by A. I. Zlato
Each station was used as a neuronal centre, sorting information, relaying what needed to be, and processing the relevant data. On the rail, Baley still felt connected to the Machine, indirectly, following the waves of information propagated into the City. She went to her first interrogation, away from the digital world, into the world of feelings, the illogical world ... the world of humans. Hers.
The apartment of the first couple she needed to see was in the Second Circle. In this section, gray buildings melted into an architectural ensemble, consisting of a multitude of cubes, facing the centre of the City. Baley took a few steps and found herself in front of the building of Roger and Anne Dufaur, parents who were experiencing a monstrous tragedy.
She announced herself into the terminal at the entrance of the building, and was received by Anne, on the fourth floor of the building. She was a thin woman, whom grief had turned frail. Her brown hair framed a pale face and radiated sadness. She asked Baley to come in and preceded her in the parlour that adjoined the entrance. Roger, her husband appeared in the doorway of a door, like a ghost. They had just lost their twins, Alexis and Cyril, both twelve years old. They sat in the family sofa, which was far too big for them both, and offered Baley a chair. The Special Agent opened her mouth, but did not have time to say a word. Anne, damaged in her thoughts, began to speak, barely conscious of her husband’s presence, or of Baley, who stood beside her.
“Those two, they were always together. Yet I tried to differentiate them, dress them differently in the morning, so that they saw themselves as two separate persons, but nothing worked. As soon as they were able to dress themselves, one of them would always change his clothes so he could be like his brother.
We then sent them in two different schools, so they would lead separates lives. We could keep up for one week. Alexis ran away to join his brother. Once, he got lost and a neighbourhood shopkeeper brought him back to me ... So we put them in the same school. They were so happy together again!”
Anne sighed and clenched her fists to find strength, before continuing.
“It is true that physically they were as similar as two drops of water, but each had his own character. Everyone confounded them, and they would answer to both Alexis and Cyril, to keep the confusion. This amused them very much. However, Roger and I, we always knew the difference. They were not at all of the same personality. Alexis is ... was ... and now, now they were both ...” Anne could not finish her sentence, choked by sobs.
“I do not realise this yet”, continued Roger. “In the evening when I get home, I would think for half a second they would jump into my arms and scream in the living room, making us go crazy, their mother and me ... but I guess you heard it dozens of times. Why bother telling you all this?”
Baley did not answer. What could she have said? She silently prompted Roger to resume.
“Our boys, they were our whole life. I don’t know how we managed to live until today without them ... I ...”
Anne took over from her husband.
“You know, we are among those who criticize your action. Your investigation brought you to this sect, and you put these kids in safety. Even if the approach had not solved the Problem, at least you did something.”
“You did the right thing!” Roger went on. “We should go further and remove all children, whatever their age! And exclude these crazy believers from the City! Send them to the Unique Forest, or in the mountains, so they could enjoy life as they wish! Without technology, without the Machine, without ...”
“Thank you for your support”, said Baley. “I appreciate it, especially knowing what happened to you ... I won’t pretend I understand your pain. I thought, at the beginning of the investigation, that I could put myself in the parents’ shoes, but this is not possible; I do not have any idea of the hell in which you are currently living. I cannot bring your children back, but I will do everything to stop the Problem. Finally. I'm going to have to ask you surely unpleasant questions about your children.”
“We understand. Go for it.” Roger replied.
“How would you describe Alexis and Cyril? Have you noticed any recent changes in their behaviour?”
“It is ... it was ...” began Anne, “they were two children full of life, very dynamic and even a little too much at times. Friends surrounded them, and there was not a weekend without friends coming home. There was not a ...”
Roger continued, “they had a vivid imagination for nonsense, but they were average students in class, because they liked the subjects that the Machine had chosen for them. Normal young boys.”
“Yes”, said Anne, “there was still one thing. There were two or three weeks when they were reclusive and a bit depressive, but they have felt like that before. The last time, their depression lasted longer than usual. You know, they are twins; they have their world. They even invented a language that only both understand. They used it to chronicle their adventures on a tablet.”
“Do you have this tablet? Perhaps it contains information about their motives. At least, I mean ...” said Baley.
“I see what you mean. I'll go get it”, Anne replied. She rose with difficulty from the couch and disappeared into a hallway.
“Roger, I apologise beforehand for the question, but I must ask you if you share the Chrijulam belief? Or if you think the Machine is not a blessing for the City?”
“I understand your question, and I do not take offense. No, we're not part of this movement, and we cannot imagine life without the Machine ... Those beliefs ... And yet, I only know what the news media are saying ... I'm sure journalists have not said everything, to avoid upsetting believers ... and also prevent them from getting lynched by the rest of the population! No, we do not share, even remotely, the convictions of those crazies.”
“I had to ask you. Thank you for your response, and thank you especially for not being offended.”
For all his sadness, Roger found the courage to be friendly with Baley, and she admired him for it. They waited in silence for Anne. She returned with a digital plate in her hands.
“I will need to translate this to you,” said Anne, “because it is written in their language, ‘Alexril’, as they called it. ... They believe…d they were the only ones to understand it, but, with practice, I could also get used to it.”
“It's very kind of you”, replied Baley. “If it is not too much to ask, I would like you to browse what they wrote last month. Tell me if you find anything abnormal, unusual.”
Anne scrolled through digital pages of the tablet and started reading, often stopping to wipe tears. She smiled at some passages, shaking her head, frowned at other sections... the lives of her children were chronicled in front of her. A few pages before the end, her face changed colour:
“There ... there ... Something is not normal.”
“What is it about?” Said Roger and Baley together.
“Look, the writing has changed, and words, words .... Alexis said that the Machine is a monster that will eat us all. Then, lines and lines of the same phrases: We must break the circles. The Equilibrium is the beginning and the end, there is no longer a middle.”
“What does that mean, in your opinion, Special Agent?” Roger asked.
“I cannot answer that yet. Before I say anything, I have to ask other parents to confirm my hypothesis.”
“Tell us at least what is your assumption! Please!”
“I have no opinion yet on those repeated sentences. However, the fact that your son describes the Machine as a monster ...”
“I assure you, we are not followers of the sect ... the one with an unpronounceable name ... well, that against which you have acted!” Roger said.
“I believe you, I assure you. Nonetheless, it is clear that your children did not seem to share your loyalty towards the Tower. I think there is a huge anti-Machine movement existing in the City, which included members of Chrijulam, but not only them ... “
“But why die? They could have, I don’t know, done something, s
trike the school ... We were all rebels in adolescence, but we did not choose this kind of end ... this radical end is ... I cannot believe my boys are gone, have left us, have decided to die … just a kids’ revolt! Why? Why?” Anne could barely breathe.
“Perhaps the chip had prevented them from doing the unthinkable; pondering anti-Machine things triggers a migraine ... that prevents one from thinking …”
“Com’on! The chip is there to increase our capacity, open us up to knowledge, we ... Obviously, thinking ... about ... yes, it generates much excruciating headache ... and so what?”
“I told you I did not know it all; I still need to validate my assumptions ... maybe ... the fear of the Machine, in addition to the pain …”
“So you are telling me that the Machine killed my children, rather than letting them express any dissatisfaction?” Roger said, fuming.
Baley felt that she was losing control.
“I did not say that ... I did not want to share my hypothesis with you, for you to avoid all these conjectures. I just noticed that your children have issued anti-Machine ideas, just before dying, and that perhaps that posture pressured to commit the irreparable. Perhaps they have been in contact with Chrijulam crazies, who exploited their fear ... At this stage of my investigation, I really cannot say anything with certainty. Please, I need you to get this idea out of your head, and let me work. I understand your need for answers, but I still have to investigate to find the truth.”
Anne took her husband's arm and squeezed it hard, to calm him. Roger stiffened to the contact and shut up.
“But we, we love the Machine; we faithfully serve it, Special Agent ... why would our children embark on such madness? These sentences, ‘The Equilibrium is the beginning and the end, there is no longer a middle, we must break the circles’ ... what can these mean? Were they recruited by another sect, one that you would not have yet found? They could not have invented those horrible words by themselves!” Anne observed.
“I have no answers to give you, I'm sorry”, said Baley. “I am going to continue my discussions with other parents. I promise to keep you personally informed.”
“I had thought, I don’t know, when I got your message ...One believes that he or she has hit rock bottom, that nothing could be worse, but actually it could. It can always be worse. I lost my children. Now I know that the Machine may be ... and I cannot even think about it, because my chip forbids me to do so! And I cannot imagine life without the Machine!”
Roger clenched his fists to contain his emotions, without success. Anne snuggled against him, to unite in grief, to hold on.
Baley left their apartment, filled with a sense of unease. The boys’ sentences, dark as they were, kept echoing in her head. How could twelve-year-old kids formulate such abstruse concepts? What significance did those concepts hold for them, even if they did not represent anything for her? These sentences ... it looked like Paul’s delirium when she had seen him last... what was he talking about, again? The Equilibrium and the Elders’ dream ... Iris spoke about the hidden agenda of the Machine ... Lars had mentioned changes in hardware, apparently initiated by no one ... and she, herself, had seen or thought she had seen a structure of Pioneering Area ... and now children writing on the Equilibrium ... speaking of breaking circles and drawing with their bodies ... All clues connected to the Machine. That was not surprising, given that the City was built around It; It was a guarantee for the survival of humanity. Was that really the case?
She should continue, and meet other families. She went to see each of them, entering their apartments, and seeing them surrounded by the emptiness of their missing children.
In each family, she posed similar questions. Some children had kept diaries; others had drawn or had registered things. Baley inquired about everything. She wondered why, in previous interviews, no one had mentioned the existence of those writings. Parents, with all their pain, certainly had not thought about mention those facts. Was that credible? Maybe only the children of the latter Problem, whose parents she was interrogating today, kept such books? In this case ... why did they do it — while the others did not?
Each time, she found, five days before the suicide, a radical change in the child's achievements, expressing a fierce rejection of the Machine. A thirteen-year-old girl had drawn the Tower as a monster with a huge mouth full of teeth, trying to swallow humans. Around it, she represented a group of kids pointing their fingers in its direction. Things could not be clearer. A little boy, who had just celebrated his eleventh birthday, had saturated his personal terminal with the same phrases the twins wrote down, which represented thousands of copies of the same words ... How long did it take him to write all those lines? The boy's mother, who raised her son alone, did not foresee the significance of those words. Above all, she had no memory of seeing her son spend more time than usual on his terminal. All those kids had not attended the same school, had not had the same activities, and their parents did not know each other. It was as if each child had suddenly led a parallel life, under the purview of his or her parents. The only trace of a change lay in their drawings or their writings, which they had carefully hidden.
If the hypothesis of an anti-Machine movement was confirmed, it was nevertheless faced with four major problems. She wondered how the children recognised each other, in order to implement their collective suicide. On the other hand, she could not understand what had triggered this sudden, home-grown rejection of the Machine. What had happened in their lives, five days before?
Then how could one be anti-Machine? To rebel against one’s parents, against the established order, that was in the order of things — but then to be fiercely opposed to the essence of the City? Without Machine, there was no Equilibrium, harmony in the City would only be a distant memory ... Finally, Baley wondered what the link to the cyclone was. How could children choose their place of suicide while centring it on this weather phenomenon? Was the cyclone the trigger factor?
It was necessary to be pragmatic and deal with a problem at the same time. She first had to find the mode of dissemination of such ideas among children, and then identify potential targets. Time was short.
For a group to exist as such, two characteristics are essential. First, group members must acknowledge common traits for one another. Second, it is necessary to have differences with the rest of the world, and to exacerbate those differences. A group is a notion of membership and exclusion. Without these two aspects, it has no existence.
The Spirit of the Multitude
Chapter 45
Space H. (Outside Circle)
From this side of the Unique Forest, among trees and the lake water, life continued its course. In appearance only. The common goal, for generations, was to build spacecraft large enough to contain a thousand humans, and strong enough to take them to their destination, a new planet for humans. This joint project was never questioned, it was a shared hope. In every generation, construction progressed, and each worker toiled at his or her post.
All this was before Mossa came in. With the arrival of the hybrid, Egeon had seen an unseen force advance into the community, a powerful religious spirit of fervour, obliterating the minds of those affected. After the hybrid had learned to speak, through a Kandron, Egeon had hoped that his words would remove the aura of sacredness he had, that his community would see in him a strange boy, sure, but just a human being. That did not happen. The fact that a Kandron was interested in him, given that these animals never approached humans on this side of the Forest, left a strong impression on the community.
For believers, it was proof that he was the awaited Prophet. Only the Messiah could draw to himself a creature as inaccessible as a Kandron. Many peered at the sky, trying to see Eutrope, the deep-green Kandron. Whenever it came to see Mossa, that trip reinforced the faith of the community of believers. When it did not come, believers would still maintain unwavering conviction. Whenever Mossa spoke, his words were interpreted as necessarily part of the Prophecy. And when he was
not talking, it was the same. Egeon faced a faith that was self-maintained and amplified autonomously, without external reason ... fuelled by minds who were desperate to believe. Stability in the community was disrupted through these circumstances. Although the project progressed well, there was a palpable flutter in all teams, some ambitions diminished, diverted away from the shuttle project, towards Mossa.
Despite this, Egeon tried somehow to continue his supervision of the shuttle work, to move, somehow, the project. He carried as burden the weight of dozens of his predecessors, who had worked in something that they knew they would not see the end. He felt responsible for this legacy and would do everything to deserve it, always, and looked forward to having the honour of finishing the vessel.
Also, he continued relentlessly, trying to counteract the evil influence of Mossa. He went as usual to see Teo for the construction process, Galatea for the determination of the destination planet, Alea for the training of future ‘shuttle generations.’ However, in all his activities, Mossa now hounded him. Instead of focusing on what Egeon said, on his instructions, the teams looked up to the hybrid, with a mixture of respect and expectation. Instead of meeting face-to-face with department heads, as Egeon did, the hybrid always found himself surrounded by a dozen onlookers, watching the slightest word coming out of his mouth.
Most of the time, the hybrid said nothing but watched intently. Egeon was uncomfortable to have him constantly around, without knowing what kind of intelligence he was gathering. Most people considered normal to see him everywhere on the site, seeing it as a sign of the interest their Messiah found in their jobs.
As for Egeon, in addition to the inconvenience that Mossa’s presence cause, wondered about his true motives. Why was he so determined to follow him wherever Egeon went? What if his electronic circuits put him in direct contact with the Machine, as did all chips that City people wore? What if he were passing all project data over to the Machine? Egeon, in his worst nightmares, saw a super-powerful army of the City landing nearby, to destroy their shuttle and take all the community, by force, back to ‘civilisation.’