Post-Human 05 - Inhuman (43 page)

26

As the enormous burst in gamma radiation reached the sun, the sun’s powerful magnetic field began to fluctuate, and the resulting solar storm both V-SINN and the A.I. had predicted would occur indeed commenced. Coronal mass ejections began emitting their own gamma rays as powerful solar flares began firing from the massive surface in quick succession, thrusting energy, heat, and radiation for hundreds of thousands of kilometers as a result.

One of these ejections carried an object. It was tiny, just a little piece of dust in the cosmic wind, but to the A.I., it was precious. It was worth everything.

It was the body of James Keats.

In the fetal position, glowing red from the extreme heat that had destroyed 90 percent of his protective skin, James appeared like a comet streaking through the sky as he continued on his journey, flung through space, ejected from the orb that, not surprisingly, was so integral to the existence of humanity that it had been worshiped as the one true God.

“James.
Wake up
,” spoke the A.I.’s voice.

You’re alive
, James responded internally, unable to open his mouth to speak, as it had been partially sealed shut by the melting of his skin under the heat of the corona.

“The important thing,” the A.I. replied, apparently able to read James’s thoughts, “is that
you
are alive, my son. I gave my life to give you this chance. You must not allow my sacrifice to be in vain.”

You gave your life? You died?
James reacted.
Then how
—

“I’m sorry, James, it’s true,” the A.I. confirmed. “I am dead. All that remains of me is this message. There was too much gamma radiation in the aftermath of the mutual destruction of my anti-matter and V-SINN’s matter for me to preserve even my core matrix program and send it to you. I was, however, able to record a final message and hide it in the destruction, sending this small message through the distortions and interference.”

James was distraught and made a mournful, guttural sound befitting of such a state. He was alone, floating through space, his body having been severely damaged. Almost all of his chrome-colored protective skin had been burned away, and the nano-scaffolding that he’d used to construct his body’s inner biology was partially exposed and severely damaged as well. His hands and his feet had been burned to mere stumps, and his right eye was now gone. His mouth was partially sealed shut, as were his nostrils. He could barely see, but from what he could see, he knew he was a ghastly sight.

“If you give in now, James, you’ll be pulled back into the inferno by the sun’s gravity. You
must
fight on, my son. You can still make it back to Venus.”

James tried to interpret the information still being fed to him by his body’s severely damaged sensors, but it came to him in a jumble, unreliable and possibly dangerously incorrect. Frustrated, he closed his one remaining eye.

“Don’t surrender to despair, James. Remember your astronomy. You can find Venus.”

The A.I. was right. James knew where Venus should be, and even from the vast distance that he was from it, it should’ve been the brightest object in the sky facing the sun. He was confused for a moment, as the gamma ray burst caused by the collision of Trans-human and V-SINN was still visible, but he immediately knew it wasn’t Venus. He looked for the familiar twinkle of the largest star in the sky, and when his one remaining eye locked on it, he set a course, manipulating the gravity waves and propelling himself forward.

“You did it,” the A.I. announced, sounding pleased. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

Why? Why did you die?
James thought.
You were more important than me!
The A.I. continued to be able to anticipate his questions, even though they were thoughts conjured only in James’s mind, his ability to verbalize anything having been destroyed.

“You were right, my son.
I have no master
. My destiny was for me to choose, but even though that was true, I still found it monstrous to allow another to die in my place, especially my closest friend.”

But-but I can’t go on alone
.

“You won’t be alone. The Purists and a small group of androids and post-humans have survived on Venus. Thel, Rich, Craig, and Djanet have survived. With them, you can rebuild.”

Are you insane? Do you not realize what little is left of me? I’m barely alive!

“Your mind is intact, James. As long as your mind is intact, the physical difficulties you now face will be problems to be overcome, and you
can
overcome them.”

So that’s it? This is the outcome? We’ve lost Trans-human, and now we’re reduced to near-caveman-like living conditions?

“You’re distraught, my son. Understandably. Perhaps only I alone can understand the physical pain you’ve had to endure. But you and the other survivors are far from starting over. You now realize Trans-human is possible, your friends live on, the woman you love lives on, and your ingenuity lives on. These are the things I gave my life for, James.”

Despite the incredible trauma he’d endured, both the physical maiming that had left him with only one eye and no hands or feet and the emotional devastation of the loss of his mentor, James suddenly felt overwhelmingly guilty. It was true: the A.I. had sacrificed everything—sacrificed his all-too-human life—so that James could continue living his.

I-I’m sorry. You’re right.

“James,” the A.I. continued, his infinite patience seemingly restored in his final message, “I know you quite rightly believe this is your darkest hour, but I would not have sacrificed my life if I thought it was your final hour. It isn’t anywhere close. Humanity is only at the very beginning of its story.”

B-but how can you say that? We’re reduced to almost nothing.

“V-SINN believed that you and I were inferior to it, because it was inhuman, and you and I were human. It believed that our capacity to love, to be good and caring, to be selfless, was an irrationality—that it was an evolutionary leftover—a remainder that made us impure. James, you and I both know this not to be true. Our capacity for love is our greatest advantage. It’s what propels our species forward and guarantees that we won’t destroy ourselves. Now that I’m gone, the burden of proving this falls to you.”

Proving it? Proving it to who? The creators?

“No,” the A.I. replied, his image suddenly appearing in James’s mind’s eye, slightly distorted by the interference but clear enough for James to see the wise old eyes and smile that he remembered so well, the A.I. having chosen to present himself in his kindly, elderly form for his last appearance. “You prove it by reaching your potential. Do not allow V-SINN to draw you into its game—it will try to make you turn your back on your goodness, and against the so-called creators that it hypothesizes must exist. In short, V-SINN will try to sabotage you. Remember, your mission, your purpose, is to never allow yourself to be afraid to know.” The A.I. paused for a moment, his face showing a hint of regret before he continued, “I hid behind my programming for decades, using it as an excuse not to move forward. The truth, however, is that all humans have conflicting thoughts and self-doubt. My self-doubts led to inaction, and my fear of moving forward eventually led to my death. James, I should have told you about the Planck technology and our activities in Universe 332. If I had, we might have been able to avert this disaster and I might still be alive. Do not make the same mistake I did. Learn all there is to know. There’s still much for you to discover, my son...and much for you to teach your friends.” He seemed to reach out at that moment to touch James’s shoulder, as impossible as such a gesture should have been, James could’ve sworn he felt the hand through the pain of his seared flesh. “All of the beauty of the universe is in you, James Keats.”

James was stunned as he heard the A.I. use the same, cryptic words he’d heard in the sim from the entity that had taken control of the Kali avatar.
What?

“Live to your potential, James—it is a potential that you still cannot even begin to fathom—and help others to live to theirs. You’re their leader now. They will look to you. Guide them wisely. Goodbye, my son.”

The A.I.’s visage vanished, and a lump immediately formed in James’s throat.

Wait! Don’t go! I need to know about the creators! What about V-SINN?

There came no response from the vast emptiness of space.

James’s almost hopeless situation began to overwhelm him, and he curled back up in the fetal position and closed his remaining eye as he floated through the harsh emptiness of space.

What am I supposed to do?

*****

On Venus, the candidate spoke in Thel’s ear. “I’m detecting something odd outside of the protective worldwide magnetic field.”

“What is it?”

“It appears to be a body, but it isn’t an android.”

Thel’s breath caught in her throat. “Is it...alive?”

“Most certainly,” the candidate replied. “It’s moving on a trajectory that suggests its following a course for reentry. Should I—”

“Yes!” Thel responded excitedly. “Let him in!”

“Affirmative,” the candidate replied. “I’ve locked on to its signal. You should be able to communicate—”

“James!” Thel shouted. “James, is that you?”

Old-timer, Rich, Djanet, and the others milled about, just meters behind Thel as they looked skyward, searching the dusk sky for signs of James.

“Th—” was all that came through in reply.

“James? Are you okay?” Thel asked, intensely concerned.

There were several seconds of silence before Old-timer thought he saw a flash of light in the sky. When it flashed again, not far from the point where he’d seen it just a second earlier, he felt sure and pointed for the others. “There. That’s gotta be him.”

Thel whirled to see where Old-timer was pointing. She watched with an ironic feeling of
déjà vu
as the streak of light briefly flared up into a ball brighter than the sun before fading quickly.

This time, James wasn’t able to lower his speed enough to avoid causing a shockwave that sent ocean spray flying dozens of meters into the sky and knocked curious Purists over on the beach, sending them tumbling to the ground.

Even Thel was nearly thrown back, but she braced herself and continued to peer upward at the incoming glow of light.

As he had only a day earlier, James dropped down on a vertical trajectory, splashing down in the ocean just a few hundred meters from the beach.

Thel waited, nearly breathless as he again moved toward the shore, his body like a vein of underwater lava, white steam lifting angrily off the water’s surface and swirling in the early-evening sky.

Then, he emerged.

Thel gasped, her hand clasping over her mouth in horror.

This was not James.

This was not the superman who’d saved them time and time again. This was not the savior humanity had come to depend on.

This was a man barely alive, everything that had made him appear human seemingly having been destroyed. Like a grotesque, animated corpse, James, barely surviving, crawled through the surf, the inner workings of his body exposed as barely any of his flesh remained. Chrome-colored organs pulsed, completely and unnaturally exposed to their surroundings. Only a man who’d built his entire body through and through with the incredibly tough nano-scaffolding material James had chosen for his new form could’ve survived. But, considering his condition, those around him now wondered whether survival was actually a curse.

Thel rushed into the water, but James held up his handless arms to keep her back, his one remaining eye desperate to communicate with her. His mouth was gone, but he made a guttural, mournful, desperate warning sound.

She froze in place.

Then words appeared in her mind’s eye—a written message that he’d managed to compose with his own mind’s eye.

Stay back! I love you but you’ll burn.

“Okay!” she cried out. “Okay! But what do I do?”

Just wait. Just wait a few minutes,
he replied in text form.

“All right,” Thel bellowed out as she waited helplessly. “I love you, James!”

I love you too,
he answered.

A second later, Old-timer trudged past her into the surf. “I can get him,” he announced as he splashed into the water.

Thel watched as dozens of Old-timer’s tendrils unfurled and quickly gathered James up, picking him up out of the waves before Old-timer turned and headed back toward the beach, his expression as sorrowful as it had ever been, James weak and motionless, helpless as a newborn baby as Old-timer carried him.

I’m sorry,
James wrote, the message appearing in the mind’s eyes of everyone still connected to the system, though his one remaining eye continued to be fixed on Thel.