Chapter 5
Jon spent the next hour putting things away. Several more containers off ice-creams were given to frittens. He froze all the pizzas and pizza rolls. He stashed the water, cookies, and crackers. Heather assisted. When it was all squared away, he lowered the appliances, the kitchen islands, and the extra chairs. The living area was now at maximum free space.
“I am sorry. I didn’t ask if you were hungry,” Jon said.
Heather began to cry.
“I do have healthy food. I can even accommodate full vegan,” Jon said.
“I need to go home,” Heather said.
“If there is a way to get you home, I will,” Jon said. Tears continued to flow. “Let’s go for a walk.”
“I will die if I can’t go home,” Heather said.
Eos came a little closer.
“Please explain,” Jon said.
Heather seemed to be deliberating. She decided to just own it:
“I had J.I.A. as a kid, and it lingered, so I take a med regimen that requires me to check my white counts. I…”
“Juvenile idiopathic arthritis,” Jon stated.
“Wow. I am impressed…” Heather said.
“Why didn’t tell me?” Jon asked.
“I never know when to disclose it…” Heather said.
“You didn’t call me back! It wasn’t the other way around,” Jon said.
“My life is complicated, and you are so nice…”
“My decisions to make, not yours,” Jon said. “At least, at that stage of the game. I still don’t get it. How would this interfere with a friendship or even a more intimate relationship? It’s not catchy. I am more likely to be a threat to you if your white counts are down. Then again, you were working in health care at the time and are more likely to be exposed to things more virulent than I encounter on a daily basis…”
“I just have swelling and flare ups that make me more sensitive, and I probably over protect my joints out of worry…” Heather said.
“Oh, okay. That’s reasonable. Shouldn’t stop coffee. Might result in less vigorous sex? Hypothetically, I mean. I am not saying we’re going to have sex,” Jon said.
“Sir, you had me at juvenile idiopathic arthritis…”
“Oh, well, then, I should probably inform you I have J.I.J.O.S.,” Jon said.
“I have no clue what that is…”
“Juvenile idiopathic jerk off syndrome. It’s lingered and I never know when I should disclose it or if I should even ever bring it up,” Jon said.
Heather laughed. “It sounds dreadful. However do you cope?”
“I suddenly have nothing clever to say. It’s actually terribly embarrassing, and leads to family secrets, and not a magazine in the house is safe,” Jon said.
Hear wiped her eyes. “That reminds me how my older sister and I fought over my Harry Potter Broom.”
“Oh, I remember that! They took it off the market,” Jon said.
“Yeah. I still don’t know what my parents did with it,” Heather said.
“Did you check mom’s closet?” Jon asked.
“I did.”
Jon raised medical table from the floor, and tap the bed. “Hop up.”
Heather looked at him suspiciously.
“No,” Heather said.
“Medical, not sex,” Jon said. “You and I will not be having sex.”
He opened a drawer in the bed and pulled out an instrument.
“Come on, hop up,” Jon said.
“You’re a doctor, now?” Heather asked.
“No, and I don’t need one as long as Eos is functional. Hop up,” Jon said.
Heather sat on the end of the table. Her feet touched the steps at the end. Jon brought the instrument to her but she pointed at him. Jon stepped back and demonstrated. It came on like flashlight. He put his against hand, revealing it didn’t hurt.
“Just a light,” Jon said.
“Just a light?” Heather said.
“Put your hand out,” Jon said.
Heather put the hand out. Jon touched the lighted end of the device to her hand. Jon looked to Eos. She produced a holographic image of Heather standing in front of them. It looked solid real. She made stats available in windows beside the body. Eos flashed her hand and the holographic rendition of Heather changed to reveal internal organs, bones. Eos moved her fingers, removing layers. She highlighted artifact of interest. The bones seemed to wax and wane in terms of density.
Heather was fascinated. “What’s up with the bones?”
“Oh, good eye,” Eos said. “Most people think bones are solid, static, but they’re actually living tissues, and quite dynamic. If you noticed the cyclic nature of their expansion and contraction, it’s coordinates with your breath. You breathe in, the bones become denser. You breathe out, they become softer.” She expanded window, link to the lungs. “Did you smoke?”
“Second hand,” Heather said.
“I am always amazed how much the lung looks like an inverted tree,” Jon said.
“It makes me think of fractals,” Eos said. “No matter what scale, you find fractal patterns.”
A pedestal rose from the floor. The surface was a singular hexagon. There was a glass door that allowed one to see an illuminated compartment. In the compartment was small paper cup. Eos retrieved it, a bottle of water, and brought these to Heather. There was a red, yellow, and blue pill in the paper cup. Jon put away the medical device. Heather looked at the pills.
“Let me guess, the red one wakes me up, the blue one sends me back to earth, and the yellow one, makes my pee smell funny,” Heather said.
“No,” Eos said. “Based on your full body scan, which includes a comprehensive, multiphasic genetic…”
“Stop with the tech babble,” Heather said.
“In order to be healthy, we need to understand your genetics, and the genetics of every living creature you are host to,” Eos said. “You’re host to flora and fauna. They affect you. They help digest food. They help maintain your biorhythms and your homeostasis. If you have the wrong gut bacteria you will either be overweight or underweight. Fortunately, you are host to incredibly diverse and stable biological system. These pills will maximize their potential, bring in more synergistic functioning, and correct your medical problems. Your white counts are in tolerance. Take this medication, and eat what I recommend, you will see improvement in all health domains, and will likely add a hundred years to your life.”
“Really?”
“Well, you could add more if you reasonably exercise, do yoga, incorporate improved mental health strategies, and use mantras,” Eos said.
“Mantras?”
“You already talk to yourself every day, why not make that inner dialogue purposeful,” Eos said.
“Take the medication,” Jon said. “It will cure you, and will never have to take your med regimen again.”
“Really?”
“This is a cure, not a treatment,” Eos said. “You are still subject to injuries and exposure to nature, so you can still get sick. The yellow pill is essentially a vaccination.”
“For what?”
“All the known problem makers on Mars and Earth,” Eos said.
“Even COVID?”
“I don’t know anything about that one. I am not connected to the cloud. I don’t conference with Earth,” Eos said.
“Take the pills,” Jon said. “I will make you something to eat.”
“Make her steak, grilled, with grilled, bacon wrapped, stuff jalapeños,” Eos said.
“I don’t eat meat,” Heather said.
Jon headed away.
Eos looked at her. “Your teeth, your gut, your bacteria, and your DNA, says otherwise.”
“If it helps,” Jon said. “No animals died for us to eat.”
Heather looked at the floor. “I would really like a stake. Medium rare.”
“Got it,” Jon said.
Heather accepted the pill cup. She stopped. “What do I owe you?”
“Nothing,” Eos said.
“Jon is in debt to Earth and Mars. If I take this, am I indebted?” Heather asked.
“I don’t know,” Eos said. “As far as I am concerned, this is a gift from Jon to you. If anyone asks, say that was payment for bringing you here against your will. They’ll get that. Most of them.”
Heather knocked back the pills and chased it with the water. She asked Eos about the word love written on the bottle. She touched the word ‘love.’
“Jon is conducting his own experiment about changing the quality of the water with intent and meditation,” Eos said, taking the paper cup to dispose of it. The medical dispenser disappeared into the floor. The bed disappeared after Heather departed. Jon had brought the island up and was cooking. The grill had been hidden under the tile. There was six bacon wrapped, stuff jalapeños, and two incredibly round steaks.
“What is that?” Heather asked.
“Brontosaurus steaks,” Jon said.
“We’re eating dinosaurs?”
“Better than cow meat, and you won’t know the difference,” Jon said. “You want to eat outside? We’re in for a good sunset.”
“We’re really on Mars?” Heather said.
Jon nodded, rotating the jalapeños. He distributed the food to two plates, offered knife and fork, and offered her a towel. They both carried their own plate, with Heather following back to the wrap around corridor, out the front airlock, and around to a table at the side of the dome. They sat. Eos came out with a bottle of wine and two glasses. She read it: ‘Martian Rites’ Earth year, 1743. She poured two glasses, set them in front of Jon and Heather, and then sat at the table with them. She conjured up holographic food to eat with them, and started with the wine.
“I would let it breathe a moment,” Eos said, thinking about it. “Yes, it will be alright.”
Jon ate his steak, looking out over the Martian landscape. It seemed peaceful. Frittens were perched on stones, trying to capture as much sun before they returned to the burrows. There were insects, big enough to give chase to sparrows.
Heather was absorbed by the quality of the steak. She couldn’t speak for a moment.
“Is it really brontosaurus?” Heather asked.
“It’s real meat. It was grown artificially,” Jon said. “In the old days, hunters could take the lower end of a tail and the animals was not harmed. Well, it hurts, but by the time the brontosaurus knew it had been hurt, the hunters were gone. It grew its tail back.”
“How is it grown?”
“I cut the grass, and collect leaves, this goes into making various lines of meat,” Eos said. “What we don’t eat, goes back into nature. Without Jon and I regulating this Oasis, it would likely fall back to desert. Once there is enough biomass on the surface, it will return to regulating itself.”
“What was the great war about?” Heather asked.
“There were survivors of the extinction event that took out the dinosaurs on Earth,” Jon said. He tested the wine and looked at Eos as if he didn’t agree with her earlier assessment. “They were mad. Mars was thriving and they didn’t want Mars to take over the Earth after the catastrophe, and so they nuked Mars to level the playing field.”
“That’s nuts…”
“Earth has the same policy,” Jon said. “If there was nuclear war with the US and Russia, the US and Russia have every intention of nuking every one so that the whole planets goes back to the stone age, not just the US and Russia. The Last thing the Americans want is Mexico to take back what was theirs. And a whole bunch of folks would like to own real-estate in Russia.”
“That’s nuts,” Heather said again.
Jon shrugged.
“But didn’t the Devons explain it to them?” Jon said.
“There are lots of things that people don’t understand,” Jon said. “Just because you have access to knowledge, it doesn’t mean you are also being influenced by ideology, or philosophical opposition, or emotions. People see what they see. They are where they are. It’s not good or bad. It is just is.”
“It’s bad,” Heather said.
“I am operating from a perspective that says there is more to life than the physical one we live. There is an afterlife,” Jon said.
“For everyone and everything? Does that mean you can allow genocide?”
“It’s only genocide if human kills all humans. If nature does it, well, that’s just a recalibration,” Jon said. “If you live by a volcano and it blows up, well- that’s not evil. That nature. Now, if you were wise to the signs and you could evacuate, you should do that.”
“And if you had tech that could defuse the volcano, you should do that,” Heather said.
“The dinosaurs had the technical ability to detect and stop the asteroid,” Jon said. “The Devons actually gave warning. The Devons made available large ships to carry away anyone who wanted to leave. They took samples of every species on earth. It was a massive effort, and it tore families apart. Some wanted to leave. Some wanted to stay. And then there was the controlling party that said it was impossible- and pushed no asteroid would take them out paradigm because they were too good to die. They have lived in paradise hundreds of millions of years, and the Great Mind would never allow the destruction of the world.”
“They could have stopped it?”
“They only needed consensus,” Jon said. “Heather, as individuals, we think we’re in control most the time, but in truth- we, too, are just planets floating in space, and we advance through consensus. The collective unconscious is a real thing. You have seen it played out. There can be two bands, equally entertaining, and advanced musical skills- one makes it, the other doesn’t. You find this in all arenas. Some smart people just don’t advance, while less smart people end up in positions to make decisions. It’s not about fairness. You got to drop the fairness out of the equation in order to start getting access to the deeper game.”
“Can you tell me more about that?” Heather asked.
“You are not my Padawan,” Jon said.
“I could be,” Heather said.
Jon drank his wine. Eos mirrored him.
“It’s not that bad,” Eos said.
“Trade you,” Jon said.
“Are you two married?” heather asked.
“No,” Eos said. “He is too attached to his dream girl.”
“You’re dating someone?” Heather asked.
“It’s complicated,” Jon said.
“Oh?” Heather asked.
“Are you finished?”
“Yes,” Heather said.
Jon scraped the portions she didn’t eat onto his plate, ate her unfinished jalapeño, and carried the rest out to scrape onto a rock. He took the dishes inside. Heather followed and watched as he put things away, explaining the machine would clean and restore them to their place. He then led her to his bedroom door. He showed her how to open it, showed her the bathroom. Eos had already made her a toothbrush, floss, and cup. There was fresh towels, a washcloth, and clothes that looked exactly like she was wearing, folded up nicely on the counter.
“Eos can show you how to turn on the shower and work the toilet,” Jon said. “She can also print you something else to wear if you spend a little time with her. You will have my bed. I will be on the couch if you need anything.”
“It’s a big bed,” Heather said.
“I will be on the couch if you need anything,” Jon said.
“Seriously, Jon, we’re adults, we can share a bed together,” Heather said.
“No, seriously, we can’t,” Jon said.
“Because your ideal girl?” Heather said.
“No….”
“Because you might attack me in your sleep?” Heather asked.
“Might. I will sleep on the couch, that’s it,” Jon said.
“I could give you permission…”
“No,” Jon said. “I will not be intimate with you under the present conditions.”
“I am open…”
“It’s called Stockholm Syndrome,” Jon said.
“Or maybe the wine,” Heather said.
“That. And the fact the medication worked,” Jon said.
“What?” Heather said, stepping back. “You put something…”
“Stop,” Jon said. “That’s another reason we’re not going to share a bed. Look, the medication is making you healthy. If you get healthy in any domain, libido naturally goes up. So, you never worked out, but you start going to the gym, your libido goes up. You’re depressed, and you go to a counselor and improve mentally, your libido goes up. You work on emotional stability, you libido will go up. For the first time in your life, you are safe, you are healthy, and you have been well fed. Your libido is up.”
“And yours?”
“It’s always up,” Jon said. “If you need anything, other than that, I will be on the couch. Good night.”
Jon left the room. Eos entered as he left. Eos touched him as he passed.
“I was really hopeful that was going to play out differently,” Eos said.
“Me, too,” Heather said. “I really did like him way back when.”
“That’s a good start. Give yourself more time to acclimate,” Eos said. “He’ll come around.”
“If he doesn’t?” Heather asked.
“It is what it is,” Eos said.
Eos showed her the shower. And then, showed her how to design and make clothes. They made pajamas together. They used mirrors and holograms to complete a virtual wardrobe. While Heather showered, Eos printed the selected clothes and brought them in to her.