“I…I took a nobo, babe. I just want you to know,” he whispered. “I don’t think I could hold back without it.”
“Oh. Of course. Thank you for telling me.” She took his face in her hands and looked into his eyes. “I mean it, thank you.”
“You know, I’m blazing for you so bad I probably need the rest of the bottle.” He gave her a squeeze.
“Yeah well, lucky for me it’s the guy that takes it.”
“Why?”
“'I would have overdosed.” She put her mouth on his.
With the New Birth came a culture of restraint, of self-denial. Many things changed during that period. Personal integrity and spiritual alignment were at the core of the movement, and the Three Denials were fundamental to its success. Denial of greed, of hate, and of lust. This is what allowed humankind to contain the viral corruption that became the Dark Days.
Denial of lust meant that only with a wholly spiritual and planned commitment as a partnership should there be sexual fulfillment. This was not a law, a religion or a rule by any means. It was simply a way of life, for those that chose it. Denial of self was for the betterment of self and society, and Corey had taken a popular medicine to relieve the tension. It just wasn’t time to go there, not yet. But with Reena on his chest and his arm around her, Corey finally began to feel the blanket of sleep hovering over him until...
There was a hard knock on the door. What? Who could be-
The knock continued, faster. “Corey!”
“What the...” Corey muttered as he shuffled to the door. He touched a panel. The door dissolved.
“Ari?”
20
ARISTOTLE’S IDEA
A disheveled and panicking Ari stepped through the doorway into the room.
“Turn on the Apple,” he said.
“It’s on; we were watch-”
“Put the news, Corey. Something’s happened. Hey Reena...”
“Hi, Ari…” She put her fingers through her hair and sat up, not knowing what to think.
“Ari, what…what are you doing here?” How’d you get here?” My God, not another dream. Corey pinched his own arm.
“I took a high-speed right after you. I had an idea and I think I can make it work,” Ari said, breathing heavily. “And now I think we might need it.”
Corey found the late-night broadcast of “News: World and Beyond” on USBC.
...the new timeline puts extreme pressure on President Cardigan and the Tribunal, at a time when they were just beginning to execute their strategy for the upcoming World Vote…
“Hey, there we are!” exclaimed Reena. “I thought that meeting was supposed to be secret.” The Apple was showing vid footage from the celebrity meeting she had just attended, as the reporter spoke over the top.
“The Foon are coming,” said Ari, desperately.
“Ari, everyone knows th-”
“No, I mean, they’re coming right now-”
“Shhhh shhhh quiet guys,” exclaimed Reena.
... the InterSolsys Space Administration made this shocking announcement just four hours ago. Once again, ISSA and the Hexagon are reporting that the Telcom shutdown was the result of a cosmic shock resulting from a hyper-jump to light speed by the Foon convoy, a feat once thought physically impossible. The Foon arrival, which was thought to be three to four months from now, could be as early as Tuesday. This is Conn Sutyam, USBC News, at the White House.
“Volume down.”
“Moons, Tuesday?” whispered Corey, looking into Ari’s eyes.
“I just found out when E-fi enabled on my charter.”
“Then why-”
“I may have something that UE can use against the Foon.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Ok, sit down and listen,” said Ari. “The night you guys left the club, I continued some research I had done a couple years ago regarding the Foon, about their vocal capabilities and inner ear structure. Jim taught me tons about them, and even let me play with the language device back then, but I was just doing it for my production studio. At the time I was trying to emulate their sounds to create killer new patches for my mixes; that’s how I got the medieval choral sound on Telephone Tel, you know? Their verbal communication relies heavily on pitch and volume fluctuation. I know you know that, but- shit, Corey, I’m sorry; how’s your mom?”
Corey smiled, “She’s good Ari, thanks. Everything went really well. Go on.”
“That’s awesome, man. I mean it. Anyway, Foon hearing works the same way, it only makes sense. Pitch and volume fluctuations are interpreted in their ears by a bio-swipe that knows the language. A bio-swipe that they are born with.”
“Ok, so…I don’t…what language device?” said Corey.
“That silver thing Jim calls his Foon souvenir, on his desk. That’s a machine. It serves not only as a language interpreter but also as a mass communication device. It allows them all to speak to each other when needed, without any external speakers. Call it an in-ear massive conference call.”
“Yeah, that’s right, Jim’s told me all about that,” said Reena. “It also filters so they can focus the conversation.”
“By the way, where is Jim?” asked Ari. “I need to ask him a few things right away.”
“That’s a good question; I’d better call him. This changes everything,” said Reena.
Corey lifted his wrist. “Brother.” Pel floated in front of him, wiping his eyes.
“Hey, wake up and come over, there’s a problem. And guess who’s here?”
“Tude, what the hell-”
“Aristotle.”
“What? Ari is here? Now?”
“Yes, something’s happening, just-”
“I’ll be right over.”
Ari went on, “Well Corey, that device is useless to us, it’s just a souvenir, but to the Foon it works because of the bio-swipe in their ears. They can communicate with each other, even in the vacuum of space, without verbally talking, without any machinery at all, just one transponder per area.”
“What kind of area?” Corey asked. “How far does it reach?”
“Far. I sent a signal to the one at the Rochaus from the New Denver when it was over Lake Dominguez, where my parents live, and it pinged perfectly. That’s 1200 plus kilometers, with no boost, no service. It’s like someone rang your doorbell in Albuquerque and they heard it in Los Angeles; it’s sound on steroids!”
“What?” asked Corey, clueless to the reference.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if two or three of those could cover the entire fleet they’re sending,” said Ari. “Well, if the news reports are accurate.”
“Wait, Ari, I’m sorry…Reena!” Corey yelled, “come back in, please!”
Reena walked in with Jim suspended in front of her, “keep talking, you guys.”
Both Ari and Corey acknowledged Jim, and Corey followed by saying, “Ari, tell Jim what you just told me.”
“Ok, ok, Jim, you know the Foon device you have on your desk?” Ari asked, “well, I have been trying to-” he enlarged the screen. “Wha- What the hell is going on behind you?”
“Why, Houston, is there a problem?” Jim said, smiling.
Jim had experienced a change of plans, which he began to convey to Ari and the others. He was at the Tornado Festival outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma and having a sizzling date with the co-pilot Tranquil Pacaru. They had already ridden four times and looked like they had been dragged through a Martian sandstorm, but the joy on their faces suggested otherwise.
They started their day fully strapped into a hardshell pod riding an F2, but their last was an open carriage on an F3 sidewinder, and Jim was realizing that maybe Earth was not such a bad place after all. They were considering one more run even though it was dark, but this call changed that idea. Ari brought Jim up to speed on what he was telling the others. Jim had not yet heard about the new timeline of the Foon.
“Son of a bitch,” Jim said. “If they can jump the speed of light, they c
an most likely hand us our hats. So how did you send that piece of junk a signal?”
“Sending the signal was easy; it simply hears audio the same way a microphone, trakker or vocalex does and converts it into information. I sent it a note using a sine wave. The reason it picked up the note is the technology they have inside that thing, something we don’t have. As I said, it can “hear” audio from vast distances, even through the vacuum of space, as long as that audio is unmasked...as long as there are no competing frequencies. Once the signal is received, that information is then translated and buffered. There are several default protocols that it follows, then it delivers the resulting data to every bioswipe receiver within its jurisdiction…the ones in their ears. But it delivers the information as neural data, not audio. It creates a thought network activated by realized audio.”
Jim, hovering in front of Reena, started laughing out loud.
“Baby, can you put Jim in the middle of the room, please?” asked Corey. She did, and he looked a little more like he was in the meeting.
“And what’s so funny?” asked Reena.
Jim chuckled, “Ari, damn I’m sorry, but I completely forgot to graduate with honors from Harvard, so can we run that again?”
“Sorry man, ok, listen. Jim, you already know what this thing does; you used it for translation with them while you were living on Ceres2, but I’m saying that it also acts as a sort of neuro-pathway, a ‘brain connection’ between them, that allows them to become one unit, a fully connected ‘hive’ of sorts...like the Borg in the Star Trek movies, you know, when Picard...um...”
Dead silence.
“The Borg, you guys…don’t know?”
Heads shaking.
“Have you people no life? Ok delete that, but hear me out, they are like one very large enemy, if they are an enemy, and whoever is directing them, leading them, can carry out a mission using multiple beings, multiple ships acting as one...it’s perfect efficiency! These guys-”
“I think you’re right about that, Ari,” Jim interrupted, “they have meetings that start with their musical language, then they go into a long period of what seems like humming. At first, I thought they were praying or something, but I always wondered if there was something more to it. Makes sense, they were chattin’ it up.”
Reena got up and headed for the kitchen. “You never asked about it?”
A knock on the door.
Jim replied, “Oh, you bet your grandma’s girdle I did, but they didn’t talk about such things. Remember hon, I didn’t live with them every day. I was on the outskirts of a village, kept to myself most of the time.”
Corey opened the door to let Pel in. Hand-slaps.
“Pel! Good man! My man?” exclaimed Ari.
Pel said, “What, not enough action on Titan?” and he gave Ari a hand-slap and a hug.
Reena yelled from the kitchen, “Ari, how do you possibly know all that about their communication?”
“Ask Jim!” Ari yelled back. “He taught me. And there is a lot more information out there if you know how to get it.”
“We’re talking about the Foon, Pel, have you heard?” said Corey.
“I’d rather hear Jim talk about the co-pilot.”
“Maybe you’d like to say hi to her, son! Here she is,” Jim said proudly, moving the lens to show her face. Tranquil blushed and looked down.
“Whoa, Jim! Truly you are more than just a great mustache,” Pel said.
“Brother, the Foon are coming as early as Tuesday. You need to get serious,” Corey shouted, trying to settle Pel down.
“What? Tuesday? Like, this Tuesday?”
“Well, since we’re on Earth, who’s up for some Morning John?” asked Reena. She was carrying a pitcher of coffee and a tray full of mugs.
Ari laughed, “That’s Morning Joe, Ree. Morning John is what happens afterward.”
Reena started pouring. “So you don’t think UE has bread about this? I mean, they make it their business to know.”
“Actually I don’t think they do, but if they do, here’s what they don’t know...drumroll please.” Ari was excited.
“Speaking of that, is Jon with you?” Pel interrupted.
“Yeah he’s here; he’s doing de-mag. What I bet they don’t know is, you know that plant the Zeta Flower that has the rainbow blossoms that everybody loves? They grow it mostly on Mars, but it’s popular here too. Well, the root of that plant is what they use to make the spray stuff that they put in mind-benders, you know, when you first sit down and put on the headset? That spray you’re supposed to breathe?”
Reena confessed, “I’ve never done a mindbender, but yeah...”
Ari jumped right back in, “Ok, well, that plant, uh… you’ve never done a mindbender?”
“Looks stupid to me.”
“Actually, I haven’t either, but I’ve seen how they work,” said Corey. Right then he wished he had tried it at least once.
“I have, they’re all right,” added Pel. “The killer part is the holo show.” He sipped his coffee.
“Wow, you guys…” Ari stopped himself from telling them they were becoming their parents. “Anyway, the good stuff is in the root. It’s not a native; that root’s a hybrid from about 50 years ago, developed by Mattel Pediapharm. They grafted it from plants found on the Foon ship after the arrival, and used it for hearing disorders in children, which are pretty much wiped out now.”
“Children are wiped out?” quipped Pel. He received a punch to the chest from Ari, almost spilling his coffee. And he got the stupid face from Corey.
“Anyway, you guys know that after you get the spray, you put on the headset and get a subsonic and hypersonic signal simultaneously which gives the pleasure ‘tickle’ in your inner ear and gets you more pumped up for the holo, right? The spray enhances that. So, I had an idea. I had Jon take apart a mindbender and access the frequency generator and the spray juice, and I took them to my studio, along with the device from Jim’s office.”
“Hey-” from Jim.
“Then I ran the generator through my controller board and plugged my headset in and put it on, to see if I could feel anything. I sniffed up a little juice, but nothing.”
Reena interrupted, “I don’t get it, why the juice?”
“Ree, the juice is from their plant. Come on, stay with me. It enhances ear function, and they have found a way to go even further with it. I used it because I figured it was the best way to get my ears to at least come close to matching theirs.”
“Ok, sorry, I get it,” said Reena, a little embarrassed.
“Yeah, they love it, it’s everywhere on Ceres2,” Jim interjected. “And I know first-hand it’s native to Heeg.”
“Please, you guys, JUST LISTEN! Ari yelled.
Silence.
“I’m sorry. I’m just really pumped up.”
“Hivol good Ari, just keep going,” said Corey.
“So then I started playing with the stereo field. I widened it all the way to hyper-pan and started to get the buzz. When I increased the intensity, the buzz increased. I knew I was on to something, but I couldn’t risk passing out or worse, so I tried it on my dog, Spot.”
Pel shot coffee out of his nose and mouth, laughing hysterically.
Everyone chimed in, “Ewwww…” They all moved quickly, except of course Jim, who continued to hover in the middle of the room.
“Moons, Pel, there’s something wrong with you bro.”
Pel, still choking, “You actually have a dog named Spot?”
Reena added, “You have a dog named Spot that you conduct experiments on?”
“God, I’m glad I’m not there right now,” Jim moaned.
Ari defended himself, “You guys, I was desperate. Besides, the levels are very controllable through my board. Anyway, I put the headset on Spot, and-”
Pel couldn’t resist that image, “Buahahahahaha!” This time he had set the coffee down.
“And I began cranking up the signal, slowly, and he started to get a l
ittle sleepy,” continued Ari.
“He didn’t try to get rid of the headset?” asked Corey.
“No, he always listens to music that way.” Everyone immediately looked at Pel.
“What? That’s not funny,” Pel said, burying his face in his hands as his shoulders jiggled up and down.
“Then I opened up an oscillator on my board and added a mild sawtooth wave and boom!”
“He died?”
“No, he fell right to sleep for about 30 seconds. You know what, Pel?” Ari scolded, “I didn’t come all this way to have your asshole humor fuck with my hard work.”
“Hey, hey, come on, you guys,” Corey pleaded.
“Ari, I’m sorry. I mean it,” said Pel, bowing sincerely.
“Did you use the spray on him?” asked Reena.
Ari replied, “Actually no, dogs’ ears are pretty sensitive already, so I didn’t even try it. But I’m almost done...the next thing I did was to disengage the headset from Spot and use a standard wireless feed to the device. I figured the Foon must run most of the same frequencies we do, which is why we can use it as a translator. When I cranked up the sawtooth wave to maximum, it went London! It visibly smoked; I fried the thing. Any more signal it may have exploded.”
There was silence in the room. Ari looked around at everyone.
Jim jumped in, “You fried my souvenir, and I can only guess where you stole the mindbender from. So, what’s your conclusion?”
“Um, yeah, sorry Jim. You guys...if I can show United Earth what I’ve learned, maybe they’ll let me teach someone in the Space Force how to do it. I think we can not only disable their communication but perhaps put them to sleep as well, giving the military time to...I don’t know, wipe them out?”
“Do you still have the generator from the mindbender? asked Reena, “did you-”
“No, I used that thing because those machines deal directly with the inner ear, but I’ve already duped all that info into my controller.”
She came back, “What about the fact that the device is based on two-hundred-year-old technology? The Cerean Foon left their planet two centuries ago.”
The Cosmotix 2198 Page 19