AUTHOR'S NOTE: What Jack and Vika see on the other side of the world after the Tet is destroyed at the end of Oblivion, and then what they do.
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TOWER 23
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Another day in paradise.
Jack Harper opened his eyes slowly, the phrase echoing in his head. March 17th, 2077, just a few days before the autumnal equinox. It was he and Vika's third year of a five year rotation. The final cycle before the great migration to Titan. What remained of humanity was on the Tet in orbit, and soon enough the move would begin. Jack sat up in bed. Vika was already undressed and in the shower. Outside the Sun had just risen and the clouds were bathed in fiery colors. For a dying world, the vista they enjoyed from their sky tower perch was spectacular. Clouds usually formed over the ocean to the south and east, above and beyond the water processing units. The interior was a desert with the start of the radiation zone less than a two hundred kilometers inland and five hundred kilometers up the coast.
Despite the mandatory memory wipe, Jack had memories. Of course he still knew how to speak and to read, so that part of his memory was left intact. But he could also remember fragments of sporting games he couldn't possibly have ever seen. Images of life before the war from things he must have read. He knew particulars of what happened during the war with the Scavs, but from where he didn't know. The destruction of the Moon, earthquakes and tsunamis, humanity's Hail Mary pass with the nukes. Yes, humanity had won the war, but had lost the planet. And yet…
Vika was out of the shower and drying her hair. "Hurry up Jack," she said cheerfully. "The Tet comes online in less than thirty minutes." She tossed the towel and it landed on Jack's head and then went to get dressed. "I'll get breakfast ready."
"There hasn't been any Scav activity for over five months now," Jack protested. "The drones have next to nothing to do and I hardly have to go out anymore."
Vika was pulling on her gray tunic and dress, her de facto uniform when she acted as Jack's communications officer, even on the days he didn't take his ship out to repair a downed drone. It was she, after all, who communicated with Sally in the Tet. Vika gave Jack an irritated look. "Sally will be calling us in less than thirty minutes now. I don't want to get on her bad side, and we don't know what might have happened during the night."
Jack sighed and pushed the covers off. Perhaps just for fun he would take the Ship out for a spin to keep up his piloting proficiency. He showered and got dressed and met Vika at the kitchen table. The meal was already ready and waiting. Scrambled eggs and toast. One of the standard reconstituted food packets supplied for their stay at Tower 23. Vacuum sealed and appropriately labelled and stacked in the cabinets. Just add water. More were located downstairs to restock the kitchen and would just last them their five year stay. Vika smiled at him and touched his hand when Jack sat down. He smiled back weakly.
Vika was intelligent, beautiful and caring, everything he should want in a woman. Their marriage before the wipe, however, was completely forgotten, so he didn't even remember what had brought the two of them together in the first place. Why wasn't it right between them now? Was it something to do with the woman in his dreams? Was the dark-haired woman someone he knew, or someone he read about, or was she even real? Still, he and Vika had a wonderful life planned together, after the mission. In two years they would take the Ship up to the Tet, their memories will be restored and they were assured soon after that the Tet would depart for Titan. Their time on Earth's surface, humanity's time on Earth's surface, would soon be coming to an end. They ate in silence as the world brightened outside.
Vika finished first and cleared her place. As usual, see seemed pensive and out of sorts. She walked to the stairs that led to the communications loft and went up. The Tet was probably on the horizon now signaling the start of their work day. The Tet wasn't in a standard orbit. Although close to the Earth where its orbit should be every ninety minutes or so, instead it somehow maintained a relative position with the Sun so it rose at about sunrise and set at about sunset every day. As Tech-23 and Comm-23, Jack surmised there must be other technicians and communications officers about the Earth doing the same thing as they did. All part of the final clean-up crew. He wondered idly if they were all married couples like he and Vika.
"Jack!" Vika screamed. The last time she had screamed like that, a half-dead and scraggly bird had landed on the tower. Jack had been surprised and excited that such a creature could still scratch out a living on Earth. Vika, however, had been worried about contamination and had made Jack dispose of it.
Jack was up from the table and at the base of the spiral staircase in an instant. Vika was stumbling down the stairs and collapsed into his arms. "What's the matter?" Jack asked, holding her tight.
Vika was sobbing, but then pulled away so she could look Jack in the eyes. "It's, it's…" she stuttered, but couldn't seem to get out what she wanted to say. Tears were glistening her cheeks, and she finally closed her eyes and buried her face into Jack's chest. "All those people," she finally managed.
"Vika, tell me," Jack implored. "What has happened?"
Vika looked towards the eastern facing windows. "The Tet," she whispered.
Jack moved towards the windows with Vika hanging onto him. Just above the horizon was the Tet, or at least what was left of it. It could usually be seen clearly, its roughly tetrahedral shape tracing a path across the sky along with the Sun. Now there was a debris field of about the same size slowly expanding. At the periphery, pieces would suddenly fly off in various directions, apparently no longer constrained to the sun-synchronous orbit of the Tet and taking their own path according to the laws of physics. An orbit typical of a low-Earth orbit object, or a trajectory that resulted in it burning up in the atmosphere or impact. Had the Scavs attacked? Had their reinforcements arrived? Had there been some sort of terrible accident? As he watched, a piece of the Tet blazed across the sky leaving a luminous trail behind it. It passed over the tower and descended to the western horizon.
"Could some have survived?" Vika said, now over the initial shock and also looking out the windows. It was a futile hope. The extent of the destruction appeared absolute. They both clung to each other for a time, letting this new reality sink in.
"We should use the tower sensors," Jack suggested. It was a slim hope, but perhaps some had been able to escape before the explosion and make it to the ground.
Vika nodded and finally let go of Jack and moved with a purpose to the spiral staircase and back up to the loft. Jack followed close behind. At her desk, the computer screens were already active and she waved her hand over the surface with skill. The sensors that were available to her opened up and displayed their output. All the drones were down, having been operated exclusively from the Tet. At a glance they realized all the water processing units were no longer functioning as well. The spot on the display where Sally would appear each morning was blank. In all likelihood, she was dead, along with most of the rest of humanity who were on the Tet. Vika scrolled through the various sensor displays and Jack found it difficult to keep up.
"There," Vika finally said. "Just inside the northern radiation zone." A particular display now stopped and enlarged. They could just make out an object sitting on the surface in the desert. A darkened trail extended off to the east and it appeared to be sitting atop the ground as if it had come in and landed. It didn't look like a vessel, but it was possible. "We should take the Ship and get a closer look," Vika suggested.
"We?" Jack asked. In their three years here, Vika had never gone out with him despite his many invitations, preferring to stay in the Sky Tower. Safe from contamination, radiation, and the Scavs.
Vika frowned slightly. "We're sticking together," she finally said. "We're an effective team, remember?" She then turned towards Jack, a touch of panic behind her calmer façade. "There's no way I'm staying here alone."
"Let's go take a look then," Jack said matter-of-factly, trying to ease her obviously growing anxiety. "Send the coordinates to the Ship."
Vika nodded and swept her hand over the controls. Outside, the Ship initiated its start-up procedures with a systems diagnostics and warm up of the engines. She was up and following behind Jack back down the stairs in a moment. Jack was in his Technician's uniform, a stylized 23 emblazoned on the right chest and Tet symbol on the arms. Vika also put on her seldom used outer jacket with the same 23 and Tet emblems.
There was no railing on the platform that held the Ship. It always unnerved her to see Jack walk out, particularly when there was some wind. Fortunately today was calm and Vika stayed in the exact center of the pathway directly behind Jack. He stepped to the right of the Ship and entered the open cockpit and she went to the opposite side to take the other seat. They both strapped in and then Jack flipped a few switches and checked the controls. "You should have come out with me more often," Jack said, again trying to normalize the situation and ease her tension. She appreciated his efforts and smiled.
The flight out to the perimeter of the patrol area took about a half hour. In the copilot's seat, Vika took control of the Ship's sensors and was honing in on the area they had identified. As they got closer, they had a better perspective and clearer image of the site. They were still a distance off from the start of the northern radiation zone when she shook her head. "It's just debris," she said deflated. "It left a trench for several hundred meters and came to rest half buried in the earth. I don't detect any activity nearby. Human or Scav." She had been hoping, they both had been hoping, it was a ship of survivors. No such luck.
"Do we turn back?" Jack asked.
"I don't know."
Jack maintained their heading, knowing he would have to turn back soon enough anyway so they didn't get fried by the radiation. "Perhaps there's more to see deeper inside the radiation zone," he suggested. "Use the Ship's scanners to see if there is anything else."
Vika nodded. "That's a good idea," she said. "Get as close to the radiation zone as you can and then parallel towards the ocean. I'll scan as deep as I can into the zone and see what turns up."
After a few minutes, the proximity alarm sounded and Jack banked to the right and did as Vika had suggested. She worked the sensors and he kept a constant distance from the perimeter.
"Could you gain some altitude?" Vika asked after a short time. "I'll be able to look deeper into the area." Jack pulled back on the flight stick and the Ship started gaining altitude. After two thousand meters, Vika nodded. "That's good. Level out here." Jack did as he was told.
After a few more minutes, Jack turned to Vika with a smile. "We do make a good team, don't we?" he said with a wink.
"An effective team," Vika corrected, half joking. How many times a day would Sally ask her that question and she would respond in the affirmative? And now Sally was gone and all of that was irrelevant. Although, it was nice to be working together. Something on the sensors caught her eye. She examined the images more closely. "There are several drones that have crashed."
"Within the radiation zone?" Jack replied incredulous. "They shouldn't be in there. Perhaps they were fried by the radiation."
Vika shook her head. "It appears they were all heading this way. They might have been coming into our area from the radiation zone."
"But why would they be in the radiation zone in the first place?" Jack wondered aloud.
Vika continued to examine the sensor output. "What is that?" she said after a moment. She moved the images to the forward heads-up display.
The image wasn't great, but the unmistakable profile of a house perched atop a thin pole was evident. It was close to the horizon from their perspective and near the shoreline of the ocean beyond. "Another sky tower," Jack said in disbelief.
Vika was quiet as she attempted to clear up the image. All her efforts only reinforced the impression. "It does look like that, doesn't it?" she finally replied. "I wonder why we've never noticed it before."
"Why would we?" Jack said. "It's beyond the sensors from our own tower, and I've never scanned into the radiation zone before. There was no reason to."
"What do we do?"
They flew in silence for a few minutes puzzling through their options. The ocean was getting closer and soon they should turn to head down the coast towards home. "Do we have a way of detecting radiation?" Jack finally asked.
"Don't the Ship's sensors do that?" Vika replied. "The alarm went off back there when we started approaching the zone's perimeter."
"Besides the ship sensors," Jack persisted. "That's a proximity alarm that goes off any time I'm close to the perimeter. It's triggered by our location and not the radiation itself. Can we detect the radiation directly?"
Vika nodded slowly. "I think I've seen something in the Auxiliary Medkit. It's short range though, we'd have to go slow."
Jack banked the Ship to the right and put in the coordinates for their Sky Tower. "Good enough," he said. "Let's go get it. We'll keep it in the cockpit with us and move slowly into the radiation zone. Perhaps there's a path we could take through the radiation hot spots and find out what's going on."
Vika sighed. She didn't like the idea, but what choice did they have. They were alone and perhaps there was another team at this tower they could work with. Double the number of humans they knew were left alive. "Okay," she finally agreed.
It turned out there were two radiation detectors, one in the Medkit as Vika had suspected and a backup in their supply cabinet. They took both of them back into the cockpit of the Ship and set a course back to the northern radiation zone. When the Ship's alarms sounded, Jack slowed down to a hover while Vika turned on the detectors and positioned them on either side of the cockpit. She linked the output directly to their heads-up display. When ready, Jack eased the controls forward and they started into the radiation zone, but the detectors did not detect any radiation above background. At about a kilometer in, the Ship's automated controls engaged and started turning back.
"Can you disable that?" Vika asked.
Jack nodded, engaged some switches, and turned the Ship back on course. Both radiation detectors still read zero. Jack increased speed every so often to quicken their progress, but the radiation detectors remained pegged at zero. Eventually, he opened up to maximum speed. Vika turned to him and raised her eyebrows, but didn't say a word. Soon enough, they were at the other sky tower, a replica of their own. The landing platform was empty, and as they circled, neither of them could detect any movement inside. After a second circuit, Jack pulled the Ship closer and landed on the platform.
"Stay behind me," Jack said as they exited the Ship. He had his pistol drawn but down at his side and the two of them edged their way to the entrance. The doors swished open as they approached, as they automatically did in their own tower, and they proceeded inside cautiously. The place was neat and tidy with nothing out of place.
"It's just like when we first arrived at our tower," Vika remarked.
Jack nodded. "Hello!" he called out. There was no answer. He stepped down the stairs and checked the lower level while Vika looked about on the main floor. Everything was in its place and undisturbed. They returned to their starting point and Vika shrugged her shoulders. Jack looked at his pistol and then put it into the holster on his leg. Apparently the place had no occupants. The tower was indeed an exact replica of their tower save for the color scheme. Their tower had accents of blue while this tower had accents of red. On the furniture. On the walls.
"Jack, take a look at this," Vika called from the kitchen. She had opened a food cabinet where their food packets would be stored. It was empty. The next cabinet was empty too. When they had arrived three years before in their tower, the shelves had been stocked for their five year stay. "It's as if the former inhabitants had completed their five-year tour and left."
"But who?" Jack wondered.
Just then Vika gasped. Jack moved over with concern and looked to where she was staring, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "The photo," she whispered. He then saw it. The photo of the two of them from before their memory wipe, framed and propped up on the countertop. The only personal memento they were allowed to bring with them. What was it doing here? The two of them exchanged a look.
"It's as if this was our tower," Jack commented. "But…"
"With the memory wipe, perhaps we were here before?" Vika speculated.
Jack shook his head and opened up some of the other cabinets. Inside were things he expected. A Medkit, the Tech pistol with additional ammo. Instead of a stylized 23, however, each item had the number 24 on it instead.
"Tower twenty-four then," Vika said over his shoulder.
"But with no Technician or Communications Officer," Jack replied. "Perhaps this was meant to be our tower?"
"Let's go to the loft," Vika suggested. "Perhaps we can access the computer and get some answers." She moved off to the spiral staircase that led to the loft with Jack right behind her. It was exactly like her own loft. She sat down in the chair and waved her hand over the screen. It lit up immediately with the word 'VERIFICATION NEEDED' in the center of the screen. It was her daily ritual when first accessing the tower computer. "Comm Two Three" she said automatically. Instead of the screen filling with the various sensor information, however, it went blank for a second and then displayed again 'VERIFICATION NEEDED.'
Jack touched her on her shoulder. "Remember where we are," he said.
Vika nodded slowly and then returned her attention to the screen. "Comm Two Four," she said, and immediately the screen activated. She first opened the main map and panned out to see the entire perimeter. She pointed to the southern border. "See here, this is our northern border. The ocean here extends to the east and north while from our tower the ocean is on the east and south."
"In both cases, there's more land to the west that is supposedly in another radiation zone," Jack mused. "Hundreds of kilometers. Perhaps another tower too."
Vika scrolled the map over to examine that area, but there wasn't anything to see. The map ended just inside the supposed radiation zone to the west. She paused for a moment and then thought of something. She touched a spot on the screen and then said aloud, "play back last transmission from the Tet."
On the screen, in the usual spot, Sally appeared smiling broadly. "Congratulations Tower Two Four. You and your Tech are authorized transfer to the Tet tomorrow morning. Just take the ship right up. I know it's been a long five years, but you have both done a fantastic job. A truly effective team. I'll be waiting at the docking bay and we'll finally have that drink together. We head to Titan soon." There was static for a short time and then the screen was blank again.
"What's the date stamp," Jack asked.
Vika checked. "Just over a year ago," she replied in disbelief. She then had a thought. She touched the same spot on the screen and said aloud, "play back last log entry, Comm Two Four."
Now on the screen was an image of someone who looked exactly like her. She too was smiling. "I can't believe we leave for the Tet in the morning. It's been a long five years is right, but fortunately we haven't had any Scavs to deal with for most of that time. Jack and I are looking forward to Titan." The woman on the screen looked pensive for a few seconds, and then added. "With our memories back, perhaps it will be better. I hope so." Again the screen went blank.
Vika sighed and shook her head, the brief log entry obviously striking a nerve. This Vika and Jack obviously had had their own issues, similar to them. Jack reached over and placed his hand on her shoulder and she reached up and grabbed it. She looked about the loft and sighed again.
"It's just like us," Jack commented. "A five-year mission, and then leaving for Titan soon after."
"But that log entry was a year ago," Vika protested.
Jack nodded grimly. "I know."
"So it wasn't us," Vika persisted. "They looked exactly like us, but it wasn't us."
"I know!"
"Let's get out of here Jack," she said suddenly and stood, keeping hold of Jack's hand as she did so. "I want to go. I want to go home and figure out what we're going to do."
Jack agreed. Before leaving, however, they acquired some items from the tower and then retreated to the Ship and back to their own Tower 23. It was late afternoon, so they decided to investigate the western radiation zone the next day. It was only after they were well into their own area that Vika realized she hadn't checked the radiation detectors once on the way back. What was left of the Tet was lowering towards the western horizon. Only a few pieces were still visible in the pale blue sky.
They stayed in the living area of their tower together for the rest of the day and evening. Not talking much, but wanted the company of the other. They had dinner as usual, and for a sense of some normalcy, went for a swim in the tower's infinity pool. As they laid in bed for sleep, Jack turned to Vika. "Do you have any memories from before the wipe?" he asked tentatively. He had once brought up the subject before, but she had quickly shut it down, not wanting to jeopardize the mission.
Vika was quiet for a long time. "Some," she finally said. "Fragments only. Feelings."
"Me too," Jack replied after a time. Was there someone haunting her dreams as well?
"They scare me," she added. "I don't know what's real and what's not."
Jack frowned. Some of his pre-wipe memories couldn't be real, for they were seemingly from before the war. With the revelations from Tower-24, were any of them real? What were they going to find in the western waste? "There must be more," Jack whispered.
"More what?" Vika asked.
"More to life," Jack replied. "Meaning. More to everything. From what we've seen, we were told lies, we believed in lies, but out there, there must be the truth. And we need to find it."
"Hold me Jack," Vika said. Even though his arm was already around her, he pulled her in closer. She just must need the reassurance of his presence next to her, and he realized he needed the same. The only memories he could be sure of were the ones from the past three years with Vika. The warmth of her body next to him felt good. Natural. She was his wife after all.
They woke up at their usual time the next day and prepared for the exploration of the western radiation zone. Although they often touted they were an effective team in the past, there was a different sense now. A realization, perhaps, they were indeed an effective team and more productive together than separate. They prepared for an extended excursion with both extra food and water and a portable habitat they could erect in case they didn't return to their tower that night. They had four radiation detectors now, two additional ones from Tower 24, just in case, and four pistols and rifles, the full armory from both towers. They had no idea what waited for them in the western waste, but something had destroyed the Tet, and even though the Scavs were not active in their region, there could be many of them there. They were in the Ship and ready an hour after sunrise. Nothing of the Tet remained in the sky. Whatever had kept it and the debris in its orbit had apparently dissipated completely.
As they waited for the engines to warm up, Jack had a sudden impulse. He leaned over and kissed Vika on the cheek.
She jumped a little and then smiled. "What was that for?" she asked, obviously surprised by the gesture.
Jack shrugged. "Good luck I suppose," he replied with a grin.
Vika beamed back, and then busied herself getting the radiation detectors linked to the Ship's sensors. They kept two in the cockpit, but had also mounted two on the front skids. Everything looked fine.
Jack immediately headed west. Below was desert and the low hills blurred past. He slowed when they reached the boundary to the radiation zone, but quickly resumed speed when all four radiation detectors read zero.
"We might be two of the only humans left," Vika mused after a time.
"I wonder if we'll be able to survive," Jack replied. "Humanity was abandoning Earth for Titan."
"But is any of that true?" Vika countered. "We now know the two who were in Tower twenty-four were told the same stories, but went back over a year ago to who knows what. What really happened to them?"
Jack shrugged his shoulders.
"And what of the future?" Vika continued. "What are we supposed to do? We can't live in our Sky Tower forever. If we find others still alive, where do we go? How do we get more food? If Earth is still habitable, do we start repopulating?"
"That sounds reasonable," Jack said, and then raised his eyebrows suggestively. "We could start right away."
Vika glanced sideways for a second. It had been a long time since he had teased her that way. So long, in fact, she didn't quite remember the last time. "I think we should wait until tonight," she finally countered. "Or at least until we land."
Jack laughed, and she enjoyed the sound of that. "Still no tower?" he asked after some more time passed. They both assumed they would find one in the western waste. They had been flying at maximum speed for an hour, but the landscape below was that of desolation.
Finally, after over five hundred kilometers inside the western radiation zone, they detected the tower at the edge of the sensor range. They wouldn't have detected it save for the fact that Jack had gained altitude to near the edge of space for a longer perspective. Beyond the new tower was the ocean, and so it became evident the three towers were all on an immense island or small continent.
"Look here," Vika suddenly said. She centered the scanner view and enlarged it on the head-up display. It was still a bit grainy, but on the ground was another ship. The dust was settling around it for it appeared to have just landed and two indistinct figures were getting out. The other ship looked very much like their own. "I programed the sensors to highlight any movement and detected this," she added and looked over to Jack
"How far?"
"Seventy-five kilometers," Vika replied. It was well south of the tower, near the southern coast.
"I'm heading there instead," Jack said and turned the ship from the original path which was to the other tower and started descending to the new target. It took them seven minutes to get to the spot and they circled the area before settling down twenty meters from where the other two who had left the other ship were walking. Both were now stopped and waiting. Both with rifles not quite aimed at them but at the ready.
Jack and Vika exited their own Ship and moved forward towards the other couple. Immediately they recognized them. It was hard not to. Save for the stylized 25 emblazoned on their jackets, they looked identical to themselves. They were even wearing the same outfits. "Let me guess," Jack said. "You're Jack Harper and Victoria Olsen."
This gave the other two pause. They lowered their weapons further, obviously also recognizing the resemblance between the two couples. The other Vika stepped behind the other Jack and whispered something. "And who the hell are you," the other Jack Harper, Jack-25, said to them.
Jack-23 didn't really know. For years he had thought one thing. That he was part of the clean-up crew waiting to return to the Tet and move on to Titan. Married to Vika, but dreaming of another woman he didn't quite remember because of the memory wipe. It occurred to him that the previous night was the first time in a long time he hadn't dreamt of her, but rather of other things. Of the future, in fact, instead of the past. He looked over and stepped closer to his Vika, who was standing beside him. He and this other Tech couldn't possibly both be Jack Harper. In all likelihood, neither of them were. Nor the Jack-24 who must have met his demise a year ago. Nor any of the other Jacks about the Earth on sky towers yet undiscovered. He didn't know all the truth, not yet, but he did know some truth.
He finally gestured his head towards Vika-23 and stated the only identification he was certain of. "I'm her husband."
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Author's note: There are 12 Oblivion stories on fanfiction. The 10 I read in English are all good, but I particularly like Laura Shiller's "Paradigm." As with that story and others, at the end of the movie you have to wonder about all the other Jacks and Victorias around the world and what will become of them now that the Tet has been destroyed. This story is my attempt to capture the feel of Oblivion and answer that question for at least one of those couples.