Total Amnesia: Forgotten Lives

by J. W. Northrup

  I have thoughts of doing the humanitarian thing, of grabbing the device out of her purse and using it. But I don’t because―in my infatuated state―being with Espree is apparently more important than the lives of the people around me, even superseding an alien invasion.

  Maybe she has a group of physics students and professors in her office brainstorming. Maybe they’ve come up with a solution. But then she said she only wants me. Why me?

  “What’s this all about Professor?” Is all I can think to ask.

  “I will show you when we get to my office,” she keeps saying, “I understand this is very confusing to you. That is why you must give me time to explain.”

  “So you really know what’s going on.”

  “I do.”

  I wait for her to explain, but she just continues walking and all I can do is follow.

  We arrive at her office in room 308A in the physics building. It’s a familiar place to me and like the professor, it is totally immaculate. Nobody else is here.

  She motions me to sit at her desk and takes her seat.

  She smiles, takes a breath and begins to explain.

  “Planet Earth is being ‘Harvested’ Tim.”

  “What do you mean Harvested?”

  “I mean the population of Earth is going to be collected up and shipped off to some other planet or city or whatever. I really don’t know where they will be taken.”

  I’m about to ask a few hundred more questions but Espree holds up a hand and shakes her head in dismissal.

  “I know you have a hundred questions Tim and they will all be answered in time, but for now, you must listen to me.”

  Considering the circumstance I suppose that’s the right thing to do.

  She takes a long pause, as if gathering her words carefully; then she looks at me with an expression of sympathy and of frustration.

  “You are an immortal spirit Tim.”

  I remember that she was saying that the other day at lunch. I don’t really get why that is so relevant right now.

  “OK.” I say shrugging my shoulders; waiting for her to make a point.

  “And this universe has become a trap.”

  “Uh, well OK; but professor, please, can you tell me about this invasion?” Her behavior is really confusing me.

  “This is why you are being invaded Tim and why you are here at this time, confined as you are to a planet. You are trapped!”

  “Well, OK, but how do you know about all this? Are they going to take over the earth? What’s going to happen to everybody?”

  She seems to slump―as if she has given up trying. I don’t know what I did to cause that reaction. I just think that discussions about deep things, like spirituality and philosophic traps seem rather inappropriate considering aliens are on our doorstep.

  She shakes her head and gets up from her chair.

  “I should know better. This is a universe of force, not reason,” she says more to herself than me. Then she motions for me accompany her to the window.

  “Point out something big.” She says looking out the window.

  “Why, uh, what for…”

  “Just point to something big!”

  “OK. OK.”

  There’s a big heavy palm tree outside the window. It’s about 50 feet high.

  “OK, that tree.”

  No sooner do I get the words out than the tree begins to shudder. I hear a grinding, popping sound as the tree pulls up out of the ground and rises in the air. It turns upside down and smashes into the ground, pushing deeper and deeper until only its roots are showing.

  Professor Espree turns and looks at me, her eyes flashing with anger.

  “This seems to be the only thing you people understand: force, stunts, spectacle; it’s downright exasperating!”

  I’m still trying to conceive of how she did that. She didn’t even move. There was no squinting like Yoda; no trembling, outstretched arm, nothing.

  “Holy Shit, how did you do that?”

  She shakes her head and smiles in resignation.

  “That is the easy part Tim. Unfortunately what appears to be quite impossible is my ability to ‘un-teach’ you the things you’ve learned that make you incapable of doing that!”

  “Un-teach” me? You’re saying I have the ability to do that?”

  “You have the ability to do anything Tim. There is no limit to your abilities. You only need to eliminate your disabilities. That is all.”

  Then it hits me. Apparently she’s one of these aliens. Professor Espree is not one of us, she’s one of them!

  It almost makes sense. I recall the comment she made after lunch the other day. She asked I would believe her if she told me the planet was sold and we were moving on. She was trying to tell me.

  “I am not one of them Tim!” She says angrily, motioning me back to the desk. As I walk back it briefly occurs to me that I never verbalized that thought. She seems to be responding to my un-verbalized thoughts.

  “Trust me Tim; you are not in danger from these invaders. You are safe with me.”

  That’s good. After that palm tree thing I’m beginning to believe her.

  I have to ask, “Then who are you?”

  Espree pauses as if contemplating an answer, then shakes her head. “You will find out in due time.”

  I am about to press the issue, but a silent, unspoken intention in her eyes tells me to drop it.

  You are not ready for this Tim…

  After a moment of odd silence, Espree face expands into a smile.

  “I’ve been bursting for months to show this to someone Tim!”

  She turns her attention to a strange looking computer on her desk.

  “I have an absolutely marvelous device. You’re going to love this!” she says proudly. “For the first time in…in any history, I finally have a device that I can use to show you what you need to know.

  She reaches out and pushes a button on the device. A light from beneath the flat screen begins projecting an amazingly real holographic image in the shape of a cube in front of the desk, about 3 feet square. Inside the cube are clusters of lights all contained within a framework of semi-transparent cubes. It looks similar to a Rubik’s Cube with three cubes across, three down and three cubes deep. To the side of the projector she takes hold of a joystick. It has a rolling ball at the top of and a number of buttons to one side.

  “OK, that’s a pretty cool thing. So what is it?”

  “It’s a Universal Viewer, the latest thing in advanced communication devices. The more advanced civilizations in this universe are having a technological boom, very similar to what you have seen in the past 40 years with computers and the Internet―only this is a universe-wide Internet.

  “It all started with the invention of a device called a “Universal RV Locator”. It’s a revolutionary device.”

  Strangely enough, part of my dream is coming true. Professor Espree seems to have dropped her usual aloofness. She has become almost childlike.

  She continues, “This device is essentially a position locator. It’s really quite remarkable. And don’t ask me how it is constructed because I have no idea. But I have figured out how to work it.”

  She turns her attention back to the computer and begins to maneuver the joystick. Inside the hologram, I can see a glowing light changing position with the movements she is making with the joystick and the way she rotates the ball with her thumb.

  “As you see, that light inside the transparent cubes is controlled by this joystick. I will now position it inside one of the cubic zones and zoom onto that area.”

  She giggles. “These are so fun!

  Each of the individual cubes that make up the Rubik’s Cube hologram has a colored tint to it and, in one corner; I see what appears to be a number representing some kind of coordinates. As she moves the joystick, the indicator light controlled by the joystick turns the color of the cube. She positions the indicator light inside the bluish cube and pushes the red button on the joystick
. An arrow appears pointing outward from the indicator light. She rolls the ball with her thumb and the arrow rotates to different directions. Then she pushes the red button again and the scene changes. The bluish area zooms out to fill the entire hologram, and then subdivides itself into 27 more tinted cubes. She pushes another button and the 27 cubes disappear, leaving just a single large cube showing a three dimensional scene.

  “See how it works? You move the locator light into a cube, chose the view direction and zoom in. You can do this infinitely. I just zoomed in to the cube in which I positioned the indicator light.”

  I’m nodding. This is very interesting. I’ve never seen anything like this thing. It’s some sort of a hologram viewer. Inside the hologram I can see that the clusters of lights look like groups of galaxies. It is like some kind of portable 3D planetarium.

  “So what are we looking at?”

  “Believe it or not Tim; we are looking at a very remote view of this quadrant of the universe. The previous view was a view from much further out. The Universal Viewer will subdivide a view into a uniform number of quadrants. You can zoom in on these quadrants and continue to zoom in until you are looking at the view you want to see. What is displayed in this hologram is an actual view seen through what is called a “Remote Viewer” or “RV”. There are literally trillions and trillions of these RV viewers placed throughout the universe. The Universal Viewer will scan the area in which you have set the locator light to locate the nearest RV. When one is found, and if its view is unobstructed, the scene changes to the view seen from the RV. Then the Universal Viewer will subdivide that view and allow you to choose a smaller quadrant to zoom in on.

  I look at the hologram. It looks similar to the images I have seen from the Hubble Telescope, but this is a 3D view and I see it actually rotates as she moves the ball on top of the joystick.

  The view is of a galaxy cluster. She double clicks on the button and the scene jumps to a point within the cluster and as she rotates the ball, the galaxies revolve around view—as if we are within the galaxy cluster and it is rotating around us.

  “Actually what is happening Tim is the Remote viewer is rotating 360 degrees.”

  She points to the flat screen display on her desk.

  “As you can see up here on the screen, there is a digital readout that gives you the coordinates of the RV according to the standard universe coordinate system (or SUCS). Once you have the view you want, you can give the view a name and save it in the database―just as you save websites or map locations on the internet as “favorites”. This will allow you to retrieve it at a later time.

  As you can see on the readout here, the coordinates are constantly changing as the earth rotates on its axis, and revolves around the sun and the solar system moves and the galaxy rotates and moves in relation to other galaxies. It’s all based on a point that has been established as the center of the universe called “Tri-OT”. Tri-OT is designated as the static 0,0,0 coordinate of the universe. Everything my universe is located according to Tri-OT and the positions and movements of all matter in my universe can be tracked in relation to it. Let me show you.”

  My universe? I’m thinking.

  “Yes”, she says, “My universe.”

  She actually sounds serious. Maybe she’s speaking of it in some abstract way―like America is “my country”. OK, that makes sense. But I have a strange hunch that this has something to do with the previous admonition she make about me not being ready for this.

  She glances at me as if acknowledging. There is another odd pause.

  She pushes a blue button next to the red button on the joystick. An arrow appears on the indicator light in the cube. She turns her attention to the flat display screen on the desk. The screen displays a changing number under a title “Tri-OT velocity”. The number currently reads SUCS.033 lps @ 73.3,38.6,182.7.

  “This says that the point designated by the light in the hologram is traveling .033 light years per second away from the Tri-OT in the direction indicated by the arrow.”

  I don’t know what to think about this. I just don’t know what to think.

  “Don’t worry about it”, she says. “If I’m lying you’ve only got an hour or so to live before the gas paralyzes you so it will be academic anyway. You may as well believe me.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” I say blankly.

  “Please don’t drive yourself crazy trying to make sense out of this Tim; your mind is rigged to disbelieve anything I will tell you in the next hour. That is why I have this device. Now I can show you.

  “Give me an hour or so. By that time you will see the people in this area collapse into the temporary paralysis and you’ll know this is not some elaborate scheme. Until then please indulge me.”

  What can I say, this day is too weird. I look at the window and see the upside down tree. It’s like Alice in Wonderland only inverted―I’m going out of a rabbit hole I didn’t know I was in.

  She continues.

  “Once I choose a remote viewer the device will track it until I erase it from memory. If I save it I can go back to it whenever I want to. Here, let me demonstrate:”

  She turns to the computer and picks something on the flat screen display.

  She turns to me.

  “I have saved a view of this office. “

  I see the hologram scene change to a view of the office! We are looking at ourselves as if from some surveillance video located…I look up, trying to locate the source.

  “It’s right up there Tim.” She points to the top right corner of the doorway.

  I walk over to the place she is pointing to.

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “You’ve got to look a lot closer than that” she says, “look right up there in the corner, it’s probably in a seam in the molding.”

  I pull a chair over and stand on it to get a closer look. There in a seam is a tiny little gray button; slightly larger than the head of a pin. I look back at the hologram and I can see the back of my head. I am looking at a live shot of me!

  This is amazing! I look back at the tiny dot in the molding. It looks like a little fragment of a rock lodged in the crack. It could be mistaken for a grain of sand.

  “Go ahead, take it out.”

  She gets up and hands me a pocket knife. I take it and pry the tiny viewer out inspecting it in my hand. It appears to be a tiny featureless grain of sand. Unbelievable! This is an RV―a universal video transmitter―capable of transmitting video images from any location in the universe!?

  “Drop it”, says Espree.

  I let go of the tiny viewer expecting it to drop to the floor, but it just floats there in the air, and then gradually it begins to ascend like a balloon. I grasp it in my hand again.

  “The RV is anti-gravitic.”

  “Anti-gravitic?”

  “Yes. It is really simple technology once you understand gravity.”

  “I thought we did.”

  “You understand the phenomenon of gravity. You don’t understand gravity. Just as you have a working knowledge of the phenomena of electricity and of electrical charge, but no understanding of what electricity and charge actually is.”

  “So tell…”

  Espree puts up her hand. “Another time Tim, let’s first understand the Universal Viewer.”

  I reach up and select the tiny viewer between my thumb and forefinger and look at the hologram. I see the view changing as I move my hand. I have to admit it; there’s no way to fake this. The view on the hologram is really coming from this tiny little grain in my hand!

  “You’re telling me you can zoom in on virtually any area of the universe―no matter how large or small―and view it?”

  “That’s right Tim.”

  Oh lord, I could play with this forever. Talk about the Internet! This is a whole new stratum of accessibility! This isn’t Google Earth, this is Google Universe! Could this actually be for real? How many times have I asked that question today?

  She
motions me to take a seat at her side.

  She moves a mouse-like device next to the computer and selects an icon in the flat screen that says “Zoom out next” below it. An image of the campus from somewhere above it shows on the hologram. She continues to zoom out to a full view of the earth, then many more times until a view of what I presume to be the Milky Way is projected. Then, cube by cube, she zooms in to a section of the galaxy, then in to a smaller section, finally in to a remote view of the earth, North America, the west coast, the Bay Area, Stanford, the Applied Physics building and finally the view from the office.

  She selects another menu item that says “view sizer”. The highlighted number is 10. She selects 25. The Rubik’s Cube expands suddenly until it is six feet tall! She relocates it to a space in the center of the room.

  “Is that better?” she says.

  “Wow, and it’s HD too!”

  Now I’ve got a question. “But how can there be that many of these RV’s!”

  “Amazing isn’t it,” says Espree, “but they are so cheap, people just indiscriminately place them anywhere and everywhere. As long as they’re a standard brand, a scanner can pick them up. In fact I’ve even seen great big cargo ships flying through space with these big guns that do nothing but fly around dispersing RV’s. They work for what I would compare to Internet Service Providers only on a universal scale.”

  “But we don’t have anything like RV’s on earth. Where did this one come from?”

  She chuckles. “You’re certainly not the ones who place RV’s.”

  “Then other beings are around?”

  She rolls her eyes.

  “Please Tim, don’t be so naïve. And furthermore do you really think you are the first sentient beings to occupy this area?”

  “I don’t know, aren’t we?”

  She smiles. “How long do you think this planet has been around?”

  “I wasn’t up on geology, but I’d say what, 3 to 5 billion years?”

  “Well, RV’s have been around at least a hundred billion. The good ones are about 5 million years old. But the design is so simple that they’ve remained virtually unchanged since the beginning, and they’re practically indestructible below the temperature of 10,000 degrees.