Carl looked at the man for a moment. “Sounds like you’ll miss the righteousness.”
The man started laughing.
Carl added, "Just think about the I told you so, ‘Winston Adams was right, and you weren’t.' Think about that and he’ll still be with us.” Carl started laughing too.
“Damn Carl.” The man looked at Carl and smiled. “I do think you’ve spelled it out perfectly. Thank you. I feel much better now. All I have to do is say, ‘You know, that damn Winston Adams was right all along’, and I’ll feel happy.”
***
Carl and the man were walking as the stars were coming out.
“This is the first step I told you about, the discovery, the proof of the fabric that encompasses the Universe and makes it work the way it does.”
“What’s the next step?” Carl asked.
“You and I know the fabric exists and can be understood. The true nature and how to utilize it will take some hard work. Now that we know the fabric can be manipulated it is a matter of reverse engineering and it will be possible to build machines to apply the discovery. But it will take time and a great deal of support.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Think again Carl. There is a great deal of power and money that can be generated from this, but will it go to understanding the event, or go to covering the real reason it happened?”
“Is this intuition or one of your unfair advantage scenarios?”
“A little of both. My intuition because I am an avid student of human nature. My advantage because I can literally see ahead ‘sometimes’. It’s going to take some time because we need to start with small simple machines and work up. But the first great hurdle is to establish this as scientific, not spiritual. Many people are going to try to benefit from what has happened here by confusing the issue. It is in their best interest to keep the cause secret and exaggerate the supernatural appearance of this.”
“I see what you’re getting at, but we have the proof it is a scientific discovery, not the second coming.”
“We do?” the man laughed. “Where is the proof? Who are you talking to right now?” the man asked Carl. “Can I proclaim, ‘I am Winston Adams’?” the man shrugged with a questioning gesture. “I don’t think so.” He pointed at Carl. “Can you then proclaim, ‘But I know it’s Winston, trust me’. Again, impossible. You’re the only one that can come forward, the only one that knows I didn’t completely burn up in that space ship. Winston Adams is dead to everyone but you.”
“How am I going to convince anyone?” Carl sounded doubtful.
“I don’t know,” confessed the man. “We have to work it out and we have to be careful. We don’t want this to look like the second coming.”
“I can see your concern, but on the bright side, this was what you were after, you knew it all along?”
“I had no idea until Donald. Until then, it was just something I was born with and accepted. Before Donald, I just had an inclination of what it might be, but no way to do more than just wonder. When he died out there he became the first detached force and the disruption he caused came at the right time for me. I was looking and I associated the disturbance in the field with him.”
“Why?”
“I had never felt a disturbance like it before, and Donald’s death was unique. It’s as simple as that. Many people, besides me, can tune into the fabric, to work it, to know things. There are many individuals, now, that can feel the disturbance and are wondering what it’s about.”
“Do they know what’s happening, why they have this ability?”
“Not yet, I don’t think, but they are the ones we need to get working together, first, to confirm the existence of the discovery. They will be the easiest to convince that the discovery is real. Then the easiest to persuade to design and construct the first programs and machines. The scientific community is going to be difficult to crack. The preponderance that we’re about to unload on them will meet with many skeptics, and even more, downright jealousy.
“Yeah, this will certainly ruffle some feathers,” Carl concurred, then he paused, thinking of something. “How come you didn’t just get together with Ackerman?”
“Ackerman was the wrong person. He was selfish, self motivated. He was very religious, saw the whole thing as the gates to Heaven. He actually thought of himself as the first angel. Too many people have suffered because discoveries has been used wrongly. I don’t want to see it happen here, not this time.”
“How did you get so righteous, so concerned?”
“You sound skeptical? You’re very perceptive Carl, that’s what I like about you. You think like I do. But to ease your concerns, yes Carl, I’m doing all this for myself.
“You planned all this very well Winston, what’s in it for you?”
“Looks good on paper, doesn’t it? I want this discovery to be worked out as fast as possible. It opens up unbelievable possibilities for the future. The possibility to travel through the Universe!” There was real excitement in the man’s voice. “I want to go out there Carl!”
Chapter 59
Carl and Amy were walking hand in hand.
“Most of the danger’s past, but the confusion is just starting,” Carl said with a curiously happy tone. “Can you handle a little uncertainty?”
“Carl, sweetie, there is no such thing as just a little befuddlement around you.”
“Glad to have me back huh?”
“As glad as you are to be standing here.”
“Wow, that much huh?”
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The Searching Soul Page 18