Aspirations: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller

by Randal Sloan

  “Yes, I have been seeing you much in my visions. I also know that you are just beginning to have your own manifestations of the second sight. I was sorry to hear about your mother, who I knew quite well. I lost a special friend when she died.”

  Julie nodded, tears in her eyes. “I have only been able to remember her in the last few days, but it is very hard. And I know she knew what was coming but accepted it.”

  Mama Kash reached out with a very wrinkled hand and laid it on Julie’s arm. “I am so sorry. Your mother and a few others like us have always remained in communication with each other. We have mourned her ourselves. You should know that we all tried to find a way to save her, but none of us could find the path to do so. Just know that we will always be looking out for you. I wish for you to consider me as you would your own grandmother and allow me to treat you like my own granddaughter, much like this precious one.” She pointedly looked at Loraine.

  Julie gave her a sincere smile and nodded, once again tears in her eyes. “I gladly accept. I need all the family I can get.” But an idea had formed in her mind, even as distracted as she was with her own emotions. She looked again at Loraine, using what they were calling the second sight. Suddenly she understood. “Loraine is not just here to help you. She’s not just taking the classes while here. She is also training under you. She is learning to see like you.”

  “Yes, and I will also train you as I can. You have much to learn and your second sight is just now awakening, so our time will not be all that you will need, but for now it will have to suffice. I have two other students who are taking the meditation and movement training. We will all work together in the mornings. The meditation and the dance will help you deal with the personalities inside you, and with your fear and anger.

  In the afternoon, you will train with the other monk candidates, who will be difficult at times for you, but I believe you will persevere. In the evening, I will work with you and Loraine in your sight training. But now, come let us eat before our meal grows cold. We will talk more tomorrow.”

  Loraine quickly dished out the simple meal. It consisted of rice and locally grown vegetables. An island fruit was also included. Finally she poured steaming tea into each of their cups. She turned to Julie. “Please accept our simple meal as our guest of honor.”

  Julie had been told of the guest ritual by her uncle, so she smiled at her and inclined her head. “As your guest, I thank you for the food provided. It is my honor to dine with you.” She demonstrated by picking up a morsel with the chopsticks they had provided her and taking a small bite. The ritual completed, they all began to eat. After this first meal, the ritual would not be required.

  Julie quickly realized that although simple, the food was really good, so she enjoyed the meal. The conversation remained lighter for the duration of the meal, the discussion revolving around Loraine and her training, and how they could get Julie involved.

  Loraine explained to Julie the logistics for her days of training. “Very early in the morning, you will be able to hear the heralds announcing first light by the sounding of the big gong at the center of the compound. As you know, we will wear the robes like everyone else here, so you should dress quickly in your robes. You must then come to the small garden beside the cottage where you will begin the day with Mama Kash’s students. We will eat the morning meal together. We will train together until it is time for the midday meal which is served in the central compound. In the afternoon, you will separate from us and go to the accelerated monk training.”

  By the time they finished with the meal, Julie could see that Mama Kash was really tired. When she arose from their meal, Julie stood up also and gave her a bow, the simple bow of gratitude. “I want to thank you for letting me stay with you. It will make my time here much more pleasant. And I very much want to thank you for accepting me as your student. I look forward to that most of all.”

  Mama Kash smiled as she looked at Julie standing before her. “It is my pleasure to have you here. I still remember with fondness when your uncle stayed with us all those years ago. If you need anything, just ask Loraine and she will take care of it. And for your training, I look forward to that as well. You very much remind me of your mother. I see her in everything about you, and that brings me pleasure. That also tells me you will do well.” She gave Julie a bow of her own, the bow of affectionate teacher. She began her slow walk to her room, Julie and Loraine both remaining standing until she was gone.

  #

  Julie had returned to her room shortly after that, setting up her VR to call Uncle Ted. She knew that she was many hours ahead of them at the Space Tech office, so this was actually the best time to phone in. When she placed her call to him, he was out on an errand. Instead, the call was answered by her uncle’s assistant, Andrea McDonald.

  Andrea had been there when Julie thought her name was Miranda. She had helped Miranda in a lot of things, and had also been a very good friend. But Julie had known Andrea, and she had been Julie’s friend too. It was a really strange feeling for the new Julie, two different memories of a friendship with the same person. This was the first time they had spoken since Julie had discovered her identity.

  Andrea answered with an uncertain smile. “Hello, Julie. We’ve been hoping you would call to let us know when you were settled in.”

  Julie must have let some of her feelings show in her expression, as Andrea went on after a slight pause, “So now that we have that settled, I guess you and I need to talk?”

  Julie couldn’t help it. A little of her anger came out. “Yes, I guess so. I assume you know all the details about what has happened, and where I am now. And you knew who I was all along these past months. So you were in it with my father and uncle, obviously.”

  Julie really hadn’t figured out how to deal with it all, hence the anger. She still thought that they should have trusted her with the truth. But once she knew the truth, she had immediately realized that Andrea had to have known all along that she was really Julie. As Miranda she had looked different, her father and uncle having used her nanites to change her appearance from the light complexioned Julie with blond hair and blue eyes to the dark complexioned Miranda with black hair and hazel eyes. She was certain, however, that to someone who had been as close as Andrea, there was absolutely zero chance she didn’t know.

  “I knew, but your father and uncle were very insistent. I was against it at the time, but now I’m not sure it wasn’t for the best. But it was the only way that they would let me work with you, and I really wanted to be there. I don’t know if you remember, but we were friends before this all happened.”

  “Oh, I remember. I thought we were now too. But having you as a friend as two people has really made a hash of it, about as confusing as it could be to deal with in here.” Julie pointed to her head.

  After a moment, Julie went on, “I think we will have to just start over. I can see that you sort of had no choice, but it still smarts a little. But why do you say it may have been for the best?”

  “It affected your whole character development. I really cared about you when I knew you as Julie, but you had a privileged attitude about you. Kind of like Caitlyn but not as snobbish. With this, for a little while you could concentrate on learning the new you, which I gotta say, as smart as the old Julie was, you leave her way behind with skills she never had. She never took the self-defense stuff seriously, for one thing. Of course, that Julie didn’t think she needed it. And one more thing. Your father has been obsessed with getting revenge on the Organization. So far you have been able to avoid it, but I suspect you will get pulled into it now. Not that I would blame you.”

  “Yes, they killed my mother, and nearly destroyed my family. So what do you think? Now that I remember her and the fact that she knew it was coming, but accepted it? It makes me very angry that they took her away from me.” More of her anger must have shown because she could see the reaction in Andrea’s eyes. But she went on, “And look what they did to Zeke. That horrible littl
e man was working for them!”

  Julie paused a moment, still trying to get her anger under control. Finally she took a deep breath. “But you have given me some things to think about. I meant it about starting over. I’m different now, neither Julie nor Miranda, but some combination of both which I’m still working to figure out. If you still want to be my friend, you will have to take what you get, but I’m willing to try if you are.”

  “I would like that very much. Why don’t we start back our lunches whenever you get back, kind of like we did when you were Miranda? Then we will see where it goes.”

  “That sounds like a good plan. But I’m going to be here for a while I think. At least as long as is needed to learn to control my nanites. My uncle can explain it better, but it looks like at least a few weeks. But, I will definitely be back before time for Zeke’s nanites to awaken him.”

  Andrea nodded. “Yes, your uncle explained your situation to me. You will have to give me the real details when we do get together.”

  Julie smirked. “I will. Possibly more details than you will want.” She really had a lot she was trying to work through. A friend to talk it over with would be a great help.

  “I doubt you can exceed what I had to put up with from you in the past,” Andrea laughed. “I will be looking forward to you trying it, though.”

  Julie smiled as she thought of some of the stunts she had pulled on Andrea in the past when she had been much more carefree. “I’ll have to give it my best shot.” Maybe she could find a little of that again.

  Julie knew all of that would have to wait. “I suppose I need to try to get some rest. This time zone thing has really gotten me off schedule.” Julie gave a little shake of her head. Traveling with the X-plane only made that part worse. “If you will, pass the message on to my uncle that I’m settling in, and everything is ok for now. I will try to call or send a VR message every evening here.”

  “Ok, I will pass it on,” Andrea told her. Before she signed off, she went on, “Good luck with the training, and take care of yourself. Kick some monk butt if you have to!”

  #

  Julie had said she was going to rest, but it was still early there. Even though her day had started many, many hours before, she really didn’t need that much sleep, a pleasant side effect from her nanites. She quickly scanned her VR messages, most importantly exchanging messages with her friend Emily. Due to the time difference, they would most often communicate by VR messages. Having grown up communicating by VR, neither of the two gave it a second thought.

  She could not resist looking one more time at her progress on the design of the prototype power system. She was building on her knowledge of her and Zeke’s project to generate power. The prototype would allow them to move much closer to her goal, to prove it was possible to build. Almost no one knew it, but their project had been working when Zeke deliberately set it to overload to save her.

  She sadly thought of him, still in his coma while the nanites completed their work. She had no intention of working on the program code without him, but she would have everything ready when he woke up. She told herself every day it was when and not if. She had to believe that.

  Everything was so quiet, without even thinking about it, Julie had increased her hearing ability. Since she had her hearing amped up, she heard the quiet knocking on the outside door, the conversation that ensued, and the almost non-existent footfalls that followed after. Of the monks she had met so far, only two of them could walk that softly. But she heard enough to know when Brother John reached her door. “Please come in,” she told him as he arrived outside her room, her pronouncement beating his movement to knock on the door.

  “Wow!” was all he said when he entered the room, looking at the VR design she had been working on. “I came to see how you were but never expected to see anything like this. What is all this?”

  Julie couldn’t help smiling. Someday she would have to show him a full-sized VR, and what she could do with it. “This is a very small VR system, the best portable one currently available that runs on its own power. The one I prefer would require a room bigger than this to function.”

  “To a simple monk, it is something out of our dreams. What is it that you are working on?”

  “This is to be a prototype of a new system to produce power that I discovered at school. It will soon provide a solution to the world’s energy needs at almost no cost. Absolutely no byproducts. We will finally be able to stop burning fossil fuels and really combat global warming.”

  “Do others know of this? What about the ones that sell the oil? Won’t it put them out of business?”

  “No one knows except a very few at my company. But you have seen what it means immediately. When we introduce this, it will change the world. Most of it will be for good, but if your livelihood depends on oil, you will be in trouble. From the worker, to the oil company, to the countries where the whole economy depends on selling oil. So we will have to figure out a way to do it slowly and to provide help for those affected by it.”

  “And yet you are here. Why do you come to us?”

  “Because I need your help. I must learn to control this.” Julie demonstrated a few simple combination of moves, her hands moving in a blur. “I need your meditation to teach me the control I need for this. I put the other monk in the hospital this morning as he insisted on confronting me to give me the challenge before I could be accepted. That might have worked out, but he tried to attack me instead. I tried so hard to pull the punches, but left him with broken ribs and probably internal bleeding.”

  “That fool. He must be totally sight blind. If he could see what I and the Master see, he would have run the other way. But yes, our meditation will help you, as you will see in the morning. You will learn to feel the flows of energy and to use that for the source of your control.”

  “I can already see how powerful that could be. After meeting the Master, I can feel the way he is able to control himself and the energy flows around him, so much so that I could find him with my eyes closed. Much like the little dharma centre where we met, I can still see his power bending the world around him. So I am excitedly awaiting my instruction.”

  “You are already further along than many will ever be able to go. You will do well with the morning class, I believe. Mama Kash is the best teacher we have for you to learn to use your second sight. You are very blessed that she is teaching you. She accepts very few students due to her poor health.”

  Julie smiled. She already felt a bond beginning to form with Mama Kash. It would be kind of nice to have a grandmother. “I know how lucky I am to have her. I suspect I was helped by the fact she was close to my uncle when he lived with her family. I think she more or less adopted him. It has given me the opportunity to be here, but the rest is up to me.” She looked at John a moment, a little of her stress coming through. “I’m more worried about the other classes. I know they won’t be easy for me.”

  John had an idea of how difficult her afternoons would be. “You will be quite busy with the afternoon classes. The Master has told us to put you in all the programs, that you have already passed the basic meditation requirement. Some of them will not be easy, even for you.” He gave her a smile. “Taking the classes themselves is not totally without precedent. At times, family members who are female and a few others recommended by members, have taken the classes. But they have never been formally allowed to compete and to move up within our ranks. As in any group, there are those among us who are here only to learn and to use that knowledge for the good of others. But unfortunately, not everyone on the island is here for that reason, and they will not be so willing to accept you.”

  Julie nodded. “I know. I’ve already met a couple of them. At times, I wonder if I should even be here, but I feel as if I have no choice. But it’s not easy to do.”

  John gave her a bow, the bow of friendship. “Just know that you already have friends here, and if you need anything, just ask. But I believe that all will be well with yo
u.” He walked over to the door and gave her another bow, the bow of farewell for a short time. “And so, I will bid you good night until tomorrow. “

  Julie smiled and returned his bow with one of the same. “I am looking forward to it with much anticipation.”

  “Good rest then.” John left the room just as silently as he came, his nearly non-existent footfalls following him out of the building. Taking the interruption as a good reason to stop, Julie shut down the VR, getting ready for bed. Once more drawing on the serenity from the garden, she pulled on the sleeping clothes she had brought with her, stretching out on the little bed. Tomorrow would bring what it would bring.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Meditation and training

  The next morning, the gong came early, a little after sunrise. Julie suspected that many of the monk trainees were grumbling under their breath. Despite having only a few hours of sleep, Julie had been awake at first light. She quickly dressed in her robes, her movements careful but sure. Her hair she bond behind, knowing she would need to keep it that way most of the time she was in training.

  Once again disdaining the transport, Julie headed into the pleasant, peaceful garden area outside the small cottage. There she saw the morning meal laid out on a small hewn stone table, benches on each side made by stone slabs laid on top of supporting stones. She was really missing her coffee, so she was pleased to see that although their morning meal consisted entirely of fruit and a flat sweet bread, Loraine had made a large pot of hot green tea. That wasn’t as good as coffee, but it still worked for her. She did add just a dollop of honey to sweeten the taste.