From the article archive
The Tourist: Dark Mnemonic
Dark Mnemonic
She’s always there when I close my eyes. A vision of dark sky and rain on a willow tree, a study in shadow and life. Touching her would be like touching a Unicorn. You would never fully belong to yourself ever again.
Perhaps that’s why this journey to Omicron-5 fills me with dread. It’s been a long time since that last trip, longer than I care to think about. Even though the other memories of my time there have grown hazy and dark with age, the memories of that single hour have remained new, haunting my thoughts and dreams as if from only a few hours ago... just like she said they would. I suppose that my return was inevitable, all things considered. Besides, only a complete fool would ignore a request from the High Archon of the Omicron system.
Approximately one thousand years ago the humans on Omicron-5 entered a period of punctuated equilibrium, a state of accelerated evolution. Since that time, their extra-sensory perceptions have grown rapidly, and many of them achieve incredibly high results on the standard temporal viscosity tests. Subconscious communication across the space-time stream between your past and future selves can be a real boon. It often manifests in the altering of a course of action that would have resulted in injury or death. Most people tap into this ability only rarely, if at all. To the humans on Omicron-5 it’s almost as easy as breathing.
The theory behind temporal viscosity has some resemblance to liquid flow dynamics. The current self at any particular point in time is aware on a subconscious level of what the future self is encountering, similar to a particle of water up-river “knowing” that there is a large rock in the middle of the stream down-river. The temporal viscosity rating corresponds to how far into the past and future that a person’s “bubble” of communication extends. This is where the dangerous part comes in. According to current quantum theory, a temporal bubble can only grow so large before it collapses. This could have a variety of results, depending on which scientist you ask. Some say that the collapse would result in a temporal singularity similar in many ways to a black hole. The alpha self and the omega self would be pulled together violently and when they came into contact... game over. Whether this would effect only the individual or cause all of space-time to unravel is a topic of further debate. Most theorists believe some kind of domino effect to be the most likely result. Since nobody has ever had a temporal viscosity rating even close to high enough to be of any concern, debate on the subject has progressed at a very leisurely pace. But I have a feeling that may be about to change.
Twelve days ago we were deep into trade negotiations with a group of miners in the Damocles asteroid belt. They had been extracting an extremely dangerous and highly illegal substance from the core of an asteroid, item CL4-100007834Q1 in The Union’s log of restricted substances. Most people in the know refer to it as “Element”. When refined and ingested, Element works on a cellular level to alter the way an organism stores and releases energy. In the more self-aware species it often results in episodes of what can only be called “enlightenment”. Not having taken the substance myself that is the best description I can offer. The problem with Element is that it is very unstable, and when it breaks down it becomes a powerful mutagen. Taking degraded Element can have a variety of effects, most of them unsavory. You might get away with just a change of eye color, but more than one user has ended up as a puddle of bubbling protoplasm.
When I returned to the Sekhmet there was an encoded transmission waiting for me. As the security protocol verified my identity the smell of damp earth invaded my senses and the haunting cry of the Jubota seemed to echo from someplace far away. After watching the message there wasn’t much left to do but contact the miners and agree to pay their inflated price for five kilos of Element. The High Archon would be reimbursing me ten fold. How did he know that I would be in possession of a large amount of substance CL4-100007834Q1? Like I said, receiving signals from your future selves has its advantages.
So, as the Sekhmet shakes and vibrates from the ion storm we encountered just after entering Omicron-5’s atmosphere, she is all I can think about. The dark hair, the clouded eyes, my vision is filled by those images from so long ago. Not even the High Archon’s message that an 11-year-old girl has breached the upper limit of the temporal viscosity scale can cut through the spell. The implications of his desire for such a large quantity of Element play at the edge of my awareness but can’t pull me from this overwhelming sense of the inevitable, of an unavoidable fate descending upon me like divine light clenched in a fist.
She’s always there when I close my eyes. A vision of dark sky and rain on a willow tree, a study in shadow and life. Touching her would be like touching a Unicorn. You would never fully belong to yourself ever again.
Perhaps that’s why this journey to Omicron-5 fills me with dread. It’s been a long time since that last trip, longer than I care to think about. Even though the other memories of my time there have grown hazy and dark with age, the memories of that single hour have remained new, haunting my thoughts and dreams as if from only a few hours ago... just like she said they would. I suppose that my return was inevitable, all things considered. Besides, only a complete fool would ignore a request from the High Archon of the Omicron system.
Approximately one thousand years ago the humans on Omicron-5 entered a period of punctuated equilibrium, a state of accelerated evolution. Since that time, their extra-sensory perceptions have grown rapidly, and many of them achieve incredibly high results on the standard temporal viscosity tests. Subconscious communication across the space-time stream between your past and future selves can be a real boon. It often manifests in the altering of a course of action that would have resulted in injury or death. Most people tap into this ability only rarely, if at all. To the humans on Omicron-5 it’s almost as easy as breathing.
The theory behind temporal viscosity has some resemblance to liquid flow dynamics. The current self at any particular point in time is aware on a subconscious level of what the future self is encountering, similar to a particle of water up-river “knowing” that there is a large rock in the middle of the stream down-river. The temporal viscosity rating corresponds to how far into the past and future that a person’s “bubble” of communication extends. This is where the dangerous part comes in. According to current quantum theory, a temporal bubble can only grow so large before it collapses. This could have a variety of results, depending on which scientist you ask. Some say that the collapse would result in a temporal singularity similar in many ways to a black hole. The alpha self and the omega self would be pulled together violently and when they came into contact... game over. Whether this would effect only the individual or cause all of space-time to unravel is a topic of further debate. Most theorists believe some kind of domino effect to be the most likely result. Since nobody has ever had a temporal viscosity rating even close to high enough to be of any concern, debate on the subject has progressed at a very leisurely pace. But I have a feeling that may be about to change.
Twelve days ago we were deep into trade negotiations with a group of miners in the Damocles asteroid belt. They had been extracting an extremely dangerous and highly illegal substance from the core of an asteroid, item CL4-100007834Q1 in The Union’s log of restricted substances. Most people in the know refer to it as “Element”. When refined and ingested, Element works on a cellular level to alter the way an organism stores and releases energy. In the more self-aware species it often results in episodes of what can only be called “enlightenment”. Not having taken the substance myself that is the best description I can offer. The problem with Element is that it is very unstable, and when it breaks down it becomes a powerful mutagen. Taking degraded Element can have a variety of effects, most of them unsavory. You might get away with just a change of eye color, but more than one user has ended up as a puddle of bubbling protoplasm.
When I returned to the Sekhmet there was an encoded transmission waiting for me. As the security protocol verified my identity the smell of damp earth invaded my senses and the haunting cry of the Jubota seemed to echo from someplace far away. After watching the message there wasn’t much left to do but contact the miners and agree to pay their inflated price for five kilos of Element. The High Archon would be reimbursing me ten fold. How did he know that I would be in possession of a large amount of substance CL4-100007834Q1? Like I said, receiving signals from your future selves has its advantages.
So, as the Sekhmet shakes and vibrates from the ion storm we encountered just after entering Omicron-5’s atmosphere, she is all I can think about. The dark hair, the clouded eyes, my vision is filled by those images from so long ago. Not even the High Archon’s message that an 11-year-old girl has breached the upper limit of the temporal viscosity scale can cut through the spell. The implications of his desire for such a large quantity of Element play at the edge of my awareness but can’t pull me from this overwhelming sense of the inevitable, of an unavoidable fate descending upon me like divine light clenched in a fist.
Recovered from the Gaming Outpost database backup. Original wording is preserved; damaged punctuation and presentation markup have been repaired. Historical links without a local match point to the Internet Archive.