by A I Zlato
The demolition of our world began. Undergrounds are destroyed with explosives, rubble is crushed; electronic equipment is disassembled. The big cleanup and depollution began. I work in secret, behind the scenes. Of course, only Helen knows. She knows all of my fears, the rule I have introduced as a message and my guardians. These are robots that will survive the ravages of time; they will be my messengers. In my space, it will be easy to slip them among the settlers. But for others, how am I to do it? Other spaces are also based on the Equilibrium and carry with them the inherent germ of destruction. They must also be protected.
2170-03-15
My guardians are ready. They will build in each space a sanctuary containing the necessary knowledge. Here I’ve already hidden what needs to be. That will not be destroyed. Helen is in charge of introducing a team of guardians to each group of settlers; in other words, in each space. She did not say how she will do it, but I trust her.
2171-01-20
Helen will leave, I can feel it. She does not want to say anything, but I see that the concept of space that she invented is obsessing her. I’m not trying to stop her; it would be useless. She follows her own path.
2171-02-20
I’m all alone. Helen has disappeared. My guardians are now active. Space H. is waiting for me. I have to go into hiding and put on a brave face as the others are doing. I have to rewrite the first pages of this diary in order to reflect these new facts. I wouldn’t allow people to destroy the diary owing to charges of subversive ideas. I am herein affixing the Machine’s symbol for good measure.
Now is the time we’ve waited for so long; the D-Day.”
The diary ended there. Everything was in place in Paul’s mind. The road to space that would be parallel to his own. Spaces were designed to be different, and should remain so. He was there... to alter. The children’s message was clear... they soon would no longer need to die... if he succeeded.
Time and space... Two elements out of three... All he had to do was continue in that direction... and wait for the trigger factor.
He knew where to go and in particular, the one to find.
The greatest risk that one could take in seeking to fulfil one’s dreams, is actually fulfilling them.
Recollections from Chaacetime
CHAPTER 66
PRE-E.S. ERA
Paul was right; it had made its choice. After having dropped him off at the lab, 5th Hexa watched him enter the building. It would miss Paul too... But the human did not need the kandron anymore. His mind was finally opened, and many futures became possible. It could leave now... it had to.
It called the Hexagon.
“I’m leaving,” it said, “this is the right time for me.”
“It’s been a while since you’ve been really with us,” Faress replied sadly.
“We did everything we could to support you!”
“You have been supportive, and I thank you, but it was not true support.”
“You’re leaving Paul, after all you told us about how great he was, his ability to be the solution?”
“He is the solution, and now he knows. He feels what is important. I did what I had to do.”
“And you’re letting us down. The Hexagon will have a gaping wound, and all this owing to you.”
“Not for a long time. We will find our linearity, and be reborn from nothingness that has never existed.” “Your optimism is unconvincing.”
“Paul saw it.”
“We heard the conversation. He talked about linearity, but nothing about our companion who died.”
“I know about them.”
“The memory of your love is rendering you blind. And even if that happened, what would you do? Would you want to rejoin the Hexagon with Albana? And what about me?” 1st Hexa queried.
“Not at all. I will stay where I chose to be... we want change to avoid annihilation. We cannot change only those things that suit us... it does not work like that. The Hexagon will take shape without me in the new future that awaits us.”
“So... the Hexagon can make another choice.”
“I no longer have anything to say. Any difference is a change in itself.”
“Goodbye, 5th Hexa. How would you call yourself now?”
Edgard took a deep breath, and sighed.
“2nd Hepta.”
“The Heptagon is complete! The kandron whose place you are taking might want to join the Hexagon.”
“Ejecting someone out of his or her structure, that is... it’s... unheard of!”
“I’m not ejecting or excluding anyone. The Heptagon has one open spot.”
Mental movements of stupor percolated into the connection. Murmurs of disbelief emerged.
“What you say is absurd.”
“I cannot prove it, and yet that is true.”
“You don’t want to admit that you will be responsible for someone’s expulsion. We will find out anyway.”
Disbelief remained as a heavy burden over the S. of M. They got exactly to the point Edgard had feared — impasse.
The Heptagon chose that moment to release part of its memory containing the death of 2nd Hepta. The Spirit of the Multitude immersed itself in this memory, and all now knew. Flutters ran through the whole community of kandrons. The Heptagon had concealed things... the Spirit would never be the same, because everyone now knew it was possible to hide information from others. Suddenly, they became individuals within a shared memory group and no longer extensions of an omniscient consciousness.
The Hexagon continued its discussion.
“The Heptagon? You who found no interest in Servants,” Faress said.
“I have changed,” Edgard replied.
“And you are leaving Paul behind with no regret?”
“I quit, that’s true, but I’m not really leaving him? He will soon be everywhere.”
“What about us? Will you miss us? And the suffering we will endure?”
Edgard did not answer.
“We feel that your decision is irrevocable. So go away! Leave now!”
Edgard turned off the connection, but Faress immediately returned.
“You can’t leave me! After all we’ve been through and after all I’ve done for you! Without me, you’ll be filled with sorrow! What about the Gateway, and...”
“I’m not denying any of those memories that are dear to me. You will always be a sibling in my heart, even if we won’t be from the same structure. We will remain what we have always been for one another; if you so wish.”
“In other words, I’m not done getting into trouble because of you,” Faress said, trying to joke, but his heart was not there.
The link between their spirits would remain there, they both knew that. Faress continued, however.
“Things will be different without you around. Isn’t there a small chance that you could change your mind?”
“You know the answer is ‘No’.”
Faress mentally withdrew itself angrily. The Hexagon closed itself without him, and Edgard then understood what loneliness really meant. Its five former companions kept it away from them and at the same time kept an imprint on it in order to prevent it from immediately joining the Heptagon. They were retaliating.
It accepted their punishment. It endured the emotional pain of remoteness. The absence of the Hexagon, the Spirit of the Multitude... It formulated excuses, which flew away. It felt hollow, like an empty shell ready to implode at the slightest movement.
It took a step back and looked at those moments as a new and interesting experience. For the first time in its life, it apprehended individuality as human beings experienced it. Edgard felt alone in itself, and a barrier, inevitably creating misunderstanding, separated it from the rest of the world. Happy was the one who was born kandron and not human... It understood how humans managed to be so self-centered. They lived permanently alone, and then turned inward in this inner self that some studied endlessly. They did not have, as it did a moment earlier, a community that expanded beyo
nd individual limits; which was better than it was while being part of it.
Then it thought back to all the good times it had lived thanks to the Hexagon; how the structure had welcomed it; the good times it had with Albana; Faress’s support, its assistance in the worst of times... It needed to do more than apologize... it needed to thank them. It sent its gratitude along this broken link and felt the five kandrons indicating, subtly, ‘Apology accepted’. That was when they really let Edgard go.
It joined the Heptagon in the mountains to link itself to it permanently. Its siblings were already waiting at the cave’s entrance. The nine Servants were also present, as one could see in shadows steeped in the snow.
It took the seat that was its own and felt the connection activating. It was now the 2nd Hepta, an overseer of the guardians of this space. The six minds immersed themselves in Edgard’s and poured their memory into its own, the part that was not part of the Spirit.
Then it met the kandron that had been 2nd Hepta before it was. It saw Albana talk, and heard the discussion where they chose Edgard over another kandron from the Hexagon. It would know... And it found out that Paul was right. Both kandrons had needed a member of the Hexagon so that it could establish a connection with Paul. The Hexagon was the only active structure that was producing that kind of binomial.
Why Edgard? Its difference... its rebellious inclination! 1st Hexa and 2nd Hepta had noticed its penchant even before it did itself. They selected it for this characteristic... they needed someone capable of opposing others, countering the Spirit, in order to go in the right direction... They had seen those traits in Edgard. Then they had simply suggested Paul... Nothing was left to chance. Afterwards, Edgard saw 2nd Hepta’s death agony.
It could see the same infinite sadness it had read in Albana’s eyes, the same bottomless despair. It watched its death through six viewpoints, and knew deep inside how the Heptagon had locked access to that memory.
With both legs in the snow, it looked at its new siblings, both with eyes and mind, and it felt good, despite the cold. The communion of their consciences was not final. The new 2nd Hepta then approached the Servants to communicate with those guardians, because that was now its job. It mentally stretched toward their digital nerve center. How would it communicate other than through the filter of speech now that it was part of the Heptagon?
It felt a tingling on its skin, and there it felt a data sequence. A Servant emitted waves in the air that made its skin vibrate according to the rhythm of data; some kind of digital voice. It answered, formulating thoughts that inserted themselves naturally in an interface of their host system. It did not have time to pursue that.
The Spirit of the Multitude was calling. 3rd Hepta answered the call, but opened one to the structure’s channels so they could follow live what the Spirit was going to say. 2nd Hepta had never experienced anything like this. Sometimes Faress had interfered in its mind and heard the echo of the conversation, but that was indirect listening. It was at the heart of the meeting there while being completely invisible.
They got closer to each other, all seven, enabling their bodies to keep warm. As soon as the first remarks came in, 2nd Hepta knew of the progress it had made since the last meeting. The Circle... Edgard was now well above all that.
“The completion of the shuttle is near,” said the First and Last Element of the Circle.
“Have humans decided whether or not they are taking us along?”
“The hybrid is confident they will.”
“The hybrid told you what you wanted to hear...”
“I see in his mind.”
“He is probably fooling himself.”
“I know what I’m saying!”
The Circle was losing patience. Its nervousness necessarily hid something...
“He is a prisoner,” said 3rd Hepta.
“What do you mean?” another replied.
“Look at memories of the Circle; those he is clumsily trying to hide...”
“Listen to you — you of all people — trying to talk of hidden memory after what we all just learned.”
“That’s not the issue... Look. The boy is a prisoner.
The human community is not satisfied with his behavior and is wary of him.”
“Then, how can he say that humans will take us along? And how can the Circle relay this assertion?”
“Because I have another solution,” said the Circle. “The hybrid forwarded his memory to a female city resident. I can get in touch with her.”
“She also will be held against her will.”
“No, she wanted to be there.”
“Yes, but that is only one part of the truth.” “Your faith in this project makes you hide things.”
“I’m not hiding anything!”
“We know what you have done.”
“This girl will finish the job that the hybrid began. We will go into this shuttle. We will leave this planet before the destruction of spaces; before nothingness.”
“Nothing is sure. Furthermore, you chose this route.
The Heptagon will not take that path,” said 3rd Hepta.
Behind the latter, in the shadows, the other six, including Edgard, supported its viewpoint with all their might.
“You want to go against the Spirit of the Multitude?”
“Everything changes... so do we. We believe in the solution our new sibling suggested. He has succeeded,” 3rd Hepta continued.
“Yes, Paul, Space E., the Gateway... the Spirit of the Multitude knows all this.”
“No, you do not know. Space E... Only its shadow is important...” said Edgard.
“What are you doing here? Nobody invited you, you turncoat!”
“I’m where I should be... in the Heptagon.”
“Not happy to abandon the Hexagon, now you are trying to show off...” 1st Hexa replied.
“You are misunderstanding things. I’m not bragging,
I...”
“You are speaking in a meeting in which you aren’t invited!”
“But I should be the one talking about Paul, about Space E... about my solution!”
Indecision permeated the assembly. The kandrons were not united. 2nd Hepta was quite right to talk about its plan, but it had not been invited, and the Hexagon’s pain poured into attendees’ minds. Taking advantage of this climate, it repeated a point.
“Space E... only its shadow is important.”
“Who says so?”
“The first element of the Hexagon; those were its last remarks.”
“I am 1st Hexa!” Atemys roared.
“You know what I mean. You just want to get upset. I understand your anger; I know your pain, but... the environment is changing, and so are we. We must.”
“What about the Gateway? Your plan included a gateway; what is it?”
“Things have changed.”
“The shuttle will save us from nothingness!!” the Circle said, taking advantage of a short period of silence.
“That’s what you think.”
“That is what the Spirit of the Multitude thinks! It is the only solution chosen by the Spirit.”
“This is the only option you want to consider.”
“I will not give up on space!”
“And we will not give up on spaces.”
Mentally, Eutrope and Edgard faced each other. The latter had jumped into the meeting to defend its solution, which was in progress, before anyone could speak. The Circle and the Hexagon... it was still a little part of either. Both structures that bound themselves to humans... a typically human anger pervaded both of them. The combined consciences’ beads vibrated, reflecting their mental confrontation. A soothing stream, created by the Spirit of the Multitude, came inside. Slowly, anger ebbed and discussions resumed.
“5th Hex... 2nd Hepta, you do not understand. The Spirit of the Multitude decided, and you promised your sincere support.”
“That is exactly what I am doing... by attempting to divert you from your project
. The space is one way, Paul said... but for humans, not for us. We will not escape nothingness aboard the shuttle. Our inverse linearity will catch us up!”
“You don’t know!”
“And neither do you... Are you willing to risk it all for yourself but also for the last survivors of your species?”
“The Spirit will always make us emerge from nothingness as it has already done in the past.”
“Those memories are lost.”
“But not the inherent strength!”
“We entered into nothingness by thousands. Do you really think that would be the same process now?”
“I have to continue.”
“Nobody is stopping you.”
Silence reigned. Furtive thoughts went through the mental connections, without being formalized. Doubt was on everyone’s mind.
“Tell us about your solution, former 5th Hexa. Why is it that only Space E.’s shadow is important?”
“The Gateways know now.”
“What about Paul?”
“He’s now realizing his new power.”
“Will he change the beginning?”
“He will alter it, yes.”
“The path is different, if the wording is not the same.
Why?”
“Gravity.”
“The source of all things cannot be responsible for all the consequences that we have chosen.”
“And yet it is.”
“It will thus be another future... But you seem to doubt. What is it about?”
“Paul... he will be the solution or will rush us toward destruction. I can no longer do anything. Only he can choose.”
“No, nothing is certain.”
“What do we do?”
“The third way,” said 3rd Hepta.
“The third way will be the trigger element that Paul needs,” the entire Heptagon said in echo.
Edgard peeked into the circulating flow of the meeting. It was the only one, except 3rd Hepta, to have fully heard the message. The others had only perceived the suggestion. Like a mist, the message was sent, leaving a veil in everyone’s mind, without its origin being known... The Heptagon always did things that way... it supported its representative’s comments by echoing them... invisible redundancy that strongly influenced the Spirit of the Multitude. That was how they did things to hide items from the others... that was one of their methods.