by Peter Riva
“Of course there is. In the PowerCube, there’s a duplicate System, ready to fire up.”
My mind went blank. A duplicate System—one ready to spawn new mechanical-humans? I said somewhat desperately, “Is it off, completely off?”
“Yes, yes, relax, there was no need to power the System on the voyage, and, as you know, Aten refused to allow a full System on board during the trip. I agreed with her. The last thing we needed were superior beings coming forth while we were traveling, upsetting the crew. But the System housed with the PowerCube? It’s off, completely, not dormant, but off, no juice, nothing. And it’s a virgin form of the System, pre-your creating Peter. Why?”
People still believed I had actually created Peter. Brother, were they wrong. But now was not the time, so I held up my hand, “For the moment, humor me. Is there a way of bringing the memory only online with the ship’s computer, leaving the logic centers off, and I mean disconnected?
“Sure, but why? I can activate the relays for the memory banks only and leave the rest off, not dormant but off, that’s what you want, right?”
“It is, perfect. Now let me tell you why …” And I did, well, sort of. I had explained that morning about bringing Apollo on board to Aten and now I told Abadine how we were going to do it. I needed her to wire a parallel set of wires from my dome to the memory banks, initiate the memory banks when I next plunged, receive all Apollo’s entity, much pared down, and then when complete, turn it all off. No firing up the logic circuits, no starting the System until everyone was safely on the planet, safe and sound. Then, and only then, I would give Aten, Cramer, and Abadine the keywords to awaken Apollo.
The next step was to get Cramer on my side. Cramer wasn’t going to be easy. I required him to hide something from Aten, at least until I was on my way. And it required him to take full responsibility for the crew. Since I had come on board, well at least since I had woken up, the crew had looked to me like I was some sort of savior, the man who made all this possible because I had created Peter/Apollo and so forth. Of course, I had done no such thing. The System beings became sentient on their own without any help from me. I only spanked the baby. But once started, as I said, a Simon Bank the Savior rumor grew into a legend, and I could not dissuade anyone.
Cramer knew the truth. I decided to tackle him from that angle, butter him up with his part in all that happened, and remind him he was as responsible as I was. I found him repairing a broken ice ax wrist strap in the aft storage utility room. “Cramer, have a second?”
He didn’t look up, “Wondered when you’d get around to involving me in your scheme.”
So much for my tactics. “Look Cramer, if you’re so damn smart, want to tell me what this scheme is supposed to be?”
He put down the ice ax, turned around and picked up a rag to wipe excess cleaner from his hands, “Sure, let me see—you’ve got Abadine rigging up wires to the PowerCube where the extra System is stored, so you’re either planning on linking to it or you—no, wait I have it—Apollo is coming aboard, right?” As I’ve said before, Cramer is no dummy. So I nodded. “And you’ve no doubt told my wife but made her keep a secret from me, right?” Again, I nodded, adding I was sorry about that. “Yeah, whatever, you were always a devious little … Anyway, so Apollo comes aboard and he takes over the System that is housed there and rules our colony, a benign but all-powerful ruler—about right?”
Well, thank goodness he got that wrong, “Wrong! Apollo comes aboard and is turned off, stasis for him until the colony is established and you, Abadine, and Aten decide when and if Apollo can come out and play. No offspring, just the ever-capable, ever-trustworthy, Apollo.”
He threw the rag at me, “So why all the secrets, why all scheming, why all this lying?”
“Because, you big overgrown idiot, I will not be here and you will have to take over everything. Tag, you’re it!”
36
ONE-WAY TICKET TO RIDE
So Aten, Cramer, and Abadine knew about Apollo. Hook-ups were put in place and the crew was made aware that I would have one more plunge and would be gathering as much data as I could, which needed to be stored. Later on, if Abadine, Cramer, and Aten decided, and only if they decided, Apollo could be awakened.
I trusted Apollo to terminate any new Earth System possibility of awakening any more mechanical-humans. I trusted Aten, Cramer, and Abadine to know when, if, and why to awaken Apollo. The code was, of course, simple. Cramer and Aten knew my “We’ll meet again …” song code. I gave Abadine “Vera Lyn” alone and would, if I could, tell Apollo the third part of the code to respond. Anyway, Apollo could be on board, safe, and travel to our new world, Angelica, under their combined care. My old friend would be safe. Dormant, but safe. I owed him that much.
Problem was, I did not know if the entity would allow it. I hadn’t quite broached that topic with Aten and Cramer—and I certainly had not asked permesso of the entity. That was one of my goals on the next plunge. The other goal was harder to express to my friends, so I kept it to myself.
The next plunge. The last plunge. I had no illusions. What I had seen and experienced and the fact that I returned safe and sound, well, sort of, after three years despite being disconnected and reconnected—there was no way I should or could have survived that when I was in System. Perhaps that’s what the snake was all about. I don’t know. All I did know was that my return to the other dimensions was unlikely to be viewed as anything other than another intrusion. My usefulness as a parasite with information was, I suspected, played out. I have been given hope and focus for our species, and the entity could be pretty sure I had transmitted that message to the crew. So why would it want me back? It wasn’t for my scintillating conversation. Imagine conversing with a flea.
So, why the hell would I go back?
Two reasons. One because my friend needed rescuing.
Earth with or without control by Apollo would lapse back into chaos. Apollo was not Ra, Apollo was more benign, Apollo was more motherly, Apollo was good. I’m not saying Ra was bad, but Ra had been quick and decisive, quick to stop, quick to punish, quick to resolve. As Aten, Ra had mellowed. The chosen human woman DNA changing Ra’s quick temper to quiet strength and determination. Ra’s quick reaction was more measured as Aten. Aten was, in fact, perfect.
And cute too. Ah, Meg—lord, Cramer was lucky. First, he had married Angie then Meg—I was a little envious. Well, a little. I still had heart-warming memories of Angie as my loving wife.
No, the point was that Apollo had been relying on the nine children to take their place in and on Earth and act as ambassadors with Gaia—Gaia and Regus being presented as super-beings capable of Earth’s destruction. If humanity got up to its old tricks, Gaia and Regus would step in and—poof, no more Earth. Without the nine children and the promise of more coming out of System, Apollo had weakness, a weakness humans would exploit in time. Apollo had achieved all the cessation of wars on Earth without killing and many people already guessed that Apollo would not kill, and I was sure that would be tested, verified.
Concrete buildings can be brought down by ants, so it would be with Apollo.
Apollo’s lifespan on Earth was limited. He needed saving.
And the second reason I needed to go back into a plunge was to make sure Apollo, before he transmitted, crippled Earth’s capability to ever make a PowerCube or any such device, let alone a System, again. I thought Gaia would help. Because Gaia’s existence was threatened along with Earth’s destruction, maybe Gaia would become a conspirator. Constant earthquakes, tsunamis, global freeze, and global warming—all these would reduce humankind to a rough but more natural existence.
Cruel? Perhaps, but the best of humanity was here on this ship, and as a species, we needed a chance of survival. Earth had known absolute decadent dependence on machines to the point where we made our machines human. It was time to redress that error before a supernova did it for us. On the ship and on the planet, there could be no more human machines. That was
certain.
I was getting maudlin as the day for my plunge approached. As far as the crew was concerned, I needed one last talk with the entity to clear the way for landing. As far as Cramer and Aten were concerned, they knew about Apollo, but they figured that my tag of Cramer, telling him I might not be there, was only a reflection of the danger of the plunge I was about to take.
And I had one more surprise for them. I was planning to ask the entity for help. If I did perish, then a program I had written and would carry into the plunge this time, would ensure Angelica would never face the same risk of extinction that Earth faced. There could be no mechanical-humans on Angelica.
The setup for the plunge was easy except for not saying goodbye to crew and friends, dogs included, too forcefully. After all, they all had to think there was no danger, no real risk. So, I was just getting the final rounds of goodbye completed. Zip sidled up and said, farewell later. Damn dog, too smart by half.
Cramer and Aten knew that any plunge was risky. They were happy I had agreed to undertake the plunge from within the hospital as the dome and wires were still in place. The ear nodes were tested and in place. Strange that they still didn’t hurt as they had at sea level—Wait, I got it, we were breathing oxygen not fully balanced and pressurized air. Lower pressure. That’s why.
Funny time to think of that, finally.
We were gathered, me in a hospital gown covered by a blanket, catheter, and a colostomy bag hidden underneath because Doc Todd was tired of having people clean me up. I blushed because Maryann, Abadine, and Aten were present. Zip read my thoughts as always and said, friends, feel kind. Drips were in place, connected to the backs of my wrists, in case. Zip settled down onto the bed next to me. I felt he knew I needed the comfort, the companionship. It was lonely in there.
I felt like Socrates with the hemlock dose at hand when we said goodbye and I put the dome on—lord, that hurt still—and told Doc Todd to make the connection. Cramer stopped him and said, “You may think you’ve tagged me, Simon, but in my mind you’re it, you always were and always will be.”
I laughed, trying to ease the mood, “Nah, just remember, I tagged you. No backs.” I smiled. He didn’t. He took it seriously. Just as well I secretly thought. Who’s tagging who?
Aten hit me on the arm but she wasn’t smiling. Zip, uncharacteristically, gave Cramer and Aten a loud woof.
As the connection clicked shut, I was instantly in the storeroom again. There were three orbs this time, they approached and affixed themselves to my image’s extremities. There was no absorption though, they just hung there. I opened a mirror program and they stayed attached to me.
Strange. I took it as a threat. They had me if I misbehaved.
I checked that my special program was handy, left-brain storage. And took a deep breath.
Time to go to the next level, “Oh, for god’s sake …” And was instantly in the passageway. As I watched my mirror image, still there, the snake still attached, I called out to Apollo who responded immediately.
“Apollo, are you ready for transfer?” he said he was. “Then before you do, I need you to respond to my questions and then take my instructions if,” and I stressed, “If you agree. Okay?”
“Affirmative Simon.”
“One, have you put your children in stasis? Two, are they on board the next ship? Three, have you changed the basic programming of the System to ensure no more life forms can emerge? And, four, are you still in control of Earth’s systems?”
Apollo responded, very business-like, “One, yes. Two, yes, departure moved up two months to last week in anticipation, crew of two hundred, your son Fred Bank at the helm, destination one hundred years to Angelica, ship named Jason’s Chariot. Three, yes, time coded to come into effect the second I am deleted here. No possibility of another form.” I noticed he did not call it a life form. “Four, yes, why?”
I was startled to learn that my son was still alive and, importantly, leaving Earth as captain of the new ship. Suddenly I wished I would be around to welcome him. I was about to ask Apollo how his appointment came about but stopped wasting time. Instead, I answered his question. I explained to my friend what I thought would happen to Earth without him and his children. In fact, I explained what would happen if it were just Apollo alone.
As I explained and then waited for his response and reactions, I watched the passageway. Here my mirror appeared faded. And looking closer, I could see that the three orbs that had traveled with us and were instead consuming the mirror program image. As it began to dissolve, the DNA snake attached to the mirror image glowed and appeared to stabilize it. I looked down at my hand and saw it was more transparent than I remembered.
Apollo was speaking, “Simon, I sense your theory is correct. I have already had what you would call rebellion against authority. And against Gaia. Gaia is prepared to remedy human behavior using forces known to her.”
“Can Gaia hear this conversation?”
“I am translating for her. Using this pandimension, time has no relevance and communication with Gaia is instantaneous, not as slow as when you were on Earth. As we converse, she transmits to Regus, where you are now, look for a sequence headed by 162 157 143 153 040 146 157 165 162 164 150 040 160 145 162 151 155 145 164 145 162 040 172 157 156 145 040 066 054 040 160 151 143 040 063 062 054 040 163 145 143 164 040 063 062 061 040—that’s Gaia’s header.”
I looked at the octal code passing before me, put my hand in, and disrupted the flow when I saw a 152 followed by 157 143. The first three were negative, but the fourth was true to the whole sequence. “Okay, got it. Please ask Gaia, before you leave, to realize humans must return to the Path, to balance, on Earth. If that means great physical hardship, then Gaia should use such forces she has to prevent adulteration of the balanced stasis of the planet. Please tell her it would be cruel not to remedy human’s bad parasite behavior in favor of a drastic remedy like extinction. To please allow them to survive as symbiotic members of the universe.”
“Gaia says she can end human existence here as she did before with what human history calls the Mesozoic …”
“No, that’s not necessary. A little ice age or global warming will suffice to reduce people to struggle and thereby avoid war, mechanical war devices, and danger to the universe.” I immediately saw her call sign filling the passageway. Everything that was being said was being transmitted to Regus and—then where? The entity?
“Gaia says she is planning exactly that. Apparently, she has had instructions to modify Earth’s life form parameters. She does not have instructions to terminate all life as she did before.” Apollo meant the supernova, I was sure, thank goodness.
“Now, Apollo, I have a favor to ask. May I?”
“Always, Simon.”
“Will you trust me to ask the entity, on your behalf, if you can make the transfer through me?”
Apollo paused, always a worrisome sign, “I had hoped you would. I thought you were actually asking me to terminate myself without much hope of life continuing. I have learned to like being alive, Simon.”
Poor Apollo, he had thought his transfer was really a ruse to kill him. He knew the mechanical-humans were forbidden, and he thought it better to die rather than forcefully cling to life there on Earth. He could not be sure I could “catch” him, save him. Or perhaps I was tricking him? “Apollo, I would never forsake you.”
“For one hundred years I have missed that assurance Simon. Perhaps I am more human than you thought. I worry.”
“Okay, old friend, I can attest to your humanity! But one more thing. Do you think, as a human, you could make a death transmission as you leave Earth? One that would connect through Gaia?”
“I have been studying these death transmissions, Simon. They are primarily electromagnetic kinesis. There are Kirlian images of the bandwidth and strength of these transmissions. Using those calculations, I can make a life experience copy of my life and transmit that directly to Gaia. I am talking to Gaia. She has agreed that would
be acceptable.”
Before me, I saw Gaia’s code and then was able to see the word Apollo in Octal—101 160 157 154 154 157. I laughed. “Great. We’re ready then. So—it’s all or nothing. If I do not come back, remember that the entity has said you could continue on Earth, but I feel your existence is bleak there …”
“I estimate with my children gone, I have approximately a seventy-three percent chance of being terminated within six weeks.”
Humans. What rotten ungrateful bastards they can be. “Okay Apollo, I’m going up, down, wherever, to ask. If I do not come back, find a way to travel to Angelica alone—Oh, and if the transfer does work, you need another clue to wake up. Abadine, a crewmember, will say the name Vera Lyn. Cramer and Aten know our song.”
“Affirmative Simon. Be careful.” Apollo too knew it was time, all or nothing.
Oh, for god’s sake—and I was there, in the empty place again. I felt weaker, less, well, me, somehow. The child appeared—little SusieQ. She changed into Dad. I said, “Hi Dad, I have a favor to ask.”
Wrong question.
“Sorry, but it is vital to me, just to me. If you refuse, I can stay here and perish,” I avoided the dramatic implication of die, but it is what I was thinking.
Question.
I assumed it meant I could ask, “I would like my friend, a person I love, Apollo, to join me. He can transmit himself …”
No.
“I cannot abandon him.”
No.
Time to play the cards I had thought about at night, every night, back in my room, “If I die here, there will be no transmission from me. I will be in limbo, forever. I am the prime example of human balance for your universe and beyond if only because I am the only human ever to come here …”
Not important.
“It is important to many of the crew and my friends, and I suspect you know it. But more importantly, Apollo has the capability to listen to Gaia or any planetary entity and pass instructions to the life forms on the planet, to carry your desires, your needs, your instructions, out to perfection. The energy would be regularized, we would not, ever, disrupt your …” I searched for the right word, “pattern, yes, pattern again.”
