Hosein Kouros-Mehr - Extinction 6

“How is that possible?”

Lionel nods in silence. “I know what it might be. Colonel, look at the distribution of light around the star.”

Abe looks straight ahead. “What about it?”

“Now look off to the side. Do you see how the density of light changes?”

“Can you describe your vantage?” Gareth interrupts.

Lionel takes a photo. “I can see a clear demarcation of space ahead of us. I could be wrong, but it looks like a portal has opened up near our ship.”

“Like a wormhole?”

“That’s right. We see a distortion in space and a large star much brighter than our Sun. There’s also clearly a body next to it.”

Gareth gasps. “What kind of body?”

Lionel activates the ship’s telescope and zooms into space. A blue world appears on the cockpit display.

“Oh my God,” Abe whispers.

“What do you see?”

Lionel’s jaw drops. “A planet! It has clouds and seas and even a moon.” He waits for the telescope to focus. “I see oceans of water!”

“What?” Gareth cries.

“Yes, and there are white clouds just like home.”

“Are you sure you aren’t looking at Earth?”

“Sir, the land is purple in color. And there appears to be one large land mass with no obvious continents.”

Gareth’s voice rises. “You must have opened a portal to a new solar system!”

Abe shakes his head. “We didn’t do anything, sir. I don’t think we caused this event.”

“Then how did it happen?”

“We don’t know.”

Lionel stares at the zoomed-in display. “Mr. Allen, we now see polar ice caps and a thin, blue ozone layer. The planet has much in common with Earth, except for the purple land.”

“How close are you to it?”

Lionel scans the radar. “We will approach in several hours. I look forward to flying through it to the other side.”

Gareth screams through the speaker. “Do NOT fly into the wormhole. I repeat, do NOT fly forward.”

Abe looks up. “Do you want us to turn back?”

“Yes, come back home.”

Lionel falters. “…but Centcom told us to inspect the star and report our findings.”

“Forget about them. The CIA will handle it from here. You are not to report your findings to anyone until you receive permission from me. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Lionel reassures. “We are heading home now.”

MANOS COVERShis eyes with his left arm, shielding himself from the blinding light in the sky. With his right hand, he points a gun at Beth. “What the hell did you do?”

Outside the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, the dirt field pulsates with electricity flowing through an ultra-high-voltage cable into the Bay Area. As the sun rises, its orange hue is masked by the intense white radiance of the star.

Smiling silently, Beth and her colleagues sit handcuffed on the ground. Above them, the remnants of a mushroom cloud drift towards space.

“Answer me!” Manos roars. “What was that explosion?”

She stares at him defiantly. “I told you, but you didn’t want to believe me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We’ve solved fusion power.”

He kicks her in the back. “You’re fucking delusional. Why are there two suns in the sky?”

She falls forward in agony.

“Answer me!”

She looks up at him. “Check the market.”

“What?”

“Look at oil prices.”

Manos dons his smartglasses and loads a real-time stock ticker. His jaw drops when he sees the price of crude. “Why is Brent down 11% in the last hour? We’re at $77,000 per barrel.”

Beth grins. “We just activated the world’s first fusion reactor. It’s in your best interest to let us go.”

Manos appears confused. “I don’t understand. What does that have to do with oil?”

“We generated 50,000 gigawatts of electricity in the last five minutes.” She points to the neodymium laser. “That is the biggest power plant ever created, and it doesn’t emit a single greenhouse gas.”

“But why is oil falling?”

“The market sees a massive spike in supply and that lowers prices of all hydrocarbons. It’s only the beginning. With this breakthrough, we will no longer need fossil fuels.”

“That’s impossible.”

“They are obsolete, Manos. Soon they’ll be worth pennies. We’re freed from our addiction.”

Manos scratches his face. “You mean a little laser can create that much energy?”

“Yes, you idiot. We’ve used less than five percent of our deuterium supply. At this rate, our reactor will run the world for several hours.”

“That sounds too good to be true.”

“It isn’t! And the best part is that it’s clean. No more pollution and global warming.”

He shakes his head and points upward. “You liar! Look what you’ve done to the sky. There’s a giant ball of fire heading our way!”

Beth looks up and squints at the bright star. “I’m not sure what that is.”

“It appeared right after your blast.”

“It must be a byproduct of the gravitational wave. We’ll have to study it.”

Manos holds his rifle high. “What if it’s a giant meteor flying towards us? What good is clean energy if we all die in a fiery hell? You’re responsible for the consequences of this technology and I’ll make sure you go to jail for it.”

A military transport plane lands vertically on the field and its hull opens. Fifteen soldiers emerge brandishing guns and the lieutenant in charge approaches Manos. “Are these the criminals?”

“Yes,” Manos says, pointing at Beth, “She’s the ringleader.”

“We’ll take them to Las Condes,” the solider says as he lifts Beth off the ground. “There’s a military tribunal there. What’s the charge?”

“Theft of company data crucial for the War. I have the evidence to prove it.”

“We’ll take them to trial.”

Manos grits his teeth. “Lock them up.”

The officers pick up Beth, Austin, and the twelve other A.I. team members and escort them towards the plane. They walk single file with their hands cuffed.

Manos receives a call and answers it in his smartglasses. The CIA deputy director appears in a navy suit. “Gareth, what’s happening?”

“We have a situation, Manos.”

“It can’t be worse than mine.”

Gareth peers around. “Where are you?”

“I’m in Livermore. We just had a massive blast and earthquake, and now there’s a meteor heading our way!”

Gareth’s eyes widen. “A meteor?”

“Yes, a giant bright light.”

“Does it look like a star?”

“Yes.”

Gareth laughs. “That’s not a meteor.”

“What?”

“That’s exactly why I’m calling, Manos. I just spoke with two astronauts on the USS Hawkeye . They’ve flown near the object and discovered a wormhole connecting to a new solar system.”

Manos looks up at the sky. “It’s not a meteor? Then what the hell am I looking at?”

“That’s a star somewhere in the universe.”

Manos looks away and shuts his eyes in pain. “You mean to tell me there’s a portal above us connecting to another sun?”

“Yes! And here’s the amazing part—the astronauts detected a planet on the other side.”

Manos jolts upright. “A planet ?”

“Yes. It has blue oceans and ice caps.”

“Does it have oxygen?”

“We don’t know. I ordered them to return home. An opportunity like this must be carefully planned.”

Manos puts down his rifle and sits. “Gareth, I take it you’re not calling with bad news?”

“Quite the opposite. This is a rare circumstance and the prospects are extraordinary. There’s a new world a stone’s throw away!”