by Matt James
Four
Passing through the gates of NuMort would have felt like a childhood dream, if, that was, it had been under other circumstances. Laurena was scared. Not quite as scared as she had been after she had removed the socket. Not quite as scared as that day when she had asked the Interface what was it to learn and the Interface had opened up a whole new world to her. But scared, most certainly scared nonetheless. The guard pushed at her gently as she crossed the threshold from Kar'mot to NuMort. The steel gates rose above her and then Laurena found herself on a gravel pathway that led between buildings and across lawns and parks.
Through the hazy morning skies sunlight reflected from building to building creating rainbow like displays high up into the sky. The shard like buildings rose above her, surrounding her and enclosing upon her. Laurena felt claustrophobic for the first time in her entire life. The scent of honeysuckle grew more pungent. The edges of the interior walls were covered in them along with a wild array of plant life, some of which Laurena didn’t recognise or could not have conceived of as ever having existed.
The guard motioned for Laurena to change direction as they approached a cross roads in the path. They moved left and then to the right, and then another left until they were upon a much smaller plump looking building at the centre of this sector of the citadel.
The building was part round; part rectangular and completely covered in some kind of darkened glass panels. It appeared something like a large egg on its side, but an egg with a cubical protrusion that Laurena couldn’t quite describe. Where one shape ended the other began seamlessly. The entrance was marked by two large brown pillars and a curved arch. Yellow lines circled each pillar in semi-circular motions and were repeated as straight lines on the arch and on the ground in front of a set of automated doors.
"Is this where we are going? What's in there?" Laurena asked pleadingly, but the guard ignored her. They entered through the doors, which slid open on their approach. Laurena found herself in a carpeted room with five doors arcing off in different directions. All the doors seemed to lead to long dark corridors, each lined with even more doors. It was a maze if ever Laurena had seen one.
"Wait here" the guard ordered gruffly as he spoke once again into the air as if he were talking to someone else entirely.
Time passed by until a tall dark haired woman strolled toward her from the central corridor. The woman, like the guard, also looked healthier than the people of Kar'mot, although her muscles were not defined in the same way. Her body was slender but rigid. Her nose pronounced and pointed, her fingers elongated beyond what Laurena would consider normal. The woman walked with a briskness usually retained for avoiding rainy weather. Her face was a scowl - lines of anger marked the curve of her lips and her eyes glowered down toward first her and then up to the guard.
"This had better be good!" her voice was like thunder. "I was in the middle of a data upload. Because of this" she jabbed her finger toward Laurena "I've lost two hours of work".
"I'm sorry Chief” the guard backed away a few steps, seeming to shrink a little under the woman’s glare. “But this girl had purposely removed her socket. Must have been some time ago now too. I thought you should be made aware"
The woman's scowl grew for a moment but then she said with more restraint "hmm, very well. What's your name child?" she directed her question toward Laurena.
"My name?"
"Yes"
"Laurena"
"Laurena. Right, fine. Come with me. Thank you Ben, I'll take it from here" she said, addressing first Laurena and then the guard. Laurena followed the woman back through the central corridor and ended up in a small room to one side. The room was decorated in strong reds and browns with dimmed lights secured to each wall. Along one edge was a desk with several computational devices attached, along the other a series of comfortable looking seats made out of some kind of soft fabric that Laurena didn't recognise. The woman held out her hand in a beckoning motion toward the nearest chair.
"Please, sit down Laurena. Would you like something to drink?" The woman's body language had changed entirely as had her voice. Where there had previously been annoyance now there was kindness. Her eyes had softened as had her other features. Sensing Laurena's confusion the woman added "Ben can be a bit of a pain. He's always interrupting other people with one trivial thing or another. I've come to the conclusion that there is only one way to deal with him and that is to appear annoyed." The woman spoke gently as she reached over to a container and poured out two glasses of water, one of which she handed to Laurena.
"However," the woman continued "on this instance, it would seem that he has actually found something of immense interest. May I ask you Laurena, why did you remove your socket?"
Laurena didn't know what to say or how to respond. None of her experiences since leaving behind the Interface had prepared her for such a confrontation as this. Although Laurena had become quite good at reasoning and debate, it was still a slow process for her. Each thought had to be compared to others, checked against facts that she had remembered, and then conclusions thought out. It took her time. Her conversations with Jerry had always been slow and well-considered affairs, but this Learner was fast and seemed to expect equally as fast responses. Therefore instead of answering, Laurena mumbled something incoherent and accidently spilled a little of her drink as her hands began to shake.
The woman scowled again, but this time the features of her face were not fierce and angry but focused and calculating. She was studying her, working out how to approach her, or at least, that was how it appeared to Laurena. With her limited experience and knowledge it was hard for her to be certain.
"Oh dear! You really are scared." The woman finally said in as comforting tone as she could manage. Laurena thought that she detected a certain strain in the attempt, as if it did not come easily to her. The comforting tone contained a hint of coldness and distance that was unsettling at best. "Shall we start again?" the woman stated, rather than asked.
"My name is Kril Volc. I'm, how would you put it? I'm the Chief Learner on Beta Pictoris V. It's my job to keep an eye on the Interface to make sure it doesn't malfunction. It's also my job to make sure that the populace are well cared for.
"Laurena, no one has ever thought of removing their socket like you have done. Indeed, we had surmised that someone born under the influence of the Interface would be incapable of even the initial thought that would lead to such an action.
"The only time that happens usually is when we select an individual to join us in the Citidel. Then, it is a controlled transference; a slow weaning off from the machine at an early age. So, please child, could you tell me why you undertook such drastic action? What led you to such a decision?"
Laurena shifted in her chair. She was thinking. Thought One: what had led her to the decision to remove her socket? Answer: she had never liked the thought that so much of her life was virtual and not real. Second answer: an idea had one day popped into her head to ask the Interface a simple question: what is it to learn? Thought Two: Why should it matter to her that most of her life would be little more than a fantasy? Answer: Laurena wanted to achieve something with her life. Achieve what though? That was something she found more difficult to reason. Thought three was a tricky one, and it took her along another line of reasoning. Thought Three: what reason did this Learner have to ask her why she had removed her socket? Was she concerned for her wellbeing? Laurena suspected that Kril Volc was less interested in her, than in the thought process that had brought her to where she was now. So, next thought: did she have Laurena's best interests at heart? Question: what could she do other than tell the truth anyway? Surely a Learner would have other means to get to the truth.
Laurena decided to talk. What other choice was there?
"I…I asked the Interface a question. What is it to learn? It told me that to learn is to take in knowledge, understand that knowledge, and
relate it to other knowledge that would enable me, in turn, to reason. It seemed…important to me to be able to reason. I didn't want to spend my life reliant on a machine."
"I see" Kril nodded seriously. "So that means there is a way to break the cycle! Interesting". Laurena didn't quite know what to make of that response, although, she did think that it sounded somewhat distant, as if the Learner was indeed thinking more abstractly and scientifically, than about her specifically.
"Laurena, what do you know of the world beyond the Interface?"
"Beyond? You mean in the Citadel? The life of a Learner, like yourself?" Laurena responded uncertainly.
"Sort of" Kril partially agreed "but I mean more widely. Do you believe that all humans are connected to the Interface, other, that is, the Learners?"
"Of course"
"Would you elaborate for me?"
"Elaborate? Well…well I guess I can. The Interface told me that all humans in the Great Alliance of worlds had received their socket centuries ago. That only a few chosen ones - Learners - remained distant from it to make sure that the machine never lost sight of our best interests as a species."
"So the Learners are fail safes?"
"Yes. I guess."
"And all humans, across the galaxy, are linked to the Interface?"
"Yes" Laurena felt herself tremble again, and even more of her drink spilt out of the glass. Ignoring the wetness that had begun to seep onto her trousers, she prioritised her thoughts and tried as fast as she could to form a question. "Are you saying that is not true?"
Kril Volc looked taken aback by Laurena's question. All her movements paused for a moment and her eyes became steely and focused as if she was trying to stare directly into Laurena's mind. It was quite unnerving.
"I'm surprised" Kril eventually admitted taking a sip from her own drink. "You have been part of the Interface for almost your entire life. I never expected that such a reasoned question could be possible for you.
"In answer to your question, yes, you are right, that story is not true. You have been told a lie, or at the very least only a partial truth."
