“What is that?” Lain wished she had a camera to capture the image before it vanished.
Yves studied it for a minute longer and then spoke another word and the glowing faded. “Nothing.”
He took out a cloth and wiped clean the glass.
Nothing? The hell if it was nothing. Yves was looking for something quite specific and apparently found it. He was surprised by the forest but not ignorant of it. He knew it existed. He just didn’t expect to find it here.
“Have they identified the power source behind the transfer?” Yves asked.
“No,” she said and then the oddness of the question struck her. What was the trigger event? The aurora-like effect that followed the arching path of destruction hinted that the power had come from the atmosphere. She hadn’t heard of any large solar flares—but those rarely made even the science news feed. Since her accident delivered its crippling blow to both her and NASA, all the news feeds focused on the Chinese hyperphase gate.
Which had activated last night for the first time.
If the gate worked as promised, it would jump a colony ship to a new world.
She gasped as possibilities hit home. Last night the gate was turned on and created a field through which something could travel to another world. Like Pittsburgh. The neat disc of forest was the same shape as the gate, magnified by a factor of nearly one hundred. NASA had been forbidden in its infancy by Congress to work with the Chinese space program, so she knew very little about the gate. Its design was top secret and the actual science unproven. Her stepfather had been heavily involved in the construction via his international businesses. If Pittsburgh’s disappearance were caused by men—her stepfather to be exact—it would explain Yves’ behavior. She always knew her stepfather was a stunningly powerful man but making an entire city vanish seemed beyond even him. Unless—of course—it was by accident.
Her family just got a thousand times more mysterious—and possibly more dangerous.
She sat in shock as Yves strode back to the encampment. What did she know of the gate’s startup? It was supposed to go live for the first time yesterday at noon Beijing time but had been delayed until nearly seventeen hundred. She worked through the time zones. Yes. That would be the right time Eastern Standard Time when Pittsburgh disappeared. The Chinese stated that after a series of tests, powering up and powering down the gate to make sure it was operating smoothly, they’d jump the first colony ship through. It was less clear when they planned those. Were they already testing the gate or hadn’t they powered it down yet?
Would Pittsburgh return if they powered the gate down?
There was an odd booming noise, growing louder.
“What now?” Lain spun her wheelchair around, wondering if some idiot was blowing up some other rare specimen.
A huge dark figure loomed inside of the forest. As she watched, it moved into the sunlight and she gasped. It was a tree—walking.
The ground shook with each step.
Lain knew she should be afraid, but all she felt was sudden and complete nirvana. It didn’t matter that she could no longer go to an alien world—it had come to her.
The tree’s branches were long and slender like a willow, trailing down to brush the ground as the tree walked. It would pry up a massive root foot, shift slowly forward and plant it again in an earth-rattling stomp. The trunk had many rough nodules with the appearance of a bark-covered face but she could see no true visible eyes.
She studied it through binoculars, whimpering as it drew nearer. “No, no, no, turn around.” She fumbled with the radio. “Perkins! Lieutenant Perkins! This is Colonel Shenske. You need to stop that tree.”
“Which tree? There are thousands of them.”
“Are you blind? The one that is walking! It’s bearing down on your twelve o’clock. You’re going to have to stop it.”
“Stop it?”
“It’s loaded with seed pods.”
“Oh, sweet Jesus.” He’d spotted the tree. “I-I-I don’t understand. Say again: seed pods?”
“If this vegetation can thrive on Earth, then every one of those seeds could grow into a similar tree. It could be like kudzu.”
“Kudzu?” Lieutenant Perkins said.
“Oh good God, man, have you never been outside of Pennsylvania? It’s the second worst thing the South ever did to itself. It’s a massively invasive perennial vine native to Southeast Asia that was imported as groundcover to prevent soil erosion. It grows unchecked, killing off native plants and trees and covering any building in its path.”
“How do you recommend that we stop the tree?”
“At a distance. Roughly half of the plants that have rapid movement are carnivorous.”
“So we should shoot it?” He sounded doubtful at the effectiveness. The man obviously knew the result of shooting bullets at trees generally only resulted in ricochets and splinters.
“Do you have any Javelin or Dragon anti-tank missiles?”
He obviously was mentally scanning equipment lists as he slowly answered, “Yes.”
“Then get them and shoot it!”
Lain eyed the tree that was closing distance with surprising speed. It was the first living alien life form she had ever encountered and she had just ordered its destruction. If she didn’t start moving, she could be hit by friendly fire. First rule of xenobiology was to keep yourself alive. She thought she would never have the chance to apply the rule.
She toggled the wheelchair’s control. The chair shuddered. One leg pawed at the ground and then stilled. “Oh, no.” She glanced toward the tree. “You’ve got to work; there’s no time for a reboot.”
The tree seemed to be following the second bright line on Yves’ map. It hit the edge of the highway. The soldiers fell back, yelling in frightened dismay. One of them shot at it with a rifle and triggered a sudden barrage of gunfire. She ducked down and a moment later a bullet ricocheted over her head. An officer shouted to cease fire as the tree surged forward onto the paving. There was a sudden change in pitch in the yelling as the willowy branches lashed forward and snared two soldiers. The shouting went from excitement and fear to horror and pain. It was a sound that Lain had hoped that she’d never hear again. The sound of people dying.
She punched the control pad of her wheelchair. “Come on!” She had to do something, though she wasn’t sure what. She was a useless cripple trapped in an unreliable piece of equipment.
Everything went black and she felt like she was falling and suddenly everything snapped back to clarity. The silence was so complete that she thought she’d been struck deaf.
Oh, God, did I just have a stroke? Did I lose more of myself? She lifted her hands, wiggled her fingers and tilted her head back and forth.
“The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain,” she said aloud.
No, not a stroke. Nor was she deaf. The wind gusted, making the leaves overhead whisper. The forest was impossibly quiet. No booming footsteps of the willow tree. No screams of pain and terror. No gunshots.
Did the reserves kill the tree already?
The highway wasn’t where she remembered it being. She scanned the forest, trying to orient herself.
The base camp was gone.
The highway and all signs of civilization were gone.
Forest continued, uninterrupted.
The Chinese must have turned off the gate. Good news: Pittsburgh was back on Earth. Bad news: she was stuck on whatever planet that the gate was tuned to.
She sat stunned for a moment, and then forced herself to take a deep breath and push out shock. “Well, you always wanted to visit an alien planet. Congratulations. You’ve succeeded. Now what?”
If the Chinese continued the tests as planned, they should turn on the gate shortly.