An Ecology of MInd Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright (c) 2013 by Stephen M. Johnston

  Cover design by Derek Murphy at CREATIVINDIE

  Acknowledgements: I would like to extend thanks to Derek Murphy at CREATIVINDIE for his work in creating the cover and making the conversions to eBook formats. I would also like to express my appreciation to Dr. John Doan and Laurie Johnston for their efforts and feedback during the process of completing the book.

  978-0-9919055-0-8

  First Edition: March 2013

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Dedicated to my wife Laurie

  for her unwavering support and encouragement

  PROLOGUE

  IT HAD BEGUN AS A BEAUTIFUL fall day but the sky had started to darken, and it looked like it might rain. Hopefully, the rain would hold off until he got back to the camp, or even better, not rain at all.

  It was fairly warm out today, but he knew that would be changing before too many days went by. He could already see that some of the leaves on the trees around him had started to change. He was not overly worried about winter. The hunting in this area had been good, and the women from the tribe had been busy gathering other foods and setting some of it aside for months. It looked like it would be a better winter than some he could remember.

  His errand had seemed like a good idea when he started out, and he still thought it held promise. It was Sinjee’s womanhood ceremony tonight, and she was being introduced to the mysteries of the goddess. Sinjee and he had been eyeing one another differently all summer. They had always been friends, but lately it had begun to grow into something more. He knew she liked walnuts and had thought it would be a good idea to surprise her with some after her ceremony.

  He liked the way her face lit up when she ate them. The tribe preferred its members to marry outside the tribe but sometimes exceptions were made. Who knew what may happen in the future?

  He had noticed some walnut trees not too far from the camp when he was hunting with the other hunters of the tribe the other day. He had completed his manhood ceremony almost a year ago and since then had been allowed to go with the hunters. He greatly preferred that over staying behind and helping the women.

  He had found the walnut trees that he remembered seeing without any trouble and had filled a bag made by folding one of his furs over. He was now on his way back to where the tribe had been camping for the past half moon. He kept thinking of how Sinjee’s face would look when he gave her the walnuts.

  The sky had gotten quite a bit darker, and the wind had picked up. He had picked up his pace slightly but was not overly worried. He preferred not to be out in the rain but getting wet was a minor thing, if Sinjee liked the walnuts as much as he thought she would.

  The searing light surrounded him, and every nerve felt like it was on fire. The loud bang was more like a physical blow than sound. He rolled weakly on the ground and tried to make the world come back into focus. After a little while his head started to clear. He looked around and noticed the grass under him was singed and smoking slightly. It started to rain very weakly, but it only lasted for a couple of minutes before stopping.

  As his head cleared he realized he must have been hit by lightning. He had seen it hit a tree once and felt very lucky to be alive. When he saw lightning hit that tree, the tree had exploded and caught fire until the rain had put it out. As far as he could tell though, he was unhurt, just shaken up, and he seemed to be recovering from that.

  This would be a tale to tell around the fire at night. His mother and father would probably scold him for being careless, even though he hadn’t been. However, that was nothing new and the story would be worth the minor complaints. There seemed to be newer tales to tell around the camp the last couple moons since their tribe had split off from their old larger one.

  It had become too difficult to hunt and gather enough for the larger tribe so his parents and some other families had made the decision to branch off on their own. So far, it seemed like it had been a good decision. Moving into new areas with a smaller group made it easier to provide enough food for everyone. He was a bit of an exception as he always seemed able to eat. New territories also meant more to discuss among the tribe, where the best areas to locate game were, and good areas to find fruit and other food plants, and areas to avoid. This would be an excellent tale though and should make him the center of attention for a couple of nights anyway. He smiled. It would probably impress Sinjee as well.

  He got up a shakily and stood there until he began to feel steadier on his feet. He noticed his fur with the walnuts on the ground where he had dropped it. One edge of the fur was a bit singed, and some of the walnuts had fallen out, but other than that it seemed fine. He put the walnuts that had escaped his makeshift bag back into the fur, picked up his spear, and at a slower pace than he had been making, continued on towards his tribe’s camp.

  As he went, the dizziness cleared, and he started to feel almost normal again. He had a very slight headache but felt very lucky to not be worse off. When he got back to camp he would have to make an offering to thank the gods for looking after him. He was getting close and should be home soon.

  He stopped suddenly. He thought he heard something different than the usual forest sounds. The sound was faint but seemed to be coming from ahead in the direction of his tribe’s camp. He scrambled up to the crest of a small hill and listened again. He could hear it better now. The sounds were those of screams and fighting. He began to run towards the camp.

  He was in good shape, with a strong lean body, hardened by long runs during hunts. Still; he was breathing hard when he reached the clearing that held the camp. His tribe was under attack. In several thousand years the attackers would be referred to as Neanderthals but his people called them the No Chins. A quick glance as he ran into the clearing showed several bodies on the ground. Most of them were his people. He could see the No Chins slaughtering the few remaining members of his tribe.

  He dropped his makeshift bag of walnuts and with a yell, he ran towards the nearest No Chin with his spear ready to strike. In his single-minded rage to attack the one ahead of him, he did not see the other No Chin to his right turn towards him. He felt the blow and the incredible pain as the No Chin drove a spear into his belly and gasping, he fell to the ground clutching the bloody hole. He felt another blow to his head then all went black.

  *

  He had no idea how much later he woke up but there was no more fighting going on. He was very thirsty, and he had waves of pain from both his head and his belly. He glanced around for enemies but all he could see from where he was laying was the bodies of members of his tribe.

  He looked down at the wound in his belly and seeing the blood leaking from it; he clutched weakly at the wound trying to stop the bleeding. He was appalled at the amount of blood he seemed to have lost already and thought desperately to himself, Nooooo! Stop bleeding!

  He felt his mind reach out somehow, and he felt a connection to something he had never felt before. He had no idea of what it was, but it responded to his demand. The bleeding stopped.

  Chapter 1

  THE PROBE ENTERED THE STAR SYSTEM at slightly below light speed and decelerated rapidly. As its first priority, it began a scan for planets in the system. Following a three-dimensional spiral path towards the star, it took an extended period of time to search the system for planets and any other items of note, all the way around the star.

  It discovered a number of planets of various types and sizes along with an assortment of moons and other inert natura
l masses. All of these would have to be investigated in more detail later. The probe had noted no signs of life on its initial survey, but it would eventually make a closer more detailed investigation of the planets.

  With the initial exploration of the system completed, the star became a much bigger priority, and the probe changed course to head directly towards it. As the probe got closer it resisted the increasingly powerful gravity pull of the star and slowed as it approached. The power the probe must have to be able to resist the gravity pull of the star would have been very impressive if any observers had happened to witness it. There were none though.

  Continuing to slow, the probe entered the interior of the star. The fact that it did not burn up as it entered would have been equally if not more impressive to any observer.

  Once it reached the center of the star, it paused briefly and then went to work.

  Chapter 2

  WENDY WAS VERY WORRIED. Today at work had been a nightmare that she couldn’t wake up from. She wasn’t able to concentrate on anything useful. She just kept worrying about her brother. She didn’t know what she was going to do.

  The waiter brought over the two iced waters. He placed one at the table setting across from her and gave her the one without citrus fruit or a straw. Wendy always liked her water just plain and didn’t understand why some restaurants put a slice of lemon or lime in it, and she never used a straw to drink ice water. She usually forgot to request it the way she liked when she asked for it, and it was a wonder she remembered today. She knew she could take them out, but she didn’t like having a soggy piece of fruit and straw sitting on her side plate or on the tablecloth. Strange how such a mundane trivial thing could bother her, or that she would even think about it today.

  She glanced at her watch. It was five minutes to seven, so she felt pretty confident that Kim would be there before the ice in her water melted. With what was going on she would never have arranged to meet her friend for a dinner out but the instructions they gave her were to act normally and she and Kim had arranged a couple of weeks ago to meet when Kim got into town, so she had been afraid to cancel. She also decided to confide her problem to Kim. Kim was always so in control. Nothing ever seemed to fluster her and while Wendy was damn good with computers, she had never met anyone who even came close to Kim’s genius for them. She hoped Kim might be able to shed some light on at least a part of her problem.

  She looked around the room and made a conscious effort to try to let some of the tension leave her body. Morrell’s was one of her favorite restaurants in town, and it was within walking distance of where she worked at the National Security Agency as a computer analyst. It was a good choice of places to meet Kim on a Tuesday night after work.

  The restaurant was only about three-quarters full right now, so it was not too noisy for conversation. Looking around the room, she caught a number of men checking her out. She knew she was considered attractive but she seldom dated and preferred to focus more on her work.

  Kim would be a great person to get input from on the problem she was working on at the office. Unfortunately, it, like almost everything she worked on was highly classified. Maybe she could clear it with her boss somehow or just reveal enough to Kim to get some clue from her on how to proceed. Kim was by far the most amazing computer programmer she ever met and was a friend of hers from her student days at MIT. She was trying to think of a way she could get Kim involved without breaking security. She also hoped Kim would have some suggestions for what to do with the other part of her problem. Oh, she hoped her brother was going to be okay.

  There was a subtle shifting in the men in the room and knowing what that meant, Wendy turned to greet her friend.

  Kim Lee was of Chinese descent, and she was beautiful. Not drop-dead gorgeous but men still seemed to notice her right away, and often women hated her on sight. When they were in college, Wendy had even noticed a gay male friend watching Kim when she walked across the room. She asked him about it. He had paused to think about it and then told her it wasn’t really sexual. It was that Kim moved with an attitude of complete and total confidence like a top predator. She obviously wasn’t but you couldn’t help watching her because you still had that impression somehow.

  Kim’s outfit was a blue material that while not cut to be overly revealing, molded loosely to her body in a way that was sexy as hell. It was probably very expensive. Kim was rich too.

  She hadn’t been when Wendy met her at school, but since then her work as a freelance computer consultant had made her a very wealthy woman. She worked on solving huge scale problems for corporations and governments, and charged astronomical fees to do it. Kim came across the room towards her.

  Wendy gave a half-smile and thought, well; that’s the last any guys will be checking me out tonight, other than a possible way to get to her. She rose and gave Kim a quick hug. “Hi girl, it’s great to see you.”

  Kim’s voice matched her dress. It was a sexy mix of tones that reminded Wendy of some late-night blues DJs. “Hey, I couldn’t be in Washington and not hook up with my best friend. I’m actually going to be around for a few weeks so hopefully we can get together some more as well.” She stepped back and looked at her friend closely. “You’re looking good. A bit overtired though, you have to look after yourself girlfriend.”

  “Yeah, I’ve got a lot going on right now, and I didn’t sleep well the last couple of nights.”

  “Well you need to relax more girlfriend. I will make it my mission while I am here to take your mind off of work a bit and get you to relax more. I’m just going to the ladies’ room quickly, can you order me a martini if the waiter comes by, thanks.” Kim headed off to the ladies’ room with most men in the room turning their heads to watch her move across the room.

  Wendy sighed and sat back down. She loved seeing her friend again, but her worry for her brother made it difficult to enjoy it as much as she normally did. All the male attention got to be a pain sometimes too. Not that Kim ever seemed to encourage it. She never ignored Wendy and focused on men when they were together. It was just that her being her drew men like a magnet. She started to think about the project at work that was bugging her and was the cause of all her current problems. It was what seemed in some ways, to be some sort of computer code or program but neither, she nor anyone else at the office seemed to be able to make any headway on discovering what it was. From what she had heard through the grapevine an agent had died getting the code, and it seemed from the background context to be very important. It was just that nobody knew why.

  There was a nudge at her right elbow and a hand pushed on her upper arm, so she could not turn easily. “Don’t turn around.” A folder was dropped on the table in front of her. “This will give you some incentive to work quickly.” The hand suddenly was gone.

  She tried to turn around, but the chair did not turn easily on the carpet underneath. By the time she got the chair moved back so she could turn further all she saw was a man disappearing out the door into the street. Oh Jesus, what now? She thought.

  She turned back to the table and looked at the folder sitting there. It was a plain vanilla folder cover. She reached over and apprehensively opened the folder. She inhaled sharply in shock. It was a picture of her brother Don, gagged and tied to a chair. There were bruises and scrapes on his face and someone standing out of view of the photo was holding a gun to his head. Oh my god! Her mind raced. What the hell is going on? How did I get into something like this? Yes, she worked for the NSA, but it was in an office position as a computer analyst. This spy novel stuff was not something she was equipped to handle. How was she going to save her brother? What was she going to do?

  “Hey, did the waiter come yet?” Kim was back from the ladies’ room. She got a look at her friends face. “What’s wrong Wendy?” All lightness was suddenly out of Kim’s voice.

  Wendy sat there stunned by what had happened and based on the photo was still happening. She didn’t answer for a couple seconds then slid the folde
r towards Kim. Kim turned the folder around, opened it and looked at the photo inside. She looked up at Wendy. “Start talking girl, what’s going on?”

  Wendy tried to pull her racing thoughts together and decided to confide everything to Kim. She didn’t know what else to do. “A man just came up behind me, I never saw his face. He dropped that on the table and told me it was some incentive to work faster. I’ve been assigned at work to figure out what seems to be some type of computer code. So far, I can’t even understand what it is. I’m wondering if it might be encrypted in some strange way.”

  “Two days ago, on Sunday afternoon, when I got home from a walk, there was a plain brown envelope taped to my apartment door. When I opened it, there was a note and a watch. The watch was one that I gave to my brother Don two Christmases’ ago, and I’ve never seen him take it off, ever. The note was printed from a computer and said, “We have your brother.” It went on to say that if I wanted to see him alive again I was to obtain a copy of the code I was working on at work and to erase all other copies at the NSA, or they would kill him. If I went to the police, they would kill him. If I told people at the NSA, they would kill him.”

  “I was scared shitless but hoped it was a hoax. I tried to reach Don in Boston but could not get hold of him. I left messages for him to call but have heard nothing yet. I tried to be careful with what I said on the messages and how I sounded because he is a cop up there, and I did not want to make it seem as if I was going to the police. I’ve been worried sick, and I don’t know what to do. Now, whoever they are just dropped this envelope on me and said it was an incentive. Jesus! What the hell am I going to do?”

  “Do you have a protocol at work for this sort of thing?” asked Kim.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never been involved in this sort of thing. I don’t even know what the code they want is. I’ve been working on it but haven’t been able to make heads or tails out of it so far.”