Gillian Anderson - A Dream of Ice

“What would you do to save your home?” Pao asked.

“To prevent its loss, I’d do a great deal!” Mikel agreed. “But I wouldn’t go back centuries to do it!”

“You are not cazhed in permanent, eternal stasis,” Pao said. “So few Galderkhaani were able to reach the transpersonal plane, even being stuck here with a loved one… it can be desolate.”

“So you restore Galderkhaan,” Mikel said, “put the Source on hold, work out your issues with the Technologists, create a playground for your souls… and six billion people still die! No, far more than that—all of the people who lived for the last thirty thousand years!”

“Your thinking is flawed,” Pao said hotly, for the first time. “Ninety-seven thousand Galderkhaani would get to live and the result would be billions of Galderkhaani born in succeeding generations! Advanced, enlightened beings!”

“We have been blessed by the Candescents, we honor the Candescents, and we will be with the Candescents,” Rensat said. “That is our destiny and that is our mission.”

Mikel felt his gut knot and his mind blaze. If he could have struck these two, he would have. Their scheme defined religious fanaticism: no matter what the cost, they and their acolytes had to have their way. Even if they were right, even if some cosmic glory and eternal survival awaited the hundreds or thousands of Priests and Priestly followers who remained ascended but alone, not joined and transcended in some mythical higher plane, that did not justify imposing their will on countless civilizations that followed.

He had to get out of here. He needed counsel, not just Flora but this other woman… the one they sought. How had she gone to the past, and why, and what information could she add to this numbing mix?

The good news, for Mikel, was that Pao and Rensat had spent a long time looking for two people and had failed to find them both. He, at least, had a clue from the video about how to find one of them.

There was other good news. He didn’t have to stay here and listen to them anymore. He was pretty sure these beings could not hold him.

He hoped.

Pao had turned to Rensat while Mikel processed what he had heard. There was tenderness between the two, and Mikel reminded himself that even the world’s most notorious tyrants had families they loved. He did not feel compassion for this man, but a kind of terror he had never known. Mikel understood a love of home; of course he understood that. But theirs was gone because of its own failings. Other homes had taken its place, homes that they had no right to obliterate.

Mikel used Pao’s distraction as an opportunity to pull out the skin mask. He slapped it to his face and visualized the tunnel map he had seen. He couldn’t go backward, to where the tunnel had been aflame. There was only one other exit, the large chamber with the glass panel door through which Rensat had entered. If Mikel read the map right, it opened into another series of tunnels.

Not that it mattered, really. It was the only option he had.

Boring through the startled specters, he launched himself forward and threw open the glass panel.

“We must do something.”

Adrienne Dowman turned to look at Flora, who had spoken almost inaudibly. She was staring through the window panel at the relic as if it had mesmerized her. After two full days, the stone was still floating, still stable.

“So,” Adrienne said. “You’re one of those.”

“One of what?” Flora said, not turning her head.

“One of those people who has a single success and takes that as a mandate to do anything you want.”

Now Flora deigned to look at her. She had avoided her new associate as much as possible, spending the day trying to find out where the hell Mikel was and looking for any scraps of new data about anomalies in the South Pole. So far, both endeavors had been unsuccessful. She was feeling uncommonly frustrated and didn’t feel like listening to a subordinate.

“I thought we had the conversation about my being uninterested in your opinions,” Flora said.

Adrienne smiled an annoying half smile. “The way I look at it, Dr. Davies, you do not have a choice but to listen.”

“Not?” Flora suggested.

“I don’t see that as an option,” Adrienne replied. “You’ve said it before: the rest of my career is going to be spent right here, working for you. You can’t let me off my chain until you go public with your results about these objects, and you know next to nothing about them. So that’s pretty far in the future. The equation, then, is: ‘you need me’ plus ‘I wish to be heard’ equals ‘you will listen.’”

Flora stared at Adrienne for a moment longer, not quite believing what she was hearing, then looked back at the stone. “And you will find that I’m capable of very selective hearing.”

“We’ll see,” Adrienne said. “Let’s start with this. You’ve solved a problem with that stone. I suggest—I urge you not to turn off the system and start messing with it again or you may have to solve others before you’re ready.”

“We have no choice,” Flora said. “You’ve been taking readings since it’s been in stasis and learned very little—”

“Oh, I haven’t learned very little,” Adrienne replied. “So far, I’ve learned nothing. This object is like an electron. Stop it and it’s just another particle. You only learn when it’s active, in motion.”

“Then what choice do I have but to shut off the—what did you call it?”

“The node,” Adrienne replied. “That’s the location in the array of sound waves capable of sustaining the levitation.”

“Yes. All right, Adrienne. Give me an option.”

“Patience,” Adrienne replied. She cocked her head toward the stone. “I’ve had to tiptoe around this relic, literally. Every garbage truck, every bus that passed by on the street had me on edge. Vibrations of any kind affect sound.”

“I understand that,” Flora said. “But I don’t think you understand what we have.”

Adrienne opened her mouth to speak but thought better of it.

“The stability of a singularity that suddenly, inexplicably reaches out and expands, that creates massive inflation,” Flora said. “What does that describe?”

Adrienne replied immediately. “The Big Bang.”

“Quite so,” Flora said. She gazed at the artifact. “This is the beginning of the universe in a bottle. And it is artificial, though constructed of naturally occurring minerals, and possibly made by intelligent hands. That’s significant.”

“Dr. Davies, it’s an ancient stone in a node,” Adrienne said, correcting her.

Flora chose that moment to selectively not hear.

“And you said ‘intelligent,’ not ‘human,’” Adrienne pointed out as she replayed the statement in her head. “What did you mean by that ?”

Again, Flora ignored her. Instead, she asked, “What would happen to me if I walked in there? It’s just ultrasound, right? The same that’s used on pregnant women?”

“And that we use to break up kidney stones. Or, perhaps, Group directors.”

“So it could be destructive.”

“Yes,” Adrienne sighed. “I’ll just say I hope you won’t do that. It would be a seriously flawed decision.”

Flora smiled.

Adrienne was not warmed by the smile. “You’re not going to listen.”

“All those vehicles that passed by, the trucks and buses—they did not cause an imbalance, did they?” Flora asked.

Adrienne’s mouth tightened. “Dr. Davies, you were smart enough to hire me and now I’m asking you to be smart enough to stay out of the lab until I figure out a safe, sane next step.”