The Operant Unconscious Project: Redemption

"And the world will live in peace, ha," thought Julian as he stared out the window at the stars. "Peace isn't worth the payment that's been made."

Zachary pulled his shirt on and then looked over at Julian, "What do you mean Jules?"

"It's been nine years Zach; nine years of trying and failing," said Julian. "Maybe this is the way the world is supposed to be."

"Suppressed and enslaved?" said Zachary.

Julian sighed, "I don't know Zach."

"Are you giving up on Jacob then?" asked Zachary.

Julian thought for a moment, "I don't really want to but I'm running out of time."

~~~

Andrew had never been in space before, he wasn't sure he liked it; the sun kept coming and going too fast. But being weightless was pretty cool. His father, Julian, had been obsessed for as long as Andrew could remember about going into space but he had never said why.

Andrew's father was an interesting man who always seemed to be off in another world; as if time had stopped for him and him alone but not for everyone else. From what his father's friends said Julian had always seemed just a little crazy from about the time he was ten but they would never tell Andrew how he got that way.

These last few years though Julian seemed even more determined to get up into space; and so here they were, orbiting the earth.

Andrew opened his eyes and looked around the room to try and orient his self. Not having gravity meant that everyone had to sleep in bags that strapped to the walls and every time Andrew woke up he was always confused on what direction was really down.

Andrew looked over to the bag next to his where his best friend Matthew was fast asleep. Matthew was five years old, making him three years younger than Andrew was; he had short brown hair and when his eyes were open they were a bright green.

Andrew's eyes were blue and something about that always seemed to upset his father. Andrew just assumed that the reason was part of his father's past that was never mentioned.

Andrew continued looking around and noticed that all of the adult bags were empty. That meant they were having an "adult meeting" and he and Matt were not invited, well not yet anyway.

Just then Matthew's father came into the room and gripped onto one of the handrails. He was still young, only about nineteen, and he looked a lot like his son. His name was Kollin but only his wife and Andrew's father called him by that name. Everyone else called him Bjorn. He was the leader of their group and a good man by Zachary and Julian's definition.

Kollin waved a good morning at Andrew and motioned for him to get up and get dressed. Then he floated over to his son's sleeping bag. He got really close to Matthew and gently blew into his ear. Matthew immediately opened his eyes and smiled.

"Good morning Dad," said Matthew as he unzipped his bag and threw his arms around his dad's neck, "is it morning already?"

Andrew looked over at the clock on the wall and saw that it was only six a.m.

"It's still early Matthew," replied Kollin, "but we all want to talk to the two of you before we get to where we are going."

"And where are we going?" Andrew asked trying to pull any information from Kollin that he could get.

Kollin smiled, "We'll tell you shortly Andrew. Just don't take too long guys."

"Ok Dad," said Matthew.

Kollin pulled his son from his neck and then drifted back out the door. Matthew, no longer having his father to hang on, pushed himself over to Andrew and hugged him from behind.

"Did you sleep well Drew?" Matthew whispered in Andrew's ear.

"Not really Matty, I don't think my body likes being weightless as much as I like it, but I know you did," said Andrew and he pulled some clothes out for Matthew and himself.

Matthew squeezed Andrew tightly, "Yeah but you never sleep well Drew."

Andrew smiled to himself and shook his head; it was true. Matthew always slept like a rock no matter where they were while Andrew could never get comfortable. Andrew blamed this on the small device on his left temple which at times seemed to disrupt his thoughts making it almost impossible for him to sleep. The device was very thin and only as big as a dime but Andrew could never get comfortable with it.

Of course, Andrew was not the only one that had to wear this device. In fact, every one of Andrew's father's friends wore one as well, except for Zachary who for some reason was an exception. Andrew's father's explanation was that it would block some kind of wave that would turn them all into model citizens with no mind of their own. Andrew didn't quite understand, but he trusted that his father knew what he was talking about.

"Hey Drew?" said Matthew as he took the shirt that Andrew offered him and began to wrestle with it to get it on. "Can ya help me out with getting dressed again, this no weight thing's messing me up."

"Only if I can ask the same," replied Andrew as he reached over to hold Matthew still.

"So what do you think they want to tell us," asked Matthew as he finally got his shirt on.

"Other than where we're going?" said Andrew. "Maybe they'll tell us why we're up here too."

As soon as Matthew was dressed he helped Andrew dress. Then, with Matthew clinging to his back, Andrew propelled himself out the door and down the hall.

~~~

"I think Julian is having second thoughts," Zachary said to the others as he came onto the bridge.

"And why shouldn't I?" said Julian as he came in behind Zach. "We don't even know if coming up here will help!"

"I don't see why he wouldn't," Samuel said from the console on the other side of the bridge. "He doesn't really have any other purpose does he?"

"You stay out of this Samuel!" snapped Julian.

"Julian, that's enough," said Kollin. "You're not helping any and getting yourself all worked up is only going to make things worse."

Julian grabbed onto a nearby handrail and sighed, "Sorry, I had a bad night, bad dreams. It's just that every time we try something new something always fails or gets between us and our goal."

"Well, things have been going right since we got on this ship," said Kollin's wife Sarah. "Maybe our luck is changing."

Just then the bridge door opened.

~~~

When Andrew and Matthew got to the bridge they slowly opened the door and floated in. Inside were the seven adults: Kollin was there with his beautiful blond-headed wife Sarah; Andrew's father Julian was next to them with a rather unhappy look on his face. Next to Julian sat his friends Isaac and Micah, and last and closest to the door sat Samuel and Zachary.

Besides Kollin and Julian, Zachary would have been the next most important person if Andrew had to guess. First of all, he was friends with Andrew and Matt; he was always willing to teach them new things and just hang out with them when he had the time. Zachary was also really good at handling technology and since he was their friend he taught them about that too.

But what made Zachary so important to everyone else, as far as Andrew knew, had something to do with some kind of mental link he had to a very informational source. That source helped them all survive and not get caught by the authorities.

"Hey guys," said Zachary. "Did ya sleep well?"

"Yeah we slept ok," replied Andrew. "So what's up?"

"Actually, quite a bit," Julian said from the other side of the room.

"You see guys, there's a very specific reason that we're up here," said Kollin. "Other then just getting a break from the blanket of telepathic activity that we're normally threatened with on earth that is."

"I suppose we should start at the beginning, shouldn't we?" said Isaac. "Just for sanity's sake."

"That's probably best," said Kollin. ". You see, years ago all of us were part of a government experiment. We were just children but the government had a plan. It wanted a group of scientist to create a child with a very special gift. If they used this gift the way they intended then they would be able to turn the entire planet into one consciousness."

"What kinda gift Daddy?" asked Matthew.

"We'll get to that Matty," said Kollin.

"A consciousness?" said Andrew.

"Yes, in theory this consciousness would be billions of individuals all separate and yet the same. They would have no secrets, there would be no crime, and everyone would have a place in the world," said Kollin.

"Yeah there was just one problem with that, the government never asked the people of the world if this was all right with them," said Micah.

"You see, they actually created two boys with this special gift, one named Jacob and the other named Jesse," said Kollin. "This gift was one that they could use to help them control everyone and bring about this one consciousness."

"They then proceeded to place the two of them in two completely different environments to see which one would end up being more useful," added Zachary.

"Yeah, well what they ended up with was one sensitive and caring boy and one recluse with a hunger for friendship, too much power and a personality that spells trouble," said Julian.

"Hey! Jesse isn't that bad," protested Zachary.

"You only say that because you like him," muttered Julian.

"Guys, we're getting off track," interrupted Kollin. "Anyway, as it went, the government used Jacob for their project. They did a lot of things to him that left him somewhat physically and mentally damaged but he was what they wanted. The other boy Jesse, though, would now pose as a threat if he stayed on the planet because he was the only one who could disrupt Jacob's gift and bring their plan crashing down."

"Why didn't they just kill him then?" asked Andrew.

Well, they didn't want to kill him just incase something happened to Jacob," answered Micah. "They wanted a backup."

"And so they sent him to live on the moon," said Kollin. "He stayed awake for two more years from what we've heard and then they put him into a special sleep where he would not age."

"And he is the one we are out here to get?" said Andrew.

"You got it," said Zachary. "We're hoping that by rescuing Jesse from the moon and bringing him back to earth that we'll be able to disrupt Jacob's signal enough to end this."

"Yeah but at this point we're not entirely sure it will work," said Julian. "It's been so long now, that Jacob's power may exceed Jesse's, and we will have failed again."

"Jeez, don't be so positive Jules," said Zachary.

"Guys," Kollin said in a warning tone. "We'll be docking in a few minutes so let's get things together."

"Are we docking on the moon?" asked Matthew.

"Yeah, which means we'll be getting some gravity in a minute or so," said Samuel from the controls. "Kollin I'm going to begin my approach."

"Ok everyone, get strapped in!" said Kollin.