John spent the rest of the year in a productive frenzy. He would typically spend a whole week working on something without taking a day off. Most often he would wake up, do his morning exercises eat, study, meet with a tutor, practice his swordsmanship, study more, do his evening exercises eat dinner, and go to bed. After almost half a year of this, his body has changed, while only ten his body became toned and capable of keeping up with many adults. While the year was consumed by work a few important events did occur.
One uneventful morning his grandfather walked into the study of the house as his mother and he were both reading, She was reading the paper while he read a treatise on physics by Isaac Newton.
Clapping his hands together he got both of their attention, looking up John saw a large goofy grin on his grandfather's face, “I have just completed an utterly massive project of mine, and it is all thanks to you my dear grandson.”
“Project, what project,” John asked utterly unsure what his grandfather was talking about as he hadn't helped him with any plan recently.
“Well with your convoy plan and all the money that it brought in I was able to finally build my dream. Just recently I was able to purchase most of Leauge Island south of Pennsylvania and have almost begun building a shipyard there.”
This information shocked John but then for no reason he heard that he got a headache and information seemed to just pop into his head, ‘The Philadelphia shipyard began construction in 1776’
‘What was that, Why did that information pop into my head’ he thought while clutching his head firmly.
Seeing this Martha looked down at her son, “John, are you okay, you look like you're in pain.”
“I'm fine mother,” John said as the headache began to quickly subside. Taking a breath, “That's great news, Grandpa, are you going to start building warships?” John asks with a bit of excitement, he always loved warships.
“No, sorry John, I’m mainly going to be building ships for my merchant fleet and a few other merchants in the colonies. I just can't compete with the quality of ships built in England.”
I start thinking about what a better warship could be and then the headaches return. Images of a warship I had never seen flash into my head, a three-masted frigate. Schematics, measurements, materials, and other facts appeared in my head, and then one-word ‘Constitution.’
With the headaches getting worse as more images and facts appear John sees the world go black and he starts to feel the world fade away.
“John” William shouts at him as he falls to the ground and into unconsciousness.
With his eyes fluttering open he is faced with the blue empty sky from his memories. He flails his arms around as he feels a lack of gravity. Flipping over himself repeatedly he spins out of control with nothing to focus on till he sees Bill Nye appear before him while flipping. Slowly the spinning slows down and comes to a halt with John facing the being.
“Welcome back young Johnathan, or should I still call you Steven, which do you prefer,” it asks with a snarky tone.
“John is fine, whatever you are,” he says back with what he believes is an appropriate amount of sass.
“Oh,” it says with a grin, “It seems you have settled in quite well in your new home, That is great, but you wouldn't be here if you didn't have questions.”
Remembering what happened before he got to where he is John snaps back to reality for a bit, “Yeah, what happened, what were those memories and why did I pass out? How could I know all those facts and data.”
John continues to ramble for a little while longer before the being raises his right hand and all sound stops. “What you just got was your third gift. The ability to know things and facts from your old life, even ones you didn't know.”
‘What, how could I know things that I never learned.’
“You see, your first gift was your rebirth as I think is evident. Your second gift was your family, a wealthy one at that, but we did have to balance karma a bit so you don't know your father. All in all, though it isn't a bad trade off.”
Hearing this much of Johns's life suddenly makes sense with all the pieces falling into place so quickly that It feels as if it shouldn't.
“How your third gift works is quite simple, you can request information which will be given to you, the more detail you ask for the greater a toll it will take. What happens if you ask for too much, I have no clue.”
Looking at John for a second he blinks a few times after a minute of silence, “Oh right you can't talk, let me fix that.”
Feeling the air fill his vocal cords he screams, “WHAT THE FUCK, what the hell so I am just omnipotent. That seems too powerful.”
“Oh yes, it is, at least that's what you think.”
“Wait, what do you mean by that.”
Raising his hand he gives a little wave before the world fades into black again.
Opening his eyes he was met with his mother, head hung low, sitting at his side as he lay in bed. His throat being dry he reached over and tapped on her shoulder.
“John” she exclaimed her head shooting up, “are you okay, are you in pain, do you need anything.”
Motioning for a cup she ran over to a nearby table and brought over a glass and a pitcher. Taking a full cup he drank it down quickly.
Quickly reassuring his mother that he just needed to rest she left him be for the night as it was already late, and his grandfather in all haste rode out personally to Philadelphia to get a doctor.
Lying down in the bed he thinks about what he has learned from his second strange encounter with the being. Out of pure curiosity, he thinks about how to make oil, suddenly a process for rendering oils from cottonseeds seems to materialize in his head, along with a vaguely familiar word. Crisco.
