by Alex Myers
“You know you can record these images?” They had replaced his stasis bed with a more ordinary hospital bed, and placed the hand-held video display unit in his hand. “Just hit these two buttons simultaneously and you can record thought pictures, even moving images with sound. There are virtual units that can display all this, smells and tactile feels also. There are also experimental units out that can actually record emotions, although like I said, they’re still experimental.”
Jack thought the words: ‘HOW MUCH LONGER WILL I HAVE TO BE HERE?’
“Here in the hospital? Another week, possibly two, depending on your progress. We have been trying to limit your sensory stimuli; nurses and attendants come in while you rest. Tomorrow, you should be ready to meet people;, by the weekend, we’ll provide you with VITU.” She pronounced it like ‘vee-toe’.
“VITU?”
“You have never heard the word ‘VITU’?” She made a notation in his chart. “VITUs have been available since the early 60s. A VITU is a Virtual Information Transference Unit. It’s sort of a combination of a holographic television, internet, and library device. I’m sure it will all come back to you.” Dr. Mizell put her hand to her mouth and chewed on her lip. “I need to mention to you, one of the only drawbacks to remapping someone’s mind is the partial amnesia, the large gaps of memories that patients suffer.”
Jack wondered if it made one delusional? Was his whole trip to the past a coping mechanism his brain had concocted?
“You get some rest now.” She left through a door that operated like a door from Star Trek. There were no handles or hinges, the door simply slid into the wall as she approached it.
Jack smiled. He remembered the first time he slipped back into his own time and found that technology had jumped forward, and recalled Frances’s words; “Say things have moved ahead at least twenty-five to fifty years, maybe more. Wouldn’t the world, the future you saw, reflect those same changes?”
How much had changed in this world? His past, the past he could remember from the twenty-first century, would be completely different. Super computers in the 50s, these VITU units having been around since the early 60s? Was he still a high school teacher in this world? What about all the memories that this Jack had made?
CHAPTER 39
Saturday, August 18, 2013
A large, brawny man wearing scrubs awakened Jack the next day. “My name’s Victor Sams. I’m your physical therapist, and I’m here to help you with your rehabilitation. Dr. Mizell said you might be ready to take a little walk around the halls today.”
He reminded Jack of a buddy that he used to know and liked him instantly. It was mind blowing that he hadn’t been out of bed in over eighteen months. He couldn’t even imagine how his limbs had atrophied. The man put slippers on his feet and slid him sideways out of bed. Jack tentatively put weight on his feet, it felt good. With Victor’s help, he took baby steps around the bed.
“They seem to work well enough,” Jack said.
“They should. I’ve been in here four days a week for a year and a half, putting you through the equivalent of walking three miles a day and a medium workout with weights. I’ve been making you sweat.”
“I appreciate that—I think. Hey, I can talk!”
“You’ll be back to your old self in no time.”
“Does Dr. Mizell really think I’m ready to meet people?”
“We’re just going to the end of the hall, shouldn’t be a whole lot of traffic out there. Got a big window down there, figured you might want to do a little sightseeing.”
Jack released his arm from around Victor’s shoulder and said, “Let me give it a try on my own.” Jack not only could walk normally, he actually felt as if he could run and jump.
“Slow down a little, champ.”
“This feels pretty good.” Jack stumbled slightly.
“There’s still a bit you need to work on with your coordination.”
The door to the hall opened with a swoosh. The hallway was a blue color so dark it almost appeared black. There was an illuminated strip of red running down the center and the lighting was hidden. The effect was very calming but totally foreign. From the end of the deserted hall, Jack could see the window, it was night.
“There aren’t any windows in my room. Somehow, though, I thought it was daytime. Now that I think about it, there isn’t a clock anywhere in my room either.”
“Dr. Mizell warned me there were gaps in your memory. Nearly everyone is on a 24-hour clock nowadays. Most people only sleep for an hour or two, and mostly just out of habit. Those same little critters that fixed all your injuries spend all their time in healthy people, fixing damaged or worn-out cells. A by-product is we don’t require much sleep anymore.” Victor looked at his watch; “It’s about 2:30 in the morning. Haven’t been to sleep myself in over a week—too much going on, if you know what I mean? Nanotechnology—you’ve got to love it!” He gave Jack a devious wink.
“Is there a reason there’s not a clock in my room?”
“Yeah, there’s a great reason. Considering you’ve been out cold for a year and a half, there’s not been a whole lot of need for one. But hey, if you want a clock, we’ll get you a clock.”
“Why no window?”
“Same reason, you haven’t been doing much sightseeing. You’re in an interior room, thus no windows.”
Jack felt stiff, more mentally than physically. “This Dr. Mizell, she got a first name?”
“Teri, Theresa, something like that. To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure.”
“She’s a pretty good looking girl, I’m surprised a man like yourself wouldn’t know.”
“She’s kind of a tight-ass, besides, she’s way too old for me—don’t tell her I said any of that, by the way.”
“Too old? She looks about the same age as you, except for the gray hair, maybe even younger.”
Victor laughed, “She’s sixty-five or seventy, at least.”
“Nanotechnology?”
“You’ve got it, buddy. I heard she keeps the gray hair because it makes her look more distinguished.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m forty-three.”
Jack thought he didn’t look a day over twenty-three.
“When was this nanotechnology developed?” Jack asked.
“Well, it didn’t happen all at once. The AIDS epidemic back in the early 60s really got them working on it, then cancer and most viruses in the late 70s. AD, or age degeneration, and tissue repair were somewhere around 1990. You really don’t remember any of it?”
“Not a frickin’ clue.”
Approaching the window, Jack could see bright lights dancing and zooming outside. What he saw reflected in the glass shocked him more than the marvels outside. “My reflection! I’m young again!”
“Physically, yeah, mentally too, in some ways, I suppose.”
The beginnings of crow’s feet, his laugh lines, his middle-age jawline, even his slightly receding hairline were gone, and replaced by the features he remembered in his late teens or early 20s. “This is going to take some getting used to.”
“Come on, let’s head back to your room. I’ve got a little surprise for you. You’re not slated to get your VITU in until tomorrow, but I’ve got a ‘music dome’ for you tonight.”
“And that would be a—?“
“Let me think, how would you describe it? Do you remember compact discs?”
“Yes.”
“It’s sort of like that, but with color and smells and… well, you’ll just have to try it out for yourself. What kind of music do you like?”
This was a dangerous question. “What do you have?”
“I’ve got the latest from Elvis and The Beatles, from their current world tour.”
“New stuff from Elvis and the Beatles?”
“Yeah, that is kind of old folks stuff.”
“Who do you like?”
“I like dubstep and spunk, but Norah Jones is cool, the new Jim Morriso
n is pretty good, you name it, I’ve got it.”
“Jim Morrison? He’s still alive?”
“Sure, why?”
“I thought he OD’d forty years ago.”
“OD’d?”
“Overdosed on drugs?”
“Drugs? Drugs haven’t been around since the early 60s. Where’ve you been, man?”
CHAPTER 40
Sunday, August 19, 2013
“I’m going to release you tomorrow,” Dr. Mizell said as she entered Jack’s room on Sunday morning. She was pushing a cart that looked like it held a notebook computer.
“Then you think I’m okay?”
“Physically, you are in excellent shape. I plan to keep you today to help you reacclimatize mentally. I will be quite honest with you: with most near-death revives, especially ones that the patient’s brain functions remained intact, we have never experienced this much memory deterioration. Oh sure, memory gaps are quite common, especially among 90% plus revives—just never to this extent. In the standard cultural literacy test I had you take yesterday, you scored extremely low on technology, politics and sociology. With scores this low, you shouldn’t be able to read or write and be a total recluse. On the other hand, you were above average on art, literature and music, as long as it was one hundred years old or older. You basically have the socialized norm of someone from the 1940s or 50s—with a few exceptions, of course.”
Jack was finding that while technology and peoples’ attitudes had leaped ahead, certain artists, or creative people, were still creative. Quite a bit of the music he had listened to, with the exception of some of the instrumentation and phrasing, had been essentially the same as he remembered. “There are just certain things that elude me.”
“On the standardized intelligence quotient test you score a 142.”
“So I guess that means I don’t need a muzzle?”
She gave him a look that would have carried much more meaning if she would have looked her age. “Perhaps this will help you fill in some of the gaps. This is the VITU device I told you about—actually, this is just the display part of it, sans the virtual reality equipment. Here at the hospital, we shy away from the VR aspect of information acquirement, because of the addiction problem.” She gave him a knowing look.
“I don’t know what you mean—addiction problem?”
“The average American spends roughly 50 hours a week in VR units.”
Jack looked at the tablet display. “You said in VR units?”
“This is a portable VITU tablet. They come standard with a helmet apparatus like the ‘music dome’ you have been using, plus they also have pressurized tactile gloves. Models used in the home are much more elaborate. There are some commercial-grade units with a chamber, where the person is semi immersed in a saline-type solution and a person’s senses are completely inundated. Sex sites are just another form of legalized prostitution, and they are just part of the problem. The ‘Midnight Sites’ are the latest dilemma.”
“What are ‘Midnight Sites’?”
“Remember I told you that we have developed a way to record emotions and then play them back?”
“Yes.”
“Well, certain groups have contraband versions of this machine. They commit horrible murders with these units, connected to the killers and the victims, and you can purchase or download these right into your VITU. The places where these are available are called ‘Midnight Sites’. They are highly illegal and really quite dangerous. Our ER gets as many as three or four people a week that have experienced a sensory overload; sometimes they are in such a dreadful condition, we have to perform the mind map procedure.”
“I’ll be careful. What kind of information will I be able to access?”
“Basically everything. What used to be called television, news, every magazine, book, or article ever published.”
“Sort of like the Internet?”
“Sort of, it’s been so long I can barely remember it, but a million times more powerful than that. You will see for yourself. Just be prudent, try not to absorb too much, too fast.”
Sitting alone in his room, Jack finally figured out how to switch on the VITU machine. While it looked like his old Apple, this definitely wasn’t your mama’s iPad. It weighed practically nothing and there were no cords or physical switches of any kind. Having commented on this to Dr. Mizell, she informed him that the mechanism had a lifetime battery and the information was beamed to it by an array of low-level satellites. It powered up instantly and the display was stunning. Not only was it clear and crisp, but was four-dimensional. He viewed the display by setting it flat and the images were holographically displayed on top.
The word ‘Google’ appeared, and Jack smiled at something familiar. Below the logo was a blank text box. Not knowing where to start, he typed in ‘Mark Twain’. Instantly upon hitting the ‘enter’ key, the screen displayed:
FULL NAME: Samuel Langhorne Clemens
BORN: November 30, 1835, Florida, Missouri
DIED: April 21, 1890, Norfolk, Virginia; he is buried in Norfolk, Virginia
This was different. Jack wasn’t sure when Samuel really died, but he thought it had been around 1910 or so. He also saw the place he was interred.
THE MARK TWAIN FOUNDATION TRUST: The Mark Twain Foundation, a trust established under the Will of Mark Twain's son, John “Jack” R. Twain, to enable mankind to enjoy the works of Mark Twain in perpetuity.
CAREER SUMMARY
His family was very poor when he was growing up. His father died when he was 11 years old, so he quit school to become a printer.
He worked for his brother, Orion, as a printer for his newspaper for a few years, but then left and spent time in St. Louis, and eventually settled in a suburb of New York City.
In 1857, he met famed inventor Jack Riggs and went on to become a close friend and associate, moving to the Legendary “Norfolk Complex”, where he was later to build his estate, “Bicycle Bay”.
In 1858, he wrote his first book, ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’. Upon publication, he adopted the pseudonym ‘Mark Twain’, for reasons unknown to this day.
In the fall of 1858, Clemens used his fame to become an advocate of civil rights to gain fair treatment in the plights of blacks and the American Indians.
He remained throughout his life close friends with fellow civil rights activist and renowned philanthropist Frances Sanger Riggs.
Some of Clemens’ most famous works include: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, ET: the Extra Terrestrial, and holiday classics It’s a Wonderful Life, The Grinch That Stole Christmas, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
His hands shook violently. Jack couldn’t believe what he was reading. Not only were he and Frances mentioned, but Samuel had continued his cause for the Blacks and Native Americans. Jack laughed as he remembered Sam’s interest in the Christmas stories he told that Christmas at the Complex, and the way he was riveted when he told him the story of E.T.. Samuel would have him tell his favorite modern stories while they were smoking cigars and drinking.
His interest in technology remained strong until the end. Most of Twain’s work was written on an electric typewriter, including one of the first commercial models available in 1863, which he also helped to develop. He was also one of the first private citizens to receive his pilot’s license in 1873. An adventurer until the end, it was Twain’s love of flying that finally led to his demise when he insisted on piloting one of the first experimental jets developed at the Norfolk Complex. A shrine and museum stand in his honor at the Norfolk International Airport.
Jack sat shaking for the longest time, afraid to check the things he wanted most—his and Frances’s bios. He wondered if he could find anything on Kazmer. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised when his biography appeared.
FULL NAME: Kazmerilian “Kazmer” Dodek Sevenski
BORN: June 23, 1826, Ustka, Slupsk-Poland
DIED: January 2, 1906, Norfolk, Virginia; he was buried in Norfo
lk, Virginia
This was good. It looked as if Kazmer led a long life, continuing to live at the Complex.
THE SEVENSKI TRUST: The Sevenski Trust was established under Kazmer Sevenski to enable underprivileged children access to higher education, especially in the fields of Science and Medicine. The Sevenski Trust remains a major contributor to the National Academy of Science and the Smithsonian. Founder of the Sevenski Institute, which continues to be a world leader in the research of the Natural Sciences. The not-for-profit College abides to admit only academically gifted students on full tuition scholarships.
CAREER SUMMARY
In 1856, Sevenski teamed with inventor Jack Riggs and helped develop the famous ‘Riggs Ryder’. Also, along with Jack Riggs and Senator Murphy McCord, he established the industrial research facility known as the Norfolk Complex. In 1857, after the death of Jack Riggs and several months of non direction, Sevenski went on to become president and chief developer of the Riggs Corporation, a position he held until he retired in 1899, at which time his adopted son, Robbie, went on to guide the company into the twentieth Century.
He was proud his friend had gone on to achieve so much. He was also glad he had shared with Kazmer as much as he could remember about twenty-first century technology.
Jack couldn’t delay the inevitable much longer. He was dying of anticipation to find the outcomes of his and Frances’s pasts. As a diversion, he typed in ‘Civil War’ to see if he had made a difference. He rechecked his spelling when the main references he got were:
English Civil War- Earl Rivers Regiment of
Foote the Photo Gallery
English Civil War Society - A History Re-enactment Group
French Civil War. c.1466 By Rob Pierce