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PostPosted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 1:29 pm
  

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Chapter 1

"Dreams favor the sleeper."

"I'm afraid, Arlo, there's nothing I can do without a whole list of negative probabilities. The glioblastoma is located too deeply within the medulla oblangata. At best you regain control of your left fingers and lose your eyesight. At worst you never wake up."

"It's a glitch, Doc. It doesn't happen all the time."

"Arlo. You have about 5 years to live at best. This will progress at a moderate rate, but it will progress. I can send you to a research clinic where some experimental work is being done with laser treatment..."

_______________________________________________________

"These laser treatments aren't doing much except making my vision blurred beyond recognition..."

"Arlo, you are in the group that the process is having negative effects upon."

"So then let me get this right. My left ring finger is still thinking it's in competition with my right pinky, that's worse and if I continue making it worse I'll go blind too?"

"Basically, yes."

"Next your going to tell me that my group is Group W."

"Well... I'll be switched... actually it is."

"And I get to have the seeing eye dog along with the biological garbage..."

"Actually, Arlo, there's another remote possibility. You could always try a fellow in the eccentric areas...."

_________________________________________________________

"Okay, Doc. So I just step into this chamber and either it cures me, does nothing or makes me go completely blind and a vegetable..."

Glancing around the room, it all came into perspective. The walls were full of screws holding copper sheeting on the surfaces, same as the floor and ceiling. The weird looking chamber was made from brass it seemed, sort of like a pumpkin. Above and below the pumpkin were mirrors all the way around. With a heavier soul than ever before in his life, Arlo walked up the ramp and into the chamber. There was a single upholstered chair inside facing a strange glass cyliner. He sat in the chair after looking to see if there was a letter stenciled on the back, and, as he was checking out the glass cylinder with some metal shapes inside, the ramp raised and sealed him in. Soon the lights and sound became a crescendo of polyphony, the cylinder became a tornado of light and plasma. Arlo could not tell the difference of virtigo or time or what was the most dynamic rush of his entire life as the dimensions blurred and he no longer knew if he was at all. The chamber opened and he stepped out, his head spinning still, just a bit. He flexed his fingers.

"Doc! The glitche! It's gone, I think! I know I can see better." He took off his glasses. "I can see better than I have in years!" He looked the doctor in the eye. "Thank you."


"Arlo, there may be side effects. I warned you before we started that I don't know what really happerns to those lab animals. You are the first."

"All I know right now, Doc, is I think I can go on playing."

__________________________________________________________

The coffee shop concert at "The Roaster" near Purdue that evening went perfectly. Arlo's hands were working better than they had in almost ten years. He was able to hit all the highs and lows with greater ease. At the hotel, later in the evening, he drifted quickly off to sleep and into the worst, darkness of a madman's nightmare ever in his life from which there was such total paralysis he couldn't even try to awaken. When the morning came and he finally did awake, he went to the mirror and nearly fell over to see his hair was deep umber again and past his shoulders. His clothes hung loosely on his thinner frame.

________________________________________________________


"Doc," Arlo was not disappointed. "At least you didn't turn me into some kind of freak."

"I'm sure there are less open minded people who would disagree with that." Dr. Calculere was laughing. "Not such bad side effects, but I have a different machine that you will need to test to finish the job."

"You mean like so I don't keep regressing?"

"No." The doctor said. "Arlo, you are connected to the 5th dimension now... I think. You will need to stay part of it."

The different machine was also a bigger pumpkin, only it had legs on four sides that appeared to retract. There appeared to be the same type of mirrors above and below and another ramp.... a bigger ramp. The machine looked more like polished stainless steel or some other white metal like titanium.

"What am I donating my personage to this time, Doc?"


"This is Mass Amplexity Gravitational Geostationary Interdimensional Envelope technology, or MAGGIE, Arlo." Calculer grinned with a squinting type of smile in his eyes. "The machine is programmed for the first test journey and always can find its way back here. It will teach you. There's a spacesuit in there. You made it through the first machine and you were united with all your personal time frames. You are your seventy year old mind in your twenty year old body and 30 year old brain, or that's how I set the temporal sympathizer. There's a whole music shop in there and the machine will get you to classes at Harvard so you understand time travel better. For now? First stop is go watch yourself at Woodstock."

________________________________________________________


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:04 pm
  

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Arlo was about to place a foot on the MAGGIE machine's entry ramp when he noticed Calculere wheeling a gurney away from the other machine. It appeared to have something about the size and shape of a human on it's top, covered up by a white sheet. "Doc?" A chill ran up his spine. "What's that?"

"It's the sympathetically manifested amalgamation body."

"Plain English, Doc."

It's the machine's leftovers of your old body." Calculere had wanted to avoid this innevitable query.

Feeling like someone just walked over his grave, Arlo asked the curious question, "May I see it?"

Calculere fingered his goatee. "Did you ever see John Carpenter's remake of The Thing?"

"I think I saw that once."

"I can take this to a mortician and hold a showing to show you're dead or I can dispose of all this and you become a missing person." Calculere was about to raise the sheet.

"Don't show me." Arlo turned and boarded the MAGGIE machine. The machine was at least a hundred feet in diameter; it was like a flying saucer made of gleaming white metal. Near the center was a quarter moon shaped control console sporting a handful of computer screens, two tuck and roll vinyl passenger seats, with three keyboards at each station and a couple levers that looked as though they came from an airliner's cockpit at each station. There were the spacesuits, each folded and stored on a seat with a helmet hanging on the headrest. Suddenly the ship seemed to come to life all of its own accord.

The odor of electrical ozone meandered into the control deck as the huge glass cylinder in the MAGGIE's core crackled with bristling chaotic, purple plasma that seemed to be discharging from above and below the deck. From above and below the main and upper decks, two donut shaped electromagnets moved toward the center of the cylinder and began to rotate. A pulsating, warbling humm could be heard from the magnets as the plasmas ceased to be chaotic, instead swirling like two whirlwinds converging toward each other and seeming to disappear into... nothing. The nothing was so not there that some sort of pull could be felt even from outside the cylinder. The ship's core had come to life and with that, like eyelids, two thick, steel cylinders began to descend around the core, obscuring the magnets, allowing a few feet of the swirling plasma to remain visible. Overhead was a menacingly large display screen. It flickered to life and Arlo could see the eccentric physicist hovering near the gurney. He seemed to be mouthing some words while marking on an invisible blackboard in mid air.

"Hey, Doc!" Arlo was donning the space suit left on what was likely the Captain's seat.

Calculere looked up, startled it seemed. "Well there you are." The doctor's eyes twinkled a bit. "MAGGIE seems to think you're okay. She'll be warmed up and ready for action a moment or two. You'll want to have that helmet on and strapped in when she gets serious about the journey. I'll be clearing out of here promptly, so anything you want to say, do so now."

"Nothing that important." Arlo smirked. "Just wanted to say make it look like I've disappeared." Then he added, "I've been thinking about my other half. I don't want her to..."

"Arlo," Calculere stopped him in mid sentence, "You are creative. MAGGIE can make a mask of any face you want, even your seventy year old face. Get to know her. She'll help you solve any problem." The pulsating hum became louder. Calculere waved quickly and pushed the gurney out of the pole building laboratory.

As the pulse became unbearable and the pull toward the core became stronger, Arlo locked the sound reducing helmet in place on his shoulder mount and quickly strapped himself in the Captain's seat. He noticed the levers were moving as though an invisible hand were pushing them. Even through the helmet the sound was nearly unbearable and a stroboscopic display of brilliant white light grew bright within the core as the steel shrouds closed the eye tightly shut. The entire MAGGIE machine started shaking. Arlo could feel his heart pounding and the sick, aching feeling in his teeth had him clenching them just as tight as the core's eye. The sound became like a billion bees, the frequency climbing till it became like a choir in crescendo. He blacked out.


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PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2012 11:33 pm
  

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DrCharbonneau wrote:
Arlo was about to place a foot on the MAGGIE machine's entry ramp when he noticed Calculere wheeling a gurney away from the other machine. It appeared to have something about the size and shape of a human on it's top, covered up by a white sheet. "Doc?" A chill ran up his spine. "What's that?"

"It's the sympathetically manifested amalgamation body."

"Plain English, Doc."

It's the machine's leftovers of your old body." Calculere had wanted to avoid this innevitable query.

Feeling like someone just walked over his grave, Arlo asked the curious question, "May I see it?"

Calculere fingered his goatee. "Did you ever see John Carpenter's remake of The Thing?"

"I think I saw that once."


"I can take this to a mortician and hold a showing to show you're dead or I can dispose of all this and you become a missing person." Calculere was about to raise the sheet.

"Don't show me." Arlo turned and boarded the MAGGIE machine. The machine was at least a hundred feet in diameter; it was like a flying saucer made of gleaming white metal. Near the center was a quarter moon shaped control console sporting a handful of computer screens, two tuck and roll vinyl passenger seats, with three keyboards at each station and a couple levers that looked as though they came from an airliner's cockpit at each station. There were the spacesuits, each folded and stored on a seat with a helmet hanging on the headrest. Suddenly the ship seemed to come to life all of its own accord.

The odor of electrical ozone meandered into the control deck as the huge glass cylinder in the MAGGIE's core crackled with bristling chaotic, purple plasma that seemed to be discharging from above and below the deck. From above and below the main and upper decks, two donut shaped electromagnets moved toward the center of the cylinder and began to rotate. A pulsating, warbling humm could be heard from the magnets as the plasmas ceased to be chaotic, instead swirling like two whirlwinds converging toward each other and seeming to disappear into... nothing. The nothing was so not there that some sort of pull could be felt even from outside the cylinder. The ship's core had come to life and with that, like eyelids, two thick, steel cylinders began to descend around the core, obscuring the magnets, allowing a few feet of the swirling plasma to remain visible. Overhead was a menacingly large display screen. It flickered to life and Arlo could see the eccentric physicist hovering near the gurney. He seemed to be mouthing some words while marking on an invisible blackboard in mid air.

"Hey, Doc!" Arlo was donning the space suit left on what was likely the Captain's seat.

Calculere looked up, startled it seemed. "Well there you are." The doctor's eyes twinkled a bit. "MAGGIE seems to think you're okay. She'll be warmed up and ready for action a moment or two. You'll want to have that helmet on and strapped in when she gets serious about the journey. I'll be clearing out of here promptly, so anything you want to say, do so now."

"Nothing that important." Arlo smirked. "Just wanted to say make it look like I've disappeared." Then he added, "I've been thinking about my other half. I don't want her to..."

"Arlo," Calculere stopped him in mid sentence, "You are creative. MAGGIE can make a mask of any face you want, even your seventy year old face. Get to know her. She'll help you solve any problem." The pulsating hum became louder. Calculere waved quickly and pushed the gurney out of the pole building laboratory.

As the pulse became unbearable and the pull toward the core became stronger, Arlo locked the sound reducing helmet in place on his shoulder mount and quickly strapped himself in the Captain's seat. He noticed the levers were moving as though an invisible hand were pushing them. Even through the helmet the sound was nearly unbearable and a stroboscopic display of brilliant white light grew bright within the core as the steel shrouds closed the eye tightly shut. The entire MAGGIE machine started shaking. Arlo could feel his heart pounding and the sick, aching feeling in his teeth had him clenching them just as tight as the core's eye. The sound became like a billion bees, the frequency climbing till it became like a choir in crescendo. He blacked out.


And Arlo woke...stunned...he said " Whoa, I feel like I shit a cosmic dictionary!"


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PostPosted: Thu May 03, 2012 3:53 pm
  

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hi cliff, say hi to ceashel for me if you would.


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PostPosted: Thu May 03, 2012 3:58 pm
  

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cliffite wrote:
And Arlo woke...stunned...he said " Whoa, I feel like I shit a cosmic dictionary!"


:lol:


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PostPosted: Thu May 03, 2012 4:11 pm
  

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agnes wrote:
hi cliff, say hi to ceashel for me if you would.


yes ma'am, I will. and a HI back atcha...


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PostPosted: Thu May 03, 2012 11:38 pm
  

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Howdy from me too. :)


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PostPosted: Thu May 03, 2012 11:44 pm
  

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Cheryl Harrell wrote:
Howdy from me too. :)


Hi Cheryl!

Let's not hijack the thread.

And the story goes...


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PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2012 12:01 pm
  

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Since it was Pete's birthday, he gave the dictionary to Pete...


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PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2012 12:39 pm
  

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......And naturally (as he has been known to do), Pete picked out significant passages from the dictionary (seemingly at random, yet with universal solidarity and purpose), and put them to music. Not just any old music, of course, but beautiful, melodic and harmonious music - the sychronous, infinite melodies and harmonics of the cosmos, set to the rhythmic pulses of Celery Time.......


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PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2012 12:57 pm
  

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Were those Ninjas playing lutes by the shed?


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PostPosted: Sun May 06, 2012 12:34 am
  

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They were and were entertaining those in the Occupy protests.


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:16 pm
  

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Then Pete turned to the page in the dictionary where page 69 was supposed to be, found it missing. He looked at Arlo to see why he'd been given a defective dictionary, but strangely found his head spinning around... severally and saw the face of a horrified Mitt Romney protruding from the book. Mitt's mouth grew larger and larger then out it of popped a worm... hole that is, sucking Pete into the book ass first. Pete, Mitt and his mouth disappeared into page 69 and the book slammed shut.


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