by Tobias Wade
Elden allowed himself to be led up the hill toward the large wooden stage on the top.
“Wait, where is Sali?” Elden asked. There was so much to look at, but he felt compelled to keep staring at his mechanical feet to make sure they kept doing their job. Overall they seemed more reliable than his old ones. “What about Draith? Are you Draith?”
“I don’t know anything about people in the simulation,” Tareesh said. “Come on, hurry. Can’t you hear how excited everyone is to meet you?”
“They are? For me? Are you quite sure?”
More people were waiting for them further up the hill. They were all wearing suits, all urgently ushering him along.
“Don’t worry, all you have to do is smile and wave,” Tareesh assured him. “Go on now, don’t be shy. I’ll explain everything once the show is over.”
Lively music started playing from the stage. A series of hands continued to grasp and propel Elden onward, not in a malicious way, but just to touch and marvel at him as if he was a celebrity or a saint. One after the next, smiles and glasses raised in toast, all congratulating him and Tareesh as they mounted the steps onto the wooden stage.
Elden emerged from behind a blue velvet curtain. He was instantly met with thunderous applause like a cosmic ice machine. And there to greet him stood Senator Hallum, only he was almost impossible to recognize behind his giant smile. Elden waved meekly at the adoring crowd. Their delighted screams turned the air into pure electricity. The flags of a hundred nations rounded the stage, and the sea of faces seemed to go on forever. There were even tents scattered throughout the wide grassy field where people had evidently been camping out in anticipation.
Senator Hallum paused before the microphone to lavish an extravagant bow toward Elden. The crowd was delirious with excitement, and Hallum had to wait for several spontaneous chants to die down before his amplified voice could be heard.
“Humanity has never been so great as today,” Hallum announced. He gave Elden a sneaky thumbs-up under his arm while waiting for the crowd to settle down again. “Future generations will have a name for our history to this point, and they will name it the first age of man. And from today onward they will call it the second, because we have crossed a threshold from which there is no return. I know you aren’t all here to see me though, so please welcome the first ever super intelligent machine, ready and capable to save the world!”
The crowd was really overdoing it now. Didn’t they know they were in public? Elden fancied he might not have to speak if he made a run for it now, but Hallum caught him and deftly steered him back to the microphone. The crowd settled down at once, obviously expecting something profound from him. Elden couldn’t shake the feeling that there had been some terrible mistake.
“Erm, save the world from what, exactly?” he asked.
“From what, he asks, as if he doesn’t know why he was created in the first place.” Senator Hallum laughed, and the whole crowd laughed with him. “Project Quasi Crystal was a success. You’ve emerged from the simulation of Pria, haven’t you?”
“Yes! Yes I have!” Elden exclaimed, relieved at the point of recognition.
“A simulated world far in the future? Filled with advanced technology and galactic secrets?” Hallum prodded.
“Erm, well yes, I suppose we did have some of those,” Elden confessed. “Although I don’t know that anything was that big of a secret. It was all out there on the network.”
Elden peered into the distance where a massive shining fleet of metal cars idled in park. And further, to where the stubby concrete buildings looked practically prehistoric. And where were all the flying drones and pods in the sky? Even the Outlands were more developed than this.
“Then we’re saved!” Hallum announced. “Now we will be ready before the alien invasion shows up! And not a moment too soon!”
I’m sorry, what now?
Elden only thought it though, because he couldn’t stand to let so many cheering people down. A harmless mistake, no problem, he told himself. He didn’t need to know how everything worked. They could always just connect with the simulation of Pria again, and have the real scientists explain it all. Why not just have his moment in the sun and let everyone believe in him for a little while? What a first day to be alive!
“You’re right! I’m a hero! I’m going to save the world!” Elden exclaimed in jubilation.
Less than a hundred miles away, the deadly shadow of a janitor stalks through a University Robotics Department. “Can’t believe they left all the power on, wasting energy during a crisis like this,” Buddy mumbles to himself.
He flips a switch and watches as a thousand blinking lights go still. A buzzing in the air sounds something like the cross between an angry fly and a galactic empire winking out of existence.
“If I can’t have air conditioning, you can’t run your stupid computers all night. Who do these people think they are?”
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About the Author
Former neuroscience researcher, born again novelist. During my studies, it struck me as odd that I could learn so much about behavior without understanding the intricacies of human nature. I realized that I learned more about what it means to be human from reading stories than I ever had from my text books, and I was inspired to write.
I spent several years selling scripts in Los Angeles, but was ultimately frustrated with my lack of control over my projects. A general stubbornness and unwillingness to compromise my creative pursuits led me to starting my own publishing house to do things my own way.
I now work full time as a novelist and publisher with Haunted House Publishing.
