Evolution's End

by Steven Spellman

  The alien spoke not with its hybrid voice now but with Denna’s voice. It did not sound to the sensitive audio sensors in Marcus’ body as if it were a trick. This was authentically Denna’s voice just as surely as the body was authentically hers. That’s what the sensors said but Marcus’ heart did not agree. He knew that this was not the real Denna no matter how intricate the deception, which made it more strange that it was Denna’s voice telling him things that Denna would’ve never said in a thousand years. Still, it was vitally refreshing to hear Denna’s voice. No matter what the voice said, Marcus knew that he could listen to it indefinitely.

  “Why did you choose to study me?” Marcus asked “And why now?”

  Denna stretched forth her own hand now and touched Marcus’ cheek. He did not flinch away but he wished afresh that it was his own flesh and not sensitive, indifferent metal that would meet her flesh, intricate deception or not. When Denna spoke, he was certain he heard compassion in her voice, “When the final member of your species returned to the dust of your world we waited a thousand years before we made contact with your planet. We deduced no sign of sentient activity and we were certain that your planet had definitively purged itself of all life when we noticed you …”

  The picture was beginning to come together. Aliens had been watching the Earth for longer than anyone would’ve ever expected and when everyone was dead they assumed the place was vacant; until the other robot bodies activated like Marcus’ body had, they emitted no energy signatures, they made no movements, they processed no information; they were as good as dead. Like a computer that had been turned off. The only problem was that a computer was not a man. A computer could be ‘killed’ with the punch of a button or a set of programmed instructions and it could be ‘brought back to life’ also with a punch or a button or a set of program instructions. Now, however, the aliens saw opportunity in their miscalculation. Instead of just moving into a vacant tenement and maybe remodeling it, they could interact with one of the old tenants and learn a thing or two about their new digs. Or something like that.

  “You represent a significant advance in the evolution of your species. You represent the first time we have ever witnessed a species avoid their own annihilation. You are … one of a kind.”

  So, Marcus’ theory was right. At least partially. He stood to his feet. “If you’re going to study me you’re going to have to follow me around to do it.” He reached for Denna’s hand and she gave it without hesitation. Marcus had to steel himself from snatching her up into his arms and literally crushing her to death with affection since his arms were able to exert forces greater than heavy earth moving machinery.

  He had formulated a plan while the alien had been talking. He didn’t think he would ever locate the other robot bodies or the remaining brain slices, even if they weren’t destroyed, alone, but with an alien that shared his superhuman abilities it just might be possible. They could cover more ground more quickly and both of them had all the time they would ever need to do it. A human masquerading as a robot and an alien masquerading as a human, working hand in hand. It made a kind of unorthodox sense in this new desolate world where apparently anything was possible. And so Marcus and Denna walked the first road they came to. It looked as if it had once been a paved road but was now just an uneven rut road with chunks of burned and broken pavement pieces scattered everywhere throughout it. Neither of them stumbled as they walked amongst the broken pavement and neither of them spoke.

  It was serene and Marcus found himself feeling a lot less anxious than he had before. He was no longer wandering aimlessly. Now he had a goal and with this newfound help, it was a goal that he had a reasonable chance of realizing. After so long languishing in inactivity he had something to do that might work and he had Denna beside him while he did it. He walked steadily down the long road with real joy in his heart and it was worth it, even be it illusion.

  CHAPTER 18

  “I remember when I was a child, the world seemed so huge and empty. There were always lots of people around but they always struck me as disjointed, lonely, like strangers in a crowd. No one ever had enough of anything and because of it everyone kept to themselves, unless they were robbing one another or stealing from one another or raping one another. I thought that if people could just remember that they were supposed to be nice to each other everything would be all right. The problem was, there was never anyone around to remind them.” Marcus glanced over at Denna. “It’s too easy to forget that other people are people too.”

  Denna looked up at Marcus. There was a slight frown upon her face and her eyebrows were raised, a clear sign that she didn’t understand what he was saying. He watched her and remembered that the real Denna had made that exact expression more than once while he was trying to explain the work he’d been doing in the Willoughby Building. “How can a person forget that another person is also a person?” Denna asked.

  “Believe me, it’s not as difficult as it sounds. When you live in the kind of world we lived in it’s easier to live inside your own head.”

  Denna thought for a moment. “I don’t understand.”

  Marcus chuckled. “Join the club. The important thing to remember is that things are not always as they appear. And sometimes they are. And sometimes they’re worse.”

  “Is this worse?”

  Marcus hesitated. “Actually, no … this isn’t that bad at all … “ And Marcus continued talking. He said all the things that he’d wanted to say to Denna. He told her how lonely he’d been without her. He told her how he would’ve traded his immortality for a day just like this one just to walk together with her again. He told her everything there was to tell and when he finished he felt renewed and revitalized. Then he waited for her to say something.

  “I missed you too.” She answered after a while.

  Until that moment Marcus had had no idea how much he’d needed to hear those words from Denna’s mouth. And so, the cyborg and the alien walked and talked fondly of days past until a small dilapidated building came into view in the far distance. It had been a small rustic church in another life but now all the windows were missing and more than half of the steeple roof had fallen in. The crumbling walls too were ashen with age and exposure to the harsh elements. Time had stolen all of the church’s former glory but it was the only building that was even partially intact that Marcus had seen since he’d awoke in his new body. He sprinted to the building with lightning speed and Denna followed directly beside him. When he reached the building he scrutinized every inch of it. His mechanical retinas detected and recorded every fiber of wood, every spec of dust floating in the air, every inch of the inferior metal that belonged to the only cross that remained standing in the building. Marcus was looking for any sign that anything organic had passed through this building in the last few millennia, but to no avail.

  There were no skin cells, no finger prints, not a single thread of clothing, nothing to suggest that either human, animal, or insect had ever darkened the inside of this ruined sanctuary. Marcus knew that he couldn’t have reasonably expected anything besides what he found. Even if there had been evidence of life it would’ve decomposed into nothingness long ago from the constant heat and harshly dry air. Looking for signs of organic life other than the brain slices anywhere on this Earth now, in any building, ruined or otherwise, was a lost cause. Marcus knew that but he felt he’d had to look anyway. Just as the alien had come to Earth not expecting to find him, perhaps he would find something he hadn’t expected. And he did. He and Denna were just about to leave when he passed the standing metal cross and noticed a single drop of blood at the base. Fresh blood. Clearly impossible; even if someone had been here to bleed this in the last hour the heat would’ve reduced it to powder by now. But there it was, not powder and not even dried but still glistening.

  Marcus looked at the small drop more closely and touched it lightly with his finger. His sensors deciphered almost instantly that it was indeed human blood but there was something else i
n the genetic code that was bound in this single drop, another component that all the intricate instruments in Marcus’ body could not decipher. It was an anomaly sure enough but since his robotic abilities were not sufficient to investigate it further he decided to move on. He and Denna walked on down the road for hundreds of miles until the road disappeared and their path lead them to a cliff. They both climbed down the sheer cliff easily and continued their journey in the massive valley below. The entire time, Marcus thought of that cross. The cross stood above an altar that had collapsed upon itself long ago and was now no more than an awkward pile of broken planks. Marcus could decipher from the broken planks what the altar would’ve looked like back when it was still standing and it reminded him of the podium that he and Denna had almost gotten married on.

  How many times had he played how that marriage should’ve ended in his mind instead of how it did end? In his mind it always ended with a passionate kiss and an embrace that left both him and his newly christened wife looking for any excuse they could find to begin their honeymoon right away. It was always a vividly beautiful picture in his imagination and he knew it would’ve been even more spectacular had it really happened. When fantasizing about what should’ve been became painful—as it did so often—he stopped fantasizing and took better notice of his surroundings. The valley captured an intriguing mixture of desolation and beauty. Everywhere the steeply sloping land was red and barren, but the sun was perched just right in the sky to set the entire valley aflame with its orange glow. It looked like an inferno was raging inside the valley, a gorgeous dance of reds and brilliant yellows that stretched out far into the distance.

  Marcus surveyed every square inch of land as he passed in search of some sign, any sign that anyone had been here, whether human or robot. He found no such sign. When he looked up at Denna, however, he had to constantly stop himself from imagining her in her wedding dress. She looked so beautiful now and she had looked so beautiful in her dress, as ill fitting as it was. That brilliant yellow dress would’ve worked perfectly in this valley with its complimentary reds and yellows. But even among so many brightly flashing colors Denna’s subtlety would’ve won the show, Marcus was certain of it. He and Denna continued through the valley until it emptied out into what would’ve been an impressive waterfall back when flowing rivers had still been a real thing in the cursed Earth. Now, it was another cliff, more shallow than the first, that emptied out onto a vast flat plain. Both Marcus and Denna could see for dozens of miles in every direction but unfortunately neither of them noticed anything worth noting.

  That was, until Marcus turned and peered further in the distance to the north. He couldn’t see it clearly but there, just beyond his super human range of vision he thought he noticed the remains of a city. If it were so then it would be the first standing city other than Science City that he had ever seen. He ran fast, with Denna following directly beside him, until he was much closer and could see clearly that yes, this was the ruins of a once great city. From where he stood at the threshold of the city he could see that it had been much larger than Science City, perhaps three or four times larger. Or more; the nearest edge of the city was the only one he could see. He could hardly believe a city this size had ever existed. He had read about the great cities in history books and had even witnessed a glimpse in an old newsreel, but to see it himself was a completely different experience. If Science City had been half the size of this place there would’ve surely been enough room and resources for everyone and more to spare. As he and Denna walked through the ruins he discovered that there were very many buildings that were still whole and standing.

  Marcus had thought he knew what skyscrapers were but there were real skyscrapers here that dwarfed anything he’d ever seen personally. The skyscrapers here were massive monstrosities that seemed to stretch upward all the way into the heavy clouds of sulfuric acid that hung overhead. Marcus performed the calculations for probable square footage in a fraction of a second with his computer processors and deduced that one of the largest skyscrapers that he noticed could’ve easily held thousands of people, and more if they were crammed in there nearly as solidly as people had been crammed into every building in the outskirts of Science City. They were impressive structures indeed but it was clear to see why they would’ve never worked in Science City. They were far too tall. Every floor except the very bottom floors would’ve been like furnaces where people did not live or work but where they were cooked. Science City could never have afforded to build air conditioning units powerful enough to cool buildings that were so large and tall. Besides that, Science City would’ve never been able to maintain them and even more people would’ve suffocated to death every time a HVAC unit went on the fritz.

  But the skyscrapers were not the only impressive buildings in the city. There were dozens of delicatessens, books stores, pesticide stores, hardware outlets, car dealerships, bank buildings, and any number of other buildings that had never existed in Science City. The sheer plethora of what had once existed here was astounding. But it was an old ice cream parlor that surprised Marcus the most. The building was in worse shape than the old church but the large Ice Cream sign was still there, leaning precariously to one side, against the rubble. Ice Cream. That was one of the very few things that the scientists of Science City’s campuses had never been able to engineer to withstand constant triple digit temperatures. They had made a valiant effort but the result had always been unappealing, which was saying something considering what some of Science City’s genetically engineered food tasted like.

  Marcus imagined eating ice cream now with Denna beside him, as they both gazed up at the stars and postulated what amazing things there might be out there amongst those distant stars. It was a child’s fantasy really, especially since Marcus had never eaten ice cream and gazing up at the stars was definitely not an activity that would’ve fit nicely into his hectic professional life. But now things were different. Now he had all the time in the world to indulge in childish fantasies. “Denna?” he called

  Denna knelt in the distance, sifting through the rubble of a collapsed building. She stood to her feet with something glistening in her hand just as Marcus called her name. As she approached Marcus saw that what she held was a warped wedding band. It had melted a little in the heat but it was still clearly a wedding band. There was a faint coating of dust lining the inside of the ring. “The man who wore this ring …” Denna said when she approached Marcus “died trying to protect his wife. If he had left her he could’ve saved himself. Now they have both returned to the dust from which they came.” She blew gently into the ring and the dust scattered in the breeze.

  “How would you know that?” Marcus asked.

  “We have been watching your species for millennia.”

  “Right. You said that, didn’t you?”

  “This was one of the first instances of what your species calls love that we had ever witnessed. It was completely illogical and completely unique to your planet.”

  Marcus opened his mouth, but then slowly closed it—he had been about to ask if other civilizations didn’t have love on their planets but he realized that if the answer were no it would make the cosmos seem much less exciting after all and he didn’t want that. Instead, he thought of the husband who had given his life willingly in hopes of saving the life of the one whom he loved and knew without doubt that he would’ve done the same thing for Denna without a moment’s hesitation. He only wished that the woman had survived so that the husband’s sacrifice had not been in vain. But perhaps there was a bright side to the building’s collapse crushing them both to death. At the very least they died as they had lived—together. “Denna?” Marcus said.

  “Yes.”

  “Would you like to remain here until nightfall and gaze up at the stars with me.”

  “I would love to, Marcus!” she answered. Marcus was surprised at her enthusiasm. He realized that her zeal was most likely a response that she had read in his mind from the real Denna an
d he didn’t care. She was the real Denna, or close enough since the real Denna had been reduced to specs of dust gliding forever upon the harsh winds. Just like the remains of that husband that had lined the ring. Marcus and Denna searched through the city for any sign of the other robot bodies or the brain slices until the sun finally set and then they lay on their backs at the foot of one of the skyscrapers and gazed up at the night sky just as they had agreed. The acid clouds seemed to flee away for the duo’s star gazing, and revealed a night sky as dark and clear as any night sky had ever been, dotted everywhere with stars that twinkled and glistened as only distantly flaming balls of plasma can. The Milky Way spanned across the sky from one end to the other, beyond the stars, a vague band of hundreds of billions of stars itself that held all the other stars and the Earth as well captive in its gravitational embrace.

  “Where do you come from?” Marcus asked as he gestured up towards the band of his home galaxy. Denna pointed to the bulge directly in the middle of the band.

  “There is a quantum singularity at the center of your galaxy … “

  “A black hole.” Marcus interrupted “Are you saying your race lives in a black hole!” It was a fascinating idea to Marcus’ scientific mind.

  “No. The where that I am from is beyond your comprehension. We use the singularity as a way station …”

  “Is that the way your race travels? You use black holes like portals?” It was an even more exciting idea.

  “Not exactly but it is the closest thing to what your mind can comprehend.”

  That didn’t surprise Marcus much. Even with a powerful computer’s processing power added to his own mental abilities he had no doubt that many of the universe’s secrets were far beyond his reach.

  “Is that how you travel, from galaxy to galaxy via its black hole, to seed planets?”