10
Daniel wandered back out to the street like a homeless ghost. He'd let them keep the dog tags, but he was afraid of what else they might find. What the hell was going on? Didn't his life make some kind of sense just 48 hours ago?
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the apple. He could almost see the outline of her lips. Her teeth were perfectly straight. Who was she? And how could he find her again? In light of what was going on with his father, did it even matter?
Of course it did. It mattered more than anything.
He shuffled back down to Mormon Street like a beggar. Looking for some kind of inspiration. Anything.
And then there she was, directly across the street, staring directly at him. A perfect purple silhouette.
"Zoe!"
She was on the run again. Daniel galloped across the street to catch her.
"Zoe! Stop!"
She darted behind a building, no looking back. He rounded the corner, and then collapsed into a big ball of pain.
"Why are you following me!"
She hit him again, this time in the ear. His head rang like Chartres Cathedral.
"Don't move! Who are you?"
"Daniel."
"Daniel who?"
"Daniel Tyrol. Please stop."
"I'll stop when I feel like it! What do you want?"
"I dreamed about you last night."
She laughed and kicked him in the groin again.
"Oh that's a new one."
"You … you had a home on the ocean, in a bay. You were bottled up in it. You had a robot. His name was Serge. You're … you're Zoe, right? Your name is Zoe."
Something like recognition or maybe pity flashed across her face. She bent over Daniel and whispered into his ear.
"My name is Rachel and I would be extremely happy if you would stop following me around town like a homeless puppy and leave me the frak alone. Now close your eyes."
"What?"
"I said CLOSE YOUR FRAKKING EYES!"
He did as he was told. When he heard her walk away, he opened them again, but she was already gone.
He looked around frantically. Had he heard her go up a stoop? Was this where she lived? He was sure he'd heard a heavy, metal door open and shut. Only one door on the street fit that description.
He pulled the door but it was locked. There were some mailboxes out front, with names. Zoe? No, no Zoe. Rachel? No. He kept looking. Only three women listed. Earlene? Couldn't be it. No way she was Earlene. Dorinda? No, no, no.
And then there it was, written in purple marker.
Irene Macnee Bliss.
Bingo.
He rang the buzzer. No answer.
He rang it again.
He heard footsteps in the stairwell. The massive, green door swung slowly open.
Then there she was.
"Irene?"
She pulled him into the doorway like a spider pouncing from a trap door, and she kissed him, shutting the door behind him.
When Daniel finally came up for air, all he could manage to say was, "Why did you do that?"
"To shut you up. Follow me. Shhh…"
"Where are we going?"
"You came this far. Did you really want to go back now? And never see me again?"
She opened the door and motioned for him to exit. Daniel put his hand on hers and gently closed it. He might choke on it, but he was swallowing the goddamn pill.
"Okay, then," she said.
Daniel followed her up the stairs. Zoe, Rachel, Irene… he didn't know and didn't care. He was just watching that ass and thinking about that kiss. He would willingly go into the spider trap, even if that meant she was going to suck the life from his body, drop by drop. He was all hers. He'd bitten the apple. There was no going back now.
She opened the door. She glanced over her shoulder seductively, urging him to follow her in. She winked at him and shut the door behind him, locking it.
He sensed something was wrong the moment the lock turned. Whether it was a slight change in her expression, a "gotcha" grin, or the smell of whiskey and sweat coming from the kitchen, it took him all of two seconds to deduce that there was a man waiting for him in the kitchen. All his horniness melted into instant regret.
"Well there he is," scowled the man, crouching in the dark, bald, old, and surly. He sat perfectly still, nursing a glass of whiskey. He offered none to Daniel.
"Have a seat. I would say I'm happy to see your face again, Daniel. But that would be a lie. I'm not happy, and I can't see a godsdamn thing, anymore."
The man removed his glasses, revealing two empty, gaping holes. Daniel had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He'd never seen anything so fathomless. He stood to leave.
"Sit the frak down, Daniel."
Daniel had never heard anyone other than his father use that word before today, or refer to the "gods" in the plural. And yet here were two people doing just that. Zoe clamped her hands on Daniel's shoulder and urged him to sit back in his chair. Daniel pushed her off.
"You know my father?"
"What do you think, Junior?"
"Where is he? What does he want?"
The blind man laughed and snorted. He downed another shot of whiskey.
"I told this to your father a long, long time ago. I thought he might have told you. We're on the side of the demons, kid. We're evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. Is that enough for you? Now sit. The frak. Down."
Zoe slammed him into the chair, kicking his legs out from under him. Daniel winced.
"It's been a long, long time, Daniel."
"I've never seen you before."
The blind man grinned and snorted again.
"You don't remember me, but I sure as hell remember you. I'd recognize that voice anywhere. Chief outdid himself this time."
"Chief…? Who is Chief"
"He's sitting now, right?"
Zoe grunted and smiled.
"He's sitting."
"You want a drink?"
"I'm only 17."
The blind man laughed, much longer than was comfortable.
"You're a lot older than you know. Come to think of it, the original Daniel didn't drink, either. Lot of good it did him."
Daniel began scanning for exits. This wasn't looking at all good.
"I need to go back home. My father is looking for me. I'm sure the police are looking for me."
"Your father? Your father. Yes, I am sure your father is looking for you, his son, his only begotten son. What a piece of work you are. The universe hasn't seen the likes of you in, oh, a couple of hundred thousand years or so. Rounding off to the nearest millennium, that is."
"You don't know anything about me."
"I suppose I don't, do I? We've never met. Well, hello there. Let's introduce ourselves. My name is Saul Tigh."
"You know my father?"
"Oh, once upon a time you might say I was his superior officer. Or something like that. It's been a long time. One forgets these things."
"My dad is a scientist. He's never been in the military."
"Well, we weren't what you'd exactly call regular army."
Nothing but silence and the smell of whiskey and mold. Daniel stood up and moved toward the door.
"Where you going?
"Back home."
"You've never been home. You don't know what home is. None of us are ever going back home. Not if I have anything to say about it. Where do you think you're from, anyway?"
"He thinks he's from Chowchilla," said Zoe. "Chowchilla, California."
So it wasn't a dream. She was there, too.
"You remember," said Daniel. "You remember my dream."
"It wasn't a dream. It's how I found you. We've been looking for you, Daniel. Waiting for you. You've been tapping into V-world. The remnants of it, anyway, that have drifted across the universe over the millennia. Finally finding their way here, at Second Earth. But you have to have the right receiver to pick them up, you see. You have to build it. You … You ride the waves of it in your sleep."
"What's your earliest memory?" asked Tigh.
"I don't – Why? Helping my dad in his shop. Fixing things. Handing him a screwdriver or a wrench. Drawing plans. Looking at the night sky through a telescope."
"They seem so real, don't they? I've been there, I know. But you aren't 17, Daniel. And those aren't your memories. Of course we could count it two ways. By one measure, you're over 150,000 years old. But that wouldn't be fair. You died then. Or were murdered, I should say, by your own brother. But this incarnation of you is brand new - you were born just three days ago."
What did this old blind man just say?
"In a tub of goo."
In a—
"In your father's basement."
"This is insane," said Daniel. "You are insane."
Tigh downed another shot of whiskey.
"That may be true," he said. "But that doesn't change the fact that you have only been walking this planet for three days. You're still in diapers."
A knock at the door.
Cassie's knock. He knew it well.
Shit.
"What do you want me to do with her?" said Zoe.
"Don't hurt her," said Daniel. "I can get her to go away."
"Just let her in," said Tigh. "It doesn't matter, anyway."
Daniel cracked open the door.
"What are you doing here, Cassie?"
"I followed you. What did you expect me to do? Why did you run away? Who is she?"
Daniel let Cassie in and shut the door behind her.
"You can take him," said Tigh. "Take him back to the Chief, little girl. He's as safe there as anywhere, I guess. Tell him you saw me. The bald man with no eyes. And tell him I know what his game is. And it's all over. I wanted to give you a message, too, Daniel. I know about your dreams. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space—were it not that I have bad dreams. Oh yes, I remember Bill well. I was one of the groundlings. Even on the stage crew for a time. Still had one eye back then. What did Bill say in that one production, late in his career? These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air: and, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. Don't go to sleep, Daniel. Don't ever go to sleep. No matter what your 'father' says. No matter what pills he gives you. Here."
Tigh motioned to Zoe, who placed a plain, rectangular, black box on the kitchen table. Daniel opened it. A gleaming hypodermic needle, filled with a blue solution.
"When you feel sleepy, jab it in your arm. Do whatever you have to do. Pull out your teeth, one by one. Cut off your eyelids. Won't kill you. Look at me, for frak's sake. But don't sleep. Don't ever sleep."
How the hell was he supposed to do that?
"The more you dream, the more you will wander," said Zoe. "All of our dreams are projections. They all interconnect in a vast, cosmic web. Like Alice and the rabbit hole. Don't fall too far."
"If you wander too far, eventually they will find you, or you them," said Tigh. "And then it's over for all of us, for the whole frakkin' world. It all ends, all of it. I've seen it before. Twice. All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. If we let it."
"All humans have to sleep," said Cassie.
"Your boyfriend's not human, sweetheart," said Tigh. "Not even half-human, like all of you poor bastards. You, Daniel, are a rare thing indeed - a pure, 100 percent Cylon."
"Cylon?" said Cassie.
"A cybernetic life node," said Zoe. "Congratulations. You're this planet's first native, artificially sentient being."
"I've dreaded your coming for an eternity," said Tigh. "A literal eternity. We've been roaming this foul planet like the walking godsdamn dead. Thousands of years. You understand? Tens of thousands of years. A hundred thousand years. You can't imagine. You plow through them. You survive. Just survive. We gave up all of our technology. All of it. Out of fear. Fear of you. But here you are again. And the memories. I could tell you stories, Daniel. I try to blot them out. Usually do a damn fine job. I'll tell you one, though. Just one. Daniel was killed because he was special. He didn't need a holoband or a connection to tap into V-world, other dimensions. He had direct access. Through his dreams. You see? He was an artist. He had gifts. Dangerous gifts. And now you're here again. Galen did it. That son of a bitch finally did it. It only took him 150,000 years to get the technology he needed. Godsdamn him to hell. He waited it out, and now here you are. He wants to go back home. I understand. I do. But there's no going back. He wants to use you to get there. Brilliant idea. But in doing so he's gonna kill us all. He's going to do nothing but rain down destruction on all of us. Do not go to sleep, Daniel. Now get the frak out of here."
"One more thing, Daniel," said Zoe, grabbing his arm with a vice-like grip.
"We'll be watching you. If you take those pills Chief keeps pushing on you, I'm going to have to kill you myself."