Waking Gods Read online

  —That would suggest she has somehow traveled through time. To me, that sounds equally implausible. Truth be told, I am at a loss for an explanation that does not fall into the science-fiction category.

  —Time travel! Yes, I drove up to her in a Delorean and asked her if she’d like to take a ride at eighty-eight miles per hour.

  —Mock me all you want but something happened to her. If you did not send her zipping through time, what did you do?

  —I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have. Besides, I’ve been told it is possible, you know, time travel. But you can’t move physical objects, you move information about objects, people, and you reconstruct them at a different time. We don’t have the technology to do the time part, we just took what she was and made her, again.

  —Four years younger?

  —Four years before she reappeared, she got into a car accident on her way home from work. She rear-ended a van. Inside that van was a very powerful device that can … move things. It records an enormous amount of data about what you want to move, enough to reconstruct it somewhere. While she was unconscious, associates of mine took her inside the van and scanned her. Only they didn’t move her, they stored her data in case anything was to happen to her, as it did. Like a backup, for your computer. Her backup was four years old when we used it, yes.

  —Why were you following her?

  —She rear-ended the van. So, technically, she was following us.

  —Please answer my question.

  —I told you! We wanted her data in case anything was to happen to her.

  —But why her data and not—

  —Yours? Maybe because she doesn’t ask so many questions. What can I tell you? We like her. She’s … special.

  —So the person I met this morning is a copy.

  —She is what she is. She’s the same person, no more, no less.

  —You just told me you re-created her using … backup data. That would make her a copy.

  —We should really end this discussion here, it’ll make you uncomfortable if we continue.

  —I must confess, I am not entirely certain that I want to know more. I am, however, absolutely certain that Dr. Franklin needs to.

  —Then down the rabbit hole we go. Universe 101. Everything in the universe, everything, is made from the same goo. Let’s take something you can think of as discrete so it’ll be easier for you to grasp. Atoms. Do you agree you’re made of atoms?

  —I did go to high school.

  —That’s not what I meant. Do you agree that you’re made of atoms, just atoms? Not atoms plus some fantastic force that makes you somehow more important than everything else in the universe.

  —I understand that my body is made of atoms.

  —No you don’t. People never do. I mean your memories about the neighbor’s cat, the way you like your eggs in the morning, the things you never told your parents, what makes you, you. What do you think you are made of?

  —Does the answer start with an “A”?

  —Don’t be a smart ass. I know you think you understand. I know you want to understand. The way you felt about your first love, the self-doubt you’re feeling right now. You know it can all be described physically, but deep down you refuse to believe that’s what you are because you don’t think that’s special enough, and you wanna be special. Everyone does. I do too!

  —You are saying I do not have a soul.

  —I don’t mean to be rude, but if there were a Heaven, I doubt they’d throw you a parade.

  —You misunderstood; I am not a religious person. I do not believe I will exist forever, nor would I want to.

  —Then I guess it depends on your definition of a soul. I can see you haven’t put much thought into this.

  —What do you mean?

  —Do you know what happens in your brain when you’re thinking?

  —Neurons fire electrical impulses.

  —Good. Every thought you have is a physical process. We know this for a fact, we can see it happening. We also know that emotions can be described in similar terms. Obviously, what you see, hear, touch, taste, smell is tied to your body.

  —Your point being?

  —That I really don’t get what you’re clinging onto if this isn’t about eternal life. Your soul, if you had one, the part of you that can’t be summed up as a bunch of atoms, would have no physical presence, couldn’t hear, smell, touch, or see anything. It would be incapable of thinking. No thoughts whatsoever, no sense of self. It wouldn’t feel anything either. Your soul would be … a hole … emptiness. There’s nothing special about that.

  —You will forgive me if I choose to believe … if I continue to believe I am more than the sum of my parts.

  —But you are! So much more! Most things are. As Wittgenstein said, when you talk about a broom, you’re not making a statement about a stick and a brush. The universe is a marvelous place where just about everything is more than the sum of its parts. Take two hydrogens—they’re everywhere—add an oxygen, and BAM! Water! Is water just oxygen and hydrogen? I don’t think so. It’s water! Does it have a soul?

  —Can we leave my spiritual self alone for a moment and talk about Dr. Franklin?

  —We are. What are you made of?

  — … Atoms.

  —Good man. Atoms, which are made of particles, which are made of other stuff. Matter. You’re a very complex, awe-inspiring configuration of matter that is stable at room temperature.

  —I do not mean to interrupt, but room temperature?

  —More or less. The universe loves stability. That’s why you don’t fall apart into a quadrillion little parts or a puddle of goo. But you’re only stable at this temperature. Raise it or lower it by a hundred degrees and you start falling apart.

  —Heartwarming.

  —It should be. Let me ask you this: Do you think your atoms are any different from those that make up the chair you’re sitting on, the sun, or the kung pao chicken?

  —Go on.

  —Of course not. You got a lot of what you’re made of from the food you ate. You have banana matter in you. Do you think that if I took two hydrogen atoms from the salt shaker and switched them up with two of yours, you’d be any different?

  —No. I do not believe it would alter my essence.

  —What if I switched more than two? How about all of them? You see what I’m getting at. If I grab a bunch of matter, anywhere, and I organize it in exactly the same way, I get … you. You, my friend, are a very complex, awe-inspiring configuration of matter. What you’re made of isn’t really important. Everything in the universe is made of the same thing. You’re a configuration. Your essence, as you call it, is information. It doesn’t matter where the material comes from. Do you think it matters when it comes from?

  —I suppose not.

  —So, as I said, Dr. Franklin is Dr. Franklin. If she weren’t, then she would be something else.

  —I must say, I find you particularly unhelpful today. I will do my best to replicate this conversation with her, but in all honesty, I would be astonished if Dr. Franklin found lasting comfort in atoms and banana matter.

  —If it makes you feel better, I’ll talk to her and I’ll tell her exactly what we did. If you want me to, that is.

  —Why not tell me so that I can relay the information?

  —You haven’t told her about me, have you?

  —I have not.

  —You should really talk to someone about your control issues.

  —I have one question before we eat.

  —I’m serious!

  —So am I. I do have one question.

  —You’re hopeless, completely and utterly hopeless … What do you wanna know?

  —Why take her to Ireland, of all places?

  —The device was nearby. As I said, it is designed to move things, and the closer you move t
hem, the easier it is to control where they reappear. We didn’t want her to rematerialize in the middle of a lake or on a busy highway. This isn’t as easy at it seems.

  —It seems many things: inconceivable, far-fetched. It does not seem easy.

  —Then it’s just as hard as it seems. Maybe harder.

  —I may regret asking, but how is what you did any different from traveling through time?

  —You’re right. For her, it would have seemed instantaneous, so from her perspective, it isn’t different at all. From ours, well, I guess you could call this really, really slow time travel.

  —I do not understand.

  —The reason we can’t send information zipping through time, as you said, is that we don’t know where it will end up. How do I put this? Stuff moves fast. Really really fast! The Earth spins on itself a thousand miles an hour. It flies around the sun at sixty-six thousand miles an hour, while the sun is going about half a million miles an hour around the galaxy. Of course, the Milky Way is also moving in our cluster of galaxies, which is also moving, very very fast. And all of this is happening in a universe that’s constantly expanding. Four years is a lot of mileage to keep track of. I’m sure there’s a proper bullet analogy, but I can’t think of any that would do this justice at the moment. The point is, we can’t do it.

  But her information did move through time. It was sitting in a drawer for four years. It took four years for it to travel four years into the future.

  —So between the time of her death and her reappearance, Dr. Franklin did not exist, but information about her did, in a drawer, somewhere.

  —I told you this conversation was a bad idea. Oh, thank God! Our food’s here.

  FILE NO. 1433

  SURVEILLANCE LOG—WORKSTATION #3

  Location: Earth Defense Corps Headquarters, New York, NY

  [01:01]

  It’s 6:00 A.M. London Time. Jamie MacKinnon at workstation #3. Continuing remote video surveillance of Regent’s Park. Monitoring southeast cameras 1 through 5.

  [01:03]

  Selecting camera 1. Overlaying image from … 5:00 A.M. Perfect match. No movement.

  [01:08]

  Changing view modes. Toggle to infrared. No change in thermal readouts. Heat signature is uniform. Air temperature in London is … 8 degrees Celsius, 47 Fahrenheit. The robot registers at 10 degrees, 2 degrees warmer than ambient.

  [01:21]

  Toggle back to visible light. Lea, did anyone check the EM readings?

  [Still nothing. That thing’s like a rock.]

  Figures.

  [01:31]

  Switching to camera 2. How’d we end up with the graveyard shift again?

  [Seniority]

  Oh! Come on! We’ve both been here longer than Nathan and I don’t see him here. I think Dr. Doom just hates us.

  [Shhhh! She’ll hear you!]

  She’s still here? Does the woman ever sleep?

  [Just go back to work.]

  [01:43]

  What the hell? Lea, scoot over for a sec. Tell me what you see …

  [That’s just a bird flying into the robot. Happens a lot.]

  No, let me zoom in if I can. Now, what do you see?

  [Shit!]

  Get Dr. Franklin now!

  [1:49]

  [What is it, Jamie?]

  Hello, Dr. Franklin. Sorry to bother you at this hour, but take a look at this. This is from camera 2 about ten minutes ago.

  [It’s a bird.]

  Wait. Let me go back. Look closer.

  [Looks like it hit … ]

  Yeah.

  [That’s about what? A foot before the metal? Could just be an optical illusion. Can we get the same thing from camera 4?]

  Sure. Rewinding to 06 … 42. Should be about now.

  [Stop! Here it is. Damn! Play it again … ]

  Should we wake up the General?

  [I’d rather have more than a bird … Let me think for a second.]

  Rain.

  [What?]

  It rained last night.

  [Oh. That’s good, Jamie. Can you access it here?]

  Yep. Just give me one sec. Time index … Let’s try three o’clock … No.

  [Earlier. Try one thirty.]

  Yep. It’s raining.

  [We can’t see anything. Switch to infrared.]

  Holy shit!

  [The rain isn’t touching the robot at all, anywhere. Nice thinking, Jamie!]

  How’d we miss that?

  [We didn’t detect anything so we forgot to look with our own eyes. Can you measure the field around the robot?]

  I get … 28 cm. Now, do we call the General?

  [I have to call Kara. They won’t be able to defend themselves. Like a lamb to the slaughter.]

  FILE NO. 1439

  INTERVIEW WITH VINCENT COUTURE, CONSULTANT, EARTH DEFENSE CORPS

  Location: Somewhere in the Atlantic

  —How long until you reach your destination, Mr. Couture?

  —We’ll be there by morning. It’s a good thing too, I’m starting to get seasick. We’ve been hitting rough seas for the last couple days.

  —I understand all too well. I do not fare well at sea.

  —I’m glad you called. Kara just got off the phone with Dr. Franklin. What’s this I hear about an energy field? They told us we didn’t detect anything around that robot.

  —We did not. We are still unable to detect anything. But I have seen the video footage and you can trust me when I say that nothing will come closer than eleven inches to that robot. Dr. Franklin also believes that, in the event of a fight, your energy weapon will not reach the alien robot, nor that it could vaporize it, as it does normal matter.

  —That I figured out on my own.

  —How?

  —Made sense. The energy weapon we fire through the sword is just a focused version of the omnidirectional burst Themis releases when she’s saturated with energy. If it were really harmful to her, we’d have obliterated ourselves when we destroyed Denver airport. So I know it won’t vanish if we fire at it, but will our weapon do anything?

  —Your weapon might not be completely ineffective. According to Dr. Franklin, it could have some effect on the alien device, like a push or a blow, if it reaches it. It most likely will not inflict significant damage.

  —A push? You mean we were wasting our time training on that weapon? Kara’s aim is getting pretty good.

  —You were shooting at water.

  —We blew a rock to kingdom come, once.

  —Was it moving and shooting back?

  —No. But it was a big rock. What about the sword and shield? That definitely has an effect. We left a ding on Themis’s left foot with the shield during training. Is there any chance it could go through that energy field?

  —We do not know. Bu
t even if it did, General Govender was quick to point out that you have had very little combat training, absolutely none against a real opponent.

  —We’re a little short on two-hundred-foot people to spar with. What about your friend? Can he help?

  —I do not know which associate of mine you are referring to.

  —You know who. The one who told you about Themis, about her name, Titans, aliens. You know, your friend.

  —I … I can not—

  —You’re trying to come up with a way to tell me you learned all of this without anyone’s help and you “can not” think of anything that doesn’t sound completely preposterous. Am I close?

  —In the vicinity. Suffice it to say that if such a “friend” did exist—

  —I’m sorry, but your way out of this is a hypothetical?

  —It has been a long day. As I was saying, if such a friend did exist, I would unfortunately be unable to secure his help.

  —Then you need better friends. Why won’t he help? He can’t really wish us all dead.

  —Perhaps he does not know how. He might also believe the outcome of this encounter to be predestined or unavoidable. Either way, I believe his intentions are good even if I do not fully comprehend his reluctance.

  —Hypothetically … Sounds to me like he’s holding something important from you. But what do I know? I never met the guy.

  —I do not completely disagree.

  —So, let me get this straight. No one will help. Our one long-range weapon won’t work. The sword probably won’t do anything either, and even if it did, we’re terrible at it. Do you have anything nice to say?

  —That is a fair assessment of the situation. You will understand when I say that we are hoping your presence will not be seen as a sign of aggression.