Jake's Fortune Ch. 05

As Jake woke up, he could hear the hushed discussion. He kept his eyes closed.

"...in his brain scans? No epileptic episodes?" someone was asking.

"None. I do not know why, but somehow he's not having violent episodes right now." he heard doctor Lev's heavy whisper.

"What do you think is preventing it? Is there a way to explain it?"

"None that I know of. The firing patterns are off the charts and... Wait, something is happening. I think he's awake."

Jake opened his eyes as doctor Lev cut the connection.

He realised that the doctor was consulting with a colleague on Earth via FTL comms. Faster than light communication was a technology accidentally discovered thirty years ago, when humanity made a breakthrough in quantum computing.

Doctor Lev approached him and asked "Jake, are you feeling well?"

"Yes, doc."

"Then we need to talk."

"Can I get out of the pod first? I didn't move in days and it's killing me." he pleaded.

Doctor Lev approached him and unlocked his pod, he floated out of it and stretched his body.

"While treating you, I couldn't help but notice something strange. Your brain scans are off the charts." he paused, "At first I thought my equipment was malfunctioning, but now I know it's not the equipment. This is real, and your body isn't irradiated, so it can't be the radiation interfering with the equipment. Are you using any drugs?"

"None that I know of." he said.

"Well, in that case, I'll have to keep you here under observation."

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am." the doctor said sternly.

The doctor kept him there for three days, and when he couldn't find anything wrong with him, he finally released him. When he asked to see his uncle, the doctor asked him to come back in four days.

***

He couldn't help but notice the looks of admiration the crew were giving him as he left medbay.

Some would stop and talk to him, and others were nodding their thanks. He got some suspicious looks as well.

The crew told him that there was most likely a fire, since many of the passageways were darkened and covered in soot, although they were baffled at how it spread. He saw the crew cleaning it all up as best as they could.

Some of his repressed memories almost escaped as he took in the carnage in the cargo hold, but Siren was quick to assert her control. Her efforts proved successful, until he decided to visit the pirate ship.

The scene that greeted him was surreal. The first thing to hit him was the smell, a putrid mix of the scents of charred and rotting flesh. The malfunctioning ventilation wasn't really helping.

From the inside, the ship didn't look so small. Compared to a feeble human, it was massive. It was dwarfed by the Metanoia of course, but was still big enough to house an army.

He found what looked like a cargo hold that was converted into a barracks with sleeping arrangements lining the walls, and the corpses greeted him with their molten eyes and scorched skins.

The bridge was a total mess. Wrecked consoles and shattered screens. Collapsed girders and molten metal stuck out of the walls. It looked like something exploded and only the bridge's shielded location at the centre of the ship prevented a fatal decompression.

He shivered as he surveyed the scenes before him, and wondered what kind of weapon could have done that kind of damage. Was this his uncle's work?

As he explored further, he found what looked like a brig, and he saw two dead men. Behind the hatch and to his right, he found a woman's burnt corpse inside a cage. She wore a simple gown and had a tuft of burnt brown hair.

Flashes of memories flooded him as Siren's barrier collapsed, and with a horrified expression and teary eyes, he saw what he had done.

"I'm sorry." Siren whispered.

***

He spent days isolated in his workshop. He barely had anything to eat or drink, and he wouldn't talk to anyone, especially not Siren.

Hussein had come to see him, and so did Hannah. He told them both the same thing, that he was fine, just tired and recovering. Both didn't seem too convinced but respected his wishes to be left alone.

He studied diligently. Then set out on his work: reprogramming the simulation software to do his bidding. Siren kept trying to reach out to him, but he ignored her pleas.

He wasn't even sure if his method would work, but damn it all if he didn't try.

After days of hard work, he commanded his AI to start the simulation.

He sat by the lake, his feet dangling in the water as he stared calmly into the depths. Siren walked up to him.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked him in a sad voice.

"Because of you. You hid my memories from me, and who knows what else you're hiding."

"I only did it to protect you! I didn't want you to find out!" she said, hurt.

"Protect me from what? From you? Why didn't you tell me you were a weapon?" he asked.

"I'm not a weapon! I'm a sapient being!"

"You could have said something! Anything! You could have stopped this." he pointed a finger at her.

"No, I couldn't. And neither could you. Nobody could have stopped this." she said.

He lay down on his back, gazing at the stars with glassy eyes and a dazed face.

"Jake, this wasn't your fault, and getting rid of me won't solve anything."

"I was the one lifting my fingers. I was the one who killed all of those people. I killed an innocent woman because of you."

"It was your life against theirs, Jake, you didn't have a choice."

"That woman didn't deserve to die."

"Listen to me! You weren't yourself!"

"Thanks to you, you fucking bitch!" he said heatedly as he stood up "If I hadn't met you, none of this would have ever happened!" he yelled.

"I'm sorry, Jake, I really am. I wish I could have prevented it, but nothing I can say or do now will ever bring her back." she said with a broken voice.

She could see the sadness envelop him as they both paused for breath.

"This was never supposed to happen." she said as she moved closer.

"And how did this happen exactly? Any brilliant explanations?" he challenged her.

"I don't know." she said reluctantly.

"Then we have nothing to talk about." he said as he turned away. "EVA, begin the proce..."

"Wait! All I know is that humans are... different from any other species we encountered."

"How so?" he asked.

"Your brains are quantum entangled." she said quietly.

"What? You mean like FTL comms?"

"No, it's different from that."

"How so?"

"Look, it's difficult to explain."

"Tell me!" he demanded.

"Fine, but you have to understand, Jake. This is the most amazing discovery my kind has made in æons." she said with a solemn expression.

"We thought we'd seen it all. From sapient planets to hive minds. But this... this changes everything."

"Remember when I told you that we're both patterns in the æther? Back then, I thought your pattern was restricted to atoms and molecules, but it appears that I was utterly wrong."

"Human brains are quantum entangled, Jake, and I mean every neuron in your brain. Your body has an extension somewhere else. Be it another place, another dimension... Frankly, I do not know. But this could mean that your brain has the potential to affect reality in ways that you, and I, cannot grasp."

"I don't understand." he said in confusion.

"It's like when your body casts a shadow. While you're not actively changing anything, your shadow is affecting reality behind you."

"That's what quantum entanglement is like, Jake. Your body is casting a shadow across the universe, a shadow that could extend anywhere, or to another universe entirely, a shadow that can affect you as much as you can affect it."

"Now I understand the references that I've been studying in your culture: things like extrasensory perception, and psychic qualities. The evidence is there, Jake. Even your history and literature interpreted them as magic."

"You spent your whole life thinking of such things as nonsense. The ramblings of desperate men aspiring for feats they couldn't possibly accomplish, and yet you manifested something that surpassed those stories."

"And I used it to kill an innocent woman." he brooded.

She tried to ignore his remark, not letting her emotions show.

"You didn't defeat or bend physics to your will, Jake. Your mind simply transmitted your will to a greater component of your being and it acted upon them. The nano-transmitters in your brain, the ones you use for your simulation, acted as receivers for the energy you channelled, and my presence only enabled the process. My pattern is what amplified that link and preserved your body against the inevitable damage that would have befallen you."

"I do not know what that part of your being is, or how it functions. I do not know what this means for humanity's future or yours. All I know is that you and I are more alike than you think."

"And there's something else. The bright blue light. Do you remember what I told you about it?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's not supposed to happen so often."

"With you, it happened four times. The first was when I was born, the second was when we bonded, the third was when we both... climaxed" she paused "And the fourth time was when you thought your uncle was dead."

"But you told me it was synchronicity!" he exclaimed.

"It is! But it shouldn't be happening so frequently, and with such intensity."

"And why didn't you tell me that earlier?" he asked in anger.

"It scared me too, Jake. I am the first of my kind to bond with a human and I didn't want you to be worried."

"Do you remember when I told you about the ancients, and how they thought it was the light of a pulsar incarnate? How I thought it was all superstition?"

"Yes."

"What I didn't tell you was the rest of the legend."

When he aborted the procedure, Siren sighed with relief.

***

He was at the bridge when he got the call telling him that his uncle was finally awake.

At medbay, Doctor Lev greeted him and asked "Would you like to see him now?"

"Yes please." he responded.

"Follow me." the doctor said.

He followed the doctor through the medbay until they found his uncle strapped in a pod with a medi-gel patch covering half of his head.

"Hello son, I'm sorry I can't exactly hug you right now."

"Just seeing you is enough, uncle." he said in a sombre voice.

His uncle smiled and tried to cheer him up "Lighten up, boy. I'm alive and kicking, aren't I?"

"Except the kicking part." quipped doctor Lev in a thick Russian accent.

"Yeah, about that, don't you think it's about time I left this darn pod? We have a shipment to deliver!" his uncle responded.

"Bo-zheh moy! Again? I already told you. We have to make sure your face remains where it ought to be." The doctor retorted.

"Can I at least stretch a little? My legs are killing me." his uncle pleaded.

"Fine. But don't move too much, and I'm only letting you out because your nephew is here." he heard the doctor say as he unlocked the pod.

His uncle darted and was suddenly behind them.

"Ha ha! You fool! I told you I'd get out eventually." his uncle said to the doctor as he stretched his legs as far as they would go.

"Uncle, shouldn't you be listening to him? Remember what you said when I sprained my ankle in the airlock?"

"Yeah, yeah, but boy! It feels good to be out of that damn thing!" he said with a grin.

"Mr. Evans, am I correct in the assumption that you're not going back in there?" the doctor asked.

"Damn right!"

"Fine. Just make sure you don't hit your head on anything for the next couple of weeks. I'm growing tired of you." the doctor said in irritation.

They embraced as they left the medbay. His uncle wanted to know what exactly happened and how he got rid of the rest of the pirates after he fell. He didn't know what to tell him, so he told him they'd talk later.

He escorted him to his private quarters and left him there.

***

They headed back to Luna as soon as they managed to salvage every screw and bolt from the pirate vessel, and they found tonnes of salvageables on board. The corpses were stowed in cold storage pending their transfer to the authorities, and evidence was gathered and preserved.

It took them two weeks of acceleration to reach a speed of 720,000 kilometres per hour. The reactor flared as it powered the mass drive. At an acceleration below one gravity, the inertial dampeners were unnecessary.

Sub-light travel was different from using the manoeuvring thrusters to close small distances. The reactor poured energy into the mass drive, which emitted a field that reduced the ship's mass greatly. Making for an enormous mass-to-thrust ratio that could propel ships well past conventional speeds at the slightest push from basic thrusters. A molecular disruption field stopped small objects from colliding with the ship by breaking the molecules down to their basic components and assimilating the liberated energy.

When they reached the turnover point, the thrusters went offline, and they crossed half the distance from the asteroid belt to the earth, a total of four hundred and fifty million kilometres in exactly 12 days. Then they started the long braking manoeuvre, which took two more weeks. All of this was controlled by computers that managed the process with precision that humans couldn't fathom to surpass.

Travel in space was a strange thing.

***

It was one week into the journey, and Jake was in deep thought, contemplating what Siren had told him, when his communicator buzzed.

"Yes?"

"Jake, Hannah says she has something to show us. Meet us at the security station." he heard his uncle's voice say.

"I'm on my way." he said as he left his workshop.

On his way to the security station, he found the ship in a much better shape. The soot was gone, the broken crates recycled, and the corpses removed. He couldn't help but feel relieved. It was like a weight being lifted at the back of his mind.

The crew looked in better shape as well. The filters in the ventilation system had finally done their work, and they were breathing clean air once again. He even caught a couple kissing in a darker corridor. And for a moment, it seemed like things were back to normal.

And then he reached the security station.

"Come, take a look at this." Hannah was haunched at the security station, looking at him with a strange expression. His uncle was floating next to her.

Perplexed, he watched the monitor as the record played. His uncle and him were fighting the pirates in the cargo hold when his uncle collapsed. His eyes went ablaze with bright blue light as he proceeded to flatten everything in sight.

His uncle turned and looked at him with pale features.

"Don't tell anyone." Jake whispered as he touched the console, the screen went blank and the files were erased. Siren sighed with relief.

Hannah just stared, and his uncle blinked in shock.

"Son, what kind of demon has got into you?"