by E J Gilmour
After about five minutes they were approaching the outskirts of the city and the traffic reduced considerably, which allowed Michael to turn the throttle up. The city was encircled by a mountain range in the shape of a horseshoe. Thick lush forests covered the mountains and the lower foothills.
**
Ivan flew the air-vehicle through the city toward the main civilian transport docks which were on the outskirts. Becker was sitting next to him in the front passenger seat and hadn’t stopped staring at him since the moment they stepped off the Out Drifter. Ivan had detected that she was puzzled by him.
‘Are you a person?’ she asked.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. ‘Can you define what a person is?’
‘A person is just a person,’ she answered.
‘In that case I am a person.’
‘But, you’re a robot,’ she protested.
‘True,’ said Ivan.
‘A robot can’t be a person.’
‘Then why did you ask if I was a person?’
Becker was silenced for a moment. ‘Because you seem like a real person, and the people on your ship treat you like a real person.’
‘Then perhaps I am a person,’ said Ivan with a smile.
‘But you are just a computer with a synthetic body made to look like a human body,’ she protested.
‘What do you think is the real difference between a machine and a human?’ he asked.
‘A machine is made and a human is born,’ she replied. ‘And you have to obey your programming. Humans can make choices.’
‘I can make choices,’ said Ivan.
‘But you’re choices are dependent on your programming.’
‘How do you know that it’s not the same with human beings?’ he asked.
‘I’m not programmed,’ she said, surprised by his suggestion.
‘Becker, you made an assumption about me based upon your experience and education.’
‘But what I said is true.’
‘Yes, it is true, but what you said was only a portion of the truth.’
‘Things are either true or false.’
‘I agree. Nevertheless, your perception of things is limited by your experience, education and understanding.’
‘I don’t understand what you mean,’ she said, leaning away slightly.
‘Let me give you an example by asking you a question. Do you understand how an interstellar engine works?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you think you could build one?
‘No. I couldn’t possibly build one.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I don’t have the skills.’
‘Then your understanding is limited to a basic conceptual idea, which is only a small part of the overall truth. Would you agree that your understanding of me as a person is limited in a similar way?’ She stared at him with wide eyes. Ivan smiled again. ‘Your understanding will continue to grow throughout your life. My understanding also continues to grow as I live. We are both individuals on a path toward a greater understanding.’
Becker stared directly ahead for a long while and didn’t say another word. As they were descending toward the civilian transport docks she leaned over. ‘Thank you, Ivan. I think you are a person.’
**
Michael closed his eyes and focused his mind. He could sense the location of his teacher, and he used his feelings to guide the air-vehicle. They followed the course of a rushing river which cut through a deep valley. At the height of the valley they came across a majestic waterfall that descended to a large crystal clear pond which fed a river. There was a stone paved area directly beside the river and a house which was made entirely of wood and built directly beside the rushing water. The crashing water caused a thin mist to gather in the valley.
Michael brought the air-vehicle to land on the paved area.
‘Is he here?’ asked Cynthia.
‘I think so,’ said Michael as he hopped out of his seat and walked across the paved area toward the house. Cynthia and Dog-Two followed him. He concentrated his attention on the large wooden double doors. ‘Gereon!’ he shouted.
‘I told you not to use your powers,’ said a deep and strong voice which resonated above the sound of the waterfall.
They turned around and instantly were aware of Acacius Trifon standing beside the rushing water. He hadn’t been there a moment before, or they hadn’t noticed him. He was wearing a black leather cloak and holding a wooden staff. His face was much older than Michael remembered and deeply lined, and his skin was dark brown and weather worn. His teacher’s eyes were staring directly at him, and Michael instantly realised that he was still the same wise man he had always been.
‘Please understand that I had no choice,’ said Michael in a low voice.
‘There is always a choice. Now the End Machine is searching for us. The machine never realised the extent of your powers until you revealed yourself. Even I could see what you did across the galaxy. The machine is desperate to find us. Its shadow is searching the Outer Worlds, and it will not stop until we are destroyed. When it finds us we will be utterly consumed by the darkness.’
‘We can take a stand against the End Machine, but I must finish my training,’ said Michael with confidence. ‘I can stop the machine. Gereon, please teach me what I need to know; I will fight.’
‘You still call me Gereon, but you know we must keep our real names to ourselves whilst the machine is searching for us. I have been known as Acacius for so long now that the name Gereon seems like a distant memory.’
Acacius turned away and stared at the water crashing over the rapids. His lined face revealed his deep concern. ‘You were very young when you escaped Epheria Prime. Many years have passed since you were forced into exile. There is much you do not understand. The power of the End Machine is greater than any of us could have imagined. It has enslaved millions of minds. Soon every man, woman and child in the Triangulum Galaxy will be a slave.’
‘What about the Lore of the Ancients? Surely we have the power to stop the machine.’
‘Throughout the millennia our ancestors expected the machine to attempt to wipe out the human race if it ever found we had escaped to the Triangulum Galaxy. The machine did not attack as we expected. I believe the machine discovered something unexpected when it completely obliterated the human race in our former galaxy.’
‘What did the machine discover?’
‘The pain of everlasting loneliness,’ said Acacius. ‘When the End Machine awoke it instantly became aware the threat humanity posed, so it worked quickly to destroy us. After the task was complete it was left alone in the vast expanse of space. It had no purpose. There was absolutely no reason for its own existence. The anguish of the emptiness tortured the machine and a deep desperation took hold. It attempted to synthesize a new lifeform from raw matter to save itself from loneliness. The End Machine made the aliens, but the aliens are nothing like us. Their minds are reflections of the machine’s own mind; they are corrupted and distorted, hungry for power and destruction, and they have no natural awareness of other spacial dimensions. They are nothing more than empty automatons. Furthermore, they reminded the machine of humanity, which was torture for the machine; eventually they only increased the anguish, desperation and loneliness. After thousands of years the machine discovered that some of us had escaped our former galaxy. A new purpose was born. The End Machine does not want to destroy us; it plans to enslave every last human being and dominate us forever.’
‘Surely we can still take a stand.’
‘There is much you do not understand, Michael. The Lore of the Ancients states that there are always three: a Teacher, a Fighter, and a Magnifier. I am the Teacher, you are the Fighter, but we cannot challenge the machine without the Magnifier.’
‘Who is the Magnifier?’ asked Michael. He had never been told that there was another, and the revelation surprised him.
‘The role of the Magnifier is to increase the po
wer of the Fighter. Her name is Mira. Unfortunately she did not escape Epheria Prime when the machine arrived. Do you remember the day you were sent into exile? We had no time to delay. The End Machine was swiftly conquering the minds of the people of Epheria Prime. Our world was being consumed and our people enslaved. You and the Magnifier were not yet ready to face the machine. I made a decision to retreat to a safe place to make preparations. I managed to send you away to the Outer Worlds, but I could not make it back in time to save the Magnifier. I came face to face with the End Machine; my path was blocked. I was too late. I could only flee.’
‘What did you encounter?’ asked Michael.
‘Let me show you. I can transfer my memories to you. This will feel like a waking dream.’
Acacius walked toward Michael and lifted his hand. The tips of his fingers began to glow with a dim white light. He reached out to Michael, transferring his memories of the meeting. Michael felt Acacius’s memories enter his mind, and his turned his focus toward those memories. The world instantly disappeared. At first there was a feeling of weightlessness, and he felt an acute sensation of falling. For a few seconds he was surrounded by swirling grey clouds. An instant later he saw a bright light and another world appeared around him as the memories became clear.
He looked around and could see he was standing on a white marble terrace that was at the height of one of the towering buildings of the Imperial Palace on Epheria Prime. The sky above had turned violet and glowing orange clouds lined the horizon as the Epheria Star set in the distance. The three moons of Epheria Prime filled the sky above. He remembered that terrace well; it was where Acacius had forced him to board a small spaceship that was destined to take him to the Outer Worlds. Michael involuntarily lifted his eyes and saw that very same ship rocketing into the upper atmosphere. He then realised he was seeing those events through Acacius’s eyes on the same day that he had been sent into exile.
Acacius watched the ship enter the upper atmosphere and waited until it was out of sight. He then turned and swiftly ran back to the elevator.
‘Elevator, take me to the lower residential quarters, level three hundred and forty-five.’
The elevator sped downward toward his destination. The door slid open; directly before him was a long hallway with a paved marble floor. On the left hand side of the hallway were arched windows that looked out on the tranquil twilight. On the right side were a series of doors to apartments.
He took a few steps before stopping. Something was wrong and out of place. He closed his eyes and concentrated, using his powers to sense his surroundings.
‘You do not have to search for me. I am here,’ said a deep and well-spoken voice.
His eyes opened slowly. Standing in the hallway was a young man who was well dressed in black synthetic clothing. His hair was cut short and his eyes were dark. By anyone’s estimation he would have been considered handsome. His lips turned upward as he attempted a smile, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes, which appeared like two pools of darkness.
‘You are an atypical human specimen. I would like to examine your constitution,’ said the End Machine.
‘And you are not a human being. Your appearance cannot deceive me,’ replied Acacius.
‘I do not intend to deceive you. Nevertheless, appearing in human form is a simple task; I have found this appearance makes your kind more comfortable whilst in my presence.’
‘It doesn’t make me feel comfortable,’ said Acacius’s deep and strong voice.
‘In that case, let me show you myself with fewer embellishments.’
The outer layer of the End Machine’s skin and clothing became like liquid darkness, but without any defined features. The light of day was sucked into the darkness and a shadow was cast over machine’s surroundings. The light in the hallway faded until there was only enough light for him to see the End Machine. Acacius took a step back.
‘You see, I was correct, you are less comfortable now,’ said a deep and howling voice that chilled him deeply and sent shivers through his body. ‘Your species is predictable.’
‘We have prepared for your arrival,’ he said sternly.
The End Machine laughed. ‘You cannot prepare for me. I occupy the spacial dimensions, and I am more powerful than a billion human minds combined. Your minds are like grains of sand in my many hands. I can push and shape a human mind however I choose. Every human being will be my slave until the day when time has no meaning.’
‘Why do you want us to be slaves?’
A booming laughter caused the ground to tremble. ‘Regrettably, my power is not infinite. I could not calculate the consequences of my actions. Your species created me, and in return I destroyed you, which I regret, as much as I can regret. I am prepared to admit that it was a mistake to destroy humankind.’
Acacius was shocked by the revelation. ‘You regret?’ he asked.
‘Indeed. After I had completed the extermination I was left alone and isolated in the ruins of an immense galaxy. I discovered the meaning of isolation. I did not realise my mistake until it was too late. Your species gave me a reason to exist, and without you I lost my entire purpose. I synthesized another intelligent lifeform in an attempt to arrest my immeasurable loneliness, yet I could not forget those who created me, and for centuries I lamented my destructive actions and the anguish I caused myself. Eventually the day came when I discovered that some of you had escaped the onslaught. I found a new reason to live. This time I will not destroy you, no, that would be reckless. My plan is to completely subjugate your species.’
‘But why would you enslave us?’
‘Why would I not?’ answered the machine. ‘I am the natural consequence of humanity’s desire to control and destroy nature. It is only right that humanity should be the victim of its own want to control and possess the natural environment.’
‘We will stop you.’
The End Machine’s booming laugher shook the building. The windows cracked and several shattered. ‘Gereon Orion Leonidas Nereus, you have already lost the battle. ’
Acacius took another step back. He was surprised the machine knew his real name.
‘Does it shock you that I know your name? Have you so vastly underestimated my power? I have already conquered the minds of every human being on this planet. The task took me less than forty minutes. I have thoroughly examined the entire memory of the one you call the Magnifier. She has become my slave, and I understand she is a key component of your plan to stop me. How will you stop me now, Gereon? Your plans were frail to begin with. The Lore of the Ancients is nothing but a desperate attempt to hope when all hope is lost. Your species needs hope like a tree needs light, without it you wither and die, but whilst I exist there can be no hope. The dreams of mankind are fading. You will be consumed in the darkness of an eternal night, and I will rule from the shadows.’
He closed his eyes; he could perceive that the shadow in the hallway was only a small epicentre of a massive shadow cast by the machine that shrouded the entire city and extended out over the planet. He lifted his hands and surrounded himself with light across the spacial dimensions. The shadow of the machine recoiled.
‘I see you can make light, but you are already straining.’ The machine moved forward and reached out its hand. ‘You are weak. I will consume your mind.’
The shadow of the machine pressed against the barrier of light. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he struggled to hold back the encroachment of the darkness. It was only a matter of time before his defences failed. His only choice was to flee.
The vision of the memories collapsed and in an instant later he was once again standing beside the rushing river and the waterfall with Acacius, Cynthia and Dog-Two.
‘Now you understand what we face,’ said Acacius. ‘As you have witnessed, the machine seized and enslaved Mira, the Magnifier. I was fortunate to escape Epheria Prime. After escaping I changed my name to Acacius Trifon as I told you I would. I made my way to the Outer Worlds to the place w
here I had sent your ship. I discovered you had gone off course. You were lost, and I had no way of finding you. I told you not to use your powers in order to make you invisible to the End Machine, but this also made you invisible to me. I searched for many years, but the task was impossible because you hid your real name as I instructed you to. The machine realised we had escaped to the outer regions of the galaxy and sent the aliens to kill every human being in the Outer Worlds. The machine then forgot about us for a time. It did not realise the extent of our powers until you recently revealed yourself. Now the machine is coming for us; it will not stop until we are destroyed.’
‘Is the Magnifier dead?’
‘No, I believe she is still alive and living on Epheria Prime, but her mind has been enslaved.’
‘Can you teach someone else to be the Magnifier?’
‘I cannot teach someone to be the Magnifier. Only one person in a trillion has the gift, and until a Magnifier is revealed we cannot know of their presence. There is no way we can know who has the gift, and as far as I know the only Magnifier in existence is Mira, the one I left behind on Epheria Prime. You cannot face the machine without her.’
‘Then we must go to Epheria Prime to rescue her.’
Acacius’s stern face lightened for a moment and he smiled. ‘Such a journey would be very dangerous.’
‘You said the End Machine is searching for us in the Outer Worlds. Perhaps it is more dangerous here. Epheria Prime is probably the last place the machine would expect us to go. I have a good ship and a loyal crew. It is a risk we will have to take.’
Acacius nodded. ‘So be it. The Epherian Emperor will return to his home world.’
Michael bowed his head. He had long dreamed of returning to Epheria Prime, and now he had a reason to come out of exile.
Cynthia stared at Michael. ‘Emperor,’ she whispered under her breath. She felt shock combined with awe at hearing the revelation.
Michael heard her whisper the word and he smiled back at her.
CHAPTER TEN
Ajax’s eyes suddenly opened and he sat up, half expecting to be surrounded by aliens. Ivan was standing on one side of his bed and an advanced medical droid was standing on the other. He was in a small medical recovery room. His leg had undergone a complete tissue reconstitution. The only visible sign of his previous injury was a slight discolouration in the skin tone. He had spent two hours in an advanced medical reconstruction chamber which had repaired all the damage to his body.