Paul Jones - Towards Yesterday

“But it’s been twenty-five years ,” Jim reiterated.

Lorentz waved his hands, dismissing Jim’s objections. “It doesn’t matter. Thanks to Ms. Belkov’s super-human efforts,” he smiled at his personal assistant who sat two seats off to his left, “we have assembled a massive library of contemporary physics both electronic and paper based. It’s accessible via any terminal in the compound. Everything you could ever need is here Jim… everything . Of course, that also includes all notes and transcripts of our work so far. All we need from you is your commitment to help us.”

Rebecca smiled at the professor. “I’m with you,” she said.

Lorentz paused, looking Jim straight in the eye. “Please… as clichéd as this sounds, the very fate of the world relies on the few people gathered here in this room.” Then he added with a grin, “No pressure, eh?”

There was a pause as Jim contemplated the request, then he nodded.

“Okay,” he said. “You can count me in.”

SG: Welcome Father.

FJP: Thank you Stephen. It’s very nice to be here.

SG: Now, for those viewers who may not be familiar with Father Pike he is the founder and head of the Church of Second Redemption.

FJP: That is correct.

SG: Tell me Father, your Church has seen a tremendous surge of converts in the twelve months since the Slip occurred. If my researchers have done their job correctly then you have seen your flock go from a small group of devotees in the first month or so after the event to a following of over two-point—five million—a tremendous jump and an unprecedented increase. Why do you think so many people are devoting themselves to your branch of religion?

FJP: It’s an easy question to answer Stephen: people are looking for an answer to what happened and we offer them the truth.

SG: And just what is it about your brand of the truth that makes it so special? What draws so many to you in these confused times? I’m sure there are many business people out there who would love to know your secret.

FJP: Again, it’s a very simple answer. It is no secret I was without faith in my previous life. Even though I was a leader in the religious community, a priest without faith is unworthy to lead. I was unable to help redeem the very people whose souls I had been entrusted with. I became an instrument for evil rather than for good. I took my own life… but … I was given a second chance by God— SG: Yes but— FJP: —a second chance to redeem myself and to offer that redemption not only to those already within the Catholic Church but to those outside of it too. That is why we are non-denominational; you only need to believe to be forgiven.

SG: It has been said that the majority of your congregation are Revivified—is that true?

FJP: Yes, that is correct. A large number of the reborn have found themselves drawn to our church.

SG: Why?

FJP: Are you familiar with the book of Psalms?

SG: I can’t say that I am, Father.

FJP: Psalms eleven, nine — ‘ He has sent redemption itself to his people. To time indefinite he has commanded his covenant’ . God has given them—as he has give all of us—a final chance at redemption. Each of my flock is in a unique position to understand the implication of life eternal. They are God’s reborn warriors, here to bring his word and fight for him. Armageddon is upon us, Stephen, and it is time for us all to choose a side.

“Jim? Look at this.”

Rebecca’s voice contained a hint of suppressed excitement. Jim turned away from his computer. He saw the mathematician staring at her own computer screen.

“What is it, Rebecca?” he asked as he stood and made his way to her side.

“This,” she said, pointing to a row of figures on her screen sitting alongside a line-graph. She tapped a key and the figures magnified to three times their original size. “There’s something not right with these figures,” she continued. “See, here,” she pointed with her index finger at a small group of numbers. “They shouldn’t be there. Look—” Her fingers flew across the keyboard and the computer zoomed in closer on the line-graph of the figures, isolating the numbers causing her concern. “This represents the numbers I just showed you. See how right up until this point things are just as you would expect?” She traced the curve of the graph with her finger leaving a light smear on the screen. “No distortion in amplitude at all but then when we get here there’s this… bump, for lack of a better description. It shouldn’t be there.”

“Maybe its interference? Some spurious emission?” He leaned in closer. “Have you run diagnostics on the receivers?”

“Yes. That was the first thing I did. All the results came back clean. I cross-referenced the data against the paper records in case the information has been corrupted somehow—that came back negative. Then I checked the maintenance logs for the monitoring receivers, nothing unusual there either.” She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest, biting her bottom lip as she gazed at the screen. “It just doesn’t make any sense,” she repeated.

Jim went back to his own desk and wheeled over his chair, steering it next to Rebecca’s. They had been sitting in front of the computers for the past seven—hours straight, and Jim caught the faint aroma of her musk floating across the narrow space between them, as he sat down next to her.

“Well it’s not like we have anything better to do,” he said through a smile. “Let’s see if we can’t figure this out.”

Rebecca half turned in her chair and faced him, her own smile matching his before turning back to her keyboard.

Jim felt a growing respect for the woman who sat at his side. In the five weeks since both he and Rebecca had agreed to join the team he’d had little personal time with most of his new colleagues. The work had been intense and relentless. But not long after he had arrived at the labs, Mitchell Lorentz had pulled Jim into his office and explained to him that Rebecca was one of the tens of thousands of revivified who had originally died at the hands of another in their original timeline. At first, Jim hadn’t understood what the professor was telling him, but eventually the realization of what had happened to her sank in: she had been murdered. Lorentz had not disclosed the details of how she had died, and Jim wasn’t sure he really wanted to know them, not yet anyway.

Jim found it incredible she could function at all after Lorentz’s revelation, but his incredulity had quickly turned to admiration as he witnessed the single-minded dedication with which she immersed herself in her work. Lorentz also told him that part of the reason Rebecca had accepted the position on the team was that the professor had promised her that once they had ensured the safety of humanity, the government would turn its attention to locating and apprehending the man who had committed the wicked crime against her.

“I even offered to have the investigation commence immediately,” Lorentz had said, “but she said no. She wanted to wait until this was over. No distractions. That’s a dedicated woman.” Jim was not sure whether that was an indication of her strength of will or of her grasp of reality, but after spending the past few weeks in her company he was leaning towards the first explanation.