DARK MATTER

By Josh K

{FORWARD:  This story is crap.  That is why it is a hidden link rather than a regular one.  I literally was on the crapper one day and thought this up.  I wrote it down right afterwards and decided to post it as a sequel to Earth(tm).  Just remember that this is merely a first draft of a fleeting thought, with little structure or development.  Hence, I hid it so that only the freaks and geeks that might get a kick out of it will find it.}

Dr. Warner entered into the meeting room. He was instructed to sit at the far end of the table, which he obediently did. His mind wondered to thoughts about what it was he had done. He broke the one rule that Adam had left for him, not to disassemble the device. He had been spending the past three years studying it's effect on cancer patients. Every single one was cured. Studies showed that not only were they cured, but the cancerous DNA was repaired at the molecular level. Still, not even the slightest clue as to why.

Three years ago he had met him. He had received an e-mail asking for a meeting that any oncologist would die for. When he arrived, Adam told him something that was and still is unbelievable. He had created a small implant that, when inserted under the skin, would stop the progression of even the worst forms of cancer dead in their tracks. Warner almost walked out when he heard that it was to be his job to find out the mechanism by which it worked. He was given a lab with as many resources as he wanted, as long as he didn't open the device.

Now he sits in a very different meeting room. Cold stainless steel desks, floors and chairs. He knew that Adam had caught him. What he didn't know is what would happen. The whole project seemed to have had a very dark side to that, it was likely that it would only get darker. He wasn't sure that this would be a simple termination of contract.

Adam finally entered into the room. He was dressed formally, despite spiked hair and the track marks that Warner knew were under the sleeves.  Slowly, Adam rested his hands on the table across from him.

"I think that you know why you have been asked to meet me today," he carefully removed his glasses and set them on the table in front of him, "You violated the one and only rule I asked you to obey. Everything for this monumental research project was given to you without question, without doubt, provided you followed that rule. Lab assistants, the latest computers, technology that wasn't even declassified were all yours to work with. So tell me, what did you find when you opened up the implant?"

Warner felt his pulse rise, "There was nothing in it at all. Just a hollowed out metal mold surrounded by glass." As he spoke, Adam poured himself a class of water.

"Yes, I suppose that would be how it appears to you. I have it here with me." He pulled out a small bag marked 'Biohazard' from the inner pocket of his suit, "Take a look at it with these glasses on." He tossed the bag and his glasses over. Looking at it now, Warner saw thousands of small neon particles of different shapes moving in the bag, concentrated around the capsule.

"What is it?"

"It is a set of self interacting Trojans. Interference codes that break down the barrier between the physical body and the system core."

"This sounds like a lot of new age babble to me. I knew from the start that this project had no basis in science."

"You have seen the results yourself. They are undeniable."  Warner felt waves of disbelief as Adam continued speaking,  "The fact is that none of this is really real. Not you, not me. Years ago I discovered that when there was a glitch in my programing code for sleep.  It was then that I discovered the very digital nature of the world around us. I was hunted.  For several years I hid around outside this world in networks of the next," Warner got up to leave.

"Look, I do not have time for this. I just spent the last three years chasing shadows just to discover that you're a madman.  I set up a dead man's switch on my lab computer, so if you don't let me go I won't be able to enter the code to stop it from sending out detailed information about my whereabouts to every government agency that is willing to listen." As he got out of his chair, he felt his body being pushed back down without his control. The walls and ceiling seemed to shimmer ever so lightly, revealing what appeared to be fractals beneath them.

"Your computer no longer exists. Nor does your lab. All of this can be made and unmade with the press of a button. Perhaps a demonstration is necessary." He pulled out his handheld computer made a few keystrokes. The entire room started to wash off, like the steal was just water colors over some other room. They were sitting at the table in a kitchen, Adam was wearing a chefs coat and hat. "This used to be my 'lab' before the events that lead to my new lifestyle. I learned to hide what I knew from those that held control of this world we live in that is nothing more than a research simulation. After years of selfish indulgence, I decided that this world was as real as anything else and that I should try to make some sort of contribution. That is when I created the implant."

"So you must think you are quite the altruistic type, don't you?"

"Not at all. This is just what I regard as my atonement for squandering the potential of my burden. The problem is that I can not release an empty capsule to the market as a cancer miracle treatment. I needed to find out how the software that governs our world translates the raw code into a functional cure. That was why I choose you to work at my lab. There were two before you, both also failed." Adam walked over and took a seat next to Warner, "I know that this is allot to handle all at once. It was my hope to lay this all on you slowly, that was why it was so important for you not to find out about the implant. I so hoped that you would succeed where everyone else has failed, and prove that there was some physical level to the code."

"What happened to the others?"

"The same thing that will happen to you. They continue their work, but from a new perspective. They become like me." Adam reached behind his back and his hand returned with a small white bead on the end of his index finger, "This will become a part of you, and allow you the ability to use the operating system for Earth. You, the others, and I will look for alternative answers and a new scientist to study the implant. Discovering a real world mechanism is imperative to the device's viability."

"What if I don't want to do this?"

"You and I both know that is not the case.  Close your eyes, the feeling can be somewhat disorienting." Adam pressed the bead up against Warner's forehead. He felt a slight coldness, and the creeping nausea he felt when he first touched the slimy surface of a frog as a child. The feeling shook throughout his body and he felt as if he could almost see the room moving though his shut eyelids. There was paralysis, a rushing noise in his ears, and the feeling of blood surging into his head, then calm. He opened his eyes. The room was the same as when he closed them. Adam led him back to his room.  Everything was the same, yet he knew that could never be the case again.  For once he could say, "The world is what you make of it."