The Archytas

by Kinsella, Luke

  “Creators?” enquired Grace.

  “Imagine them as time travelling Gods’. I have calculated carefully that these birds, the ones that are taking the shards from the box, they exist, and for everyone concerned, have always existed long before us, in the past.”

  “For what purpose?” asked Carter.

  “For us. They are, after all, very intelligent by design. They form the loops. Very much like our universe. The universe as we know it did not begin and does not end, it is made up of one large connected loop. Actually, think of it more as one big series of loops.”

  “But isn’t that completely pointless?” asked Grace.

  “It might sound pointless. Everything forever repeating. I agree with that. Of course, I want to fully understand, learn more. Find out if I am right about the things I have discovered. Find out if there is more than one prism, as I believe there is. Take apart these birds and examine them myself, or at least communicate with them.”

  “Well that’s easy,” said Carter. “There’s one of those machines in the farmhouse we were staying at. He speaks too.”

  “Great,” said Yudar, with a grin. “Take me to him please; I have an urgent matter that I need to discuss.”

  84

  The copy of Justin was lethargically turning the pole. It was as though it had almost given up completely when Yudar, Grace, and Carter entered the room.

  “It is a long time since I have been back here,” said Yudar.

  “You came here before?” asked Grace.

  “Yes, this was the home of Tom Somertri and his son Jamie. I came here when I first arrived on Terra.”

  “Hello,” said Justin.

  “Hello,” said Yudar.

  “My name is Justin Jenkins,” said Justin, now slumping forward with the pole in his hand, unmoving.

  “So, what is this machine?” asked Yudar.

  “This is a generator.”

  “And, it is powered by a shard of the prism, is that correct?”

  “Prism?” Justin thought for a moment. “If that’s what you want to call it. You mean one of the invisible objects?”

  “Right,” said Yudar.

  “Yes,” said Justin. “The machine is powered by a prism.”

  “How does it work?”

  Justin was tired of questions. He had spent the last few hours thinking about clones, about copies of himself, about the morality of everything. He was tired of it all. Tired of being a pawn on someone else’s board, only moving forward. Tired of being programmed to do what others wanted. A mouse trapped in a cage. A single neuron in a giant brain. A slave in a system.

  “I’m tired,” said Justin.

  “Tired of what?” asked Yudar.

  “Questions. Existence. I am sick of being a part of this game. I didn’t ask to be created like this. I was a human once. I was supposed to die. I wasn’t supposed to live forever, pushing a pole around. This is futile, and I am sick of it.”

  “It is your purpose,” declared Yudar.

  “My purpose! I have been designed to push a pole. All of us, the birds, the other versions of myself, each one a small part of a bigger system. And if we stop, will the universe cease to exist?”

  “Probably,” said Yudar.

  “Exactly. Look how pointless it is, keeping humans alive, just in case there is no other life that has grown to develop sentience. It was probably a mistake anyway. Sure, I have sentience too, but it is artificial, unusual. It cannot form naturally; therefore, the universe cannot create it. A human created it. There had to be something that existed before I existed. I can’t have been created without humans. It is your species that is to blame,” Justin pointed directly at Grace.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Carter.

  “See, more questions. Just accept that if it wasn’t for your strong desire to exist, then I wouldn’t have to endure this suffering.”

  “But you said before,” said Carter, “it was that other you, that human you that created all of this. You did this to yourself, not this woman here.”

  “That might be true, but everything came together at that point. Your single species, the tasks that lead to this. The things we did before you, the things you will all do. You are all part of a bigger network, each of you a single thread on an endless fabric.”

  “I’ve had enough of this,” said Carter.

  “I’ve had enough of you. Please leave me to my own devices.”

  “You mean this device?” asked Yudar. “The one you were about to explain to me the inner workings of?”

  “If I tell you, will you leave,” it said, obviously giving up the fight.

  “A deal,” said Yudar.

  “Fine. There’s a pigeon at the bottom. A pigeon and a piece of a prism. Every time this pole rotates two thousand eight hundred and thirty-two times, the bird and the prism touch. The prism copies the bird somewhere close to the original location; only deep in the past, and at the time it was first observed.

  “These birds often materialise under the ground; often they are never discovered, occasional dug up by archæologists assuming they are formed by ancient technology. Other birds materialise above ground, and those birds go on to either harness power, or expire.

  “Unfortunately, an event occurred seventy million years ago that caused the extinction of all dominant terrestrial vertebrates. This event destroyed all of the birds too.

  “So, pushing this pole is completely pointless, and all we gain from it is the incredible amount of energy that occurs when a pigeon is copied and transported to the past.”

  “But why two thousand eight hundred and thirty-two times?”

  “You made a deal!” said Justin furiously. “I am not answering any more questions. Get out!”

  “Fine,” said Yudar, “we will leave.”

  And they did, leaving the confused mechanical Justin to continue his endless task of generating power whilst contemplating the world that contained him.

  85

  They were in the kitchen. Yudar standing, addressing Carter and Grace as they sat at the table.

  “The problem is that nobody loves the universe. We just do not think of it the same way as we think of other objects, or how humans care about the ones they love. You protect each other, you even protect the planet, at least some do. And why? Because you have evolved that way? Because you have been taught the concept of Mother Earth at a young age? The concept ignores the only thing that really matters, the universe. Selfishness is important. I would not be here, on Terra, if I had cared about the others, those who were lost to time,” said Yudar, motioning toward Grace, although he could see the look of confusion painted across her face. “You would not be here if you were not selfish, and it led you outside beyond the walls.”

  “I wasn’t selfish,” she said, “I wanted to escape the world I was living.”

  “And the others, you left them behind. Your friends, family, and lovers. Those that are worrying about you right now, wondering what happened to you. Is that not selfish?”

  “I didn’t really have friends or family,” she said.

  “Regardless,” said Yudar, “the human species decided to teach the importance of the planet, give it a name, and there was no harm in doing that, but the real importance was and still is the universe. Everything is going to end, that much is certain, regardless of when time begins and ends, it will end. But the purpose is to first understand it. Why it will end? That is the important question. The people here on Terra came closest with Buddhism, a symbolic faith that died out long before the founding of Utopia. Science came quite close to understanding too, but neither got it right.”

  “Yudar,” Carter interrupted, “what are you trying to say? That we should love the universe, is that the point of all of this? Everything that’s happened and you’re saying it’s all about love?”

  “No,” said Yudar, “it is not like that at all. We exist with one purpose, and that purpose is to protect the universe. It loves everything, and in return,
we too should love it. We keep it flowing, and it is life that does this, it allows it a purpose, sentience allows it. Without sentience, the universe will completely cease to exist. A sentient can think, question, and understand. Without the existence of intelligence, all existence is pointless. If sentience dies, then so too does the universe. Life was given at its earliest incarnation to allow the universe to exist.”

  “Wait, so how do you quantify sentience?” asked Carter.

  “Quantify?” enquired Grace.

  “Define it,” said Carter, “how you measure it.”

  “Well,” said Yudar, “if the universe began and there was no life, it would have ceased to have been created, thus ceasing to exist. But, we know that it does exist, or we would not be experiencing anything now. Therefore, the universe began exactly as life began, but not at the same time. Causality; a carefully calculated life that would go on to create itself at a certain point in time. The first life would not have come into existence for billions of years, but, at the beginning, that same life was already existing somewhere along the loop, and would eventually be fabricated based on the universe’s plan.”

  “Sorry, I’m really not following,” said Grace.

  “Knife,” said Carter.

  Grace stood up and walked over to the kitchen counter and collected a knife, and returned to her seat passing the knife to Carter.

  Carter began to carve into the table a huge circle, next to the previous carvings of the Sol System. He made two crosses equidistant at either end of the circle.

  “This...” said Carter, pointing at the first cross, “this is where the universe began. At this point life already existed or the universe couldn’t begin in the first place. And this,” he pointed to the second cross, “is when life was first formed, sentience.”

  “But Yudar said the universe couldn’t be formed without the existence of life. This isn’t right?”

  “It depends. If it is correct that the universe is one continuous loop, then even though there was no actual life at the beginning of the universe, life already existed before it, and after it. Therefore rendering the universe possible.”

  “Exactly,” said Yudar. “Just like your species having faith in many things, the universe itself had faith that its plan would come to fruition, and the life that was created, planned for at the beginning, would fit seamlessly into the loop. A carefully constructed series of events. These events include ourselves. Returning the Universe Prism to Terra is one such event, one that the universe had faith in.”

  “Right,” said Carter, “if it wasn’t for me, then the birds would never have gained access to the prism, and never made their energy machines.”

  “Yes, and without energy, perhaps the human species would have become extinct.”

  “So, I saved the human race?” asked Carter, gleefully.

  “You could look at it that way, I suppose, but it would be more fitting to think that you followed through with the plan the universe chose for you. The word often used is destiny. Meticulously planned destiny.”

  “But isn’t all of that pointless, like Justin said? If we have destiny then we have no choice, we just fit into a plan,” said Grace.

  “Is there any harm in that, we might fit into a plan, but we get to experience life.”

  “Fine, but why bother?” asked Grace.

  “Why bother with what?” asked Yudar.

  “Why bother creating life so that you can create a universe that creates life, a loop. Isn’t it completely pointless?”

  “Not quite,” said Yudar. “Everything comes around, revolves in a full loop of time. Imagine it like a perfectly planned and planted tree with many branches growing with time. The tree might seem pointless. Even if it never bears fruit, if it never becomes home to birds, never provides food to any organism, if it only takes water from the planet and selfishly grows, if it never does anything at all but to simply exist, is the tree pointless?”

  “Yes,” said Grace.

  “Yes,” agreed Carter.

  Yudar let out a sigh as a solemn look of defeat crossed his face. “Yes,” he conceded, “I suppose it is.”

  86

  Yudar had taken advantage of Tom Somertri’s old Trac-car, and had drove the three of them to where he had carefully landed his ship the day before.

  They exited the vehicle into the heat of the spring dawn; the fields of corn danced in the basking light of the sun. Grace nibbled on the raw yellow crops as they stood before the ship.

  “So, what now?” asked Carter.

  “We can fix it up,” said Yudar, “there are enough scraps and components around from those broken birds, and parts from the ship you came in on,” he said, looking at Carter. “I can make it better, faster. If you ever decided to leave.”

  “And what about me?” asked Grace. “What’s my purpose in all of this?”

  “I am not sure,” said Yudar. “I thought about it, whether or not you had a reason, then I thought about sentience, that of the birds and Justin, they are artificial. They might think the same way as you do, as Justin demonstrated, they might process information in the same way. However, you, Grace, might be the last pure sentient, there is nothing artificial about you. The last human alive.”

  “But there are others,” said Grace, as she pointed toward the towering walls of Utopia. “What about them?”

  “Then maybe you do not fit at all. Reality is hard to face, but maybe you are just a remnant, someone left behind by the universe.”

  “Left Behind?”

  “Sorry, Grace, I do not understand how you fit into the plan. It is as if you are here only to add some impartiality to the situation. An anomaly of sorts, unexpected, like the whole of the dystopian society you once lived, a representation of the remainder of humanity. Left behind and for no clear reason.”

  “Then I will find my purpose. My resolve.”

  “And what do you think that might be, your purpose?” asked Yudar.

  “I will free them. The others,” said Grace.

  “Good,” Yudar smiled, “then that is it.”

  “Do you have a plan as to how you will do that?” asked Carter.

  “Perhaps. I met people on the inside; they can help spread the word. News of what is beyond the walls will travel fast. I will start a revolution. Enter the city, tell them about the crops, the birds, and start a revolution, this is what I want,” said Grace.

  “And what about resistance?” asked Yudar. “All revolutions must face resistance.”

  “What,” laughed Grace, “I have to worry about a bunch of birds? They’re only pigeons, what can they do?”

  “They are much smarter than you think, Grace.”

  “I don’t worry about that. Those birds have served their purpose, you said it yourself. What reason do they have to keep my people in a caged city?”

  “A fair point,” said Carter.

  “Okay, if that is what you want then I will help you. I will build for you a transient electromagnetic disturbance device,” said Yudar.

  “A what?”

  “It sends out a short burst of electromagnetic energy. The birds are mechanical. This device will cause them to stop functioning for a short amount of time. Imagine it as your own self-defence mechanism. Carry it around with you, and if those birds get too close, activate the device. The birds will drop to the ground.”

  “Can’t you just build one big enough that covers the whole...” Grace thought once more for the word, “planet?”

  “That would cause all electrical devices to stop working on the whole of Terra. That would take a lot of work, and many components to produce. I do not think it is possible. However, after fixing up this ship, I will make as many devices for you and your species as I can. It should protect at least some of you.”

  “Thank you,” said Grace.

  “No problem,” said Yudar, “I am glad you have found your purpose.”

  “Me too,” said Grace, with a smile of genuine hope.

  87
r />   The copy of Grace was falling. A moment later, she crashed through the branches of a tree, before blacking out.

  When she finally came around, she could not feel the right side of her body; leg and arm completely numb. It took just a second for the panic to set in. With her left hand, she lifted her right arm. It was cold to the touch, soft but heavy. She let go of her arm and it flopped down, landing on her right breast. She picked it up again; it was as if her arm was completely dead. It filled her with thoughts of horror, fear. She let go and it dropped to the ground with a thud. She had never experienced such numbness before, and as a wave of confusion swept through her, she tried to shake her right leg, it moved slightly, circulation returning, slowly. She vigorously shook her right arm, and although it felt disconnected from the rest of her body, the tingling of feelings began to return.

  Grace let out a sigh of relief, constantly moving the right side of body as she lay on the hard ground. Looking around at the same time to assess her surroundings.

  She glanced across the horizon, but could not make out the walls of the city. Her last memory came back; she was speaking to a man in a kitchen, a farmhouse, about to collect a photograph from a box. The man, the moment, and the memory now distant. She leant forward and maintained a seated pose. Her right leg and arm began to ache gently. She took another look around; there were no buildings in any direction, only dirt specked with the occasional greenery of a rising plant. A cluster of trees grew behind her. Beside her, a single tree that had softened her landing. She did not know where she was or how she came to be.

  Eventually, all feeling had returned to her body, and she got to her feet. The world around her was silent. Completely silent. There were no animals, no birds, and no life that she could see other than some overgrown foliage.

  She decided to walk, but could not decide on direction. Everywhere looked the same. The skyline was an endless painting of dirt, of browns marrying greens.

  She touched her face. She did not know why, but she felt the need to. Maybe to check if she was still real, still a person. She was.