Part 2 – The Flow of Time

- Good Morning Jay

The dulcet tones of the Mind gently brought him round and he began a new day with memories of dreams haunting his every move. As he showered and changed into freshly made clothes, his bed moulded soundlessly back into the floor and his flat assumed its day mode, the day furniture extruding seamlessly from the floor, muted colours flushing the surfaces as he sat down at the small table.

Screen

He worked in silence for a while, answering a few messages from some colleagues he had been working with recently on a particularly abstract piece of mathematical modelling and then paused in the silence.

Music, random classical

The mental command was answered instantly, but as the simple opening strains of Debussy's Claire de Lune quietly whispered from the walls he stopped, placing his stylus on the table in front of him. A small tear splashed to the table next to his hand, swiftly followed by several more and he realised that his hands were trembling. Racking sobs shook his body and it was only with a supreme effort a few minutes later that he managed to control his raging emotions.

Music: so evocative, so able to transport the unprotected mind to somewhen else. She'd loved Debussy and they'd spend many hours listening to everything from Beethoven to Iron Maiden, indulging their love of the mathematical in the musical structures and chords.

Music off.

He sat in silence again and then contacted the Mind.

Mind. How many people on this planet can move things with the power of thought like I can?

- Fourteen are registered, five of whom you have worked closely with in the past.

Only fourteen? Why didn't you tell me?

- You didn't ask Jay.

Jay sat in quiet thought for some time.

What are the limits of the human mind?

- Unknown.

Theorise please.

- Of the few alien species the Mind is aware of, only humans have the capability for non-logical thought or 'flights of fancy' if you will. The Altabar, Kot and Zephil races are all at a similar stage in their evolution to humankind, but the human species has evolved to its current state more swiftly than any other known race.

And what would be the next evolutionary step for mankind?

- Unknown.

Do you think that man's ability for non-logical thought has assisted his evolution?

- There are various theories that would back that suggestion Jay, but I am a computer, my positronic net is designed to follow logical thought processes.

Jay sighed. It was times like this that he needed human company, to bounce ideas off, to have a non-logical conversation.

"I wish you were here Helena," he muttered quietly.

"I am..."

It was faint, and afterwards he wasn't sure if it had even been audible.

"What?" he said aloud. "Helena?"

There was no answer.

Mind. Did I just hear Helena James?

- Helena James has been Terminated. She is no longer extant in City.

How did she die?

- That information is classified.

Where did she die?

- That information is classified.

Is she dead?

- She has been Terminated. She is no longer extant in City.

"Dammit!" shouted Jay, his temper flaring in unaccustomed rage. He clenched his fists and something snapped in his mind, a bitter flare of red coursing through his brain.

Abruptly, the mirror over the sink shattered and his anger dissipated in surprise as his previously minimal mental skills manifested far more strongly than they ever had before.

- Please calm yourself Jay, you'll hurt yourself.

The previously soothing tone of the Mind, made him grimace as the artificial concern grated on his nerves.

What are you worried about Mind, that I could break you?

- Perhaps a cup of chamomile tea would help Jay.

The dispenser in his room hissed steam and a cup of hot tea materialised in the dispenser at the Mind's request.

Jay gestured abruptly, his anger returning and then watched astounded as the cup dematerialised allowing the scalding fluid to spill to the floor.

"What the hell?"

- Jay, I'm asking for a Medbot to come and offer you some assistance.

Jay whirled as the door to his Pod whispered open, a small white robot with a green cross wheeling soundlessly toward him.

Mind. Ask it to stop, I do not need medication, I need answers.

- You need to be calm Jay, please allow the Medbot to administer a gentle sedative and then we can talk more.

"No!" shouted Jay reverting to vocal rather than mental communication and backing away from the Medbot.

"...you have the potential to unlock something, something in your own mind..." the comment whispered from the air and as he looked around wildly, the Medbot darted forward with a needle appearing on the end of its motorised arm.

Jay reacted instinctively.

It stopped.

Everything stopped.

Jay stood in silence with his right arm outstretched, his brain on fire. Closing his eyes, he slumped to the floor clutching his temples and groaning as conversations, strange landscapes and memories coruscated through his mind's eye. Mental pathways merged, strengthened, renewed and then spilt only to coalesce before bounding apart again, spiralling and interconnecting like an endlessly morphing DNA helix. Information clamoured for his attention. Memories dissolved into green and black. Columns of numbers danced and changed, a binary procession of information that ebbed and flowed in a numerical tide that roared and thrashed against his being, threatening to subsume him, destroy him and tilt him into madness.

"... I love you ..."

"Helena."

The roaring in his ears abated as he began to focus his mind on the lifeline of three small words. Using a technique Helena had shared with him he brought his jumbled thoughts under control and began to breathe more easily, the pain decreasing.

He opened his eyes.

The Medbot was stationary, the needle poised and ready to strike. Standing unsteadily, he lurched a few paces away from the bot and examined it before moving around the flat.

Mind?

There was no answer. Time appeared to have stopped for everything else but him.

He closed his eyes and calmed his pounding heart. Centering himself he reached for the mental image that Helena had favoured, one she had transmitted to him once when they had Shared and that had come to him in the darkness of the Transit module.

The dark mindscape with its green contours brought him calm. Lines of power glowed and pulsed but they had been joined by other lines, hexagonal shapes lying beneath the surface of the land on which his mental avatar stood. Examining the image, he noticed one line of power terminated in a glowing hexagon and he moved effortlessly toward it. The flow had been blocked and he reached with his mind to re-establish the flow. As his thoughts severed the block, sound slammed back into life and he opened his eyes to see the Medbot lurch into the space where he'd been moments before, before turning on its tracks to find him.

- Jay, you must stand still and let me help you.

What are you afraid of Mind?

- You are abnormal Jay; you must be controlled for the good of the City. We are dependent on order; your chaotic influence must not spread. We must finish analysing what danger you and others like you pose.

Analysing? You have Helena? You have others?

He moved away from the Medbot, keeping it at a good distance as he carried on his mental discussion with the Mind.

- She is no longer part of the City, her connection has been Terminated.

His ire rising once more, Jay focused his rage, and the Medbot slumped to the floor on crumbling tracks, impotent and unable to move.

Disconnecting from Mind, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the mindscape Helena had dreamt up, instantly snapping back to the bleak black and green lands. This time though, he was real, his body was no longer contoured in green and black, but was flesh and blood.

He looked at the hexagon where he had reconnected the timeline, and gazed back along the pulsing flow of the past. Walking to the next hexagon, he stepped into its confines and blocked the flow with a mental command. Touching the stream with outstretched fingers made an image appear in his mind and he smiled in recognition, concentrated, and reappeared in the travel pod from the day before, the lights in the tunnel frozen in biochemical pulse as he looked down at his own stationary form in repose.

Concentrating, he re-joined the Mindscape and sat down, considering his options.

"So how do I find Helena?" he muttered after a few moments, and looked up in surprise as a hexagon back along the timeline flared in response to his words.

Walking swiftly to the area where the flare had occurred, he touched the green energy line and watched as a window in time opened before his eyes, the uninterrupted flow of time pulsing beneath his fingers.

The small view of a world in the past played out in front of his eyes. He and Helena were saying goodbye. She kissed him on the lips and brushed her hand across his cheek, the loving look she cast him suddenly apparent to him after the event. He watched as she left, then watched himself as he too moved from the room.

Looking at the ground by his feet in the Mindscape, he watched his own timeline continue on but noticed a spur sprout perpendicular to the left.

"Helena," he said and the smaller line pulsed briefly in response. Following it, he followed the stream and watched Helena as she journeyed home to her flat, ate a meal, watched the news, and went to bed. He looked on in voyeuristic silence as she lay in quiet meditation, objects around her room lifting at her telekinetic command and dancing to music only she could hear. He watched as the Medbot entered the room on silent tracks, unnoticed, deep as she was in a meditative state, and injected her with a dark fluid. Her eyes opened in momentary shock and panic, closing swiftly to darkness.

As he looked on, other Medbots entered the room and whisked her away to a white room where, in another time and place, her brain chip was removed and she was placed in a long room with several others, hooked up to machines and left.

"Helena," he whispered. "No, this must not be."

He moved back along the timeline to a point where she sat on the bed and stopped the timeflow with a sudden burst of mental power. Stepping into a hexagon that had appeared at his mental command he vanished and reappeared at the side of Helena's bed.

Walking around the stillness of her apartment, he dodged several objects hanging in suspended stillness in the air. He could not move them and they hurt if he walked into them as he'd already found out.

"Damn it to hell," he muttered. "What can I do?"

Concentrating, he held the Mindscape in his mind whilst anchoring his being to the timeline in which he now resided. He could feel the strain on his mind growing as he held on to the two locations, his heart thudding rapidly in his chest as sweat sprang out on his forehead. Picturing the blocked thread, he slashed at it ineffectually with his mind, willing it to unblock.

"Gaaaaaaah!" the involuntary gasp of pain escaped his lips as he struggled and he focused on Helena's face, focused on the one thing that could make any difference. He reached out with one hand, imagining the hand grasping the end of the stopped timeline. The skin of his arm changed as he watched, green and black contours seeping like an ink stain from his fingers tips down his forearm. Spots danced before his eyes and he clenched his teeth in pain as the darkness of the mindscape moved toward his heart, reality and mindspace linking via his brain. Darkness crowded his vision and his heart fluttered in his chest, the strain of the link paralysing his diaphragm as he fought both for breath and control.

"...I love you..."

Rage proved the catalyst and he lashed out with a massive mental barrage at the blocked link, the effort smashing him to his knees as the strain of maintaining the link with the Mindscape broke him. As the thought of losing Helena battered him he collapsed to the floor, curling into a foetal ball and clutching his head.

"Helena..." he whispered, despair crushing him.

"Jay? What the hell are you doing in my apartment?"

"Helena? You're okay?"

Jay leapt to his feet and hugged the surprised woman, then ran dizzily for the door as several ornaments thudded to the floor around him following Helena's loss of telekinetic concentration.

"Jay?"

As the door opened to allow entry to the Medbot, Jay lifted a heavy ornament and smashed it across the body of the bot, hitting it repeatedly until it had stopped moving. Remembering himself, he stepped back and concentrated, reducing the bot to dust before sweeping a stunned Helena into his arms and hugging her fiercely.

"We have to go, now," he said firmly. "Ready?"

"Go? Go where?"

He grinned madly and closed his eyes, opening them again to see her standing open mouthed at the green and black landscape around them.

"But, but this is mine," she said eventually.

"Aye, it is. You Shared it with me. But it seems to do something different for me. For me it acts like some sort of control or portal, a sort of mindscape through which I can control time. Although I think I may have just broken it as we seem to both be outside the timeline. The Mind was about to remove you, but I stopped it."

"You have my nanites?"

"Yes, you saved me. How did you know?"

"One of my friends disappeared," said Helena sadly. "She was too similar to us for it to be a coincidence, and it's the only way to explain what just happened. You can control this place Jay?"

"Yes, it seems to be outside the universe, or inside my head, I'm not sure which."

"You can move backwards and forwards in time and change timelines?"

"It looks like it."

"But that's impossible."

"No, merely improbable. We can go wherever we want to in time. We can get away from the Mind and the City. We can just be us, together."

"But this is a construct, a 3D rendition of an abstract landscape, an artwork."

"Did you imagine this Helena?"

"No, the Mind sent it to me via my Link, said it might help with some mental exercises."

"But I can control it, travel in time," said Jay.

"Does that make it real, or merely a reality that you can control? Is this the inside of the Mind or something else entirely? If this is here Jay, does that mean we exist at all? If you can control time, does that make us something other than human?" She paused and then laughed. "Why is it when I'm with you all we seem to do is ask each other endless questions?"

Helena faced him, breathing deeply as she calmed her racing thoughts and traced her fingers across his jaw line. She smiled her faint smile.

"Whatever this turns out to be, you came back for me, thank you. You re-wrote time to save me."

He grinned. "I did, didn't I?"

He proffered a hand which she clasped firmly in her own.

"Perhaps we should see how far we can travel, and how real this can get," he said quietly.

"Perhaps we should. Only time will tell."

Jay concentrated, and hand in hand the two of them sped towards the distant cityscape. They had all the time in the world...

~~~ The End ~~~