September 17

So it looks like Mark is down and I don’t know why, which is frustrating because I thought I had done all the calculations before, all the variables taken account of, all the testing successful, and what wasn’t initially successful was identified and fixed and made successful.

We’ve been trying to figure this out for about 48 straight hours now and a few minutes ago Jim and I met, for a review of everything, one more review, just us.

“I don’t know what it could be,” he said, throwing the last test he looked at on the stack of a million others, test after test, report after report, before and after.  We had scoured them all, again.  Nothing.  Nothing seemed anomalous – now we were only speculating.

Jim looked at me.  “How are you feeling?”

“Okay,” I said.

“We haven’t seen any entries from you for awhile,”  he said.  “Mind bringing that up to date?”

I nodded.

A minute or two went by.

“You haven’t slept,” he said.

“Neither have you.”

He gave me a crooked smile.   “More than you.”

I smiled back.  Without real humor.  “You know how I can be when there’s a problem.” 

“Yea, but even then you usually sleep some.”  I shrugged.  “I’ve slept a little.”

“Really?  How much?” 

“I’ve laid down for about an hour or so.”  I said.  “And I’m not tired so much as fatigued, my mind going in too many directions, not enough organization.”

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Jim said, staring absently.  “You can’t sleep, and that’s all that’s Mark’s doing.”

I sat up a little straighter.   “That’s it,” I said.

“What?” Jim looked at me focused now. 

“Mark is sleeping and I am awake.  We’re opposites.”

“Ummm not really?”  Jim said, “You’re both alive and breathing.”

“No, no, no, that’s okay,” I said.  “That part is like Jekyll and Hyde, if you assume a mouse has no higher order cognitive functions.   Which I guess we should,” I said as an aside.

“What are you taking about?”

“Look,” I said with growing excitement, “I think I have it.  But I need sometime to think it through and do a little research.  Let’s gather everyone for a meet in the boardroom in ninety minutes.   If I’m right we’ll have made progress on a couple of other things too.”

We met in our boardroom.  There was little social pleasantry.  Everyone was tired by the challenge.  After all, I was the mind that had brought us this far, and now the mind was down, even though I was standing in front of them.

“Hi, everyone,” I began.  “I am here and good, if you are wondering.  But I am also lying in the other room too, and that’s why you’re here.  I’m not going to waste a lot of your time, except to talk about a direction I think we need to explore.”

“Now earlier today Jim and I were talking and I realized there was something different between Mark and I.  And it’s obvious – he is sleeping – in a comatose state, while I am awake.  I am not being medically precise here, but Marks’ metabolic functions are good, yet he is unconscious.  And we see scattered signs of brain activity, something like we might see from young Luke here.” I smiled to indicate it was a joke, and there were a few scattered smiles.

“What is puzzling is of course, is the contrast between his and my state.  I have slept very little, about an hour in the past forty eight.  And I know some of you haven’t either or very little because of this situation, and thank you for that, but I haven’t even really felt the need.  I am fatigued and my mind is and was a little scrambled from too much input and not enough organization, but I’m not really suffering from the lack of sleep.”

“Now, reviewing our protocols, it seems as if we did everything according to plan.  The nano was formed properly, the infusion, the mold, the replication all went well.  And comparing the protocols to that of Jekyll and Hyde we see no significant deviations, none at all, yet as you know, both Jekyll and Hyde are both happily coexisting within their mouse world.”

“And that’s the difference.  Within their mouse world.”

I paused and looked around.  Everyone was staring at me but no one seemed to get it yet.   And I wasn’t sure I did after all.  I just realized my mind was fatigued – whatever need sleep fulfilled I had to have it after all.    

“So here is what we are going to do.  We will all get a good night’s sleep and reconvene tomorrow.  Take your time getting in.  We’ll meet in the afternoon.  And think about what is going on.”