Echoes and Memories

By Tristan Gregory

Echoes, endings, and the ghosts of the past. This collection contains five stories of thoughtful and emotional speculative fiction by Tristan Gregory.

A man studying the messages from the first discovered alien artifact. A newly colonized world cut off from the rest of human civilization. One of the last humans contemplates loneliness at the end of the universe. All these stories and more await in Echoes and Memories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tristan Gregory
• Release date: Aug 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311733108

Tristan Gregory

Tristan is a writer, computer programmer, and martial arts instructor living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Book preview

Echoes and Memories

by Tristan Gregory

Cover art by Kjell Bunjes

© 2014 by Tristan Gregory

Smashwords Edition

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be used or reproduced in any format without permission from the author. If you would like to reproduce parts of this book for reasons commercial or private, go ahead and contact Tristan Gregory. He's a nice guy.

Table of Contents

Digital Soul

Pillar

The Last Gasp of the Dragon

Orphaned World

Too Dumb to Die/The Sea Beyond the Stars

About the Author

Digital Soul

That's the gadget, huh? Looks... impressive.

Honestly, Alan thought it looked like a cross between a salon chair and a torture device. It was a comfortable-looking seat upholstered in black leather with a metal bowl on top. The torture part came from the braces and clamps that would immobilize his head when he sat down. The contraption sat at the center of a cylindrical steel chamber about twenty feet in diameter. Bright fluorescent lights in the ceiling made it seem like a display piece in a furniture store.

My pride and joy, replied Daniel. Have a seat. Glad you finally agreed to this, by the way. I know you've been busy lately.

Hey, once they told me why I was picked it was hard to say no.

One of the top hundred unadjusted IQs in the world? Yeah, pretty flattering. Might want to stretch your neck a bit before we start. The process will take awhile, but after about eighteen hours we'll have a complete quantum map of your brain.

Alan craned his head this way and that, then rubbed at the back of his neck. And what will you use that for?

Daniel looked up from his work. Didn't you read the email I sent you? It explained everything.

You linked me to an academic article, Dan. I'm a mathematician, I never studied particle physics – now spell it out for me.

Fine, fine, said Dan. Okay, so the inherent problem is that we still don't understand the human brain that well. What is consciousness? What is self-awareness? How do some people – such as yourself – seem to have an intuition that transcends rational thought? We found out years ago that the brain itself doesn't operate purely on chemical-physical properties. There are quantum-level phenomena going on in there. So, with this quantum map we can take the study down to the most basic level. Once we understand the fundamental workings, it opens up all sorts of possibilities. We could finally achieve true artificial intelligence, for instance. Personality repair for people with psychopathologies, maybe. Even virtual resurrection.

Holy hell. Resurrection?

"Virtual resurrection. We're taking a snapshot of your brain at the smallest possible scale. Once we understand how it works, and once we build a computer powerful enough, we can compute the next moment, and then the next, and so on. Simulating the exact workings of your mind, as it were."

Dan's eyes were gleaming, then he chuckled and shrugged. Sadly, all that is a long ways out. The mapping tech came along a lot faster than the rest. Just figuring out how all this data fits together will take years. Decades, even. We're talking zettabytes of data here – that's 21 zeroes, smart guy.

I knew that one.

Sure ya did. Ready?

Alan looked askance at the chair once more.

I guess, he said, setting himself down in the leather.

Dan bent down and closed the clamps around Alan's head, rendering him motionless from the neck up. A moment later a woman came in and inserted an IV into a vein on Alan's forearm. The tubes led outside the chamber.

We're gonna keep your hydration and blood-sugar levels as close to stasis as we can, Dan explained. He lowered the metal bowl until it rested just above Alan's vision, then he and the nurse exited the steel chamber and closed the heavy door with a loud clang. Dan's voice came back a moment later via speakers in the ceiling.

All right, now I explode your head like a baked potato. Joking... probably. Comfy in there?

Not sure that's the word for it. These clamps are pretty snug, Alan said as he tested the restraints. He couldn't move his head more than a couple millimeters in any direction. How long until you send me to sleep?

Just a few moments. We need to record some surface activity to make sure we get all the moving parts down correctly.

You make my brain sound like a go-kart.

On top of Dan's voice, Alan heard the click-clack of a keyboard. Yep. A really, really nice go-kart. How's Miranda?

Alan tried to wince, but the head-clamps stifled the action.

Honestly, I think she might divorce me.

What?

She hates that I spend so much time at work. She says she's miserable; she married a robot... stuff like that.

Shit, I'm sorry. Maybe you should go on a vacation or something. Take some time off?

"I don't want time off. I'm doing interesting work. Important work. Besides, it's not like we're never together! I love her to death, but she just... ah, fuck. I don't even know."

Okay, okay. Listen, forget all that. I'm about to send you under – try and dream about that big steak dinner I owe you for this.

A blink. Suddenly, two other people were there, standing right in front of him. A short guy with a thick brown beard, and a tall, Nordic-looking woman with nice tits. They looked on expectantly. He tried to glance around, but his head was still immobilized.

Who are you? Where's Dan?

- owe you for this.

A blink. Suddenly, two other people were there. A guy with a beard, and a tall blonde woman with an impressive chest. They were just standing there watching him.

What's going on?

They glanced at each other instead of answering. He realized that even the room had changed, and tried to look around – but his head wouldn't move.

The blonde woman stepped forward. Sir, you -

- owe you for this.

He blinked, and two different people were there; a tall black guy with close-cut hair, and an almost-as-tall blonde woman with big jugs.

Who... Where'd Dan go? Alan asked.

They didn't answer him. The woman kept staring at him, while the man glanced sideways. Out of the very corner of his vision Alan saw something move, but he found he couldn't turn his head to look. He couldn't even move his eyeballs.

Then he noticed the change in the room. He was no longer in the big steel cylinder. Now he sat in a lab that had banks of computer readouts. There was a picture on a desk behind the woman, too far away to make out.

What the hell is going on? Alan demanded.

Suddenly the woman moved forward and knelt down to meet his eyes.

Dr. Alan Zolinski?

Yes. And you are?

For some reason, the woman smiled broadly at his answer.

My name is Dr. Deborah Herold. Please be calm, sir, but -

She broke off and glanced behind her at the black guy. He, in turn, looked to his side again and then gave her a thumbs-up sign with both hands. Deborah turned back to Alan, still wearing that weird, triumphant smile.

Dr. Zolinski, it has been eighty years since you underwent the quantum mapping process.

Eighty years. Eighty years. It should have been a simple number but somehow it was not. It was an alien phrase, utterly incomprehensible.