Offworld (47 page)

Chris opened his eyes.

It was a dark space, very big. He knew this place. He was back in
the lava tube again, on Mars. Was this another memory returning?

No, it couldn't be. He knew and remembered everything that happened since thatfateful day on Mars. The quantum machine, the void,
Roston. He remembered it all.

Besides, he was standing in a dark lava tube on Mars, yet he was
in the clothes bed been wearing at Rice Stadium when he ivas knocked
out. And he could breathe justfine.

This was a dream, for certain, not a memos y. Not this time. It was
something else.

"Where are we? "

Chris jumped, and spun around. In the near-total absence of
light be could just make out the outlines of four people. It was Terry's
voice he'd heard ask the question, so he knew at once who the other
three were, even though he couldn't really see them. From their faint silhouettes, he could see that they looked just as they had on Earth
moments aggro.

"Is this ... ?" said Risha with a trace of awe. "Is this Mars? Are
we in the lava tube?"

Chris was stunned. "You're all really here, aren'tyouu? You're not
part of my dream-youre dreaming too."

"Wait, you mean this ... it isn't a dream?" remarked Terry. `But
it has to be I don't have a leg injury here."

"Hey ... "said Mae. "Itgettin' lighter in here?"

She was right. Chris' eyes were adjusting slowly to a light that was
very gradually revealing itself. He was beginning to see the others better, to make out more details of the tunnel, which was exactly as he
remembered it. Soon, in the distance behind his friends, Chris spotted
a very familiar-looking ball of light.

"George!" he cried.

"Who?" asked Trisha.

"This way.! "said Chris, charging past them. He sprinted, not about
to let the ball of light out of his sight this time. He heard his friends
following behind.

They ran for less than a minute. Just as it had the last time Chris
saw it, soon it stopped and hovered in place, until it began to grow
and take on the shape of his father's basement. When every detail of
the place had been filled in, Chris stepped through the basement's
cement walls to stand inside the big, familiar room. It was like walking into a hologram, only it didn't look in any way fake. It was as if
he were really there.

"What s this?" asked Owen.

A place I spent a lot of my time growing tip," Chris replied. "While
other kids were off playing cowboys and sports and soldiers, I studied
and trained here, under my father's tutelage. "

"So why are we here?" asked Terry.

Chris only shook his head, at a loss. It was just like before, and he
didn't understand the significance of it then either.

"Oughta ask him, " commented Mae.

Chris turned to see who she was talking about, and nearly
fainted.

An old man stood in their midst, having appeared out of
nowhere.

"Who s be?" asked Terry.

"Hello, boy, " said the old man. His gaze was stern and serious,
but not unkind.

Chris heard his own words, but didn't, couldn't, wouldn t believe
in them. 'He's' myfather"

"Listen to me carefidly," Chris'father began.

"You're dead, "said Chris, in utter shock. They were the only words
that came to mind, the only words he was capable of saying.

`By your understanding, I sure am, " his father replied, his words
coming fast and urgent. `But that don't matter-"

`Matters to me, " observed Terry, "f we're talking to a dead dude.
Means none of this is real. "He blinked and added as an aside to Chris,
Sorry, man, that first part came out kind of wrong."

Chris' father put his hands on his hips, a gesture Chris had seen
all his life. `Christopher Eugene Burke, you and your friends listen
to me right now. I'm dead. And we ain't on Mars. You're in Roston's
custody, on your way to the quantum machine. But I was sent across
the divide to bring you a message, and you need to hear it, so this is
not the time for jokes. You're going to wake up soon, and I have to give
you the message before then. I tried to tell it to you the last time you
were .here, son, but that machine yanked you out of this place before
I could even clear my throat."

Chris still couldn't believe he was standing on Mars, without a
space suit, in his childhood home with his four teammates ... talking
to his dead father. It felt like his brain had frozen.

His father folded his arms and gave them his hardest poker face.
"You were right, boy. What you told Parks and Rowley. It's not chance
or luck that the f ve of youu have survived this long. You're not alone in this. Even though itfelt like you were more alone than anyone has
ever been ... There's more to lye than what you can see. You were
born to this world, but you're meant for another.

"There s a second reality that exists in the same space as the one
where you live. A veil separates the two from each other" He faced
Chris alone now. "I know you better than anyone, son. I know that
your whole life you've tried to push back the curtain and see what's
on the other side. Just like I did. just like everyone does. That feelinq
is in you, and you can't escape it. You know the veil is there, but you
can't see past it.

"I'm .here to tell you that the object inside the Box at the heart of
the quantum machine ... is an artfactfrom the other side of the veil.
The other side of existence. It's not meant to be here, and it has to be
sent back."

What is it.?" Terry asked. "What's the thing inside the Box?"

"It's an artifact-"

"Yeah, " interrupted Chris. `But, Dad ... what is it?"

"There 's no term for it in any human language."

"Dad, please," Chris pleaded. "We need to know. I need to
know."

His father studied him for a moment before answering. "You
already know. You've seen it before."

As these words were uttered, the basement dissolved and reformed
as the floating ball of light. It hovered between Chris and .his father
illuminating the tunnel, the strange symbols scrolling off of it like rays
of sunshine. Owen, Trisha, Terry, and Mae all stepped near to see it
up close.

'But ..... said Terry. I thought looking at the thing in the Box
would melt your eyes and kill youu."

"This is lust a glimpse, diminishedfor your bonefit, " replied Chris'
father.

"What language is that?" whispered Trisha, studying the symbols
as closely as she dared.

`I don't recognize it, " replied Owen.

" 'Course not, " said Chris' father: `It's a language from the other
side of the veil. The divine language. "

Dad, " Chris said, his voice just above a reverential whisper now,
"what is this thing?"

"Its a shard of the infinite," replied his father, and suddenly he
sounded less like the man Chris remembered. Apiece of theprimordial.
The tiniest sliver of the Word that was breathed to bring the universe
into being."

Five sets of eyes grew wide as they turned from Chris' father to
gaze at the ball of light, which rotated and sent off thousands of tiny
symbols as they watched it.

"You said this thing came from your side, "said Owen. How did
it get over to our side?"

"Something ... has pierced the veil that separates our realities, "
said Chris' father. I don't know what, but its happened before, and
more than once. And when it happens, powers and principalities and
objects, from our side begin to leak into yours. Anytime there s a rift in
the veil, it causes an imbalance. An instability. And now that shard is
funneling powerfrom my side of the veil to yours. Itposes a catastrophic
threat to the fabric of your reality. "

"Dad, can't the rift be repaired from your side?"

His father's eyes danced, as if hed been waiting for Chris to ask
this question. "No. The rift originated in your world, and that's where
it has to be sealed."

"Then how do we seal it, and get this artifact back where it
belongs? "

Destroy the quantum machine."

Chris glanced at his friends. `But were in Roston's custody. We
have no weapons, no explosives. How are we supposed to-?"

His father's response was immediate, as Y 'be was expecting this
question as well. "Open the Box."

All jive of them turned from the ball of light to face Chris' dad.

Terry raised his hand like an awkward child in school. `But ...
whoever opens the Box and looks inside, at the real version offthis
thing, will be killed, right?"

"That s right, " Chris' father said, nodding gravely. `But it has to
be done. One of you has to open the Box, because there's no one else
left alive who'll do it. "

But it s been opened before, "argued Trisha. "That scientist whose
eyes were melted-he opened it."

'At that time, the artifact was ... still dormant. The machine has
activated it. Its volatile now.

"There's something else," he said. 'And this is important. Whoever
opens it has to do it alone."

"Why alone?" asked Chris.

"I asked that same question, son, when I was first given the message. And you know what I was told?"

Chris,just watched and waited.

" No one is ever alone.' I love you, boy. Look after your friends,
and he careful."

"Wait, Dad, how do we find the Box? They said its buried somewhere deep inside the machine, and the machine is like a maze-"

"You'll find it the same way you made it this far. " His father had
already begun to fade from view as he spoke, but Chris heard the distinct smile in his voice as he said, 'just follow the light. "

In all his life, Christopher Burke had never imagined anything
like this could exist.

He sat on a narrow metal gangway, his four friends to his immediate
right. They were waking up slowly and taking in their surroundings, just
as he was. A group of big soldiers in ski masks stood on the opposite
side of the small platform, their guns at the ready should Chris or any
of the others make a move out of place. Griffin was one of them.

Chris noted that his friends had been stripped of any remaining weaponry-even Mae's switchblade. But they still wore their visor
glasses, protecting their eyes from the blinding light that shone even
here. It was definitely coming from somewhere near the center of
the machine, that much Chris could see. But unless he could explore
further, he wouldn't know where exactly.

These things he took in very quickly, because his surroundings
demanded his full attention.

A soft thrumming surrounded the five of them where they
sat. It sounded like something between a mechanical drone and a
heartbeat.

The Waveform Device, the machine responsible for the disappearance of every living creature on Earth, held them in its jaws.
Roston wanted them to see what he controlled, wanted them to
understand.

Chris remembered how Parks and Rowley had talked about the
machine being added on to for seventy years, and looking at it now,
he wondered where anything new might be put. The Vault was
a box-shaped chamber barely big enough to contain the quantum
machine. The machine was bursting at the seams, like tree roots
pressing against an underground brick wall.

Chris could think of no words.

The Vault was well lit, with large, bright spotlights scattered about
irregularly. Metal catwalks, like the one on which they stood, stretched
out in every direction, some of them leading to grated steps that led
up or down, while others went on farther than Chris could see.

He gazed down through the railing behind him. They were high
up inside the thing, though not at the very top. He could see several
levels below, with ramps and steps leading up and down, crisscrossing and surrounding every part of the machine. But it went down
farther than he could make out; in the deepest part, it was dark and
murky, like a foggy swamp at night.

Was the Box down there, somewhere beyond what he could
see?

As for the structure, the walls, ceiling, and ground floor were
all made of the same dismal gray poured concrete. Dozens of thick,
round concrete pillars stretched all the way to the top and down into
the shadowy depths. The pillars were the one symmetrical touch in
the chamber, towers of concrete holding up the ceiling every fifty
feet or so.

But despite the Vault's enormity, the machine it held was all the
more staggering.

The Waveform Device was the one and only focus of the giant
room, and his eyes slid over its endless cascading pipes and supports
and wire bundles and LED lights. The thing had no discernible shape,
so if there was a starting point or an ending anywhere, he couldn't
locate them. It was exactly as Parks and Rowley had described it,
organic and sprawling, like the microscopic neural pathways of the
brain, only massive and electric and real.

There were hundreds of keypad terminals and huge glowing
screens lining the catwalks, and whirring motors and billowing air
assaulted Chris' senses from multiple directions. He imagined that a
machine this big, with an infinite number of moving parts, would
require a sophisticated cooling system, but it appeared as though the
scientists who built the thing had simply added portable fans and airconditioning units throughout its massive framework over the years.