Miles Tucker was waiting for them at a white table in a white room much like the one they had just left. This ceiling was also filled with stars.
“Please, sit,” he said.
“Are they real?” Evelyn asked, looking at the stars.
“Yes.”
“There are so many.”
“We are a thousand kilometers above the surface of the Earth, so more stars are visible.” Seeing their confused expressions he smiled. “We're on what used to be the Earth-Orbit Ecosystem. You may remember it as something OrbiCor was developing back when you were still in school. This is where we live.”
“Why don't you live on the planet?” Evelyn asked.
“I've got a better question,” Kenji said. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Miles Tucker frowned at him. “I beg your pardon?”
“Earth? How are we above the surface of Earth, when just now we were on Janus – which I seem to recall is in a whole other space dimension to Earth?”
Miles Tucker smiled. “Ah, that. I will explain, but why don't you order some food first.”
“Fine. What's on the menu?”
Miles Tucker's smile broadened. “Anything your heart desires.”
“In that case I'd like a double cheeseburger with fries,” Kenji said quite seriously. “Medium rare on the patty.”
A cheeseburger and fries began to materialize on the table, apparently from thin air. They all stared at it. Evelyn blinked. No one spoke.
Slowly, Kenji reached out and poked the cheeseburger. He leaned forward and smelled it. He broke into a grin.
“Yo, have you guys seen my cheeseburger?” He chuckled hysterically. “My magic cheeseburger!”
“Guys,” Clove said in wonder, “are we all having the same dream?”
“I assure you, it's not a dream,” Miles Tucker said. “Nor is it magic.” He smiled at Kenji, who was now staring at his cheeseburger as though it might attempt to eat him, instead of the other way around. “All our food is constructed on an atomic level using something like the NAMs you're familiar with. Think of this table as a food printer.”
“Okay, I'll take that explanation,” Kenji said, delighted. “Hell, it's no weirder than half the other nonsense we've seen in the last few days.” With that he grabbed his burger and took a massive bite. An expression of pure ecstasy washed over his face.
“Okay, I've got to try this,” Clove said. “I would like a bowl of shrimp gumbo. Please,” she added, staring at the area of table directly in front of her. And to everyone's continued amazement a large, steaming bowl of shrimp gumbo materialized before her. “Holy cow. That's incredible. Are … are the shrimp real? I mean, not lab-grown? I've never had real shrimp ...”
“Technology has come a long way since you left us,” Miles Tucker said. “They are real in the sense that they are a molecular replication of real shrimp. How is your cheeseburger?” he asked Kenji.
“Deewiffiff,” he replied through a mouthful of burger, juices dripping from his chin. He swallowed. “You guys have gotta try this!”
“I can ask for anything?” Brenner asked Matthew's father.
“Anything at all.”
“Can I have a Belgian waffle, crispy, with vanilla ice cream, cherries, and chocolate sauce?”
“Like I said, anything at all.”
As Brenner's waffle began to construct itself before her, Matthew placed his order.
“I'll have a Hawaiian pizza.”
“Gross dude,” Kenji said, eyeing Matthew's cheesy meal. “Pineapple on a pizza?”
“What? It's a thing.”
“Evelyn, what will you have?” Miles Tucker asked.
Evelyn had no idea. “Um … what are you having?”
Miles Tucker looked down at the table in front of him, where a plate of what Evelyn recognized as sushi appeared. “This is one of things I missed most after the Bloom wiped out all the fish. Lab-grown fish was disgusting, especially raw.”
“You … you didn't say anything,” Evelyn pointed out.
“Oh, this table doesn't follow voice commands.” He tapped the device attached to the back of his skull. “I simply think what I want – or what you want – and it makes it. So, Evelyn, what do you want?”
“I … I don't know. I guess I've never tried any of this stuff,” she looked around at the food on the table.
“A platter, then,” Miles Tucker smiled, “and before her a large platter containing a miniature cheeseburger, a small portion of fries, a tiny bowl of shrimp gumbo, a slice of pizza, some sushi, and a little waffle with vanilla ice cream, cherries, and chocolate sauce, appeared.”
“Wow,” she said.
“Variety is the spice of life, after all,” Miles Tucker said, popping a California roll into his mouth.
“Aw, I shoulda gotten that,” Kenji said, eyeing Evelyn's extravagant platter enviously.
“There's always next time.” Miles Tucker turned and surveyed them all, satisfied that they were enjoying their food. “Well, I suppose I had better start explaining things. I'll start with how you came to be here, on Earth, since this is something we – myself and the others – have only recently deduced. And when I say recently, I mean but a few minutes ago. And our deduction is this: Damien was wrong about the Rift. It didn't lead to another dimension. Dark matter, as it turns out, is still as much of a mystery as before. Though, as far as we can tell, whatever it is it serves as the fabric of space, if you will, the thing that keeps everything – matter, energy, time – together. Perhaps an analogy will help you to better understand,” he added, seeing their confusion. “Imagine a pane of glass. It's there, but you cannot see it. That is the dark matter. Now on that pane of glass paint a trillion trillion stars and planets and asteroids, and speckle the whole thing with the elements found in space. That becomes all you see. You still cannot see the pane of glass, yet still it is there, holding everything in place. Now, the Rift – which you traveled through – was a very rare anomaly, so rare in fact that we have never seen another like it. It was as if a circle had been cut from the pane of glass and replaced the wrong way around. Imagine this circle: you can see right through it now, but without even realizing it, for on the other side the stuff of space remains, tricking you into believing you are seeing something new, though it is just the same space in reverse. Do you understand?”
“Uh, no, not really,” Brenner admitted. The others shook their heads.
“The Rift was like a mirror in space. You went through it, and as soon as you were on the other side it was as if the entire universe had flipped itself around. Or you were flipped around. As I said, we don't truly understand it. It's simply the only logical conclusion, since here you are.”
The interns glanced at each other. “Sorry, Mr Tucker,” Brenner said. “This is all pretty overwhelming.”
“I understand,” Miles said sincerely. “And forgive me if my explanations are difficult to grasp. It has been some time since I had to explain anything to anyone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I told the rest of you before about the augmentations that myself and the others wear. With these we have no need to speak with each other. We all know what the others are thinking, we all understand each other.”
“So … you don't have any privacy?” Matthew asked.
“No. We have no need for it. It … would be difficult for you to understand with your un-augmented brain, but we are somewhat like a hive mind. We do not think in the same way we used to, the way you do now. We have evolved to a higher level of complexity. But I'm straying. We were talking of Earth's history during your absence.
“After he launched you towards the Rift, Damien released Ciso, the OrbiCor AI, into the internet. I do believe he had gone completely insane, in the end, for he had given her one instruction: shut down everything. The power grids, communication; everything. You understand what that meant, back then?”
“No more watching TV?” Kenji asked.
“No more
oxygen ...” Brenner murmured. “Why would he do that?”
“Damien was a troubled soul. He lost his mother to the Bloom at a young age and dedicated the rest of his life to trying to fix the world, to cure all the problems caused by humanity. When he failed, I think he decided we didn't deserve to inhabit Planet Earth any longer.”
“So what happened?” Matthew prompted.
“The augmentations saved us. They had been a project of mine for some time, a way of enhancing the human brain to compete with that of a computer. I, with the help of others wearing them, was able to stop Ciso, contain her. But this was also a pivotal moment in the evolution of mankind: for the first time, several men and women had connected their brains to a computer. I cannot describe it to you, what it is like to be a part of this, to have the augmentation. It is wondrous, and yet we know there is more waiting for us: the next stage of our evolution.” Here he looked at Evelyn strangely. “But forgive me, I am straying yet again.”
“The following few hundred years were an interesting time. In one thing, Damien had been right. Humankind was not long for this Earth. The big catalyst was the eruption of the Yellowstone volcano, only twelve years after your departure. Fortunately we had fair warning. We were able to get five thousand souls aboard the Earth Orbit Ecosystem, the first iteration of the vessel you are now aboard, which we now call the Cloud. OrbiCor's Arc project also ensured that we saved what little animal life had survived the Bloom, though we have no animals up here – they were all rehabilitated onto the planet once conditions became stable again.”
“Why didn't you return with them?” Evelyn asked.
Miles Tucker nodded. “Why, indeed? Interestingly, it was the necessity of living in space that led to our discovery of how to use the NAMs on adults. The ability of the NAMs to re-atomize human tissue requires a very specifically calibrated magnetic field. Earth's own magnetism disrupted that. But up here those of us who wanted to have been able to live as long as we choose.”
“So … If you go to Earth, you'll die?”
“Eventually, yes. But that's not the only reason we stayed here. We have discovered something far more important than merely staying alive: a reason to do so. As more and more of us accepted the augmentations and our collective mind expanded, we realized we had discovered the next stage of human evolution. We have been striving for nearly ten thousand years to attain it, and we have yet to succeed. I think that will soon change.” He looked at Evelyn again, then abruptly rose. “Come, there is something I want to show you.”
By now they had all finished eating, and they stood and obediently followed him from the room into the white corridor. He led them to the next room and gestured for them to look inside.
The room was identical to the one in which they had awoken. There were eight beds, all occupied by prone figures dressed in white. They looked to be asleep. Without a word, Miles Tucker moved down the corridor to the next room and again indicated that they should look inside. Eight more white-clad figures lay on the beds within.
“Are they sleeping?” Clove asked.
Apparently this was the question he had been waiting for. “No, they are living.” He gave the word a special emphasis. “You see, when you have been augmented, the world around you – what you imagine to be the real world – falls away, for within the collective mind we have created waits something far greater. We call this state Higher Humanity, and it is like nothing you can imagine. You can do anything, be anything – things your lesser brains cannot even conceptualize, things so complex it would be impossible for me to even try to phrase them for you. Yet despite this there has always been something more, something to surpass all we have yet discovered, beyond our reach; an ultimate level of complexity that we know is waiting for us. This, we believe, is our fundamental purpose as a species: the final state of all evolution. Highest Humanity.”
Evelyn was staring at the prone figures in the room. They all wore the same, placid expression. It looked as though they were dreaming.
“So they're in, like, a virtual world?” Kenji asked. “Like a video game?”
“Not at all. It is much ...” Miles Tucker struggled for the right word “...more than that. In a virtual world you will always know it is just that: virtual. This is different. It is a kind of reality, but one we can create as we see fit.”
“Sounds cool,” Kenji admitted. “But still, in the real world they're just lying there...”
“The real world.” Miles Tucker shook his head. “You still don’t understand: there is no real world. There is simply the world we are born into, and the countless worlds we can create for ourselves. Each is as real as the next, for those of us with the ability to inhabit them.”
“But you still have to eat and sleep and, you now, go to the toilet here. In this world.” Kenji persisted. “Don't you?” he added uncertainly.
“Yes, and that is why reaching the next stage in our evolution is so important.”
“What is the next stage?” Evelyn asked suddenly.
“I think you know.”
She nodded. It was so obvious. Now she knew why Matthew's father had kept giving her those looks. “You want to upload your consciousness into a computer, the way Reyner put his subconscious mind into me.”
“Now you understand why you are so special, Evelyn. Nothing like that has been achieved again, despite our countless failed experiments. Damien Reyner found a way, but he took his knowledge with him to the grave. Hopefully you can help us to unlock his secret.”
“Wait, Dad, are you serious?” Matthew asked. “You want to become a … computer?”
“I know it is difficult to comprehend now, Matthew; your human brain is programmed to love its body, to cling to what you perceive as life. But your body is not you. Even your brain is not you. Your mind, your being, is capable of far more than it can achieve trapped inside the cage of flesh it was born into. The augmentations have allowed us to see the possibilities, but to really achieve a state of ultimate complexity we must free our minds from flesh entirely.” Miles Tucker turned to look at the figures inside the room again. “All of us here on the Cloud are connected. We all think and feel and know all that the others do. Yet if we could escape from our bodies into the computer we have built for this purpose, the core of the Cloud, we will all truly become one: one being made up of thousands of enlightened minds. We will become the Cloud. That is what everything that has ever happened in the universe has been leading up to. This is what every exploding star, every collision of molecules, every form of life has been working towards for all of history – with randomness at first, but now with purpose: Ultimate Complexity, the final stage of all evolution.”
There was silence among them, and after a while Evelyn spoke. “Sorry, Mr Tucker, but how do you know?”
“How do we know what?”
“How do you know that if you do what you say you've been trying to do that it will be the final stage of evolution?”
“Because we have seen it. We know.”
“Yeah, but you said you only saw it when you became augmented. Maybe when you reach the stage you're talking about only then will you be able to see the next stage, and so on. I mean, who's to say there is an ultimate level of complexity, or whatever?”
“There is. There must be.”
“But ,.. why?”
“It's simple. There must be a meaning, a purpose, to all creation. And of all creation throughout all time there has been only one common factor: constant evolution to more complex systems, which means, logically, that the purpose of creation – of life – is to become more complex. But there must be a limit, an end to the possibilities for advancement.”
“Ultimate Complexity...” Brenner finished for him, almost reverently.
Evelyn glanced sidelong at Matthew. “There is another purpose. To life.”
“Oh? And what's that?” Miles Tucker looked at her evenly.
“Well … living.”
“That's not a purpose, that's a product of t
he purpose. There is nothing special about living. It is simply a biological condition to which we are all subject.”
“Do you really believe that?” Evelyn demanded.
Miles shook his head. “Even you don't understand. I thought you would. But it is clear to me that none of you can fathom this. Without the augmentations your minds are simply incapable.” He turned away from them. “I am sorry, but I will not try to explain again until you are ready to listen. I hope that you will all accept the augmentations soon, for only then can you evolve beyond your own boundaries. Let us speak no more on the subject for now. There is more I would like to show you of how we live here. Please follow me.”
Miles Tucker turned matter-of-factly and led them further along the corridor and through a doorway at the end that opened up into a cavernous chamber that contained row upon row of what Evelyn guessed were massive computer drives.
“This is where the Cloud's central computer system is located. It is through this”–he swept a hand at the room–“that we are all connected. This is, in a way, our temple; our god. And it is here that we will one day all dwell, when we have unlocked the final secret.”
“Mr Tucker,” Evelyn said, the rows of data banks reminding her of a similar, though smaller, room she had recently been inside. “You said that you took control of Ciso. What did you do with her?”
He looked at her for a moment before answering. “We contained her.”
“Contained her?” She rounded on him, arching her eyebrows. “Do you know what's going on down there on Earth? Do you know what Ciso is doing to those people?”
“I will look into it.” He turned away from her, ending the discussion. “Come, there is one last part of our tour.”
Dumbly, the group followed him.
Evelyn was beginning to develop a dislike for Matthew's father. There was something about him, aside from the almost condescending tone he used to speak to them, that was … inhuman. She laughed inwardly at the irony of her feeling this way about someone who was biologically more human than she could ever be.
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