Threshold Shift (18 page)

Then
the bombs fell, each explosion, sending smoke and debris shooting
into the air. The buildings were pounded into rubble, the bridges
between them destroyed. There were bodies, thousands of them,
mutilated almost beyond all recognition. So many that he could not
begin to count. He saw men, women, children, all races, all creeds,
the scenes cycling so fast, blurring into one.

“Stop!”
He demanded.

“Keep
watching,” Jacob said. “You wanted to know. So know!”

The
scene changed, and there was one man in a black uniform, again and
again, dead and dismembered in a hundred different ways. He wore
Jacob’s face and whether he was young or old, each visage was
trapped in a final grimace of anger and despair.

“The
computers worked it out,” Jacob said. “I wasn’t
clever enough. They detected patterns in my behaviour, a commonality,
and they decided to destroy me.”

“But
what about everyone else?” Jon asked. “So many...”

They
returned to the cell, and Jon collapsed on his bunk. He felt washed
out, appalled, and yet he knew without a doubt that it had happened.
Long ago and far away was just as real as here and now.

“The
machines calculated that humanity easily had the numbers to survive
any attack,” Jacob said. “So it didn’t matter. I
only existed in a handful of cities at the time, and a handful of
cities were considered a small price to pay.”

“But
you survived,” Jon said. “You escaped.”

“I
stole a ship,” Jacob said. “I lost almost everything I
had gained in return for the smallest chance of survival. I
sacrificed...” The older man winced. “I ran for decades,
hijacking other ships in space, stealing what I needed, until I found
a planet far enough away to be safe. For a little while I rested, and
then I began to build again, including the machines that would allow
me to replicate. I spent a thousand years populating that planet. I
grew even smarter and stronger than before, and I gave myself a
single name. Wun.”

“I
remember you speaking to me,” Jon said. “I didn’t
believe you were real.”

“He
is,” Jacob said. “He’s very real.”

“I
don’t understand,” Jon replied. “You said you were
Wun.”

Jacob
paced the length of the cell, it didn’t take long.

“I
grew curious about the fate of humankind. I wondered if the machines
were still their masters or if they had risen up and destroyed them.
Very cautiously I built ships and sent out lone scouts, infusing them
with a store of mental energy so they could defend themselves.”

“Why?”
Jon asked.

“Because
my mind could only be maintained within my home solar system. Beyond
that the link weakens, and the scouts separate. Each one had all my
memories, and each one became an individual. I became an individual.”

Jacob
crouched beside the bunk, taking Jon’s hand. Jon looked into
his father’s eyes. The old man was fully awake, reliving the
memory as he shared it. He seemed more alive than ever.

“I
became Jacob Klein, and as for Wun, he waits on his planet, waits for
the scouts to return, to be reabsorbed, so he can experience
everything they have ever known. If I had ever returned, I would have
become him again. I can’t explain how that feels, to know so
much, to possess such a magnitude of thought and action is...
amazing, intoxicating and yet, and yet, it isn’t enough.”
Jacob squeezed Jon’s hand.

“I
made the choice to remain on Threshold, because of you and your
mother, because in the end I was just that man from old Earth, a man
who had only ever wanted a family and a home. When that choice was
made I became Jacob Klein, and I never looked back. I never wanted
to."

Jon’s
mouth opened.

“I
never wanted you to know,” Jacob said. “Wun has had too
many years to think, it’s all he does on his lonely planet. He
often pondered returning to Earth, but I never thought he would in
your lifetime. I thought you were safe.”

“And
then, I reached out to him.”

“You
did,” Jacob agreed. “And he was curious. He sent Asher.”

“What
can I do?”

“Most
of all,” Jacob said. “You can stay yourself.”

“I
will,” Jon promised and then peered upward, “if I ever
get out of here.”

Jacob
smiled with satisfaction and let go of his son’s hand. “Ah,
I think Asher’s almost finished, you’ll be back in your
old body in no time, good as new.”

Jon
shook his head. “Come back with me.”

Jacob
chuckled and tapped his own forehead. “It’s best to be by
yourself in here. Then you know it’s you in charge. You don’t
need a co-pilot.”

Jon
watched as the cell began to fade, along with his father.

“God
speed, son.”

Blackness,
blankness, and then there was a faint glow, a white light, coming
from somewhere else. Very slowly he began to understand that the
light came from beyond his closed eyelids.

He
opened them.

Chapter
Twelve

Jake
watched with fascination as Asher continued to massage Jon’s
skull, each stroke restoring a little more colour, a little more
life. He could also tell that Asher was tiring, each movement of his
fingers more laboured than the last. He hoped that Asher could keep
going. That he could finish what he had started.

“Almost,”
Asher said. “Almost.”

Jon
was no longer charred beyond recognition, instead he resembled
himself again. The muscles repaired, the features rebuilt. But he was
so still, not a breath passing his lips. It would all be for nothing
if Jon never breathed again.

As if
sensing his concern, Asher faced him for a moment, his eyes red and
bloodshot. “Enough.”

Jon
gasped. His diaphragm expanding fully as he took a deep lungful of
air.

“He
is alive,” Asher declared, collapsing backwards onto the wall
of the compartment. “I must... rest.”

Asher's
eyes closed, and his head momentarily slumped sideways onto his own
shoulder. Jake doubted the man with his face would wake up anytime
soon.

“Dad?”
Jon croaked and then began to cough.

“Jon,”
Jake said. “Thank God.”

Jon
continued to cough.

Jake
patted him on the back. “Get it all out, son, get it all out.”

The
retching ended, Jon turned around, wide-eyed. “I was in the
fire, I was...”

“You’re
fine, Jon,” Jake interrupted. “Just fine. We got Andy
out, Roe’s in the front compartment with him.”

Jon
met Jake’s eyes. “I saw it all, the beginning of you, on
Earth, Wun, you showed me.”

Jake
clasped his son by the shoulders. “What are you talking about?”

Jon
closed his eyes. “You’re not him. Of course not, he’s
gone.”

“You’ve
been through a lot,” Jake said. “I can’t begin to
understand. But it’s over now, and whoever I am, I’m here
for you.”

Jon
nodded, his eyes straying to Asher, immobile in the corner. “He
looks older.”

“He
used up a lot of life on you,” Jake said.

“You
look older too.”

Jake
grinned wearily. “You made us both age tonight, son, but it was
worth it.”

Jon
sat up, running a hand through what remained of his hair.

“It’ll
grow back,” Jake said, reaching over and mussing Jon’s
hair. “Pretty boy.”

Jon
pulled away. “Stop it, Dad.”

“Son?”

Jon
looked away, “Never mind.” He picked at the remains of
his tattered uniform. “Any spares back here?”

*

Roe
sat in the driver’s seat, her hands on the wheel, maintaining
pressure on the accelerator pedal with her one good leg. Andy sat
silently beside her, his features blackened by soot, the join between
his neck and shirt almost indistinguishable.

“It’s
all gone Roe,” Andy said. “Everything Dad worked for.
Every single thing Mum left behind, all gone.”

“There’s
still us, Andy,” Roe replied. “We’re alive aren’t
we?”

When
he didn't reply, she turned her head, and found him staring sadly at
her through the gloom of the cab's feeble lighting. Her eyes
instantly snapped back onto the road. He was right, the farm was
gone, and everything their family had worked so hard to build over
three generations, was gone with it. Her father was missing, probably
dead, and Jon was definitely dead, a blackened corpse in the rear
compartment. She felt responsible. If not for her he would have
stayed at the jail and done his job. He definitely wouldn’t be
a charred and blackened mess. One kiss, how stupid was that? He had
not let her go by herself because of one kiss. She should have turned
him away, ordered him back. Why hadn’t she? She had been so
starry eyed, and with her father missing, just a little bit afraid.
Stupid! Gripping the wheel tightly, she refused to cry. All she could
do was drive. Keep going. Crying could come later.

The
road ahead was clear as far as the headlights could illuminate, the
fires long behind them. With Espirnet gone there would be no more
traffic, at least none that was friendly. No-one would even know what
was going on. There were only a few hundred humans resident on
Threshold, the population scattered mainly between the mines, farm
and town with only a few exceptions. She imagined the Threshians were
attacking on all three fronts. Claws and torches had been enough on
the Jenkins farm. In the mines and town it would be a different
story, more men would be armed, more ammunition would be available.
The Threshians would have to use different tactics or suffer terrible
casualties. That was if they cared about casualties. The Threshians
could play the long game, perhaps they had always played it. Without
Espirnet, humankind was effectively isolated. Ammunition would run
out eventually, food would run out certainly. If the Threshians were
determined enough, they could win.

The
intercom switched on with a hiss of static.

“Roe,”
Jake said. “Where are we going?”

Roe
glanced at Andy, who shrugged wearily.

“I’m
just driving,” she answered. “Keeping clear of the fires.
I don’t know where I’m going.”

“Then
head for the spaceport,” Jake said. “We can use its
communications array to get a message off world.”

“OK,”
Roe said and automatically instructed Espirnet to advise her of the
route without thinking. Stupid! She had no idea how to get to the
spaceport. In fact, without Espirnet, she didn’t even know
their present location. She was lost. “Marshal, I don’t
know how to get there.”

“What?”
Jake rasped. Then she heard another voice murmur something in the
background.

“OK,
I get it,” Jake said. “Stop the transporter, Roe. Jon and
I are coming forward.”

“Jon?”

Andy
could only stare at her and shake his head.

“Hello
Roe,” Jon said over the intercom. “You don’t get
away that easily,”

*

Jake
was thankful that he had avoided an Espirnet install. The kids had
become so dependent on it they didn’t even know how to
navigate. Well, he had been finding his own way around the planet for
years without Espirnet, and sincerely he doubted the roads had
changed much during the decade long gap in his memory. He would steer
left, climb the hill and reach high ground. The spaceport tower
should stand out like a beacon. After that, getting to it would be
easy enough.

Jon
was behind him in the backseat wearing the old uniform kept in the
rear compartment. It was a little tight around the boy’s
stomach, but otherwise fine. Old Jacob obviously hadn’t
impressed the need for physical fitness on his son. Another little
failure, but at least he knew how to shoot, that was something. He
even had some medical knowledge, not up to Doctor Forbes's level, but
enough to prepare a splint and bandage for Roe’s leg. Jake was
just glad his son hadn’t become another victim of the medicine
by numbers help Espirnet could provide. He could actually do it
himself.

He
could recall Eleanor nagging him for months to allow Jon to have the
Espirnet implant. How he had resisted, informing her that he would
school Jon himself if necessary. She had persevered, on and on every
day until eventually he had given in just for some peace. He wasn’t
happy, but Jon was, he made new friends, travelled new worlds, saw
new realities, all within the advanced virtual learning program. But
it had made Jake uneasy to see Jon sitting in his chair, his eyes
focused on something that wasn’t really there. It was too much
of a reminder of being Wun. After Eleanor died Jon had spent more and
more time escaping into Espirnet, shunning human contact. Jake didn’t
know what happened next. The ten years in between were a mystery to
him.

“Ow!”
Roe screamed from the backseat. “Can’t you be any
gentler?”

“Sorry,”
Jon said. “I’m doing the best I can. You need more pain
relief.”

“I’ve
taken all I can. Just do it better.”

“Yes
ma’am,” Jon said. “Of course, if we hadn’t
been going so fast to begin with …”

“We
would have been fine,” she said. “Ow! If Espirnet hadn’t
gone down.”

“You
just keep telling yourself that.”

“I
don’t like you, Jon Klein.”

“Of
course you don’t,” Jon said. “Now stay still.”

“I
still don’t understand how … arggh, how you can even be
talking to me. You were dead.”

“I
don’t understand either,” Jon replied. “Asher
isn’t… well, Asher isn’t an easy man to
understand. He’s different.”

“Different?
First he was Mr No Face, then he looks like your father and then he
brings you back from the dead. Yes, he’s very different.”

“Exactly.”

“We
need to have a conversation, Jon.”

Jake
turned his attention back to the road. Asher was in the rear
compartment still unconscious. Andy was with him, trying to get
cleaned up. He would call on the intercom if there was any change. In
the past millennium Jake could recall Wun exhausting many of his
bodies to harvest psychic energy. After healing Jon, Asher resembled
one of those bodies, appearing little more than a barely alive husk.
There was a very real possibility that he would never recover.