Netopia: A Thrilling Dystopian Novel (Science Fiction & Action)

by Y. G. Levimor

  "You have to pull yourself together. Let go. Move on."

  "I know. I went to visit Neverminds last night."

  "You did what?"

  "Yes. They’re there because of me."

  "They're not. The people who decide things in the network put them there. They are where they are because of processes that are bigger than you and me. Don't go to that place."

  "I created them. It's my fault."

  "It is not - it's not under your control," the doctor tried to assuage him.

  "It's my fault!" he thoughtmitted.

  An oxygen mask dangled from the ceiling and Solly put it on. He was mortally scared of breathing on his own.

  ***

  Counting down to the operation did not take long. The white wall was spotless. Fabian sat up in his bed for a long minute just to stare at that wall, which was, like his life, equally colorless.

  Alaska came into his life and filled a void. But now that she was gone, Fabian could see what he was hoping to suppress. For years, he had been feeding off the stingy crumbs of warmth Christoph scattered in his direction. He relied more on his wants than on his haves. With Alaska gone, the picture cleared up. Years of blind expectation kept him from searching an alternative. At the end of the day, he and Christoph were like two parallel snowy ridges, each stuck somewhere high up, with only Minds to connect them and, ironically, also disconnect them.

  He slowly slipped into his white Minds suit, drank a strawberry-rain neosoda and left for Minds head office. He focused on everything he saw on his way, like someone memorizing landmarks. He leaned back in his seat and received an incoming thought.

  "Where are you?" Christoph wanted to know.

  "On my way."

  "I saw you thoughtmitted late last night, after we already communicated."

  "Yes, can't say why."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I don't know, I'm angry with myself. Thinking why I couldn't quit on time, why I didn't realize this road would only lead to my anguish. For years I was nothing but a tool."

  "Hey, what are you telling me now? You were no tool! You're my partner and friend."

  "We were all your tools. I followed you around for years, I believed in you, and what good did it do me?"

  Christoph was silent. He took his time answering. Fabian, who was already used to these emotional delays, was looking at a pair of snowy mountains. He selected a cozy temperature, but still felt cold. He thought the mountains looked much further away than he remembered.

  "I take it you have nothing to say."

  "I'm thinking," Christoph finally thoughtmitted.

  "Thank you for sharing your silence with me. I want nothing from you. I expect nothing from you. Not a thing."

  Christoph rolled his eyes and said, "I get it. Nothing. You want nothing. You're disappointed. But what did I ever promise you? Did I tell you to follow me?"

  This time Fabian was the silent one.

  "You are your own man!" Christoph fired off.

  "I'm not. I wasn't my own man."

  The two exchanged several more thoughts, back and forth, one step forward and two back – like their entire relationship.

  ***

  The neocar's soft landing mechanism was out of sorts that morning, just like Fabian's mood. He left the car, irritated, and headed for Minds' central control room. He took special care not to look directly at the cameras that tracked him or to make any stops along the long corridors.

  He sat at the command post that controlled the huge room and felt an overwhelming weakness. He could have executed Restart from his home, but it was important for him to feel the place, to take in the atmosphere, and see the employees one last time.

  The partly cloudy weather was about to clear up. The clouds were inching slowly through the sky, but he could see a narrow sunbeam threading through the clouds and the glass ceiling. He felt a momentary warmth spreading in his body, closed his eyes and let the light in.

  Fabian opened his eyes. 11:10. A minute before the point of no return.

  If anyone asked him what he was feeling right then, his answer would have been,”Nothing.” It was the most critical moment, and he could not feel a thing. He already thought about it enough. He was tired of a life of almosts, of maybes, always hanging in the air. Minds helped a lot of people all over the world to fulfill their dreams, but his own dreams were left out to dry. Unfortunately, there were no algorithms being tested or developed to compensate for his particular feeling of loss and failure.

  He felt the weight set in all over his body. Soon, in one minute, the change would be effected. He extended both arms to the control interface and closed his eyes, as if concentrating on a thought that pushed his soul to the brink. A little smile tugged at his lips.

  ***

  The thought interference began to spread rapidly among the users. In every city and every country people were experiencing intracranial pressure pains, a monotonous inner ear ringing that came with a loss of clarity. Everything was out of control… a runaway stream of consciousness.

  Outside, neocars were crashing as the result of a system wide communication failure caused by an information overload on Minds. The breakdown caused everyone in flying cars to plummet to their deaths.

  Fabian had no idea the plan would lead to this. He had worked hard to ensure that the neocar infrastructure would not be affected by the process, but even with all his planning, it was still just another subsystem to fail. The various Minds systems were embedded into the platform to such a degree that they were bound to be affected. The color drained from his face when additional reports came in about Minds users who stopped showing life signs. The network was in total shutdown and no one was able to provide support, let alone Fabian, who sank into an oppressive paralysis. Life was one big bug. So many dead, injured, traumatized. He did not know how to contain it all. The end was finally there, but earlier than he expected, and with his assistance. Innocent people were paying the price, their only crime a blind belief in technology. He had proved his point, so why was he feeling so rotten?

  The wave of destruction hit everyone. Many users, who felt the world was coming to an end, tried thoughtmitting, "I love you," as well as other comforting messages and parting words, but could not get through. At the same time, waves of violence raged in the streets. People ran around in a panic, holding their heads and crying out. There was nowhere to run to. It was either hurt, or be hurt. Despite the drilling pains in their hearts and minds, they were all feeding on this truth serum, digging into open sores, wanting to know everything about everyone, learning the best kept secrets. It all hurt like hell, but the temptation was greater. They held on to their neopets only to find out that the communication failure affected them as well. One by one, they dropped motionless to the floor.

  ***

  “Take it out of my head!” Nicola screamed at Sunshine, who dropped to her knees and tried to calm herself. They were in one of the Minds offices, trying to pull together and make it through the crisis, actually in the same room together for a change, enjoying the comfort of physical presence and not just transmitting thoughts.

  “How am I supposed to take it out? We don't have the equipment. It's hurting me too, I can't think straight! This ringing is awful,” Sunshine screamed and covered her eyes. She felt her head was going to explode.

  “What's going on? Where's Fabian?” Nicola asked.

  “I can't believe it, he's not showing up on the display! It’s like he's not on the network… how is this possible?” Sunshine shrieked.

  They left the room, barely able to walk in one direction.

  “We have to disconnect, have to! My brain can't handle this! Where do you get a technician here? What's that? You think I'm too bossy?”

  “What? Why?” Nicola didn't understand.

  “I'm seeing your thoughts right here!” Sunshine shouted. “I don't get what's going on… Christoph isn't answering any of my thoughts!”

  “I can't even get around to transmi
t, the noise won't let up!”

  They finally struggled their way out of the building. They tried a neocar, but without a network, the flying cars were useless. Nicola and Sunshine started running.

  “I can't go any further,” Sunshine whimpered and dropped to the ground. Nicola, also swamped with thoughts and pain, tried getting Sunshine up on her feet, but eventually let her go and ran ahead.

  “Don't leave me here!” Sunshine screamed.

  “I have to get it out,” Nicola said and kept running, leaving Sunshine behind.

  ***

  People trampled over one another in the rush to lose the component in their head. Some arrived at the shelters in a state of hysteria. There were teams ready for them there, and brain techs freed and treated them one by one. They could find their peace only as Neverminds, whose number kept increasing. For others, it was already too late, and they died of strokes, cardiac arrest, or grief. The overload of incoming and outgoing thoughts proved too much for their minds. Graveyards were unprepared to deal with the deceased who were stacking up in piles, and many plots were converted into mass graves.

  The disconnection caused a lot of suffering. Users were angry for being deprived of their promised land, a world they had already tasted but no longer existed. They were forced to retreat to a stark reality. If they wanted to watch a sunset or a sunrise, they had to wait for it, like in the old days. It was no longer possible to watch old memories, or indulge in three-dimensional fantasies. Like junkies forced into withdrawal, the real world seemed lacking and dull. Some chose death over compromise; unable to accept that what had been taken from them would never be returned, they chose to vanish rather than remember everything that was and no more. Others gradually came to terms with having been played with. They were pawns in a larger scheme, never really in control.

  The initial shock settled into anger. People were furious about their situation, and looked to band together and pay a visit to whoever had played with their minds. In a matter of hours, massive groups were marching toward Minds headquarters. They had to walk, as all the neocars were out of commission.

  ***

  From above, the people looked like moving dots, without faces or souls. Fabian looked down from his office window on the swelling crowds coming down the street. His head was full of his own thoughts, no one else's. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. By now, the crowd must have broken inside and stained the sterile spaces with blotches of humanity. Filth, sweat and rage covered the all-white walls. But something worse than that had found its way in, and that thing was sobriety.

  Fabian looked up and recognized a single neocar flying in the sky, carrying the 001 number plate – Christoph's.

  He stood like a frozen statue and listened to the advancing footfalls while the flying car pulled away. After some frozen seconds, he entered, trembling, into Alaska's igloo, taken from the Funeral Home Mindsphere and recreated in the office, and lay next to her. He closed his eyes and held her tight, breathing in her fur. Someone was knocking on the door. Tears slid down his throat, but he did not make a sound. His heart was beating so hard that he felt like he was going to explode there inside the igloo.

  With his eyes closed, he traveled through memories, for once the way nature intended, no special effects and Minds assistance. Without the network's support, the memories seemed less vivid, but Fabian could still see it all.

  The days at the boarding school. The first time he saw Christoph, playing with the neopets in an igloo. The night they first touched each other. The day he was made Head Event Manager for the launching of Minds. Toasting with Christoph and Solly to celebrate their joint venture. Minds parties. The day he got Alaska. The day he buried her. Christoph's smile. Those glittering eyes. The way he looked at his Orcuin. Sunshine's face. A setting sun.

  And then a thought sent by Christoph flashed in his mind: “Remember tomorrow.”

  ***

  The house hasn't changed, Solly thought as he stepped inside his parents' house after not being there for a long time. The passage of time had not changed much in the place. There was not much there to change - white walls and displays, more or less all that people had anymore. His mother's tending owls were hovering at the entrance, giving off a certain air of restlessness. The little feather balls careened in tight circles - their vestibular systems apparently out of whack - and ended their maneuvers by crashing on the floor of the adjacent room.

  One owl dropped to the floor, barely crawling. A cursory glance was enough for Solly to know that something was not right. The tiny owl hooted in distress and its black eyes locked on Solly, who did not know how to help the helpless neopet. His parents appeared and broke into what looked like a formidable dancing ritual, holding their heads in their hands, and hardly noticing him.

  “What's happening to me?” his father asked his mother in a panic while holding his head. “There's no filter!”

  “All your thoughts are flying in front of me! What’s this? When were you thinking about divorce?”

  “What are you talking about?! We had that fight ages ago, remember? Forget that, since when do you regret adopting Solly? He's our son, and I'm seeing a thought like this from a month ago? A year!”

  Solly was shocked. His mind was still intact, and to him his parents looked like a pair of terrible actors reciting sentimental tear jerking texts full of pathos. He wanted to pull them off the stage.

  “I don't understand what you're talking about! What's happening to you?”

  The father gripped his son ferociously. “Get it out of me! Now!”

  “I can't get anything out, Dad!” Solly answered, scared by his father's reaction. “You need a thought technician for that. I don't have a clue what's happening to you. Wait, what's happening to me? I'm also seeing thoughts flying everywhere now - fuck!”

  “What do we do?” his mother shouted as his father dropped to the ground, asking forgiveness from above. There was more to the gesture than a mere plea for help. Something in him broke, with his wife and son watching.

  “You ruined us!” the father screamed. “You ruined us! With your shit network! What did we do?”

  Solly tried to establish an urgent brain connection to Fabian or Christoph, but neither one answered. The thought channels were blocked. He could not get hold of anyone. Were they behind this? Solly held his head and cursed Minds. “Fuck Christoph! And that bitch Sunshine! Is this payback now? For what?” the fact that no one was actually listening made him even more upset.

  Pandy walked past them unimpressed, made her way to the door between their legs and scratched it. The digital door could not identify her and did not open as it should. She crawled into a corner with a stifled whimper.

  Suddenly the kitchen window shattered in a terrible noise. Someone had thrown a rock in.

  Pandy leaped onto a shelf, through the broken window and into the street, bouncing inside the raging mass of people. They stomped on her tail, stepped over her and sent her rolling between their feet. Solly shrieked from the window when he saw his fur ball kicked around by the hysterical mob. A girl who happened by screamed in horror. She bent to pick Pandy up, but the cat was too heavy and she could not hold on to her.

  So there she lay, on her black tummy, a lifeless lump of fur, while the mass advanced and ground her into the asphalt.

  Solly cried. To his left and right, he could see dozens of other neopets lying dead on the ground. He kicked the wall, hoping to break something and started screaming in anger. When he looked back, he saw his father hugging his mother, crying and rocking from side to side.

  “What's wrong with Mom?” Solly screamed at them.

  “Brain stroke! You killed her, you and your Minds!” he screamed back, brushing away his son's comforting hand.

  All the thoughts clamoring in his head fused into one background noise.

  “You can yell at me later, but right now we have to take the chip out,” he told his father in the gentlest voice he could muster.

  His fat
her wept and heaved uncontrollably.

  “If you don't come with me now, you could die as well.”

  “Go, you go, I'm not leaving anywhere. I'd rather die with her than live without her. Go,” he said, and his face constricted and flushed red.

  Solly looked through the broken window at the sky, where a single orca-shaped neocar cruised, with Christoph inside.

  “Come on, Dad, don't let them beat us.”

  Internity

  Christoph disconnected from Minds on time, and even reserved a self-contained neocar. The last thought he transmitted to Fabian was:

  “Thank you for everything, my dear. Through it all, we somehow kept our connection. I'll meet you in the next life. And it’ll be sooner than you think.”

  Wrapped in his long coat and black gloves, he was now sitting upright in his seat, looking down from the neocar's side window at the massive riot raging in front of Minds headquarters.

  Insane, pathetic people. What's gotten into them? he thought. What's with all this anger for the network? His steel blue eyes coldly watched the scene. As more and more people joined the fray, his contempt for humankind increased. The car slowly pulled away, until the specks frantically moving in the streets became nothing more than a mute landscape. He looked directly at Orcuin, who froze on the spot. “Don't worry, it's not over,” he soothed her with his confident voice. “We'll keep swimming toward eternity.”

  Christoph flew over a valley tucked away between two hills, north of Minds headquarters. There, under silver domes glittering in the sun, lay Minds' real investment, the crown jewel, the digital incarnation Project Internity, whose secret development absorbed most of Minds' revenues.

  “The human body is the weakest link,” he continued sermonizing, “the chief culprit for our ephemeral, one-off appearance on this planet. What a waste. The money and property people worked so hard to accumulate, the hard-earned knowledge and experience – all gone to waste at the conclusion of eighty years. Imagine the benefit we would bring to the world if we found a way to preserve these achievements, saving them from such a cruel end. It doesn't have to be like this.”