Scout

by Bob Kite

  Scout just sat without moving for a long time. He felt overwhelmed by the absence of a course of action or even enough information to create one with any strategic validity. He had lost all operational momentum for the first time in his life despite all his enhanced intelligence and training and experience. He did not like the feeling.

  Scout wallowed in his depression while the overhead access irised closed and the lighting disappeared once more. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed luminescent stripes along the floor that angled from each ship, including his own, to terminate against a far wall. That seemed the only invitation he would receive. He was out of any other options and over the emotional snit, so slid to the floor and followed the line across the hanger.

  The path ended at an open door that gave into a small closet-size room. Scout shrugged and entered. The only feature was a panel that contained a series of translucent buttons except for the bottom right-most blinked a consistent red-and-yellow. Scout disliked this feeling of manipulation, but once again saw no real options. He pressed the button. The door closed and immediately fell.. Scout had never experienced an elevator and seriously hoped this was a planned descent.

  He stopped with a slight jolt, and the door opened to reveal a new luminescent strip along the floor that flashed the same red and yellow pattern as the button. He followed it through a labyrinth of corridors until the path reached a small alcove. A raised dais, inset with one lone button that flashed red and yellow was the only feature. Scout considered simply walking away and find a street level exit. He was getting weary of always standing in to be the center of world-changing events.

  “I’m pretty sure I’m going to regret this.”

  Click.

  “REBOOT INITIATES IN FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE…”

  The light stopped flashing to be replaced with a pleasant non-directional ambient glow. The inset button rose an inch and a perforated ring released an inky fog. The fog swirled and coalesced into a tenuous shadow figure similar in size and shape to Scout. The shape cocked its featureless head left and right as if stretching out a kink, and spoke.

  “Well, that was…interesting.”

  Scout, beyond apprehension, just stood and waited. And waited. And waited. He resolved to force the universe into taking responsibility for its own actions for a change rather than laying the blame on his. The universe out-waited him.

  “Hello? You do realize I’m standing here, right?”

  “Yes.”

  The shadow offered nothing more.

  “Well… Who, or what, are you? And what series of events did I precipitate by pushing the button?”

  “Please wait a moment while I scan and choose the most efficient protocol for information transfer.”

  Scout felt a slight tingle that began at the crown of his head and continued to sieve through his body down through the soles of his feet. The tingle stopped, and the shadow lifted a wispy hand and touched a faux index finger to the center of Scout’s forehead. A brilliant flash of light struck behind his eyes and…

  ~o0o~

  Nothing was. From the nothing, everything became. Everything that would be, everything that might be, but only as potential. This potential organized as quanta foam, ready and willing. The only problem was that quantum physics required an observer to potentiate an observer. The quandary made the universe impatient, so got started on its own.

  Direction, as a geometric concept, spontaneously propagated. It began as a line that consisted of points constructed with zero dimensions. Placed end to end, they were measurable yet with neither beginning nor ending, infinite in length but without width or depth. The lengths aligned side by side and filled the newly defined universe with width. The planes of width stacked on each other and created depth. The process continued until there were dozens of dimensions.

  The universe existed but was static and in no better shape than it was before. The quantum foam vibrated in frustration, which coalesced into energy, and the first movement of that energy engendered time. From the nothing to the first four dimensions took fewer than three minutes.

  Five billion years later sufficient clumps of energy cooled into matter and succumbed to gravitational bonds. The clumps form planets, stars, cosmic strings, black holes, and dark matter, to name a just a fraction of the diverse wonders of the universe

  .

  From the viewpoint of matter, other matter appeared solid, but that is only an illusion of perspective. The space within each atom is magnitudes of scale larger than the size of the constituent parts of the atom. Whether by design or chance, those distances mirror the relative ratio of emptiness between the clumps of matter on the larger scale of "outer" space.

  While half of the upper dimensions expanded through the macro cosmos, just as many tilted and curled within the space between sub-atomic particles and created intertwining layers of topographical complexities.

  The quanta foam wanted to continue to grow an infinite number of dimensions but remained constrained within certain boundaries delineated by the concepts of math it created by default. Every possible configuration was potentially available, but not every possible configuration could exist concurrently without danger of the entire edifice crashing down. The most elegant solution to this conundrum: spontaneous self-awareness. Thus was born the Eldest race. Each Eldest existed in an undifferentiated state from the others, yet each individual remained both independent and a holistic portion of the whole.

  The Eldest decided the optimum number of base dimensions to begin at ten, and the foam complied. They decided to inhabit only the tenth, which allowed them to travel and manipulate the lower nine, but only as shadows or extensions of themselves that they might not be constrained within them.

  Ten billion years later, the Eldest created life on widely disparate worlds within but limited to the first four dimensions. They hoped that at least some of the new races would eventually evolve and provide companionship even though of much lower intelligences. Unfortunately, for all their vast power and intellect, the Eldest was neither omnipresent nor omnipotent and ran into a second quandary.

  The six races that exhibited the capability to reach the cusp of transcendence also embodied the same flaw. Every prognosticated future foretold that each race would reach extinction before maturity either by their own hand or that of another. Further extrapolation predicted that the Eldest’s direct intervention would cause eddies in the quantum foam that only served to increase the rate of annihilation.

  The Eldest did not give up on their goal, but studied the various alternatives and possibilities inherent in the situation and sought a stability point where they might successfully intercede. They dispatched a shadow extrusion of their will to perform a preliminary experiment to gain more insight.

  For the initial phase of the Eldest’s plan, their Shadow sought a rogue star with a single planet. The Shadow was limited to the lower dimensional physics it inhabited, but maintained contact and directed the Eldest in the use of their paramountcy over creation. As their proxy, Shadow found the perfect planet and backtracked its existence through million of years to its nascency.

  He used the Eldest’s power to clip both ends of the planet and its primary’s time line from beginning to end temporarily stitched together the severed ends. When finished, he would replace it exactly where/when it was in local space-time in order to minimize disruptions in the quantum foam. Shadow then shaped a ribbon of dimensional time into a Mobius strip that caused a bubble in which time moved a thousand times slower than the outside universe.

  Next, he prepared the planet. Each race differed in environmental needs, so he created energy barriers that maintained optimal physical parameters and also kept them separated. Upon completing the eco-forming, he added the appropriate flora and fauna to each section and sent a poly-dimensional message to the Eldest that indicated readiness for the population influx.

  Two thousand individuals from each race were instantaneously deposited in the middle of sepa
rate wilderness areas, along with enough tools and materials to lead a pre-industrial lifestyle. The experimental subjects were unaware of the fact, but they were not abductees, rather exact clones created by the Eldest. Shadow used this self-perpetuating population base in an attempt to solve the dilemma of self-inflicted destruction and continued making progress until the project was interrupted by the Catastrophe.

  ~o0o~

  Scout’s mind reeled as all the information appeared in his head and he processed it in one chunk. Shadow waited until Scout’s pupils reduced to normal-size that indicated the transfer was successful.

  “All my systems overloaded, and I remained in stasis until you hit the reset button.”

  The full sensoria presentation in Scout’s head faded into the here and now as Shadow resumed speaking.

  “The maintenance automatons were not affected due to their low intelligence matrix and have repaired or replaced each component under their purview many times. I estimate it has been six to seven thousand years by the accumulation of discarded materials. I planned to complete this experiment in less than four hundred years. I doubt the reason for this experiment is any longer applicable.”

  “I wouldn’t imagine it would be after thousands of years, whatever its purpose.”

  That is a correct assumption, although based on incomplete data. The is a time differential between this planet and the outside universe that grew exponentially so that nine hundred billion years have passed.. I can find no connection or sense of the presence of the Eldest through any of the ten dimensions. The last impression I can find roughly translates as ‘Wow, so this is what it all means.’ The Elders seem to have moved elsewhere.”

  Scout understood everything he heard, intellectually, but in the scale of his life, none of it had any practical impact. Even so, he could not slow his Imuqi super-genius brain structure as it integrated all this new data and performed a first level analysis.

  “That was probably more information that I needed, but thank you anyway. I still don’t understand the purpose of your experimentation. What were you trying to achieve?”

  “Each race exhibits xenophobia, a fear of outsiders that will always lead to extinction. We hoped to find a way to change this deep-seated behavior. I successfully combined all DNA strands into one complex matrix. My intention was that each birth randomly expresses a race other than the progenitor. That would force them into mutual offspring exchanges to ensure their own survival. Any race that did not cooperate would end up producing fewer children each generation. The drive to replicate one’s genetic material is the most powerful motivation in the universe.

  Scout would never have imagined each race on the planet was a microcosm of billions of individuals in a pan-galactic community, but accepted the fact and shared his conclusions with Shadow.

  “If the original space faring cultures were anything at all as their descendants here, it would never have worked. Most likely the strongest would simply enslave the other races to harvest their own young and dispose of the excess alien offspring. The victors could easily increase the breeding stock from the random births.

  Each race would also become so enraged that they would direct all resources, physical and intellectual, to win the resulting war. The best ultimate outcome would have only one race in the end, and perhaps not even that. Your plan also ignores the strength of the bond within a direct bloodline. An infant received during a mass exchange that does contain the assigned parent’s personal DNA would never establish the same bond as one that does. Most of the societies would simply collapse from lack of love and commitment for the younger generations.”

  “Then you calculate extinction is always inevitable due to intelligent societies’ very nature?”

  “No, I believe a guiding nudge at the proper time and place in the proper manner is viable, if there were a way to gather and process sufficient amounts of data. I have experienced enough of these historic leverage points during my own travels to know how little effort is required under the right conditions.”

  Scout felt oscillating waves of vibration through his feet that began at the edge of his perception and built to a tooth-chattering thrum.

  “What is happening? Are we in danger?”

  “I have finished calculating all the data points of the last six thousand years as well as extrapolated further by inference and concur with your observation, hypothesis, and conclusion. I detached this vessel from the planet and am in the process of returning this pocket universe to its original space-time continuum. You are only in danger in the sense that you will cease to exist, but that is an imprecise statement based on the limits of your understanding and language.

  As a sidereal temporal paradox, this bubble and everything in it never existed, and will return to/continue its nonexistence as it rebounds back into its proper time/space. As a result, I will return to the time point from which I left will then report to the Eldest.”

  “You can’t destroy millions upon millions of sentient beings! And didn’t you say the Eldest had disappeared or moved on or something?”

  “You are correct; I cannot destroy that which has never existed. The Eldest will have disappeared from the perspective of this temporal artifact, but we have now returned to objective time, and yes! The Eldest are answering!”

  The shadow apparition wavered and thinned, but just before he disappeared altogether, his form returned to apparent solidity.

  “What are you still doing here?”

  Scout again felt a tingle as Shadow scanned him. Shadow confronted him in an accusatory and somewhat irritated tone.

  “I do not understand. You are an effect without a cause, an ending without a beginning. You do not exist. Explain yourself!”

  Scout laughed at the absurdity. Although he could not explain it, he certainly felt existent. Shadow tilted his head as if listening and then spoke before Scout could think of a response.

  “You, originated in this time as a zygote in a human dispersion spaceship before it slipped into the pocket universe. Everything that had happened to you since then left an exact negative impression in the ‘real’ space/time continuum when those experiences returned to nonexistence. The situation created a vacuum that the intrinsic universe duplicated to remove the abhorrence of that vacuum. The replacement intaglio impressions appear indistinguishable from the original”.

  The faceless Shadow gave the impression of a frown and truly disappeared for a full minute. On his return, Shadow transformed into an exact image of Scout’s face and body, albeit still in a non-reflecting midnight black.

  “The Eldest are pleased to propose a solution. Should you agree to act as guardian and mentor regarding the continued survival of all races, they will have no need to endanger the future by their interference. To give you the tools for this endeavor, they have disengaged the part of themselves that is me and I shall submit entirely to you. I and my powers are yours to command. I am the Shadow of your will.

  Scout shook his head and sighed as the universe seemed once again to pass its responsibilities onto him. Secretly, at his core, he could not be more pleased.

  ~end~

  Chapter 9: Author’s Notes

  As the title implies, I am diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. For those unfamiliar with the condition, we are a subgroup that shares certain genetic variations in the hardwiring of our brains. In a metaphorical sense, we are as different from an "average" person as a cat is from a dog. We are not broken people any more than a cat is a broken dog, although one would have more success explaining that truth to a dog than to the average person. Even a cat understands they make horrible dogs, but because of the pack-nature of dogs, cats are always the ones expected to change.

  I have two main goals in publishing my stories; the first is to give an insight into one Aspie's world view, and the other is to give hope to anyone with life challenges (such as D.I.D.) that it is possible to become successful on your own terms and use both your strengths and weaknesses to surmount any obs
tacle.

  The majority of my story ideas are based on semi-autobiographical incidents, hopefully presented in enjoyable, or at least entertaining, simile and metaphor, with the addition of less pure fantasy than one would expect.

  In addition to Asperger's, I also fall under Dissociative Identity Disorder, previously known as multiple personalities. This is another highly individualistic condition and if anything, even more misunderstood than Asperger’s. For me, I live nine distinct lives within one body. In my case, each of these identities is me, but can only accesses the memories they experience while in control (or “up front” in D.I.D. speak.) They seem to shift randomly, but I have recently had some success with intercommunication.

  Different stories are written by different personalities, and longer stories often end up with multiple authors, which further explain a lack of cohesion in style and subject matter. Many of these stories could easily fill their own novel, but my inability to maintain continuity became so frustrating I decided to shorten them. In many instances, this forces me to perhaps put too many concepts and transitions into a short story format, but it seems the only way, for me, to share them.

  A further contributing complication is Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. It is estimated that 2 to 3 percent of the population experience some form, and the condition is associated with the part of the brain that attaches emotion to and imbibes a cohesive individuality to a collection of facial features. I cannot look at a face and see it as a whole, which means I cannot recognize family or friends by sight, even my lovely bride of fifteen years, or my own daughter.

  This also comes out glaringly to some in my stories, since lengthy descriptions of character facial attributes and expressions are meaningless to me, and I always feel that writing something for which I am ignorant comes across as artificial. This gives you the reader a unique opportunity to participate in the storytelling and design character’s physical features to your own expectations and perhaps enhance the experience.