by Toker, Dor
“Where are you taking me to?” Adam asked the light and only once he’d finished speaking, realized he spoke soundlessly.
“To the place where it all began,” answered the voice of the light in his head, “it’s important that you realize what we’re facing.”
“Important to whom?” he asked and when he was unanswered, closed his eyes and allowed the light to lead him. He fell asleep curled like a fetus, floating in the soft zero-gravity halo.
*
Sato broke into the circle of light that the fire had cast with the superhuman speed his defensive/offensive suit allowed him. He was surprised to find his prey was missing. One moment he had Adam locked in his sights, the next he was gone. Sato kicked the fire with anger, and it crumbled into a pile of burning ashes, shimmering in a dim red light. He turned around, left the circle of light and swallowed once more in the darkness.
*
All at once, Adam woke into an illuminated and blinding reality. He blinked, activated his retina sun protectors (Sun Protection Corp ©), and discovered the ball of light had slowed down and now cruised in a binary sun star system. His webwires indicated he did not fall asleep independently, and his awakening had been artificially induced as well. When he scanned his body (Deep Scan ©) he found that he was unharmed by the usage of external chemical substances and deduced that his senses and the upgrades added to them, as well as all the tactical additions to his body, were disrupted by an element with a higher level of technological knowledge. This scared him, but also made him extremely curious.
The ball of light advanced toward the moon of an immense planet, one of the twenty he had already counted in this solar system. He guessed that the number of planets was even larger, because his view was blocked by the sun and by the planet whose moon he was approaching.
“We’re here,” the female voice announced in his head, “this is where it all began.”
“All of what?” asked Adam, wondering what he had to do with any of that, but suspecting, deep in his heart, he was intended to receive this knowledge.
“This is where my species made its first leap,” answered the voice and continued, “this is where the material body that contained my consciousness was born and raised, on this moon we’ve met our creators, once we had completed the assembly of the jigsaw puzzle and placed the last brick of the chain in its place. I, or what once could be called ‘I’, was responsible for the completion of the final chain, now your planet has reached the point that my species had reached billions of Earth years ago. You, as you probably already know, are the ring that closes the last chain before the final consciousness leap. No force in the world can prevent you from completing the chain. Everything is in your hands. The choice when to act is yours.”
Adam was impressed by her words. He began to decipher the magnitude of the occasion and the power he had at his command when the voice continued to speak.
“You must be confused, and magnitude of the information I’ve thrown at you must be intimidating. Trust me, in different times and under different circumstances, we would not have met before you’d complete the chain by yourself and leap at the forefront of the human race beyond the boundaries of your current consciousness. But these times are not ordinary. Everything I’ll tell you is already inside your mind and therefore, I’ll quickly review the situation and the rest you’ll complete with the information processor, which is very primitive I must add, attached to your brain.” The voice drew silent for a moment, as if allowing Adam to prepare for what he was about to hear. “We’ve created, as we’d done numerous times before, the planet which you call ‘The Earth’, as a probability maze leading to the creation of advanced consciousnesses, such as the ones we’ve been maintaining for a long time, along with other species that had joined us.”
“And this is what you’ve got?” Adam asked, skepticism mingling with his voice, “let’s suppose for a moment that I believe you, you’ve created everything that’s on the Earth to eventually get us? Well, that’s not much.”
“That’s plenty,” the voice answered, “considering that at this stage of your development, you and your species are immeasurably more advanced than all the other species that joined us.”
“Someone once told me we weren’t your first choice on the planet.”
“I suppose such unfounded information can be classified as a harmless folk tale,” Adam noticed a frightened undertone beneath her amused voice. He felt he had inadvertently noticed an information thread he wasn’t supposed to recognize, and decided to continue and strengthen his grip on the threat.
“So I guess we weren’t?”
The voice was silent, and Adam assumed she was taking some time to reorganize her answer.
“No,” she finally admitted, “the creation of a world is a very complex task, even for us. The energies necessary to produce such a successful enterprise are vast even for creatures such as us. It takes a tremendous effort from each and every individual, so we’ve managed to concentrate on the production of a single enterprise at a time. None of the species we’ve advanced, including my own, have provided us with the necessary answer we’ve been seeking. And since we couldn’t endure the simultaneous creation of several worlds, one of us had suggested that each star we’ve created would be given energy sources for three evolutionary cycles before the planet’s expiry. Still, no species with the right answer had developed. The Earth, as you call it, was the last enterprise we’ve undertaken.” The voice drew silent. Adam waited patiently. She still did not answer his question. “Unfortunately,” the voice resumed, “three evolutionary cycles of intelligent species on your planet did not yield the desired results as well, and even though the new species had joined our consciousness level, we remain helpless before the question that had bothered us for millions of Earth years.”
“Hold on,” Adam cut her short, “you said that each planet had three cycles and Earth had already had them. So what are we?”
“You’re the fourth cycle,” explained the voice, “we’ve decided to gamble against probability and provide your sun with energy for an additional final cycle.”
The depth of the information the voice had provided him shocked Adam. He felt he was on the verge of a new realization following her words, but it slipped from his mind moments before he’d managed to grasp it.
“But you were on the high probability limit of success. Fortunately, we were right in our gamble, and you’re the proof.” Adam nodded distractedly. “As you may have noticed, you’ve received all the relative details about us on your external memory (Extra Memo ©). Adam looked inside and inspected the virtual folders on his eye-screens (In Eye Screen ©). He learned about the creators and the creation of his world, about the connections and the contexts called the Mendelssohnian Theory and about the yearned for a leap in human intelligence. His eye screen zoomed out until he received an ‘overview’ of the universe. He was surprised to discover that the stars, galaxies, and the entire universe were organized like DNA chains. This spectacular sight excited Adam when an additional piece of information had fallen into place in the big puzzle inside his mind.
“When I’ve told you earlier no power in the world could stop you,” the voice cut off his thoughts, “I was only partially accurate. What had passed into your external memory is only part of the information you require.”
“OK,” said Adam, “tell me the rest.”
“Look,” she began to speak and Adam sensed an unexpected hesitation in her voice, “as a result of the intelligence leap that we’d done, we’ve abandoned everything that cannot be calculated and is not based on data, statistics and probability. At a certain stage on your way to the great leap, you’ll also need to let go.”
“Let go?” asked Adam, “let go of what?”
“You’ll discover what you need to let go of in the future,” answered the voice, “once you’ll reach that stage. You’re not there yet, but you’re very close. What I want to ask you, is unfair by any human standards and contradi
cts your moral principles, but from our wider viewpoint, which weaves together time and space, we’re convinced this is everyone’s only chance, the entire universe’s only chance, against that great evil which threatens the existence of all kind of intelligence. You are holding in your hands the human race’s flight ticket to the family of sentient creatures. Perhaps you still don’t know what the action you’ll need to perform is, but trust me, it’s in your near future. My request is that you’ll wait with the revelation, that you’ll postpone the action as much as you can, possibly even refuse to perform it.”
“What do you mean?” Adam was surprised, both by the request and by the fact she had asked and had not ordered him.
“You’re making a lot of noise,” said the creator, “actually, your planet produces the highest levels of galactic noise in space.” As far as she was concerned, this was a satisfactory explanation, but Adam still remained confused.
“So what?” he asked.
“Evil is attracted to your noise.”
Realization settled on Adam’s face. Someone was threatening them. Someone or something. And the voice had hidden it from him thus far. “And you want it to reach us, right?” Adam completed her words, “you’re using us as bait so you can capture it.” The creator was silent, but Adam knew his analysis was correct. “Did it ever occur to you that you might not be able to capture it?”
“We’ve taken this option into consideration,” the creator answered, “but the alternatives are more dangerous. When he’s close enough to pose a threat, we’ll get you out of there.”
“Why do I find it hard to believe you?” Adam persisted.
“Because you’re not aware of all the possibilities,” answered the creator. Don’t worry, we won’t risk mankind and drive it beyond the point of no return.”
“And you’re never wrong? Does it ever happen that unexpected elements interfere with your elaborate calculations?”
“You’re such an element,” said the creator, “but when you take all the probabilities into account, you are just a negligible variable.”
“Negligible enough to be expendable?”
“We’re not getting rid of you,” the creator tried to comfort him, “you’re our last chance.”
“And you’re asking me to risk my own species in order to rescue yours?”
“In order to rescue everyone,” said the voice.
“By betraying humankind,” Adam mentioned sarcastically, “have you considered the possibility I might refuse?”
“Are you refusing?” the voice questioned him.
“You bet I am,” Adam was impassioned, “I don’t know you, nor any of the other so-called ‘creators’ you’re talking about. The fact that you’ve pulled some cheap virtual tricks doesn’t make an impression on me. You’ve put me to sleep and woke me inside a hologramattic studio (Holo studs ©) with an inner ear microphone, which quite honestly is starting to scratch my eardrum.”
“You know better than that,” said the voice, “you’ve always known to recognize the truth, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t recognize it when it’s told as directly as I’ve told it.”
“Always?” asked Adam, “how do you know what I’ve always known or didn’t know?” the creator’s silence had cornered Adam. He was angry, yet felt more focused than ever. “Why did you show me your planet for? Why are you even explaining any of this to me?”
“We’ve created you, and so we’re committed to you,” said the creator and immediately added, “no matter what your final decision will be.”
“It sounds too simple,” said Adam, “you’re not telling me everything.”
“I’m not sure I understand your meaning,” the voice said.
An idea was formed in Adam’s mind, and a plan began to hatch from it, dangerous, perhaps futile as well, and yet a plan that was better than blindly obeying the higher powers, which faced him and tried to make him act according to their will. If they use him and try to manipulate him, and that’s exactly what he felt they were doing, then he won’t surrender without a fight. “I’m trying to understand your interest in showing me your cards?”
“You can probably guess it for yourself already,” answered the voice and Adam felt there was a hint of restlessness in her voice.
“I’m not guessing anything,” said Adam, his voice measured and calculated, “as far as I’m concerned, you’re acting like a corporation with an interest to profit from the situation. You, who call yourself rational, act like a petty criminal, take into your midst those it is in your best interest to assimilate and get rid of all the others.”
“You’re right,” the voice admitted, “we really were a corporation. Two hundred and fifty-three earth years ago, when the human race had reached the stage in which it was supposed to discover its genetic code is identical to that which comprises its planet’s, we tried to give you a little push in order to direct you toward revelation. We’ve presented you with the string theory and supersymmetric, but you were unable to use the clues to solve the mystery.”
“Why don’t you stop with the hints and clues and just tell me what you have to say without complicating yourself with complex explanations,” said Adam.
“We’re not allowed to,” answered the voice, “it will damage the probability of your chances to advance.”
“What’s the superstring theory, anyway?” asked Adam.
“Your research methods work in depth,” said the voice, “you are breaking down things into their elements, and then you break down these elements into smaller and smaller ones. We’ve tried to direct you to perform widthwise research as well, to find connections between elements of equal value.” The voice was silent for a moment, and Adam felt she was finding it difficult to explain. “Look,” she continued, the Mendelssohnian probability chains, as you call them, are attracted to other chains in further dimensions, parallel to the one in which you live. Almost everything is bound with strings of time and space, and each universe influences the twenty-six known parallel universes. I’ll give you an example,” the voice must have recognized Adam’s confusion, “your worldwide-web. Did you ever wonder how it actually works? How in each location in your known universe you can send messages and receive information immediately?” she continued without waiting for an answer, “you’ve managed to master the time sequence. You’ve punctured tiny time holes, you’ve shrunk space, folded time waves, but only in an infinitesimal way. The wavelength you’ve managed to create is enough to pass on information but not much more beyond that. You’ve tried time after time to increase the volume of the transfer, to change its shape, to divide it, but you’ve never attempted to move it aside.”
“If you were trying to explain yourself,” said Adam, “you weren’t very successful. I’m more confused than ever.”
“I’m sorry,” said the voice, “I tried to demonstrate some of the abilities you’ll gain once you’ll perform the change. You will be able to control time and space. An immense power, and yet the moment you’ll all possess it, you won’t be able to use it against one another. That’s the reason they’re after you. They want to utilize the change you’re able to bring for their own personal gains. What a pity.”
Adam was silent, attempting to decipher all he had just heard. It changed his perspective entirely. He realized now that the level of responsibility he was burdened with was even larger that the dimensions of his world. “I guess this is not the first time you’ve interrupted in our history,” said Adam, and he thought he saw the light blinking again. “Are you allowed to?”
The light was silent for a while before answering: “We’ve interfered,” she admitted, “I’ve interfered on your behalf when there was a need to select between yours and other humanoid species, and then later on, throughout the years when the opportunity presented itself to shorten the completion of the chains. You must be familiar with the names of the prophet Elijah, Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth.”
“You’ve helped them all?”<
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“Yes,” answered the light, “they were all unfulfilled potentials. They were all raw Chi.”
“Chi,” Adam wasn’t familiar with the word. A quick inspection on the information web revealed that it was doubtful its original meaning in Mandarin: ‘energy of life’, matched the intention of the voice.
“‘Wat woguker chi wagoknu’ is the full name in our language, and its meaning in yours is: ‘he who passes between worlds.’ We’ve never found a chi as strong as you.”
“I’m a chi?” Adam felt embarrassed and confused by her words, but it didn’t seem to him she about to continue and explain.
“I’ve pushed them erroneously,” the voice continued with its tale, getting back to Elijah, the Buddha, and Jesus, “before they matured, before they were ready. And there were also opposite cases,” the voice mentioned and Adam thought he heard sadness mingled with her voice.
“What do you mean?” he asked voicelessly.
“Someone updated me about the file he’d sent you, the one about the history of Moses Mendelssohn’s ancient essay,” the voice stopped speaking, waiting for Adam to approve.