All Things Connected

New Colorado, Magnetite Survivor Recovery Facility

November 2039. 10 years after the Static Annihilation when the asteroid Apophis passed by Earth.

Estrella ever so slightly opened her eyes from her sleeping state but did not move a muscle. She listened for a moment to confirm that she did hear footsteps, boots in fact. She heard more steps until they stopped at her bunk where she lay on her side in the barracks. Aware of ‘someone’ standing there, her heart raced.

“Control your breathing...remain calm.” she thought to herself, “Trust your radar...all things connected.” Something her father used to say.

The ‘someone’ rummaged through the nightstand where she slept. She remained motionless on her bunk until she heard them exit the sleeping quarters. Immediately sitting up in her bed she said quietly to herself, “What the hell was that?” She jumped out of bed and ran quietly to a window to get a glance at the perpetrator. Nothing. Walking back to her bunk she clutched the locket her father had given to her just before Apophis had made its flyby 10 years ago.

Unable to sleep after the excitement she lay musing at the locket. It was made of some kind of tarnished steel and shaped like a large pill. It was rounded but slightly flat on two opposing sides. There was a diagonal line, like a seam, running across the face and around the back, as if it opened. She could swear there was a trick to it but just couldn’t remember. Such a faint memory...her father...the smell of the ocean...she could hear him saying, “Keep it close to your heart... Keep it closed or a heart.” Then snapping his fingers.

“That last part though...” she thought, “...what did that mean?...I wish I knew where he was.”

As she slowly rolled the locket through her fingertips, hers eyes scrutinized it like a puzzle. The memory of her father was sitting just out of reach. Drifting, swaying her into a mesmerized state...back and forth like lapping waves...drifting deeper into the fog... kaleidoscopic thoughts...semi-conscious peripheral opens to envelope her mass in a sphere of awareness. Like an eye that can see from all perspectives of its own center, the fabric of space opens up into an angle of entry...father’s face...his hand reaching... disappearing...

“Now I’m here.”

“Break-fast!” The morning wake-up call blared through the barracks where Estrella slept. The locket was clutched in her right hand like a fist. She propped herself up in bed for 1 second and then flopped right back down face first into her pillow. The thought of last night’s stranger crossed her mind and a burst of adrenaline raced through her heart. She felt the locket move against her chest. “Strange.” she thought then immediately got up and composed herself.

“Trust your radar.” Echoing in her head. “How the hell did I even sleep after that freaky shit last night?” she wondered. Her stomach growled. She put the locket back around her neck, got dressed and left for the mess hall.

Estrella had short and disheveled hair. She was smaller than most but she was a survivor and she knew how to fight. She wore combat boots and jeans. She hadn’t worn a dress since she was 9, since before Apophis.

During its fly-by in 2029 Apophis became so close to Earth that as it passed through the Van Allen belts, it is believed that it triggered a mass disruption in the magnetite crystals in the brains of all creatures. For those that were fatally affected it was found that the magnetite particles in the brain had condensed into a small pebble and were pulled out by aggressive magnetic force through the skull. Of the survivors, now a global population of less than a billion, they were all on or in proximity of what are known as ‘Ley Lines’ and Earth’s energy vortexes. As a result of this, humanities ‘6th sense’ had awakened or, more appropriately put, the dormant 3rd eye technology of the human mechanism had re-awakened. Ancient memories resting in the mind no longer sat as a vague dream but as yesterday’s experience.

Of the remaining population otherwise hidden technologies from free energy to vortex propulsion crafts, had found their way to the rest of the world. With the exception of the initial time of the disaster western medical practitioners became obsolete and therefor pharmaceuticals along with them. For the awakening of the 3rd eye prompted in each surviving individual a self-diagnostic awareness that was superior to contemporary medicine. And with the natural flow of endogenous neurochemicals in flux with humanity, prescriptions were as archaic as sawing off a limb.

Economy had taken a fall and societies were now isolated to the energy vortex’s of Earth and the thoroughfares that lie in between. After all of the speculation, the Earth had truly become a New World.

Estrella’s observation radar was always on. “Man, the mess hall is thick with people this morning.” she thought, “Probably another hovercraft caravan headed west for hope of a stable coastline since most of Cali fell into the Pacific.”

The cafeteria had filled rather quickly this morning as a truckload of Washington State apples had arrived. Estrella got her food and found a place to sit at the end of one of the bench seats at a table. “I’ll save the apple for last!” she said to herself.

Looking down at her food while eating she recalled the sound of the footsteps she had heard last night. The clamor of the cafeteria began to fade as she focused on the memory of the sound.

“Boots, heavy, the slow stride of a 200lb man at least.” she thought. The sound of boot steps in her head. Then, looking slightly up from her plate while chewing her food she saw the booted feet of a man walking her direction with a stride that matched the sound in her head. Her heart jumped and she stopped chewing, “It’s him! That’s him!” The locket around her neck shook slightly. She risked a glance, “Shit! He saw me look! Was he just looking at my apple?” she wondered, “My locket? Stay calm, pretend you don’t notice.”

He was a large man clothed in rugged outdoor attire and boasting at least 200lbs as Estrella had detected, broad shouldered and fit for battle. He had long hair and a scruffy 5 o’clock shadow adorning his square chiseled jaw. His dark eyes sat sunken beneath a heavy brow.

“I see you little one.” She heard his deep voice say as he walked by.

“What?” she mouthed then spun around on the bench seat to see the man but he was gone. She looked around in all directions and the man was nowhere to be found. With extreme suspicion on her face she resumed chewing her food then swallowed. Estrella stood up from her seat and without looking picked up her apple and put it in her pocket but it wasn’t an apple. “What?!” she exclaimed in her head and taking the object out of her pocket said quietly, “A little orange …from No-Cal?”

“It’s a tangerine!” she heard the man’s voice say from behind. Then with a short burst of adrenaline in her heart she spun around on her toes but again he was gone. She felt the locket cling to her chest like a magnet. “Caaalm.” She said to herself. She took a deep breath through her nose. Then suddenly she heard the steps again.

“Keep it closed or a heart.” she heard in her ear. Her eyes became wide with bewilderment as adrenaline pumped through her heart. Estrella looked through the crowd of people towards the back exit and saw the door closing as the man walked through.

“That’s him!” She hurried through the crowd and out the door. “Whoa.” She stopped. There he stood, about 30 feet away and calm as day, just waiting for her while no one else was around the back area of the mess hall.

“Estrella Alverez!” said the man.

“Who in the hell are you and how in the hell do you know my name?” she demanded.

“Names are easy. Someone told it to me.”

“That was you by my bunk last night.”

“Yep.” The man confirmed, “Had to make sure it was you.”

Estrella just stood there. Her heart raced, the locket clinging to her chest.

“And who am I?” she asked.

“Your father’s daughter.” the man answered.

“Yep. I had a dad but I’m afraid he’s gone.”

“I hope not, Stephan said it was his turn to make dinner!”

“What- who are you?” Estrella asked with frustration, “What is this? What do you want from me?”

Suddenly she saw the man’s hand reach out of the space right in front of her and grab her locket.

“This!” he said, and as the rest of his body appeared before her he held up a locket shaped like a heart and said, “It’s just like mine!”

Estrella stood in jaw dropping shock at the fact that he moved so fast. But then, when she looked at his locket she was hit with another wave of shock, “It is like mine!” she mused, “But it’s shaped like a heart!”

He let go of her locket and stepped back. Then, holding his locket up he snapped the fingers that he held it with and it flipped into the same giant pill as Estrella had on her necklace.

“What the-?!” she exclaimed.

He snapped his fingers again with the locket and it flipped back into a heart. Then with intense magnetic force the locket snapped back to his chest. Looking at her, he turned to the side, bowed and cocked his head at an angle. As he took a step Estrella saw him Fold trapezoidal like a tall box closing in on itself then fragmenting into smaller trapezoids until it was flat and then he was gone disappearing into a tall sliver of himself.

She stood there in shock, her heart racing. She felt the locket move against her heart again like a magnet. Looking down she peeled it from her chest and holding it between her middle finger and her thumb she snapped her fingers. Upon doing so, the locket slid open at the seam down to its respective rounded ends where one piece pivoted back 180 degrees and reconnected with its counterpart to form the shape of a heart then snap back with intense magnetic force against her chest. It was as if it was conscious.

“Hey!” Estrella called out, “Where’d you go?!”

“I didn’t go anywhere actually, I just moved out of visible space and into The Stream.” The man reappeared as if to walk out from behind an invisible wall.

Startling to Estrella she reared up in fight stance. The man saw her Fold for a moment.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“It’s about perception. It’s not how you do it it’s how you see it. It’s not about action at first it’s about reaction. After you learn it then it’s about action.”

“I don’t get it. So, react to nothing?”

The man shrugged his shoulders and said, “Kinda.” Then with the quickness he swung a fist at Estrella! She ducked and spun around on the ball of her foot and stepped back one pace then stopped in fight position.

“That was reaction!” exclaimed the man. He could see her Fold again. Estrella could see the space in front of her open like a sliding door made of lightening.

“Wanna go have dinner with your dad?” asked the man.

Looking into the opening Estrella could feel the exhilaration of this new truth. And stepping into The Stream she said, “I’d love to.”

“Good. Let’s go. My name’s Caliber by the way.”

Estrella just looked at him and said, “Nice. And I want my frickin’ apple back.”