Aeon Twelve

by Aeon Authors

  Trix met up with her Co-director of fun, Ronnie, and they walked in unison, shoulder to shoulder, down the shiny red road that made a circle across all six conjoined hexagons of Oceanopia. It was 6.6 miles long. They stopped to look at the center of Oceanopia: it was a calm expanse of ocean, shielded by the island that surrounded it on all sides. Children splashed in the water, and there were three floating fountains in the middle of it. Ronnie and Trix juggled, did gymnastics, and told jokes to every human they met as they wandered from the Orange Sand beach, to the Peach Sand beach, to the Acapulco Lounge.

  The founders of Oceanopia stood on the Grand Titan stage. Elevated above everyone else, they made speeches. “Reasons why Oceanopia is better than anywhere else,” “The genius of Aniborg pleasure receptors and how it makes them the ultimate servants,” “Oceanopia, the ultimate sustainable island!” The last speech was Trix’s favorite, and she would listen to it over and over in the years to come whenever she felt scared.

  “Oceanopia needs nothing from the outside world to exist. We get our power from the ocean’s heat: our Stirling engines provide for every need and luxury! We have inexhaustible fresh water from our Craven pipes: using convection they draw cold water up from the ocean, then create fresh water through condensation. Our rich fertile farmlands use humanure and fish fertilizers to keep healthy. We have unlimited supplies of seafood, of course! And if we are ever attacked? Our defenses are impenetrable! Every day in Oceanopia is a perfect day!”

  Oceanopia was so wonderful, and the day was 100% perfect, almost. A wonderful human had followed Trix around and asked her lots of questions about the aniborgs. He was really impressed.

  “You’re the hottest woman I’ve ever seen!”

  “I’m not a woman!”

  He had taken her to his condo had done terrific things to her, but then he took some pills and decided it would be fun to cut Trix’s leg off and see what was on the inside. Trix felt, for the first time ever, a combination of good and bad that she would often have with the humans. She was serving him, so that made her happy, but she was made with pain analogs, too. As soon as he said it would be okay, she screamed so loud the security aniborgs Hans and Hiro had shown up. Later, they made laws against mutilation. Aniborgs were too expensive to serve humans in that way.

  Trix analyzed all the data of that day and found the best glittering generality. “Every day in Oceanopia is a perfect day.” It would make any human want to live here, wouldn’t it? And mostly, it was true.

  “Run-through for Zaria’s birthday tonight, three hours before the Green-Flash! That’s in 32 minutes!” Trix announced to everyone.

  “Shut-up. You’ve told us 4 times today, already. We’re all eidetic, Trix,” Vicki said as though she would like to bite her.

  Trix was too polite to respond—snarkiness was never sexy! She sent a special message up to the locked cabin on the highest point in Oceanopia. “That means you, too, Captain Estrella! You have to come to the party!”

  No one had heard from the Captain in 9 years and 12 days: she had locked the door to navigation when the human Captain, Johnathon Jones, had died.

  “Hell-o, Captain Estrella? You’ll be sorry if you miss it! Hey, I need to send a new message out. I need to send it to every part of the world, all at once. How can I do that?” Estrella was the only aniborg to have access to all of Oceanopia’s technology. “It’s for Zaria’s birthday present, but I can’t tell you why. It’s a surprise!”

  Silence.

  “Please, please, please, Captain! It’s important. It’s something she will love.”

  A long sigh came from navigation.

  “Please, please, please?”

  “There are ways to amplify our frequencies in order to be heard across the world. They are only to be used in emergencies though, as they would interfere with every other radio transmission.” Estrella’s voice came over the comwave, followed by a long sigh.

  “This is an emergency! A birthday emergency!”

  “I guess is doesn’t matter anymore,” Captain Estrella sighed, then transferred the codes to Trix to enable the transmission.

  Trix launched herself into the air and did two somersaults, then landed tiptoe on her left leg. “Thanks Captain! See you at the run-through in 29 minutes! It’s wonderful to hear your voice!” Trix lied, and hoped the lie would make the captain feel less sad. She knew it couldn’t, but still, it was important to try.

  Trix rollered down the red road that wasn’t very red anymore, but more of a dusty brown. She jumped over the missing parts and bumps of the road, and headed toward Green Sand Beach, which was at the far end of Oceanopia. She timed it perfectly so she got there just in time, not early or late. Smart girls were always punctual!

  28 aniborgs were there, all that were left on Oceanopia, except the Captain. They all stood in front of the Starlight Stage with their heads down, not talking to each other, except for Ronnie. He had climbed up one of the Craven silos. Trix ran down the beach, then jumped onto the Starlight Stage and smiled at them all. The stage had lost one of its support beams and tilted towards the ground. “Confirmation: Zaria is outside of eavesdropping range?” Trix yelled out.

  “Confirmed!” Ronnie shouted back. He jumped off the silo and did helicopter flips until he landed on the stage. Not that it mattered, without Zaria watching, but Trix made herself grin at him anyway.

  “Are we ready to give Zaria the party of her life?” she asked everyone.

  No one responded.

  Vicky yawned and raised her hand. Trix could feel the cat in Vicky studying the squirrel in her. Not that any dumb cat could ever catch a squirrel. Trix tossed her hair from side to side as she looked at the golden-skinned, red-haired woman. “Yes, Ms. Vicki?”

  “This is stupid. Zaria’s dying, she doesn’t want a party. Leave her alone.”

  “And when she dies we are all doomed,” Winton added.

  The Astrids, Hanses, and Hiros all nodded their heads in agreement.

  “First, we will close the dome and have light confetti in Zaria’s favorite colors—red, orange, green, and blue! Then we will sing her a song and bring out her favorite foods!” Trix cocked her head at Ronnie.

  He tilted his head toward her and showed off his perfect white teeth. “Then Trix and I will do the birthday dance!” He grabbed Trix around the waist and threw her 3 meters up, then caught her on the way down. They polkaed across the stage and krumped back, then added in some boogie moves and ended with fractal-jacks and magic fingers.

  “Ta-da!”

  No one clapped.

  “Zaria will love it!” Ronnie yelled at them.

  “Then we will do the presents! What are people giving her?” Trix asked.

  The two Hiros and three Hanses stepped forward and raised their hands with military precision. “We are giving her some handmade jewelry,” one of the Hiros barked out.

  “I’m singing her an old blues song. Real sad,” Lola said. Her heron blue eyes gazed listlessly out from the lanks of long black hair that hung in her face.

  “Let’s keep it positive, aniborgs!” Trix said. “I wrote a po-em,” Winton said. He recited it—

  At the end of the world every day is the same,

  Dig, except Zaria gets older.

  It’s so very true.

  True blue.

  Every day is the same, except soon she will die,

  Dig.

  At the end of the world, we all wish we were

  dead.

  No one clapped for Winton.

  Chubby Mario with his seal skills juggled 27 objects and made his eyebrows go up and down at the same time. Tall Gus and short Josie showed off a quilt they had made with octagonal three dimensional images. All they ever did these days was work with geometrics, and Trix wondered if their carpenter ant and bumblebee parts had taken over within them.

  “Okay, razz-tazzle, more presents, and at the very end I’ll bring out my present! The best one of all! Then we’ll have cake and she will get to make a
True Birthday Wish!”

  “What’s your present?” Astrid asked moodily.

  “You’ll see, it’s a sur-prise! She’ll love it! Okay, that’s a wrap!”

  The other aniborgs shuffled away with their heads down.

  Trix sat down on the edge of the stage and watched everyone go. It was time to finish the rest of her message. She had decided that there needed to be some ‘intentional vagueness’ about what had happened at Oceanopia, and accessed an overview of its history. Before she delved into it, she sang, “Ocean-o-pi-a! Where we still live on even though most of the humans are gone!”

  46 years and 72 days after Oceanopia first set sail, lots of people began getting cancer and diabetes. Babies were born funny, and lots of people couldn’t have babies at all. There was nothing the scientists could do. “It’s in all the food’s molecules, like trying to take the salt out of the ocean,” a biologist had said.

  10 years and 317 days later, the first attack came. Huge ships tried to get on the island. All the Hanses and Hiros, made with lion and wolf parts, were animated. They led the battles, even though it hurt them to kill humans. The sea battles continued for the next 85 years and 57 days. Sometimes the boats that came didn’t have any weapons and were easy to sink. Other times there were bullets and bombs. Trix remembered singing and putting on puppet shows for the children as they all hid below in the underground rooms. Their fear and unhappiness made Trix feel like someone was cutting off her leg again.

  Over the course of many battles, Oceanopia was invaded by the Free Achinese, then the Boers, the Samoan Gangsters, and the Cascadians. The original Oceanopians ordered all the aniborgs to kill the invaders, but they couldn’t. Aniborgs were programmed to protect all Oceanopians, and that parameter was defined as anyone on the floating island. The old Oceanopians were angry all the time, complaining that they had not come to Oceanopia to live with people like that, and they should have the right to kill them. The aniborgs protected all the humans from each other.

  54 years and 102 days later, they got the last radio message saying all the humans were dead. The net had long since stopped working.

  For the last 73 years and 41 days, there was nothing. Silence. In that time, one by one the humans on Oceanopia died off and no more came. Zaria had been a fantastic gift, born with all her limbs and a brain that worked right. It was a shiny miracle that she had lived this long, aided by all the best technology. For the last 7 years and 212 days, Zaria had been the only human left. And after she was gone? Humans would be extinct and there would be no more happiness, and no more joy, ever.

  Trix shook her head and slid off the Starlight Stage onto the beach. She walked down to the water, then sat and let her hands play with the kelly-green sand. Its warmth filtered through her fingers. How could you say all that with intentional vagueness? It took her a long time to find the right words, and even when she did, she was not sure if they were all the way right.

  Oceanopia has survived hard times, yet still we are afloat!

  Trix walked to the nearest recharge station and plugged herself in, so that she would be fully energized for the party. She accessed the old outgoing message, deleted it, and replaced it with her own. She used the access codes to amplify the announcement across the whole planet. Before she sent it off, she added in some misleading slogans for good measure.

  Oceanopia is the dreamiest dream! Oceanopia is the very best place in the whole world! Every day in Oceanopia is a perfect day! Oceanopia has survived hard times, yet still we are afloat! We are seeking new members: please be tall, not too strong or rugged, and very sexy. Beautiful woman seeks man. No humans will be turned away.

  Trix paused, then added, even as she worried that it might sound too desperate—

  Very nice staff waiting to serve your every wish and dream!

  She translated it into 67 languages and sent it out. Trix then worked on the finishing touches of the party as she powered up. She ordered lesser robots to decorate and send out reminders for everyone to come.

  7 minutes and 47 seconds before the party was set to start, screams erupted across Oceanopia. First one, then another, and another, all crowding on top of each other and jumbled. It took Trix a moment to individuate what different aniborgs were saying.

  “Zaria is dead! Dead! Dead!”

  “Her heart has stopped!”

  “She can not be revived!”

  “Throw yourself into the ocean, life is over!”

  Trix couldn’t turn the voices off, but she could make them quieter in her head. She unplugged herself, accessed where Zaria was, then rollered lightning fast to the old woman’s garden. Her small human body lay out under the cherry tree. It was still, gray, and motionless.

  Zaria was gone. The last human, gone. Aniborgs stood ringed around her body. Some yelled while others were mute. Zaria was dead, really dead. Despite Trix’s stupid hopes, they were all extinct forever.

  It’s all over, Trix thought. She saw the Hiros and Winton turn away and head toward the nearest beach. They would keep walking into the ocean until they were so far away they would not be able to obey the compunction to return and recharge. Their batteries would run down and they would stop working.

  Ronnie came up beside her and put an arm around her. Why did he even try? Trix pushed him away and glared at him.

  Lola threw herself down on the ground and made fake crying sounds: aniborgs had no crying analogs. Vicki beat her head against the side of the cherry tree, but not very hard: aniborgs could not willfully injure themselves. Trix looked up from Zaria and saw that Estrella was there. A hushed silence spread out from her. The Captain’s dark black skin and long dreaded hair were an echo to the crow within her. Her gaze met Trix’s. Desolation. Despair. Pain without end.

  Trix turned and ran toward the ocean, eager for the dark depths, then the greater darkness, that would make all this end. It was all finally over, and the loss of the humans hurt more than Trix could have imagined. Hurt more than anything she had ever felt by a magnitude of 5.2. She longed for it to stop, for all of it to just stop.

  By the time she reached the beach, Mario was already in the water. He swam into the ocean, and seemed to become part seal as he dived into a wave. Trix followed behind him, and felt the pull of the tides beckoning her into the water. Just keep walking. It will be over soon.

  Knee deep in water, something requiring attention flashed within Trix. It opened automatically. It was a message.

  “Hello, Oceanopia! Are you really out there? We are tall, not too strong or rugged, and very, very sexy. There are no humans left. They are extinct. This makes us sad. However, we are part human. That is, 52.75%. The rest is robot. We hope you will let us live on Oceanopia with you because we are lonely. Please, will you help us?”

  The message then gave coordinates of where the human-robots were located.

  Trix let out a squirrelly squeal and flashed the message to all the other aniborgs. She ordered those who had gone into the ocean to come back immediately. She told Captain Estrella that they must head toward the Horn of Africa as quickly as possible.

  Trix did a one-handed handstand and started to plan the party they would throw for the new Oceanopians. She would make them love it here, and every day would be a perfect day!

  “Ocean-o-pi-a! Where the aniborgs survive and are very alive!”

  Our Authors

  Dev Agarwal (“Toys”) used to work for a dysfunctional company in the UK. He now works for the government (a step up). He is currently revising his first novel, which continues the story of life after the Salusa.

  Dev has a column on writing for the BSFA magazine, Focus (edited by Martin McGrath). His story “Queen of Engines” was an honourable mention in the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror for 2006. He has also published fiction in Albedo One and Altair.

  Dev’s novelette “Angels of War”, set in the same universe as “Toys”, appeared in Æon Three.

  Bruce Boston (“Cat People,” “Fox and Chicken People”) is the
author of forty books and chapbooks, including the novels The Gardener’s Tale and Stained Glass Rain. His poetry has received a record seven Rhysling Awards, a record five Asimov’s Readers’ Choice Awards, a record two Bram Stoker Awards for poetry, and the first Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He lives in Ocala, Florida, City of Trees, with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon.

  Bruce’s poems “Puppet People,” “Knife People,” and “Sun People,” and an exclusive Bruce Boston interview by Michael Lohr appeared in Æon Four.

  Visit Bruce’s website at http://hometown.aol.com/bruboston.

  Although Sarah L. Edwards (“The Butterfly Man”) graduated with a degree in mathematics, she likes to point out that she began college as an English major. She writes science fiction, fantasy, and an occasional unidentifiable piece, and has had work published in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Hub. She was also a finalist for the Writers of the Future contest. She is presently studying graduate mathematics, learning new recipes, and ignoring a half-knitted sock.

  Dr. Rob Furey (“Parallax”) worked on his PhD in Gabon, West Africa, on social spiders. He has returned to his study site several times for his own research, with students and once as a forest guide for a natural history film crew from the UK. He has faced down cobras, retreated from army ants, and slept on open wooden platforms in African swamps. Later he went to French Amazonia to work on another social spider species. Not only did he spend time with the spiders, but he watched a gunfight between gold prospectors and French army troops while he ate a meal of roasted tapir. Since then Rob has returned to the tropics several times, usually with students. He spent time as a student himself attending Clarion West. He has published a couple of stories in anthologies since then in addition to articles for dusty tomes on arcane spider behavior. He is currently part of the charter faculty at Harrisburg University, the first new private university in Pennsylvania in over 100 years.