Sparks of Chaos (26 page)

The good news was that the opportunity was being made available to eighteen or nineteen year olds anywhere in the world. The bad news was that they were only accepting a maximum of five hundred students. She was good enough at math to know how infinitesimal her chances were for getting selected. However, like millions of other hopefuls around the world she had submitted her formal application. To be chosen was her fondest dream that she held in the deepest core of her heart.

That was why she had become so concerned lately about the way she had been feeling. Over the past few weeks her head had felt funny. For her, it wasn’t the good ha-ha kind of funny, but the something isn’t quite right kind of funny. It felt as though something had gotten inside of her head and she couldn’t get it out.

It was only recently that she had by far the strangest feeling she had ever experienced in her life. It felt like a dream, yet she was definitely wide awake. She was lying on her bed texting with her friends, when the feeling just sort of overcame her. She was lying there and suddenly she felt like she was somewhere else. It was so incredibly real. The only way she could rationally describe it was as a waking dream. That was the real problem she couldn’t really describe it.

Kiyoko felt that she was experiencing two realities at once, in one she was here in her bedroom in Tokyo and in the other she was somewhere she knew she had never been before. This other place was very posh and luxurious looking, she was sitting with a cute teenage boy who was holding her hand. It was most certainly not in Japan, looking out the window in her vision she saw oddly shaped trees. They were laughing, happy and excited to be there. The boy was very attractive and he wasn’t Japanese.

What was happening to her, was she losing her mind? How could she be in two places at once? That wasn’t exactly correct; she knew that physically she was lying on her bed. It was only mentally that she was in two places. It was overwhelmingly real though. Maybe it was wishful thinking; either that or she was having some kind of breakdown. Hopefully it wasn’t a deadly brain tumor causing her delusions. Like a screensaver, her mind automatically went to the worst possible outcome. Her friends often teased her about being a hypochondriac but she had a distinct feeling that her brain had been feeling odd lately.

There was another dream that caused her to be even more confused. In this dream she was flying. In and of itself, not unusual, many people dreamed they were flying. She was not flying in an airplane though. She was actually flying in the sky on her own. It wasn’t a dream, it was real. The same cute boy was with her flying beside her as well. That was what made all this so confounding. If the other dreams were real or possible futures how could this one possibly be real? If this wasn’t real, then maybe the others weren’t either. Then she probably really was crazy or that equally worrying brain tumor possibility.

Maybe it was caused by all the stress she had been feeling over wanting to get into that SAGE school. No matter what, she would tell absolutely no one about the problems with her head. Certainly not her parents. They would of course immediately take her to the doctors and she did not want to do anything that could harm her chances of acceptance to the school. Normally she was a very happy outgoing girl, who worried about little. She didn’t know what else she could do about being admitted there, the school had made it clear, that there would be no lobbying or influence peddling permitted. To eliminate any bias they would not even know their names, only their credentials when evaluating them. Oh well, there was nothing more she could do about it now, she would have to wait to find out just like everyone else.

Chapter 2

The waterfall cascaded down a steep tiered mountain in a staggered pattern into a crystal blue pond. Rex King and Birgit sat on a beautifully landscaped terrace near enough to the base of the falls to appreciate it but far enough away to stay dry. They finished the last of their lunch while discussing the progress of their project to bring new recruits to the island. The reflecting sun highlighted the shine of her strawberry blonde hair and dazzled Rex’s eyes.

He noticed that since her arrival he was taking more time like this to enjoy the gorgeous beauty of the world he had created and that of his companion. Initially he had been furious when Chase brought her unexpectedly to the island. After so many years alone, he could no longer imagine what he would do without her. Before her arrival he often repeatedly ate the same food mechanically without taking much pleasure from his meals. It was so different having someone to enjoy everything with. Eating here was a pure joy; their access to the finest and most exotic foods coupled with a vastly enhanced sense of taste ensured that. It was an accident that had brought her here with him and he was grateful for it.

Still driven to complete the remainder of his master vision for the new society, he found that occasionally relaxing did have some productivity benefits. His original plan to relocate many of the world’s pre-eminent scientists to work with him on Surga Island proved not to be feasible. That was when they had developed the plan of using the school as a front to bring smart and adaptable young geniuses to the island instead.

Completing his lunch he asked her for an update, “What are the current number of applications we’ve received?”

Birgit tapped her wristband and called up the data, “The world’s population of eighteen and nineteen year olds is roughly 250 million and more than 63 million have already applied for entry into SAGE. We continue to receive them in a steady flow and project the final number will be over 75 million by the end of the deadline.” Showing off her data skills she added, “About fifty eight percent were males and almost two thirds came from the more developed countries.”

“Very impressive work. That total is even a greater total than we anticipated. The other numbers don’t surprise me; at that age there is an imbalance of males over females, which doesn’t even out until age forty five. How many of the top five hundred candidates that we pre-identified have not yet applied?”

“So far, it is less than five percent, twenty three to be precise. All but two of those are in developing countries.”

“What are the plans for getting them to apply?”

“We are sending a team that we’ve got on loan from Stubbard Industries to quietly encourage them to apply. We don’t want any news to get out about that as it would be very difficult to explain why we were encouraging or pre-selecting students.”

“That would be unfortunate; we must send a team to speak to their school or community to cover our true intentions for one individual. How many do we believe will turn down their acceptance offer?”

“It should be no more than five and we have an ample supply of replacements.”

‘I’ve been informed there has been some troubles with the brain enzyme protocol you have deployed,” Rex stated.

Birgit noticed how he was subtly placing the responsibility with her on something she’d had nothing to do with other than approving it at his insistence. Shifting blame wasn’t one of his most endearing qualities though she wisely chose not to comment on it this time. “We have begun to get some disturbing reports that there has been a small but noticeable problem with some unforeseen side effects. Our data mining efforts have shown the number of deaths has been well within the projected range, it is the side effects that are most troublesome. Those effected seem to be mostly in our targeted age range and almost exclusively in high ability candidates. It is almost impossible to believe that it is affecting those that we identified for the school. That cannot be a coincidence. There was nothing in the original schematics that indicated there would be any side effects from the comium that we deployed. We never anticipated that it would result in these rather bizarre symptoms.”

“What are the symptoms?”

“They have been complaining of hallucinations, headaches, anxiety and some very, very odd behaviors, which seem to be different for each individual.”

“You will need to monitor that to ensure that it doesn’t raise suspicions or cause problems for those that we select. It’s too late to undo it now; the enzyme has already been distributed worldwide. It could be that all of this was just a temporary blip that will eventually go away. Surely it has been exaggerated, we should be able to manage the situation. I will get Armstrong to get working on this right now, so that we can determine how dangerous this really is.”

"I am just afraid that we have possibly opened a Pandora's Box with this comium enzyme that we released. Let's hope that it doesn't get out of control.” The long term ramifications of it causing modifications in the brains or god forbid mutations in the very group of high ability teens they were targeting. She was certainly no scientific genius like Rex was but even she knew the implications of unleashing some unknown abilities on such a small population on their island could be unpredictable and even dire. This didn’t even begin to consider the effects on the rest of the world from those who weren’t chosen.

Birgit herself knew that she was definitely having some effects from the biobots she had been treated with. She knew her own body and there was certainly something that was different going on with her. There was some sort of a connection she was feeling with Chase. There were times when she could feel his emotions as if they were her own but the feeling would come and go. There was no consistency to it and she had no control over it. It was made even more uncomfortable with their rocky relationship. She still blamed him for betraying her and almost causing her death. Even if he was only acting on Rex’s orders. It had only been due to his quick thinking that she was even alive at all but she couldn’t yet forgive him. Like Rex she had her weak points and blind spots and this was one of hers.

She truly hoped that Rex would take this as seriously as the situation required. Something told her this was going to cause them further problems in the near future. Hopefully Rex would not continue with his current habit of shifting the blame when things got out of control. Unable to finish the remainder of her lunch, she had enough to eat and enough of Rex for now. “I really need to get back to my work, there is still much to prepare before our new visitors arrive.”

He smiled wanly at her and said, “Of course my dear, I’ll see you later.”