Rebecca eased the miasmal air of doom hanging over the room with a question, “What evidence do you have to support your theory of a recurring effect?”
“A very good question,” said Lorentz. “Why don’t I let Adrianna answer that for you?”
Adrianna switched places with Lorentz. The scientist slumped in his chair, gray with the weight of responsibility he had placed on himself. The child scientist’s head was only just visible above the table, so a frustrated and embarrassed Adrianna climbed first up on to her chair, then stepped up onto the conference table and proceeded to sit cross-legged on the tabletop.
“That’s better,” she said, blushing. “When Doctor Lorentz and I first began working together again after the event, we decided that the only way to truly determine whether our experiment was the originator of the Slip would be to find a measurable effect…we found one. Our instruments detected residual tachyon…fallout is as good a word for it as any. This fallout consisted of traces of tachyons with the same entropic signature as those we created just before the Slip occurred. Although it isn’t exactly incontrovertible proof that our experiment was responsible, it does strongly suggest to us our first test was the initiator for the event. We named it T-fallout.
“A few months after we detected the first signs of T-fallout, we took another measurement. And that was when we discovered we had an even bigger problem. Instead of decaying as we would have expected it to, the signal was increasing in strength. We checked our instruments—triple checked them—they were calibrated perfectly. So we set up a regular regimen of T-fallout sample measurement and collation. The data we recovered reinforced our initial observation: over a period of six months, there was a discernable increase in the amount of T-fallout residue detected. Also, the level of power that we were witnessing was way off the scale, far in excess of what we believed we should be reading at this temporal distance from the incident.
“And we don’t understand why that is,” interjected Lorentz from his chair. He looked to Jim and then Rebecca. “That’s what we need you two to figure out for us.”
Jim was quick to respond. Leaning forward in his chair he said, “Look, Doctor Lorentz. I haven’t worked in physics in over twenty-five years. I don’t know how you expect me to be of any—”
“James,” Lorentz cut in before he could finish his sentence. “Your early theoretical work on superluminal particles is still the yardstick by which all new theories are tested. It is genius… absolute genius.”
“But it’s been twenty-five years,” Jim reiterated.
Lorentz waved his hands, dismissing Jim’s objections. “It doesn’t matter. Thanks to Ms. Belkov’s super-human efforts,” he smiled at his personal assistant who sat two seats off to his left, “we have assembled a massive library of contemporary physics both electronic and paper based. It’s accessible via any terminal in the compound. Everything you could ever need is here Jim… everything. Of course, that also includes all notes and transcripts of our work so far. All we need from you is your commitment to help us.”
Rebecca smiled at the professor. “I’m with you,” she said.
Lorentz paused, looking Jim straight in the eye. “Please… as clichéd as this sounds, the very fate of the world relies on the few people gathered here in this room.” Then he added with a grin, “No pressure, eh?”
There was a pause as Jim contemplated the request, then he nodded.
“Okay,” he said. “You can count me in.”
Twenty-Four
SG: Welcome Father.
FJP: Thank you Stephen. It’s very nice to be here.
SG: Now, for those viewers who may not be familiar with Father Pike he is the founder and head of the Church of Second Redemption.
FJP: That is correct.
SG: Tell me Father, your Church has seen a tremendous surge of converts in the twelve months since the Slip occurred. If my researchers have done their job correctly then you have seen your flock go from a small group of devotees in the first month or so after the event to a following of over two-point—five million—a tremendous jump and an unprecedented increase. Why do you think so many people are devoting themselves to your branch of religion?
FJP: It’s an easy question to answer Stephen: people are looking for an answer to what happened and we offer them the truth.
SG: And just what is it about your brand of the truth that makes it so special? What draws so many to you in these confused times? I’m sure there are many business people out there who would love to know your secret.
<Laughter>
FJP: Again, it’s a very simple answer. It is no secret I was without faith in my previous life. Even though I was a leader in the religious community, a priest without faith is unworthy to lead. I was unable to help redeem the very people whose souls I had been entrusted with. I became an instrument for evil rather than for good. I took my own life… but… I was given a second chance by God— SG: Yes but— FJP: —a second chance to redeem myself and to offer that redemption not only to those already within the Catholic Church but to those outside of it too. That is why we are non-denominational; you only need to believe to be forgiven.
SG: It has been said that the majority of your congregation are Revivified—is that true?
FJP: Yes, that is correct. A large number of the reborn have found themselves drawn to our church.
SG: Why?
FJP: Are you familiar with the book of Psalms?
SG: I can’t say that I am, Father.
FJP: Psalms eleven, nine — ‘He has sent redemption itself to his people. To time indefinite he has commanded his covenant’. God has given them—as he has give all of us—a final chance at redemption. Each of my flock is in a unique position to understand the implication of life eternal. They are God’s reborn warriors, here to bring his word and fight for him. Armageddon is upon us, Stephen, and it is time for us all to choose a side.
Twenty-Five
“Jim? Look at this.”
Rebecca’s voice contained a hint of suppressed excitement. Jim turned away from his computer. He saw the mathematician staring at her own computer screen.
“What is it, Rebecca?” he asked as he stood and made his way to her side.
“This,” she said, pointing to a row of figures on her screen sitting alongside a line-graph. She tapped a key and the figures magnified to three times their original size. “There’s something not right with these figures,” she continued. “See, here,” she pointed with her index finger at a small group of numbers. “They shouldn’t be there. Look—” Her fingers flew across the keyboard and the computer zoomed in closer on the line-graph of the figures, isolating the numbers causing her concern. “This represents the numbers I just showed you. See how right up until this point things are just as you would expect?” She traced the curve of the graph with her finger leaving a light smear on the screen. “No distortion in amplitude at all but then when we get here there’s this… bump, for lack of a better description. It shouldn’t be there.”