Young Writers Society

Chapter Eleven

What Ten Days Can Do To A Man

"Many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper, by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity—that is, by pride. The Devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self-controlled...provided, all the time, he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride"

-CS Lewis, Mere Christianity 

"It is funny that people tend to worship what worships them. Rarely do rich men hate money and learned men hate intelligence."

-Paul Meyers, The Worshipers Dilemma

I looked out the window. The sun was rising over Athena, and the light shone off the white concrete. From far away, it looked smooth and spotless. It still seemed impossible, too huge to be man-made, too perfect to be natural. It looked like a break in reality, a point where a semi-sphere had spontaneously formed. You would have expected Athena to solicit feelings of sci-fi awe. To bring to mind images of the incredible power of the utopia, of futuristic and space-age force, and on some level it did, but much more, it felt like the coliseums of old. The white orb felt like an act of a demigod or the skeleton of a primordial beast. It had been awakened and risen out of the ground, a leviathan of stone, filled with awful and awesome power.

Taking a deep breath, I stared at it, using the awe to wipe the memory of the dream away. The dreams had become commonplace since my first ten days before. Sometimes they were terrifying, full of fire, war scenes, blood, pain, and danger. Others were warm, with peaceful forests, seasides, and people I didn't know but missed somehow. Regardless, they all filled me with terrible foreboding. The gruesome ones were tinted with the smell of blood and somehow, regret. The warm ones gave me this untraceable homesickness, but not for the home of my childhood, but a home I couldn't quite articulate.  It made the same ache in my chest and rawness in my throat. But even those were disquieting. They felt inescapable. What the dreams showed was coming for me whether I liked it or not, and that shook me.

But there She was, Athena in all her glory. Truly like a goddess of greece or a titan of antiquity. She was a mountain who had come to life and perfected itself with technological divinity. She chased out the memories of the dreams, leaving in its place excitement. I was Her champion.  I shouldn't worry myself about dreams, I had a meeting with Josh today, which was rare.

I stepped out of bed and slipped on my alligator skin Fergus Selcitas dress shoes. They had been sent from Doctor Skizain, with a note saying he'd love to talk about anything that was confusing me in my job. After pulling on my blue suit, I smiled at myself in the mirror. I looked good.

Downstairs Marget had croissants and jam out on the table. I scarfed down a couple in a hurry before Marget brought out a plate of bacon and eggs. "Sorry, I got to go, big meetings," I said. Her face fell. I smiled apologetically and rushed out.

Avery was waiting in the driveway, "Good morning." He said as I slipped into the car. "Your usual playlist Sir?"

"On volume eleven," I said, smiling smugly, befoe inwardly cringing. I would have to work on being such a dork if I wanted to be Athena's champion. Typically demigods aren't guys who know more about Advanced D&D than how to survive hand-to-hand combat.

He switched on a playlist of upbeat rock that we rode on to Athena. After going through my VPI entrance, I scanned my card, said hello to the guards, and began my meetings.

My first meeting scheduled was with Dr. Skizain and the team of neuroscientists and psychologists. Charlie had stopped attending these Destiny Touch training meetings because he had 'run out of expertise.'

The two neuroscientists and psychologists greeted me kindly. We looked at some statistics on my health that Dalilia, one of the neuroscientists, had brought. As I expected, all the graphs tended in upward directions.

"Really, out of everyone we've seen, you've been responding amazingly." Said Dalila, who was an older dark-skinned woman from the Caribbean. "Your brain has not just held up. If anything, it has been strengthened under the load of Destiny's Touch. You have been performing better on the IQ tests than before. You are doing much better in Destiny's Touch than when you started. You're outperforming even the Doctor."

I smiled at this. They didn't know that Destiny's Touch had chosen me through Charlie. Of course, I would do well. That was to be expected. But it never looked good to think you're the reason for your success.

"These Statistics look fantastic. Thank you for bringing them. All your training has been vital. When my discoveries are made public, I hope they don't forget to mention my team." I said.

They all smiled, and the psychologist accidentally let out a giggle at that. They profusely thanked me and threw the praise in heaps.

After they finished, the psychologist, who was very concerned for my health, cut in, "But do not forget, you are strengthening your mind like a muscle, but we don't want to fatigue it. These graphs could become bell curves soon. If you continue at this rate, you could mentally injure yourself and affect your success-"

I cut the psychologist off, "Your concern is heartwarming," I began, for a moment, there was an inner struggle, should I let her speak or stop her because she could stop me? "But do not forget, the science your peers have so far discovered has proven that I'm quite safe. As Dalilia so intelligently pointed out, my mind has only been strengthened. Luckily, mental injuries do not occur in this sport. I am not a basketball player. I don't have to be worried about being put on the bench. I think fear like this could slow down the march of progress. We need to trust the science," I added. The phycologists face filled with shame as the others looked at each other knowingly.

"I apologize. You're right."

"And I won't hear of it again, will I, Lillian?" I asked. Lillian had almost caused problems for me continuing to undergo Destiny's Touch once a day, and I wanted it to be over.

"Yes, Sir, won't come up again."

Dr. Skizan smiled strangely at this. I'd grown used to the Doctor's strange smiles over the ten days. On the video call, he almost always was smiled slightly smugly, like he was laughing at a joke we didn't know, and his eyes were distant as if he wasn't paying attention. He didn't talk much besides asking me more about what I had seen in Destiny's Touch.

"Yes," He said passively, but then he snapped his fingers as if he remembered something. "Oh yes, I meant to say, Mathew, are you free this Saturday? I believe you get Saturdays off. I'd love to see you up in Paris. I know you haven't seen much of the city, and it would be nice to talk outside of work. Would you want to come get lunch?"

I beamed at the invitation, "Yes! I'm free. I'd love to."

"Excellent, just call tonight, I think you have my phone number, and I'll give you more details."

***

After Destiny's Touch, I had a meeting with my team of scientists. I explained to them what I had seen, and we drew out the geometric shapes and formulas I kept getting whenever I went under. A while ago, we realized these formulas often could be translated into shapes, but we were still confused beyond that. Many of the shapes had different colors, which made it even more confusing.

Charlie flipped through the papers and graphs we had made. "I don't get it. They're not magnetic fields. They don't seem to correspond to how spacetime bends around the Ringlarity."

"Could we just be exploring the wrong thing? Maybe they're meaningless?" One of the scientists asked.

"No, Matt's finding them in the same place he found the other information about the nature of time travel. There is a chance it is nothing, but Matt finds similar things when we have him explore elsewhere. It brings you back to that point, correct?" Charlie responded. 

"Yes," I said. In reality, there were two tugs to the shapes and a stronger tug to that point of light. "And regardless, I don't think anything seen in Destiny's Touch is meaningless. It shows me reality in its purest form, and my brain interprets that, all I need to do is get better at processing the infinity. I go in with a question and come with an answer, but it's all jumbled up by my finiteness."

We all went quiet at that and looked at the graphs and math.

The same woman with round glasses who had asked the question before tapped her pencil thoughtfully, "This might be crazy, but maybe you're getting a design? You're going in with the question of 'How do we time travel?' And getting the most literal answer, a design for something which would allow for time travel. Like another way to build Athena," She said.

I sat up and smiled as I processed what she had said. My stomach bubbled with excitement. If she was right... "I think you might be onto something. Charlie, could you get me the actual plans of Athena to see if it has a similar design? And if so, what would need to be changed to make time travel function."

Charlie nodded slowly, "Those are pretty top secret, but I'll see what I can do."

After that, the meeting was adjourned. As the scientist left, they all excitedly chatted about the possibilities and congratulated me for the breakthrough.

I knew full well it hadn't been me who had thought of it being a desgin, but they had been there, so I didn't correct them. Before I could consider that too long, Myke whisked me off to my next meeting. 

***

"You're a natural at this, but just remember, your job is not to make them feel powerful. They already do. It's not to interrupt that view. You want to confirm everything they already believe about themselves and then offer ways they can continue to climb." Isabella explained. We were now in full swing preparing for the meeting with the world leaders. I memorized all their names, preferred method of conversation, correct titles and levels of respect, and a couple of words in  their languages.

Gabriello nodded, "This small group is not the one who will be deciding if you and the project are accepted by society. This is in many ways, a nicety. That's why we're doing it first. The few of them we don't own will soon be bought, with your help. First, we must make the acquaintance, and then using my web of connections among the rich, Isabella's friends in the media, and Josh's in politics, we will control them. We will have the hundred actually important men and women on our side. Your job is just to make these figureheads cheaper to buy."

I chuckled, "I see, so all I have to do is show that there are only two teams, Athena's team, and the losing team, and they should be asking to be on Athena's, not the other way around."

"Exactly," Gabriello said," I'm glad to see you understand."

Gabriello and I had warmed up to each other over the past ten days. Our interests were aligning.

As the meeting ended, Isabella left, but Gabriello caught me on the way out, quiet like he had the first time I met him. "This project is magnificent, no?"

"It's amazing," I agreed.

"Bringing together the powerful for one act of achievement. Greater than the Roman temples of Moneta, where wealth was minted, but now the gold that is minted in this temple shall not fall in value, for it is a currency of infinite and eternal value. Time itself. This Athena of modern Rome shall never fall."

I nodded. Gabriello often made sweeping grand claims like this. They reminded me of things my Father would say in church as a preacher. "We won't ever be forgotten as the builders of that temple, Gabriello."

"No, we shall not. And you will be forgotten last of us all." He pulled a black box out of his pocket, "I purchased this for you." He handed the box to me. The package was venta black, and looked like it had come from a store I was too broke to enter. Opening it  I found a golden watch with an emerald background. It's a gold chain band that sparkled under the lights when it moved and the Crown brand of a Rolex on its face flashed. It was intricate, beautiful, and, as I later discovered, worth more than everything I owned combined.

"Thank you so much, Gabriello!" I said, trying it on.

"Consider it an olive branch. We have had moments of tension, but I think we should put that behind us now." He said.

"I agree wholeheartedly." I said, staring at the glimmering watch on my arm, "How does it look?"

"Excellent! I couldn't have worn it better myself." Gabriello added, "A fitting ornament for a Cleric to Athena."

"Thank you again, Gabriello. We should go to lunch sometime or something." I said as I used my phone to set the time on the watch, "But oh, look at that, already coming in useful, I have to go to a meeting with Josh."

He nodded, and I started to walk away, smiling at my beautiful watch. "Oh and Mathew-" He said from behind me. I stopped and turned back, "If before the meeting you want to clean up a bit, I know a man in Paris who can give transformative plastic jawline surgery. It really can fill you with confidence. I'd advise checking him out."

Plastic surgery, Reflexively disgusted by the thought of it. But it was important that I looked good for this job, so maybe I could make an expectation. Even if I didn't Gabriello meant it kindly. I smiled, "Thanks, I might have to."

***

I entered Josh's office ten minutes later. It was the same cold concrete room it had been when I first entered it two weeks before, but now I felt much more at home here.

The concrete walls were smooth and dark, bare except for the black and white pictures of astronauts and spaceships lit by white spotlights in the ceiling. The only piece of furniture was the infinite expanse of dark oak that made his desk. The desk was almost entirely empty, with one laptop in the middle and some perfectly arranged pencils.

Josh's feet were up on the table. He was leaning back in his chair and watched me enter with a slight smile.

"Mathew! It's good to see you."

I sat down, "Good to see you too, Sir."

He pulled his feet off the desk and sat forward, leaning over the desk like he was trying to get as close to me as possible. "How are you doing today?"

I nodded, "Great, I'm doing great. You?"

He flashed a grin. I could tell he had shaved to see me. The usual slight hint of a shadow around his mouth was gone. "I'm doing fantastic, just fantastic." He closed the laptop, "Do you know why I'm doing fantastic?"

"Why, Sir?"

"You, Meyers! You are amazing. The Doctor was good, but you are outperforming him already."

"Thank you! Really I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants. You make my job so easy. But I try my best." I said Isabella had taught me to blame other people for my success. It makes people believe even more in your talents.

"But your work ethic! It's amazing. You just can't be stopped. You're like an ox."

I chuckled, "That's all the Destiny's Touch. That stuff does wonders for the brain. Great idea suggesting we do it every day."

"Yes, part of it is the Destiny's Touch, but you're working harder than the Doctor ever did, and by the end, he was going in as much if not more than you. Ethos has its strengths, but you have to admit, you are taking what it gives you and expanding on it majorly. You've thrown your whole heart into this."

"The project is so amazing I don't know how you couldn't," I said truthfully.

"That's the spirit!" He opened a drawer and pulled out a paper notebook calendar. He scanned down it and marked some things off with a pencil. "Looks like we're on schedule! Do you think you can keep this attitude up? You don't need a vacation any time soon, do you?"

"No, sir, I can keep going like this."

"Can I trust you to work the way you have been?"

"I promise I can, Sir."

And that is one of the few promises in my life that I'm very glad I broke.