Old-timer scratched the back of his head as he stood just a few paces in front of his porch, the dawn’s early light painting the horizon a soft pink, the morning dew forming large droplets on the long blades of grass in front of him. “Come again?”
“He’s terraforming,” Thel replied.
“Terraforming?” Old-timer reacted, astonished.
Thel nodded, her smile never faded. There appeared to be some sort of festive music in the background. It was night on the beach on which she was reclining in a comfortable beach chair. “Yep, but not in the old school way we’re used to. This is terraforming, James style. Check your real-time solar system map. You’ll see an anomaly that should be crossing near Mars as we speak.”
Old-timer tilted his head, perplexed but still following Thel’s instructions. A map of the solar system unfurled in front of him, a gigantic, nearly planet-sized, nebulous shape moving at an impossibly fast rate across it. “I see it.”
“That’s James,” Thel said, smiling. “He’s out of communication right now, but I can tell him you’re looking for him when I see him?”
“It’s pretty important. I should really speak with him right away.”
“Well, you could always go meet him. Just put yourself between him and Venus. That’s where he’s headed. Don’t worry, he’ll be able to sense you.”
“Venus? Isn’t the terraforming complete there?”
“He wanted to make a few tweaks,” Thel replied. “You know James.”
Old-timer smiled. “Yeah, yeah I sure do. Okay, I better head out if I’m going to reach him in time.”
“Okay, see you later!” She waved goodbye, and the communication ended.
“What are you doing?” Daniella suddenly asked, startling Old-timer and causing him to spin.
He held his hand to his chest. “Phew. You scared me! You can still get the old ticker ticking.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. She stepped closer. “You were trying to sneak out before I woke up. Craig, please don’t go.”
“Daniella,” Old-timer replied, taking in a deep breath. He crossed to her and put his hands on her arms, which were folded across her chest. “I’m literally not going to do anything but have a chat with him.”
“You can’t let them keep sucking you in, Craig,” Daniella advised, the advice tinged with a pleading tone. “Things are getting too crazy. I just…” Her voice trailed off, and her eyes fell from his and dropped to the dirt on which she stood.
He tightened his grip on her when he saw that she was becoming overwhelmed. “Hey, Daniella, what is it?”
She swallowed and looked up at him. “Don’t you feel it, Craig? The world’s upside down. It doesn’t make sense anymore. We’re crossing a threshold here and I don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to come back. There’s no stability anymore—no life—just endless upheaval that threatens everyone. And then with Aldous showing up last night…”
He hugged her, holding her face to his broad chest and resting his own cheek on the top of her head. “I feel it too, Daniella. It’s not your imagination.”
She looked up at him. “Then why are you going? Why don’t you stay here? If something bad happens, then at least we’re together! I’m afraid when you’re gone. Every time you leave to go with James, I’m afraid it’ll be the last time I see you.”
His lips formed a slight pout. “I don’t want you to feel that way. Look, Daniella, he needs to know about the Planck energy and about the Planck platform. He needs to know how dangerous it is. We shouldn’t have hidden it from him for so long. But once I tell him, once I get this over with, what he does with that information will be up to him.”
“Do you promise? You’ll come right home?”
He smiled and nodded. “Yes.”
She hugged him hard.
He sighed. “After all, eternal youth or not, I’m getting too old for this crap.”
6
Old-timer’s forward momentum slowed as he flew through the vacuum of space, floating in the serene, silent blackness, his eyes forward as he watched for any sign of the impending arrival of the nebula that Thel had told him would signify James. He thought he could make out ripples of distortion in the blackness, but he couldn’t be sure, and he blinked several times in an effort to refocus his eyes. Then, suddenly, he thought he glimpsed an object off in the distance that appeared like a golf ball racing toward him on the 9th hole, causing him to instinctively duck, but when he looked again, nothing was there except for the elusive black distortion. “What the heck am I getting myself into here?”
Just seconds later, the object reappeared, as though out of the nothingness, its trajectory dizzying as it seemed to pop into existence from out of the murky cloud. It was massive, white, and almost planet-sized from Old-timer’s perspective.
Again, in a panic, he held his hands over his head instinctively, but his other appendages—the dozens of thin tendrils that he controlled like fingers—flashed open in a reflex that caused Old-timer to temporarily appear like a jellyfish as he covered his face and braced for an impact that he was sure would be lethal if it were not for the fact he had also ignited his magnetic field at the same time. He expected to open his eyes after smashing an impact crater into the surface of the dazzling, mammoth object. Instead, after a few moments in which he tried to catch his breath from the fright, he opened his eyes to see James’s smiling countenance in his mind’s eye.
“Hey,” James said, his chrome-colored lips forming the same friendly, instantly recognizable smile that Old-timer had known for almost twenty years.
Old-timer’s hands lowered from their protective position over his face, as did the magnetic field that his new skin didn’t require him to use for protection in space, but that he’d kept nonetheless for its other advantages when he’d designed his new upgraded body with James. The tendrils also re-furled onto his torso, but as he looked down, he noticed—much to his chagrin—that many of them had punctured his shirt, leaving it looking like Swiss cheese. “I thought I’d just bought the farm,” Old-timer exhaled, relieved.
“Sorry,” James replied. “I sensed you, but time and space were warped for me. Heh, uh, it’s my first time dragging a moon through the solar system so, you’ll have to forgive my bad driving.”
Old-timer grinned and slapped his friend on the shoulder before laughing. “So, even with your godlike abilities, you still make mistakes?”
“Oh yeah,” James replied, as friendly as ever. “I know it seems godlike—magical even—but as Clarke said, ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,’ and make no mistake, it’s just technology.”
Old-timer turned to the gleaming white surface of the moon James was dragging through space, the albedo of the white surface so bright that he had to squint as his eyes adjusted. The surface, though relatively smooth compared to the surface of a planet like Mercury, was crisscrossed with lines, cracks and speckled with circular domes and pits. “Is that Europa?” he asked in astonished disbelief, even though he already knew the answer. He recognized it from the many times he and James had flown over it on scouting missions over the years, the familiar clay-colored streaks called lineae, on the otherwise white surface, were a dead giveaway. He asked the question anyway, his astonishment preventing him from accepting the reality before his eyes.
James looked over his shoulder proudly at the moon before turning back to Old-timer with a smile. “It sure is.”
“I can’t believe it,” Old-timer said in barely more than a whisper. He shook his head, the awe still not abating. “I remember you talking about how you wished you could…but I can’t believe you’re actually doing it.”
“Amazing, isn’t it? Years ago, when I told you that Europa would be a perfect moon for Venus, I thought it would be something we might be able to do in a distant future, but—”
“You didn’t know you’d turn yourself into a god,” Old-timer observed, an impressed expression on his face.
“Ha
! There’s that ‘god’ word again. Old-timer, I’m far from it,” James answered. “Listen, get beside me, I have to make sure you’re inside the bubble.”
“Bubble?”
“I’ll explain it to you on the way to Venus. Once I explain it to you, the mystery will fade, and you’ll be far less impressed, I promise.”
Old-timer adjusted his position in space so that he was next to James and facing the same direction, a direction that pointed them toward Venus. “All right, it’s been a while since we’ve made a bet. The challenge is on. I dare you to try make this unimpressive to me.”
“A lot less impressive,” James corrected with a slight laugh. “Not entirely unimpressive.” He motioned with his right arm and faced his palm to the planet.
Old-timer watched as something seemed to happen to the stars in the background, their positions shifting noticeably as though their distant lights were refracting in water. Their positions continued to shift and Old-timer turned around, facing forward again when his mouth dropped in astonishment. The sun was noticeably growing in size in front of him, though it was flickering on and off as though it were on an old filmstrip. “What the—is that…gravitational lensing?” He turned to James. “Are you bending space-time?” he asked.
“I’m using the mass effect for propulsion,” James confirmed.
Old-timer was silent in his astonishment as his neck craned, following the outline of the lensing that was even larger in space than Europa.
James smiled. “Let’s admit it,” he replied, “it’s still pretty damn impressive.”
7
“Okay,” Old-timer said, “so explain to me how you’re not a god.”
“Gladly,” James replied. “Have I ever explained to you how I was able to calculate as accurately as a computer in my mind, even when I was a child?”
“No,” Old-timer replied. “I always assumed it was because you were the world’s foremost genius.” He shrugged. “I guess I took it for granted and didn’t think about it any further.”
“Genius is relative,” James answered. “What is genius? We could debate a definition forever, just like we debate a definition for consciousness. What I can tell you for sure, though—what we learned from the brain scans I gave to the governing council—is that I have a unique and very fortunate form of synesthesia.”
“Synesthesia?” Old-timer reacted, his eyes narrowing slightly as his memory collected a definition. “Isn’t that when people’s senses get confused? When they see music for example in the form of colors?”
“That’s right,” James replied. “In my case, however, I can see numbers as colors and shapes.”
“Seriously?” Old-timer asked, surprised to learn this new information about a person he considered to be one of his closest friends.
“Yep. Here, look behind you,” James said as he and Old-timer shifted their positions so that they were partially facing the surface of Europa behind them. “One of the reasons I love this moon so much is because I can see a beauty in the topography that other people can’t see. It took me a while to figure out that other people couldn’t see it, mind you; I thought everyone saw the world the way I did when I was a kid, but then, when I asked them…” he shook his head as he remembered the silliness of the moment, “…they thought I was nuts.”
“What did you ask?”
“I was looking at a tree during a break at school, examining the bark, and asked one of my classmates, a little girl, if she thought the number sevens were as beautiful as I did.”
“Uh…what?”
“Yeah, that’s how she reacted too,” James replied. “That’s when I realized that the hallucinatory world I saw overlaid on top of what you and everyone else sees was something that I alone saw. You see,” he continued as he pointed at a cluster of lines and circles on the surface of the moon, “those lineae and lenticulae down there, when you see them, you see a series of random shapes, whereas I see math.”
“Math?”
“Yep. Math.”
Old-timer scratched his scalp near his brow. “And what does the math look like?”
“For me,” James replied, “it’s a gorgeous, awe-inspiring, synesthetic landscape.”
Old-timer exhaled, even though he wasn’t really breathing—his new body didn’t need to. “You’re losing the bet, James. You’re supposed to be smart enough to convince me that this isn’t supernatural and godlike.”
“I’m not even worried,” James replied, confidently. “I’ll win. You know what my favorite synesthetic landscape is?”
“No,” Old-timer shrugged. “I still don’t even know what the heck a synesthetic landscape is.”
“My favorite synesthetic landscape,” James pressed on, completely undeterred, “is pi.” He gestured to the curvature of Europa, moving his arm in a flourish to trace the shape with his finger to further emphasize the point.
“Pi? I’m assuming you don’t mean cherry…”
“I mean 3.1415926535897932384264338327950—”
“Okay!” Old-timer exclaimed with a laugh, holding his hand up to stop James. “I get it. So what’s this synesthetic landscape look like?”
James grinned, seemingly from ear to ear, and his head moved slightly to take in the beautiful symmetry of the solar system’s sixth-largest moon. “It’s like sailing on a ship along a shoreline, but instead of mountains around every bend, you see brilliant colors, flashes of light like the most incredible fireworks display you could ever imagine, eruptions of volcanoes, suns going supernova…” he trailed off as he took in the expanse of it all. “You see a circle, I see the face of God. Old-timer, pi is mathematical perfection—it’s eternity. When I see it, my body is flooded with sensations that inspire awe. Eternity is beautiful.” He turned back to Old-timer. “You can see why I picked terraforming as a career.”
Old-timer nodded. “Yep, lots of circles in this business.”
“Lots of 3.14,” James elaborated.
“Speaking of…” Old-timer trailed off as he pointed in front of them, causing James to turn to face Venus, which they were quickly approaching. “There’s a big, beautiful blue circle there.”
James nodded. “Math is the language of reality. It’s pure logic, and I’m convinced it’s the key to truly understanding the nature of the universe, to unlocking the greatest secrets there are. Those secrets still stymie me.” He gestured to the vortex of space, the nebulous cloud that seemed to engulf both of them, and the moon he had in tow. “This gravitational lensing you’re seeing isn’t magic. It’s a warp bubble and a warp drive.”
“Warp?” Old-timer titled his head. “Seriously?” He looked up at the nearly invisible sphere that engulfed them and Europa. “Faster than light speed?”
“Superluminal,” James confirmed. “I didn’t invent it. It’s a modified version of an Alcubierre-White device. Just like the Tesla tower technology that I found and dusted off in the A.I.’s database, I found the plans for a warp drive in the historical record. Before the outbreak of WWIII, the theoretical plans were already in place for warp drive, but no ship was ever built. The Purists came to power, and the plans were lost. The A.I. recovered them, but they were never made public.”
“Why?” Old-timer asked, suddenly turning suspicious. “That kind of technology has almost limitless applications.”
“Agreed, but I’ve learned a lot since I began sharing the operator’s position with the A.I. For instance, I learned that one of the A.I.’s chief purposes is to provide security for the human species so that we don’t go destroying ourselves. The governing council, and the chief in particular, had to approve any technological leaps. Even though I was part of the system, always fighting against the bureaucracy, I’ve since come to realize that the controls were even tighter than I’d imagined.”
Old-timer nodded, visions of his past flooding to his mind, pieces of puzzles three-quarters of a century old falling into place. “Because the A.I. monitored everything,” he said, suddenly understanding. He shook his he
ad regretfully. “James, I—look, I’m really sorry but I’ve been complicit in this. I didn’t realize just how much until now—”
“Complicit?” James reacted, his head tilting. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve—I was asked to keep a secret from you, a long, long time ago. I said I would—I hadn’t even met you yet.” Old-timer nearly scoffed as he thought of the absurd amount of time that had passed. “I’d nearly forgotten about it until last night.”
“Last night?”
“I had a visitor,” Old-timer replied. “Look, what matters is that I won’t keep it a secret any longer and, if you’ve been digging through the historical record, I’m sure you know about it already.”
“I might. What is it?”
“It’s—it’s Planck technology.”
“Planck technology? As in Max Planck? The theoretical physicist who originated quantum physics?”
“Uh…sounds right. I’m not sure. I never asked. But I’m specifically talking about something called the Planck platform.”
“Planck platform?” James’s face seemed to freeze for a moment as he searched the A.I.’s data base. At the same time, the warp bubble disengaged, the stars seemingly sinking back into their expected places, Venus becoming frozen in place, hanging in the limitlessness of space.
“Are you okay James?” Old-timer asked, once the disorientation of having space return to normal abated.
James’s glowing, azure eyes suddenly locked on to Old-timer, an expression of concern gripping them. “Oh my God. Old-timer, you should’ve told me.”
8
“I know, I...” Old-timer began to apologize, averting his eyes from James’s blue gaze. There was something about them, something so odd, as though they had immeasurable depth. They reminded him of the eyes of an owl that he’d seen as a child, the piercing expression seemingly filled with an abyss of wisdom. “I just didn’t realize…”
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