Aspirations: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller

by Randal Sloan

Miranda remained by Zeke’s side and as soon as the doctor left with Zeke’s family, she began to give Zeke basic instruction on how to learn to control his nanites. “At first,” she told him, “it was extremely difficult to make any move, and I kept getting confused by the sensor overload due to the nanite enhancement. But if I concentrated and pushed my senses to the background, I learned to make careful movements. You try it and then see if you can just move one finger.”

  At first, Zeke struggled with her instructions. He kept getting distracted by everything. Finally, he was able to move one finger very carefully. But he felt exhausted from all the work.

  “You’re doing good, Miranda told him. “It will eventually come, but it is a lot of work. I also learned meditation, and was able to use that to master my control.” She slipped into a semi-meditative state to demonstrate. Zeke suddenly found himself in a similar state and laughing, he moved his fingers to count up from one to four. It was as if his nanites were connected to hers and they were learning from them.

  “That’s it. What you just did was awesome.” Miranda stared at him in shock. “I believe when we touched, somehow our nanites made a connection.” She released his arm, waited a moment and then reached to touch him again. The second time they only experienced a mild shock. Holding on to his left arm with her right, she gently released his restraints with her other arm. “Slowly, attempt a movement with your other arm.”

  Zeke smiled and concentrated on their connection. When he moved his hand, It was fast but under control and Miranda nodded. “That’s it. We definitely have a connection between us. Hold on, I’ve got to call Doctor Ted.” She quietly called her uncle, and when he arrived, explained to him what was happening. Both of them were very excited.

  Doctor Ted understood their excitement, and he had to agree it was exciting to watch them. But his doctor side came through as he could tell that Zeke was getting very tired. “That’s really great, and I think we will be able to make great progress tomorrow. But Zeke needs rest right now, and we must be really cautious. I think you should leave and let him rest. You can return early tomorrow.”

  Miranda wanted to resist but she couldn’t. “I can see you’re right.” She held Zeke’s hand once more. There was hardly any shock at all that time. “I will be back as soon as I can. You just rest and get better.”

  Zeke had been struggling with his thoughts and emotions. He had been slightly uneasy with having been given the nanites, especially after Miranda had explained the issue with them, but her touch, while shocking was wonderful, and he was sad when she left. However, he was beginning to feel very tired, and as she pulled away, he slipped into a light sleep, a smile on his face. Even in his sleep, it was almost as if he could see Miranda in his mind’s eye as she was leaving. Something was a little different about her that he couldn’t quite figure out. Right now, it didn’t seem that important.

  #

  Early the next day, Miranda returned to the hospital. She was very anxious to see Zeke. It had felt as if she had been dreaming of him the whole night. Doctor Ted met her at the entrance to the wing, and they went straight to Zeke’s room. They were both surprised to see Zeke smiling and looking at the door as Miranda entered the room, as if he knew she was coming.

  When she took his hand, they were both again shocked, but it was not as bad as before and the nanite readings settled down quicker. It was as if the nanites were learning. As soon as they were stable, the doctor left them alone with the strict command to call him immediately if anything significant happened.

  Miranda began to walk through some of the things she had learned from the monks. It was as if her nanites were teaching it to his as she talked and demonstrated them. He quickly seemed to grasp much of it, although he also knew he still had much to learn. Miranda kept giving him encouragement, explaining that he was way ahead of her. After a few minutes, she stopped to take a break, again sitting down beside him and taking his hand.

  Zeke had been feeling something all morning that he had to get out in the open. He looked at her intently, “Something is different about you. I don’t know how to say it, but I can feel it. Please tell me what is going on. It doesn’t matter to me what it is, but I have to know.”

  Miranda was excited, but her old worries came to the surface. What if Zeke didn’t like her as Julie or blamed her for not telling him? Finally, she nodded. “Yes, there is something important, but I need to show you, not just tell you. It doesn’t matter that much to me, so I hope it doesn’t matter that much to you, but I have been waiting until you were ready.” Seeing his expression had not changed, she sighed. “Close your eyes until I tell you to open them.”

  Zeke immediately did as instructed. He was so trusting. Miranda turned away for a moment, pulling the hood on her thin jacket over her head. She instructed her nanites to change her from Miranda to Julie and turned back to Zeke, again removing the hood. “You can open your eyes now.”

  She could see the shock in his eyes, but he didn’t say anything, just looking at her. “I didn’t know this either until that man told me right before the explosion, but my real name is Julie Randolph. My dad and uncle programmed my nanites to make me appear as Miranda, and told me that my name was Miranda.” By this time tears were in her eyes. “I didn’t have any memory, so I believed them. I didn’t know any better.”

  Zeke had been initially shocked. Yet he quickly realized that she might look different as Julie, but that was only a difference in appearance. Her essence was still the same. He smiled as he realized that was all that mattered. “It’s ok. You’re just even more beautiful as Julie, and I know nothing else has changed. You are still the same girl I knew and fell in love with—”

  He didn’t get anything else out. Julie had been standing there with her heart wide open. She could tell he was telling her the absolute truth, and her heart almost exploded with joy. She leaned in and kissed him.

  At the moment of their kiss, it was if the world changed for the two of them. Time seemed to almost stand still for both of them. Their nanites were somehow connected much more than ever before, and each was able to see the other completely like an open book. Neither of them questioned that they belonged together. Their minds exploded in an expression of love and at the same time, the issues they had both been trying to solve in their subconscious thoughts were suddenly clear. Julie realized the last part of the solution to modify the spaceship drive. Zeke saw the solution to the AI problem he had been trying to solve. Without really thinking about it consciously, his brain had been working on it since he was awake.

  They were still like that when the doctor came to check on the alarms from the nanite monitors. At this point they were now holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes. “It’s ok,” they both said in unison, and then Julie continued, “Our nanites have somehow connected completely. It is amazing and wonderful. I know now just how much I love Zeke and just how much he loves me.”

  “And it is all of that and much more,” she said breathlessly. “Some of it I will try to explain later and some of it I think I will never be able to tell you what it means.”

  The doctor stared at them in wonder. As soon as he could see their nanites were stable, he told them. “Ok, I will leave you two alone for now. Again, call me if anything changes.” He quietly closed the door behind himself as he left to look over the readings. It was all pretty incredible.

  The two of them spent a long time talking about everything they could think of. The world was suddenly a beautiful place to them. They had a lot to catch up on too. Julie talked about training with the monks, Mama Kash, her friend Brother John, and Master Kash, who she still considered the master of the island. When she told him about Emily and her latest scheme with Caitlyn, he had to laugh. But he was glad that her relationship with Caitlyn had made such a change for the better. He felt her pain when she talked about having to kill the two in Kinza, but smiled broadly when she told him the story of Uncle Ted and Carla.

  Zeke talked about what he
had discovered with the AI code. He imagined a quantum circuit that would be used to make the decisions in the AI, something that worked a lot like a human brain. He called it the “Chaotic Core”, which seemed a suitable name when he explained that it worked based on chaos theory.

  From that point on, the connection between the two of them appeared to remain active. When they touched, there wasn’t a shock. They experimented with their connection, quickly determining that just by thinking about the other person, they could each sense where the other one was at that time. They didn’t know if there was a limit to that distance, but they speculated that somehow the connection was due to their nanites communicating across subspace. If that was true, there probably was not a practical limit.

  Despite the protests of both of them, Doctor Ted insisted that Julie leave for the night. He knew that they still needed to give Zeke time alone to continue to heal. Knowing he was right, they both agreed reluctantly. As she was going out the door, Julie could tell Zeke was already dropping off to sleep.

  Julie had a plan that she wanted help with. So she VR’d Emily and Caitlyn, and they both agreed to meet her at the apartments that Space Tech maintained close to the offices. She had earlier arranged for an apartment on the ground floor to be set up for Zeke. She asked the two girls if they would help her decorate. But as soon as they were alone in the apartment, she swore both of them to silence, then told them about what had happened to her and Zeke.

  Emily, of course, had the quickest response. “Yeah, that’s even more than I could have ever dreamed up for you two, but you go girl.”

  Caitlyn laughed and looked at Julie. “I told you that you two were destined to be together.” Then Caitlyn shyly went on. “I haven’t told either of you, but Joe, Zeke’s best friend, and I sorta hit it off, and we have been out on a couple of dates.”

  “Let me guess,” Julie asked her. “A little family pizza place that makes the best pizza in the world.”

  Caitlyn laughed, “Yes, I gather you are familiar with the place.”

  Julie went on, “And has Emily told you about her ‘Knight in Shining Armor?’”

  The rest of the evening went in much the same way. Somehow the three managed to get a little decorating done, too.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  More Beginnings

  Julie was so excited she could barely stand the anticipation. Zeke was running a final test of the control system for their prototype power system. In just a few moments, she would know for sure if her plans to supply the world with cheap, abundant power was going to work out. She was worried that something would go wrong, despite how good she felt about the work they had done. Her previous experiences around it had not been good. Her and Zeke’s first project at school had smoked, literally when it was burned out by the feedback she was now trying to take advantage of to generate power. The second incident was even worse, when Zeke had intentionally caused it to explode to save her from that evil man who had been working for the Organization.

  The last week had been really busy for her. She had helped Zeke get set up in his apartment after his release from the hospital, moving into another apartment in the complex herself. Zeke’s was on the first floor due to his physical condition and her apartment was on the top floor. She liked being close to him without compromising either of their reputations. With their special connection, they were each aware of the other when in their separate apartments, something Julie had already come to treasure.

  With Caitlyn and Emily’s help, Julie had thrown a small welcome back party for Zeke, inviting only family and friends. Julie had finally given the basic story of her identity to Zeke and Emily’s parents, so they now knew she was the same girl who had visited them as Miranda. That helped them a lot in dealing with her and Zeke. Their relationship was obvious to anyone that spent any time with the two of them together.

  Other than those few distractions, most of the week had been involved in working on the prototype to get it to this point. A lot of work for Julie especially, since Zeke was on a limited work schedule because of his physical recovery. Nevertheless, Zeke had managed to incorporate his new AI theories into the design of the control system, so they now had a true AI running the control system for the prototype. Julie was hoping all that work was about to pay off.

  Zeke stuck his head out of the control room, “Ready? Everything is good in here.”

  When Julie nodded, he stepped out far enough to look directly at her, “Come in here and let’s do it together. From now on, I intend to keep you close. I still remember what I felt the last time when that man had you at gunpoint.”

  Julie still had bad memories about that time too, and about what had happened to Zeke afterward. She wasn’t letting him get too far away either. Together they went back into the control room, looking at each other with huge smiles. Julie was almost dancing in her excitement. Simultaneously they both hit the big green start icon, with perhaps just a little apprehension, both nervous about what they had been through before. But this time there was not a big boom, not even smoke. Instead, it was like watching a finely-tuned engine run. It purred.

  Julie gave Zeke a huge hug, a burst of joy flowing through her and into their connection. “It’s working! Look out world, here we come.”

  Zeke laughed at her burst of exuberance, but he had to admit he was thrilled too. “Absolutely awesome, Jules. Who knows where it will all end, but the world is definitely going to be different now.” Somehow he knew that was an understatement, but his own emotions were getting in the way of talking. But he knew those emotions were shared.

  Julie was too distracted to reply, her VR dancing as she flew through it checking everything to make sure nothing was wrong. But she couldn’t find anything that looked like a showstopper, and everything was completely stable.

  They left it at one percent power for a while, taking readings and watching for any sign of instability. Finally, assured that it was working exactly as expected, they very carefully tested different power levels, two percent and then five percent, each time checking readings. Still good! Then they set it to ten percent, the magic level that would prove that the feedback loop was completely managed. When that proved stable too, they gradually increased it up to eighty percent, the top level planned for the day’s testing.

  Her excitement obvious to everyone, Julie finally told them, “Ok, guys. Enough for today.” Turning to the tech analysis team, “I want you guys to analyze the data to the nth degree. Use any resources at Space Tech you need.”

  They all nodded. The whole team had picked up on her excitement and why not? This was the most amazing thing they had ever seen!

  Zeke and Julie were so excited that they had to celebrate. Of course, for them, there was only one place to go. To keep security simple, Julie changed into Miranda. Of course, Zeke hadn’t been released to drive yet, so Miranda drove Zeke’s car, the same car he had used so many times to chauffeur her and Emily. They arrived at the same little pizza place they had gone to before on what Miranda considered their first date.

  Of course, they served the same great pizza she remembered. After they both ate way too much of the awesome pizza, their conversation turned inevitably to their future. They both knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were totally committed to each other.

  Miranda said it for both of them. “I want my father at our wedding,” she told Zeke. “So I’ve got to find him, and now I’ve got even more incentive to do it.” She leaned across the table and grasped his hand, just feeling his love for a moment. Then her face turned darker. “Zeke, I have to tell you one other thing. I am committed in the battle against the Organization. I have to do whatever it takes to destroy their evil. But I’m counting on you to help me stay centered and to watch over me.”

  Zeke nodded. “I know, Jules. It is apparently your task to complete, so now it is mine also. I will be keeping you close and making sure you remember why you are fighting them. It has to be done out of the need to protect the world from their ev
il, out of love and not hate, even though you of all people have reason to hate them. I intend to constantly remind you with our love!”

  They finally just sat there holding hands and not even talking. When the restaurant started to close, they thanked the owners and left together. Going to their separate apartments that night was very difficult.

  #

  The next day started early with the team gathered together in the testing area. Anxiously Julie looked over the results from the analysis, making absolutely sure that everything was good. Then they did more testing before finally reaching their planned goal, one hundred percent. No problems, of course, so they left it running while once more everything was tested exhaustively. Not a single issue was found!

  As an extra precaution, Zeke tweaked the AI to shut it down automatically on any sign of instability. Then they left it running, turning it over to the techs to keep a full-time watch. Knowing it was time to make sure everything was protected legally, the two of them went to talk to Space Tech Legal.

  The legal advisor over patents, Jacob Kerbensky, was a likable enough fellow, even if to Julie he had a boring job. But he had deep knowledge in his very detailed field, and seemed to like helping people make their dreams come true. When Julie and Zeke excitedly talked about the results of their tests with the prototype, he laughed. “The patents are filed, still pending but everything is iron clad. It’s not like anyone else could build one, much less even imagine it,” he told them.

  Julie gave him a big smile. “Well, we’ve got you another one to file,” and turned to Zeke. She listened to the discussion between the two for a while, but as soon as she saw that everything was good, she touched Zeke on the arm and said, “Come get me when you’re done…” She knew he would be able to find her. She knew he had everything under control, and she wanted to get out of the way. She went to her office to work on all the things she needed to do to get ready for the stockholders meeting coming up.