Susan rotated her hand in a get-to-the-point gesture. “Yes?”
“I came here to confirm that the dog that attacked me was a Keystone and not just a mongrel with a nasty set of bacteria in its mouth.”
“Why?”
“There are approximately two billion people on the planet, right? How many animals are there?”
Susan looked perplexed by his abrupt line of questioning. “What?” she asked.
“How many animals are there? What I’ve seen and heard today proves that we’re not the only species to have developed Keystones. In fact, from the conversations I’ve overheard, a plethora of different species are exhibiting Keystone traits.”
Susan pulled a face and drummed her ring finger on a table before asking, “Are you suggesting that humanity is in danger from non-human Keystones?”
“Yes. I think that things are about to get very ugly.”
“What are you going to do?”
“The only sensible thing. I’m going to take a holiday.”
Susan blinked rapidly, her eyelids rivaling a hummingbird’s wings. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I think that either you segued into another conversation or had a stroke in mid-sentence.”
“A holiday to the Terra Rings. We’re the most populous species up there. We’ll have the advantage.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Then I’ll have visited the Terra Rings, which is something I’ve always wanted to do anyways.”
The Terra Rings
Jonny had finished his video of the rat scurrying across the Elevator’s glass exterior and enjoyed the rest of his trip after having been paid an exorbitant amount of money for very little work. The Elevator finally reached the space-side terminal, where he disembarked along with his fellow passengers.
Space-side terminals were always impressive. After you stepped out of the Elevator, an entire wall of glass gave you a perfect view of the spinning Terra Rings. They were massive on a scale impossible to imagine for someone who’d never been off-planet. They were also a bit irregular. People imagined them as smooth bands spinning in space. The second part was true, but countless shuttle bays, shipyards, and other irregularities dotted their planes.
Several travelers peeled off and headed toward a tour station; others bee-lined for the massive window that stared out into space. It was always easy to identify the tourists. They were the ones who were clumsy in zero gravity. Jonny overheard the tour introduction:
Like the space bridge itself, the docking station is in geostationary orbit, approximately thirty-six thousand kilometers above the surface of the Earth, an orbit that is only possible along the Equator. However, the Terra Rings revolve around the Earth. Three concentric bands make between six and seven revolutions of the planet on a daily basis in order to simulate standard gravity. Constructed before the advent of the Doppler-Bubble Drive, the Terra Rings started their existence as an outpost on the end of one space bridge that had been built for the express purpose of capturing near-Earth asteroids and mining their raw materials. Such pursuits became more profitable due to nearly limitless solar energy and the absence of environmental regulations. People migrated to space en masse for the manufacturing jobs created during this process. . . .
The prerecorded voice dropped off as Jonny moved farther away, gliding from handhold to handhold.
He lived on Ring Two and was most interested in determining when his section would pass this docking station so that he could get home. He scanned the departure information. He was in luck. The next rotation meant that passing onto Ring Two near his home would be feasible within twenty minutes.
Transferring from the docking station to the Rings was easy. There were three large capsules in which you waited, depending on which Ring you wished to go to. At regular intervals these capsules were shot toward the passing Rings, where they would match velocities and dock. Meanwhile three other capsules would replace the three leaving the station, ferrying goods or passengers that were headed to the station.
Jonny entered his designated capsule, which to his amazement was more than half full. He checked his Uplink and saw that traffic to the Rings had risen since The Sweep.
There were reports that Ring-dwellers who had been Earth-side had chosen to cut trips, vacations, and excursions short. Thinking of his own experiences, Jonny couldn’t blame them.
The wait for the capsule launch felt interminable, as all waiting does when you’re impatient for a result and too anxious to distract yourself.
Jonny had two immediate goals, getting home and calling Derek. His grinding impatience ended when the countdown timer began: “Capsule departure in thirty seconds. Capsule departure in twenty seconds. Capsule departure in ten seconds. Capsule departure in five, four, three, two, one.”
The thrust of acceleration came over him, followed by sounds of the capsule’s docking with Ring Two. The comfortable embrace of gravity returned, pressing Jonny into his seat. Passengers swept out of the capsule like water gushing from a hole in a plastic container.
Jonny headed to the nearest train stop. It was a small irony of living on the Rings that traveling the shortest distances tended to take the greatest amount of time. The portions of the habitats between capsule-docking stations were the most time-consuming to reach. Jonny lived in such an area.
His favorite form of short-distance transportation was the moving walkways, which were fast and free. A series of parallel strips, the outermost walkways moved the slowest and the inner three quite fast. On this section of Ring Two the walkways, made of a shiny black material with neon blue stripes, were in good repair. There were handles that you could hold onto that eased the difficulty of crossing over from one speed to another. Carrying his meager luggage, Jonny moved to the middle walkway.
The Rings were built to sustain much higher populations than they actually held. After the Doppler-Bubble Drive was invented, many who wanted to live in space ended up moving out much further than the Rings, building habitats on moons throughout the solar system. Others went to artificial habitats located in the Lagrange points between planets and their moons. The upside of this was that Jonny’s apartment, while inconveniently located, was large and low-rent.
Ten minutes later Jonny was getting close to home and downshifted to the slower walkways. After he disembarked it was a five-minute walk to his apartment complex.
Approaching his door, he felt like a new man. Gone was the dusty traveler who had been attacked by wild animals. Facial-recognition software and biometric scans identified him and allowed him entrance.
His living room was divided into one section for a bar and entertainment area, another for cooking, and a third for dining. The predominant colors were an off-white for the stone walls and floors and blue for most of the furniture. The crowning glory was a huge window that looked out on space, with a view much like that of the Elevator terminal. From it Jonny could see Ring Three passing by, as well as the sun in all of its magnificence. Depending on the time of day and lunar month, the moon was also known to make an appearance.
It wasn’t just being home that was important to Jonny. It was the overall sense of living on the Rings. Whereas Earth was a mishmash of organic materials when it came to construction, the Terra Rings, like every other man-made structure in space, were artificial and sterile. Walls, doors, furniture, clothing, and fixtures all were made of metal or plastic or polymers. Nothing of natural origin was left. After his experience in Kenya, Jonny found this very comforting.
Dropping his bag on the floor, Jonny addressed the first order of business—getting clean. The water from the shower rained down on him, penetrating even the worst of the grime from his trip. When he stepped out of the shower, he felt that he was clean for the first time since he’d visited Earth. Rejuvenated, he was ready for his next task.
Still toweling his hair, Jonny made a call over the embedded entertainment system in his quarters.
A sullen voice answered, “Hello?”
“Derek, you know it’s me.”
Jonny’s wall-screen flickered to life. The expression on Derek’s face as he replied could best be described as restrained distaste. “Yes, but I don’t know why you’re calling me. It’s been three years.”
“I have something that I need to work out, and you’re the only person with the right sort of background to help me.”
“You know, Jonny, it means so much that you called,” Derek said, sarcasm lacing every word.
“I can pay.”
Derek paused. Jonny knew that he’d shifted the entire level of the discussion. “Wait, you want a favor that you’re going to pay for?”
“Yep.”
Eyes narrowed and chin pinched between his thumb and forefinger, Derek asked, “When did you become so generous?”
“Did you see that video of the rat?”
“I think everyone saw that hoax. It’s despicable how the news outlets try to cash in on the panic of
. . . .
”
Jonny cut him off in mid-rant. “It was no hoax. I sold the footage to them. It was a secure live feed. I still have the original of the video if you want to verify it.”
“Excuse me?”
Jonny maintained a matter-of-fact tone. “The rat was crawling on the glass exterior of my Elevator.”
“
You
took that video?” Derek infused the word “you” with amazement, shock, and disbelief.
“That’s what I’m saying, yes.”
“And they paid you for it?”
“Again, yes.”
Jonny observed the muscles tightening around Derek’s eyes. “What is it that you want help with?”
“It’ll be easier if we discuss it in your lab.”
“Ten grand.”
Jonny had known that Derek was going to be angry with him, but this was outrageous. “What?”
“I want ten grand up front as a show of good faith.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Hey, you’re the one with the sudden windfall who needs a favor. Besides, you did screw me on that last contract.”
“Fine, but if I’m paying you up front, I expect an open mind. I also expect you to spend several hours helping me work this out.”
“Deal.”
Derek sat at his desk leaning on his elbow and pressing his fist into his cheek. The white coat that he wore, as well as the accreditations lining the lab’s walls, were reassuring to Jonny after his adventures in Africa. Derek’s demeanor was less so. Listening with a skeptical expression on his face while Jonny narrated his story, Derek was not convinced.
“Let me make sure I understand you properly,” said Derek. “All extraneous details aside, when you were attacked a dark and cold liquid jetted out from your palms, saving you.”
Jonny kept his voice level and calm. “In a nutshell, yes.”
Derek’s response carried almost no inflection. “So what is it that you want me to do?”
Jonny tried to keep his tone light, not wanting Derek to get the better of him. “I want you to figure out what the hell’s happened to me.”
“Uh huh. How exactly?”
“How should I know? You’re the geneticist, and you demanded payment up front. Test my DNA. Put together some research protocols. How were the original Keystones tested?”
“I never paid attention to the protocols. Before now it has always been my professional opinion that the original Keystones were hoaxes.”
“Right, and the rat on my video?” Jonny felt a tangible sense of irritation growing.
“You hoaxed a major news network. Congratulations. You’ll be going to jail.”
“What?” Jonny couldn’t help but feel that Derek was baiting him.
Derek sat up straighter and smiled, looking as though he were having a pleasant daydream. “Well, no. Realistically they’re probably just going to sue you for everything that you’re worth.”
Jonny’s nostrils flared, and he bit his lip to hold back angry words. “I’ve already paid for your help. I’d like a little bit more than this.”
“I’m keeping the money,” replied Derek, “but I’m not going to be part of your deluded fantasies.”
Derek’s smug expression proved to be too much. “Listen here, you insufferable son of a bitch,” Jonny exploded while pointing his finger at Derek’s face. “I came to you with documented footage of part of my story and
. . . .
” As he began to get into the swing of his tirade, a stream of icy, dark liquid sprayed over Derek. Jonny stared at the tip of his index finger. It was as dry as a desert stone. Derek’s face, clothes, and desk were covered by the stuff. The smell was familiar, very familiar.
Derek shivered a few times and gathered himself before licking his hand twice, an incredulous expression on his face. “Guinness? Really? Guinness? Your superpower is that you can spray cold Guinness at people? Christ, could you be more of a frat boy?” He looked down at himself and his desk. “I need a shower. Then I need to come up with some protocols. I don’t even know where to begin. There are absolutely no precedents. You know that, right?”
“DNA testing?”
“What the hell do you want me to look for? The Guinness gene? First discovered by Arthur Guinness in 1759?”
Jonny did his best to hide his own shock at what had just happened. “Okay. I’ll wait here while you get cleaned up.”
Derek walked back into his office and found Jonny pointing into an Erlenmeyer flask with one finger, jabbing in the opening with his finger.
He smirked and said, “So you’re having limited success then?”
Jonny looked at him with narrowed eyes reminiscent of a movie villain and pointed a finger in his direction. Derek dodged behind his desk.
“Are you going to help me work this out or not?” asked Jonny.
“I’ll waive the fee of ten grand, but I want half of the profits.”
“Profits? What profits?”
“That’s a deal then?”
Jonny waved away Derek’s confusing comment. “Sure, whatever.”
“Excellent. Now then, have you heard the stories about mothers’ lifting cars off their children or similar such events?”
“Yeah, of course. Who hasn’t?”
“Do you know what they all had in common?”
“Stupid kids?”
“Yes, that too, but more to the point they were people under emotional duress. They were able to do something that they normally couldn’t.”