EHuman Dawn

by Nicole Sallak Anderson

  “No!” they cried out, continuing to struggle against their captors. Only Edgar remained still. He stared at Evelyn and Origen with a slight smile upon his face that made Adam sick. The guards surrounded them, and the line of captives began to file out a door to the back of the hall. The crowd stared in silence. The punishment frightened everyone in the room.

  Edgar Prince forced his guard to stop so that he could address his traitorous offspring one last time.

  “Elijah and Evelyn,” he said from across the room, “You’ve made a grave mistake! Your enterprise will fail! You’ll see! The world is not as it seems! This is not the last of me, my dear children! Remember, I’m a man of many plans. I’d watch my backs if I were you!”

  Then he turned to Origen and smiled maliciously. A chill came over the entire room.

  “And yours as well, Mr. World Leader,” Edgar taunted icily.

  Origen waved his hand in dismissal.

  “Be gone, Edgar Prince. Your time has ended!”

  Three guards finally pushed Edgar through the door, which closed behind them with a loud clang.

  “And now,” Origen announced to the crowd gathered in the Golden Hall, “It’s time to celebrate!”

  Adam turned to Dawn and smiled. In spite of what had just transpired, Adam couldn’t resist the enthusiasm of the crowd, and joined in the cheering.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  The celebrations in Gemetria continued nonstop for three days. Fireworks, parades, dancing and music filled the skies, streets and dance halls. Pleasure Zone orbs were traded like candy. It seemed the eHumans had no problem letting go and enjoying the victory. Similar festivities were being held in cities all over the world.

  One of the first things the couple had done upon arriving in Gemetria, was upgrade their eHuman bodies with the latest in Pleasure Zone Technologies. As a result, Adam and Dawn had left the festivities early and taken to their suite, located on the eastern end of the palace, to enjoy one another’s new features. As the sun began to rise, Adam and Dawn sat upon their balcony overlooking the city, wrapped each other’s arms. It was a glorious sight to see all the joy and love that had replaced the orderly and purposeful obedience of eHuman life.

  “We’ll need to get back to work, eventually,” Dawn murmured into Adam’s neck, which she was covering with light kisses. Her fingers caressed his chest, gently sending him waves of delight.

  Adam answered softly, “Can’t we celebrate one more day?”

  Dawn laughed.

  “Origen’s already at work,” she reminded him.

  “Which is why I’m glad you turned down the Job of Supreme Commander,” Adam teased her.

  Dawn shook her golden hair out of her face and gazed at Adam. His dark eyes met her green ones and each one remained silent with the gratitude that only reunited lovers can share.

  “Well,” Dawn said hesitantly, “Now what?”

  “What do you mean?” Adam asked.

  “You know, each of us made vows to ourselves during the Great Shift,” she explained, “I vowed I would find you in the eHuman world, and remind you of your inheritance as Elijah Prince.”

  “And I vowed I would find you,” Adam replied.

  “And plug into Neuro’s source code to load the Trojan Horse, giving power to Evelyn,” Dawn added.

  “Who vowed to protect me while doing so,” Adam finished.

  “It seems the three of us have fulfilled all our agreements,” a voice called from behind them.

  Adam and Dawn turned to see Evelyn Prince standing in the doorway. Her dark eyes pierced Adam’s with a sense of familiarity that overwhelmed him. It seemed his Lux knew her intimately. She was his sister—and somehow the light of his consciousness knew this, even if his memory did not.

  “Sorry to intrude,” she said as she walked across the balcony, “The door was open so I came in.”

  “No problem,” Dawn replied, “You’re always welcome.”

  “I’ve been wondering,” Adam asked his sister, “Why did we work together to create this plan? I can’t remember a thing and I was hoping you could. Edgar said that all of his constituents had the MindScrape procedure done.”

  Evelyn gazed at him with sadness.

  “Unfortunately, I wasn’t privy to that procedure. I never qualified as one of his constituents. I’ve no recollection of the day you and I made our plan. But Dr. Neville did include a data file in my software that leaves a hint.”

  “Really? What?”

  “It seems that our mother was against becoming an eHuman and didn’t want to Jump. She’d recently gone missing, and while ‘Daddy Dearest’ hadn’t told me anything directly, I knew he had a hand in her disappearance.

  “We decided that we would get even with Edgar and hatched the Trojan Horse plan. Dr. Neville planted it in both of us to make sure we executed that plan, if ever we did meet again in the eHuman world.”

  “Atienne,” Adam murmured.

  “Atienne?” Evelyn cried, “Was that her name?”

  Adam nodded. “Yes. Edgar mentioned her on New Caledonia.”

  Adam looked at Evelyn with deep sadness. He drew her close and held her, wishing once again that his eHuman form would allow him to cry. After a moment, he released her.

  The trio looked out upon the city as the sun began to make its way into the sky, casting its golden spell upon the people dancing and celebrating in the streets.

  “You’re right,” Adam continued, “We have fulfilled our agreements. So what do we do now?”

  “I’m busy for the next year or so working with Origen,” Evelyn explained, “The Open Neuro Project has many complexities. It won’t be easy to get the eHumans of the world to operate within Neuro with integrity. Good thing I’ll have Origen to help me.”

  Adam noticed a smile form upon her face as she said Origen’s name.

  “You like him, don’t you?” he asked.

  “Yes I do. Is that an issue?” Evelyn teased.

  “Not unless he does something to make it an issue,” Adam answered.

  Dawn punched Adam on the arm.

  “It isn’t your business, Adam,” she joked.

  Adam looked at the two women and shook his head. It would take longer than infinity for him to actually understand women.

  “Anyway, Evelyn and I have been talking,” Dawn continued, “And she shared some information with me that has piqued my interest.”

  “Really? And what might that be?” Adam asked, relieved that Dawn was finally sharing her plans with him.

  “In my work within the system,” Evelyn explained, “I often dealt with information pertaining to the vast land areas between eHuman cities. You know, areas that were uninhabited after the Great Shift. Most of the data records I dealt with contained mining information. Guardian Enterprises had exclusive rights to all natural resources and used them abundantly. But sometimes military campaigns were sent into the regions.”

  “Why would there be a need for military strikes in uninhabited lands?” Adam asked.

  “That’s what I wonder,” Dawn agreed, “Most of the campaigns were authorized to completely destroy the land and everything living surrounding the target.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” he mused.

  “It does if there’s something else using the land—and you don’t want to share it,” Evelyn pointed out.

  “What could possibly be living in the wild that would pose such a threat? Adam asked.

  “People,” Dawn replied.

  “What do you mean, people?” Adam clarified.

  “People who escaped the Great Shift,” Dawn answered.

  “That’s impossible!” he cried.

  “Is it?” Evelyn challenged.

  “Anyway,” Dawn continued, “It’s a long shot, I know, but I’ve always sensed that there was no way the WG rounded up every single person who didn’t want to Jump. One of our early Resistance goals was to find any survivors and offer them amnesty. But our reconnaissance never led us to any sign
s of life in the wild, other than animal or eHuman mining activities.”

  “And what does this have to do with your next steps?” Adam asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Well,” she replied hesitantly, “I want to explore some of the locations that were the targets of WG military campaigns. I want to see what we can find out there in the wild places of the world.”

  “What do you mean we?” Adam clarified.

  “You and me,” she answered with a smile, “After all, it’s time to close the door on our past. Sophia and Elijah are no more. Instead, it’s time for Adam and Dawn to create a new life together—and new memories that no one can ever take from us.”

  Adam returned her smile and cupped her close to his side with one arm.

  “And what better way to do that, my dear,” Dawn continued, “than to go on an adventure!”

  Adam Winter laughed with pure joy. He turned to his sister and wrapped his other arm around her.

  Standing between the two women, he gave thanks for the new life he had been given.

  Holding them closer, he kissed them each lightly on the cheek. They were his family. He’d never been happier in his whole eHuman life.

  “An adventure, huh?” he said as the new day broke upon the capitol city of Gemetria, “My love, I couldn’t agree more!”

  EPILOGUE

  The newly appointed World Leader stood upon the catwalk in the sparsely furnished prison, looking down upon his first set of inmates. The seventy former members of the WG lined up against the white wall beside the Guardian Enterprises executives convicted of various war crimes, each plugged in and living within the Limbo App. A thick glass wall separated them from Origen and the simple control center that monitored their systems.

  Their bodies were expressionless, needed only to provide the Chi to keep each Lux within the system, rather than released in death, which have been a much pleasanter sentence. Each seemed calm and placid, eyes closed and bodies at rest. But Origen knew their silent exterior betrayed the observer, for within the system, their Lux were in a constant state of terror and agitation.

  He glanced at the screen on the console before him, noting information it provided. As he scrolled through each prisoner’s status files, lines jumped up and down a graph displaying the rate at which etheric energy was being drawn from the Chi-Regulator. The more distressed the Lux, the more random their intervals of etheric energy use were. Rather than the perfect sine wave that most eHumans operated under, their graphs looked like the jagged teeth of a shark. Origen smiled.

  His eyes scanned each captive again, going down the row, until his gaze rested upon the serene face of Edgar Prince. The man had finally been silenced. In many ways, it seemed impossible to Origen that he stood here now as the World Leader, and Edgar Prince was held captive in front of him. In all honesty, the warrior had never truly believe he would see the day when the “Father of eHumanity” was thrown out of power. But there Edgar was, bound and incarcerated, right before Origen’s eyes.

  He glanced around the room to verify they were alone.

  “So, you thought you had it all under control, didn’t you?” Origen whispered down to Edgar, even though he knew the man couldn’t hear him.

  “What, cat got your tongue?” he sardonically continued, “See me now? I’m the new World Leader, not your little whore! What do you think of that?”

  Silence, of course.

  “No matter. I don’t need you to congratulate me. Let’s just put it this way you bastard, after the trick you pulled with the nuclear weapons, I think I went easy on you with this punishment!”

  Edgar remained still. Origen was grateful for the Limbo App.

  “Enjoy the next one hundred years, oh dear father of us all,” Origen mocked.

  He glanced at the console again and pulled up Edgar’s status file. To his shock, the graphs were clean and pure. The perfect sine wave of satisfaction and ease rolled across the screen. Origen looked back down at Edgar.

  His eyes were still closed. But he was smiling.

  The cold chill of evil swept through every part of Origen’s being. He shook his head, not wanting to believe what he’d just seen.

  When he looked at Edgar again, the smile was gone.

  Origen turned on his heel and fled from the room, vowing to never return. He had no need to ever see Edgar Prince’s face again.

  About the Author

  Nicole Sallak Anderson is a Computer Science graduate from Purdue University. After graduation, she developed encryption and network security software, which inspired both the storyline and the science behind eHuman Dawn. She currently lives with her husband and two teenaged sons on two acres in the Santa Cruz mountains of Northern California, where she indulges in a variety of homesteading hobbies, from beekeeping and raising chickens and goats, to gardening, canning, spinning, and knitting.

  You can follow her musings on singularity, Internet privacy, data manipulation and human consciousness on the eHuman Dawn Facebook page, Twitter eHumandawn@NSallakAnderson, or her blog, www.ehumandawn.blogspot.com.