The Terminus (30 page)

“Guess some
people can run so fast you miss them if you blink,” Redfor remarked to puzzled
onlookers before leaving.

Two hundred
years later, Gary, wearing the time-specs, and the Irish family, stood on a
wide, deserted pavement beside the shuttle-bus run.

“What is dis
funny place, Da?” the child asked, her questioning eyes scanning the towering
buildings. “You said we were goin’ to London. Is dis still London? Why are de
windows in de houses all round like plates?”

“I really
don’t know, my darlin’. Only dat we’re waiting for a bus to take us to de
space-ship.”

“Well I don’t
like dis place… and neither
does
Angelina, do you?”

Angelina was the
child’s yellow-haired doll. The two were inseparable, and Caitlin held onto her
tightly.

“Where
is
everyone? Dere’s nobody here. London’s empty!”

Gary’s
concern as well. Too late, perhaps? The streets of the twenty-third century
London he’d visited before were always teeming with surfacers. Redfor seemed so
certain they’d arrive only two minutes after God transferred himself back to
the past, having delivered Beetie into the safe hands of Arthry. He’d preset
the specs for Gary. Surely they hadn’t failed him? Worse, had Redfor betrayed
him?

Holy
Father, don’t let my mind take me down that road again!

“Maybe they’ve
all gone to see the space-ship, Caitlin,” he suggested.

“Oh, look! See
dat little mouse down there, Mr Gary!”

Caitlin
pointed to a tiny, trembling creature squatting in the centre of the
shuttle-bus run. Mouse-sized, true, but Gary wasn’t sure exactly
what
the animal was. Nevertheless, it was clearly terrified.

“I’ve gotta
help him, Mummy. Look, he’s shiverin’.”

“No, Caitlin.
Leave de wee t’hing in de hands of de Holy Fader. You can’t go down there!”
warned the girl’s mother.

Determined to
disobey, the child slipped down onto the shuttle-bus run. Gary, trying to work
out why London had turned into a futuristic urban Marie-Celeste, was jerked
back to reality. He stared in horror as a great silver bullet shot, from
nowhere, into the space where Caitlin had stooped to pick up the little animal.
It slammed into the child just before halting, the speed of the impact
atomising her fragile body. The mother’s scream reverberated in Gary’s skull as
he stared at the stationary shuttle-bus, its circular door open and its
glistening silver body splattered red with blood.

***

Mike and Cathy
found themselves in the spotlessly-clean, doughnut-shaped concourse area of the
Belindaron, its walls a shining white. Round doors opened inwards every ten
metres or so, towards the centre. A curvy seat encircled the outer wall of the
craft, and futuristic arm chairs were scattered about, some occupied by
surfacers.

Like a five-star
hotel playing host for the twenty-third century Olympics?
mused Mike, for
the place had that clean, fresh smell of a plush hotel.

“Hi, guys!”
the boy called out. He waved, expecting, at the most, zombie-like grunts in
return.

A tall, thin
man broke away from a small group and approached the young couple. Mike slipped
his hand into his pocket for the mag-stunner.

“Mike?” Mike
relaxed. “You have the converter?” The man held out his hand for the case.
Cathy nudged her boyfriend. She looked troubled and his hand tensed again.

“Who
are
you?” he asked.

There was
something odd about the man’s face. Cathy must have noticed it. Perhaps she
remembered the guy, for so many more memories were coming back to her.

“Who I am is
of no importance! Arthry’s getting impatient. God’s predictions were wrong. The
super-volcano could blow a lot sooner. Maybe within twenty minutes.”

“Whatever, but
I’m gonna give this flipping thing to him myself, dude!”

The man
shrugged his shoulders.

“Please
yourself. I’ll show Cathy to her room, whilst…”

“Cathy? How
come...? No... you bloody won’t! Where’s Arthry?”

The man
glanced from Mike to Cathy, as if sizing them up.

“This way,” he
finally replied.

They passed
beyond a door, and on through a series of brightly-lit, diminishing doughnut-shaped
hallways, connected by short corridors... on towards the centre of the
Belindaron before emerging into a large open space with a high-domed ceiling.

Mike had once
been to a prom, and the place reminded him of the Albert Hall without the
seats. Instead of the organ was a vast screen and several desks at which
surfacers fiddled with controls, whilst in the middle a wide pillar, the girth
of a redwood tree, soared to the apex more than a hundred feet up. Against the
pillar stood a girl in a yellow dress, torn apart to expose her back, her blond
hair untidily half covering her lovely face. Her arms were stretched above her
head, held by straps attached to the pillar. Beside her, also shackled to the
pillar, was a large black man in a ripped red tracksuit. A heavy holding a whip
stood a few paces back from the hapless couple.

“Behold
Arthy!” said the thin man.

A familiar
figure arose from a chair. His nervous, twitching eyes fixed Mike with an acid
gaze.

“Thanks for
bringing Cathy back, Mike,” Blinker said. “
She’s
been a bad girl, too,
so when we’ve finished with little Miss Belinda and my ex-boss here, then you
can enjoy watching her get come-uppance as well! He’s good, the guy with the whip,
I can tell you! I trained him myself. He’ll soon have those two losers
screaming a noisy duet. Then it’s Cathy’s turn.”

With a casual
gesture of the hand, Blinker indicated the man wielding the whip. Mike observed
how the brute’s muscles bulged the sleeves of his blue tracksuit.

“As for you…
what
do
we do, ay? What amusement can we think up for Cathy to watch as
she’s nursing her wounds? She’ll need to see something pretty good to take her
silly little mind off the pain.”

***

Gary smeared
the child’s blood over his hands, praying it contained enough intact DNA,
fumbled with the controls of the time-specs, removed them, readjusted the time
setting and, before slipping them back on, gripped hold of Seamus and Molly
O’Malley. The shuttle-bus was gone. With Molly’s screams still echoing in his
skull, Gary saw Caitlin standing at
the edge of the run, like before, staring at the mouse-like creature on the
track. He jumped down before she could speak, scooped the animal into the palm
of his hand, and scrambled back onto the pavement in the nick of time. The
silver lozenge appeared from nowhere and stopped where Gary
had been a fraction of a second before.

“Here you are,
Caitlin.”

Caitlin cupped
her hands to receive the furry bundle from Gary.

The woman ran
to the child and folded her into her arms.

“Oh Caitlin,
my darlin’ Caitlin! For one awful moment I imagined you jumpin’ down and
gettin’ killed!”

“Just stress!
Plays with the imagination!” reassured Gary. “Quick!”

The diaphragm
door of the pod sprang open. They climbed aboard, with Caitlin holding the
little creature close to her chest.

“I t’hink it’s
a baby one, Mummy,” she said after the door snapped shut. Strapped into her
seat, Mrs O’Malley held on to Caitlin whilst the child stroked and fondled the
animal.

“I won’t even
ask why you did dat, Gary,” Seamus whispered, “but I’ll tell you one t’hing. De
Holy Virgin, she’ll
always
be wid you, to be sure she will!”

The
shuttle-bus shot forwards like a released arrow, and within ten seconds stopped
equally abruptly. A whirring sound, then the door was fully open again.

“Oh my God,
the Terminus!” Gary announced.

“Well, t’hank
de Holy Fader for dat,” said Seamus.

Gary stepped
out first.

“So this is
what Mike was on about!” he said, looking up at the Belindaron. “God knows how
long it took to build the thing. Imagine the force required to lift her off the
ground. Well, perhaps not the ground as
we
know it! I wonder…”

But there was
no time to waste pondering the impossible... getting a craft of such gargantuan
proportions from under the sea to the sky above… let alone into deep space. A
whole different order of physics, for sure! He glanced at Seamus, Molly and
their little daughter and decided not to tell them they were actually under the
sea. They’d already had enough to contend with.

“Look! There’s
de funny space-ship!” Caitlin said, holding the animal up for a better view.

“You’re right.
It
is
funny. Funny and strange. That’s science for you, Caitlin. No
people here either, which is even funnier. Wait… holy shit… what the…?”

Very slowly, a
giant stepped ramp, resting against the side of the craft, began to edge
backwards.

“RUN!”
he shouted, sprinting forwards
.

“RUN!”
echoed little Caitlin with excitement, chasing after him.

Gary
scrambled up the steps, threw himself across the platform and grabbed the
bottom of the circular doorway. He felt something on his back, moving, gripping
his shoulder. Caitlin giggled as she slipped her mouse-like animal into Gary’s
pocket so that she could hold on to the boy with both hands.

“DIS
IS FUN, DA!” she shrieked with delight.

Gary
felt his arm joints strain as the ramp continued to move away from the
space-craft. His shoes slid forwards, and soon his body was stretched between
ramp and craft like a human bridge. Any moment the diaphragm door might snap
shut, slicing through his fingers and causing him to fall, with the child, some
thirty feet.

“Holy Virgin,
please help me now!” he prayed, forcing every ounce of strength he had into his
arm muscles. His legs dropped, leaving him dangling from the Belindaron. He
pulled himself up… up… up... slowly… inch by inch… with Caitlin still clinging
on and laughing whilst Mrs O’Malley screamed and Seamus muttered all the holy
words he could think of. Gary eased his elbows over the side of the Belindaron,
pushed himself up, twisted his body and flopped, half in and half out of the
doorway. Caitlin leapt off his back and ran on into the space-craft, stopped,
ran back, fumbled in Gary’s pocket, removed the confused-looking, mouse-like
creature, and ran off again.

“A child… a
child!” someone shouted... then another and another. Gary, dazed, became aware
of a figure looming above him. A woman’s peering face came into focus.

“Gary? They
said you were dead. We mustn’t wait a minute longer as the volcano could blow
any moment!”

She reached
down and helped the boy to stand.

“Stop the
ramp, for God’s sake!” demanded Gary. “Her parents are down there!”

Seamus grinned
and waved at the woman from below.

“STOP THE RAMP!”
she shouted.
“TWO MORE TO COME ON BOARD!”

The ramp
growled to a halt. Seamus and Molly climbed the steps and stood together as the
ramp slowly returned to the Belindaron. Soon, they, too, had boarded and the
outer door closed behind them. Gary was intrigued by the door, layered like an
onion. Finally, the innermost layer slid shut, completely sealing the wall and
leaving no trace of the entrance.

“Where is she?
Where’s Beetie?”

The woman
smiled.

“She’s fine!
With Arthry in the control room. Oh, she’ll be
so
pleased you’re here!
All of us are! You’ve no idea! Ever since God left, and they took the jumped up
little double-crosser, Blinker, away for a flogging, we’ve been waiting for you
to appear. As for Beetie… the joke is, Arthry persuaded the Chairman to let
him, of all people, flog her. He worships the child!”

Gary lost
control. He grabbed the woman’s shoulder and pinned her against the wall of the
Belindaron, pulling out his mag-stunner.

“Wait! Wait!”
she exclaimed, alarmed. “He
honestly
won’t hurt her. He couldn’t! The
Chairman thought he was on
his
side with the Agenda, but of course he’s
not! Beetie’s carrying God’s baby too. Quite a thing, ay? You don’t mind, do
you? Her having a baby by God? I mean, it
is
incredible we’ll be taking
God’s genes with us. Inside Beetie!”

Gary felt
confused. Whom should he believe? He
had
to find out the truth from the
girl! She and Mike were the only ones he now fully trusted, but he released his
hold on the woman.

“Take me to
her. NOW!” he snapped.

“Mike’s with
them. Mike and Cathy. Cooled down a bit since he was last here. Had a large
case with him. That’ll be God’s final triumph. The DEC. Dark Energy Converter.
Doesn’t bear thinking about, those hundreds of thousands of poor people who had
their Life-Force sucked out before getting chopped up and fed to the gee-rats…
all to no purpose!”

Gary glanced
anxiously at Caitlin. She was out of ear-shot, thank God, spouting forth about
all manner of things and surrounded by a crowd of astounded onlookers none of
whom had any memory of seeing a child. Arthry did promise that children would
appear again in their new homes at their destination, but nobody expected one
to make the journey with them. The girl also showed off her little animal. No
one had a clue what it was, but when Caitlin learned they were going to a world
called Planeta Paradisa, she decided ‘Paradise Mouse’ would be a fitting term.
Then she introduced everyone to her doll, Angelina.

“Please
forgive me... but I’ve got to make sure Beetie’s okay!” Gary apologised.

“He’s a bit
over-wrought, de poor boy,” explained Seamus. “You’ll understand when you see
her, Molly! Beetie’s de Holy Virgin, see, and you’re not gonna believe dis,
but…”

“Seamus, why
do
I have listen to your ramblin’? Would you stop goin’ on about de Holy Virgin
all de time or I’ll be takin’ myself and Caitlin back to Dublin on de next
train, I will!”