“Did You Pass 2”

When we arrived at Mystic’s home we had a quick meal and Fliss had some of the booze we had bought as, what she termed, a ‘livener’.
Meanwhile we all caught up on what had happened in the last day or two.

As you have probably guessed after Leo had transferred to a new ‘host’ he had driven round to my house - getting there not long after Fliss and I had gone to the pub. Finding me out he had phoned Mystic in the hope of having a few words with Mystic’s Buddhi friend - Leo and the Buddhi were involved in trying to find a suitable Sim solution that would allow it to exit the loop and progress.

As luck would have it Mystic was not at home but he wasn’t far away from my house so he agreed to meet Leo there, suggesting, as a precaution, that Leo move his car to the opposite side of the street a few hundred yards from my place.

Not long after Leo moved his car the “other Leo” arrived. Mystic arrived just before we did, in fact we might have been in the off-licence when he passed it. Mystic and Leo agreed that it would be unwise to let me and Fliss get too close - especially since they were not sure who was in the “other Leo’s” car...
So they had intercepted us when we started to cross the road and now, here we all were at Mystic’s.

The Buddhi expressed his pleasure that we had all managed to avoid any serious confrontations with whoever it was that seemed to want Leo and possibly me and Fliss. He agreed that it could be the Charter but pointed out it might not be… they might be trying to kidnap the Prince and Princess.

“Prince and Princess?” I asked baffled.

“Yes, Prince Leopold and Princess Felicity… eldest offspring of the two Royal Houses of the ruling binary planets of the Sengi system. As you know they are presently studying at the Prime University on the education planet of the Mxrykzi - who, I believe you call Vulcan’s Mike.” the Buddhi said smiling.

“Ah, yes, I met them briefly during a future Sim that Leo was running in which the Galactic Union took control of the Earth. Of course he didn’t bother to tell me it was only a possible future he was working on and I thought it was real and that the Earth was finally to become the Paradise it could be.

“I know it is a bit hard on you Mike - but knowing it isn’t reality changes how you react and that changes the possibilities and that can change everything. That’s what makes it so difficult to get the result you want from a future Sim and why I can’t use you again for any future, Future Sims. Bearing in mind that to change one thing can also result in a change of everything.” explained Leo.

“We have learned a lot in the past few days” said the Buddhi. “ It is very likely that the Sim which the University found, the one you live in Mike, was only one of very many existing in parallel Universes.

The thinking now is that the system is looping while the different ‘dimensions’ integrate and the best possible solution is computed and tested. You probably haven’t noticed, Mike, but subtle changes are constantly being effected to the Primary Model which are reflected throughout the realities.
No doubt there is a back up copy of the Primary Model, just in case, but we have not been able to locate it.

The concern is that the people playing about in, and with, this system may have corrupted all the connected ones and result in an impossible integration in which the loop will never terminate!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leo, Mystic and his Buddhi pal were in the living room discussing what could be done to try and minimise unauthorised use of the Sim, to minimise authorised use and how best to press the case for a very quick vote for implementation of the Charter.

Fliss was in the kitchen occasionally sipping something from a glass between humming some extracts from a classical piece she had recently written for violin. Mike was in the kitchen thinking that she was looking remarkably attractive considering the amount of alcohol that she must have consumed.

He thought it might be a good time to find out exactly what the relationship between Leo and Fliss was, at least in Fliss’s eyes.

“You okay Fliss?”

“I’m fine Mike” she replied

“So what’s it like being a Princess?”

“It’s a bore. I was hoping that I would get a bit of freedom once I was at Uni but they watch me like a hawk most of the time. It is only when I’m Fliss that I can have any fun whatsoever and it looks like that will be over soon.

"Don’t you get to go to parties and things with the other students?”

“I don’t think you understand Mike. I’m not physically at the Uni, I project there from the Palace. Even then, like I said, they watch me like a hawk.”

“But they can’t keep an eye on you when you’re in the Sim?”

“No, there is some sort of screen that allows you to project in and ‘become’ your host but it doesn’t allow any sort of surveillance and so they don’t know what I get up to here.”

“I’m surprised they are willing to take the risk then…”

“Well, there isn’t much of a risk. As you’ve noticed yourself, there are all sorts of built in defences which come into play if you have User status. Naturally the Uni has given both Leo and I the highest status you can get below SuperUser status - which is reserved for the Top Techies.
Since it is only my mind that enters the Sim and there has never been a single case of any user suffering any problems or side effects our families agreed and allowed us to join the Sim class.“

"So how can you be kidnapped if you never leave your planet?"

"You'd better ask the Buddhi, he seemed to think it was possible.
Maybe I can be mindnapped and that's why I'm watched like a hawk."

“Do you look anything like Fliss?”

“Actually both Leo and I went to a lot of trouble finding ‘hosts’ that looked fairly similar to our real bodies. I bet Leo is annoyed that someone else is running around in his likeness.” she chuckled.

"Have you ever, err, you know, played the sweetest duet?"

"Are you up to it?" she teased.

"I’ll have you know I’m a virtuoso organ player my dear girl.” I joked.

"Fancy a quick vamp then?" she said lifting her T-shirt as though she was ready to pull it off over her head.

I pulled a face of mock terror and we both laughed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I noticed from the piece on your computer that you don’t seem fond of science, Mike. Yet you have computers, DVD players and lots of gadgets.”

“Yeah, I work on the principle that if you have to suffer the drawbacks you might as well enjoy the benefits ;O)
It’s not really science that I don’t like it is the way it has been used to portray theories as facts.
In bygone days the Church would be in charge of truth and Science would be in charge of testing it.
So, although there was a lot of resistance by the Church the ‘Truth’ could evolve by opposition.

Nowadays Science controls 'Truth' without any serious opposition and the Church’s role seems to be to fight a losing rear-guard action trying to preserve a modicum of morality in the anything goes in the name of Science debates that the Church always loses eventually.

When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein (The Modern Prometheus) I'm sure she realised that scientists of the time meant well - but she could see that like fire, science needed good masters or all could burn.
Surely she captured the spirit of modern science perfectly with Victor and his creation.

Victor is sure that all he needs to do is to understand the function of each part of the human body and then sew them together in the correct order and he would have a functioning whole - well, with enough lightning.

Scientific knowledge is like Frankenstein’s monster, it is various bits obtained here and there and then sewn together in the expectation that it will somehow function as a whole if it is given enough power.
The fact that the only people deemed knowledgeable enough to make decisions about scientific limitations are scientists doesn’t seem to have dawned on the general population who have been brainwashed into believing it is all being done for their sake.

If you look at the character of Doctor Manhattan in the film Watchmen you get a very good portrayal of the spirit of modern science. He becomes less and less interested in mankind and more and more fascinated by his clockwork constructions on Mars. Science no longer cares about man; it sees the Earth as an accidental world on which carbon based life forms infest a globe of rock which is three quarters covered with salty water that circles a nuclear furnace in an otherwise clockwork Universe.

So Science builds nuclear reactors, rocket ships, hydrogen bombs, giant telescopes and atom smashers and tells us that it is all done so we can understand things better and bring a brighter tomorrow...
meanwhile the Planet fights back...

The same reckless impulse that caused the cat to die by licking its poisonous curiosity will just as easily kill those who throw caution to the wind and say let’s suck it and see!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Tell me more about you Mike.
Leo tells me that you don't host and yet talking with you is not like talking to a normal clone, err, a random, err... human?"

"Human, yes. Well, I used to be a Host but it got so that I started to see things I should not have been able to and to notice and hear bits of conversation.
I would occasionally reply and of course it caused a whole lot of problems both for me and for those I was hosting. The humans thought I was talking to myself or making completely inappropriate comments and the Users thought they were talking to another User when in fact they were talking to me.”

“That must have been difficult, Mike.”

“Well, yes. I was eventually diagnosed as schizophrenic and put in the Looney Bin with lots of seriously deranged people.”

“Oh, my goodness! How did you cope.”

“I didn’t… for a while.
It was terrible in there because of the sheer tension of raw emotion waiting to erupt.
Always looking for somewhere safe, somewhere away from the screamers, the hot tea throwers, the medication zombies and the psychopaths."

"Sounds inhuman, Mike."

"Yes, it was simply a matter of convenience.
Lock all the crazies up together - no attempt to segregate them by symptoms or diagnosis. Put them where ever there is a free bed.”

"So how did you get out?"

"Have you ever heard the Beatle's song “Let it be.”?

“Of course I have, Mike.”

“Well, I managed to convince my psychiatrist that it would be very therapeutic for me to spend some time in a local park.
He agreed and a member of staff was assigned to take a group of us to the park one Tuesday afternoon.

I managed to sneak off while one of the other patients was playing up and went to a little cave I knew of which had been cut into the rock.
It had steps leading to it and a strong, wrought iron, railing painted green which you could lean over to look down the sheer drop to the trees below.

I went into the cave and it smelled a bit like an old toilet but it was silent, silent!
The afternoon sunshine shone through the cave turning everything a bright orange and I started to feel terrified. I was going to burst, to explode, and I had to hold on with all my strength to keep myself together...
Then Mother Mary appeared but instead of ‘Let it be.’ she said ‘Let it go.’

My fear of losing it was so strong that I stuffed a handkerchief in my mouth for something to bite on to stop me screaming and lay in the foetal position on the cave floor at the feet of the Blue Mother in the centre of an orange universe - it took everything I had to simply hanging on.

I didn’t want to let it go - but I a lot went.

An endless time later the orange light faded and I managed to leave the cave and return to hospital. I was in trouble but I didn't care...
I could stand it now!

R.D.Laing summed it up very well 'The mystic and the schizophrenic find themselves in the same ocean, but whereas the mystic swims, the schizophrenic drowns.' I'd lost a lot of weight and learned to swim!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fliss fell silent for a moment and we just stared at each other.
I could feel the embrace before it came…
but it was far more passionate than I had expected.
It was like something had pulled us together like two electromagnets sharing a surge of current.

Then Fliss pushed me away. “I’m sorry she said.”

I was almost panting but I simply smiled a ‘never mind’ smile.

“They scan the Hosts, Mike. As I’ve said surveillance isn’t possible from outside but whenever a User logs off a Host the Host’s memory is scanned by the system from when the User logged on to log off...
That‘s how they get a record for the Ethics Board.”

"That's it Fliss. That is it!"

"That's what?"

"That's how we'll find out who the other Users are, the unauthorised Users!"