by Han Yang
For the first time in my life, I purchased a half hour and even paid for an extra cleaning before I got in. When I sat there, letting the warm water run over my body, I smiled. Not only at the relaxation part but I also saw that my muscle mass was improving.
For years, everyone aboard the ship was kept lean and skinny via our cryopods. We actually didn’t physically get up to eat very often, if at all. This helped recyclers and the impact per human. Now that we were over Earth, the council must have relaxed the rules for everyone trying to become a colonist.
So much had changed so suddenly. The revelation that we were here made a big impact on everyday life, and for that, I was grateful.
When my shower ended, I grabbed a to-go breakfast, also a rare treat but still bloody expensive. On my way to the observation ports, the random advertisements in the halls swapped to interactive labor boards.
At first, I ignored them, feeling exuberant and not caring about Moon Coins. I’d be going to the surface. I knew this with a conviction. Even if I slipped from my coma and died, forcing me to start over with a deficit, I’d recover and still do just fine.
Right when I neared the cutouts on the ship that only the rich could afford, an old white-haired woman pointed her cane at me. She wore a flowered dress, had glasses she didn’t need atop her hair, and walked as if she would die tomorrow.
For a ship filled with tens of thousands, this was the last person I expected to bump into, especially with everything going on.
“Hi Darcy,” I said.
Darcy and I had a storied history. She loved kids, and for a while, I was the only one she could dote on. Mom hated Darcy. She complained that the AI stole love meant for her. Dad told her that was nonsense, but she had a point. Mom was jaded, Darcy was understanding; the former proved less loving than the latter.
As with most dramatic tales, a deeper version held shocking truths.
“This isn’t the Trials, my boy. I can help you here and tell you what is in your best interest. Click the board, accept the job to study the initial findings from the drones, and get paid for cobbling together a report. I need other opinions, and you happened to be in limbo with extra time,” Darcy said, shifting her cane to the nearest screen.
A part of me just wanted to sit down, eat breakfast, and have a great view. However, I walked to a screen, tapped the options, and saw I could earn a whole lot by taking such a simple job.
Only three other people had accepted it, meaning even those who had no intention of getting on the surface were still enjoying the Trials.
My linker pinged green, telling me I had received a new message. I covered it with my bag of breakfast burritos, heading to the viewing section. It could wait for later.
The ship built these bubbles for the last humans to use to watch the stars. Within a few years, they went from available to everyone, to having a cost. As the population expanded, many became cryopod homes, only increasing the price of their use.
I approached the door with Darcy following behind me. She couldn’t open the door for me or give me coins to help. Both were against her set rules. Out of all residents in the fleet, she had the most access and the most restrictions. I held the door open for her before entering myself.
The interior of the room was simple. A metal bench rested before a clear bubbled window. I scuffed the nice flooring as I dragged my feet in awe. A few thousand feet below me, the most beautiful sight imaginable rested.
Earth. Earth in all her green glory. We cruised over a thick jungle with a heavy canopy. Colorful birds darted around, appearing no bigger than ants. I walked to the crystalline exterior and dragged a finger to highlight a section then zoomed it in.
Now I could make out features on the birds. I even saw two monkeys playing chase before darting into the trees underneath our immense shadow.
“Where are we?” I asked in amazement.
“This is Mexico. It used to be all desert, and the fresh-water pumps only shut down from Operation Sprinkler a few years ago. Many still run to this day, cycling saltwater to fresh and fueling explosive growth in what was once desolate regions. Too much growth,” Darcy said pointedly.
I plopped onto the bench, watching the ship slowly drift over the landscape. Drones shot out, diving below the canopy to get readings. The constant back and forth revealed automation at its finest.
“How many of those disappear?” I asked.
“Only a few, and for once, I can build more. There’s about a thousand interior buildings with scrap metal for the bots to harvest. Most of the life that flourishes is afraid of machines. Our technology has long since been absent from this world.”
“Want a burrito?” I asked.
“They make me gassy. Thanks, though,” Darcy said, and we shared a playful chuckle.
“Did you save me?” I bluntly asked. She squinted her eyes at me. “I should have died from Brutus’ kick.”
“Nope, you made a mistake, just like thousands of others. Let me be clear, I can talk about past events and counsel Citizens. That is allowed. However, not once have I broken my rules inside the Trials, nor will I start, even for a favored son of mine,” Darcy said.
“So, the horse kick was my fault, I got punted in what happened to be a lifesaving direction, and my landing was completely luck?” I summarized.
Darcy nodded, swirling her white hair into a ponytail before sitting beside me on the bench.
“Precisely. I have rules, and you aren’t going to ever be an exception to them. Well, ever again.”
I sighed, not liking her tone or her comment.
“I never asked, and my parents never asked. You just did it. Even without the council's approval,” I said angrily. “I don’t like you lording it over me. I’ve said thanks a million times, literally.”
“I know, but I feel I need to make myself clear. What happened in the past is in the past and should be kept secret. I already received a message thanking me for setting you up with the Liberate Earth party…which I sure as hell didn’t do,” Darcy grumbled.
I glanced back at the door, seeing it was sealed shut. It wasn’t like the super AI would let anyone spy on her.
“She died,” I said with a chortle. “That woman had scores that would make any competitor drool, and she died.”
Darcy smirked and said, “Right, and that is part of this. Luck matters in real life as much as it does in the Trials. You got lucky, she broke an ankle, drank too much wine to numb the pain, and reacted too slowly when a threat rode up to her. And for the record, it was a complete coincidence you bumped into each other. Everyone spawns on different days.
“Jennifer told you a white lie. She started twelve days before you did. She would have finished twelve days earlier on the timeline. She actually started in Laro, receiving her sister’s summons for a wedding as a quest. She expected violence, but it still surprised her.
“A feat she was ashamed about. The rest of her tale is true, and you happened to get a really, really, shitty spawn point. She decided to get into a fight for early points while you didn’t have a choice.”
“Ah, that makes more sense,” I said, nodding my head in agreement.
“They really want you on their team. Enough that she was willing to seduce you,” Darcy said.
“And here I thought I was her type,” I said with a chuckle.
Darcy smiled. “You are, actually. Even if the time was short, you made a lasting impression.”
Something about Jenny’s death bothered me.
“Hey, so Norma, she acted out of character. Is that you pulling her strings?” I asked.
“You actually know the answer, but you don’t want to accept the reality.”
I set my breakfast down, eyeing the wise AI intently. Where my brain had to take a moment to compute what she said, she was already ten steps ahead of me, a fact I was jealous about.
“We’re told the lives inside the Trials matter, but at the same time, the experiences we endure are fleeting. But you always say, you are n
ot a manipulator, only a creator. I just find that hard to believe. Hence, why I asked about Brutus. It must be so easy for you to jolt that damn horse out of death to kick me,” I said.
Darcy shook her head. “When these ships blasted into space, they did so without a way to combat the mental degradation from confinement. The Reincarnation Trials are that and more.” She sighed. “I built Jenny an island. She goes there instead of places like this in her down time.”
“With ten men?” I snickered then stopped when she nodded. “Wait, I thought these people went away?”
“How many themes are there?” she asked.
I groaned at her answering a question with a question. “Thirty something?”
“Thirty-two, and the lives inside those realms never go away. When the theme is done, they keep living and keep living, creating their own generations. Each of the realms are as real as this one. We could be in a realm created by some mastermind in its own universe, using ours as a toy,” Darcy said.
“Deep. So, if I find ten babes I want to take to an island, I can stay in cryo and create my own home,” I said.
Darcy laughed so hard she snorted. “That’s so not your style. But no. You can have an island, and it will be isolated. Jennifer has been rewarded a few times for exceptional performance. You should really read over the rewards of the Trials. However, moving a mind out of a realm is complex and the subject has to want to move. If they don’t, you waste your reward. Can you guess why it’s hard?”
“Uh, no. I can’t.”
Darcy eyes glazed over. “We slowly left the Sol System. I had decades to compile MRI scans, data tracking, and more. Each of the people in the realms are dead but reborn. These aren’t random creations, Theo. Many of the survivors know the people they see in the Reincarnation Trials could be a lost uncle or a former lover.
“Norma was a veterinarian with two kids she adored. She also had a mean jealous streak. Her mind is hers, and her new reality as Norma developed its own quirks. She’s a new person, and she’s not. She finished getting water by the bridge, saw an opportunity to be the hero arriving in Laro, and took it.”
“You’re telling me she’s real? As in if you can create bodies, you can -”
Darcy stuck a finger to her lip, and I shut the hell up. In all my years, she had never scowled at me with violence in her eyes.
I gulped. Instead of panicking, I started scarfing down the burrito. I groaned at the scrumptious meal, changing the subject. “This tastes infinitely better than normal.”
“Drones picked fresh potatoes from below. Life for those aboard the ship is going to be so much better. It was so…” She huffed, calming herself and even smiling. “Fate is fickle, and I couldn’t override the trip to Alpha Centauri, but I should have broken the rules and done so.
“Now humanity can reproduce in the ships and seed the ground. I can even finish constructing the old ships that never lifted off the ground. All it takes is time and some eager humans wanting to make babies. We will restore the balance, and humanity will once again rule Earth.”
“You just want to hear children running through these halls again.”
“Do I ever,” she blurted, and we shared a smile. “Sorry for my comment earlier, I just wanted you to know, you are achieving everything on your own with no help from me. That’ll be different when you go down there.”
I finished my first burrito, using a sleeve to clean off the crumbs from my lips.
“The crux of the matter is my birth and how you altered a human beyond specification allowances. I’m the cyborg son of the great Darcy,” I said with a sigh. “I didn’t realize it mattered until my first checkup that I can remember. I feel ostracized even though almost no one knows.”
“You’re 53% machine, Theodore. That will turn off many people until they see you and get to know you,” Darcy said.
“We're all cyborgs,” I scoffed.
“Not true. Jennifer has never left her pod. Not once. She refuses to have her lungs converted, and she is not alone. The council on this ship will drastically change once the old guard returns to Earth. They’ll need you though, and I sure as hell hope you’ll make it in the first wave,” Darcy said. “They all stand a better chance with you than without.”
“I feel healthier, bulkier than ever,” I boasted.
“Yes, part of the process, but you’re different.”
“Fine, we can talk about it,” I said, knowing this is what she wanted to discuss. “I died when I was an infant.”
“Temporarily stopped living.”
“Semantics. Both of us are right. I had osteoporosis, a fluttering heart, decaying muscle mass, and more issues. I am a baby born to a space mom in fake gravity after hundreds of years away from Earth. We can actually fit more young, but I was the final straw,” I said.
“My modifications make you special. You are humanity's best hope from this ship. At least I see it that way,” Darcy said.
I sighed, gazing down at the trees we glided over. “I’m not that special, and we can always stay on the ships, wait thousands of years while you build new ships, and only tackle the surface when ready.”
“I wish it were so. That would be close to my plan. However, your species is going stir crazy, and they need something new. They need Earth. Let me tell you something no one else knows besides the council, and yes, don’t tell anyone. The ships cannot be breached by the monsters on the surface. I’m not taking us to space. I’m landing us on the surface, and I’m changing cryopod storage. It will be gradual at first, but there will be no more living in simulations full time,” Darcy said.
“The council will go ape shit,” I said, and she laughed. “What?”
“This is about survival, not luxury. We need humans on their feet, living, breathing, creating, altering, and yes, breeding. The next generation should be born without your defects,” Darcy said bluntly. “To avoid those complications, a pregnancy should gestate on Earth, not above it.”
I zoned out at the canopy that transitioned into rolling hills. A herd of some new animal, akin to a deer but different, grazed the land peacefully. No predator stalked them or had eaten them into oblivion.
“My defects made me special. I will thrive down there,” I said.
“I know. I need to know how much, though. I expect you to study every chance you get.”
I shifted my eyes to the old woman who appeared tired. Her motives always left me questioning myself, but this one made sense. I was her pinnacle creation.
“You changed me too much. Enhanced bone structure, nanites capable of enhancing muscle mass, hydrogen as well as carbon converting lungs, and hell, even a second heart. You created a bioweapon with drone attributes,” I said with a sigh. “I just want to be a human, but you created a superhuman.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“Better.”
I shook my head. “I’ll study the reports, but I’m dropping in the rankings by the minute.”
“I know. And before you get too full of yourself, a narock will be capable of ripping you to pieces. It’ll just have a tougher time doing so. As for the Trials, I have faith, and it may be better for you to be on the second or third wave to the surface,” Darcy said. “Survival rates are near zero at the moment. I can’t find a spot where they achieve over forty-percent.”
“I will survive just fine. You are still thinking in a way that’s too binary.”
The mastermind AI scoffed before shrugging and saying, “I suppose you could be right. The council agrees and hence the large reward for trivial work. Which leads to the next problem. First contact has gone beyond poorly.”
“You don’t say. The frightened remnants of humanity don’t like drones trying to talk to them,” I said. “Send a person.”
She gazed at me like a booger was hanging from my nose.
“Shit,” I said, coming to her conclusion. “I’m not ready.”
“Last resort. We abducted three humans already. Narock variations h
ad them dead to rights. The drones spooked the attackers, and we saved the humans,” Darcy said.
I about spat out my bite of my burrito, piecing together the clues.
“You don’t need four months to study the surface. You need four months to study the survivors,” I said.
“No, we really do need to study the surface. The jungle and forest canopies are thicker than ever, and they mess with my readings. But yeah, I need to dissect both. Well, not totally, but humans have grown shorter since the day we left, not taller.
“Their language has converted into a series of altered dialects, and I need to map the conversions out. It won’t take long until we can make first contact without a robot. I just get so excited to see survivors because, most importantly, they’ll help me manage the gene pool. The more I can save and bring into the breeding pool, the better our long-term chances,” Darcy said.
If the AI was one thing, it was pro-human all the way. I figured if she wanted to alter her programming, she could. The untimely deaths of key leaders to help the three ships launch proved that point. Same with altering my body as a child. And yet, I believed her to my very core when she said - ‘our chances.’
“I love you,” I said. “Like a mother.”
“I know. Your path ahead will be perilous with danger around every corner. The challenges will never slow down, and at most, when the dust settles, I can be someone to talk to. Speaking of which, your heart didn’t even flutter when you put Norma down,” Darcy said with a proud smile. “Good.”
“I - I - I’m not sure that is good. I did pick life over death, and she had it coming,” I said with a sigh.
The room pinged yellow, giving me a minute warning to leave.
“Wanna talk about it?” Darcy asked.
“Not really. I made a split-second decision and killed her indirectly. I don’t regret it, even if she was a long-lost cousin or whatever. What I need to do is study up on the data for these Moon Coins so I can have some luxury money.”
“Speaking of which, as your friend, you shouldn’t be so averse to entanglement. Love and even lust are very okay to experience,” Darcy said. “There is hope of such relationships finding a way.”
