“Never underestimate the future”

Phase 1: Keep Dreaming

Chet Heartcake revved his motorcycle.
“3…”
He called his motorcycle ‘the future’.
“2...”
It was custom built using only technology that existed up to the year 1955.
“1…”
It was Chet Heartcake versus Duke.
“Go!”

Chet accelerated full throttle, but the race was already over. The Duke3000 had already crossed the finish line. Chet’s ‘future’ was no match for Duke’s custom built holocycle that used only the most avant-garde of technology. The year was 2115.

…

The virtual sun hung low in the sky. Sunset was approaching. Duke was standing next to the Duke3000 at the finish line waiting for Chet. He was still wearing his custom designed race suit. It had been designed with only performance and aesthetics in mind, and with Duke the latter was paramount.

Chet pulled up to the Duke3000, stopped his motorcycle, and then he dismounted. Chet was wearing black leather boots. His trousers folded up to the ankles which exposed his colourful socks. On his torso was a ruffled shirt, and his sweet leather jacket.
“So, what do you think of the improvements to the Duke3000?” Duke asked with a playful smile.
Chet Heartcake tuffed his leather jacket. He then purposefully looked off towards the artificial horizon.
With professional nonchalance Chet Heartcake said “Point six of a second off your best time? One of these days you’re going to finish before I even start.”
“I thought I already had!” Duke joked.
“Next race you are going to eat those words. Never underestimate the future” Chet said with cool.
“Ha! Keep dreaming kiddo!” Duke said as he deactivated his race suit and visor helmet.
Duke’s long flowing blonde hair fell down his magnificent dress. Duke dressed somewhat like a Shogun ready for a fine gown ball.
Chet glanced down at Duke’s left hand. He couldn’t help but look. Duke had a scar on his hand. It looked like he had been knifed by a fork; straight through the palm and out the back… five prongs.
Chet had asked Duke after they first met “How do you have a scar?”
Scars were a rare thing. No one had scars anymore… well almost no one.

A Basic Nano Infusion (BNI) was given at birth to all newborns. Nanos prevented scarring, and as far as Chet was aware the only way to have a scar was to have one before a nano infusion. Even under those circumstances after nano infusion the nanos would always detect the scar tissue and return it to healthy tissue, unless of course the nanos had been modified in some sort of convoluted manner. Chet had researched extensively into how someone could have a scar in the year 2115. It was a mystery, and Chet Heartcake loved mysteries. It was the mystery of the scar and his love of racing that kept him coming back to this seemingly impossible race.

Duke noticed Chet glancing at his left hand for half a second too long. He took his gloves out from his Dress.
As he placed them on he said “You know the rules. I’ll tell you if you win, but you are never going to do it with that old thing.”
“The future will come through for me” Chet indignantly said as he tuffed his leather jacket.
“That’ll be the day” Duke said grinning.
Duke was after all undoubtedly the greatest engineer on the planet. He spent all of his time working on the Duke3000 making it faster and more efficient. The Duke3000 was on a whole other level compared to any other vehicle. Duke would not only work on his holocycle through his quantic orb virtual interface, but also he would tinker with the physical version of the machine. Chet’s motorcycle on the other hand was an ancient artefact from the 20th century. It was not the projection of a quantic orb, and it was not produced by energy to matter conversion, but instead stood as a testament to old technology. Chet worked tirelessly on ‘the future’ trying to maintain it, keeping it original yet also trying to improve upon it with limited technology capped to 1955. Chet had a certain historical interest in that period of the 20th century.

The quantic orb had nothing but advantage over archaic methods of personal transportation. Quantic orbs were essentially portable multifunctional energy to matter converters. Everyone had one… apart from Chet Heartcake. He just had the future; a blast from the past.
Regardless of the vast technological differences between the future and the Duke3000, there was no doubt in Chet’s mind that he would beat Duke one day. The future would come through for him.
Duke took out his quantic orb, and the matter that made up the Duke3000 was converted back to energy.
“Why do they call it a quantic orb?” Chet Heartcake coolly asked.
“What do you mean?” Duke asked half smiling and half expecting Chet to pull something.
“Well it looks more like a cube…” Chet noted
Duke spoke while staring off into the artificial horizon “Well as technology progresses it is going to become spherical. The name quantic orb future proofs it, but I suppose one day it may surpass the energy efficiency of a sphere and become… nondescript in appearance. And who knows what capabilities a future one of these could have… perhaps instant travel.”
“Through space and time” Chet added.
“Or dimensions” Duke said staring off at the perfect virtual sunset.
“It’s too perfect” Chet stated.
“What?" Duke responded as if some great scheme of his had been uncovered.
“The sunset…”
“Oh…”
They watched the rest of the perfect virtual sunset in silence. Watching it was a post race tradition.
“We should race on the open road next time. A real sunset would be more hep than the ho-deck” Chet coolly said as he tuffed his leather jacket.
“Sounds ojay to me” Duke spoke before saying “But you know you can’t beat me with the future. So why do you even bother?”
“You know the rules, I’ll tell you when I beat you” Chet said coolly, while leaning back onto the future.
Duke shook his head as an involuntarily grin stretched across his face. It was a reaction that Chet would always induce. He was one of the few people who could make Duke laugh. Duke lived almost exclusively in isolation away from all society. It took a lot to get him out. Duke only made social appearances on special occasions, and his monthly race with Chet had become one of them. Chet Heartcake was an interesting character. Duke had never encountered a more interesting human.

…

“Well I’ve got to go now” Duke said with a wave as he exited the ho-deck.
It was another race and another loss for Chet. He waited for several minutes staring up at the artificial stars until he was sure he was alone.
“Comp. Activate Chet program feudal Japan, location training fields, noon.”
The open road simulation changed to that of flat fields on the side of a mountain. There was a collection of peasant huts at the end of the fields. Mount Fuji loomed in the distance. Chet picked up his wooden training sword (his bokken) and he began to practice, slicing his sword through the air. His training with a sword was something he had shared with no one. It was just one of those things he kept to himself.

…

Several minutes after slashing his bokken about, Chet was interrupted. A steaming turd materialised in front of him. A light shone down illuminating the turdogram.
“Geus who?” the turdogram said in a garbled up way.
“DEAN” Chet coolly shouted into the distance, briefly attracting the attention of some of the peasant farmers.
Chet knew exactly who had sent the turdogram. It was one of his best friends Dean Holiday. The only person on this planet with the nerve to circumvent Chet’s solitude lock on his ho-deck was Dean.
As Chet approached the turdogram to see what message was attached, it phased out of existence. Chet humphed. Whatever Dean had tried had failed.
“Comp, deactivate program” Chet commanded.
The 16th century feudal Japan countryside landscape vanished. Chet was now alone in a small-warehouse-sized room. The floor, walls, and ceiling looked white. Next to the exit was a physical control interface. Everything had vanished apart from the future.
“Comp, make yourself a hollow and bring the future out to the garage.”
“Yes sir!” responded the Comp in a chauffeur holobod.
The chauffeur hollow attended to the future. Chet exited the ho-deck. The ho-deck was the biggest part of Chet’s house. Outside the ho-deck was his living room. It was simplistic in design with a dining area connected to it. The windows gave a view of Chet’s garden as well as letting in the natural sunlight. Several sofas sat around the entertainment interface which Chet had attached an antique vinyl player to. The entertainment interface was capable of working as a vinyl player (it was capable of a lot), but Chet demanded inefficiency.
Fine living makes you slow. This was Chet’s mantra.

As expected a fresh turdogram was waiting for him in the receiving area of the quanticator. Turdograms were designed to look as comical as possible while still maintaining their poo shape. Generally there was no smell, but Dean Holiday would always program the turdograms he sent to Chet with coconut fragrance. Chet loved coconuts, and Dean wanted to ruin them for him. Chet knew what Dean was trying to achieve with the coconut smell but he didn’t mind. As far as he was concerned it was a futile attempt by Dean. Chet would get him back soon enough; he had the perfect retaliation prank lined up. Chet coolly laughed to himself as he thought about his future retaliation.
“Shall I play the turdogram?” the Comp asked.
“Play away” Chet said as he coolly tuffed his leather jacket.
The inanimate turdogram came to life as it stood up. A ridiculous face somewhat resembling Dean Holiday appeared on it.
With an annoying high pitched voice it said “Hey Chet. I haven’t seen you in a while. Drop by the lab sometime in the next week. I have something I want to show you.”
The message was shorter than usual and lacking the comedy that Chet was accustomed to. But as per usual the turdogram screamed out in fake pain as it melted out of existence. The screaming melting turdogram was another Dean Holiday classic, and it was this classic that had inspired Chet’s latest retaliatory prank.
“When’s the last time…” Chet said out loud to himself thinking about when he had last seen Dean.
It had probably been almost month. It had been a busy year for Chet. He had big plans…
“Comp, what have I got planned for this week?”
“Tomorrow you are planning to see Sa-Ra.”
“And?” Chet pressed.
“That is all” the Comp responded.
“Cool” Chet said coolly before adding “Oh… and before I forget did you complete operation measurement?”
“Yes.”
Chet had to beat Duke in a race before he would tell him how he got the scar, but that didn’t stop him from investigating other angles of the mystery. He had asked the Comp to take measurements and analyse the scar. The next step would be to quanticate a projected calculation of the likely dimensions of the five pronged object that had stabbed Duke.
“Shall I proceed with operation measurement?” the Comp pre-empted Chet.
The Comp knew not to pre-empt Chet. It was something Chet did not like, but as calculated Chet did not care on this occasion. He was too…
“Yes!" he said resolutely.
“Complete.”
And just like that a five pronged fork appeared in the quanticator. Chet removed it.
“How close is it to the real thing?” Chet asked.
“There is a 99.99 percent likeliness that the object is a complete copy of the original.”
“Wow…” Chet said marvelling at the fork in his hands before asking “how many nines does that round off to?”
There was a delayed response from the Comp before it said “Infinite.”
Infinite
It was a strange concept to Chet.
The infinite
It represented the potential of humans. The idea that the world he lived in was based on infinite love crossed his mind. Chet wondered what humans would be like if inherently designed for infinite hate. Anything of such infinite hate would surely destroy itself he mused. Then a question appeared. It was something he had thought of before, but due to the intrinsic nature of language the context and meaning seemed infinite. This time the question was different though. There was something peculiar to this feeling that Chet wanted to contextualise. What Chet Heartcake felt resonated like a burning star from his very core.
What is love?
Chet looked back down at the five pronged fork. It looked strangely decorative, and almost alien.
“You will want to see this” the Comp said as it slowly faxed Chet some documents.
Chet stood beside the fax machine waiting for the documents. He had programmed the Comp to deliver information to him this way. Chet tuffed his leather jacket as he waited. Then he coolly snatched up the documents from the fax machine.
“Coconuts!” Chet coolly exclaimed.
Chet held the fork tightly in his right hand as he gripped the documents with his left. The documents creased and crumpled from the force of Chet’s grip.
“Comp. Destroy them. Erase all data and memory on operation measurement.”
Chet threw the documents into the quanticator. As the matter that made up the documents was converted into energy, all information on the operations was gone. Chet realised he was still holding the five pronged fork. He placed it inside of his leather jacket.
“What a mystery” Chet Heartcake coolly said while tuffing his leather jacket.
He paced up and down his living room.
“I’ll need to tell someone…” he resolved.
He would be seeing Sa-Ra tomorrow.
“Sa-Ra” he coolly decided out loud.
Chet planned to keep the five pronged fork with him at all times. With Comps memory erased and the documents gone, only he knew the secret, but what did it all mean?

To be continued...

Previously:
Prophase

@RiskDebonair
Irish Writer, Poet, & Lover

Other works:
Dreamscapes & Heartbreaks