Infinity Machine

by Adam Sea Klein

  Then as my vision starts to spin violently, I see Ajax's face, then his arm, then his hand reaches out and holds the side of my face, and I hear the strange language, “Shinak AEh Eh Halla.”

  Such a deep and new voice.

  Around Ajax's hand, my face stills, and my mind stills and the spinning curtails around that single point of his hand.

  Here I am.

  I am here.

  I am here again.

  I am here, real.

  I feel my body.

  It's there.

  I’m whole.

  I feel pale shivers and then stillness.

  13.

  Ajax says, “The mind is fragile, that is why you shake. You are fine, you are fine. You are okay.” Ajax is patting my back.

  I say, “I can feel your hand... but... you're a hologram.”

  Ajax says with a laugh, “Here, I am real.”

  I say, “But you are not really a human? Yet, you are a human right now?”

  Ajax says, “The Infinity Machine is very hard to understand. But I am real. I am as real as you are now, here in this place. In your world, in our real universe, I am Ajax, a hologram created by the Subvoxian race.”

  Ajax explains, “I am in many ways, a creation of that race, but in many ways, my mental architecture is as real as yours. The Subvoxians are able to make many things possible, things that will seem unreal to you. The Subvoxians are far, far beyond humans because their species evolved long ago.”

  I gather myself and say, “How much further along are they than humans in evolution?”

  Ajax looks at me with an expression new to me, an expression of peculiarity, as though he is about to reveal something confusing, like he feels a little badly about it, “The Subvoxians are evolved beyond humans by more than four hundred thousand years.”

  I am without a grasp of this.

  I feel this weird reality I'm standing in.

  I feel unsteady.

  I feel like an infant next to this being.

  I feel too useless and too helpless, having found a real genius, I feel like a dust mite that clings to a dirt ball. I feel my past life whither in importance.

  Ajax nods with firm affirmation and says, “You are a pioneer for the human species — and this is difficult.”

  I look from side to side, and take several steps on the almost perfect, plastic-y grass.

  I look around.

  I see no sign of imperfection.

  I see no dust or grime.

  I see a strange world.

  I pace back and forth a little.

  I say, “What are we doing here?”

  Ajax replies, “Our time has purpose. We are going to test the limits.”

  14.

  Ajax gives me no time.

  My vision around me is bombarded with holographic imagery — three voices are talking to me at once, images, diagrams are pouring around me.

  “Get a grasp, Mr. Dorn... slow it down... this is a new reality. The Multi-plexus is at one with your nerves. These images are outside of you, and also within your mind.”

  The whirring of visual information and sound is all-encompassing.

  “Give it order, Casey.”

  “How?” I yell. “It's taking me over.”

  The voice of Ajax says, “Feel it, feel the information, feel it as an appendage. Feel that perception, like your own arms, make it move into position.”

  It’s an excruciating task, like trying to move a third arm I do not have.

  Ajax says, “Yes, like a first movement, engage your physical sensations around it all.”

  I try what he says, and it slows a little.

  “YES,” says Ajax, “like that, eeeeasy now.”

  Then just like that, the visuals slow and slip into control and the information stops.

  I feel normal, and around me 17 plates of imagery hold still, and a half-dozen diagrams. I see info-panels, the three voices I heard are separate hologram movies. All seems normal again. Around me is an array of statistics and logs. I could shift each part, mentally.

  “Now,” says Ajax, “make it all disappear.”

  I surge that feeling of control through my new bodily concept and the images disappear.

  “Impressive, Casey. Very quick, and on your first try!”

  I am exhausted. “Where am I?”

  “You are in a node of reality, technically speaking, we are in a new universe, but it is quite small. It exists by itself, on its own. From here, from our position, it’s like our other universe is not real.”

  “So where am I — the real me? Where is... he? Where is my real self?”

  Ajax says, “Oh, he's there, he's... you're HERE. You ARE him. But our reality, where we arrived from, that place is independent of this place.

  “I'm more than unsatisfied with this description.”

  Ajax laughs. “This is difficult,” he says. “Let me try again. Our real reality is what it is. Our bodies are in that room still. We have entered into a node of a new reality. If we exit this node, and return to our true reality, it will be as though not a single microsecond has passed. In coming here, we have entered an instantaneous bubble to reality, with altered rules.”

  “An alternate universe?”

  “No,” says Ajax, “a node of another reality we created using just one technology of the Infinity Machine. A seed reality, a bloom, an independent reality-vessel.”

  He goes on, “Reality… the universe is a cosm of space and time. We have inverted through that cosmic formula and passed through the state of non-existence — we poked our head into a new mini-vessel of reality. Through this technology we have been re-created as we are. You as you. Myself in human bodily form. The Infinity Machine can create realities: it can create, alter, and even evolve beings.”

  I dare to paraphrase, “We... have bloomed a new, small... universe, and we stand within it now, in that universe? Not ourselves, but a fabrication of... ourselves. The Infinity Machine creates actual universes and... people?”

  Ajax says, “The Infinity Machine cannot power a full universe. It can, in fact, create a tiny iteration of what a universe is — the Machine is so advanced that we can take this seed-universe and evolve it far beyond the reality we know on Earth. This is why I am a real human here, but remain a hologram on Earth. This is why you just learned to manipulate a virtual reality data-field that feels like it's inside your mind. This is why I can alter this reality at will. It is a unique place, separate from your universe, with no connection in space or time.”

  Ajax swings his arms to the sky and allows them to fall with intent — as he does this, the world around me ripples with clear energy, and the soil below us begins to slightly crumple.

  Ajax breaths heavily, and says, “There is more.”

  He lifts up his left foot and slams it into the ground, and below his foot the land shakes. He pulls his hand upward and manifests what seems like a burning star, and he pulls it inward towards him, pulls it with his breath, into his mouth and the great light shines throughout his whole body. It seems he swallows this light which then extinguishes itself.

  Ajax continues, “You see... a new reality, with new rules.”

  “What was that?” I say.

  Ajax says, “Here we go...” and he puts his hand on my back and pushes me, only I do not move at all. The entire world around me moves in an elastic way — it's so disturbing, the world around me zips 1600 feet past me, I travel the distance just 2 seconds, only the world moves around me.

  As fast as this happens, it is also undone, leaving me standing there, right beside Ajax again.

  Ajax says, “It's not the exact same concept, but you can sense perhaps how a gigantic vessel, such as the Shangri-La, can move almost 20 billion light years from our planet to yours. Many things are possible when the rules of reality are changed.”

  I babble, “Uhhhhh, so you figured out how to teleport a giant ship across the universe. What kind of planet do you come from that has stuff like this?�
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  Ajax says, “Mr. Dorn... you are going to find out yourself.”

  15.

  “We are about to move to a sub-node that is much like our planet. It is a node we have parked for this purpose, to show others during this process. I would enjoy showing you our actual planet: far as it is, the travel is not the problem, which you will understand soon.”

  “Where is the sub-node… in the universe?” I ask.

  “A good question,” says Ajax with a smile. “It has actually been tethered to a point in the Kaelifax Galaxy. It’s no longer necessary to have a physical tether, but our original system has not changed in some time. The Kaelifax Galaxy is home to the Iridon species. They are a species that underwent the process with great success.”

  I fiddle for words, but Ajax says, “We have been using the universe like a hard drive. We know how to anchor nodes to non-universal non-local spaces now, so the practice will not likely continue.” Ajax smiles quite largely, “Are you ready to travel light years in mere seconds?”

  “Are you serious? But…” Before I could finish, the world around me sizzles and begins to shake, and I feel the sensation of being squirted as the world around me slips away and the great blue sky shoots like a continuous rocket, a vibrational oven around me, and reality exposes itself into the pitch black of space.

  As fast as everything is happening, a new world rises itself around me, and like an egg, creates a reality of a new kind.

  I see structures around me. It's a real world, an incredible world, a world beyond my imagination. I am inside a world that feels real but that looks like an artistic machine. The materials are other-worldly. The world has a sound to it. It is an unstable sound. There are sensations my body and mind do not understand. I zip through the ether and find myself catapulted effortlessly into a room. I feel like I am not fully there — my hands look and feel partially made of light.

  I hear Ajax's voice, “You are in a simulated reality of the Subvoxian world. It is an abridgment, a drastically abbreviated example. It will be hard for you to feel real here.”

  There is pause, then Ajax says, “We will attempt to show you a member of the Subvoxian species. This being will look strange, and his presence will feel strange. An aspect of this experience will be difficult to endure.”

  I look around and see such intricate panel work, transparent metals, small beads of light running through these panels. There are features that seem neither material or holographic. The space seems to breath or orchestrate something, and I can feel it change my sensation in slight ways.

  The room seems to be a living space, there are signs of stations that might be for leisure, something that might be a bed of sorts.

  Ajax's voice goes on, “This node was designed to meet the needs of species in your bandwidth of evolution. You will not experience the real Subvoxian world, because you cannot experience that world. You can however endure a fraction of that world, a fraction that is written here in this node, which meets the needs of your senses.”

  To the left of me there is a curtain, and that curtain opens its folds and reveals an arched doorway, and that doorway pours an overwhelming light. It’s like a living energy that fills the space of my lungs. It makes my hands feel more like energy than flesh. The light seems to be a stage of reality beyond what I am: it makes me feel basic, like a simple, simple creature. I feel overwhelmed like an insect in an overwhelming world.

  I hear Ajax's voice say, “You are safe, Mr. Dorn. You may take a few steps forward; the doorway is special and limits the power.”

  Every step I take makes me feel less real. It is pleasant but too exhilarating, in a way it feels like I walk towards my obliteration. In sensation, my ribs feel absent. I hear the whirring sound push a whamming energy and it fills my existence.

  I see a shape move, like the top of a head that is earthy in color and round, with creases.

  Ajax says, “It is okay Mr. Dorn, a few more steps and you will view the Subvoxian. I step forward again, then again.

  I see the non-form of appearance, a body that is not a body, it is there and clothed, but not entirely there. The being has large black eyes, that are neither scary or warm, but almost wise in appearance. The being looks at me and I look at that him.

  An energy pushes out of the Subvoxian, towards me, a tremendous calm is overtaking me. I cannot fully gaze at the creature... it is not like a true presence.

  I try to speak, “I don't feel you're real.” My torso feels overwhelmed by the energy and when I speak it threatens to rip me apart. The being starts to move towards me, but as it does, my focal point of consciousness just glitches. I hold on. I glitch further.

  The being is right near me.

  It has features of fine proportion, but he seems old, like the body of an elder.

  As he raises his hand, I raise my hand. I try to touch his hand with my open palm, and just before we touch, energy surges from his hand and rivets up my arm — an energy of such scope and magnitude that it peels away who think I am.

  Before a greater surge of energy can fully rush into my mind, I fade away into a state of non-existence, a state of wholeness and complexity, and I rip apart.

  Ajax says, “It is now time to exit this node.” The world around me stops,

  and pulls away, and a new node drips around me, like a weird melted taffy.

  “Merging... merging,” says Ajax, “aaaaand, there we go.”

  I am standing in place, like an infant baby in the body of a man. I am without speech, without thought, without anything but visual information. I am without a mind.

  Ajax says, “Aaaaaand, pop!” In an instant, my entire mind shows up, and works as though it never stopped.

  I stand like nothing happened, amazed and in a new realm of thought. A bit shaken by an experience that obliterated my understanding of what consciousness is.

  Ajax says, “Can you understand my words?”

  I say, “Yes”

  He continues, “Okay, just listen for now. What you just saw was the best approximation of what you can endure of what the Subvoxian species was like 200,000 year ago. That is the last form that remains comprehensible to what the human senses and brain can perceive.”

  I am spellbound.

  Ajax says, “The Subvoxian planet, Ele Aetuh, was given a sort of Multi-Plexus framework, all around the planet. We have taken the advance in reality alteration technology and applied it to the reality that surrounds our planets. That new reality became a new platform for the evolution of species on the planet.”

  I gaze in puzzlement.

  Ajax steps forward to look right at me, “To make it clear — what you saw was all you can bear — you cannot view an actual Subvoxian, or the Subvoxian world, only a simulation of our world from 200,000 years ago.”

  He goes on, “You are talking to Ajax,” he pats his chest and leans forward, “because you cannot be in the presence of a Subvoxian at all. The way the energy of the Subvoxian almost takes you over and resets your consciousness… it literally cannot be described. There are no words for this, but we call this Nektoh AlieBrah AyuTso this translates to: the Emancipation of Reality...

  He says with great interest, “The Subvoxians are only real when they choose to be real. When they are real their very presence has a multifaceted effect on reality itself. They are tethered into the universal creation process and alter the universe at will, wherever their technology framework is present.

  I stand there like a kid in a strange world.

  Ajax says, “The Subvoxians have altered reality, then evolved on that new reality, over and over again at an increasingly rapid pace for an extra 200,000 years since their technologies reached the Rani Epoch.”

  Ajax looks at me and says, “Now, you have some answers, but you will not have understanding, and that is okay. As you might now sense, there is great, traumatic risk at introducing even our most ancient technology to a species such as humankind.”

  I wait.

  Ajax waits with me.r />
  I sit down in the perfect grass, and stare into the sky.

  Ajax sits with me, and stares also.

  I rip up a blade of grass and throw it like a goof, and it just drops straight down. I sit there in a suspended state of mind.

  Finally, some words enter my mind and they pour awkwardly from my mouth. “That being was of another.... way... another...” I feel even more unreal when I speak.

  Ajax says, “There are no words. You will not get there with words. In Subvoxian, we call this NoCaiPeh which means ' another stage', and we call it nothing else.

  16.

  I finally ask Ajax. “You are not Subvoxian, are you.”

  Ajax looks at me and says, “I am a component of the Infinity Machine. To myself, I am real. I do not exist within the definition of reality you are used to. I am not Subvoxian, no. The laws of reality are written within me, so I am real in many ways, but I am not like you, a budding of the universe, the way species of the universe have been composed.”

  Ajax says, “The universe as you know it, Casey, is what we call Gnyana Wah which translates to Avail One, to elaborate: it means something like —the primary surface that the universal creative process was allowed to take hold and develop upon.”

  I say, “I never thought such simple words could hit me so hard... first surface... allowed… take hold ?” My mind begins moving again. “What do you know about the first... who are our creators?”

  Ajax is quiet.

  I say with great effect, “WHO ARE THEY?”

  Ajax squints and said, “like you, my cognition has peculiar walls tied to states of mind... I am also in search for the knowledge you ask for. There are verbal ideas I've heard, but I do not truly understand them.”

  I say, “Ajax, tell me those words, where do we come from, all of it, the universe... where, who?”

  Ajax says, “Within, Dorn... within, but, what does that mean? I go over this over and over. Look at what I've shown you, look at all of this I know. I still don't know what this means... within. The Subvoxians know more than I, because they have evolved themselves to be in touch with that universal presence, to feel more, to BE more. Knowledge of this question you ask... can it be known like a string of words? You cannot know how an insect perceives, and in like manor, you cannot easily know what the universe is... that is the quest of consciousness, of the living machine. We are living that search.”