First Light: Book one of the Torus Saga

by Berg, Michael

  The population had effectively helped them to easily make things happen. En-masse often without the slightest hesitation, they had turned to the technology offerings and welcomed the sense of security it offered in their individual quests for status. Status was not simply a work thing. It was also the accumulation of wealth seen as higher and higher quality – and of progressing in life mirrored by residential level in the high rise. With the invention of medical nano technology for the maintenance of healthy bodies and longer lives…of consumption, it was too irresistible to the minds of many.

  Deployment of hardware was proceeding on schedule across all nations - managed by their individual governments. Lock down of humanity was occurring, and so for those few in authority who took these decisions, it would soon be the realization of their desires for the ultimate level in status. And those who were not close behind them, and of such similar ilk, were most envious of those who could put themselves forever out of reach.

  Within days, the deployment would be in place and they would soon make apparent to the population, what they have in store for them. People would walk past some of this each and every day, often many times, not realizing it was there at all, completely oblivious through distraction with their personal holographic devices. The authorities would stun the people - so extraordinary their machines, and then the people would soon see efficient reason. What they had to offer would become their ultimate desires. They would never be alone – they would be connected. They could do so many things for pleasure, for sex, for taking the human sensual experience beyond their minds. It would be alluring and provocative, seductive and regretable.

  They had studied what made people work best to want status, to see themselves apparently having personal choice over their individual sense of wealth. They had probed and tested the bodies of some to develop tiny machines for the sake of sensation, in places where no one had ever been before. And so they were about to offer these and so much more for everyone, and then would have control, based on need to satisfy desire in competing for status.

  “In two months, all payment systems will be online. Take your cash now to your closest registered bank for conversion to identification chip credits. No cash will be accepted for credit after this time.” This was amongst the new measures put in place, with others announcing the conversion of insurance and investments to an assessed chip credits value.

  “Private material property will not be affected. Own what you like, own what you can,” was another.

  Amongst this, Superior Officer One was feeling more and more unsure about the path ahead for her. She didn’t much care for money itself - it was a by-product of her climb to status, which in effect was a climb to entitlement. There were no elaborate possessions at her home, as she was more of simple tastes, preferring those few objects of some meaning to her. She had no idea of the extent of change about to come – she only knew there would be a crackdown to make people work hard and efficiently. The depths of machinery standing motionless awaiting activation were not considered for she was entirely unaware of them. In fact, most officials were – even her superior only knew of something great about to appear. What it was precisely he did not know, but he did know it was tempting and despite his own apparent stance on emotion, he had desire, and his desire required temptation and the temptation would lead to even more desire.

  She sat at her usual station, as the report from Germany was sufficient enough for her to keep her job, but the advice she had seen yet not apprehended Raynie and the others did nothing to elevate her status. This issue was immediately addressed upon her return, but it was not affecting her as much as she would have thought prior to going to Germany. She felt somewhat at a loss, lacking the motivation to be at her station and feeling a little like just getting away - even keeping her job had lost its luster. It too looked as cold and as grey as the lighting filling the cities now. She had liked the colors of the lights before, but now all looked flat, and so did her life.

  **********

  John was becoming fed up with the torture. “What do you know about flux mechanics?” The question came again and again, and each time he refused to answer, they would torture him with injected nano technology burning him at his nerve endings. He screamed each time the instant it came on, but nobody could hear – they had him in a locked space helmet.

  Initially they offered him an easy way to comply and promises of a better life, but he would have none of it. So now, though he was a resilient man, he was being taken to new extremes. Deep in his spirit he remained vigilant, holding on for he would never give them what they wanted. He knew they would use flux technology to construct powerful vortex amplifiers, which could be used as weapons. John was about the only person alive to have sufficient knowledge to take humanity to this level of technological evolution – he was the leader, the expert. The authorities knew this after tracking him and piecing his personal profile together. His stealth unit for masking his flight path from Alaska, had been his biggest give away – though unknown to John himself. Its’ mere presence had alluded them to his potential, and they already knew of his work in the services where he pioneered the first research into faster light flux technology, and now they wanted him back.

  Pursuit of John and his companions was not a mere incent of tracking and reprimanding dissidents – they knew the Torus was powerful as their own investigations into atomic acceleration had provided insight into this, even if it was only at the preliminary level. John Matheson was the person they knew had their ability to help them realize even more than they were about to unleash upon people, and as such they would do anything to extract this information from him.

  After each session, when he was thrown into the cell where the others simply waited day by day, they would hold him and comfort him during the time he took to recover from the brutal measures of torture they played out. Tobias, John, Lorraine, and Asper all had identification chips now, with each chip containing their correct identifications – it had been done moments after they were arrested in London.

  This time though, they were not going so easy on him. They wound up the machines inside his body to release a pulse, so searing it could take him to the verge of life and death. He could not scream this time - there simply was nothing inside him to express the torture. He began to slip into a void with images of his fears and emotions flashing around him. It was their way of literally torturing him to the edge of death with both pain of body and of heart. Then, when he felt like surrender to misery would be the only option, they switched them off and he was brought fully back to the grey light overhead.

  “What do you know about flux mechanics?” He could not answer – he simply did not have the energy.

  When he was taken back to the cell after this torture session, he was unconscious by the time he arrived into his friends waiting arms.

  Next morning before any interrogation session could commence, they took him to a laboratory and inserted a device to probe his thoughts that could be turned on and off at their will. He could feel the device searching his thoughts, and his memories – seeking the knowledge of flux mechanics. The authorities had information on flux but were missing vital components, and they feared vulnerability without all the information about the technology John possessed.

  But John continued to resist. His mind strongly connected to his heart, fought the erratic stabbings into his thoughts. When these impulses came much stronger when he began to consider flux technology, he had to fight hard to resist their intrusion into the deepest areas of his mind. So strong and sudden the incursions were, he was startled by them and instantly had to redirect his mind elsewhere. He relied on his connection to his heart and thought of Chris. How sad it had been after all he had done for his son, but he never gave into sadness – determined there would always be a choice, or a response. And it was the responses now to his intentions, to his feelings that he used to fight off the intruder.

  **********

  A new announcement was broadcast via
personal and public holographic devices, and to work station holographic banks everywhere. “Today is the final day to have your identification chip injection. Failure to have the injection at your prescribed time will result in your arrest and require the payment of heavy fines.” Superior Officer One read it to herself and rubbed her arm where she had her own device, installed some months prior. To-date, it had not really concerned her and she had noticed no change in her life. As soon as she was injected, and as standard procedure for officers in the service, her entire data file became available and she was required to only use chip credits for payments.

  This announcement also meant operations at the facility would increase due to the inevitable numerous arrests about to take place. It would be a lot of hard work processing and interrogation people, overseeing Agents, and managing the entire affair according to the policies of efficiency her superiors wanted from her. And its appeal seemed even flatter than before, if such a thing was possible.

  Her life had become empty now as she realized how empty it was, and also how empty it had been for years. Her music was her sole solace against it, and now she saw herself as a sad lonely person who sought one thing, one thing of harmony amongst all this…one lonely person. The system to which she was so attached, had effectively driven most of the life out of her as she saw the truth in her ways – the daily job, the façade barking orders, all seemed futile and lacking. All it gave her was some comfort at home being higher than most others, therefore having a view – but it was a view out onto a suppressed and suffering city, so it was not a good view. Over years she would repeat the same thing over and over – a little part of her wanting variety, but such things are difficult to expect from such repetition. When she thought of herself many years ahead, she was old and no longer in the service and therefore would no longer be seen as efficient. She would lose any position in the struggle for higher status, instead left to hopefully quickly leave this world after spending her twilight years consuming what she could.

  But a fire had become alight inside and now she saw its flame. She had let the others go in Germany and she had been feeling all of this since the chance meeting at the institute. She had not lost all hope for in fact, she had been given some. It was invigorating in the sense it made her question, and it made her wonder, as she felt a sense of exuberance.

  When at last her day at work was over, she took time to walk the public passageways on her way home. She stopped at times to watch people moving about, distracted with their destinations and passing by the many small wonders even to be found at the hearts of cities – wonders remaining unseen and unfelt. She could hear the holographic broadcast advertising the latest technology upgrades with their messages of assurance to the fear based people. She could see fear on some of their faces – not the fear of danger, but the fear of losing status, the fear coming from dependency. It was in their eyes for their faces were not lined with the wrinkles of experience – the nano technology took care of any such disfigurement.

  When she did finally arrive home, she just went to the window and sat, staring at the view. The city did not sparkle in the dusky light. It was dying in a way, its silhouette now dull and flat against the distant horizon over the ocean to the west. It was becoming a remnant of what it was - a shadowy memory and a shadowy beginning.

  As the time of nine passed and the city became still, she wondered if there were any other faces behind the many windows she could see, and if they too, were seeing the same. But something inside her told her there would not be so many as she would have liked and this would sadden her, so she looked away and realized what the sense of invigoration the others had given her in Germany, actually was.

  She could feel compassion for life, for things, for people. She could feel empathy about why the others had tried to avoid getting the identification chip. She could feel there was a connection, and it was nearly the first time ever – so far as she was from the innocent natural connections in childhood.

  Memories were returning and they rekindled the fire as it burned brighter with each feeling, each recollection, and it invited her to seek more within its flame. It was then when she decided there would be no more. No more of the daily grinding of her work now utterly pointless to her. No more pandering to the superiors condescending ways – she too had done this to Agent Eight, and whilst she had no regard for him, she felt a sense of regret in having acted this way. The power of position was flimsy, so dependent on compliance forced upon others for its immature ways. She would leave it all. She had no fears, as a simple resignation would be acceptable by those superior in office to her.

  What she would do, she did not immediately know, and for a brief moment she felt a pang of excitement. She did not care. Leaving the high-rise level she was on would not matter, as the view lacked appeal from any level to her now. But could she do anything for the others? She had been advised of the arrest in London, but since it had no involvement with the observation in Germany, it did not come with any congratulatory notice for an efficient job well done. She did not have an answer and she felt saddened at their plight, particularly the torture of John. Whatever it took though, she would try to do something, somewhere, somehow…

  She resigned first thing in the morning. Notice was not applicable as the authorities could immediately fill her role. Her superior questioned her on why she was resigning, “I suppose you do not have the taste for what we are about to do?”

  “No, it is not a taste, it is I feel I lack the will to be efficiently my best.”

  “A noble reason for the cause, but not your entire reason, if in fact, any part of your reason at all. I see fire in your eyes where I have not before. Not the fire of command. No, the fire of indifference where the flame flickers and your thoughts wander. Know that such things will soon be compressed into limited experiences based on expectations brought on as a provision by the authorities.”

  “I know what is coming…of sorts.”

  “And do you object to it?”

  “No.” It was the truth, she had no actually felt objection, as she had instead focused on the flame. Her superior could see she was telling the truth.

  “Then what will you do?”

  “I have thought about that. Under this new way of life, it will still be possible to own a private dwelling…”

  “For a while.” She knew his interjection was correct and in that a few years the authorities had scheduled the shutting down of private ownership rights.

  “Um...I am thinking of a private dwelling in a smaller city, or town away from San Francisco. I have enough chip credits and I can get employment.”

  “You know you will still be bound to authority policy for retention of classified information…and you will be checked periodically for this.”

  “Yes I am. Don’t bother yourselves though, I hardly know enough to be a security threat and nor would I want to be. I just want to leave the services quietly and peacefully.”

  “Hmmm.” He looked her face up and down. “I see no reason why we should be concerned but that does not mean we will not be doing surveillance on your movements and transactions.”

  “You’ll be doing that anyway,” She was right and he became a little annoyed at having been corrected in such a way.

  “You can go. I will not wish you the best for your future, nor will I thank you for your service. I simply say one last thing to you, “Be ready, very ready for what is about to happen is much more than yourself or Agent Eight could have ever dreamed.”

  She left the office glad it was over. She had no personal items at her workstation so she just walked straight out of the building. She spent the remainder of the day sampling some of the city and did not go home until the evening that day. She sampled foods she had not ever eaten previously, by chance stopping at Fongs’ in China Town. She began to feel life how it was for others not in the services. She saw freedom in their faces, yet she saw the fear still in others. She felt intentions to do something if she could, to avoid losing t
his newly discovered feeling, this new vision of herself.

  Chapter 41

  Chan suggested they all take a field trip as the day wore on. Snow was beginning to melt in places as the sun had passed midday, creating tributary flows of water joining to form larger streams. They noticed the elegance in the simplest of things with the droplets of water dripping off the snow’s melting edges, seeing the momentum as it returned to its original shape. Shaded areas still holding snow, had vapors of mist rising and tangling through the branches above. They noticed all these simple elemental intentions of air and water as they rode upon the invisible waveforms and geometries around them.

  “These places and times feel good. They offer so much alignment and are all about us. It is in noticing these small and simple things that we can feel the connection. And they can respond to us…other life, and forces. See how intricate the connections are as this water gathers. There is always provision, always giving, always the intention for creation of life. These are showing us, though it may not appear so with just a glance, that we are much a part of this. It is with the interrupted ways of people, where most of this is overlooked, and so they experience things not aligned, bringing suffering and need.”

  “What they need without realizing it is to overcome the interruption to the giving nature of elemental intentions. It is to align the mind with this…then connected to the ways of the heart which always gives all times and in all life, and this is the key to aligning with these energies. This is not a belief - it is nothing of such things. It simply is. It exists throughout, but many minds have caused this to be forgotten and are interrupting this flow.”