The Digital World

Laurent was attending to the flowerbeds on each side of the porch of his Bayou residence. In the distance, the alien boy was trying to catch something alive in a waterbed using some random piece of wood. Liam materialized at the outskirts of the wooden area. The three piece suit was a bit warm, but the computer system wasn’t given orders to alter his appearance. This would do nicely.

“Liam, what a pleasure, what brings you here?”

“Sir, lovely house.”

“Very kind. A paradise inside of a prison.”

Liam gently stepped forward enjoying the attention to details of this house. “Your daughter’s mind seems to have pushed me out. She genuinely enjoyed our gift, very providential.”

Laurent removed his gloves, put she shears down and went to shake Liam’s hand before directing him to the most comfortable chair.

“These are roses.” Liam wasn’t there to discuss gardening. “Knowing you, you have something to ask. You are not one for pleasantries.”

“Highly perceptive of you.”

“Try this,” Laurent handed him a glass of lemonade. “We call it spiked, it includes alcohol, be careful it might get to your head.” The man inspected the glass, smelled it and took a sip. Liam had the reaction of all discovering the stingy substance. “None of this world makes any logical sense,” joked Laurent, “Why would we be able to feel alcohol, smell it. You know I even sleep and dream in this virtual reality, god knows how any of it works. It makes no sense but either Marilyn or Sophie have cranked the realism here to a place where this feels, at least to me like reality.”

“This is common actually, I have witnessed it several times in all but two attractions. The powers of the Attractor increase. Part of its power bends time, space and realities merging progressively all around it. If it makes any sense, she is a singularity on all aspects, including the blurred line between life and non-life. I am not surprised to see a convergence of dream and your reality. I hope you understand if she willed you back to life, it would happen.”

“I figured as much. She should not, none of this should be amusement or self-gratification. This,” he pointed around, “is more than I could ask. The boy is a gift. There are greater matters at hand, the mere fact we both have a front row seat is an honor. Imagine others, powerless to watch as we play with their fates.”

“Indeed a Shocking level of responsibility,” added the Oldest.

“Point well taken. What was your question?”

“In my spare time, I have been looking at archives of your life, Sophie’s and the story which preceded my arrival. I studied the computer intelligence and the game she runs. The Seer also was part of my work.”

“I assume the question relates to Susan, Sophie’s mother.”

“In all respect for your departed wife, not really.”

“Then what?”

“In the flight to Mars, you pointed Sophie to watch a very violent performance of the President, one where he wins in an odd way, why?”

He was surprised, “How do you know?”

“The flight logs and the ship cameras. Why that simulation specifically? There were many other performances, of less graphic violence if your goal was to convey to your daughter the dominance of the President.”

Laurent hesitated. Of all the questions, this was the only one he normally would never answer. “Why do you need to know?”

“Laurent, I need to know. You must trust my demand is only directed at helping Sophie.” Laurent was uncomfortable, uneasy. He looked around for any reason to change the topic. “Please sir, it is important for the world.”

“It’s very complicated.”

Liam looked at him in the eyes, “Does it relates to your passage in the afterlife.” Laurent’s reaction was priceless.

“More complicated than that actually.” Began one of these stories Marilyn would be watching from a distance.

***

“I died, not once or twice but many times. For what felt like several long lifetimes, I floated in different places and realities but as part of my hell, I relived some of the same nightmare over and other. These bad places feel like islands in the Pacific Ocean. You float alone on a piece of wood, in a darkness hungry and alone and at some point the solitude makes you desire anything. Then you land on an island and regret it instantly.

“Once on the island, in one bad dream, like a song stuck on repeat, the nightmare repeats in an endless loop. Anything you do, during the story to make your situation a bit less painful is erased by the loop. Lost in this strange place, I was left with one option to survive, trying to find a way out. Hope, while in prison keeps the prisoner sane.

“It quickly became clear my only option was linked with a better understanding of time itself. But time, at least our linear vision of it makes no sense if you play with it. There are paradoxes. If you change the past, you alter the future, that’s impossible. If you travel to the past, that’s now your future, no? That’s another paradox. Even this creation of parallel realities like a book with pages is filled with problems.

“I spent thousands to nights and days, floating in the darkness thinking about time travel. Every movie, every book ever written about time has paradoxes. I really never found any satisfying answer until I watched the President in that game. Like a ghost, instead of traveling in the past, he travels in memories and brings an intended target for the time change along. If you watch that game carefully, he suggests that emotions, feelings to be felt by Vurdi, that General is the only way to alter time. He forces the old Vurdi to change, to want to change his early self. To alter the present, Emilio changes the past in quite a subtle way.

“The effort does not bypass the main time paradox but it suggests that a person’s present and past are somehow connected at the hips. If I could travel in my own mind to a day before my accidents, change myself, maybe we could avoid this entire situation and this Attraction.”

Liam listened with great attention. He was carefully structuring a response. These were very delicate topics. Finally he ventured, “At the time you suggested she watch this performance, you had yet to learn of the Attraction. So your suggestion was self-centered to fix your family. But today you think somehow Marilyn, that powerful computer is to blame for the Sixth Attraction, much like Vurdi for his war and our solution is for Sophie to travel back with her in tow and somehow alter a path she took which resulted in hurting the Multiverse.”

The facial expression of Laurent was priceless. Liam had, in a matter of seconds read him to perfection. “That’s a plan. You have anything better?”

“I do.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“The digital creature is watching. But I can say this, I do agree a mastery of time dynamics is needed. But you andSophie must still learn higher dimensional physics. The Multiverse is not a simple four dimensional construct. She has much to learn and so little time. Her current predicament is linked with her touching and feeling these additional dimensions. I would not be surprised to learn the sand creatures, standing above hold such information. I am unclear how I can open a line of communication between them and Sophie without hurting her.”

In the distance Malik yelled, “Got it!”

Laurent got up from the chair, “That’s my cue, but may I suggest something?”

“Of course.”

“Sophie does not learn from others, they will learn from her.”

Liam slowly kept drinking until a light alcohol buzz kicked in.