Aspirations: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller

by Randal Sloan

  Loraine was already there, giving her a bow of welcome to the morning, which Julie quickly returned. As Julie sat sipping her tea, the other two students arrived, each giving them bows of greeting, then introducing themselves.

  Jason, the older of the two, was just a little younger than Julie. He had a ready smile and probably would like to get to know her better. With that he was destined to be disappointed, as Julie had eyes only for Zeke. She was missing him terribly already.

  Jasmine, the other student, was a pretty girl not much older than Loraine and she seemed nice enough. But Julie could tell that Jasmine also noticed the looks Jason was giving her, and she appeared to be more than a little possessive of him. Julie hoped the girl would figure out that she had no interest in him. Maybe then they could get past it to be friends.

  Just as they finished introducing themselves, Mama Kash came up, accompanied by Master John. She was walking better this morning Julie noticed, glad to see that. Mama Kash gave them the bow of greeting, master to students. Almost in unison, the group returned the bow, the depth of their bows much deeper to indicate the greeting of student to master.

  Mama Kash smiled happily at them. “I have a treat for you this morning, my little ones. One of my former students, Master John, is going to take you with him today to a special place to do your meditation. You will take the trail that leads up to the overlook facing the east end of the island. I regret that I cannot go with you due to the difficulty of the path.”

  She paused a moment, looking over each of them. “When you reach the overlook, each of you must choose the spot that you feel is calling you. There I want each of you to concentrate on the assigned meditation. Master John will explain it to you. Listen carefully to him, because your task will be more difficult than I have required in the past. When you have completed the exercise, return here and we will do our daily workout routine.”

  Not long after they had finished their meal and tea, the gong sounded again and the students quickly rose from their seats. Master John bowed to the group, quietly telling them, “Please follow me.” As he started out, he turned back briefly to speak to Julie. “I will try to go slowly. If you have any trouble keeping up, just let me know and I will slow down.”

  Julie bowed, the simple bow of thanks for understanding. “So far today, I’m doing ok. Just being here has been a great help already.” John acknowledged her bow before again stepping to the front of the group, leading them forward. With great care, Julie followed along at the rear of the group.

  John soon turned onto a winding path that went through the trees and up the nearby mountainside. Julie could tell that some of the others were a little impatient with the pace, but she was throughly enjoying the morning. The air was crisp and the slight breeze was enough to bring to her the fragrance of the flowers along the path. She could see the birds in the trees and hear their songs. This island is a beautiful place, she thought. She suddenly realized that she had been walking for several minutes and that she was now at least functional without the transport. She raised her hands in exhilaration.

  They continued walking on the slowly climbing path for several minutes, but suddenly they came out of the trees onto an open area that was relatively flat. After taking a few steps out from the path, Julie stopped in amazement. From where she was standing, she was able to view of a large portion of the island.

  It was all stunning, to say the least. Looking back behind them was a view of the monk compound, nestled among the trees. To the left, which Julie realized would be looking to the north and across the channel between them and the mainland, the cliffs dropped straight to the sea and Julie could see the tremendous surge of the ocean waves against those same cliffs. She could barely see a dark line near the horizon, which she assumed was the mainland. The view to the right, or south, was almost the same. If anything, the waves that crashed against the cliffs were larger, since they faced the open sea.

  But the view that completely took Julie’s breath away was the one straight in front of her. That was the view of the channel between the islands that she had seen in her vision. It was even more daunting than what she had seen in her vision, but she realized that she was probably seeing it at high tide right now. It was obvious that the only time one could possibly swim across it would be around low tide.

  Master John came up behind her. “Beautiful, yet terrifying. You should see it right after a storm. The previous Master chose well when he purchased this island. You told me that you believe you are to take the swim challenge, so know that it will not be as bad as it looks today. The challenge can only take place at one of the lowest tides of the year, which means only that it’s possible; it’s still extremely difficult. As we talked about yesterday, I plan to take the swim challenge, but I’m not ready this year.”

  Julie looked away from the view and back to him. “I do not wish to do so but apparently I must. Or at least I have seen that I will.”

  “That is why you are here with this group today.” Turning toward the rest, who had come to stand around the two of them, “You four have much promise, or you would not be Mama Kash’s students. Which brings us to today’s lesson.”

  “I will need each of you to pick a spot at least a little away from the others. You each have demonstrated that you have meditated in the past, and I want you to find your way to the meditative state.” At first slow to move, they all moved away, each trying to find a spot that called them.

  Julie knew exactly where her spot was. It was a large flat rock straight ahead. As she approached it, she realized this was where she had been sitting in her vision. That fit well with what she was feeling, and it made a lot of sense to her. Climbing atop the rock, which was only a few inches off the ground, she sat down in the lotus position.

  Master John began to speak, walking them through the steps he wanted them to follow. He spoke in a soft voice with a singsong quality to it.

  Julie at first struggled within herself, her two personalities almost in conflict. Her frustration at her physical lack of control ate at her, and as did her anger which seemed to control her at times. But finally, she relaxed and listened to Master John’s voice, feeling herself almost mesmerized by it.

  “I see each of you. You must find that spot within yourself. Good… Very good… But now I want each of you to go a little further down the path. You must open yourself up to sense the world around you, first externally and then I want you to concentrate on feeling your own heart rate and slowing it down. Once you are able to do that, dwell in that moment. Time should almost stand still…”

  When she opened her mind, Julie was struck by the tremendous amount of energy flowing across the island from every direction. Somehow, she had been drawn to choose a spot that was a center of focus for many of the energy flows across the island. She suspected it was not coincidence, but she didn’t know the meaning of it, either.

  Knowing she had a task to complete, Julie opened up her senses. With her enhanced senses, she was able to hear the wind rustle through the grass, even the small creatures stirring underneath her. She could smell and taste the salt on the sea spray far below her, as if she were standing within it. Finally, concentrating again, she was able to enhance the view of the mainland across the way to resolve its features to be recognizable. The waves were splashing against the cliffs there, too.

  She then brought those senses to herself personally. Julie was quickly able to hear her heartbeat but continued the exercise, feeling the beat of the heart and the flow of the blood associated with that beat from heart to body and to lungs. She concentrated on relaxing and slowing it all down. She also slowed her breathing. Taking Master John’s words to heart, she tried to dwell in that moment.

  Julie didn’t know how long she stayed in that state, but something caused her to look up. She immediately saw John looking down at her with a huge smile on his face. The other three were beside him, all of them staring wide-eyed. That brought her out of her trance, but she still could feel some of the af
tereffects.

  “Sorry,” John said. “We didn’t want to interrupt you, but you have been like this for several minutes, and you appeared to be breathing only a handful of times a minute. I don’t believe I have ever had a beginning student go so deep. You are ready for the next step. I will discuss your situation with Mama Kash, and she may assign you to work with a different monk tomorrow.”

  Master John smiled at the group. “You all did very well. You have been an excellent group to work with. I would have expected nothing less from Mama Kash’s students. Come, let us return to her.” He lead the way back down the path.

  As Julie hurried to catch up, she realized that she was moving a little easier. She still had to think about her movements to keep them reasonable, but her brain seemed to be able to handle it a little better. Also, on the trip back she was able to notice things that she had missed coming up. The moss growing on a rock beside the path, the small stream trickling below them in a certain section of the trail, the rabbit family living inside the hollow log, all of these she now could sense without specifically forcing her senses to follow them.

  When they reached the end of the trail, Master John led them back to the little garden behind Mama Kash’s home. Bowing to the waiting Mama Kash, advanced student to master, Master John told her, “I have returned my charges. They all did very well, especially this one,” pointing to Julie. “We will need to talk later this afternoon regarding her.”

  Mama Kash smiled at him. He was beginning to understand. “I expected no less. Meet me here immediately after the noon meal. But my dear boy, be prepared to discuss each of my students.” Looking around the group, she smiled even more broadly. “Are they not all precious?”

  Seeing the expressions among the group, Master John laughed. “And now we have embarrassed them all.” Bowing the bow of student teacher to student, he told the four students, “I bid you all a good day. I will try to visit again soon, depending on Mama Kash’s good grace.”

  Mama Kash smiled. “For you, the welcome is any time. Are you not still one of my favorites?”

  Now the one embarrassed, Master John bowed the bow of student to master and quickly escaped.

  Mama Kash led the group further into the garden. “For our new student, I will explain what we are doing. Each day we begin with meditation, then spend a few minutes warming up, and finally we will begin a series of exercises that are meant to teach the student a series of moves using hand and footwork. This will become the basis for the offensive and defensive moves that you will use in training. Jasmine, if you will, please lead the group in our warmup.”

  Jasmine bowed, a bright smile on her face. She had been struggling a little with the whole jealousy thing regarding Jason and the looks he kept stealing at Julie, even though she could tell that Julie had absolutely no interest in him. So with clear instructions as needed, she led the group for the next several minutes through a series of stretches that grew increasingly in intensity. The warm-up stretches emphasized movement and not a slow stretch, allowing the muscles to loosen up before being extended.

  When they were finished, Mama Kash took over. “We will now begin our movement exercises. I will begin slowly and work up. For our first exercise, if anyone makes a mistake, the whole group will have to start over at the beginning. The person that makes the mistake will have to lead the group until we reach that point again.”

  Bowing to the group, Mama Kash began the exercise. At that moment, it was as if she was transformed into her younger self. Her every movement was smooth and perfect and all signs of weakness disappeared from her. Julie was not completely surprised, but still it was something to see the change. It pleased her that Mama Kash could still find this joy. It did worry Julie just how much it had to take for Mama Kash to do it.

  The whole group quickly fell into the exercise. Still a little distracted, as soon as the complexity increased, Jason flubbed one of the moves. Red-faced with embarrassment, he started over at the beginning and put his heart into the exercise. Julie was able to follow the exercises by concentrating, carrying over some of the feeling from the meditation. Soon the complexity increased again, and they all began to make mistakes. Eventually everyone missed a step at least once and had to take their turn at leading. In Julie’s case, she knew the moves, but just couldn’t get her body to complete them at the right speed. Everything was expected to be done exactly right, so they all concentrated. Finally, Mama Kash stopped, giving them a break, everyone drinking water or more of the hot tea which Mama Kash had made just before they returned from meditating.

  While they were resting, Mama Kash patiently taught the group a little more about their movements. “When you do a set of exercises like we are doing, you must let your body do the motion without thought. If you wait until you think about a move and then have your brain tell your body what to do, the time that it takes the signals to get from your brain to your body will eventually get you to be out of step, causing you to miss the next move. Instead, you must treat it like a dance. As you do so, your brain will start anticipating the next move, and will have already sent the message to the large muscle groups to start the move as you begin it. When your eye sees the final details of the movement, your brain only has to tell the smaller muscles to make the adjustments needed to match it, and they can react much faster than the big muscles can. With time and practice, even those moves will become automatic and the whole exercise can become a dance of joy. If I can teach you nothing else with these exercises, that is the most important.”

  Leaving the students to think about the lesson, Mama Kash poured herself a cup of the tea and sat for a few minutes thinking about her students, especially her newest one. She had known the moment she had seen her that the girl was special, but then she had already known that from her visions. She knew that someday she would have to tell her everything about her mother, but she couldn’t do it yet. To Julie, her mother’s death was still an open wound. So she would spend her time building a relationship and trying to teach her as much as she could in the short time that she knew she would have.

  Finishing her tea, Mama Kash led her charges back to the exercise area in the garden. “Now we will try what I just discussed with you. I will lead you in a set of movements, but I want you to concentrate on following the dance and not the specific move. After everyone has had a chance to get a feel for it, I am going to pick up the speed and complexity. This time, when a student makes a mistake, the student is to stop and step back from the exercise. The exercise will stop when the last student is out.”

  Concentrating on the dance, at first Julie struggled a little with the change in complexity, but by following Mama Kash’s advice it began to flow. She could tell the difference in all of them as they began to move much more in sync. After a few minutes, Mama Kash began to push them even harder. To Julie it seemed that the more she did it, the easier it became. It was as if her nanites were learning and getting better at it.

  Jason was the first to drop out, and not too long after Jasmine took herself out too. For a few moments it was only Mama Kash, Loraine and Julie. The motions grew more and more complex. Then Loraine was out. Julie and Mama Kash continued for a little longer and then simultaneously they stopped, Julie somehow able to sense the ending as the next step. Mama Kash bowed to Julie and then the others, the bow of pleased teacher to excellent students.

  Turning to Loraine, Mama Kash told her, “Loraine, lead us in our cool-down and final stretches.”

  Loraine quickly did so, beginning with slow movements that allowed the body to relax and slow itself down and then into stretches that helped to loosen muscles tight from their exertion. A sense of quiet joy hung over the group as they completed the exercise.

  Mama Kash kept her thoughts to herself, but she was quite pleased with the results from the group. They had needed a little spark to get them to the next level, and apparently Julie had supplied that spark. If she only had the strength to work with them all day she could really accomplish something
with this group. Alas, her feeble body would not allow her to do that and she knew it full well. Maybe if she rested the whole afternoon, she could spend a few minutes with her granddaughter and Julie this evening. She had so much to teach those two dealing with the second sight.

  As they finished the last stretch, Master John appeared again, bowing once more to the group. He was able to feel the sense of accomplishment and joy shared by them all. “It appears you are all doing very well. You must try to hold on to this feeling and bring it back with you tomorrow. I am quite sorrowful to have to break this little group up, but I need to escort Julie across to the monk candidate training area.”

  Bowing to Mama Kash, Julie asked politely, “May I have your leave?”

  Returning her bow, Mama Kash replied, “Yes, you may, dear one. Be back at least one hour prior to the time of the evening meal. I will be working with you and Loraine in your additional training during that time period.”

  Smiling broadly and still a little flushed from the exercises, Julie gave Master John the bow of eager student to teacher. “I am ready. I thank you for your care in escorting me.”

  “It is nothing,” Master John told her. “It is my pleasure to do so.”

  As he led her along the path toward the monk compound, Master John told her, “You will be working with the four other candidates this afternoon in the accelerated training program.” He then led her across to the building where they were serving lunch. Pointing to a group of four at a table by themselves, he told her, “This is your group. You will stay with them for the afternoon. Eat now and a monk will be along afterwards to collect your group.” They exchanged bows and John returned to deal with his other duties.

  Lunch was a simple affair, consisting of fruit, vegetables, rice and more green tea. Julie was glad that the portions were large, sensing that her nanites needed the energy. The serving monk looked up at her questioningly when she requested a full portion but complied after a moment. Julie joined her designated group, but did not speak as everyone was eating in an uncomfortable silence that lasted until the end of the meal.