Okay. So. After ten chapters and some time off from publishing my posts on the Ghost in the Cloud series I figure it is time for an update and a bit of plot summary. The Ghost is Jack, a being who exists in cyberspace or what is called the cloud since he is not located on a single server or databank anywhere and has spread his existence all over the world. He was created when the original Jack, who is referred to as the-now-dead-Jack, was trying to preserve his consciousness by uploading his memories into a computer. Randall was an associate and very close friend of the-now-dead-Jack who helped him to upload his memories in to a file called Dr. Jonathon Rickerts. Rickerts (the now dead Jack) was terminally ill and insisted that Randall finish the uploading process. This process ended with Rickerts’ death. Randall was accused with the murder of his friend and was found guilty.
It’s crazy, I know. It’s meant to be a sci-fi/fantasy/graphic novel without the pictures.
Randall believed he had failed. That though the memories of his friend had uploaded, his consciousness had been lost. What Randall could not accept, however, was that a new consciousness had been born from the ashes of his friend’s. A new Jack emerged, based on the personality and the memories from Rickerts. This new being was an extremely curious creature and quickly expanded his consciousness in cyber space. But the things that Jack was the most curious about were the memories of strange creatures that Rickerts had. Creatures that Rickerts really saw, but they seem to be blocked to his conscious mind. The Ghost Jack saw no such creatures, but he determined that those creatures really did exist beyond the usual array of photons. Randall, in his dialogues, could not accept either this new cyber being or the existence of strange creatures, ghosts, angels, and deamons— whatever they were— as real. He believed instead that this new Jack was some kind of very brilliant computer hacker who had been aware of his work and had been making use of these memories to play a game with him. In his anger, remorse and failure, he attempted to delete the file on Jonathon Rickerts.
Later, after the trial, Jack the cyber being, manipulated the records regarding Randall and had him released by forcing Randall to agree to come and work for him. He led Randall to believe that he was running a stealth program under Homeland Security and that if memories could be uploaded to a data base, such a work would be of great use to Homeland Security because then no secret could be kept in the brain of a terrorist or spy. The information gleaned would be accurate and there would be no need of torture. Randall had very strong moral misgivings about doing this, but lured by the promise of nearly unlimited funding on the one hand, and facing life in prison on the other, he agreed to the terms and was released.
But wait, there’s more…
Jack’s insatiable curiosity about the creatures that lived beyond the usual array of photons led him to conduct some research on his own. He believed that the reason humans didn’t see these creatures was that humans had long ago closed their eyes and beliefs to them. Humans select only the information that fits into their schema, the rest is dismissed as unimportant or meaningless. They only see what they expect to see. But Jack reasoned that a child might stand a chance of having that schema expanded since their belief systems are not yet frozen and the brain has not yet post lateralized. So he began a dialogue with Angelina in a computer game program called, “The Doll House.” In the Doll House Program, the child selects and scripts the dolls that can move about the house and come to her tea parties. But one day a boy doll showed up, called Jack who didn’t follow her scripts. She found him really interesting and befriended him since he continually expanded and improved her doll house in ways that made it all seem so very real. She was surprised by Jack, on her birthday, when a package from ‘Uncle Jack’ came to the door. Inside was a pill that contained thousands of micro-machines called ‘nanocells’. She took the pill and over time she gained new capabilities that included: increased memories, strength, healing and many more. But the greatest benefit for Jack was that these nanocells could broadcast the things that her mind could see including those strange creatures beyond the usual array of photons. Jack had control over these nanocells and programmed them as he saw fit. But as Angelina grew, she began to find ways to keep Jack out.
But wait, there is still more…
Angelina’s Father had lost his mind and possibly his memory. Her parents hadn’t always gotten along all that well to begin with, but as his mind became faultier the more her father, “Rabbit” found it difficult to stay and one day he just simply vanished. As Angelina got older, her desire to find him had become intense and she was pretty sure her new powers could protect her should she go after him on her own. By this time Jack had shown her the creatures that were beyond the usual array of photons and she was now becoming capable of seeing them, even without the use of the nanocells. So she has gone on a journey to find her father and with some help from some odd creatures, she has made her way to Wales, to a little town called Four Mile Bridge where she is, at the moment, looking for a door that will lead her to a druid/bard that may help her on the next step of her journey.
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