That sonofabitch. The thought circled in Jaysn’s mind. The cloud layer disappeared, and Jaysn found himself falling above the valley. Except that it was not really falling. There was no wind. He had no body. He was not breathing. He was merely aware. He saw the valley, the planet beyond, the fragile ecosystem that had scarred a perfect world, and he thought he understood … mostly.
Somehow, he knew Clarc and Solvig were nearby, experiencing the same thing, or perhaps they were here with him as a single continuous piece of information, experiencing all of this simultaneously yet subjectively before they were separated once again and put back in their own individual bodies.
That thought gave him pause. Had Novik stopped to consider the ramifications of sending them back now, at this time? Were they going to return to a reclaimed and resealed cave, or the cold vacuum they barely escaped?
For a moment, he even considered the possibility that they would all awaken in a sensory immersion tank as a simulation supervisor calmly brought them tea and a customer satisfaction survey. “Congratulations, you reached level 2. Your hasty actions in returning to level 1 have caused your virtual death. Would you like to play again?” The irony was so on point, he almost wished for it. He imagined doing a few things differently if he were granted a second chance.
The valley floor rose up to meet him, and as expected, his collision course turned into a swooping arc that carried him along the top of the tree line around the perimeter of the cliff walls. He saw dozens of humanoids emerging from the caves, pointing at the skies, where the rectangular clouds that had rained death only moments ago had suddenly vanished. Some held broken pieces of obelisk aloft as totems; others merely stood in reverence.
He passed over the city ruins where the lattice of light had taken them up and out of the valley. The lattice was gone, and the black stone ruins of the city were being swallowed by silver nanoparticles, which replaced the stone and earth. Within seconds, there was no trace left. Nothing that wasn’t natural. His course continued until he was over the highlands, then sailed beyond to the village. All traces of the archway, the village, and the city wall that had become Amin’s tomb were gone. The silver tide had retreated, leaving only vegetation in its wake. Not the old trees and grasslands but sprouts and saplings. This was not erasure; it was rebirth. He thought of Wolff and Tamana, who had all fallen here, whose constituent information had been remade into part of this place.
He felt himself soar upward through natural clouds until eventually he could take in the entire valley, really more of a continent, he had only explored a minuscule piece of. Were there more life forms in that vast wilderness? More species silently manipulated by the old overseer into erasing this wondrous piece of nature from his version of a perfect world? The part he and his friends had so carelessly manipulated and brought down a world was now less than a speck in his vision. He suddenly had a greater appreciation for what Novik was not responsible for.
He climbed higher, and the valley became an aberration – nothing more than a small bruise on the surface of a uniform world of black and teal geometry. It was not beautiful in any conventional sense, at least not for him. He wondered about the race that once inhabited an identical world, somewhere among the 400 billion stars that made up their galaxy. He thought about the nearly 100 worlds mankind had claimed, the dozen or so he’d stepped on personally, and the trillion galaxies spinning out there in the universe, and he felt small, but not diminished.
The planet shrank from view, vanishing into the brightness of its star. The star slowly receded from view, the other stars grew dim, and everything was black.
He had almost forgotten what it was like to really breathe air. It had seemed so real back in the simulation, though he knew it was just reflex. He gasped in surprise, then desperation, then finally elation.
There was a sensation that felt real, there was gravity that felt correct, and there was cold on his right cheek. He realized he was lying on his stomach, on a cold, metal floor. He heard the distant, subtle hum of air recyclers and felt the thin vibration of a star drive idling through the floorboards. His eyes were closed, and he felt as if he were just waking up from a long sleep.
He decided to open one eye, just to confirm.
He saw the disk. It stood quiet, defiant, and ominous in front of him, exactly where it would have been back in the cave.
It wasn’t the cave, at least. That much was certain. He was in a hangar, lit by conventional deck lighting, empty except for the disk.
He risked sitting up. Clark lay on her side to his right; Solvig on her back to his left. These were the exact positions they were in when he saw them collapse in the cave.
“Good morning, and welcome back,” a voice said behind him. Jaysn whirled and saw a fair-haired man seated at a cloth-covered table with eight chairs. He was dressed in an immaculate suit in the latest fashion and appeared to be eating. He put a fork down and steepled both hands in front of his face.
Clarc and Solvig began to wake, looked at Jaysn and their surroundings, then sat up tentatively.
“You’re quite safe, I assure you,” the man at the table said.
“That feels like a foreign concept right now,” Clarc smirked.
“I imagine it would. You’re on board a corporate transport just a few hours outside the Lambda Tonitruous gate.”
“What corporation are you with?” Solvig asked tentatively.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to confuse you. Ravenhold Soverign, of course,” the man answered. “My name is Abil Halferne.”
“I assume you’re the one who financed this expedition,” Jaysn said flatly.
“Yes, I am.”
“The expedition that cost me the lives of four of my friends and nearly got the rest of us killed.”
Halferne’s eyes were unwavering – not cold, but neither were they apologetic. “I am.”
“How do you justify–“
“Risk is something you accept any time you take on an expedition such as yours, Dr. Katsaros. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes, but usually I am told the approximate level of risk before I agree to it.”
“You were free to turn down the mission,” Halferne’s voice was cool, calm, and rehearsed.
“Oh, but you made it so tempting, especially doubling my pay when I tried.”
“I didn’t buy your loyalty with that, Doctor.” Halferne frowned. “I merely engaged your curiosity and need for answers. There was very little chance you would ever have abandoned the mission.”
Jaysn started to protest, but realized the man was right.
Solvig eyed Halferne suspiciously. “What about the base? The raiders that were about to sweep in and take the disk?”
Halferne looked sheepish for a moment. “A false flag. A necessary contrivance for the mission.”
Jaysn’s eyes widened. “There was no pending attack? No mutiny?”
“No mutiny.” Halferne chuckled. “The majority of the crew didn’t know why they were out there, so it was a simple matter to send a few orders to them and convince them they were all part of an experiment to test stress conditions in isolation on remote worlds. Even simpler to instruct a few of them to stage a surprise mutiny drill to see how the others reacted.”
Jaysn smiled. “Oh, just like that?”
Clarc was less than amused. “I’m pretty sure that’s a high crime. Why would you even risk it? A distraction?”
“Did you discover the nature of the disk?” Halferne asked, changing the subject.
“Yes,” Clarc said. “It’s no secret alien weapon, if that’s what you were hoping. It’s an archive. A lifeboat. Aside from the composition, barely even tech. Basically, it’s a very fancy storage matrix with the control plane in a higher dimension if you want to be specific. You’ll never be able to reverse engineer it.”
Halferne nodded. “If you are trying to fill a lifeboat, what’s the best way to ensure the wrong people don’t sneak on board?”
Clarc shrugged. “I don’t know. Check ID? Identity scan …” she paused, “… veracity scanner. The disk didn’t wake up because of atmospheric changes when we breached the cave. It woke up because we were in fear for our lives.”
Solvig cocked her head. “How did you know it would do that?”
Halferne said nothing but continued to watch the three of them.
Jaysn laughed once. “I suspect he knows a lot about that disk, what it is, and what we would find.”
Clarc lit up. “That’s why you didn’t send a physicist, a mathematician, or a technologist. In fact, you didn’t send anyone who could have explained or modeled what we encountered.”
The words died. Halferne still watched them, deciding how much he should say.
“Instead, I sent observers.” He said matter-of-factly. “I sent people who study and appreciate life and appreciate what it means.”
“You knew what that was. You manipulated us into this. Most of us didn’t make it back.” Jaysn heard real anger slipping into Clarc’s voice now.
“How many did we save, though?” he asked her. Subtly shaking his head.
Clarc slumped, waved off Halferne, and stormed off toward the hangar exit. “This looks like an L227 transport bay, am I right?” she asked. “I assume my quarters are aft?” She didn’t wait for a response.
Solvig took three tentative steps toward Halferne. “What happens to that thing now?” She gestured to the disk with a thumb.
“It will remain under study.”
“By you?”
“By people who understand its implications.”
Jaysn crossed his arms. “You don’t think you’re going back in there to loot it for technology, do you? I’m pretty sure the disk isn’t going to fall for the same trick twice if I know my Overseers.”
“It’s served its purpose for now,” Halferne said, smiling. He pushed himself back from the table and stood. “Your contracts call for a debriefing and one press conference, which we’ll conduct once you arrive on Thurin in five days. We’ve booked VIP accommodation on a starliner for the three of you. You’ll depart Aquatine station on Luyten tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I’m sure you’ll both want hot showers and a good night’s sleep.” He gestured towards the port-side exit where Clarc had exited. Jaysn and Solvig looked at each other incredulously. Jaysn started to protest, but Halferne had already turned his back on them, headed for the door on the opposite side of the hangar.
