The Final Fall

Aristar didn’t say another word as she marched them through the Library.

All three of them had their heads hanging low, not paying much attention to where they were being taken.

All too soon, they were led into a room and Aristar shut the door behind them. Looking around, Leura saw they were back in the large antechamber with the circular table where they had first met Aristar and the other Librarians. This time however, the room was empty.

Aristar moved to the other side of the round table and cast her eyes over each of them. When they landed on Leura, the reality of the situation finally hit her. She was in serious trouble, and she couldn’t help but wonder what was the worst thing Aristar could do to them? What sort of punishments would a place like this have? It unsettled Leura to realise she had no idea what Aristar was actually capable of.

“Explain yourselves,” said Aristar in the same volatile voice as before.

Leura could feel the others glance at her. She tried to calm herself down and gather her thoughts, but she’d never been very good at doing that. A long silence stretched out between them.

Aristar seemed to grapple with some internal dilemma, before she gestured at the round table between them. “Sit down.”

The three of them hesitated, but couldn’t think of a good reason not to. They were in just as much trouble standing as they were sitting.

Aristar took a seat directly across from them.

“Let’s start with something a little easier then. How did you get into the database?” Her eyes were still locked on Leura, while Sol nervously pressed her hand over the pocket that held Stardust.

“The door was already open,” said Leura, trying to keep a straight face, “we’re sorry, we just… wanted to ask him something. Thoth, I mean.”

Aristar raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. “Thoth does not answer questions on command, especially not from white robe students.”

“We know that now,” said Wentworth so quietly they barely heard him.

“What was it that you asked him?” Something in Aristar’s voice made Leura certain she already knew the answer, so she stayed quiet and forced herself to hold Aristar’s gaze.

The silence that followed was so tense Leura thought she could almost see it hovering in the air between them like a dark cloud. Then Aristar broke it, speaking slowly and leaning towards them with her fingers poised together. “There is nothing you can do for her. Nothing. Going down this path will only lead to more pain. Do you think that’s what she would’ve wanted for you?”

At those words Leura was forced to look away. Her eyes stung and it took every ounce of willpower she had to stop them from filling with tears. “We don’t know what she would’ve wanted, we’ve never met her,” she said through gritted teeth.

“And you never will,” said Aristar with such certainty that Leura felt like Aristar had reached out and struck her.

“She’s our mother,” was all Leura managed to say through the shock and the pain that was surging through her.

“Yes Leura, she’s your mother, and she made a choice long ago that something else was more important.” Aristar’s voice was gentler than they’d ever heard it before, but it still rang loud and firm. “Do not make the mistake of believing she made this choice for you. The truth is, she made it in spite of you. You owe her nothing.”

Leura sat there, hardly even breathing, while confusion and doubt washed over her in waves. Aristar was lying, she had to be. There wasn’t anything more important to Raya than her children… than her own daughter… Aristar was just trying to hurt them, to stop them from trying to find her. She was just like Cron. Worse even. How could they all believe so easily that Raya was guilty when they didn’t even know the full story? Leura gripped the edges of her seat and fought with all her strength to keep herself from screaming. There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t just make things worse for them, even if they sat here the entire night she knew no kind words would come.

Aristar let the silence settle for a few long, uncomfortable moments, before leaning back into her chair. When she spoke again, her voice had returned to its normal swift and rather monotone style. “You’ve broken our rules, and tradition demands that you make amends by being of service to Alexandria. And since you seem so comfortable being places you shouldn’t, you will help Librarian Istros with the next humanitarian mission to The Final Fall. You’ll meet her at the main entrance before dinner this evening.”

It took a moment for them to realise Aristar was finished with them and they were being told to leave.

“That’s it?” Leura asked before she could stop herself.

Aristar raised an eyebrow at her. “That’s it, now leave my sight.”

Wentworth stood first, grabbing Leura by the arm and trying to pull her along with him. Anywhere was better than here as far as he was concerned. But Leura held back. A nagging question had come to her mind, and she couldn’t leave until she’d asked it.

“Did you know her? Did you know Raya?”

Aristar answered a little too quickly, like she’d been expecting this question for some time now and was ready for it. “She was my student, but I never knew her beyond that.”

Wentworth pulled harder and Leura allowed herself to be dragged away from the table, with Sol right behind them.

None of them spoke the whole way back to their living quarters. Leura went straight into their bedroom and the others followed her inside.

They all took a deep breath.

“Well I suppose that could’ve gone worse,” said Sol with a nervous laugh.

“Could’ve gone much better too,” said Wentworth gloomily, “I wonder how she knew we were down there?”

While Wentworth and Sol discussed all the ways Aristar could be spying on them, even now, Leura barely spoke. Aristar’s words kept repeating inside her head, causing a fresh wave of pain each time, like they were being carved directly into her brain with a scalpel… she made a choice long ago that something else was more important… It wasn’t true. She had to believe it wasn’t true. She felt like she was treading water in a deep ocean, and Aristar had just tied a rock to her foot, joining the one already left there by Cron. It was not enough to pull her under, so long as she never stopped fighting, but she wasn’t sure how much more weight she could take.

When it was almost time for dinner they made their way towards the main entrance of the library to find Istros. They deliberately passed through the Hall of Creation, taking in the graphic animations of The Final Fall with a renewed sense of dread. The idea of going anywhere near that time, where billions of humans were desperately trying to escape their dying worlds and war was raging across the system, made even Sol shiver.

The reality of their situation had now sunk in.

Aristar had punished them severely after all.

It wasn’t hard to find Istros.

She was standing with a small group of Librarians and a few black robed students, along with a few dozen of the serving drones that were carrying three enormous saddlebags between them.

Istros stared them down as they approached, her scarred face full of disapproval. “You should know I was strongly against this idea, but Aristar assures me you’ll do exactly what I say, when I say it, is that right?”

Without really having much choice in the matter, they nodded in agreement.

“We’re heading to one of the refugee camps along the asteroid belt. Most of the people from the outer system were forced to flee there when their colonies collapsed. We bring regular supplies to help ease their suffering, but occasionally we pick the wrong times and have to deal with troublemakers or deserters from the war. So don’t trust anyone you meet there, and stick close to the black robes, okay?”

The journey was a miserable one. No one spoke much as they travelled from the lighthouse into the far future, and then took a skyhook out to the asteroid belt. It was a long trip, so once again they were swallowed by the cryogenic seating and woke up many months later like no time had passed at all.

They landed on a large asteroid called Nemesis, which was one of the hundreds being mined for rare and valuable elements. The skyport was tiny, with only one gate, and it was built deep into the rock of the asteroid itself. They were met by a burly looking man, who was extremely short and heavily muscled, and together with Istros, he led the group through a perfectly circular tunnel and into the heart of the asteroid.

Leura couldn’t help but let out an audible gasp. They were standing inside a giant cave, with outcrops and tunnels branching off in all directions. The roof of the cave above them looked like it was hundreds of stories high, larger than any skyscraper from her own time. There was artificial gravity like nothing she’d experienced before. It was uncomfortably heavy, and seemed to radiate outwards from the heart of the asteroid. Leura could see people working in small groups alongside giant machines all over the ground, walls, and ceiling. It seemed like no matter where you were, you’d always feel like down was beneath you.

Tucked away into a small outcrop was a familiar metal vault. Istros led the group over to the time capsule and they crammed inside. With the serving drones and giant saddlebags taking up most of the space, they had no need to grasp each other’s hands before travelling because they were already pressed tightly together.

After the usual collapsing and crushing was over, everyone was in a hurry to get out of the time capsule, but Istros barked at them all to stay quiet and still. She left the capsule first, with one hand gripping something hidden within the folds of her robe. After a tense few moments, she gave the order for everyone to follow, and Leura shuffled out with Wentworth and Sol pressed tightly beside her.

The second Leura stepped through the door, a horrible stench hit her, and the sound of thousands of people talking, shouting, crying, and screaming overwhelmed her senses.

They were still inside the giant cave, which now seemed even more hollowed out than before, but there were people everywhere. And they looked like they’d been through hell.

Everyone was either sick, injured, exhausted, or a combination of all three. Families clung together like they were afraid of being ripped apart at any moment. There was no housing or proper shelter, and the air was cold enough to make Leura’s eyes water. The only other things around were the remains of the old mining equipment. Machines built to hollow out the asteroids, taking the valuable minerals buried within them and leaving nothing but an empty shell of rock behind. From the look of the equipment, they’d finished mining this asteroid a long time ago. Leura tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Was this really the fate of the Expansionists? Had the people who’d colonised the entire solar system really been stripped down of everything they’d achieved and left with nothing but a desperate struggle to survive?

Refugees had started gathering around them now. They didn’t get too close though. They seemed familiar with what was happening and Leura wondered how many times Istros had come here.

“Start with the food stores,” ordered Istros. The black robes began unloading one of the saddlebags with help from the drones, taking out hundreds of small, rectangle shaped packets of something. Leura and the others joined in, and she took the chance to read the label on the back of one. According to the tiny printed description, they were called Halo Bars, and claimed to be the most nutrient dense and calorie heavy food ever made. A daily serving was one bite, making the small bar a week’s worth of food for a single person.

As they started handing them out to the crowd, the refugees thanked them with teary eyes and trembling hands. Most of them were wearing thick clothes to protect them from the cold, but the hollowed out look of their cheeks revealed how hungry they were. They were freezing and starving to death out here, on a forgotten asteroid, far from home with nowhere to go. No safe haven left in the entire solar system.

Leura looked into the faces of some of the last humans to ever live, the ones unfortunate enough to be born during their own extinction event, and felt herself go numb. Her body from the cold, and her mind from what she was witnessing.

When they’d finished handing out all of the Halo Bars, they moved on to the next saddlebag. This one was filled with round bags, small enough to fit in one hand. Leura watched as a refugee opened it up and took out a thin looking blanket, but as soon as it was free it began to inflate until it looked like a full sized sleeping bag, puffier and cosier than any Leura had ever seen.

They began handing out the bags, but a group of refugees suddenly crowded in around them, mostly young men, and Leura’s heart skipped a beat as she noticed the weapons they were carrying.

“We don’t want your food, we want to get off this stinking rock!” shouted the man at the front of the group. The others all shouted in agreement, raising their weapons up so everyone could see. It was mostly just bits of scrap metal, fashioned into clubs or crude looking knives. But a few of the men at the front carried guns.

Istros remained calm as she stared them down. “We can’t help you with that, there’s nowhere for you to go. But we can feed you, and keep you warm, and give you medicine to help you through this. Please, lower your weapons. We’re here to help.”

“Liar!” shouted a voice from the crowd, and others joined in, hurling insults and threats at them.

“You can take us to the past. You could save us, but instead you’re letting us rot out here,” said the leader, with nothing but malice in his voice.

“I’m sorry,” said Istros, and it was clear she meant it. Leura felt tears run down her face and she realised she was crying. “We can’t bring thousands of people into the past, we don’t have that power. It would change too much. Do too much damage. Please, try to understand, we would take you if we could.”

The crowd had stopped listening. The armed group had ignited their fear and anger about the hopelessness of their situation, and now they were directing all that emotion at the only people they could. Leura instinctively reached out for Wentworth and Sol, pulling them close, and backing them as far away from the crowd as she could.

Istros seemed to be balancing on the edge of a cliff, trying to decide whether she should take the next step or not. But as the noise from the crowd reached its peak, she finally accepted the truth. If she didn’t act now, the refugees would kill them.

In one fluid motion, Istros reached into her robe and pulled out one of the bubbly looking guns that Leura had seen in the Sydney time capsule. She fired it and a ball of piercing yellow light, like a tiny sun, hurtled through the air towards the nearest mining machine. The ball incinerated the metal hull on impact, leaving behind a scorched hole about a metre wide. Leura looked around to see the other Librarians draw their own guns, pointing them right at the armed men.

The refugees froze, torn between their anger, and their new fear of being blasted to a crisp by the time traveller’s powerful weapons.

“Take a step back,” said Istros, in a steady, commanding voice. “We’ll finish unloading and be on our way.” The refugees didn’t back off, but they didn’t move forward either. Even the most desperate of them could see they were outmatched.

While some of the Librarians kept their guns pointed at the crowd, the twins and Sol helped the rest of them unload the last saddlebag. It was full of medical kits, with everything the refugees might need to treat their various illnesses and injuries.

The tension on the asteroid was still high by the time they’d finished. They left the supplies in a pile and gathered back inside the time capsule, which was a lot roomier now that the saddlebags were empty.

“You’re killing us. You think you’re helping but you’re just drawing it out,” said the leader of the armed group.

Istros didn’t reply, but Leura noticed her flinch at the words, sharper than any knife they had, and just as painful. Then she closed the door of the capsule, and the refugees were gone.

As they made the long journey home, Leura realised she could still see the desperate faces of the refugees in her mind, like their ghosts were following her through time and space. She had seen so much beauty in the worlds the Expansionists had built, but now it just seemed hollow. The real legacy of an empire is not the stuff it makes, but the people it fails to protect, when it all comes crashing down.

“I’m sorry, that doesn’t usually happen,” said Istros softly to Leura and the others as they were preparing to take their cryogenic seats. “I think those men were new to the camp, most likely deserters from the war.”

Leura didn’t say anything.

When they arrived back at Alexandria, Istros told everyone to go get some dinner, and watched as they walked off, particularly the three small white robes. She had words to say to Aristar, that was for sure. This was exactly the kind of thing she was afraid would happen.

All she could do for now was hope the younger students could understand what they’d seen, and why it had to be that way.

It took Leura a few days before she stopped seeing the refugees in her mind, at least while she was awake. Her dreams were still haunted by their screams of rage and cries for help, dirty hands reaching out and clawing at her, trying to take the only thing that could save them. Her ability to time travel.

Leura knew Wentworth was having nightmares too. She could hear him tossing and turning in the night, muttering in his sleep, pleading with the same ghosts that haunted her.

The twins didn’t tell Tony what had happened during their visit home that weekend. They kept up the pretence that everything was going perfectly, and that there was nothing at all for Tony to worry about. Leura got the impression that he didn’t quite believe them, but he didn’t try to stop them returning either, and even agreed to let them visit home less often from then on.

As they left Tony behind once again, Leura couldn’t help but wonder if he’d been right trying to keep them away from all this. There was something wrong about the world of the time travellers, and not just because of what they did to Raya. She was beginning to see the cracks in the seams. The darkness that stirred just beneath the surface. She knew now how reckless she’d been, charging in blindly like she was some kind of hero, but the horror of the Final Fall had humbled her. She’d have to be smarter from now on, if she wanted any chance of rescuing her mother.

The days passed, and the twins began to sleep better. The faces of the ghosts were fading into memory, but they would never forget that asteroid or the people stranded on it.