Planets Falling (17 page)

Chapter 39
– Flight

Minns and Grey were miserable, sitting in the muck, orbited by a frenzy of hands and snakes.  The air was sodden with thick organic haze.  They gagged on each breath as the organic suspension in the air condensed in their mouths and lungs creating a dense, mucilaginous sludge.  Fen wasn't faring well.  His thick coughs rolled through the fog, arriving in irregular intervals.  Their muscles tensed as they anticipated the next tide of hacking.

Grey sighed to himself.  "How'd we end up here?"

Minn's face reddened.  "We?  Are you kidding? I should shoot you right now.  Or maybe I should force you to walk into that wall of death.  If we escape this, I'm quitting.  They don't pay me enough to put up with this crap."

"How is this my fault?"  Grey slouched back on his pack.  "My father was a great, brilliant man.  This is pure evil.  Corruption.  I have no idea what happened here, but this wasn't his intent.  If I had to gather what happened, he likely created some defense mechanism in the life he planted here - to protect the organisms from tampering.  Maybe he gave the creatures the ability to retreat from a threat - a vague intelligence, an ability to communicate.  This benign response evolved into something else.  I wonder if something on the plateau-" He stopped.

Minns turned to him, "Did something dead manipulate all this?  Are you telling me that what we were seeing up there were really dead sentients?  And are there demons and angels there too?  Did the devil escape on the planet?"

"By mars, I don’t know.  Maybe something like that.  Do you remember Pinchot Ferris from grade school history, the one who died a recluse?  My perspective’s changed.  I don't think she went crazy.  My dad thought she was onto something.  He believed and I now agree that Ferris discovered a window to an alternate reality and it has something to do with the emergence of life."

Minns laughed shrilly.

"Seriously.  Here's my hypothesis.  Life acts like a powerful quantum drive.  It punches a hole in the very fabric of space-time.  Perhaps, when we die, a little bit of the coherent energy we produce as living beings sinks down through that hole.  Life after death.  Water down the drain.  Maybe there's a heaven and hell of sorts.  Beyond all of, this."

Minns sipped some water and wiped her mouth.  "This is completely trippy.  What you're saying is that this planet is the equivalent of a giant quantum drive to the afterlife?"

"Yeah, I think so.  In a sense, this planet opens a doorway to another universe or something outside of our realm of existence.  Who knows?  I suspect it's related to infraspace.  Neither Ferris nor dad anticipated that other things, beings might be there.  When dad opened the door, he let the dead walk, but also provided an opportunity for other - things - to emerge.  Whatever has escaped into our reality has warped the life on this planet.  Hence, our dilemma."  He pointed at the undulated wall before them.

"If life's the doorway, then why hasn't this emerged on other worlds?"

Grey vaguely felt that he had this conversation before.  "Well, let’s see.  This planet harbors life on hyperspeed.  Dad selected strains of bacteria and plants that mixed with the
electrical activity of Nine to intensify the effect.  He learned this from Ferris' writings.  Other planets with life are far less likely to generate a big, gaping hole in the fabric of space-time.”

He sat quietly for a moment, deep in thought.  His eyes lit up.  “But, think about it.  Every sentient species we know has a cultural memory of spiritual entities.  On old earth in ancient days, gods, fairies, elves, you name it, walked among humans.  All of us abandoned these ideas as we developed science and technology.  But with technological advances, all of our species trampled the life on our planets into submission.  I mean, earth was a complete shithole before the fall happened."

Minns felt strangely calm.  "As we turned down the dimmer on our environments, we lost our spiritual connection."

Grey sighed.  "Exactly.  And what we have here is a spiritual connection gone out of control.  Humans, even brilliant ones like dad, always mess things up.  We just fail every time we dabble."

They sat in silence watching the maelstrom before them.

It was during this strangely peaceful moment that Fen began screaming.

"Uncle Fen, what's wrong?"  Grey yelled.

The screaming drained into a low moan.

"We've to get to him," Grey fired into the beings.  Each curled hand dropped onto the ground, dissolving into the mud.  The wall thinned and Grey advanced.  Minns fired beside him and a small hole appeared.

Grey shouted to Minns, "Keep firing until I give you a heads up.  I'm jumping through".

"You're completely insane.  Let me know when you’re ready."

They fired for another minute.  Grey looked over at Minns, nodded, and said, "Here I go."

She stopped firing and Grey dove for the hole.  He cleared it with ease and ran toward his uncle.  Fen was alone, curled on his side in a pile of dirt.  Whatever beings held him captive were gone.  Grey looked behind him.  The hands continued swarming around Minns, seemingly unaware that he had escaped.  Fen was conscious but clearly in pain.  Grey kneeled down.

"Uncle Fen, what happened?"

"They fell down on me.  I thought it was over.  But then he – Fromer - appeared and they vanished back into the soil."

"Fromer?  Where is he then?"

"I don't know.  I'm so cold, Grey"

"You're in shock.  Hang in there."

"Fen, I have more to tell you.  Your father.  Some of us in the Institute knew, understood, what he was trying to accomplish.  This wasn’t popular with all of the Family members.  In fact, there was a move early on to stop this project from proceeding.  But your father had some very powerful allies, descendants of the Fuersts."

Grey closed his eyes.  "Verat's family?"

"Yes, they were among his most vocal supporters.  Verat was assigned to you by us."

"What do you mean?  I requested that he be stationed on the Platform."

"Verat is your friend.  But do you honestly think he'd willingly take this assignment as a favor to you?  Be honest with yourself.  Verat was providing us with unambiguous information.  Some of the Institute leaders to whom you reported couldn't be trusted to provide us with the entire truth."  Fen winced.

"Uncle, why would people resist the opportunity to link life and death in the universe?"

Fen was still for a bit, gathering his energy.  "Grey, it's more complex than that.  Planets like these are a great potential source of power.  Imagine the ability to travel anywhere in the universe - not just the galaxy like we do now - by visiting these places.  For that matter, perhaps we can explore other universes, other times, other lives.  There's limitless untapped potential.  We all have a spark of this in us.  Some call it a soul or spirit.  It’s a mere fact of life.  This planet captures that energy.  And it makes it a technological achievement like no other."

Grey found himself feeling off center.  "Wow.  This is outrageous.  Is this why we almost died on the Platform and the Raven?  Was someone trying to stop us?"

"Correct.  And I guess that the ruling faction of the Collective wants to destroy the planet now and dispense of the risk once and for all."

"Uncle Fen, you know I love you and I hold dad's legacy near to my heart.  But I'm not quite sure that I disagree with the leadership.  I'm unsure whether the trillions of us can handle the responsibility.  Look at what happened to old earth.  We can't return to our own homeworld because of uncontrolled power unleashed by evil people.  This - this place - could cause a catastrophe of galactic scale."

"Your father and I debated this for a decade.  I agree with you.  Your father, however, believed that if the planet was held in the right hands, it could be used for research and enlightenment.  Ultimately, it would ease the burden of our crowded worlds.  Instead of the limited worlds we have at our disposal, we’d have galaxies to fill.  We could spread out and never overpopulate and overuse again."

"Ah, you young naïve boys."  Grey patted his uncle on the shoulder.  "Hang on.  Help will be here soon, I hope."

Grey jogged back toward the monsters surrounding Minns.  "Minns, start shooting toward my voice.  I’ll shoot in the same area.  Maybe we can clear a hole for you."

Sounds of charges emerged from within the undulating mass.  Grey aimed and fired with Fen’s powerful concussion rifle.  The hands gathered before him.  Instead of thinning, they braided and rose up, far above his head.  Large, gnarled fingers reached out to grab him from the top. 
I am going to be pulled apart like Rhodes,
he thought.  He crouched and fired haphazardly over his head.  The fingers darted toward him, their nails dripping with thick moisture from the fog.  He could feel the sharp pressure of a fingernail on the top of his skull when a large mass hit him sideways.  He tumbled to the ground to see an impossibly fast, glowing creature slashing at the base of the monster.

Fromer.

Minns appeared next to Fromer, her rifle blazing.  Within a few seconds, the monster had retreated into the brown haze.  Fromer turned to smile at them and then dashed away.

"What happened to Fromer?"  Minns was astonished.  "He was so fast.  He seemed bigger.  And did you see that glow?  It’s like someone charged his battery.  Something happened to him back there."

"I think he’s dead," Fen replied serenely.

Chapter 40
– Sleep

In the emerald haze, Melat communed with her first love, the Raven.  Like all relationships, the conversation was about give and take.  In this case, she was trying to convince the vessel to give her a very special gift.  But to get there, it would take some sweet talking.  The Raven was unsure about her idea.  She was persuasive and would eventually get her way with a little patience and tenacity.

Melat looked at her scabbed and bruised hands.  They seemed so fragile and thin.  It amazed her that this would be the last time that she would look upon them.  In a short while, she’d be free of her physical form, existing in the boundless void.  This wasn’t suicide.  She wouldn’t die.  Rather, she would be so very much alive.  She’d hold the threads of existence in her hands.  She giggled. 
Silly, I won't have hands anymore – unless I imagine them.

She had one more hurdle to jump and then the drop sequence would commence.  The quantum drive began thrumming below her feet.  She settled in the command chair and looked at the view screen.  The outline of the shuttle was there in the haze.  How she hated this planet.  In fact, she hated all of existence.  So, cold and hard.  The only thing bearable was Fromer - his smile and wisdom.  Yet, he was inaccessible.  Another cruelty of this reality.  It was time to banish all of this.

As she scanned through the diagnostics menu, she noticed the shuttle lurching to life beyond the Raven.  "Well, good for them.  God speed to you," she whispered.  She genuinely felt for the survivors but doubted they’d clear the planet before it collapsed.  She unlocked the final failsafe.  It was time to launch.

She rested her arm on the chair. The needle expertly pierced her skin and began transforming her circulatory and nervous systems into an extension of the Raven.  She settled lightly in a small field on her homeworld - new earth they called it.  It was so similar to earth that most earth plants and animals were able to thrive there.  One of her favorite flowers was the common dandelion.  It amazed her how the flower would be full and yellow one day and the next morning it transformed into a fuzzy globe of white.  She liked to think this was her.  In this reality she was Melat.  In the pilot's chair, she transformed, floating hither and thither, wherever the breeze might take her.

She blew on the seeds and the quantum drive began its cascade.  Even a direct blast to the Raven's hull would be unable to stop her now. She wandered in the darkness, tiny emerald lights surrounding her.  This light went to navigation, this one to electrical, and this one to the engines.  She tunneled through the incandescent pathway to the quantum drive.  There she gazed at the fabric of the universe boiling below her – a fortune teller before her beloved crystal ball.  Swirls of brown mixed with brilliant white.  She could see the center of the planet from her lofty vantage.

"Hello Melat."

The voice was familiar.  How was it possible to speak in this place?

"Melat, my darling, you’re about to get your wish."

She turned.  How could she turn?  She didn’t have a body.  In the void stood Fromer.  He was strange to her.  His features were transformed.  The human and zenat qualities no longer competed for attention.  Rather, they melded flawlessly.  He was no longer a living contradiction but an extension of life itself.  Joy seemed to radiate from him.

He laughed freely, openly.  The sound was an open ocean inviting her to step in.  She muttered in her own impossible voice, "Fromer, how are you here?"

"An old friend showed me the light.  All I had to do was jump in."  He smiled, putting his hands together as if he was going to dive.  "In a sense, you’re taking the plunge as well.  Where you’re going is complete freedom.  You can choose it for selfish purposes.  Or you may embrace it and find your salvation.  It’s your choice no matter where you go.  That’s the whole point of it.  Freedom."