Mobius (14 page)

I moved toward it, and, amazingly, my synthetic eyes operated as a key and granted us entrance. Within was an empty chamber. Its walls tapered upward with the contours of the spire.

“Goddamnit! We missed it.”

“Missed what?” asked Allienora.

“I don’t know.” I turned in a circle. “The pilot died for nothing.”

I walked to the center of the empty chamber and nearly broke my neck as I tripped over thin air. Allienora rushed to me, and also tumbled to the ground.

I searched for the cause of our clumsiness, and soon discovered an object uncloaking. It was a sleek black transport ship less than four meters in length and two meters wide. The top slid open to reveal its inner compartment. Its lining was molded to fit two bodies side by side.

“No way!” Allienora shook her head. “I’m not crawling into this oversized coffin.”

I ran my hand across the surface of its exterior. “Holy shit! I’ve never seen such a small anti-relativity drive. Someone crammed a lot of tech into this tiny ship. We’ve come this far, Allienora. Why end our journey now? Unless you want to stay with the Obelisks and await their surprise.”

“You’re right, Theron.” Allienora’s eyes grew large. “We’ll see it to the end. Everything has changed. Alien objects out of phase with reality have fallen from the sky—the world is under attack. I shouldn’t be excited, but I am.” She jumped into the small ship like a kid on a carnival ride. “Are you coming?”

I smiled and quickly joined her. We proceeded to lie down, side by side, in the small vessel. Its lining expanded around us, securing us in place. The top slid closed, trapping us within. A node of light at our feet provided illumination.

I turned to Allienora. “I’m sorry I brought you into all this, but I couldn’t leave you with the defense minister.”

“I don’t blame you, Theron. You were thinking the best for me when I thought the worst of you. Besides, I’m having fun now.”

Who is this girl before me?
I thought. She had suddenly become more interesting, even fascinating. I reflected over the past day.
I won’t soon forget her soft body wrapped around mine, floating over the world, as if in a dream.

We looked at each other for a suspended moment. The dangers we had experienced together created an intimacy. I touched her cheek, and then moved to kiss her. But, before our lips touched, the inner compartment of the vessel began filling with a viscous fluid. Our moment was lost.

Allienora pounded on the lid of the craft. “What’s happening?”

“The craft is filling with cryo-gel and we’re being placed into stasis. If you relax, the process should be painless.”

“Where are they taking us?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “but I’ll see you there.”

Two mechanical claws came down from the lid of the vessel and gripped our necks like shackles. Needles and probes pierced our veins, arteries, and nerves. I felt a deathly calm as I went into stasis.

THE FRACTAL

SKYLARK

I felt a rush of energy
—my state of living death lifted. I convulsed and coughed up a throat-full of cryo-gel. My lungs burned as I breathed in fresh air.

My first thought came quickly:
Where’s Allienora?

The ship’s lid was open and she was no longer beside me. I sat up from the cryo-gel and strained to see my surroundings. At last, I saw her. She was revived, sitting on the floor with arms hugging legs. She was like a beautiful bird pulled from an oil slick. Her hair was a slimy mess and her clothes hung heavy with the muck.

A large man lifted me out of the vessel and set me next to her.

“Who are you?” I asked in a raspy voice.

“Orsteen Hunn of the Mercury Miners. We met on the Brahman Station.”

“I remember.” I swabbed away a glob of cryo-gel from behind my neck. “Where are we?”

“You’re in the docking bay of my private estate atop the great Scarp of Mercury. It’s nearly morning.” Orsteen gestured through a window. It overlooked the gray-cratered landscape of Mercury, which enjoyed a gentle illumination from a predawn light. The thin atmosphere revealed the landscape in perfect clarity. Its desolate and still-virgin terrain reminded me of the moon before man populated it.

Allienora raised her head, muttered, and then fell back into a daze.

“You’ll be all right, Allienora.” I rubbed her back. “It’s just post-stasis sickness.”

Orsteen stuck a medical sensor on my forehead. “You look of death, Theron. You’re so pale and your eyes...” Orsteen hesitated. “Where did you get those eyes? What do they do?”

“I’ve been getting that question a lot.” I didn’t know why we were on Mercury. I wasn’t about to tell him everything I knew. “We all have our enhancements.”

I gestured to Orsteen’s arms and legs. The Mercury Miners’ bodies were laden with synergistic implants. Strength and endurance were essential to survival on Mercury. At least two hundred years ago. Now, they were probably just a cultural norm.

“Well, whatever their function, they’re sucking the life out of you.” He pulled the sensor off my forehead. “You’ll live for now, though. Relax while I revive the others.”

“Others?” I asked.

Orsteen attended the first of two similar stasis vessels. He opened a control panel and minutes later the lid slid open to reveal a man. Orsteen tried to remove him but couldn’t. The half-conscious man stubbornly gripped a large diamond-fiber case lying beside him. In one great heave, Orsteen lifted the man and case out of the vessel and onto the floor. The man pulled the bulky case closer to his body as if to protect it from theft.

From the second vessel, Orsteen removed a man I recognized. It was Morion Morpheme of the Mars Elitists. He too had come alone and was traveling with a case, although one of even greater size. Orsteen grunted as he lifted the large case from the vessel.

I rose unsteadily to my feet. “Why are we all here, Orsteen?”

Before Orsteen could answer, Morion spoke frantically: “This slime! It’s suffocating! It’s vile! Get it off me!”

“I apologize,” said Orsteen. He walked past Morion and lifted Allienora off the floor. “I shouldn’t allow Allienora’s beauty to be soiled another minute.”

Orsteen took us into the living quarters of his estate. Nano-intelligent matter rose up from holding cisterns and formed four female-gendered simulacra. They took us to a decadent washroom of sonic showers and dermal regenerative baths. It was an unexpected treat after all the recent stress we’d endured. As the simulacra applied nourishing oils to our skins, I couldn’t help but look at Allienora’s nude figure. Her skin had a soft sheen like silk. My heart beat faster as I looked from her breasts to her abdomen to her shapely hips and down her perfect legs. I looked up and found her blue eyes peering back at me.

I turned away.
How long did she see me spying?

I looked back and found her smiling. She looked down at my own nude body, and then shrugged her shoulders in a joking way.

I smiled back at her. We hadn’t known each other long, but I felt a strange comfort around her.

Once dressed, Orsteen led us to a living room. The walls displayed a hyper-real tropical setting. It was as if the room was in the middle of a beach, with waves crashing on one side and palm trees swaying in the wind on the other. We sat in fluffy chairs around a holo-projector.

A simulacrum that looked like a native islander, presented Orsteen with a levitating tray of five glasses and a bottle of clear liquid. Orsteen poured the bottle and handed out the glasses.

“This should prove an effective stimulant,” said Orsteen. “Drink up.”

I inhaled the beverage without concern for flavor. “Why have we been brought to Mercury?”

Orsteen activated the holo-projector. It showed a recording of the Obelisks landing on Earth. “As you all should know, the solar system has been visited by a fleet of mysterious Obelisks. They currently sit inactive on Earth. Before they landed, the Earth government sent out their warships to intercept the Obelisks. Unable to communicate with them, the warships implemented all their great weaponry to destroy them. However, the attack was unsuccessful. The Obelisks appear to be untouchable by physical force. Shortly after the Obelisks landed on Earth, I received a secret communication from a group calling themselves the ‘Scions of Sensimion.’ They told me they had a plan to eliminate the threat of the Obelisks, and that I should wait for your arrival.”

Morion Morpheme stood from his chair in objection. “The Scions of Sensimion?” He turned to me and pointed to my eyes. “Is this the same Sensimion that Theron Mobius helped sabotage the Brahman Station? It’s this league of underhanded men responsible for the Obelisks. They’re assassins and anarchists.”

“Ridiculous!” I replied. “You think Sensimion’s colleagues are behind the invasion of Obelisks? First, the Obelisks appear to be out of phase with normal dimensions, a scientific feat unexplored by humankind. Second, the amount of resources needed for such constructions would be extraordinary. Do you believe that any human association could build such a fleet without the notice of the rest of the solar system?”

Orsteen nodded in agreement. “The Mercury Miners would be the first to notice, since it would take all the precious elements of Mercury to construct such a fleet. It would seem logical that the Obelisks aren’t born of our solar system.”

Morion didn’t reply and sat back down.

I briefly admired Allienora, who tugged awkwardly at the over-large clothes she’d been given. I then focused on the stranger sitting next to her. He had thin features, a sliver of a nose, and sharply angled eyes.

“I’m curious as to everyone’s purpose,” I said. “I’m acquainted with everyone except you, sir. You’ve been sitting quietly, assessing the situation with paranoid eyes. Who are you and what’s in your diamond-fiber case?”

“I’m Thirm Bastile. I know nothing of the Obelisks, or the Scions of Sensimion. I’m not here to save the world or fight off villains. I’m merely an arms dealer from the Lunar Colonies, here to deliver my merchandise to an anonymous buyer.” He indicated his case with a delicate touch. “Now, which one of you is to take delivery of this case—and, more importantly, pay me my one billion notes?”

“One billion notes!” said Morion. “We’ll need to know what we’re purchasing, first.”

Thirm Bastile looked cautiously to everyone. “If I’m betrayed, there’ll be consequences.”

“Get on with it!” said Morion.

“Within this case is a Level-4 Quantum Bomb.”

Orsteen scooted away from the case. “Possession of such a device is highly criminal.”

“I’m an honorable man,” said Thirm Bastile. “The criminal isn’t the arms dealer who delivers the weapon, the criminal is he who’d dare use the weapon. In all my life, I’ve killed no one. What you do with this device when my bounty is paid is between you and your god.”

I pointed to the hologram between us. “Even with such a destructive weapon, there’d be no effect on the Obelisks. Not to mention, we’d need one for each Obelisk.” I looked to Morion. “Why are you here? I saw you also brought a case.”

Morion lifted his head to a proud angle. “I wouldn’t have come if they had identified themselves as the Scions of Sensimion. However, like with Thirm Bastile, they chose to remain anonymous. They said that I, Morion Morpheme, Prime Elitist of Mars, was invited to be a part of a secret mission that would save humankind from the Obelisks. This was an irresistible proposal, since I’ve always craved a life of heroics.” Morion stared dreamily into space. “Once I’ve walked the path of a hero, I’ll bask in the glory of my deeds and live forever in legend. Even in death, I’ll be remembered.”

“Putting your dream of glory aside, what’s in the case?” I asked.

“They wanted me to bring one of my people’s failed endeavors—an artificial black hole generator. It’s a fairly worthless device. Why anyone would find it useful to create a micro black hole for less than a millisecond is beyond me.”

“Impossible,” I uttered.

Allienora touched my hand. “What is it, Theron?”

“Before the dimensional gateway was a glimmer in my mind, I conceived a doomsday weapon.” I gestured to Morion. “You see, Morion’s device warps space much like a black hole. Yet, it’s not a true black hole and doesn’t have the same destructive properties. However, I theorized if you directed an explosion of enough energy into this quasi-black hole, it could gain enough gravitational force to draw in an entire planet. Since the mass of a single planet couldn’t sustain the black hole, it would quickly collapse into normal space and spit out the remaining worldly pulp.”

“I’m confused,” said Orsteen. “Even if such a weapon could be assembled, it wouldn’t be the logical weapon. It would destroy Obelisks, Earth, and all.”

“You’re right,” I said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Morion refilled his glass. “Thirm Bastile and I are here for obvious reasons. What’s your part in all this, Theron? Moreover, what could the Prime Minister of Earth possibly contribute to this situation?”

“Your tone’s insulting, Morion.” Allienora stepped in front of him, grabbed his drink, and chugged it down. “Theron and I know the true mastermind behind both the Obelisks and the sabotage of the Brahman Station.”

“This is significant information,” said Morion, frowning at his empty glass. “Who’s responsible?”

Allienora turned to me. “Tell them, Theron.”

I told them of the Fume and his exotic energy within the unnatural dimension around Earth. I told them of the manifestations posing as human beings to manipulate the human race. I felt, however, that it was in my best interest not to tell them of my long association with the Fume, beginning in the sanitarium of my youth. As well, I wasn’t going to tell them about the Fume’s memories that cursed me.

When I had finished, the group looked at me with disbelief.

Orsteen was first to respond. “If there is some otherworldly entity on Earth, driving humankind’s evolution to an unknown end, why now has it chosen to bring down its final plan? If that’s what the Obelisks indicate.”

“I believe the Fume’s been forced to act since Sensimion discovered his presence and developed the means...” Here I indicated my synthetic hyper-blue eyes. “...to see his various manifestations.”

“I want nothing to do with these disturbing events,” said Thirm Bastile gruffly. “Give me my one billion notes and I’ll be headed to a location of far-off safety.”