Chapter 25

The four of them were now sat in a snug area of the pub. Donna had explained about the visions of the speedboat and the revelations she'd had while they walked back. Professor Heathcote kept largely quiet, as though waiting for his brain to process the information sufficiently for him to make a response. Jenny listened attentively and Steph was just glad that she could have an alcoholic drink at last.

Professor Heathcote suddenly spoke up, 'I'm sorry that you all became involved in what happened today. I can't live with the fact that I was involved in producing technology that the government is using to intrude into young people's lives and control their behaviour. Every time I hear something on the news about the Nightshade Project it just drives me insane with guilt, knowing that I was part of that. The enforced sleep on the day of the protest was really the last straw. It sent me over the edge. Well almost. You saved my life, Donna.'

Donna remembered the online news article she'd read on the train, 'You have a wife though don't you?'

'Doreen? She's OK, but she doesn't understand why this is causing me such anguish. She says I was just paid to do a job and I did it, but I can't view it this way. We all have a moral responsibility and earning money is not an excuse.'

'So what do you plan to do now?' asked Jenny inquisitively.

'Well, having heard your story, Donna, I think I have a new purpose. I've been curious about simulation theory for many years but it seems that at last there may be a way to prove or disprove it. This has been made possible by the silicon chip programme, so if what you say is true, this exercise in governmental repression could actually be the seed for a discovery that would alter our knowledge profoundly.'

'Why doesn't he speak English?' thought Steph, swigging her alcoholic ginger beer.

'I'm not even sure what is real myself,' remarked Donna, 'But somehow I saw this cliff exactly as it was before I came here and I knew that you'd be here and in danger.'

The professor tried to rationalise what Donna was saying. Perhaps she had seen Beachy Head on TV and concocted a dream about the place. She could have known he was depressed from the news articles that had been published, but how on earth would she have put the two things together and travelled all that way on a whim to save his life? What was the more rational explanation, that there was a god of some kind directing her or that it was pure chance? 'I'm a scientist,' he reminded himself, 'I have to leave God out of it.'

'I'm going to be honest,' said the professor, 'I really don't have any idea how it is possible that you knew I was here. I think something completely unique is taking place and we don't yet have the science to explain it, but it could be extremely important in understanding our entire universe.'

'So are you saying we should keep the chips in?' asked Donna.

'Unfortunately, yes, but you've had a traumatic experience. Maybe there is a way you can have the chip removed on psychological grounds. If what you said is true about the system only allowing communication through one person's chip at a time, the programmer or whatever he represents will then be able to communicate to another person. Eventually we would gain the knowledge that mankind has been seeking since the dawn of time, this being if there is anything resembling what we think of as God or if we are truly alone in the universe?'

'So let me get my head around this,' said the ever-pragmatic Jenny, 'The theory is that this old man in Donna's dreams or whatever he is might be God?'

'In a way, but not in a traditional sense. Our universe may have an engineer behind it but he, or she, or it, has merely created a program and allowed it to run for what we understand as billions of years. This is the world we live in.'

'So what about all this stuff about overpopulation and global warming?' questioned Jenny.

'Let's imagine that we really are the only intelligent life in the universe,' said the scientist, 'If you were the programmer would you sit back and allow it to destroy itself, or at least destroy the civilisation that sustains all the knowledge it has discovered? Just as we use computer models to learn about our own world, perhaps we are providing valuable information to this programmer. If we plunge ourselves into climate chaos, it may take a few centuries to take effect but we are gambling with our entire civilisation, which is the programmer's information source.'

'I get it, but is it really right to keep the chips in these poor teenagers' brains just to find out?'

'It's an ethical dilemma,' explained the scientist.

'Oh God,' thought Steph, 'Where does he get these words from?'

'What the government is doing is abhorrent, but is it a cost we are willing to pay to find out the ultimate truth about the universe?'

Jenny turned to the two girls, 'Well you two are the ones here with the chips. How do you feel about that?'

'It's interesting,' said Donna, 'Maybe I should just treat this as an experiment now. Perhaps I can see it as a good thing that I have been chosen. It's quite an honour really I guess.'

'I still hate the chips,' Steph chipped in, 'If you want to know so much why not have a chip put in your brain?'

The professor nodded, 'Having created this abomination I would willingly volunteer myself, but the way I understand it is that the programmer cannot control who he communicates with. For some reason at the moment it's Donna.'

'But why?' asked Donna.

'Energy is like lightening,' the professor responded, 'You could ask “why does a fork of lightening occur at a particular point in the sky and take a specific route?” Whatever system we are in is the same, a portal has been created and it takes a certain route through the circuitry to Donna. If Donna's chip is removed the lightening will strike someone else.'

Donna decided to lighten to mood, and quoting the National Lottery advert she pointed at Steph and said, 'It could be you!'

'I'm alright for that, cheers,' replied her friend sarcastically, 'We really need to get to our hotel soon. It's miles away, isn't it?'

Sensing that the meeting could be drawing to a close, the professor reached into the pocket of his grass-stained jacket and pulled out a wallet. Retrieving three business cards he handed them out, 'I'd like to stay in touch with all of you, not just for scientific reasons. I owe my life to you, Donna, and if you want to get the chip removed I will try my best to persuade the authorities that it should be done on compassionate grounds.'

'I'm not so sure now,' mused Donna pensively, 'I'm curious too.'

'Come on Don,' said Steph, 'You've got a chance to get this poxy thing out of your head. Why not go for it?'

The professor turned to Jenny, 'Thank you for not judging me, like some of those other people on the clifftop. I'm glad things worked out this way and I now have a reason to continue.'

'Maybe there is a god,' speculated Jenny who was now starting to feel a bit chilly in the Lycra running gear, 'Look, I'll drop you two down to the station if you like. It's a long walk and I'm sure you've seen enough of the cliffs for one day.'

'I don't want to come across as strange,' continued the professor, sensing that time was running out, 'But would you be willing to give me your email address, Donna? I'll be honest, I really want to know if you have any more visions of this kind, but I still mean what I said about helping you to get the chip removed if that's what you'd like. Please think about it carefully.'

Donna slid a beermat towards herself without hesitation, but Steph gave her a look as if to ask 'Do you know what you're doing?' The professor pulled out a pen from his jacket pocket and handed it to Donna who scrawled the email address on the beermat and slid it towards him.

'Thank you. Don't worry. I'm a married man,' he added, sensing that Steph was uneasy about Donna giving out personal details to a much older man.

'Happily married?' inquired Jenny.

'Let's just say I have no issues with that particular facet of my life,' smiled the professor.

Jenny looked at the girls, 'Are you ready?'

'Yeah, I think so,' said Steph, polishing off her drink.

The three females stood up and Professor Heathcote rose in politeness, although he intended to stay behind and finish his pint. He shook Donna's hand, 'And thank you once again for what you did. I would be at the bottom of that cliff now if you hadn't have acted courageously.'

Donna smiled and sniffed back a tear. The whole day had been emotionally draining.

The three women left and the professor took another swig of real ale. He felt the sensation of the tiny bubbles on his tongue and thought 'It's good to be alive.' The pint he'd had before his suicide attempt had tasted bland, even though it was the same beer, but his senses had reawakened. He would return to Canterbury and he wouldn't trouble his wife, Doreen, by mentioning his desperate actions. However, he would hardly be able to contain himself at the prospect of uncovering something that could change humanity's perception of the universe forever.