TOKYO NEUROLOGICAL CENTER HELI-DECK
It was like a famous rock star had arrived.
Flashes of light popped here and there, like flashbulbs of old. Hands reached out, as if the owners had a need to touch the one who walked past them.
The crowd surrounding the Hospital heli-port surged forward and back, like a human wave, drawn by a tide beyond their ken. They had all invested so much of themselves in such a short period of time. They had all watched an incredible drama unfold on television. Everything was surreal.
Sousuke Sagara… in the body of Kaname Chidori… held a fist above his head and swung the hand in a short arc, a farewell and thanks to the pilot aboard the F-35. Because there were eyes everywhere… and everyone was not clued into Mithril's existence… the aircraft could not loiter long. The jey blast from takeoff fluttered Sousuke's skirt, a modern Marilyn Monroe moment.
This crowd response was unexpected, embarrassing. It had also put the young soldier on edge. This was not a good security situation. There could be an enemy hiding in that sea of bodies. His fear suddenly blanked out.
Someone had stepped away from the crowd as it parted. It was as if he… no she… was a god among men or a goddess above all else.
"Kaname," Sousuke mouthed, no longer thinking it weird that he react to his own body that way. Not a man for emotions, he was nonetheless bowled over by internal waves. Mental bubbles floated upward from his mind, as if he walked along a sea bottom again, this time without Arbalest. He started walking towards 'her', step after quick step. Then he slowed. Stopped. The crowd had held him back. So did his confused feelings.
What exactly was he feeling? If he was Al, he could analyze it, accessing cross-references, scholarly works, and pop culture. But, what did he really know about feelings? They had not been issued to him when he fought aside the mujahedeen, or when he was made member of Mithril.
"Are you just going to stand there?" That voice was familiar, of course. It was his own. But, he hadn't spoken. Kaname had. "Aren't you happy-" She had, of course, wanted to ask 'Aren't you happy to see me,' her heart held out in 'her' hands, offered to the returning warrior, like a princess who had spent years sewing some handkerchief to hand a knight returning from a long and valiant quest. "Don't you want to get back into your own body, mister!"
Kaname suspected her own feelings, but was not about to let them be known, not to herself.. not to the crowd…and most definitely not to that moody military moron who had stolen her body and taken it on some crazy joy ride!
"Affirmative!' Sousuke said, that familiar utterance lifting his spirits some, and Kaname even higher. He was really there. She was really there. There was a chance to set things as close to normal as possible. Maybe even better than their usual normal. He walked over and held his arms apart." Why?! A hug? How could he do that? How could he even consider it?! He hadn't. It had been automatic.
Kaname's eyes widened… well, Sousuke's eyes… and she trembled ever so slightly, lips parting a bit. What? Was he… she… whoever… going to hug her? She frowned, and stomped one foot. That big idiot had made a face… no doubt realizing what he had been about to do,… and placed one hand back behind 'his' back. He held the other out, as if he wanted to shake her hand.
"A handshake, Sousuke." Kaname had to bite of a snide remark, and merely said "Really?"
"I-" Sousuke faltered. What should he say? He had been as resourceful as a regiment of soldiers aboard the giant RPV, but now he was as lost as a small boy at a department store, his mother out of sight.
But, Kaname Chidori would pick up the dropped ball and run with it, right? "So-" She coughed, and then stood straighter. Whatever words she intended died on her tongue. She sniffed the air around Sousuke and remarked: "You smell like fish!" Great going girl.
"Uhhh-hh-h," Sousuke replied. "I did just walk out of Tokyo Bay."
"Why are you crying?" That was Anne, speaking to someone.
"I just love teen romance stories," Dr. Hfuhruhurr replied. "They're so touching."
"And this one is refreshingly realistic," Dr. Necessiter chipped in. "I mean… if this was an anime or a FanFiction, the two of them would have run together, kissing, admitting their undying love." He paused and snickered. "With some kind of wardrobe malfunction."
"Maybe a hand accidentally on a breast…" Dr. Hfuhruhurr offered. "Or grabbing a butt."
"You two!" Anne looked like she had grown twice in size, swelled up with righteous anger.
"I know… I know…." Dr. Necessiter said. "Save it for the lab."
"If we must," Dr. H sighed. "We are the adults here, after all."
"That's' not it at all!" Anne shouted. "Don't save it. Get rid of it. Throw it off of the roof for all I care. Don't bring it back downstairs with you."
"She's had a tough day," Dr. Necssiter said to the other scientist.
"Indeed," Dr, Hfuhruhurr replied. "And she is a woman, after all. They are prone to doing this kind of thing, you know. Emotional outbursts and the like."
"Sergeant Sagara, are you armed?" Anne asked in a guttural voice.
"No, Ma'am," Sousuke answered.
"Pity," Anne said pithily. Her eyes looked dark. Her hand twitched. Both scientists took a couple of steps back, remembering what had happened to the jumbo television screen in the lab.
In any case, the scientist's shenanigans had broken the spell, and moved things along. Walking side by side, Sousuke and Kaname followed Anne inside the building, with the two doctors and the mass of technicians, engineers, security personnel, and the like following after them.
There were more people waiting within, lining the walls of the hallway that led to the nearest elevator lobby. They all applauded, not only for Sousuke, but for Kaname, too. And for themselves, and the huge undertaking they had faced, and the hard work and success that had followed.
Some wiseacre there had a glass in hand, usually carrying it in his large sweater pocket to use at drinking fountains. Taking out his car keys, he plinked them hard against the glass, making a noise that brought to mind a classic wedding reception trope.
"Kiss!" The joker called out. Soon, everyone picked up the call. "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kisskisskisskisskisskisskiss!"
"Kaname?" Sousuke looked at Kaname quizzically. "Are we obligated… is that an order…."
"No!" Kaname blurted out. "Of course it isn't, you big jerk!" Her heart was beating ever so quickly.
"I'll kiss him!" That was one of the earlier harem, a religious acolyte who had stayed behind, wanting to see things to the end.
"Uhhh," Sousuke asid, taking a step back. Wait. At the moment, he was only a 'him' on the inside. "Kaname… what have you been doing…."
"We'll get to that later," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said ominously. "The elevator's here." He called out the names of the people who would take the first car down to the laboratory level.
"Ah hah hah hah hah," Kaname laughed her trademark laugh. "There's nothing to get to."
"That laugh sounds odd," Sousuke noted. "Coming from my own body." He felt someone trying to push him out of the elevator car as the doors started to close. It was Kaname, of course.
Dr Necesitter pulled 'Sousuke' to safety. "That could have been bad," he said, pantomiming a busty chest. "Could have left you flat chested."
"I wouldn't mind being flat-chested again," Sousuke remarked, thinking back to a scene from the anime 'Vandread,' where Buzam… real name Tenmei Uragasumi… said 'It's annoying… I have enough bouncing around on my chest already' when she was rescuing Duelo McFile and Bart Garsus from captivity on Taraak.
"What?!" Kaname reacted in knee-jerk fashion without thinking. "Is there something wrong with my breasts?"
"No," Sousuke answred just as automatically. "Not on you. I have always thought them attractive. I mean… uhhh-hh-h…."
"-" Kaname flinched. 'She' felt warm inside, but also felt a strong flash of anger and indignation, as if she had been violated in some fashion.
"I wish I had a camera," Dr Hfuhruhurr said.
Dr. Necessiter didn't respond. He was too busy filming things on his cellphone.
"Give… me… that…." Anne reached for the phone, which was now held out of her reach.
"She wants me," Dr. Necessiter said to 'Sousuke.' "Eeee-eee-ee-Owww-ww-w." He had just been kneed nastily in the nads. He dropped the phone, which Anne quickly pocketed. She would delete things and give it back later… maybe.
"Have they been like this all day," Sousuke asked Kaname quietly.
"You don't know the half of it," Kaname sighed.
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IN THE LABORATORY
The laboratory had changed dramatically, in the space of time that Sousuke had been gone.
Most of the larger machinery was there, but much had been taken out or brought in. Certain things had been moved here or there, or had been changed in appearance or composition.
It still looked like an alternate set for one of the Chocolate Factory movies, crossed with a set for the Death Star, 'Voyage to the Bottom Of The Sea', or 'Battlestar Galactica'
"Over here, Sergeant Sagara." Anne said to Sousuke, calling 'him' over to her makeshift altar. "Don't be afraid. I have a quick rite I need to perform." She gathered the necessary materials, as Kaname explained the situation to her classmate.
After the Wiccan had dome what she felt needed to be done, Dr. Hfuhruhurr and Dr. Necessiter explained the basic layout of the room, and what was doing what in which way, leaving Sousuke's head spinning. A medical team weighed and measured his body sizes, to compute necessary data into the system. The put him through a full gamut of neurological tests."
"Do we have time for this?" Sousuke asked, feeling a bit antsy.
"Yes," Dr. Necesitter replied. "Don't you trust us?" He pointed to a wristband t, on Kaname's body's right wrist that was glowing yellow. "That thing is far more sensitive than the rings. You have plenty of time."
"Plenty of time to catch up!" Hfuhruhurr gave him an 'OK' hand gesture. "Don't you want to know what went on when you were gone?" He looked over at Kaname and winked. She stuck out her tongue at him, but didn't protest or make a fuss. He and his fellow scientist gave Sousuke the Cliff Notes version.
"I see," Sousuke said. "That Pony guy showed up here…" He looked around at the towering stacks of machines piled on top of machines resting on top of machines. "…And he was instrumental in making some crucial adjustments."
"I sure didn't invite him," Kaname said, making a face.
"You got saved by that boy…." Sousuke looked at Kaname, now. "… And his butler… cook… and gardener…."
"Well," Kaname said. "I wasn't the only one. And don't make it sound like I was at fault somehow. The bad guys were looking for you!"
"It is not a problem," Sousuke said in a way that infuriated Kaname, especially since the words came out of her mouth. "And Wraith was here and went." He shrugged. "She could still be here." He raised one of Kaname's hands up and gave no one in particular the finger. If the North Korean spy wasn't here in person, she no doubt had video rolling.
"That's not very nice!" Kaname complained. "She's done good by me."
"And our resident witch," Sousuke nodded a head politely to Anne. "Did not find anything about aliens… yet…"
"Still hoping…." Anne said with a smile. "You never know. The truth is out there…." She frowned a moment, trying to remember something. She looked at 'Kaname.'"Oh. He said something similar, but not about anything in particular." She rummaged in her purse. "Here" She handed a small red sealed envelope to Kaname.
"He? Who is this from?" Kaname said, unsealing the envelope. It looked to be hand-made and hand-dyed.
"That onmyoji that you met," Anne replied. "He said that he had seen a future clue, but had no explanation for it."
"A clue?" There was a fancy parchment inside. Written on it were these words: [In the future, when you look deep inside, a feather will mean the difference between defeat and victory.] She read it aloud. "A feather? What does that mean?" No one had the slightest inkling.
"Hmmm. I almost forgot," Sousuke said. "Anne. You shot the television screen." Sousuke looked over at the screen. No one had taken it away yet. "Because-"
"Next subject!" Anne shook her head.
"The animals came in by twos," Sousuke said hurriedly. "But as of yet, the meteorologists are not predicting a great flood."
"It's alright if one comes," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said. "I have a rubber ducky." He chuckled. "And Nessie has a blow up girlie. Heh heh." The other scientist stood up, holding up his fists. Dr. Hfuhruhurr did too.
"In your seats," Anne called out in a no-nonsense voice. "Both of you. Don't waste Sousuke's time." Neither of them would argue with that.
"And the gambling," Sousuke said, meeting 'Kaname's' eyes, not Anne's He should get clarification there, even if it was a touchy subject. "The winnings. They are truly for us?" He was about to say 'never mind,' but thought better of it. He would make a donation to the families of the slain mascots. "How much is there?"
Anne told him the amount. "But, it's not available to you now," she explained. "Mr. Mitsunari was so kind as to take the winnings. He will open a college fund for each of you." She smiled when the two teenagers thanked her.
"You will be going to University wherever she goes, won't you Sousuke?" Dr. Necessiter wondered why both of the Jindai students looked sad for a moment. "She'll still need protecting, right?"
Neither Sousuke nor Kaname answered. Neither of them knew what to say. It was hard to predict ahead more than one day at a time, if even that.
"Maybe he'll be assigned to protect another Whispered," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said. He had skipped school on the day they were teaching tact and common sense. "Maybe that cute Whispered girl who was here before."
"Cute Whispered girl?" Sousuke asked. No one had mentioned that. Especially not Kaname.
"Captain Testarossa," Anne said, eyes on 'Kaname's' face.
"Of course," Sousuke said. That had slipped his mind. "She told me that." Why did 'Kaname's' face… his face… look like that?
"Yes," Kaname said, her voice volcanic. "She did, didn't she." One hand clenched into a fist. "In Biology class, as I understand it." She smacked that fist into the palm of 'her' other hand. That was one meaty smack. "I would be very interested in hearing about… that… specific… Biology class."
"Uhhh-hh-h." Sousuked said.
"Don't uhhh me, mister!" Kaname's voice had gone up an octave. That had Sousuke frowning. A Specialist shouldn't sound like that. "Biology class! Now!"
"Uhhh-hh-h." Sousuke said again.
"Oooo-ooo-oo-o!" Kaname shook 'her' fist.
"Their conversations," Dr. Hfuhruhurr laughed. "John Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis have nothing on them!"
"Righto! It's almost as good as the stuff they put on Bazooka bubble gum wrappers," Dr Necesitter remarked.
"Just you wait," Kaname promised. "I'll get you to tell me later."
"Uhhh-hh-h," Sousuke said for the third time in a row. 'He. was sweating up a storm.
"And stop sweating like that!" Kaname growled. "That's my body you're getting all wet. That's gross!"
"Affirmative," Sousuke replied, snapping out of his funk. "Immediately!" He paused. "How?"
"Why are you asking me, you big idiot?!" Kaname was standing now and stamping one of Sousuke's feet.
"Well-" Sousuke began. "-As you said… it is your body, right?"
""Oooo-ooo-oo-o!" Kaname put 'her' hands on 'her' hips.
"Poetry," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said. "Pure poetry."
"Let's settle down, you two," Anne said sternly. "If you want to go to sleep tonight in your own bodies, you might consider keeping your emotions in check until after the transfer." She thanked the medical team as they were leaving. Sousuke had checked out alright.
"Here. Wear this," Dr. Necssiter said, handing something to Sousuke that looked like an overly-large golden hairnet studded with spark plugs and old-style radio antennas.
"You too," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said, handing one to Kaname. "These are electrostatic filters. We are attuning them to your basic brainwaves, now." The strange soothing serenade of an oscilloscope filled their ears they donned the devices. Two adjacent screens charted and graphed the recordings, which were then shunted to more advanced machines for computational analysis, quantification, and quantum molding "They will help your bodies retain 'you,' that's inside you, and accept 'you' from inside the other, transferred to you."
"Can you say it any clumsier?" Dr. Necssiter complained. "We don't want remnant pieces of the other person staying inside your brains. The filters will help with that. So will Anne's mumbo jumbo… or so she claims…." He yelped when she stepped hard on his foot.
"Okay," Anne said, shepherding Kaname and Sousuke over to the far side of the room. "Before we proceed, do either of you need to use the little boy's room or little girl's room?"
"You mean b-i-g boy's room," Dr. Hfuhruhurr said. "Right, Miss Chidori." He winked at 'Kaname.' "Heh heh heh heh." 'Sousuke' raised one of her eyebrows. 'Kaname' ignored him.
Hearing two 'No's, Anne said "Alright… in you go…it's a two-seater, now." She motioned towards the New Magic Egg, glowing and vibrating, as if it were eager for their arrival. "I'll attach the leads and everything else, after the two of you sit down and apply the restraints." She did just that, when the two were ready.
The technicians and engineers all took their places. No interlopers were allowed into the laboratory now, no matter how hard they may have worked earlier, or what solution they may have contributed.
Sousuke didn't know why, but he felt like hollding 'Kaname's' hand. Was that something he should ask about first? Was it something he could bring himself to do? He lifted up one of Kaname's hands, and brought it to hover over his own hand. While holding his internal debate, he heard Anne call out "There can be no touching."
"What touching?" Kaname asked, unaware. She had been focused on keeping her nerves in check. She had been through so much. She just needed to hold together a short time more.
"Uhhh-hh-h." Sousuke said before whistling, looking up at the roof of the Egg, which showed a swirling pattern like something out of the psychedelic 70s.
"Let's hope this works like with the chimps," one technician said.
"What?" An engineer asked. "You mean, one comes out picking his or her nose?"
"Chimps?" Sousuke asked Kaname.
"I'll tell you later," Kaname promised. She didn't want to think about success or failure now. She had seen all of the bad outcomes.
The process continued on track, without any untoward electronic variances or stray magnetic fields. A countdown began, after everyone wished the two Intronauts good luck.
*10*
*9*
*8*
*7*
*6*
*5*
"Wait… wait… wait…." Someone had slipped past the Security guards who had been paid a bribe to keep him out. "Stop the count down!" It was Reginald. "I insist that I be the one to push the button!"
"Stuff it, Reggie!" Dr. Hfuhruhurr put his hand at the small of the assistant-administrators back and began pushing him out of the room.
"We should have a little symmetry here," Dr. Necessiter said. "It was Anne who started all of this…." He waved his hands in a gesture of contrition. "I mean… she's the one who accidentally threw the Big Switch. So, it's only right that she should be the one to push the Big Button."
"Okay," Anne agreed. She was superstitious. Now that the doctor had said that, she felt it necessary to do so. "First… if the medical staff will please check our patients again…." She wanted to make certain that Sousuke and Kaname's vital signs were stable, and that no dials or displays showed unfavorable readings. When she was satisfied, she said "Resume countdown."
*4*
*3*
*2*
*1*
Anne pushed down on the large red button. Someone had placed a piece of masking tape across it, and wrote the word 'Hope' with a Shapie.
"ZERO!" Dr. Hfuhruhurr called out in dramatic fashion.
Dr. Necessiter rubbed his hands in anticipation.
The room went dark. Pitch black. There wasn't the slightest illumination. except from a cellphone penlight. The machines were dead silent. Desperate and uncertain whispers were the only sounds heard.
This had never happened before.
"There's no earthly way of knowing," Anne quoted Gene Wilder. "Which direction we are going."
"The suspense is terrible," a technician said, quoting the same movie and same character. "I hope it will last!"
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ZHOOOP ZHOOOP ZHOOOP ZHOOOP ZHOOOP ZHOOOP ZHOOOP ZHOOOP
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WINGDOOP WINGDOOP WINGDOOP WINGDOOP WINGDOOP WINGDOOP
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WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO-WEO
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BING BONG BING BONG BING BONG BING BONG BING BONG BING BONG
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The machines all sprung back to life, one after the other, chugging along at their intended tasks. Beams of light shot forth and painted the ceiling, like an old time Laser Show. Sparkles of light drifted about, like something out of Faeirie, or the worst drug-borne nightmare.
The Egg glowed with a soft blush… which changed to a weak pink… which graduated to a pulsing rose, watermelon, and rouge. Next came salmon, coral and peach. And, without hesitation, it exploded with fuscia, magenta, and boysenberry.
wimmowimmowimmowimmowimmowimmowimmowimmowimmowimmowimmo
The thrumming sound practically poured from the pulsating Egg, filling the room with its vibrations, making the onlookers feel as if they were seated in one of those vibrating chairs that vendors tend to leave at airports.
"Cross your fingers everybody!" Dr. Hfuhruhurr called out, watching a readout.
"Here it comes!" Dr Necssiter was hugging the other man in his excitement. He let go and spun away when he realized what he was doing. He tried to hug Anne on purpose, but was slapped across the cheek.
WIMMOWIMMOWIMMOWIMMOWIMMOWIMMOWIMMOWIMMOWIMMO
Now the Egg was flashing through every possible color known to mankind, and then some, with no semblance of order or purpose. The flashing grew more intense, and the pulses came ever so quicker. Those outside the chamber put their fingers in their ears, to block the crescendoing cacophony.
*boop*
Then that was it. The machines all powered down. The room light came back on. The Egg was back to normal.
"Are they alright!" Anne called out.
"Are they who they were?" Dr Hfuhruhurr asked.
"Where am I?" Dr Necessiter asked, still dizzy from the forceful blow.
"Kaname?" A voice asked.
"Sousuke?"
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WITHIN A CORDONED-OFF AREA OF THE LABORATORY
After the hubbub died down, and all initial medical checks were done, there was a semblance of quiet.
Sousuke was happy to be back in his old body. He received an affectionate knock on the noggin when he started practicing Sambo moves to check his reflexes. Kaname was ecstatic to be back in her body again, and would even forgive Sousuke his military mores. To a point.
But, it wasn't long before that classic look was in the blue-haired girls eyes. Comfortably back within her own skin, her natural tendencies were returning with a vengeance. "So, Sousuke-"
"Kaname," Sousuke rushed to speak. Having seen different ways of thinking, he was now more likely to apply military methods to his thinking, not just his actions. His awakened mind suggested a strategy. Talk before Kaname can talk. "I have a very serious question." The look on his face stopped the girl dead in her tracks.
"Yes?' Kaname said, quizzically. Why did it just feel that she had come in second place in a track meet, or had just been defeated in some kind of a battle or contest?
"While you were in my body…." He folded his arms across his chest and threw his chin out some. "…You did not do anything weird, did you… or anything dangerous…." He threw her patented words back at her. Not many soldiers ever expected to see their tossed grenade come flying back at them.
"Me? Weird?" Kaname seemed affronted, but the look in her eyes made it seemed as if she were recollecting something. "Of course not, you big buffoon!" She harrumphed, happy to be reacquainted with that old friend.
"I guess it depends on what you mind by weird," Dr. Necessiter interjected, before coughing 'key' and 'winkie.' That had Kaname Chidori freezing up.
"It's more a matter of what she did to get other people wanting to do something weird or dangerous to you," Dr. Hfuhruhurr remarked, taking a roll of paper out of a front lab coat pocket. He held it up and let it unroll. There was a long list of names and numbers. "I promised certain people that I would present this to you."
"What is it?" Sousuke asked, curious. A list of suspected traitors or terrorists? Something that required his special set of skills to overcome?
"A list of names and telephone numbers," Dr. Hfuhruhurr replied. "Some just want to go out to eat. Most want to cuddle, and grow a lot closer to you. Some probably want to jump in the sack first, and ask questions later."
"Uhhhhh-hhhh-hhh-hh-h." New mental tendencies or not, he was still Sousukae Sagara. "I mean….." He looked down at the paper he now held, as if it were a large Loony Tunes type bomb, and he saw the sparkle of a fuse behind Kaname's eyes. There were so many names. Some had 'XOXOX' next to them. Some had 'XXX.'
"Sousuke," Kaname said sharply. "Why are you still holding that paper?" Her glance bored into him like a diamond-tipped drill head into granite.
"Unknown," Sousuke answered like Al. He let the paper fall from his hand. Dr. Necessiter snagged it mid air, and stashed it down his trousers.
"And about school-" Now Kaname had finally gotten around to the topic. Everybody in the room who knew more than she did, were aware that it was t-h-e topic. Two of those people felt compelled to come to Sousuke's rescue. They knew it would only be temporary; but, the boy had been through a lot. This would be like the last meal for a condemned man.
"Sergeant," Dr. Hfuhruhurr started. "There were so many things that you missed, not being here with us. There's a lot that Anne over there can tell you." Anne was speaking with Mr. Mitsunari "For example, a lot of our success today came from our learning the quantum language."
"Natch!" Dr. Necessiter said. "It's almost as if various particles can speak to one another in a quantum language. We had to decipher that language, so that we could not only speak that tongue with our machines, but also so that we could be the ones controlling the conversation."
"But, it's far simpler to say than to do," Dr. Hfuhruhurr claimed. "There are many random particles, always wanting to butt in on the conversation. We have to keep them away. If our relationship with properly moving particles is like sailing tiny ships on a calm and serene lake, the random particles are like torpedoes wanting to sink those ships, or a strong wave looking to capsize them."
"The school-" Kaname tried again, with no more success than before.
"We also made great strides with Quantum energy teleportation," Dr. Necessiter remarked. "The original hypothesis was put forward by Japanese physicist Masahiro Hotta of Tohoku University. He proposed that it may be possible to teleport energy by exploiting quantum energy fluctuations of an entangled vacuum state of a quantum field."
"Uhhh-hh-h." Sousuke said.
"The hypothesis proposes that energy may be injected into a zero-point fluctuation of the field at one place and extracted from a fluctuation at another place," Dr. Hfuhruhurr explained. "Even for interstellar distance energy transfer, the amount of teleported energy is nonzero, but negligibly small. In contrast, the teleportation protocol will be effective in small quantum worlds of nanoscale devices like quantum computers."
"School," kaname said.
"Equally important," Dr. Necssiter said. "We discovered the quantum analog of the well-known classical maximum power transfer theorem. Our theoretical framework considers the continuous steady-state problem of coherent energy transfer through an N-node bosonic network coupled to an external dissipative load. We were able to present an exact solution for optimal power transfer in the form of the maximum power transfer theorem known in the design of electrical circuits. We provided analytical expressions for both the maximum power delivered to the load as well as the energy transfer efficiency which are exact analogs to their classical counterparts. Our results are applicable to both ordered and disordered quantum networks with graph-like structures ranging from nearest-neighbor to all-to-all connectivities. This work points towards universal design principles which adapt ideas of power transfer from the classical domain to the quantum regime for applications in energy-harvesting, wireless power transfer, energy transduction, as well as future applications in quantum power circuit design."
"-" Sousuke was too flummoxed to even say 'Uhhh'. Kaname was equally mute.
After that, the two scientists discussed quantum entanglement and the fluctuation dissipation theorem. The two teenagers looked at one another, as if they were in a small room in Khanka, standing near a medical enclosure, while enemy soldiers fired rounds in their direction.
Where was a truck or an Arm Slave when they needed it!
"But the real deal was the silence of the lambs," Dr. Hfuhruhurr opined.
"The movie?" Kaname asked. "The one with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie…"
"Foster," Dr Necessiter said. "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. Oh, and Senator, just one more thing: love your suit! Great movie. But not that."
"It happened during our test runs," Dr. Hfuhruhurr began. When he saw Anne make a 'knife across the throat' gesture, he left out the earlier gory details. "During the test with the pair of lambs, it turned out that one slipped free of its leg bonds, and sidled up against the other. They were in contact with one another during the process."
"That's when something unusual happened," Dr. Necessiter said. "After the last bolt of electricity charged the Egg, the pair bleated in unison. Stopped. And bleated again. They repeated those actions twice more."
"Each repeat took exactly the same amount of time," Dr Hfuhruhurr noted. "But that wasn't the strangest part. During the silence between bleats, the exact same machine noises were heard. But, that should be impossible. Those noises are not cyclical. Thy follow a very definite pattern, one that takes a lengthy period of time before repeating. There is only one possible solution."
"Time," the two scientists said at the same time. "We somehow affected time!"
"Don't let them get started-" Anne said, walking over, her fellow administrator in tow. "Their heads might explode. That will leave us short-handed, since they are the two who have been tasked with cleaning this place up." There was some mustard on those last words.
"Next time," Dr. Necessiter said, ignoring Anne's words. "We can use four lambs… ten lambs… fifty lambs!"
"Isn't it exciting!" Dr Hfuhruhurr said, close to hyperventilating. "We're on to something new. Something huge."
"I hate to burst your bubbles," an engineer said, walking over, speaking in a thick Slavic accent. By the sound of it, he very much wanted to burst their bubbles. "But it is not new. My sister's husband's cousin works in Belarus, and he has scientific connections in Mother Russia. He mentioned something about experiments involving dolphins instead of lambs. He wouldn't say more than that, without risking his life and that of his entire family."
"Dolphins," Dr. Necsssiter guffawed. "How stupid can you be, falling for a ruse like that? Dolphins! You'd need a giant Aquarium, and a huge staff to take care of everything. Dolphins. How useless. What can you do with a dolphin when it dies? Nothing! A lamb, you can eat. With mint jelly!" He did not see the fury in Anne's eyes. She turned to speak with Mr. Mitsubari again, who nodded his head, a reluctant look on his face.
"It's not the whole dolphin," the engineer began. "Jut a large series of dolphin brains in containers. The brain is all they need. An intelligent brain, like a dolphin… a chimpanzee… or even a pig."
"Keeping brains alive in a jar?" Dr. Hfuhruhurr smirked. "You mean like 'They Saved Hitler's Brain'?" That was a 1968 science fiction film in which Nazi officials remove Adolf Hitler's living head and hide it in the fictional South American country of Mandoras, so that they can resurrect the Third Reich for the future. Fast forwarding into the 1960s, the surviving officials kidnap a scientist in an attempt to keep Hitler alive. Various intelligence agencies, aware of the evil plot, recruit secret agents to bust the Nazi officials. "Sure. Of course. How hard could that be?"
"You almost had me going there," Dr. Necssiter said. "Almost… until you mention the Ruskies. The Russians? Come on. The Russians. They have a hard time putting beets in containers and making borscht."
"Nnn-nn-n." Sousuke made a low noise in the back of his throat. It wasn't because he disliked Lieutenant Commander Kalinin's borscht. He did. That man's recipe, a memento of his beloved dead wife, included miso and chocolate, and was so bad that Tessa had wondered if it was actually a dish that the dearly departed wife had served up as revenge for him being away so much. No. His noise was a disavowal of the scientist's remark. He had learned through experience, that the Russian's had very good scientists, and excellent military engineers. He coughed, almost choked, thinking of that borscht now. "So... after all that scientific experimentation… they found no source of the Whispers?"
"No, they didn't," Kaname replied. "She didn't look disappointed. She looked determined. "Sousuke… school …."
"Ahhh-hh-h." Mr. Mitsunari said, motioning for Souske and Kaname to step over to his side. "There is someone who would like to meet you two, seeing the great scientific work you have inspired…" He gave Sousuke a look that told him the as yet unnamed person must be clued in about Mithril. "….And the great service you have done for Japan…." He turned and spoke politely to someone else. "Mister Prime Minister." He bowed, as did the two teens.
"Hello," Yoshihiko Hatoyama said politely, dressed in a perfectly tailored suit, and wearing a watch that cost more than most Japanese used buses. His tie was so flat, it must have been pressed. His teeth were so white, that he must have a dentist on staff at all times. "I am so pleased to meet the two of you." He couldn't help himself. Seeing Sousuke's face he added: "Fully clothed this time."
Sousuke was perplexed. First by the man's words. Second, by the way that Kaname's face had turned dark red. Was that her circulatory problem again? Funny, he had never noticed it when he was in her body.
"Kaname?" Sousuke asked.
"Shhhhh-hhhh-hhh-hh-h!" Kaname put a finger to her mouth. One hand tensed up some, as if she was holding a phantom halisen.
The two students, both scientists, and Anne chatted amiably with Mr. Hatoyama for a bit, before the duties of his office pulled him away.
"I'm confused," Sousuke said.
"What else is new?" Kaname quipped.
"When the Prime Minister mentioned clothing…." Sousuke persisted. Now Kaname was fluttering both hands. Why?
"Remember when I mentioned wardrobe malfunctions," Dr. Necessiter put in helpfully. "Well, Kaname here-" He couldn't continue. Anne's hand was clamped over his mouth, and she held a stapler gun aimed at his crotch. Discretion proved to indeed be the better part of valor.
"School!" Kaname said abruptly, her turn to work at changing the subject, changing things back to the subject she's been trying to hear about all that time!
Sousuke looked at Dr. Hfuhruhurr. He looked at Dr. Necessiter. He looked at too. He would even accept help from that rude Reginald guy. Anyone, who might change the subject. "You say… school…."
"Yes, Sousuke." Kaname began tapping a foot again. Slowly at first. That was the equivalent of the rattle on a rattlesnake. "You know… that place you often show up… and sometimes blow up… yes… school!"
"Uhhh-hh-h," Sousuke said. "What about school?"
"Is the school still intact, after your time there as me?" Kaname's foot tapped faster. "Is my reputation still good?"
"Yes," Sousuke replied. "The school is still intact."
"As intact as I left it?" Kaname asked, eyeing Sousuke's face like a hawk, her foot moving impossibly fast.
"Affirmative," Sousuke said truthfully. The school building was still intact. Yes, by a miracle it was generally unharmed, despite everything that had happened there. The nearby schools and temples, not so much. But she already knew about that.
"And my reputation?" Kaname asked. Her foot was dead still. That was even more frightening. Her voice could have frozen steel to the point of shattering.
"Reputation," Sousuke said, trying to think of a truthful answer that gave little historical perspective. His recent history would probably come back to haunt him soon enough. "Let me say… that during my time as Kaname Chidori… I learned a great deal about you and your reputation."
"Really?" Kaname asked, intrigued. What had he learned?
"I found it incredible," Sousuke said factually, "Just how many people respected you…relied upon you… and required you. Because of your reputations, the things that you said were immediately acted on. If I personally had said them, I would be ignored, or my suggestion would automatically be discarded or denied." He sounded somewhat disgruntled, having heard a lot of things said about Sousuke Sagara when he was supposedly Kaname Chidori.
"Sousuke, that's because-" Kaname didn't finish. She felt sorry for Sousuke; but, he only had himself to blame. He was a walking natural disaster, whether he wore khakis… camouflage… or a high school uniform.
"I saw a lot through a girl's eyes, so to speak." Sousuke said, somewhat pensive. "What a girl's life must be like, compared to a boy's." He didn't say 'normal boy's.' He didn't have to. He had never been normal. For a short while, he went on to describe the things he had seen and experienced… how they had made him feel… and how it might change his thoughts and deeds in the future.'
"That's amazing," Kaname remarked, truly impressed, and not a little bit moved, emotionally.
"How about you, Kaname?" Sousuke cocked his head. "Did you learn something about boys?" He paused, giving her a yearning look that she hadn't seen before. "Something about me?"
"I-" Kaname swallowed hard. She had been so caught up in things, she never had a chance to give that type of thing too much thought. The things that she had learned the hard way, were not exactly a topic for public conversation. "No… I suppose I didn't learn anything…."
"Au contraire." Dr. Necessiter said, holding up a phone that Anne had not confiscated. Remembering that time in the Men's lavatory, he pushed a button, bringing up an audio recording at full volume:
"IT'S HUGE!"
That exclamation was followed by the sound of a urinal flushing. The remark left nothing to the imagination.
No one spoke. You could have heard a pin drop. Sousuke blinked rapidly. Kaname turned the color of a ripe strawberry. Dr. Hfuhruhurr slapped Dr. Necessiter hard on the back. Anne and Mr. Mitsunari looked at one another and nodded.
After that little escapade, Kaname had stopped asking about the school. She wanted to hear about Sousuke's battle from his perspective. She was saddened by the death of the mascots, and at all of the damage done. She was thrilled to hear about the giant aircraft, his stories about it sounding like something out of a fairy tale.
Anne had a fresh cart of food and drinks wheeled in, for any who might be hungry. Drs. Hfuhruhurr and Necessiter took delivery of something through a courier. It was something they had sent out for mounting at a fast fabrication store, and intended as a gift for the two Jindai stalwarts, had the transfer been a success. It was a fancy wooden plaque. The 'Big Switch' that had started all of their troubles had been mounted to it. Underneath it, in gold lettering, were three words:
'The Big Switch.'
After a suitable period of time had passed, a team of different medical specialists ran Sousuke and Kaname through a battery of tests, and drew numerous blood samples for future study After the two got dressed again, Anne called a limousine to give them a ride to their homes. The wait wouldn't be long, and should have been uneventful.
If there was any lesson the two should have learned about that laboratory it was this:
Expect the unexpected.
One thing is certain about coincidences. The phenomenon fascinates believers and skeptics alike. It's a porthole into one of the most interesting philosophical questions we can ask: Are the events of our lives ultimately objective or subjective? Is there a deeper order, an overarching purpose to the universe? Or are we the lucky accidents of evolution, living our precious but brief lives in a fundamentally random world that has only the meaning we choose to give it? For those with a highly empirical bent, a coincidence is happenstance, a simultaneous collision of two events that has no special significance and obeys the laws of probability. To the mystically inclined, however, coincidence is a synchronicity, the purposeful occurrence of two seemingly unrelated events.
In A.D. 66 a comet was seen across the sky in Jerusalem just as the Jewish people were revolting against the Romans. In 1066, another comet appeared, just before the fateful Battle of Hastings was fought over the throne of England. Were these merely strange coincidences… or are comets portents of divine intent?
The events that followed next were a coincidence. The actions that would occur as a result of that coincidence, were not. Whether or not they were a matter of divine intent had better be left to the spiritual experts who had visited the laboratory earlier in the day.
Inexplicably, Eri Kagurazaka, who had come to the hospital to visit an aunt, had found her way down to that sub-level, without being detained. Perhaps she had been resolute and completely convincing, when she told anyone she met that she was a guardian of two students she had seen in the hallways earlier. It took her a while to find where they were being sequestered, but find them she did. Her voice was a shock to the system for those two particular people in the room:
"OMIGOD… YOU'RE BOTH SAFE AND SOUND… I'M SO HAPPY… I WAS SO SCARED."
At a lower voice level, the teacher followed up by saying: "Is this the hospital where you are being treated, Mr. Sagara? And, after all of the terrible things that happened at the school today, I'm happy to see you're still in one piece, Miss Chidori. Are you here for treatment of your organic brain injury?" Her subsequent words would have little to no register after that bombshell.
The firestorm that followed showed kinship to the day's prior thermobaric barbeques.
"S-o-o-o-o-u-u-u-u-s-s-s-s-k-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-y-!-!-!
Sousuke, who never ran from anything, took off at a quick job. Kaname, who never let anyone get the best of her, took off in close pursuit.
Those two," Dr, Hfuhruhurr said fondly. "They are so close, but at the same time, they are so far apart."
"Right, pal." Dr. Necessiter said in a rare show of unity.
"Funny you should say that," Anne said.
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AFTERWARD
Sousuke and Kaname still attend the same school, of course. They are back on their usual routine, as usual as it can ever be. There will be discussions about the things that happened, of course. There will be resultant trips to the school infirmary. But, there would be more than that. There would be discussions about how Kaname would be stepping down from her position as student Council Vice President, according to school rules. There would be guessing about who might take her place. At some point, Sousuke would work up the gumption to ask if he could hold Kaname's hand on a walk home. She would happily accept that request. Life would go on, without either of them seeing the storm clouds growing on the horizon.
Services were held for the mascots who died, and a whole nation grieved, watching on TV. Tamon lived the life of luxury for a short while, before he was bilked out of the majority of his reward money by a large-chested Cuban woman with a spiffy tattoo on her buttocks, and a large portable pharmaceutical kit. Hiroshi was given an offer by Mithril, which he happily accepted. There was no way that he could turn down a salary like that. He wanted to learn to be an A.S. pilot. Coincidence struck again, when a visiting administrator took a liking to him, and suggested that he be put at the front of the line for the next Lambda Driver. Arabiki was gifted with a job as a spokesman and part-owner of a meat-packing company, specializing in all varieties of cured meats and sausages.
The amount of scientific discoveries made at the Hospital Laboratory in such a short period time and by so many different types of researchers would have ramifications for decades to come. There were so many new theories to expand and details to discover, that laboratories sprung up like a bountiful crop of mushrooms. Those laboratories needed sharp minds and cutting intellects. They needed the best of the best. Fearless leaders. Clever puzzle-solvers. A slender and attractive woman with green hair and orange highlights was given full and sole control over the revamped laboratory at the Neurological Hospital. A wizened old man with a prosthetic eye and bad halitosis was sent off to run a remote and well-funded lab in northern Norway that sits under nearly 700 feet of ice. Getting there requires a flight to a remote Norwegian town, then a drive and a ferry to the trail leading to the entrance of the tunnel of Svartisen glacier, in which the lab was dug. In good weather, walking takes an hour, but snowy conditions can make it a four- or five-hour trudge. A younger scientist sporting an enormous spherical mass of red curly hair and large protruding front teeth was rocketed away to spearhead work at the South Pole's IceCube Neutrino Observatory, which picks up massless particles called neutrinos. These subatomic bits come from the sun and cosmic rays, and harmlessly pass through normal matter and are normally hard to track. IceCube's particle detector is the largest in the world, at nearly a quarter of a cubic mile. Both men were under a restraining order that prohibited them from returning to the Tokyo facilities.
A wealthy scientist working as a sponsor for the Jindai Engineering Club took interest in their demonstration of HAL2000. With funds passed over and under the table, he purchased the robot and brought it to a large fully furnished laboratory complex, where it had its mental components greatly expanded. Hooked up to a bastardized version of the Summit computer built for The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge national Laboratory, a monster of a machine with 2,282,544 IBM Power 9 cores... 2,090,880 Nvidia Volta GV100 cores... and a theoretical peak performance of 187.66 petaflops... the machine intellect continues to learn… to grow… and to scheme. On a lark, it designed a business card for itself one sunny afternoon, borrowing from pop culture. The card read 'SKYNET' in capital letters. Underneath were the words '7.7 billions served.'
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POSTSCRIPT
So, the body of the story is now done. Sure, it's a bit long, but it's certainly no 'The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest,' a fanfic loosely based on Super Smash Bros. Brawl, over 3,500,000 words long… or 'In Search of Lost Time', a seven-volume and 1,267,069 word long novel that's considered by some to be the longest true novel ever published.
It's probably not wise to attempt to download either of those two works, unless you have your own Summit computer.
There will be an [Epilogue] at some point, one that just has to be done, but by its very nature might not be any fun to read.
Stay tuned.