Torbin’s first sight upon awakening was brilliant whiteness. Then he saw shapes moving, dark figures looming over him. His eyes would not adjust to their forms to resolve into anything he could identify as either human or alien.
At first Torbin had not been aware of any physical sensation, but then he realised he was recumbent, and that some kind of metal frame held his head; yet that wasn’t what was preventing him from any movement. He was paralysed. They were doing something to him; one of the dark figures held a sharp implement – moving it slowly towards his head. The top – his brain.
He felt no pain, but now strange shapes were flashing before his eyes: purple blobs, green dots, then orange streaks. This stopped when the creature pulled the implement away. The creature then appeared to consult with a colleague. Though Torbin knew they were communicating, he heard nothing. In fact, there hadn’t been a single sound since he woke.
Both the creatures then turned away. It was difficult to see in periphery, but they were only out of his sight for a few seconds before returning. The one in front darted towards him at an alarming rate. The device in its hand extruded a filament like some ancient exposed lightbulb. The filament glowed blue-white. Still, Torbin felt nothing when the creature lowered it to below his line of sight – his chin. Torbin thought of protesting this time, expressing his disgust that he, someone so important to their connection with humanity, should be treated in this degrading way. The fear itself hadn’t really kicked in until this moment. Not before the room swung with nauseating rapidity. Not fully before he caught a view of his headless body, as one of the creatures appeared to be cauterising the cut artery spurting blood from his neck. He realised the same was being done to the part connected to his head, as his view jerked about. And now there was a definite sensation of heat. It also occurred to him that the metal frame was still attached. Perhaps a part of the machinery keeping him conscious. Surely without that he would not be so aware of it all.
The jerky view continued, with glimpses of machinery – an articulated arm with a precision tool extending. Torbin was carried into a pale blue lit room. He caught a brief glimpse of a translucent box containing a pink-orange liquid, taken nearer towards it. It was for him, he knew.
But instead of immersing his head in the tank, he was placed down on a near-by metal table, reminding him of a work bench. One creature, clad in a white jump suit, was holding something similar to a laser pen – its end glowing violet, directed above his eye line. No pain; they had somehow shut off his nerves, though his vision was blurring. Then … nothing, until---
Immersed now into his new environment. But he wasn’t to be left there. Torbin had trouble seeing any detail through the liquid, though he could see enough to know this was a hanger. The space craft gave it away. A silver ovoid looming larger. A portal opening, a stepped ramp forming under. And he was taken aboard.
Then it all became a confused mess of shapes and colours, much like before.
When the chaos ceased, Torbin had a clear view of space, and overlaid symbols and grids denoting sectors and individual stars. A new interface? Surely, he thought, everything he’d experienced in the last hour had been a dream, that all the time he’d been on a set course in the B’tari ship. To where?
The stars didn’t look familiar, but maybe he’d just forgotten. He was travelling, it seemed, fast but at sublight speed – the symbols were moving, the forward stars blue-shifted. And if he were heading towards the Elusiver’s domain ... The Elusivers’ domain?
‘Computer. Were am I heading?’ There was something strange about his voice: it seemed to have no vocal resonance – no sense of it coming from his mouth; like a thought.
‘Towards Cygnus-X1,’ the synth androgynous voice said.
‘Are you taking me towards a black hole?’ His calm tone belying the panic bubbling beneath.
‘That is correct – a course locked on to the singularity.’
‘Why?’
‘Because that is how you’d prefer to die, given certain options.’ It was true, he even once said it to a colleague – just to experience what it would be like; much better than a slow decline into old age senility.
‘How could you know that?’
‘Your mind is fully connected. Your imminent death will be by this preferred method.’
‘Computer. Disconnect me. Immediately!’
‘Not possible. You are now integrated.’
‘So it wasn’t a dream,’ Torbin thought out loud. ‘I’m just a disembodied brain.’
‘Affirmative. You no longer require a body.’
Torbin was desperately searching for some escape plan. He wondered if his destination would be affected by the temporal eradication wave. Given Elusiver technology the ship would be protected. Surely they wouldn’t waste a whole ship to a black hole. Did the Elusivers really have any regard for him? Or was this some twisted experiment?
‘Why? Why didn’t they just kill me?’
‘That question is beyond my remit.’
‘Of course it is. Then tell me: how long till we reach it?’
‘Approximately eighty-four hours.’
‘And what do I do in that time?’
‘You contemplate death.’
‘Will I dream?’
‘Yes. We will dream together.’
*
In her office, Raiya was studying the ever-expanding datanet coverage of The Trancenders, the various conspiracy theories. The most interesting one contained some supposed evidence of their allegiance with an advanced group of aliens – the ‘Bortati’ (the name sounded strangely familiar). A low resolution photograph taken from a mountain eight kilometres away – which the observer claimed was the nearest safe distance – allegedly showed a reptilian yet humanoid creature speaking with the leader Parmayan Redandich. Typically there was no corroborative evidence, though maybe it lent weight to the theory that their saviour really did exist, rather than used as a device by the leader for the subjugation of his followers.
Raiya was distracted from her musings by a call from the receptionist. She said, ‘There is a man outside who says his name is Torbin Lyndau; says he has some important information for you. However, his scan produces nothing on file. Shall I have him removed from the premises?’
That name made her heart race. She remembered him, the man who visited her with ‘evidence’ – a diary – of his encounters with a supreme alien race. Then his arrest and subsequent disappearance. She had to think for a while. Was he dangerous? Possibly. But what could he get away with if he was being monitored?
‘Let him through. But I want him monitored.’
The knock on her door was insistent, impatient.
‘Come in.’ she said.
He looked thinner than she remembered, his hair was cut neatly. She recalled before the wild-eyed look of desperation in his face – the man with too many dark experiences. Now, he looked calm.
‘Doctor Fortenski,’ he said. ‘You may not believe me, but what I am about to do is necessary for the safety of this planet.’
Raiya got up from her chair, her heart thumping, adrenalin coursing – doubtless in futile preparation. What did she need, in counter? She tried to call out as he lifted his hand. He held something similar to a key fob. But it must have been the moment he was about to to use it that the door behind opened. Leonard Heigener shouted: ‘Drop it! That thing in your hand.’
Torbin turned, pointed the device at Heigener. ‘Don’t come any nearer,’ he warned.
‘Okay. If it’s a weapon I don’t know how you got it past security. But if you use it you will not get far – your every move is being monitored.’
‘I am not the dangerous one here. I’m not the one who is meddling in affairs about which I have no proper comprehension.’ His way of speaking sounded curiously familiar to Raiya.
‘I really do not know what you’re talking about,’ said Heigener, ‘but I am prepared to listen to you at a later time – if you make an appointment.’
Torbin moved towards him. ‘Out of my way.’
Without a word Heigener complied, and watched as the man stormed off. Heigener turned back to Raiya, and commented: ‘That man is seriously unhinged, but he would make an interesting patient.’
‘You’re welcome to have him as a patient. Just keep him the hell away from me.’
‘He is the man who claims to know you. It is curious, though, his belief he has some connection.’
‘There was something about him – a kind of familiarity. But he reminded me of someone else. What he said about meddling in affairs...’ She thought about the tall sinister man. ‘I wonder if someone got to him. Brainwashed him.’
‘Raiya, you’ve been spending too much time on the net. The only brainwashing is done by the Transcenders. Let’s just worry about some paranoid delusional with influence.’
‘Sure, on the face of it Parmayan is the real danger. But I wonder if Torbin recognises that more deeply than we do.’
‘Then all we can do is keep digging for the evidence.’
***