by A. D. Winch
The room was white and sterile. Everything about it said death. The clean tiles, the two bodies draped with sheets and the white suits the scientists were wearing. It should have been a room empty of emotion or life or feelings, but the moment I stood at the door everything changed. It was hard to tell you what happened in those few brief seconds before I fled. In some ways, it is even harder to write them down. As I write, I can read my words, and this makes me wary to write more, as I know how they will sound. I am sorry, I am trying to delay the moment. I am still scared.
As I entered with you, I could tell instantly that there was not only death in the room. Something was alive, and it was screaming out like a caught animal in a trap – cold, scared and desperate to escape. The sound deafened me, but as I looked at you all, I knew I was the only one who could hear. Then the whole room, and everyone inside it, melted away. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the people all slid down to nothing, as if they had been sucked into one of John Wheeler’s Black holes. Only I was left, floating in a vacuum, like standing in the middle of the universe.
Occasionally, when I was being absent-minded, you would tap me on the head and say ‘I’d like to understand what’s going on in there.’ What do you think you would have seen if you had entered my mind at that point? There are one hundred billion neurons in the brain and trillions of synaptic connections. Would you have coped with all this information at once? What would you have done with it?
This is what happened to me. I walked into that room and, without wanting to, tapped into an alien’s head.
When the room melted away, I saw different worlds and different species that no one on Earth has ever seen. I understood different forms of communication and relived memories of things I had never done. Most importantly, I acquired knowledge and understanding far beyond a level that our species has yet to reach, and should not reach until after our lifetimes. You think I am rambling, Johan. I can hear you asking me to give you examples and provide you with proof. I would love to, my darling, but what would you use this information for? What if it fell into the wrong hands?
It was too much. I ran out the room. I couldn’t cope with it all. How would you feel if I touched your head and your thinking changed forever? Now, I am able to speak fluently another language that no one on Earth has ever heard. I know how to create new chemical compounds, develop new engines, build new means of travel through space and time, advance artificial intelligence, further cybernetics and create life without the need for procreation. And this is just a tiny fraction of the knowledge that is now in my head.
To know what can be achieved, to see the future is truly terrifying. We used to make hypotheses and test to see if they were possible. I no longer need to do this. I know what will work and what won’t. We used to design something, build it, test it and refine it. If it worked at all. I no longer need to do this. Any design I now draw, I know will work.
If the surviving alien lives, and if the OSS can harness its knowledge, they will be able to control the future. Earth’s development and the evolution of humans will no longer be controlled by nature but by people. You may feel that this has its benefits, and you could probably argue these - you did once when we discussed Identical Hybrid Beings. However, people can be fallible and greedy and selfish, for these reasons I do want my future entrusted to a few powerful people.
After I fled, I went to the hangar. You brought me coffee, I do remember. For hours, I sat in front of the silver dart – the alien’s craft. Thinking about what had happened to me, what I now knew. Do you know the conclusions I came to, my darling? Firstly, I should not rush any decision regarding my new found knowledge. Secondly, I would monitor closely the progress the OSS makes to ensure my fears are not realized. Lastly, that the mind is more powerful than we currently understand. That is when I opened the dart, just by thinking about it. I opened the dart and quite probably, changed the world forever.
Nothing his mother had written made her sound any less crazy. He read again, but the only part that jumped out at him was the word ‘mad.’ It didn’t make sense. Aliens? UFOs?
The only logical explanation was that his mother had been high on drugs.
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Chapter 25 – Hola
The train pulled slowly into Cádiz’s main station. People were already waiting along plataforma de 6. They rested against the metallic pillars that supported the flat roof, until the train came to a standstill. Doors opened; passengers poured out, and then they moved lazily towards the air conditioned carriages.
Even though it was May, the temperature was already over twenty-seven degrees Celsius and the waiting locals moaned that it was going to be another summer that was too hot and too dry. Ursula jumped off the train and instantly removed her sweater. She was wearing a white vest top underneath, and she could feel the sun kissing her skin as it shone through the vast glass window next to the train. She was soon joined by Alexander and Sasha. If he had not been so weary Alexander would have welcomed the heat, but Sasha did not.
“It is too hot,” she declared and adjusted her clothes as best she could.
By the time she had finished, her tights had been removed, and her skirt had been pinned, so it was high above the knee. Her blouse had been knotted around her chest to reveal her stomach and most of the buttons had been undone. Ursula looked at Sasha and, despite herself, shook her head. In her mind, she could hear Mémé saying, “You’re not going out looking like that!”
Alexander led them out of the station and into the sunlight. A sea breeze blew a few wispy clouds across the blue sky and tugged gently at the hats they were wearing. They could smell the sea and could hear people working in the port next to the station.
“We need to rest. We’ll walk to a hotel and then decide what to do,” Alexander said.
Sasha did not listen. She strode towards a line of white taxis and bent down to talk to a driver who tried, unsuccessfully, to keep his eyes on her face.
“We are taking taxi,” she shouted at Alexander and Ursula. “Get in!”
Ursula would have liked to have walked in the sun, but Alexander was too tired to object and was happy to put his duffel bag in the boot of the car. He lay the bag down carefully to ensure Andrea was not damaged further. He had yet to tell Ursula and was unsure how to do so. For the time being, he decided ignorance was bliss.
The driver took them to a small family-run hotel as Alexander had requested. When they arrived, the driver jumped out to speak with the owner as they collected their bags from the car.
Alexander checked them in under a false name and then fumbled around in his bag, claiming that he had lost their passports. The owner grew impatient until Alexander paid him in cash for the rooms. As money changed hands, the owner explained that he would be happy to have the passports when they had been found. This was not going to happen. The last thing Alexander wanted to do was alert the authorities to their location. Once their information was placed into a database somewhere, he was convinced that the OSS would soon be on their way. He would stall the owner for as long as possible and then they would find a new hotel.
For the next few days, they behaved like tourists. Cádiz was a large city on a thin spit of land, and there was plenty to do. On their first full day together, Alexander and Ursula walked over the bridge to the mainland and visited the long beach that also led off the island. This journey took them from sunrise to sunset and Sasha did not join them. She was more interested in shopping, which she could do plenty of.
When they were together, they enjoyed exploring the numerous plazas, climbing the watchtowers and walking around the narrow streets in the old town. On the last day before Eric was set to arrive, they decided to visit the beach at La Playa de la Caleta.
Ursula loved to sunbathe but spent more time swimming in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was the first time she had swum since Ireland. The water was not hot, but it was considerably warmer than the Irish Sea. Swimming gave her the opportu
nity to have time away from Sasha. Ursula was embarrassed by Sasha’s choice of beach wear. If Mémé had been with them, she would have frowned when Sasha went topless and would have been shocked by the leopard skin thong she insisted on wearing. Alexander appeared not to notice, but other men on the beach were not the same.
Ursula floated in the water and let the cool waves push her towards the shore and then out again. She looked away from the beach and up towards the clear sky. Despite her situation, she felt relaxed.
Alexander was more content, and Ursula knew that much of this was due to Sasha. Ursula could understand his feelings and tried to share his happiness, but she had not warmed to her. There was something about Sasha that sat at odds with Ursula. She looked back towards the shore and saw Sasha splashing water on her almost naked body while half of the beach watched.
In Ursula’s mind, she could hear Mémé’s disapproving tuts and her saying, “No decency!”
Alexander was laying face down, behind her. Since arriving in Cádiz, he had regained his energy and was only too pleased to tell Ursula about what had happened to him and to hear her story. During the time the two of them spent together, Sasha looked on jealously and looked almost hurt. This thought made Ursula smile even though she knew Mémé would have told her off for trying to score points over someone else.
On their second day in Cádiz, Ursula had asked Alexander where he had buried Andrea. The question caught him off-guard, and he umm-ed and arr-ed until Ursula forced him to answer. His response had shocked her and, until she had seen Andrea’s broken body, she hadn’t believed him. Even now, she struggled to comprehend that Andrea was not human and despite Alexander’s insistence that she examined inside Andrea’s head, she refused.
Alexander then spent a great amount of time explaining how Andrea worked and showed Ursula diagram after diagram, but she feigned interest. Andrea had been real. She trusted her and relied on her. To be told that Andrea was a machine was like being told her friend was a tumble dryer or a fridge. She knew her Granddad would have been fascinated and impressed, but she was not like him.
Thinking of her grandparents this way, upset her. It was as if she was admitting that they were not related but in so many other ways she was like both her grandparents. She missed them, and it pleased her that every time she focused on them, she could sense that they were fine.
A piece of seaweed brushed against Ursula’s leg, and she realized that she had floated further out to sea than she had meant to. She turned back onto her front and swam back towards shore. Thanks to Eric’s teaching, her strokes were much stronger, and she moved through the water easily, despite the tide going out.
When she reached the beach, she sat on the sand and looked out to sea. Her cap dripped, and water ran down her back, but the sun warmed her body. Somewhere in front of her, beyond the horizon, was Eric. His mind was clearer, and he seemed more at ease with himself. Since the message, she had focused on him every day and in spite of their battles, she was keen to see him again, and she knew that he felt the same.
Even so, she was a little wary. Something had changed in Eric, and she could feel that he was not the same. It was as if he had been damaged and was waiting to explode.
A towel was draped around her shoulders, and Alexander sat down beside her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m fine. I was just thinking.”
“What about?”
“Eric.”
Alexander smiled, “Well, assuming that the messages were genuine, the spoilt brat will be here tomorrow.”
“He’s not like that anymore,” Ursula corrected.
“I was joking.”
She looked at him disapprovingly.
“Okay, I wasn’t joking but we’ll see tomorrow if he has changed. If he is on that scheduled cargo ship. I hope he is different, but I doubt it.”
Ursula gave him the same look and said, “He has been through a difficult time. You have to be nice.”
“I will be nice. I will treat him as if I had never met him before. We’ll start afresh, but we need to be very careful tomorrow. This may be a trap, but if it is I think we can avoid it.”
“Are we still going to follow my idea?”
“Yes, as long as you are still okay to do it.”
“I am. Every day, I can sense Eric more. So I guess that he is getting closer. When he arrives, even if we don’t spot him, I think I’ll be able to track him down.”
“Great but even so, we’ll go to the high-rise and keep watch from there,” Alexander paused and put his arm around Ursula. “We’ll make things right. Eric first and after that your grandparents.”
Ursula rested her head on his shoulder and together they looked out to sea as the sun set on the horizon. They stayed there until it was almost dark; collected their things and walked back to the hotel. Sasha had already left.
The next day the three of them made their way to Avenida del Descrubimiento. Alexander carried a bag and strolled next to Sasha while Ursula zipped in front on a scooter. It was a long, thin street that led all the way to the end of the harbour, but nowhere else. The claw-shaped port of Cádiz was on one side of the road. Cargo ships docked there and unloaded their containers. On the other side, there were white washed apartment blocks. Some had four floors; others had seven or eight, but the tallest had sixteen. The main entrance to this building did not have a lock and Ursula, Alexander and Sasha entered without any problems. An old lady stood by the lift and looked at the three strangers suspiciously. Alexander smiled and greeted her warmly.
In the lift, the old lady chatted away to Alexander as if he was a Spaniard. He followed very little of what she said but continued to smile and nodded his head when he thought it was appropriate. On the twelfth floor, she left the lift, and he breathed a sigh of relief. The lift continued upwards until it reached the sixteenth and the doors opened.
The corridor was dull and empty. They walked down it until they found a door leading further upwards. A padlock hung limply on the door frame. It had already been broken, saving them a job. They walked through and up the stairs.
The roof was exactly what they had hoped for. There was no one around, and they could see easily into the port. A vast container park stretched out in front of them, but most of it was empty. White lines painted onto the tarmac showed where the containers would be unloaded to, but it seemed unlikely that they would be filled anytime soon. There was only one cargo ship in the port, and it had been there since they arrived in Cádiz. A huge crane was removing the containers and placing them directly onto waiting lorries that rumbled away.
Alexander handed out binoculars from his bag, and the three of them did a sweep of the port. There was no way Eric was there yet, but they wanted to be ready when he arrived. Ursula moved her sights out to sea and waited for Eric’s ship. After ten minutes, she placed the binoculars on the wall beside her. When the cargo ship did finally appear on the horizon, it was still far away, and it was going to be a considerable amount of time before it docked.
Minutes and then hours passed. At midday, they sat and ate a packed lunch. Ursula’s had been put together especially by Alexander, who was monitoring her diet carefully again. Her lunch consisted of what he called ‘sun foods’ and also a plankton gloop drink. Alexander had found plankton two days ago and was insisting that Ursula drink it. The taste was horrible at normal temperature but after a few hours in the sun it was almost rancid. Despite this, Ursula drank it down and somehow managed not to vomit. Once it was finished, she washed it down with the remains of the water.
They had been drinking all morning, and now all the bottles were empty. Sasha was eager to buy some more and left Ursula and Alexander on the roof. Her phone was in her hand before she had reached the steps down. While she was gone, Alexander followed the cargo ship as it headed their way. After what felt like hours, it entered the port, and by this time Sasha had returned and the three of them were watching it like hawks.
The conta
iner ship finally docked and Ursula was in awe at its size. The wheelhouse alone was only a few stories below them, and the ship made everything on the dock look tiny. Ropes secured the ship, and a crane moved into position above the containers onboard. Ursula, Alexander and Sasha did not take their eyes off the ship. A gangway was lowered onto the harbour, and six men walked down it. Five minutes later, Eric appeared. He was wearing a Mexican cap and a denim jacket. It was difficult to see his face, but as he skipped onto dry land, she knew it was him. Once off the boat, he waited. He looked healthy and well. He was smiling and shouting to someone.
“What’s he doing?” asked Alexander.
An old man in a sombrero walked hesitantly down the gangway. He glanced up towards the sky for a second and Alexander thought the man looked familiar.
“Who’s that?”
“I don’t know,” answered Ursula, her binoculars glued to her eyes.
Eric and the old man walked across the tarmac together slowly. Occasionally they stopped while the old man coughed, but they did not appear to be in any rush.
Ursula focused on Eric. She watched as he turned to look her way, but the sun was behind her, and she knew he would see nothing.
They continued walking towards the custom’s house. Lorries drove past them, and the old man waved cheerily to each one.
“Time to go,” said Alexander and gave Ursula a mobile phone and handed her the scooter.
Ursula watched Eric and the old man for a bit longer and then walked away.
