Eric Brown - The Serene Invasion

Kapil glanced at Ana, then said, “And how will that be?”

Kath Kemp smiled. “To answer that, I must first answer a question that Nina asked me a month ago, about the diminution in the stars.”

Sally laughed. “But how can that be related…?”

“Please believe me, Sal — it is,” Kath said. “You see, it is all tied in to the need to protect you from the Obterek, and to do that we need to protect your habitat — the solar system.”

Nina Ricci cried, “You’re talking in riddles!”

Kath stared around the group, and seemed to be considering what she said next. “Very well, I think a practical demonstration is required. What we are about to do you might find shocking, unbelievable, but let me reassure you that you are at no risk whatsoever during the process.”

Several of them began to speak at once, but Kath held up a hand and said, “Please follow my instructions. Now, Ana, Nina and Geoff… If you would kindly stand and move into the centre of the room.”

Allen glanced at Sally, shrugged, and did as instructed, curiosity intermingled with a slight sense of foolishness; he was a schoolboy again, manipulated by the teacher in order to demonstrate some scientific principle.

He stood between Ana and Nina, and looked to Kath for further instructions.

She said, “Stand a little further apart, so that you are separated by about one metre.”

Ricci protested, “Just what is all this about?”

Kath ignored her. “Now, Sally, Kapil and Natascha, please join your partners and hold hands.”

Sally climbed from the lounger and joined him. Her hand found his and squeezed.

“Ana, Nina and Geoff, your softscreens are activated. I have initiated a program that will allow you to hear my instructions mentally.”

“But how the hell did you do that?” Nina murmured.

Kath said, “In five seconds, you will hear me ‘think’ a set of co-ordinates. You will repeat them to yourself, mentally. And that will initiate the procedure…”

Allen watched as Kath stepped forward and took Nina Ricci’s hand.

Before he could even begin to wonder what was going on, he heard Kath’s voice in his head. “ 75-438-779 … Now repeat.”

Allen did so. He felt a split-second of disorientation, and then something flashed in his vision and he was forced to close his eyes.

He staggered, as if the ground beneath his feet had shifted, and then opened his eyes.

And he saw that he was no longer on Titan.

HE WAS STANDING in a sunlit vale or meadow, a warm breeze lapping over him. He was still gripping Sally’s hand, and turned to her.

Her face wore an expression of enraptured wonder that was beautiful to behold.

Then he saw that the others were alongside Sally and himself. All of them were staring around in awe, open-mouthed; they looked at each other and could not help but laugh.

Allen turned to Kath, who was watching them with amusement

“What the hell,” Nina Ricci said, “is going on?”

“Where are we?” asked Ana.

“This simple demonstration,” Kath Kemp said, “should answer your first and fundamental question: what was it that the Serene were doing with you representatives for twenty years, every month initially, and then every two weeks. We were, little by little, installing you with the ability to shift, as we call it — or perhaps you would prefer the term teleport .”

Allen felt dizzy and sat down on the grass. Sally flopped beside him and found his hand. Ana and Kapil were embracing. Nina and Natascha stared at each other and laughed.

“You’re kidding, right?” Nina said.

“I think,” Allen said, “that what we just did proves to us that this is no joke.”

“Let me explain,” said Kath. “We have invested in over ten thousand individuals — you human representatives — the ability to shift to any point within your solar system instantaneously. The science, the mechanics, of this we need not go into now; suffice to say that we have employed the same laws of quantum mechanics to effect this ability as we did to enable the charea edict. Programmed into your softscreens is an almost limitless cache of co-ordinates that will enable you, at the speed of thought, to select a destination and shift yourselves there. To access this cache you merely have to ‘think’ of your destination; for example a certain street in a certain city. Instantly the program will decode your thought and supply a destination code, which you will repeat. A nano-second later, you will find yourself there.”

Sally was shaking her head. “But how did I… and Kapil and Natascha…?”

“The shifter will have the ability to take with them a maximum of three other people, and will do so by the simple expedient of ensuring that all three are physically connected.”

“Right,” said Nina with determination. She was staring ahead, at a stand of trees some five hundred metres away.

Allen then had the disconcerting experience of seeing a human being vanish from before his eyes. Nina appeared, instantly, beside the trees half a kilometre away. She lifted a hand and waved.

A second later she was back beside Natascha, shaking her head in wonder at what she had just done.

Allen heard his heartbeat hammer out his shock and elation. He closed his eyes, and into his head came a vision of a pub garden, millions of miles away; the Three Horseshoes in Wem, Shropshire, where many years ago he and Sally had spent many a pleasant evening.

A string of co-ordinates entered his head. 32-779-043 …

He opened his eyes and stared at Sally. “Hold my hand,” he said.

Tentatively, she reached out and took his hand, and Allen repeated the co-ordinates.

He heard Sally gasp, and then he was in the garden of the Three Horseshoes, seated beside the fishpond. It was early morning in England, and the sun was rising over the elms which bordered the garden.

“I’m dreaming this,” Sally said, “Please, Geoff, tell me I’m dreaming…”

“Then so am I,” he said, and reached out and hugged his wife.

“The thing is,” she said, “do you know your way back to the others?”

That was a point. He closed his eyes and recalled the grassy vale, and immediately the program responded with a string of co-ordinates.

Sally said, “Do you realise what this means, Geoff? In the wrong hands…”

“Shall we go back?” he said.

“The silly thing is that I’d like to stay a while, have a stroll around, explore again… But there will be plenty of time for that in future, won’t there?”

He smiled. “We can explore everywhere you’ve ever wanted to explore,” he said, and squeezed her hand.

He repeated the co-ordinates mentally, and a split-second later they were seated on the breast of the meadowed vale, Nina and Natascha staring at them in amazement.

Seconds later Ana and Kapil popped into existence before them, and Ana gasped, “We were in India, revisiting the farm where we first met. Oh, it was…” She turned to her husband and wept on his shoulder.

Nina said to Kath Kemp, “You do realise that if the wrong kind of people…?” she began.

Kath looked at the Italian with all the forbearance of a wise school-teacher. “Nina, we have invested the ability only in you representatives. We know you, on the most fundamental level. You are not the kind of people to abuse the gift bequeathed to you. Look into your hearts, each of you, and ask yourselves if that is not true.”

Allen smiled to himself, overcome by the weight of trust the Serene had granted him. Then again, he asked himself, how could it be trust when the Serene knew him, and the other representatives, intimately? He felt not so much trusted, then, as blessed.