Evolution

by Saunders, Craig

  Perhaps the sky too, but that fell in behind her and must swirl on such a scale as planets, a universe of atoms changed by her passing but not enough to care. Together we all carry on unaffected but in the smallest ways.

  Nothing has changed. She had walked and walked. She ran for some time and did not sweat or get tired but she breathed and the air tasted good.

  Nightfall? Enough time has passed. She sat and watched a sun set into senility in her mind. Sunsets were for another life. She seemed to remember a sun. Caged. Like her?

  The unchanged land and her sat together. They were one. Or three. Or four maybe – she kept forgetting the earth beneath the grass. Three sounded better in her head though and the dirt would not be offended.

  She resolved not to think about it too hard. Evening for her. A self-enforced ritual. Soon she would try to sleep and go back to the beginning. Nothing had changed. She was the same. She rubbed her arms and wondered if. So many questions a stampede almost if she let them run. She coraled the majority and let one out at a time to the slaughter.

  Nothing changed all day. There was no sun. She had no waste, nor hunger. She was alive but unchanging. She was intact with seed no doubt. These arms and legs and parts and no use for them. Nothing here but her and grass and dirt and air. No end in sight. No sun.

  In her abattoir or nursery she lay each thought to rest with the same uncaring tool. Peace. It does not matter.

  She lay down on a dewy bed and relished the breeze and damp and closed her eyes to orange lights. One deep breath. The world sighed over her. The warm wet earth held her down and she floated.

  She lay down beside the tree.

  A tree?

  It was not there before. She was ready to finish and now beside her was a tree.

  It bore a fruit.

  A single fruit, red and luscious and the shape of something she felt she should have known from before.

  There was nothing else, just the lone fruit, hanging on the tree.

  She reached out.

  *

  Space

  Kyle sat with Orpal. He was heartbroken that she had left him again. Now all he had was Orpal, the gun, the last weapon of the Lore and the Lu. It was more, perhaps, than he deserved.

  He didn’t know where she had gone. It was only to be expected. She had a history of leaving him. But at least when she had left before he knew where she had gone.

  He was bereft.

  Orpal told him that she had stepped from this plane. Kyle set his chin in grim determination. He would find her. No matter what. She might tell him that she didn’t love him but he knew such words would just be lies.

  For now, he needed to know about god’s plane.

  “Orpal, I know you’re not that dumb all of a sudden. Tell me about god’s plane.”

  “What is there to tell, hunter? What would you have me tell you? I know no more about it than I fear you do.”

  “Archeon hinted you know something.”

  “I know enough. That should be enough for you.”

  “But it no longer is. We have become friends, but if, so help me, you knew Cetee would disappear…” Kyle let the thought hang.

  Orpal tried to get his head straight. It wasn’t easy with half his intellect trailing the eggshell ship as waves, hanging on for dear life. Half of what Orpal once was floated in the solar breezes behind the ship. This far out it was a thin wind. The light from the distant suns was just a memory here.

  “Very well, Kyle, I will tell you what I can. Once, long ago, there were fewer great races than there are today. This was before even the first Origin War. Before the age of enlightenment came for humans. Wars were still commonplace. Back then the greatest feat of all time had been the creation of a warp coil, an archeofact that could warp the user out of time and space, to a plane wholly unspoiled by man and war. It was god’s plane. Untouched, pristine and beautiful. It spawned tales across the galaxies and tales for all time, told down the ages by man and robot alike to their offspring, tales that would gather force throughout time. The tales told of a coil – the emitter – that could take the bearer out of time, but only if the bearer was not of man or robot. The races wondered what this meant.

  “Now we know. It was meant for a woman. The Lore remembered well. They told me I would need a woman on my crew. This was why I chose Cetee over other more capable thieves. She was the perfect woman. It had to be the perfect woman to use the piece, and to be the perfect woman she had to know love. That was why I brought you aboard. I don’t know if it is any consolation, but for the emitter to work, Cetee had to love you.”

  “What did you do to her?” asked Kyle.

  “Do? Nothing, my friend. I did nothing to her. I only did what I was bid do by the Lore. Find the emitter and make sure that there was a woman there to handle it. Cetee did the rest. I did not make her turn it on. You saw how Archeon chose one button, Cetee the other. It was just a trick of fate. Perhaps, Kyle, you were not meant to be happy with her.”

  “Well, we’ll never know now, will we?”

  Archeon laid a hand across Kyle’s tense shoulders. “It was not Orpal’s fault, young hunter. It was fate. You must believe in that.”

  The Lu was silent. It merely watched.

  Kyle didn’t know what to believe. The results of the quest for the emitter had been grave for more than just him.

  The Lore as a race were almost wiped out. For now, Orpal had told him, there were more important things to worry about. Orpal promised him there would be a role to play in the reconstruction of the universe.

  Things had to be set straight. Bridges needed to be built, forgiveness granted.

  It is a function of evolution, sweeping away the old, Orpal told him.

  Evolution for the robots had always been faster.

  “Did you make this happen, Orpal?” asked Kyle, once again.

  “What? Cetee’s disappearance?”

  “No, all of it.”

  “Mere serendipity my friend. Glorious and godly, as you would no doubt have it.”

  “God is for fools. We searched for god’s plane and Cetee stole it from us. I no longer believe in god. I believe in you. You did make this happen, didn’t you?”

  Orpal, in his shell personification, smiled the best he could.

  “Then you would have it that I am a god. No machine can be a god. Or all machines are gods. Even the biological. You heard the message as well as I.”

  “But did you do all this? I must know.”

  Orpal granted Kyle a taste of what it must be to be an angel then.

  “Only in the fact that electricity connects us all,” said Orpal. It was all he would say. He took pity on the young hunter. Orpal could always feel pity.

  “I’m sorry you had to find that out, Kyle,”

  Orpal set course for the new world the Enlightened were building. He would find a new slave ship to house his giant intellect there.

  But Kyle looked sullen and hurt.

  Orpal had to give him something. There was no comfort for the godless. He realised that now. It had been a journey even for him, for all his schemes and plots.

  For now he said, “Things change the more you look at them, Kyle. Sometimes if you want something to stick you’ve just got to put it down and walk away. It doesn’t do to look too deep.”

  *

  Epilogue

  Inside/Out

  Exel held its breath and watched in wonder. It saw the birth of the first new child in a billion years. Just over the horizon its children blossomed.

  As the need for the evolution of robots came into view it sighed with pleasure.

  It was worth the wait.

  Within it held Cetee as it passed, from one universe to the next, to seed life there. Its emitter held fast within, and the mother within that. Like an egg within an egg within an egg Exel swam across the sticky space of time and into a new universe. Interuniversal space was malleable. As Exel passed the space and time snapped back into place, and none were the worse for
its passing.

  The new world would be born. It was time for the first species to begin again. This universe no longer needed a god. It was time to move on. In the next universe there would be a god again. At least until god was no longer needed.

  Within its mass Exel copied Cetee, a change here, a snip there, an X to a Y. The second part of the puzzle would drop into place.

  Cetee took the apple.

  A star was born.

  The Lu would have known. The mother always came first. How could it be otherwise?

  Inside and out, the tree of life moved on.

  - end –

  Last page (nearly!)

  S.T. Coleridge

  Time, Real and Imaginary

  An Allegory

  On the wide level of a mountain’s head,

  (I knew not where, but ‘twas some faery place)

  Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread,

  Two lovely children run and endless race,

  A sister and a brother!

  That far outstripp’d the other:

  Yet ever runs she with reverted face,

  And looks and listens for the boy behind:

  For he, alas! is blind!

  O’er rough and smooth with even step he passed,

  And knows not whether he be first or last.

  Characters

  Major

  Archeon – Lore robot. A rogue separated from the group consciousness, although his brethren no longer listen to him he can hear their conversation and is lonely for his former inclusion. The last weapon of the Lore, last used in the first great origin war.

  Cetee – A successful thief. Works for herself. She works not for money but for time, the most valuable currency there is. She has no ulterior motive. Also working with Kyle.

  Genogun – A psycho. Feeds on its wielder’s adrenalin. Shoots egg sacks at its unfortunate prey. A failed Ecentrist experiment.

  Habla’saem – Flabby and sneaky. A ‘socioassassin’, or assassin of societies. Works on a grander scale than your common or garden assassin. Motivated by the greater challenge. Does not take jobs merely for the money.

  Harna Gurn – Sociotheologian. No longer extant. Formerly the husband of Cetee. Mentor to the second greatest theoretical sociologian in the universe, Um’lael Sabreme.

  Works inc.

  ‘Questions and Hypothesis on Living/Comparative Theologic (the nature of belief)’

  ‘Discourse on the Age of Enlightenment’

  ‘Man, Machine and God’

  Kyle – (Jiall Kyle Iris) Collects oddities. The greatest hunter in the Suhrtaeti galaxy. Slightly darker character than he lets on, scarred physically and emotionally by his tutelage at the hands of the Ecentrist missionaries in his youth. Kyle is a traditionalist. Kyle is working for Orpal as he feels obliged. No sense of direction.

  Orpal – Evologist – wants Kyle to go to on a quest for the greatest archeofact of all time, the Cascade emitter. Works for the same group of Robots as Kyle, the Lore. Orpal is a ship. Used to work on the lecture circuits and is a contempary of Harna Gurn.

  The Eyes – The Lu – nameless, disembodied eyes. Formerly an integral part the Lu, otherwise known as the soul guardians.

  The Lu – see above.

  Minor

  4/45 – Dead/lore.

  7/23 – Alive. Lore.

  Asroth – Youngest brother of the triumvirate, the Ecentrist rulers.

  Azrael – Zealot.

  Baal – Second oldest brother of the triumvirate.

  Baal’em –Oldest brother of the triumvirate.

  Cablas – Tradition Archeog.

  Colm – Long-haired peacenik.

  Exel – (Pronounced ‘eshel’) – space station.

  Fundilan mar Bren – Famous mathematician.

  Michael – Ecentrist zealot. Deceased.

  Miriandianda – Tradesperson.

  Um’lael Sabreme – Lecturer.

  uril ‘mar galad – Cadet.

  Y’mal – x’thalian conscioform.

  Societies

  Ambiots/nanides

  Submicroscopic races. The nanide is the robot equivalent of the biologically based ambiot.

  Enlightened – the humans

  An advanced society of humans, with many sub-sects and sub-societies. They have no ruling body, but revere their student classes and the lecture circuits are the centres for all new thought. They are a generally peaceful society but are well suited to war when it comes to them.

  Sub – Galadans – rare enlightened who lived in seclusion and chose flat worlds rather than planets

  Sub – Merctile enforcers. Enforce trading laws across the universe for the Enlightened.

  Sub – the Cove

  Sub – Armists

  Sub – Hedonals (subsub – eudemonists)

  Sub – Karrismen

  The Ecentrists – Believe that they are supreme. They believe that robots are gods, and that humans are mere animals.

  Sub – gargoyles

  Sub - zealots (ships)

  Sub – Cardinals (ships)

  Sub – Seraphs (ships)

  Sub – inquisitor

  Sub – missionary

  Sub – piout

  The Lore – Will not harm other sentient beings. Behave, by and large, like all manner of physical life. Believe all life was made equal.

  Sub – Archeons

  Sub – Caste ships

  The Tradition – believe they were created by humans and that it is their duty to serve, apart from those ships which are classed ‘independents’, which do not serve the Enlightened.

  Sub – alkydrone

  Sub – maintenbot

  Sub – Archeog

  Sub – sentibots

  Races (Beasts)

  Anwi – Symbiotic/servile relationship with the Yonpan.

  Gaigan – Dinosect.

  Gat Moriumthraite – A massive winged beast of Irandril Thirma, the blasted planet.

  Glasiandan – Immensely glandular empathic race.

  Gu gnat – Pesky nibbling beasts.

  Gutwomp – Glutons of great repute. Generally characterized by sharp distinctively coloured coats and prized for gutwomp racing.

  hrun – Beast similar to the hran.

  Humdringals – Singing birds with short purple talons and rounded beaks for high notes.

  Huminans – Ape like humans of Cova il Prime the Second.

  Hunigna – A race of humanoid creatures from the Irithian spiral.

  Jaril Doons – Diminutive people of from the Irithian spiral.

  Joon bugs – Exploding first level caste.

  Kubrian – Shy beasts consisting largely of fur and jelly with three legs and a penchant for scoop kad in the dark.

  Madrals – Three-legged carnivorous plants.

  Mud brags – Of or pertaining to brags that inhabit mud.

  or’fran – Red plumed arachnoids of carpa s’dram

  Pachenda – A salivaless creature. Inhabits deserts and wastelands.

  Questra mites – Tiny cuddly colonial creatures.

  Rhino – A large unihorned monstrosity.

  Sasensquatch – Huge furred beast of the mountains of Irandril Prime the third.

  Teraphods – Squid like beasts of tenophoria

  The Dert Mar Hun – A tribe of ungainly huns, creatures that interbreed to create mutations, which they consume.

  The Fiormitate – A rare race of amphibians, which emerged from the seas of their homeworld only to find land too cold for their liking.

  The Kurrigion – A type of bird, excessive plumage.

  The Yuthi – A race of sub-primates.

  Thithil – Exponents of devolution. Famed for their tree houses and maladjusted cheese.

  Uk-uk’s – Rare beast prized for their hides, mottled with luminescence and opacity.

  Uriel – An angel.

  Urlphan – Rare beast, endangered. A proud race obliterated as a nasty side effect of the Cove war.

  x’thalian – Two core
s twinned. Communicates by thought.

  Yonpan – Yonpan eat the Anwi. The yonpan are the higher race in mathematical terms.

  Yori – Natural enemy of the questra mites. Eats through its long curved snout.

  Ytha – Squidgy creatures.

  Places

  Cablas – System class archeog, self-contained.

  Carris – Home to the Hunin shops, famed for their used goods and illicit furs.

  Centrina – Renowned for its sulphur pits.

  Faerisan – Home to the fire cacti.

  Fretful seas – A miaray class system.

  Geodessy University – Home to the brightest and dumbest of the Enlightened’s student classes.

  Girthrelian – Home to many forms of life, but most notably the Hrun populus and the Jaril Doons.

  Guron – Kyle’s homeworld.

  H-23 ag arc’ UM ra’ – Planet.

  Harckand – Wasteland planet – for used goods and curiosities. Origin of expression ‘bfh’. Backward.

  Hoarare Nebula – Nanite quarantine area.

  Huna – Planet class space station, home to the Ecentrist’s ruling triumvirate.

  Irithian spiral – A spiral galaxy full of young solar systems.

  Nol Sar – Home to the Ecentrists. The newest Ecentrist planet.

  Oril – A beautiful sealess planet, cannot sustain life.

  PU nal – Unclaimed, home to the first piece of the emitter and the Lu, the eternal soul guardian.

  Saran UL par – Home to the fourth piece of the emitter. A wasteland Cove planet.

  Sect 93/a – Lore class planet, ore.

  s-vera/mer – Tradition Maintenhub.

  Tenophoria – home to the Teraphods. Famously reclusive squid like beasts.

  Torma – Renowned for its dranmoir.