Wake Me In The Future (21 page)

So when I felt like my mind was in danger of producing thoughts that could harm my love for my wife, I retreated into the journal I’d started about our previous life; trying to re-enforce my memories, just in case I had to share them with Helen.

Helen and I had both loved and worshipped life, but why did this new one have to be so complicated?

Rachel had been afraid to let me meet her parents because she was ashamed of their views and feared their attitude towards all Cryogens would drive me away. In fact, at times she painted them as such egregious xenophobes I was beginning to be thankful for not receiving an invite.

‘You’ll learn Richard, that there are a lot of Manoorans that wish you Cryogens had never been found because it reminds them they’re not human.

The desire to assume humanity’s mantle is so strong among some, that the entire population of one of the new worlds have had their memories altered to make them believe they are actually the original humans. They think they’re living on the original Earth alongside the rest of us; who they believe to be friendly visitors from space. The Information System is so advanced that the pretence can be easily maintained.’

‘Wow, it’s not just the human race that was seriously messed up then?’

‘No,’ she said, ‘but as I’ve noticed you say sometimes ‘it takes all sorts.’

In the event it had been Rachel’s parents themselves that had invited me to meet them.

‘I think they’re worried that you’re some kind of nutter and they want to vet you, do you mind? I am sure it’ll only be the once.’

‘Of course not, I’d love to come.’ And thinking that I was making a clever joke said, ‘It’ll give me the opportunity to show them that we’re not all bug eyed monsters.’

She didn’t laugh, but just looked at me with a wry smile and said ‘I’ll see you there then.’

Realising I probably had nothing in common with her parents I set out to learn a little about their area of expertise. I knew they were solar scientists and undertook research into productive use of the material within black holes.
Oh dear,
I thought,
this is going to be far beyond me
. But using the mind link with the system I learned, on a very elementary and high level, that they had actually managed to access the minute dimensions wound up within the tiniest of elemental particles found in the quantum foam that bound all the structure of space-time together. Then there was something about solving the riddle of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and that was when it became so complex my mind nearly shut down!
I was right,
I thought,
this is going nowhere
, but for the sake of Rachel I continued to attempt to absorb the information.

It was now possible to store data and draw energy from these dimensions, which they’d discovered were fundamentally linked to the dense cores of black holes.

This was just way beyond anything Helen and I had ever speculated about.

They’d even created something called a
Solid
String
which was an immeasurably thin but solid structure made from black hole material consisting of elemental strings condensed so much that they no longer vibrated, and stretched through the dimensions over many light years. The energy required to manipulate it was more than the entire visible energy within our galaxy, (the numbers were giving me a headache as they passed into, and then straight out of, my head).

Regardless of the amount of energy that was required to manipulate this solid string, they now had access to an unlimited supply of it from the quantum dimensions. And manipulation at this end created an instant reaction at the other end, providing real time communication across the galaxy.

Communicating, as I discovered, with the beings that lived on the orbiting Moon of their home planet, who had previously helped them escape to a better life. They were sending them information as a reward for their help in the past and helping them re-engineer Manoora to cope with the absence of their species. Whatever I might think of Ramoon, the Manoorans in general were a caring and honourable race.

I had to laugh at myself by the time I arrived at their home, because I’d virtually forgotten everything anyway, it was just too much to take in and definitely in more detail than I could absorb. I presented my hand to the green patch next to the entrance and it flickered between blue and green to indicate that the people inside had been informed of my presence.

Rachel’s head suddenly appeared through the door. ‘Hi Richard, come in.’

Their apartment was a lot larger than mine, which was to be expected really as it was a family unit. Over on the other side of the room on a brown lounger was a man that looked about 30 or so with a neatly trimmed goatee beard and looking as if he couldn’t possibly be Rachel’s father; but considering that outward appearance of age was now a choice, it was perfectly possible that he could have looked younger than she did.

The man rose to greet me with a smile as I entered the room and said, ‘hello Richard - welcome to our home.’

‘Thank you sir,’ I couldn’t believe how polite I’d become, this society was definitely having a positive effect on me, ‘it’s very nice to meet you.’

‘Likewise, do take a seat, my wife Maya will be out soon, she’s just informing the system what food to deliver. She’s proud of her choices.’

‘I am sure it’ll be lovely.’

‘Mother’s choices always are,’ said Rachel as she joined us.

Maya & Mazood Karr welcomed me into their home with smiles and pleasantries which initially made me think that Rachel’s concerns were unfounded. They were treating me with respect and were courteous in the extreme, unnerving me because I couldn’t tell if it was genuine or patronising. But all became clearer when they started to talk about their work.

Rachel had told me that the general population and especially those with influence were obsessed with not straying outside the Solar system. Even though they had the technology to colonise other systems and even traverse the inter-stellar gaps between the galaxies themselves.

‘It’s like they’re afraid to leave this place now they’ve found it, and all they go on about is how the population is never going to grow so we don’t need any more space. Honestly Richard you’d think that this Solar system was their whole Universe.’

‘Did you ever get the opportunity to travel to any of the other worlds in your first life?’ Mazood asked me, looking at me with intense interest and expectation.

‘I am afraid not, we’d only just begun taking the first tentative steps to Terra-form Mars when I passed away. There was a small colony on the moon but apart from the orbiting hotels owned by private companies there was very little opportunity for the general public to move off Earth.’

‘Maya and I study the Sun.’ Mazood said as his wife walked into the room ‘It’s our long term objective to control its burning and ultimately use a local black hole in a nearby star system to introduce matter in a controlled flow. Once we’ve mastered that, we can use the technology to keep the Sun stable and extend its useful life indefinitely.’

‘That sounds fascinating, I’d love to know more,’ I said, genuinely interested, ‘how would you get to and transport the matter for example, but if you don’t mind me asking why are you bothering at all, couldn’t you just find another system to colonise?’

Oh dear, I’d done it again – put my foot in my mouth and pushed it right down my throat. In my minds eye I could see Helen laughing.

Rachel’s parents both looked at me as if I were an absolute idiot and had just swung in from the trees. For a few uncomfortable seconds they both stared with open mouths and almost disgust, and at the same time seemed totally dumbstruck.

What had I said?

Then Maya spoke and this time her tone was definitely condescending ‘We’re not a primitive species.’ she blurted out ‘We don’t intend becoming wonderers of the Universe. We have everything we need here and here is where we intend to stay.’

I seemed to have hit a sore spot and said quickly, ‘I didn’t mean to offend you; it’s just that before I died, any talk of the future always included travelling outside the Solar system.’

Maya, looked down at me, as if being asked to communicate with a one celled amoeba, and said with a noticeable sneer, ‘that’s probably because you thought the Sun would ‘
run out’
and you’d be forced to move on, no doubt a hypothesis arrived at by your scientist’s incomplete equations leading them to the wrong conclusions about the Universe.’

‘You see Richard,’ she was really into her stride now, hot and indignant, ‘what they left out was quite a significant part of the equation when attempting to explain the Universe and predict it’s future. This,’ she said, tapping her temple with her forefinger, ‘Intelligence Richard, that’s the force that will ultimately master and control everything in existence, not your silly laws of nature and physics and the extrapolations of what would happen if they were left on their own. Humanity isn't the only collection of chemicals that ever rose to consciousness you know. And fortunately we can think beyond you and not make the same mistakes.’

The words ‘you’ and ‘we’ had a definite emphasis on them and I felt that I’d just been given a dressing down on behalf of my own race, even though overt references to the differences seemed to be taboo.

‘Mother,’ said Rachel sharply, ‘I think something’s ready in the dining room.' and to me she mimed the words, ‘I am sorry.’

I’d learned a lot of skills in my first life and one of them was diplomacy. I knew I had to get these people back on my side, if only for Rachel’s sake.

So before Maya left the room I managed to say, ‘I think what you’re doing is amazing, you have to remember I am only thinking with the limited knowledge of my past. I would never presume to think that what you’re doing is anything other than improving the lives of all humans.’

Maya paused and smiled before walking through the wall, the inclusive use of the word, ‘humans’ doing the trick.

Mazood looked at me and raised his eyebrows, ‘Thank you Richard, we Manoorans can be a little sensitive about certain things; I hope it doesn’t come between us if Rachel and you stay friends.’

He started to ask me how long I’d been revived when there was a buzzing at the entrance and the doorway became transparent from inside, showing the caller standing as if staring at a blank wall.

And that caller was Ramoon!

‘Richard, I think you know our friend Ramoon,’ said Rachel’s father as Ramoon entered. ‘I thought it would be a good idea to invite him so you didn’t feel too uncomfortable.’

In actual fact my comfort level had just plummeted to new depths, because I wanted to demand an answer from him about my rejection from the Cryogen project. But I bit my tongue and forced a smile.

‘Hello Ramoon, I’ve been trying to get hold of you but I was told you were away on business.’

‘I am sorry Richard, I’ve only just returned.’

Somehow I didn’t believe him,
how had Rachel’s parents been able to invite you tonight then?
I wanted to ask, but didn’t.

‘Is Ankit back as well?’ I was having difficulty concealing the underlying anger I was feeling and I bit down on the other side of my tongue.

‘Yes, and he said he’d be contacting you tomorrow.’

‘Only I wanted to speak to you about the Cryogen project but I realise tonight isn’t an appropriate time so would it be alright to come to see you as soon as possible. Would tomorrow be convenient?’ The whole of my body had become tense now.

‘Of course it would, why don’t you invite Ankit along as well if he’s free? He may have some ideas where we can employ your talents.’

He seemed to have enjoyed making that last remark just a little too much for my liking. I certainly had no intention of doing anything other than searching for Helen.

Maya invited us to the table and I followed the others through to the dining room. It didn’t look vastly different from what I'd been used to in the past. A large oval wooden dining table (although I doubted it was wood) was surrounded by high backed chairs. As each of us walked towards it Maya took control and pointed to where she wanted each of us to sit. She placed me between her and Mazood with Rachel on the opposite side of the table with Ramoon, as far away from me as possible.  When we’d settled, Maya spoke towards the middle of the table and said clearly, ‘please serve dinner.’

I'd been used to getting my food from the panel in the wall and taking it to my small table to eat, but this was something entirely different. The food seemed to grow out of the table itself. One minute it was bare and the next cutlery and plates formed out of the table. And in the dishes themselves the food emerged, changed colour, shape and texture, and then finally grew hot as steam rose into the air and carried the wonderful aroma of Chinese cooking throughout the room.

‘That smells delicious’ said Ramoon, and Maya seemed to fawn under his praise.

‘I know it’s your favourite Ramoon.’ She said, hardly able to conceal her obsequious tone.

I followed everyone else’s lead, and as each course was finished we placed our implements inside the dishes until we'd all finished a course, upon which the plates and remains of the meal melted back into the table, before the next course appeared just as miraculously as the first.

When the last course was complete not only did the plates disappear, but so did the table. As it absorbed what was on it, it too was absorbed into the floor, melting slowly down until it had gone completely. The High chairs we were sitting in also began to reshape and move while we were still seated and we soon found ourselves sitting in a circle of comfortable armchairs, and where the table had once been, the flames of an open fire danced rapidly before us.

Only a small amount of heat reached us from the flickering image, but there was something wonderfully primitive about its amber glow that was so relaxing. The walls had disappeared and virtually transported us to an opening at the side of a wide river, the moonlight and stars shone down from the clear night sky and I could hear the shrill of insects all around and smell the mix of fresh air and burning wood that surrounded us. It took me back to my Scout days but the Scouts had nothing like the armchairs we were reclining on and I’d certainly never been allowed to drink wine whilst sitting around a campfire.