The Optimum Project: Revised Edition

Chapter 16

Deja Vu

I lay in the soft grass, relaxing in the warm yellow sunlight, absorbing the warmth like the tree near me was absorbing the light itself. I sighed contentedly as I laid there, taking in the sense of peace...

Wait a second...

I sat up suddenly, coming to my senses as I remembered where I really was, or where I remembered my body really is. This all felt so real as if I was experiencing it for the first time, the breeze blowing in the trees, playing with my hair as I took in the already familiar view. There were details here that I didn't know I had forgotten, the seemingly distant sirens of a police car rushing past on a nearby street, the trail of ants making their way across my shoe, the way the grass could have so many different shades of green as it rippled in the soft wind.

I turned as I heard the sound of a phone ringing and suddenly found myself looking at someone I could hardly recognize. I knew who it was... at least I thought I did. It was me, I could hardly believe it, I felt like I was looking at a ghost of the past. The boy in front of me was shorter than I remember, scrawnier, and surprisingly somewhat pale, even considering his time spent in the sun. I watched with a strange sense of surreality as he pulled out his phone, my phone, and answered it.

He answered it with a sigh, "Yes dad?" We knew it was him, he was the only one who had my phone number.

"Hey, kiddo! How's your day off so far?" even from here, I could hear him trying to hide his grimace, even from this far away he wasn't fooling anyone. Same old dad, I thought with a smile as the conversation continued.

I saw my past-self jump as my dad began yelling at me about being on the roof.

and... now I was groaning about him running multiple hyperspace calculations...

and here I was moving the phone away from my ear a bit as my fathers bluff was called.

I, my current me anyway, walked over to the ledge my past-self was getting ready to jump. It seemed as easy now as it was back then, just a jump like any other.

Past me got some distance between himself and the edge for a running start, and suddenly sprang forward, putting on a burst of speed I didn't realize I had ever been capable of. He made a small jump onto the edge and leaped the distance between the rooftops.

Suddenly I felt as though I had just landed on that rooftop, the jolt that went through me causing my surroundings to shift suddenly and unexpectedly.

I looked around my new environment, I was on a similarly spacious rooftop like the previous one, however, this one resided closer to the others, both in height and distance between. I took in the open sky full of hovercars and various spaceships, and suddenly I knew where I was.

This was Sediros, an iron-type planet my father and I had spent a stint with a shipping company on. I also knew what was probably about to happen.

A nearby door was suddenly kicked open, and a boy of about 16 suddenly came out, scrambling onto the rooftop.

The boy was me, and if I remember correctly I was running from...

A hulking mass of a man that went simply by the name of 'Jones' appeared in the doorway.

Yeah, that guy.

Jones was surprisingly quick as he crossed the rooftop and picked my scrawny past-self up, shaking him like a rag-doll, "You think your Pops can double-cross us just like that? We piss him off one time by reneging on our agreed price due to a few unfortunate run-ins with the Pigs, and what does he do? He goes and rats us out to the Alliance Transport Commission about our little smuggling arrangement and gets immunity out of the deal? I don't think so... he might get immunity from the law, but that don't mean we still can't make his life hell."

Young me shook his head back and forth desperately, "He didn't rat your crew out! He hasn't even left the planet since we got here for your delivery two days ago!"

Jones just shook his head and started walking towards the edge of the rooftop, and I remembered seeing some of Jones' goons coming out of the stairwell to watch the show. Jones held me over the edge of the roof, "You better start tellin' the truth boy, or you will go take a swim in that lovely looking pool down there."

I looked down, I was hovering over a vat of very nasty looking orange stuff: Iron Pentacarbonyl.

That was BAD news. The gist of it is, very toxic, and also very explosive.

Tears started running down my cheeks, "I'm telling you, he never left the planet."

Jones shook me, "I KNOW he didn't leave the planet you little brat, he sent a transmission to them yesterday! What did he tell them?"

I remembered the moment of relief as I suddenly saw a safe way out of this mess, "Okay! Okay! I'll tell you! Just please put me down!"

Jones scowled at me suspiciously but turned and set me down, still close enough to the edge that he could knock me off with one of those bear-like arms he had. "Start talking." he barked.

I gulped, "My dad had received a transmission saying his paperwork was due for an update, he needed our hotel's network to send the encrypted data. I'm telling you, that's all I know, please, just let me go."

Jones growled, "You are so full of bull-"

I slammed the heel of my shoe into his knee, breaking it with an echoing 'CRACK'

The roaring yell that Jones let out sounded more like a bear's roar, "GRAB THAT STINKING BRAT!!!"

I was already halfway across the rooftop before the other goons got out of their shock at seeing Jones get downed by a little kid like me. I leaped from the edge of the rooftop onto the next, dodging pipes and skylights to get to the other end. Suddenly a gunshot rang out, this planet was so rich in metals that the weapons here were like traditional western guns, the only difference being that these were 3-d printed for accuracy and had plenty of high-tech attachments. A bullet-hole appeared next to the air-conditioner I was running past and I ducked behind it.

Luckily, just because the gun was accurate didn't mean that the user was.

I kept running, sliding under lifted containers, jumping over pipes, and taking corners at 100 miles per hour; Before finally deciding I had lost them. The now darkening sky gave a testament to how late it had gotten, and the lack of gunshots echoing in the air gave me a sense of safety, I could hide in the shadows, and dad already knew they were after us, after all, I had warned him right before I had gotten up to that rooftop. I just hoped he was okay.

and suddenly things shifted again.

I looked around my new environment, the room I was in was small and cramped, a crib sat in one corner with a carousel full of spaceships making their rounds above the crying baby inside.

That's odd... I don't remember this.

A much younger looking version of my father walked into the room, "Shhhhh..." he cooed, "Shhhh, I know, I know, you want your momma, don't you? Shhhh...."

He rocked the baby for a bit and it gradually quieted down, "I know you want your mom, Noah... so do I."

----------------

"Woah, Noah, are you alright?" Pix was shaking me, "Hey buddy? you in there?"

I blinked groggily, "Yeah, what the hell was that?"

Pix shrugged, "I told you man, flashbacks, though I tell you what that last one must have been pretty surprising to you, I saw a huge emotional spike on the sensors there right before Tom finished."

"Yeah, I just... I had forgotten it until that."

Pix nodded, "The mind has strange ways of hiding memories, sometimes Tom's matrix ends up finding them."

"So how much longer until this startup stuff is done?"

"Greetings Noah, I look forward to assisting you."