Raine VS The End of the World (61 page)

“Whoa!”

Both Lily and Raine turned to witness Gerrit gaping slack-jawed at planet Earth.

“You weren’t kidding, Raine! It really is a sphere! Holy shit!”

Lily placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Very good, Gerrit. Try not to get too tripped out,” she said, and then added, “yet.”

Once he could no longer look at the globe for fear of frying his brain, Gerrit peeked through the telescope, which was constantly moving via a computer program, tracking ever so subtly a beautiful nebula many hundreds of light years away.

Suddenly, Lily snapped her fingers and both pairs of eyes were on her. They followed her to the largest covered frame in the room.

“Y’all are not ready for this.”

She yanked down the sheet from the framed photograph. Raine gasped out loud. Three figures stood in a family pose on the observation deck. The mother wore a lab coat, and horn-rimmed glasses completed the warm expression on her stunning face. Her long brown hair was held back in a purple headband that matched her dress. The father wore a tweed jacket and a turtleneck, with an orange scarf complementing his fiery hair. He had an arm around his wife, and both had hands on the shoulders of their daughter, five-year-old Lily, who boasted familiar goggles perched atop a Santa Claus hat, and a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

There was no mistaking it. The mother and father were dead-ringers for Raine and Gerrit. In another life, in another time, they were married, they had a child, and right then and there that child had brought them back together.

Raine felt a shortness of breath. Her knees had all but given way in shock. She felt herself collapsing into Gerrit’s arms – he had stepped in, caught her, and was now aiming a blaster from a nearby cabinet straight at Lily’s chest.

Lily blinked, but didn’t flinch.

Gerrit held Raine tight, as if protecting her from a monster.

“What is the meaning of this?” he bellowed. “What are we, Lily, if that even is your real name?! Riddle me this: Raine and I aren’t really who we think we are, yeah? Are we just test subjects to you, or still pawns in some sick game? I mean, like, do we even have souls?”

“W-w-wait. Let her speak…”

The shrill, pained cry that sounded out was Raine’s. She was shaking, but it was a clear voice, and it helped Gerrit to notice that Lily was quietly shedding tears, letting them flow down her face.

“This… this isn’t a game to me, Gerrit,” Lily said at last. “The truth is, you and Raine were synthesized. And I don’t know much about God, but I know this much: if anyone has a soul, you two do. At least, that’s what my heart tells me. I felt them in my clones, too. But, I… molded their minds, limited their scope. Because I was selfish… afraid they might surpass me. The same is not true about either of you. Could you please put the weapon down? You would do well to keep in mind that any laser blast fired in this room will ricochet and probably kill more than one of us.”

Still eyeing Lily suspiciously, Gerrit lowered the firearm.

“Much better,” Lily said. “But I don’t want you to take my word for it. You need to see for yourselves. We can recall some old memories.”

Raine seemed puzzled. “Wait, you mean from before the
Metaverse?
”

“Most – probably not all – will return in time. But at my behest, you both kept detailed memory records. You’ve seen a few in your dreams,” she said to Gerrit. “Though I doubt you remember much, they kept you seeking those three years.”

Lily motioned to two circlets on the table. Each had a pulsing green gem.

“Okay, there’s some recordings, but for all I know, those could be faked,” Gerrit replied with a shake of his head. “See, I never know what to expect next from you.”

But Raine studied the devices excitedly.
No lie can trump experiential certainty.

“Are they really in there?”

“It will literally take all of five minutes. I was saving this for last, just because I wanted to make sure that this is what you both wanted. To know the truth.”

“More than anything,” Raine stated. She turned to Gerrit, who was a little hesitant.

Lily backed into the old leather recliner and had a seat. There were chips and guacamole at the ready, undoubtedly set out by XF-22.

“You guys should hurry up and get it over with. I don’t want you to miss this guac, it’s absolutely killer and I’m sure neither of you has any idea how difficult it is to grow avocados in outer space.”

Raine took Gerrit’s hand.

“Let’s do it together. On the count of three.”

“One…”

They took the circlets from the tray.

“Two…”

Each held a circlet above their head.

“Three.”

The devices dropped.

It took all of five minutes to awaken as many years’ worth of memories.

Birth. Knowledge. Recognition. I exist. Feeling as if I had emerged from some collective miasma, separation and individuality are odd, new concepts.

Waking up in a bright room. Vague shapes. Becoming aware of my sensory organs.

Carl II, the other. Lillian, introducing herself. We ponder on our names. I choose Raine – the concept of life-giving water falling from the sky is immensely picturesque.

The Belladonna, so warm and cozy. The Earth, keeping us company every day. Earthrise will ever be the brightest and most beautiful sight I shall set eyes on.

Gardening. Tending that which gives us life. Plants give their lives to us in return for their own existence. Animals grown for food must be butchered for food.

Guided learning, driven by our own curiosities and enhanced by simulated lessons. Philosophy. Dozens of languages. Training programs. Martial arts. Logic. Rhetoric. Ethics. Arithmetic. Geometry. Calculus. Astronomy and astrophysics. Natural Sciences.

He and I engage in friendly competition.

Over years, the plan is discussed and constantly revised.

Lily explains to us the known workings of the stars and how people once used them to navigate the seas on that baffling blue world.

Discovering that we are naturally incredible at chess. Once Lily starts losing, she introduces us to Go.

Our first trip to Earth.

Setting foot on that remote island. It’s immensely beautiful, the happiest experience of my life. We catch and cook lobsters and many fish. Lily says that it’s just like having a family again.

I guess we are family. This is my family, and our bonds can never be broken.

Our extended family, the EDC: Lily, Gerrit, and I take charge of isolated factions of the struggling rebellion, and help them to work together. We retake Manila, showing the oppressed peoples of Earth that they have the means to fight back against the dominant culture.

Argument. Lily wants to storm the castle, but we search for a peaceful solution.

Compromise. A trip to
Neo Eden
. The streets are filled with people half-alive, toiling endlessly and unhappily. We sneak into the upper levels. A recon operation into the
Spire
. Discussion of battle plans. Modifications to Lucy’s blueprints for the Exo Knight suits. Recruiting moles.

The first exercise: breaking into
Endless Metaverse
. It is a complete failure. The three of us are remotely controlling avatars of frozen players but find that the interface is limited and the input lag is terrible.

A decision: we would have to infiltrate the game directly, from the inside, by bending its rules. At a roundtable meeting, we discuss our options with all the intelligence and formality of military officers. A necessary condition of the plan was that both he and I would have our memories erased. Some may return in the future, but it may be years, and we may forever associate certain realities with artificial fragments. Adamantly, we craft our new identities to support our quest.

The battle plan is drawn out. Our
Metaverse
personas are created: him, an online gaming wizard growing up in the 201X’s, and me, a hardcore arcade player from the early ‘90s. Based on the needs of the mission, we chose who we are now. We decided that we wanted to be this way. Tough as Gerrit and Raine’s lives were, they were probably better than Carl and Elizabeth’s memories, Lily said. They had a difficult life, alternately celebrated, and then shunned by their fellow scientists, with years steeped in isolation, suffering governmental and societal persecution for their radical theories, humanitarian and environmental leanings, and secretive, privately-funded projects.

A second trip to the island; this time, we count shooting stars and promise one another that we will all return to the
Belladonna
together. We write messages to our future selves.

Holding hands to ease the tears. Reluctant goodbyes are said on planet Earth, where we are to be plugged into the
Metaverse
at isolated, untraceable locations. Gerrit in Kazakhstan, and later, myself, in the heart of the mobile fortress
Valkyrie
.

Before I dive in, the plan is revised countless times. The promised days now here, I am ready to do my part in destroying the
Metaverse.
There is no doubt or hesitation in my mind when I give Lily the thumbs-up and ease myself into that reclining dentist’s chair.

ZAP!

Raine’s vision blurred, but her olfactory senses soon latched onto an enveloping aroma.

She was seated now, across from Lily, with Gerrit between them. Both were sipping lavender tea. Between them were letters from their past selves.

“Wow,” Raine suddenly exclaimed.

“At last, you’ve snapped out of it!” Lily cried. “You’re feeling incredibly tired right now, and a little surprised. You just experienced highlights from years of memories. You most definitely need a breather, and some caffeine wouldn’t hurt, either.”

Raine complied, taking a sip of her tea.

“Lily,” began Gerrit. “I know we just talked about this, but I want Raine to hear it too. I’m very sorry for holding you at gunpoint.”

“Any rational man might have done the same,” Lily said.

They toasted.

Once they’d eaten the wonderful curry dinner that Rutger brought in, Lily decided to tell Raine and Gerrit a little more about the people they were cloned from.

“Their names were Carl and Elizabeth Hermes,” Lily said, pulling the sheets off the other photos, plaques, and portraits lining the room. “Two of the world’s most renowned physicists. Elizabeth, a quantum physicist, was born in Toronto, Canada to parents of mixed descent, but moved to Geneva, then Scotland, to be with her husband, who was one of Europe’s premier astrophysicists. My paternal great-grandfather Professor Joseph Connors’ firm, Paradoxical Patents, co-developed a new generation of sustainable, easily producible, extremely high-yield solar panels in conjunction with the Chinese government. He made a fortune off the tech when it became used worldwide. Meanwhile, my maternal grandparents, both theoretical physicists, spent their entire lives pursuing their passion project, a theoretical time machine. The project was then passed on to my grandpa Timothy, who came up with the blueprints for the
Belladonna
, and then passed the idea to Elizabeth, who, as luck would have it, fell in love with Carl Connors, Joseph’s great-grandson, and one of the most brilliant minds of his day. The two dedicated their lives to the project.

“With three generations’ worth of private funding and donations from interested investors, this space station was commissioned to test the possibilities of time travel. In the original year 2087 AD, seven years after they launched, five years after I was born, my parents kick-started an expedition to send probes a hundred and two hundred years into the future to study changes in the Earth’s history, geography, and population patterns. They were compiling immense sets of data.

“What they discovered shocked them to the core. Beyond a certain time, the only life forms left on the planet were microscopic bacteria at the bottom of the ocean. They soon discovered that radiation levels spiked some time in between then and 2282 AD. A probe confirmed that a solar flare had wiped out all life on Earth on March tenth, twenty-two-twelve. Warnings were sent to the surface, telling a small group of peers that their findings necessitated the immediate establishment of a colony on Mars to ensure the survival of the human race. But the information leaked, and the reaction from the United Amero Alliance was completely unexpected. They sent a fleet of battle cruisers to seize the
Belladonna
. It might have been one of the investors who betrayed them. We’ll never know. My parents’ worst nightmare was that their invention might be used as a military weapon. So they sent me back in time, sacrificing themselves so that I could live.”

“You were alone for all those years,” Raine said after shedding a sudden tear. “And you couldn’t bring them back.”

“Not without their brain matter. Not in the forms I knew them as. But I had samples of their DNA. That’s how I created you two.”

“Couldn’t you just go forward in time to warn them?” asked Gerrit.