By this stage in proceedings I was an old hand at hearing bizarre and baffling explanations of concepts and technologies utterly beyond my comprehension. I sat beside Theda with a set expression on my face. I was trying to convey the impression that I knew all about this multiverse stuff: I’d been there, I’d done the shifting thing, I was a space and time veteran, baby.
That didn’t last long.
‘It is clear from our initial discussions with Gavin Meckler that he has no understanding of his role in these historic events. He is the perfect example of the accidental tourist, the lost soul in a complex and challenging multiverse. Theda Meckler, on the other hand, has a very good grasp of what is at stake and we are very grateful that she took the risk to come back to visit us.’
That put me in my place. Being the numpty in the room didn’t sit well with me, I was more used to being the one who had to explain complicated things to numpties.
‘However, as he may be starting to understand,’ she turned and smiled at me kindly, ‘Gavin is of vital importance to our research. Over the last few days we have been recording his dreams both here and on Cloud Ten. We will feed them into Calmer Times so everyone can benefit from the information.’
A pause there, while you imagine my reaction to this news.
‘We have managed to extract some wonderful data about his era and in particular the energy systems at use. Obviously we have some historical records of this, but the actual human experience of what it was like to live when surrounded by such dangerous and crude technology is hard to manifest. Now we have the ability to dream in a verified and exact copy of 2011.’
The gathered audience seemed happy with this revelation; I was feeling increasingly baffled and not a little annoyed.
‘You’ve recorded my dreams?’ I said.
Michiyo turned to look at me. ‘Yes, Gavin, they are wonderful and we are very grateful. We are going to play one now.’
The light in the room shifted slightly and suddenly I was in a bus, except it wasn’t a bus, I was still in the room with all the people. The image was sort of 3d but it was all-engulfing, if I glanced to my left and right I was totally in the bus but it was semi-transparent. More chilling was the fact that it was exactly like the bus on Oxford Street dream I’d had in the sleeping pod on Cloud Ten. No, far more than that, it actually was my bus dream.
I screamed.
The bus image around me froze for a moment and I felt Theda’s hand on mine, gentle and reassuring.
‘It’s okay, it’s just a recording, look behind you.’
I turned and saw a frozen image of Theda sitting at the back of the bus, smiling at me. She was also sitting next to me on the low seat in the middle of the room.
‘Don’t be frightened,’ she said. ‘Think of it like a television.’
‘Television didn’t look like this,’ I said under my breath.
‘May we continue?’ asked Michiyo. I saw Theda nod, she continued to hold my hand.
The bus all around me started to move again. I could see the street outside, the horizontal rain, the people with their umbrellas fighting against the wind.
It was only then that I realised there was no sound to accompany this image, I was still hearing the ambient sound in the room, of which there was very little until Michiyo spoke.
‘All the dreams we have recorded will be available for study and they are fascinating. We can learn a great deal about our past from this resource and I think we should all thank Gavin for his generosity.’
There was a polite round of applause from the gathering as the image of the bus faded away.
I glanced at Theda who was looking at me kindly.
‘That was intense,’ I said.
I felt her gently take hold of my hands, and I discovered they were shaking uncontrollably. I find it hard to convey the experience of seeing a dream I could barely remember rendered in such sharp focus. It bore down into the very core of my being. I felt nauseous and I know I was sweating.
The lights in the room changed.
Michiyo stood up and started speaking again.
‘I would also like to thank Theda Meckler for her insights into a problem we are facing. As some of you will already know, Theda has numerous neural enhancements, which we have studied closely. Theda, would you like to explain?’
Theda stood up and turned around the room, smiling.
‘To start with, I would like to try and put to rest some of your completely understandable fears of this type of technology. I know you have had some bad experiences with enhancement technology and I think you are wise in your decision to restrict its introduction. However, as with all technologies, there are benefits and costs and if those are measured and controlled in accordance with pre-existing guidelines then these developments need not be negative.’
Theda glanced at me and smiled.
‘Gavin is a very good example of how neural enhancement technology can be beneficial. When in the Squares of London he was issued with what was known, sorry, is known, as a kidonge. This is effectively a micro data transmitter and receiver that rests somewhere in the human body and is completely benign. What it enabled Gavin to do, even with his understandable limitations, was engage in the world around him in a far more immersive way. His knowledge of other people was instant and encyclopedic, his ability to understand social, political and technical advances from his own era was hugely improved and, most importantly of all, he suffered no negative side effects. Is that a fair description, Gavin?’
I wasn’t expecting a question. I was worrying that my understanding of the social, political and technical advances I had experienced wasn’t quite as encyclopedic as Theda had suggested.
‘Yes, that’s fair,’ I said. I didn’t want to say anything but felt obliged to reply.
‘Obviously,’ Theda continued, ‘my enhancements are more advanced, the kidonge was the first universally accepted enhancement system and this was swiftly followed by more directly engaging neural systems, brain enhancements if you like. These mostly focused on memory and sensory inputs. I am, for example, able to sense very subtle changes in electrical activity and brain chemistry in individuals in my immediate vicinity. For example, I know there is one person in this room who, strictly speaking, you would probably prefer to be elsewhere.’
There was a short pause as Theda’s statement rippled through the room. ‘Noshi, I’m referring to you.’
People started looking either side of them, craning around and eventually finding the culprit.
I followed their gaze and my eyes fell on a very diminutive figure sitting at the back of the circular auditorium. I couldn’t make out if this was a man or a woman.
‘I mean no harm,’ said this person. I decided on hearing the voice that he was a man.
‘Noshi, I have to ask you to leave, I think you know why,’ said Michiyo.
The person called Noshi stood up and left the room without further comment. There was a great deal of discussion among the audience from that moment. I watched Michiyo stand in the centre of the space in silence, she seemed to be waiting for the hubbub to die down, which it eventually did. What made me worry was that I didn’t know if the hubbub died down due to millennia-old human group behavioural norms or because of some freakish brain control weirdness from Theda.
‘Please continue, Theda,’ said Michiyo once the silence had descended.
‘Thank you,’ said Theda. ‘I think that was a good example of the benefits of enhanced systems. I want to explain one or two things though. Obviously this kind of enhancement gives someone in my position a lead in a world where enhancements are limited. It puts me in a position whereby, were I so inclined, I could use these extra abilities to cause harm or give me an unfair advantage over others less well endowed. However, in Munich this is not the case. From birth to death we all have such
systems and so no one individual has an unfair advantage, we are all equal in ways that have never previously been experienced by the human race. There are no people in our city without great intelligence, knowledge and prodigious memory abilities. This allows us to live together in a very peaceful and creative way.’
Theda paused there. No one clapped or did anything. She slowly turned so she could take in the whole room, she certainly had the audience’s attention, the silence was all-engulfing.
‘So the question is, how do we explore the possibilities of me helping you utilise these technologies in order to better counter the problems you are facing? That is part of the reason for my journey here. Thank you.’
Theda sat next to me as the gathering clapped wildly and whooped and yelled. She was a bit of a star.
Michiyo took the floor again, this time gesturing for people to calm down.
‘Thank you so much,’ she shouted above the din, ‘I am so happy to hear that response. We will now have a look at the latest findings from the dimension teams.’
I leant closer to Theda and said, ‘That was pretty cool.’
Theda looked down at me with a big grin.
‘Why, thank you, great-grandfather,’ she said, ‘but now, Gavin, just look at the image system, this may really help you understand what’s happened to you.’
I know Michiyo was speaking at this time but I couldn’t understand anything, it was garbled nonsense to my ears, a muffled sound coming down a long tube.
‘The image system,’ I said.
Theda lifted one of my hands and gestured toward the dull brown patterns that were on display behind Michiyo.
Something clicked as I looked at it, but it was almost a subconscious click. It was as if I had knowledge of something without understanding it. I don’t want to claim that I was instantly aware of the basics of shifting between one universe and another, although there was a visual representation of multiple overlapping circles which I supposed in my ignorance could be something to do with it.
The huge screen covered one side of the room. I had to move my head to scan the whole thing as it was so full of information. Thousands of text boxes far too small for me to read appeared and disappeared beside various circles, the whole screen was a bedazzling waterfall of information, the background was brown and the lettering was in a kind of dull ochre so it was all rather soothing.
Concentrating on this gush of data seemed to help me recover from the distress of reliving my dream with a room full of people. All I wanted to do was forget the experience as soon as possible.
I doubled my efforts to understand what I was looking at. Occasional words or phrases Michiyo was saying started to emerge from the confusion.
I eventually realised that the large circles were moving slowly. I was seeing a continuously moving ring of overlapping circles that spun gently across the screen. I then started to see further rings linked to this central group, these were in a lower ambience and not initially visible to me.
As I stared at this screen I slowly became aware that I wasn’t staring at a screen. It was an image, certainly, but it wasn’t coming from a light source projected against a flat surface. It changed its shape and form as I studied it, the rings I had first noticed became smaller and more closely packed, and the connected rings or circles below and above became easier to see.
What then lifted my slow brain was how this bizarre pattern grew before my eyes. It seemed as if the image changed as my understanding of it increased. I want to describe the experience as spooky, which it was, but it was also fascinating and highly immersive. New rings appeared, floating in space before me, either running up above the original ring of circles, or down below them.
With more careful observation I could sense that these smaller and harder-to-see circles were moving at slightly different speeds to the central ones, so a large bright circle that was overlapping a smaller dull one beneath it would, after a few minutes, have moved on and be intersecting with another dull circle.
Then I noticed something in a text box that caught my attention. The word ‘Gardenia’ was linked to one of the central circles. I suddenly felt dizzy again. Gardenia did exist! That’s what this information was telling me, literally telling me, no one else, just me. Somewhere, somehow, Gardenia existed.
‘Mister Meckler,’ said a voice, immediately snapping me out of my reverie.
‘Yes, sorry, yes?’ I said without thinking. I was looking around like a stunned mullet, it seemed everyone in the room was looking at me.
‘We wondered how you felt about the proposal?’
There was a deathly silence in the room, my brain went blank, there was nothing, I hadn’t heard anyone say anything.
‘He wasn’t listening,’ said Theda flatly. There was a reaction from the room. I think it’s fair to say it was a negative reaction.
Theda stood up and bowed a little to the large crowd of brown-clad people around us. ‘I think I can explain, and I hope Gavin won’t take offence.’ She raised one long slender arm towards the images I’d been looking at. ‘He was so intrigued by the theory presentation he didn’t hear a single word that has been spoken. I think it would be unfair to judge Gavin on this failing, you have to understand that the concepts you are familiar with considering had been mere theory discussed by a very small handful of scientists at the time he left his home.’
‘Indeed,’ said Michiyo. I smiled weakly at her and for the first time in my life I think I got a look from an Asian woman that was openly disdainful.
‘What we wanted to know, Gavin,’ she said, after taking a deep breath, ‘is simple. Are you are prepared to return to 2011?’
Again I was unable to answer. I think I may have wanted to shout ‘Yes!’ or even the more snide ‘What d’you reckon? Fuck yeah!’ but nothing came out.
‘What we also need you to consider is the danger. There are unknowns involved and, as you might be able to understand, we are scientists – we don’t like unknowns. One thing we are certain of, is that it is too dangerous to go back from here.’
‘From here?’ I managed to finally ask.
‘When you were not able to listen to me, I was explaining what happens to the central nervous system during reverse time-hops. There is a lot of electrical activity which will affect everything that passes through. Your brain will be affected, Gavin, possibly fatally. You may not go back to a dimension you recognise and you would have no memory of anything you’ve experienced here. In fact, you may have no memory at all, you may emerge completely blank, effectively a newborn.’
‘That doesn’t sound good,’ I said, trying to make light of it. Michiyo’s expression informed me there was no making light of anything.
‘You would be brain-dead,’ she said flatly, ‘so you cannot go back from here.’
Guess if I suddenly found the ability to respond to the utter nonsense I was hearing? You guessed right, not a word passed my wide-open lips.
‘You will have to side shift before you drop shift,’ said Michiyo, making less and less sense with each utterance. ‘We can explain the details later, but we have discussed the proposition at length and have come to a unanimous agreement. We cannot allow you to go directly back from here.’
17
‘Okay,’ i said as i sat down in our apartment with Theda and Brad. ‘I’m focused, I’m concentrating, I’m not distracted and I’m not dreaming. Can you please explain to me who those dimension people were and what they were talking about? Because I’ll tell you right now, I did not understand a word.’
I was a little agitated – no, that’s not complex enough. I was experiencing an unusual concoction of emotions and I was aware of them as I was experiencing them. I was angry, yes, I mean, they had recorded my dreams, they had invaded what can only be described as the last sanctuary of human dignity. The dreaming mind, for goodness�
�� sake, even the Nazis didn’t do that, even Stalin couldn’t record your dreams.
However, mixed in with this righteous anger was a swirl of other emotions. It’s exhausting being in touch with your feelings, I still wasn’t used to it. I was also excited, elated, terrified and of course utterly confused.
Brad sat on the low bench on the opposite side of the small room and smiled at me.
‘I will try and explain,’ he said. ‘I hope my explanation won’t make things more confusing for you. I’ll use the simplest language I can to illustrate what we understand.’
‘That would be good,’ I said. I did feel very alive, very focused and I felt no embarrassment staring at Brad. At that point in my journey I was newly famished for knowledge. Even in my confused state I could sense something fairly momentous going on.
‘I am going to assume you know where the traditional three dimensions are?’
‘What, wait, where they are?’ Already I didn’t understand. ‘How do you mean where they are?’
‘The three dimensions we are all aware of as human beings: left, right; forward, backward; up, down. The three dimensions of space,’ said Brad, gesticulating each direction with small arm movements.
‘Oh, yes, okay, yes, with you,’ I said. It was the language, not the concept that confused me.
‘You will, I’m sure, understand that we need three coordinates to locate an object in space.’
‘Yes, longitude, latitude and altitude,’ I said, wishing to convey that I wasn’t a Stone Age moron.
‘Correct. So if there were more dimensions, you would need more coordinates.’
I nodded, less certain about what he was implying.
‘As I’m sure you are also aware, the human race is not physiologically equipped to observe those dimensions, but that does not mean they don’t exist.’
‘Doesn’t it?’ I asked.
‘No,’ said Brad. ‘The idea of multiple dimensions has been around for many hundreds of years in terms of mathematical concepts. After Albert Einstein developed his theory of general relativity – you’ve heard of Albert Einstein?’
News from the Clouds Page 13