by Rick Boling
The last two years had been the hardest.
Shortly after Aurélie and Heyoka surprised me by showing up at the office, Aurélie had made her virtual self available to me almost any time I’d needed her. Unfortunately, this new, unrestricted access was precipitated by a tragic turn of events in their world, one that seemed destined to result in catastrophe. Still, I cherished every moment Aurie and I were together, even though not being able to touch her was exasperating. But the worst part, the thing that threatened to destroy what little remained of my self-esteem, was being forced to tell Ellie and Doris the truth.
Reunion
After ushering Heyoka and Aurélie into my office, Janet lingered in the open doorway pretending to examine her nails. “Thank you Janet,” I growled. “That will be all. And please hold my calls.”
“Don’t have to,” she said as she shut the door behind her. “Phone’s broke, remember?”
Heyoka glanced at the remnants of the phone, then gave me an inquiring look.
“Little accident,” I said with a shrug. “Got run over by an attitude adjustment.” Even though deep down I was thrilled to see both of them, the anger and frustration that led to the phone’s demise had not yet subsided. “Sorry,” I added, forcing a smile. “Caught me at a bad time. Come in. Come in.”
“Hello Rix,” Heyoka said. “How’ve you been?”
“How have I been,” I mused. “Well, if you mean fiscally, I’ve been fine. Hell, I’ve got more money than Scrooge McDuck, for all the good it does me. Other than that, I’d say I’m hovering somewhere between a jail cell and a mental hospital. How about you? I must say you’re looking good. Haven’t aged a bit. Have you come up with some kind of anti-aging concoction?”
“Actually,” he said, “that’s one of the things we’ve been working on in our genetics division, though it’s still in the experimental stages. As for me, ugly old red men don’t tend to get much uglier with age. I was wondering if we could go somewhere more private so we can talk for a while without worrying about being interrupted. Aurélie is a little more adept at this virtual projection thing than I am, and I’d hate for someone to burst in and find me floating six inches off the floor with my leg stuck through a chair.”
“I guess that means Coney Island is out,” I said. “Why didn’t you just pop in here directly and bypass Janet?”
“We wanted to avoid the shock factor,” said Aurélie. “Seeing as how you were already approaching basket-case status.”
“Right. Okay, how about if we try the old studio again? There’s nobody at the house now. Mom and Dad are in Europe, and Doris is stuck in her office as usual. Not sure where Ellie is, but she’s not likely to show up at the empty studio. Of course, you’ll have to walk out of here with me, or Janet will wonder what happened to you. Think you can handle that?”
Heyoka looked a little uneasy, but Aurélie said, “Come on, old man. You made it in, you can make it out.”
As we passed Janet’s desk, I said, “We’re going to Coney Island. And then I want to take these folks on a little tour around town. Probably won’t be back this afternoon so—”
“I know. I know.” She flashed a plastic smile at Heyoka and Aurélie. “If anybody asks, you got hit by a meteor.”
You’ll have to hold the door open for us again,” Aurélie said as I led them down the hall to the nearest exit. Once outside, Heyoka finally seemed to relax, and we made our way to the house without incident. Still nursing nightmare memories of my last visit to the abandoned studio, I suggested we stop off in the reception area, where an ancient couch and a few overstuffed chairs remained.
“I know you guys don’t need to sit,” I said as I settled into one of the chairs, “but I’d feel a lot more comfortable if you could fake it for me.” Aurélie waited while Heyoka did his best to assume a realistic-looking posture on the couch, then she came over and ‘sat’ on the arm of my chair.
“Great,” I said. “Much better. Now to what do I owe this joint visitation?”
“It’s a little complicated to explain,” Heyoka said, “so let me start back a ways. As you know, I’ve been reluctant to let Aurélie interfere with your new life, mainly because I wanted to keep the initial phase of the experiment clean, letting things evolve without our influence. But now we both feel it’s time we moved to a more advanced stage.”
“Advanced stage?” I said.
“What he means,” said Aurélie, “is we want to see if we can help you make some deliberate alterations in the course of history. Starting with the Lennon situation.”
“Why the sudden change of heart?” I asked.
She glanced at Heyoka, then back at me. “Well,” she said, “for one thing, this isn’t really a change of heart, nor is it sudden. The thing is, we haven’t been totally honest with you, Rix. There were good reasons, though, and once you hear them I think—I hope—you’ll understand.”
“Hope springs infernal,” I said, deliberately adulterating the tired cliché. “Can’t wait.”
“Okay.” She looked at the floor and cleared her throat. “Here it is. You’ve asked me many times where all this research was leading, and I’ve always claimed it was more or less intended to gather data, with no specific goal in mind. But things have changed somewhat dramatically over the past few years. The compiling of data has worked out better than we could have hoped. We’ve been able to observe the changes you’ve made and compare the results to your first life, which we mapped from your memories while you were with us.”
I gave a noncommittal shrug.
“The part I failed to mention,” she continued, “was that another objective was to use the data to help us develop reliable methods of predicting how certain deliberate actions would interact with and change the future. Then we hoped to use those methods to forecast the impact our scientific and technological advancements might have on the future of our own world. Unfortunately, the actions you’ve taken so far have not been of sufficient magnitude to provide us with the information we need. And that’s where you can be of help to us. Not only you, but Ellie as well.”
“Ellie?” I said. “You’re kidding.”
“Not at all. You may not realize it, but your daughter has some unique talents, not only in the realm of theoretical mathematics, but in the pristine way her mind works, never dismissing an idea simply because it might appear impossible given the scientific parameters dictated by currently accepted theories. Anyway, it appears she has been able to do what we have failed to do so far by coming up with some advanced algorithms for forecasting the long-term impact of specific events.”
“Far out,” I said. “She told me a little about that, but I blew it off as so much wishful thinking. And what do you mean my actions have not been of sufficient magnitude? I thought you were worried about some of them being just the opposite.”
“Another minor deception, I’m afraid,” said Heyoka, “intended to keep you from going off half-cocked and doing something earthshaking before we were capable of evaluating the potential consequences. Now, however, with you seemingly intent on saving Lennon’s life, we feel this is something that could have major repercussions. Frankly, I wasn’t aware of the influence he’d had on a large portion of the worldwide populace. His passivity—swaying opinions at the grass-roots level with his music and educating more or less by example, rather than establishing a broad, political power base—led me to believe he was far less influential that he was, or would be if he were to live longer. But Aurélie has convinced me I was mistaken.”
“So, are you saying Aurélie was right, that saving Lennon could have a significant effect on the future?” I looked at Aurie. “And what about you? Weren’t you worried about John morphing into some sort of Islamic militant.”
“Not really,” she said. “I was only arguing with you in order to stall. At the time, we had yet to produce a reliable formula for predicting long-term ramifications. In fact, until I saw what Ellie was up to, we hadn’t come up with anything that would provi
de us with more than a list of vague probabilities. She really is incredible, Rix. In a very short time, she’s pulled together dozens of ideas and techniques, discarded some, refined others, and merged the results into an amalgam that’s led to an astonishing set of predictive algorithms. What we need to do now is test those algorithms, not only by conducting experiments here in this dimension, but by creating computer simulations. With our computing capabilities, we can do complex modeling impossible at this time in your world. But in order to proceed, I’m going to have to consult with Ellie in person.”
“In person?” I said. “That’s going to be awkward. She doesn’t even know you exist. I told her—”
“I know what you told her, Rix. She thinks I’m Fred. But that’s going to have to change, which is why we wanted to talk to you first.”
“Frederica,” I said. The thought of Ellie learning about my relationship with the woman whose name she shared shot cold ribbons of fear up my spine. Not only was that prospect terrifying, it also meant Doris would find out I’d been secretly meeting with Aurie. “Is that absolutely necessary right now?” I asked, hoping for a way to at least delay things while I figured out how to deal with this unexpected twist of fate.
“I’m afraid so, Rix,” Heyoka said. “We’re at a critical time—a watershed moment, you might say—in our universe. And we’re in urgent need of your and Ellie’s help.”
“Critical? Watershed? Those are pretty powerful words, but they don’t really tell me much. Maybe you could explain what’s happening in a little more detail?”
Heyoka looked at Aurie, obviously hoping she would step up to the plate. When she gave a quick jerk of her head to indicate he should take this one, he waited a few seconds to make sure she wasn’t going to change her mind, then pinched the bridge of his gigantic nose and sighed. “I hate to bore you with another one of my long stories, but a comprehensive explanation is going to require a foundation, so please don’t think I’m being condescending if I start with some basics.”
“Condescend all you like,” I said. “I never argue with simplicity.”
“Yes, well then … Let’s see. Say we look at the unfolding narrative of reality as a river.” He swept a hand through the air, wiggling his fingers in a childish imitation of flowing water. “Time, like the water, flows in one direction, from the past through the present into the future, creating a continuum that is constantly being shaped and reshaped by events, both naturally occurring and those that originate with human intelligence and creativity. I draw this dividing line because, were it not for the development of human intelligence, what we think of as the natural world would have evolved quite differently. So we might look at human-created events as being outside the norm, perhaps analogous to colorful, flavored pebbles tossed into the natural flow at different points, where they interact with the water and with each other, slowly dissolving and adding their colors and flavors to the overall mix.” He hesitated to see if I was following.
“Got it,” I said. “Go on.”
“Okay. Good. Now if the pebbles are small enough, their impact on the continuum will be minimal, in some cases disappearing with hardly a trace and leaving little or no evidence of their existence. The larger they are, however, the longer and more powerfully they exert their influence on the future, and the more potential they have to cause negative or positive consequences. The really big ones, say the size of boulders instead of pebbles, can actually divert the flow, steering it away from its original trajectory, sometimes with catastrophic results.”
“Examples?” I said.
“Examples,” he repeated. “Well, a few of the more consequential events might include things like the discovery of the wheel, or the evolution of the opposable thumb, or the splitting of the atom.”
“Don’t see any catastrophes there.”
“No, not yet. In your world at least. But take the splitting of the atom. On one hand, it seemed to be a boon to humankind, providing new methods of energy production and insights into the nature of matter that laid the groundwork for the computer age. On the other, it nearly led to nuclear holocaust, not to mention that the hope for an unlimited, safe source of energy turned out to be overly optimistic. And you are still left with a looming shadow of nuclear devastation. Even the wheel. Although its discovery did, in part, lead to the industrial revolution, the ramifications of that revolution have threatened to turn the planet into an uninhabitable hunk of rock by destroying the entire ecosphere.”
“Not to go all Zen on you,” I said, “but isn’t that sort of the way of the world, so to speak? You know, the yin-yang factor? That balancing act Aurie’s always talking about?”
“It is,” he said. “But let me go back to the idea that human intelligence is—in some views at least—an aberration, not part of the natural flow of things. At any rate, our technology is advancing at such a rapid pace that anticipating its possible negative impacts has become more important and more difficult than ever before. What’s happened in our universe—and may eventually happen in yours—is that most of the scientific community was too busy inventing and discovering and innovating to worry much about the downside.
“For the most part, this didn’t pose a great problem, because of the incremental advancement of science and technology. But every once in a while, something comes along that represents a leap for which society is not adequately prepared. For example, Crick and Watson’s discovery of the helical structure of DNA, which led to genetic mapping and a host of exciting innovations in medical science, genetic engineering, and so on. The problem was, too few scientists and politicians were willing to look on the dark side, and now we are paying the price.”
“We are? In what way?’
“He doesn’t mean you, Rix,” Aurélie said. “He means us. You keep forgetting that we are many years ahead of you. The fact is, things aren’t going so good in our universe, and some of that is our fault. We’ve been guilty of the same kind of blind disregard, not taking time to develop the means for calculating the consequences before releasing some of our findings to the public. That’s why we need Ellie’s help. And yours as well.”
Terra Infirma
The picture Aurélie and Heyoka drew of their world could have come from any of a hundred science fiction films: a dark, barren landscape, littered with the remnants of a once-promising, technologically-advanced society; a society that, because of the unrestrained exploitation of scientific discoveries and the failure of its leaders to act expediently, eventually imploded, leaving in its wake a social and ecological nightmare. Heyoka’s description of the world I left behind wasn’t quite that bleak, though there was no doubt it was well on its way. And all the hoped-for remedies, the promises that somehow science would figure things out in time, were turning out to be too little too late.
International squabbles had kept solutions to catastrophic climate change from being implemented; genetic engineering had led to a reduction in biodiversity, allowing plant diseases to cripple crop yields across the planet; portable nuclear weapons and tactical human pathogen attacks had transformed terrorism from a manageable threat into a global phenomenon of devastating proportions. Even the digital revolution and the worldwide proliferation of social media had its downside, with terrorists building their ranks through the Internet, and state-sponsored hackers wreaking havoc by shutting down power grids, water supplies, and financial systems around the world.
The thrust of Heyoka’s research had long ago turned from technological innovation to strategies for ameliorating the results of government complacency and the rise of corporate power. However, in light of the unforeseen consequences of unbridled scientific advancement, he had withheld many of his breakthroughs for fear they might prove catastrophic in the long run. It was the lack of a reliable method of forecasting that altered his original intentions for the interdimensional research that had led to my resurrection. Though at first designed only to explore the parameters of his unique insights and abilities, and to observe and
document the results of my actions, the urgency of the moment had taken precedence over simple data collection. And now, with Ellie’s apparent accomplishments in the science of forecasting, he wanted to use our dimension as an active, global laboratory, in which to conduct real-time, empirical studies.
Although they tried to make me feel as if my cooperation would be essential, it was clear to me that my role would be minuscule when compared to Ellie’s. I could do specific things, and the short-term results could be analyzed, but from the way they described the situation in their world, there wasn’t time to wait for long-term consequences to evolve. The data collected would be valuable in helping prove or disprove the validity of Ellie’s methodologies; however, refining her algorithms and testing them with computer modeling was obviously the most important part of the plan.
“I guess you could look at it that way,” Heyoka said in response to my suggestion that I would continue to serve as little more than a lab rat. “Although you should know that my original intentions were not quite as mercenary as you seem to be suggesting. We never hid the fact that this was an experiment, Rix. Nor did we hide our intention to monitor you in order to document the impact of your actions. And my choice of you as our subject was not based solely on our needs, but yours as well. You are, by the way, still in control of the situation. You can choose to help us or not. We couldn’t forcibly interfere with your life if we wanted to. We can suggest, advise, even cajole a little, but we have no physical presence in this universe, so we cannot make you do anything, or cause anything to happen ourselves.”