“I’ve had a revelation, Doc,” said Jacob Allan Gibbs, suspended in an empty white room, “I don’t trust my father.”

“That’s quite…that’s quite the revelation,” replied Dr. Natalie Dower-06, almost as if she was seated in the air, levitating across the room, adorned with minor but significant cybernetic enhancements, imprinting the words unto a projected digital page with her blue mechanical eye.

“I’ve always admired my father,” said Jacob, levitating an inch from the floor, pivoting in the air with the metal implants around his joints, unable to stay still.

The white walls around Jacob projected images of Raymond Allan Gibbs, a pioneer of Neural-engineering.

“I admired his incredible intellect, his wit, charisma, and accomplishments, both as a family man and a scientist.”

The projected image lingered on an engram, a preserved narrative of Raymond, opening presents with his family–the memory slowly began to play across every wall before gradually transitioning to Raymond’s crown achievement: the “engram” microchip.

“By every conceivable definition of the word,” Jacob placed his hand on the back of his head, caressing the glowing ports attached to his cerebellum, “he was the perfect human being.”

“Was? As in, the past?” asked Dr. Dower gently, attempting to establish eye contact with her patient, “What caused the distrust–this rift between you and your father?”

Jacob paused for a second, carefully contemplating the intent behind his words as the white walls turned blank as he struggled to come up with an answer.

***

A rustling noise echoed through a dark room, an office decorated by a slew of medical diplomas and Avant-garde paintings. There were four security cameras in every top corner of the room with beeping red dots, which turned purple between every three blinks. The beeping stopped as the cameras lowered their head towards the floor. Jacob gently opened the door with the help of an implant, emerging from his finger like a swiss-army knife.

Jacob entered, his head glowing the same purple as the beeping camera. The neon purple powered down, killing the last remaining light source, encasing Jacob in the comforting grip of the vacuous darkness, filled only by the sound of some ominous clinking. Jacob cautiously approached the main desk, contemplating whether to sit down in the oversized, robust chair.

Instead, he picked up a copy of “String Theory of the Multiverse”, written by his father, Raymond Allan Gibbs.

“You never stop moving, do you, Dad?” Jacob thought to himself, immediately turning to look at the giant bookshelf in front of him, noticing a missing slot on the bookshelf, “as if it would be that simple,” he scoffed, placing the book down exactly where he picked it up.

“He’ll know I was here.”

The image of Raymond’s expressionless, blank stare flashed through Jacob’s head.

“This is pointless. If there’s a secret here, I’m not even remotely smart enough to find it.”

Jacob powered up his left purple eye as one camera comes back online, now fully emanating a purple light.

“Lucky for me, I don’t have to be.”

The purple camera started beeping, synchronizing with Jacob’s glowing eye. Through the camera’s perspective, Jacob reverse-engineered a thermal signature, collecting the paths and most frequent arrangement of certain books.

“I knew you were hiding something,” Jacob stated as the sound of jittering and clicking intensified. “Good grief, my hands are shaking,” he thought, looking down at his sweaty palms and realizing that the noise was coming from the metal attached to his forearms.

***

“Jacob?” Dr. Dower intruded, “the mistrust?”

“Oh, right. I can’t quite put my finger on it, Doc.”

Jacob finally slowed his sprawling and stopped, lowering himself to levitate at Dr. Dower’s eye level.

“It’s on the tip of my tongue but I can’t seem to remember.”

“Right. Jacob, I have to ask,” Dr. Dower added snippets of notes with her Cybernetic yellow eye as she projected and rifled through some digital files. “Are you using again, Jacob?”

Jacob shot Dr. Dower with a cold glare, pivoting towards her with a firm, “No.”

“I’m not allowed to scan your body without your consent, so I’d really prefer if you told me yourself,” Dr. Dower added insistently.

Jacob took a deep breath, rubbing his temple angrily before calmly stating, “I didn’t relapse.”

Dr. Dower observed Jacobs’ silence, noticing his ever-accumulating cold sweat and jittery hands. “Then, please elaborate,” Dr. Dower, now wide-eyed and incredibly confused herself, “what fostered the mistrust between you and your father?”

Jacob turned, resuming his childish hovering, racing through his thoughts, choosing his words carefully.

“Last time we spoke, you’ve identified your intelligence as one of the key reasons for your isolation,” Dr. Dower said softly, “so you numbed yourself to feel happy.”

“I numbed myself to be stupid. So, I guess, yeah, made it easier to connect with people.”

Images of Jacob’s friends’ flooded every corner of the lifeless white cube with an assortment of neon lights, featuring Jacob, along with his merry band of nutcases getting high and drunk.

“But I stopped.”

“And do you miss this sensation of dullness?”

“Quite the opposite, actually,” Jacob stated with a smile. “I mean, I miss it sometimes, but at the end of the day, it’s only momentary…the happiness. So, overall, I’ve enjoyed the sobriety and don’t plan on giving it up.”

The white walls projected various snippets of Raymond performing different miracles of science.

“Plus, you’re much shrewder when you’re sober.”

“Then, why are you here? How does this relate to your father? Don’t get me wrong, always nice seeing you, but this is hardly a social call.”

“Well, when the drugs and fog finally cleared out my system, I couldn’t help but notice a few things.”

“What things? What did you notice?”

***

Jacob placed the final book in the correct spot. With his cybernetic eye, Jacob spelled out Omega- XE-Delta-09878 from the first letter of every title.

The bookshelf disintegrated molecule by molecule, revealing a vast stairway, spiraling downward toward the darkness as Jacob was left frozen, unable to move a muscle.

“Get a grip, man,” Jacob mumbled to himself, taking a deep breath and wiping the sweat from his forehead, “no going back now.”

He took the first step into the abyss as the purple glint in his eye died out, and entered a small laboratory lit only by a single, large monitor stationed next and connected to an oversized chair.

The only other piece of equipment the lab contained was a desk filled with small tools and blueprints, as well as a stack of similar prototype engrams, microchips that could be inserted into your brain, all giving off a peculiar jade glint.

“Nothing crazy so far,” Jacob thought to himself, approaching the chair, picking up the wires leading up to a unique chip. “Omega-XE-Delta-09878,” he read out loud as his voice carries a feeble echo.

“No illegal experiments or monster-cyborgs,” Jacob started, confidently speaking out loud as the air of tension faded away, “that’s reassuring.”

Jacob turned his gaze up at the multi-screen monitor next to the chair, displaying an overview of earth, or what looked a lot like earth–labeled as Omega-XE-Delta-09878. Approaching the monitor, Jacob carefully observed the coordinates and the visual display of the planet, placing his hand gently on the warm monitor where Australia should be.

“No way,” Jacob turned back to the unique chip placed next to the giant chair, “it’s missing…” he thought to himself, picking the chip up and slowly lowering himself into the chair. “An actual parallel earth…why’d you keep this a secret, Dad?” he mumbled, fiddling with the computer and firing the device up as the jade glint traveled into the chair, step by step, like charging a battery. “Guess everyone’s got an Outlet. So, let’s see yours, dad.”

Jacob inserted the chip into his head. The green glint traveled into Jacob’s system as two needles emerged from the chair, plunging into Jacob’s chest, injecting him with morphine.

“Fuck, no going back,” Jacob said nervously as his eyes became bloodshot.

Everything suddenly went black as Jacob closed his eyes.

“No going back.”

***

The white walls turned blank once more as Jacob remained silent, floating about the room angrily, struggling to keep his thoughts together as his breathing became erratic and unhinged.

“Jacob, are you alright?” she said, moving closer to her patient.

“Took me a while to notice, but you ever wonder how he puts up with anyone?” Jacob blurted out, throwing this question into the air, almost like he was asking himself, superimposing the image of his father’s expressionless face across the walls – startling the Doctor, “sorry, that was sudden, ” Jacob added gently, “besides, how would you know?

“Forgive me, Jacob,” the Doctor insisted, “but you’re going to be more specific.”

“What I mean is,” Jacob continued, “my father’s not even the most intelligent person in the room. He has dominated every medical and engineering field for the past two decades. The world is quite literally his oyster. So, what does it feel like, for him, talking to a regular person? How does he stay sane? How does a man like that stay so…perfect?”

“That’s what you noticed?” Dr. Dower raised her thin mechanical brow.

“No,” Jacob said firmly, dismissing her. He took a deep breath, nullifying his emotions before carrying on.

“I can’t put my finger on, but something’s off about him, without the alcohol and drugs clouding my mind, he seems almost like a shell of a person. Not distant, but…. off. Just off.”

“You want to know what I noticed?”

“Spit it out, Doctor.”

“Very well,” Dr. Dower took on an icy, almost dismissive demeanor, “your hands are jittery, you can barely sit, and you’re sweating so much I’m quite certain you’ll short circuit yourself. So, I’m asking you for the final time, have you been using it again?”

Jacob almost went limp, suspended in the air like a floating balloon, barely mustering the strength to say, “I haven’t relapsed.”

“Jacob,” Dr. Dower raised her thin mechanical brow, “you’re one of my favorite patients because you usually always have the answers yourself; you just need someone to push you in the right direction.”

“Don’t give me that nonsense,” Jacob said, waving his hand at Dr. Dower dismissively.

Projecting her digital conclusions, Dr. Dower calmly but firmly retorted, “Again, I cannot legally scan your body without your consent, but there’s so much you can push the legal envelope. Your behavior is erratic, unhinged, clearly drawn back to your old destructive habits, and instead of taking responsibility, you are projecting it onto your father in the form of some wild goose chase.”

“I’m a little disheartened to hear that,” Jacob stated, struggling to hold back the tears running down his eyes.

“I want to believe, as smart as you are, you must, at least logically, understand my misgivings? Permit me to scan you – if you’re truly clean, then there is nothing to hide–or fear.”

“Why won’t you drop this?!” Jacob exploded with anger. “Why are you this adamant about not believing me?”

“For the same reason you, based on absolutely nothing, are so adamant,” Dr. Dower stated, angry and frustrated, “that your benevolent Father is a malicious man, instead of admitting that you are using him as a scapegoat for something else.”

Jacob glided closer to the Doctor, searing with anger, “do it then! I grant you full and legal permission.”

“Jacob, I’m–”

“Save it. Just get it done.”

Dr. Dower’s mechanical eye turned green, covering Jacob’s entire being in a blissful glare, and scanning him from head to toe.

***

“D…da…” Jacob attempted to form words as he gradually awoke to various grunts and indistinguishable moans around him, moving in and out of consciousness as a green, toxic light hovered over him.

“Whoa….Who…”

Jacob, weakened and malnourished, barely lifted his head to look around. He began seeing odd figures in the distance, masked by the sting of the toxic green light.

The silhouettes around him gradually took shape, revealing a slew of people hooked up to colorful machines, intertwined with different prototypes and upgrades as they moaned in pure, unfiltered agony.

Jacob, terrified, tried to stand up, only to find his collar bones engrained by two large and quite dense chains hastily.

Now hyperventilated and crying, Jacob was unable to form words besides strings of blubbering nonsense. He unleashed a blood-curdling scream, puking out blood as he was unable to muster any words.

“Science requires sacrifice, kid,” said Raymond, watching the horror unfolded through Jacob’s eyes on the large monitor, “sacrifices I’m not quite willing to make.” He powered down the monitor and the chair but kept Jacob connected to the long Outlet, tightening the straps around Jacobs’s arms. “Someday, you’ll hopefully see things my way,” he continued and flipped a large switch on the monitor as Jacob exhaled deeply, gradually growing into a blood-curdling scream, then crying. Genuinely distraught at his son’s misery, he flipped the second switch as the morphine eased Jacob into a deep sleep. “Until then,” he said, then gently unhooked his son from the Outlet, “it’s best you do not think about it.”

***

Jacob gradually descended towards the floor, quite literally returning to reality as Dr. Dower completed the scan, identifying morphine and traces of alcohol in his system.

“I don’t understand.”

Jacob held his head in his palms, succumbing to the weight of the revelation as he fell to his knees,

“When…when did this happen, I was so sure…Doc, something’s off here. I can’t.”

Jacob’s hands began shaking uncontrollably, “I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s…not right.”

“Jacob, please,” Dr. Dower gently approached Jacob, embracing him, “think about it, if the root of all your problems genuinely starts with some horrible “secret,” –then why not ask your Father about it? Directly.”

“I did,” Jacob said, still agitated. “And?”

“That’s just the thing, Doc,” he slowly moved away from the Doctor as the white walls began projecting the image of Raymond, wholly still and devoid of emotion, emotionlessly staring, “he had nothing to say.”

“Jacob, wait, what are you doing?” the Doctor reached out towards her patient as Raymond’s demonic, expressionless face fully disintegrated along with the walls.

Now standing in the middle of his room, Jacob did not say a word, gently removing the chip from the back of his head as the image of Dr. Drower-06 faded away.

“He had nothing to say, Doc. That’s what no one seems to understand.”

Jacob clapped his hands as the lights slowly began to die down. One by one, the lights went out, submerging Jacob into the darkness until the only thing left of him was the purple outline emanating from the ports on the back of his head.

“My father always has something to say.”

And then finally, only darkness.

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