Post-Human 05 - Inhuman (42 page)

1 shook her head, her countenance appearing sincere, though Aldous and everyone present knew she was an impeccable liar.

Thel exhaled, frustrated.
“
Damn it! The candidate could access the tower if it took control of Kali, but we can
’
t communicate with it from outside.
”

“
Whoa, what do you mean?
”
Rich asked.
“
I
’
ve been talking to James and the A.I. like all damn day!
”

“
Because they
’
d hacked a pair of aug glasses in the sim,
”
Thel responded.
“
The communication was initiated from inside. They figured out how to call out, but we don
’
t have the ability to call in.
”

Aldous
’
s eyes suddenly widened, hope shining from within for the first time in what felt like ages.
“
Wait!
”
he shouted.
“
Maybe we do!
”
He turned quickly to Old-timer.
“
Craig, James and the A.I. said that
—”

Before Aldous had even finished speaking, Old-timer
’
s face lit up with understanding.
“
I can access it!
”

He rushed over to Rich, who was already holding the hard drive out for Old-timer to grasp.
“
I
’
m not exactly sure how this is going to work,
”
Old-timer admitted as he sized up the task.

“
There
’
s an access point that I built in secretly,
”
Aldous offered.
“
A new character that could appear anywhere I chose.
”

“
The candidate
’
s infamous
‘
visitor,
”’
Thel instantly realized.

“
That
’
s right,
”
Aldous informed them.
“
Craig, when you immerse, you
’
ll be given character options. Choose the character nicknamed Blake. Once you have control, you
’
ll be able to locate the candidate. I
’
ve already visited him in this form, so he
’
ll recognize you.
”

“
Okay,
”
Old-timer replied. His tendrils began to unfurl, a half dozen of them becoming thread-like before puncturing the outside of the hard drive. The tendrils then branched into nearly invisible filaments, searching for connector points within the hardware.

“You’re going to want to lie down before—” Aldous began to suggest before, without warning, Old-timer’s eyes closed and he tipped over like a tree felled in the woods.

24

WAKING UP after a short rest in his bed in his penthouse apartment, the man who’d dreamt of people claiming to be his creators breathed a sigh of relief. “A dream,” he said to himself as he saw the low, gray clouds above his familiar, rainy city. A second later, as his head cleared, and he remembered the bizarre events all too clearly, a dubious feeling crept into his heart.

He swung his legs off of the bed, realizing that he was still in the armor he’d remembered from the supposed dream. Now he felt panic as he remembered that he’d gone home after being left behind, exhausted from his ordeal enough that he could pass out into the welcoming embrace of sleep. It had only been a short rest, however, as it had nearly been sunrise when he returned to his apartment—and he hadn’t returned alone.

The man sprang out of his bedroom and into the front hallway, where his panic instantly morphed into deep despair. The Kali avatar, once again an empty vessel, stood still as ever in the hallway, barely shifting her weight, staring straight forward, her hand still missing.

“Oh Lord,” the candidate whispered to himself. “It was real.” He turned away and paced to one of the barstools where he took a seat. “Goddamn it,” he cursed to himself as he ran his hands through his hair.
What am I to do now?
he asked himself.
I’m alone in a sim, waiting to see if the people in the real world can save themselves? What if they don’t? What if they fail?

Then another, even more terrifying thought struck him:
What if they’re killed, but their universe survives? I’d be trapped here, by myself, for eternity. Trapped in a simulation…a ghost in a machine forgotten by his creators. What would I do? Would I age and die, or live on forever? Could I even kill myself?

Then, suddenly, he heard the elevator door slide open.

His breath caught in his throat as he froze. His eyes went to the rain droplets frozen in place in the air outside his window, and he knew who was there.

“The stranger,” he uttered to himself.

Indeed, the familiar form of the man that had visited him a night earlier, setting the terrifying events in motion, rushed into the penthouse, his eyes immediately locking with those of the candidate.

However, unlike their previous meeting, the stranger didn’t affect any semblance of being in control. Rather, his eyes were wild and desperate.

“The candidate!” he shouted.

The candidate didn’t know how to reply.

“Right?” the stranger said, apparently unsure of himself.

“Yes,” the candidate confirmed. “What is—”

“My name is Craig, but most people call me Old-timer. I’m not the son-of-a-bitch that inhabited this body last time,” he said, gesturing with his hand to his torso. “I’m a friend—a post-human—and we need your help!”

“My help?” the candidate responded before adding, in a suspicious tone, “Is this part of the test?”

“Test?” Old-timer shook his head. “No, dude, look, we’re in serious trouble. Right now, my body is on Venus, as are the bodies of a few thousand others. But we’re about to be hit with a jet of gamma rays that’ll destroy all the life on the planet. You’re the only one who can stop it.” Old-timer paused, swiveling his head as he searched for Kali. He caught a glimpse of her over his shoulder and then turned, noting immediately her missing hand. He turned back to the candidate and pointed at her with his thumb. “I’m guessing that’s Kali?”

The candidate nodded, wordlessly, completely stunned as the bizarre events unfolded.

“Okay, this is going to sound a little strange, but we’re out of time here, friend. I need you to take control of that avatar. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to—”

“Hang on,” the candidate said, his expression puzzled as he held up his hand for Old-timer to stop. “Take control of her? As in shoot off my hand and fuse with her?”

“Uh…” Old-timer responded, nearly as confused as the candidate. “Shoot off your hand? They didn’t tell me you’d have to shoot off your hand.”

The candidate suddenly remembered something else from the night before. On the center island in the kitchen, he’d left the de-patternizer gun. He turned to it, and then stepped off his barstool. He looked at the stump where Kali’s hand used to be. It was now a makeshift access point to the Kali avatar’s special pattern, and he’d watched as the entity that had identified itself as his predecessor A.I. and two of his companions each successively joined with it, each one in turn taking on Kali’s powers, and each one exiting the sim.
If they can do it,
he reasoned,
why not I?

“Listen, friend,” Old-timer began, “I know this sounds nuts, and you don’t know me from Adam, but you’re our only hope. If humanity is going to survive, you’ve got to trust me. You have to fuse with that avatar, and then you should be able to take control of a tower in the real world. The tower controls Venus’s powerful magnetic force-field. It can shield us from the gamma radiation, but the planet is being hit with it
right
now. Every second counts here, partner.”

The candidate looked down at his left hand, then looked at the de-patternizer in his right.

“What do you say? Will you help us?” Old-timer asked.

The candidate inhaled as he tried to steady himself.
It’s insane,
he thought. Then he looked up at the dreary, rain-soaked sky and remembered what Kali had been able to do to the weather.
But then again, I could use a sunny day.

He bit his bottom lip before looking up at Old-timer and nodding. “I’ve got little to lose.” Then he fired the de-patternizer.

The pain shot through his entire body and seemed to travel right down through the soles of his feet, radiating out into the ground. His hand went gold first, and then in a fraction of a second, it turned to dust, wafting away in the simulated air.

Old-timer’s mouth hung slightly open as he watched the proceedings. “That looked kinda painful.”

The candidate nodded. “But it’s done,”
he replied. as he looked over at Kali. “I’m committed
.
” He went to her, closed his eyes, and then put his injured arm up to hers.

He felt something remarkable beginning to occur…

25

“
Hello?
”
a familiar voice suddenly spoke into Thel
’
s ear.

“Oh my God! Is that you?”
Thel said, stunned. She looked up to see that Rich and Aldous, who were still connected via their mind
’
s eye link, also heard the voice and were listening, their expressions astonished.

“Yes, it
’
s me,”
the candidate replied.

Old-timer
’
s eyes suddenly blinked open and he turned to the crowd of post-humans, androids, and Purists that had assembled around him. 
“
Did it work? Has he made contact?
”

“He has!”
Thel shouted excitedly in return before turning her attention back to the candidate. “Do you recognize my voice?”

“Yes, you’re the post-human named Thel. How are—”

“That’s right,” Thel interrupted him, hurriedly. “I need you to listen to me carefully! We
’
ve destroyed our controls for a tower that we
’
re standing directly in front of, a Tesla tower with the capability of generating a worldwide magnetic field powerful enough to protect Venus from the incoming radiation. You, however, should be able to detect the wireless signals the tower is currently emitting and be able to take control of the tower
’
s systems.”

“Yes,”
the candidate confirmed more quickly than expected. “I see them. My word,”
he remarked, impressed by the tower
’
s schematics and capabilities. “This is extraordinarily powerful technology. It
’
s tapped into the frequency of the entire planet. Do you realize that this tower could—”

“Never mind that now,”
Thel responded quickly but patiently as she clung to a faint hope that they could be saved. “There may be only seconds left before the gamma rays have reached levels strong enough to destroy all life on this planet. Can you determine how to operate the tower and generate as powerful a magnetic field as possible over the entire sphere of Venus?”

“
Indeed,
”
the candidate replied. “I
’
ve already initiated it. Was that all you needed?”
he asked, his tone as casual as that of a robot waiter at a restaurant.

“What?”
Rich cut in after the others in the group were too stunned to respond. “Are you serious? You did it already?”

“
Pardon me, I don’
t think we
’
ve had the pleasure. They call me the candid—”

“Did you turn it on or not!”
Rich nearly shrieked.

“Yes, of course,”
the candidate replied. “Do you not see it?”

Rich and the others looked skyward. He shook his head. “
I don’
t see—”

He paused as, suddenly, the heavy dose of gamma rays began to bombard the ionosphere. The positively charged ions began to glow brightly, appearing like the aurora borealis on Earth at first, but then growing in intensity as the radiation increased, the entire sky suddenly lighting up into a magnificent green glow, a monolithic version of the ones the post-humans had used to cocoon themselves for the better part of a century.

“My God,”
Old-timer reacted. “It did it. We
’
re safe.”

Rich and Djanet embraced happily and Old-timer and Daniella did the same.

Aldous breathed a brief  sigh of relief before remembering the assimilator in his pocket that carried the pattern of his wife. He looked up at the Samantha from Universe 332, who
se
eyes were firmly fixed on Old-timer. His jaw clenched tight.

Old-timer turned from Daniella and saw 1, standing alone, looking up into the sky, the largest android ships in orbit still visible, and realized that while they rejoiced on the surface, hundreds of billions of lives were being lost—erased by the bombardment of gamma rays. Only 1 seemed to understand the profound implications for her people as she stood, completely immobile, staring up at the largest loss of human life anyone had ever known. Amazingly, she dropped to her knees, overwhelmed with the grief—overwhelmed by the loss.

When this registered with him, Old-timer went to her. As much as he
’
d hated her, as much as they
’
d been enemies in the past, he couldn
’
t help but feel terribly for her.

“1, I
’
m so, so sorry for—”

She didn
’
t even look at him. Rather, she ignored him and flew away, bolting across the ocean so quickly that she seemed to tear the air itself. In a second, she was just a dot on the horizon, headed to a location he couldn
’
t even begin to guess.

At the same moment, Daniella was putting her hand on Thel
’
s shoulder. Thel had been looking up also, staring at the source of the explosion. Daniella knew exactly what she was thinking. “I
’m sure he’
s okay, Thel.”

Thel turned, surprised, before silently nodding. She walked away to the beach and thought of the man she
’
d thought she would walk that very shoreline with forever.