A window opens. The novel ends. 29 episodes until release.
Betaen 6. 154
154
Excerpt from “The She Chronicles”
The papers were good. Really good. Even the internet. I checked the time stamps. They were real. This hadn‘t just been put on line. It had been online for 39 years. Literally there since her birth in 2420. I had gained a decade. I felt like I had lost it. This was really deep shit. This was the stuff that had been hinted at in the academy. That there were agents so deep only a few people knew they existed, that there were identities so perfect that the person who had been Tabitha Jones was really now Xe McCullen. The fabled DEEP project. Up until that moment I had thought it was all just fantasy. Now I was holding a table of data points in my hand and looking at the internet history of a woman who hadn’t lived until I opened that folio. I was her. The sociologist on special assignment. The one who had been waiting in the shadows for her chance to live. I had given her that chance. I wondered what she would do with it?
I had to learn her life; who her friends had been, what her parents were like, who she had lost in the flu. All those things. The quarantine seal on the door would help, but the rest was up to me. When I opened that door I had to be her. And the woman I helped kill on Betaen 6 would forever be dead. I pulled the photo of my father out of the leather folio I kept it in and wondered why the Inspector had let me keep it. I flipped it over and ran my fingers over his signature. Remembered collapsing on my bed, sobbing so hard I couldn’t breathe, as I read his signature on the back. I still didn‘t quite understand how this all was supposed to work, but I had time.
Betaen 6. 155
155
Excerpt from the She Chronicles. Probably written upon the release of He - 2467
No one was following him. No one was interested in him at all. It had been long ago, on Betaen 6. That type of shit happened all the time on Betaen 6 - still did. There wasn’t even a code on his entry papers or his file, although he was a convicted felon. Maybe the new justice minister was keeping her word – felons freed from prison were also freed from their past. At least he was. But that could have been the hand of the Inspector.
The Inspector and I sat across from each other as we so often had in the last eight years and drank our coffee. In the same restaurant we always visited. The one where his Jeff had worked, and he had always come. The one where I had first met both of them. The Inspector and my friend. I had realized after I met the Inspector during training that I had seen him before, that we had exchanged a few words, he was a regular at the same restaurant I was. The restaurant on the side of the pond – that was its name, as stupid as that might seem - where my friend and I had first touched. First kissed. Lots of firsts. But also, an end. It was the last place on earth we had been together – the evening before we boarded the Lander to take us to the flight to Betaen 6. The Inspector had stopped by our table that night, gave me a letter. A letter. That it was supposed to be snooper safe and that they had snoopers in our cabin he forgot to mention. And that is when everything went wrong. But I was wallowing in the past. In something I couldn’t change. Remembering a young woman who’d been dead for over 8 years. I shook my head to snap myself out of it.
I was back in the present. The Inspector was blowing softly on his coffee. Cooling it. He didn‘t have the pain threshold Jeff had had, nor that of my friend.
He pushed a small black book across the table to me.
I looked at him quizzically. Not that he pushed a book across the table to me instead of a tablet or a communicator – he always wrote anything he wanted kept secret on paper. Never electronic. Always snooper free. Except for when young women left letters lying on the floor of their cabins.
„Something’s changing on Betaen 6.“ he said and took a small sip of his coffee. It was still too scalding for him. „And it is correlated with him“
I started to open my mouth, but he held up his hand.
„Read it“ he said „Don’t leave it open too long“
I know he didn‘t mean to be cruel, that it was just a phrase to be careful, but I took it personal. I was the one that had left the letter scattered across the floor for the snoopers to read. If I had kept it in my hands, in my folio, maybe none of this would ever have happened. Maybe I would still be me. I felt the tears well up behind my eyes and choked back the slime building quickly in my throat.
He reached across the table and took my hand.
„Its OK“ he said, squeezed „Its OK. It all would have happened anyway. Maybe a month or two later – but they would have found out about you two. And maybe then I wouldn‘t have been able to do anything. Who knows?“
Betaen 6. 156
156
Excerpt from the “She Chronicles” 2468
I nodded. He squeezed my hand again and then let go. I took the book and opened it. He’d written down dates and times. Murders. Communications. Who the communicator had been. Navigation jump calculation times. And next to the pages and pages of data he’d written he’d added in dates that were important about him. All in red ink.
The date they decided to review my friend's release. A jump in problem communication for the next week.
The day they decided he could be released. Both problem communication and navigation jump calculation times changed. Both went down. Way down. Navigation jump times hadn‘t been that short since before the flu.
The day of his release. Problem communication went through the roof. There had never been so many murders committed in 24 hours on Betaen 6. 139 murders in 24 hours. 28 of them with understandable communication. From what the Inspector had told me I knew that if we had 28 understandable communications in a year it was incredible.
I closed the book and handed it back to him.
„You really think its about him?“ I was getting scared. What if the problem had told them about us? About him? What if they’d told them I wasn’t really dead??
„NO“ he said it firmly. He’d read what I was thinking in the lines around my eyes.
„They haven’t said a single thing about him. Or about you.“ He sipped his coffee again „But they have been very communicative. Very interested. And they haven‘t been that interested since the day we put him away.“
He pocketed the little book and motioned for the waitress.
„I think we need beer“ he said.
Betaen 6. 157
157
Excerpt from the “She Chronicles”
“When we accepted the Zater we accepted the trap of three dimensionality of bodies. Physical being, the Zater, was too important to us. We had even accepted that we would, as three-dimensional beings, be trapped by time as the humans were. That N’Hai N’Hai could never be trapped by time was unknown to us. That we could exist within the timelines, that the dimension called time – oil spilled on muddied waters – multiply – as beings, that was not even a hope we had. That we could, even before the assimilation, feel air upon our brows and the sweet taste of water without losing our being was only possible for a few. Few took the chance. Few took the danger. There was always the fear that through de-assimilation the multiples would be lost. That there were, before their offer to us to complete Zater, only two humans who could host us did not help the situation. That they knew nothing of us – how could they? – intensified the problem. But those two did change the universe forever.”
Elf-gegu. Personal Diary. Dated 2794. Released 2999.
Earth. Restaurant by the Pond. 2467
He’d paid. Since I had first known him the Inspector had always paid. We were walking along the pond that bordered on the terrace of the restaurant. It was autumn and it was already cold. Most of the birds had left.
„He’s been here two days“ he said „No movement anywhere – and I mean anywhere. He’s safe“
„I want to see him“ I said „I can’t wait any longer. I‘ve waited so long. I have to see if he’s still who he should be. Or if we fucked him up so bad with the Catenol that he doesn’t know anything. Or ..“
He grabbed my shoulder.
„Don’t do this“
„I have to know.“ I said „I have to see him“
We walked around the pond two more times before he spoke again. I noticed that the hem on his pants was fraying. He’d either have to repair them or buy a new pair.
„There is no surveillance. He’s not of any interest.“
I knew that was his way of saying yes. I smiled again.
Spaceplane to Janus 2. 2458
Excerpt from the “She Chronicles”
I broke the quarantine seal two weeks and a day after I woke up in that cabin. Greeted the staff at the dinner table. Let an older gentleman sit at the table with me. Told him about my life. Because now that sociologist on special assignment was me. He was open and obviously interested in me as more than just a table partner until he made the mistake of asking me what my job was. I told him. He tried not to blanch and tried to keep his hand on the wineglass from shaking. He lasted five minutes before he excused himself.
The Inspector had chosen the perfect identity. No one asked me questions. They were all too afraid too. I happily told them all about my life and my studies and my travels and refrained from telling them about my job. That made them interested - until the gossip train had informed everyone on the ship that I was an undercover cop and dangerous as hell.
Betaen 6. 158
158
Apartment of the Comle. Betaen 6. 2799
Kiera laid the book aside that she had tried to read. Thoughts of Eric lying on the floor, of the arm of the young guardswoman beside him but none of the rest of her kept forcing themselves through her resolve. She wiped the tears from her eyes. She must pull herself together. She was Comle. She was a woman. She was new human. However barbarous the attempt on their lives had been she still must act. According to her station. She sniffled back the last tears and opened the She Chronicles again. Perhaps reading about She would give her some peace. Kiera felt the nod within her and knew that it was right.
The She Chronicles written 2458-2468
I had almost finished my second training year. I thought I had done well but they called me into the upper floor to see the head of training. I hadn’t cheated on any exams; I hadn’t failed any either. I had no idea what they wanted from me.
I waited in the anteroom. My palms were sweating and I think I must have wiped them on my jeans a thousand times. At least the woman behind the desk made sure to let me know, by that look over her reading glasses, that she wasn’t pleased.
She touched her ear. Nodded. Whispered something. Looked at me and spoke louder.
„You can go in.“
I started to walk by her desk but realised she still wanted to say something to me. I paused. She looked up and looked at me in some type of awe. I had expected anything but that.
„He’s in there“ she said „I just wanted to warn you!“
„Who?“ I asked.
And she said that name.
That was the first time I saw the Inspector. The first time I felt his strength – and strangely enough now that I look back on it – his weakness. It would come to pass that it was his weakness that saved me. Strangely, now that I write this, I know I had seen him before, just never known who he was. He had simply been another regular at the restaurant beside the pond.
Betaen 6. 159
159
Excerpt from the She Chronicles.
I waited across the street for him again. This time in the sun. It was too damn cold in the shade, and the night before, when I couldn’t sleep, I finally decided to meet him. To let him see me. To see what would happen. Even if he told me to fuck off it would be better than this purgatory. He came out at about the same time he had the day before. Perhaps fifteen minutes earlier. He didn’t look across the street and he didn’t see me. I crossed to his side and followed him at a decent distance. Like I said, I wanted him to see me. But for most of the morning, while he re-walked the paths of our life together, he didn’t turn around.
Then, about midday, I had been trailing him for almost three hours, He glanced back over his shoulder. I was only a block behind him. Training took over for a moment and I slunk against the wall, but he saw me. He stopped walking and turned around. I don’t think I have ever seen a man so pale, and I’ve seen albinos before. He stood still for a very long moment. People shuffled by him on both sides. He didn’t move. Just stared. I leant against the wall and waited. I don’t know what I had expected or what I wanted from him in that moment, but it wasn’t that he stood there like a statue glued in place.
He started to move towards me. His first steps were quick and decisive but the closer he got to me the less he moved his feet. It was if some weight were dragging him backwards.
I thought I should say something first. Told him he was looking good. Which to me he was. To anyone else I think he would have looked like a scarecrow about to be blown over by the wind.
He looked me up and down. As if he could somehow capture me with his eyes.
„Are you real? “He asked.
I had expected and thought out a lot of things. None of them were the question if I was real. If I think about it though it was valid, He had no idea what was going on and was convinced he had killed me.
I had had enough foresight to take the photo with me. I pulled it out of my jacket pocket and showed it to him, said something like „Would anyone else have this? “
I don’t think he breathed when he saw that photo of my father.
I took his hand in both of mine, looked into his eyes. He was still in there somewhere but someone else had taken over the surface.
„It is time you came with me“ I said „It's been too long, and I couldn’t wait anymore “
I turned him around and we walked on the way he had been going. I knew where I wanted to go. I needed coffee and a beer.
Betaen 6. 160
160
Excerpt from the “She Chronicles”. Written 2458-2468
„ I don’t like being surprised anymore, whether it’s because of prison, or those voices I hear sometimes, but I don’t like being surprised at all anymore.“
Those were the first words he said to me after he had jumped out of the chair when I tapped him on the shoulder.
I was just returning from the washroom. We were in the restaurant by the pond. I think we may have even been sitting at the table we sat at before we left for Betaen 6. We had already drunk one coffee together. He had seemed very, very, far away. But I guess I can understand that. Until about an hour ago he thought he had killed me. I was afraid he would start to ask me why, or what had really happened. I didn’t have the strength to tell him. It had taken all the strength I had to walk back to that table and touch him on the shoulder. There was a moment when I was washing my hands for about the sixth time that I thought about crawling through the window and escaping. But I had wanted this, however painful it was going to be.
I said I was sorry. Hadn’t meant to scare him. I meant I was sorry for everything, but I don’t think he caught on to that. Nodded to the waitress when she brought me my coffee.
„Do you write poetry anymore? Or did that stop?“
I don’t know why those words suddenly popped into my head.
He looked at me and smirked. Took his green notebook – the one his wife had given him so many years and lifetimes ago – out of his jacket pocket; I couldn’t believe he still carried it there, flipped it open, searched for a page, and handed it to me.
I read.
Betaen 6. 161
161
Excerpt from the “She Chronicles”
I took a journey
To find myself
Or lose myself
I’m not sure which
A dark journey
Through oaths and words
Almost forgotten
A bright journey
Through colors brittle
With decay
A journey
With no beginning
And only one
Unknown end.
I sat still for a long time, reading and rereading the poem. I wanted to flip the page but I couldn’t. The poem trapped me. I glanced up at him. I couldn’t look at him. Not right then.
“You hated me didn’t you?”
He shook his head, took back the green book. Laid it beside his coffee cup. Drank. Then he flipped through it again. Found another page. Handed it back to me and as he did so he said:
„In prison you have no time for draining emotions like hate. Not if you want to survive. A lot didn’t. For some reason I wanted to.“ he sipped his coffee again „And I did“
Then he smiled that lopsided smile and it made my heart leap.
“I also wrote that poem just before my wife went on her two-year trip to the periphery with her work.” He took a sip of his coffee; I couldn’t have – it was still steaming. “Much better than prison coffee that’s for sure.”
He didn’t need to say the rest. I knew what he meant. Maybe he had caught on after all.
I read the poem on the page he had opened it to. It was shorter than the last one. Just as emotional, but shorter.
Betaen 6. 162
162
Excerpt from the “She Chronicles”
My love has sienna hair
That smells so sweet
Like honey in the sun
On summer mornings
My love has grass green eyes
That are so deep
Like ocean pools
Beneath the caves
My love has coral lips
Pink blossoms of beauty
Like soft pillows
To welcome a tired man home.
My love
Is you.
Now I was crying. Tears dripping from my cheeks. I didn’t need to read it twice. The date told me everything. He had written it in prison. He reached across the table and took the book from me. There were wet tears on the page. He closed it anyway.
„You were only a thing in my mind“ he said „But I meant it.“ he drank the last of his coffee „I thought I was writing it about a dead person. But I had to. I used to read that poem almost every day.“
He smiled that crooked smile again.
„Do you still think I hated you?“
Betaen 6. 163
163
Excerpt from “The She Chronicles”
The sun only sets in the west on the equinox on any planet, not just earth, even on Betaen 6. Why was I thinking that? What did that have to do with the sorrow and the loss that I was feeling?
Even the idea of north, south, west, and east are strange when you think of other planets. Take Betaen 6 for example, assuming earths position in space as normal, which is what we humans tend to do, then the magnetic poles of Betaen 6 are upside down and it’s not the top of the planet, but the bottom of the planet which is north. So north is south and south is north and everything is all fucked up. Like that planet. Like he was.
It had to do with his trial. Because the woman who had been killed on Betaen 6 had been such a promising young cop there was more media attention than such a simple murder deserved. The rabid onlookers were also both fascinated and mortified from his mental condition and all types of experts spent all types of time explaining or not explaining how and why it could happen. That it had been Catenol was not an explanation heard from any of them.
I watched the sentencing with the others, for some reason they were all drawn to the central lounge to watch it, as if it were a gladiator trial in Rome. Everyone had a view screen in their room, everyone could have watched the trial there, but no one did. I didn’t want to seem too strange, so I joined them. I hated them all. Their vapid eyes as they stared at the screen. Their stupid remarks as this or that expert cut in with his or her opinion. What did any of them know of him? Did they know that he had been a researcher before the flu? Not a big name but still someone who looked for natures' truths. Did they know that he was not just a competent photographer and poet but a damned good one? No. Did they know that the cop had loved him and that she still did? Stupid idiots. All of them. They just spouted even more gibberish than he did.
I stopped looking at them and forced myself to look at the screen. After all, I was the reason he was there.
They’d read him his sentence and expected him to reply. He just sat there hopefully seeing moss and trees and not blood and loss. That he wasn’t seeing the courtroom was obvious even to the short-sighted dowagers sitting in the back.
His lawyer kept poking him in the side. After what seemed an eternity to me he turned to her and looked at her just as blankly as he looked at the courtroom. She said something to him. Then he turned to the judge and said
„Where am I? Why am I here? Did I do something wrong? This is a court isn‘t it? Or are you part of the forest?”
The judge just shook her head. They had tried to prove that he was faking his insanity for the first two weeks and then even the most determined of them gave up. This thing with trees and forests kept coming up a lot. I should have expected it, that was the last thought I planted in his mind.
Betaen 6. 164
164
Excerpt from the “She Chronicles”
They discussed the sentence. Decided to decrease it because of his madness.
Suddenly he stood up and his eyes looked normal.
„I didn’t kill anyone“ he screamed „I didn’t kill anyone! I lost them both. Both of them gone. Gone forever. Where are they?? Boots!! Trees! No no no!!!!“ then he screamed.
The guard standing behind him tackled him and pushed him into his chair. He was sobbing and the look of normality had left his eyes.
I couldn’t watch anymore. I turned and walked out the door. As I pushed it open one of the old dowagers sitting in the last row said
„Just look at him. Pathetic act. He should be put away forever“
I stopped. Looked down at her.
„You don’t know what the fuck you are saying.“
I pushed open the door and left before anyone could see the tears.
I managed to make it back to my suite before I totally broke down. I think I spent an hour bawling into the pillow. At least it was so damp I had to have it changed later. After I managed to pull myself together a bit I stripped and took a shower. I felt dirty. I knew why and I knew that the shower wouldn’t help but I did it anyway. It’s just one of those things you do.
I spent an eternity under that shower. Praise be to whatever engineer had designed the plumbing but the water never changed temperature. I did. But it didn’t. I toweled myself dry on the big fluffy towels the first class suites had and then took a second one as a dress. Wrapped it around me and sank onto the bed. Crawled under the covers like I had when I was a little girl.
Betaen 6. 165
165
Excerpt from the “She Chronicles”
I pulled the photo of my father out of my folio. Turned it over and ran my thumb over the scrawl He had written. I still didn’t understand how that all fit together and what exactly was going on. Only that, according to the Inspector, I was the first natural female navigator to be seen and as such a candidate for dissection and he was a communicator. But one they hadn’t seen before either. Because no one had been murdered when he took that photo.
I started crying again. I had cried a lot after I awoke in my quarantine cabin. I had lost a lot. I had put away my lover and my friend. I had just spent two hours under a hot shower washing away the guilt and the tears, but right then I was crying because that man he had taken the photo of was my father. My father had been there again. Alive. And I had missed the opportunity to touch him again. To hold his hand. To feel his badly shaven face on my cheek. To talk to him. Drink a cup of tea with him, he never had liked coffee and couldn’t understand why I liked it so much, and just be with him again.
At least that thought made me stop crying. Set my mind in a different direction. I wondered if his signature and the inscription had always been on the photo? If the problems communication happened before we first realized it? If they weren’t limited by time maybe it had always been there, but I only noticed it when I needed too? There were too many thoughts, too many emotions, too many everything. I fell asleep. The tablets the Inspector had left me were good ones.
The Inspector had clout, that was definite. Three weeks to the day after I left Betaen 6 the liner took up orbit around Janus 2. Half of the dowagers left there, to be replaced by the same number if not more. And he came on board as well. Under a different name, one of the tens he used to remain incognito. We met accidentally that night in the lounge. Talked. Gave anyone looking the impression that I had found myself a man. Met for breakfast the next day. Walked the observation deck together and then I moved into his suite. Angered a lot of the dowagers and a lot of the other younger women on the ship. The Inspector was greying but he had an aura around him that both men and women found attractive. And it made him no less attractive to anyone that he had rented the most expensive suite on the ship for the entire 6 month journey to Earth. There would be 5 more stops, but our destination was Earth. Earth was still the center of the known universe even if geographically it was quite a bit to the side.
Betaen 6. 166
166
Excerpt from the DEEP file 517
appendix. Earth. Unknown Laboratory. DEEP project. 2453.
Report WIPE operator 1.
Female subject - DEEP 517 - WIPE successful third wipe run. Reintroduction successful.
Male subject WIPE unsuccessful sixth WIPE run. Commanding surgeon decision to stop WIPE procedure. Memory partially parsed. Original identity assimilated. Partial creation and partial wipe. Decision - DEEP team leader - reintroduction of new original. No DEEP number assigned.
Appendix. DEEP file 517 and WIPE 3217
Commanding surgeons report 6 month follow up.
DEEP file 517 has been successful. New identity has taken and memory profile is correct without anomalies. Surgery successful.
WIPE 3217 was a partial wipe but enough original memories have been removed or replaced to ensure that anomalies are non-destructive.
The surviving child has been placed in state foster care on Gargt 4. Age of the individual prohibits WIPE procedure.
2nd Appendix. Written in a scrawled handwriting and barely legible.
Against all odds 517 and WIPE 3217 are together again. There is something strange about these two I don’t understand. Something foreign. Could it be the Betaen 6 project??
Excerpt from the DEEP file 487.
Possible contamination of subject during second WIPE. Redundant loop.
A scribbled note on the side of the page says
Could there be two of the bastards?? This cant be happening.
WIPE stopped. Reintroduction successful.
Betaen 6. 167
167
Excerpt from the unredacted Inspector Recalls. being read by Comle Kiera. 2799.
Betaen 6. Sometime before 2457
We had a good navigation team. It only took them two jumps, both calculated in less than a week, to get to Betaen 6. The fifteen days we had had on board we spent together. We swam. We ate. We made love. We simply enjoyed one another. I think I knew already then that I was going to lose him.
The ride down in the Lander was like all the rides down. Bumpy. Hot. Unenjoyable. A Lander ride could ruin your plans for future travel quick. As I was there officially, they put us up in the best hotel. Not that a good hotel on Betaen 6 can compare with a good hotel anywhere else, but at least you have a bed and warm water in the shower. I waited the day, but as it went on, closer to evening, I could see that Jeff was getting fidgety. I didn’t want to make it worse for him so we went to the station. I told them I needed a private interrogation room. No one but me and the suspect. No snoopers. I had enough clout that they obeyed me.
My biggest fear was how we were going to do the murder we were going to need. I still thought that Jeff’s communication had been because of the triple murder I was investigating. I had no idea they could just talk through him. We closed the door and I think I must have said something like “Who do I murder?”
Jeff took over then. Told me to sit. Sat across that bare metal table from me. Took my hands in his.
When he spoke, it was both his voice and not his voice. It's difficult for me to explain.
“We have waited a long time for this” he said “A very very long time.”
He let go of my hands and carefully pulled the package of cigarettes out of my shirt pocket. Took one, stuck it between his teeth like he so often did – he knew it would make me smile and it did – lit it and gave it to me. Jeff had never smoked but he knew instinctively when I needed to.
“You see we live in a different dimension than you do. We are trapped by the fifth and not the fourth dimension. Many decades we have argued and discussed if approaching you would really be the Zater. Then She was born and we found this human. We had searched for him forever.
One of the things that so upsets you, we can feel it, is that to discourse with us you must kill, you must violently release the energy that you are, join our plane for a brief few moments, and allow communication. In the beginning we thought you experienced nothing when we discussed such. We learned differently. We are sorry it has taken us so long. But the Zater is everything. Not just for us. We have seen in our timelines that it is also everything for you. That is why we continue. A few sacrifices are nothing if we can have the Zater”
I pulled my left hand away from him, usually I would have used my right, but I didn’t want him to let go of my hand. I needed that more than I needed the cigarette. I shook off the ash, clumsily, but managed to even get some of it into the ashtray.
“And the Zater is?” I asked
“Assimilation of humans with the N’Hai N’Hai. Peace for both of us.”
I think I must have snorted. Pipe dreams.
Betaen 6. 168
168
Excerpt from the unredacted Inspector Recalls. being read by Comle Kiera. 2799.
Betaen 6. Sometime before 2457.
“No” Jeff said “It is real. Peace. Everlasting peace. No more war. No more wanton destruction, no more what you humans call hate”
He reached across the table and touched my forehead. The visions burst behind my eyes. They were wonderful. The universe was wonderful. I had never felt so calm and fulfilled in my life. The universe, which I had until that moment seen as a cesspool, was actually beautiful.
“We will give up much for the Zater but we will gain as well.” Jeff clutched my hand tighter in his. “We must however keep me, Jeff, from the humans you call the triumvirate. We were reckless. We thought you too would want Zater as we want it – totally. Of course, freely. Every human given the vision and allowed to decide to join with a N’Hai N’Hai or not. So, we asked again and again for this person in front of you, the man you love, Jeff. We only asked for what we could feel, not by name. But we asked too much.”
Jeff lowered his head and looked at our hands. He took his free hand and gently stroked my thumb where it lay on the table. Then he raised his head again.
“Your triumvirate would have partial assimilation. Only a select few become the assimilated. With the power to see through time and know what will be, because then for you, as for us, time does not exist. To know that death is only a new beginning. That time is everywhere at once and nowhere at the same time. They would create a master class to rule the rest of humanity forever.
That is not Zater. That is not who or what we are. And that can not be.
But they come closer to this human Jeff, from whom we now speak, every day. When they find him, they will take him and use him for that end, and we will not acquiesce. We will give up the Zater until a new Jeff is found.”
I was on my second cigarette already. I had managed to fumble one into my mouth and light it.
“You have waited millions of years for this?”
He nodded
“And there’s something about a girl that was born?”
He nodded again.
“We have seen in our timelines that for the Zater to be completed there must be two – a male and a female as you call them. We find this separation strange, but interesting. We will enjoy it when we are one”
“And this girl?” I inhaled deeply, coughed “Is the triumvirate after her too?”
“Not yet” he said “She has not yet been noticed. But She will. We have seen it in time and we can not alter it without forever altering the possibility of Zater.”
I nodded. OK. They needed two humans. But what they wanted was worth it. It had felt so good. It was wonderful. I had only felt felt it for a few seconds, but I knew I would never forget it.
Betaen 6. 169
169
Excerpt from the unredacted Inspector Recalls. being read by Comle Kiera. 2799.
Betaen 6. Sometime before 2457
“We can trust only you to be the protector of them both. We can – as you say -play – with time and space a bit, but only a bit. Perhaps enough to confuse, but not enough to keep them both from their sights. Do you know what we ask of you?”
I sensed it but I didn’t want to speak it aloud. When I said it, I knew it would be real.
“You must agree” Jeff paused “Or disagree. That is your choice. Your freedom. We cannot, no matter how much we desire the Zater, force you to do this. It must be your choice.”
I nodded. Let go of his hand. Lit another cigarette. I didn’t think I would have enough in the package.
“We can show you the future if the triumvirate were to succeed?”
I nodded again. Why not? It couldn’t be that … he touched my forehead again … it was worse. I pulled away in a sweat. I felt like I needed to throw up. I felt dirty and used. It was living purgatory. Evil. I breathed deeply; glad I had let the cigarette fall to the floor. It fit. We humans could be like that. We would be. I had already seen enough of it.
“You” I stopped. When I said it I knew it would be true. I would be responsible. I licked my lips, they were dry. Swallowed although there was nothing for me to swallow. Even my palms were dry.
“You want me to give up Jeff”
Jeff nodded.
“Will you help me to forget what I have just done?” I felt tears building up behind my eyes and choked back a sob.
He took my hands.
“We will help.” He leaned across the table and kissed me. “Yes. You will not know. You will only think I am already gone. Even during the Zater which will now come to pass you will not know. Not until you face dne. Then we will be together again.”
I let the tears come. I couldn’t hold them back any longer. Jeff had died. In the flu. That damn flu. It took him from me.
Betaen 6. 170
170
Excerpt from the unredacted Inspector Recalls. being read by Comle Kiera. 2799.
Betaen 6. Sometime before 2457.
He walked from the interrogation room to the desk they had requisitioned for him. His position ensured he had his own office, even if it meant that the previous occupant was now sharing a desk in the foyer.
As he walked down the corridor he thought two things. One was why the corridors in police stations the universe over were always somewhat blue and the second was how much he missed Jeff. That fucking flu. He’d survived three waves. Never caught it. But he just had to catch it during the fourth wave. Leave him alone on this fucking planet.
He lit a cigarette as he pushed open the door to his office. He’s already started to think of it as his office. Without Jeff there was no reason why he shouldn’t stay on Betaen 6. There was nothing for him anymore on Earth. Perhaps the problem would take him too and then he could be with him again.
Strange, he thought. There were two DEEP dossiers on his desk. He couldn’t remember starting them. But they were that deep ocean blue and had a class nine seal. Only a DEEP dossier looked like that. He sat and smoked for a minute. It must have been the interrogation. The guy had been a tough nut to crack. He felt somehow nervous and didn’t know why. Had to be the new surroundings. Lit another cigarette anyway. When he had it half smoked he took out his tablet and released the bio lock on the first dossier. Opened it. Read
DEEP 517
Essential creation DEEP identity. 15000 data points.
Original identity. Emira.
New identity.
He shut the dossier before he could read the name. Now he remembered. Why the two dossiers were on his desk. He had to ensure they had been created and then he had to ensure the dossiers never existed.
He flipped the dossier over so he would open the last page. Opened and read.
14721 data points.
Successful creation.
Betaen 6. 171
171
Excerpt from the unredacted Inspector Recalls. being read by Comle Kiera. 2799.
Betaen 6. Sometime before 2457.
He laid the dossier on the corner of his desk. Unlocked the bio locks on the second one. Read.
DEEP 518
Essential creation second DEEP identity.
Original DEEP 487
He looked up. He needed another cigarette. Fumbled one out of the package and lit it with a shaking hand. Second creation? Had the first one not been secure enough? This was the first time he had seen a second DEEP and he saw them all. There was something about the number that nagged at the base of his mind. 487. He should know that. He knew he did but he couldn’t remember. It was that damned interrogation.
He read on.
25000 data points.
He whistled between his teeth. Never had he created an identity with so much data. He knew he had them in the files, just in case, but he’d never had to use them. This must be one fucking important person.
First Identity. Pers Larsen.
New identity.
He closed the folio again. Did the same routine. Flipped it and opened the last page.
22100 data points.
Successful creation.
He knew those two names. He knew how important they were. Everyone knew Pers Larsen, and anyone in the know knew Emira. He didn’t want to know who they had become.
He took the folios and walked down the hall and down the stairs to the sub basement. Nodded to the duty guard and walked into the incinerator room. The guard nodded to him that it was safe. He released the catches and swung the heavy iron door back towards him. Threw in the dossiers. The guard hit a red button. He waited. Didn’t even try to smoke a cigarette. He watched the guard closely and when he nodded he opened the heavy door again. There was only ash. Fine gray ash. It looked a lot like the ashes of his Mother had looked like.
He thanked the duty guard and walked back up the stairs to the office. As he opened the door he wondered why he had left it? Ah yes. He wanted a coffee. He still had to learn his way around. He turned back from the door and walked towards the cafeteria.
Betaen 6. 172
172
Earth. Aboard the Lady Grey. 1839
“You have the pistol?” She smiled coyly at him from beneath her lashes.
He nodded and patted a slight bulge, unnoticeable unless you were expecting it, underneath his left armpit.
“Two barrels. Both loaded.” He smiled at her and let his hand trail through her locks “We will finish tonight what we should have finished on the battlefield”
She felt her leap and skip a beat. Was this really what she wanted? She thought for a moment. Yes. It was. She had no other way out. No other respite. He would leave her alone and friendless in a strange country where she didn’t even properly speak the language. She would be ridiculed and forsaken. Just as she had been as a child. As she had been before she knew him. The bastard would renounce his love for her and leave her alone. For his honor.
She stood and grasped the Austrians hand.
“Make it quick though” she said, not looking into his eyes – she did not want to see the hate there “Do not let him suffer.”
“I should strangle him like a stray cat” he said “But for you my love I will do anything” he stroked her cheek with the back of his hand “I will shoot him in the heart, and he will die instantaneously”
She nodded and let him kiss her. She felt the heat and the passion of his kiss and his manhood engorging on his thigh, but she could only think of the General. Of the leaps her heart had made when he simply touched her hand. She broke away.
“My love?” He questioned.
“It is difficult for me” she looked away “He has supported me. Madame has written me into her testament. It is not easy”
He smiled sardonically. The little vixen could plan to kill the old bastard but then feel remorse. So like a frail woman. They were so weary sometimes. But she was not weary on the eyes, nor - he was certain he would soon arrange to explore – between the bedcovers, nor on the pocketbook. The old lady had already written her into her testament, and she had been taken ill as they boarded. She had certainly wound her way enough into the Generals favor that some of his estate would also be hers. Perhaps he would leave her the chateau and after a few years in America they could return to a more civilized land. No. She was not a bad choice at all. Finishing off the hero of Augsburg would also be a bonus he would not deny himself. Perhaps he would take the Princess there, with the bastard finally lying dead beside them.
Betaen 6. 173
173
Aboard the Lady Grey. 1839.
He offered her his arm and she took it. They left her stateroom and walked the few meters to the card room. The General was already there, waiting for them. He helped the Princess sit and then shook hands with the enemy. He had always thought of the General as the enemy. He had been raised to think of him as the enemy. Truces between kings did not stop the truth. The General too would rather slit this throat than look at him – he could sense it. But they were gentlemen and both of them knew how to play the game. The Captain of the ship stood in the corner brandishing a large glass of brandy. This altered his plans somewhat. But only somewhat. It could still be easily accomplished.
“Sir” the Austrian bowed his head slightly in the direction of the ships Captain.
He nodded back slightly and sipped at his brandy.
“We should take our places” said the General. ”As yesterday? Perlaggen?”
She clapped her hands in delight.
“Oh yes. General. We had such amusement when we played with Madame at the chateau!”
He nodded, remembering the sultry southern German evenings, the smell of freshly cut hay wafting in from the fields, the scent of jasmine from her perfume in his nostrils.
“Who will be your partner, Princess?” He asked
“I offer my services” said the Austrian quickly.
The General nodded. He had not expected anything else. The Princess had been spending more and more time with the young Captain. He was certain he would be the same officer she had been seen with in Berlin. He made way for the Captain and let him sit across from the Princess. The Ships Captain rang the bell and within moments a livery clad server appeared.
“We need two decks of German cards and..” he motioned to the empty table.
“A bottle of champagne and four flutes” said the General “Is that to your liking Princess?”
She nodded and blushed, remembering another evening and champagne with the General. He too had the same memory, but the old cavalryman did not blush nor lose his composure.
The server nodded and left. The ships captain took his place and the General sat across from him. They talked about the weather, the landing in a day and the city of New York. Soon the champagne and the playing cards arrived.
“Who shall deal first?” Asked the Austrian.
“Its an Austrian game, why don’t you begin sir.” The general made certain to hide the irony in his voice.
“Don’t we cut for deal?” The Princess pouted.
The Austrian Captain smiled and laughed.
“Of course Princess” he said “We shall cut for deal”
The ships captain split open the deck and shuffled out rapidly, then set it on the table. The men waited for the Princess to perform the first cut. She cut a 7 of hearts and put back the cards. The ships captain cut a 6. The Austrian cut a Perlagg, the little Weli.
“Does a Perlagg count as high cards during deal choice?” He asked
The ships captain shrugged and the General merely looked at him.
“Its your national game.” He said
The Austrian felt the hate begin in his stomach. He would be so glad to rid the world of the troublesome General. He would enjoy killing him.
“Let us let the Princess decide” he said gallantly
She smiled. “I don’t think it should be a trump card” she said “Just a 7 like mine” she smiled at him again. Oh yes. He would enjoy this evening, he was certain.
The General nodded and cut the deck. An ace.
“Die Sau” said the Austrian. It fit that the pig of Augsburg would cut a pig.
Betaen 6. 174
174
Aboard the Lady Grey. 1839.
The General ignored the remark and took up the deck. He shuffled and riffled the cards once. Then he laid the deck to his right and motioned for the Austrian to cut. He cut to the little Weli again. He kept it, as was in accordance with the rules, after showing it to all of them.
The General dealt counted the cards, a pair of cards for each of them but the Austrian who received only one and then the remaining three, fanning them deftly between his fingers. He laid the last 12 cards face down on the table and flipped over the top card.
“Acorns is trump” he said and then showed the bottom card. A 6 of bells.
“Let the game begin” the Austrian laid his cards face down and took the champagne out of the ice cooler. He swiftly opened the bottle, and the Princess clapped as the cork shot off a wall and landed on the table beside her. He poured her glass first and then the remaining three.
“A toast to our lovely Princess” he raised his glass to his lips “May her beauty only become more precious in the years to follow”
She looked down but glanced at the General. What would he do? What would he say?
He took a moment. First he saluted her and drank the toast the Austrian had made.
“Well said sir” he remarked casually, wondering but already knowing what that bulge was below the Captains left arm. So is the game he thought, I have nought but to play. I have cheated death so many times that this time he might cheat me.
“To America. Her new home”
“To America” they all said again in unison and drank.
The champagne was from a good vintage and the General enjoyed the slight sparkle on his tongue. What was their plan? Obviously he was to be killed – but then? She needed the papers he had left with the Captain, without them she had no chance of being allowed to enter America. They would turn her back at the quay. Had they planned this already in Europe? Master a small swift yacht waiting alongside the liner? Would they kill him and depart for a small hidden Harbour were she would be smuggled ashore? What life would that be for her? Without her title, the dowry he had set aside for her, the testament from his wife? Without papers? What was she thinking? Why was she thinking this?
He missed the exchange because he was concentrating upon her. Not her beauty, not the intelligence and warmth, her softness, that had so touched him, but her impudence. To plan to assassinate him. To help an Austrian! An Austrian! How could she do such a thing?
The ships captain admonished him. He had right. He had missed the exchange.
Suddenly the ships bells rang violently. The captain leapt to his feet and apologized as he quickly left the room.
Betaen 6. 175
175
Aboard the Lady Grey. 1839.
The General watched him leave. Would this be the last time he saw him? The Austrian was already pulling the pistol from beneath his jacket. The hate on his visage was palapatable across the room.
Suddenly he felt strange, as if he were floating upon salt water. He could see she felt the same, she had a strange look in her eyes, and he sensed he too must have that expression. He reacted as he always would – he stood and leapt at his adversary – but he was too late. He watched the bullets leave the barrel followed by the flame from the powder. How could he see them? They passed through his heart, but he felt nothing – no pain, no entry, no exit. He had been shot enough to know he would be feeling something. Was he dead? Was this death? He swung his stick, the heavy silver head catching the Austrians hand and breaking the bones. He heard his scream of pain and knew he was still alive. But how? The Austrian pulled a knife with his left hand but the General was too quick. He hadn’t been this quick since before Augsburg. He feinted to the right and then slammed the stick down upon the Austrians temple. He fell, and fell upon his own knife. He gurgled once and then he was dead.
“You must be dead” she said.
He looked at her. She was pale and sweating, her hands trembling. She reached for the champagne bottle and drank directly from it. Then she took up the brandy glass from the captain and drank it down in one draught.
“You must be dead” she said again
He looked down at his chest. There was nothing but he had seen the bullets pass through him.
“Im not” he said and felt his tunic.
She had sank into the chair and was letting the alcohol wash the fear from her.
“Im glad” she looked up at him “Im glad”
“What is going on?” He asked, sinking into the chair opposite her and holding out his hand for the bottle. She passed it to him, and he drank heavily, emptying it.
“I don’t know”
Betaen 6. 176
175
Earth. Victims Chateau. 3205.
“Strange memory to be having now” he said.
She turned from the window and watched him as he entered the room. He didn’t look a day older than he had been that night.
“When did you learn to read others thoughts?”
He smiled that lopsided smile he had and came closer. She noticed the ancient Sabre in his hand. The one that had been in his hand as he called his men to him on the field at Augsburg.
“I don’t need to. I have the same thoughts as you. Haven’t stopped having them now for” he paused dramatically “What is it 1400 years now?”
“Really?” She raised her eyebrow, provoking him.
He nodded. “I wish I didn’t.”
“What am I thinking now smart guy?”
“How you could just leave, and I would have to follow you again. Find you again. Find the other you, create another me – and we would either be lovers or enemies. What we have been since the creation of time.”
She nodded. Those had been almost her thoughts.
“I was also thinking what might have been had you not had your fucking honor”
“I think that too” he said “Far too often”
He limped closer and she could see the lines of pain on his face. He so reminded her of that time. Of her first love. Her only love if she were honest.
“My doppelgänger have all been able to love or hate you. Yours the same with me” he limped even closer “I have had to be content with the chase”
“What was it back then with He and Jeff and Pers Larsen? How did you manage that?” She asked, watching him like a cat watches a mouse.
“Wasn’t planned” he said
“I thought as much” was her sarcastic reply, waiting for his answer.
“I decided to follow you exactly at the time the ship jumped” he tapped his boot with the Sabre “Never did it before, nor after. Created two of them and their lives and killed them all at the same time” he shook his head “Fucking wool”
She wondered at that. He would never have used such a word before. The man she had fell in love with as a young girl would never have used such a word in front of her.
He must have felt her surprise.
“I have changed a bit in the years” he said sheepishly.
“You also think of it as wool?” She asked, finding it strange that he too would think of time as wool.
He nodded. “Tangled wool” he shook his head and absentmindedly tapped the Sabre against his boot again “They had lives. You can read about them in the damn books. But they died at the moment they were created. I’ll never understand it”
“You don’t have to” she said
“Was a bit of a joke on you though, wasn’t it?” He said
“What was?”
“Your copy being with him and with Pers” he laughed sardonically “No real change there. Same guy at heart” and he tapped himself on the chest.
She smiled at him. A soft smile.
“You’ve never figured it out?”
Now it was his turn to ask what.
“Of course they would be. There only is you. Never been anyone else”
He tapped himself on the chest again and she knew what he meant.
“He meant nothing”
Betaen 6. 177
177
Earth. Chateau in Southern Germany. 1835
The women were in the study today. The main study, overlooking the gardens. It was a beautiful sunny day and the maid had opened the terrace doors so the warm wind could waft through the room. He paced, as he always did when he was nervous, unable to sit down. Inside he never used his walking stick and he tried to keep his limp as in check as possible. He knew though that they would see it and that pained him. Especially that she would see it. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to be young again and not carry the scars of battle with him every day. He kept his thoughts away from what he really wanted to think. To be young again. To be with her. No. He couldn’t think those things!
He sipped at his jasmine tea. It smelled of her. Her scent had jasmine in it. He thought of Faust. For her he would make Fausts deal. Yes. For her he would.
He had not shaved that morning, it was his fight against social necessities. He knew why. It was the first step to her.
He caught her eye and she smiled at him, slightly lifting her tea cup. Madame was telling the dowager couple that were visiting about how well A had integrated into their daily life. Yes. Now he could put a stop to it. Now he could save them both from Fausts gamble.
“Yes.” He said, limping into the middle of the room “A has become like a daughter to me”
He smiled at her. She blushed slightly.
The Countess B. Put down her teacup and studied young A for a moment.
“A very fine girl indeed “ she said. “You are so lucky”
He nodded and turned back to the arbor doors. He walked away from them as he did not want them to see the pounding of his heart. He was certain all could see it, all could see the lie he had told.
He stepped a few paces onto the broad flagstones of the terrace. He smelt her before he sensed her. He could hear Madame.
“Yes, she is so well brought up” she said “she is thanking him even now for his love and kindness”
She put her hand, her soft precious hand, on his upper arm and let it rest there innocently.
“Thank you” she said and then she whispered “But I don’t want to be your daughter” her fingers moved ever so slightly on his arm but it was as if she shot fire into his veins. His entire body stiffened, not just his manhood.
“We can’t do this” he said, emphasizing every word as he whispered them.
She let her hand fall from his arm, trailing her fingers along the sleeve of his jacket until she let them slightly touch his hip.
“I know” she said “but I don’t care. Every day am I with you this feeling grows stronger “
“What feeling?” He asked
For the two of them there were now only two.
A turned to him and blushed. Then she turned to the garden again. He watched her closely.
“The roses are beautiful this time of year are they not?” She asked, loud enough for all to hear.
“Yes” he said, looking into her eyes so she would know for whom the next words were. “Very beautiful “
She whispered again
Betaen 6. 178
178
Earth. Chateau in Southern Germany. 1835.
“I am not such a girl as you believe”
“Really?”
“Yes. I know what women need, though they do not discuss it like the men.” She smirked “I often heard my father and friends when they were heavy with drink”
Now it was his time to blush
“I apologize for your father. He certainly had no inkling that you could hear”
“No. Of course”
They had both automatically began to walk, he for his nervous energy and she to be with him.
After about 10 paces he could no longer walk without his stick and he had forgotten it in the parlor.
“Would you get me my stick?” He asked
She turned from him and raised her voice “Madame? The general has forgottten his walking stick. May I give him my arm?”
Madame came to the arbor doors.
“Of course my child” she laughed “Here we are not the sort that think sordid things!”
She turned to him, beaming, and offered him her arm. It was so soft, so supple and yet so strong. Like a young beech he thought. His favorite tree.
They walked on and he could feel the heat of her body through the serge of his uniform jacket. How had he gotten into this? She smelled so enticing.
They were a hundred paces from the arbor, still discrete and still socially acceptable. He stopped before the hedges. That would be too much. He could not do that to her.
Neither of them turned. He could see her nostrils flaring as she breathed, see the slight perspiration above her lip.
“Have you already forgotten what I just said” she asked, turning slightly to him.
Oh how lovely she was in the golden sunlight. That angle made her look like a goddess.
“No” he said “I forget nothing that you may say.” He pushed to see if he could continue but neither her eyes nor her luscious mouth gave him answer. He stopped himself.
“That is good for I will only tell you this but once “
He tried to pull his arm away, suddenly afraid, almost as afraid as he had been the first time he had lived through artillery fire. The shells landing and bursting, the earth heaving as of trying to give birth and not the death he saw in the mangled bodies around him.
She would not let him go. In fact her grasp was tighter and she pulled him against her. With her free hand she softly stroked first her breasts and then her vulva beneath the many folds of cloth of her dress.
“This is what women want as well” she said looking him directly in his eyes “what I want. Where I feel when I think of you. Will you ..”
He tore himself away. He could not do this to a young girl. He could not! She followed him.
“Have I hurt you sir?” She questioned.
“No” he shook his head, realizing that there were tears coursing down his face.
Betaen 6. 179
179
Earth. Victims chateau. 3205
“Who is having strange memories now?” She laughed.
He nodded and she saw him as he had been that day. Greying whiskers, sunburnt, straight and proud – so proud that he would fight against his own desires and needs and keep her at bay.
“It brought us nothing” he said
She nodded.
“How long did it take you to discover what had happened to us?” She abruptly changed the subject.
“You know that you will investigate your own murder, don’t you?” He asked a question rather than answer hers.
She nodded.
“That means there’s one of you here as well.”
He shook his head.
“No.” He said it sadly and she was again reminded of the man he had been “When you die it breaks the chain. Then there’s only me. And I am going to stay here.”
She shook her head as well. He was so naïve. He always had been. Even as the General. Even as the man she had now loved for over 1400 years. There was no use arguing with him. It would change nothing. She would still be murdered in a few moments. He would still be there and would soon kill himself out of remorse. The N’Hai N’Hai would still assimilate with the human. He would still discover and inadvertently release the Ritluvian flu upon that universe. All those things would still happen regardless of what she now did. So she did what she had wanted to do for 1400 years.
She walked to him and took him in her arms and kissed him. Deeply, letting her very soul join with his. She never even felt the blade slice through her heart and finally end it all.
Betaen 6. 180
180
Earth. Victims Chateau. 3205
Do you know that feeling you get when you are alone in a room and for no reason you can fathom your skin begins to crawl? You do? Good. Because that’s when you have finally realized that time is not linear and everything can be anywhere. That is how – although I am officially lying on the floor – minus my hands (callous bastard!) – dead – I can still write this. Be aware I never will be really dead. Fucking time shit. Fucking tangled wool. I had at least hoped for null. Not feeling. Instead I am still here. I don’t even have N’Hai. I never assimilated. I cant be trapped by the dne – or can I? Fuck this madness. Fuck it.
Earth. Official Senate Transfer Car. Stuttgart.
Malaica let the last memories of the tube and her kiura fade away. She knew who had committed the murder. She knew why. She knew what the C and backwards E tattoo on her wrist meant. She knew many things. How the assimilation came to be. The murder she was to solve was the sacrifice for the assimilation. She knew she would find the travelers body in the stables, hanging from the rafters, her hands beneath him on the straw. She knew what she had to write to decipher the Parsons paper - and what she would read - she would read what she had seen and felt -and she knew that everything she thought she knew about her life was a deception. She was a copy. Actually she was dead and investigating her own murder. How fucked up could that get??
But - she was also now the only one.
Betaen 6. 181
181
Betaen 6. Office of the Comle. 2799.
Kiera set the book aside. She had the answer now. The time stamp was solved. She smiled a sad smile, perhaps the same smile Emira had smiled, She had smiled, and He and Jeff and Pers as well. The N’Hai within her nodded acquiescence. It was as it should be. As it had been meant to be. She called for the guard. She had a decision to announce.
The guardswoman opened the door and Kiera stepped into the anteroom. She had already seen all that would happen – her timeline - but she knew from experience it didn’t have to play out the way she had seen it. What was strange to her was that the timeline vision had been so quick, so unexpected and over within seconds. This was slow motion – and she could see every movement of every player in the drama.
It was Peter. Standing legs apart at shoulder width, both hands on the big pistol, steadying it. Kiera knew from her timeline who had let him into the building – Tara, the number two. In her slow motion world she shook her head sadly. 300 years of assimilation, almost completion of the Zater, and the old human ways of jealousy and envy had to surface once more. She saw the terrified look in the first young guardswomans eyes as she looked from Peter to her. She knew whom the target was. She knew what she had to do. But would she do it? This was the moment where free will could override the timeline, override what Kiera had already seen.
Kiera moved her gaze to the second guardswoman, her pistol slowly rising and knew she would fire too late. The third was diving towards Peter but again it would all be too late. In slow motion and a concentration she had never had before in her life Kiera watched Peter pull the trigger – once, twice. The first guardswoman looked at her and Kiera could see the tears in her eyes.
June 12. 2999 Earth
Record of the speech given by Comle Dr. Leigh AD for:
Unveiling of the memorial statue to Comle Kiera during the Biennial celebrations to commemorate the completion of Zater.
In the year dated from earth's history as 2799 Comle Kiera refused to order the eradication of all old humans – even after two attempts on her life that cost four of her guard their lives. She began a compassionate and ordered appeal to the humanity in both old and new humans. Her appeal to an ancient earth based saying – a relic – „Try SCE to AUX“ – one from which the beginning and the exact meaning has been lost – but which was well understood as meaning „try something drastic and different“ was successful. Within 2 years the leaders of the religion and those of the triumvirate had met in orderly and successful face to face meetings. What a universe without old humans would be we will never know. We only know how rich and diverse our universe now is. We do know that since the Janus 2 Accords the universe has only had peace, something both the old human and the N’Hai N’Hai had only dreamt of.
It is generally accepted that her contemporaneous reading of the She Chronicles and the other works of He and She influenced her response to the attacks upon her life and the subsequent response. Her membership in the “Children of Emira” certainly also influenced her decision. That her response led to universal peace is incontrovertible.
Comle Kiera joined the ranks of He, She, the Inspector and Emira with that decision. It was not an easy decision for her, regardless of the situation. There was much controversy and more than one attempt to derail her decision. She thought long and hard about her choice and it is known that even late in her life she questioned if she had chosen the right path.
All of the millions of you here today are witness that she chose the right path.
In the name of all humanity we thank you Comle Kiera.
*It is reported that the crowds attending the ceremony numbered more than ten and one half million. Beams and audio reached another fourteen quadrillion humans. It was the largest mass action of old or new human in history.
Betaen 6. 182 (the end)
182
Somewhere and nowhere. Sometime and no time.
The voice was all around her as if she was swimming in it.
Where do you want to be?
Where I was happy, that’s where I want to be, she answered
The voice murmured something she did not understand, but what she did understand was that there was no beginning to time, there was no end to time and there was no middle to time: there was simply time.
And then she was there again, stepping out of the carriage and offering him her hand, and she could feel the fear that she had felt so many years ago, but this time it was different.
Ich habe euch endlich erlöst. Es ist zu ende.