Eunoia

by R J Johnson

  “I swear to you,” she glanced back looking at Alex who was lingering back in the doorway. Ted turned and shot his son a look. That was enough to send Alex packing back up to his room. He didn’t understand what the adults were talking about, but one look from his father like that, and that was enough to know his dad was serious.

  “What is it?” Ted said, pushing her back and holding her at arm’s length.

  “My name Emily Harper, that’s Scott and Christina, and I swear this is true, but we come from the year 2012. We were sent back in time thanks to a mysterious alien stone left on earth to help humanity take the next step in our evolution. Problem is, some kind of power-hungry billionaire has collected most of them and is currently turning our future into some kind of nightmare fascist hellscape. We’re here to try and prevent that from happening. Your son Alex discovers the first stone in a few months, and we need to make sure Kline doesn’t interrupt that and kill him before we have the chance to stop him from taking over the world.”

  Emily finished her speech in nearly one breath, panting once she made it to the end. Scott and Christina had just watched her, eyes wide unable to stop their friend from what could create a world-ending paradox.

  Scott had closed his eyes certain that the black ball of lightening that signaled the beginning of a new paradox would appear at any moment destroying them all. After a moment, he began feeling cautiously optimistic that Emily hadn’t destroyed them all by telling Ted what happened next.

  That is, nothing had happened, yet.

  Ted glanced over at Scott and Christina eyeing them suspiciously. “Is what she’s saying true?”

  Scott decided lying wasn’t going to get them anywhere. Ted would either believe them or call the cops. They were screwed either way.

  “Emily’s got the details right,” Scott said.

  “And about her carrying…” Ted swallowed, “my grandson.”

  Scott looked over at Emily whose eyes had dried out. “That’s new information to me too.”

  Emily smiled. “It’s true,” she smiled softly. “I never thought about having kids, but here I am.”

  Ted nodded slowly. “OK. I don’t mean any offense, but I’d like you all to leave.”

  “Please!” Emily began, but Scott grabbed her elbow.

  “He’ll listen or he won’t Emily,” Scott said. He turned back to Ted and took out a pad of paper and pencil scribbling something down. “Look, if you want the full story of what happened, you can swing by our place pretty much any time, day or night.”

  Ted took the scrap of paper from Scott and turned back to the house, climbing the stairs and entering his home.

  The three of them watched him leave. Christina turned to Emily and grabbed her tight in a hug.

  “Let’s get you home,” Christina said softly. Scott turned to help them move down the stairs heading back to their cabin.

  Chapter Thirty

  Alex emerged from the Channel, sweating and angry. This was his fourth time through the scenario he’d programmed so he could learn how to defeat Kline and hadn’t even come close.

  “Your simulations have grown quite strange Alex McCray.”

  The Patron appeared in front of him, the hologram flickering slightly. Alex walked through the apparition and moved to the sink, washing his face off.

  “How long have I been out?” Alex asked.

  “Several thousand years.” The Patron glided over to stand next to Alex as he got cleaned up. The stubble had grown into a long brown goatee and bear that covered Alex’s entire face.

  “Got any razors?” Alex asked.

  The Patron waved his hand toward the dispenser where Alex had been ordering his food.

  “We created the replicator, that was a prominent part of your ‘Star Trek’ lore. We thought such a device would come in useful for our species.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow. The Patrons had been busy in his absence. “Really?” He turned to the machine, “Tea, Earl Grey, hot.”

  The machine flashed and to Alex’s amazement, the tea appeared on a tray in front of him.

  “Good lord…” Alex breathed out. The Patrons had advanced pretty quickly over the last few years. “I could also use some razors if you can figure out how to create that.”

  The machine flashed, and once again, a package of razors appeared on the tray in front of him. Alex picked one up and touched the metal gingerly. It was sharp – just as real as anything else he had used back on Earth.

  “Not bad.” Alex said. “Anything else you guys have been holding back while I’ve been out?” He looked up at the Patron who was watching him closely. “Any progress on the stone?”

  The Patron’s mandibles clicked for several moments as if the alien was trying to phrase what he wanted to say carefully. “It’s been a challenging project. You must know that you have brought something that uses a type of energy that we have only begun to theorize about.”

  “Ahh…” Alex swallowed. He had hoped that spending enough time in the Channel, the Patrons would be able to come up with a solution. But it appeared that he would be stuck for a little while longer.

  “Well, keep at it.” Alex said.

  “We shall Alex McCray,” the Patron replied. “If it would make you feel any better, I do not believe it is beyond our capability ever. I do believe that we’ll have a breakthrough soon.”

  “If you say so,” Alex said, unable to keep the doubt from creeping into his voice.

  The Patron turned and looked down at Alex’s channel. “You’ve programmed quite the simulation for yourself.”

  “It’s challenging, I’ll admit,” Alex said. “But, it’s how I’m keeping myself busy. If I can figure out how to defeat Kline in your Channel, then maybe I can use those lessons in the real world. Maybe, when you figure out how synthesize more of the stones, I’ll be prepared.”

  The Patron looked over at Alex, “Then I shall not keep you from your preparations.” The Patron scuttled over to the doorway, pausing before he left. “How long would you like to remain within the Channel this time?”

  “Don’t bring me out until you have a way to synthesize the stones,” Alex said. “It’ll take me time to figure out the perfect scenario, so there’s no rush.”

  “As you wish,” The Patron said, giving the half bow that Alex had seen them give one another. He took it as a form of respect. He exited Alex’s room as the door slide down after him.

  Alex grabbed the tea sitting on the counter, and took a sip. It was good, tasting almost like the real thing.

  “The Captain would be proud,” Alex muttered to himself. He sighed and looked at his image in the mirror. He stroked the beard that he had grown while inside the Channel. What would another few hundred years turn it into? He decided to keep it growing just to see how long it could get.

  Besides, it’s not as if he had anyone around to impress anyway.

  He stepped back inside the Channel, feeling ready for anything it could throw at him.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Scott, Chrissy, and the Old Man were jogging through the subway system with Chrissy taking an easy lead. She had told him that they would go at his pace, but he had insisted that she take the lead. She felt bad, knowing that the Old Man’s injuries were likely worse than he was letting on.

  The blue healing light had flashed over him several times during the course of their jog through the subway. Christina thought that meant that he was strong enough to do what they had come to do, but as they rounded a corner, the Old Man tripped over a loose board and fell to the ground.

  Christina saw him fall and shouted to Scott who had been scouting up ahead. “Scott, he’s hurt!”

  “I’m fine, I’m fine…” the Old Man wheezed. “Just hold on for one moment…”

  Christina kneeled down next to him. “Are you all right?”

  The Old Man held up a finger as he gathered himself up from the fall. “I’ll… be fine,” he said after a moment.

  She looked down the tunnel
, hoping that he had been right that the subway system had been completely shut down.

  “It’s fine,” he said, reading her mind. “They couldn’t keep the trains going after what Kline did creating that wall around New York City and all.”

  “Just eerie down here is all,” she said wandering between the tracks. “Millions of people used these trains for years and now…” she waved her hand around at the empty subway, “nothing.”

  “Nothing will be all that’s left if we don’t stop Kline here and now,” Scott said, his voice echoing through the tunnel. “The next station’s just up ahead. We can rest there for a few minutes.”

  Christina turned and held out a hand for him. The Old Man sighed and reached for it gratefully.

  “Thank you my dear,” he said as she helped him up off the ground. “It’s getting harder to get it up in my old age…”

  “Knock it off Alex…” she whispered quietly.

  The Old Man’s face remained impassive. “Please…” he said quietly. “Remember our deal, yes?”

  Chrissy looked down the tunnel seeing Scott approach them. “He deserves to know you’re alive.”

  The Old Man sighed and shook his head, “Not until Kline is taken care of. I made you a promise that’s when I would tell them I was still alive. I kept my end of the deal. I hope you’ll keep yours.”

  Chrissy looked at him, her eyes sad. “He missed you terribly, you know.”

  The Old Man smiled and reached out a hand to Chrissy’s arm, squeezing it fondly, “I missed you both too, and I’m beyond excited that you two will have a future together,” the Old Man said. “But, if we want you two to get that future, then we need to keep our focus, and that includes Scott.”

  “I heard my name…” Scott called out. “What’s the plan?”

  Christina looked at the Old Man, and then back at Scott. “Just figuring out the best way to sneak into Kline’s office. I figured you and the Old Man here could take him by surprise from the outside.”

  “Oh?” Scott looked over at the Old Man. “And just how are we going to scale a hundred story building?”

  “With these of course,” the Old Man withdrew his stone.

  “Another one of those damned things,” Scott moaned. “Couldn’t we try something new?”

  The Old Man stared at the twelfth stone for a moment, a series of bad memories triggered by its reappearance. “It’s our only chance.”

  He got up and began moving toward the next station. “Come on, we don’t have much time left.”

  Scott watched the Old Man trot down the tunnel and he glanced over at Christina.

  “Are you sure we want to follow this guy around?”

  Christina watched the Old Man disappear in the darkness ahead. “I’m sure. There’s no one else more committed to stopping Kline and saving the world, I guarantee you that.”

  Scott reached out his hand for Christina’s and squeezed it. She turned and smiled at him, squeezing his hand back.

  “I missed you,” she said quietly.

  “I was having a great dream when you woke me up,” Scott said, pretending to sound grumpy. “But, I’m sure I missed you too.”

  Christina slapped him, the smile on her face a big one.

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go catch up to our savoir before he leaves us to fend for ourselves against the rats.”

  They moved to follow the Old Man hoping to put an end to Kline once and for all.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Kline lay there within the complicated tangle of cables and wires sending thousands of volts through him. Screaming in pain, he managed to touch the willpower stone, creating a huge rubber mat underneath his body and the cables.

  The pain ceased and the healing blue light flowed over his body. Kline snapped his fingers and the cables holding him down snapped apart, freeing him from the makeshift prison.

  He stood, brushing the cables off his body, and for the first time since taking the last stone, he felt vulnerable. Despite all his preparation, all his allies, and all those powers, they had still managed to find a way to bring him down. It was only through sheer luck that they were unable to press their advantage and take him all the way out.

  What was even more troubling, was the fact that his former assistant knew how to break the compliance spell he had been casting over all his new minions. Nathaniel Tate had always been a willful man, so his betrayal was not as surprising as it could have been. The control he had needed to keep Tate in line taxed him more than he wanted to admit.

  Whereas his newly created minion in New York City and beyond had willingly gone along with the compliance suggestion he had sent over the television.

  Kline frowned as he thought over this new development. What if others learned how to resist the compliance suggestion? There had been that troubling incident back in Kenya with the disappearing man, but, he had written that off as the stone’s fault.

  There was more to this development, and he did not like it.

  Kline needed to regroup, and rethink his strategy. If Tate and Ash were coming for him and the stones, then he needed to be ready.

  He closed his eyes and disappeared, heading for his office in Manhattan. There he would re-center his control over people and get them ready for whatever Tate and Ash had to offer in the way of resistance.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  It was only after exhausting every possible moment that Alex emerged back into the Patron’s world, blinking and shaking off the bizarre unreal feeling he had every time he completed a scenario in the Patron’s Channel.

  Alex shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs when a voice boomed out from the doorway.

  “Are you well Alex McCray?”

  Alex looked up, squinting at the new arrival. It was another Patron, one he’d never seen before.

  “’Bout the same as every other time,” Alex said cautiously. “I wish aspirin was a thing for you people. It’d make the exit much more tolerable.”

  The Patron said nothing, his mandibles only clicking softly. Alex had come up with a theory that the Patrons did that when they wanted to show sympathy or understanding. While most of his time on the Patron’s planet had been spent within the channel playing out various lives, he had occasions to meet other members of the alien species that were playing host to him.

  “We’ve completed our examination of the stone you brought us.” the Patron told him.

  Alex looked up, his face eager.

  “Did you find anything?” he asked.

  “We have accomplished what our ancestors set out to do when you first arrived. We have managed to unlock the secrets of the stone and synthesize more like the one you brought us.” the Patron replied.

  Alex felt relieved. Maybe he would finally get to go home.

  “Good news!” Alex said, the relief evident in his voice. “I’ve enjoyed my vacation on your planet, but it’s time for me to get back and finish Kline off once and for all.”

  The Patron’s mandibles clicked some more.

  “You of all people understand the power that can be unleashed yes?”

  “Of course,” Alex snapped back. “That’s why I’m killing myself to try and figure out how to keep the stones out of Kline’s hands.”

  He moved to throw some more water on his face, “I’m the only one who can pass your ‘test.’”

  “There will be no test,” the Patron said quickly. “The council has decided to use the stones to expand our species throughout the universe.”

  The Patron turned and waved toward the window outside Alex’s channel. “All these worlds are ours now thanks to the knowledge you have brought us.”

  Alex was confused. This was contrary to everything the Old Man had told him and the crystal chambers had said. “But the test… the whole thing hinges on you sending the stones back to earth. If you don’t, it could create a paradox that…”

  “Our calculations show that a universe-wide event is improbable. The event would likely turn your pla
net’s system into a spacial anomaly,” the patron finished for him.

  The Patron dragged a long fingernail against his robes, as if removing a speck of dust. “The issue resolves itself,” he finished.

  Alex sat there unable to form a response.

  “That’s… that’s it?” he managed finally.

  The mandibles clicked together quickly. “It is a boon you brought us Alex McCray. Previous administrations of our council thought of you as a savior of our species. As it turns out, you have sacrificed your species to save our own. And you will be venerated as such.”

  Alex felt the life drain out of him. All the effort. All the work. All the sacrifice. From his father, to Emily’s fiancé, Scott’s girlfriend, and Christina’s father. All of them, all their deaths meant nothing. Alex had been the one responsible for the destruction of Earth.

  And there was nothing he could do about it.

  “Fear not, we shall keep your species alive through the Channel,” the Patron replied, sounding almost happy. “The story of your species will live on in eternity within our holographic programs.”

  Alex shook his head, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

  “I shall leave you alone with your channel,” the Patron replied. He moved, the robes swishing out behind him.

  Alex turned and began typing on the Channel’s control panel. He needed answers. Alex looked at the calculations playing out over the display and grimaced. According to relativity and after all the time he had spent within the channel playing Star Trek captain, he only had a few hundred thousand years left.

  He looked down at the control panel at the date displayed in front of him. It was counting down from 380,000. That was how many years he had left until the stones had to be back on earth.

  Alex only hoped that would be enough time for him to train for what he needed to do next.

  Chapter Thirty-Four