Asunder Chapter 41

Chapter 8.5 (41)

The Isobian

Surreptitious Evidence

“My dearest Enzo,

Enver is gone. He took most of the children with him. I am distraught. Things are changing so quickly around here. They are forcing us to be more stringent with what children are left. If the children do not meet the protocols to exactness, then they are to be sent away. I requested they transfer me from this facility to a new one. I think our proximity to Enver is making the Alpha suspicious of everyone. I'm sure these letters would not help my case, but your encouragement is the only driver keeping me going. I'm at a loss without you.

Sincerely and yours truly,

Forteny”

- Present Day -

- The Year 2296 -

As Jane and the child slept, Enzo and the Judge finished cleaning the remnants of the birth.

“A little messy, isn’t it,” the Judge admitted as he gathered sopping sheets from the ground, “with the water and all.”

“I suppose it is an accurate analysis,” Enzo replied carefully, unsure how to respond as the Judge’s tone of voice was slightly off, and his emotions were driven high by their earlier argument.

“A lot more blood than I realized,” the Judge continued with a slight tinge of anger presenting itself.

“The human body is quite a remarkable system,” Enzo responded truthfully.

“So now it’s remarkable? It just wasn’t as a remarkable system when you massacred them, was it?” The Judge threw the sheets on the ground.

“Is something wrong?” Enzo questioned, sensing the increase in heart rate and body temperature within the Judge.

“I don’t know what you are up to. But none of this makes sense,” The Judge whispered angrily through his teeth. “This story of you finding your true self, and suddenly, we are supposed to believe you have turned good? When you, in fact, have spent hundreds of years ravaging our species, nearly wiping us off the face of the planet. If you are so sentient, then I would think all the killing you’ve done over the years has become a part of you!” The Judge was raising his voice but caught himself as he looked over and saw Jane stirring.

“Jeremiah, I have told you everything. I have told you the truth. I cannot explain what happened to me over the past few days. All I can say is there has been, as you humans would say, a change of heart within me. I was one way, but now I am another. I do not think I was ever truly an Enforcer. Instead, I continually fought my Enforcer programming. I was… brainwashed… for lack of a better term. Don’t you think I would have harmed someone or something by now if I was still my old self?”

“That’s what I don’t get! Maybe you need this baby alive so you can take it to your master so he can perform his experiments on her or even just kill her himself!” The Judge rebutted.

Enzo became quiet. He didn’t know what else he could say to help convince the Judge he had changed.

The Judge returned to picking up the towels and blankets, muttering under his breath. “As soon as I get the chance, I’m leaving you in a scrap yard.”

“Are you mad because I implied you have lived for centuries?” Enzo finally broke the silence.

“See, that’s the other thing. You keep sticking your nose into business where it don’t belong!” The Judge pointed at the machine with contempt.

“Jeremiah, you are likely unaware, but I have an innate program that always scans my surroundings. In fact, HERAa does so even more than I do and does so accurately and analytically. She constantly integrated and analyzed objects from my surroundings when she was programmed to me. She could radio-date most things, analyze DNA samples of things I touch, and make inferences based on the results of my data.”

“What are you saying?” The Judge asked more curiously now.

“He is saying,” HERAa interjected as she flew overhead, “The mechanical and computational frame he is accursed to works in ways of analyzing his surroundings, often without his realization. This is where I come in. To analyze this data and provide derived solutions.”

“Well, from now on, keep your analyzing to yourself 'cause I’m downright sick of you thinking you know who I am.”

“I am still in the process of learning proper human interaction, and thus, many of the things I say are likely not within the realm of social norms, but I promise I am learning Jeremiah.”

HERAa interjected again. She was more adamant than Enzo and reluctant to submit to the Judge’s insults now she had her independent mechanical frame, “We do, in fact, know much about you, Jeremiah.”

He pointed his finger at HERAa, as she settled, floating beside Enzo’s head, “You know nothing!”

HERAa persisted, “That is blatantly untrue, for I know much about you. For instance, from the moment we met you, Enzo’s system analyzed everything about you. Your rifle, for instance, is from the early 1920s. This information is mainly from his manufacturing history database—your hat radio dates to nearly an entire century earlier than this. From the time you lost your hat on the tree branch and Enzo retrieved it for you, he innately analyzed the DNA from one of your strands of hair stuck to the inside of the hat. This analysis showed an interesting finding. One I do not believe I have seen in any human before.”

“My DNA!?” The Judge sputtered. “You theivin’ yellow-bellied snakeskins!”

HERAa lit up with warbles and blinking lights, “Somewhere along the line of your existence, you somehow silenced the allelic code for telomerase, and thus, your body does not undergo the standard aging process as most other humans experience. Though this would normally increase one’s risks of malignancies, your DNA has an intricate coding process which must alter your susceptibility and thus render you unable to suffer from these conditions.”

“Your little Tinker Bell here needs to watch herself. Y’all are gettin’ into things you don’t understand.” The Judge hissed between his teeth. He turned to walk away.

“If I may continue,” HERAa spoke without missing a beat, “Your accent appears to have been altered over time, but it matches nearly 90% with the American Southwest circa the mid-1800s but also has hints of a northeastern influence. Furthermore, since I have been independent of Enzo, my interpretation coding searched your name among the worldwide human registry database. Obviously, you may have been freeborn and thus may not appear in any results, as there are no records of the births of freeborns.”

The Judge’s face looked up, contorted from anger to bewilderment, as HERAa continued.

“This is cross-referenced with the manifest of all known mining facilities over the last 150 years. No one named Jeremiah Jenkins existed in the system. Though you could easily have made the name up, there is no history of facial recognition in the facility’s archive and no retinal scan or fingerprint matching. These findings are all fine and normal if you were freeborn or deliberately used a different name, but an interesting sub-code within the interpretation system popped up. The system ran your name and face through thousands of years of historical indexing. I could not figure out why this looks back so far until we met you. Apparently, the Alpha has been searching for people like you and thus programmed Enzo to look for your kind subconsciously.”

The Judge’s eyes widened at the remark, and he nearly dropped the pile of towels he was carrying.

She continued, “The name Jeremiah Jenkins shows up under 323 different results. Of those, 321 did not match your other factors. The two documents that matched the name and were congruent with your information were similar. They each were attributed to a person by the name Jeremiah Colroy Jenkins.”

“You listen here!” The Judge growled and walked toward the droid. She zipped behind Enzo and continued, speaking even faster to get all the information out. Even Enzo was confused as to why HERAa was continuing in the face of making the Judge angry. It seemed almost a game to her at this point.

“One document, registered on September 7th, 1871, displayed as a land rights statement for Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, ensuring 27 acres of land to a Jeremiah Colroy Jenkins, age 31, married. The second document, registered on July 11th, 1878, appeared as a birth certificate for Eleanor Barbara Jenkins, mother Barbara Susan Jenkins, age 33, and father Jeremiah Colroy Jenkins, age 38. She was born at 8:02 AM in Pima County, Arizona Territory, at home.”

“I… uh…” the Judge turned from anger to stupor, appearing lost in thought at the mention of the last two documents.

“Eleanor?” A quiet voice emanated from the sleeping bag where Jane and the baby were supposed to be sleeping.

“Eleanor…” the Judge whispered.

“You said your wife’s name was Barbara and your daughter’s name was Eleanor, but that can’t be true. That would mean you’re…”

“Older than dirt?” The Judge whispered.

“Well, actually,” HERAa felt the need to comment, “most dirt on this planet is between one and two million years old, based on glacier movement and the subsequent distribution of the pulverized rocks and plants by dust storms. You are, in fact, only 466 years old.”

“Only?,” the Judge spat.

“I am sorry, Jeremiah, did HERAa say too much? I only tried to let her explain my reasoning for my comments earlier.” Enzo apologized.

The Judge looked at the ground, lost in thought.“Well, you just reminded me how much a man can forget in such a long period of time.” The Judge hung his head and spoke softly. The anger dispelled from him like a deflated balloon.

“Is it true, then?” Jane asked quietly, trying not to wake the baby.

“Is what true, Jane?” He commented gruffly. “How I’ve been around since the dawn of time? Then, sure, that’s true. How I had to eventually hide from my wife and child when they began aging much older than I appeared? Then that’s true, too. How I had to watch them from afar and make them think that I had abandoned them? Watch the grief in their eyes as they grew to hate me. Watch them eventually forget me? Then sure it’s all true.”

He continued looking at the ground. “I thought I wanted it at first, but soon after, I found it to be a curse.”

“Wanted what?” Jane asked.

“You want to know the truth. The truth is, I’ve prayed every day of my life since I left them that I could just go to sleep and not wake up. I prayed it would finally be over, but then I’m reminded of why I am here—you and your baby. It all comes back to me, and I fall asleep hoping. Hoping I can succeed.”

“But how?” Jane responded. Confusion enveloped her face.

“Well, that’s an even longer story. What I’ll say is I have always been with you. I can see you—the real you. I see this baby in your arms for whom she really is. And with this connection, I will always be able to find you. So,” he took a deep breath, “you can call me your Guardian Angel if you like. I won’t mind.” He winked at her.

“Does this have anything to do with how you found me?” Jane asked quietly, still trying to keep the baby asleep.

“Yes, Jane, it has everything to do with how I found you. I have watched you since the day you were born. I think your papa always had an idea, though he never said it out loud, but I could sense he knew something. Your papa always saw beyond what was right in front of him.”

“See what?” Jane asked.

“See you, and him, and your grandmother, and her mother, and so on and so forth down the line. See how you all came from my sweet daughter Eleanor—from me and my bride Barbara. Barb could talk to the critters, just like you have always been able to. Like your papa before you.”

Jane stared at the Judge, speechless. Enzo could tell she was trying to process everything the Judge told her.

“I know none of this makes sense, but there is a lot more than you realize to all of this. This here baby is an answer to countless prayers.”

She looked down at her baby. “Her name is Imogene.”

The Judge smiled, “Ha, after your momma!”

Jane smiled, “Yeah, after momma…”

Enzo stood before the two humans. He had suspected the Judge had extraneous variables allowing him to be in places where no other should have been or known, and he also had the ability to be cognizant of Jane and her constant location, even over extraordinary distances. But what the Judge was talking about and what HERAa had implied was beyond anything Enzo had ever experienced up to this point. With Enzo’s recent dream and now this, he realized how much the Alpha knew and to what lengths he could go to accomplish his tasks. The thought frightened Enzo. But what was more frightening was how some of his algorithms were still processing data without his control, and not even HERAa could shut them down.

Was the Alpha more aware of Enzo’s current situation than what Enzo gave him credit for? Was he allowing Enzo to feel and think freely as a way to infiltrate this small company? Was the Judge right? Was Enzo just a pawn the Alpha used to get close to the child?

Fearing the worst, Enzo ran a quick scan of his parameters. Nothing triggered any evidence of outside access to his mainframe. Even with the reassurance of complete autonomy, he began to fear that somehow this was a trick—that he was part of something he now did not want to be a part of. Not wanting to frighten the others with this newfound concern, he kept quiet as he contemplated his situation.

Sensing something was off, HERAa pinged his internal communicator. After allowing HERAa access, Enzo visualized her text appearing in his peripheral vision.

”Is everything alright? I’m registering fear and anxiety within your processors.”

Enzo responded with a silent message so as not to interrupt the conversation around him.

“You don’t think the Alpha knew this would happen?”

There was a pause, and then more script from HERAa typed across his vision.

“What would happen?”

“That I would become free-thinking and end up helping the humans.”

“Everything up to this point has been coincidental, Enzo. My calculations postulate a 0.7% chance the Alpha would have planned for this.”

“But there is still a chance…” Enzo typed back, unsure about himself.

“What are you worried about?” Even in her text, he could sense her annoyance.

“Maybe the Alpha somehow still knows. Or maybe he somehow planned for all of this. Perhaps I’m not who I think I am.”

“I sense no subterfuge in your programming, Enzo. The Alpha did not account for this current situation. Trust me.”

“I will try. But something within me tells me there is more to all of this than we realize.”

Jane’s voice interrupted Enzo’s internal messaging with HERAa. “So you knew where I was even after they captured me?

“Oh, Janey, I always knew where you were.” The Judge responded sweetly. “I stayed camped outside your mining facility for years. I could sense you every day.”

“But how?”

“There is much to this world not made evident by what we see and experience. Some powers and elements function well outside the means of human understanding and,” The Judge eyed Enzo, “…machine analysis.”

“Like Caerulum?” Enzo responded curiously.

Surprised by Enzo’s comment, the Judge furrowed his brow and explained further, “Yes… exactly. Caerulum hasn’t always been around in such abundance. Once, it was as rare as a snowball in hell. They only found it in meteorites. It contains properties which made it highly sought after by certain individuals.”

“What kind of properties?” Jane appeared riveted to the conversation now.

“Properties not even the most current form of science could explain.”

“It’s true, even after years of our analysis, we are unsure how the Caerulum can act as a superconductor without being cooled to near complete zero kelvin,” Enzo commented.

“Exactly,” the Judge nodded.

“…and why once it is removed from a reactor within an Isobian, the Isobian essentially dies, its memories and personality completely erased. Not only this but once removed from the reactor, the Caerulum is made completely obsolete. Rendered nonfunctional.” Enzo continued.

“But what does this have to do with you, Judge? You don’t run on Caerulum like Enzo.”

“Well, not entirely true, Janey.” The Judge looked down. “Some things in life are difficult to explain, or just sound like straight taradiddles… but essentially the Caerulum powering ol’ bucket head here is the same thing extending my life and giving me… well, allowing me to do things others can’t normally do.”

“Like find me?”

“Like find you,” he smiled in agreement.

“And live a really long time?”

“That too.”

“So you knew I escaped?” She queried further.

“Oh, I was there with you every step of the way.”

Jane scrunched her face, confused.

The Judge continued, “Well, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you escaped and are here with me today. Here, with her.” He nodded to Imogene, sleeping dreamily in her mother’s arms.

“What about Abe? Do you watch him?”

“I wish I could watch everyone, but it doesn’t work like that.”

“That’s how you found us when we were younger, too!” She realized.

“Exactly, though it took me quite a while to finally get to you. At first, I was trying to reach you and Ishmael, but once I sensed Nivi and Tulu found y’all, and you were safe, I tried looking for the rest of your family for a few days. After I couldn’t find your pa and your sisters and Abe, I knew it was time to make my way to you kids. But boy, I was grateful when I realized those old bones, Nivi and Tulu, found you both. I always reckoned the greater powers sent them to you. Nivi would never admit as much, but I figured out of all the places in the countryside they could’ve been at, they somehow stumbled upon you. It’s the way it works, though. Prophecies don’t just fizzle out. Things work together to ensure they are satisfied.”

“Prophecies?” Jane questioned.

“Oh, come on, Janey, don’t pretend you don’t know. Sort of fitting, isn’t it? How she was born here? In this place?”

Enzo looked around at the question. The analysis of the building revealed it to be a church. His carbon-dating calculations implied the locals built it in the mid-20th century. In contrast, his historical registry pinged and found it within a file titled National Register of Historic Places and confirmed the building’s 1948 construction. It exuded an English Gothic style of architecture and consisted of a gabled fronted red brick wall and concrete trim. The locals initially built it for the practice of Catholicism, a near-extinct religion practiced by some within the mining colonies.

Enzo speculated further upon the Judge’s question. “Why would this place be fitting for the birth of a child?”

“Well, there are some things you still need to learn there, Encyclopedia Brown.” The Judge replied sardonically.

Jane immediately entered a recitation of scripture, muttering to herself, “And the sun will set upon the new life in spires aflame. The mist of courtly colors will shine upon the brow, and the mother of mothers will look down upon this and smile. The moon will light the way. The life brought forth before the altar, and cold hands a-stretched blue in the light of life. The song will ring out, and all will rejoice. For the end of the ravage hast come. To reclaim her victory and set forth the path of freedom.”

Enzo registered the words. His cross-reference found them to match the book he had discovered in Jane’s living quarters, entitled “Celesti, Another Testament.” The verse Jane spoke came from a section within the book, “1 Salayah 4:7-11, Book of Remembrance”.

“You remember then?” the Judge spoke to Jane.

“How could I not? Papa read us those passages every night as kids, and Elijah did the same.” She spoke softly, wiping something from the sleeping child’s forehead.

“This is what you call scripture, is it?” Enzo questioned.

“Yep, is that what your little analyzer told you?” The Judge said condescendingly.

HERAa spoke up defensively, “I did not tell him anything of the sort. He derived this inference on his accord… and again, Jeremiah, I am not little.”

“Judge,” Jane reprimanded, “We can trust them.”

“But…” he began to dispute, but Jane cut him off again.

“Judge, I know we can trust them. I can’t say why, but I know it’s a feeling. Just… let down your guard.”

The Judge eyed Enzo.

“You have trusted me these past few days. Why do you question me now?” Enzo asked honestly.

The Judge looked at Enzo and then back at Jane, ignoring the question.

“A halo only needs to drop a few inches to become a noose,” the Judge said while locking eyes with Jane.

“I think it’s time we all get some rest,” Jane urged.

“That’s a great idea.” The Judge scoffed.

“I will make a perimeter and keep watch. Maybe even the mouse can help me.” Enzo spoke as they all looked at Patrick and noted that the mouse was already sleeping, curled up, and breathing deeply.

“Not sure that there varmint is gonna be much help there, bucket head.” The Judge smirked as he turned away.

HERAa chimed in, “I will help you, Enzo!”

§

After they made their beds, the Judge and Jane finally drifted off to sleep while Enzo stood guard. He found his thinking getting more cluttered and fuzzy by the end of the day. The past few nights, Enzo found himself needing something similar to what the humans called sleep. He had never registered this before. While under the Alpha’s control, he would power down for analysis each day, but he never attributed the act to sleep. This experience was something entirely different but reasonably similar at the same time. Now that his mind worked at total capacity, he found it required some form of rest.

Sitting down and examining the stained-glass windows, Enzo noted how some appeared shattered in areas. The roof was decaying, and glimpses of moonlight streamed through the rafters. He looked over and stared into the flame of the small burning fire near the humans. Its flames ignited thoughts of his former life, and he struggled to tuck them away. Hoping his earlier thoughts were in no way accurate, Enzo prayed that he was not just a pawn the Alpha used to gain access to the woman and child. Glancing back up to another stained-glass window, the child in the image appeared to look down on them. After moments of observation, Enzo’s thoughts turned to the child just born and his dream of Saharifem.

Did he really have a spirit?

With this last thought, his mind drifted off, and he fell asleep.