As the shuttle approached Albion, Doctor Aelfwyrd returned the windows to real-time. Beneath the station, he could see the roofs and holding pen where the patients were being kept. His morning update had told him that there were five thousand men, women, and children waiting for him already. The facility could comfortably fit more than ten times that number, and he had serious concerns about whether that would be big enough when all was said and done. He supposed it all depended on what the turnover rate worked out to be.
5
PRESENT DAY
One of the monsters which Charlie had knocked to the floor was beginning to stir. The second one, which had bled out on the marble so much, wasn’t moving at all. There was a decent distance between the two men and any of the other creatures, but at least two of the beings seemed to be aware and slowly moving closer.
Charlie grabbed Aelfwyrd by the shoulder and pushed him in the direction of the command center. He then jumped in front and led the way.
“You don’t remember being President at all?” Aelfwyrd asked.
“Not really.”
“Do you at least remember writing the Accomplishments of Humanity?”
“I’m not really a writer. If I had something to say, it would be a song.”
“Fascinating. I feel like I know who you are better than you do. Imagine if you had a conversation with Da Vinci and he said he didn’t have any interest in art yet. You have been plucked out of time before you actually became yourself. There must be glimpses. Do you have any memories which don’t quite make sense? Pieces?”
“Buddy, you have no idea what I just went through. I fought a war. I killed a giant robot – no, not just a giant robot, I killed the king of giant robots. I don’t know what the powers that be told you about me, but I’d be hard pressed to ever do anything as important as that.” Charlie smirked.
“Yeah, that was important, but you redesigned society. Your writings -”
They walked past a white and red sculpture of a dragon. It was about ten feet high. There were dozens of miniature people riding the animal, all carved into the stone together. At the base of the dragon there was a cloud which spilled out onto the ground. From behind the dragon there was movement and one of the monsters could be seen trying to find his way around to get at the two men. The stone was between it and the men, but the enemy was only about four feet away.
Charlie peered at the pacing creature through the openings in the design. He tried to lock eyes with it. “Can you understand me at all? Do you speak? I don’t know what happened to you, but I don’t want to fight.”
The alien hissed at him, like a cat or a snake. It threw its body against the statue so hard that it seemed like the creature might knock it over or break it. The marble didn’t budge. The creature threw itself against it again. The second time looked like it hurt, and the monster started howling like a baby.
“He can’t understand you, Charlie, and that screaming’s gonna bring them all down on us.” Aelfwyrd readied his polearm, and took a step away.
“Darn it. I don’t know what to believe. You were trying to kill me a little while ago. Yesterday I was freezing to death in Alaska. The day before that my…friends were still alive. I’m not just a gun that strange forces can point and make me kill. I’m not that man.”
The creature was bleeding from cuts and scrapes on its arms, face, and chest. Leaning against the dragon’s body, it began to find its way around the carving.
Behind the men, two more of them were much closer than expected. Yet another could be seen about ten meters to the right.
Aelfwyrd growled. “I don’t need to know anyone’s politics to know that people who try to eat us deserve to get put down. If we survive, we can talk about the plight of the endangered Alaskan Cthulus till we pass out. Let’s just get there.”
The creature behind the statue had finally found his way around. He threw his arms and head up triumphantly and howled. As he did so, the loose and groping flesh lashed to his bones billowed like a sail in the air above him.
Aelfwyrd ran forward. He rammed the medieval weapon deep into the alien’s belly. He struck so hard that he momentarily lifted the creature up off of its feet. And when he let go, he fell forward just in front of the monster. His hands were bleeding. The creature was spasming, vomiting, and dying.
Charlie helped Aelfwyrd to his feet and pulled him away from his victim.
There was then a sound like an electric synthesizer and a burst of heat. A flash of blue so quick that neither of them were sure they actually saw it caused both men to whip their heads around.
Another one of the creatures lay dead only a short distance away. A large metal spike, about two hand-spans long, had been driven through its face. The monster wasn’t moving.
The men watched as a second spike was fired at the next creature. It shot out along a line of blue electricity and sliced through the neck of the alien. As the projectile traveled, it made a sound which made Charlie think of old fashioned techno music, like his grandma used to play.
“Captain!” a woman’s voice shouted out.
There were two women up ahead next to a fountain. One of them was a short busty woman with brown hair. Her hair was held back in place by dark over-sized goggles. She was holding a rifle of some sort, which suggested she had been the shooter. She was dressed in tight battle-armor, like a space-age SWAT.
The second woman had long curly black uncombed hair, a bee’s nest of knots and tangles just this side of qualifying as dreaded. Her skin was an unnatural deep red, like a bloody sunset. She looked Mediterranean - underneath the alien coloration. She wore some of the same armor as the first woman, and held one of the same guns, but her armor wasn’t latched up in the front and she didn’t bother with half of the pieces. She wore a white blouse under her armor which was open all the way down to her belly-button. Her hair and the fabric of her blouse blew dramatically in the breeze, as if she had just walked out of a 20th century music video. She was a little overweight, but carried herself as if she didn’t care. At first Charlie didn’t notice, but as he watched her for a while he could see that she had a thin red tail, hairless except for a tuft of black hair on the end.
The brown-haired woman aimed her gun again off in the distance and fired again. The men couldn’t see her target, but it cried out when she hit. In five seconds she had fired three more times and made three more kills at distance.
Aelfwyrd pointed at them and whispered to Charlie. “Based on the briefing, I would guess that the one with the gun is named Sally Brightly. She was an explorer. The second woman is probably Kalligeneia Athanas. I…. I want to talk to her. I understand she was involved in genetics a long time after my day.”
“Yeah, she looks like her genes were spliced with a tomato.”
Aelfwyrd smiled. “A rather sexual tomato, obviously.”
The two women walked slowly over. Without breaking stride for more than a heartbeat, Brightly took aim and downed another one of the creatures as they approached.
Sally saluted the captain. Kalligeneia smiled flirtatiously at him, as if she thought they shared some inside joke. Her teeth were bright white. Her tongue was purple, in contrast with her crimson skin. As she smiled, Charlie had the impression he was coming face to face with a predator.
“Captain. Sally Brightly, 2232. We’ve been looking everywhere for you. I see that you’ve regenerated,” Sally sounded eager, energetic, and by the books.
Charlie saluted her back. “I’m sorry. I don’t know any of you. My briefing -”
Kalligeneia sighed. “Yes, we all know about the holes in your memory. We’ve been through this before, and we can see you’re wearing your birth gown again. Well, I’m Kalligeneia Athanas, 2362. It’s always a pleasure to meet you for the first time, Charlie. I hope death wasn’t too painful this time.”
“What’s happening? What are these creatures?” Charlie asked.
Kalligeneia explained, “We call them Mud Men. We found them living on the beach
on a nearby world. They were chewing and biting and ripping their way through a green ocean filled with alien flesh. We brought them here, improved them, and set them to work. We taught them to be gentle, to work, to clean, to use the kitty litter. The control collars seem to have malfunctioned.”
“Can we make the collars work again?” Aelfwyrd asked.
“You’re the one I’d ask about that,” Kalligeneia smiled. “They’re yours. You built them.”
Aelfwyrd nodded. “In that case, I’ll need to see my notes.”
Kalligeneia laughed. She had a big and healthy laugh. She explained, “When we die, everything we’ve written disappears too. There are no notes, no books, no records. We can only read what we have safely tucked between the folds of our brains.”
“I thought this was supposed to be an exploration mission?” Aelfwyrd asked.
Sally looked at him sympathetically. “That’s what we were all told. But when we die, our writings are gone. But in any case, there’s no way to ever send any messages back to Earth, so if this is an exploration mission, it’s a message in a bottle. We will never get to report back. Earth will never learn anything about what we do.”
Aelfwyrd looked at Charlie. “The capital then?”
“No. We’ve got to go and get Allambree first, and whoever else might be trapped in there. Sally, there’s a large Australian man trapped in the Genesis Chamber with those monsters. Are you up for a rescue?”
“Ready and willing,” she beamed.
6
There were three more Mud Men milling about outside of the Genesis Chamber. As they approached, Sally Brightly took aim and scored yet another headshot with her drive-rifle. She smiled as she burst the creature’s head open. She squeaked. Her mouth was open and her clean white teeth flashed. This was fun for her. It was thrilling.
Aelfwyrd grabbed Charlie by the arm. “How many of these are we going to need to kill?”
Charlie frowned. The idea bothered him.
Aelfwyrd continued, “If these were our workers, maybe we should save them so they can get back to work eventually?”
Charlie called out. “Sally, what do we know about the control collars?”
“They’re David’s work. His notes will all be gone, but I’m sure he’ll be able to figure it all out again eventually.”
“And how many Mud Men did we have working on the ship?”
Kalligeneia answered. “Almost 350. That number might be closer to 300 by now.”
“I don’t want to kill them.” Charlie’s voice was pleading.
Sally was confused. “What about Allambree? He’s a good man. He’s our friend. You may not remember but -”
Charlie raised his hand, cutting her off. “We don’t have to kill three hundred people to save him.”
“They’re not people, sir.” There was laughter in Sally’s voice.
“They’re not robots either. If we were using them as slaves, then we’re the ones in the wrong. We have a responsibility to end this as peacefully as we can, and then take them back where we got them.”
Sally was disappointed. “Captain, we’ve got to save Allambree. We’ve got to find the rest of the crew. And after that, who’s going to do the digging?”
Charlie turned to Aelfwyrd. “There must be a central device which controlled the collars. Would you be able to figure it out?”
Aelfwyrd reached up and thoughtfully pushed the red tufts of hair away from his face. “This technology is more advanced than anything I’ve ever seen. But if I built them, I should be able to. Maybe we could make them go to sleep and just stop fighting?”
Sally stomped. “I’ll be darned and ironed if I’m gonna let them keep hurting Allambree, sir.”
Charlie turned to Kalligeneia. “Where would we find what we’re looking for?”
“David has a lab near worker housing. He experimented on their bodies there.” Her face suggested that she expected the second sentence to shock the captain.
“Where’s worker housing?
Kalligeneia gave the men directions and it was arranged that she and Sally would rescue Allambree while Charlie and Aelfwyrd went to try and restore the control collars. Charlie gave them orders to secure and defend the Genesis Chamber in case anyone else woke up there.
Aelfwyrd and Charlie quickly and quietly made their way over an ornate bridge covered with images of planets and stars. The various orbs blew in the wind and their spinning created a soft whispering. Each orb played a different note, like wind-chimes.
“We have beautiful women on our ship.” Aelfwyrd noted.
“Yeah, and some seriously ugly monsters.”
“They’re the same to you, aren’t they? You’d fight to protect the monsters just the same as the women, wouldn’t you?”
Charlie thought for a moment before he answered. “No, I wouldn’t say that. But the Mud Men aren’t worthless. They’re living creatures.”
“They have a purpose?” Aelfwyrd offered.
“I don’t like thinking that’s the point of living beings. It’s not about how useful we are. People shouldn’t be just tools.”
“It’s strange that on a ship where you’re the captain we have over three hundred slaves.”
“Mighty peculiar.”
“Can you imagine why you would have approved it – maybe ordered it?”
“Like you said, not easily. Not lightly. It’s contrary to everything I believe.”
Aelfwyrd chuckled. “How queer that we would find ourselves puzzling over the decisions and motivations of our own selves. These creatures were enslaved because you wanted them to be. And me, I apparently murdered you dozens of times and I have no godly idea why I would have done that. Even my notes are evaporated. And why would that be? Why would the god-like future-people who made this ship set up a system which deleted the notes of an exploration mission? It’s a puzzler.”
They came upon an enormous statue of lions fighting one another. The muscular cats were all piled up biting and scratching and rolling over one another. There had to be hundreds of the lions, each at least as big as a real one. The work of art itself was more than forty feet high. The lions’ bodies were made of the same white stone as the rest of the city, but their eyes were blue and yellow and green, of incredible detail. They looked like living eyes, not simulations.
“You made it possible for humans to live on Mars?”
“I did. I changed the human design. Terraforming was a wonderful dream, but harder in practice than anyone dreamed. Oh, you could make things a little nicer, a little more favorable, but in the end it was better to give men skin that could process the radiation, lungs which could make use of what they were given, and bones more appropriate for the local gravity.”
“What’s Mars like?”
“Cold. Big. Empty. I could really think on Mars. It was never full of people and animals. Even with my work, it never would be. There were natural limitations which meant there would never be billions of starving and screaming unwashed citizens with nothing to give minding your business.”
“Is that how you really think of people?” Charlie had a sour look on his face, like he had just sucked on a lemon.
“Honestly? Most of them. There were too many people in the world and no point in them. Look, there are only so many jobs to go around when you have a society. How many actors can there be when thirty billion people will all see the same movies? How many novelists do you need? The construction is all automated. After a while, even most scientists are just doing the exact same thing as a thousand others. It’s the black swans, the people like us. The only purpose to having so many people is that marginal increase in odds that someone worth-while might be born.”
Charlie stopped walking. “You’re wrong. You’re not the future I fought The Machine to make possible.”
“I am. Because of my work, by the time I retired there were over ten million men, women, and children living on Mars who all carried the DNA I had written. And after my time? Titan, Europa, the Asteroi
ds. I bet there were people swimming on Neptune. Humanity could go forth into other solar systems and galaxies your telescopes didn’t even know about, and every one of those people contained just a little bit of my invisible genius hand, literally my microscopic signature. Allambree, he’s eight feet tall and he lived most of his life on an alien world breathing alien air and exploring the ruins of a dead alien civilization. It was my work which made his birth possible.”
“But the point of human beings is not simply how useful they are.”
Aelfwyrd laughed. “So, what is it? How much they love one another? How many believe in Santa Claus with all of their hearts? Look at the language. There was never a knife or a sword whose point wasn’t intended to slide into a being. ‘Points’ are sharpened for stabbing, especially the points of human lives.”
“You know, when I killed that robot. I was destroying a tyrant who wanted to make a world which was nothing but useful and efficient and didn’t see any place for organic life at all. You and he could’ve made great pals.”
Aelfwyrd started walking again, slowly. “You’ve got me wrong. I believe in organic life. I believe in people. I believe in you. You’re a hero of mine. You wrote about higher goals. You didn’t think men and women should spend their whole lives struggling to feed their families and put roofs over their heads. You said that when that was held up as the ultimate dream, almost no one ever managed to do anything better. I might not have gotten the chance to do my work if you hadn’t civilized the world in your day.”
Charlie smirked. “Don’t blame me. I don’t remember any of that.”
They walked between two rows of trees, real trees. They were all tall and straight and strong, covered with leaves, and looked to be at least a century old. The bark was thickly covered with a flowering vine which Charlie could not identify. Charlie could see and smell a sweet sap dripping from the wood. There were animals living in the vines. Some of them looked like fluorescent chipmunks or squirrels. There were butterflies and at least one spider. The flowers could be seen dimly glowing red when the shadows from above covered them. Charlie imagined that if there had been no light coming from the green and blue sky above then the glowing flowers and mammals would have been enough to light the path.
The Secrets of the Universe (Farther Than We Dreamed Book 1) Page 5
