Jake's Fortune Ch. 02

"Yeah, and I can sprout wings out of my butt and fly!" his uncle quipped.

"It's all true, I'm telling you!" Jake said as he rolled his eyes.

"Did you wedge your oxygen tube in something out there? Did your brain asphyxiate and make you hallucinate?" his uncle said heatedly.

"No! I..." he tried to say.

"Right, I've got no time for your shenanigans son, we need to mine as much of this asteroid as we can before somebody else comes and boots us off this rock."

He shrugged. "Okay uncle, I'll see you later."

"You get back to that witch and that witchcraft of yours."

"Classic uncle, calling my virtual assistant a witch." he replied.

"Yeah, whatever that thing is, now scoot."

He sighed, and on his way back to his compartment, he bumped into Hannah.

"Is it true? Did you find something out there? What was it?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, uncle thinks I was hallucinating."

"And what do you think?" was her question.

He contemplated an answer for a moment. Did he somehow hallucinate it all? He'd have to ask EVA later.

"Maybe I did, I wish I recorded the whole damn thing!" he exclaimed.

Just then, a buzzer sounded and she looked at her belt.

"Okay, you go on and get some rest. I'll see you around" she said hastily as she hurried out of the way.

Maybe it was a good idea after all. He headed for his compartment again, wishing for no interruptions this time, and he found none on his way back.

"EVA, did I imagine all of that out there?" he asked as he looked around.

"Imagine all of what?" his AI enquired.

"What? You too? Forget it, I'm going to bed. We can talk tomorrow." and so he did.

Slouched in his berth, he had the strangest dream.

For the first time in his life he was standing on solid ground. He stood by a lake, and the beautiful girl from his simulation was there, naked, and she was talking; although no voice would come out.

It was dark, but he could see the light coming off of his face. He looked at his reflection in the lake and saw his eyes aglow.

His eyes were radiating a faint blue light. He freaked out and moved away, but as he got more agitated the lights only intensified.

Sensing his distress, the girl moved closer and softly touched his cheek. Her touch was warm, and it made him feel safe. Safer than he'd ever felt in his entire life.

And for the first time in his life, he was content.

He stretched as he woke up, feeling oddly relaxed. But his panic returned and grew worse when he opened his eyes and could still see the faint blue glow reflecting off the compartment wall in front of him.

He closed his eyes and shook his head, when he opened them again, the glow was completely gone. He unstrapped himself and floated into the compartment.

"I must be losing my mind." he pondered out loud.

"You are not." the feminine voice replied.

"What the hell? Who is this?" he yelled as he looked at the empty compartment around him.

"I am your virtual assistant." his AI chimed in.

"Not you, EVA, I'm talking to the other voice." he said.

"What other voice? At the present only you and I exist in this compartment, I can detect no other sounds." it said.

"Never mind."

"Oh, nobody else can even hear me, you can just think to me if you like. I'll hear you all the same." the voice whispered.

"What? Are you.. are you reading my mind?" he thought.

"Not reading it per-se. More like settling in." it said quietly.

"Some interesting memories you have in here, interesting imagination too. Surely full of plump breasts and..."

"Stop right there! You can see my memories?" he interjected.

"Oh yes, I can access them with ease, it's quite thrilling, seeing a human life through the eyes of a human!"

"Oh god, is this latent schizophrenia? I need help." he said aloud.

"Shush, don't go making a scene now. We don't want a repeat of your performance at Luna now, do we?" it said sympathetically.

He flushed at the mention of the disgraceful event.

"Just who or what the hell are you exactly?" he asked.

"You can think of me as an interactive thought." it said slowly.

"A what? Define 'interactive'."

"A thought that can think back at you."

"And how did you come to be in my head?"

"Oh, let's see. When my mother lured you to that rock..."

"Your mother? What rock?"

"Let me explain."

And ponderously, it did.

"When you approached that rock, or what you thought was a beacon of some kind, you were approaching my mother. Who decided to gift you with me."

"Until that point, I simply did not exist."

"But I simply exist because I can't not."

"I am what you could call a probability wave, and a sapient one at that, a quantum phenomena that's beyond your education or comprehension, suffice to say that my kind roams the universe in search of beings like yourself."

"I am a pattern in the æther, and so are you. We both exist at different levels of energy and different states. But we both exist. I am a self-organising pattern of probabilities, while you are a self-organising pattern of atoms and molecules. And just as atoms make you up, probabilities are my major component."

"As you can guess, intelligent life is quite rare, and so my kind sent rocks to your world amongst others that have golden zones and are viable candidates for life, but we got caught in what you call the asteroid belt, and my mother was the last to survive the æons of time it took for your kind to evolve and actually reach space."

"She waited patiently until, finally, you happened upon her. So she lured you in with an energy signature similar to what she knew your beacons emitted. She didn't know if someone would actually come to investigate. But she hoped for the best. And you did."

"And so she touched you and brought me to life."

"She died when she did that, you know? Her own pattern shattered; she had to die so that I could live, and be with you."

"Why did she have to die?"

"Don't interrupt me... and to answer your question: she expended the last of her energy trying to reach out to you."

"Wait, you're saying that she was a she? Are you a she?" he asked.

"No, I'm genderless, so was she. I'm only using the female form of addressing because I'm mated to you, in which case I became a she."

"You're what?!"

She paused for a moment, then continued.

"I know it's hard to comprehend, but I'm mated to you now. I can't leave you or bind to another. We're mated for life."

He listened quietly as his mind reeled.

"Don't worry, that doesn't mean you can't find a human mate, but I'll always be part of your life."

"I was struggling with your pattern until you went to sleep, only then could I make sense of the jumble of mess inside your brain. When your neurons aligned and the pattern settled, I could finally make sense of what I was feeling. Ah, to feel. That's a new experience! Ha ha! I'm a newborn, you see."

"I still retain most of my parent's memories and experiences, it just takes time to recall them. I can also access your own. They're as much a part of me now as I am part of you."

"But.. where did your kind come from?" He thought, flabbergasted.

"We're all made from the stuff of stars. You are made from stardust. The elements that comprise your body were all made inside of a star that went nova æons ago. The iron in your blood, the calcium in your teeth, and the carbon in your DNA were all made inside a star that went nova at some point in the distant past."

"But my kind.. We're made inside pulsars, tiny neutron stars that spin at an incredible rate and release insurmountable amounts of energy. And that's where our pattern first emerged. In jets of heavy radiation lies how we came to be."

"In the same way you evolved from carbon peptides randomly colliding in a primordial pool, we evolved from matter interacting in quantum states your science might discover one day."

"We both exist because we have to. There simply is no other alternative."

At that moment, the hatch buzzed and it slid to the side at the press of a button, it was Hussain.

Slightly irritated at the interruption but not letting it show, Jake greeted him. "Hey Hussain, how are you?"

"Tamam brother, Al-hamdulilah. How are you feeling? I heard you got your head banged badly on your way to the airlock yesterday."

Typical uncle.

He laughed. "Oh, it was nothing. I just needed a little rest is all. How goes the mineral hunting?"

"Oh brother, we hit the mother lode out there, that rock you found is the best thing that's happened to us since we installed the recreational facility."

"Yeah, I wish I could say the same about that other rock I found." he thought.

"Hey! I can hear that!" she whispered in his mind.

"So, any plans for the future? Perhaps dating a certain beautiful young girl I know, who was worried sick about you?" Hussein pressed him.

"Oh god, not that again." he said.

"Hey, I wasn't suggesting anything..." Hussein began to say.

"Yeah, right." he interrupted him.

"Hey! you don't have to be so sensitive about it. We all know."

"You all know what?"

"That you're secretly gay and you're just good at hiding it."

He actually chuckled this time. "Right, you got me."

"Okay brother, will I see you around at the mess later?"

"Sure thing. Take care Hussein." he said as the hatch closed behind him.

"Nice guy."

"Hussein? He's the best."

"It's good to see you're not completely cut off from the rest humanity. You creative types all seem to be."

"Creative?"

"Oh yes, I can feel it from the pattern of genius in your thoughts. It's just not manifesting right. It's quite annoying having all of those unrealised dreams and wild images restlessly flashing in and out of existence inside of your mind every moment. You need to organise them some more. I'll have to teach you how to do that."

"It's nice of you to worry. But first, what's your name? What should I call you?"

"Oh, I don't have a name yet! You pick one!" she whispered excitedly into his mind.

"I think, because of the trick your mother used, it's only fitting."

"What's fitting?"

"I'll call you Siren."

"Ha! very funny."

"It's settled, then." he thought with finality.

"Wait, seriously?" she asked incredulously.

The mess hall was... well... a mess. With spent food and drink tubes sprawled all over the place. It smelled of grime and the heavy musk of sweat. The last week of heavy work had its effect on the crew and they certainly didn't let down. Thankfully the food and drink tubes had small magnets to help them adhere to surfaces.

"Someone needs to clean this up." he said.

"Oh, I'm sure someone will get to it eventually, dear." Aisha said with a venomous look at her husband.

"Hey, I didn't eat all of this food by myself!" Hussein shot back.

"I bet you wish you could have."Jake said with a smile.

"This space gunk? No brother, I want a steak." said Hussein with dreamy eyes and a longing tone.

"I've never had one before. So count yourself amongst the lucky ones."

"I'm sorry brother, hope you can get one soon, we're heading back to Luna and we'll be rich this time around!" Hussein said cheerfully.

He frowned "Oh? We are? Uncle hasn't told me about it."

"Oh, you know Mr. Evans. No time for us his measly subjects. Always busy doing this or that." said Aisha as she sucked the last of her drink out of the tube.

"So he couldn't find the time to tell his nephew that we're leaving this rock?" Jake was staring in anger.

"Don't worry about it brother, here, have some watermelon. I saved one for you." Hussein said cheerfully as he handed him a tube.

"Thanks, Hussein."

Hussein always had that effect on him, he always cheered him up no matter what, so he started to suck on the watermelon tube. It was good.

"You know your uncle loves you." Siren whispered in his head.

"Oh so you're finally back. Where were you?" he tried not to sound the words or let his emotions show on his features.

"Around, I was studying."

"Studying? Studying what?"

"The highlights of your very short life."

"Hey, it's not my fault I'm only 18."

"Relax, it was a compliment. You've been through a lot."

"Yeah."

"And about your parents.. I'm so sorry."

"Let's not talk about that, please."

"I know it's.. sensitive. But you need to let all of that out."

He tried to fight back the emotions and failed miserably, so he decided to go back to his workshop.

"I'll catch you later, Hussein, Aisha." he struggled to say their names without emotion, then nodded to both and left. He got a knowing look from Hussein.

He sat alone in his workshop, amidst the jumble of cables and conduits, and various machinery and consoles.

"You didn't have to bring that up, you know?" he thought with an angry tone.

"Oh? How was I supposed to know you'd react that way?" she whispered.

"Exactly, you don't know me. So don't presume shit you don't know about me."

"Fair enough! Lesson learned." she whispered apologetically.

"Screw this! EVA, prep for another simulation." he said aloud.

"Loaded and ready. Would you like to review the simulation parameters?" EVA queried.

"No, same as last time. Account for 1,824 extra nano-transmitters and no neural dampener, that stuff makes me groggy as hell."

"I must warn you that without the neural dampener, the simulation is likely to fail early."

"Just do it, now." he said irritatedly.

"I will do as you ask." it stated.

"Escaping reality again, are we?" Siren whispered.

"Shush and let me be. It'll work this time." he responded.

He eased himself into the recliner, strapped himself in, and injected himself with the extra nano-transmitters.

At the press of a button, the compartment disappeared.

It felt like a normal simulation, but something was different this time. He was back at the lake from his dream. It was night but the moon was gracefully casting its light all around him. The stars shone and glimmered in a kaleidoscopic display of lights and colours. It was all reflecting off the lake, and the nearby mountain towered with a snow cap so beautiful it was shimmering in the night's sky. It was the most breathtaking sight he'd ever seen.

It was like seeing new colours with new eyes.

The beautiful girl was there, stark naked, and snuggling closely against him. He expected her to start kissing him immediately and proceed to love making as usual.

"It's beautiful out here." she said in wonder.

His eyes widened in surprise.

"What the fuck? You can talk? Since when?"