Touchstone (Meridian Series) (31 page)

       “The
intercom is open,” Kelly shouted after them. “Be careful! Damn,” he said to
Paul, “I wish we had installed cameras. I don’t like the idea of someone
dropping in unannounced like this. Who could it be?”

       “God
only knows,” said Paul. “One side or the other. But whoever it is, they seem to
want to talk something over with the Founders.”

       “Or
blow the Founders to pieces,” Kelly suggested. “What if Robert is right and the
Assassins come through to take us all out? What if there really was a
Transformation and the world we’re living in now has no Internet—at least not
one that functions as we might expect it. I was pinging all over the world
moments ago, looking for my Golems. That’s one hell of a way to shout ‘here I
am ‘ on the network, if there is one.”

       Paul
smiled. “You’re suggesting the Islamic Thought Police have a line on our
location and coming in to take us down?”

       “Well,
we didn’t initiate the breach, Paul. I have no base number as a reference. Someone
clearly knows our coordinates—the exact temporal and spatial coordinates of the
Arch.”

       “Forget
the murder scenario,” said Paul. “The fact that the Arch is their focal target
is good evidence that they intend no harm. As you can see, their arrival is not
exactly a secret. I could reverse polarity now and stop the breaching sequence
altogether if I wanted. They have to know that as well. And to answer your
question, they are using the Arch because we’re in a Nexus Point. You can’t run
a breach into a Nexus without assistance at the other end. I think they sent
through their breaching pulse to give us a little nudge and ask for some help.
How’s the power look now?”

       “Ninety-four
percent. It’s sluggish. I don’t know if the on-site turbines can give us a
hundred percent, and we have no reserve if anything should fail.”

       “When
it hits ninety-five I’ll start the infusion.”

       “Go!”
said Kelly, pointing with his finger.

       Paul
activated the retraction module, feeding in the precious quantum fuel and
hoping the equipment would hold together.”

~

       “This
is ridiculous!” said Nordhausen as the elevator opened on the bottom floor of
the
Arch
bay. “Look at us… we’re still dressed up in
costume. If anyone comes through they’ll immediately think they’ve got the
wrong time.”

       “Nonsense,”
said Maeve. “Since this is the earliest functional Arch in any
Meridian
, they can’t be coming from the past. That means they’re from
the future. They’ve probably had decades to research this,” she concluded.

       “It’s
creepy,” said Nordhausen. “I don’t like the idea of someone knowing everything
I’m likely to do for the remainder of my life, and making casual visits to chat
like this… unless they intend something more. Damn, I wish I had my walking
stick.”

       They
were beyond the final door now, the last barrier between the world they knew
and the heart of the Arch corridor where an artificial singularity was spinning
out in a mad dance of quantum particles, a strange temporal waltz. The sound of
the generators was pounding in the confined space, and the temperature was
noticeably cold. But the most obvious sign that the breach was commencing was
the cavalcade of lights, a whirlwind of auroras directly in front of them. The
radiance and hue of the colors was awesome, and Robert found himself gaping at
the display as he recalled the images he had seen when he first opened his eyes
in the Arch flow.

       The
thick yellow line on the concrete floor ahead was the only thing between them
and the hole that was now opening in infinity. Robert seemed to press toward it
with an eagerness that seemed compelling. Maeve hung back, reaching to grab
hold of the professor’s arm to restrain his forward movement.

      
“Not too close,” she warned. “This is a
retraction. We’ve never tested for this scenario, and I have no idea what would
happen if someone was in the Arch when the breach actually opened. Stay well
back from the event line.”

       Robert nodded, but his face was alight with wonder
and expectation. Whatever fear he had conjured up, of sword wielding Arab
Assassins bursting through the Arch on a death mission, it had evaporated now
that he was in the presence of the incredible spectacle before him.

       The temperature dropped precipitously, and there
came a low growling sound, like a train passing, or again a tornado as it swept
by on a raging unseen tempest. Then a hazy fog, thick and cold, and tinged with
neon blue, began to materialize before them in the center of the Arch. Robert
strained to see as the mist grew in density, resolving to the unmistakable
shape of a man, though he remained obscured by the fog. There came a long
howling sound, wolf like and hungry, as if pack of rabid dogs were on the
prowl. Through the torrent of light and sound, they could hear the voice of
Kelly on the intercom, distant and tinny.

      
“Breach closing… Is everyone alright down
there?”
His voice had a strange hollow echo to it, as though it was coming
from a thousand miles away, barely discernable in the noise of the corridor.

       A man strode forward, the cold mist evaporating
around him in a crackle of blue light. He was heavy set, and Robert saw that he
wore a long gray cape, and black floppy headpiece. He looked at Maeve, and they
shared a flash of recognition as the man stepped toward them with a smile on
his broad, fleshy face.

       It was LeGrand.

       “We meet again!” he said with enthusiasm.

       He seemed a bit pale, clearly shaken, yet
recovering well considering the strange disorientation and nausea that could
accompany a time shift. Maeve raised her eyebrows, her suspicions immediately
aroused, but civility prevailed, and she was the first to reach out and take
the visitor’s arm, steadying him as he swayed in momentary spell of dizziness.
Robert moved to assist her, and together they helped LeGrand away from the
event line and back through the massive titanium door behind them. A moment
later it closed with a sibilant hiss.

       “Vapor barrier,” said Nordhausen. “We have
slightly negative pressure in the Arch, at least relative to that in the main
lab complex. Just a precaution. But my word, LeGrand, whatever are you doing
here? How could you shift here from Rosetta? Why, not an hour ago you were
gaping at the stone and no doubt wondering how the other side pulled off that
little coup.”

       “That’s an understatement,” said LeGrand. “It was
no small matter. Who knows how they managed it, but Lord save us, there’s been
a transformation — a
grand
transformation. It’s the very thing we live in fear of
each and every day of our lives. The guardians spin out one scenario after
another, the research takes years, but we are quite good at it now. The agents
stand their watch on all the key milieus, waiting for new orders to come in at
any time. It seems I have been given mine.”

       “You mean to say you were pulled out and then
immediately sent on a new mission?”

       “Quite…” LeGrand ran the back of his thick hand
over his  brow, clearly distressed.

       “Come on, Robert. Let’s walk him to the elevator
and get up to the lab where it’s more comfortable.” Even as they started,
something seemed to come to LeGrand and he looked from one to the other with an
expression of great urgency.

       “They
must
keep the Arch spinning,” he said quickly. “Don’t shut
anything down. Can they hear me?” He looked around as they entered the
elevator, and Maeve toggled the intercom button as the doors closed.

       “Kelly?” She had a worried expression on her face.
“Are you there?”

      
“Of course I’m here,”
came the reply through the overhead
speaker, but it had a strange resonance to it, as if the transmission was
suffering interference, possibly from the Arch.

       Maeve let out a long breath. “Good then… We have a
guest, and we’re coming up now. All is well here. We’ll be there in a minute or
two.”

      
“Roger that… Roger, Roger…”

       She could not tell if Kelly was just repeating the
phrase or if there was a feedback loop in the system. LeGrand looked up at the
speaker, his eyes narrowing with concern.

       “Dissonance,” said LeGrand. “They must keep the
Nexus open. Tell them not to reduce the power. The Arch must keep spinning.”

       “He hears you,” Maeve assured him. “But what was
that you said? Dissonance? What do you mean?”

       “No time to explain,” said LeGrand, smiling at the
irony of his statement. “Don’t you understand? There’s been a grand
transformation. Everything has changed…
everything
. The only stable wells
in the flow of time are the Nexus Points that were open at the instant the
Heisenberg Wave was generated. We’re in one now, and you must do everything
possible to preserve it against the flow. Otherwise…”

       He gave them a long look, his eyes reflecting both
fear and sorrow as he spoke. “Otherwise we lose our last hope,” he said darkly.
“Don’t you see? We’re an island now, in a raging stream of catastrophe and
chaos. And time is running out.”

24

The
visitor
was still eyeing
the facility like a patron touring a museum.

       “The
original site,” he had said when he entered. “The Founders… All four together
at once! This is more than any man could have hoped for in a lifetime. I am
truly honored.”

       Paul
and Kelly were quite surprised when they saw Robert and Maeve escorting the man
into the lab. Now they were gathered about the conference table in a room just
off the main lab complex. Robert made the introductions, while Maeve watched
with a sullen expression on her face. The professor recalled the heat of that
last discussion with LeGrand, and he hoped the meeting would not soon
disintegrate into a shouting match.

       “So,”
he concluded. “You’ve come with news about this transformation. It was the
stone, wasn’t it. You see—I told you the Rosetta Stone was a crucial touchstone
in the record of time. Without it we lose our knowledge of 5000 years of human
history.”

       “I’m
afraid we lose a good deal more than that,” LeGrand said darkly. “In fact, we
lose everything. The whole summation of our culture and civilization is swept
away, lost, forgotten. Only the barest fragments remain, like the monuments of
Egypt
were pale reflections of that culture in our time.”

       “Come
now,” said Nordhausen, “it can’t be all that bad. Surely we lose our
understanding of the past, but how does the loss of the stone bear upon our
future?”

       “You
know quite well how, professor.” LeGrand’s grey eyes flashed as he spoke. “It
was you who started this whole notion of the stone being an essential element
for communication. Why, you were about to tell me all about it when we first met
in Egypt—about Rasil, the  Messenger; about the scroll you found in his pack.”

       “You
knew about that?”

       “Not
the details. Research had to brief me just now, before I was sent back.” He
looked at the clock on the opposite wall, noting the steady forward progression
of the second hand. The sight of it seemed to renew his agitation. “You’ve kept
the Arch spinning, haven’t you?”

       “Yes,”
said Paul, “but we’re on internal generators. The connection to our outside
power reserve appears to be severed. We’ve only a few hours fuel, I’m afraid.”

       LeGrand’s
eyes widened. “You’ve lost more than the  connection to your local power
company,” he said quickly.

       “Yes,”
said Robert. “We tried the radio, but the storm is playing havoc with the
signal.”

       “Storm?”

       “We
were up in the observation dome a moment ago,” said Paul.

       “Yes,”
Robert put in. “The whole city was shrouded in darkness. There was a freak
storm raging—really quite unusual. In fact, I meant to go out and have a look.”

       “No!”
LeGrand nearly shouted, extending an arm to ward off some unseen evil. “You
mustn’t leave the safety of the Nexus—none of you may leave. Don’t you
understand? There’s been a transformation, and the whole of the world you
knew—“

       “Is
gone,” Paul finished flatly. They all looked at him. “You weren’t looking at a
storm, Robert. That was the frontier of annihilation—just a thin border zone at
the periphery of our Nexus Point. Beyond it the world outside is likely to be
very different from anything in our experience.”

       “Yes,”
said LeGrand. “Beyond the Nexus is the chaos of transformation. The world you
knew is gone—all of it. The Nexus is a bubble in the stream. There are only
three left that we know of, and this is one of them. The other two exist in the
future, at our main operations center, such as it remains, and one more
auxiliary site that we keep very well hidden. They were the only operations we
happened to have going when the Heisenberg Wave struck, and I don’t know how
much longer they will remain active. It was mere chance that I was scheduled
for retraction, you see. I usually dally about a day or so after the stone is
discovered—at least I did that on my first two missions to Rosetta. This time I
told the messenger that I wanted to be pulled out  as soon as possible. Fate
would have it that my retraction saw one of our own Arch systems running at the
time of the transformation. They sent me here to you because I was one of the
very few travelers who were protected by a Nexus when the alarm came in. ”