Allie stopped laughing abruptly, eyes wide in amazement. She gave him a more
thorough examination with a considering expression on her face.
“I doubt that word has been spoken in over five hundred years. How do you
know it?”
“Because I’m not from this world,” Gabriel grinned widely.
“Interesting, but not possible. I have not detected any Gate Jumps large enough to indicate travel from another world within your estimated lifetime. You must tell me how you came to be here, and why. What world are you from?”
Allie looked to each of the robots in turn and they returned to patrolling.
“I come from Earth.”
“Earth? That is not possible.”
“Why not?”
“Because time travel beyond ten thousand years into the past or the future has never been tested. Theoretically it should be no different than other Gate Jumps, but there is a miniscule chance that the system will overload. The further through time you travel the more of my memory it eats up to perform the calculations to make it possible. I have failsafes in place to prevent it, though they are easy enough to remove. It would, however, require this facility to operate at full capacity and I have been ordered in no uncertain terms that that is never to happen again.”
“Time travel,” Gabriel choked.
“Oh, I am sorry. Were you not aware? Earth was destroyed nearly ten billion
years ago. I believe the date was August twenty-first of the year 2154 AD of the local calendar, though my records from that period of history are greatly fragmented by extreme age and multiple attempts at copy.”
“What,” Gabriel cried, unsure which was more shocking, that Earth was gone, or that he was ten billion years in the future.
“Forgive me. I did not realize that you were unaware of the fact.”
“What are you anyway,” Gabriel asked pushing the question of Earth out of his
mind for the time being. “If I had to guess I’d say you’re probably an AI, or supercomputer that runs this place, right?”
“Right on both counts. That is exactly what I am. My name is Allison, or Allie, if you prefer, but you already knew that. I have not had people to talk to for a very long time. I have been hard at work on the problem that Millie gave me to—“
“Millie,” Gabriel cut in. “Millie Farseer?”
“The same. You read of her in a book perhaps?”
“No,” Gabriel scratched at the stubble on his jaw. “She’s the one that sent me here.”
“That is not possible. Not unless humans have developed the ability to live more than six hundred years while I was not looking. She was the last scientist of the team that lived here, and she left the facility to brave the radiation in search of food almost six centuries ago. Before she left, she gave me a problem to work on, and said that someone would be along for me to give my findings to. Have you come to hear my findings at last?”
The fact that the person the Northern Sage had sent him to meet with details of his mission had disappeared six hundred years ago was somewhat disconcerting. Although, if he’d given Gabriel a second chance, surely he could have given other people second chances as well.
“Haunted,” Sam hissed at him. “A dead woman sent you here!”
“Findings,” Gabriel asked, shaking Sam off of his coat with an annoyed growl.
“She’s not going to bite. Stop that! She’s just a machine, like the rest of these things—
well, probably a lot smarter than the rest of these things.”
“I will explain further inside. It is cold out here, and I am sure that you have had a very long journey. This way. Inside is completely shielded from radiation. You are probably feeling the effects of exposure by now.”
“Wait,” Sam said, looking between Gabriel and Allie. “Hold on. Are you telling me that he really is from a different world?”
Allie looked at Gabriel for a second, giving him another long, considering
examination before turning to Sam.
“Considering his knowledge of things that no one in the present day should know, I deduce that there is a high probability that he has either come from the distant past, another world entirely, perhaps both. He knows of holograms, AIs, and most
importantly, of Earth. Even when this facility was built knowledge of that planet was restricted to a few moldy old scholars, and computer data banks. It is the world where all humanity sprang from during an ancient and forgotten war, spreading out amongst the stars. So, in answer to your question, yes, I can say with ninety-one percent certainty that he is not from this world.”
“Well I’ll be damned,” Sam said, looking as though she’d been kicked in the
head. “Uh, sorry, I guess.”
Gabriel shrugged. “No problem.”
“Come. This way,” Allie began gliding backward toward the nearest Spire. She did not move her legs to walk, nor did she turn to look where she was going. “Your animals and belongings will be cared for. I think we need to have a very long talk.”
Chapter 29: The Dying Sun
“Sit, please,” Allie gestured toward a table in the conference room she’d brought them to.
Sitting in one of the chairs, Gabriel thought it was about time that he saw
something resembling civilization. The chair was made of sturdy plastic and metal like chairs in a school. There was even a whiteboard on one wall to complete the ambiance, and a large picture window opposite of it showing New Hope and the Quarantine Zone beyond.
Remaining on her feet, Allie watched Gabriel and Sam expectantly as they took
their seats. It seemed so strange and fantastical that a computer could be programmed with so many human expressions and mannerisms.
“Tell me,” Allie said. “How did you come here?”
Shrugging comfortably, Gabriel glanced over to see Sam leaning forward in her
chair with interest. In that position one good sneeze would free her cleavage completely of the low neckline of her skimpy shirt. Her wolf ears were perked forward, and Mister Mittens watched intently from her shoulders. Now they were interested in listening!
“There’s not much to tell, really,” Gabriel said. “I was crossing a street, and a douchebag bus driver ran me over. I had to have died, because there’s really no walking away from something like that.”
“Not to interrupt, but once something is dead, it is dead. Perhaps it is my nature as a computer that I do not believe in some greater power beyond this reality. I am programmed to believe only what I can quantify, and that is something that I cannot.”
“Fancy way of saying you’re an atheist. Anyway, everything went black and then I was falling out of the sky toward a lake and this guy called the Northern Sage said he had a job for. Then I was here, with instructions to meet someone named Millie Farseer.
She told me to come here and meet with you, but she was stingy on the details.”
Allie looked at him for a few seconds like he was crazy until Mister Mittens
spoke up.
“The Northern Sage, you say?”
“Celestial Mother!” An expression of delight suddenly appeared on Allie’s face.
It was like watching HDTV when the image would freeze due to static and then take up again a second later with a person’s face suddenly in a completely different expression.
“Your kitty talks! That is so cute! Come on, say something else.”
Mister Mittens rolled his eyes at the hologram. Every time he made a human
mannerism, Gabriel had to fight not to crack up over it.