Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 17:21:18 -0500 (CDT) From: 2EI5ZEMANP@vms.csd.mu.edu Subject: "In Your Eyes" - Part VII Message-Id: <01H46SBO5U3490NLAT@vms.csd.mu.edu> IN YOUR EYES Part VII By Philip Zeman 2ei5zemanp@vms.csd.mu.edu "Hey, Ziggy, you're not still mad at me for that crack I made, are you?" NO, I HAVE PASSED THE POINT OF BEING ANGERED. Neal thought about this for a moment; he was still enthralled by a fully aware, self-cognizant computer. "Well, would you mind answering a few questions?" I DON'T SEE THE HARM; AFTER ALL, ADMIRAL CALAVICCI HAS ALREADY TOLD YOU MOST OF WHAT'S GOING ON, DISOBEYING MANY RULES IN THE PROCESS. "Yeah, about those rules; why are there so darn many of them anyway?" DOCTOR BECKETT AND OTHERS INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT HAVE MADE NUMEROUS ARRANGEMENTS TO KEEP THIS PROJECT A PRIORITY ONE TOP-SECRET GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENT. AFTER HE LEAPED, THE PROJECT HEADS DECIDED THAT EACH LEAPEE SHOULD KNOW AS LITTLE ABOUT HIS OR HER OWN FUTURE AS POSSIBLE, TO AVOID CONFLICTS. "Wait a minute. `Him or _her_?' You mean Sam's Leaped into _women_?" Neal stifled a laugh. "Next you'll be telling me he's been pregnant or been an dog!" He could hold back his laughter no longer. A CHIMPANZEE, ACTUALLY, AND HE HAS BEEN PREG-- "Don't tell me, Ziggy, I don't want to know. Anyway, why did you tell me this? Al said something about reminding me of Sam. Do I remind you of him, too?" YES. I CAN SEE THE SAME INSPIRATION AND GENIUS OF DOCTOR BECKETT IN YOUR EYES. AND ALTHOUGH YOUR PASTS ARE NOT COMPLETELY IDENTICAL, A PARALLEL CAN BE DRAWN. DOCTOR BECKETT WENT TO COLLEGE AT A YOUNG AGE; YOU LOOK YOUNG AND YOU'RE IN COLLEGE. "Thanks for reminding me. Man, it's so hard to be accepted at school. Everywhere I go, I feel like everybody is looking at me, wondering why the hell a little kid is at school. In fact, I don't go to any parties there, and I surely don't think about getting a girlfriend at college. The only person who's really accepted me for who I am is Janet... and she loves me for it." NEAL, MAY _I_ ASK YOU A QUESTION? "Shoot." WHY DO HUMANS FALL IN LOVE? WHY DO THEY DO THE THINGS THEY DO? "I don't know. Check Shakespeare." INTERESTING. DOCTOR BECKETT TOLD ME THE EXACT SAME THING. Neal held his hand up. "Whoa, back the train for a minute. These similarities are getting too weird for me. Let's change the subject. What is Sam's mission here?" YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT. TO GET YOU AND JANET TO STAY TOGETHER. "But how? What's Sam doing?" HE IS SIMPLY FOLLOWING MY HYPOTHESIS: TO GET YOU AND JANET ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED. Neal's expression turned to shock, and when he spoke, his voice had an icy edge. "And what does _that_ mean?" CONSIDERING YOUR AGE AND CROSS-REFERENCING PROFILES OF TYPICAL COLLEGE FRESHMEN IN 1992 -- AND LISTENING TO ADMIRAL CALAVICCI THESE PAST YEARS -- THE SOLUTION SHOULD BE QUITE SIMPLE: TO SLEEP WITH HER. Neal jumped from his seat. "SLEEP WITH HER? What the hell are you doing, trying to ruin my life? For God's sake, I'd never sleep with a woman until I'm married! Neither would Janet! You say you're trying to help, but you're just screwing up my life royally!" Neal swung furiously at the air, trying to hit something, trying to release his anger physically. YOU MEAN YOU DON'T WANT TO SLEEP WITH HER? "Hell no! I don't care what you do, use your communicators, activate some mental telepathy, hell, I don't know, but get Sam to stop RIGHT NOW!" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Al entered the Imaging Chamber, unaware of what was transpiring in another part of the project. The Observer only cared about one thing: getting Sam to realize that sleeping with Janet was the only way. Too bad Mr. Morals was stubborn about things like that. And Al loved him for it. There were times he really missed Sam, and this was one of those times. Having the young-Sam personality twin had increased the normal longing to an even greater degree. But that was not the problem for the moment. "Okay Gooshie, center me in on Sam!" Immediately, Al was transported to what appeared to be an empty bedroom. Then the door opened and the light immediately shed its illuminating beam over all. The figure who caused these events to happen jumped back. "I hate it when you appear in an empty room like that, Al!" "Next time I'll page you first." Al knew the joke was stupid, but he had to ease his tensed nerves. "Very funny, Al. Listen, you better have something good for me. Janet's in the other room right now, and believe me, it's going to be hard to stop anything once it gets in motion. It's just me and her - and her sister, but she's asleep in the basement." "Oh that's great Sam! It should be easy for you to get her to sleep with you, then you Leap out, Neal returns, and everything's great!" Sam glared at him. "Al. how many times do I have to tell you? I don't think that's what I'm here to do. At least, not how I have to accomplish my mission. Consider this, Al." Sam gestured heaven-ward. "If it's _Him_ who's controlling my Leaps, would He condone pre-maritial sex? No, I don't think so!" "But we don't know for a fact that it's Him!" Al too pointed with his cigar. "What are the odds, Al?" "Um, er," Al fiddled with the handlink, hitting it a couple of times. "Well, Sam.." "Still the same, right? If that's my mission, why aren't the odds going up?" "Well, they did. To 62.3 %, actually. See it's right here - 62.1 %, no 59.8 %, 52.1 - what the hell is going on?" Sam peered over Al's shoulder. "Al, why are they dropping?" "I don't know! Gooshie, what's going on? What do you mean, Ziggy screwed up? He did _what_?!?" "What? What?" Sam was having trouble keeping his voice down, forgetting that the door was wide open. "Uh, Sam? It seems that Neal is, well, angry at us. It seems that Ziggy decided that Neal was a typical college student, who thought with some other organ than the brain, if you get my drift. And now, Ziggy is not projecting any new odds for fear of screwing up again" "Well, you've got to get me some new choices! First you tell me to sleep with Janet, now you tell me that I'm not, Ziggy's upset, Neal's storming the Project, what else can go wrong?" "Neal, who in God's name are you talking to?" Janet stood dumb-founded in the doorway. "Uh-oh, Sam, big trouble!" Al furiously probed the handlink, trying to get anything. "And who's this Ziggy? And the Project? And why are you talking about yourself? What's going on?" "Janet, let me explain!" Sam was struggling for words, and his friend was no help. "And what's this about sleeping with me? Now I know why you were so eager to spend the night here!" "No, that's not the reason, you misunderstood!" Janet wasn't listening. "But you did just say something about sleeping with me, to your imaginary friend or whoever, didn't you?" "Well, yes, but --" Janet slapped him, hard. Sam stepped back, rubbing his chin, but it wasn't the pain that had him reeling. It was the fact that he was failing, miserably. "Get the hell out of here, right now, Neal!" "But your parents! The empty house! What if somebody comes?" "I'd rather deal with a robber than you. I thought you were different, Neal!" She shoved Sam through the hallway and out the door. He turned around on the porch, just in time to see the door slam in his face. "Janet! Wait!" Sam called out. Amazingly, the door opened again. `Thank God, she's willing to listen to me!' But he was on the ground in a second, as Janet threw his bag of things on top of him, slamming the door again. Al looked on helplessly. All he could muster was, "I'm sorry, Sam..." And all Sam could say was, "Ohhhh, boy....."