This is the first in a series of four one shot stories all relating to a challenge on Roswell Heaven of how would our heroes deal with the end of the world in 2012. Hope you folks enjoy.
Title- Deim Perfectum
Author- PML
Disclaimer- Roswell is not mine. It is owned by Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, and Fox. This is for entertainment only and no infringement is intended.
Category- CC- AI
Rating- Mature
Summary- Well my Latin grammar is probably atrocious, but for whatever reasons I felt this series of one shots call for it. This story is about the end of the world, supposedly coming in 2012. Only in this story, it really is coming. How will our heroes cope?
Isabel-
Isabel got off the phone with Max. He had sent her here, both because she wanted to live anywhere but Roswell and because he and Brody had wanted access to some of the raw information coming from the Keck Observatory. Hawaii had sounded fine to her.
Anything would beat the series of haunted memories that Roswell offered her. For Isabel, Roswell simply meant the ghost of loves past.
Alex. And Grant. And Jesse.
Of the three, Jesse was the only one still breathing. He had remarried and had a couple of cute little kids. Kids that would never get to grow up.
How she wished she knew what had started all of this. Space inflation or the Big Rip. Something about phantom energy fighting against the flow of gravity. It was the reason the universe continued to expand. And not just expand, it was the reason the expansion was accelerating.
It had been proposed by Robert Caldwell at Dartmouth while she and her friends had still been running from the Feds. It had taken several years before the combination of pressure from their families and persuasion by the hybrids before the Federal Government let them go.
There was no hard proof anyway. The Government already knew about the aliens, and it was obvious the hybrids were close enough to human that their differences would rapidly be bred out into the normal population.
Really nothing to fear. And so in 2006 they had been able to go home. They had all been so happy.
It had been a year later that Brody had asked Max for some help with some sort of stellar phenomena. The most distant stars and proto galaxies were disappearing from view. Not just red shifting, but actually disappearing.
That was when Isabel first heard about the Big Rip. Sure, Isabel had followed scientific discoveries as much as any intelligent woman would. And stars, given her heritage had always called to her. But astronomy had never been her idea of a career.
Working at the Keck Observatory had changed that. With her focused mind she easily mastered many of the difficult formulas and disciplines needed for cosmology. She hadn’t even had to pretend that she was interested in the subject by the time she arrived.
Once she had looked up at the night sky with wonder and hope. Now as she gazed at the starry heavens she felt only dread and despair.
The universe was expanding much faster than anyone could have believed. She could still remember the last shot she had taken of a heavily red shifted Andromeda Galaxy. A galaxy that they had once thought destined to smash into and most likely absorb the Milky Way.
Not now. It had disappeared three days ago. All the other galaxies had gone, the last being the Large Magallanic Cloud.
How long it would be before it began to affect the Milky Way itself was only speculation. But based on what Professer Takamichi had speculated, tomorrow might be the last normal day.
The last night before the stars began to go out and blackness filled the sky. Then the solar system itself would be torn apart, followed rapidly by the planet and then its component materials.
Nothing would be left. Not even the atoms that made up her body would be left. Just darkness of an ever expanding universe run out of control.
He had sent everyone home after that. She was still here because in truth she had nowhere else to go. Go to a bar? Take up a couple of her coworkers suggestions for a last romp before the end?
No. She simply couldn’t just leave. There had to be a way to stop this. Isabel couldn’t see how, but she had to try.
For one thing she had noticed was that as the days rolled by her powers were growing. Once he had joined the Abyss he had made some comments about the hybrids tapping into dark energy to use their powers. And this Phantom Energy that was threatening existence was simply a form of dark energy.
Maybe if she grew powerful enough she could be strong enough to save the world. Strong enough to at least give those two babies that Jesse had so proudly sent photos of live and grow.
It wasn’t fair. That it should end this way. That the whole would world would be swallowed in darkness and then turned to nothingness in two days’ time.
Isabel sobbed; she wouldn’t even be able to have a Christmas celebration again. Her plane to travel to Roswell would leave on the 21st. By then the Earth would have destabilized in its orbit around the sun. And the world plunged into darkness.
The fact that it too would be ripped apart shortly after did not console her.
Why now? Had God decided that it was time? That He was so displeased with them He would wash them away into utter darkness?
For a moment she glared up angrily at the sky. A perfectly clear December sky. The stars still shown their glory and wonder. All the stars that had disappeared by now were those so far away as to not be visible to the naked eye.
If you didn’t know the truth, that the world was doomed to a horrific fate, you would never guess. A glorious evening at the end of a wonderful day.
How could she be truly angry when this world was so beautiful? Sure it would pass, but what did not?
Why waste this last beautiful night? Why waste tomorrow and a perfectly beautiful day? For that is what tomorrow would be.
The last perfect day.
She smiled up at the sky. She might rail at him tomorrow as the stars began to flicker out. But just now, how could she. How could she when she could simply wonder at this magnificence?
She heard footsteps and turned to see who was there. She had thought she was the last one here.
Professor Takamichi stood there smiling a her. “Isabel, my dear. What are you still doing here? I would have thought you would have gone with the others. I know that several of your colleagues have long admired you. I would have thought that at least one of them would have finally worked up the courage to take you from here.” He looked up at the sky. “It is still so beautiful. From here you would never know what was coming. It is no surprise that no believes us yet.”
Isabel sighed. “It is stupid. They should just look at the evidence we have provided.”
The Professor laughed, “I don’t blame them. So much of what we do must seem pointless to the average person. Dealing with ideas and concepts that span longer than the Earth has existed. Perhaps it is better they don’t believe. Or think it is a hoax like all the other Mayan disaster stories.”
Isabel softly said, “But this one is real.”
“Yes it is. But this way they will enjoy at least one more day of peace. That is more than you and I, or others who know the truth can share.”
Isabel looked at him, “Why are you still here Professor?”
He softly said, “I have nowhere else I would rather be. If my wife were still alive, it would be different. I would have done anything just to spend one more moment with her. Just one moment more.” He started to cry, “Sorry. I drank perhaps a little too much sake before coming out to gaze on heaven’s splendor.”
Isabel stood there a moment. Remembering her own lost loves. Of them all she would have wanted a little more time with Alex. She could remember the grief and sorrow that had driven her to make such horrible mistakes that awful year. Even Jesse had been one of those mistakes. She had loved him, but she should have either trusted him or not married him.
But Alex…. Alex had died so young and for such a pointless reason. There had been so much possibility there, and she had just fallen for him. Had just started thinking that he was more than a good friend, more than a confidant. That he was the one for her.
And Tess had snatched it away from her. Like she had taken so much from all of her family and friends.
‘No. I won’t sully this last perfect day with hatred. Today is for memories of the good times and the good things. Memories to stand against the horror that is to come.’ She looked at the Professor, really looked, using her powers to delve beyond what her sight could ever tell her.
And gasped with wonder. He had truly loved his wife. The Bond he had shared with her remained, severed only by her death, but it remained.
Isabel knew how that felt. That need for a bit of respite. This observatory and the work here had been his haven. How had she not noticed this. She had heard of his wife’s death, had uttered the usual platitudes. But the man had seemed so stoic, so concerned with the current projects and their funding she had let it slip on by.
How much of her life had she missed simply because she hadn’t been looking? She knew that she had missed the potential of Alex for quite some time. But had there been other things, other opportunities that she could have seized, perhaps should have seized that she simply hadn’t noticed.
“Did Brody ever tell you anything about me? When he asked you to take me on?”
The Professor laughed, “You do realize his request came with a hefty donation, right? It more than covered the cost of hiring you, so why not?” He wiped a tear from his eyes, “As for what he told me about you, well it was enough to be intrigued but not enough to push me to investigate. Knowing him, it was wiser not to look. Why?”
What was the point in hiding now? Everyone would be dead in a few days anyway.
“Do you have anything of your wife’s? Anything she had as a keepsake or was special to her?”
He gave her a sidelong look, “You’re not some psychic hotline person are you? Communing with the dead?”
Isabel said simply, “I have gifts.” She concentrated on her palm trying to bring the image of a rose into being. Instead a rose fell on her palm, the flower blooming as it landed.
The Professor’s eyes were wide, but he nodded slowly. “I had heard something about people like this. But I thought it was idle gossip. What do you need me to do?”
Isabel smiled, “I need something personal of hers. People leave echoes in places and things. But it takes strong emotion to be able to pick them up. I will share what I see with you. Is that okay? I can’t bring back the dead. But I can let you see her one last time.”
On a chain around his neck there was a wedding ring. He handed it to her. “Please. I don’t know what this will cost, but just to be able to see her one more time….”
Isabel took the ring, still warm from the old man’s body, she touched his forehead and said, “Think of her and only of her. Concentrate on your love of her, which should provide enough of a catalyst.”
The man nodded and closed his eyes, Isabel smiled at the Professor’s trust in her. This HAD to work. She focused all her powers to bring this man an image of his dead wife. But no matter how hard she tried, nothing seemed to work.
So she stained and strained, and felt as something broke. For a moment she wasn’t sure it wasn’t something inside her. That she had somehow damaged herself.
But she heard a woman ask something of them in Japanese.
Isabel’s eyes flashed open. Standing behind the both of them was a small elegantly dressed Japanese woman. Her hair was greying, but her eyes spoke of great vitality.
The Professor turned to look and said, “Asuna?”
Isabel was about to say something when a hand landed on her shoulder. She turned to look.
It was Alex.
That was impossible! Simply impossible!
Sure she had seen him from time to time. But he had never been able to actually touch her. He had never felt so real.
He smiled at her, “Why don’t we leave them to their reunion.”
“Alex?” She touched him. “How?”
“The laws that govern this world are breaking down. Plus you powers are growing stronger. The truth is the source of your powers is similar to what is causing this disaster.” He raised his hand at Isabel’s protest, “It is not your fault. Something happened somewhere. This shouldn’t be happening. Not now. But someone made a mistake, and well sometimes mistakes affect more than the idiot who made them.”
“How do you know this?”
Alex sighed, “There is life of sorts after death. Can’t really explain it to you. Not anymore.” He looked at his hands. “I never realized how limited we really are. And yet.” He bent down to pick up a rock and admired it, “And yet so wonderfully magnificent.”
“So you are, are real?” Isabel looked over Alex. He didn’t look like he always had, tall and lanky. He looked to be her age. “But?”
Alex smiled, “Part of me was always with you Isabel, and that part aged just like you did. When you called me back, that part of me, well it had priority for what I looked like.”
She held him close, “Why now, Alex. Why did you come back to me now?”
He kissed her. She returned it. For several minutes they stood there holding each other.
As they scavenged from breath, he said, “To give you one more perfect day. And to be there for you in the dark times to come. When we leave this world, we will leave together. Just like the others.”
“The others?” She remembered her friends converged on Roswell for Christmas. Michael was hosting it this year.
“We will talk to them later. But now, I want a taste of the nightlife I never got while I was alive! Please, this is the only day I can have this!”
She turned to look at the Professor. He was hand in hand with his wife. He simply smiled and said, “Thank you.”
His wife merely bowed to her and smiled. “Domo Arigato.”
Isabel simply said, “Good bye.” And she and Alex left.
--
Isabel woke that morning, certain it had been a dream. But she realized she was not alone. A man was staring out the window of her apartment, admiring the view.
Isabel did the same, though not of the scenery. Their first love making had been a little slow and awkward. But being with Alex had been worth it. Plus their second time had been much less awkward and much more passionate.
What did it matter that he had been dead. It was quite likely she was still dreaming. Why not run with it and enjoy it while it lasted.
And so she did. They didn’t spend all day indoors. Alex had wanted to visit a few things, the beach among them. So they had played tourist, Isabel spending money like there was no tomorrow.
Well, come to think of it, there really wasn’t. She called her friends and was dismayed that Liz and Max had left to do something and had not returned. But she talked to everyone she loved and said good bye.
And to finish this last perfect day, she and Alex found a secluded spot and made love on the beach.
It had been wonderful. So very wonderful.
But too short. How could she cram a life time of moments into one day?
--
They lay on the blanket they had brought and looked up at the sky.
Isabel sighed, “I don’t want this day to end.”
Alex laughed, “Me either. This really has been wonderful, Isabel. Thank you for being with me today.”
Isabel looked at him, “You were the love of my life. Not the only one, but the one I should have jumped for, should have fought for, should have done everything in my power to keep. But I left you blowing in the wind. I let Tess use you. And she used you up. She killed you.”
Ales simply said, “Yes. And you were the love of my life as well, Isabel. The only one for me. I wish I could have spent more of my life with you, that we could have shared more of this. But we didn’t. At least we have this. We can hold this memory against the coming night.”
Isabel looked up at the sky. And saw as a star winked out. “It is starting now.”
Alex held her. “Yes.”
Isabel clung to him, “I don’t want this to end! I wish, I wish this day could last forever!” And she closed her eyes and fought against the coming darkness that threatened to swallow them.
She was so powerful now. So very powerful. With a word she could shake continents and vaporize oceans. And yet it was not enough. For this disaster encompassed everything. Too big for anyone to stop.
Isabel wasn’t strong enough to save the whole world, let alone the universe.
But she could save one day. One single perfect day.
--
Isabel woke that morning, certain it had been a dream. But she realized she was not alone. A man was staring out the window of her apartment, admiring the view.
Isabel did the same, though not of the scenery. Their first love making had been a little slow and awkward. But being with Alex had been worth it.
Isabel closed her eyes. And if this was all she could save. One special and glittering day….
Then so be it. She would enjoy it to the full.
“So Alex, what would you like to do today?”
Diem Perfectum (CC AI/ Teen) 1/1 - 05/29/12
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