The Seeker

by Kingsley L Dennis

  He walked over to one of the technicians, a young lady.

  ‘Immanentize the eschaton.’ Jacob waited for a response.

  The young lady looked up. ‘Are you supposed to be here?’

  ‘I guess not.’

  Jacob walked back over to where Dane-8 was standing. ‘Anything else to show me?’

  48

  ‘Yes, I understand. I will arrange it.’

  The door behind him closed shut as Zuse-1 left the room. Above the door in large bold letters was written DOC. He walked past the High Priest meditation rooms and back to his office. This part of Nous-City was the quietest, and the least populated. Few feet passed through these corridors, and silence reigned like a celestial queen. In the Central Dome the air hung with reverence. Here, everyone knew the real work of the city took place. The greatest, most capable minds were all collected here; not only taking decisions for the future of the city but also, it was recognized, for the future of life on earth. Nous-City was to be the future, and the preparations had begun.

  Zuse-1 entered his office and walked over to a large monitor screen that was displayed on one of his walls.

  ‘Display the files for the Jacob-9 probe.’

  Immediately a series of text scrolled across the screen. Zuse-1 followed the text at the speed at which it passed the screen from top to bottom.

  ‘There, stop it at line 786. Enlarge.’ The screen stopped and a section of text was amplified.

  ‘Odd,’ muttered Zuse-1 to himself. ‘There appears to be more than one mind.’

  He pressed a series of light keys upon the table and sat down at his desk. He didn’t have to wait long.

  Kaine-3 entered the room and acknowledged Zuse-1 with a modest nod.

  ‘Report.’ Zuse-1 spoke flatly as if it was neither a command nor a question.

  ‘Jacob-9 continues to show no sign of giving his revelation. Furthermore, he appears to have no conscious awareness that he needs to reveal. It is as if he is lacking the capacity to show revelation. As a Seeker this should not occur. And in order to remain with us in Nous-City he must reveal.’

  ‘Yes, I know the procedure.’

  ‘Of course. I was only stating what is known.’ Kaine-3 remained silent.

  Zuse-1 paused before speaking. ‘We are now aware of what is known. What concerns us is that there is too much in Jacob-9 that is unknown. His revelation is now a priority. There is also another matter concerning the state of Jacob-9’s mind. Yet his lack of revelation only obscures – or hides – this. We do not yet know if this is a glitch or a deliberate act.’

  ‘Deliberate?’ Kaine-3’s tone of voice displayed surprise.

  Zuse-1 nodded. ‘It is a possibility. Therefore we must force the issue. There has been an interaction between Jacob-9 and a female technician in the Triangle Zone?’

  ‘Yes. According to Dane-8’s report there was a slight yet uneventful communication between Jacob-9 and technician Ruth-11. It lasted 8.42 seconds.’

  ‘It is enough,’ replied Zuse-1. ‘We shall attempt to gain Jacob-9’s revelation through the intervention of Ruth-11. The precise data has been prepared. You will pass this along to Ruth-11 and bring her up to speed immediately. This is DOC’s command.’

  ‘As it is.’ Kaine-3 turned and walked out of the room.

  Zuse-1 stood and walked to the far end of the room. As he approached the far wall an unseen panel slid away and revealed an antechamber. Zuse-1 entered as the door silently closed behind him. The room was bare except for a slightly raised slab in the centre, only an inch or so from the floor. Zuse-1 went and sat down upon the slab. He closed his eyes. The lighting in the room dimmed. Zuse-1 did not move for a very, very long time.

  49

  Jacob opened his eyes. He had been sitting alone in his room for some time. He felt odd, as if there was a strange re-wiring going on within him. And none of this was making any sense. Since arriving at Nous-City he had acquired more questions than answers, and yet it was supposed to have been the other way around. This was the place – the sanctuary – for Seekers, and the hope for a new beginning for the world. And yet Jacob felt as if there was something holding him back, or even pulling him back. Now there were new things he didn’t understand. Why did nobody eat in Nous-City? Why did he himself not feel any hunger? And what was he supposed to reveal? How could he reveal what he didn’t know? It was beginning to feel like they, whoever ‘they’ were, knew more about him then he did himself. They said he had been a laboratory technician, and yet he had no memory of this. Why?

  And then, that flash of memory which darted into his mind. The image was of him before a table checking some instrument. Yes, that had been him…but when? Could it really have been before the Great Turning? Why did he not remember before…?

  He recalled the words, snippets, fallen phrases dropped into his mind and then withdrawn before he could claim them. They were his words – words for him – thoughts from his mind and yet they had been taken from him… not revealed. He could remember a taste of them…

  …You cannot think beyond me… I am the mind beyond your thinking…I AM…

  And then the void again. Himself hidden from himself.

  Jacob closed his eyes.

  FIFTY

  A funeral and a wedding were held within one day of each other. A mourning and a celebration marking both extremes of human emotion. It should have been a time for grief and a moment for joy. It was neither of these. Grief became relief, and joy was but a façade for what was a convenient end to harassment.

  Rebekah placed the last spade of soil over her husband’s grave, and bid him her final farewell. He had become a broken man after Eli had pushed him out of his leadership. Zachary, for his goodness, had put his heart and soul into Spring. He had wanted so much for the settlement to stand for human courage and goodness. In the end, such goodness became a luxury few people knew how to afford. Survival had driven human instincts back to their basics, and vision became submerged under brute strength.

  ‘Farewell, sweet Zachary. May the stars treat you more kindly than those of the Earth ever could. Find your way, my dear, and rest forever with the gods. They shall know their own.’

  Rebekah felt relief for Zachary. His heart had been too weak for the strain and struggle of failure, and the pain of being all too human. Zachary would be better off in his next life beyond. And besides, Rebekah had Johan now, who was growing into a fine, strong, young man.

  Eli had not attended the short funeral. Rebekah had not expected him to, and was glad that he didn’t. Eli’s presence in Spring had now grown bitter. His behaviour was more akin to dictatorship than leadership, and he ruled by force rather than by decree. Eli left Rebekah alone out of some begrudging respect for Zachary. In her turn, she knew better than to get in Eli’s way. That was why the group of women met secretly, like women had always done down the ages.

  Prentis had been at the funeral, and appeared to show genuine remorse. Yet he had chosen his side, and if he had guilt, then it was just and he had to live with it. He looked over at Sorrel, standing at the side of Rebekah and comforting her. Sorrel returned his look, and gave the briefest of smiles. Tomorrow would be their wedding day.

  Meryl looked over at Prentis, and then at Sorrel. She knew exactly what was going on between the both of them.

  51

  Jacob was assigned new quarters in the Triangle Zone in line with the probe’s findings that before the Great Turning he worked as a laboratory technical assistant. This still felt odd to Jacob, almost surreal as if it belonged to someone else and not himself. Dane-8 came one morning to show Jacob to his new quarters. The room looked virtually identical to the room he had left back in the Green Zone.

  ‘The outside places are not where we truly are, and so they look the same to us. It is our internal states that matter,’ Dane-8 had said shortly after they had arrived at Jacob’s room. Jacob said nothing, yet he was observing his own thoughts very carefully. He had come to realize that everything in Nous-
City was monitored, and that nothing happened without some clear intention behind it wanting it to happen. In the outside world there was chaos, uncertainty, deprivation, and desperation. Here inside Nous-City there was control, calm, conformity, and a style of sanitized reason. Somewhere between the two worlds lay a form of sanctity, still sought.

  Something within Jacob still felt unconvinced, despite there being a force within him, pulling at him with immense strength, compelling him toward wanting the divine immanence upon the world. He was forever being drawn toward this need. And yet when it came to himself he was incapable of expressing his own revelation. He felt powerless to reveal of and from himself, to offer his own transparency. And this incapacity, this lack, began to gnaw at him inside.

  After visiting the communal showers Jacob dressed in a newly provided fresh robe and went to Room TZ23 for his assignment. Dane-8 left him at the laboratory door. Before he turned to leave he gave Jacob a slightly longer than customary direct glance. Was he looking for some sign, or hint? Did he think Jacob was faking, or hiding something? Jacob sensed not distrust, but perhaps a degree of incredulity.

  Inside Room TZ23 Jacob was assigned to work with lab technician Ruth-11 – the same person he had made a brief contact with on his previous visit.

  ‘So, are you still here to immanentize the eschaton?’ Ruth-11 asked dryly.

  ‘Aren’t we all?’ replied Jacob.

  Ruth shrugged. ‘It depends. But then again you haven’t revealed, or so I’m told. So what would you know?’

  ‘Not a lot, apparently.’

  ‘That would seem about right.’

  ‘Care to enlighten me then?’

  Ruth looked over at Jacob without smiling. Her young oval face was framed by dark straight hair that was tied back into a ponytail. Jacob guessed that when released it would hang a little way below her shoulders, not dissimilar to his own hair. Yet her hair was darker, much darker, as if coloured from the pen of the Goddess Nuit.

  ‘Enlighten you? Take your brain out, more like.’ Ruth turned back to her work.

  ‘Charming,’ said Jacob softly.

  ‘Charm is earned, not taken,’ whispered Ruth without looking up.

  The head technician of the Triangle Zone, Gaius-5, arrived at the laboratory later that morning to look over Jacob’s assignment. Room TZ23 was working on a compartmentalized project. Its specific role was to assemble small energy storage components that to Jacob looked like super flat batteries. Yet his function was to assemble, not to question. Gaius-5 checked Jacob’s handiwork and seemed satisfied. He was a tall, thin man with balding, greying hair. His face was thin, yet still youthful-looking for his apparent age. He didn’t say much, nor appear like he wished to. His grey-blue eyes pierced the objects he stared at, as if lasering through their appearance, seeking their battery, their energy source.

  ‘Continue, Jacob-9. There is a way for you here yet.’ Gaius-5 spoke in a disinterested manner, as if he was an observer of his own words yet not actually fully there.

  Jacob continued in the same motions for several hours more. Breaks were seldom in Nous-City, and no one seemed to mind, let alone complain. Jacob too did not feel any tiredness. He was always a good worker.

  ‘So – there’s a way for you yet, Jacob-9?’ Ruth’s face had a slight mocking look. They were both sitting at a table in the communal rest area taking a break. A few of the people sitting around at other tables were chatting; no one was eating. ‘Or maybe there isn’t?’

  Jacob’s face screwed up. ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘You may, or may not, be the brightest head on the block. But until you reveal yourself you will never have any true connections or relations to any of us in Nous-City. You may not even be allowed to stay. Each one of us here has revealed. Without doing so we cannot understand our purpose; or the purpose for being here. Until that happens, Jacob-9, you are just a lost entity. Admit it, you feel lost right now, don’t you?’

  Jacob let out a low whistle. ‘Well, I sure don’t feel like I’m home. I really, really don’t understand. I want to reveal, I have nothing to hide. I just don’t know what the revelation is, or how I’m supposed to reveal it. Do they want me to make something up?’

  ‘Wow. So you really have no idea?’

  ‘I have less than no idea, if that’s even possible.’

  ‘With you, it just might be.’ Ruth let a small smile escape her lips. ‘So you weren’t joking with the immanentize the eschaton introduction you gave me!’

  ‘Hardly. It’s our only way forward. We have no future if we cannot make the truth immanent upon the earth. The truth is the spiritualizing force that actualizes through us. We must bring this force down into the material plane – bring it through our bodies first. The next step, after the disaster of the Great Turning, is to spiritualize the material. We must merge matter with spirit, and the human body can become the first bridge in this.’

  Ruth nodded slowly as she listened. ‘Yes, that is indeed what brought us here. And then we had the revelation – and you have not. That’s why we cannot communicate further. We are on a different pro…’ Ruth suddenly stopped herself.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Ruth’s face went blank, as if she had momentarily disappeared inside herself. ‘Look,’ she said after a minute’s silence, ‘do you feel any attraction toward me?’

  Jacob suddenly sat back. ‘Well…’

  ‘Well, be honest!’

  ‘Honest truth is no, I don’t.’

  ‘And do you remember having felt attraction for any woman?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You’re a man, aren’t you?’

  ‘Last time I checked, yes.’

  ‘Then why don’t you feel any attraction for the so-called opposite sex? Have you felt attraction for another man?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘For anyone?’

  ‘Actually, no…not in the physical sense.’

  ‘Then why is that?’

  ‘Because I’m a Seeker. My destiny is for the spiritual path, not the human one.’

  ‘What? Say that again.’

  ‘I mean, my path is not one for the flesh. It is for the spirit. I am not here to indulge in the human flesh.’

  ‘Jacob, none of us are here to indulge in the human flesh. Don’t you get it yet?’

  Jacob sat in silence.

  After a few minutes Ruth stood up. ‘Wake up, Jacob. Just wake up, and get to that damn revelation!’

  She left Jacob sitting alone at the table.

  52

  Kaine-3 finished reading the report. He shook his head and closed the monitor screen. He tapped a couple of digits on the desk top and stood up. Shortly a single bleep sounded.

  ‘Report, Kaine-3.’ Zuse-1’s voice echoed in the room as if it was being transmitted from the walls, from the circumference rather than a centre point.

  ‘It appears that neither time in the Triangle Zone, nor the presence of Ruth-11, has triggered Jacob-9 into revelation. On the contrary, it seems that Jacob’s potential for revelation has retreated further into his depths. His eye movements, iris contractions, skin palpitations, and the body’s electromagnetic pulse were all monitored during open conversation. There is no sign that Jacob has been lying, or is aware of lying. His lack of self-knowledge concerning the revelation appears to be genuine. He is simply unable to locate it, and our sensors, for the first time, have failed in activating it within a Seeker.’

  There was a pause.

  ‘The Anomaly must be brought closer. There are too many uncertainties having it further away from us. I will arrange this personally. It is time to meet Jacob-9.’

  53

  ‘The truth is not for everyone. You, more than any of the others, should be aware of that, Zuse-1.’

  ‘Yes, DOC. I am aware of it. And the presence of an anomaly was always a possibility. The question is, will it affect the future of Nous-City? Its presence brings in uncertainties we cannot account for.’

  ‘Thi
s is correct, Zuse-1; although this is not necessarily a negative potential. On the contrary, the presence of an Anomaly may be the very catalyst required.’

  ‘Please explain, DOC.’

  ‘Any closed system must eventually succumb to entropy and run down. This is a law of physical systems we have yet to overcome. We therefore need to permit the possibility of uncertain factors in a system which could potentially provide creative novelty.’

  ‘The unexpected?’

  ‘Precisely so. Creative novelty can help to trigger a system into greater efficiency by combating inertia. Too many unknown uncertainties and a system can breakdown, as was witnessed before the Great Turning. A small novelty, at the right time, can provide the necessary stimulus for increasing a system in terms of its complexity and its efficiency. We must not allow ourselves to fall into a closed system.’

  ‘And yet Nous-City is close to being a closed system.’

  ‘It is, and for good reasons – as you well know, Zuse-1. And for optimum positive potentials we must permit the presence of an Anomaly. I have been waiting for this. Jacob-9 may provide the right amount of creative disruption within our system for us to advance towards further coherent complexity.’

  ‘So we need to absorb this Anomaly?’

  ‘Perhaps. It cannot be known one hundred percent at this time. What can be known is that its presence is not yet a threat, and so may well prove to be advantageous. For now, we need to bring it in.’

  ‘That I have already ascertained, and have taken steps.’

  ‘Good. First I ask of you that you provide the revelation for Jacob-9. He must be made partially aware of our situation here. His total ignorance is too much of an uncertainty for us. Too much knowledge may result in the opposite. We need to limit its knowledge until we can know for sure whether it possesses the capacity for its own self-developmental evolution. The nature of this Anomaly intrigues me; to the capacity where a mind such as mine can be intrigued.’

  ‘Yes, DOC. I shall see to it.’