THE TRAGEDY OF EDDIE

a sci-fi short

10 years ago, Eddie began waiting for the message from Colony Prime in the Alpha Centauri system. 5 years ago, Eddie emerged from the hospital, shattered in everyway but resolute to live until he received the message from his Alpha Centauri self.

Despite the 5 years of being in the Government provided wheelchair, Eddie continued to struggle to wheel himself to his tiny circular red metallic table that functioned as both his tablet computer and where he placed his bowl of daily allotment of Government nutritional mush. Eddie’s right half of his body languished while his left half was a vital artifact of his life before his accident and subsequent stroke. His right hand was permanently clenched except for his index finger, which stuck out like a branch attached to a bristlecone pine tree. Eddie’s right leg was stiff and straight and his right foot resembled a head of a cudgel. His right half of his face drooped like melted plastic that was quickly frozen set in permanence. Eddie’s left half was antithetical of his wounded half. Eddie’s left arm and leg moved gracefully and effortlessly without stutter and shake of his right. The left half of his face was expressive and the skin taut over his high pronounced cheekbones. There was a small indent near the corner of his mouth, which indicated he had dimples when he smiled. But smiling for Eddie nowadays was a rarity. His left blue eye, in contrast to his right eye, wasn’t covered by a limp brow and it shimmered when light struck it at a particular angle.

These halves were at times in conflict with each other. As Eddie attempted to roll his handrims forward, his left hand easily rolled the left wheel forward but his crippled right hand could only move the right wheel forward an inch or so. This caused him to either rotate around the wheelchair’s right wheel or forced him to move forward only an inch at a time.

And so Eddie wheeled himself to the front of his table, inch by inch. Once he had positioned himself in front of his table, he swiped the tabletop with his left index finger in a long arc. A white rectangular display embedded in the tabletop appeared, revealing his home page and various icons. Although the screen was absent of any message notifications, he pressed his message icon. In the fraction of time between pressing the message icon and his messages appearing in a small window extending from the icon, Eddie’s heart took an extra beat in anticipation and fleeting hope. He was mildly disappointed to discover there were no new messages. Like previous nights of disappointment, Eddie closed his message by flinging it to the edge of the display with a flick of his finger and then opened a folder icon simply labeled “Pics.” Pictures of his life before the accident tumbled out from the folder icon. The pictures populated the tabletop display as though physical pictures were being shook out from a physical folder and randomly landing onto his table.

He viewed the pictures with mixed feelings and reactions. There were nights when he’d sobbed when he saw the pictures of him and his ex-wife: standing on fallen orange and red leaves in front of the defunct Buckingham Fountain covered in skeletal ivy remains; him cradling his tiny ex-wife in both arms while he jumped up from their well groomed front yard; her thin delicate lips puckered and about to kiss the right corner of his grinning mouth. And other nights Eddie chuckled at the same pictures that had wretched his insides the night before. While he slumped to his right and his head propped up against the top right side of the backrest, he looked at the pictures one by one, flicking them to the edge of the display once he had finished. As usual, Eddie fell asleep in his chair gone through no more than half the pictures in his folder.

As like most dreams after his accident, Eddie’s images from his dream showed not only images from his past but also from a time before his existence. They were cobbled together and transmuted from the stories his grandfather mumbled to him during Sunday dinner, the history lectures, and the books he read throughout his life. These images were like fragmented movies, halting and leaping from event to event that at times were separated by centuries or by mere years. The movies were always narrated by his second grade history teacher, Mr. Chapman. His voice was a castrato and his long nasally a’s revealed himself to be a Clevelander.

The lights dim, the movie rolls, images on the screen began to flicker into focus, and Mr. Chapman begins:

“At the end of the 21st century, an unknown earth agency, likely from the region known as North America, showcased their great scientific and inventive achievement, the antimatter reactor. However, this achievement paled in comparison to the early 21st century discovery of the quantum big data modeling machine or popularly known as the Moirai Machine. In fact, was it not for the results from the 1st Moirai Solution, scientists would not have sought to build the antimatter reactor. Part scientific curiosity and part lark, scientists began inputting every bit of information known to mankind into the newly invented quantum computer. To the surprise and horror of the scientists and the world, an answer was provided. The answer simply stated that mankind had an 88% likelihood of becoming extinct by the beginning of the 22nd century. Some reacted with skepticism, others with violence and rebellion, and others believed that a solution could be found. So the self-determined scientists played with the data inputs and discovered the 1st Moirai Solution, which provided that inventing a nearly inexhaustible source of energy resulted in an 88% survival rate at the beginning of the 22nd century. Hence the antimatter reactor came into being approximately 88 years as a result of the 1st Moirai Solution.”

[Eddie as an 8 year old child, lying on his stomach, chin propped up by his hands and elbows, views on his tablet archived news footage that showed the day when the antimatter reactor came online. A mass of people, some inebriated, floods their respective town or city centers to celebrate the birth of a new era and to witness on large screens the televised antimatter reactor. The antimatter core, which was the size of a baseball, shimmers and hovers in its large transparent cylindrical enclosure that could have contained the 21st century Wrigley Field.]

“New data was inputted into the quantum computer at the time the antimatter reactor came online. The results revealed that mankind under its current trajectory would likely exist no more than another 4 centuries. The revelry was short lived. The scientists examining the data and utilizing the Moirai Machine, came up with the 2nd Moirai Solution, interstellar colonization. In 50 years the world celebrated the first spaceship powered by antimatter and 18 years later they had fifty interstellar ships with the Alpha Centauri system as their final destination.”

[Eddie as a 12 year old, leaning on the right armrest of his grandfather’s leather recliner, watches on a 60 inch slim thermoplastic display with dynamic fluid the archived news footage of the spaceships orbiting the earth. The continents rush beneath them while the sunlight reflects off their silver hull. The astronauts in their fitted white breathable polymer suits wave and blow kisses to the crowds. They enter their shuttles that take them to their respective spaceships. Deep blue flames in the hue of the oceans emerge from the spaceship thrusters, and with that the spaceships pull away from the earth’s orbit and accelerate to the Alpha Centauri system.]

“While the antimatter spaceships journey to the Alpha Centauri system, the public was granted access to the Moirai Machine. Products were developed and commercialized that took advantage of the predictive power of the quantum big data modeling machine. Even our individual genetic data was digitized and inputted into the Moirai Machine, which resulted in an individual’s probabilities of disease, death, income, and even behavior. These commercialized products all disclaimed that each prediction were only probabilities and shouldn’t be seen as definitive outcomes, but human nature dictated that we perceived it as such, despite the disclaimer. Ultimately, knowing one’s likely fate caused much unrest and discontent among earth’s citizens. The 3rd Moirai Solution came into fruition, sanctioned voluntary early end of life. Throughout the world, Transition Clinics opened and the discontent and unhappy quietly disappeared.”

[Eddie and his parents look anxiously at the horizontal task bar filling to 100% completion. Eddie imagines the quantum computer whirring away in an underground shelter shielded by layer and layers of concrete and lead, crunching his genetic data, internet history, geolocation data, purchasing history, and numerous other variables. The results display on their sixty inch display. Eddie beams and his parents jump up from their tan semi-aniline leather couch and dance ecstatically. The results show Eddie will, with 95% probability, have a life free from serious illness including heart disease and cancer. Additionally, the report highlights an upward trend with respect to income and overall happiness. Eddie is elated and he absorbs this knowledge into every fiber of his tissues and as a result he exudes confidence in action and decision. His childhood red-headed asthmatic friend Lawrence is unlucky. The personal moirai machine shows he is at 89% likelihood of contracting pancreatic cancer before his 16th birthday and has an upward trend of misery and pain. On Lawrence’s 14th birthday, Lawrence is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He dies at the age of 17 and his family has a large amount of medical debt. After his son’s death, Lawrence’s father, a hardworking miniaturization technician with massive hands, leathery skin, and a large smile that revealed the top and bottom rows of his coffee stained teeth, inputs his data into his personal moirai machine while his wife slept from the day of drinking glasses of vodka with a splash of orange. The personal moirai machine reveals a downward trend of happiness and an exponential increase of depression and strife. Lawrence’s father is the first and not the last individual Eddie knows that chooses the Transition Clinic.]

“After 282 years from the day of launch, one spaceship out of 50 landed on Planet Alpha Centauri Bb. The almost forgotten and fortunate spaceship contained the 4th progeny of its original astronauts. They founded Colony Prime and sent a video message near the speed of light to earth. Due to the 4.4 light year distance between earth and Planet Alpha Centauri Bb, the video message arrived on earth 5 years later. The colonists looked slightly different from the people of earth. They had milky white skin and were generally thinner. Their appendages were long, delicate, and seemed to float like spider web filaments blowing in the wind. They smiled and introduced themselves; most of them seemed to have identical family names. After the introductions, they asked earth to assist them in battling an unknown disease that seemed to be genetic in origin. The generations of inbreeding on the spacecraft and on the planet appeared to have led to genetic similarities and thereby revealing a genetic malady among the colonists. According to the Moirai Machine, the colony is 98% likely to collapse within 3 generations. The 4th Moirai Solution provided the answer, increase the colonists’ genetic diversity by providing humans from earth. However, launching another spaceship would have been highly risky, have taken too long, and been too late (approximately 280 years by spacecraft). Dr. Democritus (which by the way our school is named after) ingeniously developed a solution that utilized two fields of science, one being big data and the other, a forbidden science, cloning.”

[Eddie sees his future wife and then subsequent ex-wife at a table near the entrance to the kitchen. She flicks her blond hair back and forth and pumps her fists in the air. She dances while seated and there is no music. She and the other three people seated at her table laughs. Eddie’s date furls her eyebrows. Eddie meets and converses with his future wife / ex-wife in the hallway leading to the washrooms. Eddie’s date wonders why he is taking too long and inputs this information into her personal machine. She discovers this date and subsequent dates have an 85% chance of failure and heartache. She leaves the restaurant. Eddie is back at his table and he is stunned his date left. Eddie’s future wife / ex-wife invites him to join her table. Eddie and his future wife / ex-wife exchange personal data at the end of the night. Their personal moirai machine predicts 97% compatibility and an upward trend of happiness.]

“Dr. Democritus devised the idea and processes on digitizing an individual’s genetic code and sending it to the colonists. An individual’s DNA is broken down to its nucleotides and then translated into numerical values. These values are further broken down and transformed into a quantum binary code, superpositioned 0’s and 1’s. This data is then beamed to the colonists on packets of photon-genic information. At the colony this information would be used to rapidly gestate and grow the individual’s clone. The process of digitizing one’s genetic material and growing an adult clone was quite quick, approximately a year. The most time consuming part of the process was the length of time the compressed packets of photon-genic information took to travel from earth to Colony Prime, 4.5 years, despite traveling at the near speed of light. Furthermore, the people of earth would not be privy to the success of the process until they received a message from Colony Prime, another 4.5 years. Despite these lengths of time, a total of 10 years, this process was drastically shorter than the time to send a spaceship to Colony prime, 280 years. The Moirai Machine predicted an overall success rate of 50%. And so the IAM, the Interstellar Advancement of Mankind, was formed to implement and carry out this undertaking. With the aid of the Moirai Machine, the IAM, based on genetic fitness and personality, selected Lieutenant Colonel Foote to be the first interstellar clone.”

[Eddie as a 20 year old and before he met his wife / ex-wife at the restaurant, stands in Chicago’s center city plaza with more than a thousand people to watch the video message received from the clone Lieutenant Colonel Foote from Colony Prime on a makeshift jumbo screen. The tallest super-skyscraper in the world casts a shadow over the crowd. The video feed shows a conference room in which the original Lieutenant Colonel Foote is sitting with his family in front of a large display that, at the moment, is dark. The large display lights up and the Colony Prime Foote appears on screen. The crowd in Chicago’s center city plaza is silent. They can’t exhale. Colony Foote is nearly identical to earth Foote. They both have a boxy head on a larger boxy torso, the same square chin with dimple in the middle, and bushy dark brown caterpillar eyebrows. However, Colony Foote slightly diverges from the original. He has chestnut hair instead of earth Foote’s dark brown, and his eye color is a lighter shade of blue. Colony Foote also has fewer creases on his forehead. Earth Foote gasps, and his wife mouths, “Oh my God.” Colony Foote speaks, “Hello earth! And myself!? Wow that is strange to say. As you can see I’m safely here. No extra appendages or tail. Haha. Well I think I’m supposed to answer some questions. Question number 1. What’s the last thing I remember? Well I remember entering the IAM facility Monday morning. Oh yeah Carol … my wife? I remember her hugging me and kissing me before I left, which was highly unusual. Haha.” Earth Foote’s wife giggles. Colony Foote continues, “So the next thing I remember, I wake up in a warm tub surrounded by the colony doctors. They look a bit strange, no? Haha. But they’re nice though.” Colony Foote answers numerous questions like how’s the food, what’s the colony like, what’s the weirdest thing for him, etc. Colony Foote answers the final question, “Question number 30. Do I miss earth? Hmmph. Yes, I do miss earth. I miss my family, even though they’re not my real family. I miss Carol, even though she’s not my wife. But I guess I’m supposed to be getting busy up here anyway. They lined up some pretty colonists up here for me. Haha. Just kidding Carol.” Earth Foote laughs. Carol smacks Earth Foote in the stomach. The crowd in Chicago’s city center plaza roars in laughter. “Well, I think that’s it,” colony Foote states, “It’s time for me to go. This Colony Prime Foote signing off. Bye earth.”]

“When the people of earth had viewed the very first message from the colonists, years before Colony Foote’s appearance, there was massive turmoil. Did the accomplishment of the near impossible task by the colonist cause the people of earth to question their techno pre-determinist ideas? Did the images of the colonists imply unknowable possibility? Did the video message offer hope? The revolts that took place, one being an attack on the heavily guarded facility housing the quantum computer, were easily quelled. The Moirai Machine had predicted the location of the riots and the most effective means of extinguishing these conflagrations.”

[After 5 years from Colony Foote’s appearance, Eddie decides to submit an application to be digitized and sent to Alpha Centauri. Eddie’s wife jokes, “It’ll be real hard to keep my hands off space Eddie.” The IAM doesn’t take all applicants and are very selective, but they choose Eddie. Eddie exits the Chicago IAM facility after he had his blood drawn and his body scanned. Jack, a 16 year old teenager, drives down the street barreling towards Eddie. Jack is preoccupied with inputting data into his personal moirai machine. He is dependent on it to make decisions, and he needs to know if he should eat a quick lunch first or head to the job interview an hour early. Jack’s car smashes into Eddie, and Eddie’s right hip and leg explodes. Either the Moirai Machine didn’t foresee Eddie’s accident or wasn’t asked the proper question. Surgeons operate on Eddie and attempt to reconstruct his body. A small clot caused by the accident moves and lodges into a vital blood vessel in the left side of Eddie’s brain. Unbeknownst to the surgeons, Eddie strokes on the operating table.]

“Our history lesson as governed by the accumulated knowledge of Eddie’s education and experience has ended. But I believe we have one more clip.”

[Eddie lies in his hospital bed. Eddie’s wife enters and sits next to Eddie’s unscathed left side. She tells Eddie that she is going to leave him because according to her personal moirai machine their relationship is expressing upward trends of unhappiness. She apologizes again and kisses Eddie on his forehead. When Eddie’s ex-wife leaves, he sobs in convulsing fits, and the nurses sedate him. The bald headed fat hospital counselor expresses concern for Eddie’s state of mind. He provides statistical evidence that Eddie’s future is grim and an exponential downward trend of happiness. The counselor hands him a brochure for the Transitions Clinic. Eddie nearly approves of being transferred to the Transitions Clinic but he remembers that there were compressed packets of photon-genic information of him arriving at Planet Alpha Centauri Bb. He vows to live to see the video message from Colony Eddie. Thoughts of Colony Eddie running through the colony corridors, meeting and making love to a beautiful blond haired wispy colonist, having a family under the 3 stars of the Alpha Centauri system, and other hopeful imagery sustains Eddie through the pain of rehabilitation and the pain of loneness. The hospital discharges Eddie from the hospital, nearly bankrupt and alone.]

“Beep … beep … beep ….”

Eddie was awoken by the blinking and beeping message notification in his tabletop display. Uncontrollable drool from the drooping right corner of his mouth had soaked his entire right shoulder and wheelchair. He wiped the drool from his face with his left hand and wiped it on his sweatpants. Eddie swiped the display to unlock it. Eddie saw a message from the IAM and proceeded to read it. The message stated as follows: “Dear Mr. Eddie Passe. We regret to inform you that your packet of digitized information was lost en route to Colony Prime. There is a 5% chance that it may arrive in the next 10 years. If the information should be found, you will be quickly informed. Please forgive us for this unfortunate news.” Eddie swiped his tabletop display closed, and inch by inch he headed to his front door.

The young Transitions Clinic staff member holding the door open was pretty. She had short boyish hair which was dyed an unnatural deep red. The color of her lipstick matched the color of her hair. She wore a tight, short white pleather dress with white stockings and 2 inch white heels. Her outfit looked like a caricature of a nurse uniform that was usually found at Halloween parties. Not a bad sight if it was to be his last, thought Eddie. “You coming in?” The staff member questioned. She had shifted her weight onto her left leg, lengthening her right leg and accentuating her left buttocks. Eddie had left his personal moirai machine at the apartment but that didn’t matter because he knew what the statistics would show. Eddie stared at the doorway, and for the first time uncertain of the future.

Exactly at the moment Eddie was debating whether to enter the Transitions Clinic, Eddie’s clone sat up from a green pool of swirling amino acids. Colony Eddie coughed up some liquid and rubbed his eyes. He didn’t notice the colony doctors in their white lab coats viewing the health monitors, the colony engineers pushing buttons and twisting dials, or the numerous other tubs in the same room. Through the expansive bay windows, Colony Eddie saw 3 stars, 1 yellow, 1 red, and 1 white, shimmering in the emptiness of space. The stars bathed Eddie with their light.