Chapter 17: A Few People Get Some Bad News

After the events of that afternoon I drove the girls home, mainly so I could give Mr. Hart his evening session. When we entered he watched me carefully, but he waited until I started work before he said anything. After I'd finished he wiped the fluid off his own chest and sniffed it, then he put his finger to his lips and tasted it.

"Hmm, doesn't seem to be much more than a little antiseptic and water. You know, I had some people ask around the campus. Seems there currently aren't any professors at SIU that have any issues with abusing their student's trust. Now I suspect such things happen at many facilities, there aren't any general complaints at SIU at the moment."

I stopped what I was doing and just looked at him, trying to measure his intent by continually yanking me around.

"You seem to enjoy continually testing me. I'm not entirely sure why you feel the need to do this, other than simply a desire to control things which are beyond your ability to manipulate, but I owe you nothing. Once again, I'm not a paid employee and I'm not legally obligated to keep you apprised of my personal history."

"I know, which is what makes me curious as you're a bit of an oddity. Anyone else would be asking for favors, but you hide your identity for no apparent reason. It makes me wonder just what you're hiding."

"Look, I can just as well do the necessary research on someone who doesn't think so highly of himself," I told him.

"Hah, you're almost done anyway," he informed me.

"You know," Allison said, contributing to the conversation, "can't you cause additional scarring as well as reducing it?" she asked.

I liked the way her mind worked, and it led in the same devious direction I'd been thinking.

"Actually, I can. Not only can I increase the scarring, I could actually destroy the skin. To such a degree, in fact, you'd need transplants of skin tissues, as well as muscle tissue to support it with." I could see him sneer since he didn't consider my wild claims to have any basis in reality, so I continued. "But I shouldn't do that. I'm doing this to prove this compound has beneficial properties. I was asked to include you in the initial tests, but I'm thinking that was probably a mistake. No, I'll wrap up your treatments, but you should really consider where your priorities lie in this manner," I told him as I finally finished up.

As I turned away to walk out, I accidentally tripped, falling a little and catching myself on the bed. Standing up again I excused myself.

"Sorry about that. Guess my shoes were untied. Just like a science geek, huh?" And with that Allison and I left the room. As we made it into the hallway Allison was quick to ask me what I'd been up to.

"Oh, that? What, can't a young teenager be clumsy? I wasn't doing anything. However, I suspect tomorrow morning Mr. Hart will have a newfound respect for my privacy. He won't have any reason to suspect me personally, after all, how could I possibly arrange a common hospital complication, but the similarities between what I just said and what is going to happen to him will remind him to watch his manners."

"Alex! Just what did you do to him?" she asked me in an excited tone, though I wasn't sure whether it was a disapproving tone or one of encouragement.

"Let's just say you should ensure his nurses give him a throughout check-up tonight. It's surprising the complications which can develop if you don't keep on top of things." That was the last I'd say on the subject, though, so Allison would have to wait to find out any more on the topic.

Because of my dalliance with the girls earlier I was too late to make it home for dinner, so I stopped and grabbed a quick snack on the way home. I got home just shortly after everyone else finished cleaning up, so I still wasn't too late, though the surprises from my anticipated quiet day hadn't ended yet.

Nikki cornered me as I sat on the couch with Cate trying to do some reading for school which I hadn't managed to do earlier. She sat down beside me and began.

"Alex, I'm so happy to be here, you have no idea how great it is to be amongst our own kind."

"Hey, watch it," I laughed. "As far as anyone, including us, knows, we're still human."

"Yeah, yeah," she replied, fending me off. "You know what I mean. I've been busy talking to Shani and Anh and the others. One of the things that occurred to me is we have a new sense to add to the basic five senses, actually more, if you count all the various permutations there are to it, but there's no way to record it yet like there are for the older ones."

"Yeah, so... ?" I prompted her.

"So, we've all decided we need to work to preserve it just like they used to work to preserve knowledge in olden times. Meaning we've got to record everything we've each experienced by remembering it and sharing it with each other, over and over, until it's ingrained in our cultural heritage."

"Let me guess, you were studying Anthropology in college?" I chuckled. She pouted unhappily that I didn't immediately jump on board. Cate looked up from her own homework, intrigued by the new topic Nikki was suggesting.

"No. But seriously, this is important, Alex," Nikki protested. "Now I want to go through a set of exercises with you to try to preserve your memories. Your memories are the most important, because you're the central focus of everything that's been happening. If we can preserve your memories, now that we all have the ability to do telepathy without you, we can save each of your memories of the events." I thought about what she was saying and could see her point.

"Does this include Cate?" I asked.

"No, I'm sure she'll be interested in the effort, but she can't participate in it since she can't communicate telepathically." She glanced at Cate apologetically, but Cate just shrugged. Apparently it didn't bother her that much. Nikki glanced at me again and I nodded that I understood, and she continued.

"Good, now just lie back and relax," she instructed me. That was easy because I've been led through this whole 'lie back and relax' process several times before by Cate. "OK, now I just want you to focus on your first sightings of each of us, one at a time so I can remember them, then I'll share them one on one with each of the other Sisters. I also want to share with you how you first appeared to each of us, and how they see you now, just so you'll have a comparison. That first initial sighting is our only visual of the human Alex, all our other relations with you are of this mighty glowing spirit who looks out for us, so it's important that you understand the difference."

"Man, I wish I could see that. I've always been intrigued how they perceive you," Cate commented.

Despite the fact I always got nervous whenever they started to speak of me in those mystical terms, she was making a lot of sense. I'd never bothered trying to share images of myself through their visions before, so it sounded insightful.

"It's too bad Cate can't participate," I added. "As the only artist in the group she might have a better chance of recording some of it."

"Ha, I'm hardly an artist. I haven't done any art since we first got to New Orleans," Cate told us.

"Still, we don't have any artists among us. But I guess it's pointless to discuss since it would be so hard to illustrate. However a representation of it would be better than nothing," I observed.

"Yeah," Nikki firmly told us. "There's no way to convey the images, the aura colors, or the sense of majesty which you present when one of us sees you. And there's no way of recording it unless we can better understand where it comes from and can find some means of capturing it. Maybe someday someone will find one, like the experimenters of the late 19th centuries who discovered how to record photographs in tintypes. That's where Cate and Becky's abilities lie. We'll have to preserve these memories until then, though."

So Nikki and I went through each of our images of each of the Sisters. She was still amazed I had no vision abilities of my own. She'd expected I could somehow see into their very souls. But I was amazed with their visions of me. There really wasn't much to see. It was just this brilliant white glare that overshadowed everything, but it was easy to see just how overwhelming it was to everyone, even viewing it second hand. Though they couldn't convey the feelings of power they told me they felt.

After we'd finished, Nikki shared our visions with the other ladies, both those present and remote. This took quite a while, so Cate and I went back to our studies while Nikki sat beside us and continued going through the images one at a time with each of my girls capable of sharing them. Cate and I briefly discussed how useful this would be, and how it would allow them to remember what I looked like long after I was gone, when all of my children would want to remember me. She was excited about the possibilities, and even more enthused about the limitations regarding recording their visions. She agreed it was an important endeavor, but she got positively giddy when she thought of the idea of recording the visions. That would certainly guarantee a Nobel Prize, she was sure.

"Of course we couldn't ever publish them while you're still alive," she told me firmly.

"However, that brings up another issue which I've been dreading discussing with you," she said, broaching a whole new topic.

"What do you want to discuss? The last time you started talking like this you told me I'd have to start producing bunches of babies. And what were we talking about? How I'm not going to be around forever?"

She didn't say anything and just stared at me. I realized that was, in fact, the topic of discussion, so I steeled myself for whatever she might tell me.

"Hey, what makes you think I'm not going to be around?" I asked her. She just rolled her eyes.

"First of all, men traditionally don't live as long. Secondly, we don't know of all the possible physical benefits of exposure to this energy. For all we know it may extend the normal life span."

"And why wouldn't it shorten it?" I asked in all seriousness, which only generated a very sad expression on her face.

"Alex, that's exactly my point. The various Sisters have only a small exposure to this power source. While they can see it, you are perpetually bathed in it. While it may or may not have a long term effect on your women, it's definitely going to affect you, and I can't see how that strong a dosage for an extended period is going to work out to your benefit. We're all preparing ourselves to only have you around for a short time."

Wow, talk about negative news. I thought I was prepared for bad news, but I wasn't expecting this. Apparently everyone in the family was already planning my death. No wonder they were so focused on having me save my sperm right away. I'd have to really think about things after this. Not only would I have to consider my own mortality, but I'd have to put a premium on getting as much done as soon as possible. I'd have to travel extensively, trying to reach as many women as possible to try to maximize my reach before anything could possibly happen to me.

"You're actually convinced this is a possibility?" I asked.

"Alex, there are more than a few clues. Look at how you eat continually, and how much you eat at each meal. You can hardly go several hours without eating something. The first thing you do when you get home is eat.

"You eat before bed. You eat after any activity. And frankly, I doubt Darrell eats as much in one sitting as you do. That high caloric intake indicates your brain and body are using up energy at an extremely high rate.

"Then there's the gray hairs," she continued. "Alex, it's not normal for a 17-year-old to be turning gray. That's happening because your body is being stressed and is already aging prematurely. The problem is the strain of radiating so much energy, and especially the work of each cell of your body trying to channel it. It's stressing your entire body, and it's likely the individual cells will start failing. It would then be a question of how long it would take for the damage to accumulate to the point of a major organ failure. And that's despite the supposed health benefits this energy gives you. Whatever improvement it's making to your health is more than made up by the damage it's inflicting on you."

"Do Mom and Dad know about this theory of yours?" I asked.

"Of course, I told them as soon as we all discussed it. I figured they had a right to know immediately."

"And how'd they take it?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"As well as can be expected. No one likes to hear their only son is likely to die young. But they're proud of what you represent, what you've achieved, and how well you've handled everything. I guess they justify it by weighing what you've already achieved against what most people achieve over a lifetime. But I suspect they're just trying to put on a brave face for the rest of us. Mom cried for quite a while after I told her, though. I think your girls already suspected it, so they weren't quite as surprised."

"And what about the others, do Becky and Melinda know as well?"

"Yeah, as soon as I informed Mom and Dad we called them. That's another reason why they're so anxious to help you, and why they want to travel with you this summer."

"And Chalise and Kitty?" I continued to press.

"Actually we were afraid to mention it to them, for fear they'd tip you off about it before we were ready to present it to you. We hope they won't be as impacted as the rest. Teenaged romances typically don't last very long. Chances are they won't be around when it eventually happens, although the knowledge you may not live long may actually further that by making them pull away from you unintentionally. Needless to say, this is pretty delicate ground to navigate. So no, I haven't told them yet. I wanted to, but I didn't think they'd handle it very well, so we thought we'd wait until after we told you. I've just been waiting for the right time to tell you."

"But how can you really know this form of energy is dangerous?"

"It's not a question of how dangerous it is," she answered. "It's a question of the intensity. You know how worried people get about exposure to power lines over their houses? You have the equivalent of a major nuclear power plant in a quarter inch space inside your brain. There's virtually no way that couldn't have a major impact on your lifespan. Maybe it'll take a while, maybe it's just a matter of years. We've no way of knowing. My guess is the reason Melinda found no evidence of anyone else with your abilities is because they've all died before they came of age. We still don't know why this power only appeared recently. Did it just start, or have you always had it and simply didn't know it because you never traveled before? In short, we have no idea how long you've been exposed to this level of energy."

"Man, this is a lot to take in. I just wish I had some clue just how long I might have."

"We all do, Alex. This is painful for all of us to speak about, but we've all been speaking of it a great deal. I really shouldn't say this, but a couple of the girls have stopped taking their birth control. They plan to get pregnant before you leave after school. The others will stop as soon as you leave, and plan on getting pregnant once you get back. They've been working on a schedule so they can manage all the babies. They've decided they should each have a single baby by you, and then try to find a normal guy to marry so they can have some average kids to see which traits get passed on. Everyone is hoping to produce an heir of yours which has their own abilities, but their main aim is to further your line by having at least one child who possesses your abilities. The chances of any of the children being like you are remote, but it's the only chance we have, so we've got to grab onto it as tightly as we can. Besides, they each want a baby of yours whether there's a chance it'll have any abilities or not."

"We?" I asked. "Does that mean you plan on getting pregnant by me as well?" She blushed a little, which I thought was a sure sign of guilt.

"Actually, no," she told me, "although the idea occurred to me. No, I've got too many plans for my future, for your future I should say. Becky and I need to do whatever research we can to see if there is some way to either limit this damage or further your mission somehow. I'll leave it up to the others to get pregnant. I also assume everyone will want to sample your sperm as soon as you're gone as well, so you'll have to make quite a few more deposits."

"Wow, this is hard to accept," I replied, and sat there in silence for quite a few moments while Cate simply watched my reactions to see if I'd panic or not. Finally I couldn't take it any longer.

"I think I've got to get out on my own to think for a bit. Let everyone know I've gone for a walk," I told my sister. Luckily she didn't feel the need to insist I take someone with me. I guess she knew the impact news like this would have on me, and that I'd need some solitude to consider it. The last thing I needed was to be reminded of my responsibilities. I knew as soon as I was out the door Cate would have the whole house in a tizzy with everyone worrying about me, but I also knew they'd let me have my space and solitude, at least this once.

I walked for a while and contemplated life in general. Having a premature death sentence handed to you tends to put things into perspective pretty quickly. I thought about my life, both past and present, as well as my future. I thought about my parents and how they were likely projecting all their hopes for my future into my role in this whole fiasco. I realized they'd try to justify my untimely demise by rationalizing it was for a noble end, and that I'd achieve a lasting memorial if I could achieve a small measure of success. I certainly couldn't take that away from them. Although nothing was definite, I really couldn't see many avenues which would prove Cate wrong. This kind of unknown ability, and the raw energy the girls saw pouring out of me continually, had to have some kind of cost associated with it.

I thought about Chalise and Kitty and all my potential future loves, most of them ultimately unknowable due to the unknowable limits on my foreshortened life. Like each of my girls wanted, I'd see the current romances all the way through. They were short lived anyway. I'd be off for significant portions of the summer, and they only had a limited amount of time until college would take them away to the remainder of their lives. Luckily they were still young and, if they started to cope with it now, hopefully my eventual demise wouldn't sidetrack them that much. But my girls were another issue. While Kitty and Chalise might grieve for me, there was no doubt my other girls would be devastated. Their whole lives, their whole renewed reasons for living, would be yanked from under them.

No, I'd have to ensure they still had a mission, and that my life wasn't just a flash in the pan. I had to ensure my own mission continued, even after I was gone. It wasn't just for me, everyone around me needed my mission to help them carry on after I was gone. It was strange, in order to ensure the future of the girls and the viability of their new race, I'd have to activate as many of them as I could. However it now looked like I had a limited amount of time to do it in. That meant my life would shortly be reduced to my becoming a screwing machine. I thought I was already being spread too thin. How could I love any of them enough when I didn't have enough time to spend with them?

Which brought everything around to my spreading my sperm around. I had to activate and train as many potential Seers and Watchers as I could, while also trying to create someone who could take up my task after I was gone. The training aspect was largely immaterial, since Cate and the others could handle that aspect, but I also recognized it would mean much more to everyone if I was the one to reveal what their lives now entailed.

No, each of my girls deserved a mission. My own mission had to enfold each of them. I had to make sure they each had their own tasks, and we could work together for however long I had. But a big part of that was also the genetic component. It was true the girls' lives might be shortened just like mine would end up being, but at least if we could keep these new genetic traits going then at least the movement wouldn't die out.

I was on the threshold of a major revolution in the future of humanity, and it all depended on my achieving as much as I could before I died, however far that might be in the future. I had to include as many as I could, I had to step up the outreach and the training missions, and I had to start making a bunch of damn babies in the hopes one of them might carry the gene which made me so unique.

It was all quite hard to contemplate, and all this thinking certainly didn't lighten the load on my heart, but I felt refreshed for having taken this walk. At least now I had something to aim for. I couldn't afford to wallow in self pity. I had an important mission ahead, helping not only my girls, but saving the entire new branch of the human race I was creating. I couldn't afford to fall apart at this point. There was simply too much riding on me now.

I also considered the value of my existence. My life since spring break was certainly a lot richer and more valuable than it was before. If I could only have it for a limited period of time, I still wouldn't trade all the new changes, even if I could. I'd never had such confidence in my life, never had such certainty in what I was doing and who I was doing it for. Before, I was just drifting until life forced a decision on me. Now I knew what needed to be done, who I needed to do it for, and what the ultimate cost of those decisions would be. It was all pretty heady stuff for a young man who just a few hours ago thought he was as invincible as any 17 year old believes themselves to be.