The Last People

“Leura.”

She was still hugging Raya, eyes tightly closed, and wishing more than anything that she could stay that way forever.

“Leura, it’s okay. We made it. You’re safe now.”

With great effort, she forced her eyes open.

She recognised where they were instantly. It was still the hangar, though it looked nothing like the way they’d left it. Instead of being cluttered with old and discarded machinery, it had been restored, and many parts of it looked almost brand new. But there were still scars littered across the floor and walls, areas where so much damage had been done that the repair work was obvious. The piles of scrap metal were gone, but there was one other thing still in the hangar, besides themselves and the Casimir.

It sat in the very centre of the space. Leura couldn’t help but stare. It looked like it belonged in an art museum. It was made from a dozen rings of dark material that Leura instantly recognised from the dice still tucked safely away in her pocket, and the zero point blade. The largest ring was well over twice the size of the Casimir, and each one got smaller as they fit neatly into the one above them. They were splayed out evenly, creating a kind of spherical cage. It was raised up on a platform, like a monument to something both dark and beautiful.

The Casimir was still making its strange sound beside them, but softer now. All its lights were green, and when Leura reached out towards it she felt a strange repulsive force, as if the Casimir was a magnet with a different charge to her own, making it impossible to actually touch its silvery surface.

Raya went over to a thick panel embedded on the side of the Casimir, which slid open as she reached it, revealing a control screen. She hit a few buttons without any resistance from the strange repulsive force. “Green lights across the board,” she said, with one long exhale.

Soft footsteps from behind them caused Leura to spin around, and her fear spiked at the sight of the two people walking towards them. They looked very similar to Aristar. Tall and slender, with a blend of features that wasn’t possible in her own time.

“Aidan, Ava, it’s good to see you,” said Raya, bowing her head as she greeted them, and they returned the gesture.

“Raya, you’re right on time. As promised,” said Aidan. His eyes widened at the sight of the Casimir. He had a hungry look on his face, like a starving animal that just spotted an easy meal. “So you succeeded? I almost can’t believe my eyes.”

“The Casimir passed every simulated test we could throw at it. There was a slight containment problem, but it’s ready for a pilot trial. I assume you still have plenty of volunteers?”

Ava gave a half smile. “Easy to find people willing to risk their lives when the world is ending.”

Raya nodded. “Well, after today, you might find it gets a little harder.” She looked at the Casimir. “Everything you need to make more models is in its database. You could have a whole fleet of these ready in a matter of months.”

“First, the Casimir must make it through the singularity gate, and return again safely. Then, and only then, we will look to the future,” said Aidan.

A door across the hangar opened and a group of people spilled out, some branching off towards the dark rings, and others heading towards them and the Casimir.

“Join us for the trial,” offered Ava, “our people will prepare the Casimir. There’s a front row seat reserved for you and your… assistant.” Ava eyed Leura with mild curiosity.

“Thank you, we wouldn’t miss it,” said Raya, reaching out with one hand to place it on Leura’s shoulder.

Aidan and Ava led them away from the Casimir. Leura noticed a control hub set up on one side of the hangar, with a few people stationed at the screens, preparing for the test to begin. There was also a spectators’ area, with seats lined up behind a thick sheet of clear material. People were beginning to emerge from one of the many doors leading off the hangar, taking their seats with eager but nervous looks on their faces.

Leura took all this in, like a soldier scouting out the enemy camp. She dissected every detail, looking for weakness and vulnerability. Anything that might give her the opportunity to stop this. But things were moving so quickly, and she was all alone now. The only person left that could save Raya from herself.

“Where are we?” Leura asked, needing more information. “I mean, when are we?”

“We travelled twenty years forward,” answered Raya. “This bunker is now home to the last survivors of the Final Fall. Many of these places were built, long ago, mostly by rich fools deluded enough to think they could survive the apocalypse down here. But Aidan and Ava are scientists, they’ve been trying to save everyone and everything they can. This bunker is their last hope now, the last one still functioning. They have nowhere else to go, no safe place left in the entire solar system. But we can change that. We can give them a way to escape. Not to the past, but to a new future, far away from here.”

Raya spoke with a gentleness that made Leura’s head spin. She couldn’t help but feel torn in two directions. One instinct was telling her that everything Raya said was right, that they could save humanity from extinction and they should do it together, as mother and daughter. The other instinct was screaming at her to stop this. To protect Raya and take her somewhere far away, where she can finally be the mother that Leura always needed and never had. The second instinct was far stronger.

Whether Raya could see the inner turmoil raging inside her daughter, Leura wasn’t sure. She looked over at the people filling up the rest of the seats. More had arrived, and some had to stand along the walls to fit. Even so, Leura guessed there were only a few hundred of them at the most. They wore lab coats or overalls, giving them a look of scientists or engineers. There were no children, and Leura was the youngest person in the room by at least a decade. She wondered whether the children simply weren’t allowed to watch the test, or if there weren’t any children left.

“They’ll find us again,” was all Leura could say, and she couldn’t help but feel relief at the thought of it.

Raya shook her head. “I’ve been preparing for this for a long time. The Casimir has built-in dampeners, I activated them when we arrived. Even if Valkyr guessed how far we travelled, she couldn’t follow us here. No one can.”

The hangar was massive, but Leura felt like the walls were closing in. She felt claustrophobic, trapped in this bunker surrounded by people whose deepest desire was to save themselves, and take her mother away from her in the process.

Aidan and Ava led them over to the seats. The front row had been reserved, and they sat down right in the centre.

While the Casimir was being prepared, Aidan stood up and gestured to a young woman seated nearby to join him. The woman had her hair buzzed down to stubble, and was wearing a skin tight suit that looked like it was made from millions of individual metal pieces, shaped like hexagons and joined by an elastic material that gave her complete freedom of movement. It looked like a mix between a wetsuit and body armour.

Aidan spoke to the crowd, his voice carrying around the large hangar easily. “We all know what this day means. I won’t put it into words because doing so would be an insult to what we and our families have suffered to get here. Over our lifetime, we’ve seen more death than any humans in history. And we’ve felt hopelessness beyond what any person should have to endure. Today, that all changes. Today, we are no longer the last people. We are the first. The first of a whole new era.” He paused then, and the audience cheered and clapped, but the sound felt stinted, and uncomfortable. They weren’t excited, and there was no joy in their voices. Many of them were openly crying. They cheered like they were watching a loved one narrowly escaping some deadly fate. Their relief was all tangled up in fear, and most could not shake the feeling that this was just too good to be true.

Aidan let the sound die down before continuing. “We have all been working tirelessly to get to where we are today. The singularity gate is our life’s work, and not a soul in this room doesn’t deserve our heartfelt thanks. To our theoretical physicists, who showed us it was possible. Our particle physicists, who brought it to life. And our engineers, who built it at scale. The future of humanity owes you all an unpayable debt.” He turned to the woman beside him. “And to our pilot, Naomi. Set to be the first human in history to leave our solar system.” The crowd cheered again, this time with more energy. Naomi raised a hand in thanks and they cheered a bit louder.

“Of course,” continued Aidan, “all our work was just one half of the equation. We’ve built a door to the universe, but to pass through it, we needed a key.” He gestured to Raya, asking her to join him. Raya stood, and took Leura with her. “That key was thought to be impossible to make. The greatest minds of our time abandoned us, escaping into the past instead. But hidden amongst those cowards, there were heroes. Heroes who used the gift of time to build something impossible. And now, thanks to Raya and her people, we have that key.” This time the audience cheered like they truly meant it.

Standing there beside her mother, facing hundreds of people who saw them as heroes, Leura began to feel herself go numb, like her brain was distancing itself, hiding from reality as best it could. The people cheered and clapped and cried as they thanked the strangers from the past who were saving their lives, and the lives of their children, and their children’s children, and on and on down the line for a potentially limitless number of generations. Did they know what Raya was sacrificing for them? They were looking at Leura like she was some sort of guardian angel, but could she actually be one? Could she really give all these people a happy future with their families if it meant she’d never have one with her own?

“It’s almost time,” shouted Aidan over the cheering crowd. “On behalf of all of us, I’d like to offer Raya the honour of being the one to turn on the singularity gate.” He gave Raya a deep bow, and gestured towards the control hub a short distance from the seats.

Raya bowed back, and suddenly they were being escorted by Aidan and Ava over to a table stacked with monitors and servers being managed by a small group of serious looking people in lab coats.

Ava noticed the look on Leura’s face and tried to make her feel better. “I know it looks complicated and scary, but I promise it’s very safe. Try to think of it like a machine that can do similar things that time travellers like you can do,” she said with a light smile. “Only instead of moving through time, it moves through space, and it can take you much, much further away.”

Through her numbness, Leura felt a twinge of annoyance at Ava. She was speaking to her like she was a clueless child. But Leura had spent enough time studying at Alexandria to understand what the singularity gate was. “I know, it creates a black hole, a point so dense that space bends in on itself, so two places very far apart are joined together.”

Ava looked surprised for a moment, then quickly recovered. “That’s right, and the larger the black hole, the greater the distance. If we calculated it right, this singularity gate should take the Casimir at least five light years away, far enough to jump to a whole new solar system. And as long as we keep the gate open on our side, it should stay open on the other end as well, so Naomi will be able to get back safely.”

If the exotic matter works, and if the Casimir doesn’t break apart in the process, Leura thought to herself. Otherwise Naomi will disappear forever. All of this would have been for nothing… and we can go home.

They drew nearer, and Leura felt like an animal being backed into a corner, every instinct screamed at her to lash out now, to strike before it was too late.

At the control hub, Ava showed Raya what she needed to do. It was as simple as hitting a button on a keyboard that didn’t look very different to the one Leura used for her computer at home. Out in front of them they had a clear view of Naomi preparing to enter the Casimir.

It opened like a submarine, with just a small, circular hatch that Leura hadn’t even noticed before. Getting into the hatch was the real challenge. Naomi couldn’t touch any of the outer surface of the Casimir because the negative pressure from the exotic matter was designed to make it impossible, covering the whole machine in a kind of force field that not even the singularity inside a black hole could crush. So she had to be hoisted up by a small crane, and lowered carefully through the hatch without touching any of the Casimir’s surface. Once inside, the hatch sealed shut, and it became an impenetrable ball once again.

The team on the launch platform were clearing off. The Casimir’s thrusters powered on, making a vibrational hum as they prepared to launch the Casimir forward.

Raya placed a hand on Leura’s shoulder to get her attention. “Shall we do this together, what do you say?”

Leura couldn’t speak. Couldn’t think. She was sick to her stomach at what she was being asked to do. She looked down at the hilt of the zero point blade, sticking out of the pocket of Raya’s coat. She could take it, she knew she was fast enough. Who would she have to kill to put a stop to this? Would Aidan and Ava be enough? Or would it have to be every person here?

The harsh reality of her choice was finally laid bare. Whether by her own hands, or by abandoning them here, these people would have to die if she wanted to save Raya. And with them, humans would be gone from this universe forever.

“It’s all going to be okay,” said Raya with a squeeze of Leura’s shoulder. “I’m so very proud of you.” She took Leura’s hand in hers, cupping it so that Leura’s was the one beneath, and then reached out towards the keyboard that controlled the singularity gate.

Leura looked down and watched as it happened. Her hand, held gently by Raya’s, hovered over the keys. Steady as ever.

Inside, she was being torn into pieces, so violently she knew she’d never be whole again.

Leura resisted.

Her body tensed as she held her hand up with enough force to stop the downwards pressure. To Aidan and Ava watching, it looked like they’d just frozen a few inches above the keys. Only Raya knew how much Leura was fighting back. She stopped trying to force their hands down and let Leura go, slowly enough so that Leura had time to relax her muscles and take her hand back gently.

“Little one…” began Raya, but Leura didn’t let her finish.

“Just wait mum, please. I need to see something.” Leura reached frantically into her tunic and pulled out the dice of serendipity.

Raya’s eyes widened at the sight of them. “Where did you get those?” For the first time in her life, Leura felt like her mother was truly angry at her. “Tell me you haven’t been using them.”

Leura didn’t answer. Instead she rolled the dice in what little free space there was on the table in front of them, asking silently to herself, should we save these people? They came to rest quickly, and once again Leura knew their answer from the colour of the flames alone.

Raya watched as the deep red zeros appeared, then quickly snatched up the dice before they’d even begun to fade.

“It doesn’t mean anything Leura, these dice are dangerous. They tell you what choice to make but they don’t tell you anything about the consequences of making it. Wars have been fought because of these things, innocent people killed. They were all supposed to have been destroyed.”

“I know they’re dangerous. They got me in lots of trouble, but they also got me to you. They tell the truth mum, just… not all of it. But some choices get you what you want in the end, and some don’t, and the dice know which is which.”

“And what is it that you want, Leura?”

“To stay with you!”

There was silence now. Leura had almost forgotten hundreds of people were watching them, waiting for them to start the most important experiment of their lives. Only Aidan and Ava were close enough to hear everything they’d just said. They were looking at each other now, trying to have a silent conversation with their eyes, unsure if they should intervene or not.

“I want that too, little one,” said Raya. Her words made Leura’s stomach churn and her chest ache. She understood the real meaning behind them. Raya was telling her that neither of them could have what they wanted.

Raya reached out towards the keyboard. She kept her eyes on Leura though. They swam with tears but not enough to overflow and spill down her face. She wasn’t moving quickly. Leura couldn’t place the exact moment she made the decision, but she lunged at her mother, her last ounce of self control finally broken. All she had left was her fists and fury, and she was ready to drag her mother from the room kicking and screaming if she had to.

Raya reacted like flowing water, giving way to Leura’s momentum, then turning it against her. She pulled Leura in close, pinning her arms down with one of her own. Leura tried to break free, but it was like being wrapped in steel. Raya lowered her head and whispered into Leura’s ear.

“I’ll always love you.”

Then she turned the gate on.

Leura felt the fight drain from her body. She watched as the dark rings began to spin. At first it was slow enough for her to make out the direction each ring was moving. They spun in a way that defied logic, moving from all angles and in all directions, seemingly at random. The faster the rings spun, the more it started looking like an actual solid object. A perfect sphere.

A few seconds later it reached a tipping point. The rings were moving so fast they had vanished from view. One moment the sphere was empty, and the next it was filled with a darkness so complete that looking right at it made Leura feel like she had gone blind.

The black hole didn’t make a sound. It sat there completely still, as if they’d poked a hole in reality and deleted everything within it. Leura felt a faint attraction coming from it, like it was trying to pull her in. Her mind couldn’t help but compare it with the feeling of looking at a large predator, like the bear in Jotunheim. Something big and dangerous that wants nothing more than to eat you alive. She felt grateful then, that Raya was still holding her close.

“Gravity fields are stable,” reported Ava, “we’re getting some minor de-containment, but well within tolerance.”

“Yes, I think we can all feel it. Just watch those numbers. Any spikes shut it down,” Aidan told her.

As they watched the Casimir begin to take off, Raya eased her grip on Leura, but kept holding her, as if worried she’d still try to stop this. Leura knew she didn’t need to anymore. It was over. She’d lost. But she didn’t want to give her mother any reason to let go. It was like everything she’d ever wanted in life had been condensed into a single overwhelming desire… to hold onto her mother, until the very end.

With thrusters evenly spaced around its entire surface, the first thing the Casimir did was rise up off the platform a few feet, using four of the thrusters positioned downwards. It hovered there for a moment, lining up perfectly with the singularity gate. Then the thrusters along its far side all fired at once, and it shot forward like a cannonball.

One moment it was there, clear as day. The next it was gone.

Leura’s eyes couldn’t really process how it disappeared. It wasn’t like it flew into a tunnel, fading out of view as it went. And it wasn’t like it vanished in an instant. The closest representation Leura’s mind could give her was that the singularity gate had swept over the Casimir and erased it.

The hangar was silent as each person struggled to process what they’d seen. A timer was hanging on the wall behind the control hub, and it had started counting as soon as the Casimir went through the gate.

Five seconds passed. Then ten. Leura could feel the tension in the room like it was a physical sensation, something she could touch or taste. But she did not let herself hope. Not this time.

Then, just as strangely, the Casimir was reformed before their eyes. It flew over to its platform, using its forward thrusters to brake, and gently lowered itself back to where it started.

Everyone in the hangar exploded with happiness. They jumped and screamed and hugged each other with an intensity none of them had ever experienced before.

Everyone except Leura and Raya.