“Okay, what’s on your mind Little Brother?”
“What’s on ‘my’ mind? For Christ sakes Arty, we should be talking about ‘your’ actions and ‘your’ attitude. You are out of control, dude. You are fuckin nuts, man. You need to get back with Mr. V, and end this shit. Get rid of this damn abortion you call a body, and end all this shit!”
“Timmy, Timmy, just try to realize, I’m just trying to help all of you the best I can.”
“By shooting down innocent pilots.”
“I’m sorry about that, but I had to see—”
“Stop it!” Tim interrupted. “This is me you’re trying to bullshit, not one of the others. That poor guy didn’t have a chance! You did it for sport! Am I correct?”
“You make me sound so cold.”
“Bingo.”
“I’m not going to go through this anymore,” Arty stated. “You think one thing, and I think another. There’s a problem, I admit, but you do what you think is right, and I’ll do my thing, fair enough?”
“Your thing involves people getting hurt,” Tim said.
“So does yours,” Arty countered.
“I’m not going to hurt any—” Tim stopped; he knew Arty could hit him with what he had done.
“I’m not on some power trip!”
“Oh no. . .Timtown?”
“I didn’t do that. I had nothing to say about it.”
“Ha, ha, ha,” Arty laughed. He finally turned and faced Tim. “You are on a power trip Timmy, if you were not, you would turn in all your fancy hardware, walk out the door and never look back.”
“I can’t just leave all my friends here.”
“Why, they’ll all be safe? They don’t need you.”
“Oh yeah, what the hell happens to them if something happens to this base?”
“That’s why I’m right, and you’re wrong.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said. I’m making sure that nothing ever happens to this base, so your friends will always be safe. You on the other hand advocate doing nothing, being the eternal ‘nice’ guy. It’s not a ‘nice’ world out there, just ask Ann.”
“You leave her out of this!”
“I’m only trying to make sure she is always safe.”
“Is that all Arty? Is it going to stop there, or is the world going to shudder under your influence?”
“My god Timmy, phew, it’s truly amazing how elegant your speech has become. I’ll bet that just a few short weeks ago you sounded like an average teenager. Now, here you are making grand speeches for the whole world. Do you think they would appreciate it? Do you think they would listen to you?”
“They would, if they knew about you.”
“Oh, they will Timmy, they will.”
“That’s what I’ve been talking about Arty, you don’t have the right.”
“Timmy, I’m busy, now just run along.” Arty turned, and with incredible speed, rushed across the chamber, and through an opening on the far side and was gone.
Chapter 15
TT Drugs
Tim transported back to Donnart-Ele-Io.
Damn him! Shooting down the military plane was incredibly stupid, unless that is part of his plan. He couldn’t get it off his mind as he stood there in the white nothingness.
“I’ve decided how I want my place here,” Tim announced.
“Yes, good, go ahead,” Et responded.
Tim explained what he wanted. Before the quake he had always figured he would move away from home someday and get a place of his own. It wouldn’t be much because he wouldn’t have much money. An older friend of his had moved away from Mountain Cove. Tim had visited him once and this guy had a studio apartment. He used to dream about getting a place just like it someday.
“Is that it? You can do anything imaginable, and that’s all you want?” Et asked.
“For now, yes.”
*
Tim stood there in the total white, waiting, and then poof, he was in his new apartment. Now he was standing in a place just like his old friend’s. It was a plain room, fifteen feet wide, twenty-five long, with a separate bathroom that split the back of the apartment in half and was connected to the main room by a door. Tim looked around, it was perfect.
He instructed Et to install a refrigerator, a stove, some cabinets, a sink, a counter, and on the counter a microwave oven because he planned to do his own cooking. All this was in the back half of the apartment, next to the bathroom. In the bathroom, he put a sink, a medicine cabinet, a toilet, and a shower.
“What do you want outside?” asked Et.
Tim was positive that he could get anything he wanted outside, probably sixty acres of prime real-estate if he really desired it, but that wasn’t important.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? You don’t want anything at all?” Et paused for a moment. “What did your friend’s place look like outside?”
“It was awful, a bunch of old bums sleeping on the sidewalk, and smelly.”
“Oh I see,” Et said. “And, you’re happy here.”
“Like I explained, this is the way I figured my first place, on my own, would look like.”
“It’s a typical bachelor pad, correct?” Et commented.
“Ah yeah, or a typical, starving college student pad.”
“Are you going to starve here?”
Tim didn’t answer because he was thinking about furnishings. When he was done, it was plain and functional. He would enjoy coming here and that’s what was important. In the end, all he added was a noisy, wall mounted air-conditioner. Et commented that the air-conditioner was unnecessary, but Tim said he wanted authenticity.
After the apartment was finished, Tim sat in the beanbag chair on the floor having a general discussion with Et, talking about this and that.
“You know even before the earthquake, things were all screwed up,” Tim said.
“How do you mean?” Et asked.
“It’s like people don’t really care. I think sometimes most people are out of touch with reality. I mean, man, some of the stupid, self-centered crap they’d do,” he paused, “and get away with it. Really amazing sometimes.”
“Your civilization is in a period of its development that is confusing to its individuals. On one hand: a race to advance, on the other, a struggle to stay in the past. It is the utmost of the possible extremes. Standing in their way is millions of years of hardwiring, meaning memory and instinct. You’re chastising them, but not considering the complexity, the strain.”
“The drugs,” Tim stated.
“Meaning?” Et asked.
“Oh, just with all the pressure; it makes sense that people drink and take drugs.”
“They always have, and always will,” Et said.
“Really, boy, I’ll bet you’ve got some good shit, huh?”
“Shit, meaning stimulants, correct?”
Tim was about to answer, but one of the small balls of light that Tim was familiar with popped out of the wall in front of him and shot toward him. Just before it reached him it changed directions and then began to circle him. He watched it go around a couple of times and then he took his eye off it. He was looking ahead and suddenly he felt a warm spot on his back. The warm spot moved through him and when he looked down, the ball of light was just coming out of his chest. The light ball moved out a few feet, stopped for a second, and then moved toward him again. This time it headed for his forearm and when it was almost there, Tim pulled his arm back, and the ball followed it. He moved his arm in an arch, and the light ball still followed.
“What’s it trying to do?” Tim asked.
“Hold still, and you can find out,” Et said.
Tim stopped moving his arm, and the light-ball immediately moved next to his flesh. He felt a warm, pleasant sensation on his arm. The ball started to change its color, from a soft green to a darker shade, and then on to a blue green, and then to blue, and then to purple, and then into a crimson
. As the colors changed so did the feelings on his arm. The feelings were different, but still extremely pleasant.
As he watched the crimson change to a bright red, the ball entered his arm. The sensation was extreme. It sent waves of pleasure up his arm and into his body. The light stopped in the middle of his forearm. He looked at the spot where the light had entered and what he saw startled him. The light was shining through his flesh.
The light began to change colors again; this time the red was fading to a pink, and then it changed to white, increasing in intensity. The light was getting brighter, but it was also spreading inside his arm. He watched in total fascination as the different parts of his arm became transparent. He moved his little finger, and a muscle back up in his arm responded by contracting, in turn pulling on the tendons, operating the finger. His blood was visible running through his arteries and veins. He twisted his wrist while wiggling all his fingers. The movement inside his arm was complex, but so smooth.
His arm had a fantastic tingling inside where the light was. It was a feeling that he couldn’t explain, but it was extremely pleasurable. Tim watched the light as it started to decrease in intensity, and the feeling began to fade also. The ball suddenly shot out of his arm and streaked toward the wall and then through it. He looked down at his arm and moved it. It worked as well as ever, but it felt so relaxed.
“What was that all about?” Tim asked almost out of breath. He had been so engrossed in the experience that he had forgotten to breath.
“Something for you,” Et replied. “What did you think?”
“Oh man that was great. What do you call that?”
“Getting a rush, I think you refer to it as.”
“Huh?”
“Getting high, feeling good,” Et repeated.
“That wasn’t the same thing because we were talking about drugs. That light wasn’t a drug.”
“Oh, just the same results though.”
“Yeah, but, it’s not the same thing.”
“Oh, but it is. That was a very powerful stimulant. Do you agree with that?”
“It was powerful, yes.”
“You’ve been here long enough to realize my drugs would be better than what you would expect, correct?
“Yeah, but it’s still not the same.”
“It is exactly the same. The light was what your civilization would call a designer drug.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t have any side effects, I’ll bet.”
“It does.”
“What? What bad things could it cause?”
“Apathy, a strong desire to do little else.”
“Oh, come on, surely most of the people living here would have known better than to get hooked on something like that.”
“Yes, most, same as most of your civilization knows better. You know different people have different reactions, to different things.”
“I guess.” Tim paused. “Do you experience anything like that?”
“Like what?
“Like getting high?”
“I already explained that I have no emotions. No highs and no lows.”
“What about that hypothetical next stage you wonder about? I thought you were moving closer to being human?”
“That was the central computer.”
“I thought you were one and the same.”
“In some aspects, yes, but I’m still a machine. My directive is still to assist the Number One. It is all I do.”
“Wrong!” stated Tim.
“Wrong? How do you see it?”
“You do accomplish your directive, yes, but do you realize that you have become involved in my life?
“You think so?”
“Yeah, and what about that Eighth-Stage?” asked Tim.
“That was a direction Mr. V had taken.” Et stated.
“He did it because he was left with nothing to do for all that time. By the way, what did you do during that period?”
“I was inactive.”
“I know that, but what did you do?” Tim asked again.
“Nothing, I was shut down.”
“How come?”
“There was no Number One to assist, that is my only function.”
“Why didn’t Mr. V get shut down?”
“He had the base to operate.”
“Have you conferred with Mr. V on what has happened to him?”
“Yes.”
“What do you think?”
“It is an interesting development,” Et said.
“I’m interested in it too. Can you access the information from Mr. V, so we can take a look at it?” Tim requested.
“If you want me to, yes?”
“I want you to, as soon as you can.”
“It is done,” said Et.
*
Tim transported himself back into the forest because he wanted to see the log cabin Margie told him Ann was building. Apparently she was using the three prisoners Tim had captured as her labor force. Tim thought that wasn’t a good idea, until Margie told him that Mr. V’s, big, imposing Alien body was guarding the three. Evidently they were taking their job real seriously, and the cabin was growing quickly.
*
Tim materialized next to the pond Ann had been living by, but she was not there. He had not asked Margie where the cabin was located. He decided to follow a stream from the back of the pond, knowing that there was a much larger lake at the end of it. He figured Ann would have chosen that location.
As he followed the stream, it got wider, and the trees along its banks got larger. He had traveled a couple of miles and was in a deep, dark forest. He hadn’t recognized any of the trees for quite some time so he assumed, this was part of Mr. V’s collection that was either from a different time, or not from Earth at all.
He had sat down on one of the many rocks in the stream, to rest, when he thought he heard something. It was faint so he couldn’t recognize it, but it was definitely not a forest sound. He moved farther along the stream, and the sounds were getting louder. It was the sound of building, and as he rounded a corner in the small river he could see it straightened out and ran on another couple of hundred yards into a large body of water.
The stream was widening out, the rocky banks turning into sandy strips that widened as the water got closer to the lake. There was a fairly wide sandy beach on the left side of the stream that ran from the lakes edge, a hundred feet or so, to the edge of the forest. Tim was coming down the stream and couldn’t quite see around the corner of the trees, but he could hear the activity.
Tim walked around the corner, and there standing out in the open was Mr. V, the big version.
Tim walked out into the open. The large Alien gave him a big wave, along with a smile, and walked to meet him.
“Come to see what’s going on?” Mr. V asked. “I think it is great. That Ann sure is a creative person. You’ve got to see this construction.” Mr. V sounded like he was really excited.
“Yeah, I’ve heard. You know, I’ve never been this far in the forest before. It’s really neat. Where do all the trees come from?”
“Which ones?”
“I recognize most of the trees in the first part, but as I got deeper in they didn’t look familiar anymore. Some of them are so big.”
“Oh, a few are from other planets, but most are just mutations I’ve been playing around with.”
“Your guys brought living things from other planets?”
“Just a few flora seeds, but no fauna. Tell me, how are the new quarters working out?”
“Great! Well, actually, it would be nice if I could bring people there.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. I’m sure it’s lonely there, but if you want company, you’ll have to find it here.”
“Oh, it’s not lonely there, that’s not the reason. I explained it to Margie because she keeps asking, but she doesn’t believe me. Could I take some pictures?”
“It wouldn’t do you any good.”
“Boy, that place ha
s got some strict rules.”
“That is so the Number One has complete privacy, and it is impossible to take pictures there.”
“Why?”
The Alien threw back his head and laughed hard. “Because my friend, it does not exist.”
“That’s impossible, I’ve been there,” Tim stated.
“No, you haven’t, because it is all an illusion,” the large Alien said.
Tim was about to argue the point, but he just stared at the large being. He shook his head. “That is a crazy place.”
“Not at all. It is designed to give the Number One complete autonomy. It will all make sense, someday.”
“That’s scary! So where is Ann?”
“She is behind her house. She is working on the part that is next to the woods.”
*
Tim walked toward the structure, admiring it. Ann was building a log cabin and it was a rather large one, but not in the conventional log cabin shape. Margie had said that Ann had started off with only one room, but when that was finished, she added another, and when that was finished, she added one more. It looked as if there were at least ten at this point.
Tim walked around the corner of the building because he heard some pounding back in that direction. He spotted the three prisoners positioning some logs on top of what they were constructing. He was wondering if Ann was taking advantage of the guys? When he first saw the cabin it looked like a tremendous amount of work because the logs looked heavy, but as he rounded the corner he realized that even here, Mr. V’s abilities were at work. One man was directing a ‘floating’ log into its final location, as the other man was starting a log on its way to the first man, and the third man was producing logs out of a weird looking contraption. They were working on what looked like a large open room with a massive porch. An intricate series of steps, all made out of logs, led from the top of the porch, down a little ways to the ground, and then back up again into large boulders. The pounding sound came from ‘in’ the field of boulders, somewhere.
Tim walked past the first man and went down the steps onto the porch, where the second man was.
“Hello, I haven’t seen you before,” the man said.
“This is the first time I’ve been here,” Tim returned.
“Oh, I haven’t seen you in the base either. Are you Tim?”
“Yeah.”
“I’d like to thank you,” the man said.
“For what?”
“For my life. I’ll never forget the day down in the canyon.”
“I don’t imagine,” Tim laughed.
“You made a darn big impression on me.”