EHuman Dawn

by Nicole Sallak Anderson

  “Alrisha. Meet Adam,” Marcus said, introducing them, “Adam, this is Alrisha—our lead Hacker.”

  Alrisha had short-cropped, black hair and incredibly dark, pupil-less eyes without eyebrows. He was smaller in frame, like a woman’s, but no breasts could be seen. Alrisha’s hands were delicate with long, gentle fingers. Alrisha noticed Adam’s confused stare and smiled.

  “Trying to figure me out, huh? Everyone does. We resistance members can design our own eHuman bodies. We’re not limited to the old human standards. Why should we be? When I first joined the Resistance, I chose to create the body I’d always longed for. I wanted to be purple. I can’t understand why more people don’t choose alternative skin colors. How repressed can we be? Same with sex. I mean, really—none of us can reproduce, so why bother with male or female? It drove me crazy up above that the LMOs wouldn’t offer something in between. It’s not like anyone’s going to milk my breasts, right?”

  Adam frowned slightly at Alrisha’s forthrightness. He looked to Marcus, who didn’t seem a bit surprised.

  “Yes,” Marcus murmured, “Alrisha pushes the limits. Actually, I’m surprised more of our colleagues haven’t joined her in her purple skinned, sexless revolution. But they haven’t. I think sexual preference is an old archetype, as ancient as the human being. It’s a hard one to let go of. But the funky colored skin? In my opinion it’s only a matter of time before we’re all purple down here in Avalon.”

  “For your sake,” Alrisha said patronizingly to Adam, “I’ll accept the pronoun she.”

  Adam nodded, not sure what to think.

  “Our work here,” Alrisha continued, ignoring Adam’s unease, “is to spy on the network. In order to do this without being seen by the Guardians, we invented the headsets. They let us plug in and traverse Neuro with our thoughts—just like everyone else. But they don’t allow read or write access to our own database. In this way, our true identities stored in our hard drives can’t be discovered. Neither can our location. To make doubly sure, our headsets send out fake coordinates to confuse any Guardians who might pick up our trail. Lastly, the Guardians can’t manipulate our databases or download any upgrades of their own.”

  “Then…how do you record anything?” Adam asked.

  “The headsets work with our own internal visual applications, which allow us to read everything on Neuro,” she explained, “Then we type all the data into the terminals that you see around the room, to store on our own personal network, which is closed to Neuro. Unfortunately, the Guardians are aware of this. Therefore, much work is done to keep our network safe from Guardian attack. That means that while some spy, others secure our network so we can communicate globally with other RCCs, as well as internally, via such features as TeleSpeak.”

  “It might seem archaic that they type all the data from Neuro,” Marcus added, “but we can’t risk a direct connection. Our CPUs are vulnerable enough!”

  Alrisha snorted at the statement. Then she shrugged.

  “Fair enough,” she replied. “Our spies sniff data and mine it for conversations. While the WG and Guardians themselves have their own closed network, many of their affiliates, family members and friends are on Neuro. That’s how we pick up the rumors. From there we do our research. eHumans love Pleasure Zone Apps, so sometimes a WG member is found on Neuro, participating in a group sex session. We get some fantastic information that way!”

  “The Hackers also attack Neuro,” Marcus jumped in. “They send viruses, worms, messages, whatever, in order to thwart the Guardians’ daily upgrades.”

  “Dawn mentioned that her Hackers would erase my memory if I plugged in,” Adam said.

  “That’d be me!” Alrisha declared, “Your ID number was flagged by Dawn. If you’d plugged in, the flag in our database would have alerted us and informed us of what operation to perform. In your case, most likely, a small app would have been downloaded to your CPU to erase your previous few days of memory. You see, eHuman software is really very easy to manipulate.”

  Adam felt very uncomfortable.

  “We also recruit new Resistance members,” Alrisha added.

  “Recruit?” Adam asked.

  “Sure. Like you,” she explained with a mysterious air, “We found you via our data mining process. You have many interesting attributes. They led us to believe you might be interested in saving your own life—as well as the lives of others. You’ve been on our radar for some time.”

  Adam nodded hesitantly. It seemed everyone, both the Guardians and the Resistance, was spying on him.

  Alrisha sensed his discomfort. She’d always been one of the more sensitive members of the Resistance. Immediately, she felt called to alleviate Adam’s fear.

  “Dawn’s given me instructions to allow you to plug into our network,” she began.

  “Really?” Adam answered, “Why?”

  “So you can find out more about our mission, our history, and why we’re going through all the trouble of recruiting you,” she answered truthfully.

  “Do you need me for anything else?” Marcus interrupted, “Because if you don’t, I’d really like to get back to the lab.”

  “Permission granted to leave the recruit with me,” Alrisha answered, “Feel free to head back to your la-la land.”

  “La-la land? Look who’s talking. You’re the one who deals with invisible bits and bytes,” Marcus said, “I actually make things!”

  “Boys and bombs,” she replied, rolling her eyes.

  Marcus turned on his heel and sauntered to the door, calling over his shoulder to Adam, “I told you this was going to be interesting. Good luck.”

  “How do I get on the network?” Adam asked Alrisha.

  “We plug you in,” she answered, leading him to a console in the corner. She fitted a headset on him and typed in a few access codes on the screen.

  “There. Now you have permission,” she smiled.

  “Permission to do what?” he asked.

  “To investigate,” she answered, “After all, you are a reporter, right?”

  “Yeah,” he replied.

  “Then hop to it,” she advised, “I’m sure there are a google-squared things you want to know. Just use our database search engine. Ask it what you want. You use your thoughts, just like when you’re plugged in. You’ll be able to use Neuro incognito.”

  With that, Alrisha ran to her own station as fast as her booted feet could take her. She slipped on her own headset. In a nanosecond, she was hot on the trail of the Guardians, chasing them through cyberspace. An unseen warrior in an unseen war.

  Given her years at the helm, Alrisha knew that data ruled the eHuman world. Everything, from one’s dreams and thoughts to one’s daily desires and actions, was monitored, recorded and stored in 1s or 0s. Bits and bytes were powerful in a world where a simple program upgrade could convince billions of people to turn a blind eye to the sun and its power to provide energy.

  With the headset adorning his forehead like a crown, Adam found himself swimming in so much data and information that his CPU was in overdrive. He filled his database with pertinent information, savoring every byte. Searching, and knowing no one or nothing was looking over his shoulder, thrilled him. As he dug deeper into sources of information he’d never thought of researching before, he could see the dots start to connect on the corruption of the WG—and began to envision the Newsreel he would deliver to the people of Neuro.

  Naturally, Adam searched for any information about himself. He’d never done it before, because such searches were frowned upon by the authorities. Amazingly, after digging deep in various archives, he finally discovered an official record of his Jump history. Not much information in the document—but it was like looking back into a forgotten world. He discovered that before the Great Shift, he’d been called Phillip Kingsley. He was a male machinist. He’d Jumped in 2049 to become Adam Winter. No other information was listed. Follow-up searches revealed nothing at all on Kingsley. Why would there be? A machinist?

&n
bsp; Adam had envisioned a grand pre-Great Shift existence, often imagining himself as a famous inventor or a movie star. Instead, he’d been a boring, inconsequential man with an even more inconsequential name. Adam stared that the data entry with disdain, muttering the words, “Phillip Kingsley,” over and over to himself, as if he couldn’t believe it was his true identity.

  Resignedly, he decided to take his mind off his less-than-impressive pedigree, and searched instead for Dr. James Neville. An extensive amount of information was returned. Adam began to request various links, verifying that all of the information Origen and Dawn had shared was true. Dr. Neville had discovered and proved the existence of the human Lux, and also invented a multitude of technologies, such as the Chi-Regulator, the Jump process and the eHuman body itself.

  This same Dr. Neville was listed as a known terrorist, charged with founding the Global Resistance. His current status in Neuro was “Deceased” and it appeared he had lived a long human life of ninety-four years. Adam found it suspicious that instead of Jumping and becoming an eHuman, Dr. Neville had chosen to grow old and die. Why not use the technology he’d invented?

  As Adam continued to investigate, the name Edgar Prince was often mentioned. Adam decided to learn more about the man eHuman folklore had branded “The Father of eHumanity.” One image stood out: Prince standing outside of the WG capitol building in Gemetria, named the Golden Hall due to its gleaming, solid gold exterior. The steps behind him glimmered in the sun as he shook hands with the first World Leader, Ruth Donavan.

  Adam tapped the image on his screen and it began to play a recorded video. The moment Edgar spoke, anger coursed through Adam, taking him by surprise. As far as Adam knew, he had never met Edgar Prince—so why would hostility run through his system?

  “It’s with great pleasure that I’ve joined forces with World Leader Donavan. Together, we will bring order and continuity to the eHuman world!” Edgar Prince announced, “Ever since I founded Guardian Networks, I’ve desired to use my technological empire to help humanity. The moment I learned of the Dawn Project, I knew immediately—it was my destiny to share my wealth with others and bring this gift of health and immortality to all who desired it. I now offer my company, Guardian Networks, as a tool for World Leader Donavan and her colleagues in the WG, to help usher humanity into a the era of eternal peace and prosperity!”

  The video, made as a propaganda item by the WG, had continuously streamed on Neuro just after the Great Shift had completed, announcing to the newly created eHuman population that Guardian Networks would be given control of the LMOs. At the time, it had made sense that the engineers who designed Neuro would manage it going forward. After all, Edgar Prince was seen as the Father of eHumanity—so who better than he to run Neuro?

  No one at that time fully understood that when they granted ownership of the LMOs to Guardian Networks, they essentially turned over their very thoughts and dreams to Edgar Prince. While the magnitude of the deception was overwhelming, for some reason it felt familiar to Adam, as if somewhere in the deep places of his being, he already knew of Edgar’s treacherous intentions.

  “Who owns Guardian Networks now?” Adam thought, and Neuro issued another search.

  As the information began to fill the screen, he felt a hand on his shoulder. From the sensations that pulsed through his body, he somehow knew it was Dawn. Instantly he relaxed. Realizing just how much her touch affected him, he smiled and turned to face her. He was coming to accept the fact that Dawn was one of the most desirable women he had ever met. Why bother fighting it or trying to convince himself otherwise? To his relief, she was alone.

  “Just after the Great Shift,” she explained, eagerly noticing the affection in Adam’s gaze, “Guardian Networks merged with several other powerful multinational corporations and renamed itself Guardian Enterprises. The headquarters were relocated to the island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. Guardian Enterprises is currently run by several eHuman executives, including Edgar Prince himself. All these executives have heavy ties to the WG.”

  “And what happened to Ruth Donavan?” Adam asked.

  “Oh, that’s quite embarrassing,” Dawn replied with a serious look, “The current World Leader, Rosario Donahi, is actually the same person who was Ruth Donavan during the Great Shift. All seventy WG politicians are originals. They keep Jumping into new bodies and identities to provide fresh faces and personalities after each election. Essentially the population is continuously electing the same people over and over again—just in a new package—every ten years.”

  Dawn quickly tapped the screen in front of Adam and the image of an eHuman city appeared. Its order and perfection was apparent, as thousands of PTDs sailed along the intra-city freeway system, all synchronously timed to shuttle their eHumans to their various jobs without delay. From the immaculate sidewalks and towering metal buildings to the manicured parkways, it was the pinnacle of industrial innovation.

  “On the surface, it’s a beautiful technological wonder,” Dawn admitted. “But what you don’t see is the work being done behind the scenes. You were fortunate enough to have Jumped into the entertainment industry. Most eHumans were poor before the Great Shift—and poor they remain. They labor all day and night, in factories, on machines, in mining operations and in warehouses. Our civilization is a beautiful front for a large scale system of slavery. eHumans work at the speed of machines, but with the ability to adapt and invent. They work for their immortality and the pleasures of Neuro. The elites cash in on this cheap labor. This is the real reason the Dawn Project was purchased by Guardian Networks. It made a few people, namely Edgar Prince and his cronies, very, very rich.”

  Adam was silent as an angry storm began brewing within him.

  “Hello, Master Dawn,” Alrisha said reverently, bowing slightly to her leader.

  “Hello, Alrisha. Have you been taking good care of my guest?” Dawn teased, a bright smile lighting up her otherwise anxious face.

  “Of course,” Alrisha nodded, “Find anything interesting, Adam?”

  “Yes. I discovered my identity before the Great Shift,” he announced.

  Dawn turned to him, his revelation blowing out her smile like a candle in the wind. She’d seen enough of his Newsreels to know that he was an excellent journalist, so she wasn’t surprised he would discover his pre-Great Shift identity. His past was, after all, the reason she had recruited him. It was a conversation she both dreaded and desired.

  But now wasn’t the time for the conversation about Adam’s human origin—especially not in front of the entire contingent of Hackers. Dawn didn’t want to get too many people’s hopes up until she was absolutely sure about Adam’s past.

  “Always an interesting query, isn’t it?” she interrupted him before he could reveal any more, “Discovering who we were before we Jumped into eHuman form is a religion for some. I’d love to discuss your past life some time—but first we have a little business to attend to.”

  Adam nodded.

  “The Resistance has approved your entry. You’ll be given Officer Level II clearance as well as your first assignment, which will be in infantry. We’ve acquired a key item of information: an intercepted transmission from an LMO in the city of New Chelyabinsk to the LMO in New Omaha, listing two hundred cities targeted for shut-down in the next three weeks. Our plan, called Operation Insurrection, is to infiltrate those cities and take them over before the massacres begin.”

  “An ambitious plan—” Adam began, but Dawn cut him off.

  “Phase I involves sending out troops and positioning them at various key locations just outside the targeted cities. Interestingly, every city on the chopping block is located near a RCC, so it will only take two to three days to have everything and everyone in place.

  “Phase II will be a timed initial attack. We hope to strike them all at once, so as to take advantage of the element of surprise. The WG doesn’t realize our true strength. They won’t expect us to attack in such numbers.

 
“Phase III will be the subsequent peacekeeping efforts, which must include a complete takeover of Neuro from the Guardians, ensuring that we have ultimate power over the WG. For without Neuro, the WG have no way to control us, or the population we seek to protect.”

  “And my part in your plans?” Adam asked.

  “As I already mentioned, you’ve been assigned to infantry,” she explained.

  “What does that mean?” Adam was unfamiliar with the terms used within the Resistance. War, death, famine, and illness were of the ages before the Great Shift. Adam’s eHuman database contained no entries or memories of such things.

  “You’ll join the march on New Omaha,” she replied.

  “To do what?” he cried.

  “To take it from the WG,” Dawn answered with a slight tone of annoyance.

  “And how do I do that?” he challenged.

  “You kill Guardians and WG officers,” Alrisha answered, “with your ElectroShock gun.”

  “You expect me to kill someone?” Adam was outraged. The thought of killing another eHuman had never entered his mind.

  “Shit, Adam—what do you think a siege is?” Alrisha asked with a look of complete astonishment upon her face, “Didn’t Dawn tell you we were going to take back our world from those bastards?

  “Yes, but she never mentioned killing anyone,” Adam replied desperately. He stared at Dawn with a look of frustration. For the first time, she looked slightly less attractive.

  “I told you that you’d be given complete access to the Resistance, so you could tell the world our story. Well, Operation Insurrection is our story! You have to go into the battle in order to cover it properly!” she said forcefully.

  Dawn had spent almost two centuries preparing for this war. Since members were often caught and killed by the WG, death had always been a part of Resistance life. But for Adam, this was not the case. Two hundred years without death had removed the construct from his mind. The idea of taking another person’s life seemed drastic. Even more terrifying was the concept of losing his own life in the process. Before Adam got a chance to defend himself, Origen entered the room, ending the conversation in its tracks.