The Cupel Recruits

by Willshire, Susan

  “If they were capable of living out a normal life, then why did they have to be quarantined? “

  “It was the only way to be sure. You’re talking about people with a strong tendency to violence-upheaval. We’re talking murder, rape, bombings, making children live in a warzone, intentionally releasing disease and biotoxins-we’re talking evil stuff here.”

  “Right, but you didn’t know for sure all those people would behave like that. You chose them based on a predisposition, and that is what I disagree with!”

  “C’mon Juliet,” Gabriel interceded. She looked at him in surprise, “Are you really saying if we could ensure peace for a millennium by quarantining a few hundred thousand, you wouldn’t do it?” Gabriel pressed further, “Think of all the suffering, the millions that die in that space of time and the cruelty endured. If you could erase all that for one generation, you wouldn’t do it?” His gaze penetrated hers as if they were siblings. She squinted, considering, then remained silent.

  “I know it’s difficult. It was for us, too, but it’s long since done and I do think it yielded more good than bad,” Kyle concluded.

  “So no people with the “disruptive thought patterns” still exist?” Mr. Aquila asked.

  “Not here.” Kyle answered. Gabriel noticed the measured response and, learning from the communication style used by Saraceni and Ruth, decided his next question.

  “Then where are they?” he intensely threw the question at Kyle.

  “Well, some escaped into The Cupel, after we constructed it, but I’m jumping ahead,” he responded.

  “Well, get there soon, okay?” Gabriel directed. Jack was walking around the room. Enam got a drink from the wet bar area. Jane Grey Windsor settled for some tea and sat next to Chandra on the sofa, handing her a teacup. She accepted it in picture-perfect finishing school style that would have made her mother proud. She tapped her long fingernail against the delicate saucer, creating a gentle dinging noise each time she did.

  “Okay,” Kyle continued, “so, while the DTs were all rounded up, our council of elders ruled on a proposal and it was decided that we should take great care not to disrupt our newly-achieved balance. If anything upsets that balance, the system will get out of equilibrium. Some were concerned, however, myself included, that we might implode from the inside societally if we had no avenues for growth, creativity, or expansion. So, we realized we needed a way to test any new ideas and make sure they could be introduced into the system in a way that didn’t disrupt the equilibrium. We needed a test environment.”

  “And the petri dish that was our lives was born,” Juliet chimed in.

  “Yes, souls were no longer allowed to pass directly into fetuses without screening, implantation, and calibration, so we could control the processes and make sure only the best of the souls were used,” Kyle added.

  “That’s playing God,” Chandra reaffirmed her earlier position.

  “Chandra,” David Running Wolf was the one to jump in this time. Kyle was grateful. He and Gabriel were expected to be the early adopters and, so far, they were proving that to be true. “Is it playing God to screen aging mothers for the genes related to Down’s Syndrome, Tay Sachs, Sickle Cell, any of the other diseases we can see the genes for? If we can see them, know they will be bad, and have the ability to control it, why not?” he inquired.

  “I guess I’m just more comfortable with the clarity that those genes create those diseases. It’s proven. Screening for these soul-genes or whatever they’re called sounds more like moral judgment to me,” Juliet responded.

  “I know it can seem that way, when you haven’t fully seen or learned our technology, but it has been just as clearly proven that some of the dark matter DNA in the soul is just as disruptive, just as much a clear clinical anomaly, and the outcomes just as far off of normal and healthy. Have we been wrong so far?” Kyle continued.

  “How would we know?” Chandra defended, “Everything has been so secretive, and now you want us to trust you.”

  “It wasn’t secretive because we were deceiving you. It was secretive because it had to be. We’ve perfected the assimilation process over a millennia. Can you imagine if we brought you in here the first day and told you all of this? Your minds would be so closed to it and then twice as defensive to learning the new information. We’ve done it. It ends up taking twice as long. Besides, there could be no errors with your class.”

  “Why? What makes us so special?” Enam asked.

  “We have a special purpose. I can’t advise on that. It must come from Saraceni or Ruth.” Several of the recruits shifted uncomfortably. Juliet was really pulling and twirling at her ponytail by this point.

  “More secrets! You’re telling us to trust you and dishing us more secrets in the same breath. That’s it! I’ve had enough,” Juliet snapped. She rose and threw a water bottle across the room. She pressed against the door, which was locked and then began kicking with all her force against the windows, leaving size 7 footprints on the clear surface.

  “Juliet, c’mon!” Gabriel tried to reason with her. She really let loose and started kicking twice as hard, with an occasional pounding of her fist. Running Wolf moved closer as if he might grab her from around the waist and restrain her, and he glanced sideways at Gabriel as if seeking permission. Gabriel shook his head, took one step back, and flung both of his hands away from his body emphatically.

  “Just let her go,” he said more quietly. Everyone watched as she continued her tirade against the imprisoning walls. After two minutes or so, she fell onto her hands and knees and stared at the floor. Wood had seen this on the monitor and came flying into the room. Juliet did not sob, she just stared at the floor in complete silence, devoid of all energy or even mental capacity to absorb more. She just wanted to go home, back to her ranch with wide open skies and mountain views. She had a brief image of riding her horse across the plain, wind flying through her hair. Suddenly, she had an image of her horse now, smaller than the size of a cell and her shouting after him “Run, Oskadis , Run!” and she started to giggle. Escalating slowly at first and then exponentially, her giggle grew to a full laugh and then hysterics as she began laughing uncontrollably. Wood knelt next to her body, still on all fours, on the ground, but did not touch her.

  “That girl’s done lost her mind!” Chandra exclaimed. This struck Juliet even funnier, that out of everyone’s mostly calm, cool reactions over the last weeks that she should somehow be the crazy one for reacting normally. What kind of genetic freaks were these people? It struck her so funny she now rolled onto her back and started howling with laughter, pointing at them-

  “Genetic freaks!” she said, pointing and laughing, “Oh, Dr. Frankenstein, I wonder how a quantum computer is built. Oh it’s simple, I just attach these jumper cables to your neck and pow!” she roared. It should’ve been funny. On any other day, it would have been. They’d have all joined in the fun. Not today. Kyle then spoke to Stone as two parents discuss a child as if she isn’t even there.

  “I think I’ll have to call Saraceni out of the project meeting,” Kyle said to Wood. Wood was assessing the situation when Juliet sat up, slowly reigning in her laughter, and responded amidst slowing giggles,

  “Oh, calm down, Poppy. I’m fine. They can stay in their precious project meeting.” She looked at Wood to back her up and leaned toward him slightly. His training had replaced his feelings and he assessed her with the discipline with which he was trained.

  “She’s fine,” he said to Kyle, helping her up of the floor. The rest of Molior relaxed slightly-Jack’s shoulders, David’s jaw, Gabriel’s fists, all relaxed. Jane stopped biting her lip. Juliet returned to a chair and tried to speak very authoritatively, directly to Kyle,

  “Yes, and then what happened, Frankenstein? Continue!” she said very seriously, knitting her brow as if concentrating immensely, and then she giggled again. Gabriel rolled his eyes for lack of any other reaction, but then she sat quietly awaiting a response. As if stepping onto a froze
n lake to test his weight on it, Kyle began,

  “Well, we decided to build the quantum computer, an exact replica of our universe within it, and to create a series of tests for the souls there, so they could go through a gauntlet of trials preparing them to be worthy of being selected to come here.”

  “Because here is so great!” Juliet, motioning grandly at the room, roared without a hint of sarcasm, and broke out in a brief laugh. She was clearly just entertaining herself at this point, but they were happy she wasn’t acting out.

  “I always read that a quantum computer copy would be an exact match-size, shape, everything, how can it be a copy but not the same size?” Mr. Aquila asked. Juliet was genuinely interested in the answer and listened attentively.

  “You were to the point of learning in The Cupel where we thought that was true, originally, but we eventually learned there are some ways around that rule that allow scale to be manipulated without interfering with the integrity of the environment,” he continued.

  “It’s not an exact match, though, anyway. You said you created tests, and it’s clearly not the same as here,” Jack reflected.

  “Right,” Kyle paused, collecting his thoughts, “Right, that’s where I was headed. So, we deliberately broke the system up into seven sub-pieces. Seven cultures, separate languages, separate religions, so we could execute some discreet testing but also to test the ability of the subjects to vertically and horizontally integrate information,” he said.

  “Like Ruth mentioned,” Gabriel confirmed.

  “Yes, she was mentioning how the goal is to process information. Well, to learn how to process information, you have to have a wide array of it to process,” he said.

  “It’s like those block puzzles for babies,” Jack deduced,” First, you have to spread the blocks out all over the floor, far apart. Sure, you could just give ‘em to the kid, or put them close together, but what would he learn then, right?”

  “Good analogy.” Kyle praised the man who towered over him. Juliet looked at Wood.

  “Were you there? For this grand spreading out of the blocks, the breaking up of the totality of knowledge so us simpletons could evolve?” she grilled.

  “No. I was born in The Cupel and moved through my lives there until I came here, just like you,” he replied, suddenly conscious of how much he wanted her trust and respect. “Just a few circles earlier, that’s all,” he added.

  “What’s a circle?” Gabriel queried.

  “Like Ruth mentioned earlier about the expansion and contraction of the universe. The time it takes for one occurrence of the universe expanding from a point to apogee where it’s fully expanded and then back to a point again is called one circle. We also use the term to reflect levels of progression.”

  “There or here? Whose revolution time determines how long the circle is-I’m assuming they’re not the same length of time since you said before some years here is an aeon there?” Gabriel dug for deeper understanding.

  “Um, both,” Wood responded reflexively, surprised by the question. It wasn’t really his role to teach, but nothing about this class had gone exactly as planned, or as needed, so he didn’t see the point in maintaining the false distinction now. “Each has their own respective cycle. Like a day on the earth, vs. a day on Mars, vs. a day on Saturn. They are all different lengths of time, but they all represent one revolution around the Sun for that entity and they are all called a ‘day’.”

  “So when it shifts to a new circle, is it just like going to sleep on New Year’s or does something actually happen, like the world burns in fire each time or something?” Juliet asked.

  “Nothing like that, but it is spectacular. It’s just like a gate that opens up to the next circle, and everything resets, and all the collective information from the prior circle is downloaded.”

  “Wood!” Kyle boomed in a reprimanding tone.

  “Kyle, they’d get this tomorrow anyway.”

  “You don’t know that,” Kyle retorted.

  “Well, I do know they need to sleep, and they need some answers in order to do that, or have you forgotten what it’s like to be human already?” Wood responded.

  “May I remind you that you are a circle 2 and I do still outrank you. Quite considerably, in fact,” Kyle chided.

  “Yes, sir,” Wood checked himself. Circle 2’s always had trouble forgetting the face in front of them and remembering the soul behind it. At this level, they weren’t able to read souls by sight yet, so it required a constant inner reminder to stay in check. Then Kyle surprised Wood, by continuing the explanation he began. In a tone that acknowledged that Wood was right, Kyle explained.

  “So, the gate opens, the information collected downloads to the master plan, and everyone gets promoted to the next circle,” Kyle continued.

  “Wait, I’m confused-here or there?” Jane asked.

  “Both. So you guys are called circle 1’s, it’s your first revolution,” Kyle explained.

  “Wait, but I thought we did a whole bunch of lives in The Cupel-how can I only be a circle 1 if I already did a bunch of circles there according to what Saraceni said?” Juliet asked.

  “You’re a circle one here. You were some other circle in The Cupel. I don’t know them, I’m afraid,” Kyle said.

  “I had observation duty for this class. She was a circle 28 in The Cupel,” Wood reported. Juliet crossed her arms uncomfortably at the thought that Wood had been observing her and the others for months, or years, and Wood looked down.

  “What was I?” asked Running Wolf.

  “You were circle 30,” Wood answered.

  “And me? “ Gabriel asked.

  “I can see where this is going. Gabriel, you were a 33, Jane a 26, Alexander a 32, Enam a 32, Chandra-”. He stopped abruptly realizing where he’d just led.

  “What am I?” Chandra asked. Wood paused and looked at Kyle.

  “Well, you can’t not tell them now.” Kyle said.

  Stone resumed, “Chandra, you’re an 8, and Jack you’re a 19.” The team appeared confused.

  Juliet replied: “Why did they get to come so much earlier? We had to do all these lifetimes we don’t remember.”

  “There are many reasons someone might be brought early,” Wood attempted evading as he had seen Saraceni do many times. The recruits were wise to this move, though, and Wood learned why teaching assignments aren’t given out for many, many circles.

  “Yes, but why were they specifically brought early?” Gabriel pressed. Wood opened his mouth as if to speak, but Kyle abruptly cut him off.

  “They were needed. And that’s all we are permitted to say. Ruth and Saraceni will discuss this very soon, but we may not.” Kyle looked pointedly at Wood to reinforce his words. Wood remained silent.

  “It’s the DNA matches, it’s got to be!” Running Wolf said to his fellow recruits.

  “Hey Dad, I’m older than you!” Gabriel broke his first smile of the day and put his arm around his father’s shoulder.

  “And I’m the same age as you, Alexander!” Enam added.

  “Actually, Enam, you and Alexander are the same number of circles because you were brothers originally. In your first life, I mean. You’ve been tied together in many of them,” Wood advised.

  “Is that common?” Jack asked. A gnawing feeling had been building within him and this just might explain it.

  “Actually, yes,” Kyle continued, “To some extent it’s a natural occurrence. There’s a certain natural binding between some souls, like electron pairs, but we also learned to engineer that, so we will attach souls together if it suits the greater learning, or once we know you are being recruited. It helps to come here having formed workgroups already, to know how to work in established teams. It’s like the difference between a military unit that is freshly recruited and one that’s been together for three years. You operate better; You can read each other. It’s an advantage we cannot afford to forfeit.” Kyle expounded so matter-of-factly regarding the manipulation of their lives an
d souls that some of the recruits, Chandra in particular, were disturbed by it.

  “Can we tell?” Jack continued, “I mean, can we feel the difference if it’s someone we’ve known before vs. not, natural vs. engineered?”

  “Most people can. In The Cupel, only some can, though most everyone there can recognize their binary soul match. Here pretty much everyone can.” Kyle responded.

  “Binary soul match? Is that like your detached way of saying a soul mate?” Jane queried.

  “That’s a primitive view. The scientific relationship between the souls is much more complicated than that, but for ease of understanding, yes.” Kyle affirmed. Wood looked at Juliet, who registered and looked back at him, then casually stepped away slowly.

  “I should check on George,” Wood said flatly and left the room.

  “Typical guy,” Chandra muttered under her breath.

  “So, we live all these lives learning all these lessons you have preselected for us, gathering this collective intelligence that who uses for what we don’t know, but why all the cloak and dagger? Why the monitoring of us, our families-do you monitor everyone?”

  “We monitor those with promise. We monitor your families because they are tied to you and, as such, have been assigned as a future workgroup member. They will be recruited,” Kyle responded. His plain tone was really grating on Chandra.

  “When?” asked Gabriel. He thought of Lela, Gretchen and Caleb.

  “When they are ready. When they have completed their missions within the Cupel. When they are needed here, or, sometimes, if it’s otherwise necessary. ” Kyle responded.

  “Otherwise necessary?” For what?” Gabriel asked

  “Their protection.” Kyle conceded.

  Chapter 19

  Molior assembled the next day, hoping to hear news of George and from the project briefing. They finally knew they were brought here for some very specific reasons and were eager to learn more-their fates, the fates of those they left behind, in particular. Ruth and Saraceni stood outside the door.