The Veil of Nyx

Tom sat in his basement, blankly staring at his finished work on the table in front of him. His project, task, mission, whatever you want to call it, was complete. The object sitting on the dusty table was the most delicate, mind-numbingly complicated thing he had ever built. It was his single greatest achievement, and as he sat scanning his newest creation, he felt nothing. No sense of accomplishment, no feeling of reward, Tom felt nothing.

It could have been because he hadn't slept in days, or maybe it was the steady diet of coffee, beef jerky, and cigarettes that had him so apathetic. Or perhaps it was the fact that his project would possibly help one person if he was right, but hurt thousands, if not millions, of people if he was wrong. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone walking around upstairs.

"Tom?" a voice called out. "You here, bud?" It was his brother-in-law, Chad.

Tom tossed a sheet over the machine. "Down here!" he called back. The footsteps made their way from the front of the house to the basement door, and it opened slowly.

"Is it safe to come down?" he asked.

Tom ran his hands down over his face and yelled. "I wasn't serious about kicking your ass, you big fucking baby! Either come down here or get out of my house!"

Chad cautiously walked down the stairs and stopped on the bottom one. "I'm not so much worried about getting my ass kicked," he said, scanning the basement carefully.

Tom shook his head and sighed. "Ok, let's settle this once and for all. I'm not sure what you think I used to do for a living, but I'm sure you're mistaken."

Chad remained glued to the bottom step. "I only know you built explosives for the military." He chuckled. "Gina wanted me to come with the police." 

"I was a weapons engineer," corrected Tom. "and your wife needs to stop telling you scary stories. I researched bombs but not the kind that goes boom. You're safe, big guy." He nodded to Chad's feet. "Besides, if I were to lay a booby-trap for you, you'd already be dead, you lumbering sasquatch. Get off my stairs before you break them."

Chad stepped down onto the concrete and craned his neck to keep from hitting his head on the exposed wooden beams. "Look, you know I'm not a confrontational guy," he said, his voice slightly shaking. "but I got somethin' to say, and you're gonna listen." 

Tom grinned at his brother-in-law, attempting to be assertive, but still squatting with his head cocked to the side. He pulled a stool from under the worktable and slid it over to Chad, who gratefully accepted. 

"What's that?" said Chad, nodding to the sheet-covered object. "Is that what you've been working on?"

"It's a bomb," said Tom flatly. "but about your thing. The reason why you're here? Let's focus on that." 

Chad laughed nervously at the joke, but his smile disappeared quickly. He looked at the ground then back up as he attempted to speak. He opened his mouth and shut it multiple times, trying to find the words. 

"Spit it out!" snapped Tom.

Chad's eyes welled up, and he nodded. "Li- Listen," he said, wiping away the tears before they could fall. "there's nothing I can do or say to make this better. It's-...well, it's bullshit. No parent should-"

Tom held up his hand. "I'm going to stop you right there, big guy. I appreciate what you're trying to do, but it's ok."

"I just wanna make sure you know if there's ever anything you need-"

"Yes, I get it. Thank you." Tom said impatiently. "Now, please get to the godamn point." 

Chad was visibly uncomfortable with what he was about to say. He was uncomfortable with a lot of things, but this seemed particularly troublesome to get out. He took a deep breath and finally spoke. "You need to come up to the hospital tonight. You have to be with your daughter when- You just need to be there, ok? Gabby needs her father. She needs you." Chad finished.

Tom raised his eyebrows. "Is she conscious? No one told me."

"She needs to hear your voice,"

"She does. I'm up there every other day, and she hears my voice every night when I call."

Chad shook his head. "Talking to her on speakerphone while you tinker with whatever the hell is so damn important down here, does not count."

"Gabby's drugged!" bellowed Tom. "She's in a medically induced coma! Because when she's awake, she is in constant torment, and she's only able to tell anyone that when she's lucid enough to make sense! The only time she isn't in agony is when they have her pumped with enough drugs to take down a moose!" Tom threw up his hands angrily. "So, what do you and my wife's sister want me to do?!"

"Please just- please go be with her tonight." begged Chad, his voice cracking. "It's not fair to her-"

"You know what's not fair?" asked Tom. "after everything that girl has been through, after all the hits she's taken, she still can't catch a godamn break, even for a night."

"Tom, I know you had your heart set on taking her out, but the doctors said it's just not in the cards at this point. They told us that she needs to be warm and comfortable, not outside in thirty-degree weather looking at stars."

"Meteor shower." Tom corrected.

"What? said Chad. 

"It's a meteor shower that Gab's wants to see. Not the stars." Tom smiled. "She know's every significant meteor shower, the dates when it's best to see them, and she even has maps of light pollution so we could find the darkest spot. Well, tonight is the Leonids shower, and that so happens to be the only one she hasn't seen," he said, his smile fading.

"Gabby was six when her mom died and was just at the right age where she had a pretty decent grasp on the concept of death, but not about what comes after. I mean, who does? I damn sure didn't." Tom paused to grab a near-empty pack of cigarettes from his work table and removed one. He lit it up, took a long drag, and offered the packs last one to Chad as he blew out a sizeable white cloud.

"Uh, no thanks," said Chad.

Tom took a second drag, expelled another cloud, and continued. "So when Gabby point-blank asked me where her mother was, I tried to take the honest approach. I told her what I thought happened after we die, which is just nothing. We don't see, we don't feel, and we don't know any better. I told her it was like we just didn't exist, but that it was ok because it would be like going to sleep." Tom shook his head, looked up, and then back to Chad.

"I can see why you and Gina feed that 'heaven ever after' bullshit to your kids. Because telling a little girl that death is an inescapable void of infinite darkness and the unknown, does not help them cope with death. She cried herself to sleep every night for weeks after I told her that. No matter what I did, I couldn't get her to laugh or even smile. She just seemed- broken, and I felt as though I helped break her." Tom took one last drag and snubbed his smoke

"One day, I saw where there was this big meteor shower, so I decided to take Gabby up north of Brattleboro, camp out under the stars, and watch it. Well, we got up there, and Gab's didn't want much to do with it. She was bored, cold, and wanted to go home. That is until I lay down on the grass, point to the sky, and tell her 'I think mom's up there.'"

Despite the events surrounding it, Tom grinned at the memory. "You should have seen her face light up. It was like she had life pumped back into her. She ran over, sat next to me, and said, 'Where?! Point to her!'" Tom's grin faded. "I explained to her that there was this famous scientist that used to say 'We are made of star stuff,' and to me, that meant that we're a part of everything that makes up the universe. I told her that our body's atoms could be broken down into much smaller particles, but they couldn't truly be destroyed, and that her mom's atoms were now apart of everything."

Chad wiped away tears and a runny nose with the same sleeve. "I didn't know about any of that, bud. I'm sorry-" 

Tom cut him off with a dismissive wave. "Well, that's where Gabby got her love of all things to do with space, and it was the first thing we bonded over after Corrina died." He paused for a moment to find the words. "It was the one thing she wanted to do after we got her diagnosis, and now they won't let her do it." 

Chad wiped away more snot with his sleeve and composed himself. "Well, I'm sorry, but the doctors have flat out said 'no way.'"

"I'm aware," said Tom.

Chad sighed. "So, are you coming to the hospital tonight, or are you going to be here working on your project?" asked Chad.

"Yeah, I'll be there," said Tom. "I've finished it anyway." 

Chad nodded again towards the covered item on the table. "and this is it?"

"Yup,"

"What is it?"

"I already told you, it's a bomb."

"So, I guess you're not telling me?" 

"It's called an electromagnetic bomb, or more commonly referred to as an e-bomb," said Tom, knocking on the item with a metallic twang. "but this baby is extra special."

Chad, clearly thinking it was in jest, goaded Tom on. "Oh? Why's that?" he said with a snort.

Tom looked hopefully at the thing, still covered by a sheet. "Because if it works properly, then it will snuff out every single street and house light for fifty miles."

"What happens if it doesn't work properly?" 

Still staring at the sheet, Tom quietly responded. "Then it will either have been a colossal waste of my time, or it will fry everything electronic from here to Canada."

"And why would you want to risk that kind of damage?" asked Chad.

Tom looked from the object and smirked. "So that my little girl can see that meteor shower tonight." 

The joking smile vanished from Chad's face, and he straightened up as much as the ceiling allowed him to.

"Well, I'm glad you still have your sense of humor intact," he said. "I'll see you in a few hours, yeah?"

Tom gave the object another rap and said. "As soon as I drop this big bitch off, I will be there."

"Do you need help loading it?" asked Chad.

"No, you don't want any of your DNA on it when the feds come hunting for me."

"Riiight, cause it a bomb," said Chad, motioning air quotes. "Fine, see you in a bit," he called over his shoulder as he went up the stairs and through the basement door. Tom listened to his footsteps walk across the floor above him and then heard the front door open and shut. The moment he was sure Chad was gone, he removed the sheet from the object to give it one final inspection. 

It was a cylindrical metallic device as big around as a shipping barrel, resting on a wooden stand. It ran the table's length, with pegs wrapped in silver coils covering the apparatus circumferentially and had wires spilling out both ends like boiled pasta. Tom hung his head and then softly placed a hand on the bomb. 

"Don't worry, baby..., dad will make sure you see that meteor shower."