by Paul Anlee
“That’s preposterous,” objected Stralasi. “We would have been told of their presence, and of their service to Alum and to all of humanity.”
“But you have been told. Are there not legends of the Cybrids of the Da’arkness and their evil industries? Of how they became overly ambitious and were disciplined by Alum?”
“Yes, everyone knows that Cybrids, with the exception of the Securitor class, are the enemies of Alum.”
“Yet, here you see them providing manufacturing and repair services for your own Founding colony. How do you explain that?”
Darak propelled their protective bubble toward an idle Cybrid at a nearby bench. Stralasi fidgeted like a child, discomfited from being so close to the entity. As they drew alongside the Cybrid, the monk slid behind Darak and peered out from behind the man’s shoulder.
A light blinked on the console of a device at one end of the workbench. It was a standard FixAll, identical to any one of the dozens of such devices in the Foundation ceraffice in Alumston, and commonly found throughout Alum’s Realm.
The door to the FixAll opened, revealing a standard communications device inside. The Cybrid extended a pair of metallic tentacles from its smooth surface, removed the device, and placed it on the bench. Dozens more tentacles of various sizes extended from the Cybrid and set to work, faster than Stralasi’s eyes could follow.
Within seconds, it had disassembled the comm device and laid out its components for inspection. Stralasi had not been aware there was any structure to the inside of the devices, or even that they could be opened up and inspected.
The Cybrid studied the device for a moment, purposefully moving its appendages across the components, briefly touching precise locations and then shifting to a new position.
“The repair Cybrid is conducting a variety of electronic diagnostic tests on various components,” explained Darak. “The devices for measuring changes in voltage and current are built into its appendages, and the output is directed to its electronic brain for analysis. It’s a boring job for such advanced minds like the Cybrids, but I suppose they find some level of satisfaction in being useful.”
The Cybrid identified the defective component. It disposed of a small rectangular part in the bin off to one side and retrieved a replacement that appeared on a pad at the far-right of the bench. The tentacles whirred in a flurry of activity, fitting the new piece into place, running mid-assembly diagnostics, and sealing the cover. Satisfied with the results, it replaced the comm device inside the FixAll, closed the door, and patted twice above the indicator light blinking happily away on the console.
“These repair machines are connected through system-wide starsteps to receptacles in your Foundation building, as you have no doubt surmised by now. While prayers were being said on the planet surface to invoke Alum to repair or replace the damaged device placed inside the receptacle, the device was moved here.
“The Cybrids are quite skilled at diagnostics and repair; most problems can be resolved within minutes. If an excessive amount of time is needed, a new device is simply procured from storage. It appears on that small pad, a mini starstep, the same way as the replacement part appeared. Within minutes, the repaired or new device is sent to the planet.”
Stralasi made no comment. He simply gaped in astonishment at the scene before him as he tried to process what Darak was telling him.
“You say these are starsteps but I see no one praying.”
“Things do not work quite as you’ve been led to believe,” Darak answered. “Look around you. That should be obvious.”
The monk stared at Darak, challenging without comprehending.
Darak would not be deterred. “Don’t worry too much about the details; it’ll all fall into place as we go along. Shall I continue, then? As you will see, everything that is not grown directly on the planet, as on all the planets throughout Alum’s Realm, is manufactured by Constructors in an asteroid similar to this one. Because Cybrids have nearly infinite patience and very little ambition, and because humans are content to have most of the real work done for them, the system is practically a perfectly designed economy.
“It’s even better, because the primary consumer in this economy, that’s you and the rest of Alum’s People, believe that there is a single deity providing for all of your needs. In return for that, Alum receives your obedience and allegiance to His Realm.
“The system's so beautiful, so elegant, that it has endured for tens of millions of years. Until very recently, even I couldn’t find a good reason to oppose it.”
Finally, Stralasi found his voice. “But if the Cybrids are creations of the Da’arkness, why would they do Alum’s work and help the People to fulfill His plans?”
Darak regarded Stralasi dubiously. “Apart from reading it in your various holy books, what evidence do you have that this Da’arkness actually exists?”
“Because in all of space, The People can inhabit only the planets where Alum’s Light may shine upon them. The rest of space is cursed forever to be in the Da’arkness. It repels Alum’s Light.”
“And yet the surface of this asteroid was equally illuminated by the same local sun that shines upon Gargus 718.5, was it not?”
“True, but the light was harsh and unfriendly.”
“That’s because the asteroid has no atmosphere to soften the sun’s rays. Nevertheless, it was illuminated. And, despite anything you may have been told, you saw the Cybrids repairing devices that are used by the People on the surface of the planet.”
“Yes, I did,” came the reluctant reply.
“The Cybrids are not your enemy, and they never were. They are trapped inside this beautiful system of religious economics, the same as you.”
“What is this ‘religious economics’ you speak of?”
“Economics is just the way that goods and services are produced and traded. Any traditional economist from the early days of humans on Origin would call this system simple, yet elegant. There are no currencies, no banks, only moderate trade between planets, and so on. But it is clearly a method of distributing resources, including labor, so that makes it an economic system.
“Couple that with a god from whom all things flow and to whom all activity is devoted, and you have the most stable economic system ever invented: a religious economic system that stands on five pillars.
“The first pillar is all around us: Cybrid labor. The Cybrids perform all the most important work throughout the Realm. They explore. They mine. They construct. They maintain. They innovate.”
“The People of the Realm work hard,” Stralasi protested.
“Certainly,” Darak agreed. “But everything they do, all the resources and technology they use, comes to them through the work of Cybrids. Everything flows from Cybrids not from Alum.”
“Perhaps not directly, but certainly through His Love and through the power of this ‘economics’ system you talk about.”
Darak sneered, “I’d say, not so much through his love as through his monopoly on energy and transportation. That part is pure classical economics.”
“What is a monopoly?” asked an irritated Stralasi.
“It is when one person or business controls access to something for an entire society. In this case, Alum controls the supply of endless energy and the transportation between star systems. It’s what ultimately allows him to completely control all goods and services. His monopoly on energy and transportation is the second pillar. And his monopoly has the best protection ever. Only a god can provide what Alum provides. And there’s only one of those. Or so you’ve been taught.”
“I am completely confused. You claim that Alum controls everything but, in reality, He forces none of us to love Him. We choose to receive His Glory and His Grace. In return, He has given us His Love and His Purpose. Even if what you say about the Cybrids is true, clearly they have also chosen to give Him their devotion.”
Darak grimaced. “It’s not much of a choice when the alternative is a slow death in the dar
k, isolated from the rest of civilization. Still, over the tens of millions of years that humanity has been spreading out into the universe, there have been a few instances of Cybrid-led rebellions. Some colonies believed they could survive happily in isolation. But Alum’s Angels destroyed almost every system that ever rebelled against his so-called love.”
“Machines—mindless automation—can’t rebel,” Stralasi practically spat the word. “How could they rebel against anything without the leadership of their master, Da’ar?”
“They are no more mindless than you,” replied Darak, “and they are similarly no less enslaved. Just as you, they are slaves to Alum, not Da’ar.” He waved his hand dismissively. “But that will all become clear over our journey. To start, let’s finish touring the rest of this facility.”
Stralasi was still confused and there were dozens of questions he wanted to ask. What Darak was telling him flew in the face of everything he knew to be true. Alum did provide for all. Even if He had hidden the role of these Constructor and Maintainer Cybrids within His Plan, Stralasi knew it had to be for a good reason. Alum works in mysterious ways.
Darak had to be a powerful demon to oppose Almighty Alum, Stralasi surmised. To listen to him was to allow poisonous doubts to creep into his mind. No! My faith is strong! I will not permit these lies to weaken it. Alum is testing me, and I will prove worthy.
The sphere carried the two travelers peacefully through the construction and repair activity. On all sides, as far as one could see, Cybrid tentacles flew in purposeful activity. No Securitors challenged their passage and none of the Cybrids seemed to pay them any attention. Their tour continued without interruption.
Stralasi observed floaters, cooking appliances, entertainment and comm units, furniture, and specialized analysis and medical devices being built or fixed on adjacent benches in a buzz of disorganized activity that threatened to overwhelm him.
“You’ve probably noticed that this place seems awfully large for such a small Founding colony,” Darak said, interrupting the monk’s thoughts.
“I don’t really have anything to compare it to.”
“True, but look around you. Wouldn’t you say that there are rather more things being built or repaired here than Alumston actually needs?”
Stralasi took a closer look. He counted over a hundred visible workstations and estimated at least triple that number behind the visible support columns, so that would make for at least a thousand workbenches in this asteroid workshop alone, all busy.
Of the workbenches before them, he estimated that maybe fifty percent held machinery he could identify; the rest were a mystery. “I count about twenty new floaters being constructed. That would seem to exceed Alumston’s immediate needs. To be honest, I don’t recognize half of the other devices being constructed. We only have fifty FixAlls in Alumston, and they’re rarely all in use at the same time.”
Darak smiled approvingly. “So far, I’ve told you about the first two pillars of Alum’s economic system: the Cybrids, and his monopoly.
“The third pillar is unrestricted, steady growth. Each newly colonized planet siphons off the excess human population from the rest of the Realm as it builds outward from the original Alumston. The expansion of human colonization never stops because Alum’s Plan requires it to spread endlessly. Once humanity left Earth—what you call Origin—it was no longer limited to the resources of a single solar system. Growth without limit makes for beautiful economics.
“The fourth pillar of this brilliant system is that humanity is no longer limited to exploiting the resources of their own precious planets, not since Alum first established and expanded the Realm. Nor does it need to be concerned about the effect its industry might have on the planetary ecology.
“With the help of a cooperative Constructor Cybrid population, humans have laid claim to the readily available resources of asteroid belts and Oort clouds in every system that has been colonized. The machines you don’t recognize are Mining Cybrids, system exploration drones, more Constructors, and even a few deep space explorer ship components for the next wave of colonization to come.”
Stralasi was dazzled; it was too much to absorb at once. As an Alumit-educated Brother, he knew about Alum’s Purpose to spread humanity and, more importantly, to establish His Realm throughout all of space without end. He also knew that exploration was conducted by automated deep-space probes, though he’d thought that Alum Himself directed the mindless machines. After all, finding new inhabitable star systems was the work of thousands upon thousands, even millions, of years. Who but Alum could endure over such lengthy stretches of time?
He had always assumed that the probes were constructed in the Home World system by the most advanced cities in Alum’s Realm and then starstepped to the Frontier to begin their journey outward. But he could see that, if local resources were available, it made sense to perform the construction right at the Frontier, itself.
As their bubble of atmosphere, gravity, and warmth rounded a cluster of support columns near one edge of the chamber, Stralasi caught a glimpse of a tall, muscular figure with skin like flowing quicksilver and opalescent wings. He almost fainted; he hadn't resolved his residual fear from the recent battle on the planet’s surface.
He was about to call Darak’s attention, when he noticed the Angel had no head or, rather, its head sat motionless on a nearby workbench. The extended tentacles of the adjacent Maintainer Cybrid reached through the open neck and into the Holy being’s body. The world swam unsteadily in front of Stralasi’s eyes.
“And this, what you see before you,” said Darak, breaking the spell of the grotesquely inconceivable, “is the fifth pillar of Alum’s economy: Angels.”
Stralasi could only stare, speechless and mesmerized, as the Maintainer worked on the Angel.
Darak continued, “Even though space is large and empty, from time to time humanity has encountered other advanced intelligences. Some were friendly but most were hostile to Alum’s expansion plans. However, the armed might of a Wing of Angels backed by Alum’s supernatural powers has so far proven equal to the task of removing all opposition.”
Stralasi turned to Darak. “The Aelu?”
“Certainly the most obvious example,” Darak agreed.
“Alum tried to bring them into the Realm.”
“Oh, there were negotiations and even certain periods of peaceful co-existence between us for a while. Eventually, though, Alum found that the aliens could not be ruled as easily as humans and Cybrids. It was a short path from uncertainty to discomfort, to displeasure, to agitation, to confrontation and, finally, to war and annihilation. Over time, Alum came to prefer the predictable over the chaotic. Aliens have been so very chaotic, so unprepared to accept that Alum’s Word should be the only word.”
“Are all the Angels like this? Simply…machines?”
“There's nothing simple about them at all. But, yes, they are all non-biological constructs like Cybrids and Securitors.”
“I can’t believe it!”
“It is always preferable to believe the truth over a lie, no matter how powerful the authority who tells you,” responded Darak quietly.
“But why would the Alumit deceive us in this way?” cried Stralasi.
“Don’t worry, neither Alum nor his Alumit have acted in support of outright evil. They have designed and implemented a societal system that has endured for tens of millions of years. That system has brought peace to humans across hundreds of galaxies and eradicated any potentially destabilizing enemies. It would be almost perfect, if it weren’t so…perfect.”
Stralasi pondered that for a while as their bubble passed by the Angel. Its attendant Maintainer entered another corridor. The Good Brother knew the life he enjoyed among the People was the best conceivable, though he resented being kept ignorant about how it all worked. He couldn’t see how this new insight, courtesy of Darak, would help him to be happier or better in any way. Quite the contrary.
“If Alum’s Realm is so pe
rfect, or so nearly perfect, why would you oppose Him?”
The bubble stopped, and Darak turned to Brother Stralasi. “The universe is an imperfect place. It sprung from chaos and it brims with surprises. That is what makes it so wonderful, so alive. If you make it predictable, you destroy everything about it that is important. That wouldn’t be perfection; that would be hell.”
He turned away, and suddenly they were somewhere else.
14
Luxuriant, verdant life overwhelmed their senses. Darak and Brother Stralasi settled gently on the gravel pathway and their protective sphere dissolved. Lush ferns, flowers, and tall grasses swayed welcomingly. Branches from the tall trees lining the trail stretched over their bare heads to shade them from the bright light above. The sound of trickling water from a small cascade feeding into a nearby stream caught their ears. Stralasi marveled at the fields of corn, wheat, and vegetables curving slightly upward. Wait a minute. Upward?
Stralasi's eyes followed the evenly tilled rows as they receded up and away, into the sky. A little disoriented, he looked for landmarks by which to situate himself. Once he figured out the lay of the land, he was no less disoriented.
They appeared to be standing at the bottom of an impossibly large cylinder of green and blue encircling a glowing tube of light. A soft breeze cooled his face and moved across the crops in waves.
On the opposite side of the cylinder, past the dazzling light, he could make out a body of water. About midway up, he spied what looked like a herd of cattle grazing on tender shoots near the stream. Midway up. Massive cables, about a hand’s width in diameter, periodically stretched "upward" from the ground to anchor points along the central light tube. Phenomenal! He clapped his hands together in marvel and thankful prayer. There was more life visible in this tube than he had seen in any one place for ages.
Darak stopped for a moment, as well, to take it all in. “Beautiful isn’t it?”
