and seemed to take a moment before she focused on Fisher’s smiling face.

  At least he was doing his best to smile. His stomach was twisting and he was scared to death even trying to take care of this woman.

  When her eyes focused, she jerked back in her chair.

  “Sorry,” he said, still smiling. “I’m really not a monster. Honest. A scientist, yes, but not a monster.”

  She didn’t respond to his lame attempt at a joke, but he kept smiling. Damned if he could think of anything else to do.

  “I…” she tried to say, but nothing came out.

  “Here, drink a little of this,” he said, indicating the glass. “I have no idea what it is, but more than likely some sort of apple juice.”

  She nodded and tried to take the glass in her shaking hands.

  Fisher just held onto it and she closed her hands around his to guide it to her mouth.

  He thought his heart was going to leap out of his body.

  Her touch was wonderful, her skin slightly rough, but still electrical.

  She just kept staring at him, into his eyes, and he helped her take a drink.

  After a little sip she nodded. “Apple.”

  “Good to know,” he said, still smiling like he was a fool in a carnival.

  He pulled the glass away, suddenly very disappointed he was not touching her hands again.

  He then offered her a cookie.

  “Again, I have no idea what kind, but the medical people said you should eat them. They said that more than likely you were hungry and in shock.”

  She nodded, took the cookie and pretty much devoured it.

  “Peanut butter,” she said as he handed her another.

  “Good to know.”

  She glanced back at the view of the planet below, then back at Fisher.

  “Is that real?”

  Fisher nodded. “You are in orbit above the planet. A very nice man is going to show up in a few minutes and try to explain this all.”

  “Were you down there as well?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “I just arrived above your planet about four hours ago.”

  “Arrived?” she asked. “Where exactly are you from?”

  Fisher had no way to not tell this incredibly attractive woman anything but the truth.

  He pointed off to his right. “About sixty some light years in that direction.”

  All she could do was nod as she worked on the other cookie and alternated her attention from looking into his eyes to staring at the planet below.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CALLIE SLOWLY CAME BACK from the darkness.

  Before she opened her eyes she heard the sounds of a large room of people, some crying, some talking, but all the voices sort of merging into one loud sound.

  She had spun around and looked out from what seemed to be a position in orbit. The moment before, she had been asleep in a lodge in Oregon after cleaning out more dead bodies than she wanted to think about.

  The quick turn had made her dizzy, more than likely made worse by being suddenly woken up.

  That lodge had been a nightmare she hoped she would wake up from.

  But she didn’t expect to wake up in yet another unexplained nightmare and then just pass out like a real baby. That was not like her at all.

  She was now sitting in a chair and she slowly eased her eyes open.

  Someone was sitting across from her, but she let the last of the dizziness fade a little more before she tried to focus on that person.

  When her eyes did focus, she jerked back.

  She was facing the most handsome man she had ever seen, with the most beautiful, if not strained smile on his face.

  He had short brown hair, bright green eyes, was clean-shaven, and had shoulders like an athlete. She guessed him to be about her age.

  He made a lame sort of joke about not being a monster and not meaning to scare her.

  He hadn’t scared her. She just hadn’t expected to wake up to her perfect man. Now if the guy had a brain, she would be in heaven.

  Then she looked around, realizing she actually hadn’t dreamed being on a ship in orbit.

  Mr. Handsome offered her a juice he thought might be apple juice and then had to help her drink it.

  His hands felt wonderful.

  Hers were shaking.

  He said something about her being in shock, being exhausted, and being hungry.

  Of course. She really needed to learn to pay attention to her eating. She had only had a sandwich six or so hours before crawling in bed after doing all that physical work moving the bodies.

  No wonder she passed out.

  The apple juice tasted wonderful and then he gave her a peanut butter cookie she managed to not completely inhale.

  She could feel her nerves starting to calm as the juice and cookie hit her system.

  She just kept staring into the guy’s wonderful green eyes, not at all really wanting to look away. But then finally she did, turning to look out at the planet below them.

&nb
sp; Then she asked him if he had been down there and he had said he hadn’t been, that he had just arrived, and was from a planet about sixty light years away.

  Okay, she was still dreaming.

  But at least now instead of dreaming about moving dead people, she was dreaming about the most handsome man she had ever met.

  Then, as Mr. Handsome had promised, a man came out of a back room and got up onto a stage.

  Somehow he managed to get everyone’s attention. Mr. Handsome moved his chair around so that he would also face the guy talking. She felt disappointed because she couldn’t look into his eyes anymore.

  She finished off the second cookie, downed the last of the apple juice, and he gave her a third cookie.

  She was feeling a lot better.

  “My name is Benson,” the man said, smiling at the room that Callie guessed had at least two or three hundred people in it, if not more.

  “And this is my ship you are on. We are in orbit around your planet. There are just under one hundred other ships similar in size and shape to this one also here representing almost fifty different planets in this rescue operation.”

  There was a lot of murmuring and Callie understood why. That simple information was almost too much for anyone to swallow.

  Benson held up his hand. “All of us are as human as all of you, I can promise you that. And we are here to help.”

  The sounds in the room slowly settled away and she glanced at Mr. Handsome, who seemed to be very intently interested in what Benson was saying, as if he had never heard it before.

  “About a day ago your planet was hit by an intense wave of electromagnetic energy.”

  On a large screen behind him the image of this area of the galaxy appeared and showed one star sending out an intense white beam of light and it intersected another sun.

  “The electromagnetic pulse basically short-circuited the human brain. You were all saved in one way or another because you were either inside something that sheltered you, or underground. Just over two million survived the first pulse.”

  “First pulse?” someone shouted.