Relief coursed through her, and her shoulders relaxed as she exhaled a long breath. “When can we start?”
Ben looked to the Gray for an answer, and the alien said, “T-oo-nite.”
Catalina blinked. One week from today and she’d have her husband back! A smile burst to her lips, and it quickly turned to a grin. Tears slid down her cheeks, and she wiped them away. “Thank you.”
Ben nodded. “Thank the Grays.”
And the Gray said, “Th-ank Eth-err-us.”
CHAPTER 35
Catalina didn’t fully believe it until she was standing in front of the tank where the Grays had spent the last week growing Alexander. He was naked inside the tank; a mop of dark hair floated around his head, and a thick umbilical cord trailed from his belly button.
She shivered at the sight of the cord, but excitement soon swept away her revulsion. It was Alexander, just the way she remembered him.
Ben and Jessica both stood beside her, waiting for his mother and her parents to be woken from the tanks beside Alexander’s. The Grays had agreed to start by waking their loved ones, but they weren’t the only ones waiting to be resuscitated. All of the tanks in the chamber were filled, with more than twenty thousand people in the first batch. The plan was to grow two more batches, bringing back the entire crew of the Liberty first. Everyone else would have to wait until they could create habitats and infrastructure for them in the sector where the Grays were taking them. The pace of colonization would have to be hectic in order to keep up with a weekly influx of 20,000 people, but Ben assured her that with the Grays’ help they would be able to handle that many and much more, bringing everyone back within a century.
Catalina pitied the ones who’d be coming back toward the end of that period. Their last memories would be of a hundred years ago, from Earth or Mars, and they’d be waking up for the first time in a new solar system, on a new planet, with aliens around them.
“W-ee, are r-ed-y t-o be-gin.” One of the Grays said. It turned away from them, and several more aliens stepped up to the tanks, their fingers dancing over holographic symbols projected from the control consoles beside the tanks.
All four of the tanks went from dimly glowing to brightly illuminated, highlighting them from the others. They slid out from the wall one after another. Catalina focused on Alexander’s tank, watching the liquid begin to drain. As the level of fluid fell below Alexander’s shoulders, his eyes snapped open, and his hands flew up to the inside of the tube. He mumbled something Catalina couldn’t hear, his eyes darting from her to the Grays. She ran up to his tank and placed her palms against the glass opposite his. “It’s okay,” she mouthed. “I’ll explain everything soon.”
He looked uncertain, but not nearly as frightened and confused as she would have expected. Once the tank was finished draining, the front half popped open and foul-smelling air gushed out. Alexander took a shaky step toward her only to collapse in her arms.
“Damn it,” he said, breathing heavily over her shoulder.
Beside them, similar exclamations issued from Esther and each of Jessica’s parents, but the children had to wait while the Grays helped their parents out of the tanks.
“I’ve got you,” Catalina replied. The gravity aboard the Grays’ ship was thankfully much less than Earth standard, so he wasn’t too heavy for her.
She carried him a few steps from the tank until she felt something tugging back.
“Ow!” Alexander said.
She stopped and saw that it was his umbilical cord. The Grays came and pulled her away from him. One of them held Alexander up while the other snapped a ring-shaped device around his umbilical, near his navel. A bright light flashed, and the cord was simultaneously cut and cauterized. They tied it off in a knot and then stepped away from Alexander.
To Catalina’s surprise he was taking all of this in his stride, as if he’d already known what to expect.
“This must be shocking for you...” she suggested.
Alexander shook his head slowly and took another tentative step toward her. This time he didn’t collapse. “No,” he said. “I...”
Catalina glanced at Ben, her brow furrowed. He was locked in an embrace with his mother, both of them oblivious to her nakedness. “I thought you said Alex would have amnesia?”
Ben turned from his mother, his face streaked with tears, his eyes shining brightly in the dim light. “He does. I helped the Grays fill the gaps in people’s memories to make their return less traumatic.”
Alexander nodded along with that, his own brow furrowed now. “Before I woke up, I was dreaming about all of this. The Liberty, the Entity, the Grays... my death. The Grays brought me back with Ben’s help... and...”
Catalina frowned. “And?” she prompted.
“Who is Etherus?” he asked, looking to Ben for an answer.
Catalina blinked and glared at Ben. “They brainwashed my husband into their religion?!”
“Nek,” one of the Grays said.
Alexander shook his head. “I don’t know anything about any religion. Just that name.”
The Gray nodded. “It is on-ly fit-ting t-hat y-oo kn-ow t-ee n-ame of y-oor G-od. T-ee r-est y-oo w-eel h-av to l-errn.”
Esther smiled at that. “We don’t have to call him the Architect anymore.”
Alexander regarded them dubiously. “Right.” Turning back to her, he shivered and hugged his shoulders. “Can I get some clothes?”
“That would be nice...” Jessica’s mother agreed from beside Esther, trying feebly to hug herself for warmth and cover her nakedness at the same time. Her husband wrapped her in a hug while they waited.
Catalina walked over to a stack of crates they’d brought from the Liberty, all spare off-duty black jumpsuits and mag boots. She retrieved one of the jumpsuits from the top of an open crate and passed it to Alexander. Ben came and got three more jumpsuits, one for each of the others.
Alexander pulled on the jumpsuit as fast as he could, and Catalina looked on with an uncertain smile.
“Is it really you?” she whispered.
He finished pulling his arms through the suit’s sleeves and crossed over to her. He drew her into a crushing hug and whispered beside her ear, “It’s me, darling.”
She shook her head against his shoulder and tears ran down her cheeks, soaking into his jumpsuit. “This isn’t possible,” she objected.
He withdrew to an arm’s length. “It has to be possible, or I wouldn’t be here.”
“Then it’s too good to be true,” she replied.
He nodded. “That, I’ll agree with.”
He leaned in and kissed her, and she let go of all her swirling doubts. His lips and hands were sticky, and he tasted like an accumulated week of morning breath, but she couldn’t have cared less. This might seem too good to be true, but it was true, and that was all that mattered.
CHAPTER 36
The Grays opened a portal back to the Liberty, and Catalina and Alexander went to prepare themselves some food from the Officers’ mess hall in Section One. Alexander was ravenous. Catalina watched him eat, still not sure if she entirely believed what she was seeing.
Sensing her scrutiny, he looked up, a spoonful of three cheese risotto hovering halfway between the plate and his lips. “What?”
She shook her head and smiled. “Nothing. I’m just happy to have you back.”
He nodded and raised the spoon the rest of the way to his lips. It was just the two of them at the table, but Ben and Jessica were eating at a table not far from theirs. They had an hour before the rest of the crew started waking up and flooding back on board the ship. Catalina wondered what kind of chaos would ensue from there. How many months would be missing from their memories? The Grays might have given Alexander some kind of summary of recent events when they woke him up, but she doubted they would be able to fill in finer details. Would the crew even remember their training?
Fortunately they weren’t far from their destination. According to Ben, they’d be ar
riving in a matter of hours now. The Grays were taking them to a remote corner of the galaxy, protected from the Entity’s influence by the fact that there was only one safe way in or out. The entire system of planets and suns was surrounded and hidden by black holes.
“Aren’t you going to eat your food?” Alexander asked around another mouthful of risotto.
Catalina peered down at the pasta on her plate, untouched and growing cold. She looked up and shook her head. “I’m not very hungry.”
“Pass it over here,” he said.
She arched an eyebrow, but passed the plate to him anyway. “Take it easy. Technically you’ve never eaten before,” she said.
He flashed a crooked smile. “Must be why I’m so hungry.”
“I meant you might make yourself sick,” she said, feeling suddenly uneasy again. Here he was, back from the grave, and they were sharing a meal together like nothing had happened. A shiver rippled down her spine, raising goosebumps on her arms.
Alexander shook his head and swallowed. “I feel fine.”
“You’re taking all of this remarkably well,” she said. “Don’t you feel strange? Worried?”
“Worried? About what?”
“That you might not be you anymore? We brought you back from a copy of your memories.”
Alexander regarded her for a moment. “I feel fine. How do you feel?”
“What do you mean?”
“According to Ben, you’re not the original Catalina either.”
“Well...”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
Catalina looked away, growing uncomfortable with the topic. Maybe he was right. If she was still herself, then he was still himself. She nodded to where Ben and Jessica were pushing food around on their plates, engaged in a hushed conversation. Catalina couldn’t make out the words, but they sounded upset about something. “I wonder what they’re talking about?” she said.
Ben glanced her way as she said that, and their eyes locked for a long, disconcerting moment. His gaze seemed to hold the weight of the universe in it, and he looked exhausted. He said something to Jessica and then got up and walked over to join Catalina and Alexander at their table.
“I need to speak with you two,” he said.
Alexander stopped eating and pulled out the chair beside him for Ben. The boy sat down and folded his hands on the table, looking at each of them in turn.
“Well?” Catalina prompted.
“I don’t know how to say this,” he said.
“Try using words,” Alexander suggested.
Ben just looked at him. “I’m serious. This is going to come as a big shock.”
Here it comes, Catalina thought. The catch. I knew it was too good to be true.
“Alexander, when the Grays brought you back, they made a few changes.”
“Like what?” Alexander demanded.
Catalina’s heart was leaping in her chest, and a queasy sensation wormed through her gut.
“You’re not immortal anymore.”
“What?” Catalina burst out. “What’s the point of bringing him back if he’s just going to die again, anyway? Why would they do that?”
“The Grays believe that when we die we pass on to another world, a place they call Etheria. They feel it would be immoral to help us continue subverting the natural order of things.”
Catalina blinked, shocked. “Let me get this straight—because of their superstitions they believe that death is a good thing?”
“Not exactly. They’re immortal. They only believe that it’s immoral for us to live forever.”
“That’s a nice double standard,” Alexander muttered. “What makes them think they have the right to impose their beliefs on us?”
Ben stared at him for a long moment, not saying anything. “We can’t bring anyone back without their help. We don’t have the facilities for it. Making us mortal again is the condition they imposed.”
“And you agreed?” Alexander asked.
“Would you rather they didn’t bring you back?”
Catalina grimaced. “It doesn’t matter. We made ourselves immortal once; we can do it again. We just have to wait until we can bring back the people that know how.”
Ben grimaced. “They’re parsing through the Liberty’s databanks and people’s memories, erasing that knowledge as we speak. When they’re done, no one will know the slightest thing about genetic engineering anymore.”
“What?” Catalina jumped up from the table. “They’re tampering with people’s memories?”
“Selectively,” Ben replied.
“They have no right to do that!”
“What I’d like to know,” Alexander began, “is how they can do that. They aren’t exactly masters of our language, so I doubt they understand what’s in our brains well enough to find what they’re looking for, much less to know how to selectively erase it.”
Ben averted his eyes and stared at his hands. “I’m helping them.”
“You mean pretending to help them, don’t you?” Catalina asked.
Ben shook his head.
“What’s wrong with you? Just tell them you did it. How would they even know if you’re lying?”
“I would know,” he replied.
“Really? You’re going to stand on the moral high ground with this?”
“They’re right, Catalina. Humans were never meant to live forever. Your God never intended that.”
Catalina gave an incredulous snort. “So now you’ve had some kind of religious awakening and you think we should all start worshiping this god of theirs?”
Ben regarded her silently. “I don’t expect you to understand. It takes a lot of faith to believe in something you haven’t seen.”
“You’re an AI! You don’t even have a god! We’re your gods!”
Ben shook his head. “I’m a synthetic. So are you.”
“Semantics!” Catalina was seeing red. This was too much.
Alexander’s upper lip curled and he stood up from the table to jab a finger in Benjamin’s chest. The boy was still looking at his hands. “I served the Alliance Navy for a decade to earn our Gener treatments! Hey, look at me!” Ben looked up, and Alexander went on, speaking through gritted teeth. “They have no right to take that away from us now.”
“They’re not taking it away from both of you. Catalina is still immortal. She didn’t die, so she’s still the same as she was.”
Catalina blinked, taken aback by that revelation. “So I’m going to survive my husband by... a few dozen millennia?”
Ben shrugged. “However long it takes for you to die of unnatural causes. I’m sorry. I realize this must be a shock, but you need to believe me when I say that there’s another life waiting for you after this one.”
“How do you know? Did you die and visit the afterlife when I wasn’t looking?”
“No. I was still alive when Etherus appeared to me. He took me to the place where he created your species. The Garden of Etheria.”
Catalina gaped at him, speechless.
“He’s lost his mind,” Alexander muttered.
“You’ve been on board the Liberty the entire time!” Catalina blurted out.
“Not the entire time,” Ben replied.
Alexander took her by the arm and led her away from the table. She resisted, craning her neck to glare at the boy. “This isn’t over, Ben!”
He gazed solemnly back at her. “There’s nothing you can do. You may as well accept it.”
CHAPTER 37
Remo woke up aboard an alien ship, surrounded by short, gray-skinned aliens with giant heads and slanting black eyes. He was naked and shivering, with an umbilical cord snaking from his belly back to the tank he’d just stepped out of, and somehow none of that felt strange or shocking. He’d known in advance to expect it all. One of the Grays cut his cord and tied it and then moved on to the tank beside his, doing the same for that person. The chamber was vast and dimly lit, lined with multiple levels of illuminated tanks. People we
re stumbling out of those tanks naked, shivering like him, greeted by hundreds of equally naked aliens.
One of the Grays handed him a familiar black jumpsuit and a pair of mag boots, and left him to get dressed. Once he was dressed, he looked up to see the Grays directing everyone down to one end of the chamber where the air was shimmering with one of their portals.
He shuffled along with the rest of the passengers and crew. Upon reaching the portal, he stepped through with a flash of light and found himself back on board the Liberty, in one of the ship’s auditoriums. A pre-recorded message played on repeat over the PA system.
“Please follow the emergency floor lighting up to the dormitory level. Find your quarters and await further instructions. If you do not remember your assigned quarters, please look up your name in the ship’s directory from the nearest computer terminal.
“Please follow the emergency floor lighting up to the dormitory level. Find your quarters and...”
Remo tuned out the message the second time through. He followed the shuffling crowd of people out of the auditorium and through the ship. They piled up at the nearest bank of elevators, and again at the computer terminals on the dormitory level. All the while the human noise was deafening. Footsteps thundered. People shouted out questions and argued with the ones beside them about everything that was happening.
Remo kept to himself, watching the people around him carefully for signs of panic. He hadn’t come back from the dead just to get trampled to death. He couldn’t remember his assigned quarters, but found them quickly enough once it was his turn to use the computer terminal. When he reached his room and waved the door open, he found a vaguely familiar face waiting for him on the other side. She flashed a grin and ran up to him, throwing her arms around his neck. She showered him with kisses. “I love you, Remo,” she whispered beside his ear.
He pulled away, frowning. “Lieutenant Dempsey, are you feeling all right?”
“Don’t you mean Deedee?”
“Dee...” he shook his head.
New Frontiers- The Complete Series Page 90
