SARAGOSSA
SNAP
An Adventure
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SARAGOSSA
SNAP Story and illustration by Woyd Winwee August 1, 2004
Laughingman Press
Ancient religious pundits were right.... our life’s destiny is predetermined. Not by an all knowing and all seeing omnipresent deity but by the microscopic machinations and commingling of genetic material. How could ancient clerics and leaders know this? When not fighting against themselves they fought a hostile and insensitive natural world.
Shamans relied on fear of the unknown to advise chieftains of strategies to maintain status, control and selfpreservation. How could the ancients understand that their existence was part of a continuum where the separation of heaven and earth was equal to the difference between desperation and optimism? How could they know that their role in time was as infinitesimally small as the genetic material that they passed on to their future generations?
The gene portal will take us beyond all conceivable forms of time travel. Endless personal and environmental information is locked within microscopic cells that contain experiences, emotions, wisdom and personality. Dr. Saragossa enters his gene portal in search of self indulgent satisfaction and ends up knowing more about himself and the universe than he ever thought possible.
Regulations are getting me down. There is a rule or law for nearly everything. If I can’t do what I want I should be compensated by the government or by the wonks that dream up all of this crap.
Dr. Saragossa is a genetic engineer and professor of gene science at University City. Through his extensive research and commitment to personal theories and his accidental science of genetic manifestation he made a profound breakthrough. He discovered that each genetic code contains millions of bits of historic information that enables biological evolution. The genetic code is timeless, archiving millions of years of information. For each generation the recombination of genetic code that makes up each individual is selected from the vast library within each parent. Only the code necessary for creating the new generation is used. However, the entire historic background from both parents is sorted, combined and stored within the new individual.
Dr. Saragossa brilliantly determined that by tapping into the vast genetic library of an individual, such as within himself, he could find a window to the past that would reveal the world as seen through endless past generations. He has unlocked the window. He named it the genetic portal. Dr. Saragossa is on the verge of taking genetic science beyond the laboratory and into the entertainment industry. He will provide the kind of freedom experienced by adventurers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Joining a hunting party in the Jurassic period will be as real as the moment the hunt actually happened. The Doctor will even be responsible for defining the meaning of life. He may even meet God.
Sometime in the not so distant future, Dr. Saragossa laments the oppressive controls around his selfcentered life. When I think about all of the unrealized profit and missed fun all I can think is...I want my money back.
Anyway, to me, it is all about trophies, big adventure having fun no matter what it takes.
Mostly it is about me.
A lot of folks exaggerate about their adventures. I like to have proof hanging on my wall for all to see. There are so many rules in my way.
Big game hunting is outlawed by a nearly unanimous outcry to save what is left of the world’s wild animal population. I tell you what really gets me are these selfrighteous yahoos who rant about freedom...
Nobody should be able to tell anybody what to do or how to do anything they want to do because...
So I refuse to accept anything short of absolute personal freedom to hunt, kill and hang trophies of whatever I want on the walls of my trophy room.
to do what you want, but then try to regulate every thing we do and say and especially the stuff that is really fun and exciting.
there are laws that say that we live in a free world and free means free!
So what is the big deal anyway?
Biotechnology has entered a new phase. I have invented a time travel device to take me wherever and when ever I wish as long as it is back in time.
I am going to a time when big game was really big. A time when individuals controlled their destiny and wonks were extinct.
I am thinking really big! I want to bag the biggest game ever.
And I mean really big game!
UNIVERSITY CITY
On the outside UNIVERSITY CITY looks like any other community but within the walls of Saragossa’s laboratory...
The highly sophisticated Saragossa Optical Genetic Imaging System (SOGIS) softly hums as quadrillions of bits of informationare formatted into sound, light, smell, taste and touch. He invented an incredibly complex system of nano-receptors and converters that process at multiple times the speed of light. All of the experiential sensations of the desired time and place come alive within the time traveler’s mind. After fully testing this system Saragossa’s next move will focus on projecting the experiences for others to watch. In other words he will create a human projector.
There are so many kinds of time travel devices. I have assigned deep research to my students to identify the most incredible method so I can explore the unexplored.
Personally, I have selected a genetic sequencing infiltration extractor-projection type.
I like this one because I understand how it works - the principles of genetic time travel and stuff like that.
It’s important to understand what you’re dealing with.
I might add that my brilliant career focused on time distortion sequences, time alteration and reverse polarity and bio-time effects I wrote the grants.
The lecture circuit occupies most of my time traveling from metropolis to cosmopolis. I am an expert.
Behind these walls are all of the young minds that perform my research. All of the ideas are mine of course.
The key to all of this time travel shit is held within the endless sequencing of nonactive gene strands. These are the genetic codes that skip every other generation.
If we can create organisms millions of years old that contain the code of ancient life. . .
It must be possible to see or codify the characteristics of the environment in which the organism existed.
And within that code is more than the simple schematic for physical character...
In fact we know this theory to be true.
That’s how I am going to bag big game.
Dr. Saragossa has trained his team of scientists (read students) to look deeper into the image transmission system before his first trip.
CREATION I heard my footsteps gently falling on Wood Sorrel and compact Salal as I began discovering a new place. Emerald and forest green vividly drew my attention to the lush groundcover bordered by ancient trees covered on ropy bark. Immediately I arrived at the edge of the groundcover where a straight and exact line defined the forest floor and a watery landscape. Crystal clear water, perhaps four inches deep covered a garden of tiny aquatic plants with a border of corn
stocks or maybe bamboo. I felt the presence of deadly predators even though none appeared before me. My narrow view focused on the path before me and no more. I gingerly stepped into the rectangular channel of crystalline water and found that the water hardly covered my bare instep.
After walking only a few steps, my senses peaked on Water Moccasins and other dangerous aquatic wildlife. The channel made a ninety-degree left angle into a
narrow corridor of weathered stone. My steps became more cautious of the dark underneath edges of the stone wall as I moved forward. My body began to detach itself from the ground. I hovered only inches from the water’s surface with my exposed underbelly nearly touching the watery membrane the sea snakes lay in the sands just inches below my vulnerable skin. I began to fall but with intense concentration I caught myself avoiding a wet landing. As I stabilized my horizontal levitation I began to slowly move
forward. Glistening white slabs of porous rock slipped by as I skimmed along the corridor. Submerged leaves lay to my right where, while not visible, I knew deadly sea snakes waited. I began to fall again and realized that concentration was necessary to keep me floating above the landscape.
The more I focused on preserving my levitated state the faster I moved forward. Suddenly, all went dark for a moment until I found myself floating in a dimly lit room
still horizontal and still hovering above a now invisible surface. My motion slowed while I felt myself rise slightly. To my left, a male profile standing erect and at attention emerged from the low light. Just ahead of this figure Maria also stood motionlessly at attention. I looked away and forward. I began moving faster and at the same time I found Maria directly in front of me. I accelerated. Behind Maria stood a central femalesque figure wrapped in bright white flowing linen with six other figures equally
spaced around and below her. A glow highlighted the figures as my speed increased. As I approached Maria I felt myself raise my head up as hard as I could. I began to climb fast and just cleared Maria’s head as I shot up above the seven central figures.
From above I watched the six surrounding nymphs converge on the central Goddess, their arms outstretched toward the Goddess as in worship. As they came in contact
with the flowing gown the linen solidified into a thin, wet, rice wrapper-like material. The nymphs pulled the thin sticky wrapper apart creating a wide rip from the Goddess’s toes to her neck. Each nymph pulled a piece of the wet wrapper out of the opening and threw it up into the air. The pieces swirled and spun down to limply stand equally spaced around the white amorphous form of the Goddess’s remains. The Goddess’s head became a simple white shiny sphere.
My attention turned to the new standing figures. They began to collapse while the light dimmed. I swooped down and embraced one of the standing rice wrappers. It continued to slump until I breathed on it. My breath kindled a glow from within and it began to stand again. But if I stopped breathing the light would dim and the form would slump. My lightness and levity remained but my new nymph would not form.
The bright light of the moon washed my face as I gently awoke and rolled over. It was 1:44 AM.
Meanwhile, Dr. Saragossa is preparing to throw the switch that will hurtle him through his genetic portal.
First I must get in touch with my inner self... I must find my spiritual center.
My way inner self.
If I look deep enough I might learn something valuable about myself that I didn’t know..
Control freaks might freak out...Realize their fears.
People living in chaos might find themselves WOW!
And everyone else.
But that would defy human nature. It could conflict with my genetic history, maybe even screw up the genetic portal. I might even repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
I knew it all along!
At any rate, what ever happens, it will be the will of God because of God or just because she is a handy reason for everything.
I am ready to peer into my ancient past to go beyond my tangibility, a reality only dreamed of by so many.
The SOGIS is tuned to Dr. Saragossa’s metabolism which affects the rate that he can make his way through the genetic portal. His body is wrapped in a thin sensor suit that is connected to a selected strand of his own genetic material. Saragossa’s bioelectrical system is turned on high volume with an injection of his gene enhancing electrotranspogesic fluid. The fluid reacts immediately heightening his senses of the world around him. Mentally and physically the Doctor is ready to engage in the greatest adventure of his life. He expects to publish phenomenal findings and observations. He can feel his mental capacity ramping up.
I’m off to the animal fair The birds and the bees were there
The old baboon By the light of the moon Was combing his auburn hair
The monkey he got drunk And fell on the elephant’s trunk
The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees And that was the end of the monk, the monk the monk.
Dr. Saragossa feels the SOGIS engulfing his mind. I love my students and all of their hard work. It all seems so familiar yet so strange. You might say that this is faith based science.
Time seems to effortlessly slip past. Nothing is recognizable. Yet it will only be a matter of moments before he breaks out into some time...any time. The years melt away. Back he slides like an uncontrolled fall down the face of a steep glacier. Each moment is the only relevant reference to reality as Saragossa reaches out for a hand-hold to arrest his decent into the abyss of time. The urge to scream fills his throat like the pressure of vomit where mind and muscle cease to communicate. And suddenly he is floating.
Mind and body reunite. A small bright dot forms in front of Dr. Saragossa like two round voluptuous breasts rising like Siamese stupas. More clarity reveals hats. Wait, the view is shifting into a new realm. A very small and very old looking yogi is sitting cross legged in front of Saragossa. Good thing he got in touch with his inner self before launching into this adventure. The yogi just floated there quietly contemplating something. The Doctor’s brain is a little strained at the moment but as he looks the yogi in the eyes he begins to feel more real, this new time begins to solidify. He feels like reaching out and touching the yogi, maybe even talking to him. He realizes that all is possible. Of course he can talk to the yogi. Dr. Saragossa is the one who is manifesting this adventure through his SOGIS.
I am surrounded in squiggles. Where is the big game, where are my rights, where is my complete and unconditional freedom. Wait a minute think I am arriving...
Dr. Saragossa tries to speak but it seems that he can produce no sound. Slowly after several tries and greater brain strain Saragossa says, “What?� What time is this place?
Remember nothing changes except technology... we are who we are in this moment.
Time and place are only part of a continuum with no beginning and no end.
You must understand that I am supposed to see the past through my genetic portal.
You are! ... Nothing has changed.
I refuse to believe that this is it. There must be more!
Go deeper! Turn up the dial... more power more power!!!
That is not good enough, Dr. Saragossa is not hunting for wisdom he is hunting for big game trophies. Nobody has seen outside of the imagination of anthropologist’s and creationist’s plastic models and amazing paintings. Funny how they are so similar.
Suddenly, for only a moment something flashes across the Doctor’s vision. It was all so sudden. Like a dream, the essence lingered but the image evaporated into the black abyss of forgotteness.
I need a BIG gun.
The Doctor sees himself as so amazingly brilliant. The brightest ever. Nobody can touch him. He is on his way to the greatest adventure of all humanity.