Chapter 13
The stalks bowed forming a tunnel, heavy from the afternoon rains as the mature cane closed in on Sally and Shawn. They drove the last mile barely able to see along a rutted road, Sally struggling to make their way as the wet leaves thrashed them from either side. Although the grooves were grass, they offered some guidance as they finally broke out into the sunlight.
“Holy moly, this is one creepy Jules Verne house!” Shawn quipped as Sally swung the jeep round a stand of coconut trees. They came to a halt in front of what might have been a front door, but it was overgrown with vegetation. “Ben lives here, in this dump?”
“Yes, he does. Hey, let’s go around back. He’s usually outside, hates the indoors, and I’m sure if he has a lab, it’s not in his house.”
Sally led as they made their way round the side of what was more or less a shack when suddenly Sally shrieked and fell back into Shawn, causing them both to land on the ground. Lying tangled in a heap they both looked up as a shattering growl permeated the air and now, towering above them, stood a massive fourteen-foot grizzly bear.
Before they could react, the giant lunged forward and Shawn, knowing they were both about to die, blanketed Sally to protect her and inwardly focused his last moments of awareness on the image of her, but before death came, the grizzly suddenly vaporized and when they opened their eyes, the giant was nowhere to be found.
Then, a short ways from where they fell: “Ah ha Sally, thought you would surprise me? Will never happen and, yes, I haven’t lost my bit of mean streak, but you know how I love theatrics to make a point.”
On a bench behind where the bear had stood, Dr. Benjamin Campbell, PhD, with a grey two-day shadow across his face and an open, cotton shirt missing all the buttons, sat as comfortably as if he were having afternoon tea.
With a cheery smile beneath piercing eyes, Ben tilted his head, nodding towards a small garden of oddly massive fruits and vegetables where, hidden amongst the bounty, was an array of tilted mirrors at angles perfectly placed to reflect light onto a translucent three-dimensional canopy strung up over the patch of vegetation.
“For goodness sake Ben, what was that? We thought we were going to be ripped apart! God I’m still shaking! And it all happened so fast I didn’t even have time to have my life flash in front of me!” Sally picked herself up and instinctively gave herself and Shawn a once over to make sure all their body parts were in place and while doing so, offered Shawn a smile in acknowledgment of the intimacy they just shared. “Ben, that was terrifying! What was that thing? A grizzly in Hawaii, good God! Couldn’t you have had a swarm of bunnies attack us? We still would have been surprised but at least not scared to death!”
Shawn checked his shorts and said, “Bunnies dude! No shit, rabbits would have been a whole lot better.”
Sally smiled as she watched Shawn feel his crotch. Ben rose and came up to Sally to give her a big shoulder-only squeeze. “Ah, my sweet tender scientist, I forgot you are still the gentle little girl inside, never mind your hard outer shell!”
Shawn came up alongside Ben and opened his arms. “Hey, where’s my bro hug?”
“So this must be Mr. Pérez, photographer extraordinaire. When Sally first said your name I knew instantly who you were. It’s hard to live in Hawaii and not see a surfing poster without your name on the bottom — particularly of the young talented kid. I don’t go down to the market often, only for manmade essentials, but when I do, your images of Drake Powers are everywhere — magazines, windows of surf shops, even plastered on the sides of buildings.”
Ben ignored Shawn’s open arms and gave him an outdated fist bump instead. He then instructed them, “Both of you, move to the left a bit,” and flicked a switch. The angry bear materialized again beside them and Ben continued talking. “Watch this,” he said as he slowly walked up to the raging beast until he walked right through him. “See, vapor, nothing, a virtual grizzly. Felt you guys would see the joke in it.
“Ben,” Sally said, “if that was a hologram, it’s like nothing I’ve seen. I mean, it was dense, solid. The instance of Drake Powers Shawn created and we want to talk to you about was lifelike, almost ghostly, but nowhere nears that bear in your representation of reality.”
“Well Sally, have you ever known me to do anything half-assed, excuse me, I mean less than perfect. The process and end product you just witnessed was the main reason I left Photon. Those penny heads had no interest in driving forward to develop more lifelike holograms or any other science which didn’t result in short-term profit, and it wasn’t what their government partners were interested in either.”
Ben continued, “I told them about the Ghost Army — secret U.S. troops of World War II. On the ground in Germany, thousands of specially-selected artists and sound or radio specialists used visual, phonic and spoof radio techniques to fool the Nazis into believing entire regiments were where they weren’t. They even designed rubber inflatable tanks which, from the air, looked real. They blasted recordings of tank movements over loudspeakers during the night, and by morning the Germans believed the entire Allied Army was coming down on their heads. I tried to explain to them the potential to saves thousands of lives in our next inevitable war by misleading our foes in a much more convincing fashion. We could have entire virtual armies appear and disappear at will! Hell, if the other side used the same techniques, we could fight entire battles with no physical loss of live. We would finally have a bloodless and more cerebral way to use violence to settle our differences. Only our national pride would be impacted if we lost. We could lose thousands of soldiers, but no mother would ever lose a son or daughter.”
“Ben, this work is remarkable and more the reason we need to show you what Shawn has done to the images from my Sentient using your software. While you’ve been focused on perfecting the physical likeness, in some manner, Shawn seems to have stumbled down the path of recreating the conscious state. We don’t want to waste any time, where can we set up the gear?”
“Let’s go to my lab and have a look at what brilliance your photographer friend may have discovered. Shawn, just tell me what you need to bring up your hologram.”
Ben led them to the opposite side of the property where, as Sally had predicted, stood a sturdy structure with a single opening surrounded by dozens of solar panels. When they entered the room, it was cluttered throughout with the delights of an inquisitive mind. Everywhere were three-dimensional puzzles, neatly-disassembled devices, old telescopes, prototype gadgets and in the far corner on a six-foot monitor, the image of Drake upside down in the Mavericks barrel as he was at Surf Expo, although no sign of life. “Shawn, as you can see, I’ve taking the liberty of doing some prep work for you.”
“Very cool,” Shawn said. “Looks like you’re way ahead of me. I won’t need much. Just want to link up my external drive to your main server.”
“Over here, hand me your storage drive with the file. Let me see it, hmmm, okay, we will use this high-speed cable to connect it.” Ben was shaking in anticipation; the words could not come out fast enough. “Shawn, tell me, what do you think sparked it to life? Wait, I’m going too fast, let me ask you another way. What did you sense when you brought these images together? Never mind, that’s still too vague. While this loads, step over here to this table, I want to show you both something,” and Ben held up a small seed. “Sally, you built the Sentient, what I dreamed of, from the seed of my imagination: a camera which captures more than the visible plain of our limited vision. As quantum physicists, we accept there is no basis for the existence of solids or separation of matter because at the smallest detectable existence of particles, all atoms, photons, and electrons have the same distance of space between them. It poses the question of why we have form. Why can’t we put our hand through a door? As humans we have fooled ourselves in accepting our physical environment. But I knew if there was someone clever enough, as Sally you apparently seem to be, they should be able to create an optical receptor without bias, enabling it to
see the entire spectrum of matter, hence allowing it to record in three-dimensions. Well, since supplying me with your first and then subsequent upgrades of the Sentient, I’ve been using its images to experiment with the reassembly of the quantum data it seizes in hologram form. Sally, your genius has brought my idea to life, but it is your friend Shawn who is the heart and soul of my vision. Mr. Pérez, you are the fluid element — not science, not theory, but the intangible catalyst!”
“Oh God Ben, don’t feed his ego,” Sally scolded.
“Now watch,” Ben directed as he placed a flowering lotus plant under a small, glass dome and turned on an array of lights which bathed it in a soft multi-colored diffusion. He turned back to the computer.
“On the table we see an ordinary, yet beautiful, two-dimensional image which is really this,” and Ben hit a button, causing streams of computer code to fill the display until a perfectly identical lotus filled a nearby platform in a three-dimensional hologram which, again as with Ben’s bear, was much more dense and lifelike than Shawn or Sally had ever seen.
“Shawn, like your hologram, mine is comprised of a collection of images from the Sentient, but my guess is your representation of Drake was crafted from photographs chosen artistically, each with a subtle difference in the spectrum of light, or exposure, as you photographers call it. My goal was to produce a hologram which seemed as solid as possible and I’ve been able to do this, even animating them as if they were alive. Shawn, in your desire to envelop the essence of Drake in your hologram, not simply his physical form, and your vision allowed you to see into the spirit or soul of your friend, essentially gazing deep into a dimension most if not all others cannot see.”
Shawn shrugged. “No biggie, just did like Sally taught me with the Sentient, and when I shoot, I do my best to capture the moment or true life of my subject. The composite file of Drake you’re loading, I slammed together using your software. When I layered the hundreds of images, I knew what I was looking for.”
“Yes, Shawn, but your photographic ability, your eye for the image, has given us a level of accuracy I’ve never seen before. Even from the best operators, I mean, the select group of world-class nature photographers which have tested the Sentient along with my software, none have indicated any such results as you report.”
Sally cut him short, “it’s okay Ben, he knows about the defense and intelligence agency applications. Shawn can be discrete.”
Ben continued with a warning, “Not very wise Sally, it would have been better for both of you if he didn’t. Hmmm, now where was I? Yes, technically government imagery specialists know how to deliver outstanding photographs of our adversary’s installations and equipment, and can positively identify questionable characters from thousands of feet above, but Shawn my friend, you seem to capture their essence. Enough, let’s activate your image mash and see what you’ve discovered.”
Ben shifted back to the main computer where the data transfer showed completed. “I’m not one to get too excited generally, but this has been my work since leaving Photon and although every attempt has been made to grab hold of the alternative outcome, I’ve been unable to uncover the flaw in my hypothesis. What really happened in your hologram and did your friend really move? Did he see you, as you said it seemed? And if he did, is he actually conscious in your hologram…. or not? I suppose we shall find out soon enough!”
Ben confirmed the file data load had populated the application in the correct release sequence and turned on the generator he would need to push the hologram into a near solid state.
“Ben,” asked Shawn, “do you think it was possible Drake could see me?”
“Well Shawn, let me tell you a story about a cat.”
Sally lifted her two hands up. “Oh well, here we go with Schrödinger’s cat. We had to cover this sometime.”
Ben suggested, “Sally, it might be best to explain to Shawn sometimes I don’t know when to stop with theory.”
“Sure, I think I know Shawn well enough,” she said with a smile, “to bring the science to his level. Shawn, the possibility of an alternate outcome is a plausible theory now accepted by quantum physicists.”
Shawn looked at them both. “Slow down and back up guys. You lost me when you started talking about the German guy’s cat.”
Sally began, “Shawn, we were about to do just that. In the last sixty or so years, physicists uncovered conflicting phenomena beyond the theories Einstein touted as the fundamental laws of physics. You know, EMC2 and all that? When they went beyond the study of atoms to the smallest known particles, they did not behave the way they were expected based on the accepted science of the day. In other words, everything on the planet kind of does what it supposed to do as Einstein had illustrated, but at the quantum level or with the tiniest of electrons, all that science goes out the window. Are you following me?”
“Yes, I’m listening” Shawn replied as Ben cleared the platform where the hologram would appear.
“Well, this physicist Schrödinger conducted a hypothetical experiment where a cat is poisoned and dies, or perhaps not. Kind of like if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there, does it make a noise? Schrödinger actually proved scientifically the reality that an electron, the very same electron, can exist in two places at the very same moment in time. He went on to clarify if this is indeed possible, and then it must be we can only perceive the existence of one of the instances of the particle appearing at two places at once.”
“Okay, I’m kind of getting this, but how can one thing be in two places? How is that possible?” Shawn was now truly interested.
“Schrödinger concluded every time a moment of change exists with two, more or even endless possible outcomes, our mind chooses or can only believe in one, and at that moment, it makes it real for us. So with Schrödinger’s cat, if there is a fifty-fifty chance the cat will live or die from the poison — now remember, we are not watching the cat in the box, we are only guessing or relatively determining the results — the one outcome we choose becomes our reality.”
“Whoa, now my brain is starting to hurt; what are you saying?” Shawn asked looking very confused.
“Don’t worry Shawn,” Sally continued, “If you understood it, you would be the odd one. No one really understands, which is what makes it so exciting for scientists, but what it truly means is our world or the dimension we accept as reality is just one of potentially billions and billions of alterative universes as the alternatives continue to diverge infinitely. Shawn, here is what will really blow you away. Ben and I believe you may have unknowingly captured an alternate outcome with the Sentient camera. In simpler terms, everyone saw the cat die, but you captured the cat living, the alternative outcome!”
“Well dip my balls in cream and set me down in a kitchen full of kittens! Thank you both. I still have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.”
“To add one other accolade to your awkward discoveries, you may have also proven one of my back-shelf theories that data has mass, but we will save this for another discussion. I’m ready to release the sequence for the hologram.”
And Ben leaned over the chair towards the keyboard and touched “P.” And as the generator outside revved up, Ben added a bit more to Sally’s explanation. “The Sentient Six is capable of recording not only the entire known light spectrum, but also the radiation emitted by all the chemical, and electro-chemical processes, down to a sub-atomic level. Hence our ability to read the DNA and blood type of subjects under surveillance which is what DIA contracted with us to develop in the first place. Do you follow?” And without waiting for an answer but looking back at Sally, Ben stated, “Sixty four near-perfect image captures of that level of data input taken in less than two seconds melded into one dense hologram. What I believe you’ve accomplished is a recording of a moment in time, so complete that it borders on a replication! Not to mention the fact the hundreds of physicists in the world who will now hate you and admire simultaneously.”
“
Kind of like my life now as a surf photographer, no biggie!”
“If I’m correct in my assumption, what you saw may have been your pal Drake as he would exist in another dimension. You simply caught and recorded a glimpse of an outcome that the rest of us did perceive — an outcome where Drake lived. Watch the hologram now as is comes up.” They all turned towards the platform.
Each watched as the now familiar swirl of matter spun over the space. The reformation of Drake was nearly completed when Shawn turned to Ben and said, “Boy, I bet the crack you get is pretty wild when the hologram’s done with all the power you’re pumping through your gear! Maybe we should be standing back and have ear plugs in!”
Sally’s eyes widened, and Ben looked at Shawn confused, “What do you mean ‘crack’?”
Sally blurted, “You’ve never heard a loud noise when the particles fully consolidate, I mean nothing? Shawn, I think Ben’s generator output is three times the maximum you and I have used! If he hasn’t experienced the bang when the figure matures, maybe it’s because his holograms only contain superficial or physical matter! Oh my God, what can we expect now with all this energy added? Shawn, Ben, back, back, get away from the platform!”
But it was too late. As Sally spoke the last word, Drake’s form materialized and an explosion rocked the lab and sent all three back against the wall. While most of Ben’s equipment was secured in place due to frequent island earthquakes, everything not now tied down flew violently in all directions. The report shattered the single pane of glass on the entry door, and for almost a minute the three stood dazed. Ben, although confused, smiled at the unexpected event.
“Certainly, my formula only consolidated physical matter! Shawn, your recipe essentially causes what might be compared in aviation as a sonic boom! When you suck into our dimension what belongs in another, its entry way is cracked open only long enough to permit the individual or object to produce itself! It doesn’t belong here with us and the dose of power determines the wholeness of the individual. Another factor may be you are bringing life along with the physical matter!”
Neither Sally nor Shawn was listening. Over the platform, in all his athletic glory, Drake Powers stood on his board, head arched up and back. He blinked his eyes rapidly until they cleared the water from his view. He first recognized Shawn, then Sally, then back to Shawn where his awe turned to confusion. He moved his mouth, but no words came out. Shawn looked upon his friend and felt helpless. He wanted to communicate with him, but could not. To explain in some way what was happening. Ben ran to the monitor and controls to make sure the power input stayed consistent. Sally was the first to speak.
“This is wrong! Yes, of course, it’s astounding, remarkable, and groundbreaking! But it is no more right than human cloning, perhaps even more morally corrupt!”
“Sally, hold on,” Ben appealed. “We are not fully sure of what we are witnessing. He is not in any pain or discomfort it would seem. Yes, surely he is bewildered, but only through a lack of comprehension. Be patient, we are scientists. If we are not harming him, we must apply our disciplines of observation and interpretation to collect relative data, and I mean now! I will keep the hologram up for two more minutes, so get to work!”
Shawn circled the platform stepping over boxes and other debris strewn about the floor. At every point, his eyes met Drake’s. Drake seemed to be able to see Shawn wherever he stopped, even behind the wave. Although the water, board, leash and Drake appeared to be solid, there was an apparent porousness in the hologram, like you could put your hand through it.
They had succeeded in combining the techniques of the scientist and the artist.
Sally wrote feverishly on a tablet, took photographs of Drake, and recorded the settings on the computer screen just in case it crashed and the data lost.
“Please, let’s get this done, it’s creepy. I know I’m supposed to be objective, but it is almost impossible. I know this man, he is a friend, and it feels like we have him trapped. It’s even more difficult to grasp when you consider Drake is on the next island over preparing for a surfing event. Let’s do our work and release him!”
With twenty seconds left, Shawn moved in close to Drake and reached out to touch Drake’s shoulder. It was wet, but it wasn’t wet. Warm, but he felt no warmth. He touched his finger to the droplet of blood running down Drake’s back.
“Drake my friend, I’m not sure where you are, or if this is you at all, but I promise I will not bring you here again, if that is what we are doing.”
Drake cracked a weak smile and moved his eyes to Shawn’s hand now resting on his arm. His mouth began to form words, over and over, but Shawn could not make out what he was saying.
Ben and Sally were busy and missed the exchange between the two friends. Ben pushed his laptop to the side and alerted the others. “Sally, Shawn, time for us to power down. Say your goodbyes, ah, I mean get ready for the hologram to close.”
As the spark left Drake’s eyes and his substance faded away, Shawn tried to understand what his friend was trying to tell him.