by Rabia Rahou
Does it matter now? Aren’t you just trying to avoid the rabbit hole? said the giant salamander.
He is right, I’m afraid, and my paranoid thoughts about beginnings and endings don’t matter now, but for sure, I’ll stay high for this chapter.
A report on my table tells me that bizarre rituals were performed down every night, as the First Citizens used to spend some nights there, and the engineers never left for several weeks. Mostly, things went crazy, and no one did anything as the state itself nearly collapsed.
That state recovered, then was turned over to the politicians by freeing them, then assigning them new tasks, and finally gently asking them to reassume their positions. It’s like asking an infant to return play after a pleasant treat. No politicians resigned or asked to be dismissed. They all went back happily like nothing happened, because for politicians, as long as they get back some power, which is laughable by the way, and as long as they keep rolling in the mud, they are happy. I didn’t sense any regrets from their side about the way the situation had miserably managed, none at all.
But again, is there anybody honorable who wants to be a politician? I highly doubt there is. The best politicians, or maybe the worst is a better word, usually are in a democracy. This system of governance is the best compared to every other system. That’s because, unfortunately, it is the dumb guy at the zoo whose mental abilities barely surpass the giraffes and sometimes even the chimpanzees. Therefore, in comparison to the zoo’s other inhabitants, he is smart, and so is democracy compared to other systems.
Unfortunately, no system is good enough to treat billions of humans at a time, and no one will be. Since we left the 100-people tribe system, nothing could come even closer to that. That system had a clearly identified leader that could be assessed anytime the tribe wanted. His full curriculum was known, his achievements were witnessed, and his people were sharing the power with him, too. That balance was readily manageable, as in the end, he was there sitting with them around the fire, every night.
He didn’t have to sell them fake dreams, or lie, or pretend to be someone that he wasn’t. There were no campaigns, slogans, or rallies. The problems were well known by all, and the leader was picked based on his reputation for solving problems – and that was it. On the contrary, a political party is there just pleasing the people to hold power and nothing else. And if someone found my written meditations and read all to this point and is still rooting for a party, please go check yourself as you are probably mentally challenged. Even worse than that, as the recent new wave of democratic parties tries to be even more outrageous because people became dumber, as the actual average citizen can’t assimilate a concept composed of many ideas. He can’t handle it. So rather than raise him they came down to him. That’s the essence of the one at a time thought.
Therefore, the intellectual level of the campaigns and their slogans are almost the same as the toddlers' level. “Vote for Konu because he loves you!” “Konu will give you a job,” “Stay safe with Konu!” The actual average person needs a strong and simple message so he can understand, otherwise, you will lose him to the video of the hamster playing piano with his buddy the parrot.
Unfortunately, the intellectual level of the people is regressing, as no one uses his potential fully to fulfill his life. It’s an easy, lazy way of living combined with an amazing load of entertainment. Never in the history of humanity has there been so much entertainment produced on a daily basis as these days. It shrinks the time for the free minds to wander into uncharted territories and discover new things. Reading books is old fashion as your device will drag you back to the mediocre life with a socialization mirage. Most families never visited a museum, never watched a theatrical piece or a symphonic concert, never went to a nice restaurant or even a gourmet bistro. Everybody seems to understand and have a strong opinion about everything based on a brief video they saw that morning on some device.
Those opinions are formed in kindergarten style. Everybody is stocked-up inside with a lazy supervision that couldn’t care less of them. So, the kids get all their knowledge from themselves, and what a toddler can teach anything meaningful to another toddler? Babbling!
And devices – there were tons of them recording everything and everyone, collecting and sending everything to Consoft where Wonfuse was using it not to free them but to control them. Never in any era has the human mind been so restrained as it is continuously managed and checked by a beloved device that connects it to his human’s partner, his friends, his boss, his family, and of-course, to Consoft. In other words, he is trapped for good.
Oina trapped me in a coma for two weeks. Because of that, I’m rushing to finish this before Doomsday to the point that I’m losing my mind. I’m talking to myself about democracy to win some time and avoiding going down to the machine, thinking that maybe if I ignore it, it will disappear because it scares me. It’s now time to swallow the drug cocktail they gave me to fix my back. After my accident or that thing that Oina did, X-rays revealed a severe scoliosis, plus some dislocated bones that I have to push back in line from time to time. My body is still hurting badly.
Damn you, Oina! Why didn’t you just kill me? I must keep going for at least the next three days. I quickly swallow this cocktail of pills with another round of high-THC doses. Almost immediately, my hands stopped shaking. The world is slowing down… finally.
The elevator stopped. I opened the doors, and the machine is off. Around it, the three monkeys dressed in the same long golden dresses are in a circle reading some gibberish from a kind of… what is that? A golden book? Alright, I called the security guards and had them escort the monkeys to the interrogation.
They hardly looked at me. They had changed profoundly to the point of insanity. I called their names – Irwa, Lop, Ube… nothing. They were now soulless creatures with no reflexes. The best engineers in the world went completely mad perusing their dreams. The guy from the izakaya was right after all. It’s dangerous to have a dream. Suddenly, Erwa spoke to the guards and said, “We will back soon,” Poor Erwa, he has no clue of what's going on.
The army engineers replaced them. Out of curiosity, I asked them to start the machine to check the workflow. It turns out its way better than before. Its displays are not on the screens anymore. They can only be viewed using virtual reality helmets that I was too afraid to put, or through a hologram where the machine could interact with the user. I picked the hologram, and it was fantastic. The engineers had never seen anything like that as the machine showed a hologram of them turning on the machine just like they did. It was a kind of a recording that happened before the machine was even on.
Okay, I need a team of psychologists. I don’t want to see the engineers in the golden gowns again and drive them into insanity. We waited a moment, then four therapists showed up. The place is crowded but dead silent as the therapists now look at themselves in the hologram coming in one by one. Shocked, they began murmuring, and I started thinking we now needed to bring more therapists to manage the first therapists that are managing the engineers. After a moment, I realized that this thing could drive everybody insane, so I decided to empty the pavilion.
I had to scream repeatedly. It seemed they didn’t hear me as they were bewitched by the machine. Everyone finally left except me. I made a coffee there and enjoyed the fake windows showing a background of a calm hill. A gentle breeze moving the grass gave a feeling of peace and tranquility. I dreamed about myself walking there, slowly touching the grass barely with my hands. At the top of the hill, Oina was waiving me.
Wow! I should take that cocktail that I had earlier more often. It did transport me nicely.
I checked my watch, and I realized that I’d been down here for three hours already. It wasn’t that hard, after all. I’ll go up, and before lunch, I’ll send the signal to the Supernova to launch the attacks – five targets on the five data centers of Consoft. It took me a year to find all the databases as they did hide them very well. I’ll justify that by c
laiming it was a terrorist attack. Some guys from a third world country took control of the Supernova and managed to launch many ballistic missiles. Why not? Other empires do that all the time, and no one ever doubted those reports.
Unfortunately, there will be some human casualties since there will be no warning. Warning them so they could evacuate the centers would give them the time to copy and transmit the data to somewhere else. This is the only card I have where only I know the outcome and no one else.
Of course, they can rebuild another machine in a week. Now, I’m told, they can build even a portable version. The machine's core is not the hardware but the databases used to construct the model. Those databases need to be destroyed forever. Hundreds of innocent people will die. Do I care? Not at all… In these circumstances, it’s this or Doomsday.
And who are you to take such a decision? Shut up, baby salamander! I don’t have the time for that now.
I took the elevator back upstairs. I’m hungry now. The drugs made me feel like I need to devour an elephant. It’s lunchtime, and I’m starving.
Walking down the corridor to my office, I noticed that it was empty. Usually even at lunchtime the offices are busy, but this time it all seems like it's dead empty. Something is wrong. I rushed to my office, opened the door, and then checked the clock on my desk. It showed 7 a.m.!
I felt dizzy. This can't be possible…
Dismar woke me up slowly. I’m still at my office sitting in my chair. He told me that he picked me up today twice in the morning. He remembers that as a dream, but it did happen, and he is sure of that. I asked what time was, and he told me that it was 9 a.m. I told him that we are in deep shit and now we need a miracle. I asked him to follow me down to the elevator fast, the phone was ringing on my desk, but I choose to ignore it.
I gave him a cocktail of drugs to help him lose his mind, just enough to go through the rabbit hole. I took double that. It’s better become a junky than a crazy old man. I prayed to all the gods, silently. I was begging that I would find the place empty.
I even didn’t have the courage to see by myself when we arrived, so I asked Dismar to open the door and check if anyone was there. He told me that the monkeys were there, dressed in bizarre golden gowns. I took a deep breath. Let’s dive in then. I asked Dismar to lose his mind for a moment as what he will witness is from the other side of existence, and if we lose it all, then it was meant to be.
Erwa welcomed us. The other two were still praying to the machine.
“I told them that I would be back, Konu.”
“Hi, Erwa. How is everything? I see you guys are becoming religious.” I watched Dismar swallowing another THC pill as he knew that this was going to be quite a trip.
Erwa replied, “But Konu, is this really you?”
“Yes, I think so. The one from this morning was the oblivious version of myself. Sorry about that.”
“We see you here every morning since we started the machine. Why you keep coming, Konu?”
“That’s what I’m trying to understand, Erwa.” Suddenly, the two others started laughing loudly, then stopped and continued praying.
“We are not here to understand, Konu. We are here to pray.”
“Show me how to pray then.”
“We pray continuously as God keeps us with him eternally. Isn’t it amazing, Konu? You are joining us, my brother, eternally,” Erwa said happily.
“It’s amazing! I’m staying here eternally. I surrender. Show me what to do.”
“Not me, Konu. God will show you,” and before Erwa finished his sentence, a big hologram was created with me walking through the grass on a hill, just like I was imagining before when I had my coffee down here. Suddenly, the hologram was adjusting the quality until it became real. It is amazing! I feel I am there. I can't believe my eyes! This is heaven.
“You can use the helmet, Konu. You are one of us now.”
“Thank you, Erwa, but I prefer to start simple.”
Heaven was glitching suddenly, because after a moment it kept repeating itself, and that attracted the attention of the engineers. They suddenly stopped praying. Ube said, “This is an error, and we must help the Lord to fix that.”
Lop rushed to his keyboard, crying, “I’m going to add more data about Konu. It is our fault we are useless creatures. We didn’t give you enough data, my Lord.”
Erwa broke down crying like a kid, “We are sorry, my Lord. We apologize. Please forgive us…”
And it was like that for at least a couple of hours. There was no data about me, nothing to add except my morning drive to the Arc with Dismar, who is high now like never before, laughing and crying at the same time. By collecting the data from the car’s sensors, they recreated all our drives hundreds of times with different combinations, to the point where it became boring. Dismar was as high as a Kuala, started laughing about that. “Here I am again, but this time, I’m wearing pink shoes! Thank you, God. I always wanted to wear pink shoes when I was in the Black Unit…”
The three engineers went crazy and started to pray louder, then ran to their keyboards again, then continued crying, and so on. Suddenly, Erwa started screaming that God needed a sacrifice as they failed him. He took a screwdriver and started stabbing himself in the head, then fell down, dead. The two others began praying even louder.
I was stunned. I couldn’t even move. This is a horrific circus, the worst freak show ever. Lop started screaming like an animal, stabbed himself, then started using his blood to paint symbols on the machine. Meanwhile, Ube hung himself, crying and begging for a pardon until he passed out. Two bodies and one almost dead, that is the situation now. I was trying to coordinate my muscles with my intentions, which didn’t work very well due to the surreal scene in front of me. My mind couldn’t assimilate all the madness around, and I felt like fainting several times. Finally, I took Dismar’s .45 caliber and emptied the chamber into the machine. It’s off now – temporarily, at least.
I sat down and just breathed. Dismar is doing the same. He came crawling next to me and handed me the last THC pill he had. I told him that we don’t need it, it's over, for now. He said , “Thank God!” At that, we both looked at each other and laughed. Thank God? What a joke!
We can't go upstairs as we are locked in a loopy time distortion now and forever. The time distortion is so big here that it created a déjà vu kind of existence repeatedly. I must strike now, and lucky me, the machine doesn’t know my plan. I felt relieved. I asked Dismar to give me his phone. I told him that now, he may use the last pill, as who I’m going to call will blow his mind.
I put my office number in Dismar’s phone and dialed… nothing. I kept repeating that for a moment. I was sure that he will pick up the phone soon. I know myself very well. Finally…
“Hello, it’s me,” I said
“Hello? Who?” he replied
I told him my real name, the name that my parents gave me, the name that I kept repeating to myself all these years to keep remembering since it is the only connection I still have with my parents.
He told me that he was looking for a miracle, but he wasn’t expecting it in a phone call. He told me that he loves me, and he loves Dismar, too. He said that I shouldn’t worry from now on. He will destroy the time bubble and our reality with it. He quietly asked me to rest in peace. I said that my consciousness that I recorded in my written meditations will be lost forever, and I do regret that.
He asked me about the giant salamander and I chocked, as I didn’t expect that son of a bitch was multidimensional.
He laughed, then he replied that he’s got me covered, then.
Chapter 22
True Criminal
“I hope this will never happen again.”
~ Dismar
I t was surreal, but I had no time to reflect on my existence. I ordered the attacks from the isolation room, instructed Jazir to surrender after that, as planned. He will be pardoned, and everything is arranged to accomplish that. I had already briefed the prim
e minister when I freed him to offer a state’s pardon to Supernova’s crew, as it wasn’t their fault. It was Kadar’s fault because he conspired against the state with terrorists. He agreed, of course, as long as I would keep him in power. He was prepared to agree to anything, no matter how bad the scenario was because honestly, it was as bad as it could get.
Back to my office for a final look, I double-checked the time on my desk. After that, I said to Dismar, “This is it. It is the end, and we shall never return.”
In the car, the radio was continually reporting the breaking news. “Hundreds of people died in Consoft facilities in terrorists' attacks.” Dismar made one last phone call to his wife, asked forgiveness, and then he spoke with his daughter. He told her that he loved her more than anything in the world. He told her to believe in herself and to try to be happy as in the end, that’s life, and that’s all that matters. He tossed the phone out of the window afterward.
We left the car at home. Dismar gave me some space for my last visit, as I spent most of my adulthood here. I loved this place with its lovely architecture featured in all the rooms. The kitchen opened to the garden. My bedroom had a nice, big window that opened onto an immense field. Every night through that very window, I admired the grass moving with the breeze. This mother-like home did shield me from madness. I love you, but now I must say goodbye. I hope your new guest will take care of you.