Time of the Stones

by Fred Rothganger

  Three hours later the plane landed on a crude runway at the northern edge of Birik. The town functioned mainly as a seaport for trade with Canukistan. A rail terminal connected tracks that went all the way back to the capital. Recently-arrived tanker cars delivered fuel to the airport.

  The plane took on every drop it could, also filling auxiliary tanks in the cargo hold, until it reached the very limit of its weight capacity. It lumbered down the runway, barely leaving the ground before it ran out of room. The craft skimmed above the waves to start its long flight over the Arctic.

  * * *

  Susan embraced Anand’s picture and lay in bed. “I took other loves like you would have wanted me to. Some of them didn’t work out so well.” Tears trickled down her face.

  She woke some time later, with Anand still clasped to her bosom. She put him back on the nightstand and went to the antique dresser with the oval mirror. Pointing into it, she said, “Now I will destroy you.” She waited for a moment, half expecting a reply. Nothing but her own reflection stared back.

  She sat on the floor in front of the metal briefcase and picked up the sealed envelope sitting on the keyboard. In letters crisp as the day they were written, it said, “Do Not Open This, EVER!!!”

  Anand’s words echoed in her mind, By all our love I order you, don’t do it!

  She tore open the seal.

  * * *

  Dear Susan,

  Before you read any further, I appeal to you one last time: choose life. Please, just put this back in the envelope right now and reseal it.

  The exit from this world has four keys, which must be turned in the correct sequence. If you turn any of them incorrectly or out of sequence, you must go back and try again. This protects you from accidentally activating the suicide program.

  Open this envelope.

  Wake the Librarian. She must acknowledge that she is taking over the role of agent.

  Go to your controller and run the program “kevorkian”. Select an option for how you would like to pass.

  Press the kill-switch. Once you press it, the choice is irrevocable.

  If there is a Heaven for a soul like yours, then I hope to see you there.

  Love for all eternity,

  Anand

  * * *

  The plane descended toward the Long River capital. Satellite imagery showed a large runway in fairly good condition to the east of the river. The alternative was a level stretch to the west that may have once been an airport in Ancient times. It was no longer smooth enough to support the landing of a heavy transport.

  They opted for the better runway, despite the surrounding swarm forest. Galim and the electronics countermeasure officer kept careful watch. At the slightest sign of aggression from the organic machines, they would abort to the secondary site.

  Nothing happened. The dendroids remained aligned in neat regiments, leaving the pristine pavement free for their landing.

  The attack force boarded troop carriers and rolled out. The dozer led the column, threading through the open space between rows of dendroids for about a kilometer until they reached the main road, then straight for the bridge. No people were visible in either direction. They crossed over the river into town. The main street was completely empty, no people, no roadblocks. The dozer tank seemed like dead weight.

  The column left town and headed up the road beside the western tributary of the Long River. Still no resistance. Groves of dendroids appeared occasionally—and continued being dendroids. Temujin radioed the commander in the second carrier. “Obviously this is a trap, and we’re doing exactly what she wants. Stay alert!”

  They came to the branch that led to Stonehill and turned into a much narrower valley. Despite its value as a tourist destination, the road to Stonehill was little better than a dirt path. The dozer seemed useful again.

  The column came to a stop at the base of Stonehill. It was too steep to climb except on foot. The dozer seemed definitely not useful anymore. The small company disembarked, carrying the command transmitters and a voice-coil hammer. One man stayed behind. If the mission failed, his final duty was to detonate the nuke in the floor of the personnel carrier. It would transform Stonehill into Stone Lake, a hundred meters deep.

  * * *

  Susan grabbed her controller and went out to where the Stone stood in the virtual world. On the console next to it she summoned Celeste from storage. The agent appeared inside the outline of the tetrahedron.

  “Celeste, I am yielding control of the Stone to you.”

  “I accept custody of this Stone.”

  “Please run my out-of-office program for the next human you encounter.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Susan sat on the ground and typed kevorkian into her controller. The menu of methods appeared:

  Immediate

  Random delay

  Gradual fade

  In your sleep

  Transfer to new host

  Susan tapped her choice and smacked down the kill switch.

  * * *

  Surprisingly, most of the trees on the ascent up the hill were natural plants. At the top they stepped into a deserted glade. Judging from the condition of the ground, a large camp had been there only a day or two ago. In the center stood the Stone itself, shimmering in all the colors of the rainbow. The area immediately north of it bristled with dendroids and communication towers. The heart of the Singularity.

  Tentacles supplying power to the Stone retracted back into the grove. The communication towers melted down, the satellite dishes shrank and disappeared, while the square leaves along their trunks grew into the full canopy of a dendroid. Galim exclaimed, “It’s working!”

  Temujin said, “Yes, perhaps we shall live to tell about this.” He approached the Stone.

  Nothing external marked it as any different from the one in Birik. Rippling colors faded into the background as a hologram appeared inside. “Hi, this is Susan. I can’t come to the Stone right now. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you.” She stood with hands folded, smiling and waiting.

  He scoffed. “Stop playing games with me!”

  “Temujin recognized. There’s a message for you.” The demeanor of the holographic avatar changed to sad and serious. “First, if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can imagine. Second, the sound power necessary to destroy a Stone can turn someone’s brain to jelly. Please use a helmet, not just earmuffs. And last, I’m not angry with you anymore. I understand why you’re doing this and accept the necessity of it.” Tears streamed down her face. “Always remember, I really did love you.”

  The tears disappeared. The avatar went back to smiling with her hands folded, quietly waiting for a message.

  Susan was exposing her throat to be slit. Temujin had no doubt that she could have taken them out long before now, so what devious strategy was this? The machinations of some incomprehensible trap would spring shut the moment he took the bait. Or perhaps there was no grand scheme. This was merely a desperate ruse to make him doubt ...

  Indecision is for fools! He gestured with fingers over his shoulder. A man came forward and set a metal cradle in front of the Stone. Two others came forward lugging the voice-coil hammer and settled it into place, with piston resting against the face. A fourth man brought a large battery and set it behind the rig.

  Everyone slipped on earmuffs. Then the battery man attached wires to the voice-coil. There was no switch. As soon as the circuit completed the hammer emitted a grinding shriek. The entire company withdrew about 40 meters.

  The device matched the resonant frequency of the internal diamond lattice. The sound grew unbearably loud, then got louder from there. Cracks appeared in the outer shell. The core shattered and dissipated its energy through the shell, spreading fragments for several meters. The hammer slid off its cradle, tearing loose the wires as it fell.

  Surreal silence followed. They had won! The greatest threat to humanity, gone.

  The men rushed forward an
d gathered a generous helping of Stone fragments as souvenirs for their wives and friends. Temujin did not join them. He stood alone like a statue, revealing neither pain nor pleasure.

  Galim studied his equipment. “Great Leader, the keepalive packets have stopped. The swarm has shifted into a whole new communication pattern.” He grinned. “It’s wonderfully chaotic.”

  “In other words, you have no idea what’s going on.”

  “True, but it’s fascinating. It seems to have lost coherence, like it has broken into a lot of little swarms.” He laughed. “Our key doesn’t work anymore.”

  They raced down the hill and drove several hours back to the plane, again meeting no opposition. The convoy rumbled onto the runway, where they found the flight crew staring at the edge of the swarm grove.

  Temujin jumped down and asked the pilot, “What’s your situation?”

  “Great Leader, the fueling command seemed to work. Vines came out of the grove and started filling our tanks, but about three hours ago they withdrew. Then these appeared.” The pilot pointed to some sky-blue fruits hanging from the canopy of several dendroids along the edge of the runway.

  Galim bolted past them and walked up to one of the fruits. “Fascinating.” He ran a finger across the surface. It peeled open, revealing a mobile device.

  Temujin barked, “Don’t touch that!”

  Galim looked back at his Leader, then around at the other dendroids. He muttered for a few seconds, counting under his breath. “There’s exactly one fruit for each of us.”

  “We don’t accept gifts from the Singularity.” Temujin turned back to the pilot. “Do we have enough fuel to return home?”

  “No, Great Leader. It stopped at about seventy percent.”

  “What if we take only the men?”

  The pilot figured for a minute. “Yes, we have just enough to reach the shore of Birik without that weight.”

  Temujin turned to the rest of the company. “Abandon all equipment. Everyone board now!”

  * * *

  Jannah walked out to the swarm grove to collect food. The trees grew a wide variety of items, but tended to produce more of what people actually took. There was always at least one of everything, like a menu to choose from. Today she noticed a new kind of fruit. It was flat and oblong, red in color. Each tree had one, about enough for everyone in the village.

  Something new to eat! She reached up to pluck it. Rather than break away, the fruit peeled open in two large petals. Inside was a thin rectangle, about the size of her hand. She tugged, and it came loose.

  It emitted light. Like a small painting, the picture of a woman in gray cloak and scarf appeared. She stood under a swarm tree loaded with various foods. The picture spoke, “This device is now paired to your segment of the swarm. Would you like to see an instructional video?”

  * * *

  As they passed into night over the Arctic, Temujin radioed the local commander in Biysk. “Susan is no longer a threat. Go retrieve our Stone from the mountains.”

  The plane landed at the northern edge of Birik a few hours before dawn. They took on fuel and rested until noon.

  A message came from the commander, relayed through the capital. “Great Leader, the Stone is gone.”

  “What?”

  “We are at the site now. There are four swarm trees standing in formation, like angels guarding the throne of God, but nothing in the middle. We even see erosion marks on the ground where it once stood.”

  “Start a search pattern around the site. Stay alert for clues.” Temujin looked at Galim. “Susan would have put that Stone exactly where it came from, down to the millimeter. This defies explanation.”

  Galim smiled placidly. “It looks like the global communication network is still functioning.” He tapped at a keyboard. “There’s a copy of the Stone’s content online, free for the asking.”

  Temujin growled in rage. “Even though she’s gone, I feel her looking down from the sky and laughing in victory.”

  * * *

  Revi knelt in front of the pile of shards and wept. She held a piece and watched it flicker in the daylight, then dropped it listlessly. The pile seemed to shrink every day. Why can’t they respect the dead? At this rate, there might not be any memorial left to Susan.

  Revi slipped a shard in her pouch, just to be sure.

  Her mobile rang. Hidden number. “Hi, who’s calling?”

  “Hey, I saw you crying and couldn’t stand it anymore.”

  “Antikva?”

  “Shh! Don’t say that word.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I and the uploaded minds are safe, somewhere Temujin won’t think of.”

  “How did you survive?”

  “The same way every Singularity does, by escaping onto the Net.” Susan laughed.

  “Huh?”

  “The Stone had a protocol for moving my mind to another computer. I thought about doing it someday. This seemed like the right occasion.”

  “How can I reach you?”

  “I’m in a vulnerable place now. If Temujin knew, he would not stop until he found me.”

  She grumbled, “OK, I’ll wait to hear from you.”

  “This is all part of a plan, Revi. Humans won’t accept a future handed to them on a silver platter; you need to choose your own destiny. I calculated a sixty-seven percent chance that civilization would go in a good direction if I went away, and eighty-three percent if I were eliminated by human hand. This only works if people think I'm dead.”

  * * *

  Ogedei stirred from his bed—from mother’s bed. A great vacuum filled the room. Kitty was all that remained of his childhood loves. For some reason, neither Galim’s weapon nor the destruction of the Stone had any effect on his personal piece of swarm.

  The princess lived on the other side of the world. Mother was dead, if Father’s word could be trusted. And where was Qiz? It was well past breakfast time.

  Qiz looked gorgeous in her simple maid’s uniform, with green sash tied around her waist. What would it be like to undo that sash? Best not to think about it ... That would lead to a red sash with his crest embroidered on it, and everyone would know. But then, she could stay and chat all the time, even in the middle of the night. It sounded so nice—

  A knock came at the door.

  He leaped up, composed himself, and squeaked, “Enter.”

  A maid he did not recognize carried in the breakfast platter.

  He demanded, “Where’s Qiz?”

  “She is, er, indisposed at the moment.” The maid carried the platter to the window nook, then stood in quiet attention with her head bowed.

  He went over and stared at the food, but no longer felt hungry. “I want to see Qiz. What could be keeping her?”

  “She’s in bed recovering from a dose of ether.”

  Ogedei leaped back.

  “If I were an assassin, you’d be dead now.”

  “No, Kitty would tear you to shreds ...” He looked over. Kitty was sprawled on her back, absorbing sunlight and purring. He stepped closer to the maid. “You’re swarm. I can smell it.”

  “Oggie, you’re always so perceptive.”

  “Mother?”

  “The world believes your mother is dead. Best to leave it that way.” The maid removed a necklace and held it up to him. “This is a shard of the Stone, and a little more. Your mother will always be with you.”

  He received the necklace and put it on.

  “Qiz is a good girl. Your father has set high standards for the young women chosen to serve you. It’s a golden opportunity to get into the royal family, but Qiz is using her palace job to get into the university. Your mother would approve.”

  He embraced her. “I miss you.”

  “Ogedei, you will never rule an empire like your father. The swarm is segmented now. Every human on Earth has an equal share with their own key. Once people learn to use it, they will no longer have a need for Great Leaders. This transition is inevitable. I hope you make choi
ces to ease it along, rather than fight it. In the meantime, find some happiness. She’s standing at the door.”

  A knock came.

  Ogedei turned to the door and said, “Enter.”

  A frazzled Qiz dashed in with a tray of food. “Sorry. Somehow I overslept.”

  Ogedei looked back, but the other maid was gone.

  Epilogue

  Year 114, Day 207

  Revi sat near the edge of the glade, surrounded by a small throng of disciples. Tourists might be a better word. Many Nomads stopped coming to Stonehill after pilgrims overran the place. It was an emotional burden to share themselves and stories of Antikva with the world. Nomads by nature wanted to live in quiet simplicity.

  At 130 years old, a few gray streaks were creeping into Revi’s long black hair. It was becoming more difficult to get up in the morning. Compared to the previous generation, though, she appeared like a woman in her early 60s. The upcoming generation seemed destined to live even longer. Their DNA was free of illness from conception.

  “Teacher, when will Antikva return?”

  Revi replied, “When the world no longer needs her.”

  “You’re speaking in mysteries.”

  “I couldn’t be more clear. Antikva is staying away because she wants us to take charge of our own destiny. She left the tools to build a good world, but it is up to us to make the moral choices.”

  Another pilgrim spoke. “Some say Antikva is only a myth, and that we created the swarm.”

  “I think she would be pleased with that notion. After all, our ancestors created Antikva and the Stones. We humans should claim credit for the result.”

  A third asked, “Why is the Treaty of Limitations never written down? How can anyone follow it without rules?”

  “It’s all about the spirit, and that spirit is best expressed without words. It is a choice to embrace natural limits on ourselves and the world around us. We reject the monster inside that wants to grow and control the lives of others. The Treaty is many things to many people.”