Days drip by. Sally responds to the packet of information I sent her, I respond to her’s. After the first couple of exchanges I have nothing new to say. Sally keeps me up to date on the daily working of our private eye business, her two sons and anything else that comes into her populated life. My life is contained within a silver tube. I watch news feeds from three different worlds all of which are at least half a day old. Mac does his best to keep me entertained. Mac does not feel the passage of time nor does he ever long to be somewhere he is not, partially, perhaps, because Mac is several places at once. Mac’s program is installed in a coffee shop on a water world, he drives cars on several worlds, he still maintains a presence in a world’s satellite computer, on earth he takes care of my home and waits in my ground car for a destination. He’s in no hurry to arrive on earth not only because he lives only in the current moment but because he is already there.
“How long Mac?”
“Seven days three hours and a few minutes Randy.”
“I didn’t get my mind set for this Mac.”
“How is that Randy?”
“I wasn’t planning on being in space this long. Before a long trip I always consider the passage of time and resign myself to it. I go over all the things I will miss and how many days I will sit in this nothingness. I make a choice to loose the days necessary to make the trip.”
“And how is this trip different Randy?”
“Well the plan was to fold space and travel just a few minutes, not two weeks.”
“I’ve heard of folding space Randy. As far back as two hundred years ago there were fiction books written about space ships that could fold space and travel vast distances in seconds. But why would you think we could travel in that way Randy?”
“We did travel that way Mac. It took us a total of twenty-three minutes to arrive at Sentra Two. We were half way home in ten minutes.”
“Could you be experiencing space sickness Randy?”
“No Mac I am not space sick. I’m sick of space but not space sick.”
“But you feel this ship should be able to fold space?
“We were testing the Quantum Point B15 System for the Quantum company. The program was installed into this ship’s memory.”
“I have no memory of this Randy.”
“Oh come on Mac! The program imploded, destroyed twenty percent of our hard drive. We stopped at Spire’s planet, Solitude.”
“I remember the stop at Spire’s planet Randy. He has one of the finest ship’s computers I have ever met.”
“You have no memory of the Quantum Point B15 program?”
Mac pauses for a second, “none.”
“Do you remember the trip to Sentra Two?”
Mac pauses a little longer this time, “I remember nothing from the time we left earth to the time we arrived on Sentra Two.”
“How about the time we spent on Sentra Two Mac?”
“You rented a car with a very nice computer and installed me into it. We were there three days. We found out how the thieves were redirecting shipments of Corbomite and the criminals were arrested. I remember everything about our visit to Sentra Two Randy.”
“And how did we travel from Sentra Two to Solitude Mac?”
“I do not know Randy,” Mac looks worried, it’s not a look he usually has.
“Mac, I think your computer has been tampered with. Look for any bits of the Quantum Point B15 program that may still exist. Check for missing files or erasures.”
Mac goes blank and stays blank. His holo image flickers and pixilates. A full minute goes by. I start to panic. What have I done? I should have waited until we were safely on earth before I confronted Mac with the damage to his computer. After two full minutes Mac’s image stabilizes but his eyes remain unfocused. Another thirty seconds pass before he speaks.
“You are correct Randy. First there is no sign of any program called Quantum Point, absolutely no sign, not a single stray bit. But something was there. There is a section of my computer’s hard drive and a space in active memory that is whistle clean. Absolutely nothing exists in those areas. Something has been removed from my memory and it has been done with surgical precision.”
“How could that happen? Would a program imploding do that?”
“A failed program would leave tons of garbage behind Randy. This requires a computer expert, not just an everyday tech, whoever did this really knew his stuff.”
“A. J. Spire.”
“Yes, Randy. A. J. Spire is one of the few people with the necessary skills.”
david blankenship 