Free Keystones: Altered Destinies by Alexander McKinney

and set one of them in a DNA sequencer.
    “What are you looking for?”
    Derek sighed. “What did I just tell you about not questioning every little thing?” Despite his annoyance, he answered anyway. “At birth all of us are sequenced. If there have been any significant changes in your DNA, they will show up. Are you done with that line of questioning?”
    “Yes.”
    “Great. Now I think we should start looking into what triggers this response in you. Anger is one stimulus, fear another.”
    “So I should just try getting angry?”
    “Well, maybe. We’re going to have to design protocols that include directed anger, undirected anger, and a host of other emotions. Chances are that this isn’t going to be fun for you.” Derek reflected a little more before smiling maliciously. “I, on the other hand, should be able to entertain myself enormously.”

Indirect Information

    Calm sat next to Cay’s bed. The boy looked young lying there, his skin pale under the lights of the room and against the sheets of his bed. A tube led into his nose and another down his throat. The entire room, with its lack of decoration, conspired to make the medical care seem crude and the environment claustrophobic.
    This was Calm’s second time visiting Cay. Two days after the accident the boy still hadn’t awoken. The equipment monitoring his slumber indicated that he was in a coma.
    None of the machines registered brainwaves, and the prognosis was grim. Meanwhile the medical team had been working around the clock to determine the cause of Cay’s lapse into unconsciousness. So far they had met with failure, which made estimates of when he’d wake up little better than wild guesses.
    Calm dragged a passing researcher into the room to question him while he visited. Who knew? Maybe Cay would hear the conversation. “What do you mean that it’s as though the solar system is invisible?” he asked. Calm watched the man struggle to find a simple way of describing the situation.
    “Well, we’re still in the gravity field of a solar system.”
    “How can you tell?”
    “The gravity from the sun was all that ever held the Oort Cloud together.”
    “So?”
    “The physics out here are still acting as though there is a central gravity well. It has a minimal effect, but it is still measurable.”
    “What does that mean in simpler terms?” Calm inquired.
    “Well, it’s just a theory, but you’ve been told how all of the stars have changed, right?”
    “Yes, of course.”
    “It’s possible that somehow Cay affected the artifact and that our entire solar system has been teleported to a new location in the universe.”
    Calm rolled his eyes. These so-called explanations weren’t helping at all. “And how would that turn the sun invisible?”
    “It wouldn’t. It would just mean that the light from the sun would need time to reach us again.”
    “Beg pardon?”
    “We’re almost a light year out from the center of the solar system. If something happens in there, the sight of it would take almost a year to reach us.”
    “So you’re saying what exactly?”
    “That we might see the sun out here in a year, or much sooner if we headed inward.”
    Calm took an interest in the ceiling while he worked out this idea. “So you’re inferring from the presence of minimal gravity that we’re still in our sun’s gravity well?”
    “Yes.” The scientist looked relieved that Calm understood him.
    “Could it be any star?”
    “Well, yes, I suppose so.” The academician’s voice was dismissive. “But if it isn’t our sun, then you’d expect the light to have already made its way out here.”
    Calm stood up and paced in circles before posing his next question. “Is there a way to test this hypothesis of yours?”
    “Well, it’s not my theory, but it’s the best that any of us have come up with.”
    Straight answers here were in short supply. “Answer my question.”
    “We’ll be sending a probe to the inner solar system to