The president pulled back, the wheels of the old chair squeaking.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
He threw the briefing across his desk at Pith.
“Make a decision. You’re the president, Mr. President.”
“I was elected to govern the interests of the United States. Not the entire world, nay, the universe. Now Congress is deadlocked and this falls to me?”
“Some are calling for a democratic vote, sir. A world vote.”
The president pointed at an advisor, resting on the Oval Office sofa. “Cho’s DNA unlocks in how long?”
Jumping to attention, the advisor looked toward the desk and the bright tall windows behind it.
“About eighteen hours, sir.”
“What about the threat, sir?” Pith pressed him again. “Your Cabinet can debate to accept the singularity for another eighteen hours, but there won’t be one if the Chinese get to her first.”
“How did they even find her!” the president asked, furious. “I thought that was your domain.”
Pith backpedaled. “Well, that is, or was, sir. But as you know, Miss Cho isn’t an American citizen. One of the scientists, the one in love with her, demanded to see her, and it seems the Wenchang satellite the Chinese told us about wasn’t the only one they launched. Another, far superior and able to track a human biological signature from space, followed him to the facility.”
“Human biological signature?” the president asked.
A young staffer in his Cabinet raised her hand.
“I knew you’d come to my rescue again, Miss Tanning,” the president said.
“Happy to serve my country, sir,” she said, smiling. “General Pith is referring to Dr. Douglass’ bacterial cloud. Every human being has thousands, maybe millions of different bacteria inside and outside the body.”
“We’re talking about bacteria,” the president said, squeezing one eye tight and holding up a finger. “The stuff that can fit whole colonies on a pinhead? How could the Chinese see that from space?”
Pith perked up, eager not to be outdone by the young Miss Tanning. “Technically we’ve observed bacteria from space before, and from much farther. NASA has studied possible bacterial growths on planetary bodies like Mars or even as far as Europa using infrared.”
“Well, you don’t need to tell me about infrared; I know we’ve had IR sat tracking for decades, used it in Abbottabad.”
“Correct, sir,” Pith said. “But the Chinese have tweaked it to read the individual IR signatures of microbe clouds around human bodies. Our diversions to throw their traditional IR off the trail had no effect. They didn’t need to ‘follow’ Dr. Douglass, they just needed to keep scanning for his unique signature, which can come out of a single breath. The only way to keep them from seeing would be if we put him in a hazmat all the way from Florida and gave him oxygen.”
“Well didn’t we quarantine all of them?”
“Of course, sir. But we’re usually more worried about quarantine before sending folks up, not getting back. We put them in for three days, but whatever that alien kept them in seemed to be like bathing in alcohol. We didn’t find any foreign bacteria on them at all. They were cleaner than if they’d returned from the ISS.”
“Well, there’s nothing more to be done about that now, but why did China tell us they have this capability?”
“So we’d believe them.”
“You really think they’ll send a first strike? Do they have that capability?”
“Transparency is apparently now a thing with them, sir. Our experts have no reason to disbelieve what they’ve shared. Whether they’ll actually launch into nuclear war to stop us from creating the singularity is up to you to decide.”
The president turned away from the Pith and his Cabinet, looking out the large windows onto the White House lawn. The Secret Service pushed back demonstrations. Washington was filled with them, like vermin descending on a fresh corpse. Neither side helped their cause by starting riots and fighting with each other.
‘We don’t deserve enlightenment if we act like that,’ the president thought. ‘But maybe we need it to escape from the limitations of our biology.’
When he ran for office on a campaign of change, he never thought this would be the change he’d oversee. However it turned out, there’d be no rumors of a third term now. This would be his last, the last presidential term unless he decided to grant the wishes of the growing coalition of religious and paranoid nations.
At first nobody understood how China could side with the Mormons and the Vatican. How could they deny progress? Weren't they atheists by design? Maybe it was too close to the Rapture, and that’s what scared them. A billion people, their people, left behind and underrepresented in whatever the new world would be.
The end of the world threatened those most who struggled to survive. The scrappy Chinese had earned a seat at the table, and now the table was vanishing. Not if their nukes had anything to say about it. They’d start a nuclear war and let the chips fall, rather than let the American President press the button and start the singularity, which, as the alien said, would kill all of them. The president suspected the alien meant it differently than many had interpreted.
Still, what did he have to lose by giving in? Natalie Cho’s death might prevent billions more.
He turned back to Pith.
“Bring Dr. Douglass here. Bring them all here.”
Chapter 16
“Hasn’t he asked us for enough already?” Kam howled.
The two soldiers, Amanda and Lee, were all smiles.
“You act like meeting the president is no big deal,” Amanda derided Kam. “I suppose you’d rather be waiting for food drops in Oklahoma, or digging out bodies from the mud in Boston?”
“I’m sorry,” Kam replied. “The last time the president wanted to meet us we became permanent guests, and not in the White House.”
“It was more like the big house,” Jill added. “And it’s his fault that Allan died!”
“You better stow that nonsense before we get to the door,” Amanda warned as their black SUV rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue surrounded by police motorcycles.
“He’s gonna ask us about the aliens,” Kam said.
“What else?” Lee asked. “We already gave our reports to the FBI, CIA, Congress, and the IRS!”
“They better give us our foreign soil bonus,” Amanda cracked and punched Lee in the arm. The soldiers laughed, but stopped when they saw the scientists weren’t amused.
“He’s not going to ask us what we saw,” Kam said. “He’s going to ask us if the alien was lying.”
“That thing said it would get me home, and here I am,” Lee said. “Good enough for me.”
“Unless this is a really long simulation,” Amanda added. “That was its talent, wasn’t it?”
“If it is, maybe that’s better than the real thing.”
“I think we’re about to enter a simulation,” Kam said. “That’s what everyone is so scared about. Why Natalie is in hiding.”
“Your girl’s brain is the most valuable thing on the planet right now,” Lee said.
“And she might be better dead than alive,” Amanda added, locking eyes with Kam.
Their SUV pulled up to the White House gates, buzzed in and ushered them inside the south portico.
Secret Service agents escorted the four of them to the Oval Office. It was empty except for the president, turned away from them, staring across the lawn again. He heard them enter, but didn’t turn.
“Our democracy was unique,” he started, eyes following the turmoil still roiling at the other end of the park. “It would be a shame to end it now, for something . . . artificial, lifeless, ‘dead’ as your alien friend called it. Why not remain God’s special children, unique snowflakes birthing and dying in an instant, sparks against an unending cold universe? We were God’s attempt to make something beautiful out of nothing. Why would we go backwards?”
“Be
cause it would bring us closer to him, sir,” Amanda said, surprising everyone.
The president swiveled to look at them.
“Major Silversun, when I have time I’m going to give you another medal or two. I heard what you did in the Mojave . . . and beyond. Highest echelon of bravery.”
He stood and approached, shaking her hand before turning to Lee. “Lieutenant, I’m so glad to have you back with us. I can only imagine what you’ve been through, what you’ve all been through.” He raised his hands at shoulder height, hugging air.
“Docs,” he addressed Jill and Kam, “here we are again, the leader of the free world asking for your help.”
“It was more of a kidnapping last time,” Kam muttered.
Jill elbowed Kam.
“Well, three days from now you’ll all be free or dead. Or both,” the president said.
“With all due respect, Mr. President,” Kam started, “it sounds like you’re leaning away from the singularity. Why?”
“Half the world is afraid. So afraid they’ll do anything to stop Natalie before she wakes up.”
“But what of her rights?” Kam protested. “What if Natalie wakes up and decides not to start the singularity?”
“You know damn well if she wakes up that will be the singularity!” the president insisted.
Kam’s eyes shifted to the floor.
“What am I supposed to tell mothers in Montana, New York, Nebraska, and California? That I may be killing their children to embark on a journey of . . . . of intellectual enrichment?”
“It’s hardly that, sir.” Jill said. “The singularity is—”
“The singularity is death!” the president said. “Any way you slice it, it’s the death of everything we know and our consciousness as we understand it. What happens after is anyone’s guess, but the one thing we do know is it’s the end. And the last species to attempt it apparently turned into homicidal maniacs on a galactic scale. That’s not something that I aspire to, Doctor Tarmor.
“However, the singularity also represents something I do cherish: freedom. No struggle to survive and overcome the disasters befallen this world. No growing up, growing old. No love or hate, heaven or hell.”
“And no religion too . . .” Lee sang quietly.
“That’s what those people outside are most worried about, Lieutenant,” the president admitted.
“Everyone in this room, and in this house, and dare I say it-the Congress, knows I’m as much an atheist as Richard Dawkins, but for most of the world, the singularity represents a direct contradiction to their understanding of the universe.
“You’ve been on Facebook. Half of them were practicing their organized revolt when I mentioned background checks at gun shows. Now we don’t need Facebook because your gray bubble caterpillar friend made everything crystal clear to them. Satan wants to buy all our souls at once, and they see me leading them down the brimstone road with his tail in my goddamn hand!
“We kept the nut-jobs in check before with the latent threat of drones and modern warfare, but we’re still not up to speed after all the satellites crashed.”
The president went to the window and moved the drapes away.
“Those people, millions of people filling the streets of Washington, they’re armed. They’re ready to take action if I won’t.”
“You mean to kill Natalie?” Kam asked, horrified.
“I’ve talked to Krauss, Kurzweil, deGrasse-Tyson, Hawking, Brin, Thorne, Musk, all of them before I asked for you again. All they could give me was excitement, their aftershock orgasms from first contact with that swollen gray-green mystery. Of course they want me to wait for sleeping beauty to wake up. Their minds are enraptured by a fantastical future that they honestly have to admit they have no clue about. They don’t know any better about what the singularity will bring than you do.”
“It will end war. End hunger. End pain,” stated Kam.
“So does death,” Amanda said.
“How can you turn down a guaranteed afterlife?” Lee asked.
“It could be an eternity in hell,” Amanda said.
“I’m transferring custody of Miss Cho’s body to South Korea,” the president announced.
“What?”
“Their president has made it clear that if I terminate her I’ll have them to deal with, though a united country-even Jong-un smiles at the idea of a Korean leading the world to a new frontier, especially one where his people aren’t starving and he didn’t have to ask for my help to feed them.”
“It sounds like you made up your mind before we even got here,” Jill said.
“That’s often the case with decisions, is it not, Doctors?” the president asked rhetorically. “I really just wanted to meet with the major and the lieutenant. I also trust Kam’s reaction, and it informed what I already suspected.
“That creature used Natalie because of her bond with Kam. It operated from a position of love and trust, not pure power or manipulation. It invited all of the world into its little mind game last week. Then it unceremoniously kept going on its merry way while it shot you four back down here.
“I try to do the same thing with my foreign diplomacy. Put decisions in the hands of locals, put their boots on the ground in a situation that affects them. If that gray guy has any skin in this game, I’m not sure what it is, besides hoping the experiment it tried on the Elders works out differently this time.
“Clearly it could have done it without our consent, but it tossed the choice to us. And I’m going to toss it to the Koreans, she’s their citizen, not mine.”
“If anything, she’s the world’s citizen now, sir!” Kam protested.
“And I am releasing her back to that world, Doctor Douglass, to do what it may. The United States will provide any and all support it can to see that Natalie Cho arrives in her homeland safely. After that I will leave it up to her own people to toss the coin. In any case it resolves this office of any responsibility in the matter.”
“Coward!” Kam protested and the other bristled. “I voted for you. Twice! But you’re just another lousy politician passing the buck and protecting your legacy.”
“And you’d rather I protect one woman. One! Over the three hundred million people under threat in this country, your country, in case you forgot. Decisions at this level are made based on probabilities, Doctor.
“It’s a shame Allan isn’t here; his field is closer to that than yours. The probability of an angry mob attempting to storm this building and demand Natalie’s death if I do nothing is very high. The probability that the Chinese will use the nuclear weapons they are threatening us with if I do not terminate Natalie Cho is even higher. The probability of the Koreans using their own nuclear weapons if I terminate her is higher still.
“The probability that letting her wake up will end all our problems and send us to a land of never-ending pleasure and delight is lower. 50/50 is a worse bet than 90/10, Doctor. You must understand that. My job is to protect the American people, and this choice has that immediate consequence.
“And with this she lives at least one more day. I could have decided differently.”
“What if the Koreans let her wake up?” Amanda asked, fear creeping in.
“I, for one, will welcome our robot overlords,” Lee quipped.
The president sat back down and looked out the window again.
“In three days the world will end, or it will not. That is the constant reality of being the leader of it. You’ve all wallowed in blissful ignorance until today. I welcome whatever new world is to come as long as I’ve done my best to preserve what I’ve sworn to protect.”
He pressed a button on the desk and two of the doors on the oval walls opened. Secret Service agents entered and motioned for the four to follow them out.
“One last thing,” the president said, swiveling to address them.
“Kam can go with her if he wants, full diplomatic immunity. It was already part of the deal. I’d hate for you to miss the birth.”
Kam’s jaw dropped.
“I told you I already made the decision before you got here.”
Author’s Note
Dear reader,
Thank you for following this tale all the way to the conclusion. Although the central question of the book (who moved the Earth?) has been answered, there is now a more potent question posed to our characters, one that we, too, in the real world will have to grapple with. I did write an ending for them, one that may or may not come true for us. If you’d prefer, as some early readers did, to use the open ending to meditate on the choices we make as individuals and as a network of disparate societies, then you must stop here.
If you prefer to know what happened to Natalie and the rest, then read on for a short epilogue.
No matter what you choose, I’d like to thank you again for your time. If you enjoyed this book (or even if you didn’t) please leave a review with the e-retailer where you purchased it, as honest reviews help authors hone their craft more than sales.
Andrew “A. L. Lorentz” Long
Epilogue: Sans Saṃsāra
She felt nothing but overwhelming cold.
A sense persisted that her mind operated on some equation somewhere else, beyond her reach. Her subconscious worked something alien out, bypassing her conscious ignorance, like a frustrated teacher explaining calculus to a squirrel.
But she recognized that part of her knew innately what was happening, or what would happen very soon when she woke up.
For she was conscious again! What a relief. The dark dream was ending. How much of it had been real? Would she wake up in her house, hungover after visiting dad’s grave? The Farm? The jail? How much of it had been a dream?
The thought of her father brought shivers again, but a warm touch broke through the cold. A hand in hers. So that part, the best part, was real at least. She knew who held her hand without opening her eyes, but when she did everything changed.
Kam smiled wide and said something, just like last time, in space with that gray blob. But again, he collapsed. This time he didn’t melt into an abyss, life brilliantly transformed into code. Digits gave way to spiraling double-helixes, balls of energy, then vibrating strings, quivering at her delicate touch.
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