VESSELS AND TRAVELERS

Mark Tipton

Description

Dr. Sherry Faulkner has developed a way to save every comatose patient, no matter their issue. Though when they awake, they will find themselves with a new problem: a plague is ravaging the planet.

Vessels and Travelers: A Story of Miracles is a post-apocalyptic novel for the rest of us. The hopeful, the optimistic—the reader who longs for answers, not dead ends, from the future. Mark Tipton’s newly awakened characters are determined to establish a new world in the spirit of peace and cooperation. Their story may just awaken readers to utopian possibilities as well.

Sujets

• Science-Fiction
• Toute la Science-Fiction
• Post-Apocalyptic
• Apocalyptic
• Science Fiction
• Romance
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Outskirts Press
• Date de parution: 30 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781977261748
• Langue: English

Extrait

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Vessels and Travelers A Story of Miracles All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2023 Mark Tipton v5.0 r2.0
This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.
This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Outskirts Press, Inc. http://www.outskirtspress.com
Cover Photo © 2023 www.gettyimages.com . All rights reserved - used with permission.
Outskirts Press and the "OP" logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Faulkner Institute
2. Coma Research Center
3. The Project
4. You’ve Been Sleeping
5. What Now?
6. Beginnings
7. The Campbells
8. Revelations
9. The Sleep
10. The Search
11. Restart
12. Forward
13. Communication
14. Back at CRC
15. Eminent Domain
16. Expansions
17. Riverwalk
18. Tybee
19. Moving On
20. Vacations
21. United
22. They’re Back
23. Out of Order
Chapter 1
FAULKNER INSTITUTE
Dr. Sherry Faulkner was in her office beginning her daily ritual of gazing into the mirror on her desk. She was looking for changes in her facial features such as wrinkles, smoothing of the skin, or changes in blemishes. In addition to the inspection, a selfie was taken every morning as well. Day to day, any changes were barely perceptible, but when compared to older photos, differences were obvious. She was a slender, attractive brunette, about 5’6" with medium gray eyes, forty-four years old. She wanted to look her best, with help if necessary. This daily routine started about four months ago with suggestions from Dr. Dawes with Timeless Systems. It only took about ten minutes to examine, photograph, document, and forward the results to Dr. Dawes. It had become obvious to Sherry that gradual improvements were being made. The idea behind all this was from research done at Timeless Systems. Medication repairing telomeres, the terminal ends of chromosomes, had been developed for a possible means of reversing the aging process, and Sherry was taking part in a study involving one thousand participants.
She could hear Carol and Mark, her lead technicians, talking and laughing together out in the lab. Carol was always tickled about something, and Mark loved to make her laugh. Sherry considered herself blessed to have such a talented team. The type of research they did was a fun and fascinating experience every day. Dream research was combined with thought and feeling detection as well as thought steering. They worked with many interesting persons whom they were able to help on virtually every visit.
Twelve years ago, in 2022, Sherry had started working with subjects who were suffering from constant nightmares. However, over time she had shifted her focus to include subjects with panic attacks, depression, and other distressing issues. Much success had been achieved in her lab, especially during the past year. Cutting-edge neural detectors had played a key role, especially when coupled with superconducting feedback transmitters and high-powered microprocessors.
The lab was in a modern office building in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the other tenants were doctors or associated with the medical community. The research lab was known as the Faulkner Institute. The lab was somewhat large and modestly furnished. Along the right wall were the main computer units, classified as supercomputers by any definition. These were the primary workhorses for processing the transmit/receive unit data and then moving the results to the massive storage archives both on-site and to a cloud service for backup. Each data group represented an individual’s current neural scan. Sherry’s office was to the left of the entrance. Eight workstations were along the far wall positioned in front of the Session Rooms.
Just inside the main entrance was a large reception room. It had a number of chairs and side tables. Each had several magazines on them, and there was a single desk with a computer monitor and keyboard. The room was never really staffed, but when the door opened a chime would sound in the lab and whoever was free would come out and welcome the guest.
The Session Rooms were equipped with full-length reclining patient chairs covered in soft, light blue leather. At the head of the chair was a retracting hood unit looking much like a football helmet. It was a clamshell design for ease of fitting. Everyone referred to these as the TRU, transmit/receive unit, or helmet. Each unit had 1,600 small fiber-optic cables protruding from the helmet and connecting to a junction panel behind the chair. Each small cable received 1,000 inputs from each transducer array. The transducers were in direct contact with the scalp. Optical cables from the junction box proceeded to the ceiling, through the overhead, and finally to the supercomputers in the main lab. Each room always had several tasteful paintings displayed on electronic flat screens, mostly nature scenes, that were periodically rotated for different effects.
" Okay now. Time to get our day started," Sherry thought.
"Good morning, guys. How are you doing?" Sherry asked.
"Doing good. Just getting set up for our first guests," said Mark.
"Ditto," said Carol.
"Well, sounds like I should get going also," said Sherry.
Carol said, "That’s right, Sherry." Sherry had insisted that her coworkers call her "Sherry," not "Doctor." "We’ve got six guests per hour at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Then after lunch at 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m., and 4 p.m.," said Carol.
"Okay, but why isn’t anything scheduled between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.?" Sherry asked.
"Did you forget?" said Mark.
"Forget?" asked Sherry.
"Sure! Your friend, Dr. Morris, from the Coma Center is coming by about 11 a.m.," said Carol.
"Goodness! I did forget. It’s a good thing ya’ll are looking out for me. So, we’re still going to give him a good tour of what we do here. Dr. Morris will be the test subject this time. Carol, please do the dome and object demos with Dr. Morris. Mark, after that, give him an overview of the equipment and software. And, by the way, in the near future, we will all be going on a field trip to Dr. Morris’s facility, the Coma Research Center. We will be taking some of the portable helmet stands with us. I’m hoping we can help some of his coma patients. Just for the record, no one has yet to apply what we do to coma patients. Who knows? Maybe the three of us will make history! In the meantime, any ideas you have that might be worth exploring regarding comas, please, please let me know," said Sherry.
Guest sessions wrapped up about 10:45 a.m. and Dr. Morris arrived shortly after. He was a tall man, about 6’2", in good shape, and carried himself in a confident, friendly way.
"Hi, Dr. Morris. It’s good to see you!" said Sherry.
"It’s good to see you, but, please, call me John."
"Okay, John, then, call me Sherry," said Sherry.
"We sure took care of those titles quick. Looks like we are going to get along famously!" he said.
"I predict that your prediction will be true!" laughed Sherry.
Sherry escorted John into the lab, asking, "How long will you be able to visit?"
"I’m good till about 12:30 p.m."
"That’s great! We’ll be able to give you a good overview of our operation. Then you can tell me whether you think our system can help you with your comatose patients. Just a reminder: we do have portable units that are available," said Sherry.
"I remember that from our phone conversation, and I know that we will be looking forward to testing some of our patients with your equipment," John said.
"We can certainly do that," said Sherry.
"John, please meet Carol Wilson, our resident psychologist and team leader, and Mark Terrance, our computer specialist. Together they can easily operate the entire system."
"Good to meet you, John," they said.
"Are you ready to go on a fun trip, John?" smiled Carol.
"How fun?" said John.
"Well … that’s mostly up to you and includes a personal trip back down Memory Lane."
"That sounds really interesting," said John.
Sherry said, "Let me give you a short history of our operation. After that, Carol and Mark can go into more detail of our current system. Twelve years ago, I received grants from a number of organizations who were interested in treatments for recurring nightmares. By extension, the program began to deal with conscious depressions, panic attacks, and other mental disturbances. At the time, EEG equipment was limited by available technologies. No EEG system had yet to transmit into the mind. Only reception with no interaction was the accepted practice. Since that time, a number of breakthroughs in miniaturization, computing speed, and storage capacity have greatly improved our instrument capabilities. Mark will discuss with you how we use these devices here in our lab. But first, Carol has prepared a short presentation on exactly how we are able to help our guests. Memories are usually the starting point for most treatments. So ... Carol, would you like to take it from here?"
"Okay, I’m ready," said Carol.
Signaling for John to follow her, "Let me show you one of the tools we use to help our guests organize their thoughts. It’s right over here behind the divider," said Carol. Within the cubical was a large wooden box about six feet by six feet and two feet tall. The unit had casters for ease of movement. A control panel was on the edge of the near side of the box. It held two rows of twelve