“Perhaps not,” Sahaan admitted. “Or perhaps I’m right. Either way, I can only find out by going inside.”
A female officer at Semaag’s side spoke. “Permission to accompany Dr. Ekeer, sir.”
“Me too, sir.” One of the male officers.
Semaag paused glancing between the three of them. “Permission granted.”
The two soldiers saluted.
“Good luck, Dr. Ekeer,” Semaag said. “Sergeants Niska and Aant will show you the way.”
Dr. Darshak stayed behind, asking the Sergeant if he might be allowed to watch Sahaan’s progress.
“Thank you,” Sahaan said to Niska and Aant, once they were out of earshot of Darshak and the Sergeant Major.
The two officers nodded and proceeded to guide him to the familiar stairs in the ground, through the dark, crimson, metallic corridors, passageways that held an eerie nostalgia for him now. He’d come so far, and yet, here he was, back at the beginning.
The soldiers opened the door into Charles’s room, and Sahaan saw Charles’s head rise, then his eyes light up in recognition.
“Sahaan!”
The sergeants took up positions by the door, while Sahaan made his way slowly down the stairs. “Hi, Charles.”
Charles’s smile was bittersweet. “It is good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you, too.”
“I have to ask you… The reason that everyone left a few hours ago… There was another visitor, wasn’t there?”
Sahaan pursed his lips. “Yes, there was.” He took a seat across the table from Charles.
“And they attacked the Reclamation, didn’t they?”
Sahaan nodded.
Charles’s head dropped. “I’m sorry. I suppose I’ll have to leave now.”
Sahaan shook his head. “Not if I can help it.”
Charles looked up with wide eyes. “Really? Even after—?”
Sahaan smiled. “You told me already, ‘different, but actually the same.’ You weren’t talking about Reconciliation and Guardian, were you?”
Charles smiled and let out a small laugh. “No. I wasn’t.”
“You were trying to tell us about the Reclamation and the nanite-bodied nation. You’re as politically fractured as we are, aren’t you? All these years, we’ve just gone on assuming that you’re a single people with a single ideology. But even if you evolved, you evolved out of us, and some elements of human nature don’t change. Like politics.”
Charles nodded. “Not as politically fractured, but rather more. I can’t even begin to explain our politics to you. It’s vastly complicated. But it’s the reason I’m here. I wanted to understand what it’s like to be human, and this was the only way to do it. I wanted to read books. We don’t read books anymore. Inefficient, someone decided. But all of these decisions about efficiency have added up to an experience that’s stifling. At least, I feel it is. Not everyone does. I think most people don’t. But I needed to get out.”
“I’m glad you’ve been able to remember.”
“I just wish I could remember more of the details. There are reasons that the others aren’t talking, and it’s related to politics, but that stuff is still hazy.”
One of the sergeants on the balcony began taking a call on her handheld, and Sahaan and Charles both turned their attention to her. She wrapped her free hand over her mouth as she spoke. A few moments later she waved for Sahaan.
“Just a moment,” Sahaan said to Charles, then pulled himself up out of his chair and headed toward the stairs.
The soldier, seeming to remember his condition, rushed down the stairs, meeting him at the base.
“Sir,” she said in a whisper, “something is happening outside. They’re saying it’s a hologram from the nanite-bodied, being projected into all twelve cities. Our handhelds won’t work in here, but I can get a computer, if you would—”
Sahaan nodded his head vigorously, and the sergeant ran back up the stairs. Sahaan returned and sat across from Charles.
“I’m glad to see you weren’t too badly injured from the crash.”
Charles winced. “One of those men was a doctor. They did help me recover. All in all, they could have been a lot worse. I think they left me alone because they were scared of even touching me. They were so frightened.”
“A lot of people are very frightened now. But I hope that this newest development will help calm everyone down.”
“Oh?”
“A holographic message from the nanite-bodied. They’re bringing us a computer so that we can watch together.”
Charles raised an eyebrow.
“That’s surprising?”
“Somewhat.”
“You don’t recall any political group that would want to do that?”
Charles seemed to ponder that a moment. He yawned, shook his head, and said. “I think there’s one. But something about them achieving it is surprising. I think they’re not very powerful. Perhaps the least powerful. I have this image in my head of a dispersing cloud, and I’m not sure why.”
The door to the cell opened, and the sergeant returned, hurrying down the stairs.
“Well, let’s hope this answers both of our questions,” Sahaan said.
He took the tablet computer up from the soldier. “Thank you, Sergeant.”
She saluted. “Yessir. I’ve made sure it’s set to start from the beginning, so you’ll be at a couple minutes’ behind real time.”
Sahaan almost offered for her and her companion to join them, but didn’t. They were likely duty-bound to hold their stations. Too bad. This was history in the making.
He propped the computer up on the table so that both he and Charles could see then hit the play button on its interface.
The steps in front of the Hilltop Suite in Portal City appeared. Atop the steps stood the hologram of a girl, her holographic nature evident from the blurriness of the projection, her partial transparency, and the presence of intermittent scanning lines. Besides that, she appeared a perfectly normal girl with brown hair and eyes and wearing a dress that was common for twelve-year-old girls throughout the Reclamation.
“Citizens of the Reclamation,” the projection said. “My name is Catherine, and the country I represent, which lies outside your borders is called the Pinnacle. I am here to break the long silence between our peoples. Charles will not have been able to tell you very much, and we fear what Samantha may have already done. We send this message in the hope that all is not lost, in the hope that we can begin a dialogue.
“The reason for our silence is complicated. It is related to our political configuration, which will take some explaining. I hope you will indulge me as I attempt to relate the context that will make our reasons for silence apparent.
“Political systems of past human configurations have typically existed along a single axis, its extremities often labeled ‘left’ and ‘right.’ The ‘left’ typically counts itself amongst the elite and desires changes that will further cement its power within the existing political order. The ‘right’ typically reacts against that order, hoping to prevent additional changes and to ground society in principles it perceives to be eternal. Human societies have fallen into this familiar pattern for thousands of years. We find now, after our extensive modifications, our situation analogous, yet also much more complex.
“Our political system exists along three axes. Imagine a three-dimensional coordinate system filled with various interlocking shapes. Those shapes are our political parties. When we communicate the names for them amongst ourselves, we are in fact sharing with one another an asset file containing a three-dimensional model for that party’s corresponding shape in the Cartesian coordinates of the political model-space.
“The first axis of our political system is our relationship to ourselves. We call this the i-axis. Groups left on this axis believe that we have not advanced nearly far enough, and that, for all of our modifications, a myriad of evolutionary-biological flaws remain, which must be corrected. G
roups right on this axis believe that humanity’s best configuration so far has been either past versions of ourselves, or, in extreme cases, you. Peripheral groups on this axis would be willing to evolve themselves back into your form of humanity and join your society, if they could.
“The second axis of our political system is our relationship to our biosphere. We call this the e-axis. Some context here is required. The same as you have had satellites to look at us, our nanites have crawled over the top of your walls’ field of repulsion and watched you as well. We have seen the many beautiful plants you have imported from the world beyond the portal. This contrasts sharply with our own endeavors to create a viable, self-sustaining ecosystem of nanite-organic flora, all of which have failed miserably. No serious attempts have been made in this field in the last thirty years. Groups left on this axis believe it is enough for us to continue to reshape our landscape to meet our needs. Groups right on this axis believe either that we need to acquire your flora and evolve it, or simply to let it spread across Asura as it is, unaltered.
“The third and final axis of our political system is our relationship to you. We call this the h-axis. For an explanation here to make sense, it is necessary to go back in time one hundred and twenty-one years. From the perspective of our ancestors, you unlocked a portal and gave our great-great-grandparents access to a parallel world, which they promptly tried to assimilate into nanite form, as they had done to everything on Asura. To their shock and amazement, the people of that world were able not only to repel and evict our evolvers, but also brought to Asura the wall technology which has enabled your country to flourish. This event was traumatic, instigating a deep and lasting fear within our society. Our technology, which we thought to be the greatest achievement of human civilization, which had allowed us to utterly dominate Asura for nearly a century, had become completely and utterly thwarted in a span of hours. Those to the right on the h-axis have maintained silence because they fear what you might do to us if provoked. They imagine an arsenal of anti-nanogenic weaponry just waiting to be deployed from the parallel world. Those to the left on this axis have maintained silence because communication does not fit in with any of their goals, which is simply to find a way past your walls. They have already partially done so, in the form of Samantha.
“The man who was the template for Charles is a member of a political group I will call ‘decelerationist.’ They are hard right-i, hard right-e, and center-h, a political orientation which should now be clear from my description. Samantha’s homunculus received a minimal personality template from an individual of left-i, center-e, hard left-h party. She should be neutralized if she has not already self-deconstructed.
“And now myself. I represent a small and shrinking party whose political center is at zero-i, zero-e, and zero-h. The future we imagine for Asura is unique amongst all the parties. We imagine an Asura of connected cities, where each city is populated by humans, some like us, some like you, and many other kinds of humans in between, perhaps even other kinds yet to be imagined. In such a world, no one would worry about anyone forcing anyone else to evolve into another configuration. Such choices would be made freely by individuals, and minds would be changed with words rather than through the physical manipulation of that individual’s component molecules. Most importantly, this world would have no walls, because there would be no need for them.
“Most of our society believes such an Asura to be impossible. A daydream. An impossible utopia. We continue to dream regardless.
“Rightwards of our political party, there are those who want to become more like you but are too afraid of you to act on that desire. Leftwards of our political party, there are those who want to destroy you. Our society at large now possesses the ability to send you both envoys of goodwill and envoys of destruction. We cannot tell you which they will be. It will depend on which party they originate from. Our party has neither the political clout nor the resources to do any more than project this meager hologram, but we will continue to work to establish a dialogue. We hope, faintly, that a dialogue is still possible.”
The hologram of Catherine flickered, then faded out to empty space.
Trust
“Charles?”
“…”
“Charles!”
“Yes?”
“What did you think of that just now?”
“… I’m a copy.”
“You’re a human being with free will and agency.”
“I knew that this body had formed from the wall, you know. But I had no idea that there was a real Charles still out there.”
“But, do you see what this means? There’s a group out there that wants contact.”
“They’re small. Much too small. Like Catherine said. All the parties rightward of hers are like me. I’m not here to communicate with you. I’m here to be you. And the ones leftward are like the ones you remember from before the walls, but worse. They’re angry, bitter, and even more convinced that they’re right in spite of everything that’s happened.”
“But it’s something. Catherine reached out. She broke a century of silence.”
“I’m tired, Saahan. I want to lie down.”
“Okay.”
“Just one thing before I do.”
“What’s that?”
“About Samantha. What did she do?”
“She released evolvers into her environment. They’ve been contained.”
“Did she evolve anyone?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry that happened. Make sure the evolved have access to both water and electricity. They will need a lot of electricity.”
“This wasn’t your fault, Charles.”
“In a way, indirectly, it was.”
“Oh?”
“I’m remembering more now. A lot more. He, the real Charles, was the one who figured out how to transform the walls.”
~
The surface of the Citrine base had changed much from Sahaan’s first visit here. Before it had been largely empty, save for the few military personnel then assigned to it. Now, an enormous ring of military had encircled the spot where Sahaan stood, the base of the stairwell leading down to where Charles lay sleeping. The two sergeants who had been following in Sahaan’s wake saluted him, then strode off toward the bustling encampment.
Sahaan pulled out his handheld and dialed Bharo. The line rang for perhaps over a minute, and Sahaan had just begun to wonder if his friend were all right, when Bharo’s voice suddenly burst through the speaker.
“Sahaan! Sorry about that. I was on the phone with the president.”
“The president will need a speech, I’m sure.”
“He said to have you come back to Portal City right away.”
Sahaan grimaced. He’d anticipated this. He’d called Bharo hoping he could get an update without getting that order relayed. “And how will we keep Charles safe?”
“I’m sure the president thinks this is a whole lot bigger than Charles now.”
“Charles is key to this. He’s remembering things. Someone’s got to keep an eye on him.”
A long silence. “Tell you what. The doctor had me walking last night, so I’ll pull your little stunt on them tonight, meaning I can be in Citrine by tomorrow. I can probably fend off the president for another day. Just tell me what you think Charles has left to tell us.”
“He’s the one who figured out how to turn the walls into people.”
A pause. “Well, I’ll be… Sure. Yup. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Thanks. How’s everything else?”
“Well, about half of Portal City has applied for a visa to Alterra. The president shut down travel through the portal but decided to lift the train travel restrictions so that those who want to evacuate Portal City can. Most of the capital’s citizens have taken him up on that offer. We’ve got a full mass exodus in progress. Seems most are staying with friends and family in other cities. But it’s somewhat backfired. Even the types that normally ke
ep their posts—police, emergency workers, and government officials are operating at something like two-thirds capacity. No one wants to be anywhere near Portal City right now. Gadh and Guardian are having a heyday with this, of course. They’re calling Aavee incompetent for the travel decision, and the only part of Catherine’s broadcast they seem to have heard is the part about their extreme left still wanting to evolve us all. Una’s stance, naturally, is that this is our opportunity to finally make contact.”
“And what about the vice president and the others trapped in the containment center?”
“The news just talks about how the containment fields are holding.”
“In other words, we’re already treating them like casualties.”
“Yes.”
“No, Bharo. That’s not how we play this. My recommendation to the president is that this is our leverage to the nanite-bodied. Their center party wants relations and their right wants access to the human experience. What we want is for our people to be un-evolved. It’s been two centuries now that we’ve been at the mercy of their damn evolvers. We need to change that. The initial treaty will be that they return the vice president and all the others to their human forms, and in exchange we will agree not to expand our walls for some number of years, let’s say a decade. That gives us plenty of time to expand diplomatic relations.”
“Ambitious.”
“You’re damn right it is.”
“Most people can’t operate the way you do, you know.”
“How’s that?”
“See a problem, rush in, solve it.”
“At least I make a plan now, before rushing in.”
“Granted. I’ll talk to the president and see what I can do. Then I’ll work on getting out of here. You going to be near your handheld?”
“I’m going to be underground in the bunker with Charles.”
“Probably for the best.”
“Thanks. Oh, and have someone in Portal City make sure that there’s still electricity available inside the containment area. Charles says they need electricity and water to survive.”
“Will do.”
The call ended and Sahaan immediately turned off his handheld. The sun was getting higher in the sky and had already managed to burn off the morning mist. Sahaan had begun to sweat. He gazed briefly around the circular military encampment, then descended back into the underground containment center.
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