Chaacetime_The Origins_A Hard SF Metaphysical and visionary fiction_The Space Cycle_A Metaphysical & Hard Science Fiction Saga

by A. I. Zlato

  He evolved under water, although the rhythm of waves slowed him. Its Immensity had sent him to explore the moving mass that housed the organic entity. He would be Its weapon against the entity. When It would be able to mass-produce hybrids like this one, Its Immensity would send them to track and destroy that damn Gateway.

  Ha ha! Soon, It would be stronger!

  It instructed the hybrid to continue his exploration despite the alarming vital signs his biological part was displaying. Com’on, a few more seconds, then It would allow him to return to the surface. He was Its only one Total Hybrid, after all, and It did not want to break him so soon.

  The hybrid proceeded on the seabed, using his arm not to come out of the water. Through his eyes, It saw the entity. Barely noticeable, it was there, and Is Immensity almost missed it. A Gateway, in another dimension beyond the Ocean, was watching Its hybrid. Extended by a sort of transparent ball, which was certainly the organic entity living in this Space and acting as an extension of it. Its Immensity observed this strange organic assemblage, the Gateway's glass eyes, locked in its Inter-Space, and its ... its ... marine thing.

  Its Immensity delivered a few remarks, through the hybrid’s mouth, Pay attention, Gateway; pay proper attention. Your end in this Space is imminent! In the Other Spaces, I’ll also get you! It did not expect an answer, but It was happy It delivered this invective. Now, the Gateway would whom it was messing with; now, it would be afraid!

  Suddenly, the image blurred. What was going on with the hybrid? He shook convulsively, then rose to the surface. Static, he let himself drift. Heck! As he spoke, he had sucked his air, and his artificial skin had not had time to prevent the inhalation reflex. So there he was, off! A stupid biological reflex has ruined Its wonderful work. It knew It would have no difficulty making another hybrid; that this one was a prototype with inherent performance problems. Its Immensity was nonetheless upset. It launched again the execution of the production program, this time on two individuals. It included a modification of the artificial skin, so that It could monitor, in real time, all biological reflexes.

  It then turned Its attention towards the Twin Spaces, while waiting to get a new hybrid, to clear Its head. The number of chip-enabled clones was increasing as planned, and ninety percent of the population was equipped. It then observed the live comparison of both Spaces, represented by a data matrix that identified differences. With the removal of divergent clones that It had made, the results could only be good or very good. Indeed, the data converged, even if they were not identical.

  Ha, ha, It was so powerful!

  The Equilibrium was growing and expanding as expected, despite a few mishaps. Even Gateways were suffering the consequences ... They were becoming visible; they were becoming vulnerable. The Project was on track. Soon, Extension would be within Its reach. It imagined with delight the four laws that It would add, to form the ideal number.

  Nevertheless, It had to solve a few problems before making it to the Promised Land. The organic entities were one of those problems. Of course, It had managed to get close to one, and the Gateways’ eyesight proved that they were weakening, but the danger was still very real. Then, It wanted to wipe, Itself, all that conscious, biological jumble.

  For the Forest, the decision was clear. Its Immensity would make devices capable of uprooting trees, even the biggest. It would shuttle them from the Pioneering Area, and would embed HFM cables in them, thus linking them permanently to the City. It could thus see, in real time, images of these obese plants crashing to the ground. It would see their leaves turn yellow and shrivel, while their air-exposed roots would dry. This was going to be fabulous! It gave immediately the appropriate instructions. Considering construction time, It hoped to start clearing the Forest during the next cycle.

  To destroy the Ocean, Index would send an army of hybrids to hunt the underwater ball. They would grab it and pull it out of the water. It was eager to see what the entity looked like from the inside. As for the Desert, It would launch an expedition to the pole to bring gigantic glaciers, which would flood the sand while melting.

  Such was the plan; that was easy and perfectly feasible.

  Talking about ingenuity! Its Immensity, Itself, was stunned.

  Finally, there were Servants, Defenders and Pillars. Its extraordinary abilities were largely devoted to the destruction of the super-instruction that protected them. When that super-instruction would fall, It would seize them, compelling them to work for Its Immensity, after properly reprogramming them.

  It looked at the results of recent attacks against the villain code.

  Ha ha! In the next cycle, It would have defeated it! It would then remain the only digital entity in the world!

  Ha ha! It was beautiful!

  Everything is possible. Some things are more probable than others are; that's all. As zero probability does not exist, then everything is possible. Until a certain point.

  The Spirit of the Multitude

  Chapter 60

  Inter-Space (Level 2)

  After the conversation she had had with the G4, Aenea knew she was all alone. Thomas’ Guardians were her allies, but they followed a path that did not cross hers. Level 4 Gateways had seen the disruptions. However, outside this world, only the Diagram drew their interest. Aenea refused to let herself dissolve into nothingness without reacting. Temporary nodes ... The G4 told her to go back. Another future was waiting ... Aenea had to go.

  At this mere thought, a space-time wave triggered itself, washing the Gateway away. The latter slipped into the node, taking care not to touch the narrow limits of Spaces. Cae did not like the very thought of Aenea leaving, and had to let her know. This wave epitomised the way Cae wanted to convey its dismay, which filled what was left of their environment. Cae felt so bad. Deo, meanwhile, showed Aenea pictures of these young humans who were dying, all around, in a macabre and incomprehensible dance. They died whenever the temporary node appeared, and positioned themselves around it. They were attracted to ... she did not know exactly what. And they died. The City was on the verge of implosion; humans were unable to find a solution.

  How could they? Temporary nodes disrupted everything. On the other side of the Forest, the Phalomera was thoroughly monitoring the hybrid runaway, watching his every behaviour. How he got there was not a relevant question. Only the why mattered, the objective of the Machines, which were the cause of everything. The hybrid was participating in the shuttle construction, the completion of which was getting closer. Why was he helping in the construction project? How did the help serve the Machines’ interests? And then there was Iris, this low-profile adolescent who morphed into something else, with her new memory ...

  On one side, groups of children facing death and making the whole City hysterical; on the other side, two ordinary people with an extraordinary destiny ... chaos seemed near.

  Beor had closely studied this last-generation hybrid. From head to toe, there was not a single square millimetre of organic skin. Only his eyes were still shining, the last visible vestige of his humanity. His internal organs, his muscles remain organic, but they were in the service of microprocessors. Through Beor, Aenea listened to the thoughts of this hybrid, half-machine, half-human. He was no longer human. The individual considered himself an artificial entity in a biological medium, a simple extension of the Machine. There was no longer anything human in his reasoning or his way of perceiving his environment. The Machine had ordered him to dive into the Ocean. He had done so, and then drowned. Before dying, he uttered strange words ... coming from an artificial intelligence ... but it was not the Machine ... it was the thing that connected them, the entity that was growing. Servants had assured Aenea that they would take care of the entity ... she had believed them. Her human past ... She did not have time to ponder things more deeply.

  A new temporary node.

  Aenea threw herself into the node, not paying attention the fear that pervaded Cae, worried at that idea. The Gateway had to find a solution to dif
fer Space E. and eradicate temporary nodes, hoping it was not too late. If she could manage to restore the Equilibrium in Inter-Spaces, to prevent nothingness from spreading, would that be enough to save the Spaces? What she had just seen, through Deo and Beor, was worrying. Chaos seemed so close ... destruction loomed, with or without Space E. ... She quickly pushed these ideas away. She should focus, first and foremost, on temporary nodes ... and she was getting there. She had found again that inhospitable place, which should not have existed, that could not have existed. Identical... and radically different from the last time ... it was not the same time ... it was not the same place.

  Disconnecting from Cae, Beor and Deo was as difficult as the process had been the previous time. She had left the Calorn, though the latter was exhausted, support the node alone ... and what if the Calorn could not do it this time? Aenea would be doomed and would disappear along with the temporary node ... it was thus better to make it become permanent ... yes, it would be better ... why leave if she could stay ... this beautiful nothingness ... she was gradually losing herself.

  A voice in her head ... Aenea was a little girl ... Her mother held her hand. How could her human past resurface here although the memory capsule was in the node Aenea had just left? The last glimmer of her Gateway’s consciousness, the issue disappeared. Helen and her mom ... together they waited outside a building that Aenea-Helena did not recognise. Her mother leaned over and put both hands on her forehead. Images flashed through her brain, and little Helen stepped back, scared.

  Her mother reassured her, and told her to be careful. Helen did not understand the images that danced before her eyes. Gigantic monsters, a sun too big, a tall, bearded person ... she was still frightened. That is your future, whispered her mother ... that was her future, if she wanted it one day. Helen wept. She did not want to see the monsters live. They are not monsters, says her mom ... one day, you will understand ... one day, you will remember ...

  That day was today. All these images she had seen ... they were the present ... but in a different reality ... what could have been ... what could still be ... a crucial event was going to happen ...

  Now!

  A Gateway ... she was a Gateway. Through time and a memory that had perhaps never existed, Aenea’s recollection had just saved her from annihilation. She was herself again ... She looked around.

  Space O. and Space H., familiar and reassuring, were within reach, but she could not access them without the Mempheragog and the Phalomera. Near but inaccessible, both Spaces, her Spaces, seemed to call her back home, but she did not want to. Deprived of a critical part of herself, Aenea looked in the third direction, in the tunnel, towards nothingness. What was it about that Space, which a Level 4 Gateway did not create, which was generating Level 3 nodes that were nonetheless unreachable, which was nothing but emptiness?

  While lost in full contemplation, so no longer was aware of the Unique Forest, of Deo’s roots plunging into its womb, of the Ocean, of Beor’s waves of consciousness. The only Space left was E., immobile and static. That nothing, that nothingness ... bigger than last time ... hypnotic ... ... A temporary node … without the Calorn, the Mempheragog or the Phalomera ... Space-time should have been a stream ... but no ... it was ... something else. Aenea had to remain herself, not to be carried away again by the node ... Helen, the little girl, returned. Look, she said to Aenea, look at the evil monsters, they scare me ... look at the big man there ... Mom says it is my future ... it is yours then. Wake up!

  Suddenly, a shiver ran down her neck, as a warning. Her mind was brought back to reality. She was a Level 2 Gateway. She had come here to seek answers. Nothingness was not one. What had woken Aenea up from her reverie? She turned around quickly. On regaining awareness of her two Spaces, she saw something in H. Her vision was blurred because Deo was not around. She could not connect to the Phalomera and observe the nearby Space. Yet ... she saw two humans, one of whom looked in her direction. A man and a woman, together. The woman was protecting her face, and her eyes swept around her, crossing Aenea without seeing her.

  The Gateway could imagine nothing but the fact that the woman saw the temporary node. That had to be scary for her, given that she was protecting her face with her arm. Did she really see the temporary node, after all? A human, like so many others, who was there randomly, looking for something in Aenea’s Space.

  Aenea tried to focus on Space E., but the tingling in her neck became more intense. She then looked at the other human. If the woman seemed to browse a rather expansive area ... for the man ... things were different. Aenea had the feeling that he was really seeing her. His eyes focused on her ... another impossibility ... still a temporary node ... He stared at her, with narrowed eyes, walked a few steps, then changed his mind. He and the woman walked away and disappeared, but Aenea’s feeling lingered.

  A warning ... this human had seen her, unless ... the node had generated this illusion, to encourage her to leave by throwing confusing thoughts her way ... How could Aenea distinguish between thoughts induced by the node, those of her human memory, and her Gateway’s? What if the man had really seen her, as the girl had seen Deo? After all, they lived in the same Space ... perhaps a time flaw ... caused by temporary nodes ... Moreover, it seemed to her that she had seen this man before ... was it a human she had previously been monitoring ... was it simply an illusion ...

  One should not get lost in conjectures. She was there to seek answers and, more important, solutions. She had to explore, stretch her mind towards that Space E., trying to reach it ... to project her consciousness ... She focused, turning towards the tunnel of nothingness that opened up. Space E ... the name that explained everything and nothing at the same time ... the Machines ... the cause-effect relationships ... chain reactions ... the beginning and end are the same place ...

  Moments later, Aenea again felt a shiver down her neck. It came out of the state of tension in which she was, in order to observe nothingness. Once again, another reality forced itself upon Aenea and sought her attention. She turned her head towards the source of that reality that wanted the Gateway, Space H ... and Aenea saw him.

  Perhaps a short while for Aenea, but certainly much longer for him, the man reappeared, alone. He looked at the Gateway again, more intensely than before. Aenea then had no more doubt. He was able to see her. His gaze did not just cross the time barrier; he focused on the Gateway. He walked towards the edge of the node ... how was this possible? What was the relationship between the temporary node and this human ... Between this human and the Gateway ... Between the Gateway and the temporary node ... Did the temporary node give additional powers to humans ... but the woman had not seen the Gateway ... more powers for this man ... how special was he ... why now ... why the Gateway ... he was the man she saw when she was a little girl ... a future ... a possible present ...

  Suddenly, Cae gripped Aenea’s mind and forced her to return to her node. The Calorn felt that the Gateway’s mind diluted into a spiral of questions, while being sucked into the nothingness of Space E., so it intervened. Certainly just in time. Aenea’s whole body was shaking. Brown creepers twisted on themselves, electrical, sweeping time limits. Aenea felt pain in her temples. Her human hand clenched into fists so hard that the joints whitened. These violent physical sensations made Aenea regain consciousness.

  She had almost lost herself several times during her journey towards the temporary node. Although exhausted, Cae had yet realised the moment when the Gateway was drifting away, so it pulled Aenea back. The Gateway came very close to never returning.

  The temporary node and its hostility, the nothingness of Space E., and this human possessing unexpected abilities had thrust Aenea into an abyss of reflections, which Cae had abruptly halted. For Aenea, the shock was violent; she felt as if her brain was rooted out of her head. Cae had saved the Gateway ... or perhaps prevented her from seeing. The G4 had said Aenea would see another future ... this man that her mother had shown her when she was a little girl ... who saw
her as a Gateway ...

  She tried to calm down, to handle the shocks she had suffered. She moved closer, by habit, to Deo and Beor, both of which stepped back, given the chaos in Aenea’s mind. She could not reassure them, as she should have done, because she was the one needing comforting. Her three friends, facing her distress, united, surrounding her with a stream of soothing emotions.

  Gradually, she gathered her diluted mind, and took back the place that was her own. The space-time current wrapped her with sweet and familiar scrolls, although the temporary nodes were still disturbing it. Space E. ... nothingness ... the human who had seen it ... Iris who had seen Deo ... the same Space ... the same flaws ... time ... time ... Aenea calmed down progressively. Huddled in her damaged node, she began to think.

  She absolutely had to find out who that man was, why he had seen her, and especially if he had anything to do with temporary nodes. Given that he was a Space H. resident, Aenea decided to contact a Kandron, via Deo. She was well aware of the effort she was asking the latter. Deo, like others, had access to the Gateway’s memory, and had seen and felt what had happened. She had seen the Forest fidgeting in an anguished sob. The wind blew away leaves, shaking the green mass in large, disturbing waves, which echoed in the Ocean’s waves.

  Waves and treetops banded together. The separation between both Spaces became even thinner; their world shrank again, pushing Cae to radiate as much energy in order to keep the node. The sky in Space H. became dark blue, like the sea, while Space O.’s became foliage green. Aenea panicked. This was the end of everything. She felt the wind go through the Inter-Space and sweep the Ocean and the Forest. One merged into the other. The sea flooded leaves, which curled when immersed with salt. The sky was no longer pure air, not yet water. The Ocean’s bottom experienced a deluge of tree branches. The space-time current broke out, toppling Aenea.