The Image

            Gerald deactivated the Brain Inducer device and sat up from the medical bay bed. He rubbed his hands over his hairless head and massaged his eyes. The Brain Inducer was working perfectly. He felt like he was getting smarter, and faster, but it was taking a terrible toll on his body.  He could swear he could feel the brain tissue swelling and throbbing with each heartbeat and it was invigorating. If only he could sleep and dream like he used to.

            His dreams were all nightmares now, far too real for his liking. He was always falling down some shaft or losing his hand hold on his wife as she got sucked up out a loading bay door airlock into space. He would almost always wake up screaming and drenched in a cold sweat. The worst dreams were when he had to urinate. It was so real that he was constantly waking up covered in his own urine. He’d recently resorted to using a catheter to keep the sheets dry, but it was keeping him awake.

            Gerald stood from the medical bay bed and went to the MRI monitor and reviewed his scans while under the Brain Inducer. It showed marked synaptic increases and gave the impression his brain was now operating at over 198% efficiency. He’d yet to reach a telekinetic state though as he had hoped. He reviewed his research notes and flipped back to the very beginning. He remembered his wife, Sophia, begging him not to test the new device on himself. It was the only way though since the government was about to cut his funding if he didn’t start showing some results. He was positive the Brain Inducer would work by ramping up the available electrical energy to the brain along with a high protein supplement injected directly to the neuro-transmitters. The initial results were very promising.

            The government was pleased that his recall was infallible and he could perform mathematical calculations faster than their best machines. However, it started to plateau and things just wouldn’t improve. He knew, with his advanced brain power, that he could achieve true mental power and reach out from the confines of his skull into the physical world and manipulate objects. It was merely controlling the atoms that made up everything there is in the universe. He had determined that by focusing his significant brain power on the frequency of the atomic particles he should be able to manipulate them in the physical world. In essence, use his mind to move and re-organize matter. 

            He just had to move his operation to space, to remove the confines of normal gravity and allow his brain the freedom to expand. It was with some significant cost but he was able to show that his methods would work. It was easy with his increased intelligence to encourage funding. He actually made the board of directors think it was their idea.

            Sophia hated it. She didn’t think his mind was something that he should tamper with. She left the space station last October and hadn’t sent any communication. Gerald had argued with her relentlessly about it. Their last argument was the worst. They’d had it out in the corridor outside the station’s cafeteria and basically the whole crew heard them.

            “You are not a God Gerald,” Sophia had shouted.

            “I know I am not. I am a man made in his image, so why shouldn’t I therefore become what he is,” yelled Gerald back.

            “It’s madness. That’s why. I just want you to come home. Forget all this and come home. We can start again. A family. A different life,” Sophia pleaded.

            Gerald’s fast moving brain had already concluded that she would never understand what he was trying to accomplish. She was just too small now to ever realize his vision.

            “Go then. Leave this place and never come back,” he’d told her tearful face. He turned and entered the cafeteria and didn’t look back.

            Sophia stood behind him, clasping her chest as if she’d just been hit by a bowling ball. But she never said another word. The cafeteria doors slid closed and she left the ship that night without another word.

            Gerald closed his note book and re-set some of the calculations for his next turn in the brain inducer. It was a little harder now since he was working alone. The crew. The crew kept getting in his way. So he had to move them on. It wasn’t too hard actually. Thanks to his increased brain power he had the crew at each other’s throats and they effectively removed themselves from his plans. Pity they resorted to violence though. Blood is so hard to clean in low gravity. He did wish for at least one other pair of hands around to help with the menial tasks.

            Gerald set the Brain Inducer for the next run and climbed back into the medical bay bed. The Brain Inducer gently hummed as Gerald closed his eyes as the protein fluid needles charged to jab into a new section of his skull. He hoped he wouldn’t dream this time.