Will remembered.
Darkness. Sensation.
And then sound.
-…Consciousness. Well done, Mich:Ael. A new soul.
Another triumph for the Rel Dega.
-Indeed. Let’s hope this one works better than the
others. Shut it down for now…
And then nothingness.
Sensation. Sound.
A blur of light, slowly resolving into shapes.
Naked, spread eagled, incapable of
motion, slowly rotating, his body upright in a vast, grey expanse. Before him, twin pillars of fire.
-“Bodies”. Still strange to me, to be trapped in three
dimensions…to see so little. And…so hairy.
-Be
kind, Gabr:Iel. It’s awake. Or, rather, he is awake. Perfectly
sentient and capable of understanding everything we say…though of course, we
will wipe his mind clean later. As to
hair, remember, the initial stock from which humans were built were primates,
and even after a million years, they still share many of the same physical characteristics
as other apes. Hair included. In the case of this specimen, hair very much included. And had we aged him to adulthood, he would
have been even hairier.
-This
one is not an adult?
-We
have designed him as a juvenile. Humans
are strongly protective of their young, and often seek to teach them. Because he is a juvenile, others will be more
sympathetic towards him, and will share information more willingly.
-I
see. What of…ethnicity?
-Yes,
that. There is, of course, no such thing
as “ethnicity”, no true basis in human genetics for the concept. It is a fiction they created to justify
survival behaviors.
-And
yet, based on our observations, it is a myth that they take very seriously.
-This
is correct. So, to minimize the danger
to this one, his genetic code contains a wide variety of what passes for
“racial” characteristics. Note the
slight epicanthic fold around the eyes, the mid-range pigmentation, the slight
broadness of his facial features. He
will likely pass for one of whatever company he finds himself in.
-A
wise precaution.
The continual blaze made it almost
impossible to look at the figures directly.
They had no faces, no appendages, nothing to break the perfect radial
symmetry of their forms. Nonetheless it
seemed to him that their attention was focused on something he couldn’t see, that
they were fiddling with something suspended in the air between them…
-Nervous
system testing to begin shortly. One
of the infernos vanished, and just as suddenly reappeared directly in front of
him. We are
very, very sorry for this. It is
necessary that we know that all of your synaptic functions are working. It is necessary that this occur while you are
conscious. We would not willingly allow
this to happen to you for any other reason.
-Is
it really necessary to apologize to him, Gabr:Iel? He will forget all of this anyway.
-He
is sentient, Mich:Ael. I need not remind
you of the philosophy underlying our enterprise. Whatever his origins, we must recognize him
for what he is, and act accordingly. We
owe him that. He is a living creature.
-True.
Whatever it was, he sensed that it
was addressing him again. At
any rate, we regret the necessity of our actions. If it is any comfort, you will not remember
later. Commencing now…
And his arm was ablaze, a conduit
of unimaginable pain. He screamed.
-Left
arm tests positive for neurological response.
Now, right arm…
The pain was immense,
unbelievable. It was too much, in fact,
for his consciousness to bear. Blackness
descended.
Sensation. Sound.
Sight. The grey expanse. His limbs, still pinned by forces
unseen. Before him, a single glorious
blaze.
-Are
you able to perceive me, Mich:Ael?
The response, to his horror, came from
within his own mind. In a manner of speaking. The resolution is poor. There is nothing but a three-dimensional
image.
The pillar moved slightly. Correction. Four-dimensional.
-These,
regrettably, are the limits within which we must work. We can perceive only what the subject
perceives. Commencing sonic testing…
A high, shrill screech, painful in
his ears. That was…unpleasant, said his thoughts.
-While
incarnate, they communicate primarily through the emission of sound waves. The thoughts conveyed are limited, but
translation will not be difficult. For
all intents and purposes, he will be our “eyes” and “ears”.
No
doubt this will prove a subtler means of observing events on Elysium than would
direct intervention. Nonetheless, it is almost
certainly a violation of the Codex.
-Our
very status as Rel Dega is a violation of the Codex. Once we vandalized the skein, any hope of
reconciliation with the rest of our race was lost. If we are caught, this particular violation
will be the least of the Council’s concerns.
Having verified carrier capacity, we will shut down at this―
And then nothing.
Sensation. Sound.
Sight. And information, an
endless torrent of information, a blizzard of it, pouring directly into his
brain. Mathematics…history…science…culture. It was dizzying, numbing, shoved almost all
sensory data into the shade. Nonetheless,
at the edge of his perception, two pillars of fire were dimly visible.
-Is
not this data set a bit…parsimonious?
Will he not be thought intellectually limited by the others? Perhaps this is a means of generating more
sympathy, or of causing the other humans to dismiss him as a threat?
-On
the contrary. By the standards of
humanity, the knowledge with which we are providing him is unusually extensive,
particularly for a juvenile.
-Surely
not!
-These
creatures are far stupider than you might imagine. Humans exist in four dimensions. Their horizons are by nature limited. And even their understanding of the four-dimensional
universe is shockingly inexact.
Sometimes hilariously so…remind me later to tell you about “dark
matter”. In fact, now that I review the
data, I may actually have overshot the project threshold for language
development. His vocabulary may be
over-extensive for a juvenile. We may be
required to downgrade.
-To
work within the limits of such a mind, even as observers, will be difficult. Let us not forget what happened to the third
subject.
-The
failsafes should hold this time; there is little danger of overload. I promise you, this one’s head will not
explode.
-Reassuring. I would prefer not to experience that again,
even as a passenger. Another
short pause. And as
impossible as it may seem that we could operate through such limited vessels,
we do know that it CAN be done. A Seraph
CAN exist within the narrow confines of a human consciousness. It has, after all, been done before. Some time ago.
-That
was different. And more impressive, of
course. Our founder was no mere observer;
his involvement was far, far more intimate.
Our task will be simpler than that his.
-How
so?
-Unlike
our founder, we will not be at direct risk, and we will not need to exercise
direct control. Our influence over the
subject will be more subtle. Should the
project be in jeopardy, we need merely offer the subject ”suggestions” as
needed. Or, alternatively, we can
supplement his knowledge base in such a way as to skew his decisions. From his perspective, our contributions will
be no different than his own thoughts. And,
in any case, very little guidance should be required. We have designed him to be inquisitive; he
will gather the information we need of his own accord.
-Promising. But of course, there are other potential
pitfalls. If I am to “ride along”, I
would rather not have to vicariously experience soul-extinction at the hands of
a psychovore again. Fail-safes or not,
that was not enjoyable. No more than
being inside the other one when its head blew up.
-Understandable. But we have learned from that episode; the
subject’s capacity for psycholocomotion
is extraordinary by human standards. Faster even than a psychovore, in fact. And, of course, there is the matter of
incarnation…
-A
cunning workaround. You are to be
congratulated.
-I
thank you. It was difficult. The initial incarnation protocols for human
souls were severely flawed. In truth, it
is something of a miracle that any human soul managed the task at all, to say
nothing of passing on the technique to others.
They are remarkable creatures, in their way. Our adjustments will make it impossible for
the subject to incarnate in the same manner and by the same methods that other
humans do. But the process we have built
into this subject is far more efficient, and far less taxing. In fact, with a slight push from us, his
capacity for incarnation is, for all practical purposes, limitless.
-
What of memories?
-We
will implant them in the final stage.
Following that, he will be ready for direct deployment to Earth’s
atmosphere.
-Have
you given him a name?
-In
a sense, I have allowed the humans to name him.
-How
so?
-His
primary skill, relative to other human beings, lies in the ability to direct
his mental energies productively. The
desire to gather information, of course.
But also the determination to complete tasks. Intellectual focus. willingness to confront
physical danger, and so forth. The
humans have a word for this quality.
They call it “Will.”
There was a long pause. Data continued to floor into his helpless
brain.
-You
are almost…fond of him, aren’t you?
-In
a sense. It might be more accurate to
say that I am proud of my work.
-There
is no shame in feeling compassion for him.
Or for the humans generally.
However simple, however limited, each of them is an end in himself or
herself. They are not objects.
-No. They do not exist for our convenience. As much as the Council might wish to pretend
that they do.
-We
will change that perception, Gabr:Iel.
One Seraph at a time.
The twin pillars of fire were fading,
vanishing down some pathway he could not perceive.
-One
day…
And they were gone.
Time passed. He rotated in gray emptiness, motionless, feeling
his brain fill up.
A flash of light. Another blaze filled his vision. But this was not one of the entities that had
been evaluating him moments before. And
as it hovered in front of him, he somehow felt that he was being examined once
again. Weighed in the balance.
The firey entity drifted towards
him. And suddenly, the flow of
information into his brain changed, somehow.
Slowly his vision expanded, and he
could suddenly perceive that the grey expanse in which he was house was not
vacant. A vast web of crystalline
strands filled the space; throughout the web, colorful light cascaded. It seemed to him, for a moment, that he could
almost see a pattern in the way it flowed.
A two-dimensional pattern, in fact…a triangle, each angle bisected internally
by a line, the three lines meeting in the center. All the while, as the thin strands and the
energy within them became clearer and clearer to his vision, the firey being
was moving within the web, making adjustments, subtly altering its structure…and
the data in his mind was changing…and it was changing him with it, not just mentally, but physically…
He opened his mouth to shout for
help―but the entire scene vanished before his eyes. His body was ripped from him. He was in darkness absolute. He felt a sense of compression, of velocity,
of unguessable distance vanishing behind him.
There was a twisting, a sensation of being turned inside-out. And reality snapped back into being, and he
found himself in a thick fog, a haze of candy-colored lightning, pervading his
soul, propelling him upwards. And his
soul was unclothed by flesh, exposed to the fog, and the itch was unbearable. The veil came down in his mind, and he felt
all he had known fading, as if none of it had ever been, as if he were born
anew. He scrabbled desperately for his
memories, but they were sliding away, slipping inexorably from his grasp, and
then they were gone, and he knew nothing.
And clinging to the barest scraps
of his identity, he shot skyward, like a balloon cut from its tether…
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