Offworld (45 page)

"Her mother was a prostitute," said Rowley. "I'm not proud of it.
We met about a year before I joined the Waveform program. I lived
in New Orleans at the time, and I was a very different person back
then. Cold, selfish, disagreeable."

"How is that different?" remarked Trisha.

"When Mae's mother found out she was pregnant, months later,"
Rowley continued, ignoring Trisha, "she came to me and told me we
were having a baby girl, and she wanted to name her Mae. I was so
stunned, I just ... I ran away. I didn't look back. And I never saw her
again. When she was killed, carrying my child, it ... I was devastated.
Changed. I was invited to join the Waveform project a few months
later, and decided to devote the rest of my life to making it happen,
for the betterment of mankind"

Until you decided to take a payout from a man who wanted to
erase the world's entire population, Terry thought. It took every ounce
of restraint he had not to spit on this man.

"But Mae's mother was killed before she could give birth," Rowley said.

"No, she wasn't," Terry protested.

"She was," said Rowley. "In the original version of reality. In this
new version we've created, where the world's population vanished
into thin air two months ago ... this particular chapter from my own
personal history somehow crept into the changes we made, and Mae's
mother wasn't killed until several years after she gave birth."

"You're saying the machine changed the past?" asked Chris.

Rowley nodded, somber. `Just this one specific event. Nothing
else in the past was altered. All other changes were made to the
present."

"How is it possible that this one little bit of your past snuck into
the machine?" asked Terry, studying Rowley bitterly.

"I don't know, honestly I don't," Rowley replied. "I've been trying
to figure that out since we realized just who your young companion was."

"When was that?" asked Trisha.

"Three days ago," said Parks. "We were already unhappy with
how our deal with Roston had turned out, and fearing for our lives.
But once Rowley figured out Mae's identity, he convinced me that we
had to get out of there and find you."

Rowley was still shaking his head in confusion. "The machine is
not an artificial intelligence, so I can't explain how it did this. Maybe
because I worked on the machine for so many years, I literally put
some of myself into its wires and circuits.... Maybe my guilt made
me subconsciously enter an equation into the D-Day program that
allowed Mae to be born.... Maybe some obscure component of the
machine made it happen because my personal password is the name
of the daughter I never had. I don't know.

"However it happened ... she's here now. And she can't be."

Terry wasn't sure why, but Rowley's last words made him angry
again. "What do you mean?"

"Mae ... is a problem," said Parks.

"She's an anomaly," Rowley stated, "and as I said, we can't explain
her presence. Math does not easily give ground to the unexplained;
it's absolute. It's perfect."

"So she's an anomaly," said Chris. "So what? Aren't you glad she's
alive?"

"You're not hearing me," Rowley replied. "She absolutely cannot
be here."

"She was brought into existence by the machine," Parks put it
more simply. "By the same process that erased everyone else from
the world."

Terry and the others stared them down. Rowley couldn't hold
their gaze anymore, but Parks didn't blink.

"I still don't see why that's a problem," said Terry. He glanced
at Owen for help, but Owen was suddenly scowling, staring at the
floor.

"Your machine created her?" Chris said.

"No, no," Parks corrected. "That's impossible. But whatever minute detail caused her to be able to exist now, the implications are
the same. She is not supposed to be here. She can't exist in the reality
we know."

Terry's heart fell as he began to understand. "So if we do this-if
we go back to your machine and enter the code or whatever, and
manage to bring everyone back ... ?"

"Then Mae will cease to exist," Parks summed it up with cold,
unemotional candor.

Rowley looked away, pools reflecting in his bright eyes.

Owen shook his head in futility. Trisha was downcast. Even Chris
seemed to believe it was true.

But Terry looked at everyone in the room as if they'd sprouted
second heads.

"This is ... " he faltered. "I mean ... we can't just accept ... It's
not ... It can't be true!"

"It is," Parks replied calmly.

"It's not fair! She didn't ask for this," Terry said.

Rowley spoke without looking up. "No, she didn't."

"She's real! She's as real as anyone," Terry protested.

Parks began to argue, "It's not that she isn't real-"

"She has a heart! And a brain ... and lungs ... and ..... Terry
ran out of words to say. "She has a soul!"

Chris moved closer and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "If
she has an immortal soul, then nothing we do could possibly change
that."

"But ... "

"I'm sorry," said Parks. "But as cruel and unfair and painful as it
is, it comes down to this: it's ten billion people ... or her."

Terry threw up his hands and turned away from everyone, futility,
frustration, resignation, and so much more fuming off of him. "She
didn't ask for this," he quietly repeated.

So Mae really was at the heart of this whole thing, after all. In a
manner of speaking.

What a mad world to live in when such choices were forced
upon them.

Chris felt Terry's anger, Trisha's sadness, Owen's sense of inevitability. He could sense it all, pouring off them and filling the room.

But time was running out.

"So what do you want to do?" he said, turning to them and ignoring the scientists. "Save the girl, or save the world?"

"Of course we have to save the world!" Terry shouted angrily.
"We have no choice!"

"I agree," replied Chris. "But this is one decision I can't make for
all of us. I need to know where you all stand, because if we commit
to this, then there's no room for hesitation when the time comes. We
go all the way, and we do it now, or we don't go at all."

No one was eager to speak first, but Trisha finally did. "I say go,"
she said quietly, her face pained and her voice filled with regret.

Owen sighed again. "Go," he said.

Everyone turned to Terry, who shook his head angrily. "We go.
We go kill our friend and save the world"

"You're not killing her, exactly," offered Parks. "Think of it more
like ... you're putting her into the hands of fate."

"No, not fate," said Terry slowly, a new light flickering in his eyes.
"Faith. We've spent days wandering the Earth, secretly afraid that we
were alone, and would live out the rest of our lives alone. But we're
not. And neither is Mae."

"We're scientists, sir," replied Parks, frowning. "We live on fact,
not belief."

"Then you should look up at the stars sometime," said Chris,
drawing strength from Terry's words. "It might make you change your
mind. Think about this.... The four of us survived the crash of the Ares. We pulled Terry and Owen out of the collapsed building, and
neither of them was seriously hurt. A jet ski appeared out of nowhere
just when we needed it at the lighthouse. I found Mae without looking
that hard when the hospital was on fire, even though she was trapped
and unable to escape on her own. We got away from the bridge in
New Orleans, we overpowered Roston's men at the fairgrounds, we
broke free at the oil refinery, and we rescued Terry from a military
unit with greater numbers and weapons.

"Those are facts. Is it random chance that luck swung our way
so many times? Or was it not luck at all, and someone out there has
our backs?"

Terry nodded knowingly. "If we are truly alone, then nothing
matters. At all. If our existence is about being tossed around between
chaos and chance, then why should we bother doing anything? Who
cares if ten billion people are gone? It's just survival of the fittest-the
latest `accident' from a universe that's out of control.

"But if we're not alone ... if we have help in all this, then everything we do serves a greater purpose."

There was a sound of screeching tires outside, in the distance.

"Our time is up," said Rowley.

Chris pulled out his pistol again. "You led us into a trap?"

"No!" said Parks. `'We didn't!"

`But Roston catching up with us was not unexpected," said Rowley. "This man has access to all the technology in the entire world; it
was only a matter of time before he found us. We'd hoped it would
take him a little longer.... "

"Then why did you even rescue us?!" cried Terry, who was on
his feet now as well, despite his injury.

"Either way, you were going to be captured," explained Parks.
"You can't outrun Roston forever. But this way, we could arm you
with enough knowledge to defeat him at his own game."

Chris felt his trigger finger wanting to pull so badly, wanting to kill
these two treacherous men where they stood. But he suppressed it.

He also knew the four of them should be running right now.

"Like what?" he asked.

"The fail-safe code," replied Parks. "He doesn't know about it."

"This is your one advantage," explained Rowley, leaning forward
now, urgency in his voice. `And it's the only thing we have to give
you. The way to get everyone back is to input that fail-safe code
before the entire machine is destroyed."

All right, let's move, people, before they block the exits!" said
Chris. He turned to Owen, but gestured toward Terry. "Carry him if
you have to."

Owen scooped up his friend in his thick arms. Trisha led the
way, with Chris bringing up the rear.

They burst through a rear door and right into the middle of a
semicircle of Roston's men.

A short march around to the front of the building later and they
came face-to-face with Major Griffin.

"Put them in the back. With her."

Chris and the others were shepherded into the back of an armored
personnel carrier, where Mae was waiting, alone.

"Mae!" Terry cried. "Did they hurt you? Are you all right?"

"Dandy," she replied. "That one slapped me around a little. Nothin'
new."

She had a giant bruise on her forehead and a few scrapes, but
nothing any worse. Chris couldn't escape the feeling that she was
different somehow, now that they knew who she really was. He
wondered if they should tell her about her father, Rowley. She had a
right to know the truth, didn't she?

But then that would lead to questions of her connection to the
machine....

"Gentlemen!" called out Griffin's voice from outside the vehicle.

The five of them fell silent, listening and watching.

From behind another jeep came Rowley and Parks. Griffin met
them.

"You know, for geniuses you're awfully dumb," said Griffin. "Did
you really think we couldn't find you? What did you hope to accomplish with this? Still, there was no harm done. We have them."

Rowley turned and looked at the Humvee, where Chris and the
others watched. His eyes seemed to be searching the tinted glass,
trying to catch a glimpse of Mae. His daughter.

"Look at me!" Griffin shouted.

Rowley reluctantly met Griffin's eyes, but he did not appear anxious or concerned. He was the picture of calm. Parks was looking at
his captor and bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.

Another soldier approached, carrying a pair of very large duffel
bags. Griffin took the bags from him and handed one to Parks and
one to Rowley "Colonel Roston asked me to give you this."

Parks nervously opened his bag, and pulled out a huge wad of
green bills.

"Take your earnings and go find a safe place to ride this out,"
said Griffin.

"That's it?" asked Parks. "I thought you were going to kill us."

Griffin looked at him like he was stupid. "What would be served
by killing you? We're not monsters. We're soldiers, and we have a
mission to complete."