Just in the Neck of Time™: The Second Compendium

By Graham Gerni

The book follows the story of a young Haredi Jew name Yosef Gershom. His hand disability is the result of a congenital problem in his foramen magnum and cerebellum that causes a neurological difficulty in moving his hands. As described in the title, this malformation is in his neck. Just in the Neck of Time comes from phrase 'just in th

• Language: English
• Publisher: Selected Jewish-American Publishing
• Release date: Dec 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798869031006

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Graham Gerni

Just in the Neck of Time

The Expanded Stories

First published by Selective Jewish-American Publishing House 2023

Copyright © 2023 by Graham Gerni

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

All conclusions made by the author are brought upon by research that he incredulously did not site source. This mistake detracts greatly from the authority of the conclusions the author makes and he apologizes in advance if the conclusions confuse or offend the reader.

First edition

ISBN: 9781088237649

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Dedicated to the Memory of Dr. Ross Hutchison Dabney; the man who taught me to truly appreciate literature

Contents

I. PART ONE

Chapter 1: The Man in Black

Chapter 2: Yosef Gershom

Chapter 3: Doctor Dalleigh

Chapter 4: Life on Mars?

Chapter 5: Preliminary Experiments

Chapter 6: The Martian Consulate Threat

Chapter 7: Talia Dineb

Chapter 8: Dalleigh Confesses

Chapter 9: Isaac and Hannah’s Wedding

Chapter 10: Dalleigh Escapes!

Chapter 11: Dalleigh Shows Yosef the Recording: 2353

Chapter 12: Ninilay and Yosef First Meet

Chapter 13: Getting Home From the Run

Chapter 14: The Picnic

Chapter 15: Secret Business

Chapter 16: Hannah’s Memory

Chapter 17: The Hunt

Chapter 18: The Proposal

Chapter 19: Ninilay Learns about Judaism

Chapter 20: A Temporal Quandary

Chapter 21: The Mission

Chapter 22: Ninilay Assists the MDF

Chapter 23: Ninilay Meets with the Fleet Admiral

Chapter 24: Heading Out

Chapter 25: The Journey

Chapter 26: The Undiscovered Planet

Chapter 27: Whomst Summons the Ancient Ones?

Chapter 28: Dalleigh Studies the God Component

Chapter 29: The Journey to Gamyadoved

Chapter 30: The Symphonic Museum

Chapter 31: The Attack on Gamyadoved

Chapter 32: From Gamyadoved to Mars

Chapter 33: Ninilay is Aggrieved

Chapter 34: Dalleigh Studies Masada

Chapter 35: Passionate Opinions

Chapter 36: On Intellect

Revolutionary Jews in the New World

Chapter 38: The Kitos War

Chapter 39: The Man in Black Full Circle

Chapter 40: Pana’im Al Pana’im

II. PART TWO

Chapter 1: Delivered Without Dalleigh

Chapter 2: Ninilay Weeps

Chapter 3: IO

Chapter 4: Time Dalleigh

Chapter 5: Dalleigh is Definitely not a Sheep

Chapter 6: Dalleigh’s Role

Chapter 7: Stealing the Snark

Chapter 8: Ninilay’s Return Home

Chapter 8: The Other Reality

Chapter 9: Pana’im Pana’im Again (?)

Chapter 10: Ninilay’s Father Returns

Chapter 11: The Next Morning

Chapter 12: Ninilay goes to Sirius II

Chapter 13: Sirius II

Chapter 14: And the Troops Keep Marching On

Chapter 15: While my Star Rover Gently Weeps

Chapter 16: For Hell has no Fury like a Protective Parent

Chapter 17: A Snark Reality

Chapter 18: Astral Projection

Chapter 19: And in Truth…

Chapter 20: The Return

Chapter 21: The Funeral

III. HA-NECK-AH

Hanukkah

Han-Neck-Ah

Yosef’s Parents’ First Hanukkah

Safda meets Saba

Yosef Sees His Mother’s Parents

IV. UPCOMING NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES

Dissidents in Diasporic Space

The Fall of Khazaria

Atol Graham

Conrad

2084

About the Author

I

Part One

Chapter 1: The Man in Black

Just in the Neck of Time™

A Novel by Graham Joseph Gerni

Copyright © 2023 by Graham Gerni

Part One

Chapter 1: The Man in Black

The Man in Black

Entering the doorway, a tall, lithe man made his way across the room. He was clothed in a black turtleneck, leather shoes, and black trousers and blazer. The all-black ensemble bolstered the man’s impressions of inhuman proportions. The length of his limbs and his thinness made his height more imposing and intimidating. His lean features- especially evident in the pointedness of his nose- were intensified with the anachronistic adornment of a pair of gold, pince-nez reading glasses that made him appear quite sinister.

He approached his two colleagues, Miller and Urey, two agents of the Inter-Sol Headquarters. The two were sitting in a control room filled with highly , technologically advanced locks and a crude soundboard. The soundboard was crude in that it did not have the common complexities as well as user-friendly designs that to most in the music industry of the 24th century with which would be accustomed. It was designed simply for interrogation. The control room more importantly was endowed with a two-way mirror. The Man in Black entered the interrogation room.

In sight of the two-way mirror, they saw a man handcuffed to a table with a single halogen light intensely lit above his head. It was a small, almost imperceptible form of torture. The two men behind the two-way mirror examined their agent and the rather harmless, scholarly-looking man hand-cuffed to the table under the halogen light. They spoke to each other in a very somber tone.

‘You have to be kidding me! That man, he doesn’t look like he would harm a fly, Miller remarked."

Flies would be the least of his concern! That man is a maniac! We had to have his eye amputated and refitted with a bionic replacement just so we could break through his biometric securities and he didn’t even tell us about the Bertillon encryption mechanism! Urey exclaimed. He sacrificed his eye without considering that if he cooperated, he could keep it. We can’t even get in the lab, the bastard!

Well, he certainly fooled me. His prosthetic seems pretty natural. I could get to liking that if I were to lose an eye.

‘It wouldn’t be a complete loss. Urey suggested, You can actually see with greater acuity than most natural eyes.’

I guess that’s a consolation if I ever were to lose one, Miller sighed, But I am rather attached to my natural ones.

(It goes without saying that the optometric sciences have improved 300 years from the publication of this novel.)

The man hand-cuffed to the table was of South African extraction. His father was a Xhosa/Afrikaans and his mother a German Jew. His caramel-colored skin was testament to this union discounting a few other features that emphasized his appearance. He sported a dark black, slicked-back, quaffed swarf of hair and had deep brown eyes. The eyes portrayed a very immutable and baffling feeling. From the look of them, there was both a raging fire and a smoldering intellect.

The name of the man is Dr. Schwartz Dalleigh. He was a highly decorated and celebrated neurosurgeon on Mars Colony. His locale was the Inter-Sol Headquarters. His crime was illegal and unethical experimentation on human a subject.

This was undoubtedly a surprise to all those who knew him, though they knew of a certain passion project he had been undergoing for a little over a decade with a young man named Gershom. He had been the caretaker of this Gershom since he (Gershom) was 14 years old. The details of Dalleigh’s innovations were submitted and regulated without dispute within the University projects board and Yosef’s well-being was never of concern.

Dalleigh found the whole situation of he being captured by Inter-Sol agents was damn peculiar. He hadn’t lived on Earth in 28 years and even then in Johannesburg, not Burlington.

The confrontation began as the thin man in black and glasses finally came through the sealed hydraulic double doors walking in a confident, strident-gate with a hint of a limp that supposedly could have been incited by an old injury. He then sat across from the accused.

The man sitting handcuffed to the table’s first thought was why the man was wearing his outmoded sight-aid of the pince-nez glasses, seeing that applied gene therapy for the epigenome had corrected sight issues for at least a century at this point. The doctor concluded that they were some sort of family heirloom either worn for style or reverence. It was what was behind the glasses however that was more frightening. The eyes of The Man in Black were chimeric. The colors seemed to shine at different times. Sometimes, especially during dark thoughts, one would see the brown eye darken, and in cheerful times the blue eye would give a glint of glee or humor.

The Man in Black sat down and unlocked his tablet that then projected a 3D file of the man at the table.

Dr. Schwartz Dalleigh, The Man in Black mused, Do you know why we have extradited you here to Earth?

I have an idea, the neurologist returned, "Ethical infractions in regard to Earth Laws concerning the experimentation on a human being."

That is a correct statement of your singular crime, The Man in Black replied, but why you are here is a different matter. We want you to recount your story concerning why you carried out these experiments and what you have learned. We are in the midst of deciding if these actions require imprisonment or at least a revocation of your medical license.

Dr. Dalleigh did not even wince.

My expenses were not funded by the Earth Authority and ethics codes of experimental implementation are different on Mars Colony. Dalleigh said defensively.

We are aware of that, but Gershom is an Earth Citizen. The Man in Black objected. We know you and your scientifically elite utopia up there think they are above the law but the line is drawn here!

The taciturn doctor gave the agent a calming look and deflated the obvious posturing the man was trying to employ.

He is not pressing charges, I know. Dalleigh trailed off. Also, Gershom is 25 years old, he can make his own decisions.

Yes, but you started your experiments with him when he was a minor, 11 years ago.

Dalleigh tapped the table and looked impatient. And then began again.

By your obvious lack of uniform and procedure, I can divine that you’re not an usual Earth Authority Law Enforcement Agent. Dalleigh countered slowly, "Considering the nature of my work, your government is only trying to intimidate me in order for me to share my research now before I can do some real damage.."

The Man in Black removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

I should have known we couldn’t keep up this front for long. A man capable of your vision would undoubtedly be untenably perspicacious.

So, who exactly are you? Dalleigh retorted.

That is none of your concern. The Man in Black scoffed. Just tell us from the beginning how you interfaced with Gershom and where you have hidden him.

That is a very involved account. I don’t know if I can relay it all without notes.

We have the time to get to both of those issues. The Man in Black reassured If you cooperate, we could retrieve your documents from your lab on Mars Colony. The Man in Black continued There will be no submissions of the experimental results in court, of course, most of your work is labeled as top secret.

Dalleigh gawked a bit. My work was meant to expose lies in history!

The Man in Black chuckled, History is what we say it is. And the future too,

‘‘But through the neural interface provided by Gershom’s neck malformation, we are able to actually see events seen through his ancestors!" Dalleigh exclaimed

Yes, and it is by that exploitation that landed you in this position, Dr. Dalleigh. The Man in Black continued. Your mad scientist game had to come to an end sooner or later. You should have known there would have been legal disparities in what you were doing. So why don’t you just tell us how you did it and where you have hidden him?

Bring me the notes and if you are inclined to realize the profundity of this method and how this was accomplished, you will undoubtedly release the videos to the public. You can find some of my research in my office at my on-campus housing. I teach courses too, you know.

The Man in Black demurred this last statement. "You recorded yourself opening up a child’s spinal cord, filling him with drugs and putting a laser in his brain to stimulate memories, and you claim you care about the well-being of children by teaching them…’’

Dalleigh was infuriated by this. The means of my experiments are much more involved than that and the ends undoubtedly are the achievement of this millennium!

That’s a pretty big claim the Man in Black whistled, if it’s true I guess it would at least be ground-breaking, but beyond that I don’t think it would be a viable means of changing a whole zeitgeist of history as you claim. What you have at your campus housing will be insufficient, we need the algorithms to get into your lab…

Dalleigh ignored the request for the encryptions and raged on. You have no idea! Dalleigh protested, I swear to you I calibrated the time differential and can even prove which ancestor the memories belong to! And I also know that if I were to give you the encryption codes, you would surely destroy my lab!

The fate of your lab contends on if we find anything valuable in your research, which is highly doubtful in my opinion.

You’ll see, Dalleigh seethed, "You’ll see. Your resolve will be broken by mine. Your views will be altered to the point of irrecognition of your current ones. What has happened in that lab is like opening up a portal into the past and you will not in all ways be happy with what you find. It is complete perspective; new, perfect resource material. The singular individual is rendered irrelevant in consideration to his ancestors. No archive can retrieve this information as accurately as with how this method avails seeing as it is the position of the individual in the historical timeline that we maintain.’’

The Man in Black stammered ‘‘We have archives of scanned historical documents that could lead to these revelations. Why would we need to go through all of this technological harangue to gain accurate research when we have impressions of it in print and on digital media?’’

‘‘I do not think that my efforts were in vain. I set out to do something and I did it. I am the man who invented a way back in time. And according to our modern knowledge of physics, this is the only way to do it.’’

Your physics may be different from mine. The Man in Black chuckled, You have no idea what you’re dealing with.

Physics subsumes all reality and it applies to everyone and everything! Dalleigh objected. One’s perspective is the same to all inertial frames of reference. Dalleigh paraphrased Einstein’s first law of Special Relativity (1905).

I suppose that may be true, but what of it? The Man in Black coughed, I think we’re done here for now.

Running away because you’re at your wit’s end? Dalleigh gloated.

No, I am just going to get lunch. The Man in Black reported. Something will get along to you eventually.

Will I be seeing more of you? the doctor asked.

Oh, My dear, sweet Doctor Dalleigh, The Man in Black laughed, I think you’ll be seeing a LOT of me.

Chapter 2: Yosef Gershom

On November 22, 2323 or the 23rd of Cheshvan, 6084 on the Hebrew calendar, Yosef Gershom was born; and with that birth, a grand new story. The Haredi community into which he was born rejoiced at a new member of the faith. Eight days later on the 30th of November or the 2nd of Kislev, his bris was performed and he became a full-fledged member of the community.

The boy seemed normal in every way, despite a slight wavering in his left eye that corrected itself in a few weeks. His parents did not worry much for him despite some of his strange behaviors. A particularly strange feature was the missing of some important developmental landmarks such as crawling. What they didn’t know is that he had a neurological malformation at the base of his neck that prevented him from moving his hands independently (if one is commanded in the brain to move a finger, the finger on the opposite hand would receive the same signal and would resultantly move.) It was termed as tandextria. To move around without crawling, the boy would lie on his back, move his head up and to the side to look and see where he was going and push his legs to propel himself across the floor. Doing this on carpet caused the sides of his head to become bare. His parents didn’t think anything of it, they just thought he was a silly baby. He would eventually learn to walk. A bit later than most, and with much more effort. His coordination would prove to be somewhat insufficient for many tasks, but he would never relegate himself to be anything short of ordinary. And once people started putting him in that position- pointing out there was something wrong with him- he became terribly distraught. This came around the time he was twelve. A behavior in which was most foreshadowing was that he grimaced while cutting with safety scissors because his other hand was trying to hold the paper and trying to do two separate things with his hands was excruciatingly painful, but he would complete the tasks and all throughout his Cheder education, not much else worried his teachers. He did have a stutter, though. He shed it after some years. He trained himself by whispering his sentences to himself before speaking. This way he was sure of what he wanted to say. That later was extended into an inner-monologue so he could review the sentence without saying it outloud.

The Haredi community in 24th century Israel shared many of the same values and praxis as its contemporary counterpart. The Haredi, lived in the traditional part of Jerusalem, and had a proprietorship of the Western Wall. This was the only proselytizing in which they engaged. They had a chanut in which a volunteer provided tefillin, tallit, and kippah (if needed). Even tourists that were of the more modern sects of Judaism still wore yarmulkes, especially if in Israel. The tourists or pilgrims would wash their hands in a fountain with a two-handled jug or notla. They would repeat the prayer inscribed on the fountain for the washing of hands. Baruch Adonai Eloheinu haOlam, asher b’mitzvah tov vitzivanu nehiladat al yadai’im. They would then take a pamphlet from the chanut’s kiosk, go up to the wall, fully dressed in the garb provided by the Haredis and daven with the long prayer on the pamphlet under their breath. Many would put a written message in the cracks of the wall not meant for someone else to find, but rather as a request to god through the medium of what they thought was the holy Temple. They would then kiss the wall, walk twelve paces backward and turn around completing the ritual. Of course they would return the prayer items to the Haredi, but just the same, they had a holy, mystical experience. Only the Hasidim in this point of Judaism focused on the mystical. Judaism is a compliance with the law or instructions of the Torah (torah literally means, in Hebrew, ‘instructions.’) It is supplemented with commentary and literature expanding on the law kept in documents called the Talmud. There are two main Talmudic texts. These are the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud. Neither of which was written in the place pertaining to the locations ascribed to their titles.

The Haredi have great pride over their lineage, claiming that at least one member of their ancestors had lived in Jerusalem at any known time between now and the time of King David. To be truthful, it is more likely that they could trace their family line to 1267 CE when Nachmanides or Ramban reentered the city after political stresses that had been prohibitive to entrance due to the Crusades. The 1096 massacre of the first crusade left virtually no Jews in Jerusalem. The trading of hands of the Holy City is tumultuous and surprisingly active politically.

There is substantiated evidence that there have been at least two families in Jerusalem or at least the kingdom of Jerusalem (which was a very narrow coastal kingdom not comprising what we would call Israel today but rather part of the Levante). The Kingdom of Jerusalem was Christian occupied and like most historians, I consider that Jews fared better under the Islamic crescent rather than the cross, and this is a story more involved with that interaction where Jews were considered Dhimmi and not describing the horrors of existence of Jews living in Jerusalem under Christians. Also, when I use the word narrow I am using a widely used metaphor based on the Jewish use of the word Mitzra often used to describe oppressive living conditions like Mitzraim or Egypt. This history made for the right-winged government of the mid-21st century incur a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising. The European Jews felt a certain ‘right’ to the land of Israel. They seemed to contend that they had undergone such suffering that Adonai himself approved of the brutal violence and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian natives and even Mizrachi Jews and Arabic Israelis.

After a mass transition imposed on the community concerning procreation, the numbers of the Haredi had recovered from their population explosion in the 21st century. This community was managed by the Knesset to prevent the idea of privilege that took hold so long ago and rationalizing heinous murders. Yosef was unaware of this history and though the Haredis had been more forthcoming in their teaching of history, never taught it in their Cheder’im.

Yosef was able to conceal his disability for twelve years of his life. This was attributable to the insularity of the Haredi Jews and their impartial response to receive medical care if not absolutely necessary. When he was thirteen, at the same time preparing for his Bar Mitzvah-A Jewish rite of passage- the rabbinate was curious as to the strange movements of his hands. A team of doctors examined his neck malformation with MRI machines that were more accurate, energy efficient and reliable magnetic resonance imaging devices. What they concluded from this evidence was that he had a combination of malformations. A common one that had been discovered some 400 years ago was the Arnold-Chiari malformation. But his malformation was more complex than that. What it really was was a congenital agenesis of the anterior arch of the atlas. They termed it as an Arnold-Chiari Type V malformation appealing to the jargon of professional neurologists who would confuse the usual primary care physician otherwise. If Yosef would tell a doctor he had a Type V, they would be confused because there are only four types of Arnold Chiari malformations. It could have just as well simply been called a Yosef Gershom malformation, but Yosef was too modest for that and declined the specificity of it being attributed to him, despite he being the only one who ever was discovered with the condition.

Yosef ran a gauntlet of talented neurologists, physicians and physical therapists. A few neuro-surgeons were consulted, but seeing the exposure of the brain stem through the bone prevented them from taking action in fear of paralyzing the boy. This excess of outside involvement made the Haredi society very hesitant of the family. The Rebe made the assessment that the malformation was an incurable Sapachas technically making Yosef Gershom a Matzorah making him ritually impure and would be removed from the community. The Gershoms were ostracized and the search for medical help for their son grew more frantic with the leaving of friends that affected not just Yosef but also his parents, Yitzhak and Hannah, as well as Yosef’s two brothers, Akiva and Yehudah.

Despite this, Yosef didn’t mind being different. He could do most of what other people could do. He had to be exceedingly cautious with his hands in feats such as washing the dishes, and folding laundry was difficult for him, but he could do it. A very difficult task for him was putting on gloves. Something that he regretted the most was that he couldn’t play most musical instruments. Unfortunately, the only melodic instruments Yosef could play were the trombone and various mallet instruments like the xylophone, marimba, hammer dulcimer, and steel drum. He was familiar enough with the piano keys to pick out tunes that did him some satisfaction. He was proficient in reading modern western music notation and understood chord tones and intervals as well as many other musical necessities such as ear training.

There was a great laxing of aestheticism in the future religious movement in the 24th century and dress reform in Haredi culture. Also more modern, less theocratic education was introduced to the community. Words that would usually be censored in Haredi classrooms and schoolbooks like Dinosaur and Gymnasium were discussed openly. Musicianship was almost encouraged.

After some amount of time, complications presented themselves with the anatomy and functionality of Yosef’s neck and nervous system. He was constantly wracked with dizzy-spells and could not run and could hardly walk. It was obvious that the boy could not rise to his full potential bearing this unique disability. After searching and searching, the family found that there wasn’t a doctor on Earth that could help Yosef. This led them to finding doctors outside of this world.

After a long search for a doctor that could help their son, they found their salvation on Mars. There worked a talented neurologist named Dr. Schwartz Dalleigh. Hearing of Dalleigh, who had graduated valedictorian in his doctoral class at the Jill Bolte Taylor School of Neurology on Mars, Yitzhak Gershom decided to ask if his son could see him. Dalleigh eagerly accepted his son’s case. What the elder Gershom didn’t know was that in his work at the Martian Institute of Technology (MIT2), Dalleigh experimented with neurological interfacing with multi-spectral laser stimulation and drug infusions. It would be due to Yosef’s unique physiology that would lead to the discovery of a way back in time; a way for Dalleigh to see into the ancestral memory of the Gershoms’ and beyond.

On a chilly January 12th, 2338 in Tel Aviv-Yaffo Spaceport a fourteen-year-old Yosef Gershom tearfully hugged his parents good-bye on the way to the shuttle to Mars.

Be safe… his mother cried.

I hope you get everything you were hoping for, his father affirmed.

I’ll be back, Yosef said through tears, and I’ll be a great and successful man with fulfilled dreams when I return.

Unfortunately for Yosef, he had no idea what he would be getting into.

Chapter 3: Doctor Dalleigh

Dr. Dalleigh was perversely obsessed with the idea of a pre-exposed spinal cord in someone whose brain had neuroplasticity as manipulative as that of an adolescent human. Neither Yosef nor his parents knew it at the time, but Dalleigh had been following Yosef’s case for the entire two years. Details of the case had been shared in neurology journals all throughout the scientific community and Dalleigh had been experimenting with higher spinal cord functions in animals for over a decade. Dalleigh developed a method he called Radical Neurite Orientation and Density Imaging (RNODI). He found that it is possible to retrieve memories through the monitoring of a brain after attaching a probe to the base of the juncture between the back of the head and neck. He then activated the probe to emit multi-spectral lasers conveyed by organic fiber-optic cables and monitor the brain with a device of his own creation. Unfortunately for the poor mice, many of them didn’t survive the procedures. He’d have to be extra-careful with this one.

Getting to Mars is, even in the 24th century, not an easy endeavor. Interplanetary space travel was dependent on ‘green’ environmentally safe fuel to get the shuttle outside of the Earth’s gravitational field. Then it would be powered by exotic particle generators that start out propelling a craft slowly, but with the exhaustion of particles and the build up of momentum, the craft increases in speed as a continuous expulsion of a very small reaction that requires very little fuel to be excreted. Also force fields were utilized for stability of flight when entering an atmosphere and maneuvering.

— — —

The shuttlecraft landed at Schiaparelli station. A young teenager got off the shuttle with his luggage looking right to left. He noticed when he stepped out of the shuttle, he felt extraordinarily light. Despite being in nearly 0g for a few weeks, the difference from Earth’s gravity was palpable. Earth’s mass is approximately 5.97×10²⁴ kg whereas the mass of Mars is only 6.4185 x 10²³ kg. This makes for a gravitational force of 3.741 m/s² on Mars whereas Earth has a gravitational factor of 9.807 m/s².

Outerspacial life in this novel requires specially formulated nutritional supplements and also at least 30 minutes a day in a large centrifuge in which momentum supplies gravitational-like conditions. In these centrifuges, various tasks would be done in the way of exercise. This prevents loss of bone calcium and brain-blood barrier induced psychosis.

The station in question was not unlike an airport in the sense that the ports on the outside of the station were exposed to the open, ill-treated atmosphere of Mars in contrast with the domes that dotted the planet, containing human settlements. Due to the lack of a magnetic field on Mars, domes were specially designed to deflect solar radiation.

Yosef went to an information kiosk, but then saw a stout man with caramel skin and jet-black hair combed back neatly, wearing a black suit, blue shirt and a red tie with white and green diagonal accents. He waved a massive hand and beckoned the boy over. He was very well toned despite the planet being so lacking in gravity.

I s-suppose you’r-re D-Dr. Dalleigh? Yosef stuttered.

That’s right, Dalleigh answered softly, Do you want to see where you will be staying or would you rather see the sites instead?

Isn’t it just one big, red, terraformed dustheap?

Dalleigh was insulted, "This dustheap is my home."

Yosef recognized his rudeness, Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I didn’t mean…

It’s okay, Dalleigh laughed, for the most part you are right. However, Valles Marineras is quite beautiful when the sun hits it just right. It is the largest canyon discovered in our Solar System, Dalleigh added ‘‘Getting an ATV to cross the dunes is not that difficult to arrange. And the structure of the dunes of Mars are unlike anything on Earth!’’

Yosef seized upon the softening recoil and laughed, ‘‘I suppose that would be a place to see.’’ The two would return to campus and examinations would go underway.

Dalleigh would conduct an array of tests in the following days. One day, he spoke to Yosef and told him that he was going to have to open up his neck and put a probe inside it. This was nothing new to Yosef. He had had plenty of procedures done in the past two years and the laser-suture does not leave a scar. The laser-suture is a more sophisticated technology than the laser technology the readers of the time of the publishing of this book may be familiar with, but there is a modern innovation in medicine in the contemporary of this book’s publishing that is somewhat analogous or comparable to which one can describe. The technology is that of the Erchonia Healing Laser. These devices use specific frequencies to coalesce with the natural healing frequency emitted by the body’s nerve-endings to stimulate the epidermis to undergo mitosis and further heal more rapidly. This particular laser company was championed by Dr. Jeffrey Spencer who was responsible for the care of the infamous cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Getting back to Gershom’s procedures, this probe would be different and semi-permanent. It is semi-permanent in the fact that it would have to be changed when Dalleigh needed to upgrade the tech. The upgrades were both necessitated by the need to further upgrade the efficiency of the device as well as the fitting of the boy’s developing body. Dalleigh would probably have to make structural changes to Yosef’s spinal structure to support the differing probes, he would have to make a lot of excuses for why he had to make the changes. This is why his lying and making the probes smaller would be vital to his work.

Gershom’s obedience to Dalleigh’s work was encouraging to the brilliant sycophant of the boy’s physiology. Yosef preferred to have intravenous anesthesia as opposed to the gas.The feeling of one slowly losing consciousness due to an inability to process proper molecular breakdown in the alveoli is terrifying, although anesthesia had improved significantly in the last 300 years. The transdermic dispersal apparatus (TDA) was also a much more effective anesthetizer in such cases anyway.

Yosef went under so frequently that often he would have to take respite from anesthesia because of the toxicity of the chemicals building up in his body. This would only need to take about 5 days for him to detoxify, and Dr. Dalleigh would simply go over his findings and study neurology both of standard physiologies and Gershom’s unique one. This also gave him time to engineer better probing and eventually imaging technology based off of the neural links in Yosef’s brain. This was very tedious work, for it required a multi-spectral imaging system dependent on a fluctuating organization of neurons down to the infinitesimal axon and dendrite to work.

For the longest time, when Dalleigh put Yosef under, he would simply ask him what he experienced in his "dreams’’ that were actually memories. This, of course, was not irrefutable evidence that one can access