Author Part 3
(Chapter 56 of "Senses")
SPACE
Actually, Mats was supposed to fly me back to San Francisco, in what was supposed to be my only space travel experience; a sort of compensation for what I'd been through. It didn't work out that way.
The plan was to blast out of the solar system, then come back in, to avoid detection. About a four hour trip, according to Mats, so we sat back to listen to some music and eat pizza and play poker. (No, I didn't stargaze. For some reason my mind was elsewhere.)
"Cards?" Mats asked.
"Two," I replied. I held two Jacks and an Ace. As he handed two more cards to me I asked, "You think I'm doing the right thing?"
Mats smiled from behind that enormous beard. "Ain't telling," he replied, taking three cards. "No one deserves to rule you except you."
"Thank you. Bet twenty."
"Twenty and five. Having second thoughts?"
"Five and another twenty five. You have no concept of what goes through this mind," I said, tapping my forehead.
"Yes, I might. See and raise twenty."
"Hold it." I set my cards down. "Are you one of the X-Men?"
Mats laughed. "X-Men? I like it! No, I'm not. I do have the ability to tune myself into this ship, but that's about it. By the way, say hello to Janis."
"Hello," said the ship.
"Uh, hello," was all I managed. I knew I should recognize that voice.
"Janis," Mats continued, "short for Janis Joplin, is the ship's computer. She's self-aware and is pretty heavy duty."
"And you're attuned to her," I observed.
"Yup."
"Any other machines you're tuned to?"
"Not really although I have tried. Most machines just give me headaches."
"Can Janis see my cards?"
"Nope."
"See and raise thirty."
"Ha! Your thirty and fifty more. Why the second thoughts?"
I shook my head. "I find your little commune interesting," I said, "although more that a bit weird. I wouldn't mind it if not for Nicki."
"Nicki?"
"She got me into this mess in the first place, and she acts like I'm her goddamn boyfriend."
"And you don't know how to handle that," Mats said.
"Fifty and fifty more," I replied.
"Thought so. Tell you what. I'll explain to you her story, which also happens to be the story of her parents and of me. Maybe you'll begin to understand the tack she's on. In return you tell me how you got your nickname. Fair?"
I thought about it for a moment. "Not really," I finally said with a slight smile. "You're going to find out the reason for my nickname in a moment anyway."
"You're bluffing. Call."
I laid down my cards: four Jacks and an Ace.
Mats flung his cards away. "Goddamn it to fuck! That was a set up!"
I shrugged and smiled. "Jacks like me, what can I say?"
"You and those goddamn random elements. I should have known better. Me holding the other three Aces, too. I may or may not be an X-Man, but you're a fucking Longshot!"
"So they tell me. What does that make you?"
"I don't have an equivalent." Mats smiled again. "How old do you think I am?"
I tried not to show that I was a bit uncomfortable with the question. "I'm bad at this," I said, "but I'd guess you're at least twice my age."
"You're being kind. I'm barely thirty."
That I never would have guessed. "Wait a minute," I said. "A.J. said something about Nicki being the equivalent of my age. Does the fact that you look in your fifties have something to do with that?"
"Good assimilation kid," Mats replied. "She's barely four by your calendar."
"What?" Four? I had fucked a four year old? Does not compute.
Mats chuckled. "Do you want to hear the story?"
I nodded meekly.
"Then put your feet up and eat your pizza before it gets cold. This will take a while."
It took an hour an a half and I was hooked. The story he told me I told you in two: Instinct and Slap. In those stories I admit to almost no embellishment, and the tape of the trial in the first story is transcribed fairly close to verbatim.
(By the way, the stuff about "The Punisher" is speculative, probably pure fiction, and is embellishment. I added that bit because one part of the story didn't make sense to me, and the others agreed once I had pointed it out. They theorized at one point that they were supposed to be able to break the time snap, or at least that 'drink was able to. Why would that be if the real story had nothing to do with 'drink, but centered around Mats? I added that small bit to close what seemed to be a loose end to me. End digression.)
While the tale Mats told me answered a lot, it opened up a lot more. Some of these people really can fly? Not Just A.J.? People who can change other's emotions? An accurate fortune teller? Are Nicki and 'drink Davis gods?
I must have thought that last one aloud because Mats answered.
"No, just people," he said. "Capable of the same mistakes and frailties as anyone else. They will die as we all do."
"Pleasant thought," I replied sarcastically. "I don't get it. Why do these people have these abilities?"
"We don't really know. A.J.'s ideas about evolution are the best we have, so it's accepted for now. What we are beginning to figure out only now is how this stuff works. Again, A.J. is the leader because of the equations he sees."
"Seems to me that he's indispensable."
"Say again?"
"Look," I counted off. "Morgana and Rand have pretty much the same abilities. Nicki and her father are similar. Angie and Karen sound like variations on a theme. You've got Janis and A.J. can do everything Jim can do and then some. It's known that Scott, Debbie, Paul, Larry, Constance and Carrie aren't X-Men. Only A.J. can read equations and it seems to me that it can't be taught."
"And that's why we have our little research facility," Mats said, "so we can find the links and know how it happens. We're all indispensable in that regard, including the 'Non-X-Men' for control purposes. there are also many subtleties you haven't seen, like Morgana's intuitiveness or Jim's entirely unreasonable ability to handle liquor."
"And women," I added. "How did he end up with two lovers? At least according to the papers? Nicki said that it was a joke..."
"It's a lot more complicated than that, so you'd better ask them directly. I can tell you that Karen came first and she's clearly the favorite. And Angie plays around while Karen doesn't. And Karen lives with him while Angie doesn't. And..."
"Enough!" I shouted. "You're making my head swim."
Mats looked at me quizzically for a moment. "You're far too young to be an experienced sexual dynamo," he said. "That episode where you ran from the room. What happened?"
"You got me," I replied.
"Look, are you in?"
I sighed. "Yeah, I'm in. Somebody has to keep track of all this crap."
"Then let's get back to L.A. and try to duplicate the process, but with you hooked up to Angie's gear. Maybe we can figure our what it is you do."
"Would it help if I said I'm not looking forward to it?" I asked.
Mats laughed. "No."
I stared for a moment then let out the laugh I'd also been holding. "Didn't think so."
Mats wasn't listening to me. He had this blank stare, although he came back quickly.
"Son of a bitch," he said, emitting a long whistle. "Janis, congratulate Scott for me and let's go to ground, all right?"
"Will do," came that incredible voice.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Earthquake in Santa Barbara," Mats replied, "and Scott predicted it. Small one, a 3.1, so don't worry. See, Scott doesn't quite hold with Chaos. He believes that we can't predict earthquakes because we don't know where all the faults are."
"I thought we were getting a handle on how quakes work."
"Not quite. Remember that 8.2 in 1994 in South America? That threw a wrench into how most seismologists study quakes. The idea of predicting quakes almost went out the window with that one. What Scott believes is that it is possible to know all of the relevant information necessary to make accurate predictions, and he's been mapping everything and measuring stress factors and rate of continental drift and so on. That's a simplified explanation. It's his pet project and I've been helping him out on it, using some stolen technology and a satellite we have up in a geostationary orbit, Clarke be praised."
"You guys have a satellite?" I asked. "Doesn't that freak out the defense department?"
"We move it every eleven days, and more during shuttle missions. See, we have pick-up dishes all over the world, in warehouses just like the one in Los Angeles. The Christopher brothers are quite wealthy. Anyway, every once in a while the Russians and the Americans and everyone else with the talent for it spot this object they can't explain, and the next time they look it's gone. It gets registered as a UFO and the defense industry contractors get nervous as the government reports 'glitches' in the gear. Kind of funny if you think about it.
"Anyway, this is Scott's third accurate prediction in a row. It appears that we have recorded all the data necessary. Now we have to decide what to do with it."
"Scott has the maps and the data, right?" I asked. "Turn them over to a Geologist..."
"Who'd ask how he got them. Eventually we'd have to disclose the satellite. How do you think the government, hell any government, would react to discovering a satellite or perhaps a missile could be launched by a private citizen by undetectable means?"
"So we're holding back?"
"Yeah," Mats replied, "and it can be an ethical bitch sometimes. You're in, right? Those of us involved in Scott's little project will have an ethics meeting in a couple of hours."
"All right," I said. Then it hit me. "Wait a minute! How do you know all this?"
"Janis told me."
"I figured that part. How did Janis know? Considering what you've told me about our course we must be at about Neptune right now."
Mats looked thoughtful for a moment. "Jupiter actually. Think about this for a moment. I told you my story, and in it I travel to distant solar systems. That means travel faster than light. You think we don't have communications that fast? Scott and our various satellite locations around the Earth are in constant communication, at 24 Meg baud."
"Twenty-four million baud?"
"The magic of fiber-optics and alien technology. Anyway, they can transmit as well as receive, and we have enough directions covered that I can be reached anywhere in the system quickly."
I shook my head. "I had no idea this was so big."
"I know. Only sixteen people and one computer really know, yourself included. So let's get back and get to work. Janis?"
"Yes Mats." That voice again.
"Large pizza, sausage and extra cheese, all right?"
"Pepperoni on half," I added.
"Certainly Jace," Janis replied.
"Great voice," I said.
"Best pizza delivery in the universe," Mats added.