“You’re not really living if you only do things in half measures”

Phase 2: Everything or Nothing

“You’re not really living if you only do things in half measures” Chet Heartcake coolly said as he tuffed his leather jacket.
Sa-Ra watched on, slightly perplexed and disgusted, yet unable to look away as Chet Heartcake started spooning butter into his mouth.
After the fifth spoonful Chet Heartcake stopped and said “This is not what I expected it to be.”
“What did you expect it to be like?” Sa-Ra asked trying to hide her smile.
“Not like this” Chet said indifferently.
“So you are stopping?” Sa-Ra questioned as she tapped her fingers on the kitchen counter.
She wanted to see if Chet was foolhardy enough to keep going. He was. Chet placed another spoonful of butter into his mouth but then spat it back out.
“Yeah… I think I am going to stop now” Chet coolly proclaimed.
“So it wasn’t nice?” Sa-Ra enquired with a raised eyebrow.
“No. I thought it would taste like icecream or something delicious” Chet coolly responded.
Sa-Ra was almost bursting out with laughter.
“Why did you think pure butter would taste delicious?” she playfully mocked.
“You know… It’s a main ingredient in so many nice things, and it looks delicious.”
“I can’t believe you thought butter would be a delicious snack” Sa-Ra said with a wide smile.
Chet tuffed his leather jacket and then with cool replied “Well I now know it does not. So I geus I learnt something and therefore I am better off for the experience.”
He said it as if he had learnt some great secret that only a few wise beings know. Sa-Ra giggled, but then she realised that she didn’t actually know what pure butter tasted like. Perhaps Chet was on to something. She pushed Chet, feeling the rough leather of his jacket as she grabbed the spoon off of him. Sa-Ra spooned some butter into her mouth and then quickly swallowed.
“How did you manage five spoonfuls?” she said gagging and grimacing as she stuck her tongue out in disgust.
“Everything or nothing, it’s the only way to live” Chet coolly said before grabbing a glass of water to wash away the experience.
What an idiot Sa-Ra thought as she stole the glass off Chet, finishing the remainder of the water.

…

Sa-Ra was smart, beautiful, brilliant, and strong. Chet had known her since childhood. They were best friends. But through life and circumstance they separated ways; she had left this planet…
Chet hadn’t seen her since he was a young adolescent, and now she was back. They had been slowly catching up over the last few months. She had come over to Chet’s house today to bake a cake. They had been planning for some time to do real cooking, but they had not yet managed to get around to it. It was always too convenient to just quanticate a meal.

…

Sa-Ra and Chet’s attempt to bake a cake was met with much failure. Eating butter was only the first of many follies. Sa-Ra tried her best to do things right, but Chet was too distracting. In the end an unappetising looking somewhat burnt-on-the-outside cake popped out of the oven. Sa-Ra had specially quanticated the oven for this occasion, but Chet had refashioned the oven for inefficiencies to make it more authentic. This was what resulted in the uneven overdone yet also underdone outside layer.
“It looks good” Chet said with a fool’s confidence.
“Really?” Sa-Ra questioned, dubious of Chet’s observation.
In truth it did not look that bad…
“Don’t judge a cake by its cover” Chet coolly said.
“You mean book?”
Chet brought his head in close to the cake and inspected it.
“Nope. It’s definitely a cake.”
Sa-Ra laughed “Well it doesn’t smell that burnt. So I geus it’s alright, especially for a first try.”
“I’ll be the judge of that” Chet proclaimed as he took out his five pronged fork and attempted to fork the cake into his mouth.
“What do you think you are doing?” Sa-Ra shouted as she chopped the five pronged fork out of Chet’s hand.
The five pronged fork floated through the air twisting and turning. Chet’s eyes were on the cake as he immediately went to grab a piece with his hand. Sa-Ra jumped on him and they tumbled to the ground.
Something about the ho-deck caused a momentary energy florescence from the fork. It glittered and sparked a fleeting green and a sharp red fluorescence. As it moved through the air it seemed to both slow down and speed up, occupying multiple spaces at a time, but also sometimes no space. Chet and Sa-Ra did not notice the bizarre light show emanating from the five pronged fork. Sa-Ra was now holding Chet on the ground. He had managed to grab a piece of cake after losing the fork. The cake piece was still in his hand which he was trying to bring towards his mouth, but she had him locked down. He was unable to bring it close enough to his mouth.
“You are going to have to wait until it has properly cooled down!” Sa-Ra commanded.
“Okay…” Chet said defeated.
As Sa-Ra let her grip loose on him, Chet immediately brought the cake scoop in his hand towards his mouth.
Without warning Chet flew across the ho-deck.
Sa-Ra had rolled over him, grabbing and flipping him. She was a master of Taekwondo and Jujutsu.
“OUCH!” Chet shouted.
“Hey! Don’t pretend to be injured, or I really will cause some damage” Sa-Ra joked.
Chet coolly flipped up onto his feet.
Chet said coolly while play punching the air “You are lucky I am a pacifist, because if I did fight you my FIST would PASS right through you. Pee-yah!” he shouted as he pulled off a shoryuken that lifted no more than sixteen centimetres off the ground.
Sa-Ra humphed and walked off. Chet followed, picking up his five pronged fork as he gave chase…

…

Chet’s garden was filled with only a few flowers. There were several types of fruit trees and a plethora of crops. The garden was automated, but Chet made sure that he did all the watering. The automation just covered for Chet if he was out.
He had a wild zone which he had just let grow wild without interference other than watering and adding nutrition to the soil every so often. The wild zone had recently grown a prickly rose bush. The rose petals were pinkish; almost purple on the inside and almost white on the very tips.
Sa-Ra ran to the end of the garden towards the wild zone. Chet chased her down; his jacket swaying from the intermittent heavy winds. The back of the garden had more cover from the wind. The air was calm when he caught up with Sa-Ra. They walked down towards the wild zone, almost as if drawn to the florescent rose bush.
“Mind if I?” Sa-Ra asked.
She was gesturing towards a bittersweet looking rose that stuck out of the bush. It was almost hanging as if it was trying to escape from the boundaries of the wild zone.
“Go ahead” Chet coolly said.
Sa-Ra took out her quantic orb and quanticated a pair of mini shears. She clipped the hanging rose on its stem.
“It’s beautiful” Sa-Ra said admiring the rose before placing it into her hair.
“Yeah, the contrast from your hair really ignites the beauty of the flower.”
Sa-Ra glanced up at Chet making eye contact.
Chet looked up and away as if to admire the tall foliage growing out from the wild zone and then asked “So how has your research been going?”
Sa-Ra’s beautiful smile faded. It was replaced by her serious face.
“Well… with instantaneous portal travel we are…”
Chet interrupted “light years away?”
Sa-Ra laughed “Yeah I suppose you could say that.”
“Many difficulties?” Chet inquired.
“Too many… it’s not as simple as destroying matter and then rebuilding it elsewhere.”
Chet had already researched up on instantaneous portal travel. Sa-Ra was one of the lead researchers in the field. They were trying to achieve feasible long distant instant transport of humans and cargo for exploration of the universe. They were working on something more complicated than destroying matter and reproducing it elsewhere. They were attempting to bend space. Their theories were based on the ideas of bending a two-dimensional object; much like the folding of an A4 piece of paper to make two points separated by distance connect. They were attempting to create a stable temporal fold. If successful it would be like looking through a door and seeing somewhere else on the other side. You would merely have to walk through the door to get to wherever the other side was, regardless of distance… and perhaps even time. The folding of three-dimensional space would require lots of energy. Energy was not a problem… or perhaps it was; it was still up for debate. Making sure you arrive where you plan to, and maintaining stability of the portal were two of the major issues. Instability into something that requires so much energy could cause unknown destruction. Experiments into instantaneous portal travel had been so far theory only. They were a long way off from any real tests. Sa-Ra imagined they wouldn’t begin testing for another thirty years, and even then that might not bear fruition. But then again technology was always advancing at an ever increasing rate. Sa-Ra and Chet both remembered how quantic orbs used to look. Now they were sleeker in design and easier to carry (not that Chet carried one). Technology had jumped in leaps and bounds over the course of the 21st century. People could now easily build matter from energy, and energy was essentially free. Bending space for instantaneous portal travel was perhaps a power reserved for gods only, but after all it used to be said that about energy to matter conversion. It was known at the start of the 21st century that this was theoretically possible. Their progress was merely hindered by lack of energy and computing power. The Fusion and Quantum Revolution fixed that. So perhaps Sa-Ra’s estimate of 30 years until testing was an overestimation. With science you never know when progress is going to strike.

…

Sa-Ra and Chet played in the garden. Chet had a set of swings that hung from an old oak tree. They spent time swinging on the swings and talking about their childhood memories. It was time well spent.
“What do you live for?” Sa-Ra suddenly asked Chet as they slowly swung back and forth.
“Huh?”
“I mean what do you want to do?” Sa-Ra clarified.
“I want to do…” Chet trailed off.
He got off the swing, tuffed his leather jacket and then said with cool “What I am doing right now. I do what I want to do, when I want to do it. I am not living for something that may or may not come. I am living for this moment right here. Spending time in this garden with you, now that’s a moment to live for…”
Sa-Ra got off her swing. Her eyes were fixed on Chet’s; and his on hers. She moved her head closer, and then… Chet’s watch beeped.
“I need to water some of them…”
Sa-Ra sat back down on the swing. She watched Chet water his plants. He could have left them. The plants would be watered regardless.
Chet… Sa-Ra murmured from her heart.
“Sorry about that, but someone’s got to water them…” Chet said as he sat back down on the swing beside Sa-Ra.
“It’s fine. Anyway I think the cake should have cooled down by now.”
“Cool” Chet said with a devilish smile.
Chet immediately flew off the swing and ran back towards the house through the garden. He clutched the five pronged fork in his hand. Sa-Ra smiled and followed him back into the house and into the living room.

…

Chet politely waited for Sa-Ra to enter the living room and then began to shovel the cake into his mouth.
“Is it nice?”
“Try it for yourself” Chet said, with cake still in his mouth.
It was nothing compared to a quanticated cake. But still, it tasted delicious. It was a little burnt on one side and under cooked on the other, but certain slices were perfect… somewhat. Perhaps it was the fact that they had worked together on the cake which made it seem nicer than it actually was.
“That’s an interesting fork you have there” Sa-Ra said, noting the five pronged fork.
Chet tuffed his leather jacket before saying “I was planning on telling you about it… I found something out that I shouldn’t have… I will tell you, but only if you promise not to tell anyone.”
“I promise.”
Chet leaned in close to Sa-Ra’s face. His face brushed against hers as he whispered into her ear. Sa-Ra stood back from shock and looked at the fork.
“If I had only waited until I had beaten Duke then I would have found out anyway” Chet said with a cool anger.
“So that’s the fork that stabbed him? And you have been eating with it?” Sa-Ra questioned, somewhat disgusted.
“No. It is a facsimile I had the Comp create.”
“It looks like a pretty accurate reproduction” Sa-Ra said as she grabbed the fork off Chet, before continuing “It really is amazing! So much detail…”
“There’s more…”
“What?” Sa-Ra asked as curiosity sparkled in her eyes.
“The documents from the report said that the wound was self-inflected; a stab to the left hand with the right using a five pronged fork. There was something on the palm of the left hand at the time, but whatever it was, it was not dense. Perhaps even jelly like.”
“Is that what the Comp came up with? Jelly like?”
Chet coolly tuffed his leather jacket before stating “No. That is from my own brief analysis of the results. I did not read the whole report as it was already too much information.”
“Any idea what it was?”
“No. The Comp couldn’t calculate it accurately. It came up with all sorts of wild geuses, with an eye being the closest possibility…”
“Strange… but then again so is the scar. Anyway where did you get the image of the fork to be reproduced?”
“I didn’t. The Comp somehow produced the details all from the scar.”
“…” Sa-Ra was speechless.
Such detailed reproduction from so little information. The Comp was capable of a lot, but this seemed almost too much somehow.
“Perhaps it detected fragmentation” Chet supposed.
“Did the comp mention fragmentation?”
“No. Maybe it tried to build it based on the impact stress and how the material it was made of would have reacted to cause such a wound.”
Sa-Ra quanticated a molecular imaging processor. She then took the fork off Chet and examined it.
“Take a look at this!”
Chet had a look. The molecular structure seemed unnatural and not easily identifiable. It definitely was something, but nothing Sa-Ra or Chet had ever seen before.
“This isn’t anything Chet…”
“Sure it is. It’s a fork. The Comp probably just messed up and created a facsimile molecular structure which wouldn’t naturally exist hence why it is hard to detect what it is made from. The readings do mention something covering the hand when it was stabbed, so that probably messed with it.”
Sa-Ra was impressed. Chet’s theory was airtight. The Comp wasn’t perfect. It was after all based on a design created by humans. Also with this level of detail added to the fork it must have made errors which for whatever reason it failed to detect.
Sa-Ra ran her fingers over the fork feeling the ornate alien pattern on it “Can I take it to my lab and examine it further?”
With a tuff of his jacket Chet said “Sorry but the fork stays with me.”
Chet took the fork back off Sa-Ra and then continued “And anyway I don’t want Duke to find out. Woodsmith is always asking about him, and he seems to know about the scar. I would rather have Duke tell me everything after I beat him in a race.”
Sa-Ra seized her opportunity. She had been waiting to ask Chet this all day.
“Chet… can I come to your next race?” she mousily asked.
Although Chet was not aware of it, his races with Duke had become infamous; the world’s greatest engineer testing out the apex of engineering against a rebel without a cause who rides an antique. No one had ever seen them race. It was just known about. Sa-Ra was mousey when she asked about coming to the race because she assumed it was a private affair. And to see Duke in person… she admired him. But she was now even more curious with the whole scar affair, and the fork. Chet had only told Sa-Ra about the scar (and also Dean). The scar was a fact not known to many. It would increase the intrigue and mystery around Duke if it got out, which would be a bad thing for someone who preferred to stay out of the public eye.
“Yeah, you can come if you want to” Chet nonchalantly said as he tuffed his leather jacket.
“I’m curious to meet Duke. Do you think he will mind? I know that he is an island” Sa-Ra said somewhat nervously.
“No man is an island. And I’m sure he won’t mind; it will be good to have a spectator when I beat him.”
“Ha! Do you really think you will one day beat the world’s greatest engineer with your old bike?”
“Always bet on the future” Chet said indignantly.
“Oh Chet!” Sa-Ra said as she wrapped her arms around him.
Chet felt stiff. The hug lasted several seconds.
After the hug ended Sa-Ra asked “Have you seen Dean recently? He was asking for you.”
“It has been a while. I’ve been busy with certain projects… but I plan to see him later on this week. He sent me a turdogram today. It momentarily got through the solitude lock.”
“That’s impressive.”
“Well, yeah I am going to prank him back and then we will see who is impressive.”
“Ha! What have you got in mind?”
“Something sinister…” Chet said followed by a maniacal laugh.
Somewhat amused, Sa-Ra shook her head at him.

…

They talked some more about Duke and his scar. Chet presented his theories to Sa-Ra. She dismissed each theory as wild and absurd, yet she had no theories of her own. They then talked about visiting somewhere together. Neither Sa-Ra nor Chet had actually ever been to the monument of the Great One to see the portrait. Simulations of the monument would not be sufficient, so they made plans to see the real thing.

Eventually Sa-Ra asked the question.
“So how has your rebelling been going?”
Chet coolly tuffed his leather jacket. Ever since he had stormed out of Woodsmith’s office all those years ago he had been on a mission to rebel, and he didn’t care who knew. So far his mission to rebel had been met with failure. He came close to succeeding at one point. He had discovered a minor inconsequential flaw in the system. It didn’t matter how silly it was, it was something to rebel against. Unfortunately for Chet when he brought the issue to the council of volunteers they immediately corrected it there and then. Chet never had a chance… rebelling in a utopian society was tough business.
“It’s been going ojay. I’ve got big plans…”
“Like what?” Sa-Ra asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, you know me. I’m an easy rider. Everything in time…”
Sa-Ra’s tone changed. She became very serious. She deeply cared about Chet. She wanted to see him reach his full potential, and she couldn’t understand how rebelling could lead to that.
“Come on Chet. You need to get serious. You’re one of the smartest people I know. There is nothing to rebel against. You need to face the facts and move on. At the end of the day you can do anything you want to!”
“Why do people have to do anything? I’ll do what I want, and everything else will be a side project” Chet coolly said pointing his index finger at Sa-Ra.
“Are your friends side projects?” Sa-Ra asked with a slight trembling anger.
“I didn’t mean that…”
“It sounded like it!” Sa-Ra said with a raised voice.
Chet looked her in the eyes. Her face looked sad and dejected. She turned and began to walk away.
“Sa-Ra, wait!” Chet pleaded.
“I have no idea why someone like Duke would choose to spend time with you!”
Sa-Ra stormed off. She left Chet’s house through the front door. Chet could hear her holocycle speeding off.
Chet’s cool momentarily broke as he said out loud “Don’t leave… not again. I’ve jumped chasms for you!”
But it was too late. She had left. Chet Heartcake stood alone next to the cake. He had suddenly lost his appetite. As his hand gripped over his racing aching heart he felt the grooves of the ornate alien fork on the inside of his jacket.
She left…

To be continued...

Previously:
Prophase
Phase 1

@RiskDebonair
Irish Writer, Poet, & Lover

Other works:
Dreamscapes & Heartbreaks