Cloud to Cloud

Episode 54: A Real Dose of Reality

A sudden wave of electricity, shot through the computer screens before they blinked out. The lack of light and hum of electricity caused Evan to stir.

He raised his head to the flickering of hundreds of windows opening and closing. Code screamed across the screens.

"What the-. Damn it." Evan fought with the keyboard and clicked at the mouse.

He struck the walls of the external hard drive and cursed the sudden vibrations of the cell phone as it ran a violent course through the full spectrum of ring tones.

With sudden recognition, Evan stared at the dance of images, tones, words, song lyrics, and data. "Talk. To. Her."

Evan shifted his attention from screen to phone in an attempt to follow the ripple of electricity chasing around the room.

"Hannah. Help. Her."

Punching at the keys he fought to halt the machines haywire activity.

"Hannah. Needs. You."

His attention focused at the sight of Hannah's name in a flash of bold-type letters filling all three primary screens.

A glimpse of Linc alighted on a nearby tablet. "She. Needs. You. We. Need. You. You. Are. The. Key."

"How do I get you to come in clear?" Evan poured his frustration into focusing on the tablet.

"Even after. All. This. You still. Have. to. Tune-in. Come. On, Man. Get. On. Frequency."

As if the words had taken Evan back to the van on the battlefield, when he and Linc were synced in their actions, the tablet image suddenly became clear. Evan's mind wandered to when the duo were able to tap code and relay communications as if they were of one mind.

"Man, this has been such a long time in the making." Linc's image took on a stretched, almost three dimensional, appearance as it expanded from the confines of the tablet. "Lifetimes. Millennia. Now is the time. You and Hannah were meant to meet now." Evan tilted his head as he strained to understand the choppy connection. "Don't you understand yet? Coach. My escape from the meat suit. Fred."

Evan tried to turn the volume up as he struggled to hear Linc more clearly. He frantically rummaged through one of the boxes he had salvaged from Fred's house. He smiled.

"There you are." Evan pulled the headset he had used in the communications van with Linc many years before. "I hope my ounce of nostalgia will come in handy."

Evan docked the headset with the tablet. He breathed in the lingering familiar odor trapped in the cushioned earpieces.

"Now that's a stroke of brilliance!" For the first time since their days together, Evan felt as though Linc and he shared the same space.

"I still have a few tricks." Evan closed his eyes, then reopened them to a room completely transformed.

The office had closed in around him leaving only the workstation in front of him. The pitted metal panel housed a monitor array, keyboard, and toggles, similar to their old Army van.

"That's new." Evan's fingertips brushed the cool metallic surface. He smiled. "It's real."

"Real's a funny thing." Linc released a short laugh as he tilted back in the seat beside Evan.

Evan reached out and hesitantly jabbed his partner's shoulder.

"Everything is data," Linc grinned and nudged Evan in return. "Fred tried to tell you. We live on in the streams of data that create everything. Think quantum, Dude. Waves or particles, waves or particles. Without waves of consciousness, we do not exist in the physical."

"So you're not dead." Evan didn't try to conceal the catch in his voice. "And Fred?"

"No one actually dies, Evan. We leave the meat suit, that's all." Linc's smile was soft, yet a hint of sarcasm toned his words. "It's like saving your documents to the Cloud. It doesn't matter what device you use to access it, the data is always there."

"Then how do I access Fred and his files?" Evan rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

"Fred's been busy." Linc adjusted the sleeves on his uniform. "He'll connect with you again soon though."

"You've seen him then?" Relief coursed through Evan. For the first time since the boardroom meeting, he relaxed.

"Of course. What? Did you think he would abandon the project?" Linc crossed his arms as he gauged Evan's next reaction. "You still don't get it."

"What's to get." Evan sighed. "As long as I can contact you and Fred, what else am I supposed to do?" Evan waved his hand over the tablet. "As far as the public at large knows the Cloud is up and running again, same as before."

"But they don't know what's behind it. And you don't believe in what's behind it." Linc pressed.

"So what?" Evan scoffed. "I'm doing my job, man. It doesn't matter to me how the sites work as long as I can keep the data flowing between the clouds. Hardware versus software."

Linc shook his head. "Tsch. And what about Hannah?" Linc flicked his fingers and Hannah's image appeared on the monitors.

"I've been looking." Evan gazed at the image.

"Look harder. She needs you." Linc paused. "And you need her, even if you don't get it yet."

A curt knock interrupted Evan before he could respond. The door to Evan's office opened. Startled, Evan threw the headset from his ears. In the doorway stood the head of network security.

The setting of the office snapped back to reality. The image of Linc disappeared as if a plug was pulled.

"Evan." The man took a moment to scan the room before continuing. "There are reports of a power surge and a lag in data coming from this section of the building. Have you noticed anything?"

"No." Evan stammered. "I mean, I haven't noticed any problems."

"Right." The man frowned. Uncertainty holding him in the room a moment more. "Well, keep working on it. Let's get some progress by the end of the day."

Sighing into his chair, Evan scowled at the headphones in his hand. He turned his attention to the computers on the desk. All screens displayed normal data streams and coding sets.

Linc was gone.

"I think the lag issue fixed itself." Evan murmured.

Evan set the headphones on the desk.

An overwhelming urgency to find Hannah swept over him as a rush of air passed over his shoulder. He opened a supplemental program to run an automated scan.

"Shit. This could take hours." Evan snatched the tablet, rose from his chair and headed for the door.

He paused and returned to his desk. Snatching up the headphones he took one more look around the room.