Greg Krojac - The Schrödinger Enigma

She started walking, driven, looking straight ahead, to avoid making eye contact with anything that wasn’t within the scope of her forward vision. She had no desire for peripheral vision; peripheral vision merely magnified the horror of her new environment. She walked for hours, like a woman possessed, ignoring the pain in her legs and the exhaustion that was creeping back into her body, lack of food taking its toll. She strode out of downtown Bethesda, through the suburbs, and onto a highway. She didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t care.

Jason wasn’t sure that he could trust his new companion fully, but was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt – after all, the stranger had just saved his life. The most pressing problem at that moment was to get as far away from the area as possible. There were a number of vehicles parked outside the warehouse, and it didn’t take too long to find one that had been left unlocked. Jason could never understand why so many Americans still seemed to leave their cars unlocked, but he was grateful for the owner’s lack of judgement. He jumped into the driver’s seat and beckoned the stranger to get in the SUV too.

“Come on. Get in. We can’t waste time admiring the car.”

The stranger was checking the car over and seemed particularly taken by the wheels, which amused him greatly. Jason was becoming impatient.

“What’s so funny? We have to get out of here.”

Jason’s saviour climbed into the passenger seat.

“The vehicles of your planet have wheels.”

Jason put the Chevy SUV into gear and its wheels span for a second or two before finding traction and propelling the vehicle out of the parking lot at speed, snaking a little before settling down and accelerating along the highway. The passenger shook his head.

“We do not have that problem with our vehicles.”

Jason had so many questions to ask but waited until the car was on the freeway before interrogating his passenger.

“So…I told you my name back in the warehouse. What’s your name?”

“I am Enak.”

“Why didn’t you answer when I started talking to you back there?”

“I had nothing to say. Not because I did not want to talk to you, but because I could not. I did not understand what you were saying.”

Jason pointed towards his own ear.

“I thought you were deaf. You’re wearing a hearing aid. You seem to speak good English now. How did that happen?”

Enak laughed.

“It is a universal translating device.”

“A translating device?”

“Yes. It looks for patterns in speech and uses them to infer the construction of the target language. That is why I wanted you to keep talking to me. It never stops learning and updating its database. It is doing so as we speak.”

“OK. I can see how that would help you understand what I’m saying, but how are you able to talk to me?”

“It is connected directly to the left cerebral cortex of my brain and delivers the translation directly, so my mouth and larynx operate accordingly.”

Jason was impressed. His next question could be tricky.

“So, Enak, I don’t mean to give offence, but what are you?”

“I am human.”

“But you found it funny that the vehicles on our planet have wheels. You said, and I quote, the vehicles of your planet have wheels. Are you from another planet?”

“I am, but I am still human.”

Jason was trying to be tactful, but it was no easy task.

“You look human in some ways, but in others you don’t. I mean you’re basically like us; two arms, two legs, but to be honest, you look like the pictures of Neanderthals that I’ve seen. No offence.” [18] he already said that

Enak looked confused.

“What are Neanderthals?”

“They were another species of human that used to live on Earth, but became extinct thousands and thousands of years ago.”

“Ah. I think I understand. We are Argon, but perhaps you call us Neanderthal. We originate from this planet.”

Jason was stunned. Was he really driving a car along the freeway, with a real live Neanderthal sitting in the passenger seat?

“Enak, but if you’re a Neanderthal…”

“Argon.”

“If Argons and Neanderthals are the same species, you became extinct about forty thousand years ago.”

“Not extinct. We left. In fact, we were taken.”

Jason’s mind was abuzz. What Enak was saying filled his head with more questions.

“But Neanderthals were the dumb ones.”

He immediately wished he hadn’t said that. You don’t insult someone you’ve just met, by calling their race, or species, or whatever, dumb. Especially if they look like they have the strength to snap your bones like a twig.”

Enak laughed out loud so hard, that he was forced to hold his belly in an attempt to control himself.

“We are the dumb ones? You are still using wheels. We have perfected interstellar travel. You are still sending unmanned spacecraft to explore the universe, and you have only just got one of them to leave your solar system. I think we both know which one of us is the dumb species here – and it is not mine. I will answer more of your questions later, but now, I need to get some sleep. However, before I do, I have one question for you.”

Perhaps pushing that racking over took more out of Enak than he was letting on.

“OK. But please tell me more later on. What’s your question?”

Enak yawned.

“Where are we going?”

Two miles into a twelve mile stretch of Branch Avenue, the MD-5 S, Jason thought he spotted someone walking along the hard shoulder. He slowed down to take a closer look as he drove past, remembering his close escape at the warehouse and not wanting to take any unnecessary risks. As he passed the person, he looked to his right and saw that it was a young woman, unarmed and looking totally exhausted. He had a very brief debate with himself – Enak was still sleeping – and stopped the car. Putting the vehicle in reverse gear he backed up until he was alongside the woman, who by now looked fit to drop. He wound down the driver’s window.

“Hi. Can I offer you a ride?”

Sitara’s initial instincts were to refuse. Her mother, like mothers the world over, had drilled into her as a child that you shouldn’t accept rides from strangers, but these were extraordinary times. The fear of infection didn’t cross her mind, as she was obviously immune. She really wanted to jump into the car and lock the door, to be with living human beings again, but hesitated.

“Where are you going?”

Jason thought that that was a strange question to ask at a time like this. She didn’t look like she was deliberately going anywhere, but rather was leaving somewhere.

“To Mechanicsville. Well, close to Mechanicsville. An Amish settlement on Route 236. Where are you going?”

Sitara shrugged her shoulders.

“Nowhere really. I just knew I had to get away from Bethesda. It’s full of dead people.”

Jason unlocked the right-hand rear door of the car.

“You’d better get in. It’s too dangerous to walk along the highway like this. [19] — Especially now.”

Sitara ignored her mother’s warnings and got in the car. She knew it would be difficult to survive on her own, her feet were hurting, and she had nothing better to do. Sure, this guy and his sleeping friend could be rapists and murderers, but for some reason she had a feeling that joining them in the car was the safer option. The driver looked like a good man – whatever a good man was supposed to look like, that is. She couldn’t see his friend’s face, but chances were that if the driver was a good man, then his friend would be too. Jason turned towards his new guest and offered his hand.