Profusion

by Stan C. Smith

  “Peter!”

  Twenty-nine

  Quentin rubbed the makeshift bandage covering his arm. His cuts were fairly deep, but they would heal quickly. And so would the cuts on Lindsey’s arms. The damn reptile-birds’ teeth had been wickedly sharp, but with everyone’s combined efforts, they had been able to subdue the creatures and throw them out the hatch. Most everyone had been scratched or bitten, but so far no one had started transforming. This would be a do-or-die test of their mbolops’ ability to protect them. However, even if the mbolop saved everyone from transforming, they couldn’t bring Bobby back from the dead.

  Standing at the open hatch, Quentin stared at the ground below. He needed to feel like he was doing something useful. It had been over two hours since the birds had attacked, and he had nothing else to do but watch for danger and wait for the Lamotelokhai to return to the aircraft.

  The sight of Bobby falling to his death kept playing on a loop in Quentin’s mind. Because of Quentin, Bobby had been through some harrowing events in the last year. He had even died in an airliner crash. But that had been with the Lamotelokhai beside him, able to shift the very properties of space and time to save him. Or at least to save a copy of him.

  But not this time. Bobby had fallen to his death, and the Lamotelokhai hadn’t been at his side. In fact, even now the Lamotelokhai probably wasn’t aware of what had happened. It was trying to save billions of lives. Even if it was aware of Bobby’s death, Quentin doubted it would use precious time restoring the life of one boy.

  Quentin looked out over the blue water of the Caribbean. The surface was now undisturbed all the way to the horizon. The military’s barrage had ended. After talking to General Vickars on the aircraft’s radio, Colonel Northcott had grimly announced that the barrage had stopped not as a result of confirmed victory, but simply because available resources had been depleted. The only evidence that there might be reason for hope was the spectacular dispersal of thousands of white geese that had occurred an hour ago, followed a half-hour later by a similar dispersal of dark aquatic creatures just off the shore. These events must have been the Lamotelokhai’s handiwork.

  Lindsey appeared at Quentin’s side. As she gazed at the scene below, she asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Quentin shook his head. “Bobby’s gone. I don’t know what else there is to say.”

  “Well, maybe I need to talk.”

  He looked at her. She had tears in her eyes.

  “Quentin, please?”

  He turned and embraced her. “Okay, Linds. I’m sorry. Let’s talk.” He took her hand and started leading her toward some unoccupied seats at the far end of the aircraft.

  Suddenly, three bodies appeared in mid air in front of them and immediately fell onto the seats and floor in a jumble of flailing arms and legs. Tree kangaroos scattered in panic. Quentin stopped abruptly, and Lindsey collided with him.

  “Ow, damn!”

  “¡Eso duele!”

  “Well, that didn’t go so smoothly!”

  Quentin stared at the thrashing bodies, ready to push Lindsey back if they were dangerous. Lindsey cried out and then rushed past him. She nearly dove onto one of the struggling figures and pulled him to his feet.

  “Bobby! You’re alive!”

  It really was Bobby. And Peter. Both of them apparently back from the dead. And a woman Quentin had never seen before was with them.

  Ashley forced her way past Quentin and threw her arms around Bobby, nearly knocking the boy to the floor.

  ∞

  “I don’t remember falling—or dying,” Bobby said. “The Lamotelokhai made a new body for me, out of dirt and plants and stuff. Then it put my consciousness into the body, like it had done for Ashley that time she drowned. But the consciousness didn’t include memories of what happened after the Lamotelokhai left the plane.”

  Quentin watched him as he talked. Something wasn’t quite right. It was Bobby’s eyes, or some subtle thing about his expression. Or maybe it was his voice. Quentin felt uneasy. The Lamotelokhai didn’t make these kinds of mistakes. When it had recreated Ashley’s body, she had been an exact copy with no detectable differences from the original Ashley.

  The aircraft was flying back to the USNS Spearhead, and everyone on the plane except Captain Kirk was seated in a cluster as they talked. Bobby had assured them there was no reason to wait any longer—the Lamotelokhai would not be returning to the aircraft. Apparently, after the Lamotelokhai had completed its mission to stop the outbreak, Bobby had told it to go back into hiding. This news had elicited anger from Colonel Northcott, who evidently had hoped the Lamotelokhai would finally become the property of the US government or military. Bobby had then told Northcott flat out that he had anticipated this reaction, and that’s why he’d told the Lamotelokhai to go back into hiding. Quentin had done his best to hide his proud smirk.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Quentin asked, still concerned about Bobby’s appearance.

  “Why wouldn’t I be? I’m pretty sure the outbreak has stopped. The Lamotelokhai is hiding somewhere safe, and I’m alive again.” He glanced at Ashley, who was sitting beside him. She took Bobby’s hand in hers with a look on her face that dared anyone to say anything about it.

  Quentin said, “So I guess the Lamotelokhai transported the three of you up here to the aircraft?”

  Bobby nodded. “Zapping us up here was the last thing I asked it to do before it left.”

  As Bobby spoke, Quentin noticed Peter frowning and exchanging a look with the woman in red. Something wasn’t right. Was Bobby hiding something due to the presence of Colonel Northcott and his two men?

  Lindsey spoke up. “Okay, Peter, it’s your turn. We all thought you were dead. How did you escape Helmich’s compound?”

  Peter looked like hell. “It’s a long story. But I wouldn’t have made it without the help of Georgia Madera, here.” He nodded to the woman in red, who looked as bedraggled as he did.

  ∞

  By the time they were in view of the Spearhead, Quentin had started to realize how hungry he was. No doubt, the others were just as hungry. He resolved to ask General Vickars as soon as he saw him if there was any food to be spared on the Spearhead.

  Mere seconds after they had landed on the ship’s helicopter pad, Vickars came through the hatch. “Whatever you folks have done, we’ve been receiving encouraging reports from numerous outposts on the island. It seems those who are coming into contact with the creatures are no longer being infected. We’re putting together a plan to deploy ground troops to systematically exterminate all remaining aberrations.”

  “Those aberrations were once people,” Lindsey said.

  He gave her a look that was not without remorse. “Agreed. But many of them are dangerous. If you have a better solution, I’d love to hear it.”

  They all remained silent.

  The general went on. “As for the aquatic organisms, we can only hope. We have vessels collecting samples. It’s been several hours since we’ve had a report of an organism showing signs of active transformation. We’re cautiously optimistic.”

  Bobby spoke up. “I’m pretty sure both groups of creatures have stopped transforming.”

  Vickers looked at Bobby with a frown. “And you know this how?”

  “I was with the Lamotelokhai when it made the snow geese and the sailfish. The Lamotelokhai knows what it’s doing.”

  The general rubbed his bald head with one hand, like he was considering this. “Bobby Truex. A famous name. I’ve been told more people around the world know your name than the name of the president of the United States. The Lamotelokhai stated in front of the entire world that you were its primary communicator.” He drew quotation marks in the air. “Is that still the case, Bobby?”

  Bobby didn’t flinch. “Yes.”

  Vickars nodded. “Then your words give me encouragement. I hope to God you’re right.”

  Bobby looked the general in the eyes. “I’m pretty sure I am, sir.”
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br />   Vickars glanced around the cabin. “I take it the Lamotelokhai is no longer on this aircraft?”

  “It left,” Bobby said. “It’s hiding in a safe place.”

  Vickars crossed his arms over his chest. “My concern—and I’m sure it will be a concern for everyone—is that it’s possible this will happen again. You tell me the Lamotelokhai is in a safe place, but that’s what we all thought before, and look what happened.”

  Quentin decided it was time for him to speak up. “General, to be honest, I suspect something like this will happen again.” He hesitated, not entirely sure he wanted to say what he needed to say next. “But we have a solution for that, although you may find it to be rather unusual.”

  Vickars eyed him, waiting.

  Quentin spread his arms, waving at the odd assortment of passengers. “We only have about three hundred right now, so we’re going to need a lot more, but the solution is the mbolop.”

  The general’s expression was blank. “Mbolop?”

  “Tree kangaroos.”

  ∞

  Quentin finished the last of his second plate of hash browns and canned ham. Then he killed the rest of his bottle of water. It had been far too many hours since most of them had eaten. Peter and Georgia must have been even hungrier than Quentin, because they had torn into their food like starved beasts.

  The aircraft was now flying at only half its maximum cruising speed as they traveled back to Indonesia, where they would drop off Richards, Northcott, and his two men. Then they would hand the aircraft over to the Indonesians. Peter had arranged for two private jets to meet them in Papua. One of the jets would transport the entire herd of mbolop to a warehouse in Brisbane. Peter and Bobby had spent several hours communicating with Mbaiso, and Peter was already concocting a plan to help achieve Mbaiso’s goal of creating one mbolop for every human on Earth. The other private jet would take Quentin and his group wherever they wanted to go. Perhaps they would all fly to Missouri together to deliver Carlos back to his parents.

  Quentin looked across the aisle, where one of several foot-high piles of salad filled the floor between the seats. And that was only what remained after the tree kangaroos had all eaten their fill. General Vickers had been generous with the Spearhead’s food stores. He had also given them fuel, enough for the aircraft to circle the Earth twice, according to Captain Kirk.

  Quentin glanced at Lindsey, sitting beside him. Rusty was in her lap, and she was gazing at the mbolop with a thoughtful smile.

  “It’s good to see you smiling,” he said. “Maybe someday everyone will feel what you’re experiencing right now with Rusty. Everyone is going to want an mbolop for the protection it’ll provide the next time a disaster like this happens.”

  She nodded. “I suppose. But I wasn’t smiling because of Rusty.” She hesitated.

  “Tell me,” he urged.

  “I’m daring to hope that our entire family can go back to a quiet life. All of us together. You, me, Addison, Bobby, and Ashley.”

  Quentin closed his eyes and envisioned it—the simple existence and solitude of their home on the Sittee River. His yearning to make a life there with all of them was so intense it almost hurt.

  He opened his eyes. “I can’t imagine what Addison must be feeling right now—what he must be going through. And we haven’t even told him yet what happened in the hanging village.”

  “It wasn’t really him who did those things,” she said.

  He considered this. “He might not see it that way.”

  She didn’t reply to that. A few seconds later, she said, “You know, he seems to be okay with everything. Want to know what he told me? He said he doesn’t want to even try to change his body back to what it used to be. He said he likes being strong, like a wild animal.”

  Quentin frowned. “That’s a little disturbing.”

  She stroked the fur on Rusty’s back. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s not.”

  Plato had been nestled between Quentin’s feet on the floor, but now he hopped up onto his lap. Quentin rested his hand on the creature’s side. He laid his head back and closed his eyes again, feeling Plato’s heart beating beneath his fingers and listening to the air whistling across the plane’s smooth exterior.

  Thirty

  “Why haven’t you asked me why I lied?” Bobby asked silently.

  The Lamotelokhai replied, “I did not ask you because I did not find your lies to be interesting. In fact, I predicted you would lie. Would you like me to ask you why you lied?”

  “I thought maybe you’d get mad at me or something.”

  “I do not get mad.”

  “Yeah, I know. I suppose that’s a good thing.”

  There was a pause. “Bobby, why did you lie?”

  Bobby sighed. “Never mind. But here’s something else I want to know. Why did you bother putting my consciousness into your body? You were supposed to be stopping the transforming creatures, not wasting time saving one person.”

  “Since I first encountered you eight months ago, you have been my primary communicator. Therefore you have been important to me. Now you are even more important.”

  “Why am I so important?”

  “Because you have been given control of my parts. This is a significant transition of my purpose.”

  “I don’t know what that means.”

  “It would not help to provide a complete explanation at this time. The implications will be revealed to you incrementally, so that you can build your understanding in a way that suits the nature of your consciousness.”

  Bobby considered this. “Yeah, I’ve heard that already. Did you know I met one of the beings who created you?”

  “I am aware of that now.”

  Bobby laid his head back and stared at the ceiling of the aircraft’s cabin.

  “I bet I know what you’re thinking about,” Ashley said. She was sitting beside him. To get some privacy, they had gone to the very back of the plane, near the cockpit that wasn’t being used. They were flying back to Papua at a much slower airspeed than when they had flown to Puerto Rico, so they had plenty of time to think and talk.

  “I doubt it,” he replied, speaking aloud now.

  She eyed him for a moment. “Well, it seems like you’re trying to deal with the fact that you died and were put into a new body. Hmm, if only there were someone next to you who had experienced the exact same thing. Then maybe you could talk to that person.”

  He puffed out a short laugh. “It’s not the first time I’ve died, remember?”

  “Fine. If you don’t want to talk, screw it.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. The last thing Bobby wanted was to make Ashley mad. “Maybe you’re right. It is kind of a messed-up thing to happen to a person.”

  “No shit.”

  He tried to think of something to say. What he really wanted to do was tell her the truth. But how could he? She would never look at him the same way again if she knew what he was. She’d never touch him or kiss him again. “You know I’m not the same person you kissed in Papua, right?”

  She frowned. “I know that. But you still have the same mind.”

  “Not really. It’s just a copy. That guy you kissed earlier today is gone.”

  “What are you trying to say? That after all these months of wanting to be my boyfriend, suddenly you don’t?”

  “No! I’d be crazy to say that. I don’t know, I guess it just bothers me that I’m not the same person you finally decided to kiss. I’m worried that if I’m not that guy, then I’m not the guy you want to be with.” This part was entirely true, and it felt good to tell her the truth, even if he was leaving parts out.

  She leaned back a little and studied him. “You know, you do look a little different. It might be your eyes.”

  Bobby turned his eyes away. He couldn’t tell whether she was serious or just teasing him. It was time to change the subject. He turned back and smiled at her like he was responding to a joke. “I’ve decided we’re keeping this airplane.”
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  “What? You told Wahid that the Indonesians could have it.”

  “Yeah, but I’m starting to really like it. I’ll make sure they get another one.”

  She gave him a doubtful look. “How exactly will you do that?”

  “The Lamotelokhai. The next time I talk to it, I’ll get its help.”

  She stared at him. Her eyes were so pretty that Bobby didn’t want to look away. He couldn’t quite believe he was lucky enough to have her next to him, looking at him the way she was. How could he keep lying to her? Suddenly he decided he needed to tell the truth, even if it meant she would never look at him that way again.

  “Seriously, though,” she said. “You are different. And I think it is your eyes. Did I seem different to you after the Lamotelokhai put me in a new body?”

  He hesitated. His heart was pounding. He knew he could stop it from beating altogether if he wanted to, but he needed to feel human right now. He swallowed. “I have to tell you something. I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

  Her face went blank. “What?”

  He looked down at his hands. Mbaiso came up to his leg, stared up at him, and then touched his snout to Bobby's knee, the third time in the last hour the creature had done this. Mbaiso bleated softly and then plopped down in the aisle. The poor thing was confused.

  “What?” Ashley asked again.

  He looked back up into her eyes. “Okay, here we go. I’m going to tell you the truth now.”

  Her brows furrowed. The skin around her eyes shifted just enough to faintly show fear.