Sai's Transcendence

by Vu, Frank

  Sanaka turned his head to look at the display and stopped in his tracks. He was seeing an image of the display itself mirrored inside itself into infinity. It was blurry around the edges and pixelating from time to time, but there was no doubt about what he was seeing. He rubbed his eyes and saw an image of his hands on the display. He was seeing his own hand on the display, seen from his viewpoint! His hand stopped in front of his face, and his mouth gaped open.

  “Aurelia, how the hell are we seeing visual cortex data from me!?”

  “Unknown. The experiment has proceeded within parameters. The visual cortex data is from the subject.”

  The old man was in his head somehow!

  “Son of a bitch! Aurelia, give the subject triple the dosage of his treatment regimen!”

  “This procedure historically has induced stroke, heart attack, and death. Please confirm your authorization.”

  “Just the treatment regimen, no additional etherbots, confirmed! Continue high fidelity data storage of all available streams. Don’t ignore any of this!”

  “Confirmed. Attempting to record all data, even that which appears spurious.”

  Sanaka turned off the display with jittery hands. Using his electronic syringe, he readied an opiate injection to steady his nerves. With the use of nanobots, the syringe would efficiently clear the pathway to the cephalic vein and then close everything back up behind itself, leaving him track free. He didn’t know what was happening here, but he could feel he was onto something. He sat in a chair and tried to relax while he watched Vu close his eyes and flex his hands. Let’s see him remain calm now. A few moments later, Sanaka would be glad he had given himself the opiate injection.

  * * *

  Standing outside Sanaka’s lab door, Shirley tapped her wrist in the “knock knock” pattern she had recently programmed for this scenario. The other agents silently received her message on their visors and tapped their acknowledgement that they were ready for breach. She nodded to the two men next to her who had brought the large steel battering ram. Some older technologies were still the safest and best way to get things done.

  The door exploded, hinges and bolts flying into the room and slamming the floor. Shirley’s two teams swarmed into the room simultaneously.

  “DOWN ON THE FLOOR! DOWN ON THE FLOOR!” she screamed at Sanaka as his hands flew up in surprise, his e-syringe tumbling through the air. Her visor tracked the motion of the syringe and highlighted it in green—not a threat.

  The syringe crashed to the floor, just barely beating Sanaka there. He trembled in anger, knowing that prison would not be kind to him. As he pulled out his proton knife and started to rise, an agent behind him raised his arm as if to point a finger at Sanaka. A jolt of electricity shot through Sanaka’s body, and he collapsed, unconscious, onto the floor. The agent behind him lowered his arm and tapped a code on his wrist, disabling the stun weapon.

  Shirley tapped a pattern on her wrist to direct the team to secure the room and collect evidence. She breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that she had zero casualties on this mission and that the target was in hand. But it was a very bizarre scene. Sanaka’s victim, a man that looked about three hundred years old, was sitting in a chair with a serene grin and electrodes strapped to his head.

  “Sir, are you okay?”

  “Oh, yes, though I will need some help getting up,” Vu replied.

  He was peering into her eyes, and she could almost feel his presence inside her head. It made her feel uncomfortable. She darted her eyes around the room, looking for any excuse to avoid the way he looked at her. She saw a display nearby. What the hell?

  “One moment, please, sir. Let’s make sure there is nothing dangerous in here and that we get everything disconnected from you safely.”

  She went closer to investigate the display and saw that it was a scene from her childhood. She was playing with friends near her home . . . As far as she knew, that moment had never been recorded, so surely this was not possible!

  The other UN agents that had accompanied the SWAT team on this mission had swarmed into the room themselves now and were hurriedly taking things apart and packing them away. One of them briefly looked at Shirley as he disconnected everything. He smiled sheepishly and scurried out of the room with his prize. Shirley was already trying to convince herself that she must have seen something else as the SWAT team was informed that their job was complete. They had performed admirably—but now they had to leave, as the situation was well in hand.

  ALPACA

  “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”—Mark Twain

  2017 AD, North America

  A few days after Carah’s visit, Frank pressed the buttons on his controller, casually playing a first-person-shooter video game. He usually played in a much more frantic way, but he had just taken some of Carah’s mushrooms, experimenting with a half dose. He wasn’t fully under its grips yet, though he figured he would be within an hour or so. In the meantime, games.

  His phone rang, and as his concentration broke, his character died. Ah well.

  Frank put the controller down and said, “Hello?”

  “I have a riddle for you,” Carah began.

  “Hit me with it.”

  “Two men are given a chicken and told to kill the chicken where no one can see. One goes a mile away and kills the chicken. The other stays where he is and says it isn’t possible. Why?”

  “Because the chicken is able to see no matter where it is taken. Try harder next time.”

  “Damn, being right doesn’t make up for being a dick. My man, did you ever try your gift?”

  “I just did. I’m playing Call of Duty, or I was before you killed me with your call. Hey, what if the guy blindfolded the chicken and then killed it?”

  “Forget about chicken. I’m not hungry. You haven’t beaten that game yet, old man? I think I beat that years ago.”

  Frank smiled and reclined on the sofa, watching the replay of his last moments in the game. “If you don’t need to beat a game, and can just enjoy it, then you have already beaten it.” Frank sat up, suddenly perturbed. “Hey, you know what’s a funny word? Fjord. Fjord is a funny word.”

  “Wow, okay, you are clearly enjoying your gift.”

  “Yeah, it’s weird, but cool. Thanks again.”

  Carah smiled. “No problem. That’s why they call me Carah; I care a lot.”

  Frank grinned and sat back in the sofa to relax again. “Anyway—I kind of feel like I’m in a story. If I’m in a story, shouldn’t I have a love interest? I think that’s how it usually works.”

  Carah waved her free hand in the air as if Frank could see it on the other end of the line. “Sorry, I’m not available, but I wish you luck. That’s what’s up. Next you’re going to say that every conversation we’ve ever had was some sort of encrypted code to a hidden mystery.”

  Frank laughed out loud. “Shhh, don’t give it away.”

  “Hey, we should hang out more. Just because those idiots let you go from the observatory doesn’t mean you can’t come and hang out. Why don’t you come by sometime?”

  “Yeah, maybe. I’ll let you know.”

  “Sure, throw water on the fire of my dreams. Remember, though, every time you trip, just get up. And if you do come out here, drive fast and take chances. Carah out.”

  Frank shut the game off and went to lie down in the dark, deciding to just wait and see what visions came to him. As he lay there in bed for a while, he saw crazy, nonsensical things related to the observatory. Some sort of ancient man in monk’s clothing told him to go back to his work and look for an asteroid coming from a very specific portion of the sky. The old man gave a very weird name for the place Frank should look, something like “Alpaca” maybe. He wasn’t sure. Then the man turned into a robot or spaceship or something and flew out to meet the asteroid. What he was going to do with it afterward Frank didn’t know, maybe shake hands with it?

  As Frank lay in bed, rubbing his eyes, he tried to make s
ense of it all. But the vision faded quickly. It seemed very real and very important, but he had a nagging feeling that all this would seem silly after the mushrooms wore off. He wondered if maybe he could visit Carah and just casually bring this topic up, like, “Hey, have you ever thought of aiming the telescope at this exact location?” He knew that a few people often stayed late at the observatory to work on side projects. Maybe he would go visit her . . .

  Frank decided to take a chance. He took out his phone and called for a car to take him to the observatory. Then he texted Carah to let her know he was coming by after all.

  When Frank arrived at the observatory a half hour later, Carah was waiting out front for him. She was smoking a cigarette, and as the smoke curled up and gathered into the quiet air above her, she ran her hands through her blonde hair and peered out into the night like she owned it. Frank used all his powers of concentration to open the door of the car and step out, still feeling the half dose he had taken earlier. He was a bit dizzy and lightheaded, but mostly functional now. Mostly. He closed the door behind him and moved somewhat unsteadily towards the curb where Carah stood.

  “Whoa there, buckaroo. Dropping by your old job while under the influence, eh?”

  “I think I’ll be okay as long as you don’t want to play a game of pickup basketball.” Frank eyed the curb warily as if it were a freshly thrown hand grenade and stepped slowly onto it. “I’m mostly on the tail end of it now.”

  “No worries, friend. Nobody is here right now. I’m just giving you some grief since I have nothing else to give.” Carah smashed her cigarette into the brick wall next to her and put it in the cigarette butt receptacle. “There, now I’m a good citizen. Come on, let’s go inside.”

  They walked through the main lobby, with Carah pulling out her key card to beep them through the various security checkpoints. She headed towards the signs marked “Observatory.”

  Carah glanced at Frank as they walked. “So how was your little vision quest?”

  “It was good, actually. Helpful but strange.” As they walked into the observatory room, Frank added, “Have you ever heard of a star called Alpaca?”

  “Alpaca? What is it, shaped like a small furry camel? Does it spit? I need to know. Tell me immediately, if not sooner.”

  “I don’t know, girl. It’s just something I heard that I’m curious about.”

  “Oh, do you mean Alphecca? Alpha Coronae Borealis?”

  “Hey . . . I think that is it. Can you pull it up so we can take a look?”

  Carah squinted sideways at him. “What are you getting at here?”

  Frank thought back to the documentary, remembering that the Egyptian and Mayan pyramids were frequently aligned around certain stars. “If I told you everything, you would think I was crazy. How about this: Remember that documentary we saw on TV a few nights ago? It seemed to suggest that the Egyptian pyramids and other monuments were designed to get us to look towards this star.”

  “Okay, hot stuff, your side project is my side project. Let me get the telescope pointed at it.”

  The huge telescope whirred and adjusted as Carah tapped on the keyboard that controlled the immense machinery.

  “Huh, it’s actually aimed close to there now. Probably a coincidence. Check it out yourself, my friend. It is a binary star system, and both stars should be visible right now.”

  Frank squinted through the eyepiece, looked back up at Carah, and then looked through the telescope again. “I only see one.”

  “What? Let me make sure I’m aimed at the right place. Stars don’t just go out. They do eclipse each other at certain times, but this isn’t one of those times.”

  “Beep, beep,” Carah said as she gently pushed Frank to the side. She looked at the stars and then went back to the keyboard to zoom in a bit more. A confused expression spread across her face.

  “This doesn’t make any sense. You’re right; one isn’t showing up. Wait a minute. I just saw the edge of it. I think something is occluding the second star. This doesn’t make any sense. Something would have to be huge to block our view of a star.”

  Frank rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment. “What if it was closer to us than the star? Then it could be much smaller than the star, right?”

  Carah considered this. “Yes, you’re right . . . Maybe it’s a planet or something?”

  “Like an asteroid?”

  “Whoa, we might get something named after us tonight. Hang on, we sometimes work with NASA on asteroid tracking. I’ll ask them if they know about it. I don’t think this thing would be detectable outside of the exact angle we’re seeing it at. This was quite a hunch, my friend.”

  As Frank started to slowly and casually freak out, Carah tapped out an instant message to her friend at NASA. A moment later, she smiled and looked at Frank.

  “It’s a new and undiscovered asteroid! I’m going to post about this on Facebook and the observatory blog. That’ll show those yahoos that let you go. It’s going to be named after you, my friend. This is your discovery!”

  Frank grimaced. “How has nobody found it before? Aren’t there radio telescopes and people that look for these things?”

  “Sure there are, but we don’t know where every single asteroid is. Some slip through the cracks. How did you know? Are you just into intuition?”

  “Well, this may sound crazy, but I had a sort of weird dream or vision about it. I almost didn’t come here. I have to be honest, this is freaking me out right now.”

  “Yeah, I mean, if you’re having visions, maybe you’re Jesus or something,” Carah said, smirking.

  “Ha ha, shut up,” said Frank.

  A few years later though, Carah would think it a bit odd when Frank went to Tibet to study Buddhism and train at a monastery.

  DIZZY MOURNING

  “We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for, I don’t know.”—W. H. Auden

  11,000 BC, South America, The Verdants

  The stars twirled in vicious semicircles above the slits of Janqui’s brown eyes, which he struggled, but failed, to fully open. The short black hair on his head had leaves, bugs, and small twigs mixed in with it, giving him an authentic outdoor feel. His wrinkled clothes may have had a bit of cheese on them, or possibly vomit, but neither would have mattered to him. His appearance, his parents, and their recent tour of the observatory were not things his mind was concerned with right now. As he reached up to clear his eyes of the mucus-glue keeping them shut, he knocked over an empty bottle, which clattered against the tree trunk on which he leaned.

  “Uhhhnnn. What was that?” he said out loud.

  The forest suddenly became silent in response to this new noise, the various bugs and animals attempting to figure out if this disturbance meant they were about to be eaten. When it became clear that Janqui would make no threatening movements, sound returned to the trees, fallen logs, and bushes.

  The crust clearing from his eyes and mind, he spoke again into the silence.

  “H—H—Hello? Where am I?” No answer. “Wonderful, on my own.”

  A splitting headache drove his hands to their next task, a forehead massage, but to no avail. His body suddenly grew warm and tingly, and he knew on a subconscious level that he was about to burst—from within. The previous day’s discovery then came flooding back in sporadic bursts, ruining the brief sense of calm he had on awakening, which was almost completely devoid of thought. As he processed the gaps in his memory, he suddenly remembered all the horrible details of what had driven him into the forest to drink himself senseless. His certainty that he would burst from within approached godlike levels as he stooped over and heaved his evening’s excesses onto the ferns and grass beneath him. Various bugs scurried towards his unused calories, completing the circle of life.

  The headache, the nausea, the pungent smell of alcohol and sadness—these were all problems he was acutely aware of. But even worse was the feeling of doing nothing when he knew he was the only one that could d
o anything about the upcoming calamity. Doubts suddenly filled his mind, stalking his calm like silent panthers. They weren’t going to be able to stop the incoming asteroid, but what if they could prepare for it and somehow survive? Even if he saved a few lives, that would be better than none, right?

  He decided right then that he would do something about the coming disaster. But he would need help! Janqui knew he needed to share this information, but he was stuck out here in the woods, barely able to stand, much less walk. For a brief moment, as he gathered his senses and sat quietly with his eyes closed, he wished he could communicate directly with the exact people who needed to know. That was silly, though. Obviously that wasn’t going to work. He would need a plan, and fast. The first step would be to figure out where he was and how he was going to get back to the observatory to tell people. He found the sun in the sky. Vaguely remembering which way he had set off the prior evening, he started to gather himself for the Herculean effort of rising. No sooner had he made this decision when he heard a voice in his head.

  No, that wasn’t right; it wasn’t a voice, exactly. It was more of an impression of a differing opinion, but it sounded like himself and seemed to be the same voice in his head that he used to talk to himself. But now there were two of them. Had he gone crazy? Was he still dreaming?

  Is there any doubt that this asteroid event will come to pass?

  Oh, this was not good—he was having a conversation with himself.

  No! I checked and double-checked the data, observations, and calculations multiple times. What the hell is this?

  Let’s get some others to take a look. Once we are sure, let’s involve decision-makers so a plan can be developed.

  Shaking his head and planning his path towards the observatory building, Janqui decided to forget about his impending insanity in favor of making sure that he could verify his data and get his boss informed of what was going on. When he jumped to his feet, he immediately vomited again at the base of the tree. Slow. He would need to slow down. But the asteroid would not slow down. Total hell! Running, stumbling, and vomiting it would have to be.