Counting Up To Infinity

by Allen Fleishman

  David paused the pure-white scene, “We were actually far in space and the ship had been traveling for days. We were beyond the point of no-return for any mundane Earth ship. Nevertheless, two secret US space cruisers had a nuclear bomb set to explode if the field waivered in intensity. Dee had turned the field off to see where we were. Although the time was very brief, the energy is enough to kill any normal human. Next scene.”

  David was coughing up blood. His skin had a pale yellow pallor. He was talking to Joshua, ‘I’ll be dead in a few minutes, take care of the human race. It’s in your hands now. You have full access to all of my files. I love you both.’

  David stopped the scene again. “That was 1 month after you were killed. I died. My wife died. Joshua’s parents died. As I said earlier, Panacea is a remarkable compound. The radiation had only a transient effect on Dee, Joshua and my parents, and, of course, no effect on Chee’our’i. The next scene is a scene from the United States seven months in that future.”

  Protestors were seen at all C H Electricity power stations tearing down the walls. Cities were dark, powerless.

  “One hundred thirty thousand people have died in the rioting. Three hundred thousand people died in the chaos. More importantly, Dee and Joshua were forced to administer Panacea early. Sixty percent of Americans preferred death to living forever. Knowledge of the future was re-opened to Dee and Josh. They now live with this knowledge of death of their family and the billion people who choose death by old age and illness to immortality. They now live with the personal responsibility of killing their family and a third of humanity. All due to your and their arrogance.”

  Joshua shut the frame.

  “That can’t be real.”

  David quietly said, “It is. Just as we can go back in time, we can also go forward to see the future. You should have asked Judge Hardesty if this frame is just what it purports to be. No, it was real. Dee and Joshua have relived a future for seven months. She has lived for 31 months, with 24 months in this body. She had to grow up fast. She had to. It was the most painful lesson her family could ever ask of her. She murdered her entire family. ‘With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility’.”

  The President stood, “I’m going to need to think about this.” He pressed his intercom, “Please have someone escort our guests out.”

  David sadly shook his head. I’m sorry Mark, the future is a choice. You just ended yours.” A flat wall appeared where the door was. Where the doorframe had been, there was a poster of Spiderman identical to David’s sweatshirt. “I hoped you could be reasoned with. I hoped you would know that if we needed to I, we, could be ruthless in our defense of progress. I knew you heard from Fuscillo about Cesar Guadalupe. I hoped my sweatshirt would let you know that with our power comes responsibility. The same is true for you. At times, we have to make brutal decisions. The needs of the billions outweigh the needs of one.”

  The President started shouting for his guards.

  David continued, “They can’t hear you. Do you think that a God, billions of years old can’t soundproof a room better than a $50 dollar an hour carpenter? Let me tell you what will happen. The children have deeply learnt the lesson of patience and subtly. They know that they can destroy a man in front of the eyes of his men, like Cesar. They also learnt that they could whisper a sound in the wind. About 40 years ago, you were riding your bicycle on Anderson Avenue. You led Bobby and Steve down the steep city street. You turned backward, but noticed Robert urgently warn you and point forward. You avoided a collision with a bakery truck with ease. That was your original past. It will be changed. Robert will hear Steve call his name and he didn’t warn you to look forward. The truck driver will feel an itch and reach for a tissue. He didn’t notice you. You were hospitalized for four months with very painful multiple fractures and crushing of your leg bones. Your right leg was amputated. The pain will live with you until Panacea re-grows your leg. The pain will make you a more compassionate individual. You will still marry, but you will spend much more time with your wife and son. Your son will not OD. He will not die. But you will never become President.”

  The President hastily said, “I just changed my mind. I won’t call the guards.”

  “I’m sorry Mr. President; we estimated that you only had a 40% change of expediting the necessary political reforms for the release of Panacea. If we had to threaten you, the likelihood of you becoming either unnecessarily passive or passive aggressive would bring the likelihood of humanity’s improvement down to 10%. I’m sorry, we can’t work with you.”

  The President bit his lip, “At least, can’t you do something where I won’t be in so much pain?”

  David looked silently at Dee and Joshua. They remained frowning. David turned back to the President, “Yes, we can. However, we are not gods, at least yet. Due to your actions, billions of people died, including Joshua’s parents and me. Due to you, I died. Can we prevent your pain? Yes. Do we want to? No. Frankly, we are pissed, really, really pissed. To be even-handed, my two year old sister will forever know her guilt. She will cry every day for billions of years for her arrogance. But she will learn from it and grow.”

  David turned to face Dee. He weakly smiled at her. She was still scowling and had tears in her eyes.

  “Will I know that I could have been President?”

  “We aren’t that vindictive. Only we will remember this version of history. Goodbye forever Mark.”

  ***

  Madame President Francine Shaw rubbed her palms on her skirt-suit. She had been pacing around the office. She looked at David, “An alien visitor? Is there anything we can do to protect ourselves?”

  Dee interjected, “Simply put, no. It is omniscient, omnisentient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal, and invulnerable. It can create a universe or cause a voice to be whispered in the wind. It can do anything you can imagine, and much more you couldn’t ever imagine, in the past or future.”

  Her complexion blanched, “Past too?”

  Dee nodded.

  The President stopped pacing, “Your alien visitor seems god-like. What does it want of humanity? What does it want of me?”

  Joshua spoke, “Madame President, it actually doesn’t want anything from you or the rest of humanity. We just thought you would want to know about it. It only wants to groom Dee and myself to join the other Sentient individuals in the Universe. It wants to train us, and a few more. Only about a dozen, and all volunteers. When we’re ready, I guess we can help humanity too.”

  Dee spoke, “It needed Josh and me to be able to live forever, so it helped put important changes into the mitochondria and DNA to help animals evolve and prosper. It hid Josh’s Panacea recipe into the DNA genomes so he could find it when he was ready. As a gift for us, it is allowing the rest of humanity to be free of illness and death.”

  “This isn’t some kind of ‘How to Serve Man’?”

  Dee looked at David then she nodded and giggled, “Chee’our’i doesn’t have a mouth. It does not need to eat. It can produce anything it wanted to. There’s nothing we can give it. It wants nothing from humans. Nothing at all.”

  David spoke up, “The availability of a drug which frees people from death and disease will affect you. You need to think how that would affect the economy when virtually all doctors are out of work, no need for dentists, hospitals, aspirin, medical insurance, MEDICARE, MEDICADE, and welfare. Retirement and Social Security will be historical concepts too. One of the major necessary things that Josh put in was male sterility. You can’t have unlimited population growth when there is no death. In twenty years, there will be little need for day care, elementary, middle then high schools. All those teachers will be out of work too. Also think of what will happen when the news breaks.”

  The President rubbed her hands on her skirt again, “No children?”

  “The Earth can’t support it. The only births are those whi
ch the world government sanctions. Each birth will need a special treatment for it to succeed. Each birth sanctioned by the UN.”

  “It certainly sounds god like. You claim it created the Universe?”

  “Yes.”

  The President looked at the young woman, “Dee, do you know the past and future too?”

  Dee looked smug, “Yes. And my father is Jewish, a descendent of King David.”

  The President’s eyes opened wide, “You knew what I was going to say?”

  “Of course. I speak with God; bring in a permanent period of peace where people will never die. Except we won’t allow an Armageddon, no holy wars. Too messy.”

  David sighed then grinned, “Yes, she will be considered the Messiah by many. The Anti-Christ by others. Riots. That’s the reason we’re keeping Joshua’s and her identity a secret until a few years after Panacea is released.”

  The President paused as she neared the front of her desk, “Rioting. Civil unrest. Can you …”

  Joshua interrupted, “David, I just came up with a solution to the problem.”

  The President was about to say something when David said, “Go on Josh.”

  “At both the synagogue and the church they talked about the Ten Commandments and specifically ‘Thou shalt not Kill’”.

  David paused then said, “Chance?”

  “No, p = 0.000063. Why don't we stop all killing?”

  David asked “Chee’our’i?”

  Josh nodded, “Through Dee and me.”

  The President stood there with her hands on her hips. Her face was red. She was about to say something when David put his hands up, like a traffic cop to an irritated motorist.

  The President again tried to interrupt, she said, “Son, that's a sweet idea, but we haven't been able to stop killing since Caine. Now about the rioting, I ...”

  David leaned back, looking at Josh his hand still in the halt position to the President, “Elegant, simply elegant. Congratulations. This rivals Mod I, but it’s so simple. When?”

  Joshua smiled, “At the Rapture.”

  The President angrily looked at the young man and the boy, “As I was saying ...”

  David turned back to the President, “Madam President, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I've learnt that when Joshua talks I really need to listen. He's typically right. Do you believe in the bible, specifically in the Ten Commandments?”

  “Well, as Francine Shaw I do, but as the President of ...”

  David again interrupted the President, “The best English translation of that Commandment is ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’. Up to now, although your god said it, he never enforced it, at least on Earth. What if He enforced the prohibition on killing humans? Apparently, Joshua in the future wanted us to bring this up today. Both Josh and Dee go to both a church and a Jewish temple. He got both the rabbi and the pastor to talk about the same topic. Josh is very confident that it wasn't a chance event. He then asked God if It would be willing to allow Itself and Dee to enforce the Commandment and It agreed.”

  The President interjected, “But, but there are times when it's necessary to ...”

  “Kill? What if God stopped Hitler, Jack the Ripper, the Darfur massacre, and the deaths leading to World Wars I and II? You would disagree?”

  “But, but what about our Civil War. Some wars are just and necessary.”

  “Working people to death and lynching them are murder.” David turned back to Joshua, “Josh we need to add in Universal Justice too. Any problem?”

  Josh smugly said, “Nope.”

  “But he can’t do that.”

  David turned to face the President, “Madame President could I have a blank sheet of paper?”

  She went to her desk and was about to hand it to David when it turned into a cloud of black smoke.

  David smirked, “Yes, It can, Chee’our’i is omnipotent.”

  The President became flustered, “But it doesn’t know …”

  Dee laughed, “Omnipresent and omniscient. Yes It does know.”

  “But you don’t have the right.”

  David sighed, “Up to now, the human race winks and nods at that commandment, while breaking it massively on a private and governmental level. How many simulated murders are seen each night on TV or computers? Think of all those rogue governments. Imagine a world where that wasn’t allowed any more. God can take that Right. ‘Justice is mine sayeth the Lord.’ It is part of all major religions. Chee’our’i can give you a means to achieve the end of all murders. Why don’t you at least think about it. I’d like to schedule a round table with some international legal scholars and the Nobel peace prize winners and ask the question: ‘If a god existed which could effectively enforce ‘Thou shalt not kill’, should he?’ Would you at least think it over?”

  David looked closely at the President, “Madame President, let Josh draw up a proposal to you. Josh suggested we roll it out when we introduce Panacea, which won't be for a number of years from now. Is tomorrow OK for the draft proposal?” David turned back to Joshua, “ ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’. I love it Josh. Elegant. Simple.”

  The young boy sat up straighter grinning proudly. The President leaned against her desk; her face was quite pale. David noticed that President Shaw was a small woman and seemed to be getting smaller.

  David faced the President, “This is truly a remarkable day. This event is more historic than the signing of Hammurabi’s code, the Magna Carta, and the Declaration of Independence, and you were present. Today is a double turning point for mankind: biological and moral. But I see we gave you too much information. I should have stopped when I introduced myself. We will meet many times in the near future also. Would you like to drop by for a home cooked meal by my chef? You might want to be further briefed by Judge Hardesty and the FDA director. Meanwhile I can give Mr. Russell daily briefings on major calamities that you will be facing, and ways to mitigate it. I should mention that we can’t and shouldn’t warn you of all future problems. If we interfere too much, history will judge your presidency as a mere puppet government.”

  The President suddenly stood up straighter, “You’re right. I do need to think this over and this is a major turning point in civilization. Would you mind if I took a picture of myself with you three, I mean four?”

  David grinned, he should have told Leon Russell he likes Bialys. He had wanted to discuss when he should schedule the ‘Rapture’, but that conversation could wait a few weeks while this Mod 0 digested all this information. He hadn’t fully appreciated how mentally nimble Phyllis, Martin, Corey and the Ryans were in comparison to most humans, like this President.

 

  Year 29.4 The Voices in my Head Tell me What to Do

  Dee’s five foot six inch frame stood in the doorway to David’s office. Her arms were crossed. David did a quick table lookup for the last time he had seen or spoke to either Dee or Joshua. Based on the historical frequency, a z-score on the log time differences of +4.58, David knew they were avoiding him. That meant …

  Inwardly he grinned, but he kept his external appearance in check. He ignored Dee as he continued facing the office window. He knew that Dee would see through that sham, but what the fuck.

  “You’re going to be an ass about this David. Aren’t you?”

  David could see the compression of her lips. She was feeling very uncomfortable. Good.

  “Why don’t you just tell me what I’m being an ass about? That’s your specialty after all or is this visit an assignment from THE SUPREME BEING?”

  David saw that Dee’s frown deepened. Yup, that’s it.

  “David, you’re such a jerk.”

  “Hmm, an ass, now a jerk, please go on. I love to hear you sing my praises. I’m glad you finally read How to Win Friends and Influence People. It shows.”

  Dee approached the desk. “I knew you’d say that.”

  “Ah, our great GOD has given you precognition of our meeti
ng, so what am I going to say and do next? Do you need string to move my arms or am I allowed to appear to act without them.”

  “Chee’our’i said the future can change. You know that.”

  “So are you going to just insult me for things I’m pre-destined to do or what? It must get boring being as perfect as you are. You can rehearse for hours for the exquisite comeback and can hold a grudge for years over things I never said in this time-line, all the time knowing I’m just a feeble shadow of you.”

  Dee glared at David.

  “Mom and Dad want you to do something that Josh and I are not allowed to do. I wanted to, but they said it should be you. Otherwise, Dad said he would.”

  “And what bit of dirty work is this?” David leaned back in his chair.

  “You need to tell the North Korean commander of their armed forces that his people should listen to Chee’our’i’s message.”

  “And …”

  “Kim Jong Un will try to kill Chee’our’i, a bullet will bounce off him to kill you. Chee’our’i will smoke him and his four guards before that happens.”

  “So, you and THE SUPREME BEING want me to execute five people.”

  “No, his actions have natural consequences, just like sticking a fork into a power outlet. You don’t do anything except telling him that it will kill him. His actions are his, alone.”

  “Yes, death’s just natural for you and Chee’our’i, except it’s not real for you or It. You want me to help with Un’s natural life progression – his next stage, a cloud of atoms.”

  A small smile appeared on Dee’s face. “OK, I’ll tell Martin that he’s going to have to do it.” David saw her leaving. They both knew the charade for what it was.

  David paused for a few seconds. He waited until she got three steps beyond his door.

  David: Just download what will happen. When?

  Dee: Two days from today.

  David played the interview that will occur in two days. ‘Shit, Phyllis, Chee’our’i, and me.’

  ***

  “Kim Jong Un? This is Charlie Haines. You’ve heard of me?”

  “Dr. Haines, it is a pleasure to talk with you. Perhaps you’re calling to consider our offer to make the flying tanks?”

  “Actually, I was wondering if we could meet. I’d like to visit with you with two personal guests. Could you free up your calendar for March 5th at 6 PM to 6:30?”