Plot: 4/9. A man waited for his imminent death anxiously in an apocalyptic world. I would give a higher score if the plots were less tedious and Ballard could prevented himself from the impulse of blinding readers with science.
Powers, one of the most extraordinary neurosurgeons, suffered an epidemic of lengthening the sleeping hours without dreams till the final forever slumber and had only three months remaining.
At first, he tried to compress as much activities as he could in his conscious hours and even not bothered to clean himself. Though later he accepted the suggestion from his medic and stopped trying to race the clock.
Kaldren, a young man who admired yet somewhat grudged Powers so much as to stalk him all the time, left a suspicious number on the windshield of his car. Powers greeted him on his initiative and Kaldren introduced him to his girlfriend Coma.
Powers then caught a new mutant carrying a black carapace with three eyes in an unused swimming pool. Plants and animals were building up heavy metals as radiological shields these days. At the same time, he observed Kaldren tirelessly scanning the sky for some unknown reason.
When he intended to put the pray to a vivarium at laboratory, Coma waited there already for a visit to his zoo. He introduced her to various mutants:
- an intelligent chimpanzee wearing a helmet and capable of pouring out wisecracks,
- a sea anemone that developed a nervous system and became sensitive to the color abnormally
- fruit flies that formed social groups and secreted honey
- a giant spider that used its web as part of the brain
- armored frog that he caught previously
- a sunflower that changed its metabolic cycle according to the age of its surrounding environment
They were all the direct consequences of Dr. Whitby’s experiment on the silent genes through the technique called resonance transfer. About one in every one hundred thousand humans had the silent pair but it appeared on all the people suffering the narcotic epidemic.
He then played the tape where Whitby posited:
- World population were declining.
- Sleeping time was increasing or metabolic rate was decreasing.
- Genes of human beings were degenerating incontrovertibly.
- The silent genes represent the last yet futile resort against the radiation from the sun.
Powers told Coma that he once carried out an experimental surgery on Kaldren which made him not need sleep anymore but left him periodic mental storms, about which he felt guilty.
Kaldren occupied himself in decoding the last signals of Mercury Seven, who reached the moon for the first time, witnessed a strange garden with bizarre species, but never came back, and asked Coma to give Powers another strange number.
The session with Coma made Powers suddenly want to build his death altar on the abandoned air force weapons range he liked wandering.
Kaldren told Powers he found Mercury Seven had met aliens claiming exploring the deep space was pointless, for the universe was virtually over.
Kaldren broke into his home just to invite him to lunch. At Kaldren’s laboratory, he told Powers that the numbers were a part of the countdown sent by Canes Venatici from twenty years ago and it’s nearing the end of its run now. One speculation was that the universe would end once this series reaches zero. He therefore comforted Powers:
You are not alone.
These are the voices of time and they are all saying good-bye to you.
As you have just said, your know what the time is now, so what does the rest matter?
Powers thanked his friend, finished his altar, killed all the species in his laboratory, listened to the voices of galaxies—the superpower he got by activating his own silent genes intentionally—before he finally died on his altar.
Coma and Kaldren soon found his corpse and called the police.
Core: 3/9. What will you do if you have only 3 months in your life? How to reconcile yourself to your inescapable fate in your remaining time?
His friend Kaldren here comforted him that the universe were dying with you and there was nothing regrettable left. Could it make a death more acceptable? Frankly speaking, it’s one of the strangest consolations I’ve ever heard.