Life on Mars

Chapter Twenty-five

It would be a long night. The professor had multiple channels of media coverage on in the life area. Tonight was the only news in the world right now and no media channel dared talk about anything else. The whole city is almost on shutdown to prepare for the biggest single live event in history. Here he was again decades later experiencing the same event from a totally different perspective. In his first experience, he was already at the stadium with Nova and the rest of them just as the doctor would be now. 

The memory of that night still caused the hairs on his neck to rise and yet it was sullied by what he now knew about the future. Yes, the show would be amazing, but he smiled to himself, remembering the excitement at having secured the memory trace from Nova's upload. He smiled at the enthusiasm of those days, feeling like pushing Nova out the door so he could get started. Desperate to get to work deciphering the memory trace and the treasure trove of history it contained. Unaware of what he would discover in the decades to come. So, much has happened since then, decades of work, there was the Ramona incident and all his other achievements. 

Ramona entered his thoughts once more, like she was calling him one last time before she was finally gone. Ramona would be another one of the thousands of victims from tonight's actions. Strange that all the times he remembered sharing with her from this day on, she would never experience. As a precaution he had asked Duke to hibernate and it felt lonely here just waiting for news. It would be four hours until the event actually started and even longer until the power failure. After that, it would be a short time before they'd know if they'd succeeded. From then on, a new challenge for mankind would begin and he wondered for a single moment, did they have the right to make that choice for them? Were they really in a position to decide what form humanity would or should take for its future.

Too late for that now.

His younger self would not return until way after the performance tonight. It would be a new world in which humanity would survive as it had done in the past. That's when the seed of a thought struck him, he started to think that maybe he could reinstate Ramona just for what little time remains. He knew the codes and she was right down the hallway. Just a few hours with her would be amazing, to explain what he was doing. They could chat and pass the time, it was so tense and quiet here, as if he could sense the emptiness of the whole block. Surely this would be better than letting her shut down whilst she's in hibernate mode. It was like putting a cushion over the face of a lover while she sleeps. What harm could it do to laugh with her once more? She'd understand, he desperately wanted to feel her against him one last time. Ramona was his, wasn't she? He and the doctor were one and the same.

The professor stepped cautiously into the corridor, still unsure where he was going as if his body was on autopilot. Behind him, the sound of Pierrot's voice dimmed and echoed across the media in the life room.

Stopping for a moment, he stared down the hall before continuing on to the doctor's quarters. At the moment he pushed the door panel, there was a huge roar from the crowd behind him, as if in response. The door instantaneously detected his DNA imprint and allowed him access. His excitement gathered pace at the prospect of seeing her open those beautiful deep eyes and smile at him one last time. He opened the wardrobe door and slid back the clothes hanging there. Punching in the code a broad welcoming smile spread across his face as he stepped back and the buff stainless-steel panel slipped open.

The smile turned to horror and the professor almost screamed out at what he saw, covering his mouth he began shaking like a child. His eyes widened as tears poured down the back of his hands. His Ramona, his beautiful Ramona was...

He reached out to touch her cold dead cheek with his shaking fingers. He stroked her long flowing hair and located a small panel under her right ear. It was flipped open and the tiny drive inside had been removed and lay on the floor in front of him, clearly crushed by the heel of a boot.