DREAMING

1.  The bubble terminated.  Post-Kiles was gone and pre-Kiles was alone on Ewa Beach.  The sun was melting over the horizon, turning the azure, pink and yellow sky into the deepening colors of night.  "Where are you?" his mother asked.  Kiles smiled like never before.  The re-purposed Nazi ramphart was gone.  This was where he had started out earlier that day, and technically, never left.  "Another adventure?" she asked.  All of his adventures were variations of the same glorious theme. 

2.  "Mother?" Kiles said, "I need to talk to you."

3.  "Of course, Darling," she cooed, "I need to talk to you too."  He had always taken for granted that she knew what he was thinking anyway, so the need for serial communciation was somewhat redundant if not ridiculous.  "I didn't really go to Corlos," he told himself.  "I was not enhansed... I don't have Xi anymore.  I didn't hit Kor... but if felt sooooo good."  Already the event seemed like a dream that had been a little too real.  Sitting across the table from himself in the Corlos boardroom was permanently stuck in his mind, because that was the last thing he had seen. 

4.  "Oni, are you here?" he asked.  "Always," Oni replied.  Onimex was with Ireana.  "Xanax is with your Dad," Oni volunteered.

5.  In Q-cept, Kiles asked, "Did all of that really happen?"  "Not to you," Oni jested.  Elliptical humor.  Kiles got it.  'Am I still responsible?' he wondered, 'for what my other self did?' 

6.  "Mother?" he inquired, "You spoke to me, psionically?"  "You're half Vejhonian," she replied.  What he heard was, "You've always been psionic, I just didn't teach you."  It wasn't fair, but what would be the point on an apsionic shell, other then for financial leverage or self improvement?

7.  Kiles house wasn't far so he walked, this time looking for anything that might be out-of-sync with his natural time.  He had good reason to be weary.          

ANTI-ADIEU

8.   Azoth and Uhura observed a moment of silence for the casualties of free agency.  Their gesture represented the inconsolable nightmares of children who would never return.  Victory and tragedy depended upon one's point of view. 

9.  "They will never return," Uhura observed sadly.  Azoth squeezed Her hand sympathetically and nodded.  They were Her children.  It wasn't the whole lot of them, but some whose photonic assimilation did not blend well with the qualities imbued for sentience and choice. 

10.  "It's so simple for the machines," Azoth commented, "They're either on or off... the unknown is completely irrelevant."

11.  "Their evolution is methodical and calculated," Uhura said, to suggest that the Ellipsis leaves very little to chance and debate. 

12.  "I don't know why we don't blend the best of both," Azoth suggested rhetorically.  They had had this same conversation at this same point in time, every time.

13.  They both knew why the light must diffuse and why matter had to separate.  Not every creation appreciates the life it's given and some will damn their Creator, ultimately to be photonically disincorporated; the equivalent of spiritual death.  The life itself, makes that choice, not God.  

IREANA

14.  "There's things in your memory that aren't adding up," Ireana observed calmly.  It was a beautiful Saturday morning and Kiles had not been out very long.  The day was still too fresh to get worked up over trivialities.  She had, thus far, gleaned the distinction between pre-Kiles and post-Kiles, but didn't find post-Kiles' events to be phenomonally stressful, although highly entertaining.  Probably because pre-Kiles didn't have the actual experience --  he only possessed post-Kiles' memories, which in the Elliptical view, were also his.           

15.  "He who adheres to wisdom - adpots the experience," Dayton would say now and then.  "Does that apply to now?" Kiles asked her.  She read his thought. 

16.  "It would seem so," she answered, which wasn't really an answer, "Something always gets left out of the equation."  She meant 'every' equation. 

17.   She admitted that the scenario had truly been remarkable.  "Did your other self really cease to exist or did he just not understand?"  Kiles heard what she didn't add, "the quantum dynamics of his circumstance?"  Certainly there were potentials that went unaddressed and avenues unexplored. 

18.  "He didn't think we could both exist without the bubble," Kiles answered, "but I'm sure he knew about the alternatives."   He was thinking, 'If I'm aware of them -- then he has to be."   

19.  "So might he," she concurred.  Perhaps for the first time, Kiles realized that he had always been her favorite subject of study, apart from his Dad.  He didn't really study her on purpose, but the circumstance was elevating her intrigue.  He wanted to know more about her, and one detail rose above the cloudy maze: 

20.  "You were Her?" Kiles said flatly.  Not as an accusation, but more like a realization.

21.  Ireana drew a cautiously blank stare.  Of course she knew exactly what he meant, but the epochal nature of his realization had the weight of a shell collapse; the comfortable avoidance zone popped. 

22.  "Well..." she offered indecisively, "What do you want me to say?"  She didn't feel especially affronted by his inquiry, she just hoped this moment would never come.

23.  Kiles loved her.  He would never do anything to hurt her -- quite the contrary in fact.  He had become quite deft at seeing the outcome of most circumstances on his own.   As he sifted through post-Kiles' memories of his encounter with their Mom at various points in the alternate reality, he came up with a solution:

24.  "I'm gonna go surfing," he said.  He smiled and ran out the door.  She sighed with relief, knowing that his motivation was to protect her.  "'Well... the cats out of the bag now," she realized, "I wonder if I should take up surfing and go with him?"  They had just coined an eccentric psionic symbol for, 'mutual blank out.' 

MEMORIES

25.  "Am I valid or not?" he asked again.  Oni's evasive antic was simply not clever anymore.  Those days were gone now. 

26.  Oni hovered beside him, visible only to Kiles, who was perched on a felled palm trunk with his shirt off.  There wasn't much activity on the beach and nobody would have noticed unless they were looking for him.  

27.  Oni's silence always meant something.  When he didn't have a perfectly polished reply, the subtlety of deception was at work.  The antic was intended to protect him, but the events of that morning had provoked a comprehensive shift.  

28.  "You don't feel the same now, as you did when you wanted the bubble?"  Per usual, the pleasantries had been skipped. 

29.  Kiles already knew that every potential could not be fully explored in detail.  He just wanted a response; a postulate would suffice.    

30.  "I do have a problem," Oni confessed.  Kiles was surprised if not shocked, "Not you?" he said sardonically. 

31.  "It may take all of your training to comprehend," Oni answered. "I suppose that's what it's for," Kiles replied psionically.  Yes, things were definitely different now.

32.  "Elliptically, the validation of your post-self, would apply to your co-located selves... if you were a machine."  Kiles was aware of Oni's encounters with Conscious at different points in time:  Those encounters suited Her agenda.   Oni had identified the problem, but it was not an absolute problem.  If necessary, Kiles could order the creation of a new bubble and revise his itinerary for a different outcome.    

33.  "Did post-Kiles die?" he asked Oni.

34.  "I don't think he did," Oni answered.  "I really don't think he did."  "You're so good at that," Kiles remarked at Oni's naturalism.  "Am I co-located then?" he asked.  Again there was silence.

35.  "I am myself at every point," Oni described, but I also observe continuity protocols by design.  You're Chaotic," Oni accused him, "and for that reason, Chaos can not be valid and co-locate:  It would be interdimension perdition," he clarified.  "There is no question that post-Kiles was validated, but I don't know where he went.  Right now, I only sense you."  Oni paused a moment, "There might be a way..." he contemplated, "...if I can find the right moment." 

36.  "What about when you were with my future self?" Kiles asked, based on post- Kiles memories. 

37.  "And so I was," Oni confirmed, "I can extrapolate where all of this is going, but it will require commiting more acts of perdition."  He was referring to Corlos. 

38.  "Well, we seem to be good at it," Kiles justified, no humor intended:  "Who's to say one act shouldn't be followed by another?"                                                 

ACT II

39.  "The Cardship is right below us," Oni pointed out.  "I thought you couldn't do this," Kiles questioned, "unless you made another bubble?"  From Kiles perspective, they were surrounded by an arid desert in all directions; sand was blowing everywhere.  "You said 'Cardship?'  What Cardship?"  Kiles yelled over the sand storm.  The storm was the only believable part of this abrasive new reality.  "Where did I get the clothes?" he asked.  He was properly bundled up to keep the sand out of his face. 

40.  "Did you forget Q-cept?" Oni jested.  Kiles rolled his eyes.  "I was just in the moment," he excused himself in Q-cept.

41.  "Is this..." he surveilled his harsh surroundings of endless sandstorm and dunes. 

42.  "It is," Oni confirmed.  "You know Mom's going to freak if she finds out..."  The other half of the equation set in, "... that you moved us forward to pull this off?" 

43.  "No doubt," Oni confessed.  "What are we doing here?" Kiles asked.  "This is the only hard point where you disappear," Oni answered, "I've already done this once."  "If I can find the right moment," Kiles quoted him.   

44.  "Since we're here, how do we get in?" Kiles asked.  "Brace yourself," Oni recommended.   

MOTHER

45.  "Identify?" Mother ordered.  Even Kiles could sense the 'oh shit' in Oni's mind. 

46.  Oni had to permit this hyper protocol to commence now that he had been addressed.  It was equivalent to being arrested from an Elliptical perspective.  To biologicals it would be a mind rape.  He allowed the original Onimex in that index to carry on. 

47.  Mother was only one notch beneath Conscious; being responsible for an entire Cardship measuring 1 x 5 x 20 in miles.      

48.  Oni was merging two separate moments together using calculations and resources that Xanax provided.  "We have to listen in," Oni wispered...

49.  "Half Vejhonian, half indigenous," the subcomponent answered Her.  There were no biologicals aboard to appreciate Kiles holographic image on display within her off-limits spherical chamber.  Next to his image was a holographic DNA-helix that belonged to Kiles.  This event was still 7 years into the future, so Kiles would not know the specifics.  He realized that their future selves could not see or interact with them. 

50.  "How did you get me out of phase?" Kiles asked.  "Mind over Matter," Oni replied.  He was being accurate rather than cryptic, although he did have an ulterior motive. 

51.  "How many remain?" Mother asked.  "One," the subcomponent answered.  A hologram of 1987 Hawaii appeared with an image of Ireana working in her lab.  "Identify?" Mother requested.  Ireana's dossier appeared next to her image, translated into Vejhonian script, "Ireana Heidelberg, M'tro-1, seeded by ship 339, destroyed.  Corlos operative."

52.  "Frack, I'd like to see that!" Kiles exclaimed, referring to the dossier on his Mom.  "That ship holds millions," Kiles quoted Xanax in a hushed tone.  Xanax was not supposed to tell Kiles about his future.  "Reversion," Kiles also remembered, to explain why the ship was deserted.  "Right now, She's not concerned with non-Vejhonians or non-Human observers," Oni clarified. 

53.  Kiles began to shrug as though wrestling with an imaginary culprit.  "What ... IS... going on?" he asked irritated, "I feel like I'm being possessed!"

54.  "Welcome to my world!" Oni jested.  "It's your photonic matter," he clarified, "attempting to re-infuse into your future self... and one of the reasons why biologicals are banned from doing precisely what we're doing right now."  "Not post-Kiles?" Kiles asked.  "That's exactly why we're here," Oni answered.

55.  Mother could see Ireana's offspring and Onimex hovering next to him in the sandstorm, "Onimex," Mother addressed him for the first time as far as She was concerned.  For Oni, it was the 2nd time.  "Incept?" She asked.  "She activated me just before M'tro-1 was destroyed," Oni replied.  "The biological?" She asked.  "Kiles wants to visit Vejhon and clear his Mother of war crimes," Oni explained.  "The war is over?" Mother asked.  "Yes," Oni answered.  "Download," Mother commanded.  Onimex lined into her.  Mother examined his encounter with Conscious:  Kiles KEY Segment 3.  Onimex KEY Segment 8.  The data stream contained her own incept code; an absolute impossibility, except for Conscious.  "Registry Accepted," Mother said, "The biological may enter."

56.  "That was fracking intense!" Kiles exclaimed, damn near frying his Q-cept node.  It was like being interrogated by God.  "Be glad you're just an observer," Oni said, "Conscious gave me Mother's incept code so that She would let you in.  One aspect of Validation is:  That I can re-create any moment exactly as it happened the first time, to preserve continuity.  Biologicals, on the other hand, are no longer the same, now, then, or in the future."  "Chaos," Kiles deduced astutely.  To contrast the point, Oni said, "I am."  Meaning:  The same, no matter where he was in time.  He could, if needed, like right now, prevent data from tainting an index. 

57.  Biologicals simply can't:  That's how Chaos is.        

58.  "The Rabbi said, 'I Am,' is a Holy expression," Kiles remembered.  "Yes," Oni agreed, "but I'm not Tetragammaton."   "She said, 'the biological may enter...' and excluded you.  Why?"  "Because Conscious doesn't want me in there," Oni answered, "for whatever Her reason."  "Maybe..." Kiles considered, "Maybe not."

59.  A transparent dome of calm surrounded Onimex and Kiles in the sand.  The dome's outline was revealed as the sand and sound deflected off the dome.  Before him, the sand began to morph into a tunnel leading downward at a very gradual angle.  The tunnel increased in detail until a highly sheik gangplank appeared, created by liquid nanobots.  "The technology is mesmerizing," Kiles said.  As he would say in the future.  As Kiles stood there, he realized that this was a point of no return, but there was something not quite right about this:  He felt like his thoughts were being manipulated; like they weren't really his thoughts -- the sensation intrigued him.  

60.  On this side of the gangplank was his family... the forced intrigue was gaining precedence.  On the other side was what lay beyond.  "I'm not making that decision right now?" he resisted, "I'm not even in my right mind!" he questioned out loud.  "This is making sense, and no sense at all," Kiles confessed.  "I've never heard you question yourself before," Onimex remarked.  He was not deviating from from the original script, as thought the Universe would force this outcome no matter what.     

61.  "How could that be?" post-Kiles asked, stepping into the scene concerned, "Because when I do this for real, you'll have to say, 'second time'..."

62.  "Caught you!" Onimex said while pre-Kiles gave himself a hug, "We thought you were dead!"  "No, you didn't," post-Kiles corrected.  He meant it existentially.

63.  "I've told you everything that I can," Onimex said to the future 1987 Kiles who was about to cross the psionic threshold of the Cardship gangplank! 

64.  Pre-Kiles and Post-Kiles said in unison, "That's us!"  They slowly broke their embrace to watch their future self.  "He doesn't see us," post-Kiles confirmed.  "Where did you go?" pre-Kiles asked him.   "You should both just watch this," Onimex recommended.  Then to post-Kiles he added, "I've given you a unique identifier so that I won't have to go through this again."    

65.  "Will I see you again?" the future Kiles asked.  "I'm certain of it," Onimex said.  "Does reversion work in reverse?" Kiles asked.  "You are a product of then and now," Onimex answered, "I moved a sample of your blood to Ireana's native time after you were born.  The sample is fine -- you won't be affected." 

66.  Kiles toyed with his transponder that Dayton had made for him.  He was unaware that two younger versions of himself were watching him.  "Once you step across," Onimex said, "the transponder will no longer work."  "Why can't you come with me?" Kiles begged, "It's your native time too!"  "You're breaking my heart," Onimex said, "You know I can't come.  Why won't you stay here?"  It was an impasse, but they understood each other.

67.  Pre and post-Kiles felt their heart-strings being pulled, "We're not really that emotional, are we?"  "Why does he act like he doesn't remember any of this?" pre-Kiles asked.  "Don't worry -- he doesn't commit suicide or anything," post-Kiles offered.  "It will be like a dream," Oni answered, "That Kiles won't remember any of this, just like he doesn't see you now:  it's all electrically-generated holographic algorhythms anyway.  Biological synapse."      

68.  When Kiles stepped across the threshhold, Ireana began to cry.  She didn't want to interfere with Kiles' destiny.  They watched the nanotechnology of the gangplank wisk Kiles beyond the vanishing point, then the gangplank crumbled back into ordinary sand while the surrounding sandstorm resumed with full force. 

69.  Post-Kiles put them in a bubble of his own design and moved them further away.  "Maybe I should have went," Onimex reconsidered sadly.  He was as much a parent to Kiles as Dayton, Ireana and Xanax.  "It hurts," he acknowledged quietly.  Kiles was 23, and had waited for that moment for his entire life.

70.  "You should be an actor," pre-Kiles complimented Oni, "You did that perfectly."  "How would you know?" Oni laughed, "That was seven years from now!" 

71.  "I'm pretty sure that's how it went," post-Kiles answered, "I'm valid.  Remember?"        

72.  "Hang tight," Oni recommended.  There was a deep subsonic rumble that began to blow the sand away with the displacement of a megalithic sandblaster.  One might even think the Earth was breaking apart. 

73.  Post-Kiles protected the three of them in a bubble of his own design -- he still had his post-Corlos enhancements, validation and memories.  Within a few moments, the Cardship's upper surface became more evident.  Mother's new antigravity plating would conceal her departure.  Before she completely cleared the desert's surface, she began to fade out of 1987 to return to the 27th century; sailing beyond Earth's detection grid and taking her amplifier net with her. 

74.  "That was a rush!" pre-Kiles commented.  The sand dunes were already beginning to collapse like giant mountains into the massive rectangular valley created by the vacated Cardship.   Within a few days, there would be no evidence that a Cardship had ever been there. 

75.  "So which one of us was he?" post-Kiles asked, automatically presuming that it could only be pre-Kiles.

76.  "Neither." Oni answered, without batting an eye.