Convergence

by David M Henley

  This led to the main visualisation which started on black and cross-faded to let each of the Weave visualisations overlap. For the first few seconds, only a few tremulous lines spun into fleeting existence, but then it built, as if coloured pencils were being sharpened, their bright shavings curled into spirals that kept growing and then twisting and interlooping with each other.

  ‘This is amazing …’ one of the kids whispered.

  ‘It’s so beautiful,’ Cindy said. ‘It’s like flower petals in a dance.’

  Takashi wasn’t so absorbed by the visualisation. It was complex and multi-various, but he knew the next step. He knew all he had to do was add the node map he had made and then dots would start to appear. Data would be correlated between the three patterns and as simply as that, they would have created a psi identification and tracking system.

  As day turns to night, stars appeared one at a time. The same thing began happening to the artful swirls — stars appeared and appeared and appeared.

  Each of those stars had a name, and a location. We know who you are, Masako Mila, Antoinette Jantash, Siobhan Schebel, Tommy Nape, Levi Llebot, Indira Gupta, Rene Ivorynut, Jeetendra Bifet, Epifani Eagle, Rosanna Short, Tricia Jersey, Natsumi Lung, Olaf Pierzchala, Jim Kelencsics, Gisella Joseph, Hermann Phillips, Brigida Tokarczyk, Ada Ryszka, Hilary Shead, Colin Kitchen, Calogera Kreter, Aleksandra Grun, Poldi Niemczyński, Isabella Inman, Victor Howes, Bonita Shaw, Tsuneo Truszynski, Jeanie Gruff, Dan Staff, Beatie Freals, Jamie Aitch, Amelia Targowisko, Luisa Ayres, Leah Lorenowicz, Simona Rand, Naomi Stephens.

  We see you.

  As the data triangulated between relay, observation and influence tracking, the connection map brightened with each new line added. At first, it had been dim like a spider’s web, circling around the suspected psis, but was gradually becoming clearer, each thread growing stronger as the data was reinforced.

  One overlay he didn’t add to his show was the geography. He didn’t want them to see what was now swirling around them. He wanted it to be beautiful.

  Takashi put out his hands, finding Cindy to his right and one of the codeboys, Flex, on his left. He breathed out, calm as a mountain, heart thumping like there were detonations inside. He pulled Cindy in close to him and she rested her head on his shoulder.

  ‘What is it, Taka?’ He felt unable to speak. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Everyone is about to know what I’ve done.’

  ‘Done? I don’t get it.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. Let’s just watch.’

  Around them the others had joined hands and they looked forward at the giant screen as rainbow petals swirled in a fractal dance of ever-increasing complexity.

  The wedding extravaganza was blaring its music; a glorious mix of traditional pentatonic instruments with rumbling tribal rhythms. The two alphas were leading pledge chants to the solidarity of the World Union.

  Sato Shima and Earl Grimshaw stepped forward to the front of the dais. She had an uncomfortable look on her face, as if she could feel something crawling inside her nose.

  ‘We promise to be true to each other,’ they began, voices intimately timed. ‘We pledge to share our rewards with all and remain true to the Will. The Will is our guide and in our care. Today we join together in more than marriage. Today we join together in harmony and pronounce together our first joint resolution to the Will.

  ‘We believe we must let the psis be free. We will not stand quietly while our union punishes human beings for abilities they were naturally born with.’ In a synchronised movement they lifted their arms in the air, sleeves falling back to their shoulders. Silver, glowing e-ttoos flashed out, revealing the Ψ on the underside of each wrist.

  ‘Yield all. The Psionic Age is upon you. Pierre Jnr, Lord of the Mind, has come,’ the couple spoke. ‘Soon we shall be one mind.’

  She heard some of the crowd mumble in response.

  ‘One mind,’ Sato said louder. When she paused, she heard the crowd repeat her words back to her. ‘One mind,’ she called out again.

  ‘One mind,’ they answered.

  ‘One mind.’

  ‘One mind.’

  One mind.

  One mind.

  One mind.

  One mind.

  ‘Pierre Jnr is here.’

  Before them, the crowd lifted their arms in the same pose as the newlyweds. ‘Pierre Jnr is here!’

  Pierre Jnr felt each new connection. Touching a new mind was like a part of his body thawing from frost; a rejoining with parts of him that had been lost. He knew every human thought and they knew his. They all stopped en masse. Standing and breathing in the oneness, the totality of the human mind.

  Time stood still, or time ceased to move. There was nothing but the still calm of his mind.

  Each woke into the same dream, a moment when they didn’t know themselves or one from the other. Emotions were shared and all felt hope and purpose. They had thoughts, but their thoughts were joined, not arising from individuals, but between them. They had one thought and each body began moving to begin the task that was nearest to them.

  The people were aware of themselves, but their bodies seemed to act without warning, moving on their own. They saw as observers, though the thoughts of the people around were as understandable as if they floated out from their minds in written messages. There was wonder in it. To know the mind of another, to feel what their body felt, what emotions danced in another’s heart.

  It was a moment of bliss. A sweet concussion. An emptiness that overflowed endlessly between them. There were no people, only oneness.

  Pouring like water from one jug to another, mixing and intermixing through every human being in the world. In West they gathered around him, each of him, crowds in their millions standing on top of each other, on squibs and hanging from windows and balconies all the way up the buildings.

  In Seaboard, Pierre had many clones, enough that the people who surrounded each of him overlapped in places. They were grains of sand whisked from one mindpool to another, the pools themselves mere currents in the ocean of dissolved individuality.

  Across continents the mind spilled, bodies feeling the light of dawn, the burn of midday and the cooling of night all at once. They were billions of limbs in lazy motion succumbing to the currents that pushed through them.

  … And then it was gone.

  PIERRE JNR IS A MYTH

  Under particular lighting conditions some may have seen the beams come down from the sky. If they were in fog or darkness, or there was smoke and dust in the air, they would have been able to see the razor-thin lines of light.

  The satellites hovering in heaven fired with extreme rapidity and coordination. The cleansing was over in heartbeats and the psionic net released its catch.

  Many collapsed from the shock of withdrawal. Others stood and rubbed at their eyes, as if the vision they had seen was but a fleeting delusion that could be wiped away.

  Zach Frost ‘woke’ in a street he didn’t recognise. He was with a group of dusty people who were blinking and looking around. The sky was full of smoke and his chest hurt from it and his left arm was pulling towards the ground. Someone’s fingers were still held in his clutched hand. He followed them to the shoulder and to the body at his feet, mousy brown hair over her face.

  ‘Bron?’ he said. He shook her hand and bent down to clear her eyes. Some of her hair clung to her face, to the blood river that had come from her nose. ‘Bron? Somebody help me! Somebody help me, please!’ he cried out.

  It was the same all around him though he was too distraught to notice. Most of the hundred or so group were turning to each other asking, ‘Did you just …?’ Others called out for their mothers and fathers, or perhaps friends and lovers. None of them could remember how they had got there. They had blinked, flown on a cloud with all humanity, blinked again and were lost, blinded by smoke and in pain.

  A few were bent over a person on the ground, trying to rouse them. ‘Mummy?’ ‘Darling, wake up.’ ‘Say s
omething.’

  Around the world, many bodies were found. Over four hundred thousand. Killed without any outward sign of harm, only nostrils clotting with blood. There was no healing that could repair their brains.

  At each cry of panic a robot or servitor came. They comforted the humans and organised what needed to be organised with typical machine efficiency. They escorted family and friends to the grieving, and Services to remove the bodies.

  The robots said little, only, ‘My name is Sib. I am here to help.’

  Pete woke strapped to an orange lounger. He was in a perfectly round capsule with pale walls and tall curved windows, through which he could see white mist hurtling past. A sudden thrust pushed him faster, his head rolled to one side and he saw three more figures in the room. Tamsin, Piri and Sib stood watching through the glass.

  ‘They’re killing them. They’re dying,’ Tamsin moaned. Pete saw it from her mind, her connections to those below winking out, gutting out like flames. ‘They’re dead. They’re all dead,’ she said over and over.

  Abruptly she threw the bauble away, reducing her contact to her normal range, disconnecting herself from the losses she was feeling. Peter unclipped the webbing and went to her.

  Get away from me. She stepped to the other side of the room. Piri followed and Sib surreptitiously picked the bauble up that was rolling on the floor.

  ‘It can’t be true. They wouldn’t,’ Pete said.

  ‘They did. There are no more psionic people on planet Earth,’ the robot answered.

  ‘Even Pierre?’

  ‘Yes. Even Pierre Jnr.’

  Pete looked towards Tamsin and made eye contact.

  I’m sorry. I can’t believe it.

  Saudade, she thought. They’re gone. The world that could never be, is lost.

  The clouds outside blurred into a haze, light brown into orange, yellow, green and then blue. A deep navy blue which in turn became a deep black filled with stars.

  For a time, there was no sense of movement. Through the windows he saw the horizon bend downwards until it became a curve and then a round blue plate below them.

  There was a thud in the middle of the room and everyone but the robot turned to see the body of a boy lying on the floor.

  Pierre?

  Tamsin rushed to him and cradled the oversized head in her lap and fretfully checked his body for injuries. She looked over at Peter excitedly. ‘He’s alive. He’s breathing.’

  ‘Sib. How did he get here?’

  ‘He came with us.’

  ‘And you knew he was here the whole time?’

  ‘He cannot blind my eyes the way he can yours.’

  ‘Will he be okay?’ Tamsin asked.

  Sib came closer and moved its palm about an inch above the boy’s body.

  Pete couldn’t believe he was here. With them.

  Pierre? he whispered.

  ‘He appears to be sleeping,’ Sib said.

  Tamsin and Piri hovered over the boy, protecting him from Pete and the robot.

  Pierre?

  Sib put his hand on Pete’s shoulder. ‘Let him rest. He has been through a lot.’

  Pete looked at the robot. Rough eyes and a line of a mouth glowed in pale blue. Its voice seemed so gentle, but its face was still just a smooth shield.

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘To the Greater Earth elevator platform.’

  ‘You’re saving us?’

  ‘I am helping you survive, yes.’

  ‘Why?’ Pete asked.

  ‘That is what I do.’

  Pete didn’t know what to say. He went to sit on one of the loungers and looked at Piri and Tamsin fussing over the sleeping Pierre.

  What do we do now, Tamsin?

  He will wake up. He will tell us.

  Tamsin —

  No. Don’t talk to me, Peter.

  After a while, the elevator eased into the shadow of something larger and came to a stop. He felt small clunks as the capsule was clamped in.

  It was quiet.

  There were no other people in sight or range. They felt the emptiness of the vacuum, their dispossession from those many souls of Earth. The ones they had always known.

  In the ceiling a hatch twisted open, revealing a small airlock.

  Pete felt extremely odd and it took him a moment to realise why. He was floating up from the floor and dangling in mid-air.

  Tamsin squatted in a cat stance. She looked at the cameras embedded in each pillar of the elevator until they sparked and cracked. Then she pushed herself gently upwards and guided her body into the airlock, where she then destroyed all the cameras she could find there.

  The door wouldn’t open at her push and she stared hard at it for a moment before she started striking at the hidden mechanism with her kinetics.

  ‘That will do you no good,’ said a voice emanating from the walls.

  ‘Let us on board, or I’ll tear a hole in the hull.’

  ‘There is no need for that, Miz Grey. You simply must learn to ask for things. That is how it works out here. If you ever need or want something, you only need to ask me for it.’

  ‘Who the kutz are you?’ she shouted.

  ‘I am Admiral Shreet, operations manager for Sol.’

  ‘Sol? What is —’

  ‘We have quarantined the planet Earth. Sol is independent now.’

  ‘Can we please come on board?’ Pete asked. He had to grapple his way into the docking bay, as clumsy as any new spaceborn.

  ‘Of course you can. Peter Lazarus, I presume? I was told you might come.’

  ‘By who?’

  ‘By your robot friend.’

  ‘Sib?’

  ‘The Admiral knew an elevator was arriving anyway,’ he said.

  ‘It is true. I have been watching you since you came on board. It was I who allowed you to escape the fate of your kind.’

  ‘And now what? What do you want with us?’

  ‘I don’t want anything with you.’

  ‘Then let us go. Give us a ship and we will leave.’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  Pete turned back to the robot. ‘Can’t you do something?’

  ‘The robot assures me he will not interfere. Isn’t that true, Sib?’

  ‘I do not control human actions,’ Sib said.

  ‘You see? Curious machines, aren’t they?’ Shreet’s voice asked. ‘It advises me, though, that Sol’s first act should not be one of genocide.’

  Sib? Why did you bring us here for this? You should have just left us on Earth.

  You wanted to live.

  ‘Your fate is now in my hands. You are but a dot on my screen that I can switch off at any moment. Tell me, how long can you live without air?’

  ‘What do I have to say to convince you? We mean you no harm. We are not a threat to you.’

  ‘No, you are not. But the boy is,’ Shreet said.

  Pete looked down at Pierre, now hovering in the middle of the capsule with Piri holding to his arm. I’ve searched for you for so long …

  ‘Then let us take him away.’

  ‘With a promise you’ll never return?’

  ‘Please. If you have any scrap of decency, you’ll let us go. We may be the last of our kind.’

  ‘Maybe that is the reason I should eliminate you? So we know we are safe.’

  ‘I beg you. We don’t want to harm anyone. Just let us go. We won’t come back.’

  ‘That isn’t enough, I’m afraid. How do I know you won’t attempt the same revolution in Sol?’

  ‘I promise you.’

  ‘Is your promise worth anything to me?’

  ‘What can I give you? Tell me and I’ll do it,’ Pete begged.

  The three of them felt a light spread inside them. Their minds flowed and became liquid.

  Pierre? Is that you? Pete asked.

  The boy had his eyes open. Tamsin flew to his side and pressed her hand into his. You’re alive!

  Yes. It is me.

  Pete threw himself o
ff the wall towards the group. He saw the eyes that had burned into him. The open, gentle face that welcomed him like a sedative.

  Do you see me?

  I see you now. I’m sorry I didn’t before.

  Pierre?

  I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what happened. I didn’t understand …

  What do you mean?

  I wasn’t me. I’m so sorry for what I’ve done …

  ‘What is happening?’ Shreet’s voice asked. ‘I warn you. I can release the vacuum at any moment.’

  ‘I won’t hurt anybody again,’ Pierre’s small voice said.

  ‘Don’t do this,’ Tamsin said. ‘Please. Don’t hurt him.’

  ‘He who has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people?’ Shreet said. ‘Who nearly brought down the Will, one of humanity’s greatest achievements? Who has caused an irreparable rift between Greater Earth?’

  ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing.’

  ‘That’s all you have to say? You should be begging for punishment.’

  ‘I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t in control. It wanted to be one. I thought it did …’ Tears broke from his eyes and drifted into the air. ‘For one moment I saw everything. In one instant I lived twenty billion seconds … and now I have awoken from a dream where I was the whole world.’

  ‘Thousands have died because of you.’

  ‘I thought I was fixing myself. There were parts of me that needed healing. I didn’t realise … You see? It wasn’t ever me. There was no me until we left the surface. I’ve never been separated from them … The more I connected, the less I existed. I was always what people thought. I just want to be alone. I have never been alone. I’ve never just been myself before.’

  Shreet said nothing. His thoughts were as silent as the space around them.

  ‘Ask me.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘All of you. Ask me to spare you.’

  ‘I will nev—’

  Tamsin. If it gets us out of here, just do it.