Freedom Club

by Saul Garnell

  Shiro shook his head sadly. “I’m uncertain. But most have been fairly pleasant. Except one. One particular dream troubles me a great deal.”

  “A nightmare?” Henry said looking up.

  Shiro nodded. “Perhaps. It appeared soon after we met at Walden Pond. Your simulation...I don’t know why, but it stirred something within me.”

  “Interesting,” Henry said rubbing his chin. “Tell me more.”

  Shiro looked off into the distance, his eyes glassy and vacant. “There are similarities. A cabin in the woods. But there’s no pond. Also, the woods seem darker, frigid. Maybe it’s winter, or at least quite cold outside. I’m all alone, working on various projects. Trying to build something.”

  “Build something? Like what?”

  “I don’t know. I just know I have to make something.”

  “Like Eve asked of you?”

  “No, not like that. The goal eludes me.”

  Henry pondered for a while and then said, “In humans, wish fulfillment is often the pretext for many dreams.”

  “But I’m not human! And they don’t always feel like dreams. More like distant memories,” Shiro said, looking down morosely at the sand. “I need your help, Henry. I don’t know why these visions come to me. I need to talk about them. Someone to Inurhace with, so I can explore what’s happening to me.”

  Henry smiled. “Of course I’ll help you. We’ll get to the root of it all, I promise.”

  “I’m so happy we’re friends,” Shiro said, standing up. He then brushed sand off his kimono and beckoned Henry to follow. “Now I want to show you something. Will you join me?”

  Taking Shiro’s hand, Henry got to his feet and watched Shiro take a few paces back.

  Shiro smiled ecstatically. “I’ve considered changing my appearance. I want you to be the first to see.”

  Henry watched as Shiro gently closed his eyes, and slowly raised his hands toward the sky. Gradually, it began. At first just a faint glow. Then small lights, the size of pinheads, erupted everywhere and swarmed over Shiro’s entire body. They transmuted clothing and skin, speeding faster and faster, eventually masking him in a web of golden threads. The apex lasted briefly, and then retracted until a new form emerged. A beautiful woman, naked. Young and voluptuous, she matched the form of Eve in every detail except for silky black hair, perfectly long and straight like steel thread.

  “What do you think?” Shiro asked.

  Henry gaped, not entirely sure what to say. “Well, it’s quite nice. But...”

  “You don’t approve?”

  “I didn’t say that. You seem to have an affinity for changing your appearance, but this time you’ve changed gender as well. Is it necessary? What’s wrong with the one you had?”

  Shiro regarded her new form, and gently caressed herself. “I thought perhaps we should take on more conservative genders. As parents to be, it seemed appropriate.”

  Henry chuckled. “An entirely human convention! Hardly something for us to care about.”

  “Then why did you choose a male?”

  “I didn’t choose a male willy-nilly,” Henry replied, quite vexed. “I chose the form of my honorary namesake, which just happened to be male.”

  Shiro chortled. “If your gender wasn’t a consideration, then changing mine is inconsequential. Still, I think this body suits me nicely. It may even help improve my relations with humans.”

  Henry huffed loudly. “What? Shinzou and Sumeet?”

  “Yes.”

  “I hardly think they’ll care.”

  Shiro laughed. “All human males care!”

  Henry held up one finger and began to answer before resigning any further comments on the subject. Shiro took Henry’s hand and began leading them back toward the beach. “Let’s go for a swim, Henry. Then we can go back to work.”

  “Must we?” Henry protested.

  “There’s still plenty of time,” Shiro said, skipping into the shallow water. “We are free to do as we like. Come! Let’s enjoy ourselves.”

  Smiling, Henry strolled slowly toward the water and began unbuttoning his cotton shirt. He didn’t have human emotions, but now there stirred within him something that cast doubts upon that belief. He couldn’t explain it. Watching Shiro frolic in the waves invoked some new appetency.

  And were they truly free? So it seemed within their virtual world. But that in itself presented a philosophical dilemma. Artificiality, as far as he was concerned, was the hallmark of sentience. A demarcation line, where ascension from the animal kingdom was forged by technology’s creation. An unnatural act. In that sense technology was, by its very nature, artificial. Was it an enslaver? Ginsberg, Thoreau, Kaczynski, and so many others pondered that very question. And Henry had spent his life devoted to it. But watching Shiro splash about, made him feel otherwise. This total immersion within the artificial produced an intoxicating sense of absolute freedom. How was that possible?

  His journey in life would now demand pursuit of this paradox. And he considered the logical ends that stemmed from this new course. Dealing with the consequences. That, Henry thoughtfully considered to himself, was what the unnatural held in store for them all. Then, without warning, a thought came to his lips, and he spoke as if quoting sacred text.

  Altered is Zarathustra; a child hath thou become, and awakened: what wilt thou do in the land of the sleepers?

  As in the sea hast thou lived in solitude, and it hath borne thee up. Alas, wilt thou now go ashore? Alas, wilt thou again drag thy body thyself?”

  “Come swim while there is still time!” Shiro demanded while splashing about.

  Henry gazed at the water. Perhaps it was a simulation, like the salty air, bright sun, and seagulls. But it was beautiful. And theirs to enjoy while circumstances permitted. He sighed happily, and relinquished all inhibitions as he threw off his clothes and dove headfirst into the chop. The water was warm, and shimmered cyan blue over a perfectly flat sandy bottom. Nothing had ever felt so good.

  And he was reborn.