The Old Souls Chronicles 2: Hegat and the failed crossover

7 May 2017 (read the first part called Lurch here )

Before the blood could hit the floor the two men from the health squad have taken out their vacuum guns and wiped it out in mid-air. Aron, the soft-spoken health officer moves forward and holds his hand in the nerve cuff so that his mind cannot rebel against them while they will him to stop the self-destruction he had initiated.

• Ricini, says Aron. You cannot continue with this madness. You are giving a very bad example to the youngsters here
• I don’t care says Tony and please stop calling me Mr. Ricini, my name is Tony
• Tony, continues Aron, we need to get your lungs fixed. If you wish to disappear there are other ways. You can write to the chancellor and he might approve your request to crossover
• I don’t need anyone to approve my request to crossover. I am fine doing it on my own
• You cannot do that Tony. Every mind is important and must work in coordination with the other minds, especially when it is such an old one with empirical data about the past. We need you to stay alive.
• I don’t want to stay alive, snarls Tony and the blood surges again immobilized in mid-air again by the vacuum gun of the other health officer, Hemshaw
• Sir, we need to take you to the facilities now says Hemshaw. You cannot stay here spilling blood, especially that you seem to have altered your DNA to regressive mode. We are not sure how it could affect the rest of the people around you. Who do you live with? We need to call them in for containment
• He lives alone says Aron who was reading the data from the nerve cuff. He’s been living alone for years now since his wife left
• Let’s locate her, says Hemshaw, maybe she can help us with this episode
• Don’t call her, yells Tony, his eyes getting wild and more blood spilling out of his mouth as he coughs frantically, the blood again vacuumed in mid-air by Hemshaw
• You don’t give us much choice, says Aron. The nerve cuff is overheating because you are not allowing us to still your mind.

Tony’s mind resists again frantically and the nerve cuff fuses. Aron and Hemshaw immediately cuff him on both sides and add nerve containers at the base of his neck, completely immobilizing his mind flow.

• We cannot keep him in this state says Hemshaw to Aron
• I know says Aron
• Let us call Hegat and ask her if she knows why her husband Tony wants to die

Some onlookers were getting extremely nervous at what was unfolding so Aron and Hemshaw will Tony out of the restaurant and into their cube so they can take him to the health facilities. A small team of cleaners from the health squad goes over any remaining dots from Tony’s blood all over the floor and vacuums the air as well as ionizes it fully making sure they pulse the ions into the nostrils and mouths of all the occupants of the restaurant at the same time. Before long these latter have forgotten all about the incident as a group of newcomers come in to demonstrate their newly acquired whirling skills. That is another of the attractions that made such places as restaurants the in place to be at, not only you got to consume energy the old way but you also got to see new talent in motion for free and it was always so exciting to see newcomers exhibit their newly acquired skills because they pulsed strongest with life when they first acquired those skills, shooting rainbow arrows all over, giving a high of energy to the audience that watches them.

On entering the facilities, Tony sees that Hegat, his wife, is at the reception waiting. Aron and Hemshaw salute her with respect as she, like Tony was an old soul with an old mind full of empirical data about the past. Unlike Tony, however, she seems to be full of life and in very good health. They know she is around three hundred years like her husband but her appearance is that of one of the forty year-olds from the old souls who are less than two-hundred years old. Aron like Hemshaw is a youngster and none of the youngsters ever went beyond the age of thirty in appearance because it had simply become close to impossible in the wave of Life system.

• Ma’am, your husband here is on autodestruct mode, says Aron as an introduction
• I know she says softly. Please call me Hegat
• Hegat, says Hemshaw, can you explain to us why your husband would want to self-destruct?
• He’s been like that for years, she says. That is one of the main reasons I left. He had become bitter at the fact that we were not allowed to alter our appearance as the wave of Life had hit when he was already quite old. I was thirteen years younger so I did not have a problem with my appearance and I was a morpher anyway so it did not matter. I guess working with all those youngsters who looked so fresh while he was permanently frozen in the appearance that he had expected to die with started becoming heavy after the first couple of hundred years. He started having these wild ideas that we should self-destruct and come back as youngsters even though it was specifically declared unlawful for old minds to depart. I could not report him but had difficulty resisting his daily demands so decided I should leave even though it was very painful to leave him behind
• I’m sorry Hegat, says Aron softly
• It is alright. I have got used to being away and have been working even more intensely on the Regeneris solution. I think I might have found a way to plug the Regeneris morphing gene directly into DNA so that a person does not have to go through the energy twists to regenerate appearance. This way old souls like Tony could change appearance without losing their mind integrity through the energy twists.
• You did that for me, Hegat, says Tony, his eyes full of tears and amazement
• Yes, my love, says Hegat. It has taken me all my strength to resist coming back but I knew I had to stay away or you would convince me to self-destruct with you and all that knowledge of the old would be lost for the youngsters
• They don’t need the knowledge, Hegat, says Tony. They are happy with what they have in this wave of Life and they just go about absorbing energy and interacting with each other. They don’t even need to work anymore like we did. The only meaning in their life is the life force, its energy that they inhale and exhale daily and the gimmicks that go with it like the rainbow trips and the whirling.
• That is the way of this new world Tony, says Hegat. We need to accept the transition but we also need to educate them so they do not make the mistakes of the old times.
• They come with no history, with no memory, they don’t need us, says Tony pleadingly. We are an oddity in this world and should have disappeared a long time ago like dinosaurs.
• We are not dinosaurs, we are old minds, it is a precious thing, says Hegat.
• Can you believe, continues Tony, that after I started the autodestruct mode I could no longer consume energy in the new way but had to actually have meals again? In a way it was all at once strange and soothing to actually have to eat to derive energy.

Hegat looks at her husband with a mixture of sadness and curiosity. She takes in the small additional wrinkles that had appeared from his choice of regressive DNA mode. It was all at once fascinating and horrifying that he had actually initiated the process. She reaches out and touches his face, running her fingers softly alongside the crows’ eyes close to his temples and his mind and body stills. Aron can feel Tony’s will weakening so he unhooks the nerve containers at the base of Tony’s neck and Tony’s will does not rebel. Encouraged by this Hemshaw retrieves his nerve cuff on Tony’s right arm. Aron keeps the nerve cuff on Tony’s left arm just in case they would need it but Tony’s will remains still. Even his coughing has subsided and it looks like he is reversing DNA mode to switch back to progressive and Hegat smiles as she feels the crows’ eyes reduce slightly under her fingers.

• The other day one of the youngsters wanted to know what it was like to have a baby the old way, says Hegat to Tony, her eyes locked on his
• They could always look it up in the Superim Library of the old world, says Tony, partly amused, realizing she is trying to rekindle his enthusiasm in teaching the feel
• I know that, she says but they wanted to have an immersive experience so I gave her a glimpse through my soul flow but now her husband wants to know it too so I thought of you but did not know how to approach you about it
• Well that is sorted now, isn’t it, says Tony wryly
• I guess it is, she says her gaze questioning. So will you do it?
• Do I have a choice when you look at me like that, says Tony. I am sorry my love, I have been such a fool. Living without you all those years has made me realise that appearance does not matter as long as you are with the person you love and who loves you. This is something that we have and that they, these youngsters, do not really have. They only have a pale copy of it, a sense of attachment and quiet bliss but nothing like this stark raving madness of elation and desperation that we go through respectively when together or apart
• I think we can teach them something about it with our empirical data, says Hegat smiling. As for appearance, I think Regeneris can take care of what you need
• Let’s go teach them something about the feel says Tony laughing

Aron looks at the nerve cuff on Tony’s arm and sees that the data reads married. It seems that both have decided to be together again. The data also reads progressive mode for the DNA so he smiles and slowly removes the second nerve cuff from Tony’s left arm.

• I am in for one of your sessions on the feel, says Aron to Tony
• You’ll find me in the passion section of the Superim Library, says Tony winking

Aron and Hemshaw walk towards their cube and see Tony and Hegat walking towards Hegat’s cube. They know that Tony had abandoned transportation in cube since he had entered DNA regressive mode as the cube would have immediately given away his secret and so he had had to move on foot from one place to the other, which had not helped his deteriorating condition at the time. They shake their heads at why anyone would want to attempt the old timer’s crossover instead of enjoying this life of luxury and unimaginable prosperity if you compared it to the tales of the old world that they acquired knowledge of through the pod in the Superim library. Aron was looking forward to Tony’s lessons because even though he was a youngster, he had felt moving within him emotions that were far stronger than what the average youngsters were feeling and had always thought he was a freak. This encounter with Tony was going to be a game changer for him he thought as he looked back again at the cube of Hegat disappearing in the air.

The Consolations of Philosophy – Max Richter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVFhzlR6fJY