by E. R. Jess
Elann said to the chamber, “Manifest.” And she appeared in the City-State hub and ordered, “Superimpose recording, time: fifteen, seventy-eight, one-o-seven.”
Her digital semblance was transferred to the Imperium as time reversed suddenly and violently, then stopped. She watched Alessa's Outernet avatar enter the building, Elann followed. When Alessa entered room 802, Elann's new lab for creating the Antikythera device, she paused and left. Elann reversed time yet again, attempting to retrace Alessa's steps. Elann followed her closely, watching her movements, her expressions. “I have to be sure.”
Elann rewound time again, retracing Alessa's steps. Alessa's avatar turned around at that moment and looked at her reflection, and from Elann's point of view, both of their reflections commingled. Alessa seemed distressed at the sight. Elann laughed. “You remember. Yes, I'm here. And you're in the rot and dust of the wasteland.”
Elann left her AR chamber, took another injection and fell into an uneasy sleep.
Fifteen years prior – During The Caelestis Project, the first purge of the Free City
Sub-Minister Aloca stood in a tower on the western wall of the City-State. She watched the purge burn through the city streets, clearing out the rabble that had gathered there over the years to squat and live off of the scraps of civilized society. The smoke didn't make it up to her level in the tower, but she could smell it. She could feel the ash building in the atmosphere and she could feel the heat accumulate around her temples. And the Free City glowed like embers.
Her assistant, Elann, stood at attention behind her and cleared her throat. “Sub-Minister?”
Aloca turned her head to acknowledge her.
“I have a modest proposal that I've created for your review,” Elann said and held an e-paper document at arm's length.
The Sub-Minister turned her attention back to the purge.
Elann sighed silently and spoke, “It's about the implementation of the design of the ES1, the manufactured human, the biological androids designed for deep-space missions. We could increase their numbers greatly by using a proxy host.”
“What do you mean?” Aloca asked with some interest.
“My conformity R&D department has been working on a device.”
Aloca pursed her lips and stayed quiet, surveying the chaos with her hands behind her back.
Elann continued, “A device that can turn any human into the same kind of template as the ES1. One with a perfectly wiped mind, greater strength and health. It's also been tested with the kinetic gravity prototype. We call it Antikythera, as the device itself defies our own understanding. It performs beyond any expectations.”
Aloca spoke up, “Novel, I'm sure, but how practical is it to wipe minds clean of everything? We need workers and soldiers, not drooling fools.”
“But Sub-Minister, the potential is staggering. We write their memories. We give them specific skills. We can withhold all emotion, all desire. We can make perfect UPC citizens. And we can transfer consciousnesses, which would be vital for space exploration. We send templates to distant colonies over the course of decades, then transmit the consciousnesses of UCM and UPC officials to fill them.”
Aloca turned from her tower view and took the e-paper. She glanced over it and downloaded it into her handheld. “I will review this. I see great promise. And great dedication,” the Sub-Minister said, closing with, “For all its good works, Elann.”
“May the City-State ever rise,” the assistant replied instinctively.
Elann was dismissed and bounded to tell her mate, Makz, the good news. He was just getting back from patrol in the prison perimeter when Elann came up to him with a lit-up face. “I take it all went well?” He asked.
Elann nodded, “I believe so. Nothing UPC likes more than when it's improved upon.”
Makz smiled wide and embraced her. “I hope it goes well. I look forward to becoming a citizen like you, the joy must be incalculable.”
“Yes it is. Whether or not my proposal is accepted, I will be recognized as a much better contributor,” Elann said as a tear grew in her eye.
The couple spent the evening using Pulse in the warm blue glow of propaganda screens. “What if I could expedite your application? Would you like to become a citizen sooner?” Elann asked through the haze of Pulse.
Makz laughed, “Of course I would, I've wanted nothing else my whole life.”
Elann took Makz's hand. “Then do something for me, be a test subject in my program.”
Makz hesitated, “Would your program remove all of my memory?”
Elann sat up, “Yes, but that's the beauty of it. You'll be a citizen like no other, one with a purity of spirit, a purged-clean soul.”
“But, Elann, what would be left of me, my own desires?” Makz asked patiently.
“You would be improved,” she said simply.
Makz took his hand out of hers. “My own dedication and loyalty isn't enough?”
Elann stood and paced, “The most important thing about being a citizen is not questioning the will of UPC. You should know that.”
“I want to become a citizen of my own accord,” Makz said firmly.
Elann sighed and gestured to the door. “We will discuss this later. I have work to do.”
Makz gathered his things and gave her a long look. He looked through her eyes for a hint of compassion, but found only coldness. He left and went back to the perimeter.
Elann looked at herself in the mirror and praised the City-State a hundred times before she fell into a blank sleep.
The next day, Elann went to the science ministry to find that her lab had been ransacked. Several of her scientists lay dead and the computers housing her research were missing. A squad LCS came rushing in and held her for questioning.
She was deposed for hours about the nature of her work. She answered honestly, reiterating that she was an assistant for the Sub-Minister of conformity, Aloca. Aloca herself finally arrived and sat next to Elann in her holding cell.
“What is going on here, can you talk some reason into these people? What have I done?” Elann demanded.
Aloca looked into her eyes and flashed a frown, “You don't know? You have no idea, do you. Elann, I'm sorry to say that your research will not see the light of day. You've gone too far, UPC has gone too far. The Caelestis Project is bad enough, the depopulation of the Free City is cruel and unnecessary, now you want to destroy everyone's minds, purge everything human. I can't allow it.”
Elann, her eyes wide, whispered, “You're a traitor, an anti-citizen.”
“Yes, and you're a zealot. We both have flaws,” Aloca said simply.
A hulk of a man entered her holding cell. Mar, dressed in an ill-fitting suit, stood next to Elann. She withdrew in fear and asked, “Going to kill me? Like the propaganda promises? UPC cannot be ended.”
“No,” he said bluntly, “That's not why I'm here, Elann. I am going to get to know you, to know you very well. And when I'm done, whatever is left of you will thank me for the experience. I promise this.”
Elann let out a whimper as Mar closed his eyes and delved into her mind violently and immediately.
Aloca gave Elann a grave look, then left, with Elann's screams following her.
Real Enough
Kagan and Omo escaped the open desert and walked toward a stand of burned-out trees. A vast forest of thin and tall trunks, black and ashen, covering a series of rolling hills. The land held a sickly pallor, all gray and stone-like. Kagan walked up to the tree line and tilted his head. He listened intently into the dead woods.
Omo froze in place when he realized what Kagan was doing. He opened his own ears, trying to catch a sign of what spooked Kagan. There was only a dying breeze and crackling tree limbs breaking under their own weight. Omo began to speak up, but Kagan threw out a hand in his direction, quieting him before he made a sound.
Kagan's neck flinched. He winced. His arm muscles spasmed. He said, “My implant, it's being accessed.”
Omo
ran up to the trees, he looked around fervently. He could see no one. “What should I do?” he asked.
“Nothing for now. I'm fighting it.”
Jenna walked out from the trees. She gave a smirk. “I don't think you can,” she said to Kagan.
Omo flew back a few feet and tumbled to his elbows out of sheer surprise.
Kagan was fighting a massive headache from the inside out. Jenna had hacked into the Antikythera implant's hub and was doing everything she could to take it offline. The program fought her intrusion and left Kagan with a flood of muscle aches and a handful of memories that jolted before his eyes with white-hot intensity.
Jenna circled Kagan. She programmed in the air as Kagan stood in pain, unable to move much. She said, “Haven't we been busy? From what I can tell, the program has done well in you. Got your body working faster and stronger than I thought possible. You're welcome.” Jenna peeled back layers of protection set in the Antikythera and tried to close the program completely. She looked to Omo, who was wide-eyed and confused and wrist-deep in soot. “Who's the kid?”
Omo stood up and felt a wave of shimmering energy boil up under his bones. He said, “I am Omo, I was made to replace you on Earth.”
Jenna let out a dumbfounded chortle. “All kinds out here in the desert, isn't that right, Kagan? Like violence-prone pacifists. I knew you were following me, I can feel you like a shiver. Not a completely unpleasant feeling,” Jenna said as she closed in on Kagan and touched his face.
Omo stalled. He knew that he could protect himself, that he could emanate a power that could kill her in a moment, but Omo feared he couldn't control it. He was sure that Kagan would be caught up in the energy.
Kagan broke a sweat. His head pounded and a fever grew. He saw images from weeks and months prior instead of perceiving where he actually was.
Jenna pulled herself to his face. She continued and whispered, “Like the first time you saw me. You remember. Through the confusion, I felt your lust. I am Alessa in every way that counts.”
Kagan looked at her, letting his head turn on its own. He clenched his muscles and tried to break through Jenna's programming. He thought he was outmatched, he didn't know if he could stop her. Meanwhile, he concentrated on keeping his memories straight in his head. As the Antikythera was attacked, it seemed that it was taking memories with it, Jenna was using it to steal his memory files.
Omo ran after Jenna and tried to hit her. She lifted her hand and a bolt of electricity flew out of her palm, an arc taser, hitting him in his sternum. His momentum was stopped short, he stood there dazed and trying to get his bearings.
Jenna said into Kagan's ear, “You and I are going to Alessa, together, and we're going to calmly explain things. Then, we will take what I need. And where she is, I can't go alone.”
Kagan tried as hard as he could to hold onto a flood of memories leaving his head like water in a leaking pool, everything was slipping away. He saw his wife and son wave goodbye, Alessa and Eight swam away, giving him long looks. He saw the Free City finally crumble away to nothing, leaving a blank slate, burned-clean bedrock. And the constellations he could remember began to fizzle out, one by one.
“You and I are more alike than you and Alessa,” Jenna said softly, “We both grew up in the middle of the end. We both saw the worst of what this planet has to offer. Alessa is far worse a person that you know. Come with me and we will share everything. No secrets. And I won't use you. Won't use you like Alessa does, as a dog on a leash. She knew that you would eventually be needed to defend her. And we've done this before, worked together. Didn't we. You used me once, lied to me. But I understand. We make choices. We don't let the world choose for us.”
Kagan's eyes opened. He saw the last of his friends flow by in a fetid river. He watched his wife and son drift by. And he pulled his arms back. Instead of reaching out to them, he hesitated. He couldn't reach them, so he let them go. His hand went instinctively to a wedding ring that was not on his finger. He sat up on the river bank and watched the sky slide overhead, watched the sky go blank.
“I will give you what you've sought. I'll give you the conformity without the fear. I'll wipe your mind clean and we can start over. Whatever you want to be,” she said.
Kagan nodded. He wiped his face clean of tears and took her shoulder. “We aren't supposed to leave our memories behind, nor are we supposed to remove them. We have to keep them at arm's length sometimes, and sometimes we have to hunt them down. But they are everything. And what we can't hold onto, we must foster in others, when our minds finally fade.”
Jenna grabbed her headset and reeled back. Kagan had sent a massive wave of feedback down through the UCG. He did it instinctively, without programming. She cursed and brought her palm up to Kagan's chest to hit him with an arc taser blast.
Kagan thought quickly and grabbed her wrist. With his other palm, he hit her elbow, full force, from the wrong side. Her arm broke with a massive crack. Her scream dwarfed the sound.
Omo yelped and stepped back in shock.
Jenna howled at the sky and spat at Kagan.
Kagan looked at her unemotionally. He tilted his head as if musing at something. Kagan then took the arm and twisted it back, setting the bone. He let her go and stooped down to her face. He said, “Help me find Alessa or I will end you here. I will take your life and leave your corpse out here in the dirt. No one will miss you.”
“You son of a bitch, you're going to kill me anyway,” she managed to respond.
An unsettling calm fell over Kagan's face. “No. I haven't killed anyone, not since the purge, you see. But I haven't had a reason since then. Now I feel a new urgency. I have an internal balance that is tipping. I want to settle it back into place. I either need Alessa, or I need you gone. And I'm seriously tempted to murder you now and find her on my own.”
“I will tell you nothing,” Jenna said to the ground as she fell over in agony.
“Then I will find the information in there, in your mind,” Kagan said as he stood, “But I don't know what I'm doing. I'm no wire like you. No telling what kind of damage I'll do once I get in your implants. I might stop your heart, give you an aneurysm. They're a confusing mess, mind implants. And I might not have the will to give a fuck about you for much longer. Now get on your feet before I shatter you to pieces right now.”
Jenna looked at him coldly. She yelled through her teeth as she hefted herself up with her good arm. Her body shook with intense pain. She took long breaths and tried to calm herself, to keep from falling into shock. She glanced to the north and east, and began shuffling in that direction.
Kagan grabbed the backpack carrying her portable mainframe and handheld. He gave a look at Omo. Omo let out a long breath and started to walk after him. He kept his distance from the injured woman, still fearing her.
As they walked, Jenna wrapped her arm in an old shirt and slung it over her shoulder. Jenna watched the path with pure hate burning in her eyes. It quelled the pain.
0
Eight and Alessa awoke underwater. Their bodies shot straight up instinctively and their mouths grabbed for air. The two of them were being held captive in separate glass tanks filled halfway with warm pinkish water. The tanks were embedded in steel walls, with one wall made of thick glass. There were no handholds, no place for them to place their feet. They had to tread water or wedge themselves in the corners, either was just as exhausting. The tank wasn't quite long or wide enough to float on one's back. Eight coughed up the fluid and called out. Alessa tried to push on the glass front of the tank and felt along the steel sides.
Alessa said through the thick metal, “Eight?”
Eight tread water as best he could, but his limbs struggled. He was barely able to keep his nose out of the water, much less speak. He was still weak from whatever had happened to him during the gun fight. He made a lunge upward and answered, “Yes, oh God.”
Alessa swam over to the corner of her tank. She banged around on the walls with her fist, looking
for a hatch or opening. She looked out through the glass, but could see only a little algae and sediment. She wiped the glass with her hand, revealing a woman standing on a catwalk; Meril. “What are you doing to us?” Alessa demanded.
Meril activated an intercom button in the wall between tanks. She spoke into the air, “I take it that you're the leader of these people.”
Alessa kept silent and floated there, waiting.
“One of your colleagues,” Meril answered, “he told us of you. That you were in need of help. He helped steer you this way. Mar was anxious to meet him.”
Dernen walked nervously up to the glass, at the prodding of a warder.
Alessa bobbed up and down in the water, but stayed steely eyed.
“Tell her,” Meril said to the old man.
Dernen cleared his throat. “This is another path. They will give us a choice.”
“Where is everyone?” Alessa demanded.
Meril looked at Dernen, prompting him to give the answer.
“They're safe, Alessa. We will soon be helped by Mar. He'll enter our minds and help us choose,” Dernen said with a shaky voice.
Meril added, “They're being looked after, their needs are being met. And as your mentor said, they will be given all the answers they need.”
Alessa looked at Meril with a cautious malice and said, “Let them go.”
“Alessa, please,” Dernen began, “we've been wandering for too long. It was time to make decisions.”
Meril put her hands on Dernen's shoulders. She said to Alessa, “And Mar will give you and your people the will to act on those choices. The power to act.”
Alessa said, into Meril's eyes, “Eight...”
Eight said, “I can't, I can't do anything. Too strong, Alessa, they're too powerful.”
“And when it begins,” Meril interrupted, “you will feel it from here. When Mar enters a mind, we can all feel it. It echoes through all of us.”