Transient Echoes (31 page)

Just in case.

******

John waited outside the Ortego ruins, fully geared, surrounded by his team.

Mei and her people were in the basement configuring the rods, getting them ready to open the portal. It wasn’t possible for the Blacks to wear their gear as well as the radiation suits, so compromises had to be made. As such, the portal would have to be opened ahead of time to reduce the local radiation, remaining open until the area was clear, and the danger was gone. Mei said an hour ought to do the trick, and she seemed confident the rods would hold. John wasn’t a scientist like the others, but he believed in Mei. He always had.

When the time came, John called his people to the basement. The Blacks descended into the ancient catacombs of the Ortego building, quiet and quick. They swept through the lower level and filed into the portal room. The Blacks would now stay in their assigned positions, utterly silent and awaiting orders. Whenever John gave the signal, they would breach the other side of the portal. Until then, they would wait. No complaints. No questions.

Mei was standing by in her radiation suit. She stared up at John, a look of concern in her eyes.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I should be asking you that,” she said. “You’re the one who’s about to go across the universe to who-knows-where.”

He nodded. “I’ve already made the trip once. Guess I’m not too worried now.”

She frowned. “Still…”

“Don’t worry,” he said.

She stared at him for a moment. “I’d remove this suit if I could, but the top doesn’t come off.”

“Why would you do that?” he asked.

She dropped her eyes, the way she did when she was embarrassed. In a better light, she might have even blushed. “Well…” she muttered, trailing off. “I, uh…”

“What’s wrong?”

She furrowed her brow. “I’d kiss you, you big idiot.”

He laughed, then took her hand in his. He bent down and kissed her visor, knowing how cheesy it must have looked. “I’ll see you after a while.”

Mei smiled, nodding, and released his hand. She backed away and sighed. “Sophie, what’s the status of the portal?”

“Holding,” said Sophie.

She looked at John. “Remember, it’ll be open again in three hours.”

John nodded. He turned to face the rift, his team positioned. “Alright, boys,” he barked. “Time to take a dive.”

“Yes, sir!” they said in unison.

John took a breath. He was about to skip across the universe in an attempt to find his long lost friend and bring him back. The odds were against him. The whole thing barely made a lick of sense, but it sure was exciting.

“Breach!” he cried, his voice echoing through the basement walls. “Go!”

The Blacks filed through, their weapons aimed and hot. Two by two, they went, until John was the only one left.

He reached the edge of the rift, but stopped and lingered. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Mei, standing there against the wall, gripping her pad between her arms, watching him. She had done all of this, made everything possible and brought him to this moment. She had done things no one else could, carried the weight of the world on her back. The portal, Terry, everything.

It was his turn now.

John faced the rift. He stared into the void, into both darkness and distance, into the other side of the universe, into the thing that killed the world.

And he walked through it.

Ep
il
og
ue

Lena Sol watched as
the data poured in from the recent excavation project in the South Sea. The digital files appeared as holograms in the air before her. With only a thought, she sorted through the documents, pulling up the summary report and magnifying the page for examination. The archeological dig had gone smoothly, resulting in several new artifacts which would soon be examined and subsequently stored in the archives. However, nothing of any true significance had been unearthed, making the bulk of the investigation somewhat fruitless.

Lena had little interest in archeology, but she was nonetheless displeased to see the lackluster results. As a citizen of Everlasting, her first priority was to the city and its people. It didn’t matter what field the research was in, so long as it benefited their society. Everything else came second.

All was for the good of Everlasting.

A red emergency indicator blinked near the corner of her display. She closed the excavation file and activated the recording program—standard protocol when dealing with an emergency alert—and transferred the file to her personal visor.

A large energy discharge had occurred in the quarantine zone far to the west. Such an event was not unprecedented. Long ago, Everlasting had used this land as a testing site for early research projects but had since abandoned it. The native tribes in the area often stumbled upon caches of disregarded technology, accidentally activating them in the process. It was unfortunate but ultimately inconsequential to the welfare of the city’s citizenry.

However, this blast was unusually large and had prompted the monitoring system to take further action by reporting the event to an analyst, who could then commit to more observation and request additional scans. Lena Sol was one such individual.

Her first thought was to examine the readings for evidence of an explosive, but quickly dismissed the idea. The defense system had likely already looked for such a thing. She would of course return to this idea if nothing else worked, but for now, protocol suggested she move on.

She initialized a detailed scan of the surrounding area, something which required the use of the Rosenthal satellite, which could only be accessed by a grade five analyst or higher. The satellite would observe and detail the movements of all detectable energy patterns in the affected area, dividing the findings into categories based on the level of relevance and triangulating the source of the event. This would then permit the user to track and monitor the incident in question and to assess the potential threat. The whole process took about three minutes.

While the system worked, she decided to see what other anomalies were recorded in the quarantine zone over the last three months. Again, standard protocol.

To her surprise, there had been almost a dozen similar events, but they had only lasted for a few minutes each. The system catalogued these and moved on, but with each additional event, the threat assessment rating grew.

Lena closed the file and called for the results of the scan from the Rosenthal satellite. The report showed a large emission of energy coming from underneath one of the unfinished, half-constructed settlements. These buildings were meant for housing and storage but were abandoned along with everything else in the quarantine z
one roughly two centuries ago.

But Lena had never heard of an underground facility in this particular location. Odd, considering she’d memorized all four hundred and nineteen points of interest. Had she forgotten this one? Given her recall scores, it seemed unlikely, but she supposed anything was possible.

As a precaution, she called for a full list of her POIs and looked for any falling under the grid in question. 1103-29, 1103-30, 1103-31, and so on.

No matches for the location in question. How very odd. Had the site been blacklisted? Maybe. She’d never seen the practice herself, but there were stories from other analysts. Perhaps this location was one of them.

In any case, the next step was to determine whether further investigation was warranted, which she—

A light flashed on her display, followed quickly by an alert message.

Report to Master Analyst Foster Gel immediately.

Lena paused at the message. She’d never been called into Master Gel’s office before. What could he possibly want from her?

Within seconds, another alert appeared. This time the words were larger.

She blinked.
Alert acknowledged
, she thought, and the message disappeared. She got to her feet and calmly left the room and proceeded to the elevator. “Floor sixty-eight,” she said, once the doors were closed. The machine gave a light chime, accepting the command.

A few moments later, the doors opened, and she entered the entrance lounge—a large room which acted as a hub for all the department heads and their staff members. Despite only coming here a few times, she had no trouble navigating the halls to Gel’s office. After all, she memorized the architecture of the building during her first year as a junior analyst.

On the way to his office, she passed the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the Office of Compliance, the Department of Civil Protection, and the Department of Corrections. Each of them looked identical to the last, except for the plaque outside the door.

Once she was at her destination, she touched the scanner on the wall and waited for it to verify her identity. A second later, the doors slid open.

“Analyst Sol?” asked a young man in a receptionist uniform. “Master Gel is waiting for you. Please proceed.” He motioned to the back of the room to a paned glass window and another door.

She could see the master analyst on the other side of the glass, sitting behind his desk and talking to the air around him. He was probably in a meeting with someone on his visor.

Lena went to the door and waited to be recognized by her superior. He made eye contact with her within seconds but didn’t acknowledge her arrival. She waited several minutes, presumably because he was still in the middle of his conversation and didn’t want to be interrupted. She understood. He was an important man.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes, he removed his visor and motioned for her to enter and take a seat. She did, saying nothing. It was impolite for a subordinate to speak first.

“Thank you for responding so quickly to my invitation,” said the master analyst.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

“Do you know why you have been called to this office?” he asked.

“No, sir,” she said.

“Would you care to speculate on the cause?”

She paused, trying to look as though she were giving it more thought. “I honestly cannot think of anything, sir,” she said. Of course, this was a lie. She knew exactly why she was here. Discovering an energy anomaly at a potentially blacklisted site in the quarantine zone was not a common occurrence. Not as far as she was aware.

“You are here because you received a priority message from the defense system in regards to grid 1103. Is this accurate?”

“It is,” she said.

“Did you find this report to be unconventional?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” she responded.

“Why?”

“Because the source of the discharge did not originate from a listed asset. The energy appears to have come from an underground facility, though there are no records of such a place in the database.”

He nodded. “You are sure?”

“If the Rosenthal scans are to be believed, sir.”

“Why do you think the site was unlisted?” he asked.

“A variety of reasons, sir, but I couldn’t say with any certainty.”

The master analyst took his visor and placed it over his eye. Immediately, his pupil dilated, indicating the neural connection. His eyes left hers and seemed to focus on the air above the desk. “Lena Sol, level-5 analyst, eight years’ experience beginning at age thirteen. Several commendations for excellence and dedication to service.” He looked at her. “A superb portfolio. No infractions noted. You should be very proud.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You seem to be quite adept at your station, Lena Sol,” he said. “I have a hard time believing you don’t have a single theory regarding this unusual event.”

She stiffened.

“It’s okay. Go ahead and tell me what you think. I assure you, I will not file a report.”

She let out a small sigh. “Yes, sir.”

“So what do you think?” he asked.

“There are a few possibilities. To begin with, the database may have simply been corrupted and never fixed. The scans are not as accurate when dealing with underground sites.”

“And the other possibility?” asked Gel.

“Someone may have blacklisted the facility,” she said.

“Have you ever heard of such a thing?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No, of course not.”

“Really?” he asked. “I find that surprising. I hear rumors all the time.”

She shifted in her seat. “I’ve heard a rumor or two, sir, but never anything believable.”

“Would it bother you to learn those rumors were true?”

“If they were, I’m sure the government had its reasons.” A non-answer, but a safe one. She was in dangerous territory.

“I agree. But such things, if they exist, would likely be considered classified and confidential. As a grade-5 analyst, you are several levels shy of receiving the necessary clearance to even speak about these matters.”

Oh, no
, she thought, feeling panicked. She shouldn’t have said anything about a blacklisted site. What was she thinking?

Master Gel gave a thin smile. “Don’t worry, Ms. Sol. You can relax. You are not being reprimanded. On the contrary, you’re about to be promoted.”

Her jaw fell. “Sir?”

“The fact of the matter is that you are correct. This is a classified location. You received this alert by accident through a fault in the system. It should not have gone to you. Policy states I have two options now. Either I can send you to a memory facility and have the information extracted, potentially damaging your brain in the process, or I can promote you and give you the necessary security clearance. Given your exemplary history with the department, I’d rather side with the latter. What do you think?”

“Y-Yes, thank you, sir,” she said, struggling to get the words out.

“Very good,” he responded. “Now, if you’ll join me, please link your visor with mine, so I can finalize the promotion.”

She did as he told her. A moment later, he called for a document to appear between them, detailing Lena’s work history and current position as a level-5 systems analyst. In an instant, the title changed to level-9, causing Lena to gasp quite suddenly. She had never heard of anyone jumping four levels in a single promotion.