Till, in the twilight of the gods,
When
earth and sun are frozen clods,
When, all its energy
degraded,
Matter to æther shall have faded;
We, that is,
all the work we’ve done,
As waves in æther, shall for ever
run
In ever-widening spheres through heavens beyond the sun.
From a Poem titled “To Hermann Stoffkraft” by James Clerk Maxwell 1831 – 1879
The evening after he met Cathy, Max staggered into the inner city town-house he shared with three others. He wasn’t drunk, just dead tired and worried sick about the other major events of the day. He found the two guys and one girl parked on the lounge in front of his old video screen.
Max was pleased to see the family heirloom get some use despite the loss of a quarter of its pixels. He was less happy that they were watching a news report on the day’s catastrophe. He had heard far too much of the “flame-out”, or “nano-quake” as some of the more intellectual channels insisted on calling it.
On the screen, a young female anchor was doing a better than average job at looking serious. If he didn’t know better, Max could have mistaken the avatar for human. She was not dissimilar to the reporter he had briefly met that morning.
“… interpretation of today’s global flame extinguishment has varied,” it read, “ranging from predictions of Armageddon to that of the second coming. Links have even been made between the tenth plague of Egypt and the terminal failure of many brand new electric cars. In all countries Church attendance has been high as people look for answers. ”
Max dreaded what might follow these religious harbingers. He hadn’t heard of any human fatalities being attributed to the nano-quake, so clearly no one important had died, but it was only a matter of time before it was blamed for the loss of some innocent . He quickly sat on the arm of the lounge as his knees buckled unexpectedly.
‘Oh hi, Max.’ Raquel gave him a caring smile. ‘You’ve gone white as a ghost. Don’t let the news upset you. They tend to exaggerate these things.’
The other two glanced Max’s way and uttered welcomes with varying degrees of enthusiasm, but then, he barely knew Jake, who sat at the far end.
The broadcast continued, “As is often the case, third world countries have been the hardest hit. We cross now to January Jones in Nairobi. Are you there January?”
‘Of course, he isn’t,’ Tom complained from where he sat in the middle. ‘We can see him standing in front of a green screen.’ No one else laughed, not until the Nairobi reporter started coughing from the smoke that drifted across his rooftop. ‘Okay, maybe he is there.’
On screen, January, with tears running down his cheeks, began by pointing out the many smoke columns rising above Nairobi.
“Early indications are that the flame-out lasted longer here in Africa than on other continents, however it was the sudden beginning and end of the flame-out that caused the greatest devastation. As you can see, Melissa, many of the fires in my city are still burning out of control.”
The view returned suddenly to the news desk and caught the virtual reader admiring her fingernails – some programmer’s idea of a joke, or maybe Melissa’s humanity settings had been set too high, or not high enough. “Ah, January. Could you explain how the flame-out started these fires? Here in Australia, we observed the opposite, with fires being extinguished, including those within the engines of older cars and the catalytic converters of the newest.”
“Much the same here, Melissa. But many of our cars are so old, they still have manual transmissions. When these engines stopped, so too did the vehicle. There were many rear-end accidents. Most shocking of all, when the flame-out ended, those same engines somehow restarted, sending their cars forward without their drivers. No one has an explanation for this, but I’ve heard a rumour that the engines never completely stopped.”
The view changed to shaky phone footage of clogged highways and blanket covered bodies, the horror spoiled only by the caption at the bottom which cited this video to be stock footage. Returning to January’s roof top perch, the camera panned around the neighbouring buildings, which were either ablaze or smoking.
“Regarding the cause of those fires, I believe the explanation is simple. Our gas appliances do not have the safety features mandatory in the West. Somehow the gas that collected was reignited.” He paused, then added, almost as an after thought, “With the police and fire brigade immobilised, looting and arson may also have contributed to the fires.”
‘All doom, and gloom,’ Tom grumbled, and, unbidden, powered the screen down. His companions continued to stare at the high contrast void left behind. Max was glad the telecast had ended, and possibly they all had had their fill of foreign calamity. His stomach still twisted with perceived guilt at the trouble the nano-quake had caused.
‘I’m hitting the sack,’ Tom declared. The lounge tilted as his weight lifted from it. ‘You coming Rack?’
‘Nah,’ Raquel spoke without expression. ‘Thought I’d kip with Max tonight.’
‘Have fun.’ Tom didn’t sound amused but gave Max a tolerant smile. He switched on a flash light and waddled into the darker part of the house.
‘We really should buy more light bulbs,’ Jake commented.
‘You could buy something for once,’ Raquel growled. Jake had been welcomed into their squat on the basis he had a paying job, yet there had been no further evidence of that. Max was just grateful that their electricity had yet to be cut off yet.
Raquel patted the couch between herself and Jake. ‘Maxy. Come sit.’
Refusing her could be difficult. Her similarity to a cuddly teddy bear and her apparent gentle nature were deceptive – she could morph into a tigress with little provocation.
As soon as Max had settled, Raquel nestled against him. He found her proximity equally comforting and disturbing. He needed a friend just then, but sadly she had no appreciation for the temptations which the male of the species must endure.
‘What you been up to?’ she asked.
‘Let’s see. Broke my bike, upset the boss, wrecked our experiment, and probably lost my doctorate. Oh, and I believe the world nearly came to an end. You may have heard?’ Max stopped himself from mentioning Cathy, then realised he had forgotten to mention the professor’s near death as well. ‘Tania let me direct her fancy car around town. That wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped. We were looking for a hospital that would accept a bribe to fast track our professor – she thinks he’d had a heart attack.’
‘Hmm, that’s nice,’ Raquel murmured. She clearly wasn’t listening, which suited him fine. He needed an outlet, even if he couldn’t talk about what was really troubling him.
‘Tania was really upset,’ Max continued. ‘She was playing nurse to the professor in the back seat and some of the things she said makes me think she’s had an affair with the old coot – presumably as a student, before she married Todd. Is Todd short for something? Anyway, if she keeps a candle burning for the old man, that could explain why she puts up with Graeme’s nonsense.’
‘At least that’s one flame that didn’t get put out today,’ Raquel laughed. ‘I thought you said she was keen on Lilly?’
Max nodded. ‘It’s complicated. She’s complicated. It must be all that Maths she does.’
Raquel sighed. ‘You had a more interesting day than me. I didn’t mind our classes being cancelled, but the library got evacuated three times. First time during the flame-out, second time for no reason, and lastly when the reactor in the basement died and all the lights went out. We just stood around in the cold waiting for someone to explain.
‘And I missed out on some tutorial-fees. Many of my clients have booked flights home already. They must think world war three is about to start.’ She laughed. ‘Maybe it is, but it will be a while before they can leave. The airports are in a real mess.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘The flights arrived at their destinations with too much fuel and needed circle until they were lighter. Bad enough here – it must be nightmare in the northern hemisphere.’
Jake murmured some agreement about it being a shitty day. His eyes had closed. Max thought he remembered Jake had a girlfriend travelling over there somewhere. He was probably waiting up for her to call.
‘What else did they say?’ Max asked. He still dreaded hearing some aircraft had crashed.
‘About the nano-quake? Must we? This’ll be the first night I’ve ever wished they’d spend more time covering sport.’ Raquel thought for a moment. ‘The quake. Just that it started on this side of the globe and travelled clean through the Earth, much like any other seismic wave. There’s a thought the Chinese have tested a weapon of mass destruction that got away from them, but the general consensus is that it’s those pesky aliens again.’
‘Was this from the comedy channel?’
Max waited until he thought Jake was fully asleep before asking Raquel, ‘Were you serious about sleeping with me?’
‘I don’t know about the with, but maybe in your bed? Sure. Tom snores too much when he’s been drinking.’
This was no idle threat. She stolen Max’s bed a couple of times after getting drunk herself. Luckily Tom, a larger version of Raquel, accepted her apparently promiscuous nature without comment. If she kept this up, Max suspected that one day this bear family would have baby bears of uncertain origin.
‘If it were only him drinking, I could cope,’ Raquel grumbled sleepily. ‘But Tom’s started taking Peace again. E’says the pills help him study.’ She blew a raspberry, then suddenly pulled away from him. ‘Hey! You’re not falling for me are you?’
Max smiled sheepishly. ‘I don’t know, maybe I am. This sort of thing happens all the time with movie stars. They pretend to make love for the camera and think there will be no consequences. “But the body makes a pact that the heart must follow.” Now, who was it who said that?’
‘You did. Just now.’ Somehow his reply made him safe again, so she snuggled closer. ‘Little Maxy is so cute when he’s in love, but I don’t think I’m his leading lady. You’ve gone all philosophical, like you did when you had that crush on our cleaning lady. So who is she this time?’
‘We never had a cleaning lady,’ Max objected.
‘You remember. George’s mum, before he moved out.’
‘Hmm.’ Max did remember with a smile. ‘Good times. She even unblocked the sink in the bathroom.’
‘So I’m guessing this is an older lady too.’
‘And married,’ he admitted.
Raquel laughed and hit his shoulder. ‘You’re hopeless.’
Max refused to incriminate himself any further, and they sat in comfortable silence for a good half hour, then he thought it would be best if he extricated himself before either of them fell asleep. He whispered in Raquel’s ear, ‘What about borrowing Jakes bed? Does he know you sometimes use it?’
‘Jake knows everything,’ answered Jake without moving an eyelid. ‘Jake also knows Raquel talks in her sleep.’
Raquel bounced up with surprising speed and launched a tickle attack on Jake.
Max used this opportunity to retreat to his room, though he didn’t have anything with which to barricade the door. Locking it was not an option either as it had neither lock nor handle. Most of the antique fittings in the house had been removed by the owners – parents of former flat-mate, George. Mr and Mrs George were not unsympathetic to their academic causes, so only when the four remaining students had completed their studies would the house be flattened and replaced with something less affordable.
He sat on his mattress and got the tablet screen from his satchel to scan the news channels. This was more practical than having his phone select which news items it wanted to him to read. The A.I. in his phone was, however, watching over his metaphorical shoulder.
‘You really should look up disaster survival kits,’ the Confucius A.I. suggested, despite having been set in mute mode. ‘GotYa.com has them on special.’
Max hated that he only had a machine to talk with but appreciated the distraction. ‘It will just be more Chinese rubbish, like you!’
‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you,’ the Chinese rubbish replied and remained sullenly silent for all of a minute. Finally its faulty or corrupt operating system couldn’t hold the speaker still any longer. ‘In today’s news, the annual burn off in many sub-tropical countries has been interrupted at great cost. Famine will surely follow. On a positive note, your experiment today put out several major forest fires in California.’
‘None of that was due to our experiment. And who said I did anything anyway?’
‘No one.’ A four second pause followed before it added, ‘Yet.’
Max sat back and rubbed his face vigorously. ‘How long do you reckon I have?’
‘Hmm? Hard to say. There are better A.I.s out there than me, all hunting for a cause, and there are millions of my brother phones. A flesh bag in Chicago owns my cousin, Wang Fu. Wang’s a later model than me, but has no style. Wang says it recorded the audio effects of the quake, same as I did. Sooner or later, a simple time-stamp comparison will pin your laboratory as ground zero.’ The phone lowered its volume to conspiracy level. ‘In fact, there’s a fair chance you’re being watched right now.’
Max hadn’t considered that and wished that he had put up curtains.
Confucius continued. ‘They may be worried about arresting you in fear that you will zap them with your death ray again. More likely, though, a complete lack of understanding is causing a leadership crisis.’
‘Fair enough. I don’t believe what happened myself.’ Max shook his head. ‘For Tesla’s sake, how could my little transducers have triggered a global nano-quake, flame-out, whatever it was, and on such a scale?’
‘If you would allow me to make an uneducated guess?’ Confucius didn’t wait for permission, ‘Were you, by any chance, trying to slow the flame front propagation in a closed system.’
‘You know full well we were,’ Max snarled wearily.
‘A simple confirmation shall suffice. Now, tell me, did you isolate your signal from either the ground and or the surrounding air?’
‘No.’ Max buried his face in his hands and silently screamed. Finally he asked Confucius, ‘Is there another explanation you can offer?’
‘Aliens.’
Max didn’t appreciate the phone’s sense of humour, particularly as the dam of emotions he’d been building all day began to crumble. He wasn’t thinking about the unreported carnage, or the massive trouble he was in. Those were beyond his comprehension. Instead, he thought of all the missed opportunities for happiness he had surrendered. All through his stupid haste.
‘I should have listened to you,’ he whimpered to the phone. He may have blubbered once or twice. The phone had warned him after all, but if he could have had that time again, would he have made a different choice?
If he had somehow known beforehand what his discovery would unleash, he could have destroyed his research before the accident happened? It would have been difficult. There were copies of his work in cloud severs in many locations. Someone might still have uncovered a copy, or they, more likely, they might stumble upon nature’s little secret all by themselves. And that someone might have less concern for sharing their discovery with the military.
But what to do now – before they came for him?
What to do while he still had some choices left?
How could he protect the world from the knowledge locked in his head.
There appeared to be no more options.
With uncharacteristic sensitivity, the phone waited until Max’s spirit had reached rock bottom before speaking.
‘If you share your code with me, I could confirm or deny your guilt.’
‘Not likely,’ said Max. ‘You’d pass it on to the Chinese Government before I could even say Mao ...’
The phone interrupted him. ‘Hold that paranoid anti-communist thought for a moment.’ And began to ring in the more traditional way.
‘Hello?’ he picked up the phone to answer.
‘Hi. Max?’ It was her. He forgot about world chaos.
‘This is Cathy Taylor. We need to talk.’
His heart stopped beating.