by William Hawk
A whirlwind of white passed through the room, looking like a tornado of sheets. When it stopped sidewinding, a man stood before them, skin pale like a dove, his green eyes intelligent and playful and stern all at once. He carried a fairly large muscular frame. William thought he bore a passing resemblance to a construction worker.
This was Proof. He was the leader of the team, the coach, the counselor, the disciplinarian. His was the first face that William saw when he arrived, and most likely it would be the last one he saw before he departed.
“What do you think of the entrance? Too much?”
“You looked like a spastic phantom,” cracked Hunter.
William was surprised when he first arrived here. He’d been called up, with the four others, from the realm of Menoram. It was where souls waited for assignment. He didn’t remember much about it, except that it was kind of like living inside an energy field, waiting for an unknown destiny, and with awareness but still being unaware.
Here, with this team, however, he had the opportunity to advance himself. He had free will.
Proof walked through the room, touching each of them on the shoulder, saying their names. It was his little ritual. “Where did you go in this tag-along?”
He still used the term tag-along, meaning that the team tagged along emotionally with their hosts. Most everybody else agreed that the term snaps was better, since they were so short.
“We think it was Ancient Maya,” said Grace. “William and I were indigenous, the others were Spanish soldiers.”
“Ah, that one,” said Proof. “I did that one once. What did you think?”
“Well,” said Trina, “William’s host almost got killed.”
“By mine,” said Hunter.
“He probably did get killed,” said Jeremy, “but only after the snapback.”
Proof leaned back and smiled. “We used to call those photo finishes. Everybody encounters them. It’s a good learning experience.”
William looked down at his cup. The strange tea had refilled itself. No matter how many times they came to the debriefing room, he would never get tired of seeing that happen.
Then he raised his hand. “Proof? What would’ve happened if I’d been in the host when he was killed?”
“It’s hard to say exactly,” admitted Proof. “We’ve focused on making more meaningful experiences that would advance you.”
“Would I be trapped forever?”
He shrugged. “You would have to ask the Ancient Engineer.”
The Ancient Engineer. Nobody’d seen him, and his name carried mythic status, but everyone knew one thing about him: The Ancient Engineer had apparently designed everything. The pods, the station, the tag-along techniques, even the Change Agent hierarchy. All of it had been his design, and perhaps even much more.
William stared daggers at Hunter. “Is it possible to stop a host from killing someone?”
Proof nodded, “Of course, but . . . ”
Hunter finished his thought, staring at William. “But we’re not supposed to interfere with the movements, feelings or thoughts of the hosts. It was in training.”
“But we just said that death is uncharted.”
“Hold on,” said Grace, putting her hands out toward both of them. “William, he didn’t know that you were in that host body. And you didn’t know that he was in his. And neither of you can affect the actions of the hosts anyways, so why bother arguing?”
“We’re all just guessing who is who in a snap,” added Trina.
Proof looked around. He and Jeremy made eye contact. It looked as though Jeremy had something to say.
“What is it, Jeremy?”
“I think there’s a way to communicate while we’re in the snap,” he said.
Proof clapped his hands, then pointed at him. “Everybody, Jeremy is making a breakthrough.”
The other four, who had been talking animatedly, suddenly shut up. They turned toward Jeremy.
“Say it again, Jeremy,” said Proof.
“I think we, the five of us, can communicate with one another in a snap,” he said.
“How?” said Trina.
“I don’t know how exactly, but I could somehow feel you, Grace,” he said. “I could almost hear you, too.”
Proof snapped his fingers. The room went dark, and a spotlight landed on Jeremy.
“Jeremy just took another step up the chain,” said Proof.
The others clapped. The lights went back up, and Hunter looked agitated. “Why does it happen to him? Why not me?”
“Because he’s improving his range of experience, and therefore his range of empathy. We’re all part of the same energy.” Proof spread his hands out. “People, people, what is with this bickering? You’ve been selected by the Ancient Engineer, the Ancient Engineer himself, to elevate yourselves. Do it! All of you have the ability to rise to CA3. That is why you’re here! Cooperate! Learn from one another!”
William now understood that this was referring to the Change Agent designation. A CA1 (Change Agent Level One) was a normal human on earth, which is where all of them had started out. A CA2 was granted extra powers of perception and intuition, sometimes even telekinetic powers. A CA3 existed at the top of the scale and was granted nearly superhuman abilities. That’s where they were all trying to get, but they had to do it as a team. If one person couldn’t advance, nobody would make it. Proof had explained that the Ancient Engineer found that this method improved the efficiency of the advancement. It was the same principle that made teachers assign group projects to high school students.
The only problem, however, was that there was always one person who didn’t contribute to group projects.
Meanwhile, they’d learned recently that there was another level of Change Agent: a CA0. This was a fallen Change Agent, one who had reached the top of the great chain of understanding, but who had begun to use the awareness for evil. Proof had reluctantly discussed it. It was clear that he preferred to focus on more positive matters.
In any event, everyone on this team had already achieved CA2. William, Grace, Jeremy, Trina, even Hunter, despite the fact that he’d begun causing trouble. He was what they called a rotten apple.
And William fervently hoped that he wouldn’t spoil the bunch.
“Now it’s time to name that emotion,” said Proof. This was how they ended every debriefing. Each person had to name an emotion that he or she had experienced either for the first time or to a greater degree than ever before. “Trina?”
“Boredom,” she said.
“Interesting,” Proof replied. “That was the first time you felt bored in a tag-along?”
She nodded. “I was tagged to this Spaniard soldier at the back of the group. He was just guiding a pack mule.” She nodded toward William and Hunter. “I never even saw the fight that they’ve been talking about.”
“But what did you learn from that experience?”
She thought about it. “Maybe that there’s dignity in work. This guy was patiently doing his job.”
Proof waved a device up and down her body. It looked like a thin wand, about the length of a human hand. The device beeped approvingly. “The spectrometer says yes.”
William tried not to smile. Proof had earned his name for a very good reason. It’s what he demanded after every snap. He was quantifying the emotional and spiritual progress of each member of the team, but exactly how these things were quantified was never explained. William secretly hoped that they would meet the Ancient Engineer to get more concrete explanations.
“Jeremy?” said Proof.
“I was with the Spanish team, too,” he said. “I felt trapped.”
“Like you weren’t in charge of your own destiny?”
“Exactly. I was tagged to a foot soldier who didn’t even want to be there.”
“How did it make you feel?”
“Awful.” Jeremy looked around. “Free will is everything, people. I mean it.”
Proof waved the spectrometer up and d
own the young man. Beep.
“Good,” he said. Then he turned to William. “And you?”
William felt a stirring of anxiety in his stomach. “Well, I definitely found a new emotion tonight.”
“What is it?”
“Fear. I felt total and complete fear.”
“Of what?”
“You heard the story. Of death.”
Proof nodded. He waved the spectrometer across William. It beeped approvingly.
Then he turned to Hunter. “Let’s hear it, Hunter.”
His dark eyes fixed on Proof. “Bloodlust.”
“You wanted to kill somebody?”
“Like I’ve never experienced.”
Proof tilted his head ever so slightly. “And you liked it?”
“No.” Hunter waited a beat. “I loved it.”
Proof stood there, regarding him for a moment. Then he waved the spectrometer, and it beeped.
“Mine was motherly love,” said Grace. “I had a baby on my breast.”
“Strong stuff, isn’t it?” said Proof, turning toward her. “I tagged a new mother once. It gives you a whole new perspective.” He waved the device, and it beeped.
“Congratulations,” he said, “you’ve all made advancements today.”
Grace’s hand shot up. “So when do we get to see how close we are to CA3?”
“Those algorithms are created and guarded by the Ancient Engineer. Remember, what do we know about the Ancient Engineer?”
In unison, the group said, “He loves us, and he wants us to succeed.”
Proof reclined in his seat. “Tomorrow, it’s Grace’s turn to select the parallax. That’s all for now everybody.”
The lights dimmed in the room. William looked down at his cup. It was empty. He and the other team members stood up one by one.
“Hey Grace,” said Hunter.
“What?”
“Pick a good one tomorrow. Like a war or something. I want to feel what it’s like to kill somebody.”
Hunter moved ahead down the hall, and Grace looked back at William with alarm in her eyes.
CHAPTER 4
HAT EVENING, THE TEAM MEMBERS WERE free to do as they pleased. William would typically find a book, watch a video, or sometimes huddle with Jeremy in a distant corner and discuss deep thoughts. Life and love, lives and loves, the nature of existence. They’d had some pretty heavy talks, and the later it got, the heavier the conversation grew.
Tonight, however, William was feeling more social, so he found himself wandering into the recreation room. Free to use for everybody, it was lined with books on the walls and had board games, tables and comfortable recliners.
He saw Trina sitting on a sofa, staring at one of the lime-green walls.
“What are you doing?” said William.
“Being bored.” She thought about it. “Since I’m always bored in the snaps, I thought I would try to do it on purpose. It’s not that bad.”
Jeremy lay in one of the recliners, reading a book called The Psychology of Psychology.
Nearby, Grace chucked a small bit of paper at him. Jeremy looked up. “What?”
“That,” she said, “looks like the most redundant book ever.”
“I knew you were going to say that.”
“How?”
“Because this is a book on psychology, and people are predictable.”
“Shut up.”
“See, I knew you were going to say that, too.”
William shook his head, bemused. Sometimes the conversation got kind of weird here. In the evenings, it felt like a graduate school dorm room bull session.
William looked at Grace. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”
She shrugged. He already knew that would be the answer. It was well known that she tended not to do any preparation at night, which made the others jealous, because she was probably the most advanced of the group. Proof hadn’t come right out and said it, but everybody could tell that she was his favorite. He talked to her with more respect.
“What would you like me to be doing?” she said.
“You could be doing anything. Watching video.”
“I’ll leave that to Hunter.”
“Ten bucks says he’s in the monitor room,” said Trina.
“Nobody will take that bet,” said William.
“What’s he watching this time?” said Trina.
“Twentieth-century snuff films,” said Jeremy from behind his book. “That’s his new pastime.”
They all fell quiet. The challenge, as laid out by Proof, was to elevate oneself above the temporal, the basic, the common, and to get in touch with the invisible but essential strings that connect all creatures. The team’s common goal, of course, was to achieve CA3 status, but they had to do it as a group. William couldn’t see how watching videos of entrails and horrific mutilations would elevate one’s soul. In fact, he was worried about Hunter’s impact on the team. He seemed to be going in the opposite direction. If anybody was going to hold them back, it would be Hunter.
“How do you know?” said Grace.
Jeremy looked up. “I could hear him behind the door. The audio was full of screams. And Hunter was, like, cackling.”
William rolled his eyes. “You know what, I’m going to go pull him out of there.”
Grace caught him by the arm. “I wouldn’t try. Trina tried it a few days ago, and he got really angry.”
“He can be angry,” said William, “but he’s going to listen to me.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” said Grace.
William left the recreation room and headed to the monitor room. He felt a deep anger stirring inside, a sense of injustice. The thick white door was closed, and the red light indicated that it was locked.
He walked up to the door and pounded on it with the heel of his palm. “Hunter, open up! We got a problem out here! Hurry up, I need you!”
“Go away,” said a muffled voice inside. The tiny sounds of screams were echoing out of the monitors.
“I’m serious, buddy,” William said. “Proof told us that we’ve got a problem with the parallax projectors.”
He heard the tiny screams inside the room stop. He heard a chair slide across the floor.
Then the door swung open. Hunter stood there, a full four inches taller than William, his face flushed and angry.
“That’s bullshit,” he hissed.
William put on his best casual face. “Maybe, maybe not. How are things going, buddy? We haven’t seen much of you.” He peered over Hunter’s shoulder. The monitor showed a live bird being ripped to pieces, the bloody entrails strewn across a patch of dirt. “Whatcha watching?”
“Something stimulating,” he growled.
“I bet that’s the truth.”
Hunter got that narrow, irritated look on his face. “So really there’s no problem with the parallax projectors?”
“Nah,” said William, “I was just playing with you. But I do have a bigger concern.” He stepped forward, lowered his voice. “We’re all in this together. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
“If you don’t succeed, then we don’t succeed. And then we all go right back to Menoram. You’re okay with that?”
“William, you’re not my mentor. Besides, I’m probably more advanced than you.”
William tried to hide a smile. Hunter was seeing this as a competition. “Are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“My friend, I’m not the one watching animal mutilation for fun.” He put his hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “Come out to the rec room.”
Hunter swiped William’s hand off his shoulder. “Just leave me alone.”
But William wasn’t ready to drop the confrontation.
“Can I ask a question?”
“You can ask. I might not answer.”
“Are you a good guy?”
Hunter looked at him but didn’t say anything. Then he stepped backward. The door slid shut, and the r
ed light blinked on. Locked. William heard the chair scrape on the floor. Tiny screams began to sound again.
William sighed and turned and went the other way down the hallway. Even though he was unsuccessful, he’d tried, and Hunter was a tough nut to crack.
CHAPTER 5
HE NEXT MORNING, THE FIVE MEMBERS OF the team ate breakfast in the galley. On William’s plate was a single poached egg, a strip of bacon, a mess of fried potatoes, and some greens. He always needed a big meal in the morning. Jeremy had followed his lead and begun asking for the same, while Trina dug into a vegetarian bowl. Hunter was busy defiling a piece of bloody steak, the same thing he ate every morning. Grace, meanwhile, was picking at a small bowl of yogurt with fruit. She never seemed to feel like eating much first thing in the morning, even though she’d been advised to have something in her stomach before the morning snap.
“How many snaps do you think we’re going to do before we reach CA3 status?” said William.
“They won’t say,” replied Hunter.
“I hope they give us as many as we need,” Grace said. “I mean, I feel like we’re advancing. Hopefully, we are.”
“Jeremy definitely did yesterday,” said Trina, “but I’m spinning my wheels.”
“Just be patient,” said Jeremy.
“It’s frustrating,” said Trina. “I don’t feel it like you guys do. We go into these snaps, and you guys come back talking all about breastfeeding and the fear of death, and you’re all so excited. Me, I just feel bored. Every time. And I don’t know what to do about that.”
“Proof understood yesterday,” said William.
“And the spectrometer doesn’t lie,” added Jeremy.
Trina pushed back from the table. “I just don’t know if this is going to end well. And I don’t want to hold back the team.”
She left the galley. The others continued eating their breakfast in silence, but Grace got to her feet. “I’m going to keep her company. I’ll see you guys there shortly.”
“It’s your choice today,” he said, “so we’re all waiting on you.”
William arrived at the pod tank a few minutes later. Usually, Grace arrived first, but this morning he entered before the others.
