The Prometheus Objective

1

Caleb stood rooted to the pavement, lost in disbelief. A nuclear explosion had just detonated underground only a few miles behind them, destroying an interdimensional wormhole, two otherworldly beings with the power of demi-gods, and an artifact with ultimate wisdom and power.

But it was here in the aftermath that the full impact hit him like a shockwave from that blast. He had made his decision with all the best intentions of saving the world yet again, but instead he had brought about a change in global consciousness that might just end the world in a different, more devastating way.

Diana was in a crumpled heap, screeching about visions and thoughts she couldn’t control, as Xavier ran to her side, helpless to console her. Residents of the multi-million-dollar homes here had come out screaming or launching themselves from the turreted windows; he heard gunshots and howls of agony, and he knew the electro-magnetic shield he had unleashed around the earth was somehow responsible. It had been a Tesla-inspired vision, but he knew now the shield was a re-formation of what had once been, millennia ago. He should have known, should have seen what had happened those ages ago. If only he had listened to the others, or had the time to thoroughly investigate…

He had played right into the designs of the enemy, being the only one who could activate the age-old defense system, but he failed to obey his strongest mantra: ask the right questions. He hadn’t asked, hadn’t wondered: why had the ancients taken down the shield? He had seen that they knew about the near-annihilation by a wandering comet, and yet they accepted such massive loss of life instead of the alternative.

Now he knew why.

Diana howled as Phoebe and Xavier struggled to understand. His sister, still holding Diana’s hand, lifted her eyes to Caleb and he knew she felt his guilt. Her eyes welled with sympathy, spilling over the fear and confusion. She must be thinking of her babies — were they safe, and what about their grandmother? Was she undergoing her own violent psychic assault upon her mind? Was Orlando ok? Where the hell had the government taken him? And Alexander…

Finally, thinking of his son broke his paralysis. Whatever else he might have to contemplate, judgments and guilt to process, mistakes to analyze, Alexander was his priority.

And Jacob. And Nina and Aria… Don’t forget about them.

Everyone, the Morpheus Initiative. All part of his family, and he had let them down.

Alexander was on his way to the island of Nan Madol in the South Pacific, along with Nina, Jacob and Aria, on a mission to find the other Emerald Tablet rumored to have been hidden there ages ago. Perhaps the artifact was inaccessible, but although it was no longer necessary to the plans of either side, Caleb feared those four might be deemed expendable — and targeted. In fact, he was sure that whatever waited for his sons at that remote island would not come without extreme danger. His only hope was in the knowledge that Nina had gone with them. Nina — who alone, he liked to think, would be the match for any threat.

Snapping him back to the moment, a phone rang. Then another. From the car.

He stuck his head through the window of the still-running car, and pressed the answer button, after seeing the caller id: EDGE, and feeling his heart skip in a beat of hope.

The voice spat out fast and abrupt. “Tell me you guys are alive!”

Caleb glanced back to the woman sobbing and shaking in Xavier’s arms. They had to do something fast. Get control of this.

“Alive,” Caleb spoke carefully. “But all hell’s…”

“Breaking loose, I know. It’s brutal.”

Caleb heard background noise like a tornado. “Where are you? Are you having the same thing happen to you?”

“Visions? Unrelenting dump of… friggin thoughts and images and… crap! Shit I don’t wanna see? Hell yeah, how do you live with this? I’m figurin’ it’s happening to everyone except you lucky folks already gifted or cursed.”

“That’s what we’re guessing as well.”

“What happened? We registered a nuke going off up there, seismic readings off the chart, and then… well, after that no one was in the mood for analysis. System almost kicked in and launched a retaliatory strike.”

“Jesus.”

“Luckily a few folks down at SATCOM had their wits about them — or were partially psychic already and not affected. Whatever it is, ain’t happening to everybody, so we have to figure… uhnnn… that out. Goddamn it!”

Caleb heard something in the distance: a rumbling… and he saw and saw a small dot.

“Are you in a chopper?”

“Yeah, but in DC. Sent another one to you, closest we had. Pilot seemed to be ok, or well enough to fly your asses out of there. Get back here and let’s figure this shit out.”

The line went dead before Caleb could answer.

He straightened up and leaned against the car, barely registering that Phoebe had come over, listening. She took his arm and squeezed it tight.

“Focus, big brother. This isn’t your fault.”

“It is.”

“Okay, maybe it is, but we have to fight it. Fix it. Like only we can. It’s not over yet, and we don’t understand. Maybe it’s a gift…”

“It’s not.” He winced, shaking his head, and again, for just a moment — he saw the past. A set of bronzed hands, muscled arms reaching for a shimmering tablet. Removing it from its slot in a mystical stand atop a dizzying tower overlooking a city of gold and jade, above fountains and waterfalls and marble bridges and colossal pillared temples. As the sky darkened and something streaked across the horizon, eyes turned heavenward and a resigned sigh took to the air like a soft beating of dove’s wings…

“It wasn’t a gift, back then. It was…” He looked down to Phoebe, met her eyes. “Maybe it was what Waxman himself had foreseen when he interrogated that psychic who had told him of the coming catastrophe.”

“But, that was different. And we stopped it. Contained the knowledge from the Library, releasing it slowly.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, but this…”

“Yeah.” Caleb nodded and looked back up, visualizing the dazzling shield that had somehow interacted with psychic ether, the flow of information between human minds. Maybe it augmented and ‘turned on’ the quantum nature of the consciousness, charging the link between minds. “It’s a curse. It’s uncontrolled.”

Phoebe scanned the street, seeing the confusion, the pain and anguish, hearing the cries. “They can’t handle it. Never learned. It’s like they were blind all their life and learned to cope in the darkness, and now suddenly can see everything, all these colors and faces and details — no wonder they can’t process it.”

Caleb looked at Diana. “Maybe they will in time, but I have a bad feeling.” He turned his attention to the helicopter coming closer, readying to land.

“A feeling that none of us have that much time.”