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Last time on A Carolina Millenial

Matt has gotten himself wrapped up in Project Athena, a secret government project attempting to invent time travel. While visiting a colleague, Robert Skizan, in Paris someone attempts to assassinate Matt. He is then rushed home, where he is asked to use Destiny's Touch, (a strange new technology that allows you to see behind the curtain of reality,) to figure out who could have given away his position inside of Project Athena. While inside of the Touch, he finds Steven. 

Shame and Fame

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

-Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird

Looking into the eye of God is a painful experience, even for the most saintly, and for the corrupt, it is death. 

-Paul Meyers, The Worshipers Dilemma 

Steven's arrest became an inevitability when Robert gave us his side of the story, but that didn't mean that I didn't still hate watching it.

Robert had said he'd told only three people about the meeting, myself, his assistant, and Steven. After Robert's time at Athena, Robert and Steven had become acquaintances. Rober knew Steven lived in Paris and ate out often, so he had asked him for advice on where to eat. He had reached out to Steven, told him he was having a meeting with someone important from Athena on Saturday at noon, and he needed Steven to pick the restaurant.

So, the next was easily guessed, Steven had accidentally or purposely let slip to his Anarchist girlfriend that an important official was coming to Paris, and where they were eating at La Buolin, noon Saturday. The anarchist had told her group, who saw this as an excellent chance to break down the government and had struck to kill me. They had no idea who I really was, and the info never left their little circle.

This connection was unproven, but as no court case could be held with something so top secret, Steven was to be arrested immediately and without trial. The members of the Anarchist group were also detained swiftly.

We figured this all out in Josh's office. The Room of Ra had very little communication to the outside, so to orchestrate our next move we had to leave it. Josh's office was it's normal brightly lit, cold concrete self, and felt more like a prison than ever. Charlie and I sat across from Josh, his infinite plane of a desk between us. 

"Are we sure that we don't want to make sure that's what happened before we arrest him?" I asked, feeling guilty. I didn't know if I trusted myself anymore to decide who should be in prison in who shouldn't. 

"Destiny's Touch doesn't lie. And regardless, Steven's the only person that makes sense. Neither you nor Robert would have set up your own assassination, Avery thwarted the attempt, so he wouldn't ever be involved, and Myke never left the premises, so all of his conversations are recorded, and in none of them does he mention it." Josh argued.

"What about Roberts Assistant?"

"He has no motivation to get his boss killed, and even if he did, he wasn't in Paris this weekend. He was getting something delivered to Robert. We can't take any more time looking. That'll just let the leak stay here and let more water into the ship."

I gave up the augment there. I had already tried to argue that it had probably been an accident on his part. Steven seemed like a nice guy. He'd smiled comfortingly at me only an hour before. But they had said that if you're that well trained, accidents are traitorous.

Josh gave orders through his phone as I sat there, swirling in a mix of guilt, fear, and confidence.  Soon, he told us it was time to go, we exited his office through the large metal door, and were met by three uniformed soldiers. One was older and seemed to be some type of sergeant, with medals decorating his chest.

"Instructions as given, boys," Josh said. I glanced out, the room was the same as always, the three metal doors were all closed, one went to my office, the other to charlies, and the last to The Room Of Ra. That door was guarded by two soldiers. One of which was the freckled man I'd seen in destiny's touch. The soldiers nodded and walked over to Steven, and leveled there weapons at him

"Drop the weapon, Soldier." The sergeant shouted. The guard next to steven stepped away in surprise, and Steven followed orders reflexively. He swung the gun strap over his head and placed the weapon on the ground. "What's going on?" He asked, looking around confused.

"Hands on your head!" The man yelled again. Steven put his hands on his head with complete and pure loyalty.

One of the three men walked up and handcuffed Steven. His face changed to a look of confused betrayal. Like he had just found out Santa didn't exist. I turned away. That was my fault. Even if he did deserve it, which I still doubted, I had been the one to let justice be dealt out. 

"I don't understand. What's going on?" Steven repeated. 

"You are under arrest for leaking Top Secret Info," replied the man handcuffing him.

Confused but unresistant, Steven was taken away, head hung, but as he passed me he looked up. He nodded at Charlie and then at me, with a weak smile on his face. I didn't meet his eyes. 

I wonder if he'll be allowed to tell his family why he was put in prison. I thought as he went around the corner. What else would they make me do with Destiny's Touch?

"That dealt with. Let's all get back to work!" Josh said, clapping, "Myke, get Matt back on his regular schedule.

***

I spent every moment of my life was inside of Athena. I slept in my bright room, ate in the large meeting rooms, and underwent Destiny's Touch in the Room of Ra.

Destiny's Touch was getting more difficult. Inside, I had to struggle more to stay on task, almost as bad as I did at the beginning. I had persistent headaches outside the Touch, and everything seemed unreal. Soft. Like it was all made of styrofoam. The dreams were ever-present now and seemed more real than my day-to-day life. As soon as I fell asleep, they plagued me for hours, and even when I awoke, they persisted, playing in the back of my mind.

I'm carrying a man in my arms, tired, hungry, scared. I collapse into a clearing; people begin to surround me.

I'm sitting around a fire, surrounded by people wearing simple clothes made out of animal skins sewn together. The people are darker-skinned than me but still, look of European descent. One of them speaks to me in a language I've never heard and then hands me a small basket. In the basket is cooked meat, greens, and fruit.

I'm holding hands with someone. It's dark. Our feet are in a river. We are staring up at the sky. I am pointing things out and speaking in a strange language.

I'm bandaging up a wound on someone's leg. They're covered in blood. I'm their only hope.

I am crying on my knees. I feel a deeper, rawer sorrower than I'd ever felt before

I'm standing on a rock. In front of me is a crowd of men holding spears. They are staring at me with respect, even adoration. I'm standing tall, confident, self-assured, real—muscular, clear-eyed, long-haired, and bearded.

Then gunfire, ducking, hiding, running.

I'm standing in front of flames, a great burning that makes my eyes water and sting and my hairs singe.

It was everything. It was the highest highs I'd ever experienced and the lowest lows. The most exquisite pain and the sharpest pleasure. Intense comfort and terrible rawness.

Every time I closed my eyes, the images played. They were like dreams in that when the next one starts. I can barely recall the last. It was just a mess of overwhelming feeling. I didn't tell the psychologist about it.

It's probably just stress, I told myself, but if I do tell them, they might not let me go into Destiny's Touch again. I tried to focus though, my training with Isabella and Gabrellio was growing more intense as the day of the world leader meeting approached. Only four days now.

The meetings with the scientist were the most difficult, where I was supposed to think about and talk intelligently about what I'd seen in Destiny's Touch. But my mind was buzzing too much to let me do even math well.

But my wish of seeing the plans of Athena was granted. Charlie wasn't allowed to show the other scientists, just me. So, in his office, he spread them out on his desk. They were absolutely massive, and most of it I didn't understand. But as I stared at it, much of it aligned with what I had seen in Destiny's Touch. I blinked hard as I stared at it, trying to clear that buzzing fog from my brain.

"Yes, this fits. This is working." I said, continuing to look at it, "It's symmetrical."

"Yes, perfectly," Charlie responded.

I pursed my lips, "What's this tube right here? This shape is important."

"That moves SUE… Ethos. It's for Destiny's Touch."

I nodded. "Is this the room of Ra?" I said, gesturing.

Charlie nodded nervously.

"What's this then?" I asked, pointing at an identical spot on the other end of the sphere.

Charlie grimaced, "That's the room of Montu. The room of Ra is used for studying Ethos, the room of Matu is being used... to keep the allied forces safe."

I looked at him, "So, is that part of Project Seo?"

"No, that's project Ares, but we shouldn't worry about that too much-" Charlie said hurriedly.

"Shouldn't worry?" I interrupted, "Charlie, is there another person going under and seeing things, but for spying or something? Am I not the only one doing this? I thought this was all for advancing science. Shouldn't they be sharing what they learn with us?" I demanded.

Charlie bit his lip, "I'm not allowed to tell you that."

So, I had given up my rights to my own body, safety, privacy, free speech, and even to know what my job was.

***

"Matt? Matt, are you there?" I heard Charlie ask in my helmet.

I took a deep breath as I realized I'd completely zoned out, overcome by the images that refused to leave my mind.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm here."

"Are you ready to go under?"

I'd been through this little minutiae a million times. Destiny Touch had been terrifying, and then as I got better at it, extremely exciting, like car racing. Now the thought of it made my head throb. I needed it, though when inside, I was free from the screaming requirements of my body or the million people who needed me in meetings or jobs. I could just focus on the exertion it took to navigate the Touch. Then when I came out, the light was the only thing holding me up. Without the Touch, I'd crumple like a deflated parade balloon.

It was like a rollercoaster I'd ridden so many times it had lost part of its thrill or a racing track I'd raced around a million times. I always went back to the same place I went to that first day. There was so much space to search, there was everything, but all I did was go back to the confusing shapes.

"Matt?" Charlie repeated a third time.

"Yup, yup, I'm ready, let's just get this sunrise agoing."

I heard Charlie pause, "Your heart rate and brain waves are irregular-"

"They've been for days." I snapped. I don't know how I could make it through without its light. It was like caffeine drank so often it didn't give a high, but I'd plummet low without it. And then I'd have to admit I couldn't live up to Josh's expectations. Then I'd just be another human. "I'll be fine, switch it on. Josh said to go through with it."

I heard a button click.

"3, 2, 1, sunrise a-" Before he could finish, I was ripped out of my body into the light.

***

I was like a man dropped into a rapid, twisting and turning. It felt amazing. It felt so free. I was flowing. We were flowing. I was returning to reality from whence I had come.

Wow, wow, buddy, better stop that. I found myself and pulled out of the twisting and turning. I had been flowing towards the light. The light, the source, the answer, it was pulling at me. It'd tell me what the dreams were.

It'd solve that.

I focused back on the well-worn path to the shapes. Maybe I'd get enough to draw up plans for a machine. I began to follow the trails of light. Suddenly, I caught something new, like a stick flowing down a river collided with me.

A machine. The Machine. It was something with inertia, speed. The machine I had been looking for was somewhere in here, not in the theoretical realities. But in my timeline. I caught hold of this chance. If I followed my timeline, maybe I could really see it.

Too late, I realized it was dragging me towards that source. I tried to remove myself from the flow, but I was weak in the onslaught of truth, and not just any truth, my truth. And soon, I was utterly lost in it.

***

Part two is now out >>>>> https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/work.php?id=1...