As Albert sat, an automated tray wheeled over, laden with bowls of fruit and cream. Albert wasn’t sure if the colors were strikingly rich because of the white surroundings, or because he hadn’t seen real fruit in ages. Regardless, the assorted berries, peaches, and melon spheres looked absolutely mouth-watering.
“A taste of Earth’s finest, to welcome you home.” Deis waved a hand as he settled into the opposite chair. A portion of the wall slid open to a view of the planet. The horizon glowed as the sunrise struck it, a sight so beautiful that Albert’s breath was taken away. He absentmindedly lifted a spoonful of fresh fruit to his mouth.
The taste was nearly enough to bring tears to his eyes. The combination of sweet and tart flavors that saturated his tongue was superior to any he’d ever experienced. It was as if he’d never tasted fruit before.
Deis inclined his head. “I take it you approve.”
“It’s… amazing.” His fingers moved of their own accord, greedily dipping fruit in the bowl of cream and lifting it to his mouth in rapid succession.
“Completely natural. Free from any the pesticides and chemicals you were subjected to in your period of time.”
“Who are they for?”
“For the occupants of this station, of course. Although by the time they receive it, it is broken down to raw nutrients. Far less palatable than what you’re currently enjoying.”
“What occupants? Where are the people?”
“In stasis. Much like your time in the Morpheus Chamber, humanity sleeps.”
“Why?”
“Because they are not yet ready to return.”
Albert paused with his spoon half-raised. He took a longing stare at the enticing display of condensation-beaded fruit before he sighed and willed himself away. “I want to see them.”
Frozen.
Humankind was reduced to freeze-dried meat.
That was the initial notion which sprang to Albert’s mind. In climate controlled sectors of the station, they lay in thin receptacles constructed of slim metallic pods with opaque sheaths pressed tightly against their bodies like Saran wrap. Various tubes extended from the casing, tentacles that imported and exported necessities vital to extended hibernation. The holders were suspended on racks attached to towers that extended beyond Albert’s range of vision. Clouds of vapor billowed in the chamber, seemingly more alive than the frozen occupants.
The number of towers was staggering. The number of bodies even more so. Row after row of tightly sequestered figures that could have easily been corpses, shrouded and indistinct. All that remained of humanity, bagged and stockpiled in a frozen tomb.
Some of the receptacles were noticeably smaller than the others.
There were so many.
So many.
Albert placed a hand against the cold glass. A teardrop spilled from his lashes and trickled down his cheek. None of his fantasies, none of his predictions had ever come close to what he witnessed. Never included every man, woman, and child taken from their planet and stored away in freezer bags.
His voice was reduced to a hoarse whisper. “What happened?”
“They called it the Cataclysm. An event that threatened humanity with extinction, forcing them to come up with drastic measures to ensure their survival. This station is the culmination of those measures, of the greatest minds uniting to achieve that goal.”
“What kind of cataclysm? What kind of event could have triggered the end of the world?”
Deis’ expression turned somber. “A violent backlash of foreign energy. It was called darkflow, named so because it supposedly contained properties of what is theoretically referred to as dark energy. Much is still not known about the nature of it, but we do know the effects. It produced destructive ruptures of time and space, opening portals called Aberrations that expelled nightmarish phenomenon.”
Albert raised a forestalling hand. “Wait. Portals of disruptive dark energy? That’s impossible.”
“Impossible is a label attached to what simply lacks the precise conditions to occur. You of all people should understand that. After all, those portals are the reason why you’re here. The reason why you vanished from the face of the planet. The reason why you were sent to the Bermuda Triangle in the first place.”
Albert’s blood turned to ice water in his veins. “You can’t be saying what I think you’re saying.”
“What do you think I’m saying?”
“The deep sea expedition. Where my crewmates died. My wife… died. It was because of this darkflow? This aberrant energy?”
Deis’ mechanical eyes focused on Albert’s face. “Not at all. It was because of you, Dr. Rosen. Because of what you did when you arrived in the future.”
Albert winced. A wave of dizziness threatened to topple him from his feet. “No. You can’t know. You weren’t there.”
“Your ship was there. It carried more than just your body across the cosmos. It carried detailed logs. Information it downloaded into my memory core which has allowed me to piece together what occurred, both in the future and the past. I know what you did, Dr. Rosen. I know the atrocities you committed. The catastrophic events you set in motion.”
The guilt slammed into Albert’s consciousness with the lethality of a sniper’s bullet. The room blazed in a rush of white light. Albert felt himself falling, much as he did so many years in the past, when his emergency pod deployed and his wife’s terrified face was the last thing he saw before being yanked with incredible force through a rupture of time and space. He felt himself disintegrating, layer by layer until there was nothing left but regrets, legions of shattered dreams that scattered like stars across the cosmos.
Her.
Her eyes were dark, yet sparkled with flecks of multicolored glimmers. Like space. He knew her from somewhere. Some bizarre and terrifying dream where humanity had been enslaved by a dictatorial artificial intelligence. It had to be a dream.
It had to be.
“Welcome back, Dr. Rosen.” Maria smiled. It the kind of smile reserved for caring nurses and thoughtful hostesses, immediately putting his hazy mind at ease. He knew where he was. Knew he was aboard the Locus, orbiting Earth in an Ark carrying the frozen remnants of humanity. He knew Deis was likely nearby, in possession of every detail of Albert’s abysmal history. But with Maria smiling at him, somehow he knew things would be all right.
“So. Am I dead? Is this heaven?”
Her eyes crinkled with amusement. “That is quite the stretch, Dr. Rosen.”
“Call me Albert. Please.”
“As you wish, Albert. You don’t strike me as a religious man.”
“I’ve never been religious in an organized sense, but I can’t deny having spiritual inner dialogue.”
“Like believing a space station is heaven?”
“I suppose it sounds strange, until you consider that man was supposedly created in God’s image. Well, with man being so bent on technology, is it too much of an assumption to disbelieve the mystic mumbo-jumbo and buy into the possibility that God might be technologically proficient as well? Mastering technology so superior to ours that it’s beyond our ability to comprehend, or even imagine for that matter?”
She raised an eyebrow. “And you believe this station is… heaven?”
He felt a wry grin crease his cheeks. “Well, perhaps I am stretching a bit.”
“You were in deep shock, Dr. Rosen. We sedated you to make sure you received the proper rest. Hibernation sickness is always a concern, but fortunately your vitals remained intact. Sleep was the best medicine for you.”
He slowly sat up in the bed. The white, brightly lit room had the sterile feel of a medical bay. Sleek instrumentation aligned the walls and was affixed to his bedside, winking with multicolored lights. “How long have I been out?”