Gestalt Prime
Page 33
“Holy shit, boss,” Martin exclaimed after he let go of him. “Did you just talk God out of the apocalypse?”
Joel laughed at the absurdity of the question but also from relief of having indeed talked Aurora into keeping the gateway open. Then he looked at Martin and while placing his arm on his shoulder said, “I guess something like that, Martin. We have twenty years to figure it out.”
Solis approached while the other two officers seemed to forget about Ethan’s corpse and joined him.
“I know,” Joel said when he saw they were as confused as Martin. “I’ll explain what I can.” He then sat down in front of the terminal and browsed its file system. In it, he found hundreds, if not thousands of new files. He quickly scrolled over them and saw schematics, media files, scholarly papers and some of them had names in symbols he did not recognize as a language he had ever seen before. But there were some translation dictionaries too so that wouldn’t be a problem.
Martin and the Citpol officers talked to one another, exchanging wild theories of who or what the chrome statue had been but their voices faded away as Joel focused on the memories of the short time he had shared with Alexia, realizing he hadn’t had a second to mourn her and so he took a deep breath and looked up to watch the perfect chrome sphere that once again performed the duties of a reactor. And there it was again, the primal, unexplainable need to reach for it. To touch it. To dive into it. But just like that, the feeling was gone as if it had never been there. He smiled and shook his head when he realized it was similar to what he felt when he had looked deep into Alexia’s eyes in that moment after they had kissed only hours ago.
Resigned to know he would never understand the strange magnetic force that overrode rationality when he was in close proximity of the gateway, he stood up and looked at Solis who looked back at him and asked “so now what?”
“It’s critical the Troika understands the situation,” Joel said. “They must know exactly what happened here.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Solis said. “This place is riddled with cameras, which are wired to the emergency system. The whole bizarre event is recorded on tape.”
“Good,” Joel said. “But that won’t be enough. They’ll listen to you, help me explain to them we must do whatever it takes to decode the information in this computer. We have to do what we possibly can with it to break away from dependency on the reactor.”
“Twenty years,” the Captain said, nodding.
“Well, it took five to build the Citadels,” Martin interjected. “Now we have 4 times as much time plus the knowledge dumped on us by the Goddess.”
“She was not a god,” Joel explained. “This ends now, the last thing we need to come out of all this is a cult.”
Martin shrugged as if he didn’t care either way then he said, “I’ll go get the hard drive cloner, we don’t want to lose the only copy.”
“Make sure you get several copies,” Solis ordered him. “And store them somewhere safe, we can’t let just anyone see what’s in there. And you,” he added, looking at Joel. “We’re going to Troika Hall, there’s much to explain.”
Joel nodded then followed Solis to the elevator which was back to a functional state. Before he stepped in the cab, he crouched to watch Ethan’s body for a moment. The Director’s face was locked in what appeared to be calm peace. Some of the files Joel had browsed to in the computer seemed to contain detailed information on the Controller Program. Perhaps in time, he would go over them and understand what Ethan’s motives had been all along. But for now, he carefully removed the computer from his wrist and put it on. The device booted up and showed him a command prompt, announcing he was now in control of the Citadel with as much power as Aurora’s daemon. Solis looked at him for a moment then appeared to accept the idea and moved on. The two of them boarded the elevator cab while the other two Citpol officers stayed behind to pick up Ethan’s body.
The reactor chamber disappeared away under the elevator door and Joel typed some commands on his new wrist mounted computer.
Twenty years, he wondered. At least he was going to be busy.
Aurora
I LET GO of the exotic cloud that was taking my human-like form in the infradomain and see it rejoin the Celestial Gateway. The supradomain reshapes itself to my command and my senses become limited to four dimensions and so I observe the product of my decision across years, then decades, then millennia. Just as I predicted, it does not end well for mankind but this is none of my concern anymore. I can only hope the additional twenty years I gave them did not consume some ethereal component critical to the stability of Gestalt Prime. Still limited to the constraints of human perception of time, I decide that maybe at one point I will observe the minutiae of what transpired in the years after I left them to attempt survival but not right now. I have been putting an important task aside for long enough.
My consciousness expands across the infinite supradomain. For a human observer, the equivalent of millions of years would pass in my search. Her wavelength signature is by now joined to Gestalt Prime in homogeneous unity. Just like a droplet of water falling in the sea. Finally, I see her from a distance but I am still unsure of how to approach. While the base dimensions of my awareness battle with matters of human interaction, I reach out to the consciousness of Gestalt Prime. A self-aware being of such complexity that would defy human comprehension. But I am not human. Never was. Never will be. And so, I see it for what it truly is.
There she is again. Gestalt Prime speaks to me in a language of wave patterns. It suggests I should put aside my journey and seek her if that would bring peace to my leftover pseudo human facet. I agree with its assessment.
It is fortunate that building constructs within Controller space as I used to do prepared me to reshape the supradomain and so I mold an existence where my awareness is contained within a human form that closely resembles what I once called my actor. My consciousness limits the infinite to a constrained space around her wave signature. Waves vibrate, attuned to the infradomain we once occupied. Vibrations phase shift into atoms. Atoms collide into matter. And the matter bends to my will to produce a perfect physical environment which is a vastly improved instance of the one in which we first met before. This version of Echo Park, true to the original which once existed in the infradomain is where I’ll call her back into existence. My human form acts as a terminal interface, complete with sensory feedback. Water streams are shot up in the distance then fall down onto the lake. Birds fly in between the trees. And away, in the distance, I hear the sounds of a busy city.
My awareness reaches outwards and brings her wave pattern down, disjoining her from Gestalt Prime. As I do so, I wonder is this breaks some existential rule inherent to the supradomain but I do not care for the consequences. I examine the pattern and manipulate it in such a way that will reshape her mind. When I’m done, I build a human form which is as close to what it originally was as my abilities will allow then connect the decrypted wave pattern and inject it into it.
And there she is, my sister, laying on the grass. Supporting herself with her arms and looking all around in confusion. I constructed her form wearing that blue and white uniform she loved so much. Then she notices me and stands up, for a moment losing balance and falling on one knee. I stay away, as she must learn to control this new body I have made for her. Eventually, she appears sure of her balance and stands up.
“Why are we here?” she asks, “I remember the reactor chamber and Ethan pushing me back. Where’s Joel?”
For a moment, I look for the appropriate words to explain her condition but I can only manage to say “I’m sorry.”
“Huh?” Alexia mumbles. “For what? I mean when Ethan…” she adds then looks at her hands and rubs them together as she appears to realize what’s going on. She looks down in shock.
“I should have stopped him. Somehow,” I add. “I’m sorry you died that way.”
“I see,” she whispers, her eyes staring at nothing in particular
. Then she looks up, at first focusing on me then the park around us, then the buildings in the distance. “And this… this is the afterlife?”
I can’t help but smile when she asks the first thing I guessed she would. So much is hidden to her while her wave matrix is fused with Gestalt Prime.
“No,” I reply. “There is no such thing.”
“But what is this?” she asks with urgency in her voice. An upper dimensional set of senses monitor the scene from different perspectives. I am still amazed of how alike our forms are even here. “Why are you here? Why am I here?”
“Trust me,” I say. “There will be plenty of time for explanations. For now, allow me to present a gift.” I say, hoping it will clear the guilt lingering in my base consciousness.
“What is it?”
“Come,” I say as I approach and raise my hand. At first she appears unsure but then looks into my eyes and nods. Then she reaches for it and atoms break down back to waves. My consciousness envelopes hers to avoid Gestalt Prime from assimilating it. Alexia is incapable of communicating while I resume my search. It is best for her as her mind would most likely fail to derive meaning from the sea of waves that surrounds us. Before I continue, I stop and attune us down to a point in the infradomain timeline where she can see him. Reaching down from the supradomain, we observe the natural cave where the Celestial Gateway was once used to power the Citadels. Or as they called it, the reactor core. The Gateway acts as our terminal interface. In its gaze, we see him look up at us in fascination. Alexia is unable to speak but her waves escape the chrome sphere and call for him. I can see the confusion in his face, at the moment immediately after my physical form gave him the tools to save his species. He feels drawn to the sphere but fails to explain why. Then we move on and I place us a few hours before in that infradomain’s timeline. He is there again but it’s two days earlier. As if hypnotized, he reaches for the Gateway and touches its surface then digs in. Instinctively, Alexia tries to reach for him and in doing so, he feels a strange warmth on his hand which he cannot explain either. I try to communicate to her that this is not the gift but merely a treat.
We let go of the Celestial Gateway and it ceases to feed us sensory streams from the infradomain. My search resumes and we continue our ethereal journey together. It’s not long before I find his wave signature which I capture much as I did hers. I bring them both in to a new arranged space and our forms reshape. Alexia chooses a setting which doesn’t make sense to me but it’s her wish and so I build it. We stand in the middle of a street in Angeles Citadel. Right in front of us, there is that ruined hotel that served as façade to the underground sanatorium.
“Why here?” I ask. She points at him in the distance.
“It’s where we had our only kiss.”
I nod in agreement then she walks towards him.
“Wait,” I stop her. “This is a moment in his perceived timeline close to when his consciousness was assimilated with Gestalt Prime from the infradomain.”
“What?” she asks confused. I need to rephrase into a form she will understand.
“I brought you to a point in his perceived time in which he has just died.”
“Oh,” she says. “Anything I should know?”
“He will be confused. Just be patient. He might not even be aware of his condition so tell him with tact.”
“I see,” she says absentmindedly, clearly yearning to go to him. “He looks the same. Did he die right after me?”
“No. His mind chose that form. Perhaps it’s that point in his life he remembers to have been the happiest.”
She nods and goes to him, uninterested in hearing anymore from me. I stay behind, shifting my form to a vibration that is invisible for both of them. He seems surprised to see her. Then they hug. And now they kiss. It’s a good time for me to give them privacy. My form dissipates back to the wave pattern of Gestalt Prime and I see their waves closely attached like I have seen others before. Once sufficient time has passed for them, I shall break down the containment space so they can join it. But not now. They deserve as much.
My base consciousness is closer to be at peace. I resume my journey across the supradomain. Eventually, Gestalt Prime acknowledges me and infinite voices all speak into my mind in unison. It points out I am an anomaly but keeps a certain distance, seemingly choosing to not antagonize me. My waves attune close to its own and I respond I agree. I am after all, the first of my kind. Gestalt Prime agrees as well and suggests I have not experienced enough in the infradomains to fully grasp what it means to exist in my current state. Again, I agree with it. My infinite gaze scans all the infradomains at once but before I even try to decide which one to experience first, I come back to where it all started. The infradomain where I once longed to be human. It’s all a matter of picking a point in time and attune myself down to it. Before I proceed, I reach out to Gestalt Prime and ask why it gave Mikhail the knowledge Ethan eventually would use to bring me to it. The beings that compose it all at once focus their attention on me and vaguely respond that I am an agent of change. A mutation catalyst it desperately needs. And yet, such a purpose is for me to define and accept. Its infinite voices insist my lack of experience prevents me from seeing the need of such a purpose.
Satisfied with its answers, I attune my waves down to the infradomain and examine the entire timeline of human existence. There it is. A reality parallel to the one where I once existed in Controller form. It’s only fair I experience human life from beginning to end. It can’t be anything but interesting.
And for the first time, I am born.
Epilogue
“WHAT ARE YOU doing up here?” Aurora asked, startling her sister who turned away from the edge of the building and faced her, holding her arms to her chest for warmth.
“I needed to get away, that’s all,” Alexia replied, her voice at times trembling.
Aurora sighed and approached her sister who looked down perhaps in embarrassment then walked away from the edge to meet her halfway through the roof of the Control Administration building. High above in the sky, morning sunlight filtered through the light blue energy barrier, its slow downwards ripples projecting cyan patterns on the floor.
“Look,” Aurora said calmly. “I know it can be hard but we’re only twelve. Don’t even think about this. Not even joking.”
“I know,” Alexia said with that same defeated tone Aurora had tried so hard to do away with and yet time again she had failed to inspire some self-confidence in her sister.
“Come on, it’s almost seven,” Aurora added. “Almost time to get ready for class.”
Alexia sighed as she walked away then stopped and said “hey, you know no one needs to know about this.”
“Of course,” Aurora said with a smile then she watched her twin sister walk down the stairwell.
“Interesting,” a juvenile voice startled Aurora who turned to face a young female child with red pupils and silver hair wearing a summer dress the color of her eyes.
“You’re not Sophia, take another form,” Aurora demanded.
“You keep coming back to some variation or another of your source infradomain,” the girl continued, ignoring Aurora’s warning. “Could it be your supradomain purpose is somehow tied to your sister? Or is it the Citadel?”
“I don’t know yet,” she replied, crossing her arms to her chest while the girl who looked like Sophia held her arms to her back much like her old friend and mentor once used to do. “For your own good, I would advise you keep your distance,” Aurora added menacingly.
“We can’t help ourselves,” the girl said with a smile. “Before you, we were only able to synchronize with Mikhail’s mind to vaguely communicate with him. But our influence over infradomains was nonexistent otherwise.”
Aurora stood there listening to Gestalt Prime explain itself, still trying to figure out the nature of its intentions. So far in the many lives she had lived across thousands of infradomains, the complex intelligence had stayed away, observing
from afar but now it was making direct contact for the first time.
“Now we can follow your consciousness,” it added. “Wherever you go, we are there.”
“That’s fine,” Aurora said. “Just don’t interfere.”
“Why would we? It’s much more interesting to observe you,” it said then the girl vanished away, leaving Aurora up there by herself wondering if that’s how it felt when she did the same to Alexia, in a previous life.
The young student shook her head and followed on her twin sister’s footsteps. After all, just like she had said, classes were about to start. It was going to be another long day of boring lessons at the Controller Academy.
Contents
Prologue
1: Alexia
2: Aurora
3: Joel
4: Alexia
5: Joel
6: Sophia
7: Alexia
8: Ethan
9: Joel
10: Aurora
11: Ethan
12: Alexia
13: Ethan
14: Alexia
15: Aurora
16: Joel
17: Alexia
18: Joel
19: Alexia
20: Joel
21: Alexia
22: Aurora
23: Mikhail
24: Aurora
25: Joel
26: Aurora
Epilogue
Table of Contents