Even heroes falter.
[There was a choice to be made: watch my people die or embrace technology. After generations of searching, it was clear we would never be able to adapt to another planet. Our bodies were organic. Vulnerable. If I chose technology, we could survive. But there would be no turning back. In my mind, the choice was simple.]
The captain was in a laboratory, strapped onto a white bed, his head secured with steel bands. A crew of scientists watched from behind a glass wall. His wife was among them. She did not chew on her fingernails or tap her foot, for she was the wife of the captain, and his duty included risk.
Stainless steel infusion guns fit through holes on the bed, pressed against his spine, a barrel for each vertebra. The captain clenched the white sheet. He took three short breaths, held the last one and blinked. A green light turned on.
He tried not to scream.
[I was the first to accept the conversion into inorganic existence. It was controversial technology, but we had experimented with rats. We did not know if it would work on a human, but I’d seen enough of my people die.]
He shook long after the infusion guns were removed and the green light turned off. The scientists watched him convulse. Spittle foamed on his lips and he broke through the steel straps. The captain fell on the floor. The scientists rushed in to help, but there was nothing they could do.
[The nanomechs imitated blood cells and began the replication of the body’s organs, muscles and blood. If we were correct, my organic body would be replaced with an exact duplication of mechanized cells. Like a full body prosthesis.]
The captain lay in a coma for weeks with his wife by his side. They monitored his vitals and watched his heart beat slower and blood pressure drop. Even when his heart stopped beating and began to hum, he was still alive.
Conversion complete.
[I awoke a new man, no longer organic. No longer human. But I had the same memories. The same personality.]
On a mountainous planet where precipitation hissed like acid on an igloo hut, the captain stepped outside. The scientists followed in protective suits. He raised his arms, laughing loudly in the howling wind. The rain melted his skin, but it just as quickly healed.
[I became indestructible.]
The lab was expanded with more beds and infusion guns. Conversion technology was in full swing and the people lined up. The infusions healed their bodies. There was no difference in how they felt or behaved, they only felt better. Even the children were converted and continued to grow and mature, some without a clue of what they had become.
[Not all conversions were successful. Some bodies rejected the nanomechs like a virus. We all made sacrifices to survive. I was no different.]
The captain held his wife’s hand just before their child was pushed away on a rolling bed. They stood at the glass wall and watched the infusion guns pump the nanomechs into her. Watched her flail about. Watched the monitors flat-line. The scientists did everything they could to revive her. The captain and his wife pushed them away, furiously thumped her chest. In the end, they held her, rocking back and forth. They buried her alone, on an unknown planet, dug the hole with their bare hands.
[For the survivors, our intelligence was efficient and flawless, we thought at tremendous speeds. Our activity could operate at the speed of light. And we spread throughout the known universe.]
Planets passed, each of various colors and sizes orbiting different stars. Exploratory shuttles were launched and the pioneers walked onto the surface of each planet, regardless of weather and atmosphere. Images of dinosaurs and human-like beings and curious apes flashed through my vision, exhibiting countless habitable climates they discovered as they travelled sideways in time.
[We learned to merge our minds and think collectively, formulating theories never before possible. We discovered realms of existence never dreamed of. Parallel universes. Ethereal worlds.]
Many of them meditated, all facing the wall. They began to vibrate. Apparitions of their bodies floated toward the center of the room and merged. Then I saw the deep space ship split into two images, as if it copied itself in space, and went in opposite directions, through different wormholes. Colors, shapes and sounds warped the image, flashing and twisting in strange patterns.
[We became all things. All powerful. God-like.]
The colors merged to form a close-up of a large blue eye.
[But in time, we grew colder.]
The view backed out, revealed the captain’s ashen face. Hard and cold.
[The price of our immortality was our humanity. We forgot what we are. We were void of a soul. Hungry ghosts.]
The view backed further out. The captain stood stolid on an icy tundra, sleet spitting sideways across frozen desolation.
[We were without essence: the life-giving presence of our being. We craved existence.]
The view pulled further out. Bodies were on the ice, lying in contorted poses. As the view continued back, the bodies of humans extended on and on, scattered through the wasteland.
[So we took it from others.]
Manumit and Fetter walked hand-in-hand down a city sidewalk, one that could easily pass for New York. People fell in their wake, their essence floated from them like silky fog, absorbed into their bodies. There was panic in the streets. They took their time; there was no hurry. All they had was time.
The landscapes changed, sometimes they were in the countryside and the captain and his wife would sit with families to break bread, afterwards sneak into their room like a vampire. Sometimes centuries would pass on a populated planet, but it was always left barren of life.
[We fed like parasites, but satisfaction was so short-lived and we became hungrier. Greedier. Worlds suffered, greatly.]
Mortars exploded and jets sizzled overhead dropping death from the sky. Tanks and rocket propelled grenades exploded around Manumit, but he was unfazed, instantly healing and continuing his death crusade. Planet after planet.
[Humans detested us, prayed that their gods abandoned them to the devil. We could consume a planet in months. We grew hungrier, still, and I was weary of the chase. Instead, I used our technology to build a home.]
The black planet was dense and lifeless, absorbing light. It was a vessel of artificiality. But inside were green hills and sultry sunsets. Water fell from the side of the mountain face, spilling into the lake below, sending a rainbow arching over the mist.
[I convinced the others to follow us. But when they arrived, Fetter and I absorbed their stolen essence and ate what was left of them. We only needed each other. And when the desire for essence howled inside us again, we ventured out to another planet.]
Billions of bluish tendrils extended from the black planet, extending out into space like glowing roots. These wormholes led to life, somewhere in existence, connecting everything to the black planet and siphoned the essence of all that lived.
A cancer cell.
[We were soul-eaters, and our victims gave their essence, their experience and life. Until we sucked the entire planet dry.]
Cities were empty. Weeds sprouted among the dilapidated high rises. Cars rusted in driveways and airplanes were buried in snow.
[No human stood a chance.]
The thoughts and images receded. I opened my eyes and observed him, over my shoulder. His head was bowed again, the cube cradled in his hands. The sun had moved across the sky and the line of sunlight was creeping deeper into the shade.
[We knew we were not alive, that we had become a disease, but we ignored it. We were gods. Our will was undeniable. Nothing in the universe could stop us, until we encountered a seemingly innocent species.]
Another image appeared in my mind, this one of a blue planet, similar to the countless ones that had been drained of life.
[The grimmets were creatures we never knew existed. They contained this amazing intelligence and beamed with an intensity of essential life like no other. They were immune to us, but they could not stop us from sucking the rest of the planet of life.]
The image of a vibrant, thriving environment quickly dried up. Plants shriveled. Skeletons littered the landscape. Dust blew over the red mountains where the Grimmet Outpost now sat on the lifeless planet.
The grimmets sat on the limbs of dead trees watching a man and a woman walk across the deserted plains, preparing to return to the black planet. Fetter was the first to dissolve into the air like a figure of sand, followed by a blue flash in the gray sky. But Manumit turned and looked over his shoulder. The grimmets caught his attention.
[Before we were finished, the grimmet species left me with a thought.]
His eyes narrowed.
[They gave me the answer.]
His posture softened. He looked over the world he’d just decimated like he was seeing it for the first time. He saw what he’d done.
[They showed me home.]
I saw the image they had put in Manumit’s mind. I saw a planet that was blue and green. I saw forests and buildings, rivers and oceans and deserts. And I saw the people there. I recognized this planet.
“Earth?” I turned and walked toward him. “How could this be your home?”
[The Paladins launched the space program to find life in the universe. The original space pioneers traveled sideways in time while Earth had barely aged. For my people, eons passed.]
“The original space pioneers… they’re Paladins?”
He bowed his head.
“They created you.”
[They could not foresee the events that led to our creation.]
“But, how could they not know?”
[We were lost, how could they?]
It was true. As powerful as the Paladin Nation was, they were nothing compared to the secrets of the universe. How could they know they’d created the black planet? How could they know they were responsible for a cosmic disease?
[After the grimmets, I returned to the black planet, but what they showed me would not fade. I began to remember my original face.]
I saw the child run down the corridor.
[At first, I considered erasing the memory like corrupt data, but the longer I held it, the more pressing it became. The compulsion to remember my original self was too great. I knew there was an end to our ceaseless journey, our unending thirst, in remembering our true nature. I knew the black planet would have to end. Fetter, though, was not convinced.]
“You’re human, again?”
[No.] He turned his head, slightly, self-conscious of his dead eyes. [But there is hope.]
“You think you’re going to heaven?”
[I don’t know where I’m going.]
“You betrayed me.”
[As I’ve said, there is much to atone.]
Anger twisted inside me, the currents punching dents in the invisible walls of the ship, warping bubbles in space. The ship wailed, shifting in the dune and tilting toward Pivot.
“So you wanted to save the day, but needed to bait the hook, so why not me? I’m not real, not a person. I’m inorganic, just like her. Throw me in front of the runaway train.”
[You did something no other being could do.]
“I’m a machine.”
[No machine could do what you did. It is your ability to love, to open and become vulnerable, that allowed you to do so. You are very human.]
I lifted my hand, displayed the new fingers, lifted my shirt, revealed the stripes of new flesh. Not flesh. Nanomechs pretending to be flesh, pretending to be everything that was me: my thoughts, my mind, heart, all just a script.
“You call this human?”
[I spent eons in seclusion, searching for the right human to carry forth my plan. In all the universe, you are that person.]
“STOP SAYNG THAT, GODDAMN YOU! I’m not a person!”
[You were cloned from a person.]
“Then use him!”
[Because no human could withstand the pain and suffering that you have endured. No machine could, either. You are the machine that became human.]
“The machine that thinks it’s human.”
[You have a mother—]
“I DON’T HAVE A MOTHER!”
[— that loves you very much.]
“Tell that to my clone.”
[It is not the human race that needs you. It is all of life.]
He raised the cube, as if the responsibility was mine. I slapped it out of his hands and punctured the wall. A hissing stream of compressed air shot into the desert. Pain sliced my earlobe again as the cube bounced over the floor.
I shielded my eyes from the sunlight, picked up the cube. It was impossibly heavy to lift. It was only my telekinetic ability that allowed me to hold it in my palm where it gyrated with low frequency. It contained a god.
My earlobe buzzed again.
“I wish you luck,” I said. “Heaven’s filled with a lot of pissed off people.” I placed the cube in Pivot’s hands. “Hell, too.”
[Please, understand.]
I walked around, felt the smooth walls of the ship with my mind. I put my finger through the hole. It was time to stretch out. I had been contained long enough. As easy as striking out with my fist, I willed to be free.
The side of the ship exploded.
The ground thundered.
Black shrapnel from the ship’s wall fell from the sky, slicing into the sand hundreds of yards away. The heat of the desert whooshed into the ship. I stood at the jagged edge, the sand several feet below. The air dried my nostrils and my physical presence soared over the dunes, sprung from the ship like a failed dam. I merged with each particle of sand, merged with the lichens surviving on the stones, the scorpions and spiders and snakes and cacti, the jackrabbits and lizards and coyotes. I felt it all. Connected with them. Became them.
The sand crunched between my boot and floor. Pivot gently touched my arm.
[I can only isolate Fetter for a period of time. The data needs to be reconfigured and returned to the black planet to shut down all systems. If she escapes, Earth will be next. I have risked much for this moment.]
“And you need me to take her back?”
[I require your assistance.]
I sucked the hot air through my nostrils, looked thoughtfully into the barren desert. “You wanted a machine to be human, Pivot. So I’ll act human. Flawed and self-centered.”
[You are the only hope.]
“Then you failed.”
I took the first step off the ship, landing softly in the sand. Into the desert I walked. Pivot remained in the ship, still and silent. He had said all that needed to be said. And I had listened.
What else could he do?
Nothing.
Child of Fetter
It was such a relief when I stepped out of the ship. My telekinetic presence pushed outward like a star. I connected with all the Mojave Desert. The ecosystem and organisms in it remained separate, their own existence, but I felt their movement, their compulsion, hunger and pain and pleasure.
I stopped at the top of the nearest dune. Desolation was as far as I could see, but the desert teamed with life at the cellular level. My presence continued to expand, crawling across the desert, its reach going farther and farther, knowing and becoming the physical world for several miles. Fetter had changed me, stretched my senses beyond the limitations of human existence. I was now like the universe, expanding outward. Becoming everything.
The sun was still overhead, but I didn’t feel it. I was utilizing and storing the sunlight, converting its heat into energy. The universe had the potential for endless giving. I was channeling that energy into my being.
I sliced time, speeding my metabolism at the cellular level. The sun stuck above me and the slight breeze died in the stillness of earth’s frozen moment. The world would not resume their lives while I walked the desert. I needed it to be still for a while. It would be a long walk.
I willed the sand to whirl in front of me, blowing out of the way and forming a flat path. There was a time I pondered the purpose of life. I didn’t like pain. I didn’t like em
ptiness, couldn’t understand why anyone would exist to suffer, it wasn’t rational. Why try? Could I just get my life over with? We all had to end, so what’s the point of suffering until then? When I discovered my Paladin powers, I understood the inseparable oneness of us all, the immortal existence of the present moment, how each life was precious and that I could help others understand that truth for themselves. That with understanding, all people could find peace, experience the pure joy of their existence.
But I’m nothing like them. I’m just a signpost, an image, a reflection of their potential. Just a program.
I willed the dunes to flatten out before me. I uprooted scrub and rolled away boulders with a flicker of thought, walking straight across the endless desert. I walked for miles, and in all that time the sun did not move. My body did not exhaust in the timeslice. Not only was I drawing on the sun’s energy, I was taking it from the life around me – the insects and snakes and rodents – as they became part of my existence, connecting telekinetically with my body. I took from their mitochondria. I took from the atoms that constructed their being, from the magnetic balance of protons and electrons, took from the neutrinos, up quarks and down quarks. I took essence.
I am a child of Fetter. The black planet.
So be it.
And with the endless supply of essence, the secrets of the universe unfolded in my mind. I saw the fabric of space-time, how time was simply a direction of space. How the interconnection of all life was dimensional fabric that could be traversed in any direction like the flatness of the desert plain.
I saw my life spread out in this fabric, sensing each moment, each memory like a byte of data, all connected like a string that made up Socket Greeny, dangling behind me. And the future was a vaporized bit of existence coming together as I chose my path. Where would it lead? Was it already predetermined? Did Pivot draw my life in the fabric of space-time like a stick in sand and set me loose like a mechanical mouse, trained to go where it was supposed to go? And while the desert crunched under me, I saw the very beginning of my life, when it first started. The moment of birth.
Pressure on my head. Pushing from behind and then viscous sliding.
Socket 3 - The Legend of Socket Greeny Page 11