The Manhattan Incident

by Raymond Poincelot

  Paul exchanged greeting with Dr. Farnsworth. “Call me Martin, please,” said the affable psychologist. “OK, Martin. I want you to meet Zack.” Zack smiled and said “Hello” to Martin. “Zack might have ESP, so we want to test him.” Martin looked slightly amused. “Well, I’m sure you are aware that science does not give credibility to ESP for several reasons. For one, there is the absence of an evidence base, not to mention the lack of any theory which would explain ESP. We used to also stress the lack of reliable experimental techniques that could be trusted. However, the tests are now run by a computer program with AI enhancements. The test methods are still the same, ESP cards and the Ganzfeld test. However, computer administration makes them much more reliable than when they were human conducted. Using these new tests, I must say, have greatly reduced the number of people having any ESP ability. The few that do are very low level. So, don’t expect much.”

  Martin then turned to Zack. “The card test is straightforward. The computer will flash a card on its screen which faces me. You will be blindfolded to assure that you don’t see the screen, or even a reflection of it off some glass surface in the office. You will have to tell me what is on the card as I see it and think about the image. This test will take some time, as we have to run enough cards to assure reliable statistics. Are you ready Zack?” “Paul, why don’t you go back to what you were doing before you came here? For one, staying here wastes your time, and two, you become another variable according to the AI, which insists you leave.” Paul managed a smile and as he was leaving said, “Please call me when the tests are done. I’ll come back for Zack.”

  After Zack put his blindfold on and Martin verified its proper placement, he said, “Zack, can you see anything?” “No, the blindfold blocks everything.” “OK, good. We are ready to start.” The first card appeared on the screen. It was blank. Martin decided to visualize it as completely white, which it was. “Zack, card one. What do you see? From now on, I’ll just give the card number and say nothing. You just respond.” Zack thought hard. All he could think of was snow. Perhaps that was because there was snow on the mountain top they saw from the plane as it neared the landing site. “Snow,” said Zack. “White snow, not dirty stuff.” Martin thought to himself that it was a good answer. He wondered how the AI would interpret the answer. “Card two.” This card had a triangle on it. “Triangle.” “Card three.” Martin noted a flower. He had no idea what kind of flower, so he simply though of a flower. “Flower,” said Zack. The computer flashed a message at Martin. The flower is a dahlia. Ask him what kind of flower. “Zack, I’m thinking of the flower’s name. What is it?” “I’m not good at flower names, but I think it might be a Dalh...ya. Not sure if I am pronouncing it right.” “Zack, I forgot to tell you that everything you say is heard by the computer and it analyzes it.” This went on for another hour. Martin and Zack were both starting to feel fatigued. Finally, the computer flashed the message, Test Over. Special request regarding test subject. Run the bug detector over the subject. Hmm, thought Martin. This has never happened before. Of course, given the losing results in previous tests, the AI would never expect any technical enhancements. Martin ran the bug detector over Zack while he was blindfolded. The results were negative and duly noted by the AI.

  “Zack, first test is over. Let’s go get some refreshments at the canteen. We’ll do part two after that. In the meantime, the program will analyze the results and run the statistical analysis.” At the canteen, Zack sipped his strawberry milkshake. Martin had some apple pie and coffee. He couldn’t help but think Zack’s results were impressive so far. He wondered what the score would be. Martin and Zack remained silent. Martin always felt uncomfortable around children. That’s why he stayed with the military. He was guaranteed to see adults only. His discomfort went so far as to keep him unmarried. He didn’t want the encumbrances that could happen. He hoped Zack couldn’t read his thoughts. Zack smiled at Martin that very instant. The timing of the smile unnerved Martin considerably. Could it be? Nah, just coincidence. Martin stood and said, “Round two, Zack. Let’s go back.”

  Back in the testing lab, Martin set up the Ganzfeld test. Martin noticed the computer flashing a message for him from the AI. “Activate my electronic bug detectors throughout the lab. Activate my HVD software. Martin did as instructed. This request was a first for the AI. The results from the first test must be good enough to have the AI suspect outside interference, hence the constant monitoring of the lab throughout the test. If any electronic signals were detected, the test would be aborted immediately. The same held true for the HDV, Hackers Virus Detection software. This was getting very interesting thought Martin.

  “Zack, I am running a modified Ganzfeld test. The AI created this variant. Zack, I’m going to place this virtual helmet on your head shortly. Have you played any virtual reality games, or do I need to explain how it works?” Zack laughed and said, “No problem. I know what to do.” “OK, Zack. When you have the helmet on, you won’t see or hear anything in the room. The AI will flash images called targets on my screen. I will think what they are and signal you with a beep in your helmet. I will think the image for 15 seconds. Then you will hear two beeps and four targets will appear on your screen. Using your right hand will move the arrow to whichever target you think is the right one. Once you have the arrow over the target, lift your hand upward and then downward, as if you were pressing a button. The computer will register that target as your choice. You will have 15 seconds to complete your choice. Then you get a 30 second rest and the next target comes and the procedure repeats. This process will continue for as long as the AI thinks necessary, but no longer than one hour. Is everything clear? Do you have any questions?” “I am clear, have no questions, but I have never heard of a Ganzfeld test.”

  Zack felt quite comfortable in the helmet. Upon the first beep, he concentrated hard. He saw the target as a bow and arrow set. He saw it in the group of four targets, all of which were various weapons. The test seemed to drag on interminably with image after image and no feedback. Zack was getting tired, but he heard the beep. He saw an image of the mathematical constant, pi. When the two beeps sounded, Zack looked at the targets. There was a plus, minus, division and multiplication sign. Did he make a mistake? No, he was convinced he was right, so he did not pick any target. “Test over, he heard in his helmet.” As Martin made the announcement based on the message from the AI, he saw another message. He took Zack’s helmet off. “Zack, the AI wants to know why you didn’t make a choice on the last group.” “Easy, the target I saw was not one of the four. It was the constant pi. All the targets were mathematical operatives like add, subtract, divide and multiply.” At that point, the AI spoke for the first time. “Thank you Zack. My name is Athena. It is a true pleasure to meet you. I have analyzed your test results and will print them up for Dr. Farnsworth. Have a very good day, Zack.” While the AI was talking, Martin paged Paul to come for Zack.

  The results emerged from the nearby printer. Martin picked them up and looked. He let out a whistle and said, “Unbelievable.” Just then Dr. Rapstein walked into the office. “What’s unbelievable?” Seeing Zack, he said, “Oh, it must be test results. Perhaps they are unbelievably bad.” Without a word, Martin handed the results to Dr. Rapstein. Dr. Rapstein’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit!” was all he could say. Paul walked in at that moment. Dr. Rapstein turned as Paul came in. He handed the paper to Paul and said, “I owe you and Zack an apology. I had my doubts. Now I’m convinced we must find some way of removing the black curtain. If so, we might have a chance to learn much more about the alien. Can you and Zack show up at 1:00 am tonight? That’s when we think the alien is in its deepest sleep.” Paul looked at Zack, who said “Yes” without hesitation.

  The rest of the day seemed to drag. Paul tried to catch up on paperwork regarding STEMEO. He found it hard to concentrate. He decided to take a nap, so as to be relatively un-tired at the ungodly early hour. Paul sent a text to Zack that a nap might be a good thing. There was
no response. Looking at the clock, Paul realized that Zack was likely with one of the base tutors, hence no response. Paul went back to the dorm room. He explained to Roberta that he was going to nap. Roberta smiled and said, “We could cuddle.” “Not a bad idea,” said Paul with a mischievous wink. Zack won’t be back for at least another hour.” They drew the one lonely blind and locked the entry door. Zack showed up at the room about 90 minutes later after his tutor lesson was done. He was puzzled by the door being locked. He keyed in and noticed the lights off and Paul and Roberta sleeping soundly in the queen bed. He looked over at his twin bed and decided a nap wasn’t such a bad idea.

  Finally the test hour arrived after what seemed to be an interminable day. Paul and Zack were given prompt entry by the armed guards, as were Joe and Lisa. Dr. Rapstein no longer looked as arrogant as before, in fact, his smile seemed to be genuine. “Welcome, Zack and Dr. Laurent. We are positive, based upon our sensors, that the alien is asleep. Here’s a laptop, Zack, for you to write down anything you sense. No matter how inconsequential, please record it. When you are ready to leave, either say so or give a thumbs-up. Dr. Laurent, I suggest that you not go in, as the alien can be very restless and might sense two humans whereas one might go undetected. To be blunt, we ready don’t know if it can sense much when asleep. We do know that it wakes fully alert at the slightest of noises. So, Zack, be as quiet as possible. Slip these fuzzy slippers over your sneakers. Put this ear bud in your ear. We can communicate with you quietly, if need be. Also let me place this patch on your neck. It gives a wireless reading of your blood pressure which we’ll monitor out here. At the first sign of trouble, you are out of there.” Paul looked at Zack. “I’ll wait out here with Joe and Lisa. If there is any sign of trouble, we’ll be there in a second to get you out.” Zack nodded and then went to the door that accessed the alien’s chamber. It slid silently shut upon his entry. All eyes in the outer room became glued to either monitors or the one way glass.

  Zack moved silently and sat in the chair. Suddenly the alien turned over in his bed and now faced Zack. Zack found it disconcerting, but noted that the alien didn’t open its eyes and its breathing remained at the same slow, shallow tempo. Zack tried to keep his mind clear and away from the alien. He concentrated on thoughts of playing Frisbee with Roxanne. After ten minutes, he was sure the alien was sound asleep. He cleared his mind of all thoughts and thought only of the alien, staring intently at it. At first he got some jumbled thoughts and a few images, thoughts of great loneliness and extreme hatred. The image seemed to show the alien sitting at some controls. Zack guessed it was inside a space craft of some sort. Zack dutifully wrote all of this down, carefully noting that the space craft idea was conjecture on his part. Suddenly, a new image with some continuity appeared in Zack’s head. At first it looked like the alien was dancing, no fighting, with another alien. He seemed to be winning, or certainly dominated the other one. The dawning thought that this might really be a sexual encounter arose in Zack’s mind, as he saw the aliens join together and thrash about. At that thought, Zack felt the flush of heat rise in his face. Suddenly, Dr. Rapstein’s voice whispered in his ear. “Zack, are you OK? Your face is flushed and your blood pressure went up suddenly. Nod yes for being OK, or nod no if you want out.” Zack nodded his head yes.

  A few minutes later, the sex sequence ended and a new set of images and thoughts appeared. It showed the alien in a barren landscape with jumbled rocks and what appeared to be dry, reddish soil. Suddenly a wind whipped up a reddish dust cloud that enveloped the alien. Then it ended. Nothing happened for a few seconds, except for restless stirring by the alien. Then another sequence started. Odd, thought Zack, it’s the same dance/fight/sexual sequence. It ended. Then the dust cloud in barren landscape surfaced again. Again, the alien stirred restlessly. After several minutes, the initial sequence began to repeat for the third time. At that moment, two things happened. Zack had an “aha” moment. He understood what was going on. The other event was that the alien suddenly opened his eyes and glared at Zack, who rapidly felt the black curtain take over his mind. He gave a thumb up signal and raced out the opening door.

  “Too bad the alien woke up so soon, Zack,” said Dr. Rapstein. “Are you feeling OK?” Paul peered anxiously, as Zack said, “Yah, I’m fine. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I did see some things. The bad news is three-fold. First, I think the images and thoughts might not reflect reality or might be subject to multiple interpretations. It also seems that my reading of the alien’s mind was sensed and it caused awakening or maybe not. The latter has to do with my realization that I was seeing the alien’s dreams. The clue was the repetitive loop of events. I’m sure you have all had those dreams with repetitive loops that you try to wake up from or cause you to suddenly wake.” Everyone looked at Zack with some awe. It was apparent that Zack had improved his vocabulary and understanding to a level expected with adults. Everyone wondered if his ESP served to improve his intellect. Zack then described what he saw and turned the laptop over to Dr. Rapstein. After some thought and reading, Dr. Rapstein turned to Zack and Paul.

  “In hindsight, I should have foreseen this. Sleep and you dream. I guess the alien is like us in that respect. So, it seems that sleep is not the approach we should use, as we can’t be certain of the reality of what we receive. I suggest we abandon this approach and move to the cold test. In that state the alien remains conscious and awake, but has very slow metabolism and reflexes. Hopefully, it won’t be alert enough to block you, Zack. I also hope the alien’s thought processes won’t be as slow as its metabolism. If so, Zack, you could be bored in a hurry. However, if the images and thoughts are extremely slow, we’ll tweak the temperature higher. Essentially, we will try to titrate to a balance point between sufficient metabolisms for good ESP detection versus too rapid metabolism such that blocking occurs. We have to lower or raise the temperature slowly. We don’t want to harm it. God, so much to calculate and balance. I’ll be in touch some time tomorrow with a definite testing time. Thank you, all. Let’s get some sleep. Oh, Zack, sorry for the perhaps too elaborative explanation. I can simply if you didn’t understand completely.”

  As Zack walked toward the door, he turned to Dr. Rapstein and said, “No problem, I got it. Your explanation was really good. By the way, you can stop calling the alien, it. I’m sure it is a male, as it was the dominant one in the sexual encounter.” Dr. Rapstein looked at Zack with a bemused expression. He thought to himself, I’m beginning to like this kid. Zack smiled. After the door closed, Paul asked Zack why the smile. Zack said, “I think that Dr. Rapstein is beginning to like me.”

  The next day dragged for all concerned. The restrictive military base closed in on Paul. There were too many places they were not allowed. Paul popped into his old lab, but here were too many new faces. His old colleagues, Drs. Miller and Gupta, now known as Drs. Melvin Hopkins and Bhanu Rajani, were glad to see him and were polite. They chatted briefly, but Paul could detect that it was small talk. It became apparent that all of them had moved on in their positions and both Drs. Hopkins and Rajani had much work to do. Paul thought to himself that it is true; once you leave, you can never really return. Paul left sooner than he had thought he would. He needed to walk outdoors to clear his head. Walking outside in Stamford was a joy. Paul’s walking here was restricted to some degree. Here there was only desert, alkali desert, and you had to pay attention as some areas were mined. Others were off limits for no apparent reason. Zack was busy with his tutor. Back at the apartment, Roberta was becoming as restless as Paul was. Would this day never end?

  Suddenly, his P-Com chimed. It was Dr. Rapstein. Paul hung up after a short conversation. The project would start tomorrow at 9:00 AM. Paul quickly texted Zack to alert him to tomorrow’s event. Tomorrow would be a better day. Things were definitely looking up already. Dinner that night was especially good. Steak, medium rare, was a real treat. Zack’s eyes beamed when he saw it. Paul had a difficult time deciding between a res
erve Carménère from Chile and a reserve Malbec from Mendoza Argentina. He finally went with the Malbec wine. Its dry cherry and fresh berry taste overtones were superb. A good choice, thought Paul. Even Roberta liked it and she was a white wine drinker. Zack pleaded for a taste which was granted. The puckered lips and grimace said it all. Zack would stick with his milk from now on.

  Zack and Paul showed up at the alien’s holding area promptly at 9:00 AM. To say they were excited was an understatement. Even Dr. Rapstein appeared friendlier than usual. Dr. Rapstein explained the readjustment parameters. “I have dropped the temperature to 25 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature the alien goes into a stupor of sorts. We can go lower, but at that point he almost becomes comatose.” Zack was very pleased to see the usage of the pronoun he instead of it. “If his responses are too sluggish, we can raise the temperature slowly by one degree. Given the slowness of the readjustments, we can probably do only three or four temperature variations a day.” During the explanation, Paul was thinking that there was really nothing for him to do. However, he felt protective toward Zack and wished to monitor Zack every minute. Paul remembered the pressure and headache in the alien’s presence. Perhaps the cold temperature would ameliorate that unpleasant feeling. Paul returned to the conversation to hear “So, Zack, how long do you think we should stay at a given temperature?” Zack responded, “I think if the same thought or image remains essentially the same for 15 minutes, we should move on.” Dr. Rapstein agreed, as that was the very number he had been thinking about. Suddenly, Dr. Rapstein wondered if Zack had picked up the number from his mind. Looking at Zack, he couldn’t tell, although there might have been a brief flash of mischief in Zack’s eyes.