Step by heavy step, Eliza climbed the stairs back up to the terrace, telling herself that it was just stress, and not madness. Still not crazy, and not going to be. Ive fought too hard. Emerging into the night air, she felt a surprising chill and heard the dogs more clearly, barking away down in the hardscrabble terrain.
And she saw that Dr. Chaudhary was still sitting where shed left him hours earlier. He gave a little wave.
Have you been here all this time? she asked, walking over.
He laughed. No. I tried sleeping. I couldnt. My mind. I keep thinking of the implications.
Me, too.
He nodded. Sit. Please, he said, and she did. They were silent a moment, surrounded by the night, and then Dr. Chaudhary spoke. Where did they come from? he asked. It was a rhetorical question, Eliza thought, but it was followed by a pause long enough that she might hazard a guess, if she dared.
Morgan Toth would dare, she thought, and so she replied simply, Another universe. Trust me. Its a thing I know; it was lying around my brain like litter.
Dr. Chaudharys eyebrows went up. So quickly? I had thought, Eliza, that perhaps you believed in God.
What? No. Why would you think that?
Well, I certainly dont mean it as an insult. I believe in God.
You do? It surprised her. She knew that plenty of scientists believed in God, but shed never gotten a religious vibe from him. Besides, his specialtyusing DNA to reconstruct evolutionary historyseemed particularly at odds with, well, Creationism. You dont find it difficult to reconcile?
He shrugged. My wife likes to say that the mind is a palace with room for many guests. Perhaps the butler takes care to install the delegates of Science in a different wing from the emissaries of Faith, lest they take up arguing in the passages.
This was unaccountably whimsical, coming from him. Eliza was astonished. Well, she ventured, if they were to bump into each other right now, who would win?
You mean, where do I think the Visitors have come from?
She nodded.
I am obliged to say first that it is possible they came from a lab. I think we can rule out surgical hijinx based on our examinations today, but might not someone have managed to grow them?
You mean, like, in a supervillains lair inside a volcano?
He laughed. Exactly. And if it were only the bodiesthe beasts, as it werethen this theory might seem to have some merit, but the angels, now. Theyre a bit more complex.
Yes. The fire, the flying. Have you heard, Eliza asked, that facial recognition databases got no hits on any of them?
He nodded. I did. And if we consider, prematurely, that they might indeed be from somewhere
else, then our contenders are?
Another universe, or Heaven and Hell, Eliza supplied.
Yes. But what I find myself thinking, out here, staring at the stars Gazing is too passive, dont you think, for stars like this?
Very whimsical , Eliza thought, nodding agreement.
And perhaps its the guests in the palace mingling He tapped his head to clarify what palace he meantbut I find myself thinking: What does that mean? Might they just be two ways of saying the same thing? Suppose Heaven and Hell are just other universes.
Just other universes, Eliza repeated, smiling. And the Big Bang was just an explosion.
Dr. Chaudhary chuckled. Is another universe bigger or smaller than the idea of God? Does it matter? If there is a sphere where angels dwell, is it a matter of semantics, whether we choose to call it Heaven?
No, Eliza replied, swiftly and firmly, a bit to her own surprise. It isnt a matter of semantics. Its a matter of motive.
I beg your pardon? Dr. Chaudhary gave her a quizzical look. Something in Elizas tone had hardened.
What do they want? she asked. I think thats the bigger question. They came from somewhere. There is another universe. And if that somewhere has nothing to do with God It doesnt. then theyre acting on their own behalf. And thats scary.
Dr. Chaudhary said nothing, but returned his gaze to the stars. He was quiet long enough that Eliza was wondering whether shed smacked down his newfound loquacity when he said, Shall I tell you something strange? I wonder what youll make of it.
The horizon was paling. Soon the sun would rise. Seeing it from here, such a horizon, and such a sky, it really made you mindful of being plastered by gravity to a giant, hurtling rock, and from there it was a hopscotch to picturing the immensity that surrounded it: the universe, too big for the mind to compass, and that was only the one universe.
Too big for the human mind, perhaps.
You know of Piltdown Man, of course, said Dr. Chaudhary.
Sure. It was maybe the most famous scientific hoax in historya supposed early human skull unearthed in England about a hundred years ago.
Well, said Dr. Chaudhary, it was in 1953 that it was proved a fake, and the year is important. With all the haste of shame, it was removed from the British Museum, where for forty years it had served as erroneous evidence of a particular wrongheaded view of human evolution. Only a few years later, in 1956, another discovery was made, in the Patagonian Andes. A German amateur paleontologist discovered a cache of Here he paused for effect. Monster skeletons.