Encompassing Reality (6 page)

The Lieutenant looks at the man responsible and wonders how he could know this particular conversation would happen at this particular time.  As the man vanishes, the Lieutenant decides the only thing left to do is chuckle to himself.  He suspects, based on previous conversations with the figure who had just created a mess he has little idea how to deal with, it wasn’t the first time.  It’s the only explanation for how he could have known the when and where.  He also considers the General’s words.  He pours another drink to ease his mind from the totality of what is going on around him and the pressure of what it means he will have to do next.

After the incident, the Lieutenant looks at Sergeant Brady, “He’s right, you would make a good cop someday.”

CHAPTER 9

“I knew he was dying.  He looked at me wondering if I could take care of myself.  If not, who would take care of me.  I could hear his concerns.  I was a bio.  I had different needs from those born as synths.  The ones made into synths were dying too.”  -- from the Book of Tomorrow

It had been several weeks, Adam thought.  He took a sip of water and looked over as Tomorrow rounded the corner and dropped a dead hawk next to the fire pit.  He nodded to himself, impressed with how much faster she was getting and the things she was learning how to do.

“I’ve never had one.  I want to try that.  It wasn’t as hard as you said to catch one.”  Tomorrow said as she went to sit down in the shade with him.

“Did you use clicking?”  Adam asked her.

She smiled had him realizing she couldn’t hide it from him.  “A little bit.  I’m still not used to it.  I can go to places I can see, but I don’t know how you go to places you can’t see.  Yet.  I’ll figure it out.”

Tomorrow reached over for him to hand over some water.  Adam obliged and then he said, “But you have a question.”

“Yes.  How is it people like you and your family and I can do this, but others can’t.”  Tomorrow asked.

“First may I applaud your work?”  He stood and applauded to her, unsure if she understood the gesture.”  Then he commented, “Most strategists do not follow through with their own plans.  I am impressed.  As for your question, hmm, well I’ve always assumed it was latent in all people, to some extent.  But I think our ancestors went down this path of evolution more so than others.  So it’s genetic.  You remember my explanation of genetics?”

“Yes.  It was sufficiently long and boring.  But I got the idea.”

“You still have a question.”  Adam noted.

“Well.”  Tomorrow paused, then she pointed out what she was wondering.  “How am I related to you?”

“Hmm, well, I know for sure there is another bloodline that can do similar things.  I suspect thousands of years ago, maybe more, maybe less, we all came from the same, but that doesn’t particularly make us relatives.  If you are from that bloodline.  By that logic, everyone is a relative and while that is relatively true, it’s not an accurate way to describe relative.  I suppose.”  Adam stopped and started getting lost in his own thought.

“So we aren’t relatives?” Tomorrow asked.

“Wait a second.  I didn’t say that.  We don’t know who your father is.  Yet.  I suppose we could find out, eventually.”  Adam replied.

“Is that why you act weird when I want special attention, especially when it’s cold?”  Tomorrow asked bluntly, but with wording meant to ease the edge of the question.

“Yes.  You are very attractive, Tomorrow, but there are some things I believe are not good.  Some people call them sins.  It’s wise to think that way due to biological reasons called genetics.  It’s simple science.  The wider a gene pool, the greater the result of the offspring.  People of wider gene pools tend to be physically stronger and mentally quicker.  If for instance a mother is from one part of the world and a father from another, the offspring is more adept.  It’s quite literally something one can, or could, have viewed for themselves.”  He saw her begin to say something but then he held up a hand.  “Wait, let me add to that.  I wasn’t suggesting we have kids!  I just mean science can also help us have a moral compass.”

“I understand.”  Tomorrow said as she sipped the water and looked at her prize by the fire pit.

“Tomorrow, when the sun rises, I’ll take you someplace nearby that you should see.”  Adam raised his hand to the sky noting the sun was going down. “For now, let’s start getting the feathers off that so we can roast it.  We’ll also want to boil some water and hold our hands in it while it is still hot and definitely toss the feathers in it when it is at full boil.”

“What’s wrong with feathers?  I think they look beautiful.”  Tomorrow asked while making her own point.

“After they boil, you can make something out of them if you would like.  I can show you how.  But first, we boil them.  While it is rarer for a bird like a hawk that spends most of its time on the move and a lot of it in the air, birds get lice.  They are tiny creatures, but they bite.  The bites are itchy so people tend to scratch at them opening wounds that can get infected.”  Adam saw her look.  So he added.  “It’s okay, they shouldn’t be able to survive the water if it’s boiling.”

“But we can’t boil ourselves.  What if they climb on us while we are taking off the feathers?”  Tomorrow started to regret bringing that thing with her.  “What if they have climbed on me already?”

A few might have, but they’ll most likely just die in a few days.  Enough have to be on a person for them to breed.  That’s when the trouble starts.  You’ll be fine.”  Adam saw what he was saying wasn’t helping ease her at all.  He leaned over and said, “Plus, it’s going to taste very good. And we won’t ever know if a few of them were on us.  Let’s enjoy the bounty you have brought!”

Tomorrow smiled at herself and jumped up and walked over towards the fire pit. Then she stopped and looked back at Adam.  “How are we going to boil water?”

“That’s where geodes come in.  Geodes are rocks that when broken open are hollow inside, but they have crystals.  We need to find one large enough to use as a pot.  Then we have to break it open and hope it breaks well enough to provide us a pot.” Adam stood and held out his hand to her.  “Come on, I’ll show you what they usually look like.  There are actually lots of them around, but if you know what they look like, then the chances of it being a geode are good.  Or we’ll end up wasting time beating on what looks like a geode, but is solid rock.”  Adam smiles at her.  “Yes.  It’s happened to me, but I’ve become pretty good at spotting the real ones now.”

As they walked, Tomorrow felt like talking.  “So do you know who your father is?”

Adam stopped, “Yes, but it will confuse you.”  Then he saw the look of anger flash across her face and he went on, “Ok, so time is a really confusing thing, but here goes:  Brain is my father.  Phillip was my older brother.”

Tomorrow looked at him and said, “But you said Brian was your grandson and Phillip was your brother.”  She stopped walking and looked at him for a while.  She started to grasp the concept.

“As I said time is confusing.  But now that you are making me think.  I wonder if Brian was responsible for the other bloodline.  Or even Persistence.  She was gone a long time after her and Brian split up for a while.”  He pondered and thought about what she had told him of their time there.  He realized it was unlikely that would be where she went.  Although she liked many things about that time, she didn’t really have an overall care for her time there.

“Were they lovers?  Like was she the martyr’s mother?”  Tomorrow asked.

“Umm, no.  They were cousins, but practically inseparable.  They had a strong bond between them.  Brian was my daughter Solstice’s son and Persistence was my daughter Illumna’s daughter.  They were born the same day.”  Adam said and then he began walking again.

Tomorrow believed him.  She could see the sadness wash over his face and grip him tightly.  She picked up the pace and then stood in front of him.  She ignored his annoyed look and grabbed him in her arms and hugged him.  Tomorrow asked.  “Why did some die and others live?”  She was worried about touching more on the topic, but she had always wondered.

“Hmm.  Well, some were at the epicenter of the crash.  Like Stephen and the device.  When the device was destroyed it sent out a wave, but the wave was smaller than the intended wave, had it been used.  It was designed so that anyone down there would not be effected by it.  However, Phillip’s only way to destroy it and save the most people was for him and Illumna to do what they did.  So yes, some died.  It was a brave thing to do, considering that all would be lost had he not.”  Adam lowered his head in thought.  “Consider that it immediately stopped the Hunter’s because they didn’t receive the basic signals such as how to eat and it immediately took out the sky crawlers because they no longer had co-ordinates.”  He paused again and looked at Tomorrow.  “There was no perfect plan, but it was a damned good one and I respect that you were raised to understand that.”

Then she turned and looked out over the landscape.  “So where are these geodes?”

CHAPTER 10

“He knew me when we met, although he said he had no idea who I was.  I think he knew what I was.”  -- from the Book of Tomorrow

Waking up, Tomorrow walked far enough from their camp and unbuttoned her trousers. When she got back, she noted Adam was still sleeping.  She walked over and kicked his foot.

Adam sprung to his feet and turned to face her, knife out.  Seeing it was Tomorrow, he relaxed for a moment and then his face changed to show his anger.  “I thought we’d agreed you would never do that again?”

“Sorry. Urge.  Plus, it’s an amazing thing to watch and I wonder something.  If you can click away, why wouldn’t that be your first response if you perceived danger?”

“For one, ‘know thine enemy’ and for two, it’s not something you want people to see you doing.  We’ve been over the reasons why you can’t do it at will and the effect it would have on you as well as those who saw it.”  Adam then clicked to a location near where she had just been. When he re-appeared she had the pack packed up.  “That was fast.”  He noted to her.

“You said we were going somewhere today, so now we are ready to move.”  She smiled at him.  “Also, I want to admit you were right.  The hawk tasted very good.  When you said there were things inside that geode, I never imagined it would be so beautiful.  I want to take it with us, but it’s heavy.”

Adam smiled at her and said, “Grab it.  I’m going to click us there anyway.”

Tomorrow immediately turned and bent over to pick up the geode that had been behind her ready to go the whole time.

“So pretty much, you expected my response, but asked anyway.”  Adam said, then he rolled his eyes at her.  He walked towards Tomorrow as she stuck her tongue out at him.

“I do like it!”, she responded with a huge smile and cradled the geode in her arms.  “What I don’t like is this.”  She pointed at the mosquito bites on her thigh.

“I wouldn’t get too worked up about it, they itch if you can’t control your own mind.  There are three thousands five hundred or more species of mosquitoes in the world, only thirty of those carry malaria.  Odds are in your favor.  Especially here.”  Adam commented and then remembered she had no idea what he was talking about.  All of this was new to her.  He had literally plucked her from the depths of the world and she knew almost nothing about above ground expect for simple excursions and videos.  Despite that he felt he should push on and teach her overarching concepts.  “A long time ago there was a very heavily funded program to sterilize mosquitos my genetic mutation.  Unlike previous attempts this one used a gene in the DNA that existed in both male and female mosquitos.  Therefore, the result should have been nearly all female mosquitos would be sterile within a year.”

“Do mosquitos do…” Tomorrow gestures with her hands, “a lot?”

Adam laughs at the crude gesture.  “Enough that they have a generation almost every month of a year.  There aren’t that many in the desert because the females lay eggs and they need water to do that.  On the flip it has to be non-moving water and the desert is a place where water is not often moving.”

“I see.  I want your DNA in me one day.”  Tomorrow answers and then stares at her geode again.

Adam decides to pretend he didn’t hear her and says, “Do you know what jewelry is, Tomorrow?”  Adam asked.  He saw her shake her head.  “Ok, I’ll show you, but we’ll have to break that into smaller pieces.  But then you can wear it on you so that wherever you go you can have pieces of it with you.”

She looked baffled and then pondered the idea.  “I don’t want to break it again.  I like it like this.”

“Okay.”  Adam walked over and picked up the second half, then the half she was staring at.  He handed her both and she hugged them close, like children.  One of the twins becomes jewelry.  The other you can make as a monument to something, but life would get old if you had to carry that stone with you everywhere you went.”  Adam watched her eyes light up as she giggled at the thought.

Adam walked towards her, grabbed her wrist and clicked.

They appeared in front of a destroyed structure and he waved his arm out to it.  “I thought you would want to see this.  This is the house where I was born.  This is what people lived in.  Well, I thought people did.  I didn’t know they were usually not mangled until I was later adopted.  That’s a long story.  Phillip was here.”

Tomorrow stared at the structure and then around it noting it wasn’t attached to anything.  “So people lived by themselves?”

“Some.  Some with families.  Some lived in spaces that were connected to other spaces, but they had locks on the entry to their spaces.  Those were called apartments, but if you had enough money they were called condominiums.  Pretty much the same thing.”  Adam explained.

Tomorrow looked at the place then she turned to Adam.  “Can I put this here.  For Phillip?”

“Yes, you can.  He would like that, I am sure of it.”  Adam replied and he watched her run towards the structure.  At the porch, she dug a slight hole and put the bottom of the geode, with the crystals facing outward partially in the ground and then packed the sand around it.

Adam walked towards her.  She gazed at her monument to Phillip, silently for a long time.  Then she turned and looked up to Adam and hugged him.  “Thank you, Adam!  I’ve always wished I could do something for the martyr.  He did so much for my mother and for all of us.”  Adam held her silently and pulled her closer to him as he felt her begin to tremble.

After a few minutes, Tomorrow let go of him.  She held her head down out of sight from Adam and wiped at her eyes.  Then she turned and looked to Adam as he sat on the bare porch and she went to sit next to him.  Adam put his arm around her as she asked, “Why did Phillip give his life for us?”

“I suppose he wanted to see the suffering end.  I think he also felt personal responsibility even more when he realized it was his half-brother Stephen who was causing the pain for so many.”  Adam tried to answer.

“I thought you were his brother?”  Tomorrow asked.

“Yes, but I was an infant then.  It’s possible to have more than one brother, you know.”  Adam grinned realizing that there hadn’t been a full generation yet, so the concept was shady to her.  “I refer to him as half-brother because he had the same father that Phillip and I had, but a different mother.”

Tomorrow looked out at how high up they were and replied, “Oh.”

“Just over that ridge is a cliff.  It’s where Persistence and Brian practiced.”  Adam pointed.

“What did they practice?”  Tomorrow asked.

“Clicking in space and in time.  Persistence’s methods were, very dangerous, but Brian was always thinking everything through before acting, so I suppose she was a good influence for him.  I suspect that is why Phillip was the way he was.  A deep thinker who was always thinking about consequences.”

“And you?”  Tomorrow asked.

Adam was quiet for a few seconds and then he responded, “I think about a lot of things, I consider consequences, but I grew up far different than Brian and Persistence.  They had a very unique upbringing.  Phillip too had a very different experience, but I think Brian was influential to our mother and that rubbed off on Phillip a lot.”

“How did you come up, as you put it. You said you were adopted.  Like a child taken in by another family?”  Tomorrow asked.  She thought of all the families who took in children after the awakening.

“Yes, I got lucky.  They were good people.  They sent me to college.  That’s a place where you learn a lot of things.”  Adam paused and then lightly punched her in the arm. “Not like what you’ve been learning, but the same concept.  A place to be taught something.  I couldn’t decide what to study, so I studied a lot of topics.  Mostly I wanted to understand how I did what I did when I was a baby.”

Tomorrow looked at Adam, “What did you do?”

Renfield lowered his head trying to consider the question no one had ever asked, “Well, after a long time with no food or drink, down in the basement…Umm, lower area of that house, I clicked one day and I was found by a family that took me in.”  Adam explained.  “It was a while before I learned to click again, but I was very good at hearing other people and seeing remote places in my head and what was going on in them.  I also knew, from hearing people’s thoughts, that other people could not do what I did.  I really didn’t have anyone to teach me.  Later, in college, I started visiting myself.  That gets confusing.  But anyway, like I said, different from them.”

Tomorrow looked at him.  “I see.  Can we go see the cliff?”

Adam stood and held out a hand to help her up. He walked in a saunter towards the cliff, not letting go of her hand.  Once there his grip on her hand became tighter as she insisted on going to the edge to look down.  She saw the jagged rocks.  Then she heard what he was thinking.  She felt his grip get tighter and she knew all that had happened there.  Tomorrow realized she was making him uneasy.  That was odd because he always seemed so sure of himself.  Maybe not as much in his explanations, but he never seemed to doubt his actions.  She wanted to ease his tension so she stepped away from the cliff’s edge.

Adam looked at her.  “You’re getting better at hearing me.  I’m not sure I should have taught you that part of it.”

Tomorrow punched him in the arm, hard.  Then she put her hands to her mouth.  “I’m sorry.”

Adam reached for her and clicked as soon as he made contact.

They appeared next to a stream of water.  It was more water than she had ever seen in her life.

Tomorrow looked up and noticed there were things growing all around her. She walked to the water and there she could see the sun.  She turned back to Adam.  “Where is the water going?  Shouldn’t we catch some before it’s gone?”

Adam laughed.  “Sure, go ahead.  While you’re at it.  Take off those gross clothes and jump in.  You’re beginning to smell.  Later I’ll show you how to wash clothes, properly, in it.”  He began to take his clothes off.

Tomorrow looked at him.  “What if it’s gone by then?”

“It won’t be.”  Adam jumped in the water and began rubbing it all over himself as he enjoyed the sensation of the filth of the last few weeks washing off of him.

Tomorrow watched him, not sure she understood, but she took all of her clothes off and jumped in.  She let the flowing water rinse her hair and when she raised her head up she looked at Adam with a huge smile.  “It feels good.  It’s cold!”

“It is good.  Just a warning.  Watch for snakes.  There aren’t many that swim, but some do.  You’ll see them on top of the water.  Here, the water is moving too fast for them, but in other areas, they might be around.  Just avoid them.  Don’t try to catch one.  All water snakes are aggressive and will attack you first.  A large number of them are very poisonous.  They aren’t shy like the rattle snakes in the desert.”

Tomorrow replied, “Okay, but explain swim?”

“Get, this is a good spot to bathe in.  Then we wash the clothes.  After that, we’ll follow the water until we get to a good spot for me to teach you how to swim.  Basically, it’s moving in the water without drowning.  You can even move under the water that way.”

Tomorrow thought about that and it sounded neat, but she kept thinking the water was going to get away.

Adam said, “Also, in fast moving water it’s safe to pee.  It will go away, just be sure to do that upstream where the water runs faster.  Also, you can do the other thing in the water.  As for your actual womanly thing.  Don’t stay in the water too long.  Skin doesn’t like being wet that long.”

Tomorrow peered at him and said, “It was just a few days.  Stop teasing me about it just because it doesn’t happen to you.”

Adam laughed and grabbed a scoop of water and thrust it at her.  Tomorrow saw how he did it then she clicked behind him and did the same over his head.  Then she grabbed onto his shoulders and whispered in his ear, “Is this the place where there are more animals to eat?”

Adam, could feel her hot breath on his neck and could tell she was excited to try new meats.  “Yes.  It’s also a good place to learn what plants you can eat.  Just memorize the leaves.  I’ll show you what tastes good and I’ll show you what has defenses you won’t like.  As I said, memorize the leaves.  Some we can even use for medicine.”

Tomorrow replied, “Okay.”  She started rubbing water on his back.  “You look good clean.”

“Thank you.”  Adam turned towards her.  As he started to speak his voice broke a bit, then he got out, “You look pretty good clean too.”

Tomorrow looked down through the water and then at Adam’s face.  She kissed him quickly and then pushed against his chest.  Her legs went up in the water and she noticed she was floating. She was thoroughly enjoying the sensation when she saw Adam leap out of the water and then into it and disappear.  He came up under her and grabbed her ankles.  Tomorrow smiled until she noted the look of concern on Adam’s face.  She said, “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t do that before I teach you how to swim.  You could have floated like that for a long time, but we don’t know what’s down there.”  Adam pointed down the river.

She noticed he hadn’t let go of her ankles and she looked at him with a pleading in her eyes.  What she felt was not something she could help.

Adam let go of her, pushing downwards on her ankles and said, “Come on, let’s get the clothes washed so we aren’t putting back on the same dust and stink we just got off.”  He turned and headed to the land.  Adam could hear Tomorrow’s thought from behind him.