'What is the significance of this?' my inquisitor asked, fingers strumming on the gunbutt.
'Nothing important,' I sand, stifling a yawn at the unimportance of it all. 'The test circuitry is simply testing the circuits of your test circuitry.'
I poked out a casual finger towards the glowing lights and found the barrel of his weapon grinding into my side.
'That sounds like absolute waffle to me. The truth, now, or you are dead.'
There are seconds that sometimes appear to stretch for a length of time bordering on eternity. This was one of those occasions. The Commander glared at me. I tried to look innocent: The scientists, slack-jawed, looked at him. The Killerbot waited in the doorway and clanked to itself, hissing steam and probably wishing that it was killing something. Time stood still and eternity hovered close by.
I had very few options open.
Like none.
'The truth is… ' I said. And could not go on. What could I possibly say that would impress this maniac in any way? At this moment there was a great explosion and pieces of Killerbot clanked and rattled in through the door.
As you might imagine this really did draw everyone's attention. As did the voice that rang out an instant later.
'Jim - drop!'
And there was Floyd at the open door, brandishing an impressive weapon of some kind. Fido has done its job and freed him. He had polished off the Killerbot and was now taking the action from there.
The commander swung his weapon around, raised it, ready to fire.
I did not drop as instructed because I was possessed by a hallucinatory moment of madness. I had been pushed around too much of late and suddenly, overwhelmingly, felt like doing a little pushing back.
The lights in the artifact glowed their welcome and my finger punched out in their direction.
To do what?
To touch one of the beckoning colored lights, of course.
Which one?
What color meant what to the ancient aliens who had built this thing.
I had no idea.
But green had always meant go to me.
Cackling hysterically I stabbed down on the green light.
Chapter 26
Apparently nothing happened. I pulled my finger back and looked at the lights. Then at The Commander and his drawn gun, wondering why he hadn't used it.
Then looked at him again. And saw that he wasn't moving. I mean just not moving in the slightest. I mean like paralyzed. Petrified. Glassy-eyed and frozen.
As was everyone else in the room. Floyd stood in the doorway, gun raised and mouth open in an endless shout. Behind him, for the first time, I noticed an unmoving Fido.
The world was a freeze-frame and I was the only one not trapped in it. I was surrounded by people stopped in the act of speaking, walking, moving. Off-balance, hands raised, mouths gaping. Now stilled, silent - dead?
I started towards The Commander, to relieve him of his gun - saw that his finger was tight on the trigger! But with each step I felt the air resisting my movement, growing firm, then more solid until it was like walking into an unyielding wall. Nor could I breathe - the air was a thick liquid that I could not force into my lungs.
Panic grew and grabbed me - then died away just as quickly when I stepped back. I felt normal again. Air was air and I breathed in and out quite nicely.
'Put the mind in gear, Jim!' I shouted at myself, my words loud in the surrounding silence. 'Something is happening - but what? Something happened after you touched the green light. Something to do with the artifact.'
I stared at it. Tapped it with my knuckles. Groped about for inspiration. Found it.
'Tachyons! This thing emits them - we know that because that is how Aida tracked it in the first place. Tachyons - the units of time…'
The device was now functioning - I had turned it on when I had pressed the light. Green for go. Go where?
Stasis or speed. Either I had been speeded up or the world had slowed down. Or how could I tell the difference? From my point of view everything seemed to have slowed and stopped. The artifact had done something, projected a temporal field or stopped the motion of molecules. Or had created an occurrence that froze the surrounding world in a single moment of time. Time had come to a stop everywhere that I could see - except in the close vicinity of the device. I moved even closer and patted it.
'Good little time machine. Time mover, slower, halter, stopper - whatever you are. Neat trick. But what do I do next?'
It chose not to answer me. Nor did I expect it to. This was my problem now and I had to force myself to take the time to think it out. For the moment I had all the time I needed. Though eventually I would have to do something. And that something would probably mean touching another one of the colored buttons. Either that or I could stand looking dumbly at the device while I quietly died of thirst or starvation or whatever.
But which light?
Green had been obvious enough - even more obvious by hindsight. And the decision had been made at a moment of life and death. Now I was not so sure. I reached out, then dropped my hand. With plenty of time to decide I had become the master of indecision. Green had meant go, turn on, get started. Did red mean off, stop? Maybe. But what about white and orange?
'Not an easy one, Jimmy boy?' I said in what I hoped was a jocular voice-which came out very mournful and doomladen. I wrung my hands together with indecision. Then stopped and looked at them as though I might see some answer printed on my fingers. All I saw was dirt under the nails.
'You have got to do it sooner or later - so do it sooner before your nerve fails completely,' I told myself. Reached out a finger - drew it away. It looked like my nerve had indeed failed me completely.
'Take yourself in hand, Jim!' I ordered. Reached back and took a handful of collar and shook myself as violently as I could.
It was no help at all. Random choice then? Why not, just as good as guessing. I put the finger out again and promised myself that I would push down on whatever color was under the finger when the jingle ended.
'Eeeny, meeny, miney, shmoe, catch a…'
I never found out what I was going to catch because at that moment I heard the dragging footsteps coming from the hall.
Sound?
Out there where nothing moved!
I jumped about, hands raised in defense. Lowered them and waited as the footsteps grew louder, came closer and closer to the doorway…
Slipped past Floyd's immobile body.
'Aliens! Monsters!' I gasped, pulling back. Trying to run although I knew there was no place to go.
Two hideous metal creatures. Bifurcated limbs, many-angled skulls, glowing eyes, claw-fingered hands. Coming towards me. Stopping. Reaching out…
No! Reaching up to twist their own heads off. I could hear a gurgling scream, was only dimly aware that it was my own voice.
Twisted and turned and lifted -
Lifted off the helmets. Two very human faces looked at me with a good deal of interest. I stared back with the same emotion. Realized that, despite the close-cropped hair, the one on the left was female. She smiled at me and spoke.
