Little Deaths
Page 9
From: SOSQ Project Head
Sent: Aug 17, 2027
To: Serent, Dr. Henry D. [h.serent.x-lg-prime@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: Re: EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 256, Seq. 7, Data Stream 4-08-81XCV
Attachments: Lofeed.stuf
CONFIRMATION CODE: JT-JTG-43-X/CVBO, SIGMA
8/16/27 Report received and filed. All appropriate protocols in place. EYES ONLY in full effect.
Okay, so it’s out in the open—you’re pissed, but I’m trying on my end to get someone to at least put their eyes on your recommendations. But, again, think of what you’re asking. You’re asking them to abandon the very thing they put their money into this for. A look into the past is interesting, sure. Like Jesus on the cross, Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel, Napoleon frozen in Russia. But these have no strategic value; they’re purely academic. You know that—you knew that coming into this.
But the future… to get a glimpse into the future? That’s the ticket. To see who’s going to cause problems that we need to prepare for? Who’s going to smuggle weapons, develop nukes, arm terrorists? Which country will be spoiling for a fight? That’s what the military paid for… a fast dance and a fuck later, not a slow dance and a peck on the cheek.
And… really? Funky? What’s your PhD in, anyway? You’re not old enough to have graduated from Berkeley in the ‘70s. Be more clear. Stupid bureaucratic layman, remember?
Ranel, huh? Interesting name. Glad you’re doing something to take your mind off of the blahs…
From: Serent, Dr. Henry D.
Sent: Aug 19, 2027
To: Project Head [Sosq.DOD.Proj.LOOKINGGLASS.24-107-89@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: ALERT!! EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 258, Seq. 3, Data Stream 6-90-22DFG
Attachments: SOSQ Report 8/19/27.hexaq.doc.encrypt.key1aprime
PROTOCOL 8 ENACTED. Lockdown in effect. All reports except for those coming from this office have been terminated. The central computer core and the Collider Ring have been powered down and the tau field generator has been narrowed to accept only data from all open grids/annums.
Power Grid: Steady.
Containment: Reporting steady, but chroniton radiation is increasing exponentially.
Tau Field Status: Stable, except in 1 grid/annum
Grid Node Report: Stable.
Sorry to cut the normal report short, but you wanted funky, so you got it.
Reports coming in from Agent 10/78-D-64-X-LG-89: Grid Node 1, Annum 3190+, Day 15 are disturbing. Evidently there’s something going on in this grid/annum that is catastrophic. Agent’s biometrics and data streams are in extreme flux, but from what the analysis team can decipher, there are some serious environmental disturbances occurring there… and they aren’t isolated to this particular grid. They may be planetary. I say ‘may be’ because… well… shit… we just can’t tell at this point. I’m uploading the telemetry with my normal (hah!) report. Maybe your eggheads can tell mine what’s going on.
Not funky enough? Here’s the kicker. The causality point we’re directing the tau field at to open Grid 1, Annum 3190+ isn’t just unstable… it seems to be moving.
From: SOSQ Project Head
Sent: Aug 19, 2027
To: Serent, Dr. Henry D. [h.serent.x-lg-prime@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: Re: ALERT!! EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 258, Seq. 3, Data Stream 6-90-22DFG
CONFIRMATION CODE: HM-CJF-32-X/JDSIV, EPSILON
8/16/27 Report received and filed. All appropriate protocols in place. EYES ONLY continues in full effect.
WTF? Protocol 8? We have never put Protocol 8 in place.
I immediately uploaded your latest report to the higher ups, and their egg heads are indeed looking at the data with tremendous concern. Needless to say, you’ve got everyone’s attention on this… finally.
What precisely do you mean by ‘the causality point is moving’? That’s not possible, Hank. NOT. POSSIBLE.
Get back to me immediately. Lord, I wish phone lines worked down there.
From: Serent, Dr. Henry D.
Sent: Aug 20, 2027
To: Project Head [Sosq.DOD.Proj.LOOKINGGLASS.24-107-89@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: ALERT!! EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 259, Seq. 9, Data Stream 10-01-98MMT
Attachments: UPDATED SOSQ Report 8/19/27.hexaq.doc.encrypt.key1aprime
I’m dispensing with the usual reports because, well, they don’t mean anything right now.
We’ve been up all night down here—whatever that means—studying this. We’re bleary eyed and our brains hurt, but here’s what we know at the moment:
Agent’s reports from Grid Node 1, Annum 3190+ have been partially deciphered. There appears to be some planet wide catastrophe, something involving the atmosphere… we don’t know. Could be weather related, could be solar, could be a comet/asteroid strike. But we know it’s big… we know it’s planetary… and we know it’s an Omega Event. Pure and simple.
More disturbing? The causality point for Grid 1, Annum 3190+ is moving. Repeat: this causality point is moving, despite our theories to the contrary. We’re working on it now, but there’s no arguing with the telemetry data.
Even more disturbing: it’s moving backwards… do you understand what I’m saying?
It’s moving backwards in time. To keep up with it, we’ve had to readjust the tau emitter every two hours or so. And then we have to hunt around for it.
Right now, Annum 3190+ is at the causality point for 2844+… and it’s still regressing.
This isn’t funky anymore… it’s terrifying.
From: SOSQ Project Head
Sent: Aug 20, 2027
To: Serent, Dr. Henry D. [h.serent.x-lg-prime@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: Re: ALERT!! EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 259, Seq. 9, Data Stream 10-01-98MMT
Okay, slow down… grab some shuteye and a cup of coffee, because you have created a shitstorm up here, and my umbrella is leaking. So you’re gonna catch some of it.
The higher up’s eggheads are saying that what you laid out is flatly impossible. (That is, except for one ultra egghead from MIT who is saying that it makes perfect sense when looked at from a quantum level. Yeah… whatever. I don’t even think my reading glasses see things on the quantum level!)
Causality points don’t move… they can’t move. So, now we’re reanalyzing the stuff you sent up and trying to make sense of it from another angle. I will keep you posted, but make sure I get any updates as fast as you can get them to me. The boys upstairs are practically beating down my door for your response, and I haven’t even pressed the damn ‘Send’ button.
There…
From: Serent, Dr. Henry D.
Sent: Aug 21, 2027
To: Project Head [Sosq.DOD.Proj.LOOKINGGLASS.24-107-89@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: ALERT!! EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 260, Seq. 1, Data Stream 09-24-93STT
Attachments: SOSQ Report 8/21/27.hexaq.doc.encrypt.key1aprime
Can’t sleep… coffee is about all that’s keeping me (and everyone else down here!) awake. Well, that’s not entirely true… coffee, caffeine tablets… and fear.
Do you know what it means when scientists are afraid, Pete?
It means there’s something you damn well should be afraid of.
The fucking causality point is moving!!! Tell the idiots to review the data without having their heads up their asses. The finest minds on this project are down here in this metal tube in the desert, as you put it, and we’re all in agreement. You can tell the eggheads for me to shove their candy-ass theories up their… well, their candy asses. There should be plenty of room when they remove their heads.
Review the new telemetry reports. No further biometrics or data are c
oming in from Agent 10/78-D-64-X-LG-89. Nothing for roughly 18 hours. He’s dead, or that world—that annum—is dead.
And there is no doubt—impress this upon them, Pete—there is no doubt that the causality point is moving… regressing… back flowing, if you will. Latest readings have it at Annum 2713+ and still moving.
I don’t know what else to say. I extracted all my agents from all current grid/annums and closed every open portal. The collider is in minimum power mode and the tau field is focused entirely on our moving causality point.
Tell me what to do here, Pete. Tell me something that makes me think we didn’t just fuck up on a colossal scale.
From: SOSQ Project Head
Sent: Aug 21, 2027
To: Serent, Dr. Henry D. [h.serent.x-lg-prime@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: Re: ALERT!! EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 260, Seq. 1, Data Stream 09-24-93STT
Everything’s gone quiet on my end. Plenty of long faces and closed mouths… you know what that means around here. It means you’re right, and they’re afraid to acknowledge it.
They don’t know what to do, so I sure hope there are enough coffee and caffeine tablets down there with you to keep your guys alert and thinking… because there’s nothing left up here.
How could this have happened? How can a causality point fucking move?
From: Serent, Dr. Henry D.
Sent: Aug 22, 2027
To: Project Head [Sosq.DOD.Proj.LOOKINGGLASS.24-107-89@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: ALERT!! EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 261, Seq. 2, Data Stream 06-28-92BHT
Attachments: SOSQ Report 8/22/27.hexaq.doc.encrypt.key1aprime
Fear? Well, there’s plenty of that to go around here, too. But it’s a great motivator… so far, at least. I just hope that it doesn’t cause us to crawl back into our little rooms, curl up in the corner, and cry for our mommies.
How could this have happened? Do you really want my answer to that, Pete? Because I think you know what my answer would be… minus a few four-letter words.
How can a causality point move? Well, that’s the thing we’ve been bashing around down here. Here’s what we think at present… and I warn you, it isn’t comforting on any level.
I used the words back flow in my last email. But that’s not really a good metaphor. A more apt metaphor for what we’re dealing with might be a rubber band. Think of time as a rubber band that’s stretching into the future. The past is done, used up, and time is sort of pulling it along. The future, though, is constantly stretching the other end of the rubber band. (I know, I know, but keep with me here). But that stretching doesn’t go any more forward than a few brief milliseconds… if that. We don’t know why that is yet. Perhaps the future isn’t something static, already set like the past. Who knows?
What seems to have happened is that when we fired up the collider and aimed the tau field at a future event, we stretched the ‘rubber band’ forward, more than it could handle. Now, I don’t know if 3190+ was too far or if 2028+ would be too far or if even one second from this very moment would be too far.
But what we did went too far: it taxed the entire physics of time beyond its nature. And now the rubber band is snapping back—for lack of a better, more scientific term. It’s actually bringing whatever was in that annum back to us… the whole kit and caboodle, hurtling backwards through time. Very probably wiping out whatever was between that annum and ours… whatever that might be… or was… or will be… or… jeez, I hate temporal riddles. (A funny thing for a temporal scientist, don’t you think?)
Pete, we still haven’t defined exactly what 3190+ is bringing with it, but whatever it is, it’s not the second coming of Christ or the Rapture or the Elysian Fields.
And if this analogy… metaphor… whatever holds up, there’s every reason to suppose that the snapback will bring it right to our doorstep. Right back to where it started…
The causality point is, at this very moment, skirting the edges of 2413… and accelerating. We figure there’s about 18 hours before it reaches 2027…
From: SOSQ Project Head
Sent: Aug 22, 2027
To: Serent, Dr. Henry D. [h.serent.x-lg-prime@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: ALERT!! EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 261, Seq. 2, Data Stream 06-28-92BHT
Jesus. I mean… Jesus…
Everyone’s walking around here with sphincters so tight that if they were to eat charcoal, they’d shit diamonds. People… higher ups… I mean real higher ups… are leaving, going home to be with their families… deserting… giving up…
I’m going to hang around. Since Janey died, there’s no one to go home to anyway. Maggie’s moved away and Josh… well… who knows?
Has it occurred to you that you’re sitting in a metal tube thousands of feet below the ground? Has it occurred to you that you’re sitting on 15 floors of supplies, with everything from toilet paper and distilled water to MREs and batteries?
Has it occurred to you that your team, all 258 of them, might be all that’s left in the end? Might be the only ones to survive this… whatever this is?
Jesus, Hank…
From: Serent, Dr. Henry D.
Sent: Aug 22, 2027
To: Project Head [Sosq.DOD.Proj.LOOKINGGLASS.24-107-89@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: ALERT!! EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 261, Seq. 4, Data Stream 12-21-63JFT
It’s an asteroid, Pete. One about the size of Texas.
It hits New Zealand or the area right around there.
It’s a planet killer…
Pete… God protect you… all of you up there…
It’s at annum 2302… probably 7 hours or so…
From: SOSQ Project Head
Sent: Aug 22, 2027
To: Serent, Dr. Henry D. [h.serent.x-lg-prime@ blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: The Future… hah…
People are fleeing here like rats out of a… well… you know.
The media’s caught wind of something, but no one knows yet. No one knows. I guess they never will. I’m staying right here, my friend. I’m glad, at least, that one of my close friends will live through this.
Stay safe, Hank. Lead a good life. Get with Ranel… marry her… have 10 or 12 children. Tell your staff that the policy of non-fraternization is hereby officially lifted and that, as my last order, I command them to hook up and repopulate the human race… the entire human race.
I am weeping right now, but there’s no one around in the building to even hear me. I think I will weep until the moment the damn thing hits and the pressure wave or the heat wave or whatever wipes out this annum.
Should have listened to you. Cold comfort now to be told you were right, huh? But there it is: you were… are… will be. Temporal riddles… yeah, they suck.
Good luck… and God bless, my friend.
Say a prayer for the souls of all mankind. You and your people will be the only ones left to remember us… and ask for grace for us. I hope you do both.
From: Serent, Dr. Henry D.
Sent: Aug 22, 2027
To: Project Head [Sosq.DOD.Proj.LOOKINGGLASS.24-107-89@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: Re: The Future… hah!
Pete? It’s at 2045… moving like a juggernaut.
Take care, dear friend, and save a chair for me wherever you end up. We’ll see each other again, I’m sure… I hope…
God forgive us all.
From: MAILER-DAEMON@ 23CFP:GOV.DOD/DOE/LG
Sent: Aug 22, 2027
To: Serent, Dr. Henry D. [h.serent.x-lg-prime@ blops.DOE.gov]
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From: Serent, Dr. Henry D.
Sent: Aug 04, 2027
To: Project Head [Sosq.DOD.Proj.LOOKINGGLASS.24-107-89@blops.DOE.gov]
Cc: RESTRICTED
Subject: EYES ONLY REPORT.
Proj. Day 244, Seq. 5, Data Stream 09-08-63JCF
Attachments: SOSQ Report 8/04/27.hexaq.doc.encrypt.key3
Protrocol 3 continues, with all divisions reporting normal. Checklist follows:
Power Grid: All three generators report steady. Collider at full power.
Containment: Magnetic, plasma and ionic fields active and working.
Tau Field Status: The field is steady and permeable to ingress/egress of all data and bioforms.
Grid Node Report: Stable.
Personnel Report: Highlights below. Detailed report will be filed per Protocol 7 indices.
Agent 10/78-D-64-X-LG-89: Agent will be inserted at 09:45 this morning into Grid Node 1, Annum 3190+, despite my ongoing objections to this phase of the project. There is still, in my opinion, not enough data to show us what the results of a forward incursion might be. Protocol 7 strictures for this part of the project are in place. Team reports stream is stable, causality point is targeted and tau field is at full strength. Agent reports ready, as to the medical, insertion and power teams. If no other word is received from SOSQ-DOD by 09:30, insertion will proceed.