01-01-00 (51 page)

“Problem is,” said Jackie, “that with our current technology, all we can do is observe. We can't communicate real time because our transmissions can't exceed the speed of light, meaning it will take 139 years before they reach Maia.”

“They do have the capability of communicating with us,” said Cameron. “If they choose to do so, like in their daily transmissions, or with the way in which they scanned our millennium clocks, reading our sequence of numbers almost real time, somehow, using a technology that we may not discover for centuries.”

Susan smiled. “Speaking of undiscovered technologies, Reid told me yesterday that the word in Washington is that NASA's trying to come up with a proposal for a voyage to Maia.”

Ishiguro frowned. “How? We barely got to the moon, and Mars is still on the drawing board at NASA.”

Susan shrugged. “Back in 1961 reaching the moon seemed like an impossible task too. Yet, we got there eight years later. You know the old saying, when there's a will…”

Cameron raised an eyebrow. “It would certainly bring unity to the world, just as it did to this nation back in the sixties.”

They remained silent, considering the possibilities of such a project.

Two days later, Cameron and Susan were driven to a nearby airport, where an Army C-130 Hercules transport flew them to New Orleans. There they boarded a commercial jet to Washington. The morning papers were already packed with speculation as to the true meaning of the surreal, worldwide event, including several speculative articles on Maia, the recently discovered planet in the southern constellation Centaur.

Everyone from radical religious groups and heads of state to talk-show hosts had an opinion, and most were as far apart as the galaxies in the universe. It didn't surprise Susan and Cameron to learn that the experience did fade as it left the limestone shelf of the Yucatán Peninsula. People in northern Mexico and the southern United States experienced a few seconds worth of a back flash, in many ways almost like an intense daydream. By the time it reached Canada, the effect had faded to a warm feeling of sudden comfort. It also didn't surprise them to see that news of the event was competing with the initial results of the Year 2000 transition, which had not gone nearly as badly as everyone had forecast it would. Some systems had gone down, but others had picked up the load. Countries in South America and the Middle East were having the worst problems, but they were already being addressed as they flared up. In all, computer industry experts felt that the worst Y2K problems would be corrected within a couple of months, and most issues addressed within the next eight months.

“It's already happening,” Cameron said, pointing to several articles in the paper he had picked up at the airport. “Everyone's got his own spin on what happened, and although many mean well, the variety of opinions will only distort the true meaning of what took place.”

They remained silent for a moment.

“What's next for you?” she asked, gazing out of the window, watching the swamplands surrounding New Orleans disappear beneath the clouds.

Cameron Slater took her hand and kissed it. “With some luck our names will never make it to the papers, meaning we get to return to our normal lives.” At the scientists' unanimous request, the United States and Japan had worked out an agreement to keep their names out of the media. Both countries had also shred all evidence of the site in Yucatán, except for two time capsules, which housed the files containing the descriptions of the event as witnessed by the presidential envoy. One capsule would be kept in the White House, not to be opened for five thousand years. The other, under a similar time stipulation, would be buried at a secret location in Japan.

“A normal life?” Susan sighed. “That sounds too good to be true.”

“I think if we both work at it we have a good shot of making it, don't you?”

She stared into Cameron's dark eyes and smiled, peace filling her for the first time in two years. A normal life did seem within her reach, and Cameron Slater was certainly someone with whom she could share that life.

Susan Garnett took his hand and placed it over her heart while staring out of the window. A layer of clouds extended toward the blazing horizon as the morning sun spread its luminous beams on the new millennium.

B
OOKS BY
R. J. P
INEIRO

Siege of Lightning

Ultimatum

Retribution

Exposure

Breakthrough

01-01-00

Y2K
*

*
forthcoming

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.

01-01-00™

Copyright © 1999 by Rogelio J. Pineiro

All rights reserved.

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First Edition: June 1999

eISBN 9780765386069

First eBook edition: May 2015