Gary Gibson - Final Days

‘I know what you thought. Listen, those files I found at Jeff’s cabin? I cracked them. I know what they are now.’

‘Saul . . . I’m in Arizona, with Jeff.’ She paused. ‘And Mitchell.’

He stopped dead in his progress. ‘You’re fucking kidding me? Do you have any idea what he was hiding round the back of that damn cabin?’

Her words came in a nervous rush. ‘Yes, he told me everything. About the growths, Mitchell, the Founders – all that, and a million and one other things. But he doesn’t have a copy of the files himself. He’s going to need them. We all are.’

Saul started moving again. ‘I’ve seen classified videos,’ he said, aware of the hysteria lurking at the bottom of his throat, ‘and I’ve read documents all telling me how the world is coming to an end. I’m even scared to let myself think about it too much, in case I go crazy.’

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

‘I don’t know, Olivia. How the hell should I be?’

‘I don’t know either,’ she replied, her voice choking on tears. ‘I wish I did.’

Goddamn her . A part of him still wanted to hold her in his arms. He thought of Jeff, and felt a simmering resentment that he thought he’d outgrown long ago.

‘Look, I can send a copy of the files over to you right now.’

‘No, don’t do that. I found out they’ve got routines built into them that give away your location if they’re transmitted over any kind of network.’

Saul groaned, remembering that Donohue had told him much the same thing. ‘I sent them to you,’ Saul reminded her, ‘when they were still encrypted.’

‘Then it’s a good thing I didn’t stay at home, where I could be found.’

‘Fine, so what exactly does Jeff want to do with the files?’

‘Broadcast them,’ she replied. ‘People need to know what’s really going on, especially out there in the colonies. By the time the news starts spreading, we’ll be on our way to somewhere safe, and then it won’t matter if those people who tried to kill Jeff figure out where we are.’

‘Why Arizona?’

‘We’re at the Launch Pad facility,’ she said. ‘With the same people that took you and Mitchell up on your sub-orbital jump, remember?’

He ad a sudden mental flash of sleek black VASIMRs extending in ranks across the desert sands. ‘Like I could ever forget. But why are you there?’

‘Because they also run flights to the Moon, old-style Moon launches for people rich enough to afford it. It takes about three days to Copernicus City, the hard way – especially if you want to avoid passing through the Florida Array, for any reason.’

He realized, with a start, what she was telling him. ‘You’re seriously telling me you’re going to fly to the Moon?’

‘Strictly speaking, it’s only Mitchell that’s flying there.’

The rain started to ease off. ‘But what about you and Jeff? How are you getting there?’

He heard her sigh. ‘I’m not going to the Moon,’ she explained, ‘and neither is Jeff.’

‘I don’t understand.’

Saul listened as Olivia told him their plans to head for the Jupiter orbital platform.

‘You’re crazy,’ he said, once she had finished. ‘The research platforms weren’t designed to sustain independent populations. They need constant gate contact with Earth to function, as it is. And even if you could find some way to survive indefinitely, you’d be cut off from everything you’ve ever known.’

‘And, out in the colonies, we wouldn’t be?’

At least on some of the colonies you’d have open air to breathe , he thought.

Saul’s feet were getting numb from all the walking. He came across an army truck, with trampled bodies scattered all around, and pressed both hands over his mouth and nose, to avoid inhaling the dreadful stench of decomposition. He next made towards a maintenance shed, in hopes of finding a car that hadn’t been trashed or burned out.

‘What about Galileo?’ he asked, once he’d left the foul-smelling truck behind. ‘There’s nothing to stop you and Jeff both going there, and Mitchell too.’

‘The new wormhole gate won’t reach orbit around Galileo for months.’

‘Doesn’t matter. There are enough emergency supplies on board that starship carrying the gate to keep several people alive for months, maybe longer.’

‘No,’ her voice was adamant, ‘I’ve talked this over with Jeff. I know you think we’re crazy, but we spent a good chunk of our lives on the Jupiter station, and the people there need us.’

‘I . . . guess I understand.’

‘For you it’s easy. You can just head through to the Lunar Array and make your way to the Galileo gate.’

He laughed bitterly. ‘Not any more. There are people out looking for me here.’

‘What happened?’

‘It’s a long story, but if they find me or if I try and get back inside the Array, I’m a dead man. But if I can reach the Lunar Array some other way, I have a fighting chance of getting through.’

‘Then that’s it. You need to come to Arizona, and ride up with Mitchell.’

‘That’s doable, is it?’

‘Christ, Saul, of course it is.’

‘That’s great,’ he said, feeling enormously relieved. No, more than relieved; it was a real chance at survival. ‘But before we talk about getting those files to you, or anything else, there’s something important we need to talk about – something seriously fucking important. One of Jeff’s video files showed Copernicus City in ruins, sometime in the future. The entire city was devastated, like a meteor had hit it. That must have been caused by whatever it is that’s caused the growths back down here.’

‘I guess,’ said Olivia, hesitantly.

‘But how could it – whatever it is – get there except through the Array? And if it can come through the wormhole gate all the way from Florida, then who’s to say it couldn’t spread through the rest of the gates, to the colonies as well?’

‘But . . . surely the gates will all have been shut down before that can happen?’

‘Which is exactly what I assumed,’ Saul replied. ‘But then I got to wondering why they hadn’t closed down the Florida gate before Copernicus was destroyed? If the footage I saw is anything to go by, the Lunar Array is going to be reduced to a ruin – but there’s no way of telling whether the gates themselves will be shut down before it’s too late.’

‘You think it’s possible they won’t be?’

‘What I think is that, if they’re going to shut anything down at all, it would have to be the Florida gate. That way they can still save Copernicus City and keep a foothold not just on the Moon, but also our solar system. But since we know they won’t manage to shut it down, that tells me something went wrong – and maybe they didn’t manage to shut down any of the Copernicus gates. Whatever happens to us,’ he said, ‘nothing is more important than making sure the worst scenario doesn’t happen. If it does, the colonies are finished, and the human race along with them.’

‘So what exactly is it you want to do?’

Saul looked and, suddenly and irrationally worried that someone nearby might overhear what he was about to say, and cry out in accusation.

‘I’m saying we ourselves need to destroy the gates at the soonest opportunity. Right now, if possible.’

He waited for what felt like a long time before she finally replied.

‘You can’t be serious,’ she said finally.

‘I’m entirely serious. Just think about the tens of millions out in the colonies who’ll wind up dead if we don’t do this. We’re talking survival of the species here, Olivia.’