Planets Falling

by James G. Scotson

  “What happens when I die? Will the door open again?”

  She shakes her head. “Then we’ll work with that baby of yours from over here to keep it shut. It always requires one person on each side ... one living and one dead.”

  “Mom, you have another baby already born - a grand-daughter, Eliza.”

  “Joy of all joys. That’s so wonderful. Fromer didn’t tell me.”

  We walk in the void until we reach what looks like a creaky, wooden doorway with rusted hinges. “Amy, just push it shut.”

  “It’s that easy?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  With a thud, the threat from the greedy lifeless ones on the other side pass from earth – at least while I am on watch.

  “Now, the real work is ahead of us.”

  “Mom, what do you mean by that?”

  “The infection is spreading through the hearts of people on earth.”

  “You mean, the Institute?”

  "Well, people have always been greedy. But the Institute's providing a temptation that's going to prove difficult for earth, and ultimately for all living beings. You'll have some difficult decisions to make. And I can't make them for you."

  "I thought our reunion would be joyful. To be honest, this is a little daunting."

  She smiles sadly. "No matter what side you're on, you always have the burden of decisions and their consequences. Your decisions just happen to affect an awful lot of people. Let me show you the future of earth, with the Institute on it."

  An enormous vista appears before me, with images morphing in and out of my reality. I feel like I'm back in Troll's compound watching images of the cities of earth before the fall. We’re floating above earth, except the surface has been transformed into vast expanses of buildings and geometrically exact sections of greenery.

  "The cities are beautiful."

  "Yes, Amy, they are. Earth and humanity may return to its previous glory, for a time."

  We fly to a dried lakebed, dust spinning in the wind. "Where's this?"

  "Yellow Stone."

  "What happened?"

  "The portals were overused. Humans and their kindred species altered the climate to meet their needs with unintended consequences. The lake simply receded. You can't have both. Magic exists either through technology or nature. They aren't compatible."

  "What can I do about this?"

  "The Raven is receiving data as we speak. You can use it as you like. I must go now. We'll talk again soon." She recedes into the emptiness. The beautiful, daunting images vanish.

  I call, "Fromer are you still there?"

  There's no answer. I feel completely alone. I return to the pilot's seat of the Raven and return to the Institute laboratory, where Eliza's waiting for me.

  "Did you have a fun day mommy?"

  "I saw your grandma. She's happy and wants to meet you someday."

  Eliza smiles and grabs my hand.

  I consider our life here, now. It's peaceful and exciting. I think of our future and Eliza's after I'm gone. The burden of the gardens is still there, belonging to my family, but now has shifted to a lake of many worlds and possibilities. If I allow the future to happen as my mother showed it, then I would find myself betraying all that my family has worked for since the fall of the ancient ones- those people who have finally returned. Still, I wonder what the future might look like without the Institute. My mother failed to show me that vision. I can only assume that our fate would be better.

  I'm resting in bed staring at the beams on the ceiling. Theo kisses me on the cheek. "What's bothering you?"

  "Do we really need the Institute?"

  "They're teaching the kids and providing us with medicine. I like the toys too."

  "But we used to get by just fine with our knowledge of the land. The gardens always provided. We had trade. I'm not so sure they're really worth having here. Do they have our interests in mind?"

  "Even if we didn’t want them, how do you propose that we get rid of them? I'm thinking they be here to stay."

  "I don't know yet. And I wonder how our formerly exiled friends feel about this."

  Theo rolls onto his stomach. "We can always ask them."

  We convene the exiles the next morning in my house. I tell them about my vision of the future - the rise of humanity, renewed technology, and the loss of nature.

  Grey sips his tea thoughtfully. "Did your mom indicate how far in the future this was?"

  "Does it matter?" Bets is angry. "Do we want them coming here, building more and more? They'll impose their beliefs on us, take away what we've built for ourselves. We've survived for centuries without them. And your mom didn’t tell us what things would be like without the Institute. I’d prefer to have a future we can control and shape in our own way – not the Institute’s."

  "They exiled us for goodness sake." Minns adds. "We owe them no allegiance."

  "True, but we've already begun to adopt their way of life. Look at me and the Raven. The kids are learning so much about the world and space. Many are already talking about joining the Institute when they grow up." I'm conflicted.

  “Doesn’t that prove your point?” Bets sips some tea. “We don’t even know much about our own world and the children want to leave. The Institute will poison us.”

  Etch hums. "Amy, do you have a way to shield earth from the outside?"

  "My mother and Fromer suggested it. The answer lies in the Raven. I plan to explore today."

  "I have any real sympathy for you all. I think technology is always preferable to ignorance. However, Amy, would you like some company? I’m curious about the solution." Gorian asks.

  "Sure. Theo and Grey can care for Eliza and Ferris while we're away. I'm certain Magarat will be happy to assist."

  Gorian and I enter the Raven and ask for the data. The ship provides us with a set of coordinates. Gorian squints. "This would have been a city called Frankfurt, a continent away from here. I suspect your mother or Fromer wanted you to visit there. It is a very specific location at the meter-scale, so we won’t be lost."

  "Let's saddle up." I lift us up into the wide sky. The ship skims across the magnificent continent Gorian calls North America and then skips across a wide ocean. We hover over a vast ruined city like all the rest. We drop the Raven into a wide paved area with a concrete building in the center.

  "Shall we take a walk?" Gorian's already strolling out the hatch.

  Like most of the ruined places, only birds, rats, and insects are present to watch us. The closest human village is at least a hundred kilometers east. The building has a large door with symbols I've never seen before. Gorian pulls out a plasma rifle and fires, the door evaporating before us. "After you. Pregnant women first."

  The interior of the building is filled with huge stacks of metallic towers and hundreds of glass rooms with tables and fixtures I don't recognize. "What was this place?"

  Gorian produces her tablet. "The records are murky at best. I think this was a large research laboratory. The language is a mixture of German, Russian, and English. We speak primarily English now. I'll see whether I can translate some of it." She fiddles with her computer. "Ah, according to the coordinates, I think we want to go down to the next level. They stored samples down there."

  We're underground now and enter a large hallway lined with metal doors. Gorian stops and reads the translations. "No shit. Really?"

  "What?"

  "This is it. They really kept some."

  "Of what?"

  "The agent that crashed human society on earth. It was bacteria - tiny organisms that live everywhere. These just had a taste for human-made materials. "

  "Plastic."

  "Yeah. I can’t believe it was a bioweapon – they scare me worse than anything else. We've got to get out of here. We're in danger of picking these things up and of contaminating everything - starting the whole damn thing over again. And it could get out into space. Living organisms are notoriously difficult to contain once they escape."
r />   "Wait, I want some.”

  Gorian stares at me. “Are you kidding or simply stupid?”

  “This is the bargaining chip. We hold this in front of the Institute, the whole of space. If they don’t meet our demands, we release it. We have nothing to lose.”

  “Have you lost your mind? We have something to lose - our ships, our transmitters, and our computers.” She lifts up her tablet. “Are you willing to give all that up? The Raven? Etch’s vessel? The ability to travel beyond earth? What about medical technology? The Institute doctors can extend your life and keep Eliza and your baby from ever getting sick. For mars sake, you’d likely be dead or at least legless if it wasn’t for our evil technology.”

  “Gorian, I lived a peaceful, healthful life before all of you came around. We were able to make a good living from the earth. With Thresh gone and the fog banished, we can return to that. With the lake, I can explore other worlds and communicate with others like me. Like Flip, there has to be others here on earth. We can spread this knowledge to others of our kind. The technology – it can come gradually and through our own design and progress.”

  “You would deny others the ability to explore the wonders of the lake for your own special needs? You’d create a class of people – pilots- with access to knowledge and expect the unfortunate others to blindly follow you? Is this the same Amy Marksman I met so long ago?”

  I pull out my plasma rifle. “Sorry Gorian. Those are your needs not mine. I have the people of earth to protect. I hope I never have to use the stuff.” I open a locker and remove a handful of ampules, placing them gingerly into a canvas sack. “You wouldn’t dare shoot me now Gorian. The stuff might splatter and spread.”

  She looks anguished.

  “I want you to stay here. I will send Etch to get you once I’ve safely brought these home.”

  “Amy, please don’t do this. I thought we were friends.”

  “Gorian, it’s because we are friends and that I love Ferris, you, and Grey very much that I’m doing this.”

  I back away, pointing a lethal weapon at my friend and leaving her in the dark.

  I shudder during the three-hour flight back to Yellow Stone. The Raven is concerned. “Amy, where is Gorian? Is she alright?”

  “She wanted to stay there and study the site further. I will send Etch and the Fuerst to get her when we return home.”

  The Raven’s silent, assessing the tone of my voice. “Amy, you aren’t telling me the entire story. We have spent many months together. You have visited my core processor. Please be honest with me.”

  I can’t believe that I’ve developed a relationship with a machine – a human fabricated thing. Troll was horrific, but it’s true colors were easy to see. The Raven, the Fuerst, and Sam have taught me that machines are helpful and perhaps intuitive. If I release the agent from these glass capsules, would I be complicit in their murder?

  I decide to take the risk. Knowing what happened to Melat, I am well aware that even this kind machine is capable of wiping out its master. “Raven, I’m conflicted. If you knew the future and could change it to save the people and place you loved, would you do it?”

  “I love you, Amy. I would do what it takes to keep you safe.”

  I feel dizzy. “What if it involved hurting a few of the ones you love to help the many?”

  “You would need to tell the ones in danger what you plan to do. It is only fair. If they are truly loving, they will make the necessary sacrifice.”

  A machine just described love and altruism to me. I’m silent for the remainder of the trip, experiencing horrid, contradictory, confusing impulses. The canvas bag sits on a passenger chair. Is the substance I’m bringing home another form of the brown fog from the lake come to haunt me?

  I approach Yellow Stone when the Fuerst and Phobos appear at the sides of the Raven. Etch’s voice fills the cabin. “Amy, Gorian contacted us. You cannot land at Yellow Stone. Land now at the specified coordinates or we will have to force you down.”

  Gorian must have fashioned a transmitter at the lab in Frankfurt. “Etch, you can’t stop me. I’ll drop this stuff on top of the Institute building long before you shoot me down. Stand back.”

  The Raven’s curious. “Amy, what are you doing?”

  “I have a substance that will allow my people to take back control of our lives from the Institute.”

  “What does it do?”

  “I have to be honest with you. It will destroy you and other ships like you. Pretty much all of the Institute technology. But I would only use it if we were in danger.”

  The ship stops. “Very well. I will help you.”

  We shoot straight into the sky and begin diving at the Institute building.

  Etch chimes in. “Amy. Please land at the Yellow Stone clearing. We will talk there.”

  “Etch. I want the Fuerst and Phobos to be absent. I want Theo and no one else waiting for me. If not, I have agreed with the Raven for her to drop vials of the substance on the building and then fly into space. There, she will spread the substance to mars, home of your precious Institute.”

  “Understood. I hope you know what you are doing Amy Marksman.” The two ships fly up and away.

  Chapter 64: Release

  The Raven cools in the grass as I hug Theo. The ship knows that any tampering or attack will give her my permission to carry out my plan. I have a few ampules containing the bug or whatever it is in my pocket for extra protection.

  Theo whispers in my ear. “They have Eliza.”

  My hand moves to my pocket and I grasp the glass containers. “Who are these people? They’re no better than Thresh.” I swear I feel the baby kicking angrily in my belly.

  “Be careful Amy. They’re watching from the walls.”

  I shout, "Give me back my daughter now or I'll release the substance."

  A voice travels through the air. It's Amanda, the governess of the Institute laboratory. "I'd rethink that if I were you, Amy. Eliza's been quite the helper to us."

  "Theo, I thought I left Eliza with Magarat."

  "When Gorian called Etch, Amanda took them away."

  "Why didn't you fight?"

  "It's kind of hard to fight when you're outgunned."

  "Didn't the villagers stand up for her?"

  He looks down. "No. They watched as she and Magarat were led away."

  A small group of Institute soldiers and Amanda appear at the wall of the city. "Amy, it is so nice to see you, although I wish the circumstances were better. Come with us so we can join Eliza. She's been asking for you."

  I consider ending it here. I have but to give the Raven my command and throw these vials on the ground to start the end for Amanda and her kind. But I'd certainly forfeit my life and that of Eliza and Theo. No one in the village would lift a finger for us in this grassy place as the soldiers overcame us. Worse, for earth, I would risk the potential of another Thresh reopening the gateway and destroying humanity. I need more time.

  "Do not touch me," I say holding a vial in my hand. "I want to see Eliza."

  Theo and I follow Amanda and her guards into a large room with a table and many chairs. Vanne and Grey are seated. Grey looks queasy, while his companions gaze at me with a mix of fear and anger.

  "Well, Amy, you've put us in a bind." Vanne sits forward. "Would you like a refreshment?"

  "I want Eliza now. Where is she?"

  Amanda growls, "Give us the vials and you can have her."

  Vanne smiles slightly. "We apologize Amy. We're your guests here. It's ironic that our shared ancestors unleashed this agent and that we're now reunited, facing the same threat. What are your needs?"

  "You need to leave earth. You can only visit with permission of an elected council of Yellow Stone and someday other people of earth."

  "Well, that was the plan all along," Vanne says. "We are only here to work with you and to help you better your condition here on earth."

  I sigh. "You might say that and even believe that right now. But I've
seen the future and know that we are moving down a wrong path. You're poisoning the minds of our people, blurring their ability to see clearly. We need to slow down and consider our next steps carefully. Now, I've said my piece. My daughter. Now."

  Vanne looks at Grey, expecting him to speak. Grey stares at his hands, remaining silent.

  Amanda pulls out a pretty mirrored brush and strokes her hair. "You know Eliza can see the future too?"

  I hold the ampule before me with my finger on the tip. "I only need to break this and it'll spread."

  "Very well. Follow me." Amanda tucks her hairbrush into a small red bag on the table.

  We enter a small dark room with a screened wall. Through the mesh, I see Eliza sitting on the floor of an adjacent room with a slight woman I don't recognize, Magarat looking terrified, and a small, tawny motionless animal.

  "Take me to her." I demand.

  "Watch." Amanda says

  The unknown woman, who I sense is a pilot, puts her hand on Eliza's hand. "Show me what you learned to do honey bee."

  The animal is a dead cat. Eliza considers it, closes her eyes, and the cat twitches. Magarat covers her mouth with her hand. Eliza concentrates on the animal for a few moments and then moves on to playing with a rag doll.

  “Interesting, isn’t it Amy? She can do that without the organic matrix you call the fog. Very talented indeed but so misguided. I wonder what other tricks the woman, Thresh, taught your little girl? We can help you restore her, heal her – undo the things that witch did to your daughter. But we need you to give us the vials and tell the Raven to stand down.”

  I’m paralyzed and anguished. “Give me Eliza. I need some time.” Theo grabs me as my knees buckle.

  Amanda gives me a sympathetic pat. “I’m so sorry we had to do it this way. You gave us no choice bringing that – material – here. Hand me the vials. Please.”

  My mind is swimming. I pull the glass containers out of my pocket and rest them in my palm. The liquid within resembles water. I wonder how something so seemingly benign can lead to the decline of a great civilization. My eyes close and I drop them on the floor, crushing them under my feet.

  Amanda shouts. “Initiate biosecurity.” The guards run from the room and return with large guns. Before they can fire, the floor, walls, and screen in the room hiss and bubble, corroding before our eyes. One of the guards manages to release some flames from her weapon, but the gun quickly crumbles and fire jumps onto her uniform. She screams and falls onto the ground.