Cloud to Cloud

Episode 41: Naivety and the Butterfly Effect

Hannah busied with breakfast. She was growing accustomed to roommates, though for the most part they met in passing. She arranged a bottle of milk, container of juice, and plate of hard boiled eggs on the table and set a short stack of bowls on the counter beside a box of cereal. Before taking her seat, she snagged a bowl of fruit and flipped the coffee maker on.

Evan swept into the room, tablet in hand. "Did you see what happened?"

Hannah accepted the tablet and peered at the screen. Allowing for the lag as the device passed between their energies.

She read the headline. "Tsunami Strike Lands with Few Casualties."

Evan pointed at the next line in the article.

Hannah continued. "NetNostradamus? Rogue Wave7 tech terrorist." She quirked an eyebrow at Evan. "He must be well connected to arrange something like this."

"Seriously connected." Evan winked. "So, how many lives did your psychic powers save last night?" He snickered.

Hannah frowned as her shoulders slumped.

Fred interrupted the exchange as he entered the kitchen. "Good morning, team!"

He made a beeline for the coffee pot. Filling his mug he glanced over his shoulder at the pair stoically seated at the table.

"Well. Okay then." He grunted.

Hannah leaned away from the table. "Do you want me to fall at your feet? Do you have any idea what you're doing? What about the butterfly effect? You're messing with the future."

"You're jealous." Evan's smug smile peeked over the edge of his coffee cup.

Fred glanced between the two to the tablet on the table.

"You've never used your powers to get results like this," Evan continued as he waved at the article. "Besides, you're the one who told me I should use my gifts to help others and shouldn't take advantage of the future."

"You think I'm jealous?" Hannah shoved away from the table. "You don't know how much damage you could have done. Have done. You don't know what you have affected. This is not some corporate challenge for top results and earnings."

Fred pulled the tablet towards him. He scanned the article as the pair continued to berate one another.

"Oh, I know what it affected. It affected my bank account. Do you know how much I lost by doing this?" He waved at the tablet. "Instead of letting those waves crash on people and the markets crash on investors."

"You didn't lose squat. That profit didn't even exist yet," Hannah pointed out.

Hannah sighed as she caught Fred's attention bounce between her and Evan as he struggled to keep track of the dialogue. At last he lifted the tablet and shifted his attention to Evan.

"Are you Nostradamus?"

Evan began to smile in affirmation.

"No, no need to answer. I know you are." Fred scowled.

The weight of the situation began to settle on the room. They sat sipping their coffee in silence.

"Did you use the Cloud search engine? Did you hack the crisis centers from here?" Fred set his coffee heavily on the table. "You realize the Feds, and ITower, can probably track it back here, even through the unstable networks and arcane log files. And what about Wave7? Do you think they're going to be pleased this is connected to them?"

"I saved people!" Evan cried out. "Shit. Does nothing make you two happy?"

In a soft, slow tone Hannah responded, "Those hundreds of thousands of people may have had their soul contracts and their life plans disrupted. They'll all have to be recalibrated."

Evan gaped. "What? Are you people crazy?" He stopped,, then swiped an egg and his cup of coffee from the table before storming from the room.

Fred and Hannah were left to stare after him.

"He'll catch up." Hannah sighed.

"He has to." Fred glanced at the tablet. "We can't do this without him."

"We never could, but he has to know this is serious." Hannah sipped her coffee. "He can't mess with our timeline to such a drastic degree."