Eight months had passed since Jon’s final conversation with Harry. Since that time the world had been turbulent place, to say the least. Events had occurred almost precisely as Harry had predicted, down to the last detail. Transportation had been completely disrupted. Oil prices had soared to unheard of prices and then fallen back to below the old market value as new energy sources began to replace the old.
The energy giants tried to use their enormous power to leverage events to their advantage, temporarily throwing other markets into a tailspin. Ultimately their efforts failed and their vast resources disappeared, almost overnight.
Politically, the fallout was even worse. Unstable regimes and dictatorships suffered the most. There was carnage in their cities and a total collapse of their economies. Democracies fared better as saner heads prevailed. After a temporary downslide into what at first seemed to be total economic collapse, a new entrepreneurial spirit caught fire. The money that had gone into exhaust fumes and enriched the coffers of the energy giants poured into entirely new generations of technology. It was a transformative event that could not be stopped.
The safe house Harry had set up for Jon protected him from the tumultuous events. Located about fifty miles from Tartan’s Crag, it was equipped with every necessity. It had complete energy independence and its own water supply. As usual, Harry thought of every contingency. The food supplies alone would last for years. In the basement, Jon found a pallet stacked six feet high with shrink-wrapped packages of hundred dollar bills. Next to this pallet was another of solid gold ingots, stacked even higher.
The house, set in the middle of a fifty acre lot, offered extraordinary views of the mountains and trails that ran through fields of mountain flowers. In the evening the nighttime sky was spectacular.
Jon and Lettie walked hand in hand down one of the mountain trails. They had been married for over a month. They did not speak, but each felt a quiet communion.
When they reached the end of the trail and the beginning of more rugged terrain, they looked up at the sky at the same moment. It was a deep indigo, like a velvet curtain.
“It’s hard to believe there ever was a place called HTPS Industries,” Lettie said.
Jon laughed. “I know what you mean. It feels so distant, like it all happened in another lifetime.”
“It was another lifetime. Life was never this wonderful.”
“Do you miss it?” Jon asked.
“Not for a minute,” said Lettie. “How about you?”
“Well, I miss Harry, but that’s about it.”
Lettie shuddered. “I still can’t believe he did what he did. It seems inhuman.”
Jon thought for a moment before replying. “Maybe what he did was trans-human.”
“Maybe so,” said Lettie. “But just think what he’s missing. He’ll never eat chocolate ice cream again.”
Jon laughed.
“And he’ll never experience this,” Lettie said, as she embraced Jon and kissed his neck.
Jon turned her around and kissed her lips. They clung together for nearly a minute before stepping away from each other.
Together they looked up at the heavens. Stars dotted the nighttime sky, winking in and out as the light cloud cover moved onward.
“Do you think there are intelligent life forms up there?” said Lettie.
“Definitely,” said Jon. He had not told her what he learned in his final conversation with Harry, thinking it best for her to adjust to events as they happened. Not only were there intelligent life forms up there, but they were almost here. According to Harry’s timetable, first contact was only days or weeks away.
* * * *
Richard H. Hardy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, during a week of relentless bombing raids just before the close of World War II. The day he was born an incendiary bomb fell on the church across the street from where he lived, so he is fond of saying that he entered the world with a big adrenaline rush.
His family later moved to England and then on to America.
After college Richard bounced through a series of temporary jobs as he traveled around the country, wanting nothing more than to write fiction. A job driving a library van allowed him free time to write several short stories and work on a novel.
He and his wife moved to New Hampshire, where he took an entry level job at a software company. He was soon promoted to the technical writing department and ended up producing over 500,000 words of online documentation. After a few years he was promoted to the programming department and ended up as the Senior EDI Programmer, creating EDI maps and writing UNIX scripts and troubleshooting on AIX systems throughout the U.S. and Canada.
After he retired, he started writing fiction again. The Infinity Program is his first published novel.
You can find Richard online at www.richard-hardy.com.