12|21|12 by Larry Enright Read Free Book Online Page B

that just zapped them all into nothingness.”
    “If one person a minute were removed from this planet, it would take thirteen thousand years. Even at a hundred a minute, it would still take 130 years. I think we would have noticed your alien with a ray gun,” Loeb said.
    “Maybe it was a really big ray gun and he got them all in one shot, you know, like the Death Star?”
    “As I recall that destroyed the planet as well, didn’t it?”
    “So they’ve done some upgrading. I don’t know. What difference does it make? Everyone’s gone, and we’re still here.”
    “It makes all the difference in the world to me. If we assume that whoever is behind this is benevolent and that we were simply left behind, it behooves us to find out if there is still a chance we can rejoin the rest of our race. If, rather, we assume that this was an attack of sorts, we should stop looking now and start hiding.”
    “Which do you think it is?”
    “I would think if another race had eradicated our species in a prelude to colonization that they would already be here, and we would have seen them. On the other hand, if they came for raw materials, they are in for an unpleasant surprise. In either case, we would know they were here. But in my mind, there seems little point to attacking a planet as insignificant as Earth.”
    “Maybe they came and took everyone to be slaves on their home world.”
    “Six billion slaves? That’s a lot of mouths to feed, and I don’t think we’re talking about Pharaohs in space ships.”
    “Maybe they’re using us for food.”
    “If so, wouldn’t it make more sense to grow us in our native environment and harvest us here as needed? Cameron, I would be more than happy to discuss any other imaginative speculations you might make, but to answer your question directly, I believe that those who are responsible for this did so with good intentions.”
    “You mean like to save us? But you said yourself that it would take hundreds or thousands of years. There would have been announcements, meetings, plans… We would have known about it.”
    “We didn’t know about it because it all happened in an instant of our time.”
    “Okay, that’s impossible unless you’re now saying you do believe in giant ray guns.”
    “Actually no, it’s not. Space and time are relative, and the only logical explanation for such an event is that whoever did this was able to fold space and time to accomplish a centuries-long task in an instant.”
    “You mean time travel?”
    “That’s precisely what I mean.”
    “So they traveled back to some point in time…”
    “12:21:12 p.m. on 12|21|12 to be precise.”
    “And they gathered up as many people as they could and took them away in their space ships or whatever, and when they came back again…”
    “They returned at exactly the same instant of our time and moved another group off the planet.”
    “So for us, it all seems to happen in that same moment even though it takes them hundreds of their years. That’s pretty deep, Dr. Loeb. Is that even possible?”
    “Indeed it is — if one were actually able to fold space and time. Then he could be anywhere he chose at any time he chose without having to travel there using more conventional methods.”
    “So they could have transporters, or a star gate, or something like that?”
    “I would assume so.”
    “Where is it?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “So why didn’t they take us, Dr. Loeb?”
    “If this were an exam and you got five wrong out of 6.8 billion, it would still be an “A.” No one is perfect, Cameron.”
    “So we’re a mistake? That’s comforting.”
    “Or perhaps, as the good reverend said, we were left behind for a reason. Perhaps they left us here to gather up the other stragglers.”
    “So when they came back again they would take us all in one shot on the last bus out of town. That makes sense. We need to find that bus station, Dr. Loeb.”
    Cameron cleaned up. Loeb went to the computer in the