SIGHT
(Seducer Part 13- Chapter 44 of Senses)
The private plane cruised at thirty thousand feet over the cold frontier that made up the nation of Russia. An hour's distance from Moscow, the plane contained eight people. Three crew who sat at the front of the plane guiding it towards its destination, and five people who were being given privacy so that they could talk. Later the co-pilot would sell the Inquirer a story for $35,000 saying that an orgy took place in the back (after getting permission from Jim, who liked the idea), but except for occasional fondles between Jim and Karen, what mostly took place was a scientific discussion between the five passengers of the airplane.
There was a table that all five people were seated around, and all five had drinks of one sort or another (Jim a Bushmill's, A.J. a vodka and tonic, Carrie and Karen cokes, and Angie a margarita). There were charts spread out, and Angie was explaining them.
"And this one," she was saying, "shows what happened when when Jim was controlled by me and I was controlled by Karen. What it shows is that the steady state does change. This chart is unlike the one which shows me when Karen hit me. I was still me by comparison, while you became a changed you."
Jim shook his head and let out a long whistle. "I was right," he said. "God damn! Okay, what do we do next?"
"We need to figure out how to make the change on a permanent basis," A.J. added. "Once we figure that out, we can fly."
"This is all fascinating," Carrie said. "In less than two months you two have gone further than you have in the rest of your lives in solving at least this problem."
"Them two?" Angie asked. "This was a group effort, I'll have you know. Including you, a total of eight people were involved."
"It raises more questions than it solves," Karen pointed out. "We don't know what the effect would be of changing a person's brain make up permanently. It could have profound psychological effects on us."
"I'm glad I'm not the only person to notice it," Jim said. "What if this supposed permanent change turns us into different people?"
"You were still you when we did the tests in the lab, weren't you?" A.J. asked.
"As far as we know," Jim replied. "We didn't do it for very long. Maybe I was me only superficially."
"We're only talking about a few cells here."
"True, but we simply don't know. And suppose we want to change more about ourselves later? What then? Would we lose the ability to drink like we do? Would we become bad people?"
"Bad people?" A.J. asked, smiling with wonder.
"Don't laugh," Jim shot back, "this is all a possibility and you know it. We don't know enough about the brain to make assumptions like that. Forgive me little brother, but I like my life pretty much the way it is." He smiled at Karen, who smiled back.
"Well, what else can you two do?" Angie asked. "I mean, everything I've seen involves flying or simple physics."
"That is what we do," Jim said. "But it's not just the various things that involve flight. Remember when we did the first scans of me and you discovered that my natural body temperature is a little higher than the norm? Well I can make it 98.6 degrees if I should want to."
"As a general rule we don't fuck with it," A.J. commented. "Messing with your body temperature could cause problems that we can not anticipate. The only thing it's handy for is breaking a fever."
Angie laughed. "I could see that," she said.
"We've also found that Jim and A.J. can lift objects when I control them," Karen said. "But so far there's a limit on how much can be lifted."
"You told me about that. I've been meaning to ask, why aren't we doing more work with it?"
"I think it has to do with the fascination with flight," Carrie said. "These two are almost obsessed with it."
"A.J. more than me," Jim added, "but it's a valid point."
Karen shot Jim a knowing look. "Maybe more, maybe not," she said. "Thing is, there's a Freudian fascination with flight in dreams. Freud was a fraud when it came to women, but he knew men fairly well. It's a measure of sexual power."
Jim chuckled and finished his drink. "Thank you for sharing that lover," he said. "Now that my brother and I have been labeled as sex fiends..."
"Were you ever labeled as non-sex fiends?" Carrie asked, her voice a mask of innocence.
A.J. shook his head. "The women have our number big brother," he said. "To be honest, flight is the most fascinating thing for us. The point is moot though. We still don't know how to change the paths permanently."
"Excuse me folks," came a voice from the cabin speaker.
Jim stood up and walked over to the intercom and pressed the talk button. "Yes captain?" he asked.
"Thought you'd like to know. Russian air traffic control has just reported that Mr. Cynic's plane just entered Russian air space. They're surprised at its speed. If they're right about it, so am I."
Jim laughed. "I don't know what kind it is," he responded, "but it's a fast motherfucker. Jet powered. Ask him yourself when we land, one pilot to another."
"Roger. Out."
Jim rejoined the table to see A.J.'s jaw dropped and both Karen and Carrie staring at Angie. "What did I miss?" he asked.
A.J. nodded and prodded Angie. "Repeat what you just said," he said.
Angie sipped her drink. "What I said was," she started, "that I think I've figured out how to do the permanent change."
Now Jim joined in the surprised looks. "Excuse me?"
Angie laughed. "Roll your tongues up and I'll explain," she said.
"The first thing I saw," she began, "was that the scans we did were not all that different than I thought they would be. The charts I've shown you talk about a total of 200 cells."
Jim sat down. "Is that all?" he asked.
"Yes, but the change was not what I expected. You see, more then 10,000 cells were actually changed as far as their makeup is concerned, but it's more like a shifting of uses. The 200 cells I was talking about were actually new constructs in existing cells that had not existed before. Your brain reprogrammed itself."
To the stunned silence, Angie continued. "These changes are chemical," she said. "A shifting of proteins and complex chains to meet the purposes of each neuron. We've always assumed that the brain reprograms itself on a constant basis, and that that was how memories were formed and accessed. But this is proof."
"Wow," Karen said.
"I know," Angie said. "I wish I could publish these findings. This is a staggering advance in science."
Jim chuckled. "I can see the footnotes in Cell magazine now," he noted. "Note one: brain scan of eccentric rock star. Note two: protein content of whiskey, as noted by the Bushmill's corporation."
"Okay, okay," A.J. said. "So you've proved that the brain reprograms itself. You haven't answered the question of how you can change the steady state."
Angie nodded. "It came to me while I was talking with Larry about the experiment where you wigged out," she said, pointing at A.J. "Was there something about your formula that changed your steady state? Something that got lost when Jim knocked you out? I thought there might be, so I asked Larry for the formula that you put into his safe keeping."
"You what?" Jim yelled.
"Relax tight cheeks, he didn't tell me."
"Good," A.J. said. "It helps renew my faith in our eldest brother."
"But it occurred to me that the formula you must have used would combine the visual formulae you've seen when Karen controls Jim. So I started putting down formulae that you've described in each of the actions and adding them together. In a few of the combinations, I noticed a constant forming."
"A constant?" Jim asked. "In variable equations?"
"That's right," Angie replied. "In different combinations, using different values, I noticed that the same number kept showing up. With Scott's help we started removing values from the equations to discover where in the equation the value was coming from, and we got it. A hybrid of the values from each part of the equation that created a new constant."
Jim laughed. "An analytical mathematical harmonic," he said. "To quote Mr. Spock, fascinating. Is this what Larry calls 'numerology waves'?"
"No, although the concept of harmonics is accurate. Numerology waves have to do with the values we all receive in the equations."
Now A.J. laughed. "Let's use a harmonic term then," he said. "The AMH constant."
Angie considered this for a moment. "Sounds good," she finally commented.
"Anyway," she continued, "the AMH has to go somewhere. The problem is where. What you were doing before relied on controlling the emotive centers of the brain. What you did was change one of the steady state settings in your emotive centers. But because you were already doing work there with the formula you had found, the AMH decided to head for the more primitive centers. That's what fucked you up last time."
"Did you share that theory with Larry?" Karen asked.
Angie nodded. "I did. He backed me up on that."
A.J. shook his head and refilled his empty glass. He then drained it and shook his head, chuckling. "At least that question is finally answered. That's why my formula failed?"
"That's why," Angie replied. "I still don't know what the exact formula is, but at least we've confirmed why it didn't work."
Carrie stood up and began to pace. "We're still missing the point," she said. "So we know what went wrong. You still haven't told us how we can change the steady state."
"It's more accurate to say how I can change the steady state," Angie said. "I don't think any of you can do it, and I'd need Karen."
"But how?"
"The only formulae I've had personal experience with have to do with gravity control, so I'm working with that. What needs to happen is that Karen hits me with the gravity formula, and then I'd turn around and hit either of you," she pointed and Jim, then A.J., "with that and the AMH. With that in mind, you'd have permanent control over gravity, and you'd be free to concentrate on just velocity."
Jim shook his head. "Feed two formulae at the same time?" he asked.
"In effect, yes. One formula plus the AMH."
"Can you do that?"
"I think so. I've been experimenting on my own about how I project to people, and I can project a formula without any effect at people. If Karen feeds me the way she did the day we did the three way experiment, my theory is that it will work."
A.J. let out a long whistle. "When did you figure this out?" he asked.
"A couple of days ago," Angie replied. "I've been working out the math with Scott's help since I first postulated this concept to myself, and the math backs me up."
"We need to try this," A.J. said. "When we get back to Los Angeles, we'll need to hit the lab and try this out."
"I don't know," Jim said. "Being hit with two formulae is something we've never tried before. I'm a bit leery about it."
"Hey brother, that's what the lab is for."
"I know, but this will require some long-time studies to be sure that we don't change our natural makeup any more than is necessary. We need to know what the side effects are, and if the effects are too great, Angie needs to be able to change us back."
"The theory is the same to switch you back to your regular selves," Angie said. "Besides, we know from past experience that the change can be reversed."
"We do?"
"Yeah, we do. When you knocked A.J. out after the supermarket incident he became his old self again. Something must have forced his brain to reset."
Jim nodded. "I hadn't thought of that," he said. "What was the reset button?"
Angie shook her head. "To be honest, I don't know. It must have something either to do with stress or a physical hormone or antibody that was released when he was knocked out."
A.J. sighed. "It could be any of a number of things," he said. "I had a broken shoulder, so maybe bone fragments caused it."
"I don't think so," Karen added. "There's a barrier between the brain and the rest of the body that screens the blood for toxins. It must have been something in the brain."
"The point is," Jim commented, "that we don't know what the answer is. I'm about to go on a full tour, so I don't think we have the time to start up an experiment this big."
"You just don't want to fuck with it," A.J. said.
"Fucking right. Sometimes it scares me enough with some of the shit we already do. I'd like to be sure the process is reversible before we do anything more. Having permanent changes made to my brain bothers me."
"I'll tell you what," A.J. said to the group. "Let's all think of any and all possible implications to this problem and we'll get together once Jim gets back from the road and try to piece it all together. There will be plenty of other work to do while he's gone. Such as measuring intensities of what Karen does...."
"Or trying to decipher your weird eyesight," Karen replied.
Angie agreed. "I'm really interested in finding out what makes your eyes tick," she said.
"Am I outvoted then?" A.J. asked.
Carrie laughed and clamped her hand on A.J.'s shoulder. "Looks that way slim," she said.
"How long will you be on the road?"
"Seven weeks," Jim replied.
A.J. shook his head. "Seven weeks being probed and prodded by these two." He grinned a wicked grin. "I'm looking forward to it."
Jim grinned. "I can see why."
"Bastards," Karen noted. She reached over and kissed Jim. "You really are a bastard, you know that?"
"Don't tell my parents," Jim replied.
"Excuse me folks," came the Captain's voice.
"Does he always do that?" A.J. asked. "Excuse me folks." The imitation was almost perfect.
Jim stood again and walked over to the intercom. "Yes captain?"
"You folks should strap yourselves in. We're at the airport now and we expect to be given permission to land any moment......excuse me, we have been given permission to land. Seatbelts everyone."
The group settled into their seats and cleared the drinks from the table. Once they were settled A.J. said, "Where does the time go?"
"We must have been having fun," Karen noted.