Shortly after
the movie’s close Aeniah announced that she was going to get some
sleep. Sean stated something about an information packet download
to get Blue Dawn’s datamine out of his head, flew off towards the
Command Centre.
When Sean’s
muttering had been muted by the closing of the Command Centre’s
doors I realised that they had left Adrian and me alone.
‘You want
another drink,’ I said. At least that is what I hope I said, my
words had begun to slur a long time ago. Adrian just nodded in
response and shuffled down into the seat.
I went over to
the machine that had provided Aeniah with the drinks. My vision was
blurred from the alcohol. I struggled to make out the information
on the screen. I fumbled my unresponsive hands against the touch
pad until the picture of the cocktail came up. I pressed the image
twice and the machine began to create the beverage.
It took a few
moments to produce the two sparkling drinks. I hoped that my
fumbling might have managed to reduce their alcohol content. With
clumsy hand I picked up both of the drinks and placed them onto the
table besides Adrian. He picked up his glass and pushed it to his
lips just as I threw myself besides him.
There was an
awkward moment of silence as neither of us knew quite what to say.
I sipped upon my drink. He sipped upon his and the silence
continued.
I was the one
who eventually broke the silence. ‘Adrian,’ I stuttered, ‘I’m so
sorry about what happened. I just, I, I thought you were behind me.
I didn’t want to, to leave you. I just, I just thought that it
would never end, what we had I mean. I’m sorry you had to be apart
of this mess. I’m sorry that all these bad things have ever
happened to you. I never loved anyone else as much as I loved you.
I am so, so sorry. I...’
Adrian
interrupted by wiping away the tears from my eyes. He spoke to me
slowly and carefully emphasising all the right words. ‘George, it
doesn’t matter now, nothing of Earth matters anymore. You came back
George, you came back for me. In spite of everything you came
back.’
We held each
other then, in that small room. The systems hummed all around us
like a choir singing out to the heavens. Our hands met and joined
in the most triumphant gesture of absolute certainty. We were
together and alone at the end of the world.
Our moment of
bliss ended as we went to sleep and for the first time in years I
dreamed. I dreamed of something special.
We got up
early and talked for a while. The whole universe had shifted.
Everything seemed better, filled with a greater life than it had
before. I was smiling without a reason to smile. Adrian and I left
our quarters hand in hand. Aeniah and Sean were nowhere to be found
and so we wandered about the communal area, eating and talking.
‘Arrival at
Hercula imminent,’ the AI announced. Adrian and I looked at one
another and made our way into the Command Centre.
‘Just on
time,’ Aeniah stated as we entered. I felt the sudden deceleration
as we translated back into real-space.
I had
remembered reading about Hercula at school. So little had been know
about it. In fact all that we really knew was that Hercula had a
green atmosphere and it supported a dense tropical belt of life
along its equator. The rest of the world was not thought to be
habitable by humans.
‘Okay,’ I said
‘so where do we go from here?’
Sean was the
one to deliver the information this time. ‘Blue Dawn stated that
Carvelle made many of his discoveries in an archaeological
site.
‘Before the
Resource Wars Hercula was a site of great importance to the
international communities. There were many digs, all showed some
evidence of a highly evolved society that was thought to have
become extinct when the environmental conditions on the planet
suddenly shifted six thousand nine hundred years ago. As a result
of this shift colonisation was not thought possible. The air is
breathable but the planet is too geologically unstable to support a
civilisation. The equatorial area is anomalously stable considering
the rest of the planet and so it was there that the majority of
research occurred. The dense forestation in the area made it
difficult for many science teams because of the labour intensive
nature of setting up a clearing through which to conduct research.
Quite surprisingly and in spite of this there are over two hundred
dig sites.
‘I have now
discerned the location of the dig that Carvelle attended. Working
through the night I analysed this ship’s database. It appears that
this vessel is the very same one that Carvelle took to find the Eye
of Orion. Cross referencing this data with the scans of the planet
taken by Blue Dawn I have found the likely location of the research
site.’ Sean faced a terminal and stared intently at it. The holo of
the planet that we were rapidly approaching spun and zoomed in on
the site of interest.
‘As you can
see,’ Sean continued, ‘there is little data available on the
planet.’ A chime sounded and a square zoomed onto the location Sean
was emphasising. ‘The ship has found a landing site and is
preparing its descent,’ he remarked
The holo
switched back to the real-time feed. The ship was clearly entering
the atmosphere because a red trail of flames could be seen on the
lowest part of the image. We were now crossing the northern
hemisphere. The ground below was a stale mustard colour and there
were angry red rivers of lava running along their surfaces. This
world was a violent and deadly place.
But just as
quick as this observation was the planet responded by slowly
revealing its greener colours. From small patches of isolated green
to the now entire rainforest, like those that I had only ever seen
in stories, rushed up to meet us. Within a matter of minutes the
vessel was clipping the tree tops and we were beginning to
land.
We stepped out
of the vessel and into a green sky. Everything was incredible;
there were reds and blues calling out to us, tempting us. The
canopy of tangible delights was set out against the background of a
watery green sky. No moon clouded its ocean of slowly moving
clouds, and no sun blocked out the lightning striking between them.
I swear that I thought I was looking at heaven.
Hercula had
none of the fatal unreality of Ascension. If the station was the
finest example of anything man had ever created then this was the
finest example of something that nature had ever created. I
wondered for a moment if the United World had been right. I
wondered if it was true that there was a god. But I dismissed this
notion out of hand. No god would have allowed us Ascension, no god
would have allowed us to execute our own destruction. If a god
existed then it was a cruel and bitter tyrant.
Adrian was
staring up into the canopy with amazement too. I saw Aeniah doing
the same. For once it was me that had the responsibility of keeping
everybody moving. I tapped Aeniah on the shoulder, she nodded, and
we began to walk into the undergrowth.
We were
tracking a position on Aeniah’s holo display. The foliage made it a
difficult task to get anywhere quickly. The heat was such that in a
moment I felt as though I had sweated all the water from my body.
The moisture was so intense that even with no water in my body my
mouth overflowed. Thankfully we were not that far away now. The
holo said we were nearly on top of it. With all the overgrowth it
was difficult to see an opening into the dig of any kind.
After another
half hour we finally found the entrance. It was a cave like
structure that looked as though it might collapse at any moment. It
was unlit and so I went first using the night vision of my scope to
descend into the darkness below.
After a while
the cave began to widen and then it levelled off and went into a
small room. There was a small DCN in the corner just about visible
through my scope. Remembering how we turned on Ascension’s DCN, I
repeated the procedure and soon the lights in the room began to
glow.
The light
revealed a small room, furnished with a desk and some scientific
equipment. At the end of the room was an elevator that I assumed
would lead us down into the site of interest itself.
Carvelle had
clearly not been here for a long time. The papers strewn all over
the place were cracked and brown. I read a few of them but they
contained nothing but some ravings about a civilisation more
powerful than his own, a technology that would free the world, and
a political theory that would ravish millions. There were pieces of
technology everywhere, clues as to the existence of new life. I
wondered why Carvelle had not told anyone of the aliens, for he
would surely have made the greatest find in all of history. But
then I realised how Carvelle was motivated. The revelation of the
evidence that this site contained would have made it available to
anyone. He wanted a monopoly over the technology, and he wanted it
for the same reasons powerful men want things, he wanted more
power. So many people had died for the sake of his vanity. He
clearly thought that he
was
a god.
‘Nothing
here,’ I said.
‘Looks like
it’s the lift then,’ Aeniah sighed. I had a feeling that after the
amount of alcohol she had drank the night before she had wanted a
bit of a break.
We all walked
over to the lift and prepared ourselves for what we would see. I
imagined great wonders and fantastic things that maybe I wouldn’t
even understand. As I fantasised the lift began to descend. I
thought of beings who looked like us but could throw fire from
their hands and heal you with just a touch. The lift began to slow.
I thought of sprits and temples and all the wonders of a star.
The lift doors
opened and I was very wrong. In the centre of the room was the
artefact and there was little else. The artefact was the only thing
that was unlike anything I could have imagined. The object was a
seven foot tall obelisk, with carvings of animals and beings that I
could not even begin to describe all over its skin. The colour was
no colour, it seemed to absorb all light in a shimmer of half
revealed things. Nearby the artefact were a few pieces of dried up
technology. The technology had obviously been alive at some point.
Through the half decayed crystalline structure I could see the
remnants of organs and arteries.
‘Amazing!’
Sean said. ‘Organic technology! I never thought I’d see the day.’
He whistled merrily as he floated around the dig site taking
everything in.
The artefact
was clearly alive. It pulsed and throbbed as though it had a
heartbeat. I walked over to it. Bracing myself for some awful thing
to pop out and get me, I touched the skin of the object. But
nothing happened. In fact nothing seemed to be happening at all.
There were no screens, nor any evidence that there ever had been.
In fact there seemed to be no way of interfacing with the artefact
at all. It just seemed to be a living, but very much inert,
statue.
‘I can’t see
anything, how am I supposed to shut it down if I can’t even
communicate with it. Blue Dawn couldn’t even destroy it, so how am
I supposed to?’
Aeniah placed
a hand on my shoulder. ‘George,’ she said kindly, ‘if there has
even been one constant between our lives and theirs, it was the
Promethean Layer. Carvelle once said to me that the road to
Ascension could only be travelled by the enlightened. So go ahead
and connect. All, I am sure, will be revealed.’
I looked for
that star again and found it much more easily than I had on
Ascension. It was so much brighter and so much more powerful. I
grasped onto it and became connected.
Here was
something I would have had to have seen to understand. This cold
and barren room was not barren at all. Everywhere there was noise,
thoughts, brainwaves. I looked at the artefact and it showed me
everything. I did not need a screen to interface with it,
everything I could have ever been shown was already there, before I
even realised that I could ask for it. I could see the energy being
broadcast out of it. I could see the very Promethean Layer itself.
The Layer was a universe of pure light, pure bliss and was the very
closest example of heaven I think I will ever find.
‘Aeniah,
Adrian, this is...it’s beyond words. You’re never going to be able
to understand...this.’ Neither of them responded. They both seemed
to know exactly what I was seeing, it was as though my face told
the entire story.
I looked at
those emaciated little machines and with their dying thoughts they
told me the truth. By now I had realised that these beings had
evolved beyond the need for standard communication. Their lives
existed in between worlds, always connected to the Promethean Layer
and always planted firmly in reality. This was the world that they
saw, the world that they had made. No wonder that I could not see
anything without the connection, because without the connection it
did not exist.
I also knew,
what I must always have known, the truth. I knew what the artefacts
were for. I always had. They were a means of terra-forming. They
created the conditions necessary for their connection to the
Promethean Layer and so their survival. And they knew that it would
kill us. The artefact showed me images of the genes required for
the connection to the Layer, my genes.
I saw how to
shut it down. It was almost too simple. The device simply required
that someone would will it silent. The artefact explained through
images and concepts that it was the master hub and that shutting
this down would severe the connection to the others. The entire
network would shut down. All that a person had to do to complete
this operation was to want it, to truly want it.