David & The Grail

It was another three days' travel before we arrived at a solid concrete wall that didn’t want to be seen. You could look at the wall but then be overcome by the desire to look away, or think how insignificant the wall is. Forcing yourself to focus on the wall would make you sick to your stomach or fill you with dread. I recognized the technology as a perception filter. My friend Desey used one for parking her bus without drawing undue attention. The technology reaches into your mind on a low-frequency psychic wavelength. It tells your eyes that you don’t want to look at the item, so you don’t.

"So this wall is what, a door, a hologram?"

"The whole facility is underneath this part of the city. This wall marks the beginning of the ramp down to the main entrance. There is a specific tone that will shift the wall from solid to semi-solid and allow you to pass through."

She began to emit the tone needed, and the wall appeared fuzzy. I stepped forward and walked right through the wall onto the ramp. It led down for two stories and was quite a distance from the entrance doors. Entering the facility, Connie led me through a labyrinth of corridors and passageways. The path opened up to a large room that served as the interface and viewing room for the Grail. I figured if it already had a name, I wouldn’t waste time and energy trying to come up with a new one.

The interface room was a large space with a white motif. The only real controls are a series of panels a few meters from one wall. In the center, a series of rings spin when activated. They turn at furious speeds within each other and appear to create a solid sphere.

"The Grail—I can’t believe we are keeping that name," Connie explained—"is the culmination of several generations of work that archives the memories of every sentient in the galaxy who has ever lived."

"Wait," I interrupted, "what do you mean, every sentient who has ever lived?"

"As I said, David. The Grail is an archive of the memories of every sentient being who has ever lived. Sentient thought leaves indelible marks on time and space. If it helps, you can think of the universe as being like your brain. You access your thoughts and experiences via grooves and neural connections. The Grail searches the universe for grooves and neural connections on its surface."

"To what end? Scientists sitting around spying on the thoughts of beings from across the galaxy?"

"The most scientists could achieve was to dial in on a specific sentient being at a time. They could then see and hear their experiences."

She pointed at the spinning sphere in the middle of the room. I watched my experiences from my own point of view. Appearing in the air above the forest and hearing myself quip about Tuesdays.

"I get it now." The replay stopped, and the machine returned to nominal status. "The pirates want this because it would show them when and where to access anything they wanted. If they timed it right, there would be little to no resistance. Passwords, security measures—nothing could stand in their way. I could use this to find a way back to Delilah. I have access to all the information I would ever need right here at my fingertips."

"It’s not that simple, David. The Grail is difficult to tune. The scientists suspected that it had a mind of its own. It delivered what it wanted them to see, not what they wanted to see. When they could tune it into a specific sentient, they were unable to pinpoint any specific event or time."

"Never easy, never simple," I replied as I familiarized myself with the controls and pulled up the first memory set offered.