One Over X News

Seawall

The following excerpt is from One Over X - Episode One: From The Inside To the Closer, copyright 2002 Elgon Williams. It is used here for promotional purposes and may not be used in part of whole without the expressed, written concent of the author.


Voices more like muted groans echoed but hardly registered in the darkest corridors of a mind. There could have been two people talking or even a ballroom filled with partygoers, Andy could not have discerned. Comfortable as he was, though reason yet fogged over the trace recollections of other places he had recently been. Specifically subdued in mind, he remembered this feeling and this place. A memory like a dream, an event that he requested but likely never happened at all. He relaxed and enjoyed. He was in no mood to resist any perceptions.

Passing in and out of dreamless sleep, when the persistent nocturnal illusion came it was of an indistinct place. As he focused resolution and intensity merged. It was not so much that he could see, feel, hear, touch or taste. He simply was there, entirely. All that he was clung to a wall made of smooth stone. At a dramatic angle the wall arose from the sea toward an even steeper cliff upon which stood a grand alabaster palace. The angle of the wall could be ascended but only with great difficulty. It was a tedious crawl toward the crest. Andy knew this place. He had been here before, before…life. He knew that all began here.

How many nights were spent in trepidation dreaming of this very place? The first that he remembered was during college. There was a drug-induced interlude that had drawn him back to this place. Unaware of any foreign substance a consumed drink, the illusions and the veils of reality permeated pinpricked consciousness, allowing fantastic flights well beyond any norms. As result Andy achieved command over matter and because of the influence of the drug; it did not even surprise him that he could physically pass through a wall. Had that even happened? The answer was clearly, yes.

Mind could no longer cope with the intensity and variety of stimuli that it was receiving. Eyes shut tight to bar the impressions, only to find the grandest illusion of all, the wall rising from the sea and the palace toward which all manner of life were ascending. Significance and meaning were certain but unknown.

It was beyond being. Andy knew that much for certain. Little else could express it. In the bunk above his physical being, Jason, Andy’s college roommate was humping a girl. Pretending to be asleep in the bunk below Andy heard every sigh and whimper. Beyond even that, his senses were alive in a way that he had never before experienced. He could sense the roughness of the sheets beneath him and the stir of air from the window-mounted air conditioner behind his head. Everything in the universe related to everything else in that drug-induced moment of euphoria. Was it real? Did that matter?

Andy was an expert for the number of times he had experienced this place in dreams but for all that was worth it meant nothing. He lacked enlightened purpose and without it he could not fully comprehend.

* * * *

Andy sat up in bed, startled by revelation. Aware of life before his birth but also he had distinct memories. Memories did not fade. It was distinct as if it had been a moment ago that he had dwelled where only souls exist, before…life. Symbolic, there was no real, tangible wall ascending from some ethereal sea of primordial soul soup. There was no great palace either but metaphors from his sentient experience that roughly equated to the soul’s sensibility of experience translated. In absence of physical mind, no frame of reference for memory could be, though physical mind is unnecessary within the universe. Molecular structure contains a code in the double helix spiraling strings. Memory of the wall was primal truth, recording the struggle to achieve station in life, crawling from an ocean of indifference to strive for a position and purpose. Life was a confusing disappointment in contrast to the simplistic truths of life and death that surrounded his primitive recollection. What was so urgent about getting to the heart of life, anyway?

Andy appraised dimness in an early-morning-lit room trying to get a fix on his relationship in the balance. An eternity expended in the flick of one light switch. He was familiar with the room. It was home, his rezcube, where he had intended to return all along. Sanctuary reassured him, where everything was in its place and made sense. It seemed stable. Stable was good.

He brushed his teeth, shaved and showered. All things considered he wasn’t hungry. He skipped the daily bowl of cereal and opted for a slice of melon and a glass of juice. The aroma of a honeydew melon and the sight of brilliant colored orange juice had him reaching for a slice with one hand and a quick glass full juice with the other. Together they served a potent burst of energy. He felt wide-awake even though he was up and about far too early. There would be nothing to do at work. Still, there was even less to occupy him at home. So, he went to the monorail station in the cool dampness of early morning and took the next line into the Technopolis of Neo-Atlantis proper.

Only the expected ordinariness impressed as he settled in at his workstation. Everything was as he had left it, as it always was after the last shift at night and before the first day shift. There were, of course, EthosMasters about, and the cleaning crews. This was the hour-and-a-half revamp time between the mid and the morning shifts. No one seemed to be attentive to his being early. He was not supposed to be there, but it would not matter at all. Into his array he slipped and linked with the Ethosphere, calling from search engines for anything on PROJECT LOOKING GLASS.

The Ethosphere was unusually slow which meant there was difficulty finding any reference or that the reference was a considerable sized volume in many parts or there was…

An immediate rush of interest passed over the room. Four EthosMasters suddenly became twelve very perplexed people, frantically searching the cubicles. EthosCorp Security joined them and before Andy had a chance to realize that he was the cause for all the interest, they had surrounded his workstation. Two of the security people had taken him by the arms, pulling him up over the back his chair to hold him up, off his feet and fully restrained between them. One of the EthosMasters studied the array then immediately killed power, not even bothering to log the terminal off, as if the station were on fire! Andy knew this was significant as it smacked in the face of all training. Shutting down a terminal improperly risked the integrity of the entire node of the Ethosphere. Killing power was a last resort. There was never a good reason to kill power unless there was an extreme emergency.

No one was forthcoming with any explanation. There was only an eerie silence surrounded by articulated functionality. The EthosMasters simply said nothing as they whisked him away to a security office and deposited him in a small windowless holding room that lacked furniture excluding one very uncomfortable chair. The door closed, and from the voices outside, Andy could tell that there was a guard posted even though he was certain that the door was locked and there was little hope of escape.

While isolated, Andy had time for his senses to catch-up to the events. To be sure, he was in trouble. He was not sure why. Obviously he had triggered some security response with his query about PROJECT LOOKING GLASS. How much trouble was he actually in? Would he lose his job? Would he be disciplined? Was he in more trouble than just that?

He was alone in the dark. Security cameras covered all angles responding to his every motion. A mirrores along one wall was certainly two-way. How much attention he had called down upon himself? Peterson had been awakened from bed and was on his way. Caroline Henderson was flying in from the other coast to personally question him. Unbeknownst to him the full four hours of his captivity permitted the principle characters to converge on the technopolis. Andy’s major concern was his rezcube and that it was being ransacked. His modified astralnav would certainly be discovered. He worried over what would they do to him. If the issue were forced all of the major components were stolen. Lee would be implicated in a messy matter. Hard labor in a penal colony in the wastelands, or worse, on one of the outer colonies on one of Saturn’s moons was a possibility. If they learned that he’d actually activated the astralnav they might execute him except that now the astralnav worked beyond its design specifications. At least Andy’s reconstructed astralnav operated well beyond spec and it performed flawlessly.

This was his trump card.

He had improved a very important device upon which EthosCorp relied to some extent. They could dissect the device and analyze it of course. They could not readily resolve the programming error about which he alone seemed to be cognizant. They did not know where to look in the code and it was such a primitive thing that it would escape them for a very long time. It was insignificant so they would ignore it because of the system in place to protect the integrity of the system. What was overlooked was dust. Simple dust was not included in the calculations.
Common everyday household variety dust!

The same dust of which all things are made and unto which all things will eventually return. Ever present and always pervasive, if the relatively insignificant mass of dust were not included in the equations it was very likely that the real mass of dust would permit the specific gravity and mass of the astralnav to reach an undefined state. As Earth’s atmosphere retains a greater presence of dust than space, operating an astralnav too near to the Earth would almost always be disastrous.

After five hours as Andy reckoned someone finally came into the room and asked him if he was hungry or wished to use the facilities. Funny, that hadn’t even crossed his mind, but he did need to go, after all. He could use a little something to curb his appetite as well. He was escorted and accompanied inside the restroom.

“Do you mind? I mean I’m not going anywhere.” Andy challenged at the insistence of a guard to enter the restroom with him.

No response; no deviation.

“I promise I’m not going anywhere.”

Still no response.

“So, what do you think? Is mine bigger than yours?” Andy asked.

“Hardly.” The guard finally answered.

“Really. I’ve heard of dickless Security guards.”

Andy could see the rage in the guard’s eyes.

“I may have gotten that wrong,” Andy corrected. “It might have been ball-less.”

“Just finish your business.” The guard said, frustrated that he could not thump Andy for what he was saying.

Andy wasn’t used to peeing before an audience and so it took a little longer than normal to commence the flow.

When he returned to the holding room, there was a small table and a chair set with a plate of some kind of food that he did not recognize. It was the sorts of things someone rich might eat, he thought. He sampled and it tasted very good indeed.
There was vintage wine that had also always been well beyond his economic reach.

His stomach churned at the smell of the food. He sat down and consumed the meal ravenously; afraid that there had been some mistake and that once discovered the food would be taken away. Then he waited again. The waiting frustrated him most. Whatever it was that they planned to do with him, he wanted it to be over.

Increasingly restless, what he feared from the recesses of his mind was that he would never go home.

A fairly long time after he had finished eating, someone came into the room to remove his tray and asked him if he was doing okay. Why the politeness? Only a few hours ago he was treated like a common criminal. Now they seemed genuinely concerned about the well being of a lowly functionary? This didn’t make sense.


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posted by Unknown @ 9:25 PM