Reaction

by Seth M. Baker

  “Watch this,” Lilly said. She typed rapid-fire commands on the keyboard. A video began. It looked like the other ones, with his father doing an experiment, recording the dial settings, only this time the orb of light grew larger.

  “What happens?”

  “Just watch.” Amadeus watched.

  The animal screams started, just as before, but this time the sound combined with a murmur of a thousand voices. The light changed from white to blue to red, its center deep orange and pulsating, like the glowing ember of a coal fire. The shape changed as well, having one then two then four orbs around a center point, like a flower with constantly–changing petals.

  “This is strange,” Tommy Brunmeier’s voice said. The light collapsed in on itself, like poking a half-filled balloon, then something happened: a creature emerged from the orb and landed on the floor. “What the…?” Tommy said, his voice more intrigued than baffled. The creature had four legs, was shaped and sized almost like a dog, but had more mouth than head. Columns of eyes covered the thighs of its forelegs, and where the head should’ve been, a million needle-like teeth sat in a lipless mouth. The skin was mottled grey. It walked, shaky on its legs, like a newborn calf, and its claws, three on each leg, clicked on the concrete floor. The creature turned to face the control room and cried out, distorting the sound from the video.

  The light started to collapse in on itself. Another leg stuck emerged. Tommy shut off the power. The light faded away. When it did, the leg that had been sticking through fell to the ground. Immediately the first creature started gnawing on it.

  “What have I done?” his father’s voice said. Amadeus watched as his father left the screen. He entered the control room with his rifle. The creature looked up from his meal, turned to his father, and growled just before Tommy started firing at it. The creature shrieked and started for him, but the bullets knocked it back. When it fell to the floor with its legs splayed, Tommy kept shooting at it, shooting until he emptied the magazine. Then he lowered his rifle and leaned over to examine it, putting his hand over his heart in some gesture Amadeus didn’t understand.

  He kicked it. The creature twitched. Tommy jumped back, raising his rifle. He waited a moment then turned it over with the rifle barrel. He got the camera and zoomed in on the creature. Its blood was greenish-black. His father stepped on its paw and the claws extended out even farther. The skin was cracked like dried leather, covered with tiny scars. The eyes, they weren’t quite on the knees but just above them. Using the rifle, Tommy peeled back a fold of skin that covered a row of eyes going up the leg to the creature’s shoulder.

  “I have no idea what I’m looking at,” Amadeus’ father said, “but it’s the ugliest damn thing I’ve ever seen.” The video ended with his father looking at the camera and shaking his head. Amadeus reached for a scrap of paper sitting by the keyboard. He started to put it in his mouth but Lilly put her hand on his and stopped him.

  “Think harder, and without the aid of paper.” Amadeus did as she asked. If this creature was like no animal on Earth, where had it come from? Did his father actually create a Lorentzian wormhole? But those were supposed to be theoretical, done in a vacuum, and incapable of even allowing a single photon through. There was the evidence, though, right in front of him. And what did his father do with the creature’s body? Was this the real reason he stopped his research? Did he even tell anyone about this?

  “What’s the date on the video?” Lilly asked.

  Amadeus checked and found it was after his official censure. So his father had continued his work.

  “This isn’t the last video, is it?” Amadeus said.

  “No, there are more, but as far as I can tell, that’s the only, um, thing besides the sounds to come through.” Amadeus shook his head and went to make a pot of coffee. When he came back, they set to work, reading and reviewing the remaining videos. It was early, just after five in the morning. Outside, the sun was beginning to break over the mountains and stream through the skylights. At seven o’clock, a man in an electric wheelchair rolled through the door. Jones. The pupil of his right eye was swollen; it glinted like polished onyx. Wires ran from his neck and back into a box attached to the rear of the chair. Amadeus stood up and went to shake his hand.

  “Good to see you, boy,” Jones said. “I guess I didn’t look this bad last time I saw you, what, ten years ago?” Amadeus nodded, said that was right. “Time and disease do awful things to a man, but at least I’ve still got my mind.” He tapped the side of his head with curled finger. “Right, Lilly darling?”

  “Daddy, you lost that a long time ago,” Lilly said, smiling at him but not getting up.

  “She's great, isn't she?” Jones said. Amadeus nodded. The silence lasted just a beat too long. “And Amadeus, I'm terribly sorry about what happened to your father. I warned him, I said 'Brunmeier, you're playing with fire.' And you know what he said? He said, ‘if I get burned, at least I’ll have the scars to show what I’ve done.’ And now you see what he was working on?”

  Amadeus nodded and told him about the portal.

  “Do you understand why he was interested in this kind of research?” Jones asked.

  “He was a theoretical physicist. This was his passion. Figuring out ways to exploit the laws of quantum physics to create a teleportation device,” Amadeus said. Jones smiled a sad little smile.

  “Maybe that’s how it started, but you need to understand something: adults never tell their kids everything. Sorry, Lilly. What drove your father, what made him abandon all his other research for the last, what, eight years? Understand that the man wasn’t some mad scientist. He was grieving. It was his way of dealing with your mother's death. Early on they had worked on this together. Her death almost killed him. I think he continued in order to honor her memory. If it weren't for you, I doubt he would've even bothered living.”

  “I'm not sure I understand,” Amadeus said.

  “Amadeus, theoretical physicists have postulated for years that all time exists at one time. Rather than our standard linear understanding of time, imagine everything that’s ever happened happening at once. This theory was impossible to test…until your father figured out how to use the negative mass of the kipium to stabilize an Einstein-Rosen bridge. You see, my boy, your father was working on a portal independent of time and space. What he got was this creature from god-knows-where. But he had a different motivation. Your father wanted to talk to your mother one more time. He thought he could create a bridge to the past, one he could use for communications. In short, he wanted to talk to the dead.”

  15

  Jones told Amadeus how his father had called him years ago, when Amadeus’ mother was still alive. Tommy was excited about new research developments. Revolutionary, Tommy had called them. Of course he couldn’t share it with the world, they would think he had gone insane. Early success led to later obstacles. Eventually the money started to run out. That’s when his father went looking for investors.

  “Daddy, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?” Lilly said, putting the video on a loop with the sound off. Amadeus tried not to look at the creature appearing, his father shooting it, the expression he wore when he spoke to the camera.

  “He explained his work to me, how he had used kipium to stabilize the portal. He never mentioned anything about these creatures, though. I told him I couldn’t provide any funding, but I connected him with a high-rolling venture capitalist New Yorker I knew through an acquaintance. Esther Elgers. Tommy told me she practically frothed at the mouth when he told her about the practical applications. Think about it. Teleportation. Even if only for physical goods…the change that would bring about would make the world unrecognizable. Of course the kinks had to be ironed out, and that would take about a decade.”

  “The kinks being monsters crawling through the portals,” Amadeus said.

  “Yes, there’s that, but also more important question: how to control the exit or outputs of the portal. Imagine someone built a hyper-e
fficient engine with a million horsepower…but didn’t have a vehicle to put it in. Without wheels, it’s completely useless. He needed partners and funding to turn his research into something practical, to help build a vehicle for his engine.”

  Amadeus felt something twist and pinch his gut. His father had started something that could remake the world. Eliminating distance for physical goods. Too many powerful interests would want to prevent this.

  “Who knew about this?” Amadeus said.

  “Esther did. The other partners, whoever they are. And myself.”

  “You, uh, don’t look like the killing type,” Amadeus said.

  “Thanks for that, my boy,” Jones said.

  “But if only a handful of people knew about this, then it’s probably reasonable to assume one of them killed my father. Because they wanted to control the technology. To steal what my father created then finish the work on their own. Or sell it to the highest bidder.”

  “That’s a bitch,” a gravelly voice said. Gravity. He was leaning against the door frame, two days worth of stubble making his face look like weathered, unpainted wood. “Looks like you’re going to be playing detective.”

  “Why?” Amadeus said.

  “Do you understand the damage you could do with a piece of tech like that? You could destabilize an entire continent,” Gravity said. “Forget about moving goods and materials or talking to dead people. That’s peanuts. Think about what you could do if you could, and let’s call a crow a crow, summon demons from another world. Demons, Amadeus. Monsters. Think of all the theocrats, dictators and military contractors that would love to get their finger on the trigger of this technology. In my work, at one point or another, I’ve dealt with all these people. They’re all incredibly, mind-fuckingly rich. They’re also, down to a man, bat-shit crazy. You have no idea how big their budget is. Larger than the GDP of more than a few developing countries.”

  “Gravity, did you know about this?” Amadeus asked.

  “No. Your father told me he was up to something really big, that’s it. And, as I said, that he might need my help. Looking back, I wouldn’t have told me either. Who can you trust in situations like this? It was a simple matter of information security.”

  “Well, his security was shit. And am I the only one that didn’t have any idea he was up to something big?”

  “I was clueless,” Lilly said.

  “But, I think, he never told anyone the whole story,” Jones said. “Just a bit, here and there. It’s like he hoped we would all come together and figure this out.”

  “I’m sorry, but I just can’t see my dad planning anything like this. I mean, he forgot to put a password on a server that held apparently top-secret research into accidentally summoning monsters through wormholes. And he lost his car keys at least once a week. Does that sound like a man who can make a plan like that?” The memory of his father looking under the couch made his eyes start to water. He pushed it back, made himself angry by thinking about the man who shot at them in Denver, how good it felt to kick him in the ribs…

  “I think your dad had the big picture stuff down,” Jones said. “It was the practical day-to-day stuff he couldn’t handle.”

  “So let me get this straight. My dad spent several years working on Lorentzian wormholes. His main goal was to develop a method to move physical goods. But somewhere along the way he theorized that these gates would somehow open a communications channel that would let him talk to his dead wife, my mother, who would actually be alive at some other time. Jones, you think one of his partners betrayed him and stole all his research. And Gravity, you think someone could be working to build one of these, these, gates right now, probably plans to sell it or turn it into a weapon.”

  “That is correct,” Jones said.

  “You forgot about the demons,” Lilly said. “The little side effect.”

  “And of course,” Amadeus said, “how could I forget about the existence of goddamn living, eyes-on-their-leg inter-dimensional demons. You know what? Four days ago, you know what my biggest concern was? That I had to give commencement address at my university graduation. I thought that speech was the worst, most terrifying thing I had ever done. And you know what?”

  “Congratulations, by the way,” Jones said.

  “And people used to bitch about the selective service,” Gravity said, chuckling.

  “I freaked out and ran away. Maybe if I hadn’t run away… But right now, I’d trade those problems for these any day. And I’ll be damned if I run away again. I am going to find whoever did this and murder them. In a painful way. I’m going to—”

  “Easy now,” Gravity said. “You can’t just run around killing people willy nilly…You need a plan for that. Trust me on that. We don’t know a thing about the partners yet except there are four of them, and one is named Esther.”

  “Lilly, honey,” Jones said, “can you start a deep search on Tommy’s digital life, especially anything that might indicate going to meetings or regular communiqués with his investors?” Lilly nodded and pushed Amadeus out of the dentist’s chair, smiling like an executioner as she did so.

  “Even if you find the information you’re looking for, who the investors are,” Gravity said, “you still need to meet these people in person, starting with Esther. You need blood samples and fingerprints, right?”

  “That’s right. But as I’m wanted for murder, I can’t exactly hop on an airplane,” Amadeus said. Jones laughed. Everyone looked at him. He beamed like a proud father.

  “Gentlemen, I have the perfect solution to this conundrum. Follow me,” Jones said, turning his wheelchair and rolling out of the room towards the hangar, the whine of its motor reverberating through the hall.

  16

  Jones rolled out to the big visual distortion in the middle of the hangar. Amadeus had seen cloaking tarps before, and but he wanted to see what was beneath this one. He looked over at Gravity to see if he had any idea what Jones was going to show them. Gravity shrugged and followed Jones over. Jones grabbed one side of the tarp and told Gravity to pull the other. Together, they pulled the tarp away to reveal what looked like the body of a plastic and steel insect, all grey, dome-shaped like a beetle, only instead of legs, three cylinders the size of 55-gallon drums stuck out from arms on either side; two smaller ones were mounted on the tail. Amadeus pointed to one of the cylinders and said: “variable–pitch turbofans?”

  “Nailed it. And they’re nearing completion,” Jones said, smiling, proud.

  “But what is it?” Amadeus said.

  “What is it?” Jones repeated, feigning insult. “Why, it’s only the future of personal transportation you’re looking at, that’s what it is. Using the latest in solar-powered hydrogen generation, this machine can transport five hundred kilograms almost six thousand kilometers on a single charge. Gentleman and lady, may I present the Pachyderm.” No one said anything for a moment. Finally, Gravity broke the silence.

  “Isn’t a pachyderm an elephant?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “But that doesn’t look like an elephant,” Amadeus said. “It doesn’t have a trunk.”

  “Okay, look. I build things, but I don’t do marketing. I couldn’t sell food to the famished. So I hired a branding consultant. She told me an elephant with wings would be a great logo. What was that old movie with the flying elephant?” No one answered. “And before anyone says anything about elephants being heavy, let me ask you this: what do you know about nanosteel?” Amadeus spoke.

  “It’s lighter than lithium and stronger than any other modern alloy or carbon fiber,” Amadeus said. “It’s nearly bulletproof. You sent me some, but it’s a bitch on a lathe.”

  “Sorry you never got to use it. Anyway, this material is perfect for avionics. Most people can’t get it yet, but I’ve got a guy who knows a girl who knows a guy that can get me all that I want.”

  “Have you actually flown this thing?” Gravity said.

  “I’ve developed simulations and built m
odels that operated in wind tunnels under unfavorable conditions.”

  “But you’ve never actually flown it,” Amadeus said. He crossed his arms.

  “You thick, insensitive bastards. Look at me! Look at my body,” Jones said, smacking the armrest of his wheelchair. “Do I have the physique of a test pilot? Do you really think I could safely fly this? Look, Amadeus, I am extending this as an offer to you, as a favor to the son of my old friend. You’ll be the first person who will successfully fly the machine that will cause a paradigm shift in personal transportation. In fact, I would be honored if you would use my machine…but if you mock it, I will retract the offer as one takes a toy from a petulant child.” As Jones spoke, he craned his neck forward, holding onto the edges of his chair. After he finished, he leaned back and seemed to relax. “I assure you, the research is sound. I’ve worked on this for almost five years now.”