you
some water before I leave? I realize it’s not the best tasting stuff but you
won’t get sick from it, and your body could probably use the hydration.” Jack nodded
again.
After bringing in a glass of water, Teague left the room for
the ‘evening’. There were no windows in this room so it was impossible to say
whether it was night or day. The conversation had not lasted more than an hour,
but he felt tired and was as mentally drained as he would be if he had spent
the whole day filing requisition papers for the military. He lowered the bed
and stared at the monitor for a while, watching the lights bounce around in an
almost hypnotizing pattern. Finally he drifted off to sleep, dreaming about
Jenny and Ally, and crazy Dr. Jekyll type doctors creating people in little
glass beakers.
* * *
“So tell me, Teague, how is he coming?”
“Very well. Very well indeed considering the age of the
material we had to work with. His mind is working very well, and despite the
potential errors in his memory it is accepting his biology perfectly. I can
already tell he is an exceptionally intelligent man with a gift for being very
perceptive. At first I thought his technology background would be a roadblock
on his path to accepting his situation, but it appears it worked in my favor. As
soon as he saw technology that couldn’t possibly exist in his time he was
convinced. I think we have a very viable candidate here.”
“Good. Do you think he will be able to do what we need? And
if so will he be ready in time?”
“God willing, yes.”
“Good, good. Carry on.”
Chapter 10
Consciousness came quickly for the first time in years. Sleep
didn’t linger and try to draw him back in – he simply went from a deep,
dreamless slumber he hadn’t thought possible a few hours before to not just
being awake, but alert as well. And it wasn’t just the rapid transition to
consciousness that surprised him, it was the fact that he was at complete peace
when it happened. By all rights he should be a mess right now. He was in a
foreign place, with only an impossible explanation for why he was here. But the
cancer, the grief, the stress from work all felt distant and disconnected, as
if they were someone else’s problems and not his own. Even reflecting on his
wife’s passing did not stir the pain in his heart he should expect.
In this state of relaxation, thoughts, memories, and
reasoning flowed effortlessly through his mind. There wasn’t much to distract
him, the only source of light was the dim glow from the medical monitor that
cast a slight blue aura on barely half the room. The rest of the room was as
much as mystery as how he got here. It was irrelevant, there was no desire to
explore. He closed his eyes and just let the thoughts and feelings flow.
He started at the beginning, his first thoughts upon waking
the previous day. Pain, or rather its absence, was the first thing he recalled.
Why was that? At first he decided he hadn’t felt this good in years. Then he
decided he hadn’t felt this good ever . As he pondered it, he came to the
realization that he didn’t really remember how he felt when he was younger. It
was like the difference between two friends, one you see every day and one only
every couple of years. They may have aged equally over time, but you don’t
notice it on the one you see every day, only on the one you haven’t seen for a
long time. One day you wake up and feel miserable but you don’t know if it’s
because you are getting sick or if it’s just normal since you felt almost as
miserable the day before. Your frame of reference is only the day before, or
maybe the week before; you can’t really compare how you feel now to how you
felt a year ago. In fact, the stark difference in how he felt when he first
went to the hospital with Mabel and when he first woke up here the day before
was already starting to fade. He was getting used to it and couldn’t frame a
reference
some water before I leave? I realize it’s not the best tasting stuff but you
won’t get sick from it, and your body could probably use the hydration.” Jack nodded
again.
After bringing in a glass of water, Teague left the room for
the ‘evening’. There were no windows in this room so it was impossible to say
whether it was night or day. The conversation had not lasted more than an hour,
but he felt tired and was as mentally drained as he would be if he had spent
the whole day filing requisition papers for the military. He lowered the bed
and stared at the monitor for a while, watching the lights bounce around in an
almost hypnotizing pattern. Finally he drifted off to sleep, dreaming about
Jenny and Ally, and crazy Dr. Jekyll type doctors creating people in little
glass beakers.
* * *
“So tell me, Teague, how is he coming?”
“Very well. Very well indeed considering the age of the
material we had to work with. His mind is working very well, and despite the
potential errors in his memory it is accepting his biology perfectly. I can
already tell he is an exceptionally intelligent man with a gift for being very
perceptive. At first I thought his technology background would be a roadblock
on his path to accepting his situation, but it appears it worked in my favor. As
soon as he saw technology that couldn’t possibly exist in his time he was
convinced. I think we have a very viable candidate here.”
“Good. Do you think he will be able to do what we need? And
if so will he be ready in time?”
“God willing, yes.”
“Good, good. Carry on.”
Chapter 10
Consciousness came quickly for the first time in years. Sleep
didn’t linger and try to draw him back in – he simply went from a deep,
dreamless slumber he hadn’t thought possible a few hours before to not just
being awake, but alert as well. And it wasn’t just the rapid transition to
consciousness that surprised him, it was the fact that he was at complete peace
when it happened. By all rights he should be a mess right now. He was in a
foreign place, with only an impossible explanation for why he was here. But the
cancer, the grief, the stress from work all felt distant and disconnected, as
if they were someone else’s problems and not his own. Even reflecting on his
wife’s passing did not stir the pain in his heart he should expect.
In this state of relaxation, thoughts, memories, and
reasoning flowed effortlessly through his mind. There wasn’t much to distract
him, the only source of light was the dim glow from the medical monitor that
cast a slight blue aura on barely half the room. The rest of the room was as
much as mystery as how he got here. It was irrelevant, there was no desire to
explore. He closed his eyes and just let the thoughts and feelings flow.
He started at the beginning, his first thoughts upon waking
the previous day. Pain, or rather its absence, was the first thing he recalled.
Why was that? At first he decided he hadn’t felt this good in years. Then he
decided he hadn’t felt this good ever . As he pondered it, he came to the
realization that he didn’t really remember how he felt when he was younger. It
was like the difference between two friends, one you see every day and one only
every couple of years. They may have aged equally over time, but you don’t
notice it on the one you see every day, only on the one you haven’t seen for a
long time. One day you wake up and feel miserable but you don’t know if it’s
because you are getting sick or if it’s just normal since you felt almost as
miserable the day before. Your frame of reference is only the day before, or
maybe the week before; you can’t really compare how you feel now to how you
felt a year ago. In fact, the stark difference in how he felt when he first
went to the hospital with Mabel and when he first woke up here the day before
was already starting to fade. He was getting used to it and couldn’t frame a
reference
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