A Thirteenth Hour, page 14
“In an hour we are all putting our journals in it and setting the time lock for one-hundred and eighty days. They’ll check it in two hours just to make sure that we did it right. They don’t seem too interested in making us ‘toe the line’ or act like soldiers. I’m putting this journal away now!”
“It’s been six months since we all volunteered. We took two pills twice daily. (one of the side effects was that our internal organs re-invigorated and partially regenerated)! We had light exercises during that time period; by the anniversary of our first month they told us that we were part of a mental enhancement program(?). They had high hopes of drastically increasing our intelligence! We were all allowed to drink alcohol(!), but no narcotics; except for mild pain medication for head-aches. Oh(!) the liquor was distilled right at Camp Alaskan. They made clean potent spirits and the beer and wine was previously imported.”
“Cigarettes, Cigars and soda were all you wanted. Our duties were small and flexible. I realized, eventually; just before they announced the program; this was no ordinary military or paramilitary post.”
“The Lieutenant Colonel took the drugs with the rest of us. He explained, a number of times, that his military service had resulted in an extra-ordinary number of head concussions that had allowed him to participate with us. Oh(!) his name was Lieutenant Colonel Conrad Searly.”
“To tell you the truth this place seems more like summer camp rather than a military instillation. On guard the Army soldiers dressed in military uniform, and off guard duty they dressed in ordinary civilian clothing. What I later discovered to be odd was that all the Army personnel were either officers or very senior enlisted personnel. The best thing was that it was a co-ed camp. So, it wasn’t a monastery or convent. To maintain order we had six Catholic Priests as Chaplin’s. No-one wanted to disappoint the three men who held all of our heads as we went through withdraw or delirium tremors.”
“The Chaplains led ‘rap’ groups too. It was a place where you could talk about almost anything; as long as you sublimated your anger. The priests wasted no time in recruiting a young Dr. of psychology to fill in for them when they were busy. The young Doctor also led nature hikes; his avocation was hiking. They, eventually were allowed to venture up to eight miles away from the posts structured area, with the young Doctor along with ‘our’ Priests showed by example that we weren’t there to feel shame. They, the government, had a plan and we were learning rules that quite often we were left to assess ourselves, and to discover what was happening without being told.”
“It took me a while to realize that when the Doctor (M.D.) was handing out our drug regimen and asking about personal information along with courteous inanities; he was studying us and the effect of the drugs he gave us. The other Doctor was female and married and she was almost always in the laboratory or working on the medical computers and other medical hardware; both her and her husband seemed nice and interested in our welfare but stand-offish. Some of the other candidates in the program knew Lt. Colonel Searly and some Doctor Warken and her husband. All from college. Maybe they had put in a good word for those candidates to get them into the program.”
“We have all seemed to have a better and clearer thought processes with the drugs we were taking. I assumed that at least part of my clarity had mostly been the product of a better diet and light exercise. I supposed that we were hoping for a clear indication that we had more ‘brain power.”
“I did note my desire to read for pleasure was heightened. I spent time in the communal library and night-time reading. There was a classified library, but we have not had permission to go there yet; much less check out material. Some of the candidates have reported strange dreams and a few reported hallucinations. I hope that this does not mean the program will end. I decided to wait one month to write in this journal again. Oh(!) tomorrow is our last day of drug treatments, but Dr. Warken has been smiling a lot lately. A good sign.”
“It’s been two months since I locked this journal up! We have had large upward spikes in intelligence by all of us ‘volunteers.’ Memory abilities have risen from a small amount to a very large margin; sort of randomly.”
“I found myself ruffling through an applied calculus book and finally understanding derivatives. I could explain them too, which made me wonder why derivatives have never been explained to me that way before! I got a little mad at that, but I was so happy at making the right mental connections, to my previous knowledge, that I let the anger pass me by.”
“At about that point and time some of the officers held classes that we were free to attend. All of us attended at least some classes. The length of the classes were at least five months each. They were all lectures mixed with a conversation jam session. There was no grading and any take home work was optional.”
“We are in the fourth month of scheduled classes and Dr. Warken addressed us at midmorning. She explained that some of us were having unforeseen psychic experiences: for example foretelling dreams and random visions. She also said that her and the other Doctor were ‘picking up’ various degrees of an illness that either was or was akin to delayed stress disorder” She smiled; it seemed sorrowfully. She said “our problem is that we have to cure or at least stabilize a disease that is attacking most of us for this project to work!” The disease is not, apparently deadly but it could disrupt time-tables and have unforeseen effects. Our time is limited and we are threatened by the unknown side effects; if only by the uncertainty it generates.
“I’ve been given the option of determining our next move. We can all withdraw while medical teams research the new and some-what random side effects, or we can take positive action. I’ve, with confidence in all of you, opted for positive action. Our course of action is to break into groups to see if we can cure the novel ‘Delayed Stress Disorder!”
She paused naturally for what I guess was about a minute and all of us thought she was finished, but she wasn’t finished! “If we can do this there are other projects demanding our urgent attention. I know that many of you will feel this is a lot to ask, but all of you through statistics and chemical testing are moving at an upward arc as far as a developing intelligence progression movement is concerned. For this project it is also the best time to exercise ‘our’ minds for maximum intellectual gain; it’s rough, but I think it’s all do-able. All classes, chores, exercising and social activities are cancelled for three days’ rest, and then we get to work.”
“The Priests helped all, roughly, forty-eight thousand of us break into one-hundred and fifty person groups; I don’t know how they arrived at that number. The Priests chose three leaders for each group. They rotated in a three day term cycles as leaders of each individualized group. Once in our groups, the Priests allowed all of us to help choose sub-group leaders. They were a channel to the rest of the members of the group. The group leaders met with them and assigned small projects to the sub groups.”
“The group leaders all met together every second week to exchange information. At the second half of that meeting we presented to the Army Officers in charge a progress report.”
“We were given access to top secret research reports and a vetted file that explained, in general, the program and pharmaceuticals we had been taking. The Fact that we only worked on our projects, and had access to ‘eyes only files,’ as well as the trust put in each of us to operate freely should have scared us, but the positive momentum of our own personal changes; along with encouragement from the higher echelon; made us feel we could succeed.”
“It’s been three months and we found the delayed stress cure! Ready for this(?): It’s(!) vinegar mixed with walnuts and made into a crunchy chocolate drop snack! How did we get that? We followed several lines of thought, at the same time: pharmaceuticals, chemistry, and agricultural science knowledge’s. We were given three days to do rewrites and then turn in all notes. They gave us a two week vacation for everyone.”
“it’s been another eight months. Our success in solving the ‘Delayed Stress’ question was seen as very encouraging, but not as conclusive as of the possible magnitude of our talents. The upper echelon allowed us to choose a topic to work on to show our heightened abilities. We chose regeneration. They chose one project themselves. This was when the elation of our success was cut by some fear. We had no excuses not too succeed anymore. We didn’t feel like the ‘underdogs.’
“At this time we are packing for separate research stations. I have a wife and a baby on the way. By that I mean my wife is already with me; not that I’m sending for her. Our answers to the projects we worked on came out in the groups affirmations as positive. Some of the groups chose to act as general research assistants to various reshuffled groups tackling pieces of their particular research problems.”
“We cracked both problems plus one. When I was working on the problem of a nuclear ‘fizz’ with my group we managed to crack faster than light travel; as a result of a theorem question we had hypothesized to elaborate and resolve ‘my’ nuclear ‘fizz’ problem.”
“By accident we solved an important question. It did help us crack ‘our’ fizz question. The nuclear fizz solution is still relevant even if humanities population grows much larger outside of our solar system, but FTL does give humanity options. A politician who is one of the candidates said to me ‘you can never have enough options.”
“One hundred years of age reversal and regeneration! And, no one need to be blind wheelchair bound or suffer from a permanent amputation!”
“I am beyond being shocked, but ‘they’ say I will be when the former Vice President of the United States meets with all the candidates of our now separating groups.”
“Pretty soon a special burnt walnut vodka liquor will be available; It helps a lot with addictions. They say that will be one groups next problem: to trace the origins and causes of addictions!”
John Rizzato, A Thirteenth Hour
