It would make sense. There were so many voices Sam’s head couldn’t contain them all. There was a veritable fog of them, all mashed together, like an entire planet of people all talking over each other. The voices were everywhere and so were the hands. They were trying to drag Sam back into the darkness. He knew that if that happened he would never escape, but his struggle was no match for the strength of so many hands. They covered him everywhere now, everywhere except his eyes and nose and they were beginning to cover that too. His vision was narrowing to a single pinprick, his breath increasingly more difficult to draw through the obstructions. Even in the dream he knew he would pass out at any moment and never wake again. It was precisely as the pinprick narrowed to nothing, and the hands covered his face, that he woke up, gasping for breath.
Sitting up in his bed, sweating and once again completely tangled in his sheets, Sam finally understood what the nightmares meant. The many people working at the bottom of the mountain shared unrivaled benefits, but they’d sacrificed something of their individuality for their telepathy. They were part of a much larger group now. There were no secrets amongst them but there was also no room for Self. It was the same sacrifice that Sam was called to make, to relinquish his voice in a din of many. Once everything was fulfilled, he would be just another shadow in the darkness. Just another telepathic mind in the hive. The real question was, where was the hive going? This hive was unlike anything any number of insects could’ve produced, far more powerful, and potentially far more dangerous. Besides to combat the aliens that had, ironically, made all this possible in the first place, where would Dr. Crangler lead the hive? He had already claimed that the world would be ruled from Capital City, but what exactly did that mean?
Sam wished that Julia was there beside him, but she had chosen to sleep in the part of the house farthest from his room. He was glad that she had chosen to remain here at all, even if it were only because she felt she had nowhere else to go. As he untangled himself from his sweat drenched sheets and stood to his feet, he wondered where she was now, whether she was still asleep in his mother’s room or not. He didn’t reach out with his mind to find out. Instead, he walked to his bathroom for his morning ablutions. Once he was finished and left the bathroom, he didn’t need his telepathy to tell him that Julia was in the kitchen cooking. The pungent odor of frying bacon filled the air. Sam hadn’t smelt such a sweet, powerful odor in years. Neither he nor his father had been fabulous cooks, so meals like the one he smelt now had never been the norm. Sam remembered seeing in Geoffrey’s memories that his mother hadn’t exactly been the cooking type in the beginning either. That was one of the many things that had changed about her since Sam’s birth. Sam took a deep whiff; it was nice to have a woman’s influence in the house. He thought to go into kitchen where Julia must be, but the last time he had spoken with her she had stormed off in a furor. He knew from reading the minds of the townspeople that women could hold a grudge with impressive dedication. Maybe he should give Julia more time.
Time, unfortunately, was not something Sam had to give. The world was continuing to change quickly, and Sam didn’t have many choices in any of it. He was destined to be swept away with the change no matter where it was ultimately headed. There were many things he would’ve liked to postpone, perhaps indefinitely, but the reality at hand did not afford him that choice either. For the first time, he realized how his father must’ve felt. Geoffrey had not wanted to introduce him to telepathy just as strongly as he had not wanted to introduce it and all its consequences to Julia. But just as his with father, it didn’t matter what he wanted or what he was ready for. It was either give Julia the truth she deserved or let her ignorance be the cause of her destruction. He had made the right choice, just as his father had, but it was not the most comfortable choice.
Plus, this was Sam’s house and he wasn’t used to walking on egg shells in his own home. He turned and headed for the kitchen. There he found that Julia was indeed cooking. Or, rather, she had been cooking. Now, two plates of eggs, small, thin pancakes, and plenty of gorgeous strips of bacon still sizzling from the pan waited on the kitchen’s large wooden food island. It was all a treat to behold. It wasn’t just that the food looked great, there was more than enough of it. Sam’s plate alone held enough food for two fully grown men. The kitchen in Sam’s home was much larger than most, his state of the art stove and refrigerator were professional grade and size—just as with everything else in the house, it was much more than the Simmons had ever needed—and Sam had never seen them utilized so extensively. Over breakfast, he learned that Julia was used to cooking like this. According to her, her parents had never paid her much attention. What she didn’t do for herself didn’t get done so she had learned many skills that other women her age were largely unfamiliar with. Her parents—especially her father—had wanted a son. From the earliest time that Julia could remember she could sense her parent’s disappointment with her. Her father had not wanted a daughter, had deemed the daughter he did have, inferior. Her mother had wanted nothing so much as to please her father and so she shared his disappointment with the child they’d had together.
It was a horrible thing for a child to know that they are not and never were wanted by their parents and it was a thing Julia had lived with her entire life. She explained all of this to Sam as unfortunate but simple fact. He got the sense that she was only able to withhold tears now because she had cried so many of them by herself over the years already. “I’m sorry for getting mad with you.” She said to Sam once the two of them had finished their meals. “And I did get really mad” she mused “I’m not even sure why. Most people in the town”—Sam thought of the townspeople, all of them trapped in waking trances, all of them literally living out fantasies as their bodies slowly wasted away—“think you’re the Second Coming. All I’ve ever heard about you is that you saved the world and you can do anything. Anything.”
“If that were so, I would give you whatever you asked me for,” Sam said seriously “but most of the time I can’t figure out where I’m going. I don’t have many miracles to give anyone.”
“But you can read minds.”
“That’s different. I’ve explained it already as best as I know how, I can’t explain it any better.”
“You wouldn’t need to explain it if you taught me to read minds like you—and all the people at the bottom of the mountain, apparently—do?” Julia asked. She stared into Sam’s eyes with an intensity that startled him.
“Yes.”
There was silence as Julia stared down at her empty plate. “No, I don’t want that.” She said slowly “I saw what my parents thought of me and I wish I never had. I don’t want to be inside anyone’s head. There’s already enough voices inside my own head.” Sam could certainly relate. He admired Julia’s bold choice. Here he was, accepting his destiny to be swept away with the tides of change, but Julia had chosen to stand firm against something she could neither stop nor control. Of course, according to her she had already had plenty of practice living in a world where everything was against her and she had no power to change it.
After the meal she and Sam sat on the porch quietly until he asked the question he knew must be asked, “So, will you stay here? With me? There’ll always be enough food, and everything we could ever need will be brought to us.” Dr. Crangler would have to arrange for those provisions since the mayor and all his constituents, including Sam’s security detail were indisposed. Sam could sense in the crowd at the bottom of the mountain that they were willing and able to assist in anything he might need. Besides, once Capital City was completed, the entire mountain, Sam included, would be part of a larger self-sustaining organism. Perhaps the time would come when Julia would choose to be a part of that body, a cog in the larger machinery. Perhaps she never would. “If you would allow me, I will stay here.” She answered with little hesitation. It was clear by how quickly she answered that she had been mulling it over for some time. “There is nowhere else for me to go.”
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“I’m glad.” Sam answered, and he was. There may’ve been many hands trying to pull him into the group merger but as long as Julia was around there was at least one set of hands that were not trying to assimilate away the Self that was uniquely his own. “You can stay here as long as you want and use anything I have here. And I hope you do stay here for as long as possible, but unfortunately I have to go.” Sam said. He needed to go to the bottom of the mountain. He wanted to be there to watch the arrival of an entire planet of telepaths that were on their way from every corner of the globe. He needed to talk with Dr. Crangler. He left Julia in his home and descended the staircase to the bottom. There, he communed telepathically with the group as the members continued raising Capital City from the rocky earth. He did this every day, until finally he stopped leaving his house at all and communicated not only with the group, but with the Doctor as well, solely by telepathy. It was the path the Doctor had always dictated. It was time to follow that path. Soon, talking with Julia was the only time he relayed on his vocal chords for communication. As the passing days turned first into weeks, then to months, he allowed himself to become more fully integrated into the New World Order.
As the one year mark drew closer, the tower rose higher and higher until it was finished and enough people had arrived to fill its many homes. It was exactly as Sam had seen, inside and out, replete with the many staircases as well as the adjacent floating walkways that connected the mountain to the many homes. The base of the mountain was black with people at any time of the day or night, only now the majority were not building but training. The many builders had now become the army that the Doctor had envisioned. Together, once a day, everyone stopped whatever they were doing and leant their abilities to the group at large, like a planetary chorus of people all singing in unison. It was a song that would’ve been heard clearly beyond earth’s atmosphere, but because this song was not limited to physical bodies it extended into the deepest recesses of the galaxy and far beyond. During these daily training exercises, Sam sensed galaxies so far away that no space ship, no matter how advanced, would’ve been able to reach them in hundreds of thousands of years.
Dr. Crangler guided this awesome power first to scan vast reaches of the universe. He was searching for other intelligences. Intelligences that might be powerful enough to pose a threat. Intelligences like the one that had sent the Virus. He’d already convinced his gifted legions that this was necessary. According to the Doctor, they were to fight with a particular species of hostile aliens and they didn’t need any surprises while they were doing it. Swept away in the power of so many powerful minds Sam experienced firsthand the unfathomable beauty and deadly extremes of the universe. It was more than he could’ve ever imagined. He beheld the birth of stars and the death of galaxies. He sensed the incalculable power the universe either demanded or dispersed. He saw planets, and nebulas, star systems that were absolutely nothing like the ones that existed in the Milky Way. He discovered that he was less than an ant, and the entire planet earth less than an ant hill in the unrealistic vastness of space. It was a humbling experience, but it was also new and exciting. It made Sam wonder why was the alien civilization so interested in planet Earth? What was so important about the insignificant pebble in space called Earth or any of its tiny inhabitants? The universe was virtually limitless, the many other planets within it beyond number, and still the alien intelligence had set its focus on the little Blue Marble. They may not have known it then, but they had risked their own survival on the little pebble. Perhaps, for whatever reason, the earth was not as significant in the universe as Sam thought.
Then the Doctor turned the sights of his massive army toward the alien civilization itself. After experiencing the untold wonders of the universe at large, the alien civilization was something of a disappointment to Sam. He could not tell what they looked like, but he could tell that they shared a perfect hive mind. Individuality had no discernable meaning on their planet. No single member of the civilization had ever had a private thought. Whatever the group thought at any given time was the only thought that existed anywhere on the planet. It was disappointing in its complete lack of variety, but it was horrifying it in its intensity of scope. As far as Sam could tell, the hive mind did not entertain complicated ideas—right now they thought only of sustenance, survival—but they did it to the tune of billions of connected minds. A single queen alien ruled over the entire planet and her power was absolute. What she thought, the others thought, what she ordered, the others obeyed, instantly, and without dissent. The Doctor’s influence was growing every day, but it paled in comparison. As the Doctor continued to use his army to scrutinize the civilization Sam noticed that it didn’t appear as if any of the alien members had the ability to disobey. It appeared as if it had been bred out of them long ago. Were it not for the terror of the potential for destruction of such a force, Sam might’ve felt sorry for them. There was only a single Self on the alien planet. The many members existed solely for the whole. If one of them died they would not be missed, they would not be mourned. The body of the whole would acclimate and continue as if the member had never existed.
Nonexistence. Oblivion. Wasn’t that worse than hell? But for these aliens, oblivion was simply an established reality. Not only did none of them besides the queen exist as individuals but according to what Sam could see, they never physically moved. Wherever each member was on their planet was where they had always been and where they would always be. They had a simple shared memory, itself connected intimately to the queen, and Sam could see in this memory that the population reproduced by budding. That meant that every member of civilization was identical to the queen. So how had the queen been chosen? It was a question that the corporate memory did not answer. But though they didn’t move, the aliens grew, and to grow they needed sustenance. What could an alien civilization like this possibly feed upon? Their shared memory showed that they fed on their own thoughts. The queen inspired a simple thought, the rest of the civilization replicated and strengthened the force of the thought and everyone fed from the invisible energy of it. It was the first truly self-sustaining life force in the universe. Unfortunately for them, the members had outgrown their planet. There was no room between them, the planet was literally saturated with them.
The queen desperately needed another planet to colonize and the presence of sentient beings on earth had attracted her gaze from eons past. She wanted the planet, she needed it, and neither she nor her many clones were willing to stop until they possessed it. Survival. Like the bear there was no malice in the thought, no question of right and wrong. As far as the aliens were concerned it was what was, and it was simply all that was. If they had their way, it would never be anything else.
CHAPTER 25
Sam’s mountain was riddled through with staircases, but he never failed to recognize his own. It helped that none of the citizens of Capital City used his staircase to get to their homes. Sam’s staircase was the only one that didn’t connect the mountain with adjoining walkways. Since it was the only one that wasn’t crawling with people day and night it was easy to pick out from the crowd. Julia remained with Sam in his home, but they didn’t spend nearly as much time on the porch together enjoying the unique view these days. They didn’t spend nearly as much time there because there no longer was a unique view to enjoy. The tower shrouded the mountain in shadow. There was a single opening at the very peak of the tower that allowed a narrow ray of sunlight to illumine Sam’s home but only at certain times of the days and never enough for Julia to see much of the sky beyond the tower.
Julia’s only refuge beyond the house was the pond. The citizens of Capital City had no problem cordoning the pond off and designating it solely for Julia’s use. Whenever they sensed her approaching it they vacated the area. Soon, she began to visit it more frequently and only because she rarely passed another human being during her visits. It was the way she preferred it. Sam had once thought that it would become an unbearable burden for
Julia to be excluded from the telepathy that characterized Capital City. She seemed to grow more reclusive as the months continued to pass, but other than that Sam couldn’t see any kind of mental breakdown upon the horizon as he had once expected. He himself very rarely left the house now. Everything he or Julia could possibly need was delivered to his front door, and physical tasks, like leaving home became more arduous as his abilities continued to grow. It was much easier to use his mind over his muscle. He trained with the rest of Capital City, every day, without leaving his home. He communed with Dr. Crangler without leaving his home. When he wanted to enjoy a beautiful day, he did it without leaving his home. Why walk down an incredibly long flight of stairs when he could simply gaze through the eyes of any one of the other Capital City citizens who were outside and experience the day as clearly as if he were there?
The New Assault Page 16