Nuklear Age

by Clevinger, Brian

  The huge doors boomed shut over Nuklear Man. “Lousy kids. More attention to cartoons is now.” Or so he would have if not for an incessant series of beeps, blasts, explosions, and groovin’ techno music coming from somewhere that was not Silly Sam’s gift to the world. “Erg. Stupid noises, why you pester Nukie like this! Me can smash you!” He punched his ears. “Ouch! Gosh, I didn’t know being so strong could be that painful. Oh well. Live and something. Anyway, that catchy techno music is gone.” The Hero of heroes went back to his cartoons. One mighty finger was tapping along with the bass. “This is a pretty cool song—hey! Lousy noise snuck back, eh? Cunning. Like the cunning owl as it um, cunnnnives to devour the mouse like a, er, cunnnnivore. I see now that I am left with no other choice.” He hit himself again, this time hard enough to rattle the Danger: Dishes in the Danger: Kitchen.

  __________

  The Watchtower was a primarily automated space station. It was built to be able to accommodate a crew of some two dozen engineers and scientists but their presence was not required for most of the station’s day to day operations. Other than technical upgrades and major repairs, the station was usually unoccupied.

  Which made it the perfect place for Dr. Genius to hide Psiko. She had endured nearly a year within the space station. She hadn’t spoken to anyone real in months. Isolation was putting it mildly. She’d been waiting at the main airlock for an hour, watching the Skyjumper make its approach.

  “Konnichiwa, Dr. Genius,” Psiko said pleasantly surprised that she hadn’t forgotten how to speak. Her hair stuck out impossibly thanks to the Watchtower’s low gravity.

  “And good morning to you, Yuriko,” Dr. Genius said as she floated into the station. “I’ve been looking over your progress reports. You are making remarkable advancements in the fine tuning of your powers.”

  Psiko gave a slight bow since the zero-g environment would’ve punished her for much more than that. “Thank you for the opportunity to hone my skills here. My only complaint is how lonely it can be at times.”

  “Yes, and I do apologize for that, I really do. But it is a requirement for the optimization of your training. Unfortunate, but necessary.”

  “I know.” She motioned toward one of the smaller port windows. “At least it’s the best view on or off the Earth. I lose track of how many sunrises and sunsets I get to watch every day.” A sunrise was just beginning outside. “Besides, once we’re done here I get to go back, so it’s no use complaining at this point.”

  “True. Our session here will be your last. In orbit at any rate.”

  “I can’t wait to get started.”

  “Nor I. I can recalibrate the equipment now. It shouldn’t take long.”

  “So soon?”

  “I thought you wanted to get home.”

  “Yes, but you just got here. I thought you might like to rest.”

  “Science waits for no man. Or woman.”

  __________

  Nuklear Man loomed over the Danger: Supercomputer. It was the only thing in the Danger: Living Room that had yet to be pummeled in his mad search for the source of the beeping and techno music. His Plazma Aura flared and faded to the rhythm of his heavy breathing.

  “All right you. I’ve done smashed everything else in here but the beepin’ ain’t gone yet. This leads me to believe that you are the demonic source of the noise. As such, now is the time to bash you.” He pulled back one massive fist. “This is gonna hurt you so much more than me it ain’t even funny. But I laugh anyway!” The game’s automated sequence of screens flipped to the list of hi-scores. “Hm, interesting.” The Hero’s fist dropped slightly. “Seems that Sparky’s pretty good at this here game. Not as good as I no doubt am, but good for someone who isn’t me. And to prove this point, I shall obliterate his name from the hi-scores with a score of my own that is so grotesquely huge that the mind can nary conceive of even the tiniest fraction of it! GWA HAHAHA!” He sat down, cracked his knuckles, and got to work. “This oughta take all of five minutes.”

  __________

  “All right, Yuriko.” Dr. Genius said. Her lab coat was floating behind her in slow motion. “Sit in your regular chair and put on the interface helm.”

  Yuriko complied. She strapped herself into the chair and placed on her head what looked like a biker’s helmet that had been attacked by a gang of technology. Little lights blinked on it to prove that it was working properly.

  “Now. What I have done is reconfigure the Watchtower’s computer network so that you have access to its environmental scanning operations instead of just the one computer you used as an emergency relay with Überdyne these past few months. Do you know what this means?”

  “I’ll be able to see entire chunks of the planet in my mind, right?”

  “Yes. California to be precise. Entertainment capitol of the world, you know.”

  “But I thought we were trying to focus my powers so I could be more selective about how I use them. Isn’t such a wide sweep counterproductive?”

  “Don’t worry. This is a test of that focus. The range and breadth of this exercise are for us to determine your ability to concentrate. And to show you that distance is a meaningless concept based on your weaker senses. All that does matter is your mind. Overcome the old way of seeing. That is what we are doing.”

  Yuriko shifted in her chair. “Sounds a little frightening, to be honest.”

  “I know. We are only human, we fear change. But, once we’ve completed the test, hopefully you’ll get past that.”

  Yuriko nodded. “I’m ready.”

  Dr. Genius flipped the switch.

  Every muscle in Yuriko’s body tensed. Her face was a mask of agony. Her eyes and mouth clenched. Veins showed on her neck and forehead, a scream caught in her throat.

  Of course, Dr. Genius thought, I specified that the satellite’s instruments would be powerful enough to focus on the date of a dime lying in the middle of a street on the surface. With a big enough sheet of film, we could take a life-sized picture of the Earth. Luckily, mindscapes provide practically unlimited space. The sheer size of what she’s trying to comprehend will shatter the chains to her old senses or her sanity. I believe she is stable enough to opt for the former.

  “It…hurts” Yuriko breathlessly grunted as sweat began to appear on her wrinkled brow.

  “Birth pains,” Dr. Genius whispered in awe to, and perhaps of, herself.

  “I…I can’t.” tears rolled down her flushed cheeks. Her hands dug into the chair’s armrests. “Please…h-help. Doc…tor. Help.”

  “I am,” she said soothingly.

  “Ssssstop…make it….stop.”

  “Don’t fight it, Yuriko. You can do this. Step forward, do not shirk from your destiny! Evolve!”

  But Yuriko could no longer hear her words.

  She suddenly became aware of every mind in and around California, be it plant, animal, human, or otherwise. Even the land itself took on something of a personality. From there, through lines of communication, from computers, radios, and televisions, her realm of perception expanded exponentially until she could see and hear everyone on the face of the Earth at once. No fancy metaphors, no trippy journeys through the subconscious or the soul or anything like that. It was simply like looking at a painting from God’s point of view.

  Okay, so one weird simile. Sue me.

  Instantly, she knew the position and velocity of every soul on Earth. She was the Zen master and she was transcending the human experience.

  “Yuriko!” Dr. Genius yelled, shaking the girl’s body. She stopped. Yuriko’s head lulled without any gravity to make it droop limply.

  __________

  Nuklear Man was the very pinnacle of concentration. Tongue stuck out, brow furrowed, eyes focused, back hunched, and thumbs dancing madly over the control pad. His lips curled, hot air snorted out of his flared nostrils. “C’mon, you dirty rotten son of a—gosh dangit shoot him, shoot him! When I’m pushing this button it means I’m shooting you, yes that’s it. Di
e. Die like the miserable—are you, d’you want some of this? You don’t know who yer messin’ with. I’ve got twin Proton Accelerators and a full compliment of Null Bombs so you just try to get past me, Mr. Endless Hordes of Alien Armada! Ha! I am become Shiva, destroyer of—” a stray alien bullet brought swift and untimely doom to Nuklear Man’s video vessel. Game over.

  “Yourself,” Alpha taunted.

  “Heh, good one,” Beta said. They high-fived. The two robots stood behind the Hero and watched his every video game move.

  “Shut up.” Nuklear Man snapped. “Stupid Nukebots think they’re so smart. Hmmphf. I’ll show ya!” The game began anew and again Nuklear Man became the very living incarnation of destruction. Until the same bullet shot him down. Again. “What? Since when is it fair to use invisible bullets? Hm? I ask you!”

  “Y’know,” Beta said. “That guy is always gonna be there, and he’s always gonna be shooting at you.”

  “Yeah, the game doesn’t change.”

  “Oh yeah? I’d like to see you guys do better!”

  “Okay.” Alpha snatched the controller from Nuklear Man’s hands and proceeded to better the Hero’s score by several hundred thousand points before the screen suddenly went blank. “Hey!”

  The Danger: Supercomputer’s power cord dangled from Nuklear Man’s foot. “Hm. Wonder how that happened,” the Hero mused aloud. “Heh, stupid Nukebots don’t suspect my treacherous actions.”

  “You’re still talking.”

  “Ack! Er, I mean, I command you away from me now!”

  “Feh. Command this. Cheater.” Alpha tossed the control pad aside. “Let the techno-slaver have his little game. The big baby.”

  “Yeah.” Beta agreed. “Lousy mechanoppressor.” They retired to their Danger: Nukebots’ Room/Revolutionary Headquarters.

  “Feh. Who asked ‘em?”

  “You did, Nuklear Man,” Danger: Computer Lady answered.

  “Bah. Well then who was the moron that made ‘em in the first place?”

  “You.”

  Annoyed Plazma flared around the Hero for a moment. “Who asked you?”

  Danger: Computer Lady’s speaker buzzed like she had opened her mouth to say something but thought better of it just in time.

  “That’s more like it.” He turned his attention back to the game.

  __________

  “Yuriko!” Dr. Genius yelled almost hysterically.

  “I…I can see everything,” Yuriko whispered without moving her lips.

  “Yuriko?” Dr. Genius checked for a pulse. Faint but stable, almost like Yuriko was asleep or in a coma. “You gave me quite a scare.”

  “It’s so sad.”

  Dr. Genius tilted her head. “Sad?”

  “I can see everyone. Their minds. I know everyone, all their thoughts. It’s sad.”

  Ima found herself thankful that being in orbit put her outside of Yuriko’s range.

  “No it doesn’t,” Yuriko corrected.

  “Oh. Damn.”

  “I know why this happened. I know what you’ve done to Yuriko, why you did it.”

  “Do you hate me?”

  “Yes.”

  “What will you do about it?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Interesting.”

  “You have destroyed Yuriko and I have risen in her place. It is not my place to do anything about it. That is up to you and your God.”

  “If it’s any consolation, I thought that you, that Yuriko was going to pull through.”

  “And had you not, would it have changed anything?”

  “All revolutions are born of sacrifices.”

  “But revolutionaries choose to make their sacrifices. You took away Yuriko’s choice just as you plan to do to the Atomik Lad and that the others.”

  “I will not let the timidity of others stand in my way! I will not let them deny their destinies out of an irrational fear of the unknown. There is more to this universe than we can ever hypothesize. Should we simply ignore the infinite majesty of reality because it is unknown? No! I will not be slowed by them. I will not let them wallow in their petty disputes, their inane lives, their meaningless possessions and idle comforts. I will not let them waste their souls in the mire of mundane life when they are capable of so much more even if I have to push them to realize it. ”

  “You could’ve at least asked.”

  Genius was silent for long seconds. “You said it was sad. Why?”

  “They are all alone.”

  “What?”

  “Terribly alone. Separate, distinct from one another. Desperately trying to deny it. You said it yourself, distance is irrelevant, it is the mind that matters. And they’re each trapped in their own worlds, every one of them. Able only to communicate through arbitrary, incomplete, mediated means. They don’t know each other. They don’t even know themselves. They are so alone that they have learned to take it for granted; they don’t know that their every interaction is a maddeningly vain attempt to connect to one another when they can never escape the prison of their individuality. The very fact that they are alive produces an impossible divide that can never be bridged. I feel sorry for them.”

  “I see. You seem to be placing yourself outside of ‘their’ sadness.”

  “I am not one of them. I am outside. Not superior, just outside.”

  “We’ll go into the crisis of humanity’s post-modern existence later. Right now, I’d like to address some more pertinent questions.” Dr. Genius floated around Yuriko’s prone body. “With Yuriko’s consciousness splintered into billions of points of view, her ego was unable to cohere her thoughts any longer and her very identity was essentially disintegrated. So my question is, what and who are you?”

  “I do not know what I am other than a consciousness, which is all you can say of yourself with any degree of certainty. Perhaps I am what remains of Yuriko. I know of her, in a way, but no more so than you might have.”

  “Hm. There are indications that powers exist within you heroes while still being independent of you. Atomik Lad is the strongest piece of evidence for this case. I have recorded several events when his Field acted without, or completely opposite to, his will. And he has reported similar incidents to me before.”

  “So perhaps I am Yuriko’s powers given consciousness. Or rather, what happened to Yuriko’s powers without her consciousness to guide them.”

  Dr. Genius almost said You read my mind.

  “I did.”

  “Ah.” Genius twisted a strawberry blonde curl through her fingers and released it. “If you are nothing more than these powers with a consciousness, do you even need a body?”

  “No.”

  “Everything about it is limitation,” they said together. Ima paused. “Perhaps,” she paused to be sure she was speaking alone. “It would be best to use Yuriko’s a while longer. Having pure psychic power floating around completely disembodied is a bit.… “

  “Off-putting.”

  “Yes. I know it’ll have no actual impact on what you can do, but it is reassuring to think that there is a physical entity that can be traced and restrained. To the public at least. There’s no need to get them all paranoid about ghosts invading their privacy and bank records and so forth.”

  “But I already have.”

  “All the more reason.”

  Yuriko’s eyes opened without focusing on anything. “Just another facet. But please, don’t call me Yuriko. I am not her. If I must have a name, then call me Psiko. It is more fitting now than ever.”

  “Fair enough. Psiko.”

  The Scientific: Communications Panel had been blinking for sometime, but Dr. Genius only now happened to glance in its direction. “Oh. With all of this going on, I must’ve overlooked that.” She looked at her Scientific: Watch. “It’s not a scheduled communication.”

  She pushed the Accept button and a screen lit up.

  “Ima!” Nameless yelled while the screen warmed up. His eyes were wide, his breath was quick and shallow, his
whole body jittered with an energy that had no place to go but wanted to be everywhere. “Where have you been? I’ve been calling forever!”

  “Can’t it wait a few more minutes then? I’m in the middle of a breakthrough with Psiko.”

  “No! It can’t wait. This is about Nu: Alpha.”

  “Yes, fine. We’re always getting little snippets of data concerning possible explanations for the eruption of Nuklear Man’s powers. I’ll go over it when I’m done here.”

  “No. Ima, I mean this is Nu: Alpha.”

  Ima tapped on the Scientific: Communications Panel. “Just what have you got there, Nameless?”

  “It’s a picture from Scientific: Topographical Survey Satellite Nine in orbit around Pluto. I’m uploading it now. Maximum encryption.”

  __________

  Meanwhile, nestled within the dark labyrinth of Metroville’s Abandoned Warehouse District, a sinister smile spread across the face of Dr. Menace. “The problem with encryption, my dear, iz that there iz alwayz a way to unencrypt it.”

  __________

  Another screen on the Scientific: Communications Panel lit up. In seconds it was filled with inky darkness and Pluto. And a silvery sphere that hid half the planet from view. “Oh, my God,” Ima gasped.

  A giant golden N with electron orbits covered the object’s entire front hemisphere.

  “We’ve been monitoring it for almost an hour now.”

  “Press leaks?”

  “None. You and I are the only people who know about it.”

  “And I,” Psiko corrected, though only Dr. Genius could hear it.

  __________

  “And I,” Dr. Menace corrected even further, only no one else could hear it.

  __________

  “All right.” Dr. Genius tried to collect her thoughts to make sure everything she had to say got said. “Now. What do you have on this thing so far?”

  “It’s a perfect sphere of, well, some unknown material. KI sensors go crazy when scanning it and the spectral analyses came back with meaningless results so either everything is malfunctioning or its composed of elements we don’t even know are possible. And that’s not the strangest thing.”