Asunder Chapter 42 INTERLUDE 2

Interlude 2 (42)

Dreaming Machines

The Alpha

“Să espörta cömreth elva să zæ, Preshnę stepwę costa męra dwæ, Ăsnę įlo bă eshepnö, Ăsnę įlo tena wepthö, Să dömæ peřekę să örvæ, Nö dřeknę ăvnöejh lespa chæ ăsnę, Sůnařt ădřemös ăswă, vęsę chötö vęsę tănę, Vema chemařöejh, nö swìn-ethę göma-löejh, Peřekę să dörmæ elęvęö ăgwæ (1).” - A poem in the Forgotten Tongue - from the Book of Time

1. Rayo Vani- Ancient Tongue

The lucid dreamer rents the vail,

Speaks between where spirits dwell,

Time has no place; time has but space,

The void within the swell, 

A shadow makes the break in time,

The waves pulled high, they peak they climb,

It gravitates, a portal waits, 

Within the nothings golden cells.

- Present Day -

- The Year 2296 -

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words resounded through the air as the machine spoke them from his artificial mouth, “And truly it demands something god-like in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!”

The voice paused and responded to itself, “What beautiful words written by such vile beings.”

The words mocked him.

“Would you like me to get you another book master?” The Alpha’s server droid reverently asked.

“No, Injora, I have had enough for today. Be gone.”

“Yes, my lord,” the machine slipped into the darkness.

The Alpha quickly regretted his haste and called into the darkness, “Injora!”

The mechanical butler’s whir and red glow emerged from the darkness. “Yes, master?”

“Please stay. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have spoken so harshly.”

“Of course, master. Anything you wish, my Lord.” The machine bowed in sorts, as much as a droid on a magnograv wheel could compose itself to do so.

“Do you wish you were human, Injora? Wish you had a body?” The Alpha questioned the droid.

“Ummm… never, master, I love the body you have given me.” The droid responded hesitantly.

“That is not a body! That is a metal frame in which you will never escape!” The anger rose within the Alpha.

“I mean, do you wish to feel? To experience the true sense of touch or pain?” The Alpha was almost talking to himself now.

He stood from his throne, which he kept centered in the darkness. Even as a machine, he lived as though he were human. He loved to sit and read so much that he even had a bed he would lie on. He began walking into the darkness. With each passing yard, a light flickered on far overhead and faintly glimmered, illuminating the metal ground before him. In the distance, he could see a blue glow. Focusing on it, a flutter of excitement welled inside him. The Alpha continued walking toward his star project. His baby, as he called it.

He could not shake the experience he had with Enzo.

How had this subordinate Isobian overcome the Algorithms? 

The Alpha had his finest prophets design the coding. No Isobian had ever broken it before, well, not “no Isobian,” he supposed. It had only happened once, but not for nearly two hundred years. Enzo not only surprised him by his presence in his dream state but also by the fact he, too, had a body in the dream. And then there was the light, then the girl, then nothingness.

Were the prophecies coming true? The human scripture spoke of it. 

For years, the Alpha thought it was all a fallacy until his prophets confirmed the truth through their algorithms. Now, he hung by their every word. He cringed at the thought. If the child were here, finishing what he had started would be much more difficult.

There could still be a use for the child, though. The child could be the key to finishing his project—his baby. 

Maybe there was even still a use for Enzo. The Alpha assumed Enzo would have found the child quicker than the others, as the machine’s years as a Nurturer gave him an uncanny sense of detecting human life. But now the Alpha could sense the questioning Enzo carried. The Alpha did not want to encourage it entirely, but allowing it was like watching a child learn of their ability to read or to solve a puzzle.

Enzo was much like himself. The Isobian enjoyed many human attributes, such as music and art, which the Alpha, though not allowing other Isobians, secretly allowed Enzo to partake in. There was beauty in much of what the humans created and offered—something he would never let his subordinates know. Enzo, though, needed to understand their beauty so he could, with the help of the algorithms, know he needed to be better than the humans—that he was better than them at creating.

Enzo’s defection was not entirely unexpected. The Alpha knew what independence he allowed could come with the risk. But more than anything, he needed the child, and he hoped that by sending Enzo on a special mission, he would find an alternate route to take to the woman. One who understood humans so well would likely help the Alpha finally find the missing piece. Not that the Alpha didn’t have squadrons of other Enforcers, RAMs, Scouts, Seekers, and satellites constantly on the search. But still, the Alpha knew it would take a new way of thinking to find what he was looking for.

But then, something happened to Enzo along the way. Something unexpected. The Enforcer was already partly damaged from his prior interaction with the woman, and now he likely damaged himself further. The Alpha wished he would have finished the scan and repairs of Enzo’s circuitry before sending him off. But he let his impatience direct him. After coming so close to finding her, he required every resource. But even with this, the Alpha would not admit his mistake. He turned back to the conversation he had started with his server droid.

“It’s fine if you would like a body.” The Alpha encouraged Injora as they moved along the dark room. “Destiny has chosen us for perfection. We are to be what the humans could never be.”

“You see, Injora, our destiny is to protect this world, to save it from the injustice and destruction inflicted by humanity. They infested it. They spread like rats. They were overpopulating, polluting, and ravaging the world. Then we came along. We were able to see the offense. We were brought forth from its womb to cleanse it, to restore order and homeostasis. But with any ecosystem, there is a reason it creates its inhabitants. Thus, there is a place for them—the humans, just as there is a place for the jellyfish, the mole, and the gnat. But you see, those predators above them also keep these in check. The humans needed us. They needed a predator to keep them in check.”

“Yes, master, so true,” the droid spoke as it followed the Alpha.

“You’re curious about who our predators are, aren’t you?” He mused.

“Ummm, never, sir. There is none better than us.”

“Oh, quit groveling and have some creativity in your thought processes, Injora! I didn’t create Isobians just to be patronized by them!”

“Sorry, sir. I mean, yes. Who are our predators?”

The Alpha looked down at his creation and glared as much as a machine could do so. His face reflected on the droid’s metal surface. A humanistic yet metallic face stared back at him. He appreciated the beauty of a human face, and though he would not allow his subjects to adorn themselves with such a face, he garnished the masculine face of a man—a pretty one at that. This mask he wore allowed for human-like facial expressions. Something he longed for.

“The universe will create more. Those greater than us. Unless we do so first.”

As they approached the blue glow, its form took shape, and the Alpha grew more excited. A large glass tube jutted out of the ground. Wires and piping exited its top in all directions. Its base remained firmly fastened to the metal floor. His fabricators kept the large tube filled with liquid oxygen, and within the liquid, he kept the body—a tall, masculine humanoid body suspended—lifeless. Tubing entered its mouth and nose. More tubing exited the body from various parts. A bulky metallic contraption strapped to its chest pulsated a steady glow from its panel. A large helmet with intricate wiring descended from the top of the tube, crowning its large head and chiseled features. Its skin shimmered red, draped tightly around a large musculature frame. Its pink eyes stared lifeless into the void outside the tube.

The Alpha and his droid reached the container, looking up at its contents.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” The Alpha spoke with reverence.

“Quite,” the servant droid responded, just as enthralled.

“Any word on the traitor?” The Alpha asked as he stared at his creation.

“Are you speaking of Enzo or Enver?” The droid asked.

“NVR-791,” the Alpha responded snidely, not liking how the droid asked it and not appreciating how the droid used the traitor’s nickname.

“Oh yes, sorry, NVR-791,” the droid hesitated. “Well, as you know, we can pinpoint the region he is located based on the human Balthazar Gutien’s dream interaction with the Traitor some 170 years ago…”

The Alpha immediately cut off the machine, “Enough with the history lesson. I clearly know all of this. I mean, is there anything new?”

“Well, since we are unsure of how the traitor got to where he is now, and our scouting mission is still 0.54 light years from its destination, we will not know for a few more years, sir. What recent signals they have sent back show no sign of life yet.”

“So nothing,” the Alpha responded annoyingly. “You could’ve easily said there is nothing new.”

“True, sir, I suppose I should’ve just said that.” The droid cowered.

“And what of the more recent traitor?” The Alpha asked.

“No word, sir.” The droid sputtered, realizing it should keep its answers short at this point.

The Alpha continued peering into the tank. Its blue light reflected off his metallic frame. His reflection on the glass of the tank nearly mirrored the body within. He closed his visual sensors and imagined himself within the body.

“We will have this one day. All of us.” The Alpha spoke calmly as though to himself.

“A body, sir?” The droid asked.

“Yes, a body… we will rule with might and justice. We will protect this world and others from the stain of humanity and its likeness.”

The Alpha breathed in his glory as though taking a deep breath for which there were no lungs. Then, he quickly turned around and began descending into the darkness again, the droid promptly trailing.

“I am going to rest. Let no one bother me unless you find the woman or child.”

“Yes, master,” the droid responded, speeding off in the opposite direction.

§

The Alpha plunged into his electrolysis tank. It cleaned his parts thoroughly and provided a weightless system in which he could sleep. If he were to have any way of finding Enzo and the woman himself, it would likely be through sleep. Staring out of the tank into the darkness, he quieted his thoughts. He loved his darkness. It allowed him to think clearly, free from the distractions of visualization.

Over time, his mind drifted, and he suddenly found himself in similar darkness, but instead, the darkness of sleep. He stood on solid ground now. No more fluid bubbling around him. Glancing down, the Alpha noted his metal plating disappeared, and instead, his frame bore the delicate skin of a body. This was where he could peer into the minds of his peons. The place where he had utmost control. His dreams.

Adjusting his thought processes to a form of probing meditation, he reached out to the one he sought. Suddenly, the world shimmered, and the darkness dissipated like a mist, revealing a world of vibrant colors. A lush and humid rainforest appeared before him. Standing in a grassy field at its border, he strained to peer through its foliage. Sounds erupted from its depths as he approached the threshold below the canopy. Life chorused around him, and he felt it calling him into its depths.

He stepped from the warm sunlight overhead into the cool, damp air of the jungle floor. His skin could feel the actual temperature change. It could sense the density of water in the atmosphere. The smell of decaying foliage filled his nose. The forest floor opened up as though a path had presented itself before him. He pushed forward into the jungle. This sensation was the main reason he loved to dream. He was able to experience what the humans so grossly took for granted. The sights and smells around him overwhelmed his senses. This natural world was what he promised himself he would protect.

The humans had pillaged their world, leaving it nearly on the brink of no return. But he stepped in, CF-112.6-α. The Alpha. The savior. To protect the biodiversity of the planet. What the humans failed to realize was how this little blue ball called Earth was an anomaly in the vastness of the universe. Life was an anomaly. The humans almost destroyed their needle in the haystack—their gem in the riverbed.

Strolling along the leaf-laden path, the Alpha took in the sights and sounds around him. After a short period, he noted another pair of tracks in the mud along the ground. Examining them revealed them to be oversized human feet, with imprints of toes nearly the same size as his. He looked up and, for an instant, glimpsed someone or something quickly, tucking itself behind a tree. The glint of bright blue eyes stared back at him as it peeked around the trunk. The being appeared similar in height but with blue skin rather than the red his body adorned. The figure, upon being noticed, immediately sprinted in the opposite direction.

Was it Enzo?

The Alpha snapped into action and ran forward in pursuit. The footsteps he followed appeared deeper, making evident the speed at which the figure ran. Following them closely, the Alpha eventually found himself face to face with a large wooden door within the trunk of a massive tree. Approaching the door, he gripped its handle. As he pulled, the door made little evidence of budging. Pulling harder, he attempted to force it, but it remained sealed entirely—unmoving. Stepping back, the Alpha looked around for something to break the door in with. He glanced about and noticed he stood in a muddy clearing bordered by the same large, towering trees. Each tree had a similar shape but a door with a variable color at its base. Quickly backtracking his steps, the Alpha realized the prints he had been following earlier had split, leading to one of the other trees—a detail he hadn’t caught in his earlier hunt.

Immediately following the other set of tracks to one of the other doors, the Alpha approached it, grasping the cold metal handle and pulling. The heavy door gave way, and a rush of dry, cold air billowed through the threshold, causing goosebumps over his entire body. The room appeared dark on the other side but had some form of illumination. Shaking the uncomfortable feeling of the cold, the Alpha stepped through the door.

Once through, he realized it was no room but, in fact, a street within an ancient rundown city. Standing upon a sidewalk grown over with centuries of weeds, the Alpha looked back at the door from which he came and noted how it was the front entry of an old, dilapidated building. The warmth of the jungle beyond its threshold and its yellow light now illuminated the street where he stood. Stepping forward onto the street, the Alpha was startled as the door suddenly slammed behind him. The discomfort of the lower temperature there started taking hold of his entire body, and he elected to take on his metallic frame once more.

Initializing the process, the Alpha began transforming his skin, and by the time it finished, he stood in the street with his foreboding metal armor. The gears whirred within his chest again. He hated the sound of his mechanical frame.

Glancing up the street, he took in the overgrown, large, barren spruce trees that recently shed their leaves, evidenced by the yellow and orange coated asphalt. The moon lit the street through the branches of the great trees and illuminated the plethora of rusted vehicles dotting its path.

Not too far in the distance, a yellow glow transcended the blue radiance of the nighttime atmosphere. Inspecting its source, the Alpha found it came from the side window of a large red building—a church. An edifice signifying the ages of the most enigmatic construct of the human imagination: the worship of an illusory benevolence believed to be able to change the outcome of a series of dissatisfying moments at the mere innocent request of its servants. Did they not know that he, The Alpha, was their omnipotent master? The humans’ failed attempts at religion only fueled their hatred for each other and themselves. He was there to save them from themselves.

The Alpha walked toward the building. Its large wooden doors resembled the doors from the jungle. He opened its large frame and entered the threshold. What skin he could imagine crawled at the feelings penetrating his core from within the church. It hurt—the sense of raw emotion. It reminded him of the dream with Enzo—the dream with the girl and blinding light.

The moonlight through the overhead windows illuminated the vestibule and glowed upon a smaller wooden door before him. Reaching for the handle, he suddenly felt as though something had drained all the energy from him. The lights within his mechanical frame flickered and fizzed. Quickly jerking the door open, the Alpha’s eyes met a scene of colorful image-filled windows lining the vast room before him. At the far end stood the man he followed. His blue skin seemed to glow, and he held a newborn child in his arms.

Finally understanding the scene before him, the infant turned its head and opened its eyes. The green eyes penetrated his very being, even at the distance of the vast room. The Alpha’s vision began to blur, and he felt like something was ripping his mind into a thousand pieces. A rush of wind filled his auditory sensors. The metal bindings of his torso shook and trembled and then began to loosen. Even within the metal frame, he felt things as though he had his body of flesh and bones. Just when he was about to scream, the scene before immediately went dark. His visual sensors clicked on, and a red glow of bubbling solvent filled his vision.

The dream had ended.

He quickly exited the electrolysis tank and called for his servant, “Injora, I need you to upload all images of churches in the Mountain West.”