Perpetua
Lucas Alves Serjento
São Paulo – 2017
Title: Perpetua
Author: Lucas Alves Serjento
Escrito em Português (PT-BR) / Writed in Portuguese (PT-BR)
Published in: Kindle Direct Publishing
1st Edition
São Paulo – 2017
To my parents, for feeding the human inside me.
Index
I. The Creature
II. Dinner
III. Japetus
IV. Pinocchio
V. Brain
VI. Trail
VII. Under the Moonlight
VIII. A tip of truth
IX. Council
X. Words
XI. Lake
XII. Balcony
XIII. Under the Veil
XIV. Elizabeth
XV. Past
XVI. Council II
XVII. The Last Hour
EPILOGUE
About the Author
Other Works by same author
I. The Creature
A drizzle falls from the night sky over the green fields that surround a country house. The grass sways lazily under the wind that pushes it and produces a low, intermittent sound.
The feet of a creature wallow in the wet dirt trail. A creature with more than 5ft in height, arched posture and with a round black hat on the head. It hides from the thin rain with a dark brown cape, protecting itself from mud with short-barreled boots. A male creature that keeps pace slow and eventually reaches the end of the trail.
Before climbing the wooden steps, he turns his face to the green fields behind him. Intrigued, probe the reason for this bad weather, just to let the question die in a corner smile. He touches the hat on his head, closes the cloak around his body and returns to the slow pace, step by step, reaching the small door of the property.
He knocks twice and hears the muffled response:
-Come in!
The door opens, heavy under the weight of the hand, producing an ominous noise as it drags on the wooden floor of the entrance parlor. With some difficulty, he closes the door and, with a sigh, removes the hat from his head. Place it on the stand next to the door; Remove the brown cover, put it on the apparatus and observe the results of his actions. After a second, he decides that it is better to go to the living room. So he ignores the staircase that goes up, circular, to the rooms on the top floor and the door leading to the dining room. Although he doesn't see anyone right away, he knows that a lot of work is being done to keep things in order to that dinner is served on time.
- Sorry for Angeline not having welcomed you. She's busy with dinner. You're early. Poker?
He responded with a negative nod.
- Oh, yes, I forgot you're a bad player.
The reception in the living room was made by a calm, sonorous voice - to some extent. In front of him, a humanoid organizes cards from a deck, sitting next to a bookcase that covers the entire western wall. There is a fortune in old paper. Many of those are first editions bought at auctions, put there with disdain, just for the pleasure of having the spine exposed to the mischief of the air.
- The meeting adjourned earlier than expected. Many people seem to have made up their minds even before they get to the place.
The humanoid interrupts his task and leaves the deck on the coffee table, in front of the fireplace that illuminates and heats. He offers an armchair to the newcomer, who accepts the gesture and takes his place to the right of the room.
- You seem worried. - The bass tone takes on a paternal touch.
- These are times for me to worry about. Don't you worry too?
- I'm just something waiting to be turned off. - The other one seems to be scared. - What? Did you expect something different? We live in a world too advanced for me. My time is running out, and if you want to know, I think the meeting took a long time to make a decision.
- I should have objected to your shutdown.
- But no one could stop it. Am I right?
- Once the order was given, not even Alexander could prevent the execution.
The strong-faced humanoid smiles and wrinkles his eyebrows. A smile of those who don't expect much from the future.
- We live in a world different from the one where I came. These are times of holograms and teleports. Of interstellar travel and time travel. I'm just an old model kept in a cottage. What can I do?
- This field and everything here is yours. You have earned this place. They didn't forget that.
- And I'm sure you believe that.
Jonas kept silent. The wind, louder, beat against the windows and produce a ghostly sound that cut the room.
-William?
-Jonas?
- Have you been there for how long?
William straightens up in the chair, mulling the memory for a moment.
- I believe the number is one thousand, two hundred and thirty-two years and seventy-two absolute days.
- Do you still count the time according to the clock on planet 1?
- Just as far as my life span is concerned. - He smiles again. - There is a mystical thing to obey the clock of that planet. After all, that's where it all began. The sense of belonging inherent in the human species is so much that all board meetings are made there. If it weren't for teleportation, you wouldn't be here.
- Makes sense. Still, the X-23 system pleases me more than planet 1. The A-1 system as a whole makes me feel in danger. After all, everything orbits around a star that hasn't yet been tamed.
-And is it not so with so many of the stars? The D2A-2 system is so unstable that only settlers without any kind of influence risk the good of a more comfortable home, but I wouldn't be surprised if an immediate recall was announced today.
- Many go to such places for the pleasure that danger brings.
-Danger… - William sighs, swinging his sturdy frame. The wind knocks against the window. - This has already had much stronger meanings in other times. When planet 1 was our only home. Today, few share the same planetoid and many live in complete seclusion. Meetings are almost instantaneously made in common spaces and that planet has become home to a select few.
- Still, there is the danger.
- Very little. Is not it true that an evacuation would take place in a few minutes? That we can forecast days ahead? I worry more about the fabric of space-time than with the stars at the edge of the explosion. The way we have sent messages to the past, it's a matter of time before someone else makes that line collapse.
- Wouldn't it have collapsed if that had been the case?
- Maybe, maybe not. No one knows and it's better that way. I like living with some uncertainty.
- So you like to live?
-Tea?
The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a robot. An age-old model, dating back hundreds of years, which had fluent gestures and a humanoid form, but which had no skin or a feature like that of the sitting android. Her sex was identified only by the effeminate tonality in her voice and that doll face she carried. She was formed solely of plastic parts and a few synthetic components. As it was told, her face was that of a doll, and her mouth had a wobbly movement, similar to that of a ventriloquist doll. That and the sound of the wind would send shivers down a man who stared at the scene for the first time. This was not the case.
-Thank you. - Jonas thanked her, refusing the cup was offered to him.
-Thank you. - William made a gesture from a distance, refusing to drink. – What about dinner?
- It will be ready in moments.
She left when realized that she wasn't needed. William watched her leave with a melancholy look. Jonas followed his gaze.
- Do you like these old models? – He asked.
- T
hey are history. - William answered. - I feel comfortable with the history.
-Did you?
-Do you not?
The wind whipped the windows.
- Perhaps. I only care a little about what we have become through it.
- Do you think things could be better?
-I don’t know. Maybe they were worse if I hadn't interfered so much. In other times, I would intervene again. Maybe to play with the theory of multiple universes. I'm amazed no one has done it by then. Space is not a problem. Power is not a problem. Time is not a problem. What remains for us to check other spaces and other times? Playing gods?
- And don’t we...?
William nodded.
- We could do more. A joke with no consequences for our space or time. Break the last barrier that scares us. Ending the problem of existence as a whole.
-This is impossible.
William's expression was of amusement.
-Impossible! Ah! This is a word I have heard so much, but it has become less and less used. The past, ah, the past has had so many “impossibles” that have become possible! A world made of impossible! If I'm not one of them myself!
Jonas recoiled, ashamed.
- Sometimes you forget that I'm only 30 years old.
-Well! Who speaks in absolute terms now? And thirty years is enough to understand the history, isn't it?
- I lack the experience you had. I was not alive when interplanetary travel was “impossible.” Or when control over a star was “impossible”.
-I know. You were not there when the first man came to another galaxy or when the transmission of neural messages was facilitated. I know all of this. It doesn't mean that you are not able to predict a future where impossible things are possible.
- You said about what might not have worked out in our timeline.
- Oh, yes, what we could improve. It is true. Many would say that today's society is perfect. Others would say that something is missing.
- And which one are you?
- I think it's hard to know what's missing when you've never had it.
- And who would know?
- Those who had the thing taken from them.
- Someone I know?
- Maybe. Maybe not. Do you know any humans who are not in this room?
- What is wrong with the human in this room?
- The human in this room is no longer a man. He is the fruit of this society. He ceased to be a man long ago.
- What is he now?
- I don't know. He is something else, but it is precisely because he is not a man who lacks something.
II. Dinner
- Sir, dinner is ready.
-Thank you so much, Angeline.
The centennial robot retired, toward the dining room. Behind her, the man and the android walked slowly. They both sat down at the table.
-William?
-Yes?
- I don't understand what you mean. What, then, is this “something” missing from society? Look around. How could life be better?
He looked. Around them, several robots moved. Models from different eras, all younger than Angeline. Two last generation androids (a couple) walked in a patient rhythm, setting the dishes and adjusting the last napkins. William and Jonas stood at the headwaters. The table was made for twelve people, making them both distant from each other.
William didn't answer at once. He was looking at Angeline, who gave orders to the androids before sitting down at the table with the two.
- Are not you going to occupy the headboard? - Asked Jonas, ready to offer his place.
She just shook her “head” in a negative, sitting in one of the seats in the middle of the table.
- Where is Elizabeth? – William asked.
- She was getting ready when I called her. Should arrive in a moment.
- Is she okay with what's going to happen? – Jonas asked.
- She already knew. – William answered. - We all knew it was a matter of time. When they convened the meeting for today, I knew that they had made a decision.
- I would like to know more about what happened.
- I can tell, if you want.
- I thought you were not allowed to tell me about it.
Jonas laughed again.
-Oh! Permission! This concept is so typical! Permissions are not required on confessions. And if there were permissions restricting me, I would make a point of breaking them just for the pleasure of doing so.
- Don't be so hard on him. - A sweet, feminine voice caught the attention of those present. William turned immediately to see the image that entered the room.
Her face was pale and her lips were red. Her golden curly hair fell like cascades over her shoulders. Her green eyes gleamed like emeralds. She wore a white dress of fine fabric that ended just above the knee, decorated with red, yellow and blue flowers. William, with his dark skin and strong bearing, stood out beside her as the antithesis of the figure he faced.
-Elizabeth. How are you feeling?
- Good, considering everything. It has been days of discovery.
- For us both. Where do you want to sit?
- By your side.
- Do you want to stay at the head?
- I'll be right on your right hand. Jonas, how's you going?
- Well, though.
- I imagine the meeting with the council had the obvious result?
- It's correct.
She turned to William.
- What about your plan?
He smiled.
- I'm trying to remember what it's all about.
- Well, try to do this soon. He is all we have.
- Let's eat. Don't worry about it now.
- Because will not you do it or because there's no going back?
He smiled and she didn't ask again.
Once all were settled, Angeline whistled and the two androids entered, accompanied by three robotic forms, each more suited to their function. One of them placed close to the present, arranging plates, cutlery, napkins and other utensils before positioning it in some more suitable corner. The other one was busy scanning the mood of those present and presenting the most enjoyable background music with the least amount of sound possible. The latter carried the food with the androids, who skillfully served the table. Some of those machines were over a thousand years old.
They used delicacies and the tastiest foods in the universe. The only exception was William, who used a yellowish sheet from the GC-9 system and was reputed to be one of the most unpleasant foods among the known matter.
-Are you going to do this today? Elizabeth asked, twisting her nose a little.
-You know me. - William always smiled.
-What are you doing? - Jonas raised his neck from the other side, trying to see the plate and the leaf.
-I'm serving myself the worst food in the universe. - William answered.
- It's his craze. - Elizabeth said, already recovered, with a half smile when remembering the habit. - He says that feeling the worst taste in the universe before feeling the best gives you perspective. - She rolled her eyes in irony.
- No doubt it. Trying only the best has made you lose your referral.
- This would be true if we ate the way we ate the old ones: every day. – she answered. - We barely eat thanks to biomechanical organisms. Humans are now virtually cyborgs and only eat when they want. Special occasions like today, for example. Eating so little makes the food special, just like your leaf.
-Maybe, maybe not. - William answered in a playful tone.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes again and turned her attention to Jonas. The wind quieted outside, but the rain gained courage, making itself felt by the sound drops on the sides of the house.
- Forgive my husband, but he has his manias. Although, it's good that he has these things. After all, if it were not for this, some would say he's the android at this table, don't you agree?
Jonas made an agreement, a half smile on his face.
- Really. A
little more and he would be in my role.
Elizabeth laughed and took William's hand before turning her attention to her own food.
- What were you talking about before?
- William told me that the world is not perfect. I was about to ask what happened to him to come to that conclusion.
- And you were going to tell him?
- You think I shouldn't?
- On the contrary.
- Let it be then. I don’t have much to do, anyway. Jonas, have you heard of the age of lights?
- Yes. Many, many times.
- For it was there that the problems of humanity began. And I'll tell you why.
III. Japetus
- You must remember that the age of lights began with the arrival of the comet Japetus, correct?
- Yes. You were just a young man at the time, weren't you?
William laughed lightly.
-Yes. A young man. For those who live thousand of years, I think fifty is really part of childhood. It was not like that at the time, though. I was beginning to think about my retirement from the search field. I wanted to go home for a while, write my discoveries, eternalize my words before death came. It is strange to think that the fear of death drove more actions than it does nowadays.
- It doesn't impress me. - Jonas answered. – Even today, the greatest discoveries are made because of fear or fascination with death.
-Exactly. - He poured some flesh from a species of arthropod native to the planet Tund, from the R1C-4 sector, famous for containing only two steaks with edible content, despite its four meters high and over 300 kilos. - I dedicated my life to the construction of biomechanical organ models, but I have never had significant advances before the arrival of the comet. When I was invited as an expert, I knew it would take another 100 years to make functional organs that could be marketed, and at that point, I would be condemned, after all, I didn't expect to spend much more than 110 years.
“However, the comet arrived. And I was on duty. It had some recognition in the field as one of the most successful and also more daring. I used technologies that were under test and got some results. The government chose me to continue the researches in secret, while international communities were discussing rights and safe means of research.”
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