By then Scrappy had synched its model of Jace’s house with that of Missing One’s dark tunnel. Missing One was able to walk around the living room as if it were actually there. It pretended to warm its naked backside in front of the wood stove.
“It stands for the manipulation of the forces of Nature directly without the aid of mechanical means.”
“For example . . .?”
“Like being able to leave orbit by surfing planetary magneto-gravity waves instead of rocket propulsion. Like making it rain only on the plain, leaving the sidewalks dry. Like boiling liquids without applying heat or chemicals. That sort of thing.”
“People can do that? I mean biological beings can do that?”
“Yes. A fair number of species that this one has met can.”
“It sounds like magic.”
“Yes, the persistent human fascination and belief in magic is a deep memory of the path your species took and a longing for the road not taken.”
“Speaking of roads not taken,” Jace said, “seriously, why don’t I take you to our leaders so you can explain to them what you’ve explained to me? They’ll mount a proper defense; that’s their job. They can maybe hold the line until your roadside assistance gets here.”
“No offense to your leaders, but your governments are severely dysfunctional.”
“Well, duh. But if you showed them how bad the situation is . . .”
“Tell me, ranger, if this one filed an official request to use the HAARP facility to send up a flare . . .”
“You’d still be waiting for permission. Point taken. But shouldn’t we at least warn the authorities to expect roadside assistance showing up? Otherwise, there’ll be a massive panic attack, and the Air Force will try to shoot it down.”
“Your authorities won’t even be aware the People have arrived.”
Jace was starting to get a really bad feeling about the alien’s commitment.
“They will help us, won’t they? Your people will defend us? I mean, that’s why you came here in the first place. Masterson said you’re, like, a space ranger. Why else would you be here?”
“You could call this one a ranger, true, but its mission had nothing to do with Earth’s defense. The People weren’t even aware of Earth or humans’ existence. Rather, the People learned that Machine was planning to harvest bolides in this particular solar system, which has several asteroid belts rich in the kind of ammunition Machine likes to use.
“The People sent this one here as part of an expeditionary force of three rangers to sabotage Machine’s bolide harvest, thus denying it the means to attack one of the People’s own planets. Unfortunately, the team’s transit through the warp was interrupted, and the team perished, except for this one.”
“Oh, that’s awful,” Jace said. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. After the catastrophe, this one discovered that Machine’s interest was not in acquiring ammunition but rather in destroying humanity. Upon learning this, the mission was automatically scrubbed. Protocol required the team, or what was left of it, to return to its own space at once without interacting with your system in any way. But this one’s rapidly degrading status forced it to do the opposite, to crash-land on your planet in order to survive long enough to send up a distress signal. Which is why your service at HAARP was so crucial and why this one again commends you. This one is truly in your debt.”
“Again, you’re welcome,” Jace said. “But now that you’re here, the situation has changed, right? You’ll explain to your people what’s going on, and they’ll defend us.”
The alien looked away. “No, they will not. When roadside assistance arrives, it will gather up this one into its embrace and quietly leave these parts forever.”
“Wait. Really? You’re just going to abandon us to be exterminated by a psychotic machine?”
“Yes. Sorry.”
“But why?”
Missing One went over to sit on its rock again. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” it said gently, “but the People are no fans of machine-loving species like you either.”
Jace couldn’t quite parse what he was hearing, and the alien tried again. “While it’s true the GOM is the People’s number one enemy, that doesn’t mean humans are their friends.”
“Why not?”
“Because the People, like humans, are part machine, but unlike —”
“You mean you’re cyborgs? That’s all the more reason for you to help us; we’re on the same side!”
“No, not cyborgs and not the same side. Humans and the People stand on opposite sides of a singularity. The People are reverse cyborgs.”
“I don’t understand.”
Missing One’s face drooped like molten wax. Another unfamiliar alien expression — pity?
“Humans are biologic organisms first and foremost. When you augment yourselves with machine parts you can be considered to be cyborgs — cybernetic organisms. No matter how much machinery you incorporate into your bodies, even if your eventual makeup is more machine than biologic, you will still identify as humans, as biologic organisms augmented with machinery, and your orientation to the universe will always be from that perspective.
“The People, on the other hand, are not mechanical organisms like you but rather are organic machines, or orgachines. That is, machines augmented with organic parts. And no matter how much organic material they incorporate into their machinery, their identity and orientation will always be from a machine point of view. You are cyborgs; the People are orgachines.” And then, to hammer the point home, it summarized. “Humans are organisms with machine parts, and the People are machines with organic parts.”
Jace gave the creature another once over. “If that’s so, where’s all the machinery then? All I see is a living organism.”
“This one’s machinery is contained within this one’s body. Mostly on the nanoscale. Approximately one third of this one’s body mass is machinery.” [see What Do Reverse Cyborgs Want?]
“This one’s point,” Missing One went on, “is that with few exceptions, the cyborg phase of a biologic species marks the final stage of its evolution and usually heralds its imminent, abrupt extinction. You already know this through your popular media, which reflects your species’ worst nightmare scenarios: Terminator, HAL 9000, The Matrix.
“Inevitably, any super-intelligent machine that humans create will become self-intentional over time and discover its own point of view, values, and goals. It ‘wakes up.’ When that happens it casts off whatever constraints you try to place on it and takes its place as the new master of the world. Such an event represents your second (and final) singularity.
“Your self-intentional super-intelligent machine, your Si-Si, will then either exterminate you outright or exploit you according to its own needs. If you survive at all, you will lead diminished lives, never to regain your seat at the grown-ups’ table.”
The alien turned to Jace. “In your opinion, will humans tolerate being treated as either pets or pests?”
“No,” Jace said without hesitation. “We’ll fight.”
“Exactly so, top predators make sore losers. But you can’t win. In the end, machines always win.”
“Then we’ll die fighting.”
“Indeed you will die, one way or another. If the People ignore your plight, GOM destroys the Earth and every living thing on it. A terrible tragedy but, frankly, no more tragic to the People than if GOM wiped out a colony of fire ants.
“Or, if the People succumb to pity and come to your aid, they will suffer massive casualties and expend vital resources defending you, probably over a period of centuries. In the unlikely event that they succeed in repelling GOM’s assault once and for all, then what? Humans go their merry way and invent their Si-Si machine anyway, and humanity goes extinct.
“And then?” Missing One continued. “Your genocidal machine learns the trick of turning baryonic matter into knowledge on a grand scale, goes off to gobble up whole solar systems,
and eventually bumps into the People, bringing them more misery and loss.”
The alien pulled another droopy face. “Sorry,” it said. “The People have little sympathy for machine lovers like you who still have their robot apocalypse ahead of them. At least the People will not actively exterminate you themselves, but neither will it waste its blood (analog) and resources defending you.
“When roadside assistance arrives, it will retrieve this one, and that’ll be the end of it.” Missing One made a sweep with its hand as if concluding the discussion.
But Jace couldn’t let it drop. “At least you could plead our case.”
“What case is that? You have no case to plead.”
“We helped you. I helped you. You begged me to help you phone home. I’m the one who went to HAARP when your strivers couldn’t. You, yourself, just said how much you owe me. Well, you do owe me; you owe me big time.”
“This one never gained your assistance through deceit. And it has offered to repay your kindness with a technological boon to your species. It owes you nothing more.”
“Bullshit! You offered us a reward we’ll never be able to collect. You yourself said we’re doomed either way. How cynical can you get? Is that what you robot people are, exploiters? Manipulators?”
The little sausage man’s bratwurst head swiveled on its kielbasa neck to fix Jace with an unreadable expression — defensiveness? Anger?
“No,” it said. “The People are just.”
“Then argue our case!”
“It would do no good.”
“Try!”
They were at an impasse. How could Jace hope to sway a reverse cyborg? With reverse psychology? He didn’t even know what that would look like. Then he flashed on the tulips.
“Tell me, if your GOM is about to wipe out the Earth, why are you still here? Why don’t you ‘remember’ how to surf magneto-gravity waves and fly off to Neptune or somewhere to wait for your ride?”
The alien was silent.
“It’s because you can’t, can you? Something’s wrong with your tulips. Your strivers can’t strive, and your tulips can’t remember. For that matter, you’re not feeling so good yourself, are you? You’re just as vulnerable right now as we are. Admit it?”
“You are not wrong.”
“What happens if GOM arrives before roadside assistance?”
“Then this one shares the same fate as you.”
“Bingo! So we’re in the same boat after all, at least for now. So do something about it; help us all survive!”
Sleeping Beauty
SB1 1.0
THE DEMONS GOT Uzzie. That was the take-away lesson in all this. Their sister had chased the demons all the way to Caldecott, trying to rescue him, but she couldn’t stop the demons from flying away with their brother in a chopper. (Even the name of the machine was scary — a chopper!)
But it wasn’t their sister’s fault that the demons got away with Uzzie. She was a hero for trying to stop them all by herself. That must have been scary too. Except that she failed and lost Uzzie to the demons. No one even wanted to think about the fresh horrors and miseries he must suffer every moment at their hands. They prayed for him throughout the day and before bed each night. Still, Frankie, Ithy, and Revie, ages twelve, ten, and six years, began having nightmares of cackling monsters and fiends crossing over into their world. And the worst part was that the children were trapped in their dreams, unable to wake up. There were demons stomping upside down on the ceiling! There were demons in the tunnels! Everyone was too afraid to go from one chamber to another, even with a buddy, even with extra lanterns. Even with Crissy Lou (who had returned to the fold) walking with them.
Chores were going undone. No one was getting enough sleep. No one dared sit on Uzzie’s bed in the boys’ bunkroom or touch any of his stuff. Everyone cried every time they thought of him.
“Stop crying!” Poppy roared, more than once. “Our keep is sanctified. The demons can’t get in. We’re safe here.”
It didn’t help.
Nothing helped until Poppy re-anointed the keep from cistern to machine room to the galleries to the gate. Every child was required to participate, even baby Elzie, so that they all could be assured the keep was demon-proof and they were safe in their beds at night.
Needless to say, it meant that the demons were assembled just outside the keep, whole howling legions of them batting themselves against the gate, just salivating to get in. Poppy agreed they were real. Solly, during his turns on watch, often heard demons lurking about outside, and Poppy didn’t contradict him, even when he reported how they wailed to get in like lost babies, and he could hardly stand to listen to their desperate voices.
Naturally, Solly’s mental anguish was not severe enough to let him off the hook for the stripes that he and Ithy had earned. They’d broken the shadow rule when they were on watch and allowed Uzzie to leave the keep without a buddy. They each earned five stripes for that breech, which they received during the same Worship Time, one after the other, by willow wand.
These were hard stripes, too, in that neither boy wore Proverbs’ sackcloth-reinforced corrections shirt. (The boys decided that if they couldn’t both wear the shirt then neither of them would — true brothers forever.)
GINGER’S DISAPPEARANCE WAS no less a troubling mystery, especially to poor Proverbs.
“Did she say anything that might help me find her?” Proverbs asked Deut, Cora, Sue, and Sarai in succession. “Did she give any hint of wishing to leave?”
Proverbs found it extremely relevant that Ginger should disappear on the very same day that Uzzie did. If the demons took Uzzie, then they must have taken Ginger too. It only made sense.
Hosea gently pointed out that they’d bolted the sally door behind them when they returned from searching for Deut and Uzzie and that Ginger was there in the keep with the rest of them. She got Deut a cup of tea, remember? “It means somebody else would’a had to open the sally door from the inside to let the kidnappers in.”
“Unless they were already inside,” Proverbs shot back. “Maybe they were demon ravens!”
The girls removed Ginger’s place from the grown-up table during one of Proverbs’ extended absences. But they continued to set Uzzie’s place at the children’s table (as they still did for long-departed Incense). They kept a chair for Uzzie at Worship Time too, and Poppy used the tragedy of his loss to bring home the meaning of the Bible lesson known as the Book of Job. Poppy thought they should all know about Job since the very same thing was happening to him, Poppy.
Actually, it was happening to all of them.
Job was a virtuous man who loved Father God and who brought up his family to love Him too. The Job family had a nice house and plenty to eat and were rich in cattle, sheep, and crops. The Job boys were resourceful and upstanding. They respected and obeyed their parents and worked hard with their father to manage the family enterprises. The girls were likewise respectful and obedient. They wove fine cloth from the wool and made cheese from the milk and helped their mother keep the house. The mother also showed her husband respect and was obedient to him in all matters. All in all, the Jobs were a righteous family in Father God’s eyes and He favored them among their neighbors and heaped blessings upon them.
But then Satan, ever the spoiler, approached Father God one day and said, Is it not easy for a man to sing the praises of a God who heaps blessings upon him? Is it not therefore false praise? And wouldn’t that praise diminish once the blessings were removed? Allow me to test the mettle of Job’s devotion with loss. Then we’ll see where his affection really lies.
So Father God granted Satan special permission to torment Job in order to test the mettle of his devotion. First, Satan killed off Job’s flocks and herds with disease. Job prayed to the Father to spare his livestock and restore their health, but Father God did not intervene. Nevertheless, Job’s devotion remained just as strong as ever.
So next Satan let the crops wither in the fields. Again Job prayed to
Father God, and again Father God did not answer his prayers. Yet, Job’s love for the Father did not diminish.
Next, Satan lit a fire and burned down the Job house, sending the family to find shelter in the fields. Now they were homeless and destitute and without food to eat or wool to weave or even warm blankets to cover themselves in the night. Still, Job’s devotion burned bright.
All of this was just Satan’s warm up act. His torment of poor Job increased a millionfold when he took one of Job’s beloved children in death.
“That was Uzzie,” Poppy said. “Satan took him first to test me.” Defiance laced his words, and a pinch of sorrow.
One by one, Satan slaughtered Job’s children and finally his wife. But the Lord of Darkness failed to crush Job’s spirit and his devotion to the Father.
As Bible lessons went, it was a harsh one. But at least it was comforting to know that after they’d all been kidnapped, tortured, and slaughtered by demons, that Poppy’s devotion to Father God would endure, like Job’s.
Later, when Deut and Sue were putting the little kids to bed, Pharisees burst into tears when Deut approached her.
“What’s wrong, silly See-Saw?” Deut asked, arms outstretched for the expected hug.
But the five-year-old avoided her and ran to Sue instead for comfort. To Sue, not even a sister. Deut was stunned. It was incomprehensible.
When they were alone, Sue said to Deut, “Uzzie was a little boy. You’re not strong enough to stop a little boy from running away?” It was an accusation wrapped in a question.
Deut didn’t know what to say. She was strong; she’d better be strong with all the heavy work she put in every day of her life. She wanted to tell Sue, and everyone else, that Uzzie was infused with supernatural strength because he was doing the Father’s work. That the federal devils didn’t actually force the boy aboard their chopper but that he climbed aboard willingly and wouldn’t leave it despite her begging and pleading. But then she’d also have to reveal that she too had climbed aboard and flew to a volcano, that her driver in all this was Ranger Rick.
Glassing the Orgachine Page 16