Chapter 8

Charles Keller sat within the confines of his solid glass cell, with his hands intertwined before his chest and his eyes closed, rapt in meditation upon the Marker's messages passing through his head like a transcendental breeze. For an enlightened one like himself, the Marker was his only solace from a most cruel and unforgiving world.

turn it off turn it off turn it off turn it off turn it off

His deep, somatic trance was suddenly jarred loose by a tapping sound, and Charles opened his eyes to see one of his physicians standing just outside of his transparent cell, with his knuckles against the glass. The intercom inside the cell suddenly rang out with the sound of the physician's voice, sounding raspy and disconnected over the static.

"Mr. Keller, the Overseer wishes to speak with you."

The intercom snapped off, and with a complete lack of expression Charles unfolded his hands and brought them down into his lap. With pristine grace he then rose from the low-laying bench he was sitting on, began straightening the folds of his pure white, silk jacket with a compulsive sense of perfection, and waited patiently for the gate of his cell to open. He heard the warning alarm, muted from behind the thick glass, and the punching sounds of the hydraulic locks as they released to open the gate. Charles' physician was standing on the other side as it opened, and he motioned to a pair of fully armored Unitologist soldiers standing just behind him.

"Ready, Mr. Keller."

The guards quickly entered the cell and approached Charles, who with the placid response of a domesticated animal blinded by routine, raised his wrists and held them out without resistance. One of the soldiers was holding a pair of thick metal handcuffs, each one bearing along the lock an electronic microchip that emitted a soft, blinking red light, and the other soldier was holding a pair of chains. Charles stared blankly ahead of him with dark, featureless eyes as the first soldier snapped the cuffs around his wrists, checked to see that the microchip's status lights had turned a solid blue on both, and stepped back. Upon his command the second soldier immediately swept in and attached the chains, one to each of the handcuffs, then attached one to a reinforced loop on his belt and the other to his partner's. When they had finished, the soldiers pulled out their pulse rifles and ordered Charles out of the cell. Charles lowered his arms to his sides and calmly strode out of the cell onto the observation deck, stopping just short of pulling his chains taught.

"Will the Overseer... be requiring another... session today?"

As he asked the question, Charles spasmodically twisted his neck and head to the left side twice, and blinked his eyes strongly several times. Without looking up at him, the physician adjusted the cuffs around Charles' wrists.

"I don't have that information. But it is a matter of utmost importance."

Without further conversation the physician led Charles out of the observation deck, with the two tethered soldiers closely in tow. The small entourage made their way down several long, twisted corridors lined with charcoal colored carpeting and cold steel walls, passing by many doors that all looked the same save for the identifying number on each one. The physician stopped in front of one of them, opened the hololock, and walked inside.

"Follow me."

Charles silently followed the physician into a small, harshly lit room with bland, naked grey walls. There was a wooden desk and two chairs on either side facing opposite each other, but not much room for anything else. The physician motioned to one of the chairs.

"Have a seat."

The two soldiers entered behind Charles and took post on either side of the chair he sat down in, staring at him through their skull-shaped masks as they stood at attention with their rifles. They stood far enough away to keep the chains held taught at their hips, and Charles drawn open by his arms. Once the soldiers were positioned, the physician turned to him.

"The Overseer will be with you in a moment."

The physician then swept out of the room like the wind, closing the door behind him. Left alone with the two soldiers Charles stared straight ahead of him, silent, rocking gently back and forth upon his tethered arms. The room was deafeningly quiet save for the occasional chime of the chains as they swayed with Charles' movements, and it seemed to last forever until the door finally opened again.

"My apologies for keeping you waiting, Mr. Keller."

The Overseer was a fossil of a man, his face cold and lined by deep trenches like the surface of a glacier. His hair was a thinning patch of pure white snow atop his head, and the thick, black robe he was wearing seemed large and almost overshadowing against his small body frame. His eyes, dark like ash, jumped right to Charles as he swept into the room with the pomp of a wise, aged egret, and sat down in the chair directly across from him.

"Thank you for agreeing to see me on such short notice."

Charles knew the Overseer's statement was nothing more than a hollow formality; for an Oracle of the Church, compliance was never a choice. As he looked into the Overseer's eyes with a dead, dark-eyed gaze, his head violently twitched again, and his eyelids fluttered.

"Yes.. yes, sir. My... pleasure."

The Overseer looked at Charles through cold, unfeeling eyes as he observed his involuntary twitching, and he tapped his fingernails upon the surface of the desk.

"What's the matter, Mr. Keller? You're having the convulsions again. Are they giving you your medication properly?"

With the lifelessness of a china doll, Charles stared at the Overseer.

"Yes."

"But they're getting worse?"

"Yes."

"Hmm."

The Overseer leaned back in the chair, keeping a hard stare upon Charles.

"I've been informed that you picked up 3A's signal again this morning."

"Yes."

"Are you able to tell me where it is coming from yet?"

"No. But it is broadcasting from somewhere within our star system. It is close."

The Overseer nodded, then began to reach into the inside pocket of his vest.

"Interesting. Mr. Keller, we need you to try again. We need to know where it is. Are you able to comply?"

Charles nodded, distant and deadpan.

"The signal is progressively getting stronger. It's merely a matter of time, sir."

"Very good. We will proceed."

The Overseer motioned to the soldiers, who took a few steps closer to slacken the chains and allow Charles to lower his arms onto the table. One of the soldiers deactivated the glowing microchips upon Charles' handcuffs, and the moment the lights went dim both soldiers immediately raised their pulse rifles directly at him.

"Don't move."

The Overseer, without removing his glare from Charles, pulled out of his vest pocket a red box that was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. He placed the box on the table and flipped open the top, revealing a small, plain silver ring stored inside of it. The Overseer withdrew the ring from the box, and handed it across the table to Charles.

"Let's begin."

Charles calmly reached up and took the ring from the Overseer's hand, sensing the tension of the soldiers' grips upon their rifles as he did so. Charles then slipped the ring onto the middle finger of his right hand, and slowly lowered both of his hands back down onto the table, open and palms down. After a few seconds, the ring began to radiate a faint, crimson red glow. The Overseer stared at him intently.

"If you are successful, Mr. Keller... keep him engaged for as long as you can."

Charles slowly closed his eyes.

"Yes, sir."

Ellie was stirred awake by the sound of what she gradually came to realize as she drew closer to consciousness was a voice, calling out.

"This can't be right. I don't understand what you're trying to tell me."

It was an intrusion that had broken her sound sleep, and alarmed by it she opened her eyes, raised her head and turned her gaze to the couch, where she heard the voice coming from. She saw that Isaac was wide awake, sitting up, and was leaning forward with an intent stare down upon the table in front of him - more specifically, a small pile of papers lying on top of it. All of a sudden he spoke out loud, apparently to nobody.

"This elemental combination doesn't support the numbers, sir. But, how? I don't see how."

It didn't seem he was aware that Ellie was awake, nor that she was watching him. He continued on without interruption, speaking out loud then pausing, then speaking again with the cadence of a conversation, and at first she thought that he must have been communicating with someone. But when she looked across the room, she confirmed that his RIG was sitting on a nightstand near the bathroom, and it was off. Her eye widened a little.

What the hell?

Recalling his strange episode the first night at Alan's, Ellie began to develop a sinking feeling in her gut. She wanted to observe him in an effort to understand what he was doing, but out of fear of capturing his attention she laid motionless in the bed as if she were sleeping, ever so slowly curled her head to the side so she had an open view of the couch, and watched without a single sound or movement as Isaac became more and more passionately involved in whatever discussion he was having... with whomever he was having it. He frustratingly scratched the sides of his head, glared down at the page in front of him and dropped the pen from his hand.

"... What you're asking is impossible!... No, I can't make sense of this. These calculations. You're talking about raising the Curie temperature from, what? From 554, to 563?... so now you've completely baffled the permittivity... yes, that's exactly what they found out. That the substrate won't hold up under those conditions... "

Suddenly he stopped, tilted his head upward with wide eyes, and a growing sense of amazement spread across his face.

"No... wait... I understand. Yes... Yes! I get what you mean... I get it. Yeah, that might work."

Isaac looked back down at the paper, whispering things to himself Ellie couldn't hear, then picked up the pen and began writing again without another word. After about a minute or so he had not said anything else, and sensing her chance to intercede Ellie slowly sat up in the bed, her eyes locked upon him.

"Hey."

Isaac did not respond or acknowledge her presence as if he were on a different plane of existence altogether, and Ellie's suspicions about his condition began to grow deeper. Building up the nerve, she slipped out of the bed and slowly, reluctantly approached him.

"... Isaac?"

She came within feet of him, but he still did not respond in any way. His eyes never moved and he continued writing upon the paper, unabated by her approach which made it seem as if she were watching some pre-recorded video she could not interact with. A tinge of fear began to set in, spurred by the fact that the last time this had happened he was at least aware of her presence, but now he appeared to be caught in an unbreakable trance that isolated her completely. Not sure of what to do, she tried to gain his attention by waving her hand in front of his face. When even this action failed to derive any results, her heart began to palpitate.

Oh, no.

She drew a deep, shaky sigh and sat down next to him on the couch, by now understanding that he was miles away, and she looked over his shoulder at what he was writing. Her breath was almost taken away by the endless strings of numbers and chain sequences of indescribable characters that flowed freely from the tip of his pen in a solid, unbroken stream, as if he were merely dictating. She really didn't know much about the Marker or how it might be affecting him, and the chaotic speed and fervor with which he wrote, coupled with his complete fixation upon the task and lack of response to her, at first was very frightening. However, as she watched him quietly, trying to translate the alien integers he was transcribing with an erudite perfection that seemed beyond the intellectual scope of any normal human being, she began to wonder if what she was witnessing wasn't the result of a psychotic episode but something else entirely, beyond her ability to understand - perhaps even beyond his. Filling with a sense of astonishment she began to let go of her fear, eventually losing track of time as she watched him fill page after page after page of perfectly aligned symbols and mathematically arranged lines, wondering all along what exactly he was listening to inside his head.

Pretty damn amazing. For a fucked up lab rat.

Some time later - long enough to have observed the shift in the sunlight's direction coming in through the window - Isaac finally stopped and placed the pen upon the table, then folded his hands before him and closed his eyes. He sat there in silence for a while, and Ellie, who had been fighting the urge to doze off continued to watch him him breathlessly through heavy eyelids, curious to see what he would do next. However he said nothing more and he had stopped moving entirely, prompting her to suspect his trance had turned inward. Not knowing how to break it or when he might come out of it himself, she felt compelled to reach out to him.

"Hey..."

She lightly tapped his shoulder with her finger, and the instant she came in contact with him she could feel as his entire body tensed up in response. This startled her and she quickly pulled her hand back, eying him cautiously until Isaac turned his head back over his shoulder to face her. When their eyes met, a frighteningly cold sensation shot through her entire body.

"... You. Whoever you are. You need to leave this place."

Isaac's voice was intimidating, and his face was barely able to mask the tempest brewing just under the surface. As he glared at her through eyes filled with an indescribable hatred that seemed frighteningly out of character, he suddenly winced and jerked his neck with a tense, twitching motion.

"You... you don't... you don't belong here."

Upon this he looked down, and the dark, hateful expression suddenly vanished. In a complete reversal of character his eyebrows sank, his eyes widened and his voice completely changed, and he looked as if he was experiencing something absolutely terrifying.

"No... stop it... let me out..."

Ellie watched in shock as he descended into a panic, his body began to shake violently, and his eyes rolled back into his head. He pitched over onto the couch and started to foam at the mouth, and realizing he was having a seizure Ellie leapt up and frantically tried to control him.

"Isaac! Oh, god... Breathe! Just breathe..."

Charles' eyes flew open and he threw himself back in the chair, his eyes pulled wide, his mouth hanging agape, and all of his focus turned inward upon some indiscernible, terrible emotion. His fists were clenched tight enough to the point of shaking, and sweat had beaded upon his forehead, but neither the soldiers holding him at gunpoint nor the Overseer showed any compassion.

"Mr Keller, come to your center. What have you been able to find out? Mr, Keller, are you listening to me? Tell me what you've seen."

After a long, tense moment, Charles brought himself under control, prompted by the tips of the soldiers' rifles pressed into his back. The exasperated look upon his face slackened, he relaxed his fists, and as he resumed in his usually emotionless manner he looked down to examine his slightly disheveled suit. He immediately started to straighten it with compulsive attention to detail, and without looking up he finally spoke.

"... The signal is... it is coming from somewhere very close... very close to Earth."

The Overseer's eyes narrowed, then shot back and forth.

"Close to Earth?... The lunar colony."

He glanced up and smiled darkly at Charles, who by now was as calm as a sedated animal.

"What happened? You lost the connection."

Charles briefly clenched his jaw, and tilted his neck from side to side.

"I was interrupted. Someone else was present."

The Overseer nodded, still bearing his sardonic grin.

"And what about the Codes? Does he still remember them?"

For the first time since coming back to his outer awareness, Charles finally looked up at the Overseer.

"He still carries them intact. However, he is having trouble comprehending... comprehending some of the calculations. I am trying to assist him, but it will take... take time. He is able to consciously perceive my presence and block me, which makes it difficult... to speak to him directly, or maintain indefinite contact. However, this time it was easier than usual... he seemed to be... inebriated."

The Overseer drew a breath, and glanced down in thought.

"... Yes, it will take some time. That's to be expected. But you appear to be a reliable connection. You'll work for our purposes, until we either extract all the data he has, or something changes. At least we know where he is now."

He shot an icy glare back up at Charles.

"You're free to return, Mr. Keller. When we need your services again, we'll call for you."

Upon the Overseer's concluding statement he held out his hand, prompting Charles to surrender the ring upon his finger. When he removed it and handed it back, the two soldiers immediately seized upon him and reactivated the security microchips upon his handcuffs. Then with a rough tug on the chains, they forced him up.

"On your feet."

With a serene expression sewn across his face, Charles again twisted his neck and stared blankly ahead of him as the door opened, and the physician walked back in. With an expectant look upon his face, the physician motioned to Charles.

"Let's go, Mr. Keller."

Charles started to head out the door, when he was suddenly stopped by the sound of the Overseer's voice at his back.

"Mr. Keller..."

Charles slowly turned back around to face him.

"Yes, sir?"

He saw the Overseer was staring into him with an ominous frown upon his ancient, wrinkled face.

"Thank you for your assistance. You'll be appropriately compensated."

Charles nodded solemnly.

"Yes sir."

Without another word, Charles straightened his back and stalked elegantly out of the room, ready to return to his home of peaceful solitude behind solid glass.

The Marker was awaiting his return.