Evolution's End

by Steven Spellman

  Then it rolled one final time in the opposite direction onto its face and didn’t move again. Marcus looked the thing over closely. It had no bones inside of it, that much was clear by the awkward angles at which its arms and legs were bent. The shoulder it had bent was twisted completely behind its back, the thigh of the knee that had slammed into the ground was bent midway at nearly a right angle, the thing’s head looked as if it were hanging onto its body by a thread and those weren’t the worst injuries. If it had had bones they would’ve certainly been breaking through the flesh in more than a few places. Even without bones, it still looked badly injured. It could even be dead. Marcus felt a sudden rush of sorrow. The intensity of it was surprising; his robot body had had time to acclimate to his brain tissue and they were working in unison now. The sensation felt overwhelming, especially after so long of not feeling much of anything at all. And especially since he felt it for something as mysterious and alien as whatever this thing was.

  The thing had only just fallen from the sky and now it was almost as if the entire world had died all over again. In a sense, it had. Marcus and the alien were the only things around anywhere. Now, Marcus would be alone again but he would forever have memories of a strange companion that might not have died if he hadn’t decided to put it to the test. He sat down on the ground beside the alien and stared at it. A visible film was beginning to grow on it. Marcus wondered if that were how this thing decomposed after death. The film continued to grow upon itself, quickly, until the alien was encased in the beach ball from before. Another stem as well grew out of the bottom and dug down deep into the Earth. After twenty-four hours Marcus noticed movement from within the beach ball, but no punching fists or flailing feet. The imprint of fingers all the same length rose up in the middle of the beach ball until they broke through neatly and cleanly.

  The alien slowly, methodically climbed out and sat on the other side, directly in front of Marcus. It folded its legs upon themselves Indian style just as Marcus had. The beach ball shriveled in seconds and was blown away as dust by the first passing wind. Marcus looked on carefully at the alien; it was as good as new. It looked exactly as it had looked before the fall and tumble. Marcus didn’t move to see if it would continue to mimic. He only stared on. Two months passed with Marcus and the alien staring at each other, motionless, when Marcus registered from within his robot body that unusual neural activity was happening in the brain slice that was himself. Suddenly he heard a voice in his head, more like a cacophony of voices, like six or seven people trying to complete the same sentence and not doing a good job of it. Marcus cupped his hands over his ears as if he could block the voices out.

  Then the voices began to merge slowly, erratically, until a single strangely homogenized voice was all that was left. It was a merger of many voices that Marcus had known back when he was still human, Professor Edelstein, David McDonald, his staff, his students. Denna. They were all speaking as one now inside his head. “Hello, Marcus.” They all said.

  “How do you know my name?” Marcus asked the alien.

  “I know what you know, Marcus.” The alien answered inside his head.

  “So, you’ve read my mind and tapped into my memories. Obviously, you have telepathic abilities. What else can you do?”

  The alien didn’t answer immediately. “I do not know yet.” It was not the answer that Marcus had expected but it sounded oddly sincere.

  “Where are you from?”

  There was no hesitation this time when the alien answered, “You cannot comprehend the where that I am from.”

  “Try me.” Marcus answered. He had after all been a professor in another life and besides that he had the robot body’s astounding powers of computation on top of his own store of intellect.

  An image began to form inside Marcus’ mind, like a photograph struggling to come into focus. But it never did come into focus. In the image darkness swirled around darkness and light was there but it mixed in with the swirling darkness in a way that Marcus could not describe nor would’ve ever imagined of his own initiative. Within the melded dance of darkness and light and darkness again, there were colors but new colors that Marcus had never seen. There were no words for these new colors and they were at once indistinguishable from the dancing darkness and clearly distinct.

  “Not colors …” the alien said in its hybrid voice “beings.”

  “Is that … your race?” Marcus asked, astonished.

  “They are and they aren’t. This is the where that I come from. I said that you would not comprehend.”

  “I guess you were right. I don’t even understand how wherever you showed me could be a place.”

  “It is a time, not a place. It is existence without form. It is what it will be and what it has been, for as long as eternity shall endure.”

  “Beyond my comprehension. I get it. Perhaps you can answer another question in a way I can comprehend. Why have you come here?”

  “To be.”

  “To be what?”

  “To be what I will become.” Apparently, it was all the alien was going to offer on the subject. Marcus didn’t press it. He figured he and this alien had plenty of time to suss out what was really going on later, especially if the alien intended to stick around as it would appear.

  “So, what happens now?” Marcus asked.

  “I will continue to become what I am.” Cryptic, but not exactly threatening. Yet. It was a good thing time was something that Marcus had plenty of, since it was becoming increasingly obvious that there would indeed be a lot to suss out concerning this strange mud plaster alien. Marcus was glad for the distraction, even a literally out of this world one.

  Marcus wasn’t alone anymore. It wasn’t as if Denna had been restored to him but it was better than the monotonous ruin of the cursed Earth that he had to look forward to for the foreseeable future. The more he thought about it the more exciting it became. Accounts of alien encounters had been a staple of human society since there had been humans to have a society but nothing had ever been definitively proven and now there was a genuine other worldly, alien sitting right in front of him. Marcus sighed—he realized the irony of perhaps being the first human ever to have definitive proof of alien existence and absolutely no one around to share the proof with. Perhaps not so exciting after all. Marcus and the alien remained where they were, seated upon the ground facing each other and neither of them spoke, either telepathically or otherwise. Eventually, the robot body begin to register foreign neurological activity in Marcus’ brain slice. Marcus could feel the alien inside his head, rummaging through more of his memories and experiences. It wasn’t an uncomfortable experience but it was unusual and it lasted much longer this time. Apparently, the alien was searching for something. But for what only time would tell. Luckily for Marcus he had plenty of that to spare.

  CHAPTER 17

  The alien searched the remotest corners of Marcus’ memory for what seemed like an eternity. By the time his robot body registered that the foreign neurological activity in Marcus’ brain slice had ceased his mind felt like a melon that had been hallowed out by a melon baller, one scoop at a time. For a moment, he found it more difficult than usual to focus, to recall clearly the faces of people he hadn’t seen in over a thousand years. It was all coming back to him slowly, but for a tense moment his mind felt unnervingly empty after having another being in there with him and now being suddenly alone in his own head again. “I hope you got whatever you needed because I would prefer to not do that again.” Marcus said to the alien.

  “I have gathered all the information you have to offer.” The alien answered.

  Marcus didn’t know what to think of that and didn’t care to inquire. “Okay … well, like I said, maybe we could not do that again.”

  “I have gathered all the information you have to offer.” The alien repeated in the same hybrid voice but Marcus thought that he heard a little condescension there this time. Possibly insulted by an alien—now that was a first in a world w
here there were very few firsts left to be experienced, Marcus thought to himself.

  “So, maybe you can talk to me like a normal …” he had been about to say ‘person’ “being, instead of …” he tapped his metal temple. The alien cocked its head to one side as it stared at Marcus. It was trying to deduce what the tapping of the temple signified. It searched through Marcus’ stolen memories until it understood.

  “This vessel is not yet sufficient for audible communication.”

  It was Marcus’ turn now to take a moment and figure out what that was supposed to mean. It didn’t take long. Obviously the alien meant that it didn’t yet have a working mouth, like it didn’t have working eyes or ears, or working anything else; everything was still just fleshly indentions, vague place holders it would seem. So, the alien was turning into something human, but what human, since there were no humans around any longer, including Marcus? Had this thing scoured his mind for some semblance of humanity to emulate! Marcus pondered the idea of seeing this thing parading around as one of his students or perhaps Professor Edelstein himself and decided that it might not be so bad. It wouldn’t be ideal but it might be nice to see another human being that he recognized, even if the recognition were an allusion and the human a fraud. What was real anymore, anyway? In reality, ‘Marcus’ was a slice of cranial tissue less than a couple inches thick, merged into a hyper advanced robotic body that could very well outlive the Earth itself. Was any of it real?

  The hope that Marcus felt when he looked on at the alien was real, he decided. The constant anguish that had colored his reality before the invisible ship had broken through the clouds was real and he didn’t want that to be the only thing that was real any longer, he also decided. With nothing left to do—the alien sat still and quiet, almost as if it were meditating—Marcus began to search through his own memories. He thought about all the people he’d known, all the things he’d seen, the good and the bad and there was a lot of bad, but Marcus’ mind kept wandering back to the greatest good he’d ever known. Denna. He hadn’t thought about Denna much, recently. It hurt too much. When he did think about her the same image of her beautiful haloed face surfaced in his mind. That always brought a smile to his face and a leap of joy to his heart, but then he would remember why her beautiful haloed face had filled his vision in the first place—the wedding that had never finished, the blushing bride that had died a fiancée, the robot gone crazy and turned murderer by tampered programming—and consternation would quickly replace the smile on his face and plummeting despair the leap of joy in his heart.

  It was a horrible roller coaster ride of emotion and Marcus didn’t relish the experience. It wasn’t so bad now, though. Now, for whatever reason, he could think about her and relish in the good memories without the despair that always followed. He remembered how nervous he had been so many centuries ago during their awkward courtship. He had been an old man even back then but looking back now, it seemed to be the prime of his youth. At least that’s how Denna had made it feel. Had he ever told her in so many words how much he’d looked forward to their marriage, or how often he’d fantasized about the two of them living out their lives together? He remembered telling her, many times, how much he loved her but he wished she was here now so he could tell her again with more verse and more heart. He felt he loved her more now even than he had back then. She had given him a reason to live when all the world was a pit of despair and the job that had carried him through so many hard times wasn’t as fulfilling any longer. She had given that job and everything Marcus did, renewed purpose at a time when he’d desperately needed it. It still didn’t matter that in the beginning she had only been trying to save her own skin. It was not her love for him that threw him to her. It was his love for her.

  Marcus glanced down at his robot body with its indestructible metal and glistening sheen and wished that he could trade it back for good ole weak, easily injured flesh but only if Denna could be there in the flesh with him. This body could withstand nuclear radiation, temperatures that would melt lead, and was stronger than any piece of machinery ever built but it could not capture the beauty of a woman like Denna as flesh could that could withstand none of those things. Marcus longed for that beauty once more. With his robot body’s literally photographic memory Marcus replayed every experience he’d ever had with Denna over and over again inside his head. It was like watching a motion picture that you could rewind and whose scenes you could rearrange in any order you liked. It was almost like having Denna there with him again. Almost. Hours passed like that until the setting of the late evening sun; during the day the robot body utilized solar energy to operate and switched to its primary power management system when solar energy waned; the internal switch from solar power to its own nuclear power was what broke Marcus out of his nostalgia.

  It wasn’t until he had come back to himself that he noticed that his body was detecting foreign neurological activity in his brain slice once more. According to the sensors it had been going on for a while now. Suddenly, it stopped. “What are you doing, now?” Marcus asked the alien. The alien offered no answer. “What more could you possibly gain from my memories at this point!” Marcus’ was surprised at how violated he felt knowing that the alien had been watching him the entire time he had been watching Denna.

  Still, the alien didn’t answer but though it gave no response it soon became clear that something was happening to it. The indentations that were its eyes and nose began to deepen. It’s cheek that had been smooth, flat, indistinguishable began to bulge, round, and become more prominent. Its toneless arms and legs began to shrink in upon themselves as they took on a more definite form. Its torso as well began to tighten at the waist and swell at the chest. The legs and calves began to take shape. It was a slow metamorphosis but it was like nothing Marcus had ever seen before, a thing becoming distinctly human. Days passed but eventually the holes where the eyes should’ve been deepened until they were two black holes. Then eyes began to form inside the holes, first the cornea then the iris. Then the retina and finally the sclera. Marcus watched gums grow from nothing and small teeth erupt from those gums like plant stems breaking through tough ground. But the teeth were too small for the mouth that had formed for them in the alien’s face. Baby teeth. They grew and fell out one by one and new larger, stronger teeth replaced them. The ears grew lobes and crests and pores began to form and open everywhere at the top and sides of the alien’s head, in preparation for hair follicles. The entire process took nearly a month and one particular day towards the very end, Marcus finally realized that the alien was not just turning human but into a specific human. Denna.

  The hair hadn’t grown to Denna’s length just yet but everything else was there, even that unique sparkle in Denna’s eyes that had always enthralled Marcus. Those eyes watched him now. If his robot body were capable of shedding tears Marcus would’ve wept to see the person he’d missed the most for so long. He gazed at the love of his life and wondered again if any of this were real. Could Denna really be here in the flesh? He stretched a metal hand forward and placed it gently upon Denna’s shoulder; his sensors said that this was indeed authentic human flesh. With that single touch, Marcus could detect Denna’s pulse, her blood pressure, her steady breathing; everything was in range for a living, breathing, healthy human being. A tremor shook Marcus’ body and he removed his hand. Even though he had watched the alien’s transformation for weeks, now that the transformation was complete, it was too much. Marcus had fantasized for so long about just this impossible moment, this moment that would never be, that could never be, and now that it was happening the lie of it was like a steel toe boot kick to the face. Especially because the lie appeared so authentic.

  Once the alien’s newly formed head of hair had grown to Denna’s length it was indistinguishable from Denna. None of Marcus’ advanced sensors could detect that this had ever been an alien. None of his sensors could detect that this had ever been anything other than Denna. Marcus touched Denna’s cheek an
d slowly trailed his finger along the line of its jaw. It was exhilarating and excruciating at the same time. “Why?” Marcus asked as he pulled his hand away.

  “It is necessary to facilitate my purpose.”

  “What is your purpose?”

  “To be.”

  Marcus sighed. “To be what you are to become. Yeah, you’ve said that already, but why do you need to be this?”

  “This human inspired the greatest emotional attachment of any human.”

  “I loved her very much.” Marcus conceded.

  “I stand to learn the most concerning the internal machinations of your species from this kind of love.”

  That was simple enough, Marcus decided, since he was dealing with an extraterrestrial being but what he really wanted to know was, “Why do you want to know the internal machinations of my species?”

  “Beings native to my race have been watching your planet for millennia. We have studied your race minutely and we have scanned the consciousness of the leading members of your species but this is the first time we have had the opportunity to interact personally with what you call love.”