Paone Yours Truly, 2095

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9913091-7-7
Verlag: Scout Media
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 350 Seiten

Is it a love triangle if time travel is involved?
Jeff Blue made important decisions every day-what clothes to wear, what to eat for breakfast, and what book to teach his high school English class. What he never expected was needing to make a choice between repairing his failing marriage in 1981 or start anew with J0-an unexpected and flawless copy of his wife in 2095.
114 years in the future is nothing like he imagined and waking up there comes with its own list of questions. But while getting back to his time should be at the top of his list, it's hard to resist the new-and-improved version of his wife. J0's a clean slate. A chance to have things just the way he wants, to have things as they were before their daughter's 'accident.' However, staring at J0 reminds him of the woman he left back in 1981, whom he had vowed for better or worse.
Armed with a one-way ticket to the moon, it's a race against the clock to seize his last chance to return home to his time. A time without hover cars, Justice Computers, TeleSkins-a time without J0. Is that what he really wants?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Paone, Brian

Leseproben

Day 2: The Way Life’s Meant to Be It actually wasn’t the sunlight that woke me up the next morning, but the sound of J0’s voice talking to someone outside the front door. She sounded aggravated and anxious. I swung myself out of bed and went to see what the hubbub was about. When I entered the living room, J0’s back was to me. The front door was only open a crack, just wide enough for her to speak to whomever was on the other side. Since she hadn’t heard me enter the room yet, I decided to stay quiet. I had to strain to hear what was being said. Although I couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying, I could tell that it was a man’s voice talking to her. “You’re done with him. I’m done with you. It’s over. You’re not welcome here anymore. You’re a danger to both of them!” She rapidly closed the front door without waiting for a response, turned around, and saw me standing there. “Who was that?” “How much did you hear?” As soon as I ran to the living room window, I looked in the direction of the driveway, and I could see a somewhat familiar man walk away from the house. He appeared to be talking to himself. “What the—” I stopped. I still wasn’t sure if I felt comfortable telling her. “Do you know him?” “I …” “You what?” she exclaimed. Her demeanor was perfectly Julie. “Is there something going on that I should know about?” “That’s Bruce Marston, the leader of a protest group.” “Are you serious?” “He’s a religious fanatic and sees you as the Antichrist. He thinks of me as an abomination.” As J0 went into the kitchen to make breakfast for us, I decided to keep my mouth shut. If he really was some sort of radical protester who was out to kill me because of my research, why would he have invited me to a public place to talk? I could probably assume that he knew of my accident and my general mental state of delusions. Maybe he would take advantage of that for his own agenda? “It’s very important that I know if you’ve had any contact with Bruce, for our safety.” “So I have an archenemy? Like, a villain?” I was intrigued and slightly flattered. J0 turned away from the stove. The sizzling bacon became the loudest sound in the kitchen. “Do you think this is funny?” She pointed at me with the spatula. She really was Julie reincarnated. “I, um…” “Bruce is dangerous to both of us. I can’t make myself be any clearer.” I said nothing in response to her accusations. Instead I announced that I was going to take a shower before breakfast was ready. Once inside the shower, I leaned my head against the tiled wall and thought about Julie. Out there, making breakfast—it just wasn’t her. She treated me the same way, sure. She was even programmed to be like Julie. But every time she exhibited a Julie trait, it made me miss my wife that much more. I rubbed water from my eyes as I thought about how I had been taking her for granted before she died. Even though she was the love of my life, I really didn’t tell her that enough. I let little things like that slide, and they ultimately turned into bigger things. How much of a jerk was I to build an optional sleeping arrangement into J0 on the premise of yet another unavoidable fight? A knock on the bathroom door snapped me out of my inner thoughts. “Breakfast is ready.” “I’ll be right there.” I quickly finished my shower, got dressed, and exited the bathroom. “Smells good.” It really did smell good. The TeleSkin was on a news broadcast channel again. The fact that an entire wall could be one television screen still blew my mind. I stopped before it to catch what the news anchor was saying. “And here is the news. The Energy Council today announced that …” “Do you want a cup of coffee?” J0 asked from the kitchen. “Sure.” “Do you—” “Hold on a sec. I want to hear this.” I stood in front of the wall. “… The grant for Satellite Two to keep its power was approved …” “What’s on the TeleSkin?” “A bunch of stuff I still don’t understand. Energy Council. Something about Satellite Two.” “Come eat,” she replied. I reverted to normality for a moment as we ate. I shoveled food into my mouth so fast that I didn’t realize I was talking with my mouth full until J0 reprimanded me. I just had so many questions. “I’m sorry. My manners went right out the window. Say, what IQ did I build you at? Julie’s?If your energy comes from being plugged in at night, why are you eating a meal with me? Isn’t that unnecessary?” “You designed me to mirror a human being down to the very last detail. You didn’t want me to just be Julie. You need me to be Julie. You said that if there were any differentials in my behavior, any at all, your subconscious—no, your soul was how you put it—would be reminded that I’m not really her. The illusion needed to be perfect and consistent.” “You still have to plug yourself into a socket to charge your battery, or quartz crystals, or whatever. How does that keep the illusion perfect?” She didn’t say anything for what seemed like a long time. The silence became uncomfortable. I didn’t dare take another bite of food. Then J0 abruptly grabbed her half-eaten plate of food and turned toward the sink. She frantically scrubbed her dirty plate and the rest of the pans with hot water and a soapy sponge. There was something awkward about watching her elbows move back and forth as she dealt with the dishes. After another period of time washing in silence, she shut off the water and spun around to face me. “You can wash your own damn dishes.” She disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door. The best thing for me to do at that point was to wash my dishes and wait for her to come out. I was placing the dishes on the drying rack when the bathroom door eventually opened behind me. It was as if that odd series of events had never transpired. “One thousand and one.” “I’m sorry. One thousand and one, what?” “One thousand and one is my IQ. You asked me about it before I went into the bathroom.” I cautiously nodded my head and kept my eyes on her face. She acted like her outburst had never happened. “Theoretically no one can have an intelligence higher than two hundred. However, all through history were examples to prove that wrong. Rudolf Clausius and Leonardo da Vinci both scored a two-oh-five. James Maxwell scored a two-ten. Isaac Newton scored two-fifteen. Einstein scored two-twenty. Johann Goethe was the winner at two-thirty.” “Yours is1001?” “Not really. That’s always been our inside joke. I was hoping you might remember that at least. In addition to Julie’s memories, I also carry all her knowledge and the manner in which she communicates. It’s actually impossible to test my IQ. I compute at a very interfacial level, just without any peripheral devices. Therefore, my programming completely restricts my ability to have control over any independent abstract thought, creativity, problem-solving, cognitive thinking, reaction time, and reasoning, outside of Julie’s own human parameters. All these aptitudes play an intricate part in the quotient results. Then you, Jeffrey Blue, were evaluated, and it turned out that you have an IQ of—” The sound of my last name spoken out loud instantaneously brought a tidal wave of memories about my daughter. I called her Bluebird more often than Susan. I’m still in shock that J0 claims she never existed in the first place. “… and it changed everything. We kept it from the press because your research was so controversial. If the press got wind of your IQ results, it would only give protestors more validity with their witch...