“Oh my God, that is so cool. How fast can I fly?” I was beaming at Sally who was standing nonchalantly against the wall next to my television, opposite the sofa.
“Your speed through the air is dependent on several things. Mostly it’s a problem of safety. The smart-suit will cover your head as you gain speed, like a crash helmet. The computer will be able to recognize objects to avoid, but you don’t want to veer off to the side at such a speed that it wrenches your limbs. In theory, you could reach almost the speed of sound, but that would be very dangerous. If you hit a bird or even a small insect it could kill you. Effectively up to a hundred miles an hour is about all you should even attempt. There are suits on Cirion that allow faster speeds but we don’t have one here and anyway they’ve died out except for thrill seekers. But don’t fret I’m now going to tell you of how you can move around the planet safely at a little less that the speed of light.”
The thing that hit me the most following that statement was that there was little to no emotion in her outward appearance. It was as if she had just explained that two plus two equals four. She just told me that I could travel at almost the speed of light, that’s a hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second. That is about as crazy as this whole myriad of craziness put together. I was dumbfounded, speechless and agape all at the same time. The concept was so out in left field that my belief was stretched to breaking point.
I walked back to the sofa and sat down. I didn’t say a word. Not sure if I wanted to know. My imagination was buzzing, unable to fix itself on any firm concept of light-speed travel. I guess I’d thought earlier that such an advanced civilization should have come up with something incredible. I waited, expectantly.
“It’s called ‘the bounce’, or that’s how it translates from the Cirion language. It was called ‘bounce’ because that’s what happens to the molecules of your body. Each atom that makes up your body, plus what you are wearing and holding is set into a very fast oscillating motion only a fraction of a centimeter apart. Sort of bouncing back and forth. Then those atoms are sent through the air, not unlike the digital packets sent through the internet on earth and reformed into the original, wherever you have designated. It all happens so fast, that you hardly skip a heartbeat.”
I listened but felt inside that I didn’t want to hear this, because I knew the next words out of her mouth was, ‘let’s try it’. I didn’t like the ‘hardly skip a beat’ it seemed a bit too close to missing a beat.
I said, “so I’m sent through the internet?”
“Sort of, yes. But using the network we set up here on earth many years ago.”
That made me think. “So, it’s old, this technology. I mean, your computers were send here two hundred and forty-eight million years ago.” I think my sphincter muscle had tightened, a lot.
“It’s been updated,” she added.
“When?”
“About thirty million years ago.”
Oh, well, that’s alright then. I’ve got myself a software update. No problemo. Only thirty million years out of date. What could go wrong?
“Want to give it a try?” Sally said, grinning.
There it was. What was I supposed to say? The concept was lunatic, but everything had worked so far. Why should I assume this would be any different? I had a few more questions.
“So how do I decide where to land?” Not that landing in the aircraft sense was how I imagined this worked.
“You search out a location site using the heads-up display and basically activate the bounce system just like anti-gravity. You do have to be a little firmer with the instructions, wouldn’t be good to be imagining a visit to the Eifel Tower and suddenly be standing there.” She laughed.
No I guess not, I thought.
“Also,” Sally continued. “You need to be aware of your current situation.”
I think I understood what she was implying but I said. “meaning?”
“You would scare people just appearing suddenly.”
“Certainly would.” I said, mostly to myself. “So it’s sort of like Star Trek? ‘Beam me up, Scotty.’”
“Similar, but this is instant. You don’t materialize like the TV show. Effectively you bounce immediately, or so it will seem to you and anybody who happens to see you appear.”
Yeah, that would be a little disconcerting, I thought.
“Oh, another point is, you can bounce to a location inside a building. As long as it isn’t air-tight, you have a window in as it were.”
That threw me for a loop. Whambo! instant Dave in your bedroom. I was imagining the implications. I laughed. Sally was watching me and I could see the question on her face.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said.
There was a pause in the conversation. My mind was racing around in circles. On one hand, it scared me to death, but on the other Holy Moly, completely absurd.
“Do you want to give it a try?” Sally again, who else.
“In for a penny, in for a pound,” I muttered.
“What?” she enquired.
“Nothing,” I said. “Sure, let’s do it. Where shall I go?”
“I think the first run should be somewhere well away from civilization. That way you’re not worrying about somebody suddenly appearing out of nowhere. It’s eleven a.m. here, so two p.m. on the east coast.”
“You can’t change the time zone?”
Sally burst out a laugh. “Nope, we haven’t figured out time-travel, yet.”
Good to know, I guess.
“How about somewhere on a remote island in the Bahamas. Nice weather down there.” She was pensive.
“Whao! Does the weather affect the… you know bounce?”
“We don’t think so.”
“What’d you mean. You don’t think so?” My nervousness was building.
“We haven’t actually tried this out on earth,” she said, “but it should work just the same.”
My heart was getting a bit of a workout now. My eyes widened. I mean, tried and tested in another atmosphere, should be okay, I told myself. Thirty-million-year-old technology was going to mash me into electrons and spit me out three thousand miles away at the speed of light. Who wouldn’t sign up for that ride?
“The Abacos Islands, east of Florida. They are four hours ahead. How about Great Guana Cay, on the beach by the Atlantic. There’s a nice bar there, Nippers, you could get an early lunch. They take US dollars. There’s a few people on the beach, so we’ll go a little north, no one there right now.” My heads-up display was showing the location, it looked beautiful. “First, you need to change, go with thirty-something American, tanned, you know the beach-bum surfer look. Swimming shorts, t-shirt.”
I was staring at Sally. It was all moving too fast, if you know what I mean. I was feeling manipulated.
“Well?” She said.
I nearly said, are you coming? but quickly realized she was with me always. I couldn’t get rid of her. That felt unkind. I think it was all so ridiculous, here I was Dave Murphy, fifty-seven years old, widower, average guy, discussing beaming over to the Bahamas from San Francisco for lunch on the beach, looking like a beach-bum. Nuts! I needed time to get my mind around it. If you thought just two seconds it was simply mind-blowing and here I was, going along with it.
“You okay, Jo-el?” She asked.
Jo-el again. Forgot about him for a moment. “Just trying to accept this thing. It’s somewhat odd in my world. I have to let it sink in, get my mind around it.”