by Minton, Toby
Savior's gaze returned to Gideon. "I've been expecting you, Marcus. You look…well." The pause was slight but pointed. "You can put away your weapons," he said to the others, clasping his hands behind him and standing at ease. "My men will stand down unless you attempt something…ill-advised."
Elias took a step closer, staring Savior down, the firm clench of his jaw the only outward sign of the turmoil Gideon knew he must be feeling. Otherwise, no one moved or holstered a weapon.
"You've seen how light the defenses are at this facility," Savior said, his gaze on Elias. "You have nothing to fear."
Ace cleared her throat pointedly. Beside her, Padre pointed to three recesses spaced along the multi-faceted ceiling. Gideon could see faint movement through the opening in the back of one of them.
Savior smiled and nodded to Padre and Ace as if conceding a point. "As I said, I was expecting you. And as I said, as long as you attempt nothing ill-advised, you have nothing to fear. You are free to leave at any time, if that is your wish." His eyes shifted to Nikki for that last.
Nikki again. She was the key. She was Savior's goal. But if luring her to him was all he wanted, why concoct such an unpredictable scheme?
Reproducing the alien creatures, no doubt from the corrupted DNA he'd collected from Gideon decades ago, sending them to track her down—yes, it worked. But what was to stop them from killing her when they found her? How could Savior know Nikki would come to him after she escaped from them? If she escaped. How could he know Gideon would bring her to him?
Something was wrong. This wasn't like Savior. A scheme this desultory was uncharacteristic. It smacked of desperation. The man before Gideon was far from desperate. He had been in control of this situation since the day he captured Nikki.
Gideon, however, had been scrambling for years, struggling to find the best course of action despite having a window into the future. Had he been able to separate himself from the situation, and had the stakes been less dear, the irony might have amused him. Instead, it was salt in the wound.
"What happened?" Elias asked, stepping closer to the table, his gaze dipping briefly to the splayed creature. "Have you lost control of your new soldiers?"
Elias held his assault rifle angled across his chest in a relaxed attitude, the bulk of its weight on the sling, but his eyes said he was ready to bring it to bear in a heartbeat if needed. The quick, amused twitch to Savior's lips said he knew as much.
Savior cocked his head. "Interesting choice of words," he said. He watched Elias for a second as his hint of a smile slowly flattened. "Unless, that is—" He looked at Gideon. "You haven't told them."
It was Gideon's turn to school his expression. Whatever game Savior was playing, Gideon refused to participate. He retreated behind the emotional barrier, turning his face to unreadable stone while he turned Savior's words in his mind.
What did Savior think he hadn't he told the others?
If Savior could read anything behind Gideon's eyes, he gave no indication. He made a show of continuing to try though.
"Or could it be you still don't comprehend?" he said after a moment's study.
"Comprehend what?" Elias asked with deceptive calmness.
Gideon could tell Elias was holding himself at bay, but his control wouldn't last forever. The rage of a wounded father was mounting. Elias had chosen to focus that rage on Savior, the man at least partially responsible for Michael's death.
Gideon could see the urge to strike gaining ground in Elias. If it won out, his attack would be for naught, but he couldn't know that. Unlike Gideon, Elias couldn't sense the energy flowing around Savior in a virtually impenetrable shield. He did, however, know what Savior was capable of doing, which might account for his restraint.
"That things are not as they seem," Savior answered Elias, but his gaze was fixed on Gideon. "That our assumptions about what we created blinded us to reality."
Elias looked over at Gideon, the accusation heavy behind his eyes, but it was Ace who stepped in.
"Do you expect us to believe Gideon helped you create these things?" she asked, her tone placing her squarely on Gideon's side.
Gideon might have felt gratitude or relief for her undeserved trust, if he could have felt anything at all through the barrier. But Ace's support was unnecessary. While Savior's silence insinuated Ace was on target, Gideon didn't believe he was referring to the creatures.
Savior relaxed his posture and lifted his hands, tipping his head apologetically. He was good. His body language alone was charming enough to put anyone at ease, but he didn't stop there.
"I apologize," he said. "I don't mean to imply Marcus betrayed your trust in any way. I assure you he had no more to do with the arrival of these soldiers, as you call them, than I did."
He spread his hands to indicate the specimen between them and then the scans and data on the display behind him.
He was very good. His use of Gideon's first name created a connection, one his words solidified. To blame him, the others had to blame Gideon as well.
"So you didn't make these things?" Ace pressed. She had stepped up beside Elias while Gideon was preoccupied.
Nikki had moved farther into the room as well. She was making her way around the perimeter, studying the various workstations and displays, with Padre keeping pace not far behind. She was also trying, quite unsuccessfully, to hide her interest in the conversation.
Savior met Ace's stare with a look so sincere that even Gideon's knowing eye had trouble doubting it. "No, I did not make them. I had no hand in this." Then he looked back at Gideon. "Not yet.
"Don't mistake me," Savior went on. "Ultimately the blame is ours to bear. It was our creation, after all, that made their existence possible."
Gideon narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to study the specimen, then the data on the displays. He didn't want to believe Savior was telling the truth. Savior was, after all, the man who was destined to usher in humanity's destruction. But Gideon was a scientist. He knew better than to let a projected outcome skew his perception of the evidence in front of him, and what he saw in front of him was not the work of a creator analyzing a flawed design. It was the work of a scientist undertaking a fresh study, a first look at a new phenomenon. What he saw was not troubleshooting. It was discovery.
"Evolution can be easy to predict, but still a wonder to behold," Savior said quietly.
Gideon looked up to see Savior studying the creature between them. The wonder in his eyes, the excitement of seeing something new… For the first time in decades, Gideon saw the old Hale in the eyes of the man standing across the table from him, a man energized by the fire of a new find, not drunk on the genesis energy flowing through him. Part of Gideon's mind said that look was all part of Savior's act, that nothing apparent could be believed with him, but Gideon wasn't so sure. For a few disorienting seconds he saw the man he'd once been honored to consider a friend.
"What do you mean by 'not yet'?" Padre's soft voice said from the side of the room. Nikki was continuing her seemingly distracted walk, moving steadily closer to Savior, but Padre had stopped, no doubt to keep the others out of his line of fire on their host.
Savior straightened up and turned toward the workstation behind him, his eyes passing across Nikki as he did so. There was no hesitation this time, no pause on his part. Nikki, however, stopped in her tracks, looking like she'd been caught doing something…ill-advised.
Savior waved his hand over a dome sensor to unlock the station, then he accessed the holographic display and projected a rotating model of a human genome over the display table.
"You recognize this, I'm sure," Savior said. "The genetic structure of a human male," he clarified for any who didn't.
He glanced at Nikki. "Bartholomew Price, my former assistant, to be precise."
Nikki lowered her gaze from the rotating model to Savior and arched an eyebrow. "So, what's old Bartholomew up to these days?"
"Learning to walk again after your last encounter," Savior repl
ied evenly.
Nikki nodded and crossed her arms. "Would have thought that company of yours could have him up and about in no time. I just hit him with a desk is all. Have you tried BioGel? I hear that stuff works wonders."
Her banter seemed genuine enough, but there was a stilted quality to it, a lack of commitment that ran counter to her usual demeanor. Gideon could understand why. Being this close to Savior had to be even more difficult for her than it was for Elias, especially with Savior reminding her of that day.
"Generation could do much more for Mr. Price," Savior said. "They would have, if he'd followed his orders. He did not. I don't reward insubordination."
There was the reason for the reminder. He was trying to distance himself from Price's actions, to imply he'd ordered Price to do something other than attack Nikki while she was restrained like he was putting down a failed experiment.
Nikki barely registered the attempt. She shrugged and stepped closer, her eyes going back up to the rotating model. "So what's Price have to do with your monsters?"
Savior twisted his fingers in the control field and a second model appeared beside the first. "This is the monster's genetic structure. What do you see?"
The question was asked of everyone, but Savior's eyes sought only Gideon's.
"Validation that I chose the right career," Ace said. "This means nothing to me."
Elias nodded agreement, but Padre saw what Savior was after.
"They look similar," he said.
More than just similar. Genetics wasn't Gideon's area of expertise, but in the years following the Event, he and Savior had carefully mapped Gideon's altered genome, searching for a way to separate him from the alien. Their quest, though futile, gave Gideon the knowledge he needed to see where Savior was leading them. The genetic codes rotating before them shared more than an isolated gene or two, more than random similarities. They shared a common ancestry.
"They're both human," Gideon said softly.
Savior nodded.
That could mean only one thing—Savior was lying. He had to have done this. He was the only one who could have done this. He'd grown these creatures from Gideon's fused DNA, some sample Gideon had missed the day he and Elias had taken the children. When Gideon said as much, Savior shook his head.
"No, Marcus. You were thorough in your destruction. I lost everything that night." He shifted his gaze to Elias and then Nikki. "Almost everything."
"Who then?" Elias said, his temper starting to show. "Who else could do something like this? Who else had access to Gideon's DNA?"
"No one," Savior replied simply.
Gideon saw the frustration building in Nikki's eyes and was once again thankful for the emotional barrier. Safely shielded from his feelings, he could process without bias, think without reacting.
"Then where did they come from, smart ass?" Nikki snapped. "You're not fooling anyone."
"Look around you," Savior replied after a considering pause. "My days of playing God are over. I channel my energies into other pursuits now."
For the first time since entering the lab, Gideon took a good look at the other workstations, at the projects in various stages of development. The most advanced was a suit of body armor Nikki was eyeing—Savior's take on flexible powered armor. The rest of the projects were in earlier phases, but all were technological in nature. This was not Savior's only lab, however. Nor did its lack of damning evidence prove his innocence.
"More to the point," Savior went on. "It's your question that is flawed, not the answer."
"What the hell is that supposed to—"
"Where the doorway leads is not as significant," Savior cut in, leaning on the table to look at Gideon, not Nikki, "as when."
"I don't know what that's supposed to mean," Nikki said flatly.
Based on their reactions, neither did the others. But Savior wasn't speaking to them. He was trying to reach Gideon, and he'd succeeded.
His words were from a conversation they'd had when the Gateway project was nothing more than a sketch on a pad in an empty diner. They'd been with a handful of other rising stars, their minds filled with images of their own glorious futures, laughing over Dr. Tolbet's critique of time travel in a new movie, specifically his argument that mirror worlds weren't even considered. Hale had uttered that line then, mimicking Tolbet's voice exactly, and everyone had laughed. Except Gideon.
He'd started sketching, calculating. That night, while the others headed home in a car borrowed from the lab, trusting the height of their IQs to protect them from the effects of the night's indulgence, Gideon and Hale had opted to walk. That walk was the beginning of the end.
For Savior to call up that memory now, those specific words…
In the coldness of his emotionless void, Gideon was sheltered from influenced disbelief. Without the barrier, his anger and distrust, nurtured over decades, might have caused a gut reaction, an instinctive dismissal of what Savior was suggesting. Sheltered as he was, Gideon found himself weighing the evidence instead, reacting as a scientist, not a man.
Savior saw that. He reached back and activated a second display, this one showing a diagram approximating the layout of their original Gateway along with rough calculations backing his hypothesis.
"It's not a door through space," Savior said, "but through time."
The others started reacting, not positively, but Gideon blocked out the noise. He stepped around the exam table to get closer to the second display, Savior stepping over to join him.
"It fits, Marcus," Savior said. "We didn't see it before because we were too focused on what we expected to see. Look at the evidence."
"Wait a minute," Ace said from behind them. "You're talking about time travel? That's a bit of a leap, don't you think? Whatever happened to going with the theory with the least assumptions?"
Savior turned to respond, but Gideon's eyes stayed on the display. He registered Savior's words, but it was the data before him and the calculations in his mind that had him transfixed.
"Sharp as always, Sergeant Major," Savior said. "But Occam's razor is in my favor in this instance. As you know, the reigning hypothesis, our original hypothesis, posited that folds in space connected similar planetary bodies throughout the universe. And opening the Gateway would connect two similar planetary bodies. The results we saw fit this model, but only if we allow assumptions about the results we can't explain, including the most puzzling anomaly."
The data before Gideon told a compelling story. More than that, it opened his eyes to what should have been obvious from the start. It showed him, in perfect numerical detail, exactly where his scientific discipline had failed him. It showed him exactly when he'd let the reality he'd expected occlude what truly existed.
"But if we alter this hypothesis—if the fold in space instead allows the Gateway to connect the same planetary body at two distinct points in time, then everything is explained, including the anomaly."
"What's this anomaly?" Nikki said, stretching out the word.
"The visions of the future that have plagued Marcus since the Event," Savior said. "One of several results we attributed to the 'magic' of genesis.
"We both know magic is no more than science we have yet to discover, Marcus," Savior said. "Everything has an explanation. SETI VII's bio-mechanical brain was able to bond with the samples housed in its tanks, and you were able to fuse with the creature that was killing you not because genesis magically made you compatible, but because you were already compatible. The genesis element forced the connection, yes, but that connection was possible because Seven's brain, you, and the creatures on the other side of the Gateway—were all human."
"I don't get it," Nikki said. "I mean—I get it, but how does that explain your anomaly? What does that make Gideon's visions?"
"Transmitted epigenetic neurochemical sequences," Savior said.
"Genetic memory," Gideon translated without looking away from the data.
Savior stepped back into his line of sight and held
out a hand toward Gideon's human side. "To you these visions you see are images from the future."
He rotated his hand, almost brushing Gideon's dark side. "To him they're from the past. Memories recorded in his genome."
No one spoke for several long seconds. Savior's eyes were on Gideon. Possibly all eyes were. They were waiting for his response, Gideon knew, but he let the silence stretch.
"Assuming you're right," Elias said, "exactly how far into the future are you saying the Gateway reached?"
"The data we recorded from the other side can provide a rough estimate," Savior said, accessing the system again and enlarging a section of the display Gideon had already read.
In fact, Gideon had read through everything before him once and was working his way through a second time. He was no less convinced on his second reading.
He looked away from the data to the faces of the people around the room, from the mix of skepticism and curiosity from Ace and Padre, to bald dismissal from Elias, to nervous anticipation from Nikki.
"If we attribute the higher solar radiation to the gradual increase in luminosity as the sun ages," Savior went on calmly, "we can estimate approximately two hundred million years. That would be consistent with the level of evolution evidenced here."
"This is evolution?" Nikki asked, staring at the creature and hugging her arms around her chest, a gesture that had become second nature to her since the day they came to rescue her. Since the day she absorbed what was left of her brother after Gideon's plan destroyed him. "This thing is what we're destined to become?"
"With guidance," Savior replied, his eyes on the specimen again.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning," Savior replied without looking at her, "the tone and thickness of the epidermis, the pronounced ocular cavities, the shielded retinas—all obvious responses to increased levels of solar radiation. The more powerful jaw, the talons, the stronger teeth—necessary to deal with hardier flora and fauna in the absence of tools—"
"Uh-huh," Nikki cut in. "Let's jump ahead to the 'but.'"
