The Quantum Objective (23 page)

She released his arm and turned into the tent.
*
Perun didn’t look a minute older than when Mimi had last seen him. She’d really have to corner him about it. Surely a quick pep talk to my epidermis won’t hurt, and God knows, the stress involved with hanging around the freaks, it’s a miracle I’m not a wizened hag. I’ll get on it right after Current Crisis.
‘So…what’s the story with Shuffles?’ She wiggled her thumb at Paul who was now staring at a whiteboard adorned with scribbles and pieces of paper.
‘I was told to find him. He’s part of this though he doesn’t know it. He’s an autistic savant, his gift is pattern recognition and computational speed.’ Perun shrugged, ‘that’s what his records say anyway. He was quite well known as a child, but he now lives in Colorado - a place called Durango. The old trains and railroad system there fixate him. I had some trouble persuading him to leave. We’ve been together three days waiting for a sign.’
‘The bumptious snakes told you to fetch him? How’s he going to help?’ Mimi said.
‘Yes and…I don’t know. Rana will know. That was her on the TV, right? I was told she’d reveal herself to me. I hadn’t realised she was going global.’
‘Yeah, it’s not likely to end well. Where’ve you been all this time?’
‘I hadn’t been off the base long when I was told to return home. There was unfinished business I’d been avoiding.’ His glistening eyes were a bottomless aquamarine sea.
Lord, these people are Fine.
‘Where’s home? The Sayan mountains?’
‘At first,’ he nodded, ‘then Tibet. There was much to learn.’
‘Okay…’ Mimi wondered what that meant.
‘What’s this Paul guy doing here?’ Beth looked ready for battle, face flushed. Mimi’s gaze slid past her to Khoen’s still form at the entrance. Aha, looks like he licked the bitter green toad. Maybe swallowed it whole.
‘He’s here to help with patterns,’ Perun held up his hands.
‘What patterns? How are we going to get Galen back?’
‘Must be the code. The patterns…they must form a part of it.’ Mimi said.
‘We don’t have a code!’ Beth said.
‘No, but Rana does. The crystal is in her. It contains Apep’s resurrection code, the Lightshapers are being obliging assistants, and now that she’s back with Galen, the circle must be nearly complete. The twins are probably just trying to shore up the team.’
‘Then why isn’t she here? What’s she waiting for?’
Mimi shrugged. ‘A grand entrance? She’s not shown much discretion so far.’
‘Wonder where she gets that from?’ Beth raised her brows.
‘It’s a mystery,’ Khoen said, close enough to make them jump. ‘Why don’t you just call for Galen? If he’s near, he’ll bring her.’
Beth’s mouth opened and closed.
‘Ooh. Not just a pretty face! Let’s go.’ Mimi clapped Khoen on the back and dragged Beth out of the tent to a chorus of screams.
‘What the…’
They pressed their hands to their ears, and then they too could see her. She stood on the corner of a faux-colonial building at the crossroads a block down Main Street, Galen by her side. She glowed with a gazillion watts in the sunshine, forcing everyone to squint. Mimi slipped on her trusty Burberry shades. Much better.
‘Whoa.’
Rana soared off the edge, a second sun in the cloudless blue, and landed with a crunchy thud on her father’s stack of cars, Galen in tow. The screams were deafening as the pile groaned in protest, rocking back and forth like it had stomach ache.
God, she’s big!
The cars conceded and collapsed like empty Coke cans into a rough platform; she stepped off, lifting her brother down. The now silent crowd moved back, the cameras surged against a buffer of soldiers. Decker stepped towards Rana then stopped. As she approached, Mimi saw why. She was huge!
‘What the hell is going on Honey B? She wasn’t this big on the tapes.’ Mimi’s voice was timid even to her own ears.
Beth ran, stumbled and then strode forward. Rana towered over her, nearly two meters tall. They stood together for a long moment. Beth raised clasped hands, pressed them against her own chest, and bowed her head to Rana. Galen smiled and did the same. Rana didn’t move, she seemed frozen by her mother’s posture, or was it her thoughts? Then she scooped them both up and spun them round so fast Mimi cried out in alarm. But Rana was smiling. She placed them down with care, the trio locked in an awkward huddle of mismatched sizing.
Mimi turned away to save her makeup, but her gaze fell on Khoen and Perun. They looked bereft as they leaned forward but didn’t advance; rivals, together excluded from the family they longed for. Khoen looked ready to crawl on his hands and knees to beg for mercy. Perun seemed less wounded, more accepting of his status. Tibet was clearly living up to its reputation, which was handy. Right now, it didn’t look like there was room for one father figure, never mind two.
Her waterlogged gaze flicked back to the huddle. At least Beth has this moment; a respite from the fear, the puzzles, the pain of unbelonging that’d haunted her for as long as Mimi could remember. She reached under her shades, wiped her eyes and smiled. The egghead’s surely never going to go back to that. No matter what happens.
She stepped towards them. ‘What took you so long?’ The three faced her, Beth scrubbing her cheeks with the back of her hands.
‘I had to be sure the Troika was disabled. They won’t be down for long and we have the Rise to complete.’
‘Troika…What three?’ Mimi said.
‘She means the brothers.’ Khoen stepped close, his face composed.
‘You mean the Providence boys were brothers?’ Mimi said.
‘Different mothers, but the same father. I’d known about them for some time.’ He gestured towards Decker. ‘He’s been a Providence double-agent since I gave him the information I had.’
Decker flashed his tattoo. Beth gaped then eyed Khoen closely.
‘That was generous of you…’ Beth said.
Mimi could have sworn he flushed. He pursed his lips but the truth was pulled from him like an intubation tube.
‘It was a trade.’ He looked back at the advancing crowd as if hoping for rescue. Mimi could feel laughter bubbling up from her belly. Maybe Beth could lead this rabble after all.
‘What did you get?’ she pressed.
His silence was tortured and Mimi chuckled.
‘You,’ he said.
‘
Me
? I was a trade?’
Galen smiled at Mimi’s laughter, then ran past her and flung himself into his father’s arms; they fell back and drew all eyes.
‘Ok, enough.’ Even her voice sounded big. Feminine and soft, it still vibrated through them like a sergeant major’s drill. ‘The Troika are the least problem. Alamgir is imminent. He must be blocked or there will be no existence here in Tela. No place for us. He will vanish this matter and more.’
‘Hang on, What’s Tela and who is Alamgir?’ Beth shook her head as though to clear it.
‘This universe is within the realm of Tela. Alamgir is an entity from outside. He isn't interested in us, he only wants Avireri. If he knows that Avireri is released from Tela, we will be ignored. However, if his code is still trapped in weakened form here, then Alamgir will not hesitate to destroy all traces of the code, and that means you and every other being in Tela. Only Avireri can save us by leaving us behind; but first we must release him.’
‘Resurrect him you mean?’
‘Yes. He will manifest through a code that can best represent his entity within Tela. From there he will be able to access enough of his power to leave and seek out Alamgir.’
‘Is Tela our universe?’ Khoen said.
‘No, Tela is far larger than that. That is the only reason it is not yet destroyed. Alamgir knows his adversary hides in DNA and that DNA is within Tela, but he does not know this specific interface.’
‘Interface? Did you say interfa-‘
‘How do you know he isn’t here already?’ Mimi said.
Rana pinched the bridge of her nose. She closed her eyes and inhaled. She spoke slowly.
‘Time and space as you understand them are a side effect of matter and your perception of them is shaped by DNA. Your physical senses fool you and the measures you use to understand this place are developed, inevitably, from this incapacitated position. As your brains have evolved better processes, you've started to peel back the first layers of the illusion; at least enough to know you don't understand it. That’s the first step, but trust me when I tell you the stairway goes further than you can imagine.
When Alamgir comes into Tela, he will be everywhere at once. He will not be embodied in the way DNA life forms are. He will not even break into our base matter. He will rest within the Annat, that which you call dark energy. From there he can wipe everything in Tela at once; we would cease to exist. Not only DNA-based life, he’d clean all of Tela. It would mean eradication of the Lightshapers and many others who reside here. It would be instant and simple.’ Rana clicked her fingers.
Beth held up her palm for pause.
‘You say it’s imminent. How do we proceed? Certainly not here with all these people. What you have exposed will already transform human knowledge and frighten a lot of people. We cannot resurrect anything here.’
‘I proved to the Lightshapers that the potential of DNA is greater than its parts. If we succeed in his resurrection, new knowledge will be relayed to this stratum. It has been agreed. Soon DNA life forms will access more information than you can imagine. The horizons will fall away. Many will fall with them, but the courageous will not. Those species will glimpse more of the truth and evolve accordingly.’
‘Erm, maybe you haven’t heard, but humans aren’t known for our courage. And it’s not straight forward either. More people are afraid of public speaking than are afraid of death…by a considerable margin.’ Mimi trailed off at Beth’s narrowed gaze, ‘just saying…not sure it’s going to pan out so well for us fraidy-cats.’
‘She’s right. People are pretty much scared all the time,’ Galen said, ‘but courage, like fear, is contagious. Fear is birthed by ignorance. We just need to shine understanding into the dark and stand in its light for them to see that it’s okay to be brave. People want to be brave and will embrace courage if they are shown how. All it takes is a little inspiration.’
The group digested this in silence.
‘No pressure then, fearless leader.’ Mimi grinned at Beth who scowled back.
‘Shall we agree to cross that bridge if and when we need to? First we must get out of here. Decker can you manage that? We need a secure location.’
‘There’s a Stallion coming in.’
‘Wow, haven’t seen one of those beasts in a while.’ Mimi said. ‘You’d better clear the decks, don’t you think?’
Decker scanned the growing crowd and barked into his radio.
Beth turned to Rana. ‘Is there anything we need other than ourselves?’
‘No, just don’t forget the Reader.’
‘The-’
‘She means Paul.’ Perun said.
‘And Kade, where is he?’ Rana said
‘I’m still here. Not been killed off yet.’ His face flickered reflief and confusion like a cartoon flipbook as he stepped out of the shadow of the tent. Rana smiled at him and then looked up at the machine descending overhead.
The beat of blades thumped a rhythm in the warm air; debris danced. The chopper was an ugly brute, but so cool Mimi grinned up at it. Decker guided the group, Reader and all, aboard. They lifted off and Mimi wondered what the crowd below thought was happening. Unlikely to be the imminent resurrection of the creator of life as we know it. She shook her head at the hotchpotch crew strapped into their seats, except for Rana who dwarfed Decker at the open tail ramp looking out. God, whatever and wherever you are, help us.

‘It has to come off.’ The doctor reeled at the screech that came out of James. Gaze on the floor, he composed his thoughts and quashed the urge to flee.
‘Shut up you idiot.’ Wes snapped at James’ twisted face. ‘All you had to do was keep him locked up. Guess you’re not as fast as you thought.’ He looked from the blackened hand to the doctor. ‘Can you do it here?’
‘No! There must be another way.’ James’ eyes were blue as a blowtorch. ‘Why don’t you give me your arm? You’ll grow a new one and they can do a transplant.’
’I’m sorry, but a transplant is out of the question. Being half-brothers doesn’t mean Wes is a suitable candidate. Rob is a better match, but he can’t regenerate. It’s a shame none of you can heal others. If it’s left too long infection could take hold.’
Rob unfurled himself from the low chair. ‘Our gifts have always been entirely self-serving. The spawn of Gia are clearly too powerful for us on our own. How about we ask him for help? ’
‘Who?’
‘You know who.’ Confusion morphed into trepidation in Wes and excitement in James.
‘You’d do that? You swore never to do it again.’ Wes said.
‘I know. But I don’t think we have much option now. You said we could do it all, without him. You were wrong. I think we must reach out to the Sire. He’ll know what to do.’
‘That’s the worst idea you’ve ever had Rob, which is impressive. What price will we have to pay? We agreed never again. As much as I want to win…’ Wes pressed his fingers into his eyes, his face ashen. The trio fell into tense silence.
‘Who is this Sire? Could he save the arm?’ The doctor said. They scowled.
‘Take it off,’ Jamie dismissed him and turned to Rob. ‘Will you do it today? We’ll need a tribute…what do you suggest?’
‘More time?’ Rob shrugged.
‘Can you afford it?’ Wes said.
‘Nope. And I expect to be repaid for my sacrifice.’
Wes and Jamie rolled their eyes.
‘I’m not kidding.’ Rob warned. ‘He took ten years the last time. I don’t have more than that to offer any more. He may take time from you two. He could do that on top of his usual demands. You won’t be blasé then, will you?’
‘Are you talking about lifetime years?’ The words were out before the doctor could stop them. Rob turned to him with narrowed eyes. ‘Doc, you’ve been with us a while now, let’s not have to draw this relationship to an end. It’s time for you to leave. Prepare for the surgery.’
As the doctor moved towards the door, he lifted his phone and pretended to dial.
‘Father isn’t going to be pleased with our failure. How will we explain it?’ Jamie said.
‘Let’s blame Gia. He can never resist his hate. I’ll do it tonight, once the mark of fire has been removed.’
The three men eyed the charred flesh with distaste. The doctor slipped out and closed the door softly behind him. He leaned against the wall and waited for the trembling to ease. He shuddered and decided this was his last day, no matter what. He pushed his body off the wall and pushed from his mind the knowledge that their father was long dead.
*
‘What’s she doing?’ Khoen’s whisper tickled Beth’s nape as he pulled her hair over her shoulder. She leaned into him then straightened, fixing her attention on the large screen that dominated their corner of the hanger. A small plane lurked on the far side, but it was otherwise empty.
The images on the tablet in Rana’s huge hands were relayed to the screen for everyone to stare at in equal perplexity. She’d been scribbling endless formulae into a tablet for twenty minutes at high speed.
‘I recognise some of this: spacial frequencies, see there, the Fourier series, phase-based spectral realignment. Hmm…many of these frequencies are infra and ultrasonic - we won't be able to hear them.’ She stepped back to Rana.
‘What can I do to help?’
Rana didn’t falter in her writing as she looked up.
‘I'll dictate and you transcribe,’ she pushed a second tablet to Beth, but held it back for a moment, ‘don't make a mistake’.
Beth nearly regretted her offer. She clasped the slim screen and settled on the floor next to her daughter. Rana spoke quietly, but rapidly. Beth’s fingers started to burn as she struggled to keep up.
‘Can you slow down a bit?’
She looked up to see Rana writing different formulae at twice the speed on her own tablet. She clamped her lips shut and re-doubled her efforts as her complaint had only pushed her further behind. Without her eidetic memory, she’d have been lost.
Perun and Galen sat with arms linked and watched.
Kade stared at Rana. ‘Is there anything I can do?’
‘No,’ she said.
He slumped into a chair.
Rana didn’t lift her gaze. ‘Your time is not now.’
Mimi and Decker arrived laden with coffee and doughnuts. A television was wheeled in by a soldier.
‘We are making all the headlines folks!’ Mimi’s eyes shone. She waved her phone at the group. ‘I swear Oprah is going to call any second now!’ She flicked on the screen and every channel blazed with images of Rana crunching down the car stack or bounding through the air.
Then Beth’s face filled the screen.
‘Hey, Honey B, you’re on MTV. Who’d have taken that bet?’ Mimi lifted a doughnut, examined it, then dropped it like a bug.
It was odd to see yourself, knowing millions of people were seeing it too. Beth quelled the urge to cover her face; too late for that. A voice boomed out when Mimi found the volume.
‘Elizabeth Jane Irving was a reclusive young math prodigy and cosmologist who went missing over ten years ago from her home in Cambridge, England. Her obvious familiarity with both the alien and the military has many speculating that she’s been in the governments’ employ in a covert operation involving extraterrestrials or at the very least some sort of genetic engineering program. Her father, himself a Nobel prize-winning chemist denies all knowledge of her whereabouts.’ The screen flashed up her father’s front door as he tried escape the cameras. ‘I haven’t seen her in years and this has nothing whatever to do with me. I know nothing, now leave these premises or I shall be forced to call the police.’
Seeing him was like a hand in her face. Startling, but not painful.
Beth turned back to her tablet. The television died with a pop.
‘Hey!’ Mimi narrowed her eyes at the group.
Galen smiled. Decker laughed. Khoen sat down next to Beth as she finished her transcription.
‘What are those?’
She followed his finger to the large screen. Rana was rapidly sketching what looked like hundreds of geometric diagrams. Beth shook her head and looked at the bowed silver head.
‘They’re from the crystal,’ Rana said. ‘They represent the locations of the molecules that must be rearranged to attain the required DNA sequence. This will be Paul’s undertaking.’ Rana glanced over to Perun and Galen. ‘Your first task is to assist Paul’s focus.’ They nodded and Perun rose to fetch him from his exhaustive examination of the plane across the hanger.
Paul looked only at the floor and his arm twitched every few seconds. Galen moved closer and the jerking motion eased, but he kept making half-turns as if to leave. Rana approached, stood to one side and spoke past him.
‘Is it possible to unweave the twine of life?’ She slowly reached a hand to tilt his face to the screen, but his eyes remained fixed to the floor. ‘Certainly anything can be done in the eternal moment. It is more interesting to wonder if it can be done in an hour, twenty minutes, ten minutes.’ After a long pause, Paul’s gaze flicked to the geometry and away. No one moved, but his half-turns had stopped. Just when Beth thought he’d never do it, his gaze flicked again to the large screen. It stayed. Rana pushed her tablet into his palms, walked away and nodded to Perun and Galen. They sat a short distance from Paul, but faced each other.
Beth stepped back to watch the screen as it began to scroll so fast the images blurred. How was he supposed to sort this? It was like a million-piece puzzle of varying shades of grey.
‘How can he possibly know how to do this? One misplaced molecule could spell disaster and he doesn’t know anything about DNA.’ Beth said to no one in particular.
Khoen stared at the screen then closed his eyes and lay down on the floor. It probably gave him a headache. She reached out her feelings toward him. He was relaxed. She could feel him gently sucking energy into himself from the ground beneath him, the hum of it tingled her fingers and toes. She dearly wished she could recharge her batteries too.
‘You’re assuming the symbols are a biological code. I think they represent a language.’ Mimi was perched on a fold-up chair. ‘It’s a logographic system like hieroglyphs. Logographs were man’s earliest writing systems and they,’ she flicked her fingers at the others, ‘told us the spirits and intelligences communicate through 3D images. It’s the only way this is working.’ She drew her gaze from the screen to meet Beth’s frown.
‘Remember when Rana cremated herself and she did that weird chant? It was a language or code and I think it’s the same here. The components of most codes are fixed in a hierarchy of regular patterns. In alphabetic language, a finite number of letters forms a larger number of words, which are organised into sentences with syntactic consistencies. Jackendoff proposed comparable structural regularity in music. Codes – human ones at least - can be described as layered organisations of isomorphisms. I think Shuffles is seeing the similarities in the diagrams and sorting them into their respective layers.’
Beth blinked. ‘Oh, ok.’
Her respect for Mimi, unable to grow higher, rounded like hot dough. ‘That’s a very good point. Thanks.’ She shifted in her seat, ‘Ahem – Rana, can we recap the process for everyone while Paul works? I just want to see if anyone else can think of new questions I may not have considered.’
Rana turned from her place near Paul and sank cross-legged in front of her mother. They were still face-to-face. Beth was certain she’d grown again since they’d arrived here. Galen had said it was genetic, a possible side effect of Apep’s code as it had started only after the crystal was assimilated into her physical form.
Beth took in her daughter’s huge violet eyes and surreal beauty; her heart squeezed the breath from her lungs so that she had to look away.
Rana’s long fingers rested warm on her hand like sunshine. She glanced back and saw the reassurance in her gaze. She knew she was forgiven; she just needed to forgive herself. Perhaps she could earn it.
‘Between us - Galen, Perun, Khoen and I - we have the force of will to control the formation of the particles in the DNA, we're just missing the algorithmic blue-print which Paul will draw out. Jemima is correct that it is somewhat musical. My temperature regulation will help modulate the required frequencies that will shape the molecular architecture of the code.’
‘Ok, so can you describe-’ Beth paused as Rana raised her palm.
The scrolling stopped abruptly and Paul sat up a little straighter. Every eye was on him, but he didn’t look up. He placed his hand on the tablet and with two quick movements wiped all the information from the screen pulling gasps from the group, except for Rana.
She rose and crouched to stand nose-to-nose with Paul and after a long-drawn moment placed her forehead to his. Beth suspected it was a download and after a few seconds Rana lifted her face away like a leave-taking lover. She smiled at him, but it wasn’t returned. He held her gaze for a fleeting second and nodded repeatedly as he turned full circle towards the exit. Thomas hurried after him.
*
Khoen, Perun, Galen and Rana stood in a wide circle. Beth thought they might hold hands or something but they just stood there, eyes closed. Were they meditating? Rana had explained that the task was to persuade the particles to transform in accordance with the algorithm she would convey acoustically.
Beth looked around. ‘So what matter are you going to transform?’ Surely it’d make sense to have it in the middle of the circle.
‘We need a volunteer.’ Rana didn’t so much as open an eyelid.
‘What do you mean a volunteer?’ Beth’s horrified gaze flashed to Mimi and then the others. Her heart quailed. Mimi’s mouth was wide with incredulity.
‘Well, we could try making him from thin air, or some other DNA based life form, but a fully grown human would give a significantly improved chance of success.’
‘Are you crazy? You’re asking for a human sacrifice!’ Beth’s outrage was dwarfed by her dread.
Rana frowned and opened her eyes.
‘If we don't do this, there will be no humans nor anything else left in Tela. It won't hurt and you won't cease to exist. Your consciousness will move to a different form and the Lightshapers will greet you. There is nothing to fear in this. We are just going to reuse your DNA. You will be permitted to re-embody if you choose. If Alamgir wipes the slate clean, there will be neither life now, nor any after-life as you call it. All the energy in Tela will shift to a higher register.’
The silence stretched like pulled gum. No one moved.
Rana frowned. ‘This is not a difficulty we planned for. So many humans are keen give their life away for the unimportant.’ Rana looked at Decker directly.
‘Please give me a break, Joshua. You're willing to die for your country, but not for humanity? Come on, there must be a religious person nearby willing to be the next saviour of mankind. I would do it myself, but I can't do both parts.’
‘No way.’ Mimi jumped up as Decker stepped forward, his face shuttered.
‘Thank you.’ Rana nodded at him. ‘Let's begin.’ As Decker moved into the circle, Perun grasped his arm and stepped in his place.
‘No!’ Galen’s shout tore a sob from Beth’s tight throat.