Near Future 1: Awakening

by Randal Sloan

  Julie at first could not believe what her mother was telling her. She didn't know what to say in answer. But she knew her mother sometimes had visions of future events, and whenever her mother said she saw something would happen, what she told them always seemed to come true.

  About that time, the caravan was forced to reroute because of an overturned truck on the highway. As they made the turn off of the highway, suddenly several vehicles blocked the roadway and began to attack the convoy with automatic weapons. Sam and Ted were terrified and Sam doubly so, as his family was right there in the middle of the attack. All of their vehicles were bulletproof, so that the attack was initially ineffective, but by this time Julie was certain that what her mother had told her was true.

  Julie's mom was still holding her tightly, and Julie turned her frightened eyes to look at her. "Oh, Mom. Are you sure this must be?"

  Julie's mom just nodded and held her even tighter. She looked sad but not frightened. And she had a serenity about her. That helped Julie and she clung to her mother with tears in her eyes.

  The security chief for the convoy had quickly gotten on the radio, calling for reinforcements and telling the helicopters to return at their top speed. Just as the reinforcements were arriving and the helicopters were nearly back, one of the terrorists fired a missile from a handheld launcher. The missile struck the family vehicle with Julie and her mother inside, lifting the vehicle into the air, causing it to smash into the side of a nearby building. Their goal accomplished, the terrorists abandoned their attack, fleeing into the night.

  Julie felt the vehicle being lifted into the air and grabbed her violin case, holding it tightly. Just before they hit the building, her mother threw herself over the top of her and Julie felt her love once more.

  #

  Both occupants and the driver were rushed to the hospital. Ted and Sam were driven there in the command vehicle, both in total shock at what had happened. Sam was terrified for his wife and daughter. He had seen their vehicle, and he suspected the worst. They waited anxiously in the hospital emergency room until the doctor finally came out to see them.

  "I'm sorry," he told them, turning to address Sam directly. "We have been unable to revive your wife. Her injuries were just too serious. Best we can figure, she threw her body over your daughter, protecting her from the worst of the injuries. She undoubtedly saved her life, at least for the moment. However, your daughter received severe head injuries, and she is in a deep coma. We don't know if she will ever wake up, although we do still see signs of brain activity, so we are holding out hope. We will keep a close watch on her, but right now there's not much else we can do."

  Sam had gone very pale and his eyes were full of tears as the doctor related everything to him. Ted tried to comfort him and Sam was very grateful for his presence. But Sam knew that because of his brother's medical degree, he would have the knowledge to understand about Julie's injuries, so he told him, "Go with him and look at everything he has on Julie. You'll be able to understand it, and then you can come back and explain it to me."

  Ted was very reluctant to leave him, but he loved his niece too and he saw the wisdom of it. "Ok," he said quietly, "Wait here and I will be back as soon as I can."

  Sam was nearly overcome with his grief. But thinking about the days leading up to the attack, he knew that Anne had known something. She sometimes had visions of the future, and she had been very quiet about that lately. Now he knew that her tender touch from the days before had been her way of telling him good-bye. And throwing herself across Julie like that. He knew exactly what she had done. She had given herself up so that Julie would have a chance to live. Oh my love, I know what you did. And you knew that I would do everything in my power to see that we find a treatment for Julie. And I will, no matter what it takes. I so vow!

  But he knew there was more required. And I will also do whatever it takes to destroy those responsible for doing this to you and Julie. Despite the way I know you would feel about me going after revenge, you know they have to be stopped, and I will see that it is done. I so vow!

  When he uttered the second vow, he felt something lock into place. It was like a mantle had been placed on his shoulders, he had accepted it, and it had been acknowledged. Just for a moment, he felt the presence of his wife, giving him a sad smile. He felt her love settle on him, making the burden at least a little lighter.

  When he returned, Ted pulled his brother close and told him, his distress obvious. "I will tell you the truth. None of the doctors expect that Julie will ever awaken. But I believe that somehow we will find a way to treat her and she will recover."

  "I know, my brother. Tell me what you know about nanites."

  Ted looked at his brother in surprise, but he immediately nodded. "As you know, nanites are tiny machines that can be programmed to do specific tasks within the human body. They look very promising for medical treatments, however, the technology even today is still in its very infancy. It will take a lot more study and there will be a lot we will have to figure out. It will take a long time."

  Sam looked at his brother and Ted knew that look. "I don't care how long it takes or how much it costs. Our company has more resources than anyone else in the world, so if anyone can do it, we can find a way to make it work." His words had a final ring to them that Ted felt to his core.

  Life would be changed for the two brothers from that moment on. Sam would work many hours a day toward finding a treatment for Julie, so much so that he virtually became a recluse and let his brother run the company. Ted helped him as much as he could, and was always there to comfort his brother. Sam also worked tirelessly toward his goal to get revenge on the Organization, and the ones who did this to his family. He used his company's many resources, both monetary and political, to work toward that end. He looked forward to the day when he would find success in both endeavors. The first one, the treatment for his daughter, was finally getting closer.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Miranda

  Almost 2 years later

  #

  Due to the work in search of a treatment for his daughter, Doctor Sam Randolph had developed many new procedures to use in the treatment of head injuries. In a special wing of the hospital where his work was being spearheaded, a girl somewhere around the age of eighteen awakened from a coma. As she opened her eyes, the nurse assigned to her rushed excitedly into the room. She said quietly to the girl, "Wait, the doctor is on his way!"

  A doctor dressed in a white coat quickly made it to her room, gently speaking to her, "I am Doctor Ted. Can you tell me how you are feeling?"

  The girl was slow to respond and said, "My head hurts!" She struggled a moment and then said, "Where am I?"

  Doctor Ted continued to speak softly. "You were injured in an automobile accident and you are in the hospital. You have been in a coma for nearly two years. Do you remember anything about what happened to you?"

  The girl looked at him with some confusion, and still speaking somewhat slowly said, "I don't remember anything." Obviously confused, she frowned as she tried to find answers that just weren't there. "I don't even remember my name!" Her distress was plain to see.

  After a brief hesitation, the doctor responded to her. His voice shook with his obvious sympathy. "Your name is Miranda Summerlin and you are my patient." He held a mirror up to her face so that she could see herself.

  She saw a pretty, dark complexioned girl with her head wrapped in bandages. She had hazel green eyes and a pixie nose. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "I don't even remember what I look like. Not even the color of my hair." There was a tremble in her voice that to the doctor was heartbreaking.

  "We are so very sorry we had to cut your beautiful black hair for your treatment," Doctor Ted told her softly, his gentle voice almost breaking. He set the mirror back down.

  He paused a minute, seeming to collect himself before he finally went on, "We hope you will eventually get your memory back, but either way we will take care o
f you."

  The girl just stared at him for a minute. "What am I supposed to do? I feel totally lost," she finally said. "What about my parents? Where are they?"

  "Best we can determine, your mother was a single parent. I am so sorry to have to tell you that she was killed in the crash that injured you, and we have been unable to locate your father, who left some years before that." He used his VR Interface to show her the most recent picture they had of her mother and also directed it to a VR compu-pad beside her bed for her to see any time she wanted.

  She looked at the picture with tears in her eyes. The woman in the picture was very pretty and looked a little bit like the girl she saw in the mirror, also with hazel green eyes and black hair. Sadly she told him, "I don't even remember my mother. It's like it's just a picture of someone else's mother!"

  "Unfortunately, we know of no other close family, but your mother had good life insurance and the hospital has been donated money in a special trust fund just for you. I can only tell you that the money was donated by the Randolph Foundation of Space Tech." Doctor Ted flashed a picture of another doctor holding a big copy of a check he was donating to the hospital in her name.

  Doctor Ted paused and explained, "You are the first to receive a new treatment. Tiny little programmable machines called nanites have been implanted in your brain to treat your head injury. Some of the equipment here allows me to monitor them."

  He continued, "The nanites that are being used to treat you have been developed by Doctor Samuel Randolph from the Randolph Foundation, and have been through exhaustive testing in our hospital with the doctor's assistance. I believe that he donated the money because of the nature of your injuries."

  Seeing the questions in her eyes, he explained. "Doctor Randolph's daughter Julie received a head injury similar to yours in a terrorist attack. The treatment we used for you is the result of his quest to find a treatment for her." He displayed pictures of Julie and her family. He said, "I have research about the nanites that he has developed that you can look at when you are able."

  Finally the doctor looked at her and gave her a smile. He grasped her hand and squeezed it. "I know that this is a lot, a huge amount, for you to take in. For now, just know that you are in one of the best hospitals in the world, and that we will take good care of you."

  Miranda could only stare in shock. Finally, she took a breath. Looking up at him, she asked, "How about the other girl, Julie? Did it help her, is she alright?"

  Surprised by her question, Doctor Ted appeared taken aback, but after a slight hesitation said, "I am not at liberty to talk about her. All I can tell you is that the plans are to use a similar treatment to yours. Hopefully, we will gain much knowledge from working with you."

  Miranda stared at him for a moment, but she appeared to have gained her equilibrium because she said with a small smile, "Thank you for helping me with all this. Where do I go from here?" She felt totally lost, her tears no longer flowing but not yet dried.

  He said, "Due to the nature of your injuries, I will need to monitor your nanites, which my equipment will let me do. We'll take it slow. I need to do a basic neurological exam first." He checked her eyes, ensuring that they followed the movement of his stylus, checked her basic reflexes, and finally tested for feeling in her extremities. Smiling, he said, "Everything looks good."

  He entered some information into his VR interface. "Just rest now. That should help with the headaches. We will be watching you closely over the next couple of days, monitoring your brain functions with our equipment, and then we'll go from there. I will talk with you again soon." Patting her gently on her arm, he turned, quietly leaving the room. As he was leaving, Miranda noticed he was sending a VR message to someone.

  Miranda lay quietly in her bed, struggling to understand everything she had been told. She was especially confused with the memory loss, and looked at the pictures of her mother and wished that she remembered her. If she had been raising her alone, as they had told her, why couldn't she at least remember her? She didn't feel anything when she looked at the pictures. She wanted to cry about that, but couldn't cry about the stranger she saw when she looked at the picture.

  She somehow felt compelled by the story of the other girl, Julie, and her family. When he had shown her the pictures of them something was almost familiar about them. Maybe she knew a family similar to them? And that company, Space Tech, was that it? It seemed to strike a chord within her. She thought she would love to work for them, and then laughed, looking around her hospital room.

  Fat chance. Why had she even thought such a thing? She did decide that she would see if she could find anything about the girl, Julie, and try to go visit her if she could. Apparently they had a lot in common.

  #

  Doctor Ted had sent a couple of VR messages. "She's awake!!!" had been the first one, which he had sent even before he got to her room. He had even then had doubts about their plan for her, but he knew her very life could be at stake. However, as soon as he was sure about her memory loss, he was ready to follow the plan he and his brother had worked out in advance for her. He had all the details ready, so he had gone through everything with her just like they had decided. As he left the room, he sent the second message. "She's ok. Memory loss as we expected. She asked about Julie, believe it or not! All readings on the nanites look good. Will keep you informed." He also included several pictures of her for him to see, along with the message.

  He was glad he was the one to be here working with her. She was a special young lady, and he was looking forward to taking care of her for a while. Now, she was maybe even more special. Their test animals had exhibited higher intelligence and superb response times in all their tests. He thought the chimp was secretly laughing at him every time he visited it. But this time, the test subject was a human and this particular girl. She still has the same smile, even if it was only a small one today.

  They had really struggled with the decision of who should be first. Ted had argued that they should go slower, choosing a patient with a more minor injury first. But the nanites seemed to be more of an all or nothing cure, and his objections had been overridden. It had come down to who was the best candidate. The whole time they had been waiting for the nanites to work, weeks that had seemed like months, it hadn't really seemed real. He was going to keep a close eye on her, and do everything he could to protect her.

  He was pleased with the results of all her tests. And they had expected the headaches, but those were also expected to improve. He would closely monitor the nanites, but they had been reporting "in the green" since they had been applied those six weeks ago. He was anxious to see how she did at all the tests he would be giving her. And they certainly had the best equipment in the world in this hospital. Sam Randolph had made sure of that.

  #

  The next day, Miranda was subjected to many tests, and was continuing to suffer from major headaches at times. They were like a migraine on steroids. At times they were so bad, she could barely move. However, they were getting better, and she was finally able to sit up without getting dizzy as long as she didn't try to do too much. When the doctor came to visit, he told her, "Well I have mostly good news. All of your neurological tests look really good. Your brain scan exceeds our expectations. Your headaches should be decreasing as well as long as you don't push yourself too hard."

  Miranda nodded at that. She had noticed the correlation to the amount she attempted to do to the headaches. He flashed up on the VR system a picture of her brain scans, and when she looked at the before and after scans, she didn't know how to read them, but the second seemed highly active compared to the first. She only knew that her mind seemed to be running wide open, and she had only been able to sleep a few hours that night.

  "However, your motor functions look erratic and you will need rehab to relearn how to do basic things, including walking. We had really expected that because of the length and nature of your coma. Although we have had electrical stimuli attached to your limbs t
o keep the muscles exercised, your body is extremely weak physically. I'm setting you up to begin your physical therapy next week. Until then I want you to work on your diet and building up your strength. Also, over the next couple of weeks, I will be giving you basic IQ tests and similar tests to determine your mental and psychological progress."

  Miranda could tell all of that would likely take a long time, and she was already going crazy not being able to do anything. So she asked the doctor, "I know that you have basic VR capabilities in this room. Is it possible for me to gain access to the hospital network and use the VR to read and look up information? I really need something to do to help pass the time!"

  "Absolutely!" He punched a button on his wrist link and said in a command voice, "Grant All Access to patient." and then he said to her, "You have full access. I expect you will be amazed at everything that we have available in our hospital data systems. Because Space Tech is our biggest sponsor, we also have a lot of links into their systems."

  Miranda's eyes had widened a little when he gave the command for her access. She wondered if he had really meant to give her "All Access". She suspected that most people received "Guest Access" or something similar, but she didn't ask him, because he might change his mind. She intended to take advantage of it.

  As the doctor left, Miranda excitingly began opening VR screens, and with a mind to his command to build her strength, she munched on a protein bar. She immediately was able to find a gold mine of information, jumping from one thing to another rapidly. In her excitement, she never paused to realize that she was reading that information much faster than she should have been able to read it.

  The first thing Miranda wanted to know was what had happened while she was in her coma. She skimmed the news, but she was pretty fuzzy on what she could remember. She decided to focus on world events, trying to get a feel for what was happening. Much of the world's politics revolved around fossil fuels and global warming. Electric cars had taken over a significant portion of the world's automobile usage, but too many ran on gasoline. The batteries themselves were the primary drawback to the electrics, and despite extensive research, they just hadn't found a solution to that problem.