“FEARFUL FRINGES”
Copyright © 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this story may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of quotations and critical reviews.
Published in the United States of America by Fearful Fringes Productions.com and LuLu.com.
This novella is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and places are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.
Any resemblance to persons living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Edited by: Mary-Nancy Smith at Mary-Nancy’s Eagle Eye Editing.
http://marynancyseagleeye.wix.com/eagle-eye-editing
1
Psyatoan’s Aperture
Dedicated to my father,
Gary Lee Nelson.
“The spark of faith ... in the mystery of the unknown—that subsides with age—will always
return with a sense of lost youth.”
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PSYATOAN’S APERTURE
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Introduction
I’ve often pondered the depth and validity of my favorite phrases. If I were to simply place my hand within an open flame, four seconds feels like four hours. If I were to spend four hours with a beloved, four hours feels like four seconds.
Time and love are relative only to the depths of one’s perception. That conception unknowingly fractured my moral foundation, reshaping my youthful character for the better.
As I’m not yet jaded by the cynical, it inevitably evolved into one of my first moral North’s of my youth.
Nowadays, I have my sins to bear. And, although, it’s been said that every man has one true regret to exile, I have to say, I’m far from a great man, and my exiled regrets are unlike any that came before me.
4
I never thought it would end like this. To tell the truth, I never saw myself making it much past thirty. The reason for this was always a mystery to me, an itch ... festering at the back of my mind.
It wasn’t in any way due to my environment. One couldn’t ask for a more luminously lurid and legendary community than the Lewis & Clark Valley in the Pacific Northwest.
Now that I’m approaching my thirty-fourth year, I’m beginning to see the reason I felt as such; wasn’t due to my actions, but from a nightmare I experienced on the eve of my 18th year.
I knew enough that the code was basic binary, it being the early 1990s and computers were nothing more than an elitist novelty.
5
After penning the code, the uneventful days that followed, overtook the mystery. So much so, I’d only pondered it, from time to time when I felt dismal.
I’ve slowly realized with age, that everyone has apprehensive moments silently shaping their lives. Most of us are oblivious to them happening, and I was no different. In 2005, everything, for lack of a better word, changed when I was invited to that damn barbecue.
I encountered two people there that changed my life on more than one front. Looking back, it’s truly unfathomable that three people meeting by chance changed, the world to this extent.
That very first moment I laid eyes upon Tessa Keegan, she was having a passionate, yet friendly, argument.
6
I found myself perplexed, not by just her girl next door and rockabilly style, but by her intellectual beauty. The depth of intellect she displayed, without being dismissive or pompous, left you yearning to know more about her.
I’ve always been somewhat old-fashioned in my approach, and walking over to Tessa and her friend, I waited for an opening. I soulfully and playfully looked her in the eyes, and told her, “Just remember, you’re never wrong. You’re just misunderstood.” I’ve found levity is always a solid opening.
You could say, we were inseparable just short of a year later. I never knew the true meaning of love until she showed me love, with absolute credence.
7
Later that same evening, after everyone had succumbed to the bliss of finding their moral decay. I started relaxing, as I openly talked with Tina, my neighbor’s wife, about awe-inspiring oddities we’ve all been haunted by on the net.
It must have been the liquor, because I found myself telling Tina what little I could remember about my dream, and the code that I’d written down those many years ago.
Tina encouraged me to contact a colleague of hers that ran an open-source mathematical and coding website.
The code eventually turned out to be an equation, a paradigm-shifting event they said. So far beyond known mathematics, that a layman shouldn’t have any understanding of it, let alone create a new mathematical language.
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I was instructed to release it to the world anonymously as possible, using something called an offshore proxy server.
The equation went viral for some time. No one could ever solve the full equation until one very special soul, one Skaara Hoon, solved it on, of all days, October 9, 2005.
That date was thirteen years to the day, I had the nightmare. The only reason I’m still haunted by this, is it was, well, unbelievable even to me ... the night before my thirty-first birthday.
I’ve had to live these past years, with the answer to my nightmare advancing technology to a sentient state. This is how the abyss was truly torn open.
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I see the end is near now, it’s the night before my thirty-fourth year. I’ve just awoken from a new nightmare. “God help me, I’ve just written a new code!”
Introduction
End
10
The Awakening
The starlight was streaming through the archaic window panes, which opened to the roof of a bygone era. Light aimlessly perforated through the darkness of the room. I was taken aback by a quote that I had framed on the wall. Only it was singled out by the starlight, and was lit up bright as day.
Tessa never cared for it much, although it always gave me a sense of peace. It reminded me, that there are some truly gifted souls that lead with morality.
“It has become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity.”
-- Albert Einstein “Are you OK?” Tessa asked. “Yeah, I just had a nightmare.”
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She looked at me with skepticism. “That was more than a nightmare. I can feel your fear, Kale. Talk to me. You’re scaring me!”
One of the best parts of loving Tessa was her sarcastic, self-deprecating personality. I recognized with time that, although it was diverting, it was only a veil.
Once I emotionally fell for her grace, I discovered she possessed a very empathetic personality, an old spirit with an untainted soul.
“Can you recall last spring, when the equation was mysteriously answered?” I asked softly, as I walked over to the outdated recessed rosewood bookshelf.
“Kale, stop being so damn cryptic and just tell me what’s going on. You’re dripping wet,” she said with a sweet concern that was dominant throughout her voice.
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“A gifted child answered it, right?” she asked, reflexively wiping the wet hair out of my eye.
I reluctantly handed over my old notebook. “Tess, would you look through this, until you find a marked page?” She slowly examined the code covered old pages of the notebook with disbelief and confusion.
Kale, you need to level with me,” she stated with tears building in her eyes.
“Tessa, I wrote that the night before my eighteenth birthday. I’m the so-called unknown source. The papers over on my night stand are what came to me tonight, which I have virtually no memory of writing.”
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“So what exactly are your nightmares about?�
� she asked with a fearful hesitation, of learning new answers about someone she believed, she knew through and through.
“It’s beyond my comprehension. All I remember are writing bits and pieces of the codes, not of the dream.” Looking up now, I see tears running down her face. Reaching over to wipe them away, I found myself brushing her red hair behind her ear. Looking into her eyes, I saw nothing but true fear.
Kale, no, the A.I.A are so unpredictable at best. They’re the ones that control those abominations, all that intellect, and those arrogant bastards, never had the forethought to stop and think of the repercussions.”
“I have…”
14
“Kale, listen to me! The Artificial Intelligence Act is nothing to test. People disappear when they’re provoked. The control of the A.I.A. information is finite.”
“I need to show you something. Humor me?” I replied even more reluctantly with greater hesitation in my voice. “I acquired a piece of tech in my past, which I hoped I would never need.”
“Kale, just when in the hell, did you plan on telling me about all this?”
“I hoped I would never need to. Tess, I need you to humor me.
“We’ll have time for this all later. Humor me, please. We need to get a terminal out from behind the doorjamb.
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“Some time back, I made a hole in the wall behind the door hinge. There’s a small battery taped to the bottom of the bathroom sink. Could you go get it for me? I’ll finish this up.”
She replied with an incomprehensible, yet sarcastic snap to her voice. As she was coming out of the bathroom with the battery; I was already returning to the security of our bed.
“That better not be an AI terminal! Kale, stop. Don’t you dare put the battery in it. Just how in the hell do you have that type of tech?”
I contemplated my answer for a few seconds. “It’s OK. I have an idea what the codes are capable of now. We’re not letting the existence of anything new out, until we know what it’s intended to create.
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“I was somewhat recruited, by an A.I.A. in the past; we jump about ten years ahead in just one year. The technology tested our comprehension, and just about overcame our control.
“What the A.I.A. deliberately didn’t release to the public, is that the computers had evolved to a semi-self-aware state. Once they were allowed to design their own coding, they had reached a form of sentient intelligence.”
“You’re saying they were making their own decisions?” She asked with a new sense of fearful wonder.
“It was beyond their understanding; the machines feared their own destruction. Yet they also showed a form of empathy for, us, their creators.
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It was more than the A.I.A. could understand, and what mankind doesn’t understand, we fear.
Then fear manifests to absolute control. The 1951 Patent Security Act, was then invoked and thus was the genesis of the A.I.A., as we know it today.”
“I never heard of that act,” she said in her comforting state of mind. Tess was suddenly tainted with the taboo of examining an unattainable object.
“That act gave the A.I.A., all the power it needed to control access to new technologies, derived from any AI computers.
See, the 1951 Patent Security Act, says the state has the right to control all patents, and technologies if they jeopardize the safety of the union.”
18
“If you don’t answer how you got this abomination, I’m trashing this thing,” she murmured, walking toward the kitchen.
“It was given to me, by Special Agent Hyde.”
Tessa was in the kitchen now. She’d reached over in one reverent motion, to the knife rack and took hold of the old tenderizer; holding it only inches over the ominous terminal.
“Kale, you better tell me right now. Are you supposed to have this thing?” She said this with anger, although I knew, it was her fear of the A.I.A. that was talking.
“Tessa…” As I motioned to embrace her, she pushed away.
“Answer the question, Kale, yes or no. Is this stolen? Kale, you don’t play with the A.I.A. Have you heard of something called rendition?”
19
“Tessa, no, it’s not stolen. Put the hammer down and I’ll explain.” I motioned again to embrace her. Because of her petite five-foot four size, I found my chin resting on her long red hair, at the side of her head. She slowly looked up, with fear throughout her hazel eyes.
Don’t fret, no one will come and take us away. I was entrusted to enter any new codes. It’s secured to the A.I.A.,” I said to assure her.
“I know you’re far from the typical mundanely overly cynical person though I need to ask you, if you really want to jump into this deranged nightmare; that is eerily affecting my life, once again.”
Tessa looked down for a moment, and replied with unexpected confidence. “If I said, I wasn’t terrified, I’d be lying, Kale. You always tell me, I’m far from the typical woman.
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“I knew you were the same, the moment I realized your lack of need, to justify your actions of compassion for the scared. This new code is from your mind. How could I leave? You have a great soul and I have faith that you mind is being guided by your soul.”
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Realization
Photograph by Jack Sheid
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As Tessa and I opened the antiquated adjacent bedroom door, that lead to the private rooftop patio, the early spring air rushed past us, as refreshing as one's particular vice.
Our studio wasn’t the nicest place either of us had ever lived in, though the rooftop patio made it unique.
We had a much-desired view of the valley being on the sixth floor. The night lights of the valley made the Clearwater and Snake rivers give off a surreal glow.
Standing at the edge of the patio silently holding one another, Tessa slowly let go of my intertwined hands resting at her waist. As she turned to face me, I lightly cradled the right side of her face. Looking into those eyes, we had an unexpected connection.
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Connecting on a strange, staggering new depth … obscured the physical intensity, that is always between us.
True depth can only be found in the absence of the physical. I’d venture to say that some people go a lifetime, with no more than one or two moments that intense.
A shortness of breath, an extended glance out the corner of your eye, can transcend one’s essence. The depth and beauty of physical intensity, will always pale in comparison to the credence of emotional transcendence.
Tessa started to smirk and asked sheepish, “So, how do we jump into the so-called nightmare, which escaped from that mind of yours that I, oh so much, love to torment?”
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I stood there and tried unsuccessfully to maintain a straight face. “You’re an ass, Tess”
“I know, some people are gifted. I was blessed. One more thing, Kale, if you’re this anomaly, why are you so secretive about your past?” she asked with a sarcastic tone, simultaneously reaching for my hand, walking toward the patio table.
“Like I said, sarcastic ass, Tess.”
She then, unexpectedly, slid her chair closer to mine, and asked with well-meaning curiosity, “What’s next?”
I tried to savor the moment, the way her eyes examined, no, scrutinized, my facial expressions. I was her emotional equal, as she was mine. It’s what every soul searches to receive at least once in its life.
25
She knew me better than anyone, although the emotions on her face spoke volumes. The energy coming from her body was so unfamiliar. Tessa was bewildered by my past. She curiously gazed at me with a probing sense of irrational infatuation.
Psyatoan's Aperture Page 1
