System Seven

by Parks, Michael

  “You knew them?”

  “I knew of them. I met your father briefly in Washington in sixty-seven but we never worked together. I know you have questions but it’s late.” Edward shifted attention to Austin. “How are you feeling? Any more headaches?”

  “None like the ones after the first treatment. The other pills help.”

  “That’s good, very good. Well, the anomaly, you are. A natural traveler. From where does your ability stem? Any ideas?”

  There was no knowing, could be none. He shook his head. “Seems a lot to do with imagination.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because imagination creates,” Austin replied without thinking.

  “Precisely so, Austin. Imagination is normally seen as important because it encourages visions of what is possible. At the near end, imagination fetches concepts and plays with them, birthing new relationships and ideas. Indeed, without imagination,” he shook his head, “you are content to work with what you know. An abundance of contentment is what prevents people from learning more about meta and their connection with the world. Thank you, culture. With sufficient imagination you begin to grasp the connections. Imagination drives curiosity, which in turn drives discovery. Again, at the near end.”

  “And at the far end?” Johan asked.

  Edward reached for the wine bottle. “Do either of you mind?” He quarter-filled his glass. “At the far end, far from where we are... I suppose you join company with the Creator.” He took a sip. “Between here and there lies the pitfalls of madness, no doubt for a reason. God’s locked screen door.”

  Austin asked, “Aren’t you suggesting that it’s not just the Comannda keeping man’s awareness in check, but maybe God, too?”

  The elder shook his head. “No. The madness I speak of protects things greater than just Saoghal and man’s journeys with his meta. The latter are within his reach, as the two of you can attest, albeit with their own obstacles.”

  “The biggest being the Comannda.”

  “True.”

  “What about these protein additions? If they work, I’m told I’ll be disturbing the quantum foam with my thoughts. You know that’s kind of scary, no matter how cool it sounds.”

  “You are a solid subject in that regard. We know you have the control and moral code needed to work it safely. Of course you will also be monitored and trained. Do not worry yourself unnecessarily. So, you answered my question – you don’t know how you came about your ability. Nor do we. It is an anomaly we wish to understand and help you grow.”

  Austin hesitated before asking, “Is it possible that my dad– I mean, he seemed to know something. About how they did things.”

  “Could he have worked for the Comannda? It is possible of course, though we’ve found no indications. I encourage you to keep an open and positive mind in regards to him. However, if you begin to feel contact from him, any impressions at all, let us know right away. We have no way of knowing his fate or allegiances at this point.”

  Austin could only nod.

  Edward stood with his glass and walked to the window. “It’s important to know that the two of you are joining us during what most of the Runa Korda consider to be defining times, times that were once predicted by those who have such vision. We’re approaching an apex that involves the kind of conflict that will define mankind’s future.” He turned to look at them. “You have been made to wait on the topic of aliens. I can tell you now that humans are not unique in their intelligence nor in their technology. I suspect we are garden variety. What makes us somewhat different is the degree that the Comannda have been able to limit our evolution. By now, most species like us would have crossed the language line into meta-enabled communication, would have smoothed the differences that still plague our societies, and would have used technology to erase physical suffering entirely. It is this hostage-like existence that has drawn the attention of our more evolved neighbors.”

  “They want to help?” Austin asked.

  “Some would like to, yes. In fact, they have been trying to the extent that they are able.”

  “Why not just fly in and take out the Comannda?”

  Edward smiled. “If only it were that easy, they would. No, it is up to our majority to create the future. We have to climb the mountain as one or not at all. To do that, we need to free ourselves of our own bindings.”

  “We’ll never make it then,” Austin said. “Like you said, the world’s a hostage.”

  “The world is asleep,” Sean said. “Lulled by a story that keeps them dreaming the fucked up dreams of the Comannda. Our job is to awaken them without hurting them. But first we have to keep the Comannda from destroying all our work and the world with it.”

  Austin shook his head. “Why can’t the aliens help? Seriously, if they are more advanced, they should. Or don’t they subscribe to moral imperatives?”

  “They are more advanced in ways that you will find hard to comprehend, Austin. They seek balance for us, but cannot tip the scales unnaturally. It is just so. What they are doing is keeping outsiders from coming in and taking advantage. The universe is a very big place. For that alone we are in their debt.”

  “So we’re left to take out the Comannda on our own.”

  “Fundamentally, yes.”

  “Sink or swim.”

  “As it has been and must be.”

  “What are they called? And how alien are they?”

  “They are called Mu, from their ancient language meaning ‘people’. They are everything we are but in different measures and in a more evolved state.”

  “Mu? Really? Any relation to references in the Tao?”

  Johan said, “Mu is the term for the original non-being from which being is produced. It is pure awareness, prior to experience or knowledge.”

  Edward shook his head. “I can’t speak to that. What influence they have exerted in our history is not shared nor catalogued. I can only confirm they are masters of awareness.”

  Austin straightened in his chair. Once again the familiar pendulum of inevitability swung into view – only now it was gigantic, involving an alien race, a shadow government, and the possible devolution of the modern world. Only a month ago such a reality would have been bizarre and nightmarish. He idly tapped the smooth oak of the conference table. Thoughts of his dad and Kaiya and her mom and all his friends and neighbors surfaced. So much sacrifice just to be at that table, only to learn the most powerful people on earth were considering knocking everyone back to the Stone Age and that advanced life forms were standing by to watch. Awe of the enemy churned, driven by the facts. Awe quickly gave way to a stronger emotion, that of anger. They had no right. They just didn’t. No self-made committee of man-gods had the right to manipulate an entire planet, to determine who evolved and who didn’t, who ate and who starved, who lived and who died.

  “Austin,” Edward said. “Are you with us? Is something wrong?”

  Nodding curtly he replied, “Well yeah, I think there is, yes. We need to stop the Comannda. Flat out stop them. This can’t continue. We can’t let it happen. The Mu can’t. It’s insane and completely wrong that they don’t help.”

  “We agree, in principle,” Edward started with an annoyingly patronizing tone, “but there is a bigger picture to consider, an approach we must–”

  Something snapped and floodgates gave way. Words spilled forth of their own volition. “An approach?” he asked. “This approach has lasted how many hundreds of years? Your awareness of their powers and manipulations has been used how to stop them? All I see is an army of savants dedicated to a cause I don’t quite get. What is your purpose? What have you been doing all these years? Tell me your secret empire doesn’t include newspapers and media outlets around the world! Tell me your Confrere couldn’t break out the truth!” Momentum carried him. “Hell, with the technology used to reshape us, I bet you could come up with an AIDS vaccine or a cure for cancer pretty damned quickly, Edward. Or have a ship land in Times Square and le
t them reveal the truth about our overlords once and for all. Why in the fuck do you dance and prance around and not do something?” Unbridled now: “Or maybe you really are just like them, working for your own goals? Too much stock in the drug companies perhaps? Who pays for your mountain getaways and country estates? Too damn comfortable, are you? You’re just like them!”

  A shroud of silence slipped over the room. Johan’s gaze flicked to Edward, then back to Austin. Something had gone suddenly and oddly wrong.

  Edward disregarded the outburst entirely. “Back to the matter at hand. Evidence has accrued over the past year indicating something big. As Sean will tell you, our technology–”

  “Fuck this.” Austin knocked his chair over backwards. “You’re all fucked up.” If he didn’t get out of the room now, he might burst. He headed for the door, knowing vaguely that it was him that was fucked up but not why.

  Sean stood and Austin’s head jerked violently to the side, as if struck. Anger spread like fire in dry grass. Control slipped further.

  Sean said, “You don’t just walk out on a meeting this important.”

  The words splashed like fuel, sending him scrambling for a way to strike back. He descended straight to his core and out into the grid, out into the space between them. He focused on the space just in front of Sean and with all his might punched movement there.

  A slight wind puffed Sean’s face. He laughed.

  “Keep that up and you’re going to chap my lips.”

  “Fuck you!” he shouted in a torrent of anger. “Fucking cowards! You pretend nobility and– and sophistication! Sipping fine wines and lounging like the rich. You chase Big Brother’s tailpipe when you could be helping the world. You could have made incredible changes!”

  “Fuck me?” Sean pointed at him. “Fuck you, the hypocrite who’s spending thousands of dollars turning your house into a shrine to artificial intelligence and imagined wealth. How many times did you stop by a shelter and teach basic computer theory with your laptop? Or share some food or give out blankets in winter? Hmm? What was within your ability to help? Why didn’t you do something? How about doing anything that didn’t directly benefit yourself? And now let me ask you: what have we done? You don’t really know yet, do you? So shut the fuck up and sit down, asshole. You’ve got a lot to learn.”

  Briefly, the sheer insanity of the moment struck him but pride and fury forced him towards the door, unable to form a response. Three strides out, his legs folded and he landed painfully on the floor. Rage flashed, both at Sean and himself for his outburst. He pushed to his feet. A red orb, cartoon-like and swirling, formed in his mind’s eye. It absorbed all anger, amplifying it, understanding it, forming purpose. Beyond the orb lay the room, the grid of marbles in perfect clarity. Sean was right there. Right fucking there.

  Edward sensed the change too late. “Austin–!”

  Riding the high of intuition and rage, he smashed the imaginary red orb into the grid, aimed directly at Sean. He hadn’t expected the loud crack, nor the bending of light as the orb punched into the grid, force modeling the marbles into like states, causing a high-speed domino run with explosive effect. Sean barely angled his head clear. The hazed ball shot by and burned the side of his face before searing into the wall behind him. Johan leapt to his feet and moved to tackle Austin.

  “Enough!” Edward bellowed.

  Austin’s rage expired the next moment and left him dangling in disbelief and horror. The orb dissolved but not before it went through the wall and destroyed an adjoining ceiling. Sean responded by sitting down, squaring his cuffs and losing all the emotive charge from a moment before. If he was in pain he ignored it masterfully.

  It was Edward. Austin felt him emerge from the patterns of his thoughts, a ghost rider, a chameleon that had played him like a video game. Then three more emerged, others who had helped.

  “We bound your control. The rage needed to surface to push your limits. Now we know.” One by one, they blinked out of Austin’s stream. “Now we know.”

  Johan stared, stunned. “What the fuck was that? And what do you know?”

  “Prophecy tells us of the Change, a person with gifts that will help end the Comannda’s reign.”

  “Gifts?” Austin asked. “Bullshit. You increased the proteins. You’re turning me into a god damned weapon.” He righted his chair and leaned against it, fishing for calm. He indicated Sean’s raw face. “You knew I could do that?”

  “No. Once again you exceeded expectations.”

  “This is nuts. Telekinetic killers? Javier did it in L.A. Are you trained to kill with your mind, too?”

  Sean shook his head. “It’s not what you think.”

  “It’s not?” He looked to Edward. “Well? What is it then?”

  “The proteins mean nothing if you can’t use them. Sean is one of our strongest TKs. The same levels in him change nothing.”

  “I’m maxed out,” Sean confirmed.

  “And Javier killed by disconnecting meta, not with telekinesis,” Edward explained. “I know of nobody, besides yourself, that has ever been able to do anything like that,” he looked at the hole in the wall, “in Raon.”

  Chapter 13

  It is a magnificent feeling to recognize the unity of complex phenomena

  which appear to be things quite apart from the direct visible truth.

  - Albert Einstein 1879-1955, German-born American Physicist

  In his bedroom on the third floor, Austin finished reading Kaiya’s last message in disbelief.

  She wasn’t going through with it.

  Her face was her own, she couldn’t let them change it or make any of the other changes. Despite the warrants for murder, despite her face plastered on every post office bulletin board across the country alongside Mac’s, she couldn’t bring herself to let them cut her up and be reshaped into someone else. It felt like an admission of guilt. She wanted to wait it out and see if circumstances changed.

  It wasn’t a complete surprise. A traditionalist in some ways, the thought of such a drastic and permanent reformation would screw with her badly. The pictures they’d sent of him didn’t help, seeing a stranger instead of his familiar face. Still, she had to know there were no good alternatives. Hiding in secret in a foreign country was perhaps the only option and even that posed risks of eventual discovery. It was no way to live. She was smart enough to realize that, which bothered him. Until she allowed the changes, she wouldn’t be able to join him in his new life or have any kind of real life herself.

  Careful to phrase his reply, he avoided pressure or criticism. She had to arrive there on her own. But it sucked. Man it sucked. To hold her again was all he could think of. Drawing her into a dream was a compelling temptation.

  He stood and paced the room before opening the French doors onto a small balcony. From the high perch, he took in the beauty of the evening. The grounds’ lighting complimented the celestial canopy above. The gazebo floated as an island of illumination, inviting in the velvet night. The forest’s spirit tinged the darkness beyond. Stories amid stories waited to be told to a patient and listening soul. His wasn’t the one, tonight.

  Motion below caught his eye. Johan and Anki walked hand in hand headed for the gazebo. Their bond was like psychic glue, visible from a distance. The sudden roar of envy was as embarrassing as it was painful. It should have been Kaiya and him adding to the forest’s memory.

  He retreated and gently closed the glass doors.

  • • •

  Sean sat with Edward in the study reviewing the latest updates.

  “Still haven’t found her.”

  Edward grimaced. If recovered, she’d likely not be the same. “I am surprised they have not tried anything yet. Such leverage.”

  Sean nodded. “As distasteful as it may be, we must continue corresponding in her place. If he goes to the dream state to look, it may be the only way we find her.”

  “And they will find him. We need to get him to the next stage quickly.”
<
br />   “Why not tonight?”

  Edward shook his head. “No, he is running on reserves. Tomorrow we will begin.”

  “And if he tries on his own tonight?”

  “He was lucky on the flight in and I let him know it. Bràthair will monitor. What of Anki?”

  “She’s stable. Not looking within, a bit scared at what she may find. Anchoring herself with Johan. Clare’s keeping silent, as you requested.”

  “Good. I don’t want to risk losing either of them.”

  • • •

  Forty yards past the gazebo in the darkness they rested, regaining their breath. They’d coupled like wild boars. Cool air descended from the stars. The night surrounded them, filled with a chorus of crickets and mockingbirds. If ever there were to be a perfect moment it had to be upon them.

  Anki ran her hand along his stomach, gently scraping with her nails. “I think I’m getting used to it.”

  “I imagine you are.” Using a method provided in training, they were able to climax together without hitting the radar. In their private bubble the contained orgasm was twice as powerful and far more intimate. “We could get rich just teaching that.”

  She ran her palm over his chest and kissed his shoulder. “What is Edward having you do?”

  “Don’t know yet. We were sidetracked.”

  “What did I miss?”

  “Austin. Turns out he has some latent gifts they’re drawing out of him. Semi-unpleasantly but pretty amazing. Not sure why Edward had you step out. I’ll talk to him.” Not sharing the energy blast with her was difficult.

  A shooting star made a brief dash across the heavens.

  “Don’t bother. I’m sure he has good reasons.”

  • • •

  Across the street, a child held his mother’s hand, bewildered by the crowds and the noise. No more than seven years old, he had to have heard the explosion and was frightened. When the crowd pulled the man from the shallow river, they’d beat him mercilessly before the Serbian police took him into custody. The man had vomited continuously from the old and weak cyanide pill he’d taken. How much the little boy had seen was impossible to tell, but the lollipop idle at his side suggested perhaps too much.