EHuman Dawn
Authors: Nicole Sallak Anderson
eHUMAN DAWN
Nicole Sallak Anderson
STORY MERCHANT BOOKS
BEVERLY HILLS
2013
Copyright © 2013 by Nicole Sallak Anderson All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author.
Story Merchant Books
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For Walter F. C. Anderson, the best patron any artist could ever hope for.
————— Forwarded message —————
From: Guardian Enterprises <
[email protected]
>
Date: Thu, June 23, 2242 at 8:33 PM
Subject: Chengdu Directive
To: Rosario Donahi, World Leader <
r.donahi@world_government.gov
>
Dear World Leader,
After considering your request to deal with the Global Resistance, and its campaign against us, I’ve come to the conclusion that you are correct in your assumption that something must be done to stop their infestation. Long have they interfered with our ability to run the world as we deem necessary.
It’s in the best interest of eHumanity that we destroy them once and for all.
As a result, you’re hereby approved to do what you must to issue a threat. Your idea to use the Energy Grid as a tool of manipulation is a perfect place to start.
I'm sure the exercise will bring those who are against us out into the open, where we can silence them once and for all.
Let it begin in Chengdu.
PART ONE
REVELATIONS
“
Consciousness is either inexplicable illusion, or else revelation.”
~ CS Lewis
CHAPTER ONE
New Omaha, capitol city of the North American Province
July 2, 2242
The day Miranda Valentine left Adam Winter was the day his life began.
Technically, he’d been living as Adam Winter for almost two hundred years. Yet to call it a life was a bit of an overstatement. True, the past two centuries had included many events, interactions, feelings, reactions, and consequences. But not everything he felt or thought was of his own free will. For Adam Winter was the ultimate singularity construct: an eHuman, interacting within the great global network called Neuro—which was managed by the World Government.
Adam Winter was unaware of his entrapment, unaware of the cage in which he lived. But when Miranda suddenly departed from his life, she left a hole so vast within his being, not even the entire library of Pleasure Zone Apps and Virtual Programming offerings on Neuro could fill it.
That’s why, when adventure came calling and asked him to dance, Adam accepted the invitation. After all, a lonely man is a man with nothing to lose and everything to gain.
And what Adam Winter was about to gain would be nothing less than his own humanity.
Miranda had left Adam during his routine eight hours of solitary confinement.
With his recharge complete, Adam opened his eyes and looked around his room. The familiar white walls were comforting. The terminal confirmed that his Chi-Regulator was fully loaded. Time to unplug. His right hand flicked the discharge switch and a smooth, metal rod disengaged from the shaft in his lower back. He stepped away from the wall socket, shaking his head.
Miranda was gone.
She’d been his companion for almost fifty years. He thought it should be easy to let her go, but it wasn’t. It was every bit as hard as the last time a companion had Jumped. And before that—well, it was the same old story. The vow, “Till death do us part” disappeared the day humanity took a bite from the apple of immortality.
Adam quickly stepped across the room and opened the door to the circular living area he shared with two other eHumans. There were four doors leading off the main living area to individual recharge rooms. These contained the wall sockets they connected to every two days to receive their necessary dose of Chi from Neuro. This was how they recharged the electromagnetic field generator, called the Chi-Regulator, that kept their electronic, eHuman bodies connected to their consciousness, or Lux, as it was fashionably called. Recharging, necessary for survival, took a full eight hours to complete.
Adam’s housemates, Jill and Thomas, were online via the Entertainment Console, or EC. The huge curved screen hung directly in the center of the large, circular living space. They were dancing with a holographic couple projected in the middle of the room—their weekly tango lesson with some of Buenos Aires’ legends.
Adam nodded as he passed, noting the adoration for Jill in Thomas’ gaze. Jill, however, stared over Thomas’ shoulder and cast Adam her own look of devious desire. A jolt of
excitement ran through him, like a lightning bolt zigzagging across a humid summer sky. But then Miranda’s face entered his thoughts and a surging wave of guilt drowned his excitement in a millisecond. To desire more than one woman simultaneously seemed Adam’s calling card in life. Yet Miranda had been his companion in so many ways that he desperately missed her already.
Adam walked past the EC. He had several messages. He ignored them and continued by, passing the large glass table flanked by steel chairs where they entertained others offline. He headed out to the balcony to gaze upon the city. Another gray day in early July.
The sun hadn’t shown itself in months. Not surprising. The clouds had been gathering for years. No worries, either. eHumanity stopped caring about the air temperature long ago. eHumans wouldn’t suffer the Earth’s climate changes.
A small aircraft flew over the city’s steel and bronze buildings, gleaming in spite of the smog. Selecting a file from his RAM, Adam replayed the events of the previous evening, like a movie in his head. He’d rushed home from work because Miranda had sent him an emergency message. When he entered the apartment, she was on the balcony, holding a small Jump Request device in her hands. Adam’s heart sank at the sight. He approached her slowly, knowing what was about to happen. It seemed she’d grown bored with herself. Immortality had lost its glimmer.
When a person reached the point that they no longer wanted to be in the eHuman body they inhabited, they could apply at the Lifestyle Maintenance Office, or LMO, for a new body. The fee was enormous, but for many, it was worth it to work with an LMO Lifestyle Specialist to design a new body—and thus a new life.
There was just one caveat. The law was that any memory of the previous life would be wiped out—gone forever. The Lifestyle Enhancement Act, passed during the Great Shift by the
newly formed World Government, aka WG. Because of this law, Adam himself had never Jumped. He didn’t want to lose his memories. To him memory was the one thing that made him truly immortal. It was the closest thing he had to a religious belief, and he clung to it, even when all of those around him saw it as foolish.
Miranda trembled as she handed him the Jump Request. Since eHumans were never cold, her trembling could only mean she was upset.
Adam looked at the small screen. A lovely woman with long dark hair and brown skin. Quite a contrast to Miranda’s razor-short bronze hair, pale white skin, and large blue eyes.
The new body’s image spun around on an axis so that you could see every part. It was a very good body. Adam braced himself as Miranda began to speak.
“Request for one-to-one communication,” she said out loud.
“Granted,” he replied.
This would be the end of their spoken conversation. He had enabled her to speak directly to his mind. Obviously, she did not want Jill or Thomas to overhear them.
“
You’re late coming home again,
” she accused.
Adam thought nothing. She would be able to read any thoughts he had, so it was best for him to focus on her words alone.
“
True,
” he answered.
“
More work, I imagine?
”
“
Yes. The power outages are a big concern, Miranda. People are panicking. I need to compose a story for the Newsreel to ease their minds,
” he answered.
Adam was a journalist for the Friend’s Network. He wrote and performed Newsreels that could be downloaded on Neuro. He had many fans. Not only because was he esthetically pleasing to the eye, but he could also deliver hard facts while making his viewers feel great.
His current subject, however, was quite touchy. Making everyone feel good about an electricity shortage when electricity was the only thing that kept them alive—well, he needed to pull off a miracle.
“
You can’t make them feel any better,
” she said, reading his thoughts. She smiled bitterly.
“
Why are you going to Jump?
” Adam asked. Cut to the chase.
“
I’ve been Miranda for eighty years, Adam,”
she began
, “With you for almost fifty of those years. I could just leave you and start again in a new apartment. But I don’t want to remember. I’m tired of being Miranda. Tired of New Omaha. I need a change. I want a new life. Eighty years is simply too long to be me.
”
Adam laughed. She glared at him, crossing her arms and leaning back against the balcony railing. He gazed at the beautiful city that rose up behind her.
“
I don’t laugh at you, my dear,
” he explained, “
I mean no harm. It’s just that you’re not the first woman to live with me for an extended time, only to decide that she has to Jump into a new body and start a new life.
”
“
You’ve never Jumped?
” she asked. “
Why not?
”
“
We took on these eHuman bodies—left our flesh behind—for immortality. I like being immortal. If I Jump, I, Adam, don’t live on. I lose my memory. Two hundred years—gone. I want to remember it all. So—I choose to remain Adam. Immortal.
”
“
But I’m still immortal!
” she exclaimed. “
eHumans never die!
”
“
You don’t remember who you were before Miranda, do you?
” he countered. She shook her head. “
And you won’t remember me when you Jump. That’s not immortality. You might as well be dead.
”
She glared at him with a hatred so pure it made him cringe. Rather than look the fool, he chose to disdain her.
“Whatever, Miranda. Go for it. After all, being reborn has been all the rage for the past two hundred years!” he yelled out loud, disconnecting their one-to-one connection.