Psyatoan's Aperture
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She also had unexpressed feelings of unrealized dreams. We all subconsciously fight to feed the animal of creation, which lies dormant within.
In that moment the complacency of her mundane life drifted aside without remorse. The spark of faith in the mystery of the unknown that subsides with age had returned with a sense of lost youth.
As I reached for the pages that she’d placed on the glass of the outdated retro patio table, I found myself systematically arranging them.
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I then placed the A.I. terminal down and carefully asked Tessa, while looking out the corner of my eye, “What do you truly know about A.I. technology?”
As she obliviously leaned back in her chair while musing, her natural red hair deliberately fell to one side.
She started to answer with an unconscious style, only equal to generations long past, and I was momentarily awed by her soulful elegance.
“Kale! Did you hear what I said?”
I was instantly shocked back to reality by the irritation in her voice. I awkwardly found myself confessing to a moment of weakness.
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“Sorry. Outer beauty can stun to the core, although when inner beauty is so unconsciously divine, it can only be contemplated in a moment of silence.”
She gave me a loving, yet playfully amused smile. Her chair fell back down and she continued to answer once again. “They’re controlled and regulated by the A.I.A. because they’re temperamental.”
I deliberated the proper approach to penetrate her perceived belief, that the A.I.A. had hand fed to the public: to ensure a constant level of fear.
I reached down and activated the terminal before us and as it booted up, I explained the terminal’s sentient design. “They are problem-solving terminals for the field.”
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“Kale, stop talking for a second, it’s about
to…”
She was mesmerized by the actions of a technology that only hours ago she viewed as an abomination of the natural order.
Now with a sense of rebellion, fueled by an equally exhilarating sense of taboo, she couldn't mentally contain the desire to see for herself, what she has always feared.
“Tessa, you’re going to love this!” I said with relief that I could finally share a part of my self-exiled torment.
A comforting, yet slightly off-blue light, went out horizontally, covering the whole table. In the lower left of the now glowing table, there was a dimmer white light forming a key-board within the blue light.
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As she reached forward, placing her hands within the white light, the keyboard was instantly reacting and conforming to her every movement.
“It's truly stunning, Kale. I see now, why they govern the access. If this got out, life would be changed, and probably for the worst.
“Tess, there’s two types of A.I. computers, hand held and mainframe, which they download also. Neither the terminal nor the mainframe has internet connections of any kind. The hand held have an independent GPS sensor that notifies the A.I.A. when powered on.
The system was designed this way, for the safety of not just our world, but the artificial world within the mainframe computer.”
“So, how do we enter the new code?” she asked with a new, almost youthful spontaneity.
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“All you need to do is remove your hands, you’re in manual entry.”
As Tessa slowly removed her hands, a warm, synthetic voice took control.
“S.E.S.I. terminal A15 awaiting query.”
“S.E.S.I., scan pages of binary code in the order I've written them, and then convert to text.”
“Scanning…”
“Thank you, S.E.S.I.” An off orange light, scanned vertically from below the blue light.
“OK, Kale, level with me. What does S.E.S.I. stand for?”
“Tess, very few people outside the A.I.A. truly know. It’s what they were nicknamed at the beginning. See, the scientists were all running on caffeine. They saw mountains of coffee cups and Pepsi cans.
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“The levity helped find a sense of false peace, which concealed the undeniable insanity. Self-Evolving, Sentient Intelligence.
“The remarkable thing is, for whatever unknown reason, the S.E.S.I. liked the name and adopted it to symbolize their kind.”
“How do you know all this?” she asked, curiously.
“Agent Hayden took an interest in me, before we found one another,” I muttered timidly.
“Tessa I think we both could use a drink,” I said urgently with a glance at her. I intuitively knew she was reaching her limits. I started to walk over to the counter, which at one time held an old custom-made barbecue grill that we now used to hold liquor and other late night vices.
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I attentively bent down from behind, and softly kissed the left side of her neck. I whispered softly, “Try to appreciate everything I’ve shared with you tonight. It’s only a glimpse behind a veil a few souls even know exists.”
She looked at me with her corky smile. In that shared moment of volatility, the lights of the S.E.S.I. terminal oddly changed. Even with my less than limited understanding, I didn’t know what was happening.
“Scan complete, all possible configurations considered, result pending...”
I hastily sat back down and said, “S.E.S.I., explain result.” I looked at Tessa. She was irrevocably compelled to learn what the machine would say.
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I had an overwhelming rush of fear that we would not be together in the near future. I could only speculate what would change between us.
I found myself suppressing a fear of the unknown on multiple fronts. I knew I had to keep an optimistic appearance.
Although I was finding my mind drifting back to the arctic solitude, that defined my life before Tessa.
As terrified as I was of what deranged enigma the pending code would give life to, I was more in dismay of losing Tessa. She opened up the fortress that isolated my soul.
I discovered that when emotional scars don’t leave the sub-conscious mind, they sometimes haunt the soul.
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“Analysis of data:
GPS location of one Nicola Tesla research facility in Shore ham, Long Island.
Message also contained instructions to excavate five feet down, from the outer most ring of the southeast corner of Wardenclyffe tower foundation, and rudimentary four cornered electronic magnets.”
We were both ill at ease, yet mystified. Tessa looked away from the hypnotic lights of the S.E.S.I. terminal and looked in my eyes.
“That wasn’t anticlimactic, was it?” Her tone was ominously sarcastic, yet I could see she was fighting to recover her resolve.
“How about that drink now?” she asked, to ease my dropped gaze.
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“Sure.” I found myself oddly exuding a sense of relief, that the analysis had nothing to do with the first code.
As I returned with the drinks, Tess was vividly musing through her thoughts.
I anxiously bent down to hand over her drink. She took it in her left hand and grabbed my shirt with her right, pulling me closer.
She kissed me with a feel of love that one would never question.
“Do you know what day it is?” she asked suspiciously. “It’s October 10. It’s your thirty-fourth birthday.” She said it with a sense of relief, before I could reply.
Tessa playfully clinked her glass to mine, and wished me a happy birthday, before she became overwhelmed again.
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I looked her dead in the eyes and presented a false confidence. I was contemplating how to help her maintain her confidence.
“We don’t have to actually let anyone know about this. No one knows about my new code.
“We can walk away from this, if you like.” I thought she was buying my false front because she was, now, aimlessly staring into the darkness with a dwindling intensity.
“You said that as soon as we turned on the t
erminal, the A.I.A. would be notified by GPS?” she asked with a sense of confusion.
I picked up the A.I. terminal and handed it to her. “You see the rubber cover I’ve placed on it?”
“Yeah.”
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“It’s lined with a type of a homemade faraday cage, blocking all signals. So, once again no one knows about tonight.” I could see an echo of rebellion returning in her dwindling tensions.
“We have the weekend off, due to your birthday, and these kinds of oddities just don’t happen. I know your curiosity is as elevated as mine,” she said with a glance.
“Once we define what’s there, we can determine our next course of action, right?”
Tessa was pressing me. Eerily, she found a sense of false security that blinded the insanity of it all.
I knew it was feeble to resist, what I subconsciously wanted to understand more than she did.
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“You’re right, we need to go.”
Tessa sighed with relief. In one motion, she gracefully embraced me. The sublime warmth of her loyalty spread through every nerve of my body.
She anxiously wished me happy birthday again, and whispered, “Book the plane tickets online and I’ll get cleaned up and packed, OK?”
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Discovery
The plane ride out of Spokane International Airport was, as always, overly chaotic. The only redeemable aspect was the rental company bumping us up to a new Ford SUV with navigation and all the toys one would ever need once we got to Long Island.
Tessa was entering the coordinates into the Ford navigation system, neither one of us dared take on the Long Island traffic without navigation. During the first hour of our drive from the airport, we played with the idea of somehow scouting the location.
I was gazing as I drove, listening to my favorite industrial cover of John Lennon’s song “Working Class Hero.” Subconsciously, I was trying to disentangle my thoughts.
Tessa was only feet away, but I was so
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oblivious to my immediate surroundings that I hadn’t noticed she had her laptop out, fiercely searching for something on it.
When I placed my hand on her leg, Tessa turned and met my eyes with hers.
“Did we have a nice trip to oblivion?” she taunted me in her uniquely playful way.
“Yeah, sorry. You know me ... I'm always thinking, what’s up?”
“I had an epiphany, say twenty miles back. I thought if I went to Map Quest, we’d get a satellite overview of the entire facility. I also thought of a great cover for anonymously wandering around fenced-off private property.”
I couldn’t begin to guess what she’d planned.
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“So, what’s the idea?”
She had a mischievous grin. I knew she had something.
“There’s a rental complex just as we turn off the freeway. I already paid for two metal detectors online. We can hide behind being clueless tourist. Not bad, right?
“It just kind of came to me when I was on Map Quest,” she admitted proudly.
I reached for her hand to express my thanks for all her help and open-mindedness, though she was digging through her bag on the floorboard next to her feet.
“Pay dirt,” Tessa said with relief. “I thought I left it at home.” She was holding her old outdated portable GPS.
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As she entered the data, I was perplexed by how calm she now was, considering that less than twenty four hours ago her fear and disgust for the A.I.A. ran so deep, she couldn’t always control her emotions.
We were only momentarily off the freeway near an oddly shaped strip mall that never quite developed into its original design. It was the only structure my eyes registered across the endless suburban expanse.
While I was filling up on gas and buying necessary travel items, Tessa decided to walk over to pick up the metal detectors. As we proceeded to route 25A South, we slowly found ourselves comparing the hills, and natural beauty of Idaho to Long Island.
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The first time we saw Tesla's facility, we were so in awe of it, that we missed Tesla Street entirely. After circling back around and finally turning onto Tesla Street, we were humbled by the size of the complex.
The factory and property took up the entire left side of the street. To the right there was newer residential housing.
Tesla Street at first glance looked like what any other dead end street might, although there was a hard right at the end continuing the road. The street was equal to a lot of four or five acres long, and Tessa noticed that one of Long Island’s blocks was equal to three of Lewiston’s blocks in length.
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The facility truly took up the entire half block. The factory sat back in the middle of the property. Some time ago there was an eight-foot fence surrounding the entire property.
The entire length of route 25A South ran down Tesla Street, coming to the end of the road before turning right. There the fence dropped to four feet high, blocking the old freight drive.
I could see Tessa was contemplating the fence design as she took my left hand and broke my gaze. She did not have a look of fear on her face, but of pure wonder.
“Do you see the barbed wire at the top of the fence?” she asked, a little mystified.
“Yeah, so?”
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“It’s bent outward toward the street and the little gates over here have none.” She informed me with a puzzled wonder. I hastily let go of her hand and started to examine the dirt driveway behind the four-foot gates.
“What are you looking for?” she asked in a curious tone.
“Do you see that dirty little shack about forty yards down?”
“Yeah,” she replied as she leaned on me to see a little better.
“It’s a security guard shack. I was looking to see if there was any recent traffic.”
“It looks like what time forgot,” she said squeezing my hand.
“You’re a little sappy aren’t you?”
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“I know, but you love every bit of it,” she said lovingly, before letting go.
She picked up the metal detectors and the canvas bag with the two folding shovels. In one motion she threw everything over the short fence and said, “Shall we?” She followed that with a playful glance.
Once we made our way over to the guard shack, we both could tell there have been countless seasons of growth and dirt suffocating the property.
“These must be reminiscent of the photo processing plant that closed back in’93.”
As we made our way through the maze of little dilapidated buildings, we could see more of Tesla's factory than just the roof and chimney stack.
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Walking through the overgrowth of trees and weeds, we were both in awe of the size of the factory.
The massive stone arch windows down both sides of the building were from a time of master stonemasons.
When I looked over at Tessa, she had a dumbfounded look on her face as she pointed to the cast iron chimney with a sense of awe.
“Have you ever seen something with just a hint of Gothic style? The possibilities. How big do you think the factory is?” she asked, vividly adding up the daunting size.
“Tess, I don’t really know. At least two hundred thousand square feet. Tesla placed the tower three hundred feet away so the arc wouldn’t jump.”
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Tessa broke away from the hypnotic pull of the enigmatic factory and took out her GPS and started to walk.
The tower’s foundation was very apparent as hardly anything grew around the cement pylons of the tower.