The Last Place to Stand (13 page)

Methuselah was sitting in front of a fire holding a cup in his hands. He was looking into it, moving it in a slow circular pattern watching the black liquid circulate. He took another sip and then picked back up a book that had been sitting next to him on a rock. Zosimus came to him and sat beside him on another rock. “Hello, my friend,” said Methuselah.

“Good morning,” said Zosimus.

“Good evening,” said Methuselah.

“Evening? How could it be evening?”

“It is always evening somewhere,” said Methuselah.

“Evening somewhere in the world?” said Zosimus.

“And evening everywhere for some people,” said Methuselah. “In my soul, it is evening always. In yours, I expect the morning is just dawning.”

“The end of one life can be the beginning of a new one,” said Zosimus.

“Ah, then do you also believe in God?”

“I'm keeping my options open,” said Zosimus.

“That is a start,” said Methuselah. “As the teacher said, he knocks upon the door and all we need do is open it. Your door is just beginning to creak.”

They both sat and looked at the fire for a few minutes silently. “What do you think is going to happen?” said Zosimus.

“I think I'm going to finish my coffee and then maybe take a bath,” said Methuselah. “I saw a fly talking to his buddies about me just a minute ago.”

“No, I mean the Technos,” said Zosimus. “Do you think they will ever try to attack us? Drive us out? Convert us?”

“I think I like my first answer best,” said Methuselah, now with a bit of a smile on his lips.

“But shouldn't we think ahead?”

Now Methuselah looked more serious. “I think that would be wise, but I also think I am too old to do anything either way. And as the teacher says, 'Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Right now I will worry about today. But you have seen a thing or two to worry you. Is that right?”

“Yes,” said Zosimus, “I have.” He stared at the flame but did not see it. Instead, he saw himself as a playful child, long ago. Then as if propelled into the future he saw that boy receive his first implant, less playful and more focused. He had been so proud at the time. Later he saw a man receiving an advanced model implant, now receiving feeds in a blur of activity, having no time for anything else. Finally he saw the last implant go wrong, and him being tossed out with the trash.

But more important than those visions, he saw a vision of the future, the way the Director had shown him. The consultation he had before the implant. The master plan of the Technos. They would be a race without boundaries, without limits. And the only way to do that, said the Director, was to join man and machine. Machines would free humans to expand themselves infinitely. Eventually the lines between man and machines would be so blurred that they would be indistinguishable. Then, he said, they would rule the earth as a race without limits. Nature would be utterly subdued. There would be nothing untouched, “nothing unimproved,” he had said.

It seemed to be long way off, but if it ever came about, surely the Waldenese would be pushed out, destroyed, or assimilated. But these people did not fight, nor did they have any desire to do so, it seemed. They had no weapons. It would be a slaughter, and he hoped to never be alive to see it.

“I know you think they will come for us,” said Methuselah bringing him out of his thoughts. “If they do and I am still alive, I will not run. Haven't been able to run for years. I will not fight. I will wait. . .and see.”

O-1603, the general of the military, walked into a dimly lit room and sat down. The room's only light was from banks of computer screens that lined every wall with switches, buttons and keyboards. The keyboards were from an older time, but it was always possible that they could be useful in an emergency. Since each person in the room had direct chip to computer feed interfaces, they could control the systems much faster than anyone would ever be able to type. There were forty-nine people in all, sitting on chairs around the room, all staring at their screens. Each screen had a jumble of numbers, letters, words, and pictures. The images on the screen changed so rapidly it would have been impossible for a normal person to make sense of it. A series of wires attached at the top of each of their heads, stemmed from their brain implants and ran to their respective computer terminals. An experiment that went well, but had not been made public. Their feeds were thousands of times faster than any over the air feeds and was much more advanced. They also had unlimited access to everything, no clearance limit. The keys to heaven and hell.

“Gentlemen and ladies,” he said as all were turned in their seats toward him.

“We were expecting your arrival,” one of them said. “The system told us through the camera interfaces, but your intent was not clear.” He muttered it as if in a trance. That always took time to get used to. Their voices were like something far off, like someone under a spell.

“Well, let's get down to it then,” said the general. “I am sure you are aware that there have been some new developments on the computer systems lately.”

“Yes,” another one said. “We have seen evidence of the enlightened one.”

“No, it isn't the enlightened one. It's just an experiment like you. It might be infiltrating our system though and I need you to try to isolate it and route it out. Can you do that?”

Another one answered. “He has shown us that we were right to trust him. He has given us his seal and what we were we will never be again.”

“What are you talking about?” said the general. “We need to wall this guy, this thing, off. Get him out of the system!”

“It is too late,” a woman in the back said, still staring at her screen. “He is the system and the system is him. And so are we. What we have hoped for has happened. . .and more is to come.”

At this everyone turned around and looked back at their screens, ignoring the general completely.

The general got the feeling he was walking on dangerous ground, so he backed out of the room and closed the door. When he did so, the lights went out.

“What are you looking at?” said Sasha.

Martin stood just outside their house, staring at the horizon. “For just a few seconds, I could have sworn the lights went off in the city. But then they came back on.”

“But how could that happen?” said Sasha.

“I don't know, but it was weird and kind of spooky. I wonder if the Technos are having problems. Or maybe they are just trying out a new power supply or something. You can never tell with them. Always trying to improve themselves. Never improving what's on the inside, letting that part just rot away or waste away. How can they stand it?”

“Are you coming to bed, Martin?”

“Yes, I'll be there,” he said.

At that moment there was an explosion. The top of one of their largest buildings just erupted in fire and smoke, but due to the distance from the city, Martin saw it before he heard it. Once the sound of the explosion reached them, people started coming out of their houses all over the Waldenese settlement. Each of the houses were in a line beside theirs. Neighbors came out and looked at the sight, all standing side by side.

One elderly man, who had recently moved to the area, said, “They've done it! Now they've done it. They've gone and blown themselves to kingdom come! I'll bet they tried something new and made a mistake. That's all it takes is one mistake. Blow themselves right off the planet one of these days. Should have lived like us. Should have made peace with themselves. Crazy people, they never learn!” He continued to rant, gesticulating with each phrase.

Others began to talk in lower tones. Couples talked to each other, husbands assuring wives and children. Trying to act braver than they felt, knowing it comes with the territory of being a man. Women and children sometimes crying. A baby cried terribly.

One man, who had not long ago left the Technos and was still recovering from the implant removal said, “Burn, baby burn! Ha ha ha ha. Let 'em burn!” He had tears in his eyes and was shaking from withdrawal after the removal.

The explosion could be seen throughout all the Waldenese communities.

In a settlement not far from there, Sydney saw a light flash through the window. Without waking his wife, he got up and went to the front door and opened it. He heard a noise behind him. It was the children. “What happened?” asked Hamlet.

Just as Sydney was about to say he didn't know, a booming noise came from outside. In the bedroom his wife said, “Honey? What was that?” She sounded scared.

“I don't know yet,” he said. “I'm checking on it.”

As he opened the door he saw the fire in the distance. Seeing it was the tallest skyscraper, he knew which place it had to be. “Whoa,” he said. “In the old days I used to pass that place every day on the way to work.” His wife got dressed and appeared at his side. His children also peered out through the window.

They all gazed in wonder and shock. “What does it mean?” asked his wife.

“I don't know,” he said. “It's probably not good though. For them or for us.”

At that moment they heard the sound of running feet. It was Odysseus, running wildly. “I just saw it. Do you know what building that is?”

“Yeah,” Sydney said, “I do.”

“Can you believe it? Do you think it was a failed experiment?”

“How could it be?” said Sydney. “The experiments have always been to improve humans. How could that cause an explosion?”

“I don't know,” said Odysseus. “It almost makes me want to get nearer just to find out what's going on.”

Sydney said with a chuckle, “No need to go doing that. Remember, we have people out there. You know, Samuel and his men. And I'm told there are others in the city as well. They'll know what's going on and they have the ability to do something if it needs doing. Very resourceful that Samuel.”

“Yeah, I'm sure you’re right. I just would like to know. “

“Me too,” said Sydney.

Chai turned to Greg, “What was that?”

“A big boom,” said Greg with a smirk.

“No, I mean it. It was loud.”

Now serious, Greg said, “I know. And that brief power outage was weird. There hasn't been a power outage for as long as I can remember.” Greg brought out his mini-computer. “I'm gonna see what the city computer systems show.”

“I can't get over how you can get into systems like that.”

“Hey, I was taught by the government to break into government systems. It's their own fault.”

Zach, their leader, came over to where they were stationed. “Men, it was a power surge. I'm sure of it. Not sure why we lost power at first though. That hasn't happened in practically forever.” Then noticing the computer Greg had out, “You checking out the system?”

“That's the plan,” said Greg.

All three of them watched Greg's screen. He was a master at this sort of thing. It was what made him invaluable to the team. An insider techie guy who liked technology, but did not agree with what it did to people if gone unchecked. As they stared at the screen they could see Greg going through lines of code, bypassing security systems almost at will. As he was maneuvering through the system to inquire about what happened, Zach noticed the screen seemed to be brightening slightly. A shape on the screen slowly came into view. It was the face of a man. It looked three dimensional. The face was in black on a black screen. It was hard at first to tell what they were looking at. Then it said, “Ah, Ah, Ah. No you don't.” It shook its head back and forth, a reproving gesture. Then the face faded again into the background. For a moment Greg kept typing. Then suddenly he stopped and said, “They're all closed. All the doors I can usually enter have been closed. I can no longer maneuver the system. Someone is blocking all access. We can't get in.”

“Then let's get out,” said Zach. “I have a bad feeling about this.” Zach's feelings were rarely ever wrong. A couple of times this had saved the men's lives. “Let's notify the others. Most of them are back at camp. Let's go.”

In the background a fire burned with a crackling sound at the top of the Techcorp building. People nearby watched in wonder and horror. Being the largest building in the city, it was a kind of monument. But being the building that housed the governing authorities as well, it was the seat of power and so this fire was a threat.

It was also the main hub of feed transmissions. All but a few private or illegal feeds were cut off. This was a major issue with the people. Those who had been out late at night suddenly stopped what they were doing and stared at the building. Those farther away just stopped their feed assimilation and stared into space, wondering what to do next. The feeds were their main source of entertainment and the main source of communication. But feeds must be monitored, so all but a couple of pirated feed transmitters had gone through the
Techcorp building.

A city full of people, who did not sleep much anyway, wondered what had happened. But mostly, they just wondered what to do now. They were not used to boredom. They had no coping mechanisms, only the feeds. Some cried, some yelled. It was a city full of babies who had never learned to grow up.

“What was that?” the general shouted to Dr. Chin as he opened the door to boardroom 16. The lights had been off briefly, and then a tremendous explosion shook the building. The Director and other advisors had never left the room. “An earthquake?”

The screen was again projected onto the wall and everyone was paying rapt attention. “Let's watch and see,” said the Director. The screen still revealed the patient, but now there seemed to be an aura around him. Light shown from the cocoon and strands of the silver wires, like hair floated out from it like a head in water. “Please show the vitals,” said the Director. “I’ve got to know what’s going on in there.”

He’s not the only one
, thought the general.

“I can't,” said A116, who was working the controls. “Nothing I do makes any difference.”