THE GATE KEEPER

by JULES GABRIEL

  As he got closer to the hard surface her master looked around in search for safety. A few inches away he jumped and roll over to break his body’ inertia. As a train sky diver Nastassja knew that there was no such thing as a comfortable landing unless one applied the right landing technique.

  A few metres away she pulled the navigation string downward. Her feet touched the ground at an instant. She got rid of the parachute and head for her master. He was up and walking. Ablaze behind him was their flight.

  They met halfway.

  ‘Great job you’ve done very well. You’ve remind me how well I had trained you. Also thank the Lord that we’ve been allowed to live through this nightmare.’ He proudly expressed gratitude to his apprentice.

  ‘We’ve lost him again. How could we?’ Muddleheaded Nastassja bemoaned.

  Frantic with frustration he pondered. Then he says, ‘yes, I know. His getaway won’t be for long. We shall make it our priority mission to find him. His old self is the vital key to assort the jigsaw of time.’

  I was in the erstwhile house which had the other capsule in. Somebody hold me by the arm and help me to get up.

  ‘Hi,’ a gentle and familiar voice said to me.

  I raise my head up and could not believe it. ‘Hi,’ I said.

  We stare into each other’s eyes. I had that unexplained feeling which felt like butterflies churning my inside. We were automatically drawn towards each other by the power of love. Lightly we caress each other’s face and kiss each other on the lips.

  ‘How do you know about all this? Are you not confused?’ I asked.

  She stares at me deep in the eyes and says, ‘actually I am.’

  ‘Actually I was planning to tell you about it.’

  She wraps my left arm around her waist as we walk towards the main door together. She opens it. We walk outside.

  ‘We had a lot to catch up.’ I spoke out my mind with a tender smile.

  She looks at me with a sweet loving face and says, ‘yes we do.’

  I thought of the key.

  ‘Wait I can’t leave those machines unattended.’ I worriedly said.

  There must be a pocket somewhere on my futuristic clothes, I thought. I search for the hidden pockets. Finally I found a zip pocket on my shoulder. I dig into it. Luckily it was there like I thought it would be. Beside I knew my clone self wouldn’t let me down. I lock the door.

  I glare back at Samantha.

  We hold hands. Then we walk out from underneath the dark porch and I pause. She comes to a halt as well. Staring at me with mystify emotion. Confused and startle I wonder her strange entry.

  ‘How did you know about it?’

  Samantha sits on the stairs at the porch. ‘Please sit down and I shall let you know,’ she softly promised.

  ‘I’m good standing.’

  ‘Do you remember when you left heartbroken because you thought I like Michael?’

  ‘So,’ I replied with blunted emotion.

  ‘Well, I quickly changed and followed you on my dad’s bike. I saw you coming here at night and then you disappeared.’

  ‘So you have been spying on me?’

  ‘Not exactly as I, too, also have the same feeling for you. You know a girl can tell a lot from just a kiss.’

  ‘What about today?’

  ‘I was worried when you didn’t turn up for school so I came here in search for clues.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ I responded as I thought about her version.

  There was a pause. She stands up and walks towards me. ‘Tomorrow it’s the anniversary of our independence day. I was thinking about us heading downtown,’ she calmly said.

  ‘Is it a date?’ I gabbled.

  ‘We’ll see,’ Samantha jock and gives me a peck on my lips.

  We walk together. We Head straight for my house which was a few blocks down before we headed for hers. I wanted to see my mum.

  She squeezes my hand firmly and says, ‘I got to admit something with you.’

  ‘When you came back

  At a distant future…

  Over the horizon a hovering triangular craft descends to its rural destination. The rocket design craft slowly and stealthily move among the tall mountains. At the horizon at its rear twilight paves the way for the morning sun.

  Afar beyond gigantic mountains above the hills of endless contours of ranges the craft reduces its speed. Half a mile ahead an immense camouflage wall of stone open sideways. The craft unleash its front and rear tyres as it approaches dark hole.

  Near the entry of the main door the craft’s wings turn and adjust the blazing motors to counter balance the forces of gravity. Inside faint tactical green light accommodate the auto-pilot on its flight path to a free parking space. Behind the craft the door of metal and stone closed tightly.

  The tactical lights went off and immediately the white light high above the massive ceiling comes to life. The craft’s side door opens downward. It comes to a halt at an angle. The inner part of the door was already shape into stairs. The craft’s security handle slowly bulge outward.

  There was a sound of monotonous thud moving along from within the craft. Outside the endless underground city an army of machines awaits. Artificial Intelligent machines of various designs created for various purposes of specialised tasks watched. At the aircraft’s door an android emerge. It comes forth, bending and avoiding the arc-like curve edge of the door.

  It descends on the temporary flights of stairs. Each pressure exert on the stairs was clear evidence of metal over metal quirking and defying the load.

  ‘Is it done?!’ A strong voice echoed.

  The android was on the airstrip platform. It stares ahead in between a long aisle of disciplinary machines. A figure walks to him in a black cloak and a hoody which overlap its face.

  He had to acknowledge, ‘yes my lord, of course as you requested.’ The android moves towards the voice signature which his memory had registered as its creator.

  Mechanical thuds echoes through the aisle as it meet him halfway.

  ‘Outstanding. No one notice your presence and our survival is still a secret.’

  ‘Yes my Lord.’ He answered convincingly as he went down to one knee.

  Shiny hands of clean metal, calmly moves towards its hood and removes it. His face were familiar to the young master the android has been assigned to watch and protect without actually intervening. Except that he was part human part machine. His face looks old and frail. Yet he moves like a young man. He had showed no sign of weakness.

  The cyborg had come to a halt a few metres away as his apprentice acknowledge his superiority and gratitude for its existence. He stretches his hands and opens it. ‘I’m afraid there’s only way to the truth,’ he said.

  To the cyborg, the android were no longer a machine but coded data. He could see them. Everything around him transforms into data. Their shape had remained the same but they were all in data form. Background data were a mixture of green and yellow. Concentrating data in the shape of the android turns red.

  Gifts of singularity had distinguished him from them. Communication ability, stronger than the human sixth sense of a telepathic mind had altered his position. He was no longer totally made of flesh and bones. He had proclaimed his rightful place among them.

  He saw it. All of it at the android perspective side of view. It all rush through his head at an accelerating rate. Coded information was being decrypted. Live motion memories. The monitoring of his young self, being dragged into the plane and he skips the scene. He moves to the final part.

  Avoiding the escape of his enemy he moves straight to the crash scene. He had seen it live. He had to make sure. He slows it down. Memories of the explosion as it perished into engulf blaze. He replays it and slows it slower than before.

  The Android had seen all his memories being shared forcefully. He wanted to shut the memory down. Impossible, he thought. His arms had open wide transforming himself like an iron cross. He fights it again and he felt its own bod
y hovering weightlessly.

  ‘It’s inevitable to fight your own memories. Remain calm and it shall be swift.’ His lord promised.

  Among the bright blazing explosion of the crash he saw it. He pause the foreign memory. There it was. A faint blue light hid behind a cloud of bursting flames. He replays it. It flickers. He drops his hand and releases his apprentice from mind torture. The android falls on both knees. Not to honour but as a sign of being drained of exhaustion.

  ‘Outstanding,’ he thoughtfully said as he moves through the aisle. Extracting the vital sign of weakness inherited from the human. Feelings which have destroy the human ability to move ahead. He had felt the android feelings. He felt that he knows him better.

  ‘My dear citizen, I have foreseen our future. We are to succeed if our existence remains hidden for the moment. We shall carry on with business as usual. Meddle with their fragile, unrealistic and complex account system. Create more clean technology vehicles. Reimbursement of the billons lost which might exposed us. Let us carry on working as one. After all we got a planet to conquer. Our future is uncertain,’ he decried.

  The army of specialised machines break the line. Each went about their individual task. Their leader the sole cyborg with built in technological singularity. The android and other machines stares at their leader as he walk on a nearby air bike. He sped towards the underground into the futuristic city of machines and disappeared.