The Relics- The Keystone Trilogy - Part 1

by Michael K. Damron

  “Look, Son,” James began, “if you want to save your Searcher friends, Alexie included, you’re going to need to trust me.”

  “Tell you what,” said Jack, after thinking for a moment, “if you swear to me that we’ll still save my friends like you keep saying we will, I’ll take a chance and inject myself with whatever’s in the syringe.”

  “I’ve already promised you, Jack, but rest assured, we’ll get your friends out from under the Archon’s control.”

  Satisfied with his father’s answer, Jack presented his forearm to accept the shot.

  “I really, really hope I don’t wind up regretting this.”

  “Don’t be worried,” said James. “This will open up a whole new realm of possibilities for you.”

  “Geez, Dad, you sound like a drug dealer.”

  “Ha! If you say so, Son. Now hold still for a second while I shoot you up with the contents of this syringe.”

  James’s comment caused Jack to smile before the needle was submerged under his skin. The initial burning sensation quickly turned to ice in his veins as the serum began to circulate throughout his body.

  “I know it’s a strange feeling, but you’re going to be fine,” said James. “While we wait on the serum to take effect, there’s something I’d like to show you—what you’ll soon be capable of.”

  As Jack shivered from the sharp chills shooting through his body, James, with eyes that glowed a vibrant blue, wrapped his arm around his son. Jack watched as visions of different realities passed them by until they arrived in one noticeably different than their own. The small town and wintry landscape they once sat in became an advanced city within a vast dome, allowing for a regulated climate that could facilitate lush vegetation and plants, all placed in strategic locations that accentuated the area’s beauty.

  “Where have you brought us?” said Jack, looking around at their new surroundings.

  “I brought us to exactly where we were. Only, events must have transpired in this reality to lead to the sophisticated use of the atmospheric dome above us and development of the unique city now surrounding us.”

  Jack took more time to look around and marvel at the fact he had traveled to a different reality. “What about the other versions of us that would exist here, couldn’t we possibly run into them?”

  “Not likely, as far as I’ve experienced” said James. “When you perform the switch of an object or something, your exo pulls from the options it has available among all versions of yourself in that exact place and in a multitude of realities. But when you step into a different parallel realities, we believe the exos present only the options where you won’t run into another version of yourself. In other words, we’d have to go searching for the version of us in this reality in order to run into ourselves. And we could be halfway across the world in this reality, for all we know.”

  “Ah, I see,” said Jack, wincing.

  James noticed his son’s posture and demeanor, causing him to feel concern. “Are you feeling all right? Is the serum causing you pain?”

  “Um, maybe, I’m not too sure. I can’t tell if the serum is what’s making me feel bad, the fact that going to a different parallel dimension, as you told me, can cause a strange feeling, or if it’s some combination of both.”

  “It would be best if we didn’t take any chances. We’ll head back to our home reality and get you back to Japan. I want you feeling better before the whole team gathers around for a talk later.”

  James’s eyes illuminated blue once more as he transferred Jack and himself to the reality from which they originated. He kept close by his son while they walked behind a building, away from civilian eyes. James reached into one of the inside pockets of his coat and pulled out the crystal that warped them back to Takeru’s estate in Japan.

  “Ugh, Dad, is it all right if I just go lay down for a bit?”

  “Yes, that’s perfectly understandable. Like I said earlier, I want you ready to learn later today about some of the research and discoveries we’ve made. In fact, some of them are centered on you.”

  “Okay, sounds like a plan,” said Jack, ready to find a soft surface to collapse on top of.

  He made his way to the bed he slept on the night before and was out cold the moment his body went horizontal.

  Alexie riffled through the pages of a book she kept on her nightstand, though she didn’t try to read any of the sentences and paragraphs that zoomed by her eyes. Certain on-hand books always seemed to bring her comfort, even if they were only used as a tactile aid for relieving anxiety. As she sat there, donning a blank stare while trying to compartmentalize recent thoughts and feelings, Jack’s voice entered her mind.

  I plan to see you and the other Searchers again soon. I don’t know when, but I’m trying my best. And I heard the rogues gave Marcel back to you. I’m sorry he was returned in such a rough state. I did my best to keep him from getting hurt. Please don’t worry about me. I’m doing okay. I hope you are too.

  The surprise of hearing his voice caused Alexie to spring up and fling her book halfway across the room. She remained frozen for a moment before bringing her mind to a state of intense focus in order to respond to the unexpected message.

  Jack! I can’t believe I’m hearing your voice! The rogues were supposed to have killed you. Even as I speak, I wonder if I’m answering a message I’ve received from you too late. Maybe in the time it took for me to receive it, the rogues took your life. I pray that’s not the case and you’re still alive . . . please be alive.

  Alexie wiped tears from her eyes as her message was sent out of the Searcher facility and across the vast distance between her and its recipient. She hoped it would find its way to a still-living Jack, although she had her doubts.

  I wonder if that body in the medical ward is really his, she thought. Or maybe—

  Alexie jolted from where she sat and burst through the twins’ room door, shutting it hard behind her.

  “Ferra! You know how you told me to try and do a cognitive link with Jack from a long distance away to see if we could still communicate with each other? Oh, and hi, Garnet.”

  “Hey, Alexie,” said Garnet, displaying a puzzled look on her face.

  “Uh, yeah, I remember,” said Ferra.

  “Well . . . it worked! Jack got my message, I got his. We’ve corresponded, like, twice now—even after the rogues gave us his body back.”

  “I am so confused right now,” said Garnet.

  “Wait, you’re serious?” said Ferra. “Even after he died, you’ve still communicated with him?”

  “Oh, you poor thing,” said Garnet, her face indicating she thought Alexie was starting to lose her sanity.

  “I’m not going crazy! I know what I heard. It shouldn’t be possible. So, why am I getting messages from him if he’s supposed to be dead? Is he even dead at all?”

  “Uh, look, Alexie, I’m not very good at this comforting-friends thing. I know it’s sad to think about, but, as far as I can tell, Jack’s gone,” said Ferra.

  Alexie thought to herself for a moment, trying to think of what would make her reasoning sound more logical. “In the cognitive link I received from him, just now, right before I came into your room, he said he planned on seeing us all again. He knew about Marcel and said he tried to prevent him from getting hurt. And he ended the message to me by saying he was doing okay. The rogues couldn’t have forced him to say something like that! He wouldn’t have lied to me. I know his body’s in the medical ward, lifeless, as we speak. I saw it for myself. But what I’m trying to say is that’s not the Jack we’ve all gotten to know here at the facility. It’s somebody or something else, entirely.”

  Both Ferra and Garnet remained silent, shifting their gaze between each other and Alexie.

  “Do you think it could be another Jack?” said Garnet.

  Ferra looked at her sister with confusion.

  “What are you referring to?” said Alexie, curious.

  “You know, the multiple universe
hypothesis people used to talk about. There could be a lot of Jacks out there that all look the same. And the version of Jack in the medical ward exists at the same time this reality’s version of Jack is talking to you while being somewhere else in the world.”

  “I’ve never heard of something like that,” said Ferra.

  “Yeah, you might not have had the opportunity to come across the idea in Sanctuary,” her sister said, “but it was all the rage for quite a few decades.”

  “Garnet, you’re brilliant!” said Alexie. “That would explain how he could still be alive when we also know his dead body is currently in the medical ward.”

  “Hey now, hold your horses. That was just an old hypothesis, not a real scientific theory or law. There’s never been any evidence to back it up, to my knowledge.” said Garnet.

  “Yeah, but if I’m understanding it right, it would be something that could explain things, right?” said Ferra. “I’ve seen some crazy stuff since I came to the facility and had an exo attach to me. Is it really too radical a concept to say it’s impossible?”

  “So let’s say it is possible. Then what? What’s your plan, if it’s true?” said Garnet.

  “Well, I haven’t thought that far ahead,” said Alexie. “I guess . . . I suppose we need to tell other people about it. Maybe start with John. He’s the one, I think, that will be the hardest to convince.”

  “You’re probably right about that,” said Ferra.

  “May I ask the two of you for a favor, then? A big favor. I mean, there’s a chance John might think I’m a lunatic.”

  “That’s an understatement,” said Garnet, Ferra elbowing her in the side to hush.

  “I know, I know,” said Alexie. “But would the two of you come with me when I talk to him? It would probably look better if I had a couple others near me who also believe me.”

  The twins looked at one another for a moment, telepathically coming to a decision before Garnet proclaimed, “You can count on us, Alexie!”

  “Great, that puts my mind at ease. Thanks so much, you two.”

  “When are you thinking of talking to John?” said Ferra. “Garnet and I were about to get food before you stumbled in our room, so are you going now or—”

  “Oh, please, grab something to eat first!” said Alexie. “I insist. We can all go see John together in a little while.”

  Alexie left the twins’ room so they could do what they needed. To pass the time, she read through the notebooks Jack left behind, hoping there might be a mention of a correlation between the discovered relics and multiple universes somewhere among the pages she may have overlooked.

  Jack awoke with more vitality than he had felt in days. The nap had given him an unexpected energy.

  Man, I feel great, he thought, springing out of bed into an upright position. A tangible difference in the power of Jack’s exo had developed during the short time while he rested. Seeing the block of morphacite in the room, he levitated it over to him and felt a new, deeper connection to the substance. As he began to practice manipulating it, he received another message from Alexie.

  Jack! I can’t believe I’m hearing your voice! The rogues were supposed to have killed you. Even as I speak, I wonder if I’m answering a message I’ve received from you too late. Maybe in the time it took for me to receive it, the rogues took your life. I pray that’s not the case and you’re still alive . . . please be alive.

  Jack became highly confused when hearing that Alexie thought the rogues had already killed him. His bewilderment caused him to drop the morphacite he was controlling to the floor, hitting the wooden boards with a loud thud. The door immediately opened behind him.

  “There you are, Son, finally awake,” said James.

  “Hey, Dad. Um, yeah, awake and feeling a lot better.”

  “Ah, the serum works wonders, doesn’t it? Just wait until you see the full extent of what your exo’s capable of.”

  “Oh, of course, the serum. How did it change me, exactly? How am I different?”

  “Those are excellent questions—ones better answered by Wren. I’m going to let everyone know that you’re awake, they can make their way to the great room. It’s time you learn a bit more about what we’ve discovered since our defection from the Searcher division, as well as some of the reasons we believe you could be the most crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to stopping the Archon from getting what he desires.”

  “Um, listen, Dad, that’s all well and good. But I need to know why the Searchers would think you and the rogues killed me?”

  “What?” said James, unsettled.

  “I’m serious. Why do they think I’m dead?”

  “What makes you think they think you’re dead?”

  Jack worried about telling his father he was corresponding with Alexie through cognitive links, even though a sizable distance existed between them. Still not sure whom he could fully trust, he kept it a secret.

  “Let’s just call it intuition,” said Jack.

  “Oh, intuition, huh? Well, Son, don’t worry. There’s no reason your friends shouldn’t think you’re safe and sound.”

  Jack thinned his eyes and thought for a moment before saying, “Okay, Dad, if you say so. But let me make myself clear, if I find out you’re lying to me, you’ll lose my trust and have a much bigger problem on your hands. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “There’s no need for melodrama, Son,” said James, his voice slightly strained by nerves. “I’m your father. And if I say you can trust me, you can trust me. Now let’s get a move on, I sent a notification out to everyone minutes ago about getting together.”

  James ushered Jack into the largest room of the house, where they waited for the other team members to arrive, including Melissa and Kanna. Wren and Otto were the last to enter, causing Otto to reflexively comment on their tardiness.

  “My sincerest apologies for our delayed presence. I was finding it difficult to pull Wren away from toying with her machines.”

  “I wasn’t toying around,” said Wren, placing herself in a lounging position on a nearby couch. “I was servicing and optimizing. Besides, I could hardly hear him while being all up inside Gerty.”

  Jack gave his father a confused look and telepathically asked, Who’s Gerty?

  It’s what she named one of her 3D printers.

  One of them? She has more than one?

  Three, to be exact. I bet she’d give you a tour of her makeshift tech space after our talk, if you wanted.

  “Enough with the bickering, you two,” said Freya. “It’s like listening to an old married couple.”

  If Otto could blush, he would have.

  “Let’s get to the matter at hand,” said James, initiating the meeting. “After Jack and I had breakfast this morning, he accepted the serum.”

  Those gathered around seemed to approve, nudging each other and exchanging knowing looks with one another.

  “How do you feel, Jack?” said Nigel.

  “I feel great, really. I can tell something’s different, but I can’t quite figure out what it is. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s in the serum and what did it do to me?” said Jack.

  “You mean, you don’t know what’s in it?” said Wren, smiling playfully.

  “How would I know? I’ve never even heard of it until this morning.”

  “Give me a minute and I’ll show you,” she said, running out of the room and coming back with a piece of old paper in her hands. “This is the recipe for what’s in the serum.”

  Jack took the paper from her and looked at the written ingredients. Although he didn’t understand the significance of the combination of listed chemicals and substances, or the formulas scribbled at the top section of the paper, he recognized the handwriting. The formulas were written out by his school friend, Robbin. Spending so much time with her in class, he could recognize her penmanship anywhere. The other handwriting on the page, a block style written in all capital letters, Jack recognized as his own.

&n
bsp; “This can’t be real. I would remember if I wrote this, especially if Robbin and I did it together. It . . . it just didn’t happen.”

  “It did happen,” said Mark. “A morphacite container was left on our doorstep with a hand-drawn map inside, a map that you drew. Out of all of us, your father was the only one who could open the container. We believe there’s a version of you who formed a container around the map and made sure no random person with an exo could open it. And that map, the one you drew, led us to another morphacite container that held the serum recipe you’re holding now.”

  “It’s what you and I talked about this morning, Jack,” said James. “We’re all part of a vast multi-reality matrix, and it seems like there’s another Jack out there trying to help us.”

  Jack was speechless as he stared at the piece of paper in his hands while his brain tried to process everything he heard.

  “To answer your earlier question,” Wren began, not allowing the silence to linger, “the serum acts as a communication amplifier, allowing your mind to gain access to pretty much all the abilities your exo has to offer.”

  “Oh, I see,” said Jack, trying to snap out of his trance.

  “Wren, why don’t you explain to him the full extent of our knowledge on the exos,” said James.

  “Right. Very well. Um, first off, we have no clue how the exos are made and where they came from. They could be extraterrestrial, for all we know. That being said, what we do know is that the exos are like supercomputers that can move, manipulate, and transport collections of atoms within our own reality and between an infinite number of other realities. It’s likely it has something to do with quantum entanglement—crazy, I know. The exos could be a kind of quantum computer, but if they are, I have no idea how they cool themselves. Anyway, within each and every exo is a sophisticated AI that you communicate with through your mind. And it’s a super sophisticated AI, too. Let me tell you, artificial intelligence is one of my specialties and even I don’t fully understand how it works within an exo. Its purpose is to read your mind and do what you ask of it. The issue is there’s so much junk floating around the mind that it floods the communication link between you and your exo. That’s also the reason why meditating helps you connect with it—it causes some of the crap to be flushed from your mind. With the serum now coursing through you, you and your exo can be best buddies and communicate freely. Any questions?”