It was bad science, and surely Mother would have been livid with me for basing my belief on nothing more than sketchy evidence at best. But as I sat there mulling it over, I became convinced that she could do it. All that time, Mother could inspeak. She just didn't believe she could prove it. She was so set in her ways that she couldn't admit it, refused to try something fanciful.
It fit. It fit everything. A genetic leap, an evolutionary advance, the next level of humanity.
No. The next level of universal evolution. Two hands, two legs, two eyes...evolving to a level where we could incorporate the rest of our brains for use, open up. I sat there quietly thinking about it for awhile, then decided to share my thought. I opened myself suddenly, letting my brain communicate all the things that wanted to rush out at once.
Alistair looked at me. He accepted it. He took it all in. I could feel his triumph, what he thought was proof of evolution. I could feel his frustration, his annoyance at Mother's lack of understanding or daring or really a mix of both. If only we could ask her, came his thought. A quick feeling of hope radiated off him. Can you?
No.
His whole being felt like it was sighing. I did not realize there was a physical proximity requirement. I could feel the depth of his disappointment, more real to me than any actual words he could have said.
"Since I jumped, I've felt nothing," I said quietly. "I think it might have something to do with time."
"Hell, it could be about dimensions we don't yet understand." His scientific mind was racing down the paths of possibilities, and he sat rubbing his chin for a minute. "Was it believed that you would be able to?"
I shook my head. "As I said, inspeaking was accepted by the Qitani. Most on the Condor never even knew I could do it." Mother discouraged it.
Alistair sighed heavily. "Auntie Eunice sounds more and more like my father the more I hear about her!" He was giving me a wry smile. "Hard to grow up under that kind of shadow, wasn't it?" He waved a hand before I could continue. "We're getting off track. I find it fascinating that you can't reach them."
"I think it makes sense. I didn't just jump into a different place from them, I jumped..."
"Into a different time!" he said, smacking his forehead. "I should have thought of that. Never get old, Jake." He wiggled his finger toward his head. "Addles the brain."
I smiled. "I'll just have to keep jumping then and maintain my youth."
"Maybe I should 'jump' and regain some of mine!" Alistair laughed and reclined back in his chair. After a few moments of comfortable silence, each of us processing our own thoughts, he sighed. "It's truly a shame we can't reach out to Auntie Eunice with our minds. I suppose we'll just have to settle for the data she sends. Maybe next time you send her a message you could mention me?"
What was he talking about? "Next time?"
"Yes." He looked as confused as I felt. "Wait. You mean you haven't spoken with her?"
I shook my head. "No. How could I?"
He slowly sat forward in his chair. "Jacob, StarTech has been receiving data from the Condor for weeks."
"What...how would you...." I couldn't make any sense of it. The fah'ti's open?
His eyes went wide as soon as I thought of it. He searched for a millisecond...the other great benefit of inspeaking. A rush of data, a clear picture, an overall concept conveyed in unimaginable swiftness. It was so much faster than actually speaking.
You don't know. "Come with me, Jake," he said out loud.
He pushed off his chair and moved with surprising speed for an old guy. I followed him down a hall, then he opened a door and we started down a long stair case. He told the lights to turn on as we went. Halfway down he started to grunt with pain. "Bad hip," he said. He didn't slow down, though. His excitement was beyond the pain. I knew the look. Mother's look of discovery. I could do nothing but follow.
I was not expecting we'd end up where we did.
Under Alistair's old log cabin was a lab. An enormous, fully equipped lab that grew in front of my eyes as he turned on row after row of lights, down a corridor of science that seemed to have no end. My confusion was overwhelming. "A lab?" I squeaked.
"Come on," he said, hurrying forwards as fast as his bad hip would allow.
My mind was struggling to take it all in. "But...but...Lynette said you're a naturalist..." I stammered.
He snorted. "If she meant that as an insult, I'm not the least bit offended. I'm a naturalist, in the sense that I believe people and not incompetent bots should run the world. I like to know that my maid tasted the meal she's putting in front of me and is sure the meat isn't just a bit off. I like to rest in the comfort of security that comes from knowing that in an emergency, I have a staff and lab filled with people, people who can think on their feet, people who can act in the moment, with none of the moors and trappings of programming." He was walking forward as he spoke, hurrying us past terminals, work stations, and experiments that appeared to be very much in use.
I could not wrap my head around what I was seeing. It was so different from the home above that it was as if I stepped through the fah'ti itself into a whole new world. "This place is huge."
"Yes. My father started it. We operate...well, I shall not say 'under the radar' so much as...away from the confines of the red tape of governmental oversight."
A secret lab. In all my life I had never met someone I truly wanted to be like when I got older. Not until that moment. Oh, don't get me wrong. Dad was great, and I hoped to be like him in many ways. I even hoped I could aspire towards some of Mother's traits. But Alistair had a secret lab. There's just not topping that.
"What do you do down here?"
He stopped and said with all seriousness, "If I tell you, I'd have to kill you."
He said it so seriously, and the night had already been so surreal that I took a step back.
He laughed. "Your face! It's a joke, down here on this rock. A joke, boy. How about you just assume we do a lot of work, and let's leave out the specifics, shall we?" He walked past a few more desks before ordering the terminal into service. He pulled up a chair for me. "Now, forgive me for fumbling around here. It's been a little while since I've done this myself, you see. The blessing of having employees is that they do all the work for you. The curse is that they do all the work for you." He cracked his knuckles and then attacked the keys.
I sat down and watched him. As it did with Mother, the excitement of an idea stripped years away from this man who is supposed to be my age.
"What...is it okay if I ask what you're doing?"
"Accessing the fah'ti, of course." He pronounced it correctly. One of the beauties of inspeaking was the direct connection. He didn't have to fumble, because his brain only heard it one way, the right way. "We picked it up on the ST wire months ago. But they're very, very good at hiding what they don't want other people to know."
I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. "You're prying around in StarTech?"
"Absolutely." He typed a few more keys, then stopped and looked at me. "Jacob, why shouldn't I? They do the same right back to me."
"They...do?" My discomfort grew.
"Of course! It's how all this works. They even know that I know what they know."
"They do?" I felt like an idiot for repeating the same thing. I just had no idea what else to say.
"You really are innocent, aren't you?" He was giving me an almost patronizing smile. I tried to be mad, but he was right. "And they are clearly fine with it all, since they allowed you to visit me in spite of my prying."