The Perfect Moment in Peril

by Kenneth Preston

  He smiled warmly. It wasn't one of those Hey, it's nice to meet you smiles. It was a smile of familiarity.

  Emily's hand shook violently in his. She let go. A gasp.

  David looked at her. Her face was contorted. Mouth agape. Lips trembling. Eyes brimming with tears.

  Shock.

  She recognized him.

  David leaned into her and whispered, “Em, who is this?”

  She didn't respond. She didn't even hear him.

  Her body trembled violently. The tears flowed.

  Her mouth closed, and when it opened again, a single word escaped: “Dad?”

  Chapter 25

  I won't lose you. I lost them, but I won't lose you.

  Their footfalls and their frantic breathing were the only sounds in the vacuum of silence. If they were capable of speaking at that moment, neither of them would have dared. What would they have said? What would she have said that would have elicited a response capable of either shaking or strengthening her resolve. She was in the zone. Her mission in that moment, her only mission, was clear―find Deanna.

  Thank goodness for the regenerative medicine coursing through their bodies. It gave them that extra kick when their muscles wanted to scream NO MORE! If it weren't for regenerative medicine, the significantly older Richard might have been left in the dust. She snuck a glance in his direction. He was chugging along next to her like a trooper. Good! She would need him.

  They managed to run full-steam through the short stretch of forest and up the embankment without tripping. Reaching the city's edge, they stopped. Richard bent forward, planted his hands on his thighs and dipped his head. He needed a moment to catch his breath which was just fine with Elexa considering the scene before her.

  Gloom and doom would be an understatement. The city looked as if it had been hit by a hurricane or a tornado or a tsunami or an earthquake or all of the above...simultaneously. A series of rectangular black stone structures, the tallest being no higher than three stories high, stretched off into the darkness. The city was in ruins. Some of the structures had partially collapsed; some had completely collapsed, leaving just the base of the structure and mounds of black rubble strewn about. Many of the structures that remained upright were cracked and leaning one way or the other as if just about ready to give up the fight.

  In the distance, she observed, what appeared to be, partially collapsed former skyscrapers. The tops were mangled. Severed beams jutted up from the stone, leaning this way and that. Large chunks of stone dangled from the sides of some of the buildings as if just waiting for a strong wind to knock them loose and send them plummeting to their final destination on the ground below.

  She looked to Richard, still struggling to catch his breath. Perhaps regenerative medicine wasn't quite as miraculous as she had been led to believe.

  Tapping his shoulder, she said, “Richard, you might want to look up.”

  Richard stood and took in the scene before him. He furrowed his brow. His mouth hung open.

  “What the hell happened here?!” he exclaimed.

  “Everything. Everything happened here.”

  “It's a disaster area.”

  “Understatement of the millennium, papa.”

  “What a mess.”

  "Right, and our crewmate, a member of our family...my partner, is lost in this mess.”

  Her first open acknowledgment of her relationship with Deanna was accidental. She just blurted it out. If she had blurted it out under better circumstances, she would have felt relieved to have kicked that ridiculous closed door wide open. But these weren't better circumstances; these were frightening circumstances, and openly acknowledging her relationship with Deanna only served to exacerbate that fear, reminding her of what could be if she and Deanna were permitted to continue down life's path together and what could be lost if she and Richard didn't act quickly.

  Richard's eyes met hers, as if silently acknowledging the door she had just opened to him. He nodded. “Let's go get her.”

  Elexa nodded her assent.

  They entered the city, eyes fixed on the broken and uneven stone street below their feet, each step slow and steady as if traversing a minefield. The street wasn't terribly wide, which frightened Elexa considering that a number of buildings were leaning over the street, leaning over their heads. A wall of black rubble in the street up ahead gave the duo a pretty terrifying picture of what would become of them should one of the buildings next to them come toppling down.

  “So what do you think happened here?” Elexa queried, gaping nervously at the leaning buildings.

  “Are you referring to the fact that this place is a disaster?”

  Elexa cocked an eyebrow. “No, I was referring to the fact that it's kinda dark out here.”

  “Everything happened here, like you said. I mean, I don't know for certain, but hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, tectonic shifts, years of neglect. All of the above is possible.”

  “Years of neglect. You think this city is uninhabited?”

  Richard stopped and looked at her incredulously.

  “You're right,” she conceded. “Silly question.”

  She caught sight of something moving in the corner of her eye, up ahead and off to her left. She jerked her head to the left. Nothing. But something had moved. She was sure of it.

  “What is it?” Richard asked.

  “Nothing,” she lied, as much to herself as to Richard. “Let's keep moving.”

  She took the first step, and it was a very deliberate one. Each step was more deliberate than the one before. She was no longer concerned with the buildings toppling down on them. She was concerned with what she had seen...or what she thought she had seen. No, what she had seen. It had been there. Something very real had moved off to her left. She hadn't just seen it; she had felt it. And she continued to feel it. That fear...that very real and rational fear that caused her heart to thump and her hands to shake, that told her that she and Richard were in immediate danger.

  She was terrified, but she couldn't afford to be. This was not about her or Richard; this was about Deanna. Deanna was somewhere in the area. For all she knew, it had been Deanna she had caught sight of. Like Elexa, she was probably terrified. She was running. Somebody or something was chasing her. In the darkness, she wouldn't recognize the silhouetted forms of Elexa and Richard. She would need to hear their voices, need to know that her family was there for her.

  She kept her eyes trained on the alleys.

  Something moved off to her right. She jerked her head. Nothing. Something moved to her left. She jerked her head. Nothing.

  She felt Richard look at her each time she snapped her head to one side or the other, but he didn't ask, and she didn't offer.

  She saw something move from the corner of her left eye. She snapped her head to the left in time to see a humanoid shaped shadow moving away down a nearby alley. It was gone before she had a chance to open her mouth.

  “Deanna!” she called.

  She took a step toward the alley before Richard placed a hand on her upper arm.

  “Wait!” Richard exclaimed.

  “What for what?! Didn't you see that?!”

  Richard appeared perplexed. “See what?”

  “That shadow. There's somebody down there...in that alley.”

  Richard glanced toward the alley before meeting Elexa's eyes. “I didn't see a shadow.”

  “Well, I did. It could be Deanna. We're wasting time. Deanna!”

  She yanked her arm away from Richard and ran toward the alley. That's when she heard the whispers. They stopped her dead in her tracks.

  Not Deanna.

  The whispers were indecipherable. They ceased as Richard pulled up alongside her.

  “Tell me you heard that,” she whispered.

  “I heard it.” His voice quivered.

  “Okay, so I'm not losing my mind.”

  “Not unless we both are.”

  “Plan of action?”

  Richard hesitated
before saying, “I think the only option we have is―”

  “Follow the shadow.”

  “I didn't see the shadow.”

  “Well, I did, and it went down that way.” She pointed toward the alley.

  “Right.” His voice was still quivering. “Let's get it out in the open. We're frightened. That's the point. So what do we do about it?”

  “We face our fears.”

  “Exactly.”

  They stepped simultaneously, flashlights trained on the alley, eyes expectantly wide. Each footfall was an eternity.

  Best case scenario―Deanna was huddled behind a pile of rubble, frightened but unharmed. Worst case scenario―Deanna was...no. That was no scenario at all. That was not a consideration. Her revised worst case scenario―the shadow man was in there waiting for them. Yes, she could handle that worst case scenario for the moment. That worst case scenario gave them a fighting chance.

  They turned into the alley to find something between her best and worst case scenarios. The alley was empty save for a bit of rubble. No room for anyone or anything to hide. Elexa breathed a sigh of relief.

  They picked up the pace a bit. Nothing to fear in the remaining stretch of alley. But a new fear awaited them in the darkness beyond. Nearing the end of the alley, their pace slowed once again. The darkness ahead of them was impenetrable. Elexa squinted in an effort to make out something, anything, beyond the alley.

  “Do you see anything?” she whispered.

  “Nothing.”

  Elexa stopped near the end of the alley. Richard stopped alongside her. Their flashlights illuminated nothing in the darkness beyond. It was a void.

  Richard said, “Forward or backward?”

  “You're asking me?”

  “You're the captain.”

  “Right, I'm the captain.”

  It was a distinction that didn't mean much to her at the moment. Since Emily and her Community of Light had made nearly everything she ever cared about disappear, the distinction felt like a facade. But she maintained the facade for the sake of holding on to something in a world where there wasn't much left to hold onto. With Deanna missing, the role of captain seemed less important than ever. She hadn't been pursuing Deanna as her captain. She had forgotten she was captain until Richard reminded her.

  “Well, I, Captain Elexa Thomas of the interstellar vessel Encounter, decree that we are to move forward.”

  Nothing like a little dry humor to take the edge off in a ridiculously surreal and stressful situation.

  Shoulder to shoulder, they stepped toward the darkness.

  The sound of shuffling feet stopped them cold. A form leaped from the darkness. Elexa screamed a moment before the form crashed into her, sending her plummeting backward onto the pavement. Catching herself on her forearms, she lifted her foot in defense against her would-be attacker. She lowered her foot and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of her first officer.

  “Deanna,” she groaned as she lifted herself from the pavement. Her elbows stung from the impact.

  Richard had his arm wrapped around Deanna, holding her as if she were about to fall. She was panting. Her eyes were wide, panic-stricken, welling with tears.

  Elexa said, “What the hell happened to you?”

  Deanna closed her mouth, took a deep breath through her nose and opened her mouth slowly. Through her quivering lips came a single word: “Run.”

  Chapter 26

  The light grew before George's eyes. Knocking on death's door had given him every reason to believe that the light had been some omnipotent being, a higher power, the creator, calling him home as he crossed his final threshold. He was a scientist, but he was also a man without the answers to a multitude of life's most puzzling questions. As he plummeted to the ocean's depths, watched as the mysterious light seemed to grow and asked himself what the hell it was he was looking at, a higher power seemed like a perfectly reasonable answer. But as it continued to grow and began to take form, it occurred to George that there was a more scientific, albeit, fascinating explanation for the light.

  The light broke into six distinct sections, a large rounded light at the center surrounded by five smaller lights. Six luminous domes. Growing closer, George could make out metallic cylinders stretching from the larger dome to the five smaller domes. Features within the domes began to take shape―structures, buildings! Not just buildings―skyscrapers! These buildings were like none he had ever seen before. They were majestic, ethereal. The silver exteriors of these towering wonders gave off a warm light, each tower within each dome combining their light to infuse the domes in a beautifully inviting glow.

  George wanted nothing more than to be a part of that light. Perhaps he had found the afterlife after all.

  A sprawling, glowing, magical city, perhaps as large as Manhattan of Earth's past, was contained within the center dome. A multitude of smaller structures occupied the five surrounding domes. It was like New York with an additional borough...underwater.

  The vortex seemed to be petering out, but George still couldn't determine its source. The ship was no longer being pulled; it was sinking, gradually making its way to the ocean floor. His bird's eye view became a side view as the ship approached the bottom. His view from the side gave him a new appreciation of just how majestic the glowing city in the distance was. The structures in the center dome were far taller than anything the Earth had ever known. They seemed to be reaching for the ocean's surface.

  He could think of worse ways to die as he took in the beauty in the distance, a beauty that seemed to reach out for him. He kept his gaze trained on the city, entranced by its warmth, in anticipation of settling onto the illuminated ocean floor that stretched out before him, but that didn't happen. The ocean floor rose to eye level, the darkness below following to cover the cockpit window and obliterate his view of the shining city. He was encased in darkness, but the darkness did little to dash his enthusiasm for the beauty he had just laid his eyes upon. He knew where he was going. He felt it. Confirming his feeling, the ship lurched forward. It was being pulled through the darkness. The absolute darkness lifted, a touch of gray reaching into the void up ahead. There was a source of light. That was his destination.

  His barely waning enthusiasm lifted. This was where he was destined to be. He had never been one to believe in extra-sensory perception, at least not for corporeal beings like himself, but instinct was another matter altogether, and his instinct told him that the shining city was where he was meant to be.

  The gray shifted to a warm orange, the same warm orange that filled the domes, as the ship neared its destination. George spread his arms, closed his eyes and tilted his head back, ready to take it all in. Then he felt it. The light filled the cockpit, seeming to embrace him. He opened his eyes to the light. It was intense but easy on the eyes.

  The ship was pulled up through the water and surfaced, the water cascading down the viewport. George peered through the last of the water running off the glass to take in his surroundings. He was in a large white box of a room. The walls were barren, but they were giving off that warm, orange light that bathed the entire city.

  He didn't see them at first. He thought he was alone and that the beings who brought him here would arrive momentarily. But they were already there. They were camouflaged, blending into their surroundings...like chameleons. Their forms became visible as they moved. Their shape was, more or less, humanoid, but they weren't human. He was able to make out four of them, large, approximately eight feet tall. They were white with large, bulbous heads, large black eyes, lean torsos and long thin limbs. Their tone was uniform; they were white from head to toe and seemed to be giving off that same warm, orange glow. They weren't wearing clothes, but despite their humanoid shape, George couldn't see anything resembling the physical characteristics that motivated humans to cover themselves. He couldn't even be certain that they were physical.

  He wasn't frightened. Perhaps he should have been, but he was comfortable, euphoric even.
r />   They moved closer to the ship. Their impossibly long legs carried them, but they seemed to glide more than walk.

  Welcome.

  A thought, not his own. It came from one of the beings. They were communicating with him.

  We would tell you not to be frightened, but that won't be necessary. You are quite comfortable, aren't you?

  “You know my language,” he said incredulously.

  Not quite. Our language is one of pure thought. Words aren't necessary. Your brain is translating our thoughts into your language. Will you please join us? We have much to discuss.

  George strode confidently from the cockpit and made his way to the airlock. He didn't hesitate to open the airlock's exterior door. He stepped out onto the circular, silver platform that had apparently closed beneath the ship after it had surfaced. His shoes splashed in the puddles that remained on the platform's sliding doors.

  He looked up confidently into the large, black eyes of the first being that towered over him. The being blinked. It looked as if the eyes vanished and reappeared, but George surmised it was a blink. It was a trait common to most corporeal beings. He wanted to touch the being to be certain, or he could just ask.

  “Are you corporeal?”

  We are.

  The being extended its hand. Touch.

  George reached out and gently placed the tips of his fingers on the being's palm. The skin was soft, smooth. The warm, inviting light emanating from the being embraced George's fingertips. It radiated through his fingers, into his arm and throughout his body. George tilted his head back and closed his eyes. It was a beautifully overwhelming experience. The feeling was one of vast knowledge just outside of his reach. The wealth of knowledge he didn't know he was seeking was close. He was being teased by it, tempted by it. But the room was closed to him. He was just knocking on the door.

  “What is this?”

  As I said, we have much to discuss.

  The being lowered its hand, breaking its link to George. George opened his eyes, feeling as if he had been given the promise of a gift.