Chapter 10

Feeling alone for the first time in ten days, Eitan looked around his dorm room with despair. The entire family had spent Spring Break at home in the village, and he already missed them. Even when he and Akemi flew commercial alone from Seattle back to New York City, he relished the sense of comfort sitting next to one of his siblings. He escorted her home, and only then did he jump from her apartment to his dorm room. He saved train fare, losing all sense of wellbeing in return.

His roommate had warned Eitan that he would be late. His parents wanted their prodigal son to come to dinner and then drive down in his new BMW. Eitan congratulated the young man on his good fortune and loving parents. His roommate was nice enough, but his life and times were alien to Eitan.

“Alien,” Eitan said, reaching for the light switch in the dark room. The topic du jour at home had been the idea of jumping intergalactic and meeting a new species. The possibilities and permutations had been reduced to a nearly endless list of concerns and protocols to consider. Rocket ships and folding space would have been so much more convenient than jumping with just a drape of clothes and almost no metal. With all the real concerns flying to and fro, Eitan could only wrap his anxiety around a dream of jumping into the midst of a great arena of aliens - naked. They gasped and then they laughed. Eitan died of embarrassment without ever knowing if the air or food would have killed him.

He considered one of their first conversations before they all arrived at the house. “That’s one way of coping,” Akemi laughed, swatting him across the top of his head when he told her of his dream. “Do I have to tell you to go get laid again?”

“The old jokes are growing stale, Akemi.”

“I know,” she said with lamentation. “Everything is changing so quickly. Sten is a brooding stud. I’ve already got a consulting business with clients. You, the man who kept close to friends and not much else, now hobnobbing with the rich and richer, helping them drink their beer.”

“Hobart Nano has changed, becoming decidedly less friendly, to us and their employees,” Eitan said. “Joseph is seriously considering applying to other companies.”

“What would become of the village?” Akemi asked as Sten came into the bedroom and plopped down on his bed.

“Whitcomb will close the research center and hospital,” Sten said with certainty. “It’s just a matter of when. We are on our way out too, leaving no reason at all to maintain the façade of an orphan’s paradise. The foundation already has placement programs in Oakland, St. Louis, and Raleigh to continue its work. The village will be dismantled and sold off in pieces.”

“This is most depressing,” Eitan said. “Like no place else on earth, we could hide here, plan our future, and be most like ourselves here.”

“All things change,” Akemi said. “At least Joseph understands which way the wind is blowing, and it’s coming from the landfill. He and Nikki should not be caught off guard when the hammer falls. We need to make better contingency plans too.”

“Yes, but tonight we are going to download a movie and pop some popcorn for the whole family. I need family time. We can plot to overthrow the world order tomorrow,” Eitan said.

The conversation in his old bedroom was the last bit of idle respite of the week, Eitan realized as he pulled his tablet out of the safe before sitting down on his dorm bed. He kicked off his shoes, letting them bounce off his closet door with a satisfying thump. The world felt like a terrible weight upon his shoulders.

After scanning the nearby area for energetic threads of humanity, he brought up the stargazing program. Using Sten’s new spreadsheet of possible targets easily accessible by his location in the northern hemisphere, he reached out for the thread and tapped, as he was now labeling his refined ability. The thread vibrated strongly and confirmed contact with life. Pulling a green highlighter out of his desk drawer, Eitan highlighted the box on the spreadsheet. Sten wanted no information going through any digital gateway.

Eitan tapped the thread again. The more times he touched an individual thread, the easier the recognition of the individual thread became. He hardly had to think of Akemi’s apartment anymore.

The doorknob rattled as a key was inserted. Eitan hastily shoved the spreadsheet back in its manila folder before the door swung open. Reggie had an angry look on his face as he threw his gym bag to the side and launched his body into his bed.

“Fuck ‘em,” Reggie said.

“Hello,” Eitan said with overweening cheerfulness. “Did you have a wonderful and scrumptious dinner with your parents tonight? My, you’re home early.”

“Fuck you, too,” Reggie said. He sat up. “I know, I come bearing first-world problems of the rich and famous, but this one is a doozy.”

“You’re sober,” Eitan said. “Sobriety is never a good sign after a fancy dinner.”

“I also gave mom my new beamer and took her three-year-old Lexus instead,” Reggie said. “I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding or even a smidgen of an idea that I’m being ungrateful – at least not this time.”

“What happened?” Eitan said, trying to act nonchalant when his curiosity was burbling.

“Hobart Nano announced a new enhancement series last week and my parents want me to be first in line to get it,” Reggie said, draping his arm over his eyes. “They see it as the next edge in the grand competition. This one is supposed to have super-fast induction, like a few weeks and see results.”

“Hobart released what?” Eitan said with a sudden sharp knife in his gut.

“Hobart is calling it their ‘MB Platinum’ series,” Reggie said. “MB stands for mind and body, promising complete integration between brain and body enhancements.”

“Nano doesn’t work that way,” Eitan said. “You took Bio 101 last semester. The brain is a part of the body and not separate. No one has mapped out all the integrations between the brain, sitting behind its blood barrier and the rest of the body. We’re still discovering how gut bacteria affect the release of mood conducting hormones in the medulla.”

Reggie pulled back his arm and sat up. He looked directly at Eitan. “You know more about this shit than you’ve been willing to share, roomie. What do you know?”

Eitan stared back. “My father works for Hobart at one of their off-campus research centers; he has worked there since grad school. He specifically studies gut bacteria. He developed a new method of nano introduction through a fecal implant. He administered my last series using his method. I react badly to the injections.”

“What do you know about the MB series?

Eitan looked at his feet and then back his roommate. “Nothing. I was home all week and Joseph, er, my father and my mother knew nothing about a new series being released for purchase. In fact, the talk around Hobart was speculating on when new nano would arrive ... for testing.”

“Just for testing?” Reggie said, rubbing his arms and elbows.

“Yeah,” Eitan said. “We live in a gated community with high security. One of Hobart’s research centers is inside.”

“I don’t think I want to do this series,” Reggie said. “My parents think nano is an arms race that I have to win.”

“I don’t think you should either,” Eitan said. “I haven’t seen any advertisements. How did your parents learn about this new series?”

Reggie hopped off his bed and retrieved his gym bag. “They got a mailing to the house directly from Hobart Nano. Here, read it for yourself.”

Eitan grabbed the proffered marketing packet and dropped them on the bed. He opened his tablet and brought up the camera. After taking pictures of each page, he swallowed his reservations and Sten’s warning, forwarding the pics to his entire family. “My phone is going to ring in a few minutes,” Eitan explained. “Did you bring back a case a beer like you promised. We can enjoy one while I get the dirt.”

“I spent most of the time with an old girlfriend,” Reggie said. “She doesn’t drink anymore; she’s got a six-month sober coin from A.A. I did, however, liberate a bottle of Glenlivet from my father’s collection.”