Heart

by James Evans

Overview

James Evans is an award-winning advertising producer, artist, guitarist, and writer. His vocal album, "Ocean of Wisdom by James Edward Evans" and instrumental album, "Sleight of Hand" by Ten of Clubs are available online wherever music is sold.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504340021
Publisher:	Balboa Press
Publication date:	10/12/2015
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.30(d)

Read an Excerpt

Heart

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By James Evans

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2015 James Evans
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5043-4002-1

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CHAPTER 1

The inside of the cabin of the Copernicus was dimly lit. The red and blue glow of the instrument panels provided as much illumination as the small overhead dome lights, which shined off-white.

The main source of attention was the huge curved window at the front of the cabin, and the low light levels accented the view. Never-before-seen star clusters, swirls of cosmic gases, and bright suns of galaxies which, until this time, no human eye had ever perceived, were showcased in the window which spanned from side to side of the ship.

Tension and wonder hung in the air. The ship had just crossed through the first wormhole that humankind had ever discovered.

"There is no way this is a natural phenomenon," the captain of the ship had said, both while the trip was being planned, and just seconds ago, as they emerged into this uncharted space. "There has to be some sort of super-intelligent life that caused this to happen. We don't even have the math to create a model for this. According to everything we know, this should be impossible."

John Francis Oberlin was the odd man out on this trip. The other six members of the crew all had advanced degrees in related sciences, and served vital purposes for the ship's mission to explore and record whatever they found. But Oberlin was a civilian observer. Chosen for his writing skills and fame as a philosopher, and in no small part because he was a huge political donor to the current President, Oberlin's job was to experience and relate as a correspondent to the masses. He had signed a very lucrative contract with the largest media conglomerate in the world. It had been decades since any government could afford the cost of a major space mission, and corporate sponsorship was crucial to the financial viability of any venture of this kind.

Those people who were interested in pure science were disgusted by this trend. They called it prostitution of the worst kind, a bastardization of academics and the search for knowledge. But historically, science has always had its patrons, and this one was a media conglomerate whose sole agenda was to report the biggest scoop in history.

The radio-spectrometer analyst motioned to Oberlin.

"Hey Noob, come check this out," he said, in a low voice. His name was Johnson, and he was the only one of the crew who wasn't hostile or indifferent to Oberlin. Everyone else ostracized Oberlin, throughout training, and during the trip to the wormhole.

"Check out this wave of radiation approaching us," Johnson said, and pointed at the round screen in front of him.

Oberlin had seen this screen many times. It colored non-visible radiation in a way that it could be seen and analyzed. Usually the radiation was shades of red, which Oberlin had learned was a way that they could determine how old the radiation was — or rather, how long ago it had been emitted. Radiation would become darker shades of red the more distant it was from its original source.

The radiation on the screen was very different than anything Oberlin had seen in training or on the trip to the wormhole. It was an immense field, and the radiation glowed an intense shade of the color pink.

"Noob," Johnson said, "this is, like, unprecedented. No one has ever theorized that we would see something this color."

Johnson called Oberlin 'Noob' because it was short for 'newbie', or 'new guy'.

The pink radiation filled the center of the screen, and it was approaching at a very fast rate.

"Captain, you should check this out," Johnson said in a slightly louder voice.

"Put it on the big screen," the captain replied.

The center of the front window came alive with the projection from the spectrometer.

"What is that?" the captain asked, in a voice that had just a bit of fear in it. The captain was obviously not comfortable. Being a man used to having control over whatever situation he was in, this totally new environment disturbed him.

"Well, its radiation. But if you're asking me to somehow classify it, I can't." Johnson replied.

"I think we're going to have a lot of that on this trip," the captain replied. "We're probably going to have to start making up words as we go along. What can you tell me about it?"

"Well, it's intense," Johnson replied. "It's about the same intensity that the sun's radiation would be if we were orbiting Mercury. I can't tell you if that directly correlates to temperature, though, because this color has never shown up on our electromagnetic spectrum observations before. I can't tell you one thing for sure, however ..."

"It's going to hit the ship in about three minutes."

No one knew that for six of the seven members of the crew of the Copernicus, the countdown had started for the last few moments of their lives.

CHAPTER 2

Three minutes later:

The captain screamed and howled in John Oberlin's face like a demon tormented in a lake of fire. His face was contorted so badly, it almost seemed as if it was melting off of his skull. Between his screams, he gnashed his teeth, grinding them together as the next scream welled up from deep within him.

Oberlin was firmly strapped into his seat, as ordered by the captain just a minute earlier. Automatic emergency systems had kicked in as the radiation hit the Copernicus, and additional straps had appeared, across his chest, and on his arms. A cloud that appeared like fine gold dust swirled slowly around him.

Oberlin was the only one not affected in a hideous fashion by the pink radiation bombarding the ship. Johnson wept at his station — deep, gut-wrenching sobs that caused spasms in his diaphragm, and shook his entire body. Every few seconds he would claw at his hair, scream out loud, and smash his head into the radio-spectrometer.

All the members of the crew were thrashing about, falling on the floor, running into equipment, while having what appeared to be grand mal seizures.

Johnson was the first to go. Standing up suddenly from his station, he emitted a shrieking scream that would have scared the devil himself. Oberlin saw his chest, around his heart, explode. Blood poured from his nose, mouth and eyes. It seeped through his uniform as if he had a gunshot wound. As his body slumped into his chair, the blood dripped from his face to the floor.

The captain was next. Just like Johnson, his chest exploded as if someone had shot him in the back with a shotgun. The blood gushed from him so much that when his body hit the floor, it splashed in the pool that had already left him.

One by one, every member of the crew died in this fashion. Oberlin watched in horror as each person's face contorted and bubbled as if it was boiling. Somehow, none of this happened to him, though. He looked around his body, and all he could see was the swirling cloud of gold dust.

Suddenly, the chair he was in started to move, shifting him into an upright standing position. He vaguely remembered something about this from training — the ship was going into emergency autopilot mode. The onboard computers had sensed the deaths of the crew, and they were programmed to return through the wormhole, back to Earth, in the case of catastrophic conditions.

There was something else, Oberlin thought.

Something he was forgetting....

CHAPTER 3

The wall behind Oberlin's seat opened up, panels folding away, revealing a glass chamber. Oberlin, his seat, and everything attached were quickly pulled into the wall. The panels did not close, but a glass shield rolled in front of him, completely sealing him into the see-through tomb.

"Oh my God!" Oberlin thought. "The cryogenics!"

Part of the emergency protocol of the autopilot sequence was to freeze any crew members who were seated at their stations. This would allow any non-fatal injuries to be suspended until doctors on Earth could deal with them.

Oberlin felt the sub-thermal gases flood the chamber. He shivered as his body approached shock, and icicles began to form on his face, around his eyes and mouth.

And then he fell into unconsciousness. The doctors told him in training that he would experience a dreamless sleep, and would only experience a moment or two of thought before they thawed him out, back on Earth.

But this isn't what happened to John Oberlin.

Flash! A bolt of lightning startled his inner eyes, the ones people see with when they dream. Dark storm clouds rolled like a hurricane through the sky. Flash! Again the lightning struck.

He could see the face of a man. Deep in pain and anguish, the man had a crown of thorns jammed down upon his head, and red blood rolled down his face from where his skin had been pierced. Flash! The lightning struck again.

Oberlin saw the man again, but this time he was on a dirt road, speaking to a small group of men.

"It is better for you that I leave, so that I can send The Holy Spirit," the man said.

Flash! Lightning and thunder so loud, it was as if the bolt was right beside him. Again, the man was in anguish, and this time Oberlin saw his whole body. It was nailed to two rough pieces of wood. There was a wound in his side that dripped water and blood. Oberlin realized that the blood was the only color he could see in the visions; everything else was black and white.

Flash! The lightning and the thunder again, and this time the man was in a room, again with a small group of men.

"It is better for you that I go. Then I can send The Helper," he said, and the men looked at each other in wonderment.

Flash! Lightning blinded Oberlin, and then he saw the face of the man again, this time scared, with the crown of thorns still causing him to bleed down his face.

"Why have you forsaken me?" he cried out into the howling wind. Lightning struck three times quickly, and the storm clouds rolled like it was the end of the world.

This time Oberlin saw the man's face again, fading from the anguished view on the cross to a loving compassionate gaze.

"It is better for you that I go, so that I can send The Comforter," he said.

And then he added, "I will be with you, John Francis Oberlin, until the End of the Age."

And then Oberlin saw him again on the cross — the man of sorrows, who had experienced both divinity and humanity in a way no other person had, or could. And he lifted up his head to the skies.

"It is finished!" he said.

Again, the lightning struck three times, and the third was louder than any sound Oberlin thought was possible. The bolts lit the sky like the sun.

And then Oberlin saw it. Even in his unconscious state, he could not deny it — he saw it come straight out of the chest of the man on the cross. It was pink. And it looked like water of some kind, but also something more. It did not fall to the ground, but instead seemed to almost shine from his heart. It was as if the water was alive.

It danced in small waves, and foamed slightly at the edges.

And it radiated out from the now-dead man — out ten feet, then twenty, then as far as the eye could see.

Oberlin then saw the planet Earth, hanging so lonely in the darkness of space. The pink wave came out from just north of Africa, and continued to grow until it covered the whole globe.

And then, though there was no one there to see or hear it, as the Copernicus approached the horizon edge of the wormhole that would send it back to Earth's solar system, it happened.

There was a sound. A small sound at first, but it repeated louder and louder.

... voooomph. Vooomph. VOOOOOOMPH.

A small pink river of radiation appeared to emit from the heart of John Oberlin.

CHAPTER 4

He could hear voices. Lots of voices, excited, frenzied, indistinguishable in content, but definitely men's and women's voices.

And there was light. Very bright light, above him, all round him.

"I think he's reaching consciousness," one of the voices said.

"It's been three days. He should have recovered much more quickly from the cryogenics. What's that around his eyes?" another voice said.

"I don't know," said the first voice. "We sent it to the lab on the first day. It doesn't seem to be any sign of damage. But there is something very weird about it."

"From what we have tested so far, it seems to indicate that Oberlin has gone through some sort of genetic mutation."

John Oberlin stirred at the mention of his name. First, he moved a finger. Then he clenched a hand. And unclenched.

Then he tried to open his eyes.

The light was so bright! A thousand suns burned into his brain as he blinked once, then twice.

"Did you see that?" said the first voice. "Oberlin! John Oberlin! Can you hear me?"

Oberlin tried to respond, but his mouth seemed so dry. His lips stuck together. It was an effort to separate them.

"I ... hear you," he finally managed to whisper.

"Get the doctors," the first voice said. "They wanted to know the second he woke up."

The next few days passed quickly. Tests, and more tests, and especially tests that centered on Oberlin's eyes. DNA tests, also, again and again, as if the doctors could not believe what they were discovering.

Finally came the great reveal.

"John," said the lead doctor, a woman named Alice Small, "We have tried very hard to figure out what has happened to you. We've come to a conclusion. Are you ready to hear it?"

John Oberlin laid in his hospital bed. His eyes had been covered with gauze since he regained consciousness. His head was bandaged. He had lost hair due to the cryogenic process, and what little he had was shaved down for electrodes that were connected to his head.

"Tell me," he said, in a calm, even voice.

"You've been saturated with an intensely high level of unknown cosmic radiation. This radiation has mutated your DNA. It's possible that you will experience changes in your physiology and in the way you sense things. This mutation process seems to be following a genetic blueprint that is natural for humans — our species has mutated along these lines for thousands, if not millions of years. But you seem to have skipped ahead of the rest of us."

"According to our best guess, you have evolved, for lack of a better word, about ten thousand years ahead of the rest of us. Your brain is responding in twice the areas of the normal human brain. Your heart is radiating a level of radiation that is 20 times the norm. And your eyes...."

Doctor Small paused, and drew in a deep breath.

"John, we believe that you will be able to see outside the range of the normal visible spectrum."

"It is possible," Doctor Small continued, "that all of your senses may be affected this way. The part of the brain that handles hearing seems especially active, in addition to the part that handles vision. So you may hear things that others cannot. You might be able to hear dog whistles, for example. Or you might be able to hear the low rumble that precedes an earthquake."

"We are going to be continuing monitoring you as you recover from the shock of this radiation, and the cryogenics. And to be fair, I should tell you that we are going to be supplying tests results to the Defense Department, and the President himself. We know that he is a friend of yours. He's taken a special interest in these. ... developments."

"John, there is also one last thing. You signed a contract with Benick Media to report about the trip through the wormhole. They are pressuring for reports. We are giving them information as the Defense Department allows us. But we are to the point in your healing process that both the people from Defense, and Benick, want to hear directly from you. Do you think that you will feel up to giving us an account of what happened on the Copernicus soon?"

Oberlin shook his heard yes.

"Obviously, I can't type with these bandages on my eyes," he said, "but we can bring in someone that I can give a verbal statement to — at least, to start with, to get them off your backs. Do you have any idea when I can have these removed, so that I can see again?" "The team and I think you need another two or three days to let your eyes heal. Meanwhile, we are going to be preparing tests to see exactly what range of vision you now have, and devising some therapy concepts. If you really can see outside our visible spectrum, you may need some exercises to help you control the phenomenon, so that you won't have any problems functioning in daily life."

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Heart by James Evans. Copyright © 2015 James Evans. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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