“Perhaps. We know what happened in the past, now. We know what will happen in the future. Maybe we can find a way to prevent the tragedy from ever happening.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He was silent for a moment, considering his words. “If I ask you something, will you tell me the truth?”
“Yes.”
“How do I know I’m not in the Neuroverse, in stasis like everyone else? That this whole scenario isn’t just some creation of the program?”
“You don’t.”
“That’s all you can tell me?”
She gave him a coy glance. “There’s nothing I can say to convince you, Albert. You know that. You have to decide what’s real and what’s not.”
“And what if I can’t?”
Deis’ disembodied voice spoke from all around them. “You will, Dr. Rosen. After all, you have nothing but time to think things over.”
Albert had to laugh. It tasted bitter, but it was all he had left. He turned to the observation deck, where the Earth filled the entire view. It was a blue marble melded with green and brown swirls, frosted with white striations, sparkling against the black backdrop as though mocking the emptiness. He found it suddenly strange, nearly bizarre that such a thing could exist. Earth was a mathematical improbability, a miracle, a fragile dream of a planet.
And it was lost to him.
“Right. All I have is time.”
About the Author
Bard Constantine lives Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and his unbridled imagination. He balances his career in the flour milling industry with writing career, where he huddles in a dank basement and pounds out tales of gritty futures and epic fantasy. He is the author of several individual works and series of novels, and plans to continue writing until the world dissolves in a conflagration of fire and ice. Visit Bard at http://bardwritesbooks.com/ for updates on his work, sign up for the newsletter, and download free books.