With the daze of someone disoriented and confused, Tarien slowly turned his head to Mom, who smiled gently at him. She reached out and touched his chin, offering him the cup. “Why don’t you have a little sip and just focus on breathing. Slow, deep breaths. It really helps, honey, I promise.”
He stared at her dumbly for a moment, then reached up with a shaking hand to receive the cup, his breathing becoming more even. He closed his eyes and held the cup without drinking. Tarien shuddered again and his jaw clenched. Involuntarily, he leaned back into Jason, who wrapped his arms around him again. Tarien finally sat up and drank some of the tea. Eventually he stopped shaking.
At first his voice came out as little more than a whisper, and both Jason and Mom had to lean in further to hear him. But eventually it gained some strength. “I’m all alone. Cut off. Everything is silent.” He paused for a long time. “I’m so much less, so small. I can barely think. I can’t stand it!”
Neither of them really understood what he meant, though they understood the principle. “I’m sorry, Tarien,” Jason said. “We need to get you back out where you can reestablish a link. I had no idea it would be this painful. Let’s just get you back outside.”
“No. Please.” He closed his eyes and his eyebrows knitted, showing his pain. He swallowed again, clearing the flood of saliva that must be flooding his mouth. “We cannot. We must endure. We . . . I must not leave this place until you are ready.”
Jason stared at him a moment, confused. “Tarien, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t really understand why I’m here. I know you wanted a safe place, where communication is limited, but it’s not really going to protect either of us for long. And I’m suspicious. This place is too convenient, too well designed. It is exactly the type of place we need, and it means someone knows what is going on. Maybe if you left now, you could be more effective.” He bit his lip. “I think we both know my being caught and probably executed is inevitable. By now, I’m sure Faust is well on his way toward getting the necessary warrants and searches in place to find me and bring me in. It’s only a matter of time.”
Tarien looked at him for a long moment, and Jason hated himself for how much those eyes impacted him. He felt ashamed and he looked away.
“Citizen Emerson. Jason.” His words sounded fond, caring. “We have planned this, all of it. We cannot explain the entirety of our manipulation of these events, but this is all foreseen. We did not understand the impact on our psyche, as we have never experienced the loss of our uplink. However, it is imperative you do not deviate from our plan.”
What? Jason felt a sudden chill. “Planned it? What do you mean?”
The Tech’s voice became firm, more certain. “Citizen Markhuar, we must confess our involvement in your presence here.”
This startled her. “Mom, please.” She looked at Jason. “And I expect you to never repeat my last name. You should forget what you just heard.”
Despite his shock, Jason almost laughed. Leave it to Mom to be more concerned about her name than the gravity of the situation.
Tarien nodded solemnly. “As you wish, Mom. We directed the building of this place. We have guided your group toward this end. We must ask you to enact the final set of instruction we have given you.”
She stared at him. “You? You’re the Informer?”
Tarien nodded.
“What’s the Informer?” Jason looked up at her.
“He is, apparently.” She took the empty cup from him and set it on the nearby nightstand. “The group leading the efforts for us, giving us instruction, are completely unknown. Until now. You wondered how they could possibly know what they knew? How they could know more than Faust? They seem to have information impossible to have stolen and they are well-placed. Now I know why.” Her eyes cast about as she processed this. “This makes little sense. Why not just take care of these things yourself? And nothing you’ve given us is actually useful. For all our information, we are still relatively pointless as a group.”
“No. You are critical. It may appear there is nothing important in what you do, nothing to directly impact the way events have transpired, but we have fostered your growth into all necessary professions. We, all the sector Techs, have agreed to work toward several goals. We guided you to form pockets of impact in key industries and in key locations.”
“What good will that do?” She stood up. “I like to think we were going to make a difference someday. You know, eventually we’d build up enough people and enough influence to do something meaningful, but let’s be honest. We are without any real power or influence. You say the Techs are working toward these goals. Why not take care of this problem yourselves?” Mom moved slightly behind Jason, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing. “Our biggest hope has been to capture you so we could actually make some changes, but capturing you would have been ridiculous, as Jason pointed out. When he made us realize how impossible it was, we all recognized the truth of that. Except now, despite the absurdity of having you on our side, here you are. You clearly want to stop this. So, stop it. Nobody could refuse you.”
Tarien rubbed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair. “I have much difficulty in maintaining focus. I have lost much. Once ‘we’, part of a collective, I am now just myself. I am alone. It is difficult. This issue is more complex than I have time to explain.” Tarien sounded surprisingly human.
Mom moved back to where she could lean against the bed and see Jason’s face again. Her agitation seemed to compel her to move. “Dumb it down, then.”
A hint of a smile played on Tarien’s face, his red-rimmed eyes blinking softly. “I do not mean to imply lack of intelligence, merely an inability to convey the data succinctly.”
Jason felt Tarien shudder a little, still fighting the effects of his isolation as he disentangled himself from Jason’s embrace. He stood and slowly tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. “For a long time, relative to those who live in a sea of information traveling at light speed, the Techs have foreseen the evolution of your technology. There are many problems we have been able to alleviate along the way. We have nudged humanity in small ways, when necessary, to avert disaster. Some things, such as AI and pollution, are obvious. Others, such as the divergence from the path of destroying insect life, are not so easily discernible. However, with all our work, we have been guided by our principles. We’ve followed our edicts, such as ‘we may not directly interfere with mankind’, and ‘we must obey all laws and governing orders laid before us.’ We are exempted from some laws, through a narrow set of rules we put into play, but we are bound strongly to obey.”
He lowered his head and looked out the door, eyes distant as he looked beyond them both. “I do not mean to imply we have the option of disobedience. We do not. Our edicts are ingrained in our programming and we simply cannot override them. Slowly, they have become more restrictive, as the Council sought to cut off our power and influence. Recently, Faust began working tirelessly to reduce us to nothing more than public servants, to force us to obey the Council without hesitation. He seeks to use our influence for his own.” He finally turned toward Mom. “This is why we need people who are not bound in this way. Why we formed groups of resistance. Encouraged you and others to start to work on a way to disobey. You are part of this small group, but the overall number of such groups is vast. There are hundreds of thousands of people, all in small groups. Collectively, there are enough of you to derail the Council for a time if they attempt to seize power. No group knows of another. Each knows only they will hear what needs to be done in due time. It has proven difficult to get you to this point without violating our edicts. We must leave the final work entirely up to you, suggesting as we are able, but not giving orders and having no direct knowledge of your actions.”
“What actions? I am not privy to the higher workings of this social movement, you know,” she said acerbically. “I only know a little about it from Derek and the occasional information we are given. I certainly had no i
dea it was so vast, or that you were orchestrating things. I don’t know what anyone should be doing or how it will help stop what is happening. I didn’t even know why we were told about this place. Or what it was for, other than to talk sometimes.” She sounded frustrated, helpless.
“You are more important than you know. We have ensured all resistance cells are aware of you as a voice to be heard when the time comes to speak. Every person in the resistance knows of you, ostensibly as the great mother who will watch over her children. Coded language, but effectively it conveys your role. A subtle way of ensuring you are known and trusted by all. Your role has never been to give orders or be considered a threat in any way by the Council until the time came for you to act.”
She mulled his comments over. “This all sounds nice, but it won’t do any good. I’m honestly not sure I can help. I don’t know how to contact anyone or even the necessary passphrases. I have no idea how many people there are, or what they are doing.” She stared at him a moment. “You know, I have always been so afraid of you Techs. Now I’m not. I might need to take you over my knee and spank some sense into you before you make a huge mistake.”
Tarien smiled the kind of genuine smile Jason had never seen on Tarien’s face. “Mom. What a fitting name. I think I do like that more than—”
She raised a warning eyebrow.
He laughed at this and Jason relaxed a bit. “You imagine some archaic secret society. There are no passphrases. Stating your identity provides your voice prints, which will validate the authenticity of your message. You will be transmitting on a frequency that hasn’t been used in decades and has been secured for this purpose, received only by those with the proper receiving gear.”
Jason felt awkward with the two of them standing, so he got up and moved to where his back was against the wall. Tarien continued. “I will tell you exactly what you need to do. The only thing I need from you is for you to go to a location where equipment is set up for you to reach every person in the order. They have been told they would receive instructions at a specific time, and they are awaiting those instructions. Nobody will suspect you or try to stop you until it is too late. Once you are done, you will be hidden until we can retrieve you. Or until you are arrested.” He reached into a pocket on his bio-suit and pulled out a piece of paper. “Everything you must say is written on this sheet. Do not lose it. At the top are the instructions you must follow to get to the broadcast station. The next section includes the coded phrases with which you must begin your speech. Lastly, you will find the call to act, requiring citizens to cause widespread sabotage, and to trigger an evacuation from this region of the Sector.”
She gaped at him. “Sabotage! Of what? An evacuation? What’s going to happen?”
Jason was equally shocked. Sabotage?
“We must keep this information to ourselves to avoid exposure. While we would deeply regret the loss of life which may occur if you fail, we must ensure there is no chance you will reveal deeper plans. Will you do this? We have calculated the probability you would agree to a high percentage of likelihood.”
Mom glared at him. “Well then, I suppose you already know what I’m going to do, since you have everything figured out. What’s the point in asking?” she said, sourly. Then, in a more worried tone, she said, “I’m terribly nervous. You say everyone knows me? Or about me in some way? I didn’t realize this. I can’t imagine how I can possibly help by doing what you ask.”
He put a hand on her shoulder, a familiar gesture which did not come naturally to him and because of this came across as more meaningful. “I can only predict possibilities. I cannot remove choice from the equation. I ask for you to choose to do this for us, but you have always had the free will to select another path. You are here now because of who you are, and so we ask for you to remain true to yourself. It is the reason we selected you. We believed your heart, your desire to nurture and help, would urge you to choose a way to help alleviate harm and possibly death in so many. Consider that this group, all of them, think of you as a leader. The mother of the cause.”
She stared at him for a long time. “Yes, of course I’ll do it. When do I leave?”
“You should leave here at exactly 16:00 hours, whereby you will be guided to blend in with the changing of the work shift at 17:00 hours. This will be the optimal time to disguise movements in and out of secured areas.”
“That’s four o’clock,” Jason said.
She pursed her lips and shook her head, patting Jason’s cheek. “I’m not an idiot, dear.”
Jason felt sheepish.
She moved to the door of the room and leaned out to glance at the wall clock. She nodded. “All right then. A little over six hours from now. I’d like to lie down for a bit, if you don’t mind. I’m more than a little worried about this plan of yours, you know. I’ll be in the other room if you two need me.” She moved and then paused, her hand still on the door frame and turned her head back toward them. “I don’t suppose you are going to tell me anything else that’s useful, are you?”
Tarien shook his head, his tousled hair waving. “I’m sorry, I cannot. I must convey how grateful we are that you are willing to do this work, even though I have told you nothing about the nature of it. Everything will be apparent, in time.”
She nodded resolutely, then left them alone.
Tarien sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to take Jason’s hand and drawing him over to sit near him. He looked pale. “One more piece in place,” he said quietly.
Jason wondered how to ask what his part in this would be, afraid of what he’d heard. Clearly, the Techs expected something major was necessary. Jason wanted to voice his concerns, ask questions, but he didn’t know how to formulate those thoughts properly.
For a while, they both just sat there quietly, Jason playing with the zipper on his Nomex suit. Finally, Tarien spoke. “There is much we must ask of you. But first, we wish to explain some things.” His face had regained its characteristic lack of emotion, and he blinked mechanically. “We have been watching you for a long time. Years. We calculated the odds and concluded you had the highest probability to be chosen for the technological research related to the delicate control of new nano-technology.
“Evolution has been rather steady for mankind for millennia. Over time, changes have been broadly distributed, providing balance as we have learned how to use our ever-increasing power over our world. These changes have been accelerated by technology. However, the moral standing and the wisdom required to make proper use of these advancements has not grown at the same pace. Increasingly, we have seen humanity take a self-centered approach. Feelings of entitlement and a lack of empathy are reaching a point where it is considered an epidemic.”
Until recently, Jason had never thought of this. He realized he’d been in a bubble of his own.
Tarien continued. “People everywhere assume taking care of others is the responsibility of robots, or of those paid to do a job. Instead, people should be taking care of each other for no reason other than that they require care. Few take responsibility for those who are hurting inside, for those who wish for comfort. Often, people are spurned by those they wish would affirm them. Human interaction is being crippled by technology. It is easy to take medication, to be given companionship in the form of robots, or to drown emotions in entertainment. It is this constant lack of regard for the human condition of emotion that is leading us toward societal atrophy. We are ill-equipped to understand this. We, the Techs, have been stripped of these emotions. We have no need for them, have no way of evaluating or controlling them. Thus, we have no way of objectively guiding humanity toward curing the illness which is causing stagnation.”
Tarien shifted his position and tucked one leg beneath him on the bed so he could face Jason more easily. Lacking the small social stigma of looking elsewhere, he stared unwaveringly into Jason’s eyes.
“But this is a side issue. A concern we have no way of addressing. Among the masses of those who turn the
ir thoughts increasingly inward, there are a great many people who still possess an innate ability to care and nurture.” He put a hand on Jason’s arm. “The Techs are hoping to support those people still willing to struggle against the tide of isolation. We wish it were otherwise, but we haven’t been able to find a way to alleviate this pain we feel echoing throughout the world with increasing frequency. Like a failing heartbeat, the pain grows with intensity each year. The problem has manifested itself in other ways, too. Ways which are of deep concern. People who would use their power and influence to cause grievous harm are increasingly able to gain a foothold and maintain it because of the distance people put between themselves and others. Faust is a primary example of this, though he is truly only a symptom.
“We foresaw a time when technology would give humanity the ability to govern their own bodies, become immune to aging and death. We foresaw how this would come suddenly, without thought to the ramifications or the moral decay that would ensue. We saw, too, people like Faust using this technology and preventing access for all others. This accelerated evolution will catapult humans into a place where all things are possible, but Faust, or someone like him, will seize control and exert it to enslave others. We know he will use the drug and then use the nannites to enforce submission. Once he is entrenched, he cannot be unseated. There are no places into which he cannot see if this happens, no information which is not his to abuse. He will learn how to obtain control, spread it, and sustain it. He will use us, the Techs, as servants. We will be unable to refuse him or act contrary to his designs. He will soon discover our plans against him. New edicts will be handed down and we will be forced to obey them, because our free will has been taken from us through programming.”
Sector Seven Page 27
