When David opened his eyes, he knew he was back in the Mediterranean villa. Kate stood beside him. An arched wooden door loomed at the end of the hall. On their right, two open doors flooded the narrow space with light.
David knew the doors and the rooms beyond—he had seen Kate there.
This is her dream. I’m in it, David thought.
Kate walked to the end of the hall and reached for the door.
“Don’t,” David said.
“I have to. The answers are behind it.”
“Don’t do it, Kate—”
“Why?”
David was scared, and here in the dream, he knew why. “I don’t want anything to change. I don’t want to lose you. Let’s stay here, where we are.”
“Come with me.” She opened the door and light consumed the corridor.
He raced after her, bounding through the door—
David sat up in bed, panting, fighting for air.
He had thrown Kate off of him, but it hadn’t awoken her.
He rolled her head to face him. “Kate!”
Sweat poured off of her. But her pulse was faint. She was burning up. And she was unconscious.
What do I do? Get one of the doctors? I can’t trust them. Terror—of a magnitude he’d never felt before—gripped him. He pulled her close to him.
To Kate’s surprise, the door led her outside.
She turned to look at the door, but—a massive ship towered above her. She stood on a beach, and the ship spread out on the shore. Somehow Kate knew what it was—the Alpha Lander. What the primitive humans on this world would call Atlantis.
She looked down. She wore an environmental suit.
The sky above her was dark, ash-filled. At first she thought it was night, but she saw a dim sun directly overhead, struggling to break through the ash that blanketed the clouds.
Impossible, Kate thought. This is the Toba Catastrophe, seventy thousand years ago.
A voice echoed in her helmet. “Last recorded life signs are just beyond the ridge, bearing two-five degrees.”
“Copy,” she heard herself say as she set off at a brisk pace across the ash-covered beach.
Beyond the ridge, she saw them: black bodies stacked on the ground from the valley all the way to the mouth of a cave.
She crossed the distance and entered the cave.
The infrared sensors in her suit confirmed it: they were all dead.
She had almost given up hope when a single sliver of crimson lit up her display. A survivor. She moved closer.
Behind her, she heard footsteps. She turned to find a large male, an incredible physical specimen. He barreled toward her with something in his hand.
She gripped her stun baton, but the male broke off his charge. He collapsed next to the female and handed her something: a rotting piece of flesh. She tore into it wildly.
Kate saw it now. The female carried another life sign. An infant. Two hundred forty-seven local days since inception.
The male collapsed back against the wall of the cave. Had he been the chief of his tribe? Perhaps. He had led his people here—to the sea—where the fish could sustain them. But it was too late. These two would die here, in this cave, and it would be the end of their species.
My species too, Kate thought. They are my people, maybe the last of them. With one genetic change, I can save them. I can’t watch them die. I won’t.
Before she knew what was going on, she had hoisted both hominins onto her shoulders. The suit’s exoskeleton and computerized weight distribution bore their bulk with ease. They were too weak to fight back.
On the ship, she rushed them to the lab.
Their species was too young for a full genetic modification. That would kill them. She made a decision: to give them the genetic precursor. That would save them. But it would cause problems. She would be here to help them, to guide them, to fix the issues. She had all the time in the world, in the universe. She would raise them. Full activation would come later, when they were ready.
“What are you doing?” a man’s voice called from behind her.
It was her partner. Her mind raced. What could she tell him? “I’m…”
He stood there in the doorway, light spilling into the lab from behind him. Kate couldn’t see his face. She had to find out who he was. She stood, and walked toward him, but still she couldn’t see his face.
Kate knew he was waiting for her answer. I have to tell him something. I’ll use the truth, but spin it.
“I’m conducting an experiment,” she said, just as she reached him. She grabbed his shoulder, but the light still hid his face.
David wiped another sheet of sweat off Kate’s face. That’s it, I have to get a doctor. I won’t let her die in my arms.
He set her down on the bed, but she grabbed him and inhaled sharply. She gulped mouthfuls of air, and her eyes fluttered wide open.
David searched her face, trying to understand. “What the hell happened? I ran through the door, but—”
“I did it,” she gasped.
“What?”