EHuman Dawn (13 page)

“What the hell are you talking about?” Adam demanded.

At that moment, Dawn entered the room. The heels of her elegant, sturdy, black shoes clicked and clacked against the granite floor as she strode across the room to stand next to her colleagues. The door closed behind her with a slight thud. Her golden hair was plaited and twisted up atop her head. Gone was the goddess of war. She now looked commanding in a rather military and orderly way.

“I have reason to believe that your memory files may contain data vital to defeating the WG,” she said, simply.

“That’s insane!” Adam said, “I was a machinist before the Great Shift. I highly doubt that there’s anything important in my database, Dawn. I’d never even heard of you or the Resistance until a week ago, when you forced your way into my life!”

Dawn winced at his words, and Adam instantly regretted his outburst.

“Just get on with it,” Origen growled, “I’m tired of wondering if this fool is really the one we’ve been looking for all these years!”

“The one you’ve been looking for? Dawn, what is he talking about?” Adam pleaded.

“It’s slightly complicated,” Dawn began. In spite of the somber mood in the room, a small light of excitement shown in her eyes. “It involves taking a trip into the past. Remember Dr. Neville? Due to the mounting evidence of complete memory loss after a Jump, Guardian Networks management decided Dr. Neville would be the last person to Jump. No one at
Guardian Networks wanted to risk losing any of the information in Dr. Neville’s brain. So he agreed to remain behind and continue working in the flesh until the project was secure enough for him to Jump.

“Unfortunately, the government mandated murder of those who didn’t choose the eHuman form. The subsequent totalitarian rise of the WG forced Dr. Neville to go underground and found the Resistance. Our organization didn’t have Jump technology at that time. Eventually, the inevitable happened. Dr. Neville died.”

“I don’t see what this has to do with me,” Adam interrupted. All the mystery was making him uncomfortable.

“It was unfortunate that Dr. Neville didn’t get to Jump,” Dawn continued, ignoring Adam’s admonishment, “He was the only person in the Resistance who truly knew what life was like before the Great Shift. Most of the history archived on our servers comes from his knowledge. Just before he died, he told me he had one more thing to share. He said the information was crucial to our success.”

Dawn paused and looked intensely at Adam. Her gaze sent chills down his metal spine.

“You already know that before the Great Shift I was a young woman named Sophia Castalogna,” Dawn continued, never taking her eyes from Adam, “During my sophomore year of college, I met a young man named Elijah Prince and fell in love with him.”

“Prince?” Adam asked.

“Yes, Adam. Elijah was the son of Edgar. Edgar Prince.”

Adam was shocked. Dawn knew Edgar Prince?

“The Princes were the high tech dynasty of that age. Edgar Prince not only owned Guardian Networks, but also several publishing firms, recording labels, and mining rights to
various minerals such as salt, diamonds and oil. Because of their wealth and power, the Princes didn’t have to act like ordinary people. A Prince male could sleep with whomever he wanted— but Elijah wasn’t allowed to give his heart to a regular, common girl like me.”

“So…what happened?” Adam’s reporter’s curiosity was beginning to take hold.

“We were in love. It was mutual. Regardless of Edgar’s disapproval, Elijah and I were determined to continue our affair.”

“Dawn, please. I don’t see how your love affair from ages ago has anything to do with gaining control of Neuro,” Adam said. Was listening to Dawn confess her love for this Elijah making him uncomfortable? He glanced at Origen and could tell by the look in the man’s yellow eyes that it made him uncomfortable as well.

Dawn walked toward the plug in the wall. She turned to face Adam and stepped backwards, plugging herself in.

“Let’s begin with the day Dawn was born,” she said.

The EC crackled to life and a beautiful girl came into focus on the screen. She sat in an oversized chair. Her messy brown hair fell into her blue eyes as she nervously tried to flick it out of her face with her delicate hands. She was hauntingly familiar to Adam. Tears streamed down her freckled face, leaving trails from her eyes to her red lips.

“eHumans can’t cry,” Adam whispered to himself. He was gazing upon a human of the flesh. He stared at her in awe. He couldn’t recall having seen one before.

“Go on, Sophia,” a deep voice called from out of view, “We’re recording.”

“You’ll save the file in…my eHuman body?” she asked innocently.

“Yes. Say what you need to. I promise, I’ll get the file into your database. It will be encrypted. Only you will have the key. You’ll always remember who you were,” the male voice reassured her.

The girl drew in a huge breath and then began to speak.

“Elijah,” she cried, “If you’re seeing this, I’ve been successful. We’ve found each other in the eHuman world! I don’t have long to speak. Dr. Neville needs time to download this video into the memory file of my new eHuman body before I Jump—which is in just one hour. Oh my God!”

The girl stopped speaking and began to cry. The video cut off for a moment, beginning again once she has regained control.

“Elijah,” she continued, her voice filled with a deep sadness, “When you and I first met, it was love at first sight. You know as much as I do that your father was against us from the start. What I didn’t tell you is that Edgar threatened me the day you brought me to your estate to meet him. He told me I was to end the relationship—or else he would find me and end it himself.

“Oh, Elijah! I just ignored him. I didn’t want to tell you. I know you love your father. But our days were numbered. One night I was followed home from the library. Men threatened to kill me and all my family if I didn’t break up with you. I went to your apartment the next day. I was so frightened, Elijah. I was going to let you know what had happened—but instead of you I found your father. Edgar made it plain. He knew you. He knew as long as I was alive, you’d pursue me. He offered me two choices, Elijah. This is one. The other was death for me and my family.

“What could I do? Your father’s assistants brought me to Stanford. They didn’t mistreat me, except for the cruelest thing of all, my love. He wouldn’t let me say goodbye to you.
Stanford hasn’t been all bad, Elijah. I’m treated well. In some ways working as a test subject on this project has been very rewarding. But I’ve missed you and my family every moment of every day.

“Three years into the project it was decided that I was to become Dawn—the first eHuman. I admit I was excited, Elijah! To be immortal is a dream beyond belief. In many ways this opportunity makes me feel powerful and important. I’m going to help bring eternal peace and prosperity to the world!”

The young girl—Sophia—paused, a faraway look in her eyes. Adam felt a deep sadness as he realized just how different the eHuman world had turned out. Sophia did bring peace and prosperity, but at a price. Adam glanced at Dawn and for the first time really felt the guilt she carried every moment of her overly long life.

“But this evening,” Sophia continued, “only hours before the Jump, you came to me Elijah. You rushed into my room, surprised to see that the test subject was me. You tried to convince me to escape. I’m so sorry, Elijah—I hesitated. I hesitated, Elijah! It’s terrible. I’m so ashamed. But I want to be Dawn, I do. And while I tried to tell you this...” the girl stopped and began to cry again.

“It’s okay, Sophia,” Dr. Neville could be heard saying, “It isn’t your fault.”

“But if I had gone with Elijah right away, we’d still be together!” she screamed.

“No, Sophia. The university guards would have caught up with you,” the doctor explained, trying to soothe the distraught girl.

“Elijah,” she cried, looking out into the camera, and as a result seemed to search Adam’s own eyes, “I’m sorry. Forgive me, please. I wanted to leave with you. But guards came. They tore us apart. They held me and dragged you away. I don’t know where they’ve taken you! I
don’t even know if you’re alive! I hope with all my heart your family name will keep you safe. And now I sit here, counting down the moments until I leave this body.

“I don’t know if I’ll survive the Jump, Elijah. But if I do, I promise: I’ll do everything in my power to find you. Thanks to Dr. Neville, I’ll remember this moment forever, no matter what happens to me as an eHuman. I’ll remember how much you mean to me. Thank you for coming to me, Elijah. Thank you for our last kiss. I’ll love you for all time—even as an eHuman. Nothing can make me forget you!”

The video ended and the EC went dark. Adam felt a stab of pain at the sudden departure of the girl’s face. He turned to see Dawn unplugging herself from the wall.

“I became Dawn that morning,” she said, her voice hoarse and cracked, “Twenty-one years later, just before Dr. Neville died, he gave me the encryption key. He’d used Scattering, which made the memory location where the file was stored look empty and random, but protected from being erased or written over. The Guardians never found it.

“Before his death, Dr. Neville gave me a mission. He told me to find Elijah Prince within Neuro and bring him to the Resistance—the same key he gave me would unlock a video planted in Elijah. His video would complete my story and unite the two of us in the eHuman world.

“Dr. Neville said what he programmed into Elijah’s database is the answer to defeating Neuro. To protect Elijah and me, Dr. Neville didn’t know the secret human identity Elijah used when he Jumped. He also didn’t know the identity he took as an eHuman. The only clues Dr. Neville could give me were that Elijah would choose a position in the eHuman world that would give him the chance to expose his father—and that Elijah wouldn’t Jump into a new eHuman body until the information stored in him was delivered to the Resistance. In order to accomplish this important task, Dr. Neville put a lock inside of Elijah’s eHuman personality program that
would prevent him from ever having the desire to Jump into a new eHuman body. That would preserve the video, and the code that is essential to gaining control of Neuro.”

Dawn paused. This was so much harder than she had anticipated. The perplexed look upon Adam’s face didn’t make it any easier. He stared at her like she were crazy.

“Do you think I’m Elijah?” Adam asked, “That’s insane! What would give you that idea?”

Dawn didn’t know how to answer, Adam’s agitation had caught her off guard. Alrisha took the opportunity to excitedly share her own thoughts.

“We’re getting to that!” Alrisha cried out, “After Dr. Neville’s death, Dawn confided in me. I began working on a data mining algorithm that might find Elijah amongst the billions of eHumans within Neuro. A primary condition was to search for those without a Jump history. That was over one hundred years ago.

“Back then, the list was long. People were still enamored with themselves and their immortality. Given all the other work we had to do to found the Resistance, and the fact that we didn’t have anything else to go on, I abandoned the search actively. Instead, I just let the algorithm run on my server in the background. About ten years ago, the algorithm alerted me; it had a list that seemed reasonable to parse.

“The name Phillip Kingsley was one of the few thousand potential candidates on the list. I thought the last name Kingsley might be a play on Prince. Even more interesting was the fact that Phillip had Jumped only once, and that was into the eHuman named Adam Winter, who just happened to be a popular Newsreel host in New Omaha—the closest eHuman city to Avalon!”

“Imagine how excited I was when Alrisha told me!” Dawn cried out in spite of herself. “I immediately assigned two Resistance members to follow you. They did so for several years.
Sometimes, I myself looked in on you. We’ve also been tracking several other people. I decided last week it was time to bring you in. The WG is unplugging our cities. We simply can’t wait any longer. It’s time to test the candidates and see if we’ve finally found Elijah!”

Adam looked at the eHumans in the room. Each face stared at him with a mixture of hope and anxiety. Dawn hadn’t brought him to the Resistance to create a Newsreel to report her organization’s activities to the world. The real reason he was there was to be investigated himself—to see if he was once Edgar Prince’s son! As her revelation began to sink in, Adam found himself fighting to remain in control. In spite of his anger and confusion, he squared his shoulders, stood tall and confidently stared at the Resistance members before him.

“Am I the first one you’re testing?” Adam demanded.

“Yes,” Dawn answered.

“How many other potential saviors are on your list?” he asked, sarcasm seeping into his tone.

“That’s classified,” Origen answered curtly, “Besides—you aren’t the one. I know it. I can sense it. Elijah Prince never would have become a spineless media puppet!”

“Origen!” Dawn snapped, “That’s enough!”

“Plug him into the wall,” Cane demanded, “Let’s be done with this!”

“Yes,” Dawn agreed. “Please, Adam. Plug in.”

“What if I’m not your man?” Adam asked.

Origen grunted.

“We’ll modify your memories and plant you back into New Omaha,” Dawn explained, “Anthony will be suspicious and send you down to the LMO to get your memory cleared up, but nothing else will happen. You’ll be allowed to live your life as if we never met.”

“And if I am Elijah?” Adam challenged her.

Dawn stared at him. What if he was Elijah? She had first seen Adam with her own eyes three years ago, walking out of his apartment building whistling a tune. Instantly, she had felt something for the man. Dawn had never been much of a romantic, for the work of the Resistance had kept her busy. But Dr. Neville’s promise that somewhere, out there, her true love was waiting to be found, was her constant companion. What if Adam Winter was Elijah Prince? Now the moment of reckoning was upon her, Dawn wasn’t sure how she felt. And what if Adam wasn’t Elijah? The truth surprised her.