by A. I. Zlato
Deo was dark green foliage crossed by a light breeze. Their presence in the node reinforced the serenity that prevailed. The nodes were stable, smooth and transparent interfaces, which would make one believe that the problem of temporary nodes was nothing but a nightmare. Aenea shook her head to untangle her hair, which were spread around her head, then stretched her fingers all the way to Space boundaries...everything was there, in the right place …
Yet, it was real. Cae’s mind served as a constant reminder. The memory bubble was there, in the node, ready to open up and overwhelm Aenea. The temporary node … the shock of its appearance … the third Space … their collective demise in perspective … She could not forget, even while strolling in a place as quiet as here. Today, everything was serene. But until when will it last?
She had sought answers, and was still seeking them. She had to understand the phenomenon and, more important, to prevent its reoccurrence. The Kandron had told Aenea to differ this additional Space … because temporary nodes were the result of that extra Space. The Kandron knew it and, more important, had seen things. It had seen temporary nodes becoming permanent … It had seen, in its reverse linearity … that was only the beginning. How can one handle this? Aenea needed to learn more. Before interrogating the Machine, as the Kandron had suggested, she decided to scrutinise her two Spaces to cheer herself up. If the disruptions had affected them, and she knew they had, she had to know … because everything was connected, in one way or another.
She immersed herself in the Unique Forest’s vegetation, and then into Space H. through Deo. She felt in her veins the anguish of the Phalomera of which they talked some time ago. Was it feeling the consequences of temporary nodes? She only had gut feelings. From the top of trees, she glanced. The Forest stretched its expanse on all land, in the form of isolated trees, bushes or a compact cluster of trees. She scanned lands unknown to human, searching for … she could not tell. Hills and valleys, rivers, steppes … uninhabited landscapes were numerous. The weather, which was hotter than in Space O., spurred an overflowing flora, tinting everything in green all the way to the northern and southern tips of the planet.
The moon, lying nearby, triggered gigantic tides that came crashing on the deserted coasts. Nothing caught her attention, life went on … the linearity of a Space … outside the young human world, nothing indicated any result of temporary nodes. Everything was so … normal. A Space within a defined time … life … there was no evidence that …
Aenea focused then on humans, split in this Space into two groups, not including Servants. The latter not only lived outside the City, but their very nature rendered them a group apart from the rest. They lived in Circle Zero … this outdated area … when the Elders had not yet taken the name “Elders” … immemorial times … Servants were pursuing a goal only known to them, in the shadows. The nine Servants were there, static; nothing had changed. They seemed impervious to anything that did not relate to them. One day, perhaps, they would disclose their identities.
For now, nothing pointed to their involvement, so Aenea left them alone, leaving, at the same time, the feeling of oddity she felt after approaching them.
She peeked towards the lake, the descendants of the couple she had transferred from Space O. several cycles ago. They lived and died as humans, following their linear lives, chasing a future with the dreams of their predecessors. They were still building their little machine in order to move through space. Aenea had helped their ancestors … who wanted to break free of the Space O.’s Machine, right at the time It had imprisoned them … the group had kept that thirst for liberty. In the earlier era, Aenea had continued to transfer humans into this community, so they can develop and grow.
When the genetic crossing had been enough to ensure the group’s survival, she had stopped her contributions. She did not know why she had wanted to help this community, why she had not let the descendants of the Founding Couple die. Specifically, she did not want to admit it to herself. Some things existed already in sufficient numbers without someone naming them, so …
Maybe, one day they would be able to launch that space shuttle. They would then find out that the shuttle would not change anything … but humans liked to chase chimeras. From the Forest, Aenea could admire their construction, and eavesdrop on some conversations. She saw in everyone’s body traits the trace of their forebears, the influence of different waves of population migration that brought them to that place. She observed Alea. Through random genetic crossings, she had kept most of the genes seen in Arya, her remote ancestor.
She inherited her intelligence, her beauty and, more important, her sixth sense. Alea could project herself into the future, imagining better than anyone the psychological makeup that successive inhabitants of the shuttle would have through time. She would perhaps be the instigator of the deferral, which would steer that humanity elsewhere. Aenea observed her working. As usual, Alea’s intuition made her turn towards the Forest, sensing the Gateway’s presence. As if Arya’s brain were still talking through her … and maybe even more.
Aenea saw herself in her. In a completely irrational way, Aenea felt like seeing herself, when she was working on the Space concept, in her overpopulated and squalid underground bunker. Yet, both situations were in no way comparable, although somewhere in the flow of space-time, her bubble of human memory fidgeted whenever she focused on Alea. Aenea left her alone and moved away from the rest of the community. As always, they all focused on their project, but she noted some particular tension. The feeling was light, and yet there … they, too, lived in this Space … they were bound nonetheless … she had to continue.
She then looked at the City. Something dark was at work there … the City was afraid … Aenea watched. She listened to conversations, data the Machine distributed throughout the City, flying Kandrons. She also heard wind in branches, birds singing, the sound of rivers bordering the Periphery. She stared at buildings, people moving back and forth, the reflection of sunlight, the movement of clouds.
The Gateway immersed herself into the essence of the City and its environment. She perceived the frame of the Machine … irregular. Only a major problem could have disturbed the digital flow that much. Aenea analysed what she had just seen, heard and felt … elements gathered up like a mental puzzle in order to reconstruct … reality.
She then felt, rising in her mind, a distinct plea. Young humans were dying … They were committing suicide … they wanted to shorten their lives and succeeded in their purpose. Misunderstanding … .sadness … fear … anger … the City was inundated with powerful emotions. Like a tidal wave, collective sentiments swept everything before them. This was the cause of the disturbance. The Machine endeavoured to preserve the Equilibrium, Aenea could see that through the Machine’s instruction log, but she was unsuccessful so far.
Could that be the origin of the temporary nodes? Was the shockwave of each node crashing groups of human youngsters? Why only young people, and why those children in particular? She then saw the person in charge of solving that mystery, but the solution was out reach for that Special Agent. Children were dying, and a shadow hung over the City, extending to the Forest. Deo echoed that collective feeling. Yet, it could not explain the events, so Aenea wanted to know why.
The Gateway merged her mind with Deo’s, to be able to share its life and memories fully. Going backwards through the course of events, she realised that something or someone had done everything possible to make the Phalomera blind. It was only when the clamour of the City got louder that it knew that a problem existed. Yet, even then, it could not perceive suicides, only dull anxiety … crucial elements had been hidden from the Phalomera. It had only found out, thanks to Aenea, thanks to her forays into the depths of the Space. Why had someone been so careful to keep the Phalomera away? More important, who or what was interested in keeping things that way? Deo had no response. The Phalomera had just unearthed some parts of the truth that had been hidden from it. The Forest shuddered. The long spin
e of trees criss-crossing the planet was replete with perplexity, coupled with the pervading fear … with also a hint of resentment. Why had someone kept the Phalomera away?
The Gateway continued to explore the Space, looking for clues. While doing so, she reached a souvenir about the Unique Forest that filled her with anguish. Something Deo had carefully hidden from Aenea, which is strange, given that someone also had hidden things from Deo itself … Veils on half-truths … masks on shadows. It was impossible … and yet it was the truth. Again! So many improbabilities … but what else could Aenea expect? Temporary nodes were, in themselves, something no one could conceive.
The Gateway peeked into the brain of the Phalomera, which did not resist. The last time this phenomenon occurred, Deo, shocked by the temporary node it experienced through Cae, revealed itself. Deo had increased its presence in the Forest, and it had become conspicuous, unwillingly. Two chip-powered teens had seen it. The Forest had felt their astonishment, and realised they had seen it. How could they have got so far? City residents never crossed the Periphery … These youngsters had defied authority and found themselves there, exactly at the time Deo had weakened. That could not have been a coincidence.
Those teenagers probably did not know what they had perceived … and yet they had seen the Inter-Space. What impact would that have? The cause-consequence links seemed infinite and uncontrollable. Aenea sought the two teenagers, and found one in the outskirts of the City and the other very close to the Machine. Worlds apart from each other … they were not supposed to have known each other. Aenea could not reach the youngsters, and read in their brains as she did in Alea’s mind … ..She had no way of knowing what the teens had actually seen, and, more important, what they had understood. All these unlikely events … the repercussions were everywhere.
Aenea left the Unique Forest, to focus on her other Space. She wanted to find out the disturbances there. She first curled up on herself, to share with the node what she just had seen. She could not keep all of that to herself. She touched Cae’s brain, then narrated what she had observed in the time-space waves, so that everyone was aware … The current crossed her body, sweeping Aenea’s memories, like a leaf floating on water. She watched her memories spreading around, and closed her eyes. Space O. was waiting.
The Gateway projected herself mentally to Beor. She strolled across the Ocean, flowing between continents. Here, too, there were numerous land parcels devoid of human life. Colder temperatures here had cause the disappearance of deserts and jungles, leaving ice blocks expand. The pale sunlight touched the snowy expanses without heating them. Unlike Space H., however, the City covered an entire continent, as if the harsh climate had caused people to excel. Only the Ocean was a strong-enough barrier to block the development of human constructions. The City had spread from its point of origin to the beaches the Ocean was licking.
Buildings and residences formed a dark and continuous spot on the ground, surrounded by salty water. The Machine’s thick frame carried a permanent stream of digital data, darkening Aenea’s vision. The Gateway moved around in the Ocean, surveying desert parcels before focusing on the City. There were Pillars, but … no … that did not make sense, for now.
She watched the residents, scrutinised the data in the digital frame … as she did in Space H., immersing herself in the City’s quintessence. She listened, looked intently, feeling the rhythm of the Ocean waves, but did not notice anything abnormal. Everything seemed in place, life went on as usual, human beings lived and died … No trace of the fear Aenea felt in Space H.
Here, children did not die collectively. Here, the Machine’s thick frame was regular, reflecting a preserved Equilibrium. This Space did not seem affected by temporary nodes … Why was Space H. the only one affected? What special features did it have? Rather, what kept Space O. away from the disturbances? The answers to these questions were crucial.
Aenea stared at a group of hybrids for a moment. With their electronic components, they all were small machines, extensions to the Machine, which had thus gained power. For now, they still thought of themselves as humans, but they saw their human part dwindled from one generation to another. Was that that protected them from the temporary nodes? No human group in H. had chosen that path … Where humans in this Space had progressed, those living in the H. had stopped at the first stage. Their chips were only information-transmission tools, with some limited control programs. Perhaps that choice had sealed the future of Space H … Hybrids were immunised … not the humans … who were facing the disturbances … children were dying. Was the solution so obvious?
The Gateway continued her observation. The thickness of the artificial frame blurred her sight in some places. Underneath Aenea, hybrids … there. She noticed suddenly a major change. Space O. had been hit, too … necessarily. The hybridisation process had greatly accelerated. So far, except for the earlier generations, changes occurred through genetic selection, allowing an increased number of microprocessors implanted through the skin. There, before her, Aenea saw, like in earlier cycles, countless cases of surgery. Hybrids wanted to become machines, even faster …
There they were, the disturbances! When did this hybridisation frenzy start? For what purpose? She touched the black layer, filled with digital data, and sought information. The Gateway found nothing conclusive, and yet there was no way the Machine had not been aware of these developments. Or was this another sign of the imbalances that the temporary nodes generated? Aenea looked again in the data stream. The explanation had to be there … Aenea found traces of the latest generation of hybrids in the data stream, but nothing about the reason for their existence.
As if they had appeared spontaneously, as if surgeries performed were not the product of someone’s decision … Yet another impossibility. For the Machine, everything was fine … the Equilibrium held … everything was in order. However, the humans the Machine was supposed to monitor were morphing into machines faster and faster … The Machine knew, but did not consider these facts as … absurd. Everything was normal … and, therefore, approved.
Aenea scrutinised the hybrids, one by one, and noticed the effects of rapid mutations. As in earlier cycles, many people were dying from the surgical operation. Only a few survived, with arms and legs completely covered with second, artificial skin. The sufferings they had endured, and were still enduring, were huge. Aenea saw those whose surgery request was denied being ostracised from society.
Although they were still hybrids, those whose layer of microprocessors did not exceed forearms were kicked out of the Machine’s Inner Circle. They were no longer part of the elite, but still felt disdain for non-hybrid humans living in the Periphery. Rejected by some, rejecting others, these depressed hybrids lived in a mental ghetto.
Without revolt, they seemed to accept their fate … Aenea had no time to dwell on them more. She got closer to a state-of-the-art hybrid, to eavesdrop on his thoughts. Microprocessors covered his limbs but also a section of his torso. He was the most advanced in the transformation process, and his peers looked at him with fear and admiration.
The Gateway listened in. The thoughts were more binary than analogue, more digital than organic...How could Beor not have heard that? The Mempheragog opened up its mind to Aenea. The latter found, as she did with Deo, that someone or something had concealed the information as long as possible. Again. Someone or something had made sure she did not see anything, and that was obvious. In addition, the process operated simultaneously in both Spaces.
What should Aenea ignore? Without the problem of temporary nodes, she would not have immersed herself so much in the Spaces … they were the consequence and not the cause … of disturbances and the third Space … the implications … Aenea felt dizzy.
Lost in thoughts, she barely noticed the message coming from the space-time stream. The Time was not right … How could the current issue this warning? The stream only carried information on Level-2 Gateways … Aenea had enquired earlier, to find out if others had hear
d of temporary nodes. She had received no response … but she just filed her recollection of she had seen in Space H … .and her mental flow had continued to pour, unbeknownst to Aenea...perhaps there lay the response. Yet … Why now? Why had no one answered her questions so far?...and the space-time replied … Now, she knew. She was not alone. Other Gateways knew … the space-time notified her. The network was there.
The time was not right, the network announced … the acceleration of hybridisations were a consequence of temporary nodes within Space O., as were children’s suicides in Space H. And there was this force preventing Aenea from getting such knowledge in both Spaces … Now that she was aware of all this, and given the fact that she had strengthened her connection with other Gateways, Aenea pondered. How could she differ the Space, the source of all these evils? Especially, how?
The Machine … the discussion with the Kandron. She turned again towards Space H. She crossed, through her arms, the node’s edge in order to grip her fingers to the artificial frame.
“Connection request received. What is your question?”
“Which Space is generating the temporary nodes?”
“The Equilibrium is master.”
“Is the Equilibrium a Space?”
“The Equilibrium is master; it is the end and the means.”
“What is the connection to the temporary nodes?”
“The node of the Gateways is nothing but a link, an identical place in a different time. Time is the same for the Equilibrium. Links are therefore different places.”
