by A. I. Zlato
... Choose what to take, decide what to forget and destroy what had to be. Perhaps the remains would be stigmas of past mistakes, the consequences, but the causes were to be forgotten. Surface life would then become possible here ... that was the promise of the Equilibrium.
Stigmas ... the Earliest Space ... More excited than ever, Paul re-read the pages where Thomas described his discovery of Space H. When he had read them the first time, he was convinced that Thomas had left the E.S., to come in this new Space, but was that really the case? What if he never left? What if he were only describing the life of those who were brought to the surface? It was possible. Yes, it was quite possible. One had to carry out archaeological excavations ... maybe discover the stigmata ... and what if Space H. were the E.S.?
“I already told you that the Earliest Space, as you see it, does not matter. Anyway, at least not now”, interrupted Edgard.
“Not now? Yes, you're right, I have to care about the Problem; it is the most urgent, but I cannot help it. Can you imagine, it's ... it's ... the vision of the minority, as we discussed, and ...”
“We talked a lot, especially about the manuscript. I've already said everything; it is now up to you to assemble what is scattered, and to act.”
“Okay, you tell me that I have all the elements in my possession. Will you help me gather them?”
“That would only take you away from reality.”
“Clearly, I have to fend for myself.”
Paul became silent, thinking.
Vlad interrupted his reflections.
“Say, chief, did you tell Baley that you were letting her go?”
“Not exactly. Why?”
“What do you mean by 'not exactly'? Did you tell her or not?”
“I just showed her my disagreement, comparatively to what she wanted to do.”
“Don’t you think it’s better to tell her things ‘clear and straight’?”
“What for?”
“Well, I don’t know...”
“I think it is better not to be 'clear and straight', as you say. If she continues to believe I am her teammate, if only in theory, she could give me information on her progress.”
“So you did not tell her the whole truth?”
“That's the idea. But why…?”
Paul did not have time to finish his sentence. Vlad disappeared as promptly as he came.
“I did not understand your conversation”, said Edgard.
“It is not important.”
“I think it is. Your mind is ready now. You have to dream.”
“I do not dream by instruction.”
“The yellow liquid helps you sometimes.”
“I will not drink alcohol at work, com’on!” Paul said aloud.
Vlad looked up, and ventured into the conversation.
“Did you say ‘alcohol,’ chief? That could be arranged.”He pulled a flask from his closet.
“After all, we should celebrate the true beginning of our work together!”
He took two glasses, poured out the contents of the bottle, and handed one glass to Paul.
The real beginning ... Thomas’ legacy ... Edgard was right once again, he had everything... he only needed to sort and assemble things properly. What if Thomas’ fears materialised through the Problem? That would explain a lot ... the Guardians ... The link with the Machine was now evident. He was daydreaming.
- Water cannot be green, come on! Said the professor.
- Why ? I thought I needed to imagine? Said the student.
- Yes, but it must remain in the realm of the reasonable, dear.
- In other words, you decide what I have the right to imagine. Where lies creation, then?
Children’s Short Stories
Chapter 47
Space H. (1st Circle)
Paul was dropping the ball. Locked in the rigid morality of those who do not have to make a decision, he no longer wanted to be part of the investigation. He had not even had the courage to tell her frankly. He hid behind his principles, arguing that he could not condone her actions. As if she needed his approval to act! He had the typical attitude of someone who never had to get his or her hands dirty.
She was sometimes obliged to get her hands dirty, and could not afford that kind of defer. She was in charge of solving the Problem, she was the one facing the hostile looks, and who was responsible when a new case appeared.
Although Baley readily acknowledged that he was useful until then, she almost immediately found anew the contempt and mistrust he had inspired her early. He helped her; without him, she would have had no anti-Machine trail, but after all, he was also part of this movement. Damn it! Let him return to his manuscripts, full of doubts, and his endless and meaningless questioning. She would not have to face his disapproving look. She was a Special Agent, and was now working alone in the natural order of things. Good riddance!
She rushed to the Tower, for her daily appointment, to expose her new plan to identify potential targets of the anti-Machine movement. She had ignored his questions on the trigger factor, what made these children hostile towards the Machine. She also ruled out, for the moment, the enigmatic phrases she had found in several books. We must break the circles. The Equilibrium is the beginning and the end; there is no longer a middle. She had spent the night thinking about those words, the trigger element ... the Machine, the Equilibrium, to no avail. In her sleep, the dark area of her brain took a little more room every night, and radiated a cold truth, an offbeat reality that could not reach her conscience. As the fog she had seen on the first floor the day before, ideas, concepts, forgotten memories were crawling under the surface of her mind. The fleeting mists left her a bitter taste in the mouth, a feeling of ... she was passing by ... the Machine ... the trigger factor...
The mental clouds dissipated every morning, and it was with a clear mind that Baley entered the lobby of the Tower. The first floor was minimalistic today — a small square room, with white walls, of which two sides supported a membrane. Holding out arms outstretched, she put her hands on each of them and transmitted her plan to the Machine.
Contrary to what she had suggested to Paul, she did not intend to remove all potentially affected children. That was not feasible because it represented a significant number, and an exhaustive identification was not certain. Instead, she had imagined organising an educational day at each school about the Machine’s pros (with the hope, maybe, to hear some of the cons from students). During the presentation, several Special Agents and teachers would be in the room. They would observe children's reactions to try to find potential targets of anti-Machine movement, and possibly identify the modes of dissemination of these ideas.
Baley had obtained a five-minute meeting with the Machine; she had to be fast and precise in her explanations, which she transmitted from the first second of connection. She notified the Machine of her desire to see all City children ages eleven to thirteen on school premises, so she could meet a large number every time. Under the pretext of a presentation about professions in the First Circle, or any other similar subject, she intended to gather reactions from each child. In their familiar environment, surrounded by their classmates, they would have spontaneous reactions to her speech, emotions that should capture Special Agents seasoned in the art of observation. Teachers, by their personal knowledge of each child, would be valuable aides.
Almost instantly, the Machine re-transcribed Baley’s thinking into lines of code. Clear and precise algorithms depicted her plan — perfectly, as usual.
“Thread: Solution to ends of young humans
Instruction 1: Plan educational day in each school of Level 3
Object 1: Level 3 schools (total number)
Object 2: Calendar day
WHILE (Schools < total number(
Do: Plan educational day in calendar
Schools = Schools + 1
Calendar = Calendar + 1
End WHILE
End Instruction 1
Instruction 2: De
dicated team of Special Agents
Object 3: Special Agent (list)
WHILE (Instruction 1 = In progress)
Special Agent (list) = busy
End WHILE
End Instruction 2
Thread end: Pending”
The Machine had accepted her draft, and decided to send instructions accordingly. It would be up to Baley to design the content of the presentation in order to reveal at-risk children. Coming out of the first floor, she went directly to minus one, without going through the lobby.
She sat in one of the rooms the Special Agents used to work at their convenience. She immediately set to the task of developing the content of the Educational Day, and prepared information for Special Agents and teachers. It was essential that the day's program fit perfectly into the curriculum, so that children saw nothing extraordinary. The spontaneity of their reactions was essential to the success of her plan. She searched, through her chip, the general curriculum for the targeted schools. She reviewed the various modules, looking for a theme that would lend itself to a digression on the Machine. She had first thought of a presentation on professions related to It, but looking more closely at the teachings in the relevant classes, she found it irrelevant. She chose the history module, to explain the reasons that had led the Elders to the development of the Machine as well as benefits resulting therefrom.
She prepared her speech for teachers and the Special Agents’ team. For the latter, she just sent brief instructions. Each knew his or her job and was aware of the issues. In the speech to teachers, on the other hand, she weighed each word, their order and the sequence of ideas. This was to achieve a fine balance; teachers should understand the importance of this day along with critical issues, but they were not to be anxious ... at least not visibly, so as not to worry the children. Suffice to say that was an impossible equation.
Baley hurried to finish her presentation to the students along with her speech to the teaching team. She set the first appointment in a school of the Second Circle, early in the afternoon, leaving her just enough time to have lunch and head to the school. The teachers whom the Machine has selected for the occasion would wait for her there.
She emerged from the Tower after saving in her chip the content she had prepared. While heading to the rail station, she stopped at Zephyr, her official sandwich supplier. Seeing her approaching, he asked, As usual?, while already starting to cut the bread and bake the ingredients there. Usually talkative as he worked, he remained silent today. His sandwich in hand, Baley greeted him.
Zephyr responded with a vague smile convenience. Even he turned against her. She shrugged things, to herself primarily. When he would see her solve the Problem, he would welcome her back with kind words, she was sure of that. He would regain those sparkling eyes she loved so much, in which she saw many memories of her childhood reflected, when her mother took her here to buy her snack. He would become that man again.
The commute to the Second Circle lasted only a few seconds, and she dragged her feet to finish her snack before entering the school’s premises. Like most academic buildings, this one was translucent blue, the colour of the cellulose membrane that covered it completely. The membrane, lively, grew alongside walls and continued to grow beyond. One had to cut these living skins regularly so that they do not invade nearby buildings. This one had many cut marks, showing its age. The use of this plant symbolised knowledge dissemination, gradual transmission, from teachers to students, from students to other younger students. The colour blue was a reference to heaven, knowledge elevating the mind higher and higher.
Though Baley now understood the meaning of this symbol, she remembered that it had absolutely no meaning to her younger self. Her school was covered with a similar membrane, and students called them the net, a visible evocation of the sap ramifications and the confinement that some felt while attending classes. Things did not seem to have changed much since... Baley tried many things she could associate with memories, to convince herself that these children were like all kids in their age bracket, that the nonsense she had invented as a child were nothing but a reproduction of what her elders had one before her, and that today's children were doing similar things... These youths were not different from previous youths; they simply had to cope with a particular environment ..., which she still had to discover.
In the entrance hall, the headmaster was waiting; he promptly led her in the staff room.
“Ladies and gentlemen, dear teachers, good morning. I am Special Agent Baley, in charge of investigating the Problem.”
She read various emotions on faces, and the headmaster pretended to speak, but she hastened to continue.
“I know that the news channels aired my account about the investigation, including the dislocation of children of Chrijulam followers. I take full responsibility for the failure regarding the resolution of the Problem, although I remain convinced that dislocating these children away from such beliefs was still the right thing to do. I am not there to remove anyone. My objective is to identify potential targets and to intervene preventively. I cannot reveal to you the details of what those preventive interventions are. However, I can tell you that the work that we will perform today, with your help, is paramount.
The sect Chrijulam rejects many parts of our society, including the Machine, which, they say, is among the artificial things that should disappear. This rejection of the Machine seems to be the common point among all the children involved, and that list expands beyond followers of Chrijulam.”
“How did you arrive at this common denominator? How are you sure that it is a good metric, this time? And finally, how is it that no one has discovered it before?” The headmaster was inquisitive, supported by the nods of his colleagues.
“Why I didn’t realise it before, you mean? I repeat: I accept full responsibility for previous failures in the investigation. As for the elements that led me on this trail, you will understand that I am bound to secrecy until the investigation is complete.
Let me move forward. The objective of this day is to analyse children’s reactions, under the disguise of a history lesson describing the reasons for the construction of the Machine by the Elders, and the positive consequences — visible — nowadays. You who know the children, you can help us identify the rejection movements, eyebrows that wrinkle, groups of friends who laugh among themselves, away from the assembly ... any gesture, any behaviour, any expression of emotion ... everything is important.”
“And what will happen to the children that we will pinpoint?”
“Nothing. We will simply monitor them closely. There is no question, this time, to remove them from their environment. Indeed, identifying members of the Chrijulam cult was relatively easy and the risk of missing a child was extremely low; however, identifying children adhering directly or indirectly to the anti-Machine movement is more complicated. If we isolate some of them, those that we would miss will remain so discreet that we may never identify them ... and the Problem might recur. That's why our goal is to identify as many children as possible in all schools and conduct covert surveillance. Thus, we will identify their relationships and will cross-check information.”
“You say ‘we,’ all the time?”
“Fifteen Special Agents will work with me on this. While I am talking to the children, the Special Agents will observe the assembly along with you.”
“You really believe our students are crazies? You have the appearance of a history teacher, and I bear the face of a construction worker; on top of that, fifteen bulldogs will wander in the room extensively? Children will see immediately that something is going wrong! Besides, many of them have lost a brother, a sister, a cousin, a friend since the beginning of the Problem ... they are all on edge, and understandably!” A man said, exploding.
“And what do you suggest, Mr. ...?”
“Wanner. I am a history teacher. From what you have prepared, give me an hour, and I will give you a true lecture. As for your minions, I don’t know, h
ide them in a closet, on the roof with binoculars, wherever you want, but not in school. I can impersonate an external speaker, but not fifteen fellows in addition. Furthermore, your face was seen from all angles throughout the City. You do not want to attract attention? Find a talented makeup artist!”
The prospect of outsourcing the operation to someone else delighted Baley, who did not feel comfortable in public, let alone before a young audience of more or less dissipated children. At the same time, she felt strong anxiety because she was losing control of the mission, and the stakes were so great.
“What you just said is not devoid of sense. Here is my action plan; the important passages are underlined. For the rest, I can reduce the number of Special Agents, but I need them as observers. Find the justification you want, I do not care. As for me, I do not think these kids have seen my face that much. The investigation, the failures ... those are rather an adult problem.”
Professor Wanner grumbled, but set to work to prepare the course of the afternoon. However, his remarks sparked an important issue. How to make the presence of the Special Agents the most natural possible?
Easy. She would not conceal her appearance, quite the contrary. She would appear as Special Agent Baley, previously in charge of the investigation of the Problem and demoted to the rank of External Speaker in schools, pending the outcome of an internal investigation into the failures. Other Special Agents were there to watch. It was a somewhat lame excuse; she acknowledged it. Although Wanner had raised his eyebrows, he finally acquiesced to the idea, which had the effect of triggering the concurrence of his colleagues and manager at the same time. Baley smiled. As in all human societies, there was often a difference between the supervisor and the real leader: one approved and another whom the troops followed.