Linkage: The Narrows of Time

Chapter 21

Dreamscape





Replica L followedBruno into the armory on Sublevel 5 where three more soldiers wereputting on equipment vests and checking their rifles. Each was anexact copy of Bruno, making L feel like he’d just walked onto theset of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone. “How many of you are there?”

“Eleven in all,”Bruno said.

“How do you tellyourselves apart?”

“We can’t, that’shalf the fun of it,” Bruno2 said, stepping aside to allow the othertwo Bruno copies to leave the armory.

“I assume the realBruno is walking around here somewhere?”

“Actually, he died along time ago. He was one of DL’s oldest friends and theprofessor’s been replicating us ever since,” Bruno said, handingL a set of combat fatigues and boots. “Here, put these on while Ifind a vest for you.”

L slipped out of hisstreet clothes and into the camouflage green uniform before puttingon and lacing up his heavy, black boots. Bruno helped him into anequipment vest. It fit perfectly. Suddenly, L’s stomach felt emptyand he had an overwhelming craving for cotton candy, which wasstrange since he hated the sticky treat.

Bruno checked thesights of an assault rifle, then handed it to L, along with a metalclip of full ammunition. “Go ahead and load the weapon.”

L flipped the magazinearound, inspected its contents, then inserted the open end into therifle’s stock. He forced the clip upward, hearing a ratchetedclick. “Did I get it right?”

“Yes, perfect.”

L pressed the releasemechanism to discharge the clip, catching it in his other hand. Heheld up the open end. “Why do these bullets have crimped endsinstead of a projectile?”

“Because they’reblanks. We never use live ammunition unless we’re left with noother choice.”

“Won’t this be aproblem when we have to defend ourselves?”

“We’re notauthorized to engage until we’re fired upon first, and when we do,we’re not to harm anyone.”

“Can’t we just missthem on purpose?” L asked, putting the rifle down on a storagecontainer to his left.

“Even a poorly aimedweapon fire can cause collateral damage,” Bruno2 said.

“Kleezebee expectsthe mission to be carried out to the letter, which means zerocasualties,” Bruno added. He handed L a semi-automatic M9 Berettahandgun and a magazine full of blanks.

Cool, a nine-mil,” Lsaid.

Bruno reached for hisbeltline and pulled out his vibrating cell phone to answer it.

L rubbed the tips ofhis fingers over the 9mm’s contoured grip and polished barrel,waiting for Bruno to finish his call. He aimed the gun at an emptyspot on the wall and imagined what it would feel like to squeeze thetrigger and feel the weapon’s lethal recoil when the round left thebarrel, traveling without thought to its target. He felt invinciblewith it in his hands, even if it was loaded with blanks.

He slid the gun intoits holster and flexed his palm and fingers a few times, trying toloosen the soreness inflicted on the real Lucas by the BioTex. Helooked at both sides of his hand, wondering why his body wasregistering pain from something that happened to someone else—before he even existed. Had he formed some type of empathicrelationship with his donor?

He thought about hisrecent birth, reliving the moments leading up to his creation. Heremembered how nervous he was slipping his hand into the gooeysubstance, right before his viewpoint shifted from one body toanother. He recalled his first thoughts as a replica, sitting up andintroducing himself . . . to himself. His head was swimming withchildhood memories, all of which now seemed like artificialflashbacks inserted from someone else’s life.

His memory and emotionswere alive, but was he?

During Man’sevolution on Earth, he wondered if there was a single moment in timewhen an ape’s pure instinct for survival evolved intoself-awareness, thereby classifying the mammal as a sentient being.Was it an instantaneous change in perspective, or did Man’sprimordial emotions slowly develop and adapt over time?

And what about laughterand humility? Did those emotions suddenly manifest or did they haveto be cultivated and learned through complex social interactions withother bipedal primates? Maybe it was simply a random convergence offactors that developed out of necessity, or possibly, nothing morethan the inevitable result of an ever-advancing intelligence.

When he was the realLucas, he had studied every facet of Einstein’s Theory ofRelativity, pondering the complexities of time fluidity and thetwisted paradox of Cause and Effect. Temporal Mechanics would cause amental meltdown for most graduate students, but like his youngerbrother, he welcomed its complexities. He knew he was not caught in atime loop, but his distorted reality seemed to be governed by a closecousin to Cause and Effect.

His existencetranscended the limits of a single life and a single consciousness,leaving him as both the real Lucas and the replica, but not bothsimultaneously. He was a stateless contradiction, living somewhere inbetween the worlds of theory and fact. Perhaps it was more accurateto say he was living somewhere between human and alien. Either way,his existence was difficult to quantify.

Then he realized that,as a synthetic being, he had no real family and no home. His life hadbeen rebooted, bringing him back to where it all started. Once again,he was an orphan whose passions were imprisoned between the marginsof fortitude and heartache.

Just before hanging uphis cell phone, Bruno said, “Yes, send them down to the armory.”

L felt a cramp in themiddle knuckle of his right hand, which soon spread to the rest ofhis fingers. His hand turned a scarlet color as it slowly wilted likea water-starved tulip. “Bruno, I need a little help here.”

“Check your vest’spockets,” Bruno told him. “You’ll find candy bars and othersugar rations inside. Eat one of them now.”

L inventoried thecontents of his pockets and found a five-inch caramel-coveredchocolate bar. He tore open its plain white wrapper and consumed thesnack in only three bites. Within seconds, a wild rush of energysurged throughout his body, invigorating him. “Wow, what atotal rush,” L said, watching his malformed hand and fingers springback to life in human form.

“I take it you werefeeling hungry right before the deformation?” Bruno asked. “Hungeris precursor to reversion and means your sugar reserves are low. Ifyou want to avoid a public spectacle, you should refuel immediatelyonce hunger starts.”

“Seems ratherimpractical,” L said, pulling out a stale, golden sponge cake fromthe right front pocket of the vest. “To have us stop in the middleof whatever we are doing to fire down a five-year-old Twinkie.” Ltapped the Twinkie against the metal rifle rack, emitting a loudCLANG.

“Your new body hashad little time to build adequate fuel reserves, which means you’llonly have a few minutes to refuel.”

“That’s not muchtime to find sugar. Will it increase?”

“Yes, once yoursynthetic engine adjusts to your new human metabolism. It’s likebreaking in a new car. Eventually, your body will give you moreadvance notice when reserves are low.”

L raised his eyebrowswhile looking at Bruno’s rotund waistline.

Bruno rubbed his belly.“I know what you’re thinking. I have a lot invested in my ratherstout figure and must be able to go for days without a pit stop. Butdon’t forget, my size is simply an internal volume adjustment,nothing more. I can choose any programmed identity, like skinnylittle Mary, for example. My shape has nothing to do with how muchonboard fuel I’m carrying.”

“It’s more aboutbuilding up glucose,” Bruno2 said. “Your artificial nanocellsneed the stored energy to maintain their volatile memory. Without it,they’ll suffer a cascade failure and revert to pure BioTex.”

“Wouldn’t it makemore sense for us to wear a device that acted like a fuel gauge?” Lasked. “With all your advanced technology, I have to believethere’s something better than: When your stomach growls, run to thefridge and scarf down a dozen Ding Dongs.”

Bruno opened one of thecorrugated storage boxes stacked in front of the rifle rack, pullingout a pentagon-shaped digital watch. “You mean something likethis?”

Bruno2 pointed to thewatch on his right wrist, which was partially camouflaged by hisforearm tattoos. “We all wear them. They also double as acommunication device, a proximity sensor, and a bunch of other coolstuff.”

“Awesome,” L said,taking one of the watches from Bruno. He latched it around his wrist.“How does this it work? Is there a hidden speaker and microphonesomewhere?”

“No, it uses anon-linear, neuro-electrical connection. As long as you’re wearingthe device, communications will be delivered through your nervoussystem and directly into your inner ear. No one else will hear it. Totransmit, press the face of the watch and speak normally,” Brunoreplied.

“Does everyone hearwhat I’m saying? Won’t that be confusing if we’re all talkingat the same time?”

“They’re wirelesslynetworked through a central comm system, which uses artificialintelligence to monitor and deliver communications automatically.”

“Like a smart voicerouter,” L said. “Aren’t you afraid someone will steal them andreverse engineer the technology?”

“Not possible.They’ve been encoded with biosensors that allow them only to beused by our kind. If it loses physical contact, the advancedtechnology inside the watch self-destructs. To a human, it wouldappear to be just an ordinary watch.”

“So, basically, don’ttake it off your wrist or it fries,” L said.

“Correct, unless youturn off the self-destruct mechanism first.”

Before L could askabout the self-destruct mechanism, a mostly bald, male technician ina lab coat walked into the room. He was carrying an enormous syringe,big enough to scare an elephant.

“They’re here toinstall tactical programming,” Bruno said.

“Okay, but where areyou going to stick that thing?” L asked, worrying about hisbackside.

“Left ear canal,”the tech reported. “It’s a direct neural interface device.”

Lucas pushed the techaway from him. “If you try to stick that thing into my ear, I’llstab you in the eye with it.”

“You just need todeactivate your pain receptors,” the tech said, holding up theprobe for insertion.

“How the hell am Isupposed to do that?”

Bruno replied, “Closeyour eyes, tilt your head back, and concentrate on your ear’scellular structure. You have the ability to control your shape, whichmeans you can morph any part of your body into gelatinous form. It’llallow you to receive the encoder probe without pain.”

“Like this,” Bruno2said, tilting his head back. The side of his head began to lose itsconsistency, turning a scarlet color. He inserted most of his lefthand into the shimmering glob, then withdrew it a second later. “See?No pain,” he said, while his ear canal retook human form. “Prettycool, huh?”

L was still skepticalbut decided to try the reversion process. He closed his eyes, tiltedhis head back, and concentrated on his left ear canal. He thought hemight be getting the hang of it when he felt a watery sensationinside his left ear canal, but when his right eye drooped down acrosshis cheek, he knew he was in trouble.

“Dude, your eye,”Bruno said.

“Oops, my bad,” Lsaid, covering the deformity with his right hand. He quickly adjustedhis concentration, making his eye return to its normal shape andlocation. “Whew, that’s better.”

“Go ahead. Try itagain,” Bruno said. “Only this time, try not to think of anythingbut your left ear.”

L took a deep breath,then exhaled a rush of wind across the roof of his mouth. He mumbledquietly, “Don’t think about your groin . . . You don’t need itscontents melting down your leg . . . Concentrate on your ear canal .. . You can do this.”

L continued his effortsand eventually succeeded in converting his left ear to the nativeBioTex. He was able to hold the semi-liquid state long enough for thetechnician to insert the probe and complete the fifteen-secondprogramming update.

“Okay, you’re goodto go,” the balding tech said.

“Glad that’s overwith. It’s harder to do than it looks,” L said, feeling his earreturn to normal shape. Without thinking, he inserted the tip of hisindex finger and began to rub the inside of his left ear, making themoisture squeak. He removed his finger and checked it for earwax,realizing his new ability would make removing the water from his earsmuch easier after his daily shower. Things were looking up, he mused.

“Gentlemen, it’stime to start our mission,” Bruno said.

L stuffed four extraammunition clips inside his vest pockets. “You can never haveenough ammo, even if they’re only blanks.”

“Lock and load,”Bruno2 replied.

Bruno escorted L andBruno2 down to the ground floor, where Brunos 3 and 4 were waiting infront of the silo’s entrance. Two lumbering tanker trucks and oneunmarked sedan with tinted windows pulled up in front of the group.

* * *

Drewleaned back in his wheelchair to watch the array of video monitors inthe surveillance room. The screens were filled with energy fieldswreaking havoc across London, Moscow, Las Vegas, and New York City.Densely populated neighborhoods, and even entire cities, were beingrazed without mercy. He had seen enough. “Lucas, we can’t justsit here while thousands of people are being murdered in theirhomes.”

“I agree. But whatcan we do?”

Drew furrowed his brow,pretending not to know the answer to the question he was about toask. “Remind me again, how big was the energy spike in our lab?”

“Six times 1031terajoules, but I’m sure you remember that.”

Drew’s concentrationdrifted away from his brother. He stared straight ahead at nothing inparticular, while the tip of his tongue pushed at his lips,protruding out of the corner of his mouth. His head bobbed like itwas ready to join the crowd on a dance floor.

“Hey, I know thatlook,” Lucas said. “You’re on to something. Come on, spill it.”

“Assuming we couldgenerate enough energy, and then somehow channel it into the dome’svortex, do you think it would be sufficient to destabilize thewormhole?”

“In theory, yes, itmight work. But the energy requirement would be huge.”

“What would be yourestimate?”

“At a minimum, we’dhave to match the energy field’s total output.”

“Which is six times1031 terajoules, same as the E-121 energy spike, right?”

“Of course, but whereare you going with this?”

“I’ve been thinkingabout the government’s Big Ivan idea,” Drew said, opening thered-and-blue theory notebook from his knapsack. “Remember thoseequations I saw the two NASA techs working on, when we followed Maryto the conference room?”

“Vaguely. Wasn’t itsomething about controlling virtual protons in a quantized field?”

“Exactly,” Drewanswered, pointing to a set of equations on page fifteen, with theletters QED written above them.

“QuantumElectrodynamics?”

“Do you remember thetremors in our lab right before the E-121 vanished?”

“Sure, but I don’tsee the connection.”

“What if NASA wasrunning a vacuum energy test at the same time we were running ourexperiment?”

Lucas nodded his headseveral times and smiled. “Okay, I see what you mean.”

“What do you think?Would it be enough?”

“It’s possible. Butwe should run this by DL to get his input.”

Drew followed Lucas toKleezebee’s location across the room.

“Excuse me, Dr.Kleezebee, but Drew has an idea you need to hear,” Lucas said.

“Okay, shoot,”Kleezebee said.

Drew said, “When wewere on NASA’s Sublevel Twenty, I saw something in one of the labs.Two techs were standing in front of a grease board, working on a setof equations. I could only see part of their work, but I’m sure ithad something to do with Quantum Foam.”

“What’s QuantumFoam?” Bruno asked.

“It’s a subatomicstorm of creation and destruction that takes place constantly insideempty space,” Drew replied.

“Wait a minute. If ithas a storm in it, how can it be empty?”

“The laws of QED saythat on average the vacuum of space is empty. That means thereare other times when empty space is not empty. It all depends on whenyou happen to look at, or sample, the empty space. The storm happensso fast, sometimes you’ll see it and other times you won’t.”

Bruno shrugged.Obviously, the information confounded him.

Drew tried to dumb itdown a little. “Think of it like the percolating foam on top of abubble bath, except it takes place at a subatomic level. The storm isalways churning away, creating particles of matter and anti-matter,which instantly destroy each other and give off energy. Now imagineyou’re in that same bathroom, but it’s dark, and all you have isa strobe light that’s flashing slowly. If you happen to open youreyes at the same moment the light is on, you’ll see the foamcreating and destroying virtual particles. If you look when the lightis off, you won’t see it even though the foam’s still there,doing its thing.”

Bruno stood there witha puzzled look.

Drew continued, “Theway it works is empty space borrows energy from the future to createone particle of positive mass and one of negative mass. When thesetwo particles meet, they annihilate each other and release tremendousamounts of energy. This, in effect, pays back the borrowed energy tothe future. This constant creation/destruction cycle is what we callQuantum Foam.”

“Okay, I think I’mstarting to get it,” Bruno said, rubbing the top of his glisteningskull.

Lucas added, “It’slike on Star Trek, when there’s a breach in the engineroom’s anti-matter chamber. When matter and anti-matter meet, theyinstantly destroy each other and everything around it. We think thisis where all the excess interstellar radiation comes from.”

“Ah yes, Gene’sshow,” Bruno replied, smiling at Kleezebee.

“And the relevance ofall this, is what?” Kleezebee asked.

Drew answered, “Thenight the E-121 vanished from the core, we felt underground tremors.If NASA was running a Quantum Foam experiment at the exact samemoment we fired up our E-121 experiment at full power, then maybe—”

“The zero-pointenergy produced by their experiment was drawn into yours. Likeinterstellar light being sucked into a black hole,” Kleezebeeinterrupted, combing his unruly beard with his fingers. “You thinkNASA’s experiment caused the energy spike.”

“Yes, sir, we do,”Lucas said. “And that’s not all. Go ahead and tell him, Drew.”

“Professor, I don’tthink it’s purely coincidence that these domes are using the sameamount of energy as the energy spike. I think they’re related insome fashion. We might be able to use the energy produced by NASA’sexperiment to overload a dome’s power matrix and collapse it.”

“How?”

“That part I haven’tfigured out, yet. I’ll need a better look at their work.”

“If I can get youback down there, do you think you can show me where you saw thoseequations?”

“Not a problem. Ihave the location memorized.”

“How are we going toget past the soldiers?” Lucas asked.

“By killing two birdswith one stone,” Kleezebee said, before asking his tech, “Where’sthe squad?”

“Ten miles out, sir.”

“Then we still have time. Get him on the horn for me.”