Siah dreams, his feet intertwining with the roots of strange plants in the deepest ocean,
reaching down to the cold, static core of the dying Earth. His arms embrace the Sun,
the reactions that drive its eternal furnace growing tired, going to sleep. No, he thinks,
not eternal- everything has its end. Even the salvation engine that drove the restless
soul of humanity through the corridors of time- even that equation would balance and sit
static, unmoving and perfect.
Stretching farther now, past the outer planets to the small brown star and its single
world. The world had been made into a mind, a body, much as this world had become
his. The thoughts of this world were alien, its dreams nightmares- but even as Siah
experiences them- ecstasy in pain, strength in damnation, brilliance in debauchery- he
knows that this mind reaches out to touch his world and they are not separate, but
different hemispheres of the same mind.
There is someone else on this world- someone separate, not part of the machine
consciousness. Someone who dreams of a small child running toward the sea,
laughing, and Siah knows long ago he had loved the person who dreamed this, but
something was pulling him back. He feels his heart pounding, his flesh like a sack
around him- he takes a breath and opens his eyes.
#
Once the facts were clear, the decision was obvious- Siah must be awakened.
Siah had been in meditation for all of living memory, but even in this state, he shared
his mind with his priests, who acted in times of danger on his behalf. Only one in a
thousand had this privilege- the rest of the people had to be free to live simple lives;
they must be safe from the questions that had plagued mankind for eons but had no
answer, safe from technology created for problems that had no solution or worse,
problems that didn’t exist.
Thomas hesitates outside the meditation chamber, remembering his scriptures to give
himself confidence. This was a time when Siah should be with them- smaller crises he
and the others could deal with on their own, and there were not many of these.
Dangerous ideas and their consequences were problems of the ancient past thanks to
the birthing ceremony, during which a large part of the cerebral cortex was removed, as
should any organ that caused such suffering.
Glancing out the window, Thomas sees members of his flock working contentedly in
their fields. As the sun disappears behind the distant hills, his people begin leaving their
work, laughing and making their way back to their cottages- the ceremony left them so
innocent, so free from temptation, so close to the Creator. Thomas gathers his nerve
once more- he must act quickly if he wants to save them.
#
He speaks quickly, thinks Siah, and moves very fast. He watches carefully as the man
continues to try to make himself understood.
Siah, emerging slowly from the rhythms of nature, will need time to adjust. He can still
fathom the man’s emotion and state of being- these were in a sense trapped in the
same limiting structure of his language, but Siah can understand enough to know that
he is needed, the problem severe.
There’s a scream from outside.
Resting his hand on Thomas’s shoulder, he silences him with a look, and then takes
him by the hand, leading him outside the temple. It is windy and cool, the ground soft
from recent rain- the air smells of damp hay. A group of people sits huddled against a
low stone fence, their eyes wide with uncomprehending terror. One of their children lies
sprawled at their feet, unmoving and pale. Moving down the hill not fifty meters away is
the source of their terror.
Its exterior is leathery, with streaks of metal that blend together to form different shapes-
the creature’s front molds itself into different alien faces that constantly extrude and
reabsorb strange organs- its back end is covered with dozens of metal tipped tentacles
that whip about at blinding speed.
It absorbs four of its six legs as it notices them, standing upright. Several tentacles from
its hind end merge to form larger, thicker limbs that it points at them, tracing slow circles
in the air.
Siah walks rapidly to where the child lies. None of the adults move as he approaches,
their eyes fixed the creature. Rolling the child over on his back, Siah sees the skin is
pale, eyes wide and staring- dead of shock.
Raising his hand, Siah makes fingers of rock thrust up from the ground, surrounding the
creature even as it steps towards them. Trapped, it beats on the rocks with its metal
tipped tentacles, making shards of stone fly through the air. Closing his hand, Siah
makes the stone columns fold inward on the monster, crushing it. The thing lets out a
cry, struggling, its screams making Thomas cover his ears and turn away. Blood of
clear gold erupts from its sides as its flesh and metal give way.
“It would have killed them,” says Siah, able to speak at last. The creature is still alive,
and intelligent- Siah is able to feel its alien emotions and pain as it dies.
Staggering and breathing in short gasps, Siah moves over to the people cowering next
to the wall, helping them stand and embracing them even as his arms shake. Bending
over the child, he shuts the boy’s eyes gently before allowing the group to carry the
body away.
Standing again with difficulty, he makes his way over to the creature’s corpse with
Thomas following a few steps behind. Its body has fused with the rock, its face human,
frozen in a grimace of terrible emotion. The wind, smelling of rain, blows ripples through
the tall grass.
Even as Siah turns with Thomas to walk back to the temple, the memory of an emotion
touches him- nameless, yet overwhelming in its intensity and familiarity- that dark mirror
of himself, spinning in distant orbit around a dim sun. The dead creature and all of its
brothers came from there- even as that world was a reflection of his darker soul, so was
the creature he had killed
#
Thomas watches Siah carefully as they reenter the temple. “You look frightened,” he
says, and begins to look worried himself.
The temple is simple, made of roughly hewn white stone blocks that make up the floor,
ceiling and walls- four crude windows have been cut, and through them come the last
dim rays of the sun as it sinks below the distant hills. Siah sits on the floor, folding his
legs, noticing how his people had kept it so clean over the centuries.
“No Thomas, not afraid- but I am very concerned. These creatures you see- they are
components of my opposite- the cells of his body, his senses, his hands. Even before
you woke me, I felt his world approaching- it’s getting nearer even now, with its billions
of manufactured souls whose ghosts and living form the components of a weapon.
This weapon is much more fragile than he realizes- at the moment he thinks himself
triumphant, he will see that he has failed- he will be worse than destroyed.”
#
Jal makes his way back to his room, the elevator rising rapidly through the strata of his
larger self. Even now, his small world is tumbling out of its orbit, global energy screens
flickering blue and green as they hold the atmosphere in, the planetary core and fusion
plants providing heat as their sun falls rapidly behind them.
Kat and himself would get there first, of course- they must all be together at the end.
He needed to do one last thing before joining Katya in sleep- when he confronted Siah,
his nemesis must feel vulnerable and desperate. With a thought, Jaldeja changes the
function of his biomechanical explorers to something quite different from what it had
been, feeling a touch of revulsion as he does so. Anything was justifiable in the end,
since his success would mean an end to the reality prison, an end to suffering.
Telepathic feedback from his machines begins filling his mind, and he starts to shake,
knowing now that he will not be able to sleep.