Coronado Dreaming (The Silver Strand Series) (22 page)

I awoke in only my boxer shorts, but I don’t remember taking off my country paraphernalia. Looking around, I discovered that my pants, boots and shirt were nowhere to be found. Either Gid had taken care of it all, or I had somehow shipped them off to the ether in my sleep. Things like that were happening more and more then, although I didn’t seem to have much control over it. I sat down on the couch with my guitar and went back through my new song, finding I liked it as much or more than I did a few hours before. Boris and Giddeon had yet to make an appearance, so I took my time adjusting to the morning.

I drank some O.J. from the carton and munched on some Kashi
Heart to Heart
cereal, dry, from the box. Then, I sat back down with my guitar in my lap, still crunching on the nutritious oats. I smiled when I remembered how my brother Jeremy told me that
Heart to Heart
should be renamed
Bowl to Bowl
after I had raved about it enough that he went and bought some for himself. Apparently, it had too much fiber for his system and pretty much went straight from his cereal bowl to his toilet bowl : ) I was just thinking to myself how I missed being able to call him up on the phone and shoot the breeze, when I felt footsteps on my boat. There was a jiggling at the lock, and, after a few moments, in popped my brother.

I almost got up to shake his hand and hug him, but then realized it couldn’t be done. Even after all of that time it was easy to forget that I was in the quantum state of there, and yet, not there. Boris was right behind him. Jeremy deposited his bag by the door, went to the fridge, opened a can of wet food and plopped it onto a paper plate for our mutual welfare case.

Boris settled in on his haunches and proceeded to ravenously consume the offering. My brother watched the cat for a bit, and then looked around the boat; he took my guitar from where it was on its stand, in actuality, and sat down on the couch. I stood up to accommodate him… I still had the Ovation’s Doppelganger in my hands…
 
a strap suddenly materialized around my neck and shoulder, suspending it in a comfortable position.

My brother is pretty good on the guitar, himself.
 
After tuning the instrument, he started in on a familiar tune… easily one of the best songs ever written. I filled in with the lead, amazed at how proficient I had grown under Giddeon’s tutelage.

The lyrics to that particular song were always haunting, and under the circumstances, were even more so.

After the introduction, Jeremy’s soft, on key voice filled the interior of my boat… Pink Floyd’s ‘
Wish You Were Here’
.
  

Jeremy finished up the vocals after a couple of minutes, and we played out the instrumental part until the end. It was one of the best renditions of the song I had ever heard… I wished to myself that I had it on tape. I left the boat wearing shorts, tennis shoes and a tee shirt.

The
Coronado
morning was blurred by the wetness in my eyes.

__________

Jeremy stayed for a week. One of the doctors wanted to discuss options such as removing my feeding tube as it was becoming evident that my condition was not improving. Although he remained polite, I could tell my brother was enraged at even the suggestion. He would have no part of it, and insisted that I would come out of the coma… it would only take time.

Father McCreely was still a weekly visitor. He always sat for an hour, and then went down to the politically correct, non-denominational sanctuary/meditation room to pray. Once, he stayed there in one position for so long that I was concerned he would induce deep vein thrombosis. I heard through the Giddeon grapevine that the priest hadn’t played golf since the day when he hit me in the head… I found it ironic that his misguided shot had helped sculpt me into a no-handicapper, at least in my alternate realities.

I rarely had visitors. It occurred to me that other than my blood relative, my sister-in-law, and the man partly responsible for my condition, no one really noticed that I was out of action. I had no real friends… only co-workers and sometime golf partners. If success in life is measured by the number of people that care about you, I had come up extraordinarily lacking. I really had no one to blame but myself… I had always been introverted, and, while I didn’t dislike people, I certainly wasn’t drawn to them.

I had always lived in my own limited mind… sort of like Giddeon… except, his mind wasn’t so limited, and, he had no other options.

__________

In light of the way I had conducted my prior existence, I considered my affinity for cats. They were independent and pure in their own selfish way. They could take you or leave you; unfortunately, kind of the way I had always been with people.

I have found that felines will most certainly take you if food and scratching are involved. They’re basically the consummate users of the animal kingdom. Except for Boris. He stuck with me knowing that food, drink and real rubdowns could only be provided by others in the marina or at the restaurant. Yet, for some reason, he preferred my company to all of the other real people at his disposal… he even preferred me to Giddeon.

More and more time passed. Days and nights alternated in a kind of bizarre cycle of mundane magic and everyday ‘life’, and I began to accept the extraordinary without much surprise. Often, I sampled some of the potential times… both in the future and in the immediate past… with my enthusiastic tour guide, and I was always amazed at the number of directions that humanity came and went. Sometimes, though, for weeks, I would live a pretty ‘normal’ existence; playing golf, eating at restaurants and checking out the beach with Gid. I also read a lot of paperback novels with Boris.

I think I was drawn to normalcy because it helped me feel connected to the other world… the world where Melody lived. Giddeon didn’t push much for fantastic voyages or alternate probability entertainment. I think he was content to explore on his own.

Sometimes, I would go an entire day or more without him stopping by.

He seemed to know when I needed my space.

God only knows where he was during those times, and, what he was doing. I think the extra ‘horsepower’ he derived from my presence kept his curiosity turbocharged, so he was getting as much out of it as he could. I often used to wonder if I ever made it back if he would still have the same abilities without me around… or, would the firewall come back into place and bring him down to Earth, literally?

I could always tell when Giddeon had been off on an adventure and was just dying to show me something new. Usually, I just ignored it. Periodically, however, I would give in and inquire.

__________

I was sitting on my couch, watching television and having some quality time with Boris. I hadn’t seen Giddeon for the better part of two days when he suddenly appeared. I turned the volume down on the small plasma screen with the remote, although I’m sure the batteries in it had been dead for six months.

“Where’ve you been?” I questioned.

“You really want to know?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Just checking… you seem to have been in a bit of a funk, lately.”

“No… I’m okay. Just tired.”

“Humph…” he grunted. “Maybe you’re not getting enough vitamin D.”

“We play golf all the time. Isn’t that the sunshine vitamin?”

“Yep… but, apparently the sun isn’t providing enough. I may have found just the thing for you, yesterday.”

“Cod liver oil?”

“That’s good, too… but, this is better. Way better. A binary star system!”

“Two suns?”

“Double your pleasure, double your sun.”

I think I remembered an old chewing gum commercial for Double-Mint that he had attempted to parody.

“Where is it?”

“Not just where, but when! It’s past the Pleiades, and it’s several thousand years in the future. And, guess what?”

“What?”

“It’s got a planet that’s inhabited… by humans! The gravity and everything else is almost the same… even the plants. I think they brought a lot of ‘em along with them.”

“Humph.”

He could hardly contain himself. “Wanna go?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “This won’t take long, will it? ‘
Glee
’ comes on tonight, and it’s an episode I haven’t seen. I hate to admit it, but I actually kind of like that show.”

Giddeon rolled his eyes. “
Glee
’ can wait. You have Tivo, you know?”

“No, I don’t.”

A box appeared, mounted next to my T.V.

“You do, now.”

I sighed and stood up. I was beginning to understand how Major Nelson felt when Jeannie did her thing. “You know, all of the futures you’ve been sampling, lately, are only possibilities. If you looked long enough, you would find a planet that had only Swedish Bikini Team members on it.”

“I think even Captain Kirk would bend the Prime Directive for that one!” Gid exclaimed.

“He always was a ladies man.”

“
To go where no man has gone, before!
” He imitated the narration of his favorite show.

“I thought you said people were there.”

“
To go where no man from our time has gone, before!
” he said, using the same intonation as earlier.

“Okay, okay. What should I wear? Is there a dress code?”

“Clothing is optional.”

“Come on…?”

“Well, it is at the beaches, anyway.”

“So we’re going to
Europe
?

“Funny… you ever considered stand up?”

“I don’t think you could get that many cats to sit through a show. They’re the only ones that could see me, you know.”

“Don’t forget dolphins.”

“Do they have a sense of humor?”

“Flipper laughed all of the time.”

“Then, Sea World, it is. Book me.”

“When we get back… let’s go!”

Green. All around us was green. Vegetation was everywhere. Even the sky was slightly tinted a pale shade of green. The clouds, from the four I could see, were pink, and the ‘sun’ had an oblong appearance to it… the ends of that egg-like shape, as best I could tell, had somewhat different emanations of gold coming from it. It was too intense to look at, but I assumed I was seeing two stars, one partially superimposed over the other.

On closer inspection of the landscape, I could make out dome shaped dwellings and meandering walkways. The buildings and paths seemed to be alive… or, at the very least covered in some type of fine, plantlike material. Spread out before us was a village, so interconnected with the planet that it was almost indistinguishable from it.

“Welcome to
Eden
,” said Giddeon. “That’s what they’ve named this world, from what I can ascertain.”

I saw a man and a woman emerge from a ‘house’ and step out onto a path, holding hands. They were quite beautiful. Their skin was slightly olive, and both were wearing loose, white cotton jumpsuits and soft-looking shoes. Her hair was a brilliant blonde, and his was dark and wavy. Both appeared to be in their mid-twenties and were tall; maybe six-five, or more. I don’t know if their height was due to decreased gravity… I did feel just a bit lighter, there… or improved nutrition. I say improved nutrition because gardens were ubiquitous. Vines with fruits and vegetables, some recognizable, some not, were scattered pretty much everywhere. They were next to the houses and along the small thoroughfares… they were even on some of the rooftops.

The temperature was nice, maybe 75 or so, but it was a bit bright. Sunglasses appeared over our eyes. Giddeon began walking in the same direction as the couple, so I followed. On our way, we saw others… all tall, and all of approximately the same age as the first pair. One lady had a Golden Retriever on a leash at her side. I noticed there were no children to be seen.

“Reproduction is tightly controlled,” said Giddeon. “The life expectancy is exceptionally long, here… they’re almost immortal except for accidents and the very rare, occasional suicide. Apparently, scientists discovered how to manipulate the genetic code long ago. Telomeres stay the same length, and the proofreading ability of DNA polymerase has been enhanced.”

“Telomeres?”

“The little ends on your chromosomes. We lose a bit with each cell division and finally the loss starts affecting the genetic material, itself, when they divide.”

“Oh, yeah… I think I saw that on a National Geographic special, once, about stress. What about disease?” I asked.

“Not much to speak of. When the body is in such a fine state, the immune system functions quite well. Plus, Mankind has made big strides in the field of health… they’re able to zap microbes and cancers with resonant frequencies that only destroy the problems, not host tissues.”

More people stepped from their houses. We all seemed to be heading in the same general direction.

“Do they have golf?”

“Believe it or not, they do,” said Gid. “I found a course near a major city. Still 18 holes… 10,000 plus yards. Most just use virtual reality, though.”

I whistled. “Wow, 10,000 yards… I hope the gravity is less, here.”

“Not that much less. People are just stronger.”

We continued on, and even more people joined us on the walkway.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To eat,” said Giddeon. “It’s time for the ‘noon’ meal. This planet has a rotational cycle of 35 hours, so it gets a little complicated… Breakfast, Lunch, Supper and Twilight. That’s how it goes… so technically, this is meal number two.”

“They must not eat much… everyone’s thin,” I observed.

“Mostly fruits, vegetables and some cultured meat. They grow it in sheets in the agricultural sections.”

“Meat sheets?”

“Sounds disgusting when you put it like that, but, yeah. Fish, chicken, beef, pork… whatever melts your butter.”

“Huh… I guess that is a better way to go,” I said. A bit of a breeze blew through my hair. It felt nice, and had a slightly almond smell to it.

“Especially if you’re a chicken, cow, fish or pig… easier on the ecosystem, too,” said my subconscious.

“No cow farts causing global warming, huh?”

Giddeon laughed. “Earth had a lot more problems than global warming in this timeline.”

I looked over at him, “Really? Like what?”

My tour guide rubbed his scruffy face. “Well, from what I can gather, there were quite a few radiation incidents, amongst other things.”

“War?”

He shook his head in the negative. “Technically, no, although sabotage was often suspected. Quite a few more meltdowns like
Chernobyl
and
Japan
. Large swaths of productive farmland were affected and off limits for years, afterwards.”

“That’s pretty bad… what were some of the other problems?”

“For one thing,” said Giddeon, “there was the re-pressurizing of several of those old, capped underwater oil wells around the globe.”

“Re-pressurizing?”

“Yep…the a-biotic theory of petroleum turned out to be a player. Evidently, not all of the crude was from dead plants and animals; seems the mantle of the earth is something of an oil-producer. All of those capped holes in the seafloor eventually starting breaking down, and some of them spewed black gold into the water at alarming rates.” He gestured with his hands, in an attempt to mimic fluid flowing. “The good news was, there wasn’t an oil shortage… the bad news was, there wasn’t an oil shortage. Killed off a lot of the food chain in places.”

I scratched my chin. “I see how that could be a problem.”

Gid continued. “The leaks were actually dealt with, over time, and more permanent seals and monitoring systems were installed on the thousands and thousands of undersea ‘wounds’… so we kind of had a handle on that. The major event that caused trouble was something out of our control… the Yellowstone Caldera.”

I nodded. “Oh, yeah… caldera…I’ve heard that term.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “A caldera is a super-volcano… an area of the earth’s crust that’s thin and prone to rupture from the forces beneath it. The
Yellowstone
one was thousands of times more destructive than a regular volcano. A hole the size of
New Jersey
blew outwards into the atmosphere, dumping several feet of ash and debris over much of the North American continent.” He took one hand out of his pocket and pointed upwards. “The sky became darkened for years, and the resulting temperature changes were dramatic. You can imagine what that did to crop production. Luckily, we had established colonies on the moon and Mars by that point.”

“No kidding? What about the earth… did it recover?”

“Oh, yes… for the most part.” He took his other hand from his pocket. “‘
Today
’ there are still people there, although the population is only a fraction of what it once was.” There were his finger quotes, again. “It’s basically a base of operations for the space stations in the neighborhood.”

We walked on a few paces in silence. “So, how far in the future are we?”

“About 26,252 years, give or take a couple of months. Leap Years always screw me up.”

I wrinkled my brow. “What about Mars… do we still have colonies there?”

“Oh, yes, and even a bit of atmosphere. Terra-farming, you know? We seeded it with microbes, and then, plants… they add new species as the conditions change. It’s not an exact science, but, they’re making progress. Much easier to find a place that’s pretty much ready to go, like this one. Trouble is, they’re far and few between.”

I looked around me at the alien sky and landscape… it was quite stunning, in total. Gold mountains were in the distance. “How far and how few?”

Giddeon shoved his hands in his pockets, again, and continued forward. “Pretty rare, it seems. And, even this Utopia doesn’t have a perfect balance… too much cyanide in the air. Everyone here has been genetically modified to handle it.”

Maybe that explained the almond smell.

“Really? I guess I’m glad we’re ‘ghosts’.”

“I thought you didn’t like that term,” he said and smiled. “Actually, the citizens here prefer the atmosphere the way it is. Kind of gives them protection.”

I looked back at him. “Protection… against what?”

“Other humans,” he said. “Two hundred years ago they fought off an invasion, of sorts. A passing star-ship decided this looked like a good piece of real estate, so the newbies hatched a plot to kill off the inhabitants here with a parasite that doesn’t respond to any known therapies. Then, the invaders were going to circle the planet for a couple of generations until they and their progeny could be modified to handle the atmosphere. Luckily for the people on
Eden
, the cyanide rendered the microbes harmless.”

Giddeon looked down and stepped over an earthworm-looking creature that was making its way across the path… it was bright yellow and segmented. We stopped and watched it with interest. It alternated between normal, wormlike movements, and then, rolling itself into a circle so it could make unbalanced rotations like a wheel. After a few unsteady revolutions it would flop over, continue on as a worm for a bit, and then roll itself back up to try, again.

After a minute or so, we carried on forward and Giddeon went back to his narrative. “Before the invaders could cook up a Plan B, one of their group defected and tipped off the people here as to what had been attempted,” he said.

“Wow! What’d they do?” I asked. Looking back, I saw that the yellow worm had finally made it into the thick, green grass there beside the walkway.

“The Edenites used a technology that had just been developed. At the time, they had recently learned to manipulate brain waves through magnetic fields in order to induce a deep state of anesthesia for surgery patients. Thanks to the advanced state of their science, they were able to up the energy of the system and focus it like a beam.”

“So…?”

“They put the entire crew of the starship to sleep.”

“No kidding? Man… that was smart.” I looked down, keeping an eye on the path for any more life forms. “What’d they do with them?”

“What little military they had boarded the vessel and secured the invaders. Then, they took ‘em here to the surface where they all remain, today… in cryogenic hibernation.”

“Frozen?”

“A kinder, gentler type of warfare,” said Giddeon. “I don’t think they’re in any rush to thaw them out. Maybe in a few hundred years.”

A flock of multicolored birds flew past, not far overhead. They looked very much like parrots, except their colors changed dramatically as they flew. “Wow!” I exclaimed as they spirited away. “Oh… what happened to the tipster? I’m sure he’s a local hero.”

“Unfortunately, he died. The low levels of cyanide got him before they could do anything for him. However, they kept some of his tissue and his modified clone is treated like a king. They have a big party for him every year… I went to it, yesterday. By the way, a large chunk of the gross domestic product of
Eden
now goes to defense. They don’t want to rely on the kindness of strangers, anymore.”

“Hmmm… almost a happy ending. I suppose some things never change,” I said.

“As for the clone, they’ve implanted a lot of memories from the dead hero’s brain into him. For all practical purposes, he’s the same dude.”

“Cool… by the way, what do you think they’ll have to eat for lunch?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Vegetables.”

We came to the edge of our destination.

“I want to try some Petri-dish Rib Eye!”

__________

The Rib Eye was excellent. There must have been 400 people at the group meal. Tables and chairs were sprinkled around a clearing that covered maybe ten or fifteen acres. There were shade trees, similar to Mimosa, and fragrant, flowering bushes all around. I even saw a handful of children… they were always the center of attention of any cluster of people in their vicinity.