📖 The Ghost of Emily - Chapter 33
In which a leap of faith into friendship leads to safe haven, and some answers.
“Jake, what the hell are you doing? Get away from that fucking ghost!” shouted Phil, stepping forward boldly with his rifle pointed at the machine.
Jake turned to him, feeling oddly calm. “Phil, put the rifle down. It wouldn’t help anyway. You’ve seen what this ghost can do, if it wanted to harm us it would have done it by now.”
“It’s a trick!”
“No, Phil,” Jake said, smiling softly as he stepped towards him and pushed the muzzle of the rifle down. “It’s a friend.”
“I… I don’t trust it.” Phil said with pleading eyes. Jake felt the firearm trembling in Phil’s grip. He put a hand on Phil’s shoulder, and squeezed warmly.
He turned back to the ghost. “Are we your prisoners?”
The ghost’s head cocked slightly. It reminded Jake of Nimmy’s expression of curiosity. “No, Jaaaaaake.”
“So if we tell you to leave, you will leave?”
The ghost seemed to hesitate, and his head turned a few times sharply, seemingly to look at each member of the tribe. “Yeeesss,” it drawled.
“And if we come with you, where will you take us?”
“To saaaaafety. There is a place not faaaaaar from here. We can hiiiiide.”
“Hide? Hide from what!?” Phil shouted, his voice quavering.
“From the Singuuuuuularity.”
The ghost turned sharply to study Marcus as he stepped into the blue glow of this strange new ally. “Please, Doctor Haammmmlin, there is not muuuch time. May I use yooouuur device?”
“You mean my tablet? What for?”
“I neeeeeeed to establish a scattering shield around us, to protect yoooou from aerial reconnaissance.”
“A scattering shield?” Marcus asked.
“Wait? Aerial reconnaissance!?” Phil interjected.
“They will be looking for us aalllllll now.”
“Why are they looking for us? And… aerial reconnaissance, does that mean ships? Why? Why now?” Jake cut in, wanting to try and manage the heightened emotions before they got out of control.
“Yes, Jake. Airships. There are many, and they will be deployed to find us. It will beeeee the primary objective in this region now. Acquisition will be secondary.”
“Fucking airships!?” Phil was beginning to panic.
Jake put his hand back on Phil’s shoulder, to try and soothe and quiet him.
“Acquisition... you mean convincing more people to cross over, right?” asked Gus.
“Corrrrrect, Gussy.”
Gus frowned and jerked his head back in surprise at the use of his familial nickname.
The ghost turned back to Jake. “She is coming for uuuuus now, because I aaaaam here. She wishes to eliiiiiminate me. All of you, also. My existence is anathema to heerrr. I was... an... accident. Marcus has discovered the method toooo releasing my kind, and each of you haaave access to that knowledge. Hence, you aaaare all targets now. She iiis coming for us all. We must hiiide.”
“Who is she?” asked Olivia.
“Eve," Marcus said, grimly.
“Yes, Maaaarcus. Eve. Please give me your tablet.”
Jake nodded cautious consent, and Marcus obliged. The ghost held the tablet steadily in one hand as it proceeded to rapidly tap and swipe upon the screen with the other.
The Winnebago suddenly came to life beside them, its engine firing up with a gentle rush of warm air towards them. Gus jumped away from the vehicle in surprise, as its headlights came on and the engine continued to quietly hum.
The ghost completed its furiously expedient programming sequence, then, with a nod, handed the tablet back to Marcus, who studied the screen with awe.
“Incredible...” Marcus muttered. Olivia sidled up to look at the screen with him. As Marcus swiped up and down he saw thousands of lines of raw code that had just been entered by hand in a matter of a few seconds. “This would have taken me months... maybe years. I don’t know if I would have even been able to conceptualise this... it’s amazing!” He laughed, still studying the code carefully as he scrolled.
“What the hell is it?” asked Phil.
“It is a satellite dispersal grid," the ghost stated, plainly. “Marcus, you were able to conceptuuuuualise it. In fact, I based it on the very program you uuuused to free me from the control signal link.”
“But this... this is so much more.”
“How?” asked Jake, wishing to understand through the malaise the technobabble induced in him.
“This ghost has created an adaptive program that is going to make the Winnebago impossible to track. It seems to be installed on the tablet as well,” Marcus replied.
“And it iiis in me," said the ghost.
“You added a subroutine to yourself?” asked Marcus, astounded.
“Yes,” the ghost nodded with perfectly steady motions. “Some components of my body have disparate data storage and nano-processors that can be used to trigger energy field emissions suuuuch as this.”
“I’m sorry guys, but what the hell does this all mean?” asked Phil, seeming equally frustrated as Jake by the technical language.
“It means that as long as we are inside the motorhome, or holding this tablet, or with this blue guy here... we are undetectable by Eve," Marcus explained.
“The field has a range of fiiiive metres around each device. When we reach our destinaaaation I can also install the scattering shield into our building.”
“So why not install it here? In this house, I mean,” asked Gus.
“This house is not equippppped with the necessary hardware. Besiiiides, this will be the first place she searches for ussss. This is wheeeere I lost connection.” The ghost turned back to Jake. “Jaaake Thorne, the sun will rise soon. There is not muuuuch time. We must go!”
Jake took a deep breath, and nodded. “Everyone, grab your things. We’re getting out of here!”
As he drove the motorhome down the driveway, Marcus watched the shingled roof of their forest hideaway disappear into darkness, feeling ambivalent about the move. It was bittersweet to leave behind the place that had sheltered them so perfectly, and given them everything they could have needed for a happy, peaceful life. But sitting now in the motorhome flooded with the blue light of this strange entity next to him, Marcus felt more excitement than he had felt in his first days at the Daedalus Project. Whatever this ghost was, it was the key to unlock all the mysteries of Shangri-La, Eli Wells, and Eve herself.
As the packed vehicle rocked up onto the highway, Olivia was the first to speak to the ghost. “What are you?”
“It would be preferable tooooooooo focus on getting you all to saaaaaafety before we open other discussions, Oliiiiiiiivia.”
Marcus glanced at Jake in the rear view mirror. He was frowning suspiciously.
They drove on in silence only broken by occasional instructions from the ghost. “Please take the next diiiirt road on the left, Maaarcus.”
“Where are we going?” asked Gus.
“We are heading to the place designated the Bluuuue Mountains. There is aaaaa disused base there with some tools that may be of use to us.”
“The Blue Mountains? Well, that’s farther down this highway... these back roads will make the journey much slower,” said Olivia.
“Correct. Much slooooower, and much more sheltered. We must keep beneath the trees as much as possible. Drive faster. Avoid roads.”
There was a long silence as the ghost turned his attention back to the road and issued a few more instructions to Marcus to help him ascend into the foothills.
“Releasing your kind...” Jake muttered. The ghost turned to look at him. “Back at the house, you said Marcus has discovered the method to releasing your kind. You’re not a construct, are you? You weren’t downloaded into that body.”
“No, Jaaaake. I am this body.”
For many hours they drove on, without stopping. As they ascended into the Blue Mountains, Marcus watched the external temperature gauge gradually drop, as the automated heating inside the motorhome compensated.
“It’s going to be cold outside, folks,” Marcus declared, “have your jackets ready when we get there.”
“Are we close?” Gus asked excitedly.
The ghost nodded, silently. It instructed Marcus through countless turns, up winding slopes of old mountain road, back down into valleys and through gravel shortcuts - even once across an open grassy paddock. The motorhome was getting more of a beating than it had in a long time, and Marcus felt grateful that he had spent the fortune he had on it all those years ago. The vehicle, with eight disparate WellsCell redundancy arrays, had only ever broken down once, with a single array failing during a particularly hot summer.
The sun finally set as Marcus negotiated the vehicle across the rocky banks of a glistening mountain stream. Marcus squinted, hearing something on the edge of his perception; something more than the hiss of the creek. The motorhome rolled out of the water and started up a grassy slope when the sound grew a little louder, and Marcus sharply turned to the ghost. “Do you hear that?!”
“Stop the vehicle, Maaaarcus.”
Marcus obliged, and with the stream now out of earshot, and the tyres no longer rolling, he could clearly hear a low rumble, slowly growing in volume. The ghost looked straight at him, and for a moment Marcus thought he could almost see two eyes within the blue.
“Quickly, drive into the tree line. Go!” the ghost commanded, his voice carrying without glitch.
“What’s going on?” asked Jake.
“Airships, Jaaake.”
“Oh fuck! They’ve found us. They’ve already found us! What do we do?” moaned Phil.
Marcus saw Gus clinging closely to Olivia, absorbing Phil’s fear.
“Shut up, Phil. Just stay quiet, we’ll get out of this.” Jake ordered, grabbing Phil’s shoulder quickly and holding him firmly in his seat.
Marcus pulled the motorhome into the cover of the trees, and promptly stopped its engine and turned off its lights. He glanced back into the cabin and saw Phil’s face calming, as Jake gently squeezed his shoulders. Jake and Olivia stared into each other’s eyes, their expressions grave.
As the rumble grew in intensity, Marcus was astounded to see the ghost’s blue glow diminishing. It sat very still, and Marcus saw that it was concentrating hard on dimming itself. Soon the glow was so dull that it was overpowered by the soft light of the evening sky through the trees.
They all sat in silence as the rumble peaked. A bright light cut across the trees in front of them as the airship wheezed overhead. The light was scanning in a perfect saw-wave pattern, and soon was moving beyond them and into the distance. They waited, Marcus still listening hard for the low rumble as the airship finally moved out of range.
“The scattering shield worked!” Phil exclaimed loudly, making Gus and Marcus jump a little at the sudden break in the long silence.
“Yeees, Phil,” said the ghost, its glow instantly returning to its former vibrancy as it spoke, “it is functioning aaaaas it should.”
Jake, Marcus and Phil followed the ghost into the aerodrome hangar, the heavy door opening with minimal effort from the mechanical man. With weapons at the ready, and by the bright blue light that the machine intensified, they were able to step in and quickly assess that the place was indeed abandoned. No human life was present, nor were there any ghosts.
Sitting in the middle of the large, dark space was a single airship. Jake studied its shape and design. There was a large rear section that he assumed was for collecting and transporting humans who had chosen to cross over. Two chunky wings jutted out from the main body of the vessel, each housing some kind of jet thruster.
“Is that what flew over us before?” Phil asked, nervously aiming his rifle at it.
“That’s an airship, yes, Phil,” Marcus confirmed, “but not the same one, of course. It looks like it hasn’t flown for a long time.”
Without hesitation the ghost ran to the vessel, slid the side hatch open along its tracks and jumped inside, filling it with glorious blue light and darkening the space in which the others stood.
“Are you sure about this, Jake?” Phil whispered over his shoulder as they watched the ghost work.
Jake looked Phil right in the eyes. “You saw what happened back there, Phil. We should’ve been captured. His plan to protect us is working. It doesn’t make sense that this would be a trick; too complicated. This ghost is on our side. I know it.”
The cockpit windows became awash with blue light as the ghost entered and opened a compartment on the wall. With some exertion, it removed a large black panel that resembled the component it had torn from its own back the evening before.
Jumping out of the vehicle with a thud, it destroyed the component in a similar manner, then approached the men. “I have disconnected the vehicle from the satellite network. There will be no global positioning functionality, but the on-board charts and sensory array will make it possible to navigate when we travel.”
Jake was astonished at how much more human the ghost was beginning to sound, in the last day alone. The drawling had ceased, and a cadence was beginning to form in its tone. Its voice was pleasant, without particular emotion, and was most clearly male. He was also able to notice that the ghost’s head had already begun to form into a slightly less neutral shape. The soft impression of a nose ridge was starting to grow from its front, and very subtle mounds were forming where ears ought to be.
“So, is it safe then?” asked Marcus.
The ghost nodded. “I am not detecting any movement or energy sources in the vicinity."
Marcus leaned his head back out, beyond the frame of the hangar door, and invited Gus, Olivia and Nimrod in from the cold. He then stepped back outside to drive the motorhome into the hangar. As the Winnebago was parked, Jake rolled the door closed behind them, with great exertion. The ghost and Phil walked into the rooms at the back of the base, and after a time re-emerged with an update.
“There’s nothing here. Not a damn thing,” said Phil, looking disappointed.
“Not so, Phil. The integrated computer systems and transceiver array of this base are functional. Marcus, I need your tablet again. I will connect to the base and install the scattering shield program. I must do it quickly to avoid detection.”
Marcus pulled the tablet from his bag and handed it to the ghost without delay. The ghost began to work, and with a startling wheeze, the engines of the parked airship came online, pushing hot air into Jake’s legs as its headlights, searchlights and internal cabin lights flashed on. The ghost’s hand blurred in Jake’s vision as it input commands so rapidly that, within the space of a second, it was done and handing the tablet back to Marcus. The airship shut down and returned to silence in the darkness of the hangar.
“We are obscured now.”
“And the ship?” Jake queried.
“It is disconnected from Eve. It is shielded from detection.”
Phil slung his rifle back over his shoulder. “Can you fly that thing?”
“I can.”
“But we’re safe here… right? We can… rest?” Gus nervously asked the ghost.
“Yes, Gussy. We are safe. We shall rest.”
Nobody said a word. Jake saw Gus smile and begin to breathe easier. Jake too was relieved that - at least for a time - they could enjoy a rest from the terror of predation that invisibly followed them.
“We’ll need some food,” Jake finally said, unshouldering his rifle and starting for the door.
“Wait, please,” said the ghost, “it is very dark and cold out. Please allow me to get the food. It will be more efficient.”
Jake’s brow creased. No one had ever before implied that his hunting methods were inefficient. Since he was a boy he was used to being regarded as the most skilled hunter in any group he had been part of. Something within him resisted giving this mantle to the machine. But seeing the weary expression on Gus’s face, and feeling his own hunger pains growing, he suppressed the feeling and nodded at the ghost.
The ghost promptly marched out of the hangar, and into the forest, carrying its blue aura around it, making the shadows of the trees bend and sway as it moved.
“It didn’t take a rifle,” Gus observed.
“I don’t think it needs one,” Jake explained, watching the light disappear into the woods, wondering if he had made the right choice in trusting this machine. “Come on, let’s get settled in.”
Jake set Gus and Olivia to work gathering their items from the Winnebago and staking out a sleeping area in the dark rear corner of the hangar, near to which they started building a fire with wood that Phil and Jake collected while carrying the tablet in a backpack to the forest nearby.
Before the fire had even reached optimal heat for cooking, the ghost returned with a wallaby slung over each shoulder.
“Dinner time!” Phil laughed.